Pussy Riot Founder Says More Russians Are Against Putin's War Than We've Seen

The number of Russians taking risks to oppose the war shows how many don't want it, said Nadya Tolokonnikova, who spent nearly two years in prison for anti-Putin protests.


ByNina Golgowski
03/06/2022 

The founder of the anti-Kremlin punk activist group Pussy Riot said Sunday that she has been encouraged by seeing Russians risk jail time and beatings for publicly opposing President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, saying it indicates that far more people in Russia oppose the war than what has actually been seen.

“One thing we need to understand about Russians opposing the war in Ukraine is the numbers of people who are against war are actually much higher than those you can see on the streets, because the price of participating in protest activity is increasingly high, especially became incredibly dangerous over the last week,” Nadya Tolokonnikova told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday.

“You can go to jail for up to 15 years. And, by going to streets, you’re actually exposing yourself to a greater danger,” said Tolokonnikova, who served more than 21 months in prison for participating in a 2012 protest against Putin.

Nadya Tolokonnikova, who founded the anti-Kremlin punk activist group Pussy Riot, said more Russians are opposed to Russia's invasion of Ukraine than we've seen. She blamed Russia's crackdown on anti-war demonstrations for the suppression of their voices.
ERIC GAILLARD VIA REUTERS


Citing an example of the police brutality that she said is occurring daily, Tolokonnikova said that a 14-year-old friend of her daughter was beaten by police for attending an anti-war protest last week. The child’s father confronted the officers at the protest, she said, and he was then beaten and ultimately hospitalized.

“Situations like that, they’re, unfortunately, happening quite often,” Tolokonnikova said. “That’s why I know that a lot of Russians are trying to leave the country. But, also, there are a number of people who are convinced that they should not leave, because they don’t want to give Russia as a gift to Putin. They want to stand their ground.”

People hold placards during a protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine while outside the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday.

Tolokonnikova expressed particular enthusiasm over the involvement of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Navalny, who nearly died from a nerve agent poisoning that he has blamed on the Kremlin, has organized daily protests against Putin despite being behind bars. He also called for all Russians, no matter their location, to protest against the invasion — a move Tolokonnikova called “incredible.”

“Show the world that Russians don’t want war. Come out in the squares of Berlin, New York, Amsterdam or Melbourne, wherever you are. Now we are all responsible for Russia’s future. For what Russia will be in the eyes of the world,” Navalny wrote Sunday in a blog post, according to Reuters.

More than 4,300 people were detained across Russia on Sunday for participating in such protests, according to an independent protest monitoring group. Russia’s interior ministry had said the number detained was around 3,500, Reuters reported.

РУССКИЕ! МЯТЕЖ!

RUSSIANS! MUTINY!

'Sent As Cannon Fodder': Locals Confront Russian Governor Over 'Deceived' Soldiers In Ukraine

March 06, 2022

By Carl Schreck

A screengrab of bloodied OMON Russian riot police gear in Bucha, near Kyiv, which was the scene of heavy fighting on February 28. Footage taken from the aftermath of the battle shows OMON gear among dead bodies and the wreckage of Russian military vehicles.


A Russian governor in Siberia was confronted by angry citizens who accused the government of "deceiving" young men before deploying them as "cannon fodder" in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Amateur footage of the testy exchange at a meeting between Sergei Tsivilyov, governor of the Kemerovo region, and locals in the city of Novokuznetsk was posted online as early as March 5.

The website of Tsivilyov's administration makes no mention of the meeting, and his office did not respond to a request for comment. But an analysis by RFE/RL reveals that the confrontation took place at the training base of riot police units, whose officers were killed or captured in combat in Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion on February 24.

Locals Confront Russian Governor Over Sons Being Used 'As Cannon Fodder' In Ukraine War

The meeting in a gymnasium at the base for OMON riot police in Novokuznetsk comes amid the Kremlin's rapidly escalating efforts to control information about its war in Ukraine, including a fast-tracked law that allows for up to 15 years in prison for those convicted of spreading "false news" about the Russian military.

As Tsivilyov addressed the gathering, a woman yelled that everyone was "deceived" about the deployments to Ukraine.

"No one has lied to anyone," Tsivilyov replied.

Another woman in the audience responded: "They were sent as cannon fodder."

As tensions escalated during the discussion, a woman in the audience asked where Governor Tsivilyov's son was.

"My son is studying at a university," he answered.

The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said on March 6 that more than 11,000 Russian troops had been killed since Moscow's invasion, which has triggered an unprecedented wave of sanctions targeting the Russian economy and political elite.

The number of dead could not be independently corroborated. The Russian Defense Ministry has released little information about its casualties. In its most recent account, it said on March 2 that 498 of its soldiers have died since the start of the war.

Riot Police Casualties

RFE/RL was unable to independently confirm who was in the audience in the Novokuznetsk meeting with Tsivilyov, or the exact date of the meeting. But comparing the footage with two separate YouTube videos -- including one posted on the official account of the regional branch of Russia's National Guard -- shows clearly that the meeting was held in the gymnasium at the OMON base in the city.

Members of Novokuznetsk OMON units were among the Russian fighters killed or captured by Ukrainian forces in Bucha, a city some 20 kilometers outside Kyiv, on February 28. Footage from the aftermath of the battle shows OMON gear among dead bodies and the wreckage of Russian military vehicles.

Battle footage also shows gear marked as belonging to the Russian National Guard's special rapid-reaction unit (SOBR) from Tsivilyov's region, which is also known as the Kuzbass.

At least two Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine have identified themselves as officers of the Novokuznetsk OMON, though RFE/RL could not confirm what kind of duress they may have been subjected to prior to giving testimony to Ukrainian forces.

