#Crimean peninsula

[sheltiechicago]

Balaklava Bay Submarine Base

Balaklava, Crimean Peninsula

This defunct USSR submarine station is located underneath Balaklava Bay in Crimea. 

Photo by A_Lesik/Shutterstock

[wingeddreamduck]

Genoese fortress in Sudak, Crimea

[paulthepoke]

This Week in Prophecy: Hostage Exchange, Black Sea Weather, Red Sea Pirates, Venezuela Invading?

Zephaniah 2:4-5 For Gaza shall be deserted, and Ashkelon shall become a desolation; Ashdod’s people shall be driven out at noon, and Ekron shall be uprooted. Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast, you nation of the Cherethites! The word of the LORD is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left. Here is the latest from the Gaza Strip. The…

[politicoscope]

Shocking Revelation: UK Allegedly Assisted Ukraine In Bombing The Kerch Bridge

In a stunning turn of events, evidence has surfaced suggesting that the United Kingdom may have played a covert role in helping Ukraine carry out the destruction of the infamous Kerch Bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia. The bridge, which serves as a crucial link between the Crimean Peninsula and Russia, was targeted last year in an attack that caused significant damage and raised tensions…

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

Excellent. @afranse​ correctly identifies the real source of Russia’s current sickness: its continued ideological entrenchment in the brutality and wickedness of the the Soviet Union, whose regime killed millions of people for over 70 years. 

I will add that the failure to destroy the KGB in the 1990s has played an enormous role in Russia’s ongoing terrorist activity. Nobody should forget that Vladimir Putin was an officer in the KGB (although he exaggerated his importance there), and that he promoted many of his former KGB associates to positions of power within the Russian government. And with that power came enormous wealth. Ask Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox church, formerly known as Vladimir Gundyaev and a suspected former KGB agent. 

Meanwhile, the KGB morphed into the FSB, which is equally a terrorist organisation. Since 1999, the FSB has been implicated in numerous terrorist attacks and assassinations of Russian dissidents. The September 1999 apartment bombings mark the beginning of a new phase in state-sponsored terror, with strong evidence pointing to FSB planning and execution, not the Chechens. 

With regards to Ukraine, the FSB has been implicated since 2014 of the arbitrary imprisonment and torture of Crimean Tatar dissidents, many of whom are now taking up arms against Russia to free the Crimean Peninsula. 

Russia’s miltary intelligence unit, the GRU, is also implicated in a government program to carry out murders of dissidents and, undoubtedly, to help stir up provocations and war abroad. All of this criminality is backed by Russia’s fraudulent Investigative Committee, whose job is to fabricate criminal cases and to protect high-level Russian criminals. 

The collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 was caused by many factors, including the Soviet Union’s failed war in Afghanistan. But, as Ukrainian historian Sergei Plokhi has argued, it was the Ukrainian referendum of 1991 that struck a decisive blow. Not long afterwards, Russia itself voted to secede from the union. 

Putin has been bitter about Ukraine’s role in collapsing the Soviet Union for years. Remember that in 2004, he called the end of the USSR a ‘geopolitical disaster’. Prior to his February 2022 invasion, which I now believe was designed to help him “win” “reelection” in 2024, he regurgitated his pseudo-historic analysis and grievance over Ukrainian independence both in the 1920′s and in 1991. He has cast Ukrainian independence as a threat to Russian sovereignty, pride, and security. Among his supporters and members of the Russian nationalist camp who don’t necessarily like Putin, these claims have been successful. 

Putin’s obvious failure to capture Ukraine within five days does, in a way, demonstrate that Ukrainian independence is a threat to Putin’s regime. Despite his pseudo-historical claims about injustice to Russia, Putin had strong financial motives for invading Ukraine. The Russian economy has been in continual decline for years since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Incomes have consistently shrunk. Almost a fifth of Russians live in poverty. The social welfare system is a disgrace. 

Most, if not all, of this decline has been caused by the rampant thieving of Putin and his government, which was set up by his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. This is why Putin was desperate for Yanukovych to sign an economic deal with Russia as a way of propping up Russia’s economy. Yanukovych agreed, but was toppled by Ukrainian nationalists in line with mass protests. So Putin moved to seize the Crimean Peninsula, which gives Russia both economic and strategic advantages. This may explain why Putin has backed out of the Ukraine grain deal as a further act of economic blackmail to derail the Ukrainian counteroffensive. 

More importantly, Putin’s obvious failure to achieve victory undermines his strategic aims, ruins his legacy, makes him look incompetent, and gives the impression that he can be beaten. Putin has a chronic fear of being seen as weak, as in Russia, he knows he cannot guarantee his personal safety if he were to be removed from office. He has to stay in power. The problem is, he has never achieved any legitimate, democratic mandate to be in power. He had to use lies, violence, and war from the very beginning, hence why he falsified a justification for starting the Second Chechen War in 1999 to raise his popularity rating and allow himself to become the “Acting President” by December 1999. 

The humiliation of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan helped cause its eventual collapse. While it will be extremely difficult to bring down Putin’s regime, it is not unrealistic to suspect that a prolonged stalemate in Ukraine or even a defeat will severely weaken Putin’s hold on power. 

A similar example comes from December 2013, when Putin suffered enormous protests due to vote-rigging at the parliamentary elections. At the same time, Ukrainians were protesting against the Russian-backed President, Viktor Yanukovych. Putin and his government were afraid of Russians copying the Ukrainian Maidan. So, as Russia expert David Satter wrote in The Less You Know, The Better You Sleep, the solution was simple: start another war. In February 2014, Putin seized the Crimean Peninsula, Sevastopol, and sent mercenaries to try and seize more Ukrainian territory in the east. 

Russian propaganda oulets ran endless stories on this war, and Putin was able to deflect attention away from his massive vote rigging and domestic failures. In February 2015, his biggest opponent, Boris Nemtsov, was assassinated in Moscow, derailing any further threat or exposure of Putin’s mercenary activity in eastern Ukraine. 

It will not be so easy for Putin to continue deflecting attention from his obvious lack of victory, as opposition to the war is stronger in Russia than it was in 2014. This despite blocks of social media, mass imprisonment, murders of high profile Russian establishment figures, and endless Russian propaganda. 

This failure to win has already taken away a key talking point he would have used during his fictitious 2024 presidential campaign. I predict that he will restrict any question and answer sessions about the war to stop anyone from pointing out that Russia is not winning and cannot win. Putin will resort to a combination of outright lies and avoidance of the topic to save face. 

Unfortunately for him, the only other major topic is Russia’s declining economy and increasing poverty, both caused by Putin’s illegal and pointless war in Ukraine. 

Россия больна - просоветский синдром

В ней разбудил лихо.

Россия как сумасшедший дом,

Где власть захватили психи.

На части земной поделили шар,

И кровь разливают в кружки.

Россию спасти может лишь пожар -

Огромный пожар в психушке.

Когда орда недобитых солдат

Обратно в Россию вернётся,

В психушке начнётся такой бардак,

Что трудно представить просто.

Сгорит в огне её Фараон,

Как будто бы в облаке крови -

Её скалозубый Наполеон,

Страдающий от паранойи.

#######################

Russia is sick it’s pro-Soviet syndrome

Removed any shadow of law.

Russia is like a madhouse

Where psychos have taken over top floor.

They divided the globe into parts of the earth,

And the blood is poured into mugs.

Only a fire can save Russia -

Burn out asylum slugs.

When a horde of unfinished soldiers

Will return back to Russia raging,

Such a mess will begin the psychiatric hospital

Which is hard to imagine.

Psycho Pharaoh will burn in the fire,

As if in a sea of blood -

Top floor’s vicious Napoleon,

Suffering from paranoia attacks.

########################

Росія хвора – прорадянський синдром

У ній розбудив лихо.

Росія як божевільний будинок,

Де владу захопили психі.

На частини земної поділили кулю,

І кров розливають у храмі.

