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Putin Shows His Cards: Ukraine’s Zelensky Says Nuclear War ‘Could Be a Reality’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Sunday nuclear war “could be a reality” as Russia ramps up increasingly ominous saber-rattling threats.

“He wants to scare the whole world,” Zelensky said of Russian President Vladimir Putin during an interview on CBS’ “Face The Nation.”

“Look, maybe yesterday it was bluff. Now, it could be a reality,” he said of a possible nuclear strike seven months into the war — accusing the Kremlin of “nuclear blackmail.”

“He targeted and occupied our nuclear power plant and the city of Enerhodar. This nuclear station has six blocks. And… he continues his blackmail related to us exporting electricity to Europe.” . . .

“I don’t think he’s bluffing,” he said. “I think the world is deterring it and containing this threat. We need to keep putting pressure on him and not allow him to continue.” (Read more from “Putin Shows His Cards: Ukraine’s Zelensky Says Nuclear War ‘Could Be a Reality'” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Vladimir Putin’s Guru Says ‘Nuclear Apocalypse Likely’ if Russia Faces Ukraine Defeat

[One of President Putin’s closest advisers, Alexander] Dugin tweeted: “A very important decision has been taken and, it seems, not easily made. All our – unbearable, outrageous – sacrifices are not in vain. The state and the people are on the same side of the barricades.”

Dugin, who lost his daughter, Darya Dugina, 29, last month in a car bomb attack [sources in Ukraine and the United States have tried to blame Putin for the murder of Dugin’s daughter], tried to rally Russians to get behind Putin and the war effort.

He said: “After all, we are fighting on the side of God and heaven, on the side of earth and soul. That is why our native blood is donated, flowing directly from Russian hearts.”

While he said that the Ukraine conflict was turning into a world war he said that there were only three outcomes.

Looking at the possibility of defeat for Russia, he said: “It would mean not only the end of the regime, but the end of everything and everyone. It is essentially a scenario for the end of Russia, Finis Rossiae. If our retreat begins, everything will fall, for both external and internal causes.”

His second outcome was the “nuclear apocalypse”.

Dugin wrote: “The second scenario is a nuclear apocalypse. It is possible that Moscow, which is beginning to lose seriously, will decide to use nuclear weapons.

“Likely? Yes, probably. Is anyone in Russia considering this possibility? Undoubtedly. Russia could resort to nuclear weapons in other situations, since for Russia, both state and people, losing a war would mean total annihilation, and not just a severe but still tolerable defeat, which could be overcome, the nuclear scenario cannot be discarded.

“The West clearly underestimates this probability, considering it a bluff.”

Then his final outcome was for a Russian victory which would see the building of a “religious and spiritual” empire and the end of Western society.

He said: “The third scenario is the most important. In Russia, a revolution is taking place from above. Putin, who has already broken with the West, turns this total and irreversible rupture into an ideology, a course, a strategy and the sole guideline of existence.

“All compromises are abolished, Russia is openly becoming a people’s empire with a marked religious and social ethos. Liberalism and Westernism are banned.

“The state and the people regroup and the special military operation is transformed into a popular holy war. To be or not to be. That moment has arrived”. (Read more from “Vladimir Putin’s Guru Says ‘Nuclear Apocalypse Likely’ if Russia Faces Ukraine Defeat” HERE)

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Putin Confidant’s Son Pranked, Caught Trying to Get Out of Military Service in Ukraine

The son of a top Kremlin aide was duped by a Russian rabble-rouser into revealing that he would “obviously not” serve if drafted into Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Nikolay Peskov, the 32-year-old son of longtime Kremlin flack and Putin confidant Dmitry Peskov, refused the call of duty when he was prank-called by the hosts of Russian YouTube channel Popular Politics, according to Russian independent news site Insider.

Dmitry Nizovtsev, pretending to be a Russian recruitment officer, told Peskov he’d been drafted and needed to show up at a medical examination the next day.

“Obviously not,” the younger Peskov exclaimed.

