Russia

[pnwguy]

Mar 9, 2022 14:39:04 GMT LFC said:

The pain increases for Russia. I can't believe Putin ever expected things to get this bad. I also can't believe he'd ever admit it and leave Ukraine. He's trapped in a cluster-f*** of his own making and a LOT of other people are suffering because of it.

Russia’s Isolation Deepens

Biden announced a ban yesterday on all Russian oil and natural gas imports to the United States.

• BBC: “West hits Russia with oil bans and gas curbs”

• New York Times: “Food companies like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, symbols of the West in Russia, will pause operations there.”

• The Washington Post: “U.S. to ban oil imports from Russia as White House explores drastic plans to buffer economy from energy shock”

• Reuters: “EU agrees new sanctions against Russia over Ukraine invasion, France says”

The frightening question is whether Putin would prefer to go out in a blaze of nuclear glory.  With state control of the media most older Russians drink up daily, and right wingers in the Russian Orthodox Church assuring the masses of a glorious future after-life, he'd have willing accomplices to go all in.

[indy]

Mar 9, 2022 14:39:04 GMT LFC said:

The pain increases for Russia. I can't believe Putin ever expected things to get this bad. I also can't believe he'd ever admit it and leave Ukraine. He's trapped in a cluster-f*** of his own making and a LOT of other people are suffering because of it.

Russia’s Isolation Deepens

Biden announced a ban yesterday on all Russian oil and natural gas imports to the United States.

• BBC: “West hits Russia with oil bans and gas curbs”

• New York Times: “Food companies like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, symbols of the West in Russia, will pause operations there.”

• The Washington Post: “U.S. to ban oil imports from Russia as White House explores drastic plans to buffer economy from energy shock”

• Reuters: “EU agrees new sanctions against Russia over Ukraine invasion, France says”

I don't know why all these companies with assets in Russia are calling it 'a pause in operations'. Presumably they hope Putin won't seize those assets by not saying 'we are pulling out'. That is a foolish hope.

ETA: Literally five minutes after I wrote this, I read that Putin is indeed threatening to do just that.

[indy]

Secretary General of NATO warns that any attempt by Russia to interfere with arms deliveries to Ukraine will trigger Article 5.

[indy]

Mar 9, 2022 15:19:45 GMT pnwguy said:

Mar 9, 2022 14:39:04 GMT LFC said:

The pain increases for Russia. I can't believe Putin ever expected things to get this bad. I also can't believe he'd ever admit it and leave Ukraine. He's trapped in a cluster-f*** of his own making and a LOT of other people are suffering because of it.

The frightening question is whether Putin would prefer to go out in a blaze of nuclear glory.  With state control of the media most older Russians drink up daily, and right wingers in the Russian Orthodox Church assuring the masses of a glorious future after-life, he'd have willing accomplices to go all in.

Well, from what I understand of Russian protocol (and I am far from an expert) for nuclear launch, Putin is only one of the necessary approvals. That is theory anyway. In practice, he can probably have the other necessary people shot until one of their successors agrees.

[andydp]

Mar 9, 2022 15:43:57 GMT indy said:

Mar 9, 2022 15:19:45 GMT pnwguy said:

Well, from what I understand of Russian protocol (and I am far from an expert) for nuclear launch, Putin is only one of the necessary approvals. That is theory anyway. In practice, he can probably have the other necessary people shot until one of their successors agrees.

When I was in Command and General Staff College, it was a surprise to me, in the US Military the "National Command Authority" authorized to expend a nuclear device can be delegated to a Lieutenant (3 star) General.  Of course the primary authorization would have to come from the POTUS, but the General could deploy "tactical" nukes if he deems necessary.

I'm willing to bet the Russian Army has the same sort of protocols in place.  However, based on history, the Russian Army tends to be a "top down" organization with decisions made at the highest levels.  The decision to deploy such a weapon would likely be done at the "Putin Level". 

[goldenvalley]

Mar 9, 2022 16:40:05 GMT andydp said:

Mar 9, 2022 15:43:57 GMT indy said:

Well, from what I understand of Russian protocol (and I am far from an expert) for nuclear launch, Putin is only one of the necessary approvals. That is theory anyway. In practice, he can probably have the other necessary people shot until one of their successors agrees.

When I was in Command and General Staff College, it was a surprise to me, in the US Military the "National Command Authority" authorized to expend a nuclear device can be delegated to a Lieutenant (3 star) General.  Of course the primary authorization would have to come from the POTUS, but the General could deploy "tactical" nukes if he deems necessary.

I'm willing to bet the Russian Army has the same sort of protocols in place.  However, based on history, the Russian Army tends to be a "top down" organization with decisions made at the highest levels.  The decision to deploy such a weapon would likely be done at the "Putin Level". 

What are the odds that Putin poisoned any officer that he felt was disloyal enough to not obey Putin's every military whim?

[LFC]

Interesting approach to get around some sanctions. I wonder what kinds of counter-measures companies will use to prevent piracy with any software that requires being online.

It sounds like Russia may be getting a little desperate to stave off economic collapse in the wake of Ukraine-related Western sanctions. The new plan? Legalize certain forms of software piracy as a potential workaround for products whose companies’ have recently cut off distribution in Russia.

Torrentfreak reports that the Russian government has floated the idea of effectively rescinding legal punishments for people who use certain types of pirated software. That software would have to come from companies that have supported the current Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia. Piracy would also be allowed in cases where there was no Russia-based alternative to the pirated software, the proposed policy suggests.

The West recently instituted harsh economic sanctions against Russia, in a bid to halt President Vladimir Putin’s illegal military invasion of Ukraine. That invasion, which has sent shockwaves throughout Europe and resulted in hundreds of deaths, recently spurred G-7 nations to cut off vital economic flows to Russia. But a large number of private companies have also agreed to temporarily halt product sales and services in the country, as well. Big tech names such as Apple, Adobe, Samsung, and Microsoft have all jumped on this bandwagon, effectively making it impossible for the average Russian to buy a new Macbook or Galaxy smartphone, among many other inconveniences.

As a result of all of this, the Russian government has scrambled to come up with creative strategies to keep the nation’s economy moving and to allow its citizens continued access to vital, West-sourced tech. Torrentfreak notes that the Russian government’s plan to essentially greenlight certain forms of software piracy is part of a broader strategy recently released by the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia. It’s an especially bizarre policy, given that Russia has historically been quite draconian when it comes to piracy.

[LFC]

Josh Marshall notes that the reckoning the Trump and the Republican Party are due for their years of support of Russia, not that he ever expects to see it.

I must say that I am looking forward to the raft of articles in the works from the Times, WaPo, Politico and above all Axios about the GOP’s reckoning with the fact that their party leader (and most of his party) has spent the last several years toadying and obsequiously embracing Vladimir Putin and Russia. I jest of course since I have little hope that any of these pieces will be written. But the leader of this party has spent the last seven years fawning over the increasingly dictatorial leader of the country who has now tipped the world into the biggest international crisis in a generation and I guess we’re somehow not going to talk about that. I mean, he actually got impeached over it and for participating in a scheme to make the country Russia just invaded easier to invade.

It would be as if in the aftermath of 9/11 Richard Gephardt or perhaps Al Gore were in a terrible bind because they were the co-chairs of the U.S.-Bin Laden Friendship League or ran a nonprofit focused on training the next generation of al Qaeda airline pilots. But somehow bygones and all that. It really is pretty much like that. And frankly, this is the most generous read of the facts before us.

Remember the time that Donald Trump’s degenerate campaign manager worked with a business partner who was a Russian spy and they finagled to pull the part of the 2016 GOP platform that called for military aid to Ukraine? Or the time Russian intermediaries reached out to the candidate’s son about the Russian government assisting his campaign and he said he “I love it!” Or the other time when the now leader of the House GOP caucus said that he thought “there’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump” and then his colleagues swore him to silence and told him not to speak of it again. Do I need to bring up more examples? Maybe the time where Trump met Putin in Helsinki, Finland, and told reporters he trusted Putin more than his own intelligence officials?

The United States is hopelessly divided on whether Trump did anything illegal in his various efforts to work with Vladimir Putin and Russia. But set all that aside and focus on the most generous interpretation which is that Donald Trump loves him some Russia and especially some Vladimir Putin and actually repeatedly sought to work with him to force Ukraine back under Russia domination.

We know all this and we know that his party has followed him reflexively in this course. And somehow, well … where are those articles?

[LFC]

Russia state TV propaganda is, of course, absurd but they seem to be paving the way for Putin to claim victory and get out before Russia's economy collapses (bold mine). They clearly recognize the fact that Russia is going to bear the brunt of the economic fallout of their war. President Biden was right. Putin really didn't have any idea what was coming.

State TV pundit Karen Shakhnazarov pointed out: “The war in Ukraine paints a frightening picture, it has a very oppressive influence on our society. Ukraine, whichever way you see it, is something with which Russia has thousands of human links. The suffering of one group of innocents does not compensate for the suffering of other innocent people... I don’t see the probability of denazification of such an enormous country. We would need to bring in 1.5 million soldiers to control all of it. At the same time, I don’t see any political power that would consolidate the Ukrainian society in a pro-Russian direction... Those who talked of their mass attraction to Russia obviously didn’t see things the way they are. The most important thing in this scenario is to stop our military action. Others will say that sanctions will remain. Yes, they will remain, but in my opinion discontinuing the active phase of a military operation is very important.”

Resorting to the traditional propaganda tropes prevalent in Russian state media, Shakhnazarov accused the United States of starting the war—and trying to prolong it indefinitely. He speculated: “What are they achieving by prolonging the war? First of all, public opinion within Russia is changing. People are shocked by the masses of refugees, the humanitarian catastrophe, people start to imagine themselves in their place. It’s starting to affect them. To say that the Nazis are doing that is not quite convincing, strictly speaking... On top of that, economic sanctions will start to affect them, and seriously. There will probably be scarcity. A lot of products we don’t produce, even the simplest ones. There’ll be unemployment. They really thought through these sanctions, they’re hitting us with real continuity. It’s a well-planned operation... Yes, this is a war of the United States with Russia... These sanctions are hitting us very precisely.

“This threatens the change of public opinion in Russia, the destabilization of our power structures... with the possibility of a full destabilization of the country and a civil war. This apocalyptic scenario is based on the script written by the Americans. They benefit through us dragging out the military operation. We need to end it somehow. If we achieved the demilitarization and freed the Donbas, that is sufficient... I have a hard time imagining taking cities such as Kyiv. I can’t imagine how that would look. If this picture starts to transform into an absolute humanitarian disaster, even our close allies like China and India will be forced to distance themselves from us. This public opinion, with which they’re saturating the entire world, can play out badly for us... Ending this operation will stabilize things within the country.”

The host frowned at the apparent departure from the officially approved line of thinking and deferred to the commander-in-chief. However, the next expert agreed with Shakhnazarov. Semyon Bagdasarov, a Russian Middle East expert, grimly said: “We didn’t even feel the impact of the sanctions just yet... We need to be ready for total isolation. I’m not panicking, just calling things by their proper name.”

Soloviev angrily sniped: “Gotcha. We should just lay down and die.”

Bagdasarov continued: “Now about Ukraine. I agree with Karen. We had prior experiences of bringing in our troops, destroying the military infrastructure and leaving. I think that our army fulfilled their task of demilitarization of the country by destroying most of their military installations... To restore their military they will need at least 10 years... Let Ukrainians do this denazification on their own. We can’t do it for them... As for their neutrality, yes, we should squeeze it out of them, and that’s it. We don’t need to stay there longer than necessary... Do we need to get into another Afghanistan, but even worse? There are more people and they’re more advanced in their handling of weapons. We don’t need that. Enough already... As for the sanctions, the world has never seen such massive sanctions.”

Dmitry Abzalov, director of the Center for Strategic Communications, pointed out that even though energy prices will go up for most of the West, it won’t do much to ease the pain for the Russians: “We’ll still be the ones taking the terminal hit, and an incomparable one, even though other countries will also suffer some losses. We’ll all be going to hell together—except for maybe China—but going to hell together with the French or Germans won’t make our people feel any better.” Abzalov argued that after taking additional territories in Eastern Ukraine, Russia should get out of Dodge, believing that all Western companies that temporarily paused their operations in Russia would then rush to come back. “It’s about toxicity, not just sanctions... It will go away once the situation stabilizes.”

[LFC]

Kremlin Kevin goes full metal Baghdad Bob.

Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is comforting himself ahead of his future war-crimes trial by somehow convincing himself that Russia didn’t attack Ukraine and that blowing up children’s hospitals is actually fine. On Thursday, Lavrov lived up to his reputation as one of the Kremlin’s slimiest operators by spouting a string of breathtaking falsehoods in front of the world’s media. With a straight face, the foreign minister insisted that every piece of footage and every testimonial from Ukraine is somehow made up, and had the gall to say the words: “We are not planning to attack other countries. We didn’t attack Ukraine in the first place.” Asked what was behind Russia’s decision to bomb a maternity and children’s hospital in the city of Mariupol, Lavrov insisted the facility was actually full of Ukrainian “radicals” who had “chased out” all patients. He made that false claim despite the fact that one child died in the bombing.

[LFC]

Putin's oligarchs are still being targeted. This is a kick right in the soccer balls.

Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, has become the latest and most high-profile Russian oligarch to be sanctioned in Britain in punishment for the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

The sanctions mean that all of the billionaire’s U.K. assets, including his treasured English Premier League club and multimillion pound property portfolio, will be frozen with immediate effect. The Putin confidante will no longer be allowed to travel to the U.K. or carry out any financial transactions with individuals or companies based in Britain.

Just last week, Abramovich announced he was selling Chelsea—the club he’s bankrolled to success since 2003—as countries around the world cracked down on Russian assets. That multi-billion sale will no longer go ahead as planned, with an unnamed British government source telling The Times: “He will not get a penny from the sale of the club.”

The sanctions will also have a more direct effect on his beloved club.

Chelsea, the current world champions, will no longer be able to sell tickets to games, so only existing season ticket holders will be able to attend its upcoming fixtures. Its merchandise store will be closed, the club won’t be able to spend more than $26,000 on travel to each game, and it will be impossible to buy or sell players or negotiate new contracts.

And was this yacht impounded, stolen, scuttled, or scurried away for safe keeping?

It’s a 230-foot superyacht with room for 28 guests and crew—and yet, in the last week, it has seemingly vanished, just as other vessels belonging to Russian billionaires have been frozen or seized.

The Galactica Super Nova, owned by Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov, sailed in recent weeks from Barcelona to Tivat, Montenegro, arriving on March 1. But just a day later, the boat departed, according to data from the ship-tracking company MarineTraffic.

An official at the port in Montenegro confirmed that the yacht was no longer there.

Soon after it left, Galactica’s automatic tracking system, also known as AIS, stopped pinging out signals, reports MarineTraffic and its competitors VesselFinder and VesselsValue. As of Wednesday afternoon Central European Time, the boat had yet to update its location.

It is legally required for all yachts of Galactica’s size to have their AIS turned on “at all times,” said Sam Tucker, head of superyachts at VesselsValue. “For the past 12 months, we have had a very reliable signal coming from this vessel, so after seeing it [leave] Porto Montenegro, we are very surprised that there has been no signal received from either our satellites or ground stations.”

Duncan Bateson, a marine lawyer based in London, said it was likely that “if captains of Russian-linked boats are turning off their AIS tracker, then it's because they're trying to evade being tracked.”

Lukoil did not respond to requests for comment.

[LFC]

Yeah, this is going to happen anyplace outside of Russia or the nations it controls.

Russia has created its own trusted TLS certificate authority (CA) to solve website access problems that have been piling up after sanctions prevent certificate renewals.

The sanctions imposed by western companies and governments are preventing Russian sites from renewing existing TLS certificates, causing browsers to block access to sites with expired certificates.

TLS certificates help the web browser confirm that a domain belongs to a verified entity and that the exchange of information between the user and the server is encrypted.

Signing authorities based on countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia can no longer accept payments for their services, leaving many sites with no practical means to renew expiring certificates.

After a certificate expires, web browsers such as Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox will display full-page warnings that the pages are insecure, which can drive many users away from the site.

[LFC]

Putin is swirling the bowl as the propaganda becomes more absurd and much more dangerous.

And so Western policymakers have been alarmed in recent days to see the the Kremlin begin making insane noises about a potential chemical or biological attack in Ukraine, supposedly launched out of U.S.-sponsored biolabs.

“Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false-flag operation using them,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday. “It’s a clear pattern.”

As if on cue, on Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Defense accused the U.S. of trying to manufacture birdborne viruses to attack Russia … in Ukraine.

Conveniently, in the Ministry’s telling, the newly discovered labs are in cities where Russia has focused much of its military attention: Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odessa.

It’s a trolling, bizarro-world, ex post facto echo of the U.S. claims about weapons of mass destruction that were never found in Iraq. But after weeks of war in Ukraine without a smidgen of a causus belli, the Kremlin appears to have seized on a fantasy that may appeal to germaphobes and American conservatives alike: birds, and the biolaboratories supposedly devoted to weaponizing them.

The Russian announcement is straight out of central casting, replete with a secret project code name and strategically located Ukrainian cities. The Kremlin calls it “Project UP-4,” allegedly involving labs in the three major Ukrainian cities in the crosshairs of the ongoing Russian offensive.

The core of the allegation is that the labs were to create a mutated bird flu virus with a 50 percent kill rate. The virus could, in the Kremlin’s telling, then spread via birds with migratory patterns across Russia.

“From all the U.S.-produced means of destabilizing the epidemiological situation, this is one of the most reckless and irresponsible, as it does not allow for the situation to be controlled further,” Russia’s Ministry of Defense said in the statement.

It’s a narrative that plays on Western conspiracy mongering around the origins of COVID-19, with some on the right still insisting that the virus was intentionally released by a U.S.-funded Chinese bioweapons lab.

In Russia’s iteration, it’s U.S.-funded research in Ukrainian biolabs that, two weeks after the war began, suddenly necessitates some form of Russian intervention.

[indy]

Mar 10, 2022 21:58:36 GMT LFC said:

Putin's oligarchs are still being targeted. This is a kick right in the soccer balls.

Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, has become the latest and most high-profile Russian oligarch to be sanctioned in Britain in punishment for the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

The sanctions mean that all of the billionaire’s U.K. assets, including his treasured English Premier League club and multimillion pound property portfolio, will be frozen with immediate effect. The Putin confidante will no longer be allowed to travel to the U.K. or carry out any financial transactions with individuals or companies based in Britain.

Just last week, Abramovich announced he was selling Chelsea—the club he’s bankrolled to success since 2003—as countries around the world cracked down on Russian assets. That multi-billion sale will no longer go ahead as planned, with an unnamed British government source telling The Times: “He will not get a penny from the sale of the club.”

The sanctions will also have a more direct effect on his beloved club.

Chelsea, the current world champions, will no longer be able to sell tickets to games, so only existing season ticket holders will be able to attend its upcoming fixtures. Its merchandise store will be closed, the club won’t be able to spend more than $26,000 on travel to each game, and it will be impossible to buy or sell players or negotiate new contracts.

Russian oligarch complaining to Putin: 'They've seized 75% of my assets!'
Putin: 'How interested are you in keeping the other 25%?'

[pnwguy]

For a very insightful (and depressing) look at world events with Putin, watch this very long interview. The speaker is an American journalist born in Moscow with a career that's focused on Russia and eastern European history.

[LFC]

Just a quick list of the super-yachts that have been targeted so far.

[AnBr]

www.newsandguts.com/quote-of-the-day-hillary-clinton-on-being-the-target-of-russian-sanctions/

[andydp]

We had always heard the ethernet would be the next big "war zone".  Anonymous is proving the theory right.

Anonymous declared a 'cyber war' against Russia. Here are the results


(Anonymous) has claimed responsibility for disabling prominent Russian government, news and corporate websites and leaking data from entities such as Roskomnadzor, the federal agency responsible for censoring Russian media.

It appears it is, says Jeremiah Fowler, a co-founder of the cybersecurity company Security Discovery, who worked with researchers at the web company Website Planet to attempt to verify the group's claims.

"Anonymous has proven to be a very capable group that has penetrated some high value targets, records and databases in the Russian Federation," he wrote in a report summarizing the findings.

Of 100 Russian databases that were analyzed, 92 had been compromised, said Fowler.

They belonged to retailers, Russian internet providers and intergovernmental websites, including the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS, an organization made up of Russia and other former Soviet nations that was created in 1991 following the fall of the Soviet Union.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/anonymous-declared-a-cyber-war-against-russia-here-are-the-results/ar-AAV7lrM

Codicil:  if you remember the movie "War Games", there is danger in messing up command and control networks.  The problem with a "bunch of amateurs" doing things autonomously is they may disrupt a major control system that might trick the other side into setting off the wrong kind of weapons.

[LFC]

Another super yacht problem. Boo-hoo-hoo.

Former KGB agent and Putin pal Vladimir Strzhalkovsky’s superyacht Ragner is stuck off the coast of Norway and going nowhere fast after local oil fillers have refused to refuel it, The New York Times reports. One supplier told local public broadcaster NRK, “Why should we help them?” Sven Holmlund said. “They can row home. Or use a sail.” Strzhalkovsky is not on the EU sanction list, but his superyacht is under scrutiny by the Norwegian government, which is reportedly exploring how to sequester it based on his close association to Russian President Vladimir Putin, under whom he has served as deputy minister. Norway, which is not a member of the European Union, cannot unilaterally levy sanctions. “There are no established channels for third-party countries like Norway to come with their own suggestions for the list,” Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said Tuesday, though local oil suppliers can act on their own to refuse to supply the ship.

[LFC]

The world continues to hack and punish Russian state companies. I guess Putin thought having a hacker squad was a hoot and a half until everybody decided to strike at him.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine moves into its fourth week, unconventional actors continue to target Russian state-backed businesses with a string of hacks and data leaks — the latest apparently referencing pro-hacktivism comments made by Hillary Clinton.

The targeted organization is Transneft, the Russian state-controlled oil pipeline giant. On Thursday, leak hosting website Distributed Denial of Secrets published a link to 79GB of emails from the Omega Company, the research and development division of Transneft.

Headquartered in Moscow, Transneft is the largest pipeline company in the world. As a state-owned Russian enterprise, it is now blocked from receiving investments from the US market under the terms of sanctions against Russia.

Its in-house R&D unit, the Omega Company, produces a range of high-tech acoustic and temperature monitoring systems for oil pipelines, ironically focused on leak detection.

The email leaks appear to contain the contents of multiple email accounts from company employees, including not only email messages but file attachments containing invoices and product shipment details and image files showing server racks and other equipment configurations.

Some emails reviewed by The Verge were timestamped as recently as March 15th, just days before the leaked data appeared online.

[LFC]

Putin is wielding the power to suppress the press that Trump and Republicans wish they had.

Russian activists and journalists discovered threatening messages painted on their apartment doors on after Vladimir Putin delivered a speech calling for a “self-cleansing of society” from “scum and traitors.”

“Don’t betray your country, bitch,” read one message painted in white on the front door of a journalist’s apartment.

Anna Loiko, a journalist for the opposition news site SOTA, which has closely covered protests against the war in Ukraine, was among those targeted. Activists Dmitry Ivanov and Olga Misik also received such messages, which featured the symbol “Z” that Russia has tried to use to drum up support domestically for its all-out war against Ukraine.

“This is the message left for me by anonymous ‘defenders of the homeland,’” Ivanov wrote on Telegram alongside a photo of his defaced door.

[LFC]

Putin is threatening other neighbors. He is simultaneously giving them he best reasons to run into the arms of NATO (if they'd have them) and demanding that they don't run into the arms of NATO.

Russia is now threatening to repeat the aggression it unleashed against Ukraine in Bosnia and Herzegovina if the country joins NATO. In comments made to the broadcaster FTV on Thursday, Russian Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Igor Kalbukhov claimed the country could do as it wishes in regards to the alliance—but warned that Moscow would respond. “If [Bosnia and Herzegovina] decides to be a member of any alliance, that is an internal matter. Our response is a different matter. Ukraine’s example shows what we expect. Should there be any threat, we will respond,” he said in comments carried by Euractiv. Echoing the Kremlin’s rhetoric on Ukraine, he accused the West of stoking tensions by claiming Moscow has a “plan” for Bosnia and Herzegovina. “We do not have any plans,” Kalbukhov said, a denial eerily similar to those repeatedly made by Russia about having “no plans” to invade Ukraine.

[LFC]

This is horrific most interesting because of what it says about Putin (bold mine). I don't know if it's true but it would explain a lot. I've actually seen these kinds of people in action, those who were likely bullied as kids and now that they're in senior positions they love being bullies.

The clearly deranged boyfriend of Gretta Vedler, a Russian model who famously accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being a “psychopath,” has reportedly confessed to murdering her and keeping her corpse hidden for a year inside a suitcase, according to Russian media reports.

Vedler, 23, vanished soon after criticizing Putin in January 2021, and friends quickly grew concerned for her safety after she continued to post on her social media account without responding to their calls.

“Given the fact that Putin went through a lot of humiliation in childhood, he could not stand up for himself due to his [slight] physical form, it is not surprising that he left after law school and joined the KGB,” Vedler wrote in a now-removed social media post, according to the Mirror. “Such people are timid and fearful from childhood, afraid of noise and darkness, strangers, so traits such as caution, restraint, and lack of communication are developed early in their character. I can only assume, in my opinion, a clear psychopathy or sociopathy is seen in him.”

She disappeared shortly after the post, which was apparently removed by Russian censors.

This week, Vedler’s erstwhile boyfriend, Dmitry Korovin, confessed to strangling her to death after the two argued not over politics but over money in Moscow in February 2021. He said he continued to post old photos on her social accounts to not arouse suspicion that she might be dead, according to authorities.

[LFC]

Prepare for more violence and fewer public appearances. This might set him off the same way that being cut off from a supply of orange dye would set off Trump.

Botox, looks set to be cut off from the popular wrinkle treatment thanks to his war against Ukraine. U.S. drugmaker AbbVie, which owns the cosmetic medicine, announced that it is halting operations inside Russia as a result of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The company joins a growing list of pharmaceutical companies running for the exits after Moscow’s senseless war. U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly has vowed to keep sending critical medicines for cancer and diabetes to Russia, but it’s stopping sales of “non-essential medicines.” Swiss drugmaker Novartis has also announced it is suspending all investments and marketing activities in Russia, while Pfizer, Bayer, and Abbott Laboratories have cut back spending.

I suspect he'll use their entire diplomatic and intelligence apparatuses to get him his ego sustaining supply.

[AnBr]