Rubbing my eyes in disbelief at the news From Russia tonight.

All I can think of for historical reference is the battle of Thermopylae.

300 Spartans (and a few Greeks) beat 10,000 Persians, all attributed to the Spartans strategy and know-how.

The Persians just assumed sheer numbers and untrained brute force was all it took to win, the Spartans proved otherwise.

Right now,
Russians are fleeing the borders to avoid Putin's draft (conscript), I'm hearing just for Kazakhstan alone there are near 100K Russians across now, that's insane, that's .75% of the Russian population in just two days on just one border, and more are coming.

Then, Georgia, there's a massive backup of border traffic trying to enter, an estimated 50 hour wait, with countless thousands already in.

Then, Finland, same thing, they're considering closing their border, far too many Russian refugees to deal with. (reminds me of Syria, oh the irony)

Putin, it seems, is making the same mistakes Xerces did.

First mistake, allowing Oligarch, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to recruit his army from penitentiaries, criminals, to fight for them.

This is why so many seniors, women and children in Ukraine were tortured, raped and murdered, also why those forces fled once it got scary.

It's estimated Russia has lost upwards of 80,000 troops already and Russian citizens want no part of this, so it seems.

While Putin controls the news, he cannot control word of mouth nor cell phone camera's witnessing the atrocities.

Russians have a HUGE connection to Ukraine, there are strong family ties there, but also, Russians know this war has already killed more than 9 years in Afghanistan did.

Lastly, yesterday, two members of the Russian Duma spoke out against Putin's tactics, one is the head of the council, this, after Putin made it "illegal" to speak out against his war.

Putin is cornered, he's getting down to that last Ace up his sleeve, the real nuclear option.

Will his government stop him before that?

Great case for not allowing a strong man dictator to reign over a purported Democracy, that's for sure.

Russia has a long history, of conscripting
from prisons.

Reference; The Suki Wars, post WW2.

The Suka wars was actually a civil war within the prison system.

Suki, Russian masculine form of "b°tch,
applies to males
Suka, feminine form, applies to females.

Yes, indeed. Prison civil war.
Between the returning conscriptees from
WW2, the suki (s)... And, the inmates who
wouldn't serve the government.

Putin himself is the problem. He is a disillusioned psychopath. Unfortunately, he had been underestimated by many, and I have to include my home country Germany. He invaded and annexed Crimea back in 2014, and still we signed off deals with him.

His nuclear arsenal though is dangerous. And now, he can only be taken out from within.

I don't know anything about the Battle of Thermopylae, but I have been carefully following the Russia/Ukraine war. I am currently living in one of the bordering countries that the Russians are fleeing to. I have many coworkers and students who are either Ukrainian or Russian, and they all have family living in those countries. I've heard their stories and have seen how the war is affecting them (on both sides).

I've had to ask the school counselor to come into my classroom to talk to my first graders because 1) the Ukrainian students were blaming the Russian students for the war and 2) the class was afraid the war would come here, since we are right next to Russia, and Kazakhstan used to be part of the U.S.S.R. Last January there was an uprising here in Almaty, and Russian soldiers came here (they were invited) to help quell the unrest. So our students saw Russian soldiers here recently (with tanks and AK-47s) and now they're hearing about Russian soldiers hurting Ukrainians. So it's natural for these kids to be afraid that they will come back. And for the record, every Russian coworker or student/family I've talked to is opposed to the war. At the end of last school year my student council kids had a bake sale to benefit Ukraine. I've never seen so many donations of baked goods or so much support from the parents. We raised way more money than we expected.

I can't help but to pounce on any morsel of news about Russia and Ukraine. It's much less abstract when you know real people being affected by it.

I visited Georgia about 20 years ago. Russians are not well thought of there; they often command their dogs in Russian ... if you ask why, they will tell you that "only a dog would speak Russian"! Georgian humour is very sharp.
My perception is this ... those fleeing across the border generally seem to be those who can afford to do so, possibly those with better jobs, although that is just a supposition on my part. But even if it is only partly true, it will lead to skilled jobs not being filled, which will worsen the Russian economy still further.
And as more and more people leave Russia, and are finally free of their propagandist news and are able to see the real situation in Ukraine, they will phone their friends back home in Russia, and slowly the truth will come out...
... snd when THAT happens, that is when Putin will need to start looking over his shoulder.
I will stick my neck out and say that Putin will have been overthrown within two years at the most.

But what will happen, if Putin was overthrown? Would he stand trial? Would he just disappear? Germany would be a possible destination, he still holds German citizenship. When he was a young KGB Agent, he served in East Germany. And after the re unification, East German passports were assimilated.

Somehow the quote and what I wrote have been interchanged. Sorry.

Good points regarding professionals leaving and affecting Russia's economy.

Hopefully Georgia sees the same point, what Russia did was Putin, not it's citizens, not all of them.

I think one of Putin's biggest mistakes was assuming he could manipulate public consensus outside Russia the way he does it inside via the internet.

I glance at a few pro-Russian "news" sites, some of which claim to be American and have also served to rustle up divisions here in the U.S. and from what I can see these sites are weakening.

Russian sites have been caught posing as Americans making ludicrous claims against other American's to stir up divisions... and it's been scarefully effective.

I'm pretty sure Jan 6th, Qanon, Pizzagate and numerous others are sourced in Russian money, influencing online.

If you tell a lie often enough it becomes the truth.

It's looking really good for Ukraine this week, Since I first posted this they're already on the verge of taking back Kerson and Luhansk.

I hope, they will. And hopefully that Putin fella will stand trial in La Hague. Even in his absence. It was done to one of the butchers from Serbia a couple of years ago.

Headline -

"Kazakh Interior Minister Says 200,000 Russians Have Entered Country Since Mobilization"

That's nothing short of incredible, near 1.5% of the Russian population, fighting aged men, has entered just Kazakhstan alone.

There's a dozen countries bordering Russia, that's only one.

Big news today, Russia fired 75 missiles into Ukraine, killed ten people, 41 of the missiles were shot down.

Putin's "brute force" approach just cost him over $200 million to kill ten noncombatant civilians.

In terms of "Thermopylae", Putin is definitely "Xerxes", but with much worse odds, the "Spartans" have yet to enter.