The streets of Ukrainian cities have been plagued by gangs that originated in Moscow
Putin’s remark about the war in Ukraine ends with a military operation: A comment on municipal lawmaker Nikita Yuferev
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday used the word “war” to refer to the conflict in Ukraine, the first known time he has publicly deviated from his carefully crafted description of Moscow’s invasion as a “special military operation” 10 months after it began.
“Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” Putin told reporters in Moscow, after attending a State Council meeting on youth policy. We have been working towards this and we will continue to do so.
Nikita Yuferev, a municipal lawmaker who left Russia due to his stance against war, said on Thursday he had asked Russian authorities to prosecute Putin for insinuating about the army.
There wasn’t a decree to end the military operation, Yuferev said. “Several thousand people have already been condemned for such words about the war.”
A US official told CNN their initial assessment was that Putin’s remark was not intentional and likely a slip of the tongue. However, officials will be watching closely to see what figures inside the Kremlin say about it in the coming days.
The Ukrainian War Against the Russian Invasion: When Putin Visited the U.S. Congress and Biden Applauded Ukraine
I have seen this war show the best of my fellow Ukrainians, supporting each other, every day, everywhere, in millions of the most simple acts. During the blackouts caused by Russia’s attacks on our power stations, for instance, I see messages on neighborhood Internet chat groups — people saying, “we don’t have power but we still have gas; please get in touch if you need to cook a meal.” I see people rescuing each other from the rubble of buildings brought down by Russian missiles. I see them looking after refugees fleeing the fighting in the East.
Ekaterina is no longer opposed to the invasion. “I arrived at the understanding that this special military operation was inevitable,” she said. “It would have come to this no matter what. And had we not acted first, war would have been unleashed against us,” she added, mirroring the false claims of victimhood at the hands of the West that state media relentlessly communicate.
After the historic trip by Zelensky to Washington, the Ukrainian president went to Congress and appealed for more US support for the war effort.
During his visit, US President Joe Biden unveiled a $1.8 billion package of assistance for Ukraine that includes a Patriot missile defense system – a longstanding request of Kyiv’s to counter Russian air attacks.
When he accused Zelensky of refusing to engage in negotiations, Putin said all conflicts, armed conflicts included, end one way or another.
“We never refused, it was the Ukrainian leadership that refused itself to conduct negotiations … sooner or later any party to the conflict will sit down and negotiate and the sooner those opposing us realize it, the better,” he said.
Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity (I): Elections, Security and the Establishment of a State of Democracy for the next ten years
Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday declared the Kremlin would make a substantial investment in many areas of the military. A new breed of hypersonic missiles and increasing the size of the armed forces are some of the initiatives to be taken by Russia.
Like other Ukrainians who believe a government should serve and protect its people, rather than plunder them, I know how much we have achieved in rooting out the corrupt legacies of Soviet rule that have lingered so long in our system. I know how much blood was spilled in Kyiv’s Maidan Square during our Revolution of Dignity in 2014 by people who wanted to break from Russia’s toxic political grip.
Over this past year, the emotions I have experienced have evolved. I still feel furious over the death and destruction inflicted on Ukraine. But I have also felt a rising tide of love.
Ukraine has made many steps on a democratic path that began during this revolution. Government was changed so it could give more authority to local communities. Parliament adopted anti-corruption legislation, making it difficult to hide misuses of power. Changes to our Constitution opened the way to judicial reform. There are a lot of things that still need to be done, but we were on the right track.
From the Krasnoyarsk Square to the Crimea: The Voice of a Different View on Russia’s War and Crime, and the Prospects for Russia
In regards to the occupied territories, the Center for Civil Liberties has been documenting abuses for the past two years. That river of horrors turned into a flood in February of last year.
Even though the international order does not protect us, I have found we can still rely on people.
The spirit I saw in the square was similar to that seen at the protests. We believed in something better and kept the protests going despite the police beatings. And it came.
And so this love extends further, perhaps, to the vision of a country that can rise from all this — of a future Ukraine where human rights are respected. Where perhaps we no longer need a Center for Civil Liberties to fight for them. A vision of a world where the spirit of shared humanity prevails.
Some Russians are getting tired of jingoism on the radio. Internet users skirt restrictions by accessing dispatches and pictures from the frontlines. Russia is struggling to contain the personal effects of war on citizens as it works to boost its stuttering campaign.
Draconian new censorship laws targeted any media still operating outside the controls of the Kremlin and most independent journalists left the country. A digital Iron Curtain was reinforced, shutting Russians off from Western news and social media sites.
Russian cities have a culture of fear that keeps people from sharing their true thoughts on the war in public.
“What made me change my opinion?,” she contemplated aloud. My son is old, and I fear for him. And secondly, I have very many friends there, in Ukraine, and I talk to them. That is why I am against it.”
CNN does not use the names of individuals who were critical of the Kremlin. Public criticism of the war in Ukraine or statements that discredit Russia’s military can potentially mean a fine or a prison sentence.
