Empire must fall. Russia - a "family business"? Crash of Russian state media. Discord and Telegram banned.

Empire must fall, not replaced by another Czar(inna)

The West preaches to the Russian opposition, frequently failing to recognise that they share imperialistic characteristics, albeit disguised. Yet, when coming to power, nothing will stop them from turning into another monster as power spoils. This is why Mikhail Hodorkovsky is advocating changing not the person but the system and replacing a presidential republic with a parliamentary republic. Something that Alexey Navalny opposed but embraced during his last year in prison. In most cases though, even those from Russian democrats that are appraised as democrats failed to be those in our meaning. Yes, they might be against Putin but not necessarily for freedom and democracy by our definition.

Let me quote Yulia Navalnaya from the Bled Strategic Forum. “There are those who advocate for the urgent ‘decolonization’ of Russia, arguing to split our vast country into several smaller, safer states. However, these ‘decolonizers’ can’t explain why people with shared backgrounds and cultures should be artificially divided. Nor do they say how this process should even take place.” What is it if not imperialism? There are many republics, beginning with Ichkeria (Chechnya), Yakutia, Dagestan, and Buryatia, that are still subjugated by the empire and have lost their war for independence. Imperial mindset determines what is best for these countries rather than asking them. If you are a democrat, why are you so terrified of referendum? (Without gunpoint).

Now Navalnaya′s daughter works in the headquarters of presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and the opposition gets hugs from presidents.

Navalny′s investigative team, FBK has completely lost it, concentrating on destroying each other while not being transparent about their own ambitions, motives and origin of resources.

However, major nations, like the United States, tend to hug and welcome those who claim to be democratic, expecting that simply shifting one leader to another who is less aggressive will solve the problem of Imperial Russia. It will not; it is once again choosing the lesser evil instead of not choosing evil at all.

US knows better? We know that it doesn′t and in regards to empire, we cannot forget George W. Bush's speech in Kyiv calling for Ukraine to stay in the Soviet Union or it will lose the support of US. Speech that the New York Times (William Safire) famously called “Chicken Kyiv”. It stuck. Four months later, 92% of Ukrainians voted for a free and independent Ukraine.

Empire must lose, die, be split, and be rebuilt, only this way will the “empire in the collective subconsciousness” of the people die along with that aspiration for the resurrection of Great Imperial Russia.

Russia - a "family business"?

Among his chief serfs, Putin values loyalty over decency. Oh, who are the serfs? The feudal system bound them as laborers to work on their lord's estate until the mid-19th century. Unlike slaves, they could not be sold, but they went with the land. It bears a striking resemblance to how the Kremlin functions. Being a part of the system condemns you to serfdom and service.

Putin values loyalty, and he tolerates corruption in ministers and high-ranking officials as long as they remain personally loyal to him. This explains why we haven't witnessed any arrests of high-ranking leaders who have fallen out of favor, such as Sergei Shoigu, the former Minister of Offence.

However, Putin is now bringing out of the shadows a new "players league"—his family and relatives. Yes, including his oldest daughters, to whom he referred to as “these women.”.?

Putin's elder daughter, Maria Vorontsova, is an edochrinologist and is currently working with her father's friend Mihhail Kovalchuk, who believes in "special Russian DNA," to find an eternal life pill for Putin.

Putin's second daughter, Katerina Tihhonova, is a mathematician and head of Moscow University's AI center, which she claims to have the "second or third" most powerful supercomputer in the world. They denied making data publicly available, and some components are known to be from Ali Express, but anyway. Tihhonova, I wonder why she did not take her husband′s name. Zelenski, is also in charge of the drone development in Russia and is also a shareholder in the biggest drone producer.

In addition to the dictator's daughters, a once-removed niece has made an appearance in the play. Anna Tsivilyova, born Putina, was a humble psychiatrist in Ivanovo before Putin became president. Then suddenly her husband became the governor of Kemerovo, and they became immensely rich, “acquiring” a stake in a significant-size coal mining company, "Kolomar."? With the beginning of the large-scale war, Tsivilyova became chairman of a state fund for veterans of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while her husband became minister of energy in then 2024 Cabinet. But that wasn't the end of the story.?

With the sudden rise of the new Minister of Offence Andrey Belousov, Tsivileva was suddenly nominated as deputy minister of defence, just to be promoted to State Secretary of Ministry in a few months.

Nepotism? No, probably just a very gifted doctor that can do anything. It reminds me of last years of Boris Yeltsin when his family "Semya,” led by his daughter Tatyana and her husband a.k.a "Tanya and Valya", ran the office.

What are the secret and not-so-secret weapons of Ukraine?

Crash-boom-bang as a "Happy birthday, "Mr President"" from Ukraine

On Putin′s birthday, suddenly biggest state media crushed. As it turned out, Russian state media company VGTRK, which owns and operates the country's main national TV stations, was targeted in a massive cyberattack from Ukraine.

"Our state media holding, one of the largest, has faced an unprecedented hacker attack on its digital infrastructure," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Allegedly hackers wiped everything from servers, including backups and it took days to repair.

While “sudo rm-RF” hacking group took responsibility for hacking state media, on its X account. Around the same time, a group calling itself “BO Team” claimed responsibility on its Telegram channel for the attack on the judicial system.?

Happy 72nd birthday.

Telegram and Discord got banned

Russia has already banned many popular social media platforms like Instagram, and according to recent surveys, people are too bored to download VPNs. Even the slowdown of YouTube did not bring them to the streets but made them switch to RuTube, VKontakte, and Odnoklasniki. The latest on the government "hit list" was gaming platform Discord, and this one provoked a real riot among milibloggers. While deputies of Rada decided that it was the root of all Western evil, it turned out that the Russian military is using Discord for command and control. They even brag about it on Telegram. Another shot in their own leg after prohibiting gadgets in the army that were also used to control drones.

In September, the Ukrainian parliament decided to ban Telegram for civil servants and the military, citing the security concerns of the messenger.

Pavel Durov, the founder of the messenger, is currently facing an investigation in Paris for his failure to prevent crimes using the platform, in addition to his other concerns. A woman named Irina Bolgar, who claims to be the mother of his 3 children, sued Durov for alimony of 137 million euros. After Durov agreed to pay a monthly alimony of 150 000 euros. According to Bolgar, this amount exceeding one hundred million euros represents "the quality of life the children have been accustomed to." I clearly live not even on another planet but in a in a galaxy.