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Damaged Russian Navy cruiser underway toward Black Sea homeport - Pentagon

Heather Mongilio
USNI News
Wed, 13 Apr 2022 17:09 UTC
RTS Moskva russia navy
© Yörük Işık‏RTS Moskva (121) on June 18, 2021.
Russian Navy's Black Sea flagship appears to be heading toward Sevastopol, Crimea, after sustaining major damage in a fire Wednesday, a senior defense official told reporters Thursday.

The Department of Defense cannot confirm what caused the fire on RTS Moskva (121), the defense official said. Moskva was about 60-65 nautical miles south of Odesa when the fire started.

"It very well could have been from an external source like like a missile," the defense official said. "That that range is not out of range for a Neptune. Sixty miles is well within the Neptune's effective range. But it also could have been something else. So again, ... we're just being careful here."

Moskva appears to still be battling a fire aboard, the defense official said, adding that the fire was extensive. The defense official could not say how much damage Moskva sustained from the fire.

Comment: RT adds more information:
The entire crew of the missile cruiser 'Moskva' was evacuated after an ammunition explosion caused by a fire, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a brief statement on Wednesday night, as quoted by multiple Russian news agencies, including RIA, TASS and Interfax.

The cruiser suffered "serious damage," the Russian military reportedly said, adding that the cause of the fire was under investigation. The Defense Ministry, however, has yet to confirm the incident on its official website, or share further details.

The Atlant-class missile cruiser, launched in 1979, is armed with 16 anti-ship missiles and many more air defense missiles, torpedoes and guns. It is part of the Black Sea Fleet, and has been engaged in operations off the coast of Ukraine since February.

Ukrainian officials on Wednesday evening claimed that a battery of their Neptune anti-ship missiles hidden in Odessa had successfully struck the Moskva twice, setting the cruiser ablaze. Among those making the claim were Maksim Marchenko, head of the military administration in Odessa, and Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Interior Ministry in Kiev.

They did not provide any evidence for their claims, however. One Ukrainian Telegram channel reportedly posted - then deleted - a photo of an Iranian vessel that caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Oman last year.
Further update:
The blaze that broke out aboard the Russian missile cruiser Moskva in the Black Sea late on Wednesday has been localized and the crew is safe, the Defense Ministry, in Moscow, reported on Thursday.

The flagship of the Black Sea fleet, which is taking part in the country's military operation in Ukraine, remains afloat. Its main missile armaments haven't been affected by the blaze, officials outlined.

"There isn't an open fire. The detonation of armaments has ceased," the ministry announced in a statement on Thursday.

The Atlant-class guided missile cruiser, which was commissioned in 1983, carries 16 anti-ship missiles and many more air-defense missiles, torpedoes and guns.

Measures are being undertaken to organize the towing of the 12,490-ton vessel to port, the ministry said, adding that the cause of the fire being investigated.

Ukraine supporters jump the propaganda gun:




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Bullseye

US suddenly pretends to care about human rights abuses in India after Washington fails to get Delhi to distance itself from Russia

Caitlin Johnstone
caityjohnstone.medium.com
Thu, 14 Apr 2022 09:20 UTC
Biden Modi
© Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesPresident Biden listens to India Prime Minister Modi with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishanka.
The United States is suddenly very concerned about human rights violations in India, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken telling the press on Monday that "we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials."

While it is true that India's right-wing government is guilty of human rights abuses and has been for years, it is also true that the US State Department does not actually care about human rights abuses.

A leaked State Department memo from the early days of the Trump administration showed neoconservative empire manager Brian Hook teaching a previously uninitiated Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that for the US government, "human rights" are only a weapon to be used for keeping other nations in line. In a remarkable insight into the cynical nature of imperial narrative management, Hook told Tillerson that it is US policy to overlook human rights abuses committed by nations aligned with US interests while exploiting and weaponizing them against nations who aren't.

Comment: And, right on schedule, just two days ago The Guardian in association with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, no less, published the following article: Deportation of Rohingya woman from India sparks fear of renewed crackdown

And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Russia, China and the New World Order



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Info

How US Intelligence sees Russia's behavior after Bucha

William M. Arkin
Newsweek
Tue, 12 Apr 2022 11:09 UTC
bucha mass graves
© Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty ImagesVisitors at a mass grave in the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv on April 8, 2022.
U.S. intelligence sources call it the Bucha Effect. After Kyiv triumphantly announced last weekend that Ukrainian forces had regained control of Bucha and other northern towns, elation quickly turned to anguish as civilian corpses were found on the streets, some with their hands tied behind their backs, evidently shot at close range.

The images of civilian deaths halted negotiations by the two sides, particularly as Kyiv and the international community leveled accusations of war crimes and genocide on the part of Russia - accusations it has denied.

Last Wednesday, Bucha Mayor Anatolii Fedoruk said that 320 people had been killed in the town of 37,000. Foreign Minister Kuleba called the deaths "mass murders," claiming as well that Russian killing of civilians was premeditated.

Comment: Whether these "Intelligence" officials are just clueless or are working hard to push a particular narrative (more likely), the result is the same: muddying the true picture to make the Russians seem like an evil, heartless killing machine.

See also:

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MIB

Pentagon admits it can't verify who's responsible for alleged chemical attack in Mariupol


RT
Wed, 13 Apr 2022 22:21 UTC
Mariupol Ucrania
© Alexei Alexandrov / APMariupol, Ukraine, April 8th 2022
The US Defense Department cannot confirm the use of chemical weapons in Mariupol, a spokesman admitted on Tuesday. The claims were initially made on encrypted messaging app Telegram by the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, part of the Ukrainian National Guard.

"We are aware of social media reports which claim Russian forces deployed a potential chemical munition in Mariupol, Ukraine," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, adding that "we cannot confirm [the reports] at this time and will continue to monitor the situation closely."

"These reports, if true, are deeply concerning and reflective of concerns that we have had about Russia's potential to use a variety of riot-control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, in Ukraine," he continued.

Comment: See also: Russia sounds alarm over Ukraine's plans for false flag operation in Irpin using dead bodies of POWs

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Wolf

NY Times writer admits schools are grooming children into LGBT identities

Nathanael Blake
The Federalist
Wed, 13 Apr 2022 21:34 UTC
elementary school children grooming
A New York Times columnist has again confirmed that social conservatives were right: educators are pushing LGBT ideology on students.

Is Michelle Goldberg a conservative plant at The New York Times? Although she claims to be a liberal feminist, some of her recent columns are essentially admissions that social conservatives have been right all along. In another entry in this genre, she purports to critique the "freakout over sex and gender identity in schools" — only to tacitly admit that schools are indoctrinating children into LGBT ideology and grooming them into LGBT identities.

Goldberg accuses conservatives of stoking a "moral panic" akin to the "'satanic panic' of the 1980s, a frenzy of accusations of ritual child abuse that resulted in the conviction of dozens of innocent people." Yet she then demonstrates the current fears are reality-based.

Her evidence that this is a panic consists of highlighting some unfounded rumors about educators indulging students with a furry fetish. She then admits that "there's been a great evolution in how students think about gender and sexuality" with "an even bigger generational shift with trans issues. Many middle-aged liberal parents I know have different ideas about gender than their more radical adolescent kids, and I assume the gulf must be even larger in many conservative families." In short, the sexual orientation and gender identity revolution is real, even if a few internet rumors about it are not.
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Attention

On Ukraine-Russia prisoner exchanges

Vasily Nebenzya
Voltaire Network
Thu, 07 Apr 2022 20:22 UTC
russian Ukrainian soldiers
© Associated PressRussian (L) and Ukraine prisoners of war (R).
Ukraine Armed Forces can be identified by their 'pixelated' camouflage uniforms
I would like to urgently draw your attention to another blatant violation by the Kiev regime of its obligations under the Third Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war.

We were informed by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation that the exchange of prisoners of war planned for today (6 April 2022) was unilaterally disrupted by the Ukrainian side. The list of 251 military personnel declared for exchange was repeatedly reviewed and reduced by Kiev, and came down to 38. This morning, the Ukrainian side rejected the exchange without explanation. At the same time, on our part, the preparation of Ukrainian prisoners of war according to a large list of 251 Ukrainian servicemen was carried out in full, including their transportation to the initial area for exchange.

