Black Raven Dragoons

[Zancarius]

Loads of rumors are floating around. Notably, the prevailing gist of it is that Putin hasn't been seen in public since March 5th. There's tons of speculation as to why: Visiting the newly-born love-child of his mistress who purportedly gave birth in Switzerland, a lingering illness preventing him from making a public appearance, threat of assassination attempts, actual assassination, a coup, etc. Unfortunately, the US press is completely useless (and who really gives a crap about the latest celebrity gossip? seriously!).

Also of note, there's apparently a boatload of military hardware in Moscow, but no one here can confirm it--possible photoshop at work and/or outdated images being peddled as current shots. That speculation is even more interesting, but the most benign I've seen is that it's pre-preparation work for a possible parade.

I also understand the Russian press was told not to leave their offices for the weekend and to prepare for a major announcement? Again, I can't seem to really confirm that with all the nonsense that's at the top of Google right now--it's all, likewise, speculation.

I saw images earlier that purported to show a 3-hour blackout at the Kremlin. Again, possible photoshop, but if all hell's breaking loose over there, I'd be interested to know. (Not that I could do anything about it.)

So, is this just a bunch of drivel from people whose tinfoil hats slipped off momentarily or is there something serious afoot? The timing seems a bit strange given the recent assassination of the opposition leader.

[Zancarius]

Random links and/or possibly misguided opinion pieces:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/13/opinions/ ... ere-is-he/

http://nypost.com/2015/03/13/putin-in-s ... lovechild/

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/20 ... 22186.html

http://www.mediaite.com/online/is-vladi ... y-missing/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/14/world ... ublic.html

[Zancarius]

He's back! And he's on his expected schedule.

So, it looks like the US media had a moment of insanity, then pretended it never happened. I do have to wonder what provoked this, because in retrospect, it seems like a running joke: Tons of people on Twitter partook in encouraging some of these opinion pieces.

Ineptitude or disinformation? You decide!

[Zancarius]

At least the show of force now seems to be accurate reporting.

[Zancarius]

Here's a good take on things by a UK paper that I think our media would do well to review.