The pro-Russian telegram channel "Russian Community ZOV" published their letter to the Ministry of Defense. They describe their concern about how fighters participating in the "Special operation" are treated. Also available at
Kadyrov is calling for leaders of Russia's regions to "self-mobilise" and train 1,000 volunteers each. A sign of the second greatest army in the world! https://t.me/RKadyrov_95/2822
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 15 2022 at 6:13am
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 15 2022 at 6:33am
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 15 2022 at 6:36am
resorting to recruitment of prisoners and circumvention of its own legal system is yet another symptom of a complete moral & societal degradation – the once mighty empire has completely rotten under Putin’s rule.
The deserters would be shot on the spot. In the context of modern warfare, the recruited criminals do not present a substantial military force, many lacking any military experience.
Appearing on Wednesday’s broadcast of the state TV show 60 Minutes, military expert Igor Korotchenko said: “This is a new reality, which is why we should be acting quickly, harshly and uncompromisingly. First of all, we need to scale up our strikes against critical infrastructure in such a way that one region after the next, one district after another, Ukraine is plunged into darkness... By December, 20 million residents of Ukraine should flee to the West, to the European Union. This is our goal and the task we should accomplish.”
Korotchenko proposed: “Perhaps we should openly declare: ‘Leave. Zelensky is turning this territory into a real hell. No one knows what will happen here next. Twenty million, go to Europe.’ After that, we sink region after region into darkness. This is our enemy nation, the modern Third Reich, and we should act accordingly.”
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 15 2022 at 7:34am
https://twitter.com/wartranslated" style='background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 15px; line-height: inherit; font-family: "Times New Roman"; list-style: none; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0; max-width: 100%; outline: none; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;' tabindex="-1 - The fragility of Putin’s image Putin’s carefully constructed image of a macho and a “strong man” would not survive an unedited, real-life meeting with the troops.
Even his press team, official photographers and propagandists cannot hide his aging and a total disconnect, mental and psychological, from the common Russians and soldiers. The direct contact with the troops would shatter Putin’s image and disillusion his followers.
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Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 15 2022 at 7:35am
Even his press team, official photographers and propagandists cannot hide his aging and a total disconnect, mental and psychological, from the common Russians and soldiers. The direct contact with the troops would shatter Putin’s image and disillusion his followers.
Thus, Putin also fears the assassination attempts from his own men more than from drones.
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 15 2022 at 8:03am
Russian state TV's Vladimir Solovyov says his country should form an international coalition for its war in Ukraine including Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Nicaragua
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 15 2022 at 8:06am
Sanctions are biting on Russian icebreaker builders
Companies Nornickel and Rosneft have scrapped plans for the building of high-tech icebreakers fuelled by LNG. The vessels will instead be diesel-engined, Deputy Head of Rosatom’s Northern Sea Route Directorate Maksim Kulinko confirms.
The two companies each planned to build two powerful icebreakers fuelled by LNG. But the war against Ukraine and subsequent international sanctions has led to a change of plans.
“Preliminary, we looked at the opportunity to build icebreakers fuelled with LNG, but considering the sanctions and the companies’ revision of plans, both Nornickel and Rosneft confirm that they [instead] are interested in building diesel icebreakers,” Kulinko explains.
He adds that his company is “still in negotiations” with Novatek, PortNews https://portnews.ru/news/335494/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 70, 132); text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; - reports .
Liquified natural gas has over the past years increasingly been seen as a prospective fuel for the powerful icebreaking vessels. Interest has grown as Novatek has developed its grand LNG plants along the Russian Arctic coast. The Yamal LNG now alone produces up to 18 million tons per year and could easily provide needed fuel for the vessels.
Rosneft, Novatek and Nornickel are all in need of enhanced icebreaker capacity as new industrial projects are under development along the remote and icy north Russian coast. The original plan was that each of the companies would build two ships operating on LNG. The two former companies would build their vessels at the new Zvezda yard in Vladivostok, while Nornickel would cooperate with the Helsinki Shipyard Oy.
Finnish company Aker Arctic has been a close partner to Nornickel and the projected 45 MW icebreakers are based on Finnish design. The ships will have ice class Arc8 and engines that can operate both on LNG and diesel fuel.
The two companies in January 2022 https://www.nornickel.ru/news-and-media/press-releases-and-news/helsinki-shipyard-zakontraktovala-osnovnoe-oborudovanie-dlya-novogo-ledokola-nornikelya/?sphrase_id=3472703" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 70, 132); text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; - signed a contrac t on the ships that will be designed for Nornickel’s operations in the Kara Sea and Yenisey River.
However, the future of the ships might now be uncertain. According to Nornickel Vice President Sergei Dubovitsky, the construction now faces certain “limitations.
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 15 2022 at 10:17am
The army Putin spent 2 decades building has been largely destroyed in Ukraine, and Russia's 'strategic defeat' could threaten his regime
Russia's military will have to be rebuilt as a result of the war in Ukraine, experts say.
The war has "dramatically" altered perceptions of Russia's military strength, one expert told Insider.
Putin's regime could also now be in jeopardy, as it faces rare examples of dissent.
Over the roughly two decades that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been in power, he's dedicated a lot of time and money to building up and modernizing Russia's military. In the process, Putin garnered a reputation as a force to be reckoned with and was widely viewed as one of the most powerful leaders in the world.
But the war in Ukraine has decimated the Russian military that Putin spent years building, while raising questions about his grip on power, Russia experts and military analysts told Insider.
"Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a strategic defeat. So far the Kremlin has not been able to achieve its strategic level objectives and it has incurred significant costs. Russia's military is going to have to be rebuilt," George Barros, a military analyst with the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), told Insider.
"The conventional ground army ground force that the Kremlin has spent the last two decades on creating — seeking to create a modern military — that force has been just largely degraded and in a large part destroyed in the past six months of war in Ukraine," Barros added. "It's very true to say that the conventional Russian ground force has taken a significant beating in Ukraine. It will have to be rebuilt."
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 15 2022 at 10:55am
Russia’s financial system lost: - 40% per cent of market capitalization; - 300 billion dollars of reserves of the Russian Central Bank; - 4.6 trillion rubles in the form of frozen Eurobonds; - 10% capital of the banking system;
563 billion rubles of frozen retail assets, as well as assets held in depositories.
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 15 2022 at 2:50pm
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said she wants Russian president Vladimir Putin to face the International Criminal Court over war crimes in Ukraine. “That Putin must lose this war and must face up to his actions, that is important to me,” she told the TV channel of German news outlet Bild on Thursday.
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 15 2022 at 3:01pm
Putin is suffering 'legitimate humiliation' after misjudging the West's willingness to get involved in Ukraine war, Russia expert says
Putin is likely humiliated as Russia's military losses mount in Ukraine, a Russia expert told Insider.
Such defeats are made worse due to the US, UK, and other NATO allies aiding Ukraine's cause.
"He misjudged the resilience of the West," Simon Miles, a Duke professor said of Putin.
"The last thing I want to do is take anything away from the pretty extraordinary heroism of the Ukrainians on the ground who are using those tools," Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and a historian of the Soviet Union and US-Soviet relations said. "But the preparation of that battle space and the un-leveling of the playing field in the Ukrainians' favor is in big part a story of the weapons they've been getting from the US and other NATO allies and then using to extraordinary effect."
"Absolutely Putin is aware of this," the professor told Insider. "This is, I'm sure, frustrating and humiliating to him because I think he genuinely didn't believe this would happen."
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 16 2022 at 2:09am
This should go well...
British intelligence: The acceleration of officer cadets’ training, and Wagner’s demand for assault troops suggests that two of the most critical shortages within the military manning crisis are probably combat infantry and junior commanders. Follow
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 16 2022 at 4:11am
As a result of an explosion in the prosecutor's office building in #Luhansk, the "Prosecutor General of the #LPR" Sergey Gorenko was killed, #Russian state media reported.
Peat bogs span almost 15% of my home country of Belarus. But, in recent times, citizens have grown wary of these dense, acidic wetlands.
Their decaying vegetative matter is a valuable source of fuel and, after decades of being gradually drained and stripped away, the drying marshes that remain pose a significant fire risk. Smouldering underground fires can burn for months unseen before bursting out into the open and wreaking devastation.
Much like these underground peat fires that grow shielded from view, democracy in Belarus is currently burning and President Alexander Lukashenko’s corrupt, despotic regime is the decaying marshland, tinder-dry and ripe for destruction.
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Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 19 2022 at 6:40am
The formation of irregular, hastily-trained, ad-hoc units adds little effective combat power to Russian forces fighting in #Ukraine and will likely lead to further tensions, inequality, and an overall lack of cohesiveness between forces: http://isw.pub/RusCampaignSept18…
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ISW
@TheStudyofWar
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Russian President Vladimir #Putin is increasingly relying on irregular volunteer and proxy forces rather than conventional units and formations of the #Russian Federation Armed Forces. http://isw.pub/RusCampaignSept18…
Reuters reports that stocks plunged to their lowest in a month as moves in Moscow reignited martial law fears with new legislation, and the plans to hold referendums in Ukraine sped forwards apace.
Russia’s parliament on Tuesday approved a bill to toughen punishments for a host of crimes such as desertion, damage to military property and insubordination if they were committed during military mobilisation or combat situations.
“Indices are clearly collapsing amid fears around the risks of mobilisation and martial law,” Tinkoff Investments analyst Kirill Komarov told Reuters, adding that Tuesday’s collapse would likely be the rouble-based MOEX index’s sharpest drop since June 30.
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 20 2022 at 11:39am
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 20 2022 at 11:52am
Turkish lenders have suspended the use of the Russian payment system Mir, says a senior US administration official, with other banks soon to follow.
A senior U.S. administration official on Tuesday said steps Turkish lenders Isbank and Denizbank took to suspend the use of Russian payment system Mir make a lot of sense, and added that the United States expects more banks will cut off Mir over sanctions risk.
“The steps these banks took make a lot of sense. Cutting off Mir is one of the best ways to protect a bank from the sanctions risk that comes from doing business with Russia. We expect more banks to cut off Mir because they don*t want to risk being on the wrong side of the coalition*s sanctions,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 21 2022 at 3:28am
Kremlin’s New Hail Mary Shows Putin Is More Panicked Than Ever
‘VICTORY OR NUCLEAR WAR’
Moscow is frantically pushing through an “incoherent” plan to curb the onslaught of humiliating Russian losses in the war.
Posted By: ksc
Date Posted: September 21 2022 at 4:44am
Reuters: Flights out of Russia sell out after Putin's address. After Russian President Vladimir Putin's morning address on Sept. 21, in which he ordered the immediate call-up of 300,000 reservists, one-way flights out of Russia started to sell out quickly, Reuters reports.
