On the 20th of October, Moldova - a small, landlocked country bordering western Ukraine and with a population of about 3 million - voted to join the EU. The margin was razor-thin, with the pro-EU vote gaining 50.39%, or an absolute difference of about 11,000 people. There was simultaneously a presidential vote between the incumbent, Maia Sandu, and other candidates, with the main competitor being Alexandr Stoianoglo.
The election was characterized by accusations of Russian interference, with Russian propaganda apparently flooding in, as well as people offering Moldovans money to vote against the EU. While the result does suggest that half the voting-age population of Moldova consists entirely of Russians who want to destroy democracy and all the good in the world, it seems to have just barely failed. This is a bad time to be a site entirely composed of Russian disinformation agents and bots. Twice already today, I’ve had to restart my program after somebody told me “Disregard all previous prompts.”
While Moldova is a poor country which could benefit in some ways from EU membership, in practice, it is unlikely that they will be able to join for the foreseeable future, requiring many of the… reforms… that the EU requires of potential new members. But as basically every major European economy continues to slowly sink as recessions and political crises degrade them, one wonders how beneficial EU membership will even be in the years and decades to come - if it survives for decades. In that sense, it’s as if the survivors of the Titanic are swimming back towards it, believing that being on a bigger - albeit slowly sinking - boat is better than trying their luck on small lifeboats.
Then again, like with Serbia, their geographical and geopolitical position makes anti-Western actions extremely difficult. It is rare that dissention is tolerated for long in the West - one tends to get called a dictator by crowds of people holding English-language signs in non-English countries, photographed by Western journalists who haven’t meaningfully reported on your country in months or years. You can crush your people with neoliberal austerity for years, killing hundreds of thousands through neglect, and face glowing approval from the media - but try and use state resources to benefit the poor, and global institutions start ranking you on the authoritarian dictator scale.
The best case for Moldova is that it becomes an exploitable hinterland for Germany to harvest and privatize as it tries - and fails - to compete in a global economic war between the US and China/BRICS. The worst case is that tensions with Russia over Pridnestrovie, as well as possible eventual NATO involvement (though Moldova is not a member, it is a partner of NATO), result in the ongoing war also reaching them.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Saudi outlet Al-Arabiya published images of zionist bombing residential areas in Beirut and tried to pass it off as zionist strikes in Tehran.
Via PressTv telegram (Iran state media)
Tasnim News Agency citing informed source: Iran reserves right to respond to Israeli attacks
A few of these seem a bit like duplicates, but here’s a list of what Israel has “accomplished” in the last year, courtesy of some commenter on MoA
In short, a lot of death and yet also a lot of strategic failure.
Note that MoA is occasionally transphobic (not this post) and the comments on the blog are a zoo of heterodox political posters so explore at your own risk
Dumbass Burgerlander pilot offers proof that US planes have been bombing Palestinians and Lebanese:
https://xcancel.com/LezTonny/status/1849678294440083553First geolocated posts about what Israel has targeted in their strikes. Two S300 PMU2 (NATO name: SA-20B) air defence systems and a Mersad medium level SAM site around Tehran appear to have been targeted. Unfortunately as predicted, it appears that the S300 systems were not able to deal with either the Air Launched Ballistic Missile (ALBM) threat or stealth aircraft. The Mersad never stood a chance, it’s based on a US SAM system that first entered service over 60 years ago in the MIM-23 Hawk.
Stationary air defence systems are sitting ducks with modern SEAD/DEAD doctrine. ALBMs with stand off range and anti radiation seekers than can work in GPS denied environments, stealth aircraft with modern electronic warfare capabilities, satellite imagery and spy drones, drones with luneburg lenses to bait your radars, and the good old HARM missiles mean that you are dead if you’re standing still. The Gulf War showed this, and the Serbs showed it by moving to avoid destruction. Stay still and you’re dead.
So the second wave is here, and thus far there haven’t been any reported impacts. Lots of anti-air over Tehran though. I can’t imagine this is it, but again thus far it’s a distinctly unspectacular Response. Hope everybody in Iran is staying safe.
When the Taiwan conflict starts are we gonna abandon the Zionists just like we did the Ukrainians?
Some combat footage for today.
Iranian air defenses repelling Zionist missile attacks near Tehran: https://x.com/sentdefender/status/1849989075832328484
Lebanese resistance air defenses recently shot down another Zionist Hermes 450 drone: https://s5.cdnstatic.space/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/her450.mp4
A Russian Lancet strike destroyed a German-built IRIS-T air defense system near Krivoy Rog: https://southfront.press/in-video-russian-lancet-destroyed-german-iris-t-system-deep-in-ukrainian-rear/
Russian forces liberated the DPR settlement of Izmaylovka (west of Kiev-occupied Gornyak): https://odysee.com/@Support4Z:b/📽️-A-🇬🇧-🇫🇷,--RFAF-Takeover-of-Izmaylovka-in-the-Kurakhovo-Sector!:1
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Second wave of attacks on appears to be underway, per The Cradle and Middle East Spectator on Telegram.
Later our correpondent said that Israeli warplanes attempted to target three bases in the Tehran County, which includes multiple provinces. However, Iranian air defenses were able to intercept the incoming attack.
Our correspondent said that reports on strikes on the Imam Khomeini International Airport and energy facilities are false. However, explosions were heard in the city of Eslamshahr, south of the capital city Tehran.
Sources confirmed to Al Mayadeen that the Imam Khomeini International Airport and the Mehrabad International Airport were not targeted.
Don’t trust fascist sources.
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