Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Democrats are back in array!

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

“woke” is the new caravan.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

I really should read my own blog.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

The revolution will be supervised.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 837: Glide Bombs Over Kharkiv

War for Ukraine Day 837: Glide Bombs Over Kharkiv

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Quick housekeeping note: Rosie is still doing very well. She has her next chemo treatment tomorrow, which will be treatment two of round 2. Than you all for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Russia started the glide bombing of Kharkiv back up this morning.

And right now, 7:55 PM EDT, Kharkiv is the only non-occupied part of Ukraine that has an air raid alert up. The ones for Russian occupied Luhansk and Crimea are always up and will only come down once they are liberated.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

We Are Preparing New Agreements for Ukraine with European Partners, in Particular with Germany – Address by the President

9 June 2024 – 20:46

Dear Ukrainians!

Today, it is worth mentioning those who protect normal living conditions for us – for everyone in Ukraine – no matter what. We can always count on the rescuers of our State Emergency Service of Ukraine to be there to help us every day and night after Russian strikes, after any tragic events. Whenever it happens. Wherever it happens. In areas near the frontline, and in every city and region of our country. This is one of the fundamental features of true statehood – the existence of a system and people whose job is to save. All over the country. And I thank everyone – the entire staff of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine – who really tries to do their job effectively. Today I would like to recognize the rescuers working in Kharkiv and the region. In particular, Sergeants of the Civil Protection Service Andriy Zayarnyi, Kostiantyn Mokliak, Oleksiy Zhyrov, Dmytro Maksymov, Oleksandr Dehtiarenko and Yevhen Zolotko. Chief Master Sergeants Volodymyr Ridnyi and Serhiy Sydora. Thank you, guys! Senior Lieutenants Oleksandr Yavtushenko and Maksym Mykhailov. Captains of the Civil Protection Service from the Kharkiv region Andriy Lakhtin, Serhiy Rashevskyi and Serhiy Snurnykov, Major Vadym Stadnyk and Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Kolodiazhnyi. I thank you and all your colleagues! My special gratitude also goes to the employees of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Donetsk region. Each and every one of them, who, despite everything, saves people and preserves the strength of Ukraine. Today I would like to personally recognize the guys who distinguished themselves during firefighting and rescue operations after Russian strikes on Toretsk and Selydove. Sergeants of the Civil Protection Service Oleksandr Pavlenko and Pavlo Zakharov, Chief Master Sergeant Andriy Maltamar, Lieutenant Stanislav Nechypurenko, and Major of the Civil Protection Service Volodymyr Derenko. Thank you!

At present, one of our main tasks is to secure more support for Ukraine in terms of the resilience of our society. This includes energy, recovery after attacks, and all other foundations of normal life. Life that we must preserve despite any attempts by Russia to exert pressure and destroy. We are preparing new agreements for Ukraine with European partners, in particular with Germany, on additional support measures. These days, we are also meticulously preparing a bilateral security agreement between our country and the United States. We are doing everything to ensure that America’s leadership is tangible. Thank you to everyone who helps!

And one more thing.

Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region. Almost every day, it is consistently the hardest part of the front. The occupier’s pressure there is the greatest. Every day there is the highest number of battles. Just yesterday, there were more than forty attacks, and today, by this time, there have already been more than twenty. Each of our warriors who is destroying the enemy there, each soldier and commander who is doing their best to hold our positions and help the warriors in the neighboring positions deserves our special gratitude. We are making every effort to ensure that you and our entire army have more weapons, more equipment, and more modern systems. Today, there was already a report from Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi, and there will be a report from DIU Chief Budanov – we are preparing our new steps. Ukraine will definitely defend itself.

Glory to Ukraine!

France:

Usually you call a snap election when you think doing so will allow one to win, which may be why Macron is doing this. However, the polling for him and his party has been bad for some time. Now we wait and see if the French do what they usually do, answer pollsters by telling them that they support LePen and her party and then go and vote for the mainstream parties.

Macron is taking a huge gamble with this:

From Politico EU:

PARIS — European elections are meant to be worthy but boring exercises in centrist coalition building. Not this time.

A surge in far-right populism in France provoked President Emmanuel Macron into calling a high-risk national election that could determine the future not only of his country but of the European Union itself.

Across the Continent it was a good if unspectacular night for center-right and far-right parties and a terrible one for liberals and especially greens.

But in France, the far-right National Rally, led by Euroskeptic and NATO-skeptic firebrands, completely crushed Macron’s liberal Renaissance and all other contenders.

The National Rally is on course to win 31.5 percent of the vote — more than twice the 14.7 percent projected for Macron’s liberal Renaissance party.

In a high-risk gamble to regain the political initiative, Macron bet that voters will turn back the far-right tide and show Marine Le Pen’s National Rally cannot win at a national level.

“France needs a clear majority in serenity and harmony. To be French, at heart, is about choosing to write history, not being driven by it,” Macron said.

Mujtaba Rahman, Europe head at Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy, reckoned the bet would pay off. “It will almost certainly put a brake on Le Pen,” he said.

Le Pen declared her party “ready to exercise power,” and told her ecstatic followers: “I can only welcome this decision.”

The far-right surge in France was replicated elsewhere in Europe on a dramatic night of upheaval in EU politics. In Berlin, Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition parties were beaten by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which came second to the conservatives. Far-right parties were also on course to make gains in Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, according to early estimates.

In France, the National Rally’s performance in the upcoming snap election on June 30 and July 7 will be closely watched as a harbinger of whether Le Pen — long the also-ran of French politics — can ride her party’s momentum into the presidency in 2027.

As president of the world’s seventh largest economy, Le Pen would almost certainly rock the EU to its foundations, prioritising patriotic interests over international collaboration. Celebrating her party’s win in Sunday’s EU vote, she said the result should send a message to Brussels and “put an end to this painful epoch of globalism.”

Accused of flirting with the Kremlin, she has both vowed to yank Paris out of NATO’s integrated military command and would challenge the authority of the EU executive, which she once called to abolish.

Like Macron, Le Pen suggested France had come to a historical turning point.

“Tonight’s message, including that of dissolution, is also addressed to the leaders of Brussels,” she said. “This great victory for patriotic movements is in line with the direction of history, which is seeing throughout the world the return of nations.”

Macron’s snap decision to dissolve the National Assembly was met with disbelief by his supporters, with several people screaming “Oh no” as he spoke to a crowd in a televised address from his party headquarters in Paris.

In contrast, jubilant supporters of the National Rally party celebrated as Macron announced the dissolution of parliament, something the party had called for as the scale of their victory became apparent.

They sang “Dissolution, dissolution!” as they watched Macron at an electoral event where Le Pen took to the stage.

The lead Socialist candidate Raphaël Glucksmann responded to the triumph of the far right by saying: “Everywhere in Europe, we are witnessing a wave that is shaking our democracy.”

The Financial Times has more:

President Emmanuel Macron stunned France on Sunday when he called snap parliamentary elections after his centrist alliance was trounced by Marine Le Pen’s far-right movement in a European parliamentary vote.

Exit polls showed the Rassemblement National (RN) secured 31.5 per cent of the vote compared to 14.5 per cent for the French president’s centrist alliance, a stinging blow to Macron. He appeared to have only narrowly avoided a humiliating third place behind the centre-left, which took 14 per cent of the vote.

“For me, who always considers that a Europe united, strong, independent is good for France, this is a situation which I cannot countenance,” he said. “I have decided to give you back the choice of our parliamentary future with a vote.”

The first round of the parliamentary elections will be held in just three weeks, on June 30, with a run-off on July 7.

The dissolution is an extraordinary gamble by the French leader who has already lost his parliamentary majority after winning a second term as president two years ago. His alliance could be crushed, which would force him to appoint a prime minister from another party, such as the centre-right Les Republicains or even the far-right RN, in an arrangement known as a “cohabitation”.

