Day: May 6, 2026

#CIA  #FBI  #ODNI
In my opinion, Russia had always been more of a  Potemkin Village, lately with nukes; than a “Great Power”.
Who is Putin to change the course of History, with or without his “miscalculations”? 
The most the Putinistas can hope for is to re-edit, censor, and rewrite the great classic Russian Literature, and to keep their cameras in every bedroom. Ukraine war is a catalyst of the ongoing Russian decline.

Putin’s Strategic Miscalculations in Ukraine  gemini.google.com/share/dc45…
share.google/aimode/O37UtewE…
Gemini: “Vladimir Putin, the Man Who Broke Russia” is a May 2026 Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Walter Russell Mead (also a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute). The article argues that despite a decade of successfully outmaneuvering the West, Putin has severely damaged Russia’s future through massive strategic miscalculations.

Here is a summary of the article’s key points:

A Decade of Geopolitical Success: For over ten years, Putin successfully exploited Western weaknesses and outmaneuvered “clueless” Western leaders. He achieved a series of strategic victories that expanded Russian influence, including the 2008 invasion of Georgia, the 2014 annexation of Crimea and parts of the Donbas, the revival of Russian power in the Middle East (capitalizing on the U.S. backing down from its “red line” in Syria), propping up Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, and displacing French influence across Africa.
The Fatal Miscalculation: These ongoing successes made Putin overconfident, leading to his critical error: the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He vastly underestimated his target, falsely reasoning that Ukraine was not a real country, its people lacked true nationalism, and its government was a “hollow shell.”
Draining Russia’s Resources: Because of this misjudgment, Putin has trapped Russia in a costly and protracted stalemate in Ukraine. The article notes that this war, alongside other cascading failures, is actively draining Moscow’s resources and unraveling his long-term goal of making Russia a great power again.

In short, Mead argues that while Putin built a reputation as a geopolitical mastermind by exploiting Western hesitation, his own hubris regarding Ukraine has ultimately “broken” the very nation he sought to elevate.

Search also:
Putin & Co: Keep your curvaceous noses out of the people’s bedrooms, and out of their bookshelves!
share.google/aimode/UfAUrhj2…

Your sentiments align with a broad international and domestic pushback against the Russian government’s recent, sweeping incursions into private life and literature. Since 2023, the Kremlin has significantly escalated its “traditional values” campaign, moving from public discourse into the “bedrooms and bookshelves” of citizens through the following actions: [1]
Incursions into Private Life

“Extremist” Labeling of LGBTQ+ Identity: In late 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court designated the “international LGBT movement” as an extremist organization. This broad ruling has led to arrests for even minor displays of pride symbols, such as rainbow-colored earrings.
Digital Surveillance: New laws enacted in 2025 and 2026 criminalize searching for banned or “extremist” content online, with authorities targeting those who use VPNs to access restricted sites.
Personal Health Restrictions: In 2023, the government banned almost all forms of gender-affirming medical care and prohibited individuals who have changed their legal gender from adopting children. [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

Censorship of Bookshelves

Targeting Major Publishers: In May 2026, police raided Eksmo, Russia’s largest publishing house, seizing thousands of books and detaining the CEO for allegedly disseminating “homosexual propaganda”.
Redacting Classics and Foreign Titles: Even classic Russian literature is no longer safe. Works by Pushkin and Bulgakov now require warning labels if they mention drugs. Contemporary authors such as Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and George Orwell have seen their works pulled from shelves or libraries for being out of sync with current state ideology.
Self-Censorship & “Blacked Out” Pages: Some publishers have resorted to using AI to scan texts and blacking out entire paragraphs in newer editions to comply with vague “anti-propaganda” and “anti-drug” laws. [1, 10, 11, 12, 13]

Critics and activists describe these moves as a “Soviet-style repression” designed to enforce self-censorship and isolate the Russian public from dissenting or “Western” ideas. [11, 14]

[1]  ukrinform.net
[2]  amnesty.org
[3]  youtube.com
[4]  hrw.org
[5]  facebook.com
[6]  themoscowtimes.com
[7]  atlawyers.com
[8]  database.ilga.org
[9]  en.wikipedia.org
[10]  nytimes.com
[11]  washingtonpost.com
[12]  youtube.com
[13]  nytimes.com
[14]  youtube.com
–

— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) May 6, 2026

#CIA  #FBI  #ODNI
Putin’s Strategic Miscalculations in Ukraine  gemini.google.com/share/dc45…
share.google/aimode/O37UtewE…
Gemini: “Vladimir Putin, the Man Who Broke Russia” is a May 2026 Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Walter Russell Mead (also a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute). The article argues that despite a decade of successfully outmaneuvering the West, Putin has severely damaged Russia’s future through massive strategic miscalculations.

Here is a summary of the article’s key points:

A Decade of Geopolitical Success: For over ten years, Putin successfully exploited Western weaknesses and outmaneuvered “clueless” Western leaders. He achieved a series of strategic victories that expanded Russian influence, including the 2008 invasion of Georgia, the 2014 annexation of Crimea and parts of the Donbas, the revival of Russian power in the Middle East (capitalizing on the U.S. backing down from its “red line” in Syria), propping up Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, and displacing French influence across Africa.
The Fatal Miscalculation: These ongoing successes made Putin overconfident, leading to his critical error: the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He vastly underestimated his target, falsely reasoning that Ukraine was not a real country, its people lacked true nationalism, and its government was a “hollow shell.”
Draining Russia’s Resources: Because of this misjudgment, Putin has trapped Russia in a costly and protracted stalemate in Ukraine. The article notes that this war, alongside other cascading failures, is actively draining Moscow’s resources and unraveling his long-term goal of making Russia a great power again.

In short, Mead argues that while Putin built a reputation as a geopolitical mastermind by exploiting Western hesitation, his own hubris regarding Ukraine has ultimately “broken” the very nation he sought to elevate.

— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) May 6, 2026