The Eastern Border

Reaction to the collapse in Syria. Girkin's buddies plotting to take power at the right moment. Russian economy is basically in the drain...and Ramzan Kadyrov appears to be humbled and a bit weak.

Actually, I should've just called this episode War in Syria. But, as usual, it all ties together as we're seeing a second front open up...and then collapse violently. And in between all of this, Ramzan Kadyrov just MASSIVELY overstepped the line, and now there's just complete madness everywhere. 

While I was preparing for an economy episode, major events in Syria happened. Oh, and the Russian army is taking away cars from the front line now. Together with the phones.

Yeah, this is a long one – lots of important things happened during my vacation, which just shows that I’m not alllowed to relax. I talk about the Oreshnik, economy, Merkel’s memoires…oh and the Orthodox Church have been extra weird lately.

As I'm about to go to a short vacation to The Netherlands, I'm bringing You my discussion with our friend Alex from History Impossible podcast, where we talk about the Trump election, it's impact and how you might deal with it on a philosophical level. It's a weird, catharsis episode. I, for one, tried to find optimism where I could.

Russia's playing the blame game on chemical weapons use, while showing their use by their own soldiers on national television, Z-vatniks complain that Orwell's "1984" is much more popular than literature about the "SMO" in the book sales rankings. 

Two audio recordings from folks in important positions in Russia reveal problems in the military-industrial complex and show that meat assaults are a feature, not a bug. Meanwhile, Z-community is getting fed more false hopes.

I waited for a day before making this, and it was well worth it. Because now we have a speech by Putin and reactions from Russian opposition and vatniks. And they are nowhere near the elation and joy as most western media that I've seen is claiming. As usual, everything is much more complicated.  "I do not know what is going to happen now. I have no clue." / Putin, 2024.