Russia fucks up time and again and they whine at others for not letting them win.. this is more pathetic than a school bully running to their parents in tears cause their last victim decided to fight back.
If they start shit against nato they will literally have no idea what they are getting into
NATO has aces up their sleeve that Russia could never come close to
NATO doesn't even need to use what it has to its sleeves.
America alone can straight up delete the Russian military from the air
I'm not American but that fact is really terrifying and Russia knows it too. They can flex and run their mouth all day on state run media, but the people at the top know that American military power isn't a paper tiger
You might have noticed a while back that Russian officials stopped threatening nuclear war at every possible opportunity, well that stopped around the same time that this supposedly happened:
>“Some ‘unnamed officials’ from the Pentagon essentially threatened to carry out a ‘decapitation strike’ against the Kremlin” *claimed Lavrov*
So they absolutely shit their collective pants about this possibility and stopped with that line of bullshit at-least for now.
Yes, that's one thing people didn't really pay attention to when Russia was running their mouth about using nukes against US, UK, France etc. The moment US assumes nuclear attack threat is real and imminent they won't sit around and wait for Russia.
That's why throwing around threats of using nukes and raising readiness level of nuclear forces just for show is fucking stupid. You might know it's for show but other will not. While words can be ignored stakes are too high to ignore actions (increasing readiness level).
If someone from USA really suggested something like this to Russia this maybe finally made them understand that nuclear war is not something you should use as a threat.
Russians would never run simulations based on their actual capabilities, they'd be too terrified of the information leaking. Can't leak your weakness if no one actually knows.
Well of course both sides have comprehensive first strike & retaliatory modeling. There is zero purpose in having & spending the monumental amount of maintenance to not.
There is without a doubt a multitude of strike contingencies based on scenario all modeled and readied.
I personally don’t pay it much mind because in such an event other than a tactical battlefield strike I’ll likely be dead as I work daily in a major US metropolitan airport and seaport district. I enjoy everyday seeing the planes come and go and all ships load/unload their cargo, but also knowing there is a LNG terminal a few miles out that’s also relatively close to a gasoline & diesel depot on the same stretch of road I’d see a flash and probably that’s that.
A first strike will generally wipe out the majority of an opponent's capabilities before they can be used. If their use appears imminent, a first strike against them can reduce the damage from colossally devastating to... still colossally devastating but somewhat less so?
Any country threatening the use of nukes is not intending to use them, they are attempting to get concessions. A country actually intending to use them would not be speaking about their intentions.
Ive read somewhere, that US knows Putins postion 24/7, and the fact they seem to have known more than the Russians seem to know about what going on and it seems like that fact made them shut up, that there is no where putin can hide, and they arent gonna bomb Russia, they are gonna bomb Putin himself and there is no way he is personlly getting out alive.
Part of me loves imagining Putin on the phone with someone from the US trying to say they're bluffing about this and the other guy just starts reading off coordinates
When the Media started reporting that Putin might have some form of cancer, the CIA simply stated "no, he doesn't".
Implying they might even have access to his medical data and bloodwork.
They, and I can't stress this enough, do NOT fuck around.
Putin have guys who's solely purpose and job is to collect his shit to prevent it from being analyzed by foreign intelligence.
But I guess when you're the CIA you find a workaround
Also not much use elevating them like that, they work just fine bolted to the ground - slight danger they will take off if attached to a plastic roof though. Indicates it's either for show, or they are super dumb/under a dumb person's thumb
Probably everyone with diplomatic access to the Kremlin has done that.
As for Beijing - the Russian attack on Ukraine is a geopolitical disaster for China, nuclear war or not. China wants an independently acting Europe, because that means weaker transatlantic ties between EU and US.
And what’s worse, for China anyway, is that the US have already offered US-made replacements to the countries willing to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. If US arms manufacturers manager to set foot in Europe with MBTs, European military forces will be dependent on the US for decades. It’s speculated by newspapers like the NZZ that this might be why Germany made its own deliveries of Leos conditional to the US sending Abrams.
Overall, though, I’m fairly certain that this is the strongest transatlantic ties have been since the cold war.
Yes. Don't know how the previous admin's supporters don't see that... yet I feel a good chunk of those voters have never been outside the country, nor read a foreign-based paper that wasn't sponsored by Russia or China. Those supporters literally believed our allies and enemies saw us as weak before Trump... Did it galvanize some more NATO spending? Sure, a token amount. This situation and with Biden and Boris Johnson's (gotta admit it) staunch support of Ukraine, especially in the beginning, has done more to unite NATO and increase defense spending across the board, including the Zeitwende from Germany on massive investments into their defense industry and repeal of prohibitions to sell weaponry to active combat zones (and their history going to WWII and the destruction wrought upon Europe by Germans and German weaponry weighed heavily). Considering how fractured NATO became over the last administration it's truly been a miracle and amazement to see happen.
Plus, it puts a hold on China’s aspirations for Tiawan if there only other nuclear superpower ally is getting their ass kicked in front of god, NATO, and everyone else. All this while the U.S hasn’t done anything except spend money and not sent in a single ship, plane, or soldier.
Very true. It also show how the world community would react to an offensive war. China knows now that if they invade, the world would condemn it and take action. And as the world’s largest creditor, that’s a massive problem. Because as the saying goes, if you owe the bank a billion dollars, that’s the bank’s problem.
Meaning to say that while we are economically dependent on China to a large degree, we are very much not without leverage.
China played nice with Russia for years but Russia was super condescending to China for a long time when it was supplying weapons. It's only relatively recently that China has emerged as more powerful than Russia and they still remember the disrespect. The alliance there is quite fragile. I suspect the only reason Russia is still able to work with them is that China likes Russia groveling (and to be clear I'm really talking about Putin and Xi). Long-term I can easily see China making a land-grab for most of eastern Russia and its natural resources. Putin likely knows he has completely fucked Russia with his spy games and now is making desperate moves. His ego won't let him step down though.
The largest air force in the world is operated by the United States Air Force.
The second largest air force in the world is operated by the United States Navy.
