Dude, post links with that shit.
Putin 'arrests the man who invented Putinism' in purge of 150 spy chiefs as he turns on his inner circle in hunt for scapegoat for disaster in Ukraine
So pinch of salt, because this is coming from Russian media. I can't think of a good reason Putin would lie about this off the top of my head.Russian outlet Buninskaya Alleya reported: 'More and more sources report that Vladislav Surkov is under house arrest.
'Investigative measures have been carried out allegedly in the case of embezzlement in the Donbas since 2014….
'It was Surkov who was the representative of the Russian President in Ukraine.'
Telegram channel Druid reported: 'According to our sources, Vladislav Surkov is under house arrest.'
If confirmed, the move against Vladislav Surkov appears to show Vladimir Putin is turning on his inner circle, and also deep splits among his closest henchmen.
Unconfirmed accounts say Putin's 'ideologist' is being held in a wide-ranging criminal probe that has also seen the arrest of 150 FSB agents.
The case evidently involves the alleged embezzlement of $5 billion (£3.85billion) by the secret services to create an undercover and intelligence network in Ukraine.
The shadowy Surkov, seen as crucial to Putin's long-running electoral success, was the man who encouraged him to believe Ukraine is not a real country.
The 57-year-old is a former Kremlin insider, more recently a Putin point man in Ukraine.
Before Putin sent troops into Ukraine, Surkov called for Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states to be annexed.
The detention of senior FSB figure Col-General Sergei Beseda, 68, now held in grim Lefortovo jail, is seen as a linked case.
Russian opposition politician Ilya Ponomarev also highlighted the detention claims and pointed at Kurkov's closeness to the leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.
Kadyrov is seen as muscling in on the war, and in his role as a Lt-Gen in the national guard demanding that Putin invades all of Ukraine.
This has caused a split in Putin's inner circle.
Surkov was formerly deputy head of the Russian presidential administration from 1999 to 2011.
He has been called Putin's 'main ideologist', devising the concept of 'sovereign democracy' as a mask for authoritarianism.
He advocated the need to defend Russians beyond the borders of the motherland - a key plank in Putin's annexation of Crimea and bossing of the Donbas.
'The Russian world is something bigger than Russia itself,' said Surkov.
'Because we are in fact a dispersed people, our population stretches well beyond our own borders.
'What is the Russian world to me? It's everywhere, where people speak Russian and think like Russians, or where they respect Russian culture.'
Once described as 'the hidden author of Putinism', he advocated an outward look of democratic norms with timely elections in which the results are preordained.
He also convinced Putin that, as Surkov said: 'There is no Ukraine. There is Ukrainianness.
'That is, a specific mental disorder. An amazing enthusiasm for ethnography, taken to an extreme…
'There is no nation.'
So it could be false. But:
1) Putin can't possibly be happy with his Ukrainian intel.
2) The violent and effective resistance means Putin shouldn't be happy with Surkov, either.
3) Yep, that's a Russian official saying that people who live in Ukraine, are Russians, and if they don't agree they have a mental disease.
4) We've all talked about Russian corruption being a proven pandemic in the Russian military. Construction paper doesn't stop RPGs, yo. We've talked about the money that was supposed to go to supplies, going to rich corrupt Russians instead, and then Russian troops show up with no ammo and expired MREs. Well, it would be no giant leap in logic to assume money that was supposed to go to spying on Ukraine, instead being pocked, and people just writing "reports" saying "Ukraine is great, they are clearly for Glorious Leader Putin, invasion would be easy, SIEG HEIL". And...then it wasn't.
We should keep our eyes open for a more credible report, but, I'm not sure how quickly we'd get one -- whether this is a true story or not.
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I would say "save some for the rest of us" but no, Finland's earned this. Just take pictures of the smoking pile of ash that used to be Russia's defenses.
This isn't "money on wars", but foreign aid that happens to be going to a country at war, who may very well be a key strategic ally on the other end of this.
Not directed at you, but it's lame how most Americans don't understand the point of foreign aid or the direct and indirect returns it brings to US interests.
The only problem you answered was the raw materials for microchips themselves (not the machines to build them), and on that end all you answered was "silicon", the easiest part to obtain.
Here's another problem: Russia's economy isn't built to produce advanced technological goods, it's built to enrich the oligarchs. That's why factories for outdated planes and tanks haven't been shuttered. You can't build advanced chips when all the tech used is made by people who embezzle half the funds and deliver shoddy products. Crap lithography machine, crap air filtration system to prevent contamination, crap doping machine- yes, I bet the Russians will even embezzle the doping machines!
And Even if they could do it- they're still decades away from reaching current in house production needs.
It's clear- Russia can't produce anything advanced on their own. They're entirely dependent on the West for advanced electronics.
Yeah, just like you expected there'd be no problem taking Kyiv.
Zelenksy better not betray or waver in his allegiances to America after all this support. If he lives through this conflict and Ukraine is intact, Ukraine should be pushed as close as possible to the US's sphere of influence.
"Truth...justice, honor, freedom! Vain indulgences, every one(...) I know what I want, and I take it. I take advantage of whatever I can, and discard that which I cannot. There is no room for sentiment or guilt."
Apparently the French aid has been pitiful.
Now granted, it could be because the Ukrainians need outdated tech that their soldiers know how to work- but surely rhe French and Germans could give small arms, newer stuff than AKs, grenades, helmets, medical supplies, MRE''s, even artillery.
Don't they realize what's at stake? If Russia takes Ukraine, the Kremlin will have control over the majority of the grain used to feed North Africa/the Middle East...whenever they feel like it they could trigger a famine that would in turn trigger another refugee crisis. Fight for your own political hides if not for the right of Ukrainians to live in the west.
knowing what America does to maintain its hold as the superpower of the world, I really doubt America is *only* supporting Ukraine for altruistic reasons, especially considering the longstanding enmity America has for Russia. I'm guessing behind closed doors there's a lot more to this in a "pact" way we wouldn't hear of, of course, but I think swearing fealty is one of them.
"Truth...justice, honor, freedom! Vain indulgences, every one(...) I know what I want, and I take it. I take advantage of whatever I can, and discard that which I cannot. There is no room for sentiment or guilt."
"Truth...justice, honor, freedom! Vain indulgences, every one(...) I know what I want, and I take it. I take advantage of whatever I can, and discard that which I cannot. There is no room for sentiment or guilt."
So now the Ukrainian army is forming a "Freedom for Russia" brigade made up of russian defectors? Is this confirmed to be true?