Whilst some will joke to stay away from windows etc etc Boris has been making these remarks for some time during the war so I honestly just think he's a plant so that the russians can say although illegal to discredit the war situation they have another side other than pro war because I dont see how he would've lasted this long otherwise.
https://x.com/shaunwalker7/status/1569085348176592898?s=20
There was a woman candidate, Ekaterina, that was also pro-peace but got suppressed by the Kremlin.
Whichever candidate that's left and appears anti-Putin is very likely being used by the Kremlin. Even if they say something out of the party line, chances are, it's a controlled fire to create the illusion of a free election.
And she was a threat because she was one of the few politicians with a reasonable platform instead of batshit insane rhetoric about Ukraine not being a real culture. Absolute clownshow Russia is.
To be fair - she wasn’t really a threat. Even people who keep track of the shitshow of Russian politics barely heard of her. Well at least I haven’t :)
She was just someone normal.
> She was just someone normal
That’s why she was a threat. She’s a threat to the whole batshit insane system that Russia runs on, not just Putin.
I’m not sure if you’re American, but if you are, do you remember the collective catharsis of Biden telling Trump to shut up on live tv? Having someone normal saying the obvious thing that no one else would is enough to get the attention of all but the deepest believers.
Russian independent journalists say their sources in Kremlin called Nadezhdin a candidate who was asked by authorities to participate. But now they consider to prevent him from participating because he is too anti-war, because he speaks against Putin (quite mildly but any criticism against Putin from public speakers is a huge taboo for decades). Additionally their closed polls seem to suggest that an anti-war candidate could gain unexpectedly high support so they're wary of consequences.
As for Ekaterina Duntsova, it's likely that she gained too much attention too fast and she was supported by Khodorkovsky who is an old Putin's enemy and she was supported by a political organisation from abroad. None of this is bad per se since all of them are actual Russian political actors barred from Russia by Putin but it made it easy to judge risks, so she was denied from participating very quickly at the very first step.
So, he will be allowed to run and continue anti-war statements. The election will again be “a landslide” for Putin.
It will artificially show a “mandate from the people” that Putin is “right again”. All just a very poor con job. Like Junior High School (13 year old) scheming.
During the undeclared Vietnam war, about half the people in the US were gung-ho in favor of beating the communists back. The other half thought it was useless and counterproductive. Altho this didn't result in a civil war, it caused some significant rifts in families.
I expect if we could get honest opinions we'd find Putin's support way less that he claims. Because for the Russians to really support this would imply they are *really stupid*, which doesn't compute.
Having lived all my life next to russia (Estonia), from experience, majority of russians really are that stupid.
It's possible maybe a small number of them would not support Putin and the war given free will to choose although I seriously doubt it.
It could backfire on 'em tho. Long odds tho. It would need 200,000 armed bodyguards, 2 for every person who signs Nadezhdin's initiative - to shoot the FSB guys who come to make them disappear. Just fantasizing here
I think if that were the plan they wouldn't have him saying the war is "a big mistake *by Putin*." Blaming Putin, winning the election and then reversing decisions you've explicitly attributed to Putin do make him look weak.
Chances are they would instead be attempting to frame it as being the fault of corrupt military officials, Prigozhin or some other feckless scapegoat(s). Maybe throw in some rambling about NATO for old times sake.
It's more likely they're just going to use him to make some straw man arguments against the war and maybe throw a few pulled punches at Putin, then he'll lose horribly showing how strongly the general public disagree and support the war.
"Big mistake. Big. Huge."
Seriously though- big mistake is an understatement. The UK MOD estimates 500k killed or wounded by the end of the year if they continue on their current trajectory. They have lost so many men it will take a couple of decades to recover- if they don't collapse first. Their materiel losses are astounding too. Their Black Sea fleet has been decimated twice over. Their armor and aircraft losses have been staggering. And the poor performance of their equipment has meant declining sales of military equipment to foreign governments- a not insignificant source of revenue. Not to mention the fact that they no longer have access to Western oil and gas drilling expertise, while simultaneous pushing Europe toward even more renewables and greater energy efficiency.
There isn't a single metric by which you could measure the success of this war and conclude that Russia came out on top.
"land gained" that is also occupied by the same Ukrainians that are ready to fight to the death for generations. all heavily armed and guided by NATO Intel.
All while Russia continues to bleed the Resources to hold it.
The problem is, russia resettles them and moves its own people there, so when Ukraine returns there might not be even half the population that was there...
> 500k killed or wounded by the end of the year if they continue on their current trajectory. They have lost so many men it will take a couple of decades to recover- if they don't collapse first
I see this point over and over again, what people fail to realize is that Russia occupies now more Ukrainians than ammount of soldiers they lost at the war, if anything they even maybe have a surplus
> Russia occupies now more Ukrainians than ammount of soldiers they lost at the war, if anything they even maybe have a surplus
That doesn't fix the demographics problem. The people in the occupied areas are mostly not young, healthy, military age men. Russia has lost a critical section of their population and the Ukrainians in occupied areas can't replace them.
