Moscow boosts troop numbers, citing Ukraine war, NATO expansion

eran_morad , 6 months ago

Blyats ain’t gonna kill themselves, are they.

Renohren , 6 months ago

I am getting really annoyed with governments in western countries that keep falling into the same indecision about how to calm putin down without being too harsh because he might throw a tantrum or worse we would have failed our democratic values by using the bully’s tools against himself.

Just what Putin’s puppets need in europe and north america to gain political power.

Tattorack , 6 months ago

Western countries don’t want to risk doing anything against a country with nukes.

Oh sure, everyone is fine invading a desert country with weapons several decades behind, but a country with a somewhat equal level is giving everyone pause.

Putin has been making a lot of bluffs at the beginning of this invasion, reminding the world Russia has nukes. Nobody wants to call his bluff.

Renohren , 6 months ago

But would astroturfing on VKontact or telegram be a reason to nuke? Would paying nice crypto to Russian politicians be a motive to launch nukes? Bring the same mayhem, using sores in russian society, that they regularly bring to western countries using their sores and operating on both sides of the aisle. Use the same “the water makes the frogs gay” rethoric they have their allies use against the west.

Let’s play this game too. At least we might have some fun till we all go the way of Slovakia or Hungary.

maynarkh , 6 months ago

The problem is that their game is causing chaos. Russians know their government is lying. They just think everyone else is too, so they disengage. Public disengagement favours authoritarians.

mawkishdave , 6 months ago

They don’t have anyone to do the normal everyday work already. Ukraine isn’t going to be able to target anything in Russia because it will just blow up from over worked under trained employees.

skhayfa , 6 months ago

Things are not that easy either for Ukrainian. This stalemate is ideal for Putin as long as he can hold, it can force compromise for Ukrainians.

TransplantedSconie , 6 months ago

Ukraine took out a major Russia/China train route that is 6,000 kms into Russia.

It’s beyond stalemate now. No military asset is safe in Russia from here on out.

Gradually_Adjusting , 6 months ago

Further, at current casualty rates he only replaced maybe half a years worth of warm bodies.

autotldr Bot , 6 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

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Russia is boosting the number of troops in its military for the second time in 15 months, citing the war in Ukraine and the expansion of the NATO defense alliance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered the military to increase the number of troops by nearly 170,000 to a total of 1.3 million as the Ukraine war grinds on after 21 months.

The Russian defense ministry in a message posted on Telegram cited the war in Ukraine and NATO’s expansion — which was spurred by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — as the reasons for the increase in army personnel.

NATO’s “combined armed forces are being built up near Russia’s borders and additional air defense systems and strike weapons are being deployed," the Russian ministry said in its post.

“Under the current conditions, an additional increase in the combat strength and size of the Armed Forces is an adequate response to the aggressive activities of the NATO bloc,” the ministry said.

It is the second time Russia has boosted its troop numbers since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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