1/ The Russian Ministry of Defence is reportedly coercing convicts to join the Russian army by threatening them with being incarcerated alongside men who are available to be raped, regarded as untouchables in Russian prison culture. ⬇️
2/ Russia's prisons operate a brutal caste system based on a sexual hierarchy, where some prisoners are treated as available to be raped by anyone. These men are known as the "cocks", "offended", "lowered", "forced" or "crests", and are made to sleep next to the toilets.
3/ Importantly, "cock" status is treated as being contagious. They are literally untouchable: interacting with "cocks", sharing their food, touching them or their possessions (unless you are raping them) is regarded as being enough to make you a "cock" as well.
4/ The Wagner Group's head Yevgeny Prigozhin (a former convict himself) has explained this distinction and established a separate "cock division" within Wagner for convicts who can't interact with other convicts.
5/ However, according to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, the Russian MOD is exploiting this untouchability to force non-cock prisoners to sign up for mlitary service. The channel explains:
6/ "First, the inmates are persuaded by ex-convicts who allegedly survived the war, and then they are threatened, even to the point of joining detachments with the "offended".
7/ "According to our source, a certain brigade is “touring” in various Russian prison colonies, the members of which are represented as prisoners who were allegedly recruited into the Wagner PMC, went through the war and were released.
8/ "The 'Zeks' describe how long they had to serve in prison, but thanks to the war they are already free and have money. After this, the convicts are offered not to sign up in the Wagner PMC, but as contract employees of the Ministry of Defence.
9/ "However, according to the source, there are very few people willing to volunteer, since everyone knows that it is virtually impossible to return from the war. The administrative resource is used to its maximum capacity.
10/ "For example, in Tula Region's penal colony No. 1, the prisoners are strongly advised to go to war, fearing that they will soon begin to “turn up the regime” there and it will finally be “red” [i.e. become a 'strict regime', with far tougher conditions].
11/ "At the same time, ordinary prisoners are allegedly being forcibly mixed in with the "offended", who are now being held separately. They threaten in the colony that those who want to avoid this need to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defence."
12/ This follows earlier reports that Wagner has been barred from recruiting prisoners, which was in any case resulting in far fewer volunteers due to news of their catastrophic losses reaching Russia's prisons.
13/ The Russian MOD has reportedly sought to create penal battalions for prisoners, but with voluntary enlistment. It's likely that the results have been disappointing, leading to a change to a more coercive approach.
1/ Pokrovsk and Kupyansk are falsely being portrayed by the Russian media as decisive imminent victories, says Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin. He warns that Russsia is failing to make progress on the Zaporizhzhia front, which he describes as the decisive theatre of the Ukraine war. ⬇️
2/ Writing from the jail where he has been imprisoned since last year on charges of inciting extremism, Girkin dismisses the increasingly bloody battles for Pokrovsk and Kupiansk – which have cost thousands of Russian lives – as irrelevant to the war's main objectives:
3/ "The tactical successes in Kupyansk and Pokrovsk, which give hope for the rapid liberation of these two cities (the Kharkiv and Donetsk axes), are being presented to our press as some kind of decisive victories.
69 years ago today, thousands of Soviet troops were entering Hungary to prepare for Operation Whirlwind – the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution. Even as the invasion was being prepared, Hungarians celebrated their last few days of freedom.
2/ Twelve more Soviet divisions have joined the five divisions already stationed in Hungary. They are commanded from Szolnok in central Hungary by Marshal Ivan Konev, a Second World War veteran who is now the Supreme Commander of the Warsaw Pact Combined Forces.
3/ By now well aware of what is planned, Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy (left) protests to Soviet Ambassador on Hungary (and later Party leader) Yuri Andropov (right) and briefs foreign ambassadors in Budapest.
69 years ago today, Hungary faced a momentous choice as a result of its revolution: would it remain part of the Soviet bloc, or become a neutral socialist state in the style of Yugoslavia? And would the Soviet Union accept such a choice?
2/ The government of Imre Nagy had not initially contemplated Hungarian withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, but faces strong pressure from revolutionary activists who want to restore Hungarian sovereignty and remove all Soviet troops from the country.
3/ Unknown to Nagy, the Soviets had already made the decision the previous day in Moscow to prepare for a massive invasion of Hungary to crush the revolution. Operation Vichr (Whirlwind) had already been put into action, with a four-day countdown to begin the invasion.
1/ Russian hospitals are overflowing with badly injured soldiers, who are lying for days in the hallways without even being treated, due to the doctors being so overworked. The men are not being compensated for their wounds, says one hospitalised soldier. ⬇️
2/ Vladimir Kazayev, a seriously wounded soldier from the 239th Tank Regiment (military unit 89547) of the 90th Tank Division, is being 'treated' at the War Veterans Hospital No. 2 in Moscow. However, he says, conditions there and at other hospitals are dire.
3/ “The hospitals are completely overflowing. The doctors are exhausted. It's hard for them too right now. There are so many 300s [wounded]. They're still bringing in the seriously ill, the very seriously ill. Entire trainloads are being sent to Moscow.
69 years ago today, Hungary celebrated its newfound freedoms – free speech, free assembly, freedom from oppression, and for thousands of people, their physical freedom from Communist jails. But in Moscow, leaders planned to take it all away.
2/ Over 12,000 prisoners are released by the new government of Prime Minister Imre Nagy on the ninth day of the revolution. They include Hungary's most famous political prisoner, Cardinal József Mindszenty, who returns at once to the Archibishop's Palace in Buda.
3/ Further consolidation of the Hungarian state security forces is begun under the auspices of the Revolutionary Armed Forces Committee, which aims to bring together the armed forces, police, Border Guard and the new National Guard comprised of ex-insurgents.
1/ The fatal capsizing of a Russian floating crane in Sevastopol has highlighted the inability of the Black Sea Fleet's principal shipyard to build the cranes needed for the construction of new naval vessels, as a critical Russian commentary notes. ⬇️
2/ The PK-400 "Sevastopol" floating crane capsized at the Sevastopol Marine Shipyard in Sevastopol's South Bay on 28 October 2025. The crane has been under construction since 2017, was launched in October 2019, and its 400-ton lifting boom was installed in August 2021.
3/ As 'Military Informant' highlights, this is not the shipyard's first failed crane-building project:
"This situation is the final demonstration of Sevmorzavod's true ability to build anything worthwhile."