2.3 The Republic of Fake

From the frozen balconies of Rēzekne to the digital hallucinations of the Kremlin, the Russian Federation has become a "Republic of Fake."In this episode, I broadcast from Pilda—just 22km from the Russian border—to tear down the "digital wall" Putin has built. We expose the absurdity of a war where soldiers are forced to weld rusty pipes to Soviet vans while the Ministry of Defense spends billions on AI censorship tools. We analyze General Gerasimov’s "Potemkin JPEGs"—fake maps of captured villages that exist only in PowerPoint to please the Czar.And most importantly, we look at the fridge. With 35,000 restaurants closing in a year and economists advising Muscovites to buy wood-burning stoves for their skyscrapers, the "War Economy" is finally revealing its true cost: The stability of the grave.Help us send REAL trucks to the front: car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-the-eastern-borderBecome our patron:https://www.patreon.com/theeasternborderMerch store + another option for memberships:https://theeasternborder-shop.fourthwall.com/Follow what's going on here in the very border of Eastern Europe:https://bsky.app/profile/theeasternborder.lvDownload all episodes for free on our website; pictures accompanying certain episodes can be found there as well!http://theeasternborder.lv/Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.