Minding Russia

Full Text of Interview with Former Kremlin Advisor Surkov on the Prigozhin Rebellion

By Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

Reuters and other major news outlets have excerpted the interview published on Telegram and other Russian media sources today, June 26, 2023, with Vladislav Surkov, former presidential advisor:

Here is the full text of the interview by Alexander Chesnyakov of the Center for Current Politics with Surkov:

Chesnakov: How do you see the reasons and possible consequences of Prigozhin's rebellion?

Surkov: It's fashionable now in Russia to dig around in history. So here's some history for you: in 1980 in Leningrad [St. Petersburg], a woman was walking along the street. An ordinary woman. Three gopniks [low-class street thugs] jumped her. One of them came at her from behind, grabbed her by the neck and began to strangle her. He squeezed her neck until she fainted. Then the gopniks tore off her earings and -- note this! -- her boots. These beasts were then arrested and tried. The one who grabbed the woman from behind and strangled her was named Yevgeny Prigozhin. That's all you need to know about Prigozhin. Nothing more. Nothing else matters.

Of course, the rhetorical question arises: "but wait, how was he able to serve in pest control?" [A reference to the Russian satire by Mikhail Bulgakov, "Heart of a Dog," which roughly means, "But he was catching bad guys, how can he be a bad guy himself?--trans."

Fortunately, rhetorical questions do not presuppose answers.

Chesnakov: What is needed to normalize the situation?

Surkov: Lots of things. But the main thing is to secure undivided authority. And for that, we have to think seriously -- why do we need private military companies, really?

As is known, I believe Russian democracy to be sovereign. The main feature of this approach is that you cannot blindly copy foreign institutions. Some things must be borrowed; others, not. It is critically important to consider the special features of national culture and psychology in constructing a political system.

What is a private military company (PMC)? It is a direct borrowing from Western practice, or rather, from American practice. And this will be more western than any West will be. Now, talk has sprung up again about a law on PMCs [they are still not legalized in Russia--trans.]. But should an institution be legitimized, which in Russian real terms is essentially anti-Constitutional in nature? They'll pass the law, and a string of enthusiasts will be drawn to high office. And they'll persuade people to permit them to create a private army. And many will be persuaded.

How can a military detachment be private, in our understanding? This does not correspond at all to Russian political, management, and military culture. You can't have your own private nuclear station, for example, in Russia. But you can have your own private assault division? Why? "Private armies" emerged in Russia only during the Time of Troubles and the Civil War. If a law on PMCs is passed, no matter how good it is and well conceived, no matter how precisely it is drafted, that the PMCs are subordinate to army command, and are part of the army and so on, such a law will create a dangerous prospect of turning our country in the future into some sort of Eurasian "tribal zone". 

We don't need that. We have a contract system in our Armed Forces. You can make it more detailed, you can make it more flexible if needed, but don't play around with the PMCs any more.

After all, PMCs were created to take part in proxy wars. Why do we need them today, when we are openly taking part in the battle for Ukraine? This isn't a proxy war; this is a special military operation. The army must be strengthened not only with armaments, but with unity of leadership.

Do you remember why the strategic industrial branches of the USSR collapsed? They were destroyed by the law on cooperatives. At each state enterprise, numerous private cooperatives sprang up.  Profit then accrued to the cooperatives which was controlled and eaten up by the state enterprise management. But the expenditures and losses were bucked to the state. The result was bankruptcy, and the collapse of machine-building and extractive industries. How many years and how much cash was needed to restore them!

The PMC is, after all, a cooperative attached to the army! The army has to absorb all the "losses" -- both material and reputational. But the PMC gets the cash and the glory. Yes, there are many heroes among the PMC fighters. But are there really less of them among the "ordinary" paratroopers, infantry, tank drivers, and gunners?! If this is not stopped, the result will be devastating.

Chesnakov: Progozhin made the statement that the special military operation is profitable only for oligarchs?

Surkov: Right. Oligarchs like him. What is an oligarch, from the perspective of political science? It's a businessman who makes money from state purchasing orders (for example, delivering food and kamikaze soldiers for the Ministry of Defense, as Prigozhin does [a reference to Prigozhin's rounding up of prisoners and raw recruits and sending them into battle where they are killed in large numbers--trans]); who has media resources (as he has); corrupt ties with government agencies (as he has); and political ambitions (as he has). Prigozhin is an oligarch. If Berezovsky had been given a tank, he would have turned out like Prigozhin. It's profitable for him.

But the battle for Ukraine began and will end not for the sake of profit. But for the sake of victory.

Russian source is here.

My Position on the Dozhd - TV Rain Controversy

By Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

 

So this scandal riling all the YouTube Russian talk shows is now in the English-language media here and here.

 

Dozhd' - TV Rain -- which used to broadcast out of a studio, then an apartment, then went on YouTube and emigrated to Riga like Moscow Times - has been informed by Latvia that it has lost its broadcast license as a "threat to national security" over its broadcasting policies exhibited in various newscasts not only referring to Crimea as "part of Russia," but also discussing how Russian draftees can be helped in their miserable position. 

 

War is hell. Ukrainian women join the armed forces, risk death, and spend countless months at the expense of their health helping those on the front line. They demonstrated in Maidan and got themselves killed for the sake of eliminating (not entirely) Russia's heavy hand. If the wives and mothers of the newly-mobilized (or the long-time conscientious) can't bestir themselves to really demonstrate like it counts, and risk jail and death the way the Ukrainian people have throughout history and now, then I don't see why we have to be overly concerned with providing first-aid kits and blankets to Russian soldiers to help them fight better.

 

The ICRC can perform that function, that neutral, fine, prejudice-free organization called by the international justice system to do this awful good deed, taught by the world's greatest religions, notably Islam and Judaism -- even if the Red Crescent and the Mogen David were a little late in coming to the ICRC's symbolic arsenal. Oh, the ICRC can't get into some areas because their own people are killed? Well, if they don't want to publicize who is responsible for that, as they publicize these things about Israel/Palestine, then, I guess we'll have to wait for...OSCE. Oh, but Russia defunded the mission there and they were forced to leave. Maybe the ROC, that church-without-a-basement could step up?

 

"If you want Russia to be better after all this you have to do this," isn't an argument that works on me any more, sorry. I'll dissect that point in my next post, "Is Russian Civil Society Worth Saving?" to retail the answers I've received from various colleagues: "Yes, of course, because..." or "There isn't any Russian civil society" to "But we didn't win the war yet, so we can't have a Marshal Plan."

 

So the fullest version of the TV Rain saga du jour is here and predictable takes from here here and here. Let me suggest that this affair still awaits its deepest investigative and impartial journalism. And as always with these sorts of scandals, those with a particle "Moscow Bubble" bien-pensant view imagine that anyone who differs is not as smart, not as intellectual, and not as nuanced as they are and is a "neo-con" or and unthinking booster of "the Kyiv regime" etc. So often these controversies are discussed -- especially on Twitter and other social media -- as popularity contests with everyone looking fearfully over their shoulder so as not to be taken of the policy breakfast list.

