1/ A real estate agent in Russia has aroused controversy for proposing a get-rich scheme: marry a Russian soldier and wait for him to get killed in order to claim his death benefits. Outraged Russian warbloggers say that such schemes are real and need to be stopped. ⬇️ 2/ Marina Orlova, founder of the Tomsk agency "Real Estate Empire", has shared a "working plan" for Russian women over 30 to buy an apartment. "It's all easy and simple," she says, "You find a man who serves in the Special Military Operation. He dies, you get 8 million."

1/ A new poll shows a sharp rise in the number of Republicans who consider Canada, Ukraine and the EU to be enemies of the United States, and a drop in both Republicans and Democrats who consider Russia to be hostile. It shows the impact of Donald Trump's rhetoric. ⬇️ 2/ The Economist has published a YouGov poll showing how Trumpian rhetoric and agitation by pro-Trump outlets such as Fox News has transformed Republicans' views towards America's former allies, which have now been recast as enemies.

1/ Russia aims to make up its huge war losses and declining population by encouraging schoolchildren to marry at 18, as part of a "special demographic operation." Some regions have introduced bonus payments for pregnant schoolgirls. ⬇️ 2/ Russian schools are to introduce a new course called "Family Studies", to be mandated for students at grades 5-9. The textbooks have already been developed. One section encourages schoolchildren to marry at the age of 18 and highlights the state's support for young families.

1/ Ukraine's recent incursion into the Belgorod region east of Sumy has led to a windfall for Russian traffic police. Calling them "werewolves in uniform", Russian warbloggers accuse them of systematically robbing Russian troops responding to the Ukrainian offensive. ⬇️ 2/ Russia's police – military and civilian – are notoriously corrupt and, particularly in the case of the military police, have an odious reputation for robbing and even kidnapping military drivers in order to extort money from them.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1706714963715235950

1/ The Trump Administration's bid to force foreign companies around the world to obey its executive order banning diversity, equality and inclusivity (DEI) programmes may pose a stark choice: follow the laws in their own countries or stop doing business with the US government. ⬇️ 2/ As previously reported, US officials are sending letters to companies and institutions in multiple countries demanding that they discontinue internal DEI policies as a condition for being an approved supplier of goods or services to the US government.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1905958142334124465

1/ Ten likely doomed Russian soldiers have issued a desperate appeal from a cellar, where they say they have been sent into a "hopeless situation" without transport, ammunition, communications or even a map. They ask the Russian authorities to intervene against the commanders. ⬇️ 2/ The men are from the 110th Motorised Rifle Brigade (military unit 42600), formerly a unit of the 'Donetsk People's Republic' People's Militia before its incorporation into the Russian army. The unit has an unenviable reputation for corruption and brutal treatment of its men.

1/ Leaked interrogation transcripts have revealed that the Kremlin has secretly taken over dozens of popular Russian Telegram channels, deanonymising their administrators on Putin's direct orders and 'persuading' them to hand control to the Russian presidential administration. ⬇️ 2/ In July 2023, the FSB detained one of its own – former FSB colonel Mikhail Polyakov – on charges of extortion from politicians and businessmen. He is accused of using Telegram channels to publish discrediting information on companies unless they bribed him not to do so.

1/ The Trump Administration is seeking to force foreign companies worldwide to ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes within their firms if they want to do business with the US government. It's an aggressive expansion of its anti-DEI crusade. ⬇️ 2/ The Financial Times reports that the US State Department has sent a letter to EU companies ordering them to discontinue DEI programmes if they provide supplies or services to the US government. Although the FT only highlights the EU impact, the order is in effect worldwide.

1/ Tuberculosis has become rife on Russia's front lines, with thousands of soldiers being treated for infections. The disease has spread from conscripted prisoners, but many men are being sent back to the trenches unhealed or are simply not being sent for treatment at all. ⬇️ 2/ The independent Russian media outlet Tochka reports that the Burdenko Hospital in Pushkino, Moscow Region, is overrun with military patients with TB. A prison guard who contracted the disease before he joined the army says that over a thousand men are being treated there.

1/ Alcoholics, the poor and the unemployed are reportedly being kidnapped by unknown individuals in Russia and forced to sign contracts to go to fight in Ukraine. Relatives suspect that their local administrations are involved, and fraud may also be a factor. ⬇️ 2/ The independent Russian news outlet Verstka reports on a spate of kidnappings in the Ivanovo region of Russia, north-east of Moscow. At least six men are said to have been abducted over the past six months. Most drank a lot, did odd jobs and were in poor health.

