(Image found here; h/t Steeplejack)
Seven hours of sleep and I feel significantly improved! So we’re back to a more or less regular update tonight.
Also, thanks for everyone who tried to answer my question last night. Allison Rose got the correct answer in first; please see Anne Laurie on the mezzanine level to collect your prize! Unfortunately, these only come in medium. I do not know why. If they came in all the sizes, or at least one that would fit me, I would actually order one. If anyone sees someone selling something similar, especially without the QR code on the back, where the money goes to help Ukraine and/or Ukrainians, please let me know! If someone can find a legit vendor selling a Ukrainian national hockey team jersey, that would do too!
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump:
Good health to you, fellow Ukrainians!
Today in Kyiv, a new plaque dedicated to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen was unveiled on the Walk of the Brave. It was really a great honor and simply a pleasure for me to take part in this unveiling, in the recognition of Mrs. Ursula’s bravery. She is one of the central figures of the European policy towards Ukraine, she is one of those thanks to whom the European space and European values are now really being protected.
Today Mrs. Ursula has visited our country for the third time since February 24. And every time her visits open a new stage in the rapprochement of Ukraine and the European Union. We discussed all the key points in our relations. But now I want to highlight the issue of integration, the movement of our country towards full membership in the EU.
Whatever the circumstances, we will still implement every detail of our arrangements to open the possibility of membership negotiations. Already in November, we are to fulfill the seven recommendations of the European Commission, which we received when we obtained the candidate status. The assessment by the European Commission of our progress in integration should begin as soon as possible. And next year, we should clarify the key issue: when we can start membership negotiations. The Ukrainian side will do everything for this. And as elements of rapprochement, we consider such things as the regime of the EU internal market for Ukraine, as the unification of our institutional work, for example, at customs – in joint customs control between Ukraine and EU countries. We are already working on this.
Today I thanked Mrs. Ursula for the support already provided – macro-financial, sanctions, defense. We also discussed energy cooperation, which is extremely important for Ukraine and for every EU country on the eve of this winter, which Russia will try to use against all of us in Europe.
I told about a new and particularly vile tactic of Russian terrorists – attacks on energy and hydrotechnical infrastructure. Just during the stay of the President of the European Commission in Ukraine, the Russian army launched new missile attacks on Kryvyi Rih, on the Kirovohrad region. In both cases – on hydrotechnical structures. The purpose of these strikes is completely clear. These are attacks on people, on the normality of life in Ukraine. The terrorist state is trying to show that it can allegedly compensate with such strikes for the cowardice and incompetence of its military, for the failure of its efforts to avoid sanctions and economic isolation.
In response, we must show that there will always be a tough and principled reaction to every manifestation of Russian terror. That is why the eighth EU sanctions package is needed – we talked about it with Mrs. Ursula. A principled decision by the United States of America regarding the terrorist state, the legal recognition of this status is also needed, and we discussed this, by the way, recently during the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Kyiv. We also discuss this issue during contacts with congressmen.
Progress is needed in providing Ukraine with air defense systems. We already have agreements with certain countries, our diplomats are working with others. I want to emphasize that without providing us with a sufficient number of sufficiently effective air defense systems that will protect the Ukrainian skies, Russia will continue to feel impunity and provoke new local and global crises. Therefore, protecting Ukraine from Russian missiles is truly a basic element of global security.
In general, supporting Ukraine with weapons, ammunition and finances is crucial for peace in Europe. The better support we have, the sooner this war will end. I talked about it with the representatives of the leading think tanks of Poland, Britain, France and the US who arrived in Kyiv. Real protection of freedom and common values of the free world is possible now only as a result of Ukraine’s victory in this war.
I also spoke about further support for Ukraine with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. As always, very substantive, specific. We discussed various security issues, including Russian missile strikes, defense assistance, training of our military, prospects for the developments on the battlefield, restoration of critical infrastructure before the winter period. I am grateful to Mr. Prime Minister for the support already provided to us, in particular financial, for the funds for the purchase of gas. And for understanding the steps we need to take to ruin Russia’s terrorist plans.
