Tag: Ukraine

Russian troops trained to shoot at demonstrators with machine-guns (video)

By Gabija Guscevičius, sources from By24.org.

About 2,000 residents of the Russian city Tyumen crowed in favour of federalization and Siberia’s joining the United States. Modeling after Kiev’s Euromaidan, they built barricades and a tent camp in the central square of the city. All fortifications of protesters were demolished using APCs (the armoured vehicles), while the protesters were shot at with large-caliber machine guns. That was the scenario of the training of the Internal Troops and the OMON (special police forces) of the Russian Federation, which took place in Tyumen on May 30, 2015.

APCs with machine guns are used in police trainings

APCs with machine guns are used in police trainings

The video of the training taken by the participants of the event was placed on YouTube, where it already got several thousand views. In the video, the “protesters” (acted by police and military officers) are being chased out of the square by the security forces, using the military APCs, heavy machine guns, a special noise installation and a military helicopter.

Judging by the training, the Russian security forces are being prepared for a rather serious confrontation with the civilian population of the country, leaving it with no possibility to protest against the authorities: all protesters will be simply killed. It is clear that the Russian leaders are well aware of the economic crisis and its inevitable subsequent outcome in the form of a national unrest.

This is far from the first time such trainings of the Russian OMON and internal troops specializing in violent dispersal of protesters occur. The last one which also appeared on the Internet was held in April 2014 in the city of Saratov. Back then, more moderate methods of dispersal were delivered as part of training including no mass shooting using machine guns. Apparently, now the Russian ‘power structures’ have been instructed to act more aggressively towards the people of their own country.

War at our doorstep, or what we are calling for

Original article was written by Lidžita, Lithuanian blogger and hereby translated to English by Albina Griniūtė.

War at our doorstep, or what we are calling for

At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, a friend of mine and me were talking about how most Europeans have no idea what it is and how real it is. And not just in Ukraine. In Lithuania. In Germany. Throughout the whole of Europe.

The succession of events made it clear that even now, more than a year after that dreadful time, the attitude of most people is still the same.

The last event that made it clear most Europeans do not realize they are standing on a doorstep of WWIII was the popular Eurovision song contest where the Russian entry won an honorable second place.

Russia found a way how to use it to justify its aggression and encourage its citizens to believe that to slaughter a brotherly nation is normal and even praiseworthy.

“Congratulations to Polina Gagarina for her undisputed success and to Russia for the successful Europe-wide referendum where it was demonstrated which place, according to ordinary citizens of European countries, Russia should hold. In my opinion, both the politicians and the European media should listen to the “Million Voices” (title of P. Gagarina’s song) of their citizens. They are calling for normal relations with Russia”, wrote Konstantin Kosachev on his Facebook page.

So, what was “just a song” for an ordinary German, an ordinary Russian understood as a message saying “we are supported by the whole of Europe”. Is it still necessary to explain what message was transmitted by „Million voices“ and what message Russia received back?

I don’t give a damn if she sings well because only a madman can represent a country that occupies another, and shriek “Praying for peace and healing” while wearing a white dress.

I don’t give a damn if she sings well because only a madman can represent a country that occupies another, and shriek “Praying for peace and healing” while wearing a white dress.

Without a doubt, Gagarina was a symbol. A symbol of Russian PR and limitless naïveté. A symbol of aggression represented as peace. Of violence covered in faux tenderness. Of Russia – in the true sense of the word.

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That old, familiar pattern: Russian invasion of Ukraine

There was common pattern for all the communist revolutions around the world.

There was common pattern for all the communist revolutions around the world.

Written by Rokiškis Rabinovičius, kindly translated from Lithuanian by Martynas Klimas

It all started from people rising up against Viktor Yanukovitch rather than any actions undertaken by Russia. Maybe this inverse was what made people miss the old Russian invasion pattern appear in Ukraine. Or was it because we were used to seeing the pattern develop from the other side?

The pattern is old, having undergone first trials about a century ago. As time went by, it was refined, well drilled into everyone’s mind, until it was finally made into a set of standard invasion plans. A whole systemic methodology of invading other countries that, when the time came, only required minor adaptations.

Talks that Vladimir Putin is waging info war like no one has done before are, at best, naïve. He is not creating anything new or revolutionary; Putin is barely taking the well drilled KGB invasion plan and adapting it to current needs. Those methods are a dead ringer to the best hits of USSR invasions.

The entire thing is usually done under the cover of standard bullshit. It all goes through several structural channels: leftist commie cells from around the world, official soviet press and through various press offices in Moscow that publish left and right, trying to pass off their bullshit as something that the locals wrote themselves. In the good old days, newspapers printed in Moscow were presented as supposedly printed somewhere else. Today, the same things goes on the Internet.

We have to pay attention to the real thing: the invasion pattern. A series of events that happen concurrently with a Bolshevik invasion. Then we see, time and time again, a same pattern emerge with only the slightest of adaptations.

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Lithuanian protesters burried Putin near the Russian embassy

rusijos_ambasada_2014-08-29-1Today, Lithuanians protested against Russian invasion into Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s regime. Protest was organized by the group “Help for the Ukraine”, Liberal Party of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublikos liberalų sąjūdis) and one of its leaders Remigijus Šimašius. There was symbolic burial of Vladimir Putin to show what can be done to save Europe from World War III.

In the last few days we saw fast escalation of armed conflict in Ukraine with massive invasion of Russia’s regular military forces. After substantial gains of Ukrainian military forces in crushing Russia inspired insurgency, terrorists controlled by Russia, received direct support of Russian army units and started a new offensive against Ukraine that resulted in massive losses in Ukrainian army and the National guard. Currently, the news report that Vladimir Putin advises Ukraine for talks on sovereignty of South-East Ukraine – so called Novorossya or Lugansk and Donetsk People republics. Therefore, a clear pattern of previous Russia’s wars that resulted in occupation of South Osetia and Abhazia (parts of Georgia) and instituting Russian puppet regimes there is evident.

Give Interpol a note!

Remigijus Šimašius, member of Lithuanian Parliament, former Minister of Justice

Remigijus Šimašius, member of Lithuanian Parliament, former Minister of Justice

Member of Lithuanian parliament and former Minister of Justice of Lithuania Remigijus Šimašius calls for action. Remigijus Šimašius states that attempt to prosecute Dmitryi Yarosh is clear misuse of Article 3 of Interpol Constitution.

Give Interpol a note!

‪‎Russia‬ wants to prosecute those who are against Putin’s aggression in ‪‎Ukraine‬. Dmitryi ‪Jarosh‬ this time.

Just look at the following charges: “1) Public incitement to terrorist activities involving the use of mass media; 2) Public incitement to extremist activities involving the use of mass media.”

Interpol itself is declaring that “Article 3 of INTERPOL’s Constitution enshrines this guiding principle of neutrality by explicitly forbidding INTERPOL from engaging in matters of political, military, religious and racial character.”

So what the hell are you doing, Interpol?

They ask to contact police or Interpol if we know something. I did.

This is my message I have submitted: “Dear officials of Interpol. It looks to me that an attempt to prosecute Dimtryi Yarosh by Russian Federation is a clear misuse of article 3 of the Constitution of Interpol.

Russia is committing an ‪‎aggression‬ against Ukraine. I think, You have to have this in mind.

Remigijus Simasius, Lithuania”

It’s Your turn now.

Facebook protests against Mistral deal

Just like it was with the Facebook page of the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, thousands of Facebook users began expressing their opinion about France selling Mistral-class amphibious assault ships to Russia. People expressed mocking gratitude on Facebook posts made by the President of France, François Hollande. They “thanked” France for arming an aggressor and helping it to shed blood.

Interestingly enough, it seems that admins of Hollande’s Facebook page decided that censorship is the best way to deal with legitimate criticism and according to some of the participants of this Facebook-based protests, many of these critical comments were deleted. So much for democracy and freedom of speech.

Facebook page of Francois Hollande was flooded by protests.

Facebook page of Francois Hollande was flooded by protests.

What happened to Donbas business? The story of Russian Bezler gang.

Yury Butusov, 29-06-2014. Translated by Arminas Rasickas.

I met a friend in Dnipropetrovsk – he is a businessman from Konstantinovka, he has a retail shop network and trades spare parts for cars. Two weeks ago he fled his town. Reasons for that are explained below.

What happened to Donbas business? The story of Russian Bezler gang.

I had to flee when after ten days of captivity I was ransomed for 300.000 USD from the Russian special forces that are based in Gorlovka, in the building of Ukraine Security Service.

Igor Bezler (in the middle of picture, in green uniform) is an infamous GRU colonel that took over the control of corrupt Police forces in Gorlovka ar the start of events in Donbas

Igor Bezler (in the middle of picture, in green uniform) is an infamous GRU colonel that took over the control of corrupt Police forces in Gorlovka ar the start of events in Donbas

In April many people from our town were welcoming the creation of People’s Republic of Donetsk. Reasons for that are clear – many factories in Donetsk work only for the Russian market and have only Russian orders. I was in agriculture, we also sell the majority of our production to Russia. However I understand that Donbas is integrated into Ukrainian economy and infrastructure and Russia simply has no money to support Crimea and Donbas – if you separate those regions from Ukraine, you would have 9 million people at the time of crisis. I was trying to explain this to other people, but they did not want to hear. They wanted to be in Russia, hoping to secure their workplaces, get better pensions and naively expected that the rest of their lives will not change. Nobody thought that it will not be “polite people”, (“polite people” is a cliché used by Russian propaganda to describe Russian special forces that occupied Crimea) but real bandits that will come from Russia.

Information spread through town that “polite people” with Georgian stripes are collecting money from businessmen for the needs of the Donetsk Republic. I was not into politics and somehow thought this would not affect me, as my company is quite small. But everything happened very simply – when I got out of my car to go to my office, three men with machine guns, bullet-proof vests and “PRD” flashes came up to me and offered to get into their car. They took me to Gorlovka, where they had a base established in the building of Ukrainian Security Service.

They took me to a room, to a person in camouflage uniform. He was calm and kind, gave me a list and told me to find my surname. I looked through and saw that every businessman of our town was  on that list, and each surname was accompanied with a number. What was odd that some numbers were un USD, others in Grivnas. The sums varied from 1 to 15 million Grivnas. The number that was assigned to my surname was 250 thousand dollars. The military man asked:

– Is everything clear? Call your family, tell them to bring the money.
– But I don’t have that kind of money. Who would keep 250 thousand dollars at home, especially during such events?
– Listen, I am here not to persuade you, I have a plan which I have to fulfill. It is your duty to come up with the solution. Sorry lad, nothing personal, just business. Here’s a phone, call, start collecting money, meanwhile you will spend a night in the cell, think about everything. And you will stay there until I get the money. If you like the cell, you can stay there, if not – better get the money. Don’t be a problem to us. The only problem for us is “Right sector”, they would not be a good company for you. Is everything clear? See you in the morning.

I was allowed to make a call, then they took the phone away and I was taken to the cellar of the building. All premises there were turned to cells, each one filled with people. I was put in one, together with 3 other civilians, but we were strictly forbidden to talk.

The next morning I talked to the military men who did not introduce themselves. They were polite, for 10 minutes they calmly persuaded me to change my mind, and then sent me to the cell again. By the way, I have to admit, the food they gave to prisoners was good, and there were no threats. My “supervisor” was behaving like a military man, he was strict, correct, talked like a man who is used to give orders, had an official style. I remembered a scene from “Master and Margarita” by M. Bulgakov, when people in the theater were asked to give their gold and jewelry. Each day I was given a list, and I saw that more and more surnames had pluses added to them, it meant that the businessman had paid and was allowed to leave. I was allowed to talk on the phone. My family collected money from friends and acquaintances in all the district. No connections or good relations would have worked. What was interesting is that the man called the ransom “a donation”.

