Vladimir Putin is ready to launch an invasion of Nato nations and annex parts of Estonia and Sweden to test the West, the head of Poland's counterintelligence service has warned.
  • Opisek@lemmy.world
    105·
    6 months ago

    That’s a BS headline made to scare people. The article boils down to “Russia theoretically has the capabilities to attack, but don’t because they know the West will be angry”.

      • Monument@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        5·
        6 months ago

        It’s all fucked.

        Russia fucks around until someone deems them worthy of finding out. Sure, it seems fun when U.S. pilots are cranking up the AC/DC and doing their hero walk on the way to wipe every single Russian airbase and fuel depot off the map, but then half of the west’s water systems, electrical grids, and networking infrastructure gets hacked and severely damaged/bricked. Russia gets hacked and grinds to a standstill. China takes advantage of the chaos and invades Taiwan. The U.S. bombs the chip fabs in Taiwan into powder, and anti-satellite operations trigger the Kessler syndrome. Maybe some of the other regional conflicts pop off, too.

        The bright side is that assuming no nukes fly, we’ll see earth’s habitability improve for a while, once people starve and consumption/ability to produce goes way down.

      • MisterMoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        571·
        6 months ago

        Yeah, they’ve proved that to everyone who has succumbed to constant Russian propaganda.

      • BatrickPateman@lemmy.world
        29·
        6 months ago

        He says in defence of the country which formerly proclaimed to have the second best army in the world, but also

        • struggles to complete its three day adventure in Ukraine for more than two years now,
        • has to hide its navy,
        • lost most of its active aviation, tanks and APCs, and
        • (my personal favourite) has to resort sending troops into battle in Chinese golf carts as transport options seem to run.

        But the West is a laughing stock.

        Dang. Can I get some of the shit you are on?

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
            4·
            6 months ago

            Technically the drones are a naval force. Just a very cheap and surprisingly effective one.

            Russia’s naval force has been a bit of paper tiger for a while now. Some of their warships practically run on coal.

      • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
        261·
        6 months ago

        Funny how they can do that without NATO being involved at all beyond some member states providing weapons and training. The biggest damage NATO has suffered so far is from second hand embarrassment.

      • mindlight@lemm.ee
        7·
        6 months ago

        The amount of next level bending over Putin have been forced to do for Xi the last two years… and just to destabilize the world… Oh my. The pricetag on that one…

        Long after the situation is stabilized, Russia will still be paying to China for the help they got.

  • wandermind@sopuli.xyz
    89·
    6 months ago

    I’m half convinced Putin wants NATO to get directly involved so that he can pull out of Ukraine and be like “We didn’t lose to Ukraine, it was the West who once again oppresses poor little Russia”

    • Logi@lemmy.world
      39·
      6 months ago

      If that’s what he really wants, then I’m sure it could be arranged and nobody needs to get nuked. But it probably isn’t.

      • wandermind@sopuli.xyz
        8·
        6 months ago

        I’m not so sure NATO wants to play directly into Putin’s anti-West narrative.

        Also why would anybody get nuked lol

        • Logi@lemmy.world
          16·
          6 months ago

          I’m not so sure NATO wants to play directly into Putin’s anti-West narrative.

          They might give Putin that in return for his retreat from Ukraine. That would be the “arrangement”. But again, I don’t really believe it.

          Also why would anybody get nuked lol

          That’s what Putin keeps threatening if NATO gets involved.

          • Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz
            111·
            6 months ago

            He warned about nukes if the west sent artillery, and then when they sent tanks and again over HIMARS, and guess what the threat was about sending jets?

    • Hux@lemmy.ml
      151·
      6 months ago

      I bet that will be his playbook if Joe Biden retains the White House.

      If Trump returns to the White House, Putin will get a punch card for every NATO state he annexes—for every sixth country he conquers, he’ll get a genocide “free-pass”.

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
        5·
        6 months ago

        for every sixth country he conquers, he’ll get a genocide “free-pass”.

        The fine print will read: may be used on past genocides to obtain this card.

  • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.worldEnglish
    58·
    6 months ago

    Russia can’t even succeed against Ukraine. What makes him think he has a chance in hell against the combined power of NATO? Hell, man, I’m pretty sure the USA alone would make quick work of Russia in an all out war.

    • Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.world
      82·
      6 months ago

      Assuming it doesn’t result in a nuclear war. Both nations have enough nukes to wipe all life off the face of the earth.

