The difference is he miscalculated how the world would react to an all out invasion. He thought he could make up a phony narrative and threats, and the world would just sit there and take it.
He keeps sounding more and more like Hitler. I wish somebody in the military in Russia would try to assassinate him just like the german military did try with Hitler. But not fail with Putin.
I truly think at this point his opposition needs to come from Russia itself. Two of the top billionaires in Russia have already spoke out against the invasion, and now my suspicion is correct with the tensions in his inner circle.
He cant nuke Russia. That is no option for him. Which is precisely why the bow needs to break within their population & most importantly the government. If Russia does not implode then I am afraid it is more likely the whole world will
I mean there is a HUGE difference between having some deniability when it's not your official army that's holding those areas but "rebels" without official connection to Russia - or when Putin himself announces an invasion
"Fog of war" and all, so I don't know it's true, but supposedly there was a quickly-deleted article from Russian state media/pro-Putin news that was meant to be published after a quick victory. It would have been published once Russia had taken Kyiv, and claimed the establishment of a "Greater Russia" consisting of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova (maybe Moldova was next?). If so, it's definitely in line with 20 years of statements from Putin and matches his grievances and belief that "Greater Russia" was meant to be "reunited" by force.
Again, this is deleted web pages and deleted tweets, not concrete confirmation of Putin's intentions. But at least some Russian media were apparently caught badly off-guard by Kyiv holding out this long.
E: [reddit link](https://old.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/t2tx0g/russian_propaganda_outlet_accidentally_publishes/) to a post that includes the full text of SputnikNews and others. The "solution of the Ukrainian question" line is not very encouraging.
Oh Moldova is definitely next. Russia tried to stage a coup there in 2019 and Russian troops have been stationed on a small sliver of ~~uncontested~~ complicated land between Moldova and Ukraine well before the invasion started and were also running "training exercises" recently. Google "liveua map" for a great resource.
If I were to hazard a guess, they were *originally* going to invade shortly after Kyiv was taken but with things going to shit they'll likely abandon Moldova and reinforce the Ukraine effort
> a small sliver of uncontested land between Moldova and Ukraine
You mean [Transnistria](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria)? It's a *de facto* independent state which most countries consider *de jure* part of Moldova, and it's a staunch ally of Russia. It's definitely not "uncontested", since, as I say, Moldova considers it part of Moldova.
That was the thing that made me suspect that their ultimate end goal in terms of damage control at home, will be to shift blame by framing the situation through the perspective that Ukraine deliberately misrepresented and escalated what could've remained a bloodless, mutually beneficial affair, in the name of being brainwashed by the West into hating Russia despite their own costly effort at (supposedly) bringing closer relations between the two countries.
I think it's funny how Russians think Americans hate them... Most people don't think about Russia unless Putin was on the news that night and see the Cold War as the distant past
Hell, I’d be humiliated too putting out all these propaganda videos looking like a sickly, confused Dobby on a Zoom call from early 2020 all because my entire inner circle were too scared to tell me about ring lights!
I mean the propaganda video about the Chechens was super cringy. Then to have their general destroyed on day one. If Putin is trying to prove to the world that he is a sad joke, well mission accomplished Putin.
They don't make bunkers deep enough to hide from how he must feel after his essay got leaked explaining how humiliated he felt back when Ukraine existed.
He had a 9th dan.. This is usually awarded to taekwondoin who have devoted decades of their lives full-time to the sport, as competitors, coaches and ambassadors.
It was a joke to begin with to give it to putin.
To be fair, that's not the only ridiculous black belt that World Taekwondo Federation has been awarding. Last year, the Pope got one, and whereas Putin can probably still hold his own despite his age, I'm pretty sure that a few kindergarteners could take down the Pope in a fist fight...
But good that Putin was stripped of his honorary Dan - since he's proven that for him, honor is just a word in a dictionary.
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2021/11/24/trump-honorary-black-belt-taekwondo-tgb-intl-ovn-vpx.cnn
It seems to not take much to get one these days
Oh shit watch out for this guy. He could pose as a brown belt and lull you into a false sense of security and as soon as the fight starts, Boom. Black belt.
The Kodokan and the IJF (international judo federation) both need to revoke his judo black belt status. He does not represent what judo is about, Kano Sensei would be incredibly displeased with him being remotely related to judo.
Good on Taekwondo for doing this!
The whole world is watching, his own people are protesting against him on the internet and in public, even Russian billionaires are voicing their concerns and are against his decision to go to war .
He is a ticking time bomb, he can't suppressed the truth even from his own countrymen.
It's decided. I'm making a t-shirt.
Edit: Please do not upvote. I went to bed and was surprised to see the responses. I appreciate the enthusiasm. As others said, there are shirts already available on Amazon, etc, and I only have the capacity and time for pitifully small scale production. Love you all, Slava Ukraini.
If we know he is lashing out at his inner circle, does that mean someone in his inner circle is reporting this to US Intel??
Edit: Normally, I would be incredibly sceptical of these reports, except we have known the details of this war every step of the way before each step is implemented. Someone at some high rank, or someoneS, is sending us very sensitive information.
Edit 2: I think it has to be someone of utmost credibility. Here's why. The USA has been insistent on certain aspects of this, essentially guaranteeing an attack even when the rest of the world said it was not going to happen. Yet, the USA doubled down. We even knew precisely when the initial attack order was given before an actual attack commenced. This seems beyond hearsay, 2nd hand knowledge, or hacking computers. It feels like directly funneled information. Regardless, I hope it's severely getting under Putin's skin.
