Blazingcatfur

It is a name plucked from obscurity and plastered on front pages around the world: Natalia Vovk, the woman Russia says blew up the daughter of ‘Putin’s Rasputin’.

The FSB claims she is a veteran of Mariupol’s Azov battalion turned spy, who spent weeks tracking Darya Dugina before planting 800g of explosives under the driver’s seat of her car on August 20 and rigging it to blow as she left a festival near Moscow.

But Kyiv has denied any link to the slaying, the Azov Battalion says it has no record of Vovk having served with them, and evidence that has emerged from social media accounts paints a picture that is at odds with Moscow’s account.

A new Department of Defense inspector general report released last week estimated that the Afghan government possessed $7.12 billion worth of equipment paid for by U.S. taxpayer dollars when it fell roughly a year ago, “much of which has since been seized by the Taliban.”

“This included military aircraft, ground vehicles, weapons, and other military equipment,” the release noted. “The condition of these items was unknown, and the long-term operability of the vehicles was likely to deteriorate without U.S. contractor maintenance.”