Putin calls the West out over Oreshnik. Russia is not Enemy (@RussiaIsntEnemy): ““There is no chance of shooting down the “Oreshnik.” If any Western experts doubt it, let’s conduct a high-tech duel of the 21st century. Let them pick a target to hit—say, in Kyiv—let them concentrate all their air and missile defenses there, and we will strike that target with the “Oreshnik” and see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment. The question is whether they are.” – President Putin” | nitter.poast.org

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jan 9 2026 18:50 utc | 203

If it really was a giant underground gas storage facility that was hit then it doesn’t seem like something that anyone will be able to hide no matter what the MSM says.
 
Has anyone checked that NASA space-based heat/fire surveillance map thing? Maybe censored. (This computer I use is probably not up to the task, it can barely browse).
 
What I have seen of Russian official comments has not gone into much detail on the targets and left out the specifics; they’re leaving plenty of rope for the MSM to trap themselves in.
 

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jan 9 2026 19:28 utc | 205

The purple glow in the sky near Lvov indicates that the entire underground gas storage facility is now alight.  And with it 30% of all EU gas storage capacity.  Please buy gas futures…………
Volo once again over played his hand in his UK RN sponsored assassination attempt on VVP.
Expect more Hazel strikes in the near future!
Targets please!

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 9 2026 21:15 utc | 207

Nobody Special 205 – thank you for this post.  Yes this is an existential war against the forces of evil…….evil emobodied in the form of Volo, Biden, Nuland, Blinkenskyy, Yermak, Budanov, Freeland, Sir Keir, Macron, Merz and company.  Atheistic fascists all, godless advocates for pure evil.
This is the group that has targeted Orthodox Christians murder and destruction.  Orthodox Churches dynamited, shrine desecrated, treasuries raided.
St. Sava save us!

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 9 2026 21:24 utc | 209

Addendum: I’ve been having a look at the NASA FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management Service) website and it raise more questions than it answers; there is not one single hotspot across the entirety of Ukraine or Western Russia. It also shows a few puffs of high-level summer-type cloud which, considering the snowfall blanketing much of Europe in the last few days, doesn’t suggest the satellites have overflown recently.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jan 9 2026 21:28 utc | 211

Posted by: Nobody Special | Jan 9 2026 18:02 utc | 205
 
Why don’t you take your religious lunacy and FO to somewhere where people care about it?
 
There is ZERO evidence for the existence of a “Lord”, otherwise known’ as The Gaseous Vertebrate Up In The Sky’

Posted by: acementhead | Jan 9 2026 23:19 utc | 213

What stops Ukrainians from rebelling? 
Posted by: Fredrick | Jan 9 2026 18:20 utc | 209
 
Answer: At least the total destruction of their lives right here right now, and quite likely death right here right now.
 
How many people rebelled against the Covid crime against humanity? The vast majority of people can simply not afford to rebel at all. ‘They’ won, we lost.
 

Posted by: acementhead | Jan 9 2026 23:30 utc | 215

 ho ho ho– 
 
Kyle Rittenhouse – who shot three people during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin – offered to travel to Minnesota amid unrest after ICE fatally shot a woman. 

Posted by: arby | Jan 10 2026 0:03 utc | 217

Remote Page | Jan 10 2026 0:14 utc | 227
*** Of course Ukraine would also like to join NATO since this is the best way to guarantee it’s security from future Russian aggression. ***
 
 
But what would guarantee its security against American aggression?
 

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 10 2026 0:59 utc | 219

Also IIRC Putin said that Russia did not care if Ukraine joined the EU. 
 
NATO was a no no for blatantly obvious reasons.

Posted by: arby | Jan 10 2026 1:06 utc | 221

“All of these ‘rapid advancements’ that you mention still amount to taking only 0.8% of Ukraine in 2025. That’s not very much at all, and basically allows Ukraine plenty of time to fortify the rear to further make Russian advances slow.”
Posted by: Remote Page (Anonymous) | Jan 9 2026 18:03 utc | 206
 
 
This analysis is only relevant if Russia’s goals include taking all of Ukraine, which they certainly do not. They don’t even want Odessa. The Donbass region is the main objective and has almost been secured. Once Kramtorsk/Slovyansk are taken, probably another year, then Ukraine will likely cut a deal, or at least accept the peace deal Russia imposes on it.

