I've really been struggling to make sense of what the Russians hope to get by flying drones over our airports, as well as various other acts of sabotage.

So, I figured I'd cover what Russia expects to get from it and why I think they're achieving the very opposite of that.🧵 ->Deter European countries from providing aid to Ukraine.

The logic is simple enough and should make for some coercive deterrence. Fly drones over whatever European target happens to be most disrupted by simply having drones flying over to it. Make attempts at acts of sabotage reasonably expected to be discovered yet incredibly costly in terms of investigating and preventing. Repeat until something gives and formally or informally target country "corrects course" when it comes to Ukraine.

Except in practice, thanks to nobody taking Russia's word that they won't be next on the menu and that Russians won't be repeating this process whenever they happen to be mildly annoyed at something you do, it very much tends to achieve the opposite. It terms of solutions, it really makes sure that the only way forward is suffocating Russia economically and helping Ukraine deliver Russia a military defeat.

Because I feel it is important that everyone knows this man's name, here is Mihail Neamtu, member of the Romanian Parliament representing the far-right, pro-Russian AUR party, rhetorically asking himself why Russia doesn't just use nuclear weapons on Ukrainian cities already. Despite the innumerable horrific statements he makes on a regular basis, this man continues to be invited all over Europe and the US at all sorts of conventions and meetings and gatherings, and I think it is time for that to stop and for this man to get the "fame" he deserves.

In about four hours, after more than 300 consecutive days of protests and just as many consecutive days of regime brutality, people from all across Georgia are heading en masse towards the capital city for a demonstration intended to be a peaceful revolution.

Russia can and must be defeated in Georgia! Good luck brave people! The scale and mobilization is incredible to witness:

https://x.com/Mikiashvili_M/status/1974378071106224583

With Putin now claiming that "Western elites are getting rich by scaring you into believing in the mythical Russian threat", I figure it might be worth it to revisit the simple and meager life led by Russia's pro-war elites. 🧵 Quite a fervent supporter of the war he won't die in, Andrei Bokarev is a great Russian patriot which, like all other great Russian patriots, used to drown his sorrows as far away from Russia as possible and dream of Chelyabinsk from his modest $100 million Saint-Tropes cottage.

With about 200 days left before Hungarians head to the polls, I figured it is the perfect time to review Orban's achievements by comparing Hungary to Romania, a comparison that I am sure will hit a cord with Hungarian ultranationalists and Orban fans in and outside Hungary.🧵 Despite having about half of Romania's population, in 2003, shortly after Orban's first term, Hungary had a GDP of $85 bil. while Romania's stood at $57 bil.

Today, after too many Orban years to count, Hungary's GDP is about $220 billion, while Romania's hit $400 bil.

With Russian bots and propagandists again spamming all of the internet with the same three fancy looking places in Moscow and St. Petersburg, I figured it'd be a good time to write a continuation to my travel guide to Russia.

Welcome to vol. 2 of "Posh Russian cities"! Enjoy!🧵 Boasting one of the largest train stations in Russia, very much a necessity given the population's favorite pastime is leaving, Novosibirsk fields enough sinking and tilting buildings to make the skyline look like it was designed by a drunk architect, which it probably was.

The voting process in this very much existential Moldovan election has now ended. The counting process will begin shortly.

I will be posting updates regarding the results in continuation of this post. Feel free to bookmark if interested.🧵 Very much relevant regarding the counting process

https://x.com/Daractenus/status/1972351110225756637

With Moldova on the verge of holding what is likely to be the most consequential election in its history this Sunday, one that might unfortunately see it fall to Russian domination, I figured I'd do a short thread on the history of the place to offer some context.🧵 In 1918, in the aftermath of Russian Empire's chaotic disintegration, Moldova succeeds in putting an end to over a century of brutal Russian occupation and, faced with the prospect of being re-absorbed by the new Russian state, votes for unification with the Kingdom of Romania.

While the political implications of a Russian takeover of Moldova seem to be largely understood, the military threat this poses to Ukraine is largely dismissed. I believe that is not at all the case and we should be quite a lot more concerned about it. 🧵 Currently, Moldova's intelligence service (SIS) applies an extra security filter that, with a lot of effort I might add, turns back anywhere from tens to hundreds of Russian men of fighting age trying to get into Moldova, via air, almost on a daily basis.

The typical reply to this question appears to be "because America is big", which is a disarmingly stupid answer, given nobody is asking you to protest in the opposite corner of your country.

The population of New York City alone is some 25% bigger than that of Serbia. Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of Serbs took to the streets in Belgrade, a city of less than 2 million.

How many people out of New York City's 8 million took to the streets of New York City, not some far away place, in protest against Trump? Likewise, another common answer appears to be "he'll impose martial law if we protest in large numbers".

