Русский корабль - иди нахуй

[Bevo 13637]

1 hour ago, SL Xpress said:

I know we want this to be true. I do.  And maybe it comes about. But even given that, how does it change the calculus of wanting more fighter jets versus SAM systems? Of course, I’m sure he wants both. I’m just reacting to the public posturing. 
 

At some point Putin is going to try to escalate this. It’s Russian doctrine. I have no idea what that could entail outside of tactical nukes, so I’m hoping for some kind of alternative regardless of what it is. 

Hopefully, the jets are intended to target Russian infantry.

[BamaATL 16593]

I don't know very much about biologic weapons, are the generally contained to the areas in which they are deployed, or is it worse than that?  I know of things like VX, but not much else.

[MillerEP 30570]

 

[Born to Run 6583]

i can almost see friday

Still nuke free my man.

[bolverk 29822]

36 minutes ago, JerrysJheriCurl said:

https://tass.com/defense/1418059

TASS article to that point.

 

31 minutes ago, BamaATL said:

If they are setting up a false flag, that means that he is actually going to kill at least some of his own guys.  Unreal

 

14 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

That’s some scary shit right there. Way more scary than Rubin’s tweets. I mean, there’s my escalation I’ve been speculating about right there. Why wouldn’t he do it once he’s prepared the message domestically?

Blurb from the NYTimes disturbingly reports IAEA is saying it's already under Russian control, and communication is limited in the plant, plus the situation at Chernobyl sounds fucked, so...

A Ukrainian nuclear power plant is now under Russian command, U.N. watchdog says.

A Ukrainian nuclear power plant that Russian forces took over last week is now under Russian command, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Sunday.

The agency, which serves as a nuclear watchdog for the United Nations, said in a statement that in addition to being under Russian command, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant also needs approval by a Russian commander for any plant management, including technical operations of the plant’s six reactor units.

Russian forces have also restricted communication at the plant by switching off some mobile networks and the internet, according to the agency, which added it had received a report from Ukraine’s nuclear regulator that phone lines, as well as email and faxes, were no longer working. Cellphone communication was still possible, but with poor quality, the I.A.E.A. said.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the I.A.E.A., said that he was “extremely concerned” about the day’s developments.

“In order to be able to operate the plant safely and securely, management and staff must be allowed to carry out their vital duties in stable conditions without undue external interference or pressure,” Mr. Grossi said. “The deteriorating situation regarding vital communications between the regulator and the Zaporizhzhia NPP is also a source of deep concern.”

The I.A.E.A. also said that it had received a report from Ukraine’s nuclear regulator that it was only able to communicate with workers at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant through email. Another concern about the Chernobyl site was that its staff, which includes more than 200 technical personnel and guards, has not rotated shifts since Feb. 23, a day before Russian forces took control of the site, the agency said.

Mr. Grossi in a statement called on those in control at the Chernobyl plant to immediately allow the workers to be rotated “for the sake of safety and security.”

[clapclapclap 9000]

5 minutes ago, BamaATL said:

I don't know very much about biologic weapons, are the generally contained to the areas in which they are deployed, or is it worse than that?  I know of things like VX, but not much else.

VX is chemical.  Google 'Covid' for how bioweapons can work.

The bioweapons false flag threat is the one that has most concerned me the last several days.

The nuclear FF threat may (or may not) be a bluff to discourage the aircraft transfer and other issues.

Putin has been planning this war for over a decade.  China is his partner, and there's a good chance their goals go far beyond Ukraine.  Tactical implementation may be shoddy so far, but I'm sure they have plans and have wargamed all types of incremental escalation options.  I'm afraid this is going to be a long war.

Edited March 7, 2022 by clapclapclap

[bolverk 29822]

Sorry, that previous blurb was about the Zaporizhzhia plant. Hard to keep track with all these nukes laying about the country.

Here's the Kharkiv one that I had seen earlier:

Russia may have fired on a building in Kharkiv that houses a small nuclear reactor.

Russian forces carried out an attack on the Institute of Physics and Technology, Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency reported on Sunday. The institute is home to a nuclear facility for scientific research and the production of medical isotopes.

Edwin Lyman, a reactor expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private group in Cambridge, Mass., said the risk of release of radioactive particles from the nuclear facility into the environment was difficult to assess given the lack of detailed information about the attack’s severity but appeared to be low.

