PUTIN HEALTH RUMOURS SWIRL He hasn’t been seen for ten days. What video has been seen is old recordings edited together. The puffy faced table grabber has clearly been ill in the past and frequently appears for short periods. The days when he made four hour appearances are long gone. At 73 he’s

RUSSIA IS FLAILING WHILE IRAN IS DEFIANT Russian senior leadership from Patrushev to Lavarov have blamed Finland for preparing to attack them. Which is of course utter nonsense. They’re raising the stakes on tanker confiscations by being escalatory - which actually has an impact on some western

LIGHTEN THE MOOD - The English are obsessed with potholes - it’s a never ending complaint.

FRONTLINE NEWS - THE GOOD & THE BAD Bearing in mind the amount of operational security involved, this is the best I can find out right now. BAD NEWS: Ukrainian sources are confirming Russian sources saying that Ukraine no longer has operational units in Myronrahd or Pokrovsk. However that doesn’t

UKRAINE ADMITS PILOTS, DUTCH & US ARE FLYING F-16’s It’s not an unusual concept - the RAF used foreign pilots extensively in WW2 One squadron of F-16 apparently use western pilots in conjunction Ukrainian pilots. The idea being that they help local pilots learn tactics and operating procedures for

RUBIO BACKS ORBAN IN BLATANT PRE-ELECTION STUNT Rubio made it perfectly clear where he and Trump stood. They’re supporting Orban because his believe align with theirs. Nationalist, corrupt, censorious, anti-judiciary, anti-free speech, religious extremism and racism: all hallmarks of Orban’s regime

RUSSIA COMPLETELY CUTS OFF WESTERN SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS Telegram has now been throttled to the point of useless and will be blocked completely. YouTube is now shut down, FaceTime is dead. WhatsApp is unusable, along with Facebook and X. Facebook described as extremist - and given some of its

THE WAR HEATS UP AS NEGOTIATIONS APPROACH It’s not uncommon in conflicts that when peace talks are due the intensity of conflict increases. The aim of both sides to assert their dominance and strength and that they’re not by any means done for. Tradition based on logic is that maximum pressure

The Russian economy faces severe challenges, marked by inflation manipulation, rising VAT, and significant declines in oil production. Central Bank meetings ignore critical issues, while small businesses struggle under heavy regulations, indicating impending economic decline.

IS IT AN OFFENSIVE OR A CLEARING OPERATION Two Ukrainians in a room with notes. One insists this is it an offensive but a clearing operation made easier by the Russians being so disconnected and the other says? It’s a clearing operation quickly morphing into an offensive to take advantage of an

You all need to listen to this. You’ll love it.

RUSSIA IS LUDICROUS- ITS LATEST SUGGESTION IS BEYOND A JOKE Yesterday the Russian government announced it was willing to work with the UN in governing Ukraine after the war. Just read that back again. They did this to emphasise yet again they want us to think they’re winning and that it’s an

POST-MUNICH ROUNDUP This was an important conference. Rubio, Walz tried their best to reassure Europe that they weren’t about to abandon the continent, while making it perfectly clear it was up to the continent to defend itself without America - the burden sharing argument. That’s something every

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT STORY BRITAIN & NATO CANNOT HIDE FROM I was very aware of this but the embargo was only lifted Friday and it has huge implications. A real life war game where a new Ukrainian brigade took on a British one ended up with the British wiped out ‘in extraordinary quick time’. The

RUBIO REFUSES TO ATTEND MEETING ON UKRAINE “I’ve got better things to do”. It went down like a lead balloon. But it went ahead anyway. The MSC accepts that the world order has and is being destroyed. Trump is to blame. That’s the title of the conference. Zelensky made it clear he has compromised

TWO SPEECHES DIFFERENT PERSPCTIVES Rubio says America isn’t abandoning Europe and the message is very much that the burden of that defence must be ours in Europe, while America deals with its own issues in the Pacific. But it doesn’t mean America won’t be there when it matters. Keir Starmer said

CRACKS IN THE SYSTEM We’re finally seeing now that the problems in the Russian state, largely because it’s an administrative dictatorship, are deeper and more profound than we realised. Putin doesn’t have the bandwidth to cope with making every decision. The government works in silos. The military

