zone posted:

Welp, it looks like Strelkov is done for

Longpig Bard posted:

Seagal is like the main character in Team America World Police, where he's "actoring" like he is very steeped in Russian culture. But everyone knows he an actor, and there's no real purpose for it other than he's probably getting free housing and stuff.

OneEightHundred posted:

I don't even understand how he was ever a big name in the first place and the best explanation I ever get is that in the 80's martial arts in action movies was kind of a new idea (to American audiences anyway) so people were blown away by complex choreography like "he grabs the dude's arm and then shoves his head into the wall" or "he grabs the dude's arm and then punches him in the face."

quote:

"It's the 1980's and they've kidnapped my girlfriend and I just put on some sunglasses, now I'm invincible.
Those construction workers will pay for this. "

"It's the 1990's and they just kidnapped my girlfriend and I just put on some sunglasses, now I am a laser robot.
Those vampires will pay for this. "

"It's the 1970's and, wow there's no plot hardly. Like everyone's kinda hairy and out of shape, the film quality is pretty bad. Oh hey trumpet music. Boy are my pants tight. All the women look really stoned or something. Wait, is this a porn?
Those other hairy guys will pay for this."

"It's the 2000's and they've blown up my girlfriend and I just pulled out my torture kit, boy, are those jumper cables attached to the terrorist's testicles tight."

FMguru posted:

Executive Decision.

CeeJee posted:

This book has the backstories of all the action stars of the 80's en 90's, including Seagal: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/668268/the-last-action-heroes-by-nick-de-semlyen/

Short version, everything about him was fake but the studio execs were too busy looking for an action star and for a little while it actually worked and Seagal was a huge star. Before the internet you could get away with being so fake and such an rear end in a top hat for quite a while.

OneEightHundred posted:

I don't even understand how he was ever a big name in the first place and the best explanation I ever get is that in the 80's martial arts in action movies was kind of a new idea (to American audiences anyway) so people were blown away by complex choreography like "he grabs the dude's arm and then shoves his head into the wall" or "he grabs the dude's arm and then punches him in the face."

NoiseAnnoys posted:

there's the incident where gene lebell (stuntman, judoka, catch wrestler) literally choked the poo poo out of steven segall with a simple hadaka jime that every beginner learns and knows how to defend against.

quote:

In all, Ukraine has launched at least 20 strikes on Russian refineries since October. Ukrainian security officials have indicated that the attacks’ objectives are to cut off fuel supplies to the Russian military and slash the export revenues that the Kremlin uses to fund its war effort. By the end of March, Ukraine had destroyed around 14 percent of Russia’s oil-refining capacity and forced the Russian government to introduce a six-month ban on gasoline exports. One of the world’s largest oil producers is now importing petrol.
...
Washington’s criticism is misplaced: attacks on oil refineries will not have the effect on global energy markets that U.S. officials fear. These s​trikes reduce Russia’s ability to turn its oil into usable products; they do not affect the volume of oil it can extract or export. In fact, with less domestic refining capacity, Russia will be forced to export more of its crude oil, not less, pushing global prices down rather than up. Indeed, Russian firms have already started selling more unrefined oil overseas. As long as they remain restricted to Russian refineries, the attacks are unlikely to raise the price of oil for Western consumers.

Yet they can still inflict pain inside Russia, where the price of refined oil products, such as gasoline and diesel, has begun to surge. The strikes are achieving the very objectives that Ukraine’s Western partners set but largely failed to meet through sanctions and a price cap on Russian oil: to degrade Russia’s financial and logistical ability to wage war while limiting broader damage to the global economy. Kyiv must take wins where it can, and a campaign to destroy Russia’s oil-refining capacity brings benefits to Ukraine with limited risk.
...
The Ukrainian strikes have dealt a significant blow to Russia’s refining capacity, knocking out up to 900,000 barrels per day. Repairs will be slow and expensive, in part because refinery stacks—where oil is distilled into its constituent parts—are huge and complex pieces of equipment that take years to design and build, and in part because Western sanctions are hampering Russian firms’ access to specialized components.

Russia’s oil storage capacity is limited. When a refinery is destroyed or damaged, therefore, extracted crude oil cannot simply be stocked for later use. This leaves Russian producers with just two options: increasing exports of crude oil or shutting wells and reducing production.

Both options are painful for Russia, but increasing exports is less so than scaling back extraction. Russia can sell its oil only to select countries, including China, India, and Turkey, whose facilities are equipped to use the specific oil grades produced in Russia. These countries thus have leverage over Russia to buy at lower-than-market prices. Once the oil is refined, however, the final products can be sold internationally—meaning that Russia must pay market price to meet its domestic and military fuel needs.

