Let a country depopulate, and the wildlife multiplies to fill in the empty spaces.
In Yakutia, a bear destroyed a truck and relieved itself in the cab
[Regnum] In Yakutia, a bear cub "broke into" a parked truck and wreaked havoc inside. The bear tore off the steering wheel, smashed the windows, tore the upholstery, and ripped apart any items left in the truck. After wrecking the truck, the bear defecated on the seat and then fled the scene. Local residents reported the "club-footed punk" to hunters, but they have so far been unable to capture the bear.Guide Roxana, who filmed the aftermath of the attack, told Regnum News Agency this.
In late August, a video from the "Arktika" winter road in a remote region of Yakutia surfaced on social media. The footage shows a white truck with a broken windshield and items scattered around the truck. The video's author, local guide Roxana, told Regnum news agency that a wild bear had entered the truck's cabin and wreaked havoc.
"A local bear cub had been out here, doing his damnedest, tearing everything apart. The interior was covered in mud, the windshield was completely smashed through, the upholstery on the seats and dashboards were torn to shreds, the steering wheel was ripped out, and there were wires and debris everywhere. The bear checked every door and every compartment he could reach, dragging everything out and tearing it apart. There were still tufts of fur and traces of blood left here and there. He probably cut himself on the debris, which only enraged him even more. After finishing his destruction, the bear relieved himself inside, after which he apparently lost interest in the car and ran away. Local residents told me that before reaching the truck, the same bear had broken into a house and wreaked havoc there, overturning all the furniture and eating the fish. That's the kind of hooligan the bear is," the woman said.
Roxana said that after a series of pogroms, local hunters attempted to capture the bear, but were unable to catch it—the trail died in the taiga. The incident occurred back in July, when Roxana filmed the video, but due to the length of her tour and the lack of internet access, she was only able to post the video and share the details now.
Earlier, Regnum news agency reported that on August 31, residents on the outskirts of Krasnoyarsk spotted a bear walking on the roof of a residential building.
The incident occurred in the Takmak gardening community near Krasnoyarsk. Footage shows the bear roaming freely across the roof of the building before running toward the river and disappearing into the forest. Police said they received a report from residents of the gardening community the day before, on August 30, but were unable to locate the bear at the scene.
Recently, bear encounters with people have become more frequent in other regions of Russia. For example, in the Chelyabinsk region, a family of bears ran out onto the road near Lake Bannoye in the dark. The mother and cubs were startled by a passing car, causing them to run ahead along the road. Later, they pulled over into the woods.
The incident occurred at night on the road near Lake Bannoe. The mother bear and her cubs were so startled by a passing car that they ran ahead along the road. Later, she pulled over to the side of the road and into the woods.
Earlier, residents of the village of Mikhaylovka near Ufa spotted a brown bear with a cub on the street. Later, two cubs were seen near the French Dvor residential complex.
Previously, a bear had approached a rural school in the Achinsky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai. To drive the bear away, a local police officer had to use his service weapon. No residents of the village were injured in the incident.
Text taken from a variey of zrussian sources including the Telegram channnel and at anna-news.info
Brief commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] Russian specialists demonstrated the latest laser system used to intercept Ukrainian Armed Forces drones and discussed its operation and future development.
The article was published by VGTRK correspondent Alexander Rogatkin on Sunday, August 30.
Several modules of the laser system, nicknamed the "Jedi sword" by the military, are undergoing trial operation, protecting a strategic facility in southwestern Russia. They are installed along its perimeter.
The first unit armed with a combat laser has been created to operate the system. The new system is undergoing testing and is showing results, intercepting all Ukrainian drones approaching the protected facility.
Footage from the Rogatkin Live channel shows the air target detection radar module of the Russian laser system.
The laser system is highly automated. The system automatically locks on to an aerial target and tracks it until it is disabled. The laser's power is sufficient to cause the drone to lose control, detonate the UAV's warhead, or crash to the ground.
"First-generation laser systems are now being replaced by more powerful systems capable of shooting down high-speed targets, such as aircraft and cruise missiles," explained the laser system's developers.
A laser system crew operator, call sign "Activist," explained that, thanks to their experience using the laser, service members can literally clip the wings of an enemy drone to deflect it from structures on the ground.
The control panel of the Russian laser system, as seen on the Rogatkin Live channel. According to the laser system crew chief, call sign "Strela," during one combat mission, a massive enemy attack occurred—four Ukrainian Armed Forces drones simultaneously entered the laser's effective range, and all were shot down.
