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Again, text BDB to 9889-89898. It's Tuesday, the 23rd of December. Welcome to the PDB

afternoon bulletin.

I'm Mike Baker.

Your eyes and ears on the world stage.

All right.

Let's get briefed.

First up, rare cracks in the Kremlin's facade.

Frustration over poverty, inflation, and the war spills into Vladimir Putin's tightly controlled year-end address, offering an unusual

glimpse of pressure inside Russia. Later in the show, intelligence agencies warned that Russia

may be working on a new anti-satellite weapon aimed directly at Starlink, the space-based

system that's critical to Ukraine's war effort. But first, today's afternoon

spotlight. A tightly managed Kremlin propaganda exercise cracked under the weight of reality,

and it all happened in full view of the Russian public. Vladimir Putin held his annual

year-end direct line event last week. It's a marathon press conference and a

call-in show that's supposed to project control and confidence and competence. For hours,

the Russian president fields questions from citizens and journalists and carefully selected

representatives of the public. It's like Delilah's radio call-in show without the advice for the

love-lorn or endless requests for wind beneath my wings. It's like Hivelad, long-time listener,

...