#Russian President Vladimir Puti

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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives at a sturgeon hatchery on the Volga River in the village of Ikryanoye near Astrakhan, 1,280 kilometers (800 miles) south of Moscow, on August 31, 2007. 

Президент России Владимир Путин прибывает на осетровый завод на Волге в селе Икряное под Астраханью, в 1280 км к югу от Москвы, 31 августа 2007 года.

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From left: Latvian President Egils Levits, Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova, U.S. President Joe Biden, Polish President Andrzej Duda, and other participants leave the podium after posing for a group photo during a Bucharest Nine meeting at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw on Feb. 22. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

On a gray February day in 2021, Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, touched down in Moscow angling for a diplomatic opening. The response was a resounding “nyet.”

During a joint press conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov lambasted the EU as an “unreliable partner” and accused European leaders of lying about the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who just days before was sentenced by a Moscow court to an extended prison sentence. Borrell’s diplomatic humiliation served as a wake-up call for leaders in Western Europe: Moscow’s worst instincts had not collapsed alongside the Soviet Union but had merely gone into hibernation. 

“I think, for him, it was a mini-shock that a Russian foreign minister could treat him like that,” said Marina Kaljurand, a member of the European Parliament who previously served as Estonia’s foreign minister. “It was an eye-opener. After that, nobody could think that Russia could be treated as a partner. They are not partners.” 

It was a message that Eastern Europe had been trying to convey to the West for years, and it finally hit home. When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine a year later—igniting Europe’s largest land war since World War II—the Western world put aside years of debate over how to change Moscow’s behavior, uniting to impose bruising sanctions designed to cut the Kremlin out of European energy markets and leave Russian natural gas pipelines into Europe rusting at the bottom of the sea. 

As the war grinds into its second year with little end in sight, familiar fissures threaten to reemerge. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland—once under the Soviet boot and always suspicious of a post-Berlin Wall Russia—have found themselves in the driver’s seat in pushing their Western counterparts to speed up weapons deliveries to Ukraine and getting European capitals to stop fearing Russia’s saber-rattling rhetoric.

But Eastern European diplomats are tired of hearing that they had Russian intentions right all along. Now, they’re aiming to make sure that Western isolation of Moscow becomes a permanent feature of U.S. and European policy, not a bug in the software that shows up whenever Russian tanks roll over another former Soviet border. 

“We should have listened to Eastern Europe, right?” said a U.S. congressional aide, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. “[U.S. President Joe] Biden should not have been doing summits with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. Some of this shit was such a no-brainer. We were kind of on foreign-policy autopilot.”

The fault lines run right down the center of Europe—and play right to the heart of Russia’s war in Ukraine—with deep philosophical differences over how the war might end.

“From a Central and Eastern Europe perspective, if Russia is not evicted from all of Ukraine’s 1991 borders, then we will see an escalation,” said Liana Fix, a fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

But in Western Europe, even as it bolsters support for a Ukrainian victory, there is fear that a crushing Russian defeat in Ukraine could embolden Putin to lash out more violently. “From the German and French perspective, it’s the other way around,” Fix said.

A protester holds an Estonian flag next to an anti-Putin poster during a demonstration in front of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv on May 10, 2007. Protesters supported Estonia in its removal of a Soviet war monument from central Tallinn. SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images

In February 2007, Putin all but declared war on the West in a speech at the Munich Security Conference, railing against NATO’s eastward expansion and U.S. hegemony and signaling Russia’s new shift to a harder line.

Despite initial hopes that Putin, who came to power in 2000, could serve as a reformer of the post-Soviet state, the contours of what would become a familiar challenge were beginning to emerge. As the Kremlin began to show authoritarian tendencies at home and expansionist inclinations abroad, the West hoped to get Putin back on course. But Eastern European countries wanted Europe and NATO to show firmer resolve, fearing they’d be next. And they had reason to worry. 

Later in 2007, Estonia was hit by a devastating wave of Russian cyberattacks after the country’s government announced plans to relocate a Soviet war memorial from the capital, Tallinn. Kaljurand, the former Estonian foreign minister who was then her country’s ambassador to Russia, said she was not allowed to go on Russian state television to explain the move. Russia launched a smear campaign against her, and a pro-Putin youth organization surrounded the Estonian Embassy in Moscow, just half a mile from the Kremlin. 

“When they left, there was a group of kids, maybe first or second graders, who were standing in front of our embassy,” Kaljurand recalled. “And the teacher was telling the kids: ‘That’s the embassy where fascists work.’” Propaganda posters were put up all over Moscow depicting Kaljurand with a Hitler mustache. The incident has come to be regarded as one of Russia’s first forays into hybrid warfare, testing a number of tactics that would later be deployed against Ukraine. 

The following year, Russia went from a hybrid war to a hot one, invading neighboring Georgia in August 2008 and carving out two pro-Russia breakaway regions. Still, the West was eager to hit the reset button—literally. Seeing the possibility of another reformer emerging in Russia with Dmitry Medvedev’s election as Russian president in 2008, the nascent Obama administration a year later announced plans to reset the relationship. In 2010, at a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, the parties agreed to forge ahead in developing a “true strategic” partnership. 

Eastern allies were incensed. Today, they insist that the West’s refusal to show Putin a flashing red light in Georgia’s short war allowed the Kremlin to continually overstep, all the way to February 2022. “It did not start with Ukraine,” Kaljurand said. “It started with the war in Georgia, when the EU and NATO did not react quickly enough and efficiently enough and returned back to business.”

