Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
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Quote:Putin hasn’t been wrong about everything, and recognizing what he got right should shape how Ukraine and its supporters proceed in the months ahead.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Psyops, disinfo and head-fuckery: The lifeblood of the M$M today.
The Biden administration hoped that the threat of “unprecedented sanctions” would deter Putin from invading and then hoped that imposing these sanctions would strangle his war machine, trigger popular discontent, and force him to reverse course. Putin went to war convinced that Russia could ride out any sanctions we might impose, and he’s been proved right up till now. There is still sufficient appetite for Russian raw materials (including energy) to keep its economy going with only a slight decline in GDP. The long-term consequences may be more severe, but he was right to assume that sanctions alone would not determine the outcome of the conflict for quite a while.
Second, Putin correctly judged that the Russian people would tolerate high costs and that military setbacks were not going to lead to his ouster. He may have begun the war hoping it would be quick and cheap, but his decision to keep going after the initial setbacks—and eventually to mobilize reserves and fight on—reflected his belief that the bulk of the Russian people would go along with his decision and that he could suppress any opposition that did emerge. The mobilization of additional troops may have been shambolic by our standards, but Russia has been able to keep large forces in the field despite enormous losses and without jeopardizing Putin’s hold on power. That could change, of course, but so far, he’s been proved right on this issue, too.
Third, Putin understood that other states would follow their own interests and that he would not be universally condemned for his actions. Europe, the United States, and some others have reacted sharply and strongly, but key members of the global south and some other prominent countries (such as Saudi Arabia and Israel) have not. The war hasn’t helped Russia’s global image (as lopsided votes condemning the war in the U.N. General Assembly have shown), but more tangible opposition has been limited to a subset of the world’s nations.
Most important of all: Putin understood that Ukraine’s fate was more important to Russia than it was to the West. Please note: It is by no means more important to Russia than it is to Ukrainians, who are making enormous sacrifices to defend their country. But Putin has the advantage over Ukraine’s principal supporters when it comes to being willing to bear costs and run risks. He has an advantage not because Western leaders are weak, pusillanimous, or craven, but because the political alignment of a large country right next door to Russia was always bound to matter more to Moscow than it was going to matter to people farther away, and especially to individuals living in a wealthy and secure country on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
This fundamental asymmetry of interest and motivation is why the United States, Germany, and much of the rest of NATO have calibrated their responses so carefully, and why U.S. President Joe Biden ruled out sending U.S. troops from the get-go. He understood (correctly) that Putin might think Ukraine’s fate was worth sending several hundred thousand troops to fight and possibly die, but Americans didn’t and wouldn’t feel the same way about sending their sons and daughters to oppose them. It might be worth sending billions of dollars of aid to help Ukrainians defend their country, but that objective was not important enough for the United States to put its own troops in harm’s way or to run a significant risk of a nuclear war. Given this asymmetry of motivation, Biden is trying to stop Russia without U.S. troops getting directly involved. Whether this approach will work is still unknown.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/02/15/putin-right-ukraine-war/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa
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The outcome is known.
This is just softening up the part of the American public that still believes the M$M for Ukraine's defeat.
They're also trying to shift blame from being idiots who created brainless policies to some, yanno,impersonal forces that had nothing to do with THEM.
But SOMEBODY decided to launch a proxy war on Russia and saturate the public, and themselves, with disinfo that perpetuated their own disconnect from reality.
You've been had.
Again.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake
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https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/kremlins-grand-delusions
The Kremlin’s Grand Delusions
By Fiona Hill and Angela Stent, February 15, 2023
Despite a series of blunders, miscalculations, and battlefield reversals that would have surely seen him thrown out of office in most normal countries, President Vladimir Putin is still at the pinnacle of power in Russia. He continues to define the contours of his country’s war against Ukraine. He is micromanaging the invasion even as generals beneath him appear to be in charge of the battlefield. (This deputizing is done to protect him from blowback if something goes badly wrong in the war.) Putin and those immediately around him directly work to mobilize Russians on the home front and manipulate public views of the invasion abroad. He has in some ways succeeded in this information warfare.
The war has revealed the full extent of Putin’s personalized political system. After what is now 23 years at the helm of the Russian state, there are no obvious checks on his power. Institutions beyond the Kremlin count for little. “I would never have imagined that I would miss the Politburo,” said Rene Nyberg, the former Finnish ambassador to Moscow. “There is no political organization in Russia that has the power to hold the president and commander in chief accountable.” Diplomats, policymakers, and analysts are stuck in a doom loop—an endless back-and-forth argument among themselves—to figure out what Putin wants and how the West can shape his behavior.
