1/ If Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine had succeeded in 2022, Ukraine's industries would have been seized and taken over by Russian oligarchs. A leaked document shows that oligarch Konstantin Malofeev intended to create a 'DMZ Concern' from Ukraine's largest plants. ⬇️
2/ Malofeev is a billionaire who is a close supporter of Vladimir Putin and an aggressive promotor of religious conservatism. He's an overt monarchist who reportedly sees Putin as a new Tsar, and has links with far-right parties and individuals in Europe and the US.
3/ The EU, US and Canada have sanctioned Malofeev for trying to destabilise Ukraine and finance separatism. He's closely linked to pro-Russian separatists and was the former employer of Igor Girkin. He's been accused of funding radical nationalist movements across Europe.
4/ The DMZ Concern document, a presentation possibly dated 30 May 2022, was published recently by the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel. It sets out a business plan for the "expansion of production assets based on the results of the Special Military Operation".
5/ The first slide shows what appears to be the intended territorial division of a defeated Ukraine, with the whole of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa oblasts – up to the Moldovan and Romanian borders – under Russian control.
6/ This would have stripped Ukraine of its entire coastline, all its ports and much of its heavy industry, hydroelectric and mineral resources. It would have become an economically devastated and landlocked rump state, likely under the control of a pro-Russian puppet government.
7/ Slide 2 describes the 'DMZ concern' as a vastly expanded version of the existing Donetsk Metallurgical Plant (DMZ) company, which operates mines and other industrial enterprises in the 'Donetsk People's Republic'. It states a goal of achieving:
8/ "consolidation of existing financial, economic, technical and market opportunities of enterprises of key industries in the liberated territories of the DPR, LPR and Kherson, Zaporizhzhia regions, which form the [economic] basis of the south-east region of the former Ukraine."
9/ After listing DMZ's existing holdings on slide 4 (#3 is missing), slide 5 of the plan lists "enterprises located in the liberated territories [that] are possible [candidates] for integration" with DMZ. They include some of Europe's largest mining and mineral processing plants.
10/ These include the Marganets Mining and Processing plant and the Nikopol Ferroalloy plant (both in Dnipropetrovsk oblast), the Zaporizhstal steel plant in Zaporizhzhia oblast and others. Slide 7 discusses a number of additional Ukrainian factories being considered for seizure.
11/ Slides 5.1 and 5.2 indicate that this was not just a theoretical exercise – the plan was already well advanced. Legal work had been done and management agreements had been signed as part of a three-stage plan to be carried out through 2022–2027.
12/ Interestingly, slide 5.3 lists among various business and growth goals for the 2023–2027 period an objective of achieving "Entry into the markets of friendly and sub-allied countries of Eurasian Economic Union, Middle East (Iran, Syria), South-East Asia, Turkey and Africa."
13/ The plan sets out a goal of aligning the DMZ Concern with a "strategic partner" (presumably Russian) and inclusion of its enterprises in "the state programmes of the Russian Federation." It also raises the possible takeover of Odesa port to serve DMZ.
14/ The end result, anticipated on slide 8, is the "reactivation of cooperation and activities of enterprises in the key sectors of the liberated territories of the DPR, LPR and south-eastern Ukraine…
15/ …in the form of a cumulative increase in annual financial indicators from RUR 70 billion [$990 million] (data for 2021) to RUR 220 billion [$3.1 billion] by 2024." This would achieve the "creation of a major enterprise in the interests of the Russian Federation."
16/ The slide indirectly acknowledges the impact of the DNR's large-scale mobilisation of fighting-age men, most of whom are now likely dead, by describing a goal of the "preservation of 8,616 jobs (excluding those mobilized)". It anticipates having over 16,000 workers by 2024.
17/ The plan doesn't specify where the extra workers would come from, but it's likely that – as has happened in Crimea – large numbers of people would be relocated from Russia to repopulate Ukraine's south-east, replacing the Ukrainians who have fled or been deported from there.
18/ Needless to say, the Ukrainian owners of the seized enterprises would not have received a kopek in compensation. With their collective value of billions of dollars, Malofeev was planning arguably the biggest heist in history – though it's now hopefully been thwarted. /end
1/ The Russian IT sector faces being crippled by new, harsh penalties for using VPNs. The Russian public also faces an imminent ban on the use of foreign AI systems, which developers say will wreck Russia's development of its own AIs. ⬇️
2/ Russia's Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media has put forward a bill on state regulation of artificial intelligence, which essentially outlaws the use of foreign AI systems such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
3/ Although they are officially blocked in Russia, foreign AI systems are widely used via VPNs. 51% of Russians – and 81% of those under 34 said in a 2025 TASS poll that they had used AI in the past year, with ChatGPT and Deepseek accounting for 47% of the Russian market.
1/ Russians fighting in Ukraine are now unable to buy Chinese-made drone jammers due to Internet blocking, according to one Russian soldier. His account illustrates the practical – and quite possibly lethal – frontline impact of the Kremlin's Internet restrictions. ⬇️
2/ 'Marmot of the Burning Prairie' writes:
"I had the dubious pleasure of experiencing whitelisting firsthand. I was stunned.
Without the skills to bypass blocks:
- no Telegram
- no LiveJournal
- VK hasn't changed much, just as slow
- no IMO"
3/ "But that's just mere lip service. There are no Google services, no Apple, which means some modern phones will turn into outrageously expensive phone apps.
1/ With losses escalating in Ukraine, a Russian region has ordered businesses to send their employees to fight. Varying recruitment quotas have been set depending on the size of the business. The 'voluntary-compulsory' scheme appears to be a de facto form of mobilisation. ⬇️
2/ 'Military Informant' publishes the text of the decree:
"The Governor of the Ryazan Region has established a plan for local businesses to recruit contract soldiers into the military."
3/ "According to a published decree by regional governor Pavel Malkov, all business entities in the Ryazan Region will be required to recruit candidates for contract military service in the Russian Armed Forces from 20 March 2026 to 20 September 2026:
1/ Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska has proposed that Russia should shift to a 12 hour working day and 6 day working week to halt the country's deepening economic crisis. This has not gone down well with Russian commentators, who compare it to slavery and feudalism. ⬇️
2/ Writing on his personal Telegram channel, Deripaska argues that "in difficult times, we know how to pull ourselves together and work more. And the sooner we switch to this new schedule—from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., including Saturdays—the faster we will undergo this transformation."
3/ Gennady Onishchenko, the former head of Rospotrebnadzor (Russia's national consumer rights agency) and academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has gone further: he says that Deripaska's proposal must become mandatory and enshrined in law.
1/ The City of London bank Peel Hunt has warned investors that Donald Trump "may have lost control" of the Iran war, raising the "real risk of an inflationary recession" globally. Prolonged higher interest rates are forecast to be a significant possibility. ⬇️
2/ The bank has issued a briefing note to investors drafted by its chief economist, @KallumPickering. He writes:
3/ "Donald Trump may have lost control of the situation, which makes a quick (unilateral) resolution harder and increases the risk that the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked even once fighting ends."