Well, About Time.

I never hid my opinion about Mr. Girkin (aka Strelkov) and I stressed not for once that not only he IS NOT a military leader--he never was one, having NO military education and having his failures in Donbass hushed over from military amateurs by his self-promotion and friendly media--but that from the start of SMO his "opinions" and "forecasts" on issues of modern geopolitics, combined arms operations, Russian Armed Forces, NATO et al were nothing more than a delirium of a bitter loser who black-mouthed Russia and "Putin's Regime" at every opportunity. He, certainly, has been able to create a sort of cult among a group of ignoramuses and for the last several years was pursuing his political ambitions, together with some other remnants of Russian Spring from Donbass, such as Pavel Gubarev, who saw a political process of integration of LDNR into Russia as a good opportunity to both enrich themselves and exercise their egos larger than cathedral. 

Well, as was pointed out for years by many in Russia: not only Girkin was a guy culpable in surrendering Slavyansk to VSU (only interference from Alexander Borodai saved Girkin from being executed in Donetsk) but his open support for 404 was becoming clearer and clearer with each passing day, including some very strong signs that he might have been the SBU asset from the get go. Well, Girkin's political career, as pathetic as it is, is over now:

A Moscow district court has ordered former Donbass militia commander Igor Strelkov to be remanded in custody until September 18, according to a press release on Friday. The controversial figure has been charged with public calls for extremist activities. Russian media earlier reported that Strelkov, who is also known by his real name, Igor Girkin, had been detained in Moscow on Friday amid allegations of extremism. Court documents show that he was charged with public calls for extremist activities made on the internet. The offense is punishable under Russian law by up to five years in prison, with a ban on occupying certain government positions for three years beyond that. The judge explained her decision by stating that Strelkov has a vast network of contacts as well as skills that could help him attempt to flee justice, RIA Novosti reported.

For Western audiences subsisting on propaganda and sensationalism it is often next to impossible to have proper perspective on such personalities or events, e.g. Prigozhin and Wagner and their blown out of proportion military "capability" while in reality sustaining catastrophic casualties. So, in the Manichean world of black and white images, the fact that Girkin is an enemy not just of Putin but of the majority of Russians and that his "military accomplishments" are rather minuscule, or that Prigozhin now is under a scrutiny by some serious people in MoD and FSB and he WILL answer for Russian heli and IL-22 pilots shot down by his "troops", is very difficult to process. Understandably so. 

But here it is, long anticipated reaction of the nation which is at war to someone who always was an enemy. Mr. Gubarev also was detained today, especially after it was disclosed that very large sums of money have been "appropriated" by this once "hero" of Russian Spring. Nobody is above the law, especially during SMO. It is also a good signal to all those "voenkors" ranging from lowlifes such as Sladkov or Pegov, to "analysts" of Rybar or Podolyaka "caliber" who have been spreading open disinformation for many months now, that times are changing. And that is about time. Needless to say that practically all of them are people who merely used their geographic location close to SMO battle-lines or large audiences primarily for promotion of their personal financial interests and egos, and discrediting by default the work of real military reporters. 

I am on record, TG channels on SMO are primarily trash, with exception of official MoD or FM channels and channels of such people like Marat Khairullin--the rest is sheer trash. That is why, as an example, I had to disagree with Scott with regards to Alexander Kotz who left his mark through supporting Maidan and providing a constant stream of BS, despite being identified as Kremlin propagandist. So, today's putting Girkin and Gubarev behind bars where both definitely belong is a good sign of Moscow's intentions to finally clean the cesspool of people who either consciously or due to sheer stupidity have been working for the enemy.

Now, for those who still continue to misread numbers of VSU losses and use a blanket term of "casualties" standing for the sum of all KIAs, MIAs, WIAs, instead of the specific category KIA--Killed in Action. Many people continue to ignore the crucial distinction in Russian MoD reports. Like this:

MoD uses the term "уничтожено" (annihilated), in terms of personnel it means KILLED. Thus the numbers presented are those of KIAs not of "casualties". Realistically MoD can only generally estimate number of wounded, but it has better documentation of KIAs, especially with modern means of objective control. Even Putin today spoke about tens of thousands KILLED (погибших) during VSU "counteroffensive" (in Russian). So, I repeat--MoD gives KIAs of VSU. That is why it is absolutely justifiable to talk now about roughly 350,000 KIAs and around 700,000 to 900,000 wounded in VSU, which amounts to 1,000,000 + casualties. The Ukie counteroffensive, thus, resulted in roughly 41,000 KIAs and about 100,000 wounded from June 4 through today, July 21. In all, roughly 140,000+ casualties. In reality, the number will be much higher and they begin to feel the pinch in Washington.

As Bernhard astutely noticed today:

There is a war happening in Europe that is, interestingly, no longer mentioned on the first two screens of the front pages of the Washington Post and the New York Times. The failure of the Ukrainian counter-offensive and its lack of any viable way to win the conflict seems to be sinking in.Who wants to write or read about the huge strategic mistake the Biden administration committed when it blackmailed Ukraine as well as its other vassals, especially when the beltway gang is strongly in favor of another Biden presidency. The alternative, another round of artificially Trump-ed up chaos, seems unbearable to them.

Do not forget, that once the REAL International War Crimes Tribunal for Ukraine starts there will be many NYT, WaPo, The Telegraph, MSNBC and CNN et al mediawhores who will be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity as propaganda enablers for deaths and destruction and no amount of maneuvering and manipulation will help them, as it didn't help Girkin and Gubarev.