Russians With Attitude

The US and Israel did everything in Iran that adherents of the “Putin won't press the Win The War button” school of thought think Russia should do (bomb schools and hospitals, poison people by striking chemical infrastructure, indiscriminately attack civilians, mass murder every government official they can reach along with their families, attempt to cause a society-wide collapse by destroying police/firefighters/ambulances, etc.) and evidently it didn't work and they still lost. Even in today's age of high tech warfare there is simply no replacement for the humble infantryman assaulting a treeline. Only the man with a rifle is capable of producing decisive military victory. "Любви достойна только пехота".

Kiev's Dovzhenko Film Studios was struck last night by Russian aerospace forces, among many other industrial targets. But wait... it's supposed to be a film studio. And it once carried real weight in Soviet cinema: home to Only Old Men Are Going to Battle, early Dziga Vertov, the whole kaboom. Then 1991 happened. The steep decline was already underway, but the 2014 Euromaidan finished the job. The studio simply died. In the decade that followed, not a single production was shot there, save for two pieces of propaganda slop. But last night it was roused from its slumber, and Ukrainian media erupted. "100,000 unique costumes" lost. A "cultural catastrophe". The "soul of Ukrainian cinema reduced to rubble". Photos of the wreckage were published immediately. In those photos: wings from Ukrainian FP-2 drones sitting plainly in the debris. Because this "film studio" had been repurposed for drone manufacturing, as had much of Ukraine's idle industrial space during the war. The photos were deleted quickly. But not quickly enough. Post-Maidan Ukraine has been stripped to the bone. The function of an anti-Russia is to strike Russia, not to produce feature films. They still try to shelter behind a cultural legacy they had no hand in building. The only problem is that it doesn't really work anymore. UPD: The photo of the aftermath that the Ukrainian media shared might have been altered, but the point remains.

Kosovo, 2000. Russian VDV troops walking Serbian kids to school every day to protect them from ambushes

Good example of a competent infantry engagement in this war. Three Russian soldiers are attacking a Ukrainian strongpoint held by seven soldiers south of Orekhov (this is also the scale of the average infantry engagement in the SMO). The Russian assault team is supported by FPV drones. The Ukrainians lose a few KIA, the rest retreat, the strongpoint is taken, the fleeing survivors are attacked with drones. No casualties on the Russian side. Nothing spectacular, just very clean rifle-and-grenade work and well-organized drone support. The soldiers belong to the 417th Recon Battalion, 42nd Guards Motor Rifle Division (nicknamed "Steel Division" after their heroic defensive actions around Rabotino during the 2023 Ukrainian offensive). I'm told there's GoPro footage of this engagement, too, so maybe we'll see that later.

Dmitry Sytyi, head of the "Russian House" in the Central African Republic, on the assassination plot against him, what it's like being sanctioned by all of the Western world, personal security and whether people recognize him in the streets of Bangui: Go listen to the full 1hr30min interview.

Dimitri Sytyi on the chaotic civil war in the Central African Republic and the overall situation in the country before Russia got involved. Go listen to the full interview.

He is sanctioned by the US, the EU and the UK. Western media claims he is Wagner Group's point man in the Central African Republic. His enemies tried to assassinate him with a mail bomb. He is deeply passionate about the Russian-language and music classes at the Russian House in Bangui. The elusive Dmitri Sytyi agreed to join us for an interview. We talked about his life, his career, Russian culture and soft power in Africa. Of course, we also touched on military and security matters. Ever wondered what's playing on the radio in Bangui, or what the weather's like there? Tune in to find out. Episode's now available to all subscribers on Substack and Gumroad.

Congratulations, Mirra! С победой! Chwalinska seems like a great gal, too. Very talented, graceful, and didn't lower herself to do political stunts for cheap PR, unlike, uh, others.

A lot of the Russian commentariat seems displeased by the inclusion of Candace Owens and Andrew Tate at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. They have a valid point: Russian media circles are WAY too ecstatic about the arrival of random Americans, and I'm no superfan of these two either. But the lens through which they're criticized is often just recycled Democratic Party media-apparatus critique. The whole screed reads like: "Why are we celebrating the visit of these filthy Western maggots, Tate and Owens, to holy Russia, O brothers? Didn't you know she is a... CONSPIRACY THEORIST? Didn't you know he is, uh, a misogynist? O sons of Rus, purge these unholy heretics!" You can criticize the Russian administration for simping too much for Western e-famous figures, but you can't really do it through a Western lens. That's stupid on its face. Either you have your own moral framework, or you're just importing someone else's. Owens and Tate might be terrible, and a lot of their output is, but NOT because the NYT ran a hit piece on them two years ago. I honestly don't care if Candace thinks Macron's wife is a dude, but it IS objectively funny. Does it merit an invite to an economic forum? Probably not. The bowing before random Americans is getting genuinely atrocious, I'll grant that. But the only way to counter it is to build up your own sphere, like we already HAD for decades prior to this moment. With the current internet-censorship crusade, that's impossible, and naturally any foreigner will vacuum up far more attention than they deserve. It's a conundrum of imported morality. You can't think for yourself when the same administration is actively strangling its own noosphere. In the end, both state representatives and opposition figures end up parroting boilerplate from the US two-party system and embarrassing themselves equally in the process. Sad! A healthy Russia wouldn't even notice either of them visiting.

Fireworks in Kiev last night. A wide array of military-industrial targets was hit, including dual-use facilities that were not targeted before. No "decision-making centers" so far. Powerful if it's the start of a systematic campaign, meh if it's a one-off.