Russian lawmakers authorize Putin to use military force outside the country, Part II

[Labster]

Day 169 of the war of Northern Aggression:

The big news is the attack on the Russian Saki Airbase in Novofedorivka, Crimea.  A series of closely timed explosions erupted around the entire base, making black clouds.
-- Here's a video of the event but with an old Soviet movie cut in: just when you thought it was safe to go back to the beach. (In the original film, apparently it was escaped tigers swimming ashore.)
-- But no, really.  Traffic jams are miles long on both sides of the Kerch bridge, as Russians realize for the first time that their country is at war.
-- "what airdefense doing?" is the current Russian twitter meme, in English for some reason.
-- Officially Ukraine doesn't have missiles that can reach this far.  They could have repurposed a torpedo, or developed their own missile, or gotten some from the U.S.  Most likely this was a strike by Ukrainian Special Forces working behind enemy lines.  Either way, they're not showing their cards just yet.
-- Russia announces that it wasn't a Ukrainian attack, it was just an unfortunate accident.
-- Chain of explosions was just an Ivan chain smoking.
-- UA Deputy Defense Minister: "The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine cannot establish the cause of the fire, but once again reminds you about fire safety rules and the ban on smoking in improper places."
-- No really, imagine being a country where
-- Supposedly something like 60 pilots were killed in the attack, which if it's true is just really bad news for Russia.
-- But if they can't find the bodies, they don't have to buy the parents a Lada, right?
-- At least 10 aircraft were destroyed
-- This was the only airbase in the Crimea.  That's the whole show for the peninsula.
-- Luckily Russia has installed new inflatable anti-air systems that only slightly deflate on camera.


Elsewhere in the war:
-- Kherson under increasing pressure.  To defend the city, they're erecting wooden hedgehogs
-- Soldiers are evacuating their families from Kherson back to Russia.  Why were they there in the first place?  Well, someone needed to vote for that referendum to join Russia.
-- Railway linking Crimea to Kherson oblast has been blocked, so they can't easily  resupply the other side of the Dnipro, either.
-- Meanwhile in Mariupol, an image of locals lining up for water.
-- US Undersecretary of Defense for personnel estimates Russia has taken 80000 casualties since the beginning of the war
-- Russian Deputy Defense Secretary has two US citizen daughters and an apartment worth millions.  Such an offshore patriot!
-- Russian Army recruiting up to age 60 now.
-- The Wagner Group is recruiting convicts into the army.  It's like The Dirty Dozen, except the convicts are the ones who committed less war crimes.
-- "Dynamic" armor from Russian tanks is just rubber and metal plates. The explosives were removed for storage/theft/corruption in peacetime, but not reinstalled before the "special operation".  Maybe if they knew they were going to war they'd had time to reinstall them?  Not really news but here's a new video of a captured tank. Saint Javelin watches over them.


Internationally:
-- The EU and UK have a full embargo on Russian coal now.  Sadly they're still importing coal from other countries, because it's okay to make war on future generations, but not Ukrainians today.
-- EU importing ⅓ of Russian gas from before the war, and about ⅕ of 2019 levels.  Graph
-- Kazakhstan has joined the international sanctions on Sberbank.  No one tell Borat.
-- Over 1000 members have left Amnesty Sweden in protest of their report on Ukraine, including a cofounder.
-- "Amnesty International deeply regrets the outrage caused by our press release on the combat tactics used by the Ukrainian military."  I deeply regret that non-apology.
-- I've seen lots of probable misinformation out there, like a Russian general who supposedly mined the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, or Russians selling Ukrainian women as sex slaves to the UAE.  I mean, it's certainly possible, but there are already plenty of war crimes they are actually doing.  Or, like training children as soldiers at a monastery.
-- FBI raids home of known Russian sympathizer and Florida man, looking for highly classified documents stolen from the government
-- A truly charming propaganda piece from the Moscow Metro:

-- Clear message: If you use a VPN, Guy Fawkes will come and steal from your purse if you're a lesbian groper.
-- Clear summary of American diplomatic doctrine: