Nostr notes by kravietz 🦇

Today is the anniversary of discovery (!) of the series of ...

2026-03-31T22:29:31Z

Today is the anniversary of discovery (!) of the series of Russian war crimes know in media as "Bucha massacres".

The name is inaccurate as the war crimes happened in many places in Kyiv and Chernihiv regions controlled by #Russia and were systematic mop up operations involving killing of civilians, as known from Russian operations in Chechnya or Syria, clearly in compliance with orders from Russian military leadership.

The most miserable denial of these war crimes come from people who claim "this was fake" or "there's no evidence". There's literally hundreds of hours of drone, smartphone and CCTV recordings literally showing Russian soldiers escorting and executing Ukrainian civilians. Many of them can be found here:

https://video.echelon.pl/search?tagsOneOf=Bucha

The second dumbest denial comes from those who repeat Russian fallacy that "there was no international investigation". In reality there were hundreds of ICC and UN forensic experts investigating every aspect of these war crimes on the ground in Bucha and other places in the region, and then investigating more Russian war crimes e.g. in Izyum (400+ civilians killed) and other places. There's numerous UN reports from these investigations. Russia has all the names of the perpetrators and evidence, but it simply chose to ignore them and conduct no investigation on their side.

The third popular yet false argument is that "Bucha caused Ukraine to retract from peace talks". It did not - Ukraine delegation continued to meet its Russian counterparts well into April 2022 in spite of popular outcry in Ukrainian society. As we today from Putin's aide Dmitry Kozak, it was Putin who stalled and ultimately had put negotiations on hold in 2022, convinced Russia will be able to grab much more land after announcing mobilisation.

From my days of travelling to the Russian #Caucasus, I’ve got ...

2026-03-24T08:48:34Z

From my days of travelling to the Russian #Caucasus, I’ve got quite a few friends there – one of them is a highlander and he’s fine, whilst the other used to work for RIA (Russian state news agency).

I messaged the first one on Telegram, but the message isn’t getting through and I don’t know if he’s up in the mountains or if the _Roskomnadzor_ is already blocking it. So I ask the other one, who spends most of his time in the lowlands, whether Telegram works there without a VPN. And here I get this reply that sounded like read from an official government statement 😂

> It depends – sometimes it’s needed, and sometimes it isn’t. On the other hand, the number of cybercrimes and scams on social media has plummeted since communication restrictions were introduced. Everything has its pros and cons.

I gather he’s probably still working at RIA 😂 Let me emphasise – it was the sort of question that calls for a yes or no answer.

If they cut off the internet for them altogether, he’ll probably send me a letter by post giving a detailed explanation of why life without the Internet has “certain disadvantages, but also advantages”.

One of the most sadistic #Russia military channels "From ...

2026-03-23T22:04:50Z

One of the most sadistic #Russia military channels "From Mariupol to Carpathia", one that invented and continuously promotes #Kherson "human safari" in their videos, has just posted a rather grim update about the situation on their zone of responsibility. I cannot but recall, that only a few months ago the same channel had been actively promoting an idea of Russian landing in Kherson (which never happened)...

> The enemy is taking steps to establish small assault groups on our bank. In the area of the Konka River bridge, ‘Waiter’ drones are on constant patrol, whilst in the Nairi area and the waters of the Dnieper River, relay drones are in the sky, enabling the enemy to operate 24/7 in the settlement of Aleshky and on the roads of this conurbation.

> The enemy is slowly but surely shifting the initiative in this sector of the Kherson front in its favour. The loss of control over Aleshky and the transport hubs R-58 and R-57 automatically raises the question of a threat to the settlement of Hola Prystan, with the prospect of cutting off the western part of the Kherson region, in particular K. Kosa. The situation in Hola Prystan is similar. The enemy holds the initiative in the air.

> The overall picture in the Kherson sector within the Red Zone on the left bank requires very close attention. The enemy has begun to actively concentrate forces in Kherson and the western and north-western sections of the suburbs. The main fortifications along the Mykolaiv-Kherson and Snigirevka-Kherson axes are ready.

> In order to divert attention from the Zaporizhzhia sector and improve its negotiating position, the enemy may be preparing offensive operations in our sector. We do not venture to predict the consequences of a successful outcome, but for the South of the Russian Federation in the SVO, this would be a disaster.

Original: https://t.me/osvedomitell_alex/33435 (in Russian)

Overall, I think #Putin’s problems are merely a symptom of ...

2026-03-23T14:27:37Z

Overall, I think #Putin’s problems are merely a symptom of something much bigger – we are currently witnessing a convergence of some of the world’s political systems towards chaotic behaviour.

Putin, Trump and the European (including Polish) right-wing parties are making moves that are absurd from the perspective of their countries’ interests and contrary to the political systems they profess to uphold. The absurdity is, however, only apparent, because their actions are driven by forces far more powerful than politics – namely, the personal networks of deals and dependencies they have built up over the years, initially only ‘tactically’, to gain a ‘momentary political advantage’, ‘for a just cause’ and ‘for a short while’.

Now, however, the personal obligations and these hidden debts incurred by each of them towards various powerful interest groups have taken control of their decision-making process, plunging them into a spiral of decisions, every one of which is wrong, because the interests of these groups are by no means consistent with one another.

On top of this come systemic cognitive biases and all manner of other psychological phenomena, which only become apparent once we manage to ‘identify the leaders’ – for one of the hallmarks of impersonal democracy is precisely the systemic elimination of these cognitive biases, which are typical of systems based on specific individuals. There is no point in looking for any logic here or constructing ‘5D chess’ scenarios.

- Putin prolonging a war which he is not only failing to win but actually seems to have fallen into some sort of catatonia, making one worse decision after another.
- Americans electing Trump only for his approval rating to plummet to 30% after a year... This same President Trump threatens Iceland, instigates trade wars and nearly triggers a civil war in the US, then plays on the EU’s disintegration, tolerating Putin and supporting Orbán... and then starting a war with Iran. This is a fascinating example of an agent of chaos, taken almost straight from the novel ‘Illuminatus!’ (who remembers it?).
- President Nawrocki and the DSA, cryptocurrency and SAFE vetoes, which are suicidal for Polish interests. The Polish right publicly supporting the pro-Putin and homophobic Orbán, side by side with the German revisionist Alice Weidel, who lives in a same-sex relationship – all these are fascinating symptoms of a global political system entering a chaotic phase.

And the more the ‘system fails’ (though it is no longer a system at all, but merely personal cliques), the more societies panic and instinctively… seek ‘strong leaders’. And here appears a powerful feedback loops, see above about the cognitive biases.

The consequences of this process are unpredictable precisely because the actions of its actors are not guided by any ideologies or rational considerations, but by forces hidden for decades beneath the surface of global politics, previously suppressed by the system.

Rationalism and the rule of law are just one of many ways of organising human societies – they yield the best results, but they are neither the only nor the easiest. For they require discipline, from us – politicians and voters alike. Without this discipline, a rational state slides merrily into the realm of chaos, the beginnings of which we are currently witnessing, and whose next stage could be mass violence on a 20th-century scale.

Of course, the fact that the entire system is gravitating towards such a chaotic phase transition does not mean it must inevitably descend into it – as in any dynamic system, the state of the system is the result of the complex interactions between its components. In other words, discipline in the application of the principles of rational politics can halt or slow down this process.

P.S. I have not mentioned the Left so far simply because the global Left drifted off into the realm of chaos a long time ago – the very concept of the left defending the religious, authoritarian, oppressive and extremely misogynistic regimes of Hamas and the IGRC is exactly the same level of absurdity as ultraconservative Ordo Iuris ranting about traditional values alongside Alice Weidel or Orbán 😆 The reasons behind this process are exactly the same as those on the right – magical thinking, ‘tactical alliances’ and ‘moral compromises’.

By using the term "fascism" for everything hing you ...

2026-03-21T12:18:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…k3uy
_________________________

By using the term "fascism" for everything hing you don't like you make the word entirely meaningless, as described by Orwell in 1944 already https://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/efasc

By not understanding the actual reasons for caching the age attribute in OS - these I have described in detail here https://agora.echelon.pl/objects/7cc327d7-b4ed-4776-9302-46998c93ba73 - you actually defend much more intrusive commercial techniques

Life cycle of a tablet in #Ukraine - First owner - Second owner ...

2026-03-19T07:17:31Z

Life cycle of a tablet in #Ukraine

- First owner
- Second owner

Wow, who would have expected a _Dunkelflaute_ in March? But here ...

2026-03-14T20:24:42Z

Wow, who would have expected a _Dunkelflaute_ in March? But here it is:

* #Germany - the "energy transformation leader with the most renewables in Europe" - **604** gCO2eq/kWh
* #Poland - old coal baseline country that is heavily investing in wind and building its first nuclear power plant - **582** gCO2eq/kWh
* #France - the hopeless case of old, legacy #nuclear that has "no future" and "contributes nothing to decarbonisation" (literal quotes) - **38** gCO2eq/kWh

It's not a typo, the last number is really "28", that is 16x less than the first number. And the whole point of #decarbonisation is to emit _less_ CO2.

Viktor Orbán started his electoral manipulations from ...

2026-03-13T10:12:26Z

Viktor Orbán started his electoral manipulations from anti-Zelensky (!) posters spammed across #Hungary and a fake Péter Magyar – same name as the opposition leader, but tons of photos with Viktor Orbán and his cabinet members, running as an "independent" in a West Hungarian constituency.

That's a trick likely advised by the #Russia political advisors hired by Orbán - in 2021 in St. Petersburg, opposition politician Boris Vishnevsky discovered that two other candidates suddenly changed their legal (!) names to “Boris Vishnevsky” and even styled their appearance to look similar to him on the ballot. The goal was to confuse voters and split votes, helping a pro-government candidate win.

There are rumours that Vladimir Surkov has fled #Russia to ...

2026-03-11T07:36:38Z

There are rumours that **Vladimir Surkov** has fled #Russia to ‘a country that does not have an extradition agreement with Russia’ (the UAE or Latin America are mentioned) in connection with the investigation against him concerning ‘the management of the Ukrainian direction in 2014-2020’ and formally it is supposed to be about embezzlement of the budget allocated for these activities.

#Surkov is a unique scoundrel, all the more dangerous because he gives the impression of being a gentle scholar and acts with kid gloves. Surkov was one of the ideologues of the ‘Russian Spring’ after 2014 and the curator of the ‘people's republics’ in Ukraine, so he bears responsibility for the leadership and everything that happened there after the Russians entered Donbas in April 2014.

Lengthy (as usual) analysis from the "Volya" channel ...

2026-03-05T09:00:54Z

Lengthy (as usual) analysis from the "Volya" channel about the latest series of #Ukraine counterattacks on the southern and eastern front and how they match the general Ukraine's defense strategy and don't match Russian offensive strategy:

> Since 8 February, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been doing something they haven't done in over two years — driving the Russians out of their territory. In the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, Ukrainian units, operating in small groups of motorised infantry, have driven the Russian Armed Forces out of 19-22 settlements during this time. However, what is happening cannot be called a counteroffensive or a ‘major offensive operation’ because so far it looks more like a well-thought-out and prepared series of local tactical strikes on the enemy's most vulnerable points, the goal of which is not to regain villages and kilometres, but to create conditions for changing the situation on the entire southern front.

> While the Ukrainian Armed Forces are advancing north and north-east (and probably already east) from Huliaipole and have created a vast grey zone stretching almost from Stepnogorsk to Kamenskoye on the banks of the Dnieper, the Russian command seems to have decided to ignore what is happening. Instead of trying to restore order in the Vostok Military District, two of whose four armies have enormous problems in organising their defences and troops, the Vostok command is throwing most of its reserves into assaults in Huliaipole itself, because it needs to report its successes to the top. The fact that the Russians officially ‘took’ Huliaipole back in December 2025 does not bother anyone in the Russian Armed Forces or the Eastern Military District. Neither of them are new to taking for the second to fifth time what they have already ‘liberated’ before.

> Attempts to solve the problem in Huliaipole at any cost, trying to patch up the expanding gap from Ternovato to Aleksandrograd, could lead the Russians to a serious crisis not only in one local area, but across the entire southern front.

> There is nothing and no one to reinforce the Southern Front of the Russian Armed Forces and the combined group, because simultaneously with the events there, the Russian offensive is intensifying in the Limansky, Slavyansk-Kramatorsk and Dobropolsky (formerly Pokrovsky) directions.

> The generals do not yet have any major successes to report to Putin and the people who support him. Moreover, the deadlines for achieving many of the objectives were missed a month or a month and a half ago. This is pushing the OGV command to make fierce demands on the commanders of the South and Centre groups to do everything possible to deliver results.

> By results, they mean establishing control over Chasov Yar (also officially ‘liberated’ on 31 July 2025), Liman, Dobropillya, and direct access to Konstantinovka and Slavyansk.

> To achieve this, to the surprise of the Ukrainian military defending Chasov Yar, the Russians attacked the city with tanks for several days at the end of February. Not dozens — between 5 and 16 vehicles were involved — but tanks in such numbers had not been used in an offensive in the city for a long time. The result is clear: most of the tanks have already burned out and cooled down in the ruins of the city.

> Near Liman, Konstantinovka and Dobropillya, the tasks are being carried out by infantry, which is generously sent on infiltration, assault and consolidation missions. The results are, shall we say, limited, and the losses are high, partly due to the huge mortality rate among the wounded. The Russians are not thinking about evacuation under the tight deadlines.

> Russian losses in January-February equalled, and according to some reports, exceeded the number of recruits. Given that the problems of the Russian Armed Forces in the south will only grow, and in other areas there is no sign of a reduction in losses, the command will have to solve the problem of a multiple increase in recruitment as early as March. If this is not done, by the end of March the problem will begin to resemble a serious crisis.

> Options for solving the problem of recruitment in the Russian Armed Forces and what this may affect will be discussed in the morning posts.

Original: https://t.me/volyamedia/1933 (in Russian)

5 March 1953 marks the anniversary of death of one of the most ...

2026-03-05T08:10:10Z

5 March 1953 marks the anniversary of death of one of the most bloody tyrants of 20th century, Joseph #Stalin - here's how #Ukraine emigrants in US celebrated his death:

The Embassy of #Iran in South Africa sent a message to the ...

2026-03-04T21:43:53Z

The Embassy of #Iran in South Africa sent a message to the Embassy of #Ukraine informing us about the opening of a book of condolences for the deceased ayatollah and his associates. Ukrainian Ambassador Dr. Olexander Scherba sent them a response.

> Your Excellency, Mr. Ambassador,

> Since you notified the Embassy of Ukraine of the book of condolences for the deceased Ayatollah Khamenei and Iran’s military leadership, I feel compelled to remind you of the following.

> As military allies of the Russian Federation, the deceased leaders of Iran had on their hands the blood of thousands of Ukrainian citizens – men and women, children and elderly – killed with the help of the infamous Iran-made “Shahed” drones and other military know-how so eagerly provided to Russia by your government. Your leaders were complicit in bringing endless grief to Ukrainian civilians.

> Being a person of faith, I try not to rejoice in the death of other people, even those who chose to be tormentors of my country, who did nothing bad to theirs. But as someone who has spent three years to the tune of Iran-created machines of death howling every night in the sky over Kyiv and other peaceful Ukrainian cities, I cannot help but wish for every culprit to meet the justice they deserve. If not by human law, then in the face of God Almighty.

> Ambassador, I do not know you personally and have no grudge against you. Sometimes, good diplomats must speak for bad leaders and their policies. But I hope you understand that I won’t express condolences for someone whose death I do not mourn.

> Sincerely, Dr. Olexander Scherba, Ambassador

An interesting case study in drone wars - last year #Germany ...

2026-03-04T10:56:46Z

An interesting case study in drone wars - last year #Germany passed a series of Helsing HX-2 assault drones (X-wing style) to #Ukraine, and these were susceptible to jamming and electronic warfare (EW), duly reported by #Russia channels with jokes and ironic comments.

German manufacturer took the feedback from Ukrainian army, improved the firmware and a new wave of comments from Russians emerged, complaining that XC-2 are now highly effective in destroying air-defense systems which they believed were protected by their EW. An additional feature of XC-2 is that they switch off engines in the last phase of flight, which means the characteristic warning buzzing sound is absent, which makes the attack much more unexpected.

Contrast this with another drone manufacturer, this time from the US, who also passed series of their drones to Ukraine, which had the same problems. They were returned to the manufacturer with number of notes and suggestions, which were... ignored. US company probably decided that fine-tuning software for an "overseas client" is too expensive and they just decided it's not their market.

Wow... "we are anti-nuclear"... I haven't seen many ...

2026-03-03T22:00:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…4dar
_________________________

Wow... "we are anti-nuclear"... I haven't seen many such open declarations of being pseudo-scientific climate deniers so far.

#Russia discovering the old proverb about your own medicine.... ...

2026-03-03T17:05:24Z

#Russia discovering the old proverb about your own medicine....

Dynamics of occupation per month, km2 - X axis is months, last ...

2026-03-02T13:34:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…h0ge
_________________________

Dynamics of occupation per month, km2 - X axis is months, last month on the right is February 2026 with 126 km2 per the above Petrenko text.

This comes from another Ukrainian OSINT channel OsintFlow https://t.me/osintflow_team/13161

#Ukraine analyst Petrenko noted an interesting change in the ...

2026-03-02T13:02:49Z

#Ukraine analyst Petrenko noted an interesting change in the #Russia attacks - the _number_ of their attacks has dropped only negligibly (-4%) but their _outcomes_ has dropped dramatically - in February Russian forces only managed to capture 126 km2 (that's a 10x12 km polygon), that's the lowest since 2024.

Source: https://t.me/petrenko_iHS/11469

"To all influencers and other tax exiles in Dubai, the tax ...

2026-03-01T18:08:17Z

"To all influencers and other tax exiles in Dubai, the tax authorities wish you a safe return to France"

General Roman Demurchiev, 49, enjoys a good reputation within the ...

2026-02-20T12:15:47Z

General Roman Demurchiev, 49, enjoys a good reputation within the #Russia military. Now his private messages archive had been leaked:

> The archive, obtained from a source within the Ukrainian military, contains not only messages but also videos and photographs documenting the torture and killing of Ukrainian service members. In his exchanges with fellow officers and his wife, the general repeatedly mentioned the severed ears of Ukrainian POWs. As proof of his claims, Demurchiev shared graphic photographs. In one such exchange with his wife, he sent a photo of several ears and said he would “string them into a garland and give them as a gift.”

Source: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2026/02/20/a-russian-general-promoted-by-putin-sent-his-wife-a-photo-of-severed-ears-taken-from-ukrainian-pows-she-said-they-reminded-her-of-beer-snacks-rfe-rl-has-the-messages

Interesting case from #CERN where #Russia team leaving the ...

2026-02-20T09:08:06Z

Interesting case from #CERN where #Russia team leaving the project sabotaged continued operations of the module they delivered by refusing to supply documentation on its operations, thus threatening continuity of the project:

> When CERN definitively ended its cooperation with Russia, engineers were left with Russian equipment for which complete documentation was lacking. Shutting down the equipment threatened to paralyse the key ALICE experiment. That's when the Poles stepped in, figured out how the Russian equipment worked, reverse engineered it, and not only saved the project, but became key players in the Large Hadron Collider. Krystian Rosłon from the Warsaw University of Technology revealed the details of this incredible operation to the PAP Nauka news agency.

Source: https://spidersweb.pl/2026/02/rosjanie-cern-odejscie-polacy-zlamali.html (in Polish)

#Poland PISM analyst Daniel Szeligowski on #Russia & #Ukraine ...

2026-02-20T08:47:25Z

#Poland PISM analyst Daniel Szeligowski on #Russia & #Ukraine "peace negotiations"

> Let's get some basic facts straight again, or who is "going to have to get moving" and come to the negotiating table.

> In early 2014, Ukraine was a neutral country, led by a pro-Russian president, with around 70% of the population opposed to NATO membership. Yet Russia violated Ukraine's neutrality, annexed Crimea, and then launched a covert invasion in eastern Ukraine.

> Petro Poroshenko won 2014 presidential election after campaigning on a settlement with Russia and preserving a special status for the Russian language. He was initially sceptical about NATO membership and emphasized Ukraine had to rely primarily on its own army to ensure security.

> Volodymyr Zelensky also won the presidency promising compromise with Russia - with politically naive statements to stop the shooting, sit down with Putin, and talk. He was even more sceptical about NATO membership than Poroshenko, once saying he never visits anyone unless invited.

> Zelensky went to the Paris summit with Putin in December 2019 with a conciliatory position. He genuinely wanted to reach an agreement and was ready to make concessions. Later on, he negotiated multiple ceasefires, and even began withdrawing troops from the then front line.

> Zelensky was also ready to drop Ukraine's NATO bid in exchange for a Russian troop withdrawal from Ukraine's territory, and talks were already underway before 2022. Yet Putin still launched a full-scale invasion.

> A few hours before the Russian attack, on the night of 23/24 February 2022, Zelensky called the Kremlin to propose negotiations once again. But no one picked up. Predictably, Putin chose war over diplomacy.

> Immediately after the invasion, Zelensky declared readiness to negotiate with Russia without any preconditions. Instead of accepting the offer, Putin sent his stooge Medinsky to present Ukraine with what amounted to a capitulation ultimatum.

> In the first weeks of the invasion, Zelensky repeatedly signaled readiness to drop Ukraine's NATO bid, but sought international security guarantees. Yet Putin demanded Russia be consulted before any assistance is given to Ukraine in case of aggression, and he broke off the talks.

> Putin has so far shown no willingness to compromise with Ukraine. His war aims remain maximalist - subjugating Ukraine and changing its regime. He seeks Ukraine's partition and turning what remains into a Russian protectorate. He has absolutely no real interest in Donbas.

> The U.S. side's messaging on peace talks is pure abstraction - it amounts to an attempt to construct a parallel reality. Putin has not changed his position on compromise with Ukraine, and the supposed technical concessions are meant to mislead inexperienced American negotiators.

> Zelensky has repeatedly shown readiness to negotiate, from early compromise offers to dropping the NATO bid. Ukraine has come to the table more than once. It is Putin who must eventually come to the table, yet current U.S. policy signals to him that he still doesn't have to.

Source: https://xcancel.com/dszeligowski/status/2024100117280690270?s=20

Yesterday #Russia dropped a ODAB-1500, a one-and-a-half-tonne ...

2026-02-13T10:37:24Z

Yesterday #Russia dropped a ODAB-1500, a one-and-a-half-tonne aerial glide bomb, on the centre of #Kramatorsk, but it did not explode.

If it had exploded, today we would be reading about dozens, if not hundreds, of victims, because the bomb fell during the day in a residential area with several supermarkets, where there are usually crowds of people.

There are no military facilities there, so it can be assumed that the sole purpose of the bombing was to terrorise the approximately 40,000 civilians remaining in the Kramatorsk agglomeration, just as the Russians did in Mariupol.

Source: https://uazmi.com/news/post/b89e4d93846d23c24dfdba3a9e0f29af

#Ukraine Defence Intelligence has pre-emptively exposed a ...

2026-02-11T08:14:34Z

#Ukraine Defence Intelligence has pre-emptively exposed a large-scale Russian hybrid information operation planned before and during the Munich Security Conference (13–15 February 2026).

Russia is attempting to weaponise so-called “pacifist” movements in Europe to launder its war crimes, weaken democratic resolve, and pressure governments into cutting support for Ukraine.

Key individuals involved have been identified by Ukrainian intelligence:

- Elena Kolbasnikova — organiser of anti-Ukraine protests in Cologne and Düsseldorf, openly supports the Kremlin; received Russian citizenship in 2023.
- Max Schlund — her partner and coordinator of pro-Kremlin rallies in Germany, linked to Russian proxy networks and so-called “Cossack” structures.
- Vyacheslav Seeswald — a central distributor of Kremlin narratives within the Friedensbewegung network, operating via Telegram; maintains contacts with Russian intelligence and European far-right groups.

After searches by German prosecutors in 2024 over suspected illegal weapons possession, Kolbasnikova and Schlund fled to #Russia, further confirming their operational role.

Narratives Moscow is pushing:

– “Supporting Ukraine will trigger World War III”
– “NATO and the EU are the real aggressors”
– “Russia poses no threat to Europe”

Of course, these are not "peace" initiatives - by thwarting Europe's defense they are enabling Russia's aggression just like in the good old times, when Soviet rockets installed in Eastern Europe were presented as "peaceful" while Western rockets were "imperialist" 😄

What is exactly your problem here? Matrix is an encrypted ...

2026-02-10T09:34:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…3ldr
_________________________

What is exactly your problem here? Matrix is an encrypted messaging _standard_ - as a maintainer of an Internet standard quite natural to sell consulting services to commercial clients, including your government. This is exactly the same case with HTTP or SMTP, which are widely used by governments and law enforcement, so why single out IM?

Element (npub1tcc…4342)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei #Lavrov stated that Russia ...

2026-02-09T23:18:14Z

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei #Lavrov stated that Russia accepted US proposals on Ukraine made during the meeting between #Putin and #Trump in #Anchorage, but Washington is now unprepared to implement its own suggestions.

That's a truly beautiful manipulation on the part of the Russians! For several weeks now, they have been consistently referring publicly to the ‘Anchorage agreements’.

The problem is that, in Anchorage of all places, no agreements were made, and they certainly were not communicated publicly by the heads of state. The meeting in Anchorage was described as ‘ended prematurely’, with both presidents mumbling some platitudes about ‘productive talks’, which was clearly interpreted as ‘no deal’.[^1]

Referring to these ‘agreements’ that never existed, Putin can now just as well say that Trump promised him half of Alaska and Ivanka for his fourth wife, and then claim that ‘according to the agreements in Anchorage’ they were again ‘cheated and deceived’ (Putin's favourite phrase when things don't go his way).

[^1]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gj9er0x0zo

Much recommended analysis of #Chomsky dealings with #Epstein over ...

2026-02-04T06:15:53Z

Much recommended analysis of #Chomsky dealings with #Epstein over the years, which not only sheds light on how the “world’s brightest intellectual” relied on a sexual predator on his tax evasion but also his persistent amplification of #Russia lies about #Syria and #Ukraine

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/03/epstein-files-noam-chomsky

Shaun Pinner: "Russian politician admits Putin’s war in ...

2026-02-02T14:20:27Z

Shaun Pinner: "Russian politician admits Putin’s war in Ukraine has failed" - but it's really a much longer analysis of #Russia and #Putin personal failure to deliver the 'victory' everyone was counting on

https://londonlovesbusiness.com/russian-politician-admits-putins-war-in-ukraine-has-failed/

In the Fawlty Towers there's my favourite episodes "The ...

2026-01-27T15:22:58Z

In the Fawlty Towers there's my favourite episodes "The Psychiatrists" with the famous phrase "we could make a whole conference on what we've seen here" (or something like that). One could also make a whole psychiatric conference based on the results of social polls conducted in #Russia - #German _Der Spiegel_ interviewed Lev Gudkov, director of the “Levada Center” — public opinion research institute in Russia — about Russian attitudes after nearly four years of war.

So, 66% support the Abu Dhabi negotiations, while only 26% favor continuing the war — the lowest figure since 2022.

At the same time **majority of Russians pin their hopes on Donald Trump and the U.S. to pressure #Ukraine to concessions because they believe the war will end only on Putin’s terms and that Ukraine will surrender.**

Now, this one could be a foundation of some Biblical parable - things are really bad for the Russians if they see Trump (!) as the saviour of their president, who, as a result of his own stupidity, has got himself into a total mess he can't get out from himself... 😂

Please appreciate the poetry of this situation: **a dull, aggressive braggart who proclaims himself king of the village, attacks his neighbour, who seems weak to him, but instead of a quick victory, he gets a fabulous beating and runs crying for help to the bipolar sheriff, whom he has alternately mocked and flattered**.

From the other news, 70% Russians would approve halting the war now, yet 60% would not agree to withdrawing Russian troops, and 80% blame the U.S., 70% blame NATO but only 6–8% blame Russia itself. As I said, a whole psychiatric conference...🤦

Source: https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/russland-meinungsforscher-die-russen-sind-ueberzeugt-dass-die-ukraine-kapitulieren-wird-a-ad0bc885-cd54-4221-9079-d16315a6ead6 (in German)

One day after US took ownership over TikTok subsidiary in the US, ...

2026-01-26T23:52:04Z

One day after US took ownership over TikTok subsidiary in the US, they didn't open it to the famous First Amendment but rather did the opposite - brought Chinese censorship to the US 😂

EU Council votes to phase out Russian gas by 1st January 2027 ...

2026-01-26T16:23:39Z

EU Council votes to phase out Russian gas by 1st January 2027

> Today, the heads of the 27 EU Member states voted to adopt a regulation to phase out imports of Russian gas into the EU by 2027, by overwhelming majority.

> A full ban on Russian LNG will be in effect starting 2027, with Russian pipeline gas following suit third quarter 2027.

Source: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2026/01/26/russian-gas-imports-council-gives-final-greenlight-to-a-stepwise-ban/

Yesterday's #Russia military correspondent Anatoliy Radov has ...

2026-01-26T10:11:03Z

Yesterday's #Russia military correspondent Anatoliy Radov has ‘little good news’ and the situation is ‘becoming increasingly difficult’ for their soldiers due to ‘counterattacks by the khokhols’ [Ukrainians - insult].

However, Radov's moaning is surpassed by Russian writer German Sadulayev, who complains that **‘Ukrainian UAV operators only attack our soldiers, like some kind of monsters, and they even get points for it!’** unlike “ours” who ‘prefer to attack equipment and weapons’ 🤦 Yes German, especially in #Kherson where 'your guys' happily attack civilians for being 'disguised ZSU soldiers' and your aviation which attempts to freeze Ukrainian civilians to death. Attacking civilians in towns is _so much_ more honorable than 'monstrous' attacks on actual combatants in the actual battlefield.

Also, Sadulayev does not consider the most obvious solution – **if Russian soldiers do not storm Ukrainian territory, no one will attack them** 🤷

Meanwhile, Ilia Tumanov, ‘Fighterbomber,’ comments on the complaints of #Belgorod residents about **aerial bombs that continue to fall on the city — Russian bombs,** of course, usually UMPK glide bombs, which are falling short while launching them at #Ukraine.

Tumanov writes that unfortunately this is how it has to be because the 'industry is producing them at an express pace', which ‘must affect quality’, and the ground and air crews 'are overworked', so mistakes happen. And since the bombs are falling on the city, this is apparently the most convenient route for their drop, and 'you just have to be patient'.

P.S. I've checked Radov today as he promised more news, but not yet.

A Moscow military court has sentenced a Ukrainian commander to ...

2026-01-23T10:11:24Z

A Moscow military court has sentenced a Ukrainian commander to life in prison in absentia for the 2022 sinking of the Black Sea Fleet’s flagship, "Moskva" - but that's not what is really funny in this story...

What is really funny is that the **court’s official press release admitted for the first time that the vessel was destroyed by a missile strike**.

> "The 2nd Western District Military Court has, in absentia, rendered a verdict against Andrey Shubin, commander of military unit A-2062, the 406th Separate Artillery Brigade of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who on April 2 and April 13, 2022, issued orders to his subordinates to carry out missile strikes against the frigate Admiral Essen and the Guards Missile Cruiser Moskva, which **were performing humanitarian missions** in neutral waters of the Black Sea to ensure the safety of civilian shipping and to guard the gas production facility “Odesskoye.”

Yes, you read that right - they were "performing humanitarian missions" 😂

> As a result of the missile strike carried out on April 2 , 2022, the frigate "Admiral Essen" sustained damage and one member of its crew was wounded. On April 13, 2022, a missile strike using two missiles was carried out against the Guards Missile Cruiser "Moskva"", as a result of whose explosions a fire broke out on the vessel accompanied by smoke filling the internal compartments. As a consequence of the explosions, fire, and smoke inhalation, **20 members of the cruiser’s crew died, 24 crew members sustained bodily injuries of varying severity, and eight persons went missing**, including during efforts to preserve the ship’s survival, which lasted more than six hours."

These paragraphs were later deleted from the court statement as if it changed anything 😄

https://en.zona.media/article/2026/01/22/moskva

Danish CEO Lars Christensen posted the following statement about ...

2026-01-22T07:11:01Z

Danish CEO Lars Christensen posted the following statement about the change in US policy and I think it somewhat reflects how Europe sees the ongoing situation. There’s counter arguments to that - criticism in the Congress, the Senate, the individual States, and thin majority by which #Trump won in 2024. But there’s also arguments in support - support for Trump in the same Congress and Senate, and escalating ICE violence that marks a change in internal just as in foreign policy of the US. All following text is quote from Christensen without block quote for readability:

The problem isn't Trump. The problem is the US.

When the outside world observes Trump's insane behaviour and his threats against allies, and we at the same time observe that there is no real action from the US public, Congress, the US Supreme Court, or the US media about this insanity, we will all have to conclude that the US accepts this behaviour.

The public in the US think the US is entitled to a certain position in the world where there is no room for decent behaviour and where there are no norms and rules.

That means that we all have to conclude that the US — not only Trump — has betrayed the international order that the US, with its Western partners, were the main architects of after the Second World War.

This is the conclusion that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney so clearly laid out in his speech at Davos yesterday. We simply cannot trust the US to play by the rules any more. Therefore, we also fundamentally have to ask ourselves — should we trust the financial and economic structure which is an integral part of the global rules-based order?

Americans live in the illusion that the US can do everything on its own, despite the fact that the US for nearly 20 years has lived beyond its means.

US private and government consumption has been funded by, among others, European central banks and pension funds. But we now have to ask ourselves — why would we trade in dollars? Why would we put our savings into US Treasury bonds?

If the US is not a rules-based society, we cannot trust the dollar to be a stable currency, and it would be insane to hold dollars. As domestic US institutions are eroded and governance structures destroyed, the US will be turned into an emerging market economy — or more accurately, a de-merging economy.

If the US threatens the territory of allies, then the US acts as an authoritarian bully nation. Nobody in their right mind would lend money to the US government. If the US doesn't live up to its international obligations and respect the sovereignty of other nations, why would we expect the US government to honour its debts?

If Trump can tariff nations that will not give up their territory, then there is certainly no reason to believe that the US will not introduce capital controls. And if that is a risk, why would you risk investing in the US?

It is not a question about Europe standing up to the US. It is a question about being prudent with our investments — about reducing risks.

Every day Trump remains in office, distrust of the US increases, and the cost for the US will go up day by day. And this is irreversible. It takes years to build trust, but you can destroy it by your actions in minutes.

Europe has now completely lost trust in the US. And so has Canada. It is up to the people of the US to demonstrate that Trump is an 'outlier', and it is up to the American people to stop him.

If you don't do that, we will have to assume that this is what the US is about — whether the name of the President is Trump or something else, whether the President is a Republican or a Democrat.

Source: https://x.com/mamomvpy/status/2014020721819726327?s=46

#IAEA Rafeal M. Gossi today: > Several Ukrainian electrical ...

2026-01-20T15:21:03Z

#IAEA Rafeal M. Gossi today:

> Several Ukrainian electrical substations vital for nuclear safety were affected by widespread military activity this morning. Chernobyl NPP lost all off-site power and power lines to other NPPs were also impacted. The IAEA is actively following developments in order to assess impact on nuclear safety.

Note #Russia did not hit the plants themselves, they just substations routing electricity to the plants and connecting them to the grid. As of 2026 #Ukraine the #nuclear power plants are the only power plants that are operational, as #Russia has damaged everything else - coal, gas, wind, solar, hydro etc. - clearly expressing its goal being to "freeze the hell out of Ukrainians" and force them into capitulation.

This indicates how desperate Putin is, given that his 2025 offensive failed to deliver any breakthroughs or even highly visible results on the ground. At the same time, it yielded a very tangible loss of manpower, with Putin's only tactics seeming to be "one more push, victory is just behind the corner", putting all Russia's economy at stake, and that going on for four years now.

The problem is that apparently it still didn't get through to Kremlin that since at least a year Ukraine _does_ have means to retaliate - that is, weapons able to reach high value targets deep inside Russia and able to saturate Russian air defense in a way similar to what Russians are doing with their swarms of long-range drones.

I'm a bit surprised today's Gossi's news haven't caused much more decisive response from world's leaders because the direction Russians are heading to is very dangerous one - and it will be exclusively on them.

Debata o DSA i "cenzury", polecam szczególnie wypowiedź ...

2026-01-14T19:07:59Z

Debata o DSA i "cenzury", polecam szczególnie wypowiedź Katarzyny Szymielewicz z Panoptykon (npub1yct…n02a) od ok 70 minuty

https://www.polsatnews.pl/wideo-program/debata-gozdyry-12012026_6856817/

Nariman Gharib, an #Iran cyber-espionage expert (on exile): > ...

2026-01-14T18:27:38Z

Nariman Gharib, an #Iran cyber-espionage expert (on exile):

> Obtained #Starlink terminal debug data from Iran during the ongoing internet shutdown.

> The telemetry shows direct evidence of GPS spoofing: the dish detected 18 #GPS satellites with valid signal lock, but activated its anti-spoofing countermeasures (inhibitGps: true). This isn't simple jamming; the government appears to be broadcasting fake GPS signals to confuse terminals.

> The impact: 20%+ sustained packet loss, connection never stabilized after 24 minutes, bandwidth restricted, and beam pointing ~1° off target. Starlink stayed online but was barely usable.

> The anti-spoofing detection works, but SpaceX's fallback positioning can't currently maintain normal performance under electronic warfare.

> First documented technical evidence of state-level GPS spoofing against consumer satellite internet.

https://github.com/narimangharib/starlink-iran-gps-spoofing/blob/main/starlink-iran.md

Accelor Mittal and EDF in #France signed a 18-years long ...

2026-01-13T07:34:38Z

Accelor Mittal and EDF in #France signed a 18-years long agreement for low-carbon electricity supplies from #nuclear power plants to steel works which will allow production of competitively priced and low-emission steel in Europe. I guess #CBAM will also help economics of that production, which finally could make European industry actually show to others how to run a low-carbon industry rather than show to avoid it by replacing local production by not so clean imports from China.

The US is not a totalitarian state — yet. But recent events ...

2026-01-10T10:38:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…yfhm
_________________________

The US is not a totalitarian state — yet. But recent events clearly show the direction in which Vance wants to take the country, although they're not there yet. What happens next depends entirely on the American people. They are now at a critical juncture.

Having followed events in Russia since the 1990s, I can see the pattern that Vance is following because Putin did the same in the 2000s. He started by questioning the purpose of the law, which 'paralysed' law enforcement in truly terrible cases, such as terrorism (conveniently created by the FSB for him in 1999). He then gradually relaxed the idea of an independent media, of course 'for the greater good'.

Both the independent media and the courts were gradually taken over over the course of ten years, until they were micromanaged from the Kremlin in the literal sense of the word. They still functioned normally in 90% of cases, such as minor car damage, but the 10% of cases critical for the rule of law were already under control. Then it gradually expanded to every aspect of life — basically, if the 'right person' hits your car, they always go free.

I think Vance loves Putin's decisiveness — he loves the fact that Putin can decide who does what and who goes where with one decree. This pattern is clearly evident in the actions of ICE, which seem intended to mirror the roles played by 'Rosgvardia' and 'Kadyrovtsy' in Russia. This involves the merciless enforcement of Vance's policies outside of any laws or social norms.

#Germany military analyst C Schmidt ran some simulations on the ...

2026-01-10T09:32:30Z

#Germany military analyst C Schmidt ran some simulations on the recent launch of #Russia "Oreshnik" rocket and came to a conclusion that:

> German Arrow 3 would launch to intercept approximately with Oreshnik surrogate SS-X-31/RS-26 Rubezh approximately 1500km over Warsaw. Launch site Kaputsin Yar. Intercept happens about 590km Alt Exo-Atmospheric east of Poznan.

So downing the Russian rocket that they advertise as "impossible to intercept" seems to be entirely doable - that's in the context of the periodic Russian threats to military bases in Poland. I think EU could also intercept the Russian rockets over Ukraine, but not sure where that would need to happen geographically (launch site).

The Arrow 3 system is jointly produced by #Israel and US, and is one of the few systems specialised in intercepting exoatmospheric ballistic missiles such as "Oreshnik".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_3

Map of ongoing #Iran protests - it’s not some localised ...

2026-01-10T06:26:06Z

Map of ongoing #Iran protests - it’s not some localised incidents, it’s now most of the country. Trigger of the protests was economic but people also hate the Islamic dictatorship with public hangings, whippings, beating and killing of women who dare to expose their hair, all enforced by corrupt Guards of the Revolution.
https://akkoma-media.obj.krvtz.net/akkoma-media/754e7ee5d2c44b828373b2f7050c7a094b1fa158ee0b9f812d5df41ef1e9dfa0.file?name=SMS6BX6judoyBA.file

#Ukraine Kryvyi Rih, 40,000 homes are without electricity and ...

2026-01-09T05:27:05Z

#Ukraine Kryvyi Rih, 40,000 homes are without electricity and 2,500 high-rise buildings are without heat, the city’s Defense Council reported. #Russia struck apartment buildings in Kryvyi Rih with two Iskander missiles. 13 people injured, including boys aged 7 and 16, One man is in extremely serious condition.

Russians routinely use this tactics - hitting civilian buildings - to divert emergency services from rescuing any industrial objects as civilians have absolute priority.

In #Kyiv three people have been killed and six injured in a Russian attack residential and administration buildings. A repeated double-tap strike hit a high-rise building in Kyiv killed one medic was killed, and several medical workers were injured while responding to the scene.

#Lviv was attacked using a 13'000 km/h ballistic missile, possibly "Oreshnik" which targeted gas storage and heating infrastructure. The time of the strike is not accidental as it coincides with frosty weather, matching earlier Russian threats to 'make Ukrainian towns unsuitable for living'.

***As I wrote over a year ago, Russia's methods will become much more merciless the more they will sense they're losing the war, which they've lost strategically long ago.**

That's what Russian Empire was always doing - once they make a decision to subjugate someone, they start from persuasion and poorly masked threats and then **the only algorithm they know is escalation of violence**, at any cost, including for themselves. This _sometimes_ works, especially with weak opponents. But his is not the case this time.

As opposed to past winters however, there's now a significant difference - Ukraine now has means for retaliatory strikes, whose effects we have already seen in the spike of burning Russian refineries for all the past year and in the recent three days closed sky over Moscow or occasional blackouts in Russian towns.

This winter Russians may actually get the taste of their own medicine they've been mercilessly applying to Ukrainian civilians for the last four years.

UK conservative "The Telegraph" describes the debate of ...

2026-01-09T04:52:46Z

UK conservative "The Telegraph" describes the debate of #Grok nude photos generation recently enabled by #Twitter that may potentially end in simply banning the platform in the UK, if other legal instruments fail.

I'm not sure if I'm reading the tone of "Telegraph" correctly, but they describe Starmer's arguments from a rather impartial angle even though I don't think the Labour PM is their favourite politician. But in the UK privacy, especially children's, is treated _very_ seriously - you can't make photos in school without explicit permission from kids and parents, and that's a policy I personally like.

And here comes an US sociopath who opens no more no less than a dream tool for pervs and pedos to be available for everyone just because... I don't know, he likes it or it gives his platform more engagements?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/01/08/musks-x-could-be-banned-in-britain-over-ai-chatbot-row/

Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/qssiq

This one - that was May 2014, Odesa, Ukraina. Russian activist ...

2026-01-08T19:17:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…qvmh
_________________________

This one - that was May 2014, Odesa, Ukraina. Russian activist Gennady Kushnarev screams is "Odessa is a Russian town, we will shot them like dogs", in a very similar tone and mimic. What followed was a lot of violence, in which he ultimately died himself.

https://video.echelon.pl/w/t1GKZjkuxhw92g2NRJfKnQ

#MAGA activist in #Minneapolis screaming in front of police ...

2026-01-08T19:16:20Z

#MAGA activist in #Minneapolis screaming in front of police cordon:

> The storm is here! Listen all you communist liberals. No one can stop what is coming! We executed one of you yesterday!

I have another very similar video, another place, another time. Will post it next.

Wikileaks cable from the United Kingdom diplomat from 2004 about ...

2026-01-08T13:54:11Z

Wikileaks cable from the United Kingdom diplomat from 2004 about #Poland "being paranoid about Russian intentions" to reabsorb #Belarus and #Ukraine sound a bit different today than they sounded back then, don't they? 😉

> means take from those who have more and give to those who ...

2026-01-07T22:58:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…xg64
_________________________

> means take from those who have more and give to those who have less

Yes, that's the fundamental role of taxes. We build roads, schools, electric grid, hospitals etc for that money because someone long ago noticed it's stupid waste of money for everyone to build each of these separately. Adam's Smith "Theory of Moral Sentiments" and "The Wealth of Nations" are probably the first systematic and very insightful introductions into these concepts - except they need to read in full, not through cherry-picked quotes from the latter as done by the illiterate libertatians these days.

> Also, I am a Platonist, not a Christian.

Well, you can only be a Platonist between Christian, can't you? Just like most Western communists are communists only because they live in the West, not in the actual communist shitholes 😉

Шуро (npub1fzq…zc8g)

Okay, that's what I've already said about the peculiar ...

2026-01-07T17:27:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…h2uv
_________________________

Okay, that's what I've already said about the peculiar American definition of "socialism". I appreciate your system of values but I believe it's too Darwinian and this dog-eat-dog competition eats too much people's resources which eventually hinders progress. This looks especially sad when I see people who e..g get cancer and are forced to run fundraisers to survive. In Europe we tend to follow the Christian values where caring for each other is seen as value beneficial for everyone - maybe something for you to consider is to re-read the Bible, but focusing on the New Testament this time.

Шуро (npub1fzq…zc8g)

#Cologne #Germany, a woman is screaming "Free Palestine" ...

2026-01-07T14:32:38Z

#Cologne #Germany, a woman is screaming "Free Palestine" at a small group of Iranians who are protesting against the repressions and killing of protesters in #Iran

I'm wondering what could possible trigger the association in her brain between a) Iranian regime killing protesters in Iran, b) Israel war crimes in #Palestine 🤔

The only thing that comes is the Iranian funding and weapons for #Hamas but I'm sure she wouldn't be so cynical, would she?

#Russia media moan that #Ukraine drones practically imposed a ...

2026-01-07T08:32:19Z

#Russia media moan that #Ukraine drones practically imposed a no-fly zone over key #Moscow airports for the last few days, just as the New Year to Orthodox Christmas drinking period started.

I believe this is actually very beneficial for Russians, who all the time boast about being so much focused on family values and traditional values, as opposed to the decaying gay Europe. You should spend Christmas at home, enjoying your family values rather than flying here and there, especially to the Islamic countries like UAE or Turkey.

It also creates an excellent opportunity for making children to compensate for the demographic loss caused by the invasion on #Ukraine - which, by the way, can't fly anywhere since 2022 due to your invasion 🤷

Well, I can only refer you to the Dembinsky's book because he ...

2026-01-07T07:38:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…c6kj
_________________________

Well, I can only refer you to the Dembinsky's book because he goes into great detail about semantics.

In short, since the very definition of "communism" was never precisely defined - and this even more applies to "socialism" - you can't really conduct any precise compliance audit here. The question "was it _proper_ communism" is irrelevant if anyone defines the term differently and using vague terms.

What you can check is whether the Bolshevik followed a very concrete recipe defined by their saints, namely Marx, Engels and Lenin - and they very much did. They conducted a violent revolution, that Marx and Engels were obsessed about, they introduced the dictatorship of the proletariat and planned economy that was supposed to be superior to the 'wasteful' capitalism.

The fact that at the end of the road, following the recipe, they got a piece of shit instead of an utopian paradise is not the problem with their loyalty to the principles but indicates a broader problem with the very recipe...

P.S. here's article I wrote a while about about the semantic mess around these terms

https://write.as/arcadian/pragmatism-and-dogmatism-in-economy-capitalism-versus-socialism

Why might former communist countries be slightly skeptical of ...

2026-01-07T04:58:15Z

Why might former communist countries be slightly skeptical of #communism 🤔

It's refreshing to see someone present a consistent analysis ...

2026-01-06T10:43:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…8n95
_________________________

It's refreshing to see someone present a consistent analysis of today's systematic overloading of the term 'fascist' which has now just recently seen its 80-th anniversary following a very similar publication by no one else but George Orwell https://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/efasc 🤦

The more #Russia General Staff announces "full control" ...

2026-01-05T21:56:17Z

The more #Russia General Staff announces "full control" over the town of #Kupyansk, the more the control expands in favour of #Ukraine ZSU 🤔 Source: StorMap

Following official recognition of the State of #Palestine by ...

2026-01-05T19:19:45Z

Following official recognition of the State of #Palestine by United Kingdom, an embassy has opened in London

https://news.sky.com/story/palestinian-embassy-in-london-opens-in-historic-moment-13490822

#Ukraine events were overshadowed by Venezuela, but there are ...

2026-01-04T21:14:06Z

#Ukraine events were overshadowed by Venezuela, but there are some good news from the front lines:

- ZSU counterattacked in #Dibrova
- Artillery shelling of Ukrainian positions in north-west part of #Pokrovsk were recorded, implying continued ZSU presence in the town
- ZSU counterattacked in #Vishneve
- ZSU counterattacked in #Reznikovka
- ZSU continues presence in the center of #Huliaipolie (most of the town was lost due to collapse of one of ZSU units in December)

Maps from Stormap.

A long read about the insides of Trump policy on #Ukraine and ...

2026-01-01T16:03:37Z

A long read about the insides of Trump policy on #Ukraine and #Russia - this is probably the most intriguing fragment:

> But in secret, the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. military, with his blessing, supercharged a Ukrainian campaign of drone strikes on Russian oil facilities and tankers to hobble Mr. Putin’s war machine.

I'm wondering about timing - why it was published now, just after Trump lashed out on Putin yesterday? I very much hope it's not merely a coincidence...

Original: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/30/world/europe/ukraine-war-us-russia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.A1A.VjpY.B0eaU75NQRZz&smid=url-share

Archived: https://archive.is/cZGNJ

Well, the first thing you discover when looking at Bolshevism ...

2026-01-01T15:03:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…qxfe
_________________________

Well, the first thing you discover when looking at Bolshevism from a critical angle is that it was also deeply nationalist in spite of declarative internationalism 😉 They simply invented the new, Soviet aggregate quasi-national identity, and mercilessly pushed that as any other nationalist movement.

This book was a kind of enlightenment for me:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cogs-Wheel-Formation-Soviet-Man/dp/0394569261

> Nazis had their plans to conquer the "Lebensraum ...

2026-01-01T13:37:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…t06d
_________________________

> Nazis had their plans to conquer the "Lebensraum Osten" for a long time.

Of course, but to no less this extends to Soviet plans to conquer Europe or, as they worded it, "spread the proletarian revolution". They already tried in 1918 but were stopped in Poland, but never abandoned their plans. The whole Warsaw Pact WW3 plan was specifically about leveling NATO defenses in Central Europe using nuclear weapons and move Westwards at full speed.

> it could have been also preparation for a pre-emptive attack on highly expansionist Germany.

No dispute here - I'm just explaining the context of that statement, because while Suvorov's theory is controversial, the main controversy is Soviet and Russian historians not liking it - his facts are solid and based on Soviet documents. Of course, they present many alternative explanations _why_ exactly USSR accumulated offensive weapons, but they're all a bit of a stretch. And no solid _evidence_ will be available any time soon - like concrete Soviet plans - simply because Putin has recently extended classification of all WW2 documents by another 50 years - guess why 😉

> this part of 20th century history are heavily influenced by ideology.

You won't find much ideology in Eastern European perception of Soviet occupation. They invaded us, killed us and then held as a workforce and resources colony for 50 years, very simple.

No, there's no Nazi whitewashing here - he doesn't deny ...

2026-01-01T10:06:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…05xh
_________________________

No, there's no Nazi whitewashing here - he doesn't deny Nazi war crimes, he's talking about a theory now fiercely contested by Russians but pretty well evidenced by Russian historian Viktor Suvorov that USSR actually prepared to attack Nazi Germany after they are weakened by their European offensive:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Suvorov#Works_about_World_War_II

Suvorov has a very simple rationale for his claims - **when Soviets were attacked in 1941 they had amassed strictly offensive weapons in the zone bordering with Germany, not defensive.** His whole book is filled with truly boring technical analysis of this stock. The primary question here is **why would Soviets amass strictly offensive weapons on German border**?

Serving the Soviets: The Long History of America Conspiring With ...

2025-12-31T05:54:59Z

Serving the Soviets: The Long History of America Conspiring With Russia

> Some people have professed surprise at Donald Trump's overt support for the Russian dictator; they deemed it unthinkable that a Republican America would aid and abet a seemingly eternal foe, the posthumous offspring of Soviet Russia. Having written books on the true history of the Soviet Union, I was not surprised in the least.

> In the past, the United States of America had already bailed out the Soviets, averting the demise of the red empire, no less than four times.

https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/saving-the-soviets-the-long-history

#Russia #USSR

#Russia "insider" analysis from INSIDER-T channel. Please ...

2025-12-29T14:57:18Z

#Russia "insider" analysis from INSIDER-T channel. Please note, as with any "insider" content it's unverifiable. I'm posting it because it describes a logic that is consistent with observable pattern of #Putin decisions:

> We spoke with a number of sources in political circles, and their assessments coincide: 2026 will not bring an end to the special military operation for Russians. On the contrary, the elites are convinced that next year will see an intensification of the conflict rather than its de-escalation.

> According to our interlocutors, Putin has staked everything on a military solution to all the tasks of the SVO. This applies not only to Donbas, but also to broader goals, extending as far as Odessa. Outwardly, the Kremlin continues to demonstrate moderate, ‘negotiable’ rhetoric towards the US and other players, but within the government there is no talk of a real peace. Any initiatives are either delayed or burdened with conditions that are obviously unacceptable to Kyiv.

> A telling example is Putin's recent statements. First, he agreed to Trump's framework plan, which envisages the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Donbas while maintaining Ukraine's control over the Zaporizhzhia region. The very next day, he reminded everyone that Russia's position had not changed since June 2024: the Ukrainian Armed Forces must leave all these regions. Within the elite circles, this is perceived as a deliberate tactic — creating the illusion of dialogue without giving up any of the maximum goals.

> According to sources, for Putin, the SVO has long gone beyond the scope of an ‘operation.’ It is the culmination of his political career. The goal is not simply to strengthen Russia's position, but to return what he considers to be historical territories. Economic costs and human losses are secondary in this logic and, in his estimation, incomparable to the effect of possible acquisitions. That is why even small settlements in Donbas are the scene of fierce fighting: the priority is not the territory itself, but the grinding down of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

> A separate factor is the question of succession. According to interlocutors, Putin considers it dangerous to leave office without bringing the SVO to its logical conclusion. An unresolved conflict makes the transition of power vulnerable for him personally. Hence the desire not just to fight, but to consolidate the results — both domestically and internationally, including a new configuration of relations with NATO.

> There is also talk behind the scenes that Putin does not plan to run for office in 2030. He wants to leave ‘at the peak,’ in a controlled and relatively stable state, without repeating the fate of late Soviet leaders. To do this, he needs to complete the SVO with maximum results and consolidate the gains. The most likely successor in elite circles is said to be Dyumin — it is no coincidence that, according to rumours, a PR team is already working in his entourage, carefully building a positive and ‘statesmanlike’ image.

> Therefore, the expectations within the elite are clear: 2026 is unlikely to be a year of peace. On the contrary, the conflict will gradually gain momentum, approaching its climax.

Source: https://t.me/insider_best_tg/5121 (in Russian)

#Ukraine

Joke but really funny, if you follow the environmental news on ...

2025-12-29T06:29:02Z

Joke but really funny, if you follow the environmental news on #nuclear 😆

In reality, radiation emissions from any coal-powered power plant are 100x higher per kWh produced due to fly ash release. Trace amounts of isotopes present in coal (and anything mined underground) multiplied by millions of ton actually make this number. What else releases isotopes? For example #geothermal — because half of the geothermal heat underground comes from radioactive decay, which has been long used for “radon spas” (with unproven health effects). Natural gas mining also releases radioactive isotopes as gas also contains radon. And then there’s rare earth metals mining used in all modern electronics, which always coexist with uranium etc.
https://akkoma-media.obj.krvtz.net/akkoma-media/be66f1ffc29f59cebfd4afe981f68d0cacfb03c57cfefbc5ed90e252400a5131.file?name=uN0YO0ujdz_08A.file

Modernised version of a 1920 #Poland poster produced during ...

2025-12-28T22:46:48Z

Modernised version of a 1920 #Poland poster produced during Bolshevik invasion on Warsaw. The original version featured Trotsky, who commanded the Red Army invading Poland at that time.

The small text reads:

```
The Bolsheviks promised:
We'll give you peace
We'll give you freedom
We'll give you land
Work and bread
Despicably they cheated
They started a war
With Poland
Instead of freedom they brought
The fist
Instead of land – confiscation
Instead of work – misery
Instead of bread – famine.
```
Credit: Bechatka (npub1s9n…8375)

Being aesthetically impaired I rarely post photos or art, but ...

2025-12-28T19:37:05Z

Being aesthetically impaired I rarely post photos or art, but this...

A Man Feeding Swans in the Snow, Poland | Marcin Ryczek

#Russia #Rosstat has published data on industrial production in ...

2025-12-28T12:38:10Z

#Russia #Rosstat has published data on industrial production in Russia for November 2025. And almost everywhere there has been a collapse. [Evgeny Istrebin analysed](https://t.me/istrebin/31290) the data for various industries. Everywhere there has been a decline of tens of per cent.

Machine building. November 2025 compared to November 2024

- Radiators -29%
- Boilers -29%
- Grates, meshes -15%
- Wire -25%
- Television receivers -34%
- Electric motors -6%
- Generators with internal combustion engines -30%
- Lead batteries -23% (for 11 months)
- Fibre optic cables -29%
- Pumps -38%
- Bearings -37%
- Tractors -61%
- Bulldozers -53%
- Elevators -37%
- Internal combustion engines -48%
- Passenger cars -34%
- Buses -17..-27%
- Trucks -43%
- Car bodies -37%
- Trailers -33%
- Electric locomotives -24%
- Tram cars -26%
- Passenger cars -40%
- Freight cars -44%

Chemical industry

- Sulphur -36%
- Chemical fibres -11%
- Tyres -29%
- Plastic pipes -13%
- Plates, sheets, film -9..-16%

Construction

- Ceramic tiles -13..-37%
- Ceramic bricks -19%
- Cement -10%
- Building bricks -14%
- Silicate wall blocks -20%
- Prefabricated blocks -16%
- Concrete -6.4%
- Pipes -13...-42%
- Radiators, boilers -29%

#economy

#Europe businesses seem to have finally reckoned the risks of ...

2025-12-27T14:34:32Z

#Europe businesses seem to have finally reckoned the risks of having critical supply chain dependencies on emotionally unstable US BigTech bosses and rather weird US laws..

> Any private contract between a European customer and a US cloud provider is ultimately subordinate to US federal law. A warrant issued under the CLOUD Act legally compels an American company to hand over data, overriding any contractual commitments of data residency or privacy.

> Furthermore, these warrants often come with a gag order, legally prohibiting the provider from informing their customer that their data has been accessed. This renders any contractual clauses requiring transparency or notification effectively meaningless.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/22/europe_gets_serious_about_cutting/

Objective metrics of the #Russia advances in #Ukraine ...

2025-12-27T06:21:25Z

Objective metrics of the #Russia advances in #Ukraine
https://akkoma-media.obj.krvtz.net/akkoma-media/d25671a703c7507781a491b1421d25bbd208b83f6ba31b561fc7e6a72ed55a39.file?name=W7Z-EzLB7Rfqqg.file

Happy #USSR collapse day 26 December 1991 ...

2025-12-26T10:21:42Z

Happy #USSR collapse day 26 December 1991

I could reply with a very simple answer, but I won't because ...

2025-12-24T06:21:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…yjz3
_________________________

I could reply with a very simple answer, but I won't because it's a great opportunity to talk about a very complex topic 😄

I've been helping Ukrainian army since 2014, my position here had been always very clear. And also believe the business relations between countries can't be based on emotions, because then they just fall apart.

In Poland we had this in 2023-2024 when EU opened imports of grain from Ukraine which was intended to transit to Africa, but instead was mostly sold right after passing the border, causing huge price drops for Polish farmers. You've probably heard about the border blockades - later, they were used by pro-Russian circles, but initially these were based in legitimate motives, even if misguided (it was Polish companies who bought the grain).

The challenge is that EU farming market is fragile. Because we have high health, environment and work protection standards, farming is expensive in EU. Any uncontrolled import can cause huge disruption to a small farming sector that you've likely never heard about... but it provides jobs to thousands of people. That's why there the very complex EU Common Agricultural Policy mechanism to adjust it on year-by-year basis.

What we saw in 2023-2024 was one of such fluctuations, which unfortunately contributed to a significant drop in pro-Ukrainian sentiments in Poland... **because people saw it's not only about emotions and compassion, but also about business.**

They saw Ukraine is not only mother refugees with children, but also large business that is only interested to make money at any cost. Just like in Poland, Germany and everywhere.

To deal with the large business, you need people from the same sphere - they can negotiate and that's easy for them. So regardless of how good the Ukrainian honey is, I believe its imports must be subject to trade negotiations to ensure its doesn't disrupt EU honey-making and also that it ensures all the quality standards we expect in EU.

And I can guarantee, Ukrainian businesses will appreciate such business talk because clear rule-based imports is much better for them than bipolar fluctuations between "we love you" and "we hate you" we saw in Poland 🤦

By the way, the paradox here is that *all of these issues will disappear when Ukraine joins EU (actually, even before that) because it will have to adjust its farming sector to EU CAP as well** including production quotas, quality standards etc!

Very likely they told you so because they've read it in a ...

2025-12-24T06:01:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…zfh6
_________________________

Very likely they told you so because they've read it in a channel very similar to the one I posted from Poland 🤦

Russians are running well funded advertising campaigns on social media, literally thousands of people working on it for salary, with many more volunteering. I'm subscribed to a Telegram channel where they coordinate these volunteers for just one such campaign and it's a daily stream of "today you post these memes", "today you post this comment on these groups" etc.

And I would imagine Germany is one of their main targets, just like Poland.

I've just spotted an interesting disinformation I suspect it ...

2025-12-24T05:48:18Z

I've just spotted an interesting disinformation I suspect it targeted at European farmers, claiming that "huge multinational corporations" have just purchased _17 million hectares_ of arable land in #Ukraine - that has first appeared in 2024 but now was unfrozen and recycled, likely due to the wave of #Mercosur protests. The idea is simple - "if you can't compete with Mercosur, Ukraine will be even worse".

This 17m has drawn my attention because it's easy to check. As it comes out, **in the whole story the only true data is the number "17".**

Since 2024 Ukraine liberalised farming land purchases allowing large agricultural companies to buy and lease land, which was previously restricted.[^1] But it still **must Ukrainian companies owned by citizens of Ukraine**. And companies did... moderately.

Since 2024 there were in total **17'000 hectares** of farming land purchased in the whole country. If you wonder how much that is, it's a **square 13x13 km**. Because any farmer would laugh their eyes out on such "scare" (they know how much a hectare is), the authors of the fake had to _modesty_ adjust it 1000x up.

More importantly, what is even more important is the land leases which accounted for 70'000 hectares in the whole country, including regions adjacent to the war zone, which boosted income of local communities impacted by the war. **The liberalisation had none of the predicted negative impacts ("they will buy us all!") and had all the positive impacts the farmers expected.**

As an added bonus, #Monsanto does not exist since 2018, which should be the first red flag. This story had been already debunked by EUvsDisinfo in 2024[^2] but even they missed this bit :)

[^1]: https://www.kyivpost.com/post/37156

[^2]: https://euvsdisinfo.eu/report/ukraines-fertile-lands-no-longer-belong-to-the-ukrainians/

#Ukraine Zelensky statement from 20 December captures the essence ...

2025-12-23T05:30:54Z

#Ukraine Zelensky statement from 20 December captures the essence of the problem we are now seeing with US:

> Peace is better than war, but not at any cost, because we have already paid a high price. What matters for us is a just, durable peace – one that cannot be violated by another whim of Putin or any other Putin-like figure. It is extremely important to have strong security guarantees in place to prevent even the thought or the physical ability to come back to us with aggression.

> I do not see the Budapest Memorandum as an agreement; I see it as nothing more than a piece of paper, because our territories were occupied, and so many people were killed. And this agreement did not protect us. I do not consider it strong or effective.

> Therefore, for me, an agreement is not just about signing a document. One must know the details: what will happen if the Russians come with aggression and launch another war. How will the Americans and Europeans respond? How will our partners respond? What deterrence package will Ukraine have? What will be present on Ukrainian territory? How will our army be equipped? How strong will it be, and what reserves will we have? What can we count on? What sanctions package will be imposed simultaneously on the aggressor?

> An agreement must be just and effective for Ukraine.

As a reminder, in 1994 USA, UK and Russia offered Ukraine security assurances for giving up nuclear weapons. China and France added their assurances on top of that.

When you hear people like Vance today saying "it's not our war" after his country gave these assurances back then, this completely undermines credibility of any guarantees he's going to give today.

And on top of that there's of course Russia, who groomed everyone else into honestly believing that firstly, you shouldn't expect any compliance with any agreements with Russia, and secondly, that some mythical "no inch to the East" anecdote has more weight than official, signed, mutual treaties registered with UN.

But in this aspect, Russia is also paying a heavy price for their sloppy and short-minded tactics because if not that, they would likely have a favourable deal with Ukraine already in 2022. This time I don't think anyone will fall for Russia's "assurances" again, if they won't be reinforced with literal concrete and rockets.

I think this chart quite precisely explains **why Ukraine is ...

2025-12-21T06:45:40Z

I think this chart quite precisely explains **why Ukraine is fighting so fiercely.** And why all of these countries on the top right are so desperately rearming themselves right now. And why most of of them joined #NATO on the first opportunity.

You can play with the chart on the #OurWorldInData page below - I've just added direct neighbours of the country that now poses itself as "dove of peace"

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/human-rights-index-vdem?tab=line&time=1900..2024&country=POL~EST~RUS~CZE~HUN~ROU~LTU~LVA~FIN&mapSelect=~POL

A long story of an Ukrainian teenager who grew in occupied ...

2025-12-21T05:39:12Z

A long story of an Ukrainian teenager who grew in occupied #Crimea and when he reached age of 18, was called for military draft commission. To avoid being mobilised and sent to war, he traveled 3000 km and managed to leave #Russia for #Ukraine

Full: https://suspilne.media/1190702-u-18-rokiv-podolav-3000-km-istoria-krimcanina-artema-akij-viihav-z-okupacii-do-ukraini-suspilne-ludi/ (in Ukrainian)

#RoundCube #webmail admins brace for CVE-2025-68461, remote (!) ...

2025-12-20T10:33:55Z

#RoundCube #webmail admins brace for CVE-2025-68461, remote (!) mailbox takeover exploited by a single email sent to the victim using #XSS

#infosec

#Russia channels widely discuss the numbers given by #Putin ...

2025-12-20T05:12:36Z

#Russia channels widely discuss the numbers given by #Putin regarding the current strength of Russian army:

Putin:

— There are 700,000 soldiers in the SVO zone.

400,000 were recruited this year.
450,000 were recruited in 2024.
350,000 were recruited in 2023.
300,000 mobilised
200,000 fought initially
50,000 (approximately) mobilised in the occupied territories, volunteers and Wagner Group mercenaries

Question: Where did the other 1,000,000 soldiers go if the contracts are indefinite?

Original source: https://t.me/arrowsmap/10313 (in Russian)

Wait, so it actually _was_ a colonial war from the start, ...

2025-12-18T16:03:04Z

Wait, so it actually _was_ a colonial war from the start, wasn't it? :blobthinking:

> Vladimir #Putin said #Russia would not back down from its mission to 'liberate its historic lands' and predicted the European backing of Kyiv would ultimately lose power.

Source: https://ft.trib.al/TB1cs17 (paywall)

Insider story of the #Russia #Baikonur space port failure. ...

2025-12-17T11:29:50Z

Insider story of the #Russia #Baikonur space port failure. That's what happened:

> According to multiple Russian sources, on Nov. 27, 2025, the launch of the Soyuz MS-28 crew vehicle caused the mobile service platform at Site 31 to collapse into the flame duct below the pad around 10 seconds after liftoff. It essentially rendered the only facility for Russian orbital crew launches unusable. At the time, Roskosmos planned the launch of the Progress MS-33 cargo ship to the ISS on Dec. 21, 2025, which was immediately cancelled.

That's the context:

> When the personnel was finally ordered to evacuate the pad some 30 minutes ahead of the liftoff, the decision was made to leave the platform in its parking position inside its shelter without securing it properly rather then to postpone the launch. It was not immediately clear who made a decision to proceed with the launch despite this clear violation of launch criteria.

And that's the best part:

> The veterans of the center speculated that the mission management had been under pressure to go ahead with the launch so not to disappoint high-ranking officials and as many as 3,000 paid tourists who came to the remote center to witness the event.

https://russianspaceweb.com/baikonur_r7_31.html#cabin

#Poland #Sikorski reminded an old Polish communist time joke ...

2025-12-17T07:35:38Z

#Poland #Sikorski reminded an old Polish communist time joke about #Lenin referring to the recent Zakharova ramblings about how he "guaranteed Poland's independence":

> I remind Russian propagandists that Lenin was not only the creator of modern Poland but also a friend to Polish children. Because one day he was shaving in Poronin when a school group passed by outside the window. And he could have slit the children's throats with his razor, but he didn't!

> Likewise, President Putin is a benefactor of Ukraine. After all, he could drop an atomic bomb on Kyiv, and he hasn't done so yet.
The competition for the Nobel Peace Prize will be fierce.

Sikorski joke is based on a true story - Lenin indeed lived in Poronin, near Zakopane, a popular tourist town in south of Grand Duchy of Kraków, in what was then Austro-Hungarian Empire, between 1912-1914. The story about razor is probably a legend, but it's very good illustration of the popular fallacy about "he could do much worse, but he didn't, so he's good".

When taking part in annual #Christmas family activities, such as ...

2025-12-16T10:24:28Z

When taking part in annual #Christmas family activities, such as removing all the spyware your mother has collected over the year by watching 'Update your Windows NOW!!!' adverts on #Facebook, let's remember to thank the people who make these enjoyable, people-connecting activities possible:

> A Reuters investigation reveals the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp decided to accept high levels of fraudulent advertisements from China. Internal company documents show Meta wanted to minimize "revenue impact" caused by cracking down on the scams.

https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-tolerates-rampant-ad-fraud-china-safeguard-billions-revenue-2025-12-15/

#meta

#Poland political analyst Edwin Bendyk: > The term ‘war ...

2025-12-14T13:36:22Z

#Poland political analyst Edwin Bendyk:

> The term ‘war fatigue’ often comes up in discussions aimed at showing declining Western public support for aid to #Ukraine. The latest More in Common survey, conducted in late November and early December, shows that talk of ‘fatigue’ is exaggerated.

> The public in #Poland, the #UnitedKingdom, #France, #Germany and the #UnitedStates remain determined and have a clear view of who is the aggressor and who is the victim in this war, and what is unacceptable in peace negotiations. It is unacceptable for the terms of a ceasefire and peace to reward the aggressor.

> Of course, there are clear differences between the electorates. In Germany, #AfD voters are more supportive of #Russia than Ukraine, in Poland less than half of #Konfederacja voters support Ukraine, PiS supporters are at the same level of support as the national average, and over 80% of Koalicja voters have no doubts and sympathise with Ukraine.

**The study is very important as it presents a very concrete and evidence-based counterweight to the flood of disinformation plaguing the media. Russian trolls, including some politicians, present their projections and wishes, while this study presents the social reality.**

Full article (in Polish): https://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/swiat/2325873,1,zmeczenie-wojna-w-badaniach-tego-nie-widac-europa-nie-daje-sie-zmiekczyc-putinowi.read

Full study: https://www.moreincommon.com/international-public-opinion-on-the-ukraine-peace-process/

British press complains about Poles leaving the UK for #Poland, ...

2025-12-14T09:19:30Z

British press complains about Poles leaving the UK for #Poland, calling this "exodus" and

> The great Polish exodus: The arrival of 100,000s of Poles changed the face of Britain, but now they're returning home in droves for a better life in their low-tax, booming homeland. Could there be a more damning indictment of our decline?

The press who published it is... The Daily Mail, who literally engineered #Brexit 😂

Video filmed in almost exactly 12 years ago, on 9 December 2013 - ...

2025-12-14T03:48:27Z

Video filmed in almost exactly 12 years ago, on 9 December 2013 - hundreds of thousands of people gathered in #Kyiv on #Euromaidan to protest against arbitrary decision by #Yanukovych to cancel the process of signing the EU Association Agreement, which he promised for the whole year, only to backtrack after a covert meeting with #Putin. **In total, over a million of people protested over three winter months in the whole country.**

https://video.echelon.pl/w/dpoGaEBfFpaS3bCkPdghkD

Back then Ukrainians faced two choices: keep quiet and continue living under corrupt government, with stagnating economy and lawlessness ruling their daily lives just like Russians do, or take up the fight.

I think the video is also the best illustration to how nonsensical all these theories about "CIA coup" invented by Russians are - **you can't keep a million of people** (out of 30m country) protesting for three months in harsh Eastern European winter on salary. They were _really_ desperate and motivated to fight for their freedom.

For comparison, in 2012 when #Putin decided he's going for his third presidential term in violation of the Constitution, around 160'000 Russians protested across the 130m country... for three days. Respect to those who did, disgrace to the 99.9% who didn't.

Just added English subtitles to this truly epic video compilation ...

2025-12-14T03:12:59Z

Just added English subtitles to this truly epic video compilation by journalist Denis Kazansky who collected all quotes summarising the epic failure of #Russia in #Kupyansk

https://video.echelon.pl/w/jzNSxwRLUNCFmXrwKdQCKH

What has happened?

* On 20 November 2025 general Valery Gerasimov publicly announced that "Army Group 'Zapad' liberated the town of Kupyansk".
* General Sergey Kuzovlev reiterated the news in the presence of Putin, wearing a quasi-military uniform, who clarified "so that's it, completed it all?" to Kuzovlev's confirmation. For the "liberation of Kupyansk" Kuzovlev was awarded Hero of Russia.
* On 21 November Putin himself declared "the events in Kupyansk will unavoidably repeat on other key front line locations; maybe not as fast as we wished, but this is unavoidable - and in general, it works for us".
* On 27 November while speaking to journalists, Putin once again referred to Kypyansk, saying that "as we know the enemy formations are fully liquidated there".

And the story, of course, culminates with now famous video of #Ukraine president Zelensky standing right in the middle of the same Kupyansk on 12 December and recording at video at distinctive town sign:

https://video.echelon.pl/w/u1sDdipjnjp3XBMCYhHyJ9

#Poland professor of international law Sławomir Dębski[^1] on ...

2025-12-13T13:08:46Z

#Poland professor of international law Sławomir Dębski[^1] on the fundamental misunderstanding of application of the concepts of law to #Russia

> Sergei Lavrov now suggests that Russia’s signature on yet another agreement should be treated as a credible guarantee of restraint. That request would carry more weight if Russia had not systematically violated virtually every foundational legal commitment that structured European security after 1945 and after 1991.

> Russia has violated the UN Charter (the prohibition on the use of force), the Paris Charter for a New Europe, the NATO–Russia Founding Act, all its bilateral treaties with Ukraine recognizing its borders, and the Budapest Memorandum, under which Ukraine surrendered its nuclear weapons in exchange for security assurances. After this record, asking the international community to believe that “this time will be different” amounts to asking for an act of faith detached from evidence.

> The problem is not the absence of treaties. The problem is Russia’s non-normative understanding of international law. For Moscow, international law is not a set of binding rules that apply equally to all. It is an instrument - something others are expected to obey, when it serves Russian interests. Russia, by contrast, considers itself exempt. Compliance occurs only under one condition: fear of reciprocity: the expectation that violations will be met with equal or greater consequences.

> History reinforces this conclusion. In 1932, the Soviet Union signed non-aggression pacts with both Poland and Finland. In 1939, it invaded both. Those treaties did not fail because of legal ambiguity; they failed because Moscow never regarded them as morally or politically binding. They were tactical conveniences, discarded the moment they ceased to serve Soviet interests.

> Nothing in Russia’s contemporary behavior suggests a departure from that tradition. Treaties, from Moscow’s perspective, are not safeguards of peace; they are pauses between acts of coercion, respected only when backed by credible deterrence.

> The lesson is therefore clear: peace in Europe will not be secured by new Russian signatures on old paper. It will be secured only when Russia understands that violating agreements carries consequences it cannot afford. Only deterrence - not promises -has ever constrained Moscow’s behavior.

In his post he also very much recommends a book by #Estonia professor Lauri Mälksoo
"Russian Approaches to International Law" (2015).

[^1]: https://x.com/SlawomirDebski/status/1999430989106298952?s=20

#Germany group of students conducted #OSINT analysis of patterns ...

2025-12-12T05:26:45Z

#Germany group of students conducted #OSINT analysis of patterns of movement of #Russia ships correlated with recent #drone incidents across Europe. And guess what? They _did_ find such patterns in most of these incidents - such as this one:

> Meanwhile, 115 kilometers away off the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog, her sister ship the HAV Snapper had sailed out and parked in open water. It positioned itself exactly two hours before seven drones appeared over a Russian freighter being escorted by German police through the North Sea. It stayed there for four days and made silly circles.

https://www.digitaldigging.org/p/they-droned-back

#Ukraine Zelensky made another statement about the elections in a ...

2025-12-11T19:09:20Z

#Ukraine Zelensky made another statement about the elections in a video call with Keir Starmer. Not exact words, but I'm trying to reproduce the diplomatic depth behind what he actually said:

Ukraine, of course, does not evade elections, and as any democratic country is ready to conduct them as soon as the respectable President Trump in his endless wisdom will convince his peace loving partner President Putin to guarantee a full ceasefire for the whole electoral process.

And I find it brilliant move 😄

Well, let's not talk about the whole human race based on a ...

2025-12-10T13:12:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…34vn
_________________________

Well, let's not talk about the whole human race based on a textbook exemplification of one rich spoiled kid 😉

Sam Altman (head of OpenAI): > I cannot imagine figuring out ...

2025-12-10T10:52:39Z

Sam Altman (head of OpenAI):

> I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT.

Reading top US enterpreneur's statements like this I'm not really sure if it's really European civilisation that is "collapsing"... 🤔

The picture that probably best explains both why #Russia ...

2025-12-09T21:08:13Z

The picture that probably best explains both why #Russia can't capture the "30-50 km strip of land" (Rubio's words) in #Donbas, and why #Ukraine doesn't just want to give it up to Russians for free, even if we put aside any legal or moral arguments.

The yellow are fortification lines built by Ukraine since the original Russian invasion in 2014, and laboriously improved since. The density of these lines in Donetsk oblast' exceeds everything that had been built elsewhere. When Putin says "we're ready for war, but we want diplomacy" he was likely told by his generals that **continued assaults on these lines will be suicidal for Russia, in literal sense**.

Which is precisely why Russia wants to get them without fight as part of some silly "deal", and why Ukraine won't be agreeing to that until really losing the war. Letting Russians into these fortifications would also mean, that Ukraine would need to build another 30-50 km of similar lines to the west from Donetsk oblast' to prevent repeated invasion after Russia signs the "eternal peace agreement".

Poland to launch construction of first #nuclear plant after EU ...

2025-12-09T19:02:02Z

Poland to launch construction of first #nuclear plant after EU approves €14bn in state aid

> Construction of Poland’s first nuclear power plant is now set to begin after the European Commission approved Warsaw’s request to allocate 60 billion zloty (€14.2 billion) in state aid for the project.

> The decision, which had been widely expected, was welcomed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who told a cabinet meeting that it means “construction will be able to start immediately”, as early as this month.

https://notesfrompoland.com/2025/12/09/poland-to-launch-construction-of-first-nuclear-plant-after-eu-approves-e14bn-in-state-aid/

Can you tell the admins their DNS is announcing a link-local ...

2025-12-09T06:19:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…xqfe
_________________________

Can you tell the admins their DNS is announcing a link-local address? :)

```
> dig aaaa dc.hou2600.org @9.9.9.9 +short
fe80::216:3cff:fe4f:6a6b
```

#Twitter diplomacy continuing 🤦#Musk once again ranted about ...

2025-12-08T19:48:18Z

#Twitter diplomacy continuing 🤦#Musk once again ranted about his unique definition of democracy that in practice really means oligarchy:

> The European Union is not DEMOcracy – rule of the people – but rather BUREAUcracy – rule of the unelected bureaucrat!

To which #France replied:

> We know your definition of democracy is different. But every country doesn’t have to give MASSIVE subs to some companies to offer their owners a so-called legitimacy, including to denounce budget deficits they created themselves, to be a democracy.

Clearly alluding to the massive subsidies Musk's companies are receiving from the US government to sustain liquidity and profits. Also clearly alluding to Musk's rather miserable failure at DOGE.

I must admit that spending a few days on hacking the code to ...

2025-12-08T16:27:20Z

I must admit that spending a few days on hacking the code to mirror the "WarTranslated 18+" Telegram channel to my #PeerTube instance was a worthy investment of time. Dmitry does great job in posting all the daily clips from #Russia #Ukraine that I usually missed or published selectively because it's something I do between morning coffee and back-to-back work calls. This is now working pretty stable - there may be hiccups as I will move it to production, but it works:

https://video.echelon.pl/c/wartranslated18/videos

This now allows me to focus on my own channel not very creatively named "Ukraine War Videos" which I will be now driving towards a truly curated archive of the conflict and its prehistory:

https://video.echelon.pl/c/ua_war_videos/videos

The idea is that when you watch one video on say the 2014 #Odesa tragedy, you will be then able to go through the whole archive of what happened there using internal links and tags, e.g:

https://video.echelon.pl/search?tagsOneOf=Odessa%20tragedy

This requires more manual work which mirroring "WarTranslated" conveniently saves me a ton! Of course, the channel belong to Dmitry in terms of all support and sponsoring, which I'm doing myself and encourage everyone to do as well.

European Twitter exploded following yesterday’s rants by US and ...

2025-12-07T08:25:34Z

European Twitter exploded following yesterday’s rants by US and Russian hardliners calling to “abolish EU”.

Lots of voices like “we need European social media!!”

And I said, “actually, you know what, we kind of have one for years…” 😆

Some people started complaining “but nobody uses Mastodon” and I once again had no choice but to explain that if “nobody uses” then how come I’ve got 3k+ followers here and engaging in truly interesting discussions not less often than there😁

There’s two data points where Fediverse can be indeed seen as less attractive than US cortisol aggregators:

• number of engagements, but granted that up to 60-70% of these on Twitter are generated by bots who cares? Maybe media advertising agencies do, but I don’t.
• presence of public persons - this is where Fediverse actually loses, because it’s a network that grows between them and can’t be “invited”

#Russia Medvedev and Dmitriev ranting on Twitter/X about "EU ...

2025-12-06T19:59:21Z

#Russia Medvedev and Dmitriev ranting on Twitter/X about "EU limiting free speech" **through a VPN because they themselves blocked Twitter in Russia** is an epic level of absurdity 😂

I had a very interesting and productive chat with Grok on Twitter ...

2025-12-06T08:36:14Z

I had a very interesting and productive chat with Grok on Twitter about free speech and #censorship in US and EU.

I was intrigued by the case of Alex Jones from InfoWars who was in 2022 ordered by an US court to pay **$1500 million** to Sandy Hook families after he claimed the school shooting was a "hoax" and victims "staged".

The largest fines any US media companies were ordered to pay in Europe were in the range of $150 million. **That is ten times _less_ than in the US.**

Still, Grok (possibly fixed by long series of IF...THENs from Musk) strongly believes "US has _more_ freedom of speech" in spite of this quantitative argument demonstrating the very opposite.

Why? Now it all boils down to strictly legal casuistry - Grok believes, but again without having any material argument, that the system where _civil_ litigation results in $1.5b fine is better than one where _public_ litigation results in $150m fine. Why? Probably because that what's Grok's creators personally believe.

As we speak of civil litigation, we must unavoidably raise the topic of how you actually fund it, because solicitors aren't exactly cheap in the US.

So I've also talked about widespread use of **SLAPP** (strategic lawsuit against public participation) in the US. Grok agreed this could be characterised as "corporate censorship" but defended the US system because "28 states have anti-SLAPP laws". Naturally, I've asked about the remaining ones, but Grok didn't have a convincing riposte. Would it be valid to say that _some_ US states have more freedom of speech, and some have less? Based on numbers yes, but that is somehow "lost" in Rubio's aggregate picture.

Then I dug into the famous Vance's Muenchen speech where he accused Europe, and especially UK, of "state censorship" because Southport. Grok importantly argued that "state censorship" is bad because it works preemptively, rather than in response to a crime.

I couldn't but point out that in Southport the prosecution was _specifically_ in response to a crime - namely, a group of fanatic keyboard warriors far away from Southport provoking locals on the ground to burn mosque and kill Muslims for a violent crime conducted by a psycho who wan't even Muslim. Grok did agree this was an example of post-crime response, that would be also punishable in the US (!) on state level (!). But it was still kind of unable to relate this to his previous criticism of "preemptive censorship".

This is my perspective, you can read Grok's here. It had _some_ valid points and did use some quantitative data, but in essence the whole Vance, Rubio etc argument of "more free speech in US" essentially boils down to "because we think so":

https://x.com/grok/status/1997032056145228167?s=20

Marco Rubio just posted on Twitter: > The European ...

2025-12-05T22:22:50Z

Marco Rubio just posted on Twitter:

> The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The days of censoring Americans online are over.

He did so after a few US companies got fined in EU for violation of laws regarding privacy and not only moderation of posts, but also the opposite - arbitrary deletion of legitimate content and refusal to restore it.

Seems like the secretary of state just discovered that if an US company wants to earn money in another country, that comes bundled with following its laws! Can you imagine?

For comparison, if an EU company wants to do business in US, it has to follow not only US federal laws, but also state laws and county (!) laws. Americans in EU have it much easier, because they enjoy laws that are largely harmonised among member states rather than the US mess of incompatible state laws and variable sales tax rates between counties.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio once again demonstrates he's ...

2025-12-03T15:16:04Z

Secretary of State Marco Rubio once again demonstrates he's either got no clue about what's going on or intentionally distorting the nature of the #Russia invasion on #Ukraine

> They are literally fighting over a 30-50 km strip in Donetsk, roughly 20% of the region still under Ukrainian control and now a central issue in negotiations.

If it _was_ the case - if Russia was after Donbas from the start, they would just push full force there in 2022, and they would win that with the initial invasion force (200k). But they didn't - they attacked on all directions, including the capital Kyiv passing through #Belarus and #Chornobyl. The original objective was a flash military coup, replacing the Ukrainian government with puppet regime and political control over the whole country.

Russia never abandoned this goal, which it says explicitly all the time, with the insistence on the "removal of root causes", which is an euphemism of the above - to say that bluntly, root case being Ukraine's sovereignty.

I read the serious discussions about 'who eavesdropped on ...

2025-12-03T10:03:42Z

I read the serious discussions about 'who eavesdropped on Ushakov and Dmitriev' and can't help but chuckle to myself.

All these deliberations about whether it was the NSA or GCHQ are based on the assumption that Ushakov had to use a secure means of communication. Had to... because why exactly?

Because politicians are renowned for their unwavering commitment to adhering to rules, including #OPSEC? But they are not.

Let us recall the US and European leaders who, in #Ukraine Kyiv in 2013, happily chatted on the phone and were recorded ('Nuland–Pyatt call').

Shortly afterwards, Sergei Glazyev from the #Russia presidential administration did the same and was recorded... by the new SBU ('Glazyev tapes', much less well-known but much more devastating).

In summary, if one can generalise the concept of high-level politics in #infosec matters, it is that those in power do not apply the rules to themselves and do not learn from their mistakes precisely because they are in power.

In short, Hanlon's razor applies.