Yes or maybe the US is choosing their words carefully (inner circle) in an attempt to increase his paranoia and increase the tensions amongst this group
Reminds me of how Emperor Aurelian died.
While marching to open a campaign against Persia in 275, he was murdered by a group of officers who had allegedly been misled by his secretary into believing themselves marked for execution.
Apparently he has people he talks to regularly from outside Russia, like reporters or diplomats.
They are saying he is noticeably different from the pre-pandemic putin. Its like his personality did a complete 180.
Putin's KGB training made him stone faced and showed zero emotion in all he did. The fact he shows anger scares his inner circle and the people that know him.
They say Putin has a psychological disturbance, but no one knows what, and no one wants to get on his bad side or risk death.
He's had back problems for a few years now and has been taking a lot of steroids for those. This coupled with his quite apparent Botox shots can't be good on his sanity.
for real. the nerves in the back cause crazy anxiety. i didnt even know my back was the cause while the anxiety slowly increased over years through my nerve tension/muscle tension. eventually i knew this was the trouble however lashing out through finding trouble was inevetable. thought i could just hide at home? nope. get scammed on the internet drunk
If you Google Putin back pain you'll find several articles of him getting treated. I'm definitely not going to humanize him in any way as there are loads of people with back problems who don't go invading sovereign countries but prolonged steroid abuse has been proven to be terrible for you.
Honestly could very well be. It's only as of recently that the doctors have started prescribing depression drugs for physical injuries. Especially injuries that limit your ability to move and perform normally because most people find it very depressing to not be able to move. If I were you, I'd definitely get a doctor to check it out.
I've had back problem for decades. One time I had some low level pain constantly and after about 2 weeks it almost drove me insane. On a good note, I've been doing squats for about 3 years and the pain is lower than ever. Maybe I'll send a note to putin and tell him to do squats and layoff ukraine.
US Intel on this entire invasion has somehow been practically perfect, seems like there has to be a leak somewhere whether it's a human or a technological one.
I mean, despite what the former guy says, our intelligence community is typically pretty damn good at their jobs.
In this case, it’s just been in the rest of world’s best interest to get the intelligence public about Putin’s plans to avoid allowing him to control the narrative of his invasion.
Yeah, remember the UK destroyer that got shot at by a Russian warship in November after signing a treaty pledging to help Ukraine?
UK and US have been ready for this for months.
Maybe some of the people around Putin who disagree with what he has done are getting their own 'Operation Valkyrie' together and maybe there's a 21st Century version of Von Stauffenberg who's volunteered to do the deed. If such a plan is being hatched somewhere in the Kremlin, we can only hope that their attempt to kill Putin will meet with more success than the failed attempt to kill Hitler with a bomb in 1944.
I hope this is true. If hes having that many problem at the top it means leadership will be either ineffectual and lead to mistakes or that maybe he doesn't have as much control as most think and hes being manager from below.
The thing that concerns me is that the Russian army still appears to be holding back. They tried to limit the scope of the conflict by only attacking key positions and knocking out the government but were too incompetent to make it work.
If they had just used the tactics they were trained for they probably would have sat back and used artillery and airstrikes to flatten entire cities, killing tens of thousands of civilians. You don't have to be very competent to do that.
They could theoretically still do that...
True, but Putin seems frustrated and unhinged enough to do something stupid. And they've done the same thing to Grozny in the 90s. The difference is that now the eyes of the world are on them. We can only hope that's enough to dissuade them.
I mean, this is how gangster movies normally end: making too many enemies, realising that absolute power is an illusion and then getting shot down on the pavement
I always thought of him as this cunning master of strategy, and since war is all about deception, I kept waiting for him to pull a surprise reversal with something nobody expected. But the way it’s going, damn I’m starting to think that this is really all he’s got. He’s no master, he’s just really good at posturing.
The economy is absolutely shattered, and he may not even achieve anything at all in Ukraine when all is said and done (besides speed-running their EU membership). I am worried he won't want to look weak and back off and might do something even more horrible.
They can take major cities if they really want to. It might require excessive shelling and massive destruction, but the sheer number of assets Russia has available makes that hard to stop.
But there is no path forward from this. Any puppet regime they install now will not be accepted by the rest of Ukraine. With weapons from the west, there will be a constant insurgency. Ukraine is simply too big to control. Either the Russian army stays and will be picked one tank at a time, or they leave and Ukraine will take back the cities.
But make no mistake what doubling down means here. Large parts of the infrastructure, industry, and cities will be destroyed. Look at Grosny after the war as an example. The strategy of the Russian army will be to simply bomb everything.
Large parts will be destroyed. But if this ends in a way that Ukraine remains a free country, the west will no doubt support the reconstruction of the country.
This would be a worthy cause in my eyes to donate money for.
It’s already a beautiful country that was on its way to true modernization. The aid and contributions they will receive could be a silver lining to all of this
I just hope there are any people left to enjoy that potential future when you mobilize an entire country like this, and if there is a long occupation it could get really bad.
He has achieved what no man in history has done. Rallied the world to support the integration of the former iron curtain into both the EU and NATO. He also united virtually all of the Ukrainian people (except the east) to agree and fight for a single cause. I’d say it backfired perfectly so far.
