what the fuck is happening in Russia?

Russia's best and brightest are firebombing military conscription centres. https://t.co/ezH1eatNdG

— libcom.org (@libcomorg) August 24, 2022

https://theins.ru/en/politics/252885

This train is on fire: how Russian partisans set fire to military registration and enlistment offices and derail trains.

Loving the sneaky lil Z in Unionize there

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa-8CIEagAAfcJF?format=jpg

Some disturbing news coming out of Latvia by the looks of it too

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FN0pdUTUYAQSqVj?format=jpg&name=small

On tbe other hand, they look to have found some good news in Kherson

Today Russia deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Kharkov region. pic.twitter.com/IpQ4TOnMqC

— The International Magazine (@TheIntlMagz) March 9, 2022

interesting spelling there

https://i.imgur.com/UI2i80y.png

The chairman of the board of Lukoil, Russia’s biggest privately held oil producer and one of the few Russian companies to criticize the invasion of Ukraine, has died after falling out of a hospital window, Interfax reports https://t.co/wM9r1KAkQn

— max seddon (@maxseddon) September 1, 2022

jeeeesus this world

it has been suggested he was having a smoke and it might have been an acidental fall. CSI Moscow doing the forensics on some ciggies his dead hand was still clutching.

Wow happens a lot in Russia pretty wild that all those windows in tall buildings are so tempting to lean just a little to far

Russian building codes must mandate man-size operable windows in all skyscrapers.

I can see why smoking has a much higher mortality rate in Russia now

at this point I'm starting to wonder if Conor Clapton insulted the Kremlin.

lool

In (post)Soviet Russia you have tears for heaven

Accidental falls is now the leading cause of death among connected Russian executives and bureaucrats.

A top Russian executive has died falling from his boat near Vladivostok, local media reports.
Ivan Pechorin has been described as an ally of Putin, who reportedly picked him for the role.
Pechorin is the latest in a string of unexplained deaths among Russian bosses. Another Russian energy boss has died in mysterious circumstances after "falling overboard" from a boat, according to local media reports.

Ivan Pechorin's body was found washed up around 100 miles from Vladivostok in Russia's far east, on Monday after a two-day search, local outlet VL.ru reported.

Pechorin fell off his moving boat on September 10 as it sailed near Russky Island, the outlet reported. He was the Aviation Director for Russia's Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (KRDV), which described his death as an "irreparable loss."

Do we know for sure that the numbers of executives being assassinated has increased in 2022? It was common through out the 1990s and into the early 2000s, then the idea is that assassinations started to clear up, but did they really or is that just received wisdom and it just happens to be getting more attention now?

Not the data collection assignment i was hoping for. Would be v interesting to see though.

kinda good thread

Since there is a lot of interest in what is the reaction to the recent military setbacks in Russia, a🧵with an update.
There are three distinct groups in Russia:
1/25

— Greg Yudin (@YudinGreg) September 14, 2022

how is this deplorable

The laymen are the those carelessly enjoying their lives while people are dying in Ukraine. It is obviously deplorable but the upside of it is that these people are completely unwilling to participate in war actively in any way https://t.co/kGLYiBZaL6
6/25

— Greg Yudin (@YudinGreg) September 14, 2022

silence is violence?

there is a wiki page dedicated to the russian businessmen deaths :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_businessmen_mystery_deaths

Reportedly died from a "drug-induced heart attack" during a shamanic ritual, though critics allege 'toad poison'

End of an era, Bald & Bankrupt kicked out of the country and barred from entry. Sorta weird propaganda/interrogation video released from Birobidzhan

My dear friend Putesy

Pressed specifically on the issue of Crimea, Erdoğan replied “Since 2014, we have been talking to my dear friend Putin about this, and this is what we have requested from him. We asked him to return Crimea to its rightful owners … unfortunately no step has been taken forward.”

All seems increasingly desperate

Putin televised speech announced for earlier this evening, delayed, rescheduled (has this happened before?) to tomorrow morning

Talk of mobilisation or widescale conscription (with expatriation 'illegal' from tomorrow)...how is this not a losing endgame for them?

expatriation fleeing, that should be

good read

Long post I'm afraid but I wanted to explore the question of potential Russian nuclear use carefully rather than simply asert or dismiss it as a possibility. https://t.co/TVO6mKmxhQ

— Lawrence Freedman (@LawDavF) September 20, 2022

Live from a Russian with his stove on 24/7 spending only 1.44 EUR / month pic.twitter.com/fWiadi7j6u

— yuu ★ (@fwyuuka) September 20, 2022

vlads...

well fuck.

Flights out of Russia sold out fast after Vladimir Putin's announcement... flights to popular destinations such as Istanbul in Turkey and Yerevan in Armenia were snapped up, and prices for remaining seats skyrocketed.

Evgeny, a 31-year-old Russian living in the UK, told the BBC: "Absolutely everyone is afraid, everyone is sending around different information on mobilisation. It is very difficult to figure out what is true and what isn't. Nobody trusts the government."

this doesn't bode well

if they can afford it they can stay visa-free in Turkey for up to 90 days, can't blame them tbh.

And another one falls down a flight of stairs.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-aviation-scientist-anatoly-gerashchenko-falls-to-his-death-in-latest-plunge-mystery

It's a plunge mystery...

if they can afford it they can stay visa-free in Turkey for up to 90 days, can't blame them tbh.

365 days in Georgia - not just Russians, Georgia offers 365 days for anyone!

Large number going there since February has led to rent increases and other pressures though

I liked this summation that actually brings in a lot of the history into it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtwyT4NIyZo

Didn't know whether to put this here or in the Ukraine thread. Regardless, a longish but worthwhile read about exactly how fucked Russia is, and how this "mobilization" basically amounts to Putin pounding the table and nothing more, because logistics and materials and money are not on his side:

A brief Twitter thread: what I think of #Russia's capability to even arm its reservists properly.

TL;DR: Russia would struggle to even reactivate meaningful quantities of Soviet surplus heavy weapons fast enough, much less manufacture enough modern kit to matter. 1/

— Janne M. Korhonen 🇫🇮🇪🇺🇺🇳🐟🇺🇦🇵🇸 (@jmkorhonen) September 22, 2022

what if the russians read this finnish blockchain researcher's analysis (he has "been studying industrial mobilizations since 2020," which is around 10,000 waking hours) and decide not to as he's sure they will launch human wave attacks against enemy artillery? did he ever think about that?

Pretty powerful video. In Dagestan locals clearly don't want to go to war with Ukraine. The recruiting officer argues they have to fight for the future. – We don't even have a present, what future are you talking about," replies a Dagestani man. pic.twitter.com/1O4ob2GhSN

— Tadeusz Giczan (@TadeuszGiczan) September 22, 2022

So I'm headed for the nearest foreign border...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/22/my-heart-sank-with-news-of-draft-russians-flee-in-droves

apparently draft notices were delivered by mail, not electronically, which implies this has been in the works for some time.
news of men being interviewed at border crossings and airports about their military status, purpose of their trip and whether they have a one way ticket.

also news of men getting drafted even though they don’t fall within the criteria outlined by government

Apparently they also served draft notices to jailed protestors

the morale of these draftees is going to about where is was with guys drafted into the Vietnam War in 1972

scenes from the draft.. some of these guys look pretty old

Еще видео с моего родного города Нерюнгри Республика Саха (Якутия) pic.twitter.com/haaWQX17uf

— Polina (@poli_golobokova) September 22, 2022

President Keyes otm

I'm sure they will be drafting heaviest in places a long long way from Moscow or St Petersburg.

small difference: vietnam and the usa don’t share a border.

if Ukraine presented any real danger to the Russian Federation that would be a significant difference, but the only 'threat' here is a set of mostly abstract geopolitical considerations, so, not so very different from the USA and Vietnam.

The point about morale is germane.. nobody wants to be the last killed in a pointless, losing war. I watched a british documentary about the U.S.'s final days in Vietnam, and the grunts were basically hiding in trenches and waiting for some kind of peace deal. They were no longer actively conducting the search & destroy missions ordered by the brass

Unfortunately for these Russians, these HIMAR systems can land right in your trench like a fly landing on a cucumber slice.. I think 200 were killed last week when a rocket landed on a bus station where they were hiding out.

(correction: it was last month, not last week)

Damn

Probably safer than meatpacking factories at least.

(citations needed, as usual)

Apologies, I think I posted that when I was on the bus on the way into town and forgot to add later. I don't think I noted anything down specifically as I tend to listen to things when running rather than reading but I'll see what I can find

Gleb Pavlovsky Frontline PBS Interview 2017