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ChrisO_wiki Profile picture
ChrisO_wiki
@ChrisO_wiki
Independent military history author and researcher. Coffee tips are appreciated! https://t.co/t1EjNrIZ2c Now also at https://t.co/4qGQ2ffHJJ
Jul 30 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Another Wildberries warehouse is on fire, this time in Sarapul, after a Ukrainian drone strike. As the ongoing massacre of Wildberries facilities continues, Russian warbloggers are becoming steadily more irate about air defence failures. ⬇️
2/ 'Combat Reserve' is furious, pointing to the lack of willingness among commanders and officials to take responsibility (a long-running problem; see the thread below).
Jul 30 • 48 tweets • 8 min read
1/ The Russian blogosphere is agog with speculation, rumours, claims, and much criticism of the authorities after the Russian government's decision to put Telegram founder Pavel Durov on the wanted list for terrorism. The reasons are murky, as usual for Russia. ⬇️ Image 2/ Officially, Durov is wanted for 'extremist activities', for allegedly not preventing Ukrainian agents recruiting saboteurs via Telegram. 'Intelligence Diary' notes:
Jul 29 • 30 tweets • 5 min read
1/ Russia's Navy, Marines, and non-strategic nuclear forces are in a dire state, according to Russian warbloggers. They are angry that the Navy has announced a huge, expensive, and likely useless unmanned surface vessel (USVs) while ignoring many other problems. ⬇️ Image 2/ The USV announcement by Admiral Aleksandr Moiseyev on Sunday has caused widespread confusion and criticism among warbloggers, who point to the more urgent need to develop large numbers of capable USVs to counter those of Ukraine.
Jul 29 • 49 tweets • 9 min read
1/ Recently-announced Russian plans for a giant 500-ton unmanned surface vessel (USV) are being greeted with scepticism, confusion and ridicule by Russian warbloggers. They say that the Navy is wasting money on grandiose schemes while failing to fix its current problems. ⬇️ 2/ The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Aleksandr Moiseyev, announced the plans on Sunday to mark the occasion of the Russian Navy's 330th anniversary. The vessel will be more than three times the size of the existing Grachonok-class patrol boat.
Jul 28 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
1/ As Russian progress in Ukraine slows to a crawl, frustration is mounting among warbloggers about why Russia isn't yet 'fighting for real'. One proposes a list of what should be done, from seizing the eastern half of Ukraine to emulating 2022's infamous Hostomel air assault. ⬇️ Image 2/ Russian warblogger Yuri Kotenok advocates:

"1. Stop playing second fiddle in the war by seizing the initiative. For example, by imposing a pre-emptive blockade on the enemy’s ports and transport links, rather than responding to attacks on ships in the Black Sea and Azov Sea.
Jul 28 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
1/ Russia has doubled the rate of personal income tax to cover the budget deficits caused by the war in Ukraine. However, as a gloomy Russian commentary notes, it's likely to have dire effects on the economy and the country's already declining demographics. ⬇️ Image 2/ 'Political Report' writes:

"In 2025, Russian authorities doubled personal income tax collection at rates exceeding 13%, turning citizens' incomes and savings into one of the fastest-growing sources of budget deficit financing."
Jul 27 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
1/ Gas prices were lowered, restrictions were lifted, and queues vanished temporarily for a visit to Irkutsk by Vladimir Putin. Russians are calling it a modern-day Potemkin village, but it appears to show how hard Putin's underlings try to hide Russia's problems from him. ⬇️ 2/ The original Potemkin villages were said to be fakeside river towns built by Grigory Potemkin to fool Empress Catherine the Great in 1787 (though it appears to be a myth). However, it was an attempt to fake success, rather than hiding failure from a leader inhabiting a bubble.
Jul 27 • 18 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Russia isn't winning in Ukraine and it's all the fault of Russian society, says an angry Russian warblogger. Seeking an explanation for why (in the eyes of warbloggers) Russia has not yet started "fighting for real", he blames ordinary Russians for apathy and cowardice. ⬇️ Image 2/ Russian society has been massively atomised under the rule of Vladimir Putin, with the near-destruction of most civil society organisations (apart from a limited number approved of or tolerated by the state). Passive subservience is welcomed; collective action is discouraged.
Jul 27 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
1/ Wildberries sellers are generally blaming the Russian government, rather than Ukraine, for their losses. It's an interesting and striking dynamic, which Russian warbloggers say the Russian government itself has created through its suppression of bad news. ⬇️ Image 2/ Over the last couple of weeks, Russian social media has been flooded with videos of distraught Wildberries sellers weeping over their huge losses as a result of Ukrainian drone strikes against warehouses across Russia.
Jul 27 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
1/ A rare Russian armoured assault on 22 June ended in disaster, with the loss of numerous vehicles and the reported deaths of scores of Russians. Russian warbloggers are scathing about the losses, seeing the attack as incompetent. ⬇️
2/ FT military correspondent Andrey Filatov is highly critical, using a standard euphemism for the Russian army to evade censorship:
Jul 26 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
1/ Vladimir Putin has strongly hinted that Russia should claim the entire eastern half of Ukraine, going far beyond the existing annexation of the Donbas and southern Ukraine. He foresees a future in which western Ukraine is also annexed by its neighbours. ⬇️ 2/ In a meeting with sailors in St Petersburg to mark Navy Day today, Putin extensively discussed Russia's historical rights over Ukraine, highlighting in the process his obsession with Russian and Ukrainian history and his dubious reading of it.
Jul 26 • 32 tweets • 6 min read
1/ Vladimir Putin is today celebrating the 330th anniversary of the Russian Navy. However, it's a muted, shrunken event held under the shadow of Ukrainian drone strikes and with the Black Sea Fleet blockaded in Novorossiysk. Russian commentators fear for the Navy's future. ⬇️ 2/ Putin has today been at the Main Admiralty of the Russian Navy in St. Petersburg for Navy Day to mark the Navy's 330th anniversary since its foundation under Peter the Great. He spoke of the Navy and Marines' "important role in the Special Military Operation."
Jul 26 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
1/ A Russian commander has reportedly come up with a novel form of 'flag-sticking', the practice of planting flags in Ukrainian-held territory to falsely report advances. He was reportedly caught using AI to fake flag-sticking events to conceal his territorial losses. ⬇️ Image 2/ 'Donetsk Infantry' has posted an insight into the problems that the Russian command is continuing to have. with false reports from the ground. These have led to the war being fought on the basis of grossly inaccurate control of terrain maps.
Jul 26 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Russian soldiers say they are facing a "catastrophic shortage" of fuel at the front lines due to Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries. Far less is available now, it's more expensive, and it's only being issued for vehicles owned by the army – excluding vast numbers in use. ⬇️ Image 2/ Soldiers interviewed by the independent Russian news site Verska says that a "catastrophic shortage" has made the situation "a complete mess". Just like civilians, the military is now being rationed to only 20 litres of gasoline per vehicle per day.
Jul 25 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
1/ The energy situation in Crimea is steadily worsening as Ukrainian drones systematically destroy power facilities across the peninsula. Russian warblogger 'Two Majors' says that Russia's air defences are being crippled by a lack of coordination. ⬇️
2/ Recent attacks by Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces have hit dozens of electricity substations and other energy facilities across Crimea in recent weeks, as well as logistics hubs and road transportation. 'Two Majors' says the situation is still deteriorating:
Jul 25 • 20 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Ukraine's systematic destruction of Wildberries warehouses across Russia should be understood as an act of psychological warfare intended to remind Russians of the ruinous 1990s, argues RIA Novosti correspondent Sergei Shilov in a lengthy commentary. ⬇️
2/ Writing on the 'Witnesses of Bayraktar' Telegram channel that Shilov co-manages with RT correspondent Alexander Karchenko, Shilov says that Ukraine aims "to "flood" Russia with chaos" by striking at "a more vulnerable target: the public psyche."
Jul 25 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
1/ Does the Russian soldier in your life need something to entertain him? A Russian entrepreneur has come up with the perfect answer: a board game called Silapoly which features 'Uncle Vova', the Oreshnik missile, the FSB, and anything else needed to control Russia. ⬇️ 2/ Silapoly is an adaptation of the classic board game Monopoly that relocates the action and game mechanics for a (satirical?) depiction of modern Russia. The player must "build an empire, manage money, and fight for power."
Jul 25 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
1/ It's time for another purge of the Russian army, along the lines of Stalin's Great Purge of 1937, says Russian warblogger 'Two Majors'. He castigates the army's culture of shifting responsibility and performative work for its systematic failures in Ukraine. ⬇️ Image 2/ The Russian army's bureaucratic culture has created a "system of reports, legal squabbles, and endless shifting of responsibility in military affairs". However, he says, it "has outlived its usefulness and is directly damaging the military sphere of the Russian Federation."
Jul 22 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Following political pressure, Wildberries' CEO Tatyana Kim – Russia's richest woman – says that the company will compensate its sellers for their losses despite a recent change of its terms and conditions that absolved it of liability. ⬇️
2/ Colossal quantities of goods – likely hundreds of millions of items – have been destroyed in Ukraine's recent drone strikes on several Wildberries warehouses. Forbes Russia estimates the total damage so far to be as much as 283–303 billion rubles ($3.60–3.86 billion).
Jul 22 • 22 tweets • 4 min read
1/ The sight of more burning warehouses has prompted angry denunciations from Russian warbloggers of the "bureaucratic pimples" who are allegedly sabotaging air defences. Anti-drone mobile fire teams, in particular, are said to be in disarray. ⬇️
2/ The Russian warblogger 'SHAKESPEARE' writes:

"Today, the enemy attacked the Wildberries warehouses again. Successfully—for the enemy, that is. It appears we’ve lost two major logistics terminals at once: in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk."
Jul 22 • 36 tweets • 6 min read
1/ Ukraine's increasingly devastating attacks on Wildberries warehouses in Russia are intended to dismantle Russia's e-commerce economy, disrupt logistics, and drive up prices even further, say Russian bloggers. They are calling for urgent action. ⬇️
2/ Roman Alekhin sees the writing on the wall for Wildberries:

"1. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have already inflicted extreme damage and will most likely continue to do so.