If Russia chooses to shut wells instead of increasing exports, the global oil price would indeed rise—the outcome the Biden administration seeks to avoid. But Russia would then face an even sharper increase in the cost of refined products, only with lower export revenues to cushion the blow. It was not surprising, then, when Russia’s First Deputy Minister of Energy Pavel Sorokin suggested in March that Moscow would choose the first option and divert more crude oil for export.

Data from recent months confirm that, as expected, Russia is exporting more crude oil at the same time that its refined fuel exports have hit near-historic lows. Moscow exported just over 712,000 tons of diesel and other petroleum products in the last week of April, a drop from more than 844,000 tons in the same week in 2023. Monthly exports of crude oil, however, increased by nine percent from February to March, reaching their highest level in nine months and their third highest since Western sanctions on Russian crude oil took effect in December 2022. The strikes have had no discernible effect on international crude oil prices, which remained stable until the end of March, when Russia cut its output under a preexisting agreement with OPEC.

Western markets may not be hurting, but Russia is feeling the pinch. Since the Ukrainian strikes began, diesel production has fallen by 16 percent and gasoline production by nine percent. The average weekly wholesale price of gasoline and diesel in western Russia rose by 23 percent and 47 percent, respectively, between the end of 2023 and mid-March. In April, the cost of gasoline hit a six-month high, up more than 20 percent from the start of the year. Russia imported 3,000 tons of fuel from Belarus in the first half of March—up from zero in January—and the Kremlin has been forced to ask Kazakhstan to ready 100,000 tons of gasoline for supply in case of shortages.

So far, Russian consumers have been largely shielded from these wholesale price increases. But in the last week of April, retail diesel prices jumped by ten percent. This lag suggests either that oil companies are earning slimmer margins, at the expense of their oligarch owners, or that the Kremlin has raised public fuel subsidies, diverting money it could have spent on the war in Ukraine. According to some reports, the Russian government may also consider lifting restrictions on low-quality gasoline usage to prevent a fuel shortage, a move that risks damaging engines, placing further strain on an already weak military vehicle maintenance capacity and rendering void the warranties of foreign-made vehicles. Altogether, the political, economic, and military costs are mounting for the Kremlin as the strikes on oil refineries continue.
...
Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries are now doing what the sanctions regime has not. Without compromising global energy supply or driving up prices, the attacks are eating into Russian revenues and curtailing Russia’s ability to turn crude oil into the kinds of fuel that tanks and planes need to run. As long as Ukrainian forces avoid hitting crude oil pipelines or major crude oil export terminals, they can maintain this balance.
...
Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries also seem unlikely to widen the conflict. At the very least, Russia will struggle to escalate in kind, given its long-running and far broader campaign to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure: its forces destroyed Ukraine’s Kremenchuk oil refinery within weeks of the 2022 invasion, and the Ukrainian energy minister has said that Russian strikes earlier this year hit up to 80 percent of Ukraine’s conventional thermal power plants. Rather than threatening escalation in response to Ukraine’s strikes, the Kremlin has tended to play down their effects to avoid embarrassment.

NTRabbit posted:

As memorialised in this peak youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aCMTpJx2cs

NTRabbit posted:

As memorialised in this peak youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aCMTpJx2cs

Ronwayne posted:

zone posted:

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1788474921103835354

NTRabbit posted:

As memorialised in this peak youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aCMTpJx2cs

Dwesa posted:

FT article: Why Ukraine Should Keep Striking Russian Oil Refineries

Subjunctive posted:

That was already announced, right? This is just the guy handing in his badge and gun on the last day.

quote:

Former Ukrainian army chief Valery Zaluzhny, who was replaced in February, has been officially appointed Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom, a key ally of Kiev in its war against Russia.

quote:

The Center of National Resistance reports that russia has created a whole web of pseudo-volunteer movements to control young people from the so-called territories of Ukraine.

One of them is the "movement of the first" (rovnenie pervykh), which recruits students for "internships" at a factory in Alabuga, where Iranian "shahids" are produced.

"Students from the age of 16 are recruited, i.e., it is about attracting minors to work for the russian military-industrial complex [...]," the CNS writes.

zone posted:

https://twitter.com/blyskavka_ua/status/1788622624051876208

Burns posted:

Guess they think theyre the USMC now.

TEMPLE GRANDIN OS posted:

that means they GOT EM

zone posted:

Did you know Russia has military exhibits for children, and T-I-G-E-R-S

Cthulu Carl posted:

one of those appears to be a snow leopard

Gomez Chamberlain posted:

Beets by Dяe

Gomez Chamberlain posted:

Beets by Dяe

CeeJee posted:

This book has the backstories of all the action stars of the 80's en 90's, including Seagal: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/668268/the-last-action-heroes-by-nick-de-semlyen/

Short version, everything about him was fake but the studio execs were too busy looking for an action star and for a little while it actually worked and Seagal was a huge star. Before the internet you could get away with being so fake and such an rear end in a top hat for quite a while.