The Brink of War?

[dab69]

Russian Embassy Releases Map Recognizing Crimea as Ukraine’s


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...74c0319a&ei=31



The Russian Embassy in South Africa has shared a map online that shows illegally annexed Crimea as part of Ukraine.

A post on the embassy's account on X, formerly known as Twitter, attempted to raise the profile of the BRICS grouping of world economies but appeared instead to endorse Crimea as being part of Ukraine.

The X post showed a world map with Ukraine's borders containing not only eastern parts of its territory that Russia claims to have annexed but also Crimea—which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014—in addition to BRICS members.

While BRICS refers specifically to the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the map posted on the embassy's account also included Ethiopia, Argentina, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Iran shaded in green, along with the five BRICS members.

[Dragonman]

Russian Embassy Releases Map Recognizing Crimea as Ukraine’s

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...74c0319a&ei=31

The Russian Embassy in South Africa has shared a map online that shows illegally annexed Crimea as part of Ukraine..

I like it that the post was captioned "Reality of a new multipolar world." Ambassador Ilya Igorevich Rogachev will have some explaining to do.

[Moses]

==== Ethiopia, Argentina, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Iran shaded in green, along with the five BRICS members.====

They are official members from past week. Since Jan 1, 2024 these countries will start to use all privileges of BRICS membership.

F4ZHSYuaEAE1ir9.jpg

And with Crimea:
2104914_800.jpg

[Moses]

G7 and BRICS comparation:

1693265293852.png

[Dragonman]

Chan Kung, the founder of the Beijing-headquartered multinational independent think tank Anbound (http://www.anbound.com/About.php) and one of the PRC’s renowned experts in information analysis, particularly economic information analysis in the area of public policy, has pointed out that "Economic size is merely a mathematical concept but not real power." Others have made the same point, e.g., https://www.ineteconomics.org/about/...cs-is-not-math.

Chan Kung noted that BRICS's control over resources is fragmented and the bloc still does not have a global central position comparable to the G7. "The role of the BRICS countries as a challenger to the global order is valid, but they are unlikely to be a competitor to the G7."

Moreover, his comments don't take into account the present economic problems faced by the former and new members of the grouping.

The diagrams are pretty - but otherwise meaningless.

What is probable about the enlarged grouping, however, is that the weighting will tilt towards the PRC and away from the Russian Federation (see, e.g., https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blog...al-for-the-g7/).

[Dodger]

What is probable about the enlarged grouping, however, is that the weighting will tilt towards the PRC and away from the Russian Federation (see, e.g., https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blog...al-for-the-g7/).

Yes, probably so, but the Russian-Federation may be bolstered by their strengthening alliance with North Korea making it an even prettier map.

Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[Dragonman]

In the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, which lasted from 25 December 1979 until 15 February 1989, the reported death toll was 15,000 Soviet soldiers while about 35,000 were wounded.

There is now, however, a report on the Russian-language website of Vertska, an independent Russia media outlet with death and injury figures reported based on official Russian documents on a public portal. If the information in the report (https://verstka.media/mintuda-raskry...nnyh-v-ukraine) is correct, then the death and injury toll so far is much higher than those in that 10-year operation.

The report has been picked up almost verbatim by western media outlets, e.g., https://www.newsweek.com/russia-orde...ne-war-1828178, and https://metro.co.uk/2023/09/19/putin...-killed-in-war).

"The Ministry of Labor and Social Development has ordered 230,000 ID cards for family members of fallen combat veterans. The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation has ordered almost a million certificates for veterans of combat operations and relatives of perished war veterans and invalids. Such a tender was found on the portal of public procurement by Verstka. The numbers could indirectly indicate the approximate scale of the Russian group's participation in the battles and losses.

The Ministry of Labor has ordered 757,305 certificates of a veteran of combat operations and 230,000 certificates for "family members of a deceased (deceased) disabled war veteran, a participant in the Great Patriotic War and a veteran of combat operations"). The initial cost of these works is estimated at 79 million rubles."

Another report (https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...-s-sent-to-die), however, adds that "Two independent media outlets have carried out in-depth research and found the number of men to have died in the conflict is in fact around the 50,000 mark."

Whether the correct figure for the death toll so far 50,000 or 230,000, the long-term effects on Russian society and the economy of the number of men killed or wounded in this misguided and senseless operation will be severe. For example, scholars have stated that the effects of the Afghan War were a significant factor that contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union (e.g., https://faculty.washington.edu/aseem/afganwar.pdf), so it will be interesting to see what the outcome of this "special military operation" will be on the future of the Russian Federation.

Whatever the current and final death and injury figures, this stupidity has endured for far too long.

[arsenal]

Go back through history. If the invaded nation state is really prepared to fight whatever the cost then the chances of a successful invasion are almost zero. Never more so than in this war.

"Those Russians, they've brought nothing but misery to the world."
Golda Meir

[Dragonman]

Go back through history. If the invaded nation state is really prepared to fight whatever the cost then the chances of a successful invasion are almost zero. Never more so than in this war.

Putin studied Law as an undergraduate, and his PhD thesis was in Economics. It is a pity he never studied History, particularly Military History.

[Moses]

===an independent Russia media outlet===

Yeah, located somewhere in EU, using protonmail as email address as the only contact. Why you call them "Russian"? Nobody from nowhere.

But fact is correct. 230 000 is ordered to print. In the same contract is described, what from 230 000 only 30 000 should be delivered to Ministry of social protection, rest 200 000 should be send to warehouse of Ministry of defense.

Since the only ministry who is responsible for issuing of such IDs is Ministry of social protection, you may clearly see what is exactly number of deaths for now - for sure below 30 000.

Moreover ID are personal, and that means what 1 family may receive multiple IDs - parents, widow, children above 16 yo (they have rights for free education in colleges and UNI).