TONGA-HUNGA
Powerful volcanic eruption spurs events that have never been seen before


Powerful volcanic eruption spurs events that have never been seen before

Cheryl Santa Maria
Mon, June 26, 2023

On January 15, 2022, the world witnessed a historic volcanic eruption at Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai, a submarine volcano in the southern Pacific Ocean, about 65 km north of Tongatapu, Tonga's main island.

This eruption, the largest since 1883, caused a series of extraordinary occurrences, including a tsunami that reached as far as Japan and the Americas and shot a mind-boggling plume of water vapour into Earth’s stratosphere – enough to fill more than 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.

“We’ve never seen anything like it,” Luis Millán, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California who led a study analyzing the volcano's water vapour, said in August 2002.

The sheer power of the eruption also broke several lightning records, documented in new paper appearing in the journal Geophysical Letters.

NASA - ash plume

An image from Jan. 16, 2022, shows the ash plume from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption that occurred the day before. An astronaut took a photograph of the plume from the International Space Station. (Photo and caption: NASA)

Unprecedented heights

The volcanic explosion launched an ash plume 40 km higher than typical thunderstorms, creating the ideal conditions for high-altitude lightning. Researchers documented the highest lightning flash rates ever observed, surpassing even those induced by thunderstorms.

Lightning was documented at stratospheric altitudes, ranging from 19 to 28 km, where the air pressure is typically too low to support lightning generated by thunderstorms.

The study authors believe the powerful plume may have created a localized, higher pressure zone, enabling the eruption-induced high-altitude lightning.

NASA - ash plume
NASA satellites captured the eruption on January 15, 2022. (NASA)

Never-before-seen lightning intensity

At its peak intensity, the eruption generated 2,615 lightning flashes per minute, lasting for approximately five minutes. This replaces the previous record set in 1999, where 993 flashes per minute occurred over the southern United States.
Impressive "lightning holes"

Following the eruption, the ash plume rapidly expanded outward in circular ripples, known as gravity waves. These waves triggered the formation of donut-shaped rings of lightning that surfed along their crests, with some of the rings measuring up to 280 km in diameter.

“The scale of these lightning rings blew our minds," Dr. Alexa Van Eaton, a volcanologist at the United States Geological Survey, said in a statement.

"We’ve never seen anything like that before, there’s nothing comparable in meteorological storms. Single lightning rings have been observed, but not multiples, and they’re tiny by comparison.”
A unique observation

A team of researchers, led by the United States Geological Survey, utilized advanced sensors that measure light and radio waves to map the eruption. This type of volcanic event, a phreatoplinian, occurs only when magma erupts through the water.

This is the first time scientists have had the opportunity to observe and measure a phreatoplinian eruption using modern-day technology.

“It was like unearthing a dinosaur and seeing it walk around on four legs. It sort of takes your breath away," Van Eaton said.

“These findings demonstrate a new tool we have to monitor volcanoes at the speed of light and help inform ash hazard advisories to aircraft."

RELATED: Lightning shoots from Philippine volcano
Click here to view the video

Header image: View from the summit of Hunga Tonga - Hunga Ha'apai in June 2017. (Damien Grouille/Wikipedia) CC BY-SA 4.0

Canada launches first-ever climate adaptation strategy


Smoke rises from a wildfire burning near Whyte Lake which caused the closure of the Sea-To-Sky Highway BC

Tue, June 27, 2023 
By Nia Williams

(Reuters) - Canada launched its first-ever national climate adaptation strategy on Tuesday, aimed at reducing the risk from extreme weather events like floods and wildfires and mitigating slow the impacts of fossil fuel-driven global warming, including melting permafrost.

The strategy come as Canada tackles its worst-ever wildfire season, with 7.8 million hectares already burned before the hottest months of the summer have even started.

By 2030, average annual losses from disasters are forecast to reach C$15.4 billion ($11.69 billion), according to the federal government, while the Canadian Climate Institute (CCI) estimates climate impacts will slow Canada's economic growth by C$25 billion annually by 2025, equal to 50% of projected GDP growth.

Recent climate disasters include Hurricane Fiona hitting the Atlantic provinces, an "atmospheric river" of rain that produced record-breaking floods in British Columbia and a 2021 heat dome, also in British Columbia, that caused hundreds of deaths.

"The strategy aims to transform the way governments, communities, and Canadians work in partnership to prepare, and reduce risks of climate change through coordinated and ambitious action," federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in a statement.

Goals include improving health outcomes, protecting nature and biodiversity and building more resilient infrastructure. In coming months, the federal government will work with provinces and territories to implement key steps.

A C$164 million investment to improve flood mapping is already underway, and the government has committed more than C$2 billion since fall 2022 to adaptation projects.

Climate policy think-tanks welcomed the finalization of the strategy, which was published in draft form last November, but said it will take significant new funding and coordinated government action to deliver results.

"The National Adaptation Strategy is a strong tool to address the biggest climate risks facing the country," said Ryan Ness, director of adaptation for the CCI. "The federal government needs to move quickly to fund and implement it to insulate Canadians from the growing threat and mounting costs of climate disasters."

($1 = 1.3176 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Families of dead migrants share anger over OceanGate rescue effort 

Hundreds of migrants still missing 2 weeks after shipwreck


Niamh Cavanagh
·Reporter
Updated Tue, June 27, 2023

The relatives of migrants who were on a boat that capsized in the Mediterranean Sea on June 14 expressed their frustration and disbelief at the millions of dollars spent trying to recover the OceanGate submersible that had gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean while trying to visit the Titanic shipwreck, the Guardian reported.

Anees Majeed’s relatives were just five of the roughly 750 people who were aboard the overcrowded fishing vessel. Many of those on board, like Majeed’s family, were from Pakistan. Just days after the migrant boat sank, news broke of the missing submersible, which had five passengers — each of whom had paid $250,000 for the experience.

A multimillion-dollar rescue effort was launched, making headlines across the world even though the passengers had signed waivers acknowledging that the vessel was “experimental” and that death was a possibility. Meanwhile, in the days after the migrant boat sank, the Greek Coast Guard was accused of causing the vessel to capsize.

An aerial view of the boat carrying migrants before it sank, in Kalamata, Greece, on June 14. (Greek Coast Guard/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Speaking to the Guardian, Majeed said: “We were shocked to know that millions would be spent on this rescue mission. They used all resources, and so much news came out from this search. But they did not bother to search for hundreds of Pakistanis and other people who were on the Greek boat.”
Why it matters

The discrepancy between the efforts and attention brought to the two tragedies has prompted a discussion on the inequality experienced by the world’s poor. At least 500 people who were on the migrant fishing boat are still missing. According to reports, there were between 50 and 100 children on board.

Rear Adm. John Mauger of the Coast Guard at a news conference about the missing Titan submersible. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Similar cases have happened before. In 2021, a nongovernmental organization accused the British and French coast guards of ignoring distress calls from people on a dinghy that sank in the English Channel. Twenty-seven people drowned.

According to U.N. stats, over 27,000 people are estimated to have disappeared or died while crossing the Mediterranean in the last nine years, making it the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world. But the route remains essential for those looking to Northern and Western Europe in the hopes of escaping poverty and war.

PROGRESSIVE FEMINIST MAYOR

Toronto elects first woman of colour as mayor; Olivia Chow

She has promised to purchase more affordable housing

Web Desk Updated: June 27, 2023 13:03 IST

Toronto's newly elected mayor Olivia Chow celebrates her win at an election night event in Toronto on Monday, June 26, 2023 | AP

Canada's largest city, Toronto elected its first woman of colour as its mayor. Olivia Chow's being elected ends over a decade of conservative rule.

This is the first time a woman has been elected as mayor in the multicultural city. Toronto's former mayor John Tory resigned a few months into his third term after he admitted to having an affair with a staffer. Tory was elected mayor in October.

Tory was known as a straight-laced, button-down moderate conservative almost the polar opposite of previous Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, whose term was plagued by scandals involving public drinking and illegal drug use.

About 102 candidates contested the elections on Monday. Chow received 37 per cent of the votes, Ana Bailao came in close with 33 per cent votes. "It's a city where an immigrant kid from St. James Town can be standing in front of you as your new mayor," Chow said.

Chow represented a downtown district of Toronto at the federal level for eight years and was part of the city council for 13 years.


She has promised to purchase more affordable housing.

-- With PTI inputs

Olivia Chow wins election as Toronto’s first Chinese-Canadian mayor



Tuesday, 27 Jun 2023 

MONTREAL, June 27 — Olivia Chow won election yesterday to become the first Chinese-Canadian mayor of Toronto, vowing to pursue a more progressive approach in Canada’s largest city after ending more than a decade of conservative rule.

Hong Kong-born Chow, who emerged victorious from a record field of 102 candidates, has promised to raise property taxes and do more to support tenants to help tackle the city’s housing affordability crisis.

In her acceptance speech yesterday evening, Chow highlighted “the mandate for change” voters in Canada’s economic capital had given her.

“If you ever doubted what’s possible together, if you ever questioned your faith in a better future and what we can do with each other, for each other, tonight is your answer,” she told supporters shortly after the announcement of her victory.

Chow won with 37.2 per cent of the vote, ahead of Ana Bailao on 32.5 per cent. Former city police chief Mark Saunders came in third with 8.6 per cent.

An immigrant who arrived in Canada at the age of 13, Chow takes charge of Toronto at a time when the city of 2.7 million is struggling with a surge in rents, a massive budget deficit and public safety concerns.

The previous mayor of Toronto, John Tory, resigned in February after admitting to having had an extramarital affair with an employee.

During the election campaign, Ontario Premier Doug Ford had backed Saunders, saying a Chow victory would be an “unmitigated disaster”.

Yesterday evening, however, Ford congratulated Chow on her election as Toronto’s mayor.

“Throughout Olivia’s life, she has proven her desire and dedication to serving the city that many of us call home,” the conservative premier said.

“While we’re not always going to agree on everything, what we can agree on is our shared commitment to making Toronto a place where businesses, families, and workers can thrive,” he said in a social media post.

A former member of parliament for the New Democratic Party, Chow, 66, previously served as a city councillor in Toronto. 

— AFP

Olivia Chow wins crowded race for mayor of Toronto

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IMAGE SOURCE,TORONTO STAR VIA GETTY IMAGES

By Holly Honderich & Chloe Kim

BBC News

A left-wing progressive standard-bearer has won Toronto's mayoral election, triumphing in a historically crowded field of 102 candidates.

Olivia Chow, 66, said she will work to build a city that is "more caring, affordable and safe".

The race had focused largely on affordability and public safety.

It is the second time in eight months Torontonians voted for a mayor following the sudden resignation of incumbent John Tory.

The Hong Kong-born Ms Chow is a well-known veteran of Canadian progressive politics.

In her victory speech, she spoke of her immigrant roots, recalling coming to Canada at age 13.

Canada's most populous city is a place "where an immigrant kid can be standing in front of you as your new mayor".

"Toronto is a place of hope, a place of second chances," she said.

"While I've been knocked down, I always got back up," Ms Chow said. "Because the people of this city are worth the fight."

The mayoral byelection was launched after former mayor Mr Tory, 68, a moderate conservative, stepped down in February, hours after the Toronto Star newspaper reported he had an affair with a 31-year-old staffer during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Just months earlier, Mr Tory had cruised into a third term, securing over 60% of the vote.

