Russia and Ukraine

[The Grand Nudger]

Hes got good reason to worry. Ukraine has repeatedly proven the value of second and third party mobile phone data for high level assassinations inside Russia.

[Leonardo17]

Desse 23:
 
“You have no idea about the big resentments of east Germans towards West Germans, 35 years later, do you?”
 
Only the basics: The whole of Eastern Europe have a different way of thinking (because of decades of socialist rule). Few of them understood (in the 1990’s) that you have to work hard to live a good life (because they belonged to a world that provided a steady salary and social care even for the most mediocre people).
 
BrianSoddingBoru:
 
The world military spending has reached 2,8 Trillion dollars in 2025. The whole of Artemis Project costed 100 Billion US dollars. So we could have 30 Artemis Project this year if we disbanded all militaries.
 
- Of course none of this is possible in practice. But I’m optimistic on this. See: Brute force is truly necessary on occasion and this is a truth. But cooperation is almost always better than blind competition when we want to achieve something big (Like the ISS, or a globalized economy, or a solution to the Covid outbreak).
 
Marianne Williamson says that the US needs a ministry of Peace instead of a ministry of war. That’s because with a fraction of the effort you put into active war or other unfriendly action toward (let’s say) and unfriendly dictatorial regime, you could do things to empower people in the poorer regions of the world so that they do not become terrorists of supporters of completely irrational political movements.
 
Back to Ukraine:
 
Ukrainian Drones are hitting more Russian targets than Russian drones hitting Ukrainian targets right now. + Ukraine is actually reconquering more lands than it is losing to Russians. They are exporting their know-how to Gulf countries and to their European allies who want to learn more about drone warfare.
 
+ If I got it correctly, the EU may decide not to issue visas to Russians willing to come to Europe for tourism activities.
 
So it looks like D. Trump will not be able to save Putin’s regime after all
 
Also: did anyone see “The Wizard of the Kremlin”?
 
- It’s on theaters. And a great story about how fascism can be created and brought to be functional even in our age of increased tele-communication and free and rapid flow of knowledge and information. It’s a great movie by the French director Olivier Assayas that is a must see if you are interested in these issue

[The Grand Nudger]

No one but russia could ever have saved russia from this. Doesn't mean our mad king will stop trying though.

[Fake Messiah]

Ukraine bombs Moscow

One of Ukraine’s largest drone strikes on Russia killed at least four people, including three near Moscow, and wounded a dozen others, local authorities said Sunday. Debris fell on Russia’s largest airport without causing damage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the drone strikes, saying that they were “entirely justified.” Russia has repeatedly launched similar attacks on Ukraine’s capital and other cities during the war, and an expert said that the strikes appeared to be retaliation for recent Russian attacks on Kyiv.

Russian drone strikes on Ukraine overnight wounded eight people, Ukrainian authorities said.

Zelenskyy said that the drones had flown more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Ukrainian territory, and that Ukraine was “overcoming” Russian air defense systems concentrated in and around the capital.

“Our responses to Russia’s prolongation of the war and attacks on our cities and communities are entirely justified. This time, Ukrainian long-distance sanctions have reached the Moscow region, and we are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war,” Zelenskyy said.

“It brings home the fact Ukraine has the capacity to strike at very significant scale at or around the Russian capital,” taking the war home to Russians in a way that would be “most unwelcome” to the Kremlin, Gould Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, told The Associated Press.

“There is no ongoing peace process to disrupt. What (the attack) is more likely to do is add to the darkening cloud of anxiety over Russia which has developed palpably over the last three or four months,” he said.

He cited a combination of factors, including Russia’s recent battlefield setbacks, a deteriorating economic situation at home, and the Kremlin’s intensifying crackdown on the internet, including in Moscow and Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg.

Ukrainian drones are also flying deep into Russia to strike oil facilities, sending up plumes of smoke that can be seen from space and bringing toxic rain to tourist destinations on the Black Sea. The attacks are aimed at slashing Moscow’s oil exports, a key source of funding for Russia’s grinding invasion of Ukraine.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukrain...942245a2e6

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

^Gotta love dem scrappy Ukrainians!!

Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

Pictures of Ukrainian drones loitering in formation over Moscow are going to hurt their already cratered foreign weapon sales. Why buy Russian shit that doesn’t work when you can get Chinese shit that does?

