No more demolition of Lego creations in Russia. Russia is replacing Lego with 'World of Cubes' after the toymaker refused to do business there https://news.yahoo.com/russia-replacing-lego-world-cubes-122048223.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
Top Official At Hermitage Museum In St. Petersburg Leaves Russia In Protest At The War In Ukraine "I left because I don’t intend to have anything in common with today’s Russia," Ozerkov wrote, adding that "Russia squeezed out all of us who wanted nothing but good to its culture." https://www.rferl.org/a/hermitage-director-ozerkov-leaves-russia-ukraine-invasion/32063557.html
Can't make this stuff up. This is a pretty wild story. The disabled, elderly pensioner is riding his mobility scooter through Russian occupied Kherson while wearing his old Russian paratroopers uniform and playing the Ukrainian National Anthem. The article says even some dumb Russian soldiers gave him money. Then he was sending the money to the Ukrainians. And escaped to Ukraine just as the authorities were closing in on him. He crossed the Dnieper River in his wheelchair on a boat and is now in Ukraine still wearing his soviet paratroopers uniform. Playing the Ukrainian anthem in Russian occupied Kherson while in his mobility scooter. Just shakin' my head. What can you say? Thank you for your service, I guess. Roll on soldier, roll on. Ukrainian pensioner who lost legs defies Russian occupation https://www.streetinsider.com/Reute...+legs+defies+Russian+occupation/20655056.html
NATO Focusing on Russia's Arctic Threat as Putin Seeks to Dominate Region By David Brennan in Finland On 10/4/22 https://www.newsweek.com/nato-focus...inate-region-james-appathurai-ukraine-1748741 NATO does not expect Russia's costly war in Ukraine to prove a long-term distraction from Moscow's plan to dominate the Arctic, a senior alliance diplomat has said, as climate change opens new opportunities and poses new risks for the region. James Appathurai, NATO's deputy assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges, told Newsweek on the sidelines of this weekend's Helsinki Security Forum in Finland that alliance nations will likely increase their focus on the high north as part of a long-term strategy to counter Russia. Punishing warfare has forced the Kremlin to deploy troops, equipment, and supplies from sensitive areas to the battlefields of Ukraine. Officials in bordering states have noted a weakened Russian presence at their borders, with previously deployed units taking high casualties. James Appathurai, NATO’s deputy assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges, speaks at the Helsinki Security Forum in the Finnish capital on October 1, 2022. Finnish Institute of International Affairs Asked if Russia remains as much of a threat in the Arctic as before the invasion, Appathurai responded: "My short answer would be: yes." "Russia has for years been opening up or reopening military facilities in the high north, in the Arctic, putting all kinds of military capability up there, icebreakers in numbers or amounts that really dwarf what any...ally is putting up there, even collectively. It's very, very substantial." President Vladimir Putin has made no secret of Russia's intentions to dominate the Arctic region, which is thought to be home to trillions of dollars of untapped fossil fuel reserves and minerals, as well as new valuable shipping lines. Russia controls 53 percent of the Arctic coastline, and has some two million people living in the region. "Everyone wants to bite off somewhere or to bite off something from us," Putin said last year about Russia's Arctic territories. "But they should know, those who are going to do this, that we will knock out everyone's teeth so that they cannot bite." NATO nations, including the U.S., have long expressed concern about Russian intentions in the thawing north. In August, the State Department said it plans to appoint its first Arctic ambassador as competition with Russia and China—which has declared itself a "near-Arctic state"—appears inevitable. Appathurai told Newsweek there is a significant danger of fresh tensions, even as Moscow suffers further setbacks in Ukraine. "They have a clear national priority—President Putin has said it many, many times—of establishing dominance in the Arctic, so I don't expect that to change or to fade. This Ukraine attack of theirs may have diverted resources on a temporary basis. But that's a clear strategic goal of theirs." "With climate change, the environment appears changing, and there's more access, there are more mineral resources that can be accessed, there's more shipping there, and Russia intends to have a dominant position." "We have to ensure that we have freedom of navigation. That's our interest. So I think you'll see an increased focus by all allies up in the Arctic, and we'll have to see how that plays into NATO itself." The Ukraine war has frozen multilateral Arctic cooperation, traditionally somewhat insulated from political tensions elsewhere. The work of the eight-nation Arctic Council—the rotating chair of which is currently held by Russia—for example, has been suspended for several months. The other members of the group are the U.S., Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Russian TOR-M2 tactical surface-to-air missile systems in Arctic camouflage ride through Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia on May 9, 2017. KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images The Arctic, Appathurai said, "has been one of the few places where constructive cooperation with the Russians has been taking place...there has to be some place you can talk to the Russians and have it not degenerate into great difficulty." "Now, I think even that is being called into question because of Russian militarization there, because Russia is actually making it much more difficult to operate even in these Arctic Council environments. It's becoming worse." Newsweek has contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry to request comment. Russia has also complained of more difficult working conditions in the north, warning it will resort to military measures if needed to protect the "Northern Sea Route"; Moscow's name for the section of the Northeast Passage that runs along the Russian Arctic coastline. "I can assure you that all the necessary measures are being taken along the military line, which take into account NATO's increased activity in the Arctic in recent years and help prevent threats to civilian navigation in the waters of the Northern Sea Route," said Nikolai Korchunov—Russia's most senior Arctic diplomat—on Monday. Appathurai said there is little expectation of a diplomatic thaw in the Arctic. "I feel like it's going to be very difficult to avoid having a much more robust security discussion about the Arctic," he said. "Trust is gone; that's a big problem."
Every time Putin opens his mouth the Russian stock market and economy sinks. Russian Market Drops Amid Report of Putin Making National Address https://www.newsweek.com/russian-market-crashes-amid-report-putin-making-national-address-1749120 Russia's stock market continued its gradual fall on Wednesday, October 5, with the Moscow Exchange Index (MOEX)—the ruble-denominated benchmark of the Russian stock market—sinking by more than one percent. According to the Moscow Times, an independent Russian newspaper, the sharp drop comes at a time when rumors indicating Vladimir Putin is getting ready for a new address to the nation started circulating in Russia. News that Putin could address the nation soon was reported by pro-Kremlin Readovka on Wednesday morning. The last time Putin spoke to the nation was on September 21, when the Russian leader announced a partial mobilization with the potential to draft up to 300,000 reservists, according to Russia's minister of defense Sergei Shoigu. According to Readovka, the speech might happen today, Wednesday, and might concern the status of the so-called "special military operation" in Ukraine. A potential address to the nation by Putin has not yet officially been confirmed, but Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment. What is certain is that the Russian stock market took a plunge on Wednesday's trading. The country's gas giants—Gazprom, Novatek, Rosneft and Lukoil—all reported a sharp drop according to Trading Economics, with Gazprom falling by 3.9 percent, Novatek by 10.4 percent, Rosneft by 5.3 percent, and Lukoil by 1.50 percent. According to the Trading Economics, a website which provides economic data for 196 countries, investors are still keeping an eye on the daily developments of the war on the battlefields in Ukraine, and the impact of Western sanctions on the Russian economy. "The halt of gas sales to the West and Europe's looming oil embargo erased a large amount of Moscow's revenues and caused a sharp and uncharacteristic budget deficit according to the latest data," Trading Economics writes. Wednesday was not the first time the MOEX Index reported a significant drop in the past couple of weeks. The MOEX Index plunged on both September 20 and 21, as it was first announced that Russia were to launched a series of referenda in four Ukraine's southwestern regions, followed by Putin talking of the military call-up.
Russia finds out that nearly anyone who could program the thing has fled the country --- so why fund it. Russian government collides with reality, rejects plans to fund a 'national game engine' https://www.pcgamer.com/russian-gov...rejects-plans-to-fund-a-national-game-engine/