Category Archives: Putin

If an American president announced a major speech, booked the networks for 8 p.m., and then disappeared until the following morning, the analysis would be immediate and damning: chaos, disarray, indecision. The White House must be in crisis.

In the past 24 hours, this is exactly what happened in Moscow. The Russian president really did announce a major speech, alert state television, warn journalists, and then disappear without explanation. Although Vladimir Putin finally gave his speech to the nation this morning, the same conclusions have to apply: chaos, disarray, indecision. The Kremlin must be in crisis.

In fact, no elements of the delayed speech were completely new or unexpected. Russian authorities have long intended to hold sham referenda in the Ukrainian territories they occupy. Putin and his television propagandists have been making subtle and unsubtle nuclear threats since February. Quietly, a creeping mobilization has been going on for many weeks too, as the Russian army has sought to recruit more men to replace the soldiers who it still does not admit have been killed, wounded, or exhausted by the war. But now that Ukraine has successfully recaptured thousands of square miles of Russian-held territory, the sham referenda are being rushed, the nuclear language is being repeated, and the mobilization expanded. These are not the actions of a secure leader assured of his legitimacy and of the outcome of this war.

In part, the crisis stems from Putins fears that he will lose whatever counts as his international support. No ideology holds together the global autocrats club, and no sentiment does either. As long as they believed Russia really had the second largest army in the world, as long as Putin seemed destined to stay in power indefinitely, then the leaders of China, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, along with the strongmen running India and Turkey, were happy to tolerate his company.

From the October 2022 issue: The man who chased history

But Putins supposedly inevitable military victory is in jeopardy. His army looks weak. Western sanctions make problems not just for him but his trading partners, and their tolerance is receding. At a summit in Uzbekistan last week, he was snubbed by a series of Central Asian leaders. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him that todays era is not an era of war, and Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his concerns as well. On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan told PBS that he had urged Putin to end the war: The lands which were invaded will be returned to Ukraine. And those lands, he made clear, should include Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, following a sham referendum much like the ones it now plans to stage in other parts of occupied Ukraine.

But while losing support abroad is bad, losing support at home is worse, and there are some signs of that too. Putin might not care much about the Russian liberals and exiles who oppose the war, but he may worry (and should worry) about people who are supposed to be on his sidepeople such as Alla Pugacheva, a Soviet-era pop star who has millions of mainstream followers and has recently proclaimed both her patriotism and her opposition to the war. Putin may also worry about the disappointed, pro-war nationalist bloggers, active on social media, who have been criticizing the conduct of the war for some time. Mobilization is, lets put it bluntly, our only chance to avoid a crushing defeat, one of them recently wrote. No one has stopped or arrested these critics, perhaps because they have protectors high up inside the security services, or perhaps because they are connected to the heavily armed mercenaries who are now doing much of the important fighting in Ukraine. If their loyalty isnt assured, then Putin isnt secure either.

At the same time, the Russian president has to balance the discontent of that heavily armed minority against the wishes of the mostly apathetic, mostly silent majority. For the past six months, Putin has been telling the latter that there is no war, just a special military operation; that Russia has suffered no losses, just some temporary setbacks. Given that the army is victorious and everything is fine, most people need not alter their lives in any way. Now events have forced Putin to change his language, but it seems there are limits. Thus he speaks not of a true mass mobilizationwhich would involve conscripting young men in enormous numbersbut of partial mobilization: no students, no general call-up, just the activation of reservists with past military experience. Supposedly Russia has 300,000 such people, though its not clear how many of them are actually fit to fight or whether there are enough weapons and gear for them either. Presumably, if better equipment were available, it would already be on the battlefield.

Finally, and perhaps most important, the speech and a series of legal changes announced yesterday reflect a crisis inside the military. In truth, the Russian army faces not just a logistical emergency or some tactical problems but also a collapse in morale. Thats why Putin needs more soldiers, and thats why, as in Stalins time, the Russian state has now defined voluntary surrender as a crime: Under a law approved by the Russian Parliament yesterday, you can be sent to prison for up to 10 years. If you desert your guard post in Donetsk or Kherson (or change into civilian clothes and run away, as some Russian soldiers have done in the past few weeks). The state has also decreed new penalties for mutinyusing violence against a superiorand stealing while in uniform. If the Russian army were a reliable, enthusiastic, dedicated fighting force, then the state would not need to declare harsh punishments for deserters, looters, and mutineers. But it is not.

