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Today's report from Julia Ioffe (my favourite Putinologist - she even observes and comments on his hand gestures) on The Powers That Be podcast doesn't relay any info on the brittleness of the regime in Moscow, but she does reveal some very embarrassing details from an international visit Putin made to Uzbekistan for something called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. On top of having to suck up to Xi, he got "reamed out" by Modi and basically pantsed by the Turkish President. As Ioffe points out, "they can smell the chum in the water."

Thanks Paul Wells, interesting interview.

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I can't tell you how good it was to have the importance of the training the Canadian Armed Forces provided and continues to provide to Ukrainian military recognized. Training is not as showing as weapons systems, but it is vital. Having trained soldiers, especially junior Officers and NCO, likely made all the difference in the early days of the invasion. You can have the most modern weapons out there but if you lack the skill and tactical knowledge to employment effectively it does not matter.

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