Just what we needed in this dystopian sci fi story which is unfolding before us, is a mad scientist. We’ve already got the lunatic dictator. Here’s his threat, if you missed it: “Anyone who tries to interfere with us, or even more so, to create threats for our country and our people, must know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences as you have never before experienced in your history.”
Isn’t that pleasant? Now here’s what the head of the space station had to say (and the Russian tweet below it.) Raw Story:
Dimitry Rogozin, the chief of the Russian space corporation Roscosmos, made an eyebrow-raising threat: that if the sanctions continue, Russia could stop maintaining the orbit of the International Space Station and allow it to crash into the United States.
“If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States or Europe?” tweeted Rogozin in Russian. “There is also the option of dropping a 500-ton structure on India or China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS does not fly over Russia, so all the risks are yours. Are you ready for them?”
Европы? Еще есть вариант падения 500-тонной конструкции на Индию и Китай. Вы хотите им угрожать такой перспективой? Над Россией МКС не летает, поэтому все риски – ваши. А вы к ним готовы?
Господа, вы когда санкции планируете, проверяйте тех, кто их генерирует, на предмет болезни— РОГОЗИН (@Rogozin) February 24, 2022
Doesn’t this guy sound completely batshit like a villain in a low budget movie about Evil Russians?
Nothing like a little dystopian sci fi in the air and a lunatic invading on the ground. As they say, Don’t Look Up.
Maybe Trump could send his Space Farce to take it over (after he asks Vlad the Invader for permission of course) and have it crash on the Democratic Convention
It would be a spectacularly STUPID, even MAGA “stoopid” for Russia to do such a thing. Crashing a space vehicle of that size on the U.S. would be considered under any standard an attack. I used the word any because it applies to Russia – the whole point of them doing such a thing would be to make spectacular albeit relatively limited (unless huge chunks hit a major city) damage. Such an action would provoke the very thing that Putin fears – a NATO response. Take a look at the following from the NATO charter
Article 5
The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.
The first sentence spells it out, and is commonly paraphrased as “an attack against one is an attack against all” and more to the point all members are required to if asked respond. It has been invoked exactly once – when we were attacked on 911. I’m sure the leaders (both military and civilian) of NATO don’t want an all out war but given how dangerous Putin has become and how he’s put so much effort into establishing a USSR 2.0 taking out him and the Russian leadership in his pocket would probably be calculated as an opportunity too good to pass up.
Worse for Russia is how geared up NATO already is. There’s no doubting the fact Trump created major cracks in the alliance and that while Biden was making progress in restoring things NATO was looking at options where the U.S. was if not an afterthought not sitting at the head of the table with outsize influence calling the shots. Putin has with his recklessness restored NATO to its former solidarity. They are already able to attack Russian forces in Ukraine from three sides and every day are moving more assets closer to a possible front. And we are sending ever more American units to those countries.
Dropping a massive space station on the U.S. (or a NATO country or ally of the alliance) would provide justification to invoke Article 5 and not just every Russian trooper in Ukraine or near its borders and even Vlad himself will never be as unhappy again. Not that most of them will live long enough for that unhappines to really sink in. Within 24 hours of a “go” order (and you can bet scenarios have been gamed out and are updated multiple times a day at HQ in Brussels) it might not even take 24 hours to choose a plan and cut the attack orders! Russia would be badly outmatched. Putin doesn’t give a shit about the lives lost but as I keep saying he DOES care about a shitload of front-line equipment (he’s not deploying old, outdated leftovers but his latest stuff) being lost. And all those ships and subs in the Black Sea? Proverbial fish in a barrel and THAT would be distastrous. That stuff costs TONS of money.
It’s an idle threat I’m sure. Putin would shoot anyone who punched in the commands himself before fleeing and trying to hide before one of his oligarchs orchestrated HIS arrest, trial and execution. He knows the consequences all too well. Sadly, a whole lot of idiots here in the U.S. (not all of them MAGA goobers either) will worry about this.
Relax. Not gonna happen.
Yeah, you can always tell when a guy’s huffing, can’t you? Putin decides to attack the rest of the world with a stunt like that, the oligarchs will turn him into dog food faster than he just wrecked Russia’s economy.
Space Balls.
I might be ill-informed but russians are not the only people on that vehicle or so I thought. Does this moron think everyone in the vehicle will just stand back and allow this? I cannot even imagine his russian counterparts participating because this is such an asinine thing to do. At this point however I do not think putie would put a stop to it: he is well-beyond the point of no return. I do not think NATO, as it is comprised right now, worries him all that much. Yes, he did not want them on his back doorstep in Ukraine but he’s seen the lack of any meaningful response from that organization and they’re not much more annoying than a gnat buzzing around his butt. The sanctions should have been a complete embargo of the entire country and NATO and the U.S. blew it big time. I had thought the oligarchs behind their little putie puppet would get rid of his ass but the sanctions aren’t enough to make much of a dent in their bank accounts. They might, might mind you, notice a dip in their revenues.
You know, I hate to parrot what the RWNJ’s have been saying-how Joe fucked up-but he did on this one. Unless more sanctions, better yet a total embargo, are put in place I predict putie is going to annex Ukraine (i.e. install another puppet ruler) and will start in on other neighboring countries. Why the fuck wouldn’t he? The big worry in this was the NATO/U.S. response and that has been a joke. If I were the leaders of Finland, Poland, etc. I would not be sleeping too deeply at night.
Wow…that last statement. Were you under the misimpression that there was ever a magic bullet solution to any of this? Because it sure sounds like it. I’d remind that Putin has committed the majority of his armed forces to this little op, so every day the Ukrainians slow him down (and with the intel and supplies we’ve given them, they’ve proven they can do just that) is another day his army fails to move on to their next target countries.
Another reminder: plenty of Russians are resisting Putin on the homefront, well ahead of the daily grind of casualties that are surely coming. When the latter hits critical mass, the former will get worse. If Iraq and Afghanistan should have taught us ANY GODDAMN THING, it’s that there’s a limit on what we can do to meaningfully help.
Biden is trying to not hurt people who have no political power – which is about 99% of the people in Russia. Some of the things you want to do also require cooperation from other countries .
Uh. We could blow up the damn thing. Blowhard bullshit. Remember our military expenditures yearly are more than Russia, China & other countries combined!!! A terrier could attack a pitbull, but the outcome for the terrier would be disastrous.