Russia invades Ukraine. Volume 2

[swanny71]

98elise said:

TTmonkey said:

One of the guys arrested and awaiting trial is a Sgt. He’s 21.

And they gave Generals that are barely thirty.


So they don’t have a clue.

I was a Perry Officer (Sgt equivalent) in the RN at 21, and it wasn't unusual.

Quite common for Junior Officers to be early late teens, early 20's as well.

I assume, like me, you were a Tiff? A technical role, with accelerated promotion based largely on technical performance rather than experience or leadership (those qualities largely came after promotion to POMEA for myself and my peers).

Very, very different role and responsibilities to an army Sgt leading men in combat.

[BikeBikeBIke]

If genuine this is further evidence Russians are kidnapping civilian Ukranians and using them as cannon fodder. They don't even trust them with effective guns.

https://twitter.com/fri_skytt/status/1525238313040...

Edited by BikeBikeBIke on Saturday 14th May 10:36

[BikeBikeBIke]

Byker28i said:

Thats a shame... Was it put there afterwards?

It's some kind of ventilation unit that is part of the helicopter - goes under vents behind the rotor. Conclusive images posted.

Shame, it was a great story.

[myvision]

How much money have Putin and the oligarchs stolen from Russia?
I guess we'll never actually know.

[liner33]

myvision said:

How much money have Putin and the oligarchs stolen from Russia?
I guess we'll never actually know.

It started way before Putin, a lot of it was down to this chap

[Byker28i]

liner33 said:

myvision said:

How much money have Putin and the oligarchs stolen from Russia?
I guess we'll never actually know.

It started way before Putin, a lot of it was down to this chap

Difficult to trace until it pops up so we probably only know a small part of it.

There's the money pumped into trumps Condo's, the investigation and fines handed out to Deutsche Bank for russian money laundering, the money that filtered through Turkish banks and of course into Cyprus (Moscow on the Med), then of course around $2bn of UK property, especially in London.

Opposition leader Nemtsov claimed that between 2004 and 2007 over $60bn was transferred from Gazprom's funds to Putin's cronies alone, then not forgetting the investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, nicknamed "Russian Laundromat" that claimed between 2011 and 2014, 19 Russian banks laundered $20.8bn (£15.6bn) to 5,140 companies in 96 countries.
https://www.occrp.org/en/laundromat/the-russian-la...

Then you've the US blocking Promsvyazbank and Vnesheconombank this year for money laundering
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/anthonycormie...

and of course the Panama Papers
https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/...

A lot of the US 2014 sanctions were about targetting the Oligarchs and Putins foreign money stashed away, so they couldn't get at it, hence their push for trump and trump trying to get sanctions dropped for the first year or so...

[Tartan Pixie]

RE the failed river crossing, do Russia not have amphibious fighting vehicles and personnel carriers, or is that just the older Soviet stuff?

I was under the impression Russia have (or used to have?) a river crossing a doctrine designed to work in contested airspace, troops go across amphibiously with the pontoon bridges going up after the the 1st echelon troops have secured a bridgehead?

[stongle]

J4CKO said:

BikeBikeBIke said:

J4CKO said:

Evil west plundering resources, I thought what we were doing was called trade ?

Are we plundering all those Chinese products we buy and keeps China prospering ?

Is China plundering all the western intellectual property and innovation ?

Yeah we want resources, but we pay for them, that’s how it works. Putin decided he wanted more resources by stealing Ukraine, was that for Russian use only ? No, it was to sell on the global market.

I don't think he wanted to sell them at all in the short/medium term - just make sure they got left in the ground to maintain the price of Russian oil.

Yeah, makes sense, he couldn’t bare Ukraine doing well and being competition.

But my main point was “Plundering”, that word means that we’re were/are stealing resources, which is very different to buying them, all those billions flowing into Russia has been a theme of all this, western countries dependent on BUYING Russian oil and gas.

Ukrainian GDP per Capita is about 1/3 of Russian. That's not hitting the mercantilist jackpot.

Its about Putin's kelptocracy requiring a enemy so great that the Russian people remain subservient. They demonise the West, present all its action as anti-Russian, expansionist and ultimately an existential threat to Russia itself. By feeding the Russian population this message, they rally behind Putin as the great leader being seen to stand up against Western oppression. It doesn't matter that the West ISN'T threatening Russia, militarily or economically; it's about maintaining internal power. Ukraine pivoting towards NATO and the EU, has to be challenged by Putin - because he's trapped in his own propaganda lie.

Authoritarian governments / leaders need a greater threat to keep their grip on power.

Just because we know it's conkers, doesn't matter. What matters is what the 140million Russians believe.

