Russia

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s decision to turn back from Moscow came after threats against the family members of Wagner leaders from the Kremlin, British security sources have claimed.

According to a report from London’s Daily Telegraph, the most closely connected British paper to the Conservative government, UK security services have come upon intelligence that suggests that prior to the decision by Yevgeny Prigozhin to turn back from his march on Moscow, Russian intelligence services made direct threats against the families of the Wagner group leaders.

Upon reaching the Lipetsk Oblast (region), which is just around 230 miles (370km) from Moscow, Prigozhin abruptly halted and turned back after coming to an agreement with Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, who reportedly negotiated the stand down on behalf of the Kremlin.

No idea how true this is but could be wild.

Russia is to adopt powers to seize assets of "naughty" western companies and will make it harder for them to exit the country, as Vladimir Putin seeks ways to retaliate against US and European sanctions. The Kremlin last week secretly ordered legislation to enable western assets to be appropriated at knockdown prices and is discussing even more draconian measures to fully nationalize groups, according to people familiar with the deliberations.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/84776

"We have decided to start the protocol of Finland's accession to NATO in our parliament," Erdogan said following a meeting with his Finnish counterpart.

Concerning Sweden, Erdogan commented that his country submitted a list of 120 "terrorists" to Stockholm, but complained that not a single one of them has been extradited.

Sweden's membership bid is expected to continue to stall, after deteriorating relations with Turkey in the wake of the Quran-burning incident by a far-right activist. Turkey has also demanded Swedish authorities crackdown on Kurdish political groups and operatives while alleging that Stockholm has hosted "terrorists" on its soil.

Finland is at the same time building a 200km fence along its border with Russia to boost security, also after reporting that Russian men fled into Sweden by the droves in order to escape conscription. The fence will reportedly be 10 feet high and topped with barbed wire.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/80869

Russian propaganda looks like a failure if it was supposed to “reshape U.S. politics” or “sow chaos,” as the Times has claimed. But if the goal was persuading credulous journalists that “the American political system” cannot survive the likes of Nora Berka, the campaign has been a resounding success.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/80533

Spy balloons, used by Japan to drop bombs during World War II, are now far more sophisticated, can fly at up to 200,000 feet, evade detection, and can carry a small nuclear bomb that, if exploded in the atmosphere, would shut down the grid and wipe out electronics in a many-state-wide area.

"China’s recent balloon flyover of the United States is clearly a provocative and aggressive act. It was most likely a type of dry run meant to send a strategic message to the USA. We must not take this for granted.”

EMP experts have warned that China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran have programs to hit the U.S. grid with electromagnetic pulse weapons that would cut the cord for a year or longer. A congressional report has warned that a blackout that long could result in millions of deaths.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/80165

New Yorkers escorted out after addressing their concerns during meeting with their Democratic district leader Rep. Adriano Espaillat.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/79882

Formerly an elusive chief of propaganda, this was one of the most public appearances of his career, and despite his secrecy, his reputation preceded him.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/79441

So US taxpayers have spent a hundred billion dollars on a border dispute between Ukraine and Russia as a blackmail payment to avoid some of Biden's corruption being exposed?

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/74012

It is unclear if King was calling for Putin’s removal from power in a coup d’etat, or merely for Russian troops to vacate all Ukrainian-claimed territory. The two warring parties maintain conflicting territorial claims and King acknowledged the war is now in a stalemate, but he nonetheless claimed the conflict would not be a “20-year struggle” like America’s experience in Afghanistan.

Throughout the virtual presser, King referenced a historical need to prevail over Russia, saying nothing of the potential for escalation to nuclear war between the world’s largest atomic arsenals.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/71939

In the propaganda agreement, the two sides pledged to “further cooperate in the field of information exchange, promoting objective, comprehensive and accurate coverage of the most important world events.” They also laid out plans to cooperate on online and social media, a space that both countries have used to seed disinformation, pledging to strengthen “mutually beneficial cooperation in such issues as integration, the application of new technologies, and industry regulation.”

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/70691

The Human Rights group said that there were signs that Apple was always ready to deals with regimes to maintain its access to the market, to build and to sell its products. Apple's Private Relay never made it to China and was canceled in Russia.

The Tame Apple Press has done its best to white wash the report saying that other companies have had to cut similar deals. But GreatFire said that Google and Twitter, he said, do much better in terms of transparency. Apple has a bad habit of lying in its transparency reports and deliberately conceals the scale of app's unavailability and the reality of the 175 App Stores it operates worldwide.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/70127

The chairman highlighted that although Russia is taking steps to allow bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments for imports, there are no plans to encourage similar usage of the burgeoning assets within the boundaries of the nation’s territory.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/69329

That must be a matter of concern for Moscow, which has long backed Turkmenistan’s neutrality as the keystone of its efforts to block any expansion of Turkish influence into Central Asia. After all, if Ashgabat does not join Turkish projects, it will be far more difficult for Ankara to project power in the region while making it easier for the Kremlin to continue to implement its traditional divide-and-rule approach there.