KYIV — A documentary made by three of the last journalists to escape Mariupol as Russian forces destroyed the city in spring 2022 has been nominated for an Academy Award.
The documentary “20 Days In Mariupol,” made by Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko and co-produced by Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath of the Associated Press, was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature Film category at this year’s upcoming Oscars.
The documentary tells the story of the first days of the Russian invasion of Mariupol, which is now fully controlled by Kremlin forces after a merciless assault that left tens of thousands of people dead.
While Russia has blamed Ukraine for the city’s destruction, “20 Days In Mariupol” is a unique chronicle of what actually happened in the early days of Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Ukrainian citizens survived in basements, their food and water supplies cut off, while Kremlin troops bombed hospitals, theaters, and other civilian infrastructure.
The 96th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 10 in Los Angeles. Last year, a film about imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny won in the documentary category.
An increasingly belligerent Russian President Vladimir Putin could attack the NATO military alliance in less than a decade, Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned.
“We hear threats from the Kremlin almost every day … so we have to take into account that Vladimir Putin might even attack a NATO country one day,” Pistorius told German outlet Der Tagesspiegel in an interview published Friday.
While a Russian attack is not likely “for now,” the minister added: “Our experts expect a period of five to eight years in which this could be possible.”
Following the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has upped its aggressive rhetoric against some of its neighbors — including the Baltic countries and Poland, which are all members of NATO, and Moldova — prompting top European defense officials to warn of the risk of a major conflict.
On Wednesday, the chair of NATO’s military committee of national chiefs Admiral Rob Bauer said the military alliance faced “the most dangerous world in decades” and called for a “warfighting transformation of NATO.”
Earlier this month, Sweden’s commander-in-chief General Micael Bydén similarly called on Swedes to “prepare themselves mentally” for war.
The same day, Sweden’s Minister for Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin also warned that “war could come to Sweden.”
In his interview with Der Tagesspiegel, Pistorius said the Swedish warnings were “understandable from a Scandinavian perspective,” adding that Sweden faced “an even more serious situation,” given its proximity to Russia. It is also not yet a member of the NATO alliance, waiting for approval from Turkey and Hungary to join.
“But we also have to learn to live with danger again and prepare ourselves — militarily, socially and in terms of civil defense,” Pistorius warned.
Poland, which is spending more than 4 percent of its GDP on defense this year, is also worried about Russia’s unpredictability following the unexpected attack on Ukraine in 2022.
“Russia is defying logic. What happened in 2022 seemed impossible. We must be ready for any scenario,” Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said in a television interview earlier this week.
Late last year, Germany revamped its military and strategic doctrine for the first time since 2011, aiming to turn the Bundeswehr into a war-capable military.
“War has returned to Europe. Germany and its allies once again have to deal with a military threat. The international order is under attack in Europe and around the globe. We are living in a turning point,” said the first paragraph of the new doctrine.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, an outspoken Putin critic who has been one of the loudest voices in support of Ukraine in the EU, on Thursday called on Europe to speed up preparations for more Russian aggression.
“There’s a chance that Russia might not be contained in Ukraine,” Landsbergis told French newswire AFP at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “There is no scenario in this that if Ukraine doesn’t win, that could end well for Europe,” he warned.
A Russian soldier who was severely wounded while fighting in Ukraine has received only two buckets of carrots and a bag of onions from the government instead of the money his family thought he would receive, according to a new report.
The report was published on Tuesday by the independent investigative outlet Mozhem Obyasnit (We Can Explain), which reportedly interviewed the soldier’s wife for the story.
The Mozhem Obyasnit article said Oleg Rybkin, 45, was mobilized from Russia’s Volgograd region to fight in Ukraine in September 2022. In June, Rybkin was in combat near the village of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. As the outlet noted, Robotyne was the site of fierce fighting during the summer phase of Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive until Kyiv declared it had liberated the village from Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s forces in late August.
While serving in Robotyne, Rybkin “was wounded in the abdomen, liver, kidneys” and his “right knee joint was destroyed,” Mozhem Obyasnit wrote.
A Ukrainian soldier walks past a destroyed car near the village of Robotyne, in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine on October 1, 2023. A Russian soldier who was reportedly injured badly while in combat in Robotyne has received only some vegetables as compensation from the government, his wife tells an investigative website. Photo by ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP via Getty Images
Rybkin reportedly underwent an operation at a local hospital in Ukraine before undergoing abdominal surgery at a hospital in Sevastopol, Crimea. Russia’s military medical commission then deemed Rybkin to be “temporarily unfit” to fight, and he was sent to Saint Petersburg for further rehabilitation.
The soldier’s wife, Irina Rybkina, described her husband as being in extreme pain and in need of a knee surgery that he never received. Nevertheless, he was soon reportedly made to return to his unit.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense via email on Wednesday night for comment.
“He has severe pain, his knee cannot straighten, and he cannot walk without crutches. He’s on painkillers and sleeping pills,” Irina told Mozhem Obyasnit, which published a photo on its website of what is said was an extract from her husband’s medical record.
Medical professionals have told Irina that her spouse needs a knee replacement procedure, but she claimed that Russia’s military command doesn’t want to be forced to pay the 3 million rubles ($32,730) in compensation and a lifelong pension that Oleg would receive if he’s found permanently unfit to serve.
Instead of the rubles and a pension, Irina told Mozhem Obyasnit that the only help Russian government officials have given her family is in the form of two buckets of carrots and a bag of onions grown by local farmers.
“What vegetables, what gifts, do I need to replace my husband’s joint and get him discharged!” she said.
Mozhem Obyasnit reported that Oleg is currently back serving in his unit while using crutches.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
KYIV — The last time Valentyna Tkachenko, a 35-year-old mother of two from Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, saw her husband Serhii was just before Russia invaded her country.
Serhii, a National Guard soldier, was captured on February 24 of last year, the day Moscow launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine. His unit was guarding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant when it was attacked by the Russians. When the Russian military retreated from Chernobyl and the rest of the Kyiv region at the end of March, they took Serhii and 167 other POWs with them.
Since then, the wives of the captured soldiers have only heard from them once — a short handwritten note: “I am alive, everything is OK,” sent more than six months after they were taken prisoner.
Like thousands of other relatives of Ukrainian POWs, Tkachenko has contacted Ukrainian authorities and the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and had written four letters, but heard nothing back until November 29. That’s the day she got a video call on the Viber messaging app.
“It was Serhii. We talked only for three minutes. I was not allowed to ask him questions. As soon as I tried, he shook his head and just said no. Instead, he kept saying: ‘Valya, go make things hard for Kyiv. Kyiv does not want to take us back,’” Tkachenko recalled. “Then he said he was sorry and ended the call, promising to call me back if he ever has a chance.”
Tkachenko didn’t go off to demonstrate against the government, although family protests have taken place in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Petro Yatsenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s coordinating staff on the treatment of prisoners of war, told POLITICO that other families have received similar calls from soldiers being held by the Russians.
“A person has not heard from a relative for more than a year, and here he calls and says that he is alive. Russians are ready to exchange him, but Ukraine does nothing. Recently these calls became massive. So, we understood that this is a campaign to cause distrust in the government,” Yatsenko said.
