Jul 31 Buonsera Mag
Day 159: HIMARS, UA partisans, Vadatursky, ICRC, RU volunteers, RU naval doctrine, Gazprombank, Germany, Switzerland--articles: Yelenovka, Tenzer, Antidotezine, Blinken, Atlantic Council, Avdeeva
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
Stories we’re following…
High-precision HIMARS strike destroyed a train of more than 40 cars that arrived from Crimea carrying troops, equipment and ammunition to Kherson region.
UBN: U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council that her country is seeing growing signs of Russia laying the groundwork to attempt to annex all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Haidai reported that Luhansk partisans damaged the railway near Svatove, which reportedly was used to supply Russian troops with ammunition.
Owner of the largest Ukrainian grain trading company Nibulon Oleksiy Vadatursky and his wife were killed in their home in Russian strike on Mykolaiv. Vadatursky was engaged in development of new routes for export of Ukrainian grain.
Pentagon: US to supply NASAMS air defense systems to Ukraine. Each NASAMS unit has radar, sensors and AMRAAM air to air missile launchers. Can track and engage 72 targets simultaneously to range of up to 25 miles and to 9 miles altitude (14 kilometers).
Russian MoD says that they invited the ICRC to Olenivka, where more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war died. The ICRC itself says that Russia denied them access.
Across Russia, "volunteer" units are being formed to be sent to Ukraine. In total, up to 30,000 people may be involved in combat actions. Recruitment is carried out in poor regions. People are offered to go to war, promising to earn up to a million rubles over the summer.
Putin has signed a new naval doctrine that casts the US and Nato as the biggest threats facing Russia, Reuters and AFP report.
Gazprombank is the only large Russian bank that has so far avoided large-scale Western sanctions - its accounts receive payments from European countries for Russian gas and oil. Through this bank the MoD of the Russian Federation pays salaries and "combat allowances" to Russian military personnel in Ukraine.
Putin has partially or totally cut gas to these countries so far: Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Belarus, Serbia and Belarus had a meeting on the future of military cooperation.
German Economy Minister Habeck says that Nord Stream 2 will not proceed despite discontent over gas prices. Populist pressure might convince European countries to delay a gas embargo but except for rare cases like Hungary won't lead to expanded purchases from Russia.
Commenting on PM Orban's words, his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday that "Poland and Hungary have parted ways".
Switzerland says it would follow EU sanctions on China if it invades Taiwan The end of Swiss neutrality extends beyond its sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine invasion
WarTranslated, Details of the Yelenovka prison camp explosion released by the SBU
SBU publishes a call in which two unidentified Russian men are allegedly discussing the events at the Yelenovka prison camp where an explosion took place in the morning of 29 July, resulting in deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners. As we can understand from the call and the translation below, an explosive device was set up at the industrial wing of the camp where a number of prisoners was moved two days prior. Shortly before the explosive device was set off, a MLRS Grad complex placed nearby fired three 10-missile “packets” to cover up the noise from the explosion.
Tenzer, Putin’s Russia is a Terrorist State: Should it be Written into Law?
One thing should not be open to discussion today: Putin’s Russia is a terrorist state. By the nature of its actions, it is impossible to distinguish this regime from terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda or the Islamic State, except that the Kremlin’s civilian casualties, in Ukraine, Syria and Chechnya in particular, are considerably higher. Many war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Russian regime would have been immediately recognized as terrorism if they had been perpetrated by Islamist or right-wing terrorist groups.
Russia embassies serve as disinformation and hate vectors
Sergey Mohov— So, let me get this straight, @Twitter @TwitterSupport: if you are a Ukrainian activist, you get suspended literally just for saying “fuck you” or posting a bank account number for donations, but the Russian embassy’s calls to commit war crimes are “in the public interest?”
