Russia - threadbanned users in OP

It's easy to forget Sailorman that other than more local supporters, going agin the flow types, or bots(though IMHO these are overrated and are more a boogyman than reality) and Russians, there are many beyond the West that want to see the same West and the "great satan" America get its comeuppance or be destroyed. That includes enough from those places living in the West. Russia is currently fulfilling that wish/fantasy. The support for putin and Russia in this is pretty strong among the grassroots of places like India, much of Africa, places like China, the Middle East and the Muslim world a near given, a fair number in South America too.

They see putin as "East against the West". Clumsily and without any overview of history. The West, those colonial powers that empowered those feelings across the world were White Europeans, and later White European colonies like the US. Russia didn't create overseas empires like Spain, Holland, England, etc, simply because it was already an empire. Moscows nickname is "The Third Rome" and it's not so far off the truth(though I'd more see it as the second Byzantium). A White Western European empire that stretches from the Atlantic(or near enough) to the Pacific, from the polar ice to the subtropical, from frozen tundra to scorching desert with near uncountable forests and plains between them, the biggest nation on earth, where all the cash and power was and remains almost entirely concentrated in Western White European hands and cities(even in the eastern cities most of the power and wealth is in the European internal colonists) with all the hundreds of ethnic groups under them as vassals lorded over by regional governors and boyars.

IMHO this isn't "East versus West", it's far more about White Europeans fighting other White Europeans. Again. Just like "World" War One and "World" War Two, with non palefaced locals being dragged into both in service to the opposing powers(at least the Japanese and Chinese got in on that action in the sequel). The Cold War was the same again in the proxy wars fought by the West versus the Soviets for much of the 20th century. There was this quasi mutual agreement that Europeans wouldn't directly kick off against other Europeans, cos that's when shít gets real, so we'll let the Black, Brown and Yellow man do much of it for us with help and "advisors" from both sides to egg them on. Vietnam, Korea, South America, the Middle East and so forth.

If "World" War Three does or is kicking off it'll be the same again and again IMHO this is why beyond the whataboutery regarding wars in the ME, Africa and why didn't the world go nuts about them!! is interesting and important to look at. Those conflicts in the majority of cases didn't directly involve Europeans or ex European colonies going at each other. Ukraine and Russia does and that's about the biggest reason on so many levels why this conflict matters more and for more people, because shít has just gotten real. Again.

They're not, or at least not officially according to very long standing international aero industry standards. Most of their fleet is internationally made aircraft, even their locally made aircraft have non Russian engines and flight systems. They're essentially beyond the Pale at the moment. So with their existing fleet without spares coming in they have to cannabalise parts from other aircraft. IE to keep say three Airbus or Boeing in the air they have to scrap one of them for spares. But that's unsustainable. If this were the 60's or 70's where all their aircraft were internally produced in the USSR this would be zero problem, but it's not and it is. Now they have the expertise to kick off internal production again, but that will take years to get back up and running and IMHO they don't have years. They barely have months. Even if this war was over tomorrow and sanctions were all lifted a large percentage of their fleet would be write offs internationally and no international leasing company would supply them with new ones, no lenders would supply them with the cash for new ones and international bodies would take a long time to sign them off as airworthy. Total clusterfúck for them.