Before his death, Navalny spoke directly to the generation of activists he inspired: “Listen, I’ve got something very obvious to tell you. You’re not allowed to give up. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong.”
If anyone touches Trump they will be on Putin’s wanted list for monument-ous damage.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Kallas was wanted for “desecration of historical memory”.
Russian police have put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, its state secretary and Lithuania’s culture minister on the wanted list, according to the Russian interior ministry’s database.
On August 29, 2023, Prigozhin was buried in a small cemetery on the outskirts of the city, next to his father’s grave. No official announcement was made. Newspapers reported on the funeral only after it was over. Twenty to thirty people attended, they reported, only relatives and close friends. Police stalked the perimeter against unexpected guests. Prigozhin did not receive the military salute he was due as the Hero of Russia. But severe traffic jams clogged this part of the city the following day, as Russian patriots streamed in pilgrimage to Prigozhin’s modest grave. A warning for the oligarchs and the fifth column—and perhaps for the rest of us too.
The Kremlin has been running an aggressive propaganda campaign to justify its actions to its citizens.Now, Russia is sinking deeper into the quagmire of Putinism, and there are few signs that the population is resisting the path the president is leading them down.
Polling by the Russian independent pollster Levada Centre revealed that, in July, approval of Putin amongst Russians stood at 82 per cent. Three-quarters of those surveyed said they supported the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine.
Another reading is also possible here, though it will have to be verified in due course. Putin had anticipated that this contingently loyal band of mercenaries was always liable to turn, given the chance. Russia is overrun with such volatile privateers and soldiers of fortune. Where that fortune turns, demands will be made.
By Monday morning, after the non-coup, Wagner posters were back up in most major cities, and Wagner recruitment centers reopened. Wagner merch could once again be purchased online: the bull’s eye skulls, with their slogans, “Blood. Honor. Motherland. Courage.” “Nothing Personal. We’ve Been Paid.” “Our Business is Death. Business is Booming.” T-shirts and baseball caps, patches, and stickers, they’re popular with the kids.
The Grayzone obtained an exclusive look at the massacre some of America’s top Russia experts carried out against their own credibility.
It was as though the Soviet Union was collapsing all over again, and Prigozhin, a character named on the F.B.I.’s most wanted list whom the U.S. government has sanctioned for leading what it described as a “transnational criminal organization,” was suddenly a white knight storming into Moscow to liberate Russia from “the Putin regime” on the back of a tank. Move over, Juan Guaido.
Putin walks back on his promise to the Russian people, and unlike Trump, pays the Wagner group to stand down. Let’s be frank Mercenaries aren’t patriots they are there to do a job. Trump’s lawyers need to learn from Wagner if they want to be paid.
The criminal case against Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) founder Evgeny Prigozhin will be dropped and he will leave Russia, the Kremlin announced on Saturday evening.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov revealed that Prigozhin, a Saint Petersburg tycoon who made his initial fortune in catering, “will go to Belarus.”
He added that Wagner’s fighters will not be persecuted, taking into account their efforts on the frontlines of the Ukraine conflict. Peskov explained that President Vladimir Putin’s team “have always respected their exploits.”
However, would Putin dare use nuclear devices so close to his own border and Lukashenko’s?
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko says his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons – some of which he says are three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
In October, the Saudi-led OPEC cartel of oil-producing countries slashed output by two million barrels per day to drive prices higher. Now – heedless of an angry US president who has threatened unspecified “consequences” – it is cutting production again. As Biden looks on powerlessly, one of the biggest winners is likely to be Vladimir Putin.
A former Russian security officer has given rare insight into President Vladimir Putin’s “pathological” fear for his life and his “distorted” grip on reality.
In a nation where walls have ears parents must be careful what they say in front of their children because it might be taken to school and reflected in their show and tell. When citizens can’t speak as freely Australians must seem naive. You can be sure Russians are great whisperers and fucking great listeners. Unfortunately great, reporters and dobbers as well. East Germany the CFSR were once much the same when politics was never openly discussed. During the Spanish Inquisition there was the “accusation box’. Sadly India seems to be drifting in the same direction with the jailing of Raul Gandhi for 2 years.
For this awful crime of discrediting the Russian army, Alexei Moskalev was sentenced to two years for bringing up his daughter in the wrong way. The single father has since fled his home and authorities don’t know where he is. His daughter, then 12 at the time of the offensive drawing occurred, was sent to a children’s home.
In another sign of Moscow’s punishing crackdown on those who question its war in Ukraine, the 69-year-old veteran human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov was detained this week on charges of “repeatedly discrediting the armed forces”.
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes committed in Ukraine.
+ For the 6.3 billion people who live outside of the West, 66 percent feel positively towards Russia and 70 percent feel positively towards China, and,
+ Among the 66 percent who feel positively about Russia the breakdown is 75 percent in South Asia, 68 percent in Francophone Africa, and 62 percent in Southeast Asia.
+ Public opinion of Russia remains positive in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam.
By Krishen Mehta / CounterPunch In October 2022, about eight months after the war in Ukraine started, the University of Cambridge in the UK harmonized surveys conducted in 137 countries about their attitudes towards the West and towards Russia and China. The findings in the study, while not free of a margin of error, are robust […]
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of starting the war in Ukraine, but said that he would not start a nuclear war, in a lengthy and rambling speech to the nation on Tuesday.
The United States has told its citizens to leave Russia immediately due to the war in Ukraine and the risk of arbitrary arrest or harassment by Russian law enforcement agencies.
Chris Hedges: Ukraine: The War That Went Wrong NATO support for the war in Ukraine, designed to degrade the Russian military and drive Vladimir Putin from power, is not going according to plan. The new sophisticated military hardware won’t help.
How has the battle-scarred Ukrainian city of Mariupol changed after eight months under Russian control? These images were taken by photojournalist Arseniy Kotov half a year apart, in summer and in winter, and show efforts to restore the Azov sea pearl It’s now over eight months since Mariupol – the second largest city of the Continue reading »
The Ukrainian conflict has so far been a proxy war between Russia and NATO. However, the growing number of Western countries joining the conflict and aiming to “strategically defeat” Russia may lead to a direct clash between the Armed Forces of Russia and Western military units. If this happens, the Ukrainian conflict will turn into a Russia-NATO war. Such a situation will inevitably carry a nuclear risk. This is further aggravated by the fact that, acting out of desperation, Kiev authorities may provoke the US-led military bloc to directly enter the conflict.
The question today is how the Russian government will react to the protests. Russian wives and mothers have played a destabilizing role in other wars and they are now working to destabilize the current war against Ukraine. While many supported Putin’s initial moves, today they realize they are losing their sons and brothers for no reason other than to fulfill Putin’s maniacal desire to conquer Ukraine. Putin and his henchmen will attempt to assuage the women – while working to silence them as soon as possible. Putin needs their men to fight his ego war – even if it means he must destroy Russia’s entire male population once and for all.
One of the biggest lessons from my trip is the huge gap between representations of Russia in the west and what you see when you arrive there. This gap in perception is likely to increase because of the lack of people currently travelling there from the west and the suspension of professional and academic links.
President Vladimir Putin has given a strong signal the war in Ukraine could continue long into 2023, with a New Year warning that the “fate of Russia” depends on victory.
Convenient News spread faster than any truth and it’s defended as Freedom of Speech
Disinformation is an old Russian government tactic. But this time Russia had help. Within days, Chinese officials and media outlets had picked up the lies and were amplifying and expanding on the biolabs yarn. The Chinese Communist Party tabloid Global Times created two splashy spreads, one sourced in part to Sputnik News, the other featuring a quote from Russian President Vladimir Putin. “What is the U.S. hiding in the biolabs discovered in Ukraine?” it screamed.
“China jumped on the biolabs conspiracy theory,” said Katja Drinhausen, an analyst with the Mercator Institute of China Studies in Berlin. Chinese officials and media outlets had spent the preceding months pushing the notion that the pandemic might have originated in a lab accident outside China. “It was like, here’s the perfect conspiracy theory coming out of Russia to support our ‘everywhere but China’ main talking point of the last year,” she said.
In establishing the neocon playbook as Putin’s blueprint, the goal is not to absolve his criminal regime of guilt by childishly pointing to other crimes against humanity carried out by the US. It is instead intended to establish Putin’s move into Ukraine as being rooted in a precedent established by the US and its imperial junior partners.
And so, you see an alternate reality where Ukraine is a Nazi state, where Russian speakers face a genocide, where aggressive war is a preemptive, defensive, “special operation.” But moreover, you see a reality where power reigns supreme over international law. And here, Putin is existing within the neocon-constructed reality, and is now reshaping it in his image.
Last month, the Russian parliament mounted an unusual art exhibition with subjects ranging from the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to a sentimental image of a kitten. They had been produced in prison by Viktor Bout, serving 25 years in America.
Brittney Griner in court in Khimki in August. The deal procured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad. Brittney Griner freed from Russian prison in exchange for Viktor Bout Read more History has shown that a sideline as an amateur artist is not much guarantee of moral integrity. Bout, known as “the merchant of death”, was the world’s most notorious arms dealer, selling weapons to rogue states, rebel groups and murderous warlords in Africa, Asia and South America.
That, for many, was what made his release on Thursday in a prisoner swap for US basketball star Brittney Griner difficult to stomach. Joe Biden has done a deal with the devil. But he may also have saved a woman’s life. As the president found in Afghanistan, the big decisions are seldom morally clearcut.
There back those that Putin and Trump say don’t exist
Russian trolls and bots are coming back online ahead of the midterms—this time, amplifying right-wing vitriol on Gab, Parler, Gettr, and other minor social media platforms serving far-right audiences. Cybersecurity researchers have identified the reactivation of inflammatory accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency, a propaganda group associated with the Kremlin that has interfered in US elections since at least 2016, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
However insensitive and provocative NATO members may or may not have been and whatever weasel words Putin dredges up to justify his invasion of Ukraine, there can be no doubt that Russia is in breach of an undertaking it took not to use force against Ukraine in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
So is it speculative to talk about a future Russian collapse? Yes. Is there evidence it is imminent? No. But in many ways that’s the problem: when authoritarian regimes implode, they tend to do so very quickly, and with little warning.