 

I had hoped that as we all actually look at the war on the ground -- we all do that, right? -- we would be getting past that sort of snotty Muscovite solipsism even though said thinkers "aren't in Moscow any more." But no. 

 

What will it take to make Russia a viable country, even a democracy, that ceases to be a threat to its neighbours and even itself?

 

Well, the concept of "itself" will have to change, for one. I think some of us believe, given our long study of Russia and our personal sojourns among its people that "Russia" will have to lose some of its 89 "subjects" just like "the Soviet Union" had to lose everything, including the Russian Federated Soviet Socialist Republic.

 

And even the Russian opposition, such as it is, will have to change.

 

Change is hard, but it does start with something like this, sadly:

 

Otherwise the West is helping a Russian exiled opposition which could turn out like Lenin's, which may be worse for the country. You may differ on your take on this.

And yeah, I totally get it about this and whatever other "OSINT" and "HUMINT" we're going to dredge up on this matter that will show "both are worse," like they say in Odesa. I will pre-emptively declare any and all examples of perfidy uncovered as "besides the point" in advance.

 

Because: Russians.

 

But if you think Dozhd's crime was merely about the misstatement of one journalist, which might be fixed with other's commentary, or the wrong map, which Google is guilty of, too, for which Dozhd was fined, then you haven't been paying attention since, oh, 2014, when Tikhon Dzyadko, despite (because of?) his last name, welcomed Crimea to Russia on Twitter.

Zinovy Zinik called this larger, long-term problem correctly (see below). Yes, there are some of us who remember the context of No Context Russia -- but let's say it's not a tweet that aged well.

 

Should the governments of countries get to dictate what the ideological platforms should be of emigres who flee persecution on their territory?

 

Oh, I don't know, maybe countries that have been invaded and occupied for 50+ years by the country from which those emigres fled get to do that, you know? Especially when the issue at hand concerns currently- but temporarily-occupied regions of a neighbouring country, Ukraine.

 

Should we avoid occasions where we add to the self-pity of very-recent mobikis and their media, much less long-suffering opposition and emigre groups?

 

Oh, I don't know. Maybe they need to learn like the rest of. Many bars in the US used to have signs on the door: NO IRISH.

 

Am I surprised that I have parted company on this topic with the thinking of Kevin Rothrock, Alexey Kovalev and others at Meduza who used to relentlessly harass and troll and threaten us at The Interpreter? Or someone like Anton Barbashin who tried to get me fired from my job for my apt and just criticism of his now-forgotten magazine? Before they got religion after Feb. 24, seemingly? No.

 

Will I be sorry that my views on this matter are different from some of my dearest Russian friends and colleagues? Sure. I'm sure they'll be able to handle differences of opinion and not demand any "honour of uniform", right?

 

Does an incident of this nature lead to loss of refugee status? Well, then, in keeping with various UN treaties on the treatment of refugees barring nonrefoulement, if Latvia can't comply, the US should step up here as we are the wealthier country with more distance between us and Russia, and more diversity among our population and immigrants, right? The US isn't supplying ANY visas to ANY Russians from Russia, and it may want to re-think that policy and figure out how to deploy it better at other capitals if its thinking can't stretch that far.

 

I doubt funding TV Rain from our shores will cost any more damage to national security than New York City funding the broadcasting of RTV, where I once worked as a lowly translator and caption editor, right? That franchise was owned by a Polish company, BTW, out of New Jersey, I think, and NYC ended up letting it go, I suppose because it didn't have enough of an audience. There are emigre Russian TV stations in New York with more varied and critical news than RT.

 

Just one request: put them in Voice of America. Not RFE/RL.

 

Germany might be the best place for TV Rain.

 

Follow the discussion at Facebook.

 

Update: I didn't have to wait more than five minutes for someone who is very decent and conscientious, Yevgeniya Albats, to step up and explain NO CONTEXT RUSSIA here -- that Tikhon in fact was saying this "ironically" about a Crimea that had seemingly embraced Russian occupation, but was now experiencing what "Russia Mainland" always experienced when a demonstration was broken up by police. 

 

You can't see the YouTube link on the tweet, but if you click on it, yeah, that's what it was about (and its "non-availability" now doesn't necessarily mean anything about TV Rain hiding something; lots of videos Russia doesn't like get removed under pressure from Russia on YouTube, often with fake "copyright violation" abuse reports.)

 

Let me suggest that ironical tweets can be written differently: "Be careful what you wished for, Crimea." Or "We warned you, Crimea." If we even take "Crimea" as a "whole" of anything except part of Ukrainian territory. How about: "The will of the Crimean people has really not been taken into consideration, especially given the large population of Crimean Tatars."

 

Instead, with the superb irony of the Moscow-insulated-insider, he said "Welcome to Russia." We're always supposed to understand that nuances and sarcasm is almost as good as fighting a war until you win. But the Ukrainian people show daily that it is not.

 

I recall this because context I covered the war in Ukraine for 8 years, unlike many people tuning in now. Tikhon could have a) deleted the tweet; b) added clarification then or now. Did he? I may have missed it. If he did, great, but the fact that it could be bandied about now 

 

The Russian opposition has to change. It has to change. It has to change.

 

Another Update: Here's Tikhon's "apology tour". Instructive to read the responses of not only Ukrainians, but Russians, who are less than impressed. If we're supposed to be chastised for "not fact checking" (I actually remember this context back in the day), it's not persuasive because he only digs himself in deeper.  Yes, he's referring ironically to a territory of Ukraine which he perceives as "wanting to join Russia" so he calls it as a single whole, "Crimea" -- although even if the technical majority of Sovietized Russian-speakers on that peninsula might have voted for annexation if they were in a free and fair and OSCE-endorsed referendum -- there's the significant population of Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, who are the indigenous people of Crimea, and others, who would have voted "no" -- and we'll never know, as there wasn't a free referendum with the free press and independent judiciary you need for this.

 

Tikhon Viktorich really gets his ass handed to him in the discussion below "explanatory" tweet, and not only from Ukrainians, and that's a good thing, even if some of them are Kremlin trolls. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Was the Purpose of the Assassination of Russian Ultranationalist Dugin's Daughter?

By Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

 

 

What was the purpose of the assassination of Dugina?

 

To distract us from the daily horrors of the war in Ukraine.

 

So backdate from that purpose to figure out who might be involved.

 

Cathy Young has a very good, definitive piece at the Bulwark which is a great publication.

 

I only have some tidbits to add to reflect on this latest drama.

