Former Russian double agent seriously ill in Salisbury.

I dont think we get much gas from Russia, Europe does though.

Putin being all big and hard for his own people is not unusual, its interesting to see the alarm some people are expressing up and down the web.. i guess few of them lived during the worst of the cold war, or watched Threads :p
 
Andy_82 said:
Exactly, you only have to watch RT to see how one sided it is
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variety is the spice of life - watching the BBC/C4 is a bit single track itself

sideways14a said:
So the UK is playing with fire according to Russia
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does anyone speak Russian - you wonder if these are unambiguous translations ? UK media with their frequently ridiculous 'dubbed' voices and word emphasis.

Cyber attacks on infrastructure or ransomware would be a good start - further revelations by fancy bears ?
or, civilian/police animosity to UK 'fans' during world cup
 
jpaul said:
does anyone speak Russian - you wonder if these are unambiguous translations ? UK media with their frequently ridiculous 'dubbed' voices and word emphasis.

Cyber attacks on infrastructure or ransomware would be a good start - further revelations by fancy bears ?
or, civilian/police animosity to UK 'fans' during world cup
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Watch the UN live feed then, if the translation was wrong do you not think Russia would be jumping up and down about it at subsequent security council meetings?
 
jpaul said:
variety is the spice of life - watching the BBC/C4 is a bit single track itself
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Thats true, though the more in depth programs, newnight, bbc radio talk shows etc are more in depth - the only way to be sure though is to watch/read varied sources, including those that go against you're view.

jpaul said:
Cyber attacks on infrastructure or ransomware would be a good start - further revelations by fancy bears ?
or, civilian/police animosity to UK 'fans' during world cup
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I would guess cyber would be the most likely. I've heard that term 'Fancy bear' as a code the US gave to one of Russia's state organisations but cannot for the life of me remember where....

Edit: ah yes, it was a code word used for a APT group thought to be the GRU
 
The West needs to start cutting reliance on Chinese goods as a matter of urgency, future problems with China have been brewing for a long time and will only get worse the more money we hand them.
 
deaglecat said:
Not sure but Putin don't back down.

gas supply maybe?

also how much support will we get from our american friends (under trump) and the eu...if the going really gets tough.
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Trump is as big a supporter of the UK as George Bush was, we really couldn't have a better US President as far as UK security goes. The guy owns property here for Gods sake.
 
Firestar_3x said:
The West needs to start cutting reliance on Chinese goods as a matter of urgency, future problems with China have been brewing for a long time and will only get worse the more money we hand them.
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Is close to impossible without the collapse of the US economy. China holds $1.2tn of US treasure bills. The threat that it will dump them, could cripple the US economy for the next 20 years.

Already the newly announced tariffs against US imports, hitting the stock markets.
While the petro-yuan is pretty severe news, but brushed lightly for the time being.
 
Panos said:
Is just molecular chemistry, and that specific agent is simple, anyone can cook it.
And given it's formula can be found in Amazon books, it only takes someone with organic chemistry knowledge to make it.
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Nonsense, complete and total nonsense.

There are only a handful of countries on the planet with the ability to make it, it's probably on par with nuclear weapons.

For reference, this is a 2009 quote on the subject from the scientist who launched a book containing the formulas for some Novichoks:

To begin with, let’s consider the probability of the production of chemical agents by terrorists. In reality, production is an extremely tricky, dangerous and high-tech business. Can any serious chemical engineer or scientist imagine that this production could take place in an underground bunker, without highly trained and qualified personnel, and without extremely strict safety measures, somewhere in the Swat Valley in Pakistan? It’s not even science fiction, but a pure lie, because of the nature of these agents. Anyone who tried to synthesize and produce them this way would most likely kill himself.

In GOSNIIOKhT, the Russian center for developing chemical weapons where I worked for 26 years, all scientists and engineers, including the departmental and laboratory chiefs, had to pass safety exams every year. The technical personnel had to pass them every six months. The strictness of the technical measure in the laboratories and factories that produced chemical weapons was unprecedented. Even under these circumstances, there were many victims and the consequences were often lethal. My friend Andrei Zheleznyakov died after being poisoned with the Novichok agent A-232, even though he was very experienced and was observing all safety measures.
Formulas in books cannot replace experience, highly qualified engineers and the technological secrets of production. Without them, everything is absolutely useless.

My colleague, Mr. Lippman, who was once the chief engineer at the Volgograd factory for the production of chemical agents in Russia, told me about how the Soviets brought a whole factory for the production of sarin over from Germany after World War Two. With the assistance of two German engineers, they tried to begin the production of sarin there, but it took 6 years for it to get started up. The start up of the small pilot plant for the production of the Soviet VX-gas – known as Substance 33 – took more than 8 years. The experimental production of chemical agents like sarin and VX-gas in Iraq were also an instructive example. After the Gulf War, my colleagues from GOSNIIOKhT along with some Western scientists found some bombs filled with sarin and VX-gas, but in reality this was pretty much pure garbage, consisting mostly of the products of decomposition! It is known that some German businessman sold the technologies and assisted them in their start up, but the primitive technological level of the country made it impossible for anything noteworthy to be produced.
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ubersonic said:
Nonsense, complete and total nonsense.

There are only a handful of countries on the planet with the ability to make it, it's probably on par with nuclear weapons.

For reference, this is a 2009 quote on the subject from the scientist who launched a book containing the formulas for some Novichoks:
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This is where I think some of those scientists on twitter are a bit disingenuous - actually producing the compounds (most of them are talking about analogues that are easier to work with as well) is one thing - actually being able to turn that into an effective end product another and trying to replicate it from scratch would require extensive testing to get the reactions and ratios, etc. right - and that is ignoring that amongst other things you'd be working with highly explosive or highly corrosive gases at various points in the procedure never mind actually testing/tweaking the final product. Though I think the excerpt overplays it a bit.
 
Firestar_3x said:
The West needs to start cutting reliance on Chinese goods as a matter of urgency, future problems with China have been brewing for a long time and will only get worse the more money we hand them.
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That'll go down well with Overclockers, care to hazard a guess what percentage of goods they sell are of Chinese origin? I suspect the average young British technology lover has more Chinese made goods about their person and bedroom than a Chinese person of similar age.... ;)
 
Interesting point on R4 today programme (need to listen back to identify government representative)
but Corbyn has apparent not had the same level of briefing/proof-information as our allies (although he is on privy council) -
representative did not comment when interviewer suggested Corbyn was not trusted.
But this question needs to be put to Corbyn - has he refused briefing or was it not offered ? in either case damming ?
 
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