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Moral arguments motivate people like me better than political or economic arguments that appeal to practical self-interest. But then again I don't think politically and don't like people who do ( I used to be in a role that exposed me to those kinds of people). If doing something wrong would gain them power, they do it, rationalizing that they can do more good in the long run. Politics is the second oldest profession and doesn't differ much from the first.
"It ended up with a 7 trillion-day instead of a 3-day war" Vlad's ability to pull zingers out of the hat with a straight face is, in my opinion, rather underrated.
As the world is today you can live as a Jew among Christians, in Armenia, in Georgia, in Ukraine, in Western Europe, in the USA. But you cannot live in a majority Muslim society, be it Dagestan, Azerbaidjan, Uzbekistan, Syria, Egypt, Tunesia, Iraq, etc.
@@VladVexlerChat I'd say "tempus fugit" but you philosophy people get all overheated when I speak Latin to you. Great to see you looking brighter today. Lots of love from NYC ❤️💛🌻
Vlad was great in that forum. The format is genius from Jake because he made serious discussion more casual. It lets people speak without being super serious.
Glad I happened across your channel Vlad. The absence of hyperbole in your thought-out and methodical observations are hugely insightful and are very welcome. At such an important and precarious time in our history it’s a refreshing and almost reassuring. Bravo sir.
Prigozhin fell for the Russian trap. If only the upper-upper führer knew about the corruption of his subordinates, the führer would fix things. It's only that Putin had not heard ... so Prigozhin wanted to get Putin's attention. And he got that. A terminal case of attention. Corruption goes all the way from top to bottom.
Prigozhin was a sneak-preview. The entire world held their breath, and the putin state was paralytic. The grievances were genuine, for the population. It's astonishing to me how it ended. You did great on Jake's show also, if you started feeling haggard I didn't notice it.
theres still no nearly viable explanation why prigozhin stopped whilst having such a high success... i think it was staged in order to root out non-loyal military high-graders, and it worked perfectly fine... look what happened in russian military shortly after the end of that "mutiny"... it just got so much steam, putin may was shocked how close to the edge of a real mutiny he was at that time... so his buddy stepped onto the brakes...
@@glidgebidge1029 I reckon he received a phone call from the FSB with his wife and child on the line. Pringles wasn't too smart and didn't I think especially take care to prevent them squeezing his balls.
You're looking fitter and more animated of late - it's great to see. Hope it's a sign that your health is much better and life is on the improve. Keep well - the world needs people like you on air more than it ever has.
I wonder what putin thought when nobody was actually willing to stop Prigozhin. There's no way he could write that off as foreign interference or something. He must realize that this is a feature of the state he built. Does it make him question the idea that he is Russia?
I think the question is "how does a mind that has become so entrenched in a mytho-political narrative about itself as the representative of a great nation respond to disastrous levels of cognitive dissonance?" And i think the answer is going to boil down to some permutation of: denial, projection, displacement, and paranoia.
@@pantalaemon I mean Putin spent like most of 2022 hiding in his room. I'm pretty sure he is fairly well aware how bad things are, and did some kind of processing. At least part of his conclusion seemed to be to double down on his support for Stalin. I guess I'm just kind of wondering what exactly he was wrestling with, and what changed over time. It would probably help if I could understand Russian like Vlad can.
Thank you for another well thought out comment on current Kremlin affairs. You were great on the Jake Broe panel. I think you are on the mark that beyond the moral dimension that supporting Ukraine is the right thing to do, politically it is in the interests of everyone who doesn’t want to live in a brutal dictatorship. And we do need to advertise that more broadly. Thanks Vlad. I do worry when these drop in a good time downunder it must be awfully late for you. Take care. ❤ from Brissie.
I was sorry that you health took a dive on Jake's channel. I thought that the metaphor of the Russian citizen seeing this as if it were business people having a grievance with one another, over some mysterious agreement was an interesting seed of an idea. Best wishes to you Vlad.
Listening to you over the past couple years has really clarified a lot for me and brought me out of this omnipresent expressive political mode (though alas I still don't know how to affect much in the way of bringing others to effective rather than affective politics). Hard to believe a year has passed since the mutiny. Thanks for all you do Vlad.
I noticed you not being at your best in the Jake podcast. All the best to you. Take care and get well. I’m not a philosopher, I’m an engineer working from home listening to Ukraine centric podcasters in the background while working. Sometimes I have to stop and “rewind” when I missed something.