One of the prisoners said he and his fellow fighters were told in early February that they were being sent away for a training exercise and ultimately ended up in Belarus before learning they would be invading Ukraine.

His account corresponds to that given to RFE/RL's Russian Service by the friend of another Novokuznetsk OMON officer who went missing in Ukraine.

"They told everyone that they were being sent for a training exercise in Belarus," the friend said on condition of anonymity, citing fears of facing treason charges. "The last time I talked to him was on the eve of the invasion. He sent me a video saying they'd forced them to take the plates of their vehicles and turn over their phones. That's the last I heard from him."

The aftermath of heavy fighting in Bucha, a city some 20 kilometers outside Kyiv, where a number of Russian fighters were killed or captured by Ukrainian forces.

The friend cited survivors of the battle as saying that the Novokuznetsk OMON officer who'd sent the video had died on "that bridge" -- likely a reference to a bridge destroyed in the Bucha battle.

"The commanders are silent and don't say anything. And the guys don't like to talk much either if they call their loved ones, because it's a state secret and no one wants to go to jail," the friend said.

"Everyone is scared, and nobody understands anything."

'You Mean When Everyone Dies?'

Tsivilyov told the audience at the Novokuznetsk gymnasium that the Russian government has rightly kept details about its invasion of Ukraine -- which the Kremlin insists on calling a "special military operation" and falsely claims has not targeted civilian infrastructure -- tightly under wraps.

Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine

Check out RFE/RL's live briefing on Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and how Kyiv is fighting and the West is reacting. The briefing presents the latest developments and analysis, updated throughout the day.

Told by members of the audience that "our boys" were unprepared to carry out an invasion and "didn't know their objective," Tsivilyov said:

"Look, you can shout and blame everyone right now, but I think that, while a military operation is in process, one shouldn't make any conclusions."

"We shouldn't criticize. When it ends, and it will end soon," Tsivilyov added before a woman interjected: "[You mean] when everyone dies?"

In an apparent effort to ease the audience's concerns, Tsivilyov likened the Kremlin's approach to the Ukraine invasion to the Soviet Union's bloody 1979-1989 war in Afghanistan that helped set the stage for the Soviet collapse.

"It was officially stated that we had declared war, and the first who entered Afghanistan didn't know where they were going," Tsivilyov said. "They found out when they already entered.”

"By the way, there are still guys alive from that group," he added about the war that Soviet officials reckoned killed an estimated 15,000 Soviet troops and millions of Afghans.

With reporting by Siberia.

Realities, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, and Mark Krutov of RFE/RL's Russian Service

1921: The Kronstadt rebellion - Libcom

https://libcom.org/history/1921-the-kronstadt-rebellion

2006-09-08 · The Kronstadt rebellion took place in the first weeks of March, 1921. Kronstadt was (and is) a naval fortress on an island in the Gulf of Finland.Traditionally, it has served as the base

The Mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin - HISTORY

https://www.history.com/news/mutiny-on-the-battleship-potemkin-110-years-ago

Battleship Potemkin (Russian: Бронено́сец «Потёмкин», Bronenosets Potyomkin), sometimes rendered as Battleship Potyomkin, is a 1925 Soviet silent drama film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by Sergei Eisenstein, it presents a dramatization of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against its officers. 

IT’S A PUTINY!
Russian marines ‘MUTINY on warship and refuse to fight in Ukraine’ fuelling hopes of anti-Putin unrest, reports claim

Anthony Blair
Mar 1 2022

RUSSIAN marines "mutinied" onboard Vladimir Putin's warships and refused to attack a Ukrainian port, reports claimed today.

A fleet was poised to begin a beach assault on strategic gateway Odessa, but the crack troops are said to have defied orders and steamed back to Russia instead.

Russian troops reportedly mutinied on board Putin's warships in the Black Sea

Ukrainian media claims a riot broke out onboard before a planned beach assault

A Russian fleet was said to be preparing to shell port city Odessa and land troops

Ukrainian media claims a "riot" broke out on the warships, based in nearby Crimea.

At the same time, a number of Russian helicopters and drones were flying over Luzanivka beach, preparing for landing.

The beach, just north of Odessa in southern Ukraine, was defended with mines and anti-tank hedgehogs.

Just before an all-out amphibious assault was due, the Russians radioed Ukrainian defenders to say the attack was off, it is claimed.

They are reported to have them to hold fire and allow the fleet to leave the bay unharmed.

The alleged mutiny echoes the famous rebellion by the crew of the battleship Potemkin in the same area in 1905.


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Retired Ukrainian diplomat Olexander Scherba, sharing the news on Twitter, wrote: "Last night a large group of Russian warships was about to launch landing on Odesa beaches.

"They approached the coast. Russia was about to shell the beach. Ukraine was about to shoot back when they suddenly withdrew.


"Reports that marines from Crimea refused to attack Odesa."

The mutinous Russians were marines from the 810th Brigade, according to Russian opposition politician Ilya Ponomarev.

He was the only member of Russia's Duma to vote against the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

He wrote on Facebook: "Ukrainian Air Force and other defenders of Odesa were preparing to give a decisive fight back to the opponent, but at the very last moment the Russians came in contact and asked to give them the opportunity to leave the Gulf.

"According to our data, there was a real rebellion on Russian ships; Russian men refused to follow the order and storm the coast of the Slavic Russian-language city."

Speaking directly to his country's armed forces, he added: "Russian soldiers, take an example from your comrades!"

Crimea was annexed by Putin's paratroopers in 2014 but is still internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.

In June 1905, the crew onboard the Russian imperial warship Potemkin mutinied against their officers during the same year's popular uprising.

They docked in Odessa after seizing control during a voyage in the Black Sea, and later sought refuge in Romania.

The mutiny, often seen as the first step leading to the 1917 Russian Revolution, was later the subject of the celebrated 1925 Soviet film Battleship Potemkin.

