First a caveat that this video channel has a lot of “Russia is done for” content, so this video, being more in that line, deserves several grains of salt. But it makes a compelling case that Russia’s repeated Baltic provocations have now handed Denmark the legal means, reason and will to completely shut down Russia’s shadow fleet, and thus their last real economic lifeline.
“The blow that will finish off Russia is being dealt in an office in Copenhagen, hidden in the cold lines of an environmental law. Denmark has proven that the ghost shadow fleet Russia established to launder billions of dollars in oil revenues is not only an environmental killer, but also a secret base for drone attacks targeting NATO capitals.”
“With intelligence provided by Denmark, the 18-year-old tanker Boracay linked to Russia was seized by French commandos off the coast of Breast last week. It was reported that the ship was believed to have been involved in a recent drone attack on Copenhagen airport.” “Attack” is probably slightly overstating the case, but “illegal incursion of sovereign airspace” isn’t.
“From this moment on, Denmark moved to lock the Baltic Sea to Russian tankers.”
“On October 6th, the Danish government announced that it was tightening environmental and security inspections of oil tankers, especially old and high-risk vessels passing through its waters or anchored at Skagan Red, an important port between the Baltic and North Seas. However, this goes far beyond a simple security inspection. Danish Industry Minister Morten Bodskov was even more outspoken, saying, ‘We must put an end to Putin’s war machine.'”
“This also applies to the Russian shadow fleet. Authorities will now board and inspect ships that cannot be considered to be on a peaceful voyage, including those that are anchored. In other words, this decision allows Danish forces to raid any ship they suspect.”
Discussion of St. Petersburg, Kalinigrad, and how oil from Russia’s Siberian fields flows there for export snipped, as I’m pretty sure all my readers are familiar with this by now.
The Danish straits, “consisting of the Skagarak and Katagat, is Russia’s economic lifeline and at the same time its weakest link. This is precisely the weak link that Denmark is targeting.”
“In 1974, [the] Helsinki Convention [was] signed as a measure against the Baltic Sea’s increasing industrial pollution. A rare example of cooperation between the Eastern and Western blocks at the time, this agreement aimed to protect the Baltic Sea’s ecological balance. The agreement gave the signatory countries, including Denmark, the authority to [intervene] against ships passing through their waters that posed a serious threat to the environment.”
“According to real-time oil market data from financial agencies like Bloomberg, daily oil exports via the Baltic route were generating an average of $250 to $350 million in revenue for Russia. This revenue stream is now being systematically dismantled. This translates to a massive $10 billion monthly black hole or delay in the Russian federal budget.” Remember that the entire Russian yearly budget for 2024 was estimated to be $357 billion, so that would equal about 1/3rd of Russia’s entire budget.
“This was an inevitable consequence of NATO placing the region under an iron dome, forcing Russia into a corner and prompting reckless counter moves.”
“The Western Alliance, which turned the Baltic Sea into a strategic NATO lake with the participation of Finland and Sweden, did not leave this doctrine on paper. It backed it up with concrete and formidable military power that would prevent Russia from even breathing.”
“The most frightening symbol of this power was the world’s largest warship, the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, and its accompanying strike group, which docked on the British coast in August 2025 and anchored in the North Sea. This 100,000 ton floating fortress, carrying more than 90 F-35 and F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets stood just west of the Danish Straits like a nuclear shield, preventing Russia from embarking on any military adventure.”
“But it was not alone. It was accompanied by the HMS Diamond, a type 45 destroyer belonging to the British Royal Navy and one of Europe’s most advanced air defense ships, and the FGS Hessen, the German Navy’s most modern frigate. This deadly trio supported by NATO standing Maritime Group 1 effectively trapped the Russian Baltic fleet in its bases in Kalinigrad.”
Snipping a description of various NATO flying assets, most of which (save the B-2) are probably flying overlapping NATO air patrol missions most of the time.
“In September 2025, NATO air radars sounded the alarm repeatedly. On September 22nd, German Eurofighter jets and on September 25th, Hungarian Gripen jets were forced to intercept Russian Su-30 and MiG-31 fighter jets flying over the Baltic and dangerously approaching civilian flight routes.”
“These were the desperate struggles of a cornered bear. As military provocations increased, the concrete dangers posed by the shadow fleet reached a level that could no longer be ignored.”
“According to a shocking report published just this week on October 5th, 2025, by the Danish Defense Intelligence Service, FE, Danish helicopters and ships patrolling the Danish Straits were repeatedly targeted by Russian warships using radar lock. This constitutes an extremely dangerous military provocation, implying that the next step could be firing. The report clearly stated that these actions were a hybrid warfare tactic aimed at applying pressure without crossing the line into armed conflict.”
Section on Russia and China’s undersea cable and pipeline sabotage snipped.
The final straw: “Russia was using civilian tankers belonging to its shadow fleet as launch platforms for kamikaze drone attacks on targets in Europe.” Again, see caveat above.
“Acting on this intelligence bombshell, the French Navy launched a breathtaking helicopter operation on the tanker Borachai sailing in the Bay of Bisque on the morning of September 30th.”
“A search of the ship’s cargo hold revealed at least six explosive-laden kamikaze UAV launchers hidden inside special containers tucked between oil tanks.”
“This was irrefutable concrete evidence that Russia had used a civilian ship for a military attack against a NATO country.”
“This chain of evidence, these accumulated provocations, and this final brazen move were the ultimate trigger that spurred Denmark into action, transforming that 50-year-old environmental law into a national security weapon.”
“Here, Denmark is putting the 1974 Helsinki Convention, Helcom, and International Maritime Law on the table rather than imposing a military blockade, which would be a cause for war.”
“The new legal framework grants Danish authorities the power to stop, inspect, and block the passage of uninsured, old, and poorly maintained tankers identified as belonging to the Shadow Fleet.”
“The operation will proceed as follows. A vessel belonging to the Danish Navy or Coast Guard will approach a suspicious tanker and request an inspection. Inspectors boarding the vessel will check its compliance with international maritime standards, namely the SAS, Safety of Life at Sea, and MARPOL [International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973 as modified by the Protocol of 1978] conventions. It is known that almost all shadow fleet vessels do not meet these standards.”
“If it is determined that insurance policies are fake or insufficient, emergency equipment is not working, personnel are inadequate, or the structural integrity of the vessel is at risk, the vessel will be labeled unfit for passage and will not be allowed to proceed.”
“Following the Boracay case, these inspections will now also include checking for suspicious military modifications or illegal cargo on board.”
“This is not an actual seizure or military intervention. It is a completely legitimate, internationally legal and unavoidable bureaucratic strangulation operation. Russia’s objection to this inspection amounts to an admission that its own ships are rotten and dangerous.”
“This is a flawless legal checkmate that strikes Putin with his own lies.”
The video goes on to suggest that this will be the final straw of cascading failure that breaks the Russian economy. Maybe, but we’ve heard these arguments before.
Also skipping over the argument that if Russia can’t export oil, they have to shut the pipelines off and their Siberian oil infrastructure will freeze in the ground. Peter Zeihan has been making this argument for years as well, but knowing the Russians, they could just dig a big hole in the ground to temporarily dump their crude into to avoid that happening.
“This legitimate step taken by Denmark following the Boracay plot could be the spark that ignites the beginning of the end of the war, illuminating the path to the Kremlin’s collapse. Vladimir Putin lost this war, which he could not win with missiles and armies, to an anonymous bureaucrat holding a folder in Copenhagen.”
