https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1513549877933977602
Lot of questions here.
I’m skeptical that this is realistic in the medium term. For most of Europe (esp. Germany) there aren’t enough energy sources. They decided to trade nuclear for cheap Russian gas, there isn’t enough sunlight or wind in most places, isn’t enough coal, LNG from abroad is comparatively super expensive, and it’ll take years to build new nuclear plants. They’re already going to have a massive recession because of this, but when that lasts 2 years, 3 years, IDK how long Germany holds the line.
After almost eight years of existence, the “republics” are understood to have evolved into totalitarian, North Korea-like statelets.
It is near impossible for foreigners to enter the areas. Ukrainians can only visit if they have relatives in Donetsk and Luhansk, and would have to cross into Russia first, which takes about 30 hours and costs $100 – a journey that also involves bribing officials at times. Residents need a Soviet-era residency registration.
Interesting article from before the war with some glimpses into what life is like in the separatist-controlled areas.
In the statelets, secret police and “loyal” residents monitor every word, phone call and text message.
Dissidents or businessmen who refuse to “donate” their assets to the “needs of the People’s Republic” have been thrown in “cellars”, or dozens of makeshift concentration camps, without trial.
“It looks like the 1930s in the Soviet Union, a classic gulag,” Stanislav Aseyev, a publicist who was kidnapped in 2017 in Donetsk and was sentenced by a separatist “court” to 15 years in jail for “espionage”, told Al Jazeera.
For almost two years, he was incarcerated and tortured in these “cellars” until separatists swapped him and dozens of other prisoners in 2017.
Thousands of others were tortured and abused in the “cellars”, according to rights groups and witnesses. The grave human rights abuses make Donetsk and Luhansk far worse than today’s Russia, an international human rights advocate said.
“The cellars where prisoners are held in Donetsk, and the widespread use of torture, are among the most obvious human rights issues,” said Ivar Dale, a senior policy adviser with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, a human rights watchdog group.
But there are much wider problems such as civil and political rights, he said.
“You could say that the political repression in Russia is doubly felt in Donetsk and Luhansk and other areas effectively under control of the Putin regime,” Dale told Al Jazeera.
https://twitter.com/jseldin/status/1513566222981517317
https://twitter.com/jseldin/status/1513566460244905990
I’m sure this will be Ukraine’s fault for fighting back somehow.
Now we get to find out what this actually means. Just like we found out banning Russia from SWIFT wasn’t really banning Russia from SWIFT.
The day after Anton Ischenko celebrated his 23rd birthday, he was taken by the Russians, led away at gunpoint from his home in the village of Andriivka, west of Kyiv.
His family found his body a month later, once the Russian troops were driven out. He was so badly mutilated that they had to identify him by his clothes.
Aha - but what the story doesn’t say is he was a civilian combatant (probably). Gotcha!
https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1513587778071797768
https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1513587780139552772
https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1513587782106718223
https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1513587784925302784
https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1513587786187694087
https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1513587787609554948
If this isn’t policy, it’s definitely policy to look the other way - just like it was after WWII. Just like the Rape of Nanking. Just like My Lai.
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1513465900762083332
This communication is weird. Either trying to send a desperate, public message to their own leadership, or trying to trick the Russians into thinking they’re almost out of ammunition. I hope it’s the latter, but probably the former.
2 posts were merged into an existing topic: The Musings of Keed and His Uncle John: War Crimes Edition
Extracted. See below thread to continue.
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Destroying Azov regiment and holding mariupol without any of its former residents is going to be putin’s “victory”. grozny-aleppo-mariupol. all finished by the same general too.
ukraine will never forgive russians for this, and they will be correct to do so. russia must be denazified. tribunal for putin and everyone above colonel, lustrations for every official of any power, ideally taking away its nukes, severely restricting police ranks and power. then mass population visits to see the destruction they caused first hand. just like germany had to be made to face.
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I’m kinda pessimistic about the war too. My prediction is the medium term result is similar to the 1st Donbas campaign: stalemate/low intensity war with Russia keeping it’s captured territory.
meanwhile in russia, besides general Beseda, the former head of FSB section responsible for a lot of counterintel, is arrested and awaiting charges.
but wait there’s more, Surkov, a close putin advisor and architect of hybrid warfare of the last decade, is placed under house arrest.
but wait, there’s more, reports are that 150 FSB officers were relieved of duty and/or arrested over major errors in provided analysis in support of the special operation.
oh to be a fly on the wall in lubyanka right now.
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I don’t even know what this guy is trying to convey? War is bad and violent?