Russia - and its dominus Vladimir Putin - had never been in the center of world attention as in the past two months. The glorious times in which the Soviet Union challenged Americans all over the world seem to be back. Yet sinister creaks come from a province that seemed to have been pacified by force, once and for all, and friend Erdogan, visiting Kiev, certainly doesn't make Vladimir Vladimirovich smile.
The dictatorship of the free state of… Chechnya
Chechnya returns to be talked about. The Kremlin denies that the region is "out of control", but more and more Russian human rights organizations and media complain that something troubled is happening and that President Putin's long hand in Chechnya, former rebel and now pro-Russian Islamist Kadyrov , is behaving in a way to say the least disturbing. In recent weeks in the Russian Federation - and not just in the Chechen state - dozens of relatives of Kadyrov's critics have been kidnapped, according to Amnesty International, including family members of Abubakar Yangulbayev, a lawyer for the Committee against Torture, a Russian human rights group that denounced the abuses committed by the security forces controlled by Kadyrov.
Before proceeding, let's get our hands on: we are not talking about a Western-funded NGO intent on preparing a color revolution, but about an association under Russian law, managed by Russian professionals and intellectuals, perfectly integrated and not suspected of particular activism against the Kremlin.
Well, on January 20, Yangulbayev's mother, Zarema Yangulbayeva, unmarried with the surname of Musayeva, was kidnapped from her apartment in Nizhny Novgorod, hundreds of kilometers from Chechnya, by masked men who claimed to be Chechen policemen. The following day, Kadyrov confirmed that Yangulbayeva is currently detained in Chechnya, claiming she allegedly assaulted a law enforcement officer. The Chechen leader did not mince words: he argued that it is his government's intention to take care of Yangulbayev himself, currently incarcerated in Chechnya, and that his entire family could soon find themselves "in prison or underground". In recent days, President Putin received a video message recorded by Kadyrov's critic himself, in which he urged the Russian leader to replace his trusted man with a "normal" person.
Putin did not mention the issue in public, although he was urged. His spokesman, Peskov, said on January 21 that the Kremlin had no information on the case of Musayeva and her family and, in any case, would prefer not to believe that a kidnapping had taken place. Yes, that's exactly what he said: he prefers not to believe it, so he didn't rule it out.
Erdogan and Putin: friends always at war
In addition to the bad internal Russian news, there are facts and comments from today's Turkish-Ukrainian summit: this morning, in fact, Turkish President Erdogan landed in Kiev. Far from being just a stage in the "mediation" promised to Putin in recent weeks and for which Turkey is available to be a guest, the visit was an opportunity to sign a historic free trade agreement, the the goal is to bring the trade between the two countries over ten billion dollars, but above all, according to Erdogan, to strengthen the Turkish-Ukrainian partnership "to a higher level". Turkey, he said emphatically, is a supporter of the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea, whose occupation by the Russian side has no international recognition. The meeting also offered Erdogan an opportunity to discuss the situation of the Ukrainian Tatars, largely exiled from the Russian-occupied Crimea, of which Ankara considers itself protector. Music for Kiev's ears ...
Last, but not least, the confirmation that the Turkish offensive drone Bayraktar will also be produced in Ukraine, which confirms what a senior American official said in the Financial Times in recent days.1, that is what “Despite the cordial personal ties between Erdogan and Putin, however, the two leaders have often found themselves competing rather than cooperating, especially in the realm of foreign policy. Turkish officials often point out that they supported the opposite side of the Russians in the conflicts in Syria, Libya and the Caucasus. They are very proud that they are facing Russia on the ground (in these areas) ", a US official said. "This is contradicted by the sale of the S-400, but it is also true."
These enormous geopolitical games by Erdogan, which may be pleasing or the subject of serious concern, are not in the least conditioned by the fact that Turkey depends on Russia for its exports as much and more than Italy and Germany, we add.
War of spies in the skies
While Zelenski and Erdogan shake hands, we are witnessing a harsh back-and-forth between Minsk and Kiev over the flight of the Belarusian-Ukrainian border by a drone of the latter, according to Lukashenko's government. The Ukrainian government has strongly denied this, calling it propaganda. Meanwhile, a Tupolev Tu-134AK, according to some sources equipped with ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) sensors, was tracked on Flightradar24 bound for Belarus. The last time it happened was on August 12, 2020.
When you have a friend in Warsaw ...
In the next few days, Poland's President Duda has announced that he intends to present the leader of the People's Republic Xi Jinping with a "different European perspective" on Ukraine during his trip to Beijing to participate in the Winter Olympics, his office.
Stoltenberg's word
The NATO Secretary General said the deployment of some 30.000 Russian troops to Belarus for the joint exercise on February 10-20 will be the largest of its kind since the end of the Soviet Union. He also praised the USA for the deployment of its troops in Eastern Europe as a guarantee of peace in the face of the strengthening of the Russian military device on the borders of Ukraine. Finally, he welcomed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for engaging in a more intense dialogue with NATO, at a time when "All allies agree on the importance of dialogue and strong deterrence and defense".
Russian forces here, American forces there
How many are these forces fielded by the Russians? In recent days, Kiev has counted 115.000 Russian troops deployed hammerheads around its borders. In the same hours, Moscow accused Washington of "feeding tension" in Ukraine precisely with the deployment of US forces in Eastern Europe, defined as a "destructive step." Meanwhile, in the Baltic, Latvia says it is ready and willing to host more troops from the United States, a possibility that has been discussed for a long time with the Pentagon, which Moscow would not like at all, we feel like saying.
Poka poka, RT DE
Finally, a curious Russian-German front opens up. Moscow has promised today that it will announce retaliatory measures against German media due to the ban on broadcasting Russia Today in Germany. The media had in the past been accused of echoing no vax propaganda abroad, while at home it is an apostle of the importance of vaccination.
1https://www.ft.com/content/e2b7df41-6dc6-4ed5-88e5-ab0819967138
Photo: presidency of the republic of Turkey
