Russia Watch Thread

Xyls
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caltrek wrote: Fri Aug 26, 2022 4:23 pm 'Dwindling Human Resources': Kremlin Propagandists Begging for 'Professionals' to Immigrate to Russia
by Alex Henderson
August 26, 2022

Introduction:
(Alternet) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine has not only inflicted considerable misery and destruction in Ukraine — it has also caused economic hardship in Russia, with aggressive economic sanctions being imposed by the Biden Administration and its European allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Moreover, the invasion has had the unintended consequence of expanding NATO; Sweden and Finland, obviously troubled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, applied for NATO membership after many years of staying out of the 73-year-old alliance.

Another consequence of the invasion, according to Daily Beast reporter Julia Davis, is “dwindling human resources” in Russia. As a result, Davis reports in an article published on August 26, pro-Kremlin propagandists are encouraging immigration to the country.

“Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was meant to bring Russia millions of new citizens, as well as the country’s fertile land, flush with mineral and energy resources,” Davis explains. “Instead, the war has caused monumental losses on the battlefield, and the exodus of the best and the brightest from Russia. Now, dwindling human resources are causing the Kremlin and its pliant mouthpieces to brainstorm about replenishing the gaping holes in Russia’s general population, workforce and military.”

Davis continues, “Appearing on the state TV show ‘Who’s Against?’ on Tuesday, (August 23), Anna Revyakina, deputy chairwoman of the Public Chamber of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic in occupied Ukraine, voiced her ideas about attracting potential immigrants to Russia. She suggested that instead of worrying about the wave of European visa bans on Russians who want to travel abroad, Moscow should do more to attract foreigners to Russia.”
Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/kreml ... esources/
Guess Russia better steal some more Ukrainian kids then.
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caltrek
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Watching the War on Russian Television
by Brent Eastwood
September 3, 2022

Introduction:
(Foreign Policy Research Institute via Eurasia Review) — Those watching Russian television to follow the war in Ukraine live in an alternative reality. Commentators on state-owned Russian television news stations have spread the falsehood that Ukraine is staging fake attacks on their own cities to make it look like Russia is the aggressor. Russian news broadcasters have also claimed that the Russian military taking control of the Chernobyl nuclear plant was done to keep Ukraine from making a nuclear weapon.

Independent stations that have dared to cover the war even-handedly have been silenced. The Kremlin promulgated a federal law in March that made it illegal to deliberately broadcast “misleading information” and partake in “discrediting the use of the Russian Federation Armed Forces.” This resulted in an independent media blackout in Russia this spring.

But a familiar light is now shining elsewhere, albeit dimly. Dozhd (TV Rain), the renegade Russian television network critical of the war in Ukraine, is broadcasting again from Riga, Latvia, through its YouTube channel. Operations re-started in July after Dozhd was shut down in March. Its staff walked off the set during its final broadcast from Russia. The Dozhd website was blocked by the Prosecutor-General’s Office hastening the station’s demise in Russia.

Ordinary Russians spend substantial amounts of time watching television news. The content of these programs offers a window into how people in Russia are indoctrinated to think about issues such as the war in Ukraine. Most news coverage is far from fair and balanced and with independent voices disappearing, the Kremlin and its allies in the media can better blanket the airwaves with propaganda. This allows the regime to stay in power and the masses to be misled and silenced. Television news can thus write history while more liberal news outlets are banned and either silenced or have reduced impact.

Dozhd’s founder, journalist Mikhail Zygar, posted an open letter in March signed by several reporters who called for the war in Ukraine to end. Russian nomenklatura from the Federal Communications Agency said Dozhd was “inciting extremism, abusing Russian citizens, causing mass disruption of public calm and safety, and encouraging protests.”

Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/03092022 ... analysis/
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funkervogt
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Russian government privately estimates that Western sanctions will do more damage than it publicly admits.
Under the worst of three scenarios envisaged in the internal report revealed by Bloomberg, Russian GDP plunges by 12pc by 2024 compared to 2021 and does not fully recover by 2030.

In the “inertial” scenario, Russia suffers a 8.3pc peak-to-trough slump by next year, taking until the latter half of the 2020s to bounce back.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... ly-admits/
Xyls
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As Russians Retreat, Putin Is Criticized by Hawks Who Trumpeted His War

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/worl ... putin.html
As Russian forces hastily retreated in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday in one of their most embarrassing setbacks of the war, President Vladimir V. Putin was at a park in Moscow, presiding over the grand opening of a Ferris wheel.

“It’s very important for people to be able to relax with friends and family,” Mr. Putin intoned.