A lead test engineer for the Barrier laser system, call sign "Ali," explained that the average laser effect on a target ranges from several seconds to a minute, until the drone is disabled.
The laser system can operate at any time of day or night at ranges beyond the range of machine guns or man-portable air defense systems. Lasers are inexpensive compared to guided missiles and have a virtually unlimited supply of ammunition.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Anatoly Savenko
[REGNUM] Western media are already reporting on shortages of essential goods and fresh produce in grocery stores in Ukraine due to Russian strikes on warehouses.
The Washington Post clarifies that after the attacks on Ozon and Wildberries warehouses in Russia, retaliatory strikes hit Silpo and Novus distribution centers.
"Shelves are empty, and fresh produce, as well as dairy products like sour cream, yogurt, and cheese, are gone. Some stores have filled the empty spaces with surplus stock, trying to minimize the feeling of shortages. The government, seeking to avoid panic among the population, has not issued any warnings. However, supermarkets have warned shoppers about temporary disruptions," the publication describes the current state of retail.
The gaping void in supermarkets is being broadcast from Kyiv, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Kryvyi Rih, Ivano-Frankivsk—in short, from everywhere. While other chains once boasted that they had everything, the same fate has now befallen VARUS (and the Kolo chain they acquired).
At the same time, the ROSHEN logistics center near Kyiv was completely destroyed—the center of the "chocolate empire" of former President Petro Poroshenko, who could have ended the war years ago during his term. But he, too, decided to continue "simply fighting," while keeping an eye on his own pockets.
Last week, the budget-friendly ATB chain of stores announced it would ration grocery sales (no more than six items per customer). Fozzy Group has cancelled bonuses and salary reviews until at least the end of the year, and has stopped hiring even for existing positions (in management jargon, they're "cutting costs" as much as possible).
Meanwhile, the stores themselves manage to squeeze PR even out of empty shelves. The Novus chain has started putting signs on their shelves that read, "This product was destroyed by Russia."
At least somewhat true, if not completely.
And this is being presented at the state level as the undeserved suffering of Ukrainians, who are being deprived of essential goods for absolutely no reason.
According to a statement by Taras Vysotsky, Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, approximately 90% of retail chain warehouses have already been destroyed. According to the Ukrainian Trade Guild, between August 1 and 27, Ukrainian retail lost 400,000 square meters of warehouse space (a quarter of which was for chilled and frozen products).
Fozzy Group suffered damage to 10 distribution centers in August (including the completely destroyed Fora chain's new warehouse, which opened in August and was only operational for a week). Novus lost its main logistics hub near Kyiv (50,000 square meters).
So, almost all the photos of empty shelves published in the media and on public pages over the course of a month, in 95% of cases, belong to the largest players. Fozzy Group, for example, controls more than 20% of the food retail market (more than 1,000 stores across the country, of which 300+ are in Kyiv).
Novus and Varus have fewer, but every second supermarket in the capital is one of these three.
This is precisely why the ATB chain, popular among the poor, imposed restrictions on product sales. With a 35% share of the grocery retail market and 1,300 stores in Ukraine (more than 100 of which are in Kyiv), it was not affected at all by the August shocks.
The last time this chain's warehouses suffered damage was back in June, and not in the capital region, but in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Back then, the company lost a distribution center (37,500 square meters). They've suffered some losses, but compared to their competitors, they can hardly complain.
Shoppers rushed to them, and the counter-decision is a response to consumer sentiment. Fueled by news reports and photos of empty shelves, people rushed to buy everything they usually buy in such situations: buckwheat and other grains, pasta, canned goods, butter, salt, sugar, and so on.
The "no more than six per customer" policy is ATB's standard policy for promotional items. Now, it's simply been expanded to cover most of the product range.
Coping with panic demand is difficult even in normal times. If customers were buying alcohol or coffee at this rate, the chain wouldn't have imposed any restrictions. But flour, cereals, and salt—all of these are low-margin items. Sales are up, but profits are down.
The French Auchan chain is similarly under attack (it has a 1.8-2% share of the overall Ukrainian market, but a strong position in the capital – nine of the chain's 26 large stores are located there). Retail Group (Velmart, Velyka Kyshenya, VK Express – 3-4% market share, around 60 stores, half of them in the capital) suffered from the attacks, but their warehouse capacity was not affected.
That is, while some stores are empty because the goods have burned out or there is no way to deliver them, others are empty because of increased demand.
The three hard-hit stores (Fozzy Group, Novus, and Varus) saw a drop in product assortment across certain product groups. These primarily include groceries, fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen goods, and meat and poultry. But that doesn't mean these items are completely absent from the shelves. There used to be eight to ten types of flour; now there are only one or two. Some items (bananas and vegetables) were completely unavailable for several days after the initial major attacks. But they reappeared after five to seven days.