Determining Putin’s actual objectives can be difficult; as an anti-Western autocrat, he has little to gain by publicly disclosing his intentions. But the last year has made some answers clear enough. Since February 2022, the world has learned that Putin wants to create a new version of the Russian empire based on his Soviet-era preoccupations and his interpretations of history. The launching of the invasion itself has shown that his views of past events can provoke him to cause massive human suffering. It has become clear that there is little other states and actors can do to deter Putin from prosecuting a war if he is determined to do so and that the Russian president will adapt old narratives as well as adopt new ones to suit his purposes.
But the events of 2022 and early 2023 have demonstrated that there are ways to constrain Putin, especially if a broad enough coalition of states gets involved. They have also underscored that the West will need to redouble its efforts at strengthening such a diplomatic and military coalition. Because even now, after a year of carnage, Putin is still convinced he can prevail.
BACK IN THE USSR
One year in, the war in Ukraine has shown that Putin and his cohort’s beliefs are still rooted in Soviet frames and narratives, overlaid with a thick glaze of Russian imperialism. Soviet-era concepts of geopolitics, spheres of influence, East versus West, and us versus them shape the Kremlin’s mindset. To Putin, this war is in effect a struggle with Washington akin to the Korean War and other Cold War–era conflicts. The United States remains Russia’s principal opponent, not Ukraine. Putin wants to negotiate directly with Washington to “deliver” Ukraine, with the end goal of getting the U.S. president to sign away the future of the country. He has no desire to meet directly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. His goal remains the kind of settlement achieved in 1945 at Yalta, when U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill sat across the table from the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and accepted Moscow’s post–World War II dominance of Eastern Europe without consulting the countries affected by these decisions.
For Russia, World War II—the Great Fatherland War, as Russians call it—is the touchstone and central theme of the conflict in Ukraine. Putin’s emphasis a year ago on ridding Ukraine of Nazis has faded somewhat into the background. This year, the victorious outcome in 1945 is his primary focus. Putin’s message to
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
The outcome is known.
This is just softening up the part of the American public that still believes the M$M for Ukraine's defeat.
They're also trying to shift blame from being idiots who created brainless policies to some, yanno,impersonal forces that had nothing to do with THEM.
But SOMEBODY decided to launch a proxy war on Russia and saturate the public, and themselves, with disinfo that perpetuated their own disconnect from reality.
You've been had.
Again.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake
Yup.
--------------------------------------------------
Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Despite Putin's efforts to make Europe freeze by cutting its gas supply, Europe is on course to get through winter with its vital gas storage facilities more than half full. EU economies look set to start next winter in a strong position.
The wholesale price of gas rose to record levels during storage filling season — peaking at more than €335 per megawatt hour in August.
Gas prices have since fallen to just above €50/Mwh amid easing concerns over supplies.
Across the EU, five new floating LNG terminals have been set up — in the Netherlands, Greece, Finland and two in Germany — providing an extra 30bcm of gas import capacity, with more due to come online this year and next.
Brussels set member states a voluntary target of cutting gas demand by 15 percent from August last year. The 15 percent target may need to be extended beyond its expiry date of March 31 to avoid gas demand rebounding as prices fall. EU energy ministers are set to discuss the issue at two forthcoming meetings in February and March.
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-energy-gas-supply-russia-putin-wint
er/
Putin the Green? The Unintended Consequences of Russia’s Energy War on Europe
Mitchell Orenstein • February 15, 2023 • Eurasia Program
Vladimir Putin accelerated Europe’s transition to green energy, decimating a key market for Russian exporters. Over the long term, Europe is well-positioned will win the energy war with Russia.
