You are right, Tochka-U missiles are in service with the armed forces of Belarus. Russia removed Tochka-U from service several years ago, they were completely replaced by Iskanders, which are better in all respects.

Ukraine breaks another bottom in its fakes. Arestovich first stated that the blow was delivered by Iskander, but the tail section was preserved and it became clear from the plumage that this was the Ukrainian Tochka-U, which had flown in from the territory controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It's a shame for Ukraine to fire cluster munitions at civilians.

I think this is another provocation by Ukraine under a false flag, shortly after Bucha. Russia does not have Tochka-U missiles in service, and in the direction of the wreckage, it flew in from the southwest, from the territory controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The operation had a chance to become fast, but very small. Ukraine is the largest country in Europe, after Russia, it is much larger than Germany or France. When 200 Russian paratroopers, supported by a tank battalion, landed in Gostomel and captured the airport 25 km from Kyiv, which, by the way, was guarded by an elite regiment of Ukraine, trained and equipped to the best NATO standards, with the support of armored vehicles, artillery and aircraft, this could become strong for Ukraine a demotivating factor and a reminder that Russians fight not by numbers, but by skill. But in general, even now events in Ukraine are developing quite quickly.

Это белорусские ракеты в репортаже про учения "Союзная решимость". У России щас таких на вооружении нету.

Да не успеют они замёрзнуть даже, Европе без российского газа просто пиздец. Это почти мгновенный промышленный коллапс в Германии и Италии, всё энергоёмкое производство сразу встанет, в безветренные пасмурные дни начнутся веерные отключения электричества, плюс нет удобрений. Европа быстро превратится в резервацию беженцев и безработных, с разгулом бандитизма и острыми вспышками социальной напряжённости. Европа это типа мировой офис, а щас модно работать на удалёнке без посредников и по прямым контрактам. Вся респектабельная европейская бухгалтерия после заморозки средств Центробанка России сосёт хуй по причине своей полной дискредитации в глазах России и теперь евро полетит в ад, думаю будет серьёзная девальвация и скачок гиперинфляции в Европе.

Говорят в Мариуполе сплошные страсти. Дескать под Азовсталью в подземных казематах есть биолаборатория "Яма", которой пугали заключённых мариупольской тюрьмы "Библиотека", и там в натурную величину застенки гестапо имени четвёртого Салорейха с расчленёнкой и опытами над живыми людьми и прочие этнические эко-вирусы. Короче лютая фашистская хрень и вокруг толпа генералов НАТО в больших фуражках собственной персоной. Похоже там назревает большой политический скандал с Нюрнбергским процессом два по итогу. Вот такая вот хуйня сейчас в Мариуполе, это если вкратце.

Европа в этой ситуации в роли жертвы, и график евро к доллару на это явно указывает. Поэтому такие истерики и странные решения в стиле национализации Германией газовых хранилищ Газпром-Германия, а щас готовится закон о их обязательном 80% заполнении. Это пиздец какой-то и проявление карго-культа, дескать щас заберём хранилища и издадим закон - а потом по всем признакам в хранилищах сразу появится газ. И все там в галстуках вполне на серьёзных щах.

I think Russia plans to conduct this operation with limited personnel, emphasizing the dominant superiority in military equipment. For the Russian army, there are no problems with logistics, military plants are operating normally, the state defense order has been 100% stable for many years, Russia is well prepared not only for economic sanctions, but also for military operations on the territory of Ukraine. It is naive to believe that Russia will run out of money when Europe alone buys gas from Russia for a billion dollars a day. It is even more naive to believe that Russia will run out of food and weapons. Ukraine has not even really been bombed yet. I think the blow in the Donbass will not be the last, but rather the first really strong one.

