Tag: russia

Russian News Websites Hacked Purportedly by Anonymous Amid Ukraine Invasion

Several Russian state-controlled or state-aligned websites appeared to have been hacked early Monday.

The websites for the major Russian state-owned news agency, TASS, the Russian nationally distributed newspaper, Kommersant, and the daily broadsheet newspaper, Izvestia, which was founded in St. Petersburg during the Russian Revolution and was one of principal media outlets in the Soviet Union, all displayed a message signed purportedly by the notorious hacking collective Anonymous.

“Dear citizens. we call on you to stop this madness,” the message began.  “don’t send your sons and husbands to sure death. Putin is making us lie and puts us in danger.  We have been isolated from the world, no one is buying our oil & gas. In a few year’s time we’ll be living like in North Korea.  Why do we need this? For Putin to make it to history books? This is not our war, let’s stop it!”

It continued, “This message will be deleted and some of us will be fired and maybe put to jail. But we can’t tolerate this anymore. Russian journalists who care. Anonymous.”

The message comes several days after Anonymous, an international hacking collective that has carried out cyberattacks against governments and corporations, appeared to declare war against Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Keep reading

The Overton Window Is Being Shoved Toward Warmongering Extremism

A substitute teacher at an Arlington, Virginia middle school has been suspended for teaching an insufficiently one-sided perspective on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Apparently one of the students recorded the lesson and showed it to their parents who complained to the school.

This happens as RT America shuts its doors following an astonishingly aggressive censorship campaign against Russia-backed media outlets throughout the western world.

The virulent post-9/11-like hysteria about Russia that has been promoted by one-sided mass media reporting on the war, and by the five years of fact-free conspiracy mongering which preceded it, has created an environment where you’ll get shouted down on social media for voicing any opinion about this conflict apart from saying Putin invaded because he is evil and hates freedom. Voices calling for diplomacy, de-escalation and detente are being systematically drowned out.

Meanwhile you’ve got massively influential pundits like Sean Hannity calling for a direct NATO airstrike on a Russian military convoy in Ukraine, without the slightest risk of losing his immense platform for advocating a move that would probably lead to a very fast, very radioactive third world war.

“You know, if we can see on satellite imagery where the convoy is, I don’t know, maybe some smart country, maybe NATO might take some of their fighter jets, or maybe they can use some drone strikes and take out the whole damn convoy,” Hannity said on Premiere Radio Networks’ The Sean Hannity Show on Wednesday. “And then nobody takes credit for it, so then Putin won’t know who to hit back.”

Hannity hastily adds that he’s “not talking about nuclear war,” but then adds a “but” which completely contradicts him.

“But at what point is this gonna end?” Hannity asks. “Cuz nobody did anything after Georgia was taken in ’08, nobody cared about Crimea being annexed in 2014.”

Hannity has also made repeated calls for Putin’s assassination, saying that “if you invade an innocent sovereign country, and you kill innocent men, women and children, you don’t deserve to live.” An interesting position for one of the most aggressive defenders of Bush’s Iraq invasion.

Keep reading

As Ukrainians Get Killed and Displaced, Weapons Companies Reaping Record Profits Off Their Suffering

In only the first week of fighting, investors have already posted $69 billion in stock gains on the 33 major defense and aerospace stocks in the largest Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) of its kind, the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA), says an Investor’s Business Daily analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSmith.

As Investors.com reports, Northrop Grumman (NOC) already pulled 9% past analysts’ 12-month price target on the stock. Shares are up a powerful 18% since the war began, putting $10.9 billion into investors’ portfolios. It’s a similar story with Lockheed Martin (LMT). Following a 27% run-up just this year, and 16% since the war, shares blasted past analysts’ price target by some 7%.

This is by design and the model has been in place for decades.

Keep reading

Zelensky Lies About Russia ‘Shelling Nuclear Plant’ And Triggering ‘Radiation Leak’ in Latest Bid to Con NATO Into War

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in an “emotional” speech on Thursday night that Russia intentionally launched an attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the city of Energodar with tanks and warned that the entirety of Europe could be destroyed as a result.

“Right now, Russian tanks are firing upon nuclear units,” Zelensky said. “These are tanks equipped with thermal imagers. That is, they know where they are shooting, they have been preparing for this!”

He continued: “I appeal to all Ukrainians, to all Europeans. To all people who know the word ‘Chernobyl.’ Who know how many grief and casualties the explosion at the nuclear power plant caused. It was a global catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of people struggled with its consequences. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated. Russia wants to do it again. And already repeats. But six times more!”

“Europeans! Wake up, please! Speak to your politicians! Russian troops are firing upon the nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the city of Energodar. There are six power units. Six! One power unit exploded in Chernobyl,” Zelensky said.

“The Russian military must be stopped immediately! Shout to your politicians. Ukraine has 15 nuclear units. If there is an explosion, it is the end of everything. The end of Europe. This is the evacuation of Europe. Only immediate European action can stop Russian troops. Do not allow the death of Europe from the catastrophe at the nuclear power plant!”

Zelensky regime officials claimed they detected “elevated levels of radiation” and urged NATO to immediately institute a no-fly zone over Ukraine (which would immediately mean World War III).

Everything they said was a lie. The International Atomic Energy Agency and the White House both fact-checked Zelensky’s claims on Thursday night and reported there was no radiation leak.

“Ukraine regulator tells IAEA there has been no change reported in radiation levels at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant site,” the IAEA said.

Keep reading

Pro-Russian Mayor in Eastern Ukrainian City of Kreminna Found Shot Dead in the Street After He Was Detained by Officials

The Pro-Russian mayor Vlodymyr Struk was found dead in the street of Kreminna in Luhansk eastern Ukraine after he was reportedly detained a day earlier.

His wife claimed he was taken by unidentified people in camouflage clothing a day earlier.

The Daily Mail reported:

The pro-Russian mayor of a city in eastern Ukraine who welcomed President Vladimir Putin’s invasion was ‘shot dead’ after being kidnapped from his home, it has been announced.

Vlodymyr Struk, of Kreminna in Luhansk, was killed on Tuesday and suffered a ‘gunshot wound to the heart’ after he was ‘abducted from his home’, according to his wife.

Announcing the news on Facebook, the adviser for Interior Minister of Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko claimed Mr Struk was a ‘Luhansk People’s Republic supporter’ (LPR) and actively pursued a ‘pro-Russian position’ in the last week by ‘communicating with the Russian Federation’.

Keep reading

Is that Darth Invader? Israeli TV channel unwittingly runs ‘live footage’ from Ukraine… showing a crash-landed TIE fighter from Star Wars

An Israeli TV news channel has run ‘live footage’ of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine featuring a crash-landed TIE fighter from Star Wars.

The clip even shows stormtroopers standing beside the Imperial aircraft on a snowy road. 

An investigation at Channel 13 has been launched and the editor has been suspended after the video was aired during a montage of destruction in Ukraine.

The clip was originally an advert produced by Disney and Lucasfilm in 2014 to promote a new Star Wars channel on Sky Deutschland.

It shows the stormtroopers surveying the crashed starfighter on a German autobahn while cars zoom past.

The original caption said: ‘Warning: Unsecured crash on the A3. Please turn right and not overtake!’

It is believed the video started circulating on the messaging app Telegram after the Russian invasion, duping people into believing it showed footage from the war. 

Ukraine has warned about disinformation being shared online, saying Russia is preparing an online campaign to suggest senior military and political figures have surrendered.

Keep reading

How Ukraine’s Jewish president Zelensky made peace with neo-Nazi paramilitaries on front lines of war with Russia

While Western media deploys Volodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish heritage to refute accusations of Nazi influence in Ukraine, the president has ceded to neo-Nazi forces and now depends on them as front line fighters.

Back in October 2019, as the war in eastern Ukraine dragged on, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Zolote, a town situated firmly in the “gray zone” of Donbas, where over 14,000 had been killed, mostly on the pro-Russian side. There, the president encountered the hardened veterans of extreme right paramilitary units keeping up the fight against separatists just a few miles away.

Elected on a platform of de-escalation of hostilities with Russia, Zelensky was determined to enforce the so-called Steinmeier Formula conceived by then-German Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier which called for elections in the Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

In a face-to-face confrontation with militants from the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion who had launched a campaign to sabotage the peace initiative called “No to Capitulation,” Zelensky encountered a wall of obstinacy. 

With appeals for disengagement from the frontlines firmly rejected, Zelensky melted down on camera. “I’m the president of this country. I’m 41 years old. I’m not a loser. I came to you and told you: remove the weapons,” Zelensky implored the fighters.

Once video of the stormy confrontation spread across Ukrainian social media channels, Zelensky became the target of an angry backlash.

Andriy Biletsky, the proudly fascist Azov Battalion leader who once pledged to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen”, vowed to bring thousands of fighters to Zolote if Zelensky pressed any further. Meanwhile, a parliamentarian from the party of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko openly fantasized about Zelensky being blown to bits by a militant’s grenade.

Though Zelensky achieved a minor disengagement, the neo-Nazi paramilitaries escalated their “No Capitulation” campaign. And within months, fighting began to heat up again in Zolote, sparking a new cycle of violations of the Minsk Agreement.

By this point, Azov had been formally incorporated into the Ukrainian military and its street vigilante wing, known as the National Corps, was deployed across the country under the watch of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, and alongside the National Police. In December 2021, Zelensky would be seen delivering a “Hero of Ukraine” award to a leader of the fascistic Right Sector in a ceremony in Ukraine’s parliament.

A full-scale conflict with Russia was approaching, and the distance between Zelensky and the extremist paramilitaries was closing fast.

Keep reading