It’s a stark change in policy from the first year of the war, when the two sides regularly exchanged prisoners. In all, 2,598 people have returned from Russian captivity during 48 swaps, according to the Ukrainian military. However, the last major exchange was on August 7.
“It has really slowed down due to reasons from the Russian Federation, but there are very specific reasons for this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv this week.
Playing politics with POWs
The Russian refusal to exchange POWs appears aimed at inflaming tensions in Ukrainian society, where dissatisfaction with Zelenskyy is rising in the wake of this year’s disappointing counteroffensive, and the mood is turning grim as crucial aid for Ukraine stalls in the U.S. Senate and Hungary blocks the EU’s efforts to boost civilian and military help for Kyiv.
Tkachenko thinks her family, as well as other prisoners of war, have become tools in a political game.
Anastasiia Bugera with her boyfriend Kostyantyn Ivanov | Anastasiia Bugera for POLITICO
“They started so well, exchanging so many. But then suddenly it all stopped. I think Russians want to discredit our government. People are exhausted, and POWs’ relatives are losing their temper. They want to cause havoc,” Tkachenko said bitterly.
A large number of the Ukrainian POWs were captured following the bloody siege of Mariupol, a coastal city where Ukrainian troops held out for three months of ferocious attacks before surrendering the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in May 2022.
Anastasiia Bugera, 22, from the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine, has not spoken to her boyfriend, 24-year-old Kostyantyn Ivanov, since March 2022. She was in Russian-occupied Izyum when Ivanov was ordered to surrender alongside several thousand other Azovstal defenders.
“I managed to call his mother from our neighbor’s outdoor toilet one day. She told me he was trying to call me and failed. I cried so hard standing in that toilet,” Bugera said. The toilet was the only place she could get a connection as the Russians were trying to block mobile signals. Izyum was liberated by the Ukrainians in September 2022.
“We have not had the opportunity to even say hello to each other. They were promised to be in captivity only for three to four months. But Russia lied,” Bugera said.
Ukraine has managed to exchange only a few dozen Azovstal defenders, including the commanders of the Azov Regiment, but thousands of regular troops, police and border guards captured in Mariupol are still being held. According to the Azovstal families’ association, Russia does not want to exchange them. Instead, families occasionally see them on videos from Russian courts, malnourished, exhausted, and on trial accused of war crimes. Russia continues to block any direct communication with them.
Life in prison
As of today, Russia holds more than 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers and some 28,000 civilians, the Ukrainian ombudsman’s office and reintegration ministry said. However, the real number may be even higher.
“For example, some of those who are in captivity have not been confirmed yet. Those people are still considered ‘missing’ although we have information they might be in captivity,” Yatsenko said.
The Ukrainians have not said how many Russians they hold, but they have so many that they’re building a second POW camp to hold them. Russians are also being held in a special facility in western Ukraine and housed in cells in pretrial detention centers.
“I would say during the counteroffensive Ukraine managed to increase the POWs exchange fund that was already big because of the stalled exchanges,” Yatsenko said. “But we are ready to accommodate all Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, in case they decide to surrender.”
Ukraine says it is treating its POWs according to international rules, but accuses Russia of mistreating its prisoners.
“More than 90 percent of prisoners of war whom we interview after their return say that they were subjected to torture, deprivation of sufficient nutrition and sleep,” Yatsenko said. “People are being forced to burn out tattoos or to consume only Russian propaganda. They are not allowed to communicate with relatives.”
A photo Kostyantyn Ivanov sent to his relatives from Mariupol, where he was fighting against overwhelming Russian forces together with thousands of other Azovstal Steel Mill defenders | Anastasiia Bugera for POLITICO
Russia insists it is treating its POWs well.
Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatiana Moskalkova on November 30 visited 119 Ukrainian POWs and said they were being held in conditions that correspond to international standards.
“Many of them reported that they were allowed to call their relatives by phone by the competent Russian authorities,” Moskalkova said in a statement published a day after Tkachenko got the video call from her husband.
Moskalkova said that arrangements are being made with her Ukrainian counterpart to allow for mutual visits.
The International Committee of the Red Cross visits POWs on both sides of the front — so far seeing 2,300 of them — but Russia hasn’t fully opened its facilities to outside inspection and the ICRC is institutionally limited in its ability to criticize countries out of fear that its access will be cut off.
“We are painfully aware that there are POWs that we still have not visited, and this is why we are constantly working towards improving our access to the places where they are held. We have also delivered more than 3,800 personal messages between POWs and their loved ones, on top of facilitating the exchanges of over 9,300 letters from and to prisoners of war,” said Achille Després, the ICRC spokesperson in Ukraine.
He refused to reveal any information about the specific conditions in which POWs are held.
“Our goal is to work directly with the detaining authorities, to influence towards the concrete improvement of the interment conditions and remind the relevant states of their legal obligations, notably that POWs must at all times be treated humanely and their rights upheld, as well as their integrity, dignity and privacy respected,” he said.
Hoping for release
With big prisoner exchanges frozen, the only way captured soldiers can make it back to their own side is in informal battlefield swaps between commanders.
“Unfortunately, such sporadic exchanges cannot replace the ones at the state level,” Yatsenko said.
In his news conference, Zelenskyy said he hopes to see a change of policy that will allow for a resumption of prisoner exchanges.
“We are now working to bring back a fairly decent number of our guys. God willing, we will succeed,” he said.
Ukraine hopes to jar the Kremlin into restarting swaps thanks to the growing number of Russian POWs it’s holding.
“As soon as we accumulate, if you’ll forgive me the language, the appropriate stockpile of enemy resources, we exchange them for our Ukrainian defenders … I really hope that our pathway will soon be activated,” Zelenskyy said.
Russia fired off a fresh barrage of strikes at Ukraine on New Year’s Eve, launching nearly 100 Shahed loitering munitions against cities across the country. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said their air defense forces had shot down 87 of the Iranian-made drones.
A 15-year-old boy was killed and seven people were wounded after debris from one of the drones that was downed hit a residential building in Odesa, the head of the regional administration said according to the Associated Press.
The latest holiday launch came on the heels of an air attack on Friday, during which the Ukrainian Air Force brought down 114 of 158 projectiles fired by Russia. Kyiv said Friday’s bombardment, the biggest of the war, had killed at least 45 people.
National unity took center stage during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s New Year address to the nation, though the president only referenced the war obliquely. He praised Russian troops — but did not mention Ukraine by name, nor did he make direct reference to the so-called special military operation, Kremlin-speak for the war in Ukraine.
“What united us and unites us is the fate of the Fatherland, a deep understanding of the highest significance of the historical stage through which Russia is passing,” Putin said to the nation. Putin said Russia would never retreat and there was no force that could divide Russians and stop the country’s development, the AP reported citing state media.
On Saturday, Ukrainian strikes against Belgorod, a Russian city approximately 35 kilometers from the border, killed at least two dozen and wounded more than 100, according to regional Russian authorities — but the attack did not feature in Putin’s four-minute video message.
In his midnight address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked 676 days of war by commending the resilience of Ukraine’s citizens and soldiers and highlighting Ukraine’s invitation to join the European Union.
“We do not know for certain what the new year will bring us,” Zelenskyy said, with Ukraine’s counteroffensive largely stalled and the increasing likelihood of stalemate across the front. “But this year we can add: whatever it brings, we will be stronger.”