An important IAEA resolution was adopted today – a resolution demanding that Russia cease all actions against the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant at the plant itself, at any other nuclear facility in Ukraine. Although international organizations are often limited in their ability to respond, we see that the IAEA clearly identifies the source of radiation danger, namely: the Russian military presence at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, Russian actions against the nuclear power plant. Therefore, the complete demilitarization of the plant, the immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops from there is the only thing that can ensure the implementation of this IAEA resolution. And this is also a basic element of global security. As long as Russian soldiers remain at the nuclear power plant, the world remains on the brink of a radiation disaster – worse than even Chornobyl. And it is the joint responsibility of everyone in Europe and the world – to remove the Russian presence from the territory of the ZNPP.
Today I want to thank all the representatives of the State Emergency Service, utility services, construction workers, police officers, military personnel, representatives of local authorities, business representatives – everyone who is involved in eliminating the consequences of Russian missile terror, who helps those who suffered from the strikes. In Kryvyi Rih and the Kirovohrad region, in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, in Mykolaiv and the Donetsk region – in all the cities and communities that Russia tortures with its missiles.
The terrorist state has already used more than 3,800 different missiles against us. But no missile will bring Russia closer to its goal. There will be no subjugation of Ukraine. And each missile brings Russia closer to greater international isolation, greater economic degradation and even clearer historical condemnation.
And finally. A mass burial site was found in Izyum, Kharkiv region. The necessary procedural actions have already begun there. There should be more information – clear, verified information – tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be Ukrainian and international journalists in Izyum. We want the world to know what is really happening and what the Russian occupation has led to. Bucha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izyum… Russia leaves death everywhere. And it must be held accountable for that. The world must hold Russia to real account for this war. We will do everything for this.
Eternal memory to all those whose lives were taken away by the occupiers! Eternal glory to everyone who fights for Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
Here’s the British MOD’s assessment for today. The mappers appear to still be on leave. Or skiving off the lazy gits…
Here is former NAVDEVGRU Squadron Leader Chuck Pfarrer’s most recent assessment of the situation in Kherson:
CLARIFICATION: @nick_cordoba has reported that the Mayor of Mykloiav indicates that the village of Kiselyvka is still occupied by RU forces. Nee information is always welcomed.
— Chuck Pfarrer | Indications & Warnings | (@ChuckPfarrer) September 15, 2022
Izium:
Graves of Izium.
Those killed under Russian occupation.
By @den_kazansky pic.twitter.com/vInOLnrYY4— Illia Ponomarenko (@IAPonomarenko) September 15, 2022
Important context from Ukr missing persons ombudsmen Oleh Kotenko on “2nd Bucha” in Izyum. Yes, he describes mass grave in Izyum w 100s of bodies. 1/4 https://t.co/GvjKaWQE2U https://t.co/ZegIoyLFHd
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) September 15, 2022
But here is the rub: “When Russians took Izyum they shelled heavily + people died on the streets. Municipal services didn’t know who they were but buried them.” 2/4
This coincides with my own hunch, which I wrote in tweet, that evidence from Izyum not happy days, but did not support “Bucha” conclusion — i.e. mass, systemised war crimes against civilian population. Less so “two Buchas” as govt adviser Heraschenko claimed and some reported 3/4
The ombudsmen is very clear in interview: “I don’t want to call it Bucha. Here people were buried in a more civilised way.” 4/4
Boizhe Moi!
You can’t make this up – some of the Russian units in Ukraine used (probability are still using) “Atlas of the Automobile Roads of the USSR” for directions. This is the second largest army of the world. pic.twitter.com/P9FfuxnOt8
— Ia Meurmishvili (@iameurmishvili) September 15, 2022
Putin met with Xi today. And whether Putin realizes it or not, he is now the junior partner to Xi and Russia is now a vassal state in its relationship to the PRC.
Then talks about Ukraine. "We understand your questions and your concern in this connection." Translation: Uncle Xi has not been happy. pic.twitter.com/47FOep4YPp
— Sergey Radchenko (@DrRadchenko) September 15, 2022
But check out Xi Jinping's comments to his "old and dear friend." Xi: "We are prepared, with the Russian colleagues, to show an example of being a responsible world power and play a leading role so as to take the world onto the trajectory of sustainable and positive development." pic.twitter.com/3ExA8y11JT
— Sergey Radchenko (@DrRadchenko) September 15, 2022
Conclusion. Putin looks desperate. Xi looks like he is calling the shots. The whole relationship is rapidly becoming very, very lop-sided.
