Russia

[DawgyNWindow]

Trump needs to get off his "love for Putin" highchair and join the EU in tough, and I mean TOUGH, economic sanctions. Now is the time to hammer the evil Putin regime into oblivion.

Yeah, join the EU in tough sanctions!

For the third year in a row, the EU members have spent more on oil and gas from Russia than they have provided Ukraine in aid. Of course, they are kinda maybe thinking about perhaps trying to end purchases of Russian energy by 2027. You can kinda sorta bank on that. I guess their windmills and solar panels from China couldn't keep up with their energy consumption needs.

If we give Ukraine nothing and just don't buy Russian energy we are way ahead of the EU.

I must have missed Trump's "love for Putin".

[dawg80]

Yeah, join the EU in tough sanctions!

For the third year in a row, the EU members have spent more on oil and gas from Russia than they have provided Ukraine in aid. Of course, they are kinda maybe thinking about perhaps trying to end purchases of Russian energy by 2027. You can kinda sorta bank on that. I guess their windmills and solar panels from China couldn't keep up with their energy consumption needs.

If we give Ukraine nothing and just don't buy Russian energy we are way ahead of the EU.

I must have missed Trump's "love for Putin".

Trump gushes all over his pal Vladimir, loves him to death!

Of course, I meant and should have said it..."Join the EU in creating tough sanctions." You're right, the EU has been playing games up till now. I have posted this before but should have restated it again.

[dawg80]

Putin is pulling more relics out of mothball...the T-60 tank. As the name implies this tank was officially built in large numbers in 1960. Each of Russia's tanks bear the year in their designation, such as T-72 (1972), the T-80, and T-90 as well. Russia has about 600 of these relics sitting at two depots and experts surmise they will cannibalize enough of them to roll out 30-35 operational T-60s. And why? They can't/won't survive on the drone-dominated modern battlefield, and even if they could, 35 tanks won't make any difference in this war. This is all really a show so Putin's propagandists can try to spin this into a "see, good loyal Russian citizens, Mother Russia has tanks!" They will probably be used in parades as part of a recruitment campaign.

A YouTuber has put together a good piece on the timeline of this war. Very detailed. For instance, just to pick one part of it, since Russia seized Avdiivka, last summer, they set as their next target Pokrosvk. Now 12+ months later they are stalled 5 miles outside of that city. They have lost 60,000 KIA and another 100,000+ in wounded and captured in the Pokrosvk campaign. It took Russia 8 months and cost them 100K+ casualties taking Avdiivka. Russia is massing for a major push on Pokrovsk. This is the same tactic they used to take Avdiivka and Bakhmut. Pundits estimate they will send in 30,000+ troops, shock troops, combined with aerial support, as best as they can muster. The Russians have worked their way along both flanks and now Pokrosvk sits in a pocket. This will force the Ukrainians to make decisions to either hold those flanks are move troops back toward the city to stave off this massive frontal assault coming. Ukraine has fewer than 20,000 soldiers in total defending Pokrosvk. This is infantry, artillery crews, logistics, etc.

Pokrosvk is the key target in Putin's summer plans. He wants it and wants it before the rains set in in the fall. If Pokrosvk falls then Putin will soon thereafter, hold another Ukrainian oblast, Donetsk. Kyiv knows what's coming and have vowed to hold the city. This is a key battle in the war. To hold it, Ukraine needs commit some reinforcements.

[BioMajor2013]

This is interesting info. Thanks for posting.

I don't have a dawg in this hunt, so to speak. Two corrupt countries fighting each other, with the only question in my mind being: Will the more corrupt country win, or the less corrupt country? Regardless, I do think that Russia being greatly weakened in all of this is a good thing for the world.

Just curious, though. Where do you find all this in depth information?

[dawg80]

This is interesting info. Thanks for posting.

I don't have a dawg in this hunt, so to speak. Two corrupt countries fighting each other, with the only question in my mind being: Will the more corrupt country win, or the less corrupt country? Regardless, I do think that Russia being greatly weakened in all of this is a good thing for the world.

Just curious, though. Where do you find all this in depth information?

Several YouTube channels are pretty good at providing daily updates, but most of this detailed information comes from subscription sites on Patreon. Took me nearly 3 years to know which YouTube channels to follow and those to ignore. Both sides have propagandists who can spin info with the best of 'em! They even rival CNN and MSNBC for their BS.

As for this notion that Ukraine is corrupt, that too is BS. Has there been corruption in Ukraine? Yes! But President Z has done his level best to root it out and deal with it. Question: is their corruption in the good ole USA? YES!!! How many fraudsters have you seen going to jail and/or having all their assets seized to pay back taxpayers? Answer: NONE! The US is a million times more corrupt than Ukraine is now. People in glass houses...

