#russian government

[startrekmemequeen]

CW: Politics, homophobia

I live in the part of Ukraine which is currently occupied by R*ssia. Right now i don't have any means to leave this territory. Today r*ssian government enacted a new law. According to it, LGBT+ is a "forbidden extremist organization" (i know it sounds ridiculous but it's what the law says) and any "LGBT activity" is now a crime. Even having a pride pin on your backpack can cost you at least 6 years in prison.

I can't post about this on any other social media because it would reveal my identity which would put me in danger. I'm posting this for awareness. I'm posting this so people from other countries would know what sick shit is happening here. I'm not asking anybody to do anything. I don't know what can be done to stop this. I don't think anything can be done at this point. R*ssia is going down. They've criminalized LGBT+, they're about to criminalize abortions. They've started a fucking WAR, they're killing my people. They're oppressing their own citizens.

I don't know what to do, i can't leave, i have no money, no education yet, and i have a family, i can't just leave them. I didn't ask to live in this insane country with inhumane laws, they came here and fucking occupied the place where i live.

If you're from another country, please spread awareness, educate yourself and don't support r*ssian government. If you're from r*ssia, hold on. I know you're scared, i'm scared too. But you're not alone. Just hold on.

[whatisonthemoon]

Former Russian Prime Minister, Close Putin Advisor Sergey Kiriyenko is a Scientologist, and a brief history of the CIA’s relationship to Scientology

▲Kiriyenko and Putin

Former Russian Official Accuses a Top Russian Official of Being a Scientologist

Today Aaron Smith-Levin from the YouTube Channel, "Growing Up In Scientology," discussed a senior Russian official being accused of being a Scientologist by Russian nationalist, Army veteran, and former intelligence officer Igor Girkin, accusing Sergey Kiriyenko of being a Scientologist. Girkin has played a major role in organizing separatists and the more fascistic elements of militants in Ukraine. He was also appointed to as Minister of Defense in the Donetsk People's Republic, a puppet state of Russia. Though today Girkin supports Russia's efforts in Ukraine, he believes the government is not showing enough force and is botching the annexation and war in Ukraine. In 2023, Girkin organized fellow Russian fascists and nationalists into the “Club of Angry Patriots,” advocating for the violent seizure of the Russian state apparatus by nationalists. 

Girkin has recently been discussing how for decades it has been known in Russia that Sergey Kiriyenko was or is a Scientologist, though it has been said Kiriyenko is currently inactive. Even while he was the Prime Minister, his affiliation was known among Russian politicians, with many finding it distasteful and a risk to the state. Even as popular sentiments in Russia were that Scientology was a cult, even within its government, Kiryeno remained favored by many Russian bureaucrats and long-time intelligence officers, including Putin.

Girkin mentions that prior to 1991, the Russian government believed Scientology to be a subsidiary of the CIA. He goes on to dismiss this claim, though he believed that Scientology did bring sabotage wherever it went, including to the Russian government, but that such sabotage was instead caused by foolish, unwise church leadership. 

Scientology and CIA?

Miles Copeland Jr., long-time CIA officer who often wrote about the agency following his departure. Many of his claims have been proven true, though often sprinkled with exaggeration and intentional disinformation.

One of Copeland’s claims, made in “The Game Player,” was that both the Moral Re-Armament and Scientology were being used by the CIA for “political action.” 

This is not difficult to believe, as the Sea Org in its heyday under the direct leadership of L. Ron Hubbard was known to travel the world, meeting with world leaders, and executing missions that many of its members did not understand.

Some seem to believe that it was after/during the trial of Operation Snow White, the church-led operation of 5,000 Scientologists infiltrating U.S. government agencies, when the Church of Scientology connected to the CIA, but in another video of Aaron’s, he interviews Janis Gillham Grady, who offered a tid bit that seems to suggest otherwise. Grady was an early member and one of the few people who worked with L. Ron Hubbard, who discussed Scientology’s role in Morroco’s 1972 coup. It is more likely that the Scientology’s government and FBI infiltration was led by the CIA, for information on other government agencies. The Scientologists were said to have gotten a number of FBI documents.

Copeland claims that the CIA had a plant in Scientology even prior to its official founding, at the Dianetics Research Foundation in 1950, and actively funded Hubbard's experiments. Both Charles Parker Morgan and John Starr Cooke are known to have strong OSS/CIA connections, and were known to have worked with Hubbard at this time. 

On John Starr Cooke:

Some years earlier Bowen had fallen under the singular and charismatic influence of a mysterious guru-type figure named John Starr Cooke. A man of wealth and influential family connections, Cooke was no stranger to high-level CIA personnel. His sister, Alice, to whom he was very close, was married to Roger Kent, a prominent figure in the California state Democratic party; Roger’s brother, Sherman Kent, was head of the CIA’s National Board of Estimates (an extremely powerful position) and served as CIA director Allen Dulles’ right-hand man during the Cold War. John Cooke hobnobbed with Sherman Kent at annual family reunions and is said to have made the acquaintance of a number of CIA operatives while traveling in Europe.

Driven by an avid interest in the occult, Cooke journeyed around the world befriending an assortment of mystics and spiritual teachers. In the early 1950s he became a close confidant to L. Ron Hubbard, the ex-navy officer who founded the Scientology organization. Cooke rose high in the ranks of the newly formed religious cult. (He was the first “clear” in America, meaning he had attained the level of an advanced Scientology initiate.) Before long, however, he grew disillusioned with Hubbard and they parted ways.

Charles Parker "Bumps" Morgan was a OSS special investigator who approached Hubbard to for the Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation together with John Campbell Jr. In his role, he contacted the FBI to report Communists which the organization had discovered, often through auditing. 

▲C. Morgan

L. Ron Hubbard's 1961 letter that discusses contacting the FBI due to communists his organization made contact with also makes mention of Morgan pushing the idea that there was "subversion" in the organization. 

In 1978, the same year that Scientologists were on trial for infiltrating the U.S. government, though not its mastermind L. Ron Hubbard, the Stargate Project was initiated as a secret U.S. army unit by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Stanford Research International (SRI), a scientific research non-profit. Many of its most well known and central personnel were active Scientologists, including Hal Puthoff, Pat Price, and Ingo Swann. 

Until at least 1979, Scientologists were heavily involved at the Stanford Research Institute in Palo Alto, including Scientology intelligence officer Mike McClaughry.

Allegedly “remote viewing,” something this unit deeply researched, was used for anti-communist, anti-Soviet operations, but these three men allegedly were deeply interested in this experience because of their own Scientologist beliefs. 

Puthoff, Price, and Swann all had reached at least OT III in Scientology, meaning they had reached the state of clear and had learned about the secret Scientology doctrines/space opera around Xenu.  All three seemed to have left the Scientology in the late 70s.

It has been said that Puthoff's psyshics identified spies,,Soviet weapons and submarines. Puthoff today co-founded the UFO research company To the Stars  with Tom DeLonge, Blink 182 guitarist and vocalist who has taken a huge interest in UFOs. It is believed that Puthoff is using DeLonge to spread disinformation around UFOs onto a new generation, especially TikTok-addicted teens.

Price was considered one of the most successful remote viewers. He was a police officer. He also fueled speculation in the government and outside of the government around aliens and UFOs, claiming to have located an alien base in a mountain in Alaska. He died 

Kiriyenko has never denied being a Scientologist, though claiming the German article in 1998 that revealed his affiliation to be a funny “April fools joke”.

Notes and related links below

Psychics and Scientists: "Mind-Resarch" and Remote Viewing by Ray Hyman 

1975 interview with Pat Price Sergey Kiriyenko, the ‘Viceroy of the Donbas’ who helped launch Putin’s career

Cold War Allies: The Origins of CIA's Relationship with Ukrainian Nationalists (1998)

Ukraine: The CIA’s 75-year-old Proxy

Evidence Emerges: United States is Planning to Interfere in 2023 Parliamentary Elections in Ukraine Russia's PM linked to Scientologists (1998) by Phil Reeves, The Independent

RUSSIA'S youthful, inexperienced and - until last week - almost unheard of prime minister-designate was yesterday grappling with potentially damaging allegations linking him with the Church of Scientology.

Just over a week after being yanked out of obscurity by Boris Yeltsin, Sergei Kiriyenko, 35, hit his first unexpected skid patch after a German newspaper, Berliner Zeitung, reported that he had attended a one-week Scientology course in Nizhny Novgorod when he was head of a bank three years ago.

The teachings of L Ron Hubbard are regarded with profound suspicion by Russian officialdom, particularly by the powerful Russian Orthodox church. The same views are likely to be shared by many of the parliamentarians due to vote on Friday over whether to confirm Mr Kiriyenko's nomination.

Yesterday, Mr Yeltsin sought to dampen the protests over his choice of prime minister by inviting the two speakers of parliament and Mr Kiriyenko himself to talks at his residence outside Moscow later today. The invitation appeared to work: soon afterwards, deputies from the State Duma, or lower house, dropped demands for Mr Kiriyenko's nomination to be suspended.

The minister yesterday tried to brush off the Berliner Zeitung report, which claimed he arranged for other bankers to attend similar seminars. He was reported to have declared that he appreciated the "simplicity and clarity" of Hubbard's teachings. Later, the paper said, he lost interest in Scientology.

Under quizzing from reporters, Mr Kiriyenko said yesterday it was the "best April Fool's joke yet". But there was no outright denial.

Although Scientology has a sizeable following among Russians, the ruling elite is unlikely to take kindly to the idea of being led by an official who has any links to it. Last year, hostilities erupted in a landmark court case over an Orthodox church leaflet which warned of the dangers of "totalitarian sects", naming, among others, the Scientologists, the Moonies and the White Brotherhood.

For all its distaste, Russia has not cracked down as hard as Germany which, in spite of outcries from human rights groups, US politicians and Hollywood heavyweights including Dustin Hoffman and Oliver Stone, passed tough laws controlling the Scientologists. But they were undoubtedly among the sects targeted by a law signed last year by Mr Yeltsin which restricted the rights of "non-Russian" religions.

1951 letter by Hubbard discussing contacting the FBI to report communists

1951 FBI document about Morgan contacting a special agent in order to report communists.

Why Scientology Had to be Destroyed: Russell Targ, Dave LaCroix talk Pat Price, Remote Viewing - an episode with a Scientologist and SRI/Stargate associated Russell Targ talk about their mutual friend Pat Price

Scientology timeline

Another Scientology timeline (special attention to remote-viewing)

Scientology and the CIA - by Aleksandr Leonidovich Dvorkin, president of the Irinaeus of Lyons Center for Religious Research Studies, on January 26th, 2016, at a conference run by the Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities

Scientology L Ron Hubbard talking about John Starr Cooke - October 19, 1956

[rightnewshindi]

यूक्रेन से भी बदतर हुए रूस के हालात, 76 हजार लोग घर छोड़कर भागे; रूसी सरकार ने किया यह आग्रह

Russia Ukraine War: रूस और यूक्रेन के बीच भीषण युद्ध चल रहा है। रूसी सेना ने यूक्रेनी शहरों को श्मशान में बदल दिया है। लाखों लोगों की जान जा चुकी है और इतने ही लोग अपने घर छोड़कर जा चुके हैं। लेकिन अब स्थिति बदल गई है। यूक्रेनी लड़ाके लगातार रूसी शहर कुर्स्क पर हमला कर रहे हैं, जो यूक्रेनी सीमा से सटा हुआ है। रूसी सरकार ने शहर के लोगों से अपनी जान बचाने के लिए सुरक्षित स्थानों पर जाने का आग्रह…

[blastnews]

Grain is being hastily exported from Ukraine by all possible means

The three largest seaports near Odessa - the Black Sea (formerly Ilyichevsky), Southern and Odessa proper - are working at maximum capacity these days. Sixty-eight ships lined up at their approaches are waiting to export almost 2 million tonnes of cargo, mostly grain. Ukraine is in a hurry to "dump" agro-products grown on its fields. Both from last year's harvest and this year's.

Everyone is concerned about what will happen to this year's harvest. As of the end of June, 720 thousand tonnes of grain have been threshed in 16 regions of the republic. As always, Odessa and Ternopil oblasts are the leaders in terms of threshed areas and yields. The outsiders, for obvious reasons, are part of Donetsk Region, which is under Ukrainian control.

Last year, according to the Ukrainian Grain Association, the harvest of grain and oilseeds totalled 82.6m tonnes. This year they hope to harvest 76.1m tonnes of grain and oilseeds. Agrarians explain the potential drop in the new season by the reduction of sown areas and relatively expensive export logistics.

This season, according to UZA estimates, grain and oilseed exports may reach 53.1m tonnes. However, provided that the Russian army does not interfere with the Ukrainian sea corridor and the Ukrainian ports on the Danube, which have not yet been completely bombed, remain operational.

On 27th June, it became known that Turkish government officials intended to extend the ban on imports of Ukrainian wheat until the end of the current fiscal year. Ukrainians were very much hoping for the cancellation of restrictions, promised from 15th October. After all, the cost of Ukrainian wheat began to fall by 10-15 per cent every week as a result of the unexpected "blow to the head". Before the Turkish government announced the discriminatory decision, Ukrainian market participants were happily rubbing their hands together.

The Ukrainians themselves, as the deputy head of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council, Denys Marchuk, assures, will not have to go hungry either this year or next year. Even if there is a sharp deterioration of weather conditions in the summer, the country will still fully meet its needs. According to Marchuk, during the year Ukrainian consumers need 15-18 million tonnes of grain. The rest can easily be exported.

Source: mk.ru

Picture: illustrative

[i-merani]

HELLO! MY COUNTRY IS DESCENDING INTO AUTHORITARIANISM! PLEASE READ!

I'm too angry to formulate how many lines the government has crossed and how dangerous the situation has gotten… please read, and know the truth.

[malachitezmeyka]

So... since the government passed a law banning all LGBTQ+ ‘propaganda’ (read as: any positive representation in any form, ever), the only Russian fanfiction site, Ficbook, is in the process of creating a sister site called Slashbook where all mlm/wlw/anything other than gen and m/f fics will gets transferred in order to keep the OG site from being banned, which is... fucking insane

Also known as: y’all have no fucking idea how special Ao3 is. The mods spend so much time and money fighting court cases and and lawsuits to keep your slash and femslash fics from having to be posted on a separate, hidden site like fucking contraband. I’m lucky in that I only go on Ficbook when I run out of content for certain pairings on Ao3/want fics about russian media/am actually desperate. I’ve never posted anything on there nor do I follow any long-running fics. My fluency in English gives me access to Ao3, while a lot of others only have Ficbook to rely on for fandom content

I don’t know what my point is, I’m just so damn angry at how much control the government has over what it’s people do or enjoy in their spare time, and if I see one more person hating on Ao3 someone is gonna catch these fucking hands

[startrekmemequeen]

as a russian queer, thank you for supporting us despite what our country has done to you. it can't be easy. i hope you hold on as well, and i am sorry that we failed to do anything to stop the bloodshed.

And i thank you for being mindful of the situation. I really think russians who understand the degree of the situation are wise. I don't like people who deny it and go into full "there's no war in ba sing se" mode. I appreciate the apology in a sense that i'm glad that you understand the situation but i don't blame you, an average citizen, for all of this. I blame your government, not you. You are a victim of said government, as am I. It's not you fault.

I am also queer and i can't express how much this situation upsets me. Please stay safe and hold on. Someday it all will end. The sun will shine on us again.

[vita-min-ze]

I feel like the root problem of american tankies' shallow ideals is redirected american exceptionalism. Internet and globalization has caused them to realize that that they're not in fact the best country in the world as school etc has told them. But instead of understanding that they have problems just like the rest of us (though tbf, their ability to cause other nations harm is unmatched) they now flipped to saying that the us must be the worst country in the entire world and the source of all evil. They cannot comprehend that non-americans are perfectly capable of doing the most heinous shit and thus assume that behind every war or conflict lies a us conspiracy and influence - because surely non-americans are just so innocent, naive and primitive and unlike americans lack the cunning to advance their political goals without help by the US. The fact that not only the US government but also its enemies can be vile at the same time and that sometimes they can even be on the good side is completely beyond them which is why they are never truly against imperialism, genocide or opression unless it is done by americans or their allies.

[whatisonthemoon]

Aaron Levin-Smith (Growing Up In Scientology on YouTube) on Scientology being banned in Russia

Top Russian official and close Putin advisor Sergey Kiriyenko is said to never have become a member of the Church of Scientology but instead took courses in the 90s. The early to mid 90s in Russia was a time of religious resurgence, with many religious groups, from Hare Krishna devotees to Pentecostals, flooding the country.

