As Donald Trump would say: Remember˺ when you cried out to your Lord for help, He answered, “I will reinforce you with a thousand angels—followed by many others.

It seems absurdly optimistic from where I stand from considering:
- Russian attempts to roll back the Ukrainian defensive line may be successful (albeit extremely costly)
- America can still offer a number of presents to the Russian
- Russia can still mobilise

Report: Russia plans major expansion of server shutdowns targeting VPN infrastructure — Meduza VPN service providers are bracing for sweeping blocks targeting hosting infrastructure in Russia, the Telegram channel Kod Durova reported April 20, citing sources.

Russia has shut down VPN servers before, but only sporadically. Officials now reportedly plan to use the tactic at full scale, "cranking it up to the max," making it their main instrument of internet censorship. Even VPN subscriptions paid in advance wouldn't be safe. meduza.io/en/news/2026...

On peut ne plus appeler Bardella que “le petit prince” maintenant?

a man wearing a green hat and holding a sword is looking to the side . ALT: a man wearing a green hat and holding a sword is looking to the side .

Sure sure sure. But…

Sell one to Saudi Arabia for one billion dollars.

Pontiflex

Norwegian Defense Partnership April 19, 2026 YouTube video by Tochnyi

🎙️ Tochnyi Weekly

Norwegian Defense Partnership

▶️ Erlend @edrotning.tochnyi.info
▶️ Joseph @josephthomason.tochnyi.info
▶️ GAU @deaidua.org l
▶️ Stanimir @delfoo.bsky.social
▶️ Colby Badwhar

🕒 20:00 Berlin | 21:00 Kyiv | 15:00 New York

Watch here:
www.youtube.com/live/Z0M_CaQ...

2022 it wasn’t even a byword for authoritarianism or corruption, people just did not give a toss and Russia simply never registered.

More than anything that’s part of the imperialist mindset, they’d rather be love but they’re ok with being hated. But their ego cannot cope with being ignored.

Russians make about the world around them. They think they live rent free in our heads, that Russia is a constant yardstick we compare everything with and that one way or another we all care deeply about them.

Of course, it’s totally false. Russia is almost never part of the conversation, before

Over the past few years I’ve heard French people daydreaming about moving abroad time and again. As destination, they’ve mentioned Dubai,London, New York, Shanghai and even Kyiv. But I have never ever ever heard anyone say they’d like to move to Moscow.

It arches back to one of the giant mistakes

Operation Economic Fury | feat. Miad Maleki and Rich Goldberg YouTube video by FDD

Inflation in Iran is 180%.

www.youtube.com/live/smlHlo9...

🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺

🇮🇱❗️🇺🇦Israel has allowed a Russian ship carrying stolen Ukrainian grain to sail, saying it was “too late” to detain it, - Axios

Saar sent a message to Sybiha, saying ship had already left Haifa and could not be stopped.

Israeli authorities were warned about ship two weeks before it arrived in Haifa.

Y’all, Kevin knows his stuff, you’d probably be well inspired to check out the linked article.

La mise sous cloche d’Internet, ou comment Vladimir Poutine veut couper la Russie du reste du monde Le contrôle de l’information est devenu un enjeu de survie pour le chef du Kremlin. Depuis 2019, il cherche à créer un « RuNet souverain », sous sa mainmise et coupé du monde. La réalisation technique...

Bonjour ! Désolé je ne suis pas souvent sur ce réseau mais le Monde vient de publier une très belle cartographie qui explique tout cela en détail et qui est tirée de mes recherches : www.lemonde.fr/internationa...

New hits on russian oil ports would be very valuable to Ukraine.

Not mentioning electricity connection and sewers.

🎉 The U.S. has reinstated sanctions against Russia now that 30 days have transpired.

French CEO of the country’s largest ciment producer condemn to 6 years in jail for financing a terrorist organisation.

Good! Now do Russia!

Procès Lafarge : un ancien PDG du CAC 40 en prison pour financement du terrorisme Le tribunal de Paris a rendu lundi une décision inédite en condamnant à six ans de prison avec incarcération immédiate l’ancien président du cimentier Lafarge Bruno Lafont, reconnu coupable, avec d’autres, d’avoir financé des groupes djihadistes en Syrie. 

Le tribunal de Paris a rendu lundi une décision inédite en condamnant à six ans de prison avec incarcération immédiate l’ancien président du cimentier Lafarge Bruno Lafont, reconnu coupable, avec d’autres, d’avoir financé des groupes djihadistes en Syrie. 

Par @fabricearfi.bsky.social

Russian Budget Crisis April 12, 2026 YouTube video by Tochnyi

🎙️ Tochnyi Weekly

Russian Budget Crisis

▶️ Erlend @edrotning.tochnyi.info
▶️ Joseph @josephthomason.tochnyi.info
▶️ GAU @deaidua.org l
▶️ Stanimir @delfoo.bsky.social
▶️ Colby Badwhar

🕒 20:00 Berlin | 21:00 Kyiv | 15:00 New York

Watch here:
www.youtube.com/live/1owbsxA...

However…

Well… it is a good day for miracles

How was this man ever elected?

Maybe Trump gets one thing right: American are too deeply unserious to be granted the right to vote?

“The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been”

The book “How China Avoided Shock Therapy” does a pretty good job at showing all the advantages a country can draw from finding non-tax sources of revenue to stimulate growth (eg sale of public lands).

Russia now is doing the contrary: taxing its population to fuel growth-destroying policies.

purchase for an individual, leading to globalisation.

So there is an inverse relationship between the price of a threat and the level of trade integration world-wide.

In the days of Francis Drake, building a pirate ship to raid commerce was relatively cheap resulting in regular breaks of the trade routes. In the 20C even a destroyer was impossible to