Putin has an unlimited mandate for this operation, including the ability to make the entire territory of Ukraine west of the Dnieper uninhabitable for the next hundred years. The people of Russia will not forgive him only for abandoning his originally declared goals, and Putin knows this. But the mass genocide of Ukrainians due to a nuclear strike is not consistent with the current strategy of minimizing civilian casualties, so this alignment will be a technical victory for Russia, but an actual defeat for Putin, with long-term reputational losses in the eyes of history.
There is a saying in Russia, "war is bullshit, maneuvers are the main thing." The Ukrainian army is actually immobilized by the lack of fuel and air control, and is deprived of the ability to freely maneuver, while the Russian army is mobile and can create a local numerical advantage in different parts of the front. I think the tactics of the Russian generals is to deprive the army of the Armed Forces of Ukraine of general coordination and divide it into separate groups, this elephant needs to be eaten in parts.
Your concern for the prestige of Russia is very touching, thank you.

I think Germany's problem is that there is no alternative to Russian pipeline gas right now and even in the next year or two. There is not enough gas supply on the market to replace the volumes that fell in the event of an embargo and will not be in the near future, there are not so many tankers and so many terminals for liquefied gas, and it takes time to build them. Under Merkel, Germany fell under the political influence of the Greens and closed its nuclear power industry, from 01/01/2022 three of the six German reactors were shut down, and from 01/01/2023 the other three will also stop. Cheap Russian pipeline gas is needed for German industry and as a raw material for fertilizers, even if it can be replaced with liquefied gas, it will be noticeably more expensive and this will make production in Germany simply uncompetitive. And in the absence of wind and generation on windmills, the embargo on Russian gas can even de-energize Germany.

Fiat money is not the best option for long-term investments due to inflation, I use rubles for current expenses and also I like bitcoin.

You are feeding a dangerous and destructive illusion. Ukraine did not have and does not have a chance to defeat Russia. The only question is the number of victims and the scale of destruction. According to NATO estimates, 400 thousand soldiers are needed to take control over Ukraine only east of the Dnieper, Russia, together with the people's militia of Donbass, used almost half as many. Almost 600,000 people were mobilized and armed from the Ukrainian side along with the defense units. Numerical superiority should not be misleading when the military infrastructure is badly destroyed, airfields, weapons depots, fuel depots, military equipment - everywhere there are heavy losses from missile strikes by Caliber and other high-precision weapons. The army of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is now actually deprived of the ability to maneuver in a coordinated manner, it is divided into separate formations under the control of field commanders, and all supply logistics east of the Dnieper is seriously disrupted. This anarchist resistance of Ukraine on naked patriotism, I think, will quickly dry up due to its complete hopelessness and senselessness.

Russia has a huge excess of natural resources and the most combat-ready army in the world against the backdrop of food security and no problems with fresh water. It is foolish to deny or doubt the greatness of Russia. The United States is trying in every possible way to quarrel Russia with Europe in order to eliminate Europe as a competitor and to solve its internal problems at their expense. At the same time, pushing Russia into a strategic alliance with China and India, which have huge human resources and which such an alliance with Russia is also beneficial. Europe in this situation is in the unenviable role of a trophy and a victim, the influence over which is apparently shared by the United States and Russia. I think this is what Putin and Biden agreed on when they met in December 2021.

Russia and Venezuela are still in different weight categories. In the foreseeable future, gas prices do not show prerequisites for a decline, plus a protective barrier of gold protects the ruble from possible drawdowns from below. The price of the ruble has stabilized and returned to the level of early February, why should Russia abandon the national currency, which is controlled by the Central Bank? In terms of bitcoin mining, Russia is in the top 3 in the world, after the USA and Kazakhstan, although the position of the Central Bank of Russia is more likely to reject cryptocurrencies than vice versa. At the same time, Putin spoke out in favor of mining for the disposal of excess electricity and the development of IT.

The Russian economy as a whole is coping well with sanctions shocks, all life support systems are working normally, gasoline has not risen in price, there is food in stores. Coffee beans have noticeably risen in price, while for me this is the most significant change. So to directly "saving" while there seems to be nothing special.

Russia's corporate external debt is about $550 billion, all payments on it in favor of investors from unfriendly countries go through a government commission that issues to creditors a bearer promissory note for money blocked by the sanctions of the Central Bank of Russia in the amount of up to $300 billion. Yesterday, for the first time, payments on the state debt were made in rubles.

