Russia prepares for nuclear war with mass evacuation exercise

[Jon-of-arc]

Article in this week's free selection from The Economist, saying that Putins military aggression is a sign of Russian weakness, a diversion from events at home, where he's presiding over a poor economy, ingrained corruption, an inability to modernise, by trying to foster nationalism in the electorate, clinging on to Russia's declining status as a world power. Sanctions don't really damage him, apparently, as it gives him a scapegoat for the economy. Ongoing propaganda, like RT, and meddling in western affairs, eg the US election hacking, is supposed to cause western citizens to question whether liberal democracy is anything more of a sham than the stitched up Russian bollocks.

Not sure how accurate all that is, and obviously the economist has its own agenda, but worth a read if you want to kill 5 mins.

 

[Jurrihahay]

Article in this week's free selection from The Economist, saying that Putins military aggression is a sign of Russian weakness, a diversion from events at home, where he's presiding over a poor economy, ingrained corruption, an inability to modernise, by trying to foster nationalism in the electorate, clinging on to Russia's declining status as a world power. Sanctions don't really damage him, apparently, as it gives him a scapegoat for the economy. Ongoing propaganda, like RT, and meddling in western affairs, eg the US election hacking, is supposed to cause western citizens to question whether liberal democracy is anything more of a sham than the stitched up Russian bollocks.

Not sure how accurate all that is, and obviously the economist has its own agenda, but worth a read if you want to kill 5 mins.

Always be suspicious of the term modernise in this context. Ever since the end of the Soviet Union they've been banging on about Russia having to modernise. What we see now is actually the Russians modernising, but on their own terms.

 

[mather]

Article in this week's free selection from The Economist, saying that Putins military aggression is a sign of Russian weakness, a diversion from events at home, where he's presiding over a poor economy, ingrained corruption, an inability to modernise, by trying to foster nationalism in the electorate, clinging on to Russia's declining status as a world power. Sanctions don't really damage him, apparently, as it gives him a scapegoat for the economy. Ongoing propaganda, like RT, and meddling in western affairs, eg the US election hacking, is supposed to cause western citizens to question whether liberal democracy is anything more of a sham than the stitched up Russian bollocks.

Not sure how accurate all that is, and obviously the economist has its own agenda, but worth a read if you want to kill 5 mins.

Funny how The Economist never makes the same claim about the US being in decline and a sign of American weakness with regards to it's own military aggression. I don't know why anyone would take what a propaganda rag like The Economist has to say on anything seriously.

 

[Casually Red]

This is wrong. The vast majority of weapons expended in Operation Syrian Svoboda are FAB-250/500s which are not guided by Glonass or anything else beyond gravity and the warm Levantine winds.

So despite them sending beards in20 directions, 20 odd times a day ..to 20 parts of Allah .. they cost on average the price of around 4 cartons of lucky strikes .....or more.....from the soviet stockpile you were laughing about earlier . the russians are blowing the shit out of the fuckin beards....you guys...whining about it and your technology... are a fucking joke . Like seriously . It's laughable .

Btw...can you remind me again of the name of that aircraftcarrier you guys will be using to face these russians down. And put manners on them . Show the russkis whos boss and stufff . Im sure there's a plan b . A mere regional power after all ....is how you lot evaluated them. Last time I checked . You must all be pissing yourselves laughing at this carry on . Won't be long now until old blighty shows Ivan the whatnot. Eh ? Tally ho !!! Wot wot wot ?

Just like those Serbs . Wot wot wot . Tally ho...by jingo . Putin shall be getting a right old bunch of fives . And no mistake . Guvnor . Innit .

 

[seventh bullet]

Another 15p in your account.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Another 15p in your account.

He's on the top rate now, then?

 

[MikeMcc]

Are you referring to the story about Rapier kit that tracked a B2 at short range from its IR signature (not radar in that case)? The hardware I saw was being developed in a university (civilian) radar research group.

Aye, it was our unit that did the dirty deed... B2 was tootling along 300ft above the center line of the runway (rather than 60k+ feet), they used the pointing stick to alarm onto it as we weren't allowed the radar on that close to the runway - upsets folks when the canopy det-cord goes off due to the induced currents - and then tracked it using the thermal auto-track. BAe conveniently had a video recorder taking the feed from the Operator Control Unit and leaked it to the news. Our colonial cousins royally spat the dummy out and ranted about it 'not being in invisibility mode', much to our amusement. They could have just said that both bits of kit were being used well out of their design envelopes. Cue a public bollocking for the office in charge of the detachment with a private 'bloody good show' afterwards. Happy days!

