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Russia in the 21st Century #2
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![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 24 Jan 00 Posts: 37355 Credit: 261,360,520 RAC: 489 ![]() ![]() |
Top-secret Russian military documents reveal how Vladimir Putin is planning to exploit the chaos caused by any invasion of Taiwan by China. Europe fears Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attack before the end of the decade. But leaked documents suggest he’s also seeking to exploit the chaos and confusion caused by any invasion of Taiwan by China. |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
Heating Failures Hit Russia's Far East Amid Subzero Temperatures Thousands of people in the Far East city of Chita have been left without heating and hot water amid subzero winter temperatures following an accident at a local heating plant on Tuesday.Greedy thieves and criminals own the local heating plants. |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
Isolated energy systemsEastern Siberian Sakha republic, e.g. Zhigansky district totally depends on small, local Soviet-era power plants in rural towns. Without connection to the Russian grid, damages to power plants are as life threatening there as for research stations in Antarctica. Zhigansk in particular has no year-round road connection to the regional capital Yakutsk (600 km; 370 mi away); just a boat connection on Lena river in summer and a winter road on frozen ground. Grid coverage in Russia (blue): ![]() |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 24 Jan 00 Posts: 37355 Credit: 261,360,520 RAC: 489 ![]() ![]() |
Terrorist states tie knot. The two of the biggest anti-Western superpowers have signed a terrifying new pact. Russia and Iran signed a new treaty underpinning their economic and military cooperation, in what both sides cast as a major milestone in their relations. |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
Superpowers? Neither of them. |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 24 Jan 00 Posts: 37355 Credit: 261,360,520 RAC: 489 ![]() ![]() |
Seeing that PooTin won't take his calls Donny makes a statement. Trump tells PooTin to end Ukraine war now: ‘Can do it the easy way, or hard way’. President Trump warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine quickly, or else face “high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions.” |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
First of all, it would be necessary to clarify how Trump will deal with the dozens of European countries that handle Russia sanctions quite differently. Some still get all of their natural gas from Russia. Oil, fuel rods (nuclear), coal... There is no uniform line within the EU with regard to Russia sanctions. |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
It seems Russia finally lost its Mediterranean Naval Base which it had inherited from the Soviet Union: Syria Terminates Russian Naval Base Deal – Reports Syria’s new government terminated a treaty granting Russia a long-term military presence in the Mediterranean, a deal brokered under ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, Syrian media reported Tuesday. |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
Putin Believes Key Ukraine War Goals Achieved – Reuters President Vladimir Putin believes Russia has achieved its key objectives in the war against Ukraine, but he has also grown increasingly concerned about the conflict’s economic impact on the country, Reuters reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources.Everything is going according to the plan. We just have to sign a peace treaty now to make Trump happy, the Europeans too... and to lay down 'our' newly achieved provinces in Novorossia... |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
Baltic grid divorce will further isolate Russian exclave in the EU Until now, the exclave [Kaliningrad] has remained connected to the electricity grid controlled by Moscow.Two more days... |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
The interesting thing about Kaliningrad... the Russians had at least 10 years to negotiate an 'electric transit corridor', like the ones that exist for road and rail transport since the 1990s. They would have had to pay for it entirely themselves. But an empire doesn't think in terms of 'transit agreements', it mobilizes the imperial troops instead to |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
This morning at 9:09 EET (UTC+2) the Baltic countries (LT, LV, EE) disconnected from the Russian synchronous IPS/UPS grid and operate in island mode now. There are two further non-synchronous HVDC subsea links to Sweden and Finland (so not totally isolated). Final synchronous connection to Poland (400 kV AC) is expected for tomorrow. https://www.litgrid.eu/index.php/news-events-/news/estonian-latvian-and-lithuanian-power-systems-disconnected-from-russian-ipsups-system-/36047 |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
[Baltics] successfully synchronised with Continental Europe Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have successfully synchronised their electricity systems with the Continental Europe Synchronous Area on 9 February 2025 at 14:05 EET (UTC+2) today. |
![]() Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21567 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 ![]() ![]() |
Wow. And so what next from Russia? What of the now excluded exclave of Kaliningrad?? All in our deadly political world... Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
Wow.Indeed! The Balts spent ten years and more than 1.5 billion euros to built new transmission lines, transformer stations, renewed existing ones; national control centers; to adhere to European ENTSO-E standards. That is: distributed, coordinated frequency control is now the responsibility of the three national Baltic transmission grid operators instead of the previous central (Soviet style) grid control in Moscow. Three quarters of project costs have been funded by EU. Work on additional redundancy in transmission lines, further cross-border interconnectors to continental Europe is ongoing. What of the now excluded exclave of Kaliningrad??Total isolation (island mode), no HVDC links, no subsea links, no grid connection, like in Magadan or Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (Russia's Pacific East). They have 6 gas power plants (~1,700 MW), most of them smaller heating plants and 1 coal PP (~200 MW), 2 small hydros (1.6 MW), 3 wind turbines (5 MW). Maximum load in 2020 was 727 MW. So, they have vast excess generation capacity which is inefficient. But to minimize reserves you need a large grid and/or international cooperation. The construction of the Kaliningrad Nuclear PP (2 x 1,100 MW) is on hold since more than 10 years... no one in the Baltics was ever interested to become dependent on a Russian NPP again. Baltic nations know their neighbour like the Finns do. Without grid connection, at least to Russia or Belarus, this project is dead. Cut all connections, weld all the gates shut, and wait for a decade or more... |
