PDA

View Full Version : Russo-Ukraine War (Jan-March 2016)



Pages : [1] 2 3 4 5

davidbfpo
12-30-2015, 07:28 PM
A new thread for this theme in 2016, created by a moderator. The current 2015 thread since June 2015 has had 120k views and 3.4k posts. It can be viewed via:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=22315

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 11:12 AM
Militants fired 22 times at Ukr troops over last day w/ 120mm mortars, large caliber machine guns, grenade launchers https://www.facebook.com/ato.news/posts/1119612258049579 …

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 11:13 AM
For those grey beards still working the field.......
pic.twitter.com/E8RwSK2Lp1

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 12:41 PM
No casualties in last 24 hours among Ukrainian soldiers in ATO https://twitter.com/radiosvoboda/status/682895480691494912 …

Civil Blockade activists say not involved in blowing up pylon on power line
http://www.unian.info/economics/1227284-civil-blockade-activists-say-not-involved-in-blowing-up-pylon-on-power-line.html …
pic.twitter.com/sqjRAubhjk

Exclusive & never-before seen pictures from my trip to #Pisky at the Ukrainian front in #Donbas
pic.twitter.com/uscmswiTtv

Michael Weiss ✔ @michaeldweiss
What Russia's been doing in Ukraine since you stopped paying attention
http://theweek.com/articles/587241/what-russias-been-doing-ukraine-since-stopped-paying-attention …

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 12:42 PM
Putin has bullied, invaded, imprisoned, tortured, and killed Ukrainians to try to stop it, but today real EU-Ukraine free trade starts.

CrimeaBlockade dissociate themselves from power lines damage in Kherson reg. At 00.00 2015 energy contract expired https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=460486367484944&id=434889093378005 …

Vnesheconombank (VEB) financed $8 bln worth of Russian investments into Donbass steel plants in 2010. Great timing.

Drone-shot video of New Year celebration at Sofiyska and Mykhailivska squares in #Kyiv
http://www.radiosvoboda.org/media/video/27461364.html …
pic.twitter.com/nsbEnTVQCr

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 01:44 PM
I have been criticizing this President for his sheer lack of a strategy which is amazing for a Harvard graduate....HE has actually been implementing a solid a la Wilson retrenchment program AND selling it or better in his own words...."messaging" that retrenchment to the US civil society ALL the while not putting into place a foreign policy foundation that other nation states can fully understand.

He completely failed in recognizing the Russian and Iranian non linear warfare coupled to Putin's political warfare three core geo political goals;
1. damage and discredit EU
2. damage and discredit NATO
3. completely disconnect the US from Europe and the entire ME

It is highly recommended to read this entire article and then sit back and think about it based on the daily reality that is directly opposite of what this President and his NSC is trying to "message".

http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/three-areas-where-us-foreign-policy-wen...


Garden in September. —Associated Press
My fellow Think Tank contributor (and sometime co-author) Brian Katulis says that for “the Obama administration, 2015 brought ups and downs in foreign policy.” This is far too rosy an assessment, though it is sober compared with the State Department’s review of its 2015 accomplishments, which included “Winning Fight Against Violent Extremists” and “Bringing Peace, Security to Syria.” The last year has been one of serious strategic setbacks, falling roughly into three categories:

1. Failure to respond to assertive great-power challengers. In 2015, China intensified its campaign to build and militarize artificial islands in the South China Sea, with the likely goal of strengthening its territorial claim within the “nine-dash line” and limiting other states’ freedom of action in the area. Russia deployed military forces to the Middle East–in direct opposition to U.S.-supported groups–and consolidated its annexation of Crimea while maintaining or deepening support for separatists in Ukraine in defiance of the Minsk cease-fire agreement.

The U.S. has not mustered an effective response in either case. After years of hand-wringing, the White House authorized a Freedom of Navigation Operation in the South China Sea that may have inadvertently strengthened the rights China claims in the area. As for Ukraine, although the U.S. and its allies maintain their sanctions regime against Russia, they could not eliminate dependencies on Moscow, which might prove debilitating in future conflicts. Meanwhile in Syria, the U.S. concedes that Moscow is meeting its goals so far while insisting it is doomed to fail.

2. Lapsed focus on outcomes. The Obama administration frequently cites the Iran nuclear deal as a marquee accomplishment. Achieving U.S. objectives through diplomacy would have been laudable, but the nuclear deal was possible precisely because the U.S. laid aside its objectives. Iran made concessions but also largely achieved its strategic aims: retaining its nuclear weapons capability and resisting demands for a broader “strategic shift” in its support for terrorism and regional policies. Iran also received sanctions relief that is broader in practice than on paper, all in exchange for temporary limits on its nuclear fuel-cycle activities.

Secretary of State John Kerry has said that “diplomacy is the art of the possible.” Yet administration officials fail to comprehend how U.S. action, or inaction, can shape what is possible. This was clear in Afghanistan, where President Barack Obama was forced to face the consequences of prematurely announcing a U.S. withdrawal. It is increasingly clear in Syria, where the White House, despite foreseeing the dangers posed by the conflict, is shifting objectives in response to others’ actions rather than taking the initiative.

3. Weakened alliances. President Obama frequently contrasts what his administration calls the 19th-century behavior of some states to the rules-based order he prefers. Yet, as President Obama has noted, rules and norms do not enforce themselves; international order is threatened not only by overt challenges but also by others’ failure to defend it. The challenges described above should have been opportunities to cement alliances in the face of common threats: to deepen ties with Japan and India in the face of Chinese expansionism; to unite with Mideast allies against threats from Iran and Syria; and to unite Europe in defiance of Russian actions in Ukraine.

Instead, these opportunities have largely been missed. U.S. allies in Asia have been alarmed by what they perceive as Washington’s failure to follow through on a promised “pivot” to the region and its failure to back up “red lines” elsewhere. In the Middle East, the Iran deal and U.S. confusion in Syria have strained already weakened ties with Israel and Arab states. A White House effort to assuage the concerns of Gulf Cooperation Council states was both belated and off the mark, focused on expanding U.S. assistance rather than accommodating allies’ concerns over U.S. policy. Weakened alliances mean that U.S. power is diluted and our allies tend to act independently of the United States and of each other in ways that complicate our efforts.

The list could continue; for example, neglect of the domestic component of foreign policy could shift the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement from a success into a failure thanks to opposition from the president’s own party.

The Obama record in 2015 suggests that our post-Cold War struggle to determine how best to shepherd and use U.S. power continues; for the overreach of the Iraq war, diffidence has been substituted. The primary challenge in 2016 and onward will be how to deploy the United States’ still-immense strength judiciously, proactively, and multilaterally to resolve conflicts to our advantage and to prevent new ones from emerging.

Michael Singh is managing director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. From 2005 to 2008, he worked on Middle East issues at the National Security Council. He is on Twitter: @MichaelSinghDC.

Feb 2007 - Australian Prime Minister John Howard warns of the consequences for Iraq & Middle East of an Obama win
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/howard-blasts-obama/2007/02/11/1171128798037.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 02:08 PM
#russiannavy "Sayany" submarine rescue ship arrived in Sevastopol today
pic.twitter.com/sBD6BnwEde

Ukraine & Poland will cooperate to develop mortar carrier and howitzer based on T-84 Oplot tank
pic.twitter.com/oYYy698XGz

As #Germany took over the presidency of the @OSCE today, will #Steinmeier(@GermanyDiplo) make @OSCE_SMM in East #Ukraine work after sunset?!

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 02:11 PM
UKR Embassy in TR @UKRinTR

Russia-Ukraine Conflict Update: Moscow To Sue Kiev Over $3B Debt
http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-ukraine-conflict-update-moscow-sue-kiev-over-3b-debt-2246408 …
And Ukraine to sue Russia over $100B for Crimea

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 04:29 PM
I have been criticizing this President for his sheer lack of a strategy which is amazing for a Harvard graduate....HE has actually been implementing a solid a la Wilson retrenchment program AND selling it or better in his own words...."messaging" that retrenchment to the US civil society ALL the while not putting into place a foreign policy foundation that other nation states can fully understand.

He completely failed in recognizing the Russian and Iranian non linear warfare coupled to Putin's political warfare three core geo political goals;
1. damage and discredit EU
2. damage and discredit NATO
3. completely disconnect the US from Europe and the entire ME

It is highly recommended to read this entire article and then sit back and think about it based on the daily reality that is directly opposite of what this President and his NSC is trying to "message".

http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/three-areas-where-us-foreign-policy-wen...


Michael Singh is managing director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. From 2005 to 2008, he worked on Middle East issues at the National Security Council. He is on Twitter: @MichaelSinghDC.

Feb 2007 - Australian Prime Minister John Howard warns of the consequences for Iraq & Middle East of an Obama win
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/howard-blasts-obama/2007/02/11/1171128798037.html …

FURTHER Russian evidence to their current actions against NATO...THAT Obama is so intent on ignoring......

“It is time to correct the mistake by Gorbachev“ #Russia #Baltics #Turkey #Nato
http://news.rambler.ru/head/32327873

Putin labels #NATO a security threat.
http://cnn.it/22ClLWX
pic.twitter.com/AQeHPLvm8H

Russia invades Europe in Ukraine, intrudes on NATO waters and airspace with submarines and bombers. Then calls NATO a "threat."

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 04:56 PM
Remind me now, wasn't the electricity from #Russia to #Crimea be done by now? And the bridge half done? Putin lies worse then #NorthKorea

Lifenews: poll results show that 93% of asked Crimeans refused to get electricity from Kherson
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/1-january-lifenews-poll-results-show-that-93-of-asked-crimeans …

Russian government will hold a poll in Crimea to decide to get electricity as part of Ukraine or not
http://liveuamap.com/en/2015/31-december-russian-government-will-hold--a-poll-in-crimea …

Militants Used Prohibited Weapons Near Avdiivka, - Staff
http://ukraineunderattack.org/en/50799-militants-used-prohibited-weapons-near-avdiivka-staff.html …

No casualties in mil. hostilities among Ukrainian forces over last 24 hours - #АТО Staff

Since Beginning Of Day Militants Opened Fire 15 Times
http://ukraineunderattack.org/en/50809-since-beginning-of-day-militants-opened-fire-15-times.html …

Russian militants reporting on 1 dead in fighting at Donbass
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/1-january-russian-militants-reporting-on-1-dead-in-fighting …

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 05:09 PM
Russian info warfare trolls.....

Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
Russian troll Gic Perry's sock ac, setup to harass 2 of our followers, was intended 2b disposable & die. Except it didn't, we saved it all

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 06:58 PM
Does return of top Russian war reporter signal an escalation of conflict in east Ukraine?
http://trib.al/YO4zook
pic.twitter.com/61Mm4IH3qu

Militants violated cease-fire 24 times Jan. 1, - ATO press center
http://24today.net/open/611415

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 08:43 PM
Russia practicing cyber warfare inside their own country.......

By November, the number of websites being blocked in #Russia reached 1 million, as political engagement grows online
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-russia-political-engagement-is-blossoming-online/2015/12/31/b5bfbd8c-aef5-11e5-b820-eea4d64be2a1_story.html …

Sorry, #Moscow, but the "armed conflict" in #Ukraine is all your doing - no #Russia, no war.
http://www.rferl.mobi/a/putin-signs-new-security-strategy-warning-of-heightened-risks-from-west/27460849.html …
pic.twitter.com/DKg5qtxOhM

Life of #Ukraine’s volunteer battalion few kilometers from the strategic #Donetsk airport
https://youtu.be/BjzrWp9IHNI?list=PLPnX89fQLdsnTsiDOpYtxvMJZobCjqBC …-

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 09:13 PM
News
8 Ukrainian soldiers got killed and 67 injured, defending the front in Eastern #Ukraine in December.
Situation calmed down recently.

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 09:18 PM
Russian info warfare trolls...........

Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls

When Tweets get many RT's #KremlinTrolls keep reusing them. Profanity helps to create false appearance of sincerity
pic.twitter.com/hxoshb6Vur

OUTLAW 09
01-01-2016, 09:20 PM
ATO Press center: Militants deployed "free wi-fi" hotspots near frontline, Ukrainian soldiers use it->intercepted.
pic.twitter.com/VplqcfC2Xu

OUTLAW 09
01-02-2016, 06:43 AM
New documentary on Putin's rise from Leningrad thief to bringing KGB & criminal underworld to rule/rob Russia.
http://www.rferl.mobi/a/27458242.html

OUTLAW 09
01-02-2016, 06:44 AM
ATO Press Center advises of 42 violations in the last 24/hrs throughout the #ATO with small arms, heavy machine gun, mortars and grenades

In #Putin’s new dodgy '‘referendum’ Crimeans asked to reject #Ukrainian electricity
http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1451702712 …
pic.twitter.com/kDG1vguv5j

Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
Which map would you choose? #KremlinTrolls love the one that shows #Crimea & East #Ukraine as part of #Russia.
pic.twitter.com/5stdS7AF87

OUTLAW 09
01-02-2016, 02:04 PM
Kremlin-backed militants continue violating ceasefire during #NewYear holidays
http://uatoday.tv/society/kremlin-backed-militants-continue-violating-ceasefire-during-new-year-holidays-565097.html … pic.twitter.com/mA7jCOi6Mh

Russian info warrior trolls..............
Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
KremlinTrolls & honey pots r skilled @ creating word associations &playing mind games. They go even further in DMs
pic.twitter.com/nRMx24sv8y

[B]More #vodka on RU TV @ntvru: "#DNR intellligence found #Turkish mercenaries in the vincinity of #Donbas" /B]

OUTLAW 09
01-02-2016, 03:58 PM
US social media companies still bow to the demands of Russian info warrior trolls without any fact checking before banning...the have become virtually pa and parcel of the Russian info warfare OR maybe it is the Russian oligarch investments into their companies that speaks volumes for their somewhat non democratic actions they take.........

#Russian twitter trolls managed to suspended @reggaemortis1. Meanwhile he's online on @Mortis_Banned. Beat-up @support until he's released.


Mortis (Banned) @Mortis_Banned
I've been a good citizen reporting all abuse cases. No reply so far from @Support which was quick to ban my account.
pic.twitter.com/m1g4qi9Ni4

Case study: #Russia subversively funds NGOs in countries like #Poland.
https://twitter.com/molodyko/status/639771669456809984 …

OUTLAW 09
01-02-2016, 04:41 PM
Kremlin-backed militants continue violating ceasefire during #NewYear holidays
http://uatoday.tv/society/kremlin-backed-militants-continue-violating-ceasefire-during-new-year-holidays-565097.html … pic.twitter.com/mA7jCOi6Mh

Russian info warrior trolls..............
Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
KremlinTrolls & honey pots r skilled @ creating word associations &playing mind games. They go even further in DMs
pic.twitter.com/nRMx24sv8y

[B]More #vodka on RU TV @ntvru: "#DNR intellligence found #Turkish mercenaries in the vincinity of #Donbas" /B]

Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
#KremlinTrolls work together and feed off each other. Can you connect the dots?
pic.twitter.com/LYMCPsYFl8

OUTLAW 09
01-02-2016, 04:49 PM
Two Soldiers Wounded In ATO Over Past 24 hrs, – Lysenko
http://ukraineunderattack.org/en/50945-no-casualties-in-ato-over-past-24-hrs-lysenko-4.html …

Russian-backed militants seize young women as sex trafficking business grows -
http://uatoday.tv http://uatoday.tv/crime/russian-backed-militants-seize-young-women-as-sex-trafficking-business-grows-565174.html …

Ukrenergo: Ukraine not supplying power to Crimea due to end of contract
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/2-january-ukrenergo-ukraine-not-supplying-power-to-crimea …
pic.twitter.com/WRRkszUbvU

ATO Press Center reports continued harassing fire x 15 with small arms, heavy machine gun and grenade launchers in ATO today

OUTLAW 09
01-03-2016, 08:11 AM
Since the power supplies stopped yesterday from the Ukraine to Crimea...due to no delivery contract..........

Kremlin media is already spinning results of the dubious #Crimea poll to say: "Crimeans agreed to live like this."
pic.twitter.com/tAh86xGWH8

If anyone in #Crimea dares complain about electricity shortages, they will be told: "You chose this. Live with it."
http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=2705020&2705020#/video/https%3A%2F%2Fplayer.vgtrk.com%2Fiframe%2Fvideo%2F id%2F1467592%2Fstart_zoom%2Ftrue%2FshowZoomBtn%2Ff alse%2Fsid%2Fvesti%2FisPlay%2Ftrue%2F%3Facc_video_ id%3D667176 …

RussiaLies
Bright holiday lights in #Crimea in spite of electricity shortage! Except this is Moscow & RIA knows it.
pic.twitter.com/wNdf9piuXJ

OUTLAW 09
01-03-2016, 08:31 AM
20 violations of ceasefire by Russian militants yesterday
pic.twitter.com/JDeXq4b4xW

OUTLAW 09
01-03-2016, 12:19 PM
MSM catches up finally ------after a three week delay.........

Wow ...
@BBCNews article indicates, #Russia prepares new escalation in eastern #Ukraine.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/monitoring/top-russian-war-reporter-back-in-east-ukraine …

Has been ongoing for now three weeks and the BBC just notices it....come on...just how bad does MSM have to get??

OUTLAW 09
01-03-2016, 01:14 PM
Russian media on Dec 31 wrote abt #Turkish mercs arriving to fight among #Ukraine Army. Even b4 opening a moonshine
pic.twitter.com/SDOy1eAEiq

More evidence of Putin violating Minsk-2 with Russian military in eastern Ukraine using anti-tank PTM-3 missiles
pic.twitter.com/ZjZZrfTlkJ

In Winter #Russian Army is like The White Supremacy movement. #KuKluxKlan
pic.twitter.com/h7eAVjQk5v

Russian media reports of #Ukraine punitive Battalion "Ku Klux Klan" of S.Bandera. #UokBro? https://twitter.com/Saito_section_9/status/683603836691443712 … pic.twitter.com/OVgqEOquRN

Fake & the original. News in #Russia is just creative approach in Photoshop. https://twitter.com/Saito_section_9/status/683602534699810816 … pic.twitter.com/avdFBp7Aey

Ukraine's Memory Palace: How Kyiv Is Fighting Russia's Misinformation Campaign
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2015-10-13/ukraines-memory-palace?cid=soc-tw-rdr …

Trailer for Bitter Harvest, a movie telling about the genocide of Ukrainians by Holodomor, is out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waOrFAokoY0 …

News
An Ukrainian border guard trooper was shot and killed some meters from the border with #Russia (Jan 1), 22 km outside the #ATO zone.

OUTLAW 09
01-03-2016, 01:20 PM
Somebody's prepared for fireworks in #Donetsk: RPO-As (thermobaric), 14,5 mm APIs & HEIs and 5,45 mm tracers.
pic.twitter.com/pOxGM3005N

Russia demands that the US improves Instagram security. Instagram is a vital tool for Russian ministers who are fighting US imperialism.

Russia and Ukraine's full-blown economic war just got worse http://ln.is/businessinsider.com/uYBaf …

OUTLAW 09
01-03-2016, 03:55 PM
Why #Russia Is a "Troll State," Not a Rogue State: http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/russia-is-a-troll-state-not-a-rogue-state … pic.twitter.com/nj57pe9w7m

Source claims (yet again) that testing of 400-km missile 40N6E for S-400 SAM system is nearing completion.
http://bit.ly/22FoKOi .

Fresh fakes from #Russia'n Vesti news: #Ukraine's "#KuKluxKlan battalion named after Stepan #Bandera" https://twitter.com/dertienn/status/683381610251726849 …

Ukraine’s Mirko Sablich group have put out a video exposing #Russia’s lies over "#Donbas humanitarian convoys"
http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1451829294 …

OUTLAW 09
01-03-2016, 04:40 PM
Bomb squad finds Russian anti-tank cluster mine in eastern Ukraine (photo)
http://www.unian.info/war/1228110-bomb-squad-finds-russian-anti-tank-cluster-mine-in-eastern-ukraine-photo.html …
pic.twitter.com/zHmaW5zEve

OUTLAW 09
01-03-2016, 05:19 PM
Reference the shot down of MH17 which Putin has assumed the world has forgotten about.....

Crowdsourcing @bellingcat to reveal a new report on alleged #MH17 shooters from #Russia
http://nos.nl/l/2078421
pic.twitter.com/7SClKGW61Z

Bellingcat: 20 Russian Military servicemen from 53rd brigade identified that were directly involved in shooting down #MH17 over #Ukraine.

Many thanks to the members of the Bellingcat Investigation Team who volunteered their time to work on the latest #MH17 report

To expand on the NOS news report, just before Christmas we submitted our investigation on the 53rd Brigade we link to #MH17 to the JIT

Our new report has taken over a year of investigation, and we've identified significant numbers of brigade members #MH17

bellingcat ‏@bellingcat
This includes soldiers who were part of the convoy that took the Buk we believe shot down #MH17 to the border with Ukraine

Our report is 123 pages long, and contains details we believe are too sensitive to make public during the police investigation.

We currently plan to release a shorter version of the report with findings we believe are safe to be published in the coming weeks

OUTLAW 09
01-03-2016, 05:39 PM
6.10 PM Donetsk - small arms and explosions heard from the airport destination.
https://twitter.com/funkermanjke/status/683681947869130752 …

Gas #shortage in #Makiivka, either gas pipeline damaged or Luhansk decreased gas pressure.

Brilliant commentator on Russian TV:
Since Crimean Tatars left #Crimea,they're no longer Crimean Tatars.
Convenient.
pic.twitter.com/E9d4oFHz7F

OUTLAW 09
01-03-2016, 06:02 PM
Reference the shot down of MH17 which Putin has assumed the world has forgotten about.....

Crowdsourcing @bellingcat to reveal a new report on alleged #MH17 shooters from #Russia
http://nos.nl/l/2078421
pic.twitter.com/7SClKGW61Z

Bellingcat: 20 Russian Military servicemen from 53rd brigade identified that were directly involved in shooting down #MH17 over #Ukraine.

Many thanks to the members of the Bellingcat Investigation Team who volunteered their time to work on the latest #MH17 report

To expand on the NOS news report, just before Christmas we submitted our investigation on the 53rd Brigade we link to #MH17 to the JIT

Our new report has taken over a year of investigation, and we've identified significant numbers of brigade members #MH17

bellingcat ‏@bellingcat
This includes soldiers who were part of the convoy that took the Buk we believe shot down #MH17 to the border with Ukraine

Our report is 123 pages long, and contains details we believe are too sensitive to make public during the police investigation.

We currently plan to release a shorter version of the report with findings we believe are safe to be published in the coming weeks

NOW we wait for the massive Russian troll responses and main Russian propaganda media to kick in......

OUTLAW 09
01-03-2016, 06:16 PM
Secretary of Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev makes threats of war with NATO
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/3-january-secretary-of-security-council-of-russia-nikolai …

Ukrainian military claims to find in Svitlodarsk Russian PTM-3 antitank mine, not used by UA
http://m.liga.net/news/politics/264315-okolo_svetlodarska_sapery_nashli_rossiyskuu_kasset nuu_minu.htm …
pic.twitter.com/QWxDopDZlu

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 09:53 AM
Russian troops and their mercenaries have been escalating the fighting in eastern Ukraine for now over four weeks and yet somehow FP finds the eastern Ukraine/Russo War evidently a non issue for 2016......how quickly MSM forgets the past two years in eastern Ukraine.

Wonder why #Ukraine doesn't feature in this list of "10 conflicts to watch in 2016".
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/03/10-conflicts-to-watch-in-2016/ …

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 09:54 AM
Turkey prepares case against Russia for WTO.
http://www.rosbalt.ru/main/2016/01/04/1477680.html …

Russia will lose these WTO charges as their sanctions have nothing legally to stand on that WTO covers as valid reasons for sanctions.....

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 10:36 AM
Sporadic firing could be heard near villages of Opytne and Pisky in east Ukraine

The Ukrainian military has reported no casualties over the weekend near the line of contact with Russian-backed militants in the east of the country. Sporadic firing could be heard near the villages of Opytne and Pisky, according to government troops. Officials have also reported of militant infighting in the region.

Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, Presidential Administration Spokesman: "Unknown special forces have arrived to Dokuchaevsk. It seems they've arrived to instill discipline to contain militant groups called 'Sparta' and 'Somalia'."

Reconnaissance groups in east Ukraine report that combined Russia-separatist forces are strengthening their positions near a main road leading to the coastal city of Mariupol.

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 10:49 AM
Reference the shot down of MH17........

Guardian: Dutch investigators to assess new study implicating Russian soldiers in MH17 crash
http://uatoday.tv/news/guardian-dutch-investigators-to-assess-new-study-implicating-russian-soldiers-in-mh17-crash-565837.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 10:59 AM
Moscow tries to rebuild Black Sea Fleet, RIAN's infographic showing order-of-battle at Sevastopol and Novorossiysk.
http://bit.ly/1muxzKk .

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 11:16 AM
News
#Ukraine's troops took a height near Novotroits'ke, now overlooking enemy positions.
http://censor.net.ua/video_news/367841/ukrainskie_voiny_zanyali_strategicheskuyu_vysotu_v _donetskoyi_oblasti_vozle_novotroitskogo_video …

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 05:31 PM
Russian officers seem to suddenly be having "heart attacks" a mass.......

Within a week Russia's Military Intel chief Sergun & Airborne troops General Shushukin died.Both involved in Ukraine
pic.twitter.com/zI7HfOWoU4

A week ago the general who led the invasion of Crimea died. Today the head of Russia’s mil intelligence (GRU) died. Putin killing witnesses?

