Bulletins and News Discussion from May 6th to May 12th, 2024 - The Nagorno-Karabakh Nosedive - COTW: Armenia
Image is of Stepanakert, essentially the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is now a ghost city, and Azerbaijan has recently torn down the parliament building and various other important places. Sourced from this article.
A quick look at Armenia's geographical position reveals the folly of trying to create some kind of Western outpost. With a hostile Azerbaijan to their east, a very unfriendly (albeit NATO member) Turkiye to their west, an ascendant Iran to their south, and Russia not far from the action, there is little hope of doing much more than causing a little chaos in the hopes it'll momentarily distract Russia while it makes inroads most everywhere else on the planet. The political situation appears miserable for Pashinyan, but there isn't really a popular alternative to take the reins. A truly cursed situation.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Armenia! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section. Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war. Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language. https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one. https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts. https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel. https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator. https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps. https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language. https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language. https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses. https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Putin proposed appointing Belousov as Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Federation Council reported
Andrei Removich Belousov was born on March 17, 1959 in Moscow in the family of Rem Alexandrovich and Alisa Pavlovna Belousov. His father went through the Great Patriotic War in the aviation troops, graduated from MGU and became an economist. Belousov’s mother was a radiochemist who worked in the chemistry of rare elements.
Andrei Belousov studied at the prestigious “second” physics and mathematics school. In his youth he practiced sambo and karate. In 1981 he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University with a degree in cybernetics economist.
From 2008 to 2012, he was Director of the Department of Economics and Finance of the Russian Government. Belousov was called “a man of German Gref’s team.” During the 2008 crisis, Belousov personally prepared anti-crisis documents for then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
In 2012–2013, Belousov headed the Ministry of Economic Development. From 2013 to 2020, he was Assistant to the President of Russia for Economic Affairs.
In January 2020, Belousov was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. At the end of April - May 2020, he served as acting prime minister for three weeks due to the fact that Mikhail Mishustin became infected with coronavirus infection
Putin appointed Shoigu Secretary of the Russian Security Council
Vladimir Putin decided that the Russian Ministry of Defense should be headed by a civilian; the department should be open to innovation and advanced ideas,
Belousov’s mother was a radiochemist who worked in the chemistry of rare elements.
It’s always interesting to see how a lot of Soviet biographies are like “And his mother was a radiochemist, a painter, and a volunteer teacher at his local elementary school.”
Then you look at some western biographies around the same time and it’s “and his mother was a nurse prior to giving birth, then became a housewife who tended the gardens at their home.”
Yeah, to this day women occupy high ranking positions in society in most of Eastern Europe. Even in more conservative ex-communist states like Albania and Romania.
my high school calc teacher was an engineer in leningrad from a good Soviet university, moved to the US after the collapse, and nobody accepted her diploma so she was forced to become a teacher. Gotta keep women out of STEM somehow