#russia gazprom

[gamer2002]

[putinskremlinqueen4palestine64]

On October 3, 2018, Vladimir Putin had a working meeting with Georgy Poltavchenko and Alexander Beglov, during which he announced his decision to appoint Alexander Beglov Acting Governor of St Petersburg. He met with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller after the talks with the Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria Sebastian Kurz. President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Federal Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz visited the State Hermitage Museum, where they saw the Baton of the Field Marshal of the Russian Empire.

[ukrainenews]

Daily Wrap Up November 22, 2022

Under the cut:

Russia’s Gazprom has threatened to cut its gas flows to Europe via Ukraine as early as next week. In a statement, the Russian state-owned energy giant said some gas flows being kept in Ukraine were actually meant for Moldova, and accused Kyiv of obstructing the delivery of 52.52m cubic metres from transiting to Moldova. Ukraine has denied the allegations.

The head of Ukraine’s national power grid operator, Ukrenergo, has described the damage dealt to Ukrainian power-generating facilities by Russian missile attacks as “colossal”. Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the chief executive officer of Ukrenergo, told a briefing that practically no thermal or hydroelectric stations had been left unscathed by the Russian attacks.

Iranian, Ukrainian experts meet to discuss Russia’s use of Iranian drones.

Russia's attacks on the liberated southern city of Kherson killed three people on Nov. 22, Oleksandr Leshchenko, the head of the civil protection department of the Kherson City Council, told Suspilne media outlet.

“Russia’s Gazprom has threatened to cut its gas flows to Europe via Ukraine as early as next week.

In a statement, the Russian state-owned energy giant said some gas flows being kept in Ukraine were actually meant for Moldova, and accused Kyiv of obstructing the delivery of 52.52m cubic metres from transiting to Moldova.

It said:

The volume of gas supplied by Gazprom ... for transit to Moldova via Ukraine is more than the physical volume transmitted at the border of Ukraine with Moldova.

It went on to say that would “begin reducing gas supply” on Monday 28 November if the “transit imbalance through Ukraine for Moldovan consumers persists”.

The Ukraine pipeline is the last remaining pipeline still bringing Russian natural gas to western Europe after Gazprom shut off its flows via Nord Stream 1.

Ukraine has denied the allegations, saying that all the gas volumes bound to Moldovan consumers have been transferred “in the full amount”.”-via The Guardian

~

“The head of Ukraine’s national power grid operator, Ukrenergo, has described the damage dealt to Ukrainian power-generating facilities by Russian missile attacks as “colossal”.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the chief executive officer of Ukrenergo, told a briefing that practically no thermal or hydroelectric stations had been left unscathed by the Russian attacks.

Kudrytskyi said:

The scale of destruction is colossal. In Ukraine there is a power generation deficit. We cannot generate as much energy as consumers can use.

He said Ukrainians could face long power outages but that his company wanted to help provide the conditions for people to stay in the country through winter.

Ukraine had enough fuel reserves after building them up before Russia’s invasion, he said, and was working hard to repair damaged infrastructure but was hoping to secure some spare parts abroad.

He dismissed the need to evacuate civilians, after Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced on Monday the evacuation of residents from recently liberated areas of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.

People from the two southern regions, which were shelled regularly by Russian forces in the past months, have been advised to move to safer areas in the central and western parts of the country, amid fears that the damage to infrastructure caused by the war is too severe for people to endure the winter.

Asked about the proposals to evacuate some cities worst hit by energy shortages, Kudrytskyi said such calls were “inappropriate”.”-via The Guardian

~

“The World Bank will give $4.5 billion in additional aid to Ukraine to help it “sustain essential services and core government functions at the national and regional levels” while fending off Russian forces, according to a statement.

The money, provided by the US, will help “pay wages for hospital workers, government and school employees, pensions for the elderly, salaries for public servants, and social programs for the vulnerable,” the World Bank said in a statement.

“Amid the ongoing war and the escalating destruction of infrastructure, our commitment to deliver urgent assistance to the people of Ukraine is strong as ever,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass.

