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Russia has seen a huge spike in butter theft as inflation and Western sanctions send Moscow's economy into crisis. The BBC's Russia Editor, Steve Rosenberg, highlighted reports in Russian media outlining how "people are stealing butter because of high prices." He added: "Some shops have decided to sell packs of butter in security boxes to reduce theft." -snip- Meanwhile, the government newspaper in Moscow warns that interest rates could go up again despite the Russian Central Bank's already-record hike to 21%. The paper warns they could rise to 23% in December.

Butter blocks enclosed in plastic boxes with "security chips" - these images are now common in Russian shops. Recently, butter imports have drastically fallen, and product prices have soared. This, in turn, has led Russians to start stealing instead of buying. For years, Russia was at the forefront of the world's largest food import markets, particularly leading in butter and cheese imports. Until 2022, butter arrived in Russia from all over the world. However, since the invasion of Ukraine, the situation has changed. Consequences of the invasion of Ukraine In 2022, Russia ranked 19th worldwide for butter imports. Over the...

It's time. Actually, it's past time. Back in August, Joe Biden sent $250 million to Ukraine for its highly touted counter offensive against Russia. This was supposed to be the turning point in the conflict. It wasn't. Finally, the realization that many of us had long ago has hit home. The meeting in Brussels, less than two weeks into the campaign, illustrates how a counteroffensive born in optimism has failed to deliver its expected punch, generating friction and second-guessing between Washington and Kyiv and raising deeper questions about Ukraine’s ability to retake decisive amounts of territory.As winter approaches, and the...

However, a poll by the research group Chronicles indicates that, ahead of the 2024 election, Putin might have an uphill battle in maintaining the population's support for the war as they feel its economic consequences. The survey found that pro-war Russians are a minority and were outnumbered by those who favor peace. It found that the core of support for the war was only 12 percent, compared with 22 percent in February, one year after the start of what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation.".. More than half (52 percent) of respondents said they experienced anxiety or depression, an...

Russains winning...

CNN with a brutally honest segment that the war is virtually over for Ukraine. Even Biden's flacks Kirby, Miller and Blinken are questioning whether we should continue aid to Ukraine.

Israel does not have the right to defend itself, Russia’s representative to the United Nations said on Wednesday. The United States and its allies are hypocritical for talking “about Israel’s alleged right for self-defense, which, as an occupying state, it does not have, as was confirmed by the [U.N.’s] International Court [of Justice] consultative ruling in 2004,” Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told a U.N. General Assembly special session on the Israel-Hamas war. The ICJ’s 2004 advisory opinion stated that Israel could not invoke an inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter against any threat coming from an...

RUSSIA's Economy has started to COLLAPSE as the impact of the Sanctions hit home. Russia's OIL & GAS Revenue is down 69% in the first 9 months of 2023 compared with the revenue Russia was earning prior to the invasion of Ukraine. In addition to this huge reduction in income Expenditure is continuing to increase due to the investment in the War, which means that the Russian Economy is now incurring massive LOSSES. In this video I provide more details of the figures and discuss the problems that Russia is now facing.

Western experts have repeatedly said that Russia's military in Ukraine has several key failings, including a fear of passing bad news or negative battlefield reports up the command chain to superiors. Putin and his closest advisers "appear to have made little use of economic or military expertise," the report added. The Kremlin leader "has narrowed the funnel of information that reaches him" to cut out any voices that may have given contrary advice, including diplomats and ministers, the RAND analysts argued. Moscow's war effort has also been plagued by reports of purging of Russia's top brass, and reshuffling of the...

The Russians are losing their war on Ukraine. They just don’t know it yet.Many armchair generals ignore that fact. Putin is stronger than ever, they say. Even if his invasion failed to conquer Ukraine, the crushing burden of war cannot be sustained indefinitely by its defenders, we are told. And even if they do hold out, the Western democracies are already tiring of their role in providing military and financial lifelines to Kyiv while sanctioning Russia.Or so the “realists” say – though such arguments are often indistinguishable from appeasement or defeatism.The Western media has been filled with stories quoting unnamed...

