LoukBongThom wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 7:27 am Hope both countries agree and find peace soon.

Yeah, agree to a full and complete withdrawal from Crimea and the territories, so back to Russia. Otherwise phase one was this grab. Phase 2 comes in another 2 years after a military buildup.

Too early?

Clutch Cargo wrote: ↑Tue Mar 29, 2022 11:45 am

It looks to be heading that way. Ukraine said it now has more tanks than when the war started.

Apollo91881 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 3:43 pm Otherwise phase one was this grab. Phase 2 comes in another 2 years after a military buildup.

If sanctions work as planned, Putin's government should be a lot weaker in 2 years. That should slow down his military buildup significantly.

Without the nuclear threat, Russia has close to nothing.

Is this thing still happening, the share market is back to normal gas is going down, or has the main stream media's attention span just expired?

atst wrote:Is this thing still happening, the share market is back to normal gas is going down, or has the main stream media's attention span just expired?

Temporary.

US and IEA announced release of strategic petroleum reserves (the kind used in case of war, natural disaster, etc.). US release scheduled to last until mid term elections. No increase in US petroleum production. President tells all Americans to solve the problem by buying electric cars - which costs $55,000 each.

Fundamental issues - Ukraine provides a large percentage of the world’s food, and Russia the world’s oil, still remain.

And after the Reserves run out?

Markets react to the unknown.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Ukrain ... 5&si=44594

Is Putin cracking? Voice analysis belies steely exterior
Russian leader's initial optimism of conflict gave way to high stress, audio indicates


An analysis of Russian President Vladimir Putin's speech on the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea indicated lower stress levels but an inward-looking mindset. (Source photo by Getty Images)
KOJI KATO, MASAYUKI TERAZAWA and HIROAKI USUI, Nikkei staff writersMarch 31, 2022 02:01 JST

TOKYO -- With Russia now more than a month into its invasion of Ukraine and showing little sign of backing down, how has Russian President Vladimir Putin's mindset changed over the course of the conflict? The answer may lie in his voice.

Nikkei and Yokohama-based Risk Measurement Technologies looked at 1 hour and 19 minutes of voice samples from Putin from between Feb. 1 and March 18. An analysis of the audio suggests his stress levels were elevated starting in the days before the invasion and climbed sharply in early March, when Moscow responded to the tightening sanctions net around the country.

Changes in a person's mental state can affect their vocal cords, altering speech and potentially offering insights into their mentality that might be difficult to glean from their words or facial expressions.



Using Putin's comments at the U.N. General Assembly in September 2020 as a baseline, the analysis found a significant shift three days before the invasion, during a Feb. 21 meeting of the Russian Federation Security Council.

The president heard from top officials, including the prime minister, foreign minister and the heads of the two chambers of the Federal Assembly, on the question of whether to recognize the independence of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

During the meeting, Putin's voice indicated swings between high and low levels of stress in a short time, a sign of wavering feelings. "We can conjecture that he was in a state of psychological instability," said Risk Measurement chief Kanji Okazaki.

Nikkei's analysis also looked at Putin's gestures. Ikuo Daibo, president of Hokusei Gakuen University in Sapporo and an expert on the relationship between body language and mental state, noted that Putin supported himself with his hands on his desk. "He felt determined to carry out something he'd decided on," Daibo said.

In a televised speech on Feb. 24, the day of the invasion, Putin used forceful language, emphasizing that "today's Russia remains one of the most powerful nuclear states."

Though his stress levels varied here as well, there were times when it trended lower, which Risk Measurement says indicates an optimistic mindset. Here, Putin may have been confident in the Russian military's ability to quickly meet its objective, which was reportedly to seize Kyiv in a lightning strike.

The president seemed tense again on March 10, in a meeting with Russian officials in which he indicated that Moscow would retaliate against foreign companies that withdraw from the country.

His vocal stress levels were over 40% higher than usual. Combined with his body language, "he seemed to be showing defiance," Daibo said.