Росію врятувати може лише пожежа

Величезна пожежа в психлікарні.

Коли орда недобитих солдатів

Назад до Росії повернеться,

У психлікарні почнеться такий бардак,

Що важко уявити просто.

Згорить у вогні її Фараон,

Фактично у морі крові.

Скелязубий Наполеон,

Який страждає від параної.

[captain-price-unofficially]

A Soviet soldier is killed in action, Kerch, May 1942. The Kerch-Feodosia Operation, an attempt to relieve Sevastopol, ends in catastrophe: the Crimean Front is annihilated.

[carbone14]

Extrait du journal de propagande Signal du 2 juillet 1942 – Campagne de Crimée – Péninsule de Kertch – Mai 1942

[wgm-beautiful-world]

The Crimean Bridge - RUSSIA

[swxppedshitposts]

[niveditaabaidya]

Crimea Bridge Closed Due To Drills #crimea #ukraine #russia #eu #europe...

[thererisesaredstar]

Yuri Gagarin on vacation in the Crimean peninsula (1961)

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

1968: An abandoned Crimean Tatar house after Stalin deported the entire population in the 1940s and colonised the peninsula with russians.

[ltwilliammowett]

The grenade

The grenade (grenade is likely derived from the French word spelled exactly the same, meaning pomegranate, as the bomb is reminiscent of the many-seeded fruit in size and shape. Its first use in English dates from the 1590s.) as we know it today is not a modern invention - on the contrary, it has its origins in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

First grenades appeared in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire not long after the reign of Leo III (717-741). Byzantine soldiers learnt that Greek fire (a mixture of sulphur and oil), a Byzantine invention from the previous century, could be thrown at the enemy not only with flamethrowers but also in stone and ceramic vessels.

Byzantine " Greek Fire" Grenade, c. 800-1000 AD

With the invention of gunpowder in Song China (960-1279), weapons known as ‘thunderbolts’ were created by soldiers packing gunpowder into ceramic or metal vessels with fuses. In a military book from the year 1044, the Wujing Zongyao (Collection of Military Classics), various gunpowder recipes are described in which, according to Joseph Needham, the prototype of the modern hand grenade can be found.

The grenades (pào) are made of cast iron, are the size of a bowl and have the shape of a ball. They contain half a pound of ‘divine fire’ (shén huǒ, gunpowder) inside. They are sent by an eruptor (mu pào) towards the enemy camp, and when they arrive there, a sound like a thunderclap is heard and flashes of light appear. If ten of these grenades are successfully fired at the enemy camp, the whole place goes up in flames.

Grenade-like devices were also known in ancient India. In a Persian historical account from the 12th century, the Mojmal al-Tawarikh, a terracotta elephant filled with explosives was hidden in a chariot with a fuse and exploded as the invading army approached.

These encrusted hand grenades were washed up from a 17th-century pirate shipwreck, Dollar Cove, in the coastal Gunwalloe district of Cornwall's Lizard Peninsula

The first cast-iron bombs and shells appeared in Europe in 1467, where they were initially used in the siege and defence of castles and fortresses. In the mid-17th century, infantrymen known as ‘grenadiers’ emerged in European armies, specialising in shock and close combat, usually using grenades and engaging in fierce hand-to-hand combat. But grenades have also been in use at sea since the 17th century. They were used to inflict as much personal damage as possible below deck after boarding a ship by throwing the grenades underneath.

After the middle of the 19th century, grenades were used extensively in the Crimean War and the American Civil War. Before they changed in design and function to be used in the trenches, especially in the First World War and later. They are still in use today.

Forbes, Robert James (1993). Studies in Ancient Technology

Thomas Enke: Grundlagen der Waffen- und Munitionstechnik

David Harding (Hrsg.): Waffen-Enzyklopädie

Bertram Kropak: Die geschichtliche Entwicklung der Handgranaten. In: DWJ Deutsches Waffen Journal. 1970

[she-is-ovarit]

Ukrainian saboteurs who are alleged to have poisoned and killed 46 Russian soldiers are on the run in annexed Crimea after a shoot-out with police, a local report says. Two young saboteurs who had poisoned members of the Russian military in Simferopol and Bakhchisarai fled when authorities attempted to detain them in Crimea, Telegram channel Kremlin Snuffbox said on Tuesday. The police went to apprehend the female suspects at a private house in Yalta but were surprised to find them "well armed" and "well prepared," the post said.

