I can’t find it now, but I read a Twitter thread saying that Russians understand Nazis to be exclusively foreign enemies. Russia defeated Nazi Germany in 1945, therefore Russia is intrinsically anti-Nazi and Russians cannot be Nazis.
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and @Barradeno - see also the earlier post and read all 6 of the tweets.
That also demonstrates that definitions of nazi in Russian terms are very much ‘fluid’
Linked again, below.
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I wonder if those are official unit patches, or if they have much more lax uniform standards to allow morale patches on sleeves.
I wish I had saved the image I saw last month, but there was a Ukrainian commander with a morale patch that I am 90% sure was the same as the one in the photo. At the time I chalked it up to being similar to, but not the, SS Totenkopf. The skull and cross bones motif seems like it may represent more than just Nazis (I know touring Italian churches, the tombs are covered in such skull and cross bones, some very similar to the SS Totenkopf).
Still, yes, very ironic to being receiving a medal for killing Nazis with their symbols on your shoulder. 
(ETA - look at a post I made further down (3419) where I hunt down the origins of this patch)
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Russia has backed a new, self-proclaimed mayor of Mariupol, who is collaborating with Russian forces , reports Reuters.
Mayor of Mariupol? More like Mayor of More Rubble. (With apologies, but what is left to be Mayor of?)
Interesting that Reuters apparently deliberately uses the word “collaborating”.
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From The Guardian liveblog
Responding to US President Joe Biden’s earlier comments accusing Vladimir Putin of war crimes amid outcry over civilian killings in Bucha, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said some in the West have issues with their conscience.
The West’s refusal to talk with Russia will lead to nothing good, Lavrov said, adding that Russia is open to an “honest conversation” with western countries
Again, he really is taking the piss, isn’t he - ‘honest conversation’ my arse. The man - and his boss - is incapable of anything honest.
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“Russian President Vladimir Putin was so out of touch with reality when he launched the Ukraine invasion that he was incensed his troops weren’t welcomed with flowers, an exiled Russian oligarch revealed Sunday.
“At first he wanted to change the power in Kyiv … and was expecting that this would be met with flowers thrown in the streets by Ukrainian people,” Mikhail Khodorkovsky, onetime CEO of Russian oil giant Yukos, said on CNN.
But when Ukrainians fought back as the invasion was launched, Putin went “insane,” said Khodorkovsky, an outspoken Putin critic who spent nine years in a Russian prison.
“The fact that the people in Kharkiv [also failed to] meet him with flowers, it not only just angered him, I really think it drove him literally insane. That’s when he started bombing Kharkiv and Kyiv,” Khodorkovsky said.”
Couldn’t get anymore high on his own supply.
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If you search for Что Россия должна сделать с Украиной, you can get the original article. Even a machine translation is disturbing.
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The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has been speaking at a joint news conference with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Warsaw, where she said Russia “has no place” on the UN Human Rights Council.
At last, someone is saying it out loud (even if it is that self-serving, brain-dead, photo-opportunity-seeking fuckwit Truss)
The UN must now find a way to remove Russia from not just the Human Rights Council but from the Security Council.
ETA and the US says it too.
The United States will request Russia’s removal from the UN Human Rights Council, Reuters reports. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, called for the international body to suspend Russia ideally some time this week.
“Russia’s participation on the Human Rights Council is a farce, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, ” US’ ambassador said on a visit to Romania. “And it is wrong, which is why we believe it is time the UN General Assembly vote to remove them.
My message to those 140 countries who have courageously stood together is: the images out of Bucha and devastation across Ukraine require us to now match our words with action,” she continued.
Read the rest of Reuters’ coverage here.
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To be fair, some where offered sunflower seeds…
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BBC rebuts Russian claims of faked footage.
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Who really thinks Putin has any need for evidence? “How many lights do you see?”
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On the ground at the Tijuana border…many more refugees arriving every day, and they’ve set up a big camp back by the overpass. I put my name on the list to accept refugees, but they need to see the apartment for approval first.
ETA: I’ve wanted to cross over for a while to take care of some errands and send some mail, but it’s such a mess I’ve been putting it off.
The man in the bottom foreground spoke some Spanish, so I’m getting the impression that many of these particular folks chose to come via Mexico because of their language skills.
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the whole concept of a “passport” seems irredeemably flawed, a token incarnating our human rights into a flimsy material object that we’re expected to surrender to a series of hostage-takers and vandals
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The skull and crossbones motif is very old, at least hundred of years old, with artistic representations from the Renaissance. That’s not the issue.
That specific depiction of the Totenkopf is a variation of the one used by the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf. It’s not just a skull and crossbones, it’s an obviously Nazi rendering of the skull and crossbones.
They are the baddies, and they’re not just aware of it, they’re proud of it. They’re advertising it.
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The patch on that Russian is an updated version of the SS Totenkopf. Because I am 95% sure I saw that exact same patch on a Ukrainian commander, who I believe was in Kyiv (that I am less sure on), I speculated, because you can’t make the patch out that well, it is close to but not necessarily meant to be an SS Totenkopf. I was being generous to the Ukrainian commander.
I scrolled through all 3400+ posts in this thread to see if I could see the tweet or article that would lead me back to the image, but I didn’t see it. It may be there, it might have been from another tweet I scrolled down from, or one of the other 100 articles I have seen about the war. Sorry. You will have to take my word for it.
I DID find what appears to be the origin of the patch. I won’t link the site here, but it appears to be from a Ukrainian site (with prices in Hryvnia) and several similar patches and shirts, including some with AZOV logos. And with the clear image of the patch (posted below) I can see now it is clearly an updated SS Totenkopf with a modern helmet and ear protection.
So yes, the Russian’s are advertising it, and some Ukrainians, unfortunately. It will be something they have to deal with after the war.
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