Waterfall, trout and marble beef farms: Media reveals Putin’s luxurious residence in Karelia – Video
The New Voice of Ukraine – January 29, 2024
During Putin’s visits, the object is covered by air defense equipment
Highlighting the hypocrisy of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who urges Russian citizens to “fight” to avoid poverty, journalists have released a video showing his luxurious residence near Lake Ladoga in Karelia.
The media learned about the existence of the complex back in 2016, but few people had ever seen it up close.
Screenshot of the Dossier Center video
The most detailed video of Putin’s “possessions” near Maryalakhta Bay was released by the Dossier Center, which is linked to an exiled Russian businessman and opposition activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
It shows that the head of the Kremlin regime, whom Russian propaganda portrays as “ascetic” and “silver-less,” ordered the construction of three modern-style mansions on the shore, two helicopter landing pads, several yacht docks, and even a special elevation for the air defense system.
Screenshot of the Dossier Center videoScreenshot of the Dossier Center videoScreenshot of the Dossier Center video
“The Barn looks more like a reception house. Inside there is a living room and its own brewery. On the second floor there is a tea room… The interior is decorated with precious stones. Nearby, there is a water bath and a secluded gazebo with a breathtaking view of the lake,” the investigators said.
The residence also has a trout farm and a farm with cows for the production of marble beef.
Another feature of the property is a four-meter waterfall.
Screenshot of the Dossier Center video
“It is supposed to be part of the national park, but access to it is restricted. There is a fence, barbed wire and round-the-clock security. And in front of it is a gazebo for the only person who can steal the waterfall. For the president of Russia,” the Dossier Center journalists wrote.
Russia has the advantage, and Ukraine needs to dig in if it’s going to fend off the enemy’s war machine, conflict experts say
Jake Epstein – January 26, 2024
Russian maintains several advantages over Ukraine, including manpower and material, experts say.
To keep Moscow’s forces at bay, Kyiv will need to dig in and strengthen its defenses, they said.
The assessment comes as Ukraine faces ammunition shortages and is being outgunned by Russia.
Nearly two years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia again has the initiative, and its advantages over Ukraine are mounting.
Conflict experts are warning that Russia maintains a significant advantage over Ukraine in several key areas right now, and Kyiv will need to seriously dig in if it hopes to fend off Moscow’s war machine and have any shot at offensive operations next year.
Michael Kofman and Dara Massicot, experts with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Rob Lee, an expert at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, wrote in commentary published on Friday by War on the Rocks that “while the current state of the war has been described as a stalemate, spurring an animated debate over what that means, Russia holds material, industrial, and manpower advantages in 2024, along with the initiative.”
But, “with tailored Western support, Ukraine could hold against Russian forces this year and rebuild the necessary advantage to conduct large-scale offensive operations in 2025, recreating another opportunity to deal Russia a battlefield defeat,” they said.
They cautioned that “without major adjustments, or if Western support falters, the current path holds a high risk of exhaustion over time and Ukraine being forced to negotiate with Moscow from a position of weakness.”
A Ukrainian soldier in a mask stands near an improvised multiple rocket launcher during firing on Russian positions on Jan. 15, 2024 in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.Photo by Roman Chop/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
It is a less-than-ideal situation for Kyiv’s forces right now. They’re struggling as the Russian war machine gains momentum.
Ukrainian forces fighting along the war’s sprawling front lines are presently dealing with insufficient ammunition and are being outgunned by Russian troops, a reversal from the situation over the summer, when Kyiv was using artillery to hammer Moscow’s positions.
Furthermore, fears are growing over the future of US security assistance to Ukraine as additional funding remains held up by Congress — despite repeated pleas of urgency from the Biden administration. Officials in Washington, Kyiv, and European partner nations have sounded the alarms that the consequences of aid drying up may be catastrophic.
With a dearth of Western-provided artillery ammunition and combat-effective units for effective offensive operations, Ukraine is focusing on force reconstitution and digging in to hold the line against Russia’s attacks, the experts wrote in their commentary.
A Ukrainian soldier fires towards the Russian position as the Ukrainian soldiers from the artillery unit wait for ammunition assistance at the front line.Ozge Elif Kizil/Anadolu via Getty Images
But to resist additional Russian offensives in the near future, and protect troops from Moscow’s intense artillery and bombing, Ukraine will need to strengthen its defenses and fortifications. It needs tunnels and underground bunkers, the experts said.