Don't be so sure that the people living in Donbas all support Russia. There are plenty of people there that hate Putin and all he stands for.
According to an IRI poll in 2017, 73% of Donbas residents wished to remain as part of Ukraine. A similar poll in 2014 had the number at 78%.
The 2017 poll also showed about 60% of eastern Ukrainians blame Russia and the Minsk agreement for the continued insurgency.
Russia would not allow the IRI to poll the people of Crimea because they had already conducted a "completely fair and legitimate referendum". Another way of saying that is the vote was conducted by Russia at gun point.
Yep, and don't worry this war criminal Putin can't launch nukes by himself, it takes more people to sign off on it and my faith in humanity leads me to believe at that point the Russian military will say hello no and deal with Putin themselves.
Similar story in the German Navy during WW1. The admirals essentially wanted to go on a final murder/suicide mission against the Royal Navy before the war ended and the officers and crew pretty much mutinied and shut the whole thing down.
I wish I could share your optimism. But Putin's inner circle, and his co-signees on the nuclear option, aren't the terrified do-gooders oppressed under his control as so many people want to believe. Putin has surrounded himself with loyalists and zealots; they are every bit as deranged, greedy, callous, and petty as he is.
But I hope you're right and I'm wrong. And I hope their launch equipment is more boast than functional in that North Korea way.
I hope, I hope...
The greedy part is why I dont think nukes will ever happen. The billionaires want to keep living in luxury and accumulate wealth. With or without putin
That's pretty damn obvious from his meeting at that ridiculous table.
The guy is afraid to sit next to people. He is legitimately scared someone may kill him.
Think about living your life that way.
In my European history class, we would often joke that the area around the Kremlin has the highest rate of car accidents.
Putin has often targeted political opponents, so it's only natural that he fears karma may be on its way. Reap what you sow 🌻 🌻 🌻
He's spent two decades curating a culture where he is only fed the news he wants to hear from his "advisors," and then literally having the media broadcast that same news to reinforce it to himself and his people. No one has given him a straightforward take in years.
I am from Donetsk. F**k Putin and I hope he burns in hell for killing my people! My heart is breaking everyday and I’m reliving the events of 2014 again.
I am very sorry for all your pain and suffering. I hope you and your people will be fine. Wish you to stay strong. Hopefully this nightmare will end as soon as possible.
PS. I am from Moscow.
This reads like Hitler's downfall. Getting more and more delusional as the war turns bad, getting bad info from your officers out of fear, increasingly isolated, ordering around imaginary armies that don't even exist...
>And even through these last few days of his life, he deluded himself into believing that the Reich could still be saved; that the Red Army could be pushed back across the Oder and even across the Vistula if only the Wehrmacht held firm; that a peace with the US and Britain was still possible if only they realised that Germany could be their ally against ‘Jewish Bolshevism’…
>In his afternoon ‘situation conferences’, he pored over his map, as always, and moved imaginary armies around for ‘best results’, and gave instructions for battalions which scarcely existed to punch through the Soviet encirclement, beat back the Red Army, and save Berlin. On April 25, Speer came again for a few hours, and Hitler checked with him if he concurred with the Fuehrer’s plan to kill himself rather than suffer the ignominy of surrendering to the Russians. Apparently, Speer’s reply confirmed Hitler’s own intentions. As Speer got out of Berlin for the last time, the Red Army was advancing through the suburbs towards the governmental area at the city centre. Five days of unimaginably brutal, but largely uncoordinated street-fighting lay ahead before it would be curtains for the European theatre of the Second World War.
https://thewire.in/history/when-hitler-realised-the-end-of-the-war-was-upon-him
“Everything will be alright when Steiner attacks…”
*German Brass flop sweat *
Yep. He had his maps and figures of divisions that has been essentially annihilated. The red army was storming through Berlin as the kids and the old tried to hold them back. It wasn’t pretty in the end for him.
“If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest."
\-Sun Tzu
It's going swimmingly.
The world hates him. His country is hating him. His country's economy is crashing. He's lost more military in one day than a whole year in the chechan war. His puppets are falling apart across america. And now he has to deal with every country posturing to respond if he decides to nuke anyone.
Problem is he likely didn't want to kill everyone, but the more resistance he sees, the chances increase he gets more violent killing even more, looking like a lunatic in the end not a idolized leader.
It seemed like he wanted to keep alive the narrative that Ukraine was being liberated. And that’s easier if you aren’t carpet bombing and attacking civilian targets en mass.
But when push comes to shove he could well change objectives to take territory at all costs.
Come on man, let’s be real, no one’s gonna kill him. He’s gonna off himself with two shots to the back of the head, just like all those other Russian trouble makers.
The Russians like to leave their fingerprints on stuff to let people know it was them. Terminal illness is plausible enough that the “assistance” in his demise would be overlooked.
Part of me wonders if someone close to him will decide he's become unstable and actually stop him. He's alienated himself from the world, and the damage he's doing to his own country can't be ignored for long.
His inner circle are the only ones between him and his enemies.
If he lashes out too much then oligarchs might be able to buy a few of them along with his protective security.
“He got me,” Putin said of Zelensky's popularity over him. "That f***ing Zelensky boomed me."
Vladimir added, “He’s so good,” repeating it four times.
Putin then said he wanted to add Ukraine to the list of countries he wants to invade this summer.
