With sat to sat links, the only thing that would stop starlink working in Russia is jamming
Why does Elon need to play ball with Russia? Tesla has no operations there. Neither does SpaceX
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Russia/Ukraine conflict
- Thread starter amolina
- Start date
Why does Elon need to play ball with Russia? Tesla has no operations there. Neither does SpaceX
The nuclear arsenal was a leftover from the Soviet era. As far as I know no Soviet nuclear weapons were developed or built in Ukraine.
The secret that the Russians don't want to admit is that the Ukrainians were in some ways the technological backbone of the USSR. During the Soviet era about 25% of all scientific research was being done in Ukraine and Ukraine has 17% of all Soviet defense production. The Moskva was built in Ukraine. A sister ship of the Moskva still sits incomplete in the river near Mykolaiv. The Antonov aircraft design bureau was and still is in Kyiv. There was a major tank plant in Kharkhiv.
In the late 1980s the Russian education system fell apart. The last generation of Russians who got a good education are in their 50s now. Ukraine's education system remained in good shape and they have been turning out well educated people since the Soviet era ended.
The ethnic Russians look down on all the other ethnicities in Russia and the former Soviet Union. Being "Russian" has two meanings. Anyone who lives in the Russian empire is Russian, but the better Russians are those who are ethnically Russian. The other Russians are better than non-Russians, but are inferior to ethnic Russians. Unlike the eastern and southern ethnicities who look different, the Ukrainians hold a weird place in the racist hierarchy among the ethnic Russians. On the one hand because Ukrainians look the same as ethnic Russians they are held in higher regard than those who look differently, but they are still primitive barbarians compared to ethnic Russians.
I have seen political cartoons published in Russia from early in the war depicting Ukrainians as primitive tribal people wearing animal skins, living in grass huts and hunting with spears.
Additionally the Russians don't see Ukraine as a real place with a political identity. Like Americans may refer to a region as Southerners or Appalachians. These regions consist of multiple US states, but don't have a separate identity beyond being a region of the country (with their own culture).
The Russians have been working hard for decades to sell the rest of the world on their viewpoint about Ukraine. Early in the war a lot of people referred to Ukraine as "the Ukraine" which is a subtle trick coming from the Russian viewpoint. Referring to Ukraine the country as "the Ukraine" casts Ukraine as just a region of Russia.
Timothy Snyder is a Yale history professor and one of the top experts on Eastern Europe in US academia. He did a course on the making of modern Ukraine last fall and the university posted the entire course to YouTube
He goes into a lot about the cultures of Ukraine and Russia and how the evolved into what they are today. It's a great course, but it is close to 23 hours long.
Elon has been befriended by a rather pro-Moscow group of people. They have been influencing his thinking.
Musk is playing ball to show the authoritarian and restrictive governments around the world that they can trust SpaceX to follow their laws.
Didn’t Russia block Starlink a couple times already and then SpaceX remedied each issue? Hopefully they can remedy this issue as well.
SpaceX beating Russian jamming attack was 'eyewatering': DoD official - Breaking Defense
“The way that Starlink was able to upgrade when a threat showed up, we need to be able to have that ability," said Dave Tremper, the Pentagon's director of electronic warfare. "We have to be able to change our electromagnetic posture, to be able to change very dynamically what we're trying to do...
breakingdefense.com
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
Subtle indeed, particularly if it is only in English. In any case, in the same vein we can view "the USSR" as part of say, Georgia
RobStark
Well-Known Member
They gave up the nuclear arsenal. Because they didn't have the "keyes" and some said because they had neither the technical skill or budget to keep it. A lot of weapons/aerospace ability was seen as legacy "Soviet(Russian)" and degrading over time.
The West didn't know a Neptun could take out the Russian Black Sea Fleet Flagship. Nor Ukrainian ability to repurpose weapons at the beginning of the war.
At the beginning of the war it was unclear if the regular Ukrainian Army would be willing to fight. Right wing militia and spontaneous forming irregulars plaid a big part early on in holding Kiev and from Ukraine being overrun as a whole.
Those who live in The Gambia may take issue with the reasoning here.
More likely, though, they couldn't care less. I've never been there.