Russian soldiers, take an example from your comrades!Ilya PonomarevRussian Opposition Politician

Several unconfirmed reports in recent days claim Russian troops are leaving their posts because they do not want to fight their Ukrainian "brothers".

On Monday, footage appeared to show a Russian T-72B tank "abandoned with fuel and in fully working condition".

Some Russian troops are alleged to have stolen cars from Ukrainians to escape, while others have turned over their equipment to the enemy and refused to fight.


ITV's Dan Rivers said a Ukrainian soldier told him: "There are small groups of Russians still inside [Kharkiv], but they are totally demoralised and are now stealing cars from civilians to try and escape."

Taras Kuzio, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, crediting a Ukrainian news network, tweeted: "5,000 Russian soldiers in staging area in Russia, north of Kharkiv have revolted and refusing to attack Ukraine."

He added: "Earlier report from front lines around Crimea is half of Russian soldiers turned over equipment to the Ukrainians, again refusing to fight."

Meanwhile, a Belarusian military chief has ordered his troops not to fight in Ukraine, declaring it is "not our war", in a direct challenge to Vladimir Putin and his ally, Belarus' president Alexander Lukashenko.

Retired lieutenant colonel Sakhashchyk Valery Stepanovych said the conflict "may have catastrophic consequences for our country".

He added: "Likely, many will not return home alive, the Russian army with massive military experience has been in the waters for three days now - casualties number in the thousands."

Stepanovych call on his "brothers" to "not participate in this dirty deed" and told them this is "not our war".

His comments came as Ukraine said a column of Belarusian tanks and troops had joined Russia's invasion today.

Around 5,700 Russian troops have been killed so far in the war, Ukraine claims, with 198 tanks, 29 aircraft, and 29 helicopters destroyed.

The Russian government has said it will pay the families of fallen Russian soldiers 11,000 Rubles (£81).

It comes as Russia faces accusations of war crimes after allegedly committing indiscriminate carpet-bombing on Ukraine's second city Kharkiv.

In a message to his people on a Facebook video, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the bombing was "terror against Kharkiv, terror against Ukraine. There was no military target on the square".


Describing the attack on an administrative building in central Kharkiv as "outright, undisguised terror," he added: "No one will forgive. No one will forget. This strike on Kharkiv is a war crime."

He said Kyiv and Kharkiv are Russia's "most important targets" and said Putin's forces would use terror to "break" the country's resistance.

🔵 Read our Russia - Ukraine live blog for the very latest updates

At least 10 more people have been killed and 35 wounded in rocket strikes in central Kharkiv today, home to 1.5 million people.

A huge Russian military convoy is advancing on Kyiv as the conflict enters its sixth day, with armoured vehicles, tanks, and other military equipment stretching some 40 miles, according to the latest satellite images.


US senator Chris Murphy has warned that Putin's troops are preparing for a "long and bloody" siege of Ukraine's capital.

Today, Russia's defence ministry has issued a chilling warning to residents in Kyiv, telling them to leave their homes ahead of a planned further bombardment.

In a sinister statement published by Russian state news agency Tass, it said Putin's forces are preparing to launch "high-precision strikes" against targets in the city.

"We urge Ukrainian citizens involved by Ukrainian nationalists in provocations against Russia, as well as Kyiv residents living near relay stations, to leave their homes," the statement read.

But experts have questioned how long Russia can continue to fight an unpopular and costly war.

Russian individuals and businesses have been slapped with sanctions, their sports teams have been kicked out of international competitions, and the Russian Ruble has plummeted to a historic low.

At the same time, the International Criminal Court has announced it will investigate Russia's alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

And following the mass closure of Russia's air space, the country is facing heavy restrictions on sea travel as well.

On Sunday, Turkey labelled Russia's invasion as a war, and hinted at limiting the movement of warships through the Turkish Straits and into the Black Sea, a strategic route to Ukraine.

Some 660,000 refugees have already fled Ukraine since the start of the war, including 150,000 over the past day, in what is feared to be the biggest movement of people since the Second World War.

A second round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine has been scheduled for Wednesday, according to Russian state media, after Monday's near the Belarus-Ukraine border ended without a breakthrough.

Ordinary Ukrainians have held up a Russian military convoy in MelitopolCredit: East2west News

Heavy shelling has continued into a sixth day in UkraineCredit: Alamy

Odesa is a strategically important port city close to the disputed Crimea territoryCredit: Avalon.red

Greed of the rich blamed for Covid deaths in poor countries

'Pandemic of Greed' report makes five suggestions to help the world, including the most vulnerable, come out of the crisis

The report found there were stark differences between political statements vowing to help the poorest, such as these men in an internally displaced persons camp in Somalia, and the delivery of medicines. AFP

Simon Rushton
Mar 03, 2022

Coronavirus death tolls in lower-income countries are four times higher than in rich countries, a report published on Thursday said.

The report, “Pandemic of Greed”, which was published by Oxfam on behalf of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, blamed a lack of Covid testing for millions of unreported deaths and accused rich nations of refusing to challenge medical monopolies.

It found there were stark differences between political statements vowing to help the poorest and the delivery of medicines, with the UK delivering only one third of the vaccines it promised.

READ MORE
WHO recommends molnupiravir for Covid patients who may need hospital treatment

Since the Omicron variant emerged in southern Africa last November, there have been three million Covid deaths, the report found. It added that four children a minute lose a parent or caregiver to the disease.

The report makes five suggestions to help the world, including the most vulnerable, come out of the pandemic, including creating a road map to fully vaccinate 70 per cent of people by mid-2022 and maximising the production of safe vaccines by suspending relevant intellectual property rules.

It also suggests investing in a massive increase in vaccine manufacturing; ensuring vaccines, treatments and tests are sold to governments at a reasonable price and provided free of charge; and scaling up sustainable investment in public health systems.