Deaths of top Russian military recently possibly due to:
a) Kremlin purge;
b) excessive New Year celebration;
c) something else.

Armed conflict in east #Ukraine slowly evolves to a frozen one: Ukrainian #military casualties in 2015, Jan to Dec
pic.twitter.com/SLELyMLKON

Ukrainian Military Reports 10 Attacks Near Donetsk Today
http://bit.ly/1JpAvBT
pic.twitter.com/1aAFtBLCjl

LTC Podgorski ("below mountain"), CO of #Russia'n Black Sea Naval Spetsnaz (388-й МРП) in #Sevastopol. Army in Navy.
pic.twitter.com/kDZahdyLFF

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 05:38 PM
New Kremlin management of Donbas: Dep PM Kozak has replaced Surkov & Boris Gryzlov new Russian chief negotiator.
http://bit.ly/1O6wD5Khttp://bit.ly/1O6wD5K …

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 07:00 PM
A blackout in Ukraine on December 23rd was caused by a cyber-attack. Details :
http://www.welivesecurity.com/2016/01/04/blackenergy-trojan-strikes-again-attacks-ukrainian-electric-power-industry/ …

DNR Leader Zakharchenko Says Peacekeepers In Donbass Would Be 'Unacceptable'
http://bit.ly/1Z1dcAk

Ukraine's intel reports to #OSCE Russian militant MBTs, self-propelled guns near #Makyivka, #Mospine
http://www.unian.info/war/1228701-ukraine-intel-spots-militant-mbts-self-propelled-guns-near-makyivka-mospine.html …

Ukraine's intelligence reports to #OSCE SMM presence of large-caliber weapons in #ATO area.
http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/315498.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 07:01 PM
Reference shot down of MH17..........

bellingcat ‏@bellingcat
We continue to monitor and archive social media accounts of 53rd Brigade members, taking note of those who delete content #mh17

53rd is a Russian BUK AD unit.....

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 07:23 PM
The Unexpected Death of Russia’s military intelligence (GRU) chief, Igor Sergun

by Mark Galeotti


SergunToday, news broke about the death yesterday (3 January) of 58-year-old Colonel General Igor Sergun, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, better known as the GRU.

No cause of death has yet been announced, but there has been no suggestion of anything shady or strange about his demise, even at this relatively young age (especially by the standards of Russian military gerontocracy!). No doubt more details will follow tomorrow; today it's just the hurried eulogies. Putin issued a statement that said "Colleagues and subordinates knew him as a real military officer, an experienced and competent commander, a man of great courage, a true patriot. He was respected for his professionalism, strength of character, honesty and integrity." Defence Minister Shoigu and the Collegium of the ministry extolled "the bright memory of a wonderful man, a true son of Russian patriots of the Motherland [...who...] forever remain in our hearts."

Sergun was an extremely important figure in the revival of the fortunes of the GRU, an agency that was pretty much at rock bottom when he took it over at the end of 2011. Since then, it has regained control over the Spetsnaz special forces, been crucial in the seizure of Crimea and operations in the Donbas, emerged as the lead agency for dealing with violent non-state actors and generally consolidated its position as a crucial instrument of today's "non-linear war." Indeed, it was a perverse accolade to this effect that he was included in the EU's post-Crimea Western sanctions list.

It will be interesting to see who replaces Sergun and whether they are able to consolidate and maintain this turnaround. Reportedly -- and thanks for Michael Kofman for bringing this to my attention -- one of Sergun's deputies is recently-promoted Lt. Gen. Alexei Dyumin, formerly of the Presidential Security Service (SBP) and close to Putin not just from that role but also as a dacha neighbour and ice hockey team player. If Dyumin gets the job, he'll have a solid krysha, political cover, and it will also represent one more example of the colonisation of the security structures by veterans of the SBP and its parent organisation, the FSO. But on the other hand, Dyumin -- unlike Sergun -- is not a career military intelligence officer but essentially a security guard. Whether or not he will be anywhere near as successful operationally, and whether he is willing to bring unwelcome news to the president may well be another matter.

In any case, we await details. I'll follow up as they emerge.

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 07:40 PM
Horlivka, January 4
Russian military vehicles moved from Donetsk in winter camouflage
Decided to spend the winter...
https://twitter.com/GirkinGirkin/status/684055968020316161 …

OSCE sees 10 armed militants in reportedly occupied Kominternove
http://www.unian.info/war/1229041-osce-sees-10-armed-militants-in-reportedly-occupied-kominternove.html …
pic.twitter.com/fmg6x5egzj

Cold snap is starting to freeze Kerch Strait further isolating #Crimea
http://krymsos.com/ru/news/cherez-silni-morozi-v-kerchenskii-prototsi-mozhut-zupinitisya-vantazhoperevezennya/ …
pic.twitter.com/Enu93MlQ32

In 2015, 3 pro-Moscow rebel commanders (Dremov, Mozgovoy & Bednov) "were killed in a professional fashion" #Ukraine
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/new-russian-management-of-the-donbas-signifies-putin-may-be-ready-to-negotiate#.VorCMwAefQw.twitter …

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 08:19 PM
Krasnohorivka 20:48
Powerful BOOMs!

Krasnohorivka @666_mancer [vk]
17:00 quiet
20:48 strong booms
21:40 quiet

22:20 #Donetsk @olgarjpthju [fb] "#Pushkina Blvd can hear explosions" "So did #Druzhba. A strong one"

@OSCE_SMM access denial increase substantially? (along w/ violence threats & harassment)
http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/214676 …
pic.twitter.com/eiPbwLiMx2

OUTLAW 09
01-04-2016, 08:27 PM
The Unexpected Death of Russia’s military intelligence (GRU) chief, Igor Sergun

by Mark Galeotti

He knew too much.
Vladimir #Putin's spy chief dies suddenly aged 58, #Kremlin reveals
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/vladimir-putins-spy-chief-dies-7116071#ICID=sharebar_twitter …

In the news about Sergun's death Vesti.RU changes headline: falling https://archive.is/i56Jq
replaced by demise https://archive.is/90w9G

OUTLAW 09
01-05-2016, 06:24 AM
Sergun, GRU chief who just died, led "most of complex operations" of GRU, i.e. wars abroad. Stepashin won't say more
http://crimea-24.com/novorossiya/120034-sergej-stepashin-eks-premer-rossii--ob-igore-sergune-on-umel-voevat-i-lyudej-ochen-bereg.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-05-2016, 11:26 AM
Concerning - "highly destructive" malware has caused several days of blackouts in Western #Ukraine
http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/01/first-known-hacker-caused-power-outage-signals-troubling-escalation/ …

OUTLAW 09
01-05-2016, 05:50 PM
Frequency Of Enemy Attacks In ATO Increased, – ATO Staff
http://ukraineunderattack.org/en/51130-frequency-of-enemy-attacks-in-ato-increased-ato-staff.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-05-2016, 05:56 PM
Sergun, GRU chief who just died, led "most of complex operations" of GRU, i.e. wars abroad. Stepashin won't say more
http://crimea-24.com/novorossiya/120034-sergej-stepashin-eks-premer-rossii--ob-igore-sergune-on-umel-voevat-i-lyudej-ochen-bereg.html …

Btw, not only head of GRU Sergun + general Shushukin died. Earlier: Nov05 - #Putin's adviser Lesin, Dec10 - ex-mayor of Sevastopol Saratov

OUTLAW 09
01-05-2016, 06:55 PM
Unidentified men in camouflage uniform abduct people in #Kherson region
http://humanrights.org.ua/en/material/u_kalanchaku_nevidomi_v_kamufljazhi_vikradajut_lju dej__svidki … …

OUTLAW 09
01-05-2016, 06:56 PM
Btw, not only head of GRU Sergun + general Shushukin died. Earlier: Nov05 - #Putin's adviser Lesin, Dec10 - ex-mayor of Sevastopol Saratov


Two Troubling Questions about Putin: Is He Sick? And Is He Getting Rid of Witnesses?
http://www.interpretermag.com/two-troubling-questions-about-putin-is-he-sick-and-is-he-getting-rid-of-witnesses/#11741 …
pic.twitter.com/xVQURtRi7w

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Two Troubling Questions about Putin: Is He Sick? And Is He Getting Rid of Witnesses?

Paul Goble


Staunton, January 5 – In the dies non that exists in Russia over the winter holidays, two uncomfortable and potentially dangerous questions have been raised about Vladimir Putin: Does his fall off in public activity mean he is sick? And are recent deaths evidence that the Kremlin leader is getting rid of witnesses to his crimes?

That such questions are being asked at all is more important in terms of public attitudes than the answers that anyone may give to one or the other.

Yesterday, Moscow’s independent Dozhd television, citing a report by the Center for Economic and Political Reforms (cepr.su/2016/01/04/kolvo-ukazov/), said that in recent weeks, Putin’s activity has fallen to “a record low for the past 15 years,” sparking concerns that he is either tired or sick (tvrain.ru/news/ustalost_prezidenta-401269/).

Between 1994 and 2012, the center’s analysts found, Russia’s three presidents, Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev issued between 123 and 149 decrees monthly. But since 2013, they found that Putin had issued “almost half as many” and that “the number has contracted further.” In 2013, he issued 970; in 2014, 837; and in 2015, 638.

Nikolay Mironov, the center’s director, says that this fall off in activity “may be connected with physical problems” or simply the result of the wearing down of someone who has long been in office. The decline began in May 2013, and since that time, many have suggested that Putin doesn’t look as well as he did earlier.

He notes that the decline in official activity includes not just decrees but other forms of orders issued to subordinates. Over the last year, Mironov continues, the president has distanced himself “from all important questions,” as shown as well by the way in which he answered questions at his recent press conference.

But the director points to the most important consequence of this: Under Russian conditions, if the president doesn’t formulate his orders in a written form, many in the bureaucracy and society do not know what they are supposed to do – and being at a loss, they may either do nothing or go their own ways.

Today, Zoryan Shkiryak, an advisor to the Ukrainian interior ministry, suggested that the recent deaths of two military commanders who undoubtedly have access to many of Putin’s most closely held secrets suggests that the Kremlin leader may be killing off witnesses to his own crimes (nr2.com.ua/News/world_and_russia/Putin-izbavlyaetsya-ot-opasnyh-svideteley-svoih-prestupleniy-ekspert-114437.html).

He points specifically to the death on December 27 of Major General Aleksandr Shushukin, who led the occupation of Crimea, and of Col.Gen. Igor Sergun, the head of the GRU, who has long done secretive dirty work “at the order of the Kremlin in the war against Ukraine.”

Of course, the two deaths may be a coincidence, but they are convenient and getting rid of the executors of regime policy has long been a tradition for the Soviet and Russian security services. They in this as in much else operate according to the principle “no person, no problem.” That Putin might do the same should not surprise anyone, Shkiryak says.

OUTLAW 09
01-05-2016, 07:25 PM
Numbers-Stations.com @Spy_Stations

Numbers Stations Newsletter is out!
http://paper.li/Spy_Stations/1430766012?edition_id=ca240ce0-b3de-11e5-be19-0cc47a0d1605 …

OUTLAW 09
01-06-2016, 12:04 PM
Unexplained fuel shortage in #Luhansk #LNR #LPR region including cities near the Russian border #Ukraine

OUTLAW 09
01-06-2016, 12:05 PM
Lt. Gen. Alexei Dyumin, another presidential bodyguard doing well…

by Mark Galeotti


The former relationship of Lt. Gen. Alexei Dyumin to the GRU, mentioned in my last blog, is still unclear. As of 24 December 2015, he is a Deputy Defence Minister, although of still unclear portfolio. However, accounts of his promotion say that he was before then head of the Special Operations Forces (SSO: Sily spetsial'nykh operatsii) -- and the Spetsnaz are a GRU asset, so this might have been a position giving an equivalence to a deputy headship of the GRU -- and even before than, Ground Forces Chief of Staff. That's a pretty solid pedigree, but given that even back in May 2015 he was being name-checked as still being in the Presidential Security Service (SBP), that suggests a pretty meteoric rise.

Let's assume there aren't two Alexei Gennad'evich Dyumins within the Russian security elite. Let's further assume that these various accounts are correct. That means that in the space of at most seven months, Colonel Dyumin (as he was then), one of the deputy heads of the SBP, moved across to the Defence Ministry, took a senior operational role in the Ground Forces (despite not having been a career soldier), then a crucial command position in GRU special forces, and then a hop up to to deputy ministerial rank. In the process, he also went from colonel to major general to (two-star) lt. general. Pretty impressive.

But not wholly unprecedented -- let's not forget the infamous Viktor Zolotov, close Putin associate and judo sparring partner, who went at flank speed from head of the SBP to commander of the Interior Ministry's Interior Troops, to First Deputy Interior Minister and potential minister-in-waiting.

It's all conjecture, but the rapid promotion of close Putin clients from the SBP, people he knows, people he plays judo and ice hockey with, people who are his neighbours, may suggest a degree of insecurity. If he feels he cannot trust the elite as a whole (and I suspect he may be right), the temptation to colonise the key security structures with those you feel on whom you can rely, if push comes to shove, is logical. And interesting.

OUTLAW 09
01-06-2016, 12:06 PM
Lt. Gen. Alexei Dyumin, another presidential bodyguard doing well…

by Mark Galeotti

Actually an interesting development as there are serious worries being voiced out of elite circles about the possibility of spring time demos due to the ever worsening economic conditions....

OUTLAW 09
01-06-2016, 05:07 PM
Ukraine intelligence reported to #OSCE they found 3 TOS-1 Buratino near the frontline

Russian Strategy Seeks to Defy Economic Decline With Military Bravado
http://www.jamestown.org/programs/edm/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=44937&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=27&cHash=480cdae66a9817e90797fa4c7079334b#.VozJr-W6Lfm.twitter …

Info on why even a temp shutdown would be catastrophic: A Ukr Factory That Can’t Close, and Workers Who Won’t Quit
http://nyti.ms/1Gk5yLn

Militants increase number of attacks: fired 23 times over last day, 14 of which after 6pm. Biggest attack was nr Mayorsk - ATO press center

OUTLAW 09
01-06-2016, 05:37 PM
Reference the shot down of MH17......

Lockerbie victims lawyer #JerrySkinner confirmed, he would move on suing #Putin #Russia to #ECHR for #MH17 tragedy https://twitter.com/24tvua/status/684764072202600448 …

OUTLAW 09
01-06-2016, 05:51 PM
Eliot Higgins @EliotHiggins
Putin's Next Potential Target: The Baltic States
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/putin-s-next-potential-target-the-baltic-states#.Vo1OIWXMR-1.twitter …

Very interesting to see the role the Orthodox church has assumed in #Russia, #Serbia, #Montenegro regarding #NATO http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serbian-church-urges-montenegro-to-hold-referendum-on-nato-01-04-2016#.Vo1LvsPQ5Nk.twitter …
Following the Putin demands.....

Whenever Serbian clerics wax mystically about Russia+Orthodoxy, Apis smiles & the 10M dead of WW1 shake their heads.
https://twitter.com/20committee/status/684774402228109313 …

CIA eyes Kremlin hackers in electrical grid attack.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/06/exclusive-cia-eyes-russian-hackers-in-blackout-attack.html … pic.twitter.com/dVNxY66cEs

OUTLAW 09
01-06-2016, 05:53 PM
An insightful piece by @MSnegovaya on #Russia's #media war and on why the #Kremlin is losing it:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/kremlin-is-losing-the-information-war-op-ed/531587.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-06-2016, 06:25 PM
21 violations of ceasefire today: small arms, snipers, RPGs.
+50% to 24hrs yday
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/6-january-21-violations-of-ceasefire-today-small-arms-snipers …
pic.twitter.com/zRafMXVK1c

Maryinka
15:30 Shooting, towards the hospital & Kolkhoz
15:50 No change, smtms salvos can be heard
16:35 Battle continues
17:32 Calmed down

OSCE reports increased presence of armed men in occupied Debaltseve
http://www.unian.info/war/1230655-osce-reports-increased-presence-of-armed-men-in-occupied-debaltseve.html …
pic.twitter.com/0dXqobf0jA

OUTLAW 09
01-06-2016, 06:26 PM
Recommend highly this site as I use a number of similar OSINT tools......

Automatically Discover Website Connections Through Tracking Codes | Automating OSINT Blog
http://bit.ly/1SzlT5f

OUTLAW 09
01-06-2016, 07:25 PM
UA intelligence servicemen neutralized RU device blocking UA signals at the frontline
pic.twitter.com/9kNtaVfxV5
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/6-january-ato-spox-ua-intelligence-servicemen-neutralized …

OUTLAW 09
01-07-2016, 01:35 PM
Highly improbable. This is from the same Atlantic Council that is desperate for trans-Atlantic closeness, irrespective of differing US and Western European public opinion, and irrespective of the lack of Western (Continental) European contribution to NATO, which is now a US tripwire plus nuclear umbrella.

Putin has carefully chosen targets where he would find some degree of popular support due to various ties, and targets not protected by other great powers.

I guarantee you the Baltics are safe. The less conventional response NATO has there, the more NATO will rely upon nuclear deterrence. Narva isn't worth the gamble when Obama has no "flexible options".

Putin will strike next in Central Asia, if at all. Any country with a significant Russian minority contiguous to the Russian border is at risk. China has a vote, but it wants stability above all, and has its own irridentist claims on Taiwan.

Honestly, what will the EU do if northern Kazakhstan "secedes"?

There has been strong reporting out of the Baltics about a massive inflow of Russian money into the Russian focused NGOs and that these Russian NGOs have started a not so flattering info war towards the respective Baltic nation state they are based in---the initial precursors of non linear warfare.....the same standard procedure used in eastern Ukraine before actual fighting broke out..

OUTLAW 09
01-07-2016, 02:14 PM
Yet another #CrimeanTatar vanished. They disappear one by one.
https://twitter.com/krymrealii/status/685087745543409665 …

Well...so much for German sanctions on Russia over Crimea......
Volkswagen sales office in #Crimea today.
Germany's #Sanctions in effect.
pic.twitter.com/GQzb9HMdig

Azor
01-07-2016, 03:19 PM
There has been strong reporting out of the Baltics about a massive inflow of Russian money into the Russian focused NGOs and that these Russian NGOs have started a not so flattering info war towards the respective Baltic nation state they are based in---the initial precursors of non linear warfare.....the same standard procedure used in eastern Ukraine before actual fighting broke out..

Yes but the Donbass wasn't under anyone's conventional or nuclear protection, and Russian cyberwarfare has ebbed and flowed in the Baltics e.g. the massive attacks on Estonia.

OUTLAW 09
01-07-2016, 04:52 PM
Yes but the Donbass wasn't under anyone's conventional or nuclear protection, and Russian cyberwarfare has ebbed and flowed in the Baltics e.g. the massive attacks on Estonia.

Check the post I left here on the Russian cyber attack that shut down an entire Ukrainian power grid during Christmas--the first proven cyber attack against a critical infrastructure that we often talk about in the US as a "potential".....

The initial Russian GRU moves into eastern Ukraine were led by an extensive info war preparation that conditioned the Ukrainian ethnic Russians to their being "rescued" by their Russian brothers---check about a week or so ago in this thread --I had posted a study done by one of the Baltics that indicated their deep concern about current Russian info war activities focused on them....


Russians Have Learned How to Hack Power Grids
Jan 7, 2016 8:46 AM EST
By Leonid Bershidsky


A successful cyber-attack on a power grid is a nightmare that keeps intelligence services and security experts awake at night. Now the threat is no longer theoretical: A grid in Ukraine has been brought down by hackers. The vulnerability they used? As so often with hacking, human stupidity.

The engineered blackout scenario is so scary Ted Koppel, the former Nightline host, recently published a book about it. In "Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath," Koppel claimed the U.S. was unprepared for an attack on one of the three power grids that distribute electricity throughout the country. He wrote:

If an adversary of this country has as its goal inflicting maximum damage and pain on the largest number of Americans, there may not be a more productive target than one of our electric power grids.

Ukraine has an adversary that may be interested in inflicting just such damage and pain: Russia. In November, Ukrainian activists with ties to President Petro Poroshenko's political party cut off the electricity supply to Russian-held Crimea, by blowing up power transmission towers. That forced Moscow to speed up the construction of an undersea "energy bridge" to the peninsula, but the line is still unable to meet all of Crimea's electricity needs and power outages remain common.

Ukraine got a taste of the same disruption on Dec. 23, when power went out for 1.4 million people in and around Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine. Almost immediately, the grid holder for the area, Prykarpattya Oblenergo reported that the outage was caused by "interference by outside persons with the work of telemechanics in the automatic system of control and management of energy equipment." Five days later the Ukrainian intelligence service reported it had prevented "an attempt by Russian special services to attack the computer networks of Ukraine's energy complex" -- meaning there could have been more outages, but the agency had been able to head them off.

More specifics came from the Bratislava-based cyber-security firm ESET. The firm hedged its bets a little -- that's always wise in hacker attack analysis -- but it essentially tied the Ivano-Frankivsk outage to a known piece of malware, the BlackEnergy trojan. In previous cases, it was used to steal sensitive information from infected computers. In 2014, however, the U.S. government's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) discovered a variant of BlackEnergy that could be used to compromise industrial control systems, such as those running power grids.

The trojan is modular, meaning that it can carry different payloads. In the case of the Ukrainian grid hacking, these included a component that stops certain processes in the grid control systems, even as it erases the disk of the infected computer. At the same time it opens a backdoor into the grid control systems that could provide hackers with remote access. ESET wrote:

We can assume with a fairly high amount of certainty that the described toolset was used to cause the power outage in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.

BlackEnergy is probably a Russian-made weapon. CERT-UA, the Ukrainian cybercrime rapid response team, recently published a post describing a BlackEnergy attack on some Ukrainian media. The names of some of the files planted on infected computers by the virus -- ololo.exe and trololo.exe -- are references to Russian Internet memes. ESET researcher Anton Cherepanov has pointed out other such clues.

That this weapon has been honed to turn out the lights for large portions of a country is bad news. If it can be used in Ukraine, it can be employed anywhere in the world. That includes the U.S., where the Islamic State is reportedly already trying to hack the power grid, but failing due to a lack of the necessary technology. In his book, Koppel wrote:

We can take limited comfort in the knowledge that such an attack would require painstaking preparation and a highly sophisticated understanding of how the system works and where its vulnerabilities lie. Less reassuring is the knowledge that several nations already have that expertise, and -- even more unsettling -- that criminal and terrorist organizations are in the process of acquiring it.

If the technology capable of bringing down power grids exists anywhere, it can leak or be intentionally leaked to anyone who might need it. So can the knowledge of specific industrial systems.

Power grid computer systems can't be taken off the internet, because the grids depend on software that constantly monitors the balance of electricity demand and supply. That makes them vulnerable by definition: If you have an Internet-connected system, people have access to it and there's a potential problem.

BlackEnergy infects computers thanks to a simple trick. The Ukrainian company CyS Centrum described it in a recent blog post. People within targeted companies received an email purportedly containing a presidential decree on military mobilization and Excel files containing lists of the company employees to be mobilized and exempted. Having opened one of the files, the user is prompted to turn on macros because "the file had been created with a newer version of Microsoft Office." Once that's done, so is the damage.

Everyone who has ears and a computer has been told hundreds of times not to open mail attachments that arrive without prior warning, even from reliable senders. And yet people all over the world still do it.

Disgruntled employees are another constant source of danger. In Texas in 2009, one allegedly sabotaged the demand and supply monitoring system of a power generation company. He didn't cause a blackout, but with the proper tools, he could have.

The only way to prevent incidents like the hours-long Ivano-Frankivsk blackout is to train energy company employees in the safe use of email (or even make it impossible for them to open attachments); to make sure ex-employees cannot help criminals gain access to the corporate systems; and to promote energy independence to citizens. The more people have solar batteries, the less damage a blackout can do.

OUTLAW 09
01-07-2016, 05:23 PM
17:35 @LuftGanza Quiet in #Makiivka; machine guns and blasts around #Avdiivka; landings betw/ #Opytne & #Severne, like Grad, up to 8 rockets

17:08 #Zalizne, #Novhorodske @LeeZernoganja Intense shooting started, they attack while it's snowing...

16:29 #Donetsk @666_mancer [vk] shots heard at #Abakumova

16:34 #Novhorodske @LeeZernoganja Firing at #Zalizna_Balka started. Not active one

OUTLAW 09
01-07-2016, 05:39 PM
LPR militants fail to fulfill own promise: no captives released for Christmas
http://www.unian.info/war/1230843-lpr-militants-fail-to-fulfill-own-promise-no-captives-released-for-christmas.html …
pic.twitter.com/bv6MGpmLiO

Militants "celebrate" Christmas Eve with 51 attacks on ATO forces
http://www.unian.info/war/1230926-militants-celebrate-christmas-eve-with-51-attacks-on-ato-forces.html …
pic.twitter.com/yuqErSIVy1

Basurin from "DNR": In Mariupol arrived 17 soldiers of pres. U.S. private military company
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/7-january-minister-of-defence-of-dnr-in-mariupol-arrived … pic.twitter.com/ot6kRUhhKo

As Ukraine Celebrates Christmas, Fighting Dramatically Escalates
http://bit.ly/1mIgGvq
pic.twitter.com/HOulQ1LuSd

OUTLAW 09
01-07-2016, 05:43 PM
Ukrainian intel: Russian colonel Dmitry Bondarev is commander of militants near Novoazovs'k
pic.twitter.com/Vxrs6ovzFz
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/7-january-ukrainian-intelligence-russian-colonel-dmitry-bondarev …

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 09:52 AM
Russian BUK officer from the alleged BUK unit that shot down MH17 is awarded high medal for "what services and where".....?

