Kiev Burning

[Censored by Laurie]

When the pacifist of all pacifist says our response is too weak, you know there is a problem.

Ghandi? Ben Kingsley?

[Cerebus]

Another video, which I can't 100% verify of course, but which purportedly shows Russia moving vehicles into the Bryansk Oblast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-zUMBqqgTc

The armored monstrosities at the start are obviously the 2S19 Msta. How do you make one? Take a T80 body (a better tank than the T90 or T72, but Russia can't feed their, so they are going back to updating diesel tanks like the T72B3) and then add a T72 engine (again, they can supply diesel) and then cram a Msta 152 MM Howitzer on it.

There are only about ~500 of them in service, but they are distributed everywhere, as they are usually just attached to motorized rifle regiments. Some were seen with the 19th MRD when it invaded Georgia. Very well could be the same unit moving here.

Then you seem some Russia trucks. You put stuff in the back, they move things around.

Then you see the 9K22 Tunguska, however an older variant without missiles. Here's a video of one going haywire and catching fire.

Then more trucks and bridge layers.

ETA: Probably not the 9K22, probably the brand new 2K22M. It does have AAM, just not in exposed tubes like the older models. 2K22Ms are usually attached to motorized rifle divisions, so again this could be the 19th MRD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZs2r0DNTLs

Edited March 26, 2014 by Cerebus

[Cerebus]

Ghandi?

Gandhi, you Philistine.

[KRAM1]

The Ukraine is not currently a NATO member. Think some folks referred to the Ukraine as a member of NATO...do not believe they are at this point.

[Censored by Laurie]

Gandhi, you Philistine.

I was playing anagrams?

I knew it didn't look right as I typed it. Blaming a head-cold. Last night I went to a show and it took me two songs to realize the lead singer wasn't sitting down and was in fact a dwarf.

[Cerebus]

The Ukraine is not currently a NATO member. Think some folks referred to the Ukraine as a member of NATO...do not believe they are at this point.

We've gone over it in this thread. They were given a NATO membership action plan in 98, but decided in the early 2000s to drop the process an not become a NATO member. They probably regret that now.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Just to clarify, the nation is known as "Ukraine," not "The Ukraine." "The Ukraine" is Russian terminology, suggesting that it is actually just a region of the Motherland.

I've had close Ukrainian friends in the past, including a roommate, and that point was made emphatically to me when I unknowingly used the Russian terminology.

[Cerebus]

Russian Ministry Opens Complaint Hotline for Russian Speakers in Ukraine

Russia's Regional Development Ministry has created a telephone hotline for Russians in Ukraine to call with complaints about any violations of their rights.

Russia has cited a threat to the rights of ethnic Russians in Crimea as the reason for annexing the peninsula, and fears have been rising that Russia might use the same pretext to expand its presence in Ukraine.

ETA: Another example of the Special War mentioned below.

Edited March 26, 2014 by Cerebus

[Cerebus]

Donetsk and Luhansk are next, imho.

Maybe I was wrong:

Russian military holds exercises in breakaway Moldova region: agency

Russia's military staged training exercises on Tuesday in Transdniestria, a breakaway sliver of Moldova that is a focus of tension following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.

Russia has held several military drills during months of political upheaval in Ukraine. Some have brought large Russian forces close to Ukraine's eastern border, adding to concerns of an invasion after President Vladimir Putin secured permission from parliament to send in troops to protect Russians if needed.

[Cerebus]

Looks like the Crimean Tartars are about to make some tough decisions.

Crimean Tatars Will Have to Vacate Land – Official

Ukraine’s breakaway region of Crimea will ask Tatars to vacate part of the land where they now live in exchange for new territory elsewhere in the region, a top Crimean government official said Tuesday.

The Tatars, who make up 15 percent of Crimea’s population, remain amongst the staunchest supporters of the new government in Kiev that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych last month.

[Cerebus]

This is from last year and not directly related to Ukraine, but it is related to CWT:TR-MAD.


Internet Troll Operation Uncovered in St. Petersburg

Local reporters have infiltrated a covert organization that hired young people as “Internet operators” near St. Petersburg and discovered that the employees are being paid to write pro-Kremlin postings and comments on the Internet, smearing opposition leader Alexei Navalny and U.S. politics and culture.

Employees at the company, located at 131 Lakhtinsky Prospekt, were paid 1,180 rubles ($36.50) for a full 8-hour day and received a free lunch, Lvova wrote.

Another blog entry he referred to as an example of the company’s work was a posting criticizing American films while praising Russian ones. “Each [American film] is a flawed film […] for, dare I say it, a flawed nation,” a blogger using the moniker onerus1 wrote on Aug. 26.

