I think it's something like: Putin and team decide Wagner is to be liquidated, Prigozhin plays the only hand he's got, which lasted as long as it took for the FSB to take pics with his family.

China pipes up "we'll help too" once it's clear there's no major uprising.

Unconfirmed video footage of Russian military personnel who tried to join Wagner being executed as traitors currently doing the rounds.

I was starting to wonder what Mike from breaking bad was doing in Russia

Russian friend asking me if Joe Biden was going to be removed from the Presidency because that's what the media is telling her. I explained that yes, he is a criminal, but it's a criminal-run country now. That some from the West like Putin perhaps more than the Russians do because he stands against homos and the sickness we put up with in the name of "progressive" politics. *shakes head*

The Ukrainians were cocky for a day, but have slunk back into their day to day routine of hating Russians and living miserably. They also hate homos too, so no matter who wins, they won't. Pidoras hahah.

That's all we have so far. A glimmer of hope, and a bunch of numpties that support whoever is in power because the news. And they're also pidoras.

There is altogether far too much chatter about false flag attacks on nuclear power plants for my liking right now. :/

^^^ All the reactors are in cold shutdown though, so worst case would be some radiation leakage via explosive debris, but probably containable with an exclusion zone. Next to a waterway may be problematic, but with wind patterns being predominantly easterly, they would blow the nasties towards Russia.

Not great, not terrible...

BUT if it is Kyiv issuing some FUD and they then shell the place, hmmm.

Apparently Prigozhin is back in Russia. 🤷

I don't like the suggestion he's gotten his hands on a live nuke, as unlikely as that is. (Right? Right?)

US official says 'exiled' Wagner boss Prigozhin may not have gone to Belarus at all

It's fascinating how there are so many layers of propaganda and obfuscation here.

Putin wants to attend an August summit. Host country South Africa doesn’t want to have to arrest him

Putin smearing his shit around. If he attends there's a message that he's willing to flaunt some norms, which will bring him some friends, but will also indicate what he's given up on.

This is the closest thing to news I've found reporting on this:

Opposition Grows to U.S. Imports of Refined Russian Oil

Everything else is from Indian industry based publications:

https://thewire.in/political-economy...-crude-imports

Russia halts participation in Ukraine grain deal

Looks like the rise in food prices will continue unabated.

"Apparantly" the wagner boss was on a plane that crashed in Russia.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/496...ne-authorities

Even more curiously, a chap here at work that looks very similar to him called in that his daughter was sick and he may not be in today...

...

Nope - just saw him downstairs, so even though I have never seen them both in the same room, they may not be the same person.

I guess technically Prighozin could have fallen out of a window of the plane as it impacted the ground...?

Or could not have even been in the plane in the first place.

Chances Putin gave the order to bring the plane down, 100%

Chances Prigozhin was on the plane, ~90%

I always do voluntary legal contracts when I perform human trafficking. Sounds more like mercenaries than "human trafficking". [Article does not support headline]

Anyway...

Ukraine has put out the call for extra mobilization, asking for women with medical experience, military academy training, and "partially able" men to sign up. My friends are either afraid to leave - even for a holiday ("I might get stolen" [taken hostage]), some are losing confidence in the Ukrainian government ("I thought we were fighting for freedom, but it turns out to be propaganda") or just stopped caring about the air raid sirens and ignore them and don't bother going to the shelters. It's been going on for too long, Ukraine clearly isn't winning, and if you aren't winning the war, you're losing the war. Russians aren't going through any of this, because it's not happening in their backyard. Nor are the Americans or any other NATO countries. Just the Ukrainians suffer and "millionaires are deciding who lives or dies" [their words, not mine]. They used to be fiercely anti-Russian, now they're conceding that people are people, and it's not about citizenship but who the fuck is making these stupid decisions about literal warfare. We've moved on from fighting stupid battles with 20 year old men, humanity has grown up - or at least I'd like to think so.

Cool that Cubans are helping Russia (or not), but Ukraine is running out of men.

You could say the Russian military operation has "failed" if you assume there is a specific concrete objective, but if slowly grinding the Ukrainian people into submission is an objective, you might say it's a success. Just my opinion of course, and I never supported actual warfare, so of course I have a bias.

But it's not a specific argument, just a report of what the Ukraine people are telling me. They're certainly not optimistic and gung-ho about going to fight Russians.

Ukraine rips Elon Musk for disrupting sneak attack on Russian fleet with Starlink cutoff

The Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not. They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war.

Source: https://twitter.com/WalterIsaacson/s...42242290901361

Let me stop you right there...

Canada's Speaker of the House praises Waffen-SS veteran, thanks him for his service. Which, presumably, was exterminating Jews.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ught-for-nazis

ok this shit is getting weird now.

Yeah, do your due diligence before applauding WWII vets. ::facepalm::

Wow, that's like the "My grandfather died in a concentration camp. He fell out of a guard tower." joke, but in real life.

This has got to be a huge blow to Russia's naval capacity, much more than taking out a sub and drydock:

Ukraine says Russia Black Sea Fleet commander killed; no comment by Moscow

Apparently intel was supplied by unpaid officers working with local partisans.

There's definitely a degree of hubris, naval leadership unable to help itself but meet in the most obvious, ostentatious location.

Ouch. Hell hath no fury like a junior officer whose pay didn't turn up.

Who knows the truth of any of it of course, but I'm interested to see how Putin is looking his next public outing. And how far off that is.

Canadian Speaker of the House resigns

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/can...JW6DXRKFJIQNE/

I don't really get why Putin is giving Zelensky such good ammunition by killing dozens of civilians shopping and mourning. Obviously there's a degree psychological damage that's inflicted, but the country is already steeled to send its children to die fighting the invaders.

Perhaps it's just Russian forces acting with a free hand, inflicting revenge attacks.

It's only going to further bolster resolve to support Ukraine.

Ukraine conducts new attack on Russian railway deep in Siberia

Cyber warfare is producing some results:

Cyberattack hits Kyiv as Zelensky pitches U.S. for lifeline in war

Ukrainian intelligence attacks and paralyses Russia's tax system

I wonder how significant the attacks on Russia's tax system really are.

Episode #730 should drop later today - they will no doubt mention it.

I watched the Tucker Carlson interview of Putin.

Executive Summary: It's America's fault, if they stopped being dicks the war could end, and he has no intentions to invade other countries - that's a "boogeyman" story used to justify fleecing the taxpayers.

It's a long slow watch, and no bombshell revelations.

The Interview 2.

@46 minutes, Putin roasts Tucker.

I think Tucker just had a "never meet your hero" moment and it turned into him realising he was just a useful idiot getting a dictator's mad messages out to the world

He's very familiar with being the useful idiot getting a dictator's mad messages out to the world, but this one was a little more intelligent than the last one he dealt with.

Victoria Nuland to retire

Woman who interfered in Ukraine's affairs in 2014 has now decided she has had enough, and is stepping down.

I'm not sure if it's an indication/revelation of anything in particular (there's a chance she could be stepping down because her stupid idea to get Ukraine into a war with Russia doesn't seem to have achieved much except the downfall of the US and its international reputation), but I thought it was an interesting point in the timeline.