“After two years, we all want this pandemic to be over, but politicians in rich countries are exploiting that fatigue to ignore the devastating impact of Covid-19 that continues to this day,” said Oxfam health policy manager Anna Marriott.

“While incredibly effective vaccines provide hope, rich countries derailed the global vaccine roll-out with nationalism, greed, and self-interest.

“Suggestions that we are entering a ‘post-Covid era’ ignore the continuing deaths primarily in lower-income countries that could be prevented by vaccines.”

Researchers found that 54 per cent of all Covid deaths have occurred in low- and lower-middle-income countries, with people in poorer nations 1.3 times more likely to die from the disease. And per capita deaths in low- and lower-middle-income countries are 31 per cent higher than in high-income countries.

The People’s Vaccine Alliance is a global coalition of about 100 organisations that campaign for vaccine equity through supporting a waiver of intellectual property rights for Covid vaccines.

It also asks pharmaceutical companies to share their knowledge with qualified producers in developing countries so they are able to make their own medicines.

“Rich countries and corporations have tied up the global response to Covid-19 for their own benefit, leaving the global south to bear the brunt of this pandemic,” said Maaza Seyoum, Global South convener for the People’s Vaccine Alliance.

“As billions of people are still unable to access vaccines, some have the audacity to claim that the pandemic is over. That is an utter fallacy.”

Updated: March 04, 2022

Ukraine receives more armed drones from Turkey during Russia crisis

Turkish-made UAVs could show Ankara switch in support to Ukraine

A Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 armed drone. Victor Besa / The National

The National

Mar 06, 2022

Turkey sent a shipment of Baykar Bayraktar TB2 armed drones to Ukraine this week, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said.

“New [drones] have already arrived in Ukraine and are on combat duty,” Mr Reznikov said.

Janes reported that rumours of the delivery had earlier circulated after Turkish Air Force planes were seen flying from Ankara to an airport in south-east Poland near the Ukraine border

The drones significantly boosted morale in Ukraine throughout the early days of the crisis, drone warfare expert Samuel Bendett said on Tuesday.

Before the crisis, Ukraine officials said they had about 20 Bayraktar TB2s.

The country also entered deals with Turkey to buy more and ultimately produce key parts for a new, larger Bayraktar drone.

Stijn Mitzer, an intelligence analyst tracking destruction in the war, said the TB2s have taken out 33 Russian vehicles including two logistics trains.

But that is less than 10 per cent of Russia’s total estimated vehicle losses to date, Mr Mitzer said.

What Mr Bendett calls the “mythology of the Bayraktar” has persisted because Russia has so far failed to properly use its air defence systems and its air force has apparently failed to neutralise Ukraine’s air force and air defence.

“Russia doesn’t seem to display the very tactics, techniques and procedures that it’s practised for years and sought to perfect in Syria … [to provide] adequate cover to its ground forces,” he said.

“The fact that there may be surviving [Bayraktars] somewhere is an embarrassment [to Russia]."

The delivery is also an indication of a shift in support by Turkey to Ukraine, despite President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s silence on the crisis.

Turkey has also blocked Russian warships from entering the Black Sea to join the fight, in line with an international treaty allowing Ankara to do so during times of war.

Mr Erdogan’s son-in-law and one of Baykar’s top executives, Selcuk Bayraktar, denounced Russia’s “unlawful invasion” in a February 25 tweet.

And Selcuk’s brother Haluk Bayraktar, the company’s chief executive, posted an old photo of himself with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday.

He expressed his support for the defenders: “May the victory go to the brave people who passionately defend their homeland from invaders.”

It is not clear, though, how many drones were in the new delivery, nor whether such deliveries will continue as the war drags on.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/03/how-useful-are-turkish-made-dlrones.htm

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/03/ukrainian-drone-enthusiasts-sign-up-to.html

BEIJING 2022

EDITORIAL | Unforgivable for China to Use Paralympics as Xi Jinping’s Propaganda Tool

Chinese TV cut off IPC chairman Andrew Parsons when he said, “The 21st Century is a time for dialogue and diplomacy, not war and hate.”

March 7, 2022
By Editorial Board, The Sankei Shimbun

International Paralympic Chairman Chairman Parsons appealing for peace at the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Winter Paralympics (March 4, Beijing)

International Paralympics Committee (IPC) chairman Andrew Parsons delivered an impassioned speech condemning war and calling for peace during the March 4 opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Paralympics. However, the government-owned Chinese TV stations broadcasting the speech live left out the simultaneous translation of that portion of his speech.

It is a common practice in China to cut the video and audio if something the Chinese government does not like is reported in a news broadcast. But if an appeal for peace is not to the liking of China’s rulers, their reaction must be judged utterly bizarre.

Parsons rose to speak after Cai Qi, president of the Beijing Paralympic Organizing Committee and Chinese Communist Party Secretary of Beijing, had finished his welcoming remarks. Cai emphasized that it was thanks to President Xi Jinping’s push and the leadership of the CCP that preparations for the event had progressed smoothly.

Towards the beginning of his remarks, Parson said, “The 21st century is a time for dialogue and diplomacy, not war and hate.” He also said, “The Olympic Truce for peace resolution adopted by the United Nations,” he said, “must be respected and observed, not violated.”

Although he never mentioned Russia by name, it was clear that Parsons was condemning that country for its invasion of Ukraine. The translation of this part of his speech, along with the end when he raised his arms high and shouted “Peace!” was also cut by Chinese TV.

The broadcast with translation was back, however, for the next part, when Parsons introduced Xi Jinping.

