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‘It’s Not a Bluff’: Putin Threatens the West With Nuclear Weapons, Announces Partial Mobilization in Ukraine

‘It’s Not a Bluff’: Putin Threatens the West With Nuclear Weapons, Announces Partial Mobilization in Ukraine

“To those who allow themselves to make such statements about Russia, I would like to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction…”

Russian “President” Vladimir Putin threatened the west in his latest speech as Russia suffers setbacks in an attempt to take over Ukraine.

I cannot stress this enough: Russian-backed separatists (and Russia because common sense) have occupied the Donbas region since 2014. This is NOT new. Please remember that when other news organizations say Russia has only occupied the region since February.

Putin spouted his condemnation against the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine (President Volodymyr Zelenski is Jewish) and conspiracy theories that the west wants to break apart Russia:

The purpose of this West is to weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country. They are already directly saying that in 1991 they were able to split the Soviet Union, and now the time has come for Russia itself, that it should break up into many mortally hostile regions and regions.

And they’ve had plans like this for a long time. They encouraged gangs of international terrorists in the Caucasus, promoted the offensive infrastructure of NATO close to our borders. They made total Russophobia their weapon, including for decades they deliberately nurtured hatred for Russia, primarily in Ukraine, for which they were preparing the fate of an anti-Russian foothold, and the Ukrainian people themselves were turned into cannon fodder and pushed to war with our country, unleashing it – this war – back in 2014, using armed forces against the civilian population, organizing genocide, blockade, terror against people who refused to recognize the power that arose in Ukraine as a result of a coup.

Putin also came as close as he could to declaring his use of nuclear weapons without being blunt:

To those who allow themselves to make such statements about Russia, I would like to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for some components – even more modern than those of the NATO countries. And when the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. It’s not a bluff.

The citizens of Russia can be sure that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence and freedom will be ensured – I emphasize this again – with all the means at our disposal. And those who are trying to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the wind rose can also turn in their direction.

Putin also announced a decree on partial mobilization, which will begin today. He called up an unknown amount of reservists “to protect our Motherland.” Here are a few points from the decree:

4. Contracts for military service entered into by military personnel continue to be valid until the end of the period of partial mobilization, with the exception of cases of dismissal of military personnel from military service on the grounds established by this Decree.

5. Establish during the period of partial mobilization the following grounds for the dismissal from military service of servicemen undergoing military service under a contract, as well as citizens of the Russian Federation called up for military service for mobilization in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation:

a) by age — upon reaching the age limit for military service;

b) for health reasons — in connection with their recognition by the military medical commission as unfit for military service, with the exception of military personnel who have expressed a desire to continue military service in military positions that can be fulfilled by the specified military personnel;

c) in connection with the entry into force of a court verdict on the imposition of a sentence of imprisonment.

Vijeta Uniyal blogged that Ukrainian soldiers broke through a “Russian front line along the Oskil River in the eastern Kharkiv region.” Putin is panicking and will stop at nothing to get his way.

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Comments

I study Russian via Skype with some teachers in Russia. One of them just told me that people are scrambling to get out of the country. That the cheapest ticket to somewhere like Thailand is 300,000 rubles (about $4,500). Her husband is not affected cause he is a student, but her 44 year old father is called up. She is pretty distraught.

    It is now illegal for men between 18 and 49 or something to leave the country now I have heard.

      NavyMustang in reply to geronl. | September 21, 2022 at 1:00 pm

      I don’t remember the age spread, but she did tell me that. The ironic thing is that her parents were just at their property in southern Italy. If they had just stayed a little longer.

      Conscription for 18 to 65 … darn, 65 .. you’d think they would leave the Afghanistan survivors alone by now.

Sure is a lot of sabre rattling going on.
Someone must have talked to the big guy.

We seem to have a leadership in the West that was so naive and blinded by ideology that they honestly could not see Putin, and old-fashioned nationalist authoritarian, would not resort to using energy, food and nuclear weapons as tools in all this.

