I’m expecting Sloviansk/Kramatorsk will get taken this summer

))) No, Comrade, that’s unlikely.

Ukraine has massed forces in the Zaporizhzhia sector and intends to launch a counterattack. The Russians are currently trying to disrupt this counteroffensive.

Ukraine definitely still has potential.

and why there’s such a major panic now

I monitor the mood among Russian pro-military bloggers. There was some confusion when Ukraine began actively striking deep into Russian territory, though the panic seems to have subsided somewhat now.

Belousov recently met with these bloggers in person; the key issue on the agenda was countering UAVs.

We can see that a feedback loop exists within the Russian Federation.

Lately, strikes deep inside Russia have become less effective, and it is evident that countermeasures are being implemented; Russia is successfully countering these new threats.

As for Ukraine, there is no panic there so far—except, perhaps, among those being sent on “meat-grinder” assaults. But no one asks for their opinion.

And nobody cared before because people were getting grabbed from eastern Ukraine, now the kidnappings are starting to happen in western Ukraine more and more. I think it’s also an indication of how desperate the situation is. See how Europeans are now trying to send people back too. There are real manpower problems nobody wants to talk about.

Yes, I agree with you, but this isn’t aimed at the immediate present—it’s looking toward the future. Once this becomes widespread, then we can talk about a catastrophic shortage of mobilization resources within Ukraine. For now, these are just plans.

As for the current situation: recently, the EU banned granting refugee status to newly arrived Ukrainians of conscription age. Right now, the goal is to round up everyone inside Ukraine; they’ll go after the refugees later. I think there are enough people here to last another year…

Unfortunately, my outlook on this isn’t quite as rosy as yours, Comrade…)))

By the way, another good summary https://youtu.be/9EpDoB-xgOE

Yes, his description is roughly accurate.

This breakthrough occurred because Ukraine is mounting counterattacks in other sectors of the front; it is not currently in a state of purely static defense.

And Sloviansk is a symbolic city for both Russia and Ukraine. The “Russian Spring” of 2014 began there. The battle for it will be fierce. If you like, you can call Sloviansk “Stalingrad”—and you wouldn’t be wrong! It strikes me as the key battle of this war.

I’m going to repeat this again, we have concrete and irrefutable proof that China is no longer dependent on the west.

With the exception of the $600 billion trade volume—where, yes, China sells more to the U.S. than it buys—and high-tech developments that China has not yet created itself but which are possessed by the U.S. (or Taiwan, which utilizes U.S. technology)…

Outside Crimea, the shortages seem to be more a result of panic

Yes, due to panic, among other things.

that export volumes haven’t been affected.

Comrade, you can’t fuel a car with crude oil…)))

Once again:

https://korrespondent.net/world/russia/4888980-rossyia-prosyt-benzyn-u-druzhestvennykh-stran

Even though they can force people to fight by dehumanizing them, this is not an effective tactic. Notice how Russian advance is accelerating now, and big towns towns like Konstantinovka that used to be fought over really hard are now falling mostly intact. There are no more fights to take very building like what we saw in Artemovsk.

You got a bit carried away regarding the “major cities,” Comrade. )))) I only heard of that particular city at the start of the war… )))) When you’re driving along the highway, you’re hardly going to remember the names of every village you pass. In the USSR, that kind of place was classified as an “urban-type settlement.” To a resident of Kharkiv, it’s just a backwater village. I know Sloviansk well—I used to visit often; there was a really good “cook” there… you know, Breaking Bad style… )))) People would travel all the way from Kharkiv just to get his “product.” It’s a real hick town, too—they speak Surzhyk there.

The major cities—or rather, not “major,” just cities—that Russia has captured are Berdyansk, Mariupol, and Kherson.

As for Sloviansk, they’ve turned it into a fortress city. I doubt the Russians will be able to capture it quickly. It’s the next city on the list after Mariupol.

It is absolutely sick what western backed fascists are doing to the people of Ukraine and how people in the west keep cheering for it.

Look, this is Ukrainian TV. Things got to the point where they had to announce this to the whole country.

This woman, the Ukrainian ombudsperson who visited “Skelya,” shares her “impressions.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mrkC8kV0Bc&t=275s

And take a look at the comments below—it’s all those “pot-heads” finally seeing the light; all the comments are in Ukrainian!!! Morons—what were they thinking before?

