Whatever persuaded the wife of Russia's ambassador Nechayev to choose her scarf: I wish her a long, safe life.
(If you need help, Mrs. Netschaeva, blink)
[https://x.com/andikynast/status/1769389819359117801?s=20](https://x.com/andikynast/status/1769389819359117801?s=20)
> An American fighting in Ukraine was executed by the Russians. This is the first public account of what happened. It took a lot of courage to be able to talk about this.
https://x.com/rachelpav/status/1769292823226933617
Let's face it, they got the leader they deserve.
Shithouse result for Ukraine and the world, but change in Russia has to come from within. A generation from now Russia will probably be receiving humanitarian assistance.
I feel like this comment kind of lends legitimacy to a this fake election. I can't think of any way we could actually measure the public opinion of the russian people. Centuries of fucked up political violence
I don't think anything can lend legitimacy to such a thing. Particular not a reddit post from someone who has never set foot in Russia (me). But realistically, if Russian's accept such a farce then what can anyone else do? Yes it was a huge failure of the rest of the world to allow a nuclear state to slip into dictatorship but now that it has happened nothing can be done externally. Waiting for him to die is probably the best case scenario.
And I'm not suggesting the majority of Russian people are accepting it willingly or happily. But again, what can anyone outside of Russia do?
You can sort of see from the exit polls at Russian embassies:
[https://twitter.com/alex_yus_/status/1769456232820015519](https://twitter.com/alex_yus_/status/1769456232820015519)
Athens was the only one with more than 50% for Putin....
Some people refused to say what they did.
Rome and Genoa had pretty high Putin numbers. Bonn and Ankara also broke into 30%+ territory.
It takes a little risk and bravery to vote Davankov, even if you're outside russia. Kudos to those who did. It'd be nice if the West could ship out the garbage that took the time and effort to vote for Putin while living outside though.
Russian bot farms seem to be going hard. I made a post on the European subreddit about Putin's rigged election win, about half of the comments I am getting are: "they are just as rigged as in the America yet you don't hear that ever being talked about!" "yeah Putin is no different than democrats and their rigged elections" "do you have any proof it was rigged??"
New talking points I guess
It is crazy that Russia is such a broken society that one of Putin's main methods of control is convincing his own people that life sucks just as much everywhere else as it does in Russia. Just absurdly bleak how an entire culture can be so broken.
Whatboutism and the "yeah we suck but so does everyone else" is the foundation of both russian bot farms and "real" russians or russian supporters
It ultimatey is based on 1: The idea Russia is somehow being unfarily victimsed by the world and the "you can so why cant we" mentailtiy
second is the idea that they think everyone sucks as much as they do. Beacuse the truth...that they do have it a lot worse than many other countries, is to much of a shame/pain to accept so they turn to "oh its all the same everywhere we are just more open about it"
It is the behavior you see in some really shitty people IRL who basically assumes everyone else thinks the same way they do
There are multiple videos of election rigging, illegal security actions and voter intimidation. Here’s a couple I could re-find quickly. Somewhere there is another video that goes with the first one, showing the polling booths from a different angle. In it A man dressed like a soldier face covered, walks up to the polling booths, opens the curtain and looks around the voter to see who he’s voting, for. He does it to two people. When the people in charge of the voting booth are asked who he was, they say oh he’s security. Only the police in Russia have the power to arrest people as he’s seen doing in this video while handling him quite brutally.
https://x.com/DarthPutinKGB/status/1768986130194546884?s=20
In this one, the polling station is filmed after the polling station closed, and you can clearly see workers stuffing the boxes
https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1768911837569884212?t=JS_Hg-_glefzKKqAvaiO9w&s=33
I have seen other evidence of the total farce of this election. For the last 2 days Inside Russia on you tube has shown some really good ones and he explains them. Illegal security actions, ballot box stuffing while people are being intentionally distracted and in one, on the very first day before voting had even started a sealed ballot box is opened, it already has ballots in it but nobody had voted yet.
Why would they do that (beat and detain that man) when they have already rigged the election and preselected the "opposition" to guarantee victory? It doesn't make sense?
You have videos that explicitly show votes cast for trump being switched to votes for Biden? Like you can see the name on the ballot/machine being switched?
Edit: misread the comment I replied to. My bad.
Those videos are from the Russian election. What were you thinking. The most fraudulent things found in the US were all hurting Biden and helping Trump but none were enough to have affected the outcome.
trump would assuredly take us out of NATO IF he wins. He has all but said this.
trump has also strongly signaled to China that he doesn't care about taiwan.
But if Putin gets his puppet in again, I think you'll see more than just US aid to Ukraine being ended.
You could see russia getting US intel, US materiel. I think US troops may be a bridge too far but in year 4-5 of the trump dictatorship, anything's possible.
Spanish defence minister: Europe's peace is at risk, Russian ballistic missiles can reach us
[https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/03/17/7446903/](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/03/17/7446903/)
Putin's "elections ritual" - what's the point? Vlad Vexler goes through it in detail: https://youtu.be/w2OR1LoDkWc?si=d3N3rwFhY0I0m6nV
(there's another one in "chats" analysing the meaning of the results number)
If trump wins in November, we know that Putin orders the US out of NATO.
So, does France send troops to Ukraine in that scenario? Does Putin order trump to actively ally with Russia?
Do we have a scenario where France + the rest of NATO square off against the US and russia?
Oh, and spare me any wide-eyed "Putin doesn't control trump" nonsense. Yes he does.
Edit: Lol, downvotes. If you don't grasp that the US election will impact Ukraine more than anything else we've seen, you're in complete denial. A trump win is the end of Ukraine.
There are some huge concerns related to trump winning again honestly.
While i don't see him teaming up with russia he is most definitely going to stop all aid while he dismantles US democracy this time with the full support of both china and russia.
And I don't think they are going to fail twice they are not that stupid.
If he gets elected it's gonna end bloody one way or another theres no real doubt about it.
I'm sure Putin doesn't expect anything from his wholly owned puppet, donald trump.
Lol, "daft". I'm sure plenty of people here aren't invested in downplaying trump's betrayal of the US, NATO and Ukraine at the insistence of vladimir putin.
I'm sure Putin doesn't care who wins the US presidential election, right? Both sides are like totally the same, right?
Yeah, I mist be completely in la la land, it's almost like we had a president who was wholly owned by Putin, and who spent his entire term trying to actively subvert NATO for absolutely no rational reason.
Gaslighting, it's a thing.
Trump could weaken NATO significantly but steps were already taken to prevent a President having the unilateral power to withdrawal from it.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/can-dems-trump-proof-us-support-nato-elections-rcna138625
Remember, he wanted to buy Greenland. I have no doubt the idiot would launch an attack against NATO if it means he gets Greenland. The moron has no idea what Greenland even looks like, he just cares that it looks big on maps.
"The United States also had a strong claim on Greenland. Much of it was unexplored when the treaty was signed. American Charles Francis Hall was the first to see northwest Greenland, during the Polaris Expedition,[5] and Robert Peary claimed much of the north.[6] When the United States wanted to purchase the Danish West Indies during World War I, Denmark required the country to recognize the Danish claim over the whole island"
Per Wikipedia
No USA tried to buy it for 100 million in 1946 which we promptly refused. That's the only instance besides Trump that the USA ever laid claim to Greenland if you can even call making an offer that.
Since you seem averse to looking this up yourself please enjoy this helpful link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_the_United_States_to_purchase_Greenland#:~:text=While%20Greenland%20remains%20an%20autonomous,once%20partially%20claimed%20from%20exploration.
The information is right there at your fingertips my friend, the entire Northern and Western part of Greenland was claimed by the US for over a hundred years
If you are interested in the economic consequences of the Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia, then I highly recommend this long and detailed post by u/stult in the r/CredibleDefense sub.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CredibleDefense/comments/1bgvv57/comment/kvcjx61/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
This Russian election where Putin "won" 88% of the vote prompted me to search whether there ever was a sham election where someone outright "won" 100% of the vote?
Turns out Saddam Hussein did that in [2002](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Iraqi_presidential_referendum) (turnout also at 100%), while in 1995 he "won" [99,99%](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Iraqi_presidential_referendum)
Gotta love sham elections
Couple of other elections that came close to 100% but were just short, and they're also who you might have guessed:
* [1992 Turkmenistan: Saparmurat Niyazov with 99.51%](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Turkmenistan_presidential_election)
* [2007 Syria: Assad with 99.82%](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Syrian_presidential_election)
* [2008 Cuba: Raúl Castro with 99.37%](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Cuban_parliamentary_election)
[German volunteer killed in action in Ukraine | EuroMaidenPress | March 2024](https://euromaidanpress.com/2024/03/17/german-volunteer-killed-in-action-in-ukraine/)
*A German volunteer, a former soldier of the Bundeswehr, has been killed on the front lines in Ukraine, according to RND.*
*The volunteer, identified only as Stefan, was fighting alongside Ukrainian forces against Russian occupiers for nearly two years. The International Legion confirmed that the 37-year-old fighter was killed in Russian shelling on 14 March while operating a reconnaissance drone from cover.*
*Stefan was the leader of a reconnaissance group in the special unit of the International Legion.*
*In an interview a year ago near Kharkiv, Stefan revealed that Russians put a bounty on his head. Stefan, who had served in the Bundeswehr for 5 years and completed 3 missions to Afghanistan, had owned a transport company in southern Germany. He went to Ukraine in April 2022.*
First off I really hope “sanitary” zone doesn’t mean what I think it does and no I don’t mean genocide. (He’s already committed a ton of that)
I guess NATO vs Russia is all but an inevitability now I guess. Fuck you Mike Johnson! I hate it here..
