Sorry, wasn´t meant like that. It was interesting but too long drawn out. At least for me.

De escalation would be great at this point, but I don´t see it happening, I also don´t see the Russian forces on gas mark 11. If Russia were to go balls out Ukraine would be a slowly cooling glass parking lot.

I think you should listen the Pink Floyd's the Final Cut and cheer up a bit.

Escalators and quagmires

By Lawrence Freedman

"The problem from the start has not been Putin’s face but his mind. The track record of those attempting to anticipate his choices has been poor, and constant speculation about how he might lash out as he approaches his personal Götterdämmerung tends to make us more anxious than wise. There are all sorts of things that Putin might do to express his anger and frustration but none will gain him any lasting strategic advantage. The best course is for Ukraine to stick to its reasonable objective of expelling Russian troops from its soil and NATO to support them in that endeavour."

https://samf.substack.com/p/escalato...um=reader2&s=r

I am certainly not looking forward to the 9th of May.
Buckle your seatbelt 😔😔

Big power plant fire in Sakhalin which is simply far too far away from Ukraine to be enemy action.

Many Ukrainian refugees were forcibly deported to Sakhalin, probably just a coincidence.

https://twitter.com/mbk_center/statu...DCRGaktwBvuD5g

"The detainees were holding invisible posters with anti-government slogans"

Vicious Blame Game Erupts Among Putin’s Security Forces
President Putin and his security institutions are no longer a united front.

By Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan
April 27, 2022

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/...-forces-a77508

Supports the argument that the military may be keener on escalating than Putin or the FSB/SVR guys.

Who says there's only one enemy?

Technically Japan and Russia have been at war since 1945 and still are, as USSR/Russia isn't party to the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty (the Cold War had already started by then).

In August 1945, a couple days after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Russia had declared war on Japan and invaded what Japan calls the Northern Territory to this day, the four small islands northeast of Hokkaido (Kunashiri, Schikotan, Habomai, Etorofu). The defenders were ordered to surrender a few days later when the Emperor declared defeat and surrendered, the islands have been under Russian control since.

Japan and Russia signed a declaration in 1956 that Russia would hand the four islands back to Japan in the case of a peace treaty. But in 2015 then-PM Medvedev visited the islands, clearly marking them as Russian territory. Russia installed S-300V4 there last year, some 4000 soldiers are stationed there along with a few fighter jets, artillery, tanks, and whatnot. Japan joined the sanctions against Russia, and for the first time since roughly the Millenium called Russia's presence on the four islands a "hostile occupation" in its 2022 Diplomatic Bluebook after Russia ended the peace treaty negotiations.

Formally Japan has no army, but they've armed other forces like branches of the police as if. Nobody appears to have complained, least of all the US which Biden said later last year would defend Japan.

What if Japan took control of the islands? Russia can't handle two wars. I bet China has old gripes as well.

How come TMT has not been designated as 'foreign agent'? Hmmm... or has it?

Question was addressed to komsomolez ��

That would put a totally new slant on things. The world gets together to mug Russia.
But I doubt it, Japan, like Germany has a token army but are dependent on the US if things get real.

I believe they are now in Amsterdam, and their website is blocked in Russia. It is therefore a less official paper than the Tehran Times

How cool would that be? We could split it between NATO, China and Japan, and use it as a gas station. I'd vote for South Korea also getting a share. Maybe even India. Everybody wins. We can leave Rossiya-1 on air, so maybe the ordinary Russian doesn't even notice.

Dunno. It seems rather important to Japan.

In other news, US deliveries to Ukraine are now part of Lend&Lease, cost limit (so far) some $30bln. Certainly the US will start to deliver more complex systems, like "intelligent" heavy artillery, that will require training, that's probably started already.

Even something as relatively simple as supplying the artillery shells (a high 5-digit or even 6-digit number each month, plus "powder", igniters, gun spare parts, and whatnot) must be a logistical nightmare in a war zone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgLzJm83bZ8

Reality has overtaken you. It was reported that the US is training members of the Ukraine military in Germany.
https://www.dw.com/en/us-training-uk...any/a-61642682

H'm I wonder whether Putin's army of saboteurs to Britain are here already and snitching on all these Tory party scandals, lockdown parties & sleeze ?


Maybe a number of Putin's Soviet Sleeper agents that infiltrated the higher echelons of the tory party establishment at Eton, Oxford, Cambridge the ERG etc ( do you remember the Cambridge Spy Ring ? ) have sown the seeds of trouble already and are just waiting for Boris to finally slip over on his own banana skin ??


Express - Putin´s army of saboteurs heading to Britain, raises concerns of major disruption

Or it could be that Boris is secretly in league with Putin and Putin invaded to distract from Boris's misdemeanours?

I wonder if Putin has pee tapes on Boris?

After all the reports of the damage, Ukraine has made to the Russian army it will be interesting to see how big this year's parade will be.

Russia did not deploy its newest equipment in Ukraine like the T-14 tanks so no doubt those will be on display, but following the engine problems last year then maybe they could borrow some Ukraine tractors to ensure they complete the course.