"Dad culture"

Paul F said:
Reveriesh Prigozhin - remarkable change of events. I suppose the world's intelligence groups and think tanks are working overtime on scenarios.-

The train - did it look like this? (go to 15:00) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzBxFH_hEwA
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No, these are what were known as the "plats-cart", i.e, non closeted.non-private sleeping births,

Since my parents generally had the funds, we traveled in the non-private but enclosed 4-bed sleeping rooms. They were non-private in regard that a passenger had to pay for the bed/seats but couldn't control his neighbors. Tickets in 1970's were about 14 rubles, which generally ensued a middle class selection. Minsk to Moscow or Moscow to Minsk overnight were 10 PM to 8 AM overnight rides. And you got tea, as a rule.

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I've seen plenty of those in Bald's videos. From his reports, train travel is still very economical in Russia.
 
Paul F said:
I've seen plenty of those in Bald's videos. From his reports, train travel is still very economical in Russia.
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Train travel was subsidized by the government.

As to today - supposedly Prigozhin and the Wagner group have taken over the Rostov area (South East Russia, not far from Ukraine, was a regional location of the Wagner Group; they're on a major regional highway and are passing Voronezh and continuing toward Moscow (maybe a 6 hour drive left). Putin has ordered various police type formations to keep security over Moscow roads and suburbs. He himself supposedly left the city and has flown to Kazakhstan. Which is obviously a surrender, with him just trying to save his life but Kazakhstan is like to turn him over to the global crime tribunals.
 
Just saw a Russian language YouTube clip - they said that according to the Kazakhstan news service, Voronezh is under a full control of the Wagner group. According to travel maps, it's is 6 hours of driving from Moscow. Which means that the Wagner group should be in Moscow by this afternoon. Putin and Shoygu have probably fled. They're dead men walking otherwise.
 
Another ex-KGB/FSB officer, who also lead an anti-Putin party and has been in exile for a while, his comment was, "the FSB and the military are not interested in dying for Putin" ... and I'll add that neither is Putin ... IMO, this will be over by night time in Moscow ...
 
Once stood next to Putin on the return line at Macy's.

He was frustrated with a boxed cologne set he purchased earlier that day. I was returning a cooking pan.

After hearing his interaction with the clerk I don't think he'll be back at that mall again.
 
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's plane left Moscow on the afternoon of June 24 amid an ongoing rebellion led by PMC Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Belarusian Hajun monitoring project said on Telegram on June 24, citing data from the Flightradar24 service.

The Russian government’s Il-96−300PU aircraft took off from Vnukovo Airport at 14:16 local time and headed for Valdai, one of Putin’s residences, it said.

However, Hajun said it was not known who was on board the plane, although it was an aircraft which has been used by the Russian dictator several times.
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/putins-plane-reportedly-departs-moscow-133300722.html

Vnukovo is a a major airport in Moscow and Valdai is one of many Putin's summer palaces (it's west of Moscow and closer to Novgorod, not that far from a former Leningrad aka Petrograd) ... chances are if Putin left Moscow, he won't be returning.
 
I wonder how the Russian generals are lining up. Prigozhin probably has a good idea how they are aligned. If Putin is toppled does Prighzhin fight an even bigger war or shut it down?


[edit] - that was fast. It's over. Prigozhin stops advance and is returning to Ukraine. ...... What was that all about?
 
Or returning to Belarus - from where he isn't from - as a guest of its long time dictator Lukashenko.

I saw a few clips by the well known Russian speaking pundits - none of them believes it. But Putin might retain in power for a while. Or not.
 
Watched a few more - Msscow was basically undefended last night/this morning .... Prigozhin and the Wagner group could have walked in with their 25,000 or so well-trained troops .... if this is a real deal, the assumption is that he got billions of dollars handed over to him .... except he doesn't have the state power to spend it ... because Lukashenko controls it in Belarus, so he'll have to leave somewhere like Turkey with his billions ... maybe Dubai, maybe the OAE ...
 
