Russians Plundered $5M Farm Vehicles from Ukraine - to Find They've Been Remotely Disabled (cnn.com) 125
CNN cites a local source imagining the surprise of the looters of a Ukranian farm equipment dealership who'd transported some heavy machines over 700 miles to Russia. "They realized that they could not even turn them on, because the harvesters were locked remotely."
CNN adds that "The equipment now appears to be languishing at a farm near Grozny." Over the past few weeks there's been a growing number of reports of Russian troops stealing farm equipment, grain and even building materials — beyond widespread looting of residences. But the removal of valuable agricultural equipment from a John Deere dealership in Melitopol speaks to an increasingly organized operation, one that even uses Russian military transport as part of the heist. CNN has learned that the equipment was removed from an Agrotek dealership in Melitopol, which has been occupied by Russian forces since early March. Altogether it's valued at nearly $5 million. The combine harvesters alone are worth $300,000 each....
The contact said the process began with the seizure of two combine harvesters, a tractor and a seeder. Over the next few weeks, everything else was removed: in all 27 pieces of farm machinery. One of the flat-bed trucks used, and caught on camera, had a white "Z" painted on it and appeared to be a military truck. The contact said there were rival groups of Russian troops: some would come in the morning and some in the evening.
Some of the machinery was taken to a nearby village, but some of it embarked on a long overland journey to Chechnya more than 700 miles away. The sophistication of the machinery, which are equipped with GPS, meant that its travel could be tracked....
The end result? "After a journey of more than 700 miles, the thieves were unable to use any of the equipment — because it had been locked remotely."
CNN adds that "The equipment now appears to be languishing at a farm near Grozny." Over the past few weeks there's been a growing number of reports of Russian troops stealing farm equipment, grain and even building materials — beyond widespread looting of residences. But the removal of valuable agricultural equipment from a John Deere dealership in Melitopol speaks to an increasingly organized operation, one that even uses Russian military transport as part of the heist. CNN has learned that the equipment was removed from an Agrotek dealership in Melitopol, which has been occupied by Russian forces since early March. Altogether it's valued at nearly $5 million. The combine harvesters alone are worth $300,000 each....
The contact said the process began with the seizure of two combine harvesters, a tractor and a seeder. Over the next few weeks, everything else was removed: in all 27 pieces of farm machinery. One of the flat-bed trucks used, and caught on camera, had a white "Z" painted on it and appeared to be a military truck. The contact said there were rival groups of Russian troops: some would come in the morning and some in the evening.
Some of the machinery was taken to a nearby village, but some of it embarked on a long overland journey to Chechnya more than 700 miles away. The sophistication of the machinery, which are equipped with GPS, meant that its travel could be tracked....
The end result? "After a journey of more than 700 miles, the thieves were unable to use any of the equipment — because it had been locked remotely."
Russia is a peace-loving country (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Russia is a peace-loving country (Score:3)
Probally because their convoy vehicles are rotting pieces of sheeyt, and even a modern farm tractor is much more desireable option. They were likely going to use them for just that.
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comrade.
i traded a tank for a harvester.
now it does not.
come get your harvester.
i want my tank back
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Why is Russia trying to rebuild Ukraine with the same business plan they used in Afghanistan?
Just asking for a friend. A Ukrainian freedom-fighter friend.
Signed, yet another #ReaganRINO.
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Because of the mental illness called power hunger in the leadership of Russia.
Re: Russia is a peace-loving country (Score:2)
Curious how the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting energy price increases and instability dovetails perfectly with the green policy objectives of the Biden administration.
Iâ(TM)m not anti green, quite the opposite. Just observing the coincidence through the cynical eyes that long observation of government machinations has provided me with.
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really.
change drug dealers
Re: Russia is a peace-loving country (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Russia is a peace-loving country (Score:4, Informative)
Unlike the US in Syria, Afghanistan etc. etc. They are exactly the same as us.
HA HA no.
They might be the same in intent but their level of competence is grossly lower. We have the budget and discipline to maintain our military equipment. That doesn't mean every attempt is a success, but it does mean we're not getting stuck in the mud because of cheap chinese tires that we didn't exercise.
Re:Russia is a peace-loving country (Score:5, Funny)
The advantage of a combine harvester over a Russian tank, is that the farm equipment doesn't have an auto-loader that sets off the entire ammunition magazine and blows the tank up like a jack-in-the-box [washingtonpost.com].