[dawg80]

Two more Russian ships mysteriously explode! One was a mega-yacht belonging to one of Putin's oligarchs enroute to China. It exploded and sunk in the Sea of Japan as it was scheduled to make port in Japan first, then proceed to China. This was a big boat! Japanese coast guard has responded to the mayday from its captain who reported a problem and then kaboom! No reports yet on whether there are any survivors.

The other Russian ship that went kaboom was one of Putin's shadow fleet oil tankers. It had traveled from a Russian oil depot and had just made dock in Libya when it exploded. It is still burning, and the surrounding dock, buildings and at least one other ship, a cargo vessel, are also all on fire from the tremendous explosion. Being reported it had 350,000 barrels of oil on board. Was it sabotage? Maybe, but more likely it was an industrial accident sense Putin's shadow fleet, which violate all international shipping laws for safety, are older vessels, not properly maintained. Putin has a reported 250 such oil tankers operating illegally. To date four have exploded, like this one, and three have been seized by various countries when those tankers entered their ports. Putin's tankers seized were done so for safety reasons, not because they operate illegally or as part of sanctions against Putin.

[dawg80]

Two more Russian ships mysteriously explode! One was a mega-yacht belonging to one of Putin's oligarchs enroute to China. It exploded and sunk in the Sea of Japan as it was scheduled to make port in Japan first, then proceed to China. This was a big boat! Japanese coast guard has responded to the mayday from its captain who reported a problem and then kaboom! No reports yet on whether there are any survivors.

The other Russian ship that went kaboom was one of Putin's shadow fleet oil tankers. It had traveled from a Russian oil depot and had just made dock in Libya when it exploded. It is still burning, and the surrounding dock, buildings and at least one other ship, a cargo vessel, are also all on fire from the tremendous explosion. Being reported it had 350,000 barrels of oil on board. Was it sabotage? Maybe, but more likely it was an industrial accident sense Putin's shadow fleet, which violate all international shipping laws for safety, are older vessels, not properly maintained. Putin has a reported 250 such oil tankers operating illegally. To date four have exploded, like this one, and three have been seized by various countries when those tankers entered their ports. Putin's tankers seized were done so for safety reasons, not because they operate illegally or as part of sanctions against Putin.

Make that five! Another of Putin's aged shadow fleet experienced problems. This one not catastrophic, just engine failure which left the tanker floating helplessly in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. It has been towed to a port in Greece, fully loaded with close to 400,000 barrels of oil. The Greeks should impound this vessel and take the oil for themselves.

Just watched a video on how Putin/Russia is getting away with operating this shadow fleet of illegal oil tankers. Each tanker, all 250 (minus 8 now, and counting), are registered as its own company, an LLC, and! the Russians routinely change the name of the tanker, its made-up registry and the LLC of them. This makes it nearly impossible for nations, trying to enforce international shipping laws, to identify the ships and pin them on Putin and his shadow fleet. This actually makes Putin's fleet even more shadowy!

For instance, a ship named "The Morning Star" supposedly licensed to an LLC in Liberia (all fake), departs a Russian oil port bound for, say, a refinery in Qatar. Halfway across the ocean, that tanker's name, registry, and LLC are all changed, electronically, and now this same tanker makes port in the UAE as "The Horizon", licensed in Greece, under a different LLC. The officials in the UAE had been alerted to look out for a tanker named "The Morning Star" etc. And before anyone can sort this out, the oil from "The Horizon" is off-loaded, sold to the UAE, and that money is wired to a third-party bank in another country, who then wires it to the Russian Central Bank, i.e. to Putin. And yes, too many countries kind of know all of this but are looking the other way as they want Putin's cheap oil.

[dawg80]

Ukraine took out two more high-ranking generals (one admiral) in targeted "assassinations." One was a general in charge of Russian intelligence (oxymoron) and the other the admiral in charge of the Black Sea fleet, which has been rendered impotent by Ukrainian drones. Still, good to see two more bad guys bite the dust.

Trump has pulled already promised, and delivered (in Poland), US missiles, artillery shells, and other ammo/supplies. The excuse given is US stockpiles have become so depleted that the island of Bora Bora could launch an invasion, and we have nothing to stop them. This is not the real reason. Here it is:

1) Trump despises Ukraine (for whatever demented reasons he might have) and hopes Putin annexes Ukraine.
2) The more pressing reason is Iran War 2.0 which is imminent.