Left: People wave Lithuanian flags as they welcome the first liquefied natural gas terminal in the Port of Klaipeda, Lithuania, on Oct. 27, 2014. The terminal is an alternative to gas imports from Russia. PETRAS MALUKAS/AFP via Getty Images

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, Duda, and Kadri Simson, the European commissioner for energy, pose for photos during the inauguration of a gas pipeline between Poland and Lithuania in Jauniunai, Lithuania, on May 5, 2022. PETRAS MALUKAS/AFP via Getty Images

In February 2014, while throngs of young Ukrainian protesters braved subzero temperatures to turn Kyiv’s Independence Square, known to locals as the Maidan, into a massive rebuke of the pro-Russian government of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, NATO intelligence officials in Brussels were picking up worrying signals. They believed Russia was planning a lightning offensive on the Crimean Peninsula, which had been Ukrainian territory since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It would be the biggest land grab in Europe since the end of World War II.

The Western side of the NATO alliance—hundreds if not thousands of miles away from a war that threatened to show up on the doorstep of the eastern flank—was still in disbelief. “This intelligence was put in doubt by certain allies,” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who served as NATO’s secretary-general from 2009 until just after the 2014 Russian invasion. “There was no consensus within NATO when it came to even recognize the Russian aggression within Ukraine.” 

Still, Western leaders began to deploy some artillery—economically, at least. By early March, weeks after Russia’s invasion, the United States and EU countries kicked sanctions against Russia into gear, with the Obama administration freezing the assets of top Russian officials close to Putin and slapping wide-ranging travel restrictions on the Kremlin. There were also U.S. sanctions on Russia’s energy and defense sectors.

Eastern Europe wanted to put economic cooperation with Russia on a permanent timeout. But even after Russia’s snatch of Crimea, Moscow was seen as both too important to isolate and too weak to pose a real threat. The Obama administration was intent on refocusing on China, its top foreign-policy priority, while Germany and other European countries still thought Russia was the best game in town to fuel their economies. 

A year after Russia’s little green men took parts of Ukraine, European energy companies signed a deal with Russia’s state-owned Gazprom to build a second natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany that would redouble Berlin’s—and Europe’s—reliance on Russian energy exports. The storm around the Nord Stream 2 pipeline would continue until it was canceled just after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and later blown up by unknown saboteurs.

“Estonia and all the Baltics were against it from the very beginning because we’ve seen clearly it’s not an economic project, it’s not an energy project—it’s a political project,” Kaljurand said. “Yes, on paper, the EU was talking about diversification of sources and diversification of partners, but in practical terms, the EU did nothing to dismantle itself from Russia.” 

Officials in Berlin, including former Chancellor Angela Merkel, maintained that it was purely commercial in nature. Meanwhile, Washington and countries in Eastern Europe feared that going back to business as usual with the construction of the pipeline would give Moscow outsized influence over the continent’s energy markets. The Obama administration also began making overtures to the EU to convince members of the bloc not to go ahead with the energy projects, and Eastern members, such as Estonia, began pushing for the continent to move toward energy diversification. Yet Western sanctions shied away from targeting Russia’s ongoing energy production, preferring to kneecap its future output. That let the Kremlin bank billions of dollars while squatting on another country’s turf.

“The lack of natural resource sanctions was a huge, huge problem for a really long time,” the U.S. congressional aide said. “It’s kind of the reason the Russian economy is still afloat now.” 

While Germany plowed ahead with the Nord Stream 2 project, suspending the pipeline’s certification only days before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Eastern Europe began trying to move further out of the grip of Moscow’s pipelines. Lithuania was among the first out of the gate, importing U.S. natural gas from ships. Others soon followed.

“[Poland] knew from the get-go that Putin would use energy as a weapon,” said Marek Magierowski, the Polish ambassador to the United States.

Warsaw began importing liquefied natural gas from Qatar ahead of the war. Now, it is hoping to tap the Baltic Pipe project, which connects North Sea gas from Norway to the Polish grid. Not until March 2022 did the European Parliament pass a resolution calling for an embargo on all Russian energy sources. It was a sign of influence beginning to shift in the European bloc from West to East. 

“There’s this big debate about the gravity shift toward the East, and I do think there’s some truth to it,” said Fix, the Council on Foreign Relations fellow. “Poland plays a much larger role now.” 

Soldiers stand in front of a German tank used by the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group during German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to Pabrade, Lithuania, on June 7, 2022. Scholz pledged additional military support to Lithuania to defend against a possible Russian attack. Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images

As U.S. intelligence began to pick up signs in late 2021 about Moscow’s plans to invade Ukraine, increasingly ashen-faced U.S. diplomats shuttled across the Atlantic as they sought both to talk the Russians down from the ledge and to warn allies in Europe about what was about to come. Washington’s warnings became a kind of Rorschach test in Europe. The United Kingdom joined Washington in declassifying intelligence in a bid to expose Moscow’s plans and sending thousands of anti-tank missiles to arm Ukraine for the coming onslaught. And while France stood pat, Poland, the Czech Republic, and the three Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—raided their stockpiles to send munitions, unmanned drones, portable air defense systems, artillery rounds, and Stinger surface-to-air missiles.

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, vowed to send 5,000 helmets, sparking derision. “What does Germany want to send next? Pillows?” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko asked in January 2022. 

Europe’s top diplomat, Borrell, has since acknowledged that many in Brussels failed to heed Washington’s warnings ahead of the war. “We did not believe that the war was coming. I have to recognize that here, in Brussels, the Americans were telling us, ‘They will attack, they will attack,’ and we were quite reluctant to believe it,” he told a meeting of EU ambassadors last October. 

Early on, Europe had unity, ratifying wave after wave of sanctions on Moscow and rallying in support of Ukraine and the millions of refugees fleeing the war. “That was only a very short period,” Fix said. “And then all the old Europeans fell back to their original positions with different takes on the situation.”

While countries on Europe’s eastern flank fear they’ll be next, Western members of NATO, including the United States, Germany, and France, seem to be counting beans. Getting deliveries of serious arms—whether artillery and shells, tanks, or infantry fighting vehicles—has been a yearlong struggle inside the alliance, even as Eastern Europe seems prepared to spend whatever they have to declaw the bear on their borders. 

“The war revealed huge gaps in Europe’s defense capabilities, but it also revealed the huge gaps between Eastern and Western allies,” said one former senior official at the U.S. Defense Department, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Here, we have Poland and the Baltic states practically begging on Ukraine’s behalf for more weapons, and Germany, France, and other powerful militaries saying, ‘Well, hang on, let’s wait and see.’”

In the year since then, some Western European officials, chastened by their miscalculations, have readily admitted their mistakes. “For years, it almost seemed like our Eastern allies were the boy who cried wolf. Well, the wolf came, and we were too slow to believe them,” said one senior Western European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We are, of course, all close allies, but there is bad blood there that we cannot ignore.”

“We saw the same intelligence. We had the same warnings. But I just couldn’t believe there would be an actual invasion, until there was,” the diplomat added. 

Others say Western governments have done due diligence and paid due service to Ukraine. Germany, for instance, had long refused to send German-made weapons into active warzones, including Ukraine, before reversing course days into Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country. Now, in the past year, Berlin has shipped advanced tanks, air defense systems, and more to the front line. 

“This isn’t just about Germany sending weapons into conflict zones for the first time in its modern era or about spending more on defense. It’s about a fundamental shift in how Germany sees itself as a member of Europe and a defender of Europe,” said Rachel Rizzo, an expert on European security at the Atlantic Council. 

“Whatever Germany promises, they follow through on,” said one Eastern European defense official. “The issue is getting Berlin to make the decision in the first place, but after that, then they really move.” 

The question is coming to a head this spring, as Ukraine prepares for a counteroffensive to boot the Russian invaders off its soil. If the offensive is successful, officials say, Eastern Europe may let up on the pressure on Western Europe to do more. If it founders, however, the arguments from the East that Western Europe is drip-feeding Ukraine too few weapons too late in the game will only sharpen these divisions within NATO and the EU. 

But even though the scale of German and French commitments has far exceeded some of the tiny Baltic nations, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania rank first, second, and third in contributions to Ukraine by percentage of GDP. (Poland, a much larger economy, is fourth.) And they’re cutting right into bone to do it: Tallinn sent its entire stockpile of 155 mm howitzer artillery pieces to Ukraine in January. 

“They’ve really taken direct action and just handed over a lot of their stuff to the Ukrainians,” said the U.S. congressional aide. “They’re not asking permission from Brussels. They’re just kind of doing it.”

Slow and cautious isn’t always the best course.

“Our hesitation has actually facilitated Putin’s escalation of the war,” said Rasmussen, the former NATO secretary-general. “You cannot win a war by an incremental, step-by-step approach. You have to surprise and overwhelm your adversary.”

People hold flags and posters during a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine near the Lithuanian Parliament in Vilnius on Feb. 24, 2022.Paulius Peleckis/Getty Images

The magnitude of the moment wasn’t lost on Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. One year after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for military aid at the Munich Security Conference, precisely where Putin first laid down his cards, she countered with a flush. A year earlier, Western officials had doubted Zelensky’s government would hold and were hesitant to send sophisticated military equipment that could fall into the hands of Russian troops.

This time, in 2023, it was Western leaders echoing talking points that emerged from the East. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told delegates that Russia had committed war crimes in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and that the United States wanted an international tribunal. And after Kallas called for the EU to start buying ammunition to help Ukraine, Borrell, the bloc’s top diplomat, gave the plan an almost immediate public endorsement.

Kallas, a lawyer by training, saw a parallel in the different responses from East and West. “We are expecting the worst because of our experience and positively surprised when it doesn’t happen. For the West, it is vice versa,” she said. “What is the strategy to actually be better prepared for the future? I think it’s better to prepare for the worst and then be positively surprised when it doesn’t happen.”

More than a year after Russia’s invasion, Europe is indelibly marked by the largest land war on the continent in a generation. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, overcoming a diffuse three-party coalition and the ugly World War II-era connotations of German tanks being sent to fight Russia, is massing Berlin’s largest military buildup in 70 years. The Baltic states have seen the attitude change in the West. They’re worried it won’t stick. 

“Almost every Western leader has said, ‘We should have listened to you.’ We’re not happy about that, but that’s the reality,” Kaljurand said.

“Now the question comes, is it only in words, or are you really going to listen to us so that in a year or two we will not be back in business with Russia as we were before the 24th of February?”

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Who is Sergei Kiriyenko, Russian hawk reportedly in touch with Elon Musk?

Late last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk, the U.S.-based oligarch with extensive influence on American politics, had been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Puti Source : kyivindependent.com/who-is-se…

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To Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany; Alexander De Croo, Prime Minister of Belgium; Emmanuel Macron, President of France; Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy; the leaders of all EU Member States, and all world leaders:

As citizens of Europe and the world, we are horrified at the scale of the devastation in Ukraine as the result of Putin’s illegal war of aggression.  We call on you to maintain your commitment to the people of Ukraine as the war enters its third year, and to do everything in your power to assure the transfer of the billions in frozen Russian state assets to Ukraine, where they are so desperately needed.

This is a personal message from Olexander from Ukraine: 

I expect to be drafted into the military soon. Today I’m writing to share both pain and hope.

We are exhausted. We fear we’re losing international attention, that people are tired of news about our war. At the same time, we know that what started in Ukraine will continue in the rest of Europe.

And that includes economic warfare. The cost of rebuilding Ukraine is already close to half a trillion dollars and rising every day. Who will pay that? Ukraine can’t, not ever. The people of Europe? US taxpayers? Putin’s hoping the debt drags us all down.

But what if Vladimir Putin paid his own bill? $300 billion in frozen Russian state funds are just sitting in banks in the West. The G7 is meeting right now, discussing using it to give Ukraine a future.

That money would change everything for us. But Germany, France and Italy are dragging their feet. So please, join with me to call on European leaders to do the right thing. Sign now!

------- *We changed Olexander’s name to help protect his identity in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Putin u izjavi bez komentara na pobunu; bivši ruski premijer: 'Ovo je početak Putinovog kraja'

Kazneni postupak protiv Jevgenija Prigožina, šefa plaćeničke paravojske Wagner, bit će obustavljen, a on će otići u Bjelorusiju. Takav je epilog iznenadnog pokušaja puča u Rusiji. Sam Prigožin i Wagnerovci napustili su Rostov, no pitanje ostaje što će se dogoditi s borcima Wagnera     16.33 Dan nakon završetka napredovanja motoriziranih postrojbi ruske plaćeničke skupine Wagner prema Moskvi iz Rostova na Donu, Crveni trg u nedjelju ostaje zatvoren za javnost, a promet na autocesti južno od glavnog grada još uvijek se odvija uz prepreke.   Prepreke postoje u moskovskoj regiji i regiji Tula južno od prijestolnice, napisala je u nedjelju na Telegramu državna uprava za nadzor cesta Avtodor. U drugim regijama ograničenja su u međuvremenu ukinuta, tvrde vlasti, te se cestovni promet odvija nesmetano. "I think you've seen cracks emerge that weren't there before." Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks with CNN's Dana Bash on the abandoned mutiny of the Wagner Group in Russia and what this could mean for Russian President Vladimir Putin. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/lQnU5UYuFs — CNN (@CNN) June 25, 2023 15.14 Američki državni tajnik Antony Blinken komentirao je situaciju u Rusiji. Blinken je kazao da je kratkotrajna pobuna Wagnerovih plaćenika znak 'pravih pukotina' u Putinovom autoritetu, navodi novinska agencija AFP. Pobuna privatne skupine plaćenika i njezinog vođe Jevgenija Prigožina tijekom vikenda bila je "izravan izazov Putinovom autoritetu", rekao je Blinken. "Dakle, ovo postavlja duboka pitanja, pokazuje stvarne pukotine", rekao je Blinken za CBS. 15.12 Stiglo je malo više detalja o komentarima Vladimira Putina koji su u nedjelju emitirani na ruskoj državnoj televiziji. Tijekom kratkog intervjua nije spomenuo pobunu u kojoj su Wagnerovi plaćenici zauzeli južni grad prije nego što su krenuli prema Moskvi. Rekao je da je uvjeren u svoje planove za Ukrajinu, ali čini se da je intervju snimljen prije Wagnerove pobune. 'Osjećamo se samopouzdano i, naravno, u poziciji smo realizirati sve planove i zadatke koji su pred nama', rekao je Putin. 'To se također odnosi na obranu zemlje, to se odnosi na posebne vojne operacije, to se odnosi na gospodarstvo u cjelini i njegova pojedinačna područja.'     Komentare u intervjuu s dopisnikom iz Kremlja Pavlom Zarubinom prenijela je državna televizija Rossiya. Zarubin je rekao da je intervju obavljen nakon sastanka s vojnim maturantima, koji se održao još u srijedu. U svom dnevnom brifingu u nedjelju rusko Ministarstvo obrane također nije spominjalo ništa o akcijama Wagnera i njegovog vođe Jevgenija Prigožina. Upitan u intervjuu koliko vremena posvećuje onome što Rusija naziva svojom specijalnom vojnom operacijom, Putin je rekao: 'Naravno, ovo je najvažnije, svaki dan počinje i završava s tim.' 14.47 Wagnerovi plaćenici napustili su rusku regiju Lipeck nakon što su okončali svoju pobunu protiv Kremlja, poručili su iz tamošnje regionalne vlade. Jedinice PMC-a Wagner, koje su se dan ranije zaustavile u Lipeckoj oblasti, napustile su područje te regije, objavljeno je na Telegramu. Ove informacije stižu nakon što je guverner južne ruske regije Voronjež rekao da jedinice Wagnera nastavljaju s povlačenjem i da snage odlaze "stalno i bez incidenata". 13.52 Bivši ruski premijer Mihail Kasjanov rekao je da je Wagnerova pobuna označila 'početak kraja' za Vladimira Putina. Kasjanov, koji je bio ruski premijer od 2000. do 2004., postao je glasni kritičar Putina i kaže da je ruski predsjednik trenutno u 'vrlo velikim problemima'. Za BBC je rekao kako očekuje da čelnik Wagnera Jevgenij Prigožin nakon putovanja u Bjelorusiju ode u Afriku i 'bude negdje u džungli'. 'Putin mu ovo ne može oprostiti', rekao je, dodajući da će Prigožinov život sada biti pod 'velikim pitanjem'. 13.29 Na ruskoj državnoj televiziji objavljena je izjava ruskog predsjednika Vladimira Putina, snimljena prije pobune Wagnerovaca, piše Sky news. Putin je rekao da je u stalnom kontaktu s dužnosnicima ministarstva obrane i da je uvjeren u realizaciju svih planova vezanih uz 'specijalnu vojnu operaciju u Ukrajini'. Ruski predsjednik je rekao da svoj dan započinje i završava s operacijom u Ukrajini kao svojim prioritetom. 12.40 Poljski europarlamentarac Radek Sikorski rekao je da je Putin istovremeno 'oslabljen i ojačan' nakon Prigožinove pobune. Govoreći za BBC, Sikorski je rekao da je Putinova ranjivost došla na vidjelo nakon što je 'skupina naoružanih ljudi uspjela prijeći tisuće kilometara Rusije bez da ih je netko zaustavio'. No, Sikorski je rekao da će ruski čelnik sada 'vjerojatno očistiti one koje je vidio kao kolebljive', što znači da će njegov režim postati 'autoritativniji i brutalniji u isto vrijeme'. 12.27 Nakon što je kasno u subotu viđen kako napušta okružni vojni stožer u Rostovu, stotinama kilometara južno od Moskve, u nedjelju se ne zna gdje je vođa plaćenika Jevgenij Prigožin, prenose svjetske agencije. 