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A senior ally of President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that any Ukrainian attacks on missile launch sites inside Russia with arms supplied by the United States and its allies would risk a nuclear response from Moscow. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said that some Ukrainian military commanders were considering hitting missile launch sites inside Russia with Western-supplied long-range missiles. He did not name the commanders or disclose more details of the alleged plan and there was no immediate reaction from Ukraine to his threat.

Vladimir Putin has complained that his old friends often no longer recognise him amid rumours he regularly uses body doubles. The Russian dictator, 71, told an audience in the country's remote Chukotka region that school and university classmates do not believe it's really him. 'When I [very occasionally] meet my classmates or fellow university students, they often look at me and say - "I don't believe it, is it actually you, or not you?",' he said. -snip- Solovey - who once taught future Russian spies and diplomats - was challenged by a top Ukrainian TV interviewer Dmitry Gordon over his...

Vladimir Putin's police state has become so repressive that a popular joke from Soviet times has resurfaced and been repurposed for those Russians today who dare to acknowledge the truth about the autocratic regime they are living under. It tells the story of two FSB (successor of the KGB) agents who are having a beer after work. The first one, Ivan, says to his colleague, 'Tell me, Dmitry. What do you really think about Putin?' and Dmitry replies, 'The same as you do.' Ivan thinks for a moment and says: 'In that case, it is my duty to arrest you.'

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, signed a law on Wednesday that grants him lifelong immunity from criminal prosecution. -snip- the law signed by Lukashenko on Wednesday states that once a president leaves office, they "cannot be held accountable for actions committed in connection with exercising his presidential powers." The law also gives former presidents and their families lifelong protection, along with medical care, life and health insurance. AP also said that former presidents will now also receive a lifelong seat in the upper house of parliament upon resigning.

Russia's Ramzan Kadyrov once again demanded that the United States lift sanctions against members of his family—and his horses—this time offering Ukrainian prisoners of war in exchange, Russian state media reported on Friday. Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya and Russian President Vladimir Putin's loyal ally, made the offer via former American intelligence officer Scott Ritter, who was visiting Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. -snip- It is not immediately clear why Kadyrov decided to reach out to U.S. authorities via Ritter, a disgraced former UN weapons inspector and Marine Corps analyst, who is also a convicted sex offender. Ritter was guilty...

The Head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, wants the United States to lift sanctions against his family, for which he is ready to give up Ukrainian prisoners of war, APA reports citing Pravda EN. During a visit to Chechnya by American ex-intelligence officer Scott Ritter, the head of the republic Ramzan Kadyrov offered to exchange captured Ukrainian servicemen for the lifting of US sanctions against his family, RIA Novosti reports. "We have prisoners whom we took away in Donetsk and Lugansk. I am passing (the list) to our guest... if they lift the sanctions on my mother, my daughters...

Russia has yet to comment on a swirl of unconfirmed rumours that Vladimir Putin's top war commander General Valery Gerasimov was killed in a strike on a military command post in Crimea on Thursday. An explosion and a trail of smoke were visible in a clip of a suspected Storm Shadow strike at the military site in Yukharin Balka. Another target in the village of Uyutnoye, near Yevpatoria was also reportedly hit. A flow of ambulances was reported by Ukrainian sources at both locations, and Putin-appointed Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said: 'It was the most massive [attack] in recent times.'...

Update from Ukraine | Ruzzia is losing the Critical equipment in Avdiivka | Ukraine wins the fight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZksUfLnycsQ MilitaryLand.net It’s time to look into the future and talk about what awaits us in 2024. In a few weeks, it will be ten years since Russia annexed Crimea and invaded Donbas. Now the focus on will shift back to the beginning of the website: Ukrainian regular and volunteer units. If you like the maps, please stay tuned for more details. *** Great interactive maps with viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use for each Front! https://militaryland.net/maps/

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has called for the execution of family members of suspected criminals who cannot be found. During a Dec. 30 meeting of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic, Kadyrov told security commanders that relatives are acceptable recipients of punishment for criminal suspects who are not apprehended. -snip- "As is customary from time immemorial, if one of the relatives has done wrong and the criminal cannot be found, their brother, their father would be killed."

During the special military operation we are liberating Russian territory. How do you feel about Western countries helping our enemy? Vladimir Putin: The point is not that they are helping our enemy. They are our enemy. They are solving their own problems with their hands. That is what it is all about. This has been the case for centuries, unfortunately, and continues to be the case today. Ukraine itself is not our enemy whereas those who want to destroy Russian statehood and to achieve, as they say, a strategic defeat of Russia on the battlefield, are mainly in the West,...