The NABU, of course, “got involved” in the “investigation.”

https://ukranews.com/en/amp/news/1159661-lubinets-launches-urgent-investigation-into-skelia-regiment-following-allegations-of-torture

And I think there likely will be a mutiny in the army sooner or later as well. We talked about this a long time go, but the dynamic is that they have to use actual trained and motivated soldiers to do important operations, and each time that happens the ones that are lost can’t be replaced. Russians know this and that’s why towns like Pokrovsk are always used as nazi roach motels. Ukraine has no choice but to defend them to the last because it looks bad to western sponsors when they lose them. So, they can’t just throw mobics there. And that depletes the core of motivated fascists holding the army together. Eventually there will be an inflection point where there just aren’t enough of them and the mobics will start taking revenge for all the abuse they suffered.

For now, this is only in theory.

Also, when they flee to the west that’s when things are going to get really bad for Europe. They’ve already been smuggling a lot of weapons into Europe and establishing links with fascists there. Once you have a whole bunch of hardened, trained, and well armed fash running around, Europe might start looking a lot like Syria at that point.

Yes, I completely agree with you; it will be a mafia, armed to the teeth, terrorizing all of Europe. The consequences of the war will continue to haunt Europe for a long time to come.

Seems like what Russia is going to do is take Slavyansk and Kramatorsk

It would be a major success for Russia if it could capture Sloviansk and Kramatorsk by the end of the year.

But that is not the whole of Donbas.

For the most part, everything depends on how Russia handles strikes deep within its own territory.

Last night, Ukraine launched an attack involving more than 600 drones.

Russia is currently trying to push drone launch sites back beyond the Dnieper River. They are destroying gas stations and truck stops where drone launchers might potentially be located; on this side of the Dnieper, the Russians have already destroyed 160 gas stations. So far, there are no fuel shortages in our city.

In Russia—even as far away as Siberia—there are massive, miles-long lines for gasoline.

As I said back in the spring, Russia needs a decisive push to turn the tide. Right now, things aren’t going very well for Russia in that regard.

Russia is also currently losing the information war.

Basically, Russia is winning and right now situation is under control.

Not quite, Comrade. Right now, the situation at the front is mixed. The AFU is still conducting successful counter-offensive operations in the Zaporizhzhia sector. Russia has lost the territory it had previously captured there.

Russia is seeing successes in other sectors as well, though the pace is not as dynamic. In some areas, the situation has been at a standstill for months.

You surely realize, Comrade, that Russia’s very slow rate of advance—combined with the fact that Ukraine can strike Moscow—is precisely what convinced Trump to drastically change his opinion.

No matter how weak the US might be, Russia is going to face a very difficult time in the coming months.

One more brief note: Ukraine struck deep inside Russia with Storm Shadow missiles for the first time—this set a precedent.

oh and here’s how relations between China and the west are actually like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVOS6RVr6H0

At the beginning of the video, the situation in the US is similar to the current situation in Russia. There’s also something going on with government bond rates and depositor confidence, only the numbers are different. All those forecasts can be projected onto Russia as well.

I also really liked that Ma was hit with US sanctions…)))

This can also be mirrored in Russia, where Russian oligarchs are hit with sanctions and are willing to do anything, even betrayal, to get the US to lift the sanctions. Oligarchs are saboteurs because their actions and intentions can run counter to state interests. Even if, as I’ve been told here, oligarchs in China have no influence over the state.

It’s hard to imagine how much of his money Ma has taken out of China. He’s essentially robbing the country.

Amazed it took them this long to finally start cutting supply lines from Europe.

No, I don’t think it will be systemic.

For now, everyone is waiting to see what Russia will do. There’s a strange silence.

I have no doubt that China is developing very quickly.

But at the moment, China is unlikely to survive the severing of economic relations with the US and its satellites.

By the way, it’s time to talk about India. India will now supply gasoline to Russia. It will supply diesel to Ukraine, and gasoline to Russia.

In Crimea, there is no gasoline at all at civilian gas stations, and in some regions of Russia, there is a gasoline shortage. Gasoline prices have increased by half. Speculators have doubled theirs.

The Russian stock market has noticeably fallen. The situation is not critical right now, but a lot depends on how quickly Russia finds a way to counter.

Now everyone is expecting a Russian retaliatory strike. There has been no response yet since the attack on Moscow. Lately, the strikes against us have been very weak every night. The siren rarely sounds. It’s very strange.

Remember I told you about the “Skelya” unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces? Yesterday, Ukrainian media reported cases of flagrant inhumane treatment of soldiers there by the leadership. Torture, sexual violence, murder, suicide. These people haven’t even reached the front yet. Criminals released from prison are committing this lawlessness.

A friend of mine ended up there, and he told me the same thing. This is how they force the “busified” soldiers to fight. Because people reduced to the state of animals are willing to do anything to escape their suffering, even die during an assault. We were talking recently about how the “busified” soldiers hold the front and even counterattack. That’s it!!! These are no longer people, but animals reduced to the state of animals. These people are impossible to break because they have no other choice. They believe their chances of surviving an assault are better.

And Syrsky is personally orchestrating this entire hellish spectacle.

And this entire “banquet” is being paid for by the collective West.

We, ordinary Ukrainians, are held captive by the devil!

When I think about it, I feel sick!

I’m certain that if the regime in Ukraine doesn’t change, a civil war will break out very soon after the war.

And this won’t even be a war between the west and the east of Ukraine, but a war between those who return from the war and those who bullied and abused them in training, and then threw them into brutal assaults.

And these won’t be frightened citizens hiding in their homes; these will be battle-hardened thugs with weapons.

And if the regime changes, all this scum will immediately flee to the west with the stolen money. But then the country will be cleansed of this scum naturally.

China is actually quite independent from the US, and we have recent conclusive proof of that when Trump tried doing a trade war. Turns out, exports to the US are a tiny part of Chinese economy now. And I don’t know why you think China needs microchips from Taiwan when they have chip production entirely on the mainland. I think you need to spend a bit of time to actually research this subject because you’re very much misinformed here. https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2026/5/ieee-iscas-tau-scaling

Comrade, this symposium was held in May, and the topic discussed was “A New Path for the Development of the Semiconductor Industry in Practice.”

The key phrase was “New Path.”

This is from open sources:

“Taiwan produces significantly better and more technologically advanced chips than mainland China. The island is home to TSMC, which controls over 90% of the global market for the most advanced and commercially successful chips. China is rapidly closing the gap and dominating other segments, but Taiwan still retains technological leadership. What is the difference between chip production in Taiwan and China? Technological level: Taiwan mass-produces the most advanced processors using process technologies of 3 nanometers (nm) and below for Apple, Nvidia, and AMD. China (represented by SMIC) has struggled to master 7-nm and 5-nm processes, which are more expensive to produce and have a much higher defect rate. Access to equipment: Taiwan has free access to unique ultra-hard ultraviolet (EUV) lithography scanners from the Dutch company ASML. Sales of such machines to China are completely blocked due to US sanctions, which is hindering its development. Development. Advanced chip production: Taiwan holds an absolute monopoly on processors for artificial intelligence, data centers, and flagship smartphones.”

China does not yet have the technology to overtake Taiwan.

https://mskgazeta.ru/obshchestvo/kak-vozmozhnoe-protivostoyanie-knr-i-tajvanya-povliyaet-na-razvitie-ii-16020.html

by the way https://xcancel.com/upholdreality/status/2067629274765394368

Yes, but Margarita Simonyan is Solovyov, only in a skirt. As they say in the West, she’s a mouthpiece for the Kremlin…))) They won’t say anything bad about China on official Russian channels close to the Kremlin, I can tell you for sure – it’s taboo! They say the same things about China there that they say here.

They’re all raving about China these days.

Read it here

https://alfabank.ru/alfa-investor/posts/t/e04dd1d4-f454-f111-91c6-0050569e1fd0/

I don’t think anybody takes what Trump says seriously at this point. He’ll say one thing than another, it literally changes day to day. What matters is that the US is exhausted now. They just lost a major war against Iran, their weapons stocks are depleted, and China has them by the balls. So, Trump is doing a bit of posturing right now, but it’s not going to translate into anything material because the coffers are empty.

As we expected, Bibi won’t allow the war to end, as that would mean the end of his career. Negotiations have broken down.

And I can’t see Russia taking out the bridges because it’s almost certain they plan to use them. The goal of the Europeans is to provoke a big reaction right now so they can rally their public. The support for the war is at all time low in Europe right now, so they’re trying to put pressure on Putin to do something big to start scaring people how Russians are coming for them.

They started destroying bridges across the Dnieper in the south. Where supplies come from Romania.

They turned on our hot water. Just so you understand, before the war, we never had hot water in the summer. The last time we had hot water in the summer was under the USSR. I still don’t understand how they do it. By the way, they bombed Thermal Power Plant 5 again yesterday, and the lights were flickering.

The support for the war is at all time low in Europe right now, so they’re trying to put pressure on Putin to do something big to start scaring people how Russians are coming for them.

Yes, there’s a massive propaganda campaign on TV, along with strikes deep into Russia. Yes, it’s putting pressure on ordinary people in Russia. This will continue for several more months.

