Daily Archives: July 17, 2022

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday reshuffled his top officials, naming a new head of the state space corporation and giving new broad powers to one of his top ministers.

Putin removed Dmitry Rogozin as the head of state-controlled Roscosmos space agency that oversees the country's space program and includes rocket factories, launch facilities and numerous other assets.

He replaced Rogozin with Yuri Borisov, a deputy prime minister who was in charge of weapons industries. Borisov's duties were handed over to Denis Manturov, the minister of industry and trade who was also given the rank of a deputy prime minister.

Manturov has held the ministerial job since 2012 and reportedly has Putin's favor, accompanying the Russian president on most foreign and domestic trips.

The reshuffle follows predictions of Borisov's removal from the job that he held for four years amid reported flaws and deficiencies in Russian weapons programs spotlighted by the military action in Ukraine.

Borisov acknowledged some of the shortcomings in recent comments, saying that the military industries should have been more active in developing and producing drones. I think we were late with the deployment of drones," he said in an interview with state TV.

Borisov's appointment to the important position of Roscosmos chief indicates that he hasn't completely fallen from grace despite the weapons procurement issues.

There was no immediate word on a new job for Rogozin, who had served as Roscosmos chief since 2018 and became known for his blustery anti-West rhetoric.

In the early 2000s, Rogozin led a nationalist party, winning notoriety for his anti-migrant stance, and later served as Moscow's envoy to NATO. In 2011, he was named a deputy prime minister in charge of weapons industries and space, the job he held before Putin named him Roscosmos chief.

Some Russian media speculated that Rogozin still retains Putin's favor and could be given a new senior job to oversee Moscow-controlled territories in eastern and southern Ukraine.

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Putin reshuffles top officials - ABC News

John Sweeney, a prominent British investigative journalist who has long covered Russian President Vladimir Putin, wrote in his new book that he feels the leader looks "seriously ill" with puffy cheeks that make him resemble a hamster.

In his forthcoming book (out July 21), Killer in the Kremlin, Sweeney described changes he has noticed in Putin's demeanor and physical appearance that he said scare him. He theorized the use of steroids for Putin's changes, noting the president could have started taking the medication years ago to treat a back injury sustained after falling off a horse. According to Sweeney, this could have led to a pattern of steroid abuse, which can cause a litany of health problems, such as major organ damage and tumors.

Rumors about Putin's health have been swirling for several months. Some people have cited videos of the Russian president appearing shaky or tense as evidence that he might have Parkinson's disease, even though some medical experts have disputed such talk. In April, an investigative report from Proekt Media claimed Putin was accompanied by doctorsincluding a thyroid cancer surgeonon trips from 2016 to 2019. The report also said Putin may have undergone surgery several years ago, but it did not directly say whether he was diagnosed with cancer or any other illness.

In his book, Sweeney said steroid poisoning may be afflicting Putin.

"Is it possible that Vlad the Poisoner could have ended up poisoning himself? It is," Sweeney wrote. "He is not a well man. And that raises a question. Would Vladimir Putin, knowing that he has not long to live, kill us all?"

Sweeney described witnessing steroid abuse before in the case of a British gangster who took so much that he eventually "died when his own heart blew apart." The "hyperaggressive" nature displayed by Putin in recent months reminded the writer of the gangster's "roid rage."

Recalling a time when he encountered Putin in person while reporting for the BBC in 2014, Sweeney said the leader at that time appeared "subtle, supple" and spoke "calmly" with him. But while the Putin of years ago "looked like a ferret or a reptile, thinfaced, lean," the Putin of 2022 "looks like a hamster, his cheeks stuffed, unhealthy."

Could Putin, who has long been accused of ordering the poisoning of critics of his administration, have unintentionally poisoned himself? Sweeney said it's plausible.

"And such a fate would be both grimly ironic and funny ha-ha so long as the Kremlin Patient does not have control of the world's biggest arsenal of nuclear weapons, however rusty they may be. But he does," he wrote.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian foreign ministry for comment.

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Putin Is 'Seriously Ill,' Looks Like a Hamster: Journalist

Reports continue to raise questions over Vladimir Putins health as the Ukraine war rages (AP)

Russian president Vladimir Putin has been given just three years to live by doctors, its claimed.

A growing number of unconfirmed reports alledge the 69-year-old president has cancer and that his health is deteriorating quickly.

And now an FSB officer has claimed Putin has no more than two to three years to stay alive, adding the Russian president has a severe form of rapidly progressing cancer.

Messages said to be from the unidentified Russian spy to FSB defector Boris Karpichkov also say Putin is losing his sight and suffering from headaches.

