#moscow tools

[tomorrowusa]

Here is Jordan Klepper's entire special on how the GOP became the Party of Putin.

Brace yourself in that vid for another display of MAGA ignorance and stupidity.

The Kremlin is still using unmoderated social media and fake news sites to push disinformation and propaganda into the conspiracy-loving minds of Trump supporters. GOP members of Congress are among them.

The MAGA love for Putin is not due only to media manipulation. Putin's domestic policies closely mirror how the far right would govern in our country: official homophobia, greater income inequality, special treatment for billionaire oligarchs, rigged elections, a de facto official religion, poor consumer protection, censorship, restrictions on abortion, assassination of political opponents, and a lot more. What's not to like in Russia for a US far right fundamentalist? The fringe right pines for the days when women were in the kitchen, Jesus was in the classroom, gays were in the closet, and blacks were completely out of sight.

To truly understand Russia, it's absolutely necessary to talk with its neighbors – not with Tucker Carlson. So Jordan visited Estonia and met with Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.

IMHO, part of the Putin love by some Americans stems from an almost pathological ignorance of Eastern Europe. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, some idiots began proclaiming "the end of history" and whatever little learning about Eastern Europe which may have taken place in K-12 education then vanished totally.

Putin, a former officer in the Soviet secret police, wants to revive the Soviet Union in all but name. And imperialism is part of that plan.

People in the US who cheer Putin are like the Americans who applauded Hitler in the 1930s. As long as there is substantial support for Putin here we should worry about such people trying to make the US more like totalitarian Russia.

[porterdavis]

The short answer is yes. So is the long answer.

[ironskyfinder]

"Keep up."

“Keep up” he said, blowing out the cloud of smoke into her face and pushing the bong towards her.

She wiped the little bit of vodka that had spilled on her lips away with her hand and pointed to the bottle of soda behind him. “Chaser, please,” she pleaded, her voice hoarse and her throat burning.

“Finish the bowl first,” he held the tool over the bowl

She pressed her lips to the glass and started to pull.  The smoke was thick and starting to yellow when he pulled the bowl and let her try to clear it - but her lungs weren’t big enough and she couldn’t help but cough, and cough, and gasp, and -

He pushed the soda bottle into her hands, and she managed a swallow before she was coughing again, hard, harder than before, seeing spots each time. Trying desperately to catch her breath, or some air, or some relief, until finally she managed a few raw lungfuls and slouched back into the chair. 

“You said you could keep up,” he laughed. 

She made a noise somewhere between a moan and a whine. That had been hours ago, at dinner at that upscale steakhouse, and she’d meant it about the moscow mules they’d been drinking - and about the vape pen outside, she had to admit. 

But it was pride that made her say it about the edible in the uber, and about the detour to the dive bar downtown and the three shots there. The ride back was hazy but they’d definitely hit the pen and made the driver mad, she remembered laughing as he drove away. 

They were at his house, and as they were standing at the door she’d kissed him. She remembered being in the kitchen, and him pouring her a mixed drink that tasted like candy and coffee. That she blamed on stubbornness, demanding he pour her just as much, and proving she was tough by hitting his pen. 

But then she’d said - something - and now they were downstairs and she was proving she could go shot for shot and dab for dab and she couldn’t remember if her shirt being off was part of that deal or if she was just hot. How had she ended up sitting in his lap? 

“Do you need a break?” he teased. He sounded like he was teasing. And she did need the break, needed fresh air and water and maybe to lie down for a while in the dark, but she couldn’t stop now. He was teasing her, she had to prove it. 

She looked at him, the words taking too long to form. “Is it a shot or a dab?” she said, avoiding the question.

“You’re way behind, silly,” he chuckled. “There’s no way you catch up now.”

“What?” she twisted to face him. “Why? What am I at?”

He pointed to the table, to the other side, where there was a line of shots laid out. Four. The room was already spinning. There were pennies - nickels? Why were there coins? - between them, and one on each end.  

She must’ve looked extra confused. 

“Six dabs and four shots,”  there was a slur in his voice as they shifted a little in the chair, and she leaned into it, into him. His arm was around her waist, she was so hot and she couldn’t move but that at least felt nice and his chest rumbled when he spoke. “I am, right now, six dabs and four shots ahead of you.”

Her heart was racing, she felt - not tired, but drifty. She tried to stand, he groped her ass at just the perfect time to weaken her knees and she collapsed back onto him. They were both laughing, then he looked down and kissed her, and she was grinding on his thigh as they made out like teenagers. She was reaching back for her bra when he stopped her. 

“You said not until you proved you could keep up - or are you giving up?” he asked.

She remembered it as he said it. They’d been in the kitchen, he’d offered her an energy drink and had said it was ‘pretty intense’ and that he wouldn’t think less of her for not keeping up, and she’d told him that not only could she keep up but that she wouldn’t fuck him until he admitted it. He’d laughed and asked if that included his Friday night ritual, and she’d said it had - why did she keep agreeing to things like that? - and then he’d told her about the dabs downstairs and she’d gotten dizzy with excitement.

Now she was just dizzy. She relaxed into him and he groped her again, and she moaned a little despite herself. Feeling herself start to black out, she was reaching for the shot glasses and the suddenly - 

- they’d moved, she was straddling his knee and he was holding the bong to her mouth, something was different but the only thing she could do was keep inhaling, even if her lungs were almost full. She twisted away from the glass but before she could exhale he clapped a hand on her face, covering her mouth, holding her nose, and she couldn’t do anything but writhe in his lap and struggle for air.

“Seven, six, five, four,” he was counting - why was he counting? She couldn’t breath, her lungs were burning and she felt like her chest would explode.