 

o There hasn't been an assassination related to the war in Ukraine since Boris Nemtsov in 2015, on the eve of a march against both the war in Ukraine and the economic crisis (I think). Of course a lot happens outside Moscow and we don't know everything that happens. Yevgeny Kham, the Buryat editor who apparently died of his wounds in 2017 after a severe beating in 2015, who had run critical coverage of the war, is said to have been attacked for other stories. Still, it's not a common occurrence at all. Arrests, yes. Assassinations, no - although I can't help thinking I must be missing something obvious. So someone felt "it's time" in whatever department or faction.

 

o Goble reported that Sasha Verkhovsky recently came out with a report saying nationalist violence is less than it has been because the regime has suppressed it. This was before Dugina's car bombing but it is a very important context, read all the way through and Sasha's full report as well.

http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/.../moscows...

 

So...this suggests that it's not the nationalists themselves targeting each other (because they are suppressed) and maybe bolsters the idea that the FSB or GRU did a false flag but then, we've all been over this "Putin's brain" stuff -- he's not, and Putin, as chair of the board of Moscow State University, ordered him fired from his position there after he began calling for the killing of Ukrainians openly on social media back in 2014-2015, posting photos of himself with a bazooka;

 

That is, you'd have to figure out why the FSB/GRU would do a false flag when they don't need to as it's not like anti-war resistance is a factor in Russia, or that there is some strong nationalist movement that thinks Russia looks bad by prosecuting this war...or something.

 

o Russia was just rocked by another crisis involving a prominent regime supporter, Senator Isakov, and his daughter, who openly opposed the war, and maybe "someone" felt there needed to be "balance" to put the focus on the nationalists as victims again, not Ukrainians. Maybe there is just free-lancing craziness.

 

o Ponomarev has been flogging the need for an armed insurrection in Russia on talk shows and social media recently and now the announcement of the National Republic Army (NRA) (what an acronym!) came simultaneously with the assassination of Dugina. The NRA is something he thinks needs to come into being and maybe has, but I don't know -- some group or groups are blowing up all those recruiting stations and military targets in Russia and it's not likely Ukraine -- and maybe has nothing to do with Ponomarev or his circle.  In 2017, he was meeting with another Russian MP, Denis Voronenkov, who had also fled Ukraine, when Voronekov was assassinated. Ponomaryev fled first to the US, then later to Ukraine, after turning in the sole vote against the annexation of Crimea as then a member of the State Duma. He told Meduza the NRA takes responsibility for the assassination of Dugina and says it is in retaliation for her call to murder Azov battalion members. He is sketchy on the details and himself says he can't confirm it, and I'm skeptical.

 

o Ukrainians wouldn't target a second-tier nationalist/extremist now, would they? Unless opportunity/gaps in security enabled them? A lot of Russian nationalists have been killed fighting in Ukraine. But why has there been nothing like this in 8 and a half years in Russia? The Ukrainian government denies involvement and says, "We don't work like this."

 

o Someone should compare and contrast the car bombs used to assassinate those 8 or so "DNR angels" - the the top Donesk People's Republic leaders and fighters.

 

o They need to target a nationalist either for cause or in a false flag operation? But...who's left? COVID took Zhirinovsky; Yegor Prosvirnin, the young fascist with hipster followers, was defenestrated possibly at his own initiative; Strelkov/Girkin thrives but is critical of the war's inefficiencies and visible only on YouTube; so maybe there isn't a good/pure target these days? I just don't know. Certainly Dugin's vocal supporters blamed Ukraine at the funeral and the state media is doing so and a Fanya Kaplan like figure, a Ukrainian who went to Estonia, has already been fingered.

 

I agree with Victor Davidoff (cited by Cathy) that the "Fanya Kaplan" kind of episode (attempted to assassinate Lenin) can usher in another wave of terror. Except...we already have terror, and plenty of it, in Ukraine obviously and it has been in Russia all this time.

 

And why a figure who is *not* Putin's brain, why not someone actually in the regime or a more establishment, accepted figure? Then it's like Kirov or Lenin -- Dugin is not that kind of figure. So why not Surkov (who seems irrelevant now but still, it would have to be a figure without heavy government security).

 

o The "ritual murder" stuff is cried by ordinary people on social media as well as Kremlin propagandists every time an opposition figure is murdered so it's not surprising to see it now about the nationalists, but whatever Dugin's wacky writings on this subject, I hardly think he would go to this extreme with his own daughter when he doesn't need to. I think he seems genuinely upset. Someone was able to frame his terribly distraught face as he clutched his hands to his head as the bomb went off -- that suggests planning (like those 3 camera angles at the Odessa trade union building fire). He was weeping and shaking as he spoke at the funeral. But who knows?

 

o We see so many horrible, horrible things done in Ukraine for no other reason than escalating the horror and intimidation, and maybe that's all that is operating here. Opportunism. Overkill. Somebody wishing to please Putin ostensibly.

 

o When was the last time a woman was able to *safely* lead a political group of any kind in Russia besides Sobchak, who is basically in tune with the regime now despite her Telegram channel? There's that. Seems more likely Dugin himself was targeted -- but then precisely because of both vicious and casual misogyny, Dugina could have been targeted; there is this odd story about a relationship to Le Pen.

 

I agree that while you can certainly find many aspects of Dugina's own career to be despicable, not to mention her murderous father's campaigns, it's wrong to take glee in their misfortune.  A trial in an international tribunal or independent and just court in Russia, should it ever come into being, would be highly preferable for the sake of the society's future. And for practical reasons, people never are converted by torture and murder and only become more radicalized.

Russian Science Journalist Asya Kazantseva Detained with Use of Facial Recognition Technology

Explanatory Statement - with identifying information blocked by the author in Ukraine's colours.

The detention in the metro of Asya Kazantseva, a Russian science journalist and author,  as she was trying to get home, has been covered by the media, but she posted her own story on Facebook as there has been some mis-reporting.

The operative point is that facial recognition technology was used to make the detention of dozens of Russians. Kazantseva was not anywhere near a demonstration and was on her way home, although as she notes, she had been detained in the past.

Translation

A flood of insane sensations have been spreading through the news, taking on distortions along the way!

I was detained in the metro, after being recognized by the cameras; the metro police themselves couldn't explain the reason; then the police at the station explained that it was because I had gone into the metro on Russia Day, and accordingly, the point of the detention was so that I didn't go to the center of Moscow and didn't stage any anti-war protest. Since I was headed in a direction away from the center, and not the opposite, and it was already evening, I was held for a relatively short time (I was detained at 19:00 and was already released at 21:30). I was treated politely and with some embarrassment; I was released without a record of a misdemeanor, since none had taken place, but I did have to write an explanatory note.

