Ukraine Presidential Crackdown Violence. Russia Invades Ukraine

[Canuck-Hater]

Again, this is news from the Russian perspective, but these are some interesting developments.
http://rt.com/news/yarosh-interpol-w...terrorism-954/

http://rt.com/news/ashton-maidan-snipers-estonia-946/

[FlameOn]

Wouldn't bring the carrier into the area bring it into range of Russian land and sea based anti ship weaponry? Why do that, it's a very big floating target at that point then?
It's not like there aren't a lot of ally air bases that the US couldn't use in the area.

According to RT, the Russians have treaties in place to have a lot of troops in the Crimea. Lots of other interesting tidbits about existing Russian-Ukrainian military treaties, though I don't think the treaties were written with these troops taking control of Ukrainian facilities in mind. Interesting thing is Russia still claims not to have deployed any troops.
http://rt.com/news/russian-troops-cr...medium=twitter

[FlameOn]

Interesting article about Svoboda and how all the top Ukrainian government posts have been taken over by a far right (almost fascist) political party
http://www.channel4.com/news/svoboda...ment-far-right

[FlameOn]

Double post for some reason

[worth]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Wouldn't bring the carrier into the area bring it into range of Russian land and sea based anti ship weaponry? Why do that, it's a very big floating target at that point then?
It's not like there aren't a lot of ally air bases that the US couldn't use in the area.

According to RT, the Russians have treaties in place to have a lot of troops in the Crimea. Lots of other interesting tidbits about existing Russian-Ukrainian military treaties, though I don't think the treaties were written with these troops taking control of Ukrainian facilities in mind. Interesting thing is Russia still claims not to have deployed any troops.
http://rt.com/news/russian-troops-cr...medium=twitter

I don't think US Carriers can enter into the Black sea, they are too large for the straight they have to pass through at Istanbul. It would likely be some other warship.

And a note on the troop levels, I posted about this yesterday:

Ripley says the normal Russian troop level at Black Sea Fleet facilities in Crimea historically has been about 11,000. But most are seamen or support personnel -- not the kind of ground combat forces that have fanned out on the Crimean Peninsula.

Under various agreements between Russia and Ukraine, Russia is allowed to keep up to 25,000 troops on the Crimean Peninsula. Those troops are allowed outside of their bases for operations considered normal to maintaining the facilities. But there are limitations on deployments -- even for training operations.

Under any interpretation, surrounding Ukrainian military bases in the Crimea is seen as an overt offensive activity, regardless of whether shots are fired, and appears to violate the terms of their basing agreements.

http://www.rferl.org/content/russian.../25285238.html

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by worth

I don't think US Carriers can enter into the Black sea, they are too large for the straight they have to pass through at Istanbul. It would likely be some other warship.

And a note on the troop levels, I posted about this yesterday:



http://www.rferl.org/content/russian.../25285238.html

From what I understand Carriers can physically enter the Black Sea, they might not be able to due to the Montreux Convention which bans aircraft carriers from the black sea basically. The Russians can park their Carriers their because of a design philosophy difference, where the primary role of a Russian Aircraft carrier is not just to launch aircraft.

Some information

http://www.turnerradionetwork.com/news/340-pat

[T@T]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

From what I understand Carriers can physically enter the Black Sea, they might not be able to due to the Montreux Convention which bans aircraft carriers from the black sea basically. The Russians can park their Carriers their because of a design philosophy difference, where the primary role of a Russian Aircraft carrier is not just to launch aircraft.

Some information

http://www.turnerradionetwork.com/news/340-pat

Somewhat scary amount of weapons and situation!

The George H.W. Bush is carrying 90 aircraft including helicopters of various types, and several squadron's of F/A-18-E/F Super Hornets, some of the most advanced combat aircraft in the world. At least one of the submarines is an Ohio-Class ballistic missile submarine with twenty four missile silos, with each silo housing a missile armed with eight separate nuclear warheads which operate as MIRV's (Multiple Independent Re-Entry Vehicles) that can be independently targeted.

The number of ships accompanying the George H.W. Bush in this strike group is significant: 17 ships and 3 submarines.

In preparation for the arrival of the US Aircraft Carrier, last night, the Russians began moving their S-400 missile system toward Ukraine. This is one of the most advanced anti-aircraft missile systems in the world; it can track and shoot down aircraft from the size of a soccer ball to a bomber, at altitudes from 500 feet to 40 miles, even if it is traveling at supersonic speed.

Normally, such a formidable missile system would be a devastating defense, but the U.S. is also deploying another weapons system, which has been successfully tested, which can knock the S-400 out of action. TRN is not revealing the nature of that system for obvious reasons.

[combustiblefuel]

Originally Posted by T@T

Somewhat scary amount of weapons and situation!

Agreed the americans could also deploy the invisible laser they just approved too. Knocks out electronics like a electro pulse would.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Canuck-Hater

Again, this is news from the Russian perspective, but these are some interesting developments.
http://rt.com/news/yarosh-interpol-w...terrorism-954/

http://rt.com/news/ashton-maidan-snipers-estonia-946/

Russian propaganda machine working full volume, while reporters are bailing out from RT. You can pretty safely assume that everything they say is BS.

That said, the Estonian foreign ministry announced today that indeed this phone call did happen, it's just that the results were cut to be out of context and the conclusions were all wrong. Now, obviously the Estonians don't want to be the ones to come out and say it, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that if in fact 3rd party gunmen were shooting at everybody, they were working for Russia exactly for the purpose of destabilizing Ukraine.

