A top Russian officer reportedly had his face ‘smashed’ during a brawl with furious conscripts after telling them their lives were going to be thrown away on the front lines in Ukraine.
The mobilised recruits turned on the Russian lieutenant-colonel after he bluntly said: ‘You are all cannon fodder, you are facing slaughter.’
The high-ranking officer had bones in his face broken in a brawl in which ‘every single one of them was drunk’, say reports.
Related video…
Vladimir Putin accused the United States of creating a nuclear weapons ‘precedent’ by bombing Japan at the end of the second World War in an unhinged speech calling the West ‘satanists’ and accusing ‘Anglo Saxons’ of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines.
The Russian despot ranted about sex-change operations, claimed America is occupying Germany and Korea and vowed to ‘smash’ the West in the disturbing remarks as he announced the annexation of four regions in Ukraine.
His saber-rattling is another terrifying hint that he is prepared to use nuclear weapons as he vowed to use ‘all available means’ to hold onto Russian-occupied areas of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.
Deep beneath the Baltic Sea, a remotely controlled submarine releases a mine which nestles beside a gas pipeline.
Other mines are laid at critical junctures along hundreds of miles of piping connecting Russia and Germany. They contain the equivalent of hundreds of pounds of TNT.
When they are detonated – either by a timing device or remotely from a secret control room – the aftershocks are felt 800 miles away and seismologists liken the blasts to earthquakes.
Hopes that post-Soviet Russia would join the ranks of prosperous liberal democracies have proven to be a chimera
The collapse of the Soviet system led to a period of hope in Russia. Throughout the 2000s, it was popular to describe Russia as a “normal country.” The changes it went through during its transition from Soviet communism to a Westernized, market-based economy and parliamentary system were agreed to be irreversible, setting the stage for the country to eventually join the club of liberal democracies.
Thirty years later, however, it seems clear that Russia’s much-heralded modernization effort was a failure.
In the early 1990s, the political scientist Claus Offe explained the nature of the unique challenges faced by countries across the post-communist region, which he called the triple transformation: the political transition from autocracy to democracy; the economic transition from planned to market economy; and a national transition from empire to nation-building. While post-communist countries saw varying degrees of success, it is the failure to modernize along all three dimensions that distinguishes Russia.
THE European electricity grid is hurtling towards disaster, a new paper from the Global Warming Policy Foundation warns.
Countries are closing reliable nuclear and fossil-fuelled power stations while hoping interconnectors – cables linking different grids – will make up the deficit. But they won’t, according to the paper’s author, Alexander Stahel, a Swiss-based commodities expert.
He explains that the European grid has relied on French and German power surpluses for many years. However, with nuclear power in both countries being wound down and the two likely to soon become net power importers – and with fierce international competition for scarce gas supplies – the whole continent is now left hoping for Scandinavian hydro power and occasional surpluses of UK wind to save it.
Decades of green scaremongering have brought Germany to the brink of blackouts.
In Germany, as in the rest of Europe, the energy crisis is deepening. The German government was even forced last month to delay its long-scheduled shutdown of Germany’s two remaining nuclear power plants, out of fear its energy supplies would not last through the winter.
Yesterday afternoon, tens of thousands of Czechs gathered in Prague calling for the resignation of the government and a “180-degree turn” in the country’s foreign policy.
… Like last time, this protest will almost certainly be portrayed by the media as overtly “pro-Russian”. But the reality is more complex — and perhaps even more troubling for the West.
… Indeed, for the first hour or so Ukraine was hardly mentioned. Speakers mostly focused on the cost-of-living crisis, with one listing price increases for potatoes, eggs and other everyday items. Nonetheless, the war was ever present through a group of pro-Ukraine counter-demonstrators standing at the top of the square.
And if there was one overriding concern, it was not support for Russia, but loathing for the western international order. Many flags and placards called for exit from the EU and NATO; others included calls to “stop censorship” and “stop green poverty.” One attendee said the goal is for the Czech Republic “to leave NATO and stop serving American interests.”
Not Pro-Russian but anti-western order. I wonder how closely aligned the man on the street in Prague is with the man on the street in Berlin etc. Nothing in Canada’s MSM about this.
From the NYT – Protests in Prague Signal a Troubled Winter Ahead in Europe
Tens of thousands gathered in the Czech capital for the second such protest in a month, spurred by an energy crisis and rising prices that are affecting countries across Europe.
PRAGUE — Thousands of protesters flocked into Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Wednesday, demanding the resignation of the government of the Czech Republic as an energy crisis stoked popular unrest that will be closely watched in other European capitals.
