The problem with separatists in Donbas is that they have agency and are not simple extension of Putin's will. Many of them are not even (quasi) state actors, but non state actors, though there are fewer of those now, after there was some internal clean up.

Much like say Kurds (or any other number of factions) in Syria - while their backers can influence them to an extend, they still have their own agendas that they prioritise. And if Kiev can't (or won't) work with them, Donbas is not going to get solved. So Kiev really needs to get it's act together, rein in their own non state groups (they did that to an extend - the rape mansion got closed down few years ago for example) and go ahead with Minsk style steps.

Unless ofc we are considering some sort of one sided military scenario, but even those are less plausible now (if Russia allows them to happen ofc), with locals setting up their own officer schools, repair shops and the like.

^ Why delete?

I wouldn't have, it's all over the news here in the UK.

What happened?

Was about demonstrations in Moscow, i deleted the post because the videos showed too much violence or so i thought. But they are all over the internet as mentioned. Probably not in RT of course.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-r...-idUSKCN1UU0G1

The BBC footage showing what a growing number of people are calling 'Russian democracy in action'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49218726

To put it simply: Covert Sptsnaz training :)

Tzars and peasants - was it ever different in Russia? I don't think so.

^ How can you say that when it is estimated that Putins personal wealth stands somewhere in the region of a meagre $200 billion?

Ahh, those, yea they were so well covered by western media (in a very specific one sided way but still) that I forgot to mention it, my entire twitter feed was full of virtue signalling on that front, even had a discussion on them just over a week ago with an expert on constitutional law.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ming-a-reality
This article may be of interest. In short - Russia is making progress in moving from trade in USD to trade in local currencies.

Importancy of those clowns on protest actions is well-illustrated by the fact that an event " Шашлыки live" in Gorky Park this weekend was visited by over 300 000 people even in far from good weather while unauthorised protest action attracted less than 6000... As our classic has once told about Decabrists : " They were too few and they were too far from people ..." However, mentioning Decabrists in context with modern hipster-protest-clowns is to give the latter too much credit. Anyway the size and importancy of these actions is exaggerated in Western press just as actions of nationalists in Georgia are exaggerated by our press. With all my dislike to modern power in Russia (due to several reasons) - modern "opposition" does everything to earn my disdain rather than to make me their apologist.

My attention this weekend was toward Tank Biathlon - and especially toward our ladies crews diving T-80UE-1 for the first time in these competitions - that was a thing I've been watching on our TV :-) "Girls Und Panzer" come alive ))
This video is a true eye-candy for every sofa-militarist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUngtBRogWM

Interesting that for most part these girls aren't professional tankists - they are military personnel of course but have other specialities - medics, comms etc and they deliberately volunteered to participate ( either for fun and for bonuses of course ) when MD announced they'll allow women crews.

http://atominfo.ru/newsz/a0009.htm
Rosatom's investment strategy to 2035 includes construction of only 19 reactor blocks with 21,4 GW power output.

Thanks for the warning.

If anything this is good news, as RBMKs are (finally) getting replaced by gen 3+ reactors instead of having life extensions. And while RBMKs are pretty cool to visit I would rather have 3rd/3rd+ gen reactors or better still 4th gen reactors replacing them (and other 2nd gen).


And those gen 3+ reactors are pretty safu. You can read more here:
https://www.oecd-nea.org/ndd/worksho...1a-maltsev.pdf

Thanks, this is interesting.
But I still think that nuclear power as mankind uses it is inherent unsafe, and no one knows how to deal with the remnants. B.t.w. Chernobyl is said by experts to have killed between 43 and 14000 People, indirectly of course and hard to prove.
“The risk projections suggest that by now Chernobyl may have caused about 1,000 cases of thyroid cancer and 4,000 cases of other cancers in Europe, representing about 0.01% of all incident cancers since the accident,” it reads. “Models predict that by 2065 about 16,000 (95% UI 3,400–72,000) cases of thyroid cancer and 25,000 (95% UI 11,000–59,000) cases of other cancers may be expected due to radiation from the accident.”
Meaning if one country plays with radio nuclides, the whole world will have to face the consequences of incompetence.

Not entirely off topic, what happened in Archangelsk two days ago? Radioactive spike?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...test-explosion
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49295521

Seems Rosatom is involved. I really had to laugh when i heard that the european branch of "Rosatom" is called "NUKEM". How fitting.

Coal power plants release more radioactivity per MW of installed power due to them constantly burning large quantities of coal which contain small proportions of radioactive materials. But as with the frogs people do not notice themselves being slowly boiled so to speak.

As to the waste - with fast reactors you can close the fuel cycle and more or less re-use the fuel. One of such set ups would be BREST-300-OD and BN-800 and BN-1200 though only BN-800 made it so far and the others have uncertain fates.

As to the incident near to Severodvinsk - it is unclear as to what has happened there, but 5 Rosatom (well, their subsidiery) employees died, most likely from radioactive exposure and there was a small/short time period spike in gamma radioactivity in the nearby Severodvinsk but no tell tale signs of reactor mulfunction (ie no radioactive Iodine).
My hypothesis from available reporting is that they have had a chemical explosion of some sort in close proximity to radio-thermal power source they were working on.

Seems it was one of Russia's nuclear-powered drones that exploded in Archangelsk
https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/artic...xplodiert.html


Google translate:
https://translate.google.com/transla...xplodiert.html

As for Chernobyl Disaster - better read true experts like Dr. Robert Gale https://cancerletter.com/articles/chernobyl/ - totally proven number of victims of this tragedy is 31 person. All other numbers are fruit of speculation. Hundreds of former Liquidators had contacts with medicine of different seriousness but most part of them are still alive. And these were the people who were in the most dangerous zone. As for cancer - there is nice tab in Dr Gale's article showing which part of all possible causes radiation takes.

If you say so.