Latest / Combat Veteran News / Putin’s FAKE Opposition Party TURNS on Him!!

Transcript

Putin’s FAKE Opposition Party TURNS on Him!! · Combat Veteran News

• 0:00
  You play stupid games,
• 0:01
  you get stupid prizes.
• 0:02
  This could be the
• 0:03
  motto of almost
• 0:04
  any con artist. But
• 0:06
  whether
• 0:07
  you run a perfectly
• 0:08
  legal
• 0:09
  cryptocurrency
• 0:10
  exchange or a perfectly
• 0:11
  legal electoral
• 0:12
  democracy, you
• 0:13
  eventually
• 0:14
  realize that the
• 0:15
  money-making machine will
• 0:16
  eventually turn
• 0:17
  against you. This seems to be exactly what is
• 0:23
  happening to
• 0:24
  Vladimir Putin
• 0:25
  after his latest
• 0:26
  “electoral
• 0:27
  victory,” as we
• 0:28
  are beginning to see
• 0:29
  signs that the
• 0:30
  fake election
• 0:31
  theater is starting to take on a
• 0:32
  life of its own. It seems that it's
• 0:38
  not just AI models that
• 0:39
  are getting out of
• 0:40
  control. See for
• 0:42
  yourself. It would seem that in a
• 0:44
  functioning
• 0:44
  electoral democracy,
• 0:46
  this would hardly be
• 0:47
  news. Dozens
• 0:48
  detained at a
• 0:49
  sanctioned
• 0:51
  Communist Party rally
• 0:52
  after chants of "Down with the
• 0:53
  Tsar." Now it
• 0:54
  seems like a
• 0:55
  completely routine
• 0:56
  matter. A political
• 0:57
  party holds a
• 0:59
  rally, it
• 0:59
  turns into a
• 1:00
  riot, and the authorities are
• 1:01
  forced to intervene
• 1:03
  and arrest the
• 1:04
  participants. Nothing
• 1:06
  special, right? But
• 1:08
  no. Because this is
• 1:10
  happening in Russia,
• 1:11
  and this is where the
• 1:12
  madness begins. So,
• 1:14
  let's remove a few layers.
• 1:15
  The first one: you
• 1:16
  can say,
• 1:17
  like, the Communist
• 1:19
  Party, I thought it was
• 1:20
  one of
• 1:21
  Putin's main puppets
• 1:22
  that is allowed to
• 1:23
  exist in the State
• 1:24
  Duma, and you would be
• 1:25
  absolutely right. The
• 1:27
  Communist Party
• 1:28
  is not a real
• 1:29
  opposition in Russia.
• 1:31
  In fact, she
• 1:32
  agrees with the
• 1:33
  Kremlin's position on
• 1:34
  every
• 1:35
  foreign policy
• 1:36
  and economic issue. In fact,
• 1:40
  it exists mainly to
• 1:41
  collect
• 1:43
  the votes of elderly Russians
• 1:44
  who fondly
• 1:45
  remember the days of the CPSU and
• 1:46
  believe that this time,
• 1:48
  by voting for the
• 1:49
  Communist Party,
• 1:50
  they will bring back the
• 1:51
  good old days. But,
• 1:57
  of course, the Communist
• 1:58
  Party is almost
• 1:59
  entirely made up
• 2:00
  of people personally
• 2:01
  selected by
• 2:02
  Vladimir Putin,
• 2:03
  and they have a minority of
• 2:04
  seats in the State
• 2:05
  Duma. But it is convenient that
• 2:08
  when Putin
• 2:08
  needs to pass
• 2:09
  any policy, the
• 2:10
  Communist Party
• 2:12
  always votes
• 2:13
  completely in unison with
• 2:15
  Putin's main party, United
• 2:15
  Russia. So again
• 2:18
  , these guys are a
• 2:19
  controlled
• 2:20
  opposition. This is precisely
• 2:22
  their role in the system.
• 2:26
  Therefore, it is very unusual,
• 2:27
  extremely unusual
• 2:28
  , for the system's own fictitious
• 2:30
  opposition
• 2:31
  to face
• 2:31
  real arrests.
• 2:35
  And this is actually
• 2:35
  madness. So, on
• 2:37
  October 4, Moscow
• 2:38
  police detained
• 2:39
  about 60 people at a
• 2:43
  Communist Party rally that was fully authorized by the authorities
• 2:44
  . This happened after
• 2:45
  the participants
• 2:46
  began shouting
• 2:47
  anti-Kremlin
• 2:48
  slogans. According to the
• 2:49
  Communist Party itself
• 2:51
  and one of the
• 2:51
  few
• 2:52
  human rights groups
• 2:53
  still allowed to
• 2:54
  exist in Russia.
• 2:55
  The rally was now ostensibly
• 2:56
  dedicated to
• 2:56
  the anniversary of the
• 2:58
  1993 constitutional crisis in Russia, when a
• 2:59
  standoff between
• 3:00
  Boris Yeltsin and
• 3:01
  hardline
• 3:01
  lawmakers
• 3:02
  ended with the
• 3:03
  military shelling the
• 3:04
  parliament building in
• 3:05
  Moscow. And many
• 3:07
  believe that
• 3:08
  hundreds of people died in that confrontation. The
• 3:11
  Communist Party
• 3:12
  organized the
• 3:13
  event as a symbol of resistance to
• 3:14
  Yeltsin-
• 3:16
  era reforms, which they
• 3:17
  believe have largely
• 3:18
  destroyed trust in the
• 3:19
  ruling
• 3:20
  establishment. This is
• 3:22
  nothing extraordinary
• 3:23
  . This is an annual rally
• 3:24
  that once again
• 3:25
  marks an important
• 3:26
  moment in Russian
• 3:27
  history. Which
• 3:28
  Vladimir Putin
• 3:29
  actually
• 3:30
  agrees with. Isn't that right
• 3:31
  ?
• 3:32
  Vladimir Putin's official position
• 3:33
  was that
• 3:35
  his new Russia
• 3:36
  had corrected the old,
• 3:37
  corrupt Russia of the 1990s
• 3:38
  , which was a
• 3:40
  nascent democracy
• 3:41
  . And Vladimir Putin
• 3:43
  fixed that by becoming a
• 3:44
  dictator. So this
• 3:47
  event is something that
• 3:48
  Vladimir Putin
• 3:49
  is happy to see
• 3:50
  carried out by the
• 3:50
  controlled
• 3:51
  opposition. But things
• 3:54
  started to take a
• 3:55
  strange turn, as
• 3:56
  participants began
• 3:57
  chanting what we
• 3:59
  will generously call
• 3:59
  unauthorized
• 4:01
  slogans, including
• 4:02
  the quote "freedom for
• 4:03
  political prisoners," "for
• 4:04
  fair elections," and "
• 4:05
  down with the tsar." An independent
• 4:12
  monitoring agency
• 4:12
  reports that
• 4:13
  participants also
• 4:14
  said: “Quote: no to
• 4:15
  political repression
• 4:17
  and literally no more
• 4:18
  Roskomnadzor,” and “
• 4:19
  Roskomnadzor” is
• 4:20
  wild, because it is a state
• 4:21
  censorship body,
• 4:23
  right? We talked about how
• 4:28
  most
• 4:29
  Western social
• 4:30
  networks are now
• 4:31
  banned in Russia:
• 4:32
  YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp,
• 4:34
  even apps
• 4:35
  like Signal and Telegram that
• 4:37
  offer anonymous
• 4:38
  communication. They are all
• 4:40
  prohibited. Right now,
• 4:44
  there are only
• 4:44
  Russian-approved
• 4:45
  VK clones and, of course, a
• 4:47
  Kremlin-developed
• 4:48
  messenger, and it's obvious
• 4:49
  that Roskomnadzor is doing all of this
• 4:50
  , so
• 4:51
  seeing the
• 4:52
  Communist Party
• 4:53
  protesting against
• 4:54
  state censorship
• 4:56
  is something. I know that those
• 5:01
  of us who have access
• 5:03
  to a free
• 5:03
  society, whose
• 5:05
  education system is not
• 5:06
  overloaded with
• 5:07
  propaganda, will of course
• 5:08
  see the irony here.
• 5:11
  But remember, these are
• 5:12
  Russian boomers -
• 5:13
  nostalgic. It's kind of like the
• 5:14
  Russian
• 5:16
  version of MAGA. But these
• 5:18
  guys also
• 5:19
  chanted "down with
• 5:20
  the party of crooks and
• 5:21
  thieves." To give you
• 5:24
  an idea, it's like suddenly chanting started at a
• 5:25
  Donald Trump rally
• 5:27
  . that,
• 5:29
  you know,
• 5:31
  Epstein's clients—in prison,
• 5:32
  right? This is a party that
• 5:37
  should be staunchly
• 5:38
  loyal to the government,
• 5:39
  suddenly severing
• 5:40
  ties with its
• 5:41
  politically approved
• 5:43
  leadership. And it's
• 5:49
  not a shock to watch this when
• 5:50
  Russian
• 5:52
  opposition figures say it. The shock is that
• 5:53
  it wasn't
• 5:54
  planned. This was a
• 5:57
  sanctioned event
• 5:58
  , and as the rally
• 5:59
  ended, the
• 6:00
  participants switched to
• 6:01
  outright
• 6:02
  anti-Kremlin
• 6:03
  slogans. You have to
• 6:07
  remember that in Russia, a
• 6:10
  real
• 6:10
  opposition party is allowed to exist
• 6:12
  as long as it doesn't advocate
• 6:13
  for any real
• 6:14
  popular positions—
• 6:15
  a kind of punching
• 6:17
  bag. This "
• 6:18
  pear" party is called "
• 6:20
  Apple". This would be the case
• 6:24
  if a
• 6:26
  far-left party,
• 6:27
  such as a
• 6:28
  social
• 6:29
  justice party with
• 6:30
  bizarre
• 6:31
  policies, were allowed to exist in America. Um, and these
• 6:37
  guys exist
• 6:38
  simply as punching
• 6:40
  bags to prove
• 6:41
  how pointless the
• 6:42
  opposition is. But even
• 6:45
  this "toy"
• 6:46
  opposition party,
• 6:47
  Yabluko, was not allowed
• 6:48
  to participate in the elections, and
• 6:50
  its leaders were thrown into
• 6:51
  prison. And as part of
• 6:53
  that, of course, you
• 6:54
  can put
• 6:55
  the leaders behind bars. You
• 6:57
  can stop
• 6:58
  people from voting for a
• 6:59
  party, but you
• 7:00
  can't actually
• 7:01
  stop its
• 7:02
  popularity. You
• 7:03
  cannot change
• 7:04
  people's hearts and minds. And
• 7:05
  it seems there were a lot of
• 7:10
  people who just
• 7:11
  ended up at the
• 7:12
  Communist Party rally
• 7:13
  because they had nowhere else to
• 7:15
  go. In fact, of the
• 7:16
  60 arrested,
• 7:17
  about 26 were
• 7:18
  actual members of the
• 7:20
  Communist Party
• 7:21
  , and another 30 were
• 7:22
  supporters of
• 7:23
  Yabluk. And there were other
• 7:25
  activists who did
• 7:26
  not
• 7:27
  participate in the electoral
• 7:28
  system at all. And this is another
• 7:34
  alarming signal, because what
• 7:35
  we see is
• 7:36
  again a fake
• 7:37
  opposition party
• 7:38
  uniting, almost
• 7:40
  person by person, with a
• 7:41
  real but
• 7:42
  emasculated
• 7:43
  opposition party
• 7:44
  and a group of
• 7:45
  apolitical Russians
• 7:46
  united by a few
• 7:47
  simple slogans that
• 7:49
  really resonate,
• 7:50
  again, with the idea
• 7:51
  that Putin is leading the country
• 7:53
  to a corrupt
• 7:54
  catastrophe. fair
• 8:00
  elections, a feeling
• 8:01
  among these people that there is
• 8:03
  something so obvious
• 8:04
  that even a
• 8:05
  state-approved political
• 8:06
  party is not part of
• 8:07
  free elections.
• 8:11
  Again, this would be
• 8:13
  like a MAGA rally, you
• 8:14
  know, where they say, "
• 8:16
  Down with the Save Act" or "The
• 8:17
  2020 election was
• 8:19
  fair," right? These are ideas
• 8:24
  that are radioactive
• 8:25
  within the political
• 8:26
  thinking of such a
• 8:27
  party. Freedom for
• 8:29
  political prisoners,
• 8:30
  no political
• 8:30
  repression. I
• 8:31
  mean, "Down with Rose
• 8:32
  Commodore" is about as
• 8:33
  radical
• 8:34
  as we can
• 8:35
  get, right? Because some
• 8:36
  of them, Some of them—they're
• 8:39
  uplifting things
• 8:40
  where you
• 8:41
  can say something like,
• 8:42
  "
• 8:43
  Arrest the
• 8:44
  Epstein pedophiles."
• 8:47
  If this were shouted
• 8:48
  at a MAGA rally, you would
• 8:50
  say, "Yeah, that's
• 8:51
  pretty embarrassing,"
• 8:52
  considering that there are
• 8:53
  many
• 8:54
  Epstein clients in the administration, like
• 8:56
  Howard Latnick, or the
• 8:57
  president himself, but you
• 8:58
  could still
• 8:59
  just nod and
• 9:00
  agree. We all
• 9:02
  want
• 9:03
  justice for
• 9:04
  these victims, right?
• 9:05
  We all know that
• 9:06
  old song: "we
• 9:07
  will find the guilty." But
• 9:09
  when you directly
• 9:09
  shout "Down with
• 9:10
  Roskomnadzor," it's like
• 9:13
  demanding "Abolish
• 9:15
  ICE" at a Trump rally. It's so
• 9:17
  obvious. This
• 9:19
  cannot be
• 9:19
  twisted or
• 9:21
  misinterpreted, right?
• 9:22
  You can, of course,
• 9:23
  say: "I
• 9:24
  meant political
• 9:25
  repression, because the evil
• 9:26
  Ukrainian drones are
• 9:27
  politically repressing
• 9:28
  me." But then again
• 9:30
  , the fact that
• 9:31
  people are calling
• 9:32
  the state censorship
• 9:33
  agency by name and
• 9:35
  saying “no, no, no, we
• 9:36
  hate this particular
• 9:37
  agency” is an
• 9:38
  incredible turnaround
• 9:39
  . And this, in my opinion, is a
• 9:45
  sign that
• 9:46
  Vladimir Putin
• 9:47
  is losing control of the
• 9:49
  electoral system,
• 9:50
  or, if you like, that it is
• 9:51
  becoming increasingly
• 9:52
  difficult for him to maintain
• 9:53
  his version of
• 9:54
  reality in Russia.
• 10:01
  The reality in which
• 10:02
  Russia is winning, fighting
• 10:04
  NATO, Ukrainians are
• 10:05
  corrupt evil
• 10:06
  Nazis, and the people of
• 10:07
  Ukraine are begging for “
• 10:08
  Russian liberation
• 10:10
  ” is an obvious farce.
• 10:15
  Of course, you can
• 10:16
  maintain this
• 10:17
  lie for a year or two, or,
• 10:18
  as we see, even
• 10:19
  three, if you block
• 10:21
  enough social media.
• 10:22
  But at some point,
• 10:23
  the Russians will have to
• 10:24
  face
• 10:25
  reality. When they
• 10:29
  look around and
• 10:30
  see the
• 10:31
  unemployment crisis in Russia,
• 10:32
  rising prices, and
• 10:33
  cuts in spending
• 10:35
  on infrastructure and
• 10:36
  public services,
• 10:37
  they are forced to
• 10:38
  conclude that there is
• 10:39
  simply no other way.
• 10:45
  This is a consequence of
• 10:45
  government corruption
• 10:47
  . And what I also want
• 10:51
  to note: if you
• 10:52
  were in Putin's shoes,
• 10:53
  you would feel like you were
• 10:54
  backed into a corner. Here is
• 10:56
  another great example.
• 10:57
  Russian billionaires
• 10:59
  "voluntarily"
• 10:59
  agreed to
• 11:00
  finance the
• 11:01
  state budget
• 11:01
  after meeting with
• 11:02
  Putin behind
• 11:03
  closed doors.
