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Russia is Now a "Resource Colony" of China

Russia losing steam in Bakhmut, Ukrainian official says
CNN
14.9M subscribers
276,324 views Mar 25, 2023 #CNN #News
CNN's Ivan Watson reports from Ukraine about the ongoing battle for the crucial city of Bakhmut, where Russian forces are losing steam, according to a Ukrainian official. Then, Ret. Maj. Gen. James "Spider" Marks and Alina Polyakova, President and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis, speak with CNN's Erin Burnett about the latest in the war. #CNN #News

Update from Ukraine | Wagners failed their main goal in Bakhmut | I was wrong about the city
Denys Davydov
610K subscribers
200K views 3 hours ago

NATO called his rhetoric “dangerous and irresponsible,” while Ukraine accused President Vladimir Putin of making Belarus a “nuclear hostage” with his announcement that Russia was going to store tactical nuclear weapons in the country, which both nations border.

Insisting that such a move would not violate nuclear nonproliferation agreements, in an interview with state television on Saturday, Putin likened his plans to the U.S. stationing its weapons in Europe.

“There is nothing unusual here,” he said, adding that “the United States has been doing this for decades.” He added that Russia and Belarus had agreed to “do the same thing, without, I would like to highlight, going against our international duties and agreements on the nondistribution of nuclear weapons.”

Russia would not be transferring control of the weapons to Belarus, he said, although he added that his country was planning to complete the construction of a storage facility for them by the summer.

Moscow had already stationed 10 aircraft capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons in the country, he said. He added that a number of Iskander tactical missile systems that can launch nuclear weapons had also been stationed in the country.

Putin said that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had long requested the deployment. There was no immediate reaction from Lukashenko.

Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan had nuclear weapons stationed on their territory but handed them over to Russia after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, so this could be the first time since then that Russia has based such weapons outside the country.

American reaction to Putin’s announcement was muted. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson told NBC News late Saturday that the U.S. had “not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture nor any indications Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.”

But Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, tweeted that the Kremlin “took Belarus as a nuclear hostage.”

While the Belarusian army has not formally fought in Ukraine, the country has a close relationship with Russia, and Minsk allowed Moscow to use its territory to send troops into Ukraine last year. The two nations have stepped up joint military training. Russia is also Belarus’ largest and most important political and economic partner.

Calling Russia’s nuclear rhetoric “dangerous and irresponsible,” NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said the organization was “closely monitoring the situation.”

From Russia with Nothing: National Descent into Irrelevance! - Ukraine War Map Update 26/Mar/2023
Ukraine Matters
67.7K subscribers
49,723 views Mar 27, 2023

Russia has ratcheted up tensions with the West amid its ongoing war against Ukraine, with President Vladimir Putin saying Moscow will deploy "tactical nuclear weapons" in Belarus. The Russian leader said 10 fighter jets capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons — generally a reference to smaller weapons used for limited battlefield attacks, rather than larger, long-range "strategic" nuclear weapons — were already deployed in Belarus. Putin said Russia would also position nuclear-armed Iskander hypersonic missiles, with a range of around 300 miles, in Belarus.

The "situation" in the battle, after Russia's relentless eight-month assault, is finally "stabilizing," according to Ukraine's top army commander. Both sides have acknowledged a gruelling toll during the fight, but the latest British military intelligence assessment said Russia in particular had sustained "massive troop losses."

Putin's latest nuclear threat, meanwhile, prompted Ukraine to demand an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, with Kyiv arguing that Moscow has now demonstrated it is "not a responsible steward" of nuclear weapons, and is only using them for intimidation.

Russia is ‘getting hammered’: Top US general on Bakhmut battle
CNN
14.9M subscribers
1,072,722 views Mar 30, 2023 #CNN #News
There are roughly 6,000 Wagner group mercenaries fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told US lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. #CNN #News

The Russian authorities may have shut down his newspaper, but journalist Dmitry Muratov refuses to be silenced.

"Two generations have lived without the threat of nuclear war," Mr Muratov tells me. "But this period is over. Will Putin press the nuclear button, or won't he? Who knows? No one knows this. There isn't a single person who can say for sure."

Then one of his closest aides, Nikolai Patrushev, warned that Russia had a "modern unique weapon capable of destroying any enemy, including the United States".

Bluff and bluster? Or a threat that needs to be taken seriously? Mr Muratov has picked up worrying signs inside Russia.
"We see how state propaganda is preparing people to think that nuclear war isn't a bad thing," he says. "On TV channels here, nuclear war and nuclear weapons are promoted as if they're advertising pet food."

"They announce: 'We've got this missile, that missile, another kind of missile.' They talk about targeting Britain and France; about sparking a nuclear tsunami that washes away America. Why do they say this? So that people here are ready."

On Russian state TV recently, a prominent talk-show host suggested that Russia "should declare any military target on the territory of France, Poland and the United Kingdom a legitimate target for [Russia]".

The same presenter has also suggested "flattening an island with strategic nuclear weapons and carrying out a test launch or firing of tactical nuclear weapons, so that no one has any illusions".

Yet state propaganda here portrays Russia as a country of peace, and Ukraine and the West as the aggressors. Many Russians believe it.

"People in Russia have been irradiated by propaganda," Mr Muratov says. "Propaganda is a type of radiation. Everyone is susceptible to it, not just Russians. In Russia, propaganda is twelve TV channels, tens of thousands of newspapers, social media like VK [the Russian version of Facebook] that serves completely the state ideology."

"But what if tomorrow the propaganda suddenly stops?" I ask. "If it all goes quiet? What would Russians think then?"
"Our younger generation is wonderful," replies Mr Muratov. "It's well-educated. Nearly a million Russians have left the country. Many of those who've stayed are categorically against what is happening in Ukraine. They are against the hell that Russia has created there.

"I am convinced that as soon as the propaganda stops, this generation - and everyone else with common sense - will speak out."

"They're already doing so," he continues. "Twenty-one thousand administrative and criminal cases have been opened against Russians who've protested. The opposition is in jail. Media outlets have been shut down. Many activists, civilians and journalists have been labelled foreign agents.

"Does Putin have a support base? Yes, an enormous one. But these are elderly people who see Putin as their own grandson, as someone who will protect them and who brings them their pension every month and wishes them Happy New Year each year. These people believe their actual grandchildren should go and fight and die."

Last year Mr Muratov auctioned off his Nobel Peace prize to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees. He has little optimism about the future.

"Never again will there be normal relations between the people of Russia and Ukraine. Never. Ukraine will not be able to come to terms with this tragedy."

I'll believe it when I see it.

But you are not supposed to look at it.

Plot
In 1964, World War III has devastated the Northern Hemisphere, killing all humans there. Air currents are slowly carrying the fallout to the Southern Hemisphere, where Melbourne, Australia will be the last major city on Earth to perish.

I'm in Australia.
We are safe here...
For a while, at least.
Haven't you seen the documentary: "On the beach"?

Saw "On the Beach" on public T.V. a few years ago. It was the most realistic post nuclear exchange themed film I've ever seen, but it's been understood since the late '50s that humanity would not survive a thermonuclear exchange in any meaningful way. It is doubtful that anyone in bunkers or subs would survive for long, or want to; besides once they emerged they would likely be sterile or ill from residual radiation.



https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... +the+beach

Saw "On the Beach" on public T.V. a few years ago. It was the most realistic post nuclear exchange themed film I've ever seen, but it's been understood since the late '50s that humanity would not survive a thermonuclear exchange in any meaningful way. It is doubtful that anyone in bunkers or subs would survive for long, or want to; besides once they emerged they would likely be sterile or ill from residual radiation.