Anne Applebaum: Its time to prepare for a Ukrainian victory

Over the next few days, the bogus referenda will gather headlines, and the nuclear threats will create fear, as they were designed to do. But we should understand these attempts at blackmail and intimidation as a part of the deeper story told by this delayed speech: Support for Putin is erodingabroad, at home, and in the army. Everything else he says and does right now is nothing more than an attempt to halt that decline.

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Putins Kremlin Is in Disarray - The Atlantic

Alexander, 33, found out about Vladimir Putins decision to order a partial mobilisation during an emotional call from his wife.

Sasha, they can take you, she told him shortly after hed arrived at his office in downtown Moscow.

While Alexander had served in the army as a conscript nearly 15 years ago, he never saw combat. That puts him comparatively low in the mobilisation draft, Russias first since the second world war.

Still, like many others, he is worried that he could receive a povestka, his draft papers, and be sent to the front.

Id rather leave than fight in this war, he said in a short interview over a messenger app. If they call me up, then I would want to leave [the country].

But because of a new law criminalising desertion, he said, he thinks that he could face a decade in prison or more if he runs. Its impossible, he said of the choice. In the end, he said, he would probably have to go into the army. But hell try to find a way around that.

Millions of Russians woke up on Wednesday to the realisation that they may actually have to participate in the countrys war and occupation of Ukraine. For nearly seven months, many Russians have tried to simply ignore the invasion of Ukraine. Now, for many families, the war has come home.

This is the thing everyone was afraid of when the war started, said one mother who believed her son could be drafted.

Others say theyre ready to fight. One man in his 30s with past military service said he believed that it was his patriotic duty to go into the army if he was drafted. I want to be with my country, he said.

So far, Russia has not closed the borders to prevent draft dodgers from leaving. But many think that could be the next step.

Russians fleeing the country have bought out tickets to countries like Turkey and Armenia, where they can travel without a visa. Individual tickets to those countries are not available until this weekend, and even then can cost more than $3,000. Aviasales, a popular air ticket site, even has an option to choose the destination wherever I can go.

Many European countries have closed their land borders to Russians, leaving still fewer options to escape. And even those Russians who leave could still face a criminal charge for desertion if they are drafted and dont return.

Large state companies have begun handing out draft papers. Among our colleagues, there are employees with combat experience, who have served in the armed forces, wrote Sberbank, a state-owned banking and financial services company. Some of them have their mobilisation papers and have been given their orders.

Opponents of the war have begun to protest in cities across Russia. But the rallies are small, sometimes just a handful of people. In Novosibirsk, one man who was arrested at a protest yelled: I dont want to die for Putin and for you! A protest is expected on Wednesday evening in Moscow as well. Russian police have already blocked off the central Pushkinskaya Square.

Opposition figures broadcast a prank call during which they reached the son of the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov and told him hed been drafted for the war. He suggested that he would settle the matter on a different level.

Some opponents of the war have called it a mogilizatsia, a play on the word mobilisation and the word mogila, a grave.

We know its a lot more dangerous than they say, said Alexander. Otherwise why would they need the draft?

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Id rather leave than fight: Russians react to Putins draft - The Guardian

A local university student in Buryatias capital Ulan-Ude told the media outlet Village that police officers showed up at this university in the morning and were taking students straight out of classes.

Buryatias government confirmed reports that at least 11 schools in Ulan-Ude were shut down on Thursday to be used as mobilisation points, and school buses will now be used to ship conscripts.

Military commissioners seem to be sweeping Buryatia clear, even trying to enlist men who were long dead.

Two women showed up at my brothers address in the morning and said they wanted to hand him call-up papers, Natalya Vasilyeva from Ulan-Ude told the Telegraph, adding that her late brother had an exemption from the army due to bad health.

Several of her colleagues and friends were served call-up orders too:

Some got visits at 4, some at 6 a.m. They all went to the recruitment office.

Meanwhile, top Russian officials and lawmakers are beginning to feel the heat of criticism as they seem unwilling to go to war themselves or send their family members to Ukraine.

Nikolai Peskov, a 32-year-old son of President Putins spokesman, rejected suggestions to sign up when a member of a Russian opposition group prank-called him on Wednesday.

You need to understand that I shouldnt be there if my name is Mr Peskov, the spokesmans son told the activist who posed as a military official requesting him to show up at the military commissioners office.

Im going to solve this issue on a different level.

Asked if he was going to sign up for the army, Mr Peskov Jnr was heard saying: Certainly not.

The opposition activists released the full footage of the phone call but his father, Dmitry Peskov, insisted that the remarks were taken out of context and that he had no doubts in his sons choice.

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Putin 'passes secret law to send one million Russians to fight in Ukraine' - The Telegraph

Russia has announced a partial mobilisation in a major escalation that places the countrys people and economy on a wartime footing.

With president Vladimir Putin also threatening nuclear retaliation, we would like to hear from Russians about how ordinary people are reacting to the latest developments in the war on Ukraine.

How are you, family and friends feeling about the situation? What are your hopes and fears for the coming weeks and months? We would also like to hear from Russians living in the UK, US or elsewhere.

If you are 18 years or over you can get in touch by filling in the form below, anonymously if you wish, or contact us via WhatsApp by clicking here or adding +44(0)7766780300. You can also contact us via Telegram by clicking here or adding +44(0)7799322095.

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Russians: tell us what you think about Putin's escalation of war in Ukraine - The Guardian

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SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said he understood that Xi Jinping had questions and concerns about the situation in Ukraine but praised China's leader for what he said was a "balanced" position on the conflict.

Russia's war has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the global economy into uncharted waters with soaring food and energy prices amid the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

At their first face-to-face meeting since the war, Xi said he was very happy to meet "my old friend" again after Putin said U.S. attempts to create a unipolar world would fail.

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"We highly value the balanced position of our Chinese friends when it comes to the Ukraine crisis," Putin told Xi, whom he addressed as "Dear Comrade Xi Jinping, dear friend".

"We understand your questions and concern about this. During today's meeting, we will of course explain our position, we will explain in detail our position on this issue, although we have talked about this before."

Putin's first remarks about Chinese concern over the war come just days after a lightning rout of his forces in north-eastern Ukraine. read more

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later told reporters that the talks behind closed doors had been excellent.

"Our assessments of the international situation coincide completely ... there are no discrepancies at all," he said. "We will continue to coordinate our actions including at the forthcoming U.N. General Assembly."

Xi did not mention Ukraine in his public remarks. read more

A Chinese readout of the meeting also did not mention Ukraine. It said China is willing to give strong support to Russia for matters related to its core interests, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

China has refrained from condemning Russia's operation against Ukraine or calling it an "invasion" in line with the Kremlin, which casts the war as "a special military operation".

The last time Xi and Putin met in person, just weeks before the Feb 24 invasion, they declared a "no limits" partnership and inked a promise to collaborate more against the West. read more

Beijing is perturbed by the impact on the global economy and has been careful not to give material support to Russia that could trigger Western sanctions on China's own economy.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh pose for a picture during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan September 15, 2022. Sputnik/Alexandr Demyanchuk/Pool via REUTERS

The Xi-Putin partnership is considered one of the most significant developments in geopolitics after China's own spectacular rise over the past 40 years.

But the war has underscored the different trajectories of China and Russia: one a rising superpower whose economy is forecast to overtake the United States in a decade; the other, a former superpower struggling with a draining war.

Once the leader in the global Communist hierarchy, Russia after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union is now a junior partner to a resurgent China which already leads in some 21st century technologies.

"China is willing to work with Russia to play a leading role in demonstrating the responsibility of major powers, and to instil stability and positive energy into a world in turmoil," Xi told Putin.

While Xi has now met Putin in person 39 times since becoming China's president in 2013, he has yet to meet Joe Biden in person since the latter became U.S. President in 2021.