Nobody joined Prigozhin, beyond his men, because the goals of his march were unclear. He also looks(ed) exactly like one imagines a henchman, not a leader. Image matters. Putin doesn't spend all that time culturing his image as a leader for nothing. Seeing so many power players in Russia just stand aside, rather than oppose such a weak challenge must be making Putin extremely paranoid of anyone who can project an image of leadership.
Cultivating his image to look like…..DOBBY the house elf in Harry Potter? That was his choice? Not Brad Pitt…..or…I dunno, there’s gotta be a better choice than Dobby….the dictator.
Thanks Vlad. Great insights as always. Please prioritise your health. Sorry your health limited your activity on other channels but Jake's livestream was fun. I agree the West should be more adult in our politics about Ukraine - just purely moralising without also linking to real objectives and strategy is another example of growing shallowness of some of our national political discussion. Prigo's run showed how fake the Kremlin regime is, like the Wizard of Oz. Details of what happened in the Dagestan region of Oz are not clear yet but it was predictable that the Wizard's war society would lead to instability in some regions of Moscow territory. Moscow conscripts more men from poor regions on the edge of the empire such as Dagestan, so those regions become even more poor and angry plus surviving conscripts or 'volunteers' return with some training and weapons. I recall seeing reports of Dagestani groups in Moscow's army who intimidate recruits and even officers from other regions. So the Kremlin practice of conscripting large numbers from that region is another Moscow masterstroke. Since 2000, Putin destroyed green shoots of normal civil society across the empire, to increase his power. Now Putin chained Moscow to the corpse also known as North Korea. Big mistake, caused by Putin's desperation.
Vlad, I've seen the whole interview with Jake Broe and you actually dominated the chat during the whole time! It was sound and conclusive all the way through for me and the other guests looked as interested as me.
It's wonderful to see you again Vlad, and looking healthy! Sorry you weren't feeling your best during that podcast, and I admit that I missed it. Thank you 💛 Sir and be well 🙏.
Ubiquitous is a great word, especially when used in the correct context. I find you fascinating to listen to, not sure what the story is with your health but having read the other comments I wish you good health. Best regards from Northern Ireland. ☘️
Prigozhin demanded more efficiency and less loyalty from Putin. This is exactly what Putin finally implemented by sacking Shoigu. Less loyalty means more risk for Putin in the next coup on the other side
I watched the jake broe livestream.. I’ve been following both of you guys for a while. I thought you did good.. I was honestly waiting for them to ask you more questions. But you were fine
as for Prigozhin's mutiny, I never got the impression that he was seriously looking to take on the Kremlin or had any interest in overthrowing Putin. It started out as a gigantic middle finger to the elite officers in the Russian military and their underlings (ergo, the massive vitriol directed as Shoigu in particular). In a deranged & twisted sorta way, he managed to make a legit point: the Kremlin really has been using this war to purge Russian society of convicts, so-called criminal elements & other perceived ne'er-do-wells by sending them to the front with the expectation that it'll be a one-way ticket. Many of the guys with the least left to lose at home and most to gain as mercenaries found their way towards Wagner, where Prigozhin offered them a sense of personal investment and belonging that few had felt outside of the occasional functioning prison gang. These ruffians, thieves, and even murderers were still "his boys" and he believed they were being used as cannon fodder & human shields to protect the military academy graduates whose mothers can still complain on VK that their sons' units need better provisions (the only remotely legal/acceptable war-related protest that remains). Prigozhin saw what he believed was willful unfair treatment of "his boys" compared to government-deployed soldiers, and they all got so fed up that they decided to march towards Moscow demanding answers on behalf of their fallen brethren. In a remotely sane society, this level of disagreement would likely be handled via mediated discussion, but remotely sane societies are largely an endangered species now, or so I'm told
I find this perception disagreeable because it's ethnic minorities that have actually been purged in the war. Prisoners are removed from society already. On the contrary they let many convicts go free after serving a while.
You’re never late, dear Vlad. You‘re not a news reporter, after all, you’re a philosopher. Sometimes I’m unable to listen to what you have to say right away, yet that doesn’t make your reflections any less valuable to me. Lots of love from Austria.
Crazy that it's been a whole year... Also weird that the Oceangate implosion feels like it happened several years ago, but the Prizoghin mutiny seems like a couple of months ago.
It makes me wonder if being told that you're threatened is being told that you should identify yourself as a victim - the short cut to be a member of a lynch mob...
We need a little "troika" revisit Vlad! weave in the "myth of mad charging horses raging blindly into the night with no clue as to where they are going" !!
"Moral arguments don't have much friction." Indeed. In the same way that religious observations about radical Islam and its connection to turmoil all over the world - not to mention the Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah-Houthi-Iranian war - are ignored. Yet, this is why political analysis and "solutions" are rarely helpful. So, Vlad, I'm really looking forward to your commentary on the first sentence quoted here. Truly, I am. Because I am puzzled. Being a religious person myself, with much interest in geopolitics, I need clarity on the subject of moral arguments and their absolute role in political conflict. I'm especially curious about this because Putin has enlisted moral argument for "cover" for his expansionist capers, and the den of hypocrites - the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church - has been recruited for the same diabolical and utterly cynical purpose.
Hello Vlad, Thank you for your thoughts on two complicated sets of events a year apart. There is a dilemma for Russians: having a strong state and protecting freedoms. Putin wants the first, but leave little room for the other. The Russian federation was created in 1991 as a compromise between the national aspirations of ethnic Russians and a post-colonial world. Putin is moderate dictator who like Napoleon takes elections very seriously. However, both used them for legitimacy. My problem is that Putin has lost his moral compass and most importantly has lost the will to balance the ideals of the Federation. However, very few politicians in Russia have either the auctoritas or the ability to provide a reasonable political program. There are three in Putin's security council and three in the Douma. Of these six, only one has the support of the army. Russia has a complex and uncertain future.
Wow! Devastating analysis. I was particularly impressed with the year on autopsy of Pregoshin’s rebellion and the deconstruction of the Russian multicultural mythology.
With the history of the church in Russia and the body bags flowing home, it is easy to see the church as a symbol of the state. The synagogue, on the other hand, is a different xenophobic message, altogether. Great job, as usual., Vlad. Cheers from Vermont, USA.
That does help, Vlad. You've at least given me a starting point for thinking about why those murders and fires seemed to come out of the blue. So, two different religious communities - some prominent victims - and now you mention Putin's drafting of men of Dagestan for his war.
Let us imagine the beauty of a world, with no murders for political ends, no torture for political ideology, and no need to swaddle its evil, in blankets of multi-layered lies.
Love your analysis as always! Thank you so much. I would love to know if there are connections from Dagestan to the Kadyrow stuff proect talked about a few days ago. Did you already talk about Chechenia and its ties to Kremlin?
We're all here, listening to Vlad Vexler, while he laughs at the rings of Saturn, like he can actually bring some valuable analysis, when in fact we should be digging into Nostradamus' Prophecies to understand whatever might happen in Russia on any given day.😂😛😏🙃😉 [/joke] ••• Vlad, both sections of this exposé were superb. Thank you, as always, for sharing your analyses. ❤
Hey vlad One little request i got. Even with all my volume controlls turned to max im consistantly having troubble hearing you propperly. Do you think it would be possible to slightly boost the base volume of your vids in the future?
During the Prigozhin mutiny you made a point that it raised the question for the Russian population (and elite) of "if not Putin then who?" Is this still relevant? PS. Typo in the title of your video on Prigozhin's name
Reflecting on Prigozhin and his rebellion. A year later what did he achieve other than being lightly toasted by the Devil in Hell (don't worry old Nick has plenty of time)? Well Shoigu has gone. But I still do not understand why he started his "long march" or why he stopped knowing full well the concequences? Putler must still be having nightmares about it. What a pity!
I welcome this review • never understood why Prigozhin's personal barbarity is never mentioned though. I did consider he began to show some morality for his side and team, even if it looked political. He was a natural actor. Apolitical - a mercenary recognising that he had nothing to lose, what goes around comes around. •Too many essential issues are massive storks in Russia. Dagestan goes rogue but it's the Jews who receive the butt, meanwhile the system completely ransacks them.
I agree with Vlad Vexler on the “moral outrage” being the weakest link. This seems the time for pragmatists, politically. Peter the Great wouldn’t have been afraid to get his hands dirty, but putin, being the chosen child, lives in a bubble, keeps his hands clean. His clones do outreach.
Thank you. Appreciate that assessment. Who will be the next to try?.or will it only be after the death of Putin and his Russia Monarchs 1800s era dreams of trying to honour pass history Powers!
Just as well the rebellion failed. Can imagine what would have happened if they seized Moscow. Putin and Wagner don't care about casualties, would have been another Mariupol... Nice seeing you on Jake Bro,s channel.
