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Posted on 05/09/2026 8:03:49 PM PDT by USA-FRANCE
If symbolism matters, and in Russia it always has, then today’s Victory Day parade on Red Square spoke volumes. The absence of tanks grinding across the sacred cobblestones was not merely an omission; it was an admission.
A regime that once flaunted military might before the world could muster neither armour, missiles, nor meaningful battlefield hardware for its most important national spectacle. For a country that has built so much of its modern identity around martial power, this was less a celebration of victory than a carefully stage-managed display of strategic exhaustion.
When Vladimir Putin resurrected and expanded the Victory Day parade two decades ago, it was designed to project strength, unity, and deterrence. The message was unmistakable: Russia remained a military titan capable of confronting any adversary.
Even during the early stages of the invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin could still parade columns of tanks, missile launchers, and aircraft with theatrical confidence.
This year, however, the spectacle was stripped bare. A handful of ageing aircraft overhead, flying in loose formation, could not disguise the reality that Russia’s military resources are being consumed at an extraordinary rate on the battlefield.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
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Russia's oil refineries are burning.
Ukraine now manages to regularly hit targets just 2 Km from Moscow and they are taking back Ukrainian territory Russia took the last 6 months.
The russian army has depleted its reserves of soldiers, they are now forced to recruit from Moscow area itself (!) including St. Petersburg...
And yes... The internet in Russia is near caput as it stands right now.
Taxes are way up to finance the Russian war, causing a nightmare for small business forced to close...
The Kremlin has truly managed to destroy Russia from within. It's what deep-staters do.
Ah.. and let's not forget the Russian Wagner troops are getting overwhelmed by the Islamists in Mali. The French troops did much, much better thanks to professionalism and discipline... something Russian troops don't know anything about.
Russia has shown itself to be a used-toilet-paper tiger.
Oh, Frenchie… Bonne fête des mères!
Much like Hitler, Putin’s megalomania and paranoia has brought his country to ruin.
Trump puts the screws to Maduro and now the ayatollahs. Putin blew his wad so there’s not much he can do. Neither can the Chicoms. 3D chess. Let’s hope the voters can put 2 and 2 together.
Putin is a very rational man and is doing what he must to save strategically important Crimea from NATO. The world is safer with Crimea in Russia’s hands; there is nothing Ukrainian about Crimea anyway. Putin as megalomaniac is just pro war jingoism. Mr. Putin is Mr. Nice Guy; his successor won’t be.
Lol, most amazing thing I have seen on FR in awhile😂
Putin is a meglomaniac who has killed more Russian speakers than any Kremlin leader since Stalin. He has happily used the Russian military to erase entire European cities to achieve political policy goals. There is nothing rational about trying to rebuild the USSR’s empire. It’s in the dust bin history for very good reasons.
Putin is the most admired statesman the world over. Only in the G20 is he hated. If there were an election for World President, Putin would easily win. You can scoff but name somebody more popular than Putin on the world stage?
I will scoff saying sonething doesn’t make it so
What exactly has pitin done?
Destroying his own country, every inch of Ukraine he has captured is utter ruin.
Raining death and destruction on Ukrainian civilians.
Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Mali , Cuba all “protected” by Russia, bet they admire him and his statesmanship
Russia is now china’s vassal state
Massive inflation, sky high interest rates, oil infrastructure burning, vaunted air defense impotent, business and individual bankruptcies rising, Soviet legacy equipment wasted.
Other than G20, that is a good one😂
Russia, a nation of 140 million, has no capacity to take on an alliance of 800 million. There is no will nor any ability to rebuild the Soviet Union. It is pure war jingoism. Globalists want war with Russia in four years time and blame it on Russia. So expect a false flag attack attributed to Russia in about four years.
Europe means to draft their scant White boys into the meat grinder in Ukraine so the ugly muslims can rape, loot and murder their way to a Red Revolution in Europe.
Now Zelensky is already replacing Ukrainian men with shit tossers.
Globalists are there to help bring on another brother on brother war.
Putin was forced into this war. Crimea is existential to Russia’s survival and they will burn the world down to keep it. There is nothing Ukrainian about Crimea; let Russia have it.
Funny how drones (aerial and semi-submersible) made Sevastopol untenable for warships.
It’s difficult to calculate the magnitude of Putin’s miscalculation of Russian military power and prowess.
Hitler also said he was “forced into the war” that became WWII. Which evidently was utterly false.
Rapists also always say they were forced to attack their female victims because they were “provoking”.
Criminals always have excuses for the deeds they commit.
Losing Crimea is losing Russia. Just stay away from the big cities when that happens.
Instead of settling the war Zelensky chooses to backfill lost Ukrainian men with brown uglies. He doesn’t care how many White people die.
He would have had Crimea even if he didn’t invade in 2014
Putin was not forced into this war - there was no credible threat of any invasion of Russia.
Putin’s primary goals were to reclaim Ukraine for Russia’s sphere of influence and to prevent a democratic, Western-aligned state from flourishing on its border.
Russia existed as a sovereign power for decades while Crimea was part of a separate Ukrainian republic without its survival being threatened.
While Crimea holds immense strategic and symbolic value for Russia, the claim that its control is a requirement for the nation’s physical survival—or that Russia was “forced” to invade to secure it—is nonsense
Putin had Crimea in 2014 and Russia operated a naval base there even before then. There was no need to invade Ukraine in 2022. Try again.
Born just outside Ukraine, Nikita Khruschev gifted Crimea to Ukraine 🇺🇦
How is having Crimea or not having Crimea an existential threat?
From break up of Soviet Union ans 2014 Russia did not have Crimea and Russia existed?
As for nothing Ukrainian about Crimea, same could be said about notjing Russian about Crimea if you ask the Tatars🤔
I also find it fascinating that you are talking about “letting Russia have it(Crimea)”, prior to putins 3 day SMO/SVO/NWO there was not even talk of Ukraine getting back Crimea, certainly not after, Kyiv, Odessa sure, ridding of nazis, NATO, ……, but “letting Russia have it”, all going according to plan😂
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