Here is the explanatory note:

"On 12.06.22 at approximately 19:00 I was at the Fili Metro Station, waiting for the train, so as to go home, but police officers came up to me and asked me to follow them to the office. After a little while, police officers came and took me to the Filyovsky Park Police Precinct in Moscow.  The reasons for being taken to the precinct are not known to me. I had not committed any illegal actions. I would also like to add that I am pregnant and the detention caused me stress, which is harmful for the baby, according to modern data in the science of neurobiology, a subject in which I am an expert with a degree. In addition I would like to explain that I was not headed in the direction of the center of Moscow. A prophylactic  conversation was conducted with me about how people who have administrative detentions in their pasts ought not to go in the metro on Russia Day. This is a true copy of my statement."

Kazantseva added on her Instagram account:

Today Nikolai and I celebrate the 10th anniversary of our meeting.

This is how we spent our romantic evening: Nikolai snapped a photo of how the police escorted me to the toilet. 

The thing is, today is Russia Day, and as it was explained to me by the keepers of the peace at the precinct, on this day, if someone is undesirable, they must not go in the metro.  Such a person is preventatively detained so that they do not express their civic position.

Honestly, I had not  in fact planned that today, but now that it has come to this, I will state that the war with Ukraine is criminal, and destructive even for Russia as well, and should be immediately halted.

 

There were 9,323 likes on this post, and many messages of encouragement, but also some nasty swipes at her personal life -- an example of what women who take public positions endure online, particularly in Russia.

 

Final Speech by Alla Gutnikova, DOXA Editor

READ the closing statement of Alla Gutnikova, one of the editors of the Moscow student journal DOXA, who are all facing prison sentences for "inciting minors to take part in illegal opposition protests”. But the speech is about so much more. (The translation was adapted from that of Michelle Panchuk.) Listen to Alla’s original here: https://doxajournal.ru/lastword-alla

“I am not going to speak of the case, the search, the interrogations, the volumes, the trials. That is boring and pointless. These days I attend the school of fatigue and frustration. But before my arrest, I had time to enroll in the school of learning how to speak about truly important things.

I would like to talk about philosophy and literature. About Benjamin, Derrida, Kafka, Arendt, Sontag, Barthes, Foucault, Agamben, about Audre Lorde and bell hooks. About Timofeeva, Tlostanova and Rachmaninova.

I would like to speak about poetry, about how to read contemporary poetry. About Gronas, Dashevsky and Borodin.

But now is not the time nor the place. I will hide my small tender words on the tip of my tongue, in the back of my throat, between my stomach and my heart. I will say just a little.

I often feel like a little fish, a birdling, a schoolgirl, a baby. But recently, I discovered with surprise that Brodsky, too, was put on trial at 23. And, since I have also been counted among the human race, I will say this:

n the Kabbala there is the concept of tikkun olam - repairing the world. I see that the world is imperfect. I believe, as wrote Yehuda Amichai, that the world was created beautiful for goodness and for peace, like a bench in a courtyard (in a courtyard, not a court!). I believe that the world was created for tenderness, hope, love, solidarity, passion, joy.

But the world is atrociously, unbearably full of violence. And I don’t want violence. In any form. No teacher’s hands in schoolgirls’ underwear, no drunken father’s fists on the bodies of wives and children. If I decided to list all the violence around us, a day wouldn’t be enough, nor a week, nor a year. My eyes are wide open. I see violence, and I don’t want violence. The more violence there is, the stronger I don’t want it. And more than anything, I don’t want the biggest and the most frightening violence.

I really love reading. I will now speak with the voices of others.

At school, in history class, I learned the phrases “You crucify freedom, but the soul of man knows no bounds” and “For your, and for our, freedom”.

In high school, I read “Requiem” by Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova, “The Steep Path” by Evgeniya Solomonovna Ginzburg, “The Closed Theater” by Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava, “The Children of Arbat” by Anatoliy Naumovich Rybakov. Of Okudzhava’s poems I loved most of all:

Conscience, honor and dignity,
There’s our spiritual army.

\

Hold out your palm to it,
For this, one fears no fire.
Its face is lofty and wonderful.
Dedicate to it your short century.
Maybe, you will never be victorious,
But you'll die as a human.

At MGIMO [Moscow State Institute of International Relations] I learned French and memorized a line from Édith Piaf: “Ça ne pouvait pas durer toujours” [“It could not last forever”]. And from Marc Robine: “Ça ne peut pas durer comme ça” [“It cannot go on like this”].

At nineteen, I traveled to Majdanek and Treblinka and learned to say “never again” in seven languages: never again, jamais plus, nie wieder, קיינמאל מער, nigdy więcej, לא עוד.

I studied Jewish sages and fell in love with two proverbs. Rabbi Hillel said: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” And Rabbi Nachman said: “The whole world is a narrow bridge, and the main thing is to have no fear at all.”

Later, I enrolled at the School of Cultural Studies and learned several more important lessons. First of all, words have meaning. Second, we must call things by their names. And finally, sapere aude, have the courage to use your own mind.

It’s ridiculous that our case has to do with schoolchildren. I taught children the humanities in English, worked as a nanny and dreamed of going with the program “Teacher for Russia” to a small town for two years to sow intelligent, kind, eternal seeds. But Russia - in the words of the state prosecuting attorney, Prosecutor Tryakin - believes that I involved underage children in life-threatening actions. If I ever have children (and I will, because I remember the greatest commandment), I will hang a picture of the Judaean governor Pontius Pilate on their wall, so they grow up in cleanliness. The governor Pontius Pilate standing and washing his hands - such will be the portrait. Yes, if thinking and feeling is now life-threatening, I don’t know what to say about the charges. I wash my hands.

And now is the moment of truth. The hour of transparency.

My friends and I don’t know what to do with ourselves from the horror and the pain, but when I descend into the metro, I don’t see tear-stained faces. I don’t see tear-stained faces.

Not a single of my favorite books - for children or adults - taught indifference, apathy, cowardice. Nowhere have I been taught the words:

we are small people
i am a simple person
it’s not so black and white
you can’t believe anyone
i am not interested in all that
i am far from politics
it’s none of my business
nothing depends on me
competent authorities will figure it out
what could i have done alone

No, I know and love very different words.

John Donne says through Hemingway:

No man is an island, all by himself. Every person is part of the Mainland, part of Land; and if a wave sweeps away a coastal cliff into the sea, Europe will become smaller. And likewise if it washes away the edge of the cape or destroys your castle or your friends. The death of every person diminishes me as well, for I am one with all of humanity. And so, don’t ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for you.

Mahmoud Darwich says:

As you prepare your breakfast — think of others
(don’t forget to feed the pigeons).
As you conduct your wars — think of others
(don’t forget those who want peace).
As you pay your water bill — think of others
(think of those who have only the clouds to drink from).
As you go home, your own home — think of others
(don’t forget those who live in tents).
As you sleep and count the stars, think of others
(there are people who have no place to sleep).
As you liberate yourself with metaphors think of others
(those who have lost their right to speak).
And as you think of distant others — think of yourself
(and say, I wish I were a candle in the darkness).

