As your Eastern European Relationship Manager for Grey Economy let me say who gets the boot:
- people who steal too openly and bring unwanted attention to looter's paradise
- people who become too greedy, and unnecessarily upset the flock who is used to a certain level of corruption
- people who can no longer be trusted (talk too much, too many drugs, unpredictable, meeting questionable people etc.)
- people who upset the higher ups on more than one occasion, and are disliked
I agree with Katyusha that this is just an attempt to pacify patriotic Right-of-the-Kremlin circles in Russia. But in the end, nothing will really change. Timur Ivanov was chosen by above criteria. Shoigu will not fall, he knows too much - if he was to fall, there would be no jail time but a leap from Kremlin window instead.
Thanks impy and congratulations on your new appointment.
Re your “who gets the boot…”I find it rather funny that in Russia only people who accept the bribes get (or not) into trouble. What happens to the bribers? So it’s OK to give but not so good to receive?
let me start with this, people are free to disagree - 3 levels of corruption in Eastern Europe:
1) Ukraine - you don't get things done at all if you don't give a bribe.
2) The rest of Eastern Europe - you might have to give a bribe to speed up the process, higher quality service etc., but the basic service is generally provided
3) somewhere between 1-2 are three countries : Russia, Bulgaria, Romania. Their lower standard of living leads to higher corruption than in more westernized EE countries.
Bribers can be prosecuted in Russia too, but not as a general rule, more like 0,0001% cases, done for unrelated purposes like: police dept. needs to show some work done/improvement in this field; destroying a life of an inconvenient person, calming down a specific public outcry..
Charges depend on type of bribery private - public official, private - foreign official, private to private. Quick copy pasta to give you an idea:
The sanctions under Article 291 of the Criminal Code vary, depending on: (a) whether the person giving a bribe has acted alone or in conspiracy with others; (b) whether the bribe is given for the commission of a lawful or an unlawful act (or failure to act); and (c) the amount of the bribe.
The minimum sanctions ? for minor public bribery of up to RUB 10,000 (~USD 170) ? include a fine of up to RUB 200,000 (~USD 3,400) or the salary or other income of the convicted for a period of up to three months, correctional labour for a period of up to one year, a limitation of freedom for a period of up to two years, or imprisonment for a period of up to one year.
The maximum sanction for a bribe exceeding RUB 1 million (approximately USD 17,000) is a fine from RUB 2 million (~USD 32,400) to RUB 4 million (~USD 64,900), or in the amount of the salary or other income of the convicted for a period of two to four years, or of 70 to 90 times the amount of the bribe with or without a prohibition from holding certain positions or engaging in certain professional activities for up to 10 years, or imprisonment for a period from 8 to 15 years with or without a fine of up to 70 times the amount of the bribe and with or without the prohibition from holding certain positions or engaging in certain professional activities for up to 10 years.
uff, that is a tough one. As you know Russian oligarchs have a bad habit of committing suicide or dying under strange circumstances, but I do not recall prosecution for bribery in relation to oligarchs. Maybe tax evasion, fraud or money laundering, not bribery. One famous example in 2000's was Khodorovsky. It goes without saying that nobody cared about oligarchs breaking the law, they all do, the law was only used against them when they upset someone more powerful.
One layer below oligarchs, yes they get occasionally get done for bribery - like a top lawyers at Rosneft for example, or high level government officials like governors, deputy ministers.
I really would like some chapter and verse on all this stealing we endlessly hear about. They're all stealing millions, billions even, yet such as Shoigu for instance, turn up for work day after in a bloody uniform and sit through long speeches and listen in tedious meetings and go on field trips to visit factories and things - that's how a billionaire would choose to spend his time? I'm a nothing. But you couldn't pay me to do that. I live a better life than that.
I want chapter and verse else its all just mud slinging.
I want to know what is being taken and from whom and what damage is done by that.
See also Rurik Skywalker's articles on how Russia's military was gutted, sold off & hollowed out following the collapse of the Soviet Union by people like Shoigu & his cronies. https://substack.com/@rurikskywalker
I've been away from here for a couple weeks so forgive me if this has already been discussed, but I recall reading that a law was recently passed banning all VPN's in Russia and was even signed by the shirtless equestrian 5D chess master himself. If that is true, what will become of blogs such as yours should dissenting voices be squelched? Would people there have access information on the outside? Or is this not a thing?
VPNs aren't outright banned yet, but like everywhere else in the world, the authorities are slowly tightening the internet-screws. If my blog gets shut down that just means there is more time for me to install wood paneling over my hideous wallpapered walls, WHICH I NEED YOUR HELP WITH.
What? The Honorable Riley Waggleman wants me to wander from my exceedingly comfy home and hang paneling at the prestigious Edward Institute for Village Studies, Goat Farm, Puppy Mill and Ministry of Cheese? Well color me humbled! Of all the wood workers in all the world, you chose this old curmudgeon?
I should be either packing my bags, or Riley is working a master-level troll job on me.
There was just an article in today's (April 27, 2024) Kommersant that a law is being passed that will require foreigners to submit their biometrics in order to get a SIM card. Here's Tass' coverage: https://tass.com/society/1781563
Looking rather of dark all over as the technocracy races to pull its murky cloud of oppression over the last flickers of privacy, individual liberty and free expression.
I don't want to believe it is inevitable however, there will be a moment when that magical spark ignites this world against all the evil. When that does happen, I pray there will be that one articulate, brave and spontaneous person who steps forward and channels the built up fuel ready to explode into something good and not allow masses of people to go on a frenzy of reckless violence as has happened so many times in history. This is why I'm concerned that the censorship of the Internet will retard or stop the fostering of a global free society where super-state governments and their wars are rendered obsolete by an awake populace.
Dave, I'm afraid I don't share your optimism. One only has to look at how the overwhelming majority of humanity went along with the Covid scamdemic & the injection of mRNA gene modification into their bodies to see that they are indeed sheeple. Those who resist & refuse to obey are a tiny fraction of the population. Erich Fromm articulated it perfectly in his magnum opus "Escape From Freedom," analyzing how the masses of humanity throughout history will willingly give up not only their freedom but even their own minds to authority. Look at the screen addiction & the hivemind on social media. The global ruling class has absolute contempt for, in the words of Hillary Clinton, "the deplorables."
Oops, got pulled away by the notion that I ought to go back to work instead of engaging interesting threads.... Anyway, I'm referring to my own myopic worldview of the US. What I seem to know, seeing ho I've lived here 2/3drs of a century, is that humans, allowed to be free, have a natural coalescing tendency and will generally work towards good if not swayed by the wrong message. My optimism stems from the notion that there have been great people in history that have amassed a following through peaceful resistance and mutual cooperation. As long as communication isn't too restrictive, people will unite for good.
I know what you're thinking, '"What tf is THIS guy smoking?"
"But the mere suggestion that Shoigu could be canned is of course deeply disturbing to disaffected Westerners who abuse themselves by listening to Very Serious Pundits and their 5D Bingo sermons. After all, why would Putin want to fire Shoigu, the inventor of the brilliant military strategy, “sit in a trench and wait for a drone to kill you as Gazprom pays Kiev to transit its tasty Russian gas to Europe”? Moscow is about to introduce the gold-backed ruble and vaporize Bill Gates with fifteen S-700 surface-to-space-lizard missiles—why sack Shoigu when everything is going according to plan? Why would patriotic pro-SMO Russian commentators suggest something so outlandish and offensive?"
Delicious.
ZAnon on suicide watch.
On this note, one could also add that Lukashenko keeps repeating that there is stalemate in the war (and also asks for peace talks). From just a couple of days ago:
"“We see a so-called zugzwang on both sides today. Yes, there is some movement forward, but that is not the movement of the desired scale. It is a stalemate. What should be done in this situation?” Aleksandr Lukashenko said."
The one thing you've got to love about Luka is that he's never afraid to speak his mind & tell it like it is. That man is the personification of a survivor.
