Aug 14 The Syrian Playbook

Day 172--Russian made devastation in Syria and Ukraine

Aug 14, 2022

Russia’s evil is truly surreal: nuclear terrorism, castration, heads on spikes, mass rape, mass murder, targeting civilians and children, leveling cities. We need to put a stop to this

The Syrian Playbook

Please note: I have made this episode of Kremlin File available to everyone. The information shared by Mouaz and Michael was simply too important to keep behind a paywall. I must thank EuroFile subscribers for your patience, understanding and loyality. It is sincerely appreciated.

toomas hendrik ilves @IlvesToomas

The ballistic response -- from the top of the Kremlin leadership to opposition figures -- just to the *idea* of ending tourist visas for Russian passports, suggests there is finally something the EU can do that actually bothers the regime. Visas are a privilege. Not a right.

Olga and I are joined by Syrian activist Mouaz Moustafa and Ukrainian activist Michael Sawkiw to discuss Russian war crimes.

Mouaz Moustafa is currently the Executive Director for the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), Political Director of United for a Free Syria (UFS), and serves on the Government Relations Committee of the Coalition for a Democratic Syria (CDS).

Mouaz on Twitter: @SoccerMouaz

Michael Sawkiw, Vice President of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Director of the Ukrainian National Information Service - the UCCA’s public affairs bureau in Washington DC. The UCCA is the formal representative body of Ukrainians in America following the efforts of generations of immigrants, with an estimated 1.5 million Americans having roots in Ukraine.

UNIS Twitter: @UNISdirect

UCCA Twitter: @UkrCongComAm

AFP News Agency @AFP

#UPDATE Latvian MPs have adopted a statement declaring Russia a "state sponsor of terrorism" and said its actions in Ukraine constituted "targeted genocide against the Ukrainian people". 📸 A destroyed residential area in Irpin, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine

My note: Brothers in arms

This is probably the most important episode Olga and I have done together. Russian-made terrorism started first in Russia, when it is widely suspected the Russian intelligence services bombed apartment buildings and set off a terror campaign across Russia.

What Putin did at home to his own people was exported abroad because this is how Putin and his war party govern: Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism across the globe, and a terrorist state itself.

That’s what we talked about. Terror in Syria and Ukraine, and what is being done to address this from various angles.

Mouaz tells us that they’ve stopped counting the dead in Syria. The last count was at 500,000 souls but that doesn’t even come close to the real number of Syrians and Russians and other ethnic groups that were murdered. That’s the population of Florence. They were butchered by the Russian and Assad forces.

We have forgotten that the war in Syria is still on-going but Syrian activists, who are just trying to establish a democratic state, have not. Not in Syria and not in Ukraine.

Syrian activists stepped in quickly to aid their Ukrainian brothers: they were the first. They know where all this violence will lead, and after the horrors of Bucha, we have seen where this will go if we don’t help Ukraine’s defence now.

We hope you listen to the entire podcast: Michael and Mouaz offer us advice and something to hold onto as we move into the next stage of Russia’s war of aggression and genocide in Ukraine.

Oz Katerji @OzKaterji

Russia's Foreign Policy Modus Operandi: 1) Russia creates problem 2) Russia pretends to seek diplomatic solution for problem 3) Russia's signs agreement 4) Russia immediately violates agreement 5) Russia blames everyone else for its own actions 6) Rinse and Repeat.

Volodymyr Yermolenko- Ukraine World

War is when your friends die. When you see this breathless cruelty of death. You remember talks with this brave young man, a talented scientist, now he's gone. Or a woman who cares about her rose garden, and you thought of her as the kindest person on earth. She's gone too.
When we say that this war gets the best people, it's not a metaphor. [The] best people, the kindest, the bravest, the most empathetic, go to the frontline as volunteers and do not come back.
You sometimes ask yourself whether you are worth their sacrifice. Of course not.
Whether this earth is worth their sacrifice.
Not sure the truth of this war: this a necrophilic sadist force that swallows life, destroys it, smashes all biophilia it sees on its way. The war is the abyss that makes life a rare species. Life is a baby. Your country is a baby. You are a baby. Fragility is the law of everything.

Sergej Sumlenny @sumlenny

In Russia, families receive army notifications that their relatives were killed in action, printed in 1974 (with the wording “acc. to the laws of the USSR). This one was sent to a father of a son, born in 2002. The letter was printed and put into storage 28 years before his birth

ISW @TheStudyofWar

Here are the August 13 control-of-terrain maps for #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine from @TheStudyofWar and @criticalthreats. Click here to see our interactive map of the conflict, built using @Esri's ArcGIS: isw.pub/InteractiveUkr…

Amnesty blind to the evident

Decades ago, Russia taught Hamas to fire unguided missiles at Jewish residential areas from a middle of civilian infrastructure like schools/playgrounds. Now RU does the same in occupied Ukraine, because it truly believes in killing civilians while hiding behind a human shield.

Anastasia Magazova @a_magazova

Russians are firing “Grads” right outside a cafe in the centre of Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast. Where is #Amnesty? - I dare to ask.

Ukrainian strikes vs Russian shelling

Rt Gen Ben Hodges: Here's the difference...Ukrainian strike on Russian airbase in Crimea hits the airbase precisely, only scaring the Russian tourists away. Russian strikes hit beaches, resorts, apartment buildings, and shopping centers, murdering innocent Ukrainian citizens.

Glasnost Gone @GlasnostGone

Using the many webcams geocam.ru/en/in/crimea/ in Russian occupied #Crimea, beaches/seafronts look quieter today, although some beaches still have a good few people on them. Naturally some Russians will stay to finish their holiday - but next years bookings will likely suffer.

Jack Watling

The Amnesty report demonstrates a weak understanding of the laws of armed conflict, no understanding of military operations, and indulges in insinuations without supplying supporting evidence.
It is not a violation of IHL for Ukrainian military personnel to situate themselves in the terrain they are tasked to defend rather than in some random piece of adjacent woodland where they can be bypassed.
The Ukrainian military has regularly urged civilians to leave areas of fighting and facilitated them doing so. Forcing displacement is itself a violation of IHL and throughout history many civilians have chosen to remain in areas where there are ongoing military operations.
In setting unattainable expectations of civilian protection Amnesty trivialises an important issue.

Eugene Finkel @eugene_finkel

I don't believe in collective guilt. I believe in individual guilt, which is a consequence of what one does or says. I do believe in collective responsibility for state actions. Even those actions one opposes. Because as a citizen you could have always done more and chose not to.

The infowar is an integral part of the Russian offensive

This account is a trusted source for investigations into disinformation, misinformation and malinformation. Understanding the differences between these 3 terms will help interpret information coming from various sources.

E Rosalie @NovelSci

Always the right time to talk about the difference between mis-, mal-, and disinformation.

Ukraine World Thread- Russian propaganda narrative

Russian propaganda is now blaming Ukraine not only for "nazism" but also for "satanism" (sic!) Recent article by Kirill Frolov, a Russian Orthodox fundamentalist close to patriarch Kirill, calls Zelensky a "globalist-satanist", Ukraine an "anti-Orthodox, anti-human project".
Russia, it says, has a mission of "saving the world from evil" and its army is not only denazifying Ukraine but also "fulfilling its religious duty to save its historical lands from satanism". In this way, Russian invasion of Ukraine is presented as a war against "satanism".
NB: RIA Fan is a "federal news agency", a part of "media factory" set up by Mr Prigozhyn, Putin's close ally - a "godfather" of both notorious St-Petersburg "troll factory" and "Wagner" private army.

Monitored by @TextyOrgUa