1/ As Ukrainian forces advance in the Kursk region, law and order in frontline Russian-held areas is reported to have collapsed completely. "Rampant looting" is said have broken out – being done by the Russians themselves – while local residents say they feel abandoned. ⬇️
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that "in the border areas of the Kursk region, where fighting has been going on all week, there are no police, no firefighters, no doctors, no representatives of the administration.
3/ "According to official information, more than 76,000 people left the settlements (most of them left on their own, since there was no organized evacuation, despite the statements of the authorities), but there are still people there, mostly elderly."
4/ The channel says that "the desertion of villages and towns has become a catalyst for rampant looting". The disorder is being carried out by the Russians themselves, though it isn't clear if opportunistic civilians or indisciplined soldiers are responsible.
5/ A local resident says: "They are robbing stores, there is a collapse in Korenevo, the “Magnit” [supermarket, pictured below] was simply destroyed. There is no water, no gas, no electricity.
6/ "There was no organized evacuation, and if there was, then why didn’t we hear anything about it in Lobanovka [an outlying area of Korenevo]?"
According to VChK-OGPU, "a similar situation exists in other border municipalities."
7/ It reports that "Kursk residents are sure that representatives of the [regional] administration, having abandoned people to their fate, themselves provoked the collapse in the border areas.
8/ "Currently, it is impossible to get through to the administration of the Korenevsky district of the Kursk region. People are forced to self-organise in order to protect themselves and their property and essentially perform the functions of state and law enforcement agencies."
Addendum: The Ukrainians have now published a video which shows soldiers, possibly from the Rosgvardia, looting an abandoned Russian house in the Kursk region. New thread here:
1/ Could Russia's special forces have carried out America's Venezuela operation? Almost certainly not, admit Russian warbloggers, as they say that the US SOF have capabilities, scale, a level of organisation, and effective management that their Russian equivalents lack. ⬇️
2/ The spectacular success of the US special forces in capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has led to some sober reappraisals among Russian warbloggers of the relative effectiveness of Russian and American special forces.
3/ 'Special-purpose channel' comments that the Venezuelan operation was "aimed at one specific target. This wasn't part of a large-scale invasion, but rather, our favourite 'in and out' strategy."
1/ Elon Musk faces a spiralling worldwide crisis and growing legal jeopardy over child pornography and nonconsensual sexual images being generated through his Grok AI chatbot. Multiple countries and jurisdictions have now announced investigations into X and xAI. ⬇️
2/ As reported by Reuters, many thousands of AI-generated sexual images have appeared on X over the Christmas and New Year period. They include images of real women being digitally undressed, repositioned in sexual poses, and covered in simulated semen ('donut glaze').
3/ The images created through Grok by X users have also reportedly included sexualised images of pre-teen children as young as four years old.
1/ Russian warbloggers have reacted with derision and embarassment to claims by FSB special forces veterans that they could have done better than the US Delta Force. The US successfully captured Maduro, they complain, while Russia only managed to abduct a raccoon from Kherson. ⬇️
2/ Two former FSB Alpha Group operators made some eye-catching claims in the Russian news outlet Daily Storm that they could have done far better than the US, but were only holding back for political and legal reasons.
1/ Russian special forces veterans say that the US operation in Venezuela was no big deal and they could easily have done the same with their own superior capabilities. However, they haven't attempted to kidnap Zelenskyy because of their respect for international law. ⬇️
2/ Veterans of the Russian Alpha Group, an elite special forces (spetsnaz) unit of the Federal Security Service (FSB), have been speaking about their impressions of the US capture of former President Nicolás Maduro. They say it was competent but unimpressive.
3/ FSB colonel and former Alpha Group veteran Vitaly Demidkin says: "They acted illegally, inhumanely, and unlawfully, but probably in a normal way. I think that, on the whole, the operation was not that impressive, but rather mediocre."
1/ Vladimir Putin's heavy investment in the regime of Venezuelan former President Nicolás Maduro has been a costly and disastrous failure, according to Russian commentators. They admit that Russia is too weak to stop its allies from being picked off one by one by the West. ⬇️
2/ Maxim Kalashnikov is scathing about what the fall of Maduro means for Russian foreign policy, saying that it "marks the collapse of the Russian leadership's long-standing PR-fueled foreign policy."
3/ "For a long time, it resembled a fireworks display: much noise and hype, but no real benefit to the development and industrialisation of the Russian Federation, or to the reunification of the Russian people.
1/ It wouldn't be a real Christmas without a gloomy forecast from Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin, Russia's answer to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. He sees Trump turning against Russia in 2026, anticipates the loss of Transnistria, and predicts a naval blockade by the EU. ⬇️
2/ Writing from his jail cell, Girkin predicts a deteriorating outlook for Russia and its war effort in Ukraine during 2026:
"Naturally, no compromise will be reached this year, because it can't be. I hope this has finally sunk in on everyone on the Planet of the Pink Ponies."
3/ "The situation will continue to escalate. I believe that after some time, Trump will demand that we accept the plan agreed upon with the US and Ukraine.