Russia / Ukraine tweets, logistics, public opinion, sanctions
First, a twitter thread on war reporting (click through if interested):
The pictures coming out of Ukraine have played an essential role in rallying Europeans and Americans to aid the Ukrainian cause. But it is so difficult to keep these emotional pictures from overwhelming our judgment. Especially for those of us not expert in military affairs. How can you look at pictures like this and think about negotiating and compromising with Putin?
A big problem in reaching a negotiated end to hostilities will be persuading Americans and Europeans to ease up on sanctions. It’s such a perfect opportunity for political grandstanding, but without some relaxation of sanctions it will be much harder to persuade Putin to declare victory and end the carnage.
And another logistics thread:
Quite a dismal picture of the Russian logistics situation. Hope this is right.
I’ve been wondering about this:
No idea what this means for the effectiveness of sanctions. This response is interesting:
I still have no idea what is going to happen, but I am pessimistic. Even if the logistical position of the Russian army is as bad as some think, stalemate may just lead wanton destruction of Ukrainian cities from a distance. I fear much more death and destruction in Ukraine’s future.
Compare this to Carl Miller’s detailed graphical navigation of pro-russian meme traffic to the non-english-speaking world. Tremendously interesting
https://mobile.twitter.com/carljackmiller/status/1504896238826700800
one line that pretty much sums up what i’ve been thinking about the US response:
via: [Washington’s ‘trigger-happy’ sanctions may push countries away from the dollar, says think tank – The U.S. has been “extremely trigger-happy” with stinging economic measures, and central banks may decide to diversify their portfolio of foreign reserves instead of relying heavily on the U.S. dollar, according to the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security../]
…
He said the American political class has a “lack of awareness” about the consequences of their actions. “It’s like a bunch of kids running around with guns shooting all over the place without realizing what they’re actually doing, without looking at the cumulative impact of all of this,” he said.