“You must understand, if you know that I am Mr. Peskov, how wrong it is for me to be there,” he continued. “In short, I will deal with it on another level.” (Read more from “Putin Confidant’s Son Pranked, Caught Trying to Get Out of Military Service in Ukraine” HERE)

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Putin Bluster Is All Bluff — He’s Losing at Home and in Ukraine

Make no mistake: Vladimir Putin is losing the war in Ukraine. The menacing speech, broadcasted mysteriously on Wednesday morning instead of the originally scheduled Tuesday night, might be the closest the Russian dictator will ever get to admitting defeat before his hold begins to crumble.

The address had several audiences. For one, it aimed to deter the West from supporting Ukraine by raising the specter of nuclear escalation in defense of annexed territories that will soon become part of the “Motherland.” At home, Putin tried to keep hardline nationalist critics of the conduct of Russia’s military operation at bay by showing that the Kremlin is doubling down on its efforts in the Donbas — while also scrupulously seeking to avoid alienating wider swathes of Russia’s population by pursuing only a “partial” mobilization. . .

If the special military operation was going according to plan, as the Russian officialdom was assuring Russians until today, why has it suddenly become “necessary to support the proposal of the Defense Ministry and the General Staff” to mobilize?

Mobilizing the wider population carries political risks, which is why the Kremlin hesitated until now and why only around 300,000 men will be called to serve, according to the government. Already on Wednesday night, Russian cities saw sizeable protests — at least as measured by standards of a country where public expressions of discontent with the war may land one in jail for 10 or more years. Meanwhile, prices of one-way tickets out of Russia skyrocketed (until 18- to 34-year-old men were banned from leaving the country) and “how to break an arm at home” became a top search term on Russian search engines.

Militarily, calling on the reservists is a desperate move, though congruent with reports of extraordinarily high attrition that Russia is suffering in Ukraine. Normally, months of specialized training would be needed for reservists to fight effectively. Even then, an army needs weapons, equipment, and supplies — all of which are in short supply in Russia. Inevitably, thousands of the undertrained, undermotivated, and undersupplied reservists are bound to die tragic deaths at their first contact with Ukraine’s experienced and well-equipped fighting force — a fact that is a matter of indifference to Putin and his circle, as long as the elite’s children remain exempt from service. (Read more from “Putin Bluster Is All Bluff — He’s Losing at Home and in Ukraine” HERE)

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Russia’s Former President Quotes Revelation, Warns the West Will Burn With Fire

Western “half-wits” from “stupid think tanks” are leading their countries down the road of nuclear armageddon with their hybrid war against Moscow, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Tuesday. Endlessly funneling weapons and support to Ukraine while pretending not to be directly involved in the conflict will not work, added the deputy chair of the Russian Security Council.

The “security guarantees” proposal unveiled by Kiev on Tuesday was “really a prologue to the Third World War,” said Medvedev, calling it a “hysterical appeal” to Western countries engaged in a proxy war against Russia.

If the West continues its “unrestrained pumping of the Kiev regime with the most dangerous types of weapons,” Russia’s military campaign will move to the next level, where “visible boundaries and potential predictability of actions by the parties to the conflict” will be erased and the conflict will take on a life of its own, as wars always do, Medvedev argued.

“And then the Western nations will not be able to sit in their clean homes, laughing at how they carefully weaken Russia by proxy. Everything will be on fire around them. Their people will harvest their grief in full. The land will be on fire and the concrete will melt,” Medvedev wrote, before citing a Bible verse from Revelations 9:18.

“Yet still the narrow-minded politicians and their stupid think tanks, thoughtfully twirling a glass of wine in their hands, talk about how they can deal with us without entering into a direct war. Dull idiots with a classical education,” Medvedev wrote. (Read more from “Russia’s Former President Quotes Revelation, Warns the West Will Burn With Fire” HERE)

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Double Trouble: Xi-Putin Summit Produces Pledge of a United Front on World Stage

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to forge closer ties during a summit in Central Asia on Thursday that included a discussion of Chinese support for Russia’s troubled invasion of Ukraine and Russian support for Beijing’s claims to Taiwan.

The get-together in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the first meeting between the two leaders since Mr. Putin ordered the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, took place on the sidelines of a regional summit.

“China is ready to work with Russia in extending strong support to each other on issues concerning their respective core interests,” Mr. Xi said during the meeting, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Mr. Xi used the meeting, part of his first trip outside China’s borders since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in Wuhan in late 2019, to highlight the joint efforts of the authoritarian governments of China and Russia to become leading world powers and challenge what they say is the “unipolar” dominance of the United States.

