₦airaland Forum

Meanwhile, in Mozambique.

Nemesis4you:
Latest news

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/policy/international/596693-biden-weighing-sanctions-on-india-over-russian-military-stockpiles%3famp

Don't know how true it is ,

Would be interesting to see if they do it

South Africans fellas after Ind... u next, best prepare mentally

Well, we don't use Russian weapons which could "threaten US national security interests"! That's the excuse they're using against you guys, right?
Though of course, Trump put us on his tariff list because we consistently voted against the US at the UN.

Stormtrooper11:
Nigeria and India, hybrid regimes. WTF

They claim India is a flawed democracy, with a score of 6.0 to 7.0.

kikuyu1:
Oil is dead long term! Cities have announced a ban on fossil fuel vehicles within the next 5 yrs.


https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-07-26/fossil-fuel-vehicles-hitting-a-dead-end-in-europes-city-centers

Volvo has already sworn to phase out internal combustion engines by 2040. Personally,I'm not impressed by electric vehicles- I tried out a pals Toyota Prius and was sooooo underwhelmed I jumped back ASAP into my ZX. Slow and climbs a modest hill like a lawnmower I only hope thye imporve the power capacity of EVs soon.
Negotations on extraction, royalties,EPAs and construction of pipelines involving all stakeholders will take minimum 5 yrs-add another 5 for the infrastructure and Nam' may be too late for the hydrocarbon era. Neighbouring UG discovered oil in 06 and it still hasn't found market-IIRC,discussions on pipeline building are yet to conclude.

Well, we do consume 700 000 barrels/day, so we'll happily help the cousins, at a neighbourly price of course.

Nemesis4you:
Putin now is Asian

Wokie Western media for u , truth is to be decided at their convience and whatever suits them is the truth to be gulped by their ideological slaves

This is Western supremacist fukery in its unclothedness

It's as if they're competing to outdo each other with the racism!

A young reporter once asked an editor at The Economist, "How does one write in The Economist "voice"?"
The editor replied, "Write as if you were God."
Seems that conceit is still ingrained at that British rag, which deigns to tell us about democracy when it championed an illegal war based on lies, against the wishes of the majority of Brits.

GreenandGold:
Countries that have a history of being assisted by the Soviets for their independence were the ones that abstained.

In the case of RSA, there was no Soviet Union in 1910!

Good riddance. They're fucking woeful, with "West is bad" propaganda all day.

GreenandGold:
Tell us your opinion.

SA abstaining was clear from a close reading of DIRCO's statement of 24 Feb. To wit:

"South Africa calls on Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from Ukraine in line with the United Nations Charter, which enjoins all member states to settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice are not endangered.
South Africa emphasises respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states."

"The door of diplomacy should never be closed even as conflict has broken out. We also urge all parties to approach the situation in a spirit of compromise, with all sides respecting international law. In light of the escalating conflict, we call on all parties to resume diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the concerns raised expressed by Russia."

From the 2 paragraphs above, you can see what SA expects of Russia, and what it expects of the US, EU and Ukraine.

The UN resolution excluded all elements of the 2nd paragraph, that is, serious consideration of Russia's concerns, and that's why SA abstained.

Tinfoil:
Nigeria is wise to get arms from both the west and east. If either side to withhold spares or support the military will still have functioning systems unlike S.Africa which is dependant on the west

GreenandGold:
Even if we voted against Russia now, it was not going to cost us anything, even economically.

Re the above, true. SA investment in Russia is R100 billion. Russian investment in SA is R20 billion.
SA is the 5th largest investor in the rest of Africa. Russia is not even in the top 10.

Since that ruralitarian Zuma got into power in 2009, we stopped thinking of our place globally, and became what I call a spaza nation.
It's why I was pleased when SA diplomats pushed back strongly at the last Russia-Africa Summit when their Russian counterparts seemed to condescend to them about Africa trade.

GreenandGold:
There's NOTHING we (ZA) get from Russia besides the fact that the ANC MK generals were trained by the Soviets. Even if we voted against Russia now, it was not going to cost us anything, even economically.

So yes, it boils down to my point

Your point was generalized about countries (plural) who abstained, and I refuted it with data. Accept that fact and then limit your argument to SA.

Now, about SA, you have zero facts to support your assertion. At best, you suspect that's the reason we abstained. I suspect a different reason.

Uganda seems to have acquired Israeli Hermes MALE UAVs

https://www.defenceweb.co.za/aerospace/unmanned-aerial-vehicles/uganda-operating-male-uav/

GreenandGold:
Countries that have a history of being assisted by the Soviets for their independence were the ones that abstained.

