OV9

Shlergen wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 3:38 pm I see Assad is backing him, why has he not been sniped yet?!

I suspect he keeps a multiple location itinerary and only when he has decided where he will go in the moments after departure in an armoured convoy does the location get fixed.

Any public appearances will be carefully screened and likely huge security and plain clothes agents in the crowds.

Ultra lightweight body armour as well.

He was trained by the KGB so he knows what he's doing, might have gone tonto but i suspect the training sticks in his mind!

Assuming you're talking about Putin, if its Assad, see points 1-3 (although maybe he has also had some rudimentary KGB training - or doesn't give a flying funk)

Sundayjumper wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 9:58 am FTSE100 dropped a bit but seems to be recovering already.

And it’s closed pretty much exactly where it was at the end of Wednesday, before the invasion.

Sundayjumper wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 2:08 pm I’ve just seen footage on TV of a Russian APC deliberately swerve to run over a civilian vehicle driving in the opposite direction. Unbelievable.

I assume its the same incident this article refers to - seems like the Ukranians ambushed 2 Russian vehicles amd the tank veering was as a result of that.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/ ... sian-plot/

teacherboy wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 5:05 pm

Shlergen wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 3:38 pm I see Assad is backing him, why has he not been sniped yet?!

I suspect he keeps a multiple location itinerary and only when he has decided where he will go in the moments after departure in an armoured convoy does the location get fixed.

Any public appearances will be carefully screened and likely huge security and plain clothes agents in the crowds.

Ultra lightweight body armour as well.

He was trained by the KGB so he knows what he's doing, might have gone tonto but i suspect the training sticks in his mind!

Assuming you're talking about Putin, if its Assad, see points 1-3 (although maybe he has also had some rudimentary KGB training - or doesn't give a flying funk)

More on Assad but in both cases it would appear to be one man pulling the strings. Blissfully unaware of all the dark crap that goes on whilst sitting in slippers in the UK. Look at Haiti.

Same incident, but the footage I saw was filmed from the other side of the road, and - on the face of it - backed up the eye witness report linked in that article which said:

“Two armoured vehicles were driving along the road, and the second of them deliberately drove into the oncoming lane,” he said. “It was not by chance. It was for fun. There was no need for this. And it just ran into this car. Stopped, reversed over it again and drove on.”

Yeah, the footage of the civs trying to get the old geezer out of the car, though heavily obscured, was pretty brutal. I would presume, without FA evidence, they wanted to literally crush some old guy who dared to get in front of them.

I can't even begin to imagine what's it like for the Ukrainian people. Fvck Russia. For every Russki saying this is abhorrent there's a further three saying it's fine, it's normal. Get wrecked. Sub-human. Wonder what Bald & Bankrupt will be doing now?

Swervin_Mervin wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 9:27 pm

Sundayjumper wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 2:08 pm I’ve just seen footage on TV of a Russian APC deliberately swerve to run over a civilian vehicle driving in the opposite direction. Unbelievable.

I assume its the same incident this article refers to - seems like the Ukranians ambushed 2 Russian vehicles amd the tank veering was as a result of that.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/ ... sian-plot/

The article mentions the Russian soldiers being dressed up as Ukrainian soldiers - doesn't the Geneva convention have some very, very serious things to say about that? Like, war crime things?

Beany wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 11:01 pm

Swervin_Mervin wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 9:27 pm

Sundayjumper wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 2:08 pm I’ve just seen footage on TV of a Russian APC deliberately swerve to run over a civilian vehicle driving in the opposite direction. Unbelievable.

I assume its the same incident this article refers to - seems like the Ukranians ambushed 2 Russian vehicles amd the tank veering was as a result of that.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/ ... sian-plot/

The article mentions the Russian soldiers being dressed up as Ukrainian soldiers - doesn't the Geneva convention have some very, very serious things to say about that? Like, war crime things?

They've shelled two merchant ships as well - one registered to Moldova and one to Japan. Fairly sure that's a bit naughty as well

They're also shelling hospitals in Ukraine...

I mean, there's the phrase 'fuck about and find out' - from varying reports, Russia is fucking about, and is now finding out. Conflicts between modern military establishments are not the same as the us, UK or Russia walking over a third world shithole who's idea of air defence is a lucky shot with an rpg7 with God on their side; Ukraine has a pretty serious army and air force setup and they don't seem to be shy about deploying them in anger.

Various rumours - and at the moment they are just rumours - of a transport plane intended to carry paratroopers being shot down, murmurings about France saying Fuck It and supporting kicking Russia off the SWIFT payment system, and that Ukrainian troops have captured a few dozen Russian troops and are keeping them as POWs/leverage.

That, and you know, old bloke getting run over by a tank and reportedly walking it off, and the Ukrainian president strapping on body armour and going for a walk in a full blown conflict zone.

If nothing else, Ukraine are owning Russia from a PR standpoint.

All of this is from a very Western standpoint however and subject to, to be frank, propagandistic tendencies; was chatting to a Swedish chum today (so culturally a bit more familiar with dealing with Russian bullshit - they learn about Russia in school in a similar way we learn about Nazi Germany and England Vs Scotland, etc) who pointed out that Russian separatist movements have been operating in Ukraine in what we agreed could be a somewhat 'IRA' sort of manner (as a cultural touchstone for me, rather than an accurate depiction) for near a decade now, and poor diplomatic efforts from Ukraine have functionally enabled this escalation to occur to an extent. It's more complicated than most would like to believe (because black and white is easy to digest and sell, greys are not) , and certainly than is being reported. It's possible it's all propaganda from both sides. Not being in the area means basically none of us can confidently read the room, politically.

We are in agreement that the Snake Island lads are metal as fuck, I think, though. I mean, telling a warship to flat out get fucked knowing they would turn you into pink mist at the drop of a hat is pretty fucking hard core.

Beany wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 11:56 pm
We are in agreement that the Snake Island lads are metal as fuck, I think, though. I mean, telling a warship to flat out get fucked knowing they would turn you into pink mist at the drop of a hat is pretty fucking hard core.

The bit that struck me the most in that was the response to his question of whether he should tell them to go fuck themselves "yeah - just in case". Says that they knew what lay in store for them but wanted to make sure the Russians knew full well what they thought about it.

Yeah, when those guys signed away thier lives on that dotted line, they fucking meant it.

Canada officially backing dumping Russia from SWIFT.

Just been reading that the French have semt their special forces in to secure their embassy and have offered Zelensky somewhere secure to stay.

Also that China have abstained in the UN vote, effectively isolating Russia, as well as some Chinese banks restricting lending to Russia. I suppose the capitalist communism works well for them and they've maybe realised they'd like to keep it that way

Interesting thread

Yeah, China are no fucking fools. They're massively invested in the West and having that revenue stream cut - via semi conductors, gas and oil, never mind funding/investment/property activity (or Swift transfers) wouldn't cripple them, but they'd notice in a big way, that would piss off big people internally - their own financial oligarches. No one is a communist any more, everyone is some kind of capitalist, and war only makes money if you can easily and quickly win.

As noted, this does not look like an easy win.

Although you can be sure there's shit kicking off in Taiwan this weekend while the worlds eyes are on Kiev.

Russia certainly seems to be pretty isolated tonight, from a broad geopolitical standpoint. Even the US republicans who were not 24hrs ago slavishly supporting Trumps standpoint that Putin was a savvy, clever guy for ignoring 'two dollar sanctions' are starting to realise that supporting literal war crimes probably won't help them in the US mid terms....

Swervin_Mervin wrote: ↑Sat Feb 26, 2022 12:36 am Interesting thread

Ain't that the fucking truth.

Ooh, and the current right wing talk in the US is how Ukraine's handing out of automatic weapons is an endorsement of the 2nd Amendment.

Yeah, because Canada and Mexico are both batshit insane autocracies with heads of state who miss having an empire to control. Get back in your box you fascist appeasing fucking retards.

Edit: pornhub is geoblocking Russian IP addresses - shit just got real.

The “on the way” national debt crisis in China must be helping them keep on the right side of the rest of the world at the minute.

I really have no idea what Putin is trying to achieve.

Dave!

V8Granite wrote: ↑Sat Feb 26, 2022 1:56 am
I really have no idea what Putin is trying to achieve.

Dave!

Either:

USSR MK2, not because Russia wants it, but because Putin wants it- personal vanity project for his “legacy”

Or this is purely to stop Ukraine going NATO, and he still thinks like a Cold War soldier