How is the war in Ukraine going? Today they confirmed the death of Russian General Major Suhovetsky. He's unsurprisingly a paratrooper. So let's discuss the role of paratroopers in Russian military doctrine. That'll shed a light on the course of this war and why Russia lost it🧵
Paratroopers hold more legendary status than any other troops in Russia. They are elite force comprising the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. They are supposed to lead the offensive, being dropped behind the enemy lines and holding the ground before the rest of the army comes
Except they aren't used this way. If you look at this picture you'll understand why. It's just to easy to shoot them all in the air before they reach the ground. That's why in pretty much every conflict - Afghanistan, Karabakh, Georgia, Chechnya they were used as regular infantry
Since WWII there were only three cases when Russian paratroopers were actually dropped on the enemy from the air:
Hungary 1956
Czechoslovakia 1968
Ukraine 2022
Ergo, paratroopers act as paratroopers only when they don't expect resistance from another regular army
Paratroopers aren't that strong. The firepower of an "elite" paratrooper regiment is way weaker than that of regular, "non-elite" infantry regiment. They can't defeat an army. But they aren't supposed to fight against an army. They are supposed to suppress mutinies and rebellions
The entire concept of VDV, Russian paratroopers makes total sense if we consider that they are not so much soldiers as the riot police. They don't need to fight other regular armies, they need to suppress disorganised mutinies and protests
Since paratroopers are the shock troops of regime, they absolutely need to look scary to scare off any mutineers. Their entire legendary status is one huge psyop. That's not a secret, really well-trained forces such as those of GRU consider these guys to be fraudsters
For this reason paratroopers absolutely need to be very tall. Physical fitness is not enough, you need to be very big. Why? Because they need to be scary. Because their main weaponry is purely psychological. People should see these big guys and realise resistance is meaningless
Hence the entire "legendary" status, well-developed mythology and iconography. There's no other troops with so developed symbolics, such as paratroopers. Consider this one where Elia the Prophet gets a blue paratrooper beret
Tons of songs, visuals etc are dedicated to paratroopers, more than to any other troops. Why? Again, because VDV are psyop troops and they are powerless without a thoroughly developed mythology. Thus government heavily invests in building this mythology
2nd of August is the VDV day. So every year ex-paratroopers (or whoever decided to west the light blue vest and beret) jump into the public fountains
... harass civilians
.. and the police. Regular people (or soldiers) would get long prison terms for beating up the cops. But not the paratroopers. They are shock troops of the regime and the regime gonna maintain their badass status. They are so badass because they have full support of the state
That's why "elite" paratroopers comprise the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. It's not a reserve for a big war. Nope. It's a reserve for suppressing mutinies within Russia or in neighbouring countries. And that's largely done through psyops. Thus they work hard to seem scary
When Russia decided to suppress the insurrection in Kazakstan last year, it sent there its glorified riot police - the paratroopers. See the light blue stripes on their vests? Only VDV wears it
Let's be honest, Kremlin sees Ukraine as a rebel province. The very existence of this country is mutiny. And if you need to suppress a riot, you send the riot police. So Putin sent there paratroopers and they were completely routed. Because they didn't expect organised resistance
Russian paratroopers were used as paratroopers only during the suppression of "fascist revolt" in Hungary 1956 and in Czechoslovakia 1968. Why? Because they knew they're not gonna face another regular army there. So they can unleash their psyop without fearing any consequences
When Putin invaded Ukraine he thought he's suppressiing yet another Eastern European mutiny. And sent his riot police expecting Ukrainian army to run or surrender. But it didn't. And once it didn't his entire special operation modelled after Whirlwind 1956 or Danube 1968, failed
Paratroopers were supposed to take control of the main cities and logistical clusters, so the occupation of the country by the army would go smoothly. But Ukrainian army opened fire and they failed. And after that initial failure the entire plan was broken
The most dramatic example of this failure were Russian vehicles stuck in the early spring mud. You see they are trying to put tree logs under its wheels to get it out. Sounds good, doesn't work
Putin expected Ukrainian army to surrender. Unexpectedly not only the army but even regular civilians whom government gave guns started attacking Russian supply lines. Russia didn't plan for war and simply pushed forward with just one army echelon, so supply lines are unguarded
As a results those columns that pushed forward run out of fuel and simply get stuck on the roads and in the fields. That's the most plausible explanation for this Russian column simply staying in the field and being filmed by civilians
Putin's Blitzkrieg failed because it wasn't a Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg is a war operation against an enemy who fights. But Russia launched a special operation expecting Ukrainians to surrender. That's why they sent forward their glorified riot police. Of course, they were beaten
They sent only one echelon of troops by land. They wanted to occupy a defenceless country and didn't care about covering their supply lines. Of course they were cut off and now thousands of Russian vehicles are stuck with no fuel
Putin's plan failed and that's why he started escalating the violence. Here you see a student dormitory of Kharkiv university after a Russian bombardment
Or residential districts of Kyiv
The only question is whether Ukrainians will be able to stand their ground until the imminent economic collapse of Russia. It will happen much sooner than most expect, gonna write about it tomorrow in a more detailed way. In any case, Putin's plan of a special operation failed
It failed for two reasons. Firstly, after 2014 Ukrainians rebuilt their army and state for the imminent clash with Russia. Secondly, when Russia finally attacked, Ukrainians didn't fall for an empty psyop and didn't get scared. And if you don't fear, psyop doesn't work. End of🧵
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No offence, but this is a completely imbecile, ignorant, ridiculous framing. I have no explanation for all this debate except for a complete & determined ignorance of the foreign policy making class, and their refusal to learn literally anything about the material world.