(I'm sure that was already discussed a part of the phone call, just conveniently left out by RT, before they twisted it to complete BS propaganda, in an attempt by the Russians to catch this thing before it hits the news from somewhere else.)

As for the "terrorist charges", Russia is doing it's best to drum up the right-wing extremist terrorism angle, to the extent that there are some pretty funny obviously fake videos on RT on the topic. (I'll try to find them again to post examples here at some point.)

[worth]

The Supercarrier USS George H.W. Bush is in the middle of the Mediterranean right now scheduled to go to port in Greece it seems.

Steve Rosenberg
@BBCSteveR
New poll puts Putin's popularity at 2-year high: 67.8 percent. His Crimea/Ukraine policy going down well at home, so far.

This has just popped up on Reuters - and it comes from the Russian news agency RIA: Crimean parliament votes unanimously to become part of Russia. AFP is reporting that Crimean officials have asked Putin to examine their request to join Russia.

[burn_baby_burn]

The USS George H.W. Bush has been in port in Greece since tuesday. (I follow its Facebook page). According to everything I have read, it's current deployment is a scheduled deployment and has nothing to do with what has happened in the Ukraine.

Also, Captain is right about the Montreux convention. There is a clasification between Black Sea nations and non Black sea nations. A non Black Sea nation can not bring a warship with the purpose of carrying aircraft into the Black Sea. Non Black Sea nations can bring warships into the Black Sea, but they have to be below a certain size and are limited to the amount of days they can spend in the Black Sea. For instance, the US had a few ships come back through from deployments surrounding the Sochi Olympics. (One was run aground in port in Turkey and is being repaired).

Anyhow, if any US Navy Ships do enter the Black Sea. It will be reported here. http://turkishnavy.net/

[Pointman]

Putin has been at two years high since Olympics. It did not rise, nor fell after invasion.Not to mention, they asked 1600 people in this poll, basically 0.001% of the population. I personally do not buy it. Many others do not buy Putin ratings either.

[Red]

Russia Today anchor quits on air. Apologies if this was already posted.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/liz-wah...-air-1.2562006

[NuclearPizzaMan]

Originally Posted by Canuck-Hater

Again, this is news from the Russian perspective, but these are some interesting developments.
http://rt.com/news/yarosh-interpol-w...terrorism-954/

http://rt.com/news/ashton-maidan-snipers-estonia-946/

I love how someone telling a minister in Estonia how he heard someone theorize that maybe the snipers were some sort of protester false flag is damning evidence for RT.

I guess in a world where people believe that the moon landings were faked, 9/11 was a secret jewish plot with nano-thermite, and the queen is a lizard from another planet, you might as well just throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.

Thanks, Russian foreign ministry!

[woob]

Is TRN a pretty reputable website, Captain?

[CaptainCrunch]

I wouldn't call it the most reputable, they have their good stories and their bad stories and there's lots of retoric.

I used that one because it did a pretty good job of talking about naval deployments and explained the Montreax convention.

For me I do a lot of work trying to seperate the wheat from the Chaff. For example TRN is talking about reports of Russian Strategic Bombers arriving at Borisoglebsk which is one of the Russian Nuclear Weapons Storage Facilities. That would be a pretty alarming statement to see 30 Bombers (probably Backfires or maybe even Blackjacks) at a airfield with a nuclear tipped cruise missile storage facility. Except this was one of the things I talked about earlier where one of the smart moves would be for the Russians to shift a Regiment of their Northern Frontal Aviation forces to threaten any American Naval Deployments in the Black Sea. A regiment of Bombers each capable of carrying between 6 to 8 long range supersonic anti shipping missiles withing a relatively short turn around period to the Black Sea is a nightmare for American Naval Planners.



they also talked about American sailors increasing their NBC training while on the way to the Black Sea.

There's a lot of sensationalism.

Its tough right now to pinpoint naval deployments. I just haven't had the time to really dig into it, but I had a few separate sites talking about the George Bush diverting to the Black Sea,

Its even more unique in terms of the Russians, I've seen placements of the Moskva one of their guided missile cruisers (conventional) in the Med, in the Black Sea and in Cuba in a matter of days.

The only thing I'm sure of now, is that any initial naval confrontation is probably already happening deep under the Black Sea.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

The only thing I'm sure of now, is that any initial naval confrontation is probably already happening deep under the Black Sea.

"Give me a ping Vasili, one ping only."

[undercoverbrother]

https://news.vice.com/articles/why-p...ants-in-crimea

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

The only thing I'm sure of now, is that any initial naval confrontation is probably already happening deep under the Black Sea.

According to the Montreux Convention, submarines from non Black Sea nations are never allowed to pass through the Turkish Straits. In fact, Black Sea nations submarines are not allowed to pass through unless they are a new sub heading to a port in the Black Sea, or heading out of the Black Sea for repairs or returning from repairs.

[PIMking]

Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn

According to the Montreux Convention, submarines from non Black Sea nations are never allowed to pass through the Turkish Straits. In fact, Black Sea nations submarines are not allowed to pass through unless they are a new sub heading to a port in the Black Sea, or heading out of the Black Sea for repairs or returning from repairs.

But according to a treaty signed the US said they'd protect Ukraine's boarders in exchange for the nukes when the dirty commies collapsed.

You're also not allowed to invade another country and occupy it either...

Just saying