X Fan
Active Member
Given CIA's spotty history, I'm somewhat ambivalent about their involvement here. Hopefully, it ends well.
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Russia/Ukraine conflict
- Thread starter amolina
- Start date
The discussion about democracy, freedom and right wing parties is quickly becoming too political (again) and also drifting too far away from the topic of this thread. Time to end it.
I recall that Orban said if Turkey approves Sweden, he wouldn't hold it up. What about Slovakia?
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
Slovakia has approved Sweden's application.
Latest video from Perun out recently on evaluating the utility/cost effectiveness of weapons systems in Ukraine
TLDR:
-different ways to account for effectiveness
-he considered metrics that would change the dynamics of a large conflict:
-clear winner for Russia: lancet drones
TLDR:
-different ways to account for effectiveness
-he considered metrics that would change the dynamics of a large conflict:
- Direct impact - e.g. what did this system directly destroy
- Efficiency - considering losses and investment as compared to other measures
- The holistic impact or "But for" test - if this thing or set of things had not been supplied, what difference would that have made?
-clear winner for Russia: lancet drones
Nazis also murdered 15 million ethnic Russians and 27 million Soviets.
NBD.
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I don't know what the Dnipro below the dam is like now. Above where the dam used to be it is much narrower. But putting pontoon bridges across the river is risky.
The Ukrainians may also be trying to draw Russian forces into the area because of the threat that the bridgehead poses. Whatever happens it causes more headaches for the Russians which is a good thing overall.
I wonder what could be done in advance to prepare for an operation like that.
If Ukraine could capture enough ground, then they may be able to slowly bring across small groups of tracked vehicles, then quickly move them to safer locations on the south side.
Russian gliding bombs are inaccurate, Ukraine may be able to make it risky for Russian helicopters to get close to the crossings.
They could try crossing an night, that is more risky, but they might have vehicles that can do that.
I have a long standing opinion that if Ukraine could develop a suitable bridgehead, and amass a suitable force in this area it, could be a very profitable attack.
The Russians are hoping that the river forms part of their defence,
I know that this isn't a easy or risk free option, hence it is best to slowly build momentum.
As you suggest, if the Russians do react, that may create opportunities elsewhere.
Before the Russian election seems like a bigger opportunity than after the election. Even though the election isn't what we will call an election, any losses will have an embarrassing impact and may dent Putin's authority. After the election he can do a mobilisation and anything else he needs to do to step up the Russian efforts.
It was pretty obvious to everyone that Lukashenko was too unpopular to truly win the last election so when he cooked the books to win, it led to protests in Belarus. Putin needs to remain popular enough so his victory next year could possibly be legitimate.
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
Nazis also murdered 15 million ethnic Russians and 27 million Soviets.
I am aware. But that wiki-article 'only' specified civilians and POWs. Guessing the 'difference' consists of soldiers during combat. But they do of course count as well.
Nazis also murdered 15 million ethnic Russians and 27 million Soviets.
What has creeped people out about the Holocaust specifically is the clinical way it was done. The Russians took a lot of Poles out into the woods and shot then when they invaded eastern Poland in 1939. The Russians committed all sorts of atrocities as they moved west in the last couple of years of the war. The Germans in the field rounded up peasants and shot them or locked them in a building and burned it down, or did other horrors.
Before WW II Stalin starved millions of Ukrainians to death. Mao created a famine that killed millions of Chinese. Churchill allowed a famine in India that killed a lot of people. The western allies committed atrocities on the battlefield too.
But the Nazi government ran an sophisticated, industrialized execution project on not just the Jewish people, but also the Romani (gypsies), and other people they thought were undesirable like homosexuals and people with birth defects. They were so efficient with exterminating the Romani that they pretty much don't exist in mainland Europe anymore. The few that do mostly moved back from other places after the war.
The Jewish people had the most vocal community to speak out for the dead.
When the war crimes trials started, the Allies thought they were going to have a tough time piecing together the evidence, but they uncovered a complete set of detailed records of the barbarity. What happened in the Holocaust was an attempt to exterminate large groups of people with the efficiency of the best factory system in the world and they kept all the data as precisely as building tanks or airplanes.
The idea that any group of humans could be that cold blooded and nobody seemed to bat an eye is the legacy of that genocide.
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
These can allegedly be used inside of buildings.
...] footage of a Norwegian/British-supplied Black Hornet Nano micro-drone in service with the Ukrainian Kraken SOF regiment.
...] footage of a Norwegian/British-supplied Black Hornet Nano micro-drone in service with the Ukrainian Kraken SOF regiment.
(shiver) shades of that tiny hovering hunter/killer assassin drone from Dune.
navguy12
Active Member
Electric cables, hammers and guns: Ukrainians tell of Russian torture
As prosecutors prepare war crimes case, victims reveal how they were beaten and made to dig own graves in Balakliia
www.theguardian.com
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
And another one...
October 24, 20232:42 PM GMT+2 Updated 2 hours ago
MOSCOW, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Vladimir Nekrasov, the chairman of Russia's second-largest oil producer Lukoil (LKOH.MM), has died suddenly at the age of 66 after suffering acute heart failure, the company said on Tuesday. [...]
The previous head of Lukoil's board, Ravil Maganov, died in September 2022 after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, according to two sources familiar with the situation. [My u.]