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Yep. They do address this problem in the T-14 Armata MBT, but they have barely a handful of those (as alluded to in the fine article you linked) because they depend on foreign components, and are quite expensive to manufacture compared to reusing ye olde T-72 and derivatives. What's weird is that rate of fire only matters (within reason) if you are fielding less units than the enemy. If you're expecting to be firing on multiple vehicles that can penetrate your armor, you want a high rate of fire so you can
Re:Russia is a peace-loving country (Score:5, Funny)
Tractors are Ukraine's strongest weapon. [youtube.com] It makes sense Russians would want to take them.
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Nice opening joke, but I think the Subject could have been "Russia is a peaceful tractor-loving country" or something... Leading to some kind of joke about factor trucking? Or tucked fanks? Putin wouldn't kick a nice tank out of bed, would he?
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Russia is a piece-loving country. Piece of this country, piece of that country...
Re: Russia is a peace-loving country (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Russia is a peace-loving country (Score:5, Interesting)
If you'd been following the John Deere DRM story (and if you haven't, you haven't been reading Slashdot) then you know that all of the really expensive parts are DRM'd. You can't change out any of the fancy parts (like fuel injectors) without having the PCM coded to accept them. The lumps of metal are not without value, but it's parts like these that are potentially most valuable for resale because they have high value:mass and value:volume ratios. But their value is reduced sharply because before your tractor will accept them, a John Deere tech has to visit you with his laptop and interface and bless them. And he's not going to do that for unauthorized parts, and you also have to wait days to weeks for him to show up.
John Deere is the Apple of farm equipment. You literally couldn't draw a closer parallel — the company began in a small shop, JD is a "lifestyle" brand which has great success selling branded bullshit, and they both use DRM to outright prevent you from using third party parts and not just to handle warranty claim specifics.
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If you're familiar with the ways Russians had to jury-rig everything back in the Soviet era just to keep it running, and often still do, you'll know they won't have any particular trouble swapping out the DRM'd parts for off-the-shelf parts.
Assuming, of course, that the story is any more true than the other drivel being parroted by the mainstream media.
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[Citation Needed]
A temporary setback (Score:2)
With state support (even Russia), they should be able to replace or workaround whatever built in chip is preventing this gear from starting up.
I would guess the main value is in the actual vehicle itself, and in a worst case scenario they can replace and even retrofit an entirely different engine.
Re:A temporary setback (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe so but it's still funny, and a side of DRM most wouldn't have thought of.
Re: A temporary setback (Score:4, Interesting)
Sounds more like LoJack with a disabling feature.
Re:A temporary setback (Score:5, Informative)
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With state support (even Russia), they should be able to replace or workaround whatever built in chip is preventing this gear from starting up.
I'm going to hazard a guess that they'll have a difficult time defeating the disabling because of Western sanctions making equipment and parts difficult to obtain. They may have the know-how, but not the necessary materiel.
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With state support (even Russia), they should be able to replace or workaround whatever built in chip is preventing this gear from starting up.
Sanctions prevent chips from entering the country. They'll have to rely on the black market.
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What might be interesting is if the tractors used interference engines. Flash some firmware to change timing, valves stay open as the piston hits TDC... and there won't be much of an engine left.
Re:A temporary setback (Score:4, Informative)
Today I'd consider putting a kill current through the injectors instead to cook the coils in them.
Good luck with sourcing new injectors today.
If you are really devious you can make the engine run backwards - but that takes some software skills. A diesel engine can go both ways but backwards will stop the lubrication and make the engine fail.
They might be able to hack up some mechanical injector system as in classic old diesels. But then you'll still have to make some control system for the transmission which is today all electronic. Good luck with that part - on modern farm machinery the transmission is quite "interesting" and can be a lot more tricky to control than the engine.
So if there's a lot of equipment no longer working that has been "liberated" then the rumor goes around and that will stop. But they might of course destroy the equipment instead, which just makes everyone lose.
Re:A temporary setback (Score:5, Insightful)
But they might of course destroy the equipment instead, which just makes everyone lose.
If you just spent days hauling multi-ton machinery through a warzone only to find that it had been disabled by someone on the other side of the world at the push of a button, wouldn't you want to burn the damn thing? /s
In all seriousness, everyone here is cheering for the enemy's defeat. They should remain vigilant however, because the original purpose of this capability was to target the real enemy: The legitimate owners of the equipment.
Re: A temporary setback (Score:2)
The fact that the Russians cannot use them is seen by some as a victory.
