Another deep dive into Putin’s private life with Alina Kabaeva from The Dossier Center. The main takeaway is that Putin leverages his inner circle's wealth to provide a princely life for his two young sons. dossier.center/succession-en/ Some other takeaways: they hire private tutors through publicly placed ads. Foreign national tutors (South Africans preferred) get healthcare at the same elite clinic that treats elites' prostitutes. Despite heavy isolation, there are strange loopholes in the family's security (unless Putin is visiting).

Dmitry Grinchy is 87. His father was executed in 1938 by Stalin’s NKVD as an “enemy of the people” on bogus espionage charges. Earlier today in Moscow, two men attacked him on a bus when they thought they heard him refer to Wagner Group mercenaries as “murderers.” The bus was passing by a memorial site dedicated to Wagner PMC fighters when Grinchy supposedly muttered his remark. The two assailants dragged him to the police, and all three men were detained and later released. The two sides have filed police reports against each other. ovd.info/story/zaderzha…

Provocative article published last month in Russian Politics tackles now common assumption in West and by anti-Kremlin groups that Putin ordered FSB to bomb apartments in Sept 1999 to boost his presidential momentum. Author suggests that Berezovksy & MVD are likelier culprits. You might be asking why this needs revisiting now, but the premise is excellent: we seem to read about potential false flag operations in Ukraine every week, so reexamining these allegations ostensibly at the heart of Putin’s rise to power is well-timed indeed.

Some thoughts on my favorite Russian villains from Hollywood movies. In no particular order, let's start with Air Force One. Remember Gary Oldman as Egor Korshunov? I think he dies when a parachute gets wrapped around his neck. Kinda like Mark Strong at the end of Sherlock. Theon Greyjoy's dad in John Wick calls Keanu Reeves "Baba Yaga," which is meant to be the same as "The Bogeyman" but actually means "that old witch lady who lives in the woods in the house on chicken legs." (The new Hellboy did a gross rendition of her.)

More than an hour after this was initially reported, I’m not seeing any additional corroboration. Just this morning, Kremlin spox Peskov was very dismissive when asked about the NYT report claiming that Surovikin had advance knowledge of the mutiny… https://t.co/YW7xyQ83I2t.me/youlistenedmay…

https://twitter.com/michaelh992/status/1674136248364027929

Journalist Alexey Venediktov says Surovikin hasn’t been in contact with his family for three days. Also, the general’s security detail isn’t answering the phone, he claims. t.me/aavst2022/5477

Here we go. Putin is repeating the Defense Ministry’s language about Prigozhin being a “criminal scammer.”

Just wow. A video has surfaced showing Prigozhin at the Southern Military District HQ in Rostov-on-Don talking to (and HUMILIATING) Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov. He threatens to blockade Rostov and head for Moscow!

I have extreme trouble understanding Yevkurov and… https://t.co/jGr9gaLB1itwitter.com/i/web/status/1…
P.S. And, yes, I bought a month of Twitter Blue so I could post this slightly longer video.

This is the closest Russia has been to a coup since the early 1990s. Evgeny Prigozhin has effectively declared war on the Defense Ministry after what he says was a Russian missile attack against his men. And in a follow-up audio clip, Prigozhin appears to be calling on “the entire nation” to join him in the fight against the Defense Ministry’s leadership. A coup or a mutiny, you decide.

Interesting post from political scientist Vladimir Pastukhov arguing that a "2nd front" of the war has emerged in Europe between Kyiv & the Russian democratic opposition in exile. The latter undermines Ukraine's initiative to make Russia a black & white issue for the West. 1/4 The West backs Kyiv, but dominant narratives about the war could shift, making it logical for Ukraine to maximize attention on itself. The only acceptable Russia oppo is the kind writing Russia's obituary, etc. 2/4

Ukrainian officials have been urging the U.S. & Europe to provide them with cluster munitions, one of the world’s most controversial weapons, banned by more than 120 nations, because of the dangers they pose to civilians long after wars are over. themessenger.com/news/cluster-m… Grim ending: “We’ve run low on the regular munitions so they’re looking for more sources of artillery ammunition.” The most compelling thing about cluster munitions is that “they're there,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser w/ the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Interesting thread. As someone who started studying Russian in UC Santa Cruz classrooms in 2001, I can tell you that the "nobody cares about this anymore" vibe was strong more than 20 years ago, long before the Crimea annexation.

https://twitter.com/maximananyev/status/1616033009563758592

I assume the current geopolitics will resuscitate interest in Russian somewhat, just like Arabic got a boost during the War on Terror, but it's undeniable that Russian lang & culture are miles away from most things the typical American cares about even a little.

