Yevgeny Nuzhin was a Russian prison inmate who enlisted into the Wagner mercenary group to fight in Ukraine. After being captured by Ukrainians he expressed his desire to fight against Putin. He was exchanged and then executed with sledgehammer according to Wagner traditions.
Wagner is led by Yevgeny Prigozhin who himself had spent 10 years in prison for violent crimes. Upon release he launched a catering business and eventually became known as "Putin's cook". In this capacity he established a Wagner mercenary group fighting colonial wars for Russia
Wagner mercenaries ironically style themselves as "ихтамнеты" ("they are not there"). It means that they are fighting in many countries where Russia has no official presence. If questioned, Russia will deny Wagners being there/connection of Wagner to Kremlin. Hence the nickname
Wagner's mythology and iconography is based on glorification of ultraviolence. Consider this Wagner merch. Execution with sledgehammer is the most recognisable symbol of the Wagner group.
We see guys beating someone with sledgehammer -> We think of Wagner
"Sledgehammer" symbol refers to this case. In Syria one of Assad's Syrian soldiers tried to desert. Wagner mercenaries captured him. They beat him with sledgehammer, cut off his hands and head with a saw and burnt the rest. This execution became the proudest symbol of Wagner
See video of Wagner mercenaries executing a Syrian here. Much of it is blurred, but it is still pretty graphic
What is interesting about this execution is that it wasn't prosecuted or even condemned. Instead it was endorsed and became the proud symbol and the trademark of the Wagner group. Modern Russia tends to endorse ultra violence rather than to condemn it
Initially they executed a Syrian deserter this way. Now they did it with one of their own. You can see a video here on their Telegram channel. Warning, it's graphic t.me/grey_zone/15767
Prigozhin and the Wagner social media accounts endorsed this new execution of course
Ultraviolet execution of a deserter is perfectly rational. Many prison recruits etc have low morals. With this execution Wagner tells:
1. You can't escape from us 2. After we get you back, you'll die in a terrible way
Ultraviolence is necessary to keep the unmotivated in line
At this point Wagner grew into a massive fighting force. They have infantry, artillery, tanks, air defence, even fighter jets. So pretty much everything that the regular army has except for navy, ballistic missiles, etc. The Wagner became an army in their own right
While being largely independent from the regular army, Wagner uses the same infrastructure. Most importantly, they train their recruits on the same training ground - @RheinmetallAG built Mulino. The only modern training center that Russia has
While the @RheinmetallAG officially "left" the project after Crimea, that is a verifiable lie. Customs declaration show them supplying the "Garnison" company that was building Mulino with components for assembling the simulation equipment even in 2019
In other words, @RheinmetallAG declaration in August 2022 is a verifiable lie. Russian customs declarations (see details in a thread quoted in a previous tweet) show that Rheinmetall was supplying Garnison with components for assembling simulation equipment even in 2019
TL;DR Russian ultraviolet mercenary Wagner group is being trained on @RheinmetallAG built training ground. It is the only training center in Russia that has modern simulation equipment. Rheimetall was shipping them components as late as in 2019
Thank you, Rheinmetall!
The end
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1. This book (“What is to be done?”) has been wildly, influential in late 19-20th century Russia. It was a Gospel of the Russian revolutionary left. 2. Chinese Communists succeeded the tradition of the Russian revolutionary left, or at the very least were strongly affected by it.
3. As a red prince, Xi Jinping has apparently been well instructed in the underlying tradition of the revolutionary left and, very plausibly, studied its seminal works. 4. In this context, him having read and studied the revolutionary left gospel makes perfect sense
5. Now the thing is. The central, seminal work of the Russian revolutionary left, the book highly valued by Chairman Xi *does* count as unreadable in modern Russia, having lost its appeal and popularity long, long, long ago. 6. In modern Russia, it is seen as old fashioned and irrelevant. Something out of museum
I have always found this list a bit dubious, not to say self-contradictory:
You know what does this Huntingtonian classification remind to me? A fictional “Chinese Encyclopaedia” by an Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges:
Classification above sounds comical. Now why would that be? That it because it lacks a consistent classification basis. The rules of formal logic prescribe us to choose a principle (e.g. size) and hold to it.
If Jorge Borges breaks this principle, so does Samuel P. Huntington.
Literacy rates in European Russia, 1897. Obviously, the data is imperfect. Still, it represents one crucial pattern for understanding the late Russian Empire. That is the wide gap in human capital between the core of empire and its Western borderland.
The most literate regions of Empire are its Lutheran provinces, including Finland, Estonia & Latvia
Then goes, roughly speaking, Poland-Lithuania
Russia proper has only two clusters of high literacy: Moscow & St Petersburg. Surrounded by the vast ocean of illiterate peasantry
This map shows how thin was the civilisation of Russia proper comparatively speaking. We tend to imagine old Russia, as the world of nobility, palaces, balls, and duels. And that is not wrong, because this world really existed, and produced some great works of art and literature
The OKBM Afrikantova is the principal producer of marine nuclear reactors, including reactors for icebreakers, and for submarines in Russia. Today we will take a brief excursion on their factory floor 🧵
Before I do, let me introduce some basic ideas necessary for the further discussion. First, reactor production is based on precision metalworking. Second, modern precision metalworking is digital. There is simply no other way to do it at scale.
How does the digital workflow work? First, you do a design in the Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. Then, the Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software turns it into the G-code. Then, a Computer Numerical Controller (CNC) reads the code and guides the tool accordingly
Relative popularity of three google search inquiries in the post-USSR. Blue - horoscope. Red - prayer. Green - namaz. Most of Russia is blue, primarily googling horoscopes. Which suggests most of the population being into some kind of spirituality rather than anything "trad".
The primary contiguous red area is not in Russia at all, but in West Ukraine. Which is indeed the only remotely "conservative" (in the American sense) area of the East Slavic world. Coincidentally or not, it had never been ruled by Russia, except for a short period in 1939-1991
In the blue and occasionally red sea, there are two regions that primarily google namaz, the Islamic prayer. That is Moscow & Tatarstan
There are two ways for a poor, underdeveloped country to industrialise: Soviet vs Chinese way. Soviet way is to build the edifice of industrial economy from the foundations. Chinese way is to build it from the roof.
1st way sounds good, 2nd actually works.
To proceed further, I need to introduce a new concept. Let's divide the manufacturing industry into two unequal sectors, Front End vs Back End:
Front End - they make whatever you see on the supermarket shelf
Back End - they make whatever that stands behind, that you don’t see
Front End industries are making consumer goods. That is, whatever you buy, as an individual. Toys, clothes, furniture, appliances all falls under this category. The list of top selling amazon products gives a not bad idea what the front end sector is, and how it looks like.