12.05 Srbijanski šef diplomacije Ivica Dačić izjavio je u nedjelju, komentirajući krizu koju je u Rusiji izazvala ruska plaćenička vojska "Wagner", da se Srbija ne miješa u unutarnja pitanja drugih država, pa tako ni u Ruskoj Federaciji, a da službeni Beograd poštuje legalna tijela svake države.  11.54 Projektil je jučer pogodio stambenu zgradu u Kijevu dok je pozornost svijeta bila usmjerena na Rusiju. Tijela još dvije osobe pronađena su jutros ispod ruševina u 16-katnici, čime se broj mrtvih popeo na pet, rekao je gradonačelnik Kijeva. Dodatnih 11 osoba je ranjeno kada je protuzračna obrana glavnog grada oborila projektil, a šrapneli su pali na zgradu. Vatra je izbila na više katova, javlja Kyiv Independent pozivajući se na izvore lokalnih vlasti. Raketa je bila jedna od 20 krstarećih projektila lansiranih na Kijev i ukupno 51 na pet ukrajinskih regija, prema Kijevu i dužnosnicima nacionalne vlade. U jugoistočnoj regiji Dnjepropetrovsk, osam ljudi je ranjeno - dvoje djece - i nekoliko zgrada je uništeno, rekao je guverner Serhij Lisak. 11.52 Čečenske specijalne snage koje su bile raspoređene u ruskoj regiji Rostov kako bi se oduprle napredovanju plaćeničke skupine Wagner povukle su se u nedjelju, izvijestila je novinska agencija TASS, citirajući zapovjednika. Specijalne postrojbe 'Akhmat' vraćaju se tamo gdje su se ranije borile, izjavio je zapovjednik Aptij Alaudinov, prenosi novinska agencija Reuters. 11.34 Predsjednik Srbije Aleksandar Vučić izjavio je da ne želi govoriti o tome 'tko je izvana utjecao' na događaje u Rusiji, gdje je izbila pobuna paravojne formacije Wagner, ali da ne treba imati sumnju da je tog utjecaja bilo. >> Cijeli članak b11.24 /bWagnerovi borci napuštaju južnu rusku regiju Voronjež, rekao je lokalni guverner, nakon što je zapovjednik Wagnera Jevgenij Prigožin zaustavio dramatičnu pobunu i odustao od marša prema Moskvi. Malo se zna o tome što se dogodilo u regiji Voronjež u subotu, gdje je Rusija rekla da je vojska bila raspoređena i vodila 'borbene' operacije. Veliki neobjašnjivi požar bjesnio je u skladištu nafte u gradu tijekom pobune. 'Kretanje Wagnerovih jedinica kroz regiju Voronjež se završava', rekao je guverner Voronježa Alexander Gusev. Povlačenje 'teče normalno i bez incidenata', dodao je Gusev, rekavši da će ograničenja putovanja uvedena tijekom pobune biti ukinuta kada se 'situacija konačno riješi'. Gusev je rekao da će vlasti obavijestiti stanovnike o naknadi štete i zahvalio im na 'izdržljivosti, čvrstini i razumu'. b10.29 /bUkrajinski čelnici moraju se čuvati od mogućeg napada Wagnerovaca i Prigožina na Kijev iz Bjelorusije, rekao je general Lord bRichard Dannatt./b 'Činjenica da je otišao u Bjelorusiju zabrinjava', rekao je bivši načelnik Glavnog stožera britanske vojske. Ako je 'zadržao učinkovitu borbenu snagu oko sebe, onda ponovno predstavlja prijetnju ukrajinskom krilu najbližem Kijevu', gdje je rat i počeo, rekao je. Lord Dannatt je rekao da je 'sasvim moguće' da bi Rusija mogla upotrijebiti Wagnerovu skupinu da ponovno pokuša zauzeti Kijev. 'Jučerašnji naknadni potresi odjekivat će još neko vrijeme. Ipak, nije bilo neposrednih pobjednika iz jučerašnjeg fijaska', rekao je. 'Putin je definitivno znatno oslabio. Ruska vojska... očito je u rasulu', rekao je Lord Dannatt. /div div blockquote p dir="ltr" lang="en"If you were in command in Kyiv, what would you be worried about? Former chief of the general staff General Lord Richard Dannatt says Ukraine has "every reason" to continue their probing attacks along the Russian defence line.a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ridge?src=hash&ref_src=twsrctfw"#Ridge/a a href="https://t.co/ZoMhCmTrtv"https://t.co/ZoMhCmTrtv/a 📺 Sky 501 a href="https://t.co/WnxJ29iqeg"pic.twitter.com/WnxJ29iqeg/a/p — Sophy Ridge on Sunday & The Take (@RidgeOnSunday) a href="https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1672896850385334281?ref_src=twsrctfw"June 25, 2023/a/blockquote /div div b9.59 /bPutin je preko Lukašenka zaustavio marš na Moskvu, a šef Wagnera seli se u Bjelorusiju - epilog je to burnih događaja u Rusiji. O tome što se to jučer dogodilo u Rusiji u Studiju 4 je govorio vanjskopolitički analitičar Marinko Ogorec, koji se pita je li bilo pobune ili je sve bila predstava. a href="https://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/clanak/analiticar-prigozin-je-otvorio-vise-pitanja-od-odgovora-da-li-je-to-bila-pobuna-ili-predstava-foto-20230625"> Cijeli članak b8.59/b Umirovljeni bojnik američke vojske bMike Lyons/b rekao je za CNN da postoji mnogo pitanja o budućnosti s kojom će se suočiti Wagnerovi borci nakon kratke pobune. 'Oni su neovisna borbena četa. Dobivali su bolje obroke. Drukčije su se odijevali', rekao je Lyons. 'Mislim da ih se neće lako asimilirati u rusku vojsku i poslati natrag tamo na front. Tako da mislim da će biti problema. Možda će se neki odvojiti. Možda će neki odlučiti prebjeći i dati podatke Ukrajini. Ti ljudi su lojalni čovjeku, Prigožinu, a ne zemlji, ne misiji. Mislim da imamo puno više pitanja na koja trenutno nema odgovora', dodao je. Glasnogovornik Kremlja Dmitrij Peskov rekao je da se borci Wagnera neće suočiti s pravnim postupkom zbog sudjelovanja u maršu prema Moskvi, rekavši da je Kremlj 'uvijek poštivao njihova herojska djela' na prvim crtama u Ukrajini. div b8.53 /bRuski predsjednik Vladimir Putin zadobio je 'smrtni udarac' unatoč očitom dogovoru prema kojem će šef Wagnera Jevgenij Prigožin otići u Bjelorusiju, smatra umirovljeni američki general. 'U ovom rusko-ukrajinskom ratu vode se dvije egzistencijalne borbe', rekao je umirovljeni brigadni brigadir američke vojske. general bPeter Zwack/b za CNN 'Jedan je održivost opstanka, postojanje, slobodoumne ukrajinske države. Drugi je unutar Kremlja i održivost Putinovog režima', dodaje. 'Ono što je (Prigožin) učinio podijelilo je Ruse, natjeralo ih da se javno svađaju... Vjerujem da je to smrtni udarac za Putina i njegov režim', dodao je. a href="https://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/clanak/umirovljeni-americki-general-jucerasnja-pobuna-je-smrtni-udarac-za-putina-i-njegov-rezim-foto-20230625" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/clanak/umirovljeni-americki-general-jucerasnja-pobuna-je-smrtni-udarac-za-putina-i-njegov-rezim-foto-20230625"> Cijeli članak Read the full article

