I’d be curious how the reporter got access. If it was through the Ukrainian government (rather than wandering around on his own), showing Britons video of Ukrainians taking refuge in the subway/tube tunnels is pure genius.
People in Kyiv began sheltering in metro stations at the beginning of the war. I don’t know if reporters need permission to go into stations when any member of the public can enter them, but surely nobody would kick them out during an air raid alert.
I know that you’re alluding to the historical memory of the Blitz, but the effect of that on British attitudes would have been felt at the beginning of the war. Anyway, a report about people sheltering in the metro doesn’t require a lucky journalist or a brilliant government press officer. Everyone in Kyiv knows about it.
I’m sure it’s just random.
For sure. In Russia, “unusually independent-minded and incorruptible” people fall from things all the time. Windows, exploded bridges, windows, stairs, balconies, windows.
Maslov’s car reportedly plunged into the sea after the explosion, with married documentary makers Eduard Chuchakin and Zoya Sofronova also dying in the vehicle. Fitness instructor Gleb Orgetkin was also reportedly killed in the doomed car.
That’s a creative way of disposing of a lot of bodies in one go. Also, note to Russian fitness instructors: never forget, even in passing conversation, that President Putin is the epitome of manly athleticism and health.
https://twitter.com/VICE/status/1579855214449856512
ETA: From Timothy Snyder’s essay Russia’s Crimea Disconnect:
Khrushchev’s motives [for giving Crimea to Ukraine] were practical. The connection with the Russian republic was a logistical and administrative nightmare. There is no actual land connection to Russia, but there is to Ukraine. Crimea could be sensibly supplied with water and with energy from the Ukrainian side. Since Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine by force in 2014, water has been a constant problem. (An odd thing about Elon Musk’s recent tweeting about Russia and Ukraine was that he mentioned this water supply issue, which is well known to Russian authorities but not common knowledge.)
ETA:
https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1579867330095742977
ETA Musk denies it.
Space, as in lebensraum?
I can believe Musk’s entirely honest here. He’s exactly the kind of a person who’d absorb Russian talking points and then regurgitate them as his original take on the war, because he believes himself to be super-genius who understands everything better than other people.
ETA
Tragic backstory (unrelated to indictment) … apparently Graham was driving the van:
A year ago “The West” barely existed
Putin is the best thing that’s happened in decades for Western “imperialism”
He has singlehandedly rehabilitated the reputations of the EU, NATO, the CIA—everything he hates is doing great and getting better
It’s just one own-goal after another
Top Russian Judge
LOL - that’s like saying ‘top North Korean democrat’.
Ukraine ought to blow up the bridge again.
