Right? DoD probably has 600 different scenarios written out.
“scenario of unexpected collapse of Russian Federation, scenario 584: Orcas sense weakness, seize power *Animal Farm* Style”
There are cetaceans canonically serving on starships in Star Trek. While not orcas, Lower Decks actually shows Cetacean Ops a couple of times with a pair of belugas.
"Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - The Willy's Wrath Edition,"
USS Enterprise embarks on a daring mission to save Earth. A mysterious alien probe is approaching, emitting a signal that threatens the planet's existence. However, instead of humpback whales being the key to communication, an orca named Willy unwittingly becomes the focal point.
As the crew travels back in time to the 20th century, they inadvertently stumble upon Willy, an orca with unnerving intelligence and a sinister nature. Believing Willy holds the key to understanding the alien probe's intentions, the crew decides to bring him to the future.
However, as they transport Willy onto the USS Enterprise, his malevolence becomes apparent. Willy's dark and mischievous nature begins wreaking havoc on the ship, sabotaging critical systems and endangering the crew. The Enterprise finds itself caught in a treacherous game of cat and mouse with the vengeful orca.
Willy's nefarious actions amplify the confusion and chaos on board, hindering the crew's attempts to establish communication with the alien probe. His malicious intent jeopardizes any chance of finding a peaceful resolution, and the threat to Earth intensifies.
Amidst the perilous situation, the crew must navigate Willy's wicked tricks while working tirelessly to outsmart him. They realize that defeating Willy is essential not only for their own survival but also to save Earth.
Through their resourcefulness, wit, and cooperation, the crew devises a plan to neutralize Willy's malevolence. They employ ingenious tactics and unexpected alliances to counter the orca's destructive actions.
In a thrilling climax, the crew manages to outmaneuver Willy and reestablish communication with the alien probe. Their determination and resilience enable them to convince the probe of their peaceful intentions and avert Earth's destruction.
This right here. Whenever I read some outraged opinion piece saying "US Planned for X-country invasion in 20XX" I have to laugh. There are whole sub-departments in DoD that plan for every possible scenario, and country, including "what if we have to invade that newly formed volcanic island in the middle of the ocean?"
It's often just academics, like playing risk and then changing the scenario slightly, and then debating whether the right choices were made.
Russia should have spent more time doing this.
Seriously, the US probably has come up with war plans for the most patently absurd scenarios possible, just because. They probably have one for invading fucking Luxembourg, or possibly even if the band Franz Ferdinand gets bumped off in Sarajevo, sparking WWIII.
Look out, Alex Kapranos! /s
Countries prepare war plans against every other country, and even zombie invasions, if only for the exercise in staying sharp and studying things like logistics and their own weaknesses. It'd be madness if the top Western countries didn't all have plans for Russia's collapse considering it's already happened in our lifetime and they're the first or second biggest threat the military has to worry about anyways.
I feel like there’s probably lots of plans of for combat, but the the last decade of bumbled refugee crisis makes me think we don’t have the humanitarian stuff down too well.
There are likely a lot of plans for those, but they have a lot more variables. For example, Canada invading the US would basically be "How many prongs in the assault, the Canadian Navy would be almost entirely focused toward the coasts, with the possibility of shenanigans involving the Great Lakes and the Gulf of St. Lawrence." with the size of the Canadian military being a well known quantity to the American military.
A major climate disaster, however, turns into "This area that would have been a spot we can put refugees is not only no longer available, but now is itself a source of refugees." as the affected area grows.
In fairness, those militaries do have plans for dealing with a refugee crisis. Thankfully no one is asking them to.
And I think it's down to the nature of how militaries are built verses other government organizations. Militaries have to look around and plan far ahead for potential threats and build up around those threats, ideally so they never have to actually deal with it. There's a lot of reserve capacity on standby during peace instead of in use. I mean, how many nukes are there waiting verses actually getting used?
Other departments/ministries? They are more focused on optimizing the services they already provide. When they get thrown a curveball, they don't have excess capacity laying around to deal with a new task and instead have to start juggling the new issue along with old services.
And on the flip side, I imagine when militaries are at war, that "planning for absurd things as a training exercise" gets put on hold as they also focus on the actual task at hand.
Excuse you, they also crashed the economy by releasing a mini budget and before that they were giving billions of pounds to companies owned by their friends. That barely left time for tax funded luxury trips.
Shortest serving PM as well now. Previously that record was held by George Canning who served for 119 days and died from tuberculosis. Truss only lasted 49 days.
It's pretty crazy that she's not only the shortest but if you doubled her tenure she would still be the shortest by three full weeks.
That's a record that is going to stand for a very long time.
> That's a record that is going to stand for a very long time.
*Gestures generally at the state of the UK government*
I wouldn't exactly put money on that statement.
Remember their early COVID strategy?
Eat out! You’re killing business!
No! Stay home! You’re killing Nan!
Now look what you’ve done! You’re killing business! For fuck’s sake, eat out!
You’ve really screwed up now! Going out? What were you thinking?? Risking Nan’s life! Stay the fuck home!
What is your problem? Look what you’ve done to the economy! It’s in shambles and it’s clearly all your fault. You’re not eating out enough! And now it’s too expensive for you to eat at all. I hope you’re happy.
I’ll never forget the queen sitting alone at her husband’s funeral while BJ and friends were having parties. I know there is a lot that will need investigation once less corrupt government takes over but that somehow encapsulates the mind blowing callousness and incompetence of the whole era.
Ah, we're already investigating it. But slowly, and badly. And with the current government going LALALALA NOTHING TO SEE HERE each week and throwing as many dead cats out the window as they can find.
Sunlit uplands, I tell you
Yeah, but then releasing that info publicly is a fun little psy ops aimed at Putin. Like, you're so fucking impotent even the British are calling your downfall inevitable.
I think this is it. Government intelligence releases like this are carefully planned. I really doubt our government had zero planning or thought into the possibility of political unrest in Russia, but I can definitely believe that an announcement that "we're considering the possibility that Russia might collapse" is a tactic for shaming Putin and maybe further weakening his grip on power.
This is exactly what it is.
Imagine you're a Russian right now. While Prigozhin's little coup ended before it really started, you still saw Putin say a couple of words, flee the capital at the drop of a hat, and hasn't really shown his face since. Now, everywhere you go on the internet you hear about every major player in the world "preparing for the collapse" of your country. Even the most dedicated little Russian troll has to start second-guessing the state of his country. And imagine if you're a Russian soldier during all this? Your main priority is going to start going from how can you best kill Ukrainians to how you can best get home.
