Description:
Alexander Mercouris on Russia's parliamentary election confirming Putin's political dominance, Moscow's air defenses crushing Ukraine's largest drone and missile strike on the capital, Merz as a dead man walking after catastrophic CDU losses, and Ukraine's collapsing Kharkov front.
Timeline:
00:00:00 Introduction: two elections in Germany and Russia
00:01:32 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: AfD 38 percent, CDU below 5 percent
00:04:47 Comparing Mecklenburg to the Saxony-Anhalt landslide
00:10:13 Berlin: Die Linke wins, CDU crashes, AfD doubles to 16 percent
00:16:04 Crisis of Germany's old political class, SPD and CDU
00:18:56 Merz's hysterical response and dead-man-walking status
00:22:45 CDU succession scramble between Söder and Wüst
00:26:46 Germany as EU linchpin and a possible shift on Russia
00:32:18 Russia's election: orderly voting amid Western claims of manipulation
00:35:02 United Russia gains as opposition parties hold steady
00:37:48 New People party underperforms, no support for liberalism in Russia
00:41:13 Putin emerges stronger as war veterans enter the Duma
00:47:39 Turning to the war: Moscow's biggest drone strike
00:50:38 Russian defense ministry claims a total intercept
00:52:00 The staggering true cost of Ukraine's drone offensive
01:03:59 Kharkov cauldron nears collapse and Velikiy Burluk encirclement
01:06:16 Biletsky's Liman offensive stalls into a meat grinder
01:10:33 Dobropillya advances continue for Russian forces
01:13:02 Zelensky-Trump call and pressure over refinery strikes
01:14:51 Trump nears a US diesel export ban
01:21:57 European panic deepens as Ukraine's strategy collapses