Maybe. It’s certainly going to cut one of Russia’s final hard cash pipelines. But Russia has defied expectations of imminent economic collapse for over three years now. At some point, Russia’s failed illegal war of territorial aggression will finally break the country, but no one on the outside has had a good track record of predicting when…
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2025 at 12:17 PM and is filed under Foreign Policy, Military, video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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19 Responses to “Denmark Strangles Russia Oil Lifeline”
“A search of the ship’s cargo hold revealed at least six explosive-laden kamikaze UAV launchers hidden inside special containers tucked between oil tanks.”
This is the most obvious lie within this story. The Frogs released the Boracay and its entire crew six days after seizing it. Nothing illegal was found on board. This was propaganda for weak minds.
The Boracay was constructed in 2007. Its age is exactly the average of all oil tankers plying the high seas. Most of the tankers the Russians are using are approximately the same age. The (Danish) Maersk container fleet happens to have exactly the same average age, so if the Danish don’t subject their Maersk fleet to the same inspections, the Russians will indeed have a casus belli.
The hysteria over MiG-31 flights west of Vaindloo Island was intended to discourage Russian maritime patrol flights during the time period that the British and Ukrainians were launching the September drone attacks on Primorsk terminal. Especially ludicrous was the claim that the MiG-31’s loitered over Estonian airspace for 12 minutes. The MiG-31 typically cruises at 1,500 mph plus because it not aerodynamically stable at subsonic speeds. The three MiG-31’s crossed Estonian airspace over Vaindloo Island in about 7 seconds, if at all. Vaindloo Island is a 15 acre, uninhabited rock in the middle of the Gulf of Finland.
I guess if all those tankers are as new and well maintained as 10 by 25 says they are, then the Danish inspections will turn up nothing amiss. So don’t sweat it.
Russia initiating a nuclear exchange with NATO would be its death warrant. The American nuclear capabilities are far newer and better maintained than Russia’s. In fact, the United States spends more on its nuclear deterrent than Russia spends on its entire military. And there’s no guarantee the Russian military would obey Putin’s orders to launch a military strike; a mutiny against Putin probably has a higher likelihood of being survived than a nuclear war.
Plus Russia also has to worry about France and the UK’s nuclear weapons…
You may find the article: ‘Russian nuclear weapons, 2025’ authored by Hans M. Kristensen, Matt Korda, Eliana Johns, and Mackenzie Knight-Boyle in the May 13, 2025 edition of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists enlightening.
Russia gets much more bang from the Ruble than we get from the Dollar. The U.S. State Department asserts that the Russians have been regularly conducting supercritical nuclear tests in violation of the CTBT zero-yield standard. The Russians probably also commissioned Teller-Ulam device ignition trigger tests in North Korea.
It is quite unlikely that American nuclear capabilities are far newer and better maintained than Russia’s.
“Most of the tankers the Russians are using are approximately the same age [circa 1987]. The (Danish) Maersk container fleet happens to have exactly the same average age, so if the the Danish don’t subject their Maersk fleet to the same inspections, the Russians will have a [cause for war].”
Russians will launch a war on the flimsiest pretext. But as Ukraine demonstrates, their war aims are readily frustrated.
The Maersk container fleet may the same average age as its Russian counterpart but is better engineered, constructed and maintained. When vessels in the Russian fleet begin to fail inspection as their Danish counterparts “sail through” with flying colors, Russia will declare a casus belli.
It will be more than a little amusing to watch the Russian navy attempt to force an entry to the Danish Straits. What emerges intact from the other side will readily be sunk or captured as it emerges into NATO”s back yard.
“The U.S. State Department asserts that the Russians have been regularly conducting supercritical nuclear tests in violation of the CTBT zero-yield standard.”
Perhaps Russians are using these tests to demo Iranian thermonuclear designs. Iran possessed this capability at one time but their testing regime was abruptly halted by US bombers.
In any case, Russians are war criminals, so violating the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty comes naturally to them.
“Anyways, the Russian economy need to be choked to death, so ‘bureaucratic strangulation’ is an important tool.”
