iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The new constitution that followed gave Russia an all-powerful presidency. Its first-ever election under it handed the largest vote share to an ultranationalist party. Putin inherited both. How six hours in Moscow set the template for everything after: peripheryanalysis.substack.com/p/the-democr...

peripheryanalysis.substack.com

The Democrat Who Shelled Democracy

The Russian Origins of Its Discontents

001

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

By 1993, Yeltsin was locked in a standoff with parliament over reforms and constitutional power. He had the mandate to negotiate a real settlement. Instead, he dissolved parliament by decree, then sent tanks and special forces to crush the response.

101

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

In August 1991, Boris Yeltsin climbed on top of a tank to defy a coup and save Russian democracy. In October 1993, he ordered tanks to open fire on the same building. Same man. Same tanks. Opposite outcome.

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

There was almost a second Korean War between 1966 and 1969. Kim Il-sung launched a sustained low-intensity campaign along the DMZ while the US was bogged down in Vietnam. Assassination attempts, naval seizures, commando raids. The world was looking the other way. Link below :)

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

31 North Korean commandos infiltrated Seoul in January 1968 with orders to assassinate the South Korean president. They got within 100 meters of the Blue House before being intercepted. Two days later, North Korea seized a US Navy ship in international waters.

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

While the US was fighting in Vietnam, another war was quietly being fought 2,200 miles to the north. Between 1966 and 1969, 300 ROK and 81 US troops were killed along the Korean DMZ. Kim Il-sung called it a "second front." Almost nobody in the West knows it happened.

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The truth stayed buried until the 1990s. No official report until 2006. In 2017, South Korea stood up a new decapitation unit. Full piece on Unit 684, and what a canceled assassination plot says about the vulnerability of covert programs:

101

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

On Aug 23, 1971, the men of Unit 684 killed most of their trainers, hijacked a bus, and fought toward Seoul under a radio broadcast falsely calling them North Korean infiltrators. Most died in the firefight. Four survivors were executed months later.

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

In 1971, South Korea spent three years training 31 men to assassinate Kim Il-sung. They never got the chance — not because they failed, but because Seoul and Pyongyang started talking. So the state decided to erase the unit instead.

111

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

In Syria and the CAR, Wagner extracted resources and propped up governments with relative ease. In Mozambique, they refused to patrol on foot, alienated their hosts, got ambushed twice, and were sent home within months. Same playbook. Completely different result. Link in comments :)

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I would say Israel. But some see the Six-Day War as a natural expansion of Egyptian troops moving across the Suez Canal, 3 weeks before the beginning of the war itself. But I would still say Israel.

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Egypt deployed 70,000 troops to Yemen between 1962 and 1967. Used chemical weapons. Lost 20,000 men. And then walked directly into the Six-Day War with its best units exhausted and bogged down. The origins of Israel's greatest victory were written in the Yemeni mountains. Link in comments :)

200

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

On January 25th, 1995, Boris Yeltsin opened Russia's nuclear briefcase for the first and only time in history. The cause? A Norwegian scientific rocket studying the northern lights. The world came within ten minutes of nuclear war, and almost nobody knows it happened. Link in comments!

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Israel simultaneously hosts the largest US air base in the Middle East and maintains a working relationship with Russia. Russia simultaneously arms Iran and allows Israel to bomb Iranian targets in Syria. The most complicated relationship in international relations, and the one nobody talks about.

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

China's only overseas military base is seven miles from America's largest base in Africa. Both are in Djibouti, a country smaller than New Hampshire with a population of one million. Welcome to the world's most competitive military landlord. Check out the link in the comments!

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

US scientific panel concluded 2 to 1 in favor of a nuclear explosion over the South Atlantic in 1979. A second panel, convened by the Carter administration, concluded it was probably a meteorite. The difference between those two conclusions may be the most consequential cover-up in nuclear history.

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Azerbaijan broke a Russian-brokered ceasefire. Turkey provided the drones. Israel provided the weapons. Belarus armed Azerbaijan on the eve of the offensive. And Russia's peacekeepers, stationed there specifically to prevent this, watched. The war nobody watched. Link in comments :)

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Thursday Short Form piece: A French intervention, an Israeli drone, an Ivorian civil war, and Belarusian mercenaries… Link in the comment :)

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Pakistan deployed pilots to defend Saudi Arabia in 1969. Advised the assault on the Grand Mosque in 1979. May have built the Islamic world’s first nuclear deterrent. The September 2025 defense pact didn’t come out of nowhere. Link in comments :)

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

A US delegation flew to Moscow to confront Russia over the biggest cyberattack in American history. A general admitted everything, produced the logs, took them sightseeing, and then was never seen again. New piece link comments

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

The world declared Boko Haram defeated. They were wrong. The group didn’t die — it evolved into something the West is even less equipped to confront. Latest from The Periphery. 🔗 [link]

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

The Takaichi administration has moved to remove barriers to offensive weapon exports. To be clear, Japan can’t just become a major arms exporter overnight, but the message is clear. This goes hand-in-hand with the very real right-wing turn the Japanese government has taken.

000

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Wars over oil defined the 20th century. Wars over water may define the 21st. New piece on the Nile, the Indus, and the Jordan — three river basins, three powder kegs. [link in comments]

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Report of NATOs death have been greatly exaggerated…

000

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

In 1979, Anwar Sadat said: “The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water.” He wasn’t being dramatic. He was being prophetic. New piece on the coming resource wars. 🔗 [link in comments]

100

The Periphery @peripheryanalysis.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Wow, I need to find out where I can watch this documentary…

100