TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org

Heading home soon. Packing up my groceries and dirty laundry now.

The woman infantry officer

Baltic countries proposed an EU ban on the import of scrap metal from Russia

The Baltic countries, as well as the Czech Republic, proposed to the EU to ban the import of ferrous metals, copper and aluminum waste and scrap from Russia. Moscow uses the revenue from these imports to finance its war against Ukraine.

According to the Ministry of the Environment of Lithuania, in the period from 2022 to 2023, the EU will import ferrous metals, copper and aluminum waste and scrap from Russia in the amount of more than 118 million euros.

Ukraine has plenty of scrap russian tanks that could be sold.

🇺🇦@ukraine_report 🇺🇦🔱

A volunteer from Georgia, Tengiz Chania, died at the front in Ukraine. He served in the 3rd OShBr in the Avdiivka-Marinka direction.

Tengiz took part in the Russian-Ukrainian war since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

During his service, he was wounded twice, but after recovering, he returned to the front both times.

Eternal glory to the Hero.

🇺🇦 @ukraine_report 🇺🇦 (PL)

🔱 Operational information as of 06.00 on March 26, 2024 regarding the Russian invasion

❗️ The main summary:

🔵 During the past day, 57 combat clashes took place.

🔵 In general, during the past day, the enemy launched 4 missile and 59 air strikes, carried out 106 attacks from rocket salvo systems on the positions of our troops and populated areas.

🟠 At night, the Russian invaders once again attacked Ukraine, using 12 unmanned aerial vehicles of the "Shahed" type. All attack UAVs were destroyed by the forces and means of air defense of Ukraine.

🔵 In the Kupyan direction, the Defense Forces repelled 1 enemy attack in the area of Ivanivka, Kharkiv region.

🔵 In the Lyman direction, our soldiers repulsed 15 enemy attacks in the areas of Belogorivka settlements of the Luhansk region; Terny, Yampolivka, Rozdolivka and Vesely to the north of the Donetsk region.

🔵 In the direction of Bakhmut, our soldiers repelled 4 enemy attacks in the area of the settlement of Klishchiivka, Donetsk region.

🔵 In the Avdiivsk direction, our defenders repelled 4 enemy attacks in the areas of Berdychi and Pervomaiske settlements of the Donetsk region.

🔵 On the Novopavlivskyi direction, the Defense Forces continue to hold back the enemy in the area of the settlement of Novomykhailivka, where the enemy tried 22 times to break through the defenses of our troops.

🔵 In the Orihiv direction, the enemy attacked the positions of our defenders 4 times in the districts of Staromayorsky, Donetsk region; south-western Biloghirya and north-western Verbovoy Zaporizhzhia region.

🔵 In the Kherson direction, the enemy did not conduct offensive (assault) actions during the past day.

🔥 During the past day, the aviation of the Defense Forces struck 9 areas where the enemy's personnel, weapons and military equipment were concentrated.

🔥 Units of the missile forces damaged 1 air defense device, 1 artillery device, 1 EW station, 1 personnel concentration area and 1 enemy UAV control station.

Support the Armed Forces! Let's win together!✊
Glory to Ukraine!🇺🇦
AFU

🇺🇦@ukraine_report 🇺🇦🔱

🇵🇱Polish Foreign Ministry: NATO is considering shooting down Russian missiles near its borders - Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Andrzej Szejna told RMF FM.

The deputy head of diplomacy, speaking about Russia, emphasized that "we are dealing with a terrorist, organized, well-equipped state with weapons and modern technologies." It was rather an intentional act, the Russian Federation did not want to provoke anything , they knew that if the missile moved further into Poland, it would be shot down. There would be a counterattack. It was planned to check the strength of defense and the vigilance of the Polish armed forces - said Michał Zieliński's guest

Szejna admitted that the issue of shooting down missiles that are flying towards the territory of the North Atlantic Alliance is being considered. Various concepts are being analyzed within NATO, including: for such missiles to be shot down when they are very close to the NATO border - but this would have to happen with the consent of the Ukrainian side and taking into account the international consequences - then NATO missiles would hit Russian missiles outside the territory of the Pact - noted our guest

It cannot be that the aggressor will impose certain rules on us every time. He must get used to the fact that the NATO side, the side of democratic countries, the EU will start to set a certain tone when it comes to resolving the conflict in Ukraine, Szejna emphasized.

We take Putin's threats very seriously. He showed that he is capable of anything. What it has achieved so far, apart from hundreds of thousands of wounded and dead on both sides, is that Sweden and Finland have joined NATO. We have another NATO summit in July. We have the consolidation of EU countries, the reactivation of the Weimar Triangle - he enumerated.

https://www.rmf24.pl/tylko-w-rmf24/rozmowa-o-7/news-szejna-ambasador-andriejew-wykazal-sie-dezercja-dyplomatyczn,nId,7411894#crp_state=1

🇸🇪Sweden does not exclude the possibility of supplying its Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine, Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson said in an interview with the Kyiv Independent in Stockholm on March 28, adding that the "deliberations are ongoing."

Sweden has been hesitant to supply its jets, stressing that it first needs to join NATO before it can consider this option. The Nordic country joined the alliance on March 7, potentially opening the door for the transfer of the aircraft.

"The deliberations are ongoing, and they take place within the fighter jet coalition," Jonson said.

The minister reminded that Sweden is also part of the fighter jet coalition, an allied initiative helping Ukraine acquire U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets and the necessary training.

Speaking about Western aid for Ukraine, Jonson said that Europe must "step up" its support and "compensate for some of the support that is going down."

As Ukraine faces increasingly severe ammunition shortages, European allies have been seeking to fill the gap left by the decrease in U.S. aid, which has been blocked for months by domestic political disputes.

Jonson noted positive developments in the Swedish and European defense industry. Stockholm has been investing its own and EU funds into the production of 155 mm shells, which are crucially needed on Ukrainian battlefields.

The country is also part of several international initiatives aimed at boosting ammunition manufacturing.

🇺🇦@ukraine_report 🇺🇦🔱

⚡️ DESTROYED 84 AIR TARGETS: 58 "SHAHED" and 26 ROCKETS
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
On the night of March 29, 2024, the enemy launched a powerful missile-air strike against the facilities of the fuel and energy sector of Ukraine, using various types of missiles and attack UAVs:

A total of 99 means of air attack:

⚠️ 60 attack UAVs of the "Shahed-136/131" type (Prymorsko-Akhtarsk launch area, Kursk region - Russian Federation);
❗ 3 Kh-47M2 "Kinjal" aeroballistic missiles (from three MiG-31K fighters - Ryazan region - Russian Federation);
❗ 2 "Iskander-M" ballistic missiles (TOT Crimea);
❗ 9 Kh-59 guided air missiles (from nine Su-34 aircraft - Belgorod Region);
❗ 4 "Iskander-K" cruise missiles (Kursk region - Russian Federation);
❗ 21 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles (from eleven Tu-95MS strategic bombers - Engels - Russian Federation).

💥 Anti-aircraft missile units of the Air Force and the Ground Forces, mobile fire groups, and radio-electronic warfare equipment of the Defense Forces of Ukraine were involved in repelling the air-missile strike.

As a result of anti-aircraft combat, 84 air targets were destroyed:

⚠️ 58 attack UAVs of the "Shahed-136/131" type;
❗ 17 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles;
❗ 5 Kh-59 guided air missiles;
❗ 4 "Iskander-K" cruise missiles.

Honor and praise to all who protect Ukraine from Russian terror.
Thanks for the combat work, thanks for the result!

🇺🇦 Together to victory!
. . .
🇺🇦 Air Force Commander Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk
@ukrainejournal

https://t.me/ukrainejournal/9209

See the view from inside

https://t.me/ukrainejournal/9202

Putin says that Russia isn't going to attack Europe.

He also said that Russia didn't plan to attack Ukraine but was "forced to."

If he's not stopped in Ukraine, he will be "forced to" attack "Europe", as well. He'll find a reason.

- Also, last time I checked, Ukraine is located in Europe, but what do I know.

https://t.me/EveryUkraineWarVideo Subscribe

ZELENSKY - THE WAR LEADER

In the past day or so President Zelensky has been sounding the alert over a number of clear red lights flashing, on what Stanley Kubrick called in Dr Strangelove, ‘the Big Board’; a giant map in a deep bunker of the potential war.
The concern is that Ukraine neither has the manpower of the resources to defend from possible attacks on new parts of the frontline - namely Kharkiv - not really aimed at taking the city but at outflanking Ukrainian positions further south.
Having sanctioned the raids into Kursk and Belgorod for nothing more than propaganda purposes, even Zelensky seems to have realised these might have been a mistake. Rumour has it that the recent departure of Danyilov from the Security Council leadership role is linked to this.
The fact that the president seems to have recognised the downside of these attacks - which look as though they maybe have attracted more attention from Russia to stop them permanently than was wise, is not a small thing.
Zelensky has become far more willing to command strategic planning and decision making than he was at the start of the war. It was this self belief that the generals should be left to get on with the tactical aspects of the war - which he never claimed to understand - that saved Ukraine. Later he was proved right when he insisted on the northern front offensive as a strategy- against the generals advice. It was, in the end, the military resistance to political oversight of military strategy that led to the change at the top. It seems we are now at a stage where (and Sun Tzu would approve- it’s an essential component of his theory of successful military action, that strategic leadership from politicians guides success), Zelensky has his ideas for strategy but also a receptive military leadership that will carry them out.
A great deal of strategic thinking is about ‘gut’ instincts coupled to understanding the psychology of your enemy and his most likely responses. You have to understand how humans react under pressure and specifically how the ultimate command authority reacts to a set of circumstances.
Then you shape your strategy accordingly, outline your principle goals and what you want to achieve, and leave the generals to come up with how you get there.
Zelensky was a very sharp and very successful businessman in entertainment. Media entertainment especially requires you to know what your audience wants. He has a ‘sixth sense’ about how things look and how actions make people react. That’s a skill few of us ever learn. It’s surprisingly easy to correlate that ability into playing your enemy, often doing the last thing they’d ever expect of you.
Zelensky has moved more into this role as the need to be selling Ukraine to the world has dwindled. Those nations behind Ukraine are there, they don’t need to be sold the need for support - they just need to know what Ukraine needs next.
Besides which the war has long slipped from the headlines and the ‘brave nation with its fearless leader’ routine has been in media terms, done to death. And Zelensky gets that, so he changes his pace and his methods to match the current realities.
He has also learned a great deal. All Ukrainians have. He is not the naive leader of 2019. He came to power aiming to solve the Donbas issue peacefully. Putin was having none of it. Now we are where we are.
Not everyone agrees with him. He doesn’t take criticism easily and never has by all accounts, but he absorbs it and changes incrementally, and if you explain why x is x and what it means, he takes that onboard- but it doesn’t mean you’ll change his mind completely.
All leaders make mistakes. Never forget that. Zelensky is often superficially compared to Churchill - something he dislikes as he sees Churchill as the arch-imperialist -
the very type Ukraine is fighting against. And he’s not wrong. But it was Churchill as inspiration to stand and fight that is the real comparison.
Churchill as a strategist is one thing, but as a military leader some of his failures were horrendous - and there were many.

"I will show you my new reality. Widows," wrote Olexandra, the woman in the photo.

Her husband, Mirosh, died defending Ukraine on the front lines. "He lived honorably and left honorably," she wrote.

Ukrainian photographer Garry Efimov knew this couple well and began photographing them at the very beginning of their romance. Now he has captured their tragic end❤️‍🩹

Glory to the hero!

📷: Garry Efimov, Oleksandra Kostetska / Instagram

Ukrainian actress and Hollywood star Ivanna Sakhno, known for her roles in American films such as "Pacific Rim 2 and The Spy Who Dumped Me," has refused to play a character of Russian origin in one of Netflix's projects.

Sakhno was born in Kyiv and moved to the United States at the age of 13. She shared her position in an interview with TSN Ukraine, adding that she was not allowed to disclose certain details.

"I had my moments when I was involved in a Netflix series, it was during the Covid. It was the role of a Russian woman. It was the role of an American woman, but she had a background in the Soviet Union. I was already attached to this project, and at that time it was one of my first major roles in a major Netflix series. But we didn't start filming, we closed because of the COVID. And I realized that I simply could not play a person even from the Soviet Union. I canceled my contract with Netflix,"
Sakhno said.

The actress admitted that terminating the contract with the streaming service is not cheap. "The next job I do with Netflix, I owe them 50% of my salary. Because I broke that contract," she added.

Nevertheless, Sakhno emphasized, "There are certain moral values and principles."

The death of the captain of a trawler, which the ruZZian Navy mistakenly blew up with a missile in the Baltic Sea, has been confirmed.
According to Dozhd, three crew members were killed and four others were injured.

A message about the farewell to Pavel Rezvanov appeared on the social networks of his relatives.

On March 25, in Guryevsk, a farewell is held for Pavel Rezvanov, the captain of the fishing trawler "Kapitan Lobanov". This was reported on VKontakte by a relative of Rezvanov.

Dozhd told about the hit of a Russian Navy missile in the trawler, citing a relative of one of the crew members. The incident occurred on March 19 in the Baltic Sea near the city of Pionersky.

During the exercises of the Baltic Fleet the missile was accidently fired at their own fishing trawler. As a result of the hit, three crew members of the Kapitan Lobanov were killed and four more were injured.

The Z-propaganda media like TASS reported only one death 'during a fire on board', while nothing was said about the causes of the "emergency situation".

“When the survivors were being rescued, everyone knew perfectly well that three people had died,” a source told the journalists from Rain TV.

“And everyone knew perfectly well that it was a missile hit. But they decided to write there was a 'fire'. It's curious what kind of fire it was when there's no trace of the captain's bridge, it was completely destroyed.”

The publication added that the injured were questioned by the FSB. Russian security forces asked the crew members to "keep quiet" about the incident.

A second missile, according to the source, fell into fishing nets near another civilian vessel, not far from Kapitan Lobanov.

@freerussia_report

"We crawled naked on our knees for a long time." 678 days in Russian captivity.

"We crawled naked on our knees for a long time", "rubber truncheons were broken against us", and "an evening walk meant voluntary consent to be beaten and humiliated" - this is only a small fraction of what sergeant of the National Guard of Ukraine Andriy Staryshchak experienced in captivity. He spent almost 2 years in a Russian prison. Andriy was taken prisoner during the defense of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Then he was transported in transit to Belarus to be transported to pre-trial detention center No. 2 in the city of Novozybkov, Bryansk region. A year later, the Ukrainian serviceman ended up in a colony in the village of Donskoye, Tula Region. In an interview with the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, he spoke about what is happening to Ukrainian prisoners in Russia.

You spent 678 days in Russian captivity and you talk about everything with a smile..

"I will say this: after the beatings I experienced there, I returned to the cell with songs and dances. Although there were fractures, and there were a lot of things... But on the CCTV cameras [Russian guards – RFE/RL] they saw me coming in and dancing. I wanted the guards to choke with anger. They can't break us...

I come from the Ternopil region, the village of Skala-Podilska. In 2019, I signed a contract (for service in the National Guard of Ukraine – RS note) in the city of Slavutych, and my service began at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. We controlled the passage of employees to the station. And on February 24, 2022, on command, they armed themselves and went to defend the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

There were 169 of us with machine guns, and four tank columns came at us. We did everything to prevent explosions at the station, because we definitely don't need Chernobyl-2. Bloodshed at the station was also prevented. But more than 2.5 thousand units of equipment entered Ukraine from this side, the convoy moved for about 4 hours.

You were taken prisoner on the first day. In what conditions were you kept at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after that?

"We were lucky that we at least had our own sleeping bags. At that moment, the Russians had nothing of their own. But on the other hand, they jerked the bolt of the machine gun every time you passed by. Nuclear facilities are not subject to seizure, and they justified themselves by the fact that they are looking for bombs on the territory of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which we are planting. We tried to explain to them that there was radiation around.

And there was a time when they were given the command to dig in in the Red Forest. For some of them, it ended with radiation sickness. After all, in some places there are very large radiation spots. I also received a fairly large dose while I was a prisoner at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant: we were there for 45 days, from February 15 to March 31, until the prisoners were taken to the territory of Belarus.

They put bags on our heads, wrapped our legs with duct tape, and when this was not enough for them, they handcuffed them into binding ties. Then I was transported to Narovlya – this is Belarus, where I was placed on a farm, as it can be called, and I was kept there for several days. They drew up documents for all of us, and then sent us to the Bryansk region of Russia, to pre-trial detention center No. 2. The military handed us over to the Federal Penitentiary Service.

Source

@freerussia_report

Part 4/4.
What can we expect after the Crocus massacre? 
Given Putin’s history of harnessing atrocities committed inside Russia to justify brutal and often anti-democratic responses, the response to this latest attack is unlikely to be pretty. 

The first thing Putin might do is implement some planned but predictably unpopular measures, Sergei Davidis, head of the Political Prisoners Support Program at Memorial Human Rights Center, told POLITICO. A prime example is the abolition of the elections of governors following the Beslan siege, a clearly unrelated event that was nevertheless used as a pretext for the planned measure.
“In that sense, it’s just a question of what their agenda is here,” Davidis said.

However, the war in Ukraine is already an extraordinary situation that has been exploited to tighten restrictions, including full censorship.
It is possible that the death penalty could be reinstated in Russia as some already demanded but is at the moment allegedly rejected by the Kremlin, “but introducing [it] is a Pandora’s box that they themselves may be afraid to open,” Davidis added.

Which leaves, Davidis explained, a reactive response typical of Russian authorities — imposing more restrictions. These could involve toughening sentences, expanding the range of offenses, criminalizing certain activities, or freeing the hands of law enforcement in dealing with terrorism suspects.

As previously reported, in the days after the Crocus attack, four suspects appeared in court with bruised and swollen faces, while a video published on Telegram appeared to show one of the suspects having part of his ear cut off and being forced to eat it. Another image on Telegram purported to show a second suspect being tortured by electric shocks to his genitals. The Kremlin declined to comment on whether the suspects were tortured.
The response of the authorities to the Crocus massacre has thus established a new trend: Law enforcement in Russia can brutalize suspects and take pride in it. The acceptable level of violence against alleged enemies of the people, recently expanded by the war in Ukraine, has risen yet again.

“If you can kill thousands of people with bombs, you don’t have to worry about someone’s ear being cut off or someone being electrocuted,” Davidis said.

@freerussia_report

Part 3/4
Beslan school siege
When: Sept. 1-3, 2004
What happened? Terrorists motivated by Chechen separatism invaded a school in Beslan, North Ossetia in the Caucasus region, taking over 1,200 children, parents and teachers hostage during the opening ceremony for the school year. An operation by Russian special services to release the hostages resulted in 334 deaths, with most dying from the explosives the Russian troops used to breach the school.

How did Putin use it to his advantage? Following the tragedy, the Russian state, including Putin, propagated the false narrative that the terrorists had made no demands, when in fact they had demanded that Russian forces leave Chechnya and recognize its independence. Dmitry Peskov, then one of Putin’s press secretaries and now the Kremlin’s top spokesperson, was key in managing the coverage of the situation.
Later, Putin leveraged the Beslan massacre to justify legislative changes that abolished the election of governors in all 89 Russian regions, allowing him to appoint stooges and tighten his grip across the country. Additionally the Kremlin toughened laws on terrorism, expanded the powers of law-enforcement agencies, repeatedly amended the election system for the State Duma, consolidated its control over the Russian media and increasingly attacked non-governmental organisations.

Moscow subway bombings
When: March 29, 2010
What happened? A pair of Chechen militant suicide bombers detonated explosives at two of Moscow’s central subway stations, killing 39 people and wounding more than 100.

How did Putin use it to his advantage? Then-President Dmitry Medvedev, who briefly held the top job while Putin pulled the strings as prime minister, heightened security measures on public transport across Russia. This led to the testing of CCTV cameras with facial recognition systems in the Moscow subway system.
More than a decade later, Russia has installed around 500.000 CCTV cameras with facial recognition technology nationwide. The system is often used to track and detain opposition activists.

St. Petersburg subway bombing
When: April 3, 2017
What happened? A suicide bomber from a militant Islamist group in Russia detonated a bomb in a train car between two stations on the St. Petersburg subway system, killing 16 people. At the time, the Islamic State was at loggerheads with Russia, with Putin delivering deadly assistance to Syrian autocrat Bashar al-Assad who was fighting off rebel groups. 

How did Putin use it to his advantage? The investigation suggested that the terrorists used the Telegram messaging app for communication, citing its relative security. The Russian government ramped up pressure on Telegram’s management, leading to the complete blocking of the app in 2018.
Telegram agreed to share user information with law enforcement that same year; the app was unblocked in 2020.

Since then, Telegram’s management has appeared more compliant with the Russian state. In 2021 it blocked opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s “Smart Vote” bot ahead of elections to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. The bot was a crucial tool for distributing voting instructions, sending users the names of contenders most likely to defeat pro-Putin candidates.

Additionally the Kremlin used it for an aggressive crackdown on migrants with televised hunts for terrorists, and frighten the population. There were also allegations that the FSB used abductions, staged arrests and torture in their "investigations".

@freerussia_report

Part 2/4
Nord-Ost siege
When: Oct. 23-26, 2002

What happened? During the staging of the “Nord Ost” play at Moscow’s Dubrovka theater, terrorists wearing suicide belts broke in and took audience members hostage.

After days of negotiations, Russian special forces used narcotic gas while storming the building, killing all the terrorists. Hostages hostages also died after inhaling the gas, however, due to the lack of adequate medical assistance. Public health services were not warned in advance, and police did not clear the nearby streets of parked vehicles, so ambulances arrived at the scene an hour-and-a-half after the start of the operation Additionally the authorities did not acknowledge the use of gas until eight hours later, and even then did not disclose what type of gas it was, so that doctors did not know how to treat the patients. The official death toll is still disputed, with figures ranging from 130 to 174 according to independent NGOs.

How did Putin use it to his advantage? Despite widespread criticism of the tactics of law enforcement, Putin backed his security services to the hilt.
“The gas was harmless and could not have caused harm to people … It’s easy to criticize the security services or the medical staff, but that’s not fair,” he said in a 2003 interview with the Washington Post.

The execution of the hostage-taking operation itself raised questions. Let's see: Forty Chechen rebels arrived in Moscow with more than 100kg of explosives, about 100 hand grenades, three heavy bombs, 18 Kalashnikov assault rifles and 20 pistols.

Journalists, rights activists and general public wondered how they managed to do this. There was no investigation. Journalists who reported critically on the incident were targeted by the Moscow regime, in one of the first examples of the aggressive censorship that would become common practice many years later. Three months later the management of NTV, the last nationwide TV channel effectively independent of the government was replaced. One month after the siege State Duma approved a broad array of "anti-terrorism legislation" ranging from far-reaching restrictions on media coverage of terrorism-related incidents to secret burials for killed terrorists, helping Putin to systematically taking control of all Russian media.

@freerussia_report

This is very long

What can we expect after the Crocus massacre? Part I
Edited by Banthemar from Politico article

The corpses from Friday night’s terror attack in Moscow were barely cold before Putin began looking to spin the tragedy to his own benefit. 

The brisk response, while cynical, was to be expected. Just look at his history.
Since Putin rose to the upper echelons of power in 1998, first as the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), one of the successors to the Soviet Union’s KGB, and later as Russia’s prime minister and eventually president, the country has suffered some 15 terrorist attacks (before no one). 

While few have been as deadly as last week’s massacre at the Crocus City Hall music venue on the outskirts of Moscow, in which at least 139 people were killed by terrorists, almost all have been used by Putin to strengthen his grip on power.

Following the Friday massacre, even though a branch of the Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility, Putin seized the opportunity to blame Ukraine (despite presenting no evidence). Kyiv — which Putin has been attempting to conquer in less than one week (unsuccessfully) since launching a full-scale invasion in February 2022 — is merely the Kremlin’s latest convenient scapegoat. 

Here are some previous occasions on which Putin used a brutal attack on Russia to consolidate or boost his authority — along with some thoughts on what might come next: 

1999 Russian apartment bombings
When: Sept. 4-16, 1999
What happened? A series of domestic explosions occurred in multiple cities across Russia in September 1999, while Putin was still prime minister. The total death toll reached 307.
While Moscow officially pinned the blame on Chechen separatists, some speculated they were a “false flag” operation orchestrated by Russian security officials (late Putin's colleagues).

Especially suspicious was an incident in September 1999 in Ryazan, nearly 200 kilometers from Moscow. A resident of an apartment building noticed individuals they didn’t recognize pull up in a car with Moscow license plates before placing bags in the basement of the building. Law enforcement responders found the bags contained a powdery substance and a timer. Media reports claimed the bags contained hexogen, similar to the other bombings.
Many saw it as evidence that Russia’s security services had been behind the bombings and were about to stage another one.

Nikolay Patrushev, then chief of the FSB and now Putin’s main security adviser, denied those allegations, saying: “It was a drill. There was sugar [*leading to the later used innuendo of "Ryazan sugar"], no explosive substance. Such exercises are conducted beyond Ryazan as well.”

How did Putin use it to his advantage? The 1999 bombings propelled then-Russian PM Putin to the pinnacle of power. After he blamed Chechen rebels, Moscow shelled Chechnya starting Sept. 14, launching a second bloody war with the breakaway region. Promising “to wipe them out in the outhouse.” Putin styled himself as a strong leader; the Chechnya campaign significantly boosted his popularity, leading to his election as president on March 26, 2000.

Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-KGB officer who wrote a book claiming the attacks were staged and that Ryazan was an “FSB fiasco,” was later killed in London by two ex-FSB agents. In line with the findings of a 2016 British inquiry into Litvinenko's death, the European Court of Human Rights concluded that the FSB, the successor to the KGB, carried out the operation to kill him, which was "probably approved by Mr. [Nikolai] Patrushev, then head of the FSB, and also by President Putin."

@freerussia_report