On August 29, 2023, Prigozhin was buried in a small cemetery on the outskirts of the city, next to his father’s grave. No official announcement was made. Newspapers reported on the funeral only after it was over. Twenty to thirty people attended, they reported, only relatives and close friends. Police stalked the perimeter against unexpected guests. Prigozhin did not receive the military salute he was due as the Hero of Russia. But severe traffic jams clogged this part of the city the following day, as Russian patriots streamed in pilgrimage to Prigozhin’s modest grave. A warning for the oligarchs and the fifth column—and perhaps for the rest of us too.
The Kremlin has been running an aggressive propaganda campaign to justify its actions to its citizens.Now, Russia is sinking deeper into the quagmire of Putinism, and there are few signs that the population is resisting the path the president is leading them down.
Polling by the Russian independent pollster Levada Centre revealed that, in July, approval of Putin amongst Russians stood at 82 per cent. Three-quarters of those surveyed said they supported the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine.
Are we about to see another massive campaign of highly targeted lies — amplified by foreign, malicious actors — designed to put Donald Trump back in the White House and Republicans in charge of Congress?
What was labeled a “revolt” and a “mutiny” wasn’t. It was a protest against Putin’s Double Cross and the broken promise by a private and independent group of mercenaries he hired. They were being hijacked into Vlad’s Army and at a far, far cheaper rate than previously negotiated. Vlad the Don finally reminded them it was an offer they couldn’t refuse when he reminded them ” we have your families”!
“Sixteen months ago, Russian forces were . . . thinking they would erase Ukraine from the map as an independent country,” Blinken said. “Now, over the weekend they’ve had to defend Moscow, Russia’s capital, against mercenaries of Putin’s own making. . . It was a direct challenge to Putin’s authority. . . It shows real cracks.”
Another reading is also possible here, though it will have to be verified in due course. Putin had anticipated that this contingently loyal band of mercenaries was always liable to turn, given the chance. Russia is overrun with such volatile privateers and soldiers of fortune. Where that fortune turns, demands will be made.
Throughout history, tyrannical rulers have created their own private operations outside normal chains of command, run by people like Prigozhin, who are personally loyal. This give tyrants flexibility to do what they want without bureaucratic opposition. It protects them against revolt by their subordinates in the chain of command. And it gives them deniability when operations go badly.
However, would Putin dare use nuclear devices so close to his own border and Lukashenko’s?
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko says his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons – some of which he says are three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The Kremlin can continue to rely on the global black market to smuggle in key components. But it all takes time and money. Russia has neither as Ukraine prepares its counter-offensive. Sanctions are most assuredly working. Besides, there is no other moral choice.
Last week’s melodrama made it plainer than ever that Trump does not understand America – what made it, what it is now, what it stands for around the globe. He just doesn’t get it. His mental and emotional landscape is painfully limited, walled in, barren, scared, and perpetually angry. His whole world is himself alone. Fake patriot Trump is a man without a country. It’s a fair bet the country will ultimately decide it can do without Trump.
In October, the Saudi-led OPEC cartel of oil-producing countries slashed output by two million barrels per day to drive prices higher. Now – heedless of an angry US president who has threatened unspecified “consequences” – it is cutting production again. As Biden looks on powerlessly, one of the biggest winners is likely to be Vladimir Putin.
A former Russian security officer has given rare insight into President Vladimir Putin’s “pathological” fear for his life and his “distorted” grip on reality.
Twenty years on, former US President George W. Bush, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Australia’s own John Howard, the troika most to blame for not just the criminal invasion of a foreign country but the regional and global cataclysm consequential to it, remain at large. Since then, Bush has taken to painting; Blair and Howard have preferred to sell gobbets of alleged wisdom on the lecture circuit.
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of starting the war in Ukraine, but said that he would not start a nuclear war, in a lengthy and rambling speech to the nation on Tuesday.
President Vladimir Putin has given a strong signal the war in Ukraine could continue long into 2023, with a New Year warning that the “fate of Russia” depends on victory.
The time has come to ask whether, objectively speaking, Vladimir Putin is an agent of American imperialism. For no American has ever done half as much damage to what Putin calls the “Russian world” as the Russian leader himself has.
All this is based on the premise that Putin has “Superior Military Intelligence”. For the past year, he’s proved he hasn’t. So why would Ritter go out of his way to prove as a commentator he hasn’t any superior information either and that he seems to merely be a Russian propagandist?
If a bomb does go off we can be assured it’s not Ukrainian’s. As nothing Russia has done to date and nothing Putin has ever said seems to stack up. His agents “don’t assassinate his enemies”. He didn’t “interfere in the last US election”. He hasn’t a “dirty bomb”.
Russia appears to be legitimately concerned about the possibility of Ukraine building and using a “dirty bomb,” so much so that it has taken the unprecedented step of reaching out to multiple senior Western defense authorities.
