Cnn live "Around 200,000 Russian jobs at risk following exit of foreign companies, Moscow mayor says From Uliana Pavlova and Chris Liakos Around 200,000 people are at risk of losing their jobs in the Russian capital following foreign companies leaving the country, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in a blog post Monday. Authorities will continue to implement plans in order to support workers at risk of being unemployed, setting aside 3.36 billion rubles ($41 million) for these plans, Sobyanin said. “We continue to implement the plan to improve the sustainability of the capital's economy. As planned, last week we approved the program to support employees at risk of dismissal. Taking into account subsidies from the federal budget, 3.36 billion rubles will be allocated for its implementation. First of all, the program is addressed to employees of foreign companies that have temporarily suspended their activities or decided to leave Russia. According to our estimates, about 200,000 people are at risk of losing their jobs,” Sobyanin wrote. The employment assistance plan includes personnel training, employment in temporary and public works and incentives for organizations and firms who employ these workers, he added."
No idea if this is a parody or not LOL Russian Ship Moskva Missile Cruiser Diving Tour 2022 in Ukraine - Dates
Cnn live "Mariupol remains contested as Ukrainian forces resist against about a dozen BTGs From CNN's Oren Liebermann The city of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine remains contested, according to a senior US defense official, as Ukrainian forces hold out against “almost a dozen” battalion tactical groups, or BTGs. “Our assessment is Mariupol is still contested,” the official said Monday. Mariupol, a city which Russia has reduced to rubble in many places, has become the focus of the renewed Russian offensive focusing on the south and east of Ukraine. The city sits on the coast of the Sea of Azov, a strategically important location that would allow Russia to create a continuous land bridge from Donbas to Crimea if the city fell. The Russians have committed about a dozen battalion tactical groups (BTGs) to the fight in Mariupol, the official said. Each BTG can have as many as 1,000 troops. “Should Mariupol fall to the Russians, that would free up another almost a dozen battalion tactical groups to be used elsewhere in the east and in the south,” the official said. “But that’s a big ‘if,’ because they Ukrainians are still fighting very hard for Mariupol.”"
Cnn live "In video message, Putin ally held in Ukraine suggests prisoner swap for Mariupol forces and civilians From CNN's Nathan Hodge and Hamdi Alkhshali h Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) released a video Monday showing the pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk appealing to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to be handed over to Russia in exchange for the Ukrainian forces and civilians trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol. “I, Medvedchuk Viktor Vladimirovich, would like to address President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, with a plea for the Ukrainian side to exchange me for the defenders of Mariupol and its citizens who are there today and have no opportunity for a safe exit through a humanitarian corridor,” Medvedchuk said in his statement. It is unclear if Medvedchuk — who has faced allegations of treason in Ukraine — was speaking against his will and where he recorded the video. His wife, Oksana Marchenko, has posted videos appealing for the release of her husband in exchange for British nationals taken captive by Russian forces in Mariupol."
Not that this helps them militarily, unless the concept of EU having a military actually happens, but good for them. Hopefully full membership will happen ASAP.
Part of a Russian lesson plan for students ages 14-18 "According to the teaching materials, the West is waging information warfare to try to turn public opinion against Russia’s rulers, and that all Russian people need to stand firm against that. One lesson plan explains Russia was fighting a cultural war against the West which had destroyed "the institute of the traditional family" and was now trying to foist its values on Russia. It says that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had conducted an anti-Russian policy. "There were attacks on the Russian language, our common history was falsified, war criminals and criminal groups from World War Two were turned into heroes," according to the document, which refers to Ukrainian nationalists who made an alliance with Germany during that war. Another lesson says that the West is deploying "hybrid warfare" -- a mixture of propaganda, economic sanctions, and military pressure -- to try to defeat Russia by fomenting internal conflict. “That is precisely why they urge us to attend unsanctioned demonstrations, they incite us to break the law, and try to scare us," it reads. ..........
& What is this '[too much] focus on Russian nukes' y'all are referring to here? I'm the first to laugh at Russia's impotence in terms of its conventional abilities, and even more so at their lack of resources to fund what ought to have been a warm up campaign against not much of a war power.... But the nukes are what has and continues to tether the world to a reluctant MAD driven detente. Have I missed something? Has MAD been 'repealed' or other wise somehow rendered inoperative? Has the earth grown so much due to global warming, carbon dioxide, or whatever, that Russia's nukes that were capable of destroying our little planet (like our own nukes) several hundred times over back in the 80's, no longer a thing to be concerned about?
I think there's always a concern. However, Putin seems more likely to use nukes even without provocation so he really needs to be stopped. Hopefully our defenses have improved as well against missiles/incoming nukes.