In contrast, the Ukrainian report rang alarms. “The destruction of a nuclear facility and storage facilities for nuclear materials could lead to a large-scale environmental catastrophe,” it warned. Some of the country’s official accounts have made claims of questionable veracity.

On Friday, Russian forces seized control of the massive Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine’s east, Europe’s largest, damaging a building that houses one of the site’s six reactors.

No release of radiation has so far been detected from that attack, but the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Sunday that Russian commanders had cut off stable communications between the plant and Ukrainian nuclear energy regulators, limiting the flow of reliable information about its operations.

Russian forces appeared on Sunday to be moving toward another Ukrainian nuclear power plant further to the west.

The nuclear facility in Kharkiv is a small, subcritical reactor fueled by low-enriched uranium. The United States funded its construction in exchange for Ukraine giving up 500 pounds of highly enriched uranium, a main fuel of atom bombs. Being subcritical means the reactor cannot undergo a self-sustaining chain reaction in which uranium atoms break in two, producing bursts of energy and highly radioactive waste.

Such subcritical reactors are found at academic and research institutions all around the world, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Dr. Lyman said the small Kharkiv facility, according to a 2020 Ukraine safety report, has operated only intermittently. As a result, he said, it apparently would have accumulated few of the highly radioactive waste products that could cause environmental damage in disaster scenarios.

“My guess,” Dr. Lyman said, “is that the quantity of waste that’s accumulated is relatively low compared to any power reactor.” If that assessment is correct, he added, it would greatly reduce the possibility of a radiological crisis — no matter how badly the Russian troops had damaged the nuclear facility.

 

[BamaATL 16593]

4 minutes ago, clapclapclap said:

VX is chemical.  Google 'Covid' for how bioweapons can work.

The bioweapons false flag threat is the one that has most concerned me the last several days.

The nuclear FF threat may (or may not) be a bluff to discourage the aircraft transfer and other issues.

I realized VX was chemical almost immediately after posting, but that's ok.  Bio is what I have the least understanding of, Covid is one thing, and while it's been awful, I know that there is worse shit out there.  My question is, if they do a bio weapon release, is it likely to be more or less contained?

[JerrysJheriCurl 977]

2 minutes ago, BamaATL said:

I realized VX was chemical almost immediately after posting, but that's ok.  

[atomheartbevo 90056]

1 hour ago, Bateshorn said:

My thing with the nukes is: Ukraine’s value is in its agriculture. Nuking Kyiv destroys that, especially on top of the economic sanctions that cut those grain exports off from most international markets.

I don’t see how this plays out, beyond the Russians shelling the major metro areas into ruble. But I also don’t see a Russian out that leaves Russia in a better off position than they were weeks ago. 

Nukes bring China fully into the equation.

I don't know how it plays out - I do know that I can't see a continued ground game, at least not in the north, and it's possible the Ukrainians push their ground forces far enough back from Kyiv that things come down to MLRS's and aerial bombing (with dumb bombs), but that won't be enough.

I don't know where the off-ramp is.  Even Saddam Hussein had an off-ramp with Kuwait.  He could have backed off, pulled out, paid them some amount of money to rebuild, maybe give up some weapons, whatever, but his ego wouldn't let him.

But Putin can't retreat under fire.

[BamaATL 16593]

5 minutes ago, JerrysJheriCurl said:

sadly partially true

[atomheartbevo 90056]

25 minutes ago, Parliament said:

That seems like a lot.

Somewhere there's some old retired CIA agents who are fuming about how back in the 1980s they had to carry Stingers on their backs and on donkeys for days up and down the mountains of Afghanistan and how it would take weeks to get a missile from the US to the Mujahideen.

Meanwhile in 2022, NATO is tripping over themselves to back up trucks to the Ukrainian border and the stuff is getting to Kyiv and other areas within a day or two.

[atomheartbevo 90056]

This is just vehicles that have actual visual confirmation of being destroyed or capture through photos/video, so it doesn't cover much in the Russian-occupied areas, doesn't cover everything that was quickly relocated to various barns across Ukrainian farms before somebody filmed it, etc.

And those 255 trucks, each one could represent 2-3 truckloads a day if things are going smooth, so that becomes substantial over the span of 10 days, depending on when each truck was destroyed/capture.

