Virt

Hopefully the peace talks today lead to something positive. The satellite photos from maxar yesterday indicate the Russians could launch a much bigger attack if they want. 4-5 kilometers of various vehicles 60 kilometers from Kiev and that was yesterday. Who knows how close they are to Kiev at this moment, and just awaits orders.

Motivation is a huge factor. There Ukrainians have it, but I'm not so sure the Russians have it. I think a lot of the Russian troops are sitting in their vehicles and wondering what the hell they are doing in Ukraine. They can see with their own eyes it's not a peacekeeping mission as Putin try to sell it.

Yeah i saw that Sweden announced that ???? Denmark also decided to send 2700 anti tank weapons and 300 stinger missiles. The shoulder launch anti tank rockets are being packed and shipped, but the stingers are of older date and need to be shipped and checked in US first. It might have been better if our politicians just decided to buy 300 new stingers and send ASAP, but at least they are sending something. It's not common practice than Denmark ship weapons to other countries. Usually it's protective gear and such. One thing the Danish prime minister also announced were quite surprising. She said it was legal if any person in Denmark wanted to go to Ukraine and join their fight. That's unusual and just shows this is an unusual situation.

Looks like Putin is getting the totally opposite of what he thought. Germany stepping up and will be spending more than 100 billion $ a year on the army, which could make the German army stronger than Russia's. Germany totally changed their political agenda due to this crisis, so Putin managed to make NATO even stronger than before. Many nations are now standing together, instead of being divided. He didn't get the full support from China that he most likely hoped for. Sanctions are tightened and there is still more sanctions to play if he continues. Protests are slowly starting to form in Russia. Airspace are closed as of today in the whole of EU for Russian planes. EU are also financing a lot of the Ukrainian weapons. Russia has very few friends left on this planet. Let's hope there still is a way out of this and he is still capable of acting like a sane person. He should have realized by now that he is not getting Ukraine, without a huge number of casualties on both sides. Even Putin can't be interested in that.

The only way i know how to support Ukraine is financially, and if anyone else consider that, here is a link to several ways to support them. Some directly to fund their army and some more "soft" ones like helping refugees etc. https://neweasterneurope.eu/2022/02/24/ukraine-under-attack-how-to-help/r

As far as i can read it's only some Russian Banks that get their SWIFT access removed, so maybe it's still possible for Russians in Thailand to get their money, but overall it's likely to cause some trouble for Russians in Thailand. If i were Russian i would withdraw/transfer all the money i possibly could, before it's too late. I assume many Russians has Thai banks as other expats do?

Ukraine is quite a large country, and even if the Russian aggressors succeed in taking Kiev, it will be a difficult task to maintain that control. Millions of weapons amongst the civilians and they are not afraid of using them. The civilians will be able to kill a lot of Russian soldiers on daily basis, until they run out of Russians to kill or run out of weapons. So the west has to maintain the weapon deliveries to Ukraine for them to stand a fighting chance, until the sanctions hopefully hurt Russia so much they have no other option than to back off. How many Russian lives are Putin willing to risk? So far the causalities are probably way higher than he thought it would be. Huge respect to the Ukrainian people that fight to maintain their democracy and freedom.

A few Russian politicians has started to talk openly about Russia should stop the ongoing invasion. Just a few of the 450 in the duma, but it's a start. Hopefully it spreads fast. I'm not a fan of gory war pictures, but if pictures of all the dead Russian soldiers would be spread within Russia, it too could turn some votes. Stumbled upon several on Twitter and it's not a pleasant sight, so i can imagine Russians would think twice about supporting the war, if they saw the results from this "peacekeeping military action"

True but i think the post i replied to was about Erdogan taking total control over Cyprus. The money is digital, but the area is full of Russians, so that would probably be an issue.

Are you questioning that Russia has a well oiled government controlled propaganda machine? If so Putin are doing a great job.... I suppose you have seen some Russian news lately? It's not like they are broadcasting the same things as most of us see here in the west. The vast majority of Russians has access to the internet, but the question is how much do they use it to search other news channels to fact check their own news channels. My guess is not a lot, but it's just a guess. Both sides publish propaganda, but i tend to trust the western news a bit more. Does that mean i trust the western politicians/news no matter what? Hell no.

Most of the Russians will never know the truth, and many won't believe what is published in the western media. Both the west and Russia has their part of propaganda, but Russia just takes it a step further. They are on par with China and North Korea , when it comes to government controlled propaganda. Russia will lose a lot less soldiers in this war, compared to what covid did (340.000 deaths), so the body bags probably won't be the thing that make him lose support in Russia. Money on the other hand.... Make his inner circle lose all their money and ban them and their families from worldwide travelling and we might have a situation, where a coup can be staged.

