Kremlin: many people in Russia are behaving like traitors
March 17, 2022
LONDON (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Thursday that many people in Russia were showing themselves to be “traitors” and pointed to those who were resigning from their jobs and leaving the country.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov made the comments a day after President Vladimir Putin delivered a stark warning to Russian “traitors” who he said the West wanted to use as a “fifth column” to destroy the country.
“In such difficult times…many people show their true colours. Very many people are showing themselves, as we say in Russian, to be traitors,” Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
He was asked about Putin’s remark that Russia would undergo a natural and necessary “self-cleansing” as people were able to “distinguish the true patriots from the scum and the traitors”.
Peskov said: “They vanish from our lives themselves. Some people are leaving their posts, some are leaving their active work life, some leave the country and move to other countries. That is how this cleansing happens.”
The Kremlin leader’s comments were welcomed in parliament by Gennady Zyuganov, the head of the nominally opposition Communist party that often backs Putin on important matters of policy.
“We need to defeat the fifth column that is entrenched inside and is ready to stab us in the back any minute,” he said. “All these troubles started in 1991 when (modern Russia’s first president Boris) Yeltsin with his clique sold and betrayed the country.”
Japan says it spotted Russian amphibious ships heading toward Europe
March 17, 2022
Japan said on Thursday it spotted four Russian amphibious ships in waters close to its shores on Wednesday.
The Japanese military said the four ships sailed in the Tsuruga Strait that separates Japan’s Honshu island and Hokkaido island, an unusual move for Russia, Reuters reported.
The ships are able to hold military equipment, including tanks, and hundreds of troops.
Japan’s defense ministry released pictures of the ships that appeared to have military trucks on at least one of them, according to Reuters.
When a defense ministry spokesperson was asked if the equipment could be going to Ukraine, he said “it is possible.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands and destroyed hundreds of buildings over the past three weeks.
Russia has targeted hospitals, movie theaters and residential buildings, although the Kremlin denies doing so.
Ukrainian officials have decried alleged Russian war crimes and continue to push for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
Western countries have resisted the move but have provided military aid to Ukraine to defend its country.
Russia continues to falsely claim their presence in Ukraine is a “special military operation” to liberate the people from a “neo-Nazi” government.
More than 3 million Ukrainians have been displaced due to the fighting.
Koch Industries to stay in Russia, says exiting does ‘more harm than good’
Andrew Jeong and Adela Suliman – March 17, 2022
Charles Koch, chief executive of Koch Industries, in Colorado Springs in 2019. (David Zalubowski/AP) (AP)
Koch Industries, the American manufacturing giant that employs 122,000 people across the world, said Wednesday it would not exit its operations in Russia because doing so would put its “employees there at greater risk and do more harm than good.”
The multinational conglomerate’s presence in Russia is relatively small, its president and chief operating officer, Dave Robertson, said in a statement Wednesday. It has about 600 workers at its Guardian Industries subsidiary operating two glass-manufacturing facilities in Russia and an additional 15 people working outside Guardian but in the country, he said. “We have no other physical assets in Russia,” Robertson added.
Guardian Industries and its family of companies employ over 14,000 people in 26 countries and have bases in Rostov and Ryazan in Russia, according to its website.
Koch’s decision was disclosed after more than 400 global companies publicly announced plans to withdraw, suspend and scale back their operations in Russia because of its invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Consumer and social media campaigns to boycott such things as Russian vodka, classical music concerts and soccer have also added to public pressure on companies.
However, according to a list compiled by Yale management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his research team, Koch Industries is one of about 30 companies described as “digging in” and “defying demands” for an exit or reduction of activities in Russia. Others on the list include Reebok, Cargill, Halliburton, LG Electronics and food brands such as Cinnabon and Subway.
Oil companies including Shell, BP and ExxonMobil were among the first to cut ties with Russia, along with some banking firms and tech companies such as Apple and Google. Others, including McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, followed.
“The horrific and abhorrent aggression against Ukraine is an affront to humanity,” said Robertson, the Koch executive. “Principles always matter, and they matter most when they are under pressure.”
Robertson said Koch “will not walk away from our employees there or hand over these manufacturing facilities to the Russian government so it can operate and benefit from them.” He added: “Doing so would only put our employees there at greater risk and do more harm than good.”
The company is complying with sanctions, he said, and will continue to provide financial assistance to employees and their families from Ukraine along with “humanitarian aid to those affected in neighboring countries.”
In an address to Congress on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Peace is more important than income.”
“All American companies must leave Russia . . . leave their market immediately, because it is flooded with our blood.” He urged American lawmakers to “take the lead” and “make sure that the Russians do not receive a single penny that they use to destroy our people in Ukraine.”
The war is posing a corporate quandary and testing the mettle of some of the world’s most powerful brands, as well as the long-held theory of international relations that countries that trade together don’t wage wars against each other.
Koch is among corporations such as Cargill, LG Electronics and Subway that have decided to stay in Russia. Many of those companies have issued statements expressing concern over the conflict, but Koch is one of the few that have opted both to stay and openly condemn the Russian government.
Koch Industries, based in Wichita, is the second-largest privately held company in the United States and has broad operations, including in energy, chemicals and electronic technologies. It is run and partly owned by Charles Koch, known for the millions he donated to conservative causes with his brother David Koch, who died in 2019.
U.S. says Russian troops “killed 10 people standing in line for bread”
Tucker Reals – March 16, 2022
Firefighters are seen at the site as smoke rises from a damaged building after Russian attacks hit residential buildings in Chernihiv, Ukraine, March 13, 2022. / Credit: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty (State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty)
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said Russian troops “shot and killed 10 people standing in line for bread” on Wednesday in the decimated northeast Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. The embassy did not cite what evidence it had of the attack in a statement posted on its official Twitter account.
“Such horrific attacks must stop,” the Embassy said in the tweet, adding that the U.S. government was “considering all available options to ensure accountability for any atrocity crimes in Ukraine.”
With each day, the cost in human lives and suffering of Russia’s war on Ukraine rises. The United Nations human rights office has registered about 600 civilian deaths, but the U.N. acknowledges the real toll is certain to be far higher. Ukrainian officials say thousands have been killed — more than 2,000 in the besieged southern city of Mariupol alone.
Video: A look at the treatment of Ukrainian refugees at border crossings
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There was little information on the alleged attack on civilians lining up for food in Chernihiv, but video posted to social media showed the purported aftermath, with a number of bodies on the ground.
One of those to post the video was Oleksandr Merezhko, deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, and chair of its Foreign Affairs Committee.
In Chernigiv Russians have killed more than ten people who were standing in line to buy some bread. pic.twitter.com/sy2yGN1BAw
“Russians have killed more than ten people who were standing in line to buy some bread,” he said in his tweet.
The alleged attack came a day after Ukraine’s general prosecutor’s office said a Russian artillery strike had hit a university and open-air market in Chernihiv on Monday, killing 10. It was one of many strikes to hit the city over the last three weeks.
The governor of the region said Wednesday that electricity had been cut to Chernihiv city and some surrounding towns and villages, but the Reuters news agency quoted Governor Viacheslav Chaus as saying Ukraine’s armed forces were dealing “powerful blows on the Russian enemy every hour.”
Firefighters are seen at the site as smoke rises from a damaged building after Russian attacks hit residential buildings in Chernihiv, Ukraine, March 13, 2022. / Credit: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty
On Tuesday, Reuters interviewed Mykola Vasylinko in Kyiv, who said he had just fled to the capital from Chernihiv, where the situation was “much worse.”
“This is no Chernihiv,” he told Reuters. “They [Russian forces] have tried to erase [it] from the Earth’s surface. They bomb residential areas, they specifically target residential buildings.”
Chernihiv is one of several large cities very close to Ukraine’s northeast border with Russia that have come under blistering artillery fire since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion and air war against Ukraine to start on February 24.
Russian troops opened fire on people waiting for food in Chernihiv, killing 10 people, local reports said
Rebecca Cohen – March 16, 2022
People carrying a person to a vehicle in the aftermath of the shooting in Chernihiv.Suspilne
Russian troops opened fire on Ukrainian civilians waiting for bread in Chernihiv, reports said.
