TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org

Sheep

Seymour Hersch
https://open.substack.com/pub/seymourhersh/p/the-general-who-would-not-be-silenced?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Ukrinform

https://open.substack.com/pub/ukrinformsubscription/p/newsletter-27022024?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/two-sets-of-motions?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Robert Reich

https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/jeff-bezos-and-elon-musk-vs-american?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

The overturning of Roe was one of the stupidest mistakes the Republican Party has ever made. Right up there with picking Donald Trump in 2016.

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/these-numbers-are-just-ugly-for-the-gop/54738/

Goodnight Resisters everywhere

The air raid sirens are sounding. Ukrainian kids know what to do.

Ukrainian reporting indicated that the A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft shootdown on February 23 temporarily halted Russian aviation operations elsewhere in the theater.

The Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported that Russian forces ordered five Su-35 fighter aircraft to terminate ongoing combat missions following the A-50's destruction and that some of these missions included conducting airstrikes near recently captured Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast.

Ukrainian media reported that sources in Ukrainian security services also stated that Ukrainian forces shot down the aircraft with a modernized S-200 air defense system and that all 10 crewmembers of the Russian A-50 died in the crash.

Russian information space actors continued responding to the February 23 A-50 shootdown and largely denied that Ukraine is responsible for the downing of any recent Russian aircraft. Russian milbloggers continued to claim on February 23 and 24 that Russian forces were responsible for shooting down the A-50, but offered many different theories about the shootdown.

One prominent russian milblogger claimed that Russian authorities are investigating a Russian S-400 crew for shooting down the A-50 while trying to intercept Ukrainian missiles targeting the A-50

Other russian milbloggers continued to claim that Ukrainian forces could not have shot down the A-50 because the aircraft was out of range of Western-provided Patriot air defense systems and complained that Russian air defenders are so systemically incompetent that they shot down five of their aircraft in February 2024.

Source: ISW

🇺🇦@ukraine_report🇺🇦🔱Liz

Japan is planning new sanctions against the Russian Federation. Support for Ukraine will remain one of the main priorities this year.

According to Kishida, today it is important to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine, as the situation is difficult due to protracted hostilities. Support for Kyiv will remain one of Tokyo's top priorities this year.

In particular, the Prime Minister talked about the Japanese-Ukrainian conference on promoting economic growth and reconstruction, which took place in Tokyo on February 19. At the same time, Kyiv and Tokyo signed more than 50 memorandums of cooperation, including those on the disposal of land mines and the restoration of agriculture.

In addition, he stated that he plans to introduce additional sanctions against Russian individuals and organizations.

"Kishida emphasized that the export of weapons from North Korea to Russia is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions. He stated that the use of North Korean-made ballistic missiles in Ukraine is absolutely unacceptable," writes NHK.

🇺🇦@ukraine_report🇺🇦🔱Liz

TOP NEWS TODAY

🎉 Ukrainian Air Force destroyed 2 Russian SU-34 today!

🔥 Air Force of Ukraine destroyed 10 Russian aircraft in 10 days

🇫🇷 Macron announced the creation of a coalition to provide Ukraine with long-range weapons.

🇩🇪 Update: New German military aid to Ukraine!

🇺🇸 AFU will not be ready for defense without the help of USA, - Zelensky

🇳🇱 The Netherlands allocate €100 million for the purchase of artillery shells outside the EU.

🇮🇱 Israel is working on providing Ukraine with early warning systems for missile strikes.

🇵🇱 Duda stated that main topic at Summit was deployed of NATO ground forces into Ukraine.

🇨🇳 Russia plans to take a loan in yuan from China, - Reuters

🇰🇵 North Korea sent about 3 million 152 mm shells to Russia, - South Korean Defense Minister

🇪🇺 European Parliament voted for assistance to Ukraine 50 billion euros (4 years)

🤔 Russian government will ban the export of gasoline from March 1 for six months, - Babel

🇸🇦 Zelensky in Saudi Arabia: peace formula and return of prisoners - the main topics.

Russians about Navalny's death

On February 16, Alexei Navalny was murdered in the Polar Wolf colony. Vladimir Putin did it: no other gave the order and it was Putin who wanted and did everything to make it happen. After the news of the assassination, thousands of people in Russia and around the world took to the monuments to the victims of political repression and Russian embassies.

Navalny Live Channel
AFP Video
Radio Free Europe
1420

@freerussia_report

Navalny’s body was given to his mother. This is a rare case in recent years when public exposure of the authorities’ arbitrariness and international pressure helped. MO

Alexei Navalny's press secretary Kira Yarmysh reported less than 24 hours ago that the oppositionist's body was given to his mother and thanked everyone who demanded this along with Navalny's team.

“For now Lyudmila Ivanovna is in Salekhard. The funeral is yet to come. We don’t know whether the authorities will interfere with carrying them out the way the family wants and as Alexey deserves. We will report information as it becomes available,” Yarmysh said.

According to ally of the oppositionist Ivan Zhdanov, the Navalny family will have the most ordinary funeral, where people can come and say goodbye. The usual funeral service in the church and burial.

All week, thousands of Russians and citizens of other countries demanded that Navalny’s body be given back. Video messages were recorded by many famous journalists and public figures, people from the world of art and business.

That includes Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov, choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov, historian Tamara Eidelman, TV presenter Tatyana Lazareva, leader of the Time Machine group Andrei Makarevich, musician Noize MC, businessman Evgeny Chichvarkin.

The refusal to release the body was absolutely illegal, Zhdanov insisted: “The powers of the Investigative Committee end as soon as they have established the natural causes of death. From then on, they must hand over the body within 24 hours.” Zhdanov noted that the mother was not even given a death certificate - this also turned out to be the subject of manipulation.

Today, on the 9th day from the day of death, in Moscow, a queue of people gathered at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior who came to honor the memory of Navalny. But the “eschniks” began to selectively detain those leaving the church, allegedly to “check documents,” Sotavision reports.

@freerussia_report

Z-blogger "Murz" committed suicide because of the harassment of propagandists. He wrote about the heavy losses of the Russian army, including in Avdiivka.

Andrei Morozov, the author of the Telegram channel "They write to us from Yanina", committed suicide due to harassment by official Russian propagandists, employees of Vladimir Solovyov, Yulia Vityazeva and Armen Gasparyan. "Farm garbage dumps rushed en masse to defend the military blogger Morozov and his searing truth about the losses near Avdiivka from the criticism of Vityazeva and Gasparyan. What can I say...," Gasparyan wrote after reports of Morozov's suicide. The same message was reposted by Yulia Vityazeva.

The suicide note was published on Morozov's channel. In it, he explains his death by pressure from the Russian military. On February 18, Murz wrote about the colossal losses of the Russian army during the assault on Avdiivka - 16.000 people were irretrievably lost (compared to 5-7.000 people on the part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine). He also said that the military prosecutor's office of St. Petersburg refused to consider the complaint of a soldier of regiment 1487 about the actions of the command during the assault. According to Morozov, the command decided to keep silent about the losses, allegedly because of the criticism of propagandist Vladimir Solovyov.

On February 20, Morozov deleted the post. In his suicide note, he mentioned that he was forced to do so. "Comrade Colonel, on your order, I was forced to delete the post from my Telegram channel "They write to us from Ioannina".
And you were forced to give this order by your command, relying on the good old army collective responsibility. If I refuse, they won't give you supplies. Shells. Copters. New tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
And they, your command, was forced to do this by political prostitutes led by Vladimir Solovyov, who are pissing themselves to
come and pull the trigger. Well, I'll do it myself. I will shoot myself if no one dares to take on this trifling task. And you will be given tanks and copters," Murza said in his suicide note.

Source

Zlers caring for their own, ehm... 🙈

@freerussia_report

More than 150 Russian soldiers died in a month after strikes on four training grounds. But the commanders continue to organize formations to meet the top brass.

February 21. Three strikes at once on the training ground in the Aleshkinsky Sands national park in the Kherson region.
February 20. Strike on a formation in Trudovskoye (Donetsk region).

January 24. Arrival at the training ground near Ilovaisk.
February 14. Strike at the training ground near Dokuchaevsk (Money & Rounds).

The MoD did not admit any strikes or losses.

Military analyst Yan Matveev:

“Drones identify concentrations of personnel; maybe intelligence also receives data from local residents. And they keep
HIMARS ready - information is transmitted quickly, without the traditional Soviet army bureaucracy.”

“The formation of men to “convey” an order or to meet the commander is a traditional ritual; army commanders, accustomed to it, simply do not know how to do otherwise. But still no one is punished for losses.”

@freerussia_report

Anniversary of the Assassination of Boris Nemtsov.

Nine years ago, on February, 27 the Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down in the streets of Moscow, just blocks from the Kremlin.

Since Nemtsov’s murder, Russia has become an increasingly belligerent neighbour and ever more repressive of its own citizens. Today, anyone who criticizes Putin inside Russia risks their liberty and their life. According to data of OVD-Info there are currently over 1.000 Russians incarcerated as a result of politically motivated prosecutions.

Nemtsov died just hours after appealing to his compatriots to support a march against Russia's war in Ukraine. Last year, Putin changed Russia’s criminal code, making it a criminal offence for any citizen to criticize Russia’s army or its war efforts. It has since prosecuted hundreds of ordinary citizens under this new draconian legislation.

A brave opposition figure, Nemtsov championed the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign and advocated for Magnitsky legislation worldwide, including in Canada. His commitment to holding human rights violators accountable and his support of targeted sanctions reflected his steadfast belief that Russians deserve justice and democracy. It's no wonder Putin wanted him dead.

A joint investigation of Bellingcat, The Insider and the BBC in 2022 showed that Boris Nemtsov was shadowed for almost a year before he was murdered by an agent with name Valery Sukharev linked to a political assassination team, a secret FSB hit squad who also tried to poison Navalny and Kara-Murza.

Last week, Russia lost another formidable voice, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose murder in a remote artic penal colony casts a dark shadow over the struggle for a free and just Russia.

Human Right activists are more concerned than ever for the safety and well-being of Russia’s other prominent political prisoners, including Alexei Gorinov and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was Boris Nemtsov’s friend and mentee. Both political prisoners have underlying health conditions, and many believe them to be in mortal danger.

Boris Nemtsov was a fierce adversary of Putin. He dreamt of a free, just and democratic Russia.

Nemtsov was awarded in 2006 the Order of Yaroslav the Wise, in Ukraine

He is the only Russian to have been awarded the highest non-military order attainable in Ukraine, the Order of Liberty (posthumously).

@freerussia_report

Wartime laws.
Six constitutional rights that have been nullified in Russia in two years.

During the two years of war in Ukraine, the authorities adopted dozens of repressive laws that abolished the rights and freedoms of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution. Accordingly six basic standards have been reset:

1️⃣ Freedom of speech (Article 29).
In March 2022, liability was introduced for “discrediting” the army, military “fakes” and calls for sanctions. In July a law was passed on the extrajudicial closure of media outlets. The Investigative Committee opened 273 cases of “fake news” and 81 cases of “discrediting the army.”

2️⃣ Prohibition of discrimination (Article 19).
In the fall of 2022, the ban on “gay propaganda” was tightened, and in 2023, the Supreme Court declared LGBT people an extremist organization. According to Meduza estimates , up to 15 million LGBT people live in the Russian Federation: an entire segment of the population is deprived of their rights.

3️⃣ Inviolability of private property (Article 35). Since February, a law on the confiscation of property of those accused under “political” charges has come into force; security forces have the right to seize apartments immediately after charges are filed. During the seizure of the property of those who left, about 20 large enterprises were nationalized.

4️⃣ Freedom of movement (Art. 27).
In the spring of 2023, the State Duma legalized the forced relocation of people from the occupied territories. In the summer, she introduced a ban on the departure of conscripts and those called up for mobilization.

5️⃣ Right to freedom of creativity (Article 44).
Military censorship penetrated music, cinema, theater and literature. Opinion leaders are included in lists of extremists and terrorists, declared foreign agents and their books and performances are banned. The authorities admitted that by September 2023, 170 artists had left the country.

6️⃣ Right to life (Article 20)
Extrajudicial executions became commonplace at the front, Putin openly approved executions “for patriotic reasons,” Prigozhin and Navalny were killed without trial. The murder of Kuzminov in Spain, who was shot several times and then run over by a car, was admitted on state TV.

According to lawyer Ivan Pavlov, Article 29 suffered the most: “The most important goal for the regime during the war is to achieve control over the dissemination of information so that it does not reach the Russian audience from the free environment.”
@freerussia_report

"I would not recommend civilians to use the so-called Crimean bridge," the head of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Kirill Budanov released a video message and warned of "surprises" for Russians on the occupied peninsula.

"The fact that he does not discuss these actions in the silence of meetings behind closed doors, but tries to advertise his activities, means only one thing: he does not believe that this terrorist activity will be condemned by his immediate leadership Volodymyr Zelensky or by the Western partners, but rather, he will receive bonuses commented one newspaper.

In November, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasyl Malyuk, also threatened to blow up the Crimean bridge. This advice we believe has come to light as a further development of the "Long Neptune" missile, thought to have range of several hundred kilometres. By all estimates they will cover Crimea and be able to reach deep into Russian territory.
@freerussia_report

Despite the sanctions, Russia imported almost €450 million worth of military equipment directly from the EU in the first 9 months of last year

Bloomberg writes about this with reference to its own sources.

Although trade data shows that the EU's direct trade with Russia has fallen since the start of the full-scale invasion, exports to Turkey, the UAE, Serbia, China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia have increased sharply, which may indicate that Russia is trying to fill this trade gap.

Journalists report that these countries are helping Russia to circumvent sanctions and purchase tens of millions of euros worth of goods for various purposes.

At the same time, the European Union has been trying to tighten restrictions on countries that re-export goods to Russia in recent months, including imposing sanctions on local companies.

@liveukraine_media

No wonder I am so warm. 80⁰ right now. Hard to believe it will be 27⁰ by midnight as the cold front comes blowing in at 40 mph.