KYIV — Ukraine’s spies aim to intensify intelligence operations and conduct sabotage strikes deep in Russian-controlled territory next year to bring the war as close to the Kremlin as possible, the head of Ukraine’s SBU security service told POLITICO.
“We cannot disclose our plans. They should remain a shocker for the enemy. We prepare surprises,” Major General Vasyl Malyuk said in written responses to questions. “The occupiers must understand that it will not be possible to hide. We will find the enemy everywhere.”
While he dodged specifics, Malyuk did give some hints. Logistics targets and military assets in occupied Ukrainian territory are likely to continue to be a focus. And then there are strikes that hit the enemy across the border.
“We are always looking for new solutions. So, cotton will continue to burn,” Malyuk joked.
Ukrainians use the word “cotton” to describe explosions in Russia and the occupied territories of Ukraine organized by Ukrainian special services. It came from Russian media and officials describing the growing number of such incidents with the word khlopok, which means both “blast” and “cotton” in Russian.
With combat along hundreds of kilometers of front lines essentially stalled for much of this year, the exploits of the SBU both boost Ukrainian morale and also hurt Russia’s war fighting abilities.
“The SBU carries out targeted point strikes. We stab the enemy with a needle right in the heart. Each of our special operations pursues a specific goal and gives its result. All this in a complex complicates the capabilities of the Russian Federation for waging war and brings our victory closer,” Malyuk said.
One area of focus will be Crimea and the Black Sea, building on this year’s operations.
Malyuk’s pet project is the Sea Baby drone, called malyuk in Ukrainian, which means “little guy.” The drone carries about 850 kilograms of explosives and is able to operate in stormy conditions, making it difficult to detect.
“With the help of those little guys we are gradually pushing the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation out of Crimea,” Malyuk said.
It’s been used to attack the Kerch Bridge that links occupied Crimea to mainland Russia in July as well as to hammer Russian ships.
In October 2022 the SBU’s marine drones attacked Sevastopol Bay damaging four Russian warships. This year, the drones hit two missile carriers, a tanker, an amphibious assault ship and also damaged a large military tugboat and Russia’s newest reconnaissance and hydrographic ship.
Malyuk’s pet project is the Sea Baby drone, called malyuk in Ukrainian, which means “little guy.” The drone carries about 850 kilograms of explosives and is able to operate in stormy conditions, making it difficult to detect | Courtesy of the Security Service of Ukraine
That forced Moscow to shift much of the fleet away from its base in occupied Sevastopol in Crimea, leaving the west of the sea free of Russian vessels and allowing Ukraine to resume use of its ports for shipping.
The Kerch Bridge is still standing after a 2022 truck bomb attack and this year’s strike, but is only partially open, Malyuk said.
“It is a legitimate target for us, according to international law and the rules of war. Ukrainian law also allows us to attack this object. And we have to destroy the logistics of our enemy,” Malyuk added.
Malyuk said that Kyiv carefully considers its targets before striking — an effort to stay within the rules of war in contrast with Russia, which has fired missiles, artillery and drones at both military and civilian targets.
“When planning and preparing its special operations, the SBU carefully selects its targets. We work on military facilities or on those that the enemy uses to carry out their military tasks. We act fully by the norms of international law,” Malyuk said.
The SBU conducts most of its operations on Ukraine’s territory — in Donbas, Crimea and the Black Sea.
“This is our land and we will use all possible methods to free it from the occupiers,” Malyuk said.
When it comes to planning something in Russia, SBU says it focuses only on targets used for military purposes like logistical corridors for supplying weapons — like the rail tunnel in Siberia hit with two explosions (the SBU hasn’t claimed responsibility) as well as warships, military bases and similar targets.
“All SBU operations you hear about are exclusively our work and our unique technical development,” Malyuk said. “These operations became possible, in particular, because we develop and implement our technical solutions.”
Ukrainian military intelligence recently published audio of what it said was an intercepted phone call in which two Russian soldiers express their frustrations by suggesting they lead a mutiny against the Kremlin, though it is not clear how serious the two men are about the concept.
The audio was originally posted by Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate (GUR) on its Telegram channel on December 8, but the Kyiv Post translated the conversation for a Thursday story.
Newsweek could not independently verify the authenticity of the call, and the Russian Ministry of Defense was emailed on Thursday night for comment.
GUR frequently posts audio of what it says are intercepted communications involving Russian troops. The calls typically serve as examples of low morale among Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s forces in Ukraine. In October, GUR shared a clip of a Russian soldier reportedly talking about being too weak from lack of food to wear his bulletproof vest.
Russian guards stand near the Kremlin on June 24, 2023, in Moscow. Ukraine’s military posted audio of what it said was two Russian soldiers discussing a march on Moscow in protest of them not being granted leave. Photo by Getty Images
The Kyiv Post wrote that the GUR’s posted audio was a call between a Russian soldier stationed on the front lines and another fighter who was undergoing treatment in a military hospital.
During the call, the soldier still on the front lines told his friend that he hasn’t “been on vacation for years,” prompting the wounded fighter to ask when he’d be going home.
“I wish I knew,” the first soldier answered, according to the Kyiv Post‘s translation.
When the first soldier asked how many other troops are being treated at the hospital, the wounded figther said there were “more than 500 people” before adding that “many more will come.”
Describing the combat landscape, the soldier still stationed on the front lines said “everything is the same as it used to be,” adding that he would soon be moving to Synkivka, a village about six miles northeast of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv Oblast.
“They’re making it difficult for us, squeezing our rights everywhere,” the wounded man said, per the Kyiv Post. “The second year has passed, darn it! If I hadn’t been injured, I would have stayed there.”
The soldier on the front lines then complains about how contract soldiers—troops hired by a private military company—have been granted time off while formal military servicemen have not.
“We only have contract soldiers who go on vacation,” he said.
The soldier on the battlefield continues, talking about the growing frustration among Russia’s ranks and makes a suggestion about leading a march against the Kremlin.
“Soon, we’ll gather a crowd and head towards Russia,” the frontline soldier said.
“That’s it! I think so too,” the wounded fighter replied. “At some point, you’ll become so fed up that you’ll grab the MT-LB [armored vehicle] and get out of there.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Russian President Vladimir Putin would prefer an American president who is “more constructive” toward Russia and understands the “importance of the dialogue” between the two countries, the Kremlin said on Friday.
Asked whether Putin could work with the Republican front-runner in the U.S. election, former President Donald Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told broadcaster NBC News that the Russian leader would be ready to work with “anyone who will understand that from now on, you have to be more careful with Russia and you have to take into account its concerns.”
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, relations between the West and Moscow have deteriorated, with Washington and its allies imposing wide-ranging sanctions on individuals and entities having links with Moscow regime.
Moscow has long accused the West of igniting and sustaining the war, with Putin saying: “Ukraine has become hostage of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters, which have effectively occupied the country.”
In the interview with NBC, Peskov repeated Moscow’s accusation that the United States of causing the war in Ukraine. “It is a hybrid war that the United States is orchestrating against our country,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow has “no interest” in attacking a NATO member and called U.S. President Joe Biden’s warning that Russia would do so if it wins the war in Ukraine “complete nonsense.”
Biden earlier this month warned that “if Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there,” and will attack NATO countries resulting in “American troops fighting Russian troops.”
