Analysis by Angela Dewan, CNN(CNN) President Vladimir Putin takes Russian anniversaries seriously. It was no coincidence that his invasion of Ukraine came a day after Defender of the Fatherland Day, a celebration of Russia's military achievements. It was on that same occasion in 2014 that Putin took the first step in annexing Crimea from Ukraine, through orchestrated pro-Russian protests on the peninsula. The leader had clearly hoped to have more to celebrate by this Victory Day on Monday, the country's most patriotic of dates, marking the Soviet Union's role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II. It was on May 8, 1945, (May 9 in Moscow's time zone) that Germany signed its Instrument of Surrender in Berlin, ending the fighting in Europe. The USSR suffered the biggest losses of any nation -- around 27 million soldiers and civilians died. Russia's justification for war in Ukraine suggested a deadline for success by Victory Day. Putin and his government have repeatedly said the aim of their so-called "special operation" is to "denazify" Ukraine, and that freeing the country of Nazis is a matter of Russian survival. It's an argument that has no real weight; a blatant cover for Russian revanchism.
Yahoo NewsA process that began on April 24 during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's historic meeting with the head of the U.S. State Department Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Kyiv continued throughout the last week. It included a meeting in the U.S. Ramstein airbase of the defense ministers of the 40 most industrial powers in the world. They, in fact, entered into a military alliance in support of Ukraine. The West has finally clearly formulated its goals. When asked what the purpose of the war was, Austin replied: “The purpose of the war for the United States is the victory of Ukraine. Restoration of its territorial integrity, and that Russia, as a result of the war, is weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.” That is, the West has already formulated a program not only for the victory of Ukraine in the war but also for the post-war structure. This is a common practice after world wars, but in essence, this is not a Russo-Ukrainian war, this is a world war that the insane dictator Putin declared against the entire West and the free world. After the world war, the victorious powers form a new world order. And now Ukraine will be the main victorious power in this process.
Kremlin readout of call doesn’t mention an apology, says president spoke with PM about ‘historic memory,’ the Holocaust and the situation in UkraineBy TOI staffIn a phone call Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for incendiary comments made by the Kremlin’s top envoy earlier this week, the prime minister’s office said. The comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claiming that Adolf Hitler had “Jewish blood,” and the following back-and-forth between Israel and Russia, marked the worst flare-up between the countries since Russia invaded Ukraine. “The prime minister accepted the apology of President Putin for comments by Lavrov and thanked him for clarifying the president’s view of the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust,” Bennett’s office said.
The drills, by the Baltic Fleet in Kaliningrad close to the European Union, involved scenarios with “radiation and chemical contamination.”Allison QuinnRussian forces held drills this week simulating nuclear-capable strikes close to European Union borders, the Russian Defense Ministry has revealed. Members of the Baltic Fleet held war games Wednesday to “deliver mock missile strikes with the crews of Iskander operational-tactical missile systems” in Kaliningrad, the press service of the Western military district said in a statement. The drills, held near the borders of EU-member states Poland and Lithuania, come amid increasingly unhinged attempts by Kremlin mouthpieces in Russia’s state-run media to sell the idea that a nuclear strike is inevitable. RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan last month said it is “more probable” Russia’s war in Ukraine will end in a nuclear strike than Vladimir Putin simply backing down. On Russia’s state-owned Channel One, Russian lawmaker Aleksei Zhuravlyov and TV host Olga Skabeyeva went even further, openly discussing the prospects of Moscow lobbing nuclear missiles at the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
ReutersReuters - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on retaliatory economic sanctions in response to the "unfriendly actions of certain foreign states and international organisations", the Kremlin said on Tuesday. The document does not provide any details of which individuals or entities may be affected by the measures. According to the decree, Russia will forbid the export of products and raw materials to people and entities that it has sanctioned.
Unconfirmed claims from the mystery 'General SVR' Telegram channel - Putin set to undergo cancer surgery. Putin’s cancer surgery will force him to hand over power in the Ukraine war 'for days', claims a 'Kremlin insider'. Reports suggest the Russian President is battling both abdominal cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
By Michael Wasiura in Tbilisi, GeorgiaThe Kremlin thought Russian troops would be greeted as liberators in Ukraine's predominantly Russian speaking south and east. Instead, Ukrainians of all linguistic backgrounds have rallied against the Kremlin's invasion. This should not have come as a surprise, least of all to the men in Moscow. Russian speaking Ukrainians have been organizing to defend the Ukrainian state from Russian aggression since at least April 2014, when Moscow-backed forces first began seizing administrative buildings in the Ukrainian Donbas region. "In the first week after those events started, ordinary steelworkers in Mariupol were organizing on the grassroots level to form local patrols," Dr. Olga Onuch, an associate professor at the University of Manchester, told Newsweek. "These were Russian speaking Ukrainians getting together to defend their neighborhoods and their families from Russia itself."
ukrpravda@gmail.com (Ukrayinska Pravda)DENYS KARLOVSKY - WEDNESDAY, 27 APRIL 2022, 16:50 Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded to western "threats" with a threat of his own, stating that the Russian army is prepared to deliver lightning-fast strikes with strategic weapons. Source: Vladimir Putin, speaking to Russian parliamentarians in St. Petersburg Quote from Putin: "If someone decides to intervene in current events [in Ukraine] from the outside and creates unacceptable strategic threats for Russia, then [they] must know that our response, our retaliatory strikes, will be lightning-fast, quick. We have all the tools for this - such that no one else can boast of right now.
Harrison JonesVladimir Putin’s health is again under the microscope after footage emerged appearing to show him trembling uncontrollably. The Russian leader has long been rumoured to be hiding a serious condition, perhaps Parkinson’s, amid the war in Ukraine. But new footage of a meeting between him and his Belarusian ally Aleksandr Lukashenko at the Kremlin shows Putin hold his arm to his chest in an apparent effort to stop his hand shaking violently. His leg also seemed to be trembling before he walked awkwardly towards Belarus’ President, in the clip from February 18, before the invasion began.
Vladimir Putin’s health is again under the microscope after footage emerged appearing to show him trembling uncontrollably. The Russian leader has long been rumoured to be hiding a serious condition, perhaps Parkinson’s, amid the war in Ukraine. The Russian leader looks unsteady on his feet in the clip from February (right) and while sitting at a table in February.
wbostock@businessinsider.com (Bill Bostock)President Vladimir Putin once said he would feel legitimate in using nuclear weapons if Russia was attacked, saying: "Why do we need such a world if there is no Russia there?" Putin made the remarks in a feature-length interview with the pro-Kremlin journalist Vladimir Solovyov, which was aired on the state-run Russia-1 network in March 2018. When asked in what scenario Russia would use nuclear weapons, Putin appeared to feign offense at the question, and said: "If someone decides to destroy Russia, then we have a legal right to respond. Yes, for humanity it will be a global catastrophe, for the world it will be a global catastrophe." Putin added: "But still, as a citizen of Russia and the head of the Russian state, then I want to ask myself the question: 'Why do we need such a world if there is no Russia there?'" In the interview, Putin also said that Russia would only launch a nuclear weapon if it detected the launch of other missiles headed for Russia.
Russia said they would not invade Ukraine they did. You cannot trust anything Russia says.By Brendan ColeRussia said it wants to "avoid" dragging the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria into the Ukraine war. Concerns that the unrecognized republic could be a potential flashpoint in the war follow two unexplained explosions in two days. Transnistria's Interior Ministry reported explosions took place at the radio-broadcast center in the village of Mayak 30 miles north of the capital Tiraspol around 7 a.m. Tuesday.
By ROBERT BURNSWASHINGTON (AP) — The longer Ukraine’s army fends off the invading Russians, the more it absorbs the advantages of Western weaponry and training — exactly the transformation President Vladimir Putin wanted to prevent by invading in the first place. The list of arms flowing to Ukraine is long and growing longer. It includes new American battlefield aerial drones and the most modern U.S. and Canadian artillery, anti-tank weapons from Norway and others, armored vehicles and anti-ship missiles from Britain and Stinger counter-air missiles from the U.S., Denmark and other countries. If Ukraine can hold off the Russians, its accumulating arsenal of Western weapons could have a transformative effect in a country that has, like other former Soviet republics, relied mainly on arms and equipment from the Soviet era.
Gerrard KaongaAviral video showing Vladimir Putin's hand trembling before a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart has added to concerns about the health of the Russian leader. In the footage, Putin can be seen holding his hand up and shaking it before he greets Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and embraces him. Putin also appears to walk with a stiff leg before taking a few steps forward, sparking further concern for his health. Commentators have questioned whether the Russian leader could be suffering from Parkinson's disease. The video was posted on Twitter page Visegrad 24 and has been viewed over 1 million times.
By Lee Brown and Evan Simko-BednarskiNew video shows Vladimir Putin looking bloated and awkwardly gripping a table for support — heightening suspicions that the warmongering president is seriously ill. The footage released by the Kremlin Thursday shows Putin, 69, tightly gripping the table with his right hand as soon as he sits down — then keeping it there throughout the nearly 12-minute clip. Putin sits with hunched shoulders and regularly fidgets and taps his toes during a meeting with his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, to discuss the fate of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol. The clip shows Putin and his key adviser “both depressed & seemingly in bad health,” tweeted Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist who was previously an adviser to Russia.
Russia had the chance to hone its war-fighting strategy in Syria but Putin’s forces failed to heed the lessons and now they are paying the price.David VolodzkoThe ongoing war in Syria was supposed to be a crucible for the modern Russian war machine, reforming its operational capabilities in preparation for future conflicts. Now that Russia is facing a test of those skills in Ukraine, it is turning into a disaster that should have been foreseen. Moscow officially lost only 112 servicemen in six and a half years in Syria, compared to what it admits are 1,351 in a single month in Ukraine—the true numbers are likely to be far higher. Russia has been forced, humiliatingly, to withdraw some 40,000 troops from around Kyiv and Chernihiv, having failed to make any significant progress in those regions—falling back to their old targets in eastern Ukraine. This raises the question of exactly what the Kremlin learned in Syria and, more importantly, what it should have learned but obviously has not.
David VolodzkoThe ongoing war in Syria was supposed to be a crucible for the modern Russian war machine, reforming its operational capabilities in preparation for future conflicts. Now that Russia is facing a test of those skills in Ukraine, it is turning into a disaster that they should have seen coming. Moscow officially lost only 112 servicemen in six and a half years in Syria, compared to what it admits are 1,351 in a single month in Ukraine—the true numbers are likely to be far higher. And they have been forced to humiliatingly pull out around 40,000 troops from around Kyiv and Chernihiv having failed to make any significant progress in those regions and falling back to their old targets in eastern Ukraine. This raises the question of exactly what the Kremlin learned in Syria and, more importantly, what it should have learned but obviously has not.
Associated PressRussian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in the battle for Mariupol on Thursday, even as he ordered his troops not to take the risk of storming the giant steel plant where the last Ukrainian defenders in the city were holed up. Instead, he directed his forces to seal off the Azovstal plant “so that not even a fly comes through.” After nearly two lethal months of bombardment that have largely reduced Mariupol to a smoking ruin, Russian forces appear to control the rest of the strategic southern city, including its vital but now badly damaged port. But the Ukrainian troops have stubbornly held out. Putin’s comments came as satellite images showed more than 200 new graves in a town where Ukrainian officials say the Russians have been burying Mariupol residents killed in the fighting. The imagery, from Maxar Technologies, shows long rows of graves stretching away from an existing cemetery in the town of Manhush, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Mariupol.
By Antonia ColibasanuAs momentous as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is, the most strategically important event in recent weeks was the global economic war between Russia and the U.S. and its allies. Russia, however, has been preparing to confront the West and challenge the Western socio-economic model for a long time. Russia’s strategic interests in Ukraine are well-known. The geography and history of Russia compel its leaders to create and preserve a buffer between Moscow and the major powers in Western Europe, and to ensure access to the Black Sea. Ukraine is crucial to both goals. But beyond Ukraine, the Kremlin perceives the eastward expansion of Western influence, including into Russia, to be a modern invasion by stealth that threatens the Russian regime.
By Hannah Ritchie, Masha Angelova and Rob Picheta, CNN(CNN) A brigade accused of committing war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha has been awarded an honorary title by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Troops in the 64th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade were named by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense as war criminals earlier this month, after mass graves containing murdered civilians were discovered and dead bodies lay in the street following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kyiv region. In a signed letter on Monday, Putin congratulated the unit for their "great heroism and courage" and awarded the unit the title of "Guards" for "protecting Russia's sovereignty." "Through astute and bold actions during the special military operation in Ukraine, the unit's staff became a role model in fulfilling its military duty, valor, dedication and professionalism," the president's congratulatory statement read.
Phil RosenIn a blow to Russia's richest business people, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on April 16 that requires Russian companies to remove their listings from overseas stock exchanges. The likes of Vladimir Potanin — Russia's richest man — will now have to adjust the ownership structure of their businesses, Bloomberg reported. That means Russian billionaires who own the companies listed abroad won't be able to collect foreign-currency dividends from the depository receipts. Trading of depositary receipts on foreign exchanges also must cease within days, though the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, London Stock Exchange and other top international bourses had already frozen Russian stocks after Putin launched his war on Ukraine in February. In addition, the decree that Putin signed means foreign holders of the canceled receipts must receive normal shares placed in non-resident accounts in Russia.
Even the most ardent Orthodox Christians in Ukraine are taking a stand against their churches’ loyalty to Moscow and “Putin’s Pope,” Russian Patriarch Kirill.Anna NemtsovaKYIV—Vladimir Putin’s onslaught has pushed Tatiana Bondarenko, a 53-year-old Ukrainian Orthodox Christian, to her breaking point. First, she was forced to flee her home town in Donetsk in the 2014 war. Then, in March, she had to leave Mariupol after her husband died in crossfire shelling and the city was all but wiped out by Putin’s army. Her life, she says, is ruined, and her heart broken. On Thursday, Bondarenko was weeping on the steps of Kyiv’s Pokrovsky Monastery, one of 12,000 Ukrainian Orthodox parishes still serving under the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) led by Russian Patriarch Kirill. She told The Daily Beast she still finds comfort being near the monastery, but her feelings about the institution and the leaders of the church have changed drastically since the start of the war.
It’s one major blow after another for the Kremlin’s allies, who seem to be embarrassing an increasingly isolated Putin by failing to get their lies straight on the war in Ukraine.Shannon VavraAfter a series of embarrassing setbacks in trying to capture Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, over the past 40-odd days, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ultimately decided to have his forces retreat, and regroup to go after eastern Ukraine. But his cronies can’t seem to get the picture straight. Putin loyalist Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic—also known as Putin’s “foot soldier”—said on his Telegram account this week that Russia will still be working to take Kyiv. We will “take Kyiv and all other cities,” Kadyrov said. The picture on the ground is far different, though. With Russian forces failing to take Kyiv, they left and abandoned that goal, instead focusing on the east. As recently as Tuesday this week, a senior U.S. defense official confirmed in a briefing that Russia is still focusing on the eastern portions of Ukraine.
sbaker@businessinsider.com (Sinéad Baker)Finland's former prime minister said he was giving up on his hope that Finland would join NATO, but Russian President Vladimir Putin achieved it by invading Ukraine. Alexander Stubb, who was prime minister between 2014 and 2015, told Insider in a phone interview on Thursday that he had been an "advocate of Finnish NATO membership for the better part of 30 years." But his views did not get majority support due to reasons like Finland's history with neutrality and the fear of retaliation from Russian. That changed when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
By Rob Picheta, CNN(CNN) Donbas, a sprawling and beleaguered heartland region that blankets much of eastern Ukraine, has been the front line of the country's conflict with Russia since 2014. But now its people, already scarred by eight years of fighting, are bracing for an assault even more intense. An impending battle for control of the territory is expected to define Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion, after his forces suffered costly failures in Kyiv, and across central and northern Ukraine. Satellite images have shown Russian military convoys and resupplied units moving towards Donbas for a large-scale offensive, and Ukraine's foreign minister has warned the world of an impending battle there that will "remind you of the Second World War." A Russian victory in the region would appall the West but could salvage Putin's war aims, while a defeat could cement his invasion as a historic failure. Either way, it is almost certain to devastate yet more of the Donbas region, a historically and culturally significant place whose proximity to Russia has dictated much of its turbulent existence.
Analysis by Luke McGee, CNN(CNN) When Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, his goals were clear. He wanted to bring his neighbor to heel, assert Russian authority in Eastern Europe and make the West think twice about expanding militarily and politically toward Russia's borders. But in one important respect, Putin's plan appears to have failed: The war has united the West against Moscow in ways that seemed unimaginable in January. Now, Finland and Sweden -- nations that are officially non-aligned -- are edging ever closer toward joining NATO, the US-led military alliance. Finland is expected to produce a report on the country's security policy this week, a key step on the road to the nation potentially applying for NATO. That report is expected to start discussions in Finland's parliament about whether to pursue membership in the alliance -- discussions which Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said she hoped would wrap up "before mid-summer."
By Pinar SevinclidirIstanbul, Turkey — A large, mostly Russian crowd pulsed to music from a stage in Turkey recently. The message blaring from the speakers was for the whole world to hear. "No to war!" shouted prominent Russian rapper Oxxxymiron from the front of the crowd. He was giving a voice to the many Russians who do not back their president's war in Ukraine. Oxxxymiron's March concert in Istanbyl, the proceeds from which went to help displaced Ukrainians, drew a large crowd of like-minded Russians. Many had only recently left their country in protest of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Russia's neighbor to the west.
Tyler O'NeilRussia's invasion of Ukraine appears not to be going according to plan, and President Vladimir Putin seems intent on blaming his old colleagues at the Federal Security Bureau (FSB) – the intelligence agency successor to the KGB – for the quagmire. Putin reportedly purged more than 100 agents from the FSB, and his government sent the head of the department responsible for Ukraine to prison. About 150 FSB officers have been dismissed, The Times of London reported Monday. The ousted agents belonged to the Fifth Service, a division that Putin – then director of the FSB – set up in 1998 in order to carry out operations in the countries of the former Soviet Union, aiming to keep those countries in Russia's orbit.
By Nadine Schmidt, Nic Robertson and Rob Picheta, CNNAustria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he raised alleged Russian atrocities in Ukraine during a "tough" and unfriendly meeting Monday with Vladimir Putin -- the first Western sit-down with the Russian President since he launched his invasion in February. "This is not a friendly visit. I have just come from Ukraine and have seen with my own eyes the immeasurable suffering caused by the Russian war of aggression," Nehammer was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his office after the meeting outside Moscow. Nehammer is the first European leader to meet Putin face-to-face since his invasion of Ukraine. His visit divided opinion among EU leaders, with some expressing skepticism about engaging with the Russian leader.The pair spoke for about 75 minutes at Putin's Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Nehammer's spokesperson said, in talks the Austrian leader described as "very direct, open and tough."
CBS NewsVladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent Russian opposition activist and politician who has suffered two suspected poisoning attacks, was detained near his house Monday and sentenced to 15 days in jail for disobeying a police order. Kara-Murza was arrested just a few hours after CNN aired an interview with him in which he called President Vladimir Putin's government a "murderous regime" and suggested Russia's war in Ukraine would lead to Putin's downfall. The dissident's lawyer, Vadym Prokhorov, ridiculed the arrest, citing police statements claiming Kara-Murza "behaved inadequately at the sight of police officers, changed the trajectory of his movement, accelerated his pace, and tried to hide when asked to stop."
Young professionals, often working in tech, have left the country after the Ukraine invasion: ‘I can’t live in a country that goes to war with its neighbors.’By Georgi Kantchev, Evan Gershkovich and Yuliya ChernovaHundreds of thousands of professional workers, many of them young, have left Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, accelerating an exodus of business talent and further threatening an economy targeted by Western sanctions. Those leaving the country include tech workers, scientists, bankers and doctors, according to surveys, economists and interviews with emigrants. They are departing for countries including Georgia, Armenia and Turkey. More are expected to follow.
By NOMAAN MERCHANTWASHINGTON (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin may use the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine as a pretext to order a new campaign to interfere in American politics, U.S. intelligence officials have assessed. Intelligence agencies have so far not found any evidence that Putin has authorized measures like the ones Russia is believed to have undertaken in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections in support of former President Donald Trump, according to several people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive findings. But given Putin’s antipathy toward the West and his repeated denunciations of Ukraine, officials believe he may see the U.S. backing of Ukraine’s resistance as a direct affront to him, giving him further incentive to target another U.S. election, the people said. It is not yet clear which candidates Russia might try to promote or what methods it might use.
By Carlotta Dotto and CNN Staff(CNN) "How to leave Russia?" Google searches for this term in Russian hit a 10-year high inside the country within a week of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24. From Moscow to the Siberian oil capital of Novosibirsk, and from the intellectual hub of St. Petersburg to the nuclear submarine base of Murmansk, Russians are searching for a way out in anticipation of a grim future in a country torn apart by isolation, censorship and belligerence. Analysis of search data, immigration figures and flight information, as well as interviews with experts, activists and people inside the country, shed light on how people who can no longer live in Vladimir Putin's Russia are trying to flee amid the president's war in Ukraine and political crackdown at home. Russians' interest in the topic of "emigration" on Google quadrupled between mid-February and early March. Searches around "travel visa" have almost doubled, and for a Russian equivalent of 'political asylum' they jumped more than five-fold.
CNN's Brian Todd speaks to Russian analysts after Western countries placed sanctions on Putin's daughters Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova
ReutersBERLIN, April 4 (Reuters) - German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, long an advocate of Western rapprochement with Russia, expressed regret for his earlier stance, saying his years of support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline had been a clear mistake.
Laurin-Whitney GottbrathPresident Biden has called Vladimir Putin a "war criminal," and said Monday the Russian leader should face a trial over the alleged atrocities in Ukrainian city of Bucha. Yes, but: While similar calls have echoed worldwide, Putin is unlikely to be held criminally accountable, at least as long as he remains in power. The big picture: War crimes have been historically hard to investigate and often even more challenging to prosecute. This is especially true when prosecutors seek to hold leaders or former leaders accountable.
Isabel van BrugenFinland Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Saturday that the country will make a decision on applying for NATO membership by the end of spring, because "Russia is not the neighbor we thought it was." Finland's relations with Russia have changed in an "irreversible" way, said Marin, reversing course on earlier remarks that it would be "very unlikely" that Finland would apply for membership with the military alliance during her current term of office. Russian officials have warned of potential retaliation, in the form of military and political consequences, should Finland and Sweden join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Sergei Belyaev, director of the Second European Department of Russia's Foreign Ministry, told Russia's state-run news agency Interfax that Finland and Sweden not joining NATO is "an important factor in ensuring security and stability in northern Europe."
by Tom RoganOne of President Vladimir Putin's most important allies is becoming increasingly outspoken in his criticisms of the Kremlin over its execution of the war in Ukraine. Ramzan Kadyrov's willingness to criticize top Kremlin officials directly, and thus indirectly criticize Putin, is notable. It evinces rising tensions in Russia's elite over the absolute failure to subjugate Ukraine.
By Vasco Cotovio, Frederik Pleitgen, Byron Blunt and Daria Markina, CNNBucha, Ukraine (CNN) Vladimir stands on the edge of a mass grave in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv. He holds his hands to his head, then raises them up to the sky in anguish. "Brother, we've been looking for you for so long," he says, bursting into tears halfway through. His brother, Dmitry, has been missing for roughly a week and neighbors told Vladimir he might be buried here. "We thought you were alive," Vladimir cries out. Inside the grave, the bodies are piled on top of one another, mostly inside black bags but some with limbs protruding from the soil. Only some are interred. A CNN team saw at least a dozen bodies on the mass grave, but the earth shows signs of recent movement, suggesting many more could lie beneath.
Neil MacFarquharThe signs of failure in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are readily apparent: the tarnished reputation of its military as a modernized, overpowering fighting force; its tattered economy; and a Western alliance more unified than at any time since the worst tensions of the Cold War. But what is less appreciated is that this is only the latest and potentially the most spectacular in a series of failures suffered by President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Ukraine. If Afghanistan is the “graveyard of empires,” Ukraine is where Putin’s imperial ambitions consistently founder.
By Vasco Cotovio, Frederik Pleitgen, Byron Blunt and Daria Markina, CNNBucha, Ukraine (CNN) Vladimir stands on the edge of a mass grave in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv. He holds his hands to his head, then raises them up to the sky in anguish. "Brother, we've been looking for you for so long," he says, bursting into tears halfway through. His brother, Dmitry, has been missing for roughly a week and neighbors told Vladimir he might be buried here. "We thought you were alive," Vladimir cries out.
Griff WitteThe Kremlin had banked on a quick, trouble-free decapitation to solve the problem of a neighbor appearing to stray too far from Moscow’s orbit. But after its vaunted army thundered across the border, very little went according to plan. The invading troops met fierce resistance from outgunned fighters defending their homeland. International allies, including the United States, rushed to aid the underdogs. And a war that Moscow had seen as a chance to show off its might became instead a bloody and embarrassing display of weakness — one that threatened the stability of its deeply entrenched regime. So has gone Russia’s stumbling, five-week-old invasion of Ukraine. But the same description applies to the Soviet Union’s ill-fated adventure in Afghanistan, which precipitated collapse at home and the Cold War’s end.
Analysis by John Blake, CNNCNN — Russian President Vladimir Putin often evokes the Soviet Union’s epic defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II to justify his country’s invasion of Ukraine. Yet Putin is committing some of the same blunders that doomed Germany’s 1941 invasion of the USSR – while using “Hitler-like tricks and tactics” to justify his brutality, military historians and scholars say. This is the savage irony behind Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine that’s become clear as the war enters its second month: the Russian leader, who portrays himself as a student of history, is floundering because he hasn’t paid enough attention to the lessons of the “Great Patriotic War” he reveres. “I have been trying to make sense of this for a month, because as terrible as Putin is, you could never say he was illogical,” says Peter T. DeSimone, an associate professor of Russian and Eastern European history at Utica University in New York.
Borzou DaragahiAs Belarusian rail lines break down and trains transporting Russian military equipment into Ukraine grind to a halt, the government of strongman Alexander Lukashenko is making a risky move. It is airing confessions of transport workers involved in the so-called “rail war”, who are admitting to damaging equipment and infrastructure and causing delays. On the one hand, the accounts may strike fear into the hearts of those Belarusians who are opposed to the war, to Mr Lukashenko’s tyrannical regime, and to his close relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin. But on the other hand, the array of dozens of statements from ordinary trackmen and line workers, rail hands and IT specialists, conductors and engineers showed the depth and breadth of opposition in Belarus to Russia’s war, as well as towards Mr Lukashenko. “I know these guys – they are drivers, security guards and maintenance crews,” Franak Viacorka, an adviser to Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, tells The Independent in an interview.
As the Russian president signs a decree to call up another 134,500 conscripts, his troops in Ukraine want out.Allison QuinnRussia’s Vladimir Putin is calling up another 134,500 conscripts even as more and more of his own soldiers appear to be turning on him over humiliating losses in Ukraine. According to a decree published on a Russian government portal Thursday, the troops will be called to begin service on April 1 until July 15. The Defense Ministry promised earlier this week that they “will not be sent to any hot spots,” and that all those called up in last spring’s draft will be sent home. But those assurances seem likely to be overshadowed by a multitude of reports that say Russia’s senseless war against Ukraine has been marred by lies from the top down, with Russian troops claiming they were misled into the war and Putin’s own advisers said to be shielding him from the extent of the devastating losses.
By John FengRussia's justification for going to war against Ukraine has Asia concerned for its own security, the prime minister of Singapore said during a visit to the United States this week. President Vladimir Putin laid the groundwork for his invasion using historical narratives that surprised many listeners around the world—not only those in Europe and North America. In the East, where China is the foremost rising power, there are concerns that decades-old territorial disputes could come to a head in a similar manner, Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong suggested.
by Lexi LonasRussian President Vladimir Putin is ordering a draft of nearly 135,000 individuals as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has not been the easy success story the Kremlin was hoping for. The government published a decree by Putin on Monday that stated 134,650 Russians who are not already in the military or reserves will be drafted, state media outlet TASS reported. The draft will run from April 1 to July 15 and choose from men ages 18 to 27, according to the document. The move comes more than a month into Russia’s attack on Ukraine, a war many believed Russia would win in days.
ReutersMarch 31 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he had signed a decree saying foreign buyers must pay in roubles for Russian gas from April 1, and contracts would be halted if these payments were not made. "In order to purchase Russian natural gas, they must open rouble accounts in Russian banks. It is from these accounts that payments will be made for gas delivered starting from tomorrow," Putin said in televised remarks.
CBS NewsU.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about the poor performance of Kremlin troops in Ukraine, the Associated Press reported and CBS News confirmed. A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss recently declassified intelligence, said Wednesday the intelligence finding indicates that Putin is aware of the situation on information coming to him and there is now persistent tension between him and senior Russian military officials. President Biden, in an exchange with reporters, would not comment. Later Wednesday, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield also would not say whether the president approved the release of the intelligence.
By Kevin Liptak and Jeremy Diamond, CNNWashington (CNN) President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for nearly an hour Wednesday as airstrikes near Kyiv seemed to bear out Western skepticism that peace talks could ease Russia's assault on Ukraine. Biden told his counterpart the US would provide Ukraine another $500 million in "direct budgetary aid," the White House said afterward, and discussed "how the United States is working around the clock to fulfill the main security assistance requests by Ukraine." The US has repeatedly rebuffed Zelensky's requests for more direct assistance, such as fighter jets and an enforced no-fly zone. In the White House's readout of the two leaders' conversation on Wednesday, Biden sought to underscore the military assistance the US has been willing to provide and "the critical effects those weapons have had on the conflict."
Holly EllyattIf his reputation wasn’t bad enough before Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin is now even more widely seen as unstable, unreliable and untrustworthy — and those are the more generous descriptions of a leader who has ordered and overseen violent and destructive aggression toward Russia’s smaller neighbor. The invasion has prompted analysts and close watchers of Russia to not only question whether Putin has any moral compass, but also his sense of reality, geopolitical strategy and grip on power. Specifically, many experts are asking whether the invasion of Ukraine — which has had unintended consequences for Russia, leaving it on the verge of economic ruin while uniting most of the international community against it — could backfire spectacularly on Putin, leaving him vulnerable to an uprising at home, as living standards fall, or a coup led from within by members of his political and business elite.
MSNRussian President Vladimir Putin has said that shelling of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol will only end when Ukrainian troops surrender. Mr Putin made the comments during an hour long phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday night, the Kremlin said in a statement. But French officials said the Russian leader had agreed to consider plans to evacuate civilians from the city. It comes as new satellite photos showed the destruction caused by the shelling. The images, released by the Earth observation company Maxar, showed that residential areas have been reduced to rubble and highlighted Russian artillery cannons in firing positions on the outskirts of the city.
Robert ReichPutin’s lies, and the lies coming from America’s extreme right, are mutually supporting. There’s a reason for that. In a speech delivered last Friday from his office in the Kremlin, Putin criticized the west’s “cancel culture”, which, he charged, is “canceling” Russia – “an entire thousand-year-old country, our people”. It was the third time in recent months Putin has blasted the so-called “cancel culture”. Which is exactly what Trump, Tucker Carlson, and the Republican party have blasted for several years. “The goal of cancel culture is to make decent Americans live in fear of being fired, expelled, shamed, humiliated and driven from society as we know it,” Trump said as he accepted his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention in 2020. Tucker Carlson, one of Fox News’s most prominent personalities, has charged that liberals have been trying to cancel everything from Space Jam to the Fourth of July.
Silvia AmaroGermany has some advice for Russian President Vladimir Putin: think about the consequences of asking for energy payments in rubles. Russia’s Putin said last week that “unfriendly” nations would be asked to pay for their natural gas in rubles — causing a spike in European gas prices. By asking for payments in the Russian currency — rather than in dollars or euros, as is contracted — Putin is seeking to prop up the value of rubles, which sank in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. dollar is up almost 13% against the Russian ruble since Feb. 24, when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, after spiking around 85% in early March. However, Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner said he would not be strong-armed by Russian demands.
By Maegan Vazquez, Kevin Liptak and Alex Marquardt, CNNCNN — President Joe Biden reiterated on Monday that he was not announcing a change in US policy when he had said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” – a remark that caught American and international officials off-guard, sending the White House into clean-up mode over the weekend. “I just was expressing my outrage. He shouldn’t remain in power, just like, you know, bad people shouldn’t continue to do bad things,” Biden said in response to a question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the White House. “But it doesn’t mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way.” Two days after Biden’s return from Europe, the improvised comment made at the end of an address in Warsaw about Putin – “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power” – has hovered over the White House.
Sinéad BakerThe Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich handed Russian President Vladimir Putin a handwritten note from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seeking peace, but Putin rejected it, The Times of London reported. Abramovich met with Putin in Moscow earlier this month, where he was handed the note from Zelenskyy to give to Putin, The Times reported. Abramovich has been involved in the peace talks, and Zelenskyy said that Abramovich had been trying to help. According to the report, the note laid out the terms that Zelenskyy would accept to end the war, which started when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. But Putin was not convinced, saying: "Tell him I will thrash them," The Times reported.
Zeleb.esThe friends we make along the wayAs the leader of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin has gathered all sorts of international allies from the left and the right, joined by their opposition to the world order set by the United States and Western Europe.
Matthew ChapmanOn Thursday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling outlined how Vladimir Putin is accomplishing none of his objectives in the invasion of Ukraine. "President Biden says 'NATO has never been as united,'" said anchor Wolf Blitzer. "How much of a message does that summit here in Brussels actually send to Putin?" "It's a very big message, Wolf, because we're talking about what were Mr. Putin's strategic and operational objectives," said Hertling. "He is currently stalemated on the battlefields in the east and south of Ukraine and ... the battle in the north, around Kyiv, was Mr. Putin's primary objective. Take the capital city, replace the government. He has not been able to do that in four weeks when he planned for it in three days."
By Alexander Downes, opinion contributorRussia’s armored offensive in Ukraine, which Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly believed would be over in a few days, has been stymied by fierce Ukrainian resistance and is bogged down without having taken any major cities. The world has watched in horror as Russian forces have turned their guns, bombs, and missiles on civilian areas of these cities. This is not collateral damage. Russian ordnance is being lobbed into neighborhoods, hitting apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, and even a theater specifically marked as sheltering children. This is intentional targeting of civilians.
Matthew ChapmanOn Monday's edition of CNN's "The Lead," former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor pushed back on anchor Jake Tapper's suggestion that President Joe Biden's speech, saying that Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power," is unlikely to matter in terms of Putin escalating his offensives in Ukraine. "Ambassador Taylor, Ukraine's military intelligence head said Vladimir Putin could be looking to carve Ukraine into two, like North and South Korea, occupied Ukraine maybe to the south and east, free Ukraine to the west," Tapper said. "Do Biden's comments about who should be in power embolden Putin in any way, do you think?" "Jake, I don't think so," said Taylor. "I don't think that those comments had anything to do with the decision to try to carve out a part of Ukraine. Putin carved out a part of Ukraine in 2014 when he first invaded. He carved out Crimea. He carved out a place we call Donbas.
Kevin BreuningerPresident Joe Biden on Saturday said Russian leader Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” ratcheting up international pressure and further uniting NATO allies against Putin over his invasion of Ukraine. “A dictator, bent on rebuilding an empire, will never erase the people’s love for liberty,” Biden said at the end of a sweeping speech in Poland. “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness.” “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said.
By Kyle BlaineWarsaw, Poland (CNN) President Joe Biden on Saturday called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "butcher" after visiting with refugees in Warsaw, Poland, in an intense criticism of the Russian leader's actions in Ukraine that have seen millions of refugees flee to neighboring countries. During the visit, Biden was asked by reporters what seeing the Ukrainian refugees at Stadion Narodowy made him think of as he deals with Putin every day. Biden responded: "He's a butcher." After initially looking to downplay a personal rivalry between himself and Putin, Biden has ramped up his rhetoric against Putin over the last 10 days. Last week, Biden for the first time called Putin a "war criminal" and then later referred to him as a "murderous dictator, a pure thug who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine." He's also called the Russian invasion of Ukraine "inhumane."
By Arnaud Siad, Nathan Hodge and Toyin Owoseje, CNN(CNN) J.K. Rowling has hit back at Vladimir Putin after the Russian President compared the West's treatment of his country to a public backlash faced by the Harry Potter author. In a message shared on her Twitter account on Friday, the writer said critiques of cancel culture are "not best made" by those "slaughtering civilians." Rowling also posted a link to a 2021 BBC News article about jailed anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny and denounced the invasion of Ukraine. "Critiques of Western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics," she told her 13.9 million followers on Twitter, along with the hashtag #IStandWithUkraine
Bloomberg NewsRussia is set to erase 15 years of economic gains by the end of 2023 after its invasion of Ukraine spurred a multitude of sanctions and prompted companies to pull out of the country, according to the Institute of International Finance. The economy is expected to contract 15% in 2022, followed by a decline of 3% in 2023, leaving gross domestic product where it was about fifteen years ago, economists Benjamin Hilgenstock and Elina Ribakova wrote in a preliminary assessment of the impact of the war, noting that further sanctions may change their view. “Sharply lower domestic demand is likely to play a crucial role while a collapse in imports should offset lower exports, leading to a marginally-positive contribution from net foreign demand,” the economists wrote. “However, should further sanctions in the form of trade embargos be implemented, exports might fall more than we currently forecast.”
The Russian president’s obsession with World War II is hindering his invasion of Ukraine.By Antony BeevorOtto von Bismarck once said that only a fool learns from his own mistakes. “I learn from other people’s,” the 19th-century German chancellor said. Astonishingly, the Russian army is repeating the past mistakes of its Soviet predecessor. In April 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, under intense pressure from Stalin, sent his tank armies into Berlin without infantry support. Vladimir Putin’s forces not only made the same error; they even copied the way their forebears had attached odd bits of iron—including bed frames—to their tanks’ turrets in the hopes that the added metal would detonate anti-tank weapons prematurely. This did not save the Russian tanks. It simply increased their profile and attracted Ukrainian tank-hunting parties, just as the Soviet tanks in Berlin had drawn groups of Hitler Youth and SS, who attacked them with Panzerfausts.
By Ellen MitchellThe devastating images from the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol are a grim bellwether of what’s to come the longer Russia’s attack on the country drags on, experts and officials say. Heavy shelling in the city has caused most remaining residents to hide in basements and foreign journalists to flee from what’s been called an “absolute hellscape” of bombing and rubble. But with fierce fighting that has reached a stalemate across most of the eastern part of the country, officials and experts fear Mariupol could be an indicator of what’s to come for other major Ukrainian cities.
By Nina ChestneyLONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - Russia will seek payment in roubles for gas sales from “unfriendly” countries, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, sending European gas prices soaring on concerns the move would exacerbate the region’s energy crunch. European countries' dependence on Russian gas to heat their homes and power their economies has been thrown into the spotlight since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 and the subsequent imposition of Western sanctions aimed at isolating Russia economically. With the financial noose tightening and the European Union split on whether to sanction Russia's energy sector, Putin hit back with a clear message -- if you want our gas, buy our currency. "Russia will continue, of course, to supply natural gas in accordance with volumes and prices ... fixed in previously concluded contracts," Putin said at a televised meeting with top government ministers. "The changes will only affect the currency of payment, which will be changed to Russian roubles," he said.
VLADIMIR Putin has apparently ordered his army to move thousands of Mariupol residents to "concentration" camps in Russia, according to latest reports.By John VargaThe besieged port city in Ukraine's south has been under horrendous Russian bombardment for weeks. Mariupol is an important prize for Putin, as it would allow the Russians to create a land corridor from Luhansk to Donetsk and down to Crimea. For Moscow, the land corridor would also secure control of the Ukrainian coast on the Sea of Azov.Mariupol's city council claimed that thousands of its residents had been rounded up by Russian forces and taken to Russia. The Kyiv Independent newspaper tweeted: "Mariupol council: Russian occupiers forcibly move thousands of Mariupol residents to Russia. "The civilians were allegedly taken to camps where Russians checked their phones and documents and then forcibly moved some of them to remote cities in Russia."
Sarakshi Rai(The Hill) – A Ukrainian historian wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin made two major miscalculations regarding the invasion of Ukraine. Yaroslav Hrytsak, a historian and professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University, wrote that “Russian aggression has been met with heroic Ukrainian resistance and united the West.” He referred to Putin as a “master tactician but inept strategist” and said he has made his most profound miscalculation by not anticipating a response from the West and Ukrainian resistance. “First, he was hoping that, as had been the case with his war against Georgia, the West would tacitly swallow his aggression against Ukraine. A unified response from the West was not something he expected. Second, since in his mind Russians and Ukrainians were one nation, Mr. Putin believed Russian troops needed barely to enter Ukraine to be welcomed with flowers. This never materialized,” he wrote.
The Russian editor displayed an anti-war sign on the news.By Monica DunnRussian people do not support Russia's actions in Ukraine, Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who made headlines after staging an anti-war protest on live TV, said Sunday, branding the unprovoked invasion "Putin's war." "It's Putin's war, not [the] Russian people's war," Ovsyannikova told ABC "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos in her first interview with an American broadcast network. Ovsyannikova ran onto the set of the main Russian state news live broadcast last Monday with an anti-war sign to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine, standing behind a Channel One anchor as they were speaking. The sign read, "NO WAR," and "Don't believe the propaganda. They're lying to you here," in English and Russian, respectively.
This is likely the first time that deepfake videos have been created and deployed in a war propaganda effort.Dan EvonIn March 2022, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its third week, a video was circulated on social media that supposedly showed Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing that the Russian military was surrendering and the war in Ukraine was over:
The takeover of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities is a vital part of the Kremlin’s “fear and control” strategy in the war.Jeremy KrytThe world watched in horror as shelling by Russian forces set fire to part of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine. Immediate catastrophe was averted when the flames were put out, but the plant—which is home to six separate reactors—was captured by the Kremlin’s forces on March 4. Russia has also taken control of the nuclear facility at Chernobyl, which although inactive, still houses deadly radioactive materials. The situation at Chernobyl took a dramatic turn for the worse on March 9 when the power supply was cut off and the electricity-dependent cooling system for spent nuclear rods was endangered. A partial outage at Zaporizhzhya followed a day later.
Ellen KnickmeyerWASHINGTON (AP) - The signs are abundant of how Ukraine frustrated Vladimir Putin's hopes for a swift victory and how Russia’s military proved far from ready for the fight. A truck carrying Russian troops crashes, its doors blown open by a rocket-propelled grenade. Foreign-supplied drones target Russian command posts. Orthodox priests in trailing vestments parade Ukraine's blue and yellow flag in defiance of their Russian captors in the occupied city of Berdyansk. Russia has lost hundreds of tanks, many left charred or abandoned along the roads, and its death toll is on a pace to outstrip that of the country's previous military campaigns in recent years. Yet more than three weeks into the war, with Putin’s initial aim of an easy change in government in Kyiv long gone, Russia's military still has a strong hand. With their greater might and stockpile of city-flattening munitions, Russian forces can fight on for whatever the Russian president may plan next, whether leveraging a negotiated settlement or brute destruction, military analysts say. more...