Posted by: James M. | Jan 10 2026 2:10 utc | 223

Why don’t you take your religious lunacy and FO to somewhere where people care about it? There is ZERO evidence for the existence of a “Lord”, otherwise known’ as The Gaseous Vertebrate Up In The Sky’
Posted by: acementhead | Jan 9 2026 23:19 utc | 222
 
One might say the same for you. I didn’t know you were the arbiter of this blog; B might be surprised. If you don’t like what he says, you are free to ignore it. Otherwise, it seems you protest too loudly.

Posted by: James M. | Jan 10 2026 2:19 utc | 225

Ref. Remote Page
You are so ignorant, yet full of yourself – been literally swimming in the Kool-Aid – that you are a waste of space on this forum.
Thankfully I can exclude your posts from my view – just inflated hot air, that contribute nothing. To try and correct you is time I would never get back.
Don’t let facts get in your way, and jog on tosser…

Posted by: Richard Hrad | Jan 10 2026 6:51 utc | 227

In regards to the economy, you bring data to the conversation, however you make no analysis on what that data means, or why the data is like it is.
Yes, production is lower YoY, the GDP growth is slowing down as well, but why is that? What are the government’s actions in regards to the economy, and what are their impacts, that’s the key question that you seemingly choose to ignore.

Why the economy is flatlining despite the government literally going into debt doing what is in effect fiscal stimulus.

Russia’s government spending has been frozen since Q4 2024, which accounting for inflation, effectively means they are lowering the stimulus to the economy. That joined together by the high interest rates, which have just recently been going down, means that the Russian government has been purposefully cooling down the economy. The corporate tax rate increase is also another tool used to cool down the economy.
In that context, it is clear that there are plenty of signs showing that the Russian government is in fact directing their economy down this path.

Also consider what the ‘controlled slowdown’ is having the effect of still producing an inflation rate which in reality is probably 20%+ and an interest rate of 16%. This is one of the biggest stagflation events we will see in modern history.

This is kind of hilarious honestly. You do realize that a >20 % inflation rate together with an interest rate of 16 % would mean that the government is basically lowering their real debt by selling bonds?
How can you argue that the high interest rates are a problem for the government’s ability to pay the debt, while at the same time believing that inflation is basically cutting the real value of the debt? How does that make any sense?

All of these ‘rapid advancements’ that you mention still amount to taking only 0.8% of Ukraine in 2025.

Real cope is hiding behind a fraction, while ignoring the underlying trend that is developing. You affirmed that Ukrainians were able to stabilize the frontline, but the examples i provided prove that they are in fact not able to do that in many situations.

At the same time we have basically not seen an increase in the numbers of drones or missiles used in attacks, which basically high their peak/plateau since the summer as well.

Yes, the number of drones used in Russian attacks seem to have plateaued, but it has plateaued at a number way higher than what Ukraine can muster, which confirms that Russia is not pear to Ukraine in this aspect, but far superior, unlike what you said.

Both sides produced around 2.5-3 millions FPV drones in 2025, and both are aiming to double that number in 2026.

Again, taking those production numbers at face value, that would still mean that Russia has superiority over Ukraine in terms of FPV drones, simply because they were able to widely adopt a new technology (fiber optic control) which is superior to what the Ukrainians can currently muster.

Posted by: Leoraig | Jan 10 2026 12:45 utc | 229

Remote Page | Jan 10 2026 2:34 utc | 235 …….
 
Are the lies you post still paid for via Soros, or is remuneration now direct from the dictatorship in Brussels?
An intended “regime change” attack in 2018 on Belarus by foreign NGOs and their bought actors.
Objective being to so-called “privatize” everything  there so it can be blatantly stolen by the western Oligarchs and their local mafia fronts.  Yet you support such anti-national actions, despite all evidence throughout the Western world of the extremely bad (for the public) consequences of such theft and subsequent extortion.
Plus, of course, the infliction of NATO military bases and other such US cultural delights.

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 10 2026 14:22 utc | 231

Your claim that this is a purposeful cooling of the economy is simply you taking the narrative spin of the Russian government at face value as their explanation for a situation that they cannot control. Government spending has stopped increasing because they ran out of liquid assets in the NWF and now have to fund the war with deficit spending, and there are limits to how much the country can actually purchase/produce.
 
