NYTimes.com: ‘Putin Is a Fool’: Intercepted Calls Reveal Russian Army in Disarray

[John Clark]

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‘Putin Is a Fool’: Intercepted Calls Reveal Russian Army in Disarray

In phone calls to friends and relatives at home, Russian soldiers gave damning insider accounts of battlefield failures and civilian executions, excoriating their leaders just weeks into the campaign to take Kyiv.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/28/world/europe/russian-soldiers-phone-calls-ukraine.html?unlocked_article_code=21OQrOgRFbgnZOjsquKOUOJ45iEWoaWOLr33WtGhdmDLLRuMgyZC22CKCeo9tLRwQQqeiHOmUA_zXSBdxgiRKNi5OrDecvCUyqZ-LTFjv4o14eugzXxY4r1Xc-bPlZvTMhri7de59NGNoTFPvL9IdSL2IwY_aM_pBNbCdsdQZBwFjfaZn473hS2OQ5Imqv40PcnxlIWqqkkH8OmafnZ3r_RMOT1BF9wHTQzrU17nLb0v6uWiXcYSveEgaGnCMQ8FlfWdbfFk19B-l1hY3viRI1sL3FjlouSBAMDdVmcpnAnsAc0nyDpdOP2fcn5Sn-Ei6TH969EXaGrUCE3UdlSEHGc_ipm65rs6qrDSavRLhyr_BRyxY6T4dLibnK72AEwswq44&smid=em-share

[Lawrence Crowell]

This goes with the Russian playbook. When Russia is the attacker it is always a disaster. Recall their military campaigns against Finland 1940, Poland 1922, Battle of Tannenberg 1914, and further to the Crimean War in the 1840s. All complete disasters because of logistical failures, corruption in the command and disillusionments among the conscripts.

LC