Russian TV broadcasting the Donbass levy. See their obsolete helmets. Basically they wore leftovers from the Russian warehouses - old models not fit for the regulars

Pressganged and poorly equipped Donetsk and Luhanks levies were sent to assault Ukrainian fortifications. Which were very well built

In 2014-2022 Ukraine spent eight years preparing to resist a full scale invasion and built heavily fortified positions all over Donbass. That’s a major reason why Russia is moving so slowly, despite its enormous firepower. It already fired four times more cruise missiles at Ukraine than the U.S. produces per year. Still, they move very slowly and lose a lot of people. But these are mostly Donbass мобики so nobody cares

Total mobilisation in the Donetsk People’s Republic. People being caught on the streets. Quite a lot of males lived at work. If they would step outside, they would be probably mobilised

In summer some forcibly mobilised troops of the DPR lost motivation to fight. They didn’t rebel though. They started recording petitions to Putin, Pushilin (DPR ruler) and uploading them to internet

Donetsk People’s Republic conscripts refused to go to fight to the Luhansk People’s Republic which is “a completely different republic”. These are the same guys who took Mariupol. Russia mostly tried to fight with the Donbass cannon fodder, saving its own citizens (and regime) from the riks of total mobilization. It launched the total mobilization only in Donbass

Here is the full Russian version (no subtitiles)

In late March MP Delyagin suggested destroying (apparently nuking( the Azerbaijan oil industry in response to the hostilities in Karabakh

Very soon Dmitry Peskov told Delyagin to “control his emotions”. Delyagin’s response:

Topaz, a militant of the Russian neo-Nazi group “Rusich” fighting in the Donbas describing his experiences in the Czar.Chat - a platform launched by Egor Prosvirnin, editor of Sputnik and Pogrom

Milvhakov, a commander of the Russian Neo Nazi “Rusich” group giving an interview to Egor Prosvirnin, editor of Sputnik and Pogrom

An interview with the Committee of Soldier’s Mothers representative. Before the invasion started she urged parents whose conscripted sons were being concentrated on the border with Ukraine to go and take them from there. Nobody did

Sputnik and Pogrom - by far the most influential Russian nationalist media of the recent decades. I strongly recommend going through it if you want a glimpse into the Russian internal debates preceding this war https://sputnikipogrom.com

Kadyrov the TikToker. Overall, Chechen leadership is far more active in the social media than the supreme Russian leadership. The latter tends to be comparatively secretive

The cultural influence of the Brat-1 and Brat-2 movies is wildly underrated outside of Russia. I would say these were by far the most influential pieces of art created after the Soviet collapse. Nothing else comes anywhere close in terms of shaping the public discourse and reflecting the public values

The Brat-1 and Brat-2 movies can be framed as the Iliad and the Odyssey of the modern Russian culture. Consider this central poem of the Brat-2 movie

Basically, in the Brat-2 movie a Russian bandit comes to America to solve his problem with an American mob boss. Notice the poem in the movie’s culmination

The Brat-2 poem is being constantly referred to in the official propaganda. Like this

Or this Dmitry Rogozin’s video. The Brat movies is the central epic of the post-Soviet Russia. In this capacity they are quoted, referred to and promoted by the state apparatus

Amazing book, cannot recommend it strongly enough. Perhaps, the best crash intro into the Russian 1990s I have seen