badgerx16

Gabriel Gatehouse, the BBC correspondant, was on R4 news earlier, giving a breakdown of what keeps Putin in power. He likened it to a 3 legged stool; firstly a handful of close allies who control the army, the FSB, and the KGB; second the 'technocrats', professional diplomats and civil servants, such as Sergei Lavrov the Foreign Minister; and thirdly the oligarchs, or at least a subset of them that have remained closely loyal to him. In terms of who knew what was happening, the first group were in on it, most of the second and third groups were not told until the invasion started, having been consistently told that the 'exercises' were just that.

It is written into Ukraine's constitution to work towards and acheive membership of the EU and NATO.

Given the accuracy of their 'smart' weaponry on show in Ukraine, they might well hit Peru with the missiles aimed at the US.

There are issues with ground water contamination and atmospheric problems due to escaping gas. There may well be geological issues as well, but as the shale gas areas in the US tend to be much more open and relatively unpopulated, compared to the UK, they will impact fewer people, and the economics work better with less environmental restrictions and protections to be catered for. ( Plus the US regulatory bodies tend to be more lax ).

Bhutan are so confident about preserving their territorial integrity they haven't bothered to build a navy 😉

We have 50. Is that not enough ?

And probably had ideas on how to do so as POTUS.

Perhaps, but it was up here they actually started. Our protests had much less effect on the Tory Government than those down South.

The geological issues will prevent it starting up again. The test wells in Lancashire were picked as being the most stable, and they easily exceeded the safety guidelines for tremors. ( Funny how nobody ever semed to push for fracking in Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, and Kent, where there are supposed to be substantial deposits of gas ).

The Government shut down fracking because (1) the yields and economic benefit would be far less than originally speculated, and (2) the geological impact far exceeded the safety limits put in place, and the industry failed to find ways to alleviate this.

Prices for gas, electricity and petrol/diesel were rocketing before this all kicked off, the war has just added another factor to supplement post pandemic inflation. As for heating bills, in a month's time people won't be heating their homes as much. Agree that the Government should do more, but won't hold my breath.

Do you think they wil have DLC with abandoned Russian tanks and other AFVs ?

BODMAS

Meanwhile, on planet Earth............... https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/06/politics/trump-putin-ukraine/index.html https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/02/time-to-confront-trump-putin-network https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/02/putin-invade-ukraine-trump-00012897

The Russians have established evacuation routes from Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Mariupol; some lead to Russia, some to Belarus, and others have been mined.

Leeds - Villa is on AMAZON. They are only showing re-scheduled matches that were on their original schedule.

Where's Captain Nolan when you need him ?

Ex special forces from around the world moving to Ukraine, plus this chap..... https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ukraine-russia-putin-canadian-forces-1.6372259

Season 2 of ST Picard just started on AMAZON Prime.

Reports that the Russians are not happy with the Chinese tyres they are using, and that this accounts for many of their abandoned vehicles.

Obviously Ralph played his strongest team in the cup.

"It is estimated that following the end of WWII over 200,000 people were involved in partisan warfare." "Organized combat continued on Polish territory until the 1950s" https://warsawinstitute.org/post-war-war-years-1944-1963-poland/

There was a 3 year widespread insurrection in Poland following the Soviet 'liberation' from the Nazis, ( 1944-47 ), with at least 200,000 partisans fighting. This trickled on until at least 1954. In fact the last partisan killed in combat was in 1963. East Germany was a militarily occupied defeated enemy state - how much 'resistance' was there in the 3 Western sectors ?

The only hope is that this excursion proves so painful that somebody finally finds the balls to get rid of him. There is no hiding body bags, and if the sanctions hold then the younger portion of the population, born since 1990 and raised with a Western looking perspective, will wonder where therir designer clothes, cars, and Samsung mobile phone upgrades have gone.

"Exception to Fair Opportunity for Countering Especially Dangerous Pathogen Threats in Ukraine Department/Ind. Agency DEPT OF DEFENSE Sub-tier DEFENSE THREAT REDUCTION AGENCY (DTRA) Office DEFENSE THREAT REDUCTION AGENCY" But then, I assume you did actually read what you linked to.