Several Russian businessmen, most with ties to the energy industry, have died suddenly in unclear circumstances in the months following the start of what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.
Unusually among Russian companies, Lukoil took a public stand over Moscow's operation in Ukraine. In a March 3 2022 statement, the company's board of directors expressed its concern over the "tragic events" in Ukraine and called for the "earliest possible end to armed conflict" via negotiations.
The statement remains on the company's web site.
www.reuters.com
Chairman of Russia's oil major Lukoil dies suddenly aged 66
ReutersOctober 24, 20232:42 PM GMT+2 Updated 2 hours ago
MOSCOW, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Vladimir Nekrasov, the chairman of Russia's second-largest oil producer Lukoil (LKOH.MM), has died suddenly at the age of 66 after suffering acute heart failure, the company said on Tuesday. [...]
The previous head of Lukoil's board, Ravil Maganov, died in September 2022 after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, according to two sources familiar with the situation. [My u.]
Several Russian businessmen, most with ties to the energy industry, have died suddenly in unclear circumstances in the months following the start of what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.
Unusually among Russian companies, Lukoil took a public stand over Moscow's operation in Ukraine. In a March 3 2022 statement, the company's board of directors expressed its concern over the "tragic events" in Ukraine and called for the "earliest possible end to armed conflict" via negotiations.
The statement remains on the company's web site.
Chairman of Russia's oil major Lukoil dies suddenly aged 66
Vladimir Nekrasov, the chairman of Russia's second-largest oil producer Lukoil , has died suddenly at the age of 66 after suffering acute heart failure, the company said on Tuesday.
www.reuters.com
They really need screens on windows in Moscow. Keeps the bugs out and the oligarchs in. Not sure which is worse.And another one...
Chairman of Russia's oil major Lukoil dies suddenly aged 66
Reuters
October 24, 20232:42 PM GMT+2 Updated 2 hours ago
MOSCOW, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Vladimir Nekrasov, the chairman of Russia's second-largest oil producer Lukoil (LKOH.MM), has died suddenly at the age of 66 after suffering acute heart failure, the company said on Tuesday. [...]
The previous head of Lukoil's board, Ravil Maganov, died in September 2022 after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, according to two sources familiar with the situation. [My u.]
Several Russian businessmen, most with ties to the energy industry, have died suddenly in unclear circumstances in the months following the start of what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.
Unusually among Russian companies, Lukoil took a public stand over Moscow's operation in Ukraine. In a March 3 2022 statement, the company's board of directors expressed its concern over the "tragic events" in Ukraine and called for the "earliest possible end to armed conflict" via negotiations.
The statement remains on the company's web site.
Chairman of Russia's oil major Lukoil dies suddenly aged 66
Vladimir Nekrasov, the chairman of Russia's second-largest oil producer Lukoil , has died suddenly at the age of 66 after suffering acute heart failure, the company said on Tuesday.
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
Seems like 'a wee bit overdue'...
Allegedly:
Allegedly:
Doggydogworld
Active Member
They didn't block Fox?
You are probably correct, but...it is not so much the level of elements in Freedom House ratings as the trajectory.Isn't that 'just a little' unnecessarily dark...
I agree that Brazil seems problematic. And I will admit that I probably know to little about Italy to really say, but still...
The UK gets 93/100 from Freedom House. France gets 89/100. And Italy gets 90/100...
But yeah... Brazil is down to 72/100 in 2023 from 79/100 in 2017... Still ranked as "FREE" though, but I suppose they're getting close to just being "PARTLY FREE".
United Kingdom: Freedom in the World 2023 Country Report | Freedom House
See the Freedom in the World 2023 score and learn about democracy and freedom in United Kingdom.freedomhouse.org
France: Freedom in the World 2023 Country Report | Freedom House
See the Freedom in the World 2023 score and learn about democracy and freedom in France.
Italy: Freedom in the World 2023 Country Report | Freedom House
See the Freedom in the World 2023 score and learn about democracy and freedom in Italy.
Brazil: Freedom in the World 2023 Country Report | Freedom House
See the Freedom in the World 2023 score and learn about democracy and freedom in Brazil.
Without belaboring the issues and still focus on the Ukraine risks. Brazil's President now is openly favoring Putin sometimes, one of the leading US Presidential candidates openly opposes supporting Ukraine and admires Putin. The issues that have me sleeping less well are those kinds of developments. Freedom House also understates the value of voting processes.
Brazil, for example, has mandatory voting, has 100% automated voting process, makes election day a holiday, gives free public transit on Election day. That is less valuable when the former President openly advocates military rule. The US often does not even have State level consistency and engages in serious voter suppression and uses an 1790's vintage Electoral College that helps prevent any vestige of popular national will. Today those weaknesses are glaringly obvious to the world, as the House of Representatives make it obvious that they are not Representatives in any sense understood as democracy.
Ukraine needs help from many nations to improve governance as well as military and diplomatic support.
My dismay may be excessive, I hope it is. I don't have a surplus of "Hopium" right now.
Last point: check Freedom House rating for Argentina, then check the news. Successful functioning government may not quite follow their criteria, abject failures can seem fairly decent.
With all this happening do we really think Ukraine support continuing as long as it takes is in any way assured? Even in the EU, leadership is firm. Can we say all the members are so firm?
