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It's not a war, but a Special Military Operation. And that operation goes so well, it is now time not to call a general mobilisation, but only a partial mobilisation.
On Wednesday September 21, at 09:15h, Russian President Vladimir Putin made the announcement that was rumored since days: all members of the Russian Army's reserve, as well as anybody who has ever served in the Russian military, are called upon to do their duty in the Special Military Operation, fighting the Nazi-Ukrainian forces.
Refusing to report will result in 15 years prison. Skipping out during service will result in 15 years prison. And surrendering to the enemy without being incapacitated will result in 15 years prison, as will not trying to flee from a POW camp.
The move is not unexpected. The Ukrainian counter-offensive triggered the first comments on Russian television about the need for mobilisation, and it was just waiting until Russian regional elections had passed, last week. On top of that, the recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation didn't go to plan, apparently.
First there was India's Modi publicly stating that this ain't a time for war, and that he had repeatedly asked to stop the whole thing. Then there was a falling out over the same subject with both Turkey and Kazakhstan, to which Putin apparently reacted very agressively. All combined might perhaps explain the rather confused press conference afterwards.
Immediately after the end of the SCO Summit, one Nikolai Patrushev stepped on a plane to meet with Chinese colleagues to discuss strategic stability and public security and law and order. He returned after 2 days, on the 19th. On the 20th, a statement by Putin was announced for the evening, but that was postponed for reasons unknown.
In a first phase, 300,000 reservists are being called up but, as Russia's Kommersant business newspaper noted, the total number of people who will be called up is secret, hence open to modification.
Do I need to add that it all ended with the threat to use nuclear weapons?
Official announcement here.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Wednesday September 21 2022, @01:34PM (12 children)
Such as the rebellions during the First World War? I got this.
So what does "take the nuclear threat seriously" mean? Should we be positioning nuclear weapons in and around Ukraine? That serious enough for you?
My take is that the world recognizes that it is in a situation like before the Second World War where various brutal regimes were appeased to catastrophic effect.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2022, @02:36PM (6 children)
Any nuclear exchange will quickly escalate to all-out nuclear war.
Don't appease Putin because he will invade other countries? Which country? they are all NATO members, by the very definition of NATO, safe from invasion.
All you have to do is appease Putin long enough for him to die from old age, a decade at the maximum.
Also lets look at that word 'appease', warmongers call it 'appease' while diplomats call it 'compromise'.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2022, @03:55PM (1 child)
Nothing is safe from invasion when "defenders" are cowards, no matter if the cowards call themselves NATO or some other alphabet soup.
Imagine that Putin invades Estonia and threatens to launch his nukes if NATO forces dare oppose him. What then?
And if you give him Estonia, he'll have his pick of NATO countries to gobble up next, using the same threat to disable the "defenders".
When an enemy threatens you with something, you either prepare to counter the threat, or lie down and convince yourself to enjoy the ass-fucking. No other options there. And enemy leader dying from old age will help you none, for there will be plenty of young field commanders ready and willing to continue their path of easy victories.
For an enemy to stop, YOU need to STOP them. Not tooth fairy, nor Santa, nor any other magic being will do that thing for you.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday September 21 2022, @07:37PM
Fuckin' guy can't even get basic geography right, we're supposed to trust his military analysis?
Only 6% of Russia's land borders touch NATO countries. Russia has land borders with 14 countries. Only five of them are NATO members. [nato.int]
(Score: 2) by quietus on Wednesday September 21 2022, @05:19PM
Not necessarily. An incident at a nuclear power plant would make the front over which the enemy attacks smaller, while simultaneously influencing public opinion/risk perception on the side of the “collective West” — who will be blamed as instigators at best, and as having planned and carried out the attack on purpose, at worst, i.e. in all probability.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday September 21 2022, @05:31PM (2 children)
"Safe from invasion", eh? So all we need to do to win the war in Ukraine is make Ukraine a NATO member. That's how it works?
As others noted, depends on who follows him. Appeasing him would strengthen his allies and make them more likely to be the successors.
Those "diplomats" killed 70 million people in the Second World War by that appeasement.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday September 21 2022, @07:46PM (1 child)
Finland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakstan, China, Mongolia and even North Korea share land borders with Russia and are not NATO members.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2022, @04:23AM
Finland is getting off of that list ASAP for some reason, when only a year ago they'd have laughed at the idea. I wonder why. /s
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday September 21 2022, @02:56PM (4 children)
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Wednesday September 21 2022, @05:36PM (3 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2022, @04:47PM
Why even argue with the resident Russian shill?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2022, @06:25PM (1 child)
They can't. You have to look at the psychology of the mind, ego, bravado, narcissism. It will always overpower and overtake rationality and reason.
Puketin thinks he's going to go down in history as a hero. Sadly some may view him that way.
If anyone was brave enough to put a bullet in Puketin's head, that person would go down in history as hero.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 24 2022, @03:47PM
Actually, the Russian style is for several party apparatchiks to hastily convene a news conference to explain that Putin has "voluntarily" stepped down for "health reasons"; he will be convalescing in a remote hospital out of the public eye. Don't be too surprised if a few days later Putin has a fatal "accident".