View allAll Photos Tagged chechen
May recognize famous actors Chechen and Chong, well known for movies with marijuana usage . Mission District and pot date back to San Francisco hippy movement of 60s.
You may notice that I have changed my profile picture for the time being. I have to admit that it’s getting on my nerves that a growing number of Flickr members from the russian federation use this platform to pretend everything is normal. While I do understand their motives I refuse to carry on playing this game of carefully taking into consideration that this one person might only be a little follower and not one of the torturing murderers and their sympathizers. I‘m sick and tired of this general silent agreement to spare russians the truth and communicate only in subtly chiseled words to protect them from those in power. I don’t feel able to muster any more sympathy with the people wanting to lie low and bury their heads in the sand, while their fuckwitted military shows the rest of the world how low the human race can go. I don’t want my pictures to be a tool for people to make themselves believe that there is any connection left that hasn’t been destroyed by their lying government, their army of barbarians and their blatant disrespect for any living being on this continent.
Pictured on my new profile photo is Olivka. Olivka and her brave human live in the battered frontline city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine. They have been shelled every day, for almost seven months. Russian rockets and bombs are fired on civilian homes all the time. Most of their nights need to be spent in the basement, without sleep. Heavy artillery fired on their homes makes the ground shake and the walls crumble. All you can focus on is the hope that you won’t be hit directly, that the house won’t collapse on top of you burying you -more or less- alive, that not all of your belongings and your home in the house above you will go up in flames. People, children among them, die not only due to being shelled, shot or tortured, but also out of sheer terror. The russians have cut the water supply of hundreds of thousands of people back in spring. People need to queue for every drop of drinking water, in between hiding during the frequent air raid alarms. The russians destroy basic infrastructure on a daily basis. They don’t do this for military success -on the contrary, they are retreating as fast as the chechen blocking forces and the Dnipro allow- but solely to terrorize the civilian population.
The only thing the russian federation is able to do is destroy what better people have built and steal what they’re not able to come up with themselves.
The bloodshed is too big, the destruction of lives and futures too vast, the sorrow and loss and suffering too enormous. And I haven‘t even started on the subject of being so criminally idiotic to start firefights around the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe.
Russians, you have no right to look the other way nor do you have any right to normalcy.
This is continuing on with the "animals with attitude" theme started with the last post of the grumpy toad.
The lora (as they are called in Papiamentu on Bonaire) is feasting on the berries of a metopium brownei, which should be called the "bad ass poison ivy tree" because it is loaded with urushiol, the stuff in poisson ivy that makes you itch for weeks. I discovered this, very foolishly, because I crushed one of the berries with my fingers to inspect the seed inside (in a naive attempt to id the tree before I learned what it really is). I washed my hands immediately, but that didn't matter, and I suffered hives over my arms, chest and back for several weeks, all from one berry. This tree is to itchy like a Carolina Reaper is to hot.
I later learned that parrots have adapted to overcome defenses like this. And unlike other birds that would swallow the seeds hole, seeking just the fleshy fruit, parrots crush the seeds to get to the higher nutrients.
It takes a bad-ass bird to take on a bad-ass tree.
The Middle Eastern Theater was the largest front during WWI covering more area than any other theater in the war.
The Middle Eastern Theater was characterized by old ethnic and religious conflicts, combined with the conflicts between the Allies and the Central powers. The Ottoman Empire was the major player in the Middle East but over its long period of control has made lot of enemies. The Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians and other Christian peoples sided with the allies due to years of persecution and worst of all the genocide committed against them. The Jews and Muslim Arabs also sided with the allies. The Arabs joined the Allies believing the Ottomans were false rulers of the Caliphate. The Muslim minority peoples like the Circassians, Chechens and Azerbaijanis sided with the ottoman empire.
The Ottomans had some support from their central power allies, while the British and French were strongly involved with their allies. The Russians had supported the Armenian population until they left the war in 1917. The British had sent in the now famous T.E Lawrence as an ambassador to the Arabs.
The war raged on with much success for the allies as the weak ottoman military was defeated. After the ottoman empires defeat and destruction the allies divided up its territories breaking many of the promises they had with the Arabs and other locals.
While WWI in general can be argued with both sides being wrong the only nation that has really done anything wrong was the Ottoman Empire and their genocide against the Christian Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians.
WWI in the Middle East today has shown that what happened 100 years ago still affects us today. While WWI had a part in how the Middle East is today, it's just a small chapter in the periods bloody tension filled history.
october 2014
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
More about this story:
ericlafforgue.com/wp-content/uploads/vets.pdf
© Eric Lafforgue
The first of a series of representational studies on mass grave sites throughout history. This first, although i think it stands alone is really a study for a much larger piece. Chechnya seem to have suffered some appalling atrocities over the last twenty years or more. Dozens of mass graves containing at least hundreds of corpses have been uncovered since the beginning of the Chechen wars in 1994. As of June 2008, there are reported to be 57 registered sites of mass graves in Chechnya. According to Amnesty International , thousands of people are believed to be buried in unmarked graves with up to 5,000 civilians who disappeared since 1999 (the beginning of the Second Chechen War) remaining missing. The largest mass grave to date was found in 2008 in the regional capital Grozny, containing some 800 bodies dating back from the First Chechen War in 1995. Russia's general policy to the Chechen mass graves is to not exhume them.
The piece is constructed on canvas from sand, pva, acrylic paint and clay.
(See more about this series in the captions to the earlier photos)
This night I thought that if one want to fight the war, one must begin from himself. And that’s the problem for me: I feel such a lot of war inside, especially at this days, and not enough of peace at all. I couldn’t bring peace even to my close ones. Even to myself. So how I suppose to help to restore peace to Earth?
Also I more and more feel that there’s the war right here. I didn’t feel this when there was Chechen wars not to say the wars in Siriya and Africa and so on. And as John Lee Hooker sang, it serves me right. My dear friends from the other world, do you feel the war in your countries? And if yes what you gonna do about that?
To be continued…
Photo taken by Theo Kastner and kindly provided by him for inclusion on this page.
München-Riem
1974
CCCP-65631
Tupolev Tu-134
9350902
Aeroflot
CCCP-65631 is coming in to land on Riem’s runway 07.
This Tu-134 was delivered to Aeroflot in August 1969 and wfu in April 1984. Initially preserved in a park at Grozny and relocated to the airfield later, it was destroyed at GRV in Russian air force raids during the Chechen conflict in November/December 1994. (Sources: rzjets.net and scramble.nl)
Detailed aircraft information from scramble:
www.scramble.nl/database/soviet/details/176_67555
CCCP-65631 with Aeroflot at ARN in July 1973:
www.flickr.com/photos/162303104@N07/53903814914
CCCP-65631 among an impressive line-up of Soviet airliners at SVO in 1976 (note the three Tu-114s):
live.staticflickr.com/65535/52315174550_5c299a6850_h.jpg
ic.pics.livejournal.com/humus/758313/35576569/35576569_or...
Scan from Kodachrome slide.
September 1996 in the village of Stariye Atagi, during peace talks with a Chechen Warlord. His bodyguard's were made up of members of the VDV’s 45th Spetsnaz Regiment, including Vadim Pankov who would later command the unit.
The hotel at Chechen Itza was by turns elegant and ramshackle; there was this lovely courtyard, but with trash and broken glass on the ground (not shown [not photogenic]).
На проспекте имени Кирова (переименван в проспект Мухаммеда Али).
***
On Kirov street (Muhammed Ali street).
CROSS-PROCESSED
subconscious fears we constantly live with
click here for the right size.
cross- and post-processed nikon f-80 shot;
Article quoted from Reuters, UK
(http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-17T091724Z_01_KRA733431_RTRUKOC_0_UK-NUCLEAR-RUSSIA-CHECHNYA.xml):
Nuclear waste found in ruined Chechen factory
Sat Dec 17, 2005 9:17 AM GMT
GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) - Investigators have found nuclear contamination tens of thousands of times above safe levels on the premises of a ruined factory in Russia's Chechnya, officials said on Saturday.