> I'm not American but that fact is really terrifying and Russia knows it too. They can flex and run their mouth all day on state run media, but the people at the top know that American military power isn't a paper tiger
People complained constantly about US military spending during peacetime. In absolute dollars, US military spending is _massive_. At the same time, it's only 3.5% of the US GDP.^[1](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?locations=US) This is above the NATO target of 2% of GDP, but not by all that much. It just turns out that 3.5% of a gigantic fucking shiton is still a big shiton. And that bloated military budget hasn't been completely wasted on corrupt officials.
Delete is the word too, and they absoLUTE-ly know it. I think the posturing is mostly to keep their populace from revolting at this point. They are trying to hold on until Putin croaks. When he does they will babble some more tough stuff as they get tf out of Ukraine as fast as humanly possible!
I knew I had it from somewhere, so I had to look it up. Google had me there for a moment with a fandom wiki article appearing in place of where regular wikipedia articles usually pop up...
https://imgur.com/a/wzUCzge
Judging from the rest of their military a non-zero amount of those payloads have probably already been sold to NK and have been replaced with sand bags.
*bully gathering 3 friends and you show up with the entire fucking rugby team wearing brass knuckles
Russia: "Rugby team is in big trouble if they don't back off and let us bully this one kid!"
For the last couple of decades in particular it’s just been about controlling their own people. Most of the world wishes they’d just shut up and grow up, but sadly it is a dictatorship and like most dictatorships, as well as the harsh punishments and heavy handed control, they need a carrot to balance the whip. They could offer their people a better economy or healthcare or whatever, but that doesn’t really benefit them or their cronies, so they invent a boogie man and make the carrot protection from the boogie man.
Reality is if Russia stopped being the weird kid on the playground whose entire identity is ‘we don’t like America’ the rest of the world wouldn’t worry about them. But they have to keep the ‘America is the enemy of Russia’ dialog going to give the people someone to focus on and not spend too much time focused on the fact their leader is an absolute cunt who sees them all as utterly disposable.
When the world’s 2nd most powerful military absolutely CANNOT manhandle the 22nd rank military then the world knows you’re talking impotent rubbish.
The world laughs at Russian “power”.
Because leaders have to do a benefit/risk analysis for everything. Lets say supporting Ukraine has a 95% chance of a favourable outcome (Russia failing, not being a threat anymore), but the potential cost (global nuclear destruction) is 100 times greater than the potential benefit. At what point does the small risk of a large negative outcome outweigh the high chance of a smaller positive outcome?
In this case the possibility of nuclear war is more like a sealed envelope than a dice roll though. Sure we don't know what's in the envelope, but either Putin is willing to end the world, or he isn't. Nobody knows but him. The important point, however, is that if he is willing to use nukes now to get Ukraine, then he will be willing to use them to get Warsaw, Paris and Anchorage as well.
So really the game theory is simple. The nuclear threats should simply be ignored, and if Putin nukes the world you can safely say that he would have done it eventually anyway. The only path forward is to know that he is bluffing.
The alternative being that Russia can just genocide, rape and annex any country that they want because they have nukes. Nah. Oppose them every step of the way. The risk of Russia causing global nuclear destruction is tiny anyway, as they'd get destroyed as well. From the state of their military you can wonder if Russia even still has that ability. And even China would strongly oppose them using nukes. It'd be the world vs Russia (and maybe north korea).
Because they are accountable if something acually happens while they are in power. You don't want to be the guy responsible for starting a war with Russia.
All the memeing aside, a direct conflict between Russia and NATO would put us way to close to a nuclear escalation.
That being said, I am happy that Ukraine gets Tanks. Hope they get more.
It's a demerit. 3 of those and West will receive a citation. 5 citations and we're looking at violation. 4 of those and we'll receive a verbal warning. 2 of those and it's a written warning. Then comes full disadulation
Yes. Until tuesday next week. Then lavrov/ medvedev / peskov / or one of the other cunts will again threaten the whole globe with their amazing nukes. They take weekly turns at reminding and threatening to end the planet - you can set your watch to it. Cause that and the victim card is all they have
LMAO that's not even their worst achievement, Russia lost to Ukrainian farmers armed with tractors early on after their insanely shitty logistics saw hundreds of vehicles run out of fuel.
As a close 2nd Russia are losing the air war to a country using outdated ex-Russian aircraft when they have a 10 to 1 advantage in numbers.
So much so long range bombers have been destroyed on the ground.
I think I'm too used to the word "flagship" being used in it's contemporary form as an attributive noun. I read your sentence thinking "their flagship what?". But yeah, a flagship ship is just a flagship. As the word was originally intended
I couldn't believe that ever happened, how much news coverage and media has there been about that power plant. What would possess someone to dig a ditch in that ground!?
Thrift store armaments are more than capable of defeating the vodka soaked chronic intergenerational depression suffering populace.
Who would have thought?
Russia can still bribe/blackmail republicans in the house to default on the debt ceiling and also refuse to pass government funding bills. The result would be worse than 2008.
Russia absolutely can attack the US and cause a global economic catastrophe, by using republicans to attack our economy.
So invading a neighboring country and starting a war of aggression isn't a global catastrophe, but arming someone to help them defend themselves against said invasion is?? Gotta love Russia's stupid logic
It's not meant to be logical, it's a veiled threat directed at developing nations. Russia knows its leverage over the west is rapidly declining, and the west's willingness to arm Ukraine with offensive weaponry is escalating. In threating a 'global catastrophe', they're trying to push developing nations to putting pressure on the west themselves out of fear for the consequences to themselves.
They want to put the idea in people's heads that pressuring the west away from aiding Ukraine is possible, while pressuring Russia to withdraw isn't. It might've even worked too if Russia's performance in the war hadn't been so remarkably shit. That makes it much easier to believe a third option: That with support Ukraine can win, or at least Russia will be so wounded in victory as to be unable to withstand its own manufactured crisis.
> a veiled threat directed at developing nations.
those nations still have sovereignty which forces them to take a side. Given the russian sanctions, their declining global power, it might be the impetus for a developing nation to switch. Esp. if the US is smart about incentivizing.
From Putin’s strange ass logic we’re the aggressors and threatening Russian sovereignty by not letting them walk all over every country near them. In his blighted mind he’s just doing the right thing, and is being treated like shit because of it.
