Aren’t they all, though?
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25 years ago, Putin became a temporary president. He hasn’t given up any power since then.
Zelenskyy is green with envy. Still, he’ll soon be entering his seventh year in office with no election in sight. Not bad for a guy whose previous engagement was playing president of Ukraine on television. Life imitates art, if only in the loosest sense of the term art.
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I took up Seawriter’s excellent suggestion to read the Kratman-Ezell-Watson alternative history “1919: The Romanov Rising” – an interesting exploration of how history might have been different if three of the Czar’s daughters had survived the Communist effort to eliminate them. The authors appear to have tried hard to ground this fiction in actual history. We get to hear (Democrat) President Wilson make racist remarks, and meet the sons of America’s High & Mighty dodging bullets on the front lines. Definitely different days!
Per the book, one of the difficulties which bedeviled the anti-Communist White Russian forces in the Russian civil war following the Western end of World War I and limited their effectiveness was … a surplus of officers.
With that fresh in my mind, I came across this quote by a Ukrainian politician:
Ukrainian MP Anna Skorokhod recently stated that the nation’s mobilization campaign is a failure and that there are no plans to demobilize the troops. She also lamented the excessive number of officers who evade frontline combat.
“I want to remind everyone that our officer corps is hardly engaged in combat. Moreover, an officer cannot be assigned to a position lower than their current rank. As a result, most of those fighting on the front lines are mobilized personnel.”
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The war is only going to escalate in 2025.
This is just the beginning.
I have written some substack posts how this could all end in a good way.
Here my recent.
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Another good and clear explanation …
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This is a tragic but probably the only option if Russia wish to get rid of NATO on its border, at least in this part of the world.
I don’t know if it is legitimate, but I read that Russia has rejected Trumps offer for peace which included an agreement that Ukraine would not become part of NATO.
If this is true, I will be changing my position on this conflict. Russia could no longer claim that NATO expansion caused them to attack to protect themselves.
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Putin goes scorched earth in Ukraine. It’s plausible. Russia has regarded NATO expansion into Ukraine as an existential threat. Putin is motivated by fear and honor.
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Listen to Alex comments to this interview …
This is about how Lex Fridman (supporter of Ukraine like CNN and other MSM) did a very soft interview with Elensky.
And every time Elensky lied there was no pushback from Lex.
This interview is pure propaganda from the deepstate (not so hidden n@zies).
Apti Alaudinov, Commander of the Akhmat Special Forces wrote a message to all Ukrainians:
"Look at what is happening in Ukraine! People are being caught like dogs and sent to the front. They are being thrown to us like dogs, because they don’t care what happens to them. Now Ukrainians are facing the threat of total extinction. The task that both American and European masters of Ukraine voiced, together with the expired one, that they would fight to the last Ukrainian - has practically already been accomplished. But something else is interesting!
Residents of Ukraine have been organizing Maidans and protests almost every day. Ukrainians! You are already being “finished off” today, but you are not protesting, not going out into the streets, not jumping. How much did they have to intimidate you and bring you into a state of fear and trance, so that you, unquestioningly obeying your foreign masters, would go and die senselessly?! How long will you do this?! When will you become smart?!
All those who are on the other side! Throw down your weapons! If you want, come to us, cross over. We are sparing your lives, we treat you well. And those who are in the rear, inside the country: shoot the TCK people! These murderers of the Ukrainian people! Shoot this entire illegitimate government! Go to rallies. Do everything possible so that you are not finished off completely. America is not going to support you any longer. All the leaders in Europe who previously supported you have left their positions, and the rest are being carried out.
Support for Ukraine is over! It is all over for you. Go to the streets! Save the rest of your men! Destroy the anti-Ukrainian leadership in Ukraine! They are throwing thousands of you to us and destroying you by the thousands. Even we feel sorry for you! Your enemies are not in Russia! Your enemies are not Russians! Your enemies are on Bankovskaya, in the USA and Europe. Your masters are your enemies,"
Alaudinov said.
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Tuva or bust!
Zelensky’s office said in a statement that the Russians “are trying to hide the fact that these are soldiers from North Korea by giving them documents claiming they are from Tuva or other territories under Moscow’s control”.
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Zelensky’s anti-democratic regime is so desperate it is sad! And Western rulers and media types can’t read a map – otherwise they would know that Russia shares a border with North Korea which, given history, means there are Russian citizens of Korean ancestry.
Apparently, historically there were a significant number of Koreans who adopted Orthodox Christianity. During the Stalin era, when moving populations around was a deliberate policy, large numbers of Orthodox Christian Korean-ancestry people were moved within the Soviet Union, including to places like Kazakhstan. Russian soldiers of Korean-ancestry would hardly be a surprise.
However, it seems that the Zelensky regime’s racist attempt to scare the West into fearing that Asiatics are about to overrun their green & pleasant lands has not gained much traction with the Western public. What scare tactic will Zelensky come up with next?
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Here is a story to get the Usual Suspects in the Swamp chattering:
Denmark to allow preservation work on damaged Nord Stream 2 pipeline - 2025-01-28 | MarketScreener
“Denmark’s energy agency on Tuesday said it had granted Nord Stream 2 AG, a unit of Russia’s Gazprom, permission to conduct preservation work on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, which was damaged in a series of blasts in 2022.”
So President Trump made noises about almost-unpopulated Greenland ruled by far-away little Denmark, and now Denmark has finally agreed to allow Russia to take the kind of sensible action which should have happened immediately after heroic Biden blew up the pipelines. Obviously, secret messages have been passing backwards & forwards between Trump & Putin! Proof positive that Trumpie is a Russian stooge!
I didn’t know that. It’s a very short border but a border is a border.
Learn something new on certain days, if not every day.
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Stealthy Feynman reference.
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LOL or a subtle joke … as we cannot hear your intonation 
Everything else you write is kosher.
Stay with the facts, please.
But let me for once join the un-vetted battlefield.
We have a new map of the now none existent Ukraine…
Russia has won the conflict with NATO.
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Here my latest substack post…
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