What did they think? That he would hold hands with them and sing Kumbaya?

    Petrushka in reply to Eric R.. | September 21, 2022 at 7:46 am

    But we pressed the reset button!

    Petrushka in reply to Eric R.. | September 21, 2022 at 7:51 am

    Just gonna say, back in 2012, Obama ridiculed Romney for saying Russia is our greatest threat.

    From this we got Crimea. And to cover up their ineptitude, they tried to frame Trump. This scenario is so transparent, I can’t believe no one talks about it.

      Dimsdale in reply to Petrushka. | September 21, 2022 at 8:46 am

      Indeed. I can’ think of a single place that the “territorial integrity” of Russia has been threatened in any way, but transgressions into the Ukraine are everywhere, with free added war crimes.

      I think Putin is becoming addled in the brain, reliving the “glory” days of the old USSR, but he is far less demented than our pResident.

      Dear God, please bring back President Trump or someone like him, to stand up to our enemies instead of taking payouts from them.

        Please stop looking for a savior. Start trying to convert hearts and minds so we don’t need one.

          Ironclaw in reply to GWB. | September 21, 2022 at 10:04 am

          Regardless of everything else, we still need competent leadership.

          Barry in reply to GWB. | September 22, 2022 at 1:12 am

          I have an idea, why don’t you convert putin’s heart and mind as a starter.

          You don’t have to be looking for a “savior” to desire competent leadership in the White House.

      henrybowman in reply to Petrushka. | September 21, 2022 at 8:57 am

      I kind of get the impression that Russia would be nowhere near our greatest threat, if the Democrats would just friggin’ stop poking them over and over.
      China is enough for us to handle.

        Putin has been reacting to NATO expansion since the 90’s.

        And many well respected foreign policy experts said NATO expansion was unnecessary and they have been predicting since then it would lead to war in Ukraine.

        The know-it-all Uniparty ‘experts’ running US foreign policy since then ignored and dismissed the warnings.

        And now here we are. On the brink of WW III over what amounts to a border dispute over arbitrarily set internal borders between Soviet republics that were preserved after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

          geronl in reply to JHogan. | September 21, 2022 at 12:22 pm

          NATO seems very necessary with people like Putin running Russia

          A much better response might have been to disband NATO but use it as the core to a wholly European defense arrangement from the Atlantic to the other side of the Black Sea.

          BierceAmbrose in reply to JHogan. | September 21, 2022 at 2:37 pm

          I don’t recall NATO expanding by invading and annexing anywhere, lately.

          Did I miss something?

          Putin supposedly once asked when Russia would be invited to be part of NATO. He was told that Russia would have to ask and be approved. This seemed to disappoint him.

          Putin considered the “overthrow” of the Russian friend, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to be NATO aggression.

          Pepsi_Freak in reply to JHogan. | September 22, 2022 at 2:43 pm

          As to Russia being invited to join NATO, the rule would apply to Russia as with all other nations, “You must ask to join, and be accepted into the club.”

          However, Russia did ask to join the Partnership for Peace (PfP), which is considered to be sort of a “waiting room” for NATO applicants, and was accepted. Of course, some other PfP members (e.g., Switzerland) have indicated no interest in obtaining full NATO membership, so the fact that Russia is a member of PfP may have little significance — at the moment at least.

        Putin has always wanted to rebuild the old empire. He has made speeches about doing that for decades.

        JohnSmith100 in reply to henrybowman. | September 21, 2022 at 3:50 pm

        Appeasement of either China or Russia is not the answer. It never works, sooner ar later it will be necessary to show them some backbone.

      Old random thoughts.

      The EU and the Obama team launched Euromaidan to foul the Sochi Olympics. Victoria Nuland was the front operator in Kyiv the whole time.

      Recall that the Russians intercepted a phone call between Nuland and one of the US Kyiv embassy officials and released the recording: Nuland “F Merkel” conversation.

      Media insisted upon calling Russian irregular troops flooding into the . Donbas and Crimea – Little Green Men – media did this for months.

      Aftenposten a Norwegian paper published photos of unmarked Russian troop and supply convoy truck columns driving on the highway in Rostov-on-the-Don (Rus territory) within days of the invasion. Days – not months later.

      Stephen F. Cohen of the Nation magazine immediately began calling the Ukrainians fascists. He was a prof at Yale or Princeton. He was on the John Batchelor Show every week. He’s married to the owner-publisher. We used to call her Katrina von USSR.

      Max and Sid Blumenthal were running a Antifa type disinformation campaign at the leftist website Altnet. They are Clinton apparatchiks.

      John McCain pops up in Kyiv. He gets photographed on stage with an actual dyed in the wool fascist – Oleg Tannubok (I forget the name.) He’s very well known in Ukraine. Svoboda? I think thats the group he used to lead.

      The whole thing is weird. Obama and the EU seemed to be opposed by the Clinton faction. Stepen F. Cohen was supporting Putin. That never really made sense. Cohen is like a Bernie Sanders type Marxoid. Robert Conquest thanks him for his help in the acknowledgments section in his seminal book The Great Terror. So Cohen isn’t a nobody from Expertville.

    But my post-WW2 “the world will never be the same” progressive Foggy Bottom philosophies!

Afghanistan Ii.

Putin wanted to be seen as a modern Tsar, rebuilding the old Motherland. He will not fail; he is not bluffing. The only question is what are those close to Putin going to do to solve this issue.

    JohnSmith100 in reply to Oracle. | September 21, 2022 at 4:07 pm

    ?Assassination? Isn’t that what usually happens with these kinds of people?

    Barry in reply to Oracle. | September 22, 2022 at 1:16 am

    “He will not fail…”
    He is a failure, like all despots. Can russia eventually overwhelm the Ukraine? Of course, they have an almost 4 to 1 advantage. But it’s bloody and the russian people may tire of it a la Afghanistan.

A mobilization in Russia right now will do more to undermine Putin and Russia than anything NATO can do. The public will say ‘hell no we won’t go’ to die in Ukraine under corrupt Soviet era incapable military leadership just so young Ukes can’t live free of Moscow tight fist. Putin is dangerous because he has been humiliated by his own people. A dead Putin would be briefly gratifying but then the question becomes ‘now who’?

When someone tells you he is not bluffing, it’s hard to believe he is not bluffing. In this case, though, it’s hard to believe he IS bluffing because he’s crazy.

Kwiznos Haagendazs | September 21, 2022 at 8:37 am

Reagan’s ambassador to USSR writing in February 2022: “So far as Ukraine is concerned, U.S. intrusion into its domestic politics was deep—to the point of seeming to select a prime minister. It also, in effect, supported an illegal coup d’etat that changed the Ukrainian government in 2014, a procedure not normally considered consistent with the rule of law or democratic governance. The violence that still simmers in Ukraine started in the ‘pro-Western’ west, not in the Donbas where it was a reaction to what was viewed as the threat of violence against Ukrainians who are ethnic Russian.”

It was a bad idea to encourage rioting protesters to depose Ukraine’s pro-Russian president. It was an even worse idea to invite the new government to join an anti-Russian military alliance. We should not be surprised that Russia responds about the same way that we would if China fomented a coup in Canada and then tried to add that country to an anti-American military alliance.

    China is too busy creating a coup in this country, aided by their biological and pharmaceutical assaults.

    if China fomented a coup in Canada and then tried to add that country to an anti-American military alliance

    How do you mean “if”? the Canadian government is owned lock, stock and barrel by the CCP..

    My opinion on the Ukraine conflict remains that I have no opinion on the Ukraine conflict, precisely because that conflict goes as far back and has as many tangled branches as Northern Ireland. Anyone claiming to know who the “good guys” and “bad guys” are in that mess is thinking like a 14 year old.

