Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[MikeIrvine]

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1498127761382477826?t=0rITZiQDDadWUVrL...

[Illiniwek]

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1498127761382477826?t=0rITZiQDDadWUVrL...

NUT!!!!!!

[NOVA Green]

UK starting to really lay down the law for money investments from Russian Elites....   (Per CNN ~ 1 Hr 5 Minutes ago):

"UK to crack down on "dirty money" from Russian oligarchs

so they knew about Russian dirty before today but didn't do anything about it and they know about non-Russian dirty money now but they don't plan on doing anything about that?

That was 100% my thought when I read the article.   

Almost reminds me a bit of the situation involving banks in Miami area at the time that movies such as "Scarface" and TV series such as "Miami Vice" were popular.

Not that there isn't tons of dirty real estate money floating around in the US today, but tends to be a lot more dispersed to the point it gets hard for US GVT agencies and Federal Prosecutors to be able to get cases to trial (Regardless of domestic vs international assets).

[Storr]

Oops?

https://twitter.com/Transport_gc/status/1498131269011525633?s=20&t=pwxJU9Fhf...

[Edu]

Aren’t you an American

He's a chinese CCP shill living in New Jersey. Just ignore him.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/timelywriter/status/1498131468996038656

[MATTROSE94]

Aren’t you an American

He's a chinese CCP shill living in New Jersey. Just ignore him.

He could be Iranian American or Russian American as well.

[Tekken_Guy]

Retired Gen. Philip Breedlove on a no-fly zone. He supports it, but finds it unlikely to happen. Breedlove was Supreme Allied Commander Europe 2013-2016.

https://twitter.com/ak_mack/status/1498081883149807621

Wouldn’t an NFZ mean conventional fighting between NATO and Russian forces?
I want to do everything for Ukraine, but the risk of nuclear escalation from that is too great.

I’m open to calling the nuclear bluff.

Bruh:

https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1498065915665022983

What is the worst he will do, nuke DC? GO ahead Putin, do your worst!

Uhh? Literally start a nuclear holocaust? That he doesn't care about? Because he's going to die soon anyways and no longer gives a you know what about his country anyways.

If he's "going to die soon" and doesn't care about what happens after he's gone he wouldn't be trying so hard to bring Ukraine under Russian control. He dreams of a reunified USSR, not of his country burning in nuclear hell fire. The nuclear threats are a bluff and a sign of weakness; he knows if just a single democratic power got directly, militarily involved Russia would get it's ass kicked.

I agree. Putin may be a psycho, but he's not dumb. There is no scenario with a nuclear holocaust in which Russia is spared.  Even Trump wasn't that dumb to nuke another country during the standoffs with North Korea or Iran, because he himself would be dead in a day.

[certified hummus supporter 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

https://twitter.com/timelywriter/status/1498131468996038656

This shipment is dedicated to the brave Mujahedeen fighters of Crimea Ukraine

[OSR stands with Israel]

Retired Gen. Philip Breedlove on a no-fly zone. He supports it, but finds it unlikely to happen. Breedlove was Supreme Allied Commander Europe 2013-2016.

https://twitter.com/ak_mack/status/1498081883149807621

Wouldn’t an NFZ mean conventional fighting between NATO and Russian forces?
I want to do everything for Ukraine, but the risk of nuclear escalation from that is too great.

I’m open to calling the nuclear bluff.

Bruh:

https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1498065915665022983

What is the worst he will do, nuke DC? GO ahead Putin, do your worst!

Uhh? Literally start a nuclear holocaust? That he doesn't care about? Because he's going to die soon anyways and no longer gives a you know what about his country anyways.

If he's "going to die soon" and doesn't care about what happens after he's gone he wouldn't be trying so hard to bring Ukraine under Russian control. He dreams of a reunified USSR, not of his country burning in nuclear hell fire. The nuclear threats are a bluff and a sign of weakness; he knows if just a single democratic power got directly, militarily involved Russia would get it's ass kicked.

I agree. Putin may be a psycho, but he's not dumb. There is no scenario with a nuclear holocaust in which Russia is spared.  Even Trump wasn't that dumb to nuke another country during the standoffs with North Korea or Iran, because he himself would be dead in a day.

Russian military probably would oust him too if he was serious

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1498127761382477826?t=0rITZiQDDadWUVrL...

This is definitely not one of eventualities they planned for.

[NOVA Green]

https://twitter.com/timelywriter/status/1498131468996038656

Wow if true!

Now, am very disturbed at the concept of a direct war between the US / NATO against Russia as anybody else on here.

Still, there are already tons of pledges of lethal hardware destined for Ukraine courtesy of virtually every NATO nation and the US has already provided Anti-Tank Missiles so it's not a true escalation.

Russia started the war against Ukraine with pretexts that are even shadier than the US Invasion & Occupation of Iraq in '03, and it does not appear that most reasonable individuals just about anywhere in the world view Ukraine as the aggressor.

Hopefully this will provide a path for Putin to back down immediately and find a "graceful exit" from Ukraine before his casualty numbers continue to multiply exponentially.

[Tekken_Guy]

Retired Gen. Philip Breedlove on a no-fly zone. He supports it, but finds it unlikely to happen. Breedlove was Supreme Allied Commander Europe 2013-2016.

https://twitter.com/ak_mack/status/1498081883149807621

Wouldn’t an NFZ mean conventional fighting between NATO and Russian forces?
I want to do everything for Ukraine, but the risk of nuclear escalation from that is too great.

