Here we go again-Ukraine once again

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Following statement is from a Danish newspaper

Is he bluffing or will he make real of his threat ?

In Yesterday transmission from the Russian Duma Putin threaten....
(rest was behind paywall)

Do we us ordinary folks have enough knowledge to determine if Putin is mad enough to do it.. Press the button

Markus

First, he does not press a button there is a system with several people in between to start a launch and if he does MAD (Mutual assured destruction) will activate Russia knows this.

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by Dargo

First, he does not press a button there is a system with several people in between to start a launch and if he does MAD (Mutual assured destruction) will activate Russia knows this.

As I posted some pages back here in this tread I translated a long Danish article in which it said that Putin lives in his own imaginary world.

Only hope is if he should go mad, that the other who also shall give the order refuse to do so
(I don't know the procedure in launching nukes in Russia)

Markus

[Dargo]

Kherson official: Russia lacks people's support for staged referendum in Kherson.

According to Yurii Sobolevskyi, deputy head of Kherson Regional Council, Russian occupiers have no support from the locals and are thus unable to hold a staged referendum.

[ET2SN]

Originally Posted by mapuc

As I posted some pages back here in this tread I translated a long Danish article in which it said that Putin lives in his own imaginary world.

Only hope is if he should go mad, that the other who also shall give the order refuse to do so
(I don't know the procedure in launching nukes in Russia)

Markus

If he pushes the button he won't be able to spend all of that money.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Dargo

Kherson official: Russia lacks people's support for staged referendum in Kherson.

According to Yurii Sobolevskyi, deputy head of Kherson Regional Council, Russian occupiers have no support from the locals and are thus unable to hold a staged referendum.

That wouldn't stop it happening and a staged result being announced.

[Jimbuna]

One of Germany's biggest energy firms has said it is preparing to buy Russian gas using a payment system that critics say will undermine EU sanctions.

Uniper says it will pay in euros which will be converted into roubles, meeting a Kremlin demand for all transactions to be made in the Russian currency.

Other European energy firms are reportedly preparing to do the same amid concerns about supply cuts.

Uniper said it had no choice but said it was still abiding by EU sanctions.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61257846

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

That wouldn't stop it happening and a staged result being announced.

Sure, the result is already in print available.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Dargo

Sure, the result is already in print available.

Rgr that

[Rockstar]

These top European energy companies are set to pay for Russian gas in rubles to meet Putin's demands despite EU warnings: report

https://markets.businessinsider.com/...nctions-2022-4

Companies in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia are set to meet the Kremlin's demand that natural customers register for a new payment mechanism that facilitates ruble payments, the Financial Times reported.

Despite warnings from the European Union that such payments would violate sanctions, distributors in the four EU nations are preparing to register with Gazprombank in Switzerland, sources told the FT, to meet the ruble payment requirement.

Two of the largest importers of Russian gas are said to be participating — Düsseldorf-based Uniper and Vienna-based OMV. And by the end of May, Italy's Eni may sign up for the ruble payments as well, though it is still considering its options, according to the FT.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported four European natural gas buyers have already paid Russia in rubles for supplies, though it didn't mention which ones.

Putin threatened last month to cut off gas supplies to nations that did not pay in rubles. On Wednesday, Russia halted shipments to Poland and Bulgaria, triggering a 28% surge in European gas prices. Gazprom said the stoppage occurred because the two nations didn't offer payment in rubles.

For nations complying with the new ruble payment scheme, they must pay Gazprombank in euro-denominated deposits, which the firm would then convert to rubles in a second account opened in their name.

Earlier this week, however, Gazprombank rejected a ruble payment from a trading firm Germany had seized from Moscow.

Despite widespread condemnation of Russia's war on Ukraine, Europe remains heavily dependent on Russian energy.

In April, Ukraine had called for the world's largest energy traders to stop handling Russian oil altogether.

"They are in this cycle of financing war crimes and genocide against Ukrainian citizens," Oleg Ustenko, advisor to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the FT.

—————————————-

Russia declines Germany's ruble payment for gas after cutting off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, report says

https://markets.businessinsider.com/...cut-off-2022-4

Russia's Gazprombank turned down a ruble payment from a trading firm Germany had seized from Moscow, sources told Bloomberg.

The payment for some April and May gas deliveries to Germany and Austria was rejected even though the trading firm — Gazprom Marketing & Trading (GM&T) — offered to pay in rubles, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded.

GM&T previously was controlled by the German subsidiary of Russian state-run Gazprom, but Germany took over the unit in April. Now, the rejected ruble payment suggests Moscow looks to shut out a German-controlled GM&T.