According to Timothy Snyder it's a translation of the Russian word "na" which refers to a place that isn't a legally defined entity.
The Russians didn't name Gambia, nor did they name the Netherlands, nor have they ever claimed those countries as their own.
jabloomf1230
Minister of Silly Walks
The $4500/month figure included 6 disposable DOD grade screwdrivers.
Tiger
Active Member
So long as Russia is considered a sovereign nation, SpaveX will abide to its laws. The same as it has done when entering any other market for thesake of comparison, SpaceX arranges permits via official channels before opening services in a country.
Tiger
Active Member
Word on the street is that Elon suspects that one of his employees, loyal to russia, leaked to them the technology necessary to jam Starlink.
Navy Day in Russia. What's wrong with this poster?
It's the USS George HW Bush
Buckminster
Well-Known Member
Russia had been rattling this sabre frequently for a year and a half. IMO this is nothing new.
Russia's demands for peace are still unacceptable and the so called peace talks in Saudi Arabia don't include Russia.
Saudi Arabia to host Russia-less Ukraine peace talks, Kyiv confirms, as Moscow hit by more drones
petit_bateau
Active Member
Various non-random links
kyivindependent.com
Ukraine’s counteroffensive lurches forward: Key moment looms as more forces committed
Fresh videos of Western-made armor rolling across open fields, a new settlement liberated, and a lot of noise on Russian military blogger Telegram channels heralded to the world on July 28 that the Ukrainian summer counteroffensive had upped its gear. Almost eight weeks into the long-awaited...
kyivindependent.com
petit_bateau
Active Member
Actual design & development of the Russian (aka USSR/FSU, but in reality Russian) nuclear weapons (i.e. the warheads) was carried out only at two sites in Russia itself. Four sites in Russia did the device manufacture and maintenance (assembly/disassembly). Sub-assembly manufacturing appeared to be spread around about ten closed cities, all in Russia. See p48-49 below. Refined weapons grade material came from those sites, though mining and preliminary concentratin came from all over the USSR where ores were located, plus some WarPac ores.
(you can also see these sites referenced in Soviet atomic bomb project - Wikipedia )
In terms of design & manufacturing knowledge of the nuclear devices there were maybe 200 people with full knowledge across all the areas; 2,000 with one-area full knowledge; and maybe 10-20,000 with considerable one-area knowledge. Given the educational system it is fairly likely that a considerable portion of those were Ukraine nationals. My personal opinion is that then - and now - Ukraine had the critical mass of people/knowledge/skills to develop nuclear devices independently if it were to choose to do so.
Regarding operational control of the 'Russian' devices. At time of USSR breakup to CIS the nuclear footballs developed split personalities for a while with multiple states of the CIS trying to get launch codes, though fairly soon that became clear that only Russia had the footballs and the launch codes (see p30-31+ of SIPRI). In practice all the states where they were located had a negative veto on the launches, simply by putting a conventional lock on the nuclear facility (block silo doors; runways; etc).
Given the comparative technical capability of Ukraine and Russia in the early 1990s it is obvious that Ukraine would have been able to defeat the launch locks (PALs/PADs) on the various inherited nuclear devices if they had chosen to; indeed many of these devices were Ukraine design and manufacture. They had the people, the skills, and the knowledge (see p19/20 of SIPRI link above). They chose not and ultimately signed the Budapest Memorandum.
With regard to Ukraine's design and manufacturing capabilities for aviation and missiles, these were definitely capable of the task. Aviation (aiframe, avionics, propulsion) were all excellent. So too was the missile element,
"Ukraine is capable of producing advanced intercontinental range ballistic missiles, and its missile industry is second only to Russia’s among the former Soviet republics. The linchpin of this industry is the former Yuzhnoye Scientific Production Association, arguably the preeminent intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) design and production facility in the former Soviet Union, whose capabilities are matched only by a handful of U.S. and Russian missile enterprises. Ukraine’s missile industry suffered considerably during the 1990s because of the severe economic crisis that afflicted the country and the loss of its primary customer."
Agree. He has long been an idiot in this and many other areas.
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Tiger
Active Member
I find it paradoxal that armies are threatening other armies and thinking it will make a dent after the tussle has already started. It is as if boxers started threatening each other during the fight in addition to before the match.
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