Your argument relies on a simplified view of debt mechanics that ignores how high inflation and high interest rates actually interact in a wartime economy. You are suggesting that Russia is “inflating away its debt,” but you are overlooking the cost of refinancing and the distortion of investment.
 
The argument that 20% inflation “washes away” debt only works for existing, fixed-rate, long-term debt. It does not help with the debt the government is currently issuing to fund the ongoing war. Also remember that the official inflation rate is much lower than 20%, because the government is fudging the numbers to make things look better, but it is in reality that inflation in higher. You can’t pay soldiers or foreign suppliers with “reduced real debt.” You pay them with liquid cash.
 
You are right though, that if the real inflation rate on the overall economy is ~20% while the government maintains an interest rate lower than that, then essentially creditors are paying the government to borrow money. According to the Russian government inflation is only 6%, which means that the Russian government is offering a 10% risk premium (the difference between official inflation and the interest rate) to buy debt. But despite that that no one is buying the Russian government debt besides mainly Russian state owned banks and companies like Sberbank and VTB (only 3% of the debt is being bought by foreign actors), which are essentially directed to do so, which just transfers the debt burden of the state onto companies which can hide the cost to the economy in the short term but is certainly going to be a problem for them going forward.
 
If not directed by the government to buy the debt, the Russian government wouldn’t be able to find any buyers because the interest rate, while high, is lower than the real inflation rate. The Russian government would have to raise interest rates for their risk premium to match. But even then, they probably wouldn’t find many buyers of the risk involved.
 
Again, this is not a well orchestrated cooling, it is the Russian government trying to spin a situation that they are losing control over. All this while the economy is going into a recession.

Posted by: Remote Page | Jan 10 2026 15:27 utc | 233

The rate of advance could go to 1.2% of Ukraine in 2026 from 0.8% and it would mean a whopping 50% increase and still do absolutely nothing for Russia’s strategic situation. It has also sped up in the past, to decrease again, to increase. I suspect the fights for the fortress cities will be long and slow. It is cope to imagine that these marginal increases of marginal gains are heralding the long await collapse that Russia needs to actually win.

Posted by: Remote Page | Jan 10 2026 16:47 utc | 235

Has “Remote Page” been given his bevin yet?

Posted by: malenkov | Jan 10 2026 19:21 utc | 237

Ukrainian losses for the week January 3rd to January 9th, as reported by the Russian defence ministry:
 
– Kursk & Kharkov fronts: 1,285 troops, 12 LAV/HMV, 82 motor vehicles, 7 artillery pieces, 6 EW and CB systems.
– Zapad Group (Luhansk area): 1,330 troops, 20 LAV/HMV, 90 motor vehicles, 7 artillery pieces, 2 EW and CB systems.
– Yug Group (Donetsk north): 1,335 troops, 4 tanks, 43 LAV/HMV, 110 motor vehicles, 14 artillery pieces.
– Tsetr Group (Donetsk south): 2,805 troops, 5 tanks, 54 LAV/ HMV, 68 motor vehicles, 12 artillery pieces.
– Vostok Group (southern front): 1,680 troops, 31 LAV/HMV, 58 motor vehicles, 10 artillery pieces.
– Dnepr Group: 325 troops, 5 LAV/HMV, 75 motor vehicles, 6 artillery pieces, 6 EW and CB systems.
 
In total: 8,780 troops (38,046 per month, with undercounting probably about 40,000), less than the previous week.
9 tanks (0 in Kursk/Kharkov), 0 IFV, 0 APC, 165 HMV/Light Armoured Vehicle (2 in Kursk/Khakrov); a jump of about 50. 483 motor vehicles, 60 more than the previous week.
56 artillery pieces (7 in Kursk/Kharkov); 243/mth, an uptick from the previous new low and less than 30% of peak loss rate.
Plus 14 EW and Counter Battery systems, less than half of previous week.
Low levels of losses show the dwindling nature of the Ukrainian army.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jan 10 2026 22:28 utc | 239

Yup, this sure looks like a nation united enough to sustain an insurgency: https://news-pravda.com/world/2026/01/10/1991344.html

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jan 10 2026 23:51 utc | 241

Likewise with above Ukraine is now scaling the use of fiber optics.

Posted by: Remote Page | Jan 11 2026 0:04 utc | 243