Russland #MH17 Wofr wird ein Offizier der russischen 53. Fla-Raketenbrigade ausgezeichnet?:
https://informnapalm.org/de/13970-2/ с помощью @deburkonews

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 09:55 AM
Serious question concerning just who owns actual US social media companies as it appears Twitter now official works for the Russian info warriors.....

.@Twitter blocked most of accounts from top of Ukrainian twitter community
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/8-january-twitter-blocked-accounts-from-top-of-ukrainian …
pic.twitter.com/jLDSmEgcVk via @senko

NOTICE NO corresponding blockage of Russian troll accounts......

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 09:59 AM
Cache of weapons was found in Bugas of Donetsk region http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/8-january-cache-of-weapons-was-found-in-bugas-of-donetsk …
pic.twitter.com/TDyr4jHbGV via @HromadskeTV

Numbers-Stations.com @Spy_Stations
11780 kHz 25 m S06s in broadcast band

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 11:56 AM
BreakingReport
The Ukrainian def ministry expects "a massive provocation" with "tanks and artillery systems" soon.
http://www.unian.info/war/1230965-terrorists-amass-armored-vehicles-weapons-on-several-directions-def-min.html …

SBU detained ppl heading to 'DNR' w/cash money+ bank cards, contraband meat & excise labels
http://www.sbu.gov.ua/sbu/control/uk/publish/article?art_id=171465&cat_id=39574 …
pic.twitter.com/2O2I8aqYME

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 12:00 PM
Serious question concerning just who owns actual US social media companies as it appears Twitter now official works for the Russian info warriors.....

.@Twitter blocked most of accounts from top of Ukrainian twitter community
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/8-january-twitter-blocked-accounts-from-top-of-ukrainian …
pic.twitter.com/jLDSmEgcVk via @senko

NOTICE NO corresponding blockage of Russian troll accounts......


Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
Russian trolls get top pro-#Ukraine twitter ac's suspended. Looks like #Russia infiltrated @support.
pic.twitter.com/cGHnUyGIC8

Top Ukrainian users suspended & banned for *old* tweets by RU trolls w/help of @Support #saveUAtwi
pic.twitter.com/Mu8hnWV79T

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 12:05 PM
Donetsk @Li0111111 Many Ural trucks move in different directions, yet nobody saw tracked vehicles so far https://twitter.com/loogunda/status/685416624376180736 …

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 01:24 PM
Donetsk @Li0111111 Many Ural trucks move in different directions, yet nobody saw tracked vehicles so far https://twitter.com/loogunda/status/685416624376180736 …

OSCE SMM cannot get into Kominternove, captured by pro-Russian militants in the neutral area.
https://twitter.com/ZIK_IA/status/685447503316185088 …

In Kominternovo the situation has not changed - militants had not left, - the speaker of the ATO
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/8-january-in-kominternovo-the-situation-has-not-changed- …

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 01:26 PM
Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
Russian trolls get top pro-#Ukraine twitter ac's suspended. Looks like #Russia infiltrated @support.
pic.twitter.com/cGHnUyGIC8

Top Ukrainian users suspended & banned for *old* tweets by RU trolls w/help of @Support #saveUAtwi
pic.twitter.com/Mu8hnWV79T

Twitter is massively banning Ukrainian accounts with thousands followers. Dozens already banned. @Support
pic.twitter.com/yXFTxbkFHC

Has #Twitter become a #Kremlin tool for silencing #Putin's regime opponents?

Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
#JeSuisUkrTwi #SaveUaTwi

@EliotHiggins here is list of baned UA users.It's not full,here only the most popular users.Imagine the scale of it https://twitter.com/rfcnf/status/685408835511648257 …

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 01:31 PM
Ukraine Claims Russian-Backed Fighters Used Heavy Mortars And Tanks In Attacks Yesterday
http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-live-day-690-kiev-claims-russian-backed-fighters-used-heavy-mortars-and-tanks-in-attacks-yesterday/#11789 …
pic.twitter.com/A9B2ubRUf3

TASS: Power shortage-caused state of emergency in Crimea to last till May 1
http://www.unian.info/economics/1231346-tass-power-shortage-caused-state-of-emergency-in-crimea-to-last-till-may-1.html … pic.twitter.com/ObndcvXufH

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 01:32 PM
Reference the Russian cyber attack on the Ukrainian power grid.......

Researchers say Russian Sandworm Team hackers are behind the attack on Ukraine's power grid
https://globalvoices.org/2016/01/08/russian-hackers-behind-attack-on-ukraines-power-grid-researchers-claim/ …
pic.twitter.com/i3iY6PvaRG

Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
#KremlinTrolls want you to trust Bershidsky. Bershidsky wants you to trust @kaspersky. Do you trust any of them?
pic.twitter.com/Egb4aMNi7p

RU hackers have successfully penetrated industrial control systems for critical U.S. water&energy infrastructure" http://intersectionproject.eu/article/security/do-not-underestimate-russian-military …

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 02:13 PM
Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
Surprise-surprise! #KremlinTrolls like to claim they're Ukrainian, only to exclaim that #Ukraine is a failed state.
pic.twitter.com/Yp0TOXJ5A1

Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
#KremlinTrolls operate together & vouch for each other.
Do we have your attention?

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 04:50 PM
OSCE Observers 'Forced To The Ground' And Briefly Detained By Russian-Backed Fighters; Barred Access To Kominternovo http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-live-day-690-kiev-claims-russian-backed-fighters-used-heavy-mortars-and-tanks-in-attacks-yesterday/#11792 …

OSCE: In #Horlivka armed “DPR” men held OSCE monitors, forced them to ground & searched vehicles for video material
http://bit.ly/22Pzcmn

Dear OSCE, don't you know "DPR" is a terrorist organization?
https://twitter.com/OSCE/status/685481097963147264 …

Suspicious deaths among high-ranking Russian military involved in Crimea, Ukraine
https://lnkd.in/esWH7AB

Crimean Drivers Reportedly Forced To Leave Vehicles At Frontier Due To 'Legal Trap'
http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-live-day-690-kiev-claims-russian-backed-fighters-used-heavy-mortars-and-tanks-in-attacks-yesterday/#11791 …

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 04:56 PM
Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
Russian trolls get top pro-#Ukraine twitter ac's suspended. Looks like #Russia infiltrated @support.
pic.twitter.com/cGHnUyGIC8

Top Ukrainian users suspended & banned for *old* tweets by RU trolls w/help of @Support #saveUAtwi
pic.twitter.com/Mu8hnWV79T

@Support Russian bots arranging automatic attacks - complains in compliance with the Twitter procedures.

@support banning pro-Ukraine/anti-Putin accounts over mass reporting of tweets written months before new harrassment rules #SaveUAtwi

@support should observe Article 11(2) of Human Rights Declaration, explicitly forbidding ex post facto law. #saveUAtwi

1 Dear @twitter @Support:UA Twi community is concerned on recent bans of UA Twi activists by RU users. #saveUAtwi
pic.twitter.com/3ifRJbJTVj

Last tip: if your account is suspended based on mass reports by the bots, you can get it restored. Make sure to appeal and follow through.

You can remove yourself from lists that trolls put you on by using block or block/unblock.

Please beware—trolls will follow just to report you. Check new followers, ban suspicious accounts & eggs immediately
https://twitter.com/GCINEWS/status/685452778009919488 …

Trolls know we're aware of their lists, so they may simply fave your Tweets to target them.That's why vetting new followers is so important.

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 04:59 PM
Tanks with Russian flags near Donetsk - All you need to know about #Ukraine War
http://youtu.be/wLuBnnri74Y?a

Ukraine intel says Yenakiieve militant commissariat recruiting fighters for Syria
http://www.unian.info/war/1231399-ukraine-intel-says-yenakiieve-militant-commissariat-recruiting-fighters-for-syria.html …
pic.twitter.com/XMVgfStteG

Energy blockade of Crimea did loss to Russia worth of 900 million rubles
http://24today.net/open/613673

OUTLAW 09
01-08-2016, 05:38 PM
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern #Ukraine escalate their harassment of international observers from the OSCE https://twitter.com/osce/status/685481097963147264 …

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 05:57 AM
Journalist Maria #Varfolomeeva is held captive for 1 year in #Luhansk since Jan09 2015 http://bit.ly/1K32Qcf pic.twitter.com/RLkqAGZ5OJ

BASED on Minsk 2--Russia should have released ALL for ALL POWs to include civilians immediately after their signing of Minsk 2.

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 10:19 AM
Mark Galeotti @MarkGaleotti

"#Russia is teetering on the brink, its assertive global agenda held together by momentum, bluff, + duct tape"
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/07/yuri-andropov-would-drop-assad-like-a-hot-kartoshka-putin-russia-economy/ …

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 10:25 AM
How is this possible? Has @twitter banned everyone using # like #russiainvadedukraine #ukraineunderattack @Support https://twitter.com/RutheniaRus/status/685447262772834308 …

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 10:48 AM
Russia-backed militants violated ceasefire 29 times over the last day. Quiet between the midnight / 6am - ATO press center

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 12:17 PM
This administration has absolutely no idea that they have been in a massive info war with IS since 2003 in Iraq and since 2013 with Russia and thus really do not fully understand how to fight back in a info war they have already largely lost.

Mortis (Banned) @Mortis_Banned

Suspended for venting about haircare products 3 years ago: how Kremlin trolls abuse new Twitter rules. Please RT http://euromaidanpress.com/2016/01/09/twitters-new-policy-misused-by-pro... …

They cannot seem to realize this is now a full scale 360 degree war and it is hourly 24 x 7 X 365......and a "whole of government approach" in the US tradition has simply never worked nor will ever work.

"Whole of government" never worked in COIN and we the US have no experience using it successfully in a information war.

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 12:26 PM
Russian-backed forces using ‘laser guided anti-tank missiles' in eastern #Ukraine
http://uatoday.tv/politics/russian-backed-forces-using-lsquo-laser-guided-anti-tank-missiles-rsquo-in-eastern-ukraine-568138.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 12:32 PM
Humorous but reality........

Squirrels winning the #cyberwar :) In map squirrel-caused power outages in US/2015, @PopSci
http://www.popsci.com/map-shows-squirrel-winning-cyber-war …
pic.twitter.com/BMPJOm5I1f

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 05:55 PM
17:31 @NovaGorlivka "We drew confirmation: #Akatsia|s shelled from #Karlo_Marksove, prob range, 1 volley, 4 items" https://twitter.com/loogunda/status/685853375171268608 …

Reference Russian shot down of MH17......
Eliot Higgins @EliotHiggins
Family member of a #MH17 victims write to John Kerry asking him to release US satellite imagery
http://nos.nl/l/2079535

19:13 #Horlivka @ahab9889 #Shyroka_Balka: machine gun, mortar [fire]

Russia, the enemy is deploying prohibited weapons in #Sloviansk and #Mariupol, #Ukraine.
http://www.unian.info/war/1231789-militants-deploy-prohibited-weapons-in-sloviansk-and-mariupol-direction-intelligence-data.html …

Being an OSCE monitor in E Ukraine continues to be a fun job pic.twitter.com/otDuQU0nUg

17:05 #Donetsk #Kirovsky ds @UrryKara4en Sporadic heavy machine gun bursts are heard southward, #Staromykhaylivka direction

Acting Colonel of Russian army Ruzinskiy heads LPR militants – intelligence. PHOTO
http://ln.is/en.censor.net.ua/pho/64yB8 …

16:07 #Horlivka @NovaGorlivka Terrorists used allegedly #Akatsia|s - strong explosions approx tow/ #Shyroka_Balka - wind & snow interfere

15:06 near #Zaytseve, #Horlivka @oksi_art A battle: 1 UA KIA, 1 WIA, 1 injured civilian as a result of DNR firing
@Coyote_Moon_04 3 WIA

15:42 #Zaytseve @Coyote_Moon_04 [the result of] sniper [fire]
@oksi_art Affirm, sniper

Ukraine's Border Guards prevented attempted deliveries of significant amounts of money to Russian-occupied areas. http://ukraineunderattack.org/en/51567-border-guards-prevented-two-attempts-to-deliver-significant-amounts-of-money-to-occupied-territories.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 05:59 PM
Humor.......

AvtoVAZ introduces roof-mounted #navigation system
pic.twitter.com/BptvIq1OpP

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 06:34 PM
17:31 @NovaGorlivka "We drew confirmation: #Akatsia|s shelled from #Karlo_Marksove, prob range, 1 volley, 4 items" https://twitter.com/loogunda/status/685853375171268608 …

Reference Russian shot down of MH17......
Eliot Higgins @EliotHiggins
Family member of a #MH17 victims write to John Kerry asking him to release US satellite imagery
http://nos.nl/l/2079535

19:13 #Horlivka @ahab9889 #Shyroka_Balka: machine gun, mortar [fire]

Russia, the enemy is deploying prohibited weapons in #Sloviansk and #Mariupol, #Ukraine.
http://www.unian.info/war/1231789-militants-deploy-prohibited-weapons-in-sloviansk-and-mariupol-direction-intelligence-data.html …

Being an OSCE monitor in E Ukraine continues to be a fun job
pic.twitter.com/otDuQU0nUg

17:05 #Donetsk #Kirovsky ds @UrryKara4en Sporadic heavy machine gun bursts are heard southward, #Staromykhaylivka direction

Acting Colonel of Russian army Ruzinskiy heads LPR militants – intelligence. PHOTO
http://ln.is/en.censor.net.ua/pho/64yB8 …

16:07 #Horlivka @NovaGorlivka Terrorists used allegedly #Akatsia|s - strong explosions approx tow/ #Shyroka_Balka - wind & snow interfere

15:06 near #Zaytseve, #Horlivka @oksi_art A battle: 1 UA KIA, 1 WIA, 1 injured civilian as a result of DNR firing
@Coyote_Moon_04 3 WIA

15:42 #Zaytseve @Coyote_Moon_04 [the result of] sniper [fire]
@oksi_art Affirm, sniper

Ukraine's Border Guards prevented attempted deliveries of significant amounts of money to Russian-occupied areas. http://ukraineunderattack.org/en/51567-border-guards-prevented-two-attempts-to-deliver-significant-amounts-of-money-to-occupied-territories.html …

20:09 #Horlivka #Stroitel @ahab9889 #Shyroka_Balka is still firing
https://twitter.com/loogunda/status/685872224524439552 …

20:00 #Horlivka @gipsogolovij Sounds of automatic arms are getting heavier. Northward, like #Zaytseve

20:07 #Horlivka @xy_gorlov4an [Firing started, no more info as of now]

Zaytseve, Jan04-05 RU attack at residential area recorded by UAF, RU as usually accused UA https://www.facebook.com/ato.news/posts/1123937554283716 …
pic.twitter.com/FWT1UIw6PR

20:23 #Horlivka #Stroitel @ahab9889 And now a battle started in #Shyroka_Balka area
20:25 It ceased

Horlivka 20:40
Intense assault rifle fire, skirmish to north.
https://twitter.com/gipsogolovij/status/685893828939628546 …

Horlivka, Shyroka Balka tonight, around 20:15. The sound of battle.
https://youtu.be/D5LE65lR9XQ

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 06:56 PM
This 2015 pic/quote still remains my favourite. Perfectly sums up #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine.
pic.twitter.com/ayAZT6SAYA

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 07:17 PM
#Russian Military Exercise Zapad 2013: Lessons for #Baltic Regional Security
http://www.jamestown.org/store/?tx_jamquickstore_quickstore[storeItem]=128&tx_jamquickstore_quickstore[action]=show&tx_jamquickstore_quickstore[controller]=StoreItem&cHash=60508f985b8c91d8182e8f91c6f877b5 …
pic.twitter.com/phSbd0cXJU

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 07:43 PM
Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls

Intern fingered as a Kremlin agent @Europarl_EN used misdirection to distract, cover Belgium exit; & avoid arrest?
pic.twitter.com/tyD1I7s0FE

OUTLAW 09
01-09-2016, 08:11 PM
Maryinka 20:33
On street can hear machine gun bursts tow. Trudovska waste heaps and tracers in sky tow. mine shaft https://twitter.com/666_mancer/status/685912095028834304 …

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 07:46 AM
Cease-fire was violated 28 times by pro-Russian militants near Donetsk in the last 24 hours
http://lugansk-news.com/cease-fire-was-violated-28-times-by-pro-russian-militants-near-donetsk/ …
pic.twitter.com/w2N4LccDtR

Russia's Ukraine war starter Strelkov paid "schmuck" large sums to start separatist uprising in Kharkhiv to no avail http://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/politika/05.01.2016/girkin_strelkov_obvinil_lidera_harkovskih_separati stov_v_krazhe_deneg_video/?_utl_t=fb …

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 07:48 AM
Stages of Russia patho-lies:
•DENY
•hey no proof
•what about aggressive West
•we’re the victim
•admit, triumphantly
http://readrussia.com/2015/12/22/putins-ukraine-admission-and-a-culture-of-lies/ …

Putin’s kept discontent at bay w/ steady diet of enemies–US, Ukraine, Turkey. #Russia now braces for restless spring http://www.newsweek.com/2016/01/15/restless-russia-411530.html?rel=most_read5 …

Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
#Ukraine's top intelligence agency deeply infiltrated by Russian spies.
http://mashable.com/2014/12/30/russian-vs-ukrainian-spies/#yvY29ILzYZqi … @mashable
pic.twitter.com/hTQX98tWLM

Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare
http://bit.ly/1LN4NQb @CyberToolsBooks
pic.twitter.com/pC2kYDL7o2

Database of suspected Kremlin trolls in the link below, w/link to incorporating into Twitter. https://twitter.com/wildmcdill/status/685992299503972352 …

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 03:33 PM
Security services uncovered small weapons arsenal in basement in Zolote - anti-tank grenades,mortar shells,detonator
http://24today.net/open/614164

Militants fired at Novhorodske all day long. Terrorists’ snipers became more active in Donetsk sector – ATO speaker
http://24today.net/open/614154

Russian militant troops violated truce 28 times over last 24 hours, most active at #Horlivka-Svitlodarsk.
http://en.censor.net.ua/n368311

Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in hostilities over the past day near Mayorske.
http://www.unian.info/war/1231991-two-ukrainian-soldiers-killed-in-donbas-in-last-day.html …

Weapons cache bust in east Ukraine: anti-tank grenades, mortar shells, detonators
http://uatoday.tv/crime/weapons-cache-bust-in-eastern-ukraine-arsenal-includes-anti-tank-grenades-mortar-shells-detonator-568603.html …
pic.twitter.com/UpRyZ0ZtnI

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 03:40 PM
NEW Russian propaganda narrative for the coming months it appears......

Russian media started new theme: "Russia and Ukraine must build brotherhood relationships". Plan to leave Donbass and look good for locals?

Aksenov: Ukraine needs to build fraternal relations with Russia
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/10-january-aksenov-ukraine-needs-to-build-fraternal-relations …
pic.twitter.com/RGTGopKp5C via @rianru

So after they invaded eastern Ukraine killed over 9K Ukrainians, created over 2M refugees and IDPs, virtually destroyed and or heavily damaged most the eastern Ukraine and HAVE stolen anything not nailed down THEY want to be what again???....."brotherhood relations" with brothers like the Russians who needs enemies......

New wave in Kremlin's hybrid war: Russia prop aimed at "Russia-Ukraine friendship" and reconciliation to manipulate Ukraine civil society.

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 04:08 PM
Militants deploy heavy weapons in Sloviansk and Mariupol direction - intelligence
http://uatoday.tv/politics/militants-deploy-heavy-weapons-in-sloviansk-and-mariupol-direction-intelligence-568588.html …

U.S. Firm Blames Russian 'Sandworm' Hackers for Ukraine Power Outage: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/us-firm-blames-russian-sandworm-hackers-for-ukraine-power-outage/555105.html …

Militants commander "A cat" Kononov was killed yesterday in the center of Donetsk by sniper
pic.twitter.com/Llri2OrxoI
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/10-january-militants-commander-a-cat-kononov-was-killed-yesterday …

In Odessa soldier had to open fire to prevent attack on Navy unit http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/9-january-in-odessa-soldier-have-to-open-fire-to-prevent …

In Donetsk turned over bus with militants
pic.twitter.com/AvyPyBvdh6 http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/9-january-in-donetsk-capsized-bus-with-militants …

Militants deploy heavy weapons in Sloviansk and Mariupol direction - intelligence
Russian-backed militants violated the ceasefire in Donbas 29 times over the past day, according to the ATO press center.

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 05:37 PM
http://www.stopfake.org/en/is-pro-russian-propaganda-fueling-czech-and-slovak-paramilitary-groups/

Is Pro-Russian Propaganda Fueling Czech and Slovak Paramilitary Groups?

December 20, 2015 - 21:21 


News in the section 'Context' are not fakes. We publish them in order to keep you informed about events concerning the information war between Ukraine and Russia

The ability of pro-Russian propaganda to provide ideological grounding for extremist paramilitary groups has been somewhat overlooked. In the last two years, both the Czech Republic and Slovakia have seen an upsurge in the number of pro-Russian websites and alternative media that have been endlessly churning out stories of Ukrainian fascists, the immoral West and benign Russia. Within the same time span, pro-Russian paramilitary groups have been on the increase, expanding their activities and attempting to attract new members in both countries. Many shared characteristics between pro-Russian media and paramilitary groups suggest interconnectedness of the two phenomenon.

Despite its name, the ‘Czechoslovak Soldiers in Reserves’ (CSR) do not fall under the official Czech or Slovak army structures. The informal group was founded by Marek Obrtel, the Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) of the Czech Army who served in Afghanistan and Kosovo and who, in an open letter addressed last year to the Czech Defense Minister, accused NATO and the USA of criminal activities and asked for renunciation of all his medals and military awards.

Slovenski Branci2

The unit drew public attention during this year’s commemoration of the Velvet Revolution on November 17 when they came out in support of the Czech President Milos Zeman’s public speech. On first impression, the group resembles a real army unit. In the streets of Prague, Czechoslovak Soldiers in Reserves appeared very disciplined, marching in line and in army uniforms. While training, CSR members use legally possessed weapons. A quick look at the group’s website reveals pictures of armed soldiers in the battlefield or a historic army picture from the early 20th century.

Within few months since its foundation in January, Czechoslovak Soldiers in Reserves were able to expand their activities and, according to its website, now consist of over 5500 members, mainly former soldiers that underwent compulsory military service before 1989. The CSR has not yet been formally registered with Czech authorities and probably derives high numbers from its many supporters on social media Facebook and its Russian equivalent VKontakte.

Yet, what concerns Czech police and state authorities most are its regular activities and the inadequate use of violence coupled with xenophobic ideology the group promotes. For members, the CSR offers camps and trainings of self-defense, shooting, topography, survival skills or border defense. In November, when the Czech Television (CT) filmed group’s activities in Sumava forest in the South Bohemia, they were to simulate a particular situation – capture of a refugee. Dressed in camouflage and with airsoft weapons, they knocked down a fellow trainee while shouting “these bastards don’t belong here, they crossed our border. This is violence!”

Creation of an external enemy and anticipation of upcoming conflict are among the first characteristics that the group shares with pro-Russian media in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. CSR’s goal is to defend its homeland against alien powers and “invaders from the West,” the website states. “Our country has been unlawfully divided, looted, indebted, people enslaved and their families liquidated by repossession genocide, and national infrastructure transferred into the hands of western corporations.” reads the group memorandum. In an attempt to appeal and reinforce nationalistic and pan-Slavic anti-western sentiment, the memorandum goes even further “We unequivocally reject fighting in the ranks of NATO against the Russian Federation or other Slavic nations and we likewise intend to stand up firmly through organized civilian pressure against the further liquidation of our democracy, freedom and independence.”

In such chaos, Czechoslovak Soldiers in Reserve are not short of offering a solution. The group’s leaders express anti-western attitudes quite frequently and blatantly, suggesting the Czech Republic would be better off without the alliance with manipulative West. They consider Russian soldiers their friends and Czech politicians, influenced by the heavy Western propaganda, their enemies. “The sympathy towards Russia is based on the reality that Russia does not threaten us. Therefore, we agree with it (Russia).” conceded group’s leader Marek Obrtel into the CT’s camera.

Czechoslovak Soldiers in Reserve resembles a very similar informal paramilitary group in Slovakia called ‘Slovak Levies’ (Slovensky branci). Unlike its Czech counterpart, it was founded before the crises in Ukraine, its origins dates back to 2012. Slovak Levies has since built a reputation of extremists and neo-nazi leaning groups and its members were captured praising Jozef Tiso, the Second World War’s anti-Semitic President of Slovakia. The group has long been monitored by the Slovak authorities and police. In its 2012 report on extremism, the Slovak Ministry of Interior labeled the initiative as a “militantly oriented group”.

In a similar manner, the Slovak Levies have also been flourishing since 2014 and now spread out throughout the country, having established 16 units in many regional capitals of Slovakia. Similarly to CSR, their opinions are leaning rather to the East that to the West. Some of its instructors have undergone training in Russia and are believed to have ties to similar paramilitary groups with origins in Russia. In August, Slovak Levies organized a seminar on martial art with a Cossack Leonid Polezhajev.

