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The young Russians who fled their country for neighboring Kazakhstan to avoid being conscripted to fight in Ukraine all want to go home one day. They just don’t know when that will be. Russians refusing to fight in Ukraine flee country but long for home “I feel very sad, because, actually, I love Russia,” a 25-year-old Muscovite told NBC News in the biggest city in Kazakhstan, Almaty, a prime destination for Russians avoiding conscription. “Maybe I stay here two or three months. I don’t know.” Like the other wary exiles NBC News spoke with, the young Muscovite asked not to...

Russia has withdrawn some officers and medics from around the annexed city of Kherson as fears of a major Ukrainian offensive grow, said The Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Moscow is in retreat across the Dnipro River in anticipation of an advance of Ukrainian troops on the regional capital, the US-based think tank said on Sunday. "Russian forces continued to withdraw from western Kherson Oblast while preparing to conduct delaying actions that will likely be only partially effective," concluded the ISW, in a Russian Offensive Campaign assessment, on Saturday. The think tank, quoting the Ukrainian General Staff, stated...

This is a Youtube video expounding an analysis of the implications of the Ukraine war for Russia, out into the future. The presenter/author, Torsten Heinrich, makes no claim about who will prevail in the current conflict. He speaks in a rather careful manner, mentioning sources and listing potential contrary views. He brings up many interesting points about the problems Russia faces going forward, such as alienation of ethnic minorities and the potential breaking of the unspoken social contract in Russia. While time is a precious commodity, I found the 29:49 minute presentation well worth while.

Hundreds of CEOs and finance moguls are expected in Riyadh from Tuesday for a Davos-style investment conference that analysts say will highlight Saudi Arabia's geopolitical muscle despite strained ties with the US. The Future Investment Initiative (FII) was launched in 2017 as an economic coming-out party for the world's largest crude exporter, which is trying to diversify away from oil under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The following year's edition, however, was largely overshadowed by the killing several weeks prior of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and many would-be delegates from outside the region stayed away. Attendance picked up in 2019, even...

Russian officers and collaborators are evacuating Kherson under the guise of a 'civilian evacuation' as the Ukrainian army approaches, one resident has said. The Ukrainian army has set its sights on liberating Kherson, the second largest city in Ukraine, from Vladimir Putin's forces. Russia has declared a civilian evacuation to funnel residents into Russia, but civilians living there say they aren't the ones being evacuated. 'Mostly it's families of Russian officers, families of Russian officials and collaborators who helped to organise the referendum,' said a local Kherson-based activist and organiser, speaking to Sky News on condition of anonymity. Roughly a...

The Russian and Syrian governments announced that they are moving on to the next stage in reconstructing the ancient temple of the pagan god Ba’al in Palmyra. If successful, the project will necessarily mark the third incarnation of the Roman Victory Arch of Palmyra which an ancient Jewish source states must fall and be rebuilt three times before the arrival of the Messiah. On Wednesday, the Syrian Trust for Development, Directorate-General for Antiquities and Museums and the Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences signed an agreement to start the second phase of the project for...

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VLADIMIR Putin has deployed the world's biggest submarine which can be armed with a terrifying nuclear "apocalypse drone", NATO has reportedly warned. As the tyrant edges the world into the most dangerous moment since his shambolic Ukraine invasion, there are fears Russia's giant nuclear-capable torpedo is now on the warpath.

Norwegian officials warned Thursday that there could be more arrests after at least seven Russians — including the son of a close associate of President Vladimir Putin — were detained in recent weeks for flying drones or taking pictures near sensitive areas, prompting an investigation by the domestic intelligence service. Norway and other countries are moving to secure critical infrastructure in the wake of the sabotage of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines. Since then, drone sightings have been reported in Norway’s vast offshore oil and gas fields and at Norwegian airports. On Wednesday, Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Store,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk-0qJXyido Nord Stream sabotage and hybrid war on Europe 123,200 views Oct 4, 2022 Anders Puck Nielsen 66K subscribers Analysis of the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage. I use Kilcullen's theory about liminal warfare and prospect theory to analyse the operational design. This shows that Russia is the most likely suspect, because all other actors would have made different operational choices. I then give some pretty depressing perspectives on how Russia might use hybrid warfare against Europe. 0:00 Intro 1:02 Model for hybrid warfare 1:51 Operational design of Nord Stream sabotage 3:05 Consequences of the attack 4:59 US, Poland and Ukraine...