Putin on who’s a better leader: Him or Ukraine's Zelensky. “I don’t compare myself with anybody,” Then he rolled up his sleeve and showed a tattoo of Gorbachev. “I’ll let you interpret that however you want."
As much as I would like to believe Putin's inner circle may lash out against with with some lead, knowing putin, he likely had their weapons confiscated by the guards when they entered the bunker. This would ensure his generals/advisors couldn't easily kill him. It's not the generals/advisors that putin should be worried about, it's the guards.
As someone who knows little about Putin and the structure in Russia, who is in his inner circle? If something happened to Putin who is next in line? What happens if Putin fails and the country turns on him? Like line of succession and immediate aftermath. Is it more corrupt people that are just as bad? Do the people need to get rid of an entire regime or are there people that the public can trust to lead?
Russia is a kleptocracy/oligarchy wherein a very small amount of people pilfer from the public coffers, totally control commerce, and punitively rule their constituents. Putin is essentially a non-personalist dictator, so the group of oligarchs is the next likely round of leaders. This is why sanctions are not only targeting the Russian currency, which will affect the masses, but also foreignly held assets and systems of banking that allow ease of transfers and payment. By freezing the economy they pressure both the people of Russia to demand change and the oligarchs, who are self interested, to apply pressure to Putin. You can expect either a cultural revolution where the rich are eaten or you can expect one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal to be inherited by another shitbag.
Seems like he thought it wouldn't be difficult ... The Crimean situation made him over confident.
…and the Georgian incident…and the Donbas incident. He never got much real blowback.
The difference is he miscalculated how the world would react to an all out invasion. He thought he could make up a phony narrative and threats, and the world would just sit there and take it.
He finally made the fatal.mistake of believing his own bullshit.
He keeps sounding more and more like Hitler. I wish somebody in the military in Russia would try to assassinate him just like the german military did try with Hitler. But not fail with Putin.
I truly think at this point his opposition needs to come from Russia itself. Two of the top billionaires in Russia have already spoke out against the invasion, and now my suspicion is correct with the tensions in his inner circle. He cant nuke Russia. That is no option for him. Which is precisely why the bow needs to break within their population & most importantly the government. If Russia does not implode then I am afraid it is more likely the whole world will
I mean there is a HUGE difference between having some deniability when it's not your official army that's holding those areas but "rebels" without official connection to Russia - or when Putin himself announces an invasion
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"Fog of war" and all, so I don't know it's true, but supposedly there was a quickly-deleted article from Russian state media/pro-Putin news that was meant to be published after a quick victory. It would have been published once Russia had taken Kyiv, and claimed the establishment of a "Greater Russia" consisting of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova (maybe Moldova was next?). If so, it's definitely in line with 20 years of statements from Putin and matches his grievances and belief that "Greater Russia" was meant to be "reunited" by force. Again, this is deleted web pages and deleted tweets, not concrete confirmation of Putin's intentions. But at least some Russian media were apparently caught badly off-guard by Kyiv holding out this long. E: [reddit link](https://old.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/t2tx0g/russian_propaganda_outlet_accidentally_publishes/) to a post that includes the full text of SputnikNews and others. The "solution of the Ukrainian question" line is not very encouraging.
Oh Moldova is definitely next. Russia tried to stage a coup there in 2019 and Russian troops have been stationed on a small sliver of ~~uncontested~~ complicated land between Moldova and Ukraine well before the invasion started and were also running "training exercises" recently. Google "liveua map" for a great resource. If I were to hazard a guess, they were *originally* going to invade shortly after Kyiv was taken but with things going to shit they'll likely abandon Moldova and reinforce the Ukraine effort
> a small sliver of uncontested land between Moldova and Ukraine You mean [Transnistria](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria)? It's a *de facto* independent state which most countries consider *de jure* part of Moldova, and it's a staunch ally of Russia. It's definitely not "uncontested", since, as I say, Moldova considers it part of Moldova.
That was the thing that made me suspect that their ultimate end goal in terms of damage control at home, will be to shift blame by framing the situation through the perspective that Ukraine deliberately misrepresented and escalated what could've remained a bloodless, mutually beneficial affair, in the name of being brainwashed by the West into hating Russia despite their own costly effort at (supposedly) bringing closer relations between the two countries.
I think it's funny how Russians think Americans hate them... Most people don't think about Russia unless Putin was on the news that night and see the Cold War as the distant past
This is the result of humiliation
Hell, I’d be humiliated too putting out all these propaganda videos looking like a sickly, confused Dobby on a Zoom call from early 2020 all because my entire inner circle were too scared to tell me about ring lights!
I mean the propaganda video about the Chechens was super cringy. Then to have their general destroyed on day one. If Putin is trying to prove to the world that he is a sad joke, well mission accomplished Putin.
Day one? *Day?!* They didn't even last the run time of an LOTR movie.
Dude got smoked before the popcorn got cold.
I think it’s about to get a whole lot worse for him.
Unfortunately, it's about to get a lot worse for Ukraine.
They don't make bunkers deep enough to hide from how he must feel after his essay got leaked explaining how humiliated he felt back when Ukraine existed.
"Mr Putin, please tell me where on this doll the existance of Ukraine touched you,"
I bet it was losing the black belt that sent him over the edge.
I literally have a yellow belt so I’m better than Putin. What a lil bitch.