“This generous additional grant from the United States comes at a critical time as the country faces severe energy supply disruption and colder weather. The World Bank Group will continue to mobilize all available resources to help the Government of Ukraine meet vital needs for its citizens," Malpass added.”-via CNN

~

“Ukraine has informed Iran that the consequences of complicity in the Russian aggression will be incommensurable with the potential benefits of cooperation with Russia,” Oleh Nikolenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's Foreign Ministry, told CNN.

A spokesperson for the Iranian Mission to the UN previously told CNN that a request had been made for a “joint meeting of experts” to look into the accusations.

The Washington Post reported on Nov. 19, citing intelligence, that Iran and Russia had “quietly” reached an agreement to assemble “hundreds of unmanned weaponized aircraft” on Russian territory.

Russia has been using Iranian-made Shahed-136 kamikaze drones against Ukraine since September, launching waves of attacks that killed civilians and destroyed energy facilities nationwide.”-via Kyiv Independent

~

“Russia's attacks on the liberated southern city of Kherson killed three people on Nov. 22, Oleksandr Leshchenko, the head of the civil protection department of the Kherson City Council, told Suspilne media outlet.

According to Suspilne, 12 sites have been hit in Kherson as of 3:30 p.m.

Russia has been repeatedly striking at civilian infrastructure in the city on Nov. 21-22, according to multiple reports by local officials.

Ukraine liberated Kherson on Nov. 11, after eight months of the Russian occupation.”-via Kyiv Independent

[nicklloydnow]

“The article was published on the Kremlin's main propaganda website, RIA Novosti. It was written by Sergey Karaganov, a "Doctor of Sciences in History" and a political scientist. The article’s full title is "There is no choice: Russia will have to launch a nuclear strike on Europe".

And this is not his first such material. Less than two weeks ago, Karaganov published a similar article, the essence of which boils down to the same thing – Russia "must launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Europe." It was published in Profile, a private magazine.”

“As the video illustrates, it doesn’t matter much who starts the war: when one side launches nuclear missiles, the other side detects them and fires back before impact. Ballistic missiles from U.S. submarines west of Norway start striking Russia after about 10 minutes, and Russian ones from north of Canada start hitting the U.S. a few minutes later. The very first strikes fry electronics and power grids by creating an electro-magnetic pulse of tens of thousands of volts per meter. The next strikes target command-and-control centers and nuclear launch facilities. Land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles take about half an hour to fly from launch to target.

(…)

Unfortunately, peer-reviewed research suggests that explosions, the electromagnetic pulse, and the radioactivity aren’t the worst part: a nuclear winter is caused by the black carbon smoke from the nuclear firestorms. The Hiroshima atomic bomb caused such a firestorm, but today’s hydrogen bombs are much more powerful. A large city like Moscow, with almost 50 times more people than Hiroshima, can create much more smoke, and a firestorm that sends plumes of black smoke up into the stratosphere, far above any rain clouds that would otherwise wash out the smoke. This black smoke gets heated by sunlight, lofting it like a hot air balloon for up to a decade. High-altitude jet streams are so fast that it takes only a few days for the smoke to spread across much of the northern hemisphere.

This makes Earth freezing cold even during the summer, with farmland in Kansas cooling by about 20 degrees centigrade (about 40 degrees Fahrenheit), and other regions cooling almost twice as much. A recent scientific paper estimates that over 5 billion people could starve to death, including around 99% of those in the US, Europe, Russia, and China – because most black carbon smoke stays in the Northern hemisphere where it’s produced, and because temperature drops harm agriculture more at high latitudes.

(…)

We obviously don’t know how many people will survive a nuclear war. But if it’s even remotely as bad as this study predicts, it has no winners, merely losers. It’s easy to feel powerless, but the good news is that there is something you can do to help: please help share this video! The fact that nuclear war is likely to start via gradual escalation, perhaps combined by accident or miscalculation, means that the more people know about nuclear war, the more likely we are to avoid having one.”

“Article 92 of Russia's constitution lays down that if the head of state is 'incapable of fulfilling his duties' his temporary successor is the prime minister. That would be Mikhail Mishustin, a competent, low-key 57-year-old bureaucrat who is hardly a household name even in Russia.

But real power after a palace coup would lie elsewhere, probably with a Kremlin insider. Nikolai Patrushev, the national security adviser, is one candidate. His well-connected, fast-rising son Dmitry, currently agriculture minister, is another. Any such new leader would make Putin the scapegoat for the disastrous Ukraine war, and try to end it as quickly as possible.

A neat solution, but not a durable one.Many in Russia fear that what lies ahead is a 'Time of Troubles' (Smutnoye vremya), in which feuding clans battle for wealth and power. The phrase originally referred to the lawless period after 1598, when the tsarist throne changed hands six times in 15 years.

(…)

According to Igor Girkin, a military veteran with a wide following among nationalist Russians, last weekend's chaotic and violent events show that another 'Time of Troubles' has already started.

(…)

The state-controlled energy giant Gazprom has two militias: Potok (stream) and Fakel (torch). The defence minister Sergei Shoigu has Patriot, which hires experienced soldiers on hefty salaries of £5,000 a month or more — a fortune by Russian standards.

These legions serve many purposes. Apart from spearheading Russia's efforts in Ukraine, the Wagner Group — in particular — spreads Kremlin influence across Africa and was largely responsible for saving the brutal Assad regime in Syria. Yet the existence of these 'military contractors' is a sign of how deeply Russia has decayed. It would be inconceivable for British companies such as the energy giant BP, or the catering contractor Sodexo, to have private armies, let alone for Ben Wallace, the Secretary of State for Defence, to have his own personal fighting force.

(…)

The Kremlin is belatedly trying to rein in these legions. But the lesson of the past few days is that central power is weak. Just like the boyars [barons] who clashed in the first Time of Troubles, the big players in modern Russia know that they need their own private militias, and the bigger the better.

As these rivalries boil over, long-buried ethnic grievances could resurface too. Regional chiefs, who have long chafed at Moscow's intrusive rule, could all too easily try to assert their independence. The Muslim peoples of central Russia — Tatars, Bashkirs and others — could exploit the crisis to regain the freedom they briefly tasted more than 100 years ago.

(…)

In Britain we may have largely disconnected our oil and gas supplies from Russia, but that is no cause for complacency if the giant country spirals downwards into disorder. Perhaps the most alarming prospect is 'loose nukes': the thought of Russia's stockpile of thousands of nuclear warheads falling into the hands of terrorists.

(…)

Decision-makers in Beijing have long looked hungrily over their shared border at Russia's natural wealth: hydrocarbons, minerals, timber, water and crops. It would be ironic if Putin's attempt to rebuild the old Russian empire ended in his country becoming part of the new Chinese one. Yet these are not the worst outcomes. A post-Putin junta or strongman could turn the country into a nuclear-armed rogue state like North Korea or Iran, bristling with weapons and determined to make trouble. Given our repeated failures to contain Putin's ambitions, we will struggle to deal with a regime truly bent on nuclear confrontation.

(…)

One thing in all this is certain — change will catch us flat-footed. Over the past 30 years I have watched in dismay and anger as our governments have eviscerated Britain's expertise in understanding Russia. Spies, diplomats and analysts with lifetime experience in Kremlinology, their skills honed by the high stakes of the Cold War, were cast on to the scrap heap.

(…)

Whether we like it or not, the Putin era — with the illusions it fostered in Russia and abroad — is coming to an end. Be prepared.”

[toscanoirriverente]

Gazprom vuole aumentare i prezzi del gas in Russia per compensare i mancati introiti delle esportazioni in Europa. Secondo Kommersant, il quotidiano economico russo, il vicepresidente del colosso statale Vitaly Markelov ha proposto al governo di liberalizzare i prezzi all’ingrosso per i consumatori industriali di alcune regioni sottolineando che il settore del gas “dovrebbe spostare l’attenzione dall’export al mercato interno”. Una decisione che causerebbe un aumento dei prezzi per i russi, e un’ulteriore perdita di competitività per le industrie del paese, già compromesse dalle sanzioni e dalla carenza manodopera.

[head-post]

German Uniper wins $14 billion arbitration ruling against Gazprom

German utility Uniper won a multi-billion dollar arbitration case against former long-time gas supplier Gazprom, breaking up inactive gas supply contracts and setting a potential precedent.

