Putin has made Russia more vulnerable not stronger by invading Ukraine

Image: DALLE (AI image creator). This is a fictional depiction of the Kremlin

I asked AI the following question in a statement to see if it agreed: "Putin complained about NATO on Russia's borders and the threat it posed. That was largely an imagined threat borne out of his time with the KGB. But ironically invading Ukraine has created a much stronger NATO alliance and unified force on Russia's borders for defensive purposes but this has worked against Putin in creating a real potential threat to Russia. The invasion of Ukraine has dramatically backfired on Putin in this respect. Correct?"

This is AI's response (ChatGPT):

Your analysis is largely correct. Here’s why:

1. Putin's Perception of NATO: Putin has long viewed NATO as a strategic threat to Russia, a view deeply influenced by his KGB background and a worldview rooted in suspicion of Western intentions. He framed NATO's post-Cold War expansion as encroachment on Russia's sphere of influence, despite the defensive nature of the alliance.

2. NATO’s Strengthening Post-Ukraine Invasion: Ironically, Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which he justified in part as a response to NATO's supposed threat, has had the opposite effect of what he likely intended. It has galvanized NATO, increased its unity, and prompted historic shifts in European security policy. For example:

   • Finland and Sweden: Finland has joined NATO, significantly expanding the alliance's direct border with Russia, while Sweden's application is progressing.
   • Defense Spending: NATO countries, particularly in Europe, have increased defense budgets and reinforced their military capabilities in response to the perceived threat posed by Russia.
   • Troop Deployments: NATO has enhanced its military presence along its eastern flank, from the Baltics to the Black Sea, further solidifying its deterrence posture.

3. Strategic Backfire: Instead of diminishing NATO's presence or influence, Putin's actions have revitalized the alliance, strengthened transatlantic cooperation, and underscored the need for collective defense. This has created a more unified and robust NATO, with a greater focus on Russia as a central challenge to European security.

4. Long-Term Implications for Russia: The invasion has not only led to significant military and economic costs for Russia but has also isolated it diplomatically. Its actions have justified the very measures Putin sought to avoid, leading to a tangible, rather than perceived, NATO presence near its borders.

In summary, the invasion of Ukraine has indeed backfired for Putin, resulting in a stronger and more united NATO that poses a more substantial and real defensive challenge to Russia. This development underscores the unintended consequences of aggressive actions based on flawed strategic calculations.

How does this affect cats!? In every way. It has placed increased financial pressure on many Russian citizen which will have a negative impact at least potentially on cat welfare.

In Ukraine, many domestic cats have been killed and injured or become feral as their owners were killed by Putin's merciless and cruel bombardment of Ukrainian homes in the east.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Deluded, Christian Americans emigrate to Russia for a better family life

NEWS AND OPINION: This is an extraordinary story. But perhaps it isn't extraordinary when you consider that a lot of people don't really know what is going on in Russia. And it is reported that some middle-aged, Christian Americans with a family, have decided that Russia will be a better place to live than in America which is suffering 'moral decline'.

Deluded, Christian Americans emigrate to Russia for a better family life.

And Putin has campaigned against the West's moral decline for years. He is portrayed Russia as a country which supports family life. And clearly some Americans have picked up this information and envisage Russia as a utopian paradise where Christian values are adhered to and where families are supported. I'm talking about the conventional family. But the problem is these Americans are in my view completely deluded. They don't understand what is happening in Russia.

And they don't even mention the fact that Russia has invaded Ukraine and killed thousands of innocent civilians and hundreds of thousands of animals in an attempt to annex Ukraine because Putin thinks that Ukraine is Russian. Putin is a mass murderer. And psychopathic arguably. He shows all the signs of being a psychopath in killing dissidents and people who voice their concerns about him. Freedom of speech is entirely suppressed in Russia.

I can remember a young Russian man holding up a blank piece of white paper in Moscow and being arrested for protesting against Putin. He is probably in jail at this moment and he was arrested years ago.

A good example of a family emigrating from America to seek a better life in Russia of all places is the family of Leo Heyer. He is seen on a video published by the Russian Interior Ministry. He is praising Russia to the nines.

He says that "I feel like I've been put on an arc of safety for my family. The person I want to thank is President Vladimir Putin for allowing Russia to become a good place for families in this world climate."

He doesn't realise that Putin's government has cracked down, often violently, on its own citizens who adhere to Christian faiths other than Russian Orthodoxy. And Putin's depiction of Russia as a stronghold of traditional Christian family lifestyles is not backed up by the facts. According to The Times about one third of Russian families have been abandoned by their father. And half of all marriages end in divorce. Hardly a recommendation of family life in Russia.

The pictures we see of Russian apartment blocks looking decrepit and disgusting is hardly enticing. Is this a good place for an American family used to the 'good life'? Russia has become a war machine. I read in the news that about 8% of GDP is given over to building musicians at factories. The norm is around 2 percent. A very high percentage of the earned wealth in Russia is given over to building armaments in order to crush Ukraine. Nice country to live in. And it's bloody cold a lot of the time! 😎

A lot of welfare has accordingly diminished rapidly in Russia. Leo Heyer's family which includes three schoolchildren were granted asylum in Russia this week after fleeing "moral decline" in the US according to state media.

The Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman said that the Christian family had made the move over fears about the "abolition of traditional moral and family value" in American society. She said that the family was concerned about the future and what awaited their children. It's safer in Russia and the education is better.

All this against the backdrop of the White House accusing Moscow of seizing Americans to use as "bargaining chips" and repeatedly warning Americans against travelling to Russia!

But there is a steady trickle of Americans and I believe Canadians relocating to Russia because they've been drawn by depictions of the country as a bastion of Christian values. Putin has said that he is engaged in an existential battle with the West for the future of humanity's soul.

He believes that LGBT values are the work of Satan and they undermine the traditional family unit.

The Kremlin has outlawed the international LGBT movement.

You will find on social media some Americans and Europeans actively seeking advice on how to emigrate to Russia. They all appear to be totally ignoring the invasion of Ukraine and the moral turpitude behind this action. If a country has decided to commence an illegal and devastating war against a neighbouring country you cannot say that country is worth emigrating to. I don't understand these people.

One woman in Texas, declared on Facebook (on a group called Expats in Russia), that she was planning to escape to Russia to distance herself from "fake people, politics interjected into everything and a lack of family values". She claims that there is no such thing in Russia as racial discrimination. Misinformed and deluded I would argue.

Medvedev says that racial discrimination has been non-existent in Russia for a hundred years. And Putin has said that there is no racial or gender discrimination in Russia. No doubt these Americans are listening to these people. Putin is a known liar as is Medvedev. Medvedev wants to send in A-bomb over Britain and blow the country up.

The BBC has an article about racism in Russia. And