Xi's trip to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan was his first outside China since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. His last trip outside China was a visit to Myanmar in January 2020.

Putin and Xi share a world view which sees the West as decadent and in decline just as China challenges the United States' supremacy.

Putin explicitly backed China over Taiwan.

"We intend to firmly adhere to the principle of 'One China'," Putin said. "We condemn provocations by the United States and their satellites in the Taiwan Strait."

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry condemned Putin for the remarks and for Russia being in China's "cortege" in "continuing to make false statements that disparage our sovereignty internationally".

As the West tries to reduce its reliance on Russian energy, Putin is seeking to boost exports to China and Asia, possibly with a pipeline through Mongolia.

At a meeting with Xi and Putin, Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh said he supported the construction of oil and gas pipelines from Russia to China via Mongolia.

Russia has for years been studying the possibility for a major new gas pipeline - the Power of Siberia 2 - to travel through Mongolia taking Russian gas to China.

It will carry 50 billion cubic metres of gas per year, around a third of what Russia usually sells Europe.

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Additonal reporting by Ryan Woo, Yew Lun Tian, Ben Blanchard and David Ljunggren; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky, Tomasz Janowski, Jon Boyle and Jonathan Oatis

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Putin says Xi has questions and concerns over Ukraine - Reuters

Malcolm Davis, Senior Analyst in Defence Strategy and Capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told ABC Radio Brisbane that Vladimir Putin's announcement indicated he recognised Russia was losing the war.

"I think what you are seeing is essentially a desperate grab at another opportunity to try and turn the tide but it's not going to work," he said.

"What we will see is that this partial mobilisation will go ahead but it will take a long time to produce any effective combat capability and it will encounter a great deal of internal opposition from the Russian people.

"This is essentially reinforcing the case that Russia is losing the war, it's certainly not a case of Russia winning the war."

Mr Davis said he believed the greater concern is the risk Russia begins to use low-yield tactical nuclear weapons as the mobilisation fails to deliver victory for Putin.

"The thinking is that Russia would use one or perhaps a few of these weapons to try to force the Ukrainians to the negotiating table to end the war on Russia's terms and basically use them as warning shots," he said.

But if Russia were to use nuclear weapons, "NATO would be forced to intervene," Mr Davis said.

"They couldn't just simply just sit back and do nothing, it's quite likely that at that point NATO would intervene at the conventional level," he said.

"Then we have the risk of it escalating up to a high-level conflict."

Reporting by Antonia O'Flaherty

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Russia-Ukraine war updates: Penny Wong says Vladimir Putin's 'threats unthinkable and irresponsible' as it happened - ABC News

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, speaks to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. (Sergei Bobylev / Associated Press)

Russias imperious president, Vladimir Putin, may have just endured his worst week since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which he says was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century.

His vaunted army, including a tank force once considered one of Russias best, collapsed in the face of a Ukrainian offensive in eastern Ukraine. Some Russian soldiers fled after ditching their uniforms and donning civilian clothes they stole from homes, according to local residents.

In southern Ukraine, Russian units defending the strategic city of Kherson struggled to hold their positions against persistent Ukrainian attacks.

Putin even faced what sounded like tough questioning from his most important ally, Chinas President Xi Jinping.

We understand your questions and concerns about Ukraine, he told Xi at a summit meeting in the central Asian city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

When Putin ordered his army to invade Ukraine in February, he saw a historic opportunity to reassemble the core of the Soviet Union and appeared to anticipate a rapid victory.

That plan failed when Ukraine, bolstered by Western military aid and U.S. intelligence, halted Russias attempt to seize its capital, Kyiv.

Now Putins Plan B, the conquest of eastern and southern Ukraine, is teetering on the edge of failure as well.

Some cheerleaders have hailed Ukraines victory at Izyum, an important railway junction in the east, as the turning point of the war. Thats premature. Russia holds about one-fifth of Ukraines territory and has more troops it can deploy, although their quality is uncertain.

Despite the euphoria, this aint over yet, Alexander Vershbow, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, told me last week. Putin is obviously furious that his commanders have failed but that doesnt mean hell give up. He can still escalate in many ways.