Both groups are characterized by their efforts to attract middle-age former soldiers as well as young people. The average age of the Slovak Levies is around 21 years. The group came under increased media scrutiny this summer when its members toured around several Slovak primary schools to teach children Slovak history and, more controversially, shooting from a machine gun. The skillful use of social media and the use of dramatic videos on YouTube have contributed to the recent growth in CSR’s online visibility; its Facebook group has over 6000 members, VKontakte around 300. “All could be perceived as amusing but only up to a moment when one of the younger members will grow tired of trainings in nature and chatter through Facebook, and decide to take things into his own hands by conducting a criminal activity,” Ludvik Cimburek, commander of Czech Army’s official active reserves, warned recently.

The combination of adherence of violence and the incitement of extremist nationalistic fervor, coupled with pro-Russian sympathies, has already led to consequences. One of the former members of the Slovak Levies, Marian Keprta, is now one of the leaders of the first armed Czechoslovak unit fighting within the international brigade of the self-declared Donetsk Republic’s army. According to a source from the Slovak Interior Ministry, the size of the unit is estimated only at tens of Slovaks and Czechs, but has grown in the last year as well.

As Cimburek also warned, members of such paramilitary groups are “potential adepts for cooperation with secret services of foreign states” that operate in Europe, read Russian and Chinese spies. This is especially topical for the Czech Republic that is believed to have an extremely high number of Russian intelligence officers on its soil. The Security Information Service of the Czech Republic (BIS) regularly warns of their activity in annual reports. Due to its strategic position, Slovakia is also within the Kremlin’s sphere of interest and potential collaboration of Slovak Levies with foreign intelligence services should not be underestimated.

From a broader perspective, the emergence of organized paramilitary groups underscores the complexity and perplexed character of the pro-Russian disinformation campaigns in some Eastern European countries. It is increasingly difficult to assess all the consequences of pro-Russian propaganda and how they translate into practice. Both the Czech Republic and Slovakia saw a steep upsurge of pro-Russian media and websites in the last two years, often with very dubious and non-transparent backgrounds and origins. These ‘alternative’ media push forward the same narratives and ideals that these paramilitary groups now adhere to and promote. When going through statements of Czechoslovak Soldiers in Reserve, one finds themselves in a similar situation to when browsing Aeronet, one of the most active pro-Russian websites in the Czech Republic that the Czech counterintelligence agency labeled as the “source of dangerous pro-Russian propaganda” in its annual report. The resemblance is striking.

Unfortunately, such a combination is inflammatory. Earlier this year, when Slovak media interviewed Marian Keprta, he described that the values of pan-Slavism, family and tradition have been lost to the European Union as his main motive for his engagement with pro-Russian rebels in Eastern Ukraine. With growing tensions in Europe and more refugees on its borders, it is only a question of time as to when other members also decide to take things into ‘their own hands.’

Azor.......you had previously mentioned about the concerns of the Russians invading the Baltics.......the Baltics are already complaining about the Russian government pumping of millions into ethnic Russian NGOs........

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 06:00 PM
Militants in occupied Transnistria ain't too happy with Ukraine-Moldova imminent clampdown on cross-border smuggling
http://www.blackseanews.net/read/110687

GRU Officer's Way from Turkey to Donbas: Tourism And Organ Trafficking: https://informnapalm.org/en/jan07-gru-donbas/ … via @en_informnapalm pic.twitter.com/w88TLgM2AW

Guardian news ✔ @guardiannews
Murder in Istanbul: Kremlin's hand suspected in shooting of Chechen http://d.gu.com/DDrSNM

I went to Istanbul to look into a murder that has it all: Chechen fighters, al-Nusra, Syria, Ukraine, Russian agents http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/10/murder-istanbul-chechen-kremlin-russia-abdulvakhid-edelgireyev?CMP=share_btn_tw …

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 06:31 PM
Now the Crimeans are blowing up their own power lines. An accident outside Simferopol leaves 9 towns blacked out (Link is in Russian):http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/5692730f9a79471e962d5e28

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 06:32 PM
http://www.stopfake.org/en/is-pro-russian-propaganda-fueling-czech-and-slovak-paramilitary-groups/

Is Pro-Russian Propaganda Fueling Czech and Slovak Paramilitary Groups?

December 20, 2015 - 21:21 



Azor.......you had previously mentioned about the concerns of the Russians invading the Baltics.......the Baltics are already complaining about the Russian government pumping of millions into ethnic Russian NGOs........

Another "paramilitary organization" in Europe with suspect origins
ludicrous “Free German Army” appears on Facebook, overtly pro-Russian (and has mail.ru e-mail address
https://www.facebook.com/Freie-Deutsche-Armee-1514601828853778/ …

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 07:16 PM
Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls

Mass blocking of #Ukraine users @Twitter ac's start #Russia operation “Brotherly Peoples”
http://world.maidan.org.ua/2016/mass-blocking-twitter-operation-brotherly-peoples …
pic.twitter.com/Dp4GAW62P8

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 07:27 PM
http://world.maidan.org.ua/2016/mass-blocking-twitter-operation-brotherly-peoples

Mass Blocking of the Ukrainian Users Twitter Accounts start Russian Operation “Brotherly Peoples”

Jan 10th, 2016 | By Sergij Petrov


Since December 29th, an organized campaign has been aimed at Ukrainian Twitter users, hitting them with a wave of bans and suspensions. Its targets are accounts that actively oppose the Russian regime and its aggression. Many of these accounts have thousands of followers. By now, more than 30 prominent accounts (some with hundreds of thousands of readers) have been blocked.

Twitter has recently updated its Rules in response to intense pressure from several governments. (For example, Germany has criticized Twitter for inaction on hate speech in the aftermath of mass influx of North African and Middle Eastern refugees.) The updated rules, which further restrict inflammatory images and calls for violence directed at members of particular ethnic or religious groups, are being applied retroactively to tweets that predate the changes, in some cases by as much as a year ago. In doing so, Twitter has gone against a fundamental legal principle, accepted by most of the civilized world and enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the American Constitution, and elsewhere – that ex post facto punishment is unjust.

A similar, though less intense campaign has targeted Facebook as well, affecting, among others, “Maidan Monitoring Information Center”. Nataliia Zubar’s Facebook profile has been suspended for a week, also for a post written long ago.

But this massive purge of Ukrainian accounts in Twitter and elsewhere is only the TOP of the iceberg that is the Russian spec-op we may call “Operation Brotherly Peoples”.

Recall that in November of last year the rhetoric of the Kremlin changed suddenly and drastically. Once more “brotherly peoples” and “Russo-Ukrainian friendship” became the dominant slogans. Beginning in the fall, certain Ukrainian journalists (Andrii Kulykov, Nastia Stanko, and many others), began hinting to their audiences at the option of “understanding and forgiving” the pro-Russian separatists and terrorists back into the Ukraininan society, explaining away separatism as a mere error of judgment rather than a viewpoint that is fundamentally unacceptable both politically and legally.

These journalists were joined by a group of Ukrainian media platforms, all of which owe their existence primarily to grants from Western governments and NGOs: Hromadske, Hromadske Radio, Ukrainska Pravda, Radio Svoboda (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty), and Voice of America. These were followed by many other, lesser media organizations, as well as a number of freelance journalists and social activists. (Coincidentally, many of the same persons and organizations tend to act as a broken telephone for western criticisms of the Ukrainian government, which occasionally had to subsequently be officially denied by the US Embassy in Ukraine and the representatives of the EU.)

Recall, moreover, that these members of the Ukrainian media were joined by many of those Russian citizens, who had emigrated to Ukraine and have already begun instructing Ukrainians in the proper ways to reform their government, respect for their Russian-speaking countrymen, and rebuild Ukraine’s damaged ties with Russia.

Operation Brotherly Peoples, so far, is one of the final, desperate attempts by the Russian rulers to save themselves and their country from further collapse. The state of the Russian economy is terrible. Low and continually falling price of oil is making it impossible to fund basic social services. Local governments, have been abandoned and left to fend for themselves. Burning through its reserve funds during the course of 2016 in order to stave off the inevitable collapse of the ruble, could leave Russia bankrupt by the end of this year. The Putin regime, therefore, has less than a year to save itself.

The Operation itself would take six to nine months, depending on degree of success of its several constituent stages. It has been deliberately put in action before the Christmas and New Year holidays in order to coincide with reduced activity of social networks so as to make it less noticeable and more efficient. It can be broken into the following five major stages. Stage One (information cleanup) involves:
◾botnets and their coordinators, who send Twitter automated mass complaints against Ukrainian users (bot accounts typically have random names and handles, and incomplete profiles);
◾a segment of Twitter management, who are aware of the situation but have received substantial rewards from Russia for ignoring it; major grant-dependent Ukrainian media services (Hromadske, Hromadske Radio, Ukrainska Pravda, Radio Svoboda (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty), other grant-dependent media/journalists/activists, the Ukrainian Voice of America (led by Myroslava Gongadze, who has been known to “like” posts of pro-Russian separatists and terrorists), and so on – all of them conspicuously turning a blind eye to internet attacks against Ukrainians;

Myroslava Gonganze retweeted account of pro-Russian separatists and terrorists, in which Putin named as a School Chairman, Hollande as a father, Merkel as a mother and Poroshenko as a son being scolded as a poor student for his low grades.
◾some individual Ukrainian users, including those who are actual Russian agents or bots, as well as those who become involved in order to settle personal scores (these tend to show support for the Right Sector and other nationalists, call for military assault on the Donbass, and place blame for all the problems under the sun at Obama, Poroshenko and pro-government Ukrainians);
◾Russian “refugees” in Ukraine, who have been embedded to help identify the dangerous shapers of public opinion.

Both the dismissive coverage of the story by Hromadske, as well as the silence of Ukrainska Pravda and Radio Svoboda (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty), suggest their approval of the situation and constitute at least passive collaboration with its perpetrators. This may have to do with high prevalence on their staff of Russian expats, latent separatists and far leftists (the latter, incidentally, are particularly susceptible to all calls for reconciliation and fraternization). They are complemented by large numbers of ordinary empty-headed “useful idiots”. It often seems like the staff of these media consists exclusively of the above… Note that these media services react instantly to any bit of news that allows for criticism of the Ukrainian government, but in this case it took them all day (at best!) to react after the attacks had gone public. And even then, the position expressed by these publications amounts to placing the blame on Twitter’s new rules and, indeed, on the victims themselves, instead of placing it on the perpetrator. (Sure! The victims are blameworthy for breaking rules with tweets posted prior to the rules’ enactment! Nothing wrong with such reasoning at all!)

The mechanism of the Twitter attacks can apparently be reduced to scanning posts of the targeted users for certain code words (e.g., “death to Russia”, “burn”, “smoke”, “kill”), after which the bontets automatically file mass complaints with Twitter. Since these bot nets can consist of hundreds of thousands of accounts, their complaints lead to suspension of targeted accounts, with their subsequent ban or restoration at the discretion of Twitter’s moderators. The number of those who have been at least temporarily suspended in this way is currently on track to reach 100 (if it hasn’t surpassed this number already).

It is worth noting that Russian-language accounts are blocked more frequently, since the xenophobic supporters of the Kremlin generally lack sufficient knowledge of Ukrainian even to understand what is being discussed. Not even Google Translate can help them there. The linguistic barrier has turned out to be a decent defence against the Russian coordinators of attacks, though it does not fully guarantee safety from being blocked by it.

The goal of the first stage of Operation Brotherly Peoples, then, is to purge from the information field those Ukrainian patriots who apply fact-checking and critical thinking to the content of the Ukrainian mass media, and who try to convey their conclusion to those spreading and affected by panic on Facebook and Twitter.

Unless appropriate steps are taken to respond to the attacks, they are likely to succeed in isolating and silencing discussion of critical evaluation of the above-mentioned Ukrainian mass media. The silencing of these voices, as well as the redaction of what they have already said is the practical consequence of the operation’s goal: to damage the respectability and reduce the influence of the most prominent pro-Ukrainian commentators of the affected social networks. This, first step of the operation is to conclude in about a month from now.

Stage Two (reconciliation, “fraternization”, “understanding and reconciliation”) is to last from the end of January through March. Its purpose is to pound into the heads of Ukrainians the idea that the terrorists operating in and out of the occupied “Novorossia” are really brothers to them, and that the former are to blame for all the woes of the latter. This coincides with the latest stated intentions of the Russian puppets concerning the timeframe for holding “elections”. During the same period we can also expect various “fraternal” actions to occur throughout the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, along the ATO frontline in particular. Such “fraternization” is likely to be forced onto the civilians under the occupation. Certain Ukrainian journalists and Russian “emigres” (hand-picked by the FSB and acting with its approval) can be expected to take part in such “reconciliation” initiatives.

Continue..............

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 07:39 PM
Same phony narrative: #Russia steals Ukrainian gas via occupied #Crimea, then returns it to Genichesk as "goodwill"
pic.twitter.com/Fe2CwaAMRT

Civil war in DNR - SOF unit Troya under siege of "regular forces" for 12 days
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/10-january-civil-war-in-dnr--sof-unit-troya-under-siege-of …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwAvZch-ehM …

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 07:41 PM
http://world.maidan.org.ua/2016/mass-blocking-twitter-operation-brotherly-peoples

Mass Blocking of the Ukrainian Users Twitter Accounts start Russian Operation “Brotherly Peoples”

Jan 10th, 2016 | By Sergij Petrov

This is undeniably #Russia's latest trend towards #Ukraine: "EU has nothing for you, we are one, forget & forgive." Offensive & disturbing.

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 08:16 PM
Russian GRU spetsnaz on the captured Ukrainian rigs in the Black Sea, December 2015.
https://twitter.com/Victorius_Prime/status/686253955039522816 …

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 08:36 PM
Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls

Ru spec-op culminates in Maidan 3 “regime change” led by Ukraine grps which r in reality FSB fronts🃏
https://twitter.com/KremlinTrolls/status/686261393557962752 …

OUTLAW 09
01-10-2016, 09:06 PM
Russian militants commander "Botsman" died in Horlivka "cause of pneumonia" http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/10-january-russian-militant-commander-botsman-reportedly …
pic.twitter.com/0UouNBUe2t v @ziktv

Russia’s Sandworm hack that shut down power in Ukraine has been spying on NATO+Ukraine for yrs
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/russian-sandworm-hack-isight/ …

OUTLAW 09
01-11-2016, 06:52 AM
Putin's core problem is that he really no longer fully knows the difference between his and Russia's info war statements, he tends to lie and no longer really wants to fully analyze Russia's own failures for the last 25 years.....PLUS he still mixes a strong portion of "it ain't us......in his accusations against the West....

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/putin-deterioration-russias-relationship-west-034104754.html

PUTIN: The deterioration of Russia's relationship with the West is the result of many 'mistakes'

Natasha Bertrand,Business Insider translated from a BILD interview released today.
.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told the German daily newspaper BILD that he believes Russia's deteriorating relationship with the West was the result of many "mistakes" made by NATO, the US and Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"We have done everything wrong," Putin told BILD publisher Kai Diekmann and BILD politics editor Nikolaus Blome last week, according to a transcript provided to Business Insider.

"From the beginning, we failed to overcome Europe’s division. Twenty-five years ago, the Berlin Wall fell, but invisible walls were moved to the East of Europe. This has led to mutual misunderstandings and assignments of guilt. They are the cause of all crises ever since," he said.

The US, the former Soviet Union and the post-soviet states who wanted to join NATO should have "redefine[d] a zone in Central Europe that would not be accessible to NATO with its military structures," Putin said.

Instead, NATO embarked on an "expansion to the east," allowing the post-Soviet Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — to join the organization. This resulted from the US' desire for "complete victory over the Soviet Union" after the Cold War ended in 1991, Putin claimed.

Putin has recently been upping his rhetoric toward the West. Significantly, the Russian leader — who is currently juggling Moscow's intervention in both Syria and eastern Ukraine — began 2016 by designating NATO a "threat" in an updated paper on Russia’s national-security strategy.

"They wanted to sit on the throne in Europe alone. ... You can also see this striving for an absolute triumph in the American missile defense plans," Putin said in the interview, referring to the US' plans to construct a missile-defense shield that Russia has staunchly opposed.

Russia's annexation of Crimea in March of 2014, Putin told BILD, was simply the Kremlin's way of protecting the people of Crimea from being confined within the borders imposed upon them by the US and Europe after the West claimed victory in the Cold War.

"Our soldiers have merely prevented the Ukrainian troops on Crimea from impeding the freedom of expression of the people," Putin said. "For me, it is not borders and state territories that matter, but people’s fortunes."

"If the Kosovars have the right to self-determination, why should people in Crimea not have it?" Putin asked, referring to the UN's determination in 2008 that Kosovo should become independent of Serbia.

Putin, however, conceded that Russia has made its own mistakes since the end of the Cold War.

"We were too late," he said. "If we had presented our national interests more clearly from the beginning, the world would still be in balance today."

"After the demise of the Soviet Union, we had many problems of our own for which no one was responsible but ourselves: the economic downfall, the collapse of the welfare system, the separatism, and of course the terror attacks that shook our country," he continued. "In this respect, we do not have to look for guilty parties abroad."

Russia launched a military intervention in Syria last September, and has reportedly been bolstering the pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine since the crisis erupted there in 2014.

Putin continues to deny that the Kremlin ever sent ground troops to fight in Ukraine, stating recently that any Russian soldiers there are either volunteers or "advisers."


Putin: Western sanctions against Russia re Crimea ‘silly decision'
http://www.unian.info/world/1232244-putin-western-sanctions-against-russia-re-crimea-silly-decision.html …
pic.twitter.com/lgVvEIYldY

OUTLAW 09
01-11-2016, 01:39 PM
Militants fired at least 10 mines with 82-mm mortars from Kominternovo to Vodyane
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/11-january-militants-fired-at-least-10-mines-with-82mm-mortars …
pic.twitter.com/4bkAiM0EOj

ATO Press Center: Ru forces shell civilians in Vodyane, 7 Km from #Mariupol w/ 82mm mortar today
pic.twitter.com/m5UJwuJMEq

One Ukrainian soldier killed, one wounded in Donbas in last day
http://www.unian.info/war/1232550-one-ukrainian-soldier-killed-one-wounded-in-donbas-in-last-day.html …
pic.twitter.com/Sn6i7TlApu

Gryzlov was appointed by Putin on 26 Dec 2015. Marks new stage of Kremlin policy on Ukraine - "Brothers forever" has arrived in Kiev.....

At bus station "Kurakhovo" Police detained man with 15 grenades in the bag http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/11-january-at-bus-station-kurakhovo-police-detained-man-with … pic.twitter.com/ucnRK3NW8x via @0629ComUa

OUTLAW 09
01-11-2016, 05:56 PM
Interesting if true: Russia sends GRU to "DNR" to "liquidate" leader of proxy fighters smuggling weapons to Russia.
http://vlada.io/prinyato-reshenie-srazu-obnulyat-v-dnr-sereznyiy-vnutrenniy-konflikt-ubit-polevoy-komandir/ …

With Crimea borders & territory didn't matter, with Syria they do. Hmm.
http://m.sputniknews.com/analysis/20150930/1027753711/Russian-Perspective-in-Syria-Based-on-States-Sovereignty.html …

Russia's annexation of Crimea in March of 2014, Putin told BILD, was simply the Kremlin's way of protecting the people of Crimea from being confined within the borders imposed upon them by the US and Europe after the West claimed victory in the Cold War.

"Our soldiers have merely prevented the Ukrainian troops on Crimea from impeding the freedom of expression of the people," Putin said. "For me, it is not borders and state territories that matter, but people’s fortunes."

OUTLAW 09
01-11-2016, 07:13 PM
SBU found another cache of weapons: grenades and RPGs in Dopropillya pic.twitter.com/gc8xWUaOlg
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/11-january-sbu-found-another-cache-of-weapons-grenades-and …

OSCE setting-up CCTV cameras in Shirokine to film shellings http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/11-january-osce-settingup-cctv-cameras-in-shirokine-to-film …

SBU detained militant of "Sparta" group https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRPDiaN0AOA …

Militants from "Troya" threatening to blown up Dangerous object in Russia in case if their demands won't be met
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/11-january-militants-from-troya-threatening-to-blown-up-dangerous …

Ukrainian MP Tymchuk: Russian militants pushing weapons from "2nd echelon" closer to front
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/11-january-ukrainian-mp-tymchuk-russian-militants-pushing …

ATO press center reported 21 #ceasefire violations yesterday. At Troitske UAF positions came under fire from tanks

OUTLAW 09
01-11-2016, 07:35 PM
Salvos in the vicinity of #Horlivka now.

Horlivka 21:02
Shyroka Balka loud, both incoming and outgoing can be heard.
https://twitter.com/gipsogolovij/status/686624255585329152 …

Putin again admits #Russia's role: It was "our soldiers" that acted in #Crimea. #Ukraine
http://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/wladimir-putin/russian-president-vladimir-putin-the-interview-44092656.bild.html …
pic.twitter.com/86hR5NWZXg

Poroshenko says specific deadlines are defined in every paragraph of Minsk Agreement. Russian Sputnik lies. Compare.
pic.twitter.com/7bO24cDdda

President Putin now says that Nato should have closed the door to all new democracies in Europe. Remarkable.
http://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/wladimir-putin/interview-mit-dem-russischen-praesidenten-russland-44091672.bild.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-11-2016, 08:28 PM
Horlivka 21:50
Shyroka Balka calmed down. There were shooting mortars, small arms for over 1hr, incoming, outgoing.
https://twitter.com/tgorlovka/status/686636382454976512 …

17:20 #Horlivka #Stroitel @ahab9889 2 nearby salvos heard
17:24 @gipsogolovij heard them too, mistook them for the wind
@Miloviz S/SE wind

17:29 #Horlivka @gipsogolovij I can hear automatic arms, #Zaytseve again?

OUTLAW 09
01-12-2016, 06:30 AM
Militants fired at least 10 mines with 82-mm mortars from Kominternovo to Vodyane
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/11-january-militants-fired-at-least-10-mines-with-82mm-mortars …
pic.twitter.com/4bkAiM0EOj

ATO Press Center: Ru forces shell civilians in Vodyane, 7 Km from #Mariupol w/ 82mm mortar today
pic.twitter.com/m5UJwuJMEq

One Ukrainian soldier killed, one wounded in Donbas in last day
http://www.unian.info/war/1232550-one-ukrainian-soldier-killed-one-wounded-in-donbas-in-last-day.html …
pic.twitter.com/Sn6i7TlApu

Gryzlov was appointed by Putin on 26 Dec 2015. Marks new stage of Kremlin policy on Ukraine - "Brothers forever" has arrived in Kiev.....

At bus station "Kurakhovo" Police detained man with 15 grenades in the bag http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/11-january-at-bus-station-kurakhovo-police-detained-man-with … pic.twitter.com/ucnRK3NW8x via @0629ComUa

OUTLAW 09
01-12-2016, 09:56 AM
Horlivka 21:50
Shyroka Balka calmed down. There were shooting mortars, small arms for over 1hr, incoming, outgoing.
https://twitter.com/tgorlovka/status/686636382454976512 …

17:20 #Horlivka #Stroitel @ahab9889 2 nearby salvos heard
17:24 @gipsogolovij heard them too, mistook them for the wind
@Miloviz S/SE wind

17:29 #Horlivka @gipsogolovij I can hear automatic arms, #Zaytseve again?

Militants attack #Ukraine troops 35 times overnight http://uatoday.tv/news/militants-attack-ukraine-troops-35-times-overnight-569605.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-12-2016, 02:16 PM
Humor...referencing the shot down of MH17........

BREAKING: #Russia's MoD posts picture proving the 53rd Air Defense Brigade was in Maldives when #MH17 was shot down

OUTLAW 09
01-12-2016, 02:50 PM
If confirmed, cyber-attack indicates threat of Russia disabling critical infrastructure
http://www.janes.com/article/57060/if-confirmed-cyber-attack-against-ukrainian-power-distribution-would-indicate-increasing-threat-of-russia-disabling-critical-infrastructure-abroad …

Carl Bildt ✔ @carlbildt
Increased attention to reports of Russia cyberattack on Ukraine power infrastructure. A new level of cyber conflict. http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2016/01/us-suspects-russian-hackers-unprecedented-ukraine-blackout/124939/?oref=DefenseOneTCO&& …

Top US Air Force officer Russian anti-access/area denial deployments in Europe are my No. 1 concern
http://www.stripes.com/news/usafe-chief-sees-russia-air-defenses-as-top-concern-1.383189 …

Ukrainian border guards discover millions of rubles to pay Russian subversives for Ukraine war
http://youtu.be/luAyh_jgftQ?a

OUTLAW 09
01-12-2016, 04:08 PM
EU Mythbusters @EUvsDisinfo

In the latest #DisinfoReview: how do pro-Kremlin media use @BBC, @Daily_Telegraph, @dwnews & others? Read & share: http://eepurl.com/bMAv5P

OUTLAW 09
01-12-2016, 05:20 PM
Information Warfare: Time to Change the Narrative.

Internet is the fountainhead of the #Kremlin’s influence strategy
http://bit.ly/1RI9j2K


Vladimir Putin receives a lot of sympathy in Europe. And not just from Russian speakers, but also from nationalists of all stripes who see him as a strong and determined individual. The same is true in his own country where his moves in Ukraine and Syria gave him a stratospheric approval rating of 89%. Seducing the masses is no easy feat, which is precisely why an army of media consultants has been tasked with supporting the Russian president. Stuck in spectator mode, the European Union finds itself unable to respond effectively.

The Russian steamroller

Vesti, Sputnik, the Internet Research Agency or Valdai are as much think tanks as media sites faithful to the Kremlin’s cause, acting like bona fide transmission belts for the Russian political elite. For example, it is thought that the Federal Security Service (FSB) uses Itar-Tass, Izvestia and Sputnik to leak information, while Gazprom spreads material though the Echo of Moscow, a Russian radio station. But the Kremlin’s communication strategy does not simply stop at Russia’s borders. Wishing to make its voice heard abroad, Moscow has embarked on a massive project to court foreign public opinion by broadcasting content in multiple languages through its government-friendly TV networks.

This is the mission of Russia Today (RT), a news channel created in 2005 by the government agency, RIA Novosti, which broadcasts in Russian, English, Arabic and Spanish. Claiming to be a counterpoint to one-sided Western media, RT is available to over 700 million viewers worldwide, including more than 120 million in Europe. With 1.6 million subscribers on YouTube, RT is the most followed news channel on the Internet, significantly surpassing the likes of Al Jazeera, CNN, BBC World, France 24 or Euronews.

Indeed, the Internet is the fountainhead of the Kremlin’s influence strategy. In addition to the launch of many media pure players, the Kremlin relies on the services of an armada of Internet trolls, whose main activity is to inundate the Web with pro-Putin comments, and infiltrate social media and foreign news sites on an industrial scale. For example, at the height of the Ukrainian crisis, the Guardian reported that its moderators had to deal with 40,000 pro-Kremlin comments on a daily basis.

Sadly, this crass propaganda is effective. Within the European Union, more and more citizens have come to admire Putin’s leadership. For example, 72% of French believe that Putin is an “energetic” leader, with 56% considering he “defends the interests of his country.” His striking force finds no equivalent in Europe. But, if the old continent is highly permeable to Russian propaganda – to the point that a number of European editorialists do not hesitate to take ownership and to peddle the line of the Kremlin – the reverse is not equally true. You can count on one hand the number of Russians who approve of Europe’s foreign policy on the Ukraine issue. So far, the Union has failed to grasp the importance of developing an effective influence strategy in times of conflict, evincing a certain amateurism that only contributes to spreading the vision of a weak, divided and dominated Europe.

The “CNN Effect” 2.0

The current Russian display of media savviness is unparalleled in its history and signals the arrival of a new form of politically charged journalism. When the Gulf War broke out in 1990, it was the United States and CNN that popularized the model of the 24/7 live news channel. At the time, the American broadcaster had the monopoly over satellite technology from which it widely benefitted as its shows were taken up by media channels all over the world.

To give its audience front row seats to the Gulf War, CNN revolutionized the concept of “embedding,” by essentially grafting journalists in combat units. “Embedding” became a way to filter the war through a pro-American point of view, which proved to be a highly effective technique for winning over international opinion. CNN consistently bombarded the viewer with the same mash-up of looped images portraying American soldiers as heroes, sparking the empathy of the audience, while leaving the “enemy” as an invisible, faceless and voiceless presence that stirred no emotions in the viewer.

This control of the entire visual landscape would be later dubbed the “CNN effect.” Even if the method is formidable – in the US, 70% of the population supported the illegal invasion of Iraq by the order of George Bush – it does not, however, persist over time. Satellite technology is spreading rapidly and CNN’s influence has significantly waned with the establishment of each new media outlet.

If we can no longer talk about a narrowly understood CNN effect, since all countries now have access to the Internet, and even if Moscow cannot boast the same monopoly the American network had in the early 90s, the omnipresence of Russian viewpoints on the Web clearly evokes this “CNN effect.” Today, domination is not merely achieved by wielding superior technology, but through highly effective rhetorical means. If the Kremlin’s messages are so visible, it’s because they are tried and tested for maximum impact. The same thing cannot be said of the EU.

The EU in search of a narrative

The best ambassadors for the Russian media machine are not the battalions of trolls that we mentioned above, but the journalists, elected officials and average Internet user who, having been convinced by the Kremlin’s arguments, will relay them to an ever growing audience. It would be a mistake to assume that these spokesmen, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, have emerged by chance or are on Putin’s payroll. In reality, they have been drawn to the Kremlin’s divisive but relatable communication strategy. Everyone can have their opinion on the substance of the Ukrainian crisis, but it’s hard not to recognize Moscow’s heightened sense of storytelling, its way of presenting the conflict and its genesis in an original and seductive way.

European member states are all the more porous to this narrative since they offer little to nothing in terms of countering the message. In June, a EU “strategic action plan” to develop a “counter-narrative” was presented at the European Council. It was expected that this initiative would provide for the publication of pro-European key messages in articles, op-eds and infographics in multiple languages (including Russian). What happened was that a eight person communication team was set up, composed of members of the European External Action Service, and national experts with no budget of their own. EU officials explained their shy reaction as the Union’s desire not to engage in an info war with Russia.

However, from the outset, the focus of this fledgling communication strategy is too narrow, constricted by its sole ambition of unraveling the Russian narrative. Rather than simply trying to deconstruct the Russian influence campaign, the EU should find its own “storytelling” mechanism. Rather than playing by Moscow’s rules, Europe should start writing its own narrative, a narrative based on European values and on highlighting the EU’s place in the world as a force for human rights, rule of law, freedom and equality. Otherwise, Europe will never develop a voice that will echo across the world.

OUTLAW 09
01-12-2016, 05:41 PM
Horlivka 19:00
Shyroka Balka noisy, shooting.

Last day 26 fighters arrived to #Dnipropetrovsk hospital from the war (ATO) zone.

OUTLAW 09
01-13-2016, 09:29 AM
Large-scale emergency in the occupied Crimea: blown electrical power of RUS Defense Ministry
https://twitter.com/Dialog_UA/status/687201453572796420 …

OUTLAW 09
01-13-2016, 10:58 AM
Militants Resumed Shelling In Luhansk Direction, - Staff
http://ukraineunderattack.org/en/51995-militants-resumed-shelling-in-luhansk-direction-staff.html …

12:35 [#Donetsk] @Newrashkineits Outside mortar rounds are fired

12:32 #Donetsk @666_mancer [fb] "#Kalininsky exec comm: northward starts resumed"

Donetsk 12:32
Kalininskyi ds - again outgoing salvos to north
https://twitter.com/PVB40/status/687221341037150208 …

ATO spox: Donetsk sector: most longstanding shelling of UA positions occurred in Mayorsk, Troitske, & Pisky

Heavy combat ongoing north of #Donetsk, #Putilovka, #Spartak and airport direction

ATO spokesperson: Luhansk sector: the enemy opened fire with rocket launchers near Krymske & Triohizbenka

OUTLAW 09
01-13-2016, 12:22 PM
Militants Resumed Shelling In Luhansk Direction, - Staff
http://ukraineunderattack.org/en/51995-militants-resumed-shelling-in-luhansk-direction-staff.html …

12:35 [#Donetsk] @Newrashkineits Outside mortar rounds are fired

12:32 #Donetsk @666_mancer [fb] "#Kalininsky exec comm: northward starts resumed"

Donetsk 12:32
Kalininskyi ds - again outgoing salvos to north
https://twitter.com/PVB40/status/687221341037150208 …

ATO spox: Donetsk sector: most longstanding shelling of UA positions occurred in Mayorsk, Troitske, & Pisky

Heavy combat ongoing north of #Donetsk, #Putilovka, #Spartak and airport direction

ATO spokesperson: Luhansk sector: the enemy opened fire with rocket launchers near Krymske & Triohizbenka

13:30 #Donetsk-#Makiivka @OldHistoric For ~3 hours we are listening to firing w/pauses, fr/small arms to artillery tow/#Gvardeyka&#Kyivsky

13:21 #Donetsk @PVB40 [fb] ...from #Trudovski heavy [rounds] go at #Maryinka or #Krasnohorivka

Ukraine intel tells OSCE where Russian proxies keep tanks, artillery, MRLS
http://www.unian.info/war/1234911-ukraine-intel-tells-osce-where-russian-proxies-keep-tanks-artillery-mrls.html …
pic.twitter.com/9okk7nqgEE

Horlivka 13:12
Occasionally small arms can be heard from Shyroka Balka to Hluboka
https://twitter.com/gipsogolovij/status/687230726933094400 …

OUTLAW 09
01-13-2016, 08:54 PM
US confirms BlackEnergy malware used In #Ukraine power plant hack.
http://www.ibtimes.com/us-confirms-blackenergy-malware-used-ukrainian-power-plant-hack-2263008 …
pic.twitter.com/HsU9lfiwH4

How many times has Russia stated there will be a POW release as dictated in Minsk 2 which should have occurred literally months ago...Russia still not in full compliance ......

OSCE: Contact Group agrees on prisoner swap in Donbas
http://www.unian.info/politics/1235736-osce-contact-group-agrees-on-prisoner-swap-in-donbas.html …
pic.twitter.com/SxEuc7QEFB

22:30 #Horlivka @tgorlovka In the west of #Horlivka single mortar rounds [are heard]

22:26 #Horlivka @gipsogolovij mortar [fire is heard]

Near #Mariupol RU subversive team planted mines destroy Ukr vehicle, 4 WIA Ukr 1st marine battalion
pic.twitter.com/xVzYEIoKfA

OUTLAW 09
01-13-2016, 10:03 PM
IMPORTANT Aggressive posturing #Russia vs #Ukraine: 20th Combined Arms & 1st Tank Armies https://twitter.com/tassagency_en/status/686854093130838017 …

Will low oil prices effect holiday travel?
Let's ask these #Russian soldiers in #Ukraine.
pic.twitter.com/YZnQ2LNK8D

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 09:30 AM
This has been Putin's geo political goal all along...meaning the separatists are equal to the government of a nation state which they are not simply because they are Russian paid mercenaries....he does not want the US or the EU involved at all....

According to press office Kremlin, Putin in his call with Obama yesterday stressed that Kiev should negotiate directly with rebels Donbass

Obama used the term client state when referring to the Ukraine in his speech...NOW he has to clarify that term......
.@POTUS meant #Russia propping #Yanukovych, armed groups in the East, occupation of #Crimea, -@StateDept 2 @Ukrinform request

Russia is still trying to distance themselves from their shot down of MH17......
Rus. Aviation Auth. send letter to the Netherlands with 'facts' which 'prove' the Russians were not guilty at the downing of the MH17

With the Russian economy in full chaos and failing badly...how much longer can they fight a two front war....??
Kudrin: we would need an extra 660 billion roubles in 2016 to maintain pensions against 12% inflation.
http://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=56962F424A6C5 …

How the Kremlin shields itself with manipulated sociology: my Vedomosti piece in English tnx to @KevinRothrock https://meduza.io/en/feature/2016/01/14/opinion-falsified-support …

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 09:35 AM
This has been Putin's geo political goal all along...meaning the separatists are equal to the government of a nation state which they are not simply because they are Russian paid mercenaries....he does not want the US or the EU involved at all....

According to press office Kremlin, Putin in his call with Obama yesterday stressed that Kiev should negotiate directly with rebels Donbass

Obama used the term client state when referring to the Ukraine in his speech...NOW he has to clarify that term......
.@POTUS meant #Russia propping #Yanukovych, armed groups in the East, occupation of #Crimea, -@StateDept 2 @Ukrinform request

Russia is still trying to distance themselves from their shot down of MH17......
Rus. Aviation Auth. send letter to the Netherlands with 'facts' which 'prove' the Russians were not guilty at the downing of the MH17

With the Russian economy in full chaos and failing badly...how much longer can they fight a two front war....??
Kudrin: we would need an extra 660 billion roubles in 2016 to maintain pensions against 12% inflation.
http://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=56962F424A6C5 …

How the Kremlin shields itself with manipulated sociology: my Vedomosti piece in English tnx to @KevinRothrock https://meduza.io/en/feature/2016/01/14/opinion-falsified-support …

Russian shellings and ground attacks are picking up now.....
Donetsk 10:54AM
Kyivskyi district - a pair of very tangible heavy outgoing from Tochmash and Ekonomichna str area.
https://twitter.com/UryKara4en/status/687559259240972288 …

СММ ОБСЄ в Україні @OSCE_SMM
#OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine opens two Forward Patrol Bases in Krasnoarmiisk and Svitlodarsk. More: http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/215746 …

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 04:31 PM
Wonder how the Russian MoD would explain this......????

A truck with Russian GRADs exploded in occupied Donbas,
Arab-language documentation found.
https://twitter.com/ZIK_IA/status/687671859685371904 …

Activists: Russia produces Grad P portable MLRS in occupied Donbas to arm terrorists
http://www.unian.info/war/1236508-activists-russia-produces-grad-p-portable-mlrs-in-occupied-donbas-to-arm-terrorists.html … pic.twitter.com/vW4FnldH7l

Russian occupation troop Comndr shoots subordinate dead in #Ukraine, plans crime coverup to blame #ATO for death. http://en.censor.net.ua/news/368462/drunken_terrorists_chieftain_shot_his_subordinate_ dead_in_donbas_defense_ministry_intelligence …

RuNet Echo @runetecho
Ukrainian Separatists Block 100+ News Websites in ‘Lugansk People’s Republic’
https://globalvoices.org/2016/01/14/ukrainian-separatists-block-100-news-websites-in-lugansk-peoples-republic/ …
pic.twitter.com/osH1keArBg

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 04:49 PM
Despite New Ceasefire Agreement, Fighting Escalates Sharply http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-live-day-696-despite-new-ceasefire-agreement-fighting-escalates-sharply/#11871 …
pic.twitter.com/3zIPSJGeBW

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 05:50 PM
https://informnapalm.org/en/jan11-troy-donbas/

Ultimatum of the ‘Sieged Troy’: We Know How to Burn Rostov’

By alexander | on 01/11/2016


Carrying out intelligence operations in order to disclose Russian career servicemen guilty of taking part in the war in Ukraine, InformNapalm volunteers have established effective OSINT process as well as organized deep reconnaissance including cooperation with insiders.

Today the militants from the ‘sieged’ ‘Troy’ armed formation contacted us via email and leaked some ‘confidential information’ in return for informational support of their ultimatum.

“«<…> All our actions have been targeted at the fight with theft of DPR’s funds and assets; we’ve been always against the corruption and nepotism which is common in the ranks of DPR’s army. We are against the moral decay of the army, drug abuse, drug trafficking, arms trafficking and protection racketeering. In your recent article about GRU officer Aziz Banyshev, you wrote that Donbas was a zone of interest of GRU and FSB clans, which controlled the drug, arms and organ trafficking. That is true, but we, the people of Donbas, want to put things right in our republic. We are sieged by the Russian FSB forces. We know that the authorities of GRU and FSB monitor your web resource. Thus, we offer you to announce our straight-out ultimatum ‘door-to-door’: Bros from GRU, we have fought together with you all the time and now you decided to disarm us and mop up?! We have a lot of data on a secret flash drive, which is far more serious than the well-known “Dremov’s flash drive”. Besides your dirty laundry, this information includes also data on some secrete infrastructure objects in Rostov Oblast like military warehouses, ammunition, fuel and chemical depots. Our people are ready to carry out subversion of hazardous facilities in case if the siege of ‘Troy’ spetsnaz detachment is continued or our positions are stormed. We do not want to fight with you, but we need some order. To confirm the seriousness of our words, we have prepared a table with data about numerous objects that can be destroyed at any time in the case of non-fulfillment of our ultimatum <…>”.

The letter indeed had an excel file attached. We have carefully checked it for possible viruses and studied the contents of the file. It contains the information about hazardous facilities and warehouses with large volumes of chlorine, fuel, explosives, etc. The preliminary check of the information showed a high degree of accuracy. We didn’t have much time to investigate it in detail, so we publish the file for public use, to ensure that it can be studied by specialists.

Here you can see a couple of screenshots of the most interesting (in our opinion) objects.

Regarding the ‘Troy’ special forces detachment, whose representatives state that this operation is being conducted by the GRU servicemen: with high degree of confidence we can assume that the besiegement involves soldiers of the 346th or 24th special forces brigade of GRU. The servicemen from these brigades have been mentioned in several our investigations of the events in Donbas. Servicemen from of the 22nd and 10th special forces brigade have been registered in Luhansk region, they may be involved in mopping up operations there as well. Soldiers from the 2nd special forces brigade of GRU were seen in Mariupol area.

As you may recall, on May 16, two wounded Russian soldiers were captured near the Shchastya town. These were servicemen from the 3rd brigade: captain Erofeyev, and sergeant Aleksandrov. We were one of the first who reported about this fact.

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 06:04 PM
EU refutes reports on plans to lift anti-Russian sanctions
http://www.unian.info/world/1236587-eu-refutes-reports-on-plans-to-lift-anti-russian-sanctions.html …
pic.twitter.com/mpxiTqwkBc

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 06:06 PM
http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.de/2016/01/putin-may-use-limited-nuclear-war-to.html

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Putin May Use ‘Limited Nuclear War’ to Impose Martial Law and Cancel Elections, Rabinovich Says

Paul Goble


Staunton, January 14 – As Russia’s economic situation deteriorates and threats to Vladimir Putin’s power increase, the Kremlin leader is likely considering ways including even the possibility of launching a limited nuclear strike to justify the imposition of martial law and the cancellation of upcoming elections in Russia, according to Slava Rabinovich.

The Russian financier and blogger, in a posting on the Ukrainian Apostrophe portal today, argues that these dangers reflect the Kremlin leader’s misreading of the situation regarding “color” revolutions and of the ability of anyone to keep a nuclear war limited (apostrophe.com.ua/article/world/2016-01-14/putin-boitsya-revolyutsii-i-ne-isklyuchaet-yadernoy-voynyi/2933).

But Rabinovich suggests that Putin’s “track record” in recent years indicates that he is quite prepared to engage in the most outrageous, dangerous and, until he did them, unthinkable actions and that the rest of the world must recognize the profoundly dangerous nature of his regime.

Putin and Nikolay Patrushev, the secretary of the Russian Security Council “really fear so-called ‘color’ revolutions,” and think that the West is planning to carry one out in Russia itself, forgetting that Putin and “his organized criminal group” have destroyed all the bases for such a revolution, Rabinovich says.

“A revolution in Russia really will take place sooner or later,” he continues. “This will happen when the economic problems of the population grow first into economic demands and then into political ones. There won’t be any ‘external forces’ acting in the way in which Putin and Patrushev imagine.

But the two of them are convinced otherwise and fear such a “color” revolution in Russia because if one did occur, they would be out of power and not only “in flight but in the dock at the Hague,” and that is something they can imagine very well indeed.”

“In fact,” Rabinovich says, “Putin and Patrushev are psychopaths, who are living in the 1970s. Despite what people think, “they think in the categories of KGB officers” of that time and, “besides that, the two of them are psychopaths” whose actions are less affected by their environment than by their own internal demons.

In the year ahead, the Russian commentator says there is “a 50 percent chance that the elections in Russia will be put off as a result of the introduction of martial law” because in the minds of Putin and Patrushev even if the regime maintains tight control over the process, there is a risk that there could be a popular explosion, one far more dangerous than that of 2011.

But to introduce martial law, the two Kremlin operatives need a pretext. “They looked for it in Syria and now they are searching for it in Turkey and they may look somewhere else as well.” And the danger is that “they are really made and have begun not to exclude the possibility of even a limited nuclear war through the use of a tactical nuclear weapon.”

The goal would be to “frighten the entire world,” he says. “Does this appear to be a bad idea or an improbable one?” How about the annexation of Crimea, the war in the Donbas, the shooting down of the Malaysian jetliner, the war in Syria, and bombing of Syrian Turkomans despite Ankara’s warning, and the violation of Turkish airspace? Were these all good ideas?

“These psychopaths already have an ideal track record as far as ‘good ideas’ are concerned,” Rabinovich says. “The world has simply underrated all the bestial danger of the situation. The world is dealing with a dictatorial terrorist mafia regime which has nuclear weapons.”

Seventeen years ago, Yeltsin and his “’family’ voluntarily transferred these nuclear weapons to these bandits, and now Putin and the criminals around him may very well be prepared to “use nuclear weapons with one goal” to hold on to power regardless of what they have to do. Given what they’ve already done, “do you still have doubts?” Rabinovich asks.

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 06:14 PM
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2015/12/12/will-2016-see-the-three-russias-diverging/

Will 2016 See The Three Russias Diverging?


There have been many attempts to understand Russia by subdividing it. Is it a feudal Russia of rulers and ruled, or the four Russias posited by scholar Natalya Zubarevich, divided geographically and socio-economically? My own sense is that alongside such formulations, we also need to see the country and society divided into three, and the competition between them – one as much philosophical as practical – is likely to become all the sharper in 2016, defining Russia’s future trajectory, and the eventual post-Putin order.

The Three Russias

However little attention it may get in foreign coverage, Russia has a working, rational state. This is not some neo-fascist imperialism, nor an out-of-control kleptocracy where everything is plundered and funnelled into foreign bank accounts. There are inefficiencies, there is petty corruption – apparently on the rise again, as a result of officials’ shrinking real incomes – but in the main, the country works. Roads are paved, refuse is collected, teachers teach and police officers police. Most people essentially want to do their jobs, live – that perennial Russian dream and mantra – a “normal” life.

However, above Normal Russia squats the smaller, but vastly richer Kleptocratic Russia. This ugly parasite is much of the time happy to let its host do its thing, but has ultimate authority over the structures of state, routines of life and workings of justice, when it chooses to exert it. This is the realm of the embezzling senior officials, the pampered sons and daughters of the mighty, the businesspeople who depend as much on sweetheart deals and covert cartels as any real acumen.

Yet this country cannot simply be dismissed as a kleptocracy, because at the very top of the stepped ziggurat of national power lies the smallest and, perhaps, most dangerous and pernicious incarnation: Ideological Russia. It is hard to doubt that, whatever his motivations during his earlier presidencies, Vladimir Putin is driven now not by personal economic interest but an ideological programme, a vision of a nation restored to its due place in history and the world (and, by extension, a vision of his appropriate legacy). He has surrounded himself with a small coterie of like-minded cohorts – or at least figures willing and able to play that role – and they are ultimately in charge.

The Kleptocrats get to reach in to Normal Russia when they choose, to divert a procurement contract here, dictate a court decision there, but the Ideologists in turn have the final say. Ever since Crimea, the primary thrust of national policy has been towards confrontational geopolitics which have hit at the heart of the kleptocrats’ interests, grinding an already-suffering economy downwards and limiting their scope to move themselves and their assets at will. Beyond that, whereas in the past these two blocs collaborated smoothly, there are now indications that the Ideologues see some of the Kleptocrats and their parasitic habits as a growing problem in an age when dwindling resources need to be focused more directly on the ideological project. Witness, presumably, Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin’s dismissal and the increasing evidence of a not-as-bogus-as-usual anti-corruption campaign on the way.

Of course, no such simple pattern can be exact and accurate. There are individuals high up in the system, from example, from cabinet ministers to Central Bank chair Elvira Nabiullina, whose technocratic instincts seem closest to those of Normal Russia. Likewise, even Ideologists still seem happy to help their children find comfortable and highly lucrative positions, from whence to steal with savage abandon. However, as a broad model for trying to understand the disparate and often contradictory forces working to shape Russia’s future, this seems to have some value.

Widening gaps in 2016

Although it is probably wishful thinking to expect dramatic and positive outcomes over the course of the coming year, for a variety of reasons 2016 is likely to see the relationships between the three Russias become increasingly tense, laying the groundwork for change to come.

On 18 September, elections will be held for the Duma, the lower house, which will in many ways also be a referendum on the regime. There is no question of United Russia (and its affiliated pseudo-parties) losing their control over the chamber, both because of the propaganda campaign likely to precede the vote and also, where necessary, judicial rigging of the process and the count. We can, for example, expect to see the more vocal and effective Kremlin critics systematically excluded, vilified and pressurised. How the vote will count, though, is that it forces the state to mobilise the masses – and the extent to which it has to struggle to produce the results decreed by the Kremlin will provide insiders with an index of true popular discontent.

After all, Putin’s sky-high personal ratings tell us little about the public mood. Arguably, the growing rash of local labour and social protests, from truckers blocking roads to demonstrations against rising utilities prices, are a better measure, as inflation, wage pressures and the effects of social spending cuts all come to bite.

The Ideologists may be tempted to crank up their propaganda about a Russia isolated and embattled, but there is a real risk of ‘fantasy fatigue’ if this is just a matter of intemperate words and invented threats. On the other hand, manufacturing or introducing Russia into crises abroad to give substance to the hype, from a renewed Ukraine campaign to picking fights over the Arctic sea lanes, would not only deplete dwindling resources but likely only deepen its economic and diplomatic isolation.

This is unlikely to please the Kleptocrats, squeezed between economic stagnation, popular dissatisfaction and Kremlin adventurism. However, at present political power trumps all in Russia: the rich are not so much wealthy in their own right so much as the temporary stewards of those assets until the day comes when the Kremlin seeks to reassign them. To this end, they have a perverse incentive to want to see genuine rule of law and secure property rights come to Russia, and an end to its geopolitical struggle with the West.

An archetypal bankrobber wants the police force to be inefficient and corrupt – until he is rich enough to own banks, at which point he wants the state to protect his ill-gotten gains. So too, a kleptocratic generation of Russian oligarchs, minigarchs and boyar-bureaucrats who have done well thanks to Putin may well come to feel that their interests have come to diverge from his.