In such a scenario, Macron would be left with little power over domestic affairs with three years left as president.

Macron said he believed a vote was needed to calm the volatile debates in the French parliament and achieve clarity on the direction of the country. Elysée officials said he had been considering it for some time to address gridlock in parliament.

François Bayrou, a centrist politician whose party is in alliance with Macron, said the president was aiming to “end the impasse” in politics by asking voters a simple question of “whether France really recognises itself in the proposals of the far-right”.

It is never a good idea to ask questions that you are not sure of and/or do not know the answers to.

Speaking of support for Putin backed neo-fascist and neo-NAZI parties in Europe:

All of this is important because it places ongoing, consistent, and most importantly timely support for Ukraine, as well as its eventual ascension into the EU and NATO at risk. Frankly, it puts the EU and NATO at risk all by itself. LePen is only able to function as a politician because Putin funds her both overtly and covertly. The same with the AfD in Germany and their equivalents in the other EU member states. Just as he funds the GOP through oligarchs who have located their businesses in the US and obtained US citizenship for themselves or whose children have done so in order to be able to legally make campaign donations.

In slightly more promising EU related news:

This would be funny if Charap hasn’t regularly visited the White House since the fall of 2021:

Also, if he wasn’t being paid with tax payer dollars for his work at RAND, which is a Federally Funded Research and Development Corporations (FFRDC).

The Ukrainians are very effectively reaching out to touch the Russian air force:

For the first time, a russian Su-57 jet was hit.

On June 8, 2024, a Su-57 multi-purpose fighter was hit on the territory of the Akhtubinsk air base in the Astrakhan region (russia), located 589 kilometers from the frontline.
Satellite images of the plane provide evidence of the attack.

The Su-57 is the most modern fighter jet in russia, and there are a few units of such jets in service with the enemy army.

/4. Comment of a Russian source associated with Russian military aviation regarding the drone attack on Su-57:

“Yes, yesterday the airfield in Akhtubinsk was attacked by a UAV. 3 of them arrived.

The Su-57 was damaged by shrapnel; it is now being determined whether it can be restored or not.
If not, then this will be the first combat loss of the Su-57 in history.”

Russian occupied Crimea:

Here is Tatarigami and his Frontelligence Insight team’s latest assessment of what is happening on the front lines between Chasiv Yar and Donetsk. Via the Thread Reader App:

Summarized update from Frontelligence Insight on frontlines:

1/ The main Russian efforts remain in Donbas, particularly along the Pokrovsk-Chasiv Yar axis, which is currently the most difficult area. Vuhledar and Kupyansk areas are also key areas of focus. 🧵Thread: 

2/ So far, Russian forces have failed to capitalize on the Kharkiv oblast incursion and did not achieve any operational successes in Donbas. They made tactical advances in Chasiv Yar, but given the number and higher-than-average quality of units there, progress is slow and costly 
3/ As our team indicated months ago, the goal in Chasiv Yar isn’t to hold the town at any cost but to ensure the enemy expends far more resources than planned, thereby crippling their ability to capitalize on its capture and develop an offensive towards Kostyantynivka 
4/ While our team has observed the arrival and rotation of units near Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts, their numbers are relatively small. They wouldn’t be able to achieve significant results if they launched an attack, likely achieving far less than the Russians did in Kharkiv. 
5/ The Russian offensive may seem to be failing, but our team is thinking that such conclusions might be still premature. We continue to observe hundreds of vehicles, including tanks, APCs, and artillery systems, being relocated near Ukraine 
6/ While the goals of these relocations are unclear, it’s evident that Russia still retains offensive capabilities this summer and is capable of another large push before the window of opportunity closes for the year. 
7/ While the trajectory is becoming much more optimistic for Ukraine, it’s important to remember that despite the enormous losses the Russian military suffered near Avdiivka, including hundreds of lost vehicles in the first week of the October offensive, Avdiivka eventually fell. 
8/ Even though the risk of a frontline collapse for Ukrainian forces is slim, Russian forces still have reserves and are capable of at least one serious push before their offensive loses its steam 

9/ The full analysis will be released on our website later this week. In the meantime, please consider liking and sharing the first message in the thread.