The saboteurs opened fire and fled the scene in a car, and authorities do not know their current whereabouts. Three officers were killed and two were wounded in the shoot-out, a source in Russia's Federal Security Service told the Telegram channel. It was reported in December that members of a Ukrainian partisan group called Crimean Combat Seagulls poisoned and killed 24 Russian soldiers after lacing their vodka with arsenic and strychnine. At the time, Snuffbox quoted unnamed sources as saying that "two nice girls" tricked the unit in Simferopol, Crimea, into drinking the vodka, per the Kyiv Post translation. In another incident, saboteurs killed 18 and hospitalized 14 Russian personnel in Bakhchisarai, Crimea, by putting arsenic and rat poison in pies and beer, Kremlin Snuffbox previously reported. Russian military personnel stationed in Crimea have been asked not to take any food or any drinks from strangers and to detain any suspicious young women who approach them to prevent further incidents of poisoning. Business Insider could not independently verify the report. There were also been reports of two mass poisonings of Russian troops in Mariupol in 2023. Acts of sabotage by Ukrainian resistance and partisan groups are used to harass Russian soldiers in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula occupied by Russia since 2014, and other occupied territories, and supply intelligence for Ukrainian strikes on military installations.

[redjaybathood]

This is very important. In Crimea, russians, again, start to use fake criminal investigations to incarcerate Crimean Tatars. This is not new - but it is the new mass wave of searches on trumped-up charges and arrests.

Translation of the thread below.

1/9 Mass searches in Crimea

10 Crimean Tatar families. 10 homes, where russian "security forces" broke into at dawn. What do we know about the newe wave of mass searches on the Crimean peninsula? 

2/9 4 activists of "Crimean Solidarity", Bakhchysarai, as well as 6 religion leaders and activists from Dzhankoy district, became victims of the rampage of the occupatoinal forces.

Among them, the former Imam Remzi Kurtnezirov, who has a severe disability.

 3/9 "Security forces" behaved themselves very rudely, despite the presence of elderly and small children.

Over the course of the searches, they took documents, tech, and literature. Moreover, the relatieves of the detained people state that the books were planted.

 4/9 FSB agents, when asked by the relatives, replied that they are looking for weapons and illicit chemicals. 

The men are charged with Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - the same one that the Hizb ut-Tahrir cases are fabricated under.

5/9 After the searches, Crimean Tatars were taken to FSB HQ in Simferopol. 

Currently, some of them were allowed a lawyer but the pre-trial detention measure was not choosen yet.

6/9 Names of the detained: Rustem Osmanov, Aziz Azizov, Memet Lumanov, Mustafa Abduramanov, Remzi Kurtnezirov, Vakhid Mustafayev, Ali Mamutov, Arsen Kashka, Enver Khalilayev, Nariman Ametov

7/9  

According to preliminary information, this is the third largest wave of searches on the alleged involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir. 

The most massive searches took place in March 2019, when 24 Crimean Tatars were targeted.

8/9 CrimeaSOS analyst Yevhen Yaroshenko notes that detentions in the "Hizb ut-Tahrir cases" in Crimea are intensified approximately once every six months.

This is due to the targeted plan for certain categories of "cases" that intelligence officers have to fulfill.

9/9 Repressions against Crimean Tatars are one of the principles of russia's criminal policy on the peninsula. 

In order to stop the occupiers, we must respond firmly to every manifestation of lawlessness and effectively oppose it

[shosty-we-understand]

A favourite of mine, this photo shows a rather foreboding Dmitri Shostakovich vacationing on the coast of the Crimean Peninsula, circa. 1937.