From Russia with love..

[Admin]

According to the very stable genius ex-US president Putin is a genius. Let's see shall we? What has he achieved so far?

• Russia's blitzkrieg attempt has failed and plan B involves massive force against civilian targets will be so brutal that Russia's reputation will be tarnished for a generation.
  
• He can't even win that, according to general David Petreus
  
• Much of the world is united in disgust
  
• Massive sanctions are crippling the Russian economy
  
• Ukranian and Russian casualties are piling up
  
• 1M+ Ukranian refugees and counting, could total 7M fairly soon
  
• If Ukraine wasn't a nation (according to Putin), it is now
  
• NATO has been united and given a renewed importance
  
• The EU has been united
  
• Germany is increasing military spending from below 1.5% of GDP to 2%+ with an immediate $100B
  
• Germany (Germany!) is sending arms to Ukraine
  
• Powerful voices in Germany argue for military intervention (and here)
  
• Switzerland is joining the boycott
  
• Russian oligarchs assets are hounded down
  
• Russia's sporters and artists are thrown out of competitions, performances and contracts
  
• Sweden and Finland are sending arms and seriously considering joining NATO
  
• Putin's only friends: Assad of Syria and Lukashenko of Belarus, do we need to say more?
  

[Admin]

Retired Gen. David Petraeus believes Russia President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is not a war he can win due to inadequate troop numbers and fierce Ukrainian resistance.  “I don’t think that this is a war, ultimately, that Russia and Vladimir Putin can win,” Petraeus said Wednesday in an interview with CNN. “They can take a city perhaps, but they cannot hold it.”  Petraeus, a commander in U.S. insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Russia doesn’t “have the numbers” and beyond that, “everyone in the entire country hates them and most of the adults are willing to take action against them, whether it’s to take up weapons or to be human shields.”  In addition, “you have a president who is providing Churchillian leadership, the people [are] undaunted and Ukrainian forces continue to exploit their home-field advantage.”

Gen. Petraeus: Putin can't win Ukraine war | TheHill

An MP has claimed that the Russian oligarch and Chelsea football club owner, Roman Abramovich, is hastily selling UK properties to avoid potential financial sanctions. Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and head of the parliamentary standards committee, said the government was moving too slowly on imposing sanctions on those with alleged links to Vladimir Putin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He told the Commons on Tuesday: “I think he [Abramovich] is terrified of being sanctioned, which is why he’s already going to sell his home tomorrow, and sell another flat as well. My anxiety is that we’re taking too long about these things.” Announcing a package of measures in the wake of the conflict, the Foreign Office said “120 businesses and oligarchs” would be hit by swingeing new financial restrictions. Only a handful of individuals have so far been targeted, however.

Roman Abramovich hastily selling UK properties, MP claims | Roman Abramovich | The Guardian

France’s finance minister has announced the country has seized a yacht linked to Rosneft boss, Igor Sechin, in the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat, as German local authorities denied reports they had also seized the $600m superyacht belonging to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

France seizes yacht linked to Russian oligarch at Mediterranean port | Russia | The Guardian

[Admin]

With each passing day, it is becoming clearer that Putin’s gamble is failing. The Ukrainian people are resisting with all their heart, winning the admiration of the entire world – and winning the war. Many dark days lie ahead. The Russians may still conquer the whole of Ukraine. But to win the war, the Russians would have to hold Ukraine, and they can do that only if the Ukrainian people let them. This seems increasingly unlikely to happen.

Each Russian tank destroyed and each Russian soldier killed increases the Ukrainians’ courage to resist. And each Ukrainian killed deepens the Ukrainians’ hatred of the invaders. Hatred is the ugliest of emotions. But for oppressed nations, hatred is a hidden treasure. Buried deep in the heart, it can sustain resistance for generations. To reestablish the Russian empire, Putin needs a relatively bloodless victory that will lead to a relatively hateless occupation. By spilling more and more Ukrainian blood, Putin is making sure his dream will never be realised. It won’t be Mikhail Gorbachev’s name written on the death certificate of the Russian empire: it will be Putin’s. Gorbachev left Russians and Ukrainians feeling like siblings; Putin has turned them into enemies, and has ensured that the Ukrainian nation will henceforth define itself in opposition to Russia.

Nations are ultimately built on stories. Each passing day adds more stories that Ukrainians will tell not only in the dark days ahead, but in the decades and generations to come. The president who refused to flee the capital, telling the US that he needs ammunition, not a ride; the soldiers from Snake Island who told a Russian warship to “go fuck yourself”; the civilians who tried to stop Russian tanks by sitting in their path. This is the stuff nations are built from. In the long run, these stories count for more than tanks. The Russian despot should know this as well as anyone. As a child, he grew up on a diet of stories about German atrocities and Russian bravery in the siege of Leningrad. He is now producing similar stories, but casting himself in the role of Hitler.

Why Vladimir Putin has already lost this war | Yuval Noah Harari | The Guardian

[Admin]

Europe in particular depends heavily on Russian oil and natural gas exports, which has made European leaders wary of strict economic sanctions on Russia. If Putin responds with limits on Russian energy and food exports, he could force rising prices even higher while reaping the benefits of surging demand.

Unprecedented Western sanctions strangling Russian economy | TheHill

[Admin]

Big things are happening in the small Central American country of Costa Rica that could end up having global repercussions. In April the country suffered a crippling ransomware attack against its finance ministry. Weeks later, the country’s incoming President (and former World Bank economist) Rodrigo Chaves Robles announced that Costa Rica is now locked in a digital war with Conti, a Russia-based group of hackers. “We’re at war and this is not an exaggeration,” Chaves said in his inaugural speech on May 8. The war, Chaves continued, “is against an international terrorist group, which apparently has operatives in Costa Rica. There are very clear indications that people inside the country are collaborating with Conti.”

Costa Rica, A Country Without an Army, Is At War With (Mainly) Russian Hackers | naked capitalism

• Read the article, this is very serious
  

[Admin]

Joe Biden is a “strange grandfather with dementia”. The EU leadership are “lunatics”. Russia will ensure that Ukraine “disappears from the map” in the near future. Welcome to another week as seen through the eyes of Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and prime minister, and currently the deputy head of the country’s security council. Medvedev has been on quite a political journey in recent years. Back in 2008, when he became Russia’s president, he promised modernisation and liberalisation, and frequently spoke of his love for blogging and gadgets. He even visited Silicon Valley and received a new iPhone 4 from Steve Jobs. Now, he is an enthusiastic participant in the macho posturing and genocidal rhetoric that have become the main currency of political discourse in wartime Moscow. “I’m often asked why my Telegram posts are so harsh,” wrote Medvedev recently. “Well, I’ll answer: I hate them. They are bastards and degenerates. They want us, Russia, to die. And while I’m still alive, I will do everything to make them disappear.” He did not specify whether the “they” in question referred to Ukrainians, western politicians, or both.

‘I hate them’: Dmitry Medvedev’s journey from liberal to anti-western hawk | Dmitry Medvedev | The Guardian

Twitter accounts that have promoted QAnon and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories are switching focus and increasingly spreading disinformation about the global food crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a new study. The research by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), found that conspiracy theorist social media accounts started pushing the idea that western countries are responsible for the interruption of wheat, barley and maize exports from Ukraine. The Russian government has made the same claims in recent weeks, blaming western sanctions for a slowdown in grain exports. Russia has blocked Ukraine’s shipping ports, which has prevented the export of tens of millions of tonnes of grain. The UN has suggested 49 million people could be pushed into famine or famine-like conditions because of Russia’s actions..

Anti-vax Twitter accounts pushing food crisis misinformation, study finds | US news | The Guardian

• The latter shows one of two things (and probably both). Either much misinformation (QAnon, anti-vax, etc.) comes directly from Russian troll farms or it shows the ideological connections between the rightwingers that promote the nonsense and Russia. Probably both.
  

[Admin]

Olenivka prison attack: Russia claims Ukraine used US arms to kill jailed POWs. Evidence tells a different story.

Who really attacked a prison of POWs?

Satellite images appear to show major damage and a number of destroyed Russian warplanes at a Crimea airbase following explosions there this week. The Saky base in the west of Russian-ruled Crimea was rocked by a string of blasts on Tuesday, killing one person. The base's runways appear intact, but at least eight aircraft seem damaged or destroyed with several craters visible. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility - but this new evidence suggests the possibility of a targeted attack. It also dispels Russia's denial that any of its aircraft were damaged.

Ukraine war: Crimea airbase badly damaged, satellite images show

Satellite imagery confirmed reports from Ukraine’s air force that the attack destroyed at least eight Russian aircraft, contradicting Russian claims that the explosions did not damage any aircraft and were not the result of an attack.[3] Russian outlets shared conflicting stories: the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed on August 9 that munitions had been detonated at a storage site at the airfield due to negligence, not an attack, and claimed that no aircraft were damaged.[4] Russian milblogger Rybar claimed on August 10 that the explosion was likely not caused by a missile strike and hypothesized that the explosions could be due to negligence and non-compliance with safety regulations or to a small helicopter with a bomb attacking a nearby parking lot.[5]

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 10 | Institute for the Study of War

Two more Russian lies

• The Ukranians didn't attack the prison with their own men inside, there would have been a crater from a rocket and much more structural damage to the building.
  
• The damage to the airport in Crimea was much bigger than the Russians argued, this wasn't just a munition depot explosion.
  

[Admin]

Two weeks ago, Filatyev went on to his VKontakte social media page and published a 141-page bombshell: a day-by-day description of how his paratrooper unit was sent to mainland Ukraine from Crimea, entered Kherson and captured the seaport, and dug in under heavy artillery fire for more than a month near Mykolaiv – and then how he eventually was wounded and evacuated from the conflict with an eye infection. By then, he was convinced he had to expose the rot at the core of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We were sitting under artillery fire by Mykolaiv,” he said. “At that point I already thought that we’re just out here doing bullshit, what the fuck do we need this war for? And I really had this thought: ‘God, if I survive, then I’ll do everything that I can to stop this.’” He spent 45 days writing his memoirs from the conflict, breaking an omerta under which even the word war has been banished in public. “I simply can’t stay quiet any longer, even though I know that I probably won’t change anything, and maybe I’ve acted foolishly to get myself in so much trouble,” says Filatyev, his fingers shaking from stress as he lit another cigarette...

Filatyev, who served in the 56th Guards air assault regiment based in Crimea, described how his exhausted and poorly equipped unit stormed into mainland Ukraine behind a hail of rocket fire in late February, with little in terms of concrete logistics or objectives, and no idea why the war was taking place at all. “It took me weeks to understand there was no war on Russian territory at all, and that we had just attacked Ukraine,” he said.

At one point, Filatyev describes how the ravenous paratroopers, the elite of the Russian army, captured the Kherson seaport and immediately began grabbing “computers and whatever valuable goods we could find”. Then they ransacked the kitchens for food. “Like savages, we ate everything there: oats, porridge, jam, honey, coffee … We didn’t give a damn about anything, we’d already been pushed to the limit. Most had spent a month in the fields with no hint of comfort, a shower or normal food. “What a wild state you can drive people to by not giving any thought to the fact that they need to sleep, eat and wash,” he wrote. “Everything around gave us a vile feeling; like wretches we were just trying to survive.”

‘I don’t see justice in this war’: Russian soldier exposes rot at core of Ukraine invasion | Russia | The Guardian

[Admin]

Justin Trudeau has warned that China is “play[ing] aggressive games” to undermine democratic institutions amid reports Beijing actively interfered in Canada’s federal elections. His comments on Monday came after a news report that Beijing had funded a “clandestine network” of candidates in Canada’s 2019 election and just days after the federal police force said it was actively investigating a secret network of illegal Chinese “police stations” in Toronto. The allegations – which came on the same day that a close ally of Vladimir Putin said that Russia had previously interfered in US elections – are likely to intensify concerns about the scope of foreign intrusion in Canadian domestic politics.

China taking ‘aggressive’ steps to gut Canada’s democracy, warns Trudeau | Canada | The Guardian

[Admin]

Russia’s bombing raids across two conflicts in the past decade have overwhelmingly targeted built-up civilian areas, new analysis shows, with the vast majority of victims being classed as non-combatants. The study of Russian airstrikes, missile and artillery bombardments covered both the conflicts in Syria  and  Ukraine since 2012, and reveals the Kremlin’s “blatant disregard for civilian protection“, according to the London-based research charity Action on Armed Violence (AOAV). The organisation’s analysis, which has been provided to The Independent, found that 84 per cent of Russia’s targeted bombings in the last 10 years were aimed at densely-populated towns and cities. From these attacks, 98 per cent of the victims were classified as civilians.Russian bombing raids have overwhelmingly targeted civilian areas, report finds