Eastern Europe/Ukraine [Feb 6th 2015]

yogeshkumar · Post by **yogeshkumar** » 15 Mar 2022 21:54

Rudradev wrote:
IndraD wrote:
https://www.leadingauthorities.com/uk/s ... a-rangappa

Clearly Tweets like this are meant to provoke responses from US-based Indians with a backbone and a sincere commitment to the truth. These poor souls will be added to a shortlist & marked for 'neutralization' as 'foreign agents'.

There are lot of Indian traitors, like this shameless Asha Rangappa. Most smart people should not use Twitter. Twitter, FB are cesspool of narcissists. Plus.. these are just intelligence gathering (aka spying) tools for CIA/NSA/MI6.

bala · Post by **bala** » 15 Mar 2022 22:30

We have emphasized to all member States of the UN that the global order is anchored on international law, UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states.

This BS is quite hilarious. It wasn't too long ago that Soviets had Ukraine as part of their territory. Then at break up what happened to sovereignty of territory? Similar examples hold in the modern era. Yugoslavia is a good example. In the 50's China annexed Tibet as part of its territory. BD of course was severed from glorious neighbor nextdoor which itself was a creation by the British. The middle east is a good example of lines drawn in the sand by some Brit Lawyers after having cigars, whisky and women and good laugh. So much hubris. The US was conquered by blood thirsty expansion which wiped out the local natives (they were provided small pox infected blankets and mass killed).

GShankar · Post by **GShankar** » 15 Mar 2022 22:49

yogeshkumar wrote: There are lot of Indian traitors, like this shameless Asha Rangappa. Most smart people should not use Twitter. Twitter, FB are cesspool of narcissists. Plus.. these are just intelligence gathering (aka spying) tools for CIA/NSA/MI6.

Most of these are poren citizens. They may have indian ethnicity but that's where the association stops. We need to identify and stop calling them indians traitors or otherwise.

End of the day, creatures will come out of the woodwork with blue ticks and all that - because these are propaganda platforms.

Baikul · Post by **Baikul** » 15 Mar 2022 23:06

Looks like we need to do some research into JLTV/ BMP etc versus many tanks, especially with respect to the Chinese and western borders.

Cyrano · Post by **Cyrano** » 15 Mar 2022 23:10

EAM is just making a realpolitikally correct statement which is also India's stated position on the matter.
Playing the game onlee saar!

hgupta · Post by **hgupta** » 15 Mar 2022 23:21

If confirmed, best news of the day.

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 16 Mar 2022 00:09

The Russians seem to have impeccable intelligence. They also seem to take the gloves off for mercenaries unlike for their brother Slavs (unless they are Nazis).

GShankar · Post by **GShankar** » 16 Mar 2022 00:11

NATO leaders enter Kyiv?

srikandan · Post by **srikandan** » 16 Mar 2022 00:14

American overlords are ready to sanction India it seems. do it already.

https://www.stimson.org/event/russias-i ... derations/

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine poses a dilemma not only for European security but also countries like India that seek to balance upholding territorial integrity of all states with their dependence on Russian weapons. How could its response to this crisis impact India’s defense and strategic posture and New Delhi’s perceptions of its threat environment in light of growing Russia-China bonhomie? Further, what could it mean for the U.S.-India strategic partnership, especially as India faces possible sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for its purchase of Russia’s S-400 system, and its engagement with the Quad?

S-400 is for Indian defence requirements, but Quad is no longer about Indian defense but more about making pointless statements and useless gestures, so even the topic for this so-called debate is framed around a senseless question. Also, nice to see that the USA is completely blameless.

This Ukraine project has been an overreach for the USA -- multiple OPEC countries talking of moving away using the dollar for oil trade is not a good outcome for the USA.

dnivas · Post by **dnivas** » 16 Mar 2022 00:39

That sniper story if true is hilarious. Idiot left his wife and new kid to come fight a battle coz his (Ukranian - Canadian boss) asked him to.
Lands in Ukraine and starts taking selfies and videos with everyone.

The working story is that he didnt even get to fire a single shot.

Russia 2 - Western MSM propaganda 9999999

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 16 Mar 2022 00:40

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60750642

Russia is likely to default as its reserves are frozen.

Since my knowledge on economics is in the negative, can someone better informed explain why Russia doesn’t simply declare its debts null and void as its reserves are frozen? What are the negatives of such a course of action ?