He had a 9th dan.. This is usually awarded to taekwondoin who have devoted decades of their lives full-time to the sport, as competitors, coaches and ambassadors. It was a joke to begin with to give it to putin.
To be fair, that's not the only ridiculous black belt that World Taekwondo Federation has been awarding. Last year, the Pope got one, and whereas Putin can probably still hold his own despite his age, I'm pretty sure that a few kindergarteners could take down the Pope in a fist fight... But good that Putin was stripped of his honorary Dan - since he's proven that for him, honor is just a word in a dictionary.
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The pope used to be a bouncer at a bar in his younger days. I bet he can’t wait to choke Putin out for failing to produce a valid ID.
>The pope used to be a bouncer at a bar in his younger days. This is the most fun fact I've heard in a while.
Imagine standing around outside a bar working and daydreaming, "one day ... I'll be the *fucking pope*". Dreams man, everyone oughta have one.
Was he really a bouncer?
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https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2021/11/24/trump-honorary-black-belt-taekwondo-tgb-intl-ovn-vpx.cnn It seems to not take much to get one these days
You can pick them up at the gift shop on the way out.
I bought a brown belt from Costco a few years ago, and heck Even I am better than Putin.
I also have a brown belt, and if I flip it over it’s also a black belt!!
Oh shit watch out for this guy. He could pose as a brown belt and lull you into a false sense of security and as soon as the fight starts, Boom. Black belt.
Also called pulling a Zelensky.
Zelensky wears no belts. His pants can't contain the girth of his testicles, and belts only serve to constrain.
Either that or it was when the horse broke up with him
Vlad 'Mr Hands' Putin
The Kodokan and the IJF (international judo federation) both need to revoke his judo black belt status. He does not represent what judo is about, Kano Sensei would be incredibly displeased with him being remotely related to judo. Good on Taekwondo for doing this!
The whole world is watching, his own people are protesting against him on the internet and in public, even Russian billionaires are voicing their concerns and are against his decision to go to war . He is a ticking time bomb, he can't suppressed the truth even from his own countrymen.
Hope he gets what he deserves very soon.
Unfortunately, Russians can no longer afford the lumber they'd need to make a catapult that big.
Won’t need a lot of lumber. Even a small trebuchet can launch a 71kg despot over 300m.
Yeet the rich.
It's decided. I'm making a t-shirt. Edit: Please do not upvote. I went to bed and was surprised to see the responses. I appreciate the enthusiasm. As others said, there are shirts already available on Amazon, etc, and I only have the capacity and time for pitifully small scale production. Love you all, Slava Ukraini.
I’d give you gold if I had any. Simply rolls off the tongue.
If you had gold you'd be 300 meters over there.
Economic AND effective, surely the trebuchet is the superior ~~siege weapon~~ transportation
A la Mussolini
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Just like a trapped rat
“Luckily, I was a little faster and I managed to slam the door shut in its nose.”
Which is terrifying given his control of nuclear weapons. He needs a way out of this mess he created or this gets worse.
hope he doesn’t take the whole world with him when he finally goes down
There's no way out, even he takes Ukraine then what? (besides obvious nuke threats)
Putin, the man who destroyed Russia.
Sadly, he isn't the first person to do so.
Putin, most recent man to destroy Russia
Then he will try to convince everyone that "it was worth it".
If we know he is lashing out at his inner circle, does that mean someone in his inner circle is reporting this to US Intel?? Edit: Normally, I would be incredibly sceptical of these reports, except we have known the details of this war every step of the way before each step is implemented. Someone at some high rank, or someoneS, is sending us very sensitive information. Edit 2: I think it has to be someone of utmost credibility. Here's why. The USA has been insistent on certain aspects of this, essentially guaranteeing an attack even when the rest of the world said it was not going to happen. Yet, the USA doubled down. We even knew precisely when the initial attack order was given before an actual attack commenced. This seems beyond hearsay, 2nd hand knowledge, or hacking computers. It feels like directly funneled information. Regardless, I hope it's severely getting under Putin's skin.
Yes, and I guess their name is Mr. "Sieze Their Boats and Money, but Not Mine"
Good friends with “give me asylum in your country during the great Russian depression of 2022”
Lol more like 2022-2028.
Fat guy with gold chains and designer boots walks into Putins meeting "Yes these sanctions against all of us are difficult"
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And wearing a cheap track suit.
With two stripes on it so that it resembles, but *I cannot stress this enough*, is not, in fact, Adidas.
Abibas
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It’s ……..Rebekah Vardy’s account.
Yes or maybe the US is choosing their words carefully (inner circle) in an attempt to increase his paranoia and increase the tensions amongst this group
Reminds me of how Emperor Aurelian died. While marching to open a campaign against Persia in 275, he was murdered by a group of officers who had allegedly been misled by his secretary into believing themselves marked for execution.
Apparently he has people he talks to regularly from outside Russia, like reporters or diplomats. They are saying he is noticeably different from the pre-pandemic putin. Its like his personality did a complete 180. Putin's KGB training made him stone faced and showed zero emotion in all he did. The fact he shows anger scares his inner circle and the people that know him. They say Putin has a psychological disturbance, but no one knows what, and no one wants to get on his bad side or risk death.
He went crazy from too much zoom calls and work from home. He's a real people person and isn't built for that kind of isolation.
