I see that God Emperor Trump made that phone call he promised ... just sooner than expected. All hail, God Emperor Trump.
(ok, finished 3rd, but yeah I'd say winning. Singlehandedly beating Russia's medal count (0 ) Honestly @glynch - what kind of messed up MAGA/Putin freakshow takes to the internets to brag right after Russia's month of deliberately blowing up children's hospitals to on the way to reclaiming the occasional burned out village on day 900+ of its 3 day war? Other than Trump/Vance, I'm hard pressed to figure out what kind of person does this. Get a life sicko.
Good news. The grim reality is no western citzens should ever visit Russia again, as long as it's under Putin control. Putin will continue to capture western citizens to get what he wants. The Kremlin Gets What It Wants - The Atlantic The release of journalists and dissidents is good news—but the grubby reality is that the Russians have engaged in successful hostage-taking. By Tom Nichols When the media call such deals “prisoner exchanges,” they are being accurate, but the term creates a veneer of equivalence: We have prisoners, they have prisoners, everyone makes deals. The fact that the West is holding Russian murderers and spies and Russia is holding Western journalists and basketball players is lost in the cold details of trading living human beings as if they weare heads of cattle or loads of lumber. Democracies care about the lives of their citizens and should do everything they can to bring innocent men and women back to their families. But the ugly reality is that when the Kremlin springs someone like Krasikov, Putin is telling Russian agents and hired hit men everywhere that they should do their duty with full confidence that Russia will save them from the consequences of their crimes. Deals like this take weeks, months, even years to negotiate, and no one should try to tie this deal too closely to American politics. The Russians, despite their constant attempts to interfere with U.S. elections, don’t operate on the same timetable as the Republicans or the Democrats. They don’t much care if the deal will be spun as a win for President Joe Biden or whether it undermines Donald Trump’s claims that only he could have freed Gershkovich. To the Kremlin, all of this is just noise; if anything, it probably decided to pick the fruit of a deal when it was ripe rather than wait for a new administration of either party. Americans and their friends in Europe, including among the Russian opposition, have every reason to celebrate today’s releases. But make no mistake: The Kremlin is getting what it wants. And any Westerners who set foot in Russia should always understand that they could be the next bargaining chips for some future deal.
No American should be stepping foot inside Russia unless on state business and if they do, we should not rescue them. We are giving up real Russian state assets for thoughtless, ignorant, selfish or otherwise reckless/foolish Americans.
@glynch can visit, he has been a faithful pro Putin poster here for years - and if there's anything Putin can be called it's a good host. Ask Ed Snowden. Just stay away from open windows.
The neocons i.e. the war lovers who control or foreign policy are central in both parties. Aside from MAGA idiotic followers and a some of the gutless GOP politicians who still slobber over the soon to be departed Trump, the controlling Repugs are as big of military industrialist lovers as ever.
as an aside, for those of you who have not thought about the eastern front in a long time, or were never taught it, here's a refresher on the historical significance of Kursk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kursk