Europe has substantially reduced its dependency on Russian fossil fuels, while prices, which quadrupled at the outset of the war, fell back to pre-war levels. Not only has Russia’s energy war on Europe been unsuccessful, but it may have the unintended consequence of accelerating Europe’s energy transition over the long term. Attempting to win recognition as Putin the Great by uniting the Slavic lands of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin may be hailed instead as Putin the Green, the man who convinced Europe to give up dependence on fossil fuels.
https://www.fpri.org/article/2023/02/putin-the-green-the-unintended-co
nsequences-of-russias-energy-war-on-europe/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Russian art in wartime
Culture in the time of Z
Repression can stifle a culture. Creating a new one is another matter
In a small underground theatre in the shadows of a railway line in Moscow, a crowd has fallen into what can only be described as nervous hysterics. Individual acts of defiance are unusual in the age of Z (the symbol of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the nationalist mindset that goes with it). A collective endeavour such as this appears to trigger extreme emotions. The play being performed is a comic take on a biblical classic, but the contemporary allusions are not hard to fathom.
In a Sovietised version of Bethlehem, a paranoid, elderly autocrat is preparing for the slaughter of all young boys aged two and under. The newly born hero of the story—not Jesus in this case, but "Little Sergei’’—is saved when a guardian angel warns his parents to leave for Egypt before it is too late. Audience members who have been following social media know that the real-life inspiration for Little Sergei, Serhii Podlianov from Zaporizhia, was far less fortunate. He was killed in November by a Russian missile, aged just two days old.
Zhenya Berkovich, the play’s writer and director, is a rare breed in today’s Russia: a young creative type declining to take the heavy hints to shut up. Even as Vladimir Putin’s "special operation” struggles to make progress in Ukraine, the fear and conformity it has instilled at home mean that domestically, at least, it is yielding real results. Since February 24th last year, when the current invasion began, authorities have used the crisis to try to yank Russian life from a Western trajectory, meddling in personal space, culture and even schools in a way not seen since the Soviet Union.
In the arts, the result has been a toxic mix of repression and preventive self-censorship. Together with a mass exodus of creative talent, this is arguably the biggest disruption to the course of Russian culture since Stalin’s "cultural revolution" saw off the avant-garde in the benighted 1930s. In a telling indication of autocracy’s limits, however, a push to foment an alternative pro-war culture has been markedly less successful.
Ms Berkovich says she is under little illusion about the reach and effects of her own work, which she describes as a "modest personal survival mechanism’’. Theatre touched only a tiny part of the population at the best of times, she says. In the context of Z-Russia, writing a play that "emphasises the miracle of life” was equivalent to no more than a "mosquito dance”. She sympathises with those who think politically engaged citizens should have different priorities now. But it is not a case of choosing between culture and conscience: "You should always choose both."
Not all cultural figures share Ms Berkovich’s fierce anti-war stance. Pragmatic silence is common. A fringe of loyalists such as Valery Gergiev, a conductor, and Vladimir Mashkov, a theatre director, openly embrace the war. At the most grotesque end of the spectrum is a new wave of Z-culture, which the Kremlin has actively promoted. So far the most prominent artist to have broken into the mainstream is the musician Shaman, who has taken to performing hits such as "I’m Russian”— "I’m Russian/I go to the end/I’m Russian/ My blood comes from my fa-aa-ther”—for the already war-shocked citizens of Donbas in occupied eastern Ukraine.
Some unlikely figures have also begun dabbling in the arts scene. The warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin—whose Wagner brand is better known for executions by sledgehammer—has opened a “cultural” and "coworking” space in St Petersburg. On January 21st the dystopian Wagner Centre hosted the opening of a new “anti-colonialist” exhibition by Alexei Chizov, a local artist.
The aim of the show was to emphasise "Russia’s aesthetic and ethical sovereignty". But the confusing paintings, which depicted buff soldiers in poppy fields, left most of the visitors perplexed. Were they Wagner soldiers? (Appare
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
The outcome is known.
This is just softening up the part of the American public that still believes the M$M for Ukraine's defeat.
They're also trying to shift blame from being idiots who created brainless policies to some, yanno,impersonal forces that had nothing to do with THEM.
But SOMEBODY decided to launch a proxy war on Russia and saturate the public, and themselves, with disinfo that perpetuated their own disconnect from reality.
You've been had.
Again.
Russia's fleet of modern tanks down by 50%; more than 140,000 Russians killed in Ukraine war: Updates
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-s-fleet-of-modern-tanks-do
wn-by-50-more-than-140-000-russians-killed-in-ukraine-war-updates/ar-AA17yAhL?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=16ddf3d3b1bf46f78e5449f8baaef2f9
Howdoya like them apples?
T
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Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, said in an interview that any Ukrainian attacks on Crimea would be met with "retaliation strikes" that could potentially include nuclear deterrence.