By the way, let’s get back to our long-suffering sheep.

A Chinese proposal for interceptor drones for the Ukrainian Armed Forces has leaked online. These aren’t even dual-use items anymore. And you’re saying someone’s going to run out of something…)))) If it all goes wrong, the Chinese will help…)))))

This infuriates me so much, Comrade!

China is so mired in this capitalist shambles, where profit is king, that it’s disgusting to watch.

And China won’t sever relations with the US, just as the US won’t sever relations with China. Too much is tied to it, involving enormous mutual risks.

The US is imposing tariffs on Chinese goods. No, China isn’t offended by stopping supplying these goods; China is circumventing the sanctions by reselling the goods to the US through Mexico.

Artemov explains everything correctly, and reading his book really helped me see how American propaganda machine works a lot more clearly. The direct inspiration from the nazis and the evolution of the narrative was very interesting to read about as well.

This vile lie was exposed back in the USSR. Then the USSR collapsed, and we were forced to believe this nonsense again!!!

I think Stalin was largely correct in what he did, the problem was that he left a system which failed to ensure strong leadership going forward. A stable social system can’t depend on a single strong willed individual being in charge and making the right calls. Continuity of competent governance, especially in time of plenty is the hardest problem to solve in my opinion.

Yes, this is something Mao did better than Stalin.

I think the reason is that Stalin was much more powerful than his comrades; everything rested on that, on Stalin’s authority. As soon as Stalin was gone, intra-party squabbling began. Everyone was trying to take over. No one was found who could replace Stalin and continue his work. Stalin’s legacy was simply squandered!

Also, don’t know if you saw, but American media has now realized DPRK is doing rather well. https://archive.ph/b9zrS

Yes, I recently discussed this with a Marxist friend of ours here.

For me, if the Wall Street Journal writes something like this, there’s something fishy about it.))))

Just recently they wrote that Kim is machine-gunning his opponents… )))

oh and just ran across this https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202605/19/WS6a0c0718a310d6866eb4976d.html

We definitely need to show this to our Chinese comrade… )))

Yes, I see, the trade turnover between the US and China alone is $700 billion.

The US is dearer to China’s heart than Russia… )))

Ten times more.

In fact: It turns out that China is much more dependent on the US than on Russia.

If you recall the economic crisis of 2008, China experienced it more painfully than the US.

This is what distinguishes China from the USSR, because the USSR wasn’t nearly as dependent on the West as China. No one could threaten the USSR with sanctions and the like, because it was all pointless! There was no such dependence on microchips from Taiwan. You have to admit, if China doesn’t have microchips from Taiwan, they won’t be able to produce competitive products. As far as I know, China doesn’t have such technology yet, because Taiwan has American technology.

I don’t think the crisis has been averted. It’s going to take a long time before energy prices get back to normal because restarting production can’t happen overnight. Just clearing the backlog of tankers in the gulf is going to take over a year. I also don’t see Israel stopping attacking Lebanon which means the fighting is likely to restart soon.

Trump wants to get out desperately, but he has no way out because Israel won’t play along. From Russian perspective it makes sense to play along though because it drives Europeans up the wall. And I don’t see what leverage he has left either.

Based on the results of the G7 forum, we see that everything is repeating itself again. Trump has once again been talked into a false sense of security by the European ghouls, along with Zelensky. And all of this is precisely connected to the strikes deep into Russia.

Trump has once again sided with Ukraine, and the narrative that Russia must leave the occupied territories has also begun to be heard again. Trump no longer wants peace.

Moscow was bombed again today; this will become a frequent occurrence. The drones that strike Russia using artificial intelligence are American Hornet drones, which the US is testing in Ukraine. Yesterday, such a drone hit a bus carrying Belarusian children who were on their way to the Black Sea for a vacation.

Regarding fuel, every country has reserves, and until these reserves are replenished, the price of oil will not fall. Yes, the price of oil will remain high for some time. That is, if the agreement is signed. Let’s wait until Friday.

And completely agree that strikes just serve to remind people in Russia why the war is necessary.

Right now, everyone in Russia is demanding radical measures from Putin. It’s understandable: Everyone’s talking about bridges across the Dnieper. They’re very upset that this hasn’t been done yet. This is what I see in Russian chats and war-related public groups. You understand that after the latest strikes on Moscow, the demands will become louder. No one could have imagined that the war would reach Moscow.

It does look like Russia is ramping up deep strike

In any case, the blows will be uneven, with the exception of the bridges across the Dnieper.

Russia will have to endure.

