Long read but a good summary of Russia’s strategic mistakes to date and corrections: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/what-russia-got-wrong-moscow-failures-in-ukraine-dara-massicot
This is a good read: https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/us-led-security-assistance-ukraine-working “Observing training and assistance first-hand, our view is that Ukrainian military success is a function of low-level ingenuity and creativity, as well as high motivation and morale.”
Good article from Meduzza: Russian prisoners less interested in signing with Wagner of late, and the wardens are not cool with Wagner taking the best inmate labor (ha!) https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/02/08/less-charismatic-than-prigozhin
He’s a nut, but until some governmental entity publishes any substantive findings and formal accusations, conspiracy theories will continue to circulate. Unless there is a reckoning in the Kremlin at some point, we may never know. In reading up on this stuff more, it seems like Russia has probably done this before: “two explosions on the Mozdok–Tbilisi natural gas pipeline in North Ossetia on January 22, 2006. The explosions suspended gas supply to Georgia at a time when the weather was particularly cold, leading to allegations of deliberate energy blackmail carried out by the Russian government The explosions took place with the backdrop of the 2006 Russia-Ukraine gas crisis that same month. They also coincided with sabotage on electricity lines just several miles from the pipeline, which descended large parts of Georgia into darkness. Due to these suspicious coincidences, Georgia accused Russia of conducting deliberate acts of sabotage with the aim of forcing the nation into surrendering its pipelines to Gazprom – the Russian state-owned monopoly.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Russia%E2%80%93Georgia_energy_crisis
Hersh is definitely “out there” and his theory is questionable because he has only one anonymous source, etc. But it is interesting to me that: there is still no official word on who blew up the pipelines; it took skill that only a few actors could pull off; the winners and losers as a result of the action are pretty clear; whoever gave the “go-ahead” was either very confident they wouldn’t get caught / didn’t care / has very high risk tolerance. I think those are reasons a lot of folks (myself included) think it’s very unlikely the US did it: we’re bad at keeping secrets and it would probably get leaked; Russia (and Germany?) would demand and be owed compensation; political fallout very risky; etc. That’s why Russia was such a likely actor (its their infrastructure, they can keep secrets, Putin has no fear even if it does come out). Only problem is it’s a little hard to define how Russia benefitted from them being blown up.
Long article quoting anonymous sources saying the US placed and remote detonated bombs on the Nordstream pipelines. Kinda reads like fan fiction and Seymour Hersh may be a nut but I guess seemingly plausible: https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream?utm_medium=android If true, impressive that our guys pulled it off but extremely risky politically.
Good listen here. Canadian sniper killed 18 Russians in two days, says it was kinda bothersome, too many human waves, just “too easy” shooting obviously non-professionals. Shots from around 500m to 1800m. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/the-decibel/article-a-canadian-sniper-on-the-battle-for-bakhmut-ukraine/
One of the replies in the thread was wondering if this is being released now to communicate something inside Russia. Like Wagner (maybe Russian Army?) conveying to Putin and the general public: “the US completely annihilated our superior attacking force with Reapers, Apaches, F-16s, and stationary/aerial artillery in Syria. A little US artillery is already in Ukraine (fucking us up daily) and they’re talking about Reapers and F-16s now, if you wait till those weapons, etc. are in theater to finish this thing up, we’re fucked”
@crimsonlonghorn I think you’re getting a good deal - my Farmers agent said: “Scheduling the highest valued rifle ($6k) will run $71/year, no deductible and all-risk type coverage. If we then add $14K to gun value coverage the premium increases by a total of $175 (full term premium change).” I’ll keep shopping it.
I called my insurance agent and he’s working up some options for me, maybe an endorsement to cover them all, maybe scheduling some of the more expensive ones. Mostly for theft, my homeowners personal property limit should cover them for fire, etc.
At least your guy did something secure (sea container with vault door). I just cant imagine >$500k of guns in a residential garage. In addition to the easy theft, I mean what if your wife/kids catch the house on fire, etc? How do you travel without constantly worrying about your stuff?
I started a spreadsheet awhile back too and then had the same “oh shit” thought you did and stopped updating it. Maybe just keep the data of make, model, and serial. Also need to use an under the radar name for the sheet instead of something obvious like “gun inventory” that I used.
I was a a little like “bro why didn’t you call me?”, but my buddy said the guy was very paranoid about word getting out about this collection in a not-so secure arrangement, and didn’t want people coming to look, which I understand. In his position I probably would have considered armed security or something until I could get things more safely stored. I asked if it was insured and buddy said insurance status was unknown. (Yikes!) It did make me think about calling my insurance agent for my little ~$20k collection, I think the maximum for firearms in my homeowners policy is about $1k.
Don’t know about those boxes in particular, but there were multiple Citoris in every caliber they made. Actually a lot of .410s in the collection. Buddy was able to buy a nice No. 1 and Red Label out of the collection both with great stocks: