TschVC “Wagner” is moving towards Artemovsk, fighting is already taking place in the suburbs, said the head of the DPR
The head of the DPR Denis Pushilin said that the city of Artemovsk (Bakhmut) is close to the operational environment. According to him, the fighting is taking place in the area of the meat processing plant.
The head of the DPR reported that the units of the PMCs “Wagner” are advancing “both day and night”. Now in the area of the city of Soledar, located near Artemovsk, a “serious sweep” is taking place, he added.
“After the liberation of Kleshcheyevka, new horizons are opening up there [in Artemovsk] and, I would say, a radical improvement in positions. According to Artemovsk, we can say that the situation is close, if not to completion, then to the operational environment, which is now being sought by the units of the PMC “Wagner” located there,” TASS quotes Pushilin.
On the eve of taking control of the settlement of Kleshcheyevka near Artemovsk, the founder of the PMC “Wagner” Yevgeny Prigozhin announced. On the morning of January 20, the information was confirmed by the DPR territorial defense headquarters.
On January 13, the Ministry of Defense announced the capture of Soledar, a city located about 10 km north of Artemovsk. The department claims that the establishment of control over Soledar allows cutting off the supply of the Armed Forces in Artemovsk, and then block and take the remaining Ukrainian troops into the boiler.
Spiegel, citing data from the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), reported on January 20 that the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the battles for the city lose a three-digit number of servicemen a day. The BND indicated that the transfer of Artemovsk under the control of Russian forces would lead to consequences “along the entire line of defense of Ukrainians”.
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BRitania wanted a key role in the “hybrid tribunal” against Russia because of Ukraine, Ukraine and Western countries came up with the idea of creating a tribunal against Russia. The Kremlin stated that Moscow does not recognize its legitimacy
James Cleverley
The UK intends to play a leading role in a joint group with partner countries to hold Russia accountable for the “invasion” of Ukraine, British Foreign Minister James Cleverley said.
As stated on the website of the British government, the countries invited by Ukraine will assess the feasibility of creating a new “hybrid tribunal”, a specialized court integrated into the national justice system of Ukraine with international elements.
According to Cleverley, the UK has accepted Ukraine’s invitation to join this coalition and share its legal experience, “in order to explore options to ensure full responsibility of Russian leaders for their actions.”
On November 30, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, took the initiative to create a special tribunal with the support of the United Nations to investigate and prosecute Russia’s actions in Ukraine. The EU is ready to work with its closest partners to enlist the widest international support, she pointed out.
A few days after that, France announced that it was working on the creation of a special tribunal together with European and Ukrainian partners. At the end of last year, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrel, said that the EU countries had not reached a common decision on the issue of the tribunal.
In January, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the military and political leadership of Russia to be held accountable for the fighting in Ukraine, and Kiev called on the international community to support a similar document that it plans to submit to the UN General Assembly.
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The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov stated that Moscow would not consider such a tribunal legitimate. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the initiative an “internecine” and “legal nonsense”, and also expressed the opinion that the EU, which supplies weapons to Ukraine, is trying to cover up its own involvement in mass cases of war crimes committed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
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Rogov: fighting has sharply intensified in the Zaporozhye direction, According to him, Russian troops fired near the settlements of Olgovskoye, Malinovka, Gulyai-pole, Zaliznichnoye, Gulyai-Pole, Charivnoye, Belogorye, Malaya Tokmachka, Orekhov, Nesteryanka, Malye Shcherbaki and Kamenskoye
The intensity of hostilities has sharply increased in the Zaporozhye direction, said Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the regional administration, in the telegram channel.
“The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation fired at the enemy from tanks, mortar and artillery fire in the areas of Vremovka and Novopol in the DPR and Olgovskoye, Malinovka, Gulyai-Pole, Zaliznichnoye, Gulyai-Pole, Charivnoye, Belogorye, Malaya Tokmachka, Orekhov, Nesteryanka, Malye Shcherbaki and Kamenskoye in the Zaporozhye region”, wrote him.
Rogov recalled that the Russian military had launched a “local offensive” near the city of Orekhov (located approximately 60 km from Kiev-controlled Zaporozhye). Four settlements were occupied by Russian troops and are under tight fire control. Rogov spoke about going on the offensive and taking settlements the day before. The Russian Defense Ministry did not report the beginning of the offensive near Orekhov.
On January 20, the department stated that the locality of Lobkove was taken in the Zaporozhye direction during the offensive. In addition, the Russian military occupied Kleshcheyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
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ButLexander Rodnyansky: I offered to invite Abramovich to negotiations, he has empathy To invite Roman Abramovich to be a negotiator between Russia and Ukraine, producer Alexander Rodnyansky suggested, he said in an interview *
Alexander Rodnyansky
The candidacy of Roman Abramovich as a negotiator of Ukraine with Russia was proposed by the head of the Office of the President, Andrei Ermak, with the submission of producer Alexander Rodnyansky (recognized in Russia as a foreign agent). This was told by Rodnyansky himself in an interview with Irina Shikhman (also included in the register of foreign agents by the Ministry of Justice) on YouTube.
According to him, the Ukrainian authorities began discussing who could mediate in the negotiations between Moscow and Kiev even before the start of the military operation.
“I have talked many times with my Ukrainian friends and politicians, and they talked about the need to find someone who could become a full-fledged mediator, because it seemed to them that the mediators appointed by the Kremlin do not inform, do not cope, do not formulate what they say. I have always replied to this that I do not know Kremlin politicians in general…>>, but I know almost all Russian big businessmen. And I said that the best person I know is Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich,” he said.
Rodnyansky is a citizen of Ukraine, the founder of the TV channel “1+1”. After moving to Russia, he headed the holding “CTC Media”, where he produced, in particular, the series “My Beautiful Nanny”, “Don’t be born Beautiful” and “Daddy’s Daughters”. Producer of films «The Ninth Company », «Leviathan», «Dislike», «Heat », President of the festival «Kinotavr».
Rodnyansky spoke out against the military operation in Ukraine, left Russia, canceled the “Kinotavr” and resigned from the founders of the Russian film company “Non-stop production”.
The producer’s son, also Alexander Rodnyansky, was appointed chief economic adviser to the Government of Ukraine in 2019. In 2021, Rodnyansky Jr. was appointed a member of the supervisory Board of the state Ukrainian Oschadbank as a representative of the state from the president.
According to Rodnyansky, his son called him first after the start of the special operation. “And the second one was called by the head of the president’s office, Ermak. Neither «hello », nor «goodbye », but immediately said: «Let’s talk to Abramovich ». And then an attempt began to lead to a peaceful, quick solution,” Rodnyansky said.
Answering Shikhman’s question about why he considers Abramovich the best negotiator, Rodnyansky explained that “Roman has developed that internal mechanism called empathy.” According to him, he has repeatedly seen how the businessman helped people in a variety of situations. “He has it, he’s human. For him, war is not just an unacceptable continuation of political contradictions, and this is unacceptable in a human way, because people are dying, he believes.
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RBC sent a request to Abramovich’s representative.
After the start of the military operation in Ukraine, Moscow and Kiev held several rounds of negotiations. Abramovich was also present at the meeting of delegations in Istanbul. The Kremlin, commenting on Abramovich’s participation, said that he was not an official member of the delegation, and also noted that the businessman was involved in the negotiation process at the initial stage.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Abramovich was “making sincere efforts” to help resolve the situation in Ukraine.
At the end of March, after negotiations in Istanbul, the Russian Defense Ministry withdrew the military from Chernihiv and Sumy regions. The Kremlin called it a gesture of goodwill in the interests of the negotiation process. After the events in Bucha (Moscow calls them a planned provocation), negotiations between Russia and Ukraine were frozen. According to Rodnyansky, after the events in Bucha, negotiations became impossible.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated that during the time when the city was under the control of the Russian military, “not a single local resident was injured,” and photos of dead people in civilian clothes appeared on the fourth day after the army left Bucha.
According to Rodnyansky, after that Ukraine and Russia will conduct negotiations only on the exchange of prisoners, in which Abramovich also took part.
Official Moscow and Kiev have repeatedly accused each other of disrupting the dialogue. The Russian side has repeatedly noted that it is ready for negotiations. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in November that Kiev interrupted the negotiation process “at the command of its Western curators”. Kiev believes that Moscow is not negotiating, but is putting an ultimatum.
Authors Person Tags
Roman Abramovich
businessman
October 24, 1966
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NDeputy Head of the Presidential Administration Dmitry Kozak may become the new chairman of the Accounts Chamber. He is considered the main candidate, sources told RBC
Dmitry Kozak
The most likely candidate for the post of head of the Accounts Chamber is Deputy head of the presidential administration Dmitry Kozak. This was told to RBC by two sources familiar with the discussion of candidates, noting that consultations are still ongoing, “the intrigue remains”.
“We will never announce,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RBC when asked to comment on whether the information about Kozak’s possible appointment is true.
The Federation Council may consider candidates for the post of head of the Accounts Chamber next week, a federal official told RBC and confirmed one of the interlocutors familiar with the discussion of candidates.
Candidates for appointment to the post of head of the Accounts Chamber are submitted to the President by the Council of the Chamber of the Federation Council. According to the law “On the Accounting Chamber”, senators must submit to the head of state at least three candidates proposed by the committees of the upper house of Parliament, from which the president chooses one.
One of the main tasks of the Accounting Chamber is to control the targeted and effective use of federal budget funds, budgets of state extra-budgetary funds. The Department is accountable to both chambers of the Federal Assembly.
The former head of the Accounting Chamber, Alexey Kudrin, left his post in November last year and moved to Yandex. As a successor, he proposed the first deputy speaker of the State Duma, Alexander Zhukov, earlier sources told RBC.
Kozak has been the deputy head of the presidential administration since 2020; he replaced Vladislav Surkov as the curator of the Ukrainian direction, as well as Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
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Last spring, after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, the supervision of the LPR and the DPR passed to the first deputy head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Kiriyenko, RBC reported.
Dmitry Kozak and Vladimir Putin have known each other since the 1990s:they met during the period when the current president headed the Committee on External Relations of the St. Petersburg City Hall, and the deputy head of the Kremlin administration – the legal department of the Leningrad City Council of People’s Deputies.
Kozak came to the Leningrad City Executive Committee almost simultaneously with Kudrin.In 1990 he became deputy head of the Legal Department of the Leningrad City Executive Committee, and from September 1994to July 1996 he held the position of head of the legal committee of the St. Petersburg City Hall. Later he was Vice-governor— Chairman of the legal committee of the office of the head of St. Petersburg Vladimir Yakovlev.
Kudrin also became deputy head of the Committee on Economic Reforms in 1990, since 1992 he headed the financial department of the Mayor’s office, and in 1993 he became vice-governor.
In 1999, Kozak moved to Moscow, where he headed the apparatus of the government, which was then headed by Putin. Then he held the positions of deputy head and first deputy head of the Presidential Administration, head of the government staff, presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, Minister of Regional Development. When Putin became prime minister after his second presidential term, Kozak was appointed deputy prime minister.
Both Kudrin and Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, who held the post of head of the Accounts Chamber before him, are considered people of the current president who do not belong to any powerful clans. Another person of Putin and his likely appointment as head of the Accounting Chamber will mean that the president still prefers to see his proxies in this position, one of the interlocutors of RBC notes.
Authors Person Tags
Alexey Kudrin
official, economist, head of the Accounting Chamber
Ella Pamfilova said about the limited voting opportunities in unfriendly countries, the CEC is already preparing for the presidential elections of 2024 and voting in new regions of Russia in September 2023, Pamfilova said
Opportunities to vote in elections in Russia from the territories of unfriendly countries will be extremely limited due to Western sanctions, the closure of consulates and the expulsion of diplomats, the chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Ella Pamfilova told reporters.
“The unjustified mass expulsions of our diplomats, the closure of consulates, visa, transport and other numerous restrictions and prohibitions for Russians directly affect the electoral rights of our citizens,” said the head of the CEC (quoted by RIA Novosti).
In the states where it will be possible to vote, the CEC will create all the necessary conditions for voters, Pamfilova promised.
According to her, the election commission is planning to prepare for elections in the new regions of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, which will be held on a single voting day in September. In addition, the CEC is already working on the preparation of the presidential elections in 2024.
Regional elections in 2023 are scheduled for September 10. It is planned to elect 20 governors in direct elections and five more in indirect elections, as well as deputies of 20 legislative assemblies.