• 11:04
  According to Reuters,
• 11:07
  Russia's richest citizens financed
• 11:08
  about 1% of
• 11:09
  Moscow's state budget in 2026, "
• 11:11
  voluntarily"
• 11:12
  donating
• 11:13
  hundreds of billions of
• 11:14
  rubles to the government. According to
• 11:16
  state budget documentation.
• 11:17
  These donations came
• 11:18
  after a closed-door
• 11:19
  meeting with
• 11:19
  Vladimir Putin
• 11:20
  in March. wealthy
• 11:21
  Russians. Now
• 11:25
  remember, this is on top of the fact
• 11:27
  that
• 11:28
  a large number of
• 11:29
  Russian
• 11:29
  billionaires
• 11:30
  have been imprisoned and their
• 11:31
  assets confiscated by
• 11:33
  the Russian state,
• 11:34
  saying, "Listen,
• 11:35
  in particular, just
• 11:36
  recently we saw a
• 11:37
  grocery store chain
• 11:39
  owned by a billionaire
• 11:40
  — maybe a Russian
• 11:42
  equivalent, not exactly Walmart
• 11:43
  , right?" But the government
• 11:48
  confiscates it. And the government
• 11:51
  says: "Now Walmart is ours,
• 11:52
  and the profits and
• 11:54
  asset value will go to
• 11:55
  plug the holes in the
• 11:56
  state budget."
• 11:58
  So you can see
• 11:59
  that many of these
• 12:00
  billionaires seem to
• 12:02
  have made a deal. This is one
• 12:03
  of the things we
• 12:04
  discussed: that
• 12:06
  these forced seizures are happening more often,
• 12:07
  and often preceded by
• 12:09
  the arrest of the
• 12:10
  billionaire owner on
• 12:10
  dubious
• 12:11
  charges of
• 12:12
  working for a foreign
• 12:13
  agent. They are thrown in
• 12:15
  jail, and then a
• 12:16
  judge almost instantly
• 12:17
  orders
• 12:18
  their assets confiscated. And many
• 12:21
  Russian
• 12:22
  billionaires, as we
• 12:23
  said, will look
• 12:24
  around and say: "
• 12:25
  Listen, I will lose my
• 12:27
  freedom, probably my
• 12:28
  life, and definitely my fortune
• 12:29
  ." In any case, I
• 12:32
  could go all in and
• 12:33
  try to influence the
• 12:35
  Russian government,
• 12:36
  try to remove
• 12:37
  Putin. This was a kind of
• 12:39
  incentive that
• 12:40
  Putin created. And
• 12:42
  it seems that after this
• 12:43
  closed meeting,
• 12:44
  the billionaires
• 12:45
  were simply offered a chance to
• 12:46
  pay off their debts to
• 12:47
  avoid confiscation of
• 12:49
  their fortunes. And
• 12:51
  again, they were
• 12:52
  forced to pay
• 12:53
  about $5 billion
• 12:55
  into the state budget
• 12:57
  in 2026. And while this is
• 13:00
  presented as
• 13:01
  voluntary
• 13:01
  income, if we
• 13:03
  in the United States
• 13:04
  know anything, it's that
• 13:06
  there is no billionaire on the planet
• 13:07
  who would voluntarily
• 13:08
  give away their fortune,
• 13:09
  except for MacKenzie
• 13:10
  Bezos, but not during their lifetime
• 13:12
  . And this is a
• 13:14
  bargaining chip for Vladimir
• 13:16
  Putin. But seeing something like this
• 13:21
  is truly
• 13:23
  crazy, right? According to
• 13:26
  the Kremlin, one of the
• 13:26
  participants
• 13:27
  voluntarily
• 13:27
  offered
• 13:28
  to donate a
• 13:29
  very large sum of
• 13:30
  money to the government, arguing
• 13:31
  that wealthy Russians,
• 13:31
  who have amassed vast
• 13:32
  fortunes since the 1990s through
• 13:33
  ties to the state, are
• 13:34
  now obligated
• 13:35
  to support the budget.