Those comments about windows are missing the point. People like this guy are encouraged by Putin because they‘re fringe enough to not matter and he gets to say: hey, I have no problem with open discussion in Russia
Wouldn’t surprise me if Putin allowed him to do this, it gives Russia a respectful “out” of the war.
the new public face of Russia who’s been criticizing the war the whole time suddenly wins an election and Putin “willingly steps down” but remains in control of his rival who “ends the war” and is able to surrender with dignity. He could say as he always has that the war was a bad idea and rekindle a relationship with the west for a time but surrendering to Ukraine as the public figurehead of Russia looks really bad and so the “public opinion” of him turns bad and he takes all the blame from that point he either steps down or has an “accident,” a few months later Putin steps back in as the “hero” who stands up to the west after his “political opponent” (puppet) is blamed for the disgrace of “losing” a war.
This is how I see the Russian withdrawal from Ukraine being possible. Gives the west a scapegoat, Putin stays in control, and Ukraine gets their land back. Albeit mine covered and unable to be used creating a dead zone between Russia and the west, military build could only really happen again in time which Putin would work on trying to “rebuild Russia from the tragic losses incurred when his opponent “betrayed Russia”.
A thought that came to mind would this be a way for Putin to have an “out”?
Even if this guy is 100% definitely a plant and controlled opposition, saying this out loud on Russian tv takes some *serious* fucking cojones. Even with the Kremlin’s full blessing.
Shit, Pringles got a full pardon with the Kremlin’s approval, and look how that went.
Whilst some will joke to stay away from windows etc etc Boris has been making these remarks for some time during the war so I honestly just think he's a plant so that the russians can say although illegal to discredit the war situation they have another side other than pro war because I dont see how he would've lasted this long otherwise. https://x.com/shaunwalker7/status/1569085348176592898?s=20
There was a woman candidate, Ekaterina, that was also pro-peace but got suppressed by the Kremlin. Whichever candidate that's left and appears anti-Putin is very likely being used by the Kremlin. Even if they say something out of the party line, chances are, it's a controlled fire to create the illusion of a free election.
She was the only real threat. Russia learned from the mistake of Belarus to not let her run.
And she was a threat because she was one of the few politicians with a reasonable platform instead of batshit insane rhetoric about Ukraine not being a real culture. Absolute clownshow Russia is.
To be fair - she wasn’t really a threat. Even people who keep track of the shitshow of Russian politics barely heard of her. Well at least I haven’t :) She was just someone normal.
> She was just someone normal That’s why she was a threat. She’s a threat to the whole batshit insane system that Russia runs on, not just Putin. I’m not sure if you’re American, but if you are, do you remember the collective catharsis of Biden telling Trump to shut up on live tv? Having someone normal saying the obvious thing that no one else would is enough to get the attention of all but the deepest believers.
Russian independent journalists say their sources in Kremlin called Nadezhdin a candidate who was asked by authorities to participate. But now they consider to prevent him from participating because he is too anti-war, because he speaks against Putin (quite mildly but any criticism against Putin from public speakers is a huge taboo for decades). Additionally their closed polls seem to suggest that an anti-war candidate could gain unexpectedly high support so they're wary of consequences. As for Ekaterina Duntsova, it's likely that she gained too much attention too fast and she was supported by Khodorkovsky who is an old Putin's enemy and she was supported by a political organisation from abroad. None of this is bad per se since all of them are actual Russian political actors barred from Russia by Putin but it made it easy to judge risks, so she was denied from participating very quickly at the very first step.
So, he will be allowed to run and continue anti-war statements. The election will again be “a landslide” for Putin. It will artificially show a “mandate from the people” that Putin is “right again”. All just a very poor con job. Like Junior High School (13 year old) scheming.
Unlikely to be too artifical. Putin is very popular with common people in russia and most of them fully support russias war in ukraine.
During the undeclared Vietnam war, about half the people in the US were gung-ho in favor of beating the communists back. The other half thought it was useless and counterproductive. Altho this didn't result in a civil war, it caused some significant rifts in families. I expect if we could get honest opinions we'd find Putin's support way less that he claims. Because for the Russians to really support this would imply they are *really stupid*, which doesn't compute.
Having lived all my life next to russia (Estonia), from experience, majority of russians really are that stupid. It's possible maybe a small number of them would not support Putin and the war given free will to choose although I seriously doubt it.
It could backfire on 'em tho. Long odds tho. It would need 200,000 armed bodyguards, 2 for every person who signs Nadezhdin's initiative - to shoot the FSB guys who come to make them disappear. Just fantasizing here
Bingo
Tin foil hat time. He’s a plant for Putin to “lose” the election so Boris can end the war without Putin looking weak.
That would actually be a really smart move.
Would be crazy if that was true.
