The Kremlin is burning?

[urbanoid]

Of course it won't, I never implied that. Then again hurting them is not just a duty, but also a pleasure. 

[JWB]

How many more enemies is Putin trying to make?

 

 

[Roman Alymov]

3 hours ago, JWB said:

How many more enemies is Putin trying to make?

 

I'm sorry but from what point Turkey is friend?  Turkey is major NATO country, reliable provider of armor and ammunition to NATO proxy force in Ukraine (no to mention Turkey's role in Syria).

[JWB]

20 hours ago, Roman Alymov said:

friend

Never wrote that. To whit:

https://www.fdd.org/analysis/op_eds/2025/03/05/turkeys-balancing-act-in-the-ukraine-conflict-again/

[JWB]

More POL:

 

[JWB]

Surrender to China party?

 

[JWB]

PAIN AT THE PUMP: Having hacked into Russian train time tables, This morning Ukraine was ready with long range strike drones to intercept 100 tank cars carrying fuel for the Russian army and gasoline for occupied Crimea.

https://x.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/2000339896213647362

 

[bojan]

Pic is AI generated junk.

No other confirmation.

"100 car train"... maybe 1000 cars one?

[JWB]

Paging Roman.......

Larisa Dolina, a Kremlin-decorated performer and prominent supporter of the war in Ukraine, was swindled out of 175 million roubles (£1.6m) by scammers last year.

But how did this make her the ‘most hated woman in Russia’? 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/12/16/putins-favourite-pop-star-most-hated-woman-russia/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_tw_post_star-most-hated-woman-russia/

[seahawk]

German proposal rejected by Russia: 

https://global.espreso.tv/russia-ukraine-war-kremlin-has-two-options-and-peace-isnt-one-of-them-diplomat#goog_rewarded

 

[JWB]

Ukrainian attack drones reportedly hit Russia’s Slavyansk oil refinery tonight, setting the facility on fire.

https://t.me/supernova_plus/46578

[glenn239]

23 minutes ago, JWB said:

Ukrainian attack drones reportedly hit Russia’s Slavyansk oil refinery tonight, setting the facility on fire.

https://t.me/supernova_plus/46578

Ukraine is hitting Russian refineries.  Geeze, JWB, why didn't you tell us this before?

[Roman Alymov]

On 12/17/2025 at 4:29 AM, JWB said:

Paging Roman.......

Larisa Dolina, a Kremlin-decorated performer and prominent supporter of the war in Ukraine, was swindled out of 175 million roubles (£1.6m) by scammers last year.

But how did this make her the ‘most hated woman in Russia’? 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/12/16/putins-favourite-pop-star-most-hated-woman-russia/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_tw_post_star-most-hated-woman-russia/

What a strange take. Leaving aside it is strange to say Dolina is "Putin's favorite pop star" (another person/group, by the way all-male, is widely believed to be), Larisa Dolina is just another of a kind of "pop stars" who were dominaying RF TV screens for decades, hated by public but using their well established links in "musical world" and power corridors to keep their position. This case only led to this long-time public anger to spill out, but it is not something unique - see my earlier posts about "naked party" and following events for example

 

[Roman Alymov]

Western media have finally discovered that pro-Russians are not exactly "pro-Kremlin" (but the article is still mostly useless as authors are not competent in the subject)

https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/11/17/russias-militant-bloggers-are-clashing-with-their-own-regime

[JWB]

SBU hit its third Russian oil platform in the Caspian Sea, with Alpha Center drones striking Lukoil's Rakushechnoye rig after earlier attacks on Filanovsky and Korchagin platforms halted production.

https://x.com/wartranslated/status/2002005854829060594

 

[ink]

On 12/18/2025 at 11:28 AM, Roman Alymov said:

Western media have finally discovered that pro-Russians are not exactly "pro-Kremlin" (but the article is still mostly useless as authors are not competent in the subject)

https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/11/17/russias-militant-bloggers-are-clashing-with-their-own-regime

The Economist has been useless crap journalism literally for decades now... To the point where it becomes hard to understand who its intended audience is.

[glenn239]

1 hour ago, ink said:

The Economist has been useless crap journalism literally for decades now... To the point where it becomes hard to understand who its intended audience is.

I used to have a subscription.  It's globalist neocon ass wipe editorially, but it's scope is global, with detailed articles on literally every region and many countries covering local issues and narratives you will not see elsewhere.  

[ink]

2 hours ago, glenn239 said:

I used to have a subscription.  It's globalist neocon ass wipe editorially, but it's scope is global, with detailed articles on literally every region and many countries covering local issues and narratives you will not see elsewhere.  

Yes, sure, but my point is as follows: whenever the coverage touches upon a region you happen to know a bit better than the average Joe, you suddenly see that what they're selling is basically superficial garbage. So, rather than getting a good all-round sense of global events, you're actually just getting a weird biassed and mostly ill-informed sense of how the world is.

For the subscription fees they charge, that's just not good enough. And if you're going to pay for your information, you're better off throwing a bit more money at the problem and getting a WSJ or Financial Times subscription.