The current version of the Russian Constitution declares the priority of Russian law over international law. Putin made a request to the State Duma to use the army outside of Russia in the interests of Russia and the Duma said yes, and the Council of Federations also approved this. All the formalities have been met, in principle Putin is acting within the legal framework of Russia, so the answer to your question is yes.

I would formulate the question differently in the current realities: Can anyone stop Putin to tell Ukraine what they can and cannot do in their country (if it threatens Russia's interests)?

In the modern model of a society of advanced consumption, a higher standard of living is not for those who live within their means and save for a rainy day, but for those who actively use credit leverage and have a chronic budget deficit.

The large gold and foreign exchange reserves that Russia has managed to accumulate is, on the one hand, good, but on the other hand, this means that Russia has been purposefully filling the National Welfare Fund for years, instead of using this money to develop the economy. In fact, this money was systematically withdrawn from circulation and lay dead weight, undermined by inflation (if we are talking about fiat currencies), or taking up space in the vault and not paying dividends (if we are talking about gold).

Since 2014, after the annexation of Crimea, Russia has been under heavy pressure from economic sanctions, so its current economic model is more of a wartime economy than a peacetime one. I think Putin understood perfectly well that the US and NATO would hardly risk entering into a direct military confrontation with Russia (because "there are no winners in a nuclear war"), and the West's pressure on Russia would be economic.

I said directly in my first post on this topic that a return to the gold standard for Russia (and any other single country in the world) is now impossible and impractical. Pegging the ruble to energy resources has more prospects. However, at the same time, the existing gold reserves of the Central Bank of Russia are more than enough to, if necessary, immediately pay in full all of Russia's external debt, which now stands at about $58 billion.

These are different things - external debt and the entire money supply, I hope my English is good enough so that there is no confusion between what I say and what you understand from my words.

To fully ensure the entire money supply with gold? In Russia, there is a very strong shortage of money supply compared to other countries, but to demand that the entire money supply be fully backed by monetary gold on the balance sheet of the Central Bank is a bit too much, don't you think?

Драма Европы в том, что она не может за несколько лет перестроить логистику энергоносителей, даже если очень сильно захочет. Думаешь она не хотела этого после событий в 2014, когда вводила санкции против России? Восемь лет спустя после Крымнаш энергетическая зависимость Евросоюза от России не только не снизилась, а даже увеличилась.

Я тебе больше скажу, когда Европа под воздействием гретытунберг головного мозга выбрала курс на углеродную нейтральность, она прикинула хуй к носу и сделала выгодную ставку на водород. А точнее на смесь водорода и 20% природного газа, потому что чистый водород сука сильно летучий. А ещё точнее на смесь водорода и природного газа, которые добываются и вырабатываются в России и поставляются в Европу по существующим газовым трубопроводам с использованием всей существующей газовой инфраструктуры с газовыми хранилищами и всё такое. По крайней мере такой был генеральный план по стратегии энергетического развития Германии, "Газпром" и "Росатом" там были плотненько подвязаны в этом деле, как щас не в курске.

I'm not trying to deceive anyone, I'm just asking questions, because my critical thinking has not atrophied under the influence of propaganda. And you?

I don't understand the reason for your doubts. From 2014 to 2020, the Central Bank of Russia actively increased the share of gold in its gold and foreign exchange reserves, buying up all the gold that is mined in Russia. As of February 1, 2022, the Central Bank has gold worth $132 billion (about 2,300 tons).

Name at least one major economy in the world that is living within its means with a sustainable budget surplus and does not have a large external debt. Only Russia, there is no other answer. Russia can at any time immediately fully repay its foreign debt in gold and withdraw from the external borrowing market, and this will not affect its current cash flows in any way.

There are no Russian fighters in the photo here. From the point of view of a resident of Russia, these are representatives of the independent Donetsk People's Republic. From the point of view of a resident of a country that did not recognize the independence of the DPR, these are representatives of Ukraine. Oops.