The stress readings were lower on March 18, when Putin delivered a speech to mark the eighth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea in front of a crowd of 200,000. He claimed that the purpose of the conflict was to relieve residents in the eastern region of Ukraine "of suffering, of this genocide" allegedly being carried out by Kyiv.

While his voice indicated stability, analysis of the video footage showed signs of an inward-looking mindset.

Research on the relationship between voice and emotional state is ongoing. Reports suggest that vocal analysis can identify people with depression, and there are studies showing that the results of such analyses match closely with people's self-reported mood and stress levels.

Correction: An earlier version of this storyincorrectly named Risk Measurement Technologies as Risk Management Technologies.

3h ago
02.14
US confirms Ukrainian missiles sunk the Moskva - reports

US media is reporting senior US defence officials confirming the Russian warship, Moskva, was destroyed by Ukrainian missile strikes.

The Moskva was destroyed in the black Sea earlier this week. Ukraine says it hit the ship with two Neptune anti-ship missiles, and is bracing for revenge attacks. Russia’s defence ministry said a fire onboard and “stormy sea conditions” were to blame (although Russian state TV presenters are not unanimously toeing that line). On Friday senior US defence officials confirmed Ukraine’s version of events, according to the Washington Post and New York Times.

In the CNN interview Zelenskiy was also asked about the Moskva, but was circumspect in his response.

“We know that it does not exist anymore. For us it is a strong weapon against our country so its sinking is not a tragedy for us,” Zelenskiy said.
He said “history will tell” what happened to it.

There is very little information about the fate of the 510 personnel on board the Moskva, a significant and well known flagship of Russia’s fleet. Moscow has given not details or released photos.

The Guardian’s Luke Harding in Kyiv and Andrew Roth reported yesterday:

An article published by the Tass state-run news agency initially claimed the “entire crew” had been evacuated. It was later edited to remove the word “entire”. One unconfirmed Ukrainian report said 14 sailors including the chief of Moskva’s medical service were taken to the Crimean port of Sevastopol. The fate of the other 494 was unknown, it said. If they are confirmed to have drowned it would amount to the largest number of deaths of Russian servicemen in a single incident since the second world war.

Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian interior ministry adviser who has a popular Telegram channel, posted a photo of the Moskva’s captain, Anton Kuprin. Kuprin was killed during the explosion and fire on the ship, Gerashchenko claimed.

It was Kuprin who gave the order for the Moskva to shell Snake Island in the Black Sea during the first hours of Moscow’s invasion. Its Ukrainian defenders refused to surrender and said: “Russian warship ‘go fuck yourself’” – a slogan that has become a national meme.


FAKE NEWS - old footage posted on the internet
2h ago
03.23
The Associated Press fact-checking unit has assessed some videos flying around purporting to be the destruction of the Moskva. Upshot: they’re not.

The clips, which some have claimed shows missiles striking the Russian warship, is actually 2013 footage of a Norwegian Navy test missile strike.

Following the destruction of the Moskva - which Ukraine claims they hit with anti-ship missiles but Russia says was a victim of bad weather and an on-board fire - social media users shared images and videos out of context to claim they showed the aftermath of an attack.

One such widely-shared video showed a large warship exploding, sending a plume of thick, dark smoke into the air.

A Twitter user shared it on Thursday, calling it “a video of the explosion of a Russian cruiser after being hit by a Ukrainian missile,” another post claimed the footage was from “yesterday in Ukraine.”

However, the footage was actually taken about nine years ago off the coast of Norway, and shows a Naval Strike Missile being tested on a decommissioned Norwegian ship during a military exercise, according to reports at the time from military.com, the British news agency South West News Service and others, which all used the same footage.

CNN also aired a June 2013 report about the exercise, using the footage and crediting it to the Norwegian navy.

A reverse image search using frames from the clip shows that the same video has been circulating online for years, predating the current war between Russia and Ukraine.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... f8f35ebeff

Putin is playing chess ..... Biden is playing checkers .......

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Market ... e-invasion