Based just on the Wikipedia compilation under “Operational History”, Russia has lost at least 60 (at least 47 destroyed, 12 damaged, 1 captured) of the 196+ built. So a bit over 1/4 losses, assuming all the airframes are actually airworthy (which we know they aren’t, because there isn’t a translation of “periodic maintenance and upkeep” in the Russian language).
Traveling to Moscow to interview a dictator like Putin in the year 2024 is similar to visiting Berlin in 1940 to speak with Adolf Hitler. America wasn’t officially at war with Nazi Germany, but it was possible – some might even say inevitable – given Washington’s diplomatic and military support for Great Britain.
I’m not enthusiastic about this either, and I’m no fan of Tucker Carlson, but I’d add one thing that might be worth keeping in mind.
Charles Lindbergh – a famous American aviator of the time – actually did tour Berlin (well, in 1938, not 1940, but not far off).
In the months before the United States entered World War II, Lindbergh’s non-interventionist stance and statements about Jews and race led some to believe he was a Nazi sympathizer, although Lindbergh never publicly stated support for the Nazis and condemned them several times in both his public speeches and personal diary. However, like many Americans before the attack on Pearl Harbor, he opposed not only the military intervention of the U.S. but also the provision of military supplies to the British.[6] He supported the isolationist America First Committee and resigned from the U.S. Army Air Corps in April 1941 after President Franklin Roosevelt publicly rebuked him for his views.[7] In September 1941, Lindbergh gave a significant address, titled “Speech on Neutrality”, outlining his position and arguments against greater American involvement in the war.[8]
He didn’t meet Hitler, but did dine with and was given a medal by Goering. He supported an America First position, advocated for non-intervention in Europe, and was a prominent advocate, right up until the US was actually attacked by Japan and had war declared on it by Germany and Italy, of not providing aid to European countries at risk. Kind of Carlsonian, honestly.
But there was also a bit more to the story of his time in Germany that the public didn’t know at the time.
SAN FRANCISCO – Charles A. Lindbergh, often branded as a Nazi sympathizer during World War II, gathered intelligence for the United States on four visits to Germany before the war, according to papers of the pre-war U.S. military attache in Berlin.
Smith wrote that before World War II, American military intelligence had no undercover agents in Germany and relied solely on the Berlin attache and his two aides to keep tabs on the rapidly growing German forces.
Because Smith himself was busy assessing Germany’s growing army and its Panzer divisions, he decided to recruit Lindbergh to make an assessment of Luftwaffe. He correctly judged that Goering would be delighted to show the world’s most renowned flier his new toys.
Lindbergh actually made four visits to Germany. At the end of at least two of them he helped Smith write detailed reports for G-2 military intelligence in Washington. These reports described aircraft not shown to any other foreigners and factories and airfields from which all other American, French and English visitors were banned.
Lindbergh was allowed to inspect in detail new and experimental German warplanes such as the Junkers 52 bomber and the Messerschmidt 109 fighter plane, and even allowed to fly some of them, Smith writes. The data supplied by Lindbergh on these aircraft and installations proved to be extremely accurate.
Smith wrote that Lindbergh not only collected important data for U.S. intelligence but made it possible for the American air attache in Berlin, a trained intelligence officer, to visit numerous bases and factories that were otherwise off limits.
I’m not going to say that Carlson is doing something like that, or even that one has to like Lindbergh. But I am going to point out that at the time, a number of people felt very much the same way about Lindbergh that they did about Carlson for rather similar reasons and in a rather similar scenario, and on that occasion, they were making the call with only a partial picture of the situation.
The nature of Russia’s wartime government means that there’s no guarantee that the Central Bank’s figures are completely accurate. Large swathes of data are no longer made public, while government departments have a clear incentive to present a picture rosier than reality.
The article goes on to suggest the "bumper year" was due to Putin dumping a lot of gold into the banks to make numbers go up. "state spending".
Propaganda works. This is straight-up restaurant-quality propaganda with no proof and no way to prove the claim. Are we actually going to believe the russian economy is booming? The fuck? No. Did China slip a few billion in the ol' Putin hat for good measure? Sure, maybe, why not. Are they just straight-up cooking the books for the clicks? Very likely. Booming economy? HAHAha - no.
Isnt he quite popular and threatening Zelenskyy’s control? I’m pro Ukraine but there are internal struggles for power that may disrupt their ability to fight Russia
Only if you believe that having a few percent higher trust raitings in polls (when both are far beyond 80%+) while not actually aiming for a job in politics is somehow threatening...
From Putin's perspective, it's great. It's not like they're needed for their votes, and one of the key indicators of revolution is unemployed young men.
Since that's mostly who dies in endless war, endless war is a great technique for dictators to maintain control long term.
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