Related

Former Russian Prime Minister, Close Putin Advisor Sergey Kiriyenko is a Scientologist, and a brief history of the CIA’s relationship to Scientology

Machine Guns Near the Church of Scientology’s Int Base or Gold Base

[captainjonnitkessler]

"Nobody would ever say something insensitive about X physical condition like they do Y mental condition" "Nobody would ever be racist towards X like they are towards Y" "No one would ever dare treat X religion like they do Y religion" "X gender/sexuality are never treated the way Y gender/sexuality are"

What if we stopped playing Oppression Olympics. What if we started showing some solidarity. What if we just stuck to describing the problem instead of detouring around to shit on someone we think isn't oppressed enough. What if we stopped making sweeping judgements on what issues other groups of people do or do not face based on vibes.

[mutiny-huyutiny]

[generallemarc]

If an account you've never interacted with that has a description asking for money follows you, it is a scam.

I don't care how many photos whose source you have no way of verifying it posts. I don't care how many videos with no way of verifying their location, time of recording, or any other context they try to shove in your face. These are scams; all of them. In fact, there's a good chance that any money they get will be used to actively increase the amount of suffering caused by war, given how many scam operations these days are run out of Russia and supported by the Russian government. These are not people-these are bots. If you wouldn't give money to a blog claiming to be a hot single lady who just wants to get to know you after choosing to follow you and you specifically on tumblr.com, don't give money to a blog claiming to be a Gazan in need of help who has chosen to seek this help by following you specifically on tumblr.com, the most irrelevant social media platform this side of Threads that was sold at a billion-dollar loss because that's how few people are on here.

[justacynicalromantic]

In early 2014, Ukraine was a neutral country, with a pro-Russian president, and with 70% of Ukraine's population against NATO membership. Yet Russia bluntly violated Ukraine's neutrality and annexed Crimea, then launched a covert invasion of Ukraine in the east.

Petro Poroshenko won the presidential election later in 2014 having promised a settlement with Russia, keeping a special status of the Russian language in Ukraine. He was initially sceptical regarding NATO accession, underlined Ukraine must rely on its own strength to provide security.

Did Putin meet Poroshenko halfway? Not at all. The regular Russian army entered the Ukrainian territory in mid-2014 to fight the Ukrainian troops, which led to the Minsk-1 agreement signed in September 2014.

Further text - down under the cut, or you can follow the Twitter link to the original post:

Few weeks later, Ukraine's parliament adopted a law that would guarantee the then Russia-controlled part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions additional economic, financial and cultural powers.

How did Putin react? Russia staged sham local elections in the occupied Donbas, and then sent the regular army again to Ukraine in early 2015, which led to the Minsk-2 agreement signed in February 2015.

Zelensky was even more sceptical regarding NATO accession. Asked about NATO, he once famously said he never pays anyone a visit if he has not been invited. He won the presidential election promising to compromise with Russia - to stop shooting, sit down with Putin and talk.

Did Putin meet Zelensky halfway? Not at all. He actually raised the stakes by issuing the Russian passports on the occupied territories of Ukraine even before Zelensky assumed the office, putting him in a difficult political position since the start.

Zelensky was ready to drop Ukraine's NATO bid in an exchange for the Russian troops withdrawing from Ukraine. The talks were held already before 2022. What did Putin do? He launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In the first weeks of the invasion, Zelensky was yet again ready to drop Ukraine's NATO bid. But he wanted to obtain international security guarantees. What did Putin do? He demanded that Russia must be consulted before any aid would be given to Ukraine in the event of aggression.

To sum up, Ukraine has consistently tried to reach a deal with Russia over the last decade, and was open to giving up on its NATO bid in exchange for the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Ukraine. Russia never reciprocated, never showed a good will, kept raising the stakes.

Both Poroshenko and Zelensky were initially sceptical regarding Ukraine's accession to NATO. Both wanted to get a deal with Putin. And Putin himself pushed both of them to seek NATO membership out of no other viable alternatives.

Up till now, Putin has shown absolutely no willingness to compromise with Ukraine. His war aims remain maximalist - subjugating Ukraine and changing its regime. He seeks Ukraine's partition, and will turn what is left of Ukraine into Russian protectorate.

Russia's imperial self-conception is that of Russian elites at large, and not just Vladimir Putin. The Russian leadership simply cannot reconcile with the existence of a sovereign Ukrainian statehood.

Therefore any sustainable Ukrainian-Russian compromise is currently not possible unless the Russian cost-benefit calculus changes. Only credible risk to the stability of the Russian regime would impact this calculus. The easiest way goes through defeating Russia in Ukraine.