World Politics

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Why Putin may be trying to 'weaken' a 'paramilitary mercenary' group he hired to fight in Ukraine: report

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has turned out to be much more difficult than President Vladimir Putin anticipated. But over a year after Russian forces launched their invasion, Putin is not giving up. And he has been taking desperate measures.

One is recruiting prisoners and convicts to fight in Ukraine. Another is using the Wagner Group, a paramilitary mercenary outfit that operatives outside of Russian law. Technically, private military contractors are illegal in Russia, but Putin has gotten around that with the Wagner Group because the fighting is not taking place within Russian borders.
According to Business Insider's Sinéad Baker, however, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has "become highly critical of Russia's military leadership." And the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington D.C.-based think tank, believes that Putin is now using fighting in Bakhmut in Eastern Ukraine to weaken Wagner.

“The battle for the eastern Ukrainian city has become one of the bloodiest of Russia's invasion," Baker explains in an article published on March 13. "And the Wagner Group, which has tens of thousands of mercenaries and former prisoners deployed in Ukraine, is heavily involved in the fighting. In an update on Sunday, (March 12), the ISW said that Russia's defense ministry is likely using the battle to significantly reduce the Wagner Group, as a feud between them escalates."

According to Baker, the ISW believes that Russian officials are "likely seizing the opportunity to deliberately expend both elite and convict Wagner forces in Bakhmut in an effort to weaken Prigozhin and derail his ambitions for greater influence in the Kremlin."

Putin, Baker reports, has "started to distance himself from Prigozhin." And ISW believes that Prigozhin is carrying out "a relentless defamation campaign" against the Russian military.

https://www.alternet.org/Bank/putin-weaken-paramilitary-mercenary-ukraine/

[Tracker]

Russia Is Turning to Women Prisoners to Boost Forces After Massive Losses, Ukraine Claims

-REUTERS
Russian prisoners have been thrown into the meat-grinder battlefields of Ukraine since the invasion began last year. But as massive numbers of casualties have made the situation increasingly desperate for the Kremlin, reports have emerged that female convicts are now also being sent to the frontline.

In an update on Monday, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Russia has turned to “alternative sources of replenishment of manpower” against a background of “large losses of personnel in the war.” “So, last week, the movement of a train with first-class carriages for the transportation of prisoners towards the Donetsk region was noted,” the ministry wrote on Telegram. “One of the wagons contained female prisoners.”

The allegation was bolstered by human rights activist and Russia Behind Bars founder Olga Romanova, who said she heard reports of women prisoners being sent to Ukraine late last year. “They were taken from the colonies of southern Russia,” Romanova told Important Stories. “I don’t know the exact zone, but they worked in Kushchevskaya [in Russia’s Krasnodar Territory]. For about two months they were kept in agriculture, greenhouses and cowsheds.” Romanova said the estimated 100 women were then sent to Ukraine, though it’s unclear how they were deployed.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine made similar allegations on Feb. 4, alleging that Russia was “trying to attract convicted women to participate in hostilities.”

“Over the course of a week, the occupiers recruited about 50 people from the women’s correctional colony of the city of Snizhne in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region,” the General Staff said. “It is also known that they were sent to the territory of the Russian Federation for training.”

Even Russian sources have given credence to the idea of using female prisoners in bolstering Vladimir Putin’s war effort. In December Vyacheslav Wegner, Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the west-central Sverdlovsk Region, wrote to Yevgeny Prigozhin—the founder of the mercenary Wagner Group—saying he had been “approached by a team of women serving sentences” asking to serve in the “special military operation.

[blue_gold_84]

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[blue_gold_84]

17 hours ago, Tracker said:

 

                                  

IIRC, this was posted on Reddit last spring. It was confirmed to be false/misinformation. (even if it is hilarious because **** Russia)

https://apnews.com/article/honduras-china-taiwan-diplomatic-relations-922d50b3c4145f57dc024b6adf2158e6

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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras President Xiomara Castro announced Tuesday that her government will seek to establish diplomatic relations with China, which would imply severing relations with Taiwan. The switch would leave Taiwan recognized by only 13 countries as China spends billions to win recognition for its “One China” policy.

Castro said on her Twitter account that she instructed Honduran Foreign Affairs Minister Eduardo Reina to start negotiations with China and that her intention is to “expand frontiers freely in concert with the nations of the world.”

Castro said during her presidential campaign in 2021 that she would look for ties with China if elected, but once in power, her government backtracked on those comments. In January 2022, the foreign affairs minister told The Associated Press that Honduras would continue strengthening ties with Taiwan and that establishing a diplomatic relationship with China was not a priority for Castro.

China bought the Honduran president it would seem.

[Mark F]

1 hour ago, blue_gold_84 said:

IIRC, this was posted on Reddit last spring. It was confirmed to be false/misinformation. (even if it is hilarious because **** Russia)

https://apnews.com/article/honduras-china-taiwan-diplomatic-relations-922d50b3c4145f57dc024b6adf2158e6

China bought the Honduran president it would seem.

looks like she is a lefty. I remember now, her husband was President, thrown out by a military coup. "The 2009 Honduran coup d'état, part of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis,^[1][2] occurred when the Honduran Army on 28 June 2009 followed orders from the Honduran Supreme Court to oust President Manuel Zelaya and send him into exile.^[3] Zelaya had attempted to schedule a non-binding poll on holding a referendumon convening a constituent assembly to write a new constitution.^[4][5] Zelaya refused to comply with court orders to cease, and the Honduran Supreme Court issued a secret warrant for his arrest dated 26 June.^[6]Two days later, Honduran soldiers stormed the president's house in the middle of the night and detained him,^[7] forestalling the poll.^[8] Instead of bringing him to trial, the army put him on a military aeroplane and flew him to Costa Rica. "

her predecessor:

"On 7 February 2022, Hernández had his visa revoked by the U.S. Department of State, due to involvements in corruption and in the illegal drug trade. On 14 February, he was surrounded by the National police and DEA agents at his residency to process his capture and eventually take him to custody of the United States for possible trials.^[12] The U.S. government also requested an extradition against him for his involvement with narcotics.^[13][14][15] After an extradition warrant was issued, he decided to surrender to US authorities on 15 February 2022.^[16] The same day, local police arrested Hernández at his home in Tegucigalpa.^[17] On 21 April, Hernández was extradited to the United States.^[18]"

^{his brother :}

Juan Antonio Hernández Alvarado, known as Tony Hernández (born June 13, 1978),^[1] is a Honduran convicted drug trafficker,^[2] lawyer, politician, member of the National Party of Honduras^[3] and former deputy in the National Congress of Honduras (2014–2018)^[4] representing Lempira.^[5]He is the brother of Juan Orlando Hernández, the former President of Honduras.

at the time ofmthe coup pres.obama, sec. of state hillary clinton did little or nothing to oppose it.

she would remember that.

central america is just forgotten except for migrants coming to america.

Edited March 15, 2023 by Mark F

[Tracker]

We’re One Step Closer to Putin’s Crimea Nightmare

Since the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Western leaders have privately been warning Kyiv against kicking Russia out of Crimea, the peninsula Russian President Vladimir Putin seized from Ukraine in 2014, out of a fear of triggering a nuclear flashpoint.

But now, over one year into the invasion, the tide appears to be turning—at least from Kyiv’s perspective.

Western leaders have started warming to the idea that Ukraine can take back Crimea in spite of Russian nuclear threats, Tamila Tasheva, the Ukrainian government official in charge of Crimea, told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview.

“We heard from Western leaders that… if we come back to Crimea, that there would be an unavoidable escalation, that might even provoke a nuclear conflict,” Tasheva said, noting that those warnings have faded in recent weeks. “The rhetoric has been changing since we explain more and more what Crimea is, what it means for Russia, and how things are connected around Crimea,” she said referring to the way Russia has been using Crimea as a launchpad and key supply route for the war.

In the fall, The Daily Beast reported that Western officials were privately urging Ukraine’s government to back away from the idea of taking back Crimea. At the time, they expressed concerns to Tasheva that Putin, who had derived huge domestic support from seizing the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014, would view a Ukrainian campaign to take it back as an attack on Russia proper and respond with massive escalation.

Tasheva believes that concern has started melting away now that Ukraine is arguing that Crimea is key to a victory against Putin both because Russia continues to use it as a launchpad for the war, and because Putin views it as key to his political legitimacy in Russia.

Ukraine hopes its plan to kick Russia out of Crimea—as well as the other territory it has stolen—is finally gaining momentum.

It’s a dramatic shift from the early days of the war, when Ukraine’s goals were focused on defending against Russia’s invasion and forcing Russia out of Ukrainian land captured in 2022. As Ukraine’s forces have staged successful counteroffensives, though, Kyiv has gained confidence it might be able to push Russia out of territory it stole in 2014, including Crimea.

Now, with a Ukrainian counteroffensive likely targeted at southern Ukraine looming, the path to Crimea is becoming clearer.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/were-one-step-closer-to-putins-crimea-nightmare?ref=home

[Tracker]

Credit Suisse worth over $750Bn USD could go down and become Debit Suisse. Lehman Brothers in 2008 was $600Bn. Silicon Valley Bank was $200Bn.

[HardCoreBlue]

What's it like to be a Russian citizen right now who is sane, who just wants to be a contributing member to society, who feels extremely bad for Ukrainian citizens and who thinks the leader of their country is insane?

I can't imagine.

 

[Tracker]

4 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

What's it like to be a Russian citizen right now who is sane, who just wants to be a contributing member to society, who feels extremely bad for Ukrainian citizens and who thinks the leader of their country is insane?

I can't imagine.

 

Russian media report that schoolchildren in the equivalent of grade 6 are being trained on how to handle, maintain and use assault weapons.

[WildPath]

8 hours ago, Tracker said:

We’re One Step Closer to Putin’s Crimea Nightmare

Since the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Western leaders have privately been warning Kyiv against kicking Russia out of Crimea, the peninsula Russian President Vladimir Putin seized from Ukraine in 2014, out of a fear of triggering a nuclear flashpoint.

But now, over one year into the invasion, the tide appears to be turning—at least from Kyiv’s perspective.

Western leaders have started warming to the idea that Ukraine can take back Crimea in spite of Russian nuclear threats, Tamila Tasheva, the Ukrainian government official in charge of Crimea, told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview.

“We heard from Western leaders that… if we come back to Crimea, that there would be an unavoidable escalation, that might even provoke a nuclear conflict,” Tasheva said, noting that those warnings have faded in recent weeks. “The rhetoric has been changing since we explain more and more what Crimea is, what it means for Russia, and how things are connected around Crimea,” she said referring to the way Russia has been using Crimea as a launchpad and key supply route for the war.

In the fall, The Daily Beast reported that Western officials were privately urging Ukraine’s government to back away from the idea of taking back Crimea. At the time, they expressed concerns to Tasheva that Putin, who had derived huge domestic support from seizing the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014, would view a Ukrainian campaign to take it back as an attack on Russia proper and respond with massive escalation.

Tasheva believes that concern has started melting away now that Ukraine is arguing that Crimea is key to a victory against Putin both because Russia continues to use it as a launchpad for the war, and because Putin views it as key to his political legitimacy in Russia.

Ukraine hopes its plan to kick Russia out of Crimea—as well as the other territory it has stolen—is finally gaining momentum.

It’s a dramatic shift from the early days of the war, when Ukraine’s goals were focused on defending against Russia’s invasion and forcing Russia out of Ukrainian land captured in 2022. As Ukraine’s forces have staged successful counteroffensives, though, Kyiv has gained confidence it might be able to push Russia out of territory it stole in 2014, including Crimea.

Now, with a Ukrainian counteroffensive likely targeted at southern Ukraine looming, the path to Crimea is becoming clearer.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/were-one-step-closer-to-putins-crimea-nightmare?ref=home

Wonder if Western leaders might be changing their tune regarding Crimea as they realize how much pressure would be put on Putin if/when he loses territory he originally started the war with.

[Tracker]

2 hours ago, WildPath said:

Wonder if Western leaders might be changing their tune regarding Crimea as they realize how much pressure would be put on Putin if/when he loses territory he originally started the war with.

Putin is a psychopath from all reports- he will not respond to any logic and, like Hitler may not be attached to reality.

[WildPath]

34 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Putin is a psychopath from all reports- he will not respond to any logic and, like Hitler may not be attached to reality.

I wasn't referring to anything Putin would do if he lost Crimea, but what will be done to him if he loses it. Many of powerful elite in that country are seeing their power and wealth dwindle as a result of Putin's leadership.

Edited March 16, 2023 by WildPath

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-jet-united-states-drone-video-1.6780533

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The Pentagon has released footage of what it says is a Russian aircraft conducting an unsafe intercept of a U.S. air force surveillance drone in international airspace over the Black Sea.

The 42-second video shows a Russian Su-27 approaching the back of the MQ-9 drone and beginning to release fuel as it passes, the Pentagon said. Dumping the fuel appeared to be aimed at blinding its optical instruments and driving it out of the area.

On a second approach, either the same jet or another Russian fighter that had been shadowing the MQ-9 struck the drone's propeller, damaging one blade, according to the U.S. military.

The U.S. military said it ditched the MQ-9 Reaper in the sea after what it described as the Russian fighter making an unsafe intercept of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

Russia and NATO member countries routinely intercept each other's warplanes, but the drone incident marked the first time since the Cold War that a U.S. aircraft went down during such a confrontation, raising concerns it could bring the United States and Russia closer to a direct conflict.

Moscow has repeatedly voiced concern about U.S. intelligence flights near the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 and illegally annexed.

The Russian Defence Ministry said in its report of the call with Austin that Shoigu accused the U.S. of provoking the incident by ignoring flight restrictions the Kremlin had imposed because of its military operations in Ukraine.

Russia also blamed "the intensification of intelligence activities against the interests of the Russian Federation."

Such U.S. actions "are fraught with escalation of the situation in the Black Sea area," the Defence Ministry said, warning that Russia "will respond in kind to all provocations." 

Sergei Aksenov, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, said he thinks Russia should act even more forcefully to put an end the U.S. surveillance flights in the area.

Russia is playing a very stupid and reckless game.

[Wideleft]

 

 

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-un-investigation-report-1.6780600

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Russian attacks against civilians in Ukraine, including systematic and widespread torture and killing in occupied regions, amount to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity, according to a report from a UN-backed inquiry released Thursday.

The sweeping human rights report, released a year to the day after a Russian airstrike on a theatre in Mariupol killed hundreds sheltering inside, marked a highly unusual condemnation of a member of the UN Security Council.

Among potential crimes against humanity, the report cited repeated attacks targeting Ukrainian infrastructure since the fall that left hundreds of thousands without heat and electricity during the coldest months, as well as the "systematic and widespread" use of torture across multiple regions under Russian occupation.

"[The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine] has concluded that Russian authorities have committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law and violations of international human rights law, in addition to a wide range of war crimes, including the war crime of excessive incidental death, injury, or damage, willful killings, torture, inhuman treatment, unlawful confinement, rape, as well as unlawful transfers and deportations," the report said.

[Tracker]

13 hours ago, WildPath said:

I wasn't referring to anything Putin would do if he lost Crimea, but what will be done to him if he loses it. Many of powerful elite in that country are seeing their power and wealth dwindle as a result of Putin's leadership.

This is the crux of the problem. Putin's KGB/FSB background allowed him to build a network of informants and executioners that have kept him in power by constraining or killing of anyone who might pose an opposition, so it really comes down to whoever can enforce their agendas most effectively.

[Tracker]

Prigozhin Says Jealous Kremlin Deliberately Stopped Wagner Taking Bakhmut
-Reuters
Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has stepped up his angry attacks on the Russian Defense Ministry, accusing Kremlin officials of deliberately preventing his fighters capturing Bakhmut out of sheer jealousy at his military successes.

The mercenary boss dubbed “Putin’s Chef” said authorities are choosing to deprive Wagner of ammunition which has slowed progress in the blood-soaked battle to take Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. “The objective is simple,” Prigozhin said: “PMC Wagner should not take Bakhmut.”

His comments, which were made during an interview with several Russian media outlets on Wednesday, are the latest development in an escalating war of words between Prigozhin and the official armed forces of Russia.

“Our actions today of course cause envy,” Prigozhin said, referring to jealousy among Russia’s military establishment. “So because we have successes, while in other places successes are not what they’d like to be, then instead of—remember what grandpa Lenin said: we all thought we were all meant to live well, but instead, they made it so that everyone lived the same but poorly.”

Prigozhin went on to say all of Russia “supported” Wagner after the fall of Soledar—a salt mining town near Bakhmut—a victory which he previously claimed was “solely” achieved by his mercenaries despite statements to the contrary by Russia’s Defense Ministry. After that success, Prigozhin claimed, the Kremlin’s attitude became: “Wagner should not be capturing Bakhmut under any circumstances.”

He said that his mercenaries have since been deprived of ammunition bringing “shell hunger” to the fight, but that “Wagner will take Bakhmut anyway.” He said this will be done “not because Prigozhin wants it,” but: “*****, we must prove to the whole world that the Russians can!”

[blue_gold_84]

https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-poland-russia-war-jets-migs-6d843ccbd50fef5f96091a5bff8f3e01

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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president said Thursday that his country plans to give Ukraine around a dozen MiG-29 fighter jets, which would make it the first NATO member to fulfill the Ukrainian government’s increasingly urgent requests for warplanes.

President Andrzej Duda said Poland would hand over four of the Soviet-made warplanes “within the next few days” and that the rest needed servicing and would be supplied later. The Polish word he used to describe their number can mean between 11 and 19.

“They are in the last years of their functioning but they are in good working condition,” Duda said of the aircraft.

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pleaded for Western supporters to share fighter jets, NATO allies have expressed hesitancy.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine had several dozen MiG-29s it inherited in the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it’s unclear how many of them remain in service after more than a year of fighting.

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/france-pension-bill-government-emmanuel-macron-1.6780662

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French President Emmanuel Macron shunned parliament and opted to push through a highly unpopular bill that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 by triggering a special constitutional power on Thursday.

The risky move is expected to trigger a quick no-confidence motion in Macron's government.

The decision was made just a few minutes before the vote was scheduled, because the government had no guarantee that the bill would command a majority at the National Assembly, France's lower house of parliament.

The bill is the flagship legislation of Macron's second term. The unpopular plan has prompted major strikes and protests across the country since January.

As lawmakers gathered in the National Assembly Thursday to vote on the bill, the leftist members of parliament broke into the Marseillaise, the French national anthem, preventing Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne from speaking and prompting the speaker to suspend the session.

The atmosphere was tense outside of parliament as heavily armed guards and riot police ringed the picturesque neighbourhoods around the National Assembly.

Earlier Thursday, the Senate adopted the bill in a 193-114 vote, a tally that was largely expected since the conservative majority of the upper house of parliament favours raising the retirement age.

I'm sure this is going to end well for Macron.

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