The decision marked a landmark victory for Uniper after Gazprom first cut and then suspended supplies. This forced the group to buy replacement volumes at enormous prices on the spot market.

It also severed the last remaining ties of a decade-long energy partnership between Berlin and Moscow, which came to an abrupt halt after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Uniper stated that the 7 June ruling by an arbitration court in Stockholm allowed it to terminate existing gas supply contracts, which by law still existed even though there was no gas available.

The court also granted the company more than 13 billion euros ($14 billion) in compensation for volumes of gas that Gazprom had not supplied since mid-2022, reducing contractually agreed supplies. Uniper CEO Michael Lewis declared:

This ruling provides legal clarity for Uniper. With the right of termination that we received in the arbitration ruling, we are ending the contracts with Gazprom Export.

Gazprom Export, the Russian company’s export division, successfully challenged the claim in a St. Petersburg court. It ruled in March that Uniper and its subsidiary would be fined 14.3 billion euros if they continued the arbitration proceedings.

The German government owns more than 99 per cent of Uniper’s shares. The Finance Ministry, which controls the government’s stake in Uniper, stated that the federal government was not a party or participant in the arbitration proceedings. Berlin had no influence over the operational management of the company, it added.

Read more HERE

[paulthepoke]

This Week in Prophecy: Rafah Invasion, Holocaust, Turkey & Trade, Trump & 2 State Solution, Mohammed bin Salman

This Week in Prophecy: Rafah Invasion, Holocaust, Turkey & Trade, Trump & 2 State Solution, Mohammed bin Salman

Ezekiel 7:11 Violence (Hebrew word is Hamas) has grown up into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, nor their abundance, nor their wealth; neither shall there be preeminence among them. The IDF has expanded the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi to accommodate the increased levels of aid flowing into Gaza. This expanded humanitarian area includes field hospitals, tents and increased…

[xtruss]

Sweden Shuts Down Nord Stream Blasts Inquiry

— By Paul Kirby | BBC News | Wednesday February 07, 2023

The Nord Stream Pipelines, Blown up in September 2022, Carried Gas From the Russian Coast to North-Eastern Germany

Sweden's public prosecutor has closed an inquiry into underwater blasts that tore apart two pipelines carrying Russian gas to Germany after a 16-month investigation.

It is still unknown who blew up Nord Stream 1 and 2 in September 2022.

Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said the "primary purpose" had been to find out if Swedes were involved or if Swedish territory had been used.

He concluded that Swedish jurisdiction did not apply.

Swedish intelligence service Sapo said it had shared information it had gathered with other countries.

German and Danish authorities are still investigating the series of explosions that sabotaged three of the four gas lines east of the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea on 26 September 2022.

Commentators said the German inquiry could benefit from Stockholm's decision if Sapo had come up with additional information.

Sapo said the decision to shut down the inquiry was taken because it was considered "not possible for the Swedish authorities to pursue the matter further".

The pipelines had been built by Russia's gas giant Gazprom, although Nord Stream 2 was never used because Germany halted the project days after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian ships were found to have been involved in suspicious movements in the area in the days and months leading up to the blasts. Moscow condemned the sabotage as a case of international terrorism, choosing instead to blame the US and UK.

There have also been suggestions that a pro-Ukrainian group might have plotted the attack, although Ukraine has denied any involvement.

Recent reports have focused on a yacht called the Andromeda carrying six people which was chartered in Germany and stopped off in Denmark and Poland before the blasts.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius warned last year that the Nord Stream blasts could have been a "false flag" operation to make it look as if Ukraine was to blame.

[niveditaabaidya]

Total, Shell Accused Over Russian Gas Trade #energy #shell #ukraine #ru...