      The Russia-Ukraine conflict goes back many hundreds of years. Long before there were any widely acknowledged and accepted borders between the two.

      Ukraine has been part of the Russian Empire since the rule of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great in the 1700s. To put it into perspective, back before there was a United States. Back when Britain and France were enemies constantly at war with each other. Back when France was still ruled by monarchs.

      The internal borders of Ukraine within the Soviet Union were somewhat arbitrarily set, with areas populated by large ethnic Russian majorities made part of Ukraine.

      This is a classic border dispute and regional border war (history is chock-full of them) that is escalating into potentially WW III because NATO, and Ukraine, insists that border is sacrosanct.

      The_Mew_Cat in reply to daniel_ream. | September 21, 2022 at 1:52 pm

      Yes, they are both bad guys, but our Deep State has seen Ukraine as Russia’s Achilles Heel since the USSR fell. That is why they have been so invested in Ukraine for decades. The whole point is to goad Russia into invading to draw them into a quagmire that ultimately brings down Russia, and forces it to break up. Of course, Putin, being a very predictable ruler, stepped right into it. He couldn’t help himself.

    In 2014 Putin had to occupy parts of the Don river basin area to secure Crimea. Lots of important rail and highway connection points in that region.

    I will repeat myself – the whole thing is weird. It’s looks like at least three power factions trying to control Ukraine.

    another odd tidbit: 2014 – Putin moved a group of Chetnik fascists to the checkpoints leading to the Crimean peninsula and turned it into a strange media event. Search: chetnik fascist crimea.

WWIII is totally preferable to mean Tweets.
Notice that Putin did NOT make his mean threats on Twitter.
No bluecheckas’ fragile egos were harmed in this production,
Win!

Stolen elections have consequences.

    Stuytown in reply to henrybowman. | September 21, 2022 at 9:48 am

    Please stop with the “stolen elections” bit. Donald Trump ran against an old man who can’t think and campaigned from his basement. He should have won by many, many millions of votes. But he didn’t win because he couldn’t stop the crazy. If he had been a better candidate, whatever fraud may have occurred should not have made a damned bit of difference because it would have had to amount to millions of fraudulent votes. Hard to hide. Hard to achieve.

    Trump also ran against one of the most detested candidates in history, Hillary Clinton. He won by less than 100,000 votes. Why? Because he can’t stop himself from acting crazy.

    Which elections have been stolen?
    Bush v. Gore?
    Trump v. Clinton?
    Trump v. Biden?
    Abrams v. Kemp?
    How about Kennedy v. Nixon?

    I think there is a lot of evidence for Kennedy v. Nixon. But you can’t simply choose the election that your candidate lost and carry on for another 2, 3, 4 or more years.

    Trump’s effectiveness as president was unsurpassed. But he couldn’t shut up. He couldn’t stop the Tweets. He couldn’t act normal. He acted insane when he got COVID. Had he acted just slightly more normal, slightly more statesmen-like, or had Twitter kicked him off 1 month before the election rather than afterwards, he would still be president. He fucked up.

    Now move on and support candidates that can get elected. If Republicans did that, it would take the House of Reps by a mile in November and would end up with 55 senators. But Republicans voter seem to need the insanity. Take Arizona: Trump (and Peter Thiel) financially supported Blake Masters (not a good candidate) during the primaries. Now they have disappeared from the campaign and Masters doesn’t have enough funding. Or look at Trump’s effect on Georgia in 2020, when he told Georgia’s Republicans not to vote because the election was fixed. He may have been the reason why the Senate is now 50/50. If Trump had stayed out, and if one Republican would have won, all of the insane bills passed by the Dems in the last two years would have failed.