“Friends, wake up! America is not our friend, but really the worst enemy!” the blogger wrote on Aug. 30. “Behind America’s smile and handshake, there is only its task of genocide and the complete destruction of our country.”

The other bloggers Soshnikov referred to were active when accessed this week, criticizing the position of the U.S. on the situation in Syria and praising Russian President Vladimir Putin.

[Cerebus]

How to Win Cold War 2.0

The last two weeks have witnessed the upending of the European order and the close of the post-Cold War era. With his invasion of Crimea and the instant absorption of the strategic peninsula, Vladimir Putin has shown that he will not play by the West’s rules. The “end of history” is at an end—we’re now seeing the onset of Cold War 2.0

By explicitly linking Russian ethnicity with membership in the Russian Federation, Putin has challenged the post-Soviet order writ large.

The Kremlin is a fiercely revisionist power, seeking to change the status quo by various forms of force. This will soon involve NATO members in the Baltics directly, as well as Poland and Romania indirectly. Longstanding Russian acumen in what I term Special War, an amalgam of espionage, subversion and terrorism by spies and special operatives, is already known to Russia’s neighbors and can be expected to increase.

Since the annexation of Crimea, Russian intelligence has reportedly been employing its playbook in eastern and southern Ukraine, using spies and operatives to stir up trouble among ethnic Russians and lay the groundwork for a future invasion by “self-defense militias” backed by Russian troops.

Whether or not Putin invades mainland Ukraine, NATO must understand that the Kremlin has decided to begin a new Cold War by attacking the settlement of the last one. Further Western denial—like we saw after the invasion of Georgia—will only encourage more Russian adventurism, with all the attendant risks of wider conflict and major war. While the George W. Bush administration bears its share of the blame here, there is no denying that the Obama White House has repeatedly fumbled the ball with Russia. The famed “reset” was a fine idea if Dmitry Medvedev were actually running Russia, which he certainly was not.

All the same, I have never had much sympathy for neoconservative critiques of Putin’s Russia, which too often have counseled needless hostility and willful disregard for legitimate Russian interests in Moscow’s “near abroad,” as well as unwise emphasis on missile defense, seen by the Kremlin as a threat. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Western powers, including the United States, were indeed too casually dismissive of Russian concerns—the Balkan wars of the 1990s being a major case in point—and Moscow has now gotten its revenge, repaid with interest, in Ukraine.

[Cerebus]

Speaking of "Special War"...

Pro-Russia Forces Become Active In Latvia And Estonia

Following the events in Ukraine and Crimea, pro-Kremlin forces have become active in Latvia as well. At the end of February, a socially-political organization was founded in Moscow called the Russian International (RusIntern). Its target countries include Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia and others.

One of the first actions to be performed by this organization was the formation of self-defence units in Crimea. It was done in order to express support for Crimea’s joining of the Russian Federation. This organization promises to defend Russian schools and rights of non-citizens in Latvia. Among the founders of this organization, there is even a non-citizen of Latvia Sergei Malakhovsky, as reported by De facto programme of LTV.

The name ‘RusIntern’ resembles the ‘Comintern’ communist organization, which was active in the beginning of the previous century and encouraged communists in the world to unite. RusIntern, on the other hand, encourages Russians in the world to unite.

[Cerebus]

The Ukrainian Navy no longer exists:

[Army of Dad]

The Ukrainian Navy no longer exists:

Like the old days of taking an opponents ships for your own use.

[Cerebus]

The Ukrainian Navy no longer exists:

Good Lord, Putin even got the dolphins!

Ukraine's spy dolphins switch allegiance to Russia

But of all the Ukrainian military assets Russia has seized during the annexation, none is quite as unusual as the combat dolphin program.

The program is shrouded in myth, but the mammals are believed to have been trained to kill frogmen with special harpoons or knives fitted to their backs, or drag them to the surface to be captured.

Ukraine relaunched the military program in 2012, and the current generation of dolphins at the centre are already proficient at marking lost weapons and underwater obstacles with buoys.

[UNT90]

Ghandi? Ben Kingsley?

CBL?

Was referring to US Presidents.

[Cerebus]

Ukraine crisis: EU is drafting powerful sanctions against Russia, says Cameron

A "strong, robust and powerful" package of trade, financial and economic sanctions is being drawn up by the European Union for use if Russia intervenes in eastern Ukraine, David Cameron told MPs.
...
The former Labour cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw also criticised the limited EU response in contrast with decisions taken by the US, pointing out that the Americans have targeted a wider group of Vladimir Putin's inner-circle, including "those that have dirty money in London".

