Member Info for big-blue

As you wish unluck. And if you want to think, Vietnam aside which was a political failure rather military (fighting with one hand tied behind our backs), US forces lose all the battles and wars then you keep thinking that. Most US conflicts are UN based to takeout an authoritarian regime a threat to its interests. It does do land grab wars and therefore hands over a withdraws. But you keep believing NATO v Russia is not a threat to Russia. Good luck.

You think Russia and China and others have not already reverse engineered these systems. A SAM system might deal with one or two incoming, like the Israeli dome system but it is not easy. But a salvo of 12 means 10 are going to get through unless you have multiple SAMs in one place with very obvious exposure issues. Then you need multiple SAMs at all of your vulnerable sites. That is a lot of expensive high tech kit, you'll needs thousands.

As for electronic warefare to defeat them, if it was possible then the method would have been sused and counter measures already built in.

You chaps are very desperately grasping at straws. There was always going to be a stark reality to face up to wuth modern nato kit being deployed. Just a pity it wasn't done earlier so Russia could be defeated earlier and prevented from murdering more children!

Russia has no other choice but to concede on grain shipments else Putin loses what tacit neutral relations he still has and his own embargo on the black sea is stopping Russian grain exports too. As far as lifting of sanctions goes, only particular restrictions on things like travel visas on crews shipping grain and some limited transaction to pay for diesel for ships and payment to Russia for Russian grain is allowed.

I note Russia is not insisting people pay for Russian grain in Roubles, that scheme didn't last long did it. That is why the limited dollar transactions have to be allowed.

As for the space cooperation, scientists generally bypass political issues and collaborate whatever is going on. Russia will not want to lose the Kudos of having a space program since Space X has proven it is a viable alternative.

The only collaboration issue is the bloody EU trying to use the NI protocol against Britain being involved with the Horizon project. Europe needs to be careful with Horizon, as I said the science community simply works to bypass politics, or turn on the offending country. The EU showing another great advert for democracy.

"Putin is playing the long game having already absorbed the short term Sanction Pain."
Errrrr. what? Sanctions do not ever impact immediately, they always take time through various short economic cycles to take effect. Putin has either not understand the compound effect the sanctions will have, or is a bloody idiot. Either way, those sanctions will increasingly bite deeper and deeper and as for gas, the only thing Putin will impact is the net zero date as coal is used to generate power instead.

Where have I ever said Ukraine is 'winning'?

It has reclaimed territory, defeated advances and is crystal clear in its objectives. Now it is receiving new weapons it will be able to achieve the objectives quicker than would otherwise be the case. Perhaps Ukraine should have been nato weapons trained and supplied in 2014. Not doing so was clearly an error and that error is slowly being turned around. For the sake of Russia, I hope we have all out war and Russia is placed under nato administration for a few years or more. It would take no more than a few weeks to neutralise any Russian forces that chose to oppose nato. In fact, nato might even be unopposed if the military is wise enough. They know nato will get rid of Putin.

"But NATO (Russia's enemy) has been defeated. Its aims crushed. It wont be a threat to Russia for a generation."

Is this the last gasp as you go under for the last time?

You are delusional to the point of being a danger to yourself and those around you. If this is actually what you believe, you clearly are on the brink of suffering a serious and debilitating deep depression know to follow delusional highs. It is called manic depression and usual manifests itself in people facing a truth they can not bear to face.

Do your loved ones a favour and put your affairs in order first before the inevitable conclusion to your predicament....

There are some on here who may have received large pots of POLY shares in return for 'services' for oligarchs or were directed to invest in POLY with the nod and wink that the company is run such to provide a comfortable dividend and income as reward.

You are having to face the afl prospect that this year's income is gone, you are now divesting to raise cash elsewhere and trying to maintain a lifestyle on credit cards.

And to make it worse, the capital value of the shares is something like 12% what it was so you couldn't even clear our present debt even if you sold up.

Get used to it. This is how it will be from now on. At best, following a split and post war the capital value may recover a little and sp climb back to a £4.50 valuation of the KZ value. Divvies will be very much reduced due to the debt the KZ split will have to take on to realise any value for the Russian assets on top of existing debt.

The gravy train has ended.

You could always go back to Russia, just don't drink the tea, lol.

Ignore the state and government sanctions. They will ultimately be diluted but only as part of a complete Russian withdrawal to pre 2014 borders.

