alanjjohnstone
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If it isn’t from Putin’s own lips as reported by RT, Sputnik or Tass then TS won’t accept it. A true Believer.
TS – “Is this the same British MOD that keeps telling us Russia is running out of missiles? LOL”
The same MOD that is very slow with its information.
Financial Times months ago revealed that Russia’s minorities were disproportionately being mobilised.
https://www.ft.com/content/ae06c532-e1ff-488a-b77c-cb93422d3dd7
https://www.ft.com/content/1c435e41-5f54-40f3-9dda-d24164def2cf
“The pattern is rooted in the Kremlin’s attempts earlier in the seven-month invasion of Ukraine to maintain a sense of normality in Russia’s major cities by targeting rural areas, with fewer resources to resist conscription, protest or flee.”
Seems as if the MOD is merely belatedly confirming something that was already well-known to be happening.
Indeed a shame and a great loss.
Another obituary but from a critical Leninist perspective
https://countercurrents.org/2023/03/adieu-paresh-chattopadhyay
As always it is the poor who are made to spill their blood.
In proportion to the size of their population, the richest cities of Moscow and St Petersburg have been left relatively unscathed. This is especially true for the families of the country’s elite. As the Russian MoD seeks to address its continued deficit of combat personnel, insulating the better-off and more influential elements of Russian society will highly likely remain a major consideration.
On 21 February 2023, Russian senior officials were photographed making up the front two rows of the audience of President Putin’s state of the nation speech. None of these are known to have children serving in the military
In many of the Eastern regions, deaths are likely running, as a percentage of population, at a rate 30+ times higher than in Moscow. In places, ethnic minorities take the biggest hit; in Astrakhan some 75% of casualties come from the minority Kazakh and Tartar populations.
British MOD Twitter
68% of Britons believe the fact that the UK has taken in more than 150,000 refugees from Ukraine is a good thing and only 17% think it is a bad thing.
88% of people who took in refugees from Ukraine would do so again, compared with 3% who would not.
Many hosts were willing to support guests from other countries.
Seven in 10 of hosts ready to house a refugee again saying they are open to supporting either an Afghan or Ukrainian refugee.
Three in 10 hosts saying they would support an Afghan refugee currently in hotel accommodation across the country.
“The war in Ukraine must end, even if one party is not fully and completely defeated, even if NATO’s geopolitical interests are not served, even if not all of Russia’s goals, whatever they are, are achieved.
The war should end because, regardless of the outcome, long-term instability in that region will not cease completely any time soon; and because millions of innocent people are suffering and will continue to suffer, in Ukraine and around the world. And because only political compromises through peace negotiations can put an end to this horror.” – Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.https://countercurrents.org/2023/03/silent-in-ukraine-weapons-perpetuate-do-not-end-wars/
Protest for peace
Having wrote the above, it doesn’t mean that the ruling class will always have their way with an acquiescent population.
“Thousands took to the streets of Prague on Saturday in protest against the Czech government, high inflation and demanding an end to the country’s military support for Ukraine. The Czech Republic has been battling record inflation levels for a year mainly because of a spike in energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/thousands-join-anti-government-protest-164258967.html
CLASS WAR
TS – “where’s NATOstan going to get the money/resources to do all that?”
If you read what I wrote, I already answered your question.
I repeat
“And who will pay? You guess it. Working people with cuts to their social services. Putin has provided propaganda to justify military spending – guns over butter”
And no doubt it will be the same for Russia.
Working people bear the cost of conflicts, not only in lives but in their standard of living.
One of the claims of TS is that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has succeeded in one of its objectives – the demilitarisation of NATO, demonstrated by the military supply shortages being experienced.
There is no denying that weapon stockpiles have been depleted. But higher spending budgets are being provided by governments. There will indeed be a time lag but in a some years time, the military be strengthened and there will be no NATO demilitarised dividend Russia can look to.
Poland is raising its defence spending to 4% of GDP.
The size of the Polish Army is to rise to 300,000, which would turn Poland into Europe’s biggest military power
It has placed orders for 1,000 K2 main battle tanks from South Korea, and 250 new M1A2 SEPv3 Abram tanks from the US. This will turn Poland into the owner of Europe’s biggest tank force.
Its artillery will be bolstered by the arrival of 600 K9s, 18 HIMARS launchers with 9,000 rockets, and 288 K239 Chunmoo MRL systems from South Korea.
Over 1,000 Polish-made Borsuk infantry fighting vehicles.
96 AH-64E Apache helicopters bought from the US, and 48 FA-50 combat aircraft now on order from South Korea.Is Poland the only nation intending to beef up its military? By no means. They all are going to spend more.
Putin has not demilitarised NATO in the long term. Merely gained a temporary respite that will eventually disappear.
And who will pay?
You guess it. Working people with cuts to their social services. Putin has provided propaganda to justify military spending – guns over butter
Eight years before the second-largest bank failure in American history occurred this week, the SVB’s president personally pressed Congress to reduce scrutiny of his financial institution, citing the “low-risk profile of our activities and business model”. Three years later – after the bank spent more than half a million dollars on federal lobbying – lawmakers obliged.
The bank reportedly did not have a chief risk officer in the months leading up to the collapse, while more than 90% of its deposits were not insured.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/11/silicon-valley-bank-weaken-risk-regulations-svb
The BBC didn’t expect such a show of sympathy and solidarity with a sports presenter’s suspension over his tweet comparing Braverman’s language to 1930 Nazis.
Will the sentiment spread generally in condemning the draconian and illegal acts of the Tories to deport (genuine or not)refugees,
According to some, credit creation can be achieved by a ‘stroke of the keyboard’, called the money creationist theory of banking.
We have said that a bank is a go-between, borrowing money from depositors at one interest rate and lending it out at a higher rate to make profit.
SVB’s problems appear that they did not have sufficient deposits to cover the bonds they lent out.
See our pamphlet
The same Al Jazeera source said Prigozhin qualified his comments, adding some ambiguity.
“I am worried about ammunition and shell shortages not only for the Wagner private military company but for all units of the Russian army.”
As he can no longer access to convicts, he has opened 42 recruitment offices across Russia.
I don’t think it would encourage volunteers if he said Wagner still faced weapon and ammunition shortages. Who would enlist?
In this war of words, who can tell what is true or not.
Bill Clarkes 1988 Socialist Standard obituary
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/08/obituary-bill-clarke.html
Fake nuclear attack warnings
Will one day will it be genuine alarm?