I saw a video just yesterday of some kid beating up TCK cause they took his dad. Yes, public is definitely starting to turn on them.

There’s a new trend now: a grandfather with a shovel)))

But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a recent incident in Kyiv where several hundred people confronted the TCC and the police. The police and the TCC fled. This is the first such mass incident in Kyiv.

He’s a very interesting author; I’ve never heard of him.

His books are still very relevant today.

https://publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/A/ARTEMOV_Vladimir_L'vovich/_Artemov_V.L..html

We disagree on what constitutes socialism.

Yes, I base my argument on the Soviet model, while you base yours on the Chinese one.

The prevailing view is that the Chinese model is superior because it survived.

This leads us to a simple conclusion: there were things Mao managed to do that Stalin did not—actions that ultimately prevented the system’s collapse.

Mao built a rigid vertical power structure that has withstood Western attacks to this day; China held firm thanks to the foundations Mao laid.

In that sense, it is already not a predator.

Let’s break it down.

The fact is, the USSR did not engage in classic private foreign direct investment (FDI) because it lacked a market economy. Instead, it implemented large-scale state programs of economic and technical assistance. The USSR signed agreements with 37 countries and built around 600 industrial, energy, and infrastructure facilities.

That is what foreign economic relations between the USSR and other countries looked like—taking Africa as an example.

African nations did not pay in cash; instead, they used a barter system, supplying the USSR with goods produced in Africa that were unavailable in the Soviet Union. Similar economic arrangements existed with Cuba and the Warsaw Pact countries. Settlements were calculated using a notional unit of account.

Furthermore, the USSR exported socialism to each of these countries and subsequently provided unwavering support for that political system.

As for China: in my view, as long as capitalism remains a factor in foreign economic relations, that “aquarium” will be teeming with sharks! And it goes without saying—it is a rhetorical question—that those sharks couldn’t care less about socialism.

It is well on the socialist road, and while it has capitalists, they do not form a coherent political body.

I know you’re an optimist, Comrade—I’m not arguing with you!

I’m referring to someone whose own pessimism causes them to see negativity where there is no actual basis for it.

Yes, you described that guy accurately. And that’s hardly surprising, because in this world, he has no choice but to be a sociopath.

As for the idea that I might be talking nonsense—that’s unlikely; I have far too much practical life experience to spout complete rubbish. I’ve clawed my way to the top three times in my life, only to hit rock bottom again. Right now, I’m at the bottom once more. Would you be an optimist if you were in my shoes, Comrade? … ))) And please, don’t tell me that I’m the one to blame for it all, rather than the way life is set up!

I am an optimist, a revolutionary optimist.

You just got lucky, Comrade! I’m happy for you.

I was just like that once, too.

I have to hold onto hope to move forward, and do my best to temper that with sober and grounded analysis.

Yes, it’s Dostoevsky: The most terrible thing is when a person has nowhere to go. This quote reflects one of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s most haunting themes: the crushing despair of total alienation and the human necessity for purpose.

I very often fill gaps in my theoretical knowledge with personal experience—please forgive me for that!

I would also like to note that the interpretation of Marx’s theory in the USSR was somewhat simplified. For instance, the USSR acknowledged the existence of a primitive communal system but not the “Asiatic mode of production.” I only heard about the latter recently. I would like to highlight this aspect; perhaps the key to what is currently happening in China lies there.

Given that my knowledge of Marx’s theory is superficial—and considering that Marx did not outline a precise model for constructing socialism (his work was largely a theoretical analysis of capitalism and its consequences)—it is worth noting that philosophy never sets concrete tasks for the individual.

Regarding your view of Marx’s philosophy, I can also point out an inaccuracy. You state that Marx envisioned the construction of socialism only within the context of developed capitalism, based on highly advanced productive forces.

However, that is not entirely the case. In a letter to Vera Zasulich (dated March 8, 1881),

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Засулич,_Вера_Ивановна

Karl Marx stated that Russia could bypass the painful stage of capitalism. He emphasized that his theory was not a universal historical prescription and that the Russian peasant commune could, under certain conditions, become the nucleus of socialist development. Marx told Zasulich at the time that education was one of the most crucial factors in the possibility of bypassing the agonizing stage of capitalism.

The bottom line is this: Lenin and Trotsky supported the NEP, whereas Stalin sided with “Zasulich.” Stalin turned out to be entirely right, and he did not deviate from Marx’s theory by even a millimeter.

We talked about this before, lack of a good selection process that allowed people of low competence to get into positions of power and created a bureaucracy which was largely concerned with preserving itself rather than solving problems was the ultimate cause of the decline.