We also appreciate any donations to support our ability to publish satellite imagery:

Chasiv Yar:

Russian occupied Donetsk Oblast:

From the Izolyatsia project:

9 June 2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the day when the Russian Federation started using the IZOLYATSIA premises in Donetsk as an illegal prison, a place of torture and murder. On that day, occupiers began to try to destroy modern Ukrainian culture and active civil society to intimidate Ukrainians who seek systemic changes in society.

Over these ten years, the IZOLYATSIA foundation’s territory, filled with the industrial heritage and spirit of thousands of factory workers, artists and artisans, researchers and scholars, cultural center’s community, as well as exhibitions, educational and creative programmes, has been transformed into a horrific detention facility designed to destroy human spirit and dignity. Through the testimonies of former hostages, it is possible to trace how, over a decade, the former premises of the foundation have increasingly adapted to their new role as a torture chamber, and the dubious reputation of the place has been overlaid with new layers of inhuman hatred by the leaders and their FSB handlers.

The experiences of former captives are known from the reports of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, publications by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Center for Civil Liberties, the Media Initiative for Human Rights, books by Stanislav Aseyev, films by Iryna Ryabenka, Ihor Minaiev, and Valentyn Vasyanovych. More publications and translations are available here.

Russian Federation used the illegal prison in the occupied territory of the IZOLYATSIA foundation as the prototype for many illegal detention facilities, concentration and filtration camps and torture chambers. Thousands of Ukrainians went throught these horrific spaces.

In the tenth year of the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, it is clear that the main goal set by the occupiers has not been achieved. The attack on the cultural institution created a backlash from Ukrainian civil society: the IZOLYATSIA foundation community, its friends and partners, as well as responsible people across the country. They created a new wave of cultural and civic institutions, organisations and projects that changed the face of society. Civil society became a powerful centre for change, capable of working in the most challenging conditions and endowed with unique experience that no other organisation in the world has.

The story of the transformation of the IZOLYATSIA cultural centre into an illegal prison can be found on the IZOLYATSIA Must Speak website: izolyatsia.ui.org.ua

Spread the word about the torture camp in Donetsk, about the thousands of people held by the Russian Federation in illegal prisons in Ukraine and Russia, to keep the attention of the international community to these and many other crimes of the Putin regime against Ukraine, Ukrainians and Ukrainian women.

#IzolyatsiaMustSpeak

Kriegforscher, the Ukrainian Marine, has posted another detailed assessment of Russian loses in Donetsk Oblast. First tweet from the thread and the rest via the Thread Reader App:

That the tank that was destroyed at the video🔥

Danylo shared with some of his thoughts about Russian tactics, artillery and the enemy forces 👇Image

Yeap, that pretty lady is a part of his group🫡 Unfortunately I cannot show you her face.

So. If we compare, for example, Vovchansk and the part where Danylo is it’s totally different. From one point of view.Image

One year ago UAF launched a counteroffensive at this area. Since then RUAF are trying to bring the territory back.

And, frankly speaking, it’s pointless and gives them nothing.

So they fire 2-3 guided bombs (near Vovchansk it’s 15-30) per day and fire from 152 mm artillery.

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Firstly Russians were crossing the open field on their foot. Not a lot of them managed to do it.

But they have a lot of manpower so not a big deal.

Echoes of war.

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They tried to cover their movements with a lot of FPV drones and tried not to allow our infantry to reach their positions during the rotation.

Unfortunately, it was quite successful.

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Just today. Danylo in his group working with drones trying not to allow Russians to move forward.
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Then Russians tried to use a lot of motorcycles and bare infantry.

Sometimes even 6 artillery pieces at once were firing at their positions.

