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submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Image is of the Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline, which transports gas from Russia to China. This isn't an oil pipeline (such as the ESPO) but I thought it looked cool. Source here.


Trump has recently proposed a 500% tariff on goods from countries that trade with Russia, including India and China (who buy ~70% of Russia's oil output), as well as a 10% additional tariff on goods from countries that "align themselves with BRICS." Considering that China is the largest trading partner of most of the countries on the planet at this point, and India and Brazil are reasonably strong regional players, I'm not sure what exactly "alignment" means, but it could be pretty bad.

Sanctions and tariffs on Russian products have been difficult to achieve in practice. It's easy to write an order to sanction Russia, but much harder to actually enforce these sorts of things because of, for example, the Russian shadow oil fleet, or countries like Kazakhstan acting as covert middlemen (well, as covert as a very sudden oil export boom can be).

Considering that China was pretty soundly victorious last time around, I'm cautiously optimistic, especially because China and India just outright cutting off their supply of energy and fuel would be catastrophic to them (and if Iran and Israel go to war again any time in the near future, it'll only be more disastrous). Barring China and India kowtowing to Trump and copying Europe vis-a-vis Nordstream 2 (which isn't impossible, I suppose), the question is whether China and India will appear to accede to these commands while secretly continuing trade with Russia through middlemen, or if they will be more defiant in the face of American pressure.


Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


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[-] [email protected] 41 points 1 day ago

US turning shipping containers into missile systems

https://asiatimes.com/2025/07/us-containerized-missiles-steathy-firepower-high-strategic-cost/

Palletized field artillery launchers (PFAL) that can be concealed on trucks, railcars, or ships.

spoiler

The US military’s turn to containerized missile launchers reflects a push for stealthy, mobile firepower that complicates targeting and enables rapid deployment but comes with operational, legal, and political concerns – especially regarding their use on allied soil and civilian cargo vessels.

This month, The War Zone identified a prototype launcher known as the palletized field artillery launcher (PFAL) at Fort Bragg, after it appeared unannounced in footage from US President Donald Trump’s June visit.

Currently owned by US Special Operations Command (SOCOM), PFAL can fire most munitions in the multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) family – such as 227 millimeter guided rockets and Army tactical missile system (ATACMS) – from two pods housed in a standard container, though it cannot launch the precision strike missile (PrSM).

Concealable on trucks, railcars, or ships, PFAL supports the Army’s strategy to complicate adversary targeting. Originating from the US Department of Defense’s Strike X program, it also informed designs for future uncrewed systems like the autonomous multi-domain launcher (AML).

Containerized launchers like PFAL offer operational benefits– concealability, rapid mobility and modular integration across partner platforms. Yet their covert nature also introduces tactical weaknesses, legal risks and political complications. While these systems enhance deterrence through ambiguity and dispersion, they risk civilian targeting, escalation and backlash from host nations wary of entanglement.

In remarks delivered at a June 2025 event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), US Army Pacific Commander General Ronald Clark stated that such systems “literally operationalize deterrence,” likening them to “a needle in a stack of needles” due to their ambiguous electromagnetic signatures and visual resemblance to civilian containers.

He emphasized that their dispersed posture enables US forces to hold Chinese targets at risk across the Indo-Pacific, while avoiding traditional launcher vulnerabilities.

In a June 2025 Proceedings article, Rear Admiral Bill Daly and Captain Lawrence Heyworth IV emphasized advantages of modular, containerized payloads: low cost, ease of production and quick scalability. They noted that mounting them on unmanned or optionally manned vessels increases survivability and complicates targeting. A standardized interface allows for rapid reconfiguration, while adaptability enables distributed maritime operations with flexible firepower suited to near-peer conflicts.


[-] [email protected] 41 points 1 day ago

Mr President, we cannot allow a perfidious war crime gap!

[-] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This is unironically the reasoning. I think Russia was the first to come up with such a system, in Club K, and even conducted test launches.

Video

Test launch

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

Link 1:

Link 2:

[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

Wow. Learn something new every day

[-] [email protected] 8 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

I specifically know it from reading the Geneva conventions, they say military actions using 'perfidy' like disguising equipment as civilian are banned.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago

Comrades reading primary source documents 🫡

Big salute

[-] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago

It's very fun to refer to England as "perfidious albion"

[-] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago
[-] [email protected] 2 points 19 hours ago

that blue pattern is so cute crush

[-] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago

Russia did it first with club K as far as I remember. All sides engage in this.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago

Has it ever been implemented or was it more proof of concept?

[-] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The system was first unveiled at the MAKS 2011 air show. Test firings have been conducted, and Russia is currently building Navy Corvettes that can accommodate these containers as part of the design. The Project 22160 is one such ship.

Has it been used operationally yet? That is unknown. The Project 22160 ships have seen combat in Ukraine, but it's unknown if this system was equipped on them. Obviously putting the system on a warship is different from a perfidious attack using cargo ships.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago

I will bet the first to use this from a civilian transport will be the US.

[-] [email protected] 46 points 1 day ago

While these systems enhance deterrence through ambiguity and dispersion, they risk civilian targeting, escalation and backlash from host nations wary of entanglement.

The revolutionary change in nato war effort: human shields

Disgusting little freaks.

this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
118 points (99.2% liked)

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