Practically, anything you want including, US designer brands are being sold in Russia despite, all the sanctions. Grocery prices are much, much less than the US. Tucker Carlson, if you can see the You Tube video went grocery shopping in Russia to compare to the US. It cost him like $100 equivalent for the same groceries that would have cost him $400 in the US. The ruble is lower exchange wise however, the arms manufacturers are hiring people and since, they work 24/7, the overtime should be pretty substantial for most of the workers. Of course, the propaganda from extreme liberal media will put out exaggerated numbers that Russia is doing badly. Hell, Europeans are rioting because of the high inflation the consumers are suffering from. Look at the huge demonstrations in Paris, London, Germany. None of them happy with their government and their economy. Someone is lying but, it is not the Russians. The same media hacks that tell you the Ukrainians are doing fine and defeating the Russians in Ukraine. Also, the F-16s are game changers and will allow Ukraine to defeat the Russians. Nothing could be farther from the truth. F-16s are coming real soon. That should be proven soon enough.
CNN: Ukraine warns northern front has ‘significantly worsened’ as Russia claims capture of several villages It is not just in Ukraine’s north that Kyiv’s armed forces are losing ground. DeepStateMap also shows Russia making further gains in two other key areas, most notably towards the town of Chasiv Yar, which has become an important forward military position, and further south in the industrial town of Krasnohorivka, where Russian troops are now in control of the town’s main facility, a brick factory. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/12/europe/russia-kharkiv-region-offensive-ukraine-intl/index.html
The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov, blamed the failure to hold back Russians in the Kharkov sector on the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Syrsky.
Shoigu out - but recycled elsewhere. I remember back when Pregozhin was killed, some pundits were saying that Putin had come to believe that everything Prego said about Shoigu but could not let Prego dictate what was to happen so he would eventually knock off Prego and then down the road move Shoigu out. And that is pretty much what has happened. The article and sources say Shoigu is being replaced by a civilian. The irony is that the complaints against Shoigu were always that he was essentially a civilian and did not come from a military background. His background would be more akin to like FEMA or Homeland Security Director. It had been civilian but because Shoigu is Putin's buddy they elevated it to a military high command type of position. A lot of people hate him for sending so many men to the front, yet he has never been real military himself. Plus he is not ethnic Russian which means a lot to the Kremlin insiders. He is Tuvan. Shoigu is a dipshit. One of the original architects of the 3-day war which is now 815 days give or take. The real story is that Putin is turning the entire Russian economy into a war economy. So he is bringing an economist over to head up the military and sending the head of the military over to head up the wartime military and industrial supply chain. Putin replaces Russia’s defense minister with a civilian, citing rising military spending and need for innovation https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/12/euro...places-defense-minister-intl-latam/index.html