In this emergency news episode, I tear down the "Valdai Mirage." I look at the physics that make their claim impossible, the massive bureaucratic screw-up that exposed the lie, and the hilarious meltdown of the "Z-Bloggers" who are furious that their government can't even fake a battle correctly.

Happy new year, Comrades. This one's free for patrons, I've pressed the "Charge for this post" enough times this month already.

Please, if you can, donate to the Ukrainian army for the trucks that they need:

https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-the-eastern-border

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While the Kremlin announces glorious victories, the true believers are writing the Empire’s obituary. Igor "Strelkov" Girkin writes from prison to expose the truth about the "liberation" of Kupyansk—and accuses General Gerasimov of lying directly to Putin’s face. At the same time, his best buddy Maxim Kalashnikov predicts a budget deficit until 2042 and compares Russia to a ship with broken masts fighting a race against American drones. Oh, and there's also a thing or two how they think Trump isn't dictatorial enough.

Please, pinch in for a car for Ukraine if you can:

https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-the-eastern-border

(Also, this'll have a WAY more clickbaity title on YouTube, but I have to get the clicks in so that we get some more listeners for the episode.)

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Hi there, comrades! Here comes the promised episode by Evita (you asked for it yourself, kapish?) where she trauma-dumps, jokes and talks about her past in Russian-centered environment. And complains about Kristaps, a little bit. Also you can consider it a preview for future episodes about wild Russian pop culture lore.

Please, donate for Christmas trucks for Ukraine:

https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-the-eastern-border/

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In this episode: the staggering hypocrisy of project leads who build "digital prisons" for Russians while living comfortably in Vienna, Austria. Also, from behind bars, Girkin warns that the current "Peace Plan" is a suicide trap, while Kalashnikov argues that the "Raw Material Empire" is collapsing and 2026 will look a lot like 1917.

Please, donate to the Ukrainian army for a truck here:

https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-the-eastern-border/

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Today I'm back with an oldschool style episode, because I really needed a break from the news - so I give You the story of professor Igor Lipsits - if you remember, he was a guest on the show and talked about the Russian economy not so long ago - about how back in 1989, the Politburo tasked him with trying to save the financial health of the USSR.

And, please - if you can, donate for a truck for the Ukrainian army for the Christmas season:

https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-the-eastern-border/

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The Russian army is not the mighty empire we’re told to fear. It is a rusted, bureaucratic black hole where reality is sacrificed for paperwork, and human life is cheaper than a 700-kilogram winch.

I call it "The Fable of the Bridge." Because, in the end, it’s a story where the soldiers lose, the commanders lie, and the only things that work are the Ukrainian drones.

Please, donate for Christmas trucks for Ukraine:

https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-the-eastern-border/

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The "peace plan" continues dominating the news feed. In this episode I look at the Z-vatnik take on it, how Putin has reacted to that non-document personally and a quite plausible conspiracy about this whole affair that's gaining traction in the Russian opposition circles. Also, bwah, I have to counter the doomsayers that consider that "all is lost" for Ukraine again.

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Well, the one good thing to come out of this peace deal thing is that it's yet another boost to European Union military efforts and unity. In all seriousness, it won't go anywhere as Putin will never sign it. Sure, it doesn't look good for the Ukrainians - and that's the only thing I've seen western media and experts cover - but it legitimately looks even worse for Putin.

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I recently made an episode about the horrific fascist ideas of Alexander Kharichev, the "Civil War 2.0"one. However, according to Girkin's buddies - club of angry patriots and Russian people's militia, who are setting up cells all over Russia, Kharichev was not only nowhere near hard enough. Their ideals are MUCH worse and they gave me a pause. Luckily for us, in this conversation they slipped up and unknowingly admitted that the West is right about the war.

This whole situation was such a mess - namely they say stuff that you just wouldn't believe me if I just posted it on audio. Therefore, we streamed it! The audio file is the first 40min of the stream, with the central point which shocked me - but, please, watch the whole thing. It also has Evita, reading Vatnik poetry at one point.

Link to recorded stream on YouTube:

https://youtube.com/live/bxLhkoh2Ylo

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The news episode that I wanted to release before the glorious civil war article plopped up. We have a lot of Igor Girkin to catch up to – but the main story ties with the ep. 17 marvelously. Because at this point, mainstream Russian economists, the same who called Lipsits a doomsayer, now have gone past fear and openly admit that an economic collapse is not just inevitable. It’s already happening.

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A high-ranking Kremlin official Alexander Kharichev, chief of monitoring the social media in Russia, just wrote an article about the possibility of civil war in Russia. I take a deep look both at that and his previous work, which is all about the “Russian Civilization”. Let’s see what they’re building and why all of this is going to come tumbling down.

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More detailed info about the ever-continuing meat assaults on the Russian side and also, the #1 event in the Z-vatnik space this week - yet another useful idiot, this time the traitor Tatyana Montyan, being declared an extremist and a terrorist.

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Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder.

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Darryl Cooper from Martyrmade whom I owe a lot to, just released an episode where he claimed that Russia is winning this war. This is an open response to Darryl and to all of his fans, because it was very stupid of him to make such claims in the same day when the Z-vatnik blogosphere was busy whining about why and how Russia is about to lose. Therefore, please share and spread this - because as you'll hear, Darryl is either horribly misinformed or outright lying. He started the fight back in 2022, when he thought I was lying about Russia in my interview on his show and this is the point where I strike back

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I had to channel my Gonzo style for this one again. You see, there was yet another article, that was just published in the west, stating that Russia's somehow adapted to this war and has modernized and innovated solutions to the problems they had in the early war. The only thing Russia's innovated are new and clever ways of graft and embezzlement - they would deserve a Nobel prize for this, but that's been preemptively stolen - they're just THAT good at crime. And only crime.

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In this episode, I want to bring you up to speed with the war-related events in the Z-sphere of idiocy. Vatniks are pissing their pants because of Ukraine probably getting Tomahawks in the near future, Putin has to deal with the new president of Syria, and, of course, Igor Girkin has written new things for us to laugh at. 

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As I'm moving, I thought it would be nice to give you a bit of a historical breather episode, explaining the peculiarities of the proud Latvian region of Latgale. Which, in all seriousness, has more in common with Texas than you probably think.

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Earlier this month we had a conversation with a friend of our show, Latvian-American journalist Juris Kaža about the current security issues in the Baltics - here we discuss all the recent drone and MIG incursions and think about the appropriate response. (I do have to apologize about the sound quality though, we had a lot of technical issues.)

Please, donate to the Revanche group so that the Ukrainian army could help everyone and deal with our security issues on a permanent basis:

https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/autumn-harvest-eastern-border/

Juris's substack:

https://juriskaa.substack.com/

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Roman Alekhine caused a scandal in the Z-Vatnik blogosphere by (shockingly) getting exposed as totally corrupt - this has resulted to a series of events that have been as lucky for everyone who supports Ukraine as hitting the jacpot in Vegas!

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Due to the recent security breaches of Polish and Estonian airspace, Zapad 2025 military excercises by Russia and Belarus went somewhat unnoticed. And that's a shame, because they ended up being a complete waste of money, time, sanity and anything even remotely resemling common sense.

Pictures, related to the episode:

I. Aivazovsky, "Distribution of Food"

Classic example of a nonperson being deleted

Peculiarities of the National Hunt did it better than the excercise.

https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/autumn-harvest-eastern-border - Link to donate for the car

https://discord.gg/6s5nTqRW - Discord invite

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