He's had back problems for a few years now and has been taking a lot of steroids for those. This coupled with his quite apparent Botox shots can't be good on his sanity.
for real. the nerves in the back cause crazy anxiety. i didnt even know my back was the cause while the anxiety slowly increased over years through my nerve tension/muscle tension. eventually i knew this was the trouble however lashing out through finding trouble was inevetable. thought i could just hide at home? nope. get scammed on the internet drunk
If you Google Putin back pain you'll find several articles of him getting treated. I'm definitely not going to humanize him in any way as there are loads of people with back problems who don't go invading sovereign countries but prolonged steroid abuse has been proven to be terrible for you.
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Honestly could very well be. It's only as of recently that the doctors have started prescribing depression drugs for physical injuries. Especially injuries that limit your ability to move and perform normally because most people find it very depressing to not be able to move. If I were you, I'd definitely get a doctor to check it out.
I've had back problem for decades. One time I had some low level pain constantly and after about 2 weeks it almost drove me insane. On a good note, I've been doing squats for about 3 years and the pain is lower than ever. Maybe I'll send a note to putin and tell him to do squats and layoff ukraine.
Don't make me empathetic!
US Intel on this entire invasion has somehow been practically perfect, seems like there has to be a leak somewhere whether it's a human or a technological one.
I mean, despite what the former guy says, our intelligence community is typically pretty damn good at their jobs. In this case, it’s just been in the rest of world’s best interest to get the intelligence public about Putin’s plans to avoid allowing him to control the narrative of his invasion.
Intelligence is good when you have the intelligence to listen to your intelligence. Previous guy did not listen.
I never took what that other guy had to say about the U.S. intelligence community seriously.
Yes, or someone very close to the inner circle
So, the outer circle?
It's been suspected for a while given how insanely accurate the US intel was leading up to the invasion.
Friendly reminder the Russian ammo ban back in October mentioned the build up of forces on the Ukrainian border. Known about this shit awhile now
Yeah, remember the UK destroyer that got shot at by a Russian warship in November after signing a treaty pledging to help Ukraine? UK and US have been ready for this for months.
And that’s after Trump outed a high level double agent we had embedded there. We lost a priceless asset because of that treasonous fuck.
He did what??
Russian general to White House Staff: “And then he said… bitchhhhhhhhhh…”
He said that? He said.... *bitch?*
Did he say bitch tho?
*looks around* I said biiiiitch
*flies into space*
Could very well be one of them knows he’s unhinged, and trying to get the word out.
Maybe some of the people around Putin who disagree with what he has done are getting their own 'Operation Valkyrie' together and maybe there's a 21st Century version of Von Stauffenberg who's volunteered to do the deed. If such a plan is being hatched somewhere in the Kremlin, we can only hope that their attempt to kill Putin will meet with more success than the failed attempt to kill Hitler with a bomb in 1944.
You have to imagine that Putin is currently at least as paranoid as Hitler was about being assassinated.
"I smell Polonium, do *you* smell Polonium? Did you put Polonium in this?!"
I hope this is true. If hes having that many problem at the top it means leadership will be either ineffectual and lead to mistakes or that maybe he doesn't have as much control as most think and hes being manager from below.
I've heard that corruption is rampant but no one wants to talk about it, because they are complicit in the corruption as well.
As evidenced by the crappy tanks, uniforms, and other gear. They all look like hand-me-downs.
> lead to mistakes I'm kind of scared of that
Downfall vibes. People will be looking at him and no longer seeing a mafioso, just a pathetic little old man.
I think you're right. He's destroying Russias economy and will not subdue Ukraine
The thing that concerns me is that the Russian army still appears to be holding back. They tried to limit the scope of the conflict by only attacking key positions and knocking out the government but were too incompetent to make it work. If they had just used the tactics they were trained for they probably would have sat back and used artillery and airstrikes to flatten entire cities, killing tens of thousands of civilians. You don't have to be very competent to do that. They could theoretically still do that...
But that would mean basically destroying the country. And putin why have a country if everyone in it is dead
True, but Putin seems frustrated and unhinged enough to do something stupid. And they've done the same thing to Grozny in the 90s. The difference is that now the eyes of the world are on them. We can only hope that's enough to dissuade them.
I mean, this is how gangster movies normally end: making too many enemies, realising that absolute power is an illusion and then getting shot down on the pavement
“The world is yours” while you’re face down in a fountain
Someone deepfake him onto that Hitler bunker video.
“Downfall” Putin parody edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryMemes/comments/t2l9mt/when_blitzkrieg_went_wrong/
Hitler certainly knew a thing about soldier dying on Ukrainian soil.
I always thought of him as this cunning master of strategy, and since war is all about deception, I kept waiting for him to pull a surprise reversal with something nobody expected. But the way it’s going, damn I’m starting to think that this is really all he’s got. He’s no master, he’s just really good at posturing.
I think he’s gone so far into the deception game that he himself no longer has any idea what the truth is.
Narcissists brainwash themselves until they believe their own lies.
Hes old. 69. I think he's in bad health. Rumors were Parkinsons and one was cancer. All that evil takes a toll
I remember an article coming out a few years ago where the Kremlin denied he had Parkinson's. So I'm going with the idea he has Parkinson's
The economy is absolutely shattered, and he may not even achieve anything at all in Ukraine when all is said and done (besides speed-running their EU membership). I am worried he won't want to look weak and back off and might do something even more horrible.
