More Bad News for Russia

[Sting23]

Look up Boris Berezovsky.  Exiled in London.  Found hanged in his own house.  Some say it was suicide, others murder.  Only Putin knows.

[msmob]

Indeed ...look him up..He took on and lost a very expensive court battle in the UK with his one time apprentice, Abramovich,  who steers a path that has kept him in both UK and RU good books.

It was accepted that Mr B had committed  suicide,

Now it is being looked at, again.

[DaveNY]

It seems not everyone in Russia is happy Putin has been reelected. Putin's inauguration is in a few days and hundreds have been arrested in Moscow for unlawful demonstrations. Demonstrations were held in dozens of cities across Russia attended by thousands of people. 

http://www.voanews.com/a/anti-putin-opposition-leader-arrested-as-protests-unfold-across-russia/4381057.html
http://abcnews.go.com/International/hundreds-arrested-anti-putin-demonstrations-russia/story?id=54957508

[msmob]

Not just Moscow

[DaveNY]

Not just Moscow

Do you think Putin's worried about a possible coup by the military or perhaps civilian authorities?

[msmob]

Do you think Putin's worried about a possible coup by the military or perhaps civilian authorities?

Worried, but not overly concerned - they keep reorganising the Police / RusGuard, etc., so no-one can rise and counter the closed circle... new blood is bred via the right universities

[JayH]

Do you think Putin's worried about a possible coup by the military or perhaps civilian authorities?

Losing Crimea will trigger internal action against Putin 

[krimster2]

I really don't think Crimea is the most pressing issue in Ukraine at the moment
it was less than 5% of the total population and contributed little to the overall economy of the country...
and the people who lived there 90% patriotic Russians who hated the rotten corrupt Ukrainian government
who did nothing but steal...

what matters is that Ukraine is an empty hollowed-out shell
run by crooks of all kinds
unable to stand up to the bully
that's stealing its lunch money

[deccie]

Worried, but not overly concerned - they keep reorganising the Police / RusGuard, etc., so no-one can rise and counter the closed circle... new blood is bred via the right universities

Not only. They have recently replaced a lot of the regional Governor's over the last 2-3 years. Including the one here - and the Mayor. Mind you, the Mayor was despised by many here for his antics..

[krimster2]

Losing Crimea will trigger internal action against Putin 

how would they lose it?  not tie it up at night, and it wanders off?

look at classic Russian political struggles
like Peter and the Streltsy
this is Putin's real threat
and not the "people"

do you know how many different mafia groups there are "in the circle"
any one of them could be the "one"


 

[ML]

It seems not everyone in Russia is happy Putin has been reelected. Putin's inauguration is in a few days and hundreds have been arrested in Moscow for unlawful demonstrations. Demonstrations were held in dozens of cities across Russia attended by thousands of people. 

http://www.voanews.com/a/anti-putin-opposition-leader-arrested-as-protests-unfold-across-russia/4381057.html
http://abcnews.go.com/International/hundreds-arrested-anti-putin-demonstrations-russia/story?id=54957508

I don't think this means anything regarding Putin's control being in danger.

Remember there were protests in USA after Donald's election. 
And right now there is a lot of protesting in France over Macron's decisions.
Just a normal process in free countries, and even those with less freedom.

[deccie]

I don't think this means anything regarding Putin's control being in danger.
.

I agree ML. The numbers are rather meaningless. 1000 people across the country when St Petersburg alone is 5 million...

[alex330]

A year old but dont think I have seen it here.




Someone had to break the news to Putin that they just lost 50% of their intelligence surveillance ships to a flock of Romanian sheep.

http://www.neweurope.eu/article/sheep-carrying-cargo-romania-sinks-russian-military-vessel/

[BC]

For the naysayers

The automobile section of the Kerch Strait Bridge, said to be the longest bridge in Europe, was completed six months ahead of schedule. Putin touted it as an historic achievement and a dream that eluded Russian czars and leaders throughout the 2oth century.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/15/611392565/putins-bridge-linking-russia-to-annexed-crimea-opens

[Boethius]

It's sort of their New Reich Chancellery, isn't it?  Of course, we're talking about Russians, not Germans.  I personally would hesitate to be on such a long bridge constructed in Russia.

