War in Eastern Europe, what's it good for ....

[MechAg94]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrrso5JDR5I
This video mentioned a couple of BMP's were taken out also, but I am not sure it was the same battle.  Different views of the impacts on the tank. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es-yxUtbGmU

[K Frame]

Rut Roh! Putin has signed a decree declaring the 1867 sale of Alaska to be "illegal" and he wants it back.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-stokes-tensions-with-us-declares-1867-sale-of-alaska-illegal/ar-BB1h1lcT?cvid=80730be40305434989adbf97eb9e4345&ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&ei=24&sc=shoreline


The unstated threat is that if he doesn't get it back, he'll take it back...

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

[WLJ]

More than just AK but it's really unclear what it means.
Irregardless I think he's lost his mind

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a new decree relating to Moscow's historic real estate holdings abroad, a move interpreted by ultranationalist bloggers as a foundation for future revanchism against Russia's neighbors—and even the U.S.

The decree, signed by the president late last week, allocates funds for the search, registration, and legal protection of Russian property abroad, including property in the former territories of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

This would include Alaska, swathes of eastern and central Europe, large chunks of central Asia, and parts of Scandinavia.

The Institute for the Study of War noted that the "exact parameters of what constitutes current or historical Russian property are unclear." Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin by email to request comment.

https://www.newsweek.com/putin-decree-triggers-ominous-alaska-calls-territory-empire-soviet-union-1862689

[Ben]

The Institute for the Study of War noted that the "exact parameters of what constitutes current or historical Russian property are unclear."

I'll be guessing that without facts, the MSM is pumping up "Alaskan invasion!" for clicks, and that Putin is likely talking about the former Soviet Bloc and other areas on the Eurasian continent.

[sumpnz]

They were quite willing to sell us Alaska at the time.  They viewed it as a barely populated, low value frontier outpost that would be nearly impossible to defend.  If the USA wanted to just take from Russia there was little/nothing they could have done to stop it, so they viewed it as better to get some money for it while they still could than risk several orders of magnitude more plus all the dead soldiers, for land that had no apparent strategic, nationalistic, or economic (beyond the fur trade) value.

[Ben]

Everyone is reporting that a Ukrainian sniper just broke the world record on a kill - 3800 meters, which is around 300 meters more than that Canadian soldier in the ME. Supposedly with a Ukrainian produced setup. I'm wondering if it's real or if he's the brother of the Ghost of Ukraine.

https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-sniper-world-record-longest-kill-russia-1845017

EDIT: This link has a video of the supposed event.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/video-ukrainian-sniper-breaks-world-record-after-killing-russian-soldier-from-3-8-km-away-4591145

[MechAg94]

I'll be guessing that without facts, the MSM is pumping up "Alaskan invasion!" for clicks, and that Putin is likely talking about the former Soviet Bloc and other areas on the Eurasian continent.

Good luck with that.  Russia has to cross some water to get to Alaska which means they need a decent surface fleet.... which they don't have. 

[RocketMan]

Rut Roh! Putin has signed a decree declaring the 1867 sale of Alaska to be "illegal" and he wants it back.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-stokes-tensions-with-us-declares-1867-sale-of-alaska-illegal/ar-BB1h1lcT?cvid=80730be40305434989adbf97eb9e4345&ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&ei=24&sc=shoreline


The unstated threat is that if he doesn't get it back, he'll take it back...

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Good thing Clinton is not still president.  He did give a few far outlying islands of the Aleutian chain back to Russia during his tenure.  A couple of those islands were inhabited, albeit sparsely.  No effort was made by .gov at the time to move those US citizens off those islands to ones that were going to remain part of Alaska.  They came under Russian rule from that point.
I remember it was big news in conservative media at the time, but the MSM didn't touch the story.

[Ben]

Good thing Clinton is not still president.  He did give a few far outlying islands of the Aleutian chain back to Russia during his tenure.  A couple of those islands were inhabited, albeit sparsely.  No effort was made by .gov at the time to move those US citizens off those islands to ones that were going to remain part of Alaska.  They came under Russian rule from that point.
I remember it was big news in conservative media at the time, but the MSM didn't touch the story.

Wow. I don't remember anything about that. I'm going to google it when I have a minute today. I'm really interested to see what the US citizens there ended up doing.

[RocketMan]

Wow. I don't remember anything about that. I'm going to google it when I have a minute today. I'm really interested to see what the US citizens there ended up doing.

Don't know if you will find anything on it.  I tried some years ago for just the same reason as you, and no stories surfaced that I could find.  Seemed to have disappeared down the memory hole.  Or my google-fu was lacking.  Let us know if you find anything.

[WLJ]

Russian Il-76 goes down reportedly carrying Ukraine POWs reportedly as part of a prison exchange.
Reportedly shot down by someone's SAW. Ukraine is blaming Russia, Russian blames Ukraine
In the video the camera pans back after the aircraft impacts the ground and a puff can be seen probably be from a SAM exploding but I'll accept it could be an engine blowing without seeing more.
In the close up you can see what appears to be the tail section breaking off.

Much of what is being reported could be propaganda and all we know for a fact is a Il-76 went down.
The level of propaganda being thrown around especially with Russian saying Ukraine did it on purpose probably means we'll never know what happened.

Moment Russian military plane 'carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs' crashes in huge fireball in border region: Kremlin says aircraft was shot down by 'missiles used by the West'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13000167/Russian-military-transport-plane-nosedives-crashes-sparking-huge-fireball-region-bordering-Ukraine.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ylaxRg3f-Y

RIP to whoever was on board

[WLJ]

Someone in the comments stated it seems odd that 65 POWs would only have 3 guards.
Also another comment says the flight came from Iran. (Where he got that supposed info from I would like to know)

The Internet, sigh

[K Frame]

Given the state of the Russian military and the beyond abysmal safety record of its aviation industry in general, my guess is it didn't need any help in crashing.

[Ben]

Interesting data point on propaganda:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/izildGlrEVg?feature=share

Some pages up in this thread, Dogmush posted a link to what appears to be the unedited video. It has a drastically different outcome.

[dogmush]

Good thing Clinton is not still president.  He did give a few far outlying islands of the Aleutian chain back to Russia during his tenure.  A couple of those islands were inhabited, albeit sparsely.  No effort was made by .gov at the time to move those US citizens off those islands to ones that were going to remain part of Alaska.  They came under Russian rule from that point.
I remember it was big news in conservative media at the time, but the MSM didn't touch the story.

I don't think this happened.

I was in Alaska for the Clinton presidency and this would have been huge news.  None of my friends and family who lived there at the time remember anything of the sort, including a close friend from Unalaska.

[RocketMan]

I don't think this happened.

I was in Alaska for the Clinton presidency and this would have been huge news.  None of my friends and family who lived there at the time remember anything of the sort, including a close friend from Unalaska.

Interesting.  I distinctly remember reading news articles in conservative media sometime around 1996 or maybe 1997.  There were even a couple of mentions during a conservative's talk show that I listened to back in that period.  Be darned if I can remember whose show it was, though.
Google and DDG show absolutely nothing about it however.  I'm wondering if it was a bogus story generated during those formative right-slanted talk radio years.

[cordex]

The nearest thing I could find was some conflict regarding the U.S.-USSR Maritime Boundary Agreement in the waning years of the Bush I presidency not being later recognized by Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  This boundary cuts between Big Diomede (a Russian island) and Little Diomede (a US island).  Russia never ratified the agreement, but the US has behaved as though it is in effect.  Maybe you heard something connected to that?

[WLJ]

Did find this and I do very vaguely remember something.
Yes it did happen but under which president seems to constantly change on the internet.
BTW: Occurred under Bush Sr. and if you look at their locations big deal and besides they lay on the Soviet/Russian side of an agreed to boundary and we never actually claimed ownership.

Reader asks if Obama gave away Alaskan islands to Russia for nothing
https://www.rgj.com/story/factchecker/2012/07/30/reader-asks-if-obama-gave-away-alaskan-islands-to-russia-for-nothing/5679875/

Alaskan Island Giveaway?
https://www.factcheck.org/2012/03/alaskan-island-giveaway/

[dogmush]

Right, so it didn't happen.

You can't "give away" something which you never claimed ownership of. 

[WLJ]

Right, so it didn't happen.

You can't "give away" something which you never claimed ownership of.

No but you can agree to no future claims

[WLJ]

Sweden is another step closer to joining NATO and this was considered the biggest step.
If Putin has done anything he has united pretty much all of Europe save for handful of countries against him.

Turkish parliament approves Sweden’s NATO membership bid
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/23/europe/turkey-vote-sweden-nato-intl/index.html

[WLJ]

Don't expect the Russians to be nice

'Statue assassin' at the mercy of Putin's thugs: Russian woman who 'killed military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky by giving him booby trapped sculpture' pleads her innocence as she is filmed being interrogated while chained to a radiator
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11933071/Daria-Trepova-handed-explosives-pro-Putin-blogger-insists-no-assassin.html

27 years

Darya Trepova: Russian woman jailed for 27 years for cafe bomb killing
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68095875

[WLJ]

I don't fully trust the source but here it is

Vladimir Putin is allegedly putting out feelers to see if America is ready for talks on ending the war in Ukraine.

The Russian president is also 'prepared to drop opposition to Kyiv joining Nato', according to a new Bloomberg report.

He approached senior US officials last month via an unnamed intermediary as he was 'testing the waters' to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine, two people close to the Kremlin claimed.

They further alleged that Putin 'may be willing to consider dropping an insistence on neutral status for Ukraine and even ultimately abandon opposition to eventual NATO membership - the threat of which has been a central Russian justification for the invasion'.

Even if that was even remotely true, which I doubt, what about the disputed territories? I wouldn't expect  Russia nor Ukraine to just walk away from them

But then a splash of cold water

US officials said they were not aware of any overtures by Russia and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the claims today saying: 'No, this is a wrong report. It absolutely does not correspond to reality.'

Putin is 'putting out feelers' to see if America is ready for talks on ENDING war in Ukraine with the president 'prepared to drop opposition to Kyiv joining NATO', report claims
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13010213/Putin-America-talks-ENDING-war-Ukraine-joining-NATO-report.html

[MechAg94]

Do you think the Biden administration is pushing to see if they can making something happen before November?

[dogmush]

Do you think the Biden administration is pushing to see if they can making something happen before November?

I'm sure they'd like to, but it would need to be something they can spin as a win, not another Afghanistan withdrawal.  I'm not convinced the Kremlin has any intention of giving that to them.  I suspect that Putin would rather see Biden and the "Support Ukraine Uber Alles" portion of the US Government lose in November.