Fortifying defenses, they added, will allow Ukraine to better maintain the front line and enable Kyiv to rotate troops and preserve critical ammunition. This method has already proven effective at preventing enemy advances during the war.
One reason why Ukraine’s much-anticipated summer counteroffensive failed to produce significant results was that Russia had built a complex network of defensive fortifications throughout Russian-occupied territory in eastern and southern Ukraine. The toughest defenses, known as the Surovikin Line, consisted of anti-vehicle ditches and obstacles, mines, and sophisticated trench networks.
The failures of the Ukrainian counteroffensive set the stage for renewed Russian offensives in eastern Ukraine, which kicked off in October and focused heavily around the city of Avdiivka. While Moscow has suffered heavy losses during its ongoing assault — both in manpower and in armored vehicles — its forces continue to advance, making small territorial gains. Russia is pushing in various other sectors of the front as well. With fortified defenses though, Ukraine could seriously complicate these efforts.
A serviceman of the 66th separate cannon artillery battalion of the 406th separate artillery brigade is pictured by the American M777 howitzer.Dmytro Smolienko / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Western officials have been reluctant to characterize Russian efforts as effective. A top Pentagon official told reporters this week that while Moscow has tried to shatter the lines in eastern Ukraine, it has “not succeeded” in its efforts.
Still, the US continues to raise concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin remains intent on capturing Ukraine and more security assistance is needed to keep Kyiv in the fight.
“The fact that Russia continues to demonstrate an intent to fight against Ukraine and to occupy Ukraine and to eliminate Ukraine as a country highlights the fact that this is a serious security threat that is not going to go away,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a briefing this week.
“The sooner that we’re able to continue to provide the levels of support that we have,” he said, “the better, not only for Ukraine, but for the international community.”
Mortar platoon soldiers with an 82mm mortar perform a combat mission as Ukrainian soldiers hold their positions in the snow-covered Serebryan Forest in temperatures of -15°C, on January 10, 2024 in Kreminna, Ukraine.Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Image
In their recent commentary for War on the Rocks, Kofman, Lee, and Massicot argued that “if this year is used wisely, core problems are addressed, and the right lessons are applied from the 2023 offensive, Ukraine can take another shot at inflicting a major defeat on Russian forces.”
The recommended strategy is one characterized as “hold, build, strike,” with defenses creating opportunities to rebuild the force and strikes degrading Russian capabilities. “Ideally,” the experts explained, “Ukraine can absorb Russian offensives while minimizing casualties and position itself to retake the advantage over time.”
Getting there, however, begins with building a strong, fortified defense-in-depth, but Ukraine also needs continued support to fight off the Russians. As the three experts wrote, “key decisions have to be made this year, the earlier the better, in order to put the war on a more positive trajectory.”
‘The enemy is amassing’: Ukrainian army officials give unvarnished account of the battlefield
Andrew Carey and Maria Kostenko – January 27, 2024
A series of comments by Ukrainian military officials and spokespeople on Saturday provided an unvarnished assessment of Ukraine’s current position on the battlefield, describing offensive Russian operations along much of the front line.
Fighting is intense in the northeast along a stretch of territory where the regions of Kharkiv and Luhansk meet.
Earlier this week, Ukraine announced it had withdrawn its forces from the village of Krokhmalne to take up more advantageous defensive positions on higher ground.
Reports suggest Russian forces continue to press in the area.
A readout from the Army General Staff on its Facebook page said Ukrainian forces had faced down 13 attacks on the settlements of Tabaiivka and Stelmakhivka, to the northwest and south, respectively, of Krokhmalne.
Commenting on fighting there, a spokesman for Land Forces Command told Ukrainian television, “The enemy is focusing on a large number of artillery attacks, trying to advance.”
These small settlements, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Kharkiv, lie close to a major north-south waterway, the Oskil river, and were all liberated by Ukrainian forces in the late summer of 2022, after almost six months of Russian occupation.
A Ukrainian serviceman prepares 155-mm artillery shells near the front line in Zaporizhzhia, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, on January 14, 2024. – Reuters
Further southeast, the area around Bakhmut, which was the overwhelming focus of Russia’s winter offensive exactly a year ago, Ukrainian forces also report coming under increased pressure.
Describing the posture of Russia’s forces to the southwest of the city, around the largely destroyed villages of Klishchiivka and Andriivka, Sergeant Oles Maliarevych of the 92nd Separate Brigade told Ukrainian television: “The enemy is amassing forces … they assault every day.”
He highlighted the huge threat now posed by drones, the impact of which on the battlefield has grown significantly over the past year. The Russians, he said, have significantly more drones than Ukraine, including drones equipped with night vision.
Klishchiivka and Andriivka represent the easternmost edges of Ukraine’s modest territorial gains around Bakhmut, the land reclaimed in September as part of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the second half of last year.
The sense that Moscow’s troops are looking to win back the small pockets of territory recaptured by Kyiv since June was also brought out by an army spokesman with responsibility for operations to the south, in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Attempts by Ukraine over the summer to push south from the town of Orikhiv towards Tokmak, seen as a key first step in an eventual move to break Russia’s land corridor to Crimea, only made it as far as Robotyne, a little over 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) south.
Now, the spokesman suggested, it was Russia more on the front foot.
“All in all, the invaders are very active, they have increased the number of offensive and assault operations. For the second day in a row, they have been conducting 50 combat engagements daily. The enemy is active in all directions,” Oleksandr Shtupun said.
“In Zaporizhzhia region, the enemy is trying to recapture lost ground.”
Ukrainian defenders have killed over 380,000 Russian occupiers
Ukrainska Pravda – January 26, 2024
Stock photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Russia continues to suffer losses in its war of aggression against Ukraine, as Ukraine’s Defence Forces killed 990 Russian soldiers and destroyed 16 armoured combat vehicles and 15 artillery systems over the past day alone.
Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook
Details: The total combat losses of the Russian forces between 24 February 2022 and 26 January 2024 are estimated to be as follows [figures in parentheses represent the latest losses – ed.]:
Trump Privately Pressuring GOP Senators To ‘Kill’ Border Deal To Deny Biden A Win
The former president is telling Republicans he “doesn’t want Biden to have a victory” in 2024, said a source familiar with the bipartisan negotiations.
By Jennifer Bendery and Igor Bobic – January 24, 2024
WASHINGTON – Donald Trump on Wednesday privately pressured Senate Republicans to “kill” a bipartisan deal to secure the U.S. border because he doesn’t want President Joe Biden to chalk up a win ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to a source familiar with the tenuous negotiations on the package.
Trump directly reached out to several GOP senators on Wednesday to tell them to reject any deal, said this source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. The GOP presidential frontrunner also personally reached out to some Senate Republicans over the weekend, the source told HuffPost.
“Trump wants them to kill it because he doesn’t want Biden to have a victory,” said the source. “He told them he will fix the border when he is president… He said he only wants the perfect deal.”
Trump’s meddling generated an “emotional” discussion in a closed door meeting between Senate Republicans on Wednesday, as senators vented their frustrations for hours about the largely secret negotiations over emergency aid for Ukraine, Israel and immigration. The conference is splintering into two camps: those who believe Republicans should take the deal, and those who are opposed at any cost.
“The rational Republicans want the deal because they want Ukraine and Israel and an actual border solution,” said the source. “But the others are afraid of Trump, or they’re the chaos caucus who never wants to pass anything.”
“They’re having a little crisis in their conference right now,” the source added.
A bipartisan group of senators has been working for months to craft a border deal, and Trump has made it no secret that he opposes it. Last Wednesday, he wrote on Truth Social, his conservative social media site, “I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions and Millions of people.”
What’s different now, though, is that Trump, who appears to have the GOP presidential nomination locked up, is now directly telling GOP senators to oppose any deal. His meddling has left their conference in even more disarray than it was already in, and a potential border deal in limbo.
Donald Trump is privately telling Senate Republicans to kill a bipartisan deal to secure the U.S. border because he doesn’t want President Joe Biden to chalk up a win ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) demurred when asked if he thinks it’s constructive for Trump to tell Republicans not to make any border deals.
“I could probably go through any number of things that Biden is saying that are not constructive when he’s on the campaign trail, but that’s the nature of campaigns,” Tillis said. “So I’m not going to criticize President Trump or his positions.”
But, bucking Trump, he said he supported passing the bipartisan border deal, which Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) has been working on with Democrats.
“Based on what I’ve seen and based on the work that James Lankford has put in, it goes far enough for me,” said Tillis. “If anyone’s intellectually honest with themselves, they all know these would be extraordinary tools for President Trump.”
During Wednesday’s meeting, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) referenced comments Trump made as president in 2018 about the difficulty of getting Democrats to agree to changes to immigration laws. McConnell, who is no fan of Trump, was making the case that Republicans should agree to a border deal now, since the likelihood of Democrats potentially cutting a deal with Trump in the White House again would be highly unlikely.
At the meeting, senators also viewed footage of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) making a prophetic warning about Russia’s designs on Europe after Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Crimea in 2014 — a bid by Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) to build support for Ukraine aid.
Tillis, who is an advocate of aid to Ukraine, told HuffPost there is “a general consensus in the majority of our conference that we need to support Ukraine.”
He warned what it would mean if the U.S. gives up on Ukraine: “This won’t take decades to regret. This will be in a matter of years. People who choose to ultimately exit Ukraine, if they are successful, for as long as I am breathing, I will remind them of the consequences I am convinced we will have to live through.”
Multiple senators described the meeting as a healthy airing of views, but none believed that it changed any minds.
“I don’t think Russia’s going to keep going,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), said when asked about the dangers of abandoning Ukraine.
Exclusive-Russia struggles to sell Pacific oil, 14 tankers stuck – sources, data
Reuters – January 26, 2024
FILE PHOTO: Regional office of Russian oil firm Rosneft is seen in city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island
This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine
More than a dozen tankers loaded with 10 million barrels of Russia’s Sokol grade crude oil have been stranded off the coast of South Korea for weeks, so far unsold due to U.S. sanctions and payment issues, according to two traders and shipping data.
The volumes, equating to 1.3 million metric tons, represent more than a month’s production of the Sakhalin-1 project, once a flagship venture of U.S. major Exxon Mobil, which exited Russia after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sakhalin-1 was one of the first post-Soviet deals in Russia made under a production sharing agreement. When Exxon Mobil left in 2022, output fell to nearly zero and hasn’t fully recovered since.
Difficulties in selling Sokol grade pose one of the most significant challenges Moscow has faced since the West imposed sanctions and one of the most serious disruptions to Russian oil exports in two years.
Washington has said it wants sanctions to reduce revenues for President Vladimir Putin and his war machine in Ukraine but not to disrupt the flows of Russian energy to global markets.
Last year, the United States imposed sanctions on several vessels and companies involved in transporting Sokol.
As of Friday, 14 vessels loaded with Sokol were stuck around South Korea’s port of Yosu, including 11 Aframax vessels and three very large crude carriers (VLCCs), according to LSEG, Kpler data and traders.
The volume stored in tankers represent 45 days of production from Sakhalin-1, which averages output of 220,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Supertankers (VLCCs) La Balena, Nireta and Nellis with some 3.2 million barrels onboard (430,000 metric tons), currently near South Korea’s Yosu, are acting as a floating storage for the Russian oil grade, Reuters sources said and Kpler and LSEG shipping data show.
The VLCCs previously accepted oil from several Aframax vessels via ship-to-ship, the data showed. Supplying oil volumes from smaller ships to bigger ones can save on freight.
The rest of the Sokol oil loaded from November to January is stored on smaller Aframax vessels (able to carry 500,000-800,000 barrels) – Krymsk, NS Commander, Sakhalin Island, Liteyny Prospect, NS Century, NS Lion, NS Antarctic, Jaguar, Vostochny Prospect, Pavel Chernysh and Viktor Titov.
Shipments of Sokol to the Indian Oil Corp have been delayed by payment problems, forcing India’s biggest refiner to draw from its inventories and buy more oil from the Middle East.
A source close to IOC said the company did not expect to receive any Sokol shipments soon due to a disagreement over which currency would be used to pay for it.
IOC is the only state refiner that has an annual deal to buy a variety of Russian grades, including Sokol, from Russian oil major Rosneft. IOC and Rosneft did not reply to Reuters requests for comment.
(Reporting by Reuters reporters in Moscow, Nidhi Verma in India, Muyu Xu in Singapore; Editing by Louise Heavens and Ros Russell)
The United States may yet buck up Ukraine, but if it doesn’t, the isolationist obstruction of some Republicans in Washington could turn out to be an epic mistake that costs Americans vastly more than it saves. History is replete with examples of pennywise decisions that led to disastrous outcomes — and many analysts think China, North Korea, and Iran could follow Russia’s expansionary example if America goes soft on Ukraine, with devastating economic consequences.
