“Ukraine – Russia”

Top pro-Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov is demanding a brutal Stalinist response to ‘plunge Ukraine into dark times’ and round up all Russians against total war in the wake of the humiliating hit on the Crimean Bridge.

Alluding to an enemy within, Solovyov called for a return of the notorious Stalin-era SMERSH counter-intelligence to crush all internal opposition to a full-scale war against Ukraine.

SMERSH, whose motto was ‘Death to Spies’, was a conglomeration of counterintelligence agencies used by Stalin to root out and obliterate those trying to subvert his regime during and after World War II.

The blasts which wrecked the network taking Russian gas to Germany have been blamed on various players – we assess the possible instigators

With its brooding pine woods and mist-shrouded beaches, the Danish island of Bornholm has long been a setting for Scandi-noir intrigue. In days of old, trolls were said to haunted its many caves. In Cold War times, its radar towers at the mouth of the Baltic helped the West eavesdrop on Russia and East Germany.

No mystery though, is quite on a scale with the one that began bubbling up through the waters off Bornholm’s coast two weeks ago. At around 2am on September 26, German engineers noted a dramatic drop in pressure in Nord Stream 2, the newly built pipeline that ships Russian gas to Germany. Later that day, the same problem was reported on its older sister pipeline, Nord Stream 1, which runs nearby.

A Danish air force jet that investigated found three huge gas leaks in the sea, creating vast, bubbling cauldrons on the surface as if new volcanic islands were forming underneath. Over subsequent days, up to 350,000 tonnes of pure methane was released, some in bubbles more than half a mile wide. Bornholm residents could smell it from their island and were warned to keep away.

The United States has accused Russian mercenaries of exploiting natural resources in Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan and elsewhere to help fund Moscow’s war in Ukraine, a charge Russia rejected as “anti-Russian rage”.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the Wagner Group of mercenaries are exploiting natural resources and “these ill-gotten gains are used to fund Moscow’s war machine in Africa, the Middle East and Ukraine”.

The unravelling of Russian power will shape the future of Europe.

Russia is in a bad place. The war in Ukraine is not going to plan. And its influence over the other nations in its region is starting to unravel.

Until recently, the question of how to integrate a still powerful Russia into the world order was either downplayed or ignored by the West. But no more. Western policymakers and their international allies are finally waking up to the fact that history did not come to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Unresolved questions and conflicts dating back to the early part of the 20th century are coming to the fore once again. This means that, beyond the bloody war in Ukraine, there are other, potentially far more devastating, conflicts ready to erupt.

Friends, rivals and enemies took their seats in the Grand Kremlin Palace as Vladimir Putin gathered the country’s elite to formalise Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine.

The ceremony was meant to portray strength and unity, but within 24 hours had been overshadowed by Russia’s failures on the battlefield. These losses, which continued into this week on the southern and eastern fronts in Ukraine, have led to a major, unprecedented rupture within the ruling class as the Kremlin seeks scapegoats for a series of military embarrassments.

A huge blast on Russia’s bridge to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it annexed in 2014, has killed three people, investigators say.

The victims were in a nearby car when a lorry blew up, the Russian investigators said, bringing down sections of the bridge’s roadway.

Russia says the railway part of the bridge – where oil tankers caught fire – will reopen on Saturday.

They also claim road traffic will begin on an undamaged lane this evening.

Explosion on the bridge between Crimea and Russia, Kiev wishes "happy birthday" to Putin. Biden, Ursula von der Leyen and Zelensky will lead the world to nuclear war. pic.twitter.com/amKEvrT6qj

— RadioGenova (@RadioGenova) October 8, 2022

Self-driving vehicles will be a boon to terrorists.

When President Vladimir Putin yelled, “We will win!” at a Red Square concert to celebrate his illegal annexation of Ukrainian lands on Friday, he projected the hubris of a man who cannot accept defeat.

Putin has said Russia will not lose in Ukraine. But multiple battlefield defeats and national fury over a botched military mobilization have broken a taboo in Moscow on discussions about what would happen if Putin did lose — not just the war, but his seeming bid to be leader-for-life, according to four members of Russia’s business elite. Kremlin-watchers, in and out of the capital, are asking: Who might come next?

#Ukraine: The aftermath of Russian artillery shelling on a group of Ukrainian vehicles in #Kherson Oblast – a Kozak-2 armored vehicle, VAB APC 🇫🇷 and what appears to be KrAZ Cobra were destroyed. pic.twitter.com/f8k2juxxQn

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) October 7, 2022

On the banks of the Oskil river, it is clear to Ukraine’s poised troops that the enemy is short of ammunition and struggling to respond

There is a strange ritual to artillery fire.

The most important is the camouflage. When properly wrapped up in foliage, the muzzles of their howitzers look like fungi. Then there are the messages to be written on shells. On Thursday, it was “for Zaporizhia”, where Russian missiles had wreaked carnage in the morning.

A battery commander scribbles calculations on a pad of paper and barks the customary countdown to fire: “Three hundred – thirty – three!”

🇺🇦 'On the banks of the Oskil river, it is clear to Ukraine's poised troops that the enemy is short of ammunition and struggling to respond'@RolandOliphant and Julian Simmonds report from the Kharkiv region ⬇️https://t.co/52mQaoG2qj pic.twitter.com/fcCdZINWlj

— Telegraph World News (@TelegraphWorld) October 7, 2022

US President Joe Biden has warned that the risk of a nuclear “Armageddon” is at its highest level for 60 years.

Mr Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “not joking” when he warned that Moscow would use “all means we have” to defend Russian territory. Mr Putin has also said that the US created a “precedent” by using nuclear weapons in World War Two.

But analysts suggest Mr Putin’s words should probably be interpreted as a warning to other countries not to escalate their involvement in Ukraine, rather than signalling any desire to use nuclear weapons.

Following the discovery of leaks from two Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish Security Service said Thursday that the results of a preliminary probe have “strengthened the suspicions of serious sabotage.”

A prosecutor said the suspicion of foul play was heightened after evidence from the site had been gathered.

Sweden’s domestic security agency said the ongoing investigation confirmed that “detonations” caused extensive damage last week to the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, off the coasts of Sweden and Denmark.

I was taken aback when Putin invaded as I thought he was winning simply by bluffing.  How will he react given the humiliation Russia now faces?

Will he escalate to nuclear war? I can see Freeland and Junior justifying Canada’s participation in their minds as an “Eco-War.” Imagine the draconian restrictions they and the WEF will dream up for us.

KHARKIV, Ukraine — Tamara Halishnikova doesn’t remember how long the attack targeting her and other residents trying to escape the Russian-occupied village of Kurylivka lasted.

All she remembers are the sounds that rang out as the column of vehicles made its way along a railway embankment that late-September morning.

“There was an explosion, then automatic-weapons fire, then more explosions, then we went to the embankment, then gunfire, gunfire, gunfire,” she said, speaking at a press conference to RFE/RL at a hospital in Kharkiv less than two weeks later.

#Ukraine: Ukrainian force destroyed a Russian T-72B3 tank somewhere on the front- possibly with a precision artillery strike. pic.twitter.com/U32cHfxMed

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) October 6, 2022

This sobering reflection on nuclear warfare on the Policy Tensor Substack has been making the rounds. Strongly urge you to read it. Excerpts:

Whether or not the annexed territories shall be considered Russian territory is not the important question. At this stage in the conflict, the important question is not even whether Russian elites believe that preventing Ukraine from becoming a Western bulwark is a vital Russian interest; although as CIA Director Burns wrote, it is indeed “the reddest of red lines” for Russian elites. Rather, as often happens in military conflict, the stakes have risen dramatically for Russia. Russia’s entire world position is now at stake. For if Russia cannot avoid military humiliation in Ukraine, it will not survive as a great power.

YIKES!!

The Kremlin has welcomed a news report that US intelligence believes a bomb attack that killed a Russian commentator and journalist outside Moscow in August was authorised by Ukrainian government officials.

The report in the New York Times about the car bomb attack on Darya Dugina has not been confirmed and has been denied by Kyiv. The report said “parts” of the Ukrainian government were involved in the 20 August blast outside Moscow and that the US had no prior knowledge, provided no intelligence or other assistance, would have opposed it and “admonished” Ukrainian officials about it afterwards.