This ignores the simple fact that by removing the equipment from the Ukraine, the Ukrainians cannot use the equipment.
It is still a net victory for the Russians and a loss of value and function for the Ukrainian economy.
Re: A temporary setback (Score:5, Informative)
That's not how engines work.
This is correct because most engines can't advance or retard cams enough to cause interference. The easiest way to damage an ICE using the ECU is to alter ignition timing to cause severe detonation under high load. That will quickly blow out cylinder head gaskets, damage bearings or crack castings. Another possibility is to run very lean while under high load; this will rapidly melt pistons causing severe damage.
So, while the valve/piston interference idea isn't generally plausible, it is very possible to electronically destroy a modern engine.
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Another possibility is to run very lean while under high load; this will rapidly melt pistons causing severe damage.
Not on a diesel, it won't. Diesels run lean any time they're not accelerating. That's why they produce so much NOx. If you reduce fuel while a diesel is running at high RPM, it just runs slower.
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Not on a diesel, it won't.
Yes, on a diesel you'd need to inject excessive fuel too early in the compression cycle; this will erode the pistons and eventually wreck the engine.
Piston burning (Score:2)
If you can change the fuel/air mixture, you can probably make it burn a hole in the piston.
When I was learning how to jet the carbs on a motorcycle, I burned through at least one piston.
Carburetors are always a compromise. I rejetted because I lived at a different altitude than what the factory set up. When I went on a trip to Colorado, I had to rejet and use lower octane fuel.
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Yes, on a diesel you'd need to inject excessive fuel too early in the compression cycle; this will erode the pistons and eventually wreck the engine.
I was thinking you could screw the timing on just one cylinder, if you did it under enough load you might be able to destroy the engine catastrophically. The miracle of independent fuel injection.
Re:A temporary setback (Score:4, Funny)
The state should probably prioritize getting working toilets before worrying about high tech equipment.
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It's a lot more than a chip, the whole thing is computer controlled, probably several computers, and satellite links all of the way to servers in Moline, Illinois. Fuel management, Emissions, Transmissions, product flow, it's all computer controlled.
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need help with the firmware hacking on that (Score:5, Interesting)
wasn't there a story recently about US farmers paying hackers to unlock the firmware on john deere equipment? these russians could ask them for some help. where were those hackers based... ukraine, wasn't it? oh. err...
https://yro.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]
Re:need help with the firmware hacking on that (Score:5, Interesting)
Given the value of the stolen gear it would probably be worth engineering either a hack to re-enable them, or a replacement for the entire control unit.
Replacement control units were made for rental scooters. They sometimes get abandoned, picked up by the city and auctioned off when the owner doesn't want to pay the associated fees. People were buying them for a few bucks, installing new electronics and netting themselves a cheep electric scooter.
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Re:need help with the firmware hacking on that (Score:5, Funny)
But that would be a breach of the EULA and they'd get American lawyers after them which is far worse than a Stinger.
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Haha (Score:2, Funny)
HAHA
So now they are land pirates, and they got their fee fees hurt when they found that the treasure chest is made of a super unbreakable material with a pick proof lock.
I wish I could've seen the look on those clowns' faces.
HAHA
Re: Haha (Score:2)
I think they were trying to use them as new convoy vehicles, likely fitted with the armor stripped from their old broken ones. The end product would be a real cowboy job with questionable protection against anything more than small arms fire.
Strongest argument for remote disabling (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm generally pretty uncomfortable with it being easy to remotely disable machinery and the like, with their being a lot of downsides. But this seems like a pretty good argument for it being a thing.
But regardless it should be clear from this and the other looting how much Russia is engaging in a war not just with Ukraine's soldiers but a systematic destruction of Ukraine's civilian infrastructure. Between this, the massacres in Bucha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucha_massacre [wikipedia.org], and the systematic thefts from Ukrainian museums https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/world/europe/ukraine-scythia-gold-museum-russia.html [nytimes.com] , this is a combination of deliberate genocide and borderline medieval theft of resources. The idea that this is a war of anything other than aggression and conquest. So, let's keep in mind given that that you can directly donate to the Ukrainian military effort through their national bank. https://bank.gov.ua/en/ [bank.gov.ua]. Russia must be stopped, and if we do not stop Russia now, and show to Russia and to the world the consequences of these sorts of actions, we'll be next time dealing with similar things elsewhere in Europe.
