Category: Russia

Dictatorship 101 says to put large portraits of yourself everywhere and for Putin he even has the North Koreans putting up his picture now. This is a bit surprising because it makes North Korea look like a vassal state:

Kim Jong Un decorated his walls with huge portraits of Russian President Vladimir Putin during a tour of a state office building, state media images show.

The portraits were visible as the North Korean leader gave a personal tour to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Shoigu was attending a banquet at the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party headquarters in Pyongyang, per the Daily Mail. It comes as the country celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, which took place from 1950 to 1953.

In the bizarre images, Kim and Shoigu can be seen walking down a corridor while huge portraits of Putin and Kim loom over them from either side.

Business Insider

You can read more at the link.

Look who turned up in Pyongyang, the guy who just few weeks ago fled Moscow in fear of an overweight caterer turned mercenary boss:

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) shakes hands with North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun-nam after arriving in Pyongyang on July 25, 2023, in this photo released by the North’s Korean Central News Agency. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu held talks with his North Korean counterpart, Kang Sun-nam, in Pyongyang on Wednesday and expressed his determination to boost bilateral ties, Russian media reported.

Shoigu arrived in the North Korean capital Tuesday for a three-day visit to attend commemorative events to mark the 70th anniversary of the 1950-53 Korean War armistice.

“I am confident that today’s talks will help strengthen cooperation between our defense ministries,” TASS quoted Shoigu as saying.

The North is set to hold commemorative events for the landmark anniversary of the signing of the armistice on July 27, 1953, which is celebrated in the country as Victory Day.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The Kremlin is threatening to send advanced weapons to North Korea if the ROK sends arms to Ukraine:

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during an interview with Reuters at the presidential office in Seoul, Tuesday. (Yonhap)

Any decision by South Korea to supply arms to Ukraine would make Seoul a participant in the conflict, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after President Yoon Suk Yeol opened the door to such deliveries.

South Korea has denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supplied economic and humanitarian aid to Kyiv, but unlike the United States and European allies has so far stopped short of sending weapons. (…..)

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin who frequently makes hawkish comments on Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, suggested Moscow could respond by supplying advanced weaponry to North Korea.

“I wonder what the inhabitants of this country (South Korea) will say when they see the latest designs of Russian weapons in the hands of their closest neighbors – our partners from the DPRK?” Medvedev said in a post on Telegram, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Here is the least surprising news of the day:

North Korea continues to provide ammunition to Russia in support of Moscow’s unprovoked war against Ukraine, a White House official said Friday, calling it a clear violation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions on Pyongyang.

John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, said the U.S. has shared its intelligence on the delivery of North Korean ammunition to Russia with the UNSC Panel of Experts on North Korea sanctions.

The NSC official earlier said the North has delivered ammunition to a private Russian military company, the Wagner Group, for use in Ukraine.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but by transferring the ammunition to the Wagner Group it allows North Korea and Russia to claim that ammunition is not being transferred between the two governments when in fact it is.

The Russians continue to make themselves look like clowns:

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and a senior security official in President Vladimir Putin’s administration, said Saturday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida should perform a ritualistic suicide by disembowelment to repent for what Medvedev called servitude to the United States.

Medvedev’s remarks were in response to a joint statement Friday by President Joe Biden and Kishida, in which the leaders said that “any use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in Ukraine would be an act of hostility against humanity and unjustifiable in any way.”

Russian military leaders have discussed the potential use of a tactical nuclear weapon should their invasion of Ukraine face more setbacks.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

At least these Russian men found a good airport to be stranded in:

“I left home the night of Sept. 24, a few hours after I received the conscription notice. I decided to leave as soon as possible because they might come to get me in the morning,” he said during a recent interview with The Korea Times at the airport.

“I find it nothing to be ashamed of to defend my country. I would volunteer (to fight) if someone attacks us and put my loved ones in danger,” said Maraktaev, adding that he already completed the compulsory one-year of military service in 2019. “But it’s a totally different story when my own country is the aggressor. I will never take weapons to go and kill innocent people in Ukraine.”

That night, Maraktaev jumped into a car with others in the neighborhood who were also called up to join the army. They crossed the border to Mongolia and drove further to the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. From there, Maraktaev took a flight to Manila in the Philippines, where he was able to stay for several weeks.

He then bought a plane ticket to Incheon and landed on Korean soil on Nov. 12, expecting the country to be a haven from war. 

Korea Times

Here is the reason he decided to flee to South Korea:

“Although I don’t have any connections with South Korea, I knew that it is a very developed country in terms of democracy and civil rights,” he said, when asked why he specifically chose to flee to Korea. “The news that a former (Korean) president was sentenced to prison for corruption crimes blew my mind. We could never imagine a leader facing trial in Russia.”

He is one of five Russian men currently stuck at the airport who currently going through asylum proceedings. According to the article it is not looking positive to have their asylum cases approved.

I have hard time believing that Russia was ever going to “attack” Japan like this Newsweek report is claiming. An attack on Japan would trigger the US-Japan alliance which would lead to an overwhelming military response that would crush whatever attack Russia launched. With that all said, after what we have seen of the Russian performance in Ukraine, the Japanese military could probably defeat any Russian attack without American assistance:

Russia was preparing to attack Japan in the summer of 2021, months before President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an email featuring a letter from a whistleblower at Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), shared with Newsweek, reveals.

The email, dated March 17, was sent by the agent, dubbed the Wind of Change, to Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian human-rights activist who runs the anti-corruption website Gulagu.net, and is now exiled in France.

The FSB agent writes regular dispatches to Osechkin, revealing the anger and discontent inside the service over the war that began when Putin invaded neighboring Ukraine on February 24.

Newsweek

You can read more at the link, but what I can believe is that Russia may have been determining the likelihood of succeeding with a provocation against Japan such as sinking one of its naval ships. This would put Japan in tough spot because their constitution would not allow them to undertake offensive operations and thus the Japanese government would turn to the U.S. for support.

This would also put the U.S. in a tough spot because the Biden administration would have to determine if taking offensive action against Russia is worth it in response to a sunken Japanese ship. Putin would likely bet no offensive military action would be taken and instead toothless sanctions and sternly worded letters would be issued. The lack of a response from the U.S. would have put a strain on the U.S.-Japan alliance which is what their ultimate goal may have been. Additionally sinking a Japanese ship would be a morale boost for the Russian Pacific Fleet. I wonder if Putin wishes he would have initiated a provocation against Japan instead of his current disastrous war in Ukraine?