00:00:00
Before we start, I have two important messages for you.
One has to do with the updated YT speed-up guidelines.
00:00:08
The waning days of 2024 saw two major tragedies. Dozens
of Azerbaijani and Russian nationals were killed in the Aktau air crash,
00:00:15
while southern Russia was hit with a Black sea oil spill
in one of the largest environmental disasters in Russian history.
00:00:20
I sincerely hope nothing is going to ruin your New Year celebrations
this time, but this wish can’t be really taken to the bank.
00:00:27
Our Dec. 31, 2023, video turned sour
as we mourned the catastrophic loss of life.
00:00:34
The Russian and Ukrainian armed forces exchanged
airstrikes that claimed the lives of dozens
of civilians on both sides of the fence.
00:00:41
We chronicled the life and the tragic death
of Svetlana Gaydukova (Russia) and Viktor Kobzisty (Ukraine).
00:00:47
This time,
as we are going through the holiday season, people keep dying.
00:00:50
!New Year’s Eve Vibe!
00:00:55
In the early hours of Dec. 20, the Russian missiles struck
the cities Kryvyi Rih, Kherson, and, most devastatingly, Kyiv.
00:01:01
The world woke up to the gruesome footage
of the damaged St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church.
00:01:06
Now, Santa is largely based off of the figure of St. Nicholas.
00:01:10
Striking the church just ahead of Christmas may have indeed
been part of the “duel” Putin had dared the West to the day before.
00:01:17
If the Western experts you mentioned think otherwise,
00:01:22
they should suggest to those in the West
and the United States who are paying them for their
analytical services to conduct a certain technological experiment,
00:01:36
a high-tech 21st-century duel.
Let them choose a target in Kiev,
00:01:47
deploy all their air defence and missile defence forces there, and we
will hit that target using an Oreshnik missile. We shall see what happens.
00:01:56
At 11 A.M. Moscow time, Russia’s MoD commented
that the Kyiv attack was a retaliatory strike following
the Ukrainian forces hitting a factory in Rostov-on-Don.
00:02:04
The Russian missiles allegedly targeted
the Kyiv-based Luch design bureau and the air defense systems.
00:02:10
According to the MoD, all of the targets were hit.
Except the Kyiv footage suggested otherwise.
00:02:18
Later that day, the Ukrainians responded with a non-selective
strike on Rylsk, a town of 15,000 in the Kursk Region.
00:02:27
The missiles wrecked the residential property, claiming
the lives of at least six locals, including a child.
00:02:34
You know, when all is calm and life is measured and stable,
we get bored.
00:02:42
This amounts to stagnation, so we crave action.
00:02:46
When action begins, time starts whistling by –
or bullets do, for that matter.
00:02:53
Unfortunately, bullets are what is zipping past our heads these days.
00:02:57
We are scared, yes – but not as 'all get out' kind of scared.
00:03:05
Christmas day saw yet another deadly exchange.
00:03:08
The Russian missiles and drones pounded
Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Kremenchuk.
00:03:13
The Ukrainian army then pummeled Lgov,
another Kursk town, with a massive airstrike.
00:03:21
The war-torn Kursk Region is this year’s Belgorod.
00:03:26
The once-bucolic landscapes with huge
sunflower fields hadn’t seen combat action since 1943.
00:03:34
However, these days, on top of the sunflower seed oil, the Kursk Region
has been a top supplier of chilling and gory news stories.
00:03:41
In a recent video, we talked about the Sudzha social media group.
00:03:47
Once a free announcement hub, it’s turned into a heavily
politicized online community of the Kursk Region residents
00:03:52
that’s technically neither pro-war nor anti-war.
00:03:56
Most of the posters and commenters are the local refugees.
00:04:01
The government has turned its back on them
after some of them had their homes razed
while others were stranded in the Ukrainian-held territory.
00:04:05
The devastated refugees’ stance is simple.
00:04:09
They hate both Ukraine and Russia’s political leadership
along with its sycophantic propaganda mouthpieces.
00:04:17
Like, they are being targeted by both sides.
00:04:21
In November, the Sudzha online community
was instrumental in staging a protest rally in downtown Kursk.
00:04:27
Russia’s media & comms watchdog ended up blocking
the pre-rally “let’s take a stroll” post and fining a refugee who,
they claimed, had masterminded the illegal gathering.
00:04:36
Fellow refugees, however,
were quick to raise the money that covered the fine.
00:04:39
Meanwhile, the anti-Ukrainian publications
were eclipsed by a deluge of Putin-bashing posts.
00:04:45
Lately, the refugee community announced a new rally in Kursk.
00:04:49
The media & comms watchdog then blocked the entire page,
even though it’s still accessible via a VPN.
00:04:56
The latest posts addressed Putin’s “we crave action” comment.
00:05:02
“Are we bored, southern Russia? Putin finally spiced
things up and did so with a smile, didn’t he?
00:05:09
Putin lovers from afar,
go ahead and tell us that we don’t know a thing about politics.
00:05:13
Lecture us on how we’re supposed to love our country.”
00:05:15
The refugees blasted Putin’s end-of-the-year Q&A that mentioned
the Kursk Region and even a partially occupied portion thereof.
00:05:26
Putin talked to a refugee named Tatyana Zibrova,
the resident of a war-stricken county.
00:05:34
It was her fellow residents who joined the November rally in Kursk.
00:05:38
Putin repeatedly told her that
“everything will be restored, there’s no doubt about that.”
00:05:47
In closing, Putin referenced his new appointee,
Acting Governor Alexander Khinshtein.
00:05:52
I genuinely hope that the new head of the region,
who has been appointed to the Kursk Region,
00:05:59
is experienced and capable of effectively working with people.
00:06:05
That is why I chose him, he has a long history of working in the State
Duma and directly with his voters, so he knows how to handle it.
00:06:13
I expect that he will work with every person on an individual basis.
00:06:20
However, the official has already told the Kursk residents
that the government was out of money to cover all the damage.
00:06:27
After all, the government should be investing in arms production.
That’s what he said.
00:06:32
He went on to say that if someone had their steam bath razed,
the government wouldn’t be reimbursing that luxury.
00:06:35
The former long-time MP must be unaware
that outdoors steam baths in a rural area
are anything but a luxurious pastime for the rich officials.
00:06:42
In fact, it’s used by those who can’t afford a shower.
00:06:53
There must be a two-way interaction.
The government can't take charge of all the spending.
00:06:57
We won't be reimbursing your wrecked steam baths.
Not that we don't want to.
00:07:01
But imagine the number of villages, small towns,
schools, hospitals, stores, pharmacies, houses, etc. razed.
00:07:12
Where are we supposed to get all those funds from?
00:07:15
Meanwhile, the special operation is ongoing.
It's about advanced technology.
00:07:18
We need to liberate the region.
Every single round of ammo comes at a price. These are all budget funds.
00:07:26
Propagandist Vladimir Solovyov supported Khinshtein’s remarks
and took it a notch further by berating the locals brazen enough
to confront the governor as “demons and blackmailers.”
00:07:39
Mr. Khinshtein is a great guy. We've known him for years.
00:07:43
He's spending there day and night.
00:07:50
Getting help from the federal government involves
a great deal of responsibility and effort.
00:07:55
But look at these demons
who are now freaking out, eager to bite him.
00:08:01
Those include [slur for Ukrainians] and local blackmailers.
The scheme is as follows. I'll stake my claim,
you give me the money, and I'll walk away.
00:08:08
Jail them all.
00:08:12
Who do they think they are, thse little demons?
00:08:15
The commander-in-charge made his pick and appointed
the highly professional guy to this hardest of all jobs.
00:08:21
So, these little demons are now trying to bargain
their petty things out of him. They’ll be dealt with.
00:08:26
!Real-World Russia!
00:08:31
The Russian leadership being out of touch with reality
was recently blown up by the pro-war blogging community.
00:08:37
According to them, ahead of the annual live-streamed Q&A,
an online AI tool drew up the top 10 most burning questions.
00:08:45
The top five issues included
retirement plans, healthcare, utility bills, and inflation.
00:08:50
But the number one most pressing matter was the special operation’s
endgame and the future of the mobilized recruits.
00:08:56
But quite predictably,
the four-and-a-half-hour presidential call-in talkathon
failed to address the top concern harbored by the Russian people.
00:09:04
It never came up on the big screen,
even though a number of seemingly critical remarks did pop up,
as is evidenced by multiple screenshots available online.
00:09:11
This is typically done to show that the whole event
ostensibly hasn’t been choreographed and scripted.
00:09:18
But the words “mobilization”
and “mobilized recruits” must’ve been filtered out.
00:09:23
It’s soon going to be the third time
many Russians will be greeting the coming year
without their husbands, dads, sons, brothers, or friends.
00:09:32
At times, people may be misled
to believe the mobilized recruits are a non-issue.
00:09:36
Except it has affected at least 300,000 Russians
who were forced onto the battlefield.
00:09:41
They didn’t volunteer to sign a hefty contract.
But the reality is, it’s just faded out of the media spotlight.
00:09:48
After all, it’s nothing new.
00:09:51
For 27 months, the civilians who were lured and trapped
by the draft officers have been dying on the battlefied.
00:10:01
We now know the names of the 10,105 forced recruits killed.
Sadly, it doesn’t sound like a baffling tragedy anymore.
00:10:08
But these guys’ friends and families, millions of Russians, are still out there.
No wonder their plight was picked by the AI tool as the number one issue.
00:10:17
The mobilization-themed questions, including video messages,
poured into the Q&A pool, only to be never brought up.
00:10:23
The Kursk-gate is somehow being handled
by the government and the mainstream media.
00:10:28
According to Putin,
the partially occupied lands aren’t a bug, but a feature.
00:10:33
Like, the Ukrainian troops have been trapped
in a pocket and hemorrhaging entire divisions.
00:10:38
But the good king will sure restore everything
and then some to his subjects.
00:10:42
Putin’s appointee says, “Well, not really.” And then Solovyov
caps it with, “Who do you think you are, you blackmailers?”
00:10:52
But the system can’t handled the mobilization concerns.
00:10:57
No matter how many millions of Russians are being plagued
by these concerns, the government is absolutely ghosting the subject.
00:11:05
Normally, we would’ve agreed with the pro-war bloggers on that.
00:11:09
There’s a gaping chasm between the government and the people.
The Russian government is living on a different planet.
00:11:18
But there’s nothing normal about it.
00:11:20
Every time we clearly see that Putin and his cronies are dwelling
in a whole different part of the Milky Way galaxy, it looks reassuring.
00:11:28
It helps us realize what’s the core and what’s the add-on.
00:11:32
The add-on, or even the malignant growth,
includes the likes of Solovyov and Khinshtein helmed by Putin.
00:11:39
But the Russian people are the real core.
00:11:42
These people couldn’t care less about
the Oreshnik missiles or showdowns with NATO.
00:11:45
Contrary to the official narrative, they don’t “crave action.”
Instead, these people are preoccupied with entirely different issues.
00:11:56
Even though they may not be exactly anti-war,
like, for instance, those Sudzha online community members,
it doesn’t mean they’re pro-government.
00:12:08
In their book, both the Ukrainian troops
and Putin can be seen as adversaries.
00:12:13
It’s important that we find the right words for these fellow Russians.
We may hold different views, but we are in the same boat.
00:12:22
The riders on that boat and the clingy invertebrates
that have infested it have different interests.
00:12:27
The riders want to know where they’re headed,
why their fellow riders go missing, and why the boat is leaking.
00:12:34
The boat isn’t sinking as the riders are scooping out the water.
00:12:39
Many Russians have gron habituated to this scooping routine.
Some are using the buckets. Others are wielding their mugs.
00:12:46
But they’re doing their utmost.
00:12:49
They’re inundating the live Q&A editors with mobilization-related
questions, thus showing that this talkathon really stands for.
00:12:55
Others are staging protest rallies once they sense
the government may shy away from dispersing them.
00:13:01
People are mobilizing their efforts. And this isn’t
the kind of mobilization that sits right with the government.
00:13:05
They take action whenever they feel it’s a safe
and perfectly legal thing to do.
00:13:12
We aren’t talking admirable heroics
of which there are plenty, too.
00:13:16
Most people take action whenever their joint efforts
don’t carry immediate government pushback.
00:13:22
People were waiting in long lines
to sign up for Boris Nadezhdin’s presidential bid.
00:13:28
They didn’t just leave their signatures but took
the bother to go through a ton of paperwork
to show their support for an anti-war candidate.
00:13:36
That was an unforgettable experience compared
to the deserted Putin election campaign booths.
00:13:46
In January, hundreds, if not thousands, of people teamed up to find
a cat kicked off the train by the train attendant in the dead of winter.
00:13:54
The incident could’ve gone down as an act of unthinkable atrocity.
Instead, it came to symbolize people’s unity.
00:13:59
A growing Telegram chat spawned countless volunteers
who were out to do the right thing and “fix” the grim reality.
00:14:07
Journalist Ekaterina Vinokurova came up with an apt summary.
00:14:10
“Twix the cat spurred a grassroots protest of a purely legal format.
00:14:15
Braving the cold temperatures,
thousands joined the search party looking for a missing cat.
00:14:17
Amid the overall powerlessness, if nothing else,
looking for that cat could bring about a happy ending to that story
00:14:26
and see the light at the end of the otherwise dark tunnel.”
00:14:29
The most recent manifestation of a grassroots protest
has been people’s joint action to mount a relief effort
in the aftermath of the Black Sea oil spill.
00:14:36
Stopping the shelling
and people’s pointless deaths, facilitating family reunions,
and ending the war all have no readily available solutions.
00:14:46
On the other hand, tackling an oil spill is simple.
The more oil you’ve bagged, the more efficient the relief effort.
00:14:56
The same goes for the treatment of the oil-affected birds.
It somehow echoes the Twix tragedy.
00:15:02
Taking action to save people is a crime, whereas saving animals isn’t.
People from all over Russia have stepped in to offer help.
00:15:10
A small coterie of individuals is hurting our country
while scores of people are joining forces to mitigate
the ramifications of their harmful activities.
00:15:18
It goes beyond the oil spill disaster. The harmers are jailing people,
while others are sending them letters of support.
00:15:24
The harmers are embroiling entire citie into the war effort,
while others are helping the refugees.
00:15:29
Let me say a few words about our Razmestim charity.
00:15:33
It’s designed to help relocate those
who have found themselves in harm’s way in the war-torn areas.
00:15:38
We’re bringing together the accommodation-seekers
with those willing to provide it for free, lots of people.
00:15:46
We’ve already helped accommodate close to 150 families.
00:15:48
Mind, those are the ones who’ve given us feedback,
a total of several hundred applicants.
00:15:55
You can help this charity
by offering your accommodation options via a Telegram bot.
00:16:01
Alternatively, you can donate so that we can pay
the call center operators who are going through the applications.
00:16:07
If you need help getting accommodated, fell free to ask for that help.
Follow the links in the pinned comment.
00:16:14
There are plenty of good Samaritans out there.
The accommodation offers even outnumber the applications.
00:16:22
Just think about what these good Samaritans are capable
of doing once the relentless boat-salvaging mode is over
00:16:29
and they can finally be productive
and start rebuilding in a peaceful Russia.
00:16:32
That’s going to be the prosperous Russia of the future,
without the irony-laden quotes.
00:16:38
But for now, let’s keep scooping this water out.
Let’s keep trying our hardest.
00:16:41
See you tomorrow!