She looked up at him, pleading with her eyes as everything started to fuzz and dim, trying to hold on -

- and he pulled his hand away just a little, just long enough to blow out the cloud he’d made her hold, but before she could inhale the hand was back and now her starved lungs were screaming for air -

- for some reason, him laughing at her was hotter when she couldn’t breathe. “I like the way you arch your back,” he chuckled into her ear. “Going to show me more of that later?”

She nodded weakly, barely hearing him. 

His hand moved away and she was gasping again, pulling forward as she filled her lungs over and over, desperately. 

She looked up. Three shot glasses and four of the coins, piled over on the side. She couldn’t feel her face but there were only two shots left, she was catching up, and she couldn’t help but smile even as she steadied her breathing.

“What the fuuuck,” she slurred as she finished catching her breath. “What the fuck was that?”

He picked up a shot glass and her mind blanked - how was she supposed to take that shot when the room was moving so fast? - but then he raised it to his own lips and knocked it back.

“Do you not remember? You said if I made you hold it for just as long, it’d have to count for two.”

She shook her head and the room tilted with her. He coughed a little as he set the shot glass down in the pile with a clink, and slid two of the coins over to the pile. She stared at it for a moment before it clicked.

“Wait, what about the shot?” He laughed and she blushed and finished, “aah, what?”

“You really blacked out, huh?”

“Maybe a lil’ - a little bit,” she admitted. “It’s a lot. You’re a lot.”

“You don’t remember arguing about hypnosis?” 

She shook her head. “Hypnosis is fake. And stupid.”

“We already - right. Well, deal was I take your shots for you and you try it. No harm, right?”

She rolled her eyes and reached for the next shot glass, pulling it toward her. He was saying something about it not being a good idea, and it was almost too heavy to lift, but she was determined to - prove him wrong? No - but she was determined to do it, and as soon as the glass hit her lips, even before she tasted the burn, she was gone again.

She opened her eyes, like in a dream. 

He was talking and his words were like velvet in her ears. Convincing words, important words, the words didn’t matter as much as how they sounded, and they sounded like beautiful music, pulling her thoughts down into the melody. 

And she was about to fully fall away when she heard that voice, telling her to keep up. 

Far away, in her body, she felt - so much sensation - and then her body was getting heavier, and heavier, and she started to sway, and drift, and she was nearly falling, so heavy that no part of her could resist.

Then she heard his voice in her ear, and as he said the words it was easy for her to keep up. 

And then his hungry mouth was on hers, but he was exhaling delicious smoke, and she breathed it in and it sent her reeling, she was barely holding on through the dizzy haze. 

As she started to black out again, his voice was in her ear, reminding her she would always find a way to keep up.

[wilwheaton]

The three justices from the court’s liberal wing strongly objected to this, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett objected less forcefully. Each of the four indicated that the court need not have gone that far. The concurrence from Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson is full-throated on this point. They agreed that allowing Colorado to disqualify Trump would lead to “chaos,” but they disagreed that congressional enforcement was “critical” to the 14th Amendment. And they suggested the court’s majority was insulating both Trump and other alleged insurrectionists. They said the five justices “decide novel constitutional questions to insulate this Court and petitioner” — Trump — “from future controversy.” “By resolving these and other questions, the majority attempts to insulate all alleged insurrectionists from future challenges to their holding federal office,” the three justices wrote.

Takeaways from Supreme Court's Trump-14th Amendment ruling

I struggle to accept that anyone who was involved in writing the 14th Amendment would look at Trump, January 6, and everything he has said and done around it, would conclude that he is not the kind of person they were thinking about when they drafted it.

It seems like everyone, from Moscow Mitch to the activist SCOTUS, refuses to use the powers granted to them by the constitution to protect and defend America from people like Trump. Whether that’s because they agree with his policies, or they are just feckless cowards who are so insulated from the consequences of their actions they don’t have to live with them, the result is the same.

Why won’t any of these people use the tools and the powers they have been granted — tools the vast majority of Americans *want* them to use — to wake us from this nightmare?

[swappetf11]

CIA Agent Nathanial Ford

Agent Nathanial Ford, a master of disguise at the CIA, sat at his meticulously organized workbench, surrounded by an array of tools and materials: silicone molds, fine human hair, a palette of skin tone pigments, and dental caps. His latest mission required him to infiltrate a high-stakes criminal syndicate in Moscow, Russia—a role that demanded not just linguistic fluency but an entire physical transformation to match.

The assignment was to pose as Dimitri Ivanov, a mid-level operator within the syndicate known for his dealings in illicit arms. Nathanial's task was to gather intelligence on the syndicate's connections with corrupt government officials. To become Dimitri, Nathanial would need to master not just the Russian language, but also the specific Moscow dialect, characterized by its sharp intonations and swift, clipping pace.

First, he focused on the facial hair. Years ago, Nathanial had undergone a beard transplant to enhance his ability to grow thick, authentic facial hair. For this role, he needed Dimitri’s signature look: a dense, well-groomed beard that was slightly graying at the edges. He began with a testosterone regimen weeks prior, ensuring his natural beard matched the density and style needed, then dyed it to achieve the perfect salt-and-pepper effect.

To achieve Dimitri’s receding hairline, Nathanial underwent a temporary hairline modification using a technique involving electrical follicle manipulation. This non-invasive procedure adjusted the growth patterns of his hair to mimic a receding hairline, creating a natural appearance without the need for prosthetics like a bald cap. He carefully blended his natural hair with additional strands that matched the texture and color of Dimitri’s hair, ensuring a seamless appearance.

Next, he prepared the ear and teeth prosthetics. Dimitri had distinctly large, lobed ears—a feature that could draw attention if not replicated accurately. Using silicone molds, Nathanial crafted oversized ear prosthetics that attached with special adhesive strong enough to integrate with his skin for extended periods. The teeth were another critical aspect; Dimitri had a noticeable gold cap on one of his upper molars. Nathanial created a set of dental caps, including the gold one, which could be worn comfortably for days and would withstand detailed scrutiny.

