Red-Pilled War Realists That AE Reads and You Can Too

Everyone's a Strelkovite (realist) now. (In Russia)

If waiting for the next AE article to drop ever gets too much you could always visit some of the same sources I use. Here is some of the stuff I pay attention to and recommend.

Ukraine Russia Report is a good subreddit to follow just because they have pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian posters and content alike. It’s good to be exposed to both to keep yourself honest. And the participants are far smarter than the posters on the Ukrainian Conflict subreddit which is far bigger, but a giant circle-jerk and just deranged. (The pro-Ukrainian version of our 5D imbeciles.)

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/

Moving on to Telegram. The pickings in English are scarce, the biggest channels remain cringe. I would recommend Zoka, who was perhaps the first of the pro-Russian battlefield updates people to get red-pilled. Starting out actively dismissive of Strelkov he later admitted that Strelkov Was Right.

https://t.me/zoka200

The other one is Ghost who somehow manages to be both low-brow and a huge snowflake at the same time, but after Liman and Kherson he has become a lot more red-pilled himself now, so that’s something.

https://t.me/ghostnewsx

In the Russian language, the best channel is Strelkov’s own. But since he has left for the front (he’s a deputy commander in a merc battalion) he has stopped updating it. However, he left us with a prophecy:

He offered the kremlins a way to shut him up, and they finally took it. Right after they had delivered the fiascos he had been warning about for months. Good luck legend, and watch your back. Don’t end up like Stremousov.

https://t.me/strelkovii

Another very good channel is Donrf. Another very realistic guy, and with tons of on-the-ground knowledge from DNR. He also posts everything to his LiveJournal blog where he started.

https://t.me/donrf22

The Russian Telegram channels are numerous, with different focuses, and the big ones are also extremely active so that it’s impossible to fully follow more than a few. Sladkov and WarGonzo are the two best battlefield correspondents, there’s the Greyzone and Reverse Side of the Medal if you want to know what low-level Wagnerites are thinking, there’s the POW/gore channel Chub Detection, there’s the black piller El Murid… there are all kinds and it’s impossible to monitor them all.

Of the general war channels, Rybar is the most interesting because there now exists a project on Twitter to translate parts of it:

https://twitter.com/rybar_en

I was critical of Rybar in the past, mercilessly (and deservedly) so, but over time it has gotten considerably better and more red-pilled. It started out very uncritically but after one disillusionment after another, it is now a soft-Strelkovite channel.

https://t.me/rybar

Actually, this gradual shift from cheerleading to becoming sharply critical of how the kremlins are running the war effort has marked the entire Russian military blogosphere (including the Telegram microblogs). The only exceptions are the very few who were realists from the very start. (Only in the English language can you still find Kremlin apologists.)

Moving onto HTML. Military Review is the big one. A hangout of former servicemen and military buffs with 30 million monthly views. It was home to some outspoken realist voices from the start, chiefly the irrepressible Viktor Biryukov (from LNR).

But early on much of the publication and its stable of authors had escapist tendencies. Perhaps out of a sense of loyalty they avoided being openly critical. Instead of pointing out problems with the running war they were churning out irrelevant off-topic material on old history and hardware. That is all over now. They’ve had a ton of fantastic stuff recently, and now most everyone there is a Strelkov reincarnate.

https://en.topwar.ru/

Kenigtiger is another Russian LiveJournal blogger, who is well-regarded in the realist (reality-based) community. He is a LNR veteran.

https://kenigtiger.livejournal.com/

Another valuable resource is the Yaplakal forum. This is just a giant general message board with a news/events section as one of many. Why it is so valuable is that you can see what stories Russian “normies” are reading and how they feel about things.

Not what they are being served by the boomer state TV, but how they actually feel.

It was interesting to observe that Yaplakal posters when the war broke out switched from anti-Covidianism and government-hating typical of ordinary Russians, to uncritical hurrah patriotism, but which lasted only weeks. The “normie” Russian internet users actually came down to earth much faster than did the military blogosphere like Rybar. In Russia it was the “normies” who instinctively recognized something was going terribly wrong and that Shoigu was full of shit before the specialists did. (Or at least before the specialists spoke up.)

Check it out. Maybe you’ll be surprised by the level of cynicism and realism on the ground in Russia. You think I’m too critical of Putin/Kremlin? Every Russian I have ever spoken to got annoyed with me within 10 minutes for being too pro-Putin and sounding too much like their boomer TV for their taste. And that’s just the gopniks I was drinking 2-liter plastic beers with on a Moscow Khrushchyovka rooftop at 3 am. (There was a 9-pm liquor ban but they knew an Uzbek shop that would sell it anyway.)

https://www.yaplakal.com/forum1

Erwan Castell at Alawata Rebellion is another guy to read. A French veteran and volunteer in the Donbass. Will speak harsh truths and point out incompetence when necessary. He’s also on Telegram.

https://alawata-rebellion.blogspot.com/

Finally, in the English language, Daniel L Davies is interesting. He is a retired US Army lieutenant colonel but who was critical of US strategies and wars in Afghanistan and Syria. He remains moderately bullish on Russia’s prospects.

His is the most Russia-bullish take that I still find credible and could conceivably buy.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/author/daniel-l-davis/

If you’re on Twitter you can follow some of the accounts below:

AndrisBonebonoHyhshsSawtelledarko3-3-3smochlorineAlichemistBurmeseakMuirStrelkovWasRightSteLedevarbolBTEnriqueVVVVVCPisma.

A mix of Russians, Balkanics, Syrians and Westerners. They don’t post much to their timelines but they make realist comments under stuff so it should make the algorithm serve you up realist discussions from time to time.

Happy reading!

Comments (28)
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  • Jim

    Often wondered whether Putin was a Western plant. His sudden rise to power under Yeltsin has never been satisfatorily explained. Even Tony Blair allegedly claimed that Putin was an MI6 plant. He often condemns the New World Order but sometimes upholds it himself. Who is he beholden to? Russian oligarchs or the invisible hand that rules ALL governments?

    • Pat

      Yep – youth leader of WEF, anti communist and friend of the zionists. No one appointed by Yeltsin was going to be anything else.

    • Yuno

      You ask the proper question – but before any attempt at an answer, the honest correspondent has to ask yet another/

      Whence came the passion for Slav on Slav bloodsports,,. wherein the brothers to the west are proclaimed “nazis,” and by that means, deprived of all humanity and declared open season for the most cringingly obvious neo-imperialist visions of whack jobs like Dugin?

      Provisional stab at an answer – same source that pitted “Red Army” soldiers against Ukrainian partisans a century ago. To succeed in demolishing any Slavic sense of identity and replacing it with a suitably compliant and fearful obedience to ‘authority’… the authors of the [fake] “proletarian revolution needed to pit Rus against Rus = make enemies of brothers, thereby demolishing the blood ties of folk all sprung from the very same mothers.

      Yiddish imports almost to a ‘man’… the ruling clique of fake “Russian” revolutionaries who turned not just Ukraine, but the whole of Rus itself into a vast charnel ground and then concentration camp – in preparation for Mao to refine in the Sino lands –

      in their very first ‘opening act’ after ‘victory’ made “anti-semitism” a crime against the state… and from that point on simply sliced fine portions of skin off of the Slavic body politic layer by torturous layer… until the pain wracked survivors of the century long shit-show couldn’t even recognize their torturers, let along their brother/sister Slavs.

      But we shouldn’t talk about that. Because to talk about the Great Leaders’ own genetic inheritance – via his mothers side – which grants him automatic ‘right of return’ to the (un)Holy land – whence his time for a ‘bolt hole’ comes … is to commit the crime of ‘anti-semitism’ or something.

      The bones of real “hoos” who resisted the arrival of the talmudic rebbes and their doctrines of ethnic hate and extermination once littered the Crimea… where they took refuge from the rebbes, as torah worshipping Karaite Hoos whose doctrines logical enough excluded the filth and self-worship of of the kabbalist-talmudic clique which took over hoodaism… and then sought to take over the world.

      They’ve almost succeeded – thanks to willing dogsbodies like “PREZ WARPED SPEED” & the GREMLIN IN THE KREMLIN.

      Slavs will have to wake up … and smell the Kovfefee … or suffer a fate similar to that which awaits the dumbed down and dying wester world.

      • Clark

        Yes, all of it true. I can see how the criminal mind works and the entire field created to around the crime scene. First I think of a solution, then I realize the solution would make it worse because it had already been considered before the battle had begun. There is no escape but one solution .

  • Agarwal

    Cheers Marko for the recommendations. I can read Russian like a child so sometimes I try original Russian sources but it’s like pulling teeth for me. That or hope the Google translate button pops up in the corner of chrome.

    On Twitter I like 3-3, he’s really fun for an unabashedly pro-Russia account. Glass half full guy.

    • Oscar Peterson

      I like Yandex for translation.

    • Field Empty

      Right-click in Chrome and you should have a translate option in the context menu. There’s also a translate option in Telegram but only on mobile — just tap the message to bring up the menu.

  • Oscar Peterson

    Great resource. Thanks.

  • YakovKedmi

    Which one of you was a realist in March, when General Igor Ivanovich was already a Strelkovite ?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0tvX8Mhuk4
    or in April ?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR1eJq_JA0A

    In those days everyone of you were high on “Mother Russia,” “Pan-Slavia,” “Invincible Army,” and other inhalants.
    https://anti-empire.com/is-russia-capitulating-nope-russia-got-a-lot-more-serious/

    _________________________
    Kamil Galeev (a realist even before Mr. Girkin became a Strelkovite), February 27:
    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1497993363076915204.html
    “Why Russia will lose this war.”

    • Blackledge

      An excellent, very educational link. I especially like his conclusion about myths and mythos, which I had never considered before.

      I confess to being *somewhat* guilty of pro-Russia naïveté – but only somewhat. The invasion began while we were away from home for the evening. Upon returning, I was shocked to see that RF had gone “all in,” and invaded. I said to my wife, “Putin has made an all-or-nothing gamble; if Russia wins, he wins. If Russia doesn’t win, not just the war but literally everything will be lost.” So, I recognized the gravity of the invasion and understood what failure would (and will,) mean.

      But having “blood in the eye” as I still do over Kosovo-Metohija all these years later, I overestimated Russian military capability largely because I have long wished for NATO to get a vicious thrashing. I thought the time had come. However, I was ignorant about the institutional rot brought upon RF Armed Forces during Mr. Shoigu’s tenure – something concerning which Mr. Strelkov has since, properly educated me – nor did I comprehend that the Kremlin has no regard for its own soldiers or Russian-speaking civilians in Donbas. I tell you these things to my shame.

      Since February I have learned hard and unpleasant lessons, but I admit to them and recognize my errors. In retrospect, I wish I had been more reserved about interpreting the situation because I lacked critical information, and was largely uninformed. It sucks to say so, but that’s the truth of it.

      Thank you for your the time you take and resources you provide here for my proper education, both are much appreciated.

    • Field Empty

      Galeev is not a realist LOL. He is a pro-Western Tatar who hates everything Russian. Also he’s a moron. I’ll put my own analysis next to his own any day of the week.

      I was pointing out grave problems with the conduct of the invasion not since March but since February. It’s not on me that it took so long to fix them and in such a partial way.

      • Yuno

        You don’t say!
        The analysis provided by the [dirty]Tatar as linked above & here again https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1497993363076915204.html was the single best summation of both the KOLONEL and his ‘police action’/before it became trainwreck stage

        I’ve yet to read. Since it’s clearly the work of a >moron> as you’ve let us in on… I’m going with ‘the moron team.’ Where can I sign on? One get’s the impression that anything & anyone not rabidly pro-Rus-regime is ‘pro-west’… in your opinion. Let’s just say – that lack of ‘nuance’ is a deal-breaker bro. If you can’t paint with any finer brushstrokes than that… you need to go back to spray paint and walls along the subway tracks.

        You don’t like his version of ‘analysis’ – fine. The “Tatars” are a suspect ethnos, in your opinion – okeydoke. He’s not a ‘realist’ … like yourself?… alright then. You were first in on the critical analysis? Awesome bro.

        Can you top up your already bravo performance by sending us a video which outdoes the segment that moron provides in the linked post – where the dude does the full splits somehow, and manages to drink raki/vodka/whatever out of that tea cup full face down? Because not only are ‘morons’ like Galeev insightful contributors… they seem a whole lot more ‘fun’ than axe-grinding one-uppers with severe cases of ‘look at me!’

        Tatars/Morons/give us some more choice put downs to sign up for mate! I’ll sign up with THEM too!

      • YakovKedmi

        Was it you on March 29 ?
        “The real war starts now.
        “The real war with the Russian military actually fighting in line with Russian military dictums.”

        The Expeditionary Force did that “fighting in line with” from May 10 to June 4, then came to a grinding halt. The morning-mist myth about the invincible armed forces of Russia disappeared in the sinkhole of operation evanescence. In June, July, August we saw what “Russian military dictum” is capable of. now we need a new dictum

        ________________________
        The real problem is:
        “I was pointing out grave problems”

        Your false premise, your sinking-sand foundation is, ‘the invasion was/is a good idea, the implementation of it was/is faulty’

        General Strelkov Girkin was/is on the same sand dune (April 2021):
        https://anti-empire.com/igor-strelkov-war-between-russia-and-ukraine-is-inevitable/

        ____________________
        >>>> “I’ll put my own analysis next to his [Galeev’s] own any day”
        You have already done that, on February 10, 2022:
        https://anti-empire.com/the-only-argument-against-russian-escalation-in-ukraine-is-humanitarian/
        “The West can cut its entire trade and the Russians can still get all their machine tools”
        There in lies one of your basic flaw —and this is one of the problems Kamil Galeev pointed out. Russia has to buy equipment. As every nationalist knows, Russia should be producing equipment.

        “The other welcome development is that NATO has given Moscow a free hand in Ukraine.”
        Another fatal flaw —the result of lack of knowledge. Putin & crew built the invasion plan on this ignorance-based foundation.

    • Estragon

      Another vote for Galeev, at least some of the time. That early thread of his has held up pretty well over the months. Yes, he may be a Tatar nationalist, but he’s clear about his bias, which helps separate wheat from chaff.

  • David

    what do you think of Douglas MacGregor, the US colonel? Is he embarrassing himself, or does Russia retain escalation potential that will eventually allow some kind of win? He’s not Scott Ritter-tier retarded, but may be becoming detached from the battlefield reality?

    • Field Empty

      I don’t rate him. I was disappointed.

    • Blackledge

      MacGregor blew his cred and has wisely disappeared from public speaking, unlike perennial blowhard and two-time convicted felon pedophile Scott Ritter, the darling of RT.

        • David

          i mean a regular ON that channel

        • Blackledge

          Lluzon … looks like my estimation of his being a wise man was wildy generous, and he’s opted to double down on stupid. He’s “a regular” on Neapolitan’s program, sure enough – right beside two-time convicted felon and pedophile Scott Ritter. 🤣

          Fade these degenerates.

          • Yuno

            Fade these degenerates.

            Nah. I say – put them on full view!

            In that vast ‘memory hole’ what be the westerlings ‘social media’ experience… somehow the [self-proclaimed] “alt medias” got away with presently a whole raft of media darlings/actual deranged psychopaths to their captive audiences as ‘top-tier analysts,’ ‘wise men,’ ‘trusted sources,’ ‘deep throat whistleblowers’… ad nauseum for years beyond counting now.

            Epstein enablers like Al “Pal” Dershowitz, bizarros like Roger Stone, sio-puppets like “General” Flynn and too numerous to mention subsoil dwellers all got to play the roles of ‘hero of the [phony nationalist] revolution in the fake news media\right sector edition.

            Put em all on their pedestals sans embroidered myth and let the ‘peeple’ decide their fate! They’ll all be joining Prez Warped Speed on a ride in the tumblers!

            • Oscar Peterson

              tumbrels

            • Yuno

              Bro – that’s a tad too drastic – even for the Drumpster!

              Put em in the ‘tumblers’ at the coin wash… let em get some of that ‘swamp critter’ stink off of their smarmy skins.

