🔺Putin sidelines FSB over ‘intelligence failings’ in Ukraine
President Putin has sidelined Russia’s spymasters on operations in Ukraine and replaced them with military intelligence chiefs, including a former special forces officer believed to be behind the Salisbury poisoning.
The Federal Security Service (FSB), the country’s main spy agency, has been blamed over supposed intelligence failings that contributed to the botched invasion.
Responsibility for espionage activity in Ukraine has now been passed to the GRU, the rival military intelligence service, according to a report by Russian security analysts.
The GRU, which is a branch of the army and maintains its own special forces unit, has been implicated in multiple brazen and high-stakes operations around the world, including attempted coups, assassinations and sabotage of critical infrastructure.
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President Putin has sidelined Russia’s spymasters on operations in Ukraine and replaced them with military intelligence chiefs, including a former special forces officer believed to be behind the Salisbury poisoning.
The Federal Security Service (FSB), the country’s main spy agency, has been blamed over supposed intelligence failings that contributed to the botched invasion.
Responsibility for espionage activity in Ukraine has now been passed to the GRU, the rival military intelligence service, according to a report by Russian security analysts.
The GRU, which is a branch of the army and maintains its own special forces unit, has been implicated in multiple brazen and high-stakes operations around the world, including attempted coups, assassinations and sabotage of critical infrastructure.
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🔺Putin may resort to nuclear weapons over Ukraine, US intelligence warns
President Putin may resort to using nuclear weapons to prevent a war of attrition in Ukraine, US intelligence has warned.
Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, told the US Senate armed services committee that the next phase of Russia’s invasion remained uncertain and was likely to become “more unpredictable and escalatory”.
Putin could potentially turn to nuclear weapons if he perceived an existential threat either to his regime or to Russia, Haines said.
Haines told the Senate that the US did not see an “imminent” threat that Moscow would use nuclear weapons, but if Putin were to believe that he was losing the war in Ukraine or that Nato was “either intervening or about to intervene in that context” he may resort to nuclear weapons.
“But that there are a lot of things that he would do in the context of escalation before he would get to a nuclear weapon,” she said.
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President Putin may resort to using nuclear weapons to prevent a war of attrition in Ukraine, US intelligence has warned.
Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, told the US Senate armed services committee that the next phase of Russia’s invasion remained uncertain and was likely to become “more unpredictable and escalatory”.
Putin could potentially turn to nuclear weapons if he perceived an existential threat either to his regime or to Russia, Haines said.
Haines told the Senate that the US did not see an “imminent” threat that Moscow would use nuclear weapons, but if Putin were to believe that he was losing the war in Ukraine or that Nato was “either intervening or about to intervene in that context” he may resort to nuclear weapons.
“But that there are a lot of things that he would do in the context of escalation before he would get to a nuclear weapon,” she said.
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🔺Ukraine in fierce battle to retake Snake Island
Ukrainian forces are engaged in a fierce battle to retake Snake Island amid fears that Russia could “dominate” part of the Black Sea if it is able to move in its missile systems, according to British intelligence.
Hours after Russia claimed to have repelled Ukrainian efforts to retake the island, the British Ministry of Defence said that fighting continued, with Ukrainian forces managing to disrupt Moscow’s attempts to expand its influence.
The sinking last month of Russia’s flagship Moskva missile cruiser left Russia’s resupply vessels with “minimum protection” against Ukraine’s drones, the MoD said in an update on Twitter.
“Ukraine has successfully struck Russian air defences and resupply vessels with Bayraktar drones,” it added.
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Ukrainian forces are engaged in a fierce battle to retake Snake Island amid fears that Russia could “dominate” part of the Black Sea if it is able to move in its missile systems, according to British intelligence.
Hours after Russia claimed to have repelled Ukrainian efforts to retake the island, the British Ministry of Defence said that fighting continued, with Ukrainian forces managing to disrupt Moscow’s attempts to expand its influence.
The sinking last month of Russia’s flagship Moskva missile cruiser left Russia’s resupply vessels with “minimum protection” against Ukraine’s drones, the MoD said in an update on Twitter.
“Ukraine has successfully struck Russian air defences and resupply vessels with Bayraktar drones,” it added.
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🔺Russia takes battle into space and targets GPS in Ukraine
Moscow’s behaviour in space is becoming “increasingly hostile”, the head of US space command has warned as he raised concerns about frequent attacks on GPS satellite signals.
General James Dickinson said that attacks on space capabilities such as GPS (global positioning system), which is used for navigation, mapping and timing, had become “part of our daily life for people and nations all around the world”.
Russian forces have been accused of using jamming systems to target GPS signals in Ukraine, with experts saying that the technique has become a “common tool in Russia’s arsenal”. Ukrainian military sources said that various jamming systems had been deployed by Russia since the start of the February war and that they had initially affected communications around Chernihiv in northern Ukraine.
GPS technology, which plays a key role on the battlefield, uses satellites to calculate the position of a GPS receiver.
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Moscow’s behaviour in space is becoming “increasingly hostile”, the head of US space command has warned as he raised concerns about frequent attacks on GPS satellite signals.
General James Dickinson said that attacks on space capabilities such as GPS (global positioning system), which is used for navigation, mapping and timing, had become “part of our daily life for people and nations all around the world”.
Russian forces have been accused of using jamming systems to target GPS signals in Ukraine, with experts saying that the technique has become a “common tool in Russia’s arsenal”. Ukrainian military sources said that various jamming systems had been deployed by Russia since the start of the February war and that they had initially affected communications around Chernihiv in northern Ukraine.
GPS technology, which plays a key role on the battlefield, uses satellites to calculate the position of a GPS receiver.
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🔺Russian battalion wiped out trying to cross river of death
The Russian army lost almost an entire battalion at the weekend in an attempt to cross a river in eastern Ukraine.
More than 70 tanks and armoured fighting vehicles were estimated to have been destroyed and possibly 1,000 soldiers killed in a single set of strikes by Ukrainian forces.
In what has been described as some of the heaviest fighting of the war, artillery bombardments and air strikes devastated the battalion as it used a pontoon bridge to try to cross the Siverskyi Donets River on Sunday.
The attack on the banks of the river, which runs west to east between the separatist provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, has dealt a significant blow to Russian forces as they struggle to make meaningful gains in Donbas.
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The Russian army lost almost an entire battalion at the weekend in an attempt to cross a river in eastern Ukraine.
More than 70 tanks and armoured fighting vehicles were estimated to have been destroyed and possibly 1,000 soldiers killed in a single set of strikes by Ukrainian forces.
In what has been described as some of the heaviest fighting of the war, artillery bombardments and air strikes devastated the battalion as it used a pontoon bridge to try to cross the Siverskyi Donets River on Sunday.
The attack on the banks of the river, which runs west to east between the separatist provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, has dealt a significant blow to Russian forces as they struggle to make meaningful gains in Donbas.
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🔺I looked at my legs and cried, says 11-year-old girl maimed in Kramatorsk missile strike
A hospital in Ukraine has shared the harrowing account of a mother and her 11-year-old daughter who both lost legs in a missile attack on the Kramatorsk railway station last month.
Natalia and her daughter Yana were among thousands of people who had travelled to the station from the surrounding Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in response to calls for civilians to evacuate before an expected Russian offensive.
Waiting for a train, Natalia and Yana went on to the platform to get some tea from volunteers, leaving Yana’s twin brother, Yaroslav, to watch their luggage, according to a Facebook post by the St Nicholas Children’s Hospital of the First Medical Association in the western city of Lviv.
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A hospital in Ukraine has shared the harrowing account of a mother and her 11-year-old daughter who both lost legs in a missile attack on the Kramatorsk railway station last month.
Natalia and her daughter Yana were among thousands of people who had travelled to the station from the surrounding Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in response to calls for civilians to evacuate before an expected Russian offensive.
Waiting for a train, Natalia and Yana went on to the platform to get some tea from volunteers, leaving Yana’s twin brother, Yaroslav, to watch their luggage, according to a Facebook post by the St Nicholas Children’s Hospital of the First Medical Association in the western city of Lviv.
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🔺Putin has blood cancer, oligarch recorded saying
President Putin is “very ill with blood cancer”, an oligarch close to the Kremlin is reported to have said.
The unnamed oligarch was recorded discussing Putin’s health with a Western venture capitalist in mid-March in a recording obtained by New Lines, a US magazine.
The Russian says in the recording that Putin had surgery on his back linked to his blood cancer shortly before ordering the invasion of Ukraine. He complains that the president has gone “crazy”.
He says that there is deep dissatisfaction in Moscow about the state of the economy and, appearing to speak on behalf of other oligarchs, says “we all hope” that Putin dies.
“He absolutely ruined Russia’s economy, Ukraine’s economy and many other economies — ruined [them] absolutely,” the oligarch says. “The problem is with his head. One crazy guy can turn the world upside down.”
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President Putin is “very ill with blood cancer”, an oligarch close to the Kremlin is reported to have said.
The unnamed oligarch was recorded discussing Putin’s health with a Western venture capitalist in mid-March in a recording obtained by New Lines, a US magazine.
The Russian says in the recording that Putin had surgery on his back linked to his blood cancer shortly before ordering the invasion of Ukraine. He complains that the president has gone “crazy”.
He says that there is deep dissatisfaction in Moscow about the state of the economy and, appearing to speak on behalf of other oligarchs, says “we all hope” that Putin dies.
“He absolutely ruined Russia’s economy, Ukraine’s economy and many other economies — ruined [them] absolutely,” the oligarch says. “The problem is with his head. One crazy guy can turn the world upside down.”
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🔺Why urban terrain of the Donbas gives Ukrainians the upper hand
Russia faces a bloody and grinding struggle even to meet its revised military goals in eastern Ukraine. The battles for Kyiv and Mariupol have shown once again how urban terrain often favours determined defenders and enables them to hold out against superior numbers of attackers.
Superior leadership and battlefield competence enabled Ukraine to repel the Russian advance in the forests and towns north of Kyiv. Its forces made good use of their supplies of US Javelin and UK-Swedish Nlaw missiles and cleverly synchronised them with strikes by mortars and artillery, often co-ordinated by drones overhead.
Some successful Ukrainian attacks saw their light infantry using swarm tactics to rapidly strike much more ponderous Russian armoured columns, afterwards rapidly dispersing into cover before the Russians could react.
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Russia faces a bloody and grinding struggle even to meet its revised military goals in eastern Ukraine. The battles for Kyiv and Mariupol have shown once again how urban terrain often favours determined defenders and enables them to hold out against superior numbers of attackers.
Superior leadership and battlefield competence enabled Ukraine to repel the Russian advance in the forests and towns north of Kyiv. Its forces made good use of their supplies of US Javelin and UK-Swedish Nlaw missiles and cleverly synchronised them with strikes by mortars and artillery, often co-ordinated by drones overhead.
Some successful Ukrainian attacks saw their light infantry using swarm tactics to rapidly strike much more ponderous Russian armoured columns, afterwards rapidly dispersing into cover before the Russians could react.
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🔺Hackers’ bid to stop Eurovision thwarted
An attempt by pro-Russian hackers to stop Ukraine winning the Eurovision song contest was foiled, Italian police said yesterday.
The hacking group Killnet tried to crash the live streaming of Saturday’s final, which was held in Turin, and disrupt the voting by the public using an army of bots.
“Killnet announced the attack on its Telegram channel but we were ready, and able to rebuff it,” said a spokesman for Italy’s postal police, which fights cyberattacks.
The attack was a so-called distributed denial of service, in which thousands of access attempts are made to a system by computers commandeered and turned into “zombies”.
“The first attempt was made on Tuesday during the semi-final and peaked during the Ukrainian performance,” said the spokesman, who claimed that 100 police IT experts had worked to fend off the attacks.
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An attempt by pro-Russian hackers to stop Ukraine winning the Eurovision song contest was foiled, Italian police said yesterday.
The hacking group Killnet tried to crash the live streaming of Saturday’s final, which was held in Turin, and disrupt the voting by the public using an army of bots.
“Killnet announced the attack on its Telegram channel but we were ready, and able to rebuff it,” said a spokesman for Italy’s postal police, which fights cyberattacks.
The attack was a so-called distributed denial of service, in which thousands of access attempts are made to a system by computers commandeered and turned into “zombies”.
“The first attempt was made on Tuesday during the semi-final and peaked during the Ukrainian performance,” said the spokesman, who claimed that 100 police IT experts had worked to fend off the attacks.
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🔺McDonald’s quits Russia after thirty years
The Golden Arches are quitting Russia — permanently. More than three decades after McDonald’s opened its first outlet on Moscow’s Pushkin Square to queues that snaked around the block, the US fast food chain is to sell its Russian restaurants.
The company said that, in the wake of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, it had started the process of selling its entire chain of about 850 stores. It said that it was seeking a local buyer, and would make job security for its 62,000 employees part of any sale agreement.
McDonald’s joins a lengthening list of western brands to take steps to withdraw from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in February and the imposition of economic sanctions. They include Carlsberg, Danone, Renault and Shell.
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The Golden Arches are quitting Russia — permanently. More than three decades after McDonald’s opened its first outlet on Moscow’s Pushkin Square to queues that snaked around the block, the US fast food chain is to sell its Russian restaurants.
The company said that, in the wake of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, it had started the process of selling its entire chain of about 850 stores. It said that it was seeking a local buyer, and would make job security for its 62,000 employees part of any sale agreement.
McDonald’s joins a lengthening list of western brands to take steps to withdraw from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in February and the imposition of economic sanctions. They include Carlsberg, Danone, Renault and Shell.
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🔺Russian failures fuelled by Vladimir Putin’s meddling
President Putin is making low-level tactical decisions that would normally be decided by an officer in charge of as few as 700 Russian troops, western military sources say.
A military source said that Putin and General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, were dictating basic movements of their forces in Ukraine.
“We think Putin and Gerasimov are involved in tactical decision-making at a level we would normally expect to be taken by a colonel or a brigadier”, the source said.
He added that it was believed Putin’s most senior general was still “up and running” despite claims that he had been suspended after military failures.
A second military source said that in the Russian military, a colonel or brigadier would normally command the equivalent of two battalion tactical groups (BTGs), each comprising approximately 900 personnel. However, the source said that the Russian BTGs had been “battered”.
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President Putin is making low-level tactical decisions that would normally be decided by an officer in charge of as few as 700 Russian troops, western military sources say.
A military source said that Putin and General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, were dictating basic movements of their forces in Ukraine.
“We think Putin and Gerasimov are involved in tactical decision-making at a level we would normally expect to be taken by a colonel or a brigadier”, the source said.
He added that it was believed Putin’s most senior general was still “up and running” despite claims that he had been suspended after military failures.
A second military source said that in the Russian military, a colonel or brigadier would normally command the equivalent of two battalion tactical groups (BTGs), each comprising approximately 900 personnel. However, the source said that the Russian BTGs had been “battered”.
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🔺Whole world is against us, says top Russian strategist
President Putin’s invading forces are no match for a million motivated Ukrainian fighters, a former colonel has admitted on Russia’s state television in a damning assessment of the conflict.
Mikhail Khodarenok, a Kremlin military strategist and retired air defence commander, used his platform on Russia’s most watched talk show to stress that “the whole world is against us”.
He appealed to political leaders and the Russian public to stop taking “informational sedatives” and accept that the “situation for us will clearly get worse” as the West continued to arm determined Ukrainians with modern weapons.
In surprisingly frank comments which openly criticised the Kremlin’s official propaganda narratives, Khodarenok said Russia’s population had been fed lies about a lack of morale and psychological breakdowns among Ukrainian ranks and rejected claims that their mood was “close to crisis”.
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President Putin’s invading forces are no match for a million motivated Ukrainian fighters, a former colonel has admitted on Russia’s state television in a damning assessment of the conflict.
Mikhail Khodarenok, a Kremlin military strategist and retired air defence commander, used his platform on Russia’s most watched talk show to stress that “the whole world is against us”.
He appealed to political leaders and the Russian public to stop taking “informational sedatives” and accept that the “situation for us will clearly get worse” as the West continued to arm determined Ukrainians with modern weapons.
In surprisingly frank comments which openly criticised the Kremlin’s official propaganda narratives, Khodarenok said Russia’s population had been fed lies about a lack of morale and psychological breakdowns among Ukrainian ranks and rejected claims that their mood was “close to crisis”.
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🔺Nato hails historic day for Europe as Finland and Sweden apply
Nato has hailed a historic moment and “good day” for western security after Sweden and Finland formally applied for membership.
Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general, said that expanding the alliance would make it stronger against Russia.
“This is a good day at a critical moment for our security,” he said after receiving letters from the Finnish and Swedish ambassadors at Nato headquarters in Brussels. “We all agree that we must stand together, and we all agree that this is an historic moment which we must seize. Every nation has the right to choose its own path.”
Finnish and Swedish membership would more than double the length of Nato’s border with Russia while reinforcing western defence of the Baltic states and Poland. Stoltenberg, a Norwegian who is close to the social democratic Finnish and Swedish governments, played a key role in what is one of the biggest geopolitical shifts in Europe since the end of the Soviet Union.
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Nato has hailed a historic moment and “good day” for western security after Sweden and Finland formally applied for membership.
Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general, said that expanding the alliance would make it stronger against Russia.
“This is a good day at a critical moment for our security,” he said after receiving letters from the Finnish and Swedish ambassadors at Nato headquarters in Brussels. “We all agree that we must stand together, and we all agree that this is an historic moment which we must seize. Every nation has the right to choose its own path.”
Finnish and Swedish membership would more than double the length of Nato’s border with Russia while reinforcing western defence of the Baltic states and Poland. Stoltenberg, a Norwegian who is close to the social democratic Finnish and Swedish governments, played a key role in what is one of the biggest geopolitical shifts in Europe since the end of the Soviet Union.
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🔺Russia deploys its ‘Terminator’ vehicle in sign of frustration
Russian soldiers are pinning their hopes for success in Ukraine on the arrival of “Terminator” armoured fighting vehicles.
President Putin had previously resisted deploying the heavily armoured and armed vehicles designed for urban warfare. Equipped with four anti-tank missile launchers, two 30mm cannons, two grenade launches and one machine gun, the Terminator was used by the Russian army in Syria and has a top speed of 37mph.
In a sign of increasing frustration, however, the Kremlin has now sent a company of Terminators into the Donbas, the eastern coal-mining region of Ukraine which has become the main battlefield of the war.
Vehicles daubed with the letter V, a pro-war symbol in Russia, were filmed patrolling the streets of Severodonetsk, a city on the frontline of the Donbas offensive. Russian state media confirmed the deployment amid reports that the Terminators had been drawn from a company in the 90th tank division.
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Russian soldiers are pinning their hopes for success in Ukraine on the arrival of “Terminator” armoured fighting vehicles.
President Putin had previously resisted deploying the heavily armoured and armed vehicles designed for urban warfare. Equipped with four anti-tank missile launchers, two 30mm cannons, two grenade launches and one machine gun, the Terminator was used by the Russian army in Syria and has a top speed of 37mph.
In a sign of increasing frustration, however, the Kremlin has now sent a company of Terminators into the Donbas, the eastern coal-mining region of Ukraine which has become the main battlefield of the war.
Vehicles daubed with the letter V, a pro-war symbol in Russia, were filmed patrolling the streets of Severodonetsk, a city on the frontline of the Donbas offensive. Russian state media confirmed the deployment amid reports that the Terminators had been drawn from a company in the 90th tank division.
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🔺Senior Russian commanders fired for military failures
Russia has fired senior commanders for their “poor performance” during the invasion of Ukraine amid an emerging culture of “cover-ups and scapegoating”, according to British intelligence.
Lieutenant General Serhiy Kisel, who commanded the elite 1st Guards Tank Army, has been suspended for his failure to capture Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, the British Ministry of Defence said.