[Cerebus]

Obama: 'Just because Russia has a deep history with Ukraine does not mean it should be able to dictate Ukraine’s future'

And that is what’s at stake in Ukraine today. Russia’s leadership is challenging truths that only a few weeks ago seemed self-evident: that in the 21st century, the borders of Europe cannot be redrawn with force; that international law matters; and that people and nations can make their own decisions about their future.

To be honest, if we defined our interests narrowly, with a cold-hearted calculus, we might decide to look the other way. Our economy is not deeply integrated with Ukraine’s. Our people and our homeland face no direct threat from the invasion of Crimea. Our own borders are not threatened by Russia’s annexation. But that kind of casual indifference would ignore the lessons that are written in the cemeteries of this continent. It would allow the old way of doing things to gain a foothold in this young century. And that message would be heard – not just in Europe –but in Asia and the Americas; in Africa and the Middle East.

Moreover, the consequences that would arise from complacency are not abstract; they impact the lives of real people – men and women just like us. Just look at the young people of Ukraine, who were determined to take back their future from a government rotted by corruption; the portraits of the fallen shot by snipers; the visitors who pay their respects at the Maidan. There was the university student, wrapped in the Ukrainian flag, expressing her hope that, “every country should live by the law.” A post graduate student, speaking of her fellow protestors, said, “I want these people who are here to have dignity.” Imagine, for a moment, that you are the young woman who said, “there are some things that fear, police sticks and tear gas can’t destroy.”
...
More recently, Russia has pointed to America’s decision to go into Iraq as an example of Western hypocrisy. It is true that the Iraq War was a subject of vigorous debate – not just around the world, but in the United States as well. I happened to oppose our military intervention there. But even in Iraq, America sought to work within the international system. We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory, nor did we grab its resources for our own gain. Instead, we ended our war and left Iraq to its people and a fully sovereign Iraqi state could make decisions about its own future.

[Cerebus]

Putin's Challenge to the West

Russian President Vladimir Putin has a long-festering grudge: He deeply resents the West for winning the Cold War. He blames the United States in particular for the collapse of his beloved Soviet Union, an event he has called the "worst geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century."

Mr. Putin aspires to restore Russia's global power and influence and to bring the now-independent states that were once part of the Soviet Union back into Moscow's orbit.

Mr. Putin, who began his third, nonconsecutive presidential term in 2012, is playing a long game. He can afford to: Under the Russian Constitution, he could legally remain president until 2024.

Last November, through economic leverage and political muscle, he forced then-President Viktor Yanukovych to abort a Ukrainian agreement with the EU that would have drawn it toward the West. When Mr. Yanukovych, his minion, was ousted as a result, Mr. Putin seized Crimea and is now making ominous claims and military movements regarding all of eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine is central to Mr. Putin's vision of a pro-Russian bloc, partly because of its size and importantly because of Kiev's role as the birthplace of the Russian Empire more than a thousand years ago. He will not be satisfied or rest until a pro-Russian government is restored in Kiev.

The only way to counter Mr. Putin's aspirations on Russia's periphery is for the West also to play a strategic long game.

Europe's reliance on Russian oil and gas must be reduced, and truly meaningful economic sanctions must be imposed, knowing there may be costs to the West as well. NATO allies bordering Russia must be militarily strengthened and reinforced with alliance forces; and the economic and cyber vulnerabilities of the Baltic states to Russian actions must be reduced (especially given the number of Russians and Russian-speakers in Estonia and Latvia).

Tacit acceptance of settling old revanchist scores by force is a formula for ongoing crises and potential armed conflict, whether in Europe, Asia or elsewhere. A China behaving with increasing aggressiveness in the East and South China seas, an Iran with nuclear aspirations and interventionist policies in the Middle East, and a volatile and unpredictable North Korea are all watching events in Europe. They have witnessed the fecklessness of the West in Syria. Similar division and weakness in responding to Russia's most recent aggression will, I fear, have dangerous consequences down the road.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Great info and insight, Cerebus. Keep it coming!

[Cerebus]

In Crimea, the Russian developers seem to have arrived pic.twitter.com/HraB6IWERb

— Paul Sonne (@PaulSonne)

March 26, 2014

спецстрой россии = SPETSSTROY Russia

Now if your think, that's great Cerebus, but who the hell is SPESSTROY Russia? Well it's the Russian Federation's Agency for Special Construction of course.

Edited March 26, 2014 by Cerebus

[UNT90]

No getting sick till this crisis is over, Cerebus!!!

[UNT90]

In Crimea, Russia annex you!

[Rudy]

Loved the breakdown of the tanks, but need to know how many Bothans died to bring us the info, and where is the exhaust port that is vuleranuble to proton torpedoes.

Do the Ukrainans have any A-10's or what are the closest ones should the immediate need arise? How do the Cobra and Apache compare to the Russian attack choppers?