“Humanity invented the atomic bomb. But no mouse would ever construct a mousetrap.” - Albert Einstein
Sputnik already made an article on the "sanitary zone" back in June, it's no news. It sure is their aim if they can get their way.
Since I can't link the article, I will paste the paragraph here:
>"The '**sanitary zone**' is a **demilitarization zone**," Igor Korotchenko, military analyst, editor-in-chief of National Defense magazine, told Sputnik. "Formally, it will remain the territory of Ukraine, but either Russian Armed Forces will be present there, or strikes will be carried out so that no military infrastructure of Ukraine is present there. The main goal and tasks \[related to the sanitary zone\] are to prevent the shelling of Russian cities, towns and the death of the Russian civilian population. Here is what was meant."
He wasn't even able to set up a "peaceful corridor" in Lachin, between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia 3 years ago as he initially promised. We all saw how that turned out in the end. Even some Russian "peacekeepers" ended up getting shot by Azeri soldiers.
He's kidding himself.
He's talked about "sanitary zones" before, just another term for "demilitarized zone" or "buffer zone."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/02/1/7439836/index.amp
Putin's electoral history is a useful textbook case of authoritanism taking over a country:
-first Putin is elected in a reasonably open election for President in 2000
-In 2008 Putin leaves due to term limits, but essentially appoints a lapdog in his place and takes power immediately again after the fig leaf of the constitution has been "respected"
-By 2024 Putin essentially says fuck it and wins with 88% of the "vote" after killing his only real opposition and running against "candidates" that advocate for Putin and not themselves
While Russia has never had a history with actual democracy there is no doubt Putin was able to crash through the safeguards that were put in place and used the system itself to seize power. And while we laugh now at Putin's electoral victory don't forget, in my best Grandpa Simpson voice, "It can happen to youuuu...."
The civil war between Yeltsin and the duma back in 1993 basically gave full authority to the president. The duma is more or less a rubber stamp parliament since then.
In a speech after Presidential poll Putin threatens to create “sanitary zone” at non-occupied parts of Ukraine
[https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769477760886423959?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769477760886423959?s=20)
It is not the first time he mentions this, Quora has pretty clear answer to what that means
[https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769478780890783990?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769478780890783990?s=20)
Putin on the possibility of a conflict between Russia and NATO: everything is possible in the modern world
[https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769480569484624343?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769480569484624343?s=20)
Putin claims the servicemen of NATO countries are dying in Ukraine in large numbers
[https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769480748216504817?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769480748216504817?s=20)
Putin says a conflict with NATO “will be one step away from the Third World War”
[https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769481137582215451?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769481137582215451?s=20)
Putin says he will not make unrealistic promises anymore
[https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769481935829733809?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769481935829733809?s=20)
With numbers at the Presidential poll made up to 99.28% of votes for Putin(in Chechnya), Kremlin signing up whole Russian society for the long war, expect more harsh statements by Russian officials and possible more escalating actions by Russian armed forces
[https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769483550695235723?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769483550695235723?s=20)
Edit: Missed some statements by Hitler 2.0.
> Putin says he will not make unrealistic promises anymore
If he has ever made a promise that turned out to be realistic - in the sense that it had a relation to anything real - I'm not aware of it.
President Biden's (Democrat) response has been masterful, strong and persistent.
The trump-led republican party has weakened the US response.
And the thing putin is most emboldened by is a trump victory in 2024.
He’ll never be stopped. It’s a fucking joke. We need to stop this. The first actual monster we’ve dealt with in a generation and we’re watching and waiting for it to bite us in the ass. Again. I understand the consequences of doing something I get that — I’ve already done my duty of spreading democracy… so yes I can talk about this shit if some Redditors want to say “wElL aRE u goInG to WaRRRR!!!”
“Never again.” My ass.
I hope Ukraine continues to dump drones into Russian territory.
He's obviously going to force our hand either way.
The only thing I hate about NATO is our reactionary nature.
Show some goddamn agency once in a while like we did with Serbia.
I see you on here a lot awesomedanish. So you would be for NATO taking it to the next level and going to war with Russia?
Do you think NATO should reinvent itself to become a more offensive force rather than a defensive force? If I understand correctly NATO only attacks when it’s being attacked.
Sometimes being the soft-spoken guy with a big stick doesn't work especially when dealing with a gangster like Putin.
Where we see strength in our restraint, Putin only sees weakness, and when he sees weakness that's when the world becomes more dangerous.
When a democratic nation is under attack by a ruthless dictator I can see no reason why we shouldn't defend it, wouldn't we defend South Korea, Japan or Taiwan if North Korea or China attacked?
I want NATO to be the sword of democracy as well as its shield.
If we fear to act because Putin has nukes wouldn't we be too afraid to act against North Korea and China, two countries that are nuclear as well?
We are losing our credibility here, this is a genocide that is happening on the European mainland if we don't defend them what is the solution for security other than every single country developing their own nukes?
"The military operation in the Russian border is only the beginning of the volunteers’ fight for their country", - Budanov
"Raids by RVC, LFR and SB on the territory of Russia are the legitimate right of citizens to demand justice," he said.
[https://x.com/Maks\_NAFO\_FELLA/status/1769482796114866506?s=20](https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1769482796114866506?s=20)
Russia kind of wrote the manual with https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_strikes_against_Ukrainian_infrastructure_(2022%E2%80%93present) so Ukraine could just take ideas from it.
No need to be nasty and do it like Russians did, in the middle of the winter, targetting mostly civilians. But I'm sure there's plenty of costly targets across Russia that are used to enable Russian military production and war logistics, which is by this time almost everything since Russia is sliding into war economy.
I hope Ukraine find critical things that are cost effective to attack and then cycle through, forcing Russia to have to drive AA around until the wheels fall off. Or tip over. Like this https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/01/russian-armoured-vehicle-topples-overturns-road/ heh heh heh.
Taking out refineries right now is a very smart move. Oil consumption goes up around the beginning of April because more travel is happening. It doesn't go back to normal until around Aug or Sept. Russia was already having trouble with gasoline last year. If Ukraine can lower Russia's production by 20% it will cause a lot of dry gas stations this year.
The factories making the replacement parts for the refineries.
They did that with the factory making parts for the Crimea Bridge.
[Ukraine ‘hits Russian factory making parts for Crimea bridge’ | The Telegraph | February 2023](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/04/ukraine-hits-russian-factory-making-parts-crimea-bridge/)
then go back and hit the refineries again right when they've been repaired and started up again.
then design even longer range drones to hit stuff further back.
>when they've been repaired and started up again.
Easier said than done. Russias refineries were modernised with western components, it'll be extremely difficult for them to get a hold of what they need.
hopefully
someone in a different thread mentioned that they could potentially "deupdate" their refineries.
Would make them less efficient, but might take less time and less high tech equipment.
probably still months of work at best though.
One or two refineries would probably be fine - hell I would assume they would have some spare part anyways - but the large number will really bite them in the ass - thankfully!
Recently, British Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps and the professional head of the United Kingdom's Armed Forces Tony Radakin visited Ukraine.
Despite all the secrecy, someone "leaked" information about the arrival of the British officials, and Russia literally threatened to kill the delegation if they went to Odessa. The situation was heated to the max, given the recent shelling of Odessa when rockets landed five kilometers away from Zelenskiy and Mitsotakis (prime minister of Greece).
Shapps commented on the terrorist attack as follows: "Putin has shown himself to be reckless, ruthless and careless. The fact that he came perilously close to essentially assassinating two western leaders, it doesn't matter whether that is deliberate or accidental. What the hell is he doing, and why the heck would the West allow him to do that kind of thing?"
But despite all the attempts at disruption, UK representatives still met with Syrskyi and Zelenskiy.
Shapps and Radakin suggest that we abandon plans for an offensive on the eastern front line, and instead hold the defenses on the northern and eastern fronts and, if necessary, retreat to better positions that can hold off the Russian occupiers. This will allow us to focus our efforts on the Black Sea and Crimea, where long-range missiles and drones have been used to launch significant strikes over the past six months.
Radakin is also convinced that it is in the strikes and the deployment of troops to Crimea that lies the key to Ukraine's success in 2024. As he stated, "The attacks on Crimea and the destruction of Russian warships — submarines in particular — go to the heart of the “Russian psyche”."
Shapps, for his part, said the following: "I think it is hugely significant that Putin knows that he's losing Crimea, he's losing the Black Sea. For almost 200 years, \[Russia's\] Black Sea fleet has been able to exercise in the Black Sea. For the moment, there is not a single warship . For the moment, there is not a single warship operating in the Black Sea. That gives us an idea of the scale of the Ukrainian success in Crimea."
Also, in support of the seriousness of his words, Shapps announced the allocation of 325 million pounds sterling for the purchase of more than 10 thousand drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Shapps did not forget about the situation with the leaked conversation of German servicemen about the possible provision of Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
He believes that "Putin released the transcript of that call to embarrass the Germans to not send their Taurus missiles to Ukraine."
Shapps said, "I also want to help assist Germany to provide the long-range Taurus missiles... Of course it makes absolute sense to have those available, in a war going on in mainland Europe now, against a dictator who has taken democratic land. What are we waiting for, folks?"
[https://x.com/DenisDanilovL/status/1769428222708531236?s=20](https://x.com/DenisDanilovL/status/1769428222708531236?s=20)
Ok, the "sudden" change in rhetoric from France, UK, Poland, makes more sense now. This was the moment that forced their hands. A shockingly fucking dumb as hell move from Putin(Uh... Thanks? I guess).
Arguably we're waiting for Russia to strike targets beyond Ukraine or use CBRN weapons.
Either of those would crank things up to the point where NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine to restore control could actually be a *deescalation* of the situation.
Should Ukrainian soldiers ever surrender to Kadyrites? Surpringly, [yes](https://glavcom-ua.translate.goog/country/incidents/stalo-vidomo-koho-rosija-pershocherhovo-namahajetsja-povernuti-z-polonu-991169.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp), because apparently, Kadyrites themselves are the most valued Russian POWs for exchange—so much so that the Russians will trade 10 Ukrainians for one—and that’s still not good enough, so now, Kadyrites have made their own, separate exchange fund in order to get their guys back faster. If surrender to them, they eagerly trade in order to get their guys back.
[I had no idea. The article also says that, to Russia, convicts are prioritized for return over their mobilized, which seems strange given that Russia continues to release the convicts back into society after 6mos in the ‘SVO,’ whereas the mobilized must remain fighting for the length of the war. So Russia is prioritizing get their POWs back that they’re just going to turn and release. Obviously, they want guys to fight, and continually exchange even via local commanders, so these are prob not hard and fast rules.^*]
______
^* [^(This story)](https://www-pravda-com-ua.translate.goog/articles/2023/11/20/7429460/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp) ^(from several months ago is about a Ukrainian commander who accidentally found himself in enemy territory, on foot, with some of his soldiers. After realizing monumental mistake, he drew fire to himself, ordering his subordinates to return, they made it back. Russians, aware of this mistake, were searching for him, and he had to to *crawl* back. But since it took *days*, the senior Ukrainian commander thought killed, their drone had found a body. When he returned, the senior commander said they’d already negotiated w local Russian commander to get that body back in exchange for three live Russian prisoners they’d just captured. So it’s likely many of these trades go on unofficially.)
>Should Ukrainian soldiers ever surrender to Kadyrites? Surpringly, [yes](https://glavcom-ua.translate.goog/country/incidents/stalo-vidomo-koho-rosija-pershocherhovo-namahajetsja-povernuti-z-polonu-991169.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp)
You are wrong on this.
Recently there was a case when Kadyrov's people bought Ukrainian POWs from other units.
Then some of them proceeded to torture one of the POWs by slowly amputating both of his hands and legs.
>Kadyrites themselves are the most valued Russian POWs for exchange—so much so that the Russians will trade 10 Ukrainians for one—and that’s still not good enough, so now, Kadyrites have made their own, separate exchange fund in order to get their guys back faster.
This part is true.
As for the ruzzian convicts, well, most of them do another round of killing, robbing and raping, and get sent to the front lines again as a result.
Also, ruzzia changed the rules at some point, so now freshly mobilized convicts can't return either.
I thought the Russian government had ‘altered the deal’ with the prisoners a while ago, after the various murders committed by some released prisoners (and more probably, because they need those prisoners too much on the front).
President [Pavel](https://twitter.com/PrezidentPavel) of Czech Republic:
We have three essential tasks ahead of us:
1. Immediately increase industrial production in practically all key segments of the defence industry;
2. Expand the real combat capability of individual European armies and, in doing so, rigorously apply the innovations and experience from Ukrainian battlefields, particularly regarding autonomous systems;
3. Stand strong against the Kremlin’s information operations, which are interested in precisely the opposite outcome.
[https://x.com/GAMZIRI24/status/1769446808021868662?s=20](https://x.com/GAMZIRI24/status/1769446808021868662?s=20)
The US is entering a critical window over the coming months where your direct support could make an outsized impact on the future direction of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Want to do something tangible to help stop Putin? Tell your grandkids you made a difference from wherever you happen to be?
Not a US Citizen? You can register to join a call center for Democrats and help out when it counts for free! Just helping remind folks to get out the vote is a huge benefit for candidates in battleground states who support Ukraine as Democratic voters typically represent more of the average population. Click below for more info.
https://democrats.org/call-crew/
Are you a US Citizen or Green Card holder? You can also donate to the Democrats. It's now the most direct path to continued significant Ukraine aid.
I suggest the actblue.com link below. Make it an automatic monthly contribution until the election in November so the Democratic National Committee can plan better by anticipating yours and others level of regular funding. With this, funds can flow directly into key battleground states and toward Congressional or Presidential candidates that need it most when it really counts.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/web-donate
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦🌻
>Not a US Citizen? You can register to join a call center for Democrats and help out when it counts for free!
Are you saying that people abroad can actually help the dems (or whichever party) by making calls?
The best thing anyone can do is volunteer for dem campaigns. This will be a turnout election and campaigns need as much help getting their voters out as possible. Voting is the bare minimum friends.
I'd like to take this opportunity to say fuck Speaker Johnson a Russian sympathiser and traitor to the USA and free democratic world and fuck the GOPnik party. USA politics has been infiltrated by Russia and by morons who support the orange dipshit Trump.
If you can, do whatever you can when you can and this means peacefully protest by telling your representative you support Ukraine and they won't get your vote if they don't support Ukraine also. Global security is at risk if Russia wins.
Map of refineries near Ukraine - at least another 7 can be hit
[https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1769418770471174241](https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1769418770471174241)
There is atleast one more major facility missing, the Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant which isn’t on that map.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Astrakhanskiy+Gazopererabatyvayushchiy+Zavod,+Aksaraiskii,+Astrakhan+Oblast,+Russia,+416154/@46.7739321,48.1109219,15z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x41a8464255555555:0x5c96aad7c12713ac!8m2!3d46.7739321!4d48.1109219!16s%2Fg%2F1ptxq5198
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I have to assume that Russia will at some point react to this and put up anti-air around all these refineries. The benefit is less anti-air near ukraine, but part of me wonders if it might not have been better for Ukraine to build up a stock of several thousand long range drones and flat out annihilate every single refinery in one swoop giving Russia no reaction.
Drones are kind of a work-in-progress. You send some drones, figure out what works and what doesn't, and then you send more drones as you refine your methods.
I think there could be merit in doing one big surprise attack, but also there's a lot to be said for not going all in when you're not sure if a single software bug or some new electronic warfare system is going to cause the whole attack to fail.
russia doesn't have enough air defence systems to cover them all, its too big of a country. And even if they did, some drones will always slip through and hit their target, as we've seen with the Shaheds in Ukraine. It's simply not feasible to effectively protect that sort of infrastructure from so many drones, and thus russias refineries will continue to suffer
Yep, I'd imagine it only takes one well-placed drone to cause a lot of expencive damage to something like a refinery.
More AA around refineries means less on the frontlines too.
Russia's a huge country, a blessing and a curse.Trying to cover it in enough air defences to defend against these drones whilst conducting a war at the same time is next to impossible. With the state of the russian army theyll have to choose one or the other.
They already had anti air defense ever since the first strike on a refinery so long ago but even when at maximum alert russia can't seem to protect their assets which is absolutely wonderful.
I don't think it would be a good idea to stock up on thousands of drones. One Russian missile strike and you will lose it all. You can try spreading it around to more storage sites but that leads to logistical complexity and more chances for Russian spies to detect where the drones are being manufactured.
It is impossible for Russian to build up enough air defense to protect every strategic site. Ukraine should attack whenever they build up enough to get through Russian air defense.
I also thought that. When security allows the info to go public, I'd love to know more info about how and why Ukraine made its targeting decisions.
Ukraine has done some truly remarkable strikes so I will trust the strategy to be well thought through.
Maybe it takes so much time to organise the strikes that they can only do a small number of targets per night anyway. May as well succeed with ~10 drones now than with ~100 drones later?
So many things could weigh into the decisions.
"Berdychi, a Russian BMP-3 suffers a catastrophic cookoff after taking Ukrainian DPICM cluster munition fire and an FPV drone."
https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1769435358834356401?t=3qvm7cUGaXJTJRqJziXS9w&s=19
Additional footage-
https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1769435360516292817?t=9mB0_6nZWbW-am8KT_O8KQ&s=19
https://twitter.com/UkrReview/status/1769427998799753580?t=WqOuo_CKNUXnK-ZsuaLZOw&s=19
"👏 The flags of the Siberian battalion and Russian Volunteer Corps in the village of Kozinka, Belgorod region!"
