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Friday, Aug 22, 2025

Vladimir Putin is suddenly looking less in control of Russia’s destiny

Vladimir Putin is suddenly looking less in control of Russia’s destiny

Russia’s information and propaganda campaigns are becoming more erratic and incomprehensible by the day. It is hard to discern who they benefit, certainly not the personal autocracy of Vladimir Putin. These may be the first signs of Russia being a house divided over the conduct and leadership of its forces in the Ukraine war.
Last Wednesday Evan Gershkovich, 31, of the Wall Street Journal, was arrested on serious charges of espionage – the implication being that he was about to reveal unpalatable truths about Russia’s war economy. The arrest of such a prominent correspondent is unprecedented in post-Cold War Russia, a sign of reckless defiance or desperation from the Kremlin, maybe.

Equally obscure is the weekend assassination of the pro-war blogger Maksim Fomin, aka Vladlen Tatarsky, at the Street Food Bar # 1 in St Petersburg, a known haunt of ‘Cyber Z’ ultranationalists who say they are ‘Russia’s information troops’.

Tatarsky’s blogs frequently criticised the conduct of Russia in the war in Ukraine, where he spent time reporting from the front line. Criticism of the Putin Kremlin was ill-concealed, by implication. The bar had been set up by Putin’s erstwhile ally, now critic, Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader and founder of the Wagner mercenary group.

Within 24 hours we have had the rather dodgy videoed confession of the bombing by Darya Trepova, a former peace demonstrator allegedly linked to the leading dissident Alexander Navalny. Navalny supporters have said the whole thing is a fake, possibly the work of the security service, the FSB.

The sense of in-fighting was enhanced by Prigozhin saying his Wagner troops had at last conquered Bakhmut, the bloodiest battleground in the war so far, hoisting the Russian flag at the town hall. Within hours of this, however, it became clear that Ukraine’s forces still held strategic parts of the town.

As an exercise in misdirection, all the sound, fury and propaganda would hardly qualify Putin’s men as conjurors worthy of the Magic Circle. They have failed to distract Russians at large from two brutal facts. Today Finland joins Nato, more than doubling the common land frontier between Nato allies and Russia. With Sweden likely to follow this summer, the Baltic becomes a Nato lake dominating maritime access to St Petersburg, Russia’s most important European port.

Second, the propaganda tricks can’t hide the fact that Ukraine will start a crucial set of offensives. In the past 14 months Kyiv’s commanders have proved themselves the equal or better at military bluff than the Kremlin.

This time they will play the Russians at their own well-established game of maskyrovska, a series of feints and manoeuvres in which the real main attack is only rvealed at the last possible moment. I suspect a series of strikes are being prepared from Kharkiv to Kherson and the Crimea, with a number of guerrilla operations inside Russian-held territory and along the border.

As long as the principal allies of Nato and the EU stay solid, led by the US, Germany, France and the UK, Ukraine can prove this summer that Russia’s current plans court disaster. For all the bluster and fantasy propaganda, Putin is now appearing less and less in control of the timetable and agenda for his country’s destiny.
Comments

Brad 2 year ago
Phoenix Program - Wikipedia

The Phoenix Program ( Vietnamese: Chiến dịch Phụng Hoàng) was designed and initially coordinated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Vietnam War, involving the American, Australian, and South Vietnamese militaries
Brad 2 year ago
6 corporations control all the global media

Udo Ulfkotte says all media controlled by the CIA: A 70-Year War on ‘Propaganda’ Built by the CIA

A 70-Year War on ‘Propaganda’ Built by the CIA

Cynthia Chung
Brad 2 year ago
The US propaganda isn't working is what you must be saying. Here let me help you!

The US government used the CIA to overthrow Ukraine in 2014 installed (Petro Poroshenko)

Then installed Zelensky a known actor/comedian on record.

The CIA is running this operation against the BRICS system but also to put NATO military bases along Thr Russian border.

For centuries, it has been at the center of a tug-of-war between powers seeking to control its rich lands and access to the Black Sea.
 Western

media will claim it's a people’s revolution, it was in fact a coup d’état scripted and staged by NGO (George Soros ) the U.S. State Department.

They’re linked to the CIA…CIA interests are not America’s interests, they never have been. The CIA has been morally corrupt since the beginning.”

Days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Stone condemned the “hysteria of the Western media” and called for a sober analysis of the geopolitical situation from all sides.

Watch: Oliver Stone’s Bombshell Ukraine On Fire 🔥

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