I’ve seen quite a few videos and posts on VK (Russia’s Facebook) against the war and questioning the whole thing. It’s not as oppressive as it’s made out to be. Members of the public have been interviewed on BBC too giving differing opinions on the war. When it gets to the stage or organised rallies that’s generally when the authorities step in
Except that staying quiet might point the finger at them as well, for not being "Enthusiastic" enough in their support for the beloved Leader. In Russia ( which is not a normal society by any means) anyone can report you, just like in Soviet times. Maybe someone just does not like you, some one you crossed or for some perceived slight or other.
There is a big problem with the way this war has been framed in both the media and politics.
The key moment was the Russian defeat at Kharkiv. I think that in particular made important people extrapolate that Russia was a lot weaker than what it was and gave politicians an excuse to drag their feet on weapons deliveries. Putin was clearly stung by that defeat and shortly after instituted mobilization and the construction of the massive belt of defences in the occupied regions. We're now in the "oh ****" moment we're it's starting to dawn that the situation isn't as easy for Ukraine as we would have liked. The killing thing is that it would be much less difficult if we had given Ukraine more of what it needed much earlier. Instead we waited for 8 months after Kharkiv and gave Putin time to build up his defence.
We will have to wait and see how things go, but the current situation isn't sustainable. The video today of the Ukrainians storming a trench and killing a few Russians looks cool but it's not something Ukraine are going to be able to do for the hundreds of villages, towns, and cities that are going to need to fall before they can win.
It seems clear to me that we're going to see more precision stand-off weapons sooner rather than later. Storm Shadow, HIMARS, Excalibur, etc. Keep an eye out on forthcoming deliveries. Surely the people in charge know what they are doing this time...
I'm sure Horse, that 99% of Russians in Ukraine would do that in a heartbeat, given half a chance. Problem is, there is no chance of that happening. And its not going to happen either until Ukraine makes a major breakthrough in the counter offensive, or the Silovicki / oligarchs have had enough of Putin's crazy war causing them to lose their fortunes, and take him out.
This has been discussed before, but here goes again. If it was possible to implement regime change in Russia, why do you think that it has not been done before now? For sure there has been enough protests from time to time. Putin smashed them all. Now no more protests. Also maybe for the same reason that regime change has not been possible in N Korea, China, Iran etc.?
Russia has a manpower problem.
This was an impressive hit!
The guy in the first tweet has gotten the wrong end of the stick.
The Vasylivka he's talking about is Dubovo Vasylivka, a village to the north west of Bakhmut that Ukraine have been trying to put pressure on for the last 2 weeks.
More air defense up and running.
Saw an article earlier about other false death allegations from the moskovytes getting a funny response from Budanov.
Jesus not even volunteers , just stapped in and told your doing it
Or the IRA.
Google Patsie Gillespie.
.i.
Sometimes the most obvious things still need to be said out loud-
Hit a mine then finished by rpg.
Apparently that was a captured Ukrainian tank used by the Russians. It was blown up by a Ukrainian rpg. At 1:07 you can see the rpg being fired.
drink up fcukers
Russia deploying new unmanned tanks filled with high explosives taking a page out of the Iraqi insurgency playbook except with tanks instead of cars and vans .......
From todays FT
Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition activist, urged his countrymen to join a new information campaign against the war on Ukraine as he stood trial on charges that could keep him imprisoned for decades.
On Monday, a rare trial behind closed doors started in Melekhovo prison, 250km east of Moscow, where Navalny is jailed. The highly usual proceedings are part of a draconian crackdown on wartime dissent that Navalny says will probably leave him behind bars for at least as long as Russian president Vladimir Putin remains alive. The charges of “extremism” brought against Navalny in April carry a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
“The most important thing is this trial’s form: it’s a trial inside a prison,” Navalny wrote in a message that his supporters posted on his website. “Putin isn’t shy about jailing innocent people or scared that a crowd could break me out . . . he’s scared of what I have to say. Even if it’s obvious words everyone already knows.”
H said he wanted to use call centres outside Russia, as well as social media and messaging apps, to create a “truth machine” that would reach out to Russians and convince them to change their views on the war.
Navalny is only able to openly challenge the war in his court appearances and letters written from prison — but he said he had tested out the idea on his own guards, who had “begun to think about it and start doubting”.
Poor old Kermit. Try harder Vatnik.
Expression on the face of the Orc at end.
Cue the usual posters asking for proof of life, like him holding up this mornings edition of the paper as there's no way to verify the date on the video etc....
For the posters really concerned this guy was dead/badly injured
Mordor has been burning for the past week or so
It's burning again in Moscow.
Fire on Ryazansky Prospekt near the Stakhanovskaya metro station.
You may have a point there but many of them actively support Russia in public. If they can't condemn it they could at least stay quiet.
The deeper the trench, the better it protects. For firing, you can step up.
Not that I'm an expert on Russian trenches, but isn't that very deep for a trench? Aren't they supposed to be able to shoot at the enemy from there?
The F-16 is particularly prone to hoovering up debris as its single intake is lower (down under the cockpit) than a lot of its contemporaries which have intakes higher up either side. But they're not expected to operate out of barely prepared forward air strips or anything.
They are coming from a century of Communism and now with facial recognition tech, media monitoring etc.
People forget how much a state can control people now. The Stasi and the likes needed legions of collaborators and true believers to maintain their authority. Now they can reduce- but not yet eliminate- the weakest link in the chain and aren't so reliant on people who might get ideas of their own and have a measure of control and access to people's communications that were science fiction in the Soviet era.
I'm sure the Mick Wallaces of the world will point out programmes like Prism as an example of the West doing the same, but as things stand, I'll take Western mass surveillance over Russian or Chinese any day of the week.
The main impediment now is training up the pilots and sorting out who is going to maintain them and where they will be able to take off from (apparently their air-intake is so strong that the runways have to be clean of any debris).
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