For Natalya and many of her compatriots, the endless, personal grind of war casts Russian propaganda in a different light. It opens an opening for those hoping to push the tide of public opinion against Putin.
Gauging public opinion is notoriously difficult in a country where independent pollsters are targeted by the government, and many of the 146 million citizens are reluctant to publicly condemn President Vladimir Putin. During the last nine months of the year, Russian support fell by 6 percentage points, according to the Levada Center.
In many respects, that is unsurprising. State-controlled TV stations in Russia have a reputation for being overblown, and there is not much room for dissent, even though their propaganda has attracted ridicule around the world.
In the days leading up to Friday, Francis Scarr, who analyzes Russian media daily, said a Russian lawmaker told audience on Russia-1 that if Kyiv needed to lie in ruins for our flag to fly.
In a statement that illustrates the alternate reality in state TV channels exist, another pro-Russian former lawmaker claimed that Moscow will progress and everything will be under control.
Such programming typically appeals to a select group of older, more conservative Russians who pine for the days of the Soviet Union – though its reach spans generations, and it has claimed some converts.
Do Russians Live in the Dark? A Russian Citizen’s View on the Cold War in Ukraine and a Survey of Russian Opinion
The conflict has taken a personal toll on her. This year has been a rough one for my life. No one near me has been called up. But I lost my job. She said she sees radical changes around her everywhere.
I think you can only be sure of one thing: they are all trustworthy. The state channels sometimes reflect the truth, but on other occasions they say things just to calm people down,” 20-year-old Daniil said.
Around two-thirds of Russians rely primarily on television for their news, according to the Levada Center, a higher proportion than in most Western countries.
“Everything I hear on state channels I split in half. I don’t trust anyone (entirely),” 55-year-old accountant Tatyana said. A 58 year old engineer said that he had to analyze everything because they wereomitting things.
Several people whom CNN spoke with in Moscow this month relayed similar feelings, stressing that they engaged with state-controlled TV but treated it with skepticism. Different views on Ukraine are held by many people.
Vocal minorities on each side of the conflict exist in Russia, and some have cut off friendships or left the country as a result. But sociologists tracking Russian opinion say most people in the country fall between those two extremes.
Natalia Savelyeva, a Future Russia Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) who has interviewed hundreds of Russians since the invasion to trace the levels of public support for the conflict, said that this group of people tends to pay less attention to the war. She said they were called doubters.
She says a lot of doubters don’t go into the news very deep and do not believe that Russians kill Ukrainians on TV.
She is not alone. The major approach is not to discuss or watch the news with your friends. Volkov asked, what can you do about it? The government will do what they want no matter what you say.
Anti-war protests in Russia are rare and noteworthy because of the feeling of futility. People don’t want to go and protest because it might be dangerous and that they think it is futile, said Volkov.
The bulk of the population typically disengages instead. Some people try to distance themselves from what is happening. “They try to live their lives as though nothing is happening.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/27/europe/russia-propaganda-information-ukraine-anniversary-cmd-intl/index.html
The Russian Observer for Frontline Propaganda (RFE/RL): The story of Vladimir Soloviev, the military operation in Warsaw, Russia
“I do have an opinion about the special military operation … it remains the same to this day,” Anna told CNN in Moscow. “I can’t tell you which side I support. I’m for truth and justice. She said to leave it like that.
“I have felt anxious ever since this began. It’s affecting (the) availability of products and prices,” a woman who asked to remain anonymous told CNN last month. There is not enough public information. People should be explained things. Everyone is listening to Soloviev,” she said, referring to prominent propagandist Vladimir Soloviev.
A film student, who said she hadn’t heard from a friend for two months following his mobilization, added: “I don’t know what’s happened to him. He would be very nice to say that he is alive.
The outlet is a very influential platform that brings uncensored scenes from the Ukrainian frontlines into Russian-speaking homes via digital platforms still allowed by the Kremlin.
And interest has surged throughout the war, the network says. “We saw traffic spikes after the mobilization, and after the Ukrainian counter-offensives, because people started to understand what (the war) means for their own communities and they couldn’t get it from local media.”
The internet natives who live in cities are the focus of independent outlets, but they face a challenge penetrating the diet of older, poorer and rural Russians who like to support the war.
It’s necessary that we get to the wider audience in Russia. The battle against Russian state propaganda is going to be difficult, but we have a good strategy in place.
Reaching Russians at all has not been easy. Most of RFE/RL’s Russia-based staff made a frantic exit from the country after the invasion, following the Kremlin’s crackdown on independent outlets last year, relocating to the network’s headquarters in Prague.
You can now be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if you are found guilty of spreading fake information about the invasion of Ukraine. A Russian court sentenced journalist Maria Ponomarenko to six years in prison after finding that she spread false information on a Russian air strike in Mariupol that killed hundreds, according to state news agency Tass.
“All our staff understand they can’t go back to Russia,” Sukhotski told CNN. “They still have families there. They still have ailing parents there. People didn’t get the chance to attend their parents’ funerals in the past year.
Two months after Russia invaded, about 25% of Russians used a VPN service to access blocked sites, according to a Levada Center poll.