Putin is under the spotlight as the Ukraine war shows no sign of ending soon (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

We are told he is suffering from headaches and when he appears on TV he needs pieces of paper with everything written in huge letters to read what hes going to say, the Russian officer told the Sunday Mirror.

They are so big each page can only hold a couple of sentences. His eyesight is seriously worsening.

The spy added that Putins limbs are now also shaking uncontrollably.

Previous footage from earlier this year appeared to show his hand shaking, while as he also appeared to grip a table for support during a meeting broadcast in April.

Whispers about his health appear to have originated with the hugely popular Russian Telegram channel General SVR.

It claimed Mr Putins doctors have warned him the surgery might incapacitate him for a short time, and that during this period the president will briefly hand over the reins of power to an aide.

Concerns for his health grew after former UK intelligence official Christopher Steele said the Russian leader left meetings for medical treatements.

Its claimed that Putin has not been able to control his anger and frequently experiences outbursts of uncontrolled fury (AP)

Meetings of the security council that are shown to supposedly last for a whole hour are actually broken up into several sections, Mr Steele, who wrote a dossier on Donald Trump and Moscows alleged interference in the 2016 US election, told LBC radio.

Hes constantly accompanied around the place by a team of doctors.

And earlier this month an oligarch with close ties to Mr Putin was reportedly recorded saying he is very ill with blood cancer.

The unnamed Russian alleged in the recording that the president had surgery on his back shortly before ordering the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, according to the US-based New Lines magazine.

Follow our live coverage of Ukraine-Russia news here.

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Vladimir Putin given three years to live and is losing his eyesight ...

Military trucks were seen delivering defensive reinforced concrete pillboxes, which comes as Vladimir Putins forces are suffering devastating losses in the occupied Kherson region in Ukraine

Image: via REUTERS)

Vladimir Putin's army has been spotted moving in defensive reinforced concrete pillboxes - which is being seen as evidence Russia has "run out of strength to attack".

A picture shows a column of military trucks delivering the readymade blockhouses to invaded areas in Ukraine from Russia.

The move comes as Putins forces are staging an operational pause while also suffering devastating losses in recent days in the occupied Kherson region.

Pro-Ukrainian journalist Ivan Yakovina posted on Facebook the picture of ready-made reinforced concrete pillboxes brought to Ukraine from Russia."

He said this means that Putin has run out of strength to attack.

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Yakovina continued: "He's going to dig in. I am sure that soon Moscow will be shouting about peace and the desire to stop the terrible war that the West started.

At the same time, Ukraine will be accused of bloodthirsty madness and senseless aggression.

I can directly hear these cries of TV propagandists and see these articles of Putin's supporters in the West: It's time to force Zelensky to start negotiations, Russia wants only peace, Kyiv insists on continuing the senseless massacre and all that stuff.

He said that to prevent this the West must immediately increase the volume of arms supplies to Ukraine.

The identities of two more colonels killed in the war emerged today.

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Lt-Col Valentin Danilov, 37, was killed in a HIMARS attack on Shakhtarsk in the Donetsk region.

He was commander of military unit 47084, from Vladikavkaz and his funeral was being held on Thursday.

The body of a Russian riot police colonel Igor Murzin was also repatriated to Russia this month after he was killed at the start of the war.

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Murzins funeral was held in the Siberian city of Kemerovo in Russia.

The deaths take the toll of dead Russian colonels to a staggering 76.

In the last three days, Putin has seen 14 colonels either killed in the latest fighting or identified as having been slain earlier in the war.

A dozen generals have also perished in the bloody conflict.

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Evidence which shows Vladimir Putin's Russia has 'run out of strength ...

Time to wake up and smell the cordite. Like shockwaves from an exploding missile, Vladimir Putins war on Europes edge is rapidly rolling westwards, blasting its way through the front doors of homes, businesses and workplaces from Berlin to Birmingham. Its fallout seeds a toxic rain of instability, hardship and fear.

The idea the Ukraine conflict could be confined to Ukraine Natos politically convenient grand delusion and that western sanctions and arms supplies would stop the Russians was always a nonsense. Now, enraged by Kyivs stubborn resistance and hell-bent on punishing his punishers, Putins aim is the immiseration of Europe.

By weaponising energy, food, refugees and information, Russias leader spreads the economic and political pain, creating wartime conditions for all. A long, cold, calamity-filled European winter of power shortages and turmoil looms. And like a coin-fed gas meter, the price of western leaders timidity and shortsightedness ticks upwards by the hour.

