Russians With Attitude

"Sir, the war hasn't even started yet"

There are two things that, for some reason, no one seems particularly interested in calculating anymore. First, there is almost no reliable information on Ukrainian losses. Second, Western aid figures have stopped being tallied as a single total

There's a good reason for that: the combined figure has now exceeded $500 billion. By comparison, the American Lend-Lease program to the USSR during WWII amounted to about $11 billion, or roughly $230 billion in 2026 dollars

In other words, Ukraine has received more than twice the inflation-adjusted value of Soviet Lend-Lease. That aid was enough to help crush the most powerful army on the planet, while twice that amount is still, apparently, not enough to cover AFU wages or hold a settlement like Malaya Tokmachka

Of course, Western aid represented a vastly different share of Soviet and Ukrainian budgets, and the domestic production capacities are hardly comparable. But that only makes the investment look even more foolish and/or evil if all it can accomplish is prolonging human suffering

Russians with Attitude

Quite apt that Lindsey Graham's bill was named "Sanctions From Hell", because that's exactly where he is right now.

squad goals

Looks like the Yemenis weren't lying about downing a Saudi jet today.

You know how pretty much everyone is convinced that the Russian electoral and parliamentary system is fake, right. Well, duh. But there are two important points.

First, if it's fake, and Putin is running a "turbo-giga-hyper-dictatorship", why bother spending billions on fake elections and political parties? Before 2022, and especially before 2014, the liberal answer would have been: "umm they're just trying to deceive the West". But now, as the most sanctioned country on Earth, what would such "fakery" realistically achieve? You can answer that for yourself.

Second, you know how the American two-party system is structured, right. Two parties, "Demonrats" and "Republitards," fighting like HELL, foaming at the mouth over how to maintain the status quo, defend Israel and bomb Russia. Well, Russian parties seem to be almost the complete inversion of that.

On the surface, the Russian Communist Party (CPRF) is pretty meek and agreeable with the Kremlin. But look at its program and statements, and you'll find that many of its members are, in fact, unironic Marxist-Leninists. They actually believe in and propose nationalizing "oligarchic assets" i.e. large private companies, among other things, positions that are completely at odds with the United Russia party line.

So, compared to the US, Russia is a very real democracy, and that's not necessarily a good thing.

Remember "Islamic Terrorism"? It seems the term itself has all but disappeared. No, the Islamist terror is alive and well, but the mental image of it has ceased to serve as the West's primary stand-in for the "enemy", a role it occupied from the late 1990s through the late 2010s.

When the Soviet Union dissolved itself, the US was left without a real adversary. The best Americans could come up with was "the End of History". The US had, in fact, entered an era of extraordinary economic, military, and cultural dominance. But everyone needs a rival, and there simply wasn't one.

Radical Islam was hardly the most natural enemy for the United States to rally against. Just a decade earlier, Americans had poured billions of dollars and weapons into supporting the Afghan mujahideen in order to bleed the Soviet Union. The idea that some of those same forces would eventually emerge as America's principal post-Cold War enemy would have seemed almost absurd at the time. Al-Qaeda grew out of that world, from battle-hardened veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war. Subsequently, the American media was infamous for portraying Chechen terrorists as "freedom fighters", and NATO had no scruples about bombing Belgrade in support of the Muslim Kosovars. Prior to 9/11, Muslim insurgents were more a tool than a principal enemy. That is, until Al-Qaeda turned against its former patron. First came the embassy bombings, then the USS Cole, and then 9/11.

The new unifying enemy had appeared and would occupy that niche for two decades. Conveniently, this was an enemy that America had helped create, at least in part. What had once been presented as heroic resistance to the Soviet Union was now seen as barbaric and uniquely evil terrorism. More importantly, this gave the American establishment enormous freedom to ramp up military spending, use military force at will, and limit freedoms at home. The failure of the Afghanistan War and the gruesome spectacle of the Iraq War. Then came the Arab Spring, the destruction of numerous secular Arab governments, and the bloody catastrophe that was Syria.

Syria was where it all became palpably absurd. America's stated goal was to defeat ISIS, much as Russia was doing, while simultaneously supporting various anti-Assad "moderate" jihadist groups. The constant cycle of supporting people who might become your enemies tomorrow, coupled with the rise of insane wokeism at home, has made it hard to entertain this fixation for too long.

Then ISIS was defeated just enough for "Islamic Terrorism" to simply vanish from the headlines, replaced first by Covid and then by the war in Ukraine. Not because the threat disappeared. It increasingly moved into Africa and remains extremely active there, while attacks still happen in Russia and Europe, with the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack being one of the most vile recent examples. But nobody seems to care anymore, with Al-Julani being famously elevated from an Al-Qaeda field commander to a respectable partner. The political importance assigned to it disappeared much faster than the threat itself.

Instead, Russia returned to its designated position as the main villain of the West. For Europe this particular arrangement comes naturally. Russia is waging a "hybrid war", you see, and is behind the mysterious explosions, drone sightings, and dumpster fires all over Brno and Gdansk. Russia, unlike an abstract "Islamic terrorism", is a very tangible entity, and therefore much easier to attack, sanction, and blame. America is somewhat less committed to the bit, even having played a key role in the creation of the Ukraine crisis in the first place.

In short, "Islamic terrorism" was effectively a project co-piloted by the West itself, providing enormous benefits to policymakers in the absence of other credible threats. It then abruptly disappeared as Russia, the same old enemy in new packaging, and China grew strong enough to become the West's next designated enemies.

"Islamic terrorism" had a good run, back into the toy box it goes.

“Russia’s drone capabilities have improved so much that Tehran asked Moscow this year for advanced Geran drones for use in its war with Israel and the US, according to western security officials and a person close to the Kremlin.”

Russians With Attitude pinned «Peter, the great mind behind the "Events in Ukraine" blog, swung by the RWA studio for a candid talk about his fascinating family lore, living through 24.02.22 while in Kiev, Eastern European history and the practical reality behind the "Nazis in Ukraine"…»

The Ukrainian government's "State Language Commissioner" has started a series of official inquiries and investigations as to why the intelligence agency officers who were shooting each other in Kiev a while back spoke Russian during their conflict instead of Ukrainian.

Up to 100 Patriot interceptors launched in Jordan following the Iranian attack.

Every Patriot missile used in the Middle East is one Ukraine will never get. Trump really is the peace president, after all.

Russians with Attitude

Time to expose Events in Ukraine. He may have lived in Kiev when the war started, or he may have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Ukrainian politics, but he is not, in fact, a Ukrainian. Shocker for some of his readers, I'm sure.

Full investigation: https://rwasamizdat.substack.com/p/rwa-x-events-in-ukraine-the-zov-of

Peter, the great mind behind the "Events in Ukraine" blog, swung by the RWA studio for a candid talk about his fascinating family lore, living through 24.02.22 while in Kiev, Eastern European history and the practical reality behind the "Nazis in Ukraine" boilerplate.

Tune in, you don't wanna miss this one!

Also available on Gumroad

"Russian opposition will only receive funding from the US on condition that it supports Trump's conservative policies: fighting immigration, abortion, and LGBT rights."

Big if true. Like, the whole essence of the exiled "Russian opposition", sustained entirely by Western funding, is pushing FOR immigration, abortion, and LGBT rights. Otherwise, they're just Putinists.

Recording a pod with Events in Ukraine. Any questions for the man?