This is kinda tangential, but USNATO are still perhaps crazy enough to send troops or equivalents to Ukraine and "end" it just like USA "ended" WWI: by spreading disease just like USA soldiers spread disease to Europe in WWI. We stopped the war by making too many soldiers too sick to fight. Maybe we can perform this miracle again?!
The question is, if Putin really does fire Shoigu, who is there to replace him that could seriously turn this disastrous war around & start destroying Ukraine's infrastructure & power grid? Like Strelkov, so many of the true Russian patriots have been silenced or killed. In regard to military strategy, Rurik has been spot-on throughout this debacle.
The only thing the "true Russian patriots" are good for is fighting windmills aka "nazis", while demociding their fellow Russians in Donbas and all over Ukraine. They never had the intelligence or courage to resist their deadliest enemy, the "Russian" authorities. Which effectively makes the patriots aka nationalists the worst enemies of ethnic Russians.
The aforementioned agent provocateur Strelkov, however, is not a "patriot".
Russia ignores the Grand Chessboard/NeCon Imperialist grand strategies of Zbigniew Brzezinski, and the Banderite shock troops implementing them - at their peril.
What's a "banderite"? How is a "banderite" fundamentally any different from your average intellectually stunted STATIST, aka a "nationalist", aka a "patriot"?
by a huge margin of WHAT? what METRICS are you comparing?
PS. You see, you're the one who is PERSONALLY involved in the mass attempts to DEHUMANIZE the ordinary Russian people of so called Ukraine. So I look forward to receiving YOUR OWN opinion as a response.
This is because Putin, the oligarchs, & the neoliberal class of comprador elites, worship the West & slavishly beg to be allowed to enter their club which the West will never, ever allow. It's embarrassing how they grovel to "their esteemed Western colleagues & partners."
I watch not what people say, but what they actually DO.
I think this is the finer Art of War, on the world stage. They play all the games - until there can be no doubt about who is lying, and who is telling the truth...showing whom each side actually IS - for any and all to see. They're breaking the West the way that water breaks rock. Compare the way Russia loses only a fraction of the men, that the Ukrainians have. And at some point (pretty soon) - they'll have an overwhelming numerical advantage. The West tried to draw them into a trap. They BEAT the trap. And they managed the escalation, in way that gives NATO no excuses to jump in. And we didn't all die in a mushroom cloud - at least not yet. It feels like the Madmen in Tel Aviv and stolen Jerusalem are most likely to kill us all.
Russia would only have an overwhelming numerical advantage if they conducted mass mobilization which they have not & will not do. As for the Israelis, they have proven they are capable of anything. This is what happens when you allow a bully to get away with anything with total impunity - their heinous actions & behavior only escalate.
That's just not true. They did a reserves mobilization, and continue to grow based upon the voluntary enlistment of patriotic young people. Meanwhile, the Kiev Regime has lost half a million soldiers already. Nobody is volunteering - even border guards and conscription commissars are making a run for the border. There's nothing worse for societal and troop morale, than drafting unwilling, conscripted, cannon-fodder.
The way the Grand Canyon was carved -was by the slow, steady, unrelenting pressure of water against rock. That's the Russian model for victory. And they're continuing to push, until they achieve a complete collapse of the Ukrainians. The BANDERITES are now refusing to fight. It doesn't matter what weapons get sent to the front lines - whether now or a year from now. If there's no trained experienced troops ready to receive them and put them to use - there's no way that Ukraine can win. And NOW, all of a sudden - we're seeing stories about the impending collapse, in Imperial MOCKINGBIRD mouthpieces like the Economist and WaPo.
The Russians would need a massive call-up - but only if NATO troops could fjnd some justification to enter the war. The Russian call-up would be a potential justification for that kind of radical change in western policy. So, by ratcheting things up so much more slowly and subtly - the Russians have implemented a successful strategy of 'escalation management', versus NATO.
AND now Russia (and their strategic partners, like Iran and China, and North Korea - are poised for multiple strategic victories at the same time - against a munitions depleted west. The west can only win by going nuclear - a strategy that will make everyone losers, themselves included. And even then Russia has significant advantages.