Germany could be completely out of gas by February, the country’s gas agency has said, with some experts saying that the country needs to cut consumption by 30 per cent to make it through the crisis intact. A reduction in gas consumption of up to 30 per cent may be required if Germany wants to make it through the coming winter intact, some experts have claimed, while the country’s gas agency has expressed concern that the nation could run out of the hydrocarbon by February.

Poltical rivals express similar sentiment in separate interviews; Kyiv's envoy to Israel says defense minister canceled an upcoming call with his Ukrainian counterpart In a rare expression of units between coalition and opposition figures, Defense Minister Gantz and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday both expressed an unwillingness to alter Israel's policy of not sending defense equipment to Ukraine. 'We are not selling weapons to Ukraine," Gantz told the ultra-Orthodox Kol Chai radio station, noting instead the humanitarian aid Israel has been providing, and vowing to continue such shipments months into Russia's invasion of Ukraine... Meanwhile, in an interview on...

The Western media for decades has hailed Vladimir Putin as a great strategist. But if the past eight months have proved one thing, it’s that this strategic wizard often achieves the opposite of his intentions. ...Mr. Putin should look to history. During World War I, Russian authorities tried to conscript Muslims from Central Asia. The result was a major uprising in summer 1916, which took months and tens of thousands of Russian troops to suppress. In the end, none of the Muslims were sent to battle—and, by withdrawing army units from the front to confront the internal uprising, Russia expedited...

Mystery surrounds Russian nuclear tests that were expected to take this week and never materialised, amid claims they are being 'disrupted' from within. Moscow typically carries out large-scale atomic drills dubbed 'Grom' at this time of year and in recent days had issued a number of airspace alerts over its usual testing grounds - heavily suggesting they would be going ahead. But the US says it has received no alert from Moscow about any upcoming tests and there has been no official word from the Kremlin explaining their absence, with the air alerts due to expire Saturday. That has led...

The desperate tyrant, 70, is feared by Nato to have his finger inching closer to the trigger ready to launch a nuclear show of force. The mounting concerns prompted Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to cancel his plans and jet to Washington for crisis talks this week. Analysts feared Putin would detonate a warhead in the Black Sea, potentially unleashing tsunamis and a poisonous gas cloud. It was also claimed plans were under way to test fire a tactical nuke in the Arctic before launching one on the battlefield in Ukraine. Recent days have seen a number of Notam messages -...

KIEV, October 19/TASS/.Air raid sirens went off late on Tuesday night in the Odessa, Kirovograd and Poltava regions, local authorities reported on their Telegram channels. An air raid alert also sounded in the Sumy, Kharkov, Nikolayev and Dnepropetrovsk Regions.

The new commander of the Russian army in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, said on Tuesday that civilians were being “resettled” from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, describing the military situation in Ukraine as “tense.” “The enemy continually attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” Surovikin said in his first televised interview since his appointment last week, adding that the situation was particularly difficult around the occupied southern city of Kherson. “Further actions regarding Kherson will depend on the developing military and tactical situation, which is not easy, and difficult decisions cannot be ruled out,” he said.

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The new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine acknowledged on Tuesday that his troops were under broad pressure and faced hard choices, as the Russian-appointed governor of occupied Kherson province announced a partial evacuation. "The situation in the area of the 'Special Military Operation' can be described as tense," Sergei Surovikin, an air force general named this month to command Russia's invasion forces, told the state-owned Rossiya 24 television news channel. -snip- Russian forces in Kherson have been driven back by 20-30 km (13-20 miles) in the last few weeks and are at risk of being pinned against the right...

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser dismissed Arne Schoenbohm as head of the BSI agency, following reports which "damaged the necessary confidence of the public in the neutrality and impartiality" of his management, the ministry said on Tuesday.... The Cyber Security Council Germany, which Mr Schoenbohm chaired until he became the head of the BSI in 2016, was prone to influence from Russian companies and even the Kremlin’s intelligence agencies, the report said. German media have reported that one of its members was a German company that is a subsidiary of a Russian cybersecurity firm founded by a former KGB agent, which...