Putin said Biden’s words were just an attempt to support “mistaken policy” toward Russia and the war in Ukraine.
“It is complete nonsense — and I think President Biden understands that,” Putin said during an interview published Sunday by Rossiya state television.
“Russia has no reason, no interest — no geopolitical interest, neither economic, political nor military — to fight with NATO countries,” Putin said.
In the interview, Putin also warned of “problems” with Finland after the EU country joined NATO.
“Did we have any disputes with them? All disputes, including territorial ones in the mid-20th century, have long been solved,” Putin said. But “now there will be, because now we are going to create the Leningrad military district and concentrate certain military units there,” he said.
In mid-November, Finland began closing its 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, accusing Moscow of pushing asylum seekers, mostly from Africa and the Middle East, toward the Nordic country.
BRUSSELS — In early August, Bulgarian officials spotted something they weren’t sure was legal.
Barrels of Russian oil were arriving in the country priced above a $60 limit allies had adopted to sap Moscow of critical revenue for its war in Ukraine.
Bulgaria was in an unusual position among its partners. It had been given an exemption to European Union sanctions barring most imports of Russian oil, ostensibly to ensure the country wouldn’t face acute energy shortages even though the EU’s broader policy aimed to crush Russia’s main cash artery following its full-scale assault on Kyiv.
But could Bulgaria still import Russian oil if it was above the price cap? Customs officials in Sofia wanted to know for sure, so they reached out to EU officials asking for “clarification,” according to a private email exchange dated August 4 and seen by POLITICO.
The answer: Let it in.
“Crude oil imported based on these derogations does not need to be at or below $60 per barrel,” came the EU’s reply.
Green light in hand, Bulgaria proceeded to import Russian crude exclusively above the price cap from August until October, according to confidential customs data seen by POLITICO. The shipments were worth an estimated €640 million, according to calculations by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) think tank. The cash went to Russian energy firms, which pay the taxes helping fill the Kremlin’s war chest.
The sanctions gap is emblematic of the broader flaws that have corroded the EU’s attempt to stymie the billions Russia earns from energy exports. Roughly a year after adopting the initial penalties, legal loopholes have combined with poor enforcement and a mushrooming parallel trade to keep Moscow’s fossil fuel revenues flowing, and feeding almost half of Vladimir Putin’s war-hungry budget.
Russian oil is likely winding up as fuel in Europe via new routes. Enforcement across the Continent is scattered and reliant on inconsistent data. And a whole new black market has sprung up to insure, ship and hide Russia’s fuel as it travels the world.
The sanctions, in other words, have come up short. Russia’s oil export earnings have dropped just 14 percent since the restrictions were imposed. And in October, Russia’s fossil fuel revenues hit an 18-month high.
It also appears the EU has run out of steam to do much about it. The latest EU sanctions package, set to be finalized at a leaders’ summit this week, is mostly focused on administrative tweaks that experts say will do little to curb widespread evasion. Absent are any efforts to drop the level of the oil price cap further.
“The whole sanction mechanism works only if you keep adopting on a regular basis decisions that close loopholes and impose new sanctions,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told POLITICO. “Every actor in the world has the capacity to adapt.”
The Bulgarian oversight
The reason behind Bulgaria’s price cap loophole is arguably a clerical oversight.
When the EU wrote the G7 nations’ price cap into law, officials expressly forbade EU shipping firms and insurance companies from trafficking Russian oil above the $60 threshold to non-EU countries. The aim was to squeeze the Kremlin’s revenues while keeping global oil flows steady.
But officials never thought to impose similar rules on shipments to EU countries, partly because Brussels had banned Russian seaborne crude oil imports that same day.
Except for Bulgaria.
The backdoor has meant millions in extra revenue for Moscow. According to CREA, Russian oil export earnings from Bulgarian sales between August to October — a third of which came from sales above the price cap — raised around €430 million in direct taxes for the Kremlin. All Russian-origin shipments delivered during this time — priced between $69 and $89 per barrel — relied on Western help, including from Greek ship operators and British and Norwegian insurers.
And it was all technically legal.
The situation “reveals that Bulgaria has aided Russia to exploit this glaring loophole to maximize the Kremlin’s budget revenues from these oil sales without any apparent benefits for Bulgarian consumers,” said Martin Vladimirov, a senior analyst at the Sofia-based Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) think tank, which has studied the issue.
More broadly, Bulgaria’s exemption from the Russian oil ban has been lining the pockets of both Russia’s largest private oil firm, Lukoil, which dominates Bulgaria’s fuel production with its sprawling Black Sea refinery, and the Kremlin itself.
More broadly, Lukoil’s crude oil imports to Bulgaria raked in over €2 billion in export revenues for Russia since the sanctions went into effect in February, according to a new CREA and CSD analysis. And the Kremlin has made €1 billion in direct taxes from the sales, POLITICO revealed last month.
There is now mounting pressure to mend these money-making fissures.
Bulgaria has vowed to cut short its opt-out from the Russian oil ban by six months, provisionally moving the deadline up to March.
And Kiril Petkov, the former prime minister who leads one of two parties controlling Bulgaria’s current governing coalition, told POLITICO the price cap workaround should “absolutely” be closed too. He vowed to pressure the government and ask the European Commission, the EU’s executive in Brussels, to do so, while insisting that Bulgaria is accelerating its efforts to shake off its Russian energy ties, unlike nearby countries like Slovakia.
Bulgaria proceeded to import Russian crude exclusively above the price cap from August until October, according to confidential customs data seen by POLITICO | Robert Ghement/EPA-EFE
“We do not like the $60 loophole that was created by the EU Commission derogation,” Petkov said. “We don’t want Putin to receive any euro that he doesn’t have to.”
The Bulgarian case “highlights one of the many loopholes that make sanctions less effective at lowering Russian export earnings used to finance the Kremlin’s war chest,” according to Isaac Levi, who leads CREA’s Russia-Europe team.
Bulgaria’s finance ministry and Lukoil didn’t respond to requests for comment.
‘Not all rainbows and unicorns’
A major challenge is poor monitoring and enforcement.
In October, a report commissioned by the European Parliament found EU sanctions enforcement is “scattered” across over 160 local authorities, while capitals have “dissimilar implementation systems” that include “wide discrepancies” in penalties for violations.
That assumes you can find a breach to begin with. Even those involved in shipping oil get only limited access to information on trades, according to Viktor Katona, chief crude analyst at the Kpler market intelligence firm.
Insurers, for example, rely on a single document from firms buying and selling oil cargoes pledging the sale is not above $60 per barrel, which amounts to a “declaration of faith,” he said.
The EU’s upcoming 12th package of sanctions is trying to crack down on this problem with new rules forcing traders to actually itemize specific costs. The goal is to prevent buyers from purchasing Russian oil above the limit and then hiding the extra costs as insurance or transport fees. But few in the industry have high hopes the added paperwork will stop the workaround.
Several EU countries with large shipping industries are also reluctant to tighten the price cap, making things even trickier. During the latest round of sanctions, Cyprus, Malta and Greece once again raised concerns over calls to strengthen the restrictions, according to two EU diplomats, who like others in the story were granted anonymity to speak freely.
