Author: disinfo1

The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov, seems to have fallen out of favor with Vladimir Putin, following a failed exchange of remarks with the new American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio — an episode that led, according to the Russian press, to the cancellation of the much-anticipated summit between the Kremlin leader and Donald Trump. The 76-year-old diplomat, who has been leading the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for over two decades, was noticeably absent from the meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on November 5 — a significant meeting, usually attended by the hard core of…

The scams of marriages with Russian soldiers have escalated in Russia. Russian women who marry to receive the benefits paid by the Russian state to the relatives of those fallen in battle are known as “black widows,” reports WSJ. The American publication consulted judicial documents concerning crimes with fake marriages. Some of these involve criminal groups. Elena Sokolova was fined 3,000 rubles, equivalent to 37 dollars, by a judge, after she married a soldier, Serghei Handojko, immediately after he signed a contract with the Russian army. As a widow, the woman would have been entitled to 200,000 dollars, a sum…

The great debate about the use of frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine’s defense effort has led to the emergence of a burning question – where are all these immobilized assets – writes Euronews. When the Prime Minister of the Belgian government, Bart De Wever, blocked the bold plan of the European Union to obtain a loan of 140 billion euros for Ukraine with the help of the immobilized assets of the Russian Central Bank, the reason he gave was that Belgium is the only country that is transparent when it comes to these assets. This is also because the…

The Czech Republic, until now one of Ukraine’s most devoted allies, is considering reducing the much-needed flow of weapons and ammunition to Ukrainian forces, announced the politician who is expected to become the new foreign minister of the country, in the new Babis cabinet, reports Politico. Filip Turek, the president of the Bikers Party, a populist formation that will form the government together with Babis’s party, announced that the Czech Republic “will prioritize diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine and to mitigate the risks of conflict in Europe, moving from military aid funded from the national budget to…

Poland and Romania are set to deploy a new weapon system to defend against Russian drones, following a series of incursions into NATO’s airspace in recent months, which have exposed the Alliance’s vulnerabilities and increased tensions in Europe, reports The Associated Press. The American system Merops, compact enough to be transported in the bed of a medium-sized truck, can detect and intercept drones using artificial intelligence, even when satellite communications or electronic signals are jammed. According to NATO military officials quoted by AP, Merops will be used not only in Poland and Romania, but also in Denmark, as part of…

A civil war could break out in Russia due to accumulated social, economic, and political conflicts, warned Alexander Kharichev, the head of the Presidential Executive Office for Monitoring and Analysis of Social Processes, according to The Moscow Times. According to Kharichev, the civil war is one of the five challenges that Russia is facing. In addition, the country is dealing with the loss of political, territorial, and cultural sovereignty, depopulation, loss of public trust in the government, and the collapse of the political system, as well as the “dehumanization” and transformation of Russians into “consumer subjects”. The Kremlin’s chief sociologist…

The US authorities have begun an investigation into the oil trader Gunvor, the multinational company set to take over the foreign assets of Lukoil, in order to prevent a situation where sanctions will be effectively bypassed by Russia with the help of a proxy, according to Bloomberg. The US government’s investigation comes in the context where it is well known that Gunvor is de facto owned by a close associate of Vladimir Putin, who sold his stake in 2014 to circumvent the sanctions imposed after the invasion of Crimea by the aggressor state. According to Bloomberg sources, quoted by Moscow…

Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 116 journalists have been killed and 26 are in captivity, announced the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine on Monday, November 3. From the onset of the war in Ukraine, Russian forces have killed and captured journalists, violating international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in times of war. The total number of 116 killed journalists also includes those who enlisted in the army after the war began. Eighteen journalists lost their lives while performing their professional duties, according to the Ministry of Culture, writes kyivindependent. The National…

In the summer of 2022, analyst CNNBrett McGurk, who held leading positions in national security during the presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, accompanied President Joe Biden to a summit in Saudi Arabia with Middle Eastern leaders. During a working session, someone asked Biden to name a problem that kept him awake at night. Without blinking, Biden spoke about nuclear war. McGurk was surprised by the response, as the threat seemed to have been under control in recent decades. But, at that time, with Europe involved in a war initiated by Russia, a nuclear…

The two chambers of the Russian parliament have approved a bill on the creation of military units composed of reservists employed by contract and exclusively dedicated to the defense of Russia’s critical infrastructures, threatened by Ukrainian drone attacks. The project only needs the promulgation of President Vladimir Putin to come into effect, but several Russian regions have already started creating such units, according to Agerpres. The current legislation allows the use of reservist units by contract only during mobilization periods or in times of war. The bill adopted by the Russian parliament includes an amendment to the defense law, under…