Premier Li Keqiang praises Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party at the opening of the Chinese National People’s Congress in Beijing. (March 5, Kyodo)

National People’s Congress

Another opening ceremony was held in Beijing on March 5, for the convening of the fifth annual session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s supreme legislative organ. Premier Li Keqiang praised the CCP leadership and, in his delivery of the annual government work report on behalf of the State Council, declared to the assembled delegates that the February Beijing Winter Olympics had been a rousing success.

Li also repeatedly extolled the accomplishments of Xi Jinping, who aims to be confirmed in power for the long-term when the Chinese Communist Party Congress convenes in the latter half of 2022 for an event held once every five years.

Amidst these developments, China no doubt concluded that criticism of its friend Russia, and the exclusion of Russian and Belarussian teams from the Paralympics, were deviations from Beijing’s vision of the Games, and as such were inconvenient truths.

Within China, the February Winter Olympics continue to be praised to the heavens, despite the issues of the suppression of the human rights of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang and the doping scandal involving Russian athletes and their team officials.

On the day after the Winter Olympics closed, The People’s Daily, the official organ of the CCP, declared in an editorial that “China had shown how a mature power behaves.” It went on to claim that participating athletes had nothing but praise for the Beijing Games and their hosts, with some supposedly saying the arrangements were “absolutely impeccable.”

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

International society has taken note of how, even now, China refuses to acknowledge that Russia’s barbaric actions in Ukraine constitutes an “invasion.” And all have seen how Beijing abstained from a United Nation General Assembly resolution condemning Moscow.

The Xi Jinping regime’s shameless use of the Olympic and Paralympic Games for political purposes is unforgivable.

RELATED:
China Stands By Russia Amid International Fury Over Ukraine

Russian’s Invasion is Genocide: Ukraine Envoy to Japan on Why Moscow Must Be Isolated

Strategic and Moral Dimensions of the Ukraine Invasion

Author: Editorial Board, The Sankei Shimbun

DIY MUTUAL AID SOLIDARITY

AUSTRALIA

Locals take charge of NSW floods helicopter food and rescue efforts amid frustration with ADF*

Volunteers are spending hours flying over submerged power lines and the stench of decaying cattle, delivering urgent aid to their towns

Cows are seen stuck on a small land island created by the NSW floods in the Lismore region

 Photograph: Yaya Stempler/The Guardian

*AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE

Climate Council says too many leaders silent on global heating’s role in ‘megafloods’

by Elias Visontay Photography: Yaya Stempler

Mon 7 Mar 2022 00.21 GM

“I’ve still got people on roofs needing food and rescuing, and I’ve just got to find someone to get to them,” says Ash Jones at the Rotorwing Helicopter hangar at the Lismore airport in northern New South Wales.

Jones has been working long hours as a volunteer air traffic controller and donation coordinator, and is de facto leader at the hangar. She says she is too busy to be interviewed.

A week after fatal floods hit Lismore and NSW’s northern rivers, the region is still in emergency mode, and with waters slow to recede and some areas still cut off, residents living in remote properties are now requiring urgent evacuations and supply drops.
Ash Jones has been working long hours as a volunteer air traffic controller and donation coordinator. Photograph: Yaya Stempler/The Guardian

The volunteer operation sprang up out of the Rotorwing hangar last Monday, just as owner Michael Barnes’s home became flooded.

“When everyone was confused about what to do at the beginning of last week, it was the locals that started doing food drops. We set up a makeshift job card system and they’d come in and take one or two and off they’d go,” Barnes said.

Since then, a community-led emergency response unit – similar to volunteer operations in nearby Mullumbimby – has coordinated at least 200 rescue and airdrop missions delivering food, medicines and petrol to about 5,000 people living in cut-off homes over a mammoth area of north-east NSW.
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More than 20 tonnes of essential goods have so far been delivered by a fleet of privately owned helicopters – hired thanks to a crowdfunding campaign and funds from Mick Fanning, Chris Hemsworth and the Essential Energy state-owned corporation, among others.

The military’s slow rollout has frustrated people in the northern rivers, where unpaid and sometimes untrained volunteers fill the gaps. Photograph: Yaya Stempler/The Guardian

Local helicopter pilots have been volunteering their time, and their presence in the skies across the flood-affected region is dwarfing the official Australian defence force contingent.

By Sunday, the 14 community-organised helicopters, and a handful of other private aircraft, were averaging seven hours in the air each day running drops and performing rescues to towns such as Coraki, Bungawalbin and New Italy.
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Meanwhile, radar showed the ADF had just two helicopters in the air, and private helicopters contracted by government agencies for flood recovery that were parked in nearby Casino were averaging just one hour in the air each day.

The ADF’s slow rollout has frustrated locals in the northern rivers who see many of their unpaid – and some untrained neighbours – filling the gaps in the impossibly large task of flood recovery across the area.

A helicopter getting ready to assess the damage caused by the floods in Lismore. Photograph: Yaya Stempler/The Guardian

On Sunday, Roger Mohr of V2 Helicopters was one of the volunteer pilots flying west from Lismore performing emergency food drops.

Even on the ground, the smell left behind by the floods is still unpleasant. The sun has been beating down on the stagnant muddy water, sewage and rotting cows, with high humidity and apparent temperatures at 35C.

Flying over the vast ocean of brown that the northern rivers region now resembles, the rising stench flows through Mohr’s aircraft as he passes above submerged power lines, abandoned cars and detached airplane wings strewn across fields.

“The dead cattle is particularly unpleasant, it’s such a distinct smell,” he said. While many of the cows he flies over are already dead, some are alive but emaciated, stuck on small land islands with no food. He records their location, to alert the community effort at the hangar, as they are also organising feed drops for stranded cattle.

While many of the cows Roger Mohr flies over are already dead, some are alive but emaciated, stuck on small land islands with no food. 