[news47offical]

PM Modi and US Prez Biden to hold virtual meet tomorrow | World News

PM Modi and US Prez Biden to hold virtual meet tomorrow | World News

The Ukraine crisis, developments across the Indo-Pacific and measures to strengthen bilateral cooperation are expected to figure at a virtual meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden on April 11. The meeting will be held against the backdrop of differences between the two sides on the conflict in Ukraine and its fallout on the world order. In a rare expression of…

[japanreaction]

The article is an English translation of Japanese reactions to Russian President Vladimir Putin's declaration of annexation of four Ukrainian provinces. See.

[spaceexp]

Turkey rushes to buy advanced Russia air defence system

Istanbul (AFP) Aug 31, 2018 President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkey will buy some of Russia's highly-sophisticated air defence systems "in the shortest time" - a purchase that has alarmed Ankara's NATO partners. "Turkey needs S-400s and its deal has been done," Erdogan said in the western city of Balikesir. "God willing, we will buy them in the shortest time." In April, Russian President Vladimir Puti Full article

[misskremlintsarina5294]

[mariacallous]

On October 19, Vladimir Putin signed a decree imposing martial law in Ukraine’s annexed territories. In his speech announcing the move, Putin said that martial law has been in effect since even before the territories’ “incorporation into Russia,” and that it was now necessary to “formalize it under Russian law.” Additionally, Putin signed a separate decree putting eight of Russia’s regions in “medium alert mode,” its Central and Southern Federal Districts in “heightened alert mode,” and the rest of Russia’s federal subjects in “basic alert mode.” Meduza explains what these terms mean — and why some of them violate federal law.

What measures are in place? Where?

1. In the annexed territories

In Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, which Russia annexed in late September, Putin has declared martial law. Under Russian federal law, this gives the authorities the power to:

Ban citizens from leaving a region and restrict freedom of movement in any form — for example, by imposing a curfew. The government can also prohibit people from entering a region.

“Temporarily resettle [local residents] to safe areas,” in which case the government is required to provide the displaced people new housing

Ban any public event

Evacuate “objects of economic, social and cultural significance,” a phrase that can include defense enterprises as well as hospitals and orphanages

Confiscate property (such as cars) and force people to work “for defense needs”

Alter the work schedule at any business — in other words, making people work more

Additionally:

Russian federal law gives the Russian government the power to detain citizens of a foreign country that’s at war with Russia without providing a specific reason. But because Russia has not officially declared war against Ukraine, this policy should theoretically not be in effect.