              (correction noted-& thanks, as always!)
              \hoo might be ‘Murat&Robespierre’ in this humorless repeat of franco-masonic/sabbatean conspiracy to ruin all nation states(and national pride)??/
              \\now that “Girkin” is on the front lines(or claiming to be)give us the odds on whether his demise will be a)a hanging @ the Hague ala Nuremberg b)felled by “friendly fire” while leading a final ‘bashi-bazook’ charge of stoned HIV prisoner conscripts against a wall of tanks and heartless AFU infantry?//

            • Andrew Nambudripad

              https://youtu.be/_N5iuyHQuGk?list=PL8X-9Kx7Xo1RLRgyeA9CTetamGnOUNrNd&t=1520

              Here’s Scott’s side – basically claiming that he was set up (at least for the second conviction?). That story is really internally consistent for a state prison. “Skinners” and “rippers” are torn apart in state prisons, *especially* as he mentions by the gangs. anted, tearing apart someone as big as Scott might be hard – four or five crips could pretty easily tear apart even Lebron James.

              https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Ritter-gets-prison-time-2237126.php
              They did him dirty (at least somewhat) according to this article, by using tainted evidence (which is, again, consistent with the Scott-youtube-story.) I wasn’t a real fan of Scott, until I saw him with McGovern on a panel. McGovern made reference to how he misjudged Ritter- falsely labeling him as a war-mongerer (IIRC. This was around the Hillary era “We came, we saw, he died!!!!”, so forgive my failing memory). If he was Louis CK’ing to a girl on a web-cam he thought was a fully grown woman with a daddy fantasy (which, uh, at least a few women have), kinda definitely plausible that the state went out of their way to catfish him.

              My opinion? (Not that matters, but) I opine as follows: I can only judge based on how internally consistent people are. With the advent of PDFs of court decisions, along with the youtubes/indie media (from the “real” left — Convo Couch, Lee Camp, Greyzone, Jimmy Jimbo James Dore, and then to the right – The Gaggle with Peter and such), it’s easy enough to go back and find lies and inconsistencies. You can tell when someone with principles makes an honest mistake, with good intentions (Jimmy and the Boogaloo Boy incident), versus someone who acts in bad faith.

              When you have uh whats her name.. that fucking private school rich kid from bk who dox’d the **family members** of “libs of tiktok” twitter account, then started crying when she *as a public figure and thus legally has invited more scrutiny upon herself*, had the same thing happen to her, she literally goes on MSNBC and cries foul— sorryyy no sympathy (also you’re 35 years old.)

              The litany of the ‘left’ who want more Twitter censorship yet claim they’re “free speech” defenders” fuckin, they can all suck my proverbial dick dude

              Considering how much corruption we’ve seen in the courts and the “system” (see below) I have no doubt that Ritter was intentionally entrapped due to his political positions re: anti-nuclear work in the UN

              1 – Hedges vs Obama/NDAA ruling with Forrestt finding clearly against Obama, then an instant appeal to vacate due to standing lmao, followed by the Supreme Court refusing to hear the appeal…

              2 – The state/the two major political parties who have direct contact with C-level executives at social media companies (which is effectively our “public square”, Packingham v North Carolina 2017) and effectively using this influence to manipulate conversation (via “algorithmic manipulation”, “ghost posting” or even blatantly blacking out stories with legitimacy (___ vs Jim Baker, the FBI, Vijaya, and former twitter execs as co-defendants coming soon!!!)

              3) Also, not structurally part of the government *per se*: https://observer.com/2017/08/court-admits-dnc-and-debbie-wasserman-schulz-rigged-primaries-against-sanders/ one of the least covered, most consequential rulings, effectively legitimizing the DNCC’s ability to choose their nominee.

              Then state actors will do the whole J Edgar Hoover basically doing the same thing. There’s a reason why, for security clearance, background checks look for outstanding debts and your propensity sleeping with hoZZ/gigaloZZ are the two things you’re primarily vetted for– because those are what effectively compromise you. At least two of the Epstein sex-slaves stumbled into the tape-room in the “gifted” 70 million mansion. Yeahhh that was definitely an intelligence operation, almost certainly for a state actor, in order to establish baseline blackmail

              As CharleZZ “chuckie” schumer said, “dont mess with the intelligence community, they’ll find a way to fuck you six ways to sunday” [or something to that effect]

              everyone sux, peace
              -Andrew Nambudripad