Russian lawmakers authorize Putin to use military force outside the country

[Labster]

-- People still twattering about Biden.  Two contradictory points that seem to come up in all analyses:
---- Obvious political gaffe, he's definitely not changing policy
---- Russia will assume he's absolutely changing policy
-- A verbal gaffe is basically a public brain fart.  A political gaffe is saying something that is obviously true, but you are not allowed to say aloud
-- Biden "not walking anything back" while moonwalking
-- Mayor of Mariupol tells everyone to leave
-- Satellite imagery shows block after block after block of housing destroyed in Mariupol.
-- Red Cross warehouse struck in Mariupol.  Russia sorry (not sorry).
-- Surprised there are any buildings left.
-- Russia demands immediate surrender of Mariupol, or else... again.
-- Ukraine trying, but cannot hold the centre of Mariupol
-- Falcon cannot hear the falconer
-- Gyre widening
-- I don't expect a ceasefire until Mariupol is fully occupied by Russia.  Control of the Azov and a land route to Crimea are important.
-- Technically there is a land route to Russia via a bridge at Kerch.  I'm surprised no one could spare a missile to blow it up.
-- Three people poisoned at peace conference: one Ukranian peace negotiator, and Russian oligarch Roman Abramov, owner of Chelsea FC
-- I guess the poison was in the chocolate.  Anyway they lost eyesight for a while but are now fine.
-- Russian oligarchs aren't actually oligarchs, and haven't been so since a couple years after Yeltsin left office.  It's a dictatorship.  If Atlas decided to shrug, a bunch of rich people would be poisoned or fall off of tall buildings and Putin would still be in power.
-- Russia declares MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
-- Cool story bro
-- Russia says it will be attacking Kyiv less now
-- Okay?
-- I guess it's okay to telegraph your manuvers that everyone can see you are already making
-- Presumably they are going back to consolidate gains, because they aren't really advancing
-- Russia beginning to "withdraw" from Ukraine -- particularly those forces that are no longer combat effective, and also unwithdraw reserve forces towards Cherniv.
-- At most, 20% of Russian forces attacking Kyiv have left
-- Cherniv under heavy attack
-- Heavy fighting around Kyiv too
-- Russia bans use of land mines in places that it wants to keep -- or maybe different armies just following different rules?
-- WHO program director: Denying medical care to Ukrainians is "part of [Russia's] military strategy."
-- US forces are training Ukrainian forces in Poland
-- Benelux busy expelling Russian diplomats/spies
-- Ukraine, Russia agree not to worry about status of Crimea for 15 years
-- Ukraine considering neutrality -- of a sort.  They'd like a security guarantee from all five permanent members of the Security Council, plus Turkey, Germany, Canada, Italy, Poland and Israel, with no-fly zones included.
-- But meanwhile asking for more, stronger sanctions on Russia from everyone
-- Video shows Ukrainian army shooting various captured Russians in the leg inside a van.  Torture is a crime.
-- Where is the van?  Mariupol?  Moscow?  Ukrainian general notes that there is no statute of limitations for war crimes to all soldiers, real or imagined.
-- Novaya Gazeta stops publishing.  Russian newspapers closing faster than Google shuts down services.
-- To capture the Chernobyl reactor, Russia marched troops through the Red Forest.  Eat my dust!
-- People will be eating their radioactive dust for a while.
-- Zelensky asks Norwegian parliament for weapons is a sentence I never thought I'd write before today.
-- China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, today: "China is ready to work with Russia to take China-Russia relations to a higher level in the new era."
-- Russia tells Europe: Gives us the rubles or you don't gets the gas
-- Belarus will join war.  Any day now...
-- Slovenia PM says that Ukraine will soon be the strongest military in Europe, and NATO will *want* them to join.  /gives anti-aircraft system to Ukraine
-- Chechen dictator says Russian negotiators are giving too much away, and in the end there will be no compromises with Ukraine.
-- This man understands the value of Russian promises.
-- About 10 million Ukrainians forced from their homes
-- Will probably hit 4 million refugees from Ukraine tomorrow
-- Of those, 2 million are children
-- US going to give half a billion directly to Ukraine so the government can pay salaries
-- Oil under $100/barrel
-- Incidentally I spent $100 yesterday on a tank of gas
-- Any time oil is expensive, refineries in California always develop mysterious production problems