I’m open to calling the nuclear bluff.

Bruh:

https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1498065915665022983

What is the worst he will do, nuke DC? GO ahead Putin, do your worst!

Uhh? Literally start a nuclear holocaust? That he doesn't care about? Because he's going to die soon anyways and no longer gives a you know what about his country anyways.

If he's "going to die soon" and doesn't care about what happens after he's gone he wouldn't be trying so hard to bring Ukraine under Russian control. He dreams of a reunified USSR, not of his country burning in nuclear hell fire. The nuclear threats are a bluff and a sign of weakness; he knows if just a single democratic power got directly, militarily involved Russia would get it's ass kicked.

I agree. Putin may be a psycho, but he's not dumb. There is no scenario with a nuclear holocaust in which Russia is spared.  Even Trump wasn't that dumb to nuke another country during the standoffs with North Korea or Iran, because he himself would be dead in a day.

Russian military probably would oust him too if he was serious

True. plus the oligarchs, the intelligence agencies, the entire assembly, even his most trusted inner circle may turn on him because, well, they don't want to die.

[Storr]

The Russian Army, vanguards fighting against imperialism:
https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1498141476001402883?s=20&t=cwY_K-_5B...

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

At this point it's abundantly clear that Russia should have shut off its internet for the duration of the war and that if they had the capacity to knock out Ukraine's internet, they should have done so. How the hell is an army supposed to keep operational security and secrecy if anybody with a smartphone can record troop and vehicle movements and upload it to Twitter/Telegram/etc immediately?

Cope.

I don't need to cope, I'm not Russian. China is not a party to this conflict. However there are surely valuable lessons to be learned, and the PLA should be carefully studying and analyzing this campaign to figure out what worked, what didn't, and what should have been done, and to adjust accordingly.

If you had to guess, what lessons do you think there are to be learned from this in general?

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

UK starting to really lay down the law for money investments from Russian Elites....   (Per CNN ~ 1 Hr 5 Minutes ago):

"UK to crack down on "dirty money" from Russian oligarchs

so they knew about Russian dirty before today but didn't do anything about it and they know about non-Russian dirty money now but they don't plan on doing anything about that?

That was 100% my thought when I read the article.   

Almost reminds me a bit of the situation involving banks in Miami area at the time that movies such as "Scarface" and TV series such as "Miami Vice" were popular.

Not that there isn't tons of dirty real estate money floating around in the US today, but tends to be a lot more dispersed to the point it gets hard for US GVT agencies and Federal Prosecutors to be able to get cases to trial (Regardless of domestic vs international assets).

Oligarch money is all over the place, but particularly concentrated in London and New York. They like buying exclusive properties in high-prestige Western cities, it gives an air of respectability.

[certified hummus supporter 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

https://twitter.com/phildstewart/status/1498060945070956551

Expected to be honest. No one in their right mind would invest in Russia for the foreseeable future, so why not stop existing investors from liquidating...

And now no one ever will.

Yeah, they'll finally invest into Eastern Poland now!

[lfromnj]

Lol at Ukraine casualties claim of a 1:20 ratio

[WMS]

At this point it's abundantly clear that Russia should have shut off its internet for the duration of the war and that if they had the capacity to knock out Ukraine's internet, they should have done so. How the hell is an army supposed to keep operational security and secrecy if anybody with a smartphone can record troop and vehicle movements and upload it to Twitter/Telegram/etc immediately?

Cope.

I don't need to cope, I'm not Russian. China is not a party to this conflict. However there are surely valuable lessons to be learned, and the PLA should be carefully studying and analyzing this campaign to figure out what worked, what didn't, and what should have been done, and to adjust accordingly.

If you had to guess, what lessons do you think there are to be learned from this in general?

The Russians are losing because of insufficient dedication to Xi Jinping Thought!

[Dr. Arch]

Lol at Ukraine casualties claim of a 1:20 ratio

It's not all that farfetched given how cartoonishly disorganized the Russian military and leadership has been. I hope they are fully repelled and thoroughly embarrassed.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

https://twitter.com/phildstewart/status/1498060945070956551

I didn’t expect Russia to join in sanctions on Russia


ETA: This is a move to protect domestic oligarchs, the foreigners will have to hold the assets when the market crashes and they buy it up cheap afterwards. It will also guarantee that Russian securities will be worthless pretty much from now until the end of time but these are not smart people and things got out of hand

[The Free North]

https://twitter.com/phildstewart/status/1498060945070956551

I didn’t expect Russia to join in sanctions on Russia


ETA: This is a move to protect domestic oligarchs, the foreigners will have to hold the assets when the market crashes and they buy it up cheap afterwards. It will also guarantee that Russian securities will be worthless pretty much from now until the end of time but these are not smart people and things got out of hand

They did it with the equity market on Friday: no more short selling allowed.

The move here is just to prevent people both traders and those with actual assets in the country from selling the usd/rub to nothing.

[It’s so Joever]

Yeah who will ever invest in Russian securities again after this?

[pppolitics]

Ukraine is really good at PR

https://twitter.com/BryanDawsonUSA/status/1498130052122386435

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Has anything come of those alleged Belarusian paratroopers?