FCAS 6th GEN FIGHTER ‘ALL BUT DEAD’ One thing that came out of yesterday was that the Germans are effectively saying that any idea of the Franco-German-Spanish fighter program continuing is virtually impossible. Dassault won’t budge and while the program might go on with Spain and France it’s not

THE STARLINK-TELEGRAM CRISIS IS WAY WORSE THAN IT LOOKS Politically the Putin regime is struggling to understand the significance of Telegram. Starlink they get, and as the regime sees it, it’s not a bad thing because it cuts the world off. Telegram they have only seen as a means by which the

OFFICIAL RUSSIA ECONOMIC FIGURES RELEASED Oil and gas January 2026 down 50% YOY to $5.1b lowest since July 2020. Down $5.8b in December. Official deficit for 2026 $49b projected already $23b in January alone. Deficit now expected to be $134b only has officially $53b in reserves. These figures were

Well that was unexpected! Are the Democrats holding a primary? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Gavin Newsome in the same hotel as me? Apparently both are speaking at some point.

THE REASON RUSSIA MAKES MISTAKES In a word it is Dictatorship. The paranoia of control. When every aspect of government is siloed and disconnected from every other part of government, where the ‘streams’ never cross because information is so tightly controlled. Why would anyone in the propaganda

RUSSIAN LEADERSHIP SO PARANOID ITS DESTROYING MILITARY OPS FOR INFORMATION CONTROL This is so ‘Dictatorship Handbook, Chapter 20, ‘When You Feel You’re Not Quite In Control Go A Step Further’. Feeling Paranoid? There’s only one solution- ban everything! Stop everyone using WhatsApp and cut the

UKRAINE’S STRATEGY The real strategy seems to be to protect Orochiv has a hub, retake Hulaiapole and defend the Zaporhizia city zone from further Russian advances. Overall in the north and south Ukraine has gained about 100sqkm which is a good haul for a few days. Long range drones are back in

OFFENSIVE IS UNDERWAY THOUGH INFORMATION IS SPARSE I have been told by a reliable source that a Ukrainian offensive is underway around Hulaiapole and south of Zaporhizia. The situation for the Russians is said to be very difficult and they have been pushed back. More operational information from

MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE STARTS TOMORROW As I head off to spend another weekend in another security conference, it’s interesting to note how different they all are. This is the one that matters in terms of hard policy statements and it’s been frequently used by governments to lay out policy.

UK JOINS PURL PROGRAM The UK has joined the PURL program and funded £150m of equipment for Ukraine. While welcome for Ukraine it continues to confuse domestic observers as the country has still failed to deliver its own defence industrial base plan or authorise payments for many military programs

RUSSIA CONTINUES ON ITS MAXIMALIST DEMANDS PATH AS TELEGRAM BAN INFURIATES MILBLOGGERS The government continues to expound its maximalist demands from 2022 in terms of Ukraine and its aims, seeming to think by saying and repeating it, it will add additional pressure. Meanwhile the throttling of

GERMAN AEROSPACE UNION AND INDUSTRY SAY ITS TIME TO DUMP THE FCAS PROGRAM Germany’s biggest aerospace union IG Metal and representatives of various aerospace industry companies said it was time for Germany to dump France and get on with its own program for a sixth generation fighter. They claim

Ukraine appears to be conducting several counter offensives and using the lack of Russian command and control to take advantage of the situation. Is this a watershed moment?

A crypto investor just donated £9 million to the Reform Party. Right now, billionaires can pour unlimited money into our elections, effectively buying our democracy. Think that's wrong? Add your name to call for a cap on donations today: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...

RUSSIA INJECTED 3.2 TRILLION INTO THE ECONOMY YESTERDAY Everything is supposed to be ‘normal’ yet the REPO system was used yet again to inject a huge amount of money into the banking system to keep the government paying its bills. Not only is this inflationary it’s just bad practice to be doing

NATO COMMAND SHAKE UP AND I DO NOT LIKE IT sorry it’s AppleNews if you can access it some other way if you can’t read it it’s worth doing so apple.news/AupWyTEjrRLu...