The small dog on the left, looking up at you, is plying the special guilt trip trade of his genus in an attempt to get you to pick him up, provide some massage and make his siblings jealous. You best be careful, he might poop on the floor if you don't.
I don't think the Putin can just have the Shoigu step aside ,he knows too much. Funny that the Putin did not wait until the cabinet reshuffle to quietly remove Timur so there must be a warning there for someone.
As your Eastern European Relationship Manager for Grey Economy let me say who gets the boot:
- people who steal too openly and bring unwanted attention to looter's paradise
- people who become too greedy, and unnecessarily upset the flock who is used to a certain level of corruption
- people who can no longer be trusted (talk too much, too many drugs, unpredictable, meeting questionable people etc.)
- people who upset the higher ups on more than one occasion, and are disliked
I agree with Katyusha that this is just an attempt to pacify patriotic Right-of-the-Kremlin circles in Russia. But in the end, nothing will really change. Timur Ivanov was chosen by above criteria. Shoigu will not fall, he knows too much - if he was to fall, there would be no jail time but a leap from Kremlin window instead.
Thanks impy and congratulations on your new appointment.
Re your “who gets the boot…”I find it rather funny that in Russia only people who accept the bribes get (or not) into trouble. What happens to the bribers? So it’s OK to give but not so good to receive?
let me start with this, people are free to disagree - 3 levels of corruption in Eastern Europe:
1) Ukraine - you don't get things done at all if you don't give a bribe.
2) The rest of Eastern Europe - you might have to give a bribe to speed up the process, higher quality service etc., but the basic service is generally provided
3) somewhere between 1-2 are three countries : Russia, Bulgaria, Romania. Their lower standard of living leads to higher corruption than in more westernized EE countries.
Bribers can be prosecuted in Russia too, but not as a general rule, more like 0,0001% cases, done for unrelated purposes like: police dept. needs to show some work done/improvement in this field; destroying a life of an inconvenient person, calming down a specific public outcry..
Charges depend on type of bribery private - public official, private - foreign official, private to private. Quick copy pasta to give you an idea:
The sanctions under Article 291 of the Criminal Code vary, depending on: (a) whether the person giving a bribe has acted alone or in conspiracy with others; (b) whether the bribe is given for the commission of a lawful or an unlawful act (or failure to act); and (c) the amount of the bribe.
The minimum sanctions ? for minor public bribery of up to RUB 10,000 (~USD 170) ? include a fine of up to RUB 200,000 (~USD 3,400) or the salary or other income of the convicted for a period of up to three months, correctional labour for a period of up to one year, a limitation of freedom for a period of up to two years, or imprisonment for a period of up to one year.
The maximum sanction for a bribe exceeding RUB 1 million (approximately USD 17,000) is a fine from RUB 2 million (~USD 32,400) to RUB 4 million (~USD 64,900), or in the amount of the salary or other income of the convicted for a period of two to four years, or of 70 to 90 times the amount of the bribe with or without a prohibition from holding certain positions or engaging in certain professional activities for up to 10 years, or imprisonment for a period from 8 to 15 years with or without a fine of up to 70 times the amount of the bribe and with or without the prohibition from holding certain positions or engaging in certain professional activities for up to 10 years.
"...Their lower standard of living leads to higher corruption than in more westernized EE countries...."
As a citizen of the Yoo Ess of Ay, I disagree. We may be the wealthiest nation on the planet and yet the Whore of Babylon has nothin' on us.
If everyone had loveable pups like Riley does, we'd all be better for it.
It may be getting interesting - see the piece in en.topwar.ru: https://en.topwar.ru/241393-timur-i-ego-komanda.html
The comments are pretty ruthless too.
Thank you for the hyperlink.