GShankar · Post by **GShankar** » 16 Mar 2022 00:53

May not go bankrupt as quick as one thinks.. And

1) if they figure out to ship oil to india and china, they'll continue to make money
2) if germany/france don't release money, russia could stop gas at any point of time.

srikandan · Post by **srikandan** » 16 Mar 2022 01:00

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/ ... uqxN4pAAAA

Seems to be talking about the Russian bombing of the foreign legion training center a few days ago.

m_saini · Post by **m_saini** » 16 Mar 2022 01:06

Tanaji wrote:Since my knowledge on economics is in the negative, can someone better informed explain why Russia doesn’t simply declare its debts null and void as its reserves are frozen? What are the negatives of such a course of action ?

It's known as Sovereign default and short term consequences are pretty severe.
Here's an in-depth IMF paper on it. They found that long-term consequences are very few but the impact on domestic banking system as well as on domestic bondholders would be immense. I don't know how much of Russian debt is held by Russians but for a country like say Japan, a default would be catastrophic.

bala · Post by **bala** » 16 Mar 2022 01:10

Foreign currency reserves are best kept as Gold. Gold was the banking standard for a long time. The Bretton wood agreement axed the gold standard and started printing money. India has to seriously think about the reserves it holds. Breaking the stranglehold of the dollar should be goal of the "others" in the world. India's UPI, BharatPe, etc for internal money transactions is a good direction. The Digital rupee is another good thing. The Visa/Mastercard/AmEX type cards need to have an alternate in India. Another area to look into is the Internet system. The West has a stranglehold on internet. There are many Western systems that we in India take for granted and are vulnerable if access is cut off. The Android OS and Google Play requires an alternate India system. We need to encourage the Open RISC based chip (IIT-M based), Open Linux/Unix OS, India specific FinTech stack, etc.

eklavya · Post by **eklavya** » 16 Mar 2022 01:25

Russian TV journalist fined for on-air Ukraine war protest

A Russian woman who denounced the war in Ukraine during a live news bulletin on state television was fined 30,000 roubles ($280) on Tuesday, a court said, after the Kremlin denounced her act of protest as "hooliganism".

Marina Ovsyannikova, a Channel One employee, was found guilty of flouting protest laws, the court said. It was not immediately clear if she could also face other, more serious charges. Her lawyer was not immediately reachable for comment.

Ovsyannikova staged an extraordinary show of dissent on Monday night when she held up an anti-war sign behind a studio presenter reading the news on Channel One and shouted slogans condemning Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

The sign, in English and Russian, read: "NO WAR. Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you here."

In a video recorded before her protest, Ovsyannikova blamed Putin by name and said: "The next 10 generations of our descendants will not wash away the shame of this fratricidal war."

U.N. human rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani praised "this very courageous journalist".

"We would urge the authorities to ensure that she does not face any reprisals for exercising her right to freedom of expression," she told a news briefing in Geneva.

chanakyaa · Post by **chanakyaa** » 16 Mar 2022 01:28

Tanaji wrote:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60750642

Russia is likely to default as its reserves are frozen.

Since my knowledge on economics is in the negative, can someone better informed explain why Russia doesn’t simply declare its debts null and void as its reserves are frozen? What are the negatives of such a course of action ?

Based on publicly available information, Russia’s outstanding debt (USD and Euro) is meagre ~$40 billing compared to $600+ billion of reserves. Why would they declare null and void when they have plenty of reserves? Out of total reserves $100bn are in USD. Seems like only half of those reserves are currently available without any constraints of sanctions. Problem is that no one keeps the the cash of USD. Money is generally transferred from USD accounts held overseas, mostly with US Fed. Challenge is that Without access to Swift they will need to transfer money to creditors thru intermediary country. Same applies to Russian oil companies who have non-ruble debt. If the interest is not paid on the due date, it means default, but without the ability to make foreign currency transfers (I.e no swift access) how can borrower make the payment? It is like saying, you are demanding a payment from me but you are not giving me my wallet, so how can I pay you? Anyway, finance types (and their partners in crime media) are hyping the situation to make some serious moolah (I.e. fear of non payment leads to bond prices to fall and when payment is made bond prices rises again). Remember the Chinese developer (Evergrande) scare of failing to make payment situation in 2021.

eklavya · Post by **eklavya** » 16 Mar 2022 01:38

bala wrote:
We have emphasized to all member States of the UN that the global order is anchored on international law, UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states.
This BS is quite hilarious. It wasn't too long ago that Soviets had Ukraine as part of their territory. Then at break up what happened to sovereignty of territory?

What you are calling “BS” is the statement made by the Minister of External Affairs of the Government of India to the Rajya Sabha. It is India’s official position on the conflict in Ukraine.

