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Putin’s Russia: Don’t Walk, Don’t Eat, and Don’t Drink

Today

10:59 am

By Masha Gessen

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Vladimir Kara-Murza presents a 2014 report in Washington, D.C., on corruption at Russia’s Sochi Olympics.

Credit PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEX WONG/GETTY

Last Saturday, on a beautiful, sunny afternoon, a friend and I were in Moscow discussing precautions. I confessed to a fear of apartment-building entryways because two people I knew, the parliament member Galina Starovoitova and the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, had been shot dead on their way up to their apartments. “Ever since Nemtsov was killed,” my friend said, referring to the February shooting of a Putin opponent, “I don’t know anything about precautions anymore. What are you supposed not to do now—walk the streets?”

It would also be prudent now to stop eating and drinking. On Wednesday, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a thirty-three-year-old opposition journalist, was hospitalized in critical condition after he collapsed at his office in Moscow. He was diagnosed with renal failure that had resulted from acute intoxication. Put more simply, the problem was poison.

It is not clear when and how Kara-Murza may have been poisoned, but Russian activists and journalists who get enough death threats and take them sufficiently seriously to hire bodyguards are also usually careful about what they ingest. Soon after the chess champion Garry Kasparov quit the sport to go into politics full time, in 2004, he hired a team of eight bodyguards, who not only accompanied him everywhere but also carried drinking water and food for Kasparov to eat at meals shared in public.

Three years ago, Kasparov told me that what he liked most about foreign travel was being able to shed his bodyguards for a while. A year after that, threats drove him to leave Russia permanently.

Attacks by poisoning are possibly even more common in Russia than assassinations by gunfire. Most famously, Alexander Litvinenko, a secret-police whistle-blower, was killed by polonium in London, in 2006. Last week, British newspapers reported that a Russian businessman who dropped dead while jogging in a London suburb in 2012 had been killed by a rare plant poison. He had been a key witness in a money-laundering case that had originally been exposed by the Moscow accountant Sergei Magnitsky, who was tortured to death, in 2009, in a Russian jail.

Two years before Politkovskaya was shot, she suffered multiple-organ failure after ingesting a poison, still unidentified, with tea served to her on a Russian plane. Yuri Shchekochikhin, her colleague at the investigative weekly Novaya Gazeta, died in a Moscow hospital, in 2003, as the result of an apparent poisoning. In 2008, a lawyer who specializes in bringing Russian cases to the European Court of Human Rights, Karinna Moskalenko, fell ill in Strasbourg; her husband and two small children were also unwell. The cause of their illness was identified as mercury that had somehow found its way into their car.

Moskalenko was one of the lead lawyers in the defense of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oil tycoon who had become Putin’s most famous political prisoner. He spent ten years behind bars before Putin granted him clemency before the Sochi Olympics; he is now living in Zurich and running an anti-Putin N.G.O., Open Russia, with offices in London, Prague, and Moscow. Last month, the Moscow office was raided by law enforcement, which seized many of the computers. (Some have since been returned.) Kara-Murza runs Open Russia’s multi-city public-lecture program—a difficult job, because most cities in Russia try to shut down his events. The organization itself has so far escaped being shut down because, on paper, it doesn’t exist: using a loophole in the law, it has simply not registered—and hence cannot be liquidated the way many other Russian N.G.O.s have been in the past three years.

Like the Soviet regime before it, the Putin government spreads fear by destroying the illusion that one can protect oneself. So Open Russia’s leaders think that they can use a loophole in the law to keep themselves safe? the message seems to be. Let’s see how safe they feel after one of them is poisoned.

Indeed, the larger message of the Nemtsov assassination and the apparent attempted assassination of Kara-Murza is that no one is safe. Both men are sufficiently well-known to attract the attention of Russia’s dwindling oppositional minority, but neither has the superstar status that would preclude identifying with him. If Litvinenko’s murder made one think, “Well, but who’d be interested in me?,” these attacks put many more people on notice. Don’t walk the streets. Don’t eat the food. Don’t talk.

Speaking of talking, in the past few months, people who work at two Moscow restaurants have warned me, separately, about the precise locations of listening devices at the eateries. The warnings came unbidden. The food at both places was, incidentally, not only very good but also apparently safe. That, along with the springtime sun, helps maintain the bizarre sense of normalcy that has a way of going hand in hand with the mortal danger that has become a fact of everyday life.

Source

Update: Father of Kara-Murza Says He Remains in 'Serious' Condition on Ventilator; Colleague Hopes to Evacuate Him to London

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Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin's War in Ukraine and Boris Nemtsov's Putin. War.

May 28, 2015

(starts at 13:40)

Russia is at war with Ukraine. The war’s toll—more than 6,000 dead, tens of thousands wounded, and nearly 1.3 million displaced persons—is the direct result of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to establish control over Ukraine. Putin continues to deny Russia’s military involvement, though the evidence that the Kremlin is directing the war is overwhelming.

Please join the Atlantic Council and the Free Russia Foundation for the release of two independently produced reports: Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin’s War in Ukraine and the English language release of Boris Nemtsov's, Putin. War., on Thursday, May 28, 2015, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at theAtlantic Council (1030 15th St. NW, 12th Floor, Washington, DC, 20005).

Source

Read the Report (PDF) Atlantic Council's report

Read the Report (PDF) Boris Nemtsov's Putin. War report.

More info here.

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Proxy wars are real...

The business of the world is business and,

war is business...

:(

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Ballistic Gelatin

Bully Boy is a shrewd tactician, but a lousy strategist. But what does he care?

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Incredible. Captured RU officers can't call their parents, RU telephone network cuts them off. They call Novaya to pass message to parents.

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Russia says two captured Russian soldiers in Ukraine are 'mercenaries'

12:45 May. 29, 2015

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Thousands of Russian troops are believed to be based in Ukraine

Russia considers Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev - two Russian soldiers who were recently captured by Ukrainian troops in the Luhansk region - to be "mercenaries" and "policemen" of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LNR).

The statement was made by Russian Consul in Ukraine Aleksey Gruby during a meeting with Konsantin Kravchuk and Oksana Sokolovska, the laywers of the captured solders, which took place on May 28.

"The official position of Russia, as Gruby says, is that those two soldiers, whose army service contract terminated in December 2014, are mercenaries and have nothing to do with the Russian army," Kravchuk, Aleksandrovs' lawyer told Ukrainain news agency TSN.

At the same time the Consul said that Russia was doing everything possible to prevent "mercenaries" from going beyond the so-called Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics. This, according to the Consul, would damage Russia's image.

Read also Captured Russian Soldiers Discredit Kremlin Claims (including exclusive interviews)

Gruby assured that he would be visiting Aleksandrov and Yerofeyev in the hospital and try to get in touch with their families. The Consul even promised to do everything possible to help their relatives to come to Kyiv to see for themselves that the detainees suffered neither pressure nor torture, but otherwise - they are kept in decent conditions and provided with necessary treatment.

After the meeting with the Concul, Kravchuk and Sokolovska visited their clients and told them that Russia officially considered them "mercenaries" and "policemen of LNR". Both servicemen were outraged by the position of their native state and said it was not true.

Two Russian servicemen were captured by the Ukrainian National Guard near the village of Schastya in the Luhansk region on May 16 and have confessed that they are members of the Russian army.

Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeniy Yerofeyev admitted to belonging to a Russian reconnaissance unit based near to the Volga River city of Tolyatti.

Source

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how can this be true...the most important and honest news agency has to report on this..if.info wars did not say it it is not true...all kidding aside i just cannot believe that world is allowing putin to act like adolf hitler...the entire world will a hell of a consequence to pay if we let our leaders keep pacification as the rule of thumb with putins aggression.

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Why are people allowed to post this much spam, propaganda and etc on this forum? Nsane started to became the most unplesant forum from the web. I made an account here years ago to test my coding skills, to learn some things from the programmers who posted their work here, now the only people who remained are spammers

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The Family. A film about Ramzan Kadyrov, whom Putin calls a son... Open Russia. Eng sub

Published on May 25, 2015

Why Vladimir Putin is afraid of Ramzan Kadyrov, what " vassal army" is and who "krashniki" are, how much the place in the "elite" units is and why Putin Avenue in Grozny cannot be called Victory Avenue.

Materials interview Ramzan Kadyrov gave to Mariana Maximova in the program “Week” and Vincent Moore’s clip “Nur-Zhuvhar”are used in this film.

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Why are people allowed to post this much spam, propaganda and etc on this forum? Nsane started to became the most unplesant forum from the web. I made an account here years ago to test my coding skills, to learn some things from the programmers who posted their work here, now the only people who remained are spammers

You are just a Putin fan...

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Boris Nemtsov's friend: 'we are not afraid'

Published on Mar 4, 2015

Vladimir Kara-Murza, co-ordinator of civil rights group Open Russia and friend of Boris Nemtsov, tells Channel 4 News, that he “gave his life got a more democratic Russia which he will never live to see”.

Watch a brilliant, articulate, determined Vladimir Kara-Murza talk about Russia just after Nemtsov assassination. He is now in hospital in induced coma, suspected to be poisoned, authorities don't allow his fluids to be tested outside Russia. He most recently was involved in the production of a documentary film about Chechnya’s strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. He also worked on the release of an opposition report into the presence of Russian troops in east Ukraine. That report was begun by Mr Nemtsov before his murder, and alleged Russia had lost at least 220 soldiers since the start of fighting in east Ukraine in April 2014.

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Dear Gugudoll, you`re still so obsessed about Mr. Putin? Get over and find better things to do in life. Trusting every bit of bs propaganda you`ve been brainwashed with is getting you nowhere.

Btw, our admin at Phoenix also objected to politics discussion. Don`t think I was the only one supporting kicking your butt for abusive signature.

Mods, I advise putting this moron`s posts on preview. He`s even more insane than local standards allow to be.

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Paid as a Pro-Kremlin Troll: 'The Hatred Spills over into the Real World'

By Benjamin Bidder
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Activist Lyudmila Savchuk: "An atmosphere of utmost secrecy"


Lyudmila Savchuk recently went public about her experiences working for a Russian Internet propaganda factory in St. Petersburg. In an interview, she describes how clandestine workers are promoting the Kremlin's message.





Lyudmila Savchuk speaks quickly. She also uses two phones at the same time -- they've been ringing nonstop since a news agency ran a feature about Savchuk and her experiences working as a professional Kremlin Internet troll. Savchuk, who hails from St. Petersburg, says she wants to set the record straight: She isn't simply a former employee at a St. Petersburg "troll factory," she is a journalist who deliberately infiltrated it to expose the business of paying people to post pro-Kremlin online comments.

To do so, Savchuk says she joined forces with other activists in a group called InfoPeace. Savchuk now wants to take her former employer to court so that the truth about the Kremlin's troll houses and the people behind them will come to light.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You worked in a so-called "Troll Factory" in St. Petersburg, where you were paid to post comments supporting the Kremlin line. How did you get inside?

Savchuk: I decided last October to research this structure from within. I spoke with a few friends about it, activists. I also got counsel from lawyers on my actions.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why?

Savchuk: Because you have to sign a few declarations of commitment as well as a confidentiality agreement. You're not allowed to talk about the work, especially not to the press. An atmosphere of utmost secrecy is deliberately created, which I found to be laughable from the very beginning. In truth, these papers have no legal validity.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What platforms are the St. Petersburg trolls using?

Savchuk: I have personally seen the following: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Livejournal.com as well as the Russian networks VK.com and Odnoklassniki. The targets also include the discussion areas on all major news sites and the forums of the websites of cities in the Russian provinces. A colleague of mine posted primarily in forums in Saratov and Engels, two cities along the Volga River. I worked on Livejournal blogs, which are very popular in Russia.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is the work just done in Russia-language forums, or are there employees who write in English or German?

Savchuk: Most work in Russian, but I know that some also write English posts. Ukrainian also plays a major role. I also heard about German, but not in this building.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you have evidence that other troll houses exist?

Savchuk: Yes. The branch office in St. Petersburg is simply the one that has been best researched. A few colleagues reported about work trips to a Moscow office. There is also information about a further, highly secretive building in St. Petersburg.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How is the work organized?

Savchuk: There are departments. Mine is responsible solely for Livejournal blogs and others are for commenting on the media. There's also a group that masquerades as journalists. They operate fake news portals that pretend to be Ukrainian news sites, with names like "Kharkiv News" or the "Federal News Agency." We had video bloggers. Some made themselves look like members of the Russian opposition.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Who do they sign their work contracts with?

Savchuk: They don't even sign any contracts, which is why I am now submitting a lawsuit in a St. Petersburg court. That's the only way of dragging these fiends into the public eye. We want to show the world who is behind these troll factories.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: If there are no contracts, then how are salaries paid?

Savchuk: Under the table, with cash. They don't pay any taxes or make any pension contributions. But it is good money: 50,000 rubles a month, or about €800. But nobody knows exactly where the money comes from. As a concerned citizen, what upsets me is that there is no money in Russia for important social projects right now, but there is for this nonsense, for hundreds of trolls.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Who's behind this?

Savchuk: I never saw the bosses, but there are suspicions. It allegedly involves entrepreneur Yevgeniy Prigoshin. He has never discussed the allegations. Our goal is for the judges to invite him so that he is finally forced to admit it. Will we succeed with that? I don't know.
Yevgeniy Prigoshin operates restaurants and a catering business in St. Petersburg. He reportedly knows President Vladimir Putin well. Progoshin's wealth is also the product of lucrative government contracts. The Russian edition of Forbes reported in 2013 that Prigoshin had been awarded a €2 billion contract to provide prepared meals for schools and the army. Putin himself attended the opening of Prigoshin's factory. Prigoshin's name has popped up in various reports about Internet propagandists, including in the Russian daily Novaya Gazeta.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So who are the trolls?

Savchuk: Students. At 34, I was the exception. The worse thing is that these young people are totally indifferent about what they are writing. I believe that the crime of extremism is actually being committed in the these troll factories.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How?

Savchuk : Because they are wishing for the deaths of Ukrainians and Americans. Hatred between nationalities is being incited. These people are writing one thing today, another thing tomorrow and perhaps the next morning they will put masks on in real life and go out on the street and kill someone.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Who issues operative instructions to you?

Savchuk : It was different in every department. For us, they were written, via the intranet, and they were called "technical tasks." Those who were supposed to comment on media articles were given verbal communication about what they were supposed to write. One example of a key assertion that was to be disseminated was that Boris Nemzov was himself responsible for his death.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What does a day inside the troll factory look like?

Savchuk: Usually, it is a 12-hour work day, but the departments start at different times. There's a night shift. The video bloggers only come in to record their posts. There is a small café where you can eat. But people don't have much time for breaks because they have to fill their quotas.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What kind of tasks did you have to do?

Savchuk : One time we were supposed to write about how terrible things are in the European Union. Another time we were supposed to praise Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu. You sit there and write things like: Yesterday I went for a walk and the idea came to me about how bad the situation is in Europe.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What identities do the trolls assume?

Savchuk : Usually as normal people, but sometimes they pose as members of the opposition. In our department, and this was pretty bizarre, we had a blog by an alleged fortune teller.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are you afraid?

Savchuk : For a long time, I doubted whether I should come forward with my real name. For a long time, I feared dark underpasses, but I have since gotten used to them. There haven't been any threats.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you have the impression that these trolls are actually having any effect?

Savchuk : Absolutely. The aggressiveness and the hatred spills over into the real world.



Source

UPDATE: This investigation into Kremlin online trolling by @AdrianChen for the New York Times is the most incredible read.

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Is Putin poisoning his opponents?

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Protesters hold protest signs denouncing Russian President Vladimir Putin near the Russian permanent mission to the United Nations in New York. (Reuters)

2015/06/01 • Russia

Article by: Robert van Voren

Russian journalist and opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza remains in critical condition after having fallen ill as a result of what is feared to be poisoning. Having fallen ill in his Moscow office with what first appeared to be heart problems, he was hospitalized in a Moscow hospital. Doctors at the hospital claim it looks likea case of “double pneumonia” or “pancreatitis”, however there are sufficient indicators to believe that Kara-Murza was poisoned with an unknown toxic substance. Attempts to have blood samples taken out of the country for analysis were first blocked by the hospital, and later claimed to have been unsuccessful “for technical reasons”.

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Russian oppositionary Vladimir Kara-Murza. Photo: RFE/RL

Kara-Murza, born in 1981 in a well-known Moscow family of intellectuals, graduated in history at Cambridge University and in 2012 became a senior policy advisor to the Institute of Modern Russia, an organization in the United States established by the son of Russian oligarch and then still political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky. After returning toMoscow, he represented the organization “Open Russia” established by Khodorkovsky after his release. Kara-Murza was hospitalized in serious condition during the morning of May 27, after his blood pressure unexpectedly went up to dangerous levels. In hospital his condition continued to worsen and after kidney failure he was put on artificial dialysis and respiration. Since he has been kept in artificial coma to avoid brain damage.

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Viktor Yushchenko before and after poisoning. Reuters file photos

The case of Kaza Murza does not stand alone, and there is sufficient reason to believe there is foul play in this case. Over the past decade more opponents of the Putin regime became unexpectedly and unexplainably ill and either miraculously survived or died as a result of poisoning. Almost forgotten is the case of then opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, who was poisoned in 2004 with dioxin during the Ukrainian election campaign for Presidency against Putin’s choice Viktor Yanukovich. He miraculously survived, yet not unscathed.

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Alexander Litvinenko on his hospital bed after poisoning by polonium. Photo: wn.com

The most well known case is that of former KGB-officer Aleksandr Litvinenko, who died in 2006 in London as a result of poisoning with a radioactive substance. Litvinenko had been an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, accusing him not only of corruption on a grand scale, but also of having orchestrated the bombings of Moscow apartment buildings in which hundreds of people died, only to have a pretext to start the second Chechen War.

The inquest in Litvinenko’s death started in July 2014, with the first series of public hearings haven taken place this spring and to be resumed in July this year, but already now there is overwhelming evidence Litvinenko was killed with Polonium-210 put in his tea during a meeting with two Moscow agents, one of whom is now a member of the State Duma.

The case of Yuri Shchekochikhin
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Yuri Shchekochikhin. Photo: TASS

Three years earlier, in 2003, one of the founders of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta” and member of the State Duma, Yuri Shchekochikhin, died 12 days after being hospitalized in a Moscow clinic. Shchekochikhin worked for Novaya Gazeta since 1996 as deputy-editor, covering dangerous assignments such as the Chechen conflict, high-powered corruption, arms trade, and organized crime. During the years leading up to his death he published a series of detailed reports on corruption case that involved a Moscow furniture store known as Tri Kita (Three Whales). While the Tri Kita case initially seemed like a regular business fraud case, it involved high-ranking FSB officials who were found to have used the furniture business to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through the Bank of New York in the late 1990s. In February 2002 Shchekochikhin revealed evidence that the Prosecutor General’s Office had received two million US dollars in bribes in order to stop the TriKita corruption investigation.

In April 2002 Shchekochikhin wrote President Vladimir Putin to request he take the case under his personal control. President Putin responded positively, but as of June 2003 the case had gone nowhere. On June 2, 2003, Shchekochikhin published another detailed article on the Tri Kita affair-his last one. Two weeks later, while on a business trip in the city of Ryazan, Shchekochikhin suddenly felt sick with flu-like symptoms. He returned to Moscow that day with a fever, sore throat, body aches, and a burning sensation all over his skin. Shchekochikhin’s health rapidly deteriorated in the next few days and he was hospitalized on June 21. In the next 12 days, the journalist’s organs failed one by one-his skin literally peeled off his body; he lost all of his hair; his lungs, liver, kidneys, and, finally, his brain stopped functioning.

The allergen that caused the reaction was never identified. Shchekochikhin’s clinical test results were classified as “medical secret.” All attempts to investigate his murder and, specifically, how he might have been poisoned – asseemed likely – were frustrated. In particular, the samples and medical documentation mysteriously disappeared and were unavailable for examination and analysis by a prominent UK specialist.

Failed poison attempt leads to assassination
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Anna Politkovskaya

Earlier, in 2004, the Moscow journalist Anna Politkovskaya was poisoned on a flight to Rostov on Don, when she was trying to get to Beslan after the hijacking of a school by Chechen terrorists that left more than 300 hostages including almost 200 schoolchildren dead. Politkovskaya was investigating allegations that not only the storming of the school had been seriously flawed, but also that the FSB might have been involved in the whole affair as a pretext for a further clampdown on the Chechnyan insurgence against Moscow’s rule.

Politkovskaya, a special correspondent for the same newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”, was well known for her investigative reports on human rights abuses by the Russian military in Chechnya. In seven years covering the second Chechen war, Politkovskaya’s reporting repeatedly drew the wrath of Russian authorities and of Russian President Vladimir Putin personally. During her reporting in Chechnya she was repeatedly detained and threatened, yet that did not deter her from continuing her investigative work.

After drinking tea on her flight to Rostov Politkovskaya became seriously ill and was hospitalized–but the toxin was never identified because the medical staff was instructed to destroy her blood tests. However, the fact that she was immediately taken to the American Medical Center probably saved her life, albeit not for long: in 2006 she was assassinated in the doorway of her Moscow apartment.

Are there more?

With more and more oppositionists suddenly falling ill with unexplainable symptoms, people concerned have started to dig into sudden deaths in the past, and have come to information that gives a very disturbing picture. For instance, during a recent inquest in the United Kingdom it was revealed that the Russian

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Alexander Perepilichny

businessman Alexander Perepilichny, who in 2012 collapsed and died outside the mansion he was renting on a luxury private estate near London, did not die of a heart failure. There was not conclusive evidence that in fact he had been poisoned, probably during a sudden and mysterious business trip to Paris shortly before his death. After his return he had felt very ill and went out jogging on the estate to recuperate, only to be found dead on the grounds later that day. Traces of “heartbreak grass”, a poisonous plant found only in China, were found in his stomach. Perepilichny appears to have been poisoned, and not for nothing. He had been given asylum in the UK after exposing Russian officials complicit in a tax scam involving some 200 million euro, in which high-up Russian officials were involved. He had been helping a Swiss investigation into this Russian money-laundering and also provided evidence against Russian officials linked to the 2009 death of anti corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow jail.

Among those opposing the Putin regime, either for political reasons of because of more “economic” ones, e.g. fraud, corruption and theft on a major scale, it is feared that this is not the end of it, and that more cases will appear – involving both people deceased in the past and people suddenly falling ill, like Vladimir Kara-Murza who is now fighting for his life in a Moscow hospital.

Source

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UK: George Osborne, Vladimir Putin’s Most Dangerous Ally

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Alphen, Netherlands. British Finance Minister George Osborne is Vladimir Putin’s most dangerous ally. This week it was announced that Osborne is seeking ever deeper cuts to the British Armed Forces, as I warned in my latest book Little Britain: Twenty-First Century Strategy for a Middling European Power (www.amazon.co.uk).

If the threat is carried out, and I have every reason to believe it will be, such egregious cuts to an already hollowed-out force will be the greatest act of strategic vandalism to Britain’s influence since the 1930s. It is a decision that not only Britain will come to regret but also the US and all of Britain’s NATO allies.

As for the Special Relationship with the US – it is over. It is completely the wrong strategic message to send at completely the wrong time and demonstrates yet again the strategic illiteracy of both Cameron and Osborne. Russia’s President Putin must be laughing all the way to the Baltic States, or wherever it is next he is going to de-stabilise.

The sad story of the Cameron Government(s) and its stewardship of British national strategy, and Britain’s defences since 2010 has been one of dissembling, deceit and outright lies. In 2010 then Foreign Secretary William Hague said that there would be no strategic shrinkage under the Tories.

Britain has been strategically-shrinking ever since. Pledge abandoned. Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010 was presented as the big financial hit Britain’s armed forces would have to take to right the economy. After 2015 the British defence budget, we were told, would see a real term 1% increase. Pledge abandoned. In September 2014 David Cameron badgered other NATO leaders for not committing to spending 2% GDP on defence. British defence spending is about to fall in the next year from 2.07% to 1.88% GDP and fall again thereafter.

Pledge abandoned. Cameron promised that the current size of the Army would be maintained at an already small 82,500 as part of Future Force 2020. Active consideration is now being given to an Army of 60,000. Pledge about to be abandoned. Worse, Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Letwin has been charged with the task of trying to make the defence budget APPEAR as though it meets the NATO 2% GDP guideline. Pledge about to be manipulated.

The strategic-illiteracy of both Cameron and Osborne was brought home to me in a 22 April mail I received from an official in the Office of the Conservative Party Chairman which frankly insulted my intelligence. The email boldly stated, “I can assure you that the Conservative Party is committed to supporting our Armed Forces and maintaining Britain’s position in the world”. Nonsense!

The email then reminded me that, “…no country in the worldcan invest in, maintain and support their Armed Forces while having a broken economy…” Yes, but Britain resides on this planet not on Mars, is meant to be a leading power, and bad people are doing bad things.

The missive then went on to offer a rosy future. The “…Government plans to spend £163 billion on new equipment over the coming decade”, and the “…Government is committed to spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence…” And then the sucker punch; “…with decisions on spending after the financial year 2015/16 to be determined in the next spending review”. In other words, ‘we told you more cuts were coming. Really we did’. However, the email left the best to last. “I would like to assure you that the UK remains a truly global military power…” What complete and utter tosh!

However, the real ‘cruncher’ came in a small sub-phrase towards the end of the email when it suggested that all the planned investment, “…will keep Britain safe”. It is a phrase Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, the safe-pair-of-hands defence minister charged by Cameron and Osborne with destroying, sorry cutting Britain’s armed forces.

First, it is not true. Britain recently had to rely on allies to find two new Russian nuclear attack submarines seeking to enter Britain’s territorial waters. Second, the true test of Britain’s defence is not the immediate defence of the island, but the fulfilment of its commitments to NATO allies, most notably the strategic reassurance, forward deterrence and collective defence of the three Baltic States.

Indeed, although Britain is offering to act as a key element of NATO’s new Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) the coming cuts will emaciate the very forces designed to undertake such as role. No wonder US forces call the Brits “the borrowers’.

Let me be clear; implicit in the new round of planned defence cuts is a form of isolationism that passes for foreign and security policy under this Government and the final and irrevocable British retreat from strategic influence – Little Britain indeed.

Sadly, London is now committed to another Strategic Pretence and Insecurity Review and the appeasement of a rapidly-deteriorating strategic reality at a moment when illiberal power is gaining the upper hand. Therefore, Osborne and Cameron’s strategic illiteracy is quite simply a recipe for disaster as they seek to abandon security to fund ‘prosperity’. In the real world the one cannot exist without the other.

On my extensive travels of late Britain’s loss of influence in key chancelleries has become all too apparent to me. Much of that is due to the butchering of Britain’s world-renowned armed forces which have long provided the hard power foundations for London’s soft power influence.

Frankly, I no longer believe any ‘commitment’ Cameron makes is worth any more than yesterday’s newsprint – be it on Europe, the economy or defence.

George Osborne – Vladimir Putin’s most dangerous ally.

http://thedailyjournalist.com/thethinker/uk-george-osborne-vladimir-putin-s-most-dangerous-ally/
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Evgenia Kara-Murza:“The condition of my husband has clearly improved”

Posted on June 2, 2015
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Evgenia Kara-Murza:“ The condition of my husband has clearly improved”

Statement by Evgenia Kara-Murza, wife of Open Russia coordinator Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was hospitalised on May 26, and was subsequently diagnosed with severe kidney failure due to some type of intoxication.

“The condition of my husband, Vladimir Kara-Murza, who has been in the intensive care unit in N. I. Pirogov City Hospital No. 1, has clearly improved. There have been some positive signs; and the doctors have reduced the level of drugs they have been giving him. We now have hope that Volodya will recover.

Our family would like to express the deepest gratitude to doctors Alexei Svet and Denis Protsenko, of City Hospital No. 1, to professors Eran Moshe Segal and Alexander Tartakovsky, as well as the company Imedical Israel, and personally to its director Gregory Sambulov.

Many thanks to everyone who has supported us during this difficult time, for your expressions of help and sympathy, and to those of you who have been praying for Volodya’s health, and wishing him a speedy recovery.

Thank you to you all!

Evgenia Kara-Murza”

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Good news for now!

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It's such a shame to see so much hate

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even don't wanna to comment .

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It's such a shame to see so much hate

Vladimir_Putin_and_Koni-4.jpg

What kind of hate are you taking about ?

Hatred is a blind emotion, and the articles and vids here show mainly well known FACTS.

... or are you maybe a member of Putin's Trolling Factory, described in the article quoted below :

Paid as a Pro-Kremlin Troll: 'The Hatred Spills over into the Real World'

By Benjamin Bidder

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Activist Lyudmila Savchuk: "An atmosphere of utmost secrecy"

Lyudmila Savchuk recently went public about her experiences working for a Russian Internet propaganda factory in St. Petersburg. In an interview, she describes how clandestine workers are promoting the Kremlin's message.

Lyudmila Savchuk speaks quickly. She also uses two phones at the same time -- they've been ringing nonstop since a news agency ran a feature about Savchuk and her experiences working as a professional Kremlin Internet troll. Savchuk, who hails from St. Petersburg, says she wants to set the record straight: She isn't simply a former employee at a St. Petersburg "troll factory," she is a journalist who deliberately infiltrated it to expose the business of paying people to post pro-Kremlin online comments.

To do so, Savchuk says she joined forces with other activists in a group called InfoPeace. Savchuk now wants to take her former employer to court so that the truth about the Kremlin's troll houses and the people behind them will come to light.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You worked in a so-called "Troll Factory" in St. Petersburg, where you were paid to post comments supporting the Kremlin line. How did you get inside?

Savchuk: I decided last October to research this structure from within. I spoke with a few friends about it, activists. I also got counsel from lawyers on my actions.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why?

Savchuk: Because you have to sign a few declarations of commitment as well as a confidentiality agreement. You're not allowed to talk about the work, especially not to the press. An atmosphere of utmost secrecy is deliberately created, which I found to be laughable from the very beginning. In truth, these papers have no legal validity.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What platforms are the St. Petersburg trolls using?

Savchuk: I have personally seen the following: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Livejournal.com as well as the Russian networks VK.com and Odnoklassniki. The targets also include the discussion areas on all major news sites and the forums of the websites of cities in the Russian provinces. A colleague of mine posted primarily in forums in Saratov and Engels, two cities along the Volga River. I worked on Livejournal blogs, which are very popular in Russia.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is the work just done in Russia-language forums, or are there employees who write in English or German?

Savchuk: Most work in Russian, but I know that some also write English posts. Ukrainian also plays a major role. I also heard about German, but not in this building.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you have evidence that other troll houses exist?

Savchuk: Yes. The branch office in St. Petersburg is simply the one that has been best researched. A few colleagues reported about work trips to a Moscow office. There is also information about a further, highly secretive building in St. Petersburg.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How is the work organized?

Savchuk: There are departments. Mine is responsible solely for Livejournal blogs and others are for commenting on the media. There's also a group that masquerades as journalists. They operate fake news portals that pretend to be Ukrainian news sites, with names like "Kharkiv News" or the "Federal News Agency." We had video bloggers. Some made themselves look like members of the Russian opposition.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Who do they sign their work contracts with?

Savchuk: They don't even sign any contracts, which is why I am now submitting a lawsuit in a St. Petersburg court. That's the only way of dragging these fiends into the public eye. We want to show the world who is behind these troll factories.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: If there are no contracts, then how are salaries paid?

Savchuk: Under the table, with cash. They don't pay any taxes or make any pension contributions. But it is good money: 50,000 rubles a month, or about €800. But nobody knows exactly where the money comes from. As a concerned citizen, what upsets me is that there is no money in Russia for important social projects right now, but there is for this nonsense, for hundreds of trolls.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Who's behind this?

Savchuk: I never saw the bosses, but there are suspicions. It allegedly involves entrepreneur Yevgeniy Prigoshin. He has never discussed the allegations. Our goal is for the judges to invite him so that he is finally forced to admit it. Will we succeed with that? I don't know.

Yevgeniy Prigoshin operates restaurants and a catering business in St. Petersburg. He reportedly knows President Vladimir Putin well. Progoshin's wealth is also the product of lucrative government contracts. The Russian edition of Forbes reported in 2013 that Prigoshin had been awarded a €2 billion contract to provide prepared meals for schools and the army. Putin himself attended the opening of Prigoshin's factory. Prigoshin's name has popped up in various reports about Internet propagandists, including in the Russian daily Novaya Gazeta.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So who are the trolls?

Savchuk: Students. At 34, I was the exception. The worse thing is that these young people are totally indifferent about what they are writing. I believe that the crime of extremism is actually being committed in the these troll factories.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How?

Savchuk : Because they are wishing for the deaths of Ukrainians and Americans. Hatred between nationalities is being incited. These people are writing one thing today, another thing tomorrow and perhaps the next morning they will put masks on in real life and go out on the street and kill someone.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Who issues operative instructions to you?

Savchuk : It was different in every department. For us, they were written, via the intranet, and they were called "technical tasks." Those who were supposed to comment on media articles were given verbal communication about what they were supposed to write. One example of a key assertion that was to be disseminated was that Boris Nemzov was himself responsible for his death.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What does a day inside the troll factory look like?

Savchuk: Usually, it is a 12-hour work day, but the departments start at different times. There's a night shift. The video bloggers only come in to record their posts. There is a small café where you can eat. But people don't have much time for breaks because they have to fill their quotas.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What kind of tasks did you have to do?

Savchuk : One time we were supposed to write about how terrible things are in the European Union. Another time we were supposed to praise Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu. You sit there and write things like: Yesterday I went for a walk and the idea came to me about how bad the situation is in Europe.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What identities do the trolls assume?

Savchuk : Usually as normal people, but sometimes they pose as members of the opposition. In our department, and this was pretty bizarre, we had a blog by an alleged fortune teller.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are you afraid?

Savchuk : For a long time, I doubted whether I should come forward with my real name. For a long time, I feared dark underpasses, but I have since gotten used to them. There haven't been any threats.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you have the impression that these trolls are actually having any effect?

Savchuk : Absolutely. The aggressiveness and the hatred spills over into the real world.

Source

UPDATE: This investigation into Kremlin online trolling by @AdrianChen for the New York Times is the most incredible read.

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knowledge-Spammer

i wood comment but i see its not needed for me to comment about things like this

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A Lie is The Truth
3 June 2015 Society
Author: Olga Irisova

In the first decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, it appeared that repressive policies of the communist past, such as censorship and restrictions on freedom of speech, would occupy a principal place in Russian textbooks as an example of blatant human rights violations. However, fourteen years later, these undemocratic policies of the Soviet past are systematically returning to occupy a place within the new Russian reality, albeit in a different, modernized form.

The process of tightening the screws in Russian society was connected to the creation and development of all the preconditions needed to legitimize and institutionalize propaganda. Although censorship in the mass media is prohibited under Article 3 of the Russian Federation’s Law on Mass Media, asserting that it does not exist in today’s Russia is as pointless as denying the presence of Russian troops in east Ukraine or the violation of civil liberties in Russia.

The conversion of Russian media into the Kremlin’s mouthpiece is reflected in restrictions on press freedom and the country’s poor international rankings in this regard. In its 2015 World Press Freedom Index, the international non-governmental organization (NGO), Reporters without Borders, ranked Russia 152 out of 180 countries. The country dropped four places in just one year. Note that even in Turkey and Venezuela, media outlets fare better, although the space for ​​freedom of speech is steadily shrinking in all three countries.

The authors of the report point out that the current restrictive climate for the Russian media can be directly attributed to Putin’s return to the presidency in May 2012. Under his leadership, in direct response to civil society activity in Russia, the government introduced a number of harsh measures, including the adoption of a series of draconian laws that significantly restrict freedom of information. However, the legal framework and basis for filtering information to the public was established long before 2012. Freedom of speech was muffled little by little, step by step, through the introduction of legal mechanisms which allowed for the liquidation of media interfering in the formation of a unified, but artificial, picture of reality.

At the start of his first term, Putin issued a decree on the “Concept of Information Security,” which divided media into ‘good’ and ‘bad’. But even then it was already understood that any criticism of the authorities in the media fell under the category of ‘bad.’ In this decree, a separate clause was dedicated to what the Kremlin deems one of the most dangerous internal threats to Russia’s information security in relation to its foreign policy - the “information propaganda activity of political forces, NGOs, the media and individuals who misrepresent the country’s foreign policy strategy and tactics.” If the media or a public figure interpret the Kremlin’s foreign policy differently than Moscow, it is considered a threat to Russia's national interests.

The process of muffling independent television journalism in Russia began on the night of April 13, 2001, when the state took control of and nationalized, previously-independent NTV. From the start, Putin clearly focused on gaining control over television, knowing perfectly well that 90 percent of Russians form their opinion of the world solely on the basis of what they see on television. By removing ‘unnecessary’ facts from television programs, they are removed from the reality of millions of viewers. Posing far less of a danger to the “Lord of the Kremlin” than television, print and internet media enjoyed a longer period of relative freedom. Large TV networks had been subject to the dictates of the Kremlin for years before print and internet publications were.

There is one available alternative to Kremlin controlled television - independently owned Dozhd, or TV Rain. However, this channel is not available through terrestrial (earth based transmitter) frequencies [in North America, this is known as broadcast television] and its programming targets a very narrow audience - primarily those who already share the presented point of view, and are willing to pay for content. Most Russians would never consider purchasing a subscription and paying to watch specific channels when they can watch state-run channels for free. To reach as wide an audience as possible, a TV channel should have no paid content and be broadcast on one of the first ten channels easily found on each Russian’s remote control. Clearly, this is not always feasible. That said, even without access to a wide Russian audience, Dozhd and other opposition media have become regular targets of government harassment.

With their ability to capture the attention of the wider public, still functioning regional television stations, unaffiliated with the government or oligarchs and friends of Putin, have greater potential to challenge the existing status quo. In contrast to Dozhd’s narrower audience base, a quality regional channel is able to attract people of completely different political orientations. Herein is its undeniable advantage and strength. Until recently, the regional stations’ primary focus was covering local events, its criticism directed towards local authorities, companies and corrupt officials. However, the existence of such bastions of free regional TV journalism are acceptable to the Kremlin only as long as their work does not directly contradict the key tenets of Kiselev's (aka, Kremlin’s) propaganda.”

A ‘demonstrative flogging’ was recently held to indicate the existence of a ‘red line’, which if crossed, can lead to serious consequences. The victim was the channel Tomsk TV-2, for airing the truthful story about Russia sending (volunteer) fighters to Ukraine’s Donbas region. Without adequate explanation, the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) withdrew the channel’s license that had been previously issued until 2025. The Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRS) then also refused to renew the channel’s broadcasting contract. (With the same bureaucratic red tape used by Roskomnadzor, the Kremlin later closed down the Crimean Tatar channel ATR in Crimea.)

Knowing that Roskomnadzor had already established a system to disable unwanted media outlets, many media practice ‘local self-censorship.’ Though no formal regulation or law has been issued, the set of postulates developed by the Kremlin’s gang of political technologists are well known, and extremely dangerous to challenge.

The turning point in the state’s move from controlling, to actively and comprehensively attacking free media, came on November 1, 2012, when amendments to the Law on the Protection of Children were adopted. The amendment prohibited information deemed ‘harmful to the health and development’ to children and resulted in the creation of a single registry of sites blocked for containing “prohibited information”. This amendment became known as the ‘blacklist of sites’.

Roskomnadzor was behind the creation of this registry. In compliment, on February 1, 2014, the Lugovoi Law entered into force. Named after the Duma member who sponsored it, the Lugovoi Law authorizes the prosecutor general’s office to order the authorities to block online sources within 24 hours without any court approval. The prosecutor general or his deputies are authorized to ask Roskomnadzor to block access to media that disseminates calls for extremist activities, participation in unsanctioned mass public events or mass riots. In fact, Roskomnadzor gained the exclusive right as censor to choose which resources should be blocked. According to official data, Roskomnadzor has blocked 52,000 websites since 2012. However, according to data from the independent organization, Roskomsvoboda, as of June 3, 2015, 263,249 domains have been unjustly blocked. Throughout the entire period of blocking sites more than 640,000 domains have been scrutinized. Under the Lugovoi Law 4,000 websites were blocked. “Russian censors of the 21st century” are sheltering themselves behind lofty slogans while obediently carried out orders from the Kremlin.

Recently, hackers posted an SMS conversation allegedly belonging to Timur Prokopenko, Deputy Head of Domestic Policy Department within the Presidential Administration, which provides excellent insight into Roskomnadzor’s true role. In the message, Prokopenko states, among other things, that Roskomnadzor has repeatedly “provoked” the liberal, independent media, while ignoring illegal nationalist attacks made by media loyal to the Kremlin. He states that NGOs monitoring the status of the media in the country, though unwilling, are included in a list of foreign agents, and that a new law restricting the share of foreigner ownership in Russian media companies by 20% will come into force in 2016.

In the last 15 years, Putin and his team have succeeded in creating a well-oiled control mechanism over the media, which targets those identified as having ‘anti-Putin’ views and sympathy towards the West. This is set to continue.

Though the current information blockade does not yet have a single legislative authority, this will soon change. It is no accident that during the time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when lies and anti-western rhetoric abound, that the Security Council has started to develop a new policy on information security. The policy will address such dangers as other countries using information technology ‘in order to gain intelligence and achieve political and military objectives’, influencing the development of the Russian Internet and addressing the lack of coordination of authorities’ activities on security issues at different levels. Once again, the focus is on identifying external threats, not on protecting freedom of expression and the media.

The oppressive climate for those who question the Kremlin narrative and discourse continues to grow, with dissent either brought under control or erased from existence. Moscow’s suppression of independent journalism started with “Doctrine 2000” and it now seems that “Doctrine 2015” will see the process to its logical end.

Photo: Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders

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i am sort of not commenting on the putin situation...but lets take a look at this map...America is far form being in the need to be anything but white in this picture... look at the most populated country...china then look at russia... why are you conspiracy whaks not calling for freedom in those countries...you know where actual freedom has actually been taken away from the people by their leaders...and while you at it start thanking your ancestors for moving to America where you have it good...so good that you have pretty much been blinded to to the fact that real freedom HAS been taken away form a whole lot of people in the world...and you got no excuse to say you do not live in russia or china so it does not matter what happens there as it does not have any effect on your life...that is what so many people said about Hitler and musolini and empire of japan and any other fascist state in your parents and grandparents time and why those Aholes rose to power and almost took over the world

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Outflanked 06.03.154:25 PM ET

Can Anyone Stop Putin’s New Blitz?


A shaky cease-fire in Ukraine was shattered Wednesday morning with a new offensive by Russian-backed troops. How will the White House respond?

It looks like Vladimir Putin will spend his second summer in a row going to war.

So now the question becomes: What—if anything—will the United States and Europe do in response?

On Wednesday, Ukrainians awoke to the all-too-predictable news that Moscow-backed separatists—a contingent that consists of quite a lot of Moscow-dispatched Russian soldiers—launched a fresh, multi-pronged assault on Ukrainian-held territory. The primary targets lie west of a line of the demarcation meant to keep a cease-fire that was over before the ink had dried on the so-called “Minsk II” accords.

“Although we’re still assessing details, this is clearly a major, multi-front escalation that reflects continued non-compliance with Minsk by the combined Russian-separatist forces,” a senior Western diplomat told The Daily Beast. When asked if this was the start of a big Russian push for more terrain in the Donbas—the name for the regions encompassing Donetsk and Lugansk—one European leader replied: “Sure looks like it.”

So here’s what we know. The two main towns hit today were Marinka and Krasnogorovka, both not far from the major industrial city of Donetsk. The nearest separatist lines to these targets are the Petrovsky district of the city to the east, Aleksandrovka to the south-east and Novomikhailkovka to the north-east. Video footage, purportedly shot in Petrovsky today, clearly recorded the sounds of outbound artillery fire, with the attendant description of the footage claiming that the separatists were firing from positions in the immediate vicinity of residential high-rises. (Of course, firing from civilian areas doesn’t just violate Minsk II, but the Geneva Conventions.)

Boasts by separatists that Marinka had fallen were met with immediate denials by Kiev.

While acknowledging “a massive bombardment” by separatists using heavy artillery, Ukraine’s military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that the government was “holding off all the attacks.” His colleague, Markiyan Lubkivsky, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), claimed that 10 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and over 80 wounded. Among the dead on the other side, Lubkivsky said, SBU counterintelligence established that at least four were Russian GRU Spetsnaz (Special Forces) soldiers. If true, their presence would further underscore the Kremlin-orchestrated nature of this escalation.

The “defense minister” of the separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic,” Vladimir Kononov, meanwhile, has alleged that 15 people were killed on his side, including fighters and civilians. He blamed a Ukrainian “provocation” for the uptick in violence, which is a bit strange given what the DNR media portal proclaimed.

The fighting cut off the electricity at two mines in the Donetsk region, Skochinsky and Zasyadko, leaving nearly 1,000 miners trapped underground. Separatists claimed that the ones at Skochinsky were being evacuated.

The play for Marinka and Krasnogorovka was also accompanied by heavy shelling, possibly using Grad missiles, against Ukrainian-held positions north of Donetsk such as the towns of Peski and Avdeyevka. And to the south, separatists also targeted Ukrainian locations at Beryozovoye, which lies in Kiev-held stretch of a strategically vital road system, the Donetsk-Mariupol highway. To the south of that, below separatist-held territory, there were further sorties on positions in Burgas, previously the site of heavy civilian casualties due Grad attacks.

Novosti Donbassa, a regional news website, reported today that Ukrainian troops had conducted an organized withdrawal from their foremost checkpoint on the stretch of highway that passes directly south of Marinka as this was too exposed to attack. As my colleague James Miller explains, the separatists have for weeks been testing Ukraine’s defenses along the demarcation line in a fairly evenly spaced offensives that amount to pincer moves designed to trap Kiev between two fronts, a “strategy that has proven to be highly effective in the conflict, most notably at Ilovaisk and Debaltsevo,“ two of the hottest war-zones of the conflict.

Here’s why all of this matters. Should Marinka fall and the Russians succeed in pushing the Ukrainians back from the northern stretch of the Donetsk-Mariupol highway, they’d likely next make a push for Volnovakha, a town that Kiev’s army needs to keep if it wants to maintain control of Mariupol, the crucial port-city on the Sea of Azov. Putin would need Mariupol if he did indeed want to erect a “land-bridge” from mainland Russia to occupied Crimea.

This wouldn’t be at all easy to do, however. As several analysts have noted, taking Mariupol would require some 100,000 conventional Russian troops. That would be a major departure from Putin’s game plan so far: maskirovka warfare whereby Russia’s deploys insignia-less paratroops and Special Forces and dispatches advanced artillery and antiaircraft systems into Ukraine, while strenuously denying at home and abroad that it has done any such thing.

So far, Putin’s efforts at chivvying or shutting up of the grieving mothers, sisters and wives of “Cargo 200”—the Russian codename for soldiers killed in combat—have helped keep his populace from an open rebellion against an undeclared dirty war next-door. All that would change if Operation Land-Bridge got underway.

But even if Mariupol isn’t the next target, isolating and threatening it could keep Ukrainian forces bogged down enough to allow the easier taking of towns and villages in the north and west, such as Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, which were recaptured by the Ukrainian military before the Russian invasion last August.

There are large reserves of forces in the separatist-held hinterland south-east of Donetsk. On April 27, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) reported spotting 11 tanks and 4 armored personnel carriers “50 [kilometers] north of Shirokino,” a town just north of Mariupol. On May 29, the OSCE said that its monitors met had encountered two women in Russian military uniforms as well as a vehicle with Russian license plates carrying armed men in the village of Petrovskoye, in this same area, east of Volnovakha. Hardly a day goes by that the OSCE doesn’t document separatist artillery, Grads, or multiple rocket-launchers gone “missing” from where they’re supposed to be parked for inspection.

At the moment, all the Pentagon will say officially is that “we’ve certainly seen the reports of increased violence. The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission has reported continued ceasefire violations by Russian-separatist forces,” Defense Department spokesperson Eileen Lainez told The Daily Beast.

But it doesn’t bode well that Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of Russia’s Federation Council (the nation’s mostly symbolic senate) announced Wednesday that the Council may meet in emergency session and asked its deputies “not to go far away.” The last time this body did so, it was to retroactively rubber-stamp Putin’s invasion of Crimea, an invasion he at first disclaimed. Putin also later copped to having made plans for seizing the peninsula long before the Euromaidan protests erupted in Kiev over a year ago, culminating in the nighttime skedaddling of pro-Putin Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych from the country.

In spite of its uninterrupted record of audacious bullshitting, the Kremlin has nevertheless enjoyed the spectacle of seeing any number of Western “experts” on Russia take its reassurances that Minsk II is still on at face value. “Novorossiya”—the name given to the dream of erecting a blood-and-soil ethnic Russian empire, of which annexing the Donbas and Crimea are said to be integral—has been obituarized repeatedly over the past several weeks; never mind that the separatists still brandish its pennant with pride gibber openly about gobbling up more of Ukraine.

In fact, as Mashable’s Christopher Miller discovered today in Moscow, the former separatist commander Igor Girkin (a.k.a. Strelkov), himself a Russian intelligence operative, has proclaimed Novorossiya alive and well. Told that Marinka may have fallen to his comrades in Ukraine, Girkin replied: “Good.”

No war is complete without its psychological dimension. Here, too, we’re given contradictory telegraphs of Moscow’s real intentions. In forum on the Russian social media site VKontakte evocatively titled Svodki Novorossii—“Novorossiya Dispatches”—Strelkov claimed that Vladislav Surkov, Putin’s “grey cardinal” and a man sanctioned by the U.S. and E.U. for his role in fomenting the Ukraine crisis, recently met with DNR leadership. Surkov apparently “yelled a lot and was vile.” The reason? He supposedly wanted the DNR to put a cork in it and give up on Novorossiya.

This could easily be a carefully placed piece of disinformation designed to create the impression that the Kremlin didn’t authorize this latest offensive, the better to plead innocent in the inevitable diplomatic set-to with the West. It wouldn’t be the first time Putin has intimated that the proxies he says he doesn’t control have suddenly gone rogue on him. (Strelkov elsewhere admits that only an “idiot” would believe that the separatists operate without a little help from their friends in Moscow.)

Inevitably, Kiev—and, by extension, Washington and Brussels—are now faced with having to call the whole ceasefire off and risk making tough choices about how to prosecute a defensive military campaign or increase the West’s economic warfare against Russia. (The E.U. seems set on rolling over current sanctions against individuals and entities in Russia, but not necessarily issuing new ones.) Ukraine’s general staff issued a statement today saying it’ll deploy heavy weaponry back to the front lines, materiel which was withdrawn in accordance with the ceasefire. This is just as Putin would have it.
His foreign policy has ever been one of Freudian projections and double-binds. He accuses his opponents of the sins and crimes of which he himself is guilty, then fashions a trap for them whereby they lose whatever move they make. Arm Ukraine? Do that and we’ll escalate the war. Don’t arm Ukraine? We’ll escalate anyway. Abide by Minsk? We’ll violate it and blame you for breaking it. Break Minsk? Even better!

—with additional reporting by Nancy A. Youssef


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