RUSSIA NOW HAS 100% CONTROL OF NATIONAL INTERNET The government now has 100% control of the mechanics of the internet, and has the capacity to shut down the entire net using one single control system. Regional systems have now been integrated into a Chinese designed central control system

PUTINS OBSESSION WITH CONTROL IS DESTROYING RUSSIAN EFFECTIVENESS The Russians have been through some command and control issues during this war. Their radios were so bad they were broadcasting in the open unencrypted at the start. Corruption had purchased what amounted to toy radios. Soldiers

THE MYTH OF ‘RUSSIA NEEDS SECURITY GUARANTEES’ Once again Russia is demanding the EU offers Russia security guarantees post war. The mighty Russia, with 6,000+ nuclear weapons that’s apparently ’winning’ in its war against Ukraine? Needs the EU - a primarily economic and political alliance, to

MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE 2026 Well it starts on Friday and runs through to late Sunday. The Americans will be there. It’s often the site of some big speeches and sometimes they can be quite defining. Putin shook the place once as he laid out what was wrong with the west and it was our fault if

#UkrainianView IN A NEW TACTIC RUSSIA STARTS BLAMING THE US FOR LACK OF PEACE PROGRESS You could be forgiven for thinking it was a badly written play, but sadly it’s all true. Lavarov has decided the best tactic to push things along is blame the US for lack of progress. His aim seems to be to get

THIS IS WHAT CAN HAPPEN TO RUSSIAN TANKERS LEFT AT SEA FULL OF CRUDE OIL The shadowy world of abandoned oil tankers www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

GOOD NEWS IN JAPAN AND PORTUGAL Japan’s new female prime minister called a snap election and is apparently heading towards a major victory. Japan needs economic and social change to move forward and she might be able to deliver it. Just being a woman in the role of Prime Minister is a huge first

RUSSIANS FACING A CASCADE OF PROBLEMS? THIS CAN BE HOW IT ENDS A senior Russian general heavily involved in intelligence operations & planning is almost assassinated and may not live. A former justice minister believed to have advised finding a way out of the war is found drowned in his own bathtub

RUSSIANS NO LONGER CARE ABOUT WHO THEY UPSET Moldova was plunged into darkness over the weekend, the whole country losing electrical power because of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid. Their grids, historically interconnected in the Soviet era are vulnerable to Russian attacks on transformers

I WIAH YOU ALL A PEACEFUL SUNDAY It’s not raining for the first time in 8 days! Mayday & Zorin are ready for a long walk to see the damage and no doubt find a ridiculously sized tree branch to bring home. Just need some quiet today. Long week. Enjoy your day!

THIS IS SAD, PATHETIC AND HEARTBREAKING ALL AT ONCE No matter what side you’re on a man sitting clearly frozen to the core, probably starving hungry, has lost the will to even live. He watches the drone come for him, it sits there a second or two looking at him, him at it. His Asian background is

RUSSIA REFUSES TO MOVE IN PEACE TALKS AS NEW SANCTIONS GO IN TO FORCE & ECONOMY TILTS FASTER DOWNHILL The Russians are not budging an inch. Refusing any security guarantees for Ukraine, refusing any cooperation over the Zaporhizia NPP, and then coming up with more impossible demands. It’s a farce.

“Power is tearing human minds apart and rebuilding them in new ways”. “Imagine the future, a boot stamping on the face of a human forever”. 1984

“The purpose of the war is not to win, not to defeat the enemy, but to keep everyone on the edge of starvation, to ensure the stability of society.” 1984

THE WASHINGTON POST IS KILLING ITSELF Once a bastion of democracy since Bezos bought it it’s gone down hill. His stooges refused to endorse Kamala Harris and there was a massive backlash of cancelled subscriptions that simply hasn’t stopped. The way Bezos has crawled up the back passage of the

NOW WOULD BE THE TIME TO STRIKE…? There’s no doubt that if ever there was a time for Ukraine to mount a surprise offensive this would be it. Russia has no communications and no means of directing its troops. Coordination is going to be painful for Russia if not impossible, for weeks ahead.

EPSTEIN-MANDELSON SCANDAL NOW A BIG DEAL IN UK The Prime Minster is under siege, his chief of staff whom it has to be said is considered disliked by everyone looks set to take the fall. However there’s another sub-scandal that needs serious scrutiny. In late February last year the PM and then