Poul Funder Larsen

Following Russia/Ukraine since 90s through quite a few ups and downs. Itinerary - Copenhagen/Moscow/Kyiv/Washington/Berlin. Correspondent at Jyllands-Posten.

[Smirkley @Smirkley]

Based Russia, compared to Socialist:

Denmark, nearly 10x the murder rate, 17x the HIV rate, and 57x the share of homes without full indoor plumbing.

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

@niktwick I will respectfully disagree :-) Ragozin is a mediocre analyst with a poor grasp of basic facts, but that's not a crime, no need to make a martyr out of him.

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

@leonidragozin Doesn't this sound an awful lot like the stuff Russian analysts were dreaming up about Zelensky, and how he might change Ukraine's course in relation to Moscow back around 2019?

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

@BrianMcDonaldIE Which source suggests that in the Soviet RSFSR 49,4% of the economy was generated in the private sector in 1990?

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

@BrianMcDonaldIE Very surprising, they never did that before, did they?

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

@MrKevinRothrock Interesting and relevant piece. Still, for those of us, who remember the impact the much smaller number of Afghan war deaths had on late Soviet/Russian society, these numbers are mindboggling.

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

@achkhikvadze Who would swap Berlin or Bologna for Little Rock?

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

@leonidragozin Anyone who seriously believes Medinsky is an upgrade from, say, Ushakov?

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

@mattyglesias Yes, Wernher von Braun was from Indiana

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

@leonidragozin It wasn’t much of a success last time they tried this in 2015-22, hard to see it work with much larger armies and amid more acrimonious relations

[Jon Sopel @jonsopel]

This thread is must read. The conclusion is simultaneously eye- popping and utterly predictable. The ‘peace plan’ for Ukraine delivered by the White House seems to have been translated from Russian into English. In other words it’s the Kremlin plan that Trump seems to be passing off as American, and is telling Ukraine it must accept

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

I’ve stayed there often, when in Odesa. Lovely place. We’ve Got to do more for the ukrainians. #Odesa

[Гюндуз Мамедов/Gyunduz Mamedov @MamedovGyunduz]

The center of Odesa was attacked with three Iskander-M ballistic missiles. As a result, the Bristol Hotel – an architectural monument from 1898–1899 – was damaged. Located opposite the Merchant Exchange and next to the State Bank, the Bristol Hotel is one of Odesa’s iconic landmarks. This is yet another attack on #CulturalHeritage.
#WarCrimes

🎥: @dumskaya_net

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

Don’t forget the political prisoners in Belarus #Belarus

[Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya @Tsihanouskaya]

My husband Siarhei has been incommunicado for 527 days—he's not the only one:

▪️ Ihar Losik for 544 days
▪️ Maria Kalesnikava for 549 days
▪️ Mikalai Statkevich for 554 days
▪️ Maksim Znak for 555 days
▪️ Viktar Babaryka for 558 days
▪️ Uladzimir Kniha for 346 days

It must end!

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

Putin has slaughtered tens of thousands of Russians in a senseless vanity war, expanded NATO including along a giant border with Finland, allowed coup plotters to reach the outskirts of Moscow, & now allowed Russia to be invaded for the first time since 1941. Maybe time for Russians to rethink whether Putin is good for their security.

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

Western stance on use of weapons becoming ever more untenable @avalaina

[Oleksandra Matviichuk @avalaina]

The logic of the western managers of escalation is quite strange.

1.A Russian missile attack on a children's hospital in Kyiv is sad, but norma.

2. Allowing Ukrainian missile strikes with Western weapons against Russian military airfields, from which military aircraft take off and launch missiles targeting children's hospitals, is a terrible escalation.

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

Pretty succinct summary of the current state of Rus-UA war

[Tatiana Stanovaya @Stanovaya]

Some brief thoughts on the current state of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict:

• Russia lacks the military resources to significantly expand its control over Ukraine and has to slow its offensive. It continues to rely on the gradual weakening of the Ukrainian state or a collapse at the front, while persistently targeting the country’s energy infrastructure. This strategy may continue without decisive success.

• Regardless of the outcome of the U.S. election, it seems unlikely that the West will support Ukraine to a degree that could force Russia to retreat. From Moscow’s perspective, there are no actions that could decisively shift the situation in Ukraine’s favour.

• There are no strong indications that meaningful peace talks regarding the nature of the conflict will happen soon. Ukraine is considering more flexible approaches, such as exchanging territory for peace, but Russia is betting on the fall of Kyiv. The West lacks a viable plan and the political will to develop one, while other states such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, or China do not have proposals that are acceptable to both Russia and Ukraine.

• There is an increasing call within the international community for a ceasefire, though currently, no practical routes toward this goal are visible. A ceasefire would benefit Russia, but Putin currently does not perceive an urgent need for one.

• Extraterritorial escalation is on the rise, involving Russia and the West and extending beyond the Ukrainian conflict. Both sides are progressively testing each other’s patience and tolerance levels.

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

@jakluge They were always to a significant degree aligned in the broad apparatus coalition behind Putin.

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

Lots of “hot takes” of varying quality, but this is a good point from a usually astute observer @Stanovaya

[Tatiana Stanovaya @Stanovaya]

Despite the surprising nature of these reshuffles (and it's not the end), the overall policy and decision-making mechanisms will remain unchanged. Putin's primary objective is to enhance the state's capacity to support military needs more effectively, while most elements of the existing "structure" will stay intact.5/5

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

@clausmat1 Godt spørgsmål :-(

[Poul Funder Larsen @PoulFunder]

I may not agree 100%, but an interesting antidote to those Western takes that tend to endow Putin and the Kremlin with superpowers. So much is smoke and mirrors.

[Maksim Samorukov @SamorukovM]

1/7 Beliefs in stability of Putin’s regime have become such a common place that I couldn’t help but recite for @ForeignAffairs a few reasons why it is not, highlighting striking similarities with the late USSR https://t.co/lT486PyWeB