The attack killed 10 people, the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne said.
The US Embassy in Kyiv said it would “ensure accountability for any atrocity crimes in Ukraine.”
Russian troops killed at least 10 people after opening fire on a group waiting in line for food in Chernihiv, Ukraine, a local report said.
A video posted to Telegram by the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne appeared to show multiple blurred-out bodies on the ground in the city, which is under attack by Russian forces.
Suspilne reported that the soldiers opened fire in the residential area at about 10 a.m. local time on Wednesday as people “stood in line for bread.”
A man can be heard screaming “help” as bystanders carry a person who appears to be wounded to a car after the attack. At the end of the clip, an ambulance drives up to the scene.
The US Embassy in Kyiv accused Russian forces of the assault in a tweet on Wednesday.
“Today, Russian forces shot and killed 10 people standing in line for bread in Chernihiv,” the embassy said. “Such horrific attacks must stop. We are considering all available options to ensure accountability for any atrocity crimes in Ukraine.”
Russian troops first invaded Ukraine on February 24. In the weeks since, Russian forces have shelled towns across the Eastern European country, hitting multiple civilian targets, including a maternity hospital.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called these civilian attacks war crimes.
The United Nations’ human-rights office said on Tuesday that at least 691 civilians had been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began, but it believed the true death toll was “considerably higher.”
“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” the agency said.
Russian forces bombed a theater in the city of Mariupol on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian officials.
The building was serving as a shelter for hundreds of refugees in the embattled city.
New satellite images show the word “CHILDREN” written largely in Russian outside the theater.
The theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, targeted in an alleged Russian attack on Wednesday had the word “CHILDREN” written largely in Russian on the pavement outside, according to satellite images.
The theater was serving as a shelter for hundreds of civilian refugees, including many children, in the embattled city of Mariupol, which has been left without water, heat, and food for several days amid Russia’s escalating attack.
The total deaths resulting from the attack are currently unknown, but a city official said more than 1,000 people had been hiding in the building.
Maxar satellite images of the theater show the word “CHILDREN” written in large, white, Cyrillic letters on two sides of the building — a possible attempt to alert Russian forces to the presence of young civilians hiding inside.
The type of weapon that damaged the theater was not immediately known but is consistent with an air-dropped bomb, Ukrainian officials said. Russia is denying responsibility for the attack, and President Vladimir Putin suggested without evidence that a Ukrainian ground force element could be responsible.
A post from the city council shared on Telegram said the theater suffered “severe damage” as a result of the attack.
City officials accused Russian troops of “purposefully and cynically” destroying the theater, according to CNN.
This story is breaking. Please check back for updates.
The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense on Tuesday announced that Russia’s military has sought to call in reinforcements as the country has faced “continued personnel losses” during its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia is increasingly seeking to generate additional troops to bolster and replace its personnel losses,” the ministry stated in a public intelligence assessment, according to CNN.
The ministry also suggested that the call for more troops could be due to the strong resistance that Ukraine has managed to present since the invasion first began, the news outlet noted.
“It is likely Russia is struggling to conduct offensive operations in the face of sustained Ukrainian resistance,” the ministry reportedly added in its assessment.
Russia has also been reassigning troops from “its Eastern Military District, Pacific Fleet and Armenia” as well as calling on “private military companies, Syrians, and other mercenaries” to fight in Ukraine, CNN reported.
“Russia will likely attempt to use these forces to hold captured territory and free up its combat power to renew stalled offensive operations,” the British assessment reportedly said.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense on Tuesday announced that more than 13,500 Russian personnel have been lost since the start of the invasion. The ministry also said that Russia has reportedly lost 1,279 armored combat vehicles and 404 tanks.
It also stated that both sides still maintain about 90 percent of their combat power.
Why Russia’s attempt to bend Ukraine to its will could have the opposite effect
A divided Ukraine appears to be becoming more united in opposition to Russia.
Zeeshan Aleem, MSNBC Opinion Columnist – March 16, 2022
A funeral service for two Ukrainian soldiers in Lviv on March 8.Dan Kitwood / Getty Images
While the precise scope of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military operation in Ukraine is unclear, experts like Thomas Graham, a former senior director for Russia on the National Security Council staff between 2004 and 2007, believe he’s seeking regime change and the destruction of Ukraine’s military infrastructure in a bid to bring Kyiv back under the influence of Moscow.
But reports documenting a deepening bitterness toward Putin across Ukraine are a reminder that the fury and suffering he’s generating with his brutal invasion could undermine his plans to control the country.
According to a recent New York Times report, the “one overriding emotion gripping Ukraine right now … is hate.” It said:
Billboards have gone up along roadsides in gigantic block letters, telling Russians in profanity-laced language to get out. Social media posts in spaces often shared by Russians and Ukrainians have been awash in furious comments.
The article described how the backlash against the invasion — which has targeted civilian infrastructure, appears to be using indiscriminate cluster bombs and has already displaced millions of Ukrainians — is not just driving hatred of Putin, but hatred of Russian society more broadly.
“Yuri Makarov, the chief editor of the Ukrainian national broadcasting company and the head of a national literature and arts award committee, said the war had driven a deep wedge between the Ukrainian and Russian societies that will be hard to heal,” the Times reported. “Russians, he said, have become Ukrainians’ ‘collective enemies.’”
This kind of shift in national sentiment undermines the idea that this invasion could serve as a straightforward way for Moscow to bring Kyiv back under its control after years of Kyiv drifting toward Western influence. Instead, it’s looking like the operation could backfire by intensifying anti-Russian attitudes and laying the groundwork for a potential long-term insurgency.
Experts like Ben Judah, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, have noted that Putin appears to be surrounded by yesmen who may want to confirm the assumptions that underlie his own worldview. That may have included an unwillingness among his advisers to point out that some of his assumptions about Ukrainian identity and Russia’s ability to intervene militarily without much resistance were out of touch with reality.
“I think, in general,” Graham told me in an interview shortly after the invasion began, “senior people in the Kremlin underestimate the degree of unity among the Ukrainian people at this point — and that’s Ukrainian speakers and Russian speakers.”
“They have underestimated the consequences of their annexation of Crimea and what they’ve done in the Donbas over the past eight years and how that has changed attitudes towards Russia,” he added, referring to Russia’s support for separatist rebels in Ukraine’s southeastern region since 2014.
Ukraine has a mix of Ukrainian and Russian speakers, with the eastern regions of the country being more Russian-speaking and historically more receptive to or susceptible to Russian political influence. But it seems that Putin is providing a stronger force for fostering a more coherent and strongly held Ukrainian national identity than could’ve ever emerged from within the country itself in the short to medium term.
As civilians organize resistance, take up arms or leave the country out of fear, we could be seeing the birth of the very kind of united anti-Russian sentiment and action that Putin constantly seemed to fear before his invasion. He may have just created his own worst nightmare.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MSNBC Daily. Previously, he worked at Vox, HuffPost and Politico, and he has also been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation and elsewhere.
N. Korea silent after reported missile explosion over Pyongyang
Josh Smith – March 16, 2022
SEOUL, March 17 (Reuters) – More than 24 hours after a missile test reportedly ended in a fiery failure over Pyongyang on Wednesday, North Korea had yet to say anything about the incident.
South Korea said a presumed ballistic missile exploded mid-air shortly after it was launched from the international airport near Pyongyang on Wednesday morning.
North Korea’s government did not immediately comment on the South’s report, and state media had made no mention of a test a day later.
Strikingly, no photos or named eye witnesses had emerged publicly, despite the missile exploding over a city of around three million people.
Human rights activists said the silence underscored the complete control the government wields over communication in the country.
“We shouldn’t become numb to how ridiculous and outrageous that is just because its North Korea,” Sokeel Park, of Liberty in NK, which helps North Korean defectors, said on Twitter.
Debris fell in or near Pyongyang after the failed test, Seoul-based NK News reported, citing unnamed witnesses and a photograph it said it had seen of the test showing a red-tinted ball of smoke at the end of a zig-zagging plume that traced the rocket’s launch trajectory in the sky above the city.
The website did not release the photograph, citing a need to protect the source.
“If it was London, Istanbul or Seoul imagine our newsfeeds – filled with video, images and eyewitness accounts,” Park said. “But it was Pyongyang, so there isn’t a SINGLE public image or video. A complete visual blackout for a huge explosion in the sky above an Asian capital in 2022.”
Cell phones have proliferated in North Korea in recent years, but the government retains tight control of phone networks and internet connections, most of which do not link to the outside world.
The country’s isolation has deepened amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with border closures choking off most cross-border travel and communication with China, and forcing many foreign embassies and international aid organizations to pull their staff from the country. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Expired arms, tepid fighters: Russian ally Transnistria may have little to offer for Putin’s war
Tom Kington – March 15, 2022
SERGEI GAPON
CHISINAU, Moldova – A breakaway republic on Ukraine’s south-west border, which supports Russia and is seen as a possible staging post for Moscow’s Ukraine invasion, hosts out-of-date weaponry and reluctant fighters, experts have said.
Transnistria, a 250 mile long strip of land sandwiched between Ukraine and Moldova, has attracted attention from military analysts as Russian forces edge closer to it, but concerns it could enter the war may be exaggerated, experts have told Defense News.
The territory remained loyal to Russia in the early 1990s when its two larger neighbors – both former Soviet republics – gained independence from Moscow at the end of the Cold War.
Officially part of Moldova, Transnistria has since been an unrecognized statelet with a population of 300,000, claiming autonomy while receiving free Russian gas and keeping a military force of around 1,300.
Now, as Russia slowly pushes west into Ukraine and may seek to occupy nearby Odessa, speculation has grown that Russian troops will advance to Transnistria and use it as a launch pad for further operations in Ukraine or even an invasion of Moldova.
On paper, Transnistria looks like a perfect place for President Vladimir Putin’s forces to occupy. As well as hosting a garrison of pro-Russian troops, it stores 20,000 tonnes of weaponry, much of which was stashed there by the Russian military at the start of the 1990s when it pulled out of Moldova.
Nicu Popescu, Moldova’s foreign minister said an arms dump is situated in the village of Cobasna on the Ukrainian border.
But the age of the armaments would render most of them unusable in a conflict today, he said.
“We estimate 11,000 tonnes have expired and 9,000 tonnes are usable,” he said, adding no recent access had been granted, making an accurate assessment difficult.
“Right before the war we had a dialogue with the Russian Federation about destroying the expired weapons. … They said they were willing to evacuate or destroy most of the weapons. But we have not discussed the matter in the new context,” he said.
The troops stationed there may not be much use either. Although local forces fought a brief war of independence with Moldova in 1992 in which 1,000 died, they reportedly do not have much will to fight today.
Of the 1,300 soldiers now stationed in Transnistria, 400 take part in a local peacekeeping mission. Of the total, only 50-100 are Russian soldiers dispatched from Russia, said Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Europe think tank.
Most of the remainder are locals who have been given Russian passports said Popescu.
“They were born there, they have homes there, why would they want to fight?” said Alexandru Flenchea, a former deputy prime minister of Moldova.
Popescu said, “We do not see signs of intentions by the region of Transnistria or its local security forces or Russian military personnel stationed in Transnistria (to prepare) for deployment in military action in Ukraine.”
He cautioned however, “We need to be prepared for all possible risks and a lot will depend on the course of the war in Ukraine.”
While free gas and pension payment top-ups from Russia have kept Transnistria loyal to Moscow in recent years, the statelet has also been admitted into the European Union’s free trade zone. It sells electricity to Moldova and is also a flourishing crossroads for smuggling gasoline and cigarettes between Moldova and Ukraine.
All of which means it has benefitted from its unresolved status and, despite professing loyalty to Russia, is not pleased with the prospect of being reabsorbed into Russia – should Russia take over Ukraine, analysts said.
The problem facing the republic’s leaders is that if the Russians do arrive, they will be unable to turn them away, said De Waal.
“If the Russians show up they will say ‘You owe us,’ and Transnistria would be unable to say no,” he said.
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