Most of these people intuitively understand that American cultural works are vehicles of American soft power and influence but when the Russian government in their state media aggressively pushes their cultural works as part of "Russkiy Mir" this is actually something totally different

Militant Nerd@militantnerd.bsky.social · 3w ago

It is obvious to speak about imperialism while discussing British literature. But doing the same with russian literature will FOR SOME REASON elicit howls of rage from a lot of people.

The damage from the nights Russian mass missile attack on Kyiv was severe. Ariund Lukianivska metro station, an underground pedestrian passage has half-collapsed due to the strikes.

Latest: A new Human Rights Watch/ACLU report interviewed 71 people at the largest ICE detention center in the US. They described beatings, malnutrition, and neglect. "Between August and September, I went a month without seeing the sun... I felt trapped, it was torture" reason.com/2026/07/16/a...

A Texas immigrant detention center is a 'human rights disaster,' civil rights groups say in report

Camp East Montana is the largest immigration detention center in the nation. It's also plagued by brutality and neglect.

reason.com

The State Department has just put out a tender, offering funding of up to $3 million to European organizations who want to fight against "Supra-national institutions" - presumably the EU - and governments who seek to regulate the internet and end Western Civilization. www.state.gov/drl-nofo-dev...

DRL NOFO Developing Civilizational Bonds, Democratic Resilience, and Rule of Law in Europe - United States Department of State

Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)Developing Civilizational Bonds, Democratic Resilience, and Rule of Law in EuropeBureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor, Department of StateOpportunity number: ...

state.gov

This seems to me like a bad move at a time when Ukraine has been having battlefield success. Fedorov has a high reputation, not only in the West but in UA, & has been effective at getting innovative tech deployed, & laser-focused on increasing the human & material cost of the war to Russia.

The Kyiv Independent@kyivindependent.com · 3w ago

⚡️Zelensky dismisses Defense Minister Fedorov after military leadership meeting, source says. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko has been offered to become Ukraine's next defense minister, a lawmaker from the governing Servant of the People party told the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity.

The decision to replace Fedorov is a disaster. When the war is over, there will be two biographies of Zelensky: one about his role as a wartime leader and public diplomacy figurehead; the other about his role in domestic politics. One will be very flattering. The other, I expect, not so much.

Absolutely disgraceful stuff from Mark Galeotti. Whatever knowledge and expertise he may have, promoting the idea that Ukrainian civilians are merely "collateral damage" and are "getting in the way" of Russia hitting its real targets ought to be disqualifying. 🧵

Russia strikes Kharkiv every single day. ​I rarely write about it anymore. Not many people seem to care, and the news outlets never mention it. Posting about it feels like screaming into a void. If Russia can kill 30 people in a capital city full of journalists without any global outrage, ​

The findings of the OSCE report about militarization of children under Russian occupation (link below) should come as little surprise. Ukrianians have been highlighting this process since 2022 (and even before, esp. in Crimea). The intent is cultural genocide.🧵 odihr.osce.org/sites/defaul...

What we’re seeing play out in real time is a lot of individuals and institutions who’ve spent four years feigning solidarity with Ukraine getting tired of keeping the mask on.

open all borders. stop having them be closed 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@dov.bsky.social · 4w ago

How do international sports bodies live with themselves

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is once again sharpening his rhetoric against Vladimir Putin, signaling a broader shift in Kyiv's public messaging as the war enters a new phase

Exclusive: NV sources on what personal war Zelenskyy started against Russian dictator Putin

The harsh public attacks by the Ukrainian president against Vladimir Putin are not accidental, experts and sources interviewed by NV believe. Over the past two months, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ha...

english.nv.ua

So apparently Russian soldiers are now living in my maternal grandma’s house. The one that belongs to me, where I spent my childhood. They cut down all the trees. The green apple I liked to climb and read books at, cherry trees, the two apricots, walnut trees, pear trees, plum tree, everything

I am very afraid that Russia has turned me into a refugee. It's ridiculous. My apartment is here. Windows, doors, all fine. My building is nice and modern. We have a big cargo elevator thats big enough for my bike to fit comfortably. But I really do not know if I can stay here any longer.

I'm in Vyshneve. I'm not doing well, to be honest. Half the streets are closed and smoke is still waiting through the town. Most buildings don't have power.

Romeo Kokriatski@vagrantjourno.bsky.social · last mo.

Five streets and hundreds of building in the Kyiv suburb of Vyshneve, where I live, have been heavily damaged by the Russian attack overnight on July 5-6. Power and water supplies are unstable.

The overnight missile raid on Kyiv is currently counting casualties in the dozens. Multiple apartment building throughout the city and beyond have been hit, and detonations are continuing to be reported in the city outskirts as of 6 am Kyiv time.

Follow the latest on the war at @english.nv.ua.

Romeo Kokriatski@vagrantjourno.bsky.social · last mo.

