This is some curious news. Evidently members of anti-Putin Russia militias the Russian Volunteers Corps or the Freedom for Russia Legion has evidently invaded the border town of Kazinka in Belgorod, Russia, with forces that evidently included at least one tank:
There’s at least some confirmation via Reuters.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said on Monday that a Ukrainian army ‘sabotage group’ had entered Russian territory in the Graivoron district, which borders Ukraine.
In a statement on Telegram, Vyacheslav Gladkov said that the Russian army and security forces were taking measures to repel the incursion.
Earlier, the Telegram channel Baza, which is linked to Russia’s security services, had published footage apparently showing a Ukrainian tank attacking a Russian border post.
It’s a curious story that probably deserves considerable caution in drawing conclusions. False flag operation? Ukraine-backed distraction designed to force Russia to draw troops away from other regions in advance of Ukraine’s anticipated counteroffensive? Who knows? It seems a bit of a sideshow at this point.
The one thing I wouldn’t expect is for this to be part of a broader anti-Putin uprising by Russians tired of the madness of his disasterous war. That would be too convenient, and we would be far more likely to see evidence of that in Chechnya or Moscow than along the Ukraine border.
Developing…
Update: Reports of Russians fleeing Belgorod.
Belgorod… But where are you all going? 🙁 pic.twitter.com/hVp5tGBF2y
— MAKS 23 🇺🇦🎂🎉 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) May 22, 2023
Update 2: “Not far away from the Ukrainian border there is the town called Golovchino, and here is the Russian storage for the nuclear weapons.”
That makes me feel that it’s more likely this is a false flag operation to give Putin the excuse to use tactical nukes on the pretext that Ukraine had captured some. But I’m a cynical sort…
Tags: Belgorod, Freedom for Russia, Golovchino, Kazinka, Military, nuclear weapons, Russia, Russian Volunteers Corps, Russo-Ukrainian War, Suchomimus, Ukraine, video
Denis “WhiteRex” Kapustin (Nd’G: Nikitin) is a Nazi soccer hooligan. His RDK is ideologically aligned with the other Ukrainian Nazis.
On the other hand, Wagner Group claimed they’ve finally taken Bakhmut and will be evacuating it to be taken over by Russian military. I mean, tactically and strategically Bakhmut didn’t mean a whole lot of anything when they failed to take it last Summer. AUF committed enough man and material to tied down Wagner and Russian Army resources for 262 days.
So?
Shall I point out all the Russian POW captures with Nazi symbols tattooed upon their bodies? The actual Russian Nazi groups that are 100% behind invading Ukraine? The ones who’re active in the Donetsk and Luhansk separatist movements?
Accusations of “Nazi” anything ring very hollow, these days: It takes so little to be one or be called one. Give me a call when they’re rounding up Jews and setting them on fire, eh? Then, I’ll take you a little more seriously. For most of these idiots, they’re cosplaying Nazis because they’re cool, and because the Nazis are seen as the yin to the Communist yang, more than anything. Half the people espousing the theme have no idea at all what it really means, let alone believe in it.
It’s amazing how far some cool Hugo Boss uniforms and a lot of good PR got those assholes, TBH. Even their enemies want to be them, these days.
Denis Kapustin (Nikitin) is a self-avowed Nazi. He founded his WhiteRex Nazi accoutrement and clothing business in Ukraine with his Azov Battalion buddies. He also was an instigator of the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite The Right” rally.
He is a Nazi, and proud of it.
Oh, yeah… Originally meant to make a specific point, here: Russia entered this war under the misconception that what it did to others, others could not do to it. Reminds one of some other Nazis, rather…
Bomber Harris said it best: “The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.”
Putin and the rest of Russia are about to learn just how “immune” they are to consequence. Which is to say that they are not.
Again… So what? Do I care, with Antifa breaching the peace and burning cities with impunity? Do I care what is on the shoulder-sleeve insignia of the men willing to fight Russian invasion?
