The Vatican acted to mend strained relations with Ukraine on Tuesday after Pope Francis upset Kyiv by referring to Russian
Vatican tries to mend Ukraine ties after Kyiv protests pope commentsultra-nationalistDarya Dugina, who was killed by a car bomb near Moscow, as an innocent victim of war.
Everything surrounding the Russian philosopher, occultist and unofficial diplomat is shrouded in mystery.
Benjamin Teitelbaum on Aleksander Dugin: Why was Alexander Dugin’s daughter assassinated?
I’m posting this more for what he says about Aleksander Dugin as he has “met and interviewed Alexander Dugin many times” for his book. He speculates on who assassinated Darya, and why someone might target her father, most of which I don’t agree with.
President of Poland: entire territory of Ukraine should be liberated, including Crimea
Scott Ritter – Ukraine, Russia & Poland via Judge Napolitano
Scott suggested that MI6 may have been involved with Darya’s assassination. He also talks about Newsweek’s intelligence editor waging a disinformation war.
Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Ms. Cat’s Chronicles.
The second thought was a byproduct of the first. The prospect of sudden escalation reminded me of a podcast conversation I listened to seven weeks into the war—a conversation that left me more worried than ever that American foreign policy is not in capable hands. The killing of Dugina, in a roundabout way, corroborates that worry.
The conversation was between Ryan Evans, host of the War on the Rocks podcast, and Derek Chollet, who, as Counselor of the State Department, reports directly to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Chollet was recounting diplomatic discussions between Moscow and Washington that had taken place before the invasion. He said something that had never before been officially confirmed: The US had refused to negotiate with Russia about keeping Ukraine out of NATO.
What bothered me wasn’t this disclosure; I’d already gathered (and lamented) that the Biden administration had refused to seriously engage Russia’s main stated grievance. What bothered me—and kind of shocked me—was how proud Chollet seemed of the refusal.
After all, when negotiations aimed at preventing the invasion of a nation you’re friends with are followed by the invasion of that nation, that’s not success, right? Apparently by Chollet’s lights it was.
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Last week John Mearsheimer (who seven years ago predicted eventual Russian invasion if the NATO expansion issue wasn’t addressed) published a piece in Foreign Affairs warning that as this war drags on, “catastrophic escalation” is a real possibility. Some people dismissed scenarios he sketched as conjectural. Yet exactly one day after his piece appeared, the real world provided us with a new scenario: daughter of iconic Russian nationalist murdered, leaving her aggrieved father to whip up support for a longer and bloodier and possibly wider war. Every day of every war brings the possibility of an unsettling surprise.
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Listening to Chollet talk about what a strategic loss this war is for Putin, I was struck by how excited he sounded about that and by how youthful and naïve his excitement seemed. It would have been poignant if it weren’t scary. And I’ve seen no evidence that his boss at the State Department is more reflective than he is. Our foreign policy seems driven by two main impulses—macho posturing and virtue signaling—that work in unfortunate synergy and leave little room for wisdom.
Bringing this tragic war to a close is something that’s hard to do in the near term and is impossible to do without painful compromise. But I see no signs that the US is even contemplating such an effort, much less laying the groundwork for it. I worry that Chollet’s attitude in April—what seemed like a kind of delight in the prospect of a war that is long and costly for Russia—may still prevail in the State Department. So it’s worth repeating:
(1) A massively costly war for Russia can be a massively costly war for Ukraine and, ultimately, for Europe and for the whole world; and (2) Every day this war continues there’s a chance that we’ll see some wild card—like the murder of Daria Dugina—that makes such a lose-lose outcome more likely.
Ilya Ponomarev: Who is the person who wants to form a guerrilla force to overthrow Putin? (original)
After the Moscow assassination, Ponomarev’s call to arms is now understood as a starting signal for the inner-Russian partisan struggle. In the appeal, Ponomaryov explains why he did not – like Navalny – go to prison or flee to the West. He consciously recalls the resistance against National Socialism: “The German anti-Nazi underground didn’t flee, they fought. The Poles didn’t flee either, but prepared the Warsaw Uprising. And even if fate would have it otherwise, they fought Anti-fascists like Willy Brandt. And that’s an example for me to follow.” The later German chancellor was active in the resistance from Norway during the Nazi era.
On social media, Ponomarev has many fans among Putin’s critics. In their eyes, the bomb attack in Moscow looks like the first spectacular act of armed resistance. Some already consider him the Che Guevara of the Russian resistance. However, there are doubts in Western intelligence circles whether the “National Republican Army” really already exists, or whether Ponomarev just wants to claim it. It is also possible that he is using Ukraine’s military aid to drive the war into Russia as a pin.