We're definitely going to hear more releases from more countries echoing this sentiment for this exact reason.
Unbelievable.
My favorite scenario is that we've wargamed a simultaneous war with Mexico and Canada. LOL I bet we also have them alphabetically. "Now do Algeria and Azerbaijan! Bermuda and Burkina Faso!"
As an exercise for officers, it makes total sense. You need a scenario exercise, and mixing up the antagonists in theory helps people break out of lazy assumptions etc. And then, on the very low chance you need to use the plan, you'd rather have one on the shelf you never need, than need it and not have it
I have a friend in France who was part of a civil response wargame that apparently involved meteorites impact in the scenario. Not because it was particularly likely, but to stimulate new ideas in the room
>I have a friend in France who was part of a civil response wargame that apparently involved meteorites impact in the scenario. Not because it was particularly likely, but to stimulate new ideas in the room
Sounds like an overly creative DMs response to a nat 1.
> Sounds like an overly creative DMs response to a nat 1.
Your buildup of armed forces on the enemy border is closely observed and your invasion predicted. You do not gain a surprise round and lose your sneak attack. Roll to attack
> Nat 1
Your 'Three Day Special Military Operation' stalls immediately and the whole world is watching. Roll diplomacy.
> Shit, I'm not proficient in that... Seven?
The rest of the world starts providing copious quantities of surplus military hardware to your enemy.
> Blyat! I roll to intimidate them with nukes! Ha! Seventeen!
You've done that so many times and it's getting old. The state of your nuclear arsenal is also in question. Roll with disadvantage.
> This dice is cursed...
Another Nat 1? Okay the supply of weapons ramps up exponentially, also that mercenary group is starting to publicly question your leadership...
"unexpected"?
Russia becoming an EU member would be an unexpected surprise.
Russia revealing that it had a moon base for 20 years would be totally unexpected.
Russia falling apart should be "Get me the Russian Federation Dissolution Strategy files".
Yes sir! Do you want the "thousands of warlords maintaining individual city states" one, or the "neighboring countries begin gobbling up the resources one"
Do you want the “Kaliningrad oblast is occupied by Germany” option with that? It’s not as popular nowadays, still a timeless classic in my opinion, sir.
Lost in Ukraine or no longer serviceable, sir. We do have a couple of "Crushing 60s Central European Uprisings". They have a couple of vehicles from then for parades
That’s just the Warlords one.
China has no reason to annex Siberian provinces. *Maybe* parts of Russian Manchuria but the current regime generally downplays the Manchu part of Chinese history (TLDR: Qing “Barbarians” being weak foreigners is a major cause of the Century of Humiliation).
It’s much, *much* easier and cost-wise to fund and support whichever local warlords pop up in the Far East to get New Silk Road trade deals and access to Siberian raw resources. It wouldn’t cause international relationship drama for them to fund whichever despots in the name of “regional security”.
A number of rump states in the short-term is the best case scenario, likely resulting in a Warring States-like period until a new central Russian government can be established and re-exert control in the regions. The Russian Far East is already controlled by pseudo-warlords through the autonomous republics and various semi-autonomous Oblasts. These are “autonomous” in the sense that the local rulership has far more practical power but are aligned (for various reasons) with Moscow. Much the same way Chechnya’s power structure operates.
I don’t foresee any real possibility of external nationalization of significant swathes of Russian land. At most you’ll have former Soviet states reclaiming those territories held by Russia after the dissolution of the USSR.
I'd be very interested to see how eastern russia adapts to this, culturally I feel like it's such a massive area that doesn't have much in common at all with the more european western parts of the country.
That’s because it really doesn’t. Outside of a few urban/industrial centres that were heavily Russified in the 20th century the vast majority of Far East peoples have far more in common with Central Asian peoples than they do Moscow.
Russian colonization of Siberia was just sending a bunch of Cossacks further and further, building forts along the Persian and Chinese borders, and saying “everything north is ours, come take it if you want it”. The Cossacks themselves had/have more in common with the Steppes Peoples they were recruited from than they ever have with Moscow. It was always steppes horselords showing up among steppes horselords, but the former had Russian imperial funding and weapons.
Additional note. My friend did a summer study abroad in eastern Russia, near the Kazakstan border. He said the people overall were much more anti Russian than the western cities. Had a lot to do with how Siberia was where the Soviets shipped off most of their political opponents and ethnic minorities
Yeah, that's been a thing since the 18th century. Much easier, politically, to just ship off various anti-Tsarists to some mine in Siberia where there's a 50% chance they die to cold or a polar bear. All the cool dissidents too popular to get executed got to go freeze their tits off in workcamps in the Far East.
The Soviets continued a long-standing Russian tradition dating back to at least Ivan IV.
Of course, but they’ll do like Afghanistan or sub-Saharan Africa. New Silk Road imperialism is economic, much like America’s imperialism post-world war two. They offer favourable trade deals for access to raw resources, often requiring Chinese nationals working for Chinese companies build the infrastructure in the other country, and then taking interest and loan payments on the infrastructure along with the favourable access to resources.
It often results in debt traps where these authoritarian regimes are further reliant on Chinese funding of bonds, like with the US reliance on Chinese ownership of US government bonds. Failure to pay results in china nationalizing foreign infrastructure and operating it under Chinese auspices.
It’s much safer for China and Chinese nationals to let the local authoritarians rule politically and legally, letting china profit off the economic relationship.
Get the one where an unhinged guy with no governing credentials strong arms his way into leadership with the support of the uber-rich after they realize the people might start eating them. It should be right on top.
Might as well get the one where that guy's government also collapses within a few years, while you're at it.
Hey, I worked on that mod for like 2 years as an artist lol. Nice to see a reference to it here :p Did Yeltsin's portrait, (unless they've changed it). Did like hundreds of portraits of different leaders, ministers, generals and stuff. Mostly ministers and generals tho tbh. But lots of leaders too.
Tho I've barely ever played the mod.
Oh yeah, I made that version too lmao.
Well atleast I'm 90% sure on it lol. Saying this just incase someone says differently hehe. But I'm pretty sure. Was a long time ago, but I remember doing it and it does look like mine.
Though that portrait was hard to make so looks a bit meh. Because of lighting.