Antidotezine, How Fascists Operationalize Left Resentment
The following year, the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia met with a purported Cherokee Nation elder named “Mashu White Feather” and a representative of the Uhuru Movement, also connected to the Black Agenda Report. They then organized a state-funded conference that drew members of the fascist Italian group Millenium, Mutti’s associate Antonio Grego, and a leading member of the far-right Rodina party, as well as representatives of separatist groups like the Texas Nationalist Movement and the Catalan Solidarity for Independence party. The now-notorious troll factory, the Internet Research Agency, would later invite the Texas Nationalist Movement to join an armed, Islamophobic protest launched by the fake “Heart of Texas,” while also inciting counter-protesters.
NYT, Blinken Resists Push to Label Russia a Terrorist State
For weeks, pressure has mounted on Mr. Blinken to formally declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, a label currently reserved for North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Iran. But despite the emotional appeal, Mr. Blinken is resisting a move that could force him to sanction U.S. allies that do business with Russia and might snuff out the remaining vestiges of diplomacy between Washington and Moscow.
US Dept of the Treasury, Russia-related Designations
The following individuals have been added to OFAC's SDN List:
ANTI-GLOBALIZATION MOVEMENT OF RUSSIA (Cyrillic: АНТИГОБАЛИСТСКОЕ ДВИЖЕНИЕ РОССИИ) (a.k.a. ANTIGLOBALISTSKOE DVIZHENIE, OD (Cyrillic: РОО АНТИГЛОБАЛИСТСКОЕ ДВИЖЕНИЕ); a.k.a. ANTIGLOBALIZATION MOVEMENT OF RUSSIA), ul. Klary Tsetkin, 4, Moscow 127299, Russia (Cyrillic: ул. Клары Цеткин, д. 4, Москва 127299, Russia); Website anti-global.ru; Target Type Charity or Nonprofit Organization; Registration ID 1127799004541 (Russia); Tax ID No. 7724300682 (Russia) [RUSSIA-EO14024] (Linked To: IONOV, Aleksandr Viktorovich).
See also information on:
Center for Suppor and Development of Public Initiative Creative Diplomacy
Stop-Imperialism Global Information Agency
“You want to make this about Russia? Russia is the bad guy?”
Our affiliation into Russian, foreign governments and things like that, it exposes the crisis that US imperialism is in because the US and other world colonial powers have been collaborating against Russia into the early 1900s. And this is a consequence, right now in 2022, that we see the same attack against Russia, and right now, this war in Ukraine, this defensive war in Ukraine that Russia is actually waging vs world colonial powers, not Ukraine as a single entity, but the US and all colonial powers who have an interest and colonially dominating African people, right here in this country, and around the world, and extracting resources from the majority of the people around the planet, that system is in crisis.
…the history of the African Socialist Party is to unite with any forces that unite with anti-colonial struggle, and we feel that is a just struggle.
Please watch the full video of the press conference held by the African Socialist Party for a view into some of the narratives that are being pushed into the disinformation pipeline.
Atlantic Council, Hackers, Hoodies, and Helmets: Technology and the changing face of Russian private military contractors
In the near decade since, the Russian PMC sector has grown considerably, and is active in more than a dozen countries around the world. PMCs are paramilitary organizations established and run as private companies—though they often operate in contract with one or more states. They are profit-motivated, expeditionary groups that make a business of the conduct of war.
The Guardian, UK firms are cutting ties with China amid wider tensions, CBI chief says
British businesses are scrambling to sever economic ties with China in the wake of increased political and security tensions between Beijing and the west, an industry leader has said. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) director general, Tony Danker, warned that the sudden restructuring of supply chains from China could also exacerbate the cost of living crisis.
Maria Avdeeva reports…
Euronews, 'The Russians have started coming': Finland considers tourist visa ban
The Finnish government is coming under increasing public and political pressure to close the EU's eastern border with Russia, and put a stop to an apparent sanctions loophole.
Russia relaxed its COVID-related border restrictions mid-July, meaning for the first time since before the pandemic, Russians with Schengen visas can now legally cross the border by bus or car, even though they're banned from travelling to the EU in planes and trains.
A musical note: set your reminders.
Thanks for reading…
Mo