re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict.

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Also why only idiots, including Putin, claimed that Ukraine was about to join NATO. Ukraine's goal was to apply for membership to the EU and its citizens backed this as a way to clean up corruption.

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... and this is what Putin truly feared. The clean up of corruption and the possibility of Ukraine economically thriving, close enough for a lot of Russians to see and notice. Russians are told that the Baltic States are phony and made to appear as if they are thriving to fool them... and that America is really a ghetto full of drunks and drug addicts and the world is shown a fake TV version of it... in other words, it's just as bad as most of Russia. The educated people who could afford to travel know better, but they are not the majority of the population (despite those ridiculous Russian government-supplied education and IQ stats).

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and this is what Putin truly feared. The clean up of corruption and the possibility of Ukraine economically thriving, close enough for a lot of Russians to see and notice.

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Ukrainians didn't want to be economically tied to broke arse Russia. EU is money. Russia was like a lead balloon.

RTX adding a footprint in the EU to try to deflect anti-US contracting. This will maintain access in a red hot market but the revenue stream will stay in Europe. As will the best AD systems in the world.

In many ways, the history of electronics is as much a record of patent cases and government contracts as it is of physics and engineering. Some things never change.

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Time for another visit.

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Bashkortostan gained its independence in 1990, after the Soviet break-up. But mysteriously, it became part of Russia again in 2005.

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Yet no massive explosion one would expect from hitting an Aammonium storage facility. Must have been empty.

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Likely struck the wrong end. These are A frame storage and usually no more than half full. The solids come in via traveling conveyor belt in the apex of the ceiling starting at one end. There are no random piles inside.

Not unpredictable...

[quote]1/ The Russian army has been taken over by an organised crime syndicate, says a Russian journalist. The mass recruitment of criminals now means that crimes and corruption of all sorts – murder, torture, extortion, prostitution, drug and alcohol smuggling – are now routine.

2/ Sergey Komkov writes that organised crime has become "the most widespread social virus in the Special Military Operation zone, capable of burying virtually the entire combat capability of our Russian army."

3/ He says that an "Organised Thieves' Den", which he refers to with the acronym OVM, "has long been in full swing in many dugouts and personnel quarters of our armed forces in the SVO [Special Military Operation]."

4/ "And it is this OVM that often sets the tone for all combat operations, and not the strategic decisions of the Russian General Staff or other command structures."

Corruption has always existed in the army, but it has exploded with the mass recruitment of convicted criminals:

5/ "Having looked around, quickly adjusted to the situation, they have begun to establish their own prison-like thieves' rules.

The dugouts, which at best are visited only occasionally by junior officers, have acquired their own "bosses."

6/ "Especially since the environment and conditions themselves are highly conducive to this. In the SVO zone, no one has a name anymore. There are only certain "call signs," which in many cases closely resemble prison nicknames.

7/ "For example, "Evil," "Mord," "Hoopoe," "Grenade," and the like. Thus, the so-called "thieves' carousel" has begun in the SVO zone!

8/ "As soon as a new contract soldier arrives at a combat unit, he is immediately "offered," as one or another "boss" puts it, to transfer part of his contract earnings to a designated bank account. They are given a card number for the transfer.

9/ "Disobeying this order is practically impossible, as it can have serious consequences. Even a bullet in the back.

A portion of these stolen funds naturally goes into a sort of "thieves' common fund," which pays for alcohol, drugs, and girls for the kingpins' entertainment.

10/ "Anyone else who also expressed a desire to indulge in alcohol, drugs, and prostitution must pay extra. For example, in one unit in the SVO zone, according to information I have, girls for soldiers were delivered for 20,000 rubles [$265] per hour.

11/ "But, of course, the most popular item was alcohol. And in some places, it literally flowed day and night in the dugouts.

12/ "However, the main goal of the newly minted OVM kingpins was to secure a comfortable and luxurious life for themselves in civilian life by extorting their comrades, carried out in various ways and by various means.

13/ "Some of them, while currently serving as contract soldiers, even managed to travel to other cities without any permission from their command and purchase luxury cars like BMWs.

"Everything I write here is backed by real documents and real evidence.
"And the most terrifying thing isn't that, due to someone's stupidity or a deliberately planned attack against the Russian armed forces, this criminal scum has now begun to feel like they have the upper hand in our combat units.

15/ "It's that when some distinguished combat commanders, genuinely committed to establishing proper order in our military units, made the slightest effort to restore order, they were immediately slapped on the wrist by military investigators and the military prosecutor's office, who, for some unknown reason, suddenly sided with this essentially criminal military organization.

17/ "They are even now trying to prosecute real combat officers for putting up a worthy fight against the military organization and not waiting for the complete collapse of our army from within."

18/ Komkov asks why Russian military and law enforcement bodies aren't investigating this criminal activity, despite how well documented it is. (The clear implication is that they have been paid off or ordered to look the other way.)

19/ He cites the example of the murder of a junior lieutenant with the callsign 'Simka'. According to Komkov, in August 2024 Simka discovered three convict soldier 'bosses' drinking vodka in their dugout – a serious disciplinary offence.

20/ He ordered the trio to be handcuffed to trees nearby until they sobered up. However, a soldier from a neighbouring dugout freed the three convicts. One of the 'bosses' decided to get revenge, obtained an assault rifle, went to Simka's dugout, and shot him in the head.

21/ Simka's body was dragged out by the other occupant of the dugout, who was being held at gunpoint, and buried in a garbage pit. The convicts subsequently took part in a unit-wide search for the missing junior lieutenant.

22/ His regimental commander eventually worked out what happened. The colonel had the convict 'boss' arrested and tortured by being whipped with wire and raped with a broom handle.

Under torture, the convict confessed to the killing and gave up the location of the body.

23/ However, Komkov says, there was a very Russian twist to the story:
"Who do you think, my dear reader, was charged? The killer convict? Or did something else happen?

So there you have it. The killer convict is currently walking free and is acting as a "victim" in the criminal case brought against... the regiment commander!" /end

Part 2. Yes, there's more.