— Sergey Radchenko (@DrRadchenko) September 15, 2022
For those looking for it, here’s the video of Prigozhin trying to recruit inmates to work for him as private military contractors (read mercenaries) and go fight for Putin in Ukraine.
For the first time, a video emerges of a recruitment talk for Wagner by Prigozhin in a Russian prison camp. Absolutely bonkers. “Nobody goes back behind bars. If you serve six months, you are free. If you arrive in Ukraine and decide it’s not for you, we execute you.” pic.twitter.com/9rlAbhKaQW
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) September 14, 2022
This is a very interesting and, I think, on point thread from the head of political philosophy at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences:
1) radicals – a sizeable but extremely loud minority that actively supports war, is engaged, follows the news and in rare cases even goes to the frontlines (15-25%). This is the audience of the milbloggers, Telegram channels and vampires like Solovyov or Skabeeva 2/25
— Greg Yudin (@YudinGreg) September 14, 2022
2) dissenters – a sizeable minority that categorically opposes the war. It is banned from Russian-based media and generally depressed (20-25%) 3/25
3) laymen – a passive majority that is completely depoliticized and doesn’t want to have anything in common with politics & war (50-65%) 4/25
Laymen are the bulk of yeah-sayers when asked “Do you support the President’s decision to conduct the special military operation or are you a national traitor to be put in prison for 15 years?” 5/25
The laymen are the those carelessly enjoying their lives while people are dying in Ukraine. It is obviously deplorable but the upside of it is that these people are completely unwilling to participate in war actively in any way twitter.com/hebelowski/sta 6/25
Laymen try to shield themselves from any news about war as hard as they can and know very little about the defeat in Kharkiv (many of them wouldn’t even tell where Kharkiv is located). The mainstream radio and TV news are protecting them from this information 7/25
Importantly, as TV started promoting hard war propaganda, the viewership went down. Precisely because laymen want their soap operas, nutritionists, and standup, rather than boring news from the frontlines dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1 8/25
Conversely, the radicals are seriously affected by Ukrainian counter-offensive. They exploded in finger-pointing and blaming military leadership, each other, and even Putin for this defeat. For the first time, there is a heated discussion between them 9/25
There is a variety of tones in this discussion – from relatively optimistic “we should unite around Putin and take revenge” to completely fatalist “the war is lost, no matter what”. But: all of them demand total mobilization of Russian society and more aggressive war 10/25
They are united by the belief that Russia would have easily conquered Ukraine, but for some reason (treason, incompetence, generosity) it wages the war with one hand tied 11/25
However, this discussion is significant. For the first time people start realizing that Putin is not invincible. Hard to overestimate how important this myth is for Russia. Belief that Putin will prevail no matter what paralyzes all independent action 12/25
The radicals are getting angry at the laymen for continuing with their normal life as troops are dying for the survival of the country under NATO’s assault. The laymen are angry at the radicals for trying to politicize their lives, e.g. introduce war propaganda to schools 13/25
I have seen people taking Boris Nadezhdin’s statements on Russian TV as a sign of a crack in the dominant narrative. twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews This is not the case 14/25
Nadezhdin is an old liberal from the 90s, a comrade of Boris Nemtsov. Nemtsov decided to mount a real opposition to Putin (with a dismal outcome). Nadezhdin opted for playing along Putin’s rules of fake opposition and joined one of his puppet parties spravedlivo.ru/10032415 15/25
The benefit of this strategy is that you are regularly invited to these shitshows as a strawman to be humiliated. This is how you gain national recognition, (helps on the election day!) 16/25
However, Nadezhdin himself was obviously against this war from day one, and he is clearly against Putin, too – this is just something you cannot say openly on Russian TV. There was no change at all in his attitudes because of the recent setbacks 17/25
The brave statements of local MPs calling to impeach Putin are no sign of change either. They belong to dissenters and protested against the war as much as they could. This call is a farewell gesture – last week their term ended, many of them were not even allowed to run 18/25
Still, current situation puts Putin in a precarious position. He is dependent BOTH on the passivity of the laymen and the engagement of the radicals. That’s why he sells two contradictory narratives – one about an existential war and another about things running as usual 19/25
Now, the radicals’ demand for total mobilization is totally unacceptable for the laymen. However, the defeats on the frontlines make Putin’s reluctance to put the country on wartime footing unacceptable for the radicals 20/25
Putin’s strategy has been targeted mobilization – recruiting people among the radicals while leaving the laymen to their own devices. There is some room for him to continue with that strategy, but military defeats will make it increasingly strained 21/25
Putin is unlikely to yield to demands to declare mobilization now. It requires political mobilization first. Now is a bad moment. Even volunteers go to Ukraine to join a winning army and earn some $, not to face a strong opponent. The draftees will be even less enthusiastic 22/25
To sum up, balancing between depoliticizing society in general and mobilizing the radical part of it simultaneously will be increasingly difficult for Putin as the major defeat is looming 23/25
Can Putin sell a defeat as a victory? No. Radicals will not hesitate calling it a defeat, and laymen will not forgive him the distortion of their everyday life 24/25
Putin will not survive the military defeat in a war where he staked the whole country 25/25
That’s enough for tonight.