Re:Strongest argument for remote disabling (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sorry, systematic? You think a poorly disciplined military needs any excuse not to steal everything not nailed to the ground? You are entirely too used to post WWII first world military operations. This kinda shit is par for the course.
Re:Strongest argument for remote disabling (Score:5, Insightful)
Way no. Every single tool of despotism can theoretically be used to prevent some evil or injustice. Every tool of tyranny is introduced with an almost benign excuse. Let's prevent IP theft. It's a way to track those evil child predators. It's a way to stop drug abuse. We can find those deadbeat dads and make them pay. We can find a murderer before he escapes to do it again. Every time it's the most despised people who are the initial target of various means of control, and it always, ALWAYS expands from there.
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There's some truth to that. However, I think it would do well with a bit more nuance. I mean that Putin had one idea about the invasion, the military upper echelons had another, the goons in the FSB had their own, the grunts have one as well. Then there are the, what, inner structures. These thefts sound like Russian crime syndicates have infiltrated the Russian military.
Regardless, it doesn't bode well for the Russkies with this sort of haphazard unfolding of their invasion. I recall on spark at DoD which
Re:Strongest argument for remote disabling (Score:4, Informative)
There's nothing new about this. When the Soviets invaded Germany at the end of WWII, they stole everything they could carry away and raped every female from six to sixty.
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In addition: German SA [wikipedia.org] units followed the German Army into Russia and murdered Russian civilians. When the Russians invaded Germany, they returned the favor by murdering German civilians.
Re:Strongest argument for remote disabling (Score:5, Insightful)
In addition: German SA [wikipedia.org] units followed the German Army into Russia and murdered Russian civilians. When the Russians invaded Germany, they returned the favor by murdering German civilians.
When you say SA, I think that in practice you mean SS since, after the Night of the Long Knives the SA was very much weakened and the SS, originally part of the SA, became independent from it. The SA itself wasn't able to provide anything like the level of men of the SA. However, in any case it's not just the SS (or SA) that did the murdering. There were also a bunch of more conventional police units, mostly from the Ordnungspolizei [wikipedia.org] which were responsible for controlling areas behind German lines and carried out lots of massacres; primarily of Jews but also plenty of partisans and civilians.
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Be glad that Putin is anti-gay or it would be not just the females.
Think you'll find that the Putin definition of "anti-gay" is completely at ease with men raping men [wikipedia.org] and that people go to pretty extreme measures [themoscowtimes.com] if they want to escape that when e.g. conscripted into the army.
Re:Strongest argument for remote disabling (Score:5, Informative)
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At least this time the equipment belongs to John Deere. That stuff has GPS accurate to 6 inches so they can auto-steer the planters to plant between last year's rows for no-till operation, I'm waiting for every John Deere built since 2000 in Russia to flash the error "Contact authorized John Deere Service technician for repair" as it shuts down in the middle of the field.
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Just turn off GPS in Russia. [geoawesomeness.com]
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Can they remotely program them to drive themselves back home?
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Only if it's a fully autonomous model. JD has only just introduced those this year [cnet.com], though they've been testing/developing them for the last four. It seems unlikely that these tractors are fully autonomous. However, their "normal" tractors have remote health monitoring these days, it's basically OnStar for tractors.
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I don't know if John Deere ever expected one of the combine harvesters to be stolen, it would normally be such a masive undertaking and it would be incredibly obvious who stole it in the first place, Except war changes that. Still it's odd for armies to be stealing big like this. However, the tractors ended up in Chechnya, which points also to so many of the active Russian military members in Ukraine coming from poorer ethnic regions, usually conscripts, s stealing will definitely supplement their rock bot
Re:Strongest argument for remote disabling (Score:5, Insightful)
They are also capturing civilians and transporting them to Russia, placing them in camps and sometimes prison. They have tried trading captured civilians for captured soldiers, absolutely not allowed at any time per the Geneva convention. Having them in prison and camps means this is not some rogue operations by some bad actors in some military units; this is known about and approved of up the ranks of the military. This is the sort of thing you'd see from narco gangs, third world rebel militias, or North Korea, and yet it's happening from a country that aspires to be a super power.
Re:Strongest argument for remote disabling (Score:4, Informative)
They are also capturing civilians and transporting them to Russia, placing them in camps and sometimes prison. They have tried trading captured civilians for captured soldiers, absolutely not allowed at any time per the Geneva convention. Having them in prison and camps means this is not some rogue operations by some bad actors in some military units; this is known about and approved of up the ranks of the military. This is the sort of thing you'd see from narco gangs, third world rebel militias, or North Korea, and yet it's happening from a country that aspires to be a super power.
