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A media exercise in humiliation, and an element of war crimes With Ukraine now on the offensive, Russia announced just a few days ago that it would no longer try to hold “referendums” on the territory it occupies in Ukraine. Then, coinciding with Putin’s speech yesterday, this policy reversed, and now “referendums” are supposedly being held — more or less instantaneously, right now, under conditions of war. People are struggling for a way to speak of this nonsense without using the word “referendum,” which in this context is obviously misleading propaganda, to say the least. It is best to regard...

The NY Times published this report today. The intercepts in question aren’t recent but come from back in March (snip) Still, the content of the calls reveal just how quickly the Russian offensive fell apart. A soldier named Sergey told his mother, “No one told us we were going to war. They told us the day before we left.” Another soldier told his partner, “I didn’t know this was going to happen. They said we were going for training. These bastards didn’t tell us anything.” The soldier’s take on the attempt to take Kyiv was just as blunt. “We can’t...

Daniel Kochis @dankochis Senior Policy Analyst, European AffairsDaniel is a senior policy analyst for European affairs in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.Russia’s wartime arsenal now appears to include sabotage of underwater pipelines.On Monday, authorities in Europe noticed a sudden drop in pressure in the Nord Stream and Nord Stream II natural gas pipelines, which connect Russia with Germany. Since that time, a total of three leaks (two in NS1 and one in NS2) across both pipelines have been found. Seismologists in Denmark registered explosions in the area measuring around 2.1 and 2.3 on the Richter scale.The leaks are in...

The Russian leader has a record of weaponising fuel supplies and believes his people can endure economic pain longer than western Europe The suspected sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines could be a page ripped straight from Vladimir Putin’s playbook of panic, escalation and misdirection. The former KGB agent’s illegal war on Ukraine resulted in unprecedented Western sanctions against Moscow. But the Russian president is confident that his people can endure economic pain longer and better than Europeans. His calculation is that soaring gas prices and the cost of living crisis in a continent hopelessly addicted to Russian energy will...

While the Ukrainians are fighting a conventional war on their own territory, Russia and the West are engaged in an unconventional one fought by economic pressure, political subterfuge and dirty tricks. The apparent sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines seems just the latest example. Both of these lines linking Russia to Germany have sprung devastating leaks. The cause, according to seismological readings, was a series of explosions off the Danish island of Bornholm, too directed (and powerful enough to breach 4cm of steel and a thick concrete mantle) and too synchronised to be any kind of an accident. There...

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/8f635d68-4cf9-445f-90fc-0811cef10c26 Late on Sunday night, Ilya, a 38-year-old Muscovite, hobbled to his front door on crutches to find two officials handing him a draft notice. Ilya pointed to the cast on the leg he broke falling down the stairs...

Russia is to open an army enlisting centre on the border with Georgia, where massive queues have formed as Russian men try to flee the country to avoid being sent to fight in Ukraine. Officers at the Verkhniy Lars crossing will be tasked with serving summons to "citizens of the mobilisation age", the authorities say. Recent satellite images have shown queues going for miles from Russia. All those crossing into Georgia look exhausted, a BBC correspondent says. They are hungry and sleep deprived - but relieved to have reached safety, Rayhan Demytrie says. People have been coming in groups of...

An old Soviet self-propelled howitzer called Gvozdika or "Carnation" is rolled out in an open field and put into position. Its barrel tilts up. "Fire!" comes the command. The gunners hastily move away after the last shot, acting quickly. Although the advancement of Ukrainian forces in the south is very slow, their artillery units remain busy. (snip) The self-styled referendum is bringing a new threat to the local population - mobilisation. Many men could be drafted to fight for the Russian army. Russian soldiers are already going house to house in some villages and writing down the names of male...

I can't see the video, even on A7, because I'm restricted for some reason or other. Let me know how it goes.

President Biden and his allies raked in campaign cash from a top Russia lobbyist in 2020, just months before his administration’s decision to scrap sanctions on a controversial firm building a Russian oil pipeline to Germany. Richard Burt, a managing partner at McLarty Associates and a former U.S. ambassador to Germany during the Reagan administration, ponied up $4,000 for Joe Biden in October 2020 and dropped another $10,000 in the lefty-aligned political action committee Unite The County in March 2020, FEC records show. In addition to violating Biden’s own campaign pledge not to take lobbyist cash, the money from Burt...

