And Putin himself rose to power as a strong man selected to save the country after a string of 6 apartment bombings by the FSB in Russia killed 300 people. Putin, of course, was an FSB officer. This is how they operate. Power is everything, the people far less important.
Morbid but in some ways may be the only way to tell people a Russian soldier is dead. They're abandoning bodies, some with no ID or papers, and then folks are saying notifications are fake propaganda.
This is darkly humorous. It reminds me of a true story from the Nuremberg Trials. Former Third Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, not a bright man by any standard, was on the stand. He was denying that he had bullied President Hácha of Czechoslovakia to give up the Sudetenland. The prosecutor asked, “What further pressure could you put on the head of a country except to threaten him that your army would march in and your airforce would bomb his capital?” “War, for instance,” Ribbentrop replied, and the court erupted in laughter.
Cnn live "Zelensky tells CNN world should be prepared for possibility Putin could use nuclear weapons From CNN's Jeremy Herb Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN Friday that "all of the countries of the world" should be prepared for the possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use tactical nuclear weapons in his war on Ukraine. Zelensky told CNN's Jake Tapper in an exclusive interview from the office of the president in Kyiv on Friday that Putin could turn to either nuclear or chemical weapons because he does not value the lives of the people of Ukraine. ....... US officials have warned about the possibility that Putin, if backed into a corner, could turn to the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. CIA Director Bill Burns said Thursday that the CIA watches "very intently" over the possibility, while emphasizing that the US has not yet seen any signs that Russia is preparing to take such a step. "Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they've faced so far militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low yield nuclear weapons," he said in public remarks at Georgia Tech."
Good. Cnn live "US doesn't believe Russian cruiser was carrying nuclear weapons when it sunk, officials say From CNN's Jim Sciutto The United States does not believe the Russian cruiser Moskva was carrying nuclear weapons at the time of its sinking, according to the latest US intelligence assessment, two senior US officials with knowledge of the intelligence tell CNN. The US has been monitoring Russian military forces for any unusual movement of nuclear weapons and has not yet detected such movements to date. Given the Moskva was an air defense cruiser, one senior US official added, such a deployment of nuclear weapons on board would be especially unusual."
Cnn live "Putin's ex-economic adviser explains why he believes a full oil embargo would stop the war "within a month" Andrei Illarionov, a former chief economic adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, explained on CNN why he thinks a full embargo of Russian oil would quickly end the war. He recently told BBC that if Western countries implemented a "real embargo" on oil and gas exports from Russia, Russian operations in Ukraine would probably be stopped "within a month or two." "I think it is a very important nonmilitary instrument to influence decision-making process in Kremlin," Illarionov told CNN's Brianna Keilar. "The reason is very simple. Right now, the direct revenues from export of oil and gas from Russia [is] considered around 40% of all budget revenues in Russia. It will take into account direct and indirect revenues. Altogether it will be probably close to 60% of all revenue for the federal budget." ...... "Assuming that these revenues would be reduced substantially as a result of implementation of full embargo for energy export from Russia, we understand it cannot be absolutely full because we have China, maybe some other smaller consumers; nevertheless, it would affect the main bulk of importers of energy from Russia," he said."
It's supposedly coming but they're trying to time it with French elections because of Le Pen's chances of defeating Macron.
Allegedly. Cnn live "Crew of Moskva ship delivered to port of Sevastopol, according to Russian state media From CNN's Nathan Hodge and Uliana Pavlova The crew of the guided-missile cruiser Moskva, which sank Thursday in the Black Sea, was delivered to the port of Sevastopol, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing an unnamed source. TASS provided no additional details about the number of crew members rescued from the ship. The Moskva was the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet. Ukraine claimed it had hit the Russian guided-missile cruiser with anti-ship missiles, while the Russian military acknowledged only that the ship had sunk after a fire on board and the detonation of ammunition. The Russian government has provided no details on casualties."
Supposedly the Turks got about 54 men off & those are the survivors Russia is talking about. There were issues with weather, so....