Adjusting his height was the next step. Nathanial was naturally 5'10", but Dimitri was known to be a slightly imposing 6'1". Using specially crafted shoe lifts that fit inside his boots, Nathanial managed an additional three inches without compromising his ability to walk naturally. This adjustment required Nathanial to practice Dimitri’s walk, which was a confident, slightly lumbering gait that suggested years of physical labor.

Once the prosthetics were ready, Nathanial applied them himself and tested them extensively to ensure they remained securely attached to his body. Sometimes, the prosthetics were worn for so long that his skin began to integrate with them, a testament to their durability and his commitment to the role.

The final touches involved accessories that would round out Dimitri’s persona: a vintage Soviet watch, a worn leather wallet containing family photos and membership cards to various local establishments, and a set of keys to a nondescript, slightly rusty Volga sedan.

As Nathanial reviewed his transformation in the mirror, fully morphed into Dimitri Ivanov, he practiced his dialect again, ensuring every inflection and nuance was just right. The reflection showed not a CIA agent, but a Moscow native, ready to delve deep into the dangerous underbelly of Russia's criminal world. His preparation complete, Nathanial was ready to step into a life that was not his own, armed with nothing but his wits and his impeccable disguise

[lookingforhappy]

the commission had Leon Trotsky - who was a important figure in the Russian revolutions, was second in command to Valdimir Lenin, and who opposed Stalin's politics - assassinated.

the file this is found in is addressed as one of Five's cases ↑

transcript:

MEMORANDUM ON INTENDED EVENTS RE: THE DEATH OF LEON TROTSKY August 21, 1940 Background: On 24 May 1940, Trotsky survived a raid on his villa by armed assassins led by the NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich and Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros. Trotsky's 14-year-old grandson, Vsevolod Platonovich "Esteban" Volkov (born 7 March 1926), was shot in the foot, and a young assistant and bodyguard of Trotsky, Robert Sheldon Harte, was abducted and later murdered. Trotsky's other guards fended off the attackers. Event to Occur: With the previous attack thwarted, the following is to take place, ensuring continuity. Trotsky has already created cover by claiming that Josef Stalin would seek additional assassination attempts. On 20 August 1940, Trotsky will be attacked in his study with an ice axe by one Mr. Mercader, whom he has not previously met. Our agent will assume the guise of Mr. Mercader. The blow to his head is to be bungled and fail to kill Trotsky instantly, but nonetheless prove fatal. A struggle will ensue and though the agent is to be captured, his extraction will occur at a future moment of Commission discretion, at which time a bosy double will be placed as perpetrator and will stand trial for the assault. His sacrifice for the Commission will be noted in the logs. Witnesses are to see the following and make their claims to the new media and local law enforcement: that Trotsky spat on Mercader and began struggling fiercelt with the assasilant, which results in Mercader's hand being broken. Hearing the commotion, Trotsky's bodyguards burst into the room and nearly killed you, but Trotsky will stop them, stating that the assassin should be made to answer questions. Trotsky will then be taken to a hospital, operated on, and survive for more than a day, dying at the age of 60 on 21 August 1940 from exsanguination and shocck. The agent will testify at trial and remain imprisoned until the moment of extraction and replacement by the secrificial unit. A history of Trotsky's exile: In February 1929, Trotsky was deported from the Soviet Union to his new exile in Turkey. During his first teo months in Turkey, Trotsky lived with his wife and eldest son at the Soviet Union Consulate in Constantinople and then at a nearby hotel in the city. In April 1929, Trotsky, his wife and son were moved to the island of Buyukada (aka Prinkipo) by the Turkish authorities. On Prinkipo, they were moved into a house called the Yanaros mansion, where Trotsky and his wife lived until July 1933. During his exile in Turkey, Trotsky was under the surveillance of the Turkish police forces of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. Trotsky was also at risk from the many former White Army officers who lived on Prinkipo, officers who had opposed the October Revolution and who had been defeated by Trotsky and the Red Army in the Russian Civil War. However, Totsky's European supporters volunteered to serve as bodyguards and assured his safety. Trotsky's house, the Yanaros mansion on the island of Buyukada in Turkey, as it

TROTSKY ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY Place | Date | Hour | Summary of Events and Information | Remarks MOSCOW, April | 2. | A deviation occured in the first agent's plot assassinate Leon Trotsky in May of 1940. | EF 5. | Progress in planning of the second plot, for August 20, 194, has progressed unhindered. | SB MEXICO CITY May | 7. | Leon Trotsky will be in his study on August 20, 1940, as expected, and will be welcoming his guest, one Mr. Mercader, whom he has never met previously. | - 9. | The tool to be used for this attack, an ice axe, will be placed in discrete location No. 224-MC-B12, Annex 16, per Commission protocol. | EF 20. | The Mission objective will be carried out, after which time the parameters of expected history will be reset to their correct trajectories. | TD Instructions regarding Intelligence Summaries are contained in Regula II and the Management Manual. Title pages will be prepared in manuscript.

To CASE MANAGER 0038 From FIELD AGENT 00293 Subject Trotsky assassination attempt Pneumatic Transit Code [multiple strongs of number as seen in the image above] My recommendation is to reconsider our current outlook concerning the viability of the subject's tool of action, the ice axe, in light of recent events. The project has stalled at numerous points over the past months and contines to progress at a menial pace. Should the current iteration of the device be completed as is it will fail to provide enough force to puncture the fuel tank given the density of the aluminum alloy used in the manufacturing of the encasement. I expect that the subject will proceed as required.

