The Fuckery That Is Putin's Russia

First off, they've had close to 50,000 soldiers killed in his failure of a war of conquest.

Roughly 47,000. That is how many Russian soldiers have died so far in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to a joint study by journalists at Meduza and Mediazona and Tubingen University statistician Dmitry Kobak. Analyzing existing reports about published obituaries, mortality data from the Federal State Statistics Service, and extensive records from the National Probate Registry, we estimate that between 40,000 and 55,000 Russian men under the age of 50 died fighting in Ukraine by May 27, 2023. When factoring in the number of men wounded so seriously that they did not return to military service, Russia’s total casualty count rises to at least 125,000 soldiers, based on our calculations. (This figure does not include missing or captured soldiers or Ukrainian nationals fighting with Russian proxy forces based in Donetsk and Luhansk.)

In 15 months of fighting (from February 24, 2022, to late May 2023), three times more Russian soldiers died in Ukraine than Soviet troops over 10 years of war in Afghanistan. Nine times more soldiers were killed in Ukraine than in the first Russian-Chechen War between 1994 and 1996. The numbers presented below are remarkable not just because they signify the tens of thousands of men Vladimir Putin has sent to die in a war of aggression but also because the authorities have labored tirelessly to conceal the invasion’s true and growing costs to Russians themselves.

When one adds in the thousands of men who have fled Russia to avoid being drafted into the Czar's war, that is a serious loss of fertile-aged men for a country that is already facing demographic collapse. Immigration could help, but seriously, who, other than North Koreans, would want to immigrate to Russia?

Now, let's shift gears to the aborded Wagner Revolt:

Russian President Vladimir Putin met mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin after the failed Wagner group mutiny last month, the Kremlin says.

Prigozhin, who heads the mercenary group, was among 35 Wagner commanders invited to the meeting in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added.

There have been times in the past where a rebellious commander, like Prigozhin, would have been dragged to Lefortovo Prison for some interrogation under torture, followed by his execution. So the question is whether Putin is seriously weakened that he can't afford the risk of having Prigozhin shot or he is playing a longer game.