Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if the Kremlin isn't happy with the current state of the war with Ukraine, that probably wouldn't produce a situation more to their liking.
Russia has lost half a dozen ships to a nation with no navy. And they want to throw down with one as experienced as the UK? "Attacking the home of Storm Shadow missiles is a good thing" is the thought of an idiot.
They’re still following their WWII and czarist military doctrine of “we have more people and resources than you”. It’s a shame that Russian military leadership will forever be associated with this instead of having a second chance to demonstrate the actual might and strategy of Trotsky’s red army.
It sometimes seems like being in power in Russia destroys your ability to have sensible military strategy
They could deploy their only aircraft carrier, that’ll show ‘em.
Oh, wait, never mind.
“The ship has been out of service and in repairs since 2018. The repair process has been hampered by accidents, embezzlement of funds, and other setbacks. After the floating drydock PD-50 sank in Kola Bay (Murmansk) in an accident that killed one worker in October 2018, the ship was towed to Sevmorput Yard No 35. In another mishap in December 2019, a major fire killed at least one worker and injured ten others. In June 2022, the ship was transferred to a drydock at the 35th Ship Repair Plant in Murmansk, where it remained until February 2023. The current projection is that repairs will be completed and the ship will be transferred back to the Russian Navy sometime in 2024, however this may be pushed back to 2025 if issues arise during overhaul and testing”
To add some icing, the phrase was originally Russian and was a household joke in Russia for decades. Russians (and Vlad Puta) know very well how unserious and comical numerous "final warnings" are.
Ukraine is faring fat better than one would have expected, but they're not getting their asses kicked. The tide of the battle seems to be shifting in Russia's favor due to Ukraine being depleted of troops.
Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities
This is equivalent to USA threatening to strike North Korean, Iranian or Chinese facilities (all of whom have been arming Russia). No such threats have been made.
Every time Russia says "there will be consequences" they're just throwing threats around like a dog barking from the other side of a fence
All their cards are on the table. The only things they could pull off are drafting more people or going nuclear
They're now scrambling to find soldiers from other nations because announcing another draft would obviously shake Putin's control over Russia
I just wish Europe would stop playing this war like a political game. SEIZE RUSSIAN MONEY! What are you afraid of? Ruining relations with Russia? Fuck off! Ukraine won't have people to fight forever
So true. By this point, Russia is already using everything it can, short of an actual, hot war with the west. And their military is stretched to the limit already without that.
I think this sabre rattling is still useful to them as a one-two-tactic:
Public threat from Russia, mentioning but not directly threatening nukes (the "push" side)
Russia-aligned media in the west publish articles saying "Putin's threat should be taken seriously," Russia-aligned western politicians smearing their opponents as "irresponsible war mongers", followed by pushing for existing sanctions to be lifted, etc. (the "pull" side via stooges/crooked politicians)
This is exactly what they should do. But they won't, because most of it is held in the City of London's offshore boltholes. Seizing anything from them would scare the shit out of every big-time capitalist and corrupt politician on the planet. Would be good for us though.
Yeah if we’d done this in Vietnam it wouldn’t be great because Ho Chi Minh was the elected leader of Vietnam, but the Vietnam war wouldn’t’ve been the absolute shit show it was. Frankly most of our wars should’ve been this
Times are tough for Russia. Putin has put a lot of his resources into cheaper alternatives like threats and cyber warfare. He is hoping, and aiding with psyops, his ally stooges, the House Putin faction and Donald Von Shitzinpantz to steal the presidency soon.
I have complained to the chancellor about that and will continue to do so. But they do provide Taurus to allies who in turn send their stock of older but similarly capable systems to Ukraine such as storm shadow.
Still, it's silly and our weapons are only for defense against Russia anyway. We will only need Taurus ourselves if Ukraine loses. Might as well put them to use.
It seems the Brits are doing something right, keep it going. Would love to see our chancellor doing the same instead of repeating the russian propaganda...