[elbiotipo]

The Soviets really had a really interesting emphasis on human comfort in the case of space exploration. Galina Balashova, who designed the interior of the Soyuz capsule as well as others, provided herself watercolor paintings for the spaceships:

And in the plans for the DLB Soviet Lunar base, it was considered very important that the cosmonauts had a "false window" (some sort of TV?) to show Moscow which would change with the seasons, and a bicycle for them to exercise and ride around. This would be very innovative in our current times, imagine a VR videogame for astronauts so they can destress and see the landscapes of Earth!

I won't say that NASA or others didn't have these kinds of ideas, because they had plenty too, but there's something that always makes me feel fuzzy about these little details... and there are more like picking the colors to be soothing, the design of the control panels to be easy to manage, the tools used were supposed to be practical and mass produced. I think it was because the scientists of the Soviet space program did have the idea that permanent human presence in space was at their grasp, and they knew if people would live in space, they didn't only need to get there with practical stuff (the classic 'every gram counts' on astronautics), but also LIVE there comfortably.

There is just something very nice about an architect painting watercolors for a ship that would eventually burn down in orbit in return, but they might made the cosmonaut's stay more cozy.

[ammg-old2]

The Wagner Group mercenaries marched 800 kilometers across Russia, shot down planes and helicopters, took over a regional military command, provoked a panic in Moscow—troops dug trenches, the mayor told everyone to stay home—and then stood down. Yet in a way, the strangest aspect of Saturday’s aborted coup was the reaction of the people of Rostov-on-Don, including the city’s military leaders, to the soldiers who arrived and declared themselves to be their new rulers.

The Wagner mercenaries showed up in the city early Saturday morning. They met no resistance. Nobody shot at them. One photograph, published by The New York Times, shows them walking at a leisurely pace across a street, one of their tanks in the background, holding yellow coffee cups.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s violent ex-con leader, posted videos of himself chatting with the local commanders in the courtyard of the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District. Nobody seemed to mind his being there.

Outside, street sweepers continued their work. Early in the morning, a few people came to gawk, but not many. After Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a panicked speech on television, comparing the situation to 1917 and evoking the ghost of civil war, one man pushing a bicycle was filmed berating the Wagnerites and telling them to go home. The troops laughed him off. But later in the day, more people showed up, and the atmosphere grew warmer.

People shook their hands, brought them food, took selfies. “People are bringing pirozhki, apples, chips. Everything there in the store has been bought to give to the soldiers,” one woman said on camera. In the evening, after Prigozhin had decided to stand down and go home (wherever home turns out to be), he drove away in an SUV with crowds filming him on their cellphones and cheering him on, as if he were a celebrity leaving a movie premiere or a gallery opening. Some chanted “Wagner! Wagner!” as the troops emerged into the street. This was the most remarkable aspect of the whole day: Nobody seemed to mind, particularly, that a brutal new warlord had arrived to replace the existing regime—not the security services, not the army, and not the general public. On the contrary, many seemed sorry to see him go.

The response is hard to understand without reckoning with the power of apathy, a much undervalued political tool. Democratic politicians spend a lot of time thinking about how to engage people and persuade them to vote. But a certain kind of autocrat, of whom Putin is the outstanding example, seeks to convince people of the opposite: not to participate, not to care, and not to follow politics at all. The propaganda used in Putin’s Russia has been designed in part for this purpose. The constant provision of absurd, conflicting explanations and ridiculous lies—the famous “firehose of falsehoods”— encourages many people to believe that there is no truth at all. The result is widespread cynicism. If you don’t know what’s true, after all, then there isn’t anything you can do about it. Protest is pointless. Engagement is useless.

But the side effect of apathy was on display yesterday as well. For if no one cares about anything, that means they don’t care about their supreme leader, his ideology, or his war. Russians haven’t flocked to sign up to fight in Ukraine. They haven’t rallied around the troops in Ukraine or held emotive ceremonies marking either their successes or their deaths. Of course they haven’t organized to oppose the war, but they haven’t organized to support it either.

Because they are afraid, or because they don’t know of any alternative, or because they think it’s what they are supposed to say, they tell pollsters that they support Putin. And yet, nobody tried to stop the Wagner group in Rostov-on-Don, and hardly anybody blocked the Wagner convoy on its way to Moscow. The security services melted away, made no move and no comment. The military dug some trenches around Moscow and sent some helicopters; somebody appears to have sent bulldozers to dig up the highways, but that was all we could see. Who will respond if a more serious challenge to Putin ever emerges? Certainly the military will think twice: Perhaps a dozen Russian servicemen, mostly pilots, died at the hands of the Wagner mutineers, more than died during the failed coup of 1991. Nobody seems particularly bothered about them.

One day after this aborted coup, it is too early to speculate about Prigozhin’s true motives, about what he was really given in exchange for standing down, about where Putin really spent the day on Saturday—some say St. Petersburg, some say a dacha in Novgorod—or about anything else, really. But the flimsiness of this regime’s ideology and the softness of its support have been suddenly laid bare. Expect more repression as Putin tries to stay in charge, more chaos, or both.

[forgottensibiria]

Poseideongenia,

"Mother of the Month of Poseidon"

Europe, 320 m.y.a.

Ancestor of Seymouriamorphs, direct descendant of the Siberian Poseideongenia - Utegenia.

Omnivorous terrestrial predator, gravitating towards reservoirs. The skull does't exceed 10 cm in length. On the "reconstruction" of the animal, you can see blue bags similar to the cheeks of a tegy lizard: they are a tool for solving territorial issues and finding a partner - Poseidonogenians do not have good hearing or sense of smell and therefore orient themselves to developed, albeit partially myopic color vision. Osteoderms of the back and abdomen are hidden under the skin due to uselessness - there are no predators in Moscow that could pose a danger to the species. This is also the reason for the great fearlessness and curiosity of individuals.