Russias destabilisation operations, social media manipulation, cyber-attacks, diplomatic double-talk, nuclear blackmail, plus its unrelenting slaughter of civilians in Ukraine, will only intensify Europes state of siege in the months ahead. The wests fanciful belief it could avoid continent-wide escalation is evaporating fast.

Though not entirely due to Putins war, Europe now faces fundamental challenges as big or bigger than the 2008 financial crash, Brexit, or the pandemic. Yet many EU and UK politicians skulk in denial. If, as predicted, the gas stops flowing and the lights dim, it will not just be a matter of closed factories, lost jobs, and depressed markets.

Freezing pensioners, hungry children, empty supermarket shelves, unaffordable cost of living increases, devalued wages, strikes and street protests point to Sri Lanka-style meltdowns. An exaggeration? Not really. Blowback, fanned by the Putin-admiring far right, is already gathering strength in Greece and Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

In prospect, too, is a shattering of EU solidarity as national governments compete for scarce resources. Brussels is due to publish a winter preparedness plan this week. But its provisions are unclear and unenforceable. The broader context is lack of an agreed, implemented EU-wide energy policy.

Despite bilateral cooperation pledges, a total Russian cut-off could pit country against country, further inflate prices, and split the anti-Moscow coalition. In such a scenario Putin would demand sanctions relief in return for resumed supplies, just as he has over blockaded Black Sea grain.

Import-dependent Germany is already taking unilateral steps, seeking alternative oil and gas suppliers. A national emergency moved closer after Moscow turned off the Nord Stream I pipeline last Monday. Many in Berlin fear (and some environmentalists hope) the shutdown and any subsequent rationing may become permanent.

Robert Habeck, Germanys vice-chancellor, fretted publicly about a political nightmare. Bruno Le Maire, Frances finance minister, sounded similarly panicky last week. He predicted an imminent gas cut-off. Waxing Napoleonic, he urged European countries to form up in order of battle. But as in 1812, Russia has General Winter.

As if the mounting misery of millions were not daunting enough, then consider, too, the wars knock-on impact on efforts to combat the climate and biodiversity crises. In the UK and elsewhere, net zero targets appear at increasing risk of being abandoned.

Because Europe faces very, very strong conflict and strife this winter over energy prices, it should make a short-term return to fossil fuels, Frans Timmermans, the European commissions vice-president, suggested. Once again, Germany is showing a lead, increasing electricity production from coal-fired power stations. Once again, the west looks to tyrannical Gulf oil sheikhs for salvation.

A European winter of chaos may also strain US ties. By comparison, Americas post-pandemic recovery is more advanced, its economy more resilient, its energy costs much lower. Yet it is US president Joe Bidens too-cautious leadership of Nato that has led Europe into this geopolitical cul-de-sac, even as a weakening euro slides below one dollar.

For Europeans, as they are re-learning to their cost, all wars are local. For Americans, as ever, all wars are foreign.

The sanctions, economic aid, and other non-military measures preferred by Biden were never going to be enough to bring Putin to heel. Some observers suspect a stalemate that slowly bleeds Russia suits US purposes, whatever the collateral damage. Yet right now, its Putin who is bleeding Europe. Sanctions are backfiring or poorly enforced. His energy coffers bulge. And Ukrainians aside, the pain is disproportionately felt by less wealthy European and developing countries. As instability grows, US-Europe divergence will feed pressure to change course.

The obvious escape route is a land-for-peace deal with Putin, agreed over Ukraines dead bodies. This kind of shoddy sellout has influential advocates. If (and its a big if), Russia returned to business as normal, it would alleviate Europes suffering though probably not Ukraines.

Yet such a deal would also be a precedent-setting disaster for future peace and security across the continent and globally, too. Just think Taiwan. Or Estonia. It would destroy the sovereign integrity of democratic Ukraine.

Fortunately, there is an alternative: using Natos overwhelming power to decisively turn the military tide.

As previously argued here, direct, targeted, forceful western action to repulse Russias repulsive horde is not a vote for a third world war. Its the only feasible way to bring this escalating horror to a swift conclusion while ensuring Putin, and those who might emulate him, do not profit from lawless butchery.

Intent on inflicting maximum disruption, Putin openly menaces the heartlands of European democracy. The writing is on the wall and may no longer be ignored. Enough of the half-measures and the dithering! Nato should act now to force Putins marauding troops back inside Russias recognised borders.

Its not only Ukraine that requires saving. Its Europe, too.

