1/ Russian air defence soldiers complain that they are being paid as little as $133 a week and that the Russian government is failing to pay them bonuses promised for shooting down Ukrainian drones. Not surprisingly, this isn't helping morale. ⬇️ 2/ 'Two Majors' writes:

"The enemy launches over a hundred drones daily into our regions. And not all of them are included in public statistics: many are shot down, for example, over the Zaporizhzhia region [of Ukraine]."

1/ The Russian army has adopted infiltration tactics to slip past Ukrainian defences, dividing platoons into a handful of men who advance as far as they can, entrench, and await reinforcements. A Russian warblogger comments on this tactic's limitations. ⬇️ 2/ This change of approach since 2024 has enabled Russia to advance slowly, though still generating heavy losses along the way. 'Archangel Spetsnaz' writes:

"Indeed, assault tactics have changed dramatically."

1/ Huge numbers of Russian soldiers are dying unnecessarily in Ukraine because commanders at every level are falsifying claims of success, according to Russian warbloggers. "To back up their words, they're sending people to their deaths," says one front-line soldier. ⬇️ 2/ The image above is an extract from an official Russian Ministry of Defence map showing a completely fictional front line around Kupyansk in Ukraine's Kharkiv region. Commanders falsely reported having taken settlements around the city before it was regained by Ukraine.

1/ A poetry reading by Russian ultra-nationalists in Krasnodar has been violently suppressed by Russian security forces, much to the dismay of their online supporters. The incident highlights how much Putin's regime fears being outflanked from the nationalist right. ⬇️ 2/ Members and supporters of the National Bolshevik movement, founded by the late poet and Soviet-era dissident Eduard Limonov, were holding a regularly scheduled reading of Limonov's works in Krasnodar on 17 January when they were interrupted by a law enforcement raid.

1/ Russia's logistical capability to threaten Greenland, 1500 miles away, is fundamentally dependent on its ability to project naval power over long distances, potentially in contested waters. However, Russian warbloggers admit that this is severely limited even in peacetime. ⬇️ 2/ 'Military Informant' writes that the Russian logistics vessel MYS ZHELANIYA has "delivered important cargo to the Afrika Korps, calling at the Libyan port of Tobruk. The SPARTA IV, escorted by the large anti-submarine ship Severomorsk, continued on to the coast of Syria."

1/ Donald Trump's aggressive tactics over Greenland are causing consternation among his far-right allies in Europe. With European publics overwhelmingly against surrendering Greenland, leading European far-rightists have come out in opposition to Trump's plans. ⬇️ 2/ Bloomberg reports that Trump's designs have forced his ostensible allies to reconsider their support for him. Some may fear voters turning on them for their past support of Trump, much as Pierre Poilievre suffered in Canada in 2024.

1/ 30 years ago, Russian law enforcement agents started wearing masks to carry out their duties. It soon became a standard tactic to intimidate and extort those seen as opponents of the regime, and became known in Russian as a 'mask show'. ⬇️ 2/ During the Soviet era, there was no need for law enforcement officers to hide their faces. They were the agents of an all-powerful state, which although corrupt had huge resources to repress crime and political dissidence.

1/ Cuts to public funding due to money being redirected to Russia's war effort are having increasingly severe effects on its already struggling health service. In one region, a collapsing maternity care system has produced horrifying stories of mistreatment and abuse. ⬇️ 2/ An increasing number of Russian regions are facing financial crises due to the federal government making severe cuts to regional budgets. This is having a host of negative effects, ranging from collapsing healthcare to cities being flooded with sewage.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1981387257425600817

1/ Donald Trump isn't the first person to be given someone else's Nobel Prize medal. The last recipient of an unearned Nobel medal was none other than Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, at the instigation of Norwegian author Knut Hamsun. ⬇️
2/ Hamsun had won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920. After Nazi Germany invaded Norway in April 1940, he became a strong supporter of the Nazi occupation, writing numerous highly Anglophobic articles blaming the British for fighting over Norwegian territory.