Moreover, subsequent attacks on warehouses, including those 90% of warehouses mentioned by Minister Vysotsky above, have not visually altered the product range on the shelves. The fact is that already in early August, after the initial attacks, retailers began restructuring their logistics. Some are using smaller warehouses, which are less likely to be targeted. Others are trying to fill supermarket warehouses as much as possible, and also storing some goods on the sales floor.
Plus, stores in the capital region are now partially supplied from neighboring regions and sometimes directly from manufacturers.
Yes, this makes delivery more expensive. But the increased logistics costs haven't yet been reflected in prices. Firstly, chain owners were "very strongly encouraged" to do so. Secondly, supermarkets are compensating for this by reducing the number of promotions and sales. This is especially true for products with long shelf lives—promotions and discounts on them have almost completely disappeared across all chains.
That is, even panic demand partially compensates the networks for more expensive logistics.
Kyiv store shelves were truly empty on February 24–25, 2022: the author visited these stores himself. "No meat" means there's none at all. Everything else is simply "There is meat." "No sausage/pasta" means the only thing left in these sections is jamón and a few stale packs of premium Italian pasta—priced at 10 times the usual price. Now, that's nowhere near the level; all price ranges are available.
Moreover, if the blockade of Black Sea ports results in shortages of import categories, the halt in food exports will leave it within the country. Unless the authorities find a solution to this problem (and teleportation has apparently not yet been invented), Ukrainians are unlikely to starve.
Which is confirmed by Minister Vysotsky.
Yes, because of the destroyed warehouses, shipping will take longer and be more expensive. But the impossibility of exporting should, in theory, collapse domestic prices and leave a list of basic products that will remain in short supply no matter what. Manufacturers will certainly howl like wolves, but what else can they do? There will simply be fewer of them on the market.
But buyers don’t listen to soothing speeches; they count ahead and stock up on everything they need.
Given Zelensky's plans and statements about escalating attacks on Russia instead of seeking opportunities for a peaceful settlement, the current logistical chaos may be just the beginning.
For example, food producers themselves (with the exception of exporters) have so far been largely unaffected by the strikes. But judging by the trend, they certainly will be.
Unfortunately, Ukrainian citizens are unlikely to protest: it's not like they're demonstrating for Fyodorov with cardboard boxes; the police and their paid Nazis will restore order in no time. But Ukrainians have long been adept at protesting discreetly: by buying a sack of cereal, a couple of cans of diesel fuel, and a carton of stewed meat.
Translated, this means: "I'm still going to survive and see how it ends."
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] NATO and EU countries are pressuring Spain and Greece to transfer Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine. Bloomberg reported this on August 31.
According to the publication, Kyiv urgently requested additional air defense assets. The Ukrainian side warned its allies that existing stockpiles are no longer sufficient to repel Russian strikes, with particular emphasis on supplying missiles for the American Patriot systems.
"Spain and Greece possess some of the largest stockpiles of Patriot interceptor missiles among Ukraine's allies. Furthermore, both countries' interceptor missile stockpiles are approaching the end of their shelf life," the article explains.
No point in wasting them by holding on to them.
The issue is planned to be discussed at a meeting of EU defense and foreign ministers in Dublin. Furthermore, next week, EU countries are scheduled to vote on whether Ukraine can purchase additional Patriot missiles using its own loan financing.
Kyiv regularly complains about arms shortages and a decline in Western supplies. In particular, in early August, Kyiv's leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced that ammunition for Patriot air defense systems had been completely depleted. On August 25, European Commission spokesman Balázs Ujváry announced that the EC had denied Ukraine permission to purchase Patriot air defense systems from the United States using funds from the EU's €90 billion military financing program.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin
[ColonelCassad] From the statements of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.
1. Europe has set the goal of disrupting the normal electoral process in the Russian Federation and discrediting the election results.
2. The European Union and leading European countries are implementing a large-scale strategy to destabilize the situation in Russia in the run-up to the single voting day.
3. After the completion of the elections in Russia, PACE and the European Parliament are preparing statements non-recognizing their results. Of course, the elections will take place and the enemy will not be able to disrupt them, just as they were unable to do so in previous years.
Ideally, we should announce in advance that any assessments of the elections by our enemies are insignificant for Russia and are considered interference in our internal affairs.
During the election period, we can expect attempted terrorist attacks and an increase in drone attacks.
P.S. In Sevastopol, there will be no electronic voting this year, so I will walk the old-fashioned way to the polling station. Based on the election results, my prediction has not changed:
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Kamran Gasanov
[REGNUM] A noticeable and fundamental shift is taking place in Turkish-Ukrainian relations.
For five years now, Ankara has been repeating the mantra of "Ukraine's territorial integrity," occasionally supplying weapons to Kyiv, and at the same time trying to remain in its role as mediator and peacemaker. But over the past year, Ukraine has increasingly tested Turkey's patience.
Ukraine's strategy of shifting hostilities to maritime communications harms not only Russia, but also Turkish citizens, companies, and ports. When war begins to affect Ankara's merchant fleet, it ceases to be a foreign land.
THE TURKS ARE UNDER ATTACK
Attacks on ships carrying cargo to and from Turkey have previously unnerved the Turks. Their Ministry of Foreign Affairs has periodically reprimanded their Ukrainian counterparts, albeit privately.
But on August 29, the crisis in relations came to light. That day, the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Ukrainian Ambassador Nariman Celal. The reason for the summons was the attack by a Ukrainian drone on the Turkish ferry Lider Bordo Mavi off Tuapse three days earlier, which injured five people, and the subsequent attack on the Lider Kocatepe, which was sent to assist and tow the damaged vessel.
The Turkish side demanded that Kyiv ensure the safety of people, property, shipping, and the environment in the Black Sea. The very summoning of the ambassador is a targeted demarche, demonstrating that, despite all its support, Ankara does not prioritize the "territorial integrity of Ukraine" above the lives of its citizens and its own economic interests.
And Volodymyr Zelensky and his administration will not be able to escape responsibility by hiding behind the guise of "protection from the aggressor."
At the end of summer, tensions in the Black Sea, which Turkey considers an area of direct interest, reached a new level. Back in early August, the Turkish Foreign Ministry reported drone attacks on the Turkish-owned civilian vessels Yaşar and Nadezhda after they departed Novorossiysk.
Crew members, including Turkish citizens, were injured. Ankara demanded that all parties involved, primarily the warring parties, take concrete measures to protect shipping.
At that time, the authors tried to hide their complaint under the formula "all parties," but the administration of Recep Tayyip Erdogan understood that his country suffered much more economically and humanitarianally from the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, since Russia is Turkey's most important trading partner.
But Ukraine doesn't.
PIRACY AS POLITICS
Mustafa Can, chairman of the board of directors of the Turkish company Transbosphor Deniz Taşımacılığı, described this reality most starkly and clearly. He called Ukraine's attacks on commercial ships piracy and emphasized that Turkish vessels are becoming targets.
He estimates that if the crisis between the Black Sea and Egypt continues for another three months, Turkey's losses could reach $20 billion. This includes lost revenue from vessel transit through the straits, transport losses, repairs to damaged vessels, and additional business costs.
Jan also drew attention to the scale of the decline in shipping activity: if five months ago, an average of 200 ships passed through the Turkish Straits per day, now it is only 25–30.
For a country whose economy is heavily dependent on transit, disruption to shipping is a strategic issue. According to data provided by Turkish market participants, premiums for war risks in the Black Sea have risen by up to 10%. Some insurers are even stopping providing one-time coverage for voyages into the danger zone.
So, the bottom line is that Ukraine is not only hitting individual vessels, but also raising prices and hindering trade throughout the region.
A BLOW TO TURKISH BREAD
For Turkey, the Black Sea is not only about ship owners and logistics.
Turkey is one of the largest buyers of grain from Russia and Ukraine. Turkish companies use the purchased grain to produce flour, pasta, and finished food products, which they then export to countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Some of this grain is also consumed locally.
However, due to attacks on ships and ports in the Black Sea, according to the head of the Istanbul Grain Exporters Union, Kazim Tayci, supplies from Russia and Ukraine have effectively stopped.
Prices for processed grain products have already increased by 4–4.5%, and if the problem is not resolved within two months, the increase could exceed 10%.
Last year, Turkey earned $13 billion from such exports. Losing every cent of that in the current challenging economic climate is bad news for Erdogan, especially with presidential elections approaching. More broadly, his country is losing its status as a global food hub.
It was precisely in light of these circumstances that the "grain corridor" was recalled. In August, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan conveyed to Moscow and Kyiv a proposal for a moratorium on attacks in the Black Sea. Ankara is proposing the creation of a mechanism that would preclude attacks on commercial shipping.
This is not just a manifestation of sentimentality towards starving African countries, but an attempt to save Turkish business.