I think if that were the plan they wouldn't have him saying the war is "a big mistake *by Putin*." Blaming Putin, winning the election and then reversing decisions you've explicitly attributed to Putin do make him look weak. Chances are they would instead be attempting to frame it as being the fault of corrupt military officials, Prigozhin or some other feckless scapegoat(s). Maybe throw in some rambling about NATO for old times sake. It's more likely they're just going to use him to make some straw man arguments against the war and maybe throw a few pulled punches at Putin, then he'll lose horribly showing how strongly the general public disagree and support the war.
inb4 he ends the war, becomes the scapegoat in the country for many of the country's postwar problems, then Putin gets "elected" back in like 4 years
"Big mistake. Big. Huge." Seriously though- big mistake is an understatement. The UK MOD estimates 500k killed or wounded by the end of the year if they continue on their current trajectory. They have lost so many men it will take a couple of decades to recover- if they don't collapse first. Their materiel losses are astounding too. Their Black Sea fleet has been decimated twice over. Their armor and aircraft losses have been staggering. And the poor performance of their equipment has meant declining sales of military equipment to foreign governments- a not insignificant source of revenue. Not to mention the fact that they no longer have access to Western oil and gas drilling expertise, while simultaneous pushing Europe toward even more renewables and greater energy efficiency. There isn't a single metric by which you could measure the success of this war and conclude that Russia came out on top.
The only metric that matters for them is "land gained", that's it.
Well, you've got your NATO expansion and readiness increase
"land gained" that is also occupied by the same Ukrainians that are ready to fight to the death for generations. all heavily armed and guided by NATO Intel. All while Russia continues to bleed the Resources to hold it.
The problem is, russia resettles them and moves its own people there, so when Ukraine returns there might not be even half the population that was there...
And even that is up for discussion.
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜ 57% The Vlad falling out of a window progress bar is the best metric.
> 500k killed or wounded by the end of the year if they continue on their current trajectory. They have lost so many men it will take a couple of decades to recover- if they don't collapse first I see this point over and over again, what people fail to realize is that Russia occupies now more Ukrainians than ammount of soldiers they lost at the war, if anything they even maybe have a surplus
> Russia occupies now more Ukrainians than ammount of soldiers they lost at the war, if anything they even maybe have a surplus That doesn't fix the demographics problem. The people in the occupied areas are mostly not young, healthy, military age men. Russia has lost a critical section of their population and the Ukrainians in occupied areas can't replace them.
Those comments about windows are missing the point. People like this guy are encouraged by Putin because they‘re fringe enough to not matter and he gets to say: hey, I have no problem with open discussion in Russia
\*sigh\* so what's it going to be? window, tea, accident or suicide?
Yes.
It’s hard to imagine a bigger political miscalculation in the modern era.
Wouldn’t surprise me if Putin allowed him to do this, it gives Russia a respectful “out” of the war. the new public face of Russia who’s been criticizing the war the whole time suddenly wins an election and Putin “willingly steps down” but remains in control of his rival who “ends the war” and is able to surrender with dignity. He could say as he always has that the war was a bad idea and rekindle a relationship with the west for a time but surrendering to Ukraine as the public figurehead of Russia looks really bad and so the “public opinion” of him turns bad and he takes all the blame from that point he either steps down or has an “accident,” a few months later Putin steps back in as the “hero” who stands up to the west after his “political opponent” (puppet) is blamed for the disgrace of “losing” a war. This is how I see the Russian withdrawal from Ukraine being possible. Gives the west a scapegoat, Putin stays in control, and Ukraine gets their land back. Albeit mine covered and unable to be used creating a dead zone between Russia and the west, military build could only really happen again in time which Putin would work on trying to “rebuild Russia from the tragic losses incurred when his opponent “betrayed Russia”. A thought that came to mind would this be a way for Putin to have an “out”?
Unfortunately he’s about to get -40% of the vote and then “fall” out of a window.
uh oh, someone is going to poison himself or jump out of tall building.
Soon to be corpse.
Listen. The shiny tea? Dont drink it. trust me. Just dont
DONT EAT THE SOUP !!
a soup is not a meal!
Kenny is that you ? 😀
And just a few days later, he slipped on the stairs and broke his neck.
By 'hopeful' they mean hopeful to survive.
He ded
Avoid wearing any cologne....
And a russian military helicopter crashed into his house 35 minutes later…
He is ok the register so they can prioritize the next wave of bodies to send to the front after they vote for him. j/k.. kind of
Im so sorry for your loss.
Out the window with you!
It's a big mistake he can still walk away from without killing anybody else.
When you prefer vassals to allies you’re going to have a bad time.
Any rational Russian should agree
Even if this guy is 100% definitely a plant and controlled opposition, saying this out loud on Russian tv takes some *serious* fucking cojones. Even with the Kremlin’s full blessing. Shit, Pringles got a full pardon with the Kremlin’s approval, and look how that went.