World Politics

[Tracker]

2 hours ago, blue_gold_84 said:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-ukraine-leadership-can-end-suffering-by-meeting-russian-demands-2022-11-24/

Russia's scummy "leadership" living in an alternate reality.

Particularly when the US military reports that Russian military capability, both in personnel and equipment is so badly degraded between horrible management and the Ukrainian war that one big counter-offensive by the Ukrainian military will completely destroy whatever is left. Most recent estimate is that Russia has suffered 100,000 fatalities and another 500-600,000 disabled. The Russians are apparently burning their dead in landfill sites and listing the dead as AWOL: so as to avoid paying compensation to the families/spouses.

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-ukraine-rape-1.6661735

Quote

There is evidence that Russian commanders in several instances were aware of sexual violence by military personnel in Ukraine — and in some cases, encouraged or even ordered it — according to an international criminal lawyer assisting Kyiv's war crimes investigations.

British lawyer Wayne Jordash told Reuters that in some areas around the capital of Kyiv in the north, where the probes are most advanced, some of the sexual violence involved a level of organization by Russian armed forces that speaks to planning on a more systematic level. He didn't identify specific individuals under scrutiny.

The previously unreported findings by investigators about the alleged role of commanders and the systematic nature of attacks in some locations are part of patterns of alleged sexual violence that are emerging as Russia's war in Ukraine enters its ninth month.

[Tracker]

7 hours ago, blue_gold_84 said:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-ukraine-rape-1.6661735

Nothing new here. The Russian commanders have been at least indifferent to the atrocities and often complicit. Girls as young as 6 and grandmothers were reported to be victims of gang rape.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Tracker

[WildPath]

Somewhat related - my dad has been obsessed with the invasion since it started. Maybe partially due to his Ukranian roots or the David/Goliath angle. He was pumped to hear about the Ukrainian Postal service releasing stamps and such to commemorate victories in the war. I placed an order for some stuff on Oct. 18 hoping for it to be here by Christmas for a gift and it arrived this week. If anyone else is looking for some gifts for the Ukrainian in their lives, my shipping time suggests that the orders should be close to arrival for the holiday, if not Ukrainian Christmas. I put in a large order with several large items that likely delayed my shipping time somewhat.

Поштовий маркет - Інтернет-магазин Укрпошти (ukrposhta.ua)

Ukrposhta | Ukraine’s national post

 

[Tracker]

 

 

                                     

[Tracker]

The death of Lukashenko's foreign minister was probably a warning.

Due to Lukashenko’s refusal to participate in the war in UA, information has leaked that there are preparations for an assassination on him. The plan is to kill him and have him replaced by CSTO sec.-General Stanislav Zas who’d surrender Belarus’ army to Putin.
 

 

[blue_gold_84]

https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-health-fires-social-media-50d7515e5fae00f5054062209e9306cc

Quote

SHANGHAI (AP) — Protesters angered by strict anti-virus measures called for China’s powerful leader to resign, an unprecedented rebuke as authorities in at least eight cities struggled to suppress demonstrations Sunday that represent a rare direct challenge to the ruling Communist Party.

Police using pepper spray drove away demonstrators in Shanghai who called for Xi Jinping to step down and an end to one-party rule, but hours later people rallied again in the same spot. Police again broke up the demonstration, and a reporter saw protesters under arrest being driven away in a bus.

The protests — which began Friday and have spread to cities including the capital, Beijing, and dozens of university campuses — are the most widespread show of opposition to the ruling party in decades.

In a video of the protest in Shanghai verified by The Associated Press, chants against Xi, the most powerful leader since at least the 1980s, and the Chinese Communist Party sounded loud and clear: “Xi Jinping! Step down! CCP! Step down!”

 

[JCon]

On 2022-11-26 at 10:11 AM, Tracker said:

 

 

                                     

Every week there is a new claim. Him and Kim Jung-on have both had several different ailments. They die so frequently. 

[HardCoreBlue]

1 hour ago, JCon said:

Every week there is a new claim. Him and Kim Jung-on have both had several different ailments. They die so frequently. 

Exactly. White noise. Click bait. Similar to ‘Trump thinks this, Trump thinks that, Trump has a melt down’ blah blah blah

[Mark H.]

1 hour ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Exactly. White noise. Click bait. Similar to ‘Trump thinks this, Trump thinks that, Trump has a melt down’ blah blah blah

And the dollar signs keep flying off the ads.

[Tracker]

Signs of Another Humiliating Loss Send Russia Into Denial Mode 

-Getty News
Russian forces may be preparing to leave the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russia has occupied since the early months of the war this year, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said Sunday he believes Russian troops will be leaving the power plant as Ukrainian forces continue to make advances in occupied territories.

“Russian servicemen will leave the Zaporizhzhia NPP, as their line of defense is gradually moving towards the borders of the Russian Federation,” Podolyak said in an interview with Freedom TV.

Russian news outlets have also been hinting at a possible withdrawal from the plant, Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company Energoatom, said Sunday.

“There are some signs showing that they might be going to leave the Zaporizhzhia NPP,” Kotin said. “There have been a lot of publications in the Russian press saying that the Zaporizhzhia NPP could be left and handed over to the IAEA's control.”

[Tracker]

The EU will seize and use $330 billion of Russian money deposited in EU banks for rebuilding Ukraine

 

                       

[Tracker]

Putin’s Prison Recruiting Scheme Takes a Big, Desperate Turn

ABUJA, Nigeria—Russia’s infamous Wagner Group is freeing hardened rebels held in jail cells in the Central African Republic and deploying them overseas, including in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, two senior military officers in CAR told The Daily Beast.

According to the sources in CAR, where armed rebels have controlled large parts of the country for about a decade, dozens of men held in military and police custody for crimes such as rape and murder are now being recruited into Wagner’s local wing, which includes hundreds of fighters commonly referred to as “Black Russians.” Many of the recruits, the officers said, are rebels the military consider to be terrorists because of their unlawful use of violence and intimidation against civilians and armed forces in pursuit of political aims.

“Since October, they [Wagner paramilitaries] have been walking into military and police cells and releasing rebels, including those held for attacking Bokolobo village [in southern CAR] in May and for raping women and girls,” an officer who works at the military headquarters in CAR’s capital, Bangui, told The Daily Beast. “Nobody can stop them because the government has given them so much power to act the way they want.”

Another military officer told The Daily Beast that rebels held for attacking and killing CAR soldiers during an assault on a military camp in the southeastern town of Bakouma town in April have also been freed by Russian mercenaries. The officer said Wagner paramilitaries told military officials that the released rebels would be working for the group overseas.

“They [Wagner] said they needed urgent manpower in Mali and Ukraine,” the officer, who works with CAR’s army, told The Daily Beast. “I think more than 20 people we’ve been holding [for very serious crimes] have been released.”

Many of CAR’s high-risk criminals, particularly rebels accused of harming, raping, and killing civilians are held in military and police cells rather than in understaffed and poorly secured conventional prisons. Although the detainees are under the custody of local forces, Wagner mercenaries—who’ve been active in CAR since the government turned to Russia for help in securing arms and paramilitaries in 2017—continue to exert influence over the Central African nation’s security agencies.

Among the prisoners released by Russian mercenaries is a notorious fighter from the Union for Peace (UPC) rebel group known by his colleagues as Mohammed, according to a former UPC member. The released rebel fighter is believed to have been involved in the Bokolobo attack in May. He allegedly joined Wagner’s local unit in late October and is now among the dozens of Black Russians believed to have been deployed to Ukraine.

“[Mohammed] and four others were accused of raping and killing civilians in Bokolobo and detained for months by soldiers at Camp du Kassaï [in Bangui],” Ali, who was recruited by Wagner Group after quitting UPC last December, told The Daily Beast. “We were surprised to see that he had become a Black Russian and was even shortlisted for Ukraine.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/wagner-group-accused-of-recruiting-prisoners-from-the-central-african-republic-for-russias-war-in-ukraine?ref=home

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

 

 

Anyone else thinking...

"Sure that formation awesome... but one molotov cocktail is all it would take."

[Wideleft]

2 hours ago, Wanna-B-Fanboy said:

 

 

Anyone else thinking...

"Sure that formation awesome... but one molotov cocktail is all it would take."

I was thinking...

[Tracker]

 

 

                                

[Tracker]

                                                               Another milestone reached:

                                     

[Tracker]

Today In Russia:

Russia executed a commander: his soldiers deserted. His last message: "To the Ministry we are all dead, they don't give a f**k. They're taking me to headquarters for execution. Today me, tomorrow someone else, that's it." Soon his wife will be given a body with a broken head.

[Wideleft]

Ukraine live briefing: Attacks on Russian airfields carried out by Ukrainian drones, Kyiv official says

By David L. Stern, Erin Cunningham, Mary Ilyushina, Jeff Stein, Kelly Kasulis Cho, Jennifer Hassan and Miriam Berger

 

Updated December 6, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. EST|Published December 6, 2022 at 2:05 a.m. EST

 

KYIV, Ukraine — An oil facility close to an airfield in Russia’s Kursk oblast, near the Ukrainian border, caught fire Tuesday following a drone strike, regional governor Roman Starovoit said on Telegram, adding that there were no casualties. This would be the third attack on or near a Russian airfield in 24 hours — the most brazen and furthest-ranging attacks inside Russia since the invasion of Ukraine began in February, and an apparent escalation of the already full-scale drone war between the countries.

The strike comes a day after explosions at two military installations deep inside Russia, including an airfield that served as a base for bombers allegedly used in Moscow’s relentless strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. Three Russian service members died in those blasts, which marked the deepest strikes yet inside Russia. Russia’s Defense Ministry blamed Ukraine for the attacks and said it had intercepted low-flying drones in the area.

Kyiv did not publicly claim responsibility for the strikes Monday and Tuesday, but a senior Ukrainian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation, told The Washington Post on Tuesday that all three attacks were carried out by Ukrainian drones.

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

Key developments

• “These were Ukrainian drones — very successful, very effective,” the senior Ukrainian official said of the strikes, which signal a potentially serious security lapse by Russia. The official added that Moscow has “sowed the seeds of anger, and they’ll reap the whirlwind.” He said he could not comment on whether the drones were launched from Ukrainian territory or whether special forces were involved.
• Russia appears to have run out of Iranian drones, and there is no sign that fresh supplies are on the way, a Western official, who spoke on the discussion of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Tuesday. Russia has not used Iranian drones in its attacks on Ukranian infrastructure since mid-November and there is also no indication that a proposed deal to manufacture the drones in Russia is near completion, the official said. The slow-moving, noisy drones have in any case proved increasingly ineffective as Ukrainian air defenses have adapted, Western and Ukrainian officials say. Intelligence officials believe Russia has used around 400 Iranian drones since the first supplies arrived last summer, and Ukraine claims it has managed to shoot the majority of them down.
• Ukraine is carrying out emergency shutdowns of its power grid in key regions after another barrage of Russian missiles knocked out power and water supplies in cities including Odessa on Monday. About half of the Kyiv region will be without electricity in the coming days, Oleksiy Kuleba, the region’s military leader, said on Telegram. “We will do everything to restore stability,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address.
• Russia said there are no direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv on the issue of a security zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, after Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he was nearing an agreement between the two sides to safeguard the facility. “We are discussing the possible parameters of a declaration on the establishment of a zone of protection,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. But under no circumstances would Russian forces withdraw from the plant, she added.

From the Washington Post

 

 

 

[Tracker]

1 hour ago, Wideleft said:

Ukraine live briefing: Attacks on Russian airfields carried out by Ukrainian drones, Kyiv official says

By David L. Stern, Erin Cunningham, Mary Ilyushina, Jeff Stein, Kelly Kasulis Cho, Jennifer Hassan and Miriam Berger

 

Updated December 6, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. EST|Published December 6, 2022 at 2:05 a.m. EST

 

KYIV, Ukraine — An oil facility close to an airfield in Russia’s Kursk oblast, near the Ukrainian border, caught fire Tuesday following a drone strike, regional governor Roman Starovoit said on Telegram, adding that there were no casualties. This would be the third attack on or near a Russian airfield in 24 hours — the most brazen and furthest-ranging attacks inside Russia since the invasion of Ukraine began in February, and an apparent escalation of the already full-scale drone war between the countries.

The strike comes a day after explosions at two military installations deep inside Russia, including an airfield that served as a base for bombers allegedly used in Moscow’s relentless strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. Three Russian service members died in those blasts, which marked the deepest strikes yet inside Russia. Russia’s Defense Ministry blamed Ukraine for the attacks and said it had intercepted low-flying drones in the area.

Kyiv did not publicly claim responsibility for the strikes Monday and Tuesday, but a senior Ukrainian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation, told The Washington Post on Tuesday that all three attacks were carried out by Ukrainian drones.

