The couples' divorce crisis has hit #Russia's elites. But some are losing, and others are finding. According to a report to #Putin, Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma and zealous advocate of a ban on the promotion of #homosexuality, has a new favourite. 1/4
The break-up with his former paramour, Anatoliy, went smoothly and amicably. Anatoliy took with him, apparently, memories and, no doubt, generous gifts from Volodin that total at least seven million dollars. 2/4
From the report to #Putin, it appears that Volodin's new boyfriend is a native of the Caucasus. Despite their recent acquaintance, Volodin is passionately in love. An analysis of Volodin's Internet search requests shows his interest in "throat blowjob training". 3/4
The amount of traffic consumed by Volodin to research the topic is impressive. One can, of course, assume that he is preparing for an extraordinary session of the State Duma on July 15, but something tells us it's still about his new boyfriend, or maybe all of the above. 4/4
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Russian President #Putin plans to visit #Iran next week. Relations with Iran have always been difficult for #Russia under the leadership of Putin, but in the absence of real "friends" in the international arena, one can try to brag about friendship with Iran.
1/12
Bragging is, of course, to #Russian people. #Putin plans to hold talks not only with #Iranian President Raisi but also with #Turkish President #Erdogan. The declared agenda is the #Syrian question, but in reality, Putin is going to discuss a much wider range of issues.
2/12
It is important for #Putin to convince the #Iranian leadership not to agree to #USA terms on the "nuclear deal" and to use his influence on the Iranian leadership on this issue as a lever of pressure, or rather, a bargaining chip in negotiations with the USA.
3/12
Many are wondering what #Russian President #Putin is preparing for July 15. Everything so far is being kept in the strictest secret, and this is understandable. Putin likes to be unpredictable and does not like it when someone intervenes with his plans and disrupts them.
1/12
This time the president is traditionally implementing his favourite approach: he ordered the preparation of several versions of the agenda for July 15 to different groups of people from his entourage.
2/12
#Putin carefully monitors both the preparations (in daily reports) and leaks of information (also in reports, but from the competent agencies). This time around, four separate agenda options are being prepared, as well as hybrid scenarios in which these options are combined.
3/12
In the surrounding of #Russian President #Putin, almost everyone is unconditionally loyal to him, but the surrounding is not homogeneous at all and views on certain issues sometimes lead to confrontation. This, in turn, affects the decisions that the president makes.
1/15
Recently, the polarization of #Putin's entourage has been caused by the question "what can be considered a victory and the ultimate goal of a special military operation?".
2/15
Today, most elite groups agree that the capture of the #Donetsk and #Luhansk regions of #Ukraine within their administrative borders, calling them LDNR, can be considered a sufficient result of the so-called "special military operation".
3/15
The indefinite deferral of #Putin's press conference is due to his unstable health condition. A week ago, he was preparing to answer questions from #Russians in late June/ early July, but his doctors advised him not to make any lengthy public appearances in the near future 1/4
The latest argument against speaking to the public was an incident after a recent 1,5-hour video call with representatives of the military bloc. After the meeting, #Putin felt a sharp sickness, weakness and dizziness when he tried to get up from the table 2/4
Putin's press conference serves the purpose of staying in "contact" with #Russians. Its format is about 4 hours, but lately, the president has been getting tired much faster 3/4
Judging by the report to #Putin, yesterday's talks between #Russian Foreign Minister #Lavrov & his Turkish counterpart Çavuşoğlu didn't bring any significant results. They agreed to continue discussing sensitive issues, refraining from harmful to bilateral relations steps 1/9
#Putin was dissatisfied with the result of #Lavrov's visit to #Turkey & talked about the fact that the Turkish side in the negotiation process is seeking tangible concessions to the detriment of #Russian positions. He traditionally gave Lavrov rollicking 2/9
It's important for #Putin to understand the actions of the Turkish leadership & to have close contact with #Erdogan, given the preparation and possible implementation of a geopolitical project in the #Caucasus 3/9
Finally, #Putin has officially launched the reform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The idea of reforming the Ministry came to the President long ago, & the peak of discussions and preparations was at the end of last year. We repeatedly wrote about it 1/7
At that time, the reform wasn't launched because #Putin questioned the expediency of such a politically significant event on the eve of the implementation of geopolitical projects. In April, he again began to talk intensely about it, but no real actions were taken 2/7
The problem at the end of last year & in April was also in the shaky positions of Minister Kolokoltsev. #Putin couldn't decide whether to leave him as minister. Now he understands that in the near future the change of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs can only harm 3/7