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☆ 'They're just meat': Russia deploys punishment battalions in echo of Stalin
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +12 min

"Storm fighters, they're just meat," said one regular soldier from army unit no. He said he didn't know why the commander gave the order, but claimed that it typified how Storm-Z fighters were considered of lesser value than ordinary troops by officers. Three of the five Storm-Z fighters interviewed by Reuters, and the relatives of three other Storm-Z fighters, described nightmarish engagements that saw much of their squads wiped out. At a televised meeting with a small group of regular Russian servicemen, he said he was aware that two of their comrades, former prison inmates, had been killed in action. Three Storm-Z fighters said they were offered wages of about 200,000 roubles ($2,000) per month, though said they had been paid roughly half that amount, on average.

Persons: Polina Nikolskaya, Maria Tsvetkova, who've, Wagner, Reuters wasn't, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Josef Stalin, Artyom, Shchikin, Vladimir Rogov, Rogov, Shchikin's, Z, Igor, they'd, we've, Christian Lowe, Pravin Organizations: REUTERS, REUTERS Acquire, Maria Tsvetkova LONDON, Convicts, Storm, Reuters, Kremlin, 237th, Intelligence Team, Institute for, Red Army, 291st Guards, Rifle Regiment, 291st, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Bakhmut, Russia, Russian, Ukrainian, U.S, Soviet, Mordovia, Zaporizhzhia, Geneva, France, Siberia

☆ Exclusive: Kremlin aide who brings Ukrainian children to Russia associated online with neo-Nazism
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Anton Zverev | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Aug 9 (Reuters) - A Kremlin official involved in what international prosecutors call the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia was associated online as a teenager with white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements, Reuters has found. He deleted that link the day Reuters submitted its questions about his online activity to his employer. In a statement responding to Reuters questions, Petrov said: "Unequivocally, I never had, nor do I have, any links to neo-Nazi organisations. When Russia gave a presentation on April 5 this year to the United Nations Security Council to rebut allegations about its treatment of Ukrainian children, Petrov was among the speakers. In a video shared during that presentation, Petrov was shown alongside children at a Russian-organised camp for Ukrainian children.

Persons: Alexei Petrov, Petrov, Maria Lvova, Vladimir Putin, Belova, Adolf Hitler, Reuters couldn't, Hitler, David Lane, Anton Zverev, Christian Lowe, Daniel Flynn Organizations: Kremlin, Reuters, Skype, United Nations Security Council, Defamation League, Fare, Thomson Locations: Russia, Ukraine, London, Nazi, Russian

☆ Exclusive: Wagner fighters neared Russian nuclear base during revolt
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +20 min

Reuters GraphicsOnce the Wagner fighters reach more rural regions, the surveillance trail goes cold – about 100 km from the nuclear base, Voronezh-45. But in an exclusive interview, Ukraine's head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said that the Wagner fighters went far further. The only barrier between the Wagner fighters and nuclear weapons, Budanov said, were the doors to the nuclear storage facility. It is one of Russia's 12 "national-level storage facilities" for nuclear weapons, according to a report by U.N. scientists. Another female resident also said Wagner had widespread support in the town, and that many Wagner fighters are from Boguchar.

Persons: Wagner, Ukraine's, Kyrylo Budanov, Budanov, Alexander Lukashenko, Adam Hodge, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Matt Korda, Vladimir Putin's, Hans Kristensen, David Jonas, Amy Woolf, Jonas, Prigozhin, Dmitry Utkin, Putin, Sergei Shoigu, Staff Valery Gerasimov, Shoigu, Oleksiy Danilov, Don, Anna Sandrakova, Maxim Yantsov, Mikhail Vedernikov, Talovaya, Alexei Yablokov, Kristensen, Alexsandr Lukashenko, Dmitry Peskov, Lukashenko, he's, Mari Saito, Tom Balmforth, John Shiffman, Phil Stewart, Polina, Maria Tsvetkova, Anton Zverev, Christian Lowe, David Gauthier, Stephen Grey, Reade Levinson, Eleanor Whalley, Milan Pavicic, Daria Shamonova, Janet McBride Organizations: Reuters, Kremlin, Belarusian, U.S, White, National Security, Nuclear, Federation of American, Federation of American Scientists, U.S . National Nuclear Security Administration, Library, Congress, Wagner, State, Staff, Russian, Defence Ministry, Defence Council, Main, Russian Defence, U.S . Congress, Telegram, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russian, Voronezh, United States, Ukraine, Russia, Rostov, Talovaya, Soviet, Washington, dabble, Syria, Libya, Mali, ., Pavlovsk, Elizavetovka, Vorontsovka, Buturlinovka, Talovaya district, Pskov, Soviet Union, Belarus, Minsk, he's, St Petersburg, Kyiv, London, New York, Paris, Villars, Istanbul, Gdansk

Their messages show they knew the money paid for telecommunications equipment – despite European Union sanctions which restrict the supply of such gear to Russia's military. An EU regulation from Feb. 25, 2022 bans supplying or financing the purchase of certain goods for the Russian military. The office did not reply to a question about Schlund and Kolbasnikova helping buy gear for the Russian military. PROTEST ORGANISERSSchlund, who studied in a Russian military academy, moved to Germany in 2012. He later began a relationship with Kolbasnikova, who is originally from Ukraine and has worked in Germany as a nurse.

☆ How Reuters measured the impact of French police fines
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Layli Foroudi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

For its national analysis, Reuters used department-level immigrant population figures from France’s official statistics agency. This data counts as an immigrant any person born abroad with foreign nationality even if they have since been naturalized. Reuters compared this data with the interior ministry’s counts of pandemic-related fines issued in each department between mid-March and mid-May 2020. There were notable anomalies: Paris’ 8th district, home to the famous Champs Elysees shopping avenue, had the highest rate of fines despite having a relatively small minority population. He said the higher concentration of COVID-related fines in areas with larger populations of immigrant origins could be explained by various factors.

☆ Special Report: In France, minority communities decry a surge in police fines
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Layli Foroudi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +18 min

Hassan Bouchouf received fines on more than two dozen occasions, according to the town’s fine data. The Essonne police department didn’t respond to questions about the fines received by Assam and Bouchouf. After learning of the April 2020 fines, Assam verbally confronted Dumas on the street later that same month, according to both men and a witness. That prompted a review by the prosecutor’s office, which found that police had issued fines to Assam remotely, that person said. The watchdog is investigating about 10 complaints alleging improper police fines, mostly from Paris, according to a person familiar with the matter.

However, the patterns suggest that sexual violence “maybe even more frequent” in territories that were occupied for longer periods, he added, without providing evidence. Widespread or systematic sexual violence could amount to crimes against humanity, which are generally seen as more serious, legal specialists said. Moscow, which has said it is conducting a “special military operation" in Ukraine, has denied committing war crimes or targeting civilians. Evidence that sexual violence was planned could indicate it was part of a systematic attack or that some level of command was aware, said Kim Thuy Seelinger, an advisor to the ICC on sexual violence in conflict and a research associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said it has opened dozens of criminal cases involving sexual violence by members of the Russian armed forces against women, children and men.

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