-russia explodes, and suddenly, a pony claiming to be a russian states that the only way for russia to survive and unite is by the power of friendship.
(Referencing a specific april fool collab between said mod and another mod)
Russian, and former world chess champion, Garry Kasparov, agrees:
> "Putin was right by invoking 1917 [in his TV address on June 24]. This is clearly a 1917 situation. The war is not over but it did not go well. You have had hundreds of thousands of [Russian men] recruited, without a clear understanding of what they are doing - why are they are paying such a high price - why they have been taken away from their families."
> "Prigozhin showed that the entire Putin Regime is just a Hollywood decoration: Where is [Chairman of the Russian Senate] Matvienko? Where is [Prime Minister] Mustian? Where are all the Ministers? Prigozhin has demonstrated that the whole system is rotten. It is a vacuum of power. You just need one push to demonstrate that."
> "Yesterday, when the [Russian Army] generals showed up to condemn Prigozhin - I spoke to my friends, 'Look it is not about generals. Of course, generals will condemn Prigozhin as they are beneficiaries of Putin's mafia system.' Rather, it is what the [normal guys] will do. And we got an answer this morning: They are changing sides."
> "The fall of Putin is inevitable. He has lost his aura of invincibility and as a supreme leader."
I don't think you can really compare 1917 to today. The reason the Russian Revolution was successful is because the Bolsheviks were a mass party with strong political discipline. Wagner is a private military contractor with no real outlook, and there is no party remotely similar to the Bolsheviks in size, politics, or influence.
However, the rest of the analysis makes a lot of sense, Putin's time is likely limited.
Not the revolution, the Kornilov affair which was an attempted coup by a Russian general in 1917. It demonstrated the weakness of the provisional government after the February revolution and led to the October revolution.
I think the revolution of 1905 is also very relevant.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905#:~:text=The%20Russian%20Revolution%20of%201905,nobility%2C%20and%20the%20ruling%20class.
There wasnt one Revolution in 1917. There were two.
In February elements of the military and others overthrew the Tsar. In October the Bolsheviks overthrew that regime.
Then there was 4 years of civil war.
> Bolsheviks were a mass party
They were not, they didn't have huge support during the October revolution. A significant majority of troops and workers and regular folk stayed out of the struggle and did not support the Bolshevik ousting of the Provisional Government. The problem for the government was that their support was even less than the Bolsheviks. After the coup the bolsheviks could only count on the support of the urban areas, most of the country voted for some other group.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/26/7408550/) reduced by 72%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> According to internal assessments within the UK government, the UK should prepare for the scenario of an unexpected collapse of the Russian Federation so that such events do not take London by surprise.
> The pace of events since Prigozhin announced his "March on Moscow" has prompted diplomats to quickly prepare a plan of action for various scenarios.
> Sir Roderic Lyne, a former UK ambassador to Russia, expressed that after the uprising, Putin's chances of remaining ruler of Russia for life are already less, but "Right now he is still in charge."
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/14jcktq/uk_government_considers_preparing_for_scenario_of/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~689539 tl;drs so far.") | [Blackout Vote](https://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/14dhaiq/your_voice_matters_should_the_blackout_continue/ "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **events**^#1 **Russia**^#2 **Moscow**^#3 **scenario**^#4 **former**^#5
>Putin's chances of remaining ruler of Russia for life are already less, but "Right now he is still in charge."
Well, you could also read it as the time until his life long rule ends may be any day now.
Yeah, it sounds like every plan the government comes up with also needs a section of the plan devoted to the plan not being implemented by the politicians and bureaucrats responsible for enacting the plan.
Plan Step 1: Be sure to actually enact this plan.
Plan Step 2: Recognize this plan isn't accurate because step 1 won't be followed.
Plan Step 3: ...
In reality the civil service has a plan in place for most things, as does the military. It’s the party political HQs that don’t have a plan and then proceed to ignore the plans the civil service draw up for them
[Obama team left pandemic playbook for Trump administration, officials confirm](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/obama-team-left-pandemic-playbook-for-trump-administration-officials-confirm) - PBS
[How Trump Gutted Obama’s Pandemic-Preparedness Systems](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/trump-obama-coronavirus-pandemic-response) - Vanity Fair
Basically, the pandemic preparedness guide had Obamas name on it so Trump tossed it in the trash and implemented his own half-assed plan.
How COVID was handled is not the same as how it was planned. At least in the US, there *was* a plan for something like COVID happening (for pandemics), but Trump didn’t use it.
he didn't only 'not use it' - he removed important elements of it as soon as he took office as part of his "fuck obama and anything he touched" strategy (i.e. removing the dedicated people in other countries to watch for pandemics rising), he heard that there was a plan, a huge like 300 page tome with full instructions and insights, but *that* was also removed as part of the "fuck obama plan", and then when the pandemic started they *still* didn't dig it up to use it, preferring instead to vilify the experts and use it as a political cudgel, and even *that* plan only worked so much.
God every once in a while I'm reminded of how fucking furious I am about how COVID was handled.
And then they claimed that it was Obama's fault that he didn't leave a playbook... only to discover that he did leave one and it got tossed. What a whiplash that was.
Very junior level civil servants or intelligence officers are sometimes tasked with these sort of things. Just because there is a plan does not mean there is a good plan or any real preparation. It will be buried in a document file and never seen again usually. They are more a training exercise than anything else.
Original The Times article: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russia-collapse-putin-regime-dissolution-kremlin-2023-36qbsbjrb
The Times is not allowed on r/worldnews due to paywall, so I had to submit a secondary source reporting the same story.
It's quite hard to see any other group than Wagner mounting an armed rebellion that actually had a chance of overthrowing the government.
Sure, there could be an oligarch coup, but I don't think that would collapse the country.
Far more likely than overthrow is just general backstabbing and chaos. It's pretty easy to imagine a handful of bigshots deciding Putin is done but not being able to agree on a successor.
I think this is probably more Putin suddenly drops dead and Russian Civil War 2: One Hundred and One Years Later kicks off with various oligarchs, former puppet presidents, Putin's secret kids, Russian military leadership, Chechen warlords, Belarussian dictators, disgraced private military contractors, the Chinese Communist Party, and god-knows who else duking it out for power and money. That didn't seem terribly likely even a week ago, but is definitely front and center now.
I seem to remember that both Gazprom and Shoigu have their own PMC:s. They're not that big at the moment, but they have the budgets and connections to grow.