Searches for such services on Google spiked to record levels in Russia following the invasion, and have remained at their highest rates in over a decade ever since, the search engine’s tracking data shows.
“YouTube became the television substitute for Russia … the Kremlin fear that if they don’t have YouTube, they won’t be able to control the flow of information to (younger people),” Sukhotski said.
And that allows censored organizations a way in. I watch a bunch of things on the internet. I watch everything there – I mean everything,” one Moscow resident who passionately opposes the war told CNN, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “These federal channels I never watch,” she said. I don’t trust what they say. They lie all the time! You’ve just got to switch on your logic, compare some information and you will see that it’s all a lie.”
The Battle of Vuhledar: A Test of the Kremlin’s Feasibility for the Russian Army and the Defence Minister
The war has increased the popularity of Telegram, which has become a public square for military enthusiasts to analyze every day on the battlefield.
“This public fighting is spilling over,” Lautman told CNN. “Russia has lost control of the narrative … it has normally relied on having a smooth propaganda machine and that no longer exists.”
In recent months, a number of people who have hundreds or thousands of followers on the internet have turned against the Kremlin and criticized its military tactics.
This month, a debacle in Vuhledar that saw Russian tanks veer wildly into minefields became the latest episode to expose those fissures. The former Defense Minister of the Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic, who is now a strident critic of the campaign, said Russian troops were shot like turkeys at a shooting range. He called the Russiansmorons in another post. Several Russian commentators called for the dismissal of Lieutenant General Rustam Muradov, the commander of the Eastern Grouping of Forces.
The impact of those broken bones is not known. For now Putin can depend on a citizen that supports the conflict or is too tired to proclaim its opposition.
Russian “Fads on the Streets”: The Emergence of the Redan Gang in Kiev, and a Case Study in a Ukranian City
Russian officials are accused of attempting to export a phenomenon that involves teenagers taking to the streets for mass brawls.
These gangs have become known as “Redan PMC,” combining the name of a Japanese anime character with the acronym for Private Military Company, made infamous by the Wagner mercenary group.
The Russian Federation launched a flash mob in Kharkiv that resulted in the identification of 245 participants. 215 of them were minors. Volodymyr Tymoshko, the city police chief said the Russian security services – the FSB – had “gathered all these people through manipulation and deception, and they should have started a fight so the Russian TV could use it. Gas canisters, knives, brass knuckles were found in the possession of many (participants).”
Redan gangs have begun appearing on the streets of several Ukrainian cities, giving more work to an already over stretched police force. A 16-year-old alleged ring leader was taken into custody in Dnipro and several groups of teenagers congregated in the capital, Kyiv.
The outline of aspider with the number 4 is a theme for Redan fans. It is derived from a Japanese anime series called “Hunter x Hunter,” in which there is a gangster group called Gen’ei Ryodan (hence Redan). Social media videos and images show that Redan members in Russia also favor black hoodies and checked pants.
The fad will likely fade now that police in Russia and Ukraine are moving against Redanists. Its sudden emergence on both the US and Canada may speak to teenage boredom and the power of social media as to any potential destabilization plan.
The police said Tuesday they had blocked 18 Telegram channels and groups, which were created to conduct Russian military information campaigns, undermine the domestic situation in Ukraine, and involve children in illegal activities.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/02/europe/anime-inspired-russian-gangs-ukraine-intl/index.html
Investigating Russia’s censorship of social media attacks on teenagers: In response to the Crime Stopping Against Russian Army Prisoners and the Investigative Mechanism
They said about 30 gatherings took place over the course of two days in different regions of the country. The law enforcement officers responded and stopped conflicts among teenagers.
In a video recorded by the police and later released, a teenager says he is the founder of a group that has 2,500 members. I created it to make money from advertising posts, as the topic of Redan is popular on social media.”
Vasyl Bohdan, head of the Juvenile Prevention Department of the National Police, said a total of more than 700 people had been summoned to police stations, most of them minors. Bohdan said the force was appealing to parents to “show interest in who their children communicate with.”
She said that she understands if a person doesn’t speak out for his safety, but that the consequences are serious for the person, family and friends. Everything that I am going through right now is terrible.
This week, the Russian government added her to the federal wanted list, and a court ruled that she be arrested in absentia, according to Russian news media.
Almost 6,000 Russians have been accused of discrediting the Russian Army since the invasion, according to OVD-Info, a rights group that tracks political repression. Of those, more than 2,000 cases are related to comments posted on social media, the group said.
Russia treats the first charge as an administrative offense, which usually comes with a fine or some prison time. But a repeat offense — which can even involve a social media post from years in the past — carries criminal liability and a potential sentence of 10 years.
Ms. Krivtsova’s possible escape from a train station via the security service lied to her by purchasing tickets in her name
Ms. Krivtsova realized that her chances of being cleared were diminished because train tickets were purchased in her name. She said she believed the security services were meant to imply that she would attempt an escape because she denied buying the tickets. The prosecution was unable to provide any evidence showing that she had bought them.
