Is Ukraine about to have a war?
Probably better that the Ukrainians do not reoccupy the island any time soon. It would be a perfect target for any kind of outrageous weapon the Moskovites might wish to dust off and show off.

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Now this is how to do a May Day parade, no thousands of troops, no myriad of armour, no bunch of surviving Generals clustered around Putin wondering who is next for the chop.......
One man, One street, and a One heck of a speech....
https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1523585619876007938
..
One man, One street, and a One heck of a speech....
https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1523585619876007938
..
Last edited by NutLoose; 9th May 2022 at 16:59.


"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
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That stops a military flypast?
That stops a military flypast?

Zelensky is the sort of leader we can only dream of having in this country - great speech and excellently delivered.
Can you imagine how long it would have taken the tousle - haired one to do that with all the 'err's um's, and to's' ?
Can you imagine how long it would have taken the tousle - haired one to do that with all the 'err's um's, and to's' ?

That stops a military flypast?

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Putin’s first (?) unforgivable offense.
He held a massive arms display in Belarus and invited the world’s press to demonstrations of the power of his weaponry. Great so far, but only up to that point, and then he went and invaded Ukraine, and undid all the hard work. Potential customers will have been shocked at how vulnerable it all was. How is Russia going to generate any new arms orders now?
He held a massive arms display in Belarus and invited the world’s press to demonstrations of the power of his weaponry. Great so far, but only up to that point, and then he went and invaded Ukraine, and undid all the hard work. Potential customers will have been shocked at how vulnerable it all was. How is Russia going to generate any new arms orders now?

Not that stupid, if you think any further than "just waiting", being stalled with only commenting and no solutions.
You need to have a suitable goal, bringing a solution you want, and from there you start to scale down towards a realistic version of your goal vs. how to realize that.
About nukes: TBH, I am not that scared about that. Russia does have a lot of old stuff of that, and, given the chronic lack of money (In the end Russia was quite a small economy), I seriously doubt, all those deterrent "rockets" are really functional. You need to put in quite a lot of purified Uranium/Plutonium, which is pretty costly to produce. Let alone, firing of these nukes is not a one-man-button show, but a process, where more sane people are involved than the current "head-of-state" with Parkinson and Cancer. Let's not forget, a erroneous nuke firing has been avoided in the past because somebody in the process did have brains.
You need to have a suitable goal, bringing a solution you want, and from there you start to scale down towards a realistic version of your goal vs. how to realize that.
About nukes: TBH, I am not that scared about that. Russia does have a lot of old stuff of that, and, given the chronic lack of money (In the end Russia was quite a small economy), I seriously doubt, all those deterrent "rockets" are really functional. You need to put in quite a lot of purified Uranium/Plutonium, which is pretty costly to produce. Let alone, firing of these nukes is not a one-man-button show, but a process, where more sane people are involved than the current "head-of-state" with Parkinson and Cancer. Let's not forget, a erroneous nuke firing has been avoided in the past because somebody in the process did have brains.
Far from being not stupid, it is still perhaps the most stupid post that I have ever seen on PPRune!
You seriously suggested that "the west" in some kind of non NATO way, invades Russia and Belarus and occupies Moscow, if that is not the definition of insanity...
You may not be scared about the world's largest collection of strategic nuclear weapons in the hands of a paranoid megalomaniac, but other sane folk certainly are. And as for them being old, well that will be some consolation when a 1MT weapon detonates over our head, at least it was old.... Geez!

Far from being not stupid, it is still perhaps the most stupid post that I have ever seen on PPRune!
You seriously suggested that "the west" in some kind of non NATO way, invades Russia and Belarus and occupies Moscow, if that is not the definition of insanity...
You may not be scared about the world's largest collection of strategic nuclear weapons in the hands of a paranoid megalomaniac, but other sane folk certainly are. And as for them being old, well that will be some consolation when a 1MT weapon detonates over our head, at least it was old.... Geez!
You seriously suggested that "the west" in some kind of non NATO way, invades Russia and Belarus and occupies Moscow, if that is not the definition of insanity...
You may not be scared about the world's largest collection of strategic nuclear weapons in the hands of a paranoid megalomaniac, but other sane folk certainly are. And as for them being old, well that will be some consolation when a 1MT weapon detonates over our head, at least it was old.... Geez!

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I did wonder where Valery Gerasimov was today, lying in bed with his foot in the air? one only hopes he does not get well.

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How robust are their Release procedures? Putin is not the only megalomaniac and indoctrinated clown in tbe loop.