Or kill a mother, tie the live child to the body, and stick a mine between them so you kill the child and rescuer [twitter.com].
Do the narco gangs even pull crap like that? Right now I think there's Nazi's looking up at the Russian soldiers saying "that's too fscked up".
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absolutely not allowed at any time per the Geneva convention
No rules in actual war, who'd have thought it, aside from every victor in history. Don't go to your grave going "why me, why didn't they just play by my rules?"
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That is a treaty agreed upon by the nations that signed it. Yes, everyone can break rules in war, and checked only by those strong enough to stop them. However breaking them will cause war crime investigations to take place or other nations to enter otherwise localized squabbles. And not all government and military leaders stay in power forever, many have indeed been prosecuted for breaking the Geneva convention when out of power.
With Russia breaking this treaty, it is more evidence of them being uncivil
Re:Strongest argument for remote disabling (Score:4, Insightful)
However breaking them will cause war crime investigations to take place or other nations to enter otherwise localized squabbles.
Sure, if you lose. When you win, you tend to get away with all your war crimes. Russia might actually be held accountable this time, we'll see. But every US president since Carter has committed war crimes, and zero of them have been even tried for it.
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Well, Russia and US and China have issues with international law - they all feel that they are exempt, and they have veto power in the UN security council. There is a difference though, is that the US is a democracy and so we are allowed to protest the war crimes, we can vote leaders out of office, etc. We have indeed had congress at times rein in the excesses of the executive (ie, the Church Commission), though in the last few decades they seem to be relinquishing too much power to the president. But *t
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It made the sentence simpler to say "since carter" than "since whoever except carter" (we could after all argue about how many presidents you have to include [history.com]).
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I'm generally pretty uncomfortable with it being easy to remotely disable machinery and the like, with their being a lot of downsides. But this seems like a pretty good argument for it being a thing.
Are you joking? A corporation being able to remotely disable things you've purchased for any reason is not ok, let alone on behalf of the government. This is an absurd edge case: a foreign invasion. Don't let that weird almost-never-going-to-happen edge case destroy any notion of freedom, liberty, or ownership across an entire industry, holy shit man.
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I'm generally pretty uncomfortable with it being easy to remotely disable machinery and the like, with their being a lot of downsides. But this seems like a pretty good argument for it being a thing.
Yes, they make DRM sound good in this case, don't they? But in fact it does massively more harm than good. Farmers all around the planet are suffering because of John Deere's DRM. The benefit of preventing Russia from using some equipment that they stole and aren't going to give back anyway is notional at best compared to that. This story is being promoted by the corporate whores at CNN. If you look at their coverage of the John Deere strikes of last year, you can see lots of evidence of their whoring. They
What a shock (Score:5, Insightful)
A country being run by thugs and oligarchs, who've made billions upon billions stealing from their own state, is using the power of the state to steal stuff wholesale from another country... yeah knock me over with a feather.
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The Russians are also stealing grain [youtube.com].
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The Russians are also stealing grain [youtube.com].
They're bringing back fascism as well [imgur.com]. Yes, these are real pictures from the square in Moscow where they will hold their parade on May 9th.
Must be why so many Republicans are cheering for Russia.
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They're bringing back fascism as well. Yes, these are real pictures from the square in Moscow where they will hold their parade on May 9th.
Uh huh, sure they are. Not photoshopped at all, right... Cuz I'm sure Russians are super interested in adopting Nazi symbolism after having defeated the Nazi's in WW2, while suffering great losses on the Russian side.
I suspect the pictures are legit as Russian's used red arm bands in WWII [epicmilitaria.com].
I don't think the Russian's a deliberately replicating Nazi imagery, it's more the case that fascism is intensely authoritarian, militaristic, and nationalistic. Symbolism that appeals to one set of fascists often appeals to another.
Must be why so many Republicans are cheering for Russia.
Let's forget all about Biden ending sanctions [washingtonexaminer.com] on Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline almost immediately upon taking office, opening the door for Russia to bypass Ukraine's pipeline. And then canceling our own Keystone XL pipeline, bolstering fuel prices worldwide (at great benefit for Russia).
You'd almost think maybe Biden was colluding to Make Russia Great Again. How about another $33B "aide package" for Ukraine at US tax payers' expense? 10% for the Big Guy!