And what about the poor Russian people, the perennially disenfranchised? There seems little prospect of their rising against the regime, literally or metaphorically (rising, after all, for what?). Instead, theirs are the weapons of the weak: refusing to conform, turning to the underground economy, passively resisting to behave as their masters would want. This does not go unnoticed, and will be visible – at least to those who see the real, uncooked books – in indices from labour unrest and productivity to suicide rates and support for local civic initiatives.

In itself, this will not force change on the elite. However, it may scare the Kleptocrats and technocrats. If the economy worsens, if the elections prove tougher to massage, and if the Kremlin looks increasingly willing to sacrifice their interests in the name of an ideological project, at some point they will begin to look for ways to protect them.

And here’s the inevitable prediction buried in all these “year ahead” articles. It may well not come in 2016, but whenever Putin is replaced or succeeded, it will not be with another Ideologist, but with a Kleptocrat. The interests of the elite will take precedence over the masses’ but also over Russian geopolitical grandeur, and this new regime will eagerly seek to mend bridges with the West.

As a generation of ruthless exploiters gives way to their more pampered and less sharp-toothed children, the pressure to create reliable protections for property rights (however that property may have been acquired in the first place) will only grow. Meanwhile, ordinary Russians and their technocrat fellow-travellers in the elite will be looking for change, and thus the possibility – no more – is that a Kleptocratic presidency may in turn give way, some day, sometime, to a generation finally eager to make real the promises of 1991, of building genuine, working political and economic democracy. Perhaps.


Russia's finance minister warns that the country's reserve fund may run out this year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-13/russia-s-59-billion-budget-cushion-may-not-last-the-year-chart …

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 06:19 PM
Ceasefire? ATO Press Center advises of nearly 40 violations today, deterioration and continued escalation by Ru forces.

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 07:20 PM
Ceasefire? ATO Press Center advises of nearly 40 violations today, deterioration and continued escalation by Ru forces.

Russia sent more military equippment to #Donbas to make sure #Minsk3 will be a success
https://twitter.com/Guderian_Xaba/status/687703404752289792 …

At the railway station in occupied #Krasnodon 6 carriages arrived with ammo, 3 carriages with six BBM's on platform. https://twitter.com/StopTerror2015/status/687698434451726338 …

Horlivka 20:14
Hearing the sound of battle far away, shooting, mortars.
This #ceasefire goes well as the others did
https://twitter.com/gipsogolovij/status/687699250445078528 …

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 07:34 PM
Russian troops are positioning themselves for their major offensive planned against Mariupol.....in order to achieve a new Minsk 3......

OSCE reports pro-Russian militants building fortifications between #Kominternove and Vodyane
http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/215921 …
pic.twitter.com/jab9ZzHbGf

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 07:40 PM
Ukrainian Army shot down Russian UAV FORPOST that costs 6 million USD.
http://lugansk-news.com/ukrainian-army-shot-down-russian-uav-forpost-that-costs-6-million-usd/ …

21:51 bombs land, very densely
21:53 So far, at UA positions near #Opytne, strong pats
https://twitter.com/loogunda/status/687723805561765888 …

21:51 #Avdiivka @LuftGanza #Airport: intense small arms battle

Avdiivka 21:22
Something heavy incoming in #Optyne area.
https://twitter.com/bamr69/status/687716394490806272 …

Avdiivka 22:16
Last 1.5 hour intense battle can be heard from #Donetsk airport, small arms, AA-guns, smtms RPG, AGL https://twitter.com/Cryion1/status/687729991925272576 …

Some intense shelling/fighting in #Donetsk and surroundings this evening. #DonetskAirport #Optyne #Avdiivka

OUTLAW 09
01-14-2016, 08:51 PM
Ukrainian Army shot down Russian UAV FORPOST that costs 6 million USD.
http://lugansk-news.com/ukrainian-army-shot-down-russian-uav-forpost-that-costs-6-million-usd/ …

21:51 bombs land, very densely
21:53 So far, at UA positions near #Opytne, strong pats
https://twitter.com/loogunda/status/687723805561765888 …

21:51 #Avdiivka @LuftGanza #Airport: intense small arms battle

Avdiivka 21:22
Something heavy incoming in #Optyne area.
https://twitter.com/bamr69/status/687716394490806272 …

Avdiivka 22:16
Last 1.5 hour intense battle can be heard from #Donetsk airport, small arms, AA-guns, smtms RPG, AGL https://twitter.com/Cryion1/status/687729991925272576 …

Some intense shelling/fighting in #Donetsk and surroundings this evening. #DonetskAirport #Optyne #Avdiivka

22:24 #Makiivka - center hearing since hours the battle tow. Yasynuvata post - #Spartak, remotely but good calibres. https://twitter.com/OldHistoric/status/687732074623668225 …

22:30 #Makiivka VK Towards Gvardeyka, Grigorievka - to west sparkling party, endless flashes on the horizon.
https://twitter.com/malinazr/status/687733641791848448 …

Avdiivka 22:07
"Towards #Optyne bright flashes, seems to be falling, clearly visible from the window."

22:24 #Makiivka - center hearing since hours the battle tow. Yasynuvata post - #Spartak, remotely but good calibres. https://twitter.com/OldHistoric/status/687732074623668225 …

Donetsk 22:10
"Butovka - heavy salvos, from the hum sometimes the house vibrates." https://twitter.com/olgarjpthju/status/687728997778747392 …

OUTLAW 09
01-15-2016, 06:10 AM
Donetsk 4AM
Kirovskyi ds - Active shooting at west, towards Staromykhailivka-#Krasnohorivka.
https://twitter.com/UryKara4en/status/687818002524454912 …

Maryinka
5:35AM Almost all night, at various intervals of time one could hear salvos and the sound of small arms.
6:20AM Quiet

Horlivka 7:42AM
"Woke up to the sounds of #Minsk3 #ceasefire on the western outskirts of the city."
https://twitter.com/NovaGorlivka/status/687872404408942592 …

OUTLAW 09
01-15-2016, 06:49 AM
Reference Russian info warfare....

RT can't help themselves when they encounter a blogger who wants to promote #Putin, wars & nukes. Their next expert?
pic.twitter.com/r8bV4LGCo0

Ukraine War - Russian subversive group with ammunition detained in Popasna Ukraine:
http://youtu.be/W9eHuq2J-34?a

EU Mythbusters @EUvsDisinfo
Who is still alive according to proKremlin media? Read the latest #DisinfoReview to find out
http://eepurl.com/bMAv5P

OUTLAW 09
01-15-2016, 08:41 AM
Putin doesn't have much time-pressure builds up:NATO Jets Scrambled 160 Times to Protect Lithuanian Airspace in 2015 http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/natosource/nato-jets-scrambled-160-times-to-protect-lithuanian-airspace-in-2015#.Vpio_MnC2dc.twitter …

You know things are getting serious when grey cardinal Surkov is meeting with the feared Nuland to talk E. Ukraine http://kommersant.ru/doc/2891410

OUTLAW 09
01-15-2016, 08:59 AM
Donetsk 4AM
Kirovskyi ds - Active shooting at west, towards Staromykhailivka-#Krasnohorivka.
https://twitter.com/UryKara4en/status/687818002524454912 …

Maryinka
5:35AM Almost all night, at various intervals of time one could hear salvos and the sound of small arms.
6:20AM Quiet

Horlivka 7:42AM
"Woke up to the sounds of #Minsk3 #ceasefire on the western outskirts of the city."
https://twitter.com/NovaGorlivka/status/687872404408942592 …

Militants attack ATO forces 60 times in last day
http://www.unian.info/war/1237049-militants-attack-ato-forces-60-times-in-last-day.html …
pic.twitter.com/Q0z5LUbqNh

NOTE: full scale warfare is a level of at least 45 attacks per day....the so called ceasefire really no longer exists regardless of what the West thinks....

OUTLAW 09
01-15-2016, 12:01 PM
Col. Andriy Lysenko: During large-scale anti-sabotage operation, UA Armed Forces arrested 5 militants & found 1 cache

Col. Lysenko: 2 flights of enemy UAVs were recorded yesterday in ATO area near Shchastia, Luhansk region & Novomykhailivka, Donetsk region

ATO spokesperson: Militants violated cease-fire regime near Vodiane; UA servicemen opened fire in response bringing enemy fire to an end

Col. Andriy Lysenko: Mariupol sector: enemy was active near Maryinka: small arms were used & enemy snipers were active there

ATO spox: Donetsk sector: the most strained situation was yesterday near Novhorodske: 82-mm mortars were applied, enemy snipers were active

Col. Lysenko: Luhansk sector: the enemy was inactive yesterday

ATO spokesperson: The enemy systematically violated cease-fire regime; episodically mortars were used

OUTLAW 09
01-15-2016, 12:03 PM
Suspected Russian terrorist Anastasiya Leonova starts hunger strike in Kyiv jail
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/15-january-suspected-russian-terrorist-anastasiya-leonova …
pic.twitter.com/cSqO9l3D1e

Leonova is Russian citizen, was detained in SBU special op last year. Russian NGOs thinks that she is falsely accused and innocent ---That operation, when 1 SBU officer was killed. Also "Lesnik" from "Right Sector" was killed. SBU seized weapons and explosives in Kyiv

OUTLAW 09
01-15-2016, 03:29 PM
Two Ukrainian soldiers wounded in Donbas conflict zone in last day
http://www.unian.info/war/1237272-two-ukrainian-soldiers-wounded-in-donbas-conflict-zone-in-last-day.html …
pic.twitter.com/HPmPG4GDo4

Pushilin: the return of Donbass to Ukraine is impossible
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/15-january-pushilin-the-return-of-donbass-to-ukraine-is-impossible …

Reference the Russian shot down of MH17...now they are trying to stop a non UN tribunal that will start legal proceedings against Russia an the Russian MoD....

Shameless redux. #Russia vetoed UN tribunal into downing of civilian #MH17. Now says non-UN tribunals also not legit
http://www.unian.info/world/1237114-moscow-says-possible-non-un-tribunal-on-mh17-crash-would-be-illegitimate.html …

"#Surkov has nothing to do with Donbas war, he just likes to talk".
https://twitter.com/novostidnua_en/status/687990955149029376 …

Asst. SecState Nuland meets with #Putin advisor Vladislav #Surkov who is under US sanctions
http://news.yahoo.com/us-kremlin-officials-meet-russian-border-ukraine-talks-143617817.html …
pic.twitter.com/MlCNWzkhb3

Enemy Russian militants planned to attack #Mariupol district administration.
http://en.censor.net.ua/photo_news/369292/dpr_terrorists_planned_to_commit_attack_in_one_of_ district_administrations_of_mariupol_sbu_photos …

OUTLAW 09
01-15-2016, 03:53 PM
JCCC`s Russia envoys 'unable' to ensure full ceasefire by its militants

http://www.unian.info/war/1237427-jcccs-russia-envoys-unable-to-ensure-full-ceasefire-by-donbas-militants.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-15-2016, 05:46 PM
War Buryats of the Russian World’: Russian 5th Tank Brigade in Donbas... http://fb.me/NfILDDmw

Kremlin-backed fighter turns in his guns
http://uatoday.tv/politics/ukraine-s-security-agency-touts-waiting-for-you-at-home-defection-program-572218.html …
pic.twitter.com/K2cVLIwZTj

"Silk road" from Ukraine to China through Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan. First Ukrainian train https://twitter.com/avaza1972/status/688018367630958592 …

Putin is rapidly approaching a critical decision point...continue fighting a two front war and or a total collapse of his economy similar to 1989....

Breaking: Brent #oil trading around $28 a barrel (!!) via @JavierBlas2
pic.twitter.com/i6qWPwXd85

Dow sinks 400+ points in global equity rout as oil’s plunge past $30 sends markets reeling
http://bloom.bg/1USKb8Z
pic.twitter.com/UcD3ZQgoe5

Russia's retirees protest cancellation of free public transpo, but #Putin's priorities are in #Syria and #Ukraine.
pic.twitter.com/vUiysYpwtN

We have lost": Sberbank of Russia's CEO calls Russia "downshifter state"
http://www.unian.info/politics/1237754-we-have-lost-sberbank-of-russias-ceo-calls-russia-downshifter-state.html …
pic.twitter.com/ffaAjp4E6d

OUTLAW 09
01-15-2016, 06:10 PM
Reference the Russian shot down of MH17.....

#Russia keeps acting like a common thug, claiming that #MH17 evidence was planted & blaming the victim.
#RussiaLies
http://www.kp.ru/daily/26480/3350169/ …

Russia's aviation officials send a letter to the Netherlands:
👈#MH17 missile was planted
👈It's all #Ukraine's fault
pic.twitter.com/ydTyaCDWbV

OUTLAW 09
01-15-2016, 06:35 PM
News
Another 4 Ukrainian soldiers have been injured in more than 100 (pro-)#Russian attacks in eastern #Ukraine over last last 2 days.

OUTLAW 09
01-15-2016, 06:57 PM
Surkov, #Nuland hold closed-door talks on #Ukraine (not represented) in #Kaliningrad, #Russia.
pic.twitter.com/jt5rj8BE99

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 06:44 AM
Really worth a read, just for the pure stupidity of how the group was linked in Ukraine

Russia’s 200th Motorized Infantry Brigade in the Donbass via @bellingcat https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2016/01/16/russias-200th-motorized-infantry-brigade-in-the-donbass/ …

Basically Russian troops paint new markings on their vehicles when they go to Ukraine as a disguise, but don't remove them back in Russia

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 06:46 AM
RussiaLies: #Ukraine is "responsible" for #MH17 & #BorisNemtsov's murder, too. Same author wrote both lame stories.
pic.twitter.com/wbEU2MYwpL

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 09:12 AM
ATO press center reported 40 ceasefire violations y/day, 82-mm and 120-mm mortars used at #Maryinka (near #Donetsk) and #Vodyane (#Mariupol)

Putin is slowly facing a single point of failure moment.....continue a two front war or the utter collapse of the Russian economy a la 1998......

"What? It's over?!!!" Tabloid MK on how the lifeblood of Russia's economy - oil - is drying up as oil price falls.
pic.twitter.com/zNCUXZ2DwC

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 09:13 AM
Russia Air force too brittle for brinkmanship
http://www.ponarseurasia.org/memo/russian-air-power-too-brittle-brinksmanship …

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 09:21 AM
MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT.........from late yesterday..as soon as it is out...will post it here.....

During the next 48 hours, we plan the biggest revelation about the Russian involvement in Eastern #Ukraine since the #PutinAtWar report.

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 12:46 PM
Wonder if Nuland talked to the Russians about this......???

Ukraine: Russian gunman fired on an @OSCE vehicle in the Donetsk region
MT @ukrpravda_news
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/01/16/7095592/ …
pic.twitter.com/ymV86rkBmg

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 01:35 PM
Russian cyber warfare....strikes again in the Ukraine after the power grid failure..

On computer system of Kyiv's airport "Borispil" was committed hacker attack, possibly from Russia - Lysenko https://twitter.com/news112ua/status/688327144364183552 …

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 05:04 PM
Ukrainian ATO forces report 40 attacks in Donbas in last day
http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/317869.html …

Germany slowing selling out to Putin and throwing Ukraine under the bus...they have been since Minsk 1 and 2......

Germany's Soc Dem Foreign Minister Steinmeier wants to reactivate the NATO-Russia Council asap. Serious mistake! http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/f-a-z-interview-mit-frank-walter-steinmeier-14016260.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 05:06 PM
Russian troops and her mercenaries begin their daily 40 plus shellings and attacks starting at about 1500 today.

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 05:48 PM
Russian troops and her mercenaries begin their daily 40 plus shellings and attacks starting at about 1500 today.


Anyone who is serious about #Minsk, must declare it dead now.
#Russia will never allow reintegration of #Donbas into #Ukraine this way.

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 05:50 PM
http://maidantranslations.com/2016/01/16/dmitry-tymchuk-military-update-01-12-freesavchenko/

Dmitry Tymchuk: Military update 01.12

Posted on January 16, 2016

Operational data from Information Resistance:


We are recording an increase in the activity of Russian-terrorist troops and a resulting escalation of conflict in the ATO zone in Donbas. During the past 24 hours, militants have carried out shellings and provocations, using small arms, grenade launchers, ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft systems, 82 mm mortars, as well as tanks (in one instance), and 120 mm mortars (in another instance). During the past 24 hours, militants were particularly active west and northwest of Donetsk, in the vicinity of Horlivka, and in the area of the Svitlodarsk bridgehead. Russian-terrorist units were also increasingly active south of Donetsk and in the coastal regions.

In certain areas, the militants are rapidly increasing their reconnaissance and sabotage activities (mainly mine-laying), using DRGs. The level of professionalism of these DRGs is notably diverse – groups of Russian GRU Spetsnaz are operating professionally, while groups of local militants trained in their “training centers” demonstrate a very low level of competence (even as far as detonating their own mines and tripwires).

Operating with two groups of mobile fire from the direction of Zhobunky and the private residences estate south of the Chervonoarmiiske Highway, militants shelled two advanced ATO strongholds in the vicinity of Pisky. The militants used heavy machine guns (at least two BTR-80’s fired from the direction of the private estate); from the direction of Zhobunky, the militant infantry group operated from the neutral strip, using 82 mm mortars and AGS-17 for fire support in addition to small arms.

From the direction of the DAP and Spartak, militants deployed 82 mm mortars and an SPG-9 against ATO positions in the vicinity of Opytne and the former anti-aircraft defense unit (8 shots were fired). Additionally, militants used a ZU-23-2 to fire on Ukrainian troop positions south of Avdiivka, from the direction of a high ground height of 272.2 m (near the Yasynuvata junction).

Militants pulled up additional firepower – 82 mm and 120 mm mortar units – to the northern outskirts of Horlivka (Poselok 6-7 estate, and near the Haharina Mine). Terrorists opened mortar fire (82 mm) on Leninske (where no Ukrainian troops are positioned). Additionally, militants opened heavy fire (using 4-5 AGS-17’s, at least two SPG-9 details, heavy machine guns, and 120 mm mortars) from the direction of waste banks near Poselok 6-7, firing at the ATO stronghold between Shumy and Mayorske. Militants also actively shelled the area of Zaitseve – Zhovanka (small arms, 82 mortars, ZU-23-2).

Two militant groups shelled the ATO forces’ advanced positions west of Novhorodske, using small arms and grenade launchers from the direction of the Zalizna Balka river.

Militants also stepped up their activity in the Kominternove – Vodyane area. Namely, terrorists fired on Vodyane (where no Ukrainian troops are positioned) from the southern outskirts of Kominternove, using two “Vasilek” 2B9 automatic 82 mm mortars and AGS-17’s.

Militants fired on the ATO forces’ strongholds near Troitske from a tank (HE projectiles, up to 10 shots). Cover for the tank was provided by a BMP-2 (which did not open fire) and several AGS-17’s (which fired actively to prevent the ATO forces from deploying anti-tank weapons).

Militants organized supply lines for the reinforced battalion (BTG) which has been advancing in stages to the area east of Horlivka (see IR comment of 01.11.2016). Ammunition and equipment are being transferred to the deployment area of this BTG from the railway station in Debaltseve through Vuhlehirsk (six trucks of various types spotted during the past 24 hours).

In the Petrovskyi district of Donetsk, south of the horse riding club, a militant armored group has been spotted. The group includes three BMP-2’s, one BTR-80, two MT-LB’s, and up to one reinforced platoon of personnel (25-30 militants, including those on board armored vehicles). This armored group was proceeding south.

Militants have reactivated the reinforcement of their positions along the Zaichenko – Sakhanka line, as well as northwest of Telmanove. The right flank of the militants positioned near Zaichenko received four more armored vehicles (three BMP-2, one MT-LB) from the direction of the “reserve base” in Patriotychne. The artillery that previously operated east of Dzerzhynske (three units of BM-21 “Grad” MLRS, and at least five D-30A 122 mm howitzers) was moved north, to an area east of Kranoarmiiske (in the Shevchenko – Kozatske – Porokhnya triangle).

Militants are transferring reinforcements towards Krasnyi Oktyabr and Nova Mar’ivka. Up to one platoon of militants and ten pieces of equipment (including ACVs: several BTR-80’s) were transferred here from the direction of Telmanove. Ammunition is also being transferred to this area by motor transport.

The military leadership of the “LNR” continues reinforcing the tactical group deployed along the Kalynove – Veselohorivka – Sanzharivka line. Reinforcements are arriving through Bryanka, Almazna, and Virhulivka. Namely, four MT-LB’s, two Ural trucks (one shelter with a towed field kitchen), and two BRM-1K were spotted between Almazna and Hannivka. The convoy was proceeding in the direction of Veselohorivka, moving by dusk and observing concealment measures. The appearance of tanks near Kalynove (at least four spotted) and their use in the shelling of the advanced positions of Ukrainian troops indicates that the “LNR” forces in this direction of operation have been considerably reinforced. Combined with the “DNR’s” battalion tactical group (including artillery) emerging east of Horlivka, this gives rise to concerns about the enemy’s potential action in the area of the Svitlodarsk bridgehead and in the Artemivsk area of operation in general.

In the occupied territory, Russian military servicemen are conducting geodetic surveys in several sections along the demarcation line, to assess the degree of frost penetration into the ground – possibly to estimate the possibility of using armored vehicles of the Russian Armed Forces and the “DNR” for an offensive against Ukrainian troops. Specifically, such ground surveys are being conducted south of Donetsk, in the strip reaching as far as Dokuchajevsk.

The “DNR” command states that the incidence rate of infectious diseases among militants has increased. The situation is critical with terrorist units operating in the vicinity of the DAP – some 50% of those militants are undergoing treatment, and the Donetsk central infectious diseases hospital is filled to overcapacity. The medical stations for the “DNR” gangs are not stocked with antibiotics or fever-reducing drugs; their supply is expected shortly from Russia.

Glossary:
ACV – armored combat vehicle
AGS-17 – automatic grenade launcher
ATO – Anti-Terrorist Operation
BMP – infantry fighting vehicle
BTG – battalion tactical group
BTR, APC – armored personnel carrier
BRDM – armored reconnaissance and surveillance vehicle
BRM – armored reconnaissance vehicle
DAP – Donetsk International Airport
DNR – “Donetsk People’s Republic”
DRG – sabotage and reconnaissance group
LNR – “Luhansk People’s Republic”
MT-LB – light multipurpose tracked vehicle
MLRS – multiple-launch rocket systems
SPG-9 – stand-mounted grenade launcher
ZU-23-2 – anti-aircraft artillery system

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 05:51 PM
@JulianRoepcke BILD EXCLUSIVE

How Russia finances the Ukrainian rebel territories
http://ow.ly/X9wTh
pic.twitter.com/ztiqzXA7aJ

Research proves w/ Donbas people interviews, official DNR/LNR data and excl. intelligence,#Russia systematically took over eastern #Ukraine.

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 06:30 PM
1st border surveillance system by US WorldwideAerosCorp on way to UA(to be mounted on land border of Azov Sea coast)
pic.twitter.com/p6c8MVA1rO

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 06:50 PM
@Jason_Healey "What’s Next for Putin in Ukraine: Cyber Escalation?"
Free @ccdcoe book
https://ccdcoe.org/sites/default/files/multimedia/pdf/CyberWarinPerspective_full_book.pdf …
pic.twitter.com/C560PJmHYQ

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 06:58 PM
Russian 20th Combined Arms Army near Ukraine: 9th Motor Rifle Bde + 1st Guards Tank Bde (Boguchar) + 345th Airborne Assault Bde (Valuyki)

More info:
http://vpk-news.ru/articles/28606
http://southfront.org/russian-armed-forces-reforms-and-results/ …

Russia will form 3 new ground forces divisions facing Ukraine and Baltics. Shoigu: "The task is extremely important"
http://tass.ru/en/defense/848904 …

Russia constructs and fortifies military facilities in Belgorod region near border with Ukraine - Turchynov http://en.censor.net.ua/news/368890/russia_constructs_and_fortifies_military_facilitie s_near_border_with_ukraine_turchynov …

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 07:01 PM
@JulianRoepcke BILD EXCLUSIVE

How Russia finances the Ukrainian rebel territories
http://ow.ly/X9wTh
pic.twitter.com/ztiqzXA7aJ

Research proves w/ Donbas people interviews, official DNR/LNR data and excl. intelligence,#Russia systematically took over eastern #Ukraine.

Once a month columns of Russian army trucks arrive in #Ukraine w/ millions of rubles for separatist “states”
http://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/ukraine-konflikt/russia-finances-donbass-44151166.bild.html …

LNR authorities demand taxes for 2 moths in advance. Reports that small businesses going to strike or closing.
via @olgarjpthju

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 07:03 PM
Twitter part and parcel of the Russian info warfare....???????

I reported two VERIFIED accounts for impersonating me—neither complaint upheld. Twitter is insane. https://twitter.com/arthurschwartz/status/688412639047856128 …

Do we need further proof of political bias? Those fake NYT journo accounts removed in hours. Milo imposters rampant https://twitter.com/arthurschwartz/status/688412639047856128 …

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 07:12 PM
http://maidantranslations.com/2016/01/16/dmitry-tymchuk-military-update-01-13-freesavchenko/

Dmitry Tymchuk: Military update 01.14

Posted on January 16, 2016

Operational data from Information Resistance:


In the context of the escalation of conflict in Donbas, Russian-terrorist troops have became more active, not only along the demarcation line in areas controlled by the “DNR,” but also in the Luhansk oblast.