The split-screen contrast was stunning, even for some of Mr. Putin’s loudest backers. And it underscored a growing rift between the Kremlin and the invasion’s most fervent cheerleaders. For the cheerleaders, Russia’s retreat appeared to confirm their worst fears: that senior Russian officials were so concerned with maintaining a business-as-usual atmosphere back home that they had failed to commit the necessary equipment and personnel to fight a long war against a determined enemy.
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caltrek
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Russian Oligarch ‘Falls Overboard’ In Latest Mystery Death
by Aaron Tinney
September 13, 2022

Introduction:
(MSN) Yet another of Vladimir Putin’s hand-picked senior cronies is dead after mysteriously ‘falling overboard’ a boat.

Ivan Pechorin, 39 – the Russian despot’s ‘point man’ for developing Russia’s vast Arctic resources – is the ninth suspicious death from within the Kremlin’s inner circle of powerbrokers in the past several months.

Many of them are linked to the country’s energy sector as it comes under scrutiny over its supplies to Europe – with an astounding three of them apparent murder-suicides.

Pechorin, managing director of Putin’s Far East and Arctic Development Corporation, had recently attended a major conference hosted by Putin in Vladivostok and apparently drowned while sailing his private yacht off the country’s Pacific coast.

Daily Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda said he plunged overboard in waters close to Russky Island near Cape Ignatiev.
Read more here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/r ... A11MzgQ/2
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caltrek
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Russian Based Human Rights Group Says Over 1,100 Russians Arrested for Protesting Putin's War Escalation
by Kenny Stancil
September 21, 2022

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) More than 1,100 people and counting have been arrested at anti-war protests held in 38 cities across Russia following President Vladimir Putin's Wednesday announcement that as many as 300,000 reservists will be called up to serve in a "partial mobilization" aimed at beating back Ukraine's counteroffensive.

That's according to OVD-Info, an independent human rights group based in Russia.

"The most valuable thing that they can take from us is the life of our children," one unnamed Moscow resident told The Associated Press. "I won't give them [the] life of my child." Asked whether protesting would make a difference, she said: "It won't help, but it's my civic duty to express my stance. No to war!"

The Vesna anti-war coalition called for demonstrations, declaring: "Thousands of Russian men—our fathers, brothers, and husbands—will be thrown into the meat grinder of the war. What will they be dying for? What will mothers and children be crying for?"

AP reported:
  • As protest calls circulated online, the Moscow prosecutor's office warned that organizing or participating in such actions could lead to up to 15 years in prison. Authorities issued similar warnings ahead of other protests recently. Wednesday's were the first nationwide anti-war protests since the fighting began in late February.
Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022 ... scalation
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weatheriscool
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Re: Russia Watch Thread

Post by weatheriscool »

Putin doesn't have anything besides fear, violence and imprisonment. The guy is a loser and he knows it and it scares the living hell out of him...I wouldn't be shocked if he ends up using nukes before this is all over.
Xyls
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Re: Russia Watch Thread

Post by Xyls »

The ethnic unrest in Russia is beginning and this is likely going to explode. The overmobilization of minority groups is now becoming obvious and this is going to turn ethnic regions against the central Russian government. Expect a new civil war in Southern Russia soon, as if the option you are giving their men and families is death they are going to turn against you. The end of the Russian colonial project is nigh. This could become one of the most violent and chaotic periods in history. I wouldn't be surprised if this turns the whole Muslim world against Russia, and this starts a jihad.

Don't be surprised if the West also starts funding weapons here... especially if Putin gets stupid enough to use nukes.

Xyls
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caltrek
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Anger Over Troop Conscription Rages in Russia
September 26, 2022

Introduction:
(Al Jazeera) Hostility towards Russia’s troop mobilisation continues as violence broke out in an impoverished ethnic-minority region and a gunman opened fire at a recruitment office, seriously wounding the commandant.

A young man entered a military enlistment centre in the Siberian city of Ust-Ilimsk and shot the commander at close range on Monday morning.
Russian media reports said the attacker walked into the facility saying: “No one will go fight,” and “We will all go home now.” Local authorities said the commandant was in intensive care in “extremely grave” condition.

The man, identified in the media as 25-year-old resident Ruslan Zinin, was reportedly upset a call-up notice was served to his best friend who did not have any combat experience, which authorities say is the main criteria for the draft.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday acknowledged some call-ups had been issued in error and mistakes would be corrected. He said no decision had been made on closing Russia’s borders amid an exodus of military-age men.
Read more here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/ ... in-russia
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