Any insight on the impending debt default? Also, the propaganda is distorting everything. Do we actually believe Russia is "losing" this conflict? It sounds absurd. Also, also: the usage of tactical nukes is off the table because of: fear of international response, reluctance to do that kind of damage to an area they hope to occupy, and rending the conflict essentially unwinnable at that point from the perspective of "winning hearts and minds"?
What I think is happening is a few things: Russia drastically underestimated the resolve of the Ukrainian people. The troops they sent in were not prepared or supported, logistically, enough for what they ended up having to do. I also think that most troops had no clue what they were being asked to do until they got there, and then a number of them felt personal conflict which is why you see so many of them giving up and walking away. I also think there will always be some sociopaths in the military that will take any excuse to do war-like things to a population without it necessarily being the directive of the commanders. I think some of the most horrific things, like the old couple being run over by a tank, etc, is just stupid sociopaths having fun and thinking (probably rightly) that they can get away with it. The military equipment being used in this attack is much, much older than anyone expected, and in a general state of disrepair, or at the least undependable. I think the Generals and upper echelons around Putin are total "yes" men, and this was a huge problem with the planning and execution of the attack, resulting in it not going well. I also think that Russia has a lot more resources that they can send that way, even if they are pissed off that they have to send more than they initially planned for or expected. Does that mean winning? Losing? Who knows. I think Russia is winning in the sense they are moving forward, and the Ukraine is emptying out, and becoming damaged. But I don't think they've won or beaten the Ukrainian spirit or world sentiment. I do love me some videos of tractors towing tanks away though.
But most importantly, against the world, I think Russia is losing. They've brought everyone (for the most part) together with their despise of Putin and what he's doing, and the bullshit propaganda that they are spouting. Sure, we all have propaganda, but when Putin says they are not hitting civilian targets, and then a drone shot of a torn up city centre and high rise apartment complex is shown, it's pretty fucking hard to call it fake. The fact that they are going into the UN and saying that shit with a straight face, thinking that they're talking to people who don't know any better, is just laughable.
Russia has always had a problem buying into its own propaganda. Also, grossly underestimating your enemy and overestimating your own abilities is a recipe for failure. It’s what Hitler did thinking he could go to war with everyone all at the same time while he spent most of the war vacationing and leaving the heavy lifting to his generals. Who in turn lied to him about their progress so as to stay in his good graces. Thinking your enemy is nothing but uncultured swine who can’t tie their own shoes without help, while thinking glorious Russia is infallible will guaranteed lead to failure.
Cloudflare removed all of the on-prem encryption keys from their servers in the conflict area. If the servers lose power, they will essentially brick themselves: https://blog.cloudflare.com/steps-taken-around-cloudflares-services-in-ukraine-belarus-and-russia/ Wonder if some of the other cloud providers are going to do the same. Depending on how the hardware is configured, it may do little good for Russia to commandeer it. Some custom hardware doesn't have a bypass for firmware-level lockout, and even if there is a bypass, doing so on thousands of servers and having to bootstrap them from scratch may not actually be very helpful.
It's also possible that some told Putin they'd be underequipped, or the plans would be unsuccessful. And he promptly ignored them. He's a delusional psycho.
This war's tragedy has finally reached my doorstep. I submitted a pull request to an open source project and because the team that maintains it is based in St Petersburg, they've been very slow about reviewing it and getting it merged. Truly no greater tragedy has ever befallen an individual.
Wait until you run into Russian devs sabotaging their own open source projects on purpose in retaliation for the sanctions.
I just hope the Russian citizens and soldiers who need to see this, can. And that the cops don't find evidence of such whenever they do their surprise cellphone checks.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/17/22983197/ai-new-possible-chemical-weapons-generative-models-vx Hey guys, quick question: What and why the fuck?
Putin rallies the populace. Are they packing in by choice or by force, we'll never know. If you told me this event was produced by Olga Yelena Riefenstahlovich, I might start to believe in God again.
Anyone have any clue what Putin’s plans are at this point? It seems everything they are trying is failing miserably and the conveyor belt of nato weapons flowing into Ukraine seems to be working quite well. Russia’s losses aren’t sustainable. If the number of Russian fatalities that is being claimed by Ukraine are anywhere close to accurate, that means the wounded numbers alone are somewhere near 40-50k.
I was reading this morning that they are predicting a chemical weapons attack, probably nerve gas. Of course Russia will say that they were attacked first, and had no choice but to respond in kind.