Prigozhin is back with an 11-min audio message. Says the reason he marches is because Wagner was forced to disband on July 1s because of Shoigu order to sign contracts. Wagner commanders refused to sign. Thread: Wagner commanders thought that if they sign with MoD they's turn into cannon fodder because of the way regular army has performed in action, Prigozhin says. Some fighters made the decision to join MoD, but "it's a minimal amount."

Putin for the first time meets with wives and mothers of Russian soldiers after numerous pleas from families trying to return their relatives home, complaining about lack of basic goods and the abysmal conditions, and some cases of mothers storming enlistment offices. He begins by saying he “personally shares the pain of mothers who lost their sons” but then the speech quickly turns to “fakes” about the war in Ukraine: “Internet is full of deception and lies, nothing can be trusted.” Hardly a consolation.

A law aiming to punish Russian soldiers who are trying to leave the frontline and adding “during martial law” as an aggravating circumstance just sailed through Russian parliament, fueling speculation that some sort of mobilization (perhaps a limited one) may soon happen. Russia-installed officials in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions asked Moscow to hold a referendum and “reunite” with Russia.
Simonyan: “based on what is happening and still about to happen, this week marks either the eve of our imminent victory, or the eve of nuclear war.”

Full English translation of the video purporting to show Yevgeny Prigozhin recruiting Russian prisoners to fight in Ukraine as part of Wagner private military company. Absolutely bonkers if it's really him. "In the private military company I have fire support platoons and other units that provide the offensive. We have aircraft of several types, MLRS, tanks, there is everything you need in order to for an effective offensive.

The video of supposedly Prigozhin recruiting convicts for Wagner PMC confirms some of the previous reporting but also reveals some really interesting new bits. First of all, to my knowledge this would be the first time we hear him on record saying he represents Wagner. 1/4

https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1570087287643414528

Then, he says that the first convicts that fought in Ukraine as part of Wagner was on June 1 at the Vuhlehirska power station in Sivatodarsk — that was the first big public acknowledgement of Wagner's key role in the invasion, they even got a state TV special parading the win 2/4

A pretty telling Telegram post Zakhar Prilepin reposted from a fell staunch pro-Z blogger that reflects the fury drawn by the way Russian forces performed in Eastern Ukraine. “The events in the Kharkiv direction can rightfully be called a catastrophe.” Selected bits below: What is happening is now inevitable but these events have been in motion for months…
Unfortunately, in the "special military operation" it became a norm to ignore tough challenges based on a ridiculous principle “if I don't see it's not happening."

Wow. A car belonging to Alexander Dugin, right-wing theorist that had an influence on Putin’s views, was blown up last night near Moscow. His daughter died. Baza reports he was supposed to be in the car but changed his plan last minute So far there is no reliable info about who/why but this nevertheless a huge development. Dugin is at least partially credited with shaping the now govt narrative around Ukraine as a path towards Russian restoration and sort of a “spiritual battle” it wages

❗️The Russian Ministry of Defense decided to "drastically reduce" military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv direction.
The signals about scaling back the operation are getting more serious. There are obviously reasons to be skeptical of this and it’s all “belive it when you see it.” However, the scaling back narrative is becoming more consistent. Today Rus delegation said it is prepared to take “two steps” towards Ukraine in deescalation.

Quite a speech from Putin now. Thread of just his quotes:
1) "Tactics of military operation chosen by Ministry of Defense have fully justified themselves. Our soldiers and officers show courage and heroism. They are doing everything to avoid losses among the civilian population." 2) "I want to say this for the first time: at the very beginning of the special operation, in order to avoid bloodshed, the Kyiv authorities were asked not to engage in hostilities, but simply to withdraw their troops from Donbas. They didn't want to. Well, it's their decision."

An unexpected voice cut through state TV ‘alternative reality’ coverage of Ukraine — Channel One editor Marina Ovsyannikova, who stormed the studio to say: ‘We are Russian people; we are smart and thoughtful, it is only in our power to stop this madness.’

washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/… Zelensky personally thanks Ovsyannikova for speaking out.
“I am grateful to those Russians who do not stop trying to convey the truth… And personally to the woman who entered the Channel One studio with an anti-war poster,” he said.

Diversion during Channel One main state TV evening show tonight - a woman with No to War poster yells stop the war. Channel One already "probing the incident regarding the outsider's presence during live broadcast." "Stop the war. Don't believe the propaganda, they lie to you here" - the poster says.

This seemed like a matter of time but still significant: Russian Prosecutor General's Office demanded to restrict Instagram in Russia. And also recognize Meta (manages Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) as an extremist organization and ban its work in Russia. I mean hugely significant -- WhatsApp is the most popular messenger in Russia, it takes up nearly 60% of all messenger internet traffic. We are talking tens of millions of people having limited access to comms, and for a lot of them VPNs are not familiar tech.