    • xor@infosec.pub
      13·
      6 months ago

      unless they let loose the whole thermonuclear, biological and chemical warfare…

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
          9·
          6 months ago

          Russia would be hardest hit though because most of their population is confined to two or three cities. In most of the rest of the world the population is more distributed.

          It would be devastating to all sides of course, assuming Russia’s oligarchs haven’t stolen the nukes, but Russia would come off worse. Anyway Putin wants to be in charge he isn’t going to risk getting the entire country destroyed, if only because it’s not fun ruling over a crater riddled radioactive moonscape.

          • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.worldEnglish
            6·
            6 months ago

            Also because the wind blows East out of Europe. So, nuking Europe pushes the fallout across Russia. They would essentially be nuking themselves. The United States is probably the most dispersed population. The country is huge, and other than the big coastal cities, people are spread out over thousands of miles.

  • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
    542·
    6 months ago

    I’ve been saying this for a long while, but Russia’s every move seems to indicate desperation.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
    33·
    6 months ago

    Russia has claimed it’s going to attack a NATO country since before the Ukrainian war started. They like to say it every now and then, just to remind us that they exist and North Eastern Europe is not just an unpopulated wasteland.

  • PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world
    26·
    6 months ago

    Jarosław Stróżyk said Putin is in a position where he could begin planning a small-scale invasion but is holding back due to the West’s response to the attack in Ukraine.

    “Putin is certainly already prepared for some mini-operation against one of the Baltic countries, for example, to enter the famous Narva [municipality in Estonia] or to land on one of the Swedish islands,” Mr Stróżyk told Polish paper Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

    Tl;dr - We think that Putin has the capability to mount a small scale invasion, but isn’t doing it because of NATO’s potential response. But if we assume he really wants to, then he will.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
      10·
      6 months ago

      They are not going to get a quarter mile into the EU (that’s 0.4 km for you Euros). NATO doesn’t need to march a bunch of missiles through the streets to feel tough. They keep them ready to go at the airbase.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      14·
      6 months ago

      Even if the US sat on the sidelines, the European parts of NATO would still be formidable.

      • el_abuelo@lemmy.ml
        14·
        6 months ago

        And likely the US would eventually intervene once both sides had slugged it out for a while, ensuring they have a seriously compromised enemy and seriously dependent allies…and enrich themselves in the process.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
        7·
        6 months ago

        I’ve had to point this out to people a few it’s amazing how Americans think that the US is the only country in the world with any real military might.

        Even without the United States NATO still has two nuclear powers. A military that would rival that of the US on its own. Access to space assets such as spy satellites, gps systems, and communication systems. Extensive bioweapons research labs, if they wanted to go that route (although realistically they would be better utilized to research bio defenses). And more money than the adversary. They also have a population that on the whole seem to be more on board with the politicians then not (relatively speaking).

        I’m sure if there was a war, the French would go on strike about it, but they always do that.

        All the United States brings to the table is just more people and more stuff. I’m not saying that wouldn’t be useful to have access to it, but losing it wouldn’t be as devastating as some Americans seem to think.

        • Kanda@reddthat.com
          1·
          6 months ago

          No, no, no, the US isn’t the only military power in the world, the US is the only country in the world

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
        15·
        6 months ago

        Even if the US sat on the sidelines, the European parts of NATO would still be formidable.

        You mean the parts of Europe that has been taken hostage by Orban?

  • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
    12·
    6 months ago

    They barely have the manpower to push forward even in Ukraine. Then again if they ever want to do it now is the time because in a few decades they’re not going to have enough fighting age men. I just really doubt this. If the current war has taught us anything it’s that they would get absolutely obliterated by Nato and there are no winners in a nuclear exchange. Also them using nukes in Ukraine/Europe would mean nuking themselves too because that’s the direction wind is going to push the fallout. Though that assumes they would care about their civilian population which they clearly don’t.

  • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
    10·
    6 months ago

    This sounds like possible intelligence, based on the hawkish tone of france lately; europe has its best interests in going full article 5 if this happens.

    Unfortunately it would never happen before jan 7 and a tragic election.

  • Pringles@lemm.ee
    26·
    6 months ago

    Can we goad him into it? I don’t really want a NATO-Russian war, but it might be the only way to resolve the Russo-Ukraine war to Ukraines advantage.