Too simplistic: Uganda, Bolivia, Pakistan, Senegal have no such history. Armenia was just recently abandoned by Russia. Iran had conflicts with the Soviets. Many countries voted for the resolution who were assisted by the Soviets. Eritrea voted for Russia, and the Soviets armed the same Ethiopians fighting against Eritrea's independence movement.
Foreign relations is always about self-interest, not some simplistic notion of loyal fealty to past friends,

China, India, South Africa, Algeria are the major countries that abstained during the UN Special General Assembly vote on Russia's attack on Ukraine.
Interesting how this shakes up.

kikuyu1:
Yes. There was a time just after the break up Russia was referred to as "Burkina Faso with nukes."
I had a good pal who went on a series of IMF trips to administer the infamous universal shock therapy (slash social spending, sell EVERYTHING, reduce worker and environmental protection, freeze all hiring and previously agreed wage increases etc, etc) after his MBA and I still rmbr his disbelief.
At the time most of Moscow outside the leafier areas consisted of tiny dreary Commie era apartments.
Uniformly grey and soulless stretching as far
as you can see. Imagine 20 kms of such buildings extending outward from the city in a concentric ring. Inside they ALL had claustrophobic corridors with peeling wallpaper last replaced on the early 70s, 20 yrs previously! Leaky plumbing and terrible heating provided by inefficient old style radiators meant everyone froze in winter and sweltered in summer .
They were tiny, with even 3 bedrooms flats only slightly bigger than London single bedrooms. In the interior things were worse- even second tier towns consisted of a CBD, a residential area for the nomenklatura

Edit: don't believe either sides SM. The reality is the Ukes CAN'T stand up to Russia.

I'll restrict my reponse to only the above. With the exception of Moscow and St Petersburg, most of Russia remains thus. An improvement on the Yeltsin era, yes, but miles from what should obtain in a great power. Indonesia with nukes, more like.

Oh I fully expect them to prevail over the Ukrainians. I've consistently said the invasion would be the easy part, occupation would be the graveyard. Thought their modernisation programme had at least tried to fix their logistics Achilles heel. Boy, was I wrong!

GreenandGold:
Botswana will not like the news, now Namibia will buy bigger boats to fight over the swamps

The World Court ruled in favour of Botswana. The 2 countries then signed a Border Treaty in 2018. At a govt level the issue has been resolved. Certain traditional leaders on the Namibian side however, remain adamant that no border will deter them from "their ancestral land".
The last time there was an incident, in 2021, the Namibian govt essentially told them they're on their own, by agreeing with Botswana that "criminals" on Botswana territory will be dealt with harshly.

Things are about to get interesting for our Namibian cousins.

At least 3 billion barrels: TotalEnergies' Venus is Sub-Saharan Africa's biggest ever oil discovery

TotalEnergies’ enormous Venus-1 discovery offshore Namibia holds at least 3 billion barrels of recoverable oil and is Sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest ever oil find, according to a confidential report from an industry-leading consultant.

Upstream broke the news on the huge discovery last week, just a month or so after revealing exclusively that Shell had also made a big oil discovery in Namibia with its Graff-1 wildcat.

https://www.upstreamonline.com/exclusive/at-least-3-billion-barrels-totalenergies-venus-is-sub-saharan-africas-biggest-ever-oil-discovery/2-1-1174983?fbclid=IwAR2IKxdcgsHmz-Ptg5W9qVkvW1V-x7xKRjU7McspSSUwhZZvVeIojMoyzOk

If Russia didn’t have nuclear weapons and natural gas, it would be just another stagnating economy run by a tinpot dictator. Compared to the United States, the EU and China, Russia’s GDP is an accounting error.
Having been there 5 times in the last 10 years, outside of Moscow and St Petersburg, everything screams Third World. Our then client Naspers has a major shareholding in VK Group - owner of Russia's largest social media company VKontakte - and classified ads company Avito, and always struggled to get South African executives to relocate to Russia.

Back to the economy, since the fall of the Soviet Union, even sub-Saharan Africa has outperformed Russia.

Odunayaw:
Russian logistics is worse than I imagined

Has always been a Russian weakness, from Czarist times. They compensated by throwing numbers -"quantity is its own quality" - and while that might have been tolerated up till the Soviet dictatorship, I strongly suspect the population would baulk today if tens of thousands of body bags started being shipped home.

GreenandGold:
Exactly, Soviet war doctrine is not well thought off.

Honestly, the only reason why the Russians are still alive is because they're fighting poor Ukraine, if they had engaged any formal military with this strategy, they'd be inhalated by now.

It's also testament to how Ukraine's air force and artillery are not a factor that this lumbering column has not been obliterated.

GreenandGold:
Someone said Russia can beat Sweden, I say even the SANDF can tear apart current Russia's formation... No offense, which military in the world literary drives a 5km convoy on the main road to invade a town? I'd light them up with artillery and carpet bombing.

That's exactly what the Angolans used to do:
---Every year or two, the Angolan general staff would draw up a fresh offensive against UNITA, as per the Soviet doctrine they'd learned;
---The Soviet advisors would enthusiastically welcome it, as it confirmed their Angolan hosts had absorbed the lessons;
---The Cubans routinely opposed these plans, arguing grand offensives were no way to defeat UNITA, and only served to invite incursion by the SADF to rescue UNITA. And they were always ignored.

