Ben Hodges: whoever ends up controlling Crimea is the winner of the way

[neverfail]

Technology can greatly enhance manpower, as time goes on, Russia will lose its technological capabilities, because most of it was stolen from non Russian sources; Ukraine will gain it.

What help is advanced technology if you no longer have the manpower to use it?
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I will concede here that the recent news of the blowing away of all of those Russian navy officers sounds like an accomplishment folr Ukraine as is the rendering of the Sevastopol naval base unsafe for Russian warships moving Russia's admiralty to relocate their Black Sea fleet to a more distant location. 'Well done, Ukraine!' But these and similar tactical triumphs are not by themselves going to deliver Crimea back into Ukrainian soverignty.

Standing in the way of Ukranian forces retaking Ukraine are the fformidable defences I believe the Russians have built across the narrow neck of land that connects Crimea to mainland Ukraine: and those are approachable only via the Azov corridor that the Russian military has likewise fortified.

The Russians are now fighting smarter. Putin seems to have given up on the quest of conquering more of the Ukraine in favour of holding on to what Russian forces won earlier in the war. Fighting a defensive war from fortified fixed positions conserves manpower while attackers suffer a considerably higher casualty rate. I do not believe that Ukraine has any military manpower to waste. The Russian military are clearly trying to win by bleeding the Ukraine side to death.

Alas, they might even succeed.

This war must be fought but only economic pressure will cause Russian capitulation.

Well Milo, they have been applying economic sanctions on Russia for the better part of two years now and it seems to have acheived nothing in deflecting Putin from waging war on Ukraine.

That’s the wrong test. Putin cannot be deflected by anything, the economic pressure is the only way to get his band of merry men to off him. You won’t know that’s successful until his body is long cold!

An interesting perspective, the US et al knew they couldn’t defeat Russia quickly, so the short term objective is to build up India at Russia’s expense.

Interesting!

I can say no more for now.

[neverfail]

That’s the wrong test. Putin cannot be deflected by anything, the economic pressure is the only way to get his band of merry men to off him. You won’t know that’s successful until his body is long cold!

An interesting perspective, the US et al knew they couldn’t defeat Russia quickly, so the short term objective is to build up India at Russia’s expense.

Milo; plausable but I can see a flaw in the case put forth.

The inagurator begins that soon after invasion of Ukraine begins and Western sanctions applied the Russian foreign minister flew to New Dehli to negotiate an oil agreement with the Modi government because the Putin government was fearful of mass unemploynent. Sorry, but oil production is not a big employer of manpower anywhere - that is possibly even a big attraction of it as a venue of investment. So I fail to see how keeping the oil flowing abroad from Russia has any relevance to the maintenance of the much larger, polyglot, non-oil sector of the Russian economy where the regular jobs are.

The rest of the video makes sense.

p.s. Modi even proposed that Russia accept payment for the oil in rupees - but the Russian side was not so foolish (or desperate) as to be willing to accept non-convertable paper trash in payment. As India is selling oil on to Germany for hard currency it is only fair that it should also have to pay Russia the deflated purchase price in hard currency also.

p.p.s. India's pretenses for becoming a world power is belied that in contrast to China India is running adverse trade balances with all but two of its external trading partners.

[Milo]

That’s the wrong test. Putin cannot be deflected by anything, the economic pressure is the only way to get his band of merry men to off him. You won’t know that’s successful until his body is long cold!

An interesting perspective, the US et al knew they couldn’t defeat Russia quickly, so the short term objective is to build up India at Russia’s expense.

Milo; plausable but I can see a flaw in the case put forth.

The inagurator begins that soon after invasion of Ukraine begins and Western sanctions applied the Russian foreign minister flew to New Dehli to negotiate an oil agreement with the Modi government because the Putin government was fearful of mass unemploynent. Sorry, but oil production is not a big employer of manpower anywhere - that is possibly even a big attraction of it as a venue of investment. So I fail to see how keeping the oil flowing abroad from Russia has any relevance to the maintenance of the much larger, polyglot, non-oil sector of the Russian economy where the regular jobs are.

The rest of the video makes sense.

p.s. Modi even proposed that Russia accept payment for the oil in rupees - but the Russian side was not so foolish (or desperate) as to be willing to accept non-convertable paper trash in payment. As India is selling oil on to Germany for hard currency it is only fair that it should also have to pay Russia the deflated purchase price in hard currency also.

p.p.s. India's pretenses for becoming a world power is belied that in contrast to China India is running adverse trade balances with all but two of its external trading partners.

You are correct about oil production not creating many jobs of course. I think what the narrator meant is much of the Russian economy is a Potemkin one, propped up by oil.

[Sertorio]

I think what the narrator meant is much of the Russian economy is a Potemkin one, propped up by oil.

What does this idiocy mean?...

[neverfail]

I think what the narrator meant is much of the Russian economy is a Potemkin one, propped up by oil.

What does this idiocy mean?...

Well Sertorio, you seem to consider yourself to be highly intelligent so why not work it out for yoursdelf?

[cassowary]

I think what the narrator meant is much of the Russian economy is a Potemkin one, propped up by oil.

What does this idiocy mean?...

It means that Russian economy looks good on the surface. But deep inside, its rotten to the core.

Same with its army. We all thought it was the second best army in the world. Now its the second best army in Ukraine.

[Sertorio]

I think what the narrator meant is much of the Russian economy is a Potemkin one, propped up by oil.

What does this idiocy mean?...

Well Sertorio, you seem to consider yourself to be highly intelligent so why not work it out for yoursdelf?

Being intelligent doesn't mean being capable of understanding an idiocy... After all the brains of idiots do not work in the same manner as those of normal people...

[Milo]

I think what the narrator meant is much of the Russian economy is a Potemkin one, propped up by oil.

What does this idiocy mean?...

Well Sertorio, you seem to consider yourself to be highly intelligent so why not work it out for yoursdelf?

Being intelligent doesn't mean being capable of understanding an idiocy... After all the brains of idiots do not work in the same manner as those of normal people...

Yes they do.

[SteveFoerster]

I think what the narrator meant is much of the Russian economy is a Potemkin one, propped up by oil.

What does this idiocy mean?...

LOL, which of these words confused you?

[Sertorio]

I think what the narrator meant is much of the Russian economy is a Potemkin one, propped up by oil.

What does this idiocy mean?...

LOL, which of these words confused you?

I am not "confused" by idiocies. I just reject them...