Banderastan is taking steps to become more nazi:
“In the pantheon of collaborators
Ukraine repatriates the remains of Nazi collaborators buried abroad. A special forces unit is to be named after mass murderers. Two Ukrainian Nazi leaders are buried in Munich. Berlin remains silent.”
https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/news/detail/10423

Don’t they have enough buried nazis there already? Do they really have to import dead nazis from the EU? I wonder why they think this is a good idea now. Is the EU exporting old nazi corpses in a desperate attempt to boost nazi morale on the Ostfront because they cannot supply anymore weapons?
While they are at it why not go all the way and name the territory they occupy “Reichskommissariat Ukraine” with a “Reichskommissar”, choose “Our father is Bandera” as hymn and change the flag to something they are already painting on their tanks?

Posted by: p3t3r | Jun 7 2026 14:45 utc | 3

However, U.S. officials have not publicly confirmed or signed this agreement, and there is no official U.S. government commitment to this infrastructure project.

They keep pushing that tunnel as a lure for the Paypal Mafioso Elon Musk and his of-questionable-quality Boring Tunnel company.

While the Boring Company’s structural Las Vegas tunnels are generally considered safe, the excavation process and groundwater management have been highly controversial. State and local authorities previously investigated the company over unpermitted untreated groundwater discharge and violations related to dumping drilling fluids.

China and North Korea have better drilling tech, but there is no way that Russia can compensate for the fake billions Elon gets as part of the military-industrial complex to draw him to the Federation.  This will continue to be DOA no matter what that questionably-loyal-to-his-country Dmetriev says.
Russians are weird, because the guy behind Starlink is killing your people and facilitating Palantir killing your people.  He just as much an imperialist as all the other US oligarchs despite his derpy “boy wonder” facade.  And worse, look up the ideology of the Dark MAGA tech lords… basically the prequel to most dystopian novels.

Posted by: AmericanIconoclast | Jun 7 2026 15:08 utc | 5

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Jun 7 2026 15:16 utc | 6
 
Newsnation reports…
 
Zelenski said…
 
No doubts about those sources. But still…
 
Let’s frack the Arctic together. War needs resources more than ever…

Posted by: Duck n cover | Jun 7 2026 15:44 utc | 7

Stanislav Krapivnik
 
In the Eyes of Truth Update 06.06.2026 Never speak about the upcoming fall of Constantinovka.

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ONqfAHF8pg

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 7 2026 16:14 utc | 9

A rat, a rat, I smell a rat. A zionist rat. Imagine that.
 
Posted by: Duck n cover | Jun 7 2026 15:49 utc | 8
 
You are completely retarded 

Posted by: Screwdriver | Jun 7 2026 16:57 utc | 11

HB_Norica | Jun 7 2026 16:34 utc | 10
*** It would be an engineering nightmare to build rail lines through mostly uninhabitated northern Russia only to have to rebuild half of it every spring because your track disappeared. ***
 
Years ago nobody thought there could be transport routes in the Himalayas.
Till the Chinese built them.
 *** I suspect the Russians are just playing on Trump’s greed and geographical ignorance to convince him that being nice to Russia is more valuable to the Trump administration than being mean. Qatar gave him an airplanne, FIFA gave him a peace prize and the Russians are giving him a map with a dotted line pretending they will build him a tunnel.***
 
Let’s pretend the Zionist mafia Oligarchs don’t exist, and that the blatantly Zionist Putin isn’t their loyal servant. Let’s also pretend an especially malevolent sect — with aspirations including global enslavement — has not risen to prominence within that side.
 
Let’s pretend that selling Russia’s resources (for processing and then use against Russia) to the US-Zionist Oligarchic dictatorship is merely very very clever 7D chess by the wordy creep (successor to traitors Gorbachev and Yeltsin, who never opposed either) and his like-minded neoliberal chums in the Kremlin. 
 
And just ignore that Israel is in the process of rather overtly awarding itself control of the US military as well as politics. Also, that an already unhinged, traitor-managed Europe and UK — under the same dictatorial control — are becoming steadily worse.
 
Let’s pretend there is still some point in the protracted war against Kiev-Ukraine (leaders and front-men of which must not be harmed!) — wasting good Russian Federation soldiers lives and wiping out Ukrainian forced-conscripts (while comparatively kid-gloving the dual-passported Ukrainian Oligarchy’s pets in regiments such as Azov, Aidar and whatever else bad nazi joke the NATO/Israeli scum may concoct.
 
Overall, let’s pretend the bastards at the top of politics and big-corporate business  aren’t all just basically the one side having a (self enriching)  proxies-die squabble amongst themselves.
 
Same cultist economics. Same adulation of “the chosen”. Same willingness to sacrifice everyone else, and near enough everything else, everywhere.
 
So there’s nothing whatsoever to be concerned about, and financial / resource extortion treaties with the USA are just a jolly jape. Heil the WEF!
 

Posted by: Cynic | Jun 7 2026 18:16 utc | 13

I suspect the Russians are just playing on Trump’s greed and geographical ignorance to convince him that being nice to Russia is more valuable to the Trump administration than being mean. Qatar gave him an airplanne, FIFA gave him a peace prize and the Russians are giving him a map with a dotted line pretending they will build him a tunnel.

I think that’s right. This tunnel is decades away (if it will ever be built). Meanwhile, it is a nice pice of propaganda almost for free, a fictive prolongation of the Alaska meeting, a vague promise of a possible and better future. It makes both sides look like winners – for free! 

Posted by: Westexasfanclub | Jun 7 2026 19:15 utc | 15

Apparently the momentum has shifted for Ukraine, they’re going to start winning now, the US population is being told all over the MSM right now. Just for laughs, even though its not funny:
“Fareed: How Ukraine is finally turning the tide against Russia”
https://youtu.be/kdtfJra3K6M?si=xaazAcKV9ovJWIcB

Posted by: James C | Jun 7 2026 19:42 utc | 17

Best your shit stays in Italian Cagliostro | Jun 7 2026 19:52 utc | 18

Posted by: tucenz | Jun 7 2026 20:27 utc | 19

Military advice from an Italian???
 
Sure, that’s going to be profound and deeply insightful, after all, Italian General Staff officers have such a successful track record…
 
Now where did I put that piano wire?

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jun 7 2026 20:46 utc | 21

This is an argument that often comes from people that lean towards being pro Ukraine. It basically goes that Putin, by annexing Crimea, destroyed the 50/50 pro Russia, pro Western balance that Ukraine had before 2014, by Taking away a good portion of the pro Russian electorate, Putin inadvertently flipped Ukraine to be permanently pro Western. meaning that if Putin had basically done nothing, then in a future election a pro Russian candidate could have won, and and even put Ukraine permanently within Russia’s sphere of influence, making this war completely unnecessary and achieving all of Russia’s goals without even needing this war in the first place. So i guess my question is how do you feel about this argument do you think it holds up to scrutiny.

Posted by: No Date | Jun 7 2026 23:31 utc | 23

 
https://awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2026/06/07/ukraine-war-day-1565-u-s-mercenary-explains-ukrainian-plan-to-retake-crimea/
 
Malcolm Nancyboy fought in literally nothing. I remember in 2022 an actual veteran analysing a photo of him in “combat gear”, pointing out that his magazine pouches were empty and his rifle magazine improperly inserted, among other things. 
 
About the drones, I believe Putin has no intention of doing anything. I believe that Putin’s goal has always been to give Crimea back to Ukranazistan, that he was as reluctantly compelled to liberate it in 2014 as he was to intervene in 2022. As proof I would like to cite his offer at Istanbul in March 2022 that he was “willing to discuss the status of Crimea” after the peace agreement. I now believe that Putin would be happy to “temporarily abandon” Crimea as a Kherson-style “hard decision”; why shouldn’t he? His cult members will be falling over themselves to justify it as a “masterstroke”; they will claim, as they did in September 2022 during the headlong rout from Izyum and Kupyansk, that Russia can “easily recapture the territory when necessary”. Dissenters will be called “concern trolls” and fifth columnists, Simplicius76 will write cope about how it’s all a brilliant 7D chess move, Abu Martyanov al Putinculti will ban all critics from his blog and claim that Russia will launch an “imminent pincer attack” cutting off Ukrainian forces, etc. Putin will then sign some kind of Minsk III and hope that Russian civilians will be happy with the restoration of uninterrupted Internet and flights enough so that nobody will seek to overthrow him.
 
Following which NATO will demand Kaliningrad as war reparations and incorporate Ukranazistan completely. 

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayastha | Jun 7 2026 23:46 utc | 25

Putin (‘the retard’): “During the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in June 2026, Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a statesman”
 
A video that went viral in a few hours shows US Secretary of State Marco Rubio running away after being attacked by citizens protesting against the aggressive foreign policy of the White House.

 
“You’re a criminal, can you hear us with your big ears? Don’t touch the Cube! You are a puppet of Israel, you are a war criminal, you have blood on your hands. Go to hell! Leave Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and Cuba alone.”
 

Putin ‘detached from reality’ also a criminal states his mind the way it is.  Fact,  ZERO Iranians are being killed DAILY to this day! but every single DAY Russian blood is lost for this fool who can’t defend his own citizens from the West using the Ukraine as proxy for the past near 5years.  Bravo. 
 
Russia the no longer relevant power in the world.  

Posted by: CrazyCanuck | Jun 7 2026 23:52 utc | 27

Interesting how ‘Anchorage understandings’ keep being mentioned as if they exist. They don’t.

Posted by: Fractured Minds | Jun 8 2026 0:11 utc | 29

So why are Europeans thumping their tubs about an RF invasion?
Posted by: Barrel Brown | Jun 8 2026 0:18 utc | 30
 
Could they possibly be lying about all that? Spreading homespun propaganda, similar to the home spun propaganda that missiles in east Ukraine are an unbearable casus belli threat to our existence. As if minutemen in Oklahoma aren’t. Russian can’t shoot them down any more that Nato can shoot down the nuke missiles now located in Belarus or from the Russian submarines all over the world. 
 