Gennady Golovaty says:

The blind cannot look with wrath,
The mute cannot yell with fury,
The armless cannot take up arms,
The legless cannot march forward.
But, the mute can look wrathfully,
But, the blind can yell furiously,
But, the legless can take up arms.
But, the armless can march forward.

I know some are terrified. They choose silence. But Audre Lorde says:
Your silence will not protect you.

In the Moscow metro, they announce:
Passengers are forbidden on the train heading to a dead end.

And the St. Petersburg [band] Aquarium adds:
This train is on fire.

Lao Tzu, through Tarkovsky, says:

And most important, let them believe in themselves, let them be helpless like children. Because weakness is a great thing, and strength is nothing. When a man is just born, he is weak and flexible. When he dies, he is hard and insensitive. When a tree is growing, it’s tender and pliant. But when it’s dry and hard, it dies. Hardness and strength are death’s companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will never win.

Remember that fear eats the soul. Remember the Kafka character who sees “a gallows being erected in the prison yard, mistakenly thinks it is the one intended for him, breaks out of his cell in the night, and goes down and hangs himself”.

Be like children. Don’t be afraid to ask (yourselves and others), what is good and what is bad. Don’t be afraid to say that the emperor has no clothes. Don’t be afraid to yell, to cry. Repeat (to yourselves and others): 2+2=4. Black is black. White is white. I am a person, strong and brave. A strong and brave woman. A strong and brave people.

Freedom is a process by which you develop the habit of being inaccessible to slavery.” 

 

 

New Buryat Anti-War Movement

An important new Buryat anti-war movement has begun that deserves attention.

Free Russia reports, with relevant background:

Since the Donbas war, ethnic Buryats from Siberia have been dubbed as the “Putin’s Buryat warriors.” It all began with the Donbas war, where the Kremlin, advancing its Novorossiya project sent Russian armed forces posing as local Donetsk separatists. And while a soldier from Pskov was visually difficult to discern from a Donetsk miner, Buryats with their clearly Asian appearance, really stood out from the local population. This is when these Buryats were humorously called the Donbass Indians. 

In Spring 2015, a 20-year-old Buryat tank crew member Dorzhi Batomunkuev, who had been severely burnt in combat in Logvinovo, gave an interview to the Russian Novaya Gazeta newspaper, in which he characterized Russian President Vladimir Putin as an insidious man who asserts to the entire world that “our military is not there,” and in reality, is pulling a fast one on the sly. Dorzhi confirmed that there are, in fact, Russian soldiers in the Donbas.

In Summer 2015, a Kremlin-backed project “The Net” released a video on behalf of “Putin’s Buryat warriors,” featuring several young men and women who attempted to contest reports in the media that Buryat soldiers participate in the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine. The crude video address is perhaps most memorable with its assertion that “the Ukrainian economy is free falling into the European pubic area of Concita Wurst,”—amplifying the Kremlin’s narratives tying European values to its supposed moral decay as manifested in acceptance of LGBTQ+ communities. 

Members of the Kyiv Buryat community published a civilized counter, but lacking the hype, it did not go viral.

Then:

Buryats who are not thrilled with being appropriated as “the Russian World” mascots, launched a campaign, releasing a new video each week, featuring Buryats who demand for the war to stop.

Due to the absurd new Russian laws, according to which even uttering “No to War” is interpreted as “discrediting the activities of the Russian military”— a transgression that comes with a real and lengthy prison sentence, the videos mainly feature Buryats who live outside of Russia. 

Dozens of Buryats have already recorded videos, including Buryats born or living in Ukraine. The campaign’s authors have collected enough materials for a series of videos. 

At this point, Buryats are the only ethnic minority of Russia who has initiated this type of campaign. 

 

Read the full piece here.

The Interpreter reported on the pro-Moscow Buryats fighting with the DNR and LNR, one of whom, Dorzhi Batomunkuev, was severely burned in a tank battle at Debaltsevo, and another who raised the LNR flag after the Russian victory at Debaltsevo.  It's vital to see there are also anti-war Buryats.

 

"Local coal miner and tractor driver raise the Novorossiya flag over Debaltsevo" https://t.co/1hNz1czsoI @SputnikATO pic.twitter.com/FiGitIlQCy

— The Interpreter (@Interpreter_Mag) February 18, 2015

 

A Buryat editor who reported critically on a variety of topics, including the war in Ukraine, was beaten and hospitalized.

 

 

Alexander Rogozhkin's "Chekist" and Refusing to Romanticize Lenin

An essay by Elena Sannikova posted on Facebook today which I hope to translate.

You can watch Chekist in full here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ksEVb2Vhcw

В память о режиссере Александре Рогожкине посмотрела его фильм "Чекист" 1992 года.

Страшный фильм.

Почему о нем мало знают? Наверно, потому, что проще этого не знать.

 

В этот фильм ткнуть бы носом всех романтиков, рассуждавших о попрании Сталиным ленинских норм. Романтизировавших образ Ленина. (Сразу вспоминается Андрей Вознесенский и прочие не казенные дифирамбы Ленину в шестидесятых). А ленинские нормы - вот они, Сталин их всего лишь упорядочил.

 

Начинается все с мысли о допустимости убийства одного человека. Заканчивается массовыми расстрелами. Которые и продолжаются - благодаря тем, кто уверен в допустимости расстрелов. Расстрельщики, кто не сойдет с ума и не повесится, тоже будут расстреляны.

 

Думаю, что многие, просматривая этот фильм, спрашивали в недоумении: неужели все действительно так и было, неужели не сгущены краски?

Было еще хуже. Просто здесь все это показали.

 

Фильм был поставлен по повести В.Зазубрина "Щепка", написанной в 1923 году. По живым следам. Некто Валериан Павлович Правдухин писал к этой повести предисловие, в котором, оправдывая весь этот ужас, хвалил ее за правдивость в описании очень даже нужной и необходимой бесчеловености. "Зазубрин художнически побеждает мещанство, индивидуализм, выжигая из нас оставшийся хлам мистических и идеалистических понятий в наших душах о нужности ненужных, остывших уже идей", "...тяжелый революционный долг...", "...внутренняя трагедия этого героя, не выдержавшего своего героического подвига..."

 

Подвига, блин...

 

Вспоминали ли Валериан Павлович эти свои строки в подвалах Лубянки во время долгого следствия? Он был расстрелян в 1938 году.

 

Кстати, несмотря на такое извращенно-хвалебное предисловие повесть все равно не напечатали.

 

Конечно, увидеть - это страшнее, чем прочесть.

 

Незащищенным душам фильм "Чекист" смотреть нельзя. Череда бессонниц после его просмотра - явление нормальное.

