More sabre-rattling by the Russians...claiming they can nuke Britain in 200 seconds and Finland in 10 seconds...
I wonder what Western governments really make of this? Behind the scenes, where our intelligence people analyze and evaluate the public comments of Putin and his spokespeople, do they take these threats seriously, or do they attribute this to the Russians blowing off steam?
The extent of of the logistics and maintenance disaster which the Russian military apparently has been, and the corruption-driven inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the weapons industry, is becoming clearer by the day.
Super-capable fighter-bombers like the SU-34 get shot down because they have to expose themselves flying WW II-era ground support profiles. The reason? The Russian air force apparently doesn't have a sufficient supply of the advanced rockets and smart bombs that this aircraft would need for precision stand-off missions.
The Russian army loses a year's worth of tank production, from the only production facility left in Russia, every two weeks. Reportedly, production has stopped completely because the embargo cut off critical parts supplies.
Ukraine is littered with apparently undamaged Russian trucks, just with shredded tires, some still reading Made in USSR, or seized engines; nobody may have changed the oil or fired up the engine in the last few decades.
We can assume that "the world's largest nuclear arsenal" is in no better shape. On one level that's unsettling, but on another it means that Putin has no assurance that anything will happen if he gives a launch order. Maybe just an embarrassing nuclear fart that kills Russians.
We, on the other hand, have eyes on every Russian silo, track every mobile launcher, shadow every Russian boomer sub. We are very good at this, the Russians not at all. They will lose a nuclear conflict.
Putin knows he is finished if he takes this step. I'm hoping pure self-preservation may keep him from considering it, and if not, non-suicidal Russian military leaders may step in.
I had read that Russia was to stop exporting electricity as of today to Finland over the NATO issue, but according to a post on the Guardian, this will have little effect:
