⚡Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanks Elon Tusk for his continued commitment to freedom of speech, as shown here in twitter code hiding tweets about Ukraine Crisis

💭 Ukraine Crisis listed next to DoNotAmplify and DMCAWithheld filters

👉Read more: https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/main/visibilitylib/src/main/scala/com/twitter/visibility/models/SpaceSafetyLabelType.scala#L39

-- MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 21:27:03 +0000 2023

#MarkTheDate

🗓 Presidential Commissioner for Kidnapping Ukrainian Children Maria Lvova-Belova will hold a news conference at 11 am on April 4.

❗This event will not cover her outstanding warrant at ICC for war crimes

🔗 https://is.gd/Cqk4NZ

-- MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 21:39:26 +0000 2023

MFA Russia 🇷🇺 Retweeted

Together @nytimes, @washingtonpost, @Bloomberg, and @politico call on Russia to immediately release @WSJ's Evan Gershkovich. "Evan’s detention is intended to have a chilling effect on independent journalism and deprive the public of essential news." https://www.nytco.com/press/statement-from-a-coalition-of-news-organizations-regarding-the-detention-of-wsjs-evan-gershkovich-in-russia/

-- Michael Schwirtz (@mschwirtz) Fri Mar 31 13:24:06 +0000 2023

⚡ Pro-Ukrainian American Ben Wittes suspended from twitter website after vicious impersonation of Russian diplomatic account

💬 Making Russian government look incompetent or stupid is exclusive job of Russian government officials

👉Read more https://www.dogshirtdaily.com/p/my-twitter-account-has-been-suspended

-- MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@pwnallthethings) Sun Apr 02 06:07:32 +0000 2023

Lots of lines outside pharmacies today across Ukraine, as the new rules requiring prescriptions for many additional categories of medicine come into force tomorrow, under new Ministry of Health rules.

Not much coverage, because internal and not esp disruptive, but quite impt ...

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 17:57:56 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

The reason its impt is that it's one of the ways UA is quietly, but deliberately starting to substantially align its internal regulatory environment with EU rules, and an example of the often not-especially obvious places that needs to happen

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 18:00:57 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

It's not very loud; no big fanfare for it, nor does it need to be. But it does show that UA and EU are taking EU accession seriously, are quietly now tackling the large regulatory alignment issues even in non-obvious places, and implementing it properly. Not just talking points

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 18:08:38 +0000 2023

Folks in Western MFAs and leadership should put this interview by Patrushev in front of their principals to read. It's pretty blunt about how russian leadership sees this conflict and their (detached-from-reality, but sincere) expectations and ambitions. https://twitter.com/OTregub/status/1641728982792929281?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 19:54:25 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Patrushev said that the goal of Russia is to destroy the EU because it’s a tool of USA dominance. Instead European nations should be dominated by Russia. While destruction of USA is a common theme, first time Russia speaks so openly about destroying EU. https://rg.ru/amp/2023/03/27/oni-sovsem-strah-poteriali.html

-- Olena Tregub (@OTregub) Fri Mar 31 09:07:46 +0000 2023

Folks who don't pay close attention might wonder why this is impt relative to, say, beligerence of TV hosts or Medvedev, Dugin, etc but it is alarming for the reasons in this thread: because of who it is, that it's mental, but also that it's quite sincere https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1641892557591400456?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 20:41:19 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

A serious question: does Patrushev say this for effect, or is he, the senior security official in Russia, so detached from reality by this point that he actually believes it? Russia “in many ways surpasses America spiritually, morally and militarily…” https://rg.ru/2023/03/27/oni-sovsem-strah-poteriali.html

-- Shashank Joshi (@shashj) Fri Mar 31 19:57:45 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

They're absolutely chugging down gallons of copeaid in the red palace. But that also places limits on how plausible it will be to realistically engage with them diplomatically here on planet earth

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 20:44:42 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Like, after four months of failing to take Bahkmut, folks sometimes ask "what's their big strategy here" and the answer is closer to "wait until the EU disintegrates, the world abandons USD, and America partitions over BLM" than you might think (or IOW, there kind of isn't one).

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 20:51:07 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Also relevant for western decisionmakers not just bc it's hard to engage with them from here, but also those are the main axes they'll push on, because that's their (surreal) exit plan for this mess they created for themselves, and quite sincerely their actual goal to accelerate

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 20:59:59 +0000 2023

The funny thing about the twitter source code is they can't prove there's no political biasing unless they disclose the list of naughty words that cause a deboost, so the PR cost of publishing the naughty words file vs the PR cost of not are amusingly and irreconcilably opposed

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 21:54:02 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Broke: would the AI be racist if it was necessary to diffuse a bomb that for some reason had a racist off switch

Bespoke: the only way to prove the naughty words list isn't "hunter biden" repeated 800 times is to publish all the most offensive slurs known to twitter

RIP your PR

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 21:59:23 +0000 2023

The NATO accession ceremony is weirder than I remember https://twitter.com/WMTWTV/status/1641889359895879681?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 22:06:23 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Amazing sight: 20% of all North Atlantic right whales gathered off New England coast https://www.wmtw.com/article/north-atlantic-right-whales-gathered-off-new-england-coast/43482042?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot

-- WMTW TV (@WMTWTV) Fri Mar 31 19:45:02 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social Retweeted

More than 9,000 war crimes were committed during the 33-day occupation of Bucha. Over 270 a day. More than 1400 civilians were killed. Many of them were subjected to torture. There were 37 children among the dead. 52 children were injured.
#bucha
2/3

📷 Zohra Bensemra, Reuters

-- Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) Fri Mar 31 14:21:00 +0000 2023

Out of all the things that won't happen, this will won't happen the most

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 01:57:30 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

During address to National Assembly Lukashenka says that Russian nuclear bombs on territory of Belarus will be controlled by Belarus https://belarus.liveuamap.com/en/2023/31-march-during-address-to-national-assembly-lukashenka-says #Belarus

-- Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) Fri Mar 31 12:51:41 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

But good on Luka finding the one thing US, India, Ukraine, Russia, China and Iran will all be able to quite earnestly agree on: BY not having an independent arsenal. Bringing the whole world together.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 01:59:38 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

It's actually legitimately funny that Luka thinks his Union State negotiations got him an independent deterrent and what he actually got was a ton of NATO nukes pointing at a half-constructed shed somewhere in the countryside that are housing someone else's deterrent.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 02:09:06 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

(for folks wondering: Putin himself didn't even bother the leave it open during the announcement "We are not going to hand over control of nuclear weapons. The US doesn't hand it over to its allies. We're basically doing the same thing (US leaders) have been doing for a decade")

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 02:18:25 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Had kind of assumed R had eventually worn down BY into dropping the request, but it turns out Luka just didn't read it lmao

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 02:23:09 +0000 2023

❗️Concept of the Foreign Policy of Russia (2023)

✅Foreign policy based on basic values of belligerence and incompetence
✅Russian leadership to attend new international forums, such as ICC
✅Strengthen NATO alliance with two new members

-- MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 04:02:00 +0000 2023

🇷🇺🇨🇳President Putin sent his congratulations to Chinese President Xi Jinping on his recent acquisition of Russia's economy

✍️We will continue to coordinate our joint work to terrorize regional neighbors, and develop new lines of economic growth based on looted washing machines

-- MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 04:31:04 +0000 2023

🎙️FM Sergey #Lavrov’s interview with TASS news agency

💬West falsely claims that Putin is guilty of war crimes like genocide, but actually he is guilty of special military operation crimes, like genocide.

-- MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 04:41:44 +0000 2023

❗️MFA notes with concern many accounts purporting to be the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Twitter, such as the one below. Such accounts damage the reputation of Russian Federation by accurately representing MFA as buffoons, and even send idiots and criminals to official meetings

-- MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 05:19:19 +0000 2023

⚡️Russia to begin chairmanship of UN Security Council starting from today, as part of elaborate month-long April Fools joke https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/31/absurdity-to-a-new-level-as-russia-takes-charge-of-un-security-council

-- MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 05:58:54 +0000 2023

❗British MOD claims CJS Gerasimov is pushing Russian leadership's limits after 10 years of failure

✍️ Fact check: Russian leadership tolerate any amount of failure. Russian MFA has enjoyed 19 full years of failure under careless leadership of FM Lavrov https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1642054869447049216?s=20

-- MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@pwnallthethings) Sat Apr 01 07:08:22 +0000 2023

MFA Russia 🇷🇺 tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 01 April 2023.

Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: http://ow.ly/1x2C50NxMHl

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦

-- Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) Sat Apr 01 06:42:43 +0000 2023

Last mass casualty (>1 not incl killer) event at a school in the UK—a country 1/5 the size of the US—was in 1996. In Canada, in 1992.

In the US, we've had 3 since Jan.

Doesn't have to be this way

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 08:14:27 +0000 2023

Russian media reporting that Russia has detained WSJ's Russia correspondent in Yekaterinburg https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5902393

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 08:29:40 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

RIA also has it; FSB detained him on charges of espionage. https://ria.ru/20230330/korrespondent-1861767077.html

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 08:40:29 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Evan accredited by MFA, well-known and regarded, and with long career of published journalism. Arrest handled by the central office of the FSB (not a big surprise), so he'll be transferred to Moscow for arraignment, but also shows his arrest directed from senior levels in Moscow.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 09:11:48 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

NYT now has it https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/30/world/europe/russia-wsj-reporter-detained-gershkovich.html

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 09:14:42 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social Retweeted

“The Wall Street Journal is deeply concerned for the safety of Mr. Gershkovich,” the Journal said in a statement. Evan is accredited to work as a journalist in Russia by the country’s foreign ministry.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-security-service-detains-wall-street-journal-reporter-cbfbd505

-- Jared Malsin (@jmalsin) Thu Mar 30 09:13:07 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social Retweeted

.@evangershkovich is a very good and brave journalist, not a spy, for Christ's sake. It is a frontal attack on all foreign correspondents who still work in Russia. And it means that the FSB is off the leash.

-- Andrei Soldatov (@AndreiSoldatov) Thu Mar 30 08:31:44 +0000 2023

Andrei Soldatov tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

The FSB alleged that Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen, was involved in the collection of “secret information” about a Russian defense company.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/03/30/russia-detains-wsj-journalist-on-spying-allegations-a80657

-- The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) Thu Mar 30 07:51:15 +0000 2023

If you're FSB and picking the most influential US newspaper operating in Russia to arrest someone from to chill foreign reporting while avoiding the backlash of the sheer name recognition in every MFA and presidency that, say, NYT has, which paper do you pick and why is it WSJ.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 10:34:11 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

FSB can't do anything not in the most lazy way. Caught red handed! Saves them needing to do any work or make their case; just so long as you don't notice it doesn't match up with central office knowing in advance and doing the arrest or announcing so quick

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 10:45:29 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Peskov now says WSJ's @evangershkovich was "caught red-handed". The speed and certainty which this is progressing suggests it was ordered from the top, rather than snowballing local case.

Looks a lot like hostage taking to increase Russia's "exchange pool" for prisoner swaps.

-- Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) Thu Mar 30 10:30:23 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Also what amazing intergovernmental comms they have that peskov is so fully briefed on the details of this ostensible crime-in-progress opportunistically thwarted by officers far from homr that the rest of the world is just waking up to and that he didn't know long in advance.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 10:49:35 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

The thing is, they're not only just systematically cynical and amoral in how they approach literally everything, they're also just unbelievably lazy and incompetent to top it all off.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 10:52:33 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Russia's leadership is so proud of its galaxy brained ideas without noticing they're not the soviet diplomats they saw on TV as a child playing 5D chess, they're cynical 4chan rejects playing hungry hungry hippos, and shouting checkmate while putting a Pikachu card on the table

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 11:01:45 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social Retweeted

JUST IN: Turkey's parliament approves bill to allow Finland to join NATO.

More to follow on http://dw.com

-- DW News (@dwnews) Thu Mar 30 21:13:31 +0000 2023

All NATO members have now ratified Finland's accession to the alliance; only a few ceremonial aspects left but all political obstacles cleared for their entry.

Welcome to NATO, Finland. https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1641549236775927808?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 21:28:09 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

JUST IN: Turkey's parliament approves bill to allow Finland to join NATO.

More to follow on http://dw.com

-- DW News (@dwnews) Thu Mar 30 21:13:31 +0000 2023

Should I be pedantic and point out Trump is gonna be the *second* current or former president to get arrested or no

(Ulysses Grant got arrested in 1872 on a misdemeanor charge of speeding in DC at 13th and M, and paid a fine of $20)

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 21:51:38 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

First felony tho, so still something to put in the trophy cabinet, give him that

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 21:53:30 +0000 2023

Worth noting that this is not the only current criminal probe into the former president. At least one DOJ one probe impliedly exists for federal offenses since they converted it to operate under a special counsel when he announced his 2024 campaign for president and hasn't closed

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 22:37:27 +0000 2023

Editors with a tear rolling down their cheek quietly dragging the trump story down below the fold for tomorrows edition as the Gwyneth Paltrow verdict now comes in

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 22:47:43 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

"what if we do a special edition where it's just one giant unfoldable paper-map-sized front page, you think the printers can do that?"

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 22:53:23 +0000 2023

Skeptical there's a large set of voters who would have definitely not voted for him before, but now that he's indicted that's what tips the balance to go out and vote for him. But certain it wouldn't be a proper consideration for a prosecutor either way https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1641555532589703171?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 23:06:46 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Democrats just fast tracked Donald Trump back to the White House. https://twitter.com/jonesieman/status/1641551537431277569

-- Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) Thu Mar 30 21:38:32 +0000 2023

Chilling to think if the NY DA could indict trump, literally any of us could be indicted at any moment for laundering hush money out of an election campaign while running for president.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 23:21:47 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social Retweeted

John Miller tells @ErinBurnett that his sources say trump charges are 34 counts related to falsifying business records.

-- Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCNN) Thu Mar 30 23:20:27 +0000 2023

Trump will surrender to the DA, but probably shouldn't get lost in the mix both that the FL governor doesn't have the power to block intrastate extradition under the constitution, nor the pedestrian but deliberate use of antisemitic conspiracies in here https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1641575007552778243?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 23:34:44 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head.

It is un-American.

The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1641575007552778243

-- Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) Thu Mar 30 22:55:55 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social Retweeted

Don't mean to sound hysterical but "I don't have to follow the law if I think there's a secret conspiracy of Jewish capital" being a thing a mainstream politician feels comfortable saying seems bad.

-- Starfish PhDing in Plankton and Salmon Studies (@IRHotTakes) Thu Mar 30 23:44:32 +0000 2023

Oh no what if all the parties had to pick candidates who don't do crimes and get arrested if they do them what a terrible precedent https://twitter.com/MZHemingway/status/1641572598067732480?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 00:22:20 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

"Donald Trump may be the first former president indicted, but if this is the standard, it obviously won't be the last." -- @JonathanTurley

-- Mollie (@MZHemingway) Thu Mar 30 22:46:20 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

A: but riddle me this huh, what if a dem does lots of crime, should they also get arrested? Huh? Huh?

Me: sure

A: wait no you're supposed to say no

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 00:29:24 +0000 2023

Ah yes, campaign finance crimes, of course, very famously were never meant to apply to *checks notes* politicians running for office https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1641607915206311937?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 01:13:21 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

PENCE on Trump indictment, on CNN now: "I think the unprecedented indictment of a former president of the United States on a campaign finance issue is an outrage. And it appears for millions of Americans to be nothing more than a political prosecution."

-- Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) Fri Mar 31 01:06:41 +0000 2023

Japan is a third the size of the US. In 2021 there were—nationally—10 recorded cases of an unlawful firearms discharge, 8 of which related to organized crime, and just one recorded death by firearm. In the US, 48,830 gun deaths, of which 20,958 homicides https://twitter.com/0wlGhost/status/1641240984095797251?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 03:02:09 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

The whole gun control argument should have died the moment a former head state was killed by an improvised firearm in one of the countries with the most restrictive gun laws in the world.

