88 Comments
User's avatar
Gimme Shelter's avatar

Thank you for the work you do. You just might be the smartest person on Substack.

Antonio Cruz's avatar

Laura is an Angel from God.

Gimme Shelter's avatar

She is a wonderful person

Robert Weber's avatar

Czar Trump seizes St Petersburg from the capitulating #RazPutin. The shelling of #Ukraine to cease “inmediatamente”. Upon backstab by either party, the #SBU will take action. Reference: https://open.spotify.com/episode/645taRH4Qab6GIMOE7ZhLK #Telegraph 🇬🇧 #Slava-Ukraini 🇺🇦 #5th-Column 🦅

Gimme Shelter's avatar

She is very smart and knowledgeable

Gimme Shelter's avatar

You're right about that

Roger Langille's avatar

Very Strange he just welcomed the new leader of Iran there for medical treatment just a few days ago.

Frau Katze's avatar

Unverified, but that’s the rumour about Mojtaba Khamenei.

Helene Ryding's avatar

Or it was a Putin double. By all accounts Mojtaba Khamenei was not in any state to check if it was really Putin.

Leslie 's avatar

That has yet to be vetifief

Fran's avatar

Maybe Putin has already gathered his wealth and secretly left the country for some safe haven (I don't know where that could be though!).

Jason Smart's substack is a good source on the decline of Putin and Russia's power.

William Farrar's avatar

Could be prostrate surgery or something medical.. I would give it a couple of more weeks.

Fran's avatar

There are many more signs of the instability of Putin's regime. Check Jason Smart's substack. He's studied Putin for decades, and goes into detail on all the facts indicating a regime in serious decline.

William Farrar's avatar

I am aware that there are signs of instability in Putin's regime, however so long as he has an iron grip on the KGB, the Police, the media, the oligarchs he is safe.

The big thing right now in Russia is that he hasn't been seen, he has disappeared for over a week. and the question is why? Health, hospital?

Frau Katze's avatar

Probably beefing up security as he watches how easily Israel is killing Iranian leaders.

Fran's avatar

Putin keeps heavy antimissile armaments around his compound, and travels to Moscow less and less. He's very afraid, not just of attacks from outside but from various factions within his regime, as Russia weakens on all fronts. And Trump thinks Putin is strong! :)))

Frau Katze's avatar

So why has he disappeared?

Chloe's avatar

We can only hope that something bad happened to him. I think that would be awesome.

Patricia Turcotte's avatar

A trifecta with The Butcher, the traitor-in-chief and Netanyahu would be awesome!

Steve Brant's avatar

Fascinating! And not just that Putin is "missing" but that living in Russia now involved "no internet". Yikes! And thanks!

"And all of this is happening against the backdrop of something far more visible inside Russia, where mobile internet blackouts have begun sweeping across Moscow, disrupting daily life and leaving residents increasingly cut off. Large parts of the capital have experienced significant outages in recent weeks, with authorities framing the disruptions as necessary for “security,” particularly to counter Ukrainian drone threats, even as many residents openly question whether that explanation tells the full story.

For millions of Muscovites, the impact has been immediate and disruptive, with payment systems failing, businesses losing revenue, and basic communication becoming unreliable, forcing people back to cash and, in some cases, older technologies like landlines, pagers, paper maps, and walkie-talkies. Commuters can’t call taxis, maps won’t load, and workers are crowding into cafés just to find stable Wi-Fi."

Leslie 's avatar

So sad if this is true

Seldon Crisis Log's avatar

Whenever Putin is deposed they need to take care of that slob who’s buddied up with Bannon, Aleksander Dugin. He’s a guiding light to many westerners on the fascist right and must be silenced if we are ever to repair our democracy.

Pete Lincoln's avatar

Interesting. Putin is probably wise to consider he might be taken out next. Of course, he could be sick or worse. As for the power disruptions this could be part of their drone defense strategy. As we see in Iran even if something happens to Putin someone will take his place, maybe someone worse.

Will Rasmussen's avatar

Someone took Khamenei’s place as a figurehead, but we don’t even know if he’s alive. Larijiana was supposedly the one running things, but now he’s gone too. Most people don’t realize there are several factions held together inside the regime, and he was the last one capable of doing that. All of their top leadership is gone, and that still significantly weakens the regime’s cohesion and oppression capabilities.

I know it’s not particularly popular, but give it time to play out. Beyond all the death and suffering they’re responsible for in the ME, the regime has a lot of Ukrainian blood on its hands too. After losing Assad and Maduro, Putin losing Iran as a partner would be a huge plus for Ukraine and global security.

Pete Lincoln's avatar

I agree. Russia really only needs China on its side especially as it looks like Putin has Trump who now has an excuse to lift sanctions

The problem with Iran is one of those factions in Iran will take over and it may well be even more of a hardline extremist faction.

Its also possible different factions begin fighting each other and Iran becomes a dysfunctional basket case with millions of civilian deaths and of angry people seeking revenge and martyrdom, and Irans energy resources offline for long periods, and with one faction in possession of highly enriched uranium bringing on a new age of terror. Perhaps that will be seen as a win to some of the players, but its certainly not going to make Americans at home any safer. With all the sanctions Iran was not much of a threat and was fairly predictable and stable. Not sure the $200 billion initial ask to pay for this War will reap any dividends

Of course the Utopian scenario is a faction which opens its arms to US and forgives what can only be described as a Pearl Harbor like attack on them. No doubt they will need to crush any dissent among their people who are not so forgiving .

Will Rasmussen's avatar

Yeah, there’s definitely plenty of risk involved in toppling the regime. Trump being the babbling moron that he is, did a really poor job with the messaging on it. The core objectives of completely eliminating their ability to enrich uranium, work towards building a bomb, and minimizing their ballistic missile and drone production capabilities would still be a strategic win. It’d degrade their ability to arm proxies throughout the region, and remove a major player from the Russia, China, Iran and NK axis that seemed to be building up.

I’d love to see regime change, and for the Iranian people to be free though. They’re generally a great group, and even before the slaughter of civilians only about 20% of them supported the regime. That combined with how unified they were in rising up in January makes me optimistic that the right people would be able to take back control of the country. Unlike Iraq or Afghanistan, they’re not a bunch of different tribes united by religion, and they’re a mostly homogenous Persian culture that were a modern secular society before 1979.

That being said, I realize the difficulty in making that happen when the bad guys have almost all the weapons, and I think it’d be extremely difficult to see regime change with just an air campaign too. Very few people have an appetite for boots on the ground, including me, outside of maybe some very limited special forces operations. It seems like they’ve been hinting at having something else planned, and our intelligence agencies have heavy infiltrated their military and government. The regime has successfully royally pissed off all of their neighbors too, and behind closed doors some of them are pushing for regime change. Time will tell, but I’m hoping for the best for the Iranian people though.

Roger Langille's avatar

I think it's a pretty stupid idea to try and kill Putin.

There is no one more expert than the Russians at carrying out assassinations.

Should they decide that's what they want to do.

Personally I think it's not a very wise idea to poke them through that hole.

DMS's avatar

Or… he’s laying back looking like a hero for Cuban oil and his next move… anyone can fall out of a window next… especially if they know too much.

Ann Blackburn's avatar

Konstantin Samoyliav (spelling?) has been reporting this too. Beginning at about the beginning of March things have been weirder than usual

Frau Katze's avatar

Putin may be getting nervous as he watches Israel locating and killing one Iranian leader after the other.

TomD's avatar

Good one! How *does* Israel know so much about Iran's leadership day to day?

Frau Katze's avatar

Apparently they hacked a traffic system in Tehran, and studied the Ayatollah’s travel patterns.

They’re either working with dissidents they’ve recruited or some Israelis may be on the ground.

Wellness Freedom Patriot BJ's avatar

They're balls deep, all up in that theocracy’s agencies, and have been for years. Deep and broad intelligence penetration.

JohnO's avatar

Putin is obviously concerned Israeli targeting technology has made its way into Zelenski’s hands. I hope the fuck it has.

Jaime Ramirez's avatar

Israel has shown virtually no inclination to help Ukraine, & Netanyahu & Putin (along with Trump & MBS) are like peas in a pod. Despite these countries being historically opposed to each other, their current leaders have much in common with one another.

However, I suppose it's conceivable that a European country's intelligence has found out & transferred such information to Zelensky.

JohnO's avatar

Fair point on Israel's official stance — but it doesn't have to come from them directly. In a conflict this messy, with this many actors touching the technology, transfer can happen through indirect routes without anyone at the top signing off. Putin may simply be doing the math: the longer this goes on, if it *can* reach Zelensky, it eventually will.

Jane Lennie's avatar

All rumours but I’d appreciate the announcements of Putin, Trump, Netenyahu deaths on behalf of the sane world.

DMS's avatar

I hope Americans understand that this is what we’re heading toward.

KxS's avatar

Interesting. So, the Soviet system is coming back; makes sense, the KGB never left.

UIC_PhD's avatar

I pray for Putin’s demise.