2.17 Relegation, Russian Style

The front office is panicking, the franchise player just demanded a trade, and the owner is literally burning down the stadium to pay the referees.Welcome to the ultimate geopolitical relegation zone. This week, we use the lens of a rigged sports bracket to break down the cascading failures inside the Russian Federation. We're tracking everything from Ilya Remeslo’s spectacular defection and the staggering demographic wipeout reported by the Free Russia Foundation, to the Federal Tax Service liquidating domestic shoe brands just to fund the meat grinder. Plus, we look at the physical collapse of the Russian internet, and how a digital blackout is leaving frontline trenches completely severed from reality.Make sure to stay until the very end to hear Evita’s incredibly accurate reading of some genuinely pathetic Z-doomer poetry. (Premium supporters on Patreon, Substack, and Fourthwall will get this poem as a separate, downloadable bonus track!)SUPPORT THE SHOW: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheEasternBorder Merch Shop: https://theeasternborder-shop.fourthwall.com/ Direct Donations & Crypto: https://theeasternborder.lv Support the frontline: https://car4ukraine.com/Source Material:Michael Naki (Analysis of the Telegram attack and tactical comms): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRl2qXBeHP4Michael Naki & Vladimir Milov (Budget Deficit and Financial Trap): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktXr3VqM2l0Alexander Stefanov (The Latynina Debate): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tz7_3fFm0UMaxim Katz (The "Cannibal" Latynina Analysis): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh0lDmsXm2kMaxim Katz on Ilya Remeslo: https://youtu.be/gFp7uQk_bFA?si=CN3MTUqd19NgFewdRealLifeLore (Middle East Geopolitical Conflict): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fst58LTo9U8Ramy Zaycman (Financial analysis of the internet outages): Basically the last few videos found on his channel at https://www.youtube.com/@ramyzaycmanFree Russia Foundation – Demographic Autopsy of the Russian Federation (Vladimir Milov): https://4freerussia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2024/03/Demographic-Autopsy-of-the-Russian-Federation.pdfMaxim Kalashnikov (Roy TV) – "On the Telegram block and the future after SVO":https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x24YcCQijNw (This is the February 19th dispatch where he breaks down the "crisis of statehood.")Kalashnikov on Ilya Remeslo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFp_RVjk17MSilicon Curtain (Analysis of Kalashnikov's "Statehood Crisis"):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-dYoDdBHdoThe "Новости СВЕРХДЕРЖАВЫ" channel doing a post-mortem on Remeslo's mutiny: https://youtu.be/7_fXUBgECcw?is=JykWpu80t_1PMt1cSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.