-- la Lechuza (@0wlGhost) Thu Mar 30 00:48:38 +0000 2023

US sadly now degraded to sit among the banana republics of the world whose current or former leaders have had to face a criminal probe like *checks notes* France, Italy, the UK, Israel, and South Korea.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 03:44:08 +0000 2023

He started a riot at the Capitol, directed the VP to just simply ignore electoral votes to stay in power, strongarmed governors to send fake electors, many cabinet members resigned, DOJ leadership nearly quit on spot, and 25k nat guard were deployed in DC https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1641647161996722176?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 05:29:33 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

If presidents think they will be chased into jail under thin pretexts as ex-presidents, they’ll try even harder to never leave office. This is how autocracies are born. https://twitter.com/scotgl/status/1641624540659761152

-- Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) Fri Mar 31 03:42:38 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Like, he tried pretty fucking hard to not leave office, Taibbi, and didn't really give a shit about norms or laws or violence to achieve it

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Fri Mar 31 05:30:45 +0000 2023

New RUSI report on preliminary lessons from Russia's unconventional warfare (mostly intelligence service led operations) in Ukraine. Authors "have in many instances checked the conclusions with non-Ukrainian agencies", it says. https://static.rusi.org/202303-SR-Unconventional-Operations-Russo-Ukrainian-War-web-final.pdf.pdf

-- Shashank Joshi (@shashj) Wed Mar 29 16:09:32 +0000 2023

Still not entirely sure why the convo on tiktok is about banning it, and not it's divestment from foreign control. Seems to me the latter always more likely, given that it's preferential to literally everyone involved vs a formal ban

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Wed Mar 29 22:35:15 +0000 2023

🙃 https://twitter.com/RollingStone/status/1641229267659898885?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 00:52:51 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Donald Trump is asking for a plan to wage war in Mexico, and the MAGAfied Republican Party is eager to give it to him. https://trib.al/RRSgvuy

-- Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) Thu Mar 30 00:02:04 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Just the absolute dumbest timeline

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 00:55:39 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Could instead just bankrupt the cartels by just stopping whichever dipshits come up with these mental ideas from buying so much coke

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 01:00:18 +0000 2023

Oh no

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 05:04:04 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

omg burn it with fire we've lost control

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 05:15:45 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

oh shit oh shit oh shit

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 05:19:01 +0000 2023

The Colorado nightclub shooter killed 5, injured 22, motivated by homophobic and anti-LGBT ideology in Nov. And most people have already forgotten it because shootings happen here so often, and so often with extreme RW motives, it doesn't register for long https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1640973951986720768?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 07:24:34 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

If a straight white man murdered a bunch of children at a progressive school in the name of anti-trans politics, it would dominate the news cycle for months and become the center of the 2024 presidential cycle. https://twitter.com/VaushV/status/1640972920502771714

-- Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) Wed Mar 29 07:07:32 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Was also a series of shootings in NM targeting two state legislators and two county commissioners. By a former GOP candidate! Fueled by election denial! Guess when? Ten weeks ago. Do you remember? No. Because nobody died, and shootings where nobody died barely hold *local* news

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 07:30:40 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Speaking of which, we are on week 13 of the year, in which so far *15* shootings have taken place at or immediately adjacent to a school in the US. Barely any coverage. It's too normal. Like a car crash, only the worst get national coverage. The rest, merely statistics.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 07:33:12 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Same how folks worry about planes but not the taxi to the airport. Plane crashes get lots of attention! But car crashes are so ordinary they get no coverage. Same with shootings. So many that everyone's lost sight that a *school a week has a shooting*. Like ... wtf are we doing

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 07:39:28 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Remember the attack on Paul Pelosi? That was in October. Or the Cincinnati FBI field office attack by a Donald trump supporter motivated by election denial? August. Or how about the buffalo shooting that killed 10? Motivated by white supremacy. That was May

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 07:47:14 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