[BikeBikeBIke]

Tartan Pixie said:

RE the failed river crossing, do Russia not have amphibious fighting vehicles and personnel carriers, or is that just the older Soviet stuff?

I was under the impression Russia have (or used to have?) a river crossing a doctrine designed to work in contested airspace, troops go across amphibiously with the pontoon bridges going up after the the 1st echelon troops have secured a bridgehead?

I thought their troop carriers were amphibious - that's why their armour is so poor - to save weight.

Could they really be *so* short of infantry they can't even attempt to protect the other side????

[saaby93]

liner33 said:

myvision said:

How much money have Putin and the oligarchs stolen from Russia?
I guess we'll never actually know.

It started way before Putin, a lot of it was down to this chap

-

[CrutyRammers]

BikeBikeBIke said:

Byker28i said:

It's funny because at the moment it just really looks like the russians went in to plunder white goods from Ukranian homes

Debunked. That's a component of the aircraft that happens to look like a washing machine.

There is, however, a clip on that cargo 200 channel of a captured russian position with a stolen indesit washer there. Of all the things to nick...

[gruffalo]

CrutyRammers said:

BikeBikeBIke said:

Byker28i said:

It's funny because at the moment it just really looks like the russians went in to plunder white goods from Ukranian homes

Debunked. That's a component of the aircraft that happens to look like a washing machine.

There is, however, a clip on that cargo 200 channel of a captured russian position with a stolen indesit washer there. Of all the things to nick...

Probably used it to drown out the sound of the barrage they were under.

[Tartan Pixie]

saaby93 said:

-

While we're doing comedy interludes this Egyptian attempt at the Russian national anthem is a classic:

[gruffalo]

Tartan Pixie said:

While we're doing comedy interludes this Egyptian attempt at the Russian national anthem is a classic:

OMG that is awful and the expression on Pootins face is hilarious.

[98elise]

swanny71 said:

98elise said:

TTmonkey said:

One of the guys arrested and awaiting trial is a Sgt. He’s 21.

And they gave Generals that are barely thirty.


So they don’t have a clue.

I was a Perry Officer (Sgt equivalent) in the RN at 21, and it wasn't unusual.

Quite common for Junior Officers to be early late teens, early 20's as well.

I assume, like me, you were a Tiff? A technical role, with accelerated promotion based largely on technical performance rather than experience or leadership (those qualities largely came after promotion to POMEA for myself and my peers).

Very, very different role and responsibilities to an army Sgt leading men in combat.

Yes I was a Tiff (POWEA), however the point was you can't just assume that young means incompetent. I would agree that it's more common in the Navy (and probably the RAF) though.

[Tartan Pixie]

BikeBikeBIke said:

Russia have added half a dozen or so BTGs...


https://twitter.com/DanLamothe/status/152516288516...


Where did they come from? Is this why the USA are calling for a ceasefire?

We know Russia has been heavily trying to recruit for the army so they might have had some success with that?

Russia certainly has a pool of nazis ultra nationalists to draw on but how deep that pool might be is anyone's guess.

Maybe they've put together an azovski brigade?

[eharding]

BikeBikeBIke said:

Byker28i said:

It's funny because at the moment it just really looks like the russians went in to plunder white goods from Ukranian homes

Debunked. That's a component of the aircraft that happens to look like a washing machine.

Indeed - there are a few notable examples of military aircraft components and equipment that outwardly resemble ordinary househould fixtures and fittings.

For example, this Vietnam-era AQ-2-PU jamming pod fitted to a Douglas A-1 Skyraider -

[BikeBikeBIke]

CrutyRammers said:

There is, however, a clip on that cargo 200 channel of a captured russian position with a stolen indesit washer there. Of all the things to nick...

...and the Troop carrier that was like a Dixon's van. I don't think there's any doubt that Russians are thieves who favour washing machines. Just that one shot didn't show it.

[FourWheelDrift]

eharding said:

Indeed - there are a few notable examples of military aircraft components and equipment that outwardly resemble ordinary househould fixtures and fittings.

For example, this Vietnam-era AQ-2-PU jamming pod fitted to a Douglas A-1 Skyraider -

They've thrown everything at the enemy, even....

[andy_s]

Tartan Pixie said:

RE the failed river crossing, do Russia not have amphibious fighting vehicles and personnel carriers, or is that just the older Soviet stuff?

I was under the impression Russia have (or used to have?) a river crossing a doctrine designed to work in contested airspace, troops go across amphibiously with the pontoon bridges going up after the the 1st echelon troops have secured a bridgehead?

https://russellphillips.uk/warsaw-pact-river-crossing/