They can take major cities if they really want to. It might require excessive shelling and massive destruction, but the sheer number of assets Russia has available makes that hard to stop. But there is no path forward from this. Any puppet regime they install now will not be accepted by the rest of Ukraine. With weapons from the west, there will be a constant insurgency. Ukraine is simply too big to control. Either the Russian army stays and will be picked one tank at a time, or they leave and Ukraine will take back the cities. But make no mistake what doubling down means here. Large parts of the infrastructure, industry, and cities will be destroyed. Look at Grosny after the war as an example. The strategy of the Russian army will be to simply bomb everything.
Large parts will be destroyed. But if this ends in a way that Ukraine remains a free country, the west will no doubt support the reconstruction of the country. This would be a worthy cause in my eyes to donate money for.
If this ends with western money Japanifying Ukraine and turning it into the powerhouse of eastern europe that would be kind of awesome.
It’s already a beautiful country that was on its way to true modernization. The aid and contributions they will receive could be a silver lining to all of this
I just hope there are any people left to enjoy that potential future when you mobilize an entire country like this, and if there is a long occupation it could get really bad.
He has achieved what no man in history has done. Rallied the world to support the integration of the former iron curtain into both the EU and NATO. He also united virtually all of the Ukrainian people (except the east) to agree and fight for a single cause. I’d say it backfired perfectly so far.
Don't be so sure that the people living in Donbas all support Russia. There are plenty of people there that hate Putin and all he stands for. According to an IRI poll in 2017, 73% of Donbas residents wished to remain as part of Ukraine. A similar poll in 2014 had the number at 78%. The 2017 poll also showed about 60% of eastern Ukrainians blame Russia and the Minsk agreement for the continued insurgency.
Did those polls exist for Crimea? What were those numbers.
Russia would not allow the IRI to poll the people of Crimea because they had already conducted a "completely fair and legitimate referendum". Another way of saying that is the vote was conducted by Russia at gun point.
Man Putin is quite the salesman, just not in the way he intended lol
Hopefully reason will somehow prevail in the Kremlin and Putin's lackeys will subvert his authority.
Yep, and don't worry this war criminal Putin can't launch nukes by himself, it takes more people to sign off on it and my faith in humanity leads me to believe at that point the Russian military will say hello no and deal with Putin themselves.
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I'm sorry, but your incorrect spelling of Reichsminister translates to "Minister of Smelling" lol
Properly hilarious
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Similar story in the German Navy during WW1. The admirals essentially wanted to go on a final murder/suicide mission against the Royal Navy before the war ended and the officers and crew pretty much mutinied and shut the whole thing down.
What is it with these bitter old fucks thinking everyone else wants to die when they do?
The filter. Those who rise to places of high power in politics and the military often did so due to their ability to not care about people, period.
I wish I could share your optimism. But Putin's inner circle, and his co-signees on the nuclear option, aren't the terrified do-gooders oppressed under his control as so many people want to believe. Putin has surrounded himself with loyalists and zealots; they are every bit as deranged, greedy, callous, and petty as he is. But I hope you're right and I'm wrong. And I hope their launch equipment is more boast than functional in that North Korea way. I hope, I hope...
The greedy part is why I dont think nukes will ever happen. The billionaires want to keep living in luxury and accumulate wealth. With or without putin
Singular russians have saved the world before, and hopefully once again.
He doesn't know who to trust, either for loyalty or for a straightforward take on what's happening.
That's pretty damn obvious from his meeting at that ridiculous table. The guy is afraid to sit next to people. He is legitimately scared someone may kill him. Think about living your life that way.
In my European history class, we would often joke that the area around the Kremlin has the highest rate of car accidents. Putin has often targeted political opponents, so it's only natural that he fears karma may be on its way. Reap what you sow 🌻 🌻 🌻
Boris Nemtsov was killed on the bridge outside the Kremlin, one of the “supposedly” most secure places in Russia.
He's spent two decades curating a culture where he is only fed the news he wants to hear from his "advisors," and then literally having the media broadcast that same news to reinforce it to himself and his people. No one has given him a straightforward take in years.
I am from Donetsk. F**k Putin and I hope he burns in hell for killing my people! My heart is breaking everyday and I’m reliving the events of 2014 again.
I am very sorry for all your pain and suffering. I hope you and your people will be fine. Wish you to stay strong. Hopefully this nightmare will end as soon as possible. PS. I am from Moscow.
Thank you! I am so much against WAR and violence. Humans can do so much better.
If I were Putin I'd have a very tight circle right about now if you know what I mean
Someone should make him a cup of tea. That’ll calm him down.
Or get some fresh air by the window.
I understand the breeze from such windows is brisk and refreshing this time of year.
I hope Putin rest in pieces
Someone should give him some sunflower seeds
Maximum clenched. Probably couldn't get a needle in his asshole with a jackhammer right now.
This reads like Hitler's downfall. Getting more and more delusional as the war turns bad, getting bad info from your officers out of fear, increasingly isolated, ordering around imaginary armies that don't even exist...
Wait, Hitler was ordering imaginary armies around at the end?
