I’d be curious to see what medical supplies Russia is still receiving or importing from the West, and may be sanction-able - in particular, whether the antibiotics or anything else used to treat Russian soldiers for sepsis or infection are coming from the West.
Standard antibiotics, some, but maybe not as much as you might think. Russia produced ~570 tons of antibiotics in 2020. Even with potential curtailment/logistic issues caused by shortage of raw materials affected by sanctions and stop in flow of non-generics, the military may be pinched but probably not cripplingly so. Especially as the well-being of the common soldiers has never been an overwhelming priority in the Russian military. Though ordinary citizens will still see the shortages far earlier (and have).
In February there was a review article discussing how efficacious the current medical sanctions may be and whether potential collateral damage to the civilian population is worth it in the Journal of Bioethics. Excerpted from concluding paragraphs:
…Medical sanctions in Russia are accomplishing little, whether in terms of compliance, erosion, or signaling, but dangerously threaten the fundamental human right to adequate health care. This right is not derogable and not subject to sanctions under any circumstances.
…Short on distinct benefits, stymied by intricate avenues of implementation, and
encumbered by the substantial and indefensible risks they place on all the sick and injured of conflict, medical sanctions have no ready place in modern diplomacy or war.
You can always tell what the Russian state is thinking by listening to its propaganda:
The Russians are terrified of Kamala Harris because she is sharply pro-Ukraine and comes with the uncertainty of an unknown policy and cabinet (including National Security and Defense) which makes it hard for Russia to strategise against.
Russia also failed to push its favourites in France over the top and a grab of the EU Presidency by the right has failed. If the US and Europe continue to staunchly support Ukraine, Russia is toast.
I hope you are right. I have heard worried voices in Europe claiming that Ms Harris is more Pacific (pacificist sounds miunderstandable) oriented than Atlantic (atlanticist is more accepted) oriented; perhaps because she is not from the East Coast, but from California, she seems to be more worried about China than about NATO and Ukraine. Or so some people claim.
No doubt that she is better than tanTrump in this respect too! And less corrupt and less in the hands of Putin. But she may not be as staunchly pro-ukrainian as I would wish. Let’s hope you are closer to the truth than me!
There is some uncertainty as of course almost every comment Kamala has made has been while she was serving as Vice President to Biden
Harris said in an interview with NBC News this year that Ukraine can continue to count on support from Washington as the war drags on. “Ukraine needs our support,” Harris said. “And we must give it.”
At this year’s Munich Security Conference, Harris also reiterated the Biden administration’s pledge of supporting Ukraine for “as long as it takes.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/21/kamala-harris-foreign-policy-00170143
This is worth discussing without the breaking news restrictions.
Ukraine has waited so long for the F-16’s to arrive. Russia is already probing and looking for any that have been delivered.
Targeting an airfield isn’t a new idea. How did militaries protect them in other wars?
The Soviet planes that Ukraine had previously been mostly using are a lot more tolerant of poor runway conditions, so there were a lot more places you could move them to.
“I do not understand why Hungary wants to remain a member of organizations that they dislike so much and that supposedly mistreat them. Why does he (Orban) not form a union with (Vladimir) Putin and with some authoritarian states of this type?” Bartoszewski said.
“It is the principle that if you do not want to be a member of some club, you can always withdraw. Certainly, this is an anti-EU, anti-Ukrainian, anti-Polish policy at the moment.”
Here’s one possible reason:
This sounds even more horrific for soldiers in future wars. Imagine when AI is introduced. It sounds like the Russian Zala Lancet has a basic AI.
I certainly hope the NATO countries are updating training for the modern battlefields. Even compared to Afghanistan 10 years ago; the war in Ukraine is much different.
Russia is using the best US tech. NVIDIA’s chip has basic AI. It learns and adapts. The link to the video tracking a person on a bike is very dystopian.
Nevermind
That kind of thing is very hard to embargo - export control of industrial equipment and electronics often relies on the criteria of “military environmental specs (temperature, shock, vibration, radiation)” or “capabilities in excess of what civilian industry needs”. Only, if reliability is not a critical issue, you can use electronics with consumer-grade environmental specs.
Also Russian engineers are very good if only the system lets them do their thing.
Chips are also very small for their value, which makes them easy to smuggle. And the price you can sell them for in Russia is much higher than the price you can buy them for in the First World, so a smuggler has a high margin and can afford to lose a lot of product if necessary.
Imagine being a 10 year old girl and suddenly your parents surprise you with the news you’re Russian, and next thing you know Vladimir Putin is welcoming you to the motherland in Spanish.
Those poor kids. That’s got to suck for them.
Hungary having extended their ‚national card‘ program for guest workers, to Russian and Belarusian nationals, by low profile government decree on 9 July, has grave security implications for the Schengen area.
How does that even work? If they were being exchanged, presumably that means they were caught. Wouldn’t the kids have found out then?
More details here although I assume when the parents were arrested the details were kept from the children (the article doesn’t go into any detail about that because presumably it isn’t known).