These are tricky times for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The “special military operation” he launched against Ukraine in 2022, intended to last a few days until a puppet regime in Kyiv could be installed, has now gone on longer than both the Soviet fight against Nazi Germany and all of World War I. His forces have long ceased making significant gains on the battlefield; some data even suggest that Russian forces lost territory in April and May. What gains the Russians have made have come at enormous cost: Last month, Anna Keast-Butler, the director of British intelligence agency GCHQ, cited new intelligence indicating that Russian war deaths had likely reached almost half a million; various Western sources put total Russian casualties at significantly more than 1 million.
As the Tide Turns Against Putin, Beware the Drowning Man
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/25/russia-ukraine-war-putin-escalation-nato-europe
31 Comments
rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz · 29 pts · 51d
oh no oh nooooooo dont pressure putin he might do. he might do Something
i like how that op-ed completely ignores ongoing stream of arson cases and other sabotage. no mention of baltyisk gps jammer either
egrets@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 51d
Strange take. The article is in no way suggesting appeasement, and is entirely critical of Putin as a leader.
rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz · 0 pts · 51d
it does take that turn at the very end
AA5B@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 51d
I can’t see the part of the article behind a paywall, but I read it as that familiar quote of a cornered animal being the most dangerous. If he believes he has nothing left to lose, he’s more likely to strike out without inhibitions.
That’s not a call to appeasement but a warning that things can get even more dangerous just before the end. If Putin really is in fear of losing, or in fear of losing his power, will he stop at conventional attacks? Will he stop at the country he’s already attacking? Or will he strike randomly wherever and howeverhe can do the most harm?
anarchy79@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 50d
The Samson option.
In case the integrity of the Jewish state is ever genuinely threatened, they will nuke everybody, including the USA.
This is what they said themselves, in about so many words.
It gives everyone a reason to keep them safe.
Evil, isn't it? And very on brand.
A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip · 21 pts · 51d
Goddammit it's been over 4 years hasn't it.
But the sentiment expressed in the first 2 paragraphs is nothing new. Collapse has been imminent for a while, but it's happening too slowly. The Kremlin has employed all sorts of life-extending tricks in the past years and probably they can still keep it up for a while.
AA5B@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 51d
Media has been giving a lot of credit to the head of the Russian central bank holding everything together. When she disappeared, I was wondering if it all was finally falling apart.
But she’s back
ripcord@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 51d
Arson cases?
sougstron@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 50d
Oh no, again that analytics like "country X sinks soon", "rockets stockpiles is almost depleted", "warmonger Y is struggled in that wartimes", "country A economics blows in X days, Y months". You may paste here Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Israel, USA or countryname_in_conflict and vary of self-pronounced intelligence or different countries and nothing changes, none of them is truth and works only on feelings of reader at the moment of reading and slightly after it forming subjects "own" point of view if that "intelligence" will be delivered constantly by some time to the same username.
LuckyDevil@piefed.social · 5 pts · 52d
Archived link - https://archive.ph/idGqu
A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip · 27 pts · 51d
I don't even click on archive.is (also .today, .md, .fo, .li, .vn, .ph) anymore.
Every page contains (and has for months) this code. It's a DDOS attack on a blogger who dared to investigate who runs the site.
Further, archive.nn started altering archived pages:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/wikipedia-bans-archive-today-after-site-executed-ddos-and-altered-web-captures/
Do not use it anymore. It's not enough that µBlock blocks the attack, because many people don't use µBlock. Also you're increasing archive.nn's popularity.
LuckyDevil@piefed.social · 9 pts · 51d
I've heard that. I'd be happy to switch to something different, but this is the only one I know of that still works. Recommendations welcome.
comador@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 52d
This site can’t be reached The webpage at https://archive.ph/idGqu might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
So slow, it times out on Firefox in all 3 lower 48 US timezones (tested via AWS and VPN).
But thank you for trying to provide an alt link none the less.
newton@feddit.online · 3 pts · 52d
Works fine ,here in Europe, try change your DNS to one from here ,test again
WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 52d
Works for me
YouTalkinToMe@lemmy.wtf · 2 pts · 52d
Site works fine.
LuckyDevil@piefed.social · -1 pts · 52d
Odd, still working for me with or without a VPN. Here is another link through a different domain, but it's from the same service so I don't know if it'll work any better for you.
https://archive.is/idGqu
comador@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 51d
That worked. I circled back and found my dns pihole list was causing it. Thank you!
anarchy79@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 50d
In case you missed another comment above:
I don't even click on archive.is (also .today, .md, .fo, .li, .vn, .ph) anymore.
Every page contains (and has for months) this code. It's a DDOS attack on a blogger who dared to investigate who runs the site.
Further, archive.nn started altering archived pages:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/wikipedia-bans-archive-today-after-site-executed-ddos-and-altered-web-captures/
Do not use it anymore. It's not enough that µBlock blocks the attack, because many people don't use µBlock. Also you're increasing archive.nn's popularity.
Linktank@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 50d
I'm surprised that there's not just an endless stream of drones blowing up at whatever his last known location was at this point.
melsaskca@lemmy.ca · -1 pts · 51d
I'm pro-Ukraine and fuck Putin. I'm conflicted though because I've always loved Russian art and literature. That comes from the people though, not the power. The people are almost the same everywhere. If the people ever get their collective shit together then watch out power!
AA5B@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 51d
But the great Russian art and literature is mostly from the Russian empire. That Russia is long gone
Even literature protesting the Soviet Union belongs to a Russia that’s long gone
resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafe · -35 pts · 52d
Soviets fought Nazis in WWI?
News to me.
rwrwefwef@sh.itjust.works · 25 pts · 52d
A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip · 9 pts · 51d
Two separate things. That sentence was totally unambiguous to me.
tal@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 52d
While it sounds a bit awkward, I expect that the "Soviet fight against Nazi Germany " roughly-approximates to "The Great Patriotic War".
Tetragrade@leminal.space · 2 pts · 51d
Bro failed the history exam.Edit: oh my god
CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 51d
Found the American
Nautalax@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 51d
They were being overly pedantic about a sentence in the article in the article that I found intelligible imo, but read their comment more carefully. WWI is the first world war, the one before the Nazis came on scene.
CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 51d
I guess you could read it that way. Unfortunately, emotion and speaking mannerisms don't translate through text. Which is why Poe's law exists. I read the comment at face value.
Fair point. I guess I'm just too used to people generalizing and overusing the term "Nazi". My mind just took their meaning as "I didn't know the Soviets fought the Germans". And I've met people who didn't know that fact, so it's not a stretch.
Kekzkrieger@feddit.org · -4 pts · 52d
Maybe enjoy some education and history lessons specific.