Unlikely, but lets assume he'd do that. What is the plan then, never protest out of fear that might happen? Cause the more you wait, the more likely that scenario gets.

Because boycotting American products is the very least we regular Europeans can do right now to return the favor, here's a thread of US brands to avoid, split up by category for your convenience.🧵 Fashion:

Georgescu's unhinged supporters are gathering up in Bucharest for their "grand protest" aimed at saving their cult leader from prison.

Given just how angry and excited these lunatics are right now, this will likely turn out to be a very busy day for the Romanian Gendarmerie. I will continue to post any relevant updates that might come up under this thread. Feel free to bookmark it if interested.

So far, about 3k of them showed up ahead of time, with plenty being bussed in. Their "protest" is set to start in 1h from now (2PM local time).

With the USA on the verge of turning into everyone's least favorite banana republic and for the sake of giving MAGA a taste of things to come, I figured it's time to take a look at Turkmenistan and their eternal dear leader, one with a striking set of similarities to Trump. 🧵 Every bit as passionate as Trump when it comes to renaming things, the Turkmen dictator eventually went all the way and decided to rename the months of the year and days of the week after his family and friends. Very much loving his mom, he also renamed "bread" after her.

Seeing how the USA now hellbent on emulating their newfound ally of Russia, both at home and abroad, I find myself obliged to repost my dive into Russia's posh cities, just to give your average MAGA a glimpse into the greatness Trump is sure to bring about! Do enjoy!🧵 While a romantic sunset, sunrise or the sun in general is not something you're likely to experience in Norilsk - a city that fields a beautiful bi-annual Biblical plague when the local river runs red with pollution, is one for sure bound to go straight to your heart. And lungs.

For the sake of making myself as unlikable as possible with the MAGA community, to whatever extent MAGA is still a thing or a community right now, I've decided to do a short thread tackling the most common misconceptions they seem to have about Europe.🧵 No matter how hard you'd try it, and plenty of MAGA seem to be engaging in the task, you can't fit Europe into Texas. In fact, you can't even fit it into all of the US! Believe it or not, and I'm guessing not, Europe's 10.5 million sq km are more than USA's 9.8 million sq km!

Given how Musk, USA and Russia have now united their effort in helping an insane man become president in my country, I figured it is very relevant to show and remind everyone just how crazy Calin Georgescu is, through his very own words. About Russia...

"Romania's only hope is the Russian wisdom. [...] There, in Russia, is the light, the West means absolutely nothing [...] Vladimir Putin is a great leader and a great patriot, in their sense of the word. He is very dedicated to his country and his people."

When you see Musk's attempts to promote a pro-Russian lunatic as president of Romania, don't go thinking he's attacking us just cause that's what happened to randomly catch his attention.

While this might come as a surprise, Romania plays a crucial role in Europe right now. 🧵 With offshore gas reserves of around 100 billion cubic meters which we are just about to start extracting by 2027, Romania is already the largest gas producer in a very energy hungry Europe, and plays quite the role in easing European dependency on Russia and the US.

While lots of mean voices, mine included, accused Musk of suspiciously overlooking China in his fight against "globalist neo-communist oppression", that is not entirely correct.

Elon Musk did tweet quite a great deal of things about a China, and here's a thread to prove it! 🧵 While Musk often refers to democratically elected Western leaders he doesn't like as "illegitimate", "tyrants" or "communists", when referring to Xi Jinping, an actual illegitimate communist tyrant, he always makes sure to follow the protocolary "President Xi".

Solidly present in Twitter's "Top 30 Most Community Noted" with over 100 entries, Visegrad24 seems to be Musk's new favorite source of news for Europe.

For those not yet aware of what a Visegrad is and does, I've prepared a short thread to help you get a taste of it.🧵 What I do appreciate most about Visegrad is the holistic approach they take to lying, very much not restricting themselves to doing it solely for political purposes.

While I have to admit a mosquito air-defense system does sound pretty amazing, it is unfortunately not real

I figured I'd do a thread to put into some perspective Transnistria's seemingly absurd recent refusal to jointly purchase gas with Moldova and why at this point, even if offered free gas from a non-Russian source, they are very likely to flatly refuse it. 🧵 Freezing or starving, do not assume the population of Transnistria will put the blame for it on Russia. The few that understand Russia has means of bypassing Ukraine to supply them with gas, will blame the pro-EU Sandu, while the many that don't, will blame Ukraine for it.

Having decided to do an occasional historical thread every now and then, meet the very smoothly named "Nikolai Robert Maximilian Freiherra von Ungern-Sternberg", quite possibly the craziest man you have never heard of and the holder of the "Last Khan of Mongolia" title.🧵 Born in Austro-Hungary in 1886 from a German mother of noble heritage and a father legally declared insane, the young Roman would soon move to the Russian Empire alongside his family, mostly thanks to the family's rather unsubstantiated realization that might be Romanovs.