Kinophile

He really gets it. 
 

More talk, but yes good news. Like with all these announcements, it Could have happened months ago to have an effect now, but instead of months from now. 

More talk, but yes good news. Like with all these announcements, it Could have happened months ago to have an effect now, but instead of months from now. 

I wouldn't call it a sham election either...because I wouldn't call it an election. It was a propaganda exercise. As to fair, well...

Completely agree. Of course, there were ballot papers throwings, but I doubt it were on 30 % level, as claimed some analysts. I've seen screenshots of Russian social media, where members of polling stations committees with visible scare tell each other that on their stations weren't any throwings, but Putin has won with overhelming margin.  We all could see queues of Russian citizen in European countries, which demonstratively said they come to vote for Putin, in Germany they openly demontsrated DNR flags, and "St.Georgian stripes" - "out of spite to the whole world"
Yes, on some foreign polling stations Davankov has won - "liberal" and "anti-war" candidate of "New peoples" party, for which called to vote many of Navalnyi followers 
But here is Davankov today have a meeting with Putin - his words is just "loyal oaths"
 "I congratulate you with a confident victory! I want to say that these actions of Kievan regime has no excusses. I was in 29 regions during my election campaign and I can say in all regions people work for our victory. You absolutely said right that our common goal to win in SMO. It's very important do not remain this confrontation for our next generations. It have to be solved by our. And many people came to me on my meetings and say "Only Vladimir Putin capable to win in this conflict, I will vote for him"
Other Russian influent "liberal" from "libertarian wing" of Navalnyi team - Mikhail Svetov, who now migrated to Argentina said that vicotry of Russia will be profitable for Russian "relocants" (swaggering Russians hate the "political refugees" word concerning themeselve), because this will rise authotity of Russia and will force West to cancel sanctions, which in many things affect Russians abroad.
One more influent "liberal" blames Ukrainians that Putin again came to power (!!!)
Nobody did so much for promoting of current president of Russia, as Ukrainians. Those Russians who tired of 25 years of dictatorship in Russia - do not forget to give thanks brothery Ukrainain people for more 6 years under the thumb of regime
He meant Ukrainains with own "unjustified rusophobia" and mockery over impotent Russian opposition forced liberals to vote for Putin. They are all clynic idiots, sicking with chauvinism.  

Any who now will say about "innocent peaceful Russians, who are just hostages of Putin's dictatorship" - go to hell and damn you! They just voteed for a war and loyality to Putin's policy. Only one type of real good Russians exists - those, who openly say that Russia is a rashist  state, who stand for Ukraine victory, support UKR army, recognize collective responsibility and agree that Russia have to pay reparations, who consider Russian soldiers are not "our poor boys", but invaders, murderers and rapers, which went at war just for money, Rashist ideology or just for opportunity to kill, who sit in jails for own position, who at last fight with a weapon in free-Russia units or make diversions inside Russia. 
So, I wish Russia to burn in flame, collapse and croack in agony. In order our planet at last get rid of this stinky sh...t spot on the map.    

Interesting they can intercept the video feeds. Definitely eludes to a dynamism of counter-drone warfare. 
 

Some important stats from Rob Lee on countermeasures against drones. 
 
 

To be clear, Im not quite buying his argument here. 
It's possible (no drone) but I'm put off by two factors - his insistence on naming Photoshop as the editing tool (Premiere Pro and After Effects are the right tools), and shutter speed.
PS can be used certainly, but it's comparatively labourius and awkward. AE and PPro are tightly integrated and much more flexible - they're designed to work together. If you have PS then you have PPro and AE - they all come with Adobe Creative Content as a single subscription. Why bother using PS if you have PPro and AE right there? Lack of this basic knowledge on his part gives me pause but is not a definitive point. 
Using a drone would be very easy, but they're are by now many RUS operators capable of doing this attack from a decent distance. Why bother not using one?
In the same breath it's even easier to use a basic drone with no payload, fly it into frame and then scrub it in the timeline before it gets too obvious that it's not armed. The camera is locked so its very simple to scrub the drone out with empty frames - and anyone walking up to the helo as well.
Its obviously a staged even (durr a fueled helo with missing windshield?) but I'm Not yet convinced by this argument of no drone. 
There are some counters to my doubt. The major one is the last section he highlights and gives not a lot of time to, but which I personally view as a serious question:
 
The dark smudge travels with the cloud, yet the following darker cloud has no such tailing smudge (so it's not a lensing artifact). The "gaseous" cloud overlays the helo yet that would put it out into the sunlight, out of the hellos shadow and a Camera like this simply wouldn't pick up that fine gas. Also the gas would go out, and to frame left more than towards camera. It feels additive, ie a visual effect added in post. I even bet that one could find that exact explosion effect in some commercial VFX library. 
TLDR I suspect there was a drone, but it was unarmed. I suspect the helo was bombed manually and the explosion,  though real, has been visually augmented with a preceding "explosion" that is actually a stock video file of a studio-shot VFX asset. 

Yet more? 
 

Yet more? 
 

I doubt the Ivans will sit still, but it's certainly a very good amount of damage. 

Yet more? 
 

Putin remains a master strategist. 

Yet more? 
 

Yet more?