Not really. We’ll be dealing with the idiocy soon enough, and forced to pick sides one way or another. Given the track records involved, I think I’ll take my time and pick the lesser of the two demonstrated evils when I’m finally forced to do it.
Your endless whinging about “Nazis” and calling everyone you don’t like fascist doesn’t really lend you the veracity you think it does. The two terms have become null, due to over- and mis-use. Like “racist”. If everyone is a Nazi racist fascist, then nobody is…
Um, I am left wondering what kind of an actual idiot keeps their nuclear weapons “ Not far away from the Ukrainian border” – that is, not far from the border with a nation with which they are actively engaged in open warfare?
I mean, really.
@FM,
Yeah, that’s a bit of a puzzler, isn’t it? Almost as if it were… Bait?
Either that, or the Russians really are that dumb. Which would not exactly be mind-boggling, given the early history of Barbarossa.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine suddenly became the third-largest nuclear power in the world. This was quickly addressed by the Clinton administration’s offer to disarm Ukraine in exchange for US security guarantees.
Russia’s perpetual insecurity about “ defensible borders” leads them to demand that their neighbors be neutralized but requires no similar concessions from their own side.
That there are nuclear armaments in close proximity to the Ukrainian border now is a reflection on Russian inability to consolidate and control their own armaments.
FWIW, the negotiations to disarm the Ukraine started under Bush. Clinton came in, took credit for it, and then did not a damn thing to actually ensure it was all viable. Same-same with Afghanistan; the path towards 9/11 started right there at the beginning of the Clinton administration when they zeroed out the work that Bush’s people had begun once they realized where the power vacuum in Afghanistan was heading.
Not going to say that the course of history would have been changed in either event, but the amount of crap resulting from the fecklessness and corruption of the Clinton administration is monumental. Look into the sale of Loral’s intellectual property to the Chinese, for example.
Same-same with the sainted Jimmah Cahtuh. His “concern for human rights” in Iran led directly to the last 40-odd years of immiseration for the Iranian people and God alone knows how much other nastiness. If the Shah had remained in power, the Iranian people would likely be a whole lot better off, and there’d be a bunch of people still alive elsewhere.
The Budapest Memorandum, which addresses Ukraine’s obligation to observe the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, was successfully negotiated in 1994. This would place it squarely in the lap of US president Bill Cllinton. It may not have been “viable” but it provided the mechanism by which Ukraine was delisted as a nuclear power.
Allegedly, Clinton today regrets his role in the process.
@Malthus,
Note that I said “Started”. State Department and others had identified all the nukes that were left adrift after the end of the Soviet Union as a major issue, and were working to come up with a way to contain the issue. Nobody really gave much thought to Russia being a continuing asshole; everyone was thinking it’d all be sweetness and light.
Source? I was there, and keeping up with things. I know for a fact that what they were scripting for training exercises around them heavily featured dealing with loose nukes in the former Soviet states, and what to do about them. They had endless scenarios envisioning crazed post-Soviet dictators needing to be disarmed… That started as soon as the Wall came down. Frankly, the guys negotiating all that stuff back then gave zero heed to what the Russians would likely do if they were the only ones with nukes; it was all about reducing the number of nuclear states resulting from the dissolution.
From the ADL:
https://extremismterms.adl.org/glossary/denis-kapustin
“Denis Kapustin
Denis Kapustin (also known as Denis Nikitin) is a Russian neo-Nazi who lived in Germany for many years. He has been involved in the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA ) scene in Europe and has trained young members of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany and others to fight. He also has ties to Azov, the Ukrainian extremist group. Since January 2021, Kapustin has co-hosted a podcast with Rise Above Movement leader Robert Rundo called Active Club Podcast.”
I can keep two ideas in my head at the same. Don’t care for the Russian invasion, but there seems to be some shady stuff on the south side of that border as well. Looks to me like Pseudo Nazis versus Crypto Nazis, either way, all corrupt kleptocratic oligarchic totalitarians. In the immortal words of Henry Kissinger, regardless of my feelings towards the man. “It’s a pity both sides can’t lose…” With this news I may get my wish.
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