A couple more dead higher-ups in the news. One seems legit - long term cancer. The other may be part of a long line of suspicious deaths.
“” According to Russian state media, Cherepennikov died of a heart attack - a conclusion that was reportedly arrived at without a post-mortem examination."
In the wake of his death, a friend stepped forward claiming that they do not believe that cardiac arrest was the cause of the multimillionaire’s death.
" Speculations of foul play are rampant with some suggesting that the Kremlin may also have a hand in them.
So far at least 39 people including oligarchs and scientists have died in questionable circumstances and some feel that this is a testimony to the shadowy inclinations of the Russian government."
The Prigozhin rebellion, however, showed how risky this tactic is when the mercenaries are deployed next door, in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Russia had veered back to paramilitarism – but of a new type, driven by modern-day entrepreneurs of violence rather than the violent entrepreneurs of the 1990s.
A month later, however, it appears this was only temporary. Putin’s regime is in the process of containing the threat. And it uses tactics it has employed before: dosage, public shaming, seizure of assets, the deployment of dangerous mercenaries away from home.
This tactic might work again. One month on, it is still too early to predict the outcome, but it certainly appears that expectations for Russia’s dissolution or the collapse of Putin’s regime were premature.
Putin might yet fail in reasserting his authority, but at the moment there is little evidence that he is.
there seems to be some kind of breakthrough for the UKR in the south of Bakhmut … unfortunately twixxer sux and sends me straight to a sign in page - so I cant really read it …
… regurgating stuff from reddit
(practical impact to be seen over the next few days- but they seem to be able to build momentum)
Latest US Aid Package 25 July 2023, ~$400 million. This is a drawdown of existing stocks available for immediate delivery. The capabilities in this package include:
Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS);
Stinger anti-aircraft systems;
Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
There’s a vehicle park, in Novostepne a mile south of Dzhankoi in Russian-occupied northern Crimea, where Russian forces fighting in southern Ukraine send their damaged vehicles for repair.
On Monday, it exploded. According to Russian sources, a British-made Storm Shadow cruise missile, fired by a Ukrainian air force Sukhoi Su-24 bomber, was responsible for the blast.
Either way, the Ukrainians win and the Russians lose. Ukraine’s cruise missiles are making it harder for Russia to keep its brigades in southern Ukraine fully equipped.
The Storm Shadow operational range: 550 km (300 nmi; 340 mi). So the range on these missiles is all of Crimea from over 100 miles from the border.
I wonder if Russia will retaliate by striking an apartment building or school. They seem to have no strategy at all other than “try to terrorize civilians “
Well, something like it worked in WWII. Of course it was in tandem with hitting military targets and overwhelming ground forces, something Russia seems to have forgotten about.
I wonder how many extra rubles Putin has grabbed for himself after all these unlikely deaths? I just can’t see him letting all that cash and property leak thru his fingers. Last time I recall there were about 30 oligarchs that fell out windows.
It was done in WWII. I don’t think there’s any evidence it actually worked. And even then, the goal was to take out factories, and the workers in them, that were producing materials used by the military. Bombers often hit schools and churches and the like anyway, but that was just because back then, aiming bombs meant “try to get them somewhere in the same city”.
Even there, the targets picked were cities that seemed relevant for the war effort. By contrast, Kyoto, with an abundance of culturally-relevant sites, was left untouched by both nukes and by conventional bombing.
I guess they are done poking around, taking notes and finetuning their approaches - and of course softening the RU supply routes - word is of attacks with 100+ armed vehicles today in the south … other vids report of 1500 drones got send out to the front between y/d and today.
I have the feeling we are going to see some deeper cuts and more kinetics into the RU defense lines … it’s gonna get pretty ugly, I am afraid …
