Russian Digest- 6/7

Top daily stories I'm keeping an eye on

1. Russia claims it has opened a land corridor to Crimea through occupied Ukrainian territory

Russia's Ministry of Defense claimed on Tuesday that it had opened a land corridor to Russian-occupied Crimea, allowing civilians and goods to pass through the eastern Ukrainian territory now under its control.

Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said in a conference call on Tuesday that the military, working with Russian Railways, had restored 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) of train tracks and opened roads to allow "full-fledged traffic" between Russia, eastern Ukraine's Donbas region and Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russian forces from Ukraine in 2014. The supply of water through the North Crimean Canal -- a lifeline for Crimea -- had also resumed, Shoigu said. via CNN

2. The Ministry of Internal Affairs creates a department to ensure martial law in Russia

A new department will appear in the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the official representative of the department, Irina Volk, said on Tuesday.

The powers of the GUOR (Main Directorate for Rapid Response), according to Volk, will include, among other things, “ensuring the legal regimes of martial law” if it is introduced in the country.

The department is being created in accordance with the decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin dated June 6 - Interior Minister Vladimir Kokoltsev "instructed the relevant departments of the department to immediately begin" its implementation, Volk said (quoted by Interfax ).

According to her, the reform of the structure of the ministry is conditioned by the "recently changed conditions for the functioning of the internal affairs bodies."

This “needed to strengthen the units that carry the main burden of timely response to any complication of the operational situation,” Volk explained.

In addition to ensuring martial law, the staff of the GUOR will be focused on the participation of the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in ensuring the state of emergency and measures of territorial defense, as well as the regimes of the counter-terrorist operation.

The new department will coordinate activities to ensure law and order in closed administrative-territorial formations, at especially important and sensitive facilities, facilities of the nuclear power industry complex, mobilization training of personnel and the implementation of organizational measures for civil defense, as well as ensuring the integrated use of forces and means in law enforcement agencies. of cases functioning in special conditions, Volk listed.

Putin's decree to change the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is related to the "requirements of the times," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a briefing on Tuesday.

“Everything is quite obvious here, it is unlikely that any additional explanations are needed here,” he added. via Moscow Times

3. More insanity from Dmitry Medvedev

“I hate them. They are bastards and scum. They want death for us, ...”

The former Prime Minister and President, now deputy head of Russia’s security council, created his Telegram profile on March 17 amid the war in Ukraine. Medvedev’s social media profile has since been devoted to anti-democratic, anti-Western and anti-NATO narratives.

The language in Medvedev’s writings is unusually crude.

On the morning of June 7, Dmitry Medvedev explained:

“I’m often asked why my Telegram posts are so harsh. The answer is I hate them. They are bastards and scum.”

“They want death to us, Russia,” Medvedev wrote, adding that “as long as I’m alive, I will do everything to make them disappear.”

4. Matthew McConaughey tells the story of those killed in Uvalde in emotional plea for action on guns

Actor Matthew McConaughey delivered impassioned and at-times emotional remarks at the White House press briefing on Tuesday, telling the stories of those who died in the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and urging more action on gun control.

McConaughey, a Uvalde native, said he and his wife, C.amila Alves, spent most of the past week with the families of those who were killed in his hometown. He showed pictures of their artwork and brought to the briefing room the green Converse shoes that one girl wore every day that were used to identify her body after the shooting. She had drawn a heart on one of the shoes. via CNN

5. The Kremlin’s efforts to censor information about deceased military personnel and ongoing forced mobilization within the DNR and LNR are reportedly exacerbating domestic tensions and opposition to the war in Russia. 

The Ukrainian Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported that the Kremlin assigned lawyers and psychologists to convince families of personnel of the sunken cruiser Moskva to refrain from disclosing any information regarding the deaths of their relatives in an effort to crush rising social tensions in Russia.[8] The GUR stated that the Kremlin is threatening to nullify financial compensation to the families of Moskva crew members if they publicly discuss the sinking of the cruiser, resulting in some relatives refusing to meet with Black Sesa Fleet commanders in Sevastopol in protest. Ukrainian media sources separately reported that the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) altered mobilization protocols and is now promising compensation for wounded and deceased personnel due to DNR servicemen rioting at the frontlines. via ISW

6. China secretly building naval facility in Cambodia, Western officials say

China is secretly building a naval facility in Cambodia for the exclusive use of its military, with both countries denying that is the case and taking extraordinary measures to conceal the operation, Western officials said.

The military presence will be on the northern portion of Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, which is slated to be the site of a groundbreaking ceremony this week, according to the officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. via Washington Post

7. Fake newspapers and programs started to be made for captured soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine sitting in Russian pre-trial detention centers - Osechkin

The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) of Russia has begun producing fake newspapers and TV shows that imitate independent media for Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian pre-trial detention centers. Vladimir Osechkin, the founder of the human rights organization Gulagu.net, stated this on the air of the Vozdukh program .

“This is done to initially give fake information that the Ukrainian army has been defeated, and no one will come for them, save them, exchange them, and all of Ukraine is already under the control of Russian security forces,” Osechkin said.

According to him, this is necessary in order "to demoralize prisoners of war, so that they sign testimony, slander themselves and third parties with whom they served." According to the human rights activist, about 22 thousand rubles are spent on the production of one issue of such a newspaper. via The Insider

8. The Many Deaths of Vladimir Putin

Shortly after Russia launched its brutal war against Ukraine, rumors began circulating about Vladimir Putin’s health. It’s not the first time.

The focus should not be on the Russian leader’s health, it should concern the formulation of a strategy to halt this regime, to break the corrupt and cruel system that produces leaders like Stalin and Putin. The dictator will of course die or leave office one day; the danger is that someone as bad, or worse, replaces him. My take on Putin's deathbed rumors circulating via CEPA