Won’t they just announce that Putin got 98% of the vote with something like 90% turnout regardless? Russia lacks a functioning opposition, so its not like they can drum up large scale protests if Putin doesn’t actually get those numbers.
Civil disobedience in Russia involves getting really, really drunk, as opposed to their normal state of just really drunk. That's why there hasn't been a revolution since 1917.
In a surprise to approximately no one. Ukraine has finally admitted that they were behind an air defense attack that shutdown 2 Russian fighters and 3 helicopters last year inside of Russia. ⚡️The spokesman of the Air Force of 🇺🇦Ukraine confirmed the destruction of 🇷🇺Russian aircraft over the Bryansk region in May of last year with the Patriot air defense system.Yuriy Ignat told what he calls May 13, 2023 "the Bryansk massacre". Then, "thanks to non-standard… pic.twitter.com/ZrG05lyMps— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) November 27, 2023 Previously it was announced that the aircraft were shot down in a friendly fire incident, but it turns out it was actually done with a Patriot battery.
Kronstadt and Karaganda were 2 of them with Krondstadt having the bigger chance of success since it was near Leningrad. In Soviet Central Asia there were rebellions throughout the 20's.
I don't think Putin cares for the election as an election, but as a poll on what people think about him - as a confidence vote. Russia's economy and population and institutions have not yet suffered an appreciable amount from the war or even the Wagner revolutionish march. But that could change at any time. The election would help him find our how much time he has. What Putin would love is an agreement to freeze the fighting for a while and then restart it all later. Ukraine isn't the issue, it's just a battle in Putin's war against the West and getting too caught up in it hurts that larger war.
Of course but they'll know the real data and if actual votes for Putin fall below a certain threshold then the regime will be in panic mode.
If machinists and mechanics keeping Russian trains on the rails and planes in the air all quit working en masse, there's not much Putin can do to stop them. Hence the payouts and high salaries to keep certain parts of society running.
But it was never Russia. We haven't seen an attempted revolution in Russia in the last hundred years and by that I mean demonstrators on the streets demanding political change, as in the Arab Spring, the Orange Revolution or even Tianamen Square.
Someone seems to have bent Mike Johnson’s ear about Ukraine. With the pro-Putin faction growing among Republican House members, Johnson has been making comments that are very favorable about passing funding for Ukraine. he wants to link it to US border funding, but Biden has said it should be included in funding for Israel and the border.. Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson considers the issue of aid to Ukraine as a priority in the work of the US Congress.Ukraine is another priority... Of course, we cannot allow Volodymyr Putin to march through Europe. And we understand the need to provide… pic.twitter.com/LHfEKtLos6— Devana 🇺🇦 (@DevanaUkraine) November 27, 2023
Russia is trying to cause an immigrant crisis on their border with Finland. Dozens/Hundreds of migrants from central Asia and the Middle East are showing up on Finland’s birder crossings. Interestingly, they have been provided with bikes to get them to the border, but since Finland is rejecting them at the border, the bikes are being abandoned and the migrants are taking buses back to St. Petersburg. A "cemetery" of bicycles at the border of Murmansk region with Finland - at the Salla border crossing point that has officially closed.When the potential migrants were not allowed to cross the border, they abandoned their bikes and left for St Petersburg by buses. pic.twitter.com/STCvy9ODo0— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) November 28, 2023
It's hard to have a revolution when the potential revolutionary leaders are either languishing in a maximum security prison in Siberia, or falling off high windows.
It's from the Express, whose sole reason for existing is to make the Daily Mail (aka the Daily Fail) look like the Financial Times.
Since the war started the Russian budget deficit has been inching up, and now it's at about 1% of GDP. I'm sure everyone is now saying "What, that's all?" The United States budget deficit is somewhere around 6% of GDP and most European nations are somewhere around there. Even in times of great need, they still keep a close to balanced budget. It isn't because they are run by budget hawks, it's because they can't do any more than that. They are cut off from the world's financial market, so they can't borrow from the West. The places they can borrow from charge higher rates. They also can't borrow internally. In one example of why a strongly unequal wealth distribution is bad, most Russian save nothing and the very wealthy put their wealth overseas. There is no internal store of savings to tap, no disposable income buffer to increase taxation. This is something I brought up a long time ago - Russia cannot debt finance this war. They are stuck spending what they earn, and that depends on the price they can get for their oil. Russia's effort must stay within that limit. It is a place we can hurt them, if we have the will.
Even more relevant is the percentage turnout of registered voters. If the percentage of, ahem, "unassisted" voters (i.e. people who weren't rounded up and bussed to the polls or told that their government sinecure is at risk if they don't show up) is low, that's something that'll cause deep, deep concern in the Kremlin. This stuff is not important in a full-on dictatorship, but is crucial to an autocracy's legitimacy. It's something Putin pays attention to. A lot. Edit: Everything above is a repeat of this post, which probably put it better.
Naah. Trump's too chickenshit for that. Cruel and malicious enough, certainly, but anything that approximates to courage? The question answers itself
They like doing this kind of thing. They made sure that Europe was the destination for lots of Syrian and Libyan refugees.
Putin just solved the budget crisis. Taxes on Alcohol are set to increase next year. Alcohol prices in Russia will rise three times - Putin has signed a decree to raise liquor taxes from May 1, 2024.◾️The tax on wine will increase to 108 rubles (~$1,21) per liter. ◾️The tax on sparkling wines, including Russian champagne, and wine beverages will rise up to… pic.twitter.com/83q6wvEYPI— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) November 28, 2023
And given the rise of the far Right and anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe, I think it is a tactic that worked for Putin.
The Joint Expeditionary Force is the United Kingdom naval fleet held at high readiness to respond to whatever is needed. It has just been activated and send to the Baltic Sea, and numerous NATO nations bordering the sea plus Sweden are sending ships to join. They are now going to actively patrol the area to prevent Russian attacks on infrastructure there. Swedish language article - decent English ones might take a day or two to appear.