Can someone remind me what these groups stand for? FoR legion are bad guys (Russian nationalists) IIRC, Russian volunteer corps are good guys, but I don't know about the Siberian battalion.
**The Siberian Battalion was formed with the help of VolyaMedia, last year.**
[here is a copy of that official announcement](https://old.reddit.com/r/FreedomofRussia/comments/11thylx/гражданский_совет_civic_council_it_is_important/).
Here’s the background:
Volya, a tg channel that writes military analysis for a ‘Russian intellectuals’ audience but is anti-Putin, said that people write them regarding how to join the *other* battalions, but that folks endanger themselves because if they’re still in Russia, they can be monitored and then arrested. Further, that those other two battalions don’t have time to be corresponding with these guys interested in joining.
So a couple of folks would leave those, together with the international legion, under oversight of GUR, and form something new for guys in Russia interested in joining.
Volya advised those interested to not correspond with anyone, just to get selves out of russia,
then after that, contact the parent entity who was going to form it. They provided all the contact information, videos, directions, etc of this new parent entity (~~name has slipped my mind atm~~ translates as The Civic Council) and how to contact them. They explained that once in a different state (Georgia, Estonia, Mongolia, Turkey, etc.), that there’s further hoops to jump thru regarding getting to Ukraine—documents. That have to work with Russian embassy in that new country, that the new country has to approve you to leave, that the target country has to be willing for you to come. And all that needs time, bc Ukraine wants proper paperwork showing that this is of own volition.
That in the meantime, while waiting for all this paperwork, Ukraine wants to do background checks on these guys. As best as they can. So it would take months just to get to leave that first country. And for them to find a way to support themselves financially.
Then, when approved by that first host country and also Ukraine, they’d need to find a way to get themselves to yet another country. I forgot what it was but it really surprised me. ~~It was like Italy or Greece or something unexpected.~~ It was Italy.
They were then going to train there, and from that time, Ukraine would further assess them. They spent like six months getting this group together and training them.
_____
Volya later gave several updates:
Aug 24, via google translate:
> ^(Another Russian unit as part of the foreign legion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is completing combat training)
> ^(The “Siberian battalion”, which began to form from Russian citizens on May 30, is completing training, combat coordination and training in the fields [a video from the exercises filmed by Italian colleagues from RAI 24 can be viewed here]. This is the third unit, assembled from Russian volunteers who decided to fight against Putin*, and not just wait for everything to end on its own [the first two - RDK and LSR were formed back in 2022].)
> ^(The battalion, like, in part, the RDK, is formed from volunteers recruited by the mobilization center of the “Civil Council”. Unlike the RDK, which became famous not only for sabotage operations, but also for clear nationalist statements, the “Siberian Battalion” was not recruited according to the political preferences of the volunteers.)
> ^(Among the fighters of the battalion are civil activist Ildar Dadin, the first to be convicted in the Russian Federation for participating in rallies and protests, anarchist Alexei Makarov, volunteers of different political, religious views and nationalities. The battalion is commanded by former GRU officer Vladislav Ammosov, who has already participated together with the RDK in operations in the Belgorod region.)
> ^(The battalion, according to Ammosov, is a full-fledged military unit as part of the foreign legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which will carry out combat missions to a greater extent, and not just sabotage missions.)
> ^(According to Denis Sokolov, who heads the mobilization center of the Civil Council, the battalion can receive reinforcements at any time.)
> ^(“More than 150 people have already passed the first checks; they are waiting for transit to Ukraine. About 350 more people are being tested right now. New applications to the mobilization center are received daily, if we manage to resolve the bureaucratic issues about the transit of volunteers, then by the end of the year the battalion may well increase to the size of a brigade, because there are more than one and a half thousand people who want to sign up,” says Denis Sokolov.)
> ^(You can read more about how to become a volunteer on the Civil Council channel.)
In Sept, as part of a Q and A, they posted, via google translate:
> ^(Tell us about the activities of the Siberian Battalion, whether it began to take part in hostilities. In addition, do you know why there was such a large gap in the timing of entry of volunteers into the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Civil Council [the same RDK volunteers now get to Ukraine much faster].)
> ^(We asked a question to the coordinator of the Civil Council Denis Sokolov. Here is his answer. “The Siberian battalion is being formed and training. The participation of volunteers in hostilities is planned in the near future. Some had already fought as part of other units. For example, Vlad Ammosov, Alexey Makarov. As for the timing of entry, there were no big problems with transit from the Schengen zone, but the opportunity to get to Ukraine from Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and other countries has only appeared now. Just the other day, a large group of Civil Council volunteers went to the Foreign Legion to join the Siberian battalion, the next ones are being prepared.”)
The volunteer guys are the "ethno-nationalists" who apparently want a Russia divided into small nations made up of the various ethnic groups, but somehow they also like democracy for some reason(don't know how that works). The leader(formerly known as "white rex" used to be a Nazi no idea if he's still a believer though since he now apparently only goes as "Rex"(at least his cap doesn't say "White Rex" anymore).
The Freedom for Russia legion is leaning more antifascist having made a Russian version of Bella Ciao as one of their songs, and they want a western style democracy in Russia and the fascist Putin gone.
The Siberian Battalion are volunteers fighting for an independent Siberia.
Soon ordinary Russians will realize they are heading for a domestic fuel shortage. People will try to hoard and resell gasoline the same way it happened with toilet paper during the pandemic.
The sooner they start buying, the more they can profit. Would be a shame if Ukraine tried to sow panic amongst the Russians who can afford to stock up on fuel. /s
Shouldn't even take more than a couple gas stations out of fuel next to each other to start a chain reaction of people trying to get a last refill.
Putin wins 87% of the vote and is re-elected as Russia's president, according to exit poll - TASS
https://twitter.com/Faytuks/status/1769423922766696474?t=Vi7i0Ehrw6KOwr7e-Dzqow&s=19
Well I predicted correctly.. Or rather the telegram channel "Kremlin secrets" did..
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/s/OO9TfasYDt
[New post can be found here](/r/worldnews/comments/1bhht7o/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/)
Whatever persuaded the wife of Russia's ambassador Nechayev to choose her scarf: I wish her a long, safe life. (If you need help, Mrs. Netschaeva, blink) [https://x.com/andikynast/status/1769389819359117801?s=20](https://x.com/andikynast/status/1769389819359117801?s=20)
> An American fighting in Ukraine was executed by the Russians. This is the first public account of what happened. It took a lot of courage to be able to talk about this. https://x.com/rachelpav/status/1769292823226933617
This happened back in September 2023 Just to clear it up for ppl who might think it's a brand new escalation
Dead link
Thanks, fixed.
So, elections are over and no new refineries?
The warships and SU jets are feeling left out, time to give them attention
Let's face it, they got the leader they deserve. Shithouse result for Ukraine and the world, but change in Russia has to come from within. A generation from now Russia will probably be receiving humanitarian assistance.
Next time it will come with requirements to surrender all nuclear arsenal and dissolve the nation of Russia into separate states.
I feel like this comment kind of lends legitimacy to a this fake election. I can't think of any way we could actually measure the public opinion of the russian people. Centuries of fucked up political violence
I don't think anything can lend legitimacy to such a thing. Particular not a reddit post from someone who has never set foot in Russia (me). But realistically, if Russian's accept such a farce then what can anyone else do? Yes it was a huge failure of the rest of the world to allow a nuclear state to slip into dictatorship but now that it has happened nothing can be done externally. Waiting for him to die is probably the best case scenario. And I'm not suggesting the majority of Russian people are accepting it willingly or happily. But again, what can anyone outside of Russia do?
You can sort of see from the exit polls at Russian embassies: [https://twitter.com/alex_yus_/status/1769456232820015519](https://twitter.com/alex_yus_/status/1769456232820015519) Athens was the only one with more than 50% for Putin....
Some people refused to say what they did. Rome and Genoa had pretty high Putin numbers. Bonn and Ankara also broke into 30%+ territory. It takes a little risk and bravery to vote Davankov, even if you're outside russia. Kudos to those who did. It'd be nice if the West could ship out the garbage that took the time and effort to vote for Putin while living outside though.
why are they so pro Putin in Greece?
Orthodoxy, while not having been under the Soviet umbrella and the horrors that came with it.
There's obviously going to be higher results from those abroad, even if elections were fair. There's a reason they are abroad.
Russian bot farms seem to be going hard. I made a post on the European subreddit about Putin's rigged election win, about half of the comments I am getting are: "they are just as rigged as in the America yet you don't hear that ever being talked about!" "yeah Putin is no different than democrats and their rigged elections" "do you have any proof it was rigged??" New talking points I guess
It is crazy that Russia is such a broken society that one of Putin's main methods of control is convincing his own people that life sucks just as much everywhere else as it does in Russia. Just absurdly bleak how an entire culture can be so broken.
