All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[JB]

Biden has been presented with options for massive cyberattacks against Russia
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...ssia-rcna17558

The options presented include disrupting the internet across Russia, shutting off power and stopping trains in their tracks.

Two U.S. intelligence officials, one Western intelligence official and another person briefed on the matter say no final decisions have been made, but they say U.S. intelligence and military cyber warriors are proposing the use of American cyberweapons on a scale never before contemplated. Among the options: disrupting internet connectivity across Russia, shutting off electric power, and tampering with railroad switches to hamper Russia’s ability to resupply its forces, three of the sources said.

Thoughts? I think for now he should stick with intense sanctions. A cyberattack on Russia directly will without a doubt earn a direct response.

[InformationGeek]

Biden has been presented with options for massive cyberattacks against Russia
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...ssia-rcna17558



Thoughts? I think for now he should stick with intense sanctions. A cyberattack on Russia directly will without a doubt earn a direct response.

Intense sanctions I would prefer for now, but depressingly, I think he might want to keep that open as an option because Putin is too f-ing stubborn to let something like his entire country' economy collapsing stop him.

[JB]

Intense sanctions I would prefer for now, but depressingly, I think he might want to keep that open as an option because Putin is too f-ing stubborn to let something like his entire country' economy collapsing stop him.

Looks like Biden agrees as new sanctions were just announced. But I agree with you that a direct attack should remain an option if absolutely necessary.

Biden imposes additional sanctions on Russia: 'Putin chose this war'
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/polit...ons/index.html

President Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled new, "devastating" sanctions on Russia meant to punish the country for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin for his aggression.

"Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences," Biden said, laying out a set of sanctions including export controls that will "impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time."
Biden said the new sanctions also include four Russian banks and "corrupt billionaires" and their families who are close to the Kremlin.
And he announced a new deployment of ground and air forces to NATO's eastern flank, even as he reiterated US troops would not engage in direct conflict in Ukraine.

"Our forces are not and will not be engaged in the conflict," he said. "Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in Ukraine but defend our NATO allies and reassure those allies in the east."

The new sanctions were selected from a menu of options that includes restrictions on financial institutions, bans on technology exports and blocks targeting members of Putin's inner circle.

Mindful of rising gas prices in the United States, Biden said he was working to limit the fallout the new sanctions would have on energy prices. He said the US was ready to release barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve alongside its allies.

"I know this is hard and that Americans are already hurting," he said. "I'll do everything in my power to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump."

[JackDaw]

How you got the above impression from my comment is beyond me. I don't like that so many decisions hinge on what the US does and agrees with. And my comment was in part in response to the question of why the conversation is so US-centric. Biden's upcoming decisions will dictate much of the response from NATO. Obviously I wouldn't want the US to "watch a lot of Europe burn."

You put “I prefer our country to stay out of it”

I interpreted that as preferring US to take no action at all.

After your clarification guess you meant that NATO should actually be more independent of direct US influence? (Though struggle to see how that’s feasible as US supplies so much of NATO resource.)

[babyblob]

The Russia Cyberwar has started. At least according to my aunt.

Our internet went out for 15 minutes or so. No big deal. Just had to call the cable company and have them send a signal to my modem because for some reason me rebooting it was not doing it.

But of course this is all a Russia Cyber attack. Targeting my house. No one else. my neighbors didnt lose the internet. I checked with them to see if they did and there was an area outage before I called. Nope just Putin targeting my house.

[kidfresh512]

Looks like Biden agrees as new sanctions were just announced. But I agree with you that a direct attack should remain an option if absolutely necessary.

Biden imposes additional sanctions on Russia: 'Putin chose this war'
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/polit...ons/index.html

Yeah at the end of the day Russia has nuclear weapons. There is only so far you can go with provoking a direct attack and response obviously. Sanctions hurt, once you weaken their economy enough and make the situation untenable in all ways possible. Even the talk of moving the Champions League final out of Russia now this year things like that will hurt and piss off people.

Russians are protesting in Russia too as far as they can. I mean they will probably be beaten and killed for it but their people don't want to invade Europe either its Putin.

Putin should be prepared for sanctions with all the time he's been plotting this. But, it isnt like they have the most robust international economy in the first place. He himself is supposed to hoard all the money and resources of the country under himself and the Oligarchs

[Tami]

Decision to invade Ukraine raises questions over Putin’s ‘sense of reality’

Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a catastrophic new European war, combined with the sheer weirdness of his recent public appearances, has raised questions in western capitals about the mental stability of the leader of a country with 6,000 nuclear warheads.

They worry about a 69-year-old man whose tendency towards insularity has been amplified by his precautions against Covid, leaving him surrounded by an ever-shrinking coterie of fearful obedient courtiers. He appears increasingly uncoupled from the contemporary world, preferring to burrow deep into history and a personal quest for greatness.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is well-placed to analyse changes to Putin’s demeanour. Macron once drove a cooperative, if self-conscious, Putin round the gardens of the palace of Versailles in a tiny electric golf cart in the summer of 2017 and welcomed him to his holiday residence at a fortress on the Mediterranean coast the following summer, where Putin descended from a helicopter carrying a bunch of flowers and complemented the Macrons on their tans.