Brigades would be stood up and marched in massive lumbering columns towards Jamba (UNITA HQ). SA SF and UNITA guerillas would harass the rear; SADF artillery and air force would plaster the poor Angolans and the Cubans would have to come cover the withdrawal to prevent complete annihilation.
Rinse and repeat every few years.

These guys did an excellent job covering the Azeri-Armenia conflict.
I trust their info.

What both sides have lost so far:

https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment.html

I have been relying on Israeli reports and analysis of the Russian war on Ukraine for 2 reasons:
1) the Isarelis know all about quick and dirty invasions; and
2) they have excellent relations with both countries and have studiously avoided taking sides.


https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-putin-believed-his-propaganda-too-much-and-the-russian-army-is-stuttering-in-ukraine-1.10638472

The dangers of believing your own bullshit!

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1497498201527521281.html

Ignore this at your peril.

kabe1:
Racism at the Ukraine - Poland border. All black people are turned back, while white people are allowed into Poland.

Please refer anybody you know in this predicament to the bolded:

Lurker4Long:
Only 4 African embassies remain open in Kyiv: Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa.
The Egyptians are only helping their nationals. The Algerian position is unclear.
The Nigerian and SA embassies have announced they will help any citizen of any African country. Evacuation is being arranged through Poland and Romania.
African passport holders are advised to first contact the 2 embassies and not try to travel directly to the border posts with Poland and Romania.

Postscript: friends of mine, a black couple, just got through to Poland. He, with his French passport, and she, with her SA passport with Schengen visa.

jl115:
They should've entrenched themselves in strategic positions especially in cities.........Russia has a very poor economy and with the massive sanctions they could of easily dragged on this war and made it exponentially more difficult for the Russians.

You are talking as if this is over. Invasion is the easy part, occupation is an entirely different matter. As the Yanks found in Iraq.

And as you say, with Russia having GDP almost the size of Spain, and those beefed-up sanctions, a serious insurgency is all Ukraine can do.

GreenandGold:
They're not even behaving like professional military. To only think the Russians have only sent a portion of their army and the Ukrainians have crumbled.

To be fair, what Russia deployed is nothing amazing, if they had to use the same equipment on Sweden, they'd get their Russian asses whipped.

There should have been plenty of ambush points along the freeways, they were given plenty of Javelins and close to a thousand projectiles. Even if they were unlucky, they should have downed dozens of helicopters and took out dozens of tanks - it's all they needed to do.

This is the easy phase, which Ukraine was never going to win. Why expend all your munitions when there's an insurgency phase still to come?

Media Statement

24 February 2022

South African Government calls for a peaceful resolution of the escalating conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine

The Republic of South Africa is dismayed at the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. We regret that the situation has deteriorated despite calls for diplomacy to prevail.

Armed conflict will no doubt result in human suffering and destruction, the effects of which will not only affect Ukraine but also reverberate across the world. No country is immune to the effects of this conflict. As the UN Secretary-General has indicated, the conflict will have a huge impact on the “global economy in a moment when we are emerging from the COVID pandemic and so many developing countries need to have space for the recovery”.

South Africa calls on Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from Ukraine in line with the United Nations Charter, which enjoins all member states to settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice are not endangered.

South Africa emphasises respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.

As a nation birthed through negotiation, South Africa is always appreciative of the potential dialogue has in averting a crisis and de-escalating conflict. In line with our strong commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflict, South Africa urges all parties to devote increased efforts to diplomacy and to find a solution that will help avert further escalation.

The door of diplomacy should never be closed even as conflict has broken out. We also urge all parties to approach the situation in a spirit of compromise, with all sides respecting international law. In light of the escalating conflict, we call on all parties to resume diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the concerns raised expressed by Russia.

South Africa further calls on all parties to uphold and protect human rights and abide by their obligations in terms of international law and international humanitarian law.

South Africa continues to support and encourage regional initiatives such as the Minsk Agreements, and we welcome the work of the Normandy Format, the Trilateral Contact Group and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

South Africa calls on the UN Security Council to play its role in the search for peace. The Security Council remains the primary body tasked with the mandate to maintain international peace and security and it must exercise its responsibility fully in this regard. We also believe that the Good Offices of the UN Secretary-General could also make a positive contribution in finding a lasting solution to this conflict.

The South African Embassy in Kyiv is monitoring developments closely and is also assisting South African nationals in Ukraine.

Enquiries: Mr Clayson Monyela, Spokesperson for DIRCO, ‪082 884 5974

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COOPERATION

OR Tambo Building
460 Soutpansberg Road
Rietondale
Pretoria
0084

Only 4 African embassies remain open in Kyiv: Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa.
The Egyptians are only helping their nationals. The Algerian position is unclear.
The Nigerian and SA embassies have announced they will help any citizen of any African country. Evacuation is being arranged through Poland and Romania.
African passport holders are advised to first contact the 2 embassies and not try to travel directly to the border posts with Poland and Romania.

The markets have been, shall we say, interesting today.
SA platinum, palladium, coal, gold and grain producers are smiling, however.