And the last version is that Putin kidnapped Rriozhin's daughters in Petrograd (ex-Leningrad) and told him he'll murder them. And so he decided to surrender the coup..
 
So, if Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries go to Belarus, there have two likely options - they're either given a lot of money and move to somewhere like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and settle there. Or, they could be hired by someone else.who still wants Putin out. According to the military analysis, there are 25,000 mercenaries in Wagner and they would have easily overrun Moscow and everyone else there. So, if someone would give them a few $Billion, they'll likely take up the challenge. They have no love for Putin. And the Belarus border-town of Vitebsk is 323 miles away from Moscow, making it a 6-6 hour drive away.. Leave at 9 AM, arrive with guns drown by 5 AM.
 
A major, albeit currently quiet, power player is Turkey and Erdogan. He's been fighting Putin for several years in Syria and Libya, aiding fighting in Azerbaijan against Armenia (a wainng Russian ally) wants/needs the Ukrainian and Ukrainian grain *Russia blocked huge portions last year), et cetera, et cetera. Russian practically has no military in Moscow, Turkey has large mobile assets - choppers, aircraft, drones - it's a one day job.
 
They still have nuclear weapons and most likely wouldn't think twice about using them at this point.
 
My feeling, based on absolutely nothing is that Russia has disintegrated. The communist party has given way to crime bosses. The only way anything gets done is through bribery. Power is in the hands of the those with the money. Conscripts unwilling to die for Putin are easy to understand. The generals control small enclaves of the military, partnering with others but with no power to mobilize a branch of the service. They take orders from Putin, the chief crime boss, who doles out money to his trustees. If Putin flees, a vacuum is created, a ruthless power struggle ensues until a successor emerges who is worse. The shills in the Russian media are no longer the cogs in a journalistic propaganda machine, but have become mouthpieces in fear for their own lives.
 
Tom Roper said:
My feeling, based on absolutely nothing is that Russia has disintegrated. The communist party has given way to crime bosses. The only way anything gets done is through bribery. Power is in the hands of the those with the money. Conscripts unwilling to die for Putin are easy to understand. The generals control small enclaves of the military, partnering with others but with no power to mobilize a branch of the service. They take orders from Putin, the chief crime boss, who doles out money to his trustees. If Putin flees, a vacuum is created, a ruthless power struggle ensues until a successor emerges who is worse. The shills in the Russian media are no longer the cogs in a journalistic propaganda machine, but have become mouthpieces in fear for their own lives.
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Putin's been in absolute control since 2003. There is no "corruption". It's all under his personal control.

And whether or not Russia has any nuclear weapons remaining is questionable. Since a rag-tap of troops under Prigozhin can easily walk into to Moscow in half a night, any major military power- a NATO power included - can get there much quicker - send a few drones for the overhead security, follow up with the Black Hawk--Pave-Hawk heavy choppers with a dozen special force soldiers per, End with Ospreys. Use F-35's for the overhead protection. Keep flying in the C-130 Hercules (or a similar military transport). And an entire Moscow is under control in hours..
 
You speak about it like it's a movie, lol...in these modern times it would be hard to believe everything is in one place.

You take over one city and you embarrass and piss someone off so badly - someone who's possibly unstable right now with a mind that is not modern, and who may be seeing end of life in the near future regardless of anything else - that suddenly you have a bunch of things coming from all sorts of locations, especially from a country like that.
 
DLD said:
Putin's been in absolute control since 2003. There is no "corruption". It's all under his personal control.
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The communist party had political institutions, Central Committee, Politburo, Council of Ministers, Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. The communist coup against the reformist Gorbachev failed and the party was banned. The Russian Federation became the successor state. But lacking a functional, provisional government, "absoute control' is a defacto dictatorship, power in the hands of ex-KGB, Putin a totalitarian tyrant and the only way out was how you got in, corruption, bribery, payoffs, fear, torture and assassination. That's how I view it anyway.
 
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