    I liked Trump, too. I voted for him twice. But it’s high time to find a new candidate.

      nordic prince in reply to Stuytown. | September 21, 2022 at 1:31 pm

      And it is precisely this type of thinking that allows the Ds to keep on stealing elections.

      “Shut up and move on. Can’t unring a bell, so no use trying to fix the last election.”

      The establishment loves that attitude. Keeps them ensconced in CONgress and milking that gravy train for all it’s worth.

      If you don’t fix a broken system, don’t be surprised when the next election gets stolen. And the next. And the one after that….

        “Shut up and move on.”

        The ultimate GOPe/RINO response to every piece of increasingly radical leftwing Dem legislation since Reagan. And to every un-Consitutional executive order since Obama.

        Nikki Haley tried to use this on Trump after he was replaced by the ‘fortified’ election. Early in 21 she said the GOP needed to ‘move on’ from Trump (and to her, presumably). One of the many reasons why she will never be the GOP nominee for president. Despite her fondest dreams and fantasies.

        Notice they don’t even talk about repealing Obamacare anymore. The lie that they would do that if elected died when they got elected and could have done it and didn’t.

        It was just another one of the many, many lies the GOPe has for decades told a voting base they despise and detest having to suck up to during election season when they need their votes.

      Kwiznos Haagendazs in reply to Stuytown. | September 21, 2022 at 1:56 pm

      More Republicans than Democrats requested mail in ballots both in Michigan and Wisconsin, but Biden got the majority of mail in “votes” in both states. Since neither state actually verified these votes by comparing ballot signatures to signature cards on record, the plausible explanation for Biden’s performance is election fraud.

      This kind of thing doesn’t interest NeverTrumpers because, in their heart of hearts, they agree with Sam Harris that Trump is such a menace that it would be justified and even praiseworthy to remove him from power by any means necessary.

      “Please stop with the “stolen elections” bit.”

      Screw you, thief.
      Only complete fools, idiots and the corrupt try to pretend the election wasn’t stolen, that the dope biden got 81 million votes. What a laugh you pathetic marxists are.

      “I liked Trump, too. I voted for him twice.”

      Clearly, more of your lies.

    JohnSmith100 in reply to henrybowman. | September 21, 2022 at 4:40 pm

    Reactions to those tweets were so funny. Usually those tweets were the truth. It is time to rub those fragile noses in much more truth.

the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine (President Volodymyr Zelenski is Jewish)
Just a note: so is Soros.

The fact that Ukranians elected a Jewish president doesn’t mean they’re not neo-nazi. The Azov brigade is real. And Bogdan Chmielnitzki, who was Hitler until the actual Hitler came along, is the Ukraine’s national hero. Ukranians have a centuries-long history of antisemitism, and it’s naive to think it magically disappeared in a mere decade or so. Electing a Jew means nothing. The Austrians elected Kreisky. The French elected Blum right before they collaborated with the Germans to exterminate the Jews.

    jhkrischel in reply to Milhouse. | September 21, 2022 at 11:18 am

    Qui bono.

    The #MilitaryIndustrialComplex, now in league with the #MediaIndustrialComplex is committed to keeping this conflict going right up to the edge of disaster. This is the perfect place for weapons and tactics to be tested, both on the battlefield IRL, as well as the battlefield online.

    This is a fight between two bad guys, with the rest of us encouraged to cheer it on because it makes for good ratings and real-world tests of military capability. And as a bonus, it creates energy “emergencies” that give governments more reason to impose their own controls locally in the face of opposition.

    This is a miscalculation ready to blow up in the faces of those they think can hold the tiger by the tail.

    Kwiznos Haagendazs in reply to Milhouse. | September 21, 2022 at 1:46 pm

    Ihor Kolomoyskyi, the Jewish billionaire behind both Zelensky and Azov Battalion, isn’t a Nazi. He and Zelensky use neo-Nazis against an enemy they hate even more: a resurgent Czar and Orthodox Church in Russia. This is confusing only to people who know nothing about the history of the region that includes the Pale of Settlement, pogroms, etc.