The overnight missile raid on Kyiv is currently counting casualties in the dozens. Multiple apartment building throughout the city and beyond have been hit, and detonations are continuing to be reported in the city outskirts as of 6 am Kyiv time.

Russia and its proxies are seething about this decision because disseminating content through news aggregators and other third party sites is a tactic that Russia has used to get around sanctions on RT, etc. since 2022.

so many people have sort of meme'd themselves into an anti-anti-Russia position primarily because they think Putin's Russia is an ally to anti-Western forces (which in part it is, though primarily more to the right than the left)

𝔎𝔯𝔦𝔰🌹🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️‍⚧️@freydalpishti.bsky.social · last mo.

An interesting thing about Westerners is how they will mention something like "Russophobia" and their best example of that is that people are saying you should stop reading Dostoevsky (you should) Meanwhile, Ukrainians who barely escaped mass murder are discriminated against in several EU countries

It's also pathetic and humiliating that Quincy bros and "Russia experts" are gushing about the blog of some guy who hangs out with "Big Serge" and "Russians with Attitude" and makes "khoholodomor" jokes in the "Team War Kriminal" group chat.

Vincent Artman@geogvma.bsky.social · last mo.

Incredible news that John Mearsheimer, cited by many as an important and authoritative voice in the discourse about Ukraine, likes to cite twitter accounts called "Big Serge," run by public employees in Idaho, as incisive analysts on the war.

Incredible news that John Mearsheimer, cited by many as an important and authoritative voice in the discourse about Ukraine, likes to cite twitter accounts called "Big Serge," run by public employees in Idaho, as incisive analysts on the war.

This article annoys me because it was patently obvious within the first week of the full-scale that Putin was utterly delusional, and we knew he was micromanaging a made up war in the first year. If he wasn't delusional, he never would have tried to invade! www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

Putin Is Slipping Into Delusion

The Russian dictator remains obsessed with his war in Ukraine but doesn’t seem to comprehend how badly it’s going.

theatlantic.com

So interesting that Katrina van den Heuvel, editorial director and publisher of The Nation, is also on the board of Quincy. Meanwhile, Quincy's Anatol Lieven, also associated with Valdai and Orban's MCC, is on the board of van den Heuvel's American Committee for US-Russia Accord.

Curious that Putin has started resurrecting the idea of "Novorossiya." Will be interesting to see if he continues with it. When was the last time he mentioned it, anyways?

A useful reminder of the moral and ethical perils western scholars put themselves in when collaborating with or accepting awards and prizes from organizations like the Russian Geographical Society (to say nothing of participating in things like the Valdai Club) pointmedia.io/story/6a3e9e...

I'm not sure if she's on Bsky, but Tamara Krawchenko and I just published a piece for The Conversation, related to the much longer essay I put on Medium yesterday, about the "NATO expansion" myth and the deportation & russification of Ukrainian children. theconversation.com/ukraines-sto...

Ukraine’s stolen children expose the lies at the heart of Russia’s four-year military assault

A Russian state whose leadership denies the existence of a separate Ukrainian identity will not be satisfied with mere territorial concessions in any peace efforts.

theconversation.com

Happy to say I've finally gotten around to finishing an essay about the "NATO expansion" myth. It was intended originally for the newsletter, but it got too big so I put it on Medium instead. As always, it's free for everyone, so please have a read! medium.com/@geogvma/the...

The “NATO Expansion” Myth

The war that Russia isn’t fighting.

medium.com

Fascinating how "present" Russia is at these Olympics, despite being barred from competing: "neutral" athletes; flags everywhere; "apolitical" sports fans going on about how "Russia should be there"; and indeed in the IOC's own repeated efforts to deny Ukrainians a voice.

AmplifyUkraine 🔱🇺🇦@amplifyukraine.eu · 6mo ago

Ukrainian skeleton athlete ready to be disqualified over ‘helmet of memory’ #Ukraine

Dictators think they reside in a fortress, insulated from the people. In truth, they depend on elites to act as pillars of their regimes. Popular resistance can force those pillars to break away. Part two of my series on the downfall of Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos:

How to Overthrow a Dictator, Part 2

The ground beneath the temple shakes.

open.substack.com

My latest: Dictators are not omnipotent. They depend for support on security forces, business elites, party allies, civil servants, and ordinary people. Deprive him of that support, and he’s just a man, isolated and powerless. Understanding this will be the key to removing Trump. /n

How to Overthrow a Dictator, Part 1

Despots are more vulnerable than you think.

readthedetox.com

⚡️Kyiv residents are vowing to never surrender as brutal Russian missile strikes leave the capital frozen without heat or power in subzero temperatures.

“They Want Us to Surrender”: Kyiv Residents Without Heat and Electricity After Russian Strikes

Kyiv residents face prolonged power, heating, and water outages after Russian missile and drone attacks as temperatures drop below zero.

united24media.com