Maybe this one is open? https://restaurantguru.com/Sooth-BAR-Samui-Airport-Ko-Samui

They sure do, but they might want to hurry to pick up those Thais. If Russia continue with their madness there might not be an open airspace close to Ukraine within a couple of days.

Seems like it's still working ????

I wonder what he meant with this sentence. "Now grateful descendants have demolished monuments to Lenin in Ukraine. This is what they call de-communization. Do you want de-communization? Well, this quite suits us. But you must not stop halfway. We are ready to show you what genuine de-communization means for Ukraine," Putin said in his address to the nation over the situation in Ukraine’s southeast.

Here in Denmark they dropped the 4th shot for now, and even dropped the 3rd shot for young people. They still haven't decided what will happen when Moderna and Pfizer release their updated vaccines. I don't think we will be offered anymore vaccines until very late this year. We can't buy a 4th shot if we want it since it's controlled by the government, and they haven't given the permission to buy shots. I probably get my 4th shot if they offer it later this year. Depends on the situation later this year.

He might be refeering to a few of these articles. Many similar online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10318377/Fauci-says-rapid-COVID-19-tests-INACCURATE-unable-regularly-detect-Omicron.html https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/omicron-evades-immunity-better-than-delta-danish-study-finds-2022-01-03/

Denmark tested 46 brands and they ranged from 2,5% - 94% in accuracy so it's a jungle out there. Not peer reviewed, but still shows that quick tests varies a lot in quality. https://www.hvidovrehospital.dk/presse-og-nyt/pressemeddelelser-og-nyheder/nyheder-fra-hvidovre-hospital/PublishingImages/Sider/Antigentests-svinger-voldsomt-i-kvalitet/A nationwide analytical and clinical evaluation of 46 rapid antigen tests for SARS-CoV-.pdf

It's interesting to see how China says sanctions are not the proper way and they are not joining the sanctions, but it's not so surprising. China knows if they jump Taiwan they are getting sanctioned a hell of a lot more than Russia, so off course China says sanctions are not the proper way to solve thinges. Which is why i think China will sit in a corner very quietly and see how the santions affects Russia.

We will all feel the effects finally of it escalates. Hopefully the sanctions will give Putin something to think about. If not, it's still possible to scale up the sanctions a lot more. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10538977/Boris-Johnson-sanctions-Russian-oligarchs-Ukraine-invasion-taken-long.html It's not just pennies were talking about, and Putins inner circle will not like what is going on. It's a serious amount of money that has been frozen in just the UK. A lot of them can be banned from entering most countries in the world if more countries join the sanctions and then their playground becomes a lot smaller. Not something people with a lot of money will enjoy. Hit all Putins friends on their wallet and ban them and their families from entering most countries in the world, and Putin might find himself without friends. A president without friends are not a president for a very long time. So yeah. Scale up the sanctions by 10 x. Make them bleed money. The only things Putin understand are brute force and money. War against Russia is not the best idea, so go for the money and see if that does the trick. If that does not work. Well then the West have to find out what their next step is.

I wonder if there are any tests available for the ordinary public that can tell if you developed some of those neat memory B cells that last for decades. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220210-the-cells-that-can-give-you-super-immunity?ocid=twfut

I just installed the Thailand pass. Now they can track me all they want. All the way to Italy, Spain or Greece.....

Thailand will eventually find their way through the maze and drop all their restrictions like many of the European countries. Hopefully before July, so i can return to Samui ???? I just can't see them doing it for the next month or two, if they are starting to see their numbers increase. They are not going to act like some EU countries did and lift all restrictions while the daily numbers are increasing.

I think the chart is a bit optimistic and Thailand will probably see high numbers for at least a month more. I also would expect the BA.2 sub variant to become dominant in Thailand in the next month, which would automatically spread it a little bit faster. We had Omicron here in Denmark for more than 2½ months (BA.2 is now like 99,9% of all cases) and still had high numbers for the last 30 days. It's usually high in start of week and decrease in the end of week, to rise again next week due to test patterns. Last 30 days in Denmark. Daily new cases. If Thailand are in for the same tour, it's going to take a little while before numbers drop drastically in Thailand.

The coin don't care how many times you throw it. If it lands 9 times on 3 in a row, the 10th throw is still 50/50% chance to land on 3 or 8. It's just not statistically easy to land 10 times on the same side. It's like 0,4% or something like that.