The serious damage comes from private companies that will simply not have anything to do with Russia. Logistics for example. Road, sea, rail and air transport will be severely disrupted still for many years post war and the cost will be prohibitive. Origin of goods is increasingly controlled and expected, and it doesn't matter whether a government sanctions a raw material or component, if someone like Unilever say no Russian polyvinyl then any company anywhere on the planet must comply with the company policy and so even in countries like India, China or BRICS, Russia will find no market for such a raw material. In years gone by focus has been on sanctions imposed by states. I think we are seeing a new form of NGO sanction which has worked to some extent in the activist community and is now being adopted in the corporate sector. Unless the indian government, for example, forces Unlever, for example, to buy PVC for bottling from Russia, Unilever is free to source elsewhere. Consumer pressure will force that as the atrocities are further revealed as if those revealed already were not enough.

For those thinking they just have to see out an inconvenient period on the naughty step and then all will be forgotten and forgiven, that is clearly not going to happen this time. MacDonald's is a very useful indicator of sentiment, philosophy and even economy in the modern world in some interesting ways. MacDonald's pulling out and abandoning tangibles in Russia is your indicator at how bad this is going to get. Now I know some will mock the basis for the argument using MacDonald's, butanybody wit half an ounce of business acumen knows exactly what dimension this is in.

Hence, POLY must dump the Russian assets and get the hell out before intrinsic association between POLY and Russia is made.

"We are where we are because we are where we are (Russia). We aren't flavour of the month right now, but just like chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, you can bet people will want a scoop of us when our ice-cream truck is open for business again."

This is the bit many are wishing for but is just not going to happen. This is not a 'special operation' that, once done, will be shut down and everybody takes a big sigh of relief and just goes back to 'normal'. Forget about government sanctions. Look at the self-sanctioning of private companies and the permanence. There is no way things are going back to pre war. POLY needs to note the response of all those major and minor enterprises that have abandoned assets in Russia and follow suite. Some people are clearly thinking that the same response will happen as with, for example, Russia invading Georgia. For the west, it's called lessons learned and the same mistakes will not be made again. Russia is being cut off and that will deepen post war. POLY must split and cut all ties with anything Russian if it is to avoid a long term post war ostracizing which will increase for some years as the atrocities of Russian terrorism are revealed and inevitably Russia under Putin is officially declared a terrorist state and all the global consequences that come with it.

There is absolutely definitely not going to be any return to pre war conditions for Russia. The toxic ice cream has melted and is no more than mould food in a bin somewhere.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/ukraine-situation-report-howitzers-optimized-for-guided-artillery-rounds-now-in-service

For those who want to scroll down the page and see the shelling map and the impact of targeting the ammo stores and supply lines.

And there is the denial. You compare 60,000 dumb shells to 1000 guided and decide not to bring attention to the map showing very significant reduced Russian shelling over a couple of days thanks to very limited use so far of guided and longer range missiles.

You take the defending of rule out of context trying to paint a tactical retreat as a fundamental policy for the whole country.

Whilst it is seen you are trying to articulate responses to explain away Russia and win the debate, you've kinda made a bit of a laughing stock of yourself.

Sorry swag, you are completely wrong. Europe has not pulled down all its coal power stations, they are operational as a backup and Europe still burns coal. It will take no more than a month or so to reline kilns that have cooled whilst mothballed. The only thing stopping this is the slavish adherence to zero carbon politics and Germany still trying to fit the square peg of zero carbon through the round hole of energy demand. up to 33% of energy bills around the EU are renewable levies. Energy bills could be slashed at a stroke if hey wanted, same for most of the world. If Russia cuts the oil and gas supply, reserves without any resupply or rationing will last I think 3 months over a winter period. More than enough time to bring the mothballed coal power online. Remember, to avoid duplication, gas power often retrofitted to existing coal fire so the same turbine hall is used and the kilns have been kept as a back up.

Russia does not have an ace card or any trump card to play. The only reality Europe has to face up to is to dump this crippling zero carbon policy, same for UK and everywhere else. Ending all fossil fuel burning will have nil impact on climate.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/ukraine-situation-report-howitzers-optimized-for-guided-artillery-rounds-now-in-service

This is a detailed non-biased report on the effects of the new kit. Bear in mind, the equipment is just arriving, in small numbers to better secure delivery, and it also looks like there is a degree of battlefield proving going on with a limited supply of the guided shells. Although 1000 gps guided shells will do an enormous amount of targeted damage if the target intelligence is good.

This is nato laying out and testing it's systems in the theater. If Russia does not leave, then it is going to escalate and we can only hope nato does not stop at the Russian border but continues all the way to Moscow in order to rid the planet of this completely unnecessary terrorist state.