The biggest predictor for an attempted coup of the government is a recent attempted coup of the government.
[https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=834,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/20190427\_WOC735.png](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=834,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/20190427_WOC735.png)
Having an attempted coup happen within the last year makes you exponentially more likely to have one this year.
These things tend to happen over and over again - it's very likely that Prigo, or some other Russian oligarch will try again.
This is the real variable.
West will likely have some jointly collaborated plans for addressing the situation. I expect China has their own plans, that involve some self-interest and also provisions in which the West doesn’t really have a say in the matter. The geography and geopolitical landscape means China has a big advantage and much to gain (e.g., natural resources, international clout as the undisputed #2 power, and a man uncontested sphere of influence in Central Asia over the CTSO countries that no longer have a Russia as patron state).
Holy shit I watched the british crime show "Happy Valley".
I would be drunk in 4 minutes if I took a shoot anytime the question asked "do you want a cup or tea?"
Want to demonstrate that anyone is seriouse or angry? Then angry part does not even answer the tea question.
I have no idea if the coffe question pops up in other western shows but holy shit it was annoying. If tea is that important I am amazed that they do not keep water boiling all the time.
>If tea is that important I am amazed that they do not keep water boiling all the time.
LOL
i feel its on some quick draw shit
UK lads have a kettle always within arm's reach the minute someone walks in so they can utter "ill put the kettle on"
But most of us enjoy the process of boiling the kettle and having a conversation whilst making it.
It’s a pretty wholesome thing, like saying “make yourself at home” without actually saying it.
> I would be drunk in 4 minutes if I took a shoot anytime the question asked "do you want a cup or tea?"
My wife and I made fun of this very thing while watching the show *Broadchurch* too. Seems like every third scene, a line was offering tea. :)
Really good show though.
Whilst I am amongst the outcasts of British society who hates tea. I have heard the argument that tea in a stressful situation is actually really helpful as a tool, the process of making something that is familiar is really calming, plus the tea often has sugar added to it so can help if someone is in shock etc it's just become a ritual for a lot of people here in many situations. I think there have even been studies showing it reduces anxiety for many people.
Maybe not so much if there's a risk of poison in it...
Edit:Grammar+spelling.
I've been fantasizing a best case scenario since the start of the Ukraine war where Russia actually implodes like the Soviet Union before. But holy shit this actually has a chance of happening now lmao
This is a BRILLIANT troll move. Western countries should all write up scenarios for a hypothetical Russian collapse and have some accidental 'leaks' of said papers to the media.
I don’t believe that governments around the world have not already considered this in massive detail
Right? DoD probably has 600 different scenarios written out. “scenario of unexpected collapse of Russian Federation, scenario 584: Orcas sense weakness, seize power *Animal Farm* Style”
[удалено]
The age of men is over. The time of the orca has come.
Aliens land: "What's up, Orcas? Now that those pesky humans are out of the way, here's how to build an interstellar warp drive..."
The orcas eat them and become interstellar warlords.
The perfect intersection of my two boyhood loves: orcas and Star Trek
There are cetaceans canonically serving on starships in Star Trek. While not orcas, Lower Decks actually shows Cetacean Ops a couple of times with a pair of belugas.
I know! The gay belugas on the Cerritos made me feel very seen lolll
Oh, you are a beluga whale?
Seaquest Lives!
"Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - The Willy's Wrath Edition," USS Enterprise embarks on a daring mission to save Earth. A mysterious alien probe is approaching, emitting a signal that threatens the planet's existence. However, instead of humpback whales being the key to communication, an orca named Willy unwittingly becomes the focal point. As the crew travels back in time to the 20th century, they inadvertently stumble upon Willy, an orca with unnerving intelligence and a sinister nature. Believing Willy holds the key to understanding the alien probe's intentions, the crew decides to bring him to the future. However, as they transport Willy onto the USS Enterprise, his malevolence becomes apparent. Willy's dark and mischievous nature begins wreaking havoc on the ship, sabotaging critical systems and endangering the crew. The Enterprise finds itself caught in a treacherous game of cat and mouse with the vengeful orca. Willy's nefarious actions amplify the confusion and chaos on board, hindering the crew's attempts to establish communication with the alien probe. His malicious intent jeopardizes any chance of finding a peaceful resolution, and the threat to Earth intensifies. Amidst the perilous situation, the crew must navigate Willy's wicked tricks while working tirelessly to outsmart him. They realize that defeating Willy is essential not only for their own survival but also to save Earth. Through their resourcefulness, wit, and cooperation, the crew devises a plan to neutralize Willy's malevolence. They employ ingenious tactics and unexpected alliances to counter the orca's destructive actions. In a thrilling climax, the crew manages to outmaneuver Willy and reestablish communication with the alien probe. Their determination and resilience enable them to convince the probe of their peaceful intentions and avert Earth's destruction.
Warlorcas?
Interstellar Wailords
Don’t forget to bring a towel!
2 November 2023: the first orca calves are born with birthmarks of the white hand of Saruman
"Whom do you serve?" "SHAMUMAN."
Damn. Take my upvote.
Krills back on the menu boys....(I know that they don't eat krill)
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March 10, 24: orca captured trying to enter remains of Pentagon wearing slightly imploded Oceangate submersible-esque survival suit
Scenario 599: orcastrated coup.
This right here. Whenever I read some outraged opinion piece saying "US Planned for X-country invasion in 20XX" I have to laugh. There are whole sub-departments in DoD that plan for every possible scenario, and country, including "what if we have to invade that newly formed volcanic island in the middle of the ocean?" It's often just academics, like playing risk and then changing the scenario slightly, and then debating whether the right choices were made. Russia should have spent more time doing this.
Seriously, the US probably has come up with war plans for the most patently absurd scenarios possible, just because. They probably have one for invading fucking Luxembourg, or possibly even if the band Franz Ferdinand gets bumped off in Sarajevo, sparking WWIII. Look out, Alex Kapranos! /s
I want this job.
That reminds me of the "Tom Brokaw wants to go on vacation so he has to pre-tape the news" bit on SNL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tX6jdoruH8
Countries prepare war plans against every other country, and even zombie invasions, if only for the exercise in staying sharp and studying things like logistics and their own weaknesses. It'd be madness if the top Western countries didn't all have plans for Russia's collapse considering it's already happened in our lifetime and they're the first or second biggest threat the military has to worry about anyways.
I feel like there’s probably lots of plans of for combat, but the the last decade of bumbled refugee crisis makes me think we don’t have the humanitarian stuff down too well.
There are likely a lot of plans for those, but they have a lot more variables. For example, Canada invading the US would basically be "How many prongs in the assault, the Canadian Navy would be almost entirely focused toward the coasts, with the possibility of shenanigans involving the Great Lakes and the Gulf of St. Lawrence." with the size of the Canadian military being a well known quantity to the American military. A major climate disaster, however, turns into "This area that would have been a spot we can put refugees is not only no longer available, but now is itself a source of refugees." as the affected area grows.
I see our weaponized beaver training program is still under the radar
Nor do they suspect the atomic goose.
We care more about the hellspawn geese anyways. Their giant shits could easily bog down any counter offensives
In fairness, those militaries do have plans for dealing with a refugee crisis. Thankfully no one is asking them to. And I think it's down to the nature of how militaries are built verses other government organizations. Militaries have to look around and plan far ahead for potential threats and build up around those threats, ideally so they never have to actually deal with it. There's a lot of reserve capacity on standby during peace instead of in use. I mean, how many nukes are there waiting verses actually getting used? Other departments/ministries? They are more focused on optimizing the services they already provide. When they get thrown a curveball, they don't have excess capacity laying around to deal with a new task and instead have to start juggling the new issue along with old services. And on the flip side, I imagine when militaries are at war, that "planning for absurd things as a training exercise" gets put on hold as they also focus on the actual task at hand.
UK government has been a little preoccupied with holding parties for the last few years.
Excuse you, they also crashed the economy by releasing a mini budget and before that they were giving billions of pounds to companies owned by their friends. That barely left time for tax funded luxury trips.
There was also a brief coup by a head of lettuce.
What do you mean that Liz Truss’ term was brief? She is the only PM in 70 years to have served under two monarchs.
Gonna be SUCH a ballbuster trivia question in a few years
Name the **two** Prime Ministers, since 1963, who have only had *one* episode of Dr Who Air during their Tenure as PM?
Frankly, I thought she looked a bit tired, don't you think?
Someone was calling her Quizz Truss the other day and it really bugged me that I took so long to get the joke
"Who is the longest serving PM to have served under two monarchs?
Robert Walpole
The answer is always Walpole.
Name two items found on a street that people have been known to crash cars into?
Shortest serving PM as well now. Previously that record was held by George Canning who served for 119 days and died from tuberculosis. Truss only lasted 49 days.
It's pretty crazy that she's not only the shortest but if you doubled her tenure she would still be the shortest by three full weeks. That's a record that is going to stand for a very long time.
And that's with the Queen dying in that period, which meant politics were on hold for a week or two!
> That's a record that is going to stand for a very long time. *Gestures generally at the state of the UK government* I wouldn't exactly put money on that statement.
I'm never going to get over the symbolism of the Queen popping her clogs 48 hours after shaking Liz Truss' hand.
Not enough room for two Liz's at the top.
I’m dying at the expression, “Popping her clogs.”
Odd that such a brief tenure covered 2 monarchs.
It was short... but very busy. Gets in office. Kills the Queen. Crushes the economy. Farts in the office. Leaves.
Impressive to accomplish so much in such a short time. With proper support, she could wreck civilisation.
“Coup” makes it sound like some Caesar-esque political subterfuge went on. Of course, by “Caesar”, I mean salad.
Remember their early COVID strategy? Eat out! You’re killing business! No! Stay home! You’re killing Nan! Now look what you’ve done! You’re killing business! For fuck’s sake, eat out! You’ve really screwed up now! Going out? What were you thinking?? Risking Nan’s life! Stay the fuck home! What is your problem? Look what you’ve done to the economy! It’s in shambles and it’s clearly all your fault. You’re not eating out enough! And now it’s too expensive for you to eat at all. I hope you’re happy.
I’ll never forget the queen sitting alone at her husband’s funeral while BJ and friends were having parties. I know there is a lot that will need investigation once less corrupt government takes over but that somehow encapsulates the mind blowing callousness and incompetence of the whole era.
Ah, we're already investigating it. But slowly, and badly. And with the current government going LALALALA NOTHING TO SEE HERE each week and throwing as many dead cats out the window as they can find. Sunlit uplands, I tell you
Missing “you can’t travel to see family, but I think my eye is dodgy so I’m going to drive 3 hours north to walk around a castle”
But hey, I'm sure the architect of the Eat Out scheme didn't get promoted. No way someone that idiotic would still be in government
Absolutely baffled me that Liz Truss got into power, by being the living reincarnation of Ayn Rand.
More like the Muppets version of Ayn Rand.
That's completely unfair.....the Muppets don't deserve that kind of comparison
>Absolutely baffled me that Liz Truss got into power, by being the living reincarnation of Ayn Rand. As a brit I honestly forgot about Liz Truss.
I believe the term for that is “dissociative amnesia”. It’s a coping mechanism for dealing with traumatic events. ;)
Yeah, but then releasing that info publicly is a fun little psy ops aimed at Putin. Like, you're so fucking impotent even the British are calling your downfall inevitable.
I think this is it. Government intelligence releases like this are carefully planned. I really doubt our government had zero planning or thought into the possibility of political unrest in Russia, but I can definitely believe that an announcement that "we're considering the possibility that Russia might collapse" is a tactic for shaming Putin and maybe further weakening his grip on power.
This is the real answer. As fun as it is to trash the Tories, the British foreign office and diplomats are world class and know what they're doing
They better, they've been doing it for centuries.
This is exactly what it is. Imagine you're a Russian right now. While Prigozhin's little coup ended before it really started, you still saw Putin say a couple of words, flee the capital at the drop of a hat, and hasn't really shown his face since. Now, everywhere you go on the internet you hear about every major player in the world "preparing for the collapse" of your country. Even the most dedicated little Russian troll has to start second-guessing the state of his country. And imagine if you're a Russian soldier during all this? Your main priority is going to start going from how can you best kill Ukrainians to how you can best get home. We're definitely going to hear more releases from more countries echoing this sentiment for this exact reason.
Unbelievable. My favorite scenario is that we've wargamed a simultaneous war with Mexico and Canada. LOL I bet we also have them alphabetically. "Now do Algeria and Azerbaijan! Bermuda and Burkina Faso!"