Thanks. I didn’t disagree with you at all. Have any oligarchs been prosecuted for bribing?
uff, that is a tough one. As you know Russian oligarchs have a bad habit of committing suicide or dying under strange circumstances, but I do not recall prosecution for bribery in relation to oligarchs. Maybe tax evasion, fraud or money laundering, not bribery. One famous example in 2000's was Khodorovsky. It goes without saying that nobody cared about oligarchs breaking the law, they all do, the law was only used against them when they upset someone more powerful.
One layer below oligarchs, yes they get occasionally get done for bribery - like a top lawyers at Rosneft for example, or high level government officials like governors, deputy ministers.
Thanks.
See here Trump versus the D S.
I really would like some chapter and verse on all this stealing we endlessly hear about. They're all stealing millions, billions even, yet such as Shoigu for instance, turn up for work day after in a bloody uniform and sit through long speeches and listen in tedious meetings and go on field trips to visit factories and things - that's how a billionaire would choose to spend his time? I'm a nothing. But you couldn't pay me to do that. I live a better life than that.
I want chapter and verse else its all just mud slinging.
I want to know what is being taken and from whom and what damage is done by that.
Too much to ask?
a reasonable request. start here: https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/russias-smo-a-timeline-of-premonitions
See also Rurik Skywalker's articles on how Russia's military was gutted, sold off & hollowed out following the collapse of the Soviet Union by people like Shoigu & his cronies. https://substack.com/@rurikskywalker
You can also listen to that French interview of a Russian activist talking about these corruption things: https://crowdbunker.com/v/Pv78AfN3V4
French... too bad. But thx anyways.
Way too much!
Riley,
I've been away from here for a couple weeks so forgive me if this has already been discussed, but I recall reading that a law was recently passed banning all VPN's in Russia and was even signed by the shirtless equestrian 5D chess master himself. If that is true, what will become of blogs such as yours should dissenting voices be squelched? Would people there have access information on the outside? Or is this not a thing?
Hope I'm in error.
VPNs aren't outright banned yet, but like everywhere else in the world, the authorities are slowly tightening the internet-screws. If my blog gets shut down that just means there is more time for me to install wood paneling over my hideous wallpapered walls, WHICH I NEED YOUR HELP WITH.
I am shocked Riley - have you no sense of history!
Those layers of wallpaper are priceless historical records!
Seriously Riley - I am at the other end of the world but your desecration of your priceless wallpaper walls grieves me even from here!
Cover over with boring wood paneling - sacrilege!
Sand off the rough bits - smear with appropriate coloured paint - make feature walls - preserve your priceless heritage for future generations!
Do I have to come up and show you how it is done?
While Putin is doing his best to preserve traditional values, you are tearing ancient wallpaper off the walls!
Sad - very sad.
What? The Honorable Riley Waggleman wants me to wander from my exceedingly comfy home and hang paneling at the prestigious Edward Institute for Village Studies, Goat Farm, Puppy Mill and Ministry of Cheese? Well color me humbled! Of all the wood workers in all the world, you chose this old curmudgeon?
I should be either packing my bags, or Riley is working a master-level troll job on me.
ฅʕ•̫͡•ʔฅ
There was just an article in today's (April 27, 2024) Kommersant that a law is being passed that will require foreigners to submit their biometrics in order to get a SIM card. Here's Tass' coverage: https://tass.com/society/1781563
Looking rather of dark all over as the technocracy races to pull its murky cloud of oppression over the last flickers of privacy, individual liberty and free expression.
I don't want to believe it is inevitable however, there will be a moment when that magical spark ignites this world against all the evil. When that does happen, I pray there will be that one articulate, brave and spontaneous person who steps forward and channels the built up fuel ready to explode into something good and not allow masses of people to go on a frenzy of reckless violence as has happened so many times in history. This is why I'm concerned that the censorship of the Internet will retard or stop the fostering of a global free society where super-state governments and their wars are rendered obsolete by an awake populace.
Dave, I'm afraid I don't share your optimism. One only has to look at how the overwhelming majority of humanity went along with the Covid scamdemic & the injection of mRNA gene modification into their bodies to see that they are indeed sheeple. Those who resist & refuse to obey are a tiny fraction of the population. Erich Fromm articulated it perfectly in his magnum opus "Escape From Freedom," analyzing how the masses of humanity throughout history will willingly give up not only their freedom but even their own minds to authority. Look at the screen addiction & the hivemind on social media. The global ruling class has absolute contempt for, in the words of Hillary Clinton, "the deplorables."