During the past 24 hours, militants shelled the ATO forces’ positions in the vicinity of Pisky (using heavy machine guns and 82 mm mortars from the private residences sector south of the Volvo Center’s [23b Sofiiska Street] – Vtoraya Ploshchadka estate). [The ATO forces’] positions along the Donetsk Bypass, near Opytne, and south of Avdiivka were shelled from grenade launchers and 82 mm mortars; the use of two ZU-23-2’s was also reported. Several militant firing groups were operating from the direction of the DAP and Spartak, and from the direction of the Yasynuvata junction. Mortars were used to provide cover for infantry groups moving through the neutral zone.

A militant group approached the area north of Krasnyi Partyzan from the direction of Panteleimonivka and shelled the ATO forces’ stronghold located southeast of Verkhnotoretske (two SPG-9 details were operating). In the vicinity of Mar’inka, two militant infantry groups advanced to the neutral zone and opened fire from RPGs.

North of Staromykhailivka, a militant armored group advanced (three BTR-80’s). In addition to that, terrorists shelled Krasnohorivka and the road north of the town twice over the past 24 hours, using heavy machine guns and AGS-17’s.

Militants fired on the ATO forces’ stronghold using an AGS-17 from the direction of the Zalizna Balka [river] and the waste banks of the Lenina Mine. The Ukrainian troops’ stronghold southwest of Mayorsk was also shelled from stand-mounted grenade launchers.

Attempts at a “creeping occupation” continue on the part of Russian-terrorist troops. Namely, a militant infantry group was discovered in the “gray zone” near the Dolomitne and Travneve (area of Novoluhanske), attempting to advance towards Semyhirya. The group was stopped by the ATO forces’ fire.

The militants are transferring armored combat vehicles and motor vehicles to the area of Alchevsk and Perevalsk (up to 10 motor vehicles, nine ACVs, mainly BMP-1 and MT-LB, as well as several BTR-70’s and BTR-80’s). The headcount is up to two companies – 150 personnel.

In the area of Dokuchajevsk, militants are regrouping their forces: we observed the movement of five armored vehicles (four MT-LB’s and one BMP-2), and a mortar detail on board of motor vehicles (four 2B9 “Vasilek” mortars).

The militants are transferring armored vehicles to the vicinity of Mospyne: 12 tanks and 8 ACVs (BMP-1, BMP-2, BTRs); several fuel trucks were also seen on the move.

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 07:14 PM
OSCE opens Forward Patrol Base in Stanytsia Luhanska
http://www.unian.info/war/1238430-osce-opens-forward-patrol-base-in-stanytsia-luhanska.html …
pic.twitter.com/gm8FKlwSPe

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 07:19 PM
@Jason_Healey "What’s Next for Putin in Ukraine: Cyber Escalation?"
Free @ccdcoe book
https://ccdcoe.org/sites/default/files/multimedia/pdf/CyberWarinPerspective_full_book.pdf …
pic.twitter.com/C560PJmHYQ

Russia starts serious cyber-warfare campaign in Ukraine. Substations, airports. Ukrainian NPPs - next target? https://twitter.com/Liveuamap/status/688345191883751424 …

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 07:22 PM
Developing.........

Unusual movement of military columns, gas tank trucks reported from #Crimea. Something is about to take place? https://twitter.com/satslavtv/status/688429128551415808 …

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 07:31 PM
OSCE Camcopter S-100 #UAV hit by small-arms fire near Stakhanov in Luhansk region
pic.twitter.com/91jqZ6buEy

Russian heavy artillery shelling Opytne and Zenit north to #Donetsk all through the afternoon. https://twitter.com/kazarin13/status/688416529805905920 …

OUTLAW 09
01-16-2016, 07:58 PM
@JulianRoepcke BILD EXCLUSIVE

How Russia finances the Ukrainian rebel territories
http://ow.ly/X9wTh
pic.twitter.com/ztiqzXA7aJ

Research proves w/ Donbas people interviews, official DNR/LNR data and excl. intelligence,#Russia systematically took over eastern #Ukraine.

In the intel world one constantly looks for indicators..in the case of eastern Ukraine the question has always been what is Putin's intent?....to pressure the Ukraine over the EU and on and on...THERE has never been a full discussion on whether he really wants to annex eastern Ukraine or not.

With this Bild analysis the answer is very clear...he is after a full annexation regardless of what he is saying publicly which we all know he always lies.....

THIS is extremely interesting as the town Debaltseve was during the Minsk 2 talks where Putin was present...at the heart of the agreement...Putin constantly demanded that Debaltseve was to be under Russian occupation and even Merkel was dismayed by his demands---at the same time extremely heavy fighting broke out with actual Russian troop units attacking repeatedly Debaltseve until it was captured.

BTW--the actual town of Debaltseve as actually in Minsk 2 fully in UAF territory--while the heavy fighting was ongoing the US, France and Germany said very very little.

During a press conference Putin "crowed" about the UAF being totally surrounded and that they must surrender...BUT surprisingly the UAF was able to withdraw all 3K troops and their heavy weapons much to the surprise of the Russian Army.

NOW with this article we fully see that Putin and his military where working towards a full capture of the eastern Ukraine ie a military annexation BUT due to the heavy UAF pushback which surprised even the Russian military that annexation and total takeover did not occur.

REMEMBER during the Debaltseve fighting the Russians held a massive one sided tank count of over 500 AD Obama was refusing ship TOWs as he did not want to "escalate" the fighting OR as was reported he was afraid the Russians would escalate even higher....WHICH they did anyway multiple times since then even when the US did not send the TOWs.

Russia must’ve anticipated this prop-up of separatists when insisted on railroad city Debaltseve @ Minsk.
pic.twitter.com/27GWtoBLlC

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 07:46 AM
Not bad for a Sunday morning.
#Russian (left) and #Ukrainian (right) language news coverage of our #DonbassReport.
pic.twitter.com/xbYbl0edK2

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 08:19 AM
Ulyukayev concocts a theory of how there isn't any global growth to argue backwards to "normal" of Russia
https://slon.ru/posts/62407?utm_source=slon.ru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morning … Lame

Some are arguing the Ruble will not fall further as the oil price will not sink any more...but wait it is headed to 16 USD.....and they planned their budget at 40 USD per barrel....

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 08:21 AM
@OSCE_SMM issues spot report confirming sniper shooting of OSCE vehicle
http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-live-day-698/#11922 …

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 08:28 AM
Pity the article is in Ukr only: WHY Ukraine shall NOT change the Constitution and pass the elections bill in Donbas
http://gazeta.dt.ua/internal/sche-raz-pro-osoblivosti-osoblivostey-samoupravlinnya-_.html …

The Russian Generals’ Funeral March (Statistics and Infographics 2.0)
https://informnapalm.org/en/jan13-russia-generals/ …
pic.twitter.com/hhizo93Lo8

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 10:57 AM
12:20 #Avdiivka @tiamat007 Shelling in #Opytne-#airport area raged. Grenade launchers and small arms

New Russian mercenary tactic to raise funds.....
My friend who believed 'all calm there' lies, went to #Donetsk. He was cast into cellar. His parents raise money for ransom"

12:22 #Donetsk #Proletarsky ds @DoneckiiPatriot Several distant explosions were heard

12:24 #Avdiivka @owl_ok One can hear strong explosions towards #Opytne

09:18 #Donetsk @UkraineSuper1 2 outgoing shots from #Oktyabrsky towards #Avdiivka

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 11:03 AM
Mark Galeotti @MarkGaleotti

Interesting on how #Russian #organizedcrime hides cash in #Ireland IFSC funds + land - via @Independent_ie
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/russian-mob-hides-cash-in-ifsc-funds-and-land-34370807.html …

tho I also wonder how much of this is true mob money + how much embezzled/capital flight money

Russian mafia money" is being routed through Ireland concealed in massive hedge funds,
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/russian-mob-hides-cash-in-ifsc-funds-and-land-34370807.html …
pic.twitter.com/JzSEjUmtc3

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 11:15 AM
How much longer can Putin maintain a two front war....with oil at under 30 and still sinking AND then this cost just for the eastern Ukraine....

BILD calculates Russia is spending c.79 million euros/month on salaries, pensions in Donestsk & Lugansk

THIS does not count the troop salaries and military supplies that also total over an estimated 5M USD per day.....

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 11:30 AM
Another great example of just how poorly Obama, Kerry and the entire NSC is functioning these days and again there is simply no strategy for anything much less Syria....

Social media has been carrying this theme for over now 18 months... I have posted countless comments concerning this topic here at SWJ on the Ukrainian thread....one would think that out of the entire 700 person NSC someone......but at least Kerry could read SWJ....it is all there to be read and thought about complete with links for fact checking......

AND yes no amount of "messaging" is going to resolve this development....

Finally waking up to the problem. America to investigate Russian meddling in EU - via @Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/12103602/America... …

BTW---this is the really first time western MSM has stepped up and addressed what social media has been drum beating for over 18 very long months.....WHY is that????

BUT here is the core Obama problem...investigate in Obama speak just means a article, a possible PR release and or a Twitter comment..it really does not mean he will do anything concrete.

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 11:36 AM
Another great example of just how poorly Obama, Kerry and the entire NSC is functioning these days and again there is simply no strategy for anything much less Syria....

Social media has been carrying this theme for over now 18 months... I have posted countless comments concerning this topic here at SWJ on the Ukrainian thread....one would think that out of the entire 700 person NSC someone......but at least Kerry could read SWJ....it is all there to be read and thought about complete with links for fact checking......

AND yes no amount of "messaging" is going to resolve this development....

Finally waking up to the problem. America to investigate Russian meddling in EU - via @Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/12103602/America... …

BTW---this is the really first time western MSM has stepped up and addressed what social media has been drum beating for over 18 very long months.....WHY is that????

BUT here is the core Obama problem...investigate in Obama speak just means a article, a possible PR release and or a Twitter comment..it really does not mean he will do anything concrete.

TRULY think about this article...it really goes back to the true concept of Russian non linear warfare driving in support of a political warfare set of goals....

Regardless of all the Obama and Putin exchanges Putin has not come off his non linear warfare towards the US, Ukraine and now Syria.....

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 11:44 AM
Paul Goble @PaulGoble1

Moscow Propaganda and Disinformation Spreading from Mass Media to Academic Output
http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2016/01/moscow-disinformation-spreading-from.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 01:30 PM
Paul Goble @PaulGoble1

Moscow Propaganda and Disinformation Spreading from Mass Media to Academic Output
http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2016/01/moscow-disinformation-spreading-from.html …

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Moscow Disinformation Spreading from Mass Media to Academic Output

Paul Goble


Staunton, January 17 – When most people think about Russian disinformation now, they think almost exclusively about stories directed to a mass audience, be it via the print media or the Internet. That is a certainly a serious problem, but attention to it has kept many from focusing on what may be an even more serious development.

That problem is the spread of propaganda and disinformation from these mass media outlets to what are ostensibly scholarly publications, a development that represents a return to some of the worst excesses of Soviet times when scholars were forced to follow the party line on issues of importance to the Kremlin.

And this development threatens both Russian scholars who, while they may not have to cite Lenin as their parents and grandparents did, have to hew the Putin line on such issues and Western scholars who may not recognize the way in which this new “party” line has infected nominally “academic” research.

The challenge of identifying and countering such propaganda and disinformation in ostensibly academic articles is far more difficult than pointing up the latest lies, misrepresentations and distortions in the statements of Russian officials or commentators. It requires more time, more expertise, and more effort.

But it is an effort that is well worthwhile, and everyone who is concerned about accuracy can only be grateful to those who take the time to analyze such pieces and show how they weave together misrepresentations with real facts in order to lead astray both Russian and Western audiences by promoting the Kremlin’s ideology.

A remarkable example of this is provided this weekend by two members of the International Circassian Council, Iyad Youghar and Adel Bashqawi who analyze one such example of Russian disinformation and in so doing highlight both the insidious nature of such things and the reasons it has to be done (justicefornorthcaucasus.info/?p=1251676982).

They focus on an article by two researchers at Russia’s Southern Federal University entitled “The Circassian Question: Transformation of Content and Perception” that has been published in Bylye gody, vol. 36, no. 2 (2015): 450-460 (academia.edu/15285565/Circassian_Question_Transformation_of_Content_and_ Perception).

Among the distortions this brief work contains, Youghar and Bashqawi point out, are the following, each of which reflects Russian efforts at disinformation cast in terms that make the article sound less like propaganda than like scholarship and that as a result are likely to be accepted by many and inform the thinking of those less attuned to the issues involved.

First, they note, the article not only falsifies dates of the Russian-Circassian War which lasted from 1763 to 1864 but rechristens that conflict as “the Caucasian War,” a Russian innovation which ignores what really happened in the western North Caucasus.

Second, the article suggests that “the so-called Circassian question” only became “hot” in the run-up to the 2014 Sochi Olympiad. In fact, Circassians have been protesting Russian actions in their homeland for a long time, most prominently in recent times in 2007 when Moscow invented the idea that the Circassians had been “voluntarily” associated with Russia for 450 years.

Third, the article presents as fact Vladimir Putin’s mistake about the history of the Sochi coastal area. He talked about the Greeks settling there in antiquity without making reference to the fact that it was already populated by Circassians.

Fourth, the article says that the rise of the Internet has allowed Russia to expose Circassian falsifications and overcome Circassian resistance. In fact, Youghar and Bashqawi say, the worldwideweb has led to greater Circassian activism and greater attention to the real history of the Circassians.

And fifth, the article blames outside powers for everything bad that has occurred in the North Caucasus and presents Russia as being an invariably positive force, a misrepresentation that falls on its face if one examines any of the records of the conflict and the genocidal expulsion of the Circassians by Russian forces.

In Western academic life, any article that got so much wrong would be the subject of intense criticism by other scholars. But Russian articles of this kind often seem to get a pass, with those who read them forgetting to do the basic fact checking that they would insist upon if the article were published anywhere else.

It is time for that to stop, not only for the benefit of those in the West who need to know the truth about what Moscow has been doing but also for the benefit of scholars and others within the borders of the Russian Federation who once again are being spoon fed the kind of propaganda that many had hoped had ended with the demise of the USSR.


Exclusive" in pro-Kremlin tabloid: "Germans will have to choose between Nazism and Islam"
http://www.kp.ru/daily/26481.7/3351106/ …
pic.twitter.com/S2tVJ7bAky

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 01:44 PM
Militants violate truce 36 times in eastern #Ukraine overnight http://uatoday.tv/politics/militants-violate-truce-36-times-in-eastern-ukraine-overnight-572857.html …

Five border guards were detained at Chonhar checkpoint for taking a bribe: The Security Service of Ukraine tog...
http://bit.ly/1lkjkXg

Dirty propaganda wars in Russia.
http://dw.com/p/1He3T?tw
Senior Chechen officials follow Kadyrov w remarkably belligerent comments about the Russian opposition.
http://echo.msk.ru/blog/echomsk/1695678-echo/ …

Enemy militants in #Donbas received about 15 thousand tons of ammunition from #Russia in recent months.
http://ukraineunderattack.org/en/52622-russia-supplied-tons-of-ammunition-to-donbas-tuka.html …

In #Pisky and #Opytne Russian militants have repeatedly fired Ukraine's army from grenade launchers and small arms.
http://en.censor.net.ua/n369484

Kremlin Trolls @KremlinTrolls
Contradictions of Russian propaganda:
Nina Kouprianova ==> @NinaByzantina
http://cached.newslookup.com/cached.php?ref_id=80&siteid=2068&id=5984041&t=1399429527 …
@Fake_MIDRF

All you need to know about #Ukraine #War - #Russian heavy howitzer moves in #Makiivka #Ukraine :
https://youtu.be/ZaF_x6lPNw4
pic.twitter.com/ibkQ3oYgOk

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 02:11 PM
@guardian People in Donbas,Ukraine allege gangs of Russian-backed terrorist forces kidnap young girls and earn money by trading them abroad

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 02:41 PM
#Ukraine's Alamo: How '#Cyborg' defenders of #Donetsk airport saved the new Ukraine
http://bunews.com.ua/opinion/item/battle-of-donetsk-airport-anniversary-honoring-ukraines-cyborgs-the-legendary-defenders-of-donetsk-airport-who-defied-the-kremlin-and-inspired-an-entire-nation …

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 03:04 PM
Under the rubric of...just what the heck is Putin up to.......??????

RF has deployed 70th motorized brigade under the guise of "peacemakers" to the border of Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/newsburko/status/688708818688192517 …

Selbsternannte Friedensstifter,oder was macht die fernφstliche 70.Brig. im Rostower Gebiet?
http://nplm.in/wph

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 03:38 PM
Once a month columns of Russian army trucks arrive in #Ukraine w/ millions of rubles for separatist “states”
http://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/ukraine-konflikt/russia-finances-donbass-44151166.bild.html …

LNR authorities demand taxes for 2 moths in advance. Reports that small businesses going to strike or closing.
via @olgarjpthju

Apparently, Moscow is using Abkhazian banks to send money to the Donbass. Birth of a new secrecy jurisdiction?
http://echo.msk.ru/news/1695682-echo.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 04:28 PM
More Russian info warfare.....under the rubric crazy.........
Russian "cossack": Turkey already deployed 1,5M soldiers at Donbass.
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/17-january-russian-cossack-turkey-already-deployed-15m-of …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWObmROYLLI … via @ZhidoBandera

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 04:50 PM
Russia's actions have turned #Donetsk into a parallel universe

The island of Donetsk http://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_the_island_of_donetsk … via @ecfr

Compelling dispatch from inside the "DNR" virtual republic
https://twitter.com/fwesslau/status/688448058598752256 …

Shellings resume for the day.........
Horlivka, 5 pm - "Minsk cease-fire started" . Battle to the SW.
https://twitter.com/NovaGorlivka/status/688737123256651776 …

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 05:28 PM
In the intel world one constantly looks for indicators..in the case of eastern Ukraine the question has always been what is Putin's intent?....to pressure the Ukraine over the EU and on and on...THERE has never been a full discussion on whether he really wants to annex eastern Ukraine or not.

With this Bild analysis the answer is very clear...he is after a full annexation regardless of what he is saying publicly which we all know he always lies.....

THIS is extremely interesting as the town Debaltseve was during the Minsk 2 talks where Putin was present...at the heart of the agreement...Putin constantly demanded that Debaltseve was to be under Russian occupation and even Merkel was dismayed by his demands---at the same time extremely heavy fighting broke out with actual Russian troop units attacking repeatedly Debaltseve until it was captured.

BTW--the actual town of Debaltseve as actually in Minsk 2 fully in UAF territory--while the heavy fighting was ongoing the US, France and Germany said very very little.

During a press conference Putin "crowed" about the UAF being totally surrounded and that they must surrender...BUT surprisingly the UAF was able to withdraw all 3K troops and their heavy weapons much to the surprise of the Russian Army.

NOW with this article we fully see that Putin and his military where working towards a full capture of the eastern Ukraine ie a military annexation BUT due to the heavy UAF pushback which surprised even the Russian military that annexation and total takeover did not occur.

REMEMBER during the Debaltseve fighting the Russians held a massive one sided tank count of over 500 AD Obama was refusing ship TOWs as he did not want to "escalate" the fighting OR as was reported he was afraid the Russians would escalate even higher....WHICH they did anyway multiple times since then even when the US did not send the TOWs.

Russia must’ve anticipated this prop-up of separatists when insisted on railroad city Debaltseve @ Minsk.
pic.twitter.com/27GWtoBLlC

Strelkov: "we had to take Debaltseve with Artemivsk in 3 days, but it lasted 1,5 months"
pic.twitter.com/qvZRgiQMLh
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/17-january-exleader-of-russian-terror-group-dnr-we-have-to …

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 05:31 PM
Russian tanks in Mirne, Lutuhinsky district of Luhansk region
pic.twitter.com/WX8hPXr0t3
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/16-january-russian-tanks-in-mirne-lutuhinsky-district-of …

OSCE vehicle attack in #Mariynka and other latest events part of #Russia's planned provocation against #Ukraine. http://www.mil.gov.ua/en/news/2016/01/17/general-a-taran-osce-vehicle-under-attack-in-mariynka-and-other-latest-events-mean-a-planned-provocation-against-ukraine/ …

Will Putin continue to fight a two front war.........???
"Moment of Truth": Russian TV's news review leads on economic woes: "We're hoping for the best, preparing for worst'
pic.twitter.com/VTw2TdkE1n

Really........???
Russia's Energy Minister tells Russian TV that low oil prices gives Russia "the chance to diversify its economy"
pic.twitter.com/M2lkvIMizK

State Bank Chief (German Gref, Sberbank) Calls #Russia Loser Country "Stone Age did not end"
http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-sberbank-chief-gref-loser-country/27491521.html …
pic.twitter.com/uxXoH3II5i

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 05:59 PM
Russian troop and her mercenaries are involved in a strong series of shellings and ground attacks today into the evening.....

Helsinki Commission briefing sheds light on #Russia/n #humanrights abuses in #Crimea
http://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/helsinki-commission-briefing-sheds-light-on-russian-human-rights-abuses-in-crimea/ … pic.twitter.com/pfWAsKf6x8

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 07:35 PM
Warning: @KremlinTrolls may be false flag account. Sows discord/distrust among colleagues. Reminds of Stasi tactics against GDR's dissidents

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 07:54 PM
20:56 #Horlivka
Battle at Shyroka Balka, many small arms, incoming and outgoing fire https://twitter.com/ahab9889/status/688797145877590016 …

Michael Weiss ✔ @michaeldweiss
Markov confirms Surkov and the Russian army run Donbas. Very insulting to the brave volunteers who think they do. https://twitter.com/golub/status/688800563547508737 …

Frontline very active in #Donetsk and #Horlivka today. #Ukraine
21:05 #Horlivka @062_Region Ongoing battles along the line #Mykhaylivka-#Shyroka_Balka-mine 6/7 -#Mayorsk: mortar,arty,SA,AGL fire, loudly

20:56 #Horlivka @EllySmitt 'DNR tells of tank shelling of Horlivka, yet no reports on sites of impacts'
@ahab9889 They shell *from* Horlivka

21:02 #Horlivka @ahab9889 #Shyroka_Balka: a signal flare [=litterally 'a rocket' - may mean a rocket, missile and flare in Russia]

20:39 #Horlivka @_John__Carter_ Orcs became active in earnest, used artillery at Novhorodske area, mortars over 82mm. Fire from city's west

VK: 20:44 #Hranitne is under fire.
#Ukraine #Minsk3 https://twitter.com/666_mancer/status/688805901420130304 …

Around 4PM today UAF pos nr #Talakivka (abt 7km fr #Mariupol) came under RU fire from 82mm mortars, GL, small arms). pic.twitter.com/Yx57ePys4D

About 2 hours ago UAF positions hear #Starohnativka were under RU tank(s) fire.

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 08:06 PM
20:56 #Horlivka
Battle at Shyroka Balka, many small arms, incoming and outgoing fire https://twitter.com/ahab9889/status/688797145877590016 …

Michael Weiss ✔ @michaeldweiss
Markov confirms Surkov and the Russian army run Donbas. Very insulting to the brave volunteers who think they do. https://twitter.com/golub/status/688800563547508737 …

Frontline very active in #Donetsk and #Horlivka today. #Ukraine
21:05 #Horlivka @062_Region Ongoing battles along the line #Mykhaylivka-#Shyroka_Balka-mine 6/7 -#Mayorsk: mortar,arty,SA,AGL fire, loudly

20:56 #Horlivka @EllySmitt 'DNR tells of tank shelling of Horlivka, yet no reports on sites of impacts'
@ahab9889 They shell *from* Horlivka

21:02 #Horlivka @ahab9889 #Shyroka_Balka: a signal flare [=litterally 'a rocket' - may mean a rocket, missile and flare in Russia]

20:39 #Horlivka @_John__Carter_ Orcs became active in earnest, used artillery at Novhorodske area, mortars over 82mm. Fire from city's west

VK: 20:44 #Hranitne is under fire.
#Ukraine #Minsk3 https://twitter.com/666_mancer/status/688805901420130304 …

Around 4PM today UAF pos nr #Talakivka (abt 7km fr #Mariupol) came under RU fire from 82mm mortars, GL, small arms). pic.twitter.com/Yx57ePys4D

About 2 hours ago UAF positions hear #Starohnativka were under RU tank(s) fire.

The #PutinEffect
#Germany: +2x Tank battalions
#Sweden: +2x battalions
#Estonia: +1x brigade
#Lithuania: +1x brigade
#Ukraine: +12x brigades

OUTLAW 09
01-17-2016, 08:19 PM
BATTLE OF DONETSK AIRPORT ANNIVERSARY: Honoring Ukraine’s Cyborgs
http://bunews.com.ua/opinion/item/battle-of-donetsk-airport-anniversary-honoring-ukraines-cyborgs-the-legendary-defenders-of-donetsk-airport-who-defied-the-kremlin-and-inspired-an-entire-nation#.VpvyBunXTQU.twitter …

#doomsday tomorrow for #Russia's #ruble as revoked #Iran #sanctions become true. #oil #FX
pic.twitter.com/koIqecN1rF

'Disturbing fire' in #Horlivka, no mil objectives are achieved with it, it's just for:
1. keep locals alarmed
2. receive combat wages

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 06:19 AM
Appears even Clinton does not get non linear warfare......