Photograph: Yaya Stempler/The Guardian

While performing an airdrop on Saturday, Mohr and a co-pilot became stranded on a rural property that has been transformed into an island by the floods. They spent the night there, and continued flying drop missions on Sunday, including to cut-off Bungawalbin.

“There’s just so many civilian choppers up here, it’s a shame I haven’t come across the ADF up here,” he said while in the air.

At his hangar, Barnes is also frustrated at the slow and comparatively smaller ADF rollout.

“We don’t know where they are, have you seen them?” he said.

Barnes’s wife, Jess, evacuated with their children to family in Melbourne, and has been helping coordinate the community helicopter effort from there.

Many people requiring rescue thought they could last on their own in their properties until flood waters receded, Jess Barnes says. Photograph: Yaya Stempler/The Guardian


She explains that many of the people requiring rescue now thought they could last on their own in their properties until flood waters receded. The waters have proved stubborn. “They’re now realising the waters could last and they’re running out of supplies and are still totally cut off from roads.”

She is also furious, observing the radar remotely and seeing how the region is having to rely on community volunteering.

“We’re not making any money out of this, we’re the ones who started and said let’s just get as much stuff as we can to the people we hear are still out there. We didn’t even think about the money when we started.

A week after fatal floods hit Lismore and the NSW northern rivers, the region is still in emergency mode. 

Photograph: Yaya Stempler/The Guardian

“I cannot figure out why the ADF and SES [the volunteer-led state emergency service] aren’t out there searching for people. It drives me absolutely mental that they aren’t out there searching, because I am getting messages from mothers with their babies needing rescue who haven’t heard from an agency since the floods.”

Barnes has also heard reports of the ADF coming to the hangar and around Lismore “for photo ops”. “They made it look like they were doing something and left right after taking a photo.”

In addition to air drops, civilians were also still delivering supplies and performing rescues by boat at the weekend.

For its part, an ADF spokesman denied the claim that the ADF was not present in Lismore, both on ground and in the air. He said there were 436 ADF personnel in the region as of Monday morning. He confirmed that there had been just two ADF helicopters performing drops, but said on some days in the past week this had surged to four.

Back at the hangar, just before torrential rain broke through the hot Lismore day on Sunday afternoon, Jones was weaving through the piles of donations and boxes that were beginning to feel like supermarket aisles, consulting others about whether they could perform a rescue that had been requested.

“Can we get here?” she asks, as she plans another mission.

Iran’s Khamenei Urges Increased Use Of Nuclear Energy And Renewable Energies

Iran's Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei. Photo Credit: Tasnim News Agency

 March 7, 2022 

By Tasnim News Agency

Iran’s Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei called on Iranian officials to push for the development of non-fossil energies, such as the nuclear, wind and solar energies.

Ayatollah Khamenei planted two saplings on the occasion of National Tree Planting Day and Natural Resources Week on Sunday.

Congratulating the Iranian nation on the auspicious occasion of the anniversary of the birth of Imam Hussain (AS), Ayatollah Khamenei described that holy personage as being the center of love for the Iranian nation and all Muslim nations including the Shiite and the non-Shiite.

The Leader also described tree planting as being a completely religious, revolutionary move, and said, “Of course, taking care of and protecting the existing trees is also a very important task that should be attended to.”

Ayatollah Khamenei referred to plants as being a source of comfort for the soul, a source of divine sustenance, protection for the human body and useful for all of humanity, explaining, “For this reason, the destruction of forests, the natural environment and the plant cover is the destruction of national interests. Destroying parts of forests for the construction of buildings, except in cases of emergency, is definitely to the disadvantage of the nation.”

Rejecting the attitude of looking at the natural environment as being something decorative and a peripheral issue, the Leader stated that the protection of the environment is one of the most fundamental issues of the country.

“A serious step in protecting the natural environment involves the protection of two great sources of wealth for nations – water and soil – and the refusal to waste them. In this regard, officials should pay attention to the guidance of experts,” the Leader noted, according to Khamenei.ir.

“Wildlife conservation” was another issue that Ayatollah Khamenei highlighted, saying that neglecting this matter would jeopardize national interests.

“In Islam, hunting is only allowed when there is a need for food. Otherwise, it is illegal and forbidden. Even going on a hunting trip (for pleasure) is forbidden. Therefore, preventing illegal hunting should be taken seriously and we must work hard to protect wildlife.”

Ayatollah Khamenei stressed that the Natural Environment Organization and the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad are responsible for preventing the utilization of agricultural lands for other purposes. The Leader emphasized, “Such other uses are to the disadvantage of national interests. Agricultural lands should be expanded.”

Highlighting the necessity to develop clean energy, the Leader stressed, “The development of non-fossil energies such as nuclear energy, which is increasingly being used throughout the whole world – including in regional countries that are moving in this direction – as well as wind and solar energies, should be taken seriously.”

At the end of his statements, Ayatollah Khamenei called on the people to plant and care for trees. The Leader said, “Carrying out all important tasks requires the nations support. Tree planting is one of these tasks in which everyone can help out. People can plant and care for trees, prevent the elimination of trees and gardens around and in the city and help in the expansion of plant life.”

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Tasnim News Agency

Tasnim News Agency is a private news agency in Iran launched in 2012. Its purpose is to cover a variety of political, social, economic and international subjects along with other fields

How Zelensky Used Social Media To His Advantage – OpEd

 March 7, 2022

By Arab News

By Dalia Al-Aqidi*

It is generally acknowledged that following the news on social media has become more important, more popular and more influential than watching television news networks, which we always used to use to find out what was happening in the world. The Ukraine-Russia crisis has proven the validity of this theory beyond any doubt.

This justifies the fact that world leaders are turning to social media to convey their messages to their people in a simple manner on a platform that is followed by different age groups around the globe.