So what can we expect from Putin now? Vershbow offered a forecast.

Putin wont capitulate; that would mean the end of his rule.

He likely will intensify the death and destruction Russia has inflicted on Ukraine's civilians.

Story continues

Putin's career has been marked by success in wars waged against weaker opponents. He came to power in 1999 by ordering a midwinter siege of Grozny, capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, in a savage war to suppress Muslim separatists. In 2008, he sent the army into neighboring Georgia; in 2014, he sent troops into eastern Ukraine and annexed the Crimean peninsula.

In those wars, his forces often inflicted casualties on civilians as a deliberate tactic.

His approach in Ukraine has fit the same pattern. It just hasnt worked as well against a well-led, well-trained and well-equipped opponent.

Were going to see a further escalation of brutality, Vershbow said. Theyve already launched heavy bombing of civilian infrastructure. ... Some [Russian] officials say they want to drive millions of Ukrainians out of the country.

Putin's goal, he said, is to "turn this back into a war of attrition and hope that over time, war weariness drives the Ukrainians to quit.

To accomplish that, some of Putins hawkish supporters have demanded a full mobilization, meaning a draft to replenish the army and a formal declaration of war.

But Putin aides have said conscription is not being considered.

The government has continued to reassure Russians that this is a limited special military operation and has even prohibited describing it as a war.

Hes still desperately trying to avoid mass mobilization, Vershbow said. A draft would send protesters into the streets in Moscow. Even then, it takes months and months to train new troops.

Michael Kofman, a Russia expert at CNA, a defense think tank, suggested that Putin might opt for a partial mobilization, extending current soldiers enlistment contracts and drafting recent veterans with needed skills.

Partial mobilization is possible, but they may be lousy troops, Vershbow said.

As for nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, most military and foreign policy experts say Putin is unlikely to use them unless his survival is directly at stake.

The problem with most of the escalatory options, up to and including nukes, is that they may simply unify Europe, cast Putin himself as a Hitlerian monster and accelerate Western weapons supplies to Ukraine, said Stephen Sestanovich, a former National Security Council official now at Columbia University.

Putin's other hope is to win the war not on the battlefield but in Western Europe, where Moscow has cut the supply of natural gas to squeeze Germany and other consuming countries that have sent weapons to Ukraine.

So far, the energy war has had surprisingly little effect. One recent poll found that 70% of Germans support continued aid to Ukraine, despite climbing gas prices. In the United States, the Gallup Poll found a similar level of support, 76%.

The real test, however, will come this winter, when the need for gas to heat homes will spike.

On both fronts, Putin hopes that inflicting pain on noncombatants can bring him victory. He believes Russians are better fighters than Ukrainians and more resilient in winter than Europeans or Americans. The challenge for the West is to prove him wrong.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Putin's brutality in Ukraine can get worse. Get ready for a chilly winter

Paramount+

According to everyone featured in Secrets of the Oligarch Wives, Vladimir Putin is a ruthless, greedy, sociopathic monster who cares only about his own power, wealth, and legacy as a titan who united and restored the glory of Mother Russia. The ongoing war in Ukraine, as well as the continued imprisonment and mistreatment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, corroborates those claims, although the true hook of the Paramount+ documentary about the Russian president is its insider commentary from the women who were closest to the authoritarians oligarchs. What they have to say isnt particularly shocking, but its certainly further evidence that the world is in peril from a man willing to do anything, to anyone, to achieve his own ends.

Narrated by Ranvir Singh and executive produced by Justine Kershaw, Laura Jones and David McNab, Secrets of the Oligarch Wives (out June 28) is a portrait of Putin as the most dangerous man on the planet, told largely by a collection of women with ties to bigwigs whose lives were deeply affected by him. There are only two nominal oligarch wives spotlighted by this 90-minute documentaryCountess Alexandra Tolstoy (a distant relative of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy), who spent years alongside oligarch Sergei Pugachev; and Tatiana Fokina, the spouse of exiled cellphone oligarch Evgeny Chichvarkinand even then, the former was never formally married to her Russian billionaire partner. In terms of false advertising, this is a moderate case, if not an ultimately disastrous turn of events, given that the speakers do an adequate job providing first-hand accounts of the turmoil and terror wrought by Putin against anyone who dares stand in his way.