REAR ADMIRAL'S WARNINGS
Criticism of Ukraine in Turkey isn't just coming from the business community. The opposition is slightly more vocal than the ruling Justice and Development Party.
The Foreign Policy Council of the Republican People's Party (CHP) directly warned of the risk of the war spreading to other countries. The party's statement called for maintaining the Kremlin's trust, warning Ukraine, and preventing Turkey from becoming involved in the conflict.
The RNP specifically noted that strikes on civilian targets in Russia could provoke further escalation and draw other countries into the war.
The statement is quite telling, as this is not a marginal entity, but, until its recent split, the largest opposition party. Moreover, it is generally considered pro-Western—and not without reason. But, as with any leading force in the country, the party's own interests are more important than Ukraine's.
Her comment, coupled with the Turkish Foreign Ministry's protest to Ukraine and statements by company heads, showed that critical assessments of the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are no longer limited to individual pro-Eurasian commentators and politicians like Doğu Perinçek.
Another curious reaction recently came from a man who had a hand in conceptualizing Turkey's interests in the Black Sea.
Retired Rear Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, one of the authors of the "Blue Homeland" doctrine, which is slated to be enacted into law, called on his country to be more careful with its northern neighbor. "A conflict between Turkey and Russia would be suicidal for Turkey. Let me make this perfectly clear," he said.
Gürdeniz compared attempts to pit Ankara against Moscow to a historical episode in World War I, when the Goeben and Breslau ships, flying the Ottoman flag, attacked Russian ports and contributed to the Ottoman Empire's involvement in a disastrous war. "We must not fall into this trap. But they will do everything to lure us into it," he emphasized.
Of course, Gürdeniz doesn't speak on behalf of the Turkish government, but the position he has expressed has been voiced from time to time by the highest-ranking officials. Former Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu directly accused the West of fueling the conflict in Ukraine, and President Erdoğan, during the early years of the war, stated that he "does not support the West's provocative course in Ukraine," and that increasing arms supplies was risky.
ERDOGAN'S PROPOSAL TO PUTIN
Following the NATO summit in Ankara, Türkiye's current political line appears to contradict its own course in 2022–2023.
Erdogan then expressed his desire to join the PURL program, and the State Department announced that Ukraine would receive ATACMS ballistic missiles from Turkish stockpiles. The Turkish Foreign Ministry has not yet confirmed this latest news.
However, ultimately, the Turks themselves feel that the expansion and escalation of the conflict, which they may have a hand in, could backfire on them. It already has: in mid-August, a drone crashed and exploded in the courtyard of a police station in the city of Trabzon.
So, it is probably no coincidence that, before the beginning of autumn, the Erdogan administration stepped up efforts to return the conflict to a diplomatic channel.
In addition to his proposal to ensure security in the Black Sea, the Turkish president plans to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Bishkek and express his readiness to once again offer Istanbul as a venue for negotiations.
We'll see what comes of this. Past experience makes it clear that Turkey's efforts are futile when they run counter to the positions of the US, Europe, and Ukraine. And by supplying military supplies, Ankara is denying itself the right to call itself a mediator.
Therefore, it is most likely that it will delay the transfer of missiles to Kyiv as long as possible.
[Reuters] Russia sees NATO activity in the Arctic as a direct security threat, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an article published on Monday, as the alliance members boost their presence in the region in the wake of Russia's war on Ukraine.
In February, NATO launched a mission called Arctic Sentry to bolster its presence in the far north, underscoring the alliance's increased focus on the Arctic amid tensions with Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump's push for the acquisition of Greenland.
Russia, which has a naval fleet including nuclear-armed submarines in the Arctic, sees the region as its sphere of interest where it also develops a shipping route to connect with the Asian nations.
Moscow has earlier protested the Arctic Sentry mission and in the article, Lavrov, President Vladimir Putin's long standing foreign minister, said Russia sees NATO military exercises in the region as 'aggressive'.
"Such military activity in the Far North poses direct threats to Russia's security. The risks of incidents that could trigger an armed confrontation, with potentially catastrophic consequences, are increasing," he said in the article published by the Russian foreign ministry.
Russia has the largest military presence and the most extensive military infrastructure in the Arctic and in recent years China has started to increase its activity in the mineral-rich area, mostly in partnership with Moscow.
Norway, a Russia's neighbour, this month expanded a recently created military brigade headquartered in the Arctic, the latest move by a NATO nation to boost its defence footprint in the wake of the Ukraine war which Russia started in 2022.
Moscow has previously dismissed allegations that it poses a threat to NATO.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