KGB Colonel Vladimir Putin is no stranger to the bureaucratic “Nyet”. The administrative state stands athwart all initiative, enterprise and freedom of action. What the world’s armies cannot restrain, bureaucracy stultifies, immobilizes and forever imprisons.
There is less to fear from the soldier’s bayonet than from Byzantine regulations.
Now there are some who argue that “Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” But even a casual familiarity with Dickens’ Bleak House shows that Chancery ultimately favors lawyers at the expense of everyone else, fly and hornet alike.
So if the laws be numerous, Gulliver will be defeated by the Lilliputians. In the contest of Putin v Lilliputin, the outcome is foreordained.
“Perhaps Russians are using these tests to demo Iranian thermonuclear designs. Iran possessed this capability at one time but their testing regime was abruptly halted by US bombers.”
The Russians have about concluded their complete strategic and nuclear nuclear weapons upgrade since the fall of the USSR. Very few Soviet era weapons or delivery vehicles remain in Russian service. All their Teller-Ulam devices have had their cores and pits (their “physics packages”) replaced, usually several times. It is how the Russians assure themselves that their nuclear weapons are still ready for use. The Russians also reengineered their warheads to reduce their size to fit in their new MIRV bus reentry vehicles, which is why they have been surreptitiously testing.
There is no evidence in the Iranian nuclear files which Israel stole that Iran is working on a Teller-Ulam device. They have been focused on fission devices. So the Russians would not have been conducting igniter tests for Iran.
“The Maersk container fleet may the same average age as its Russian counterpart but is better engineered, constructed and maintained. When vessels in the Russian fleet begin to fail inspection as their Danish counterparts “sail through” with flying colors, Russia will declare a casus belli.”
I read accounts of neglect and abuse in all the newspapers.
“At least 106 people died on Monday in a gas explosion at the Ulyanovskaya coal mine in Siberia, Russia’s worst mining disaster since the fall of the Soviet Union.”
“Within a few weeks of the war, images were shared widely that showed undamaged but abandoned vehicles littering Ukrainian roads, making clear that the Russian military is suffering from major maintenance problems likely due to shortages of spare parts and fuel.”
“And what does go on inside [Rusdian orphanages]? To listen to the young men and women who have grown up in orphanages, and to some of their former teachers, an orphanage is a place where teachers and administrators regularly administer beatings to children, long trips to mental institutions are prescribed as punishments, infants are fraudulently diagnosed with severe disabilities in order to earn additional funds for the staff, and sexual abuse occurs frequently, affecting children of both sexes and all ages.”
“From the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, disregard for the principles of nuclear safety and security has been a persistent feature of Russia’s misconduct. In particular, Russia has threatened the safe operation of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, raising the risk of a nuclear emergency whose effects would be felt far from the borders of Ukraine.”
There is a subtle difference between a coal mine operated by a private company and an oil tanker on the high seas belonging to another private company.
Using your logic, the catastrophic explosion at McEwen, TN on 10 October would require intense inspection of all U.S. Navy vessels at sea. And their foremost vessel, the USS Gerald Ford, would probably not pass with its long history of equipment failures (specifically EMALS).
We don’t have coal mine disasters anymore because we don’t underground mine much coal. Which, incidentally, is why we cannot make TNT anymore. No toluene feedstock. And why your beloved Ukrainian Nazis are unable to respond in kind to Russian artillery attacks.
You are lying when you say:
“KGB Colonel Vladimir Putin is no stranger to the bureaucratic “Nyet”. The administrative state stands athwart all initiative, enterprise and freedom of action. What the world’s armies cannot restrain, bureaucracy stultifies, immobilizes and forever imprisons.”
We are the ones being strangled by bureaucracies like OSHA, NIOSH, EPA, MSA and a zillion other three letter agencies. The Russians, don’t believe in such government interference in the private sector. They have occasional mishaps, but they actually run a pretty free economy. Unlike us.
“Most of the tankers the Russians are using are approximately the same age. The (Danish) Maersk container fleet happens to have exactly the same average age, so if the Danish don’t subject their Maersk fleet to the same inspections, the Russians will indeed have a casus belli.”
Kremlin war pimp Comrade Cartridge is “cooking the books”. What is the truth?
“The average age of the shadow vessels is around 20 years, compared with 13 years for the overall global oil fleet.”
Comrade Cartridge conflates “shadow fleet” with Russian maritime fleet to falsely claim that Russian and Danish shipping vessels are of comparable age and if not WOAR, RED WOAR!
“The average age of the shadow vessels is around 20 years, compared with 13 years for the overall global oil fleet.”
This lying factoid is from GUR’s mouthpiece Greenpeace Ukraine (created by GUR in September 2024). Greenpeace Ukraine grossly embellished a report from Greenpeace Germany, which made no claim to being statistically accurate. Greenpeace Germany has made no claim as to the average age of the Russian shadow fleet.
The Greenpeace Germany report, titled ‘Shadow Fleet’, made no claim to being statistically or factually accurate. The Boracay is not included in the report, nor are any of the other EU/NATO identified Russian shadow fleet vessels. Greenpeace Germany just listed 192 ships sighted in the Baltic from February 2022 to October 2024:
1) Greenpeace Germany listed only ships older than 15 years.
2) Greenpeace Germany made no effort to connect these ships to the Russians (government or Rosneft)
3) Greenpeace Germany noted that more than half of the 192 vessels were operating AIS transponders. One key characteristic of the shadow fleet claimed by Greenpeace, their Ukrainian masters, and the EU is its failure to operate AIS transponders.
If you run down the few ships which EU and NATO have determined to be in the Russian shadow fleet, none are older than 17 years. They were all made by the same Chinese shipyards, to the same specifications, as Maersk’s fleet.
Good to know that you are a Greenpeacenik. I consider them troglodytes determined to reimpose the Stone Age on the modern world by destroying every vestige of modern technology.
“According to satellite photos, a Russian Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile probably detonated during a test earlier this month, raising questions about Russia’s military capabilities and putting a dent in the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling.”
“Very few Soviet era weapons or delivery vehicles remain in Russian service. All their Teller-Ulam devices have had their cores and pits (their “physics packages”) replaced, usually several times. It is how the Russians assure themselves that their nuclear weapons are still ready for use.”
Evidently, Sarmat is ready to be used against its launch site, which seems to be a common theme with Russian made missiles these days.
“According to satellite photos, a Russian Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile probably detonated during a test earlier this month, raising questions about Russia’s military capabilities and putting a dent in the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling.”
The regular, production RS-28 has no issues and has been in serial production at KrasMash since 2018. It has been deployed since 2021. The Russian Strategic Rocket Forces are attempting a very sophisticated and dangerous modification of this missile to evade launch detection by our Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS).
The Satan II is liquid fueled and the modification being attempted involves massively increasing the burn rate (maybe by 10x?) of the first stage PDU-99 engines. The Russians track SBIRS orbit data and plan to launch modified Satan II’s when SBIRs are out of visual range with a very short, explosive first stage burn. Then SBIRS satellites would only see the second stage ignite at very high altitude, if at all. This is not what they were designed to detect.
Fortunately, the Russians have not yet been successful with this modification, but they are persistent. Should they succeed, it will give them an unparalleled, secret, first strike capability on our land based ICBMs. Or we would have to reconfigure the SBIRS at costs in the multiple hundreds of billions. It is already a star-crossed program, so this would likely create even greater procurement chaos.
“A search of the ship’s cargo hold revealed at least six explosive-laden kamikaze UAV launchers hidden inside special containers tucked between oil tanks.”
This is the most obvious lie within this story. The Frogs released the Boracay and its entire crew six days after seizing it. Nothing illegal was found on board. This was propaganda for weak minds.
The Boracay was constructed in 2007. Its age is exactly the average of all oil tankers plying the high seas. Most of the tankers the Russians are using are approximately the same age. The (Danish) Maersk container fleet happens to have exactly the same average age, so if the Danish don’t subject their Maersk fleet to the same inspections, the Russians will indeed have a casus belli.
The hysteria over MiG-31 flights west of Vaindloo Island was intended to discourage Russian maritime patrol flights during the time period that the British and Ukrainians were launching the September drone attacks on Primorsk terminal. Especially ludicrous was the claim that the MiG-31’s loitered over Estonian airspace for 12 minutes. The MiG-31 typically cruises at 1,500 mph plus because it not aerodynamically stable at subsonic speeds. The three MiG-31’s crossed Estonian airspace over Vaindloo Island in about 7 seconds, if at all. Vaindloo Island is a 15 acre, uninhabited rock in the middle of the Gulf of Finland.
Geospelling Hat On: Second bullet text should be “… seized by French commandos off the coast of Brest…”, and further down it’s the “Bay of Biscay”.
Russia export oil from ports in the Arctic too.
Anyways, the Russian economy need to be choked to death, so “bureaucratic strangulation” is an important tool.
I guess if all those tankers are as new and well maintained as 10 by 25 says they are, then the Danish inspections will turn up nothing amiss. So don’t sweat it.
Is it just me, or is there still an elephant in the room?
(The Russian nuclear capability)
Russia initiating a nuclear exchange with NATO would be its death warrant. The American nuclear capabilities are far newer and better maintained than Russia’s. In fact, the United States spends more on its nuclear deterrent than Russia spends on its entire military. And there’s no guarantee the Russian military would obey Putin’s orders to launch a military strike; a mutiny against Putin probably has a higher likelihood of being survived than a nuclear war.
Plus Russia also has to worry about France and the UK’s nuclear weapons…
You may find the article: ‘Russian nuclear weapons, 2025’ authored by Hans M. Kristensen, Matt Korda, Eliana Johns, and Mackenzie Knight-Boyle in the May 13, 2025 edition of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists enlightening.
Russia gets much more bang from the Ruble than we get from the Dollar. The U.S. State Department asserts that the Russians have been regularly conducting supercritical nuclear tests in violation of the CTBT zero-yield standard. The Russians probably also commissioned Teller-Ulam device ignition trigger tests in North Korea.
It is quite unlikely that American nuclear capabilities are far newer and better maintained than Russia’s.
“Most of the tankers the Russians are using are approximately the same age [circa 1987]. The (Danish) Maersk container fleet happens to have exactly the same average age, so if the the Danish don’t subject their Maersk fleet to the same inspections, the Russians will have a [cause for war].”
Russians will launch a war on the flimsiest pretext. But as Ukraine demonstrates, their war aims are readily frustrated.
The Maersk container fleet may the same average age as its Russian counterpart but is better engineered, constructed and maintained. When vessels in the Russian fleet begin to fail inspection as their Danish counterparts “sail through” with flying colors, Russia will declare a casus belli.
It will be more than a little amusing to watch the Russian navy attempt to force an entry to the Danish Straits. What emerges intact from the other side will readily be sunk or captured as it emerges into NATO”s back yard.
“The U.S. State Department asserts that the Russians have been regularly conducting supercritical nuclear tests in violation of the CTBT zero-yield standard.”
Perhaps Russians are using these tests to demo Iranian thermonuclear designs. Iran possessed this capability at one time but their testing regime was abruptly halted by US bombers.
In any case, Russians are war criminals, so violating the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty comes naturally to them.
“Anyways, the Russian economy need to be choked to death, so ‘bureaucratic strangulation’ is an important tool.”
KGB Colonel Vladimir Putin is no stranger to the bureaucratic “Nyet”. The administrative state stands athwart all initiative, enterprise and freedom of action. What the world’s armies cannot restrain, bureaucracy stultifies, immobilizes and forever imprisons.
