Categories of news

Weekly Column: Russia Disintegration. collapse of Russia

The results of Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities on November 23 (photos from the Internet)

#RussiaDisintegration

“- How do you feel about the decision of the Russian authorities to withdraw troops from Kherson?

– Khokhly [Ukrainians] must be crushed, killed and cut, *****. What else to do with them? I hate these scum!

– And what should we do with the captured Ukrainians?

“Kill them the fuck, they are scums,” is the answer of an ordinary Russian couple of pre-retirement age to a journalist on the street.

Realities of War

The number of Russians killed in the war in Ukraine has exceeded 86,000 and the number is growing every day.

In 270 days of the full-scale war, the Russian army launched more than 4,700 missiles to Ukraine.

On November 22, the Russians started firing at a convoy of civilian vehicles that were trying to evacuate in Zaporizhzhya and got stuck on a washed out road.

On November 23, as a result of a massive rocket attack by the Russian army throughout Ukraine, at least ten Ukrainian civilians were killed and 50 were injured. Almost all of Ukraine was left without electricity, in many regions there were problems with water supply. All nuclear power plants, most of the thermal power plants and hydroelectric power stations of Ukraine were partially de-energized, the power units of the South-Ukrainian, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi and Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plants were completely switched off. The Russians also fired S-300 missiles at the maternity ward of a hospital in Volnyansk. A boy who of just 2 days old died. The mother remained alive. 1 doctor is in critical condition. The Ukrainian Air Defense Forces shot down 51 out of 70 cruise missiles and five kamikaze attack drones.

Some Russian commanders were aware of cases of sexualized violence committed by military personnel in Ukraine, Wayne Jordash, a British lawyer who helps Kyiv investigate war crimes, told Reuters. And what’s more, there are cases where commanders encouraged rape and even gave orders to do so. Cases of planned rapes can indicate that they were known to the command of the military personnel who committed the crime. There are signs of the use of sexual violence “as a weapon of war” during the war in Ukraine. There have been documented cases of rape in front of family members, gang rape and forced undressing. Widespread or systematic sexual violence can be equated to crimes against humanity. The age of the victims varies from 4 to 82 years.

At least 77 civilians have been killed and 272 injured since Russia launched a flurry of rocket attacks and shelling across the country on October 10, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU). “Those attacks are pushing millions of people into extreme hardship and terrible living conditions. All in all, this poses serious problems under international humanitarian law, which requires a specific and direct military advantage for every target attacked,” Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said.

On November 23, in some regions of Moldova, power outages began in connection with another massive Russian missile attack on Ukrainian infrastructure. The light disappeared in certain districts of Chisinau, Balti, and several other cities, including in Transnistria. “The Russian war in Ukraine is killing people, destroying houses and energy infrastructure… We cannot trust a regime that leaves us without light and heat, deliberately killing people just to keep other nations in poverty and humiliation. No matter how difficult it is now, our only path, the future path of Moldova, must be in the direction of the free world,” Maia Sandu, President, wrote on her Facebook page.

“We are striking infrastructure facilities in Ukraine in response to the pumping of this country with Western weapons and Kyiv’s reckless calls for a military victory over Russia,” Vasiliy Nebenzya, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN, said at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, convened at the initiative of Ukraine because of the new massive shelling of infrastructure. Russian forces will continue to strike until Kyiv adopts a “realistic attitude” and returns to the negotiating table, Nebenzya said. During his speech, Nebenzya also held the Ukrainian military responsible for the casualties among Ukrainian civilians, saying that “missile fragments or missiles that have gone astray hit those objects that Russia did not aim at.” Another Kremlin official acknowledged the terrorist activities of the Russian Federation, distorting the facts and deliberately missing the root cause of this war – Russia.

The Russian military used the landfill in Kherson to burn corpses, probably those of their dead comrades. Witnesses said they saw trucks full of black sacks arriving at the landfill, which were then burned. At the same time, the sharp smell of burnt hair was felt in the air. At the entrance to the landfill, a checkpoint was set up, and local residents were not allowed to enter the territory. These statements were confirmed by dozens of witnesses from the local residents.

The Zaporizhzhya NPP was also disconnected from the external power supply due to Russian missile attacks. The plant switched to power from emergency diesel generators to provide the energy needed to cool the reactor and “other important nuclear safety and security functions,” Rafael Grossi, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, said, citing IAEA staff who work at the ZNPP. Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during the inspection of the Zaporizhzhya NPP after shelling by the Russians, discovered a non-radioactive leak due to damage to the tanks for storing condensates. The strikes also damaged the main road that runs along the reactors, a non-functioning railway, a compressed air pipeline and the roofs of auxiliary buildings.

“The entire main high-voltage infrastructure of Ukraine is working, but problems remain in the distribution networks of regional power supply companies across the entire state. On average, from 200 to 400,000 consumers are de-energized in each region at one time or another,” Denys Shmihal, Prime Minister of Ukraine, said. A more difficult situation due to weather conditions is in Khmelnitskyi, Odessa, Ternopil regions. In Kharkiv and Kherson regions, infrastructure has been damaged due to ongoing massive shelling.

The marines of the 155th brigade of the Russian Pacific Fleet, who complained to Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of Primorye, about heavy losses in the battles for Pavlovka in Donetsk region, are not withdrawn from the front line. Only those who expressed dissatisfaction are not transferred to the rear. “They do not draw conclusions, but only punish. I think that they want to completely eliminate all unwanted people, and during the fighting this is not a problem, but it is even very easy,” the marine says. “People are thinking of deserting, and I understand them and I myself think about how to do it. Now this is probably the only way to save your life.”

Several members of the Ukrainian underground in Kherson told The Washington Post how they became partisans, what tasks they performed, and that the Russian military could not get any valuable information even after they caught the partisans. The Ukrainian underground, in which both local residents and intelligence officers took part, was formed not only in Kherson region. Since the beginning of the full-scale war in the territories taken under control by Russia, dozens of attacks on officials collaborating with Russia have been organized, many of them died.

At the same time, more and more evidence appears of “systematic war crimes” being committed “in every region where Russian troops are deployed” in Ukraine, Beth Van Schaak, the U.S. Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice, said. These are, in particular, “deliberate, non-selective and disproportionate attacks on the civilian population and civilian infrastructure”, ill-treatment of civilians and military personnel and attempts to cover up crimes against them. Wang Schaak also referred to reports of executions, torture and sexual assault, and stated that there was a “permanent pattern of attacks on civilian targets”. In addition, the US representative mentioned the filtration system created by Russia for the population in the occupied territories. “There are compelling reports describing [cases of] physical and psychological abuse, including summary executions (legal term), as part of [filtration] measures, as well as forced displacement and deportation, including thousands of Ukrainian children who were kidnapped and forcibly adopted by families in Russia”, CNN quotes the words of Van Schaak.

Thousands of people have disappeared from the colonies in Russia – this is happening against the backdrop of recruitment in the Wagner PMC. According to the Federal Penitentiary Service, in September and October the number of prisoners in colonies decreased by 23,000 people. There were no such sharp jumps during the most massive amnesty in recent years, nor during the coronavirus, when the courts handed down fewer sentences.

More than 20 mobilized from Mordovia escaped from the Ulyanovsk training center. The mobilized did not return to the training center after the leave for the “Day of National Unity”.

“Russia has good soldiers, but most of them are dead,” Ben Wallace, British Defense Secretary, said. And Russia will “push” its military into the “meat grinder”, using a huge amount of artillery. “Only a nation that doesn’t care about its own people can send 100,000 of its people to be killed, wounded or commit desertion,” Wallace said.

Dmitro Lubinets, the Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine, showed footage of the exchange of Russian prisoners of war, which clearly shows that Ukraine adheres to all the norms of the Geneva Conventions in relation to prisoners of war. “They are dressed, shod, fed and leave on their own. They are in good health, because they received sufficient medical care. There are no marks on them, indicating a bad attitude during their stay in Ukrainian captivity,” Lubinets wrote. And let’s remember the Ukrainian military who returned after Russian captivity. Relatives of some of them could not even recognize them, as they were so exhausted, thin and mutilated.

Karel Rzeka, the head of the Czech General Staff, announced the need to modernize the army in order to be ready to fight the advanced enemy, because the escalation of Moscow war against Ukraine is growing. He stated that if the conflict breaks out between Russia and the NATO, it will affect the Czech Republic immediately, and the country’s army will be an active participant from the first minutes of the war. “War in Europe has become real again and it takes place on the border of the North Atlantic Alliance. Eternal rest is a utopia. The warning period for this crisis has been going on since at least 2014. We hoped things would calm down. But hope is not a strategy,” he said.

Fragments of the Russian economy

Six of the nine countries in which the Russian payment system Mir worked refused to support it. Over the past few months, banks in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Vietnam have completely stopped operations with Mir or reduced their cooperation. The current situation is a “failure” of Russia’s attempt to create its own alternative to Visa and Mastercard in conditions of financial isolation.

Russia’s direct military expenses during the nine months of the full-scale war in Ukraine was $82 billion. This estimate includes only direct expenses needed to support the military actions. Defense spending and the loss of the Russian economy due to the war and Western sanctions were not taken into account. For example, Russia spent $400-700 million on a massive missile attack on Ukrainian cities on October 10. Huge sums that the Russian Federation could spend on improving the quality of life of its people.

Diplomats of the European Union continue to negotiate among themselves on the price ceiling for Russian oil. Some members, like Poland, see $65 as a price too favorable for Moscow, while members like Greece, the world’s largest oil tanker-owning country, are reluctant to drop below $70. The US Treasury offered to set the price in the limits of $40-60 per barrel. Any buyer who pays more than the limit will not be allowed access to European, especially Greek, oil tankers or standard insurance against risks such as oil spills. Meanwhile, Russian oil is being already trading at prices well below the limit proposed by Europe. On Thursday, at two of the country’s key western export terminals, the price of oil fell to about $52 a barrel. The Russian oil industry, which accounts for roughly 10% of global production and is a key source of Kremlin’s revenue, has already faced heavy sanctions since the invasion of Ukraine.

Crude oil buyers in China have suspended purchases of some Russian oil due to the uncertainty of the price ceiling level for oil from the Russian Federation, which will be set in early December. According to Chinese traders, many market participants are ready to work under the price limit on oil from Russia, even if they do not officially support such sanctions. The price ceiling for Russian oil will be introduced along with the EU sanctions on December 5, and for oil products – from February 5, 2023. The introduction of the price limit is aimed at reducing Kremlin’s revenue that supports the war in Ukraine.

International isolation

On November 23, the European Parliament adopted a resolution recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. 494 deputies out of 705 voted “for” the resolution, 58 deputies voted “against”, 44 “abstained”. Posters with the inscription “I support terrorism with my voice” were pasted on the doors of the deputies of the European Parliament who voted against recognizing Russia as a sponsor of terrorism. Also, a large group of European Parliament deputies proposed to recognize the Russian private military company Wagner as a terrorist organization.

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly also recognized Russia as a terrorist state and also called for the creation of a special International Tribunal to punish Russian criminals. The decision was supported by all 30 member countries of the Alliance. The parliaments of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic have already called a terrorist regime in Russia in a similar resolution in different formulations.

In Ukraine, a petition appeared calling for the renaming Russia to Muscovy. Instead of the russian federation, it is proposed to use the name moscow federation, and instead of Russia – Muscovy. The petition was registered on November 23 and the citizens of Ukraine have 91 days to vote. The author of the petition explained that the historical name of Russia is Muscovy. The same applies to the state formations of the Moscow principality, the Moscow kingdom and the empire. In addition, this name was used in European and some Asian languages. It is noteworthy that Russia has existed for just over 300 years, since on October 22, 1721, Moscow tsar Peter I proclaimed the Moscow principality a “Russian empire”. “For 301 years, Ukrainians have been suffering from the lies of the Russian version of our historical past. By calling Russia as Russia, we legalize its lies and confirm that we agree with its version of history. Separated from Kyiv, Russian cultural tradition loses its roots. That is why Russia clings to Ukraine and Kyiv so much,” the text of the petition reads.

The leaders of the APEC countries at the organization’s forum in Thailand adopted the final declaration, in which, among other things, the war in Ukraine was mentioned. The text of the document states that the majority of member countries “strongly condemn the war and emphasize that it entails great human suffering and deepening of existing problems in the economy.” The text of the declaration also notes that the in early March the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that “condemns in the strongest terms the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and demands the complete and unconditional withdrawal of troops from the territory of Ukraine.”

The Security Service of Ukraine has completed counterintelligence activities on the territory of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv, the Koretskyi Holy Trinity Monastery and in the Sarnensko-Polesye diocese of Rivne region. The measures were held in order to prevent “the use of the church as a cell of the “Russian world””, to check whether the premises of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) are being used by sabotage and reconnaissance groups, to protect the population from “provocations” and terrorist attacks. The searches were planned for a long time, based on the pro-Kremlin position of the UOC-MP in Ukraine and a significant number of facts of collaborationist activities of Ukrainian priests and the direct participation of Russian priests in the war, however, searches were initiated only after a resonance with a video published on the Internet, where the priests of the Lavra pray for Russia. As a result, law enforcement officers found documents confirming the Russian citizenship among the leadership of diocesan structures, pro-Russian literature used in training at the seminary to promote the “Russian world”, cash, including Russian rubles, “manuals”, in which Russian curators explain, how to properly conduct church liturgies after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, photocopies of certificates of Russians who took part in the military actions against Ukrainian troops. Among such documents is the image of the “hero of Russia”, signed by the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation for the “seizure of Crimea” in 2014. Officers of the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Police and the National Guard carefully checked more than 350 church buildings and 850 people. In particular, more than 50 people underwent in-depth counterintelligence interviews, including with the use of a polygraph. Some of them, when checking documents, provided passports and military cards of the USSR, did not have original documents at all, or had fake passports of citizens of Ukraine. In Chernivtsi, during a search, the Security Service of Ukraine officers entered at the moment of physical intimacy of the secretary of the Chernivtsi diocese of the UOC-MP, Archimandrite Nikita, with a minor guy singing in the local choir.

The American technology company Nvidia has officially left Russia.

The Swedish State Security Service (SÄPO) has detained two residents of the country on suspicion of espionage. One of the detainees is suspected of illegal intelligence activities against Sweden and against another foreign state – which one is not specified. The second detainee is suspected of aiding and instigation. Two helicopters took part in the operation. The house of the suspects was searched. According to the Stockholm District Court, the detainees have been spying since 2013. The detainees are a 59-year-old married couple who emigrated from Russia and have been living in Sweden since 1997, having obtained Swedish citizenship. The couple received a technical education, and the husband was the director of BDT Stockholm AB, which specializes in the production and supply of electronic components, including to Russia.

The working group on Soviet monuments at the Estonian State Chancellery recommended that 244 out of 322 Soviet monuments in the country be demolished or replaced. Of 244 monuments recommended for demolition, 56 have already been removed. Another 74 Soviet monuments were recognized as neutral. Four more monuments require additional discussions.

The House of Representatives, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, has declared Russia a state sponsor of terrorism because of its invasion of Ukraine. The overwhelming majority of parliamentarians voted for this decision on November 24. The Russian army “structurally and deliberately” shells civilian targets in Ukraine, the WNL television channel quotes excerpts from the adopted document.

A Norwegian court has sentenced a 34-year-old Russian to three months in prison for drone launches. He was accused of violating sanctions that prohibit Russian individuals and organizations from flying over the country’s territory. Several more people have recently been detained on charges of this violation by the country’s authorities. Among them is the son of the former head of Russian Railways.

The Estonian authorities have deprived the residence permit of 66-years-old Russian citizen Sergei Neprimerov, who has been living in Estonia since the age of eight. On September 30, he left Narva for Ivangorod to attend the funeral of a friend. The Estonian border guards did not let him back, having issued a document on a five-year ban on entry into Estonia and the Schengen zone. According to the documents of the Estonian authorities, the reason for the cancellation of the residence permit was Neprimerov’s active participation in pro-Russian actions.

Latvian schools will ban teaching Russian as a second foreign language., Only one of the official languages of the EU can be chosen as a second foreign language.

The international human rights organization Amnesty International published a report in which it condemned the repression of the Russian authorities against independent media and civil activists. Human rights activists believe that by brutally suppressing the protests and depriving the public of information about protest actions, the Kremlin is trying to eradicate any public manifestations of discontent.

A rally was held in Armenia against Russia with demands to withdraw from the CSTO (collective security treaty organization). Residents of Yerevan took to the streets with slogans “Putin is a killer”, “Russia is an enemy” and “Glory to Ukraine”. The reason for the actions was the arrival in Yerevan of Putin, Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, and Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed President of Belarus, who were supposed to take part in the CSTO summit on November 23.

As for the CSTO summit, the routine event turned into a whole series of political scandals that demonstrated the weakening of Russia and, as a result, the loss of significance of the organization, which is entirely a Kremlin project created to spite the NATO. Russia has neither the resources nor the authority to put pressure on its “partners” in the post-Soviet space, and without pressure, there is no question of any cooperation and, moreover, integration. Especially after Russia tried to draw them into the war against Ukraine.

The Ukrainian delegation intends to boycott the work of the OSCE PA. “The Standing Committee of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly was unable to change its rules to expel the Russian delegation. We, the Ukrainian delegation, are boycotting the work in the OSCE PA until this international organization can form its attitude towards the participation in it of Russians – propagandists and representatives of the state, the state-criminal,” Yevgenia Kravchuk, a member of the delegation, said.

Finnish energy company Fortum said it planned to replace Russian nuclear fuel with American and was preparing to purchase it from the American Westinghouse Electric. The company took this step in response to the Russian war in Ukraine.

The UN International Court of Justice in The Hague has already received 24 applications from states that support Ukraine’s position in the Ukraine v. Russia case on violation of the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.

Regions

From November 17 to November 19, the European Pavillion cultural forum was held in Rome, within its framework a panel was held, which examined the colonial policy of Russia towards the indigenous peoples. The invited participants were Rafis Kashapov, one of the leaders of the Tatar National Movement, co-founder of the Free Idel-Ural movement, Rajana Dugar-De Ponte, one of the leaders of the Buryat national movement, and Ruslan Gabbasov, the head of the Bashkir National Political Center. All three are members of the Free Nations League. Gabbasov noted that many Europeans “do not know anything about the peoples of Russia”, for them Russia is “one big Russian world with a balalaika, a bear and vodka”, and the fact that many peoples live there with different languages, cultures and their own history, “for many it was a revelation.”

A protest against the Iranian and Russian totalitarian regimes was also held in the center of Rome, in which people from the Idel-Ural region also took part. Among those gathered were Iranians living in Italy, Muslims from other countries, Ukrainians and Italians. People spoke under three slogans: they condemned the Iranian authorities, chanting “No to the dictatorship in Iran!”, and also condemned the Russian war against Ukraine and expressed their solidarity with Ukraine and Ukrainian people.

The Free Nations League, which unites the peoples enslaved by Moscow in their struggle for the realization of the right to self-determination, addressed the Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen. “We ask you to give the opportunity for the representatives of the Free Nations League to speak at the forum. We sincerely hope that the conversation about the future of the Russian territories provides an opportunity to hear our opinion – the opinion of millions of representatives of the indigenous peoples and residents of the regions. I would like to believe that in the understanding of MSC2022 there is a place not only for dialogue with Russians, but also for dialogue with Tatars, Bashkirs, Buryats, Yakuts, Kalmyks, Chechens, Erzyans, Mokshans, Cossacks, Ingermanlanders and other peoples,” the authors of the appeal summarize. The letter was signed by representatives of the national and regionalist movements of Tatars, Bashkirs, Buryats, Yakuts, Kalmyks, Chechens, Erzyans, Mokshans, Cossacks, and Ingermanlanders.

“I would like Erzya outfits to be not only on stage, but that our children and grandchildren know that there is such a people, a language. The language disappears. My heart hurts that we are disappearing.” On September 24, Nadezhda Rodionova filmed on her phone an address by the Erzya writer Yevgeny Chetvergov (Nuyan Vidyaz) to the Erzya national congress in Tallinn. After that, the Federal Security Service officers searched her apartment.

148 years in the Mari language (one of the Finno-Ugric languages, spoken among the Mari – mainly in the Republic of Mari El and Bashkortostan (the Russian Federation)) 253 books, brochures, articles have been published. This is 1.7 edition per year. Officially. How many unofficial, underground publications there were – one can only guess. Of course, in the old days it was very difficult and expensive to publish books, and there were even less literate people and those who could write something sensible, but a significant part of the specified time is already a period when not only books, but also magazines, newspapers were published in Russian, while one or two books every few years were published in the Mari language, and sometimes not a single book for 4-10 years.

“Their streets and houses look better and cleaner than our cities”, “No one needs us”, “We help others, but we ourselves are in a swamp”. So the inhabitants of Komi (Republic of the Russian Federation) – once a rich, and now a subsidized region – envy the inhabitants of Rovenki, Ukrainian city, which Russia bombed, and now over which the Komi Republic “took patronage” and promised to restore.

So far, the regional chiefs are so heavily dependent on the Kremlin. To maintain power, it is much more important for them to have good relations with it than with the population. And this is the strength of Putin’s model, until the moment when the vertical suddenly weakens. And it can weaken precisely because of the war, because of this strategic mistake of the center. Putin has been talking about the threat of Russia’s collapse since the first years of his rule. Since then, a vertical of power has appeared in the country, depriving the regions not only of political rights, but also of financial independence. And now, against the background of the war in Ukraine, there are more and more forecasts that Russia can repeat the fate of the USSR – to disintegrate.

Three schools in Bashkortostan (Republic of the Russian Federation) were closed due to an outbreak of mouse fever. Schools were closed in Tuymazinskiy district, and students were transferred to distance learning due to an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Since the beginning of November, 31 notifications with a preliminary diagnosis of HFRS have been received from Serafimovskiy village, 14 cases of the disease have been registered among school-age children.

For six months of 2022 in Tatarstan (Republic of the Russian Federation), 66% of parents received a refusal to get monthly social support for a child aged 3 to 7 years. The Ministry of Labor reported that the reason was the excess of the average per capita family income and the provision of inaccurate or incomplete data.

President of the Republic of Tatarstan (the Russian Federation) Minnikhanov signed the law on the budget of Tatarstan for 2023 with a deficit of 27 billion rubles. In 2021, before the start of a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, it was expected that the budget deficit of Tatarstan for 2022, as well as for 2023, would be only 6 billion rubles.

As of November 20, at least 183 people from Tatarstan, 267 people from Bashkortostan, in total – 1,885 people from the republics and regions of Volga region were killed in the war between Russia and Ukraine, their death was acknowledged by the Russian side in one way or another.

In Kazan (the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Russian Federation), open support groups for LGBTQ+, meetings, and educational initiatives stop their work. The State Duma of Russia adopted a package of amendments banning “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations.” It will not be possible to talk about it publicly, in the media, write in books, show it in films or on TV, even with the 18+ sign. Thousands of Russians opposed this law: they wrote petitions, sent inquiries to deputies and officials, and went out to single pickets.

Madness of the “Russian world”

Europe and America have tried at least three times to save the Kremlin-built state from mass extinction. In 1921-23 humanitarian aid was sent to save them from starvation; during World War II, they announced a lend-lease and, in fact, provided the Red Army better than the USSR itself did; in the 1990s, humanitarian aid was again sent to save them from starvation. But each time, becoming a little stronger, this state showed aggression and hatred towards its saviors. So no one wants to step on the same rake again.

Russians have a national trait – uncleanliness. The disorder and disorganization of life, and if you take it cooler, then the unwillingness to organize it. And this is best seen in small towns and villages in Russia. These houses, roads, household sector that did not have repair … Just devastation. Maybe this is because the Russian people are supported and warmed by the awareness of imaginary “greatness”, allowing them to ignore the “devastation”? It is worth recalling a few more differences between the “great people” – hatred of everything non-Russian, malice, insidiousness and the fact that Russians do not want to change. They are ready to make fun of zealous Moldavians, diligent Tatars, Tajik guest workers, Ukrainians, anyone, but not bother with their emergency barracks or lack of sewerage. Moreover, staying somewhere in Europe, they try not only to make fun of local amenities and comfort, but also to use them for free, while doing dirty tricks to the owners – to break, steal and throw away, beat … Maybe they don’t need all these amenities ? Maybe they just need their right to be a part of “greatness”, hiding their poverty behind Tolstoy and Dostoevsky?

An explosion occurred on a gas pipeline near St. Petersburg (a city in the Russian Federation). The flames of the arising fire could be seen at a distance of many kilometers.

The Garrison Military Court of Moscow placed Colonel Ivan Mertvishchev, an employee of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, under house arrest. He was accused of taking a bribe in the form of a washing machine from the military commissar. Law enforcement authorities detained the colonel when he came to pick up the washing machine. A criminal case was initiated against Mertvishchev under the article on taking a bribe associated with extortion. The officer fully admitted his guilt. Now the accused and his defense are waiting for the court hearing. The Federal Security Service and the Investigative Committee intend to check Mertvishchev for involvement in similar crimes.

Russian officials did not stop on non-traditional sexual relations and pedophilia. Now they are proposing to introduce fines of up to a million rubles for promoting information about gender reassignment. The State Duma adopted amendments to the legislation prohibiting “propaganda” in Russia of “non-traditional sexual relations” and transgender transition. The bills provide for the introduction of fines for “propaganda” in the amount of up to 400,000 rubles for individuals. A fine of up to 200,000 rubles will be introduced for disseminating information about homosexuality or transgenderness among minors. It prohibits the issuance of a distribution certificate to films if they contain materials that “promote non-traditional sexual relations.” “We have a different path, it was chosen by our grandfathers, great-grandfathers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers. We have traditions, we have conscience, we have understanding that we need to think about children, families, the country, to preserve what our parents passed on to us,” the Chairman of the State Duma said.

The spacewalk of Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitriy Petelin was canceled due to a malfunction in the cooling system of one of the spacesuits. The reasons are being analyzed. The date of the next spacewalk will be determined later. It is time for the world, as well as Russia itself, to understand that it has long been not the first in anything.

The Wagner PMC of Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the owner, announced that a sledgehammer with “most likely fake blood traces” in a violin case was sent to the European Parliament. Sending a sledgehammer is Prigozhin’s response to the publication of Politico. The day before, it wrote that MEPs from different parties called on the European Union to include Wagner PMC in the list of terrorist organizations. It was with a sledgehammer that the Russian prisoner Yevgeny Nuzhin was previously killed, recruited by Wagner PMC for the war in Ukraine, captured and returned back to Russia in a prisoner exchange. A video of his murder appeared on a channel associated with the PMC. “Terrorists ridicule the victims in Ukraine. This week, Prigozhin sent a sledgehammer to the European Parliament after the European Parliament recognized Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. I will send these handcuffs to the headquarters of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where they will be waiting for Prigozhin and his accomplices in crimes against Ukraine,” Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu replied, showing the handcuffs he had prepared for the founder of Wagner PMC.

Putin’s stated goal of demilitarizing Eastern Europe ended in an arms boom in the region. The military industry of the Eastern European is flourishing as the countries of the region supply arms to Ukraine. Prior to the outbreak of a full-scale war, Russia expressed its dissatisfaction with the militarization of this region and called the NATO expansion to the east as one of the reasons for the invasion of Ukraine. “The military operation is going according to the plan.”

Vladimir Putin on Friday met with alleged mothers of mobilized Russians. The meeting with the President was attended by 17 women. During the speech, Putin said that he “personally shares the pain” of mothers who lost their sons in the war, and also called those mobilized “heroes.” In addition, he said that “the Internet is full of deceit and lies”, and also stated that he himself called several mobilized soldiers. However, it turned out that the meeting with Putin was attended not by the “mothers” of military personnel who are participating in the war, but by employees of pro-government structures and budgetary organizations, who uttered a laudatory text prepared by the Kremlin. Not a single woman from the Council of mothers and wives of the mobilized, as well as the Committee of soldiers’ mothers was invited.

“Russia has never hidden and still does not hide that its ultimate goal is the creation of the so-called Novorossia with access to Transnistria.” For more than two months, rallies have been gathering in Moldova demanding the resignation of the pro-European government. According to the Washington Post, Russia is behind the organizers of the protests. Taking advantage of the dissatisfaction of citizens over the increase in several times the tariffs for gas and electricity, the Moldovan pro-Russian politician hiding in Israel, Ilan Shor, urges people to take to the streets. Moldovan journalists filmed how people are brought to rallies and paid to participate, and told how Russia can use the situation for its own purposes.

Exactly 10 years ago, the release of Yo-mobile electric vehicles was announced in Russia. It was promised that Yo-mobiles would become the main transport of the empire, so tsar Putin personally tested them. But, as with Yotafon, the “tram of the future” and the manned mission to Mars in 2019, this turned out to be a fake. Cutting the budget and window dressing. After the Second World War, a small technical and scientific leap took place in the USSR, but mainly due to the developments and scientists brought from Germany, as well as due to theft and copying of Western technologies. Before the war, the USSR developed poorly – mainly with the hands and brains of Western specialists hired for gold.

The demand for symbols with “Z” and “V” in Russia has decreased, which was reflected in the reduction in prices for goods with this symbols by two, and sometimes even three times. Instead, shoplifting increased by 17%, with 67,113 people found guilty of shoplifting by the court in the first half of the year. Most often they steal alcohol, sausages, meat, butter and sweets. Many stores have begun to use “anti-theft”, or to lock goods in refrigerators with a padlock, and customers should ask security to open the refrigerator. But one can steal even without punishment – they began to mitigate punishment for the participants in the war against Ukraine for any crime. For a robbery, for example, they can only give a suspended sentence, even if it is committed by a recidivist. They are also condescending to those who declare in court that they are ready to volunteer for war.

The State Duma of the Russian Federation is already threatening Kyrgyzstan. Svetlana Zhurova, Deputy Chairman of the International Committee of the Lower House of the Parliament of the Russian Federation, called the statement of the Kyrgyz deputy Shakiev on the change of the occupational Soviet and imperial names of the districts of Bishkek the first step towards the complete abandonment of the Russian language in Kyrgyzstan, “Events in Ukraine also began with this. Perhaps they will also report to Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], he will make some remark to his colleague, the President of Kyrgyzstan.” And if the president of Kyrgyzstan would decide to make some remark to Putin, then the rashists would have already demanded a nuclear strike on Kyrgyzstan.

The Russian First Channel showed a story in which it was reported that Putin’s father died in battle on the Nevskiy bridge-head during the Second World War (1939-1945). But Putin was born in 1952.

The heroic father was also invented for the commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin. In the biography of the general, they wrote that his father “turns out to have shot down three American planes and died in the Far East, leading the falling plane away from residential areas.” A pilot named Vladimir Surovikin really existed and before his death, he actually shot down three American aircraft in the Korean War of the 1950s. However, he has nothing to do with Sergei Surovikin. This was told by the great-grandson of the pilot Vladimir Mazich, who was found by journalists.

November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. In Russia, this day is not celebrated, information about it is not widely disseminated, but the problem of violence against women in Russia is quite acute. One in three women and girls in Russia experience physical or sexualized violence at least once in their lives. During the coronavirus pandemic – in 2020 and 2021 – more than 70% of all women killed in Russia became victims of domestic violence.

Materials prepared by Liza Tumanova Ukrainian Women’s Guard for the Free Idel-Ural.

Ukrainian Women’s Guard

SUPPORT US