Quite the deep dive into a weirdo who was either a "low-IQ Russian asset" or a quirky grifter who managed to trade obscurity in California for a ticket to (very) moderate stardom in Moscow.

https://twitter.com/kromark/status/1671563133654007814

I'm sure the Russian-speaking community out there in SoCal is less than thrilled to know he absconded to Moscow with footage of their interactions, though it's hard to imagine he could have gathered much of use.

“Are they ready to start a war to send their children? Are they ready to die?” he said when asked about Trump and DeSantis. “If Russia occupies Ukraine, they will move on [...] and the U.S. will have to choose between dismantling NATO or fighting.” nbcnews.com/news/world/ukr… This comment, it seems to me, represents much of the challenge for Kyiv, given that NATO isn't an everyday concept to most Americans (though it enjoys the political establishment's overwhelming support), and the Orange Man even scored points by dunking on NATO freeloaders.

Rostov-based antiwar activist Anatoly Berezikov has reportedly died in jail. Officials told @OvdInfo that he killed himself, but his lawyer says he was being tortured in custody. Berezikov posted leaflets from the “I Want to Live” Ukrainian civic project. t.me/ovdinfo/18471 @OvdInfo Here’s his lawyer, Irina Gak, explaining some of the abuse Berezikov faced from the authorities. She says officials appear to have tortured him to death. t.me/ovdinfo/18470

Ukraine’s “lead elements” are trying to set the conditions for a breakthrough in the early stage of the counteroffensive, explains @Jack_Watling. Fighting at Russia’s main defense line, still some 10 miles away, will be “tougher.” rusi.org/explore-our-re… @Jack_Watling Three aims, so far: (1) a “counterbattery duel” to strike each other’s logistics, command and control, reconnaissance, and artillery systems, (2) force Russia to commit its reserves & move troops from 3rd defense line, (3) advance as broadly as possible to stretch Russian troops.

From last month in the NYT on the Nova Kakhovka (which either just blew up or collapsed suddenly). After letting the reservoir levels reach a historic low, Russian occupation forces let it reach a 30-year high. Both sides have risked the dam’s safety with artillery/explosions. nytimes.com/2023/05/17/wor…

This is ugly. Team Navalny member Dmitry Nizovtsev (he hosts a YouTube show and used to be a campaign member in Khabarovsk) berates Ilya Leshukov, another activist from Arkhangelsk whom Team Navalny helped reach Georgia, for criticizing planned anti-war protests on June 4. The Anti-Corruption Foundation provided the $325 or so that Leshukov needed for a plane ticket. Writing on his personal Telegram channel to an audience of 96 (!) subscribers, Leshukov said protesting in Russia is too dangerous now, better to donate secretly to Ukraine’s military.

So, Tara Reade has “fled” to Russia, where she says she will ask Putin for citizenship, leaning on help from State Duma deputy and TV propagandist Maria Butina (yes, her). She did a press conference on Tuesday with Sputnik. It lasted MORE THAN NINE HOURS. youtube.com/live/sXgazjmT0… Obviously, I’m not going to watch this, but I keep skipping around and expecting to find a Tom & Jerry cartoon dropped in the middle somewhere. Nope! It’s really that long.

Looks like he did say "dying," otherwise I assume he would have corrected the record here. P.S. opening a criminal case isn't the same as issuing an arrest warrant. You're only under investigation, Lindsey.

https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1663172622891220993

Needless to say, "Russians are dying, [aid to Ukraine] is a great deal for Washington," likely expresses the rationale for many in DC, but saying this "quiet part out loud" undermines American democracy rhetoric & boosts the folks who say it's just Uncle Sam playing power games.

The Russian state media has just noticed this meeting from a few days ago between Zelensky & Senator Lindsey Graham, where the latter allegedly says, "And the Russians are dying. Itʼs the best money we ever spent," though he seems to have said, "and the Russians are down." Or maybe "And the Russians are done," but I don't hear "dying." Likely, he wouldn't have used a definite article if he were talking about "Russians dying."

I finally got around to reading the Schwarz and Layne article in Harpers. Sharing it on Twitter with the replies unlocked is probably a recipe for NAFO dogshit, but I for one welcome the warnings about U.S. messianism. harpers.org/archive/2023/0… “The post-Cold War U.S. became a revolutionary force in world politics” is a powerful sentence. Students of Russian history know how dangerous revolutionary ideology and policymaking can be. Does a “crusade” sound like a good thing to you? That’s what Manichean foreign policy is.