OK sorry my bad, but he will have been well briefed militarily and he's an experienced leader. He will have been fully aware of all possible outcomes.

on a separate note, Abramovich has put up Chelsea for sale anticipating sanctions. He's owed £2bn by Chelsea.

Enlisting civilians to resist invaders is a centuries old tradition, remember Dad's Army?
In this case it is a better option than sitting in one's apartment building waiting for Russian bombs, rockets, and shells to come through the walls.

Somebody calculated there is one Russian soldier in Ukraine for every 250 civilians so my money is on the civilians.

Desperate times, desperate measures...

I agree, I am sure Putin expected a similar reaction as to his Crimea invasion and did not expect such wide ranging and severe sanctions.
Even in the 1998 economic crisis the Russian stock market did not close for so long as now.

Might become Swiss property.

"Roman Abramovich's future as Chelsea owner is in doubt after a Swiss billionaire claimed he has been offered the chance to buy the club.

Hansjorg Wyss told Swiss newspaper Blick that Abramovich "wants to get rid of Chelsea quickly" after the threat of sanctions was raised in Parliament."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/60585081

Very interesting.

And for what it is worth, I was at MGIMO for a year in 1999/2000. At that time it had become a kindergarten for spoiled rich kids and the quality at least of the economic faculty was ... let's say still very Soviet.

Ruble still collapsing, now over 30% down again. Due to the restrictions on the Russian Central Bank there seems to be little Putin can do to stop the collapse.

Likely this will drive domestic Russian inflation from the current 8% to well over 40%.

For the pessimists amongst us, I just got an email from AliExpress advertising a Geiger radioactivity counter for only CHF 40.-

It was sort of like the ENA of the Communist world during communism. Only the best of the best (and connected of course!) would go there and was pretty much a guarantee for a solid career in the various state functions.

Since you've been a student there and looking at your nickname, you're so far a very poor soviet troll, what's wrong?

I think they already ran out of stock....is this the new toilet paper btw?

Another piece of interesting news

Erdoğan calls on EU to show sensitivity about Turkey's membership

Could it be that Ankara is re-assessing it's priorities and has decided to become the conduit of Middle-Eastern gas and oil to Europe to replace Russia as an energy supplier? If this is the case, their value-proposition all of a sudden became much more tempting.

In fact, my nickname dates back to those days. And apologies for not meeting the expectations.

I know the reputation of MGIMO, and it still is an entry ticket into Russian government service. I was there on a scholarship and lived in the dormitory. In front of the main uni building there were big black Mercedes limos with drivers waiting for some of the students.

I also remember that these were the early days of Putin's presidency, he was hugely popular among the young people, and I was frequently stopped by the police and had my documents checked because I looked like a "chornyi", i.e. from the Caucasus region. It was the time when Putin had apartment buildings in Moscow blown up to justify a war in Chechnya. Let's be honest - he always was what he is today.

Very very interesting question by Erdogan:

I forgot where I read that Turkey is the main foreign investor in Ukraine. So, the invasion is not helping at all Turkish investments in Ukraine.

While avoiding frontal confrontation with Russia, it's clear Erdogan is not supporting Putin and it's playing an interesting card in the negotiation with the EU. Damn...only 5 days from the invasion and the world looks different.

Moreover it's somewhat personal for Erdogan: the now-famous Bayraktar Ukrainian drones are produced by his son-in-law and there's also a joint-venture for their manufacture in Ukraine.

Türkiye has a long way to go to EU membership (as does Ukraine). The death penalty for example. A working democracy with adequate checks and balances for another. The list is long.

Interesting discussion about drones, certainly the Ukrainian army uses them very well.

The question is if the weapons they carry are big enough to make a difference in modern warfare. Of course, you can fit them with bigger weapons but then you need to increase the size of the drone and so risk losing the benefit of being a small device that is hard to track and attack.

If you have something like the 40 mile long convoy mentioned earlier then a couple of drones are not going to achieve much against it. A different situation if you can identify small, high value targets to attack but that is not so easy.

No single weapon, barring a tactical/strategic nuclear strike, can win a war on it's own. The Bayraktar though was probably the most important asset in Azerbaijan inventory vs Armenia for example and until the moment when Russia took full control over the sky in Ukraine, the Bayraktar was incredibly effective against ground targets. They are cheaper than a manned helicopter, harder to track and trickier to neutralize.

A 40 mile column like the one the Russians have is something that is a major exception in modern warfare, it just doesn't happen that often and whether you attack it from air or from artillery it would require a massive amount of firepower, something which is not where a drone is strong at.

But in a modern context with smaller, much more mobile ground units, a drone is one of the most effective tools.

By the same man https://russiancouncil.ru/en/analyti...he-new-normal/

I disagree - a drone would be perfect for this.

I should think that perhaps only one in four vehicles is a tank. The rest will be troop carriers, food wagons, water wagons and fuel tankers

A drone operator will easily be able to see which are the fuel tankers.
If these are targeted then they will create the most damage due to the fuel and long-term, the tanks won't be going anywhere without any fuel.

Blackpool is overall the most deprived place in the entire UK.

Article in The Times, by Andrey Kalikh (paywall). In St Petersburg, there are rallies organised via Telegram. They're deliberately small so that the police, who can't be everywhere, can't pick them all up.

Another interesting article here, "Dnipro will be a Stalingrad for the Russian attackers, vows regional chief". Intends to put a million people under arms to defends his city.