Crimea Could Be The Battle That Finally Brings Putin Down

Three years after Yevgeny Prigozhin's failed mutiny, the man who briefly came closest to toppling Vladimir Putin is long dead. But the question he exposed remains unanswered: can Russia actually win the war in Ukraine?

According to this view, the answer is increasingly no.

Russia's losses are becoming impossible to ignore

Prigozhin openly accused the Kremlin of misleading the Russian people about the war and argued that Moscow had no realistic path to victory. While his rebellion ended in failure, Russia's battlefield situation has continued to deteriorate.

Russian casualties have reportedly soared from around 223,000 at the time of Prigozhin's uprising to almost 1.4 million today. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte recently claimed Russia is losing as many as 35,000 troops every month while spending roughly half of its national budget on the military.

Such losses are placing enormous pressure on both Russia's armed forces and its economy.

Read the full AN story HERE

Yes, all sad for the Russian people ... but they have noone to blame except themselves.

Just like every other country with appalling leadership (I'm thinking Usofa but there's an indefinite number of others). If The People don't rise up to rid themselves of evil, incompetent & corrupt governments, then they must wear the longterm consequences.

4 minutes ago, mfd101 said:

Yes, all sad for the Russian people ... but they have noone to blame except themselves.

Just like every other country with appalling leadership (I'm thinking Usofa but there's an indefinite number of others). If The People don't rise up to rid themselves of evil, incompetent & corrupt governments, then they must wear the longterm consequences.

Imagine having an election now and Russian electorate voting to put him back in power.......I mean.....how stupid can an electorate be?

bad enough to give it away in the first place, now give it again?

war has consequences

On 6/27/2026 at 5:52 AM, MIke B Bad said:

Imagine having an election now and Russian electorate voting to put him back in power.......I mean.....how stupid can an electorate be?

Do you believe they have fair and free elections in Russia?

In reality popular uprisings mostly end in failure. They only succeed when the security apparatus flips. Putin has spent years promoting sycophants. The Russian general staff are not there because they are brilliant officers. Putin constructed a National Guard, answerable only to him, not the defence ministry. Ultimately that's his Praetorian Guard. When Wagner was absorbed into the Army, music to his ears, because now you have army officers making money out of war. Wagner hasn't gone away; there are still Russian military contractors around the world, only now, they are in the Russian Army.

The Romanian revolution was going nowhere until the Army flipped. Same in Iran.

But the Hungarian Uprising failed. Prague Spring failed. Arab Spring failed.

Those supporting Putin inside aren't that concerned about rising cost of fuel. They might be concerned about their investment plans in Crimea. Early on, Russian oligarchs were taking over hotels in Crimea. There was this idea about making it a high end destination. Handy Western Youtubers were there saying how great it was. They've lost all that investment. The Russian government is a kleptocracy, a den of thieves, and thieves will turn on each other eventually, like rats in a barrel, but with nukes.

57 minutes ago, Roadsternut said:

Do you believe they have fair and free elections in Russia?

In reality popular uprisings mostly end in failure. They only succeed when the security apparatus flips. Putin has spent years promoting sycophants. The Russian general staff are not there because they are brilliant officers. Putin constructed a National Guard, answerable only to him, not the defence ministry. Ultimately that's his Praetorian Guard. When Wagner was absorbed into the Army, music to his ears, because now you have army officers making money out of war. Wagner hasn't gone away; there are still Russian military contractors around the world, only now, they are in the Russian Army.

The Romanian revolution was going nowhere until the Army flipped. Same in Iran.

But the Hungarian Uprising failed. Prague Spring failed. Arab Spring failed.

Those supporting Putin inside aren't that concerned about rising cost of fuel. They might be concerned about their investment plans in Crimea. Early on, Russian oligarchs were taking over hotels in Crimea. There was this idea about making it a high end destination. Handy Western Youtubers were there saying how great it was. They've lost all that investment. The Russian government is a kleptocracy, a den of thieves, and thieves will turn on each other eventually, like rats in a barrel, but with nukes.

No........but this was just poking fun at the Yanks electing their charity cheating grifter twice.

1 hour ago, MIke B Bad said:

No........but this was just poking fun at the Yanks electing their charity cheating grifter twice.

Yeah I got that, and it's a good point.

Imperial suicide in action.