1/ Russian strippers say that mobilisation has had an unexpected benefit for them – Moscow's 'inadequate' men have been sent to war, leaving them with a smaller but better-behaved clientele. ⬇️
2/ I've previously highlighted a report on how the war has impacted strip clubs in Moscow. It's been suggested before that the financial perfomance of strip clubs can be a leading indicator of imminent economic problems – so-called 'strippernomics'.
3/ The independent Russian SOTA media collective reports that the situation with Moscow's strip clubs is more complicated than earlier reports suggested. Customer numbers fell after the start of the war in February 2022 and partial mobilisation from September.
4/ However, this isn't all bad news, as strippers at a prestigious central Moscow strip club say that it's got rid of many of their unwanted poorly behaved customers. SOTA quotes one stripper:
5/ "We divide men into adequate and not so much. And to be honest, it's mostly the latter who are missing. They're probably at war right now.
6/ At the end of September and in October guys often came to us and said, 'That's it, tomorrow we have to fight, come on, dance for us.' But on the whole, it has become calmer to work. The most unpleasant customers now have no time for striptease."
7/ While revenues have fallen, SOTA reports, strip clubs have been able to make up the difference though a surge of customers arriving for their traditional pre-New Year strip club visit. /end
1/ Claims by a senior Russian military official that the Russian army's tactical medicine system is efficient and rapid are greeted with incredulity by Russian commentators. They point out that wounded soldiers are often not evacuated for days or weeks. ⬇️
2/ Deputy Minister of Defence Anna Tsivileva – a relative of Putin's who was controversially appointed a lieutenant general despite no previous military experience – has given an upbeat assessment of the performance of Russian tactical medicine.
3/ At a board meeting of the Russian MOD, Tsilvileva said that since December 2025, work has been undertaken as a high priority to improve the speed of evacuations and the quality of primary care on the front lines.
1/ The Russian-appointed governor of the occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region has told Vladimir Putin in person that the R-280 highway to Crimea is under total Russian control. Russian warbloggers dispute this and suggest that he's lying. ⬇️
2/ In a meeting at the Kremlin, Yevgeny Balitsky said:
"The R-280 road, which supplies Crimea, is currently under complete control, the effectiveness of Ukrainian drones has significantly decreased. The means used are constantly being improved."
3/ "There are new methods being used. There are new means being used by the Russian Armed Forces. At your direction, the road was placed under special control."
1/ The arrest in Miami of Andrew and Tristan Tate is being celebrated in Russia, where a few weeks ago they were guests of honour at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Now they're seen as too scummy for Russia; one Russian blogger calls them "genetic garbage". ⬇️
2/ The fact that the Tates were invited to Russia in the first place attracted criticism at the time, given their reputation. Russian nationalist bloggers saw it as a degrading display of subservience to the 'decadent' West. They now see themselves as vindicated by the arrests:
3/ 'Leib-Hussar' isn't mincing words: "This utterly "uncivilised" subservience to the West has been an unquestionable fetish of the domestic authorities for about 40 years. They constantly import and promote all sorts of genetic "garbage" into the country, which,…
1/ The destruction by Ukrainian drones of two of Wildberries' massive warehouses near Moscow is a huge disaster for the Russian economy, which will inflict far more damage than the headline $1.2 billion loss of stock. Here's why. ⬇️
2/ While Wildberries itself can absorb the loss of two of its biggest warehouses – it will not need to compensate sellers as it has very recently disclaimed responsibility for losses caused by enemy action – the impact of the strikes on the wider economy will be significant.
3/ Wildberries is frequently called the 'Russian Amazon', but it has a far more dominant role in the Russian economy than Amazon does in Western economies. Since it was founded in 2004, it's become one of the most structurally important companies in the Russian economy.
1/ Ukraine's attacks on two of Wildberries' biggest warehouses in Russia, causing losses estimated at over $1.2 billion dollars, has once again prompted Russian warbloggers to ask "when will we start fighting for real?" ⬇️
2/ Ever since the great Russian retreat in 2022, after the unsuccessful assault on Kyiv, ultra-nationalist warbloggers and supporters of the war have been demanding to know why the war is not being fought according to their preferences, blaming a 'weak' elite for the failures.
3/ The Wildberries attacks have revived such sentiments, with warbloggers perceiving the massive destruction as a humiliation and sign of Russian weaknees. 'Intelligence Diary' complains:
1/ As Ukraine's drone campaign against Russian shipping and energy targets steps up, Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin warns that "WITHOUT URGENT MEASURES TO COUNTER THE AIR OFFENSIVE, THE DAMAGE TO OUR MILITARY ECONOMY COULD REACH AN OMINOUS PROPORTION". ⬇️
2/ Writing from the prison where he is currently incarcerated, Girkin is (as usual) scathing about the deficiencies of the Russian strategy and alarmed at the scale and ambition of Ukraine's targeting of Russian strategic assets. He writes:
3/ "So, let's start with the enemy's strategy: IT IS CLEAR, UNDERSTANDABLE, LOGICAL, AND SO FAR FAIRLY EFFECTIVE (since countermeasures are not yet capable of stopping effective strikes on the enemy's chosen targets).