“Vedomosti” with reference to sources in the presidential administration reported that they plan to nominate former participants of the special operation, as well as volunteers and volunteers who worked in the Donbass.
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Presidential elections are scheduled for March 2024. The Kremlin assumes that the current head of state, Vladimir Putin, will be nominated for them, Kommersant wrote, citing sources. According to the publication, the preparation is preliminary and so far there are no clear outlines of the ideological part.
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«Kommersant”: the court will review the verdict of the accomplice of the convicted deputy Belousov Margarita Butakova and her son-in-law, ex-deputy of the State Duma Vadim Belousov, accused of receiving a bribe in the amount of more than 3 billion rubles. The lawyers managed to prove that at the time of the trial she was insane
Margarita Butakova
The First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction will review the sentence handed down to Margarita Butakova, who helped her son-in-law, former State Duma deputy from the Fair Russia party Vadim Belousov, to receive a bribe of 3,253 billion rubles. She was sentenced to four years of probation. This is reported by “Kommersant” with reference to the participants in the process.
81-year-old Butakova’s lawyers managed to convince the judges that she could not fully defend herself in court due to her advanced age and the consequences of COVID-19. In this regard, she was assigned a second psychiatric examination, the results of which will make it clear whether she will continue to be tried or will be treated. If Butakova’s illness is confirmed, the reprimand will be automatically canceled for both her and her son-in-law, who was sentenced to ten years in prison.
According to investigators, from 2010 to 2014, Belousov and Butakova, together with the ex-governor of the Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevich and others, received a bribe from the road construction holding for patronage in the distribution of state orders for road maintenance totaling more than 3 billion rubles. Yurevich was put on the international wanted list, and Belousov disappeared before his sentencing. He pleaded not guilty.
Butakova’s mental health, according to her defenders, was undermined in December 2020 with the start of the trial, as well as after the coronavirus was transferred. At the same time, the lawyers do not deny that she was in her right mind during the commission of the crimes incriminated to her. During the trial, Butakova did not understand the questions asked to her and was confused in her testimony. In addition, according to her defenders, she was registered at a neuropsychiatric dispensary in Chelyabinsk.
As Belousov’s lawyer Vyacheslav Plahotniuc told the Kommersant, Butakova’s inadequate testimony given to her due to mental illness not only prevented her from defending herself, but also predetermined the harsh sentence imposed on Belousov. Plahotniuc noted that he did not know in what format the retrial would take place if doctors found Butakova insane.
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Economist: the mayor of Kupyansk announced great pro-Russian sentiments in the city, Acting Mayor of Kupyansk Andrey Besedin said that before the outbreak of hostilities last February, the “overwhelming majority” of citizens shared pro-Russian sentiments and now the situation has changed little
A few months after the Ukrainian military regained control of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region, there are still “high pro-Russian sentiments” in the city, acting Mayor Andrei Besedin told The Economist. According to him, before the outbreak of hostilities, the vast majority of people here were pro-Russian, and now little has changed.
At the same time, The Economist writes that the majority of residents with whom the correspondent of the publication managed to talk support the Ukrainian authorities. Residents of the eastern regions of the country used to regularly travel to Russia, they have relatives there. However, the fighting “alienated even the Ukrainians who were once friendly to Russia”.
According to The Economist, the former mayor of Kupyansk, Gennady Matsegora, and most of the members of the city council collaborated with the Russian military when they came to the city (the magazine also reports that the ex-mayor and about 200 other employees of the City Council fled to the territory controlled by Russia; at the end of February, the Kharkiv City Prosecutor’s Office charged Matsegoraaccusation of treason and encroachment on the territorial integrity of Ukraine). After that, a new Russian-language radio station was launched in the city and the newspaper “Kharkiv Z” was published. At the same time, the Ukrainian mobile operator was blocked, Ukrainian TV channels became unavailable to citizens (Vodafone operator started working in the city again in September).
Kupyansk is located in the eastern part of the Kharkiv region, 70 km northeast of Izyum and 50 km east of Balakleya. This is the administrative center of the Kupyansky district. There is a major railway junction in the city. According to The Economist, 17 thousand out of 57 thousand residents remained in Kupyansk after the outbreak of hostilities, the city suffered greatly.
Kupyansk is one of the largest settlements in the region, the Russian military established control over it and other settlements of the Kharkiv region shortly after the outbreak of hostilities last February. In September, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had decided to regroup troops in the areas of Balakleya and Izyum in order to increase efforts in the Donetsk direction “to achieve the stated goals of a special military operation”.
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ZYelensky criticized Scholz for indecision in the issue of the supply of Leopard 2 tanks, Ukraine needs tanks for defense, Zelensky stressed. According to the president of the country, it is unclear to him why the German authorities are hesitating with supplies, and if “there is no political will on some issue, there is no need to look for excuses”
Vladimir Zelensky
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with ARD TV channel criticized German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for indecision in the issue of transferring Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev.
According to Zelensky, he does not understand the position of the German authorities. “If you have Leopard tanks, give them to us. We also don’t attack if someone is worried about it. These tanks will not pass through the territory of Russia. We are defending ourselves,” he said (quoted by Tagesshau).
The Ukrainian leader noted that the decision to send weapons and equipment to Ukraine is political. “And if there is no political will on some issue, then there is no need to look for excuses. It is necessary to say “no”, and not to say that someone is not ready yet,” Zelensky believes.
Scholz had previously put forward a condition for the supply of German Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine if Washington also decides to supply its Abrams tanks. Zelensky, speaking via video link at a forum in Davos on January 19, said: “There are moments when there is no need to hesitate or compare. When you say, for example, “I will provide tanks if someone else also gives tanks,” or “I am powerful in Europe, I will help if someone outside Europe also helps.”.. It seems to me that this is not a very correct strategy.
Kiev asks Berlin to provide the Leopard 2 APU from the very beginning of hostilities in Ukraine. The German authorities have repeatedly stated that they will not do this alone. Earlier, The New York Times reported that Berlin and Washington are actively discussing this issue, and Scholz does not want to be the first to agree to the transfer of tanks to Ukraine, and thus spoil “special relations” with Russia in the future.
There are now about 2 thousand Leopard tanks of various modifications in European countries, the NYT wrote. Since they are manufactured by the Munich defense company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, for their delivery to Ukraine, the owners of the machines must obtain permission from Berlin to re-export them. Some, for example, Poland and Finland, expressed their readiness to transfer the Leopard company to Kiev as part of the international coalition.
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The Russian authorities claim that the West contributes to the prolongation of the conflict by supplying weapons. Russia will consider any shipments with Western weapons in Ukraine to be a legitimate target, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned.
GGeneral Zavarzin agreed with his colleague on the Duma defense committee, General Sobolev, that soldiers should look neat. “The Russian army has always been valuable for the neat appearance, posture of a serviceman,” he says
Viktor Zavarzin
Colonel-General Viktor Zavarzin, a member of the Defense Committee of the State Duma, commented on the dispute about the beards of the military. Earlier, Lieutenant General Viktor Sobolev, also a member of the Defense Committee of the State Duma, said that shaving for soldiers is an “elementary requirement of military discipline,” but Wagner’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov did not agree with this point of view.
“The goal is not to shave or not to shave the beard, but to observe hygiene whenever possible during respites [in combat]. To do this, the commanders must create all the conditions. You can also wear a beard, but everything should be neat,” Zavarzin told RBC. According to him, now the Ministry of Defense “takes very serious measures within the framework of logistics” and monitors the nutrition and hygiene of military personnel.
“The Russian army has always been valuable for its neat appearance, posture of a serviceman and the like. This also affects the inner state of a person, a Russian warrior. The individual internal state of each warrior certainly affects the overall discipline,” Zavarzin added and noted that the commanders in this case “should set an example.”
In a conversation with RBC, Lieutenant General Viktor Sobolev stated that a soldier “should be a model”. “I don’t think that with any of the most intense combat activity there aren’t 15–20 minutes to get your appearance in order,” he said. Evgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner’s PMCs, reacted to his words, calling such demands “archaic”. He pointed out that in the combat zone, military personnel often do not even have the opportunity to wash, and shave at allrepresents «luxury». In addition, for some military personnel, wearing a beard is part of religious etiquette. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, agreed with him, calling Sobolev’s words “an obvious provocation”. After that, Sobolev clarified his position and stated that he does not oppose beards as such, but only believes that the military should look neat.
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