[tomluongo]

Episode #122 - Pascal Najadi and How the Swiss Regain their Neutrality

[gamer2002]

[politicoscope]

Iran Has New Deal to Sell Gas Turbines to Russia

Iran Has New Deal to Sell Gas Turbines to Russia

Moscow and Tehran have struck a deal that would see the Islamic Republic selling 40 domestically produced gas turbines to Russia, Reza Noushadi, the CEO of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company, told the Iranian oil ministry’s news agency Shana on Sunday. According to Noushadi, Iran is currently capable of independently producing “85% of … the equipment needed in the gas industry.” This…

[ukrainenews]

Daily Wrap Up October 1, 2022

Under the cut:

Ukrainian troops said on Saturday they had taken the key bastion of Lyman in occupied eastern Ukraine, a stinging defeat that prompted a close ally of President Vladimir Putin to call for the possible use of low-grade nuclear weapons

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is no longer leaking under the Baltic Sea because an equilibrium has been reached between the gas and water pressure, Agence France-Presse reports

Crimea Rocked by Overnight Explosions at Russian Facilities

Russia’s Gazprom has suspended gas deliveries to Italy’s Eni, blaming a transport problem in Austria, AFP reports.

Ukrainian authorities found a civilian convoy with about 20 people dead in their cars near Kupiansk, according to Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov

“Ukrainian troops said on Saturday they had taken the key bastion of Lyman in occupied eastern Ukraine, a stinging defeat that prompted a close ally of President Vladimir Putin to call for the possible use of low-grade nuclear weapons.

The capture came just a day after Putin proclaimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions - including Donetsk, where Lyman is located - and placed them under Russia's nuclear umbrella, at a ceremony that was condemned by Kyiv and the West as an illegitimate farce.

The Ukrainian soldiers made the claim in a video that was recorded outside the town council building in the centre of Lyman and posted on social media by Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office.

"Dear Ukrainians - today the armed forces of Ukraine ... liberated and took control of the settlement of Lyman, Donetsk region," one of the soldiers says. At the end of the video, a group of Ukrainian soldiers throw Russian flags down from the building's roof and raise a Ukrainian flag in their place.

Hours earlier Russia's defence ministry had announced it was pulling troops out of the area "in connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement".

Russia had used Lyman as a logistics and transport hub for its operations in the north of the Donetsk region. Its capture is Ukraine's biggest battlefield gain since a lightning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region last month.

Zelenskiy promised more quick successes in the Donbas, which covers the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are largely under Russian control.

"Over the past week, the number of Ukrainian flags in Donbas has increased. There will be even more a week's time," he said in an evening video address.

He also indicated Ukrainian troops had taken the village of Torske, on the main road out of Lyman to the east.”-via Reuters

~

“The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is no longer leaking under the Baltic Sea because an equilibrium has been reached between the gas and water pressure, Agence France-Presse reports.

“The water pressure has more or less closed the pipeline so that the gas which is inside can’t go out,” Nord Stream 2 spokesman Ulrich Lissek told AFP.

“The conclusion is that there is still gas in the pipeline,” he added.

When asked how much gas was believed to be in the pipeline, Lissek said: “That is the one-million-dollar question.”

Information on the status of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline leak, which was significantly larger, was not immediately available.

While the pipelines are not currently in operation, they both still contained gas before they fell victim to apparent sabotage, producing four leaks.”-via The Guardian

~

“The night of August 18 was a hot one for Russian forces in Crimea with explosions be heard in several locations. Moreover, the combat zone is expanding rapidly. The total number of reports of shelling of facilities in Russia’s Kursk, Belgorod, Rostov Regions and Crimea is approaching several dozen and their intensity is increasing.

On the same night strong explosions also rang out in temporarily-occupied Kerch. However, occupying authorities claim that the anti-aircraft defense system worked. An aide to Sergey Aksyonov, the prime minister of the temporarily-occupied peninsula, said that according to preliminary information, there is no danger.

Explosions rang out at Russia’s Belbek military base in Sevastopol. Yet, Russian propagandists claim that nothing happened at the airfield and the explosions were the result of air defense at work. Mykhaiil Razvozhaev, the self-proclaimed governor of Sevastopol, said that a Ukrainian drone was shot down in that area. However,  Russian military veteran Igor Girkin reported fires and detonation there.

The Belbek base is the largest airbase in Crimea, which after the occupation of the peninsula in 2014 serves only aircraft of the Russian military and space forces. The airfield is home to the 38th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Russian Air Force, armed with 12 Su-27s, 12 modernized Su-27SMs, three training and combat Su-27UBs and five Su-30M2 two-seat fighters, as well as the Sevastopol Aviation Rescue center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia.