For some reason, I am convinced that Stalin would have sorted the situation out in a couple of years—it would have become 1937 all over again. Of course, for a long time afterward, people would have talked about how cruel Stalin was…

In essence, the situation in 1987 was the same as in 1937, when the Trotskyists crawled out into the open. And Trotskyists are essentially the same as kulaks and petty property owners.

By the way, I’d like to challenge your point about whether, according to Marx, a transition from feudalism to socialism is possible while bypassing the “agonies of capitalism.”

Yes, in his letter to Vera Zasulich dated March 8, 1881, Karl Marx did indeed allow for the possibility that Russia could transition to socialism by relying on its pre-capitalist institutions, thereby bypassing the capitalist stage.

Marx analyzed the socio-economic situation and concluded that the Russian rural commune (specifically the land-holding commune) could serve as a foothold for social renewal.

https://revarchiv.narod.ru/marxeng/tom19/marx_zasulitch.html

Therefore, Stalin acted precisely in accordance with Stalin’s own theory—the NEP in Russia could have been dispensed with! Both Marx and Stalin turned out to be right.

I wonder what Marx would have said about the possibility of building socialism in China. Although I’d ​​probably agree with you: China lacked the necessary foundation to skip over the NEP stage.

China was incredibly backward after the Opium Wars.

Look how great Europeans are living, look how much faster things develop under capitalism.

Trump has finally stirred into action, wanting to make America the way it was 40 years ago, but it is already too late. While Europe and the US were fleecing their own people and dismantling their industries, China was building. We see the result: there is no turning back.

Yup, that cartoon is ever green, and just as true as the day it was made.

Back then, they were just pictures to me; I didn’t take them seriously. But when events started unfolding in Ukraine… can you imagine? I immediately remembered those cartoons—and the scales fell from my eyes.

Exactly, there were just not thoughts people had back in USSR. It’s destruction was the biggest crime of the 20th century.

It’s all down to modern capitalist culture—a lifestyle where everyone is chasing profits and all sorts of sordid amusements. Drugs have also had a massive impact; they’ve poisoned all of Europe and the US. Wherever there are drugs, there is perversion. That’s exactly where that flood of “jolly guys” came from—the ones whose rights I’m suddenly supposed to care about. It’s all the drugs, I assure you!

You know yourself that the whole high-society crowd is hooked on cocaine. It’s very fashionable among them.

I really can’t see how relations with Europe could be restored at this point. There would have to be a revolution in Europe before that happens.

Yes, I agree; the EU looks relatively united right now. Trump has backed down, the global fuel crisis has been averted, and while there will be complications, they won’t be critical—unless Bibi sticks his long nose in again. Because, it seems to me, if the war ends, Netanyahu will be ousted. For him, just as for Zelensky, the end of the war spells political death.

And Trump has finally realized he can’t break Iran.

Trump is shifting his focus back to Ukraine. That “dynamic duo” will be heading to Moscow again.

I don’t get it—isn’t Putin tired of this? Flirting with Trump again, sending warm birthday wishes… The circus act is starting all over again. After his setback with Iran, Trump needs to do something before autumn: either secure peace in Ukraine, attack Cuba, or something similar. I think he’s lost his appetite for war after that last incident, so he’ll opt for “peace” in Ukraine. What leverage he’ll use this time, though, is unclear to me.

The G7 summit is taking place today, and—as always—Ukraine has crossed yet another red line. There was a massive strike on Moscow. This is bound to happen regularly from now on; things will only escalate.

Yes, given the unfavorable situation at the front, Ukraine has little choice but to resort to deep-strike attacks and terrorism as a countermeasure. However, this is unlikely to affect the actual frontline; it is aimed at the civilian population to sow fear and create hardships—financial and otherwise. That said, I believe Russia has been preparing for this since winter, back when the blocking of social media platforms began.

I suspect Putin won’t make any rash moves right now; he has made it clear that he is banking on developments on the ground—at the front. We shall see; perhaps he knows something more.

They openly stated that they’re going to be shuffling Syrsky out by fall, and it’s clear the directive is coming from the US. It could be that Americans are hoping to transition to something like Chechnya soon.

If we’re talking about Chechnya, it probably would have been better to make Budanov president and install a military government.

