Russian invasion of Ukraine

[beefybake]

2 hours ago, virginton said:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/28/nato-expansion-war-russia-ukraine

The Warsaw Pact disintegrated because the countries involved were no longer occupied/satellites/client states, 

and the peoples of those countries were making their own decisions about the direction they wanted to go.

Or did I imagine, 30+ years ago, watching the Berlin Wall being dismantled, and the joy of seeing people stepping

through the rubble, and families re-united ?

No, I didn't imagine it.

Edited March 1, 2022 by beefybake

[Ross.]

1 minute ago, WATTOO said:

You wouldn't expect anything else. Ultimately it's the West that have put the sanctions on the Russian companies and also pressured UK based investors and entities to divest their holdings so nobody can expect the Russians to make things easy.

Yeah, it’s entirely consistent with what is happening in the other direction. Will just make for a big headache when it all gets cleaned up. There is a small, but growing chance that it could trigger issues in the banking world again, depending on exactly how long this all goes on and who is holding most of the shite. Fortunate for us that we are a broker rather than an investment bank. It will be a nightmare to reconcile but it’s not our money that is at risk in the end. Other institutions, not so much…

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Ross. said:

Yeah, it’s entirely consistent with what is happening in the other direction. Will just make for a big headache when it all gets cleaned up. There is a small, but growing chance that it could trigger issues in the banking world again, depending on exactly how long this all goes on and who is holding most of the shite. Fortunate for us that we are a broker rather than an investment bank. It will be a nightmare to reconcile but it’s not our money that is at risk in the end. Other institutions, not so much…

They can call in Deloittes to make up a couple of processes, that's what we always do when we end up with stuff like that 

[Ross.]

1 minute ago, WATTOO said:

They can call in Deloittes to make up a couple of processes, that's what we always do when we end up with stuff like that 

The process itself is simple, we just need to provide details of our settlement agent in Russia, and set up matching instructions. I’ve done the first half already. Whether or not the settlement agent still exists by the time it’s allowed to happen is another question, not to mention a few of the trade counterparties who will be wanting to deliver or expecting to receive shares from there. Right now it’s a minuscule problem but I see potential for a lot of growth.

[DiegoDiego]

I've been getting my info from a few different sources (including here) but it all seems pretty skewed. So many stories about captured Russian troops but almost none about captured Ukrainian troops. Plenty of other lopsidedness which seems a bit unusual to me.

Obviously I hope Russia take a pumping here, but I'd also like the full picture.

[welshbairn]

Wonder if BP managed to offload their 20% stake in Rosneft in time?

[BFTD]

Do the former Soviet states have national service, by the way? I'd have thought most of them would have assumed that a Russian invasion would be a distinct possibility over the past few decades.

Not a fan of that kind of stuff but, if we lived with the constant threat that England might invade us, I'd probably be thinking that military training for civilians might be a necessity.

[Savage Henry]

1 minute ago, DiegoDiego said:

I've been getting my info from a few different sources (including here) but it all seems pretty skewed. So many stories about captured Russian troops but almost none about captured Ukrainian troops. Plenty of other lopsidedness which seems a bit unusual to me.

Obviously I hope Russia take a pumping here, but I'd also like the full picture.

Thing is, there isn’t really a second side to this.  Nothing Russia is doing is justified.  And RT is merely echoing conspiracies about nazis, Afghanistan and poisoning drinking water. 

[accies1874]

Yes, we've always had characters like that, just that we'd always refer to them as a "w****r". "complete tosser", "total rocket" as opposed to a "virtue signaller" which is another of these annoying 21st century Americanisms. This type of fuckwittery is most definitely on the rise though, no doubt as a result of facebook etc.

This is a very Old Man post.

[Fife Saint]

Yesterday was was the first I've watch Liz T. in an interview (sorry for my ignorance, as I don't follow UK politics much). It's all a big surreal. She came across are arrogance with no clue what she was actually talking about. Now, i now like most politicising and waffling on, but she couldn't even do that.  It was abrupt pishe. It was a little scary.  Is she the worst? I heard her gaffer is not so good either.  