A fire also broke out on the night of August 18 near the airfield in the village of Mizhvodne in  north-west Crimea. And again, neither the propagandists nor the occupation administration have officially commented, though some civilians said they heard explosions.

Blasts in Crimea have been going on for more than a week. They began on August 9 at the Novofedorivka military airfield near Saky, which is one of the key airfields for the Russians in their attacks on Ukraine. After all, bombers and fighters take off from there and pilots are trained there.

There were also explosions in Dzhankoy District on the morning of August 16. According to local mass media, two “emergency events” took place in the area at once: a fire at a transformer sub-station in Dzhankoy and detonation at an ammunition warehouse in the village of Travneve. The explosion also damaged the railway, the route for trains heading from Russia to Crimea. Some people have asked for help to rebuild their homes, but the Russian authorities are ignoring such requests.

Russian occupying authorities deliberately avoid the word “explosion” in their explanations and instead use the word “accidents”, while propagandists use soothing euphemisms. This is because they don’t want to admit that the air defense systems turned out to be of poor quality and unable to counter well-aimed strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. After all, since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine on February 24, Aksyonov has regularly emphasized that Crimea is protected by modern air defenses.

The Kremlin’s only reaction to the explosions in Crimea was to remove a statement by Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev about “doomsday” in the event of a Ukrainian attack on Crimea. The statement is no longer on Twitter, and any mention of it has been “wiped” from the social media platform.”-via Kyiv Post

~

“Russia’s Gazprom has suspended gas deliveries to Italy’s Eni, blaming a transport problem in Austria, AFP reports.

The Italian energy giant said on Saturday:

Gazprom told us that it was not able to confirm the delivery of the volumes demanded for today, citing the impossibility of gas transport through Austria. Russian gas flows to Eni via the Tarvisio entry point will be naught.

Before the war in Ukraine, nearly 45% of Italy’s imported gas came from Russia. Most of the gas from Russia to Italy passes through Ukraine via the Trans Austria Gas Pipeline.”-via The Guardian

~

“Ukrainian authorities found a civilian convoy with about 20 people dead in their cars near Kupiansk, according to Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov.

Russian troops killed these people when they were trying to flee and save their lives, said Syniehubov.

According to Ukrainian news website Suspilne, there were six cars in the convoy; the vehicles were found on a road between Kupiansk and Svatove, riddled with bullet holes, some burned. Ten out of the 20 killed are children, according to Ukraine's Security Service.

"This is cruelty that has no justification," Syniehubov said.

It's unknown when exactly Russian forces might have killed the people in the convoy. The investigation is ongoing.

As Ukraine recaptured settlements in Kharkiv Oblast on Sept. 10, law enforcement started uncovering potential crimes the Russian forces committed during the occupation.

According to Ukraine's Security Service, in then-occupied Kupiansk, Russian troops had tortured locals, threatening to send them to a minefield and kill their families.

On Sept. 30, a Russian missile struck a civilian convoy near Zaporizhzhia, killing 30 and wounding 88 people.”-via Kyiv Independent

[vavuska]

Imane Khelif.

In 2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships, Khelif participated for the first time, where she ranked 17th after being eliminated from the first round.

In the 2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships held in Russia, where she ranked 33rd after being eliminated from the first round against Natalia Shadrina.

Khelif represented Algeria in the lightweight event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She was defeated by Ireland's Kellie Harrington in the quarterfinals.

Khelif participated in the 2022 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships, she faced Ireland's Amy Broadhurst in the final and was defeated.

She is not a warmachine. Khelif is a biological woman. Khelif is NOT transgender or transsexual. In Algeria, the country that Khelif represents, transgender identity is prohibited, changing sex or gender is not allowed in official documents, nor are medical or hormonal treatments allowed to transition to another sex. If she was transgender, Khelif would not be able to rapresent her country at all nor travel with an official passport with a female identity!

However, pop up this rumor she was disqualified from 2023 IBA's Women's World Boxing Championships due to high levels of testosterone. Later this was debunked by the same organization. Potentially, could be doping and it was all covered up by sport industry.