It genuinely baffles me how the conservative parties of more than a few western countries went from the hawkish party during the Cold War to Russian apologists today. The mental gymnastics are truly astounding.
Well, the base is definitely suffering from a tragic lack of gravitas. It helps to be aware that you desire to mistake not your own worldview, for a universal one. "Common sense" is never truly common, but derived from the knowledge and beliefs of the individual.
I’m not though. If you’d have taken a poll of Republicans at literally any point before Trump launched his campaign, asking whether Russia was an ally or adversary, it would have yielded strong consensus on the latter.
So I think it's less relevant to consider Russia qua Russia here, and think of it more as a negative applause light that has had its valence flipped through the exercise of the massive media machine that the right has built to prevent another Nixon from ever having to resign in disgrace again.
There's something weird in Putin's hand... it's super blurry... I think he's shaking it really, really fast... hang on, I have a high-speed camera. Let's see what it is.
Edit: and given russias use of China and Iran weaponry
The US and Russia have historically been the world's two largest arms dealers. You can begrudge China and Iran for getting a slice of the action, but I have to imagine pulling them directly into the conflict would not improve matters for any Ukrainian.
US assessment is that China is providing the majority of what Russia needs to make those weapons, which is critical to russias ability to maintain their offensive.
They're using loopholes to bypass sanctions by posing as civilian gear.
Ukraine is also finding critical Chinese parts on captured gear that used to be from other countries honoring those sanctions.
“Our view is that one of the most gamechanging moves available to us at this time to support Ukraine is to persuade the PRC [People’s Republic of China] to stop helping Russia reconstitute its military industrial base,” the official said.
Did some more digging to get us some more helpful info here. I assembled quotes from 3 articles to make you guys a more cohesive story. Take that AI, I'm coming for your jobs! 😆
First quote is from OP's PBS article. The rest is assembled from this BBC article, and this other article that the BBC referred to for their info.
Deaths from illegally brewed alcohol are common in India, where the poor cannot afford licensed brands from government-run shops. The illicit liquor, which is often spiked with chemicals such as pesticides to increase potency, has also become a hugely profitable industry as bootleggers pay no taxes and sell enormous quantities of their product to the poor at a cheap rate.
The district police had arrested one person on Wednesday, June 19, identified as Kannukutty (49). He is accused of peddling the liquor. The police had also seized 200 litres of liquor from his possession. According to the police, Kannukutty had mixed methanol in the country liquor and had sold it in packets.
Family members of the deceased, however, told TNM that the police are complicit. "Illicit liquor is regularly sold in this area. The police know. If someone complains, they will stop for 10 days but resume again. If a person complains, the police will tip the peddler off on who raised the complaint and immediately, that person is threatened by the peddlers. That's why people have refrained from complaining. The peddlers definitely pay a sum of money to the police to continue selling illicit liquor," a family member of a victim said.
Another family member of the victim added that Karunapuram's Dalit Colony has seen the most number of deaths. "The sale of illicit liquor is so rampant here that even 13 and 15-year-old boys are being sold packets by peddlers. These peddlers are now also selling Marijuana. Today, despite so many deaths, no one apart from the Tahsildar and a few police have come to this Dalit Colony. We want the officials to initiate strict action and put an end to the sale of drugs and illicit liquor," she added.
A day earlier, Chief Minister MK Stalin expressed his shock over the tragic incident and announced actions against officials who failed to prevent it. In a post on X, MK Stalin said, “I was shocked and saddened to hear the news of the deaths of people who had consumed adulterated liquor in Kallakurichi. Those involved in the crime have been arrested in this matter. Action has also been taken against the officials who failed to prevent it.
Authorities have also suspended a senior police official and ten members of the state's prohibition enforcement wing - which overseas the smuggling of illicit alcohol in the state - for negligence.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has announced a compensation of 1m rupees ($12,000; £9,425) to families of those who have died and 50,000 rupees each to those who are hospitalised.