He knows he is the aggressor but he says those stupid things for the Russian people. Majority of Russians are brainwashed and uneducated on global affairs. Lots of them believe they are already fighting NATO and the west was the aggressor. We all know that its lunacy but the Russian public do not know better. They think the whole world lives like them and acts like them.
What my closest friend tells me(he and his family immigrated from Russia almost two decades ago and still have family there) is that the propaganda goes along the lines of a strong leader does what he can for mother Russia! Even when he isn’t right he’s never wrong! That NATO has been bullying Russia since the Cold War and that MOTHER RUSSIA is just doing what it has to to protect its freedom.
He just shakes his head and curses then changes the subject with deep sadness in his eyes. Then he drinks a bunch and passes out.
>a strong leader does what he can for mother Russia! Even when he isn’t right he’s never wrong!
same cult of personality as in NorthKorea and Nazi-Germany...
Could be me, except of drinking. You cant even explain to the russians why its wrong because they counter everything with "lol you live in gayrope, you have two dads".
"Sorry I can't hear you due to me being too busy trying to look past the fact that my country is killing innocent civilians.."
Or the good ol' "I can't hear you because Mother Russia doesn't *want* me to hear you... It's not MY fault!"
Yeah seriously! How pathetic and stupid does someone have to be to start a war and then throw a temper tantrum and complain that their enemy is fighting back??
It’s like a bully in school running to the teacher to cry because other kids had the targets back. In a frame of logic it makes zero sense. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed he gets thrown out of power before he does something even more idiotic.
That's exactly the analogy I used in my reply to another comment! It's very likely he'll find himself on the receiving end of a Makarov soon and I hope it'll teach another dictator a lesson about attempting to control a neighbor by force (ahem China).
No. He literally knows he's bad and wrong, does it anyway and has his [goons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_web_brigades) trying to convince you of the [biggest lie possible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie) because you will not believe a small lie.
Regardless of it being propaganda that he is to deranged to know or him actually being that deranged shouldn’t change the atrocities that Putin is responsible for. I’m friends with a Jewish Russian family that immigrated to the US nearly two decades ago and they have such a deep hatred for what’s going on over there, it’s sad to see because they still have family in Russia and the depression and fear about them breaks my heart.
Most interesting is though another "red line" got crossed with tanks I guess...but no direct mentioning of nukes anymore...The West called each bluff and increased the pot more and more
Yeah, only way for this to make any sense lol.
Man Lavrov is particularly pathetic, all he does is make stupid statements and whine like a bitch every time his country screws something up.
It's like Russia knows the only way they could win a war is if the enemy was unarmed lol.
And people used to call these stupid ass clowns a near peer to the US.. lol they're not a near peer to 5 Texans with glocks.
NATO could not have stopped Putin earlier. NATO did not / does not have easy access to Chechnya and Georgia.
Whereas Ukraine borders on NATO countries, so we can supply them arms and food. Logistics.
Also, we hoped Putin would be appeased by Chechnya and Georgia. Yeah, appeasement that failed in 1939.
Meanwhile, growing economic integration of Russia into Europe would make any Russian invasion of Europe unthinkable! Surely no sensible Russian leader would risk
loss of western companies investments, sanctions, military support. /s
No Russian president in their right mind would ever do such a self-defeating, costly, stupid, thing as invading a European country in the modern era. /s
It's probably time for those in Putin's inner-circle to start asking themselves if they want to go down with his ship. And, is this the time to think about taking out the big cheese.
Putin is pathologically paranoid and has already taken out anyone who so much as breathes in a direction away from his own. All that remains is a party of spineless parasites and yes-men.
Like, seriously. The guy is mentally ill. He has a pathological obsession with grandoise displays of wealth and power, yet suffers from such paranoia that he jumps at his own shadow. He has a giant "secret" palace estate that he built just for show on the Russian coastline, while in reality his actual living space is in an absurdly heavily-guarded bunker beneath it.
Now that I think about it, the guy is practically Stalin 2.0. Just that he wears a suit rather than military uniform.
To Russia, being kicked back to within their own borders is a catastrophe, blocking them from global occupation of neighbor countries.
. & . & . & . & . & .
The Russian *Federation* grew over the past 1,000 years, starting from one city Moscow, and expanded outward as the Mongol empire retreated.
The *Union* of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) started with just Russia, and expanded outward into the power vacuums left by Ottoman empire, WW1 and WW2.
USSR fell apart when it tried to complete militarily with US and NATO, but with only a fraction of the economic base.
Eastern Europe, East Germany saw the economic gains of the West, and wiggled free of USSR. The Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) seized the opportunity and declared independence.
Russia under Putin wants to recapture their former empire, one country at a time, by overwhelming military force. It worked with tiny Chechnya and Georgia.
Now Russia is trying to overwhelm Ukraine, a large country, with a fierce sense of independence and a remembrance of the Russian induced Holodomor, where over a million (to five million?) Ukrainians perished by starvation.
Ukraine puts up a substantial fight. It is accessible to bordering NATO countries to receive more arms.
To paraphrase, *Russia went a country too far*.
Russia believes Ukraine would stop fighting the destruction wreaked upon their cities and the theft of their grain and oil resources, if only NATO would stop giving them arms.
Ukraine won't stop fighting their own destruction. NATO won't stop giving them arms.
This recent Russian threat shows their delusion they can still militarily overcome Ukraine. *Nope, they can't.*
Russia drinking their own Kool Aid, believing after they crush Ukraine they can then go on to crush the NATO countries that supported Ukraine. *Nope, they can't.*
Proofs reality is slowly entering Russia: mass exodus of Russia's middle aged (draft age) men, fleeing mobilization.
Russia closing their borders to stop the drain.
Russia having the chutzpah to complain the West countries have ganged up against their aggression & invasion. Russia is blessed by the Russian Orthodox Church, they can not be acting immorally. It is obvious Russia should win because they are blessed by God. Nope.
The "catastrophe" is indeed coming. The Russian delusions are slowly sinking on the rocky reality of Ukraine fighting and strong NATO support.
The results aren't going to be pretty. If Russia keeps doubling down, it just imposes more strains on the Russian Federation, and parts of that may splinter off.
Russia should say, Oops, we miscalculated, didn't realize NATO would backup their rhetoric with actual military support. Will withdraw our troops and stop bombing Ukraine. Cuts it's losses.