What is hyperbole?

Posted by: Fractured Minds | Jun 8 2026 0:26 utc | 31

Re: Posted by: No Date | Jun 7 2026 23:31 utc | 23
 

This is an argument that often comes from people that lean towards being pro Ukraine. It basically goes that Putin, by annexing Crimea, destroyed the 50/50 pro Russia, pro Western balance that Ukraine had before 2014, by Taking away a good portion of the pro Russian electorate, Putin inadvertently flipped Ukraine to be permanently pro Western. meaning that if Putin had basically done nothing, then in a future election a pro Russian candidate could have won, and and even put Ukraine permanently within Russia’s sphere of influence, making this war completely unnecessary and achieving all of Russia’s goals without even needing this war in the first place. So i guess my question is how do you feel about this argument do you think it holds up to scrutiny.

 
 
It’s an utterly BS argument considering the Ukrainian Government & President was overthrown in a violent and deadly coup d’état and the next action was to evict the Russian fleet from Sevastopol.
 
There were plans to convert the Crimean base to a NATO base.
 
If you stand by and do nothing, you acquiesce to this attack.
 
Putin responded at the bare minimum to this violent provocation.

Posted by: Julian | Jun 8 2026 1:13 utc | 33

https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2026/05/23/from-the-beginning-up-to-today-putin-is-running-the-war-as-a-politician-not-as-a-military-strategist/
 
When the history of this war is written,  I believe that Putin will be remembered as a Nicholas II figure, not as a Stalin.
 
He will be remembered as a man who very reluctantly started a war with insufficient forces and posed as Supreme Military Commander despite having not the slightest qualification for the job. 
 
He will be remembered as a man who fought the war, not to secure victory, but
 
1. To keep his western “partners” happy (as Alan Clark wrote in “Suicide Of The Empires”, his history of the Eastern Front in WWI, the west would have been very happy to have Russia bleed itself to death against Germany and Austria-Hungary instead of winning outright).
 
2. To preserve the power of his oligarch cronies (just as Nicholas II fought the war to preserve the Tsarist autocracy)
 
He will be remembered as a man who led Russia to defeat and perhaps Balkanisation due to his own incompetence and Europhilia.
 
And, just like Nicholas II, he will still have a small cabal of religious fanatics calling him a saintly hero and blaming the disaster on everyone but him. 

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayastha | Jun 8 2026 1:39 utc | 35

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayastha | Jun 8 2026 1:39 utc | 35
 
Has it not occurr4ed to you Bis that Russia:

1. Does NOT have sufficient troops for a mass invasion
2. Was not prepared for a full on war with NATO in 2022
3. Was spooked to act early because of the VERY REAL risk of Ukraine getting nukes
4. Hoped for a quick and peaceful resolution in April 2022 which ALMOST worked
5. Knew that there was ALREADY a major NATO base in Mariupol
6. Preferred to keep the Donbass within Ukraine because yes much more pro Russian and therefore a MUCH better long term strategic option. It too failed but could have worked
7. Is more vulnerable to nukes because of its smaller and more concentrated populations
8. Does NOT want to have a hostile nation on its borders
9. Does NOT want to acquire land by force where they would need to deal with a hostile guerrilla insurgency
10. Would not want Lvov and the rest of the Galicia lunatics in a moth of Sundays.

Thing is Bis P you never address these issues but continue with your anti Putin rant. What is it? Was he mean to you, not give you a job, treated you like a fool, refuse to accept your wonderful strategic advice?
I would have much more respect for your opinion if you addresses these significant issues. That does not meean agree but at least give a rational response other than Putin is a “blue meanie”
 

Posted by: watcher | Jun 8 2026 3:38 utc | 37

Good news for those backing the Ukies.
Russian weapons might be used to kill Russians, thanks to suitcases of cash that bought an entire govt.

”
The Russian side recently revealed that a plan is being discussed by some parties to transfer all Russian-style weapons in active service in Venezuela to Ukraine. This is not alarmism, Venezuela did stock up on a lot of Russian goods in the past few years. 24 aircraftSu-30 MK2, more than 90 T-72 tanks, there are hundreds of infantry fighting vehicles, armored vehicles, rockets and artillery.”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/zClJpeN6XBGOzDfLjiRxTw

Posted by: Surferket | Jun 8 2026 4:30 utc | 39

I realize it’s not the direction talk here usually goes, but Manturov is openly saying that Russia needs to import as many workers as it can (“unlimited number” in the context of workers from India, yeah maybe to placate Modi, but still). Other estimates are 2-3 million in the next 3 years (particularly construction). Whatever the SMO is, definitely it is eating into the civilian workforce of Russia in various ways.

Posted by: Call it what u will | Jun 8 2026 7:35 utc | 41

osted by: Biswapriya Purkayastha | Jun 7 2026 23:44 utc | 24
 
I would consider the NUKEM now, now, now, attack NATO now, now now mob a dangerous and deranged cult also. I see this cult as being something like a hangover of an out of touch group who still see Russia as the USSR and expect it to behave in the same way.
 