In larvae, osteoderms are also developed, but hidden under thick skin and serve as protection from their parents. Also lavrvae have fins instead normal limbs as arhaic feature.

[peashooter85]

The Mass Evacuation of Soviet Factories in Early World War II

1941 was certainly a bad year for the Soviet Union. Within a matter of months after the start of Operation Barbarossa, German forces marched deep into Soviet territory, even advancing to the gates of Moscow itself. Loses were horrific as hundreds of thousands of soldiers were killed and hundreds of thousands more were captured. City after city fell to the invaders making it seem like nothing could stop the German blitz. Worse yet the German military burned, raped, and pillaged it's way across Eastern Europe resulting in hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and millions of refugees in the first year alone. In the face of such wanton destruction economic and industrial damage might seem unimportant but regardless the loss of industrial infrastructure severely hindered the Soviet Union's ability to wage war as factories which produced war materials and important resources were either destroyed or came under German control. The Soviet Union had a great advantage over Germany because of it's massive industrial base and plentiful access to resources. If the Soviet's wanted to maintain that advantage they needed to enact a monumental plan to ensure that said industries and resources remained far behind friendly lines and out of the reach of Germany.

The plan was simple, so simple that it can be summed up with this classic Spongebob meme,

The plan that was enacted was to dismantle and uproot Soviet factories in the west and move them east past the Ural mountains, thus recreating an industrial heartland out of the reach of German occupation and even long range bombers. To say that such a movement of people and things was monumental would be an understatement. In 1941 the Soviets evacuated and moved 2,593 industrial and agricultural enterprises, among them were over 1,500 large factories. Buildings were demolished and rebuilt, tools and machinery were packed up and moved, almost everything that was not bolted to the ground was taken and redeployed or rebuilt in the east. This included the people who were needed to work the factories, which amounted to 18 million people. This endeavor required the use of 30,000 trains hauling 1.5 million cars. In addition to the task of moving stuff, new infrastructure had to be built to service these factories. Infrastructures such as railroads, roads, canals, plumbing, electricity, food distribution, medical services, and worker housing. Basically everything needed to run a factory town. Most incredibly most of this was done in less than a year.

By 1942 most of the factories and enterprises that were evacuated from the west were up and running. The result of this endeavour meant that when the Germans advanced deeper within the Soviet Union, they failed to capture the resources needed to keep their own war machine functioning. By 1942 seemingly endless numbers of tanks, planes, and guns would flood out of factories east of the Urals, and there was not a damn thing the Germans could do about it.

[zarya-zaryanitsa]

Political Famines in the USSR and China

In both countries, excessive requisitions were justified by overestimations of the actual harvest. In the USSR, the method of measuring grain “in the field” generated a systemic upward bias, so that planned procurements ended up seizing a much larger quota of the available grain than was officially stated. In China, overestimation reached its height in 1958, when the CCP boasted of a harvest twice as large as that of the previous year (in 1979 the figure was revised downward by half).

In both countries, the burden imposed by procurements on the villages (in 1960, Chinese peasants were left with 212 kilograms of grain per person, compared with the 295 kilograms they had relied on for a very meager existence in 1957) soon sparked turmoil that was blamed on the peasants’ natural conservatism, ignorance, and treachery, which induced them to hide part of the harvest. In both the USSR and China, leaders justified their choices by resorting to extreme statist ideologies. Requisitions focused on grain-producing areas, where the state knew it could obtain more. Political famines were therefore paradoxically concentrated in traditionally richer areas, where food had rarely been a problem. (…) In the USSR the most important grain-producing area was Ukraine (a few other non-Russian regions, such as the Kuban and the German Volga Republic, were also important), and the resulting focus on Ukraine had devastating effects on the relationships between Moscow and the local Communists.

Both the USSR and China had reserves of grain—in 1933, for example, Soviet reserves averaged around 1.4 million tons—but leaders in both countries refused to use reserves to aid the stricken areas except on selected occasions and for selected purposes, such as facilitating the springtime planting of seeds or supplying important industrial and mining centers in rural ar- eas or key border regions. In the USSR, for example, Ukrainian border oblasts suffered much less than internal areas because of the regime’s security and propaganda concerns. The same was true in China, where districts adjacent to state borders were only slightly affected.

Even though the reserves were not huge, they could have prevented hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of deaths if they had been used. The use of reserves, however, was never contemplated, especially in 1933 (when famine in Ukraine was used as an operational tool) and in 1960 (when it was impossible to admit the catastrophe generated by the choices made at Lushan). (…)

The exodus to cities or supposedly better-off areas within each country also continued. This migration, however, was transformed by the tragic food situation of 1932–1933 in the USSR (and 1931–1932 in Kazakhstan) and in post-1959 China, when hunger became the primary driver. Moreover, in contrast to what happened before 1932, the Soviet state efficiently halted the exodus by reintroducing internal passports and denying them to peasants. Especially but not solely in Ukraine, drastic measures were also adopted to prevent starving peasants from buying train tickets and entering cities and to return them forcibly to certain death in the villages.

- Political Famines in the USSR and China: A Comparative Analysis by Andrea Graziosi

[partisan-by-default]

In a new report detailing the use of AI tools among TikTok's bad actors, the organization discovered at least 41 TikTok accounts posting false, AI-enhanced content in both English and French. Between March 2023 and June 2024, the accounts posted 9,784 videos totaling over 380 million views, coming out to an average of one to four AI-narrated videos each day. Many of the videos used identical scripts, hinting at a coordinated effort. Several of the accounts also qualified for monetization on their videos, under TikTok’s Creator Fund.