By the way, there has been a noticeable rise in public opposition to the TCK [military recruitment offices] recently. Something will have to be done about this in the foreseeable future, too. Incidents of mobs beating up TCK officers have become more frequent. I’m not saying this will necessarily lead to an uprising anytime soon, though. It’s just that TCK officers feel very uncomfortable in the city because everyone hates them—both Western and Eastern Ukrainians. It turns out that a common enemy unites both the “Banderites” and the Russian-speaking population of southeastern Ukraine. You can see it all on social media here. There is growing hatred directed at both Zelensky and the TCK. Even those who want Ukraine to win have come to hate Zelensky and the TCK. It’s like a parallel reality here. Everyone here—the ones with “pots on their heads”

https://youtu.be/H2Pratb_TNw?t=52

—seems to have developed bipolar disorder.

I used to say that being American isn’t a nationality, but a diagnosis—back when I listened to American politicians or watched CNN. It was nothing but contradictions. Now I see the same thing happening with Ukrainians. I’ve now fully realized from personal experience what American propaganda is all about.

If you dig deeper, it’s not even just American propaganda; it’s Goebbels-style propaganda—the kind that turns people not only into schizophrenics but also into cruel, ruthless individuals.

China is a socialist country

I thought we had agreed that China has not yet built socialism.

Yes, I agree with you that Lenin allocated a great deal of time to the transitional period, but Stalin proved otherwise.

China isn’t an angel, but it isn’t a predator either.

Yes, not entirely a predator—I agree. It’s very simple: China will cease to be a predator once it completely eradicates the capitalists within its own country.

We seem to have agreed on that point too, Comrade. The question is whether China will manage to do so before it becomes a hegemon—or rather, to put it in terms that are clearer to you, before it becomes the one dictating the rules of the game. That is what worries me.

This does not mean they will deliberately accept deals they can benefit more from.

This does not mean they will deliberately accept deals they can benefit more from.

That’s an interesting way to put it. Are you referring to Cervantes and the windmills?

My subjective pessimism stems from the fact that I’ve lost faith in my own future—my personal future. It’s just that, due to certain circumstances, I reached a point where I lost hope for what lies ahead. I’ve come to terms with that now.

As for objective pessimism, that has nothing to do with my personal outlook. If you like, you could call it dialectics in its most extreme form… )))))

But seriously, Comrade, when was the last time you saw someone looking toward humanity’s future with confidence and optimism—without any illusions?

Yeah, that’s the ironic part, it turns out that Soviets didn’t really have to make stuff up about the west while the west had to spin tall tales about evils of communism. I do think that it was a failure of Soviet education system that it failed to make people really understand the problem with capitalism.

One mistake made in the late USSR was that the public did not take the propaganda seriously.

There were economic problems, yet reports spoke of incredible achievements in socialist construction; in reality, everything was stagnating. The leaders could barely articulate their words… Brezhnev’s final speeches were completely unintelligible; people laughed at him back then just as they laughed at Biden when he rambled. The party leadership had become ossified; the country definitely needed a breath of fresh air at that time. That was precisely what Andropov envisioned when he tasked Ryzhkov and Gorbachev—who were the “young guard” of the party back then, full of fresh thoughts and ideas—with developing the project.

Unfortunately, however, Andropov didn’t live long enough to see it through, and Gorbachev later ruined everything.

By the way, I’ve finally fully grasped the reason why Europe was, until recently, a Garden of Eden.

The EU project—conceived long before the USSR collapsed—was aimed at preventing the emergence of socialism in individual European states. To achieve this, capitalists were forced to spend vast sums out of their own pockets to ensure social well-being for all their citizens. After all, there were very strong socialist movements in France, Italy, and elsewhere at the time. If the people had been living in hardship, they would have elected socialists. Consequently, capitalists were compelled to share with the public—as should happen in a genuine democratic capitalist state.

After the USSR collapsed, there was no longer a need to maintain a high standard of living for the European populace. And so, almost without realizing it, Europe began to slide into the abyss! Capitalists now have a free hand; they can do whatever they please.

And now we come to the main point. It turns out that the collapse of the USSR turned Europe into a garbage dump.

Not just in schools too, it’s in TV shows, comic books, everything. And we see now just how effective this type of indoctrination is.

This is a caricature from a Soviet newspaper from 1955. Absolutely nothing has changed.

And yeah, that’s fair, I meant specifically in terms of media entertainment.

Yes, it was done intentionally to give the child more time for beneficial activities. It was the right approach for the upbringing of young people.

This is, incidentally, another thing you can’t do in the west.

