Putin's decision to appoint Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov as new overall commander of Ukraine op is significant. A quick thread 1/
Mark Galeotti
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Mark Galeotti
@MarkGaleotti
Mayak Intelligence, @UCLSSEES, @ConGeostrategy, @IIR_Prague. Analyst of murky topics from Russian politics to global crime. Views my own
- Amazed to see how so many replying to my thread on Russian state propaganda, w 'oh, it's just the same in the UK/US/etc' Please, stop it. Whatever flaws there are in Western media pluralism, it cannot be compared to a state that viciously stamped out free media by fear + force
- Rossiiskaya Gazeta, the Kremlin's 'newspaper of record,' is as stodgy as you might expect, but in light of the extraordinary Ukrainian successes in the past few days, it's instructive to see what it's telling Russians today (and what it's not). A short thread 1/
- According to Kyiv, three assassination attempts on President #Zelensky have been foiled in the past week thanks to leaks from within #Russia’s FSB. A thread. 1/ thetimes.co.uk/article/zelens…
- People having "fun" denouncing Witkoff for "not understanding the situation" miss the point. He's not an analyst or a moderator. He doesn't care about the facts. He's a political hitman out to impose a particular deal, and he'll say what he needs to set up and justify it.
- Obviously the Kremlin drone story is still very much a breaking one, but people should really stop talking about this as an attempted assassination attempts against Putin. That's just playing to Kremlin talking points 1/
- When one German publisher was being lobbied to produce a translation of my WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PUTIN, he said it wasn’t needed because Seipel had “already written everything on Putin that needed to be written” and his work was “priceless” Turns out there was a price: €600k…
- I continue to be delighted but surprised that the Kremlin lets @BBCSteveR stay in the country; he has a dangerously wonderful low-key way of highlighting official inanities, largely by asking the right questions and letting people speak...“Why have you come here?" "Good question. But I can’t answer it.” I spoke to Russians arriving at a patriotic concert on Red Square. It marked the anniversary of Russia proclaiming the annexation of 4 Ukrainian regions. Camera @AntonChicherov Producer @LizaShuvalova
00:00 - Replying to @MarkGaleottiBut this illustrates some wider issues. 1) The Kremlin seems stunned, and has not yet come up with a plan as to how to try and spin this, so to a large extent the media are ignoring the bad news until they get a directive. No one wants to show initiative lest they get it wrong 6/
- 'At home and on the battlefield, seven self-inflicted traps are snaring Putin' My latest for @thetimes . As it's behind the paywall, a quick summary of the 'traps' 1/ thetimes.co.uk/article/at-hom…
- I'd hoped that this didn't need to be said: we can condemn the Kremlin's vicious war in Ukraine AND show compassion for civilians caught up in a terrorist massacre. Most people know this full well, but they aren't always the loudest on social media
- Replying to @MarkGaleottiIn other words, demonstrating to the West that Russia is in this for the long haul, and hoping that we will lose the will and unity to continue to support Kyiv. (I think Putin will be disappointed, but he *has* to believe this - it's his only real shot at some kind of victory) 8/
- So Zhirinovsky is dead. I can genuinely not think of a single positive things to say about him. It is not just that he was a ghastly person who espoused ghastly views, he was also one of the architects of Russia's debauched pseudo-democracy 1/
- Replying to @MarkGaleottiThis desire to avoid the truth as long as possible is a very human one, alas, but especially prevalent in authoritarian regimes. But in due course - and esp as the official narrative becomes less and less credible - it does break over time. 11/