As for the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the President of Russia himself was a signatory to the agreement. And Russia has recognised Ukraine as a sovereign state ever since. From the Presidential Library of Boris Yeltsin:

THE BELAVEZHA ACCORDS SIGNED

December 8, 1991 in the village of Viskuly, Belarus, the Heads of State and Governments of the three republics: Boris Yeltsin and Gennady Burbulis (RSFSR), Stanislav Shushkevich and Vyacheslav Kebich (Belarus), Leonid Kravchuk, and Witold Fokin (Ukraine) signed the so-called "Belovezha Accords" on the demise of the USSR and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

However, 8 December 1991 the heads of the Russian Federation (RSFSR), the Republic of Belarus and Ukraine signed the Agreement on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which marked the demise of the Soviet Union.

The preamble of the document stated that "the USSR as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality no longer exists." Article 1 of the Agreement read: "The High Contracting Parties shall constitute the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)”. The agreement stated a desire to develop cooperation in political, economic, humanitarian, cultural and other fields. Parties guaranteed their citizens equal rights and freedoms, irrespective of their nationality or other differences; accepted and respected the territorial integrity of each other and the inviolability of existing borders within the Commonwealth, as well as the openness of borders, free movement of citizens and transfer of information within the Commonwealth. Article 14 determined the city of Minsk the official seat of the coordinating bodies of the Commonwealth.

The Accords and other signed documents were ratified by the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on Dec. 12, 1991. At the same time Russia dissolved the Union Treaty of 1922.

srikandan · Post by **srikandan** » 16 Mar 2022 01:51

Russia started offloading Dollars and moving to Gold right after maidan revolution in 2014 and completed dumped all US dollars by 2020, and increased gold holding by 33% in that same period. Russia/Putin clearly expected an US escalation in the Ukraine post-maidan, or at least were prepared for it.

bala · Post by **bala** » 16 Mar 2022 02:11

eklavya wrote: What you are calling “BS” is the statement made by the Minister of External Affairs of the Government of India to the Rajya Sabha. It is India’s official position on the conflict in Ukraine.

Not faulting Indian Govt, I am only pointing out that the statement and its connotations are different to reality. These official stmts are all fine by the book. But nothing is further from the truth.

Boris Yeltsin: Sorry this guy was not himself after the breakup of Soviet Union, he was half drunk most of the time. Anything he did was under coercion from US/West/EU. Many Russians are mad at what he did and the break-up itself many feel was not correct. A lot of these accords and pieces of paper are not worth the ink. The only ones who think the break up is good is the US/West and their sympathizers.

There are so many things we find that are not true as portrayed in the Media, e.g.

Off TOPIC: Do you know that the Indian Constitution was written by John Dewey and his student BR Ambedkar rubber stamped it as the Indian Constitution. John also wrote Mao Tse Tung's Red Book. For Bongs this may come as a shock but Gitanjali is a Bengali translation of poems written by Y. B. Yeats. : Request : don't reply on this thread.

eklavya · Post by **eklavya** » 16 Mar 2022 02:29

^^^
Accords signed by the President of Russia and ratified by the parliament of Russia are legally binding on Russia.

Atmavik · Post by **Atmavik** » 16 Mar 2022 02:45

The assault on Odessa is abt to begin.. if it’s similar to Mariupol then it will be large scale devastation .

John · Post by **John** » 16 Mar 2022 03:13

Atmavik wrote:The assault on Odessa is abt to begin.. if it’s similar to Mariupol then it will be large scale devastation .

I don’t think so I think they are trying to keep Ukr troops diverted. From Melitopol outskirts which are seeing some heavy fighting.

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 16 Mar 2022 03:20

I do not think Odessa will come under bombardment. It is a deep part of more recent Russian history and culture.

John · Post by **John** » 16 Mar 2022 03:32

Russian forces need to decide whether to move the bulk of forces stuck in Kherson holding the city (potentially facing insurgent threat) to help break some of the defensive lines or stay put.

John · Post by **John** » 16 Mar 2022 04:47

Ukr have been claiming they been attacking Kherson airport with little to show for but latest one might have been successful. SAT images show atleast 5 helos destroyed and other heat scans show significant amount of fires throughout the airport. I don’t think we ever had a conflict we’re civilians have this amount of battlefield Intel.

https://twitter.com/josephhdempsey/stat ... 05065?s=21

bharathp · Post by **bharathp** » 16 Mar 2022 04:50

John · Post by **John** » 16 Mar 2022 04:53

As we discussed earlier, Here is # of assets Russians are amassing for potential amphibious op in Odessa. I think it is distraction to keep Ukr occupied but will see.

https://twitter.com/covertshores/status ... 20296?s=21

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 16 Mar 2022 05:21

Guys don't discuss India here willy nilly. Will get banned...