An ally of President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday outlined the scenario of a nuclear strike on Ukraine, saying that the U.S.-led NATO military alliance would be too scared of a 'nuclear apocalypse' to directly enter the conflict in response. Dmitry Medvedev, a former president who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said Russia had the right to defend itself with nuclear weapons if it is pushed beyond its limits and that this is "certainly not a bluff". Putin last week ordered Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine,...

Russia has admitted it made mistakes in its drive to call up of hundreds of thousands of military reservists. Reports have been circulating on social media of people with no military experience being called up - as well as others who are too old, or disabled. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman has now conceded errors were being made, saying there were cases when the mobilisation decree had been "violated". It comes as people in Russia continue to protest against Vladimir Putin's plan to mobilise 300,000 military reservists. Reports in opposition Russian media suggested that up to one million people could be...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 26 granted full Russian citizenship to Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who leaked information about the U.S. agency’s widespread domestic surveillance operations during the Obama administration. Snowden, 39, fled to Russia in 2013 from the United States after he posted secret files that revealed the NSA’s operations. U.S. authorities have for years sought to bring Snowden back and arrest him on espionage charges.

You see, this is why I prefer Catholicism. All we need is confession. Russia’s establishment has grown desperate enough in Ukraine to reach for the martyrdom argument. Patriarch Kirill, a Vladimir Putin crony, declared that Russian men who die for “Holy Russia” by participating in its genocide in Ukraine will have their sins “washed away”: (snip) If that sounds positively medieval, it is, literally. It’s the same indulgence granted during the Crusades. This is the kind of martyrdom teachings one no longer finds in Christianity but still find in radical forms of Islam and extremist political ideologies. In those ideologies,...

A man has opened fire on an enlistment centre and another recruitment office has been attacked with Molotov cocktails – after Vladimir Putin ordered the conscription of at least 300,000 men in Russia. The violence comes as the first tranche of people ordered to report for duty arrive at military bases, and it follows a weekend of protests, violence and arrests as Russians voice their anger and demonstrate over the president's mobilization plan. The gunman opened fire at a conscription office in the town of Ust-Ilimsk, Irkutsk - critically wounding a military recruitment officer. Sky News has verified a video...

A protest has been held in Ordzhonikidze Square, in Yakutsk, Russia, where women came out to demand an "end to the genocide" and to return men home from the war against Ukraine ...a large number of people attended [the protest], many of them coming with their families, mostly women, with grandmothers and daughters.

Ukraine’s Armed Forces general staff has claimed some Russian conscripts from the Kremlin’s mass mobilisation are being sent directly to the frontlines in Ukraine without training. Amid warnings from the UK’s Ministry of Defence and other experts that many of those conscripted were likely to get little meaningful training – and faced the risk of “high rates of attrition” when deployed – men recently mobilised by pro-Russian occupation officials in Ukraine were also being readied for the frontline. Those included newly drafted personnel in Crimea as well as conscripts in the Luhansk region who have received draft summonses in recent...

Russia's defence ministry has revealed a host of occupations it says will be exempted from conscription aimed at boosting its war effort in Ukraine. IT workers, bankers and journalists working for state media will escape the "partial mobilisation" announced by President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. Around 300,000 citizens face being called up as part of the drive. The move has prompted a rush towards borders as young men attempt to flee to evade the draft. Announcing the exemptions on Friday, Russia defence ministry said employers must compile a list of workers who meet the criteria and submit it to its...

The Kremlin this summer scrambled to form a new army corps, seeking replacements for 80,000 troops injured or killed in Ukraine and 5,000 wrecked or captured vehicles. ...As Russian casualties exceeded 50,000 this spring, the Kremlin began scraping together fresh battalions by raiding the training and garrison establishment of existing brigades. At the same time, the army announced an initiative to form scores of new regional volunteer battalions—and even offered elevated salaries of up to $5,000 a month. This should come as no surprise. The recruitment drive behind the 3rd AC collided with Russia’s unhappy demographics and conscription practices. Roughly...

Vladimir Putin has fired the general charged with managing the Russian military's faltering logistics operations in Ukraine. Gen Dmitry Bulgakov, a deputy defence minister, was removed from his role on Saturday, the defence ministry said on Telegram. The ministry said the 67-year old was "released" to transfer into a new role. He will be replaced by Col Gen Mikhail Mizintsev, who managed Moscow's brutal siege at the port city of Mariupol. Gen Bulgakov has run the military's logistics operations since 2008 and was responsible for keeping Russian troops supplied after their deployment to Syria in 2015. ...Gen Bulgakov's dismissal comes...