One Pentagon spokesman (spin-master) gives concerns over China as the main concern. Bullshit! Nothing currently sitting in Poland and promised to Ukraine will even play a role in a war with China. Of course, there will be no war with China anytime soon, so the US has more than enough time to further stockpile munitions for such a conflict. But, based on every report from the Pentagon and other think-tanks, the US is 100% ready to engage China now, and besides [drum roll] please...our needs are rooted in our navy and air force for any kind of protracted war with China, not our army. And these munitions in Poland are all slated for army use, ground forces, ammo for tanks, ammo for howitzers, RPGs, machinegun ammo, etc.

So...scratch China as an excuse, that is total BS. So, what then? Well...Iran War 2.0. The US has 40+ bases in the Middle East, all within range of Iranian drones and missiles. The truth is we did not "obliterate" Iran's nuke bomb program, and they will be operational again within 3 months. That will mean we, with Israel, will attack Iran again. We will be at war with Iran, and their proxies and allies, and that is the reason (together with Trumps' hatred for the democracy in Ukraine) the US has pulled those munitions.

[dawg80]

Russia is massing troops along two sectors of the front. They are giddy with Trump's backstabbing Ukraine and are more confident in their success to come. Can't believe all the reports, such as Russia massing 55,000 troops near Kherson, and another 60,000 near Sumy. But, it is true there has been a sudden increase in movement of troops, supplies, equipment toward those two regions. Ukraine knows this and has been striking convoys, a supply train was hit, and they have hit concentrations of Russian troops in two camps, thus far. Ukraine has enough munitions in their hands to fight an all-out battle with Russia for about a month to maybe 6 weeks. That might be enough to thwart Putin's latest offensive, should one actually come, but will deplete Ukran's stockpiles. So, depending on the weather as we get into fall and Putin's willingness to keep pressing the matter, Ukraine might find itself reeling before winter weather slows movements of Russia's army.

North Korea is sending 30,000 more troops; this time little Fat Boy has authorized them to fight in Ukraine. NK sent 12,000 troops last year, about half of which have been killed, fighting in Kursk and Belgorod. China has pledged to support this Putin build-up with ammo/supplies/vehicles.

Germany's PM held a press conference citing the US reneging on promised support for Ukraine and he calls on Europe to step up to fill the gap. But, Europe does not produce the critical Patriot missiles.

[dawg80]

Not sure if I posted this already, but just in case...

Germany has announced they will start stopping and seizing Putin's shadow fleet of oil tankers as they pass near Germany's territorial waters in the Baltic Sea. Close to 40% of Putin's oil has to pass through the Baltic Sea to reach international markets. This would represent a huge economic blow to Putin. Of course, this means the Scandinavian countries would have to cooperate with Germany otherwise Putin's ghost tankers could follow a course closer to them and further away from Germany. Finland is likely to cooperate in this endeavor, but the key nation is Denmark. They sit on the "cork in the bottle" of the Baltic Sea's access to the Atlantic Ocean. Sweden too can play a huge role in this.

[dawg80]

Ukraine continues to degrade Russia's military infrastructure. Yesterday they took out an electronic plant that manufactures components used in all types of military equipment. These are dials, switches, etc. They also struck and destroyed a power plant in a suburb of Moscow that provided electricity to a drone manufacturing plant. Of course, this same plant provided electricity to many thousands of local residents. Now, they'll be in the dark until further notice.

Meanwhile Putin continues his blatant terrorist attacks on civilians. That is not news. Sadly, this has been going on for 3 1/2 years now.

Nothing to report on the front, very quiet the past 24 hours. A calm before the storm surely.

[dawg80]

"The more the empire tightens its grip, the more star systems will slip through your grasp," said Princess Leia to the Death Star's commander. (From Star Wars Episode IV).

Well, Putin's evil empire is experiencing this. Already his aggression has driven Finland and Sweden into NATO's camp and other nations wish to follow. Whether these other nations actually join NATO/EU remains to be seen, but they are definitely distancing themselves from Putin's evil regime. The latest two are Azerbaijan and Moldavia. War is brewing between Azerbaijan and Russia, and Moldavia is seeking support from Europe when they attempt to take back that strip of their land presently occupied by Russian troops. There are only 2,000 Russian troops there, with a small airbase with attack helicopters, one company of tanks. Moldavia could attack militarily and easily take the land back, but they are hoping to avoid open conflict with Russia.

Georgia is also making overtures to NATO/EU for membership. They were invaded by Russian troops, and a brief war was fought not that long ago, maybe 10 years ago. Chechnya is another country where the population is strongly anti-Russian and wants independence, but it is a brutal dictatorship with the current leadership a puppet regime of Putin's. Wouldn't take much to push that one over the edge. Putin put down a revolution already, killing 100,000+ civilians, about 3,500 Chechnyan soldiers were killed, and Russia lost 6,000 KIA plus another 10,000 wounded. Many of those "civilians" died in battle fighting the Russians.

