1/8. Russia has a history of aiming for quick and decisive strikes against Ukraine, failing, then revealing the aims of the operation in media prepared on the assumption of success.
2/8. Such a sequences of events unfolded in 2014 during a Ukrainian presidential election. Russia tried to hack Ukraine's central election commission so that it would present a far-right candidate, who in fact got less than 1% of the vote, as the winner.
3/8. The hack failed, but Russian media had been prepared for its success; and Russian television went on air with falsified results and even digital images that matched what the hack was supposed to produce. (See #RoadToUnfreedom)
4/8 Something similar seems to have happened with the invasion of 2022. Like the hack in 2014, the invasion did not lead to the expected result. This left Russian media with prepared material which, since it assumed success, reveals (or confirms) the goals of the Russian invasion
6/8. No doubt most such material was never published or quickly removed. This article seems to have slipped through. It was written for approved Russian media on the assumption of a quick Russian victory, and so reveals the goals of the invasion. web.archive.org/web/2022022605…
7/8. The goals of the invasion described here are destruction of the Ukrainian government, control of all Ukrainian territory, the end of Ukrainian sovereignty, and a solution to the “Ukrainian question.” uz.sputniknews.ru/20220226/nastu…
8/8. Further anticipated is the creation of a unified Russian-Ukrainian-Belarusian entity, and the rebalancing of world order in a "new epoch" of Russian domination over a humiliated and divided West.
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Biden and NYT. The problem with this very helpful report is that it implicitly reinforces the two-sides-to-each-story framing that is the underlying problem. 1/4
The real story is democracy, and the real question for NYT and everyone else is whether that framing is dominant. Some great reporting there, but general failure on the framing. 2/4
As a citizen, I couldn't care less who in the White House and who in the NYT has hurt feelings. I do care about who is doing their job well. The Biden administration, with mistakes of course, has done that. 3/4
1/3. Respect for the 101 Republicans who voted their conscience on Ukraine aid despite all the propaganda and pressure.
2/3. Pride in the 210 Democrats who voted yes (without a single no vote) on aid to Ukraine.
3/3. Appreciation for all the Members (@jamie_raskin, @jasmineforus, my own Rep. @rosadelauro, so many others) who could see and articulate Ukraine as an issue of justice.
3/6. Russian propagandists say they expect Johnson's visit to Trump this weekend to kill Ukraine aid once again. We shall see. There's a new nervous vibe here.
1/5. Predictably Putin has blamed Ukraine (see my thread from yesterday) for the terror attack in Moscow (for which ISIS claimed responsibility).
2/5. Putin's argument that the suspects were heading to Russian-Ukrainian border makes no sense – Russia has 20,000 km of borders, why would they head to the one place where Russian army and security forces are most concentrated?
3/5. Putin's claim is that suspects were stopped in Bryansk. Assuming this is true: from Moscow that's rather the route to Belarus.