Inside Sundances Top-Secret Documentary on Putin Target Alexei Navalny

For its opening third, Secrets of the Oligarch Wives functions as a basic primer on Putins rise to power. When the Soviet Union fell in 1989, Putin was a KGB agent stationed in Dresden, East Germany, and in Russias ensuing wild west of the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin, he rose through the countrys political ranks, eventually becoming Yeltsins successor when the leader abruptly resigned from his post on Dec. 31, 1999. According to financier and political activist Bill Browder, Yeltsin had propped up his failing nationracked by pervasive unemployment, food shortages, and crumbling state industriesby selling 40 percent of the country to 22 oligarchs, borrowing money from them and then defaulting on the loans. This created a class of oligarch billionaires with not only untold riches but massive political clout, and this group hand-selected Putin as Russias new president, assuming he was a boring functionary whod do their bidding.

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They were wrong. Though Yeltsin had turned a blind eye to the oligarchs, who basically operated as mafia bosses, Putin decided that hed become Russias chief Godfather, demanding huge cuts of their profits (and their unwavering loyalty), and dishing out severe penalties for anyone who disobeyed his wishes. For critical voices in the FSB like Alexander Litvinenko, that meant fatal poisoning. For his former businessmen allies, it meant criminal prosecution and the seizure of assets. Far from a malleable pawn, Putin revealed himself to be a cagey tyrant with no limits. Yet since hed initially appeared to be a young, vibrant, open-to-the-West breath of fresh air, most were happy to overlook his more dictatorial actions. Even when the mysterious deaths of opponents began piling up, those crimes were carried out with enough plausible deniability to provide others with justification for continuing to do business with him.

All of this is well-trod territory, and Secrets of the Oligarch Wives is hardly thorough enough to be a real non-fiction history lesson. Nonetheless, it gets the general background details right, and embellishes that familiar material with stories from Tolstoy and Fokina. For the former, life with Pugachev was a whirlwind of glamorous yachts and ritzy palaces, which she makes no bones about having lovedat least until Putin decided to turn on his former confidant and send him fleeing to France. Fokina, meanwhile, didnt meet Chichvarkin until after he had escaped Russia following Putins attempts to confiscate his empire and prosecute him for all manner of offenses. In both instances, the women dispense tales about Putins nastiness, little-man complex, and brutality, which are then complemented by similar remarks from Litvinenkos widow Marina as well as Browder, whose colleague was killed after speaking out against Russian corruption, and whoin a stunning archival press-conference clipis singled out as an enemy by Putin, at which point Donald Trump voices his support for the Russian leaders autocratic intentions.

Tolstoy takes viewers on a car-ride tour of some of the many mansions that the oligarchs own (or previously owned) in London, where so many have fled over the past 20 years. Yet just as Secrets of the Oligarch Wives leaves Tolstoys personal details vague, so too does the documentary refuse to pointedly question her about her willingness to get into bed with a shady criminal simply because his affluence and influence were enticing. Even Browder, who speaks harshly about Putin, is barely identified, such that his current position in Putins crosshairs comes across as a fact devoid of meaningful context. Talk about Putins own humble upbringing, and later enthusiasm for living in the lavish Kremlin, are eventually fingered as potential reasons for his merciless tyranny, but that angle also feels thin and underdeveloped.

The ongoing siege of Ukraine is briefly addressed toward the close of Secrets of the Oligarch Wives, and it serves as the latest and most heartbreaking example of Putins viciousness. Fokina surmises that Putin is willing to do anything because hes secretly ill, while Browder suggests that hes a mentally unwell madman who lacks empathy, a conscience, and normal human emotionsand has for his entire life. A wealth of old clips cast Putin in an unflattering light, depicting him as a stone-faced creep. Unfortunately, just about any nightly news broadcast could tell you the same thing, and without the pretenses of this rather shallow documentary, which purports to deliver untold secrets about Russias elite from the women who were once a part of it, and yet mostly mixes well-publicized facts and scattered anecdotes to produce unenlightening results.