After Macron held five hours of talks with the Russian leader in Moscow at opposite ends of a 15-metre table, he told reporters on the return flight that “the tension was palpable”. This was not the same Putin he had last met at the Elysée palace in December 2019, Macron said. He was “more rigid, more isolated” and was off on an “ideological and security drift”.

Following Putin’s speech on Monday, an Elysée official made an unusually bold assessment that the speech was “paranoid”. Bernard Guetta, a member of the European parliament for Macron’s grouping, told France Inter radio on Thursday morning, after military invasion began: “I think this man is losing his sense of reality, to say it politely.” Asked by the interviewer if that meant he thought Putin had gone mad, he said “yes”.

Guetta is not alone. Milos Zeman, the Czech president and long one of Vlaldimir Putin’s staunchest supporters, denounced Putin a “madman” after the invasion.

“All our Russia-watchers, watching his press conferences, think that he’s descending even more into a despotic mindset,” another European diplomat said.

[JB]

You put “I prefer our country to stay out of it”

I interpreted that as preferring US to take no action at all.

After your clarification guess you meant that NATO should actually be more independent of direct US influence? (Though struggle to see how that’s feasible as US supplies so much of NATO resource.)

That's correct and my apologies for not being more clear. I would prefer the European nations of NATO to lead the way with decisions and actions, with US providing support rather than calling the shots. But you're right, the US does provide such a large portion of resources which makes it complicated. I just have always felt it best to allow the nations in the actual region to take the helm.

[AnakinFlair]

The Russia Cyberwar has started. At least according to my aunt.

Our internet went out for 15 minutes or so. No big deal. Just had to call the cable company and have them send a signal to my modem because for some reason me rebooting it was not doing it.

But of course this is all a Russia Cyber attack. Targeting my house. No one else. my neighbors didnt lose the internet. I checked with them to see if they did and there was an area outage before I called. Nope just Putin targeting my house.

With how much your Aunt supports Trump, I'd think she'd welcome our new Russian overlords.

[JB]

Russian forces seize control of Chernobyl nuclear plant, Ukrainian official says
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/europ...ntl/index.html

Russian forces have seized control of the Chernobyl power plant in northern Ukraine, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, according to the agency that manages the area.

Troops overran the plant on the first day of Russia's multi-pronged invasion of Ukraine, a spokeswoman for the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, Yevgeniya Kuznetsovа, told CNN.

"When I came to the office today in the morning [in Kyiv], it turned out, that the [Chernobyl nuclear power plant] management had left. So there was no one to give instructions or defend," she said.

That's about all I can stomach for today. Prayers to all innocent lives in harm's way.

[babyblob]

With how much your Aunt supports Trump, I'd think she'd welcome our new Russian overlords.

I have no idea how her mind works any more. As long as you stay away from talking about Trump and Biden she is very nice, very reasonable. She is a very smart woman and I enjoy talking to her on a few subjects. Just not those two.

[Catlady in training]

Okay, I just want to know one thing, what does Putin want? He wouldn't be doing all this if he didn't want something, some people think he's doing this to restore soviet glory, he was pissed that Ukraine got invited to join NATO, I'm not sure.

He said repeatedly that the end of USSR was the greatest mistake that ever happened. He wants their former territories back and is pissed at Ukraine that they want to join EU and NATO.
One of his conditions was a guarantee that that will never happen, but he must have known that he would not get that. So he wants to take them by force and probably install some government under Russia's control, I think.

He's like the jealous ex who keeps stalking his former partner and the rest of us are like the police who can't help until he attacks and most likely kills her. And we can't help even now that they attacked, because NATO is supposed to be about defence of their members, not other countries. But I really hope that he doesn't attack any NATO country, because that would be a much greater problem.

Russians are protesting in Russia too as far as they can. I mean they will probably be beaten and killed for it but their people don't want to invade Europe either its Putin.

They already arrested about 900 protesters today.

And fucking hell, they now reportedly hold Chernobyl. I have tried to remain calm until now despite our shared border with Ukraine, but this is deeply concerning. I hope no one does anything stupid and irreversible.

[seismic-2]

Okay, I just want to know one thing, what does Putin want? He wouldn't be doing all this if he didn't want something, some people think he's doing this to restore soviet glory, he was pissed that Ukraine got invited to join NATO, I'm not sure.

He likely wants to overthrow the current government of Ukraine, arrest all the officials, and replace them with a pro-Russian puppet government, like the one in Belarus. As a later step, he may want to incorporate Ukraine directly into Russia, as he did with Crimea.

[seismic-2]

Decision to invade Ukraine raises questions over Putin’s ‘sense of reality’

I'm sure he is "a very stable genius", like his Comrade Donald.

[CaptainEurope]

Decision to invade Ukraine raises questions over Putin’s ‘sense of reality’

Yes, I think some form of insanity could actually be an explanation.