1/ The Russian interior ministry has reported a huge increase in gun crime in Russia in the last ten months, which is being blamed on large amounts of weapons and ammunition being stolen from the Russian military operation in Ukraine and smuggled back into Russia. ⬇️
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that in the first ten months of 2022, there was a 30% increase in gun crime compared to the same ten months last year. Western border regions are the worst affected due to their proximity to the war in Ukraine.
3/ There are reportedly daily discoveries of "forgotten" ammunition and bayonet knives in the belongings of volunteers, mobilised men or mercenaries at railway stations and airports. However, far more gets in unnoticed via official and humanitarian channels.
4/ Acording to a source interviewed by VChK-OGPU, "The black market is overflowing with weapons imported from the [war] zone, and it is now possible to get almost any gun in Russia, even in regions remote from the border.
5/ There have already been several high-profile accidents on the territory of the country involving goods from Ukraine. Among the well-known ones, for example, the explosion of a grenade launcher in a civilian car carrying humanitarian aid in Mytishchi.
6/ And besides, just imagine how many others are there who have brought and hidden the trophies at home, and some time later, because of some injustice or in a drunken stupor, they will take out their guns?
7/ Sooner or later all this will go off, and the FSB is clearly not prepared for such a volume of work. It's no secret that over the past decade, the work of the service has been structured in such a way that implementations mainly go through greenhouse gunsmiths.
8/ This applies to those who were either aware of them and got their hands on them when it came time to report, or when they were preventing those previously convicted under Article 222 of the Criminal Code.
9/ Everyone in the system understands with horror and expects that the number of crimes other than "gun crimes" will increase soon."
10/ VChK-OGPU's source says that the number of denunciations made to the FSB by citizens has also increased sharply.
11/ "The crazy calls from psychopaths, to which the police are obliged to respond, have been supplemented by such reports as complaints against shop assistants "dissatisfied with the authorities and the situation in Ukraine"…
12/ …or, for example, "the phone caught a Wi-Fi with the name Ukraine on it". Officers are sent to the field to investigate all complaints and are forced to draw up inspection files." /end
1/ This video sheds a new light on Yevgeny Prigozhin's plan to create a 'cock division' for recruited prisoners who have been serially raped. If the speaker is telling the truth, it suggests that Prigozhin himself may have been among the 'lowered' during his 13 years in jail.
2/ The 'lowered' – also known as 'cocks' or the 'offended' – are the lowest rank in Russia's brutal prison caste system. They are treated as literally untouchable, except when they are being raped (for which they're fair game for everyone else).
3/ Because this caste system wouldn't work for military needs, Prigozhin has said that he is not currently recruiting cocks to fight in Ukraine but plans to create a 'cock division' in future to accommodate them (see below).
1/ A Zambian student was recruited from a Russian prison to serve in the Wagner mercenary group and died "a hero" after storming Ukrainian trenches, according to Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin. ⬇️
2/ The death of Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda was announced earlier this month but the circumstances were unclear, leading to expressions of concern from the Government of Zambia. Prigozhin has now provided more details about Nyirenda's recruitment and death.
3/ In response to a question from a Russian media outlet, Prighozin has given an account (the accuracy of which can't be verified) on the Telegram channel of his Concord Group:
1/ Russian women have set up a "private knitting company" called the Night Witches to address a severe shortage of underpants on the front line. A shortage of fabric has led to the use of material with pink roses, cute elephants and leftovers from the 1980 Moscow Olympics. ⬇️
2/ The Night Witches have organised themselves via a Telegram channel. They say they are "a private knitting company (PMC) [that] has united craftswomen from different parts of Russia and around the world", helping them to exchange tips on producing underpants.
3/ The name is a reference to the all-female Soviet Air Force 588th Night Bomber Regiment in WW2. The original Night Witches used Polikarpov Po-2 to carry out gliding night bombing attacks, sounding to those on the ground like broomsticks passing overhead.
The Financial Times has more details of the problems advertisers are having currently with Twitter. Again, it's principally functional, not political. (See my earlier thread linked below.) /1
⚠️ "Twitter’s ads business team has shrunk so much that many agencies no longer have any point of contact at the company and have received little to no communication in recent weeks" /2
⚠️ "Some brands have been unable to get feedback on how previous campaigns have performed because of the staffing shortages, one media buyer said.
Others are complaining Twitter’s ads systems have also become buggy, making it difficult or even impossible to run campaigns." /3
How an AI responded to a prompt to "Write a script of a farcical conversation between Sergei Shoigu and Vladimir Putin in which Shoigu tries to come up with increasingly absurd and silly ways to revive Russia's failing war in Ukraine":
1/ Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's former Deputy Prime Minister for Defence and Space Industry, is taking heavy criticism from Russian milbloggers for posing in an occupied region of Ukraine carrying and wearing NATO military clothing and weapons. ⬇️
2/ Rogozin, who has been one of the most aggressively vocal supporters of the war, posted photographs (now apparently deleted?) of himself wearing the following:
∙Tactical winter jacket (Austria)
∙3 ammunition clips for FN SCAR-H (Belgium/USA)
∙Bikatex tactical vest (Turkey)
3/ ∙2 ammunition clips for MP-5 (Germany)
∙Glock pistol with extended magazine (Austria)
∙V-AR rifle with a PMAG (+ Aimpoint micro T-2 optic?) (Czechia)
∙Zephire boots (Slovakia)
∙Armokom helmet (the only Russian item on the list)