TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org

The Kremlin's bot network is sending out articles saying that ISIS was not responsible for the attack in Moscow. Allegedly, the United States, Kiev and Britain are guilty.

The Kremlin's fake news network has begun sending out pseudo-journalistic articles about who is behind the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall. The readers are told that the US, Ukraine, the secret British intelligence agency MI6 and the collective West as a whole are to blame and information of the US about the responsibility of ISIS is fake. This was established by the project "Bot Blocker / antibot4navalny".

The distribution scheme shows that this is the same Doppelgänger bot network, also called RRN. This is evidenced by the fact that, firstly, the same fake "media" websites are being promoted as in previous attacks:

spiegel.ltd
grenzezank.com
hauynescherben.net
meisterurian.io
onnam.life
and many others

As before, the same pattern of "two-level bots" is used: some post content, others massively retweet on Twitter (X) in comments to other people's publications with a completely foreign topic. For example, under a post about a football match. And in the same way, a system of intermediate redirects is used, which are limited by the user's geolocation.

According to Meta, the IT companies National Technologies and the Agency for Social Design (ASP), which are under European sanctions, are behind the spam attack. The ultimate owner of National Technologies LLC is Rostec. The bots also promoted the EuroBRICS website, which has proven links to the special service center (military unit 54777) of the GRU. Earlier, the EU introduced a package of sanctions against participants in the campaign to manipulate digital information.

Fakes are available in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Hebrew. As Bot Blocker notes, this network is using a number of languages for the first time — apparently, the spread of Kremlin propaganda is increasingly being expanded to Western audiences.

A clone of the German newspaper Der Spiegel published an article under the headline "Legalized terrorism. The terrorist attack in Russia raises the question of Ukraine's cooperation with Islamist terrorist groups." But the network spreads the Kremlin's narratives not only on clones of well-known media. Doppelgänger also has its own websites, which look like regular news publications. In particular, this is the portal Il Correspondente, which broadcasts in Italian. An article about the latest terrorist attack, titled "Terror Returns to Moscow," states that "the Kiev regime is directly responsible for the massacre in Crocus. Ukraine has become a global hub for the recruitment and training of terrorist cells by the US and the UK."

Another article concludes that the US and Ukraine are behind the terrorist attack, since "the terrorists behaved like trained soldiers and used military tactics typical of mercenaries," and after the shooting, they headed towards Ukraine.

The fake news network's websites also posted materials that the West was deliberately spreading"fake news" that ISIS was behind the attack.
Source

@freerussia_report

A Real Mobilization to Follow Putin’s Bogus Election?.

By the end of last year, Russia was able to restore the number of its armed forces personnel despite the massive losses of 2022–2023. Quantity, however, does not mean quality.

Now that Putin has secured reelection in an unfair and unfree election, and killed off his primary political rival, Alexey Navalny, he faces a serious dilemma. How can he maintain a field force of around 200,000 men to wage aggressive war against Ukraine when his spendthrift generals launch offensives that can cost 1,000 dead and wounded every day?

Russian ground forces in Ukraine have become a hodge-podge of regular units whose ranks have been topped up by mobilized soldiers, and those who signed contracts for military service to manage their family debts. Convicts and irregular volunteer formations under the umbrella of the Ministry of Defense make up the balance.

There might be 150.000-200.000 men in Russian-occupied Ukraine, including support units, based on the available data and the history of modern warfare.

Nevertheless, if the loss rate remains at last year’s levels, the Kremlin leadership will have to decide on how to get more manpower. Each of the five options comes with a practical problem or a political price.

1) Recruit 20.000–30.000 soldiers a month during 2024, despite the inevitable deficit of convicts (now largely dead or wounded) who formed a crucial element of recruits in 2023;
2) decrease losses through negotiations;
3) use an “escalation-for-de-escalation” approach in the Baltic region, with the aim of forcing negotiations;
send conscripted soldiers currently excluded from the war to the front; and
4) begin another wave of mobilization.

The last is also the final option — mobilization was highly unpopular among Russian society in 2022 and will be avoided unless the Kremlin believes other efforts are not producing results. By the summer we will see if the self-proclaimed dictator has been forced down this route. The fourth alternative — sending young conscripts — would break Putin’s promise not to, although it remains possible.

Why there are so few troops available? Double-count, prisoners, civil personnel, etc.

The conscripts might provide a short-term solution as do the prisoners as Z-leadership needs to find new manpower. Firstly, if average losses remain the same as in 2023, Russia needs to recruit at least 20,000 new soldiers/volunteers a month. If maintaining meat assaults this number rises to about 30.000/month.

Secondly, Russia would welcome a temporary respite from the war, or at least decrease its intensity through negotiations. In February, Putin twice discussed his negotiating conditions, throwing in another bout of nuclear blackmail for good measure. Any pause would allow a restructuring and restoration of military vitality, and reduce the recruitment crisis.

Thirdly, there is the seemingly simple option of sending conscripts, who officially don’t participate. The expansion of the Southern military district to include the occupied territories of Ukraine from March 1 means that conscripts can easily be relocated to any part of the district without public attention.

The same is true towards the re-establishment of the Leningrad military district, which would be the launching point for any military action in the Baltic region. Considering Russia’s paradoxical belief in “escalation-for-de-escalation”, the prospect of a direct clash with NATO should not be underestimated.

Such aggression could use conscripts even without a massive mobilization, at least at first. It is true the conscripts are poorly trained, but so are the mobilized soldiers and prisoners; conscripts are also younger, which is a significant advantage.

It might not be the Z military leadership’s favored approach as it prefers to pressure conscripts to become contracted soldiers. We can expect such pressure to increase in 2024.

Read more

@freerussia_report

📹EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Lev Parnas reveals what Republicans tried to prevent him from telling Congress about Trump's naked hatred for Ukraine.

https://youtu.be/DYH-Uus-tZ0?si=M439HhGvqgInuAsE

Rest in Hell
https://t.me/EveryUkraineWarVideo/66183

"I never thought that I would work in a mine with a panic fear of elevators. But the war changed everything. And we went to work, because we need something to eat,"
says 36-year-old Victoria Avramchuk at the ground zero of the mine. Two years ago, she did not have the right to work underground in a mine. Now she drives an underground electric locomotive and delivers materials.

Victoria is one of the 150 women who work at two mines in the Dnipropetrovsk region where the channel hromadske visited them. Women got this right recently. Until 2022, the law prohibited women from working in hard work underground. However, during martial law, lawmakers lifted this ban. All because thousands of miners joined the Defense Forces — and the mines faced the problem of a lack of personnel.

As soon as women got the right to work underground, coal miners developed programs to attract them to their enterprises to fill some of the vacant places - women are not offered to work directly in the pit, but mainly in places that require not so much strength as attention and responsibility.

About why women become miners and go down to difficult work underground - in the hromadske report (don't forget to turn on English subtitles).

@ukrainejournal

@MasterMischief @MaryAustinBooks @StillIRise1963

He belongs in a stable though. Does that count?

Kuril Islands, Sochi, Orenburg and others: we talk about possible territorial claims of different countries to Russia

For more than a decade, the Russian Federation has been suffering from phantom pain in the territories that at different times were part of the Russian Empire and the USSR. Often, “from behind the curb,” a howl is heard about the “original Russian lands” that are part of the neighboring states.

But if you “stir up the nest” of territorial claims, then you should remember that other countries may also have many questions about the current borders of the Russian Federation.
to continue👇continued
🇲🇳Mongolia
The Mongol Empire in the Middle Ages occupied most of modern Russia. But even without taking this into account, among the heirs of Genghis Khan there are ideas of uniting the Mongolian peoples into a single state. These include Buryats and Kalmyks. More than a hundred years ago, at a conference in Chita with the participation of the Buryats, it was decided to create a Great Mongolian state.

🇦🇿Azerbaijan
There is an idea in society of Great Azerbaijan from Derbent to the Persian Gulf. There were also ideas to take Dagestan away from the Russian Federation.

🇮🇷Iran
Tehran also considers Derbent and part of Dagestan theirs.