Kyiv knows how valuable Crimea is to Putin, but it also knows the Russian military is stretched thin at the moment. Since maintaining control of Crimea is a greater priority to Putin than recapturing territory in eastern and southern Ukraine, any activity in Crimea is a useful reminder to Putin to keep troops stationed there rather than relocating them to the front.
https://www.newsweek.com/russias-thin-lines-give-ukraine-opening-attac
k-crimea-1781842
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
The outcome is known.
This is just softening up the part of the American public that still believes the M$M for Ukraine's defeat.
They're also trying to shift blame from being idiots who created brainless policies to some, yanno,impersonal forces that had nothing to do with THEM.
But SOMEBODY decided to launch a proxy war on Russia and saturate the public, and themselves, with disinfo that perpetuated their own disconnect from reality.
You've been had.
Again.
Russia's fleet of modern tanks down by 50%; more than 140,000 Russians killed in Ukraine war: Updates
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-s-fleet-of-modern-tanks-do
wn-by-50-more-than-140-000-russians-killed-in-ukraine-war-updates/ar-AA17yAhL?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=16ddf3d3b1bf46f78e5449f8baaef2f9
Howdoya like them apples?
T
What are you gonna do when NONE of this is proven true? Will you admit that your sources are liars, and FINALLY re-jigger your thinking?
Or will keep digging in the same mental/ emotional hole?
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake
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Quote:
Why Are So Many in the West Lying About Ukraine’s Casualties?
15 February 2023 by Larry Johnson 160 Comments
I am fascinated by guys like Wes O’Donnell, who publish delusional nonsense without offering one piece of credible evidence. O’Donnell, who claims to have served in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force, put up a piece at Medium last week with the catchy title, Putin’s Death Cult Prepares for Huge Casualties in the Coming Days.
Here are some salient points from his article:
The Russian army just suffered the deadliest 24 hours since the start of the war. According to Ukraine, 1,030 Russians were killed yesterday as Moscow continues to throw thousands of freshly mobilized soldiers into the meat grinder.
This brings the Russian death toll to 133,190. . . .
In an intelligence update given on Tuesday, the UK Ministry of Defense said Russian forces have “only managed to gain several hundred meters of territory per week,” because the Kremlin “now lacks the munitions and maneuver units required for successful offensives.”
I guess research is not Mr. O’Donnell’s strong suit. Instead of looking for independent sources he repeats the lies from the British Ministry of Defense, which gets its “intel” from the Ukrainians. If you accept the Ukrainian truth you are convinced that the Russians are being slaughtered at a horrendous rate. Only one little problem — I have been unable to find any Russian social media that shows mass graveyards and thousands of grieving Russian relatives.
O’Donnell also relies on the propaganda generated by the Institute for the Study of War (a new competitor for Oxymoron of the Year Award). He makes this outlandish claim:
Perhaps most interesting is how Putin is using conscripts in this war counter to traditional Russian military doctrine. Historically, Russia’s “trigger-pullers” have been its professional corps of contract troops — while conscripts were reserved for menial tasks like manual labor and maintenance.
But in Ukraine, it’s the conscripts who are sent to the front while the contract troops stay safely “in the rear.”
Well, as Chris Berman used to say on ESPN, “Let’s go to the videotape.” Here is a video of Wagner Group “contract” soldiers in the midst of the battle in Bakhmut packing up the corpses of fallen Ukrainians. You can hear the noise of battle in the background. Odd isn’t it. Instead of desecrating the bodies of their adversaries, the Russian contract soldiers treat the dead with respect as they secure the bodies to send them back to their loved ones. (You can see a Ukrainian flag on some of the caskets.)
Here is the rest of that story. Those caskets are headed to western Ukraine and will be buried in graveyards like the following:
I want to reiterate the inability of Ukrainian and Russian authorities to control social media. The ubiquitous cell phone camera provides a powerful tool to record events as they happen. If Russians were dying in the numbers claimed by Ukrainian sources we would be seeing that on social media. We are not. At least not in the number that appear on Ukrainian channels.
I am not suggesting that Russia is casualty free. Russian soldiers are being killed and wounded. But not in the volume that Ukrainian soldiers are. Ukrainian claims about Russian losses is just another manifestation of psychological projection.
https://sonar21.com/why-are-so-many-in-the-west-lying-about-ukraines-c
asualties/
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake
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