I am sure a weakened Russia will have the vultures opportunists circling especially as Russia now has even fewer friends.

Ever more public complaints about the mobilisation process "State media spin-doctor Vladimir Soloviev criticized the handling of Russia’s "partial mobilization" effort on live state television on Sunday — a rare move for the pro-Kremlin talk-show host".

Human rights projects claim that Russian 237th Tank Regiment has been enhanced with a thousand reservists who only had one day of refresh training before being sent to the front line.
Ukraine claims to have heavily damaged the 237th Tank Regiment and captured so much equipment that they are having problems bringing all of it in.

Also claims that at least one train full of reservists was hit by long-range Ukraine artillery long before it got near the actual fighting.
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Putin is sending thousands of Russian reservists to their unnecessary deaths without even proper training, the lucky ones are those being captured.

Putin's strategy is quite clear: He's losing, so as soon as the occupied regions are annexed, he'll propose a peace settlement...let us keep what we have and we'll turn the gas back on. That way he drawing a line in the sand that gives his supporters a win.

Of course UA will give him the big FU, and the stakes will rise because now the attack will be against "RU soil".

Strap in people, this isn't going to be over any time soon.

Today's developments will make quite challenging to turn the gas back on. Even if everyone surrenders to Putin, gas will not flow through Nordstream pipeline.

That's quite interesting, thanks.

So then, who blew up Nordstream?
Since yesterday after three explosions were reported by the Swedish geological institute the Northstream I pipeline has been venting gas in three places, not just little holes mind you, the three leaks are each covering a area of over a square kilometer.
At 70 meters depth in the Baltic you don´t just swim down and drill a hole, you do need the kind of infrastructure only a branch of somebody´s armed forces has. But who would have the advantage of destroying the pipeline? Russia is all "WTF?" on this and strangely I don´t think they did it. The Americans could have done it to get rid of a uncomfortable competition to their LNG racket, but that will have been too obvious after the debris are examined. So I doubt they did it.
Old dumped ammo? No that was cleared before the pipe was laid and three explosions at the same time?
So this means, that if peace breaks out and the gas could be turned on, we will be too afraid to actually open the tap. Maybe Ukraine did it to make sure that there is no behind the back deal with Russia and easing of sanctions to get the gas flowing again?
This just doesn´t make sense, or are these the first shots of WW3 outside of Ukraine. Stay tuned.

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Back in Bavaria, god´s own belly button.

NATO has a network of undersea microphones in the Baltic, originally installed to listen for Russian submarines.

It would be interesting to know if they heard the explosions and any evidence of submarine activity.

There was a documentary in German TV recently about the surveillance of the Baltic Sea by means of reconnaissance aircraft. They needed to fly low and visually check for submarines potentially emerging. This did not sound like their subsea micros would be very effective.

Doubtful that there will be hard evidence on who did this. If I had to bet, my money would be on the Russians burning more bridges. Which does not bode well.

Exactly, this has taken away Russia's biggest bargaining chip with Europe.

And of course Erdogan is heavily involved. The vultures want their empires back! Interesting Rolling Stone article about the satellites:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...145017028.html

I didn't believe Putin was that stupid, but....he is. The Russian elite had encouraged his madness. They already had a good grip of the ex-Soviet space, yes, even in the countries who're allegedly part of the "collective West" now. They still have. They support(ed) far-right parties everywhere. So here's their "soft power" for you, well, at least the one Russian politicians are able to think of.
But no......they had to start this war...and now they'll lose a lot more than they hoped they would gain back.

this is a great article, I was going to post it. Plus also worth noting that the EU is making their usual mistake of jumping into bed with another gangster run state, Azerbaijan

A chip that was already played and lost, isn't it? The was no supply flowing through these pipes anymore. Was there really any real prospect of Germany/WEurope resuming feeds through NS1/NS2 anytime soon considering the political backlash that would cause? I don't think so.... The pipes can be repaired sooner than the political conditions for resuming supply can realistically be restored.

Now what puzzles me in this situation is that the gas pipelines that actually pass through Ukraine have continued to function and transit gas to Europe throughout all this time. Why blow up NS1/NS2 when Yamal/Soyuz/Druhzba pipelines still work?

Whatever happens on Ukraine, Russia already lost a lot. Not sure if "vulture" is the optimal word. Successor fits better.

China's sphere of influence quite probably grows until the East border of Caspian sea. Turkey is trying to influence more the land the Caspian and Black sea.

If people in Kaliningrad or St. Petersburg start pushing for more autonomy or even independence, this will get more interesting.

One thing is for sure, the world as we knew it is gone. Looks like we jumped into another timeline.

Yes, I think so. Especially when the costs of the current policy become evident over winter.

I don't get this "gangster run state" narrative. Of course these guys are not ideal, but oil and gas resources are where they are. So this is not about replacing one dictator with another, it is about replacing a 50% supply dependence on Russia with say 5 x 10% incremental supply dependence on Qatar, Azerbaijan, US (maybe 25% there), UAE, Mauritania.

There is a growing populist movement in DE for the government to halt sanctions and Friedrich Merz (CDU) is in the News for spouting populist rhetoric about scrounging UA refugees .

In June there were NATO mine hunting exercises just off the coast of Bornholm, Denmark, which is exactly in the area of the NS leak. Could there be a connection?

https://sfn.nato.int/newsroom/news-a...new-technology

Your level of smoke screening is really low :



btw, I need to add this story: America's Hidden Stories' tackles CIA's alleged involvement in the Trans-Siberian Pipeline explosion of 1982

According to former Air Force Secretary Thomas Reed, "The pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines, and valves was programmed to go haywire after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable in the pipeline joints and welds. The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space.
......
According to an informed source from one of the three-letter agencies mentioned above, the pipeline explosion had nothing to do with CIA sabotage. It was a Russian engineer who, when discovering a leak in the pipeline, simply kept increasing pressure to maintain the flow of natural gas.

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I almost posted that Putin-in-a-bottle meme early this a.m., but then I thought of all the groans...