Edit: This disqualification happened three days after Khelif defeated Azalia Amineva, a previously unbeaten Russian athlete. The disqualification restored the Russian boxer's undefeated record and IBA has huge ties with the Russian government: the president Kremlev is a Putin supporter and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressed concerns about the IBA under Kremlev's leadership. The IOC has also been alarmed by the fact that the IBA's only sponsor was a Russian state-owned energy company (Gazprom) that supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Imane Khelif is a UNICEF ambassador, which could again have been seen as a problem by Russian-led IBA, since UNICEF condemned Russian invasion of Ukraine. IBA's allegations that Khelif had failed unspecified eligibility tests are suspicious, expecially because no medical evidence that Khelif has XY chromosomes or elevated levels of testosterone has been published.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), cleared Khelif to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, confirming that she complied with all necessary eligibility and medical regulations for the event. The IOC noted that Khelif was a woman according to her passport and that this was not a "transgender issue".

She defeated Angela Carini in 42 seconds at the 2024 Olympics, after Carini decided to withdraw citing intense pain in her nose.

This remember me the 'Caster Semenya' case: after Semenya's victory at the 2009 World Championships, she was made to undergo sex testing, and cleared to return to competition the following year. The decision to perform sex testing sparked controversy in the sporting world and in Semenya's home country of South Africa. Later reports disclosed that Semenya has the intersex condition 5α-reductase 2 deficiency and natural testosterone levels in the typical male range.

In 2019, new World Athletics rules came into force preventing athletes like Semenya with certain disorders of sex development (DSDs) from participating in 400m, 800m, and 1500m events in the female classification, unless they take medication to suppress their testosterone levels. Semenya has filed a series of legal cases to restore her ability to compete in these events without testosterone suppression, arguing that the World Athletics rules are discriminatory.

As Khelif, Semenya is cis and has been accused by many people to be trans. Her story has, again, been used and abused to support the anti-trans agenda, claiming that two ciswomen are trans and are unfairly competing with women due to their superior "men strength".

I think Angela Carini was anxious and scared by days of reporter and far-right rumors about how Khelif is incredibly strong and unbeatable, even if Carini has better statistics and more victories in her career than Khelif herself (who was already a Olympics athlete), she was strumentalized by far-right propaganda and made a scene during the match due to anti-trans panic.

J. K. Rowling and Elon Musk, as always, had their small moment of shaming athletes. Most of people think that Carini has been strumentalized by anti-trans Italian propaganda and after being called out for harassing a cisgender woman, she claimed to be sorry for not having respected her adversary during the match.

Edit: more important thoughts on the matter in a detailed political perspective in Italy - A New York Times article develops more extensively what I wrote here.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/01/world/olympics/boxer-quits-gender-angela-carini-imane-khelif.html?smid=threads-nytimes

Edit 2: Imane Khelif spoke against cyberbullism.

Edit 3: Since in those past days we talked a lot about cis women being called men for not meeting western TERFs standard, I should resurface this old post about how a group of Chinese cis runners were wrongfully called "men" by TERFs.

Edit 4: Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling have been named in the cyberbullying lawsuit filed by Olympic champion Imane Khelif.

Edit 5 - 13th Sept. 2024: Imane Khelif interview

Edit 6 - 13th Sept. 2024: Imane Khelif won gold medal in boxing. Appreciation post.

[ozkaterji]

September 14th.

Gazprom Gas Facility, Sudzha, Ukrainian-occupied Kursk region, Russia.

[warsofasoiaf]

What do you make of Ukraine's incursion into Russia, and what do you think their objective is?

I think their primary objectives are:

Incite panic in the Russian lines. Having the enemy penetrate your home territory while you're away creates panic, and can potentially provoke an ill-advised relief effort that either gets friendly fire (not hard with Russia and their notoriously inaccurate artillery) or causes the lost of significant assets.

Create a morale boost at home. It's humiliating to have such a small country take territory. Especially Kursk, which was the site of a famous Soviet victory in the Second World War.

Threaten the Sudhza gas hub. With the lost of Nordstream 2, the Sudzha gas hub is the major Gazprom thoroughfare into Europe. If Ukraine destroys or damages it, it severely impacts Russian gas exports and damages Russian logistics in that theater.

Thanks for the question, Bruin.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King