Your daily Patron!
Never mind. Testing videos here on Twitter. I made a bet with the TikTok fairy that it is better to make a video for Twitter. So what do you think? 😀 pic.twitter.com/Y5RqBMKUZL
— Patron (@PatronDsns) September 15, 2022
And a new video from Patron’s official TikTok:
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The caption translates as:
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Open thread!
raven
yo!
Ivan X
You got some sleep. What’s that like?
Also, I enjoy your idea of a “brief” post
Also, let me ad my voice to the chorus praising you for the great work you do here.
raven
Only the best. . .
In October of 1983, the Caribbean nation of Grenada was invaded by a communist regime seeking take over the island. In a controversial act, President Ronald Reagan sent American troops to Grenada. Soon after American troops found themselves pinned down by enemy forces and completely outmatch and were forced into the ultimate act of desperation, calling from a payphone.
Lapassionara
Thank you, Adam. Glad you got some rest.
Carlo Graziani
Holy crap, Adam! Greg Yudin is another brilliant find! Bookmarking his feed.
Adam L Silverman
@raven: We had to get the medical students out before they lost the volleyball tournament! It was a national security imperative.
Adam L Silverman
@Carlo Graziani: I’d prefer just Adam. If we have to we can go with Dr. Silverman. Holy crap Adam is just a bit too much…
raven
@Adam L Silverman: My friends ended up in the Peace Corps down there post-Urgent Fury!
CaseyL
Amazing what a good night’s sleep can do! Glad to see you rested, refreshed, and ready… to do a full post! For which, many thanks.
I found the Greg Yudin thread interesting because it seems to me to define nearly every society governed by despots: one-third support (loudly); one-third do not (and dare not say so); and the other third only want to get on with their lives and try not to get involved in politics at all.
Now that I think more about it, that pretty much sums up every society everywhere, the difference between a despotism and a free (or at least more free) country being how much the second group can express their disagreement without being disappeared. A difference of degree rather than kind.
Gin & Tonic
The “dissenters” or “liberals” are as useless as tits on a boar. I have not seen any commentary from any of them, even those outside russia or with access to non-russian media, addressing the UA counter-offensive. Just imperialism in a nicer suit.
tybee
@Ivan X:
da
Gin & Tonic
You know how putin proves his alpha-ness by making everybody wait when they are to meet with him? Well today (yesterday) he had a meeting with the President of Kyrgyzstan – who showed up late, making putin wait.
YY_Sima Qian
A few days ago Li Zhanshu, the Chairman of the Chinese National People’s Congress, visited the Russian Duma & had said some words of rhetorical support to Russia wrt Ukraine. Those comments caused some excitement in a segment of western China watchers, who interpreted them as a shift in Chinese position to overt & full throated support to Russia.