This was Toronto's first mayoral race without an incumbent since 2014 and no clear centre-right successor to Mr Tory emerged.

Support failed to coalesce around those challengers - including former police chief Mark Saunders, who received some support from Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and former deputy mayor Ana Bailão, who received a last-minute endorsement from Mr Tory - giving Ms Chow a narrow path to victory.

She received about 37% of the vote in Monday's race.

With Ms Chow's win, it will be the first time in a decade that a progressive will lead the city, and her victory suggests potential future clashes with Mr Ford, the conservative premier who said earlier this month that she would be "an unmitigated disaster".

But on Monday Mr Ford congratulated Ms Chow on Twitter, saying "she has proven her desire and dedication to serving the city".

"I will work with anyone ready to work with our government to better our city and province," he said.

Once sworn in, Ms Chow will assume the new "strong mayor" powers granted last year by Mr Ford's provincial government.

These powers include hiring and firing power over senior city staff and - in certain instances - powers to pass bylaws with just one-third support of council.

She has said she will not use the new powers handed to a number of municipalities in the province.

• Canada's household debt is now highest in the G7
• Why 101 people and a dog want to be Toronto's mayor

Ms Chow served as a city councillor for downtown Toronto before being elected to federal parliament in 2006. She was married to the late federal NDP leader Jack Layton, who died in 2011.

She previously ran for mayor in 2014 but came in third.

Her campaign in this race focused on Toronto's housing affordability crisis, with promises to build homes on city-owned land and provide more support for renters.

Her platform included more help for the city's homeless population, such as adding more social housing and the creation of "respite spaces" - where Torontonians could access showers and meals, and other critical services - that would be open around the clock.

But she faced criticism for failing to reveal how much she would raise property taxes to pay for her promises.

The date for her swearing in has yet to be determined.

Pompeii archaeologists discover 'pizza' painting

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IMAGE SOURCE,ITALIAN CULTURE MINISTRY

Image caption,

The newly-uncovered fresco was found on a half-crumbled wall in what was the hallway of a house in Pompeii

By James Gregory

BBC News

Archaeologists in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii have uncovered a painting which depicts what might be the precursor to the Italian pizza.

The flatbread depicted in the 2,000-year-old fresco "may be a distant ancestor of the modern dish", Italy's culture ministry said.

But it lacks the classic ingredients to technically be considered a pizza.

The fresco was found in the hall of a house next to a bakery during recent digs at the site in southern Italy.

The discovery was made this year during new excavations of Regio IX in the centre of Pompeii, one of the nine districts that the ancient site is divided into.

The building was partially excavated in the 19th Century before digging recommenced in January this year - nearly 2,000 years on from the volcanic eruption which engulfed the city.

Archaeologists at the Unesco World Heritage park say the newly-uncovered fresco depicting the flatbread, painted next to a wine goblet, may have been eaten with fruits such as pomegranates or dates, or dressed with spices and a type of pesto sauce.

Pompeii director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said it shows the contrast between a "frugal and simple meal" and the "luxury of silver trays".

"How can we fail to think, in this regard, of pizza, also born as a 'poor' dish in southern Italy, which has now conquered the world and is also served in starred restaurants," he said.

The skeletons of three people were also found near the oven in the working areas of the home in recent weeks, a culture ministry statement added.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 buried Pompeii in ash, freezing the city and its residents in time. The site has been a rich source for archaeologists since its discovery in the 16th Century.

The site is only about 23km (14 miles) from the city of Naples - the modern day home of the Unesco-protected Italian pizza.

Ancient Roman ruins buried in Germany's coal mining region

Manasi Gopalakrishnan

DW

As massive coal excavators prepare to tear up the ground in the lignite-rich Rhineland, archaeologists are unearthing valuable ruins from ancient Roman settlements.