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Some more BMPs🔥

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Destroyed T-80BV👌

Danylo right now urgently needs your financial support — 3 DJI drones. Unfortunately, RUAF there have more recon and FVP drones.

The price is 5000$. ASAP we gather I order them. Please support.

PP: [email protected]

BMAC: buymeacoffee.com/ukranianmarine…

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Pretty sure this is somewhere in Kharkiv Oblast. The 47th had been on the line in Donetsk, but they got pulled to reinforce the defenses agains the Russian assault on Kharkiv Oblast:

Kharkiv Oblast:

Russian UR-77 Meteorit mine clearing vehicle with anti drone cage.
Those have disappeared for quite a while from the front line. The last time a large number of UR-77 losses were documented was in October 2023. And now this is the second new loss in the last few days. Kharkiv region.

https://t.me/nebesnamara/79

Krasnohorivka:

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

There are no new Patron tweets or videos tonight. Here is some adjacent material.

These are of the cat of the Ukrainian Marine Taras Chmut:

This one is my current mood:

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

20Comments

  1. 1.

    J. Arthur Crank

    We need to tax the rich a lot more.  Also too: Musk needs a knee to the groin (I am agnostic on whether the knee comes before or after his increased tax bill).

  4. 4.

    Chris

    Usually you call a snap election when you think doing so will allow one to win, which may be why Macron is doing this. However, the polling for him and his party has been bad for some time.

    I’ve been baffled ever since Macron formed his party as to what he thinks the endgame for it is: it’s pretty much been all about him, and there seems to be very little idea what cohesive force is supposed to hold it together once he’s gone.

    The party is beloved of technocrats who get hard thinking about things like pension reform, but let’s be honest, that’s not something that gets you a strong electoral base.

    It wants to be The Party Of Normies (i.e. people who used to vote for the Socialists or for the UMP/RPR/whatever-the-center-right-is-calling-itself-this-week rather than far left or far right), but as in so many countries the idea of what exactly a Normie is, what the Average Citizen looks like or wants or feels politically connected to, is pretty much broken: nobody really knows, least of all the citizens.

    People like me have been mostly voting for it on the principle of “whoever the biggest antifascist party is, vote for them,” but he seems to have very limited interest in antifascism as a first principle, as demonstrated by the snap elections.  I also don’t see how this can possibly work out for him, so I can only hope I’m wrong.

    Oh well.  I guess this means I have to drag my ass back to the embassy and vote again in a month or two.  I suppose I’ll vote for whoever the fuck Macron’s party puts up – voting for a Socialist this time around didn’t do me much good anyway.

  7. 7.

    Chris

    @J. Arthur Crank:

    We need to tax the rich a lot more.

    The last forty years have been a graphic demonstration of what happens when you allow private fortunes to balloon out of control.  So, yeah.  We need to tax the rich a lot more, not just to fund the safety net or infrastructure or other government projects, but simply as a civic service.  If we don’t tax all that surplus money away, they’re going to put it to work themselves, first buying up as much of the government and media and the nation’s resources as they can, then on increasingly unhinged “disrupter” projects that serve no purpose other than making everyone acknowledge that they exist.

  8. 8.

    Chris

    @Adam L Silverman:

    FSB is strictly domestic, right?  Do SVR and GRU have any clout of their own like this in the government, or is it pretty much just FSB (the linked article didn’t discuss either of the other two)?  Not that they’re in any way an improvement, I’m just wondering.

  9. 9.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Adam L Silverman: It is remarkable how resilient the FSB is, and how survivable the apparent debacle of their incompetent pre-war assessment of Ukraine’s ripeness for plucking turned out to be. The key here is probably that they were telling Putin what he wanted to hear anyway, so while they might be scapegoated, they would not get the institutional wrecking ball.