So far, the United States has provided about $46 billion in military aid to Ukraine, plus another $29 billion in financial assistance. The military aid amounts to less than 5% of the US defense budget, which exists in part to counter Russia. President Biden wants another $60 billion for Ukraine, and a bipartisan group of senators has crafted legislation that would provide much of that aid, while also funding immigration reforms and other priorities.
Worth the investment: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The snag is a faction of House Republicans who say they won’t vote for Ukraine aid unless it’s coupled with draconian immigration changes Democrats are dead set against. Cheering them on is Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, who has suggested he’d end US support for Ukraine altogether.
The Republican withdrawal on Ukraine suggests Russian president Vladimir Putin has guessed right. Putin obviously hoped for a quick Ukrainian surrender after Russian forces invaded in February 2022, which he didn’t get. But Putin’s Plan B was a long war in which Western resolve to help Ukraine would fade well before Russia’s ability to keep the war going.
That seems to be happening. While a majority of Americans still want to help Ukraine, Republican support has dropped from 80% when the war started in 2022 to just 50% now, giving conservative Republicans in Congress plenty of leeway to cut off Ukraine. As Putin well knows, a small group of naysayers can block US policy if the minority party controls just one chamber of Congress, as Republicans do in the House.
If Republican isolationists get their way, the ramifications could stretch far beyond Europe. As Hal Brands and many other foreign policy experts argue, the American abandonment of Ukraine could be a green light for China, North Korea, and Iran to attempt their own land grabs on the premise that they’d be able to outlast Western resistance led by a fickle United States.
China may be the most unnerving scenario. President Xi Jinping seems more determined than any Chinese leader of the last 25 years to “reunite” communist China with democratic Taiwan. That would have to involve military intervention, given that Taiwan has no interest in a reunion.
The idea that an isolationist United States could stand on the sidelines and remain unscathed is folly.
A recent analysis by the Rhodium Group found that a Chinese blockade of Taiwan, without an outright invasion, could cost the world economy $2 trillion, mainly from disrupted trade with both Taiwan and China. A Bloomberg analysis finds that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would raise the cost to $10 trillion, “dwarfing” the economic cost of the war in Ukraine, the COVID pandemic, and the 2008 financial crash.
In an invasion scenario, the Taiwanese and Chinese economies would crater while US GDP would plunge by 6.7% — the worst wipeout since the Great Depression in the 1930s. In a milder blockade scenario, US GDP would still drop by 3.3%, also unprecedented since the Depression.
China would likely try to take control of Taiwan’s advanced semiconductor industry, which could cause acute shortages of electronics, cars, and more sophisticated products that would make the empty shelves of the COVID pandemic look like a time of plenty.
Loss of trade with China would be devastating, too. Donald Trump and other nationalists want to “decouple” the US economy from China’s, but that’s facile and naive. Despite efforts by both US political parties to pull away from China, the two countries hit a record level of trade in 2022 and remain deeply intertwined, with China still supplying huge amounts of pharmaceutical ingredients, auto parts, lithium-ion batteries, lower-end computer chips, and hundreds of other things. In many cases there’s simply no other reliable source for the quantity of stuff Americans consume. Reestablishing US supply chains for all of those goods could take decades and be prohibitively expensive.
Iran and North Korea are lesser economic problems, given that the United States has no meaningful direct trade with those countries. Yet North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has renounced his nation’s longstanding goal of peacefully reuniting with South Korea. Some analysts see unusual signs of preparation for war, which would endanger the world’s ninth-largest exporter, whose commodities include Samsung electronics and Hyundai automobiles.
Iran aims to be the dominant power in the Middle East. Its main leverage over adversaries would be the ability to interdict Persian Gulf oil shipments, plus a nuclear weapons program that may soon be able to threaten Israel and maybe Europe. The United States is less dependent on Middle East oil than during the energy crises of the 1970s, but an energy crunch could still reignite inflation and cause a recession.
In all of these scenarios, the aggressor nation would pay a steep price in treasure, blood, and possibly prestige. So maybe they wouldn’t try it. But the same rationale applied to Putin before he ordered an invasion that has damaged the Russian economy and caused several hundred thousand Russian deaths. Yet Putin still faces no serious domestic opposition. The Russian economy is faring better than many expected and Putin seems to be finding the resources to wage his war indefinitely.