“In the face of historical changes in the world and times, as major countries, China is willing to work together with Russia to play a leading role and to inject stability into the turbulent world,” Mr. Xi said. (Read more from “Double Trouble: Xi-Putin Summit Produces Pledge of a United Front on World Stage” HERE)

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More Than 30 Russian Officials Calling For Putin’s Resignation

More than 30 Russian city officials have risked prison sentences to call for the resignation of Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Monday.

The petition, signed by dozens of officials after it was posted by Xenia Torstrem, a municipal deputy in St. Petersburg’s Semyonovsky District, condemned Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which has lasted for nearly seven months.

“We, the municipal deputies of Russia, believe that the actions of President Vladimir Putin harm the future of Russia and its citizens,” a translation of the petition reads. “We demand the resignation of Vladimir Putin from the post of President of the Russian Federation!”

The petition was mostly signed by municipal deputies in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but city officials from Samara and Yakutsk, among others, have also signed the petition. Approximately 84 additional signatures have been added to the petition, though they are still being verified, according to Torstrem. (Read more from “More Than 30 Russian Officials Calling For Putin’s Resignation” HERE)

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Russian Energy Exec Falls From Boat in Latest Mystery Death

A high-level executive in Russia’s energy sector has died after apparently falling off a boat over the weekend, becoming the latest Russian powerbroker to perish under mysterious circumstances.

Ivan Pechorin, 39, managing director of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (ERDC), was sailing off the coast of Russky Island in the Sea of Japan on Saturday when he fell overboard from the speeding vessel.

His body was recovered from the water on Monday following an extended search.

Only days earlier, Pechorin had attended the Eastern Economic Forum, which was hosted by President Vladimir Putin in Valdivostok.

“Ivan’s death is an irreparable loss for friends and colleagues, a great loss for the corporation,” ERDC said in a statement posted on its website. (Read more from “Russian Energy Exec Falls From Boat in Latest Mystery Death” HERE)

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Putin Faces Backlash From Russian Bloggers Amid Retreat: ‘Horrible Failure’

Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing backlash from pro-Kremlin bloggers amid his military’s “horrible failure” in Ukraine.

Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, banking on his vast military to propel him to a quick victory. However, Ukraine met his troops with a stronger-than-expected defense effort, bolstered by aid from allies including the United States. In recent days, Ukraine has ramped up counteroffensives in Russian-occupied territory, allowing Kyiv to make massive gains more than six months into the conflict.

Ukraine launched a surprise counteroffensive in the areas around Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city. In recent days, Ukrainian forces seized control of key cities such as Izyum and Kupyansk, forcing Russian soldiers to retreat as experts see Ukraine building momentum.

Despite worldwide condemnation due to alleged human-rights abuses committed by the Russian military and a lack of justification for the war, many in Russia rallied around Putin. However, these Ukrainian victories have seen some hardline pro-Russia bloggers, who for months cheered on the Russian leader’s invasion, turn on him. (Read more from “Putin Faces Backlash From Russian Bloggers Amid Retreat: ‘Horrible Failure'” HERE)

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Ukrainian Forces ‘Outsmarted the Russians’ With U.S. Artillery

An ongoing counteroffensive has reclaimed “more than a thousand square kilometers” from invading Russian forces over the last week, according to an update from Ukraine’s president released hours after a visit from Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“Within the ongoing defense operations, our heroes have already liberated dozens of settlements,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his latest update. “And today this movement continued, there are new results. In total, more than a thousand square kilometers of our territory have been liberated since September 1.”

Blinken vouched for the “clear and real progress” that Ukrainian forces have made without corroborating the specific amount of land that Zelensky touted. But his arrival evinced the growing optimism in Western circles about Ukraine’s battlefield prospects amid a multipronged operation in both the prized southern region of Kherson and the city of Kharkiv farther north.

“It’s very early, but we’re seeing clear and real progress on the ground, particularly in the area around Kherson but also some interesting developments in the Donbas in the east,” Blinken told reporters in Kyiv. “But again, early days.” (Read more from “Ukrainian Forces ‘Outsmarted the Russians’ With U.S. Artillery” HERE)

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