Another Putin Disaster
POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 26, 2026 22:07
VIEWED: 114667
PAGE 146 of 160
What was said in a nutshell? Russia is done, invest in Ukraine. It's a better bet.
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China's Xi Jinping is accused of betraying Putin by Russian state TV
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-s-xi-jinping-is-accused-of-
betraying-putin-by-russian-state-tv/ss-AA1aGm3M?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=624e26d093784f56ae7324e6a6627934&ei=370
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That's what everybody does, Ted.
The US is the best at betraying other countries.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Russia’s Patriarch Kirill first name on Czech national sanctions list
https://english.radio.cz/russias-patriarch-kirill-first-name-czech-nat
ional-sanctions-list-8781477
Oil Depot Near Crimean Bridge Hit by Ukrainian Drone Strike
https://funker530.com/video/oil-depot-near-crimean-bridge-hit-by-ukrai
nian-drone-strike/
Surrounded by corpses, Wagner's Prigozhin blasts Russian defence minister in expletive-laden video
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/surrounded-by-corpses-wagners-pri
gozhin-blasts-russian-defence-minister-2023-05-05/
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Russians Seem Very Interested in My Book About How Dictatorships End by Alexander Baunov
Alexander Baunov (@baunov) is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a visiting fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.
It’s a little embarrassing.
Normally, I write about various aspects of Russian politics — the basis of Vladimir Putin’s support, the Kremlin’s media strategy, Russia’s foreign policy. Now, to my surprise, I’m writing about something else: my own book.
Three years in the making, the book came out at the end of January and quickly became a best seller across Russia. The first print run disappeared almost immediately, and since then, there have been three more. While not many of the journalists and outlets remaining in the country have dared to write about it, there has been a huge amount of attention on social media and an extensive series of reviews in Russian-language publications abroad. Objectively — though it’s awkward to say — the book has become a bit of a phenomenon.
But the book, “The End of the Regime: How Three European Dictatorships Ended,” is not about Russia or Vladimir Putin. It’s about three dictatorships — those of Francisco Franco in Spain, Antonio Salazar in Portugal and the colonels in Greece — and how those countries became democracies, returning to the global fold. A large number of Russians haven’t suddenly taken an interest in the history of 20th-century Southern Europe. Rather, discussions of the book have common themes: How do prolonged right-wing dictatorships end? And can Russia become a democracy?
As one might expect, the book is being widely discussed by opposition groups and those calling for an end to the war. More surprisingly, it is also being read by the Russian nomenklatura — those at the apex of the Russian state. It seems that the book has become a pretext for discussion of taboo topics, such as political transition, the health and death of the leader, defeat in a colonial war, the end of isolation and, indeed, the end of the regime.
In days gone by, it was possible to broach such subjects, albeit gently. But in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin’s repression of dissent, the space for candid discussion has been sealed off. The Carnegie Moscow Center, for example, where I worked and was able to converse with members of the ruling elite, was shut down by the authorities last spring. The bulk of its scholars have left the country and are now creating another think tank in Berlin.
Those who remain in Russia have lost the opportunity to engage in an open dialogue on the country’s future. Yet the extraordinarily high level of interest in the book is evidence that, despite the fiction of consensus that state propaganda has tried to reinforce, Russians have not stopped asking questions about what comes next. Given the book’s focus, it seems that readers are thinking not about the regime’s continuation — as the authorities would wish — but about how it might end.
For many, the simple act of buying the book is a political statement, and numerous bookstores are using it to quietly indicate their positions. A major store near the notorious Lubyanka, the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (and previously the K.G.B.) in Moscow, placed copies of “The End of the Regime” right next to “Putin’s Path,” a hagiography devoted to the Russian leader, and a book on Stalin. The implication was clear.
Unlike many authors of the Soviet and czarist eras, who — deprived of the opportunity to discuss their country and their future directly — masked those discussions by focusing on other peoples and eras, I didn’t set for myself the goal of writing a book about Mr. Putin: This is not a book about Russia disguised as a book about Spain, Portugal and Greece. Nevertheless, unlike numerous Western works on similar topics, the book is written by an inhabitant of an autocracy for other inhabitants of an autocracy. This links author and readers with a special, almost conspiratorial
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Ukraine flags block Russian ambassador's path on Victory Day
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A large installation representing Russian atrocities in Ukraine blocked the path of Russia's ambassador to Poland as he sought Tuesday to place a wreath at a Warsaw memorial to Soviet soldiers on Russia's Victory Day holiday.
https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1aWOaP.img?w
=1920&h=1080&q=60&m=2&f=jpg
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The Ukraine Flag is good for nothing but toilet paper.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Quote:So now you are anti-Ukraine? What next? Pro-Russian?
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
The Ukraine Flag is good for nothing but toilet paper.
Kremlin Pilot’s Lost Corpse Washes Ashore on Russian ‘Victory Day’
The head of the Kyiv region police posted a photo of the remains on Telegram, along with the caption: “Pilot Roma floated to the surface, probably to celebrate May 9th. He couldn’t just sit around at home. ‘The holiday is sacred!’ A good example for all Russians. Better to stay at home than become accomplices in war crimes.”
Russia’s pro-war military bloggers have reacted with outrage to Ukraine’s announcement about Mankishev’s remains.
“They extracted [the body] precisely on May 9 and performed mockery and a photo session,” one popular Russian Telegram channel lamented.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/body-of-kremlin-pilot-roman-mankishev-wa
shes-ashore-in-kyiv-on-russian-victory-day
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 second:Quote:So now you are anti-Ukraine?
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
The Ukraine Flag is good for nothing but toilet paper.
I'VE ALWAYS BEEN ANTI-UKRAINE.
WTF dude. Have you not been paying attention?
Quote:
What next? Pro-Russian?
#Rootin4Putin
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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