Russia and Ukraine

[Leonardo17]

Here is an article that summarizes the functioning of the Russian war machine:
 
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ravaged-war-r...00323.html
 

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They are producing older tanks (because they don’t have the components that are necessary to build more modern tanks) but they are set to replenish their ranks in 5 to 8 years (not 10 years) because they are putting money into it. They are also recruiting more people and are aiming to create an army of 1,3 million if they can.
  
But new US sanctions are now targeting some 500 or so entities in third countries (In places like Kazakhstan they are just taping modern computer chips on refrigerators before shipping them to Russia for instance ).
 
There is no evidence of China supporting Russia in terms of weaponry and that’s a very good thing, it means they are rational, this in turn probably means that we are not the generation who is set to witness WWIII
 
So my view: Ukraine is having an especially difficult time right now simply because Russian have adopted this salami-slice technique in which they are concentrating all their effort on one target (Bakhmut, Avdivka, now it’s probably the small Ukrainian enclave on the East of the Rive Dnipro), in which they focus all their artillery and air superiority on Ukrainian defenders before initially annihilating them and moving to the next target.
 
This will probably change when they will have used all North-Korean shell and Iranian “60’s Hippy” drones.

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So the new sanctions on Russian economy will play a crucial role. But what I am thinking right now after I watched Alexei Navalny’s documentary on Putin and his kleptocratic friends is that we may not be dealing with a mad man but simply with a typical thief who is simply protecting his self interest rather than some megalomaniac dream (as it was the case for the dictators of The 20th century).

 

So President Biden was probably right by designating him as a “Crazy SOB” (also pointing out that our main worry right now should be the climate):

 

https://www.dw.com/en/biden-calls-putin-...a-68333466

 

That term (SOB) is a slang term that is used to designate a complete egocentric person who does not care about anything or anyone to the exception of his own personal interest.

 
Navalny mentions this issue at the end of his documentary. He says that “Putin and his friends” will always need new billion dollar palaces, new luxury items, new villas and cruise ships for their husbands, daughters, lovers etc. And that this systems cannot work because this small number of people will keep wanting more stuff while the resources of even a big country like Russia cannot cope with this behavior of limitless egocentric wants and needs of a group of modern gangsters (and that’s what they truly are)