Lacessit

Can you post any media which states "so many" nations want to join BRICS. I suspect this is another product of your fervid imagination.

Not really, it is more accurate to describe it as self - sufficient. Its production cost is also higher with shale oil and gas than conventional wells. Venezuala has by far the most oil reserves of any country. However, its only big customer is China, due to sanctions by the US and EU.

I suggest you post proof of that assertion. A more likely scenario is Gazprom itself blew up the pipeline after Putin banned exports of gas to so-called unfriendly countries. Gazprom was facing billions of dollars of penalties in breach of contract. With the pipeline gone, it became force majeure, under which no penalties applied. Most contracts are written in US dollars, how many do you think Russia has after being shut out of the world financial system?

Putin can hardly be called a statesman after being designated a war criminal, rightly so. IIRC America elected an actor too, Ronald Reagan ring any bells? He sowed the seeds of the downfall of the Soviet Union, Zelensky could cause the collapse of the Russian Federation. You seem to think the Russian Federation is one big happy family. Georgia, Dagestan, North Caucasus and Chechnya prove otherwise.

True, Russia is richly endowed with natural resources. The problem is getting them out of the ground, transporting them, then selling them. The Soviet education system collapsed back in 1985. The trained scientists and engineers it has are all in their mid-sixties. That's not helped by the average Russian life expectancy being less than 70. The Russian demographic is shrinking, badly. The European gas market is gone. It won't come back unless there is a revolution in Russia. Meantime, building pipelines to India and China will take 7-10 years, with capital Russia does not have. If it was to switch to LNG, it would have to build from scratch, with engineers and expertise Russia does not have. The same thing with oil. Russia can only ship oil in small ageing vessels which the Western insurers refuse to cover. At a price $20 under the world price. I've already explained how dependent the oil wells are on Western technology. Any student of history understands the economy of the United States was nearly broken by the war in Vietnam, and that's a country with 11 times the GDP of Russia. Russia MAY win the war in Ukraine, but at what cost? To borrow Bill Hayden's quote, a drover's dog could win against Trump. He's a convicted felon.

Russia is winning? It has failed to achieve air supremacy over Ukraine. The Black Sea navy has been forced to retreat from Sevastapol to Novorossiysk to stay out of reach of precision missiles. In other words, it has lost control of the Black Sea to a nation with no navy. Due to widespread corruption in the military, soldiers in the frontline are getting North Korean ammunition well past its use by date, flak jackets made from cardboard, and out-of-date food rations. Plus about two days of training before they are thrown into the meat grinder. Russia is drawing its troops from prisoners and ethnic minorities, and it is running out of both. The sh!t will really hit the fan when Putin has to draft people from Moscow and St. Petersburg, which he has been studiously avoiding. Its economy is in tatters. Half of its passenger aircraft are being cannibalized to service the other half. Buy a plane ticket from Moscow to Vladivostok if you want to play the new version of Russian Roulette. The European gas market is gone forever. An interest rate of 15% says everything about the valuation of the ruble. Russian oil wells in the permafrost are freezing up because the Western technologists who maintained them are gone. As is all Western capital normally used to fund new development. I don't believe I have said "Ukraine is winning". I have said I support Ukraine against illegal aggression. Along with other economic problems too extensive to mention, all these facts indicate Russia is heading towards being a failed state, or a vassal of China. I take it you have heard the term "Pyrrhic victory". Whatever happens in Ukraine, Russia is rooted.

Gemini is an artificial intelligence program which can be asked medical questions. Access it by typing Gemini into the Google search bar. Once in, you can type in a question such as "What are the risks of Urolift surgery" and it will answer, usually less than 10 seconds to respond. It won't get involved in political questions, which is probably not such a bad thing.

My guess is the closest you have got to understanding statistics is your losing bet on a roulette wheel. IIRC the sound bite is on YouTube.