1/ Ukraine has obtained large numbers of Soviet-era shells and rockets from Syria, according to a Russian warblogger. The supplies are likely to have come from the stockpiles of the former Syrian Arab Army, perhaps via Turkey. ⬇️ 2/ The Russian 'Vault 8' Telegram channel writes that Ukraine no longer lacks ammunition for some of its legacy Soviet artillery systems:

1/ The area around the destroyed village of Klishchiivka in the Donetsk region has been the site of fierce fighting for months, in which hundreds of Russians have died. A Russian account illustrates the extreme losses that they are taking in the battle. ⬇️

https://x.com/i/status/1715653509826134281

2/ The 'BCh3' Telegram channel describes how 180 Russian soldiers – convicts, deserters and stormtroopers – were sent in six waves in an attack to retake lost Russian positions near Klishchiivka. Only half of the first wave made it, with at least 165 others quickly wiped out:

1/ Former Russian Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov may be facing more fraud charges after it was discovered that land that he had allocated for the construction of a military sports facility was used to construct a luxury chalet, built for free by a friendly contractor. ⬇️ 2/ Timur Ivanov, a protégé of former Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, served as a deputy defence minister from 2016 until his arrest in April 2024 for accepting bribes "on a particularly large scale" in relation to Russian Ministry of Defence construction projects.

1/ Two Russian 'black widows', an army warrant officer and his wife have been charged by the Russian authorities with recruiting vulnerable men into the army, contracting fake marriages, and seeking their deaths in order to obtain compensation payments to share between them. ⬇️ 2/ The 'Rakurs' (Angle) Telegram channel has published details of the case, brought by military investigators in the Primorsky Krai region of the Russian Far East against four people who are all linked with the 60th Motorised Rifle Brigade of the 5th Combined Arms Army. They are:

1/ Russian vehicle logistics have virtually collapsed in frontline areas due to the constant threat of drones, forcing soldiers to walk tens of kilometers to obtain fuel, food, water and medical supplies. A first-hand account gives an insight into the extreme danger they face. ⬇️ 2/ As previously reported, transporting supplies and evacuating the wounded is now largely done on foot (or, famously, by donkeys) in an area about 20 km deep behind the front lines in Ukraine. Anything that moves is attacked by drones.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1885662035343536294

1/ Russian forces are reportedly suffering from a severe shortage of FPV drones. They only receive a few poor-quality drones a day from state-approved companies, despite volunteer manufacturers having produced much better drones which the state is refusing to support. ⬇️ 2/ Russian warbloggers have been complaining for at least a year that volunteer efforts to mass-produce drones, replicating Ukraine's very successful drone programme, are being blocked by the Russian military-industrial complex and its allies in the army.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1826166923840623009

1/ A Russian air base is seeking urgent donations after its last remaining forklift broke down under the strain of loading 1500 kg bombs onto aircraft. The air base has already had to resort to transporting bombs using bicycles for want of other means of transportation. ⬇️
2/ Russian warbloggers have banded together to fundraise for a new forklift with a capacity of 3 tons, costing around 1.5 million rubles ($17,800). Kirill Fedorov of the 'War History Weapons' Telegram channel writes:

1/ Russian veterans of the war in Ukraine have appealed to Vladimir Putin for help against a new and deadlier enemy – their wives, who they say have been corrupted by feminists and "Anglo-Saxons". The men say they have been kicked out "on the street, abandoned and impotent". ⬇️ 2/ The 3rd All-Russian Congress of Fathers was held on 15-16 March in Moscow, with 250 participants and several thousand more reportedly watching online. Russian warblogger Sergey Kolyasnikov, author of the 'Zergulius' Telegram channel, writes:

1/ Russia's shortage of armoured vehicles and lack of an analogue for the M113 APC or M2A2 Bradley IFV has led soldiers to weld troop-carrying 'booths' onto rusting Soviet-era MT-LB armoured fighting vehicles. It highlights the Russian defence industry's failure to adapt. ⬇️ 2/ The MT-LB, built in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Poland from the early 1970s, is designed to carry 11 men in addition to a driver and gunner. However, like other Soviet-era APCs, it suffers from low headroom and narrow exit doors which slow down disembarcation from the vehicle.

1/ Ivan Popov, the former general who commanded the 58th Guards Combined Arms Army until July 2023, has written an 'appeal to the Tsar' asking Vladimir Putin to release him from detention so that he can "to continue to crush the enemy in accordance with the oath I took." ⬇️ 2/ Popov commanded the 58th Army until he was dismissed in July 2023 after a furious argument with the head of Russia's armed forces, General Valery Gerasimov, over the Russian army's poor performance in Ukraine.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1698266043821555729

1/ Russian companies are creating 'patriotic' board games based on the Ukraine war, such as a version of Monopoly where the squares are Ukrainian targets instead of streets, or a game where players hold cards representing the forces of "good" (Russia) and "darkness" (NATO). ⬇️ 2/ The Russian online store Wildberries is selling a number of board games with themes referencing the war in Ukraine, such as 'Special Operation on the Outskirts'. The game is based on Monopoly, with the usual streets replaced by 8 cities and 14 strategic locations in Ukraine.