It may be noted that earlier, in May 2023 as well, 22 persons lost their lives after consuming illicit liquor in Villupuram and Chengalpattu districts of Tamil Nadu. The Villupuram police had confirmed that the fatalities were due to the presence of methanol in the spurious alcohol consumed.
"The deaths caused by illicit liquor in the past two years under the DMK [Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam] regime have decelerated Tamil Nadu by four decades, taking us back to the 1980s," said K Annamalai, the state chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
He demanded that the minister in charge of overseeing the sale of alcohol should resign immediately.
I'd take it more seriously if the West actually became involved, but regardless of Frenchmen "shooting their mouth off" nobody's sending troops to fight a nuclear power.
Maybe double check to see if they actually still are one. All these decades of sabre rattling and corruption in the defense industry, wouldn't it just take the cake if hardly any of their nuclear capabilities still worked?
A 99% failure rate would still leave them capable of MAD. That they don't have that capability is a dangerous pipe dream, which I see nowhere except Lemmy and Reddit comment sections.
I would say no-one is sending troops yet. I really dislike any country ruling it out entirely, better to just say nothing. If the conditions change, we (NATO/Europe) will need to act. Otherwise, our leaders may well be judged by the same yardstick as the leaders keen to appease a certain country in the late 30s.
I would tend to agree. But I think we definitely need to define a line in the sand now, not declare there is no line. Which seems to me to be what such statements say about us.
My point is, someone has to say where the line is (or indeed was). I don't think any western government wants to be on record saying where it is (or should have been). Some are saying there isn't a line regardless of what happens, and that's the problem I'm talking about. It's worse than not defining the line.
Allow me to rephrase: We're not going to involve our troops first. NATO territory is a total red line that would lead to direct conflict, and there's been specific, limited consequences set for their use of various non-conventional weapons. All conventional weapons are now being given to Ukraine, to match the ones Russia is bringing to bear.
Because of that, I don't worry too much about appeasement of Russia specifically at this point. I do worry about appeasement policies in general, though. Specifically towards various factions within the West.
If that's an argument against what I just said, it doesn't really apply here. There's a consequence for every Russian action (now, anyway) that exceeds any benefit it could get them.
A few years ago, taking salami slices is exactly what they were doing, but they got greedy and now the West is somewhat awake.
I was wondering if that would get brought up. It's sure ballsy on the UK's part. The deniability is the thing that makes it different, though. Russia doesn't have to respond to a few spies the same way as they would to an open confrontation. The reports also suggest it's very small numbers of people.
They did that because they needed a reason for their forces to be near the border (Of course it wouldn't fool a concussed chipmunk, but that's not relevant). This is why historically Russian military exercises often get up NATO's nose, because Russia does this a lot, it claims " training exercises" as an excuse for its forces to be in NATO waters.
But simulating a nuclear strike doesn't require forces to be in NATO territory or anywhere near the UK.
It's not the exercises itself that's the problem, it's the fact that Russia often uses them as justification for moving forces around.
If Russia simulates a nuclear strike against London for example, how will anyone in London even notice. They're just going to say they did it. It won't actually involve doing anything.
He's talking about tactical nukes though, not strategic ones. The exercises he's talking about would be to practice using small scale nukes to secure battlefield "victories" (batshit insanity).
Fucking idiots. It's very difficult to make enough methanol to be dangerous with a standard mash and distilling methods. Most of the time these fucking idiots are using stolen methanol from industrial sites to bump up their ABV and they make people super sick with it. Stop killing/hospitalizing your customers and you won't get caught.
this explains it a bit. The quick and dirty answer is that when you boil a mash, you are boiling a solution, not just 3 individual liquids (ignoring all the other stuff in there). It's similar to how adding salt to water lowers the freezing point and raises the boiling point.
Water is polar, while ethanol only has mild polarity. Methanol is more polar than ethanol, so it holds onto the water more. If you had a mixture of methanol and ethanol with no water, you'd probably get more methanol first, but the water changes things.
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