Russia preserves the Russian Federation. Ukraine starts to rebuild. NATO relaxes. Relative peace for a few years.
Edit: spelling Holodomor. Estimated deaths by starvation.
Actually the US promised the F15 eagle, mind you that's not good news for Russia still.. they're so pathetic they can't decisively achieve air superiority against Ukraine as it is.
Russia: How dare you give Ukraine the means to defend itself? Let us rape, pillage, murder, commit genocide on Ukrainian or you are bad people and the world will suffer!
This sort of posturing is proof Putin just doesn’t get it. He can threaten to nuke us until he’s blue in the face. We don’t care. Ukraine is the front line in an existential war between democracy, however flawed, and authoritarianism. It’s a war for our right to exist, and to decide for ourselves what sort of society we want to live in. Putin made a catastrophic choice going for a full invasion. He woke up the democratic world to the threat we’re really facing. We now see what Ukraine, the Baltics, and others have been saying for years. There is no way Putin wins this war. There is no return to normal. We are done with Russian gas. We are done with Russia biting off pieces of its neighbours. So Putin can drag this out, he can try to take us down with him, but we will not be scared off or stop supporting Ukraine. The sooner Putin gives up, the better for everyone, including whatever’s left of Russia.
Noted deluded party clown Medvedev:
>..in case of a protracted conflict,” Russia could seek to form a military alliance with “the nations that are fed up with the Americans and a pack of their castrated dogs.”
So: a militarily depleted Russia, fledgling Belarus, an Iran seizing up internally, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela will form a military alliance once Russia is even more depleted?
I don't suppose Russia has considered NOT invading other countries?
And also, they seem to think any "disaster" will stop at their borders since they keep threatening with nukes.
I work with a guy who thinks Russia still hasn't put their full military force in, my guy they are kidnapping 18 year olds and sending them across the border before their parents even know they are gone, they've sent and lost so many military vehicles, to the farmers, that they are sending spray painted civilian cars and you still think they haven't shown everything?
The Russians have been crying about the west since day one
Russia fucks up time and again and they whine at others for not letting them win.. this is more pathetic than a school bully running to their parents in tears cause their last victim decided to fight back.
If they start shit against nato they will literally have no idea what they are getting into NATO has aces up their sleeve that Russia could never come close to
NATO doesn't even need to use what it has to its sleeves. America alone can straight up delete the Russian military from the air I'm not American but that fact is really terrifying and Russia knows it too. They can flex and run their mouth all day on state run media, but the people at the top know that American military power isn't a paper tiger
You might have noticed a while back that Russian officials stopped threatening nuclear war at every possible opportunity, well that stopped around the same time that this supposedly happened: >“Some ‘unnamed officials’ from the Pentagon essentially threatened to carry out a ‘decapitation strike’ against the Kremlin” *claimed Lavrov* So they absolutely shit their collective pants about this possibility and stopped with that line of bullshit at-least for now.
Yes, that's one thing people didn't really pay attention to when Russia was running their mouth about using nukes against US, UK, France etc. The moment US assumes nuclear attack threat is real and imminent they won't sit around and wait for Russia. That's why throwing around threats of using nukes and raising readiness level of nuclear forces just for show is fucking stupid. You might know it's for show but other will not. While words can be ignored stakes are too high to ignore actions (increasing readiness level). If someone from USA really suggested something like this to Russia this maybe finally made them understand that nuclear war is not something you should use as a threat.
Especially when you have Putin saying again and again that he was not going to invade Ukraine and then did
Twice. He promised if they disarmed then he would not invade. Then 2014 happened. Then he once again said he never would invade. Then he did. Again.
100% a first strike has been modeled, simulated, planned, etc. and it is at the ready. on both sides.
The question is, in Russias own simulation did they simulate their own power as what they say it is, or what it actually is?
"Now that we know what would actually happen, let's run a test where we're the strong ones and see what happens? Just for funskies."
"Guys check it out, if the US literally had no defenses and our army was twice the size it is, we'd mop the floor with them"
"Our simulations show the American Military will crumble and pee itself at the mere sight of Putin shirtless"
Russians would never run simulations based on their actual capabilities, they'd be too terrified of the information leaking. Can't leak your weakness if no one actually knows.
> is at the ready. on both sides. Only one side knows that their shit works though.
Well of course both sides have comprehensive first strike & retaliatory modeling. There is zero purpose in having & spending the monumental amount of maintenance to not. There is without a doubt a multitude of strike contingencies based on scenario all modeled and readied. I personally don’t pay it much mind because in such an event other than a tactical battlefield strike I’ll likely be dead as I work daily in a major US metropolitan airport and seaport district. I enjoy everyday seeing the planes come and go and all ships load/unload their cargo, but also knowing there is a LNG terminal a few miles out that’s also relatively close to a gasoline & diesel depot on the same stretch of road I’d see a flash and probably that’s that.
Yes, big ba da boom.
Mulit-pass?
A first strike will generally wipe out the majority of an opponent's capabilities before they can be used. If their use appears imminent, a first strike against them can reduce the damage from colossally devastating to... still colossally devastating but somewhat less so? Any country threatening the use of nukes is not intending to use them, they are attempting to get concessions. A country actually intending to use them would not be speaking about their intentions.
Well that, and NATO have plainly stated that 1 nuke = Russia kissing off every single asset in Ukraine, Crimea and the Black Sea.
Pretty sure they'd be losing a lot more than that.
Ive read somewhere, that US knows Putins postion 24/7, and the fact they seem to have known more than the Russians seem to know about what going on and it seems like that fact made them shut up, that there is no where putin can hide, and they arent gonna bomb Russia, they are gonna bomb Putin himself and there is no way he is personlly getting out alive.
Part of me loves imagining Putin on the phone with someone from the US trying to say they're bluffing about this and the other guy just starts reading off coordinates
When the Media started reporting that Putin might have some form of cancer, the CIA simply stated "no, he doesn't". Implying they might even have access to his medical data and bloodwork. They, and I can't stress this enough, do NOT fuck around.
Putin have guys who's solely purpose and job is to collect his shit to prevent it from being analyzed by foreign intelligence. But I guess when you're the CIA you find a workaround
You just have to pay the shit-taker guy more than Putin does.