Despite a rain-soaked start, demonstrators hoisting Czech flags and chanting, “Shame! Shame!” turned out for the second time in a month to rally under the slogan “Czech Republic First.” They were a hodgepodge of figures with a broad range of causes, including Kremlin sympathizers and those who said they are fighting a “global elite.”
At the outset of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin believed in a quick victory that did not come to pass. How strong is Russia’s army really?
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Moscow did everything it could to maintain its status as a superpower — including as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. When it became clear that Russia could not claim a right to the spot as an economic power, it instead defined its greatness in military terms.
Over the decades, Russia’s army has been touted as one of the strongest in the world. Indeed, a nuclear-armed military. As if to remind the world of this fact, President Vladimir Putin has regularly treated both Russians and the world to perfectly choreographed parades and military exercises.
The US government is denying ‘preposterous’ allegations that it is behind a gas leak in the Baltic Sea on Wednesday.
It comes as Donald Trump suggested that ‘World War III’ could be near while sharing a video of President Joe Biden threatening to stop Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Mysterious and alarming leaks were found in both Nord Stream pipelines this week, prompting the European Union to call it the result of a ‘deliberate act.’
Russia to formally annex four more areas of Ukraine
Russia’s Vladimir Putin will hold a signing ceremony on Friday to annex four more areas of Ukraine after self-styled referendums condemned by Ukraine and the West as a sham.
Russian-backed officials had earlier claimed the five-day exercise secured almost total popular support.
So-called votes were held in Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south.
The Russian president will make a major speech at the Kremlin.
BERLIN — Two days after a pair of explosions under the Baltic Sea apparently ruptured giant natural gas pipelines from Russia to Germany, the consensus hardened on Wednesday that it had been an act of sabotage, as the European Union and several European governments labeled it an attack and demanded an investigation.
Experts said it could take months to assess and repair the damage to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which have been used as leverage in the West’s confrontation with Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. News of a possible attack on the lines heightened already intense fears of painful energy shortages in Europe over the winter.
But the central mystery remains: Who did it?
In phone calls to friends and relatives at home, Russian soldiers gave damning insider accounts of battlefield failures and civilian executions, excoriating their leaders just weeks into the campaign to take Kyiv.
#Ukraine: Extremely rare footage from the South showing two Ukrainian Su-24M strike aircraft in action; four parachute-retarded bombs are dropped from each aircraft, most likely the Soviet 250kg OFAB-250ShN/ShL fragmentation bombs.
A Russian tank is seen destroyed. pic.twitter.com/518TaFKCFD
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 27, 2022
German Environment Minister Steffi Lembke said on Wednesday that the energy crisis meant it was “reasonable” to keep two nuclear plants running for three months beyond their planned closure, but that she rejected any further extension.
The Green politician’s remarks contrast with the stance of coalition partners the Free Democrats (FDP), who favor an indefinite extension to the usage of nuclear power in Germany amid the predicted energy supply shortage in winter.
“If Russia crosses this line, there will be catastrophic consequences for Russia,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on the 25th of this month, referring to threats to use nuclear weapons. “The United States will respond decisively.”
New recruits to the Russian army are being told to ask their wives and girlfriends for tampons to use as bandages in the event they get shot, as military supplies run out.
In a video circulating on social media, a woman who has been identified as a military doctor can be seen giving what appears to be an introductory speech to new recruits.
In it, she tells them the army is woefully short on military equipment and that only uniforms will be supplied.
Unbelievable video. Russian officer telling newly mobilized men they will need to source their own sleeping bags, med packs. Tells them to go buy tampons from pharmacies to use as bandages.
“The only thing the army gives you in uniforms, armor. That’s it.”pic.twitter.com/zwttL586zu— Patrick Reevell (@Reevellp) September 27, 2022
LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin’s latest warning that he is ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia amid the war in Ukraine has made a troubling question much more urgent: Is the former KGB spy bluffing?
Putin cautioned it was no bluff, and Western politicians, diplomats and nuclear weapons experts are divided. Some say he could use one or more smaller, tactical nuclear weapons to try to stave off military defeat, protect his presidency, scare off the West or intimidate Kyiv into capitulation.
#Ukraine: SBU SSO (Special Forces) using a FPV Kamikaze drone against a Russian tank- although the tank is unlikely to be seriously damaged, this represents quite an interesting development as more and more FPV drones are used in in such a role. pic.twitter.com/36atpvDwky
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 27, 2022