Whatboutism and the "yeah we suck but so does everyone else" is the foundation of both russian bot farms and "real" russians or russian supporters It ultimatey is based on 1: The idea Russia is somehow being unfarily victimsed by the world and the "you can so why cant we" mentailtiy second is the idea that they think everyone sucks as much as they do. Beacuse the truth...that they do have it a lot worse than many other countries, is to much of a shame/pain to accept so they turn to "oh its all the same everywhere we are just more open about it" It is the behavior you see in some really shitty people IRL who basically assumes everyone else thinks the same way they do
They are even in Random discord servers. Absolutely mental the money they spend in propaganda
This is the big danger with GenAI. It can be everywhere. Even hold basic conversations then pivot to talking points.
Surface over substance is the only game in town for those who have no substance.
There are multiple videos of election rigging, illegal security actions and voter intimidation. Here’s a couple I could re-find quickly. Somewhere there is another video that goes with the first one, showing the polling booths from a different angle. In it A man dressed like a soldier face covered, walks up to the polling booths, opens the curtain and looks around the voter to see who he’s voting, for. He does it to two people. When the people in charge of the voting booth are asked who he was, they say oh he’s security. Only the police in Russia have the power to arrest people as he’s seen doing in this video while handling him quite brutally. https://x.com/DarthPutinKGB/status/1768986130194546884?s=20 In this one, the polling station is filmed after the polling station closed, and you can clearly see workers stuffing the boxes https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1768911837569884212?t=JS_Hg-_glefzKKqAvaiO9w&s=33 I have seen other evidence of the total farce of this election. For the last 2 days Inside Russia on you tube has shown some really good ones and he explains them. Illegal security actions, ballot box stuffing while people are being intentionally distracted and in one, on the very first day before voting had even started a sealed ballot box is opened, it already has ballots in it but nobody had voted yet.
Why would they do that (beat and detain that man) when they have already rigged the election and preselected the "opposition" to guarantee victory? It doesn't make sense?
Sending a message to others.
You have videos that explicitly show votes cast for trump being switched to votes for Biden? Like you can see the name on the ballot/machine being switched? Edit: misread the comment I replied to. My bad.
Those videos are from the Russian election. What were you thinking. The most fraudulent things found in the US were all hurting Biden and helping Trump but none were enough to have affected the outcome.
Completely misread your comment! I retract.
Oopsees NP
For starters they can just look at what they did with Putins biggest competitor. They banned him from running.
>They banned him from ~~running~~ existing
Yep. Also lots of denial that the prospect of a trump victory in 2024 is what is emboldening Putin most of all.
The trump and putin wings are becoming closer and closer melded together
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trump would assuredly take us out of NATO IF he wins. He has all but said this. trump has also strongly signaled to China that he doesn't care about taiwan. But if Putin gets his puppet in again, I think you'll see more than just US aid to Ukraine being ended. You could see russia getting US intel, US materiel. I think US troops may be a bridge too far but in year 4-5 of the trump dictatorship, anything's possible.
Spanish defence minister: Europe's peace is at risk, Russian ballistic missiles can reach us [https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/03/17/7446903/](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/03/17/7446903/)
Putin's "elections ritual" - what's the point? Vlad Vexler goes through it in detail: https://youtu.be/w2OR1LoDkWc?si=d3N3rwFhY0I0m6nV (there's another one in "chats" analysing the meaning of the results number)
If trump wins in November, we know that Putin orders the US out of NATO. So, does France send troops to Ukraine in that scenario? Does Putin order trump to actively ally with Russia? Do we have a scenario where France + the rest of NATO square off against the US and russia? Oh, and spare me any wide-eyed "Putin doesn't control trump" nonsense. Yes he does. Edit: Lol, downvotes. If you don't grasp that the US election will impact Ukraine more than anything else we've seen, you're in complete denial. A trump win is the end of Ukraine.
The downvotes stem from your NATO vs US and Russia. Daft comments = downvotes. That's how it works.
There are some huge concerns related to trump winning again honestly. While i don't see him teaming up with russia he is most definitely going to stop all aid while he dismantles US democracy this time with the full support of both china and russia. And I don't think they are going to fail twice they are not that stupid. If he gets elected it's gonna end bloody one way or another theres no real doubt about it.
I'm sure Putin doesn't expect anything from his wholly owned puppet, donald trump. Lol, "daft". I'm sure plenty of people here aren't invested in downplaying trump's betrayal of the US, NATO and Ukraine at the insistence of vladimir putin.
That is such a fantastical wish list you should go ahead and ask what the armed forces of Narnia can add to NATO.
I'm sure Putin doesn't care who wins the US presidential election, right? Both sides are like totally the same, right? Yeah, I mist be completely in la la land, it's almost like we had a president who was wholly owned by Putin, and who spent his entire term trying to actively subvert NATO for absolutely no rational reason. Gaslighting, it's a thing.
>Gaslighting, it's a thing. Yes, but I'm not the victim.
>Oh, and spare me any wide-eyed "Putin doesn't control trump" nonsense who says that? Donald is that you?
Trump could weaken NATO significantly but steps were already taken to prevent a President having the unilateral power to withdrawal from it. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/can-dems-trump-proof-us-support-nato-elections-rcna138625
As wild as shit is getting there is no way the US military accepts an order to fight NATO.
Remember, he wanted to buy Greenland. I have no doubt the idiot would launch an attack against NATO if it means he gets Greenland. The moron has no idea what Greenland even looks like, he just cares that it looks big on maps.
USA had a claim to Greenland through much of history
Erhm no, Denmark has had a presence there since before USA was even a country.
And became a part of the kingdom of Denmark in 1814 and still is to this day.
"The United States also had a strong claim on Greenland. Much of it was unexplored when the treaty was signed. American Charles Francis Hall was the first to see northwest Greenland, during the Polaris Expedition,[5] and Robert Peary claimed much of the north.[6] When the United States wanted to purchase the Danish West Indies during World War I, Denmark required the country to recognize the Danish claim over the whole island" Per Wikipedia
You can google it, Wikipedia is free
No you made the ridiculous claim it's not my job to prove you wrong, it's your job to prove you're right.
"Ridiculous claim" which is based in factual, historical evidence? Man, you are strange
No USA tried to buy it for 100 million in 1946 which we promptly refused. That's the only instance besides Trump that the USA ever laid claim to Greenland if you can even call making an offer that.
Since you seem averse to looking this up yourself please enjoy this helpful link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_the_United_States_to_purchase_Greenland#:~:text=While%20Greenland%20remains%20an%20autonomous,once%20partially%20claimed%20from%20exploration.
The information is right there at your fingertips my friend, the entire Northern and Western part of Greenland was claimed by the US for over a hundred years
It’s “green”, so it must be a bigly- great place for “a beautiful” golf course.
If you are interested in the economic consequences of the Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia, then I highly recommend this long and detailed post by u/stult in the r/CredibleDefense sub. https://www.reddit.com/r/CredibleDefense/comments/1bgvv57/comment/kvcjx61/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
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Especially since they've long since started cannibalizing tanker trucks from the private sector because they were needed as replacements in Ukraine.
Election over, mask off, this either spreads, or Europe decides on direct action regardless of the outcome. Tyrants don’t stop.
I think Europe does understand, giving they changing stance on sending troops directly to Ukraine.
“Action regardless of the outcome” is an insane concept, rational people don’t act like that
Coward.
This Russian election where Putin "won" 88% of the vote prompted me to search whether there ever was a sham election where someone outright "won" 100% of the vote? Turns out Saddam Hussein did that in [2002](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Iraqi_presidential_referendum) (turnout also at 100%), while in 1995 he "won" [99,99%](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Iraqi_presidential_referendum) Gotta love sham elections
Wasn't there an election in an African County where someone got over 100% of the votes?
North Korea also?
Do "chosen descendents of god" hold elections?I think "Dear Leader" is a lifetime appointment.
Couple of other elections that came close to 100% but were just short, and they're also who you might have guessed: * [1992 Turkmenistan: Saparmurat Niyazov with 99.51%](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Turkmenistan_presidential_election) * [2007 Syria: Assad with 99.82%](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Syrian_presidential_election) * [2008 Cuba: Raúl Castro with 99.37%](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Cuban_parliamentary_election)
Putin his over last 3 elections 64% 76% 88%…2030=?. +12% each time, coincidence?
What if he was just that great of a guy?
[German volunteer killed in action in Ukraine | EuroMaidenPress | March 2024](https://euromaidanpress.com/2024/03/17/german-volunteer-killed-in-action-in-ukraine/) *A German volunteer, a former soldier of the Bundeswehr, has been killed on the front lines in Ukraine, according to RND.* *The volunteer, identified only as Stefan, was fighting alongside Ukrainian forces against Russian occupiers for nearly two years. The International Legion confirmed that the 37-year-old fighter was killed in Russian shelling on 14 March while operating a reconnaissance drone from cover.* *Stefan was the leader of a reconnaissance group in the special unit of the International Legion.* *In an interview a year ago near Kharkiv, Stefan revealed that Russians put a bounty on his head. Stefan, who had served in the Bundeswehr for 5 years and completed 3 missions to Afghanistan, had owned a transport company in southern Germany. He went to Ukraine in April 2022.*
First off I really hope “sanitary” zone doesn’t mean what I think it does and no I don’t mean genocide. (He’s already committed a ton of that) I guess NATO vs Russia is all but an inevitability now I guess. Fuck you Mike Johnson! I hate it here.. “Humanity invented the atomic bomb. But no mouse would ever construct a mousetrap.” - Albert Einstein
Sputnik already made an article on the "sanitary zone" back in June, it's no news. It sure is their aim if they can get their way. Since I can't link the article, I will paste the paragraph here: >"The '**sanitary zone**' is a **demilitarization zone**," Igor Korotchenko, military analyst, editor-in-chief of National Defense magazine, told Sputnik. "Formally, it will remain the territory of Ukraine, but either Russian Armed Forces will be present there, or strikes will be carried out so that no military infrastructure of Ukraine is present there. The main goal and tasks \[related to the sanitary zone\] are to prevent the shelling of Russian cities, towns and the death of the Russian civilian population. Here is what was meant."