I didn't like that move, but it was likely a concession to Germany, rather than Russia.
Either way, I find it interesting that there's such an overlap between people who make weird excuses for Russia and peo
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I suspect the pictures are legit as Russian's used red arm bands in WWII [epicmilitaria.com]. I don't think the Russian's a deliberately replicating Nazi imagery, it's more the case that fascism is intensely authoritarian, militaristic, and nationalistic. Symbolism that appeals to one set of fascists often appeals to another.
Ah, that's where it came from, that makes some sense. Whenever I see soldiers marching I think, "That's impressive, but those are soldiers who have been practicing marching, not fighting." Not very practical.
Either way, I find it interesting that there's such an overlap between people who make weird excuses for Russia and people who believe strange conspiracy theories about Biden (and presumably, who love Trump).
It's not too weird because Trump has been so vocal about supporting Putin. He's basically the only one in the US who still does (and of course the people who follow him, like Tucker). If you can figure out what's wrong with Trump's head that he still supports Putin, that would be interesting.
Re:What a shock (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't think the Russian's a deliberately replicating Nazi imagery, it's more the case that fascism is intensely authoritarian, militaristic, and nationalistic. Symbolism that appeals to one set of fascists often appeals to another.
Not that the Russian government and this whole war are not objectively awful, but those armbands are numbered for keeping row/column formation. They may or may not keep them for the actual parade (not sure if this is training or not) after they learn their routines. As for why they are necessary when soldiers frequently march in formation without such aides, it's most likely because these are almost certainly rookie soldiers. Seriously, look how young they all look. They're probably mostly barely trained recent conscripts.
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Cuz I'm sure Russians are super interested in adopting Nazi symbolism after having defeated the Nazi's in WW2, while suffering great losses on the Russian side.
The Russians started the war as the Nazis primary allies and in fact cooperated in the invasion of Poland together with them. The have now adopted the Z symbol all over in what seems like a pretty good echo of the Swastica, to the extent it's been called the "Zwastica". Sure, in the end they fought Hitler when he attacked them. Before they did that they had already invaded a number other places like Finland with absolutely no provocation and with the agreement of the Nazis. Given that history I don't see wh
Re:What a shock (Score:5, Informative)
Let's forget all about Biden ending sanctions [washingtonexaminer.com] on Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline almost immediately upon taking office, opening the door for Russia to bypass Ukraine's pipeline.
This was Biden wanting to repair the relationship with Germany, after it has significantly deteriorated under Trump.
And you don't have to worry, sanctions are now back on for Nord Stream 2. Assuming you were worried.
And then canceling our own Keystone XL pipeline, bolstering fuel prices worldwide (at great benefit for Russia).
Ah, you mean the pipeline that was years away from completion, and years away from actually being able to affect fuel prices worldwide. It was 8% complete when cancelled. Never mind that it was too small to affect prices meaningfully; it would have increased global oil production by less than 1%.
Yes, great idea. Let's be ignorant and blame cancellation of Keystone XL for increased fuel prices.
Re: What a shock (Score:2)
Re:What a shock (Score:5, Informative)
Good and bad (Score:5, Insightful)
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I guess the same goes for a lot of cars these days.
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This is mostly fluff made to make people go "oh, I guess right to repair isn't such a good idea" I think.
I mean, screw Putin but this sort of thing is going to get used for aims that are far more questionable. Also, all things considered, we should probably be growing more food right now or people who have nothing to do with this are going to starve, whereas I doubt Russia can be starved into submission.
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It shouldn't need remote disabling. It should be locked down while sitting on the lot. It should be the equivalent of using a physical key.
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well.. that settles it (Score:5, Funny)
I guess we have to kill right to repair now. /rolleyes
Airpods and toilet bowls (Score:1)
A guy was able to track his stolen airpods in Russia. Some dead Russian soldiers were found with banknotes and jewelry they had stolen. Even many toilet bowls were stolen. Looting is widespread and sometimes caught on camera. Like in that Belarussian post office with a camera where you could see Russian soldiers packing loot to be sent home.
This is the russian "military" for you (Score:2)
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Basically the Russian army has had a very bad reputation as well as the Russian leaders and we can start by naming a prominent ally of Adolf Hitler, which was surprise surprise Joseph Stalin and the red army had no problems murdering captured soldiers in Katyn.