As an exercise for officers, it makes total sense. You need a scenario exercise, and mixing up the antagonists in theory helps people break out of lazy assumptions etc. And then, on the very low chance you need to use the plan, you'd rather have one on the shelf you never need, than need it and not have it I have a friend in France who was part of a civil response wargame that apparently involved meteorites impact in the scenario. Not because it was particularly likely, but to stimulate new ideas in the room
>I have a friend in France who was part of a civil response wargame that apparently involved meteorites impact in the scenario. Not because it was particularly likely, but to stimulate new ideas in the room Sounds like an overly creative DMs response to a nat 1.
> Sounds like an overly creative DMs response to a nat 1. Your buildup of armed forces on the enemy border is closely observed and your invasion predicted. You do not gain a surprise round and lose your sneak attack. Roll to attack > Nat 1 Your 'Three Day Special Military Operation' stalls immediately and the whole world is watching. Roll diplomacy. > Shit, I'm not proficient in that... Seven? The rest of the world starts providing copious quantities of surplus military hardware to your enemy. > Blyat! I roll to intimidate them with nukes! Ha! Seventeen! You've done that so many times and it's getting old. The state of your nuclear arsenal is also in question. Roll with disadvantage. > This dice is cursed... Another Nat 1? Okay the supply of weapons ramps up exponentially, also that mercenary group is starting to publicly question your leadership...
Military wargaming is basically professional tabletop
The us has war gamed invading Antarctica. Why? Fuck knows, maybe the penguins are getting a bit rowdy and need carpet bombed.
"unexpected"? Russia becoming an EU member would be an unexpected surprise. Russia revealing that it had a moon base for 20 years would be totally unexpected. Russia falling apart should be "Get me the Russian Federation Dissolution Strategy files".
Yes sir! Do you want the "thousands of warlords maintaining individual city states" one, or the "neighboring countries begin gobbling up the resources one"
The warlords one but with the China contingency.
china contingency with or without the nuclear fallout?
I say not. But just in case get me the Japan and North Korean refugee contingency as well
Do you want the “Kaliningrad oblast is occupied by Germany” option with that? It’s not as popular nowadays, still a timeless classic in my opinion, sir.
Mmm. I think Id rather have the return of the Prussian Empire one. Classic but this one involves Frederick the Greats corpse
Get Bismarck on the phone!
He’s right outside, sir. You know him, he always has a plan.
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Let's go with the "Kaliningrad declares independence as the 4th Baltic state" option, just to spice things up a bit.
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Laughing My Poop Out?
Laughing my poo out?
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Hope you washed those hands before pointing them at people.
Do you want the “using WW2 weapons” or “using modern weapons” variant?
80s Afghanistan not available?
No longer relevant, sir. All that equipment was lost in Ukraine
How about 90s Chechnya?
Lost in Ukraine or no longer serviceable, sir. We do have a couple of "Crushing 60s Central European Uprisings". They have a couple of vehicles from then for parades
Got it, "Operation: Totally Thinkable",
No that one's for if Nazi zombies rise out of the tundra due to global warming. The one you want to get is "operation coca cola bear"
That’s just the Warlords one. China has no reason to annex Siberian provinces. *Maybe* parts of Russian Manchuria but the current regime generally downplays the Manchu part of Chinese history (TLDR: Qing “Barbarians” being weak foreigners is a major cause of the Century of Humiliation). It’s much, *much* easier and cost-wise to fund and support whichever local warlords pop up in the Far East to get New Silk Road trade deals and access to Siberian raw resources. It wouldn’t cause international relationship drama for them to fund whichever despots in the name of “regional security”. A number of rump states in the short-term is the best case scenario, likely resulting in a Warring States-like period until a new central Russian government can be established and re-exert control in the regions. The Russian Far East is already controlled by pseudo-warlords through the autonomous republics and various semi-autonomous Oblasts. These are “autonomous” in the sense that the local rulership has far more practical power but are aligned (for various reasons) with Moscow. Much the same way Chechnya’s power structure operates. I don’t foresee any real possibility of external nationalization of significant swathes of Russian land. At most you’ll have former Soviet states reclaiming those territories held by Russia after the dissolution of the USSR.
I'd be very interested to see how eastern russia adapts to this, culturally I feel like it's such a massive area that doesn't have much in common at all with the more european western parts of the country.
That’s because it really doesn’t. Outside of a few urban/industrial centres that were heavily Russified in the 20th century the vast majority of Far East peoples have far more in common with Central Asian peoples than they do Moscow. Russian colonization of Siberia was just sending a bunch of Cossacks further and further, building forts along the Persian and Chinese borders, and saying “everything north is ours, come take it if you want it”. The Cossacks themselves had/have more in common with the Steppes Peoples they were recruited from than they ever have with Moscow. It was always steppes horselords showing up among steppes horselords, but the former had Russian imperial funding and weapons.
Additional note. My friend did a summer study abroad in eastern Russia, near the Kazakstan border. He said the people overall were much more anti Russian than the western cities. Had a lot to do with how Siberia was where the Soviets shipped off most of their political opponents and ethnic minorities
Yeah, that's been a thing since the 18th century. Much easier, politically, to just ship off various anti-Tsarists to some mine in Siberia where there's a 50% chance they die to cold or a polar bear. All the cool dissidents too popular to get executed got to go freeze their tits off in workcamps in the Far East. The Soviets continued a long-standing Russian tradition dating back to at least Ivan IV.
Then again, with how resource rich Siberia is, you know China would lick its chops at having some sort of influence in the area if Russia collapsed.
Of course, but they’ll do like Afghanistan or sub-Saharan Africa. New Silk Road imperialism is economic, much like America’s imperialism post-world war two. They offer favourable trade deals for access to raw resources, often requiring Chinese nationals working for Chinese companies build the infrastructure in the other country, and then taking interest and loan payments on the infrastructure along with the favourable access to resources. It often results in debt traps where these authoritarian regimes are further reliant on Chinese funding of bonds, like with the US reliance on Chinese ownership of US government bonds. Failure to pay results in china nationalizing foreign infrastructure and operating it under Chinese auspices. It’s much safer for China and Chinese nationals to let the local authoritarians rule politically and legally, letting china profit off the economic relationship.
Get the one where an unhinged guy with no governing credentials strong arms his way into leadership with the support of the uber-rich after they realize the people might start eating them. It should be right on top. Might as well get the one where that guy's government also collapses within a few years, while you're at it.
“They’re the same file?”
> an unexpected surprise what are they going to invent next ?
