Ukrainian athlete Olga Kharlan refused to shake her Russian opponent Anna Smirnova’s hand after winning the bout at the Fencing World Championships, and was disqualified by the International Fencing Federation @FIE_fencing. 1/7 The International Fencing Federation (FIE) was, until recently, presided by a Russian Kremlin-linked businessman Alisher Usmanov, here in the right. 2/7

The latest report on Russian non-Kremlin right-wing extremism suggests that the war and the Kremlin’s pro-war rhetoric have emboldened the Russian far right who had been in crisis for many years. 1/10sova-center.ru/racism-xenopho… Right-wing extremists are deeply integrated into various civil society structures around the war: they help “refugees”, residents of the regions affected by the war, and the Russian military. 2/10

Since the EU Ambassadors have finally agreed on the 11th package of sanctions against Russia, a Russian "academic" Sergey Karaganov is likely among a dozen of Russian propagandists who are sanctioned by the EU individually. Here's something that one needs to note. 1/7 Karaganov hit the news recently as he suggested to the Russian leadership to target several Western countries with nuclear weapons. 2/7

A general take on the Russian émigré opposition to the Putin regime, a thread. 1/7 If there's a window of opportunity of post-Putin Russia willing to improve relations with the West, the Russian émigré opposition will be one of several Russian groups of interests that will have a say on the Russia of the future. 2/7

Russian opposition activist Alexey #Navalny wrote a 15-point programme: meduza.io/feature/2023/0… With the exception of a few disputable arguments, the programme is quite decent and is a good foundation for further discussions with progressive pro-Western Russians. A thread -> The most important point: Navalny unequivocally acknowledges the internationally recognised borders of #Ukraine (1991). Which clearly implies the need for restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty over #Crimea and all other currently occupied/annexed territories of Ukraine. 2/10

As the German edition of RT has been severely damaged by the latest round of the EU sanctions, it’s worth reviewing research our great colleagues did on that edition. 1/5 “RT DE and Other Russian State Media in Germany” by Silvia Stöber @tavisupleba : democratic-integrity.eu/rt-de-and-othe… 2/5

When Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared in a home video in November 2022 to dispel the rumours about his alleged hospitalisation in Indonesia while attending the G20 summit, various Western observers focused on all the wrong things with their sarcastic comments. 1/8 Some pointed out that Lavrov used American technology (Apple Watch and Iphone), while being notorious for his public anti-American views. 2/8

Ever since the European Parliament adopted the controversial yet potentially game-changing resolution on recognising Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism (tinyurl.com/37kvj857), everybody has been - expectedly - discussing the resolution's primary thesis only. 1/7 However, the resolution featured yet another thesis, which had no direct relationship to the main point of the document but which may have a groundbreaking effect on our perception of Russia's war against Europe today. 2/7

Ukraine needs to do something painful yet necessary: a THREAD 👇🏻 Russia’s genocidal war against Ukraine is more than a conflict between Russia and Ukraine. It’s even more than Russia’s war on Europe. Essentially, what we have today is the continuation of the Second World War.

I was happy to take part in the panel discussion "A War of Values: Can Europe find its place in a new world?" organised by Debates on Europe @DebatesOnEurope in Dresden, here's the video: In particular, I argued that while Western Europe condemns #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine, it feels uneasy about Ukraine's heroic resistance because of the shift of moral authority from Western Europe to Central and Eastern Europe - three months of "We told you so". 2/4

Russian government official Dmitry Rogozin: “What has emerged in place of Ukraine is an existential threat to the Russian people, Russian history, the Russian language and Russian civilisation”. 1/9 According to the speaker of the Russian “parliament” Vyacheslav Volodin, Russia is Putin, so if you replace “Russian” with “Putin’s” in Rogozin’s quote, you’ll realise that Rogozin is actually right. 2/9

The Ukrainian Security Service published an analytical report of the Russian FSB related to #Russia's genocidal invasion of #Ukraine: ssu.gov.ua/novyny/sbu-otr… Here I will highlight some FSB's guidelines on what influence operations Russia should carry out in Europe, thread -> 1/6 Russian influence operations in Europe recommended by the FSB:
- Dropping a massive package of information on "facts" and "forecasts" on the decline of the quality of life in the EU linked to the EU governments' policies supporting "nationalist groups" in Ukraine; 2/6

Hungary gets 65% of its oil supplies from Russia via the Druzhba Pipeline that goes through Ukraine. When a Ukrainian official mentioned that the transfer of Russian oil may be used as leverage against anti-Ukrainian policies of Orbán’s regime -> 1/8 -> Hungary’s Foreign Ministry responded quite nervously saying that Hungary helps hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees. 2/8

The Russian genocidal invasion of Ukraine has prompted an anthropological counter-revolution in Russia. 1/5 (The physical ugliness of the invaders and their supporters is one of the foundations of this counter-revolution, but it has little to do with its essence - after all, ugliness can be a foundation of humility and self-reflection, rather than a revolution or counterrevolution) 2/5

While it is crucial to provide unabated support for Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian genocidal invasion of Ukraine, we must be vigilant not to allow some European countries to turn the refugee issue into a distraction. 1/5 Helping Ukrainian refugees is an easy political decision, it’s largely just a matter of financial resources earmarked for humanitarian crises. 2/5

Back in 2017, I was quite optimistic (and still am) about the Western response to the Kremlin's demands of the "new Yalta" (quoting from my "Tango Noir" book): 1/8 In 2012-2014 – against the background of the dramatic deterioration of relations with the West and, especially, after the EU, the United States and some other countries imposed sanctions against Russia, 2/8

As I argued before, the only aspect of the Russian extra-parliamentary opposition’s “Smart voting” that irritated the Kremlin was the process of politicisation of the Russian society. 1/8 Through participating in, or just reading, debates on “Smart voting”, following updates on this electoral strategy and finding ways to access its instructions blocked by the authorities, a person gets necessarily and inevitably politicised. 2/8

Navalny’s tactic of “Smart voting” (tinyurl.com/4rhts8bj) definitely irritates the Kremlin but not for the reason many people think. 1/6 “Smart voting” is a tactic based on the idea of voting for any party — except for the ruling “United Russia” — that has a chance of entering the Russian “parliament”. The aim is thus, to reduce representation of “United Russia”. 2/6

It becomes clearer by the day that the so-called Russian “parliamentary elections” scheduled to take place in September should not be recognised as legitimate either by Western states or by Western institutions. 1/5 While, in recent years, Russian elections have actually never been conducted in a proper democratic manner, today the Russian authorities themselves are consistently de-legitimising the September elections even further. 2/5

Documents suggest Russia launched secret multi-agency effort to interfere in US democracy: theguardian.com/world/2021/jul… 1/7 If authentic, the documents show us, for the first time ever, how the Kremlin mechanism of high-profile interference in Western democracies works. These details are, indeed, invaluable. 2/7

Yesterday’s “interview” with Raman Pratasevich illegally kidnapped by the Lukashenka regime belongs to the same category of repulsive obscenity that characterises outrageous torture of prisoners in the separatist “republics” in eastern Ukraine. 1/5 Revealing the worst of human nature, that obscenity is the very opposite of military honour however it is conceptualised by different cultural systems. Wars are horrible but if one needs to fight, that need provides no justification for moral degeneration. 2/5