1/7 Among much real and imagined bad news from Russia, this really is awful bit.ly/2SeZaRJ
2/7 Russia’s Investigative Committee has arrested staff & doctors of companies that provided surrogacy services to single men (in reality, some of them in gay couples), is removing children from their families, & threatening to charge the fathers with trafficking children.
3/7 There is ongoing discussion about the moral and legal aspects of surrogacy around the world. But the arguments the Russian authorities are using in this particular case have nothing to do with protecting women or children.
4/7 Investigators claim that the fathers had no right to use the procedure of artificial insemination, because they are of “non traditional sexual orientation.”
5/7 Their crazed logic runs this way: artificial insemination is a fertility treatment given to women and couples, but a healthy single man cannot be infertile, and a single man of non-traditional sexual orientation can’t be a sperm donor, so it must be child trafficking.
6/7 Last year, a gay Russian couple had to emigrate when authorities tried to seize custody of their adopted children who had lived with them for years, purely on the grounds that the parents were in a same sex partnership. The officials who had allowed the adoption were punished
7/7 As time goes by, the anti-gay legislation—which in the beginning seemed more rhetorical than practical—is gradually taking on a chilling and very real form.
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THREAD 1/15 Maia #Sandu essentially repeated David Cameron's gamble and has nearly staged #Moldova's Brexit (Moldexit) even before joining the EU.
2/15 Sandu assumed that the pro-European sentiment among voters was stronger than the support for her government. Since she leads the pro-European camp, she expected that backing the European choice would strengthen her mandate and lift her political standing.
3/15 Cameron had a similar strategy—he sought to tap into euroscepticism, thinking it would boost his mandate without going beyond his control.
THREAD 1/5 In the third television appearance within two days on the topic of "#Wagner" and #Prigozhin, Putin spoke about him and his people not as patriots and defenders of the homeland, etc. - as it has been customary before yesterday.
2/5 He spoke about him as a screwed businessman who is trying to have it both ways: he received $ 1 billion for his military company and earned another one billion in a year from food supplies to the Russian military, and probably stole something on the way.
3/5 Ordinary Russian citizens love defenders of the homeland and dislike cunning businessmen, and the figures of 80 billion rubles ($ 1 billion) received twice should be repelling. He himself demanded action against those who profited from the war , but look at what he's doing.
THREAD 1/9 Putin was not present at Erdogan's inauguration, which he would have definitely attended in the past. Me recent piece in @ForeignAffairs explains an important reason foreignaffairs.com/russian-federa…
2/9 The reason is not only the war, but the indictment of the International court Criminal Court against him. For the same reason he is not going to the G-20 in South Africa. foreignaffairs.com/russian-federa…
3/9 Diplomats and political leaders can reach agreements in both cases, but even then, it cannot be guaranteed that the judiciary will fully submit to the executive power. In this respect even those countries are not Russia.
THREAD 1/6 Why should the West supplying Ukraine with a few dozen tanks make such a difference, when it has already provided so much weaponry? The difference is that weapons and artillery mean a slow war, while tanks mean a fast war.
2/6 New, modern tanks could accelerate the course of the war — at least in theory. After its blitzkrieg failed, Russia adapted its plan, betting instead on a long war, and counting on its bigger population, resources and arms industry to win.
3/6 This is a war of attrition that Russia believes can be won without involving too many of its own people, simply by waiting it out and wearing the Ukrainians down.
THREAD 1/4 Many Russians approve of the bombardment of Ukraine’s infrastructure because they consider the latter to be a gift to ungrateful Ukrainians, which is not being used for Russia’s benefit. ft.com/content/c24ebf…
2/4 This marks a further break with Soviet identity, which was based on the assumption that factories, bridges and roads throughout the territory were the result of the collective efforts of all the peoples of the Union. ft.com/content/c24ebf…
3/4 Putin’s war on Ukraine is not only strengthening the emerging national identity of Ukrainians; it is also decisively changing the post-Soviet identity of many Russians. ft.com/content/c24ebf…
1/4 "It was obvious that Surovikin's appointment and the praise heaped upon him were at least partly due to the need to create a figure with a mandate for 'shameful' actions that Putin didn't want to take in his own name," said Alexander Baunov
2/4 Surovikin fitted the bill, said Baunov, because his image as a Siberian willing to use brutal tactics to get results appealed to Russian nationalists and he had the authority in their eyes to oversee a retreat without opening up too many dangerous internal divisions.
3/4 "The general has used half his mandate. Now he will be expected to use the other half," said Baunov. "For some, this will be seen as a new offensive that will prove that all the retreats were actually a tactical manoeuvre.