"Components" framing makes sense when we are discussing drones. Why? Because drones are literally made from the imported components. You buy like 90% of them in China, and may be you make like 10% domestically. For the most part, you just assemble what you bought in China.
Not the case with missiles. Most of what the missile consists of, including its most critical, hard to make parts is produced domestically. Why? Because you cannot buy it abroad. More often than not, you cannot buy it in China. You can only make it yourself, domestically.
Contrary to the popular opinion, Andrey Belousov's appointment as a Minister of Defense makes perfect sense. From the Kremlin's perspective, war is primarily about industry & economy. Now Belousov is the central economic & industrial thinker (and planner) in the Russian gov.
Born into a Soviet Brahmin economist family, Belousov is an exceedingly rare case of an academician making a successful career in the Russian gov. Even more noteworthy, he rose to the position of power through his academic work and publications.
This is unique, ultra rare.
Belousov's career track:
1976-1981 Moscow State University ("economic cybernetics"). Basically, economics, but with the heavy use of then new computers.
1981-1986 Central Economic Mathematical Institute
1986-2006 Instutute of Economic Forecasting
2006-2024 Government
If you want to imagine Russia, imagine a depressive, depopulating town. Now on the outskirts of a town, there is an outrageously over-equipped, overfunded strategic enterprise that has literally everything money can buy in the world. It feels like a spaceship from another planet
Strategic industry is extremely generously equipped. Western companies look scoundrels in comparison. That’s why I am so sceptical about the whole “corruption” narrative. Not that it’s wrong. It’s just that it is the perspective of a little, envious bitch.
What needs to be funded, will be funded. It will actually be overfunded and most literally drowned in money. Obviously, overfunding the strategic sector comes at the cost of underfunding almost everything else (like urban infrastructure). That’s why the town looks so grim.
We have successfully documented the entire Russian missiles industry, mapping 28 of its key enterprises. Read our first OSINT sample focusing on the Votkinsk Plant, a major producer of intercontinental ballistic missiles. How does it make weaponry?
The strategic missiles industry appears to be highly secretive and impenetrable to the observers. And yet, it is perfectly OSINTable, based on the publicly available sources. This investigation sample illustrates our approach and methodology (31 p.)
Our first and invaluable source is the state propaganda, such as the federal and regional TV channels, corporate media, social media and so on. It provides abundant visual evidence, particularly on the hardware used in the production of weaponry.
In August 1999, President Yeltsin appointed his FSB Chief Putin as the new Prime Minister. Same day, he named him as the official successor. Yet, there was a problem. To become a president, Putin had to go through elections which he could not win.
He was completely obscure.
Today, Putin is the top rank global celebrity. But in August 1999, nobody knew him. He was just an obscure official of Yeltsin's administration, made a PM by the arbitrary will of the sovereign. This noname clerk had like 2-3% of popular support
Soon, he was to face elections
By the time of Putin's appointment, Russia already had its most favoured candidate. It was Primakov. A former Yeltsin's Prime Minister who broke with Yeltsin to contest for power. The most popular politician in Russia with massive support both in masses and in the establishment.
In Russia, the supreme power has never ever changed as a result of elections. That simply never happened in history. Now that is because Russia is a (non hereditary) monarchy. Consequently, it doesn't have any elections. It has only acclamations of a sitting ruler
Obviously, there has been no elections of Putin in any meaningful sense. There have been only acclamations. And that is normal. His predecessor was successfully acclaimed with an approval rate of about 6%. Once you got the power, you will get your acclamation one way or another
Contrary to the popular opinion, Russia doesn't have any acclamation ("election") problem. It has a transition of power problem. Like Putin can get acclaimed again, and again, and again. But sooner or later, he dies. What next?