Turkey is making overtures to ally with Azerbaijan. This would create a powerful economic alliance, in addition to a political/military one. Close to 30% of Putin's O&G flows through that region via pipelines. Turkey wants its own O&G companies to take ownership of those pipelines effectively cutting Russia out of that economic loop. Instead of being paid for the O&G flowing through Azerbaijan, Russia would have to pay fees to transport its O&G through. And one of the oil producing fields, currently owned by a Russian oligarch, is in Azerbaijan. Turkey is talking about seizing this field...and paying the Russians a token amount for it.

Siberia has long longed for independence from the Moscow regime. Siberians are Asians, a totally different culture, heritage, history from "European-Russia." There have been rumblings for decades of Siberia declaring its independence from Russia. Now that Putin's regime, his military, is so weakened by his losing war in Ukraine, now may be the time. China would support Siberia, trying to gobble them up and creating a puppet regime there. So, from the world's perspective, that is the drawback of a Siberian independence movement. No, Siberians want no part of China either but given the West's weakness and unwillingness to support such independence movements, except with useless rhetoric, Siberia would probably fall victim to the Chicoms. Still, this would drive a wedge between Beijing and Moscow and that would be a good thing.

Putin is accomplishing what General George Patton wanted to do back in 1945...knock Russia off the stage as a world power. Other provinces still in the Russian Federation will quickly declare their independence too, once the Moscow regime completely collapses. "Russia" will eventually be a small country, about the size of France, and no longer a threat to world peace. And, this is why China is being vocal in support of Putin. They have made no bones about their voiced support for Putin fearing the US, and our allies, being able to totally focus on containing them.

Putin must prevail in Ukraine! That's what Xi said. (Xi is pronounced "she")

[dawg80]

Xi is out of top power in China. Will make a post on the China thread. And more on how China is taking advantage of Russia's pending collapse.

Putin has openly admitted Russia is facing total economic collapse in 12 months. Yes, he said this. Well, he said this in a closed meeting of his cabinet, his inner circle, with a live streaming to others in his government, other top officials. It was supposed to be kept that way, a confidential meeting. But someone in Putin's government is a "leaker" and the video is out and has gone viral.

There's a 30-minute YouTube video that covers Russia's economic woes in great detail. It does a great job of explaining Putin's pending economic mess. Some of the issues are an aging industrial complex, especially in Russia's O&G industry. They have rusting, breaking equipment and sanctions are mostly blocking Russia's capability to find replacement parts. Russia's population is shrinking, especially in the critical age brackets of youngsters up to age 55, considered to be the "productive" ages. About 1.5 million skilled/professionals have fled Russia trying to avoid Putin's military conscription. Another 1 million+ in the "working" ages have been killed in the war. Russia has about a year, to maybe 1 1/2 years of enough money to pay pensions. Millions and millions of Russians live on government pensions. The fund is drying up. In 2000 Russia did an assessment that it takes 5 working people paying into the pension system to support 1 recipient. Today that ratio is down to just 2 to 1. It is not sustainable. Russia is looking at a 40% drop in the critical O&G annual revenues, and that will be further exasperated if OPEC increases production, as promised, dropping the price of oil down to $50/barrel. That will kill Russia's O&G industry.

And there's more on that video, and more concerns about Russia's economy.

[dawg80]

Meanwhile...another vessel in Putin's shadow fleet suffered an explosion. This one is clearly sabotage as a mine or a planted explosive on the hull of the shipment has caused the ship to wallow. It has temporarily been saved from sinking when two tugs reached it and have been using their pumps to try to keep water out as emergency repairs are being made. The ship is not out of danger of sinking. Its cargo is ammonia in large tanks. This marks the 6th ship in Putin's illegal fleet to suffer an incident. The most likely cause is anti-Putin partisans who planted an explosive on the hull of the ship when last in a Russian port.

[dawg80]

Putin has recruited soldiers from another country, this time Laos. For now, it is only 50 combat engineers, "sappers," to be tasked with demining Kursk. The Ukrainians have left tens of thousands of landmines in Kursk, and this is causing real problems for the Russians. Russian military convoys are still "finding" the mines, the hard way. And the other day a Russian farmer was killed when his tractor struck a mine.

One YouTuber questioned, "isn't this already a world war since so many nations are involved in the Ukraine-Russia war?" Ah, nope. This is not unusual. There have been and are other wars that involve multiple nations, or at least, soldiers from various countries, and they are not classified as a "world war."

So, 50 Laotians in Kursk performing combat engineering tasks does not elevate this war to "world" status. But, it has caused some more disgust amongst Russian media who are questioning why Russia can't fend for itself. Don't we have sappers in the Russian army, they ask.