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Ukraine and the Russian invasion, 2022-24

Oligarch in exile Mikhail Khodorkovsky launches a unite-the-democratic-Russian-opposition petition & principles-statement.



Not too much agency behind this really. Will be interesting to see if it goes anywhere. My impression is that these fine words will mainly garner comment in academic papers and debating societies.
 
Recently published report by Dignity on detention and torture in Russian occupied Ukraine. Lots of first hand testimonies. Grim reading, and a verbal report and discussion on it on The Telegraph (I know but they have some useful stuff...) Ukraine podcast.

 
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Bit off topic, but good program on Radio 4 this morning that's well worth a listen imo.

"Adam Rutherford asks what ordinary life was like in the Soviet Union and how far its collapse helps to explain Russia today. Karl Schlögel is one of the world’s leading historians of the Soviet Union. In his latest book, The Soviet Century: Archaeology of a Lost World (translated by Rodney Livingstone), he recreates an encyclopaedic and richly detailed history of daily life, both big and small. He examines the planned economy, the railway system and the steel city of Magnitogorsk as well as cookbooks, parades and the ubiquitous perfume Red Moscow. The historian Katja Hoyer presents a more nuanced picture of life in East Germany, far from the caricature often painted in the West. In Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990 she acknowledges the oppression and hardship often faced by ordinary people, but argues that this now-vanished society was also home to its own distinctive and rich social and cultural landscape. But what did it feel like to live through the fall of communism and then democracy? These are the questions Adam Curtis looked to reveal in his 7-part television series, Russia 1985-1999 TraumaZone (available on BBC iPlayer). The archive footage from thousands of hours of tapes filmed by BBC crews across the country records the lives of Russians at every level of society as their world collapsed around them."
I heard that too. Also off topic. But it occurred to me (perhaps not for the first time) that if one had Adam Curtis round for dinner, or spent an evening in the pub with him. It must be strange. Because whenever he offered an opinion it would seem like you were watching one of his documentaries. I mean this in a positive way because I enjoy his work. But if he were saying "It seems that the local traffic wardens were being too keen" or somesuch mundane conversation it would be hilarious because then one would expect footage of them applying tickets.
 
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I heard that too. Also off topic. But it occurred to me (perhaps not for the first time) that if one had Adam Curtis round for dinner, or spent an evening in the pub with him. It must be strange. Because whenever he offered an opinion it would seem like you were watching one of his documentaries. I mean this in a positive way because I enjoy his work. But if he were saying "It seems that the local traffic wardens were being too keen" or somesuch mundane conversation it would be hilarious because then one would expect footage of them applying tickets.

Yeah, I enjoyed TraumaZone, but it was a bit missing his odd voiceover (but was better for it tbh!). He's a good storyteller, but possibly slightly grandiose and with a tendency towards inventing or exaggerating links and individuals.

 
Oh dear, etc.

Are we starting to see some indigenous Russian pushback here?

This brings to mind "once was an accident, twice a coincidence, thrice is enemy action ..."
and I think there was something similar [a derailment] a "few weeks" ago - but I may be mis-remembering the time span - plus the previous shootout in the same general area with some russian separatists that could/might have been Ukrainian saboteurs .
 
Well that's a turn up for the books.




It’s quite obviously bollocks of some sort or another, two not particularly large or fast drones with not particularly large payloads exploding above the Kremlin, with lots of tidy filmed footage released by media that just happens to be pointing in the right direction at the right time. I don’t think this is one of Budanov’s ‘surprises’ somehow.
 
So who is behind the attack as Ukraine has it not them?
Small chance of it being Russian partisans, slightly higher chance of it being a state stunt to build support for the war or justify their actions in Ukraine under the ‘Russia is under attack’ banner.
 
It's just bollocks - it's no more a Ukr strike than I'm a Victoria's Secret model - it's simply about desperation to stoke nationalistic fervour for Victory Day to keep the show on the road, something old Vlad has plenty of form for.

Big picture, because it doesn't matter if its Ukrainians, or regime shenanigans, or Russian anti-government groups - if you're 400+ days into a 3 day war, and your presidential palace is on fire, then things are not going well.

(Robbed off twitter, obvs, but I thought it cut through the crap)
 
So the spring offensive looks to have moved up a notch to a summer assault on mother Russia itself.

Lolololol. Despair
Haven't Ukraine broken with their traditional dates as part of their de Russification of everything? If so their Summer offensive could attack Russia in their Spring
 
also we all know putins currently hiding behind a very large table in a bunker somewhere

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