"people are going to realise that sanctions are a bit of an own goal."

You rely on some grand awakening and Europe reverting back to reliance on Russia for supplies, after what Russia has done both with the state terrorism and fuel ransom? The only stopping Europe from firing up the coal is mad environmentalist impossible targets. And there is a steady awakening of the renewables folly and zero carbon policy.

Having been caught short once by Russia, there is no way even those supporters of Russia within the commision or EU states are going to return on reliance and Russian supply.

So it is wishful thinking believing Russia has some ace card to play. It doesn't. It threw that away when it crossed the border.

At some point, you Russian advocates are going to have to learn how to accept defeat and walk away. Russia has pushed and pushed and pushed and now has a proxy war with nato out of nothing entirely of its own making. Nuke threats mean nothing and energy supply leverage will inevitably be replaced with self supply with coal. Europe is merely buying time at the moment. China is seeing day by day the great mighty ally is a really a ragged pussey cat with a completly underwhelming army that it no longer needs to regard as a potential threat and so the special relationship is diluted. As the economic sanctions pull Russia deeper underwater, all those new super friends in BRICS will melt away.

To think Ukraine is going to give away territory or the west is going to accept yet another aggressive land grab is truly delusional. I can only assume you only follow home grown Russian news stories because you and your compatriots are the only ones left thinking such nonsense. Even Belarus is wriggling out of being involved and Russia is having to take its begging bowl to Iran for basic drones, and being rejected. Iran refuses to help Russia in a proxy war with the US. Just think that through for a second or two.

The situation looks awful for Russia. Since the tactic on the battlefield is medieval, then it is appropriate for Russia's economy and standard of living to be regressed to that era too. And that is what is going to happen.

This is why the POLY split must go ahead and as soon as possible. Few want to have anything to do with Russia, and those that have to date are putting more and more distance between themselves and the blatant state terrorism.

I am bewildered. People still expect the invasion to be concluded, ticked off, and everything returns to normal as if nothing happened. It is frankly astonishing. The west learned from Georgia, not acting only results in further war from Russia. You don't get it do you. A line has been drawn and Russia has stepped over it. Ukraine is now being nato trained and nato equipped. Why do you think that is? There was nothing to be worried about with nato before February. Now, you have everything to fear. Not only is there not going to be any 'deal', Russia is going to be hammered with sanctions for many, many years and the consequences of the terrorist actions raised for at least a decade. POLY needs to get out of Russia NOW.

"Three Russian missiles slammed into the heart of the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday, killing 12 people including a young child and wounding 25, the State Emergency Service said."

Are you Russian trolls proud of yourselves defending these acts of terrorism?

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-712089

Karma - as you sow, so you shall reap.

and again the heavily biased moderator policy strikes again. These partisan biased deletions are turning LSE site into a another Twitter where only employee sanctioned views are allowed. It is frankly disgraceful. I warned I would take action if it persisted. There are people with significant influence moving against public outlets like LSE that are being used as Kremlin outlets to distort information.

It would be a pity for LSE to be sanctioned, but if LSE will not its house i order it will have to be sanctioned, meaning any repost an other social networks being removed with a very significant loss of exposure, google advert and listing results being blocked and blocking across other media online.

You better get your act together LSE because once you are listed as a Kemlin narrative outlet, you will be extensively cancelled.

"As Russian efforts shift from state media megaphones to individual influencers and “troll armies” coordinated via the messaging app Telegram,"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/14/ukraine-takedown-requests-russia-propaganda/

"We know a song about that, don't we Billy"

To join the single market, you have to accept European court as the supreme authority and follow all EU directives. You are effectively governed by Europe. Switzerland voted no to joining the EU in 1992 and has no intention of joining.
As for EEA members Iceland and Norway
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1445715/eu-news-iceland-norway-eea-switzerland-brexit-deal-spt
they want out to.

All over Europe there are advanced and significant movements to get out. It is why Europe has been so desperate to make Brexit hurt the UK and pin everything and anything on Brexit despite all, ALL, post Brexit rules and regulations have emerged from Brussels and forced on the UK from Brussels. In fact,the behaviour of Brussels in response to Brexit has actually spurred on many exit campaigns. Like a said, inside the commission they have one policy, either Brexit or the union dies.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/energy-incoherence-why-europe-repeating-its-mistakes-203515

Interesting read. People think I am wrong on both the environmental argument and Europe argument.