Thank you.
14 Likes
18 Likes
16 Likes
17 Likes
Could you please translate those quotations into English? Google Translate doesn’t do very well.
5 Likes
I have been wondering about that. I remember something or other about the program. But I also figure there’s no way we didn’t crib warehouses of stuff from Iraq. Given how many HW people and former CIA goons were involved in how that went down. Quietly distributing mysterious Russian equipment is practically all those assholes did in the 70’s and 80s.
7 Likes
With the language familiarity on the system it might be a good right-away-hit-the-ground-running solution. Although last I was in Kyiv just about everyone spoke English fairly well. Except for the old timers.
6 Likes
10 Likes
The point of supplying old Soviet hardware to Ukraine is that the hardware itself will be familiar.
This is the SA-8 system mentioned in the article.
12 Likes
The thing is more or less that they’re already trained on and using these systems. Language being pertinent or not, there’s no prep involved.
And probably more importantly they already have parts, ammo, logistics and shit for a lot of this equipment. Or need parts and ammo for the ones they already use/have.
Like if we send them a bunch of Hummers, where are their mechanics going to get standard wrenches?
Their rifles use a different caliber of ammo than NATO uses. So if we send them M4s, they need a different supply stream for different groups of soldiers. Also we did that, and now they need that. And apparently it’s been an issue.
It’s been a concern for a while. Like I caught yesterday that in the standoff near the Donbas, they didn’t have a heavy infantry machine gun. Because that hasn’t been a thing for a long time. So what they did was take mothballed soviet era anti-aircraft .50 caliber machine guns and remount them with pistol grips and bipods. Seems like they turned down more modern American guns that could be used similarly, over concerns about supplying American ammo.
They’re also apparently stripping machine guns off downed Russian tanks to convert to infantry and vehicle use. For the same reason. They already use the ammo in all their other shit.
There’s a lot more involved with that sort of thing if it’s a missile battery.
16 Likes
Hmm… Onebox ain’t working with the link so…
Putin’s lover Kabayeva faces expulsion from Switzerland
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mistress Alina Kabayeva faces expulsion from Switzerland, where she is likely hiding with her children. Citizens of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus appealed to the Swiss Confederation with a petition under the slogan “connect Eva Braun” with her “Führer” .
Almost 50,000 people have already voted for the request on change.org.
The authors asked the government why they allow Putin’s accomplices to hide.
The petition says that the “favorite of a crazy dictator and war criminal” is hiding in a once neutral country from sanctions. At the same time, the father of her children insidiously attacks Ukraine.
In this regard, the citizens of the three countries asked the Swiss government to consider Kabayeva’s citizenship and the need to impose sanctions on her as a person who heads the Russian propaganda media holding, which systematically conveyed false information to Russian citizens.
The authors of the appeal demand a decision on the inadmissibility of further stay of Putin’s mistress in Switzerland and check the “purity” of funds used to purchase real estate in the place where she is hiding. …
The Odessa Journal
14 Likes
21 Likes
One said, “I knew Buchenwald was a death declaration. But Dora? One hardly dared to say ‘Dora,’ the name ‘Dora’ aloud. If you went to Dora, then it was all over.”
The other: “The last months, '44 and '45, were worse than two years in Auschwitz for us.”
23 Likes
Yep, that was the whole point of NATO standardizing small arms ammo, so they could support each other. I did look it up earlier, and places like Lake City ammo factory, which is ~15 min from my house, who makes ammo for the government, also makes stuff for the Russian type firearms. We evidently have a strategic supply of it because of supporting various groups around the world and how common they are.
But yes, I wonder about everything else that is more complicated like missiles or rockets.
11 Likes
I take no joy in seeing regular Russians facing price hikes and shortages of essentials, but I suppose that (and the resulting backlash against the government) is necessary if we want the sanctions to lead to any changes in the behaviour of the Russian politicians.
16 Likes
20 Likes
Wow, Anonymous does not fuck around even when they are fucking around.
16 Likes
There’s also just a secondary market for it. The Russians/Warsaw Pact also standardized. So there’s a lot of Soviet surplus out there, and people actually still make like hunting rifles and shit in these calibers.
Probably more on topic post Soviet Russia is the big arms dealer to non-NATO and less than rich countries. Russian format bullets aren’t hard to come by. The Ukrainians can probably still manufacture them for now.
Their economy is still running, and they were even still exporting neon till last week.
That isn’t as true of anti-aircraft missiles and what have. Countries that buy AA systems from Russia tend also be buying parts and ammo from them.
There’s also problems with like artillery shells, at a minimum cause they can’t make that at the workshop level. And it’s not like critical parts for a self propelled artillery piece are just lying around NATO supply depots.
It’s less extreme than the jets but it seems to be an issue.
Anything big like that we seem to be doing a lot of poking around to see who’s got some and isn’t Iran.
10 Likes
13 Likes
18 Likes