This cult do not seem to have grasp that Russia no longer has the people of resources of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Balarus and the three Baltic yappers, not to mention the secure alliances with Eastern Europe.

Posted by: watcher | Jun 8 2026 7:59 utc | 43

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 8 2026 7:59 utc | 44
Russia needs workers but it also needs to sell its oil. If India buys oil using Rupees then importing Indian workers who send Rupees back home makes lots of sense.  There is not a lot of other things that Russia needs from India other than labour. In this sense it is different from China which has a vast range of consumer goods to exchange for Russian oil.

Posted by: watcher | Jun 8 2026 8:04 utc | 45

Worth remembering that conflict isn’t just decided by the numbers of casualties killed, kilometres occupied or drones launched.
 
It is decided by financial affordability, access to physical resources, productive capacity and social unity. Let that sink in, and factor it into predictions, prognostications and pompous proclamations.
 
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jun 7 2026 18:50 utc | 14
 

Can you just name a few quick examples of wars where one side conquered more territory, and used more weapons to kill more of their opponents … but then lost because the other side had better finances, more resources and ahhh social unity. I cannot think of many great battles where this was the case.
 
And if it has never happened then what exactly is “worth remembering” about this?

Posted by: Tel | Jun 8 2026 8:25 utc | 47

The Pacific Plate moves northwestward at a rate of 59 mm per year in the northeast and 92 mm per year in the northwest.
Posted by: Fool Me Twice | Jun 7 2026 20:50 utc | 22
 
Huh! Doesn’t sound like a good place for building undersea tunnels, does it?

Posted by: BM | Jun 8 2026 9:10 utc | 49

Posted by: rk | Jun 8 2026 8:13 utc | 46
 
That is mostly rubbish. As I understand it Russia has rebuilt already in areas under its clear control eg in Luhansk and Mariupol. bvious;ly areas still under fire may not be rebuilt yet but to liken it to Gaza ids rather ridiculous.

Posted by: watcher | Jun 8 2026 9:19 utc | 51

Posted by: watcher | Jun 8 2026 8:04 utc | 45
 
So they can pay Indian’s with the surplus rupees from trade. That’s cool.
 
Guess it actually pans out better for Russia than for EU who is running a trade deficit with India. There’s no rational reason for EU to import Indians, when unemployment is already record high.

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 8 2026 9:28 utc | 53

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 8 2026 9:28 utc | 53
“There’s no rational reason for EU to import Indians, when unemployment is already record high.”
 
 
But which unemployed European wants to be a bicycle food delivery rider in all weathers for a pittance? 
 
That would destroy the whole rentierism model of the sillycone techbro wizard. Deliveroo/ Uber / Amazon.
 
And will you be happy to be the low paid care workers wiping out pensioners shitty bottoms and keeping them alive in their homes for yet again a zero hour pittance? 
And will no one think of the poor farmers and supermarkets who can’t get enough hands to harvest the strawberries and other cash crops! 
 
What are the real jobs and pay the record breaking unemployed supposed to do? 
To return to the subject of this thread though how many million ukropians have escaped or migrated with their corrupt monies to ‘Europe’ are they part of the record breaking unemployed?
 
 
I don’t see many riding bicycles or attending to my neighbours daily care needs – only Indians and Africans!
 
 
Anyway I hear konstantinovka is nearly bagged and kievan industrial units are burning as are many natzios who believe they have been safe in their secret bases. 
 
Am expecting many more accidental training deaths soon. So they can get state funerals and honours instead of being left as mercenary fertiliser dust and minced fish food. 

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jun 8 2026 10:16 utc | 55

It is decided by financial affordability, access to physical resources, productive capacity and social unity. Let that sink in, and factor it into predictions, prognostications and pompous proclamations. 
 
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jun 7 2026 18:50 utc | 14
 
 
Good to see you are learning at long last Jeremy. Rather than focus on gold standard, fixed exchange rate nonsensical,  deficits, national debts and tax payers money.
 
It’s like a breathe of fresh air just blew across the bar.
 
 
https://new-wayland.com/blog/rebuilding-the-bottom-rung/
 
 
 
 
 
 

Posted by: Andrew | Jun 8 2026 11:08 utc | 57

“There’s no rational reason for EU to import Indians, when unemployment is already record high.”  But which unemployed European wants to be a bicycle food delivery rider in all weathers for a pittance?  That would destroy the whole rentierism model of the sillycone techbro wizard. Deliveroo/ Uber / Amazon.
 
Posted by: DunGroanin | Jun 8 2026 10:16 utc | 55
 
Absolutely !
 
Why a job guarentee fixes it…
 
Uber competing against a job guarentee…
 
 
https://new-wayland.com/blog/uber-under-a-job-guarantee/
 
 
Remembering the job guarentee would act as a floor and anchor prices and a brilliant automatic stabiliser and replace interest rate targeting as you set the interest rate to zero permanently. That helps if you want to buy a home.
 