Google is your friend,

Agree. I fixed my high blood pressure and gastric reflux with diet and exercise changes, and weaned myself off anti-inflammatories and anti-depressants. Having said that, I can't do much to reverse BPH, or bulging spinal discs and chronic osteo-arthritis of the lower spine. For those ailments, I am grateful for modern medicine.

There are other risks with Urolift. Ask Gemini.

Male and female Thais do very well for themselves on the world golf circuits. Ariya Jutanagarn was ranked the world's #1 female golfer in 2017. While there is some argument over who is the GOAT in golf, Tiger Woods is up there with Nicklaus and Hogan in any discussion. Tiger Woods is half Thai.

What did you think you saw?

IME Mitsubishi is the most reliable and durable brand.

I have known my urologist in Australia for 18 years. He has the suffixes FRCS, FRACS after his name. Which means he is at the top of the tree in qualifications and surgery experience. When I broached the subject of a TURP or Rezum treatment with him last year, he advised me to stay on medication as long as possible. According to him, surgery should be a last resort, due to the high risk of side effects such as incontinence, UTI's, and retrograde ejaculation.

Award Winning Journalist is an interesting use of sarcasm. At least I can spell and use syntax correctly, tasks which are sometimes beyond you. Google the Owen gun. A WWII light submachine gun, It was renowned for its simplicity of design, ease of manufacture, and performance in the most arduous jungle conditions.

I do. I also know what dorks and d!ckheads are.

False. Ukraine had SFA help in the first month of the invasion. I don't see you volunteering to fight for Russia either. Although if you feel like supporting Russia, you can always buy Russian rubles to help their economy along. Fair warning, no-one else wants them, not even the Chinese. I don't have a connection to the White House, nor do I need one. The battle field figures tell the story. Russia has lost 6 times more soldiers in two years in Ukraine, than were casualties in 9 years of war in Afghanistan. Over 4000 of its tank fleet are smoking ruins, or have been captured by the Ukrainians.

I understand there's no negotiation with tyrants. Tell me who negotiated successfully with Xi, Hitler, Stalin, Ivan the Terrible, Genghis Khan and Timurlane for their freedom and autonomy. Of course, Yanks are extremely protective of their personal freedoms. American exceptionalism at work.

I suspect it would be preferable to being a Russian of conscriptable age, Trump can only end the Ukraine war by giving Putin everything he wants. You'd have to be as thick as two planks not to understand that. Giving Putin everything he wants includes winking at the genocide of Ukrainians. Which doesn't sound like a good thing to most people.

He can't. That does not mean he won't try.

Another Russian bot.

Modern military doctrine of combined arms dictates the first tactic is to establish complete air supremacy. America did it in Iraq. The second factor is logistics. The US is expert in the field, the Berlin Airlift came as a huge shock to Russia. They still have not learned the lesson logistics are vital to any military operation. The column marching on Kiev ran out of fuel first, then food. Russian military aircraft outnumber Ukraine's airforce by about 20 to 1. They are unable to achieve air supremacy due to inadequate pilot training, and Stinger/Javelin missiles. Their navy has been forced to leave Sevastapol, by a nation with no warships. In any war between NATO or American forces, the Russian military would be obliterated. They would only have nukes left.

Actually, I am better informed than Putin. I get information from a number of sources. He only gets his from his intelligence apparatus, who are terrified of giving him bad news. It's a feature of all autocrats. Putin's former KGB cadre told him the Ukrainians would welcome the Russians with open arms, and the "special military operation" would take a week. How's that for fantasy information? He's compared himself to Peter the Great, and says the fall of the Soviet Union is the worst thing ever to happen to Russia. Draw your own conclusions.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26769481 IIRC you were saying eastern Ukraine is radioactive and bullet-riddled. In terms of arable land, it's the jewel in the crown. It has fed Russia and the world for centuries. Putin is concentrated in those areas because the Russian war machine has to. The combination of military corruption, terrible logistics and lousy morale of undertrained and underequipped troops has seen to that. There is a serious disconnect between what is actually happening at the front, and the information Putin receives. All autocrats only get told what they want to hear.