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[martinuzz]

Geesh those court photos. 2 of the suspects have their faces beaten pretty bad. One is missing an ear. One whas wheeled in in a wheelchair and didn't look conscious.
Meanwhile the Russian government says the accusations that IS did this are fabricated by the USA.

Let's hope they don't use this as an excuse to nuke Ukraine.

[Telgin]

I'm certain Putin will use it to blame Ukraine and try to drum up more internal support for the war, but I can't envision how it'll lead to more escalation on its own.  Russia can't escalate more in its conventional warfare front and there's no way this will lead to nuclear escalation.  No matter what Putin says, he knows using nukes will alienate the entire world and risk nuclear retallation.

[EuchreJack]

Trying to find a reason Putin wouldn't pull out the nukes at the first sign of a terminal illness, I stumbled upon the true reason for the War.

Putin's daughter was knocked up by the cousin of Ukraine's President.

[King Zultan]

Taking the family feud to the global scale!

[Maximum Spin]

Trying to find a reason Putin wouldn't pull out the nukes at the first sign of a terminal illness, I stumbled upon the true reason for the War.

Putin's daughter was knocked up by the cousin of Ukraine's President.

Though they have the same last name, there's actually no relation.

[Starver]

...brought over from the Gaza thread, by this point becoming a totally non-Gaza subject diversion.

You basically asked why nobody was doing anything about Russia.

I don't think so? I already know why nobody can do anything about Russia. (I.e., Russia has nukes and has threatened to use them. Ukraine gave theirs up in 1994 after President Clinton promised we'd protect them.)

...of course it was rhetorical (and I also know that it's not just Clinton who contributed to the failure to protect them), but you did 'ask'.

Things may become 'messy', in wartime, but there are hard and fast obligations to punish grave violations (which go well beyond accidents, carelessness or misunderstandings).

Tell us more about how Russia is being punished hard and fast for its violations.

Of course, you may also have misread a reference to obligations (fulfilled or not) for a reference to actions (required or not), but I let that pass at the time. I do occasionally have people think I say things that I actually don't.

(PS. for new readers: "grave violations" as in "violations that are grave (serious)", rather than specifically violations of graves. Could easily be both, of course. They tend to use "grave breaches" and "serious violations" in the actual Convention wording and other official literature, it seems. Perhaps to avoid just this kind of misreading!  )


...and we now return you to your regular programming.

[Maximum Spin]

I can't tell if I'm being subtweeted here.

Hypothetically, if I am, that would NOT be what I meant, but I don't want to rehash it.

Also, grave breaches could still be breaches of graves, although both that and the "violations" version would be verging on newspaperese.

[Starver]

I can't tell if I'm being subtweeted here.

Ah. No. If subtweeted is a term for what I think it is, totally a coincidence (or perhaps independent sublineage repollination from the whoever first brought the idea into all our minds[1]) that I chose to bring something here that involved a quote about nukes (and Ukraine), arriving immediately after your reply which quoted a native reference about nukes (on Ukraine).

But it's a mildly irresistable subject. One that many people have their eye on, I'm sure....


[1] The histories of the most immediate conversations can be easily checked, no doubt. But I won't.

[EuchreJack]

...brought over from the Gaza thread, by this point becoming a totally non-Gaza subject diversion.

NO NO BAD Starver. DO NOT DO THAT!

Don't make me lock this thread, because I totally will.

[Maximum Spin]

I can't tell if I'm being subtweeted here.

Ah. No. If subtweeted is a term for what I think it is, totally a coincidence (or perhaps independent sublineage repollination from the whoever first brought the idea into all our minds[1]) that I chose to bring something here that involved a quote about nukes (and Ukraine), arriving immediately after your reply which quoted a native reference about nukes (on Ukraine).

But it's a mildly irresistable subject. One that many people have their eye on, I'm sure....


[1] The histories of the most immediate conversations can be easily checked, no doubt. But I won't.

It was a joking reference to something they say on Xtwitter meaning "to make oblique comments about someone else without saying so", yes. But I actually meant the part where you were complaining about people thinking you've said things you didn't. Still, it doesn't matter and I'll take your word for it that you weren't.

Mmm, I just noticed some parts of that paragraph have disappeared since I read them.

[Strongpoint]

Russia is conducting another missile campaign against our energy infrastructure. Each day powerstation or two are getting hit

Meanwhile, our drone strikes against Russian oil refineries are a thing of the past. None were hit for something like 2 weeks. Neither did we retaliate against their power stations near the border.

I see three explanations for that
1) Our production\supply of drones is, in fact, so meager that we simply ran out of them and are in stockpiling mode for future strikes few months later
2) Russians improved their anti-drone defense to the point when none can get through
3) US and\or others persuaded us to stop doing those strikes.

All three explanations are depressing... 

[Maximum Spin]

I think it's unlikely that the US would order the strikes to end, at least. WE take up most of the slack when Russian oil leaves the market. The US is the largest crude oil producer in the world, so we're happy to have prices go up. It's probably a combination of 1 and 2; Russia is notably strong in electronic warfare, so they almost certainly would start putting up drone jamming around their facilities which didn't use it before.

[EuchreJack]

It's more effective to hit your enemy where they do not have defences. The Russian AA defences are limited, but powerful and mobile. Once the Russians moved to protect the Oil, it probably was more effective to stop.

I have no doubt Ukraine will find some new inventive way to use their drones.  There are also supply issues, unfortunately.

[King Zultan]

If they're unable to blowup oil refineries I'm sure they'll find some other important thing of Russia's to blowup soon enough.

[Starver]

Yelabuga (possible drone-factory) and Nizhnekamsk (refinery, or close to one) appear to have been hit. Substantially deeper into Russian territory than Moscow.

(It's probably more the extent of the attack range that's a useful issue here. Moscow can be circled with an Iron Dome to prevent all further damage to Kremlin flagpoles, but if the attacks can be projected this wide and far then practically every potential target this side of the West Siberia Economic Region needs to have anti-drone forces stationed somewhere nearby, as defense-in-depth.)

Unknown actual efficacy, but that's not necessarily the point. And anything actually damaging will be downplayed anyway.