Other Chechen officials did not wish to comment on the presence of the radioactive material, which was named by the prosecutors as Cobalt-60 -- a variation of cobalt used as a source of radiation in food processing, hospitals and elsewhere.
"This is not a one-day problem. This problem of radiation leaking into Grozny's air has been going on for a decade," said a member of Chechnya's emergencies committee who asked not to be named. He said looters had uncovered the materials.
There was no suggestion the radioactive materials could fall into the hands of Chechen militants, although Cobalt-60 has been identified as one of the most likely elements to be used to make a so-called "dirty bomb"
Flora is one of my favorite camo patterns.
The Russian pattern is a modified version of the earlier Soviet VSR patterns introduced by the Russian Federation in 1998 and it's gorgeous. It is called both 'арбуз' (arbuz, which means watermelon) and 'флора' (flora, which...Who knows.) and its official name is too long for this desc. Saw a lot of use in the second Chechen war. Who knows, maybe that's where this guy's headed off to...
But not really because AKMs are from 1959. Hurrdurr.
Speaking of which, that thing started out on a base of an original Brickarms AK47. My goal was to completely redo the proportions and detail to my own liking, which mean entirely new forward furniture, extended receiver, new stock, entirely new barrel and sights (Which work!) and, you know me, a removable mag.
Unfortunately I extended the receiver a bit too much and its slightly too large now. I'll cast it and fix it. Then sell those. But only once I get a Bricklink up!
Oh and his hat is an '80 Soviet design produced for the USSR's little eh...Field trip there. Not sure it was ever produced in Flora. Who cares. Why are you still reading this
Please enjoy!
Light In Shadows - Natalya Khusainovna Estemirova by daniel Arrhakis (2020)
Natalya Khusainovna Estemirova (1958 -2009) was a Russian human rights activist and board member of the Russian human rights organization Memorial.
Working for Civil Rights Defenders’ partner, Human Rights Centre Memorial, she investigated cases of grave human rights violations in Chechnya. In 2009 she was murdered. Her death is most likely connected to her human rights work, which many considered put her at risk. Around half of the texts on the Chechen conflict written by the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (also murdered) were based on Natalia’s information.
Natalia Estemirova worked in a risky and dangerous environment but was aware of her enemies:
“We, human rights advocates, are defending human rights and fighting against crimes, while the state fights against us,” she said at the funeral of the human rights lawyer and journalist Stanislav Markelov, who was shot dead while leaving a news conference in Moscow on 19 January 2009.
On 15 July 2009, Natalia Estemirova was kidnapped in the vicinity of her residence in Chechnya’s capital Grozny. She was forced into a white car and driven to Ingushetia by unknown persons. In the afternoon she was found murdered, shot dead with two bullets to the head.
This is my tribute ....
Mount Kazbek (Georgian: მყინვარწვერი, Mqinvartsveri; Ossetian: Сæна, Sæna; Chechen: Башлам, Bashlam; Russian: Казбек, Kazbek), is a dormant stratovolcano and one of the major mountains of the Caucasus located on the border of Georgia's Kazbegi District and Russia's Republic of North Ossetia–Alania.
(Continuation. See the texts of the earliest images of this series. The whole images from these series are already on my insta, but without this texts)
As I said in the story of the previous image, finally it dawned on me what’s exactly is going on right now. All the world including me is in great fear of possible starting World War III. But now we have World Anti-War I. As well of the war itself, of course. The one which already spread throughout Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Chechnya and other countries. A lot of Chechen soldiers are in the Putin’s army, which I don’t want to call Russian army and with every right. In that army now fighting Syrian mercenaries, Kadyrov’s elite units, riff-raff which early wasn’t let to join to Wagner PMC and now are very welcomed, forcibly recruited Belarus and Ukrainian guys from occupied territories. Also, there are convicts pardoned in exchange for joining and debtors whose debts was cancelled for the same deal.
To be continued…
Also, I want to speak with people about this nightmare times, to show, to see and to listen. To do something together. I think that what I’m doing now is the “photo-diary from the other side” with the unique opportunity to show life in the country when its doors are closing. So, I’m very welcome you to stay in touch with me on Insta, which now turned to the main site of the Digital Resistance in Russia in spite of becoming the outlaw social media or maybe partly because of that. As well as on other social resources. Though I’ve abandoned them for now or barely even started, but I’ll be back. Hopefully.
Monument to the Chechen-Akkin victims of Stalinism (Chechen: Сталинизмо бехкбоцуш хӀаллак бинчу вайнахана) is a monument to the victims of Chechen and Ingush deportation, erected on 19 February 1989 near the old cemetery of the village of Yaryksu-Aukh (present-day Charavali, Novolak District of Dagestan). The monument was the first of its kind in the country.
The monument consists of two large stones with information inscriptions in Chechen and Russian. The stone lying on the ground symbolises death, while the other, which reaches for the sky, symbolises life. Thirteen steps up represent thirteen years of life away from the fatherland, years of humiliation, undeserved reproaches and slanted glances.
Every year, on February 23, the date of the beginning of Stalin's deportations, Chechens gather at the monument, where they discuss the problems of restoration of the Aukhovsky district, whose restoration they demanded back in the early 1990s.
Chechnya’s Holocaust
Remembering the 1944 Deportation: Chechnya’s Holocaust
Publication: North Caucasus Weekly Volume: 8 Issue: 8
By: Mairbek Vatchagaev
Even though many decades have passed, the Second World War is still an unanswered question for the Chechen people, and this historical burden inevitably impacts the continuing development of Chechen society today. Though the current Russian government is eager to emphasize recent peaceful developments, the image of the Chechen as “the enemy,” originally created by the Communists, is alive and well within the country today. Historians, politicians and journalists have created thousands of works that are filled with deliberate lies that portray the Chechens as a people and the entirety of Chechen history in a truly terrible light.
February 23 is one of the most tragic dates in the history of the Chechens and the Ingush. Until the Russo-Chechen War of 1994, the Chechens were a small ethnic group relatively unknown to the rest of the world, living in the northern foothills of the Caucasus, one of the most remote corners of Europe. On February 23, 1944, the Chechens were exiled from their ancestral lands and deported to Siberia and the northern regions of Kazakhstan. The entirety of the Chechen nation was accused of collaborating with the Fascists, even though unknown to Russians and Europeans alike, the Chechens only knew about the Fascists from the movie screen and the wartime news reports. The frontlines of the German advance stopped in Mozdok, in Northern Ossetia, never reaching Chechnya. Therefore the Chechens not only were unable to collaborate with the Germans, but also never truly saw any of them [1].
The Chechens were deported en masse, only excluding a few hundred men who managed to escape to the mountains at the last moment and who over the years tried to extract a vengeance for the deaths of their people through constant attacks on local Soviet institutions. The Chechen deportation, the most massive of all Soviet deportations, took place over the course of only a few days. However, in that period, during the middle of winter, almost 400,000 men, women and children were loaded into cattle cars and shipped to various locations, thousands of kilometers away. The victims were only allowed to take three days’ worth of rations and spent a horrifying two or three weeks on the road. Thousands died every day and the bodies were simply tossed out of the cars at every railroad station. Death quickly claimed the weakest – the elderly and the children (Radio Svoboda, February 23, 2000). According to the official Soviet figures, roughly a third of the whole Chechen nation perished during the thirteen years of exile, though independent researchers have suggested that essentially every second Chechen died during the Soviet government’s terrible crime against part of its own populace.
Many Chechens had in fact fought on the front lines of the Soviet war against the German aggressor. Thousands of Chechens died on the field of battle, with many becoming war heroes. The long list of Chechen war heroes includes the first men to reach the fortifications of Brest, where over two hundred Chechens fought for their country. To name a few Chechen soldiers of note: Khanpasha Nuradilov died in Stalingrad having killed over 900 Germans; Movlad Bisaitov was the first to meet the Americans on the Elbe; Hakim Ismailov was one of the men who raised the Soviet flag over the Reichstag; and Alavdi Ustarkhanov (Andre) fought with the French Resistance. Yet all of these men died in obscurity, deliberately hidden or sometimes killed, so that their very existence could not be used as an accusation against the Soviet regime in later years.
Fifty years later, on February 24, 2004, the European Parliament suggested that the “deportation of the whole of the Chechen nation into Central Asia on February 23, 1944, as ordered by Joseph Stalin, was an act of genocide” [2]. Today’s Chechens cannot help but compare themselves to their countrymen that lived during the deportation. Even today, Russia, having unleashed this latest war, has caused every tenth Chechen to be killed, every third to flee the territory of the republic and another ten percent to seek refugee status in Europe, trying to escape the regime that hunts them today, just as they had in the past. In the Chechen republic, over ten thousand are wounded, several thousand are invalid children (many lacking limbs), and nearly 20 percent of the population is suffering from illness and requires medical aid.
In 1944, the Chechens stood accused of cooperating with the Fascists, but in this war, their fault lies in being in league with the forces of international terrorism. Grozny, a city of 400,000, was wiped off the map while the leaders of those countries supposedly championing human rights stood by and applauded. People were killed everywhere and in all possible ways, while all of European society watched in confusion as the might of the Russian rulers was directed against women, children and the aged, all of whom were deemed terrorists. It is alarming that the people from the generation that survived the deportation say that living in Chechnya today is more frightening than the terrible years of 1944 to 1956.
Today, in pseudo-democratic Russia, in accordance with the wishes of the Kremlin, Potemkin villages are being built. What can a couple dozen new houses and several hundred kilometers of newly paved roads do to change anything in war-stricken Chechnya? What can it do to change the oppression led by the Kremlin? The applied lessons from the Soviet school of forcefully creating “loved and respected” leaders, widespread threats and endless pressure cannot solve the problems of Chechnya’s society! These problems are ignored and sacrificed to the ambitions of certain leaders, leaving them to burst forth in the form of mass disturbances at the smallest opportunity.
Russia cannot afford to make the choice in favor of Ramzan Kadyrov, even though he has achieved that which President Putin has called the “amazing accomplishments of the Chechen government” (Radio Svoboda, February 2). The game between Alu Alkhanov and Ramzan Kadyrov is just a delaying tactic by the Kremlin. Eventually, one of the men will be removed, and then the survivor will eventually be replaced by someone even more obedient. It is only the problem of finding a good candidate that keeps Moscow involved in this game, since the Kremlin’s eventual goal is to find a loyal functionary, not a military commander. Ramzan Kadyrov was born during a military era, guaranteeing that he will not last long as a civilian leader.
It will probably take another fifty years for the international community to call things by their real names and agree that Russia has committed war crimes against the Chechen people–a people that suffered two military campaigns that left 100,000 dead and several hundred thousand crippled and traumatized. With Europe concerned over the fate of Kosovo today, it seems necessary to remind the Europeans that Chechens are also residents of the European continent who have fled their war-torn home to come to Europe, instead of heading East and who made a conscious choice to embrace European values [3]. To push them away today and to reject them as non-Europeans would be a crime that would need to be explained by European leaders.
Notes
1. Grechko, A. A. Bitva za Kavkaz (Battle for the Caucasus), Moscow, Voenizdat, 1967. p. 86.
2. Committee of Foreign Affairs. A resolution of the European Parliament regarding relations between the Russian Federation and the European Union, February 24, 2004.
3. Data shows that close to 100,000 Chechens may live in Europe today, making them a powerful force free from Russia’s influence. Most diaspora communities live in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Poland.
Source : jamestown.org/program/remembering-the-1944-deportation-ch...
Panoramic view over the Cheche Pokhari north of Yangma. Left, the Pabuk Khola flows down to Yangma, and its source, the Pabuk Pokhari is just visible behind the moraine wall. We'll camp there a day later to explore the valleys and passes into Tibet.
aka minor characters from the Dark Knight trilogy.
From L to R:
The Chechen
Salvatore Maroni: Included the cane he has after the fall
Foley: In his dress blues
Bank Manager: Literally doesn't have a name.
Carmine Falcone
Coleman Reese
I'm CIA
Light In Shadows - Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (1958 - 2006) by Daniel Arrhakis (2018)
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (Анна Степановна Политковская) (1958 - 2006)
Russian journalist, writer, and human rights activist who reported on political events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War (1999–2005).
Politkovskaya was born Anna Mazepa in New York City in 1958. Some sources say that her birth name was actually Hanna Mazeppa.
Other sources state that she was born in Chernihiv region of Ukraine. Her parents, Soviet diplomats at the United Nations, were Ukrainian. Politkovskaya spent most of her childhood in Moscow; she graduated from Moscow State University's school of journalism in 1980.
Politkovskaya worked for Izvestia from 1982 to 1993 as a reporter and editor of the emergencies and accidents section. From 1994 to 1999, she worked as the assistant chief editor of Obshchaya Gazeta, headed by Yegor Yakovlev, where she wrote frequently about social problems, particularly the plight of refugees.
From June 1999 to 2006, she wrote columns for the biweekly Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper with strong investigative reporting that was critical of the new post-Soviet regime from the outset.
She published several award-winning books about Chechnya, life in Russia, and Russia under Vladimir Putin, including Putin's Russia.
For seven years she refused to give up reporting on the war despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence. Anna was arrested by Russian military forces in Chechnya and subjected to a mock execution.
In 2004, she published Putin's Russia, a personal account of Russia for a Western readership.
She also wrote:
"We are hurtling back into a Soviet abyss, into an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance. All we have left is the internet, where information is still freely available. For the rest, if you want to go on working as a journalist, it's total servility to Putin. Otherwise, it can be death, the bullet, poison, or trial ... "
On 7 October 2006, she was murdered in the elevator of her block of flats, an assassination that attracted international attention.
(Text from Wikipedia and others)
Wise people of a strong country!
We have finally managed to release the mayor of Melitopol from captivity. Our Ukrainian Melitopol, which did not submit and will not submit to the occupiers. Ivan Fedorov is free. I talked to him today. The Russian military abducted him on March 11, trying to persuade him to collaborate. But our man withstood. He did not give up. Just as we all endure. You all. Just as we all do not give up. Because we are Ukrainians. And we always protect our own.
Today a protest action took place in Berdyansk again. Protest against the occupiers from the Russian Federation. Thousands of brave civilians came out against the armed Russian military. And they told them everything, everything they deserve. It is very important.
I know it's hard. But it is also important that what they heard from our people, including in Russian, is clear and unambiguous: occupiers, go home.
There is still such an opportunity. Every soldier thrown into the territory of our country has such an opportunity. Everyone who has not yet been killed, wounded or taken prisoner.
Russian troops suffer such losses in Ukraine, which were inflicted neither in Syria, nor in Chechnya. Neither did the Soviet troops suffer such losses in Afghanistan. If your war, the war against the Ukrainian people, continues, the mothers of Russia will lose more children than in the Afghan and Chechen wars combined. What’s the point of it?
Every Russian soldier who lays down weapons will get a chance, a chance to survive.
I appeal specifically to the conscripts who were thrown into the furnace of this war. Not your war. And to the rest of the Russian soldiers who still have the instinct of self-preservation.
Lay down your weapons. It's better than dying on the battlefield, on our land.
Unfortunately, the humanitarian corridors did not work on Wednesday. The Russian military did not stop shelling, did not guarantee security.
We are ready to ensure silence. We are ready to take people out and send humanitarian aid. But we can't expose people to shelling on the road. Understand us. Expose to the fact that for the Russian military there is no such war crime, which they would not commit.
We are taking away Mariupol residents who managed to escape to Berdyansk... We are taking them to Zaporizhzhia. In total, more than 6,000 Mariupol residents were transported in one day, more than 2,000 of them are children.
The Russian military tried to disrupt this movement as well. They opened mortar fire on the section of the road between Vasylivka and Kamyanske in the Zaporizhzhia region. Only by a miracle there were no casualties. Five Ukrainians were wounded, including two children.
In Chernihiv, the occupiers fired at civilians who were simply standing in line for bread. Imagine. Ten dead people.
In Mariupol, in besieged Mariupol, Russian aircraft purposefully dropped a huge bomb on the Drama Theater in the city center. Hundreds of people were hiding from the shelling there... The building was destroyed. The death toll is still unknown. Our hearts are broken by what Russia is doing to our people. To our Mariupol. To the Donetsk region...
Citizens of Russia! How is your blockade of Mariupol different from the blockade of Leningrad during World War II? Who do you inherit?
We will not forget anyone whose lives were taken by the occupiers. We will not forgive any murdered soul. Eternal memory to all victims of this terror! To all the victims of the war unleashed by the Russian state.
What else do the occupiers have to do, how many more people do they have to kill in order for Western leaders, NATO leaders to respond positively to Ukraine's request for a no-fly zone or for providing our country with the aircraft we so desperately need?
I spoke about this today in a speech to the United States Congress.
Ukraine has received strong support from our American friends. And I'm grateful to President Biden for that. I am grateful for the leadership that has united the democratic world.
But the war does not end. Russia's war crimes do not stop. The Russian economy is still able to maintain their military machine. That is why new packages of sanctions against Russia are needed. The world must finally officially recognize that Russia has become a terrorist state.
And most importantly, Ukraine needs to get more support. Even more than we get now. Air defense systems. Aircraft. Enough lethal weapons and ammunition to stop the Russian occupiers.
It was in this speech in Congress that I addressed both the United States and all the relevant states as regards creating a new U-24 union.
A new alliance that will ensure that each aggressor receives a coordinated response from the world. Fast and efficient. Immediately. Not in weeks, months, years, but in the first 24 hours after the attack.
We can no longer trust the existing institutions. We cannot expect bureaucrats in international organizations to change so quickly. Therefore, we must look for new guarantees. Create new tools. Take those who have courage and do what justice requires. We have already proved that we can do historical things. This is not just our resistance. Not just defense.
Even at this time - the biggest test for Ukraine - we managed to join the European energy network. Now Ukraine can use electricity flows from the European Union. We have been moving towards this for decades. It finally happened! I am grateful to all the power engineers of our country, to all those who worked for this result.
We are already working on programs to restore our country after the war.
I promise everyone, every Ukrainian who has lost home, who has lost an apartment as a result of hostilities or shelling that the state will restore everything. Restore independently.
I am confident that we will be able to rebuild our state quickly. Whatever the damage may be... It will be a historic reconstruction. A project that will inspire the world just as our struggle for our freedom. Just as our struggle for our Ukraine.
During the day I spoke with friends of Ukraine - President of Turkey Erdoğan and Prime Minister of Canada Trudeau. I thanked them for their support. We agreed on new steps for the sake of peace for our country.
In a conversation with the Prime Minister of Ireland, I expressed condolences over the murder by the Russian military of an Irish citizen - journalist Pierre Zakrzewski.
I also spoke with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. We agreed on the support for our citizens - temporary displaced persons.
I will address the German Parliament on Thursday morning. I will continue to fight for even greater support for Ukraine, for even greater pressure on Russia. For the sake of our common victory, for the sake of peace for us.
For the sake of peace for us, the Ukrainian delegation speaks with the Russian delegation. And I want all our citizens, citizens of Ukraine, to hear me now.
Negotiations are ongoing. Negotiations for the sake of Ukraine.
My priorities in the negotiations are absolutely clear: the end of the war, security guarantees, sovereignty, restoration of territorial integrity, real guarantees for our country, real protection for our country.