 

[TwiceHorn 31686]

9 minutes ago, BamaATL said:

I realized VX was chemical almost immediately after posting, but that's ok.  Bio is what I have the least understanding of, Covid is one thing, and while it's been awful, I know that there is worse shit out there.  My question is, if they do a bio weapon release, is it likely to be more or less contained?

The challenge with bioweapons has historically been delivery.  How can you get an infective agent delivered to a population so that it infects them.  Anthrax seems to be one of the most popular bioweapons.

This happened, and while it was pretty scary and delivered a fairly massive quantity of anthrax spores into the atmosphere, the death toll was relatively small. Best estimates seem to be that thousands were exposed, and hundreds died.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_anthrax_leak

[Chopper 17355]

Interesting long thread about Russia's oil sales and how the US may be able to sanction them without inadvertently leading to a benefit for Russia.

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by Chopper

[JerrysJheriCurl 977]

12 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

 Anthrax seems to be one of the most popular bioweapons.

Those that know, know. 

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by JerrysJheriCurl

[Bevo 13637]

32 minutes ago, BamaATL said:

I don't know very much about biologic weapons, are the generally contained to the areas in which they are deployed, or is it worse than that?  I know of things like VX, but not much else.

Probably not containable unless vaccinated. However, if a biological weapon kills fast enough then it will burn out before becoming widespread. In any case, a biological weapon is highly unlikely for a variety of reasons one of which is that it would likely spread to Russia before vaccinations could be given to Russian citizens.

[FartingMonk 3608]

Biological weapon on refugees and ones hiding in bomb shelters.  Delivery system is easier as a Russian can easily blend in.  

[TwiceHorn 31686]

2 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Probably not containable unless vaccinated. However, if a biological weapon kills fast enough then it will burn out before becoming widespread. In any case, a biological weapon is highly unlikely for a variety of reasons one of which is that it would likely spread to Russia before vaccinations could be given to Russian citizens.

Yeah, I left off that part.  Not only is it hard to deliver by some type of warhead (missile, artillery), if you do deliver it successfully and it becomes aerosolized, it goes where the wind takes it.  Very unpredictable and dangerous if the target is anywhere nearby.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8916]

I’ve actually thought of this movie a few times since this started. Is putin bluffing like the guy threatening to blow up San Francisco? Sucks Sean Connery is dead or he’d be of good help

[Bevo 13637]

5 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Yeah, I left off that part.  Not only is it hard to deliver by some type of warhead (missile, artillery), if you do deliver it successfully and it becomes aerosolized, it goes where the wind takes it.  Very unpredictable and dangerous if the target is anywhere nearby.

Chemical weapons would make a lot more sense in this case. Russia could gas an entire city and then wait a few weeks for it to clear out. The buildings would remain intact so it would be easier to rebuild. And it would scare the rest of the country into surrendering.

[Parliament 14375]

Guys, let's not speculate and give them any ideas, K?

[InkaUtexas 26360]

awwww shit. I know this looks great, but allows Russian artillery to move forward and set up. Move civilians out so ya don't have to feed them once you take the city. 

Odds on it remaining in place? Is Russia that overextended? I don't think they give zeros fucks about the civilians. 

 

[BachelorTrek 3166]

7 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

awwww shit. I know this looks great, but allows Russian artillery to move forward and set up. Move civilians out so ya don't have to feed them once you take the city. 

Odds on it remaining in place? Is Russia that overextended? I don't think they give zeros fucks about the civilians. 

 

That's nice, but the ruskies LIE!

I heard sirens in Kyiv at 11:30pm our time and rolling thunder in the 15 mins since then. 

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by BachelorTrek

[BamaATL 16593]

7 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

awwww shit. I know this looks great, but allows Russian artillery to move forward and set up. Move civilians out so ya don't have to feed them once you take the city. 

Odds on it remaining in place? Is Russia that overextended? I don't think they give zeros fucks about the civilians. 

 

Perhaps its also an option for Ukraine to redeploy weapons to counter the artillery with weapons?  Let us hope so.  I agree, at the point Russian forces aren't to be trusted, but perhaps they will lull as well.

[Gravy Train 975]

31 minutes ago, Chopper said:

Interesting long thread about Russia's oil sales and how the US may be able to sanction them without inadvertently leading to a benefit for Russia.

