Billionaire Victor Rashnikov looks a bit awkward explaining that Putin was only joking when he said he couldn’t get him on the phone after Rashnikov’s hockey team won the KHL’s Gagarin Cup because he was drunk celebrating. In fact, Putin kept him waiting on the phone for hours.

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This interview is straight-up kooky-dooks.Dugin argues that liberalism is so keen on rebelling against collective identities that transgenderism has set the stage for the final liberation — “from humanity!” which Dugin literally describes as a “Matrix/Terminator” destiny ruled by an evil A.I. He repeatedly talks about Hollywood movies foretelling the future. He literally thinks liberalism is paving the way to SkyNet.Tucker then makes an equally incoherent contribution, asking about how “liberals defended Stalinism for 80 years” before “flipping against Russia” in 2000 when Putin came to power. Dugin just takes it as a chance to talk about Putin standing up for “traditional values.”This is a remarkably dumb conversation, but Dugin’s language is flowery (and his beard wizardly) enough that I can imagine many of Tucker’s viewers are awed.https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1785066534995714067

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Telegram’s long-form blogging platform Telegraph has mysteriously removed an article by Astra Press about Russian conscientious objectors disappearing into a torture camp. https://t.me/astrapress/18453

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Nastya Ivleeva’s social erasure is complete. After being fined last week for “discrediting” the Russian army, the organizer behind Moscow’s infamous “Almost Naked” party has now purged her posts on Instagram, where her main account has a whopping 17.9 million followers.

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Journalists at Holod Media studied local court records in Russia’s Belgorod region and found that the illegal military arms trade is booming. As the borderland has joined the warzone, residents have apparently grown keen to pack heat. https://holod.media/2024/04/30/rynok-oruzhii-belgorod/

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The Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service’s registry of “terrorists and extremists” now has more than 14,500 entries (mostly individuals). These listees face enormous restrictions and burdens, particularly when it comes to personal finances. Suspects, not just convicts, are added, and the list of crimes at play here includes “justifying terrorism,” which the regime has utilized against dissidents. https://meduza.io/cards/v-spisok-terroristov-i-ekstremistov-rosfinmonitoringa-popadayut-sotni-chelovek-v-mesyats-i-eto-nastoyaschaya-grazhdanskaya-smert

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A former NSA employee named Jareh Dalke was sentenced Monday to nearly 22 years in prison for attempting to sell classified national defense information to Russia for $85k. His buyer was actually an undercover FBI agent. Oops. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-nsa-employee-sentenced-over-21-years-prison-attempted-espionage

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UN experts say they have proof that Russia fired a North Korean Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile at Kharkiv. https://www.reuters.com/world/un-experts-say-north-korea-missile-landed-ukraines-kharkiv-2024-04-29/

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meanwhile in america

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Seda Suleymanova’s friends are doing everything they can to pressure the police to conduct a real investigation into her disappearance and suspected “honor killing” murder. One even flew to Grozny and submitted to a polygraph. https://www.kavkazr.com/a/podruga-pohischennoy-kadyrovtsami-chechenki-sedy-suleymanovoy-proshla-dopros-kak-zayaviteljnitsa-po-delu-ob-ubiystve/32929098.html

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Ukraine’s Security Service has raided the home of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church clergyman, reportedly for “spreading pro-Russian propaganda & justifying Russia’s armed aggression,” which is illegal speech in Ukraine. His whole church might get banned soon. https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/6679633

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The U.S. Senate unanimously approved legislation on Tuesday to ban the import of enriched uranium from Russia. Once President Biden signs the bill, the law will bar U.S. imports 90 days after enactment while allowing temporary waivers until Jan. 2028. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-30/senate-passes-russian-uranium-import-ban-sending-bill-to-biden

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Activists (“left-wing extremists”) claim responsibility for burning down the summer home of German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger. Their issues with him center on Rheinmetall’s refurbishment of German Leopard tanks for Ukraine. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/01/german-left-wing-arsonists-attack-home-of-rheinmetall-chief/#:~:text=Armin%20Papperger%2C%20the%20chief%20executive,at%20his%20support%20for%20Ukraine.

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This charming fella, Dmitry Vedernikov, is the 11th crime boss to escape his decades-long imprisonment in Russia in exchange for joining the invasion. He looks like one of Putin’s liberators if I’ve ever seen one. https://www.agents.media/na-vojnu-v-ukrainu-uehal-glavar-opg-metsenatovskie-osuzhdennyj-za-11-ubijstv-on-stal-kak-minimum-11-m-kriminalnym-avtoritetom-otpravivshimsya-voevat/

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Kremlin bots and Telegram channels are spreading a fake video that shows German author and anti-fascist activist Katrin Himmler (the great-niece of Nazi figure Heinrich Himmler) supposedly calling on Europe not to turn over Ukrainian men to “the bloodthirsty dictator Zelensky.” Apparently an effort to capitalize on Western apprehensions about Ukraine’s growing desperation for manpower? https://www.agents.media/prokremlevskie-kanaly-nachali-rasprostranyat-fejkovoe-video-s-vnuchkoj-brata-genriha-gimmlera/

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These stories out of Russia’s regions are always a hoot: a mayor in the Tver region publicly vowed not to pave the road to a local man’s home, supposedly because the man “shed tears for Navalny” and “praised Zelensky,” but it turns out the mayor is just taking his revenge on a guy who petitioned the governor about the town’s shitty roads. https://www.agents.media/muzhchinoj-kotorogo-glava-rajona-v-tverskoj-oblasti-obvinil-v-plache-po-navalnomu-i-lishil-asfaltovoj-dorogi-okazalsya-mnogoletnij-opponent-mestnoj-vlasti/

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¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Embassy staff from the USA, UK, Germany, France, and Poland are invited to skip the line to view Moscow’s May display of NATO-member equipment captured in Ukraine. Great to see that diplomatic outreach is still possible in these dire times.

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my brain when looking at photos of occupied Columbia Univ

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The U.S. State Department says Russia is using a banned choking agent against Ukrainian troops and various “riot control agents” as a “method of warfare” (i.e., it’s not an isolated incident), which violates the Chemical Weapons Convention. https://www.state.gov/imposing-new-measures-on-russia-for-its-full-scale-war-and-use-of-chemical-weapons-against-ukraine-2

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Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee shares recommendations for Ukrainian athletes at the Paris Summer Games regarding interactions with Russian and Belarusian competitors. The gist: avoid all unnecessary contact (including with Moscow’s “sympathizers”). https://noc-ukr.org/news/24801/

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