Hence in the Russian case, it’s important to consider all possible eventualities, even if they might appear implausible at the moment.
And, if nothing else, it’s always better to be pleasantly surprised than blindsided by events we inconveniently decided not to foresee.
Vladimir Putin’s bizarre ceremonies formalising Russia’s annexation of some 15 per cent of Ukraine once again revealed the yawning chasm between Kremlin triumphalism and reality.
Never mind Russian forces didn’t even fully control the territories Putin brought under the Russian flag.
Never mind Russia’s “referendums” were a blatant fabrication – with voting often held at gunpoint.
Never mind that by now more people have fled Russia than the 300,000 extra troops to be “partially mobilised” in support of Putin’s flagging war effort.
And never mind that Russian forces are retreating in many of their newly acquired lands, with the key city of Lyman liberated by Ukraine less than 24 hours after its annexation was announced.
Putin’s vitriolic rantings to a decidedly subdued audience provided plenty of distasteful soundbites.
He referred to the West as Satanists with “various genders”, calling for holy war against the transexual Western bogeymen.
Eventually it will become patently obvious that the one man who isn’t permitted to be criticised – Vladimir Putin – is in charge of the mess.
On Sept. 18, 2022, she published the Instagram post. Addressing the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, Pugacheva asked it to designate her a “foreign agent” in solidarity with her husband. She added that her husband is “an honest and decent human being, a true and incorruptible Russian patriot who wishes his homeland a flourishing and peaceful life, freedom of speech, and an end to the deaths of our boys for illusory goals that are making our country a pasening the life of our citizens.”
After Putin announced mandatory military service, demonstrators called the mobilization a “burialization” — and more than 1,000 were arrested in cities across Russia.
Taras Berezovets is a Ukrainian analyst and reporter, now serving with one of his country’s special forces outfits, who keeps his hand in at his old gig with a lively feed on the socials. On the ninth of September, in the early days of the current offensive, he published a letter from an enemy soldier, V.V. Tarasenko, to his wife Valeria. Tarasenko is dead.
The United States is deeply concerned by the Russian government’s treatment of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the State Department says.
While the world’s attention focuses on Ukraine’s fight to drive out Russian invaders, Vladimir Putin’s jailers have been been tormenting imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny
Russian prison authorities have interfered with Navalny’s preparation of his defence and communication with his lawyer, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price says.
He also said Navalny has been repeatedly placed in solitary confinement for minor alleged infractions.
Price said Navalny’s treatment was “evidence of politically motivated harassment” and he reiterated US calls for the opposition leader’s immediate release.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic inside Russia, is serving an 11-1/2 year sentence after being found guilty of parole violations and fraud and contempt of court charges.
He says all charges against him were fabricated as a pretext to smother dissent and thwart his political ambitions.
Opponents of Putin are not just accident prone they’re dead shot in the streets assassinated and have fatal or near-fatal accidents. If they happen to survive they are simply jailed until at least another leader comes along.
Russia has jailed a journalist for “treason”, in a case widely viewed as politically motivated and designed to silence the media and Kremlin critics.
Thousands of people young and old lined up to pay their respects and view the body of Mikhail Gorbachev
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the funeral of the former Soviet leader
Many Western leaders were absent from the funeral due to tense relations between Moscow and the West
The man affectionately known as ‘Gorby’ in the West and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in ending the Cold War is buried at Moscow’s famous Novodevichy cemetery alongside his wife Raisa, who died in 1999.
Some 8 influential Russians against Putin have now died under suspicious circumstances and others are incarcerated, Gorbachev ex-President hasn’t been awarded a State Funeral and Putin didn’t bother to attend. Nevertheless, Trump still is in awe of the Russian State and Putin’s power.
May, Russian forces occupying the village told residents that a corridor had been opened to Ukrainian-controlled territory. Nataliya and others boarded a bus that they were told was headed to Kharkiv. But when the bus stopped, she realized they were in Shebekino, a city just across the border.
“I suddenly realized that we were in Russia,” Nataliya told human rights investigators. “We didn’t even go through a border crossing.”
Russia says it has 2 mill troops. How many can they move feed and cloth with the onset of winter? How many can the convince their war is righteous? They lost and were demoralised by the Afghans and Zelensky learnt that it isn’t numbers that count but resolve.
In a late-night address on Monday, Mr Zelensky called on Russian forces to go home or be chased home.
‘‘If they want to survive – it’s time for the Russian military to run away. Go home,’’ he said.
‘‘Ukraine is taking back its own (land),’’ Mr Zelensky said, adding that he would not disclose Kyiv’s precise battle plans, but that his armed forces were doing thei
olddogthoughts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.