Russia & Ukraine

Well, right or wrong, I think this will turn into one more problem for Biden, because I doubt the WSJ will relegate this to the back-burner. They have quite the bully-pulpit when they want to. Obviously.

Biden or his supporters wont give a fuck about a Fox News employee.Fox and WSJ can whine all they want hes stuck there.
 
Biden or his supporters wont give a fuck about a Fox News employee.Fox and WSJ can whine all they want hes stuck there.
Well, obviously he doesn't care about them shooting down a $25M drone, that we no longer hear about and is probably in a Moscow lab being reverse engineered as I type, and he doesn't seem too concerned about that former Marine being held there... but a WNBA player.... yeah, send in the negotiators.

Also, in the eyes of the news reading world... there's a huge difference between the WSJ and Fox News, despite the lineage.
 
Wires are saying Russia has taken a WSJ reporter captive for espionage.
U.S. citizen.
_______________________________


Russia Detains Wall Street Journal Reporter On Espionage Charge

By AFP - Agence France Presse

A US journalist working for the Wall Street Journal has been arrested in Russia on charges of spying for Washington, Russia's FSB security services said on Thursday.

The announcement marks a serious escalation in the Kremlin's efforts to silence perceived critics, a crackdown that gained momentum following Russia's military operation in Ukraine last year.

The FSB said they had "halted the illegal activities of US citizen Evan Gershkovich," saying the Wall Street Journal reporter was "suspected of spying in the interests of the American government".

The Wall Street Journal said it was "deeply concerned for the safety of Mr. Gershkovich" and the international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was "alarmed by what looks like retaliation".

RSF said Gershkovich "was investigating on the military company Wagner" -- a mercenary group playing a prominent role in Russia's campaign in Ukraine.

The FSB confirmed that Gershkovich, 31, was working with press accreditation issued by the Russian foreign ministry.

It said he had been detained for gathering information on Russia's "military-industrial complex".

"The foreigner was detained in Yekaterinburg while attempting to obtain classified information," the FSB said, referring to a city in central Russia 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) east of Moscow.

Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova alleged that Gershkovich had been "caught red handed".

Before joining The Wall Street Journal Gershkovich worked for AFP in Moscow.

A fluent Russian speaker, he was previously a reporter based in the Russian capital for The Moscow Times, an English-language news website.

His family immigrated to the United States from Russia when he was a child.

"The problem is... the fact that the way the FSB interprets espionage today means that anyone who is simply interested in military affairs can be imprisoned for 20 years," Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said on social media in response to the detention.

Several US citizens are currently in detention in Russia and both Washington and Moscow have accused the other of carrying out politically-motivated arrests.

The FSB in January opened a criminal case against a US citizen it said was suspected of espionage but did not name the individual.

Paul Whelan, a former US Marine, was arrested in Russia in 2018 and handed a 16-year sentence on espionage charges. He is detained in a penal colony south of Moscow.

The US says he was a private citizen visiting Moscow on personal business and has demanded his release.

There have been several high-profile prisoner exchanges between Moscow and Washington over the past year.

In December, Moscow freed US basketball star Brittney Griner -- arrested for bringing cannabis oil into the country -- in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Russian authorities have also used espionage charges against Russian journalists.

Last year, Russia jailed a former defence reporter, Ivan Safronov, for 22 years on treason charges.

Safronov worked for business newspaper Kommersant and was one of Russia's most prominent journalists covering defence.

Gershkovich's arrest comes as Western journalists in Russia face increasing restrictions.

Staff of Western media outlets often report being tailed, particularly during trips outside of major urban hubs of Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Many Russians fear speaking to foreign media, due to strict censorship laws adopted in the wake of the Ukraine offensive.

So Putin seized another American as a hostage. I guess he wants to do another swap.
 
A key part of this article is provided below... it outlines how Putin is Xi's little biatch...

Paradoxically, in his desperation to obliterate Ukraine’s national independence, Putin is irrationally selling off his own. As repeatedly evidenced during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Moscow, Beijing is slowly beginning to fully subsume Russia’s independence economically, militarily and diplomatically.

Xi’s demands and stances during the summit should have been humiliating to Putin, who agreed to replace the Russian ruble with the Chinese yuan in trading with the Global South. Despite symbolic gladhanding, Xi offered nothing of military substance that would appreciably change the trajectory of the war in Ukraine. The net effect of Xi’s three days in Moscow, as King’s College professor Sam Greene noted: “China’s domination of Russia is complete.”

Putin blindly believes he has signed on to a multipolar world with Xi as a coequal, but in reality, he is only enabling the world to become a contest of two — Beijing and Washington — while Putin sits on the sidelines with about as much influence as Benito Mussolini had in World War II playing second fiddle to Nazi Germany.

Russia is burning out of control on Putin’s watch
https://thehill.com/opinion/nationa...ia-is-burning-out-of-control-on-putins-watch/
 
Oh, look a Swastika on a soldier's uniform.
And, my, my... a Ukrainian flag, too.
But remember - no Nazis are infesting the AFU! That's a myth.

2023-03-30 10.49.28.jpg
 
Back
Top