🇰🇿Kazakhstan
For centuries, Kazakhs roamed the territory of Western Siberia and Altai. The ancestral lands of the Kazakh families were Orenburg and Astrakhan. Tyumen is the northernmost part of the Kazakh nomads, and Altai is the cradle of all Turkic peoples.

🇹🇼Taiwan
As a result of the civil war, the Communists ousted representatives of the Kuomintang Party to Taiwan. “Chinese nationalists,” as they were called in the press, did not recognize the power of the Communist Party. For decades, they considered themselves the legitimate all-Chinese government, which was established after the fall of the Qin dynasty in 1911. And that, in turn, owned the Uriankhai region (now the Republic of Tyva), which in 1914 became part of Russia.

🇨🇳China
Although the Celestial Empire officially has no claims, it often indicates the Far East on maps as its own territory. Textbooks refer to Siberia as “temporarily lost territory.”

🇫🇮Finland
The government does not make any claims against the Russian Federation, but the organizations “ProKarelia”, the “Karelia” club or the magazine “Karjalan kuvalehti” insist on the inclusion of Karelia into Finland.

🇯🇵Japan
After World War II, the USSR and Japan never signed a peace treaty. Therefore, the country of the Rising Sun considers the annexed Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and the Habomai group of islands to be its own.

🇬🇪Georgia
In the Middle Ages, the area around the city of Sochi was part of the Georgian kingdom. In 1918-1919 Tbilisi authorities tried to return Sochi. This question has been raised already in modern times.

🇰🇷Korea
South Korea does not recognize the legal transfer of Noktundo Island on the Tumannaya River in the Primorsky Territory to the Soviet Union in 1990 by North Korean authorities. Seoul may have claims to the Ussuri region, which Russia received back in 1860.

🇩🇪Germany
Then in 1945, the communists expelled the Germans, Lithuanians and Latvians from East Prussia. Instead, peasants from the Tambov, Ryazan, Penza and Oryol regions were brought here. Beautiful names of cities like Konigsberg, Preussisch-Eylau, Tilsit were disfigured, renamed Kaliningrad, Bagrationovsk and Sovetsk.

🇱🇹Lithuania
Vilnius, which considers these lands “Lithuania Minor,” could also lay claim to Kaliningrad.

🇱🇻Latvia
In 1920, the Bolsheviks and the Latvian authorities signed an agreement under which the latter included the city of Jaunlatgale and its surroundings. Two decades later, the USSR captured Latvia and incorporated the city into the RSFSR, renaming it Pytalovo (now Pskov region). After the restoration of independence, Riga considers this area to be illegally annexed territory.

🇪🇪Estonia
The current Pechora district and the city of Ivangorod were part of Estonia during the interwar period. After its occupation, the USSR drew the border between the ESSR and the RSFSR along the Narva River, due to which the satellite cities of Narva and Jaanilinn (Ivangorod) were divided.

🇧🇾Belarus
The territory of the Belarusian People's Republic in 1918 included the southern lands of the Pskov region and the western lands of Bryansk and Smolensk with the cities of Sebezh, Velikiye Luki, Smolensk, Bryansk.

@ukrainejournal

https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/understanding-the-manhattan-das-criminal?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/i-certainly-cant-get-behind-donald-trump/55191/

Robert Reich

https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/the-case-for-stopping-us-military?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Bloomberg writes.

ℹ️ From March 14 to 20, oil refineries of the Russian Federation processed 5.03 million barrels of oil per day. That's more than 400,000 barrels per day less than the average for the first 13 days of the month.

ℹ️ Kyiv is justifying the attack by the fact that it seeks to limit the supply of fuel to the front line and reduce the flow of petrodollars to the Kremlin coffers.

ℹ️ The actual reduction in total oil refining is smaller because intact refineries have increased their throughput to ensure sufficient fuel production.

ℹ️ PJSC Rosneft accounts for more than half of the total drop in Russian oil refining volumes over the past week, after two of its largest facilities were attacked in early March.

ℹ️ Crude output at the Ryazan refinery, which was attacked on March 13, fell by more than 160,000 barrels per day, about 63% below the average for the first 13 days of March. Rosneft's Syzran plant, which was attacked last weekend, reduced oil processing by 62,000 barrels per day over the same period, or 67%.

ℹ️ PJSC Lukoil's oil refinery in Norsi, which was damaged by a drone on March 12, reduced daily oil processing by more than 91,000 barrels, or 36%.

ℹ️ Almost a quarter, or about 97,000 bpd, is at the PJSC Gazprom Nafta refinery in Moscow, which was not hit but began scheduled maintenance earlier this week.

ℹ️ As the Russian authorities focus on supplying the domestic fuel market, any reduction in the country's oil refining will lead to a decrease in fuel exports.

ℹ️ According to preliminary estimates, drone attacks could reduce diesel production in Russia by 6-8%. Supplies of diesel fuel and fuel oil for export may decrease by 120,000-150,000 barrels per day.

I thank everyone who is working to eliminate the consequences of Russian strikes. Kyiv – ballistic missiles damaged houses and the building of the Academy of Arts today. All the injured have been provided with the necessary assistance. Thank God, there were no children at the academy. The debris clearance lasts all day. Odesa and Mykolaiv – after the attacks on power facilities, the situation is complicated, all the necessary services and repair crews were involved. In the afternoon, there was another strike on Odesa – people were injured. Kharkiv is still in a particularly challenging situation, but every day energy supply to the city is being gradually restored. I am grateful to everyone who works for the city, to everyone who cares about people and helps others.

Now it is extremely important to take care of those who need support. And even if people feel uncomfortable asking others for support, please pay attention and support them yourself, do not leave people alone with their difficulties.

I thank everyone who protects people and values life! I thank everyone who stands with Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!

🦅 Soldiers of the "Alastor" unit of the 25th Airborne Brigade showed footage of repulsing the Pi**r assault on the western outskirts of Tonenke - DeepState

🇷🇺 A foolish attempt to break through with 2 tanks across an open field ended in failure for the Katsaps thanks to the work of the Defence Forces. Such desperate attacks are often carried out by the Muscovites, but at the same time they continue to put pressure with infantry and equipment, using artillery, aircraft and drones.

⚔️ The situation in the area of Avdiivka along the Berdychi-Semenivka-Orlivka-Tonenke-Pervomaiske stretch remains difficult. It is only thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian soldiers who have prepared positions with their own hands, entrenched themselves and built up defences that the heavy pressure of the Russians along the entire frontline is being held back at the cost of lives.

The US has dismissed Russia's assertions regarding Ukraine's involvement in the terrorist attack as "Kremlin propaganda."

According to John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator of the National Security Council at the White House, the terrorist attack in the Moscow region was unrelated to Ukraine. "This was an attack carried out by ISIS-Khorasan operatives, period," he affirmed during a telephone briefing with reporters.

A White House representative expressed little surprise at the Kremlin's dissemination of misinformation regarding the alleged involvement of Ukrainian services in the terrorist attack.

Furthermore, the US had previously alerted Russian authorities about ISIS's intentions to carry out a terrorist attack.

The Russians are spreading a fake that during the morning rocket attack, the headquarters of the Security Service of Ukraine were targeted, which was allegedly located near the dormitory of the Academy named after M. Boychuk.

In fact, there is not a single defense headquarters near the dormitory, generating such fakes, the enemy is trying to justify its insidious attacks on civil infrastructure.

Sea Baby drones being prepared for new missions

https://mil.in.ua/en/news/security-service-of-ukraine-prepares-sea-baby-naval-drones-for-top-secret-operation/

Bloomberg writes.

ℹ️ From March 14 to 20, oil refineries of the Russian Federation processed 5.03 million barrels of oil per day. That's more than 400,000 barrels per day less than the average for the first 13 days of the month.

ℹ️ Kyiv is justifying the attack by the fact that it seeks to limit the supply of fuel to the front line and reduce the flow of petrodollars to the Kremlin coffers.

ℹ️ The actual reduction in total oil refining is smaller because intact refineries have increased their throughput to ensure sufficient fuel production.

ℹ️ PJSC Rosneft accounts for more than half of the total drop in Russian oil refining volumes over the past week, after two of its largest facilities were attacked in early March.

ℹ️ Crude output at the Ryazan refinery, which was attacked on March 13, fell by more than 160,000 barrels per day, about 63% below the average for the first 13 days of March. Rosneft's Syzran plant, which was attacked last weekend, reduced oil processing by 62,000 barrels per day over the same period, or 67%.

ℹ️ PJSC Lukoil's oil refinery in Norsi, which was damaged by a drone on March 12, reduced daily oil processing by more than 91,000 barrels, or 36%.

ℹ️ Almost a quarter, or about 97,000 bpd, is at the PJSC Gazprom Nafta refinery in Moscow, which was not hit but began scheduled maintenance earlier this week.

ℹ️ As the Russian authorities focus on supplying the domestic fuel market, any reduction in the country's oil refining will lead to a decrease in fuel exports.

ℹ️ According to preliminary estimates, drone attacks could reduce diesel production in Russia by 6-8%. Supplies of diesel fuel and fuel oil for export may decrease by 120,000-150,000 barrels per day.

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/jim-jordan-crashes-and-burns-on-60-minutes/55185/

From "The Analyst":

ALMOST UNBELIEVABLE

The news across Europe is full with images of the terror attacks in Moscow. Moscow vows revenge on the perpetrators and they’re trying to angle it so that Ukraine gets the blame, even though ISIS is flat out trying to make sure the Russians know it was them.
Already AI generated video of a fake Ukrainian admitting responsibility has appeared.
Meanwhile Russia terrorised Ukraine with horrendous missile strikes and is half way through attacks on another dam - a recognised war crime.
And where is the coverage of this? Barely even mentioned, it’s ‘just another day in Ukraine’ .
This latest set of missile attacks was very severe, and yet what does Washington quietly ask of Ukraine? ‘Please don’t hit Russian refineries because it might affect the price of oil’.
They have a point about the upcoming election. Americans freak out if fuel prices rise even a little.
In fact right now the price of petrol in the US is lower than it was in 2008. But that’s not how they see it. The piece of fuel could hit Biden’s chances of reelection and therefore tank any chance of aid for Ukraine.
Yet the oil refinery strategy is clearly working and it’s having an impact - something has to dent Russian income hard enough and this is doing just that.
Yesterday at least two StormShadow missiles made it through and cratered a major Russian communications centre for the Black Sea in the centre of Crimea. A military target.
Oil refining capabilities are a valid military target - they support the war machine and provide the fuel for the Russian army to function.
American aid I believe is likely to pass in the next 6-8 weeks. There’s at least three options the table that might make that happen.
Having seen what I’ve just seen and witnessed it can’t come soon enough.
I need to process a great deal right now about Ukraine. First hand experience tends to ground how you think. There’s a natural tendency to become angrier and more incensed.
Yet I have to keep a balanced perspective. Accuracy and consistency- the ability to see everything from all sides requires clarity.
So I’m having a day out tomorrow.
No posts, no reading, no phones, no anything. Just the dogs and a very very long walk.
Have a good weekend. Don’t forget Ukraine - ever.

Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!

Rest in Peace
​​💔 The life of Nazar Smirnov ended on March 9, 2024 in the village of Prydniprovsky, in the Dnipropetrovsk region. In the morning of that day, he and his older brother Yaroslav were walking from the church to the store when the Russian military fired artillery.

As a result of the impact, Nazar died on the spot, and his brother Yaroslav was hospitalized in a hospital in Dnipro.

Nazarov was 16 years old. He is from Nikopol region. He first studied at the Kamian Lyceum, and then transferred to the Prydniprovsky Lyceum. Student. He adored football and participated in various competitions.

"He was the soul of the company, an extremely positive and friendly young man, always ready to support others," said the deceased at the lyceum where he studied.

"Nazar was a very cheerful, sociable and kind boy. He had many friends at school and even found a common language with high school students. In the family he was a master, he always helped his grandmother. He loved to play football. Before the day of his death, I still saw him going to football field to another village," added Karina, who knew the Smirnov brothers.

Nazar is survived by his grandmother, brothers, sister and other relatives.