Officials also believe that Vice Admiral Igor Osipov, who commanded Russia’s Black Sea fleet, has been suspended after the sinking of the Moskva in April.
General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, likely remains in post, the intelligence said, although it is unclear whether he “retains the confidence of President Putin”.
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Russia has fired senior commanders for their “poor performance” during the invasion of Ukraine amid an emerging culture of “cover-ups and scapegoating”, according to British intelligence.
Lieutenant General Serhiy Kisel, who commanded the elite 1st Guards Tank Army, has been suspended for his failure to capture Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, the British Ministry of Defence said.
Officials also believe that Vice Admiral Igor Osipov, who commanded Russia’s Black Sea fleet, has been suspended after the sinking of the Moskva in April.
General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, likely remains in post, the intelligence said, although it is unclear whether he “retains the confidence of President Putin”.
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🔺Donbas has been completely destroyed by Russia, says Zelensky
President Zelensky has accused Russia of “completely destroying” the eastern Donbas region and deliberately trying to murder Ukrainians as a battle for the former industrial heartland rages on.
In his nightly address from Kyiv, Zelensky said that the war in Donetsk and Luhansk provinces had turned the region into “hell”, while shelling attacks continued in other areas. “[There are] constant strikes on the Odesa region, on the cities of central Ukraine. The Donbas is completely destroyed,” he said. “All this has no and cannot have any military explanation for Russia”.
The Ukrainian defence ministry accused Russia yesterday of intensifying its attacks in Donbas and preventing refugees from fleeing.
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President Zelensky has accused Russia of “completely destroying” the eastern Donbas region and deliberately trying to murder Ukrainians as a battle for the former industrial heartland rages on.
In his nightly address from Kyiv, Zelensky said that the war in Donetsk and Luhansk provinces had turned the region into “hell”, while shelling attacks continued in other areas. “[There are] constant strikes on the Odesa region, on the cities of central Ukraine. The Donbas is completely destroyed,” he said. “All this has no and cannot have any military explanation for Russia”.
The Ukrainian defence ministry accused Russia yesterday of intensifying its attacks in Donbas and preventing refugees from fleeing.
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🔺Vladimir Putin’s daughter Maria Vorontsova defends him online
President Putin’s eldest daughter has defended her father’s war in Ukraine and attacked his critics in messages said to have been posted on a university alumni group.
Maria Vorontsova, 37, was identified as “Maria V”, the author of numerous comments repeating Vladimir Putin’s dogma on subjects such as Ukraine, the West, George Soros and gay rights.
It has also emerged that another daughter of Putin’s is in a relationship with Igor Zelensky, the prominent Russian dancer.
Screenshots of Vorontsova’s comments were obtained and published by Dmitry Kolezev, editor-in-chief of Republic, a Russian independent media outlet. They were posted on a Telegram channel for 170 former students of Moscow State University’s medical department in the class of 2011.
In heated exchanges, she defended the government’s actions and claimed that the West had “always done everything possible to ensure” that Russia failed as a state.
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President Putin’s eldest daughter has defended her father’s war in Ukraine and attacked his critics in messages said to have been posted on a university alumni group.
Maria Vorontsova, 37, was identified as “Maria V”, the author of numerous comments repeating Vladimir Putin’s dogma on subjects such as Ukraine, the West, George Soros and gay rights.
It has also emerged that another daughter of Putin’s is in a relationship with Igor Zelensky, the prominent Russian dancer.
Screenshots of Vorontsova’s comments were obtained and published by Dmitry Kolezev, editor-in-chief of Republic, a Russian independent media outlet. They were posted on a Telegram channel for 170 former students of Moscow State University’s medical department in the class of 2011.
In heated exchanges, she defended the government’s actions and claimed that the West had “always done everything possible to ensure” that Russia failed as a state.
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🔺Vladimir Potanin, the oligarch ‘too big to be sanctioned’, is still raking in the cash
He is Russia’s richest man, one of the original oligarchs and has a pivotal role keeping the economy afloat.
Vladimir Potanin, 61, president of the metals giant Norilsk Nickel, has multiple state honours — including three Certificates of Gratitude of the President of Russia — and was one of the business leaders summoned to the Kremlin when Putin decided to invade Ukraine.