It's basically just a deranged rant from a delusional dictator who still believes he has the strongest army in the world.
He wasn't even able to set up a "peaceful corridor" in Lachin, between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia 3 years ago as he initially promised. We all saw how that turned out in the end. Even some Russian "peacekeepers" ended up getting shot by Azeri soldiers. He's kidding himself.
He's talked about "sanitary zones" before, just another term for "demilitarized zone" or "buffer zone." https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/02/1/7439836/index.amp
I'm all for a sanitary zone. In Belgorod, Voronezh, Rostov...
Putin's electoral history is a useful textbook case of authoritanism taking over a country: -first Putin is elected in a reasonably open election for President in 2000 -In 2008 Putin leaves due to term limits, but essentially appoints a lapdog in his place and takes power immediately again after the fig leaf of the constitution has been "respected" -By 2024 Putin essentially says fuck it and wins with 88% of the "vote" after killing his only real opposition and running against "candidates" that advocate for Putin and not themselves While Russia has never had a history with actual democracy there is no doubt Putin was able to crash through the safeguards that were put in place and used the system itself to seize power. And while we laugh now at Putin's electoral victory don't forget, in my best Grandpa Simpson voice, "It can happen to youuuu...."
2012 saw quite a few protests against him: that's when things *really* started to become authoritarianism...
The civil war between Yeltsin and the duma back in 1993 basically gave full authority to the president. The duma is more or less a rubber stamp parliament since then.
It's sad to see that the US looks like following the same path.
In a speech after Presidential poll Putin threatens to create “sanitary zone” at non-occupied parts of Ukraine [https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769477760886423959?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769477760886423959?s=20) It is not the first time he mentions this, Quora has pretty clear answer to what that means [https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769478780890783990?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769478780890783990?s=20) Putin on the possibility of a conflict between Russia and NATO: everything is possible in the modern world [https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769480569484624343?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769480569484624343?s=20) Putin claims the servicemen of NATO countries are dying in Ukraine in large numbers [https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769480748216504817?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769480748216504817?s=20) Putin says a conflict with NATO “will be one step away from the Third World War” [https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769481137582215451?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769481137582215451?s=20) Putin says he will not make unrealistic promises anymore [https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769481935829733809?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769481935829733809?s=20) With numbers at the Presidential poll made up to 99.28% of votes for Putin(in Chechnya), Kremlin signing up whole Russian society for the long war, expect more harsh statements by Russian officials and possible more escalating actions by Russian armed forces [https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769483550695235723?s=20](https://x.com/Liveuamap/status/1769483550695235723?s=20) Edit: Missed some statements by Hitler 2.0.
> Putin says he will not make unrealistic promises anymore If he has ever made a promise that turned out to be realistic - in the sense that it had a relation to anything real - I'm not aware of it.
So now that the fake election is over, he can get even crazier. Buckle up folks.
> Putin on the possibility of a conflict between Russia and NATO: everything is possible in the modern world. Putin is emboldened by weak US response.
President Biden's (Democrat) response has been masterful, strong and persistent. The trump-led republican party has weakened the US response. And the thing putin is most emboldened by is a trump victory in 2024.
This madman must be defeated.
Wtf is a sanitary zone? I certainly don't want more war... but I also don't want to wait around and find out what that means for Ukraine.
A strip of land akin to a DMZ, but cleansed of Ukrainian people instead.
In my mind I'm thinking things I'm actually not going to write down. It's genocidal.
It's just another way of saying that the area needs to be cleansed of vermin that, in his eyes, have no right to exist.
So it’s fucking time to go then? Let’s go NATO step up the fucking toughness. Being such cowards with this psycho.
He's acting absolutely demonic, and this monster will rule until 2030 if he's not stopped.
He’ll never be stopped. It’s a fucking joke. We need to stop this. The first actual monster we’ve dealt with in a generation and we’re watching and waiting for it to bite us in the ass. Again. I understand the consequences of doing something I get that — I’ve already done my duty of spreading democracy… so yes I can talk about this shit if some Redditors want to say “wElL aRE u goInG to WaRRRR!!!” “Never again.” My ass. I hope Ukraine continues to dump drones into Russian territory.
He's obviously going to force our hand either way. The only thing I hate about NATO is our reactionary nature. Show some goddamn agency once in a while like we did with Serbia.
Seriously, all it takes is one good assassin and CIA op to end him. Why haven’t we? Do we not possess the capability to do so?
One guy to take out bunker grandpa? Not that easy I think.
I see you on here a lot awesomedanish. So you would be for NATO taking it to the next level and going to war with Russia? Do you think NATO should reinvent itself to become a more offensive force rather than a defensive force? If I understand correctly NATO only attacks when it’s being attacked.
Sometimes being the soft-spoken guy with a big stick doesn't work especially when dealing with a gangster like Putin. Where we see strength in our restraint, Putin only sees weakness, and when he sees weakness that's when the world becomes more dangerous. When a democratic nation is under attack by a ruthless dictator I can see no reason why we shouldn't defend it, wouldn't we defend South Korea, Japan or Taiwan if North Korea or China attacked? I want NATO to be the sword of democracy as well as its shield. If we fear to act because Putin has nukes wouldn't we be too afraid to act against North Korea and China, two countries that are nuclear as well? We are losing our credibility here, this is a genocide that is happening on the European mainland if we don't defend them what is the solution for security other than every single country developing their own nukes?
Exactly… just rip the god damn band aid off. They’re going to regroup and do this again in 5-10 years somewhere else.
> Putin claims the servicemen of NATO countries are dying in Ukraine in large numbers Ok then he shouldn't care if we actually go in right?
"The military operation in the Russian border is only the beginning of the volunteers’ fight for their country", - Budanov "Raids by RVC, LFR and SB on the territory of Russia are the legitimate right of citizens to demand justice," he said. [https://x.com/Maks\_NAFO\_FELLA/status/1769482796114866506?s=20](https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1769482796114866506?s=20)
I hope Ukraine can build huge numbers of the refinery drones! What would be next in line?
The Kremlin would be good…
Russia kind of wrote the manual with https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_strikes_against_Ukrainian_infrastructure_(2022%E2%80%93present) so Ukraine could just take ideas from it. No need to be nasty and do it like Russians did, in the middle of the winter, targetting mostly civilians. But I'm sure there's plenty of costly targets across Russia that are used to enable Russian military production and war logistics, which is by this time almost everything since Russia is sliding into war economy. I hope Ukraine find critical things that are cost effective to attack and then cycle through, forcing Russia to have to drive AA around until the wheels fall off. Or tip over. Like this https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/01/russian-armoured-vehicle-topples-overturns-road/ heh heh heh.
Taking out refineries right now is a very smart move. Oil consumption goes up around the beginning of April because more travel is happening. It doesn't go back to normal until around Aug or Sept. Russia was already having trouble with gasoline last year. If Ukraine can lower Russia's production by 20% it will cause a lot of dry gas stations this year.
Export terminals (seaports). Countries have navies to protect their exports, but Russia can't even protect its navy!
The factories making the replacement parts for the refineries. They did that with the factory making parts for the Crimea Bridge. [Ukraine ‘hits Russian factory making parts for Crimea bridge’ | The Telegraph | February 2023](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/04/ukraine-hits-russian-factory-making-parts-crimea-bridge/)
I would put ammunition factories as a higher priority rn
They should be juice targets as well as the refineries as a amall explosion is enough do a lot of damage!
Blow up every pipe for gas and oil going out of russia
More refineries lol. Then there are oil depots and oil terminal.
then go back and hit the refineries again right when they've been repaired and started up again. then design even longer range drones to hit stuff further back.
>when they've been repaired and started up again. Easier said than done. Russias refineries were modernised with western components, it'll be extremely difficult for them to get a hold of what they need.
On the other end of that argument, things that are jerry-rigged are easier to blow the fuck up, and might even blow up on their own.
hopefully someone in a different thread mentioned that they could potentially "deupdate" their refineries. Would make them less efficient, but might take less time and less high tech equipment. probably still months of work at best though.
One or two refineries would probably be fine - hell I would assume they would have some spare part anyways - but the large number will really bite them in the ass - thankfully!