Much of the content included essay or fun-fact style videos sharing false narratives about U.S. and European politics and the Russia-Ukraine war, NewsGuard explained, such as the incorrect claim that NATO had deployed combat troops in Ukraine and that the U.S. was behind the March Crocus City Hall terrorist attack in Moscow.

[viperchick47]

I know I literally just posted about it, but I can't get the idea to shut up enough to move onto anything else so, here. Just a little blurb my mind squeezed out on my phone. Not edited or anything. Cвет is "Light" in Russian, at least according to Google Translate. Correct me if it's wrong. I haven't written anything since "The Sun Sets in the West", go easy I beg of thee.

-------------------------------------------

Mine

What? Mine?

MINE

What the hell is going on?

My Cвет

No... no it can't be he was-

"Buck? You ok?"

His head shot over to his friend, staring at him wide eyed for a second before schooling his features.

"Where-uh... where did you said you found her again?" It took a second for Bucky to get his head on straight enough to talk again.

Steve rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly "Uh... Somewhere outside of Moscow. Nat found coordinates to another Hydra base-"

No, no no no

Ok, what the hell

"Hidden in a forest. Ended up not being many there, just a dozen or so agents and her. Regonize her?"

"No, don't think so. You said outside of Moscow though?"

DON'T!

"Yeah, something special about the place?"

Not a word, don't say a word. If you tell them and she gets hurt-

"Um n-no nothing too special about it. Just a place they send failed test subjects they refuse to kill. Thought it was abandoned." What was he saying? Why was he lying to them, to Steve of all people!

Good

Steve slowly nodded, then looked back towards Bruce and the others, "We didn't find any files there. Not even a name for her."

"We should do a detailed blood test. See if we can tell what they may have done to her." Bruce had said while he went to one of the shelving units to get items to draw blood. "May not hurt as well to do an x-ray of her body, maybe an MRI and-"

The echo of crunching metal caught the rooms attention. "NO"

All eyes were looking in Bucky's direction, wide with shock from the sudden sound.

"Hey Buck, you wanna let go of the cart and explain why not?"

He looked down to notice his metal hand gripping the cart Bruce was putting his tools on pratically destroyed. How- He was on the other side of the room, when did he walk next to this girl on the bed? And why did he suddenly feel so protective?

Bucky forced his metal arm out of the tangle of metal, grunting out "Just bloodwork, wait till she's awake for more tests. Easier on her mind" before storming out of the medical wing and into the courtyard.

That wasn't him, it couldn't have been. He had no idea who that woman was, never seen her before. Unless he did see her during his Winter Solider days. But then why didn't he remember her? Why did he feel like he had to keep her safe?

And why was he hearing a voice in his head again? It was him but it wasn't his voice. There's no way it could have been the solider, he was removed in Wakanda when they-

Still here, all your "friends" did was put me to sleep when removing the words. Keep them away from my Cвет.

Shit.

[mariacallous]

Shortly before noon on Aug. 19, 2023, a Russian cruise missile sliced past the golden onion domes and squat apartment blocks of the Chernihiv skyline in northern Ukraine. The Iskander-K missile slammed into its target: the city’s drama theater, which was hosting a meeting of drone manufacturers at the time of the attack. More than 140 people were injured and seven killed. The youngest, 6-year-old Sofia Golynska, had been playing in a nearby park.

Fragments of the missile recovered by the Ukrainian armed forces and analyzed by Ukrainian researchers found numerous components made by U.S. manufacturers in the missile’s onboard navigation system, which enabled it to reach its target with devastating precision. In December, Ukraine’s state anti-corruption agency released an online database of the thousands of foreign-made components recovered from Russian weapons so far.

Russia’s struggle to produce the advanced semiconductors, electrical components, and machine tools needed to fuel its defense industrial base predates the current war and has left it reliant on imports even amid its estrangement from the West. So when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, major manufacturing countries from North America, Europe, and East Asia swiftly imposed export controls on a broad swath of items deemed critical for the Russian arms industry.

Russia quickly became the world’s most sanctioned country: Some 16,000 people and companies were subject to a patchwork of international sanctions and export control orders imposed by a coalition of 39 countries. Export restrictions were painted with such a broad brush that sunglasses, contact lenses, and false teeth were also swept up in the prohibitions. Even items manufactured overseas by foreign companies are prohibited from being sold to Russia if they are made with U.S. tools or software, under a regulation known as the foreign direct product rule.

But as the war reaches its two-year anniversary, export controls have failed to stem the flow of advanced electronics and machinery making their way into Russia as new and convoluted supply chains have been forged through third countries such as Kazakhstan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, which are not party to the export control efforts. An investigation by Nikkei Asia found a tenfold increase in the export of semiconductors from China and Hong Kong to Russia in the immediate aftermath of the war—the majority of them from U.S. manufacturers.

“Life finds a way,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official, quoting the movie Jurassic Park. The official spoke on background to discuss Russia’s evasion of export controls.

Some of the weapons and components analyzed by investigators were likely stockpiled before the war. But widely available Russian trade data reveals a brisk business in imports. More than $1 billion worth of advanced semiconductors from U.S. and European manufacturers made their way into the country last year, according to classified Russian customs service data obtained by Bloomberg. A recent report by the Kyiv School of Economics found that imports of components considered critical for the battlefield had dipped by just 10 percent during the first 10 months of 2023, compared with prewar levels.

This has created a Kafkaesque scenario, the report notes, in which the Ukrainian army is doing battle with Western weapons against a Russian arsenal that also runs on Western components.

It is an obvious problem, well documented by numerous think tank and media reports, but one without an easy solution. Tracking illicit trade in items such as semiconductors is an exponentially greater challenge than monitoring shipments of conventional weapons. Around 1 trillion chips are produced every year. Found in credit cards, toasters, tanks, missile systems, and much, much more, they power the global economy as well as the Russian military. Cutting Russia out of the global supply chain for semiconductors is easier said than done.

“Both Russia and China, and basically all militaries, are using a large number of consumer electronic components in their systems,” said Chris Miller, the author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology. “All of the world’s militaries rely on the same supply chain, which is the supply chain that primarily services consumer electronics.”

Export controls were once neatly tailored to keep specific items, such as nuclear technology, out of the hands of rogue states and terrorist groups. But as Washington vies for technological supremacy with Beijing while also seeking to contain Russia and Iran, it has increasingly used these trade restrictions to advance broader U.S. strategic objectives. For instance, the Biden administration has placed wide-ranging prohibitions on the export of advanced chips to China.

“At no point in history have export controls been more central to our collective security than right now,” Matthew Axelrod, the assistant secretary for export enforcement at the U.S. Commerce Department, said in a speech last September. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has described export controls as “a new strategic asset in the U.S. and allied toolkit.”

Russia’s ability to defy these restrictions doesn’t just have implications for the war in Ukraine. It also raises significant questions about the challenge ahead vis-à-vis China.

“The technological question becomes a key part of this story and whether or not we can restrict it from our adversaries,” said James Byrne, the director of open-source intelligence and analysis at the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank.

In the Russian city of Izhevsk, home to the factory that manufactures Kalashnikov rifles, shopping malls are being converted into drone factories amid a surge in defense spending that has helped the country’s economy weather its Western estrangement. Arms manufacturers have been urged to work around the clock to feed the Russian war machine, while defense is set to account for one-third of the state budget this year.

“We have developed a concept to convert shopping centers—which, before the start of the SMO [special military operation], sold mainly the products of Western brands—to factories for assembly lines of types of domestic drones,” Alexander Zakharov, the chief designer of the Zala Aero drone company, said at a closed event in August 2022, according to the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti. “Special military operation” is what the Russian government calls its war on Ukraine. Zala Aero is a subsidiary of the Kalashnikov Concern that, along with Zakharov, was sanctioned by the United States last November.

Defense companies have bought at least three shopping malls in Izhevsk to be repurposed for the manufacture of drones, according to local media, including Lancet attack drones, which the British defense ministry described as one of the most effective new weapons that Russia introduced to the battlefield last year. Lancets, which cost about $35,000 to produce, wreaked havoc during Ukraine’s offensive last year and have been captured on video striking valuable Ukrainian tanks and parked MiG fighter jets.

Like a lot of Russia’s weapons systems, Lancets are filled with Western components. An analysis of images of the drones published in December by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security found that they contained several parts from U.S., Swiss, and Czech manufacturers, including image processing and analytical components that play a pivotal role in enabling the drones to reach their targets on the battlefield.

“The recurring appearance of these Western products in Russian drone systems shows a keen dependence on them for key capabilities in the drone systems,” the report notes. Lancets are not the only drones found to contain Western components. Almost all of the electronic components in the Iranian Shahed-136 drones, which Russia is now manufacturing with Iranian help to use in Ukraine, are of Western origin, a separate analysis published in November concluded.

Early in the war, the Royal United Services Institute analyzed 27 Russian military systems, including cruise missiles, electronic warfare complexes, and communications systems, and found that they contained at least 450 foreign-made components, revealing Russia’s dependence on imports.

One of the principal ways that Russia has evaded Western export controls has been through transshipment via third countries such as Turkey, the UAE, and neighboring states once part of the Soviet Union. Bloomberg reported last November that amid mounting Western pressure, the UAE had agreed to restrict the export of sensitive goods to Russia and that Turkey was considering a similar move. Kazakh officials announced a ban on the export of certain battlefield goods to Russia in October.

Suspected transshipment is often revealed by striking changes in trade patterns before and after the invasion. The Maldives, an island chain in the Indian Ocean that has no domestic semiconductor industry, shipped almost $54 million worth of U.S.-made semiconductors to Russia in the year after the invasion of Ukraine, Nikkei Asia reported last July.

Semiconductor supply chains often span several countries, with chips designed in one country and manufactured in another before being sold to a series of downstream distributors around the world. That makes it difficult for companies to know the ultimate end user of their products. This may seem odd—until you realize that this is the case for many everyday products that are sold around the world. “When Coca-Cola sells Coca-Cola, it doesn’t know where every bottle goes, and they don’t have systems to track where every bottle goes,” said Kevin Wolf, a former assistant secretary for export administration at the U.S. Commerce Department.

While a coalition of 39 countries, including the world’s major manufacturers of advanced electronics, imposed export restrictions on Russia, much of the rest of the world continues to trade freely with Moscow. Components manufactured in coalition countries will often begin their journey to Moscow’s weapons factories through a series of entirely legal transactions before ending up with a final distributor that takes them across the border into Russia. “It starts off as licit trade and ends up as illicit trade,” said a second senior U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The further items move down the supply chain, the less insight governments and companies have into their ultimate destination, although sudden changes in behavior of importers can offer a red flag. In his speech last September, Axelrod, the assistant secretary, used the example of a beauty salon that suddenly starts to import electronic components.

But the Grand Canyon of loopholes is China, which has stood by Moscow since the invasion. In the first days of the war, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo warned that Washington could shut down Chinese companies that ignored semiconductor export controls placed on Russia. Last October, 42 Chinese companies were added to export control lists—severely undercutting their ability to do business with U.S. companies—for supplying Russian defense manufacturers with U.S. chips.

But as the Biden administration carefully calibrates its China policy in a bid to keep a lid on escalating tensions, it has held off from taking Beijing to task. “I think the biggest issue is that we—the West—have been unwilling to put pressure on China that would get China to start enforcing some of these rules itself,” said Miller, the author of Chip Wars.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said: “Due to the restrictions imposed by the United States and key allies and partners, Russia has been left with no choice but to spend more, lower its ambitions for high-tech weaponry, build alliances with other international pariah states, and develop nefarious trade networks to covertly obtain the technologies it needs.

“We are deeply concerned regarding [Chinese] support for Russia’s defense industrial base. BIS has acted to add over 100 [China]-based entities to the Entity List for supporting Russia’s military industrial base and related activities.”

Export controls have typically focused on keeping specific U.S.-made goods out of the hands of adversaries, while economic and financial sanctions have served broader foreign-policy objectives of isolating rogue states and cauterizing the financing of terrorist groups and drug cartels. The use of sanctions as a national security tool grew in wake of the 9/11 attacks; in the intervening decades, companies, government agencies, and financial institutions have built up a wealth of experience in sanctions compliance. By contrast, the use of export controls for strategic ends is relatively novel, and compliance expertise is still in its infancy.

“It used to be that people like me could keep export controls and sanctions in one person’s head. The level of complexity for each area of law is so intense. I don’t know anyone who is truly an export control and sanctions expert,” Wolf said.

Export controls, experts say, are at best speed bumps designed to make it harder for Russia’s defense industrial base to procure Western components. They create “extra friction and pressure on the Russian economy,” said Daniel Fried, who as the State Department coordinator for sanctions policy helped craft U.S. sanctions on Russia after its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Russia is now paying 80 percent more to import semiconductors than it did before the war, according to forthcoming research by Miller, and the components it is able to acquire are often of dubious quality.

But although it may be more cumbersome and expensive, it’s a cost that Moscow has been willing to bear in its war on Ukraine.

Western components—and lots of them—will continue to be found in the weapons Russia uses on Ukraine’s battlefields for the duration of the war. “This problem is as old as export controls are,” said Jasper Helder, an expert on export controls and sanctions with the law firm Akin Gump. But there are ways to further plug the gaps.

Steeper penalties could incentivize U.S. companies to take a more proactive role in ensuring their products don’t wind up in the hands of the Russian military, said Elina Ribakova, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “At the moment, they’re not truly motivated,” she said.

Companies that run afoul of sanctions and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. federal law that prohibits the payment of bribes, have been fined billions of dollars. Settlements of export control violations are often an order of magnitude smaller, according to recently published research.

In a speech last month, Axelrod said the United States would begin issuing steeper penalties for export control violations. “Build one case against one of the companies extremely well, put out a multibillion-dollar fine negotiation, and watch everybody else fall in line,” Ribakova said.

And then there’s the question of resources. BIS has an annual budget of just $200 million. “That’s like the cost of a few fighter jets. Come on,” said Raimondo, speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum last December.

The agency’s core budget for export control has, adjusted for inflation, remained flat since 2010, while its workload has surged. Between 2014 and 2022, the volume of U.S. exports subject to licensing scrutiny increased by 126 percent, according to an agency spokesperson. A 2022 study of export control enforcement by the Center for Strategic and International Studies recommended a budget increase of $45 million annually, describing it as “one of the best opportunities available anywhere in U.S. national security.”

When it comes to enforcement, the bureau has about 150 officers across the country who work with law enforcement and conduct outreach to companies. The Commerce Department has also established a task force with the Justice Department to keep advanced technologies out of the hands of Russia, China, and Iran. “The U.S. has the most robust export enforcement on the planet,” Wolf said.

But compared with other law enforcement and national security agencies, the bureau’s budgets have not kept pace with its expanding mission. The Department of Homeland Security has more investigators in the city of Tampa, Florida, than BIS does across the entire country, Axelrod noted in his January speech.

On the other side, you have Russia, which is extremely motivated to acquire the critical technologies it needs to continue to prosecute its war. The Kremlin has tasked its intelligence agencies with finding ways around sanctions and export controls, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson said in a speech last year. “We are not talking about a profit-seeking firm looking for efficiencies,” the second senior U.S. intelligence official said. “There will be supply if there is sufficient demand.”

[sovietpostcards]

Vintage writing pad commemorating the 50th anniversary of STANKIN (the Moscow Machine and Tool Institute).

Made in 1980. Sturdy cover, the paper inside is coated and thick, very nice quality. Some pages are missing in the beginning (about 15-20% of the pad). The rest of the pad is unused. Size 10 × 15 cm (4" × 6"). Some handling wear occurs, overall good condition.

Price $10 + $9 shipping Sold

Other items in my shop. I combine shipping. How to buy.

[warningsine]

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese premier Li Qiang Wednesday, hailing growing trade relations as Moscow becomes increasingly dependent on Beijing for political and economic support.

“Our trade relations are developing, developing successfully ... The attention that the governments of the two countries on both sides are paying to trade and economic ties is yielding results,” Putin said at the meeting in the Kremlin.

He also said that Russia and China have developed “large-scale plans” for economic and other projects.

“Chinese-Russian relations are at an unprecedentedly high level," said Li, who earlier had met with his Russian counterpart, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

The meeting took place as Russia struggled to push back a Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region now in its third week. And overnight, Moscow experienced one of the largest waves of drone attacks on the Russian capital since the start of the Ukraine conflict.

Russian news reports did not indicate whether Putin and Li discussed Ukraine.

China has tried to position itself as neutral in the Ukraine conflict, but it shares with Russia high animosity toward the West.

After Western countries imposed heavy sanctions on Russian oil in response to Russia sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, China strongly stepped up its purchase of Russian oil, increasing its influence in Russia. Putin underlined the importance of China by meeting in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping soon after being inaugurated for a fifth term in the Kremlin.

A U.S. intelligence assessment released this year indicates that China has significantly increased sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology Moscow uses to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry. 

AP