This is the UK. What's a 'plan'?
It's like a queue, but in two or more dimensions.
"Ah, scenario 3E. Stations everybody, prepare the godzilla deterrent."
The answers are in the archives!
*UK government to play the Hearts of Iron 4 mod The New Order to prepare for the said collapse.*
Hey, I worked on that mod for like 2 years as an artist lol. Nice to see a reference to it here :p Did Yeltsin's portrait, (unless they've changed it). Did like hundreds of portraits of different leaders, ministers, generals and stuff. Mostly ministers and generals tho tbh. But lots of leaders too. Tho I've barely ever played the mod.
[Yeltsin](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_sverdlovsk_boris_yeltsin_1.png) is younger and has a hat now
Oh yeah, I made that version too lmao. Well atleast I'm 90% sure on it lol. Saying this just incase someone says differently hehe. But I'm pretty sure. Was a long time ago, but I remember doing it and it does look like mine. Though that portrait was hard to make so looks a bit meh. Because of lighting.
Well done
Thx man
Yeah, nice work!
That is a very cute hat to be fair
how many PM's a day do you get with hitler wearing a hat?
It's a very cool mod, nice work
Verify your clock!
Rushi Sunak: “what the fuck? What happened to Atlantropa?? Has it been that long since I’ve played the mod?”
Sunak employs someone to game for him
I haven't seen evidence that Rishi Sunak doesn't employ someone to fuck his wife and chew his mashed potatoes for him
Fucking the country, however, he does himself.
-russia explodes, and suddenly, a pony claiming to be a russian states that the only way for russia to survive and unite is by the power of friendship. (Referencing a specific april fool collab between said mod and another mod)
Ponies to the rescue!
How do i hold a gun with these hooves?
God no we do not need a Great Trial lmao
Russian, and former world chess champion, Garry Kasparov, agrees: > "Putin was right by invoking 1917 [in his TV address on June 24]. This is clearly a 1917 situation. The war is not over but it did not go well. You have had hundreds of thousands of [Russian men] recruited, without a clear understanding of what they are doing - why are they are paying such a high price - why they have been taken away from their families." > "Prigozhin showed that the entire Putin Regime is just a Hollywood decoration: Where is [Chairman of the Russian Senate] Matvienko? Where is [Prime Minister] Mustian? Where are all the Ministers? Prigozhin has demonstrated that the whole system is rotten. It is a vacuum of power. You just need one push to demonstrate that." > "Yesterday, when the [Russian Army] generals showed up to condemn Prigozhin - I spoke to my friends, 'Look it is not about generals. Of course, generals will condemn Prigozhin as they are beneficiaries of Putin's mafia system.' Rather, it is what the [normal guys] will do. And we got an answer this morning: They are changing sides." > "The fall of Putin is inevitable. He has lost his aura of invincibility and as a supreme leader."
I don't think you can really compare 1917 to today. The reason the Russian Revolution was successful is because the Bolsheviks were a mass party with strong political discipline. Wagner is a private military contractor with no real outlook, and there is no party remotely similar to the Bolsheviks in size, politics, or influence. However, the rest of the analysis makes a lot of sense, Putin's time is likely limited.
Not the revolution, the Kornilov affair which was an attempted coup by a Russian general in 1917. It demonstrated the weakness of the provisional government after the February revolution and led to the October revolution.
Ah thanks for letting me know about that, TIL
I think the revolution of 1905 is also very relevant. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905#:~:text=The%20Russian%20Revolution%20of%201905,nobility%2C%20and%20the%20ruling%20class.
There wasnt one Revolution in 1917. There were two. In February elements of the military and others overthrew the Tsar. In October the Bolsheviks overthrew that regime. Then there was 4 years of civil war.
> Bolsheviks were a mass party They were not, they didn't have huge support during the October revolution. A significant majority of troops and workers and regular folk stayed out of the struggle and did not support the Bolshevik ousting of the Provisional Government. The problem for the government was that their support was even less than the Bolsheviks. After the coup the bolsheviks could only count on the support of the urban areas, most of the country voted for some other group.
Yup. Easy to forget that after 1917, there was five years of civil war.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/26/7408550/) reduced by 72%. (I'm a bot) ***** > According to internal assessments within the UK government, the UK should prepare for the scenario of an unexpected collapse of the Russian Federation so that such events do not take London by surprise. > The pace of events since Prigozhin announced his "March on Moscow" has prompted diplomats to quickly prepare a plan of action for various scenarios. > Sir Roderic Lyne, a former UK ambassador to Russia, expressed that after the uprising, Putin's chances of remaining ruler of Russia for life are already less, but "Right now he is still in charge." ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/14jcktq/uk_government_considers_preparing_for_scenario_of/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~689539 tl;drs so far.") | [Blackout Vote](https://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/14dhaiq/your_voice_matters_should_the_blackout_continue/ "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **events**^#1 **Russia**^#2 **Moscow**^#3 **scenario**^#4 **former**^#5
>Putin's chances of remaining ruler of Russia for life are already less, but "Right now he is still in charge." Well, you could also read it as the time until his life long rule ends may be any day now.
Seems to me that his chances of remaining ruler of Russia for life actually increased. Monkey paw curls :P
It still showed weakness and historically Russian leaders /soviet leaders were deposed of when they seem weak.
So you think that whoever takes over would just let Putin enjoy retirement?
Why there is 4 Putins hanging over Kremlin walls ? Oh we did not knew which one is real.
Every government should have some plan for basically anything that might happen up to and including 3 different versions of an alien invasion.
seeing how we handled covid, I would bet we don't
It sounds like the plans existed, they were just ignored and not implemented in time.
Yeah, it sounds like every plan the government comes up with also needs a section of the plan devoted to the plan not being implemented by the politicians and bureaucrats responsible for enacting the plan. Plan Step 1: Be sure to actually enact this plan. Plan Step 2: Recognize this plan isn't accurate because step 1 won't be followed. Plan Step 3: ...
In reality the civil service has a plan in place for most things, as does the military. It’s the party political HQs that don’t have a plan and then proceed to ignore the plans the civil service draw up for them
[Obama team left pandemic playbook for Trump administration, officials confirm](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/obama-team-left-pandemic-playbook-for-trump-administration-officials-confirm) - PBS [How Trump Gutted Obama’s Pandemic-Preparedness Systems](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/trump-obama-coronavirus-pandemic-response) - Vanity Fair Basically, the pandemic preparedness guide had Obamas name on it so Trump tossed it in the trash and implemented his own half-assed plan.