By Lalit K JhaRussia has become a global economic pariah after it attacked Ukraine and the international community has joined the United States in imposing tough sanctions against Moscow, the Joe Biden administration has claimed. US President Biden termed the package of economic sanctions enforced against Russia "most significant in history" and claimed that it has caused consequential damage to the Russian economy. "It has caused the Russian economy to crater. The Ruble is now down 50 per cent and worth less than one American penny since Putin announced his war," he told reporters at the White House after announcing an immediate ban on import of Russian oil and gas. more...
By Emma FargeGENEVA, March 1 (Reuters) - British foreign minister Liz Truss told a U.N. rights forum on Tuesday that Russia was becoming a "global pariah" and urged countries to isolate it further in response to the invasion of Ukraine launched by Moscow last week.
Don Lemon TonightRussian President Vladimir Putin says he makes just $140,000 a year. Here's how he may be one of the richest people on the planet. CNN's Drew Griffin reports. video...
Facing stiff resistance in Ukraine and with crippling economic sanctions at home, Russian President Vladimir Putin is using language that recalls the rhetoric from Josef Stalin's show trials of the 1930sByThe Associated PressNEW YORK -- Facing stiff resistance in Ukraine and crippling economic sanctions at home, Russian President Vladimir Putin is using language that recalls the rhetoric from Josef Stalin’s show trials of the 1930s. Putin's ominous speech on Wednesday likened opponents to “gnats” who try to weaken the country at the behest of the West — crude remarks that set the stage for sweeping repressions against those who dare to speak out against the war in Ukraine. more...
Analysis by Angela Dewan, CNN(CNN) Western leaders and security agencies are spending huge amounts of resources on getting into Russian President Vladimir Putin's head. It's a futile exercise -- at times when the West has thought Russia's war in Ukraine might be losing steam, Putin has doubled down, sending his forces to bomb maternity hospitals and shelters harboring children. Now, an apparent pause in the advancement of Russian troops has the West guessing: Has Russia's war effort stalled? Or is it a tactical regrouping? Either way, an incendiary Stalinesque speech on Wednesday night in which Putin called Russians opposing the war "traitors" marked a change in tone and a sign that not all is going to plan, experts said. Perhaps more worrying, many observers saw it as a sign that the head of the Russian state, facing setback in Ukraine, would take a vengeful turn at home and crack down more forcefully than ever on any sign of dissent. more...
Don Lemon TonightRussian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at "traitors" in a speech as his invasion stalls in Ukraine. Ex-KGB agent Jack Barsky discusses Putin's speech. video...
One expert said the Russian leader was telling his country's elite: “Don’t think about having second thoughts. We’re all in this together and if I go down, you go down.”By Alexander SmithLONDON — Anyone looking for signs that embattled and isolated Russia might soften its position would not have found much hope in the increasingly belligerent words of President Vladimir Putin. With his invasion of Ukraine floundering and his economy teetering, Putin doubled down Wednesday, turning his baleful glare on Russians who are against the invasion or who sympathize with the West. "The Russian people will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors, and will simply spit them out like an insect in their mouth onto the pavement," he said, shoulders hunched and staring down the barrel of the camera. It was the latest speech to surprise and alarm many who study Putin. He has adopted what they say is an emotional, ranting tone since he invaded Ukraine three weeks ago, a departure from the calculating persona of this former KGB officer. more...
The Kremlin has been recruiting thousands of hardened Syrian fighters to join its war in Ukraine.By Jack LoshIn June 2021, four young Syrian men were on the final leg of their journey to the Central African Republic. As their connecting flight took off from Lomé, Togo’s capital, the contrast between the boisterous, bedraggled group and their fellow passengers—African businessmen, U.N. officials, affluent local families, charity workers—could not have been more striking. Covered in dirt, talking loudly in Arabic, and taking photos nonstop from their economy-class seats, they wore open-toed sandals and had the look of farm workers who had rarely, if ever, traveled by plane. On arrival in Bangui, CAR’s capital, a white soldier dressed in the typical attire of personnel working for the Wagner Group, a Russian network of mercenaries and paramilitaries, collected them from the tarmac and took them into the terminal.
MSNBCSen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., joins Morning Joe to discuss Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's planned address to Congress, banning Russian energy imports and increasing U.S. energy production. Sen. Manchin also discusses President Biden's SCOTUS pick, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. video...
MSNBCProfessor Brian Klaas discusses how Vladimir Putin has fallen into a 'dictator trap' and why dictators eventually make mistakes when they believe in their fake realities. video...
NBC NewsWhile blaming the West and Ukraine’s leaders for the conflict, the Russian president alluded to the possibility of talks, as long as “the problems which are fundamental for Russia” are on the table. video...
By NOMAAN MERCHANTWASHINGTON (AP) — More than two weeks into a war he expected to dominate in two days, Vladimir Putin is projecting anger, frustration at his military’s failures and a willingness to cause even more violence and destruction in Ukraine, in the assessment of U.S. intelligence officials. Officials in recent days have publicly said they’re worried the Russian president will escalate the conflict to try to break Ukraine’s resistance. Russia still holds overwhelming military advantages and can bombard the country for weeks more. And while the rest of the world reacts to horrific images of the war he started, Putin remains insulated from domestic pressure by what CIA Director William Burns called a “propaganda bubble.” more...
It may seem a hypothetical too far to imagine the trial of the Russian leader – an exercise in wish-fulfilment at a time when NATO is impotent even to stop his bombings of hospitals and at the Security Council Russia commands a veto that would stop any trial in its tracks.But Vladimir Putin, at age 69, could live another 30 years, and who knows what may happen in that time – a coup, or a later government that surrenders him, like Slobodan Milosevic, in return for Western aid, or his capture in pathetic retirement like some old Nazi. It took 20 years to bring the butchers of the Balkans – Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic – to justice, and Putin’s crimes are so serious that he should never be given immunity from prosecution. more...
The West condemns Russia’s aggression as “barbaric” and “horrific,” as Biden warns that conflict could drag on for weeks or months.By Robin WrightIn the eyes of the world and almost certainly history, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday was an epic miscalculation, drawing comparisons to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein for cold-blooded aggression that could challenge the world order and change its borders. The Russian leader appeared almost delusional in a pre-dawn speech from the Kremlin announcing a “special military operation” to “protect” Donbas, the eastern region where Russian-backed separatists have waged a war for eight years. Putin, instead, immediately ordered Russian tanks into Ukraine and air strikes on the capital and more than a dozen cities in a country of forty million people. “Peace on our continent has been shattered,” the NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters. “We now have war in Europe on a scale and of a type we thought belonged to history.” Putin’s “reckless” attack risks “countless innocent lives,” Stoltenberg warned. more...
By Mark Thompson, CNN BusinessLondon (CNN Business) Russia's richest businessman has warned the Kremlin against confiscating assets of companies that have fled in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, saying such a step would set the country back more than 100 years. Vladimir Potanin, president of metals giant Norilsk Nickel (NILSY) and its biggest shareholder, said that Russia risked returning to the tumultuous days of the 1917 revolution if it slammed the door on Western companies and investors. He urged the Russian government to proceed with extreme caution regarding the seizure of assets. "Firstly, it would take us back a hundred years, to 1917, and the consequences of such a step — global distrust of Russia on the part of investors — we would experience for many decades," he said in a message posted on Norilsk Nickel's Telegram account on Thursday. more...
Associated PressThe “Evropeisky” mall in Moscow was once a symbol of a Russia integrated into the global consumer economy, with atriums named after cities like London, Paris and Rome. But now large parts of the seven-story shopping center have gone quiet after Western brands from Apple to Victoria’s Secret closed their Russian operations in the two weeks since the country invaded Ukraine. Hundreds of companies have similarly announced plans to curtail ties to Russia, with the pace accelerating over the past week as the deadly violence and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine worsens, and as Western governments ratchet up economic sanctions. more...
Rachel TreismanRussian President Vladimir Putin invoked World War II to justify Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying in televised remarks last week that his offensive aimed to "denazify" the country — whose democratically elected president is Jewish, and lost relatives in the Holocaust. "The purpose of this operation is to protect people who for eight years now have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kyiv regime," he said, according to an English translation from the Russian Mission in Geneva. "To this end, we will seek to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation." Russian officials have continued to employ that rhetoric in recent days.
By Alexander BoltonRussian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has revealed tensions within the Republican Party over how hard to push back on the aggression and how to respond to former President Trump’s glowing praise of Putin. The national security crisis has shown Trump to be seriously out of step with GOP leaders on characterizing Putin’s motives and moves, even though Trump looks increasingly likely to run again for president in 2024. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday contradicted Trump’s recent praise of Putin as “smart” and “savvy” by declaring that he views the Russian president as a “ruthless thug.” more...
Can Russia’s conduct in Syria and Libya predict what’s in store for Ukraine?By Isaac ChotinerIn September, 2015, President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military to intervene on behalf of the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, who was in the fifth year of waging a brutal civil war against domestic opposition and overseas recruits. By then, the Russian government had already provided weapons to the Syrian state, which had become infamous for horrific human-rights violations. But the Russian military effort helped turn the war decisively in Assad’s direction. Last year, the group Airwars estimated that the Russian intervention had killed tens of thousands of civilians; the United Nations has accused Russia of war crimes. The intervention also offers clues to how Putin wants to wield military power abroad, as has been seen in the last several weeks in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It’s time for a new way forward.By Charles ListerRussia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting collapse of U.S. and European diplomatic relations with Moscow mean Syria diplomacy is now all but dead. Small signs that diplomacy may have been poised for renewed investment in early 2022 now feel like a distant memory. The international community thus finds itself in a distinctly new strategic environment, where long-standing multilateral institutions and mechanisms traditionally relied on to mediate and de-escalate are more or less impotent. The United Nations Security Council had little value before the invasion of Ukraine, but it is now worthless. To make matters worse, Russia’s war on Ukraine looks set to trigger a humanitarian crisis in Syria that will far surpass anything witnessed over the past 11 years. While the world focuses on the escalating suffering in Ukraine, Syria’s collapse into even deeper misery risks being ignored, catalyzing another wave of destabilizing effects across the Middle East, Europe, and beyond.
Jason BreslowWithin hours of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week, a new mural could be seen on the side of a bombed-out home in the Syrian city of Binnish. It showed a map of Ukraine, painted in the yellow and blue of the nation's flag, under attack by a large brown Russian bear. Piles of rubble littered the ground around the building, remnants of the Russian air campaign in Syria's civil war. Aziz al-Asmar, one of the artists behind the painting, described it as a message of solidarity with the people of Ukraine. "The Syrian regime and its Russian allies turned our houses into ruins for the past 11 years, causing many people to be displaced from their homes and villages" he told Al-Jazeera. "What is happening now in Ukraine is the continuation of Russia's policy, and it won't stop if the ... international community do not unite and put an end to it."
Danny MakkiAs Russia pushes on with its relentless invasion of Ukraine, Damascus has done more than toe the proverbial Kremlin line — it has shown complete solidarity with its superpower patron. Moscow was eager to secure its ally’s support in the lead-up to the offensive, with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visiting Damascus on Feb. 15, just a week before the outbreak of war. Shoigu met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to discuss “military-technical cooperation as part of the joint fight against terrorism.” According to the official readout, he also inspected the airbase at Hemeimeem as well as the port in Tartus and oversaw military drills. At the same time, Moscow deployed long-range nuclear-capable bombers and fighter jets carrying hypersonic missiles in Syria, enabling Russia to more effectively deter Western involvement in Ukraine or even carry out attacks in the event of an escalation.
Putin’s support for Assad will benefit Russia for decades to come. But that doesn’t mean the U.S. could have made a difference in Syria.By Samuel SweeneyThe civil war in Syria has been a strategic success for Vladimir Putin. Amid the turmoil, he expanded a naval base on the Eastern Mediterranean at Tartous,opened up a new market for Russian companies—especially in energy and phosphates—and shored up his relationships with both Syria and Iran. He also used the conflict as a testing ground for a wide array of new military hardware. None of this is ideal for the U.S., but in “Putin’s War in Syria: Russian Foreign Policy and the Price of America’s Absence,” Anna Borshchevskaya mistakenly tries to make the case that Moscow’s newfound advantage is proof that Washington should have intervened. Ms. Borshchevskaya, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, skillfully lays out Mr. Putin’s approach to the Middle East. She reminds us that the Soviet Union’s brief absence from the region in the years following the Cold War was a historical anomaly. This latest foray into Syria is best viewed, we are told, as a continuation of both czarist and Soviet interventions in the Middle East going back centuries.
An independent journalist describes what life is like inside Russia’s parallel universe.By Sean IllingAlmost everyone outside Russia views Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine the same way: as an obscene and unnecessary atrocity. But that’s because the outside world can see clearly what’s happening on the ground in Ukraine. For the average Russian, the picture looks very different. They know there’s something happening in Ukraine, but it’s not a “war” — it’s a “special military operation.” And if you watch the news, which is controlled by the state, you’re not seeing images of bombed apartment buildings or dead civilians on the streets, because that’s what a war looks like and there’s definitely not a war in Ukraine. Indeed, Putin signed a law last week mandating up to 15 years in prison for spreading “false information” about the conflict, which includes using words like “war” or “invasion.” And while the state has largely controlled media in Russia, it has now shut down the last remaining independent channel and is even blocking Facebook in the hope of controlling the internet as well. more...
by Patrice TaddonioWhen Russian President Vladimir Putin first launched airstrikes inside Syria in fall 2015, the Syrian conflict was in its fifth year. Armed rebels, who opposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on civilians, were gaining ground; ISIS was on the rise; and Assad had acknowledged his army was on the retreat. Russia had said its military was targeting ISIS and other terrorist groups. But in the days, months and years to come, Russian airpower reportedly exacted a stark toll on Syrian civilians. Putin’s military intervention — including aiding his ally Assad in besieging opposition-held areas of Aleppo and bombing hospitals, ultimately helped Assad regain territory and stay in power.
David SatterI believe that Vladimir Putin came to power as the result of an act of terror committed against his own people. The evidence is overwhelming that the apartment-house bombings in 1999 in Moscow, Buinaksk, and Volgodonsk, which provided a pretext for the second Chechen war and catapulted Putin into the presidency, were carried out by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Yet, to this day, an indifferent world has made little attempt to grasp the significance of what was the greatest political provocation since the burning of the Reichstag.
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