I thought Li was merely being polite to his hosts, in essence repeating China’s standard rhetorically pro-Russian neutrality since the beginning, though w/ just bit more emphasis. The purpose was likely to shore up the Sinovac-Russian strategic entente with rhetorical flourish, in lieu of actual material support. At the end of the day, What Xi says in an international forum is the final word. China’s national interests are multi-faceted & multi-dimensional, of which the entente w/ Russia is merely one facet/dimension, albeit an important one. The Central Asian Republics are all skeptical & even fearful of the implications of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They are looking to deeper engagement w/ China (& to lesser extents the EU, the US, Turkey, Japan & India) to counterbalance Russian imperialism. From the other side, the CARs are as important to China’s Belt & Road Initiative as Russia is, & they are as important energy suppliers to China as Russia is. Therefore, China has to accommodate CARs’ sentiments wrt Ukraine, as well.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
For my prize, I would like a Patron mug from Saint Javelin, please and thank you. If it could also be delivered to me by the actual Patron, that would be lovely. I want to pet him.
That little recruitment chitchat from Prigozhin, good Lord. Pathetic and bloodthirsty is not a good combo. You’d think russians would feel embarrassed that this is the state of their supposed country, but I suppose they would need the capacity for human emotions to do so.
I found this video from United24, an interview with a 74-year-old Vietnam Vet who went to Ukraine to join their medics, to be quite moving and amazing.
Thank you as always, Adam.
Tony G
I won’t bet on Putin staying in power much longer. Putin has ruled by fear, and now that he’s shown weakness, that fear and his power will evaporate. The question is whether the next guy will be even worse.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@Gin & Tonic: If it made putin even the slightest bit mad, then I’m all for it, even though the president of Kyrgyzstan also sounds like a dick. (Not for the making putin wait thing, but for like…all the other things about him.)
Gin & Tonic
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: Sure. But, you know, when somebody rules by fear for decades and suddenly doesn’t instill fear like he used to, things can change rapidly. I always find the story of Ken McElroy of Skidmore, Missouri instructive.
Spanky
It was ever thus after the fall of the USSR. Putin may have convinced himself otherwise. Too bad!
Gravenstone
Points for honesty? Fight for us and probably die in Ukraine. Fail to fight for us, and we will straight up kill you.
Spanky
@Gravenstone: Which may explain why so many got captured rather than redeploying to the rear. Not that they were Wagners, but they may have explicitly or implicitly gotten the same message.
Carlo Graziani
@Adam L Silverman: Noted, Doctor.
(I actually wince when students, and especially postdocs call me “Dr Graziani”. If they do it more than once I sometimes use Crush the Turtle’s line from Finding Nemo: “Dude, Dr Graziani was my Father. Call me Carlo.”)
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
Adam, the folks at St. Javelin have a long-sleeved T with a tryzub on the chest in a range of colors, including black, in a wide range of sizes for actual humans. The shirt itself!
I don’t know if it’s packed with a NAFO dog sticker on the package or not.
Villago Delenda Est
This puzzles me. Isn’t there an inherent danger in recruiting inmates as mercenaries that once they hit the front lines, they’ll surrender en masse and hope for better treatment by Ukraine? I think Machiavelli had a thing or two to say about reliance on mercenaries.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gin & Tonic: Sounds a lot like that very good friend of Queen Elizabeth II who made her wait for some ceremony the Queen was hosting. And the fucking toddler thought he’d get an invite to the funeral. Kudos to the Windsors for no-commenting-but-read-between-the-lines on all this nonsense of the treasonous whale shit.
Dan B
St. Javelin has raised $800,000 for Ukraine. They’ve got Tryzubs in ‘Watercolor’, ‘Kalyna’, and Saint Patron, Tank in Sunflower Patch, plus several different Sunflowers that all look great.
Carlo Graziani
Thinking more on Yudin’s analysis, I suppose that what he means is that in the first place these categories are not static — one is not born with a tattoo that marks one as “radical”, “dissenter”, “layman”. Experience and events can move large groups of people to becoming radicalized or disenchanted or passive. Moreover, the radicals can turn on the regime, the dissenters, if they reach a critical mass could graduate to “opponents”, and even laymen join demonstrations when they are hungry and cold and unemployed.
