MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/. A British Royal Air Force Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint strategic reconnaissance aircraft and US Navy Boeing P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine warfare reconnaissance aircraft are in the airspace over the Black Sea.
The British reconnaissance aircraft took off from the RAF Waddington base, flew over the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania, after which it entered Black Sea airspace and passed the Crimean Peninsula.
In turn, the American anti-submarine reconnaissance aircraft took off from the Sigonella airbase in Italy (Sicily), flying over the territories of Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania. Then the Boeing P-8A Poseidon entered Black Sea airspace and patrolled the area toward Novorossiysk.
As of 4:10 p.m. Moscow time, both aircraft are still over the Black Sea.
Wonder what’s going on there now… Machine translation from Tass.
Problems in Murmansk continue. Google translation of the news below
Murmansk Mayor Ivan Lebedev asks residents of the Pervomaisky
and Oktyabrsky districts to reduce
energy consumption and limit the use of high-power appliances,
such as washing machines, water heaters, electric stoves, and heaters.
This is necessary to free up additional capacity.:
A rather long but good article on how difficult it is for the Russian opposition to join forces and how fundamentally undemocratic actors (in this case, Leonid Volkov) and oversized egos can be found among them. Unfortunately, even in the West, there are far too few Russians with truly deep-seated Western and democratic values.
The original controversy arose from the use of the word “Nazi,” the interpretation of which is somewhat broader in Russia than it is here (to use a euphemism). Now it seems he faces packing his bags and getting a one-way ticket out of Lithuania. Hopefully, he doesn’t find his way to Finland.
There, it means almost exclusively anyone who tries to prevent Russia’s free aggression toward other countries or anyone who attacks Russia militarily or ideologically—simply put: “an entity opposing Russia.” It has nothing to do with what the Germans did, except for the subsequent invasion of the Soviet Union—after all, they were allies at first(!).
Since Ukraine wants to turn toward the West and even dared to defend itself, they are the worst kind of “Nazis” in the world of the orcs.
In this era of aggression, it’s good that someone is thinking about peace. That’s why I happily opened a news article about a new peace association being founded in Finland and started reading.
One of the goals is to prevent the deployment of “offensive equipment and such missiles that Russia may perceive as a direct threat to, for example, St. Petersburg” to the eastern borders of Finland and the Baltics. The initiative also demands the opening of the eastern border.
Hmm…
Could this be some kind of plot to fool Russia? After all, there are long-time politicians involved.
The association’s chairman is Jussi Särkelä and the vice-chairman is Jauri Varvikko. Särkelä is a former long-time SDP municipal politician from Vantaa and has a background as a union official.
But of course. How else?
He had to withdraw his candidacy on the SDP lists in the previous municipal elections after repeatedly identifying as a Putinist on social media.
And the Finns Party didn’t accept him either. He could have joined Ano Turtiainen’s VKK party, but I’m not sure if it’s in the register of associations anymore. Maybe it’s gone? And Ano too had to flee to Russia from debts—no, I mean persecution.
When Särkelä had to leave the SDP candidate lists in the winter of 2025, according to information obtained by Verkkouutiset, he sought to become a candidate on the Vantaa Finns Party lists. The Finns Party, however, rejected Särkelä.
Well, at least we know that the association supports a Putinist peace. Maybe it’s time for them to move to Moscow too, since Ano probably doesn’t have the language skills for Assad and Yanukovych and might feel lonely. And they would find more like-minded company there than here. Good riddance.
War fatigue, but then again only regarding one representative, who will likely be in a forced labor camp soon. He is certainly a refreshing exception among this flock of sheep.
EDIT: not in the Duma after all, as I wrote earlier, but in the Samara regional parliament.
Unfortunately, these often remain only isolated exceptions. We won’t hear anything more about this guy; he has been arrested as of this writing.