• 13:36
  Putin agreed. It
• 13:37
  was their way of
• 13:38
  saying, "Listen,
• 13:40
  listen, don't
• 13:40
  confiscate everything
• 13:42
  I have, please." "
• 13:43
  Instead, let me
• 13:45
  offer you
• 13:46
  something from what I have.
• 13:47
  " The problem is that,
• 13:50
  as we discussed,
• 13:51
  this amounts to about
• 13:53
  1% of
• 13:54
  Russia's federal budget. this
• 13:55
  doesn't really solve the
• 13:56
  main problem. And
• 13:57
  all these billionaires are
• 13:59
  buying now is
• 14:00
  time. And we see that more and more of
• 14:05
  Vladimir
• 14:06
  Putin's very important support groups are turning away
• 14:07
  from him. And if you
• 14:11
  want to increase the pressure
• 14:12
  on old
• 14:13
  Vladimir Putin,
• 14:14
  especially on the battlefield,
• 14:15
  you can do so
• 14:16
  because we
• 14:17
  partner with Ukraine Aid
• 14:18
  Operations, a
• 14:19
  US-registered
• 14:21
  501c3 charity, which
• 14:22
  means your
• 14:23
  donations are
• 14:24
  tax-deductible. And we are
• 14:25
  helping Ukraine's third
• 14:26
  assault brigade
• 14:27
  get the
• 14:28
  absolutely necessary
• 14:30
  equipment to fight back against
• 14:31
  the Russians. We
• 14:33
  provide them with
• 14:34
  ground-based drones
• 14:36
  that save lives every day
• 14:37
  , performing
• 14:38
  supply and
• 14:39
  casualty evacuation missions
• 14:40
  that would either not have happened
• 14:42
  or would have cost
• 14:43
  Ukrainian soldiers their
• 14:44
  lives. Components
• 14:45
  for heavy
• 14:46
  bomber
• 14:47
  drones, thermal imagers
• 14:48
  and optics, batteries
• 14:49
  for Starlink terminals, and
• 14:50
  much more. Of course
• 14:51
  , for donors who
• 14:52
  donate $200 or
• 14:54
  $350, the units
• 14:55
  promised patches, which is
• 14:57
  really cool. A huge
• 14:58
  thank you to the entire
• 14:59
  international
• 15:00
  community that
• 15:01
  supports you. Matthias
• 15:03
  with 100 crowns. Richard
• 15:05
  donates $10.
• 15:06
  New Zealand, 1000
• 15:08
  euros from Beatrice.
• 15:09
  Steeply. Daryl donates
• 15:11
  $10, $10
• 15:12
  . Ross—$200.
• 15:15
  Again,
• 15:16
  Elizabeth, you see this is
• 15:17
  truly an
• 15:18
  international effort, and
• 15:19
  this is just the public
• 15:20
  part. So if
• 15:23
  you want, check out
• 15:24
  the link in the description, and
• 15:26
  also don't forget
• 15:27
  to subscribe to the channel.
• 15:29
  It's free, and YouTube has been
• 15:31
  regularly
• 15:32
  demonetizing videos
• 15:33
  or unfollowing people lately.
• 15:35
  So I want you to
• 15:39
  understand that Putin
• 15:40
  really must be
• 15:43
  feeling desperate because
• 15:44
  he is running out of
• 15:45
  supporters.
• 15:46
  Remember,
• 15:47
  Russian billionaires
• 15:48
  support him
• 15:50
  because, as they
• 15:50
  admitted in the article,
• 15:51
  it is impossible to become a
• 15:52
  billionaire in Russia
• 15:54
  without some level of
• 15:55
  government support.
• 16:01
  The government has to allow
• 16:02
  you to exist
• 16:03
  because the Russian
• 16:04
  state depends on
• 16:05
  these key
• 16:06
  billionaires in
• 16:07
  important industries, and
• 16:08
  the ability to be a “
• 16:09
  kingmaker” is what
• 16:10
  buys the
• 16:11
  loyalty of the
• 16:11
  Russian government
• 16:12
  from a billionaire.