[sunday]

8 hours ago, glenn239 said:

I used to have a subscription.  It's globalist neocon ass wipe editorially, but it's scope is global, with detailed articles on literally every region and many countries covering local issues and narratives you will not see elsewhere.  

They lost me when twenty years ago they lionized the coming of Rodríguez Zapatero as new Spanish PM, because he was going to liberalize the country.

YeH, suuure...

[JWB]

REPORTED KILLED: 1/5 GRU Major General Andrey Averyanov — commander of elite Unit 29155, linked to Salisbury Novichok poisonings, Prigozhin assassination & EU sabotage — was reportedly killed in a UKR drone strike on the shadow fleet tanker 𝘘𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘭 in the Med on 19 DEC.

https://x.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/2002832113855553556

 

[JWB]

The price of Russian oil continues to collapse after new US, EU, and (kinetic) Ukrainian sanctions -Bloomberg.

Russian oil in the Black and Baltic seas is almost half the price of benchmark Brent crude from other nations, putting further pressure on the Russian economy.

[mkenny]

On 12/20/2025 at 5:28 PM, ink said:

Yes, sure, but my point is as follows: whenever the coverage touches upon a region you happen to know a bit better than the average Joe, you suddenly see that what they're selling is basically superficial garbage..

This describes 90% of every youtube clip which touches on something out of your area. I remember one contributor who I always thought gave a very reasoned view of ancient/medieval wars. Then I made a mistake of watching one film he did about WW2 and a subject I knew very well. It was superficial and error ridden. I no longer bother with any of his stuff.

[ink]

1 hour ago, mkenny said:

This describes 90% of every youtube clip which touches on something out of your area. I remember one contributor who I always thought gave a very reasoned view of ancient/medieval wars. Then I made a mistake of watching one film he did about WW2 and a subject I knew very well. It was superficial and error ridden. I no longer bother with any of his stuff.

Yeah, it's a shitstorm out there, information-wise.

I remember very clearly a Radio 4 interview with journalist Robert Fisk (of the Independent, at the time, I think), back in 1999, during the NATO air campaign. He had a very good stab at trying to explore what a tough job journalists have when explaining events in foreign countries to audiences back home. He said that their job is basically to introduce one culture to another in a very brief outlines, usually at a time when that one culture is having a difficult historical moment.

Now, I don't know Fisk, or even much about his work, but how many journalists these days are even sufficiently aware of that to factor it in as part of their job?

Anyway, the Radio 4 presenter cut him off sharpish and dragged him back into the Serbs=bad, NATO=saving the world narrative, so he didn't get to finish even that one thought properly.

Edited December 22, 2025 by ink
to fix punctuation errors

[TrustMe]

14 hours ago, ink said:

Yeah, it's a shitstorm out there, information-wise.

I remember very clearly a Radio 4 interview with journalist Robert Fisk (of the Independent, at the time, I think), back in 1999, during the NATO air campaign. He had a very good stab at trying to explore what a tough job journalists have when explaining events in foreign countries to audiences back home. He said that their job is basically to introduce one culture to another in a very brief outlines, usually at a time when that one culture is having a difficult historical moment.

Now, I don't know Fisk, or even much about his work, but how many journalists these days are even sufficiently aware of that to factor it in as part of their job?

Anyway, the Radio 4 presenter cut him off sharpish and dragged him back into the Serbs=bad, NATO=saving the world narrative, so he didn't get to finish even that one thought properly.

 

This is a tricky one. The UK has a "War Powers Act" which must enforce positive UK propaganda and stop negative propaganda from whoever were fighting at the moment. Journalists can be locked up in prison for not following these rules. I'm sure Serbia has something similar. It sucks but that's how it is.

[Roman Alymov]

Results of "we are not at war", "no need for war effort" propaganda by Rus MSM

"BANGKOK, December 23rd. /Correspondent of TASS Igor Brovarnik/. More than 1.8 million Russians visited Thailand in 2025, setting a record for the kingdom's attendance and ranking fourth in terms of the number of visits among all national tourist groups. This follows from the widespread data of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand.

The department's statistics cover the period from January 1 to December 21, noting that with the approach of the New Year holidays, the tourist flow from Russia to Thai resorts reaches its peak. During the week from December 15 to December 21, about 60 thousand Russian citizens arrived in the kingdom. In 2024, 1.745 million Russians visited Thailand, repeating the record attendance in 2013." Россияне в 2025 году установили рекорд по турпотоку в Таиланд

"Tourists from Russia took the first place among foreign tourists in Egypt by the end of 2025. This is reported by RIA Novosti.
The total number of Russians who came to the country was close to 2 million people.

"Russians are in the first place in terms of the number of tourists in Egypt in 2025," Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathi is quoted as saying.

The second place in the rating is occupied by guests from Germany.

A year earlier, the Germans held the first place in terms of the number of visits to Egypt. The Russians were second." Россияне стали первыми среди иностранных туристов в Египте в 2025 году - Новости на Вести.ru