A diplomat from a major maritime EU nation said stricter sanctions would only push Russia to use more non-Western operators to ship oil. Instead, the diplomat argued, the focus should be on broadening the countries adhering to the price cap. Currently, the G7, the EU and Australia are on board.
“It would be stupid to push for price caps, and then other shipping registers do not abide by it because they are not EU members,” the diplomat said, adding that “all that will be achieved is the total destruction of the shipping industry.”
Meanwhile, EU countries are still allowing Russian oil cargoes to cross their waters on their way elsewhere.
CREA research on behalf of POLITICO found that 822 ships transporting Moscow’s crude transferred their cargo to another ship in EU territorial waters — the majority in Greek, but also Maltese, Spanish, Romanian and Italian waters — since the oil sanctions kicked off last December. The volumes were equivalent to 400,000 barrels per day.
A Commission spokesperson defended the EU sanctions, noting Russia has been forced to spend “billions of dollars” to adapt to the new reality, including on new tankers, and its oil extraction and export infrastructure as Western demand shriveled.
That has caused “serious and ongoing economic and policy consequences,” the Commission spokesperson said. And CREA did find that the oil price limit has stripped the Kremlin of €34 billion in export revenues, equivalent to roughly two months of earnings this year.
Others point out that teething issues are normal — it’s the first time the EU has deployed sanctions at such a scale.
“Let’s be fair … all of the sanctions measures are unprecedented, so there’s an element of learning by doing it, as well,” said one of the EU diplomats. “We don’t live in a perfect world: it’s not all rainbows and unicorns.”
Deep dark waters
Instead of accepting the tough rules designed to drain its finances, Moscow has sparked a sanctions circumvention arms race, looking for loopholes as part of what one senior Ukrainian official has described as a “cockroach strategy.”
To ensure it can sell its fossil fuels at whatever price it can get, in violation of the oil price cap and other restrictions, Russia has presided over the creation of a parallel shipping market that, through a mixture of law-breaking and law-bending, is lining the pockets of its state energy firms and oligarchs.
A “shadow fleet” of aging tankers has emerged, mysteriously managed through a network of companies that obscure their ownership, frequently trading their cargo of fuel with other ships at sea. To help them escape the jurisdiction of Western sanctions while meeting basic maritime requirements, a cottage industry of murky insurance firms has sprung up in countries like India.
“When they were introduced, the sanctions seemed to be having an effect for a very short time. But now the state of play is most of the sanctions that have beeninplace have not really worked — or they’ve been very limited in terms of what they’ve been able to do,” said Byron McKinney, a director at trade and commodity firm S&P.
As Russian trades move increasingly away from Western operators and traders, that makes tracking them even more difficult, said Katona, the Kpler oil analyst.
“Every single” Russian type of oil now trades above the price cap, he said, while CREA estimates only 48 percent of Russian oil cargoes were carried on tankers owned or insured in G7 and EU countries in October.
“It’s like coming to a party and telling everyone not to drink alcohol, but not coming to the party yourself,” Katona said. “How do you make sure that no one’s drinking?”
At the same time, countries like India have increased their imports of cheap Russian crude by 134 percent, CREA found, processing it and then selling it everywhere. That means European consumers could unknowingly be filling up their cars with fuel produced from Russian crude, bankrolling Moscow’s armed forces at the same time.
The waning West?
The EU is well aware of the problem.
“Unless you have big players like India and China as part of it, effectiveness sooner or later fades away,” conceded one senior Commission official.
“It shows us the limits of what the tools of Western players can achieve at a global level,” the official added, noting it’s “a lesson in how much the [global] power balance has changed compared to 10 or 20 years ago.”
Expectations are low, however, that India or China — or Turkey, another critical shipping country — will come around to the price cap any time soon.
And back in Brussels, political leaders seem to be throwing up their hands. When EU leaders gather for their summit on Thursday, the sanctions package they’re expected to endorse will do little to stanch the flow of Russia’s energy cash, omitting any measures targeting Russian oil or lowering the price cap.
Until such steps are taken, Russia’s finances won’t truly wither, said Alexandra Prokopenko, an economist and nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
“The oil price is now the only real channel of transmission for external risk,” she said. “Russia will feel extremely bad if the average price on its oil is $40 or $50 per barrel — that would be painful for its budget and for Putin’s ability to finance expenditures.”
Getting to that point, however, was never going to be easy.
“The Russian economy was quite a big animal,” Prokopenko said, “that makes it hard to shoot it with a single shot.”
Victor Jack and Giovanna Coi reported from Brussels. Gabriel Gavin reported from Yerevan.
Claudia Chiappa contributed reporting from Brussels.
Kremlin officials are increasingly making moves that suggest they’re concerned about a growing resistance to Russia’s war in Ukraine, especially from relatives of soldiers fighting there.
Reports indicate Russian officials worry that these public expressions of dissent could chip away at Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s popularity and thus his hold on power.
Along with staging public protests, family members of Russian troops have called for their loved ones to be returned home through videos and written declarations posted on social media platforms. One of the most well-known outlets used by disgruntled relatives of soldiers is a Telegram channel known as “Way Home.”
Last weekend, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense reported that the Kremlin has likely attempted to silence these voices by offering them payoffs. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank has also written about the Kremlin’s attempts to counter messages from users of “Way Home” by using fake profiles to smear them online.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen during a summit on November 23, 2023, in Minsk, Belarus. Reports indicated that Kremlin officials are becoming concerned about the increase in messages protesting the war from relatives of Russian soldiers. GETTY IMAGES
The ISW further reported that the Kremlin’s biggest concern about the angry relatives might be that their protests could negatively impact Putin’s 2024 presidential campaign, which he officially announced on Friday.
“Putin’s presidential campaign will reportedly not focus on the war in Ukraine, and the Kremlin likely considers the relatives of mobilized personnel to be a social group that may pose one of the greatest threats to his campaign,” the ISW wrote.
However, the Kremlin’s efforts to quell the dissent from relatives of soldiers have not succeeded.
Early this week, the independent Russian investigative site Important Stories described a letter signed by around 100 family members of soldiers fighting in Avdiivka. Their letter demanded that Putin stop committing his forces to “meat assaults” against Ukraine’s military.
On Thursday, WarTranslated—an independent media project that translates materials about the war into English—shared a video on X, formerly Twitter, of a video originally posted on “Way Home.” The clip showed a large group of wives and relatives of soldiers holding signs with anti-war messages.
“We’re determined to bring our men back at any cost,” a woman in the video said.
Wives and relatives of mobilised Russian men from the “Way home” organisation recorded a manifest demanding to return their men home. They are not satisfied with the government’s repressions against them.
George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government professor Mark N. Katz told Newsweek that the concern felt by officials around Putin could extend beyond the presidential election in March.
“The Kremlin does indeed appear concerned that the relatives (especially mothers and wives) of soldiers could undermine Russian public support for the war effort simply through telling the stories of what’s been happening to their loved ones,” Katz said in an email.
Since presidential elections in Russia are widely thought to be rigged, Katz said he doesn’t think that Putin himself is nervous about the eventual results. He also noted that “Moscow can manufacture figures” if voter turnout is low due to people staying home in protest.
“Still, the long-term impact of stories about horrific conditions faced by Russian soldiers is something that could serve as the basis for undermining public support for Putin, or at least for his war effort,” Katz said.
David Silbey, an associate professor of history at Cornell and director of teaching and learning at Cornell in Washington, echoed much of those sentiments.
“I don’t think Putin’s terribly worried about internal unrest at the moment, but he’s always succeeded by staying ahead of the curve, so my sense is that the Russian leadership is trying to make sure that this doesn’t build into anything,” Silbey told Newsweek.
He added: “What they don’t want to see is highly visible street protests.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
The Kremlin’s spy chief Sergei Naryshkin warned the U.S. that Ukraine will turn into its “second Vietnam,” amid disagreement in Congress over funding for Kyiv.
“Ukraine will turn into a ‘black hole’ absorbing more and more resources and people,” Russian foreign intelligence chief Naryshkin said Thursday in a written statement published by his agency’s house journal, the Intelligence Operative.
“Ultimately, the U.S. risks creating a ‘second Vietnam’ for itself, and every new American administration will have to deal with it,” he added.
The U.S. was engaged in the Vietnam War — fought between South Vietnam and the U.S. on one side and communist North Vietnam backed by the Soviet Union and China on the other — for nearly two decades. The conflict claimed more than a million lives, including tens of thousands from the U.S., and ended with a comprehensive victory for the North Vietnamese forces.
According to a recent poll, 59 percent of Americans still support sending military aid to Ukraine.
Russia offered to end Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in the spring of 2022 if Ukraine agreed to drop its ambitions to join NATO, according to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s political party, who was present at peace negotiations.
David Arakhamia, leader of the Ukrainian political party Servant of the People, revealed part of the purported deal during an interview with Ukrainian journalist Natalia Moseychuk on Friday. The Kyiv official previously led the Ukrainian delegation that held peace talks with senior Russian officials in the months following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Both sides of the war have laid out conditions for a ceasefire in the conflict in recent months, but many war analysts doubt neither Zelensky nor Russian President Vladimir Putin currently has a serious urge to end the 21-month-long fight.
According to Arakhamia, however, there was a drafted peace agreement between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators early in the war. Arakhamia said that Moscow pledged to end the fighting if Ukraine’s agreed to remain neutral and forego its bid to join NATO.
Leader of the Servant of the People’s Political Party of Ukraine David Arakhamia talks to the media as he arrives for the Renew Europe Leader’s pre-summit meeting, in Brussels, on June 29, 2023. Arakhamia said in a recent interview that Russia once offered to end the war in Ukraine in exchange for Kyiv’s agreement to reject its bid to join NATO. KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images
“They really hoped almost to the last that they would put the squeeze on us to sign such an agreement so that we would take neutrality,” Arakhamia told Moseychuck, according to an English translation of his comments by the Kyiv Post. “It was the biggest thing for them.”
“They were ready to end the war if we took…neutrality and made commitments that we would not join NATO. This was the key point,” the Ukrainian official added.
Ukraine has aimed to become a member of NATO for decades, and in September 2022, Kyiv announced its bid for a fast-tracked membership in the military alliance. Russian officials have warned that fighting would only escalate if Ukraine was admitted into NATO, which would solidify Kyiv’s alliances with Western countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.
Arakhamia said changing Ukraine’s intentions to join NATO would require an amendment to the country’s constitution since Kyiv’s parliament voted to adopt an amendment in February 2019 that stated Ukraine’s goal of becoming a member of both NATO and the European Union.
Arakhamia also said that Ukrainian officials did not trust Russia to uphold their end of the bargain.
“There is no, and there was no, trust in the Russians that they would do it. That could only be done if there were security guarantees,” he told Moseychuck.
Elsewhere in the interview, Arakhamia brought up former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson‘s surprise visit to Kyiv in April 2022. He said Johnson encouraged Ukraine to not “sign anything” with Russia and “just fight.”
The Russian Embassy in the U.K. reacted to Arakhamia’s interview in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday. The message put the blame on Johnson for interrupting negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
“In the Spring of 2022 Russian and Ukrainian delegations were on the verge of negotiating an end to the conflict, assuring Ukraine’s military non-alignment and protection of rights of Russian speakers,” the Russian Embassy’s post read. “A text was on the table in Istanbul, almost ready to be signed.”
“However, according to Arakhamia, during his visit to #Kiev Prime Minister @BorisJohnson pressured the Ukrainian side ‘not to sign anything’ and ‘just keep on fighting,'” the X post continued. “Thus, evidently, with substantial #UK input, an off-ramp for a negotiated solution was missed—with tragic consequences for Ukrainian statehood, economy and population.”
Newsweek reached out to Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday night via email for comment.
Reuters reported in September 2022 that people close to Kremlin leadership confirmed that Russian negotiators had struck a provisional deal with Kyiv that would keep Ukraine out of NATO, but Putin rejected the deal and continued with his invasion. Sources who spoke with Reuters said the Russian leader told his negotiations that the deal “did not go far enough and that he had expanded his objections to include annexing swathes of Ukrainian territory.”
Russia currently occupies large parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, and Kyiv has said that the war will not end unless the annexed territory is returned to Ukraine’s control.
Zelensky said earlier this month that reaching an end to the war would require “the restoration of territorial integrity, rights and the freedom of citizens. Another stage of the war is the restoration of justice.”
“The restoration of sovereignty is the main principle for ending the hot stage of the war,” the Ukrainian president added. “Everything will end in peace.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
The Israeli-Hamas war has given Russia a golden opportunity to sow division among its Western enemies. It’s a chance Vladimir Putin’s disinformation machine was never going to miss.
Since the outbreak of hostilities on October 7, Kremlin-linked Facebook accounts have ramped up their output by almost 400 percent, with the Middle East crisis now dominating posts from Russian diplomats, state-backed outlets and Putin supporters in the West.
The entrenched — and bloody — conflict represents a double opportunity for Putin.
It allows Russia to foment division in the West via targeted social media activity aimed at splitting those in support of Israel from those who back Palestine. Real-world violence, particularly against Jews, has spiked over the last seven weeks and anti-war protests by hundreds of thousands of people have sprouted up from London to Washington.
Russia’s Middle East social media onslaught also pulls public attention away from its war in Ukraine, which has become bogged down after a succession of military missteps, a mutiny by Wagner mercenaries, and a long-running counteroffensive from Kyiv.
“Taking attention off Ukraine is only a good thing for Russia,” said Bret Schafer, head of the information manipulation team and the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Alliance for Securing Democracy, a Washington-based think tank. “The more the Western public is focused on Israel and Hamas, the less they’re paying attention to the fact that Congress is about to not fund Ukraine’s war effort,” he added. “Shining a light on other places pulls attention away from Ukraine.”
The Kremlin’s online assault mirrors Putin’s geopolitical game-playing since the Hamas attacks of October 7.
His government hosted Hamas leaders in Moscow at the end of October — apparently as he sought to play a mediation role on the release of Israeli hostages. Russia and Hamas have a common ally in Iran and Putin himself has warned that Israeli military action in Gaza could escalate beyond the region.
The Kremlin was quick to weaponize the Israel-Hamas war for its own propaganda purposes.
In the seven weeks since Hamas fighters attacked Israel, Russian Facebook accounts have posted 44,000 times compared to a mere 14,000 posts in the seven weeks before the conflict began, according to data compiled by the Alliance for Securing Democracy. In total, Russian-backed social media activity on Facebook was shared almost 400,000 times collectively, a four-fold increase compared to posts published before the conflict.