The trading firm, which is among many that import gas to Germany, is still in talks with Gazprombank to push the transaction through, sources told Bloomberg.

The standoff comes as the Kremlin uses its energy exports to retaliate against Western nations that have imposed sanctions on Russia for its war on Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Moscow halted natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, sending European gas prices up 28% and adding to concerns that Putin could target other nations on the continent. Gazprom said the reason for the gas halt is that both countries failed to pay in rubles.

Meanwhile, four European gas buyers have paid Russia in rubles for supplies, complying with Moscow's demands, according to Bloomberg, which also said 10 European countries have opened accounts at Gazprombank to make ruble payments.

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

These top European energy companies are set to pay for Russian gas in rubles to meet Putin's demands despite EU warnings: report

https://markets.businessinsider.com/...nctions-2022-4



—————————————-

Russia declines Germany's ruble payment for gas after cutting off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, report says

https://markets.businessinsider.com/...cut-off-2022-4

It is unclear which energy companies have already opened accounts with Russia's Gazprom Bank. There they can pay in euros or dollars, after which the bank converts the money into rubles and pays the bill for the gas purchased from Gazprom. Incidentally, the European Commission says that paying for Russian gas in Western currency does not violate sanctions against Russia. "What the Russians do with the money after that is their business," it said.

[mapuc]

This book have become a favorite among Ukrainian children in Denmark

https://www.lbbonline.com/news/ukrai...ees-to-denmark

https://d3bzyjrsc4233l.cloudfront.ne...753b564952.pdf

Markus

[Aktungbby]

The rot from within is beginning to manifest itself; Putin's regime kills women and children??!! 5 oligarchs have recently died "by suicide" including family members." https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...6ca32374e01cfb

Financier and political activist Bill Browder has said "one should assume the worst" about the spate of unexplained deaths among Russian oligarchs.
Investigations are underway into the deaths of Vladislav Avaev, former vice president of Gazprombank, as well as his wife and daughter, who were found dead in their Moscow apartment on April 18.
A day later, Sergey Protosenya, ex-manager of Russia's energy giant Novatek, his wife and daughter were also found dead in a house in Spain. There has been enough empirical evidence of assassinations organized by the Kremlin or business rivals in Russia, to make it likely that these were murders and not suicides and other explanations that have been bandied about by the Russian authorities," he tells Newsweek. "Any time there is a lot of money involved, one should assume the worst."
While Browder did not know any of the particular circumstances of these individuals, he says they could have been victims of someone who "wanted a cut of the money that these people had access to and they weren't sharing it."
Russia's oligarchs and officials who owe their positions to the patronage of President Vladimir Putin have been a focus for the American-born Browder since the death of his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky.
While working for Browder's firm, Hermitage Capital, Magnitsky uncovered how Russian interior ministry officials had fraudulently taken over three companies belonging to Hermitage and used them to claim a $230 million tax refund.

[Jeff-Groves]

Maybe Putin got the idea from the 'Clinton Body count'?

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Dargo

First, he does not press a button there is a system with several people in between to start a launch and if he does MAD (Mutual assured destruction) will activate Russia knows this.

It was a system of two "first keys" (Putin and Shoigu) and any of these would authorize the use of the the only "second key" (Gerasimov) which would start the mechanism. It was reported that in 2020 or so Putin reduced the number of keys by one. I take it as granted that he did not give up his own key. Go figure. We had this in this thread somewhere, two months ago.
The nuclear doctrine of Russia was also changed, making the use of nuclear weapons much easier - if Russia'S interests cannot be served in any other way. As I understand it, it goes beyond defensive means. Putin's rhetoric meets this. How ever the detials may be, its cleare to me that PÖutin can choose any way he wants, and he faces no checks and balances and situation and context definitions anymore - that was the purpose of the chnages in nuclear dictrine 2020. Like the rest olf Russia he has designed it all that only one guy decides, and decides on everything: himself.



AFAIK, NATO has never given up either its own doctrine of first use of nukes, but in a defensive context: if conventional defense cannot hold up to stop an aggressor into NATO territory. The meanwheile avialable so-called General Defence Plan leaves no doubt on that NATO would have never allowed the USSR to win a war in Europe, even at the price of nuclear devastation. On the other hand its is my argument that the USSR would have started any such war with nuclear strikes on airfield and hardened C3I systems, probably also harbours, maybe POMCUS sites.

[Skybird]

[QUOTE=Aktungbby;2806142]The rot from within is beginning to manifest itself; Putin's regime kills women and children??!! [/QUOTE]
Sorry, he does that since many, many years, and in huge quantities. He already did it before he even became "president". Chechnya. Georgia. Syria. And assassinations inside and outside Russia. Murder and mass murder always was part of Putin's identity.