[adorno]

It has become clear that Russia is going to be able to take as much of Ukraine as they want.

That 'clarity' of yours must be thru a darkened glass window.

For almost 4 years, Russia has been taking as much territory as they wanted, and still holding on to the same 20% they originally took because Ukraine was unprepared. Ukraine is not prepared to handle anything Russia throws their way. In fact, Ukraine is slowly taking back territory from the occupiers, even if just a kilometer or a village at a time.

[Owen]

Yesterday was the Direct Line, an annual Q&A of Russia with Putin. It lasted over 4 hours.

Any AI can provide you an array of text. Some of the matters addressed were light hearted (Do you believe in love at first sight, and later, are you in love now). As well as more serious matters, like Tajikistan migration. Western media was present and was offered the chance to ask questions.

The country’s populace submitted online questions which a central AI evaluated to compute subject frequency and present questions to Putin that were representative of the country’s interest.

It is common for these Direct Line events to have media from various locales dress up in their region’s traditional costumes in order to attract attention and get a question accepted. One such asked if the comet currently near Earth was a UFO and informed Putin that his region was prepared to offer hospitality to any such visitors.