If, at the end of the day, the appropriate phone calls are made by the West, and Ukraine backs down, then Russia will have succeeded. And if it turns out that the Russian information is wrong, there was no harm from the effort. However, if Russia is correct, and Ukraine not only is preparing to use a “dirty bomb”, but detonates one, and the West did nothing to prevent it, then Russia is on the record for having provided the West with due warning.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the martial law crackdown was an attempt “to suppress the resistance of the residents” who oppose the Russian occupation. “Putin’s decree is null and void. It has no legal consequences for Ukraine and its citizens, as well as for the international community,” said a statement released by Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ukraine says Russia has destroyed almost one-third of its power stations over the past week — leaving more than 1000 towns blacked out — in a wave of strikes targeting infrastructure.
“He is not like some raving lunatic who is behaving irrationally. He is rational. Everything he does is for his own set of really twisted goals. His goal is to stay alive, and in order to stay alive he’s got to stay in power, and in order to stay in power he has to ensure the Russian people don’t rise against him.” Thus Putin’s end game is war, according to Browder who has firsthand knowledge of being in his own battle with Putin.
The failure of U.S. intelligence to see the dysfunction in the Russian army and defense industries means that it also didn’t foresee Russia’s ongoing battlefield defeats, which are now having a profound political and social impact on both Putin and Russia. Putin has ordered a partial mobilization to replace heavy battlefield losses, sparking large-scale protests. At least 200,000 people have already fled Russia, including thousands of young men seeking to avoid conscription.
On Sept. 18, 2022, she published the Instagram post. Addressing the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, Pugacheva asked it to designate her a “foreign agent” in solidarity with her husband. She added that her husband is “an honest and decent human being, a true and incorruptible Russian patriot who wishes his homeland a flourishing and peaceful life, freedom of speech, and an end to the deaths of our boys for illusory goals that are making our country a pasening the life of our citizens.”
By the standards now rightly being applied to Vladimir Putin, the American and Australian leaders who brought devastation to Iraq and Afghanistan, George W Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard should arguably appear in the dock, subject to the presumption of innocence. Justice also demands a reasonable effort be made to bring them before a court. That hasn’t happened and won’t until the public demand justice.
It seems Putins army is refusing to give Putin what he wants
But perhaps there’s one hint. Throughout his tenure, Putin has consistently invited NATO and its allies to blink. At this crucial time, the West owes it to Ukraine, and for the sake of its own credibility, to ensure it does not give the Russian president what he wants.
The United States is deeply concerned by the Russian government’s treatment of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the State Department says.
While the world’s attention focuses on Ukraine’s fight to drive out Russian invaders, Vladimir Putin’s jailers have been been tormenting imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny
Russian prison authorities have interfered with Navalny’s preparation of his defence and communication with his lawyer, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price says.
He also said Navalny has been repeatedly placed in solitary confinement for minor alleged infractions.
Price said Navalny’s treatment was “evidence of politically motivated harassment” and he reiterated US calls for the opposition leader’s immediate release.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic inside Russia, is serving an 11-1/2 year sentence after being found guilty of parole violations and fraud and contempt of court charges.
He says all charges against him were fabricated as a pretext to smother dissent and thwart his political ambitions.
Thousands of people young and old lined up to pay their respects and view the body of Mikhail Gorbachev
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the funeral of the former Soviet leader
Many Western leaders were absent from the funeral due to tense relations between Moscow and the West
The man affectionately known as ‘Gorby’ in the West and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in ending the Cold War is buried at Moscow’s famous Novodevichy cemetery alongside his wife Raisa, who died in 1999.
Some 8 influential Russians against Putin have now died under suspicious circumstances and others are incarcerated, Gorbachev ex-President hasn’t been awarded a State Funeral and Putin didn’t bother to attend. Nevertheless, Trump still is in awe of the Russian State and Putin’s power.
Russia says it has 2 mill troops. How many can they move feed and cloth with the onset of winter? How many can the convince their war is righteous? They lost and were demoralised by the Afghans and Zelensky learnt that it isn’t numbers that count but resolve.
In a late-night address on Monday, Mr Zelensky called on Russian forces to go home or be chased home.
‘‘If they want to survive – it’s time for the Russian military to run away. Go home,’’ he said.
‘‘Ukraine is taking back its own (land),’’ Mr Zelensky said, adding that he would not disclose Kyiv’s precise battle plans, but that his armed forces were doing thei
Western estimates of Russian dead in the Ukraine war have ranged from more than 15,000 to over 20,000 — more than the Soviet Union lost during its 10-year war in Afghanistan. The Pentagon said last week that as many as 80,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded, eroding Moscow’s ability to conduct big offensives.
Is there a lesson for Putin in Hitler’s disastrous invasion of the Soviet Union? You bet there is — and it’s one every Russian should know.Advertisement:
When Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, he gambled that it would be won quickly and that the west would acquiesce in a fait accompli. He underestimated Ukrainian resilience and European readiness to punish Kremlin aggression with sanctions. That forced Mr Putin into a longer game. Now he is betting that European reliance on Russian gas exports will corrode western solidarity, leading to a degrading of sanctions and restored tolerance of Moscow’s territorial aggressions.