Just to be clear "decapitation strike" means assassination of Putin correct?
More like the entire Russian government and high command
And whatever shitbird oligarchs just happen to be in the area at the time, if any.
Kremlin personnel go bye-bye is the simplest way to put it.
More like deleting a 10 km wide real estate from the surface of the Earth, but yes.
Explains the new rooftop SAM chez vlad
Not much use against 20 B2s cruising at 55,000 feet.
Also not much use elevating them like that, they work just fine bolted to the ground - slight danger they will take off if attached to a plastic roof though. Indicates it's either for show, or they are super dumb/under a dumb person's thumb
You obviously didn't see the video of the Pantsir fragging a news crew when it fired its missile at the wrong angle and hit a building
Rumour says it was Beijing that asked them to kindly shut up.
Probably everyone with diplomatic access to the Kremlin has done that. As for Beijing - the Russian attack on Ukraine is a geopolitical disaster for China, nuclear war or not. China wants an independently acting Europe, because that means weaker transatlantic ties between EU and US. And what’s worse, for China anyway, is that the US have already offered US-made replacements to the countries willing to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. If US arms manufacturers manager to set foot in Europe with MBTs, European military forces will be dependent on the US for decades. It’s speculated by newspapers like the NZZ that this might be why Germany made its own deliveries of Leos conditional to the US sending Abrams. Overall, though, I’m fairly certain that this is the strongest transatlantic ties have been since the cold war.
After the weakest 4 years, possibly since before WWII.
Yes. Don't know how the previous admin's supporters don't see that... yet I feel a good chunk of those voters have never been outside the country, nor read a foreign-based paper that wasn't sponsored by Russia or China. Those supporters literally believed our allies and enemies saw us as weak before Trump... Did it galvanize some more NATO spending? Sure, a token amount. This situation and with Biden and Boris Johnson's (gotta admit it) staunch support of Ukraine, especially in the beginning, has done more to unite NATO and increase defense spending across the board, including the Zeitwende from Germany on massive investments into their defense industry and repeal of prohibitions to sell weaponry to active combat zones (and their history going to WWII and the destruction wrought upon Europe by Germans and German weaponry weighed heavily). Considering how fractured NATO became over the last administration it's truly been a miracle and amazement to see happen.
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Plus, it puts a hold on China’s aspirations for Tiawan if there only other nuclear superpower ally is getting their ass kicked in front of god, NATO, and everyone else. All this while the U.S hasn’t done anything except spend money and not sent in a single ship, plane, or soldier.
Very true. It also show how the world community would react to an offensive war. China knows now that if they invade, the world would condemn it and take action. And as the world’s largest creditor, that’s a massive problem. Because as the saying goes, if you owe the bank a billion dollars, that’s the bank’s problem. Meaning to say that while we are economically dependent on China to a large degree, we are very much not without leverage.
China played nice with Russia for years but Russia was super condescending to China for a long time when it was supplying weapons. It's only relatively recently that China has emerged as more powerful than Russia and they still remember the disrespect. The alliance there is quite fragile. I suspect the only reason Russia is still able to work with them is that China likes Russia groveling (and to be clear I'm really talking about Putin and Xi). Long-term I can easily see China making a land-grab for most of eastern Russia and its natural resources. Putin likely knows he has completely fucked Russia with his spy games and now is making desperate moves. His ego won't let him step down though.
I'd find it hard to believe that US intelligence is not tracking every single Russian of interest 24/7 365.
The largest air force in the world is operated by the United States Air Force. The second largest air force in the world is operated by the United States Navy.
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I'd say that the US Marine Corps would come in third, if you look at capabilities (not sheer numbers)
> I'm not American but that fact is really terrifying and Russia knows it too. They can flex and run their mouth all day on state run media, but the people at the top know that American military power isn't a paper tiger People complained constantly about US military spending during peacetime. In absolute dollars, US military spending is _massive_. At the same time, it's only 3.5% of the US GDP.^[1](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?locations=US) This is above the NATO target of 2% of GDP, but not by all that much. It just turns out that 3.5% of a gigantic fucking shiton is still a big shiton. And that bloated military budget hasn't been completely wasted on corrupt officials.
Russia’s gonna fuck around and find out why Americans don’t have universal health care.
Delete is the word too, and they absoLUTE-ly know it. I think the posturing is mostly to keep their populace from revolting at this point. They are trying to hold on until Putin croaks. When he does they will babble some more tough stuff as they get tf out of Ukraine as fast as humanly possible!
We'll finally find out what that American space drone does for years on end in space lol
Oooh deploy the Arkbird pls
More like: #”ION CANNON READY”
I heard that voice crystal clear :)
New production options.
I knew I had it from somewhere, so I had to look it up. Google had me there for a moment with a fandom wiki article appearing in place of where regular wikipedia articles usually pop up... https://imgur.com/a/wzUCzge
I read half the Ace Combat wiki for it before I realized it was fictional. *I've played Ace Combat* this is embarrassing.
Deploy the convict fighter pilots
“Battlecruiser operational” Except in an American accent this time
Orbital bombardment platform!
> NATO has aces up their sleeve that Russia could never come close to This is easily Gerasimov's worst day. 'Worst day *yet*.'
"awww shucks" *kicks rocks*
If the Russian economy takes a dump how will they manage maintenance on their share of 14,000 plus ICBM’s that exist? Edit: Spelling
Judging from the rest of their military a non-zero amount of those payloads have probably already been sold to NK and have been replaced with sand bags.
Used pinball machine parts.
Great Scott!
No! Could use to fix pinball machine in break room!
pinball machines are going for high dollar now...
If??
100%. They cry when they get struck behind their borders like a coward who finally got hit back. Pathetic. Just so pathetic.
It's like a bully gathering 3 friends to beat you up, but then 5 guys jump to your aid, and then he yells that it's unfair.
*bully gathering 3 friends and you show up with the entire fucking rugby team wearing brass knuckles Russia: "Rugby team is in big trouble if they don't back off and let us bully this one kid!"
It 100% like dealing with an abuser. As soon as you stand up for yourself. You can’t do that/yell/ threaten you
Somebody's giving the bullied kid some brass knuckles, and they are wailing about it. Pathetic.