That is exactly how she blusters through every topic she is ever involved in. Totally out of her depth and symptomatic of a government that is in disarray where the remotely capable have walked or sent packing by the posh scarecrow.

[Silvio Tattiescone]

2 minutes ago, Savage Henry said:

Thing is, there isn’t really a second side to this.  Nothing Russia is doing is justified.  And RT is merely echoing conspiracies about nazis, Afghanistan and poisoning drinking water. 

RT getting all it's hot takes from P&B 

[scottsdad]

1 minute ago, BFTD said:

Do the former Soviet states have national service, by the way? I'd have thought most of them would have assumed that a Russian invasion would be a distinct possibility over the past few decades.

Not a fan of that kind of stuff but, if we lived with the constant threat that England might invade us, I'd probably be thinking that military training for civilians might be a necessity.

We would certainly need National Service to keep the rampaging hordes out if this were the case.

 

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

43 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

We got 4% of our gas from Russia last year, it's countries like Germany who will be properly in the shit. Think the Government will have to enforce price controls though, in cooperation with the EU and others.

Yet they’ll do whatever they can to drive up prices regardless of the realities. 

29 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

Yes, we've always had characters like that, just that we'd always refer to them as a "w****r". "complete tosser", "total rocket" as opposed to a "virtue signaller" which is another of these annoying 21st century Americanisms. This type of fuckwittery is most definitely on the rise though, no doubt as a result of facebook etc.

Hes very active on the local facebook page apparently, i dont use facebook but the neighbours do and have mentioned that when it snows he volunteers to drive people places and stuff, but posts its all over facebook because people tell him how wonderful he is. If I had to predict which person would do this that I knew it would have been him. 

[velo army]

Just now, BFTD said:

Do the former Soviet states have national service, by the way? I'd have thought most of them would have assumed that a Russian invasion would be a distinct possibility over the past few decades.

Not a fan of that kind of stuff but, if we lived with the constant threat that England might invade us, I'd probably be thinking that military training for civilians might be a necessity.

I don't know about the Soviet states, but Finland absolutely does as they sought to be prepared for a resurgent Russia at some point. Finns do it straight after leaving school. I have a couple of is hillwalking pals I went to Uni with recently. One is a Lieutenant in the artillery division. He used to tell us that if a Russian invasion happened his lot would be first up. He would joke that his job was to be a "meat shield". How we laughed then......

I'm shiting it in case Vlad invades Finland as Ilari (artillery) and Daniel (some logistics pish that should see him out of the firing line) and all the other Finns in our circle would have to go to war. It just didn't seem that possible before.

[jagfox]

Belarus is apparently one of the 3 worst standing armies in Europe. 

 

[vikingTON]

22 minutes ago, beefybake said:

The Warsaw Pact disintegrated because the countries involved were no longer occupied/satellites/client states, 

and the peoples of those countries were making their own decisions about the direction they wanted to go.

Or did I imagine, 30+ years ago, watching the Berlin Wall being dismantled, and the joy of seeing people stepping

through the rubble, and families re-united ?

No, I didn't imagine it.

If Taiwan asks to join NATO tomorrow, should NATO say yes or no? What would be the geopolitical consequences of this? 

Nation states and alliance systems do not have unlimited sovereignty, and it is this utter nonsense that has led directly to the scenes that you are decrying now. 

[scottsdad]

I had a Greek student a few years back who had an assignment due on a Friday. He was at class on the Thursday before the assignment, and again on the Monday after it.

His excuse for missing the hand-in? He was on National Service (apparently). Flew back to Greece for a weekend of national service. I'm still skeptical if this was the case.

[Lyle Lanley]

 

[scottsdad]

1 minute ago, jagfox OG said:

Belarus is apparently one of the 3 worst standing armies in Europe. 

 

Maybe they'd be better off crouching or sitting down.

[vikingTON]

9 minutes ago, Savage Henry said:

Thing is, there isn’t really a second side to this.  

Erm there quite clearly is when there comes to the reality of the military situation. Or have literally no Ukrainian soldiers been captured along with the hundreds of square miles of territory? 

The facts of the military situation are completely separate to your views on the validity of the action.