But to put things into perspective the German army murdered, raped and stole from civilians, and topping that with their way of "dealing" with many of the Russian captured soldiers:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The Russian army however upheld that
One good thing (Score:2)
I suppose there is at least one good thing about some of the DRM garbage companies like Deere have been adding to their equipment.
Coming to your car in 2026 (Score:2)
https://hothardware.com/news/b... [hothardware.com]
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It's already in GMs and Subarus, they have OnStar. If the system can diagnose problems by talking to the PCM, then it can do anything else to it as well.
Correction (Score:2)
Russia bought the equipment [rollcall.com] much in the same way that they bought Mariupol.
I'm just not sure how they plan to repay all the people they murdered.
Brought to you by Deere and TrollZ. (Score:3)
Hey look, our miserable business practices had a positive outcome on one occasion, so you should keep letting us do that. Followed by, Ukrainians used feeding machines to take away killing machines, so Ruzzians figure they'll show them by using killing machines to take away feeding machines. That is not the hot take they think it is.
They are also stealing humans (Score:3)
I could care less about hardware, actually I do care, but there is a more important issue. They are also stealing civilians.
They are said to have "evacuated" up to 1 million Ukrainians and forcibly moved them into Russia. They have also "adopted" kids, which is another way saying "kidnapped":
https://sofrep.com/news/russia... [sofrep.com]
This is pretty much genocide level systemic operation.
I am not sure how this war will end. However if we cannot get those who have been stolen back, we have failed as a civilization.
Harvest of Sorrow (Score:4, Interesting)
Read Robert Conquest's 'Harvest of Sorrow'. The Russian army is repeating the Stalinist genocide of the early 1930s.
In addition to the mass shootings and deportations of population, at the moment there are also reports of them taking huge amounts of grain - which is exactly what happened back then.
Millions died then in the Ukraine, mostly of hunger and consequences of hunger. The usual estimate is around 7 million, maybe higher. The Russians took the grain and all the food they could lay hands on, then closed the borders. The episode has a name, its called the Holomodor, and there is a national day of remembrance of it every year.
Then the excuse was to disempower the Kulaks, the richer peasant farmers. Now its the supposed Nazis who are supposed to be the target. In both cases that is just the latest excuse.
If you wonder why there were elements in the Ukraine that collaborated with the Nazis in WWII, that is why. The enemy of my enemy. Deplorable and delusional, but that is why.
The truly extraordinary thing in the West's approach to these things came home to me one day in an airport. A young man walked past wearing a T-shirt with a hammer and sickle on it. No-one looked twice. Had he been wearing one with a swastika on it, there would have been outrage. And yet the regime that he was celebrating had committed a far greater program of mass murder, over many decades.
And is now resuming where it left off last time in the Ukraine.
Its also worth reading the second revised edition of Conquest's 'The Great Terror', revised and expanded after the Soviet archives briefly opened.
By the way, independence (Score:3)
By the way, this (my last post) is why, when there was a referendum on independence in 1991, the percentage in favor was 90%+. It would probably be higher now, after the second Holomodor has gotten well underway. Its also why the Ukraine wanted to join Nato.
The astonishing thing is that Gorbachov, lost in dreams and denial, did not see it coming. He had somehow managed to remain in denial about the regime he had served for so long. As had most of the upper reaches of the Soviet elite, and the Russian elite now.
As events have shown, the Ukrainians were right. If you are living next door to impulsive genocidal racist regimes, you need all the help you can get.
No sources (Score:1)
The thieves took all that farm gear to Grozny (Score:2)
We all knew they were not doing anything military, no "fighting for Russia"
They were only there for the plunder (and the raping).
Scary... (Score:2)
That a company can remotely disable farm equipment is not something to be taken lightly. And by taken lightly, I mean use it as the usual "stupid Russians, lol" propaganda.
Sure, we are seeing a good use of that feature, but we are talking about farm equipment here, food, the thing that is the most vital to a country. In fact, the reason Russia plundered farm equipment may be for this exact reason: to weaken the country just like the US did when they poisoned fields in Vietnam. They may not even use these ha
Re: (Score:2)
Did they check the local impound yard?
Maybe they were parked in a handicap zone and it was towed. ;-)
Ha ha but seriously. (Score:2)
Did they check the local impound yard? ;-)
Maybe they were parked in a handicap zone and it was towed.
Ha ha but seriously.
They were parked in a "No Russian Tanks Zone" (Ukraine) and were duly impounded and towed.