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

Key developments

• “These were Ukrainian drones — very successful, very effective,” the senior Ukrainian official said of the strikes, which signal a potentially serious security lapse by Russia. The official added that Moscow has “sowed the seeds of anger, and they’ll reap the whirlwind.” He said he could not comment on whether the drones were launched from Ukrainian territory or whether special forces were involved.
• Russia appears to have run out of Iranian drones, and there is no sign that fresh supplies are on the way, a Western official, who spoke on the discussion of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Tuesday. Russia has not used Iranian drones in its attacks on Ukranian infrastructure since mid-November and there is also no indication that a proposed deal to manufacture the drones in Russia is near completion, the official said. The slow-moving, noisy drones have in any case proved increasingly ineffective as Ukrainian air defenses have adapted, Western and Ukrainian officials say. Intelligence officials believe Russia has used around 400 Iranian drones since the first supplies arrived last summer, and Ukraine claims it has managed to shoot the majority of them down.
• Ukraine is carrying out emergency shutdowns of its power grid in key regions after another barrage of Russian missiles knocked out power and water supplies in cities including Odessa on Monday. About half of the Kyiv region will be without electricity in the coming days, Oleksiy Kuleba, the region’s military leader, said on Telegram. “We will do everything to restore stability,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address.
• Russia said there are no direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv on the issue of a security zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, after Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he was nearing an agreement between the two sides to safeguard the facility. “We are discussing the possible parameters of a declaration on the establishment of a zone of protection,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. But under no circumstances would Russian forces withdraw from the plant, she added.

From the Washington Post

 

 

 

Anti-aircraft weaponry along with other weaponry and ammunition continues to pour into Ukraine. Some of the "suicide drones" carry payloads of 75kg and have a reach of 1000 km, making them essentially able to reach about 80% of all populated areas of Russia. Russia is pleading with Israel to not interfere with future shipments of drones and ammunitions from Iran to Russia. 

[blue_gold_84]

https://apnews.com/article/europe-business-hungary-budapest-viktor-orban-6bdcc94f8db8e5a9ca0b26cf1c3b7157

Quote

BRUSSELS (AP) — A rift between the European Union and recalcitrant member Hungary deepened Tuesday when Budapest vetoed an 18 billion euro ($18.93 billion) financial aid package to Kyiv, leaving the other 26 nations to scramble to keep the money supply going.

Hungary’s defiant stance also exacerbated an EU dispute over the rule of law under Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his view of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Orban is such a ghoul.

[Wideleft]

48 minutes ago, blue_gold_84 said:

https://apnews.com/article/europe-business-hungary-budapest-viktor-orban-6bdcc94f8db8e5a9ca0b26cf1c3b7157

Orban is such a ghoul.

 

 

[iHeart]

https://deadline.com/2022/12/volodymyr-zelensky-person-of-the-year-time-1235191933/

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

1 hour ago, iHeart said:

https://deadline.com/2022/12/volodymyr-zelensky-person-of-the-year-time-1235191933/

Also, even if you disagree with the choice for Person of the year (to be clear, I totally think it's fitting)… it's actually a pretty impressive cover:

 

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Wanna-B-Fanboy

[Tracker]

Putin Is Preparing to Flee When Russia Implodes, Ex-Aide Says
-Reuters
Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his cronies already have a plan in place to flee the country once things go sideways, a former aide to the Russian president has claimed.

Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for Putin, made the astounding claim on Telegram early Wednesday, citing an unnamed source that he said had “insider” information on the whole affair.
The evacuation plan, according to Gallyamov, got underway back in the spring, when it was unofficially dubbed “Noah’s Ark.”

“As the name implies, it’s about a search for new land to go to in case it becomes completely uncomfortable in the homeland. The leader’s entourage has not ruled out that he will lose the war, be stripped of power, and have to urgently evacuate somewhere,” Gallyamov wrote.

Putin’s inner circle first considered a plan to evacuate to China, Gallyamov said, but later thought better of it, fearing the chances of “cooperation” from the Chinese were slim, especially since they despise “losers.” Now, he said, the focus has shifted to either Argentina or Venezuela, with Putin ally Igor Sechin currently overseeing an evacuation plan for the latter country.

The plan is so far along, Gallyamov said, that Sechin’s “right-hand man” at Rosneft “formally resigned” from the oil giant to handle “on-site work.”

Citing two sources close to the presidential administration and a source in Rosneft, the Telegram channel Mozhem Obyasnit also reports that high-ranking officials have already begun buying up real estate and working on getting residency rights in Venezuela. Those lower on the totem-pole in the presidential administration and Russian government are seeking residency in Ecuador, Paraguay, and Argentina, according to that report.

In particular, a source was quoted saying, Russian officials have snatched up property on Venezuela’s Margarita Island, where they are confident they’ll be safe from extradition.

“The island of Margarita in Venezuela is their local Courchevel,” the source was quoted saying, comparing the would-be Kremlin hideout to the famous French Alps ski resort.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/vladimir-putin-is-preparing-to-flee-to-venezuela-when-russia-implodes-ex-aide-abbas-gallyamov-says?ref=home

Edited December 7, 2022 by Tracker