Image is of President Vladimir Putin, with his cook Prigozhin, though he is more famous for other things.
I'm assuming we all know what a "Russia" and a "Putin" is, so I'm skipping the background section.
On March 15th, Putin handily won the presidential election. This is perhaps one of the least surprising things to happen in the last couple years, and all claims and debates about electoral corruption are missing the point (in this particular election at least). The reason why Putin won is not fascist brainwashing or Putin having a high Persuasion/Intimidation DC, and it's not even really about the laws that make opposing the Ukraine War illegal. Wages are up significantly, unemployment is at record lows (for the post-USSR period, of course), as is poverty, and the ruble is about as stable as it could be given what the West has tried to do to it. The government has been forced to massively intervene in the economy to keep things afloat, buying up properties that have been ditched by foreign and domestic billionaires, though obviously Russia's wealthy are still plenty powerful. Inflation is up, but wages are comfortably outpacing it. And the Communist Party remains a relic of a bygone era, disconnected from the young people who might hypothetically propel a revolution.
Russia is still in the transition from switching to a Western-oriented export economy to an Eastern-oriented one. Nonetheless, Russia is now China's single largest oil supplier (unseating Saudi Arabia), delivering half of all their oil to China, and trade between the two countries has massively increased. Where Western brands have retreated from Russia (and not many actually have), more Russia-friendly corporations, and Russian businesses themselves, have filled the gaps.
By going through the news, I've seen a lot of economies that are not doing well at all. Most countries seem to be in that category. Either they have general growth but a deeply struggling populace, or the government is trying to keep the population afloat but running up huge debts in the process, or the government is failing on both counts. Russia is one of the few countries on the planet that I can confidently state is actually doing quite well objectively, which means it's doing extremely well relatively. Considering the Western economists regularly delivering portents of doom in early 2022, and salivating over how they were going to divide the country following the inevitable economic collapse, this is a hilarious state of affairs.
In the long term, their predictions may come true. It is entirely possible that a post-war Russia will slump, returning to neoliberal policies and continuing their nonsensical allergy to budget deficits. Russia might not be a mere gas station, but a substantial amount of the economy is made up of fossil fuel exports, which might be troublesome in a greener future, especially as China, their main oil market, is one of the few countries on the planet that seems serious about renewable/nuclear energy. And the limited labour force means that long-term growth is inherently limited without some creative measures, even with the potential influx of whatever remains of the population and territory that Russia seizes in Ukraine. Perhaps it is in this crucible of disillusionment and hardship, after seeing that good things are indeed possible if the government wishes them to be so, that a socialist Russia could rise again. But we aren't there yet, and the growth continues for now.
Apologies for the lack of updates (again!), I've been going through book titles again for the reading list (I've probably got a thousand or more to get through) and also trying to touch grass more. I'm not very good at balancing things out, I tend to do the hyperfocus-on-one-thing-until-it's-done approach.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Russia! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Deep state dipshit whining about new U.S Army tank being too well designed and thought out for actual combat conditions and not even bigger and bulkier than the Abrams tank
https://archive.is/Vou3V
So let me get this straight. After decades of shitting on soviet armour design, these geniuses, propped by the Bestsest System In The World and the power of Free Market (tm) have created a brand new weapons platform - an air transportable light support vehicle with big gun.
Aka a shittier take on 2S5 or a shittier take on BMD-4. That right? Thirty years after USSR was destroyed, burned down, ashes scattered on the wind and all memory denigrated, and all they can "invent" is... A worse copy of soviet design.
And this is after the song and dance around Stryker, which was a shittier take on BTR-80.
It's even worse - the M10 is stated to weigh between 38 and 42 tons, which isn't all that air-transportable - one of the heaviest USAF transports can only carry 2 of them, in comparison to being able to carry almost a single Abrams (as described in the article, it has to be partially disassembled). Something like the BMD doesn't even need planes, it can be carried by chopper. The earlier AGS program was more in-line with being an American take on Soviet airborne vehicles (and before that, the Americans had the M551 Sheridan, and before it the silly little M56 Scorpion), but that got cancelled after the Cold War, and the MPF program which led to the Booker had much more lax requirements in that regard.