From what I have read, it was around 15% of the colonies that rebelled against the Crown and successfully threw the bums out.💪
To what location are you referring? India?
Oops, got pulled away by the notion that I ought to go back to work instead of engaging interesting threads.... Anyway, I'm referring to my own myopic worldview of the US. What I seem to know, seeing ho I've lived here 2/3drs of a century, is that humans, allowed to be free, have a natural coalescing tendency and will generally work towards good if not swayed by the wrong message. My optimism stems from the notion that there have been great people in history that have amassed a following through peaceful resistance and mutual cooperation. As long as communication isn't too restrictive, people will unite for good.
I know what you're thinking, '"What tf is THIS guy smoking?"
Nah, just a hopeless romantic.
"But the mere suggestion that Shoigu could be canned is of course deeply disturbing to disaffected Westerners who abuse themselves by listening to Very Serious Pundits and their 5D Bingo sermons. After all, why would Putin want to fire Shoigu, the inventor of the brilliant military strategy, “sit in a trench and wait for a drone to kill you as Gazprom pays Kiev to transit its tasty Russian gas to Europe”? Moscow is about to introduce the gold-backed ruble and vaporize Bill Gates with fifteen S-700 surface-to-space-lizard missiles—why sack Shoigu when everything is going according to plan? Why would patriotic pro-SMO Russian commentators suggest something so outlandish and offensive?"
Delicious.
ZAnon on suicide watch.
On this note, one could also add that Lukashenko keeps repeating that there is stalemate in the war (and also asks for peace talks). From just a couple of days ago:
"“We see a so-called zugzwang on both sides today. Yes, there is some movement forward, but that is not the movement of the desired scale. It is a stalemate. What should be done in this situation?” Aleksandr Lukashenko said."
https://eng.belta.by/president/view/lukashenko-advises-west-to-settle-for-draw-with-russia-157835-2024/
I think that's interesting coming from him considering you'd think he'd be inclined to paint the situation in rosy colors for the Russian side.
The one thing you've got to love about Luka is that he's never afraid to speak his mind & tell it like it is. That man is the personification of a survivor.
This is kinda tangential, but USNATO are still perhaps crazy enough to send troops or equivalents to Ukraine and "end" it just like USA "ended" WWI: by spreading disease just like USA soldiers spread disease to Europe in WWI. We stopped the war by making too many soldiers too sick to fight. Maybe we can perform this miracle again?!
Those are some beautiful puppies.
The question is, if Putin really does fire Shoigu, who is there to replace him that could seriously turn this disastrous war around & start destroying Ukraine's infrastructure & power grid? Like Strelkov, so many of the true Russian patriots have been silenced or killed. In regard to military strategy, Rurik has been spot-on throughout this debacle.
The only thing the "true Russian patriots" are good for is fighting windmills aka "nazis", while demociding their fellow Russians in Donbas and all over Ukraine. They never had the intelligence or courage to resist their deadliest enemy, the "Russian" authorities. Which effectively makes the patriots aka nationalists the worst enemies of ethnic Russians.
The aforementioned agent provocateur Strelkov, however, is not a "patriot".
Russia ignores the Grand Chessboard/NeCon Imperialist grand strategies of Zbigniew Brzezinski, and the Banderite shock troops implementing them - at their peril.
What's a "banderite"? How is a "banderite" fundamentally any different from your average intellectually stunted STATIST, aka a "nationalist", aka a "patriot"?
It's categorically worse, by a huge margin.
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/06/09/how-pre-ww-ii-ukrainian-fascists-pioneered-brutal-terror-techniques-later-improved-by-cia-now-ironically-taught-to-descendants/
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/06/10/how-monsters-who-had-beaten-jews-to-death-with-hammers-in-1944-became-americas-favorite-freedom-fighters-in-1945-with-a-little-help-from-their-friends-at-cia/
by a huge margin of WHAT? what METRICS are you comparing?