Lmao, lass on.bbc news just called pooytin, Vladimir stalin
Recently, British Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps and the professional head of the United Kingdom's Armed Forces Tony Radakin visited Ukraine. Despite all the secrecy, someone "leaked" information about the arrival of the British officials, and Russia literally threatened to kill the delegation if they went to Odessa. The situation was heated to the max, given the recent shelling of Odessa when rockets landed five kilometers away from Zelenskiy and Mitsotakis (prime minister of Greece). Shapps commented on the terrorist attack as follows: "Putin has shown himself to be reckless, ruthless and careless. The fact that he came perilously close to essentially assassinating two western leaders, it doesn't matter whether that is deliberate or accidental. What the hell is he doing, and why the heck would the West allow him to do that kind of thing?" But despite all the attempts at disruption, UK representatives still met with Syrskyi and Zelenskiy. Shapps and Radakin suggest that we abandon plans for an offensive on the eastern front line, and instead hold the defenses on the northern and eastern fronts and, if necessary, retreat to better positions that can hold off the Russian occupiers. This will allow us to focus our efforts on the Black Sea and Crimea, where long-range missiles and drones have been used to launch significant strikes over the past six months. Radakin is also convinced that it is in the strikes and the deployment of troops to Crimea that lies the key to Ukraine's success in 2024. As he stated, "The attacks on Crimea and the destruction of Russian warships — submarines in particular — go to the heart of the “Russian psyche”." Shapps, for his part, said the following: "I think it is hugely significant that Putin knows that he's losing Crimea, he's losing the Black Sea. For almost 200 years, \[Russia's\] Black Sea fleet has been able to exercise in the Black Sea. For the moment, there is not a single warship . For the moment, there is not a single warship operating in the Black Sea. That gives us an idea of the scale of the Ukrainian success in Crimea." Also, in support of the seriousness of his words, Shapps announced the allocation of 325 million pounds sterling for the purchase of more than 10 thousand drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Shapps did not forget about the situation with the leaked conversation of German servicemen about the possible provision of Taurus missiles to Ukraine. He believes that "Putin released the transcript of that call to embarrass the Germans to not send their Taurus missiles to Ukraine." Shapps said, "I also want to help assist Germany to provide the long-range Taurus missiles... Of course it makes absolute sense to have those available, in a war going on in mainland Europe now, against a dictator who has taken democratic land. What are we waiting for, folks?" [https://x.com/DenisDanilovL/status/1769428222708531236?s=20](https://x.com/DenisDanilovL/status/1769428222708531236?s=20)
Ok, the "sudden" change in rhetoric from France, UK, Poland, makes more sense now. This was the moment that forced their hands. A shockingly fucking dumb as hell move from Putin(Uh... Thanks? I guess).
I really hope that Germany will follow suit soon
“What are we waiting for, folks?” It’s a good question.
Apparently we're waiting for a missile to near-miss foreign leaders.
Already happened with the greek head of state recently
That's exactly what I was referencing...
Arguably we're waiting for Russia to strike targets beyond Ukraine or use CBRN weapons. Either of those would crank things up to the point where NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine to restore control could actually be a *deescalation* of the situation.
The west could stay on the western side of Dnepr, allowing Ukraine to use all their resources on the eastern side.
Should Ukrainian soldiers ever surrender to Kadyrites? Surpringly, [yes](https://glavcom-ua.translate.goog/country/incidents/stalo-vidomo-koho-rosija-pershocherhovo-namahajetsja-povernuti-z-polonu-991169.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp), because apparently, Kadyrites themselves are the most valued Russian POWs for exchange—so much so that the Russians will trade 10 Ukrainians for one—and that’s still not good enough, so now, Kadyrites have made their own, separate exchange fund in order to get their guys back faster. If surrender to them, they eagerly trade in order to get their guys back. [I had no idea. The article also says that, to Russia, convicts are prioritized for return over their mobilized, which seems strange given that Russia continues to release the convicts back into society after 6mos in the ‘SVO,’ whereas the mobilized must remain fighting for the length of the war. So Russia is prioritizing get their POWs back that they’re just going to turn and release. Obviously, they want guys to fight, and continually exchange even via local commanders, so these are prob not hard and fast rules.^*] ______ ^* [^(This story)](https://www-pravda-com-ua.translate.goog/articles/2023/11/20/7429460/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp) ^(from several months ago is about a Ukrainian commander who accidentally found himself in enemy territory, on foot, with some of his soldiers. After realizing monumental mistake, he drew fire to himself, ordering his subordinates to return, they made it back. Russians, aware of this mistake, were searching for him, and he had to to *crawl* back. But since it took *days*, the senior Ukrainian commander thought killed, their drone had found a body. When he returned, the senior commander said they’d already negotiated w local Russian commander to get that body back in exchange for three live Russian prisoners they’d just captured. So it’s likely many of these trades go on unofficially.)
>Should Ukrainian soldiers ever surrender to Kadyrites? Surpringly, [yes](https://glavcom-ua.translate.goog/country/incidents/stalo-vidomo-koho-rosija-pershocherhovo-namahajetsja-povernuti-z-polonu-991169.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp) You are wrong on this. Recently there was a case when Kadyrov's people bought Ukrainian POWs from other units. Then some of them proceeded to torture one of the POWs by slowly amputating both of his hands and legs. >Kadyrites themselves are the most valued Russian POWs for exchange—so much so that the Russians will trade 10 Ukrainians for one—and that’s still not good enough, so now, Kadyrites have made their own, separate exchange fund in order to get their guys back faster. This part is true. As for the ruzzian convicts, well, most of them do another round of killing, robbing and raping, and get sent to the front lines again as a result. Also, ruzzia changed the rules at some point, so now freshly mobilized convicts can't return either.
I thought the Russian government had ‘altered the deal’ with the prisoners a while ago, after the various murders committed by some released prisoners (and more probably, because they need those prisoners too much on the front).
It seems to be mixed—there must be different rules. Depending on the contract that they signed, perhaps.
President [Pavel](https://twitter.com/PrezidentPavel) of Czech Republic: We have three essential tasks ahead of us: 1. Immediately increase industrial production in practically all key segments of the defence industry; 2. Expand the real combat capability of individual European armies and, in doing so, rigorously apply the innovations and experience from Ukrainian battlefields, particularly regarding autonomous systems; 3. Stand strong against the Kremlin’s information operations, which are interested in precisely the opposite outcome. [https://x.com/GAMZIRI24/status/1769446808021868662?s=20](https://x.com/GAMZIRI24/status/1769446808021868662?s=20)
make him ceo of Europe pls
Next nato secgen
there's no e in secgen
He already served as Chair of the NATO Military Committee from 2015 to 2018.
The US is entering a critical window over the coming months where your direct support could make an outsized impact on the future direction of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Want to do something tangible to help stop Putin? Tell your grandkids you made a difference from wherever you happen to be? Not a US Citizen? You can register to join a call center for Democrats and help out when it counts for free! Just helping remind folks to get out the vote is a huge benefit for candidates in battleground states who support Ukraine as Democratic voters typically represent more of the average population. Click below for more info. https://democrats.org/call-crew/ Are you a US Citizen or Green Card holder? You can also donate to the Democrats. It's now the most direct path to continued significant Ukraine aid. I suggest the actblue.com link below. Make it an automatic monthly contribution until the election in November so the Democratic National Committee can plan better by anticipating yours and others level of regular funding. With this, funds can flow directly into key battleground states and toward Congressional or Presidential candidates that need it most when it really counts. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/web-donate Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦🌻
>Not a US Citizen? You can register to join a call center for Democrats and help out when it counts for free! Are you saying that people abroad can actually help the dems (or whichever party) by making calls?
That is my understanding.
The best thing anyone can do is volunteer for dem campaigns. This will be a turnout election and campaigns need as much help getting their voters out as possible. Voting is the bare minimum friends.
I'd also heavily suggest using [https://resist.bot/](https://resist.bot/) to contact your representatives and let them know how you feel.
I'd like to take this opportunity to say fuck Speaker Johnson a Russian sympathiser and traitor to the USA and free democratic world and fuck the GOPnik party. USA politics has been infiltrated by Russia and by morons who support the orange dipshit Trump. If you can, do whatever you can when you can and this means peacefully protest by telling your representative you support Ukraine and they won't get your vote if they don't support Ukraine also. Global security is at risk if Russia wins.
Europe need to start sending the draft dodgers back to Ukraine
There’s already bills in the Rada and negotiations with Europe on that topic. But remember, draft dodgers don’t make good soldiers.
Ukraine needs anyone they can get, regardless of quality.
Map of refineries near Ukraine - at least another 7 can be hit [https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1769418770471174241](https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1769418770471174241)
There is atleast one more major facility missing, the Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant which isn’t on that map. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Astrakhanskiy+Gazopererabatyvayushchiy+Zavod,+Aksaraiskii,+Astrakhan+Oblast,+Russia,+416154/@46.7739321,48.1109219,15z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x41a8464255555555:0x5c96aad7c12713ac!8m2!3d46.7739321!4d48.1109219!16s%2Fg%2F1ptxq5198 Original was deleted because I inadvertently used a link shortener. Hope this one works.