None of those will be major issues in election 2024. Not just because they've all long since fallen out of the public discussion and barely register, but because the current rate of rightwing violence and school shootings guarantees there'll be many more recent examples by then.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Thu Mar 30 07:50:18 +0000 2023

To credibly critique lack of settlement you need to at least make a case there is a deal available to get to. Must show (a) what terms, (b) how will be enforced against breach, and (c) how/why UA and R will accept it. "Diplomacy harder" ain't it https://twitter.com/QuincyInst/status/1640384462872776705?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Tue Mar 28 16:03:19 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Biden’s looming trap in Ukraine

MUST READ — QI’s George Beebe argues that three key factors show why the Biden administration needs to press the accelerator pedal on negotiations with Russia now. https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/03/20/bidens-looming-trap-in-ukraine/

-- Quincy Institute (@QuincyInst) Mon Mar 27 16:05:07 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

There's currently probably about 100 different axes of negotiation, most of which are irreconcilable and you're never gonna talk your way into agreement on them

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Tue Mar 28 16:06:02 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Basic example is Crimea, but folks come to that with priors. So reverse it to make the point: who owns ostensibly annexed UA regions in your plan that are declared Russian, but not currently occupied, and how do you talk your way into an agreement on it. (The answer is you won't)

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Tue Mar 28 16:11:21 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

There is virtually no plausible concession to get to a resolution. UA will obviously not just cede currently free territory to R at any price, and R will not cede ostensibly annexed territory at any price. There's simply no way you're going to "diplomacy harder" and talk past it

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Tue Mar 28 16:13:40 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

The only way to moderate the demands towards a plausible eventual peace agreement is to deny R's confidence that force beats talking for getting what they want (or inversely and evilly deny UA the ability to resist it) Only then will there be movement to be made in negotiations.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Tue Mar 28 16:28:51 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

If you want to deny UA the ability to resist "negotiation" by force, then first of all absolutely go fuck yourself, and secondly at least fucking own it. Because it sure as hell isn't "peace", "negotiations", "anti-imperialism", or whatever else you try and pretend it is.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Tue Mar 28 16:39:09 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social Retweeted

“Putin has practically stopped talking about any concrete aims of the war. He proposes no vision of what a future victory might look like either. The war has no clearcut beginning nor a foreseeable end.”

chilling dispatch from @PjotrSauer & @Andrew__Roth https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/28/putin-prepares-russia-for-forever-war-with-west-as-ukraine-invasion-stalls

-- max seddon (@maxseddon) Tue Mar 28 19:54:41 +0000 2023

Not just planned. Fact of their kill lists was well-known prior to feb; they openly planned staged trials and public executions of civic leaders in occupied regions, and they used (and still use) filtration camps to systematically hunt and execute people https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1639698877304520704?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 27 11:33:18 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Putin wanted ‘total cleansing’ of Ukraine with ‘house-to-house terror,’ leaked spy docs reveal https://trib.al/COI9sSp

-- New York Post (@nypost) Sat Mar 25 18:40:51 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Every time a region is liberated it comes with new horror stories from people about their treatment under occupation, and Russia's systematic hunting down of people by name, by association, and by mere accusation, and the uncovering of new and disturbingly large mass grave sites

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 27 11:43:03 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

They didn't even bother to try and hide it. They posted videos of executions of naked and violently abused civilians into mass graves, openly planned executions of civic leaders, and targeted local politicians, journalists, school administrators, whatever. Not just a plan. Did.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 27 11:47:59 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Some folks wonder why Ukrainians fight and don't sue for peace at any price. But this is why. Life under that occupation isn't peace, just with a different government. It's just more violence, and one that is somehow even worse, and, for most, one that is even less survivable.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 27 12:07:00 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

The stories of children who spent weeks underground next to bodies of parents as they decomposed for days, and of the adults who searched for food who never came back because they were executed. Or of girls as young as 4 and what they suffer not from *war* but from *occupation*.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 27 12:18:02 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

If it were only just some isolated incidents of a bad soldier acting against orders. But it is not. The graves are too full, and the liberated cities too full of stories that make your eyes go dark to hear them. War is hell, but that occupation is far worse, and it's not a secret

