Mike Eckel

ТАСС ❕Весь Донбасс российский, заявил Ушаков, комментируя идею Зеленского о референдуме по территориальному вопросу.

Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov stomps on Zelenskiy's proposal to hold a referendum on the future of the Donbas: "the Donbas is Russian. All parts of the Donbas are Russian."
t.me/interfaxonli...
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"The Russian President expressed solidarity with the Venezuelan people and confirmed his support for [the Maduro] government's course in defense of the country's sovereignty."

👀 Putin and Venezuela's Maduro have spoken by phone, the Kremlin says.
t.me/tass_agency/...

The US judge's order in this case (a Belarusian woman extradited to the US on charges of smuggling more than $2 million of sensitive technology) is very entertaining.

Roman Oleksiv, a 11-year-old Ukrainian boy who survived a Russian missile strike in July 2022 (his mother was killed), spoke at the European Parliament yesterday, introducing films about the plight of Ukrainian children. It was a difficult translation.
Video by @radiosvoboda.org.web.brid.gy

The Justice Department will now have to dismiss this case, a case Firtash's lawyers have long maintained as weak. Worth recalling how US prosecutors described Firtash (and a co-defendant) in US court filings (which Firtash has also denied).

Dmytro Firtash, the Ukrainian oligarch who has been under house arrest in Vienna since being indicted on FCPA bribery charges in the US more than a decade ago, can NOT be extradited, an Austrian appeals court ruled today. The ruling is final.

The Problems at Baikonur 31/6: A Launch Accident Is (Another) Headache For Russia's Space Program Russia's space program has taken a drubbing in recent years, its reputation battered by corruption scandals, shrinking budgets, embarrassing accidents, and accusations that its managers put politics a...

"With all of (Russia's) effort going into their war machine, I’m not sure if they will be able to launch anytime soon," said one former NASA astronaut who flew on a Soyuz capsule launched from Baikonur.
www.rferl.org/a/baikonur-l...

Unquestionably a FAR superior version of I Will Survive.

"He’s broken stories on Vietnam, Watergate, Gaza and Ukraine." What's the Ukraine scoop they're referring to? Nord Stream?

More about A7A5 👇
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t...

Russia fired more than 700 drones/missiles at Ukraine overnight.

Сергей Тихановский, муж лидера белорусской оппозиции Светланы Тихановской, снова в центре конфликта Его обвиняют в том, что он борется с советниками своей жены — вместо того, чтобы бороться с Лукашенк... Полгода назад Сергей Тихановский вышел на свободу, отсидев пять лет. И попал из протестного 2020-го, где он был популярным политическим блогером, собиравшимся баллотироваться в президенты Беларуси, в ...

A very useful writeup of the drama (a.k.a. soap opera) that Belarusian opposition politics has become in recent months. By
@meduzaproject.bsky.social

meduza.io/feature/2025...

Pro-Kremlin RT Network Launches India Service With Putin’s Blessing - The Moscow Times President Vladimir Putin on Friday presided over the launch of RT India, the Kremlin-funded broadcaster’s newest regional channel, during his visit to the South Asian country this week. “I sincerely h...

Ahead of Friday’s launch, RT staged a major promotional campaign across India to promote its new English-language channel.

Scientists find that Norwegian freshwater fish still show elevated levels of cesium-137 nearly 40 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster: 3-4 times higher than pre-1986 (though declining over time)
t.co/n27TDniCC8

Guys… it looks like someone invented a fake Russia advance in Ukraine to manipulate online gambling markets. @evystadium.bsky.social gets into it.

Full story by @mjgault.bsky.social here:

www.404media.co/unauthorized...

America’s Magical Thinking About Ukraine www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/amer... via @foreignaffairs.com @radchenko.bsky.social

full report here:
www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

On Ukraine:
It is a core interest of the United States to negotiate an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, in order to stabilize European economies, prevent unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability with Russia..."

In newly released US national security strategy, US prescribes a bit of policy psychoanalysis therapy for Europe:
"We want Europe to remain European, to regain its civilizational self-confidence, and to abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation."

REPORT: Lookups of 'frankincense' and 'myrrh' are up 3200% from this time last month.

full report here:
dsiweb-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/Web_...

One of the important takeaways from the British inquest into the 2018 Novichok poisoning of Sergei Skripal (a British woman Dawn Sturgess was an accidental fatality): It wasn't simply revenge; it was to send a message "a public demonstration of Russian state power."

Why is Donald Trump’s name now on the @usip.org building? Who put there? And when?

American Jailed for Assaulting Russian Police Officer Handed New 8-Year Prison Sentence - The Moscow Times An American jailed in Russia for assaulting a police officer has been sentenced to an additional eight years in prison for attacking guards at the correctional facility where he is being held, Russian...

Former U.S. Marine and English teacher Robert Gilman was found guilty of attacking a guard at the prison where he is currently being held.