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Ponomaryov is very active in propaganda and runs a Russian-language television news channel called “February Morning” and an Internet news service “Rospartisan”. He reports on anti-government “partisan” activities in Russia, such as attacks on military recruitment centers. Instructions on how to make bombs are sometimes given.
In his youth, Ponomarev was a member of the Communist Party. He comes from a Soviet political dynasty, his mother Larisa Ponomarewa was a member of the Federation Council. His uncle Boris Ponomaryov was secretary for international relations of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, his grandfather Nikolai Ponomaryov was the Soviet ambassador to Poland. The family comes from Novosibirsk, the largest city in Siberia. The young Ilja was already a successful start-up entrepreneur as a teenager, studied physics and economics and quickly made a career for himself at the oil company Yukos. By 30, he was a Russian digital generation star careerist, even becoming the national coordinator for the High-Tech Parks Task Force, a public-private project which should mobilize up to $6 billion to develop a network of small startup incubators. At the age of 32 he became a deputy in the Russian State Duma.
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Ponomaryov was one of those young Russians who believed ten or twenty years ago that Russia could embark on a democratic, liberal, digital future. Early on he advocated a consistent separation of powers, he criticized old power cliques and their corruption, organized protests against another term in office for Vladimir Putin and advanced to become a crosshead and regime critic in parliament. He suddenly became known in March 2014 when he found the courage to be the only member of the Duma to vote against the annexation of Crimea, which was universally acclaimed in Russia. The result – 445 yes votes, one no vote – made the world sit up and take notice: “Who is this one vote?” asked the “New York Times” and made the Putin critic from Siberia world famous on the one hand and the target of Putin’s revenge on the other. He became the object of a propaganda campaign, including a huge poster in central Moscow branding him a “traitor to the country”. Ponomarev fled first to the United States, then to Ukraine. Even then, he warned that Putin would not leave it at Crimea, but would eventually launch a war of aggression. “Unfortunately, I was right,” Ponomaryov said eight years later in a CNN interview with Christiane Amanpour.
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Ponomarev is now likely to become the target of Russian assassination attempts. He is already under the protection of Ukrainian security agencies after former Russian MP Denis Voronenkov was shot dead in Kyiv in 2017. Voronenkov was on his way to meet Ponomaryov when he was assassinated*. He too had criticized Russia’s annexation of Crimea as illegal. Ponomaryov is aware of his position and role in the midst of the escalation of violence and describes it thus: “The way to freedom leads only through purification through fire.”
Mark Sleboda suggested that Ilya Ponomarev was associated with the CIA and had made the rounds at neoconservative think tanks.
Related:
Read More »The father of journalist and philosopher Darya Platonova Dugin delivered a farewell speech during the civil funeral service for his daughter, who was tragically killed in a despicable attack by the Ukrainian security services.
Farewell to Darya in Ostankino, her father’s words
This is a translation of the NRA manifesto for a page I’ll be starting on my research into this obscure group and Ilya Ponomarev (see below*)
Read More »A NATIONAL REPUBLICAN ARMY WAS ESTABLISHED IN RUSSIA, WHICH CARRIED OUT AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON DUGIN
Aug 21, 2022 Today we woke up in a new time.
Last night, a landmark event took place near Moscow. Russian partisans blew up the car of Novorossiya ideologist, leader of Russian fascists Alexander Dugin.
This attack opens a new page of Russian resistance to Putinism. New – but not the last.
This attack opens a new page of Russian resistance to Putinism. New – but not the last.
Daria Dugina-Platonova, Alexander’s thirty-year-old daughter, was killed in the attack.
She was his faithful companion, his hands in the ongoing war. Daria called for the destruction of Ukrainians, was a voice calling for violence and murder in the occupied territory. In particular, she justified the terrorist act in Elenovka, when 50 Azov fighters who voluntarily surrendered were blown up in violation of the Geneva Convention.
Retribution took place yesterday. The Lord preserved Dugin himself, but prepared for him a much more terrible punishment.
Today is the time to say who implemented it.
This action, like many other direct-action guerrilla actions carried out on the territory of Russia in recent months, was implemented by the National Republican Army. We have established a connection with its fighters with the help of our resource Rospartizan, which illuminates the growing wave of resistance in Russia.
NRA fighters authorized me [Ilya Ponomarev] to read out their Manifesto today.
Translated from YouTube
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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