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 16 Mar 2022 05:22

Actually am proud of the fact that we have been following EE Ukraine for quite a long time.
Longer than the attention span of most people.

Just for perspective we have been here before

viewtopic.php?p=1792400#p1792400

yogeshkumar · Post by **yogeshkumar** » 16 Mar 2022 05:56

m_saini wrote:
Tanaji wrote:Since my knowledge on economics is in the negative, can someone better informed explain why Russia doesn’t simply declare its debts null and void as its reserves are frozen? What are the negatives of such a course of action ?
It's known as Sovereign default and short term consequences are pretty severe.
Here's an in-depth IMF paper on it. They found that long-term consequences are very few but the impact on domestic banking system as well as on domestic bondholders would be immense. I don't know how much of Russian debt is held by Russians but for a country like say Japan, a default would be catastrophic.

No short term default can be any more severe than that US/EU already imposed on Russia.

Basically US/EU stole Russian' Governments' national savings of last 30 years. Russia would be foolish to pay anything back.. on top of this theft.

yogeshkumar · Post by **yogeshkumar** » 16 Mar 2022 06:02

eklavya wrote:^^^
Accords signed by the President of Russia and ratified by the parliament of Russia are legally binding on Russia.

Alas if that also applied to US. Remember Open Sky treaty between US and Russia? US simply cancelled it couple of years ago. Just like that.

Remember JCPOA (Iran deal that Obama arranged with all UN security council countries and they all signed it)? US just cancelled it.. without asking anyone else.
See the pattern yet?

yogeshkumar · Post by **yogeshkumar** » 16 Mar 2022 06:11

srikandan wrote:Russia started offloading Dollars and moving to Gold right after maidan revolution in 2014 and completed dumped all US dollars by 2020, and increased gold holding by 33% in that same period. Russia/Putin clearly expected an US escalation in the Ukraine post-maidan, or at least were prepared for it.

Mistake that Russia made (and India should learn from it), is that Russia kept most of its reserves in Euro.. even though it reduced USD in its reserve.
Russia thought EU will never go this corrupt against Russia. But EU is just a vassal state of US.

Russia should have moved most of its reserves into physical gold (at home), Chinese Yuan, Indian Rupees, Saudi Riyal and Qatari Dinars, and currencies of Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Thai and Indonesia.These countries still "try" to keep their honor in international arena.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 16 Mar 2022 06:28

Anyone working on lessons learned from Ukraine campaign/
From China, Europe, Russia, and US POV?

Baikul · Post by **Baikul** » 16 Mar 2022 08:52

Ukraine is claiming another Russian general officer killed, making it the fourth since the war began. He is named as Major General Oleg Yurevich Mitiaev of the 150th Rifle Div*

Edit - just noting for perspective that a Russian Major General is the equivalent of a Brigadier of the Indian Army

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ ... -mariupol/

*Random factoid for war nerds - it was the 150th division that raised that famous flag over the Reichstag In Berlin near the end of World War Two. And the man who raised it was - Ukrainian!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_a ... _Reichstag

John · Post by **John** » 16 Mar 2022 09:00

Full details on Kherson attack as many 15 helos can be seen damaged or destroyed not sure how many more have shrapnel and other damage not visible from Sat images.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4 ... -in-flames

yogeshkumar · Post by **yogeshkumar** » 16 Mar 2022 09:50

View from the Russian side: https://t.me/s/intelslava

yogeshkumar · Post by **yogeshkumar** » 16 Mar 2022 09:55

Saudi Arabia to look for using Yuan in oil trade with China. https://seekingalpha.com/news/3813662-s ... s#comments

yogeshkumar · Post by **yogeshkumar** » 16 Mar 2022 09:57

Glad wokies in US and EU will have to pay a little bit more as an outcome of this war: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/15/tesla-h ... rning.html

Deans · Post by **Deans** » 16 Mar 2022 11:19

sanjaykumar wrote:I do not think Odessa will come under bombardment. It is a deep part of more recent Russian history and culture.

You're probably referring to Sevestopol in the Crimea - which is a Hero city defended literally to the last man in WW2.
The Red army also made a strong strand in Odessa against the Romanians, then withdrew to defend Sevestopol. Odessa had traditionally been a
more International/ Jewish/Ukrainian city than a Russian one.