Ukraine Invasion: Part 23

[MagicFox]

Welcome all, thanks for the company

@Igotjelly I do this myself😂

1. reads News or Twitter
2. anxiety sets in
3. straight to this thread
4. breathe

Yeah I'm not looking forward to May 9th either.
Wallace's suggestion that he will use it to declare war so as to mobilise Russians makes sense, though I agree that the wording about the world's nazis is a bit scary. Remember though Putin's mantra has been that the 'nazis' in ukraine are being supported and mobilised by the US and NATO ergo they are all Nazis too. So it's hopefully an allusion to that

May 9th is important in Russia, but it is only really important for this war if Putin makes it a deadline. Of course if there is no victory on the date that becomes obvious. It is a public holiday. In UK terms it is Remembrance Sunday and then some, but with the new invincible weapons making an appearance at some point. Rehearsals take place late at night the days before.

Link to the 2021 parade. Click anywhere along the time line for the flavour. Putin does not look in such a bad state as he is now, but he is puffy faced.

Why May 9th?

The German surrender on May 8th 1945 (VE Day) was 11.01pm in Berlin, so in Moscow it was the next day.

Lots of St George ribbons are worn, with alternating black and orange strips. Over time these were adopted in Ukraine by pro-Russian political forces. It is now a banned symbol in Ukraine. Before it was banned, those using it politically were sometimes called Kolorady because the colours are like those of the Colorado Beetle.

Just because I like economic statistics converted to the globe (amateur reader of Kidron & Segal), just to remind you all what this translates to.

12 minutes of tax revenue for the IRS

68 minutes of tax revenue for HMRC

20 minutes of tax revenue for Germany

And who knows for countries like Russia, Pakistan, India, Brazil and Nigeria where paying taxes is avoided because the system cannot be trusted.

Not sure what they’ll do given they’re a bit short on tanks these days.

Lots of St George ribbons are worn, with alternating black and orange strips.

Ah, that's why some of the 'Z' images I've seen are striped like this. I noticed it eg at that athletics event where hitler's girlfriend spoke

Lavrov - Russia does not consider itself to be at war with NATO

Has anyone told Putin?

Oh my gosh sorry Putin's girlfriend. That was a totally mad Freudian slip

Typical shitty Mumsnet link so screenshot attached. This feels like a fairly big climb down.

@MagicFox i did wonder! 😂😂😂 easily done lol

It's tongue twisting. The narrative is that war with nato means nuclear and OF COURSE russia would never want that; however they can hardly help it if nato are the ones at war with Russia cos of their intervention in ukraine (as per all of their media states)

Huge climb down. Wonder if they're only just realising that NATO support won't be stopping anytime soon.

Military expenditure
Russia - $60 billion
UK - $60 billion
USA - $778 billion

GDP
Russia - $1.8 trillion
UK - $3.4 trillion
USA - $25 trillion

The US is successful because it allows its people to be creative. This creativity is what Putin feared most. Remember the You Tube clip I posted a few threads back.

Sleep easy tonight.

Maybe they're retracting any sense of being at war with NATO ahead of May 8thbsonthwy can declare it then with full dramatic effect...?

Wowee those are some typos...

May 9th...so they can...

Putrid is such a vile hypocrite. There's a thriving far right movement in Russia and the hired thugs Wagner are nazis. Makes me sick.

@Igotjelly gosh that’s so weird. I feel like it’s all mindgames though. It’s reminiscent of boyfriends who have you on a string playing hot and cold until you don’t know what the f is going on or what to believe. Russia the ultimate fuckboy with a tiny prick (no need to spell out who I mean by that)

With respect .. why are you believing anything he says?

three days later he'll be back at the nuclear scare tactics again.

@Throwawaytoday that's a scary thought but what would Russia have to gain from publicly declaring war on NATO?

No absolutely, don’t trust him as far as I can throw him, just curious given the increased rhetoric to now have the opposite.

Good thread on the risks of nuclear war, why we should be vigilant about using dangerous rhetoric and why the west need to walk a fine line between carrots and sticks, not toppling into either: twitter.com/drradchenko/status/1520117465468084228?s=21&t=9G4TtMMEdUnz6VadK23wpQ

Maybe because of Guterres.

Of the 135,000 new conscripts, badly trained as they will be, does anyone have any idea how many will be sent to Ukraine? (I know they arent supposed to be sent there but you know, that's not really reliable)

General drama and fear I'd imagine @MagicFox I kinda think that's where he's at as a person at the moment, cause as much terror as possible, ramp it up, ramp it down, ramp it up higher, ramp it down for a few days, make a few threats about impending apocalypse, disappear for a week... Etc. Keeps everyone in their toes and distracted while he slowly tried to rebuild the Russian Empire (not even USSR) and China takes Taiwan.

Pretty moving response to questions about Putin's actions from the Pentagon's press secretary in his q&a. He's visibly moved (he's asked about if he thinks Putin is a rational actor around 2.35ish): twitter.com/cspan/status/1520110701540487168?s=21&t=9G4TtMMEdUnz6VadK23wpQ

I'd imagine it's much the same tactic as the will he/won't he cut off oil and gas supplies... Ramp up, ramp down, ramp up, ramp down - if you ramp up high enough for widespread terror, when you ramp down nations will be grateful enough to concede to your demands ... little by little.