History suggests that billions of dollars in prevention is way better than trillions in triage. The United States tried to stay out the mayhem that led to both world wars, but got dragged into them anyway. The result was 117,000 American deaths in World War I and 407,000 dead in World War II.
Many historians think American suggestions that it would not defend South Korea after World War II influenced the communist North’s decision to invade in 1950 — which brought the United States into the war after all, leading to 37,000 American deaths. Anybody who feels sure the United States can stay out of big faraway wars probably needs to do a little more research about what happened the last time we tried to stay out.
Back in the USSR: New high school textbooks in Russia whitewash Stalin’s terror as Putin wages war on historical memory
Anya Free, Arizona State University – January 23, 2024
Hey, kids, meet Josef Stalin.
New Russian high school textbooks – introduced in August 2023 on the instruction of President Vladimir Putin – attempt to whitewash Stalinist crimes and rehabilitate the Soviet Union’s legacy. While schools and teachers previously could pick educational materials from a variety of choices, these newly created textbooks are mandatory reading for 10th and 11th graders in Russia and occupied territories.
As a scholar of Russian and Soviet history, I see the new books as just another example of state-sponsored efforts to use history and scholarship to serve Putin’s agenda and goals.
Other recent attempts along these lines include the establishment in November 2023 of the National Center of Historical Memory, tasked with preserving “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, culture and historical memory”; the creation of a sprawling network of historical parks called “Russia: My History,” with new branches in occupied Ukrainian cities Luhansk and Melitopol; and the 2023 publication of a collection of archival documents called “On Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.”
Putin’s efforts to redeem the Soviet past may help explain why Stalin is up in the polls, with 63% of Russians asked in June 2023 expressing a positive attitude toward the Soviet dictator behind widespread purges, mass executions, forced labor camps and policies leading to the deaths of millions of his own compatriots.
But Stalin’s place in history remains divisive within the nations he once ruled over, especially where Russia retains significant political and cultural influence.
Russian President Vladimir Putin walks by the grave of Soviet leader Josef Stalin on June 25, 2015, in Moscow. Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images
In January 2024, a newly installed icon honoring Stalin in his homeland of Georgia was defaced – an act exposing deep divisions.
The number of privately funded monuments to the dictator is increasing, while the memorials to victims of political repression in Russia are disappearing. Yet, activists are still fighting to commemorate those who perished.
Whitewashing history
Putin, famously obsessed with history, has been talking about the creation of national history textbooks since 2013. In August 2023, Putin’s wish was finally granted when one of his closest associates, former Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, presented new textbooks for 10th and 11th grade students: two in Russian history and two in World history. Medinsky co-authored all four.
The 10th grade textbooks cover the period from 1914 to 1945. The 11th grade textbooks cover history from 1945 to the present day and include sections on the current Russian-Ukrainian war, called in Russia a “Special Military Operation” as an official euphemism.
Warping historical narratives
The new school textbooks maintain some nuance in their coverage of Stalinism, yet that nuance can be described as “yes, but,” which makes it even more effective in warping the historical narrative.
The 10th grade Russian history textbook, for example, briefly mentions the dramatic consequences of collectivization of Soviet agriculture, including the 1932-33 man-made famines in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, North Caucasus and other regions. Yet it puts the blame exclusively on the poor harvests and mistakes of the local leadership rather than the Stalinist policies that caused and exacerbated the famines. Ukraine’s great famine, or Holodomor, in particular is considered by many historians and international organizations to be a genocide.
Mugs decorated with images of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Soviet leader Josef Stalin are seen on sale among other items at a gift shop in Moscow on March 11, 2020. Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
Additionally, in the section on World War II, the students learn that the “collective feat of the peasantry” during the war would have been “impossible in the case of the domination of the private landholdings” – in other words, it was only possible under the Soviet system.
The Russian history textbook briefly mentions the “Great Terror” of 1937-38, in which millions were arrested and an estimated 700,000 to 1.2 million were executed. Mention is also made of the personal role of Stalin, while also emphasizing the role of private denunciations and authorities of various Soviet republics and regions. But the creator of the Soviet secret police and an architect of the post-revolutionary “Red Terror,” Felix Dzerzhinsky, is praised for his role in “combating counter-revolution,” “creation of the professional educational system” and “restoration of the railroads.”
All national histories are inherently biased, even in democratic societies. Medinsky’s textbooks are, however, a distortion of history. The authors lose any attempt at objectivity while discussing Soviet foreign policy as always defensive and serving to protect everyone whom the USSR occupies and annexes.
The whitewashing of Stalin and his crimes is, I believe, crucial for understanding Putin’s creep toward ever more imperialist ideology and goals. In 2017, Putin participated in the opening ceremony for the memorial to the victims of political repressions in Moscow, during which he acknowledged the violence of Stalin’s terror and argued that it cannot be “justified by anything.” Yet his obsession with World War II led him to just that.
Putin and ideologists in the Russian leader circle have increasingly asserted that Stalin’s foreign policy and his leadership in World War II supersede his crimes against his own people. In his 2020 article in the U.S. journal National Interest, Putin praised Stalin for his great “understanding of the nature of external threats” and actions that he undertook to “strengthen the country’s defenses.”
The war on historical memory
The more aggressive Russia’s politics are, the more protective the state is over the Soviet historical legacy. Since 2020, Moscow authorities have not allowed demonstrations traditionally held in Moscow on Oct. 29 to commemorate victims of the Great Terror of the 1930s.
In December 2021, Russian authorities ordered the “liquidation” of the human rights group Memorial , fully unleashing the war on historical memory. The organization, which was among the three recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, was blamed by the Russian Supreme Court for “distorting memory about the War,” “rehabilitating Nazis” and “creating a false image of the USSR and Russia as terrorist states.” It is not a coincidence that an attack on the organization that for decades documented the Soviet terror came in the midst of the anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian hysteria and right before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Memorial, however, still stands, despite immense pressure from the authorities, attesting to the great power of resistance.
In the newly written Putinist narrative of history, the state and its expansion is always at the center, just as it was during Stalinism. The people are treated according to a proverb favored by Stalin, which sums up his attitude toward the ruthless and brutal measures he imposed: “When the wood is cut down, the chips are flying.”
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.
Russian parliament examines plan to seize dissidents’ assets
Reuters – January 22, 2024
Victory Day Parade in Moscow
(Reuters) – Russia’s parliament began considering a draft bill on Monday which would give the state the power to seize the property of people convicted for defamation of the armed forces or for calling publicly for actions that undermine state security.
The move has drawn comparisons with the witch hunts of the 1930s under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin with their “enemy of the state” rhetoric, and could affect thousands of Russians who have spoken out against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Criticising what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine has effectively been a crime in Russia from the day it began almost two years ago, but the new bill aims to make penalties for that even tougher.
It would allow the state for example, to seize the property of Russians who have left the country and have criticised the war but who continue to rely on revenue from renting out their houses or apartments in Russia.
The speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has dubbed the new bill “the scoundrel law”.
“Everyone who tries to destroy Russia, betrays it, must be pubished accordingly and repay the damage to the country in the form of their property,” he said at the weekend while announcing the submission of the bill.
Desperate Russian soldiers near Kherson post video from Krynky imploring Minister Shoigu for relief
The New Voice of Ukraine – January 22, 2024
The Russian invaders whine that the command has left them to their own devices
Against the backdrop of the expansion of the Ukrainian bridgehead on the east bank of the Dnipro in Kherson Oblast, Russian units stationed near Krynky issued a direct appeal to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in violation of the chain of command, according to a video shared on Telegram on Jan. 20.
The video depicted the soldiers describing the dire conditions they are enduring and criticizing the leadership of the Russian Armed Forces.
“We have been here since Aug. 2, 2023. It is now Jan. 20, 2024. In these almost seven months, we have not had a single day off, not a single rotation. Since Aug. 2, we have been under constant shelling … There are a lot of enemy drones in the sky… Many of our brothers in arms left Krynky among the 300 wounded, and those who were less lucky – among the 200 killed in action. Many of the wounded die while being evacuated.”
Fatigue among Russian troops near Krynky is “growing every day,” they claim.
“However, our command does not rotate people, does not let us go on well-deserved leave, does not even provide us with winter uniforms. We buy generators with our own money. Food and gasoline are delivered in minimal quantities. Because of this, we have to go to the store, 7.5 kilometers from our location. The road to the store is exposed to fire. Some of us are killed along the way.
Meanwhile, British intelligence writes that the Russians are unable to drive out the Ukrainian military from the east bank, despite their numerical superiority.
