Coming events:  departure for St Petersburg 22 September

This is to inform the community that I will be spending 2 – 3 weeks in Russia as from Tuesday, 22 September.  I will be following up the Duma elections and watching closely what changes may come in Russian conduct of the war. With victory at the polls behind it, as now seems likely, will the Russian leadership take to their logical conclusion the present strategies of strangling Ukraine, cutting off both imports and exports, on the one hand, and utterly destroying infrastructure in Kiev and other major cities on the other hand?  If so, that may well lead to Ukrainian capitulation within the coming couple of months. Or will there be a return to the war of attrition policies that will drag out this conflict for years to come? With VPN now installed on my computer, I expect to remain in regular contact with the w