Slap on the Face: Moscow Times Calls Out Putin

Ukraine won the Battle of Kursk before it could even begin

I kind of expected some bad press from the Russian media and the ultranationalist propagandist sphere. But I did not expect the independent Russian media to call out Putin for failing to defend Russian territory. The worst part for Putin is that even Kremlin officials are not very happy about the situation or their chief’s response.

Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk and Lipetsk border regions has stunned the Russian military and come as a “slap in the face” to President Vladimir Putin personally, four Russian officials told Politika.Kozlov.

The ongoing offensive, which Russia has failed to repel for three days, has exposed Russia’s territorial defense shortcomings and undermined Putin’s propaganda coup as the rescuer of an FSB hitman and failed Russian spies in last week’s prisoner swap with the West.

“The chief [Putin] was in a poor mood … He probably hasn’t been seen like this since our [Russian army] was forced to retreat from Kherson in the fall of 2022,” said an official involved in preparing Kremlin events involving Putin.

“This is a slap in the face for the president. We have been unable to push the enemy back for [three days]. A danger to the…