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| USA Today - NATO chief calls Russian attack 'brutal act of war' |
| 2022-02-24 |
| [USA Today] International condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin's pre-dawn attack against Ukraine mounted Thursday, as U.S. and Western allies prepared to impose punishing sanctions against Moscow for a stunning full-scale invasion that global leaders had been warning about for weeks. The attack threatened to create global upheaval and escalate into the largest military conflict on European soil since the end of World War II. "This is a brutal act of war," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday. Here's what to know about Russia's attack on Ukraine: Explosions were heard in major cities, including the capital of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odessa. Oleksii Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said at least 40 people had been killed and dozens others wounded in the attack so far. Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces had hit military assets and other defense facilities, while footage shared by Ukrainian border guards showed Russian military vehicles moving across the border from Crimea. Zelenskyy announced Ukraine had cut diplomatic ties with Russia, declaring martial law and offering to issue weapons to anyone who wants to defend the country. Despite pleas to stay home, people in Kyiv were jamming roads to leave. Global markets plunged and oil prices skyrocketed on news of the invasion, a dramatic escalation after weeks of diplomacy talks failed to defuse the months-long standoff between Moscow and NATO countries over Ukraine's sovereignty. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #18 For the US, the combination of Russian scientific and engineering talent and Chinese industrial organization is a marriage made in hell. Fortunately for us, both Russia and China are really, really bad at economics, and have been for about a century. So in the next few decades China will take control of Russia’s technology while its own sand foundation crumbles, just like all its ghost cities and the Three Gorges dam. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2022-02-24 21:31 |
| #17 For the US, the combination of Russian scientific and engineering talent and Chinese industrial organization is a marriage made in hell. Commie edge-cutting and lack of ingenuity? Really? Lol |
| Posted by: Frank G 2022-02-24 21:24 |
| #16 http://www.zzwave.com/plaboard/posts/3968357.shtml Huawei has one of its largest research facilities in Moscow, with plans to train 50,000 technicians at five Russian research centers. The Chinese telecom giant is building Russia’s mobile broadband network, but its partnerships in Russia extend to cloud computing, video surveillance and facial recognition, and other artificial intelligence applications. Russia’s reserves of human capital are formidable. It graduated 445,000 engineers in 2015 vs. 238,000 in the United States. According to the OECD, Russia has about 215,000 electrical engineers, more than America’s 188,000. Russia always has had superb science—with thinner resources it beat the US into space during the 1950s—but lamentable industrial organization. For the US, the combination of Russian scientific and engineering talent and Chinese industrial organization is a marriage made in hell. |
| Posted by: Glerens Sproing4573 2022-02-24 20:28 |
| #15 Wonder how many NATO members regret not spending the required amounts until Trump shamed them? |
| Posted by: ruprecht 2022-02-24 19:57 |
| #14 ...ironic that the one thing that protected 'his' Ukraine, he worked so hard to remove. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2022-02-24 19:51 |
| #13 H/T Aoshq: |
| Posted by: Frank G 2022-02-24 15:23 |
| #12 Stoltenberg's a mouthpiece. He doesn't have authority over what time of day the clocks are wound. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-02-24 13:33 |
| #11 Hint: Not Ukraine. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2022-02-24 13:31 |
| #10 Then when China takes Taiwan and nobody has computer chips outside of China, they will panic and probably all retire somewhere. You have to pick your fights a little more carefully. What is strategically important and what isn't? |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2022-02-24 13:30 |
| #9 If NATO didn't think they could expand all the way to Russia's doorstep this "brutal act of war" might have been avoided. Next time Putin says something you want to do is unacceptable, think about it a little more carefully, Jens. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2022-02-24 13:28 |
| #8 Nato chief....he'll scream and clutch his man purse but he will do NOTHING. Europe will do nothing, nobody will do nothing and the shrieking will really start when Russia ups their prices to Europe on gas. Then when China takes Taiwan and nobody has computer chips outside of China, they will panic and probably all retire somewhere. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2022-02-24 12:22 |
| #7 'brutal act of war' Real war is brutal. You just haven't seen it for so long. The 'kinder gentler' wars weren't wars. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2022-02-24 12:15 |
| #6 Jens Stoltenberg is a Norwegian politician who has served as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Labour Party The Labour Party is officially committed to social-democratic ideals. Its slogan since the 1930s has been "everyone shall take part" and the party traditionally seeks a strong welfare state, funded through taxes and duties. Controversies Stoltenberg participated in protest rallies against the U.S. war in Vietnam in the 1970s.[124] In 2011, Stoltenberg said "We sang the chorus, ‘Singing Norway, Norway out of Nato.' It was a hit."[124] In 2001, Stoltenberg crashed his Labour Party-owned car into a parked car; he then left the premises without leaving a note with his name or number; the damages cost 8000 Norwegian kroner to repair.[125] In 2002, Stoltenberg admitted to having used cannabis in his youth.[126] He therefore asked the Ministry of Justice and Public Security to evaluate his impartiality in the upcoming government response to the report on drugs by the Stoltenberg Commission, headed by his father, Thorvald Stoltenberg.[127] In 2011, Stoltenberg received a prize from the UN Foundation for excellent global leadership and Norway's support of the UN. Earlier the same year, Stoltenberg had allocated 150 million Norwegian kroner of the foreign aid budget to the same foundation, which led to criticism.[128] Also in 2011 Stoltenberg got a 380,000 kroner boat as a birthday gift from the Norwegian Labour Party and the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions; the givers also paid the tax for the gift which led to criticism.[129][130] Fricking politician. |
| Posted by: Woodrow 2022-02-24 11:22 |
| #5 Except Russia won't rely on their remittances as Messico does |
| Posted by: Frank G 2022-02-24 09:57 |
| #4 /\ Correct, a non-military, non-kinetic invasion. Why use guns when you can simply walk across the border. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2022-02-24 09:42 |
| #3 I don't see the Mexican army invading the US any time soon. They don't need to with our current supine regime here. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-02-24 09:35 |
| #2 Ethnic Tyrants all use a similar playbook. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2022-02-24 09:34 |
| #1 The eurines rummage around in the back of the closet, yank out and dust off NATO, which they have had no use for in many years. Sad joke. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-02-24 09:32 |