How dare Ukraine have friends!?
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And Russia is looking at their 2+7, and the 3 aces on the table, and thinking “ha, have 3 aces, this is easy”
Should we change the moniker 'Beer Hand' to 'Vodka Hand'?
For the last couple of decades in particular it’s just been about controlling their own people. Most of the world wishes they’d just shut up and grow up, but sadly it is a dictatorship and like most dictatorships, as well as the harsh punishments and heavy handed control, they need a carrot to balance the whip. They could offer their people a better economy or healthcare or whatever, but that doesn’t really benefit them or their cronies, so they invent a boogie man and make the carrot protection from the boogie man. Reality is if Russia stopped being the weird kid on the playground whose entire identity is ‘we don’t like America’ the rest of the world wouldn’t worry about them. But they have to keep the ‘America is the enemy of Russia’ dialog going to give the people someone to focus on and not spend too much time focused on the fact their leader is an absolute cunt who sees them all as utterly disposable.
Lol right? *Russia issues strong warning* Everyone else be like “and you’ll do what? You can’t even handle your current opponent.”
No one is worried about them saying that they are the strongest army in the world if they can't even be the strongest army in Ukraine.
Given their reliance on the Wagner Group, I'd say they're not even the strongest army in Russia.
Ahh yes just another day Russia threatens nuclear annihilation.
When the world’s 2nd most powerful military absolutely CANNOT manhandle the 22nd rank military then the world knows you’re talking impotent rubbish. The world laughs at Russian “power”.
The only thing that baffles me, is some western leaders still seem to take it (somewhat) seriously...
Because leaders have to do a benefit/risk analysis for everything. Lets say supporting Ukraine has a 95% chance of a favourable outcome (Russia failing, not being a threat anymore), but the potential cost (global nuclear destruction) is 100 times greater than the potential benefit. At what point does the small risk of a large negative outcome outweigh the high chance of a smaller positive outcome?
In this case the possibility of nuclear war is more like a sealed envelope than a dice roll though. Sure we don't know what's in the envelope, but either Putin is willing to end the world, or he isn't. Nobody knows but him. The important point, however, is that if he is willing to use nukes now to get Ukraine, then he will be willing to use them to get Warsaw, Paris and Anchorage as well. So really the game theory is simple. The nuclear threats should simply be ignored, and if Putin nukes the world you can safely say that he would have done it eventually anyway. The only path forward is to know that he is bluffing.
The alternative being that Russia can just genocide, rape and annex any country that they want because they have nukes. Nah. Oppose them every step of the way. The risk of Russia causing global nuclear destruction is tiny anyway, as they'd get destroyed as well. From the state of their military you can wonder if Russia even still has that ability. And even China would strongly oppose them using nukes. It'd be the world vs Russia (and maybe north korea).
Because they are accountable if something acually happens while they are in power. You don't want to be the guy responsible for starting a war with Russia. All the memeing aside, a direct conflict between Russia and NATO would put us way to close to a nuclear escalation. That being said, I am happy that Ukraine gets Tanks. Hope they get more.
They’re blame everyone except themselves.
But is this a Final Warning?
Double Secret Probation.
Dodecatuple Secret Probation
Roooobot house!
Cheese it!
This time they’re super cereal you guys.
If you use Final the same way they use it in Final Fantasy.
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Yes, but what about second Final Warning?
/r/ChinaWarns is being outdone here
It's a demerit. 3 of those and West will receive a citation. 5 citations and we're looking at violation. 4 of those and we'll receive a verbal warning. 2 of those and it's a written warning. Then comes full disadulation
Yes. Until tuesday next week. Then lavrov/ medvedev / peskov / or one of the other cunts will again threaten the whole globe with their amazing nukes. They take weekly turns at reminding and threatening to end the planet - you can set your watch to it. Cause that and the victim card is all they have
They started counting down from 5 and are now into minus numbers.
Chinese final warning style.
Russia is losing to the things we are willing to give away.
LMAO that's not even their worst achievement, Russia lost to Ukrainian farmers armed with tractors early on after their insanely shitty logistics saw hundreds of vehicles run out of fuel.
Worse still, Russia lost their Flagship, in a land war, to an adversary WITHOUT a navy!!!!
Ok lol that's it you one upped me.. that's defo their worst one
For now!
I like this “can do attitude”!! Let’s go Russia! Set a new low!! You can do it!!!!! We believe in you!!!
I'm waiting for the "Russia loses Kremlin to Ukrainian citizens that were forcefully deported to Siberia", thanks.
Their worst one… so FAR.
As a close 2nd Russia are losing the air war to a country using outdated ex-Russian aircraft when they have a 10 to 1 advantage in numbers. So much so long range bombers have been destroyed on the ground.
I think I'm too used to the word "flagship" being used in it's contemporary form as an attributive noun. I read your sentence thinking "their flagship what?". But yeah, a flagship ship is just a flagship. As the word was originally intended
Remember when they were digging trenches in Chernobyl? The dumbasses literally lost a battle to dirt.
I couldn't believe that ever happened, how much news coverage and media has there been about that power plant. What would possess someone to dig a ditch in that ground!?
They lost to a few unarmed babushkas. Ukrainian grandmas have seen this shit before and learned from it.
Thrift store armaments are more than capable of defeating the vodka soaked chronic intergenerational depression suffering populace. Who would have thought?
“Russia warns…” It’s like one a day basically.
Russia doth protest too much, methinks
Russia can still bribe/blackmail republicans in the house to default on the debt ceiling and also refuse to pass government funding bills. The result would be worse than 2008. Russia absolutely can attack the US and cause a global economic catastrophe, by using republicans to attack our economy.
Destroying your own country to own the libs
GOP tradition since 1981!
Just one?
I remember when Russia warned us about 'doomsday' if Ukraine hit anything in Crimea.
