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The bulk of the Russian troops are minorities from the countryside. Only a tiny minority are whites from the major cities."
US Military's profile is common in that regard (country versus city, not emulating Russia's non-White situation).
Urban cities are underrepresented with the South generating the most recruits versus available population. Makes sense given the political viewpoints of urban versus suburban in today's America (when I served in the Marine Corps in the 70's my platoon bunkmates were from all over the US including a bunch from inner cities, ie NYC & Baltimore).
Several myths have been perpetuated about those young people who volunteer to serve. The information herein is intended to dispel such myths.
www.military.com
Deployed around the world, the armed forces are a pillar of U.S. power and influence abroad. But many civilians are unfamiliar with their composition. How much does the military resemble U.S. society?
www.cfr.org
Kamil Galeev recently address just this issue:
Thread by @kamilkazani on Thread Reader App
"Some argue that the Russian army is not that different in this regard from the US army, which also heavily recruits from the poor classes. I disagree. In the US recruitment is voluntary. In Russia it's compulsory and dodgeable which makes it effectively the blood tax on the poor
Consider the following. In the US people go to the army to pay for the college. In Russia it's the other way around: people go to the college to avoid the army. You can fund it either by winning a government-funded place (бюджет) or simply by paying tuition fees out of the pocket"
I know some people who went into the US military to escape poverty. They didn't like it, but they willingly went to war because that's what they signed up for.
I recommend reading the entire piece linked above. Galeev has been writing a lot of essays lately about Russian society and culture. He is very qualified to do this, he grew up there and he analyzes cultures and economies for his job at the Wilson Center.
"Victory Day" in Russia is only 5 days away but there has been little change in battlefield maps in the last couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see what the Kremlin announces on 5/9/2022 as many have been expecting Putin to try to spin/sell some sort of "win".
They are cleaning up a part of Mariupol to have a victory parade on May 9. They will tidy up a small section of the city so the people back home think Mariupol is still standing and then leave the rest of the city to rot until the Ukrainians push them out.
The Ukrainians have a deep salient headed for the isthmus of Crimea. They will cut the land bridge to Crimea in another place soon. Though maybe not be May 9.
That impact was a 100 Teraton explosion, the Poseidon may be able to carry up to a 2 Megaton warhead, that's 50,000 times bigger. We don't know what the maximum warhead size the Poseidon can carry, it may be smaller. The biggest warhead ever made was the Tsar bomb with 50-57 MT yield which was never put into service because it was too big to actually use.
What we do and don’t know about Russia’s tsunami-making nuclear drone
There are upper limits on the possible yield for nuclear weapons
Nuclear weapon yield - Wikipedia
Nature frequently dwarfs what humans can do.
How unfortunate all these fires are
View attachment 800390
Some of those events near the Ukrainian border might be Ukrainian military, but most of those are probably sabotage by Russians. I notice a number of police stations. There may be some secret coordination to weaken the police for future unrest?
I have had the feeling for a while that this war is going to end with widespread unrest or civil war in Russia.