Originally posted here:

Putin is already at war with Europe. There is only one way to stop him - The Guardian

My friends and I had heard enough talk about Putin being corrupt to believe it. We were finally old enough to vote, and we took it seriously we researched the candidates, debated their campaign promises. Most of us liked Mikhail Prokhorov, an oligarch who promised to reverse the constitutional amendments and crack down on state propaganda and corruption. It felt like our generation, one that grew up under Putin, could finally make a change. Even my grandmothers confidence in Putin was shaken, and my whole family considered other candidates.

But something changed at the last moment there was a wave of negative press against Prokhorov and positive press for Putin. It felt like Russia needed someone experienced to protect us, and Putin was the only choice. I felt defeated and confused when the election day came. One of my friends felt the same way. Putin is the only rational choice now, and my unused ballot will automatically count for him anyway, she told me.

It came as no surprise that Putin was re-elected amidst allegations of fraud.

To my shame, it was the annexation of Crimea that placed me squarely into the pro-Putin camp. The Euromaidan revolution of 2013-2014 in Ukraine received a decent amount of airtime on Russian news. But instead of showing Ukrainians protesting a corrupt government and successfully ousting pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych, the Russian narrative painted the new Ukrainian government as a fascist gang and extolled Putins effort to save Crimea and its ethnic-Russian population from fascist rule. The process was democratic, the propaganda swore. I remember seeing a photo online of an allegedly Crimean apartment building with many Russian flags hanging out of the windows and thinking that this was the most genuine piece of evidence one might need. My dad heard somewhere that even our hometown welcomed Ukrainian refugees, that Russians were giving up their spots in line for social assistance. I gained a respect for Putin I didnt have before.

It was easier to accept the Kremlin line as truth than to question each confusing argument, one by one.

According to the Levada Center, an independent Russian polling and research organization, Putins popularity spiked from 69 percent in Feb. 2013 to 82 percent in April 2014. Propaganda poured out from everywhere, and it overwhelmed me. It was easier to accept the Kremlin line as truth than to question each confusing argument, one by one. I came to believe that Western attacks on Putins actions were synonymous with attacks on my country. My concept of patriotism twisted into blind support of Russia. This time, I didnt discuss it with my friends, but I was certain they felt the same way.

Over the past years, it has become even harder for the casual news consumer in Russia to find independent media. The new difficulty has risen since the war in Ukraine started, with Putin signing a law that threatens anyone spreading fake news, or a non-Kremlin-approved narrative, with fines or up to 15 years in jail. Some news outlets froze their operations and many journalists left the country. Russians who still want to get real news use VPN to access the news websites that the Kremlin banned. For others, like my parents, its a flood of propaganda on TV and in print as well as social media.

Everything changed when I moved to West Virginia in January 2016 for a second bachelors degree. I wasnt actively political, but whenever the chance came up, I defended Putin and Russia against what I thought was American propaganda. One time, my friends were watching a documentary about what happened in Crimea, and I launched into a rant about everything being either fake or just an unfair case of cherry-picking. Surely there were no Russian tanks in Crimea, and Russians didnt kill anyone. Often, I would pull out that photo of the apartment building with Russian flags as proof. Most of the time, people on the other side of such rants either didnt care enough to argue or were too polite to challenge me.

But slowly, my suspicion that something was off with the Kremlins narrative started to grow. Moving to the U.S. physically removed me from the fresh supply of propaganda only the occasional pro-Putin arguments made their way to me through talks with my parents. And I fell in love with journalism after joining the college newspaper, learning how to gather and vet information.

Carrier says she wasnt actively political, but whenever the chance came up, she defended Putin and Russia against what she thought was American propaganda.|VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP via Getty Images

When the first news of Russias influence on the 2016 presidential election came out, I defended Russia to whomever would listen. Russian propaganda wasnt there to supply me with facts, so I read credible English-language reporting and couldnt make sense of it. It felt so black and white, nothing close to the real world.

I shared my confusion with my father back in Russia. I know what they teach us in journalism classes. I know how articles are put together and that journalists value facts. At what level of a news organization do lies about Russia make it into stories? I wondered.

It finally clicked for me at the end of the summer of 2017, after I spent some time surrounded by serious reporters. I got pushback on some of my claims that Russia saved Crimea and that Putin would never harm other nations. I went to a conference for journalists in Arizona and told one or two very successful reporters that the U.S. media was misled about Russia. Their quiet amusement got under my skin. One reporter whose work I admired just politely smiled and gave me a funny look. Another one, with the same kind of look, found my opinion interesting and quickly introduced me to his friend. I wasnt credible, and it was confusing or even entertaining to others, I realized.

Everything I believed about Russia, the world and myself came crashing down. It was disorientating and lonely. I couldnt talk to my parents because they were still pro-Putin. I couldnt talk to my Russian friends about it either they either ignored politics or got defensive, pushing whatever views they had as the only correct ones. My friends in the U.S. couldnt grasp the magnitude of personal loss. I didnt know who I was or what I believed anymore.

Carrier says she was surprised to learn that so much of what she considered common knowledge came from propaganda and conspiracy theories.|Jon Elswick/AP Photo

The next semester, an international relations class helped me work through my need to find a good guy after Russia lost the title. I learned that theres no such a thing as a good guy in international politics, that the world is more complicated than that. I leaned on Sally, a professor passionate about Russian politics, and with book recommendations and many talks, she guided me through the process of piecing together the truth about Russian politics and history. I would drop by her small office on a nearly daily basis to talk about what Id read in the books Sally had lent me the mass graves from Stalins repressions, the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, the corruption and vindictiveness of Putin. We also talked about my parents their beliefs began to resemble conspiracy theories, revolving around a central theme that there was a centuries-old effort to cover up Russian greatness. They believed opposing things at the same time, going from Putin is so corrupt to Putin is the best thing to have happened to Russia in one conversation.

I was surprised to learn that so much of what I considered common knowledge came from propaganda and conspiracy theories. No, Ukraine hadnt been stealing Russian gas for years. No, Hillary Clinton wasnt behind the 2011 protests in Russia. No, Barack Obama isnt Muslim (Im ashamed to say I fact-checked this one just a couple of years ago). Ive done so much work to fix the damage, but every now and then I still catch myself using some nonsense as an argument rooted in what I think is history or science, and I have to reexamine my thinking.

This experience is common among people who have abandoned beliefs that once shaped their identities. My husband, an American who was raised Catholic, had a similar experience reevaluating his relationship with religion in high school. Through my reporting on QAnon, I met people who reconstructed their beliefs after they realized their conspiracy-fueled upbringings were filled with falsehoods. Those who quit QAnon describe the same sense of disorientation and political homelessness.

Sally and I still talk books and politics sometimes, and she recently told me that she had no clue how crucial shed been to my transformation. Without her, I would have slid back into propaganda or lost my mind.

My political realignment wasnt easy for my parents either. Its one thing to let your child move across the globe its quite another thing to watch the move change her, making it harder and harder to discuss things that were once common knowledge. We couldnt easily share what was on our minds when it came to politics. Most of the time, to avoid propaganda-fueled disagreement, we avoided the topic altogether.

Then, on Feb. 24, Russia invaded Ukraine, and everything changed. Suddenly, those political disagreements had very real and very bloody consequences. Russian propaganda intensified, capitalizing on the generational trauma of World War II by calling Ukrainians Nazis to justify the invasion.

My father called me the next day for emotional support. I could tell that he was just as crushed as I was. Something about his manner of speaking when he said, Were doing this to take out the Nazis, revealed a need for reassurance. I should have pushed back then he later told me he had doubts at the beginning of the war. But now hes done his research, and hes sure Russia did the right thing. A few days after the war started, my mom sent me a message, warning me that even liking posts critical of Russia was participating in informational warfare. Then she started sending me audios suggesting I send positive thoughts to Ukraine to even out the negative in the world.

This bloodshed has forced me to understand that there is a moral duty to stop this war and this propaganda-fueled monster.

My parents and I moved even farther apart. They are growing more patriotic about Russians taking out Nazis and saving civilians. They believe the crimes Russian soldiers are committing against Ukrainians are either committed by Ukrainians themselves or staged.

I have thrown my energy into reporting on Ukraine and the damage Russians have caused. For one story, I spoke with refugees who fled their homes and told me horrid stories of what they saw the bombings of civilian apartment buildings, the unprovoked shooting of civilians. The news media provided many more accounts of crimes: sexual violence against women and children; the images of bodies lying in Bucha; a genocide against the people Russian propaganda still claims to be our brothers and sisters.

My father and I discussed me writing about the war once. He hadnt read my stories and he didnt agree with my position, but he was proud of me for standing up for what I thought was right. My parents sacrificed a lot for me to be able to move to the U.S., even though they deeply dislike the American government. They supported me every step of the way. Recently, I discussed their political position with my Russian friend who knows them, and she was quite surprised to hear it. Your parents? Really? she asked. My parents aligning themselves with the Kremlin doesnt really make sense they are smart, educated, inquisitive, kind. They had more advantages than many Russians exposed to propaganda, but it still got to them.

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I Once Supported Putin. Now I Know the Truth. - POLITICO