Russia and Ukraine

[The Architect Of Fate]

TIME Magazine editor: 'Congratulations, President Putin! We have just picked you as our Man Of The Year and we need you to come in for a shoot.'

Putin: 'A photoshoot, right?'

Editor:'.....'

Putin: 'A photoshoot, right?'

Boru

Smile and say do svidaniya !!!



(If anyone's wondering it's a gun hidden inside a Camera)

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

And this one will be even worse - Ukraine is MUCH better equipped to deal with an invader than Afghanistan was.

Boru

Look at history, pretty much everywhere shows that it's almost impossible for a foreign occupier to defeat a popular insurgency, from the Irish war of Independence (which my grandfather took part in, I've heard some stories), to the independence wars in south east Asia and Africa.

Family rumour has it that a couple of my cousins were involved in the Rising.

Boru

[GUBU]

Look at history, pretty much everywhere shows that it's almost impossible for a foreign occupier to defeat a popular insurgency, from the Irish war of Independence (which my grandfather took part in, I've heard some stories), to the independence wars in south east Asia and Africa.

Family rumour has it that a couple of my cousins were involved in the Rising.

Boru

Well on my mother's side, her father was quartermaster for the mid Limerick brigade {a) a good choice because as his family had recently suffered a lot from TB the Brits wouldn't search around his house or land and b) my mother reckons there's still weapons hidden on the land [no longer in the family, long story]} and her mother was cousin to Séan Treacy. On my father's side, while his family had no direct involvement as far as we can know, his aunt did marry a brother of Eoin MacNeill, so I've plenty of history as far as Irish independence in the family.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Boru

[HappySkeptic]

Well, Russia has asked China for military equipment and financial assistance.

Sure, no WWIII opportunity here.

[Fake Messiah]

Well, Russia has asked China for military equipment and financial assistance.

Sure, no WWIII opportunity here.

What? Ruskies are already out of weapons and money?

[Anomalocaris]

I highly suspect the veracity of the story that Russia has asked for any large scale military assistance from China.    

However, much of the Russian military advantage remains rooted in the military R&D initiated in the Soviet era.

In many area the military technology that relies on post-cold war technology development in general,   the Chinese are no doubt well ahead due to the much more modern state of their general industrial infrastructure and much larger scale of their general non-military specific R&D.   These include things such drones, secure communication and communication interception equipment,  processors and controllers,  smart weapons,  distributed sensors, lasers, etc

If the Russians did ask for Chinese weapons, it is almost certainly not a request for large scale replacement of expended or lost hardware such ammunition or tanks.   Instead it is likely to be a request for technical capability and equipment the Russians never had,  but the need for which became acute due to evolving situation on the ground.

I might think the Russians would be very interested in miniature drones that can be used for on the spot reconnaissance by small units,   Modern electronic signal interception equipment that can pin point frequency agile, low probability of intercept communication transmissions,    Man-portable Mortar locating radar that can pin point the location of any ambush by bscktracking the trajectory of any airborne projectiles back to their source.  Etc.    

they may also be looking for modern secure, difficult to intercept communication equipment given that the US and Ukrainians seems to have gathered much intelligence by intercepting Russian communication.

[The Grand Nudger]

That's what struck my mind immediately, too. They're using off the shelf comms and gps. No bueno.

[Anomalocaris]

The US is undoubtedly doing everything it can to deny Russians the use of GPS.   The russians have their own GLONASS satellite navigation system.    however, the GLONASS was first deployed during the soviet era and fell into disuse and disrepair after the fall of the USSR.   Russia has been able to restore it to operation, but it is not clear how secure it is against jamming, nor how good are its locational services.

If the GLONASS is being successfully jammed, then the Russians might also possibly be looking for receivers for access to military grade locational information from China’s Beidou satellite navigation.

[The Architect Of Fate]

For people who want to make big deal out of the fact, there are fascists among the Ukrainian resistance. This video is for you