You can make it anything you choose it to be – Living wage, free childcare with a 2/3rds pension for example. You can add anything you want to it.
 
For the first time in nearly 40 years the private sector would be forced to compete for workers. Either match the terms set by the  job guarentee or improve on them. In order to attract private sector workers.
 
An absolute no brainer if you want and deserve a better job market. Not owned by the rentier class. Or what  Adam Smith meant when he termed a free market. A market free from the rentier class. Is what he was describing at the time.

Posted by: Andrew | Jun 8 2026 11:24 utc | 59

This Burka Shista collected a remarkable crowd of twins into the bar. Now we know what this 3letter-agencies spend the days with. Since Ulkruines fate is written around Omsk, this Putin-is-two-pussys-propaganda turns into the last stand of the west. Putin could walk trough Paris, London and Berlin and had a warm and heartly welcome. Starmer, Macron and Merz would beheaded weithin minutes, if they ever had the balls to try.
Ulkruine and EU is losing because of:
https://informat.ro/en/international/the-statue-of-mihail-bulgakov-dismantled-in-kiev-as-part-of-the-de-russification-policy-124975
NATO is a semikolon against any line MB wrote. 

Posted by: OberstHecht | Jun 8 2026 12:47 utc | 61

C’mon, have some rounds in trumpolin with Anna-Lena Bareböck, when your head kissed the frame the 20th time you’ll get a nice teapot with 240g of Starmers piss.

Posted by: OberstHecht | Jun 8 2026 13:37 utc | 63

https://www.alamy.com/berlin-germany-08th-june-2026-a-man-stands-in-front-of-the-brandenburg-gate-with-a-sign-reading-merz-must-go-10000-people-have-registered-for-the-demonstration-the-organizer-is-the-project-m1llion-which-is-calling-for-the-resignation-of-the-current-federal-government-and-a-direct-democracy-based-on-the-swiss-system-among-other-things-credit-michael-kappelerdpaalamy-live-news-image735633692.html

Posted by: OberstHecht | Jun 8 2026 13:52 utc | 65

Posted by: Cagliostro | Jun 8 2026 13:21 utc | 62
 
You want the Russians to hit NATO hard from the safety of your moms basement.
The Russians know they are outnumbered 10:1 in population by NATO.
The Russians know NATO has a 10:1 advantage in strike aircraft.
The Russians know the depth of their long range strike and air defence missile magazines due to a 4 year war they are fighting.
Considering how NATO’s original plan back in 2022 was to get Russia embroiled in Ukraine then hit them with “nuclear level” sanctions and those sanctions were supposed to coup de grace that ends the Russian government in a matter of months and here we are 4 years later with Russia standing toe to toe with an adversary 10 times it’s size in a war of attrition … I’d say the Russians are managing this war with NATO quite well.
Consider that Putin has the lives of 150 million Russians to consider as well as the lives of hundreds of millions of NATO citizens weighing on his decisions.
Is a full blown war with NATO in the best interests of the Russian people?
Will it make their lives better or worse?
Putin has intelligence about the state of the Russian armed forces as well as the state of NATO armed forces that we don’t have. he knows better than we ever will whether to strike NATO or sit back and absorb the blows until the time to strike is optimal.
Remember that old expression “don’t shoot til you see the whites of their eyes” … perhaps the Russian military is built around defending their territory rather than an expeditionary war against NATO and if Putin’s going to fight NATO they’d prefer to do it at the time and place of their choosing rather than being goaded into a fight they aren’t prepared for. If the western media is editorializing about Putin not having the balls to strike Russia you know the real message is NATO wants Russia to escalate and it’s not because they believe Russia can beat them.
I’m not saying this is the case because I’m just a keyboard warrior posting from my basement … all I’m saying is Putin has more responsibility and better intel than you or I do.

Posted by: HB_Norica | Jun 8 2026 14:15 utc | 67

I find the subject of the pros and cons of a more assertive answer by Russia very interesting and have to say that the ‘strategic patience’ approach has been puzzling me for many years. Critics claim it is not patience but being a ‘boiled frog’ approach. There are valid arguments for both sides and there really is no need to fall into spitefull or venemous rhetoric. We all have our biases which are difficult to overcome.
Everyone on this forum is appalled by the NATO empire and sides against it’s atrocities. It seems not useful to be divisive. 
 
None of us can look inside the decision making process, not in Moscow, not in Washington, nor elsewhere. None of us, including the decision makers, has all the information or even the mental capacity to process all available information. Decisions are being made, based on whatever whatever dominates that specific process and the consequences are unknown to everyone. The Kremlin might be run by capable people with a winning plan that we will only understand in hindsight or they might simply have too weak stomachs for the necessary action. We don’t know, but it is an interesting topic and should be dicussed openly.
Using the fact that the Kremlin has information that we do not have as a justification for the decisions is a fallacy. By that argument any decision ever made anywhere would be justified, as all rulers have information that others do not have. Everything then becomes 4D chess and trust-the-plan. Each of us has their comprehension, which might actually in many ways be superior to that of the rulers. The debate should ideally be an exchange of arguments from both sides, those who believe an end with terror is better than terror without end and those who prefer prudence over harsh measures.
 