 

Сила этого фильма в том, что он шокирует и тех, кто достаточно уже знает и достаточно прочел о Красном терроре. Да, все именно так и было. И даже еще страшнее.

 

Просто суд истории еще не завершен.

Отчего, встречаясь, бледнеют люди

И не смеют друг другу глядеть в глаза?

Отчего у девушек в белых повязках

Восковые лица и круги у глаз?

Отчего под вечер пустеет город?

Для кого солдаты оцепляют путь?

Зачем с таким лязгом распахивают ворота?

Сегодня сколько? полтораста? сто?

Куда их гонят вдоль черных улиц,

Ослепших окон, глухих дверей?

Как рвет и крутит восточный ветер,

И жжет, и режет, и бьет плетьми!

Отчего за Чумной, по дороге к свалкам

Брошен скомканный кружевной платок?

Зачем уронен клочок бумаги?

Перчатка, нательный крестик, чулок?

Чье имя написано карандашом на камне?

Что нацарапано гвоздем на стене?

Чей голос грубо оборвал команду?

Почему так сразу стихли шаги?

Что хлестнуло во мраке так резко и четко?

Что делали торопливо и молча потом?

Зачем, уходя, затянули песню?

Кто стонал так долго, а после стих?

Чье ухо вслушивалось в шорохи ночи?

Кто бежал, оставляя кровавый след?

Кто стучался и бился в ворота и ставни?

Раскрылась ли чья-нибудь дверь перед ним?

Отчего пред рассветом к исходу ночи

Причитает ветер за Карантином:

- «Носят ведрами спелые грозды,

Валят ягоды в глубокий ров.

Аx, не грозды носят - юношей гонят

К черному точилу, давят вино,

Пулеметом дробят их кости и кольем

Протыкают яму до самого дна.

Уж до края полно давило кровью,

Зачервленели терновник и полынь кругом.

Прохватит морозом свежие грозды,

Зажелтеет плоть, заиндевеют волоса».

Кто у часовни Ильи-Пророка

На рассвете плачет, закрывая лицо?

Кого отгоняют прикладами солдаты:

- «Не реви - собакам собачья смерть!»

А она не уходит, а всё плачет и плачет

И отвечает солдату, глядя в глаза:

- «Разве я плачу о тех, кто умер?

Плачу о тех, кому долго жить...»

Максимилиан Волошин.

Бойня.

1921 год

Navalny's Fate Appears Grim Due to Western Weakness and Kremlin Brutality

This is grim -- but I think Stas is probably right about this -- the West is not going to really stand up to a nuclear power over one dissident and is preoccupied with its own disarray and COVID; Russians have been very brave in protesting but the power of the state to fire them from jobs, expel them from schools, arrest, and torture them is pretty great; the labor camp system already cripples and even still kills some people and with his health weakened by being poisoned with a chemical weapon, even Navalny, who is pretty robust, may not make it. Worse, his martyrdom or his honour after being assassinated won't change anything just as Boris Nemtsov's didn't.

Merkel, unvaccinated, may step away from the pipeline deal with the Russians, but likely not; remember how the Russians expelled 3 EU ambassadors *before* they met with the EU guy who was completely craven with Putin? Russians are used to eating kasha in Siberia, it's hard to knock them out by stopping their flow of Dutch cheese and even Apple phones -- they have their own "Gollandskiy" and the Chinese will sell them the electronics. What I do is try to translate some of this because I can't do a lot more now.

 

Facebook post by Stanislav Dmitrievsky, a long-time human rights defender in Nizhny Novgorod.

 

TRANSLATION [comments by me in brackets]

 

"Convoyed in an unknown direction" -- very likely to Golgotha [remember that's what we call Calvary, where Jesus was crucified; i.e. already missing while being transferred from isolation investigation prison to a labor colony, standard procedure].

 

I fear that the life of Alexey Navalny isn't worth a busted penny. He is entirely under the complete power of murderers, who realize that neither Russian society, nor the West, are prepared for decisive responses. I don't see (God hope I'm wrong) not a single restraining factor which could outweigh Putin's wish to bring this to the conclusion already begun.

The Europe Court, with its "interim measures" was demonstratively told to go do something unpleasant to itself -- and the Council of Europe as usual wiped itself and went in the direction indicated by the Kremlin. The protests died out as quickly as they had begun, and the [Russian] liberal intelligentsia now enthusiastically discusses who should get a statue put up in the council, Gog or Magog [hostile countries in the Bible; the reference is to a vote now underway as to whether Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Kievan Rus', i.e. the historical founder of Russia beloved by nationalists or Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the secret police, whose statue was toppled in the resistance in the 1991 coup, should be honored].

 

Even Amnesty International unexpectedly undermined, in a rare timely move, its legendary principled nature. Well, go on, tell me, what will Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] now be embarrassed to do or will fear? New sanctions against a dozen killers, who weren't going to travel abroad anyway in a 100 years? [The EU and US have responded to Navalny's sentencing by sanctioning figures like Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee, that is, the Grand Inquisitor, who should have been sanctioned 7 or 10 years ago]. Don't make my novichoks laugh [the poison used to poison Navalny and others]

 

We can only pray, asking God for a miracle...

No, Russia is Not a Cream Puff

Dmitry Prigozhin, not just Putin's "chef" with military food contracts and support of paramilitaries (the Wagner group), but creator of the Internet Research Agency which the Mueller Investigation rightly indicted as responsible for attempts to interfere in American elections.

The New Yorker capitulation to Moscow today is a turning point for the left, and not a good one, and I've had some short comments on Twitter about it. I'll get to more linear rebuttals in due course, I hope. But meanwhile I was moved to answer Some Guy on Facebook who was a friend of a friend, someone I don't know, who basically articulated the "received wisdom" you hear a lot these days here and there, to wit:

 

I would like to point out before I give my opinion, modestly at best, that I am a college graduate for a small state school with no where near the academic background of most of the people putting out their opinions herein. So, with that in mind and to keep it really brief, here is my point. You all are concerned about the wrong enemy! Russia is a cream puff in the world today and not much else since it has a GDP is less than the state of Texas by itself. It does have the worlds largest nuclear capabilities followed by the United States and in a smaller part so does India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, France, North Korea and probably Israel as well as one or two other countries that suspected to have a few themselves. China ain't our friend, it is a communist country and has created the largest navy in the world and is boosting up it's creation of nuclear weapons at a fever pace today. It has hacked our internet services more than the Russian or North Korean hackers, it has stolen our governmental secrets, it has a vast number of students here in the US who are not all but,most are considered spies. Recently it has turned more than 20 american professors at major universities to spying for it, and stealing valuable trade and business secrets. It has endeared itself to many poor African countries for a portion of their valuable mineral assets and placed military bases in their countries. It is a threat to our economy as it has the second largest GDP in the world. It is stroking disunion and disconnect within the United States, it has a marriage with Google, YouTube and other tech giants (which by the way are admitting that they only censor content that they consider dangerous but allow other dangerous comments to be published) and of course the NBA. It is the magician that is getting the audience to look at something else on the one hand while it prepares to destroy our country on the other hand. You can look to Russia, if you want but the threat is going to come from the east.