    The weird thing about all this isn’t that various Eastern European tribalists are at each others’ throats. It’s that American conservatives somehow persuaded themselves that we should provoke one side and spend tens of billions of dollars propping up the other side.

The Russian leadership is willing to endure hardship in their Nation to accomplish their goals. Unless the EU/NATO Nations are willing to endure similar hardship then time is on the side of Russia. The EU Nations have barely begun to feel the sting of counter sanctions and economic pain imposed by Russia and they already have mass demonstrations. As conditions worsen I am not at all sure the EU can avoid fragmenting along their natural economic and ideological fault lines.

    I have to believe China will n the end, behind the scenes, do what is needed to prop Putin up. They don’t want him strong but they don’t want him gone, either. He is useful in their game and goal to diminish and economically defeat the West in the long run.

    They would love to see cracks and fissures start to form in NATO. They would love to see it fall apart. They and Putin have the same goal in that regard.

    The rest of the world, outside of the US and greater western Europe, still lives in a Realpolitik dominated world.

      CommoChief in reply to JHogan. | September 21, 2022 at 7:14 pm

      Frankly I wouldn’t be opposed to NATO being retired as we look to reconfigure our strategic posture away from intervention towards a policy of only doing so when our direct national security interests are at stake. If we have allies of convenience great if not meh.

      That’s not a posture of isolation, its a posture of rational assessment, implementing priorities and deciding to act only in our best interest. When we do so we must do it in a Jacksonian total war/crush the enemy/salt the earth / total victory manner that limits US casualties while maximizing enemy casualties and enemy damage.

      No we won’t stay to rebuild or garrison the hell scape we create, we’ll go home. Each Nation has an obligation to devote sufficient resources to defense to help deter attackss while using diplomicy to avoid conflict. The US isn’t the world’s big brother with any obligation to bail out any cocky siblings who bite off more than they can chew. IOW if a random country decides to poke the bear, so to speak, then they better be independently capable of eating the bear, otherwise the bear eats them while we stand aside and watch.

vlad is unpredictable for sure–but as a practical matter would take him at his word

still, is hard to believe that anyone with even a mote of self-preservation would resort to nukes–hard to put that genie back in the bottle–even more difficult to predict the consequences/outcomes of their use

Putin needn’t use any weapons, nuclear or otherwise. The United States are NOT united and the government, along with 99.5% of the present politicians in power, plus high placed unelected subhumans such as Susan Rice and Valerie Jarrett, are all doing a stellar job of destroying our country from within as fast as they can.

    You’re assuming he has the same viewpoint as you. It’s a frequent mistake with foreign policy (and one Foggy Bottom makes all the time). But it is unlikely he views Progressivism as something that is strengthening our country.

I don’t know what anyone expected. Every possible thing has been done to antagonize the Russians and they have retaliated. Sanctions were used against them, so they answered with economic responses of their own, cutting off Europe’s energy flows which will cost the Europeans much worse than it will the Russians.

Do I support their incursion? No, but I also understand the historic paranoia the Russians have about being invaded across their flat, featureless steppes, especially from the west.

Finally, they had no reason NOT to do it. Let’s just say that I’m pretty sure that Putin was not at all impressed with the weak, feckless, incompetent pedophile we have in the white house. Nor, by the way, is there a deterrent to using tactical nukes there, either. That pedophile won’t do a damn thing.

Don’t you think he looks tired?

I said this much earlier this year.

The demented babbling moron’s weakness MIGHT lead to nuclear weapons being used.

The ONLY THING that has kept them from being used is the ABSOLUTE ASSURANACE that it would result in the total destruction of their country.

But now dictators like Putin are looking at this weak drooling babbling fuck and thinking that maybe they could launch a couple nukes and just get away with ‘international condemnation’ and a round of pathetically weak sanctions.

Weakness breeds war.

