This is not good. Putin is backed into a corner and he is not afraid to lash out with a Nuke. Then we all lose.
Hopefully the Russians decide to take out the glorious Leader before it goes to that point.

The weapon is a sketchy secretive program under development with announced plans to field by 2027, Russian propaganda leaked some info on this torpedo to present a concept to overcome any ABM defense systems for a retaliation ("second") strike. (Putin was paranoid about deployment of new US ABM defense systems in Europe, Alaska etc. against possible single Iran, NK launches and wanted to make a point that they will have retaliation in place that cannot be disarmed by deployed ABM systems)

Various numbers were given by Russian propaganda - from 100Mt initially to 2Mt. While such explosion would definitely destroy a big coastal city, Russian claims on causing a destructive "tsunami" washing over a continent still widely considered unrealistic, as energy in tsunami is much higher than any single nuclear explosion can deliver.

Much of published details on Poseidon is collected here : http://www.hisutton.com/Poseidon_Torpedo.html

The chess/poker trick is that he doesn't have to be crazy enough to use nukes. The cold calculation here is that all he needs is to appear to be a village idiot with a nuke and he gets whatever and whenever he wants from "cowardly, decadent West". ("Escalate to de-escalate") Like Khruschev banging on UN podium with a - "We will bury you!" in 1960 but backing off when JFK faced him off in Cuba in 1962.

FWIW - Simple, but excellent imho brief essay from RAND corp. guys on current US options wrt Russia's war in Ukraine:

https://www.lawfareblog.com/moment-strategic-clarity
A Moment of Strategic Clarity

There are a few problems. How can you have a fair vote under Russian occupation? Would Russia accept a vote to remain in Ukraine? Do the Russians really want a deal and what stops Russia from just invading again to take all of Ukraine over once the deal is done?

And would a vote even be legal under Ukrainian law?

You'd need to go back to 2014 (pre-Maidan) and read Ukrainian constitution of that time and see if it allowed for a violent coup and a declaration of war against it's own citizens... if the answer is no then, well... what did you expect?

I don't get it. Really don't get it. America (USA) was born of overthrowing a tyrannical government and choosing it's own path. How can anyone argue against people in Eastern (or anywhere else) Ukraine choosing their own path?
And i'm not talking about the "referend/a/um" that happened now, i'm talking about back in 2014. Back then nobody held a gun to their head and they still voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence. How can you think that after 8 years of being shelled for no good reason they would change their mind?

Do you think King George thought that the "vote" was fair? Do you think King George thought that the declaration of independence was legit?

Nicely said

You think the 2020 election was fair?
But you naturally assume that the Ukraine election was somehow coerced....
Word is soldiers with guns were protecting/guarding/insuring the integrity of of the vote ---- something WE lack here.

Ukraine is more corrupt than Russia. The place American members of government get American tax payer money laundered and kicked back is not Russia.

"I stand with Ukraine" is the Eloi cause-du-jour. Bunch of fucking nonsense.

Throwing billions of OUR dollars into this bottomless pit is absolutely fucking criminal.

Movingviolation, I VERY much appreciate your enlightened perspective on the issue, as you have firsthand knowledge. Thank you for putting some truth in here, brother.

So how come so soon after overthrowing a tyrannical government America spent so many lives, blood and treasure to keep it together instead letting South to peacefully separate from the Union? Not everything in the world is solved by a "vote".

A nation as a whole has a vested interest in keeping its lands, borders, resources etc together - as in "sovereignity and territorial integrity". And their rights in the UN charter are not below any idiot "self-determination" especially organized into armed insurgency by aggressive land grabbing neighbor. Ukrainian even pre-war polls were showing overwhelming support of Ukrainians for keeping Donbas in Ukraine - so letting them go was never a political possibility for a parliament or a Constitution. Now it's not even a question.

For Musk taking such polls of internet bots in the stupid Twitter he still can't buy (because of the bots, apparently) - and talking about voting under UN umbrella is an idiocy - as it is asking UN to violate both Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity against UN own charter. The inconvenient for some truth is that nobody can decide these questions, but Ukrainian government or de facto separation. That's why changing that government was an initial goal of invasion - and it still is, albeit much less attainable..

Since the thread is about Russia's war in Ukraine, I do not see a point in this thread to argue or judge historical events in Ukraine that lead to this open war of Russian aggression. The information is easily accessible. For example, rather detailed timeline of Donbas events in 2014 happening in the context of concurrent Russian operation of Crimea takeover can be found simply in a wiki :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_ ... nbas_(2014) Any interested person can read for themselves and make his/her own conclusions, whatever they are.

Also often in Russia the "whatabout" strawman is offered by apologists of the Russian aggression - "what would USA do if somebody would base the nuclear missiles on territory of the unfriendly neighbor". Usually, Russians from Cold War are not aware that NATO does not base "nuclear missiles" in European countries on land since 90s, including Russian NATO neighbors in Baltics. Only France and UK maintain relatively tiny national submarine- and air-based nuclear arsenal (UK only submarine), nothing on the land plus about 100 US gravity bombs stored in Europe in the storage under US key. As a result of war and Finland's application into NATO Putin now have bigger problems with NATO close neighbors than he would ever had with Ukraine, should he choose not to attack it in 2014... Now the point is moot. Whatever Russia end up bordering in Ukraine will be in NATO and very unfriendly - and Putin has only himself to blame for it.

Many Americans with experience of living in a "federal" country are not aware that Ukraine by its original and current Constitution is a "unitary" state with no federal political subdivisions (which probably is not optimal for Ukraine but it was not given much chance to settle it down on its own terms in a parliament) More like counties in a state here - as representative administrative centers. So although Eastern Washington republican majorities normally are generally unhappy with state politics of populous Western Washington democratic liberal swamp you see relatively little drama here based on the fact that "People in Western Washington have no say in Eastern Washington people's affairs." Easterners get their red flags laws and mag bans from the Western part. There's simply no mechanism in Olympia to separate "affairs" of Western and Eastern Washington "people". There is a talk of secession of Eastern Washington and joining Idaho though... Somehow the prospect did not get Idaho excited enough to lob missiles into Olympia to annex Eastern Washington... :)

With that I'd rather see the thread focusing mostly on actual events of the war as it happens to be interesting , w/o turning it into "Tucker TV" channel. I'm sure everybody knows where to find him. :) Even Russians. :) Anybody interested though is free to open a "Tucker TV" thread, or "How Ukraine deserves being annihilated by Russia", or "F**ck Ukraine! Give me the money!", "Destruction of yellow-blue biomass is not a genocide!" etc. Enjoy last freedoms, while they last... :)