1/ An announcement by the US Army that it is creating a new career pathway for officers to specialise in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) has prompted Russian concern that it may leapfrog their own military AI/LM capabilities. ⬇️

https://x.com/USArmy/status/2006832005615374392

2/ Alexander Lyubimov, a Russian military volunteer and ally of the imprisoned Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin, writes on his Telegram channel:

"At the end of December, an important yet largely unnoticed event occurred."

1/ This is all true, but Trump doesn't appear to care about anything that doesn't affect him personally.

https://twitter.com/Microinteracti1/status/2011391315968139684

2/ A new paper in the journal International Organization gives a good explanation of Trump's organising principle, which the authors call "neo-royalism" (analogous to roughly 16th century Europe):

1/ The firing of an "odious" Russian general who is notorious for having caused huge casualties by ordering 'banzai charges' is being celebrated by Russian warbloggers. They warn, however, that he is unlikely to be punished for his failures as he is "protected" by his patrons. ⬇️ 2/ Sukhrab Sultanovich Akhmedov, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy for Coastal and Ground Forces, is widely reported to have been dismissed in the last few days after several disastrous attacks which produced heavy Russian casualties.

1/ Russian convicts are refusing en masse to join the army, even to serve as officers, according to Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin. He says that nobody believes the Russian Ministry of Defence's promises any more and recruiters are unable to persuade men to go to their deaths. ⬇️ 2/ Girkin, a former FSB officer who is currently imprisoned for 'extremism' (i.e. criticising the war effort for being insufficient), writes:

"Today, the military came by to recruit volunteers for the "assault" for officer positions."

1/ Russian men are reportedly being drugged, trafficked to the army, and married without their knowledge to 'black widows' who get their 'coffin money' compensation payments when they are killed. A story from Samara illustrates what is said to be a growing nationwide racket. ⬇️ 2/ Russian warblogger Anastasia Kashevarova highlights what she calls "a black market for trafficking men to the front". She says that the Samara region is a centre for this activity: "People are already being brought in from other regions; this is a whole criminal network."

1/ Ukrainians are said to be funding their war effort by systematically fleecing billions from Russian citizens and businesses through online and phone scams. It's a hidden front of a hybrid war that employs both kinetic means on the battlefield and hacking on the home front. ⬇️ 2/ The Russian Telegram channel 'Veterans' Notes' comments that "a full-scale, quiet, and extremely profitable campaign for the enemy has unfolded in the [Russian] rear."

1/ Russian soldiers are reportedly being punished by being sent into assaults with anti-tank mines strapped to their bodies, made to dig their own graves for complaining, and risk death delivering New Year's Eve alcohol and caviar for their commanders. 2/ Andrei Vladimirovich Shekhovtsev, a member of the Russian 60th Separate motorised rifle brigade (military unit 16871), says that his commanders are systematically abusing, extorting and killing the men under their command.

1/ A Russian general notorious for his incompetence is said to have been in charge of providing military advice to the former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Russian warbloggers complain that failing generals are often sent abroad, to the detriment of their hosts. ⬇️ 2/ Roman Saponkov writes that "it turns out that General [Oleg Leontyevich] Makarevich was an advisor in Venezuela at the time of the US operation."

1/ Donald Trump should be assassinated and US ships sunk in revenge for the US seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker, say angry Russian warbloggers. Others worry that the episode shows Russia's weakness and inability to protect its own interests, just like in Venezuela. ⬇️ 2/ 'Hard Blog' and others say that Russia needs to be ready to go to war, as mere words won't be a sufficient response to such a serious provocation:

1/ False claims by Russian commanders to have captured Ukrainian towns and villages – a practice known as 'taking on credit' – have likely cost thousands of Russian lives through 2025. A Russian commentary highlights some of the most egregious claims. ⬇️ 2/ The map above, published on the Russian Ministry of Defence's Telegram channel, claims control of settlements near Kupyansk that were never in Russian hands. Similar official maps show the Russian front line kilometres ahead of where independent observers place it.

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.

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').