If this were not the case, Putin would have nothing to worry about. But he does worry — clearly, this is the meaning of his resistance to universal conscription, and of his iron grip on media message. So Putin believes in the real potential for popular instability that could threaten his power. To counter this, he narcotizes the laymen, strokes the radicals and jails the occasional dissenter. So far, he’s kept control pretty easily.
The thing is, I remember how shocking it was to see images of a million people demonstrating against Gorbachev in the streets of Moscow in the winter of 1991. Those people had almost all been laymen until a year or two earlier, and perhaps a few still were. But it was one of those “life comes at you fast” kind of situations — Gorbachev had lost control, and the instability ran away from him. That event begn the process of the military thinking about whose side they were on.
A humiliating defeat is nearly completed. Another one is easily forseeable — Kherson will fall, and the army west of the Dnipro isn’t coming back. If the Russian economy should suddenly cease defying gravity, Wily-E-Coyote-style, the collection of shocks could do the trick. Not, as many have pointed out, thst there’s any great likelihood of an improved successor, but even a successor at the head of a weakened, chastened Russia at war with itself is better than Putin.
Torrey
@Carlo Graziani: I applaud the sentiment and the refusal to wave one’s Ph.D. about. But, since the subject has arisen, perhaps this is an appropriate moment to note that that is a stance that works better for men than for women.
(Not expecting anyone to edit their comment and certainly not criticizing the stance–which, as I said, I applaud. Just commenting with sigh of resignation. I think most women wish we could also afford to do that.)
Andrya
@Gin & Tonic: The dissenters are moral cowards, and they are useless to stopping the war, but they are also useless to putin. They are the reason he dare not order a national mobilization- because if they were exposed to the risk of war, they would suddenly discover their consciences.
divF
@Carlo Graziani: I have two versions of this:
(1) Madame divF is a physician (i.e. a real doctor); I’m Not A Real Doctor.
(2) Don’t call me doctor (or worse, yet, professor) – I work for a living (H/T to my father, who told Madame, “call me Sarge”, when they first met).
Regarding (1), the Cal Alumni Association is alive to this distinction. We get a single copy of the alumni magazine, addressed to
Dr. {Madame divFs name}
{my name}, Ph.D.
Torrey
@Carlo Graziani:
This reminds me of an old joke that was making the rounds back when things were getting a bit rough for Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader.
The story is that, Stalin, recognizing that his end was coming and that Khrushchev was the likely successor, called him in and gave him two letters, telling him, “At some point, things are going to get very bad for you. When nothing else works, open the first letter and do what it says. Save the second letter for when things become absolutely impossible.”
After some years, Khrushchev found himself facing insurmountable problems, so he opened the first letter. It read, “Blame everything on me.” He did so, and things settled down for a while.
Some time later, things got bad again–even worse, in fact–and Khruschev could see no way out. So he opened the second letter. It began, “Prepare two letters. . .”
Redshift
Adam, I found these two Etsy shops while shopping for a birthday present for the Ms. They say they’re made in Ukraine and ship from there, you’ll have to judge for yourself how legit they are.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/796344076/vintage-ukrainian-ice-hockey-jersey
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1264082191/ukrainian-ice-hockey-jersey-ukrainian
(Unfortunately, their sizes didn’t run big enough for her, and I had to get one from a non-Ukrainian seller on Amazon.)
Martin
@divF: Unis are almost always very attentive to proper naming, pronouns, titles, etc. I would expect Berkeley to be particularly so.
SectionH
SectionH
SectionH
.
Leto
@raven: and that’s how we developed the JTRS (Joint Tactical Radio System) program. Each service utilized a different frequency band for communicating, resulting in that shit show. I worked with some folks who were involved in that clusterfuck. Anyways what we have now is lightyears beyond, it’s good, and if we need to talk to the other services, we can. I spent half my career utilizing/working with these.
Just in case you can’t sleep: Joint Tactical Radio System
Chetan Murthy
@Leto: Sure AF hope the military doesn’t let OMG anywhere near their stuff. Crrrrikey, I’ve never seen an OMG standard/spec/whatever, that didn’t suck like a gaping chest wound.
