It looked a whole lot like Vladimir Putin was losing his war a few weeks ago.

Ukrainian army, kick and rush and arse, retaking a huge swath of territory, enforcing Putin's

troops into an embarrassing retreat.

Not just in Ukraine, but with the Russian public too.

The politician says those people who convinced Putin, the special operation would be over

quickly.

They took us for a ride.

Now he's escalating that war and holding some shady elections to tighten his grip on

Ukrainian territory.

But the concept is quite ridiculous because they are not even hiding how shab this

vote really is.

They said that they're going to send a pretty heavy military presence to ensure peace and

stability, but really it is a tactic of intimidation.

Putin's escalation, coming up on today's plate.

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