OV9

Some people in Russia also think Stalin is a beloved hero, so there's plenty of potential for Putin to feel good about all this!

Similarly Mao is seen as a hero in China. People be crazy.

duncs500 wrote: Fri Nov 22, 2024 2:55 pm Some people in Russia also think Stalin is a beloved hero, so there's plenty of potential for Putin to feel good about all this!

Some people in Britain think Churchill is a beloved hero

duncs500 wrote: Fri Nov 22, 2024 8:50 am The commanders on the ground (that have survived!) will probably be a strategic match for anyone we've got in terms of modern warfare. I'd say there's no substitute for experience and having to evolve to stay alive.

The Russian command and control system is very top down and archaic. The commanders on the ground have little say in tactics and strategy and given Russia's tactics consist entirely of "throw all the men into the meat grinder until the enemy retreats", I doubt Sandhurst is going to be overhauling its curriculum any time soon.

Delphi wrote: Fri Nov 22, 2024 3:52 pm ...I doubt Sandhurst is going to be overhauling its curriculum any time soon.

You say that but it definitely has changed over the last few years. For a long long time it was assumed future conflicts would be in hot dry middle eastern regions, we focused on that and and we ran down stocks of equipment more suited to fighting in cold wet muddy European forests. We were wrong.

People have been laughing at Russia wheeling out all their old ww2 crap for the last two years, suggesting they must be running low on arms.

Yet still it keeps going and they keep pushing forward. Maybe they were using their old rubbish to run down Ukrainian supplies and they’ve still got plenty left

Wonder how much of that was propaganda? I remember there was a point at which defence experts said Russia would run out of missiles, then tanks, then airplanes, then money, then drones etc. Or maybe it was just really shit intelligence like the whole Afghanistan estimate on how many months it would take to fall to the Taliban...

Sundayjumper wrote: Fri Nov 22, 2024 4:03 pm

Delphi wrote: Fri Nov 22, 2024 3:52 pm ...I doubt Sandhurst is going to be overhauling its curriculum any time soon.

You say that but it definitely has changed over the last few years. For a long long time it was assumed future conflicts would be in hot dry middle eastern regions, we focused on that and and we ran down stocks of equipment more suited to fighting in cold wet muddy European forests. We were wrong.

And IIRC that was a result of things like when we tried to run Challenger IIs in the desert and their air filters kept getting clogged up - because we assumed we'd only be fighting wars in cold wet muddy european forests

The Challenger 2 doesn’t seem particularly optimised for the soviet badlands either. Weren’t they pulled from frontline fighting in Ukraine because they’re too heavy and kept getting stuck in mud?

Looks like the latest round of US sanctions against Russia are working well. Rubel taking a nosedive.

Had a message when logging into hsbc online banking on Saturday and forgot to post here
They stopped all their business banking there in 2022 but they’ve now stopped any personal banking activity too

Mito Man wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2024 5:00 pm Why does he hate Zelensky?

Ok, so we finally met up today on a quick wastegate job and this is what has happened.

Incase I got it wrong before, his wife is Ukrainian, his brother in law and sister in law (with their own families) went to Germany after the invasion as the land that was taken is where they lived.

The in-laws stayed with him in Poland. Before the war he was having to subsidise his in-laws as Ukraine was supposedly more free but incredibly corrupt. Prices for things like gas was very high and they struggled to get by. When they lived there before it came part of Ukraine in the 90s life was much better for them. She was a teacher and he was something to do with transport.

Even though there is a war on they moved back, as they are in Russia occupied territory they say life is better, less corruption and my colleague no longer has to subsidise them. Apparently this is not an uncommon feeling and many see Zelensky as a Biden puppet who is as corrupt as they come.

The brother in law has moved back to Russia occupied Ukraine but the sister in law is now pretty much going to live in Germany.

He went into more detail but we were working at the times and it felt rude to take notes , lots of stuff about previous territories when they were part of Russia and huge Russian speaking communities.

I asked about Trump and if they were looking forward to him being president but their view seems to be America is America whatever the person at the top.

Dave!

Really interesting thanks. Wiki has a bit on the Donbas post 1990 with huge unemployment and wage crashes and I can imagine a lot of people retain a resentment of Kyiv and oligarchs from that time.

Things are getting a bit odd
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4x9gz4ylwo
So it’s getting bleaker for Ukraine, I assume the only reason they won’t negotiate now and are waiting for Trump is so they can blame Trump for not supporting them and forcing a peace treaty, unless they genuinely think they can get a better deal under Trump

You can imagine "the art of the deal" Ukraine will return 100% of Russian territory in exchange for 100% of theirs..

It's also another front to try and spread and degrade Russia's air defences and keep heavier forces tied down away from Donbas.

Not that helps the poor buggers in the trenches much.

Kursk salient was always a gamble, we've yet to see if it pays off.

https://bsky.app/profile/oalexanderdk.b ... un3li4sc2b

Last week the Russian Central Bank sold 1 trillion in bonds to the banks in order to raise money to cover the 2024 government deficit.

The banks lacked liquidity to buy, so now the CB is lending the banks money to buy its own bonds.

All while using the same bonds as collateral for the loan.

Uhhhh…. OK. Russian economy going full Zimbabwe soon I guess.

Isn’t that what China did in the last few years ?

Dave!

Seems like a really clever thing to do

Fuck me. Anyone else watching Newsnight on BBC2 with Carla Sands speaking on behalf of the Trump Administration? What an absolute shit spout.

I mean, just assume anyone speaking on behalf of the Trump Admin is basically trolling in some way - it's all some kind of rage bait.