There is less to fear from the soldier’s bayonet than from Byzantine regulations.
Now there are some who argue that “Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” But even a casual familiarity with Dickens’ Bleak House shows that Chancery ultimately favors lawyers at the expense of everyone else, fly and hornet alike.
So if the laws be numerous, Gulliver will be defeated by the Lilliputians. In the contest of Putin v Lilliputin, the outcome is foreordained.
“Perhaps Russians are using these tests to demo Iranian thermonuclear designs. Iran possessed this capability at one time but their testing regime was abruptly halted by US bombers.”
The Russians have about concluded their complete strategic and nuclear nuclear weapons upgrade since the fall of the USSR. Very few Soviet era weapons or delivery vehicles remain in Russian service. All their Teller-Ulam devices have had their cores and pits (their “physics packages”) replaced, usually several times. It is how the Russians assure themselves that their nuclear weapons are still ready for use. The Russians also reengineered their warheads to reduce their size to fit in their new MIRV bus reentry vehicles, which is why they have been surreptitiously testing.
There is no evidence in the Iranian nuclear files which Israel stole that Iran is working on a Teller-Ulam device. They have been focused on fission devices. So the Russians would not have been conducting igniter tests for Iran.
“The Maersk container fleet may the same average age as its Russian counterpart but is better engineered, constructed and maintained. When vessels in the Russian fleet begin to fail inspection as their Danish counterparts “sail through” with flying colors, Russia will declare a casus belli.”
You know this, how?
“You know this, how?”
I read accounts of neglect and abuse in all the newspapers.
“At least 106 people died on Monday in a gas explosion at the Ulyanovskaya coal mine in Siberia, Russia’s worst mining disaster since the fall of the Soviet Union.”
“Within a few weeks of the war, images were shared widely that showed undamaged but abandoned vehicles littering Ukrainian roads, making clear that the Russian military is suffering from major maintenance problems likely due to shortages of spare parts and fuel.”
“And what does go on inside [Rusdian orphanages]? To listen to the young men and women who have grown up in orphanages, and to some of their former teachers, an orphanage is a place where teachers and administrators regularly administer beatings to children, long trips to mental institutions are prescribed as punishments, infants are fraudulently diagnosed with severe disabilities in order to earn additional funds for the staff, and sexual abuse occurs frequently, affecting children of both sexes and all ages.”
“From the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, disregard for the principles of nuclear safety and security has been a persistent feature of Russia’s misconduct. In particular, Russia has threatened the safe operation of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, raising the risk of a nuclear emergency whose effects would be felt far from the borders of Ukraine.”
https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/russias-disregard-nuclear-safety-and-security-ukraine
There is not enough band width at this blog to list the many violations of safety and maintenance standards that prevail in Putin’s Russia.
There is a subtle difference between a coal mine operated by a private company and an oil tanker on the high seas belonging to another private company.
Using your logic, the catastrophic explosion at McEwen, TN on 10 October would require intense inspection of all U.S. Navy vessels at sea. And their foremost vessel, the USS Gerald Ford, would probably not pass with its long history of equipment failures (specifically EMALS).
We don’t have coal mine disasters anymore because we don’t underground mine much coal. Which, incidentally, is why we cannot make TNT anymore. No toluene feedstock. And why your beloved Ukrainian Nazis are unable to respond in kind to Russian artillery attacks.
You are lying when you say:
“KGB Colonel Vladimir Putin is no stranger to the bureaucratic “Nyet”. The administrative state stands athwart all initiative, enterprise and freedom of action. What the world’s armies cannot restrain, bureaucracy stultifies, immobilizes and forever imprisons.”
We are the ones being strangled by bureaucracies like OSHA, NIOSH, EPA, MSA and a zillion other three letter agencies. The Russians, don’t believe in such government interference in the private sector. They have occasional mishaps, but they actually run a pretty free economy. Unlike us.
