Russia has lost a staggering 87 percent of the total number of active-duty ground troops it had prior to launching its invasion of Ukraine and two-thirds of its pre-invasion tanks, a source familiar with a declassified US intelligence assessment provided to Congress told CNN.
Still, despite heavy losses of men and equipment, Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to push forward as the war approaches its two-year anniversary early next year and US officials are warning that Ukraine remains deeply vulnerable. A highly anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive stagnated through the fall, and US officials believe that Kyiv is unlikely to make any major gains over the coming months.
The assessment, sent to Capitol Hill on Monday, comes as some Republicans have balked at the US providing additional funding for Ukraine and the Biden administration has launched a full-court press to try to get supplemental funding through Congress.
To be honest, I didn’t think Russia would make it to two years. I expected riots, revolution, putin getting killed, etc. It’s pretty insane how indifferent the majority of the Russian population is. That makes it even more scary.
They did protest. And everyone was arrested. Then they protested the arrests. And everyone was arrested. Then people just silently stood in groups holding blank signs. And everyone was arrested.
So only another military coup could free Russia from Putin’s firm grasp.
But that’s why he kept his own military led by weak leadership. And the only paramilitary group he allowed to gain strength ended up attempting a coup against him.
And what a whimsical coup it was
Yeah, that was a wild couple of days. Not that Prigozhin and his merry bunch of neo-Nazis would have been that more tempting as leaders of Russia. So the prospects for Russians have usually been “and then it got worse” so it’s hard to blame them for not putting their necks on the line for the next despot.
Can’t imagine why a fucking Nazi mercenary marching on Moscow couldn’t gather grass roots support for the revolution.
They weren’t attempting a revolution, if anything, it was a coup. You don’t need grassroots support for that.
And yet, that was apparently his plan.
And it was actually a “coup” against the Minister of Defense which really cranks up the whimsy.
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They don’t know the war is going badly. They don’t know what Western society knows about the war. They’re fed state approved propaganda and nothing more. They’re also plastered constantly which kills motivation for political upheaval.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
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The answer is that neither the US nor Russia is a good place to live, but right now we’re talking about Russia, so bringing up the US is irrelevant. Like it always is with whataboutism, because what else could the answer possibly be?
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It’s you. You said ‘what about Obama’ like it made you relevant in any way.
It didn’t, and you’re not.
Did you ask a question?
You done commenting “what about the US”?
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You sound like a well adjusted adult, so go on
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Protest is met with swift arrest and long prison sentences.
Well you know how it is. Everyone who knows what’s going on left, everyone else just watches TV and believes them because why wouldn’t they.
While the army may be extremely disorsgnized, unfortunately, putin has made internal security extremely solid. Add to that the fact that a great amount of people in russia are politicaly passive or pro Z, I don’t think a revolution is coming from the people anytime soon.
Give it time. It took 3 years of war for the 1917 revolution to start.
I feel like Ukraine needs to take the fight to Russia for that to work, but that runs the risk of galvanizing the population against Ukraine as well
One thing I would add is that the Russian people do want change but any attempt at changing the leadership is met with poisoning and/or long prison sentences. I would highly recommend reading about Alexei Navalny or watching the fascinating documentary
It’s not indifference they are ok about it, it’s called democracy.
They’d have to have a democracy in order for it to be called a democracy
They just don’t have the American democrazy…
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Whataboutism is a moron’s contra-argument.