Glory to all our heroes!
Glory to Ukraine!
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
Listen this while reading: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5JCrSXkJY
Location: Chechnya
Operator: B.1.2.
Mission: Storm the Chechens most recent safe house located in Dagestan,Russia. 16.6.2014,Monday,1230 Just month ago we were in African wastelands,searching for warlords and any clue with could find..but after we busted Black Sabres safe house located in Africa,we found out about Army of Mohammeds activity on the south of Russian Federation,Dagestan and Chechnya to be precise..This mission will be very different from ones we usually do.We are going in like conventional forces,with Russians aswell as Chechen and Dagestan police forces..Finally real war after two years.Hell yeah.
Happy Mothers Day.
Afrikaans Moeder, Ma
Albanian Nënë, Mëmë
Arabic Ahm
Aragones Mai
Asturian Ma
Aymara Taica
Azeri (Latin Script) Ana
Basque Ama
Belarusan Matka
Bergamasco Màder
Bolognese Mèder
Bosnian Majka
Brazilian Portuguese Mãe
Bresciano Madèr
Breton Mamm
Bulgarian Majka
Byelorussian Macii
Calabrese Matre, Mamma
Caló Bata, Dai
Catalan Mare
Cebuano Inahan, Nanay
Chechen Nana
Croatian Mati, Majka
Czech Abatyse
Danish Mor
Dutch Moeder, Moer
Dzoratâi Mére
English Mother, Mama, Mom
Esperanto Patrino, Panjo
Estonian Ema
Faeroese Móðir
Finnish Äiti
Flemish Moeder
French Mère, Maman
Frisian Emo, Emä, Kantaäiti, Äiti
Furlan Mari
Galician Nai
German Mutter
Greek Màna
Griko Salentino, Mána
Hawaiian Makuahine
Hindi – Ma, Maji
Hungarian Anya, Fu
Icelandic Móðir
Ilongo Iloy, Nanay, Nay
Indonesian Induk, Ibu, Biang, Nyokap
Irish Máthair
Italian Madre, Mamma
Japanese Okaasan, Haha
Judeo Spanish Madre
Kannada Amma
Kurdish Kurmanji Daya
Ladino Uma
Latin Mater
Leonese Mai
Ligurian Maire
Limburgian Moder, Mojer, Mam
Lingala Mama
Lithuanian Motina
Lombardo Occidentale Madar
Lunfardo Vieja
Macedonian Majka
Malagasy Reny
Malay Emak
Maltese Omm
Mantuan Madar
Maori Ewe, Haakui
Mapunzugun Ñuke, Ñuque
Marathi Aayi
Mongolian `eh
Mudnés Medra, mama
Neapolitan Mamma
Norwegian Madre
Occitan Maire
Old Greek Mytyr
Parmigiano Mädra
Persian Madr, Maman
Piemontese Mare
Polish Matka, Mama
Portuguese Mãe
Punjabi Mai, Mataji, Pabo
Quechua Mama
Rapanui Matu’a Vahine
Reggiano Mèdra
Romagnolo Mèder
Romanian Mama, Maica
Romansh Mamma
Russian Mat’
Saami Eadni
Samoan Tina
Sardinian (Limba Sarda Unificada) Mama
Sardinian Campidanesu mamai
Sardinian Logudoresu Madre, Mamma
Serbian Majka
Shona Amai
Sicilian Matri
Slovak Mama, Matka
Slovenian Máti
Spanish Madre, Mamá, Mami
Swahili Mama, Mzazi, Mzaa
Swedish Mamma, Mor, Morsa
Swiss German Mueter
Telegu Amma
Triestino Mare
Turkish Anne, Ana, Valide
Turkmen Eje
Ukrainian Mati
Urdu Ammee
Valencian Mare
Venetian Mare
Viestano Mamm’
Vietnamese me
Wallon Mére
Welsh Mam
Yiddish Muter
Zeneize Moæ