PS. You see, you're the one who is PERSONALLY involved in the mass attempts to DEHUMANIZE the ordinary Russian people of so called Ukraine. So I look forward to receiving YOUR OWN opinion as a response.
This is because Putin, the oligarchs, & the neoliberal class of comprador elites, worship the West & slavishly beg to be allowed to enter their club which the West will never, ever allow. It's embarrassing how they grovel to "their esteemed Western colleagues & partners."
I watch not what people say, but what they actually DO.
I think this is the finer Art of War, on the world stage. They play all the games - until there can be no doubt about who is lying, and who is telling the truth...showing whom each side actually IS - for any and all to see. They're breaking the West the way that water breaks rock. Compare the way Russia loses only a fraction of the men, that the Ukrainians have. And at some point (pretty soon) - they'll have an overwhelming numerical advantage. The West tried to draw them into a trap. They BEAT the trap. And they managed the escalation, in way that gives NATO no excuses to jump in. And we didn't all die in a mushroom cloud - at least not yet. It feels like the Madmen in Tel Aviv and stolen Jerusalem are most likely to kill us all.
Russia would only have an overwhelming numerical advantage if they conducted mass mobilization which they have not & will not do. As for the Israelis, they have proven they are capable of anything. This is what happens when you allow a bully to get away with anything with total impunity - their heinous actions & behavior only escalate.
That's just not true. They did a reserves mobilization, and continue to grow based upon the voluntary enlistment of patriotic young people. Meanwhile, the Kiev Regime has lost half a million soldiers already. Nobody is volunteering - even border guards and conscription commissars are making a run for the border. There's nothing worse for societal and troop morale, than drafting unwilling, conscripted, cannon-fodder.
The way the Grand Canyon was carved -was by the slow, steady, unrelenting pressure of water against rock. That's the Russian model for victory. And they're continuing to push, until they achieve a complete collapse of the Ukrainians. The BANDERITES are now refusing to fight. It doesn't matter what weapons get sent to the front lines - whether now or a year from now. If there's no trained experienced troops ready to receive them and put them to use - there's no way that Ukraine can win. And NOW, all of a sudden - we're seeing stories about the impending collapse, in Imperial MOCKINGBIRD mouthpieces like the Economist and WaPo.
The Russians would need a massive call-up - but only if NATO troops could fjnd some justification to enter the war. The Russian call-up would be a potential justification for that kind of radical change in western policy. So, by ratcheting things up so much more slowly and subtly - the Russians have implemented a successful strategy of 'escalation management', versus NATO.
AND now Russia (and their strategic partners, like Iran and China, and North Korea - are poised for multiple strategic victories at the same time - against a munitions depleted west. The west can only win by going nuclear - a strategy that will make everyone losers, themselves included. And even then Russia has significant advantages.
Only for you, my prince, only for you:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Very+Serious+Pundits+and+their+5D+Bingo+sermons
I was hoping there was like maybe a nonbinary metagay punk band or something. But Grandma's Pig will do.
The small dog on the left, looking up at you, is plying the special guilt trip trade of his genus in an attempt to get you to pick him up, provide some massage and make his siblings jealous. You best be careful, he might poop on the floor if you don't.
The puppies see your boots as "the means of production", and also deliciously chewy.
Shoigu and Gerasimov are Ukraine's best generals, without them Ukraine would surely lose.
I don't think the Putin can just have the Shoigu step aside ,he knows too much. Funny that the Putin did not wait until the cabinet reshuffle to quietly remove Timur so there must be a warning there for someone.
Yes. Puppies. Or a pony! 🦄 🙄 or sanity...
Marko is back in black.
I hope the Worst of All Worlds is also back.
You're a great writer, you have an excellent sense of humor and you love puppies too. Продолжай свое доброе дело, мой друг!
Did I miss something? Did you name your puppy yet?
Cute puppies! They are a blessing. 😊