Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Russia has a very low level of debt and even lower levels of external debt.

A default here is not going to be near the same consequences of say a western nation defaulting

Putin has managed to do the impossible, Democrats and Republicans agreeing on something. The Dems went in to get a agreement to earmark 10 billion for Ukraine (and nearby countries), the bipartisan support was so strong it climbed to 13.6 billion

Surprisingly strong feelings about this in the US

US intelligence believes that RU has lost about 5% of the equipment that they brought with them.

It's important to put these kind of figures in context.

The UK and US are a bunch of cowards,

"The US and UK responses in the face of Russia’s recent aggression have been limited. Both countries offered Ukraine financing, military equipment and training and have applied increasingly strict sanctions on Russia. But they have ruled out any direct intervention, such as imposing no-fly zones over Ukraine, for fear of being dragged into a war with Russia. While this limited response fulfils the letter of the US and UK’s commitments under the Budapest Memorandum, the impression that emerges is very much that Ukraine was left on its own to fight an unlawful, nuclear-capable aggressor.

It is unsurprising, perhaps, that some Ukrainian leaders and the public feel betrayed and consider that the security assurances they received in the Budapest Memorandum are not worth the paper they were written on.''

https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-what-is-the-budapest-memorandum-and-why-has-russias-invasion-torn-it-up-178184

Absolutely they are, monitoring here and many other message boards around the world. Incredibly cheap form of surveillance looking for weaknesses and public opinions to exploit. What we are seeing here is an absolute bombardment of propaganda the likes of which we have never been exposed to from both sides. We should be incredibly vigilant with the information we consume over the next few weeks. We have already seen what can happen when you are exposed to continuous pictures of dead Ukrainian children a la the Russian Embassy attack. The west/Ukrainian is obviously light years ahead with their media presence but the Russians are quite devious as well. We saw Russian soldiers pose as rebel insurgents in Crimea to make the Crimean invasion have more legitimacy. It wouldn't be difficult for them to pose as Irish people in message and engage in 'friendly' debate to eke out our opinions and knowledge. Obviously there are actual Irish geebags who just love a good belligerent argument but nefarious forces are at work at every angle here. Pushing us to abandon neutrality, Radicalising sane people to take up arms in a foreign country etc.

Russia last year accounted for about 3 percent of U.S. foreign imports of crude oil, and about 1 percent of the U.S. supply overall. 

Its just for show .... pathetic

Any body think the squabbling about "no fly zone" and "supplying migs" is actually cover. By hook or by crook they will get those migs. Is it just a ploy to give Moscow a false sense that things are falling apart.

Could Putin just pull out and say "yeah job done we killed the nazis" and then start rebuilding trade with the west(obviously with reparations to the Ukrainians).

Right now it seems untenable and non viable to continue with this war both politically and financially. Currently they have only taken KHerson. Even after they have shelled cities to bits the troops will still be afraid to go in and secure the area.

I've just seen Makharova in Moscow saying that Americans have been developing chemical weapons in Ukraine. She is so full of sheet. She definitely needs a one way to the Hague.

Depends on Putin and his close associates doesn't it? Can he back away having gone this far? I'm not sure, unless his arm is twisted. The Ukrainians are not in the mood for total surrender as Russia demands, not having taken this much damage and loss. So not a great look out. However it goes though, you'd have to think that Putin is yesterdays man in Russia - no win here for him at all and only bad outcomes.

Indeed, on top of that it's estimated we have close to 1 trillion dollars worth of their foreign assets locked up. I believe there's already another law gone through whereby the Kremlin can "seize" foreign currencies over a certain amount from Russians.

They'd need more than umbrellas there Rihanna

Biological Threat Reduction Program

Unfortunately the PDF's have been removed from the US Embassy's website, maybe just a coincidence but wayback machine has them saved.

This is the one from Kharkiv and everyone one of them was funded by the USA Department of Defence

https://web.archive.org/web/20170130193016/https://photos.state.gov/libraries/ukraine/895/pdf/dtro-kharkiv-eng.pdf

Sounds like a standard international program

"The U.S. Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program collaborates with partner countries to counter the threat of outbreaks (deliberate, accidental, or natural) of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases. The program accomplishes its bio-threat reduction mission through development of a bio-risk management culture; international research partnerships; and partner capacity for enhanced bio-security, bio-safety, and bio-surveillance measures. The Biological Threat Reduction Program’s priorities in Ukraine are to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern and to continue to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats."

Of course I am sure pro-Russian propaganda and supporters will highlight it in order to hint and insinuate there's something nefarious to it. Likewise Moscow is claiming that Ukrainians are building a "dirty bomb" because they have nuclear reactors.