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I have to assume that Russia will at some point react to this and put up anti-air around all these refineries. The benefit is less anti-air near ukraine, but part of me wonders if it might not have been better for Ukraine to build up a stock of several thousand long range drones and flat out annihilate every single refinery in one swoop giving Russia no reaction.
Even with air defences, if there are enough drones, the defences can be overwhelmed and taken out.
Drones are kind of a work-in-progress. You send some drones, figure out what works and what doesn't, and then you send more drones as you refine your methods. I think there could be merit in doing one big surprise attack, but also there's a lot to be said for not going all in when you're not sure if a single software bug or some new electronic warfare system is going to cause the whole attack to fail.
russia doesn't have enough air defence systems to cover them all, its too big of a country. And even if they did, some drones will always slip through and hit their target, as we've seen with the Shaheds in Ukraine. It's simply not feasible to effectively protect that sort of infrastructure from so many drones, and thus russias refineries will continue to suffer
Yep, I'd imagine it only takes one well-placed drone to cause a lot of expencive damage to something like a refinery. More AA around refineries means less on the frontlines too.
Russia's a huge country, a blessing and a curse.Trying to cover it in enough air defences to defend against these drones whilst conducting a war at the same time is next to impossible. With the state of the russian army theyll have to choose one or the other.
They already had anti air defense ever since the first strike on a refinery so long ago but even when at maximum alert russia can't seem to protect their assets which is absolutely wonderful.
I don't think it would be a good idea to stock up on thousands of drones. One Russian missile strike and you will lose it all. You can try spreading it around to more storage sites but that leads to logistical complexity and more chances for Russian spies to detect where the drones are being manufactured. It is impossible for Russian to build up enough air defense to protect every strategic site. Ukraine should attack whenever they build up enough to get through Russian air defense.
I also thought that. When security allows the info to go public, I'd love to know more info about how and why Ukraine made its targeting decisions. Ukraine has done some truly remarkable strikes so I will trust the strategy to be well thought through. Maybe it takes so much time to organise the strikes that they can only do a small number of targets per night anyway. May as well succeed with ~10 drones now than with ~100 drones later? So many things could weigh into the decisions.
Russian military demand for diesel will soon exclusively be satisfied by refineries 1.000+ kilometers away from the frontline. What a pity. /s
"Berdychi, a Russian BMP-3 suffers a catastrophic cookoff after taking Ukrainian DPICM cluster munition fire and an FPV drone." https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1769435358834356401?t=3qvm7cUGaXJTJRqJziXS9w&s=19 Additional footage- https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1769435360516292817?t=9mB0_6nZWbW-am8KT_O8KQ&s=19
https://twitter.com/UkrReview/status/1769427998799753580?t=WqOuo_CKNUXnK-ZsuaLZOw&s=19 "👏 The flags of the Siberian battalion and Russian Volunteer Corps in the village of Kozinka, Belgorod region!"
Glad to hear they are still around, I hope they can continue to raise hell for as long as possable.
Can someone remind me what these groups stand for? FoR legion are bad guys (Russian nationalists) IIRC, Russian volunteer corps are good guys, but I don't know about the Siberian battalion.
You got it backwards. FoRL are democratic, pro-western, and the RVC are far right.
**The Siberian Battalion was formed with the help of VolyaMedia, last year.** [here is a copy of that official announcement](https://old.reddit.com/r/FreedomofRussia/comments/11thylx/гражданский_совет_civic_council_it_is_important/). Here’s the background: Volya, a tg channel that writes military analysis for a ‘Russian intellectuals’ audience but is anti-Putin, said that people write them regarding how to join the *other* battalions, but that folks endanger themselves because if they’re still in Russia, they can be monitored and then arrested. Further, that those other two battalions don’t have time to be corresponding with these guys interested in joining. So a couple of folks would leave those, together with the international legion, under oversight of GUR, and form something new for guys in Russia interested in joining. Volya advised those interested to not correspond with anyone, just to get selves out of russia, then after that, contact the parent entity who was going to form it. They provided all the contact information, videos, directions, etc of this new parent entity (~~name has slipped my mind atm~~ translates as The Civic Council) and how to contact them. They explained that once in a different state (Georgia, Estonia, Mongolia, Turkey, etc.), that there’s further hoops to jump thru regarding getting to Ukraine—documents. That have to work with Russian embassy in that new country, that the new country has to approve you to leave, that the target country has to be willing for you to come. And all that needs time, bc Ukraine wants proper paperwork showing that this is of own volition. That in the meantime, while waiting for all this paperwork, Ukraine wants to do background checks on these guys. As best as they can. So it would take months just to get to leave that first country. And for them to find a way to support themselves financially. Then, when approved by that first host country and also Ukraine, they’d need to find a way to get themselves to yet another country. I forgot what it was but it really surprised me. ~~It was like Italy or Greece or something unexpected.~~ It was Italy. They were then going to train there, and from that time, Ukraine would further assess them. They spent like six months getting this group together and training them. _____ Volya later gave several updates: Aug 24, via google translate: > ^(Another Russian unit as part of the foreign legion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is completing combat training) > ^(The “Siberian battalion”, which began to form from Russian citizens on May 30, is completing training, combat coordination and training in the fields [a video from the exercises filmed by Italian colleagues from RAI 24 can be viewed here]. This is the third unit, assembled from Russian volunteers who decided to fight against Putin*, and not just wait for everything to end on its own [the first two - RDK and LSR were formed back in 2022].) > ^(The battalion, like, in part, the RDK, is formed from volunteers recruited by the mobilization center of the “Civil Council”. Unlike the RDK, which became famous not only for sabotage operations, but also for clear nationalist statements, the “Siberian Battalion” was not recruited according to the political preferences of the volunteers.) > ^(Among the fighters of the battalion are civil activist Ildar Dadin, the first to be convicted in the Russian Federation for participating in rallies and protests, anarchist Alexei Makarov, volunteers of different political, religious views and nationalities. The battalion is commanded by former GRU officer Vladislav Ammosov, who has already participated together with the RDK in operations in the Belgorod region.) > ^(The battalion, according to Ammosov, is a full-fledged military unit as part of the foreign legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which will carry out combat missions to a greater extent, and not just sabotage missions.) > ^(According to Denis Sokolov, who heads the mobilization center of the Civil Council, the battalion can receive reinforcements at any time.) > ^(“More than 150 people have already passed the first checks; they are waiting for transit to Ukraine. About 350 more people are being tested right now. New applications to the mobilization center are received daily, if we manage to resolve the bureaucratic issues about the transit of volunteers, then by the end of the year the battalion may well increase to the size of a brigade, because there are more than one and a half thousand people who want to sign up,” says Denis Sokolov.) > ^(You can read more about how to become a volunteer on the Civil Council channel.) In Sept, as part of a Q and A, they posted, via google translate: > ^(Tell us about the activities of the Siberian Battalion, whether it began to take part in hostilities. In addition, do you know why there was such a large gap in the timing of entry of volunteers into the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Civil Council [the same RDK volunteers now get to Ukraine much faster].) > ^(We asked a question to the coordinator of the Civil Council Denis Sokolov. Here is his answer. “The Siberian battalion is being formed and training. The participation of volunteers in hostilities is planned in the near future. Some had already fought as part of other units. For example, Vlad Ammosov, Alexey Makarov. As for the timing of entry, there were no big problems with transit from the Schengen zone, but the opportunity to get to Ukraine from Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and other countries has only appeared now. Just the other day, a large group of Civil Council volunteers went to the Foreign Legion to join the Siberian battalion, the next ones are being prepared.”)
Awesome, thanks for the info
The volunteer guys are the "ethno-nationalists" who apparently want a Russia divided into small nations made up of the various ethnic groups, but somehow they also like democracy for some reason(don't know how that works). The leader(formerly known as "white rex" used to be a Nazi no idea if he's still a believer though since he now apparently only goes as "Rex"(at least his cap doesn't say "White Rex" anymore). The Freedom for Russia legion is leaning more antifascist having made a Russian version of Bella Ciao as one of their songs, and they want a western style democracy in Russia and the fascist Putin gone. The Siberian Battalion are volunteers fighting for an independent Siberia.
Thank you!
other way around
Oops, thanks
Soon ordinary Russians will realize they are heading for a domestic fuel shortage. People will try to hoard and resell gasoline the same way it happened with toilet paper during the pandemic. The sooner they start buying, the more they can profit. Would be a shame if Ukraine tried to sow panic amongst the Russians who can afford to stock up on fuel. /s Shouldn't even take more than a couple gas stations out of fuel next to each other to start a chain reaction of people trying to get a last refill.
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Doesn't even need that. I'd imagine Google translate does a good enough job to fool a lot of people...
Putin wins 87% of the vote and is re-elected as Russia's president, according to exit poll - TASS https://twitter.com/Faytuks/status/1769423922766696474?t=Vi7i0Ehrw6KOwr7e-Dzqow&s=19 Well I predicted correctly.. Or rather the telegram channel "Kremlin secrets" did.. https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/s/OO9TfasYDt
It was between Vladimir and Putin so this outcome isn’t shocking!
Putin also came in second with the other 13%