Before this conflict, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was barely known as a politician outside of his country; rather, he was the actor who became a president twice: Once on TV and once in real life.

Zelensky, as an actor, had a large social media following prior to his presidential bid, making it easier for his campaign to communicate and appeal to Ukrainian voters. In 2019, he won 73.2 percent of the vote in a runoff contest to beat incumbent Petro Poroshenko to the presidency.

Since the Russian invasion of his country, how has this inexperienced politician been able to get so much support from the world’s people? And how did he succeed in mobilizing such great help for the Ukrainian people, government and army?

Since the first day of the crisis, social media has helped the Ukrainians internationalize their cause and motivate European countries and the US to do everything they can to support their resistance.

Zelensky has emerged as a global hero. He set the example of a true leader when he rejected an American offer to evacuate him and his family to a safer location, saying: “I need ammunition, not a ride.” The New York Times said this phrase “will most likely go down in Ukrainian history, whether he survives this onslaught or not.”

This position brought to mind how Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last year fled the country when Taliban forces reached the outskirts of Kabul, leaving his army without leadership and encouraging troops to quickly give up. Ghani’s decision prompted the Americans and the wider Western community to wonder about the benefits of training the Afghanistan army and arming it, spending so much money, if forcing its surrender was that simple.

Zelensky understands very well the importance and influence of social media. He began flooding platforms with simple, impassioned and highly effective speeches, while also posting photos and videos of him and his government in the devastated streets of the capital, Kyiv, to deny all reports that he had fled the city or sought refuge in a neighboring country.

His social media following has significantly increased during the war. He has used his channels to provide continuous updates and as a platform to publicly address world leaders. At the time of writing, Zelensky has 14.1 million followers on Instagram and 4.7 million Twitter followers.

The Ukrainian leader knew how important it would be to win the sympathy and support of the world’s people. He understands the importance of public opinions and poll numbers in the Western world. Therefore, he speaks to the people, especially the younger generations that criticize their rulers for sending young people into wars they do not understand, while keeping their own children at home.

Millions of people subsequently took to the streets in many parts of the world to demand their rulers provide humanitarian and military aid to support the Ukrainian government and people. Zelensky has won the public opinion battle and succeeded in getting help. At the same time, he has inspired his fellow Ukrainians to defend their land just like their president.

I would say Zelensky has cleverly used social media platforms to aid his country’s cause. Without his media strategy, the situation could be far worse for Ukraine.

• Dalia Al-Aqidi is Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy.Twitter: @DaliaAlAqidi

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Photo Credit: Ukraine Ministry of Defense

Two ‘Leftist Bros’ Dive Into Conservatism to ‘Know Your Enemy’

The podcast hosted by Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell offers history lessons that middle-aged liberals, young socialists and even some conservatives can love.


Sam Adler-Bell, left, and Matthew Sitman are the hosts of the podcast “Know Your Enemy,” which bills itself as “the leftist’s guide to the conservative movement.”

Credit...Zack DeZon for The New York Times

LONG READ

By Jennifer Schuessler
March 7, 2022

When Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell sat down in the spring of 2019 to start the podcast “Know Your Enemy,” all they had was a microphone, a cheeky title and the vague hope that “yet another podcast where two leftist bros guide you through the swampy morass of the American right,” as they put it, might be something other people would actually listen to.

“We had no idea what we were doing,” Adler-Bell, 31, said during an interview last month in Sitman’s apartment in Manhattan, groaning at the mention of that first episode, which featured plenty of awkward fumbling and jokes about Sitman’s Leo Strauss tattoos.

Sitman, 40, a self-described “recovered conservative” (with no tattoos), offered a somewhat more charitable take.

“We just love talking to each other,” he said.

Nearly three years and 100 episodes later, “Know Your Enemy” has moved from being a cult favorite to something of a must-listen for the sort of person who is as interested in the internal politics of National Review, circa 1957, as in the current jousting on Capitol Hill.

The podcast contextualizes today’s hot-button debates like the battles over critical race theory in schools. But it mostly offers deep dives into conservative intellectual history, going into the weeds of the weeds armed with reading lists, reams of footnotes and archival documents.

Its audience of roughly 25,000 to 50,000 listeners per episode (according to the hosts) may be tiny by the standards of Joe Rogan, or even the socialist podcast “Chapo Trap House.” But in our hyper-polarized times, “Know Your Enemy” has emerged as something middle-aged liberals, young democratic socialists and Gen Z conservatives hungry for deeper perspective on the tumult of the Trump era can all love.

Sitman, who grew up in a working-class fundamentalist Baptist family, is an ex-conservative, but not an “embittered” one, he emphasizes.

Credit...Zack DeZon for The New York Times

The hosts “have read more conservative political theory than most conservatives,” one admirer on the right said.

Credit...Zack DeZon for The New York Times


“They really do their homework,” said Nate Hochman, a 23-year-old writer for National Review who described himself as fan “before it was cool.” “They’ve read more conservative political theory than most conservatives.”

While “enemy” may give the title its juice, the operative word is “know” — and, possibly, emulate?

Young progressives “don’t understand why the right keeps winning,” said Sam Tanenhaus, a former editor of The New York Times Book Review who is working on a biography of William F. Buckley.

“What Sam and Matt say is, look at it a different way,” Tanenhaus continued. “Don’t just see the right as the enemy, pure and simple. See them as brilliant — and maybe smarter than you are.”

The podcast began at a fortuitous moment in 2019. Early salvos in the fractious (and hard-to-decipher) debate between the conservative writers David French and Sohrab Ahmari had started lighting up the conservative pundit-sphere, and the first National Conservatism Conference, where a Who’s Who of the right tried to hash out an ideologically coherent version of Trumpism, was just a few months away.

The podcast helps progressives understand “why the right keeps winning,” said Sam Tanenhaus, the author of a forthcoming biography of William F. Buckley (shown here around 1958).

 Credit...Bettmann Archive, via Getty Images

“By that point, most of the magazines and think-tanks and funders on the right had started making the Trump pivot,” said Sitman, who is leaving his job at the liberal Roman Catholic magazine Commonweal later this month to write and podcast full time. “As the dust was settling, you could see where things were at.”

A few months in, the democratic socialist magazine Dissent became sponsors, as listenership steadily grew. (The podcast currently takes in about $17,000 month from subscribers, who sign up for tiers, ranging from “Young American for Freedom” to “Unreconstructed Monarchist.”) The “breakthrough,” Sitman said, came in January 2021, with an episode on the roiling debate over whether President Trump is a fascist.

The Jan. 6 insurrection, Sitman said, felt “very vindicating” of “the penchant for authoritarian minority rule” on the right, which the podcast had been noting from the beginning.

The (relative) calm of the first year of the Biden presidency created more room for scholarly explorations, like episodes on the friendship between Allan Bloom and Saul Bellow, and on Frank Meyer, the ex-Communist National Review editor and creator of “fusionism,” the marriage of free-market economics and social traditionalism that defined postwar conservatism.


The podcast takes deep dives into conservative intellectual history, exploring topics like the friendship between the novelist Saul Bellow (shown in 1977) and the philosopher Allan Bloom. 

Credit...Eddie Adams/Associated Press

And in a particularly head-snapping installment, the hosts, joined by Tanenhaus, examined the conservatism of Joan Didion, who contributed regularly to National Review early in her career (and who in 2001 wrote that she would have voted for Barry Goldwater in every election after 1964, if she’d had the chance).

Those biographical dives explore favorite “Know Your Enemy” themes of mentorship and friendship, conversions and trajectories, with a rich sense of psychology and literary surprise. Sitman likes to quote a former professor: “The relationship between gossip and philosophy is tenuous but real.”

As for his own trajectory, Sitman grew up in a working-class, fundamentalist Baptist family in central Pennsylvania, steeped in “God and guns conservatism,” as he put it in a 2016 essay. He graduated from a small Christian college, and after an internship at the Heritage Foundation, enrolled in graduate school at Georgetown, studying political theory with the conservative scholar George W. Carey.

What peeled him away from conservatism, starting in his mid-20s, he said, was disgust at conservatives’ support for torture, as well as growing embrace of class politics, which pulled him toward democratic socialism.

He converted to Catholicism in 2015. His faith, and the way he sees human vulnerability as central to politics, is a touchstone on the podcast.

“I feel guilty about making Sam learn so much about the Catholic Church,” Sitman said. Adler-Bell shot back: “I’m going to make you read Freud at some point.”

Adler-Bell, grew up in a progressive, secular Jewish family in Connecticut. He was active in a student-labor alliance while an undergraduate at Brown, and later worked at the advocacy group Demand Progress and interned at The Nation.

He said his immersion in conservative thought “defamiliarized the left,” forcing him to think harder about why he believed what he believed.

“A lot of people on the left only come into contact with the stupidest versions of right-wing arguments — the least sophisticated, the least interesting, the least literary,” he said.

On the podcast, and in person, Sitman has a genial professorial vibe, spiking his learned explications with anecdotes about prominent figures, some of whom he knew personally. Adler-Bell is saltier, always eager, as he half-jokingly puts it, to highlight the more “lurid and prurient” aspects of the right.



The podcast takes an unabashedly literary and intellectual approach. “A lot of people on the left only come into contact with the stupidest versions of right-wing arguments,” said Adler-Bell, who grew up in a left-wing family.

Credit...Zack DeZon for The New York Times

Sitman said the podcast has damaged some “already frayed” relationships with former mentors and friends. But he emphasized that, unlike some other apostates from the right, he wasn’t “embittered.”

“I am!” Adler-Bell interjected, slapping his knee. “That’s why it’s good to have me, an argumentative Jew.”

Not all conservative listeners are unqualified fans. Matthew Schmitz, 34, a columnist at The American Conservative and former senior editor at First Things, said Sitman and Adler-Bell were “extremely good at their jobs,” calling the podcast “better than almost anything on public radio.” That wasn’t entirely a compliment.

“‘Know Your Enemy’ falls into a kind of ideological orientalism, presenting right-wing ideas as a mélange of the backward, regressive and decadent,” he said.

Which brings up a still-unsettled question for the hosts: How much to talk with conservatives, as opposed to just talking about them?

So far, only a handful of “enemies” have appeared as guests, including Ross Douthat, an opinion columnist for The Times. All the conservative guests are “a little bit heterodox,” Sitman conceded. Adler-Bell added: “We have a ‘no hacks’ policy.”

Still, after an episode with Hochman (one of the young conservative radicals featured in a much-discussed recent article by Adler-Bell in The New Republic), some listeners wrote in with concerns the hosts had “platformed” him without pushing back hard enough.

The hosts say they thought they were tough, pressing him, for example, on the role of white racial backlash in fueling postwar conservatism. “We trust the intelligence of our listeners,” Sitman said. But they also acknowledged that, “as two white guys,” they are less likely to experience some things conservatives say as “deeply offensive or dehumanizing.”

Their goal isn’t any squishy mutual understanding or bipartisan compromise, but clarification — and the sheer pleasure of conversation. “It’s great to have a chance to talk to people you disagree with, without thinking the project is to find common ground,” Adler- Bell said.

Sitman, again hitting the more professorial note, paraphrased the British philosopher Michael Oakeshott, from his essay “On Being Conservative.”

“The point of going fishing isn’t to catch fish,” he said. “It’s to be out on the water.”

Jennifer Schuessler is a culture reporter covering intellectual life and the world of ideas. She is based in New York. @jennyschuessler