Apologies again for the long YouTube video essay, but I think this 4-year overview of the political stages of the war in Ukraine is one of the best retrospectives on the different phases of the war:
8% of GDP, of which 87% is spent on purchases from China, so 7% of GDP. That is being drained from the rest of the economy. At the same time, revenues are falling and the reserve fund is emptying. Post-war recovery to previous levels will take a long time. Before then, the printing presses will run hot and the public will wonder why official inflation is some moderate single-digit figure, while in the shops it’s something else entirely. Next, retail prices will be fixed, and at the same time, goods will disappear from shops to the market-priced side.
Posting this here as well since it relates to this topic:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to “stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela,” Trump said on Truth Social.
So, the trade agreement reached between the United States and India a moment ago includes India stopping its purchases of Russian oil and sourcing more from the United States and potentially Venezuela.
By the way, there are parliamentary elections in Hungary on April 12th, and the exit of the pro-Russian Orbán might finally be in sight.
Well, elections first, of course—still a good couple of months to go.
Orbán has certainly been a real clown probably throughout his entire term, but a very harmful one, as he’s constantly dragging his feet on anti-Russian and pro-Ukrainian matters.
It is difficult for the opposition to win in elections where official Hungary, Russia, and the US are all behind Orbán. Orbán controls the Hungarian information landscape and the US controls social media. Europe mostly just watches from the sidelines with its mouth open. Even the last elections were supposed to be tight according to opinion polls, but in the end, Orbán’s Fidesz won by a clear margin.
The Russian economy is in a situation from which there is no positive way out. It is interesting to see how an administration favoring tight interest rate policy and a strong ruble will navigate the upcoming banking crisis. The devaluation card could still be played, but for some reason, the central bank doesn’t seem to be opting for that. The result will then be a massive liquidity crisis that permeates almost all sectors of the economy. Good luck trying to run a bank in these conditions.
As the other main topic of this thread is the “European security situation”, this 40-minute video about Patria’s CEO’s views on the future outlook for European rearmament might also be of interest to others:
Basic clickbait headline, but it reports that Ukraine is increasingly using ground robots.
”The advance of Russian forces has stalled as monthly losses have risen to over 35,000 men. According to many experts, such losses are at an unsustainable level for the Kremlin.”
”Russia is currently applying increasing pressure in the direction of Hulyaipole in the southern part of the front, where a breakthrough could threaten the city of Zaporizhzhia, which has about 700,000 inhabitants. It is already within range of Russian drones.
Two Ukrainian brigades are trying to hold back the attacks, but they are being hammered with glide bombs and constant infantry assaults.
– The area is a focal point where the fate of the entire southern front will be decided. But as in Pokrovsk, drones play a decisive role, Ingram states.”
The positive aspects there are, first of all, that it is a cost-effective system. There is no need to shoot down drones with extremely expensive anti-aircraft missiles. As a second plus, it is a Swedish system, meaning there is no reliance on parties outside of Europe, and the expertise and money stay in the Nordic countries.
Glancing through the ISW report, the only other takeaway was the use of the Flamingo.
”The Ukrainian General Staff reported on February 5 that Ukrainian forces conducted a series of strikes against the Kapustin Yar site (approximately 430 kilometers from the Ukrainian-Russian international border) with Ukrainian-produced long-range weapons, including Flamingo missiles, in January 2026.”
Elon Musk dealt a heavy blow, Ukraine is thanking him profusely.
There was already some talk about this a couple of days ago on X. The Russians are unable to attack with drones and instead have to use missiles and artillery; because there is no video/reconnaissance data, it leads to indiscriminate firing or the accuracy is not at the same level as before. Command and communication chains are in crisis.
This Starlink “charity” by Musk was just a bluff; sales were going to Russia many times over. All the stations and their locations were known all along, and now, after two years, they wake up and wonder if something should be done about it? Who is ensuring that Starlink doesn’t whitelist Russian devices behind the scenes? Just saying that you can publicly praise a decision when everything is theater anyway.
What makes the situation interesting is that Samolet is by no means the only construction company in trouble. If Samolet gets the money it wants, there may be others with their hands out as well.