The Ukrainian side, even in this purely humanitarian issue, shows inconsistency and complete indifference to the fate of its own citizens. The Kiev authorities have been disrupting the exchange of prisoners of war on previously agreed terms for a long time.

Comment: Ukraine nationalist abuses are getting too hard to hide. But will there be any punishment for the war crimes, except at the lowest level?



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Chess

Austrian chancellor says Putin intends to 'resolve' Donbass conflict


RT
Wed, 13 Apr 2022 20:05 UTC
Karl Nehammer austria
© APA/George HochmuthAustrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer
The Austrian chancellor says Russian president is determined to defend Moscow's security interests

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer left his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday convinced that Western sanctions aren't weakening the Kremlin's determination to resolve the Donbass crisis before ending the military offensive in Ukraine.

"He clearly confirmed that the sanctions are tough for Russia but the situation in Donbass, as he said, must be, so to say, resolved, despite the sanctions - even if they are quite tangible," Nehammer told reporters following the meeting at Putin's residence outside Moscow, as quoted by TASS.

Comment: Austria is nominally a neutral country, as its constitution forbids it to join NATO, but it is still part of an adjacent agreement with the military bloc. Nehammer is shoring up his cred with the Empire.

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Megaphone

Nordic leaders betraying their national interests - Russia


RT
Wed, 13 Apr 2022 20:08 UTC
sweden army
© AFP / Bjorn LARSSON ROSVALL
Russia has criticized accusations that it poses a threat to Sweden and Finland amid their sudden drive to join NATO. Leaders in the Nordic states have recently expressed a desire to enter the US-led military bloc following Moscow's military attack on Ukraine.

"These claims [over an alleged Russian threat] are unintelligent. They are not based on facts. They are in the realm of propaganda and provocations. They go against the national interests of those countries," the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Radio Sputnik on Wednesday. "I believe it would be wrong to consider these statements as an independent opinion," she added.

On Tuesday Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ann Linde told reporters while visiting Bosnia-Herzegovina that Russia threatening Sweden or Finland is unacceptable. "Our citizens must make their own security decisions," she said, regarding Stockholm mulling over membership in the Western military bloc.
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Yoda

What Iran's experience with US sanctions can tell us about Russia's fight against Western pressure

Elizaveta Naumova
RT
Tue, 12 Apr 2022 16:36 UTC
sanctions stock market graphic
© Getty Images / Maria Vonotna
The current economic measures imposed on Russia remind experts of Iran's confrontation with the West

The whirlwind of sanctions directed against Russia has intensified to such an extent that the fallout is being felt far beyond the government agencies involved in Russia's military offensive in Ukraine. Oil prices have soared in anticipation of shortages, businesses have announced boycotts, athletes are being excluded from competitions, and some Russians are fleeing the country, losing the comforts to which they've become accustomed.

Moscow has lost access, at least for now, to $300 billion of its gold and foreign exchange reserves, and seven Russian banks have been disconnected from the SWIFT international payment system. The number of sanctions imposed on the country is unprecedented - 5,787 new restrictions have been imposed against Russian legal entities and individuals since February 22, and their number has reached more than 8,500 in total. No other country has ever had so many restrictions imposed on it. Even Iran, which has been under sanctions for more than 40 years, comes in a distant second, with only 3,600.
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Putin

Putin explains Russian military's plan of avoiding casualties in Ukraine


RT
Wed, 13 Apr 2022 19:54 UTC
soldiers
© RIA/Konstantin Mikhalchevsky
The timing of the military offensive in Ukraine is determined by the intensity of hostilities and Russia will act according to its plan, President Vladimir Putin explained on Tuesday, during a joint press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.

"I often get these questions, 'can't we hurry it up?' We can. But it depends on the intensity of hostilities and, any way you put it, the intensity of hostilities is directly related to casualties," said the Russian president.

He added that "our task is to achieve the set goals while minimizing these losses. We will act rhythmically, calmly, and according to the plan that was initially proposed by the General Staff."

Putin reiterated that Russia's actions in several regions of Ukraine were intended only to tie down enemy forces and carry out missile strikes with the purpose of destroying the Ukrainian military's infrastructure, so as to "create conditions for more active operations on the territory of Donbass."
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