I think Russia would offer it to any foreigner that wants to go live in Russia. They are short of people. Might even be able to negotiate some semi decent land.

This is a whole other ball of wax than the prospect of offering citizenship to prospective immigrants.

Putin has just upped the campaign to incorporate large parts of Ukraine within the Russian republic by degrees of magnitude. The situation on the ground there is getting steadily more difficult for NATO capitals to handle despite the tons of cash they're pouring into that place.

Now that it's obvious the Western gov'ts are run by the genuinely stupid, it's scary to contemplate the kind of unpredictable, crazy crap they might get up to.

The war is going badly for Zelensky. He is drafting convicts. He is drafting women. The age limit is 60 for military service. There is a current frontline running from KharKhov to Sevirsk to Bakhmut. The Russians do what is called hunting of Ukrainian brigades. They just started hunting a brigade of foreigners. On the first day rockets and air power killed or wounded 30% of them. Some hunted brigades have lost 70 to 80% of their numbers. These hunted brigades are usually selected because they have tanks and artillery.

Things are so bad in the Donbass that the Ukrainians, who do have manpower left, cannot send replacements as the Russians have air supremacy. The only option is to do an attack on the whole of the Russian frontline in the south. This would be a challenge for Russian rocket and air services. I did see a video of Russian artillery and tanks on the move in the south. We shall see what happens.

As for the Donbass, the Russians will need a week to ten days to collapse this line to defeat those forces. The Ukrainian survivors will fall back to another position that has been prepared. The Ukrainians are using long range American rockets to attack ethnic Russian civilians in the Donbass so Russia will have to move the borders even further west.

The Russians should be going after Odessa after these current battles in the south and in the Donbass are over.

I have been following Gonzalo Lira in Kharkhov (in the north). He should be liberated in 2 weeks or so.

Remember when the western pundits were talking about how badly Putin miscalculated? Haven't heard from them in a while.

I have been following Gonzalo Lira in Kharkhov (in the north). He should be liberated in 2 weeks or so.

It never ceases to amaze me the way Gonzalo continues to report on Russian progress/Ukraine failure from his apartment in what is still technically Ukraine-held territory.

It's a measure of the grip that Kiev has over local institutions—which must be weak indeed.

The SBU did arrest him and did force him to give control over his social media accounts so they demonetized his YouTube channel. Kharkhov has come under heavy shelling. The majority of Ukrainian Battle Groups on the frontline have lost 50% of their soldiers. They know they are losing.