The Tarbabys Blog – Page 356 – Read About The Tarbaby Story under the Category: About the Tarbaby Blog

Navalny won’t be freed until Putin is gone, top aide says

Axios

Navalny won’t be freed until Putin is gone, top aide says

Dave Lawler – March 27, 2022

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s new sentence — nine years in a more remote prison colony — could potentially endanger his life and sever his contacts with the outside world, according to Vladimir Ashurkov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.

Driving the news: Navalny protested Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in court and on social media before a judge handed down the sentence, on fraud charges that were widely seen as politically motivated. Navalny has been in prison since returning to Russia in January 2021 after recuperating from an assassination attempt by Russia’s security services.

What he’s saying: “Yes, we are dismayed by the sentence. But we knew that with Putin in power it’s unlikely that Alexei can get out. So it’s important for us to continue our work,” Ashurkov told Axios in a Zoom interview from London, where he lives in exile.

The foundation continues to post investigations into the alleged wealth and corruption of Kremlin insiders, most recently of a $700 million yacht linked to Putin.
And Navalny, who has faced harsh treatment in prison and held a three-week hunger strike last year to demand proper medical care, has remained one of Putin’s sharpest critics. “He is thin, he is frail, but he is as fiery as ever,” Ashurkov said.

Up to now, Navalny’s lawyers have been able to visit him at his prison colony outside Moscow for around an hour each day, during which time he could write and receive messages from his family and colleagues and help guide the work of his organization.

He will now be moved to a more secure and more remote facility. It’s unclear whether he will appear regularly in court, or have steady access to his lawyers — who were briefly detained following his sentencing on Tuesday.
“This trickle of communication and information has been vital for us,” Ashurkov said. “It’s possible this will be taken away.”

Asked about Navalny’s personal safety, Ashurkov noted that he is himself in danger even in London.

Ashurkov in 2018. Photo: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty

“Nobody has any doubt that Russian security services can undertake assassinations in any part of the world. We’ve seen it in Germany, we’ve seen it in U.K. So a Russian prison cell is not a secure place — it’s probably the least secure place.”
Ashurkov left Russia in 2014 after facing politically motivated charges for his work with Navalny. The entire Anti-Corruption Foundation moved its staff and operations to Lithuania last year after being declared an “extremist” organization.
Ashurkov noted that many more Russians are moving into exile as Putin steps up his repression at home during the invasion in Ukraine. “Any dissident, any independent voice in Russia is unfortunately in great danger.”

What’s next: Navalny is calling for protests over the Ukraine invasion, and Ashurkov expects a new wave of demonstrations to begin in the next few months as sanctions bite and discontent over the war grows. He believes that will destabilize the regime and, over time, lead to its downfall.

His team is preparing for that day to ensure it has a “seat at the table” when the direction of post-Putin Russia is set.

The bottom line: “People who are involved in Russian opposition politics have learned not to expect quick wins. They are in for the long run and have braced for long battles.”

A History of the Tensions Between Ukraine and Russia

The New York Times

A History of the Tensions Between Ukraine and Russia

Matthew Mpoke Bigg – March 27, 2022

Protests in Kyiv’s main square in 2014 were a violent flash point in relations between Ukraine and Russia. (Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times) (NYT)

Two former republics of the Soviet Union — Russia and Ukraine — are once again in conflict. Here are some pivotal moments in the years leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, as well as a brief look at their relationship in the 20th century.

February 2014: Protesters in Ukraine overthrow President Viktor Yanukovych, who was friendly to Russia’s interests. During the revolution, more than 100 people are killed in protests that centered on the main square in the capital Kyiv, often called the Maidan.

The interim government that follows this pro-Western revolution eventually signs a trade agreement with the European Union that is seen as a first step toward membership in the bloc.

April 2014: Russia invades and then annexes the Crimean Peninsula. Secessionists in eastern Ukraine, backed by Russia, declare themselves independent, as the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, and go to war against Ukraine.

The secessionist war continues in the eastern region known as Donbas. It then spreads west. Roughly 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians eventually die in the conflict. The front lines have barely shifted for years.

2014 and 2015: Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany sign a series of cease-fire agreements known as the Minsk Accords. Many view these accords as ambiguous.

April 2019: A former comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is elected by a large majority as president of Ukraine on a promise to make peace with Russia and restore Donbas to the country.