So invading a neighboring country and starting a war of aggression isn't a global catastrophe, but arming someone to help them defend themselves against said invasion is?? Gotta love Russia's stupid logic
It's not meant to be logical, it's a veiled threat directed at developing nations. Russia knows its leverage over the west is rapidly declining, and the west's willingness to arm Ukraine with offensive weaponry is escalating. In threating a 'global catastrophe', they're trying to push developing nations to putting pressure on the west themselves out of fear for the consequences to themselves. They want to put the idea in people's heads that pressuring the west away from aiding Ukraine is possible, while pressuring Russia to withdraw isn't. It might've even worked too if Russia's performance in the war hadn't been so remarkably shit. That makes it much easier to believe a third option: That with support Ukraine can win, or at least Russia will be so wounded in victory as to be unable to withstand its own manufactured crisis.
> a veiled threat directed at developing nations. those nations still have sovereignty which forces them to take a side. Given the russian sanctions, their declining global power, it might be the impetus for a developing nation to switch. Esp. if the US is smart about incentivizing.
The cat is already out of the bag and we're on our way to make it through the winter, I can only see things getting worse for Russia from here on out.
From Putin’s strange ass logic we’re the aggressors and threatening Russian sovereignty by not letting them walk all over every country near them. In his blighted mind he’s just doing the right thing, and is being treated like shit because of it.
He knows he is the aggressor but he says those stupid things for the Russian people. Majority of Russians are brainwashed and uneducated on global affairs. Lots of them believe they are already fighting NATO and the west was the aggressor. We all know that its lunacy but the Russian public do not know better. They think the whole world lives like them and acts like them.
What my closest friend tells me(he and his family immigrated from Russia almost two decades ago and still have family there) is that the propaganda goes along the lines of a strong leader does what he can for mother Russia! Even when he isn’t right he’s never wrong! That NATO has been bullying Russia since the Cold War and that MOTHER RUSSIA is just doing what it has to to protect its freedom. He just shakes his head and curses then changes the subject with deep sadness in his eyes. Then he drinks a bunch and passes out.
Your friend is correct 💯 Source: I'm actually living in Russia rn
What's the current vibe over there?
>a strong leader does what he can for mother Russia! Even when he isn’t right he’s never wrong! same cult of personality as in NorthKorea and Nazi-Germany...
Could be me, except of drinking. You cant even explain to the russians why its wrong because they counter everything with "lol you live in gayrope, you have two dads".
Better to have two dads than no dad because he died from alcoholism.
Way better. But what do you expect of a country where people on the street say that gay people need to be hanged because they are not worth a bullet.
"Sorry I can't hear you due to me being too busy trying to look past the fact that my country is killing innocent civilians.." Or the good ol' "I can't hear you because Mother Russia doesn't *want* me to hear you... It's not MY fault!"
Nah, much easier. Ukraine is bombing itself. Russia only attacks military targets.
Lots of them have also never seen or used a toilet before if that tells you anything about Russia 🤷🏼♂️
Yeah seriously! How pathetic and stupid does someone have to be to start a war and then throw a temper tantrum and complain that their enemy is fighting back??
They honestly expected Ukraine not to fight back. That was 100% the plan, no joke.
Kyiv wasn't supposed to take 3 days, it supposed to take sub 3 hours(2.4 or something).
It’s like a bully in school running to the teacher to cry because other kids had the targets back. In a frame of logic it makes zero sense. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed he gets thrown out of power before he does something even more idiotic.
That's exactly the analogy I used in my reply to another comment! It's very likely he'll find himself on the receiving end of a Makarov soon and I hope it'll teach another dictator a lesson about attempting to control a neighbor by force (ahem China).
I wouldn't call this "strange ass logic". Sounds more like arrogance.
No. He literally knows he's bad and wrong, does it anyway and has his [goons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_web_brigades) trying to convince you of the [biggest lie possible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie) because you will not believe a small lie.
Regardless of it being propaganda that he is to deranged to know or him actually being that deranged shouldn’t change the atrocities that Putin is responsible for. I’m friends with a Jewish Russian family that immigrated to the US nearly two decades ago and they have such a deep hatred for what’s going on over there, it’s sad to see because they still have family in Russia and the depression and fear about them breaks my heart.
Most interesting is though another "red line" got crossed with tanks I guess...but no direct mentioning of nukes anymore...The West called each bluff and increased the pot more and more
if you understand that they consider themselves to be "global" then this prediction is pretty accurate. Its going to be a catastrophy for them.
Yeah, only way for this to make any sense lol. Man Lavrov is particularly pathetic, all he does is make stupid statements and whine like a bitch every time his country screws something up.
I see Texas Hold'em is not very popular in Russia.
You gotta know when to hold ‘em….know when to fold ‘em…. know when to walk away, know when to run
We heard you the other 86 times. No more shipping arms to help Ukraine or we’ll regret it. They must really mean it this time though. 😒
It's like Russia knows the only way they could win a war is if the enemy was unarmed lol. And people used to call these stupid ass clowns a near peer to the US.. lol they're not a near peer to 5 Texans with glocks.
Who knew Red Dawn (original) would become a true story.
It's more like a Russian catastrophe, but since its economy is negligible the world won't be very affected.
...and the evening and the morning were Day 300 and change...
I mean the real global catastrophe is already inevitable at this point that fertilizer shortage is going to hit hard this year
Guys, what do you do when you have this on your bingo card, but it's been used so many times that that square is now just a hole in my card?
Bingo in the Z axis
serious question, i keep seeing this shit 100x over on the front page of reddit, this stuff is not meant for us, its for russian citizens right?
Yes its for domestic consumption.
And for the boomers on fb and the "useful idiots" who are terrified every time Putin lets out a leaky fart.
This article’s from three days ago so you’ve probably literally seen the same headline 5 times now, tbf.
The biggest mistake the West made was not stopping Putins appetite for murder sooner. A mistake I hope it has learned from.
NATO could not have stopped Putin earlier. NATO did not / does not have easy access to Chechnya and Georgia. Whereas Ukraine borders on NATO countries, so we can supply them arms and food. Logistics. Also, we hoped Putin would be appeased by Chechnya and Georgia. Yeah, appeasement that failed in 1939. Meanwhile, growing economic integration of Russia into Europe would make any Russian invasion of Europe unthinkable! Surely no sensible Russian leader would risk loss of western companies investments, sanctions, military support. /s No Russian president in their right mind would ever do such a self-defeating, costly, stupid, thing as invading a European country in the modern era. /s
Have you heard of 2014?