I'm unsure why every retail-novice economist (:raising hand:) thinks Russia is the Eurozone Gas Station and petrochemical production is their lifeblood.  I can't find the 2020 numbers, but according to Statista, their 2019 economic figures placed their Energy Sector at just 4.5% of GDP, and it might have eclipsed 5% last year:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1235291/legal-entity-revenue-by-industry-in-russia/

Energy export and minerals export are two significant revenue sources I'm unsure the west has any chance to truly sanction.

[FartingMonk 3608]

9 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

awwww shit. I know this looks great, but allows Russian artillery to move forward and set up. Move civilians out so ya don't have to feed them once you take the city. 

Odds on it remaining in place? Is Russia that overextended? I don't think they give zeros fucks about the civilians. 

 

What better way to keep the roads jammed going west.  

[tx 3 putt 77934]

2 minutes ago, FartingMonk said:

What better way to keep the roads jammed going west.  

russians just want to get more troops / equipment in place 

[InkaUtexas 26360]

Good video. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60641873

[FartingMonk 3608]

7 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

russians just want to get more troops / equipment in place 

Yeah.  They jam up the route for resupply for the Ukrainians.  Open up the entrance for themselves to move in.  And they can watch all the movement inside the city.  

[SL Xpress 7518]

12 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Good video. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60641873

Jeez. That was brutal. Thank you for sharing. 

[pops 7044]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

 

Somebody mentioned it earlier - RT.com, one of the Russian government's mouthpieces, has a story about Ukraine getting a nuclear false flag operation ready, as well as covering up evidence of a us-funded bioweapons lab.

Which means Putin's people already have the false flags planted and ready to go for the typical Soviet Russian citizen (and idiots in the West who read RT, etc.) to rally around the Hammer and...err I mean flag.

Wait a second....I read in this very thread that rt.com was a bastion of unbiased truth from Mother Russia. I DONT KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE ANYMORE!!!  

[pops 7044]

28 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Good video. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60641873

Nothing good about it

[tx 3 putt 77934]

24 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Jeez. That was brutal. Thank you for sharing. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60621253

 

this one is pure gut punch, evacuation of children with cancer. kid at the end, just wants to be home with his family and grandparents. god bless poland and all the other countries helping out all they can 

Edited March 7, 2022 by tx 3 putt

[JesusSweatDuck 17814]

1 hour ago, InkaUtexas said:

awwww shit. I know this looks great, but allows Russian artillery to move forward and set up. Move civilians out so ya don't have to feed them once you take the city. 

Odds on it remaining in place? Is Russia that overextended? I don't think they give zeros fucks about the civilians. 

 

Honestly, these are bullshit. Russia will violate this within 30 minutes just like they did in Syria and yesterday in Ukraine.  Fuck you Putin

[Rimbo 26438]

1 hour ago, JerrysJheriCurl said:

Those that know, know. 

 

Still not changing their name.

[clapclapclap 9000]

Putin is just mocking Macron, who negotiated this humanitarian corridor ceasefire:

 

[956 Worldwide 34935]

45 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60621253

 

this one is pure gut punch, evacuation of children with cancer. kid at the end, just wants to be home with his family and grandparents. god bless poland and all the other countries helping out all they can 

There’s also a story out there about evacuating a children’s hospice in Kharkiv. I don’t feel like sharing it. I couldn’t make it through. 

[atomheartbevo 90056]

For those tempted to post it, there’s a lot of social media chatter about Ukraine knocking out dozens of Russian helicopters at an airfield bear Kherson.  And supposedly a distant video.  I’d be wary of that one because it definitely falls into the realm of too good to be true.  

 

[956 Worldwide 34935]

4 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

Yeah, the Twitter cast @Saint Tacky just posted with three really sharp observers of this conflict make it clear that the Russian sorties are having a devastating effect, particularly in Kharkiv and Mariupol. We like to focus on the idea that Russia hasn’t achieved total air superiority over all of Ukraine, but it’s obvious they’ve achieved it over parts of Ukraine, and it’s affecting how they’re conducting the campaign right now. 

The truth is the west can’t give Ukraine enough fighter jets to turn the tide of the war.  There’s no way Ukraine has enough trained fighter pilots in any case. And flight time matters, as does the quality of the training. All of those fighter jets will be shot down, especially the closer they get to the Belarus and Russian border. Despite all the other clusterfucks we’ve seen from the Russian military, Russian SAM systems are absolutely state of the art. Arguably the most competitive part of their military with the west  

In all honesty it makes more sense to supply more sophisticated SAM systems, but they take training to operate as well. But they’re cheaper, not nearly as hard to make people effective with them as with a fighter jet, don’t require nearly the same kind of maintenance and down time, not to mention fuel. And they’re effective for way longer periods of time. 