[Fake Messiah]

‘There is profound disappointment in him’: mood in Russia turns against Putin

While fears of an imminent coup are exaggerated, there is little doubt that Putin is entering the most challenging period of his long rule. Interviews with several people in the orbit of the Russian leader, as well as sources in the Russian business world and western intelligence officials, paint a picture of an isolated leader surrounded by an elite that is becoming rapidly disillusioned, both with the faltering war in Ukraine and the economic downturn at home.

“There’s definitely been a shift in mood among the elites this year … there is profound disappointment in Putin,” said a well-connected business leader, adding that there was “a growing sense that some kind of catastrophe is looming”.

“No one believes everything will suddenly collapse tomorrow,” the source said. “But there is a growing realisation that utterly senseless, self-destructive decisions keep being made. People who once defended Putin no longer do. Any sense of a future has disappeared.”

Putin’s approval ratings are slipping, the economy is under mounting pressure, and even pro-Kremlin bloggers who have rarely criticised the president are beginning to speak out.

Despite the cracks emerging at home, Putin’s calculus on the war in Ukraine has not changed, and he remains determined to press on, according to interviews with multiple people familiar with his thinking, as well as European and Ukrainian intelligence officials.

Putin has made clear to his inner circle that he believes Moscow can capture the entirety of the Donbas region by the end of the year, two sources with access to the president said. “Putin is fixated on Donbas and he will not stop before that,” one of them said.

Speaking after the 9 May Victory Day parade – scaled back amid fears of Ukrainian drone attacks – Putin surprised many by suggesting the war was “coming to a close”. The remark made headlines, but those familiar with his thinking caution that it should not be interpreted as a sign he is prepared to compromise. Instead, it suggests Putin believes a military breakthrough is imminent.

A Ukrainian intelligence official said Russian generals had convinced the Russian leader that the Donbas would be taken by the end of the year. “Fabricated reports [are] being fed up the chain of command, claiming victory is imminent,” the official said.

That bravado is not currently reflected on the battlefield. Military analysts say that, at the current pace of advance, it could take Russia years to fully capture the Donbas.

It remains unclear to what extent Russia’s military and security services are presenting Putin with an overly optimistic picture. “Even if many around him understand the reality of the situation, we still don’t know what Putin himself understands. That’s the most difficult part,” one senior European intelligence official said.

“Of course, officials and the military paint a rosy picture for the president,” a person familiar with discussions in the Kremlin said. “They lie to him. That’s how the system Putin has built works.”

Another factor in Putin’s decision to fight on is that the Russian leader has lost faith in Donald Trump’s ability to pressure Kyiv into surrendering territory as part of a deal, according to one source close to Putin and another involved in backchannel talks.

“There was this widespread optimism in Moscow that Trump could deliver the Donbas after his election. It has largely evaporated,” one source in contact with Putin said.

Across Russian social media, frustration with the authorities has become increasingly visible. Videos showing small business owners railing against higher taxes, residents complaining about repeated internet shutdowns, and farmers in Siberia furious over mass livestock culls ordered by officials have gone viral.

Russia’s general happiness index fell to a 15-year low in April, a state pollster reported, and several polls have shown Putin’s approval rating falling to its lowest point since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...inst-putin

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

“There’s definitely been a shift in mood among the elites this year … there is profound disappointment in Putin Trump," said a well-connected business leader, adding that there was “a growing sense that some kind of catastrophe is looming”.

“No one believes everything will suddenly collapse tomorrow,” the source said. “But there is a growing realisation that utterly senseless, self-destructive decisions keep being made. People who once defended Putin Trump no longer do. Any sense of a future has disappeared.”

Putin's Trump's approval ratings are slipping, the economy is under mounting pressure, and even pro Kremlin MAGA bloggers who have rarely criticised the president are beginning to speak out.

Despite the cracks emerging at home, Putin’s Trump's calculus on the war in Ukraine Iran has not changed, and he remains determined to press on, according to interviews with multiple people familiar with his thinking, as well as European and Ukrainian Middle Eastern intelligence officials.

Weird, huh?

Boru

[Fake Messiah]

Yeah, both countries are stuck with a demented old autocrat.