To hasten that scenario, Russia has cut the flow of gas through the main east-west pipeline. The Kremlin’s message of strategic extortion is not subtle: go softer on the war and have a cosier winter; stay tough and freeze. European solidarity is just about holding. Earlier this week EU members agreed a deal to cut gas usage by 15% as part of a phased move away from reliance on Russian supplies. But the deal is diluted by opt-outs and exceptions for various countries. Hungary, the EU state that is cosiest with the Kremlin, has not signed up at all.
The Guardian view on Russian gas: a compelling reason to go green | Editorial | The Guardian
The people of Ukraine have no trouble resisting Putin. Why do Russians?
In Ukraine, as in Syria, Putin appears to have no concern about collateral damage or the rules of war and appears to favour directly targeting civilians as the quickest way to strategic victory. Unfortunately for him, the Ukrainian people have shown that they have the stomach for this fight – Nato must match their bravery and back them to the hilt. We cannot forget that our failure to act in Syria, when up to 1,500 civilians were killed with the nerve agent sarin, no doubt emboldened Putin to invade Ukraine.
Putin fast-track more Russian passports – Michael West
The Russian passport move appears to be part of Putin’s political influence strategy, which has also involved the introduction of the Russian rouble in occupied territory in Ukraine and could eventually result in the annexation of more Ukrainian territory into the Russian Federation. Russia already annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea in 2014.
The Russian president set the stage for such moves even before Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, writing an essay last summer claiming that Russians and Ukrainians are one people and attempting to diminish the legitimacy of Ukraine as an independent nation. Reports have surfaced of Russian authorities confiscating Ukrainian passports from some citizens.
The passport announcement came hours after Russian shelling of Ukraine’s second-largest city on Monday killed at least six people and injured 31, prosecutors and local officials said. Russian troops launched three missile strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in an attack one official described as “absolute terrorism.”
Putin backs off for now but wait for the American Midterms!
Vladimir Putin has appeared to climb down from Russia’s objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, saying Moscow had no issues with them entering the US-led military alliance they now aim to join in reaction to his invasion of Ukraine.
Putin will do anything he can to get the bastards back in power.
Fox News hosts and other right-wing media figures are complaining about the $39.8 billion bipartisan bill that would aid Ukraine as it fights against the Russian invasion. The bill — which includes funds for humanitarian, economic, and defense needs in the country — passed in the House earlier this week and is now being delayed in the Senate due to opposition from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
May 9 is known as Russia’s Victory Day. As Putin’s long-term Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov doubled down on the claim that the invasion was a “special operation” aimed at “de-nazifying” Ukraine, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday there was “good reason to believe that the Russians will do everything they can to use” May 9 to justify the war.
Higgins MP and potential future frontbencher Katie Allen has been forced to execute a monumental backflip after issuing how-to-vote cards preferencing a United Australia Party candidate who has since gone bad. Very bad.
After last week’s ballot draw, Allen’s office reported UAP candidate Ingram Spencer to the federal police for allegedly acting aggressively towards people and “scaring everyone”. Days later, he was arrested for allegedly using a carriage service to harass someone and placed behind bars ahead of a first court hearing later this week.
So imagine the surprise among Higgins’ Liberal members and broader constituents when tens of thousands of them received Liberal how-to-vote cards instructing them to preference Spencer, a QAnon-following Vladimir Putin admirer, ahead of Labor and the Greens.
Steadily, ominously, the stakes are rising in the confrontation that Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has provoked with the west. Russia’s state energy company Gazprom halted gas supplies to two EU member states – Poland and Bulgaria – on Wednesday and warned that more countries could be similarly targeted. Poland, with good reason, described this as a “direct attack”. Moscow is also talking darkly of delivering a “proportionate response” to the demonisation of Russia by western governments. On Tuesday, Mr Putin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, accused Nato of “engaging in a war with Russia through a proxy”. The risk of nuclear escalation, he said, was becoming “considerable”.
The US State Department, after a long and careful investigation, concluded that the junta in Myanmar (Burma) has committed genocide against the Muslim Rohingya minority. What the Russians did in Bucha and Mariupol and many other cities convinced Mr. Biden that the Russian military has the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” and that it is inflicting on them conditions intended to bring about their physical destruction through killing members of the group. It should be noted that Putin denies that there are any Ukrainians. Denial of peoplehood to a people is often a sign of genocidal intent. President Biden admitted that he is making an argument from the gut when he says this, and that jurists of international law will make the final determination. Given the language of the Rome Statute, however, I think we can as lay analysts conclude that there is a prima facie case that Biden’s charge is correct.
The GOP are Anti- Democracy like the LNP its Nope, Nope Nope to any bipartisan policies but that was never the case with Rudd/Gillard and nor will it be with an Albanese Government. That’s the primary difference between autocrats and democrats. Autocrats exist to retain power at all cost the ALP is there to serve the nation not themselves and donors only.
The Republican Party is committed to tearing America apart by pitting us against each other. Why would they do this? Here’s a clue: 63 Republicans voted this week against a resolution in support of NATO.
olddogthoughts 
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