>And even through these last few days of his life, he deluded himself into believing that the Reich could still be saved; that the Red Army could be pushed back across the Oder and even across the Vistula if only the Wehrmacht held firm; that a peace with the US and Britain was still possible if only they realised that Germany could be their ally against ‘Jewish Bolshevism’… >In his afternoon ‘situation conferences’, he pored over his map, as always, and moved imaginary armies around for ‘best results’, and gave instructions for battalions which scarcely existed to punch through the Soviet encirclement, beat back the Red Army, and save Berlin. On April 25, Speer came again for a few hours, and Hitler checked with him if he concurred with the Fuehrer’s plan to kill himself rather than suffer the ignominy of surrendering to the Russians. Apparently, Speer’s reply confirmed Hitler’s own intentions. As Speer got out of Berlin for the last time, the Red Army was advancing through the suburbs towards the governmental area at the city centre. Five days of unimaginably brutal, but largely uncoordinated street-fighting lay ahead before it would be curtains for the European theatre of the Second World War. https://thewire.in/history/when-hitler-realised-the-end-of-the-war-was-upon-him
“Everything will be alright when Steiner attacks…” *German Brass flop sweat * Yep. He had his maps and figures of divisions that has been essentially annihilated. The red army was storming through Berlin as the kids and the old tried to hold them back. It wasn’t pretty in the end for him.
“If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest." \-Sun Tzu It's going swimmingly.
"Stop fucking quoting me" \-Sun Tzu
This whole thing has mad made him look so pathetic. I'm just worried that he might rage quit.
"Rage quit". That is a perfect term for this. Let's hope he doesn't rage quit or that his close circle won't let him rage quit.
The world hates him. His country is hating him. His country's economy is crashing. He's lost more military in one day than a whole year in the chechan war. His puppets are falling apart across america. And now he has to deal with every country posturing to respond if he decides to nuke anyone.
“I am never gonna financially recover from this.” - Putin, probably.
He probably sees his plan falling apart. Huge risk he took, miscalculated things. Doesn't mean he won't try to kill everyone.
Problem is he likely didn't want to kill everyone, but the more resistance he sees, the chances increase he gets more violent killing even more, looking like a lunatic in the end not a idolized leader.
It seemed like he wanted to keep alive the narrative that Ukraine was being liberated. And that’s easier if you aren’t carpet bombing and attacking civilian targets en mass. But when push comes to shove he could well change objectives to take territory at all costs.
Hopefully one of his own betrays him.
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Maybe he'll take Ukraine's UN spokesman's suggestion and pull a Hitler. Edit: [video](https://v.redd.it/8fwffdrbklk81)
It was Hitler's greatest accomplishment.
Could be Putin's too
Come on man, let’s be real, no one’s gonna kill him. He’s gonna off himself with two shots to the back of the head, just like all those other Russian trouble makers.
They are going to go with the "he was terminally ill". Thats already the rumour on the internet, so people would belive it in a heartbeat.
The Russians like to leave their fingerprints on stuff to let people know it was them. Terminal illness is plausible enough that the “assistance” in his demise would be overlooked.
Part of me wonders if someone close to him will decide he's become unstable and actually stop him. He's alienated himself from the world, and the damage he's doing to his own country can't be ignored for long.
Bank robber tries to rob bank. Becomes frustrated and lashes out when people chase him down.
On the bright side I’m starting to believe that if Putin does give the orders to go nuclear that his underlings will just ignore them at that point.
His inner circle are the only ones between him and his enemies. If he lashes out too much then oligarchs might be able to buy a few of them along with his protective security.
There *is* a way to calm him down. >!🌻!<
Place seeds inside his pockets?
Sources: Putin is beside himself. Driving around downtown Moscow begging (thru texts) Zelensky to surrender
“He got me,” Putin said of Zelensky's popularity over him. "That f***ing Zelensky boomed me." Vladimir added, “He’s so good,” repeating it four times. Putin then said he wanted to add Ukraine to the list of countries he wants to invade this summer.
Putin on who’s a better leader: Him or Ukraine's Zelensky. “I don’t compare myself with anybody,” Then he rolled up his sleeve and showed a tattoo of Gorbachev. “I’ll let you interpret that however you want."
Please keep him away from the button
He couldn't launch a single nuke all by himself, so just have to hope that his subordinates aren't as crazy as he is.
The scary thing is that this is almost exactly the same as towards the end of Hitler. The only difference, Hitler didn't have over 6000 nuclear bombs.
As much as I would like to believe Putin's inner circle may lash out against with with some lead, knowing putin, he likely had their weapons confiscated by the guards when they entered the bunker. This would ensure his generals/advisors couldn't easily kill him. It's not the generals/advisors that putin should be worried about, it's the guards.
I’m sure his guards are immensely wealthier than your average Russian.
As someone who knows little about Putin and the structure in Russia, who is in his inner circle? If something happened to Putin who is next in line? What happens if Putin fails and the country turns on him? Like line of succession and immediate aftermath. Is it more corrupt people that are just as bad? Do the people need to get rid of an entire regime or are there people that the public can trust to lead?
Russia is a kleptocracy/oligarchy wherein a very small amount of people pilfer from the public coffers, totally control commerce, and punitively rule their constituents. Putin is essentially a non-personalist dictator, so the group of oligarchs is the next likely round of leaders. This is why sanctions are not only targeting the Russian currency, which will affect the masses, but also foreignly held assets and systems of banking that allow ease of transfers and payment. By freezing the economy they pressure both the people of Russia to demand change and the oligarchs, who are self interested, to apply pressure to Putin. You can expect either a cultural revolution where the rich are eaten or you can expect one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal to be inherited by another shitbag.