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☆ Senior Russian lawmaker calls for professional army of seven million
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, who early in the 16-month war took part in peace negotiations with Ukraine, said that Russia needs a contract army of at least seven million military and civilian personnel, on top of the current conscript army. He said Wagner fighters can continue fighting with Russian army, go home or go to Belarus. At the end of 2022, Putin backed beefing up the army to 1.5 million combat personnel - including 695,000 contract soldiers - from 1.15 million. Creating a contract army of seven million would require a huge budget allowance. The Russian economy, crippled by the war and subsequent Western sanctions contracted 2.2% percent last year and is expected to rebound only marginally this year.

Persons: Leonid Slutsky, Sergei Lavrov, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman, Evgenia, weekend's, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Lidia Kelly, Stephen Coates Organizations: Russia's, Russian, Qatari Deputy, Foreign, REUTERS, Liberal Democratic Party, Thomson Locations: Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al, Thani, Moscow, Russia, Russian, Ukraine, aborting, Belarus, Melbourne

☆ Putin confirms Russian pilots killed during aborted mutiny
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

June 27 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Monday paid tribute to pilots who were killed during the failed weekend mutiny, confirming earlier reports by military bloggers that several planes were shot down by Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner militia. "The courage and self-sacrifice of the fallen heroes-pilots saved Russia from tragic devastating consequences," Putin said in his first public address about the mutiny since the weekend events. There has been no official information about how many pilots died or how many aircraft were shot down. Some Russian Telegram channels monitoring Russia's military activity, including the blog Rybar with more than a million subscribers, reported on Saturday that 13 Russian pilots were killed during the day-long mutiny. It was also not clear in what circumstances the aircraft were shot down and pilots killed.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner, Wagner, Putin, Rybar, Leonid Slutsky, Lidia Kelly, Lincoln Organizations: Telegram, Reuters, Defence Ministry, Thomson Locations: Rostov, Ukraine, Moscow, Russia, Belarus, Russian, Melbourne

☆ During the last attempted coup in Russia, ballet dancers alerted citizens of the turmoil. As the Wagner mercenary boss turns on the Russian military, Tchaikovsky's swans may dance again.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

On Friday a new attack on the Russian military began, led by Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. But instead of Yanayev taking control, one of Gorbachev's political rivals, Boris Yeltsin, urged the Soviets to resist the attempted coup and fight back. Three protesters died in a tense, three-day standoff against the army, but Yanayev and the others behind the attempted coup eventually relented. On Friday, Prigozhin appeared to openly declare taking up arms against the Russian military. The infighting between the mercenary leader and the Russian military comes after months of Prigozhin feuding with Putin over the treatment of his for-hire army.

Persons: Swan, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, —, Leonid Brezhnev, Gennady Yanayev, Mikhail Gorbachev, Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, Putin, Prigozhin, Russia's, Prigozhin's, GeoConfirmed Organizations: Swan Lake, Russian, Service, NPR, Soviet Union's Communist Party, Treaty, Wagner Group, Wagner Locations: Russia, Soviet, Moscow, Russian, Swan, USSR

☆ Russian attack helicopters showed up in force on the front lines and have been putting dents in Ukraine's armored assaults
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Ryan Pickrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

These activities are a detriment to the Ukrainian counteroffensive, but Kyiv's forces appear to be adapting. In this situation, "Russian forces deployed aviation in a way they haven't recently, to front-line positions, and were able to use it more successfully than they have in the past," he said. Russian Air Force Mil Mi-8 and Kamov Ka-52 "Alligator" attack helicopter Leonid Faerberg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images"We haven't seen Russian forces really use aviation super extensively on the front line," Bailey said, adding "they have been concerned about having aviation losses." "Ukrainian forces are having to adapt to how Russian forces are employing these in southern Ukraine," he said, noting that they are seeing signs of that as the Ukrainians set the stage for their main attack. Ukraine hasn't committed the bulk of its dedicated counteroffensive forces to a major assault operation, and, as ISW's George Barros said recently, "big fireworks are still to come."