Fighter jets are way sexier, so I get it. But if I were Zelensky I’d be trying to get more sophisticated SAM systems across the border in as high a number as I could. 

Sophisticated Western SAM systems like Patriot not only would require training we can’t give them, but they are Western military jewels that you cannot allow to fall into Russian hands. We canceled the F-35 program for Turkey after they bought S-400s in large part because we could not risk S-400s and F-35s integrating, offering the Russians a treasure trove of how to use their systems to shoot down our jets.

Putting a Patriot system in the field in Ukraine and the Russians getting it would be a fucking nightmare. 

[BachelorTrek 3166]

2 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

Jeez. That was brutal. Thank you for sharing. 

BBC World News channel is showing it every hour at the top of their news broadcasts.

[SL Xpress 7518]

43 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Sophisticated Western SAM systems like Patriot not only would require training we can’t give them, but they are Western military jewels that you cannot allow to fall into Russian hands. We canceled the F-35 program for Turkey after they bought S-400s in large part because we could not risk S-400s and F-35s integrating, offering the Russians a treasure trove of how to use their systems to shoot down our jets.

Putting a Patriot system in the field in Ukraine and the Russians getting it would be a fucking nightmare. 

So don’t send a Patriot system. There are plenty of other SAM systems more effective than what the Ukrainians are fielding right now. Also, the Patriot has had a number of iterations. It’s a 30 year old platform at this point. It doesn’t have to be a system recently rolled off the assembly line or upgraded with the latest and greatest technology. The French also make some very good SAM systems. 

And yes, I do understand training would be an issue. My point is if the West or Zelensky are trying to effectively counter the constant sorties they’re being bombarded by, more sophisticated SAMs would be a more pragmatic choice than fighter jets. The Ukrainians don’t have the pilots, the jets won’t be in a high enough number to be effective, and the Ukrainians will not be able to keep them operational for long. 

To be honest, I think a bigger issue is that the US fully assumes Ukraine is going to lose this war, and is in the midst of planning how to support an insurgency. 

[Shady Ray 1633]

Breaking on German news at the moment:

 

 

 

https://www.bild.de/geld/wirtschaft/wirtschaft/preise-steigen-um-60-prozent-erdgas-beben-in-europa-79375272.bild.html

 

We are going to be so fucked. 

Edited March 7, 2022 by Shady Ray

[Nicole44 22197]

The diesel-powered Project 22160 Patrol Ship is designed for border guard and patrol service in territorial waters, patrolling 200-mile exclusive economic zone in blue waters; suppressing smuggling and pirate activities; rescue operations; environmental monitoring. In wartime – defense of ships and vessels at sea, as well as naval harbors and water areas with the purpose of alerting hostile attacks.  The lead ship of the series - "Vasily Bykov" - has been in service since the end of 2018. Today it is the most modern representative of the Russian Navy, equipped with unique technologies.

So it would be very fucking cool if the below can be verified: 

I am up because I have to take antibiotics. Uggghhh. Really want to think that this video is proof positive they destroyed that particular ship. Allegedly, it participated in the snake island attack...such that we have heard and read. Russian warship go fuck yourself!

[Nicole44 22197]

Good strategy. Hopefully, that influx of fighters and weapons will be put to good use! 

 

[Nicole44 22197]

Nolan Peterson@nolanwpeterson War reporter based in Ukraine since 2014. Former USAF special operations pilot, author, occasional adventurer. Senior editor for@CoffeeOrDieMag

 

 

[Constant 6760]

 

[Constant 6760]

 

[Shady Ray 1633]

I have mentioned Wolfgang Münchau upthread, but he is one of the best commentators out there when it comes to European politics and economics. Used to be editor-in-chief of Financial Times Deutschland, currently weekly syndicated columnist in Handelsblatt, El Pais and Corriere della Sera...dude has been a serious EU economics analyst for over 30 years now.

 

Anyway, an important bit from his column today that is running counter to what much of the Twitteratti echo chamber in the US is rambling on about:

 

China will bail out Russia

...

"The whole idea of economic sanctions is premised on the notion of western monopolies and monopsonies. This was the world of a bygone age. The only real monopolies we see emerging are China’s and Russia’s hold on important raw materials, which the west needs to import. Western-dominated financial infrastructure, like the Swift payment communications system, are losing their monopoly status. China and Russia have built their own infrastructure. And when Visa, Mastercard and American Express stopped business in Russia over the weekend, Russia switched to a Chinese system.

"Don’t delude yourself with statistics from economists who tell you that the Russian economy is the size of Belgium and the Netherlands. You get to this number when you translate Russia’s rouble GDP into euros based on the rouble’s currently devalued exchange rate. This completely underestimates the economic scale of Russia. For China, this is a big opportunity.

'"The situation reminds us of an old marketing story: two western shoe companies are sending sales to a remote underdeveloped country. One responds: there is no market. Nobody wears shoes. The other says: There is a huge market. Nobody wears shoes. A Russia subject to western sanction is a huge market for China, because nobody there has dollars, visa cards and iPhones. Russia is a culturally and scientifically advanced country with a population of 144m, the size of Germany and France combined. If you compare Russia to the Netherlands and Belgium, you are a shoe salesman of the first kind."

 

Full thing spoilered below:

 

Spoiler

China will bail out Russia

During the cold war, Russia and China were systemic rivals. There was no strategic alliance between the two giants of communism. Donald Trump’s sanctions on China, followed by Joe Biden’s sanction on Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, have done what even the cold war could not accomplish, driving these erstwhile rivals of the central and eastern Euroasian continent into a strategic alliance.

We read about a small, but revealing anecdote of how Huawei, itself sanctioned by US, is helping the Russian government fend off western hacker attempts. This is not what we call a verified story. It appeared on a Chinese website, and was then deleted. But Huawei later said that it would use its capacity to train 50,000 technical experts in Russia. The two most sanctioned entities in the world, Huawei and the Russian government, are colluding.

Huawei is a cautionary tale for trigger-happy sanctions advocates. Donald Trump’s sanctions mean that Huawei was no longer able to use Google’s Android operating system for Huawei smartphones. Nor could Huawei source US developed microchips. Huawei’s phone sales plummeted. Its flagship model launched last year was not available for sale in Europe and the US. But Huawei has since replaced its Android with its own operating system, HarmonyOS. And other Chinese manufacturers have start plugging the microchip shortages. There is nothing in a mobile phone that is a proprietary technology. Western sanctions had a negative impact on Huawei’s sales and profits in the short term. But they will make the company stronger in the long run.

The whole idea of economic sanctions is premised on the notion of western monopolies and monopsonies. This was the world of a bygone age. The only real monopolies we see emerging are China’s and Russia’s hold on important raw materials, which the west needs to import. Western-dominated financial infrastructure, like the Swift payment communications system, are losing their monopoly status. China and Russia have built their own infrastructure. And when Visa, Mastercard and American Express stopped business in Russia over the weekend, Russia switched to a Chinese system.
Don’t delude yourself with statistics from economists who tell you that the Russian economy is the size of Belgium and the Netherlands. You get to this number when you translate Russia’s rouble GDP into euros based on the rouble’s currently devalued exchange rate. This completely underestimates the economic scale of the Russia. For China, this is a big opportunity.

The situation reminds us of an old marketing story: two western shoe companies are sending sales to a remote underdeveloped country. One responds: there is no market. Nobody wears shoes. The other says: There is a huge market. Nobody wears shoes. A Russia subject to western sanction is a huge market for China, because nobody there has dollars, visa cards and iPhones. Russia is a culturally and scientifically advanced country with a population of 144m, the size of Germany and France combined. If you compare Russia to the Netherlands and Belgium, you are a shoe salesman of the first kind.

https://www.eurointelligence.com

 

Couple that with the position of China's FM Wang Yi just now: "No matter how treacherous the international storm is, China and Russia will maintain their strategic determination and promote the comprehensive cooperative partnership in the new era."

 

Ol' Wang knows the score...this entire ordeal is going to end up being a bonanza for China. And that means that this pressure to end this thing quickly is going to fade...I think we are definitely settling in for a protracted conflict. China has so much to gain from this that they are going to make sure that Russia doesn't collapse while they collect a ton of goodies.

Edited March 7, 2022 by Shady Ray

[Nicole44 22197]

Adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.