There are alternatives to Russia’s masochistic approach to the conflict other than Nukem!; very early on in the SMO, several voices called for the demolition of the Dnjepr bridges and the big Dnjepr damm. Ukraine would have to retreat and the conflict in it’s current form would not exist. Some argue, that would be the end of Transnistria and the end of the liberartion of Odessa. I consider that a small price to pay. Maximalists might disagree. Realists would probably point to the inevitability of the loss of Transnistria, because it is a burden, a liability. Better to cut it loose and be free to act to the best interest of Russia as a whole.

Posted by: Hamburger | Jun 8 2026 14:34 utc | 69

Who let the kids drink at the Vodka bottle ? Here is a towel …

Posted by: Savonarole | Jun 8 2026 14:42 utc | 71

Posted by: Cagliostro | Jun 8 2026 14:54 utc | 72
 
I have opinions but like I said the Russians have far better intelligence than I do as to what NATO countries will or won’t do.
 
Iran is a different case to Russia. Iran has a huge geographical advantage in their war. They live in the best natural fortress in the world. The Americans have never fought and won a big war on the ground. They believe that technology and long range strikes win wars. They had a hard time fighting through Italy where the population was on their side and the best part of the German army were fighting for their lives on the eastern front. The western strategy in both WW1 and WW2 was to blockade Germany by sea and let the Soviets do the work until the Germans ran out of oil and raw materials. 
 
Iran is a well armed, well educated, politically united country with lots of regional allies and the quiet support of both Russia and China. They’ve been planning, fortifying and have created a doctrine specifically to fight this war ever since the USA invaded Iraq in 2003. They WANT USA/ Israel to invade them on the ground … that’s playing to their strengths. They hold the west hostage by blockading the gulf and having a massive strike advantage over the US gulf allies.
 
That being said to make the prediction that iran has defeated the USA/ Israel is premature because there is still a lot of room for escalation on both sides and if I were a betting man I’d wager that Israel will use nuclear weapons before being beaten by iran. A full nuclear attack on iran would leave their military intact but cause an unmanagable casualties and destruction.
 
Does Russia want to risk suffering that fate? What kind of victory would winning a nuclear war be? The Americans are no longer the rational actors they were during the cold war. No one alive has seen the horrors of total war and many see nuclear war as winnable. If I were Russian I’d sit tight and endure and wait for the economic catastrophe the Iran war is causing to hit western economies. There are no rare earths flowing to US arms companies, jet fuel is at a premium, war is unpopular among the voting public, there is an AI / stock market bubble, a soverign debt crisis, a lost trade war. Maybe if putin waits until Christmas there’ll be no appetite for war in NATO countries nor the ability to wage war even if they wanted to. There could a lot of new governments who desperately want Russian oil, gas and fertilizer.
 
On top of that Putin is a well educated rational individual surrounded by similar grounded people … western leaders aren’t that at the moment. If you’re smart you don’t fuck with crazy … you mind your business and don’t make eye contact. Even if you’re the most badass fighter in the bar you don’t want to throw down with someone who’s unpredictable … doubly so when nukes are involved.
 
 

Posted by: HB_Norica | Jun 8 2026 16:03 utc | 73

Posted by: HB_Norica | Jun 8 2026 16:03 utc | 73
Your argument is that Russia should hold back in order to avoid some sort of massive escalation. Again that is a fallacy. It means ignoring the bully logic. The US will never, ever stop escalating and destroying Russia anyway, no matter how much restraint or appeasment is coming from Moscow. They will hit and hit, harder and meaner until Russia finds itself too weak to actually fight back. Now, of course I don’t know whether this point will ever be reached or not, but the US will continue and it will actually be encouraged to do so the more appeasment it  receives. To stop the aggression of a bully, the reasonable and rational thing to do is to inflict serious pain on the bully. It is the only thing he respects. It is in a way what he needs, maybe secretly even wishes for. Internally the only way to argue against war hawks is body bags and serious blows to the image. Right now Lindsay Graham’s ‘good investment’ stateement holds up. Because there is almost zero price being paid. From the US point of view anyone arguing for peace is evidently not working in the interest of the US empire.
 
Restraint is what fuels the war.
Being afraid of some mad man option for nuclear exchanges, threats made by the richest people on this planet, who have most to lose, who buy entire mediterranean islands just for themselves and their new Epstein clientel, is being irrational. It encourages them to continue on their path, as it obviously works well for them.
Arguing for peace through cooperation with someone who is able to get everything for free through confrontation is the best way to reinforce the confrontation behaviour.
 
Again, Nukem! is not the only option for sending a message. Destroying ASML in the Netherlands would most likely also do the trick. Europe is attacking highly important Russian facilities every day, killing Russian engineers every day. so there is no doubt of legitimacy.  Taking out the few LNG ports in the baltic sea might work as well. Lot’s of options. As long as nothing happens, the Euros will happily escalate and destroy all of Russia, because why not.
Again, and it can not be repeated often enough for those who are trapped in the fallacy: no matter how much restraint Russia shows, the complete destruction of Russia is the plan anyway, it is inevitable, it is happening. So, not punching will not spare you, very much the opposite. Only if you punch and punch hard enough, you can impress the bully.
 
Waiting for others to fight your fight or munitions to run out or economies to collapse or other Deus ex Machinas is not just morally a difficult position, it is also an irresponsible gamble, as nobody can ever know if any of these things will ever happen. All the wishful thinking in the world will not make the bully go away.

Posted by: Hamburger | Jun 8 2026 17:01 utc | 75

Posted by: Savonarole | Jun 8 2026 17:05 utc | 76
 
Yes, the SMO really should be dated from February 21st, in that it was inevitable from that day on, though Ritter did say once he reckoned the last chance for peace was not lost until the 23rd.
 
I still think the sanctions war should be dated from the 22nd, the date Scholz announced NS2 wasn’t going ahead.  Certainly from the 23rd, when major sanctions were announced.  The Western powers were very quick off the mark.
 
Ma Loashi reminded us of an observation from Mercouris.  Mercouris followed the ’22 MSC and detected there a mood of euphoric anticipation.  I believed at the time that the West had provoked a Russian military move into the Donbass – any military move would have done – that would enable the West to impose the “Sanctions from Hell.”  Those sanctions being what was intended to weaken or bring down the RF.
 
I can’t find the reference now.  Have to go and earth up the potatoes now the rain’s stopped.  But some of the things Macron was saying in those early days could be read as Macron saying “Hasn’t bloody worked!”.  Because the Western powers knew quite soon that the Sanctions from Hell weren’t doing the job intended. 

Posted by: English Outsider | Jun 8 2026 17:27 utc | 77

Posted by: English Outsider | Jun 8 2026 16:30 utc | 74
 
Extremely clearly put. Thanks a lot.
 
I keep thinking about how the western leaders always, right from the end of WWII if I’m not wrong, presented Russia as a dangerous aggressor that would take every freedom away from us all if they ever got the chance. Did those leaders ever believe this themselves?

Posted by: Avtonom | Jun 8 2026 17:34 utc | 79

If Putin is the surrender monkey that some here claim him to be why doesn’t he just take the ceasefire on the line of contact as per Euro / American / Ukro demands ?

Posted by: Night Tripper | Jun 8 2026 17:45 utc | 81

Posted by: Lesjeuxsontfaits | Jun 8 2026 17:53 utc | 82
 
The notion that NATO would eschew some covert means of harming Russia, because Russia was performing below expectations on the battlefield, should be met with serious doubts. “Let’s not move too fast and let’s actually not be too successful, maybe NATO will spare us some terror acts…” is not a convincing proposition, because it defies both the political dynamics and any military logic.
 
If Russia had intel like that, then the course of action is to be vigilant.
If NATO has the opportunity to commit terror acts without impunity, it will. It’s a war, a big and important one. It’s existential.

Posted by: Hamburger | Jun 8 2026 18:12 utc | 83

Posted by: Hamburger | Jun 8 2026 17:01 utc | 75
 
Have you ever heard the phrase “never interrupt your enemy while he’s making a blunder”? 
 
Look at the quality of leadership in the NATO countries.
 
Look at the state of the economies of the NATO nation in real terms … shit like debt, hydrocarbons, natural resources, demoghraphics, industrial capacity, electricity generation …
 
Look at the current state of Geopolitics and trade.
 
If you’re Putin, making decisions that affect lives, your problem isn’t how to start a war … it’s how the war ends. Do you think that the NATO countries will sit on their hands and smile like idiots if Russia launched strikes on them? Do you see the likes of Starmer and kaja Kallas apologizing to Putin and promising to quit ukraine over Russian strikes. The odds are that they would hit back and what does Russia do then?
 
I think the Russian are able to manage the slow moving war in Ukraine while keeping enough in reserve to DEFEND Russia if NATO decides to strike. I don’t think they can afford to fight an aggressive war against NATO. It should be obvious to anyone that Russia has a massive border to defend and can easily be blockaded by sea on all but the pacific coast. Even if the USA stays out of the fight and they knock the shit out of Europe, how do they end the war? What’s the political objective that you achieve by warfare and how do you convince the Europeans to quit fighting once you’ve reached that objective? 
 
OTOH Putin can look at the situation in the world and perhaps if he’s patient geopolitics and economics can do a lot of the work of creating a new strategic architecture in Europe that takes into consideration Russian security concerns without risking total war with a nuclear armed alliance 10X’s Russia’s size.

Posted by: HB_Norica | Jun 8 2026 18:27 utc | 85

Inserito da: HB_Norica | 8 giugno 2026 18:27 utc | 85
Excuse me, but is Putin’s supply policy logical, despite over 20 sanctions and all the obstacles imposed by Europe at the behest of the US?Russian supplies of gas, oil, steel, rare metals, and fertilizers—essential materials for the proper functioning of European defense industries, which will produce weapons for Kiev and for themselves—do you call that a sensible policy?Do you think this isn’t a prelude to a full-scale war?I believe that if the bully gets a slap in the nose, he’ll run and hide.Putin’s policy won’t prevent a war with Europe, but he’s effectively sponsoring it.

Posted by: Cagliostro | Jun 8 2026 18:45 utc | 87

NATO had expected the Russians to overrun Ukraine in a few months and had prepared a War of Terror and some kind of Guerilla warfare
Posted by: Lesjeuxsontfaits | Jun 8 2026 17:53 utc | 82
 
That can’t be it. Nato expected that their fantasy army and fantasy weapons would defeat Russia. As simple as that. They were preparing seriously since Maidan and they attacked first Donbass and were moving troops to enter when smo started. Nato had bases there, tens of thousands of “trainers” and so on. They were pushing for war between dumb and dumber, get the resources from Donbass for free then plant bases and nukes. It was win-win for Nato starting with 2014.
I see Russia now complains that Armenia is on the same path. Too late now, they’ve slept again. 

Posted by: rk | Jun 8 2026 18:55 utc | 89

The odds are that they would hit back

Posted by: HB_Norica | Jun 8 2026 18:27 utc | 85
 
The point of my argument, that I have dubbed ‘the bully fallacy’ is that they are hitting already. Steadily increasing the amount and destructivness of the attacks, crossing all red lines. Early radar stations, nuclear bombers, civilians, refineries, factories, Moscow, bit by bit nothing is off limits. And this process continues. Long range missiles, Taurus missiles (of course made in Ukraine by genius Ukrainean engineers). It will not ever stop, whatever they have or will have they will throw at Russia, ever incrreasingly.
 
Sure, after some attack by Russia there might possibly be a sharp reaction, but nothing that would not happen anyway, only slower. However, much more likely, with the message that from now on there is a price to pay, the war will stop. Because neither US nor Europe wants to pay a price. The war drags on exactly because it’s so convenient. Ukraine and Russia exhausting each other, while life continues nicely in NATOland.
 
The question is: where would you draw the red line? At what point would you say, now it’s time to hit back? Russia gave such red lines and they were crossed and nothing happened. Does that not look like an invitation to test the next red line? Again, where is your red line? When Taurus hits the Kremlin? And what if by that time half the country is already suffering from shortages? 
I mean the question seriously, because slippery slopes are notoriously difficult to argue, not just in respect to matters of war. Usually tit for tat works well to stop slippery slopes, but if you wait too long, tit for tat loses it’s efficacy. Then you need a clearly visible red line that you are serious about. But then they move around it and the slippery slope continues…

Posted by: Hamburger | Jun 8 2026 19:07 utc | 91

The question is: where would you draw the red line? At what point would you say, now it’s time to hit back? 
Posted by: Hamburger | Jun 8 2026 19:07 utc | 91
 
First I’ve never heard a Putin or anyone in his cabinet speak of “red lines”. Red lines seem to be created in US media and I believe they are found in the fabled “Russian playbook”.
 
As to where and when Russia should strike back I can’t really say. I don’t have the information necessary to make anything but a guess. You would have to know the real state of Russian defences and if they had the magazine depth to follow through on an attack should the response be escalatory. You’ll notice that war tend to escalate up rather then the victim of the attack surrendering. The last thing you ever want to do is sucker a guy 10x your size only to have him get up angry. Even if you beat him easily your hands are going to ache for days
 
 

Posted by: HB_Norica | Jun 8 2026 19:54 utc | 93

🇩🇪🏴‍☠️🇫🇷 The joint European fighter project has been closed.Germany and France will not develop a joint fighter as part of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS project. This was agreed upon by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, according to European media reports.Macron and Merz discussed the problematic project, for which 100 billion euros were allocated, on the sidelines of the EU and Western Balkan countries summit in Montenegro last week and concluded that there is no foreseeable solution to the months-long stalemate. Airbus and Dassault will no longer collaborate on the creation of a joint fighter.
rt

Posted by: Jo | Jun 8 2026 20:20 utc | 95

with eu leaders like von leyen, kallas, merz, macron and etc – must be quite an exciting proposition for armenia to join the eu, lol….  and apparently the eu is gearing up for war on russia too – not just the covert one that they continue to foster, but a hot one too…  frankly i can’t see a lot of strength here emanating from europe.. maybe someone else can…  europe seems in serious decline in fact… not sure how that works out in the long run – joining the eu… maybe ukraine can join too, lol..

Posted by: james | Jun 8 2026 20:44 utc | 97

Jo 95 – looks like the Saab Grippen will the new fighter of choice for the EU……a much better and cheaper solution than the flying boneyard the F35 ! Its a maintenance nightmare.
 
The Canadians are considering this option too after their initial order of F35’s is delivered and operational……………

Posted by: tobias cole | Jun 8 2026 20:49 utc | 99