Russian lawmakers authorize Putin to use military force outside the country

[Dartz]

Not all of Europe is on standard gauge. Ireland isn't -- but we're an Island. Spain is on its own Iberian gauge aswell. Both of which are bigger than Russian gauge

Still a problem for Ireland's Galaxy Express station, but you only need a mile of track and a big ramp

Also, the China thing

Fucked if we know what China's going to do. Russia's asked for help from them now which is going to push China into a position where it has to make some sort of decision.

Any help from China will come with some expensive terms.

That's a nice read.  So the assumption there is that the war is not winnable for Russia (even with Chinese support), and the Russian economy has, at the most, a few years before complete collapse.  And because of this, there's no benefit to China for supporting a zombie regime fighting an unwinnable war.  The bigger assumption is that China's actions can be decisive, and force Russia to end the war.  Given domestic pressures, I'm not really sure that it's possible.  And it's really hard to say what post-Putin Russia looks like.

I also think there's more than 1-2 weeks "wiggle room" for China, especially if they take a mostly undecided stance in the meantime.  China has too much strategic importance to everyone for us to try to pick a fight with it now.

They'll stay on the fence as long as they can.

Neogotiations with Ukraine might obviate the requirement for them to take a stance -- it looks like there'll be progress in the next few days - but if it comes to a point where a decision must be made, backing Russia would be like signing onto the Titanic after it hit the iceberg.


America, China and Russia announce a joint expedition to raise the Titanic  
America is hoping to find the gold and bullion
China is hoping to copy the advanced technology
Russia is looking for the band that played as it sank


EDIT: And China's response just got shat out while I was typoing. They've claimed they haven't received any request. Given that Russia's political structures seem to have been given the tentacle monster treatment by the CIA - this is probably as close to 'Fuck off' as Russia is going to get.



Anyway. On an Unrelated note, the Galaxy Express (As featured in the original anime) would've been narrow gauge. As featured in Fenspace, it would've been Victoria railways gauge --- the same as Irish and Brazilian gauge.