1/ Pressures from the war in Ukraine are reportedly contributing to a massive staff shortage in Russia's internal security forces. The Interior Ministry is said to be short of 152,000 staff. As a result, it is reportedly "paralysed" and unable to do its job of fighting crime. ⬇️
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that Interior Ministry head Vladimir Kolokoltsev recently told Russia's Federation Council (the Russian legislature's upper house) that his ministry was short of 152,000 personnel. This figure had increased by 150% in the last 6 months.
3/ This follows reports last year about tens of thousands of vacancies in the Ministry of the Interior (MVD), with many policemen and other security personnel quitting to find better prospects elsewhere. The situation appears to have got worse since then. https://mastodon.social/
1/ Two more incidents have been reported of Russians being fined or denounced for association with the colours of blue and yellow – Ukraine's national colours. They include a journalist who was denounced for being photographed in a yellow jacket against a blue sky. ⬇️
2/ The journalist, Vologda region reporter Antonida Smolina, was photographed wearing a yellow down jacket with a cloudy blue sky in the background. After the picture was published on her social media (probably VK) page, she was denounced by a certain Valery Nikolaevich P.
According to Smolina, the complaint stated that she was "photographed in a yellow down jacket against the blue sky, thereby causing associations with enemy symbols, discrediting our government and army."
1/ In the latest of many incidents of official paranoia about colours linked to Ukraine, a man with hair dyed blue, yellow and green was ordered by Moscow police to go and fight in Ukraine after he reported being beaten up and robbed on the street. ⬇️
4/ There have been many previous incidents of official action being taken against displaying objects in the colours blue and yellow, including floor tiles, flowers, a fence, buildings, artworks, and the flag of the Russian Air Force. /end https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1661313281930215426
1/ Konrad Muzyka of Rochan Consulting has published an excellent if rather gloomy thread on the current situation in Ukraine. In the interests of helping it to reach a wider audience, I thought an English translation would be useful. https://twitter.com/konrad_muzyka/status/1784875510805262538
5/ But what comes from the US will not change the course of this war, it will only delay it. We continue to wait for long-term and systemic solutions, both from the US and Europe, and the presentation of a concrete plan for Ukraine's military support in this war that would allow it to focus on planning (together with Western advisors) and conducting operations on the frontline to regain the initiative.
8/ However, the shortage of soldiers is the key factor that will have the greatest impact on developments on the front in the next 3-4 months. During this time, newly mobilised soldiers will begin to appear on the frontline, but there is also the possibility that their training time will be reduced to a minimum in the event of a Russian breakthrough or a shortage of reserves.
1/ A memorial to the lost sailors of the Russian missile cruiser Moskva has been unveiled in Sevastopol, two years after the ship's sinking on 13 April 2022. However, many relatives and some of the surviving crew, including the captain, were not invited to the ceremony. ⬇️
5/ Shkrebets says that "many of the relatives of the deceased children received notification of [the ceremony] (in the form of a telephone call or communication in Internet chats) literally one day before it, some did not receive it at all."
6/ Shkrebets notes that the Russian Ministry of Defence still claims that there is one person dead and 27 missing from Moskva, meaning that 8 are still unaccounted for. He comments that "the relatives of these guys are still waiting for them to go home alive..." /end
1/ Russia is considering resuming production of low-quality gasoline to make up for shortages caused by Ukrainian attacks on its oil refineries. However, this is likely to cause damage to vehicles, which owners may find difficult to repair due to a shortage of spare parts. ⬇️
2/ Reuters and the Russian newspaper Kommersant report that the Russian government is considering temporarily suspending fuel environmental standards to enable gasoline to be produced at a lower quality, or to include environmentally damaging octane-boosting additives.
4/ Most of Russia's oil refineries were built in the 1940s and 1970s and a number were modernised in the 2000s, increasing Russia's gasoline output. However, the Ukrainian campaign appears to have disrupted several of the most modern refineries.
1/ The companies formerly owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin are reportedly undergoing a financial collapse, losing over a billion rubles since his death last year. The Russian Ministry of Defence is no longer buying rotten food from his companies after years of complaints and litigation. ⬇️
6/ However, one small crumb of consolation for the Prigozhin family may be that his youngest daughter Veronika has managed to make a profit on the Red Stars Hotel that she owns in St Petersburg, increasing its profits fivefold in 2023 to 23 million rubles ($245,000). /end
1/ The Russian Orthodox Church has ordered its priests to read a daily "Prayer for Holy Rus'" asking God to oppose those who have "taken up arms against Holy Rus'" and asking for "victory to Russian weapons." Priests who refuse are being punished by being defrocked. ⬇️
1/ Russian military personnel are reportedly paying bribes to be posted to Syria rather than Ukraine. As casualties mount in the 'Special Military Operation', Syria now appears to be seen as a much safer option for military service. ⬇️
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports on the case of three soldiers who paid 100,000 rubles ($1,080) each to a colleague, which he was to transfer to an official of the Russian General Staff to ensure that they were put on the list for a 'business trip' to Syria. Perhaps not coincidentally, 100,000 rubles appears to also be the standard bribe for soldiers to be granted permission to go on leave. As it's the equivalent of a month's pay, it's probably a convenient amount for a bribe.
3/ The proposed deal fell through; none of the three ever went to Syria and the money was returned. However, the attempted bribery was detected and all three were tried and convicted for attempted bribery, and were fined 250,000 rubles ($2,700) each. The sentencing memorandum acknowledged Syria's desirability as an overseas posting, noting that the defendants were aware "of the positive impact of this kind of business trip on the level of material and social security of the serviceman." /end
1/ The full details of the capture of the suspects in the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack are still unclear. However, various individuals have already been awarded medals and the bloodstained knife used to cut off one suspect's ear may have been sold for 10 million rubles ($107,800). ⬇️
1/ Mobilised Russian soldier Alexander Leshkov, who was sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment for arguing with and pushing an officer, is being further punished by being denied treatment for a broken leg. However, he still wants to fight in Ukraine. ⬇️ https://twitter.com/i/status/1591784368506564609
7/ "I said: “You will return home alive, healthy, unharmed.” But he has a different view. He believes that this is his duty to his Motherland. Even despite how the Motherland treated him." /end
@ChrisO_wiki it's hard to understand how these people behave as ultranationalists while their nation treats them like shit. They seem to have some kind of masochistic attachment to "the motherland".
1/ Seriously injured Russian soldiers are reportedly being dismissed from the Russian army, likely so that the Ministry of Defence does not have to pay their medical bills. The experience of one member of Chechnya's Akhmat special forces unit provides an illustration. ⬇️
3/ To make matters worse, when he left the hospital he returned to his unit only to be told he had been dismissed. This was despite the fact that he had been given a category G (temporarily unfit) rating under which he was supposed to be retained in service. A military lawyer says: "They had no right to dismiss him until his 'G' category was over."
4/ Oleg complains that he "was not issued all the relevant documents, I was not properly provided with medical assistance for rehabilitation and I was not given a VVK (medical commission) for the payment of insurance benefits." He received no help from the military authorities.
Oleg says that he had to undergo treatment at his own expense and seek disability registration. "And I am not alone, there are many of us," Oleg says. /end
1/ Entry to Uranus is reportedly blocked for unknown reasons, despite it taking a hard pounding in southern Ukraine. Would-be applicants to join the Roscosmos-sponsored private military company, as well as other Russian PMCs, say that all recruitment has been halted. ⬇️
2/ Uranus was launched by the Russian space agency Roscosmos in 2023 to recruit rocket scientists and engineers to serve as "Imperial Stormtroopers" [sic] in Ukraine. Its members have reportedly been fighting in Krynky in the Kherson region. https://mastodon.social/
3/ Ukrainian resistance at Krynky is likely to have severely battered Uranus, which reportedly has a constant urgent need for fresh men. However, Roscosmos has stopped recruitment, without any explanation, and its representatives cannot say when it will resume. It's unclear whether the PMC will leave its recruitment base in Miass.
1/ More details have emerged about the destruction of the Russian large landing ship Novocherkassk on 26 December 2023. According to a report, the local air defence system was inoperative and could not intercept the two incoming Storm Shadow missiles. ⬇️
1/ The recently-sacked Admiral Viktor Sokolov was reportedly dismissed for ordering the large landing ship Caesar Kunikov to go to sea without a working propulsion system. The Ukrainian sea drone attack on 14 February is said to have ambushed the ship while it was under tow. ⬇️
6/ The large landing ship Novocherkassk was also under repair when it was destroyed at Feodosiya, which is much closer to Novorossiysk. The Caesar Kunikov's voyage to Sevastopol suggests that the ship repair facilities at Feodosiya may be inoperable after that attack. /end
@ChrisO_wiki
Or the Russian way to finally make something out of two misfortunes for them: the loss of their Commander of Black See Fleet several months ago + the recent loss of one of their ships.
The latter gives them a pretext to officially "sack" the former who has been long dead/critically-unfit-for-purpose.