Moscow Blackout Hiding A Kremlin Purge - Jason Jay Smart

[TexasTowelie]

Moscow lost internet, and people in the city noticed it right away. When outages spread across Moscow and St. Petersburg, people bought walkie-talkies, pagers, and paper maps. That is what people do when they think more disruption is coming. The Kremlin then stopped treating the shutdowns like a minor technical problem and said they were necessary for security. A short outage is an inconvenience. Getting a capital used to living offline is something more serious. It shows the authorities are preparing people for more disruption and tighter control.

As that was happening, Ukraine was striking deeper inside Russia. The Kremniy El microelectronics plant produced components used in missile guidance. The Tikhoretsk oil node helped move fuel through a critical part of Russia's southern system. Those targets matter because they help keep the war running. The strikes damaged infrastructure, but they also exposed a bigger problem for the Kremlin: Russia's rear was no longer secure, and people in the capital could see it.

The pressure did not stop with the public. It reached the top of the system. Ruslan Tsalikov, a man who helped run the defense machine for 20 years, ended up under house arrest. At the same time, Igor Sechin gained room to operate as rivals weakened, even while Rosneft's finances deteriorated. The blackout, the strikes, and the purge were part of the same reality. The war was no longer staying at the front, and the men who built this system were no longer fully protected.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro: Putin’s Purge of the Moscow Elite
02:39 - Rosneft Crisis: The Fall of Putin’s Money Man
05:28 - Inner Circle: Why Putin’s Top Architect Fled
06:26 - Military Collapse: Shoigu’s Final Days in Power
07:31 - Moscow Blackout: Russia Hides From Ukraine
09:57 - Missile Shortage: The Bryansk Factory Disaster
12:25 - Putin’s Fear: The Secret Moscow Coup