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Russias Oligarch Wives Claim Putin Is Suffering From a Secret Illness

As he wages war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin will be welcoming a baby girl with his ex-gymnast lover and is grumbling that he already has enough daughters, according to a report.

Putin, 69, is rumored to have four children with girlfriend Alina Kabaeva, a former champion Olympic rhythmic gymnast who is 30 years younger than the Russian strongman.

The news of Putins latest bundle of joy was reported by the General SVR Telegram channel, which is reportedly run by Kremlin insiders.

Putin did not appear to be very excited.

The news did not at all please the future father and the president of Russia in one person, who expressed the opinion that there were already enough children, and even more so, daughters, which upset Alina Maratovna very much, the anonymous post stated, using Kabaevas first and middle names.

Kabaeva is believed to have two boys and twin girls with the Russian president, all of whom were born in Switzerland, sources told Page Six earlier this year. She and the children had been holed up in a secret location in the country, sources said.

In May, the same Telegram account reported Kabaeva was once again pregnant, posting: Putin found out his mistress is yet again pregnant and by the looks of it this wasnt planned, the Sun reported.

Putin also has two daughters from his previous marriage to Russian flight attendant Lyudmila Shkrebneva: 36-year-old Maria Putina, who uses the surname Vorontsova and is the co-owner of Nomenko, a health care investment firm, and Katerina Tikhonova, 35, a former competitive dancer who runs an artificial intelligence initiative at Moscow State University.

The oligarch is also additionally reported to have a secret daughter, Luiza Rozova, also known as Elizaveta Krivonogikh, whom he had with her mother, Svetlana Krivonogikh Putins alleged lover in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Putin and Kabaeva, who was born in Uzbekistan, first met after she notched a gold medal for Russia at the Athens Olympics in 2004, which thrust her into the national spotlight. By 2008, she became Russias rumored secret first lady.

Her strength, flexibility and skill with the ball and ribbons of rhythmic gymnastics earned her praise as the most supple woman in Russia.

Read more:

Putin unhappy lover Alina Kabaeva pregnant with another daughter: repor

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YEREVAN, Armenia When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, he was hoping to restore the glory days of the Soviet Union in the 1950s, when it was at the peak of its power. Instead, hes ushered in chaos on a scale not seen since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

All across the ragged fringes of Russias sphere of influence, from Eastern Europe to the Caucasus and Central Asia, former parts of Moscows once-vast empire are in outright rebellion or being left to fend for themselves while the Kremlin focuses on its increasingly catastrophic war.

As it loses sway among its former subjects, new conflicts are breaking out, alliances are being forged and old rifts opening up.

On Tuesday, Azerbaijan beganshellingtowns and villages deep inside Armenia in what marks the most serious escalation in the South Caucasus since the two former Soviet republics fought a bloody war two years ago.

A Moscow-brokeredcease-fire paused the 2020 conflict, and saw Russian troops deployed to the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. However, reports indicate that the Kremlin has pulled out its best and most experienced soldiers to send to Ukraine, and in recent weeks Azerbaijani forces have pushed past the contact line and captured a series of strategic heights, with the Russians unwilling or unable to turn them back.

Armenia is a member of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) military alliance and the countrys Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesdayurgedthe bloc to send military aid for restoring the territorial integrity of the country. However, other members of the alliance have proven reluctant to intervene, with Kazakhstanruling out deploying troops and Moscow hesitant to get embroiled in another conflict.

Russias failures in the war in Ukraine means its capabilities are more limited and has created a power vacuum in the region, said Armenian political analyst Tigran Grigoryan, after the CSTOfailedto send help. At this point, Russia is neither willing nor capable of restraining Azerbaijan.

Baku has been steadily replacing its post-Soviet ties to Moscow with closer relations to Turkey, which provides it with advanced military hardware and trains its troops.

The blue and yellow Ukrainian flag is impossible to miss in Tbilisi, hanging from offices and government buildings. Graffiti daubed on the walls blasts obscenities about Putin, while one trendy bardemandsvisiting Russians sign declarations of opposition to their countrys aggression before being allowed in.

