@Magnus the last two posts should have been in the humor thread
When I read your initial post, I thought Iran may have transferred its most advanced drones to Hezbollah (or to Ansar-ul-allah). Iran, if the speculations are to be believed, has supposedly developed a drone with near supersonic speed which would be 2-3 times faster than the contemporary attack drones.
Anyway, the Universe seems to be in balance for now.
It’s paper ballots still in Pakistan. With the “establishment” i.e military so entrenched as it is , they have most likely got the votes ringing in for Nawaz and his Party.
The claims about Pakistan being a democracy are bullshit. It never was one. Propping up puppets is what they do.
I would even go as far as to state that the people of Pakistan don’t know what democracy is , they aren’t ready for that. I still sympathize with them w.r.t the leaders they have though. None of the current lot (including Im the Dim are fit to be a leader)
Imran was the closest the army got to backing a popular candidate who the people could get behind. Remember that he was the Army’s golden boy not so long back. He’s been an abject failure as a PM though leading Pakistan to crisis after crisis during his term( it can be argued that the economical malaise and other related sicknesses plaguing Pakistan preceded Imran )
As far as what it means for India and Pakistan’s other neighbours , I dare say that the Indian govt will find it easier to directly deal with the Pakistan army regime than to deal with parallel structures after this election as it’s clear that the army still reigns supreme.
Imran as PM torpedoed the ties between US and Pakistan in favour of improved ties with China and Russia. This isn’t palatable to the head honchos of Pakistan who favour relationships with US more. Mainly because of the funding that ensues as a result. This is one of the reasons why the army has cut Imran off too.
The economic state of the country can be directly attributed to their army. They need an army to be able to exist as a country , especially after 1971. The more resources that the army takes , the lesser resources there are for the normal people.
I think that autopsy will clearly show that he had a congenital condition that caused his body to trap heavy element isotopes and certain poisons - there by overtime causing his untimely, but completely natural, death.
What Putin did to Navalny is a disgrace. He is running that country with an iron fist, and any opposition is snuffed out, whether on Russian soil or overseas.
If Russia ever gets a brighter future, it will be because the likes of Navalny have not died in vain.
It’s truly awful. Putin has been bumping people off at home and abroad for years. Navalny is a high profile one, and a reminder - not that it was needed, that Putin can’t die soon enough. It will need to happen for the Russian people to have any chance of a brighter future.
For a hard man leader that has near total control, he does strike me as being personally very fragile. Why have someone imprisoned or exiled and then have them killed anyway. It’s quite Stalinesque.
Navalny may not have been killed, just kept in terrible conditions that steadily had him sliding in the grave. Having political opponents and critics die in prison has a long tradition for Russian rulers.
Several commentators have supported this. According to them Navalny didn’t pose any threat to Putin and Putin is in a (relatively speaking) strong position to go for such desperate measures.
He may or may not have had him killed but the one thing that Putin absolutely isn’t below is being petty and vengeful - there are any number of examples to support this!
It’s really scary to think about the condition that ultimately killed Navalny. It’s either that he didn’t receive treatment for some illness or the living condition was extremely dire. Neither will kill you quickly, so the situation was present for a long time.