The most-shared keywords now include many phrases associated with the conflict like “Hamas” and the “Middle East,” while before the war, Russia’s state media and diplomatic accounts had focused almost exclusively on either Ukraine or Putin’s role in the world.
The near-400 percent increase in posts from Russian government-linked accounts represents a drop in the ocean compared to the millions of Facebook posts about the Middle East conflict from regular social media users over the same time period. But many of the Kremlin-backed accounts — especially those from sanctioned media outlets like RT and Sputnik — have an oversized digital reach. Collectively, these companies boast millions of followers in Europe, Latin America and Africa, even though the EU has imposed sanctions on their broadcast and social media operations.
Surfing the wave
“They use whatever they can to spread anti-West messaging,” said Jakub Kalenský, a deputy director at the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, a joint NATO-EU organization tracking state-backed influence campaigns. “They surf on the wave of the news cycle because they are competing for the same audience that is consuming solid media sources.”
Such digital propaganda can have real-world effects. Some in the West now openly question how long governments can support Ukraine in its costly war against Russia in a time of economic uncertainty.
In France, for instance, the foreign affairs ministry accused a Russian-affiliated network of social media bots of amplifying anti-semitic images of Stars of David graffiti on buildings across Paris. French officials blamed Russia for “creating tensions” between supporters of Israel and those who favored Palestine. The Russian embassy in Paris said Moscow had no ties to the covert digital activity.
The goal of the clandestine campaign was to heighten real-world tensions — both in France and across Western Europe — over which side governments are backing, according to two senior European officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
“What happens online never just stays online anymore,” one of the officials said.
Vladimir Solovyov, prominent Russian propagandist and staunch ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that there “can be no mutual coexistence” between Russia and Western nations.
Solovyov is the host of political programs on Kremlin-controlled television and radio. He is also well-known for making controversial statements, such as suggesting during a recent broadcast of his television show that Germany will eventually exist “under a Russian flag.” Last month, Solovyov also made headlines when he warned of a new world war that would see the West pitted against Muslims all over the world.
Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, on Monday posted a translated clip on X, formerly Twitter, of Solovyov recently discussing what he characterized as Russia’s long-running conflict with the West on his radio show.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the White House via email for comment Thursday night.
“We need to realize that the West is our existential enemy. There can be no mutual coexistence,” Russian propagandist Solovyev tells his audience. He advises people to prepare for a long war. pic.twitter.com/OurkYfuEYF
“We need to recognize the West is our enemy—systemic, centuries-old, millennia-old, existential. There can be no mutual coexistence,” Solovyov said, according to Gerashchenko’s translation.
The Russian broadcaster then called on his countrymen to be vigilant as he detailed what he feels is a long struggle between Russia and the Western world.
“We can be so strong that they have to bite their filthy tongues, or as soon as we weaken, they will try to destroy us, as they have done every century. Any games with them weaken us,” he said.
Solovyov continued: “We should only act out of expediency. There is no need to change their minds or to please them. We just need to realize that they are the enemy. Systemic, well-trained, motivated, convinced. Which means we have to fight for minds. Not theirs, but ours.”
The U.S. State Department has detailed Solovyov’s efforts to spread disinformation from the Kremlin. In a list identifying well-known figures involved in Russian propaganda published on its website in 2022, the State Department described Solovyov as perhaps “the most energetic Kremlin propagandist around today.”
During the course of Russia’s war with Ukraine, which is now in its 21st month, Solovyov has advocated multiple times for Moscow to make use of its nuclear capabilities against the countries that back Ukraine.
He has also said the Kremlin should unleash a nuclear strike on any country that would attempt to detain Putin over the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in March for alleged war crimes.
Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov is seen during the ceremony of the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, at the Grand Kremlin Palace on September 30, 2022, in Moscow, Russia. Solovyov recently said that the West is Russia’s “enemy” and that there “can be no mutual coexistence.” Getty Images
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
PUFFY Putin has got the internet laughing again after emerging with swollen cheeks that look like he used “butt filler” to cling onto his youth.
A recent video shows the Russian tyrant struggling to smile through his possibly botox-stuffed cheeks as rumours of his deteriorating health continue to swirl.
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Vladimir Putin’s cheeks appear puffier than ever as rumours swirl he is a botox addictCredit: Twitter/Gerashchenko
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His changing facial features have provoked plenty of ridicule onlineCredit: Twitter/Gerashchenko
In the strange clip from this week, it’s hard to ignore Putin‘s changing facial features as his cheeks appear puffier than ever.
It seems that with each public appearance, Putin keeps the world guessing with a sordid series of health rumours, death scares and possible string of body doubles.
One Twitter user marvelled at the differences in Putin’s face this week.
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Attributing his cheek changes to “butt implants”, he asked: “What the f*** is going on?”
Another joked: “Did he get stung by bees in both of his cheeks?”
And while speculation surrounding his internal health issues continues, his changing facial features cannot be ignored.
After two decades of his iron-fist rule, Putin almost appears younger than when he first rose to power.
The rumours, which have been swirling since 2011, concern how his once gaunt, slim face now looks round and full – with little signs of visible ageing.
Speaking to The Sun, leading UK cosmetic surgeon Gerard Lambe is adamant that all signs lead to Putin having regular botox and filler injections.
“Mr Putin’s appearance has undergone a dramatic change over the years,” he said.
“The biggest changes I see are in his facial shape which is likely due to cheek fillers but this is often overdone in a bid to avoid a facelift – this is something I see in my clinic on a regular basis.
“He may have had fat injections to fill out hollows in the cheeks and temple regions also.”
His giant table meeting was a far cry from his recent close up meetings with other officials and further incited rumours that the tyrant uses body doubles for certain engagements.
The AI chatbot Kandinsky managed to get the Russian flag wrong and create both a headless image of Putin and an embarrassingly naked portrait of Putin.
Kandinsky’s developers were reportedly summoned to the Russian prosecutor’s office as a result.
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An image of a far younger Putin shows how different his facial features have become
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Experts allege that he has clearly had cosmetic surgeryCredit: AFP
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The Kremlin was recently forced to deny their leader had diedCredit: Getty
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday claimed without evidence that some Western weapons intended for Ukraine have been sold to the Taliban on the illegal arms market.
Putin made the accusation during a meeting with members of the Russian Civic Chamber while discussing what he characterized as a high level of corruption in the Ukrainian government.
According to Reuters, Jürgen Stock, the head of Interpol, warned last year that a portion of the steady stream of guns and heavy arms being provided to Ukraine for its defenses against Putin’s invading forces could end up being purchased by organized crime groups on the international arms market. However, Ukrainian officials have maintained they keep a close watch on weapons sent from Western allies.
But Putin said some weapons sent to Kyiv’s military have already been sold because, according to him, “everything is for sale” in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday is shown during a meeting with the Russian Civic Chamber in Moscow. During the meeting, Putin claimed without proof that Western weapons sent to Ukraine have been sold to the Taliban. Getty Images
“Now they say: Weapons are getting into the Middle East from Ukraine. Well, of course they are, because they are being sold,” Putin said, according to a Reuters translation of his comments. “And they are being sold to the Taliban, and from there, they go onto wherever.”