2021-2022: President Vladimir Putin of Russia seeks to prevent Ukraine’s drift toward the United States and its allies. Putin demands “security guarantees,” including an assurance by NATO that Ukraine will never join the group and that the alliance pulls back troops stationed in countries that joined after 1997.

Many Russians view the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, as the birthplace of their nation and cite the numerous cultural ties between the two countries.

Here is a brief recap of their relations in the 20th century:

1918: Ukraine declares independence from Russia during a conflict fought by multiple countries and armies over several years. Its independence and sovereignty receive international recognition at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Soviet forces later overthrow independent Ukraine. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic is founded in 1921, and Ukraine is subsumed into the Soviet Union the following year.

1932 and 1933: A famine caused by Josef Stalin’s policy of collectivization kills millions of people, mainly ethnic Ukrainians in a republic that is known as the bread basket of the Soviet Union. The disaster is known as the Holodomor, from the Ukrainian word for famine.

1939-1944: The Soviet Union annexes what is now western Ukraine from Poland and Romania. Later, Nazi Germany and the Axis powers invade the Soviet Union and occupy Ukraine, which suffers enormous devastation.

1991: Ukraine declares independence, a move endorsed in a referendum by 92% of voters. Russia, Ukraine and Belarus sign an accord recognizing that the Soviet Union has dissolved. Ukraine begins a transition to a market economy, and comes into possession of a significant stockpile of nuclear weapons that had belonged to the Soviet Union.

1994: Under the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine gives up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for a commitment from Moscow “to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.”

Some Russian military units regrouping in Belarus amid losses: Ukraine

The Hill

Some Russian military units regrouping in Belarus amid losses: Ukraine

March 27, 2022

A Ukrainian soldier stands atop a destroyed Russian APC after recent battle in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022.

Ukrainian defense officials said on Sunday that some Russian military units have returned to Belarus through Chernobyl to regroup amid mounting losses as Moscow’s invasion enters its fifth week.

In a statement on Saturday, General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (GSAFU) said an unspecified number of Russian forces have left Ukraine and crossed into Belarus. It added that the units could return to bolster attempts to encircle the capital Kyiv.

“Several units have been taken to the Chernobyl district with further relocation to the territory of the Republic of Belarus to hold measures for the restoration of armor,” GSAFU said in its Facebook post.

“It is not excluded that after specified measures, regrouping and strengthening the grouping of the occupiers, action on blocking Kiev from the south-west direction will be restored,” it added.

Fighting continued around Kyiv over the weekend. According to the New York Times, Russian forces shelled Boyarka, a town outside of the capital, on Saturday.

Boyarka mayor Oleksandr Zarubiv told the newspaper that five residents were hospitalized from the incident.

“Russia can plan its attacks on us but we are also getting ready and I can say that it will not be easy for them here,” Zarubiv said.

GSAFU added that it was able to halt Russian military movement toward the town of Brovary, adding that Russian forces in the area are now on the defensive.

“In the direction of Brovary, the opponent’s units are stopped. The enemy was forced to move to defense, carrying out engineering equipment positions,” GSAFU said, adding that Russian forces “suffered significant losses.”

Why autocrats fail

Palm Beach Daily News

Why autocrats fail

David Brooks – March 27, 2022

Joe Biden correctly argues that the struggle between democracy and autocracy is the defining conflict of our time. So which system performs better under stress?

For the last several years the autocracies seemed to have the upper hand. In autocracy, power is centralized. Leaders can respond to challenges quickly, shift resources decisively. China showed that autocracies can produce mass prosperity. Autocracy has made global gains and democracy continues to decline.

In democracies, on the other hand, power is decentralized, often polarized and paralytic. The American political system has become distrusted and dysfunctional. A homegrown would-be autocrat won the White House. Academics have written popular books with titles like “How Democracies Die.”

Yet the past few weeks have been revelatory. It’s become clear that when it comes to the most important functions of government, autocracy has severe weaknesses. This is not an occasion for democratic triumphalism; it’s an occasion for a realistic assessment of authoritarian ineptitude and perhaps instability. What are those weaknesses?

The wisdom of many is better than the wisdom of megalomaniacs. In any system, one essential trait is: How does information flow? In democracies, policymaking is usually done more or less in public and there are thousands of experts offering facts and opinions. Many economists last year said inflation would not be a problem but Larry Summers and others said it would and they turn out to have been right. We still make mistakes but the system learns.

Often in autocracies, decisions are made within a small, closed circle. Information flows are distorted by power. No one tells the top man what he doesn’t want to hear. The Russian intelligence failure about Ukraine has been astounding. Vladimir Putin understood nothing about what the Ukrainian people wanted, how they would fight or how his own army had been ruined by corruption and kleptocrats.

People want their biggest life. Human beings these days want to have full, rich lives and make the most of their potential. The liberal ideal is that people should be left as free as possible to construct their own ideal. Autocracies restrict freedom for the sake of order. So many of the best and brightest are now fleeing Russia. The American ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, points out that Hong Kong is suffering a devastating brain drain. Bloomberg reports, “The effects of the brain drain in sectors such as education, health care and even finance will likely be felt by residents for years to come.” American institutions now have nearly as many top-tier AI researchers from China as from the United States. Given the chance, talented people will go where fulfillment lies.

Organization man turns into gangster man. People rise through autocracies by ruthlessly serving the organization, the bureaucracy. That ruthlessness makes them aware others may be more ruthless and manipulative, so they become paranoid and despotic. They often personalize power so they are the state, and the state is them. Any dissent is taken as a personal affront. They may practice what scholars call “negative selection.” They don’t hire the smartest and best people. Such people might be threatening. They hire the dimmest and the most mediocre. You get a government of third-raters (witness the leaders of the Russian military).

Ethnonationalism self-inebriates. Everybody worships something. In a liberal democracy, worship of the nation is balanced by the love of liberal ideals. With the demise of communism, authoritarianism lost a major source of universal values. National glory is pursued with intoxicating fundamentalism.

Putin seems to believe Russia is exceptional on front after front and “on the march.” This kind of crackpot nationalism deludes people into pursuing ambitions far beyond their capacity.

Government against the people is a recipe for decline. Democratic leaders, at least in theory, serve their constituents. Autocratic leaders, in practice, serve their own regime and longevity, even if it means neglecting their people. Thomas J. Bollyky, Tara Templin and Simon Wigley illustrate how life expectancy improvements have slowed in countries that have recently transitioned to autocracies. A study of more than 400 dictators across 76 countries by Richard Jong-A-Pin and Jochen O. Mierau found that a one-year increase in a dictator’s age decreases his nation’s economic growth by 0.12 percentage points.

When the Soviet Union fell, we learned that the CIA had overstated the Soviet economy and Soviet military might. It’s just very hard to successfully run a big society through centralized power.

To me, the lesson is that even when we’re confronting so-far successful autocracies like China, we should learn to be patient and trust our liberal democratic system. When we are confronting imperial aggressors like Putin, we should trust the ways we are responding now. If we steadily, patiently and remorselessly ramp up the economic, technological and political pressure, the weaknesses inherent in the regime will grow and grow.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Donald Trump Asked Kid Rock About North Korea and There Is No Bottom

Daily Beast

Donald Trump Asked Kid Rock About North Korea and There Is No Bottom

The Daily Beast – March 27, 2022

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty

Summing up the Republicans’ appalling conduct at the Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation hearing, and Sen. Mike Braun’s interview where he said interracial marriage should be a question for the states, The New Abnormal co-host Molly Jong-Fast says “they’re never gonna be happy. They’re not gonna be happy when they take away abortion. They wanna go back to antebellum times. This ends with less and less rights.”

That’s anything but a joke, but “it’s funny because I remember thinking before the 2016 election, ‘Well, Trump won’t get elected,’ but even when he did I thought, ‘Wow, it’s so terrible, but they’ll get what they want and they’ll see how much it sucks.’ And they didn’t. They were thrilled. And then when Trump started killing his own people and telling them that the virus wasn’t a big deal, I thought, ‘Well, he’ll kill his own people. And they’ll see this guy’s a monster,’ but it seems like he can pretty much do anything. These Republicans can pretty much do anything and (their supporters) don’t notice that it’s against their interests.”

If not antebellum times, says co-host Andy Levy, “the most charitable thing you can say about them is that they want to go back to the 1950s. That’s the latest time-frame you can give them. They all think that the 1950s were grand, with the white picket fences and the nuclear families that all loved each other and to them, that’s the garden of Eden that they don’t care that first of all never really existed. And second of all, to the extent that existed, it existed for white Christians only, and it wasn’t even so great for white Christian women. But they don’t care, that’s their end game.”

Meantime, Kid Rock of all damn people is boasting about how Donald Trump would call him up after Sarah Palin introduced him and Ted Nugent to the president, and ask things like “What do you think we could do about North Korea?”

“I’m like, What? I don’t think I’m qualified to answer this.”

Then again, it could always be worse with this set. As Molly asks, “Do you think Kid Rock is stupider than Junior?” And, notes Andy, at least Kid Rock “was self-aware enough to know that he shouldn’t be talking, giving advice about North Korea.”

Plus, Florida Agriculture Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried—who went to high school with Judge Jackson—joins to explain how she won office in a red state and her bid to become its first female governor. She says the party needs to “follow my lead” to win again in the Sunshine State:

“The Democrats need to understand, once again, that it is always about the economy—it always has been and always will be. Of course, we have to stand up and we have to fight and we have to advocate for our people and our principles. But at the end of the day, the people of our state want leaders. They don’t want their elected officials to be falling into these cultural war traps, which Republicans are trying to do. We have an opportunity under my leadership to bring our party together, to unite our party and to fight for fundamental principles that—you know, might have been electing Republican governors for 25 years, but it’s by the smallest of margins by, by less than one percent, Ron DeSantis won by 34,000 votes out of almost 8.3 million votes.”

Fried concludes: “So to say that our state is red is not consistent with how we vote. And for those same 25 years, the people of our state have consistently voted for very progressive constitutional amendments, from a $15 minimum wage to medical marijuana to environmental issues to restoration of civil rights. But we as Democrats have not done a good enough job running campaigns, and making sure we are on the same page as the rest of the people of our state. So we have to take some playbooks by the Republicans on the economy, on home rule, on the free market. But really we’ve got to rise above this chaos and this nonsense and be ready to fight. There’s no one out there who doesn’t know that I am willing and able to throw punches. And most of the times I land them, and make the governor squirm every time that we are in the same room together. And that’s what it’s going to take to stand up against this bully and show the people of our state that there is a better way to lead.”

Barbarossa, Pearl Harbor and Ukraine are military failures of the autocrats

The Augusta Chronicle

Barbarossa, Pearl Harbor and Ukraine are military failures of the autocrats

Perry Smith – March 27, 2022

Perry Smith is a retired Air Force major general who lives in Augusta.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stands while waiting for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko prior to their talks in Moscow, on March 11. [Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

When I conduct workshops on executive leadership, I emphasize the importance of strategic thinking and planning. In the past one hundred years, there have been three colossal mistakes of strategy.

These failures were made by three national leaders. Hitler, Tojo and Putin. They had three characteristics in common. All three were autocrats. They surrounded themselves with lackeys. Their study and understanding of history and grand strategy were both limited and flawed. At the end of this article, I will identify American leaders who were excellent strategists.

As someone who has studied and taught international relations for more than fifty years, I have been fascinated with the behavior of autocrats. My first interest was in Benito Mussolini. I lived in Italy immediately after World War II. I can remember quite vividly the newspaper picture of Mussolini hanging upside down in a square in Milan – with the headline: FINITO BENITO. He was the perfect example of a psychopath in his rhetoric, persona and actions.

More from Perry Smith: A strategic analysis of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Next, I studied Adolph Hitler. I lived in Germany in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. I got to know the German people quite well in the Coblenz, Bitburg and Monchengladbach areas of Germany. Hitler was not only a psychopath, but he was also a brilliant public speaker. His keen understanding of the German political culture in the aftermath of World War I allowed him, through the democratic process, to reach very high office. Folks often forget that Hitler did not become the Chancellor of Germany by conducting a coup.

Hitler the autocrat evolved into Hitler the dictator. He created, during the 1930s, a remarkably efficient totalitarian state. Hitler’s gravest error was the Invasion of Soviet Russia in June 1941. Operation Barbarossa was flawed in all three levels of warfare: tactical, operational and strategic. Russia had collapsed in World War I so Hitler felt that throwing 200 German divisions in the attack would lead to Soviet surrender before winter closed in.

Like Hitler, Tojo learned the wrong lessons from history. Japan had great success with the war against China in the 1890s and with the war with Russia in 1905. Short wars were followed by favorable peace treaties which led to more and more territory under the Japanese empire. A short war with America followed by a favorable peace treaty was, to Tojo and some of his cronies, a likely outcome. If Tojo had strong subordinates at his elbow, this huge mistake may have been avoided. Admiral Yamamoto was strong but not strong enough

Putin has made a similar strategic mistake – misreading history. Russia had military success in Chechnya (1999-2009), in Georgia (2008), in Crimea (2014) and in Syria (2015). Attacking Ukraine with the massive use of Russian ground and air power may have seemed to Putin like a no-brainer. Putin probably anticipated a quick victory followed by a peace treaty that would guarantee that Ukraine would become a vassal state – much like Belarus today. Also, like Hitler and Tojo, Putin vastly underestimated the enemy he had created.

Putin now faces some huge problems. The 140 million people of Russia have had a taste, since 1991, of free speech, free enterprise and free assembly. Today, Russians are angry that Putin is destroying the Russian economy and their way of life. Putin has almost no friends and even his nominal ally, China, has become wary of this his behavior and actions.

This past week I spoke to 100 members of the Rotary Club of Augusta. I had been invited months earlier to address Pearl Harbor and what it was like to witness the Dec. 7, 1941 attack as a small child. I presented a strategic analysis of the Japanese attack and compared the calculus of decision making in Tokyo in 1941 with the decision-making in Moscow in 2022.

In answer to a question, I predicted that Ukraine would win the war and Putin would be removed from power. With enormous support from the West, Ukraine would rebuild rather quickly.

Toward the end of the session with the Rotarians, I recommended that they lend support to the Ukrainian people by sending a check to World Vision and to add a zero or two to their normal charitable contribution. I also suggested wearing blue and yellow clothing. I forgot to mention that Saint Paul’s Church, Augusta, had contributed $6,000 via the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund.

So, who were the best American grand strategists? George Marshall, Colin Powell and Brent Scowcroft. The poor ones were Robert McNamara and Donald Rumsfeld.

Let me end this article on a positive note. With Putin gone, the Chinese more cautious, NATO more unified, and COVID-19 greatly diminished, the future appears bright – thank goodness. Incidentally. our home has, in the front yard, the American flag and the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine.

Elon Musk Says “We Cannot Let Putin Take Over Ukraine”

The Street

Elon Musk Says “We Cannot Let Putin Take Over Ukraine”

Tesla CEO urges NATO not to let Putin win the war in Ukraine, praises Biden administration’s efforts since conflict began.

Luc Olinga – March 27, 2022

Elon Musk, the charismatic CEO of Tesla, admits it himself: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed him. He is no longer simply a businessman leading different companies, but also a boss who knows that he has a responsibility, that of using all his weight in the conduct of world affairs.

“With knowledge, products and services, Elon Musk is almost a strategic weapon in modern warfare. How do you see your role in that context?” Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Business Insider’s parent company, Axel Springer, asked Musk during a recent interview.

“I think I can be helpful in conflicts,” the tech tycoon responded. “I try to take a set of actions that are most likely to improve the probability that the future will be good. And obviously, sometimes I make mistakes in this regard.”

“I do whatever I think is most likely to ensure that the future is good for humanity. Those are the actions that I will take.”

‘This Is Crazy’

The billionaire whose personality has gone far beyond Silicon Valley and auto industry circles has become very vocal about the Ukrainian crisis. He was one of the first multinational CEOs to publicly show his support for Ukraine, defying traditions that companies remain neutral on geopolitical and political issues. In doing so, Musk helped inspire other CEOs to follow suit.

A little over a month after the start of Russian fire and bombing in Ukraine, the list of major companies announcing their support for Ukraine has continued to grow. Beyond that, Musk went so far as to propose a duel between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict. Moscow has still not responded to the proposal.

Many might have expected it to stop there, but Musk seems to think that’s not enough. Without calling for regime change in Russia, he urges NATO governments not to let Putin win.

“Volodymyr Zelenskyy put it very clearl,” Döpfner said, referring to the Ukrainian president. “I need ammunition, not a ride”. Europe, particularly Germany, struggled a long time. How about the American government?”

“I think the American government has done more than people may realize,” Musk responded. “But it is just not been very public.”

And then he makes a statement that few, if any, other CEO would ever venture to make.

“But it is important to do something serious. We cannot let Putin take over Ukraine. This is crazy.”

President Biden appeared to call for Putin’s ouster in a speech Saturday, saying the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine had ignited a “new battle for freedom” between democracies and autocracies.

Ukraine Russia Lead JS — Pierre Crom/Getty Images

Musk Is Ready for Russian Cyberattacks

In this interview, Musk agreed that Putin is a dictator and explained that he was convinced from the start that the Russian president clearly had plans to annex part of Ukraine and that nothing would prevent him from doing so.

“My best guess was that he would seek to capture the Eastern third of the country. Frankly, if you just listened to the rhetoric, then it is clear that he was going after at least portions of Ukraine that have a significant percentage of Russian speakers,” the tech tycoon said. “He did that already in Georgia,”, another neighboring country of Russia.

Two days after the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine, Musk made the decision to send Starlink terminals, the satellite internet service offered by SpaceX. The billionaire explained that it was not really a surprise because he had prepared very early to help.

“We did think that Starlink might be needed, and we took some preemptive actions to ensure that it could be provided quickly”, Musk said. “When the request came, we acted very rapidly.”

“It is worth noting that the satellite internet connectivity of Ukraine was taken offline by a cyberattack on the day of the invasion permanently. The cell towers are either being blown up or they are being jammed. There is a major fiber backbone that the Russians are aware of. It was quite likely that they will sever that fiber link. This would leave Ukraine with very few connections open. So Starlink might be, certainly in some parts of Ukraine, the only connection,” Musk explained.

He also reiterated that SpaceX was prepared to ward off Russian cyberattacks against its Starlink terminals, which are used by Ukrainian government officials for communications. Putting Starlink out of the game would allow Russia to master the communication war.

“If you attempt to take out Starlink, this is not easy because there are 2000 satellites. That means a lot of anti-satellite missiles,” Musk said. “I hope we do not have to put this to a test, but I think we can launch satellites faster than they can launch anti-satellites missiles.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has destroyed a historic computer museum

Endgadget

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has destroyed a historic computer museum

Igor Bonifacic, Contributing Writer – March 27, 2022

Earlier this week, Club 8-bit, one of Ukraine’s largest privately-owned computer museums, was destroyed during the siege of Mariupol. Kotaku spotted news of the event after its owner, Dmitry Cherepanov, took to Facebook to share the fate of Club 8-bit.

“That’s it, the Mariupol computer museum is no longer there,” he said on March 21st. “All that is left from the collection that I have been collecting for 15 years are just fragments of memories on the FB page, website and radio station of the museum.”

Club 8-bit’s collection included more than 500 pieces of computer history, with items dating from as far back as the 1950s. Gizmodo visited the museum in 2018, describing it at the time as “one of the largest and coolest collections” of Soviet-era computers to be found anywhere in the world. It took Cherepanov more than a decade to collect and restore many of the PCs on display at Club 8-bit. What makes the museum’s destruction even more poignant is that it documented a shared history between the Ukrainian and Russian people.

Thankfully, Cherepanov is alive, but like many residents of Mariupol, he has lost his home. If you want to support Cherepanov, he has opened a PayPal account accepting donations to help him and other Ukrainians affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since the start of the war, nearly 10 million people have been displaced by the conflict, making it the fastest-growing refugee crisis since the second world war.

Another Russian quagmire: Putin and the shadow of Afghanistan

CBS News

Another Russian quagmire: Putin and the shadow of Afghanistan

CBS News – March 27, 2022

Long before Russia invaded Ukraine, long before you ever heard of Vladimir Putin, Russia invaded Afghanistan. It was Christmas of 1979, and Michael Vickers was working for the CIA. “Nobody gave the Afghans a chance in 1979,” he said.

And yet, “It was the only time the Red Army had been defeated in its history.”

It’s only a month into Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and already what was supposed to be a cakewalk has turned into a bloody slog. Vickers said, “Putin’s in a, probably even a tougher box than the Soviets were then.”

An Afghan guerrilla stands atop a damaged Soviet-built armored vehicle left behind by the Red Army and Afghan Communist troops at the Chawni garrison outside Jail, in Afghanistan's eastern Paktia province, May 24, 1988. / Credit: Don North/AP — An Afghan guerrilla stands atop a damaged Soviet-built armored vehicle left behind by the Red Army and Afghan Communist troops at the Chawni garrison outside Jail, in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktia province, May 24, 1988. / Credit: Don North/AP

“Tougher box, how?” asked CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

“His economy is being destroyed. You have to look at this and see Russian power being destroyed, you know, both militarily and economically, and its international position,” said Vickers. “How long are you going to let this go on?”

“Well, how long? The Soviets are in Afghanistan for ten years. Is that the kind of time frame we’re looking at for Ukraine?”

“I think the time frame is shorter,” Vickers replied. “I don’t see how Russia takes the pain over a sustained period of time.”

Russia’s war in Ukraine: How it came to this Why Russia’s tank war stalled in Ukraine (“Sunday Morning”)Ukraine vs. Russia: A modern-day David vs. Goliath story (“Sunday Morning”)Defending against “a dictator on the prowl” (“Sunday Morning”)

The Kremlin sent 100,000 troops into Afghanistan, 150,000 into Ukraine.

“Soviet army, as bad as it performed in a lot of cases in Afghanistan in the eighties, did a lot better than the Russians are doing in Ukraine,” Vickers said.

Putin has been unable to achieve his initial goal of seizing the capital of Kyiv and overthrowing the Zelensky government, although he is expected to regroup and try again.

The Russian army has suffered tremendous losses in manpower and materiel in Ukraine, and has so far failed to capture and hold major cities. / Credit: CBS News

Martin asked, “When people talk about Putin doubling down, what can he double down with?”

“He’s really doubled down on this population destruction strategy, the scorched-earth strategy,” Vickers replied. “I mean, that’s really all he’s got left.”

“If Putin succeeds in seizing Kyiv and installing a puppet regime, what happens next?”

“I don’t think a puppet regime could survive at all. The Russian army really can’t pacify the country. The population hates them.”

The parallels between the wars in Afghanistan and Ukraine are striking, with one glaring difference: In 1985, when the Red Army was mired in Afghanistan, the man at the top in the Kremlin was the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev. “He said, ‘All right, we’re going to try to win this war one last time. I’ll give you more troops, but you’ve got a year or two to win it,'” Vickers said.

“Gorbachev, in effect, doubled down?”

“He did double down, and then by early ’86 he started looking for an exit.”

In the months and years after, the Berlin Wall came down, and the Soviet Union collapsed.

Martin asked, “Could Ukraine bring about the collapse of Putin’s Russia?”

“I think for the first time in 22 years his continued rule is more of a question mark,” said Vickers. “Even if he survives, the Russian state is likely to be severely weakened.”

Weakened by an invasion intended to restore the Russian empire.

“What does he do when you’re losing for the first time?” Vickers asked. “He had won smaller victories, and now you’re losing big? What do you do?”

Turkey says world cannot ‘burn bridges’ with Moscow

Reuters

Turkey says world cannot ‘burn bridges’ with Moscow

March 27, 2022

FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin is pictured during an interview in Istanbul

DOHA (Reuters) – Turkey and other nations must still talk to Russia to help end the war in Ukraine, Turkey’s presidential spokesman said on Sunday, adding that Kyiv needed more support to defend itself.

NATO member Turkey has good relations with both Russia and Ukraine and has sought to mediate in the month-long conflict.

“If everybody burns bridges with Russia then who is going to talk to them at the end of the day,” Ibrahim Kalin told the Doha international forum.

“Ukrainians need to be supported by every means possible so they can defend themselves … but the Russian case must be heard, one way or the other,” so that its grievances could be understood if not justified, Kalin added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged the West to give his country tanks, planes and missiles to fend off Russian forces. The West has responded to Russia’s invasion by slapping sweeping economic sanctions on Moscow.

Ankara says Russia’s invasion is unacceptable but opposes the Western sanctions on principle and has not joined them.

Turkey’s economy, already strained by a December currency crisis, relies heavily on Russian energy, trade and tourism, and since the war began on Feb. 24 thousands of Russians have arrived in Turkey, seeing it as a safe haven from the sanctions.

Ahmet Burak Daglioglu, head of Turkey’s investment office, told the forum separately that some Russian companies were relocating operations to Turkey.

Asked on a panel about Turkey doing business with any people which could be of benefit to President Vladimir Putin, he said: “We are not targeting, we are not chasing, we are not pursuing any investment or capital that has a question mark on it.”

Two superyachts linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich have docked in Turkish resorts.

Western governments have targeted Abramovich and several other Russian oligarchs with sanctions as they seek to isolate Putin and his allies over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

(Reporting by Ghaida Ghantous, Andrew Mills and Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Edmund Blair and Gareth Jones)