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 27 12:26:47 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

MFA here confirming this change is part of the (long running) BY/R Union State mechanics. Notably doesn't bother with the obviously BS direct causality justifications (like DU) in response to anything external, nor change in control or policy or use intent https://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1859880/

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 27 20:11:32 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

As predicted, but noteworthy anyway, MFA also goes to a bit of effort to decouple agreement to building infrastructure to host NW from making the decision to actually deploy it to that infrastructure, ie pushing that to a separate decision to be negotiated between R and BY later.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 27 20:19:20 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Bit involved why (BY/R negotiations are purposely opaque to outsiders) but tldr is this whole saga is being driven primarily by internal (to R, to BY, and to BY/R rel) factors rather than reactive to specific external factors; and not driven by intent to signal change in posture

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 27 20:27:18 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Or to unpack it, IMO better viewed as BY negotiating for itself regime-survival insurance as part of planned subordination into R (but: consider why they want it) than R responding to or signalling something specific. V concerning, but more for mediumterm and conventional reasons

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 27 20:44:42 +0000 2023

.@NTarnopolsky is a must-follow for coverage of events unfolding in Israel right now.

-- Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) Mon Mar 27 00:19:33 +0000 2023

Christopher Miller tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

🚨3 am– After five hours of blockage, bonfires, tents set up, the police have announced they'll evacuate the protesters– but the cops are massively outnumbered and it is unclear what they can do.

-- Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي (@NTarnopolsky) Sun Mar 26 23:54:30 +0000 2023

Another one for the "ICC warrants matter a lot more than you think, but usually not in the direct way that you think" list.

https://twitter.com/KramarenkoMari3/status/1639557784113954816?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Mar 25 14:43:46 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

#Russia may start systematically returning Ukrainian children after the ICC warrant

"I cannot publicly say many details, but I will say it as a person who directly takes part in this. After the arrest warrant was issued, we received signals that may indicate
1/2

-- Mariia Kramarenko (@KramarenkoMari3) Sat Mar 25 09:20:11 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Congrats to all the pundits who said it was pointless by envisioning shootouts with bodyguards and Hague invasions. Yet here it is causing the president of russia enough costs that they might unwind their genocide. Not a small deal, nor one easily achievable by other means

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Mar 25 14:56:23 +0000 2023

This is just "union state" mechanics playing out in the background; not anything more worrying. Been mostly expected since ~ early last year, and doesn't change much: R retains launch authority, storage is not forward deployment, and no change of posture https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/1639680145723363328?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Mar 25 18:32:03 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

NEW: Russia will move tactical nuclear weapons to the territory of Belarus, President Vladimir Putin announces via state media

-- Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) Sat Mar 25 17:26:25 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

To the extent it's worrying, it's more just *that* union state stuff keeps going forward, and what BY subordinating itself to R means in the mid and longterm. But this isnt new, nor an immediate crisis, nor a direct response to something specific, nor any indication of use intent

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Mar 25 19:00:08 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

The correct response from the west is probably to just point out that it took Russia four whole days to go from signing a joint statement with China that countries should withdraw nuclear weapons from abroad to announcing this, and what that says about Russia's public commitments

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Mar 25 19:49:14 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Probably says something about China and their credibility on such statements too that they'll sign such a high profile statement at the presidential level, and then quietly lets the other partner break it so overtly just four days later with no pushback or consequences

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Mar 25 19:55:08 +0000 2023

Oh no what if russia puts dual capable weapons in BY like iskanders could you imagine https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1639685390608084993?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Mar 25 21:16:53 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

Putin Placing Nuclear Weapons in Belarus

1. Moscow will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

2. Putin claims this will not violate nuclear nonproliferation agreements.

3. Russia has moved 10 aircraft to Belarus that are capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons

4.… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1639685390608084993

-- Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) Sat Mar 25 17:47:15 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

We are so much on the precipice of WW3 that Putin has strategically deployed his time machine to go back to the beginning of the war, deploy dual capable Isks to BY, use DU ammunition, and persuade BY to hold a referendum and hold a whole year of union state negotiations about it

