adrian

Despots busy despoting

The World

So Putin’s former caterer (yes, really) commands a huge highly trained mercenary force. The ex-caterer has been Putin’s plausible deniability military proxy for years. Most recently, his forces have been key to the offensive in Ukraine. Last night, he announced he was sick of the incompetence of the Russian military and he marched his forces back into Russia, fully armed and aimed directly at Moscow. Yes, really. And after getting within a couple hundred miles of Moscow, he apparently said, “ok, point made” and turned around for Ukraine again.

Any bets on Putin vs Prigozhin and which one’s still alive by Christmas?

Edit: That did not take long.

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the freeland doctrine

sup

Freeland proposes trade with allies over trade with autocracies. It’s a huge jump from the capitalist globalization of the last 70+ years. It would force Russia and China to continue tightening their relationship but would deny them our money and free us from their economic extortion. Historically, trade brings better understanding and a built-in resistance to war, but as we are seeing, that doesn’t stop tyrants like Putin, so why enable them? It won’t be easy, and there are risks, but I believe it will be worth it.

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