Around a fifth of Georgias territory is occupied by Russian troops and their proxies in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Having lost a war against Moscow and its unrecognized client states in 2008, Georgia has long left Russias political orbit, but the country is still third on its list of top trading partners.

Although the government loudly protested the invasion of Ukraine, it hasnt implemented economic sanctions against Russia which doesnt mean there isnt pressure to do more. More than 60 percent of Georgianspolledin the weeks after the start of the war said ruling politicians werent taking a tough enough stance.

The rhetoric is becoming more heated. Earlier this week, Irakli Kobakhidze, chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party,claimedthe state should let the people say whether they want to open a second front in Georgia against Russia by attacking Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Kobakhidze has sincesaidhe was joking.

In January, Russian troops touched down in Kazakhstan as part of a CSTO peacekeeping missiontaskedwith quashing mass protests that threatened to topple the government. That doesnt mean the Kremlin has gained a reliable ally.

Appearing on stage alongside Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in June, Putin received an unexpected snub after announcing the war in Ukraine was necessary to protect the two Moscow-backed proxy administrations in the Donbas. Kazakhstan, Tokayevreplied, does not recognize quasi-state territories which, in our view, is what Luhansk and Donetsk are. So much for gratitude.

Just weeks later, TokayevtoldEuropean Council President Charles Michel that his country is concerned about the risks to global energy security created by the war, and offered to use its hydrocarbon potential to stabilize the situation in the world and European markets.

Moscow retaliated two days later by shutting down of the Novorossiysk oil terminal, preventing Kazakhstan from exporting its sizable oil and gas reserves through the Caspian Sea. Antique World War II naval mines were blamed for an urgent threat to the facility, but analysts suspect the timing was no accident.

Kazakhstan is formally adhering to Western sanctions against Russia, and relations only appear to be getting worse.

Earlier in August, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev posted on social mediasayingthat Kazakhstan is an artificial state, and argued that its wild lands had been originally colonized by Russians a chilling echo of the Kremlins rhetoric about Ukraine. The post was later deleted and Medvedev, who also serves as the deputy chairman of Russias Security Council and has made a series of increasingly nationalist and aggressive comments about the war and the West, said he was hacked.

Home to fewer than 3 million people, Moldova has been unable to shake off Moscows influence; its eastern region of Transnistria is a breakaway republic propped up by 1,500 Russian troops.

But Moldovan President Maia Sandu wants them to go, and strongly backs Ukraine.

Russias unjust war against Ukraine clearly shows us the price of freedom, Sandusaid.

Both Moldova and Ukraine were granted candidate status in June to join the EU, and Brussels is helping the country wean itself off its dependence on Russian energy.

Theres one person who deserves all the medals for putting Moldova on the road to European integration, Veaceslav Ioni, an economist and former MP,said earlier this year, and thats Vladimir Putin.

On Wednesday, border guards from the two countries exchanged fire in clashes that reportedlykilledtwo people.

Reportsof artillery, armor and other heavy weapons have now led to villages being evacuated on both sides.

The long and winding frontier they share is poorly demarcated, and both accuse each other of sparking the firefight. In the days of the USSR, the border was immaterial but in recent years Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have repeatedly approached the brink of war.

Russias foreign ministry has expressed readiness to assist the parties in reaching a long-term, mutually acceptable solution to border issues and offered to share its rich experience in border demarcation.

However, Russias military power in the region is eroding. Russia pulled 1,500 troops out of bases in Tajikistan,RFE/RL reported. There are also reports that Russian soldiers stationed in Kyrgyzstan have been rotated out.

This weeks Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan showed the scale of the shift in power.

Putin met in Samarkand with Chinese President Xi Jinping and later admitted his Chinese counterpart had questions and concerns about the war in Ukraine.

Xi issued a carefully worded statement: In the face of a changing world, changing times and historic changes, China is willing to work with Russia to demonstrate the responsibilities of big powers and lead, to instill stability and positive energy in a world of chaos.

Thats a far cry from the no limits partnership the pair announced just before Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Xi also saidthat China would resolutely support Kazakhstan in the defense of its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Its clear theres a new power player in the region.

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