    The_Mew_Cat in reply to Olinser. | September 21, 2022 at 1:45 pm

    He won’t “launch a couple of nukes”, and he won’t launch any at us unless we use nukes or give them to Ukraine. When Putin uses nukes, he will use them on the Ukrainian Army, and he will use hundreds. He has to mobilize a sufficient army first, because his troops will have to move into Ukraine after the Ukrainian Army and key civilian population is destroyed.

Russia’s population is plunging, it is vulnerable to several invasion points lost after the fall of the USSR (one of them being the Ukraine region) and they are trying to get all of those back. If they don’t now, they never will because they won’t have the army to do it. They are in survival mode at this point and that is not good.

    If another country decided to pick this moment to move against Russia, I’m not sure what they could do without resorting to nukes.

      Colonel Travis in reply to geronl. | September 21, 2022 at 12:39 pm

      I don’t know what it would take for them to launch nukes. No one in the Western world has the ability to persuade him otherwise right now. Maybe it could happen internally, if it gets to the breaking point, maybe one of their allies.

      Their military is horrible. No one knew how bad until this year, that’s not gonna help, either. Sick and wounded bear we have. No bueno.

Putin spouted his condemnation against the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine (President Volodymyr Zelenski is Jewish) and conspiracy theories that the west wants to break apart Russia:

It is not a conspiracy theory. Our Deep State’s involvement in Ukraine over the last 2 decades was always intended to break up Russia. Ukraine has always been seen as Russia’s Achilles Heel, and there was a lot of policy discussion on think tanks to this effect. . Of course, Putin is not a stupid man. He knows this, yet he stepped right into it when Biden pushed his buttons. It seems that Putin is incredibly predictable. Push his buttons and he lashes out predictably. Now the goal is to push him into using nuclear weapons before the Midterm Election.

Let’s kill this Elensky is a Jew, once and for all. Frank Collin was a Jew. If you don’t know who that is ask Professor Jacobson.

As for Nuclear weapons, what Putin said was that Western politicians have threatened to use nuclear weapons, and he would remind them that he has nukes too and they are newer and better. I remember occasionally some politicians will say that we should nuke Russia. Who died and made you CNN?

Finally the media reports this as a conscription, it’s really calling upreserves. According to Shogiu about 1%. It won’t hurt the Russian economy ( as many in the West suggest ). It will however allow Russia to virtually double their fvorces inUkraine.

Also these callups will mostly be supprt not front line troops.

The eight-year long Biden/Maidan/Slavic Spring in the Obama World War Spring series with “benefits” and two illegitimate regimes in a Kiev-Military-Paramilitary axis war on Ukrainians.

NYPost: Russian lawmakers blame losses on experimental Ukrainian super-soldiers
https://nypost.com/2022/07/19/russia-blames-losses-on-experimental-ukrainian-super-soldiers/
Russia on Monday outrageously claimed that its massive army has failed to deliver Ukraine to President Vladimir Putin because it is fighting against experimental super-soldiers, turned into “cruel killing machines” by US studies.

Two Russian lawmakers told reporters this week that the Kremlin is investigating the blood of Ukrainian prisoners of war, and has found “evidence” of experimentation, Russian outlet Kommersant reported.

Russian Senator Konstantin Kosachev told the outlet that the blood of Ukrainian prisoners contained traces of pathogens he claimed were “atypical” for Ukraine.

IrIrina Yarovaya, deputy chair of the State Duma, said the alleged experimentation is creating “cruel killing machines.”

Wonder what the Russians use to make their “cruel killing machines.”
Darn, I never thought I would see Russians claiming that they are inferior.

Cut through all the BS, and what putin is really doing? Admitting the russians bit off more than they could chew, they are mired down, the army of conscripts wants to go home.
They have no “reserves” to draw upon. They have only former conscripts, ill trained, with no logistical support.
It’s going badly for the 4 times as large russians.