Newsweek reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian ministries of foreign affairs via email for comment Friday night.
TASS, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, also reported on Putin’s claim about Western weapons being bought by the Taliban. Putin reportedly went on at length about Ukraine and his accusations of corruption there.
“In Russia, we have plenty of problems. We, in Russia, and in the entire world are fighting corruption, but corruption in Ukraine has taken on a life of its own—there is nothing like it in the world, you can take it from me,” he said, according to TASS.
The Russian president—who has been accused of rigging national elections and keeping tight control over what is reported by his country’s media—then claimed former Ukrainian leaders used to quote prices to him for the cost of getting things done.
“Believe me, I had close contacts with [Ukraine’s] former leaders—they buy everything: The vote in the Supreme Court, the vote in the Constitutional Court. Buy!” he said, per TASS.
Putin reportedly added: “This coming from the highest officials! I was taken aback! I said: ‘This is how you do things here?’ [And the answer was]: ‘Well, yes, this is the way it is here.'”
While admitting that there is a level of corruption in Russia, Putin described the situation as worse in Ukraine.
“The scope is different: There [in Ukraine], corruption is actually legal,” he said.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
A Ukrainian intelligence representative on Wednesday accused Moscow officials of orchestrating the widespread circulation of false rumors that Russian President Vladimir Putin had died.
Last week, multiple Telegram channels falsely reported Putin’s death, and these messages claimed that his demise resulted in Kremlin officials scrambling to devise a succession plan. The rumors quickly spread across various social media platforms, triggering the false report to trend.
The Kremlin soon found itself responding to questions about Putin’s death, calling the rumor a “hoax,” and Putin has since made public appearances.
Andriy Yusov, representative of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), told NV Radio that Moscow officials spread the rumors in an attempt to see how the Russian public would react to the news.
Yusov said that while Putin’s death would be “good news” for Ukrainians, the rumor was actually part of Russia’s disinformation “playbook.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin is pictured in Korolev, Russia, on October 26, 2023. A Kyiv official accused the Kremlin of spreading the recent false rumors that Putin had died. Photo by Getty Images
“This is sweet music for Ukrainian listeners, and it should have been good news,” Yusov told NV Radio, according to a translation by Ukrainska Pravda. “It’s an internal story that is intended for an internal Russian audience.”
He continued: “Of course, it does little to help Putin personally, because there are many supporters of conspiracy theories in Russia.”
Yusov also explained why he believes Russia would circulate such an untruth.
“The basic purpose of fake news is to look at how society reacts in terms of numbers and dynamics—whether they believed it, how they reacted, what they are ready for—and to look at the reactions of individuals, the elite and the media (even propaganda outlets),” he said.
“In this way, the empire, which is built on the work of the secret services, learns how to continue to rule.”
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment Wednesday night.
Yusov noted that such disinformation has an affect on Putin as well as on Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
“It is also an instrument of influence on Putin himself or someone like him. He is forced to react, and Peskov is forced to react and prove that this is not the case. That is, he is led down a certain corridor,” Yusov said.
The intelligence official concluded by stating: “It’s obvious that this is not the end of this story, but a particular playbook.”
Though how the Russian public reacted to the rumors is unclear, it has certainly been searching for information regarding their leader’s supposed passing.
The Russian investigative site Agentstvo reported that the search terms “dead Putin,” “dying Putin” and “Putin died” had more than 417,000 impressions on Russia’s most popular search engine, Yandex, last month. Agentstvo added that the majority of these searches were made from October 23 to October 29, coinciding with the first posts about the rumors published on Telegram.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) on Tuesday said Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s recent shoot-to-kill orders against antisemitic protesters could have come due to Kremlin concerns about waning power in territories “on the periphery” of Russia.
On Sunday night, hundreds of angry rioters stormed onto the landing field at the Makhachkala airport in the Russian republic of Dagestan. Members of the mob carried Palestinian flags and were reportedly hunting for Israeli passengers from a flight that had landed from Tel Aviv. Police detained some 60 rioters at the airport, and the Baza Telegram channel, which has ties to Russia’s security services, reported that about 1,500 people took part in the incident.
Kadyrov, who has been a loyalist of Russian President Vladimir Putin since taking power of the predominantly Muslim southern Russian republic of Chechnya in 2007, ordered his security forces to detain protesters in any potential riots or to “make three warning shots in the air, and if the person doesn’t obey the law afterward, make the fourth shot in the forehead.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, right, are shown in split images during a meeting together in Moscow on September 28, 2023. A top U.S. think tank said Kadyrov’s recent response to antisemitic riots in Russia suggests the Kremlin is concerned about its power weakening in certain regions. Photos by MIKHAIL METZEL/POOL/AFP/Getty Images
While Kadyrov’s comments were interpreted by some that he was showing unexpected support for Israel, the ISW said his statement “suggests that Russian officials may be increasingly concerned about the weakening of authoritarian control in regions on the periphery of the Russian Federation.”
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment Tuesday night.
The ISW noted that Kadyrov initially responded to the incident in Dagestan by echoing Putin’s unfounded accusation that the West had orchestrated the riots as an effort to destabilize Russia.
During a Monday press conference Putin held at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence, the Russian president called the United States “scum” for allegedly helping Ukraine in “inspiring” the airport attack through “special services.”
“We need to know and understand where the root of evil is, where this very spider, who is trying to envelop the whole planet, the whole world with his web and wants to achieve our strategic defeat on the battlefield, uses the people he has fooled for decades on the territory of today’s Ukraine,” Putin said of the U.S., according to Russian state news agency TASS.
In its daily assessment of the war in Ukraine, the ISW said “Kadyrov’s reactions to the riots in Dagestan suggest that he is first and foremost concerned with maintaining the perception of his unwavering support of Putin and secondly with demonstrating the strength of his authoritarian rule over Chechnya by threatening a violent response to potential future riots.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
The Kremlin fired the head of TASS last summer in punishment for the Russian state-run news agency’s coverage of the Wagner mercenary group’s aborted mutiny, the Moscow Times reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation.
Sergei Mikhailov was dismissed as general director of TASS in early July, 10 days after Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin staged an attempted coup against Russian military leaders.
Mikhailov was fired by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, who called it a voluntary resignation, the newspaper said. Chernyshenko announced the appointment of a new general director chosen by the Kremlin: Andrei Kondrashov from state-run VGTRK and a former election spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin, which keeps tight control on state and private media, was unhappy with what it saw as an insufficient level of pro-Kremlin coverage by TASS, the Moscow Times reported, citing sources at TASS and in the Russian government. TASS was the first media to publish photos of Wagner fighters on June 24 taking the the city center of Rostov-on-Don and blockading the Southern Military District headquarters, a command center for the war in Ukraine, the newspaper said.
“TASS covered all this in too much detail and promptly. Some kind of insanity has happened to them. They have forgotten that their main task is not to report the news. It’s to create an ideologically correct narrative for the Kremlin,” the Moscow Times quoted an unnamed Russian government official as saying.
Mikhailov did not respond to a question from the newspaper about the reasons for his resignation.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that Mikhailov was sacked. “No, it’s all wrong,” the newspaper quoted Peskov as saying when asked if Mikhailov was fired. Peskov not respond to a question about why Mikhailov resigned, the paper said.
