1/ Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has promised to send former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin home "in a plastic bag" if he goes near Wagner positions while wearing and carrying mostly NATO military clothing and equipment. ⬇️
2/ Rogozin, who was formerly in charge of Russian military industries, posted photographs of himself visiting Russian troops in Ukraine while wearing an estimated $16,000 of equipment from NATO countries and Austria. Only his helmet was Russian.
3/ Russian milbloggers didn't like this at all. Nor, it turns out, does Prigozhin. Writing on the Telegram channel of his Concord Group, he says:
"We are already seeing how wonderfully our satellites fly and how far we have come in that direction.
4/ I believe that trips of this kind are absolutely useless and do not lead to anything positive.
I must say that the positions of PMC "Wagner" are at the front, in close proximity to the enemy. Therefore, various kinds of "inspectors" do not go there, including for PR purposes.
5/ In addition, I am well acquainted with the corporate spirit of PMC "Wagner", in fact, I form it myself. I think that if he tried to meet with any of the Wagnerites, he would be unlikely to be accepted.
6/ In principle, the Wagner PMC units are quite well trained and are closely monitoring NATO representatives in their sights.
7/ Therefore, if a person in NATO clothes approached the positions of the Wagner PMC, then I think we would send him [home] in a plastic bag for identification." /end
1/ A new but covert wave of mobilisation will begin in Russia in January 2023, according to multiple sources who have spoken to the 'We can explain' Telegram channel. It will reportedly include raids on places of residence to round up men for the army. ⬇️
2/ 'We can explain' reports:
"Military registration offices in the regions have been instructed by the Defence Ministry to begin intensive work on the mobilisation of men for the war in Ukraine.
3/ Their search will begin in January and February, but the authorities do not plan to officially announce the mobilisation, three separate sources in military registration and enlistment offices in different regions told the 'We can explain' channel.
1/ Another illegal prison for mobilised Russian soldiers has been identified. At least 90 are reportedly being held without food or water by the Russian army in a children's camp. Separately, the largest known Russian basement-prison for soldiers may have been shut down. ⬇️
2/ The Berezka ("Birch") camp in Makarove, Luhansk oblast has been used for at least a month to hold scores of mobilised Russians who retreated from the fierce fighting around Svatove, according to the wife of one of the prisoners, who is from Sverdlovsk oblast in Russia.
3/ She says: "My husband was drafted by the military commissariat in Krasnoufimsk [in western Siberia] on 27 September. On the same day, he and other conscripts arrived in Yekaterinburg at military camp No. 32. On 28 September they flew to Rostov-on-Don.
1/ The Wagner mercenary group's 'cock division' now seems to be a reality, judging by a new video of a Wagner convict recruit's debriefing. In the video, the convict talks of how Wagner is mobilising a segregated unit of raped men, who are treated as untouchables. ⬇️
2/ Wagner's head Yevgeny Prigozhin has previously said that he intended to create a 'cock division' made up of such outcast prisoners. He says that he had "recommended" (to the Russian Ministry of Defence?) the creation of such a formation.
3/ In Russia's brutal prison hierarchy, 'cocks' (also known as 'lowered' or 'offended') are the lowest of the low, subject to constant sexual abuse and humiliation. They are literally untouchable, other than while being raped – prisoners regard cock status as being contagious.
1There's been a lot of fuss about Elon Musk disclosing emails from previous Twitter management about how the company dealt with data from Hunter Biden's laptop that was posted on Twitter. But it's worth pointing out how this is disastrous for both Twitter and Musk himself. /1
🔺 Musk is very publicly behaving as a partisan political actor – using Twitter to promote Republican causes explicitly. This might have been suspected of other social media bosses (e.g. Zuckerberg) but Musk is being absolutely open about it. /2
🔺 Dems will surely now regard Twitter as having been weaponised by an overt partisan actor – Musk will not get any favours from the Administration or Congress. Congressional hearings into Musk's moderation policies were already very likely and will surely be tougher now. /3
1/ People across Russia are freezing in their homes in temperatures as low as -38°C because essential utility workers have been mobilised – even after the supposed end of mobilisation – and sent to Ukraine, hindering repair and maintenance work at home. ⬇️
2/ The "We can explain" Telegram channel reports that several regions and cities in Russia, including Astrakhan, Krasnodar and Rostov, are suffering problems with their communal heating systems because the engineers responsible for maintaining them have been mobilised.
3/ A source in Astrakhan's municipal services says: "We have appealed to the military registration and enlistment offices and officials, explaining that the heating season is coming soon and we need people, but we never received a clear answer."
1/ The Russian Interior Ministry has accidentally exposed the location of a secret Russian mobilisation camp at Lyepyel in northern Belarus, according to a report by the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel which appears to be based on a leaked police report. ⬇️
2/ According to VChK-OGPU, the disclosure came about inadvertantly when a woman was arrested at Belorusskaya metro station in Moscow for having a bayonet knife from an AKM assault rifle on her person. The knife had been given to her in Belarus by her mobilised son.
3/ VChK-OGPU writes:
"Her 29-year-old son had been drafted into the Russian Armed Forces as part of the partial mobilisation. The man was doing compulsory military service and has a military specialisation as a marksman.