I was shocked when I found out that he had all the information about my financial state and activities. He justified the amount he was asking with exact data – what my income was, in which bank I was keeping my money, how much money I had in my checking account. I drew a conclusion that the amount of ransom was calculated using some unclear algorithm, but the initial data was taken from the databases of Economical police and Tax inspectorate. I tried to convince that after giving away this amount I would not be able to produce or trade in my shops.

After about a week we got accustomed with the man, he started talking to me for longer. He did not hide that he is not Ukrainian, some names of our towns were very funny to him – for example, Berdyansk. A day before my release when my family collected the necessary amount of money, he raised it to 300.000. He said that my captivity caused a lot of problems to them, there were talks, so I have to compensate for the inconveniences. Although I am sure he kept those 50.000 for himself.

An hour before my release he gave me a cigarette, we started talking, and I asked him a couple of questions:

– Judging from your age you must be a major?
– Good guess.
– Aren’t you afraid?

He laughed.

– Understand, this is my fourth war. It’s my job. Nothing personal. I’ll be here for one more month, then I will be replaced. I’m here for too long already, I was in Crimea only once, did not even swim in the sea, had to come here. And you don’t have a sea here.
– But what am I supposed to do? I can’t stay here with my family, if I get kidnapped again, I won’t be able to collect the ransom.
– I will be here for one more week. If they will take you again, I will release you, but after that… We have order here, we are military men, but from different groups. We have Cossacs, but we don’t control them, they are separate “firm”. We have Chechens, they are controlled by Ramzan. You don’t want to get caught by them. I would have never thought that one day I would have to bring order together with the chechens…
– So how am I supposed to work here? My company is ruined. I will leave, nobody will make contracts with me, the business will stop, I won’t have money to pay taxes.
– That’s temporary. Understand, that it is either us or the “Right sector” that will take away your money. When it will be Russia here, things will get better. As for the taxes, you don’t have to pay them to Ukraine, we exempt you. We don’t want your money financing Kiev, so they could by weapons and kill us. So consider that you made a donation and got a tax exemption and also attributed to our victory.
– Will Russia be here? Will they help?
– Definitely. As soon as the Ukraine is gone. We are here for it.

When they released me, I got home and we fled at once. My parents did not want to go. I found out that all our businessmen from Gorlovka, Kramatorsk, Konstantinovka, Makeyevka, Artyomovsk are paying to Igor Bezler. The insurgents do not limit themselves to money, they take payments in gemstones, jewelry.

All businessmen, including grannies in the marketplaces are paying to PRD. Everybody is paying and nobody is resisting. The cops tell you the amount, and you have to pay it, or close your shop. Almost everybody went bankrupt. There are constant robberies, so it is not possible to trade valuable goods, only something that is cheap. Today you won’t find a businessman who would support PRD. Everybody understands that the war will destroy Donbas, and PRD are not the government, they are just troopers who imitate government but don’t solve any problems.

As far as I know, only one man from our district refused to pay, he is a very rich man, lives in Artyomovsk. I was once in his place – he has a big house, a garage with racecars, motorcycles. He was visited right after my release. He owns the biggest agriculture company and has security. There was a real battle, troopers came from Gorlovka, but they were fired at, three were killed. Then Igor Bezler sent a whole squad with armored vehicle, they bombarded the businessman’s house from grenade launchers and big caliber machineguns. The battle was fierce. Businessman, his family and security men managed to escape, although some of them died. Now he joined the “Artyomovsk” battalion of MIA (Ministry of internal affairs), he wants to return home with a gun in his hands. It seems that there is no other way to save Donbas. None of the residents will come out to block the Ukrainian troops, on the contrary – everybody wants the army to come as soon as possible, so that the looting would stop. If we don’t do that, we will lose agriculture, there will be a lot of fugitives and it will take years to rebuild.

