I don't know if you have noticed this, but the usual crowd of Putin bashers is being uncharacteristically quiet these days, especially the ones I call the "hurray patriots". Some of their blogs have simply been closed, others are apparently frozen, and those still minimally active are getting very few visitors (nope, I shall not name them here, both on principle and in order not to direct any traffic towards these cesspools). They are all apparently getting tired of chanting their favorite mantras ("Putin has sold out!", "Putin has betrayed Novorussia!", "Putin is a puppet of the oligarchs!", etc.). The reason for that sudden drop in energy is simple: the Putin bashers have just suffered a series of painful political defeats. Let's look at them one by one:
