7 months after the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be losing

the war.

There on their heels, morale seems to be very poor in the Russian military.

Their soldiers are poorly equipped.

People are not exactly sure what the strategy is, and so it's a very fraught time.

That's our colleague Matthew Dalton, and he says it's so fraught because Putin isn't

showing any signs of retreat.

Two weeks ago, he called up the reserves, and he repeated veiled nuclear threats.

And then last week, two things happened that suggested Putin is doubling down.

First, there were major explosions on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea that raised suspicions

of Russian-backed sabotage, which the Kremlin denies.

And then Friday, Russia annexed four regions of Ukraine, suggesting that Russia is far

from giving up.

Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Kate Limbaw.

It's Tuesday, October 4th.

Coming up on the show, Putin is losing the war, so he's raising the stakes.

Next Monday, scientists in northern Europe came across something strange.

It looks like a very large jacuzzi in the Baltic Sea.

It's just kind of bubbling, like a big whirlpool of bubbles in the middle of the ocean.

This jacuzzi was natural gas bubbling up to the surface.

In Mark and Sweden, notice that there were very large methane lakes coming out of the Baltic Sea.

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