Russian Black Mirror

This is how it will be with whoever dares

I usually don’t write op-eds, but this one has been brewing in my mind for years, so it turned into a summary about what is wrong in this world and what we can do about it

The Insider found dozens of companies- including European ones - that provide illegal Russian oil exports, earning dozens of billions every year

Poster boy: Six instances of Kremlin disinformation amplified through Elon Musk's social network The Insider dissects the most striking examples of Russian propaganda Musk posts on X — from Zelensky as a "beggar" and "dictator" to USAID funding COVID-19.

Fun story about how FSB hired Bulgarians to kidnap and kill me and @christogrozev.bsky.social

Trump thought he would look strong and tough lecturing Zelenskyy and that Ukraine leader would have to tolerate all the humiliation in front of the press to get weapons. But Zelenskyy in the most decisive moments for his country can show strength and dignity. The moment of real shame for Trump

Rare footage from a DOGE event youtu.be/SDuHXTG3uyY

Keep Elon Musk’s hands out of my Medicare: Why Europe isn’t rushing to be like America Not even the European far-right is enthusiastic about the idea of American-style cuts to their social welfare programs.

Нам удалось доказать то, что давно подозревали – ГРУ платило террористам Талибана за убийства американцев в Афганистане. Просто напрямую, кешем. По $200 000 за человека. В этом тексте конкретные имена офицеров и их афганских курьеров, которые этим занимались theins.ru/politika/277...

Final mathematical proof that Georgian elections were indeed rigged

First days of the new Trump’s cabinet youtu.be/MqkT4B-9MGk?...

We found that the oligarchs in the Putin’s narrow circle, who are under sanctions for many years, are actually still earning billions of dollars every year openly trading with the West - all they have to do is to make their share less than 50% and no one asks questions! How convenient!

There is a new wave of discussion of so called “opinion polls” in Russia. Here is a good explanation why you shouldn’t rely on any data like this in such regimes (which was recently nicely proven in Syria) theins.ru/en/society/2...

i know what we did this year

Damn, I thought i was joking!!!

Damascus has fallen. Looks like Moscow should prepare a special dormitory for all the “legitimate presidents” Russia will host

What a genius move: Israel suddenly stops its operation in Lebanon and the same islamists who just yesterday were fighting against them are now with their silent approval taking control over Syria in 3 days. What a plot twist

The collapse of the Syrian government army could be predicted a year ago: when Russia is stuck in Ukraine and Iranian militants are fighting against Israel they just left Assad alone and now we see what would have happened in Syria in 2012 if not Russia and Iran.

That is a major breakthrough. Looks like the change in the official position of the intelligence community is a question of time.

I used to work in mysterious ways but now I'm unemployed.

Putin’s strike with a “new hypersonic missile” (which is actually neither new nor hypersonic) reminds of the Iranian response to the Israeli attack, in the words of Shakespeare - “full of sound and fury signifying nothing”

The Insider is now on BlueSky! Please subscribe! (In this article we debunk the official propaganda line about how military spendings made Russians richer. In fact now more people are still living in poverty than before the full-scale invasion)

Maybe it’s not a game changer, but it’s the strongest kick in the balls since the beginning of the war: in the strike zone there are dozens of big ammunition depots, military airfields etc. The question is - how many missiles are given. Dozens won’t change too much, hundreds- will change everything

I’m an atheist but even I sometimes follow the god, so since today I follow @thetweetofgod.bsky.social and return from twitter where I just tired of banning assholes in replies

First big piece I've helped with at the NYT, on how US and Israeli Intel officials misinterpreted a video presented as key evidence in the Oct. 17 hospital blast www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/w...

Europe keeps supplying equipment and components to Russian missile manufacturers theins.ru/en/politics/...

After this x-rebranding of Twitter I start really believing in Bleu-sky feature

I actually like this atmosphere of emptiness, it’s like going to a countryside, where you are saying hello to any person you meet, which happens not often

Well even Jesus had zero followers at some point