![]() Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21567 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 ![]() ![]() |
Kaliningrad: They have 6 gas power plants (~1,700 MW) ... Maximum load in 2020 was 727 MW. So, they have vast excess generation capacity... So... Was Kaliningrad exporting electricity from burning cheap Russian gas?... What keeps the economy and the people of Kaliningrad afloat now?...! How soon for the Russian collapse? Similarly... What has happened to Transnistria??... All in the very silly games of deadly politics... Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
So... Was Kaliningrad exporting electricity from burning cheap Russian gas?...Before the war in Ukraine Baltics, Poland as well as Finland traded electricity with Russia/Belarus. This stopped with the war. But in synchronous grids unwanted electric currents still flow according to Ohm's laws instead of what trade floor decides. Many of their old and inefficient heating plants were operated during peak months in winter only. So in the remaining months Kaliningrad also imported cheap electricity from Russian and Belarus Nuclear PPs via transit through Lithuania and Latvia. No longer. What keeps the economy and the people of Kaliningrad afloat now?...!It ever was and still is an economic and administrative center, lots of universities, academies, institutes. International airport (now only domestic to RU/BY). Fishing, manufacturing. The harbor is Russia's only all-year ice-free one at the Baltic Sea. Transit agreements with EU enable custom-free transit on roads and railways to Russia. Kaliningrad is a designated a 'special economic zone', that is, lower taxes and lower customs for imports. It's also the headquarter of Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet, with its main base in Baltiysk. There are lots of Air Force, Army, (nuclear) Rocket Forces (e.g. Iskander) SRBMs with a range exceeding 500 km (310 mi) which violated the INF treaty and threatens the Baltics, Warsaw, Berlin. The extremely powerful Baltic GPS jammer is located there, endangering civil aviation. So, many thousands of government jobs to harass and threaten the rest of Europe. As long as Russia's oil/gas/coal/fertilizer/... export business generates sufficient profits, they will continue to subsidize their strategic outposts (e.g. Kaliningrad, Vladivostok or the Russian province capitals in non-Russian ethnic majority regions). It's a colonial empire, the last remaining one. How soon for the Russian collapse?Their prepared and topped up 'welfare fund' and further monetary reserves (almost a trillion dollars warchest) to substitute sanctioned revenues empties fast; already unbearable interest rates (20...23%) cripple the non-military economy. Russia's extremely competent national bank's CEO Elwira Nabiulinna masterfully controls the Ruble; limits inflation and interest rates, even fended off most financial sanctions. A finance genius and war opponent who nevertheless enables Putin's warmongering. It's difficult to assess 'how soon' as there is no longer a transparent and trustworthy reporting of key economic figures. I'm sure Western intelligence services monitor the economic details and already can smell the rot. The fastest path to collapse is to block Russia's oil exports and/or convince OPEC to keep oil prices down for one or two more years. That destroyed the USSR thoroughly in the mid-1980s. |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
Similarly... What has happened to Transnistria??...After two weeks of freezing Kremlin allowed them to accept EU emergency gas deliveries. They agreed on a gas transit agreement with Moldova. EU supplied them for just ~10 days; after which they signed a provisional contract with a Hungarian gas trading company, some Dubai-based traders in between, and supposedly Russian financing. They reject any gas deliveries from the EU market or further emergency support because EU demanded them to gradually raise consumer tariffs to end the Socialist-style wasting of the (almost) free gas in badly heat-insulated buildings (all that wasteful CO2 enfuriates EU Greens). Now everything is back according to plan in Soviet Transnistria where all wallclocks has stood still since 1991. Attention! We now sing our anthem! Soyuz nerushimyy respublik svobodnykh / (An unbreakable union of free republics) Splotila naveki velikaya Rus. / (The Great Rus' has sealed forever.) Da zdravstvuyet sozdanny voley narodov / (Long live, the creation by the people's will,) Yedinyy, moguchiy Sovetskiy Soyuz! / (The united, mighty Soviet Union!) (if above oga audio file don't works: youtube) Can you feel the Greatness, the Glory, of our mighty Union? No gas, shivering in the cold... nah.... Never mind! Our great nation is all you need! |
![]() Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21567 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 ![]() ![]() |
Thanks for the update/summary! Mmmm... So... Those transit agreements look to be the fragile connection. And the rest is politics... Stay safe folks! Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
Scrooge McDuck ![]() Send message Joined: 26 Nov 99 Posts: 1351 Credit: 1,674,173 RAC: 54 ![]() ![]() |
Mmmm... So... Those transit agreements look to be the fragile connection.Gas supply from Gazprom will be resumed as soon as Russia has finished the 'Anschluss' of the remainder of so-called 'Ukraine' so that Transnistria is reunited with the eternal motherland. It makes no sense to establish permanent supplies from decadent Europe for the interim period. Russia is in promising talks with America about this. And the rest is geopolitics... |
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