Addition from Yury Butusov: if you have doubts regarding the authenticity of this story, talk to any fugitive from Donbas or its residents that are still there. Then talk to the members of Donbas, Shaktyorsk and Artyomovsk battalion. They are locals. And when you will be in Dnipropetrovsk, I will introduce you (off the record) to some fugitives, including this businessman.

Aidar batallion’s statement regarding the ambush

Via Batallion Aidar FB and Reddit (translation by Samarras).

The two fronts of Aidar

You have to know how to fight a war. Especially when the war takes place on two fronts. “Aidar” batallion can handle that too. We consciously took a break in the information space, waiting for official commentary concerning the events of 17-06-2014. Our prediction came true. The commentary is as far from the truth as the leadership’s wish to complete the ATO quickly. Let’s start.

First front

With great pomp and noise the generals were going to take over Metallist (a village adjacent to Lugansk). Into which as recently as three days ago entered our paratroopers and found nothing. Separatists, tortured by Aidar’s activity in Schastie, just ran away. Instead of the order to “gain foothold, dig in, defend, wait for reinforcement” they got a rude order to retreat. Paratroopers’ commander looked like… when he was telling me about it. And now the uniformed eggheads(i.e. generals) were going to earn great bonuses and fame for their considerable military talents in wasting a sizable amount of ammunition and their skills of shooting at hummingbirds (spoiler: it worked really well).

So, one quiet Ukrainian night, a mortar battery dug in for dealing a decisive morning blow to Metallist. Nobody bothered to set up guards(“Why?”). From the golf club’s direction, a group of about 30 “colorados” started to move closer in order to take over the battery(“How did they find out about it?”). The adjacent checkpoint, housing Aidar’s patrol unit, decided to check the movements in the neutral area inside its responsibility zone. It met resistance, and the situation ended up as Aidar fighting while surrounded. They had 3 times more people than us and the battle lasted for 2.5 hours till sunrise, until the armored infantry unit (regular army) started to execute the generals’ plan and moved towards Metallist. The terrorists retreated and the mortar battery was saved. Armored infantry continued its victorious march until strengthened block-post of the separatists and got into a well-prepared ambush (“Who told them the plans?”).

ATO bottom line (from the generals)

One tank burned and deserted. One APC burned, second APC with a jammed clutch. Two BMPs deserted under battle circumstances.

The ATO HQ summoned an Aidar sotnya(century) for help, as it was the only nearby reserve force. Quick march by crawling (literally) under sniper and machine gun fire on an open terrain (all our losses came from this) was completed in a shortest time, and the batallion engaged the enemy as soon as it could take positions in the wheat fields and the forest.

Thanks for help to the helicopter pilots, tank and artillery personnel. Everything worked well. They didn’t let them to hit us from mobile mortars. We don’t know whom to “thank” for the lack of communication equipment and the lack of coordination with other units. Special thanks to L’vov paratroopers, that had arrived when we already on the edge of exhaustion, to precise anti-aircraft gunners and RPG men and all brothers in arms, who helped to finally repeal the bandits. And also thanks to the population, that has been texting us all night about the enemy locations and movements.

ATO bottom line (from Aidar).

Mortar battery saved. Both APCs and both BMPs, “lost” by the generals, were taken back (separatists managed to take away the tank). AGS, recoilless gun, anti-aircraft gun, a variety of RPGs, small arms and ammunition: taken. (Photos will be published. After all we are in a battle, not in a studio). Under 30 terrorists were terminated. Metallist was taken. Our batallion lost 4 dead and twelve wounded (three of them are heavily wounded, life not threatened), a few people taken prisoners. Aidar has won again. Despite…

The price of one Aidar fighter for one armored unit we consider too high. Our fallen ones are worth more. And we will charge this price!

Second front

Aidar suffered no losses, until called into battle by the generals… (To be continued)

P.S. This post was written by a man who participated in this battle. On the various videos it’s not Aidar. Aidar still has no armored cars of its own.