Are you planning on dumping your world time ( GMT ) watches......

Evitzee

Watches, like individuals, need to be judged based on the standards of their day. Look at some of the classic Patek Philippe world time watches....I see Caracas, Peking, Baghdad, Moscow and other places that aren't so good today. But you have to put these in context of the 30's, 40's and 50's when they were made. What are supposed to do, make a PP world time watch unacceptable because it has a Venezuelan city on the dial? And goodness, Peking is not the spelling that China now demands. Unfortunately our cancel culture likes to imprint our current, supposedly supreme, moral attitudes on historical people and events. It's wrong.

gbesq

I wouldn’t count on Putin’s inner circle protecting him from the masses.

cvalue13

I stare (grotesquely) at WWII alone as indicative: while the U.S. still today defines itself around losses incurred in WWII (~400K, 99% military), the Soviet Union lost 60 times more people (~24MM), half of which were civilians - nearly 15% of the country’s population.

In some dark irony given today’s political landscape, the only other allied country to remotely lose as many people: China (~19MM, 90% civilian).

For either country after WWII, it took another 6+ decades for things to get materially better.

That’s a level of cultural “muscle memory” few other modern countries - least of all the U.S. - can rely upon to weather tough times.

I half suspect that the average Russian living through these sanctions is less uncomfortable than people in the west merely imagining living with these sanctions.

Or as one of my old colleagues in Moscow put it, when last week I sent a text to ask how he and his family were: “oh come now, we are no virgins ”

Archer

If anything happens to him, I suspect it will be the inner circle that is responsible.

lejaune

My guess is that he can't do it "all by himself". It would require the consent of some of his generals in the chain of "button pushes", and if they don't want to commit suicide, they may take him out. Once the Putins are airborne, the senders may be able to stop them or redirect them (to sea), but the receivers would have to rely on anti-missile technology.

Heard from a friend.

ngo516

Once those Putins are airborne, can they be stopped?

Archer

Not sure at that point it's relevant...

Met with a good friend of mine yesterday who is in the military, and heading to Europe shortly for a new assignment. Had a good chat about the situation and where it goes from here. There are tiered responses in place for many scenarios, and as he said "we talk about this every day, and have for a very long time."

His view (which I take with some authority as he's been involved in these things at high levels) is that once that happens, it will be full on both sides. In his words, there is no such thing as tactical nuclear weapons in terms of the response. Each nuclear power will respond in the way that best suits their interests, so NATO becomes mostly irrelevant at that point. Also when I asked if Russia still has the dead hand, he said that the belief is that they do.

To be frank, I was hoping for some reassurance, but I didn't get any...

gbesq

It won’t happen. All of the world’s leaders, including Putin, know where it will end. There can be no winners.