Russia
- www.breitbart.com Kremlin Threatened Families of Wagner Leaders Prior to Stand Down
The decision to turn back from Moscow followed threats against the families of Wagner leaders from the Kremlin, UK security sources claimed.
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s decision to turn back from Moscow came after threats against the family members of Wagner leaders from the Kremlin, British security sources have claimed.
According to a report from London’s Daily Telegraph, the most closely connected British paper to the Conservative government, UK security services have come upon intelligence that suggests that prior to the decision by Yevgeny Prigozhin to turn back from his march on Moscow, Russian intelligence services made direct threats against the families of the Wagner group leaders.
Upon reaching the Lipetsk Oblast (region), which is just around 230 miles (370km) from Moscow, Prigozhin abruptly halted and turned back after coming to an agreement with Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, who reportedly negotiated the stand down on behalf of the Kremlin.
- onlytruthaboutrussia.quora.com Prigozhin LIED About Lack of Shells, Stockpiling Ammunition for Two Months
* UPDATES on Prigozhin’s mutiny here: https://onlytruthaboutrussia.quora.com/UPDATES-PUTIN-Escapes-From-Moscow-Activates-Army-Against-Prigozhin-Who-Declared-the-WAR-On-Russian-Military-Digs-IN-I Russian human rights organisation GULAGU NET reports that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner...
No idea how true this is but could be wild.
- www.zerohedge.com Russia To Seize 'Naughty' Western Companies As Putin Rails Against "Medieval" Asset Seizures Abroad
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
Russia is to adopt powers to seize assets of "naughty" western companies and will make it harder for them to exit the country, as Vladimir Putin seeks ways to retaliate against US and European sanctions. The Kremlin last week secretly ordered legislation to enable western assets to be appropriated at knockdown prices and is discussing even more draconian measures to fully nationalize groups, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
- www.breitbart.com Former Biden Accuser Tara Reade Defects to Russia
Tara Reade, the former Senate staffer to Joe Biden who accused him of sexual assault during the 2020 election, has now defected to Russia.
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Ukraine war: Insurgents defeated after rare cross-border raid - Russia
www.bbc.com Belgorod raid: Insurgents defeated after rare cross-border incursion - RussiaRussia claims to have defeated insurgents who crossed the border from Ukraine to launch attacks near Belgorod.
- 1428elm.com Call of the Cryptid: Abaasy, demon spirits of Yakuts Shamanism
The Abasy (or Abaasy) originate from Turkish folklore — specifically, they are demons in the Sakha (or Yakuts) culture. Emanating from the underworld, th...
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Buddhism in Yakutia: The World’s Northernmost Buddhist Temple
www.buddhistdoor.net Buddhism in Yakutia: The World’s Northernmost Buddhist Temple - Buddhistdoor GlobalA short history of a unique center of Buddhism in the Russian Far East.
- www.aol.com Pro-Ukrainian Russian partisans advance into Russia’s Belgorod region in surprise raid
Russia may have taken the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut Sunday, but forces aligned with Ukraine apparently took a tiny part of Russia on Monday.
- www.zerohedge.com Erdogan Announces Turkey To Approve Finland's NATO Bid, But Sweden Left Behind
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/84776
> "We have decided to start the protocol of Finland's accession to NATO in our parliament," Erdogan said following a meeting with his Finnish counterpart. > > Concerning Sweden, Erdogan commented that his country submitted a list of 120 "terrorists" to Stockholm, but complained that not a single one of them has been extradited. > > Sweden's membership bid is expected to continue to stall, after deteriorating relations with Turkey in the wake of the Quran-burning incident by a far-right activist. Turkey has also demanded Swedish authorities crackdown on Kurdish political groups and operatives while alleging that Stockholm has hosted "terrorists" on its soil. > > Finland is at the same time building a 200km fence along its border with Russia to boost security, also after reporting that Russian men fled into Sweden by the droves in order to escape conscription. The fence will reportedly be 10 feet high and topped with barbed wire.
- news.yahoo.com Exclusive: Ex-Russian military bomber engineer seeks asylum at U.S. border, offers military secrets
A Russian military bomber engineer drove up to the U.S. Southwest border in late December, asking for asylum and offering up some of Russia’s most closely guarded military secrets, according to an unclassified U.S. Customs and Border Protection report obtained by Yahoo News.
- yle.fi Russia bans award-winning Finnish journalist
One of Finland's biggest newspapers says its Russia correspondent has been banned from the country after being accused of "anti-Russian propaganda".
- nypost.com Turns out Russian election meddling’s main impact was on the gullible journos who hyped it
A widely cited list of Twitter users who were described as “Russian bots” included “a bunch of legitimate right-leaning accounts,” according to an internal 2018 email from Yoel Roth.
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/80869
> Russian propaganda looks like a failure if it was supposed to “reshape U.S. politics” or “sow chaos,” as the Times has claimed. But if the goal was persuading credulous journalists that “the American political system” cannot survive the likes of Nora Berka, the campaign has been a resounding success.
- www.washingtonexaminer.com Dry run: Balloons called top ‘delivery platform’ for nuclear EMP attack
High-altitude balloons, such as the one China has floated over mountain state military bases this week, are considered a key “delivery platform” for secret nuclear strikes on America’s electric grid, according to intelligence officials.
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/80533
> Spy balloons, used by Japan to drop bombs during World War II, are now far more sophisticated, can fly at up to 200,000 feet, evade detection, and can carry a small nuclear bomb that, if exploded in the atmosphere, would shut down the grid and wipe out electronics in a many-state-wide area. > > "China’s recent balloon flyover of the United States is clearly a provocative and aggressive act. It was most likely a type of dry run meant to send a strategic message to the USA. We must not take this for granted.” > > EMP experts have warned that China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran have programs to hit the U.S. grid with electromagnetic pulse weapons that would cut the cord for a year or longer. A congressional report has warned that a blackout that long could result in millions of deaths.
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Democrat townhall gets (very) spicy…
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/80165
> New Yorkers escorted out after addressing their concerns during meeting with their Democratic district leader Rep. Adriano Espaillat.
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Ukraine Accused of Slaughtering, Harvesting Children's Organs, Disposing of Dismembered Children 'Like Discarded Waste', Russian Soldier Says
nationalfile.com VIDEO: Ukraine Accused of Slaughtering, Harvesting Children's Organs, Disposing of Dismembered Children 'Like Discarded Waste', Russian Soldier SaysRussian ground troops are reporting a hideous discovery in Ukraine - an industrial organ harvesting facility that's targeting children.
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cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/79882
> Formerly an elusive chief of propaganda, this was one of the most public appearances of his career, and despite his secrecy, his reputation preceded him.
- www.bbc.com Russian army officer admits: 'Our troops tortured Ukrainians'
The former senior lieutenant tells the BBC he witnessed the mistreatment of prisoners.
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Zelensky Sent Out Government Decree to Destroy ALL INFORMATION on Hunter Biden's Metabiota Company on Same Day as Russian Invasion - Then Fire Spotted Outside Intel Headquarters
www.thegatewaypundit.com Zelensky Sent Out Government Decree to Destroy ALL INFORMATION on Hunter Biden's Metabiota Company on Same Day as Russian Invasion - Then Fire Spotted Outside Intel Headquarters | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft | 2Ukrainian President Zelensky ordered government officials to destroy all information on Hunter Biden’s Metabiota Company on the same day Russia invaded the country.
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/79441
> So US taxpayers have spent a hundred billion dollars on a border dispute between Ukraine and Russia as a blackmail payment to avoid some of Biden's corruption being exposed?
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Senator Says US Should Remain in Ukraine Until ‘Putin Is Out’
libertarianinstitute.org Senator Says US Should Remain in Ukraine Until ‘Putin Is Out’ | The Libertarian InstituteSenator Angus King said the US should not put a timetable on support for Ukraine and remain involved in the war until “Putin is out.” Comparing the current situation with Russia to the Allies’ failure to stop Nazi Germany before World War II, the Maine senator insisted on more Western…
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/74012
> It is unclear if King was calling for Putin’s removal from power in a coup d’etat, or merely for Russian troops to vacate all Ukrainian-claimed territory. The two warring parties maintain conflicting territorial claims and King acknowledged the war is now in a stalemate, but he nonetheless claimed the conflict would not be a “20-year struggle” like America’s experience in Afghanistan. > > Throughout the virtual presser, King referenced a historical need to prevail over Russia, saying nothing of the potential for escalation to nuclear war between the world’s largest atomic arsenals.
- theintercept.com Hacked Russian Files Reveal Propaganda Agreement With China
In 2021, government officials and media executives from Russia and China discussed the exchange of news and social content.
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/71939
> In the propaganda agreement, the two sides pledged to “further cooperate in the field of information exchange, promoting objective, comprehensive and accurate coverage of the most important world events.” They also laid out plans to cooperate on online and social media, a space that both countries have used to seed disinformation, pledging to strengthen “mutually beneficial cooperation in such issues as integration, the application of new technologies, and industry regulation.”
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Apple accused of surrendering to Russia and China for a fast buck
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/70691
> The Human Rights group said that there were signs that Apple was always ready to deals with regimes to maintain its access to the market, to build and to sell its products. Apple's Private Relay never made it to China and was canceled in Russia. > > The Tame Apple Press has done its best to white wash the report saying that other companies have had to cut similar deals. But GreatFire said that Google and Twitter, he said, do much better in terms of transparency. Apple has a bad habit of lying in its transparency reports and deliberately conceals the scale of app's unavailability and the reality of the 175 App Stores it operates worldwide.
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Russia Close To Legalizing International Trade In Bitcoin, Crypto: Head Of Finance Committee
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/70127
> The chairman highlighted that although Russia is taking steps to allow bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments for imports, there are no plans to encourage similar usage of the burgeoning assets within the boundaries of the nation’s territory.
- oilprice.com Turkmenistan Is The Center Of A Geopolitical Tug Of War | OilPrice.com
Turkmenistan is becoming the object of intense geopolitical competition between outside powers, East and West, which want the country to become more closely linked to them
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/69329
> That must be a matter of concern for Moscow, which has long backed Turkmenistan’s neutrality as the keystone of its efforts to block any expansion of Turkish influence into Central Asia. After all, if Ashgabat does not join Turkish projects, it will be far more difficult for Ankara to project power in the region while making it easier for the Kremlin to continue to implement its traditional divide-and-rule approach there.
- www.zerohedge.com US Sends Infantry Unit To Base Just Miles Away From Russian Border In Estonia
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/68564
> Crucially, Taara base in Võru is a mere dozens of miles away from the Russian border - merely about a half-hour away by car. Russian state media has complained that US-Estonia troop exercises will be conducted a mere 20 kilometers away from the border.
- theins.ru Russia to “share experience” in suppressing mass protests with Iran
Russia's Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov met with Iran’s Chief Justice, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, in Tehran, and suggested the countries “share their experience” in suppressing protests, according to an official statement by Krasnov’s office.
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/68027
> In December, Iran asked Russia for help in quelling the popular uprising and asked for equipment to fight the protests as well as advisers for training, the Iran International TV channel reported, citing secret documents. The Iranian Interior Ministry officially recognized the deaths of 200 citizens during the protests. According to human rights activists, the death toll is more than 460.
- www.zerohedge.com How The Mainstream Media Misses The Money Quote
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/67321
> The mainstream money quotes keep missing the separation with the US and the recognition of a European security architecture that takes Russia’s concerns about NATO expansion seriously. The more inclusive money quotes from both France and China included that recognition and exposed that separation
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Americans Dumbed Down on Russia
original.antiwar.com Americans Dumbed Down on Russia - Antiwar.com OriginalFive years ago today, Congress learned from sworn, horse’s-mouth testimony that there is no technical evidence that Russia (or anyone else) hacked the DNC - Ray McGovern for Antiwar.com Original
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/66829
> If the sophomores advising President Joe Biden refuse to acknowledge that Russia has escalation dominance in Ukraine, the likelihood of wider war in the coming months looms large. And despite recent optimistic projections by top intelligence officials, Ukraine and NATO are far more likely to run out of ammunition before Russia does.
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The debate between gold and bitcoin in 2023
www.goldmoney.com The debate between gold and bitcoin in 2023 - Research - GoldmoneyThe FTX scandal has thrown the future of cryptocurrencies into doubt. Supporters of bitcoin, which has proved to be remarkably robust at a time when the whole cryptocurrency ecosystem is threatened by scandal and a systemic collapse, are still asserting that it is the future money.This...
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/66825
> To the extent that there is a financial war between the American-led western alliance and the Russian Chinese nexus, gold plays a far greater role than any cryptocurrency. Since the early 1980s, China has embarked on a policy of secretly acquiring unknown quantities of bullion none of which has been permitted to leave the nation’s territory. It has financed gold mining, so that for over a decade it has become the largest national producer in the world. And when it was decided that the State in various accounts had accumulated sufficient bullion, it set up the Shanghai Gold Exchange and encouraged its own citizens, previously banned from gold ownership, to accumulate large quantities —so far, totalling over 20,000 tonnes. > > And Russia, implementing gold accumulation policies more recently, has declared that between reserves and holdings in other state accounts it has about 12,000 tonnes. Legislation has been passed in the Dumas which will allow some or all of this gold to be transferred into official reserves, when they could easily exceed the reserves declared at the US Treasury. Moscow is setting up a new bullion exchange. Other Asian central banks have been accumulating gold as well. And tellingly, European central banks refuse to admit to any reduction in their reserve positions. > > The battlefield in this financial tussle is over the US dollar. Russia and China, with the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Eurasian Economic Union, and BRICS (shortly to be joined by Saudi Arabia) either want to dispose of the dollar for the purpose of trade settlement entirely or want to become less dependent upon it. How is that to be achieved? The actions of Asian powers and their central banks are signalling to us that they will do so with gold. > > This could become increasingly relevant in the months ahead. With Europe entering a continental winter, fuel and food shortages risk splitting the western alliance. The ascendency of gold-backed Eurasia over a divided western alliance can be expected to lead to further dollar weakness, reflected in the value of true money, which legally is only gold.
- www.statista.com Infographic: The Countries Importing Russian Arms
This chart shows the countries receiving the shares of Russian arms exports from 2017 to 2021.
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/66822
> India's dependence on Russian defense technology has been identified as one of the main reasons why the country did not speak out against Russia after the country invaded Ukraine at the end of last month and instead has attempted to remain neutral.
- www.zerohedge.com China Confirms It Is "Mystery" Massive Gold Buyer With First Official Purchase In 3 Years
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/66164
> Those familiar with China's gold buying patterns are all too aware that Beijing has made similar moves in the past. After keeping radio-silent since 2009, Beijing shocked the market in 2015 when it disclosed it had boosted gold holdings by about 600 tonnes. It has not reported any activity since September 2019. > > "China likely bought a substantial amount of gold from Russia," added market analyst Itsuo Toshima. According to Toshima, the People's Bank of China likely bought a portion of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation's gold holdings of over 2,000 tonnes.
- www.zerohedge.com Russia Erects New Missile Base On Island Near Japan For "Round-The-Clock Watch"
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/66081
> Paramushir is the island hosting the new coastal defense missiles, which lies between Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and Japan, with the Kremlin further describing that it plans a permanent troop deployment to keep the systems operational for year-round service, including military housing and even recreation, akin to a full base. > > Russia has long been denounced by Japan and its allies in the West for militarizing the islands, building up a military presence "under the radar" - despite Tokyo also claiming sovereignty over them, which it calls the Northern Territories or Southern Chishima.
- rmx.news Norway and Germany ask NATO to protect underwater gas pipelines
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Haar Støre have called on NATO to protect underwater pipelines and communication cables by creating a special coordination structure, according to Deutsche Welle. “Pipelines, telephone and internet cables are vital communications for o...
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/65511
> German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann confessed that Germany may have contributed to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine because it supported the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. > > “Knowing what we know today, the decision to proceed with Nord Stream 2 after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 was Germany’s contribution to the outbreak of war in Ukraine,” Buschmann said in a welcome address to a meeting of G7 justice ministers in Berlin. He added that it was Germany’s duty to “confront this truth directly” and “draw the right conclusions” from it.
- caitlinjohnstone.com NATO Exists To Solve The Problems Created By NATO’s Existence
Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ NATO has doubled down on its determination to eventually add Ukraine to its membership, renewing its 2008 commitment to that goal in a meeting between the for…
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/65259
> It has become fashionable among the mainstream western commentariat to claim that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had nothing to do with NATO expansion. > > That’s a completely false narrative that requires snipping past comments made by Putin out of the context in which they were made. Many western experts warned for years in advance that NATO expansion would lead to a conflict like the one we’re seeing today, and they were of course correct. > > The recent push to expand NATO in Ukraine along with nations like Finland and Sweden as justified by “Russian aggression” is a good example of what professor Richard Sakwa has called the “fateful geographical paradox: that NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence. > > Moscow sees NATO as an “American sphere of influence,” and the expansion of NATO and NATO influence as expansion of that sphere. It reacts to this with hostility just as the US would react to China or Russia building up aggressive military alliances on its borders, and arguably with vastly more restraint than the US would.
- cointelegraph.com Putin calls for blockchain-based international payment system
Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized monopoly in global financial payment systems and called for an independent and blockchain-based settlement network.
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/63835
> "The technology of digital currencies and blockchains can be used to create a new system of international settlements that will be much more convenient, absolutely safe for its users and, most importantly, will not depend on banks or interference by third countries. I am confident that something like this will certainly be created and will develop because nobody likes the dictate of monopolists, which is harming all parties, including the monopolists themselves."
- tass.com Russia’s Justice Ministry puts Meta Platform Inc on register of extremist organizations
In March, Moscow’s Tverskoy district court upheld the Prosecutor General’s Office claim and recognized the activity of Meta Platforms-owned Instagram and Facebook as extremist and banned them in Russia
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/63247
> Probably true
- www.zerohedge.com Finland To Erect Costly High-Security Fence Along Russian Border
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
The fence will be over three meters tall with barbed wire at the top, with particularly sensitive areas being equipped with night vision cameras, lights, and loudspeakers, project manager Ismo Kurki explained during a press conference."
Finland shares the longest stretch of border with Russia among any EU member.
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Breaking Reports: Russian Missiles Hit Poland Border Town With Ukraine; Two Killed
www.thegatewaypundit.com Breaking Reports: Russian Missiles Hit Poland Border Town With Ukraine; Two Killed | The Gateway Pundit | by Kristinn Taylor | 30Two Russian missiles hit the Polish town of Przewodów located near the border with Ukraine on Tuesday, killing two Poles according to reports.
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/60488
> The Polish government has not officially confirmed the missile strike, but officials are holding an emergency meeting. The reported missile hit comes as Russia has unleashed its largest missile attack on Ukraine
- www.abc.net.au 'We have interfered, are interfering and will interfere': Putin ally admits meddling with US elections
Kremlin-connected entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin admits that he has interfered in US elections and will continue to do so, confirming for the first time the accusations he has rejected for years.
cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/58485
> Do you really think they would tip people off in advance if they were serious about impacting elections in USA?