The Russian Defense Ministry continues to be in chaos. Putin has made another reshuffle, appointing his cousin's daughter Anna Tsivileva (née Putina) to one of the positions of deputy defense minister. One of Russia's most corrupt officials. Before that, she managed the
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"Defenders of the Fatherland" fund. This is a fund to help participants in the "special military operation." Now her responsibilities will include organizing social and housing support for military personnel. Construction is almost the biggest area for corruption. Pavel
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Fradkov has been appointed as another deputy. He was the first deputy of the Chief of the Presidential Property Management Department of the Russian Federation. Leonid Gornin has been appointed to the position of First Deputy Minister of Defense. Previously, he was the
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First Deputy of the Minister of Finance. Now he will oversee the financial support of the armed forces. These names may not mean much to an uninitiated person, but this is not so important. What is important is that when Andrei Belousov took the post of Minister of Defense,
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he came without a team and now Vladimir Putin is appointing assistants to him. Since the money began to run out, he decided to bring bureaucrats to these positions. And relatives at the same time. None of them have any idea about the army. Only distantly. Tsivileva became
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famous for the fact that when her "Defenders of the Fatherland" fund received in June 2013 1.314 billion rubles, more than 70% of this fund was assigned to employee salaries. Plus the costs of maintaining the office and training coordinators. In total, 97% of the fund went
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to its maintenance. 3% was allocated for psychological assistance to veterans. Later, the government allocated another 5 billion rubles to the fund. In addition, soldiers complained about the fund that it did not transfer the required payments. So the new team of the
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Minister of Defense, called upon to fight corruption and reduce expenses, will work great. Great for Ukraine. The first thing these people will most likely start doing is conducting audits and calculations. Putting things in order and seeing where and how they can cut
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expenses. Of course, for their own profit. In addition, these people have never worked in the same team and most likely there will be a struggle for funding. And there is less and less finance. Such team building in the middle of the Russian offensive will only add disorder
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and chaos. Again, this does not mean that the Russian army will soon collapse. It still has a lot of cannon fodder. It still has a lot of resources. But the fact that Putin started talking about peace again last week and this time his demands were a little more modest
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than before, says, that he understands that there are problems and he is scared. The more aid to Ukraine and the stronger the unity of the West, the more Putin is afraid. His flight to North Korea, possibly for new ammunition in exchange for technology, also speaks of
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problems. Putin has long been afraid to fly anywhere. This time he removed several fighter planes from the front for escort. The window of opportunity for Russia is closing. The offensive on Kharkiv has failed. There are no successes on other parts of the front either.
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Ukraine has more and more allies and weapons supplies. There is still a difficult and long struggle ahead, but it is obvious that Russia's problems are only accumulating and new people in the army leadership will only worsen the situation.
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1/4 Finally! There is a possibility that the US will expand the training program for Ukrainian pilots. Update by @joni_askola
2/4 The potential expansion of the training program for Ukrainian pilots was announced by US Defense spokesman Pat Ryder. While F-16 training is currently ongoing in Arizona and Denmark, further training opportunities are being arranged in other locations across Europe.
3/4 This holds significant importance, as Ukraine will require a substantial number of pilots in the coming months to operate F16 jets, its Soviet fleet, and Mirage 2000-5 interceptors simultaneously.
Along with Russia, China uses the tactics of hybrid warfare and disinformation to weaken the West and trust in democracy. And while stricter sanctions are being taken against Russia, China's activities are currently being weakly restricted. The tactics used by China are not
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much different from those of Russia. It is no secret that there is an exchange of data between these countries and at the last meeting of the two countries' leaders, their main news agencies signed another agreement to deepen cooperation. In early June, Reuters
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published an investigation into the most downloaded news app in the US, NewsBreak, and explained how the app is connected to China and how it uses AI to spread disinformation. So, on Christmas Eve 2023, the NewsBreak app posted news about a mass shooting in Bridgeton,
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1/7 Germany is set to provide Ukraine with a Frankenstein anti-aircraft-gun tank. Update by @joni_askola
2/7 Rheinmetall is set to supply Ukraine with a cutting-edge air defense tank specifically designed to intercept russian drones and missiles. This unique vehicle, dubbed "Frankenstein," integrates the advanced Skyranger anti-aircraft system with Leopard 1 tank hulls.
3/7 The Skyranger system is an extremely modern system and it is ideally suited for intercepting shaheds and reconnaissance drones.
Following gas companies like Gazprom, the number of unprofitable companies also grow in the coal mining industry. On June 14, the United States expanded sanctions against the Russian fuel and energy complex. The sanctions include all future projects of NOVATEK and
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Gazprom, LNG tankers under construction, and LNG terminals. Also, the projects of the coal companies Coalstar and Elgacoal were subject to sanctions. The share of unprofitable coal companies in Russia has doubled since 2022. The net profit of Russian coal companies in
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January-March 2024 decreased by 96.9% compared to the same period last year, to 4.7 billion rubles, Rosstat reported. According to Rosstat, during the reporting period, coal companies received 47.7 billion rubles in profit (-71.5%), losses amounted to 43 billion rubles
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1/4 New units being formed: Ukraine is expanding its Air Assault Forces. Update by @joni_askola with information from @Militarylandnet
2/4 The Air Assault Forces command in Ukraine has established a new unit, the 421st Battalion of Unmanned Systems. Additionally, the expansion of the 170th Logistics Battalion of the Air Assault Forces has led to its transformation from a battalion into a full regiment.
3/4 The formation of a battalion of unmanned systems reflects the current trajectory of modern warfare, underscoring the growing significance of unmanned systems on the battlefield.
At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum held from June 5 to 8, Putin tried his best to avoid the word "inflation." In his speech, he mentioned inflation only when he spoke about the United States, trying to convince people that it was their problem, not Russia's.
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However, he was not the only one speaking. Other officials let it slip that the economy was in a very bad state, and that was even before the United States imposed sanctions on the Central Bank's Moscow Exchange. Elvira Nabiullina admitted that measures to curb inflation had
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not worked and that its growth should be expected; she had not yet announced an increase in the Central Bank key interest rate, but this was more of a political move and it would not last long. Nabiullina allowed for a "significant" increase in the rate in July. Also, after
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