 

[Idris2002]

Russia unveils the Satan-2 nuke, which can destroy an area the size of two UKs or one France:

Russia unveils 'super nuke' the Satan 2 which could destroy Britain twice over

 

[hash tag]

This will teach em Russian warships: Spain says refuelling request withdrawn - BBC News

 

[2hats]

Russia unveils the Satan-2 nuke, which can destroy an area the size of two UKs or one France

Theoretically (with maybe up to 50MT worth of MIRVs). Project 4202 is far more interesting/of a game changer, though.

 

[Pickman's model]

Well done good job.

the daily mail's decided it's inappropriate to run with a dad's army theme while the country's in mourning.

 

[frogwoman]

I was reading a book about the war in Georgia and Abkhazia in 1994, written at the time. What's striking is that the book could have been written now with lots of warnings of incipient russian fascism etc. the more things change eh.

 

[teqniq]

Theoretically (with maybe up to 50MT worth of MIRVs). Project 4202 is far more interesting/of a game changer, though.

I had to google that, I have seen it before but not taken note of the implications

 

[Jurrihahay]

I was reading a book about the war in Georgia and Abkhazia in 1994, written at the time. What's striking is that the book could have been written now with lots of warnings of incipient russian fascism etc. the more things change eh.

Back in the early '90s western liberal opinion took it for granted that Russia would either 'evolve' into a liberal democracy, despite the chaos that was unfolding there, or else it would descend into fascism. Instead the Russian elite, including many 'liberals', eventually gave the world Putin, and constructed formidable popular support around him. Whatever else he may be, Putin is no fascist, and Russian fascism continues to be incipient, which is how it will remain.

 

[camouflage]

Good article here, perhaps informative for some.

Special Report: The demonization of Russian President Putin and Russia, in general, has reached alarming levels in the West with a new “group think” taking hold that ignores Russian realities and interests, writes Natylie Baldwin.

Russia’s Very Different Reality – Consortiumnews

 

[degsy]

Pilger on the money again...

"Had journalists and broadcasters done their jobs and questioned the propaganda that Saddam Hussien had weapons of mass destruction, had they not amplified and echoed the lies of George W Bush and Tony Blair, the invasion of Iraq might never have happened and hundreds of thousands of men women and children would be alive today.
The propaganda laying the ground for a war against Russia and China is no different in principle but a lot more dangerous."

 

[camouflage]

Call me a putinbot or whatever, but I find this concerning.

 

[Stanley Edwards]

Isn't anyone else expecting Turkey to blow these ducks out of the water?

e2a; Turkey's downing of Russian warplane - what we know - BBC News

 

[seventh bullet]

Call me a putinbot or whatever, but I find this concerning.

Can you be clear in letting people know the sources of videos, blog posts etc so they don't get the wrong impression of you when using or directing people to material produced by fascists? Break links as well. Ta.

Don't pretend New Resistance/Open Revolt and the Center for Syncretic Studies aren't far-right.

 

[camouflage]

Can you be clear in letting people know the sources of videos, blog posts etc so they don't get the wrong impression of you when using or directing people to material produced by fascists? Break links as well. Ta.

Don't pretend New Resistance/Open Revolt and the Center for Syncretic Studies aren't far-right.

Dunno about those names, I saw the vid linked to yt on reddit- thought it pertinent to this thread. What are your thoughts on the content?

 

[squirrelp]

 

[squirrelp]

To quote from the above interview at about 44 minutes in:

Interviewer: "So you can't think then of anything that is going to stop this continual neo-con push towards the edge of war?"

PCR: "No. Nothing can stop it but the Europeans. The European political parties have got to say, you know, the Americans, they've already ruined us with sanctions... we can't do business with Russia. And now they're going to drag us into a war with Russia, what do we get out of that? Except death and destruction. And yeah, we like all the bagfuls of money that the Americans give us, but you can't spend it if you're vaporised, and so to hell with NATO, we're not participating in this, no more US bases in Europe, no more forward bases on Russia's borders, we don't want anything else to do with you, go home.

This is a former Assistant Secretary to the Treasury of the USA