A sharp rise in drone attacks targeting Russian territory is likely to intensify, analysts say, with Kyiv appearing increasingly determined to bring the destruction, instability and unpredictability of war — albeit a fraction of what it is experiencing itself — home to Russia. Russia has seen a sharp rise in unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, carrying out assaults on western, central and southern Russian regions as well as the capital Moscow and Russian-occupied Crimea in recent weeks. While Ukraine is continuing a counteroffensive on its own soil to regain Russian-occupied territory in the south and east of the country, and...

Russia's super attack helicopter playing a major role

Ukrainian drones struck targets in at least six regions deep within Russia on Wednesday, including an airfield where they destroyed military transport planes, in one of the broadest volleys yet of Kyiv's campaign to turn the tables on Moscow. Russian officials described attacks on targets in the Pskov, Bryansk, Kaluga, Orlov, Ryazan and Moscow regions. The Russian foreign ministry said the attacks would "not go unpunished" and could not have reached so far into Russian territory without Western help. In Pskov, in northern Russia more than 600 km (400 miles) from Ukraine, a huge fire erupted at a military airfield....

Ukraine war will end up being the most costly and perhaps corrupt foreign operation ever carried out by the United States If the Ukraine war ended tomorrow, the United States still would need to send hundreds of billions in aid to that country. The bill includes continuation of military assistance, budget support for the Ukrainian government and reconstruction assistance. President Biden has just asked for another US$24 billion to support Ukraine, primarily for military equipment but also budget support ($7.3 billion). While Congress is increasingly skeptical about another huge chunk of money to fund an endless conflict, this is peanuts...

Russia tried downplaying the destruction of one of its prized supersonic bombers. Ukraine has launched two major kamikaze drone strikes that took out one of Putin's prized nuclear bombers in a spectacular fireball and caused significant damage to a train station used to supply Russia's invasion of Ukraine. New footage of the strike on Soltsy airbase in the Novgorod region shows one of Russia's nuclear bombers being swallowed by an enormous fireball. Smoke billowing from the fireball could be seen for miles around. -snip- The attack on the prized bomber came a day before a major railway station was also...

Russia's first moon mission in 47 years failed after its Luna-25 space craft spun out of control and smashed into moon. Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos, said it had lost contact with the craft shortly after a problem occurred as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit on Saturday. 'The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,' Roskosmos said in a statement. Moscow had earlier reported an 'abnormal situation' with the craft. 'During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which...

Update from Ukraine | Ruzzian biggest mistake | Ukraine takes more ground with new tactics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nHj9x3FLvA The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the last 48 hours, as of 13th August 2023 – 22:00 (Kyiv time). https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-536-summary/ *** Great interactive maps with viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use for each Front! https://militaryland.net/maps/

Governments start wars in pursuit of various objectives, from conquering territory to changing the regime of a hostile state. Once a war begins, the stakes are immediately raised. It is one of the paradoxes of war that even as its original objectives drift out of reach or are cast aside, the necessity of not being seen as the loser only grows in importance—such importance, in fact, that even if winning is no longer possible, governments will still persevere to show that they have not been beaten. ...All of these dynamics are evident in Russia’s war against Ukraine. r Putin set...

Update from Ukraine | Ukraine Plans a new Counterattack | Is it possible? Military Map Review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkRfO_mY8ks The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the last 48 hours, as of 12th July 2023 – 22:00 https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-504-summary/ *** Great interactive map with viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use for each Front! https://militaryland.net/maps/

Volodymyr Zelensky has posted a video of himself visiting an island that became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance - as the war enters its 500th day. At the start of the war, Ukrainian soldiers defending Snake Island famously defied an order from a Russian warship to surrender. The Black Sea island was seized by Russia but later reclaimed by Ukraine. In a video, the Ukrainian president called it a "place of victory" that would never be reconquered. In the undated clip, posted on Telegram, Mr Zelensky described it as proof that Ukraine will return every inch of its territory taken...