 

I don't expect someone like you to change your settled opinion on this, which you regard as wisdom and thinking outside the box, which makes it all the more unassailable. But you don't have to have a Ph.D., and I certainly don't have one, to grasp all the fallacies here in your statements.

 

One of the most interesting admissions I ever heard was from a Pentagon official, that they regretted not paying attention to Russia in the 1990s and thinking they could cross them off the list of threats because they now had a democratic government and their economy was in a shambles. Yeah, he got that right, because you don't need the GDP of a Germany or even a China to do enormous damage in the world. Threats are not decided by GDP amounts. If they were we would not have troops in Afghanistan. When the Department of Defense issues its annual report, they identify an array of enemies. They don't say, gosh, we have to pick just one because that's all we can focus on, we need to harbour our resources, and gosh, these other guys don't even have milk in the stores. No. They identify China, Russia, Iran and others, and for different reasons.

 

Russia influenced the US elections. That is not disputed. If you still have a problem with accepting that, go and talk to David who just posted what he posted and he may help you out. It did, and goes on doing so. That's insidious and undermines democracy and more of a problem than China, which doesn't get into politics in that way, but cares more about the economy. If you think no, it's not a problem because you hate Hillary even if you don't like Trump, so let the Russians have their way, you're not grasping how much bigger it is, everwhere, what they do, in many ways, which is about undermining faith in faith itself, about inciting cynicism and indifference and disbelief that truth can be found.

 

China pragmatically steals economic information and tries to harm rivals in business. But we're also heavily integrated with China, e.g. providing cheap shoes for our children going back to school (or at least before COVID), and backpacks and pencils and lunchboxes, just to site one big visible thing now for every family. So you don't lightly declare the supplier of your children's cheap shoes and lunchboxes an enemy until you have more of a game plan. Obama seemed to swing wildly on this with his pivot; Trump does as well. Perhaps he thinks keeping China off balance is a strategy. My own entirely uninformed opinion on China, merely based on meeting them at the UN for years, is that they are an ancient civilization, they can wait anything out they need to, they can appear to be "flexible" even as they do not budge at all; they are big, we are small, we should deter and contain and stay out of their way and encourage them to be better. But then the consequences are that we have to defend Japan and other smaller countries in their way. China didn't use to project force outside its borders; now it does occasionally, and has far more reach economically with oil projects in Africa and Asia. Are economic enemies or political and military enemies worse? Well, why even debate that? Both are worse, as they say in Odessa and we can make policies about all of them. More visa denials to China will help stop some of the mayhem -- not like it's a Texas 7-lane highway going out from our side, it's a cow-path.

 

You could worry about African countries that first the West, then the Russians exploited, but then, their dictators and terrorists are no fun, either. You could leave them to China, like we left Central Asia to China, with mixed results (the only way Turkmen labour standards were ever raised in history was not by Russia, and not by American NGO do-gooders, but by China who wanted to get the gas out. But China now owns half of Kazakhstan). Life is filled with unpleasant realities like that which governments have to sort through and pick their moments to fight.

 

There isn't any magician doing anything, other than the magician of the US media that has Twitter as an assignment editor and now managing editor. What American doesn't get it about China, at some level? But real people doing real things in the world don't listen to that noise more than they need to, and try to deal with these situations.

 

Meanwhile, Russia is indeed a danger. If you think you can sacrifice Georgia, South Abakhazia, Ukraine and now Belarus to them, and it doesn't matter, look at the map and think again. There is a reason they speak of "Londongrad". The way the State Department blocks Russian mayhem is by having the Treasury Department designate individuals who cannot go on buying Virginia ranches here. Because they have bought a lot. So that is important to keep doing.

 

The idea that Google only deals with China and has sold out to China is some partial understanding that I don't know where to begin to dispel. Its founder, Sergei Brin, may not have endeared himself to Putin by calling Russia "Nigeria with snow," which is true to a certain extent, but then Sergei has hired a legion of literally hundreds of thousands of Russian computer programmers who did not give up their Russian citizenship, and who as members of the VPK (military-industrial complex) are loyal to Putin while sunning in California.

 

This "fourth wave" of emigres are the worst I've ever seen come out of Russia. They are cynical, rapacious and they hate America, even if they have a job from its riches and even live here. It's from this milieu and from international "business" that you get all the Russian-American or Russian-European emigre thugs around Trump. So again, you don't have the luxury to pick one enemy. You have different tactics and different priorities. The tactic with Russia remains the same as 1947: containment and deterrence. There isn't anything better. The idea that you make our own society better and more resilient and fix its problems with racism or health care -- and then that better positions you to deal with Russia -- is nice as a fantasy, but in fact we did that for eight years under Obama and it didn't work -- Putin invaded first Georgia, then Ukraine -- both our military allies in the war in Iraq, like it or not (it's a war I opposed); it has gone on to cause enormous havoc. Poisoning the top opposition figure and having Germany confirm it is an enormously big event. That Germany will likely go on buying oil and gas from Russia means that nothing can change. Maybe, but not likely.

 

Finally, I'm not aware of any international body that looks at nuclear threats by lining up random lists of countries, and deciding that taken together, those countries are worse or better by the numbers than Russia or the USA. I mean, that's just silly. Israel is an ally and does not aim nuclear weapons at us. France's force de frappe is a legacy of the horror of World War I and is not aimed at us. India is ostensibly our ally and supplies Google with engineers, too, and is not aimed at us. Out of that list, Pakistan is a threat, and North Korea -- allied with Russia BTW -- is of course a potential threat. But Russia's tanks and planes; it's nuclear weapons; they are aimed at the West, and that's how you calibrate threats, not by adding up random lemons and oranges.

 

More people died from car accidents and heart attacks than from terrorism, goes one of the particularly vapid forms of anti-militarism, but you know, car accidents are...accidents. You can control smoking and cholesterol and reduce heart attacks. Terrorism is random and effective for that reason. So you do get to spend more time and resources preventing terrorism in the world, you don't go by your low numbers this year in New Jersey, you look at the whole map of the world and see where it has increased in Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, etc. and work it out accordingly.

 

I'm done here. I find it unproductive to argue with friends of friends on Facebook that falls below the fold in 45 minutes. I actually bothered with this because I'm going to put it on my blog and hopefully make more time for it now because of the left's announcement today that they are dropping Russia as a "thing" -- just like you, and you aren't anywhere near as left as they are. David was right to try to rustle up some reality checks from his social circles, but it's hopeless. I, too, find it hard to take seriously when Google and Twitter send me sober messages that my account has been hacked by "a government". I don't think that government is Canada.

