Let's Try Q & A And Whatever Else Sticky Post

Here is the post which I will try to keep sticky for people to ask questions and share their thoughts which are not on topic. This, I think is known as Open Thread. Fire away.

More On Russians In China.

Yep, looks like a full blown military alliance to me, with common procedures and Chinese really going out of their way to make Russians feel comfortable. What can I say...

It is a fast moving day, check on fires in Turkey and that explains a lot.

Good Ol' "Friends" Of Mujaheddin...

...are being transferred by Russia to Tajik-Afghan border, "just in case", as were transferred updated BMPs a few days ago. Russia increases her presence there and it is only natural, since both Tajikistan and even Uzbekistan are expressing a desire to see Russians there. Good ol' "friends" of "holy warriors", Mi-24 "Hinds" are getting ready to recall their combat youth in case Taliban does something stupid at the border. 

You do not really need much, just night vision goggles and good ol' warriors Mi-24 and Mi-8 (17), which can operate from anywhere under any conditions short of natural disaster. ISIS, mujaheddin and other terrorists can attest to it.

It Is Better To See Once...

than hear, or read it, constantly. Russian military trains on Chinese military equipment at the SIBU/Coordination-2021 exercises in China. Well, now you saw it. You don't need to know Russian, it is self-explanatory. 

In related news, in the latest issue of Russia's immensely influential monthly Военная Мысль (Military Thought), General-Colonel Zarudnitsky, in the article Факторы достижения победы в военных конфликтах будущего (Factors in achieving the victory in the military conflicts of the future), just dropped a bomb, of sorts, on page 41 when disclosed that Russia works on a hypersonic long-range missile Kh-95 (X-95). Huge emphasis in the article is not merely on a technological advantage, which comes from a fusion of extremely advanced weapon systems and enablers, but on moral-psychological state of the armed forces and... I am not going there at this time. 

Hm, I wonder what is this weapon since it is designed to be deployed on any Russian bomber, from TU-160(M) to upcoming PAK DA, which should be revealed to public in 2023. Russian internet went bananas in the last several hours of this news, and, as you might expect, this weapon will be the real deal, as are Kinzhal and 3M22 Zircon, which smoothly transitioned from concepts to actual working weapons. Remember, that for Russians "long-range" nowadays is a very, how to put it, impressive qualifier. I would go out on a limb here and say that 4.5-5,000 kilometers range at least, M=6+ throughout all flight, most likely. In other related news, Russia holds joint exercises with Uzbek forces and increased its contingent in Tajikistan. Well, here you are.

Ooops.

I don't follow Olympics, which have been, at the insistence and machinations of the combined West, completely discredited, but this, boy, just read the comments from Americans under this video. 

Rumor has it, that Churchill once said about Field-Marshal Montgomery that Monty was 'Indomitable in retreat, invincible in advance, insufferable in victory.' I am not going to discuss the veracity of this Churchill's quote--it seems very accurate re: Monty--but if there are people who could have been worse than insufferable in victory, that would have been US Women's Soccer National Team, and its uber woke flaming Social Justice Warrior, and mediocre player, Megan Rapinoe. Should this knee-bending, third-wave feminism obsessed squad have won, we all wouldn't hear the end of it, despite the fact that their level of play and physical ability is that of a junior semi-amateur 15-year old boys soccer team. This is what I am talking about:

In preparation for two upcoming friendlies against Russia, the U.S. women’s national team played the FC Dallas U-15 boys academy team on Sunday and fell 5-2, according to FC Dallas’ official website.

That is why, frankly, Men's World Cup in soccer is the greatest most watched event in planet's sports' life and it dwarfs Olympics, NBA, NFL and other events by the order magnitude. But still: Thank you, Canada for defeating them and sparing us from listening their insufferable, obnoxious and arrogant self-praise. Yet, there was an American soccer team which not only was good, damn good but it literally made a world fall in love with it because they juts out of nowhere came out to show an amazingly beautiful and mature game and if not for the atrocity committed against them by the referee in the game against Germany, where US National Team dominated Germans, we could have seen the first ever North American team playing in WC finals. I remember Russian sports media applauding and admiring that team and its style (in Russian). It was difficult not to. An amazing counter-attacking machine, which could go to finals. In fact, they belonged there.

I remember those guys, like it was yesterday. They really made America proud and they, not Germany, should have played co-hosts, South Korea, in semi-finals. But it was one of the most blatant non-calls in the history of the sport which stopped these guys. Should they have equalized from penalty, they would have won Germany which was on its last legs, trying to beat back waves of the American attacks. This is HOW you win hearts and minds, not parading own woke self-righteousness and bending knees. Rapinoe and squad better watch videos of the US National Team at the World Cup in 2002--there is a huge lesson there.  This is how you make half of the world root for you, not against you, they call it a Beautiful Game for a reason. That is how American boys did it in 2002, they played beautifully and honorably, and made people fall in love with their game.

A Whiff Of Sadness. Friday.

I never was INTO the ZZ Top, per se, but I liked some of their songs. What ZZ Top always were for sure--they were always over the top and you knew from the first sounds that it was them, they always were absolutely unique. In the rock-world dominated at some point of time by British rock, you wouldn't need to be told that ZZ Top IS an American band, they were a consummate American band. In fact, anyone could guess that they were also a band from Texas.  One of ZZ Top's legendary three, their bass-guitar and voice, Dusty Hill passed away few days ago at the age of 71. RIP Dusty. 

But I don't want it to be a downer, so, to mark Friday, what can be better than the latest from Iron Maiden. Ah, damn--it is a philosophical downer again)))

Irons are again at the top of their game. And they still warn about the coming of a brave new world. Maiden is more than a band, they are a cultural institution. Yes, we can see the writing on the wall.

Off She Goes.

 Krasnoyarsk is afloat today (in Russian). 

She is Yasen-M class, pr. 885M, and she carries P-800 Oniks, 3M22 Zircon and 3M14(M) Kalibr. Novosibirsk is next to be transferred to the Russian Navy, this year. They are really nice looking ships. 

Their firepower... well, no need to repeat myself. 

UPDATE: just now Russia's Channel 1 (in Russian) confirmed that new Yasens carry 3M14M with a range of 4,500 kilometers. In other words, they are undetectable in the launch areas and it also means that these updated Kalibr TLAMs are installed on all ships with UKSK VLS and other new subs.