Firstly, if compared to 2020 and 2021, you will notice this years parade is a lot smaller. It features 131 vehicles, compared to 234 in 2020 and 197 in 2021. 2/
A large portion of the combat ready vehicles are missing from this years parade, including TOS-1s, Pantsir-S1s, T-80BVMs and BM-30 Smerchs. 3/
The Rosgvardia (National Guard) armored vehicles that are usually part of the parade are also missing this year. They are being used extensively in the invasion of Ukraine and have suffered heavy losses. 4/
The parades usually impressive display of MLRS systems appears to have been demoted to 9 Tornado-G upgraded Grad systems. 5/
The large part of their parade consists of their "next generation" systems that exist in too few numbers to have been fielded in combat in Ukraine. Systems such as the T-14 Armata, Kurganets-25, VPK-7829 Bumerang and Uran-9. 6/
Elvira Nabiullina is by far the most competent person in the Russian government and has almost single-handedly managed to keep the Russian economy afloat for the past year despite increasing pressure from above to change key policies.
She is however rapidly running out of black magic and the creative accounting required to continue her success. With Israel/Iran not causing the expected oil price surge, the record deficit is increasing and the methods of financing it are dwindling.
OFZs are being sold at record levels to state owned banks, but the high interest rate means the income is only just enough to cover the payments due on last year’s bonds.
The NWF’s liquid assets dipped below the government deficit last month further adding to the headaches.
Summary of the significant evidence that the B-2s currently airborne are a strike package heading directly for Iran:
1. Immediate refuelling after departing from Whiteman Air Force Base indicates that the aircraft are carry close to their maximum payload.
If not an immediate strike, it is highly likely that the ordnance would have be pre-positioned at Guam or Diego Garcia with C-5 or C-17 transport aircraft in order to save the logistical headache of the additional aerial refueling and airframe stress.
2. If the B-2s continue onward to Iran they will arrive on target a few hours prior to opening of the Futures market at 6PM ET Sunday. This will give the Trump administration time to host a press briefing to calm the markets before they open.
All the videos of the Azerbaijan Airlines flight showing the damage show holes in the wreckage have entry holes on the port side and exit holes on the starboard side, likely with a slight angle from below.
Here one can see the difference between the port and starboard side of the aircraft’s vertical stabilizer.
Visible damage to the port side flap hinge fairing prior to the crash.
🧵The Ursa Major was heading to Vladivostok and not en route to aid in the evacuation of Tartus.
Given cargo it carried, this is in fact even worse for Russia than if it had been heading to Tartus.
The Ursa was carrying two Liebherr 420 mobile cranes for the harbor in Vladivostok that is heavily backed up due to a lack of cranes and two 45-ton hatches for the construction of the new Project 10510 nuclear powered icebreaker.