Geminid
@Gin & Tonic: Erdogan did lthat to Putin when they met recently in Tehran. Putin popped out for the after-meeting press conference and Erdogan let him fidget some in front of the press before he walked out. It was payback by Erdogan for the time Putin did it to him
206inKY
Adam, I just want to express my gratitude for all these updates you’ve posted. You have been my primary source of news on the war, and I branch out from your daily updates. You have provided stability and routine and reassurance, much more than you might realize.
I’m a dual citizen of a country in Putin’s future possible warpath, and the whole thing has been extremely stressful. Even though I’m an anonymous stranger, I want to express my sincere gratitude for all the work you’ve done with these daily posts. It has made a huge difference in my life the last seven months, and I’m sure many others feel the same.
raven
@Leto: Thanks! I was able to sleep too! We had EE8 field phones that had a crank on the side!
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Andrya: Did you mean the “dissenters” or the “laymen”? Because I might question whether people engaged in active dissent against the war – which is risky in Putin’s Russia – are moral cowards.
As for the laymen, well, I suspect Putin’s in a bind with them, because the only way he gets them to buy in to a general mobilization is if he can successfully sell the war to them as a 21st-century Great Patriotic War, rather than Afghanistan redux or worse yet, Russia’s own private Vietnam.
And his case won’t be helped by his vaunted army getting its collective lunch handed to it by the Ukrainian defenders, or by a slapstick comedian proving himself a far better statesman than Vladimir Vladimirovich.
J R in WV
Perhaps they are in the queue to visit the Queen’s coffin at the church? I understand that takes all day long now…
More seriously — mass graves? What a surprise!!? not really, unfortunately. I bet Russia is full of mass graves…
daveNYC
@Gin & Tonic: Yeah, but that was just a random asshole who was actively criming on his neighbors for years.
The problem with Putin is that pretty much anyone who is in a position to do something about him is either a true believer or has a very cushy lifestyle. Sure there’s the moral calculus of the war and the economic destruction of Russia, but oligarchs are gonna oligarch.
I think it’s going to take a lot more going wrong before someone moves on Putin. But CSTO is basically dead at this point and I wouldn’t be surprised if the CIS starts to break up, so eventually something will happen, but probably not anytime soon.
J R in WV
@Gin & Tonic:
I actually sat on a jury to deliberate whether the guy who killed a Bully of the town (Harts Creek) here in WV was guilty of murder or if it was self-defense. We decided it was self-defense.
The Bully was out of prison after 15 years, for murder for hire, and resumed his old Bully life. He Bullied the wrong guy, who had testified to out him away for 15 years, and had his wife’s .380 in his pocket. Was a older guy , a welder building RR cars — took no shit from Bully, who threatened his kids.
zhena gogolia
@Andrya: Don’t you mean the laymen?
Gin & Tonic
Seeing reports that the prosecutor-general of the “LNR” and his deputy have been killed by a bomb in their office.
Carlo Graziani
@Torrey: I know exactly what you mean. I remember having this pointed out to me in graduate school, and going from mild indifference (I was young and callow, OK?) to disbelieving that this could be such a pervasive effect (as more friends kept noting it) to, finally, at least a state of mindfulness not to be one of those guys.
For what it’s worth, I have noticed that at least in the mathematical/physical science corner of academia that I infest, the culture has become much more institutionally protective of the prerogarives of women, including academic credentialling.
There are a few irritations associated with this process, such as the bureaucratization of the norms of virtuous behaviour at the hands of HR, but in an organization of more than about 8 people there seems to be no alternative. I hope that at least a generation or two following will be able to look at these training courses as vestigial time-wasting unneccesary coarse imbecilities, and live without them.
lee
“Putin met with Xi today. And whether Putin realizes it or not, he is now the junior partner to Xi and Russia is now a vassal state in its relationship to the PRC.”
Even before the start of this reinvasion China was buying up resources in Russia’s east for kopeckies.
Gin & Tonic
More dead collaborators:
Torrey
@Carlo Graziani: Dead thread, so I’m not sure you’ll see this, but thank you. I realize that in tossing out my comment in this environment I was very much preaching to the choir–or at least asking a very patient and sympathetic choir to listen to my mini-rant.
kalakal
@Carlo Graziani: Dead thread but I love the online scam artists who bill them selves as Dr Randomname Phd. And for a bonus think Professor is a qualification
Andrya
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Sorry, I meant laymen.