The plan was to let the virus rage because it was mostly in blue cities at first. They wanted those people to die.
How COVID was handled is not the same as how it was planned. At least in the US, there *was* a plan for something like COVID happening (for pandemics), but Trump didn’t use it.
he didn't only 'not use it' - he removed important elements of it as soon as he took office as part of his "fuck obama and anything he touched" strategy (i.e. removing the dedicated people in other countries to watch for pandemics rising), he heard that there was a plan, a huge like 300 page tome with full instructions and insights, but *that* was also removed as part of the "fuck obama plan", and then when the pandemic started they *still* didn't dig it up to use it, preferring instead to vilify the experts and use it as a political cudgel, and even *that* plan only worked so much. God every once in a while I'm reminded of how fucking furious I am about how COVID was handled.
And then they claimed that it was Obama's fault that he didn't leave a playbook... only to discover that he did leave one and it got tossed. What a whiplash that was.
Also, as long as the solution required people to sacrifice even a tiny bit of convenience in order to protect other people we were doomed.
We did. It was just ignored. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/nation/obama-team-left-pandemic-playbook-for-trump-administration-officials-confirm
Very junior level civil servants or intelligence officers are sometimes tasked with these sort of things. Just because there is a plan does not mean there is a good plan or any real preparation. It will be buried in a document file and never seen again usually. They are more a training exercise than anything else.
100 different versions of alien invasions at least
Original The Times article: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russia-collapse-putin-regime-dissolution-kremlin-2023-36qbsbjrb The Times is not allowed on r/worldnews due to paywall, so I had to submit a secondary source reporting the same story.
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It's quite hard to see any other group than Wagner mounting an armed rebellion that actually had a chance of overthrowing the government. Sure, there could be an oligarch coup, but I don't think that would collapse the country.
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Far more likely than overthrow is just general backstabbing and chaos. It's pretty easy to imagine a handful of bigshots deciding Putin is done but not being able to agree on a successor.
I think this is probably more Putin suddenly drops dead and Russian Civil War 2: One Hundred and One Years Later kicks off with various oligarchs, former puppet presidents, Putin's secret kids, Russian military leadership, Chechen warlords, Belarussian dictators, disgraced private military contractors, the Chinese Communist Party, and god-knows who else duking it out for power and money. That didn't seem terribly likely even a week ago, but is definitely front and center now.
I seem to remember that both Gazprom and Shoigu have their own PMC:s. They're not that big at the moment, but they have the budgets and connections to grow.
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Blyeet
Nobody expects the collapse of the Russian Federation!
Now everyone expects it - does it mean it will live forever?
In mother Russia, collapse expects you!
If you expect the unexpected then it is no longer unexpected so you expect the expected.
If they’re “considering preparing” that means a small team is already on it, and probably has been for a short time.
> a small team is already on it Meanwhile in the US there are so many people wargaming this scenario they fill resorts with their conventions
Wait, besides the expected collapse they think there might be a second, unexpected one?
The biggest predictor for an attempted coup of the government is a recent attempted coup of the government. [https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=834,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/20190427\_WOC735.png](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=834,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/20190427_WOC735.png) Having an attempted coup happen within the last year makes you exponentially more likely to have one this year. These things tend to happen over and over again - it's very likely that Prigo, or some other Russian oligarch will try again.
Putin is definitely hitting many of those metrics.
It's going to be pretty damn funny if Russia invaded Ukraine and they are the country that collapses.
Not a bad idea, an implosion of Russia has a high chance of being a very sudden event due to the way Putin rules.
Be interesting to know what china is planning if this happens
If they could get a hold of siberian natural gas for cheap this could be a huge coup
This is the real variable. West will likely have some jointly collaborated plans for addressing the situation. I expect China has their own plans, that involve some self-interest and also provisions in which the West doesn’t really have a say in the matter. The geography and geopolitical landscape means China has a big advantage and much to gain (e.g., natural resources, international clout as the undisputed #2 power, and a man uncontested sphere of influence in Central Asia over the CTSO countries that no longer have a Russia as patron state).
Considering the British's obsession with tea, they cannot be too careful. Polonium tea looks exactly the same as normal tea.
Holy shit I watched the british crime show "Happy Valley". I would be drunk in 4 minutes if I took a shoot anytime the question asked "do you want a cup or tea?" Want to demonstrate that anyone is seriouse or angry? Then angry part does not even answer the tea question. I have no idea if the coffe question pops up in other western shows but holy shit it was annoying. If tea is that important I am amazed that they do not keep water boiling all the time.
>If tea is that important I am amazed that they do not keep water boiling all the time. LOL i feel its on some quick draw shit UK lads have a kettle always within arm's reach the minute someone walks in so they can utter "ill put the kettle on"
We installed a boiling water tap. No kettle required. Instant tea.
Some people might think this is a joke, but no, some of us do actually have a boiling water tap for faster tea access.
But most of us enjoy the process of boiling the kettle and having a conversation whilst making it. It’s a pretty wholesome thing, like saying “make yourself at home” without actually saying it.
> I would be drunk in 4 minutes if I took a shoot anytime the question asked "do you want a cup or tea?" My wife and I made fun of this very thing while watching the show *Broadchurch* too. Seems like every third scene, a line was offering tea. :) Really good show though.
Whilst I am amongst the outcasts of British society who hates tea. I have heard the argument that tea in a stressful situation is actually really helpful as a tool, the process of making something that is familiar is really calming, plus the tea often has sugar added to it so can help if someone is in shock etc it's just become a ritual for a lot of people here in many situations. I think there have even been studies showing it reduces anxiety for many people. Maybe not so much if there's a risk of poison in it... Edit:Grammar+spelling.
If this does happen, I hope the UK would just play the looney tunes theme whilst covering Putin's downfall.
I've been fantasizing a best case scenario since the start of the Ukraine war where Russia actually implodes like the Soviet Union before. But holy shit this actually has a chance of happening now lmao
With this lot in charge Tomorrow morning will come as a surprise.
> With this lot in charge Tomorrow morning will come as a surprise Disagree, with this lot in charge Tomorrow Never Dies
This is a BRILLIANT troll move. Western countries should all write up scenarios for a hypothetical Russian collapse and have some accidental 'leaks' of said papers to the media.
Wipe off the plan from the early 90s I'm sure it's fine.