• 16:17
  For example, let's say
• 16:19
  I had a better
• 16:20
  way to extract
• 16:21
  aluminum. I could
• 16:22
  mine aluminum
• 16:24
  and get 50%
• 16:25
  more aluminum per
• 16:26
  ton, right? And I would be a
• 16:27
  Russian
• 16:28
  inventor. Well,
• 16:30
  I would never be
• 16:31
  allowed to have my
• 16:32
  company displace the
• 16:34
  current aluminum
• 16:35
  industry,
• 16:36
  because the aluminum
• 16:37
  industry is in
• 16:38
  some cases
• 16:39
  actually
• 16:39
  co-owned by the
• 16:40
  Russian state, and
• 16:41
  in others, it receives
• 16:42
  licenses
• 16:43
  directly from the
• 16:44
  Russian government.
• 16:46
  Therefore, it doesn't matter
• 16:48
  how
• 16:48
  effective or
• 16:49
  good I am in a certain
• 16:50
  industry, because if
• 16:51
  I don't have a state
• 16:53
  license, a license to
• 16:54
  operate issued by
• 16:55
  Putin, then I
• 16:56
  can just as easily
• 16:57
  drink myself to death in
• 16:59
  some Russian
• 17:00
  village, because I don't have
• 17:01
  any mechanism
• 17:02
  for real
• 17:03
  competition in the market.
• 17:05
  And these billionaires
• 17:06
  understand this. They
• 17:08
  understand that they can
• 17:09
  run a less
• 17:10
  competitive
• 17:11
  business. Sure, they
• 17:12
  probably make
• 17:13
  money from
• 17:14
  aluminum mining, but not as
• 17:16
  much as a modern,
• 17:17
  efficient
• 17:17
  enterprise
• 17:18
  operating in a
• 17:19
  free market. And
• 17:22
  as long as they are allowed,
• 17:23
  as long as they are actually
• 17:24
  issued monopoly
• 17:25
  licenses or
• 17:26
  variations thereof, Russian
• 17:28
  billionaires
• 17:28
  will remain
• 17:29
  loyal. But
• 17:33
  the problem is that
• 17:34
  their loyalty
• 17:35
  is bought. And if the money
• 17:37
  starts flowing in the
• 17:38
  wrong
• 17:39
  direction, that is, not
• 17:40
  from the state to
• 17:41
  the billionaire, but vice versa
• 17:42
  - from the billionaire to the
• 17:43
  state. They probably
• 17:45
  won't tolerate this for long
• 17:46
  . Then
• 17:48
  Russia also loses,
• 17:49
  or Putin loses,
• 17:50
  another key group of
• 17:51
  voters—baby
• 17:52
  boomers, older
• 17:53
  Russians who
• 17:54
  support
• 17:55
  the Communist Party,
• 17:56
  and these people are some of
• 17:58
  Putin's most loyal supporters.
• 18:00
  They are the
• 18:00
  most devoted
• 18:01
  consumers of
• 18:02
  propaganda. They
• 18:03
  deeply support
• 18:05
  Putin. And they don't
• 18:10
  just support
• 18:11
  him, they are
• 18:12
  strangely financially
• 18:13
  dependent on Putin,
• 18:14
  as they receive
• 18:15
  small state
• 18:16
  pensions that often
• 18:17
  save them from
• 18:18
  starvation, and
• 18:19
  they know that this
• 18:20
  money comes
• 18:21
  directly from the
• 18:22
  government, so they are very
• 18:24
  loyal to Putin
• 18:25
  because of that. The problem is that
• 18:30
  they
• 18:31
  find themselves facing the
• 18:33
  same threat as
• 18:33
  the billionaires, as
• 18:34
  the latest
• 18:35
  Russian government budget
• 18:36
  includes massive
• 18:38
  cuts to...you know,
• 18:41
  social programs.
• 18:45
  So, many of these
• 18:47
  boomers, who
• 18:47
  support the
• 18:48
  Communist Party,
• 18:49
  Putin's proxy force,
• 18:50
  depend on
• 18:51
  Russian state
• 18:52
  subsidies for various
• 18:53
  needs, including
• 18:55
  direct cash
• 18:55
  payments. And due to a
• 19:03
  growing budget deficit and an
• 19:03
  increasing share of
• 19:05
  defense spending in the
• 19:06
  Russian budget,
• 19:07
  Moscow is cutting
• 19:08
  civilian spending and
• 19:09
  planning another
• 19:10
  tax increase.
• 19:11
  So if you live on the
• 19:13
  Russian equivalent of
• 19:14
  social
• 19:14
  security,
• 19:16
  taxes will increase,
• 19:17
  prices will go up,
• 19:18
  benefits will decrease,
• 19:19
  healthcare spending
• 19:20
  will decrease
• 19:21
  by 5.5%, and education spending by
• 19:23
  5.5%. Social
• 19:24
  programs that
• 19:24
  support poor
• 19:25
  Russian boomers
• 19:27
  are being cut by 6%.
• 19:28
  So these are huge
• 19:29
  cuts, guys. And
• 19:34
  this increasingly
• 19:34
  leaves Putin with fewer and fewer
• 19:36
  real
• 19:37
  allies within the
• 19:38
  Russian government. And
• 19:41
  when you also see
• 19:42
  that outside of Europe,
• 19:43
  things have not gone quite as
• 19:46
  Putin had hoped. Germany is
• 19:47
  again allocating
• 19:49
  $1.5 billion in
• 19:50
  aid to Ukraine for
• 19:51
  interceptor drones
• 19:52
  and critically
• 19:53
  needed
• 19:55
  air defense missiles. You can
• 19:56
  understand why
• 19:57
  Russian government
• 19:58
  bonds, that is, the
• 19:59
  deficit spending that
• 20:00
  Russia is doing,
• 20:02
  have gotten out of control
• 20:03
  . You see,
• 20:07
  Russia's short-term efforts to control
• 20:08
  interest rates,
• 20:10
  when they jumped
• 20:11
  to 16.8%,
• 20:12
  failed, and now
• 20:14
  rates are even higher
• 20:15
  than when it
• 20:16
  was considered critically
• 20:18
  important and Russia
• 20:19
  had to cancel
• 20:20
  bond sales. These are
• 20:24
  real crises for the
• 20:25
  Russian state. And
• 20:27
  you see that
• 20:28
  Vladimir
• 20:30
  Putin's only strategy at this point
• 20:31
  is to become even
• 20:32
  crazier,
• 20:33
  to become even more
• 20:34
  belligerent. Russia,
• 20:36
  of course, Vladimir
• 20:37
  Putin directly said
• 20:38
  that we are going to
• 20:39
  blow up the Ukrainian
• 20:40
  capital, guys. And
• 20:43
  if you don't want
• 20:44
  your diplomats to
• 20:45
  get hurt, you
• 20:46
  better
• 20:47
  leave immediately. This is a serious
• 20:49
  threat—to threaten
• 20:50
  diplomatic
• 20:51
  personnel, saying, “
• 20:52
  Listen, you have
• 20:53
  embassies in Kyiv,
• 20:54
  but we’re going to
• 20:55
  bomb them, so don’t
• 20:56
  go there.” This is a
• 20:57
  huge breach of
• 20:59
  diplomatic
• 21:00
  protocol if he
• 21:01
  does this. And
• 21:03
  just trying to
• 21:04
  displace other
• 21:05
  embassies,
• 21:06
  embassies of other
• 21:07
  governments—I don't even
• 21:08
  know what else to say.
• 21:09
  This is considered a
• 21:10
  massive, simply
• 21:11
  huge
• 21:12
  diplomatic
• 21:13
  failure. And this
• 21:17
  shows once again that Putin is not a
• 21:18
  legitimate actor in the
• 21:19
  community of nations. He is
• 21:24
  becoming an increasingly
• 21:25
  unbalanced,
• 21:26
  marginal figure
• 21:28
  who does not have many
• 21:29
  supporters
• 21:30
  inside Russia, and
• 21:31
  even fewer outside it.
• 21:33
  Anyway,
• 21:34
  guys, thanks to John,
• 21:35
  Kevin, Michael, Rob,
• 21:36
  Thomas, William, Al,
• 21:37
  and all the
• 21:38
  lieutenant supporters
• 21:39
  at combatvetnews.com. We
• 21:41
  really appreciate you
• 21:42
  guys and see you
• 21:43
  in the next video.
• 21:44
  See you later.