but why do we post ‘bump’ rather than ‘fire again benny’ ?
I tried to count how many posts you’ve got in these threads but the stats don’t seem to show on the 2 previous threads. But, if approx 20% of posts are yours benny that’s 20% x 20,000+ = a full time job!
It’s probably a good thing for my real career that my office has zero bars of reception.
Bombardier, the Canadian parent company of Rotax, first became aware of the use of civil aircraft engines ( which are not classed as dual use) in 2020, in Turkish military drone manufacture.
Canada moved to impose export restrictions on sanctioned countries shortly after. As noted, those restrictions could only be imposed on exports from Canada.
But it should not have come to any surprise to its Austrian subsidiary that its exports could be used in military drones.
In its statement, Rotax said that it does not sell to military manufacturers. It should not be hard to trace its export sales by company.
It is necessary to be prepared, but generalized uneasiness or wariness was the Western policy that effectively gave the Ruscists reassurance that NATO would not act in collective defence.
It is plausible there will be much more convincing nuclear threats in the expectation of continuing to deter collective defence. But actually carrying out any such threats could either result in the West accepting that fascists armed with nuclear weapons must be appeased or that they must be smashed. There are no other options.
I doubt that the regime would fancy its odds on that, but if they do it would take far more abysmal stupidity than I think they are capable of for Western politicians to choose to live under threats of fascist nuclear strikes.
Anyway, the issue will be settled before Ukraine actually reaches the border. Pushing back the front line within Ukraine “naturally” results in the battle area extending back into Russian territory (and already has for Belgorod). Turning that area from a battlefield into a “no fly, no drive zone” may or may not suit the regime but it would certainly be preferred by Russian residents locally and elsewhere.
A regime choice to resort to nuclear weapons would not be made easier by having lost the war and being faced with internal upheaval. The concept of “escalation” as a response to defeat is more a feature of journalism than of military strategy. They would be focussed on how to survive and using nuclear weapons would not offer much chance of that.
“Escalating” certainly isn’t what happened with the fascist USSR after defeat in Afghanistan.
Nuclear weapons did not help the US in Vietnam either.
“8. Recognised intellectuals and artists support our cause.”
They don’t get any more intellectual or artistic than Steven Seagal…
I think it would be fairly easy to set up.
It would be exactly like Minsk II.
Minsk agreements - Wikipedia
Except there wouldn’t be an agreement. 
And no buffer zone for heavy weapons on the Ukrainian side of the border. 
And a 140km shoot-to-kill zone on the Russian side of the border. 
But only for Ruscist soldiers, not for local residents.
1h • 9 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Was the infamous Russian milblogger Semyon ‘Wargonzo’ Pegov accidentally shot in the foot by his own side? @ian_matveev argues that this may have been the case.
2/ Video emerged yesterday of Pegov being evacuated with a foot injury after supposedly stepping on a (presumably Ukrainian) PFM-1 ‘butterfly mine’ in the Donetsk region.
3/ PFM-1s are very nasty weapons – cluster munitions dropped over a wide area to create an instant minefield. They became notorious in Afghanistan in the 1980s for blowing up children. Despite being small, they cause horrendous injuries to feet and legs.
4/ There’s a new video out on Russian channels showing Pegov getting medical treatment immediately after being injured. And as Ian points out, the injuries aren’t consistent with a mine.
5/ "The injury in the video seems to be quite light, although in theory, a PFM-1 ‘petal’ mine should almost tear off a leg or at least seriously damage it.
6/ The same propagandists wrote that civilians in Donetsk were blown up by these mines and the wounds in the photos were terrible.
Semyon Pegov is a propagandist and has been caught in staged videos (example in this video).
7/ Pegov’s fate does not interest me at all. Maybe he really blew himself up on a mine, that’s his business. But it is interesting to know if the damage from the “petal” mine is real. If there are those who really faced such cases, please write."
8/ Shortly before he was injured, Pegov was photographed with Donetsk People’s Republic leader Denis Pushilin, who seems to have a problem with trigger discipline and a habit of pointing his weapon at his feet. Coincidence… or not?
The funny thing is that Rotax was transferred to the the BRP sphere when Bombardier spun it off and BRP and hence Rotax are now majority owned by Bain Capital (yes the same Bain that owns Virgin Australia amongst many other things)
As you said they were aware of the Turkish manufacturing drones with those parts and supplying Azerbaijan in the conflict with Armenia back in 2020 and seems they haven’t learnt their lesson
I’ve seen mine injuries and my first thought when I saw the original post about this asshat was that he didn’t step on a mine. Wouldn’t surprise me if he shot himself in the foot.
And it goes both ways right… Russia is pushing all of the above, but so is Ukraine and Western Media.
Despite all the misinformation, the fact that something like 150 countries have condemned Russias actions speaks volumes.
Russia is losing these at an astronomical rate.
Isn’t this stuff for domestic consumption though? Only need to convince their own citizens that the enemy is evil.
Certainly there’s an aspect of the Putin team being in an info war against their own people. It’s of interest/concern that they are running around western diplomatic circles pushing this as well.
Also heavily being pushed into Asia and Africa. Those populations are far more susceptible to Russian misinformation because of their history with European powers.
Medvedev doing is best Albert Speer impersonation.
