Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I like Michael Clarkes analysis. He seems to be fairly unbiased to either side and knowledgeable.

Sean Bell however. In my armchair general opinion is an absolute fool. Since the very start of the war he's been banging on about how Russia won't be beaten and Ukraine can only lose slowly. He was on Sky calling for peace talks as Russia was flattening Sieverodonetsk. He's constantly harping on about how Russia should be let keep the Donbas and Crimea and the land its stolen for the sake of negotiating with Putin. An absolutely abhorrent proposition unless we want to end up in WW3 in a few years. And one the Ukranians would never go for.

He's constantly been pessimistic about Ukraines potential to achieve anything at all. It may be true that the offensive won't achieve as much as some hoped as quickly as hoped. But I'm relatively confident Sean is talking out his arse.

I watched that when it came out. It's excellent. Really gives you a sense for the absolute chaos of the 1990s and the absolute pillaging of the country by the oligarchs that emerged. Their greed was rapacious and entirely at the expense of the common people. The American's really dropped the ball too. They effectively allowed libertarian economists to advise "shock therapy" to try and move the country from communist to capitalist. It was a failed experiment and paved the way for Putin to crush the nascent free press and opposition in the name of "stability".

The other thing I took from it was the rise of Boris Yeltsin. Nowadays he's mostly seen as the doddering drunk making a show of himself at formal occasions. Before all that though he was a deft political operator who ran rings around Gorbachev. He also laid the path for Putin though, in that he essentially took power away from parliament and placed it in the hands of the President after a constitutional crisis in 1993 where he literally sent the tanks in to fire on the parliament who were thwarting him and trying to impeach him.

Beyond all that though are the many small stories showing regular people just living their lives and trying to get by. Since it's Russia, lots of them are odd and lots of them are heart-breaking.

File alongside:

Belarus is entering the war on Friday.

Kiev will fall in 3 days.

Putin has cancer and two months to live.

Etc etc.

Don't forget:

• My secret source had to talk pilots out of dropping nuclear arms when they were in the air
• Progozhin has seized a nuclear arms depot and I'm including a picture of the wrong place

His problem is that he just repeats every rumour he hears and doesn't do any due diligence. Who knows maybe Kadyrov really is dying but I'll wait til I hear it from a more credible source before I believe there is any substance to it.

If several thousand tired jokes save one life or expose one rotten state murderer to the glare of unwelcome public gazes it will have been worth our jaded senses.

Who will be the next?Putin ,I hope.

Gatling, only saw that video now, was that a mine the poor last guy stood on that caused that damage ?

There was obviously a good few lads in that little valley, one wonders was that whole area mined and thats what caused the mess we saw at the start of the video, or was that last guy just really unlucky to be the one who stood on a lone mine just left there ?

Who do you reckon was videoing from the drone, Ukr or Rus ?

Thanks !

I think "Feral" describes your average russian soldier pretty much perfectly

Couldn't agree more, he's always Mr bloody obvious. Michael Clarke gives very good oversight of what's going on. Gives a good overview and offers what appears to be well thought out views.

Do yourself a favour, have a read of this from someone who actually knows what they are talking about, you never know you might learn something.

PS, It's no wonder you haven't a clue about what's going on, talking notice of people like David Sacks will shrink your brain down to the size of a walnut.

I know it might be a silly thing but just wondering with what is happening in France at the moment force the French to provide Ukraine with less financial aid etc. as they might have to fork out tens of millions to repair the damage caused throughout France the last few nights and still on going and also the loss in revenue that tourists might not go to France at the time being.

I'll save this post for when we know what the partition will look like. Needless to say there is still a lot of wishful thinking going around and refusal to see the reality of the situation.

That's not to say that reality can't change but as of now it is what it is.