Idea to Use Digital Ruble as Reserve Currency Circulated in Sanctioned Russia – Finance Bitcoin News Lawmakers in Russia, Russian banking systems trying to develop a digital ruble to get around sanctions.
We got ourselves a Russkie propaganda believer here. I'm guessing he also believes that Snowden and Assange are heroic figures.
Excellent piece by Noah Smith on the fact that seeming Putin support across all the political spectrum (although I think he is little too equivalent in his both siderism), is a referendum of the Fukuyaman vision from the 90s Putin's war and the Chaos Climbers
The Azov battalion represents a tiny percentage of the Ukrainian military and their influence on policy is virtually nil. Trying to draw an analogy between the Azov battalion and the Islamic state is absurd on its face. Putin ignored the Geneva Convention's rules on war crimes when he leveled Grozny and when he and his Syrian client leveled Aleppo. Destroying cities and intentionally mascaraing civilians is part of the Russian playbook. It has absolutely nothing to do with a small neo-Nazi unit that's been integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces.
More denazification at work. "96-year-old Holocaust survivor killed by Russian strike, memorial institute says From Tim Lister, Victoria Butenko and Olga Voitovych Boris Romanchenko, 96, survived four Nazi concentration camps, but his life was ended last Friday by a Russian strike on Kharkiv, according to the Buchenwald memorial institute. The institute said in a series of tweets that according to his grand-daughter, Romanchenko was living in an apartment block in Kharkiv that was hit during a Russian attack." ..... He survived HITLER. And this is how he dies.
If Snowden and Assange were Russian and did the same to Russia you would be calling them heroes, such is the hypocrisy of some of you. It's a small percentage of the Ukrainian military, but a much bigger percentage of the defense at Mariupol given that's their base, and also a much bigger percentage of the experienced fighters given their activity fighting against Russian separatists at eastern Ukraine since 2014. As far as I can tell, Russia has not stooped to the level of executing POWs, which they probably will with Azov fighters. The Azov battalion's influence in policy stems from the likely fact that they have no reason to surrender.
"Romanchenko worked "intensively on the memory of Nazi crimes and was vice-president of the Buchenwald-Dora International Committee," the institute said. In 2012, Romanchenko attended an event recalling the liberation of Buchenwald, where he read an oath devoted to "creating a new world where peace and freedom reign,” the memorial said. In 2018, a Kharkiv newspaper reported on his visit to Buchenwald on the 73rd anniversary of the camp’s liberation by US forces, saying, “The event was attended by the last surviving Buchenwald prisoners from Ukraine and Belarus — Borys Romanchenko from Kharkiv, Oleksandr Bychok from Kyiv and Andriy Moiseenko from Minsk.”" (More on the above from cnn)
KYIV, Ukraine — Before he decided to buy a one-way plane ticket to Ukraine, Adam worked two jobs, as a security guard and as a cashier at a dollar store. He owned guns and fired them at shooting ranges, but the only fighting he had ever done was in mixed martial arts classes. That didn’t stop the tall, lanky 24-year-old from Thousand Oaks, a Los Angeles suburb, from flying to this war-torn capital earlier this month. He joined a new international legion set up to fight Russian forces about 15 miles outside the city. No gun. No helmet. No action: The frustrations of some novice Americans who signed up to fight in Ukraine.
That would be the ideal outcome - get Putin out, get someone else in there, negotiate a ceasefire/withdrawal, and then a probationary withdrawal of sanctions contingent on restitution/reparations to Ukraine.
Very good article. I'm not sure the title fully matches but it seems to be a frustration with disorganization which, frankly, is to be expected. I did see tiktokers putting videos up showing what to bring for those that wanted to go (Vets) and that included what body armor would be accepted through security, etc. They also encouraged volunteers to go through the Ukranian Embassies first & have a plan & not just show up. Bravo for volunteering but yeah absolutely plan ahead/get all your contacts etc done FIRST. Good luck to him & the others
Putting aside some of the language here, this may be how "Russian" warships are evading the ban on passage through the Strait
Stop talking and DO! Cnn live "US and other nations discussing providing Ukraine with "long-range air defense," Pentagon says From CNN's Ellie Kaufman & Satyam Kaswala The US is in “ongoing discussions” with other nations to provide Ukraine “the kinds of defenses capabilities to include long-range air defenses, that we know that they’re comfortable using,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said during a briefing at the Pentagon on Monday. These are “active consultations,” Kirby said. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Slovakia and Bulgaria last week after attending the NATO Defense Ministerial in Brussels. "
Cnn live "Ukrainian official: 2 children in critical condition as families fleeing Mariupol come under artillery fire From CNN's Olga Voitovych and Andrew Carey in Lviv Two children are in a critical condition after cars carrying families came under artillery fire on the road between Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia, a regional official in eastern Ukraine said. Oleksander Starukh reported heavy shelling around the frontline separating Russian and Ukrainian forces Monday, in a statement on his Telegram channel. Three children from Mariupol who had escaped the besieged city with their family came under fire as they were traveling through Polohivsky district, Starukh said, leaving one child in a critical condition. A second child traveling with their family is also in a critical condition after their car came under fire in the village of Kamianske."
One family's story from the theater/shelter bombing Mariupol: They thought they would be safe in the theater. Then it was bombed - CNN
Cnn live "Journalists and a former newspaper publisher held for several hours by Russian forces in occupied Melitopol From CNN staff .... Armed men arrived at the homes of the four around dawn and confiscated computers from some of the journalists, before driving them off to an unknown location where they were held before later being let go, the journalists' union said. Anna Medvid, the director general of the company that owns the newspaper, said the abductions were an attempt to coerce local journalists into supporting the Russian invasion. .... According to human rights organizations, there have been multiple reports of journalists, activists and local officials going missing since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine almost four weeks ago. Digital broadcaster Hromadske says the whereabouts of its reporter Victoria Roshchina is still unknown since she filed her last report on March 12 from the Russian-occupied town of Enerhodar. Ukraine’s government says it believes she was kidnapped by Russian forces in the town of Bediansk. "
Cnn live...good - hope they blew their supplies. Only bad part is now they'll resort to other things "Russians beginning to have "inventory issues" with precision missiles, senior US defense official says From CNN's Ellie Kaufman Russian forces are beginning to have “inventory issues with precision-guided munitions,” a senior US defense official told reporters on Monday. Precision-guided munitions refer to missiles that target a specific location, as opposed to “dumb bombs,” which do not have the technology to focus on a specific target. The inventory issues around their precision-guided munitions supply are why “you’re seeing the increasing use of what we would call dumb bombs,” the official added. Some of their precision-guided munitions are “failing to launch, or they’re failing to hit the target, or they’re failing to explode on contact,” the official said. They have used “quite a bit” of their “cruise missile, air launch cruise missile” supplies and have seen a significant “number of failures” of those munitions, the official said. "