    I would quibble a bit about the analogy to the KGB, though. The FSB seems to be a genuine power player in Kremlin politics to a degree that the KGB never managed to attain in the Soviet Union.  The USSR’s Checkists were a powerful force for exercising pervasive political control over Soviet society, but in the end they were just an instrument, fully under the control of the party’s Central Committee. They began to evolve into an actual player in their own right after 1991. In no small measure thanks to Putin, of course.

  10. 10.

    Jay

    @Chris:

    The FSB is the KGB, both foreign and domestic,

    The GRU is still ruZZian/Soviet Army, sort of,

    The SVR are the “Riot Police”.

  11. 11.

    Another Scott

    KyivIndependent.com:

    Preliminary results for the European Parliament elections show that centrist parties have retained the majority despite a surge in support for far-right groups, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said as polls closed across Europe on June 9.

    Between June 6 and 9, European Union member states held elections for the bloc’s 720-member European Parliament. Members of the European Parliament (MEP) shape and approve legislation, and also approve candidates for the European Commission.

    Exit polls project that the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), which von der Leyen represents, will remain the largest political faction in the new parliament, with 189 seats.

    Right-wing parties made significant gains in the election, with the conservative-nationalist European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) projected to take 72 seats and the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group projected to win 58.

    “We won the European elections,” von der Leyen told reporters on June 9.

    “This election has given us two messages. First, there remains a majority in the center for a strong Europe, and that is crucial for stability. In other words, the center is holding.”

    […]

    The monsters are always out there. The folks wanting to push for progress need to find ways to speed the benefits up while not getting too far ahead of the voters who don’t like change.

    Slava Ukraini!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    Chris

    @Jay:

    No, the SVR are foreign intelligence.  They’re what used to be the KGB’s First Chief Directorate, which Putin actually spent time in in the old days, and which was spun off into its own agency in the new Russia.

    GRU are the military version of that, supposed to be even more gung-ho.

  13. 13.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Jay: The SVR is definitely not “riot police”. It is the formally-tasked foreign intelligence service of the Russian Federation.

    However, divisions of responsibilities among Russian Securocratic units is never clean. The FSB is supposed to be the domestic security, counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence and border control agency (like FBI and CPB rolled into one). But they also have signal intelligence and offensive cyber operations (add the NSA) as well as wet-ops hunting rights abroad (so also add some moiety of pre-Church-committee CIA), and responsibility for monitoring former CIS nations such as Ukraine, a substantial foreign intelligence brief.

    They are also Putin’s home base and, in a sense, creation. So they write their own ticket, and poach on SVR and GRU (who also poach on each other). So, basically, one big, happy Intelligence Community, within which the FSB appears to have the upper hand at the moment.

  17. 17.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Jay: Those guys are goons, right enough. They were cracking heads in the Baltic States and in the Caucasus in the final years of the USSR.

    For an idea of what the modern FSB can  aspire to, however, consider that by the late 1980s, the erstwhile KGB amounted to a bodging together the briefs of FBI, CPB, ATF, NSA, CIA and about 40,000 troops organized along military lines, as well as societal monitoring by both numerous penetration agents and massive technical surveillance. A secret policeman and spy can dream..

  18. 18.

    Chris

    @Carlo Graziani:

    What seems to have changed the most since 1991 is that what used to be the KGB isn’t an agency anymore, so much as a whole community.  You’ve got FSB and SVR and a few other successor agencies, but next to that you’ve got a whole galaxy of alumni from the security services, who no longer have an official position in any of them but still have all of their old comrades on speed-dial, running wild in the criminal underworld, the business community, and electoral politics.  So, while no individual agency has as wide a purview as the old KGB did, the community as a whole is more powerful than ever.

    The article seemed to suggest that it isn’t just the community but one agency in particular (FSB) that all this power nexus is centered on these days, which is why I was curious where the other agencies of the Russian security state feature.

  19. 19.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Chris: The article doesn’t say where GRU and SVR stand with respect to the political maneuvering in progress, and their political stature/power. If I had to place a bet, it would be on GRU aligned with the military faction, SVR with FSB, both being minor players.

Comments are closed.