It is a bluff of course, but it shows how desperate Putin is. The war that he, and pretty much everyone else, thought would be over in 2-3 weeks, with Kiev and Kharkiv taken within the first 2-3 days, is now entering its eighth month with very marginal Russian terroritial gains achieved so far.

In the first days of the war, he threatened Sweden and Finland when they announced their desire to join NATO. They still did, and what was Putin’s reaction? No big deal, it’s not really a threat, we can live with that. He also threatened to attack ships and all weapon supply routes into Ukraine — never happened. Weapons are flowing into Ukraine without any Russian interference. Russians keep threatening, but like all bullies, when threats don’t work, they just shrink away.

    Davod1 in reply to davidm. | September 22, 2022 at 11:42 am

    “In the first days of the war, he threatened Sweden and Finland when they announced their desire to join NATO”

    Should read ‘In the first days of the war, he threatened Sweden and Finland THEN they announced their desire to join NATO’

Putin speaks. Vlad, the invader, may have an internal problem greater than his inability to destroy Ukraine. Google searches on how to leave Russia spike.

Polls show that the majority of Russians support the “special military operation. When living in Russia, always keep the state or be thrown in jail.

Russians have to ask if the war is going so well quietly; why are there so many body bags? Why a partial mobilization? Why threaten the use of nuclear weapons?

Eventually, people wake up to the propaganda.

Notice. The technology at P’s left shoulder. I think people easily forget how most live in Russia and the former CCCP. (To the tune of less than $100 a month average income. Really think about that for a second.) I remember crossing the rubicon; when faced with R’s perspective you get a TON of insight on what position the Russians are in today, after what happened in the ’90s. As to Ukraine, yes this particular war has been hot since 2015 at least (and before? Not sure by how much. Hundreds upon hundreds of years w/ moments of cool reprieve.) My question is, I really don’t understand this: Does P only get certain info, or is he lying through his teeth strategically? I mean, it’s obvious who exactly is hitting schools, hospitals, civilians, infrastructure. It’s him. All other things being accurate representations of this leader’s psyche, then how does he believe ‘neo-nazis’ (germans? Ukrainans?) are responsible? Or does he not believe that at all? In which case we need to reevaluate whether he really is saying what he’s doing and there it is. Also remember P was educated in Germany. There were also, btw, a series of ‘academic’ papers (because some shills don’t deserve that title in any sense) running up to 2020 – definitely a form of Russian propaganda by Canadian – US – European faculty – going into the previous world war histories, and convoluting the histories w/ claims to cast the blame for actual (german) nazi actions onto the Ukes. (As if they can be credited w/ WWII naziism!) Depicting them as these raging berserking nazis. If you remember during WWII Ukraine, along w/ Poland, was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don’t know if it’s okay to refer to these academic authors by name. As I was reading these academic historical misinterpretations 2015 until now, I couldn’t understand the point of such ‘academic’ documents. But when Feb 2020 hit, I knew – suddenly – the point. They were laying in groundwork. Who reads academic papers like this? Policy makers, leaders, academics in other fields who don’t have time to deep dive into historical works. Deforming history has a technical name, though I’m not sure it qualifies as desconstruction. It’s madness, and possibly exposes some of the root of this conflict. Though they can be a tough bunch, most (not all) Russians I’ve met, Communists, former Communists, Religionists, Theatrical types, actual academics – none of them shared this mentality w/ Putina. Would share, I should say, as I’m remembering people from my past. I don’t know. I’m Ukrainian-American diaspora 3rd generation w/ Jewish/German/Polish/andUkrainian roots (Not critically, but still), and study Russian literature. I can’t convey how broken a heart can be. To Ms. Chastain – Thank you for thoughtful articles on this ongoing tragedy.

Sorry, to be clear and fair, there was some raging during WWII, and the Ukrainians committed atrocities. But it was a very small group, and the point I was trying to make was – when between a rock and a hard place – I guess that is what war is.