Now, that 38-42 ton weight range is really important, since 38 tons is the weight of a T-64, while 42 is a bit more than the T-72's 41.5 tons. Meaning the Booker weighs as much as a Soviet MBT, while having a weaker gun (105mm compared to a 125mm), less armor, a much taller profile, and I would assume a pretty high cost thanks to MIC grifting. They haven't reinvented the BMD or Sprut - they've just reinvented the normal MBT that doesn't weigh like 70 tons. Russia and China can fulfill this need much better with their actual tanks, which weigh and cost a reasonable amount and are actually available in large numbers.
It's honestly quite mind blowing, all of this. Wish more people were aware of how much of a sham these programs are, instead of watching pretty Hollywood pictures.
Although I would suspect yankee stans would cope via the air force
this article blames the french light tanks armor or weapons for its poor performance in ukraine, when it seems to my amateur eyes like the wheeled design of the AMX-10RC is what is holding it back on the muddy battlefields. treads are better for bad terrain, while wheels are faster on flat ground and easier/faster to repair than treads while being less damaging to road infrastructure than treads. a light tank with treads might actually be very useful in places with a lot of mud like ukraine.
Well it doesn't help the fact that the Ukrainians used the AMXs as frontline assault tanks and charged them straight into minefields and enemy killzones
This is true, but what about the burning wrecks of dozens of German Main Battle Tanks sir? Was that just an oopsie?
This dork LITERALY LINKED A WIKIPEDIA ENTRY FOR TANKS in a fairly msm article lol. Fucking britannica is literaly boomer wiki.
This almost reads like a comedy, now I imagine the US/NATO command were sending reports around with Britannica entries to common tactics like the blitz and then sending these reports to other EU/NATO officials and then to the Ukrainian commanders.
"Ok are we sure we told them the purpose of tanks?
"Yep Check."
"We told them what a blitz looks like?"
"Yep checked."
"Ok now give them a map, a big red arrow and 2 weeks to learn basic English at some random NATO bootcamp, they'll be marching into Crimea within 2 weeks surely."
"Yes sir."
The end result in the real world
Ukraine is using its advanced Leopard tanks like long-range artillery instead of penetrating battle vehicles, report says
Smh don't they know they need to tweak tank width to 45 like in HOI4?
Combat width should vary a lot more tbh
Shitty tank or no tank? If I was a soldier I would much prefer a shitty tank.
Side note: It's endlessly funny to me that it doesn't have an autoloader. A light tank is like the perfect place for one. It would reduce weight and remove the need for a crew member so when the shitty tank inevitably explodes, you lose one less guy.
Warhammer 40k tank design ethos where the best tank is one that's the size of a house and covered in guns
Return to ww1 tank designs
The ideal tank should weigh at least 300 tonnes
spoiler
I love how the Booker has kicked of this "discourse" among military "experts" about whether it's a tank or not - it's a fucking assault gun! Like, an armored vehicle that's meant primarily to provide direct fire support to infantry (as opposed to a tank, which also does maneuver warfare)... we have a perfectly good term for that already. And we even have prominent examples of it from WW2, you couldn't have fucking missed those, right? Are people so unimaginative they just can't conceptualize of this being an assault gun because it happens to have a turret instead of the turretless casemate design of WW2 Stug and SU/ISU vehicles? Are they so MBT-brained they can't even imagine types of armored vehicle other than a 60-70 ton piece of shit, and that there might actually be uses for them?
I mean, even the name of the program which produced it - Mobile Protected Firepower - is just a fancy corporate way of saying assault gun (Firepower being the gun part, obviously, and Mobile and Protected being in reference to it providing direct fire support when assaulting enemy positions - just Mobile Firepower would be regular old self-propelled artillery, which is usually only protected against small arms & shrapnel since it provides indirect fire at large distances and isn't supposed to get shot at). And yet, dipshits like this guy keep writing articles about "light tank this, medium tank that", and pretending like they're actual military analysts, with their whole smug "you say it's not a tank yet it has armor and a cannon, checkmate"