[alex330]

Russia is slowly losing one of it's main exports to rival nations like Ukraine and China. The SAM failures recently in Syria probably don't help either.....


"Delhi has “consciously diversified its arms imports” away from Moscow because “Russia doesn’t make deliveries on time, raises prices during the course of the contract, blocks the transfer of technology, and is “insufficiently reliable” in delivering spare parts."



http://euromaidanpress.com/2018/05/19/china-now-building-five-frigates-a-year-russia-only-one-every-ten/

[deccie]

Russia is slowly losing one of it's main exports to rival nations like Ukraine and China. The SAM failures recently in Syria probably don't help either.....


"Delhi has “consciously diversified its arms imports” away from Moscow because “Russia doesn’t make deliveries on time, raises prices during the course of the contract, blocks the transfer of technology, and is “insufficiently reliable” in delivering spare parts."

Lol, that's funny because I remember the issues India had with Antonov upgrading some of their transports...

[alex330]

Lol, that's funny because I remember the issues India had with Antonov upgrading some of their transports...

Not sure how much better the Chinese will be tbh   

[deccie]

Not sure how much better the Chinese will be tbh   

Worked with many Chinese companies on our large projects. They are horrible. The only advantage being price because they don't meet deadlines and their quality was  appallingly bad. Their documentation also being poor to non existent.

[Anotherkiwi]

Worked with many Chinese companies on our large projects. They are horrible. The only advantage being price because they don't meet deadlines and their quality was  appallingly bad. Their documentation also being poor to non existent.

That possibly depends on the industry.  Much of the telecommunications equipment on two out of the three mobile networks in New Zealand is Chinese (Huawei), and the latest models are a vast improvement on some of the earlier gear which was imported (I'm not talking about mobile phones, but rather the network base station elements).  I'm aware that the USA has banned their equipment, and there have always been tongue-in-cheek references to all Huawei equipment being bugged and sending recordings of everything back to China, but the new equipment is proving extremely reliable.

Yes, deadlines can sometimes be a problem, but not as much now as in the past.  The quality of documentation is also improving, although not to the level I would like to see.

[deccie]

That possibly depends on the industry.  Much of the telecommunications equipment on two out of the three mobile networks in New Zealand is Chinese (Huawei), and the latest models are a vast improvement on some of the earlier gear which was imported (I'm not talking about mobile phones, but rather the network base station elements).  I'm aware that the USA has banned their equipment, and there have always been tongue-in-cheek references to all Huawei equipment being bugged and sending recordings of everything back to China, but the new equipment is proving extremely reliable.

Yes, deadlines can sometimes be a problem, but not as much now as in the past.  The quality of documentation is also improving, although not to the level I would like to see.

I think Australia has also limited where the Chinese telco stuff can be installed based on the possibility of back doors (which is incredibly ironic consider the US back doors any Cisco gear that leaves the US).
The  stuff I was referring to above is large heavy industrial plant and equipment. Everything from steel work to process control gear.

[Anotherkiwi]

I think Australia has also limited where the Chinese telco stuff can be installed based on the possibility of back doors (which is incredibly ironic consider the US back doors any Cisco gear that leaves the US).

The irony for me is that my company (on behalf of the telcos) is replacing a lot of Cisco gear with Huawei equipment.

[deccie]

The irony for me is that my company (on behalf of the telcos) is replacing a lot of Cisco gear with Huawei equipment.

What is the advantage? A lot of the major companies I worked for always had huge discounts so they never paid the "normal" Cisco pricing.

[alex330]

Putin claimed a new nuclear-powered missile had unlimited range — but it flew only 22 miles in its most successful test yet.


The cruise missile was tested four times between November 2017 and February 2018, each resulting in a crash.

• The U.S. assessed that the longest test flight lasted just more than two minutes, with the missile flying 22 miles before losing control and crashing.

• 
  
  http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/21/russian-missile-with-unlimited-range-crashed-after-only-22-miles.html

[jone]

Reminds me of the START treaty, when the US went into Russia and found that most of the missiles that were to be put out to pasture never had the capability of flying in the first place.  I think I read that only one out of five could actually reach the US.