A Roman villa floorplan discovered on the edge of the Garzweiler open pit mine in 2022

Image: T. Dujmovic/LVR-Amt für Bodendenkmalpflege im Rheinland/dpa/picture alliance

The Rhenish lignite region in western Germany is home to vast open pit coal mines that made global headlines earlier this year when climate activists took a stand in the hamlet of Lützerath to halt the mining.

But while the climate impacts of coal extraction in the region has drawn a sharp focus, lesser known are the ancient archaeological remains also being unearthed during the fossil fuel excavations — including the above remains of a Roman villa discovered near Lützerath.

The oldest finds date back to when ancient Romans settled by the Rhine River after Julius Caesar waged the Gallic wars (58 to 51 BCE) and annihilated the local Germanic tribes. The city of Cologne, among others like Trier and Aachen, was a product of this settlement.

Alongside Cologne, several Roman settlements also sprung up in fertile neighboring areas.

"That is the reason why roman farmsteads stood relatively close to one another and there were hardly any forests here in Roman times. Almost everything was used for agriculture," explained Alfred Schuler, an archaeologist at the LVR Office for the Preservation of Archaeological Monuments in the Rhineland in Titz, near Cologne.

Schuler explains how crops were grown here and sold to other cities like Neuss or Cologne, and to the stations of Roman legionnaires — above all as supply for the urban populace.

"This was practically the granary of the borders of the Roman realm, of Roman life in our region," he said.

A large excavator digs the Garzweiler coal pit in the Rhenish lignite regionImage: Jochen Tack/picture alliance

Coal mining and archaeology

Today, the region between Cologne, Aachen and Mönchengladbach, known as the "Rheinische Braunkohlerevier" (German for Rhenish brown coal region), is better known for brown coal mining than the ancient Romans that once lived there.

In January, thousands of climate activists, including Swedish founder of Fridays for Future, Greta Thunberg, descended on the region to stop German coal giant RWEfrom expanding coal mining under the village of Lützerath.

As the huge excavators that have created a massive open coal pit not only destroy local villages, but potentially the remains of ancient settlements. In order to protect the cultural heritage, RWE, the state of North Rhine Westphalia and LVR joined hands in 1990 to create an archaeological foundation aiming to unearth archaeological relics.

Speaking to DW, Robin Peters explains how experts first decide which areas at the mine site could contain valuable artifacts underground. Archaeological digs take place before the actual coal mining starts, he adds.

"We always dig in the open pit apron, not in the open pit itself," he said. Where the open pit is, there is no archaeology left."

"We try to gain insights into the soil, so to speak, slice by slice, and first try to discover traces in this area, under the topsoil, the humus, in the soil culture," he explains of discolorations which could "point to timber buildings, postholes, wall remains or foundation remains."

Climate activists protested the expansion of the vast open cast Garzweiler lignite coal mine in the region where ancient artifacts lay buried

Image: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images

From Roman graves to wells

This was how experts discovered the grave of a Roman priestess recently in Borschemich, near Cologne.

Experts said the priestess had a cremation in the early 2nd century CE. The body was clothed in material with woven gold before cremation and a wooden temple was erected on top of her grave.

Archaeologists also found a foldable chair and a wooden chest with tortoise-shell carvings of Roman and Egyptian gods. The grave is considered one of the most unusual cremation burials in the Roman province of Lower Germania, archaeologists say.

Schuler also emphasizes the uniqueness of the grave, saying how people had their own idea of the gods they prayed to at the time. "They simply transferred their idea of gods to these Roman figures, and they prayed to these figures when they actually meant to revere someone entirely different," he said.

In 2003, archaeologists discovered an ancient bronze pot

Image: Roland Scheidemann dpa/lnw/picture-alliance

"The Romans were very open and tolerant. As long as one did not undertake anything under the official Roman gods [Jupiter, Juno and Minerva], one could pray to whoever one wanted to," he added.

In 2020, archaeologists discovered an ancient well in Hambach, another hotspot for climate activists due to its remnant old-growth forest. The well's center revealed a pillar with a sculpture of Jupiter.

Altogether, there are hundreds of artifacts buried in the coal mining region that have been unearthed in the last decades. Many more are expected to make their way up to the surface.

Schuler and Peters from the LVR outpost are meanwhile excited and relieved to have dealt with their latest finding: A small motte-and-bailey castle from the Middle Ages.

It's not an ancient Roman relic, but like its Latin counterparts, Schuler says, the artifacts have been documented, photographed, sketched, measured and sent to the museum.

Careful what you wish for in post-mutiny Russia

Wagner Group mutiny will empower ‘Great Russia’ ultra-nationalists like Alexander Dugin who advocate more extreme measures in the Ukraine war

By JAMES DAVIS

ASIA TIMES

JUNE 26, 2023

Russian ultra-nationalist Alexander Dugin has suggested the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war. 

Image: Screengrab / Al Jazeera / Youtube

Regime change in Russia has been a key objective of the globalist wing of American foreign policy since the 2014 Maidan coup, executed under the instructions of then-assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland, now the US State Department’s undersecretary for policy. President Joe Biden embraced the demand for regime change on March 26, 2022, declaring that Putin “cannot remain in power” after the February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

The Wagner Group mutiny over this weekend elicited a storm of editorial and social media comments to the effect that the Russian president might be deposed after all. After Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin took the deal proposed by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, called off his march on Moscow and decamped to Moscow’s closest ally, Putin was still in place.

But the political sands have shifted toward Russia’s ultra-nationalist right, raising grave strategic risks including a higher probability of the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

Russia has been shifting towards a nasty form of nationalism since Maidan, which Nuland and her colleagues saw as a prelude to the overthrow of Putin. The American-sponsored coup against the elected president Viktor Yanukovych threatened Russia’s tenure in Crimea, home of its Black Sea fleet, and prompted Russia’s annexation of the peninsula, which has been Russian territory since the rule of Catherine the Great.

Prigozhin reflects a growing consensus in the Russian armed forces and important parts of civil society that Putin has been a weakling in the face of Western designs against Russia. This consensus includes Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, who Putin prevailed upon to send troops to defend Moscow against Prigozhin’s mutinous march on the capital. Kadyrov and Prigozhin have been allies against Putin’s military leadership, demanding more aggressive and decisive action in Ukraine from a perceived as cautious Kremlin.

Remarkably, Prigozhin was able to assemble a military motorcade over a period of more than a week without Putin’s knowledge—although Western intelligence agencies observed it, according to press accounts. Even more remarkably, no Russian military forces stood between Moscow and Rostov as the convoy proceeded to within 200 kilometers of Moscow, except for a few helicopters of which three were shot down by the Wagner forces.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group, speaking in Bakhmut in a video released earlier this year. 

Photo: Telegram channel / @concordgroup_official

And most remarkably, Putin had to call on Prigozhin’s ally Kadyrov to defend the capital, before striking a compromise with Lukashenko that dropped all charges against the mutineers. It appears that Russia’s regular military sat on its hands and let Prigozhin send a message to Putin.

The ultra-nationalist “Great Russia” current in Moscow thinks Putin is soft on the West. Putin petitioned then-president Bill Clinton in 2000 for Russia to join NATO, and was refused; he obtained a pledge from Washington not to intervene in Ukraine, which the Bush administration violated when it sponsored the 2004 Orange Revolution.

And he struck a deal with former German chancellor Angela Merkel to guarantee the safety and rights of Ukraine’s Russophone minority through the Minsk II agreement, which Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky repudiated in 2022 with Anglo-American backing.

The Prigozhin mutiny now makes Putin dependent on Russia’s extreme right. If he is overthrown, his successor will not be a liberal democrat of the sort that Washington dreams about, but rather a Russian nationalist bent on absolute victory in Ukraine, likely even if it requires the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

There is no liberal current of importance in Russia. But the ruling Russian elite is gestating a powerful group of right-wing nationalists, who dream of a revived “Great Russia.” Ominously, this current is coalescing from several disparate groups.

It includes Liberal-Democratic Party leader Leonid Slutsky, the “Eurasianist” philosopher Alexander Dugin, the popular TV anchors Vladimir Solovyev and Dimitri Dibrov, Chechen leader Kadyrov, the Moscow Patriarchate’s television channel SPAS and the neo-Czarist Union of the Russian people.

It also includes former Russian flag officers forcibly retired by Putin and Wagner boss Prigozhin, who have grumbled about Putin’s military timidity and the poor performance of his hand-picked commanders. What holds together this motley coalition is one idea, that Russia must defeat Ukraine at any price, and that the war can only end with victory at the western borders of the former Soviet Union.

The potential the use of Russia’s 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons, which start at 1 kiloton, is not a matter of mere media speculation. The most prominent mouthpieces of “Great Russia” nationalism are demanding their deployment.

The ultra-nationalist hydra has many heads but one has a louder voice than the others, the self-described “red Nazi” Dugin. In a viral March 2023 post on Telegram, Dugin demanded a general mobilization of all Russian military manpower, militarization of the economy, internment of war opponents and the use of tactical nuclear weapons if other measures do not succeed.

Dugin suggested “doing everything” to avoid the use of “non-strategic nuclear weapons” but using them if necessary. Russia should also “be ready to use strategic nuclear weapons,” Dugin declared. Dugin’s daughter died in August 2022 when a bomb destroyed the car that she was traveling in, which was possibly meant for Dugin himself.

The bomb that killed Aleksandr Dugin’s daughter, the aftermath shown here, was likely meant for the self-claimed ‘red Nazi.’ Image: Twitter

A self-proclaimed disciple of Nazi philosopher Martin Heidegger, Dugin has denounced Putin for putting the Russian polity ahead of the “Russky Mir,” or Russianness. “He puts the Russian state first, while I think from Russky Mir. This Russian world is much wider than the Russian state. Putin desecrates Russian identity, and in doing so, he has disappointed many patriots,” the ideologue told a Dutch newspaper in 2018.

Russia’s war with Ukraine, for all practical purposes, is a war between the Russian Federation and NATO. Russia is fighting an army of Ukrainians armed, trained and paid by the United States and other NATO countries. The sanctions against Russia, including the unprecedented seizure of about US$500 billion of its foreign exchange reserves absent a full declaration of war, were designed to crush Russia’s capacity to fight.

All important currents of Russian opinion believe that the Western objective in this war is to force regime change in Russia and, potentially, splinter the ethnically diverse and geographically far-flung Russian Federation itself.

The Russians aren’t paranoid on the matter. Regime change in Russia has been on the agenda of some senior Biden administration officials for a decade.

As Undersecretary of State Nuland, then-head of the State Department’s Eastern European desk, told a Congressional committee on May 6, 2014: “Since 1992, we have provided $20 billion to Russia to support the pursuit of transition to the peaceful, prosperous, democratic state its people deserve.” The same theme is repeated dutifully at major Washington think tanks and the editorial pages of the mainstream press.

Undersecretary of State Nuland. Photo: Asia Times files

There is no effective democratic opposition in waiting to the present Russian regime. Before 2022, the putative democrat Alexei Navalny had the support of a few pockets of opinion.

Even before the Ukraine invasion, though, Russia’s security services forced most of Navalny’s supporters to emigrate or threw them in jail. Another wave of immigration followed the February 24, 2022 invasion, effectively clearing the landscape of any liberal opposition.

Putin’s most probable policy response to the mutiny and its temporary resolution will be to augment the mobilization of Russian manpower, coopting a key element of Dugin’s program. This is all the more likely after the Ukraine government announced on June 19 more stringent mobilization standards in several oblasts, starting with Kiev.