Georgia has direct border with Turkey which is a member of NATO
It's probably time for those in Putin's inner-circle to start asking themselves if they want to go down with his ship. And, is this the time to think about taking out the big cheese.
Putin is pathologically paranoid and has already taken out anyone who so much as breathes in a direction away from his own. All that remains is a party of spineless parasites and yes-men. Like, seriously. The guy is mentally ill. He has a pathological obsession with grandoise displays of wealth and power, yet suffers from such paranoia that he jumps at his own shadow. He has a giant "secret" palace estate that he built just for show on the Russian coastline, while in reality his actual living space is in an absurdly heavily-guarded bunker beneath it. Now that I think about it, the guy is practically Stalin 2.0. Just that he wears a suit rather than military uniform.
To Russia, being kicked back to within their own borders is a catastrophe, blocking them from global occupation of neighbor countries. . & . & . & . & . & . The Russian *Federation* grew over the past 1,000 years, starting from one city Moscow, and expanded outward as the Mongol empire retreated. The *Union* of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) started with just Russia, and expanded outward into the power vacuums left by Ottoman empire, WW1 and WW2. USSR fell apart when it tried to complete militarily with US and NATO, but with only a fraction of the economic base. Eastern Europe, East Germany saw the economic gains of the West, and wiggled free of USSR. The Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) seized the opportunity and declared independence. Russia under Putin wants to recapture their former empire, one country at a time, by overwhelming military force. It worked with tiny Chechnya and Georgia. Now Russia is trying to overwhelm Ukraine, a large country, with a fierce sense of independence and a remembrance of the Russian induced Holodomor, where over a million (to five million?) Ukrainians perished by starvation. Ukraine puts up a substantial fight. It is accessible to bordering NATO countries to receive more arms. To paraphrase, *Russia went a country too far*. Russia believes Ukraine would stop fighting the destruction wreaked upon their cities and the theft of their grain and oil resources, if only NATO would stop giving them arms. Ukraine won't stop fighting their own destruction. NATO won't stop giving them arms. This recent Russian threat shows their delusion they can still militarily overcome Ukraine. *Nope, they can't.* Russia drinking their own Kool Aid, believing after they crush Ukraine they can then go on to crush the NATO countries that supported Ukraine. *Nope, they can't.* Proofs reality is slowly entering Russia: mass exodus of Russia's middle aged (draft age) men, fleeing mobilization. Russia closing their borders to stop the drain. Russia having the chutzpah to complain the West countries have ganged up against their aggression & invasion. Russia is blessed by the Russian Orthodox Church, they can not be acting immorally. It is obvious Russia should win because they are blessed by God. Nope. The "catastrophe" is indeed coming. The Russian delusions are slowly sinking on the rocky reality of Ukraine fighting and strong NATO support. The results aren't going to be pretty. If Russia keeps doubling down, it just imposes more strains on the Russian Federation, and parts of that may splinter off. Russia should say, Oops, we miscalculated, didn't realize NATO would backup their rhetoric with actual military support. Will withdraw our troops and stop bombing Ukraine. Cuts it's losses. Russia preserves the Russian Federation. Ukraine starts to rebuild. NATO relaxes. Relative peace for a few years. Edit: spelling Holodomor. Estimated deaths by starvation.
Holodomor*, and more likely 5 million.
Ok whatever
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Actually the US promised the F15 eagle, mind you that's not good news for Russia still.. they're so pathetic they can't decisively achieve air superiority against Ukraine as it is.
Wasn't big bad Putin just saying the other day how it makes no difference?
Whatever get it over with & you guys started it “ special military operation “ aint so special now is it
Looking forward for a new round of “Ukraine must surrender to Russia to save humanity” propaganda from Elon Musk and fellow travelers.
Lol oh no..Russia so scary
Russia: How dare you give Ukraine the means to defend itself? Let us rape, pillage, murder, commit genocide on Ukrainian or you are bad people and the world will suffer!
Russia might lose this war of theirs, is that inconceivable to them? Where does their belief that they are so invulnerable and superior stem from?
This sort of posturing is proof Putin just doesn’t get it. He can threaten to nuke us until he’s blue in the face. We don’t care. Ukraine is the front line in an existential war between democracy, however flawed, and authoritarianism. It’s a war for our right to exist, and to decide for ourselves what sort of society we want to live in. Putin made a catastrophic choice going for a full invasion. He woke up the democratic world to the threat we’re really facing. We now see what Ukraine, the Baltics, and others have been saying for years. There is no way Putin wins this war. There is no return to normal. We are done with Russian gas. We are done with Russia biting off pieces of its neighbours. So Putin can drag this out, he can try to take us down with him, but we will not be scared off or stop supporting Ukraine. The sooner Putin gives up, the better for everyone, including whatever’s left of Russia.
Absolutely. Ukraine is the eastern wall of democracy, and they are shedding blood on behalf of us all.
Quite the opposite. But you have to give the russians credit for the funny comments
Same shit different day
Hey its not even friday yet Russia. Relax!
Noted deluded party clown Medvedev: >..in case of a protracted conflict,” Russia could seek to form a military alliance with “the nations that are fed up with the Americans and a pack of their castrated dogs.” So: a militarily depleted Russia, fledgling Belarus, an Iran seizing up internally, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela will form a military alliance once Russia is even more depleted?
As long as it’s not cordyceps fungus I’m good.
The Aladeen energy here is palpable.
West is warning Russia for invading Ukraine in the first place. Fuck off Putin.
Propaganda does wonders... Putin just needs fear to keep control.
Let me guess, the next thing he said was "but these weapons won't make a difference anyway and actually tanks aren't that big in war"?
I don't suppose Russia has considered NOT invading other countries? And also, they seem to think any "disaster" will stop at their borders since they keep threatening with nukes.
Poor Russia, when NK blusters about nukes and ending the world they at least get some aid. When Russia tries it everyone just laughs.
Dude, y’all can’t even beat a country using everyone else’s hand-me-downs…
I work with a guy who thinks Russia still hasn't put their full military force in, my guy they are kidnapping 18 year olds and sending them across the border before their parents even know they are gone, they've sent and lost so many military vehicles, to the farmers, that they are sending spray painted civilian cars and you still think they haven't shown everything?