Tabs please !
Fixed it for you......
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Now this is how to do a May Day parade, no thousands of troops, no myriad of armour, no bunch of surviving Generals clustered around Putin wondering who is next for the chop.......
One man, One street, and a One heck of a speech....
https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1523585619876007938
..
One man, One street, and a One heck of a speech....
https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1523585619876007938
..
I appreciate your posts, but THAT has to be the very best of the bunch-thank you!

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You may not be scared about the world's largest collection of strategic nuclear weapons in the hands of a paranoid megalomaniac, but other sane folk certainly are. And as for them being old, well that will be some consolation when a 1MT weapon detonates over our head, at least it was old.... Geez!
Though today's' "big day" with big announcements expected, were somewhat of a disappointment:
- No general mobilization.
- No Nukes thread.
- No new ideas how to solve Russia's Ukraine issue.
- Not even an airshow.
- Limited military hardware and not looking that modern to me.
The only big announcement was, that Russia did expect to be attacked by the NATO and as such invaded Ukraine (No more Nazi's ?). A bit of a strange reasoning, but hey, this is Putin.
At the military level, that presumed NATO invasion was obviously fake news. NATO is not going to attack Russia without being attacked first, let alone, how to keep such plans secret in a Western society with free press and leaks everywhere. Let alone, all the democratic governments with a whole flavor in the political spectrum, expected to approve such invasion plans. Strange, to put it mildly.
However, when diving into this Putin statement, something completely different shows up. And I think, with that, we do have the real reason for the Ukraine invasion.
The NATO/West expands more and more, simply because the former USSR countries politically convert to societies of freedom (just because habitants want that). And with that type of society a political match with existing NATO countries rises, subsequent joinings with NATO will become history, etc.
From the Russia point of view, step by step, all the former USSR countries start to politically reform into something that can be described as a democracy. It is realistic to expect, this will continue until all (or at least west of Russia) the former USSR countries are "converted". And then, the Western side of Russia is "surrounded" by wealthy NATO countries, all closely bordering with Russia. And the freedom and wealth in those converted countries becomes visible to the Russians living near those NATO borders. These Russians simply start to get jealous and want that freedom and wealth too. The connection is easily made that a change of political system created the significant better living conditions for the converted NATO countries.
Which in turn would be a major existential threat to Russia with its current political system, based on suppression and military focus.
So, for Russia, how to break through that chain of events ?
Just invade and take-over the governments of the countries not yet converted. Since recapturing the smaller NATO countries with military force would be dangerous due to the NATO military threat, it would be better to do that capture via the political processes (Hungary, for example).
And, yep, when successfully, Tsar Putin would go into the history books as the rescuer of the USSR inheritance.

Doubtful he could "win" with a nuclear exchange, but who could?
It's not a wise move, of course, but it is evil and that fairly well describes the possibility.

At the military level, that presumed NATO invasion was obviously fake news. NATO is not going to attack Russia without being attacked first, let alone, how to keep such plans secret in a Western society with free press and leaks And then, the Western side of Russia is "surrounded" by wealthy NATO countries, all closely bordering with Russia. And the freedom and wealth in those converted countries becomes visible to the Russians living near those NATO borders. These Russians simply start to get jealous and want that freedom and wealth too. The connection is easily made that a change of political system created the significant better living conditions for the converted NATO countries.
Which in turn would be a major existential threat to Russia with its current political system, based on suppression and military focus.
Which in turn would be a major existential threat to Russia with its current political system, based on suppression and military focus.
The west should be doing it's level best to support the freedom, security and economies of loving former Communist nations. The Russian people need to make up their minds, are such thing worth fighting for?
As Captain Ramius said, "A little revolution now and then is a healthy thing, don't you think?"

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However, we do see how well the Russian military stuff is designed and produced. So, when Russia fires a Nuke, it could very well be, it is landing on its own territory. Legit reasons (apart from the virtual threat) to "move" the mobile Nukes close to the Finland border.
Though, the good thing is, with the big speech party, today, there were no announcements for Nukes-firing. Which, in turn, would rule out the usefulness of the Nukes, IE the threat. Use the threat to accomplish what you want, since you won't get anything meaningful (or better, lose all), when you are the first one to use the Nuke. Of course, walk on eggs, though be aware, eggs can be very strong and difficult to squeeze. Don't put the dog in the microwave, and whatever warnings are needed.

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If the Russians aren't already "jealous" decades after life under USSR and then its collapse, when will they be? What better examples do they need than Poland, et al.? And, as has been mentioned several times already, if Putin wanted to stop that, the invasion of Ukraine is perhaps the most counterproductive step he could take (though I admit he's good at coming up with them).
These were wise words, not only to put Russia in place, though also for the current US political landscape ......
