Dead Drop: December 2

DRY YOUR TEARS: It’s been a tough week – amid a tough year for the mothers of Russian soldiers killed during the Kremlin’s (planned three-day) military adventure in Ukraine.  The Moscow Times reports that a prominent Russian social network known as VKontakte has blocked an ad run by “the Council of Wives and Mothers” because they criticized Vladimir Putin for excluding them from a recent meeting. At the meeting, Putin reportedly told those who were invited that “we share your pain.”  The meeting was scheduled to coincide with Russia’s Mother’s day. Meanwhile, there was a report that some mothers of Russia’s fallen were awarded a set of matching towels following their loss.

MAYBE VLAD WILL LISTEN TO THIS MOTHER:  Alina Kabaeva is a former Russian gymnast who is believed to be the not-so-secret lover of Vladimir Putin. The person once known as “Russia’s most flexible woman” is reportedly having her arm twisted by friends who want her to go see the father of her four children and ask him to stop the war in Ukraine. Doing so would require some travel since Kabaeva and kids are said to currently reside in a Swiss chalet near the French border. According to the New York Post, more than 50,000 people have signed a petition urging Switzerland to give the woman, dubbed the “Russian Eva Braun,” an order to depart the country. Maybe she can stick the landing in Moscow.