Hillary Clinton's relationship with #Putin is "interesting," she'd consider another "reset"
http://mashable.com/2016/01/17/hillary-clinton-vladimir-putin-democratic-debate/#KnpHjW.TOSqP …
pic.twitter.com/l9CFLjmxhv

.@HillaryClinton: I could do a reset with Russia, depends what we get for it… Relationship with Putin: It’s one of respect. #DemDebate

Michael Weiss ✔ @michaeldweiss
Russia has violated Reagan-era nuke deals; it is now arming Taliban in Afghanistan. Putin did not "come back". He was there when you were.

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 06:23 AM
Putin is getting really close to the butter or guns decision.......

Asian shares skid to 2011 levels as oil slump intensifies
http://reut.rs/1ncZ8s5
pic.twitter.com/o5ydgj6qYj

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 12:01 PM
"How to not to" ...
#LNR mortar training in occupied eastern #Ukraine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iO8j_-OR2k …

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 12:05 PM
In the intel world one constantly looks for indicators..in the case of eastern Ukraine the question has always been what is Putin's intent?....to pressure the Ukraine over the EU and on and on...THERE has never been a full discussion on whether he really wants to annex eastern Ukraine or not.

With this Bild analysis the answer is very clear...he is after a full annexation regardless of what he is saying publicly which we all know he always lies.....

THIS is extremely interesting as the town Debaltseve was during the Minsk 2 talks where Putin was present...at the heart of the agreement...Putin constantly demanded that Debaltseve was to be under Russian occupation and even Merkel was dismayed by his demands---at the same time extremely heavy fighting broke out with actual Russian troop units attacking repeatedly Debaltseve until it was captured.

BTW--the actual town of Debaltseve as actually in Minsk 2 fully in UAF territory--while the heavy fighting was ongoing the US, France and Germany said very very little.

During a press conference Putin "crowed" about the UAF being totally surrounded and that they must surrender...BUT surprisingly the UAF was able to withdraw all 3K troops and their heavy weapons much to the surprise of the Russian Army.

NOW with this article we fully see that Putin and his military where working towards a full capture of the eastern Ukraine ie a military annexation BUT due to the heavy UAF pushback which surprised even the Russian military that annexation and total takeover did not occur.

REMEMBER during the Debaltseve fighting the Russians held a massive one sided tank count of over 500 AD Obama was refusing ship TOWs as he did not want to "escalate" the fighting OR as was reported he was afraid the Russians would escalate even higher....WHICH they did anyway multiple times since then even when the US did not send the TOWs.

Russia must’ve anticipated this prop-up of separatists when insisted on railroad city Debaltseve @ Minsk.
pic.twitter.com/27GWtoBLlC


How Russia finances the Ukrainian rebel territories
http://ow.ly/X9wTh
pic.twitter.com/ztiqzXA7aJ

What is interesting about the BILD report in how Russia finances their mercenaries and eastern Ukraine....127 Russian language media outlets and 25 Ukrainian language media outlets covered the reports' release.....

BUT NOT a single German media outlet........???

Important Russian business portal @Radio_BFM covers our #DonbassReport beyond TASS summary.
http://www.bfm.ru/news/313021 pic.twitter.com/ytTxMrgfG6

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 12:31 PM
Twitter banned hundreds of #Ukrainian users because of attacks of Russian bots
http://uaposition.com/latest-news/twitter-banned-hundreds-ukrainian-users-fake-reports-russian-bots/ …
pic.twitter.com/FuqzVFv05X

Ukraine says to review cyber defenses after airport targeted from Russia - Reuters
http://dlvr.it/DJfr1z

@MoscowTimes Russia Considers Suspending Loans to Other Countries
http://tmt-go.ru/556181

Russia's Central Bank is lying about its reserves, here's what the math says
https://ninajobe.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/russias-reserve-scam/ …
pic.twitter.com/jgDiLob2hM

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 12:37 PM
Reference Russian info warfare.....hard at work......

StopFake English Digest: Most discussed false news of the week debunked
http://uatoday.tv/society/stopfake-573286.html …
pic.twitter.com/mBTunVSJ9x

Stop Fake @StopFakingNews
“Ukrainian Nazis” are really Russian nationalists. New fake from channel "Zvezda"
http://www.stopfake.org/en/fake-ukrainian-nazis-are-really-russian-nationalists/ …

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 01:07 PM
Ukraine intel reports Donbas militants shoot in public places, steal arms
http://uatoday.tv/news/ukraine-intel-reports-donbas-militants-shoot-in-public-places-steal-arms-573244.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 01:09 PM
Putin is getting really close to the butter or guns decision.......

Asian shares skid to 2011 levels as oil slump intensifies
http://reut.rs/1ncZ8s5
pic.twitter.com/o5ydgj6qYj

Can Putin continue his two front war........????

Worried about sub-$20 crude? Some sellers are already there
http://reut.rs/1U6B0l2

Russian 2016 budget was built on 50USD oil and now redone at 40USD per barrel......this will in effect cause the replay of 1989...just a matter of time--- about two months if oil continues downward.....

A bulk of the Russian oil is "sour" thus those prices on the current market are in the 12-14USD ranges BUT Russia is still trying to get the Brent pricing......which many buyers are actually avoiding in exchange of Mexican oil.

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 06:29 PM
Minsk agreement is one sided & absolves US&UK from providing border security as BudapestMemo signatories

In #Mariupol sector #Lebedynske (at ca. 5km from Mariupol outskirts) and #Vodyane shelled with 120-mm mortars.

ATO: UAF positions near #Starohnativka (#Staroignatievka) came under RU fire today from IFV's. GLs, AA-guns.

LNR is stealing six Luhansk plants and all coal to Russia.
http://zn.ua/UKRAINE/boeviki-vyvozyat-v-rossiyu-oborudovanie-shesti-luganskih-zavodov-201659_.html …

Moscow Patriarchate beefs up its staff for hybrid operations against Ukraine
http://euromaidanpress.com/2016/01/18/moscow-patriarchate-sets-up-new-staff-to-destabilize-inter-church-relations-in-ukraine/ …
pic.twitter.com/XWt6m1pM9H

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 07:23 PM
Russian troops and her mercenaries are shelling again today.......

Russian-separatist forces attacked Ukrainian troops 28 times since the beginning of Jan 18 with Minsk banned weapons
http://www.unian.info/war/1239891-ukrainian-troops-in-donbas-attacked-28-times-on-monday.html …

20:35 #Mariupol sector @milhlopak "O, that is #Shyrokyne under shelling, half hour it sounds from there"

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 07:24 PM
Maxim Tucker @MaxRTucker

Former separatist chief Strelkov admits 4 murders during #Ukraine war. #Russia harboring a confessed war criminal.
http://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2016/01/18/7095793/ …

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 07:57 PM
NOTICE the US and Germany are doing alot of urgent meetings with Russian counterparts about Minsk 2 BUT not a single Ukrainian rep is present.....????

Merkel's security adviser Heusgen, with #Hollande's Audibert, met Surkov, Gryzlov, Ushakov in Moscow today to revive #Minsk process.

Both the US and Germany have been attempting to force the Ukraine into unilateral appeasement moves without a recipocal offer by Putin.....

AND again Surkov is on the sanctions list as the creator of the eastern Ukraine invasion.......

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 08:00 PM
Carl Bildt ✔ @carlbildt

Are cyberattacks against infrastructure in Ukraine the next phase in the hybrid war by Russia? We better take note.
http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-live-day-700/#11931 …

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 08:03 PM
NOTICE the US and Germany are doing alot of urgent meetings with Russian counterparts about Minsk 2 BUT not a single Ukrainian rep is present.....????

Merkel's security adviser Heusgen, with #Hollande's Audibert, met Surkov, Gryzlov, Ushakov in Moscow today to revive #Minsk process.

Both the US and Germany have been attempting to force the Ukraine into unilateral appeasement moves without a recipocal offer by Putin.....

AND again Surkov is on the sanctions list as the creator of the eastern Ukraine invasion.......

Germany diplomacy's worst nightmare: #Ukraine separatists elect own leaders without new election law, spelling end of Minsk process.

WHY...then the EU will never be able to end the sanctions......

OUTLAW 09
01-18-2016, 08:37 PM
Putin's new envoy to Minsk peace process exudes optimism. (He once said parliament "not a place for discussions.")
http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2895197

OUTLAW 09
01-19-2016, 12:44 PM
Russian Central MD troops full-scale combat readiness check (20-22 Jan) in Volga region, Urals, Siberia & Tajikistan https://www.facebook.com/1492252324350852/photos/a.1492313031011448.1073741828.1492252324350852/1698982790344470/ …


Mark Galeotti @MarkGaleotti
While we await next head of #Russia #military #intelligence some thoughts in @WarOnTheRocks on #GRU names + history
http://warontherocks.com/2016/01/we-dont-know-what-to-call-russian-military-intelligence-and-that-may-be-a-problem/ …

Ukrainian "Oschadbank" filed a lawsuit against Russia because of stolen property in Crimea
https://twitter.com/MediaFoxcomua/status/689418099867541505 …

Our big report from Crimea, where there's diminishing excitement at Russian reality (though little love for Ukraine)
http://gu.com/p/4fqa6/stw

09:51 #Horlivka @NovaGorlivka Yday fr/#FTP area 4 SPG 4S1 Gvozdika were 'working' very 'hard', that was the reason for suspecting Grad fire

Selfie from Pechenga said to affirm Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine
http://thebarentsobserver.com/security/2016/01/selfie-pechenga-said-affirm-russias-military-intervention-ukraine …
pic.twitter.com/UCZv3Ffg0X

Ukraine reports escalation of conflict in #Donbas to @UN Security Council
http://belsat.eu/en/news/ukraine-reports-escalation-of-conflict-in-donbas-to-un-security-council/ …
pic.twitter.com/j1ZlXpTa0w

12:22 #Shakhtarsk @spice4russia During yday's evening - last night-morning about 20 small tracked vehicles moved towards #Torez.

12:47 #Donetsk @Stepan_Semenov "No such long ago. Today 4 orcs in brand-new EMR camo walked past me, with backpacks and assault rifles..."

13:01 #Komsomolske, #Donetsk rgn @RabindrantTagor "Chief of #Komsomolske Staff died. Flu"
[DNR decided to copycat LNR's deeds softer?]

Luhansk: 'MGB LNR' refuted #Plotnitsky's lie of recognition LNR passports by #Russia
http://realgazeta.com.ua/mgb-oproverglo-plotnickogo/ …

OUTLAW 09
01-19-2016, 01:26 PM
Just another chapter of (pro-)#Russian rewriting history tonight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxGj5FNTHUU …
http://conflictreport.info/2015/01/30/the-beginning-of-the-end-russian-forces-storm-vuhlehirsk/?preview_id=448 …

OUTLAW 09
01-19-2016, 02:13 PM
UKR Embassy in NLD @UKRinNLD

Threats to Dutch people allegedly on behalf of the Azov battalion, is a fake and provocation. Read our statement. https://www.facebook.com/UkraineEmbNL/posts/789084851238197 …

NSDC of Ukraine ✔ @NSDC_ua
Russia continues a hybrid war against Ukraine and Europe
http://www.rnbo.gov.ua/en/news/2365.html …

Russian hackers try to sabotage Boryspil, Ukraine's largest airport
http://www.unian.info/economics/1240315-russian-hackers-try-to-sabotage-boryspil-ukraines-largest-airport.html …
pic.twitter.com/Ls5uSn9rJK

OUTLAW 09
01-19-2016, 02:28 PM
Russia's race to deploy 20th/1st Armies indicates increased aggressive posture.

Belarus also currently conducting readiness exercises. Big Russian VDV jump tomorrow.
Something funny going on.

ONLY certainty at present is: Russian 20th and 1st Armies are being prepared for offensive operations in a "westward" direction.

HOWEVER... Russian military deception very likely at play. Assault to seize Land Bridge to Fortress Crimea is more probable IOHO. #Mariupol

OUTLAW 09
01-19-2016, 05:30 PM
Maxim Tucker @MaxRTucker
#Ukraine: Ceasefire monitors observe 4+ hour pitch battle at #Horlivka with tank, mortar, rocket and artillery fire.

A fake Politico reporter is becoming Facebook friends with lots of journalists http://huff.to/23cvBip via @HuffPostMedia

Julia Davis @JuliaDavisNews
Now @zvezdanews claims that US was the "axis of evil" that "humiliated Germany" & caused it to attack USSR in WWII.
pic.twitter.com/baLD3oQ2Qs

Twitter hit by sporadic outages in many parts of the globe:
http://reut.rs/1Pe7ICZ
pic.twitter.com/Y9d43VlFB9

OUTLAW 09
01-19-2016, 06:18 PM
RussiaLies
@zvezdanews claims Ukrainian Neo-Nazis created baptismal ice swastika, but it's a 2012 pic from #Russia
pic.twitter.com/vCDXCQyTPd

OUTLAW 09
01-19-2016, 06:44 PM
Russian shellings and ground attacks are on again.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDvWQDFEMEY …
'Amend the Constitution 5 times, it won't stop #Putin.' Amen!
pic.twitter.com/gJKBvafaRG

Reference Russian shot down of MH17.........
In weird coincidence, Russian TV shows Buk in interview with head of ground air defense--20 minutes after MH17 crash
pic.twitter.com/p70Z8fbf1Y

OUTLAW 09
01-19-2016, 06:52 PM
Former Donbas rebel leader, Russia’s GRU officer Strelkov, brags of executions in #Ukraine, challenges Hague court
http://www.kyivpost.com/article/content/kyiv-post-plus/former-separatist-leader-brags-of-executions-challenges-hague-court-406227.html …

OUTLAW 09
01-20-2016, 06:16 AM
Some Ukrainian refugees will have to leave Russia by February 1.
Watch: http://ow.ly/XgP0o
pic.twitter.com/9HoDkXGCv0

OUTLAW 09
01-20-2016, 02:17 PM
"Putin reminded internet trolls of Beria's methods". What a headline https://twitter.com/rentvchannel/status/689806927937847296 …

Ukraine informs #OSCE about militants' #tanks, artillery systems near Luhansk, Horlivka
http://bit.ly/1RxNhBe
pic.twitter.com/JLpKJooRuu

Reference Russian shot down of MH17......
Buk 9M38M1 missile parts recovered from #MH17 debris field. If you haven't read the DSB report, you should.
pic.twitter.com/YVJIvz8rRf

OUTLAW 09
01-20-2016, 02:35 PM
Wage arrears at TASS news agency detected. Cracks in the propaganda wall?
https://meduza.io/news/2016/01/20/v-tasse-nachali-zaderzhivat-zarplatu …

Russian officers conducting drills (tanks and infantry) for terrorists on polygon near Torez
https://twitter.com/EspresoTV/status/689799755162112000 …

Where Did Russia Move Seized Ukrainian Drilling Rigs Valued at $800m?
https://informnapalm.org/en/jan08-boyko-oil/ … via @en_informnapalm
pic.twitter.com/xbCqMgqAnC

OUTLAW 09
01-20-2016, 04:05 PM
InformNapalm English @en_informnapalm

Russian Information Expansion in the Netherlands: Myths And Fakes About Ukraine:
https://informnapalm.org/en/jan19-netherlands-fakes/ …
pic.twitter.com/rw7IeqBUjL

OUTLAW 09
01-20-2016, 04:14 PM
In some aspects the KSA oil war with Putin and the US might in fact rescue the lack of an Obama Syrian strategy as well as resolve eastern Ukraine and Crimea.....

Putin is seriously about two weeks away from an existential question for his continued Russian leadership......."guns and or butter and it cannot be now both at the same time"....maybe Putin needs to read up on LBJs handling of that same question.

Oil drops below $27
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-19/oil-trades-near-12-yea... … …
pic.twitter.com/gEufic3euO

Oil industry insiders now say the bottom is at 16 USD ....remember the last Russian total collapse occurred at 34USD.......and that was also driven by the KSA.

OUTLAW 09
01-20-2016, 04:18 PM
James Miller @Millermena

Russia's $300 million propaganda outlet is fixated on our little magazine. We're flattered
http://bit.ly/1JfVGqm
pic.twitter.com/TdGjCGxZlv

OUTLAW 09
01-20-2016, 04:31 PM
Footage
Reported Russian air force helicopter flight over #Antratsyt in occup. E #Ukraine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhaDyoDhb4I …

OUTLAW 09
01-20-2016, 05:36 PM
Reference Moldavia......it is hot again politically speaking....

I couldn't get the other Moldova livestream to work, but this one via @archecave is working well
https://youtu.be/f7r2r-BMJ1Y

BREAKING: Protesters storm parliament in #Moldova in protest against new PM. - @maxseddon pic.twitter.com/FMYQA4M4aR

Interesting split in commentary on #Moldova protests. Some call new gov't "pro-EU." Others note new PM is close to oligarch Plahotniuc

Moldova: protesters who broke into #parliament building demand snap elections. Situation is tense but not violent https://twitter.com/NewsMakerMD/status/689851800443293696 …

Well informed proRussian account with good Moscow contacts...
Yury Barmin @yurybarmin
Time to be watching Moldova protests right now: Russia is saying a definite NO to a new pro-EU Prime Minister

Putin is playing his non linear warfare card again.....
Moldova unraveling quickly
https://twitter.com/MaximEdwards/status/689854062037241857 …

Protesters storm Moldovan parliament after new pro-EU government approved:
http://www.rferl.org/content/moldova-parliament-approves-government/27499491.html …

Maxim Edwards @MaximEdwards
Protesters in Chișinău have now broken down doors of Moldova's parliament, started to disarm police & show them out. Things, downhill, fast.

OUTLAW 09
01-20-2016, 05:40 PM
Julia Davis @JuliaDavisNews
#Russia says terrorist orgs can't participate in #Syria deal, while continuing to demand that #Ukraine negotiate w/ RF-funded terrorist orgs

OUTLAW 09
01-20-2016, 05:44 PM
In some aspects the KSA oil war with Putin and the US might in fact rescue the lack of an Obama Syrian strategy as well as resolve eastern Ukraine and Crimea.....

Putin is seriously about two weeks away from an existential question for his continued Russian leadership......."guns and or butter and it cannot be now both at the same time"....maybe Putin needs to read up on LBJs handling of that same question.

Oil drops below $27
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-19/oil-trades-near-12-yea... … …
pic.twitter.com/gEufic3euO

Oil industry insiders now say the bottom is at 16 USD ....remember the last Russian total collapse occurred at 34USD.......and that was also driven by the KSA.

Acc to Bill Browder, #Russia's already diminished FX and gold reserves are overstated by at least $150bn.
pic.twitter.com/x5ufbmJM3t

OUTLAW 09
01-20-2016, 09:36 PM
Reference Moldavia......it is hot again politically speaking....

I couldn't get the other Moldova livestream to work, but this one via @archecave is working well
https://youtu.be/f7r2r-BMJ1Y

BREAKING: Protesters storm parliament in #Moldova in protest against new PM. - @maxseddon pic.twitter.com/FMYQA4M4aR

Interesting split in commentary on #Moldova protests. Some call new gov't "pro-EU." Others note new PM is close to oligarch Plahotniuc

Moldova: protesters who broke into #parliament building demand snap elections. Situation is tense but not violent https://twitter.com/NewsMakerMD/status/689851800443293696 …

Well informed proRussian account with good Moscow contacts...
Yury Barmin @yurybarmin
Time to be watching Moldova protests right now: Russia is saying a definite NO to a new pro-EU Prime Minister

Putin is playing his non linear warfare card again.....
Moldova unraveling quickly
https://twitter.com/MaximEdwards/status/689854062037241857 …

Protesters storm Moldovan parliament after new pro-EU government approved:
http://www.rferl.org/content/moldova-parliament-approves-government/27499491.html …

Maxim Edwards @MaximEdwards
Protesters in Chișinău have now broken down doors of Moldova's parliament, started to disarm police & show them out. Things, downhill, fast.


Maxim Eristavi @MaximEristavi
For #Moldova watchers one thing is clear: it's not the 'pro-Russia vs pro-EU' uprising.
It's the people vs. oligarchs.
Don't oversimplify.

Two of the organisers of tonight's protest are clearly pro-RU: Renato Usatii and Igor Dodon.

So, Kremlin media lead the reports on protestors storming #Moldova's parliament building. Russian provocation?
pic.twitter.com/1Oxg5V9Foh

OUTLAW 09
01-20-2016, 09:49 PM
Confessions of #Ukraine separatist: of purges, Moscow commissars, smuggling, losses in #Syria, end of "Novorossiya." http://www.rosbalt.ru/exussr/2016/01/19/1481267.html …

Crimean #Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev arrested in absentia in occupied #Crimea, put on wanted list in Russia http://ln.is/hromadskeradio.org/2/6BOKc …

Russian MSM is spreading news on a just launched machine-building plant stolen from #Ukraine's #Donbass https://twitter.com/olgarjpthju/status/689896613880401921 …

OUTLAW 09
01-21-2016, 08:37 AM
Some humor is needed today.......

Russia: Ruble sinks, oil cld go to $16, Putin critics fear for lives. Finally good news: Siberian huskies adopt cat
pic.twitter.com/xEBJWnEYAj

OUTLAW 09
01-21-2016, 09:08 AM
Another Russian General/Admiral is sinking.....the continuing loss of Russian generals and Admirals just keeps on happening....strange.

Commander of Russian Navy is in hospital after medical surgery. Admiral Korolev assigned as acting commander http://russia.liveuamap.com/en/2016/21-january-commander-of-russian-navy-is-in-hospital-after …

Russia military picks up the threat of war drumbeat......
Russia starts sudden battle readiness check of aviation of Southern military district
http://russia.liveuamap.com/en/2016/21-january-russia-starts-sudden-battle-readiness-check-for …

Militants fired upon Ukr troops 29 times over last day. Highest number of attacks noted in Donetsk airport area https://www.facebook.com/ato.news/posts/1130227110321427 …

OUTLAW 09
01-21-2016, 09:42 AM
Russia's warped sense of jurisdiction over Ukraine: Crimea charges Ukr activist for EuroMaidan participation in Kyiv https://www.kyivpost.com/article/content/kyiv-post-plus/ukrainian-activist-faces-charges-in-crimea-for-2014-euromaidan-participation-406294.html?utm_campaign=traqli&utm_source=traqli&utm_medium=traqli&source=traqli …

'Real trouble' in Russia when reserves run out: Browder
http://cnb.cx/1Va28Ql

OUTLAW 09
01-21-2016, 01:05 PM
UKR Mission to OSCE @UKRinOSCE

We regret Russia blocked expanding mandate of #OSCE Obs.Mission at 2Rus.BSP's 2all border sections, ajacent2uncontrolled part of #Donbas

Unwillingness to let int.observers in proves to Russia's interest in maintaining ways of reinforcement of its proxies in #Donbas

СММ ОБСЄ в Україні @OSCE_SMM
Hug: So-called “LPR” prevented SMM from reaching border areas, namely Chervonyi Zhovten. SMM not able to access this area since March 2015

СММ ОБСЄ в Україні @OSCE_SMM
Hug: Sides must let SMM do its job. E.g. last week 21 freedom-of-movement restrictions on SMM; all but 3 imposed by so-called ‘DPR’, ‘LPR’

СММ ОБСЄ в Україні @OSCE_SMM
Hug: We’ve seen a tendency for sides to re-position closer towards each other esp in W&NW outskirts of #Horlivka, most notably in Zaitseve

СММ ОБСЄ в Україні @OSCE_SMM
Hug: Fighting in/around #Horlivka continues, sharp spike in violence on Sunday: first small arms & light weapons used, later: tanks&mortars

OUTLAW 09
01-21-2016, 02:45 PM
Russian decision on guns or butter is a matter of a few days away now........

Putin's spokesman Peskov says what's happening to ruble is not collapse. So I am lost at words.

OUTLAW 09
01-21-2016, 02:58 PM
29 attacks of Ukrainian Army positions in the last 24 hours, 6 soldiers wounded
http://lugansk-news.com/29-attacks-of-ukrainian-army-positions-reported-by-ato-press-center-in-the-last-24-hours/ …
pic.twitter.com/jqOU2tJ5eX

Cache with weapon found in #Lugansk Region in a forest close to the contact line
http://lugansk-news.com/cache-with-weapon-found-in-lugansk-region-in-a-forest-close-to-the-contact-line/ …
pic.twitter.com/MHL4sNkKkf

Russian terrorists commander Girkin: "I'm sure, I know too much to get to Tribunal(alive)"
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/21-january-russian-terrorists-commander-girkin-im-sure-i …

OUTLAW 09
01-21-2016, 03:50 PM
WHAT THE HECK does Putin mean by this statement........??

Putin just said that Lenin's ideas destroyed USSR.
Putin: Lenin planted nuke under Russia
pic.twitter.com/vaWgrBIgsi
http://russia.liveuamap.com/en/2016/21-january-vladimir-putin-lenin-set-nuke-under-russia …

AGAIN now we are seeing a former KGB officer saying this......what was he saying in 1989 in Dresden????

Putin criticized Lenin sharply today, claiming his work eventually led to collapse of USSR & historical Russia.
http://www.interfax.ru/russia/490856

So is Putin in fact reputing the entire Communist period and that he is siding with the "White Russians".....???

OUTLAW 09
01-21-2016, 03:55 PM
Russian decision on guns or butter is a matter of a few days away now........

Putin's spokesman Peskov says what's happening to ruble is not collapse. So I am lost at words.

I hate to agree with Peskov, but this is not a crash in Russia's currency. When Iran releases their oil reserves, then we will see a crash.

Here is the math behind @Billbrowder's claim that Russia's Central Bank has less than $200B in reserves https://ninajobe.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/rus