I remember once being in the countryside with my parents, but I had a soccer match on Sunday morning, so I headed back to town in the evening to be ready for the game the next day. My parents stayed behind in the village. When I arrived in town, I realized I had left my apartment keys back in the village—but I had taken the last bus of the day. It was a 15-kilometer trip, and I was only 13 years old. I lived on the edge of town, so I walked out to the main road—it was 10 p.m.—and managed to catch a ride. Strangers drove me all the way back to the village; even though it wasn’t on their way, they dropped me right at my house and wouldn’t take a single penny. I had a few rubles in my pocket and tried to offer them the money, but they flatly refused.

It never even crossed my mind that someone might try to harm me. And my parents didn’t scold me for coming back to the village in the middle of the night instead of staying over at a friend’s place in town—to them, that sort of thing was perfectly normal.

Even now—before the war—I don’t recall any instances of anyone being abducted; children roam the streets freely. But that’s before the war; I don’t know what will happen afterwards—the world has changed.

And when Russia wins, it’s till going to be highly dependent on China economically which means China will continue to exercise a ton of influence over Russia.

There are various possible scenarios. In one of them, Russia wins, and relations with Europe—along with the Nord Stream pipelines—are restored. This scenario is not in China’s interest.

So, there’s simply way more to gain by winning than letting this fester.

A moderate victory—that’s optimal for China.

China cut the west off from critical inputs they need to produce weapons. So, now the west isn’t able to restock what they’ve spent over 4 years in Ukraine and now in Iran. The inventories here keep going down, and there’s nothing the west can do about it lacking its own industries.

I would really like it to be that way!

And this is what I was saying about Bunaov being shuffled to the head of the army.

At the moment, Syrsky is handling his duties reasonably well; he is doing everything he can, regardless of the cost in casualties. So far, however, there have been no major breakthroughs. Besides, one has to hold the front line, not just wage a campaign of terror.

When you see that “)))”, you’ll realize you’re talking to a Russian or a Russian speaker.

Okay, in that case, let’s talk about humor.

Let’s talk about folklore. Folklore isn’t about the state; it’s about the people. Folklore reflects the collective mindset of the people—I think you’d agree with that… Vox populi, vox Dei.

Here’s a Soviet-era joke; these few lines capture the whole essence:

“To launch a satellite, the Chinese formed a human pyramid a thousand stories high, but it collapsed because the guy on the three-hundred-and-seventeenth floor hadn’t properly mastered Mao’s Little Red Book.”

You’re an intelligent person, so you surely understand that my views were formed back in early childhood. It’s something ingrained at a subconscious level.

So, please forgive me for my past stubbornness.

It’s good to see young people still read Marx in Russia. :)

In Russia, Marx is inseparable from Lenin.

By the way, listen to the story of how Russian officials, together with their Chinese counterparts, are selling a massive Soviet factory to China for scrap metal. It’s a disgrace!

When Platoshkin exposed this criminal scheme, a local official simply blew up the factory to cover his tracks…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qsA-IegBgcg

And he’s right that full automation is fundamentally incompatible with capitalism because the whole system is based around consumption. You need wage workers who produce value, and then pay the capital owner to consume goods. If you eliminate wage workers from the system there’s nobody left to consume the goods. And once you have the majority of population become useless within the system it can no longer function.

And once again, capitalism is doing harm—this time, to the advancement of progress.

Basically what happened was that the US sat out the second world war and developed its economy while the rest of the world burned. Then they used their head start to prop up their ideological bloc during the Cold War and created the whole mythology that capitalism was a superior system and the standard of living in the west wasn’t because the US had a huge head start, but because capitalism is a superior system. Now that China has caught up and capitalism has destroyed all the material benefits western public enjoyed, we’re seeing the new generation sobering up.

As I understand it, during the Iron Curtain era, the only information that reached us from the other side was propaganda. And as I’ve come to realize decades later: Soviet propaganda told 90% the truth about the West, whereas Western propaganda told 90% lies about the USSR.

That is why people in the West are only now beginning to understand what socialism actually is—now that advanced Western capitalism has gone into a tailspin. I remember when I first joined Western forums back in 2015; people’s jaws would drop at the stories I told. At first, they didn’t believe me—they thought I was making it all up! I became very popular very quickly on that first Western forum.

cause there really wasn’t much other type of entertainment.

Comrade, those are just Western tall tales… )))) Деревянные игрушки, скользкий подоконник, каляска без дна))) I was never a homebody as a child. There was a sports ground in every courtyard; we played soccer there every day—it was impossible to get me to come home. In the winter, they’d flood the area to make an ice rink, and we’d play hockey. When my parents bought me a computer—a ZX Spectrum—I went wild and started skipping school, but even so, there was always a book on my nightstand; I read every day before bed.