“Most of the tankers the Russians are using are approximately the same age. The (Danish) Maersk container fleet happens to have exactly the same average age, so if the Danish don’t subject their Maersk fleet to the same inspections, the Russians will indeed have a casus belli.”
Kremlin war pimp Comrade Cartridge is “cooking the books”. What is the truth?
“The average age of the shadow vessels is around 20 years, compared with 13 years for the overall global oil fleet.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/russia-s-shadow-fleet-continues-to-defy-sanctions-and-risk-oil-spills/ar-AA1NeMKo
Comrade Cartridge conflates “shadow fleet” with Russian maritime fleet to falsely claim that Russian and Danish shipping vessels are of comparable age and if not WOAR, RED WOAR!
Congratulations on another eruption in the comment section. That’s the sort of thing that keeps me tuning in.
“The average age of the shadow vessels is around 20 years, compared with 13 years for the overall global oil fleet.”
This lying factoid is from GUR’s mouthpiece Greenpeace Ukraine (created by GUR in September 2024). Greenpeace Ukraine grossly embellished a report from Greenpeace Germany, which made no claim to being statistically accurate. Greenpeace Germany has made no claim as to the average age of the Russian shadow fleet.
The Greenpeace Germany report, titled ‘Shadow Fleet’, made no claim to being statistically or factually accurate. The Boracay is not included in the report, nor are any of the other EU/NATO identified Russian shadow fleet vessels. Greenpeace Germany just listed 192 ships sighted in the Baltic from February 2022 to October 2024:
1) Greenpeace Germany listed only ships older than 15 years.
2) Greenpeace Germany made no effort to connect these ships to the Russians (government or Rosneft)
3) Greenpeace Germany noted that more than half of the 192 vessels were operating AIS transponders. One key characteristic of the shadow fleet claimed by Greenpeace, their Ukrainian masters, and the EU is its failure to operate AIS transponders.
If you run down the few ships which EU and NATO have determined to be in the Russian shadow fleet, none are older than 17 years. They were all made by the same Chinese shipyards, to the same specifications, as Maersk’s fleet.
Good to know that you are a Greenpeacenik. I consider them troglodytes determined to reimpose the Stone Age on the modern world by destroying every vestige of modern technology.
Did someone say “eruption”?
“According to satellite photos, a Russian Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile probably detonated during a test earlier this month, raising questions about Russia’s military capabilities and putting a dent in the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/23/russia-sarmat-icbm-disaster/
Compare and contrast:
“Very few Soviet era weapons or delivery vehicles remain in Russian service. All their Teller-Ulam devices have had their cores and pits (their “physics packages”) replaced, usually several times. It is how the Russians assure themselves that their nuclear weapons are still ready for use.”
Evidently, Sarmat is ready to be used against its launch site, which seems to be a common theme with Russian made missiles these days.
“According to satellite photos, a Russian Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile probably detonated during a test earlier this month, raising questions about Russia’s military capabilities and putting a dent in the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling.”
The regular, production RS-28 has no issues and has been in serial production at KrasMash since 2018. It has been deployed since 2021. The Russian Strategic Rocket Forces are attempting a very sophisticated and dangerous modification of this missile to evade launch detection by our Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS).
The Satan II is liquid fueled and the modification being attempted involves massively increasing the burn rate (maybe by 10x?) of the first stage PDU-99 engines. The Russians track SBIRS orbit data and plan to launch modified Satan II’s when SBIRs are out of visual range with a very short, explosive first stage burn. Then SBIRS satellites would only see the second stage ignite at very high altitude, if at all. This is not what they were designed to detect.
Fortunately, the Russians have not yet been successful with this modification, but they are persistent. Should they succeed, it will give them an unparalleled, secret, first strike capability on our land based ICBMs. Or we would have to reconfigure the SBIRS at costs in the multiple hundreds of billions. It is already a star-crossed program, so this would likely create even greater procurement chaos.