[kellyhound]

Armenia ratifies ICC Rome Statute in show of defiance against Russia.

Ahead of the vote, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said that Moscow would view any move to join the international court as "extremely hostile" towards Russia.

Armenia's parliament voted Tuesday to join the International Criminal Court, a move that further strains the country's ties with its old ally Russia after the court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over events in Ukraine.

Moscow last month called Yerevan's effort to join the ICC an "unfriendly step," and the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Armenia's ambassador. Countries that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute that created the ICC are bound to arrest Putin, who was indicted for war crimes connected to the deportation of children from Ukraine, if he sets foot on their soil.

Armenian officials have argued the move has nothing to do with Russia and was prompted by Azerbaijan's aggression against the country.

Lawmakers voted to ratify the Rome Statute by a vote of 60-22. Armenia's president must sign off on the decision, which will come into force 60 days after the vote.

Armenia's relations with Russia have frayed significantly in recent years.

In 2020, Moscow brokered a deal that ended a six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It mandated that Yerevan cede to Baku large swaths of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijan with a predominantly Armenian population.

Russia then sent some 2,000 peacekeepers to the tumultuous region and Armenia has accused the troops of failing to prevent recent hostilities by Azerbaijan that led to Baku taking full control of the region.

The Kremlin, in turn, has accused Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of precipitating the fall of Nagorno-Karabakh by acknowledging Azerbaijan's sovereignty over the region.

Moscow also blames Yerevan for damaging ties with Russia by embracing the West, including hosting U.S. troops for joint military drills.

It remains unclear whether Pashinyan might take Armenia out of Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization, a group of several former Soviet nations, and other Russia-led alliances. Armenia also hosts a Russian military base and Russian border guards help patrol Armenia's frontier with Turkey.

Ahead of the vote, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said that Moscow would view any move to join the international court as "extremely hostile" towards Russia.

[kellyhound]

Ukrainian soldiers send a message to all Russian soldiers, telling them why they fight for Ukraine, and asking the Russians what they are fighting for.

[Roosta]

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

In occupied Ukraine 3 military + an air defence system have been wiped out by a train after a collision.

The driver lost control of a Strela-10 missile system between Yenakieve + Vuhlehirsk, near Horlivka in Donetsk region and was hit by a freight train which resulted in 3 dead, two injured.

[Guns N' Coffee]

https://apnews.com/article/russia-uk...af354de084a7f7

A Moscow court on Wednesday sentenced a former state TV journalist 8 1/2 years in prison in absentia for protesting Russia’s war in Ukraine, the latest in a crackdown on dissent that has intensified since the invasion began nearly 20 months ago.

Marina Ovsyannikova was charged with spreading false information about the Russian army, a criminal offense under a law adopted shortly after President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine.

She staged a protest near the Kremlin in July 2022, holding a sign that said, “Putin is a killer. His soldiers are fascists. 352 children have been killed. How many more children need to die for you to stop?”

She was detained and placed under house arrest, but managed to escape to France with her daughter. Russian authorities put her on a wanted list and prosecuted and tried her in absentia.

Ovsyannikova formerly worked for state-run Channel One, one of Russia’s most popular national TV stations. She made international headlines in March 2022 after appearing behind the anchor of a Channel One evening news broadcast with a sign that said, “Stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here.”

[Guns N' Coffee]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheche...o-own-the-west

Chechen Leader Backs Call to ‘Bomb Siberia’ to Own the West

Ramzan Kadyrov says Margarita Simonyan, the Kremlin propagandist who floated the bizarre idea, is “not so stupid.”

A Russian propagandist’s bizarre proposal to detonate a thermonuclear bomb “somewhere over Siberia” to supposedly own the West has taken a bizarre turn as Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov jumps into the fray.

While RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan was roundly mocked and condemned for her Monday remarks, Ramzan Kadyrov came to her defense Wednesday—and suggested her idea might not be so bad after all.

“Margarita Simonyan is not so stupid as to propose a nuclear strike on her own territory,” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram, praising the Kremlin mouthpiece as a “true patriot.” He went on to claim that her comments had been taken out of context, and that what she really meant was that “even with such an unfavorable development of events [as a thermonuclear blast], Russia, compared to the rest of the world, will not lose strategically.”

Simonyan, in her show Monday, claimed that a thermonuclear blast carried out over Siberia might be necessary to send a strong signal to the West. “You are waging a war against us, and we are forced to wage a war against you, with all that it entails,” she said, addressing Western leaders. “They won’t back out until they are in a lot of pain. They won’t stop until they understand this imminent threat.

The blast would not cause “anything scary” on the land below, she claimed. “There will be no nuclear winter, and no one will die from cancer, but all radio electronics and all satellites will be disabled,” she said, noting that “we will return to something like 1993.”

The Kremlin was quick to stress to reporters that Simonyan’s comments didn’t reflect Moscow’s official views, and the overzealous propagandist was harshly criticized by local Siberian leaders.

“You need to apologize to the residents of Siberia at the very least,” Maria Prusakova, a lawmaker from the Altai republic, said in a video on Telegram.

Novosibirsk Mayor Anatoly Lokot, in comments to local reporters, said he knows a thing or two about thermonuclear explosions, since he’s a physicist by training. “There’s nothing good about thermonuclear explosions,” he said, warning that the fallout of such a blast could last for “thousands of years.”

[iARTEMx]

Originally Posted by Guns N' Coffee ↗

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheche...o-own-the-west

Chechen Leader Backs Call to ‘Bomb Siberia’ to Own the West

Ramzan Kadyrov says Margarita Simonyan, the Kremlin propagandist who floated the bizarre idea, is “not so stupid.”

A Russian propagandist’s bizarre proposal to detonate a thermonuclear bomb “somewhere over Siberia” to supposedly own the West has taken a bizarre turn as Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov jumps into the fray.

While RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan was roundly mocked and condemned for her Monday remarks, Ramzan Kadyrov came to her defense Wednesday—and suggested her idea might not be so bad after all.

“Margarita Simonyan is not so stupid as to propose a nuclear strike on her own territory,” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram, praising the Kremlin mouthpiece as a “true patriot.” He went on to claim that her comments had been taken out of context, and that what she really meant was that “even with such an unfavorable development of events [as a thermonuclear blast], Russia, compared to the rest of the world, will not lose strategically.”

Simonyan, in her show Monday, claimed that a thermonuclear blast carried out over Siberia might be necessary to send a strong signal to the West. “You are waging a war against us, and we are forced to wage a war against you, with all that it entails,” she said, addressing Western leaders. “They won’t back out until they are in a lot of pain. They won’t stop until they understand this imminent threat.

The blast would not cause “anything scary” on the land below, she claimed. “There will be no nuclear winter, and no one will die from cancer, but all radio electronics and all satellites will be disabled,” she said, noting that “we will return to something like 1993.”

The Kremlin was quick to stress to reporters that Simonyan’s comments didn’t reflect Moscow’s official views, and the overzealous propagandist was harshly criticized by local Siberian leaders.

“You need to apologize to the residents of Siberia at the very least,” Maria Prusakova, a lawmaker from the Altai republic, said in a video on Telegram.

Novosibirsk Mayor Anatoly Lokot, in comments to local reporters, said he knows a thing or two about thermonuclear explosions, since he’s a physicist by training. “There’s nothing good about thermonuclear explosions,” he said, warning that the fallout of such a blast could last for “thousands of years.”

I do not think they can launch some nuke. It will explode over them
That all shit is too old to be used

[Guns N' Coffee]

Originally Posted by iARTEMx ↗

I do not think they can launch some nuke. It will explode over them
That all shit is too old to be used

It might even blow up on the launcher

[iARTEMx]

Originally Posted by Guns N' Coffee ↗

It might even blow up on the launcher

Exactly. I bet on it

[Guns N' Coffee]

https://www.rferl.org/a/prankster-ru.../32624340.html

Prankster Tricks Russian Schools Into Sending Putin Birthday Greetings Featuring Ukrainian Nationalist

Several Russian schools were tricked into sending birthday greetings to President Vladimir Putin bearing a photograph and quotes of a World War II-era Ukrainian partisan leader who has been vilified by the Kremlin.

The effort was spearheaded by Vladislav Bokhan, an exiled Belarusian activist who has staged several similar pranks aimed at opposing Russia's invasion of Ukraine and highlighting contradictions and hypocrisy in government rhetoric.

In his latest effort, Bokhan, who lives in Poland, said he contacted schools in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, and posed as a lawmaker from United Russia, the dominant political party in Russia.

He said he ordered teachers to draft their students into writing birthday greetings for Putin, who will turn 71 on October 7. Bokhan sent the teachers a black-and-white photograph of what he said was Putin, along with quotations he attributed to Putin.

The teachers then had their students compose and print out the congratulations, and post photographs of the effort on the Russian social media site VK and send them to Bokhan. The images were published on Bokhan's Telegram account.

The teachers failed to notice the portrait Bokhan sent was of Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist and partisan leader during World War II who is a hero to many Ukrainians.

Bandera's Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its military arm, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, fought both Soviet and Nazi forces. But the groups are also accused of carrying out murderous campaigns against Poles and Jews.

Russia, meanwhile, has long vilified Bandera, labeling him a Nazi due to his group’s actions alongside, in some cases in coordination with, Nazi forces during World War II. The Kremlin frequently uses the term “Banderites” as a derogatory term to describe Ukrainian nationalists.

There was no immediate comment from the Kaluga regional administration or the education department in the region.

In a post to his Telegram channel, Bokhan said he called his prank "Know Your Enemy By Sight."

"Is this really the enemy they are looking for? Perhaps it's worth taking a closer look? Maybe look from a different angle? Maybe look in the mirror?" he wrote.

The prank wasn’t the first masterminded by Bokhan.

Last year, in two western Russian regions, he tricked several schools into holding celebratory marches in honor of Bokhan, saying he was a military hero serving in Ukraine. People were later photographed carrying signs saying "Vladislav is our hero."

The action was later denounced by the regional branch of United Russia.

Another action that Bokhan pulled off was tricking schoolteachers in a Moscow region town to participate in a municipal cleanup day carrying slogans used by Nazis at concentration camps.

[kellyhound]

The Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries signed a contract with a Chinese firm last year to acquire satellite images for intelligence, AFP reports.

A document seen by the news agency shows that the company, Beijing Yunze Technology Co Ltd, sold two satellites belonging to Nika-Frut - a company then part of the late Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin's business empire.

The mercenary group in turn used the images to assist them in operations in Africa and also this June when it attempted a mutiny in Russia which later failed, a European security source told AFP.

The source also claimed that the mercenary group ordered images of Russian territory this year.