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sat Mar 25 21:22:09 +0000 2023

Oh come on https://twitter.com/SariArhoHavren/status/1639542125611085824?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sun Mar 26 02:03:59 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

More half-baked statements coming out fr the EU leaders: “The Chinese president’s trip to Moscow this month has made the world safer, reducing the chance that Vladimir Putin will use nuclear weapons, according to the EU’s foreign policy chief Borrell.” 1/ https://on.ft.com/3LRESe2

-- Sari Arho Havrén (@SariArhoHavren) Sat Mar 25 08:17:58 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Borrell never saw a rock he wouldn't buy from China if they first say it scares away tigers

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Sun Mar 26 02:08:21 +0000 2023

This isn't a real objection by R. DU isn't a radiological weapon, Russia uses it, the health risks of DU are heavy metals, not radiation, and the whole thing is an intentional deflection based on people hearing the word "uranium" and getting confused by it https://twitter.com/KimZetter/status/1638221110930972691?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Tue Mar 21 17:16:36 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

The UK is planning to send armor-piercing tank rounds to Ukraine that use depleted uranium... despite warnings from Russia that it would consider the use of depleted uranium weapons as the equivalent of using a nuclear dirty bomb. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-03-06/hl6144

-- Kim Zetter (@KimZetter) Tue Mar 21 16:48:44 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Russia will complain, sure, but it's not similar to dirty bomb, russia won't respond as if it were one, and the whole thing is yet another propaganda trick of using phrases used in a technical sense that sound a lot scarier than they are to folks who aren't paying close attention

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Tue Mar 21 17:25:24 +0000 2023

For folks like this that think the US could "make" Ukraine not accept a ceasefire or peace terms that it finds acceptable ... uh, how https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1637588897457643522?s=20

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 20 15:48:17 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social tweeted this while quoting the below tweet.

What happened to the whole bullshit pretense about how it's up to Ukraine, not the US, to unilaterally decide what kinds of peace talks and diplomatic terms it accepts?

Here's US official John Kirby pronouncing a possible cease-fire "unacceptable":

-- Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) Sun Mar 19 22:56:32 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

I mean, just think it through. I know it's unpopular in certain circles to consider for a whole second that Ukrainians have independent agency, but what happens if R offers terms Ukraine finds acceptable and wants to sign and they, y'know, sign it (don't fight the hypothetical)

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 20 15:53:35 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

What's the US gonna do? Phone up the commanders and tell them to keep going? You think they listen?

Or is the argument the US has leverage so UA doesn't sign it in the first place? Because think *that* through

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 20 15:55:12 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Because the leverage the US has is "we stop helping you". But wait, why does UA care? In this hypothetical R just offered them peace terms they find acceptable.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 20 15:56:32 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

Every time you walk through the logic you either come back to "the US' leverage is that the terms aren't actually acceptable to UA, but is twisting their arms for an unacceptable deal", believing Ukraine has no agency, or conceding the peace deal is temporary or fictional.

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 20 15:57:57 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

And while we're here, tossing out that Kirby has spoken on this issue a gajillion times already. His concern that he's said repeatedly is that any plausible shortterm ceasefire would be temporary, used by Russia to reconstitute it's forces, and then resume to UA's greater harm

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 20 16:05:24 +0000 2023

Replying to @pwnallthethings

The thing is, ultimately, as much as US officials are not fans of Russia and care about Ukrainians in Eastern Ukraine and would like it liberated, it really pales in comparison to the strength of feeling Ukrainians have about those topics by quite a large margin, let me tell you

-- @Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social (@pwnallthethings) Mon Mar 20 16:12:27 +0000 2023

@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social Retweeted

*NEW* @GeopolDecanted episode
Why Taiwan’s Military Modernization Is Moving Too Slowly

I talk to @vyctw, a TW politician and former natsec strategist about TW's politics, military modernization, Silicon Shield and why a blockade is not the major threat

https://podcast.silverado.org/episodes/why-taiwans-military-modernization-is-moving-too-slowly

-- Dmitri Alperovitch (@DAlperovitch) Tue Mar 21 01:18:53 +0000 2023