Kevin Rothrock

@kevinrothrock.bsky.social

5546

Followers

196

Following

4507

Posts

Russia watcher supreme. @meduza.io English-language managing editor. Based in Portland, OR (USA). 📧 [email protected] / Find all my junk here: https://linktr.ee/kevinrothrock

Posts Replies Media Lists

Reply to

Jo 🇪🇺🥂🍾

Joe Biden's 1997 accidental prophecy on conflicts with NATO driving Russia into the arms of China and Iran. www.c-span.org/video/?86974...

NATO Expansionwww.c-span.org Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) talked about the possibility of NATO expansion and what it could mean for the future of foreign diplomacy. He outlined his support for enlargement of NATO and gave his prediction...

😬 Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky spoke over the phone late this week amid mounting concern in Kyiv that a second Trump administration would spell the end of American support in Ukraine’s fight against Russia. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/20/us/politics/trump-zelensky-call-ukraine.html

Reply to

Protective Hen

WSJ describes the research as “data, which is based on thousands of voter surveys compiled by Democratic firm Blue Rose Research.”

From a recent PuckNews report on top Democrats panicking about Biden’s reelection chances: puck.news/biden-saturday-z…

The Russian authorities are reportedly planning to try again at a national bloggers’ registry. The threshold will likely be 10,000 subscribers, registration will entail disclosing your identity to Roskomnadzor, and noncompliance will get you blocked. https://www.interfax.ru/russia/971495

� �� 10 ��. �� www.interfax.ru ��, � �� -��, �� 10 �� , �� , �� "��" �� .

WSJ says new Dem research shows Biden losing Electoral College “in a landslide." He loses not only all swing states, but also falls behind or drops even in NH, Minnesota, NM, Virginia, and Maine. https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/top-democrats-prepare-for-campaign-without-biden-b57946a8

Russia’s airports are reportedly running like clockwork today. The tech ministry credits the stability to years of import-substituting foreign софт. https://meduza.io/en/news/2024/07/20/russian-tech-ministry-credits-import-substituted-software-with-sparing-county-from-friday-s-crowdstrike-meltdown

Russian tech ministry credits import-substituted software with sparing county from Friday’s CrowdStrike meltdown — Meduzameduza.io Russia’s Digital Development Ministry said on Friday that the country’s airports were operating normally without any disruption from the flawed software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike that is crashing Windows computers around the world.

(It helps that CrowdStrike systems are virtually absent in the country.)

Russian police have issued an arrest warrant for columnist and video blogger Oleg @KSHN, probably on felony charges of repeatedly evading his disclosure requirements as a designated “foreign agent.” https://zona.media/news/2024/07/19/kashin

Former Ukrainian lawmaker Iryna Farion was shot in the head today outside her home in Lviv. The controversial public figure is now hospitalized and reportedly fighting for her life. The shooter (reportedly a man in his early 20s) is on the run.

Last Nov, Farion questioned the Ukrainianness of Russian-speaking UAF soldiers. She later published a letter of support from a student in Crimea, revealing his personal info and exposing him to arrest by Russian police. (For Farion, this led to a criminal investigation and job suspension.)

Farion has reportedly died.

well, i tried. prompt: draw a cartoon (in the style of a 1990s newspaper cartoon) where a little man celebrates his victory over small troll dolls (show a caption reading, “Russian APTs”) …

but directly behind him, out of his sightline and unbeknownst to him, looms a very large and threatening troll monster (label this character “faulty update code”)

Popular Russian Telegram channel with half a million subscribers is really showing off its grasp of U.S. politics by pairing an AOC-Biden photo with this post about Kamala Harris saying Biden needs to stay in the race.

In a new essay for Carnegie, Galiya Ibragimova breaks down the self-defeating consequences of Russia’s “patriotic” crackdown on Central Asian migrants. https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2024/07/russia-central-asia-migrants?lang=ru&center=russia-eurasia

Конец монополии. Как Россия теряет мигрантов из Центральной Азииcarnegieendowment.org Всего десять лет назад невозможно было представить, что вместо России сотни тысяч выходцев из Центральной Азии поедут на заработки в Азию, а десятки тысяч — в Европу. Сегодня это уже реальность, и роль российского рынка будет снижаться и дальше

The crackdowns have escalated since the March 2024 concert hall terrorist attack outside Moscow, but the Russian authorities have used such pressure as a longstanding geopolitical tactic in winning various concessions from Central Asian states.

Ibragimova focuses on how the Russian economy relies on migrant workers amid a labor shortage exacerbated by the invasion of Ukraine. Russia is also hiring these migrants on projects in occupied Ukraine and mobilizing the migrants who find their way to Russian citizenship.

more excellence from The Onion

If Putin doesn't cut a deal with either Biden or Trump after November to free Evan, the mangy little dictator definitely sees his shadow, and we're in for a long winter.

A good reminder that Trump and his millions of voters don’t give a shit about the “Putin’s puppet” epithets and actually think having their own strong-man leader is cool.

Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a vulnerable Democrat up for reelection in a deep-red state, has called for President Joe Biden to end his bid for a second term. https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/18/politics/jon-tester-calls-biden-drop-out/index.html

Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, vulnerable Democrat up for reelection, calls on Biden to drop out of the race | CNN Politicswww.cnn.com Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a vulnerable Democrat up for reelection in a deep-red state, has called for President Joe Biden to end his bid for a second term.

But younger candidates should be able to opt in by pledging seppuku on their last day in office.

We need an amendment that says Presidents must be 8 years away from the average U.S. life expectancy (76.33 currently) at inauguration Not only would it set a needed upper limit that is less arbitrary than the lower limit of 35, it would also focus politicians on health care access and gun violence

Reply to

Jennifer Smyth

I’ve never watched his TV show (or consumed anything else from him), but he has an undeniably rough-sounding name.

Reply to

Clio

Now we’re in gibberish territory!

Joe loses Joe: Joe Scarborough, the former congressman, ally of Biden and influential host of the MSNBC show “Morning Joe,” on Thursday morning all but called on Mr. Biden’s aides to help him exit the race. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/18/us/politics/biden-joe-scarborough-election-withdraw.html

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has been outlawed in Russia as an "undesirable organization," joining the list at the 178th spot, just after The Moscow Times.

One of the officials who rolled back Moscow’s indie culture scene by purging old appointments and anti-war figures. Now he's jailed for bribery. https://meduza.io/en/feature/2024/07/18/former-moscow-culture-minister-notorious-for-purging-independent-anti-war-figures-is-jailed-on-corruption-charges

Former Moscow culture minister notorious for purging independent, anti-war figures is jailed on corruption charges — Meduzameduza.io On Wednesday, a judge jailed former Moscow Culture Minister Alexander Kibovsky on charges of bribery and fraud after police arrested the conservative official for allegedly helping businesses win city contracts in exchange for more than 100 million rubles (about $1.1 million) in kickbacks. Kibovsky currently serves as an adviser to the Moscow Mayor’s Office on issues of cultural cooperation with the four most recently annexed regions of Ukraine. He maintains his innocence, claims he was planning to enlist in the military to fight in Ukraine, and says he suffered police brutality and intimidation in December 2023 when police previously detained him and other suspects in the case. Kibovsky managed the capital’s Culture Department from 2015 until 2023, overseeing the gradual ouster of liberal and independent officials while also administering several upgrades to libraries, parks, and other public spaces.

Reply to

Nicholas Bauer PhD

Perhaps, but I think the visibility discrepancy undermines the joke at least.