Yet Potanin has not been sanctioned by Britain, the United States or the European Union.
Freedom from sanctions means he can pursue his legal and business affairs in the West, including the expensive court battle in London with his ex-wife, Natalia Potanina, that could become Britain’s biggest divorce case.
A panel of Supreme Court judges will soon rule on whether Potanina, who moved to the UK on a so-called golden visa in 2014, is entitled to have her claim for £5 billion heard in an English court.
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He is Russia’s richest man, one of the original oligarchs and has a pivotal role keeping the economy afloat.
Vladimir Potanin, 61, president of the metals giant Norilsk Nickel, has multiple state honours — including three Certificates of Gratitude of the President of Russia — and was one of the business leaders summoned to the Kremlin when Putin decided to invade Ukraine.
Yet Potanin has not been sanctioned by Britain, the United States or the European Union.
Freedom from sanctions means he can pursue his legal and business affairs in the West, including the expensive court battle in London with his ex-wife, Natalia Potanina, that could become Britain’s biggest divorce case.
A panel of Supreme Court judges will soon rule on whether Potanina, who moved to the UK on a so-called golden visa in 2014, is entitled to have her claim for £5 billion heard in an English court.
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🔺ANALYSIS: Why Kremlin propagandists now tell Russians they’re at war with the whole West
It is not usual to see criticism of the regime on Russian TV now that the Kremlin has closed its fist on the media. Less usual yet to hear it on political talk shows that are closer to George Orwell’s Two Minutes Hate than Newsnight. Nonetheless, that was what happened last week.
But it did not suggest a loosening of control. Rather it suggests that President Putin is recalibrating his narrative and digging in for the long term. According to Putin’s ideology, Ukrainians are proving difficult to conquer because they are actually Russians . . . they just don’t realise it yet.
The criticisms came from Colonel Mikhail Khodaryonok, a retired officer who served a tour in the Russian general staff’s main operational directorate, the division known as the “brains of the army”.
It is not usual to see criticism of the regime on Russian TV now that the Kremlin has closed its fist on the media. Less usual yet to hear it on political talk shows that are closer to George Orwell’s Two Minutes Hate than Newsnight. Nonetheless, that was what happened last week.
But it did not suggest a loosening of control. Rather it suggests that President Putin is recalibrating his narrative and digging in for the long term. According to Putin’s ideology, Ukrainians are proving difficult to conquer because they are actually Russians . . . they just don’t realise it yet.
The criticisms came from Colonel Mikhail Khodaryonok, a retired officer who served a tour in the Russian general staff’s main operational directorate, the division known as the “brains of the army”.
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🔺Ukraine grain trains race against time to avert famines
Europe is wrestling with a problem not much larger than the length of a standard HB pencil as it struggles to get an estimated 20 million tonnes of grain out of Ukrainian silos and into countries teetering on the edge of famine.
With Ukraine’s Black Sea ports blockaded by the Russian navy, shipments of wheat, maize, sunflower seeds and other crops are being delayed for up to 30 days at the country’s land borders as it shifts its exports to rail.
One of the most significant obstacles on these routes is the 85mm that separates the Ukrainian gauge from that of its western neighbours, a hangover from the Soviet era. This means the cargo has to be reloaded on to European standard-gauge wagons at the border, leading to queues of as many as 10,000 carriages at some of the busiest crossings.
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Europe is wrestling with a problem not much larger than the length of a standard HB pencil as it struggles to get an estimated 20 million tonnes of grain out of Ukrainian silos and into countries teetering on the edge of famine.
With Ukraine’s Black Sea ports blockaded by the Russian navy, shipments of wheat, maize, sunflower seeds and other crops are being delayed for up to 30 days at the country’s land borders as it shifts its exports to rail.
One of the most significant obstacles on these routes is the 85mm that separates the Ukrainian gauge from that of its western neighbours, a hangover from the Soviet era. This means the cargo has to be reloaded on to European standard-gauge wagons at the border, leading to queues of as many as 10,000 carriages at some of the busiest crossings.
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