However, Russian police will now be able to inspect people, search their homes and cars, and detain anybody for up to 30 days.

The Russian government’s executive branch will now have the power to impose military censorship and create agencies to monitor people’s letters, Internet communication, and phone conversations.

Foreign organizations can be banned from operating in Russia if the authorities receive “credible information” that they are working to “undermine Russia’s defense and security.” This also applies to political parties, public organizations, and religious groups, whether they’re Russian or foreign.

The authorities can ban alcohol sales.

The president’s decree also calls for “territorial defense” to be "conducted" in the annexed territories.

2. In Russia’s border regions and Crimea

A “medium alert mode” is in place in Crimea, Krasnodar Krai, and Russia’s Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk, and Rostov regions.

The first restriction in Putin’s decree provides for the “reinforcement of the protection of the public order” as well as increased protection for a variety of structures and facilities ranging from energy infrastructure to public transportation. The decree doesn’t say what this “reinforcement” entails.

This part of the decree applies to administrative buildings, airports, train stations, communication centers, power stations, and other infrastructure.

The “medium alert mode” also allows for “a special mode of operation for objects related to transportation, communications, and energy. The special mode also applies to objects that can pose an increased risk to the lives and health of people and to the environment.”

This covers a wide range of infrastructure objects, including airports, train stations, communication centers, and power facilities.

Other measures the decree allows in Russia’s border regions include:

The “temporary resettlement” of citizens to safe areas, with accommodations provided

Restrictions on freedom of movement and new rules for entering and exiting a region

Limitations on vehicle movement and the unrestricted vehicle searchs

Monitoring the work of establishments that facilitate transportation and communications as well as the work of printing houses, data centers, and automated systems, all of which can also be used for defense purposes.

According to political scientist Tatyana Stanovaya, the phrase “monitoring the work of data centers and automated systems” could be interpreted extremely widely and might be used to grant the authorities total control over the Internet, for example, or the right to demand access “to all electronics.”

Russian authorities also plan to organize “territorial defense” in the regions under “medium alert mode.”

Finally, the decree also gives regional governors the power to take measures “to meet the requirements” of the Russian Armed Forces and other troops fighting against Ukraine, as well as to conduct “activities to protect the population and territories from extreme natural or technogenic situations.” This ability extends to the heads of Russia’s other regions as well — and thus to the entire country.

3. In the 18 regions in Russia’s Southern and Central federal districts

For regions under a “heightened alert mode,” the list of possible restrictions includes:

“Reinforcement of the protection of the public order” as well as increased protection for a variety of structures and facilities ranging from energy infrastructure to public transportation;

“A special mode of operation for objects related to transportation, communications, and energy” that “also applies to objects that can pose an increased risk to the lives and health of people and to the environment”;

Limitations on vehicle movement and the unrestricted vehicle searches

Monitoring the work of establishments that facilitate transportation and communications as well as the work of printing houses, data centers, and automated systems, all of which can also be used for defense purposes.

The “heightened alert mode” does not give authorities the power to restrict movement or “temporarily resettle” people to safe areas. It does, however, give regional governors the power to ���conduct territorial defense activities.” Since the start of Russia’s mobilization campaign, there have been multiple reports of Moscow military commissariats enrolling conscripts in a city territorial defense force. However, according to lawyer Pavel Chikov, such a defense force can technically only be established in a region under martial law.

4. In the rest of Russia’s territories

Throughout the rest of the country, Putin has imposed a “basic alert mode.” Like the other measures, this also gives governors the power to conduct “activities to protect the population and territories from extreme natural or technogenic situations,” as well as to take measures “to meet the requirements of the Russian Armed Forces.”

In all of Russia’s regions, governors have the power to impose the following restrictions:

“Reinforcement of the protection of the public order” as well as increased protection for a variety of structures and facilities ranging from energy infrastructure to public transportation;

“A special mode of operation for objects related to transportation, communications, and energy” that “also applies to objects that can pose an increased risk to the lives and health of people and to the environment.”

In the territories that are not under martial law or a “medium alert mode,” however, regional authorities cannot take measures to create “territorial defense” forces.

What does ‘territorial defense’ mean here?

This term has attracted particular attention since Ukraine's territorial defense forces have become such an important part of the country's resistance against Russian aggression. In Ukraine, these troops consisted primarily of volunteers with military experience.

Putin’s decree calls for territorial defense to be “conducted” because Russian federal law defines “territorial defense” as a system of actions under martial law that help protect important state, military, and energy facilities; fight against enemy saboteurs; and assist the Russian Armed Forces.

The decree doesn’t indicate whether there will be a separate mobilization campaign for a territorial defense force or whether it will consist of volunteers, but the aforementioned reports coming out of Moscow suggest the new force will consist of people drafted as part of the country’s “partial mobilization.”

A direct contradiction of Russian law

Article 8 of Russia’s 2002 law on martial law grants the authorities the right to impose certain restrictions not only in the territory where martial law is declared but also in the rest of the country. The list of restrictions is fairly short.

At the same time, the law expressly forbids the authorities from imposing the more severe measures allowed by martial law on territories that are not under martial law.

Putin’s decree directly violates this ban: the restrictions the decree allows in areas that are not under martial law are copied directly from the list of restrictions that make up martial law. In other words, many of the measures laid out by Putin’s decree run contrary to Russia's 2002 law.

Border closures

Experts have highlighted the open-ended nature of the third point of Putin’s martial law decree, which reads as follows: “When necessary, other measures set out by [Russia's federal law 'On Martial Law'] can be applied in the Russian Federation during the period of martial law.”

On one hand, this sentence could be interpreted as a reference to Putin’s decree on the “alert modes” in the regions where martial law is not officially declared. On the other hand, some lawyers have noted that it could allow the authorities to impose any element of martial law anywhere in the country. This could include closing the border to Russians (though the Kremlin has denied having plans to do this).

[cryptoziyan]

Binance blocks crypto accounts of relatives tied to the Russian government

[nawapon17]

LIVE UPDATES: Russian Armed Forces Hit 36 Military Facilities of Ukraine in Past Day, MoD Says - 28.03.2022, Sputnik International

[phroyd]

Ed Schultz, a former conservative radio show host whose politics moved left before he joined MSNBC’s nightly lineup in 2009 and then shifted again when he was hired by RT America, Russia’s state-financed international cable network, died on Thursday at his home in Washington. He was 64.

His death was announced by RT America, which did not specify a cause. His stepdaughter Megan Espelien said he had heart problems.

Mr. Schultz, a burly former college football quarterback with a booming voice, ranged across the political spectrum during his radio and television career, achieving his highest visibility as a blunt-spoken liberal and champion of blue-collar America as host of “The Ed Show” on MSNBC.

In the 1990s, he had his own conservative radio talk show broadcast regionally from Fargo, N.D. But by 2000, when he announced he was a Democrat, he, and his show, had begun turning to the left, gaining listeners even while others may have dropped him.

While it had nowhere near the listenership of shows hosted by conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, the Schultz show grew in popularity as he established himself as a sharp critic of President George W. Bush.

In his book “Straight Talk From the Heartland” (2004), Mr. Schultz described the successful, if unusual, arc of his career.

“How did a prairie-dwelling, red-meat-eating, gun-toting former conservative become the hope of liberal radio?” he wrote. “It all started with this annoying habit I have of speaking my mind. Sometimes, when I open my mouth, all hell breaks loose. Other times I feel like a voice in the wilderness and I wonder, ‘Does anybody get this?’ ”

In 2005, he began a nationally syndicated liberal-leaning radio show with funding from a New York nonprofit organization called Democracy Radio. By then he was declaring to The Washington Post that conservative radio hosts were “meanspirited and intentionally dishonest.”

When MSNBC hired him to host his own show in 2009, he joined an unabashedly liberal lineup that featured Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann. He had moments of bombast, from calling Vice President Dick Cheney an “enemy of the country” to declaring President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, or “Putie,” a hero to Republicans.

Mr. Schultz was suspended by MSNBC for a week without pay in 2011 after calling the conservative commentator Laura Ingraham, on his radio show, a “right-wing slut.” (He was responding to her criticism of President Barack Obama for drinking a pint of beer in Dublin instead of flying to the scene of a tornado disaster in Joplin, Mo.)

Mr. Schultz apologized, and Ms. Ingraham accepted the apology.

The ratings of “The Ed Show,” which was broadcast on weeknights, never soared, and he moved to weekend duty before being given a weekday slot. His and other underperforming shows were canceled in 2015. In April, he told a National Review podcast that he had been fired for supporting Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primaries.

At MSNBC, Mr. Schultz was known for his embrace of the labor movement at a time when the mainstream media was all but ignoring it, said David Shuster, a former MSNBC host, in a Twitter post on Thursday.

“Ed,” he said, “focused on American blue collar workers most of the MSM had long forgotten.”

Edward Andrew Schultz was born on Jan. 27, 1954, in Norfolk, Va. His father, George, was an aeronautical engineer; his mother, Mary, was a schoolteacher. He played quarterback at Minnesota State University, Moorhead, where he led the N.C.A.A. Division II in passing in 1977. After graduating he tried out for teams in the National Football League, including the Jets, and the Canadian Football League without success. He then began his career in radio, originally as a sportscaster.

In addition to his stepdaughter Ms. Espelien, his survivors include his wife, Wendy (Noack) Schultz; his son, David; two other stepdaughters, Greta Guscette and Ingrid Murray; two stepsons, Christian and Joseph Kiedrowski; and 15 grandchildren. His marriage to Maureen Zimmerman ended in divorce.

Several months after losing his job at MSNBC, Mr. Schultz re-emerged as the anchor of an 8 p.m. program, “The News With Ed Schultz,” on RT America.

“I could have retired,” he told The West Fargo Pioneer, a North Dakota newspaper. “That’s not Ed Schultz; I’m not ready to do that. I got a lot of tire left. I have a lot of desire. This gives me a chance to do something that I haven’t had an opportunity to do in my career.”

And, he declared, the network’s Russian backing would not influence him. “Nobody is going to tell Ed Schultz what to say,” he said.

But his new show seemed to reflect a course correction from his MSNBC days. At RT, he adopted a friendlier tone toward Putin and President Donald J. Trump, whom he had once called a “racist” for questioning whether President Obama had been born in the United States.

In 2017, he criticized CNN’s reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

And, in the National Review podcast, he sidestepped his past comments about Putin’s “nasty” human rights record by saying: “I think the United States has a nasty human rights record. I do think that every superpower on the globe has a very poor record on human rights.”

In a statement, Margarita Simonyan, chief editor of RT, recalled a displeased Mr. Schultz’s strong reaction when the Justice Departmentrequired RT America to register as a foreign agent.

“Ed set an example for all of us,” she said, “saying: ‘Let them call me what they want. I am going to speak the truth no matter what.’ ”

His last broadcast was on May 31.

Alain Delaqueriere contributed research.

Phroyd

[conniejoworld]

H.R. McMaster: Ex-Trump official praises Biden for uniting the West against Putin - CNN

putie's needs to be dealt with, too.