"The 1980's are calling to ask for their foreign policy back."

Sorry this has been revealed, but it may be the Russians don't have enough order to do anything about it, and, hopefully, the Ukrainians already are making good use of the info

You would hope that it's "old news" and no longer current intel, wouldn't you?

Anyway, I came across this article from The Guardian and thought it gave some interesting insight as to why it's important whether Putin declares war or not.
Under Russian military rules, troops who refuse to fight in Ukraine can face dismissal but cannot be prosecuted, said Mikhail Benyash, a lawyer who has been advising soldiers who choose that option.

Benyash said “hundreds and hundreds” of soldiers had been in touch with his team for advice on how they could avoid being sent to fight. Among them were 12 national guardsmen from Russia’s southern city of Krasnodar who were fired after refusing to go to Ukraine.

“Commanders try to threaten their soldiers with prison time if they dissent, but we tell the soldiers that they can simply say no,” Benyash said, adding that he was not aware of any criminal cases against soldiers who refused to fight. “There are no legal grounds to start a criminal case if a soldier refuses to fight while on Russian territory.”

Many soldiers, therefore, have chosen to be fired or transferred rather than going into “the meat grinder”, he said.

Good call. I expect there will be so many that refuse to fight, that it will become an impractical matter to prosecute them. And, even if they did, you'd have a great many disgruntled parents thinking "Better my son is in prison than in Ukraine."

The great Russian chess master seems to have painted himself into a bit of a corner. I haven't seen anything that goes against my theory that Putin may just decide to just forget the whole thing...without even formally declaring victory.

I don't think he can do that. You can't tell the people that you're sending their sons off to de-Nazify the threat regime next door and then fail to do it. It's possible he could try to salvage a victory by grabbing some breakaway part of eastern Ukraine, but I'm not sure he's going to be able to hold on to those. The Russians seem pretty spent, and Ukraine's clawing their territory back.

Putin's in a real pickle: he can't win, but he can't quit.

Exactly. He may just try to pretend it never happened: "Special military operation? What special military operation? There was a border dustup, but nothing serious."
Gaslighting is the go-to response for dictators and their wanna be imitators these days... Not saying it would work, but it's going to be interesting to see just what he does next. Oh and I find those reports that the Russian nuclear force may be in as bad shape as the rest of their military. That might be a good thing if Putin knows it might be a wet firecracker instead of a viable, potentially world-ending threat, although it could also put other nasty alternatives, such as chemical or biological WMD's into play

Not that I would bet on it, but I did have the thought that Russia's stockpile of nuclear weapons--which have to be maintained to stay functional--are stagnating.

Good read. His thread from the first day of the invasion has proven to be spot on (although it turns out he gave the RU army more credit than deserved).

That river crossing was a total shit show.

Stealing kids, eh? Time to start burning down Russian churches. And government buildings. And individual Russians.

Ukrainian Major General is happily spreading rumors that Putin is suffering from cancer and other diseases. Gotta take it wish a large shaker of salt, but it is certainly plausible and might explain why his administration of the war is such a mess. I might argue that he seems to have lost interest and that his Army is wallowing around without any clear direction.

This is amazing.

Trump is right: Putin is a fucking genius. He's united Europe in a way that Harry S Truman and George C. Marshall could only dream of.

Thoughts and Prayers….

Look at the expression on Zelenskyy’s face.

Ukraine's Intelligence Chief believes there is an anti-Putin coup already in progress in Russia.

Seems pretty thin. I wonder if this is a piece of psyops with an audience of one ... aimed at getting Putin more on edge, distracted, and worrying about the people around him instead of focusing his attention on the invasion.

Regime change (whether externally or internally motivated) is always a risky business. You might end up with somebody "better" (relatively speaking) or you could end up with somebody who has the same agenda, but is more competent. Don't get me wrong, when Putin is gone (dead or shown the door...whatever) I won't be unhappy, but there are no guarantees the next Fearless Leader will be an improvement.

Breaking: WaPo reports Sweden's ruling party ok's joining NATO. developing....

I do hope he is dying but if this was all some fuckerd up mentality of a terminally ill mess of a person that has killed and harmed so many people and made the future peace much further away due to the hatreds spawned by such violence, I really am disgusted.

I do believe the world needs to end the rule of people over the age of 65. They can be advisors and should be consulted. They can also head private and charitable organizations, or even act as positions like secretary of state, but they need to be out of the executive areas by 65, and I would say legislative and judicial areas by 75.