Was Kremlin Propagandist Konstantin Rykov Hosting Pro-Trump Russian-Language Web Sites? Notes from 2016

By Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

I had meant to publish this before but set it aside when so many people discouraged me, but now that Konstantin Rykov is being discussed again for his Facebook "revelations," I'll put this out there.

There's this thread:https://www.facebook.com/konstantin.rykov/posts/10210621124674610

(THREAD) This is the most stunning revelation in the Trump/Russia investigation yet. My brother Brian @krassenstein predicted something like this was coming very soon, just days ago & here it is! Konstantin Rykov who is known as a Kremlin Propagandist with close ties to Putin (1)

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) November 25, 2017

FWIW, I don't think it's the most stunning revelation, but a problem with all the Trump/Russia stuff is that there are such masses of stuff that it is hard to get the whole picture. Of course, I trust Mueller to get this whole picture more than I do Twitter sleuths. We'll see.

These notes are from November 2, 2016. I showed this to three different techies, they all dismissed it with varying degrees of scorn as such people always do. This was done in the course of researching this four-part series of articles in which we went through all of Trump's Russia connections -- and we were hardly the only journalists to do this. The story of his connection to the Agalarovs, although some are just discovering this on Twitter now, has been known for years.

BEGIN

Look up Trump2016.ru to see what it's IP address is in numerical terms.

So here:

http://ru.whatmyip.co/info/whois/87.242.78.131/k/3679097392/website/trump2016.ru

2. That gives you 87.242.78.131

So look up 87.242.78.131 to see what else it might host.

3. Go here: 

http://hostingcompass.com/

 

Then plug in 87.242.78.131

And you get this:

 

IP Address	87.242.78.131
IP Reverse	-
Websites	We found 2 websites attached to this IP address. ·         rykov.ru ·         http://hostingcompass.com/site/rykov.media

 

 

So if Rykov.ru has 87.242.78.131 AND Trump2016.ru turns out ALSO to be hosted on 87.242.78.131, they are likely related.

Why? Because he's likely to use the same hosting company. 

To be sure, if there were 10 or 100 things on that same server, all kinds of shopping sites and such, you could say, oh, that may only be a coincidence since all of those sites are using the same service to mask their identities.

Except read what Hosting Compass says -- rykov.ru and rykov.media are ATTACHED to 87.242.78.131 -- exactly.

The dozen shopping sites are only in the RANGE close to that number.

So let's say Rykov has gone to the trouble to contract a web host. According to this site, he could create sub-domains on his main domain. Whether or not it's a good practice it's still something he could do.

 

https://www.thesitewizard.com/domain/multiple-websites-one-domain.shtml

 

In any event, the question to ask is whether it is possible for 87.242.78.131, the Trump site, to also be the same IP address for other completely unrelated sites.

And given that Hosting Compass tells us no, it's only two Rykov sites, that suggests they are related.

Yes, I totally realize that one server could host multiple things. For example, in Second Life, where I rent servers, this is a big annoyance. They have dynamically rotating servers. So you never know if some days you are sharing a server, say, with a furry club, with a shoutcast stream and 40 avatars lagging the server then. There were even some nerds who published this information about your "secret sharers" so that you could complain to the company if you got stuck with a club. 

But in this case, if Hosting Compass repeatedly shows only 2 other sites attached to that address that we know to be the Trump2016 address, it seems likely it's Rykov.

The other site has a trail like that as well, only a bit more complicated, leading to NOD.

So the Russian-language Trump site with masked registration [link] happens to share a domain with Rykov, the Kremlin propagandist.

Probably just a coincidence [link]. Unrelated entities can share servers but needs more research.

 

"So another Russian-language Trump site registered the same day but with a different masking service happens to show okkupantu.ru and hooks up

to ultranationalist anti-American NOD [Russian Liberation Movement]. Even more likely a coincidence?"

 

It's my conviction that the 1st site ties up to Rykov as it consistently shows only his two sites attached. The 2nd site is much more of a grab bug showing hundreds of sites, and only sometimes okkupant.ru, which definitely might be a random coincidence then -- or not.

 

The billing may be standard in the services, they send them out in batches, people renew the same day who are unrelated. That is, I don't think that's the reason these two sites have the same payment date, I think it's a clue they are FSB or at least Rykov, but since it IS an explanation for why they could have a payment date I have to accept it.

Here's an email I sent to colleagues October 25, 2016:

 

Hi,

 

It seems Konstantin Rykov is hosting the Russian-language Trump site.

 

It has a masked registration:

 

domain:        TRUMP2016.RU

nserver:       ns1.goodoo.ru.

nserver:       ns2.goodoo.ru.

state:         REGISTERED, DELEGATED, VERIFIED

person:        Private Person

registrar:     REGISTRATOR-RU

admin-contact: https://cp.mastername.ru/domain_feedback/

created:       2015.08.17

paid-till:     2017.08.17

free-date:     2017.09.17

source:        TCI

 

But the IP shows this:

 

http://hostingcompass.com/whois/87.242.78.131

 

He's one of the top Kremlin propagandists on social media.

 

Cathy

 

END

 

Basically, no geek wants to make these kinds of connections, because in the rigid yes/no or 0/1 world in which they think, if you can't demonstrate something 100% or if there is even 1% possibility of error, then the entire thing becomes invalid. This is why it is so hard to move forward on stories like the Alfa servers and the Trump servers. In the world of organic law, as distinct from code-as-law, there are concepts such as "probable cause" or "beyond a reasonable doubt" which allow for common sense and logic. In their world, geeks can't afford to think in terms of 1% not throwing the entire thing off; programs stop working when a single comma is out of place. They have warped their own thinking to accommodate machines, which means that even this kind of coincidence among servers can't ever convince them. Worse, they heap scorn on you for even making this connection, or worse, ridicule for not having some bigger "data dump" to their liking that is "certified". This is why we can't have nice things...

 

But you look at all this sort of thing over time, as I did (it may not be discoverable now, I haven't checked), you combine it with ages of watching Rykov in action (as I have done) and reading his "tell-all" FB page and all, it doesn't seem outlandish that Rykov would sponsor a Russian-language pro-Trump page to ensure the Russian emigre vote in the US, which isn't trivial. Or even that NOD would even be related, it's consistent enough with the weirdness of NOD (remember when their propagandists were killed in the Donbass with one of the top pro-Kremlin war correspondents?). I've always thought NOD was made up out of whole cloth, the way Zhirinovsky once was.

 

I think there could be other explanations for Rykov seemingly getting a DM from Trump. Someone among his friends could have sent it and he didn't realize it. Trump or his aide could have seen something and in fact written to him in DM but they do that routinely with everybody. And so on. It's not like you have to be a friend of someone to send them a Messenger DM.