Persons: —, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Riley Bailey, Bailey, Kamov, Leonid Faerberg, it's, VITALY TIMKIV, Wagner, Karolina Hird, It's, Ukraine hasn't, George Barros Organizations: Service, Senior Ukrainian, BBC Wednesday, Institute for, Russian Air Force, Getty, Operations, Ukraine, Bakhmut, CNN, Fox News Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Russian, Russia's Krasnodar, AFP, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Oblast

☆ Kherson's unending nightmare: Occupation, shelling and floods
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-11 | by ( Max Hunder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Maybe it's the same with tragedy," said 52-year-old Radetska, who is deputy head of a school in the southern Ukrainian city. Pupils include 31 on the Russian-held east bank that was particularly badly hit by the floods, including the town of Oleshky. The past week's events have been a fresh tragedy for Radetska and Remyha, who both recounted threats, imprisonment and torture during Russia's occupation. He said the hospital's staff took risks to give illicit assistance to local Ukrainian soldiers left in the city after the occupation. Russia's FSB did not immediately respond when asked to comment on to the allegations made by Remyha and Radetska.

Persons: Iryna Radetska, Leonid Remyha, Remyha, Remya, Radetska, hasn't, that's, Max Hunder, Mike Collett, White, Frances Kerry Organizations: Russian, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Kherson, Moscow, KHERSON, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Russia, Dnipro, Kyiv, Oleshky, Radetska, LIBERATION, Kherson region, Russian

MOSCOW, June 8 (Reuters) - For more than 15 months Russia has been fighting a war in Ukraine that the Kremlin refused to call a war - but that is changing: President Vladimir Putin is using the word "war" more often. The Russian media was ordered not to use the word war - and has either complied or shut down. But in response to what Russia said was a major Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow, Putin last week used the word "war" four times in relation to Ukraine, according to a Kremlin transcript of his remarks. "What is more important is what is says about the future: does war mean a more serious approach and what will Russia at war look like?" Attacks far inside Russia that Moscow blamed on Ukraine have stiffened opinion within the Kremlin, emboldening hawks who propose a much tougher approach to a war in which Putin has said Russia has not got even got serious yet.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Putin, Pavel Zarubin, Sergei Shoigu, Dmitry Peskov, Sergei Lavrov, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vyacheslav Gladkov, Lyndon B, Johnson, George W, Bush, Leonid Brezhnev, Abbas Gallyamov, Nikita Yuferev, Yuferev, Prigozhin, Putin's, General Augusto Pinochet, Guy Faulconbridge, Philippa Fletcher Organizations: Kremlin, Nazi, Red, Motherland, U.S, Soviet, West, Russia, Reuters, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russia, Ukraine, Russian, Ukrainian, Moscow, Ukraine's, Crimea, Soviet, Nazi Germany, Russia's Belgorod, Europe, U.S, Vietnam, Afghanistan, St Petersburg, RUSSIA, Chile, Pinochet

[1/2] A security guard stands next to the Trinity icon at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius in the town of Sergiyev Posad, Russia, July 18, 2022. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File PhotoMay 27 (Reuters) - Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, on Saturday dismissed his expert on art and restoration for obstructing the transfer of a historic 15th-century Trinity icon to the Church from a Moscow museum. On Saturday, Patriarch Kirill decreed that Kalinin be dismissed from his post "in connection with the obstruction of bringing the icon" to Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Kalinin was also banned from the priesthood, according to the note published on the Russian Orthodox Church's website. Patriarch Kirill said last year that those who died fighting in Ukraine would be purged of their sins.

☆ Eyeball to eyeball: Estonia stares down Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Jill Dougherty | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

It sits high on the western bank of the Narva River, its 13th-century castle proudly flying the blue, black and white flag of Estonia. We think we know roughly what makes them tick.”Like parts of Ukraine, Estonia was illegally annexed and occupied by the Soviet Union. Estonians at the conference were adamant: Unless Russia is utterly defeated in Ukraine, there is no reason to expect Putin will change his strategic objective. Jill Dougherty/CNNSeveral Russians at the conference said they feel personally responsible for the horrors Russia is unleashing on Ukraine. What’s more, Vladimir Putin is winning support for the war from so-called “swing states” and nations in the Global South.

☆ MBA professors identified which kinds of workers are most at risk when new tech comes along — and the ones who'll stay relatively safe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Roberta Kwok | Kellogg Insight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

That allowed them to track how breakthrough technologies impacted the exposure of workers in relevant occupations over time. Based on U.S. Census surveys from 1910 to 2010, the team found that an increase in technology exposure was linked to a decline in employment. These employees saw their wages slow down by more than twice as much as average workers in the same occupation with the same level of technology exposure. Even when their technology exposure did go up, their income didn't slow down as much as it did in other types of occupations. "Not all technology is bad for workers," Seegmiller says.

☆ Opinion | We Forget Nuclear Powers Have Lost Wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Timothy Snyder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

During both conflicts, people in the West worried, understandably, about nuclear war. In the West today, unlike during the Cold War, these are discussed in psychological rather than in strategic terms. In nearly 15 months of war, despite Russian nuclear propaganda and Western anxiety, there has been no use of nuclear weapons. Those who predicted “escalation” if Ukrainians resisted, if the West supplied weapons or if Russia suffered defeat have thus far been wrong. Strategic thinkers point to deterrence, and note that nuclear use would not in fact bring a Russian victory.

☆ A new law allows Putin to draft Russians via an online portal — even if they don't have an account. It 'brings the digital Gulag much, much closer,' critics say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A new law allows Russian conscripts to be notified of their military service via government portal. Critics say the move creates "a digital system of social control" akin to a virtual Gulag labor camp. The new conscription law, she wrote, "brings the Digital Gulag much, much closer." What is the Digital Gulag? With the digital registry and harsh punishments for noncompliance, "the government wants to create a digital system of social control by regulating individual access to rights and benefits," Stanovaya wrote.

Whatever the provenance of the two drones that approached the Kremlin early Wednesday morning, one thing was clear: The Russian government wanted the world to know about them. The Kremlin made a deliberate choice to quickly make public what it claimed was a drone attack aimed at assassinating President Vladimir V. Putin. It published an unusual, five-paragraph statement on its website that named the Ukrainian government as the perpetrator and asserted the right to retaliate against Kyiv. The Kremlin’s messaging diverged significantly from its response to previous episodes involving attacks on Russia or Russian-occupied territory. Now the question is whether Russia will use the incident to justify more and even deadlier strikes against Ukraine.

☆ Veracruz state: Home of the flying Voladores, Mexico's top coffee and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Tim Leffel | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The Voladores of Veracruz in Mexico have a history that goes back at least 1,400 years. “The flying ritual has never had a learning age, it is a project of a lifetime,” he says. Nearly all of the Voladores train in or around Papantla, where the flying schools prepare young people to take over for those who are eventually aging out. Coffee, ancient ruins and an overlooked capital cityMen with ankle ropes flying deftly around a pole are not the only export from this state, though. The big draw, however, is Mexico’s second most important archaeological museum after the one in Mexico City.

☆ These Ukrainian veterinarians are risking their lives to care for dogs and cats in the war zone
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Gabriel Kinder | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

It wasn’t long before Ukrainian veterinarians Valentina and Leonid Stoyanov learned that many pets were locked in nearby homes. “After one, two weeks … neighbors just start hear (sic) how a lot of different animals around them screaming,” Valentina told CNN. The Stoyanovs began working with local police to access homes to rescue dogs and cats. “Each animal for us, it’s like members of our family,” Valentina said. “All our family – mother, father – have to leave Ukraine,” Leonid said.

CNN —Jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny said he faces a new “terrorist case,” in what could mean decades more in prison for the outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. His comments come as his daughter, Daria Navalnaya, told CNN that the Russian authorities were depriving her father of food. Navalny is currently serving a nine-year jail term at a maximum-security prison east of Moscow after being convicted of large-scale fraud by a Russian court last year. Alexey Navalny, pictured in Moscow on August 27, 2018, said on Wednesday that he faces a new "terrorist case," despite being imprisoned. Zhdanov also said that the investigator in the terrorism case was considering the killing of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky as part of the charges.

☆ Bill Clinton says he feels 'terrible' for pushing a 1994 agreement with Russia that resulted in Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Azmi Haroun | Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bill Clinton expressed regret for his role in a 1994 agreement between Russia, Ukraine and the US. The agreement saw Ukraine give up nuclear weapons left over from the fall of the Soviet Union. Clinton said that if Ukraine still had the weapons, Russia would not have invaded. "I feel a personal stake because I got them [Ukraine] to agree to give up their nuclear weapons," Clinton said. "A great deal had to do with the risks of proliferation and the challenges of keeping nuclear weapons secure," Miles said.

☆ The Kremlin alleged a female assassin used a bomb hidden in a statue to kill a prominent pro-Russia blogger. Video shows the moment he received the figurine.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Video shows Russian military blogger receiving statue that Russia says exploded, killing him. The video shows Trepova admitting she handed over the statue, BBC reported. The BBC reported that Trepova may have been recorded under duress. "I would say for being at the scene of Vladlen Tatarsky's murder," she said when asked if she knew why she was arrested, the BBC reported. When interrogated about who gave her the statue, Trepova asked if she could talk about it at a later time.

Organizations: ХВ

☆ Reactions to ICC's arrest warrant for Putin citing Ukraine war crimes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Roman Baluk/File PhotoMarch 17 (Reuters) - Following are reactions to the news on Friday that the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegal deportation of children from Ukraine. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes." RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN MARIA ZAKHAROVA"The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it." I welcome the decision of the International Criminal Court."

☆ Ukraine, Russia locked in brutal battle in Bakhmut, casualties mount
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] Men stand near buildings damaged in recent shelling in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, March 12, 2023. "In less than a week, starting from the 6th March, we managed to kill more than 1,100 enemy soldiers in the Bakhmut sector alone, Russia's irreversible loss, right there, near Bakhmut," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. Russian forces sustained 1,500 "sanitary losses", soldiers wounded badly enough to keep them out of action, Zelenskiy said. Dozens of pieces of enemy equipment were destroyed as were more than 10 Russian ammunition depots, he said. ($1 = 0.9396 euros)Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Himani Sarkar; Editing by Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ 'My call sign is 'Grandad.'' The retirees who are frontline fighters for Ukraine against the Russian invaders
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Some volunteer fighters in Ukraine are considerably older than the average age of a typical soldier. 63-year-old Leonid Onyschenko, for example, is fighting for Ukraine near the city of Bakhmut. While the classic image of a soldier in battle evokes a fit young person with a chiseled jawline, the diverse volunteer fighters in Ukraine defy this expectation. The Territorial Defense Forces (TDF) — a volunteer military reserve — said that Onyshchenko had been serving the country for nine years since Russia's invasion and illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Many of the older volunteers the news outlet spoke to appeared eager to stay in eastern Ukraine at the time.

☆ 'Our phones are ringing off the hook': Amid a global downturn, the finance world is chasing Middle Eastern money
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The region's 10 largest sovereign wealth funds combined manage nearly $4 trillion, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. The regional investors, especially the sovereign funds but also the families, are now much more sophisticated than before. Follow the capitalAs oil prices made a roaring comeback in the last two years, the Gulf's public wealth funds went on a spending spree. It added that GCC sovereign wealth funds "played an important role in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and now again in 2022 during times of financial distress." Our phones are ringing off the hook," one manager from a UAE investment fund said, declining to be named due to professional restrictions.

It was one of the last still providing Ukrainian citizenship for newborns in the southern city of Kherson which was then under Russian occupation. Early in the occupation, Ukrainian parents faced pressure to accept Russian citizenship for their newborns. "When we asked for diapers, the Russians told us, 'If you come without Russian birth certificates, we will not give you diapers'," said Natalia Lukina, 42. The ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the situation in Kherson during Russian occupation. It is unclear how many babies received Russian citizenship, because Russian officials recorded them and Ukrainian registration workers did not cooperate with them, Klimenko said.

☆ OnlyFans lost a legal battle meaning it's likely to pay UK sales tax on all the money made by its content creators
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

OnlyFans lost a battle at Europe's highest court over how much sales tax it should pay. The court ruled it should pay value-added tax on all revenues, and not just its 20% commission. The court sided with the UK tax body and the decision will shape a final ruling by a UK tribunal. Fenix International will likely need to pay sales tax, known as VAT, on all the revenues generated by OnlyFans creators – not just its 20% commission, Reuters reported. The court agreed with HMRC, the UK's tax authority, which told Fenix in April 2020 to pay VAT on revenue it generated between 2017 and 2020.

☆ Putin likely supplied the missile that downed flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, investigators say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Putin likely gave separatists the missile that hit flight MH17, investigators said on Wednesday. The team has been investigating the crash since August 2014, and said in a statement that there are "strong indications" that the Russian president decided on supplying the missile system to separatists in Ukraine. Investigators have previously said that the Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down by a Buk missile brought from Russia to a field in Ukraine. But, they added, it's not known whether their request explicitly mentioned the missile system that was later used to shoot down MH17. It was shot down over eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists had taken over parts of the country.

☆ Analysis: Russian mercenary boss courts Putin with Ukrainian battlefield success
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Andrew Osborn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Now as the founder of Russia's most powerful mercenary group, he is vying for Vladimir Putin's favour by claiming a rare battlefield win in Ukraine. Russia claimed victory on Friday after Ukraine said its forces were holding on after a 'hot' night of fighting. The defence ministry on Friday attributed victory to its airborne units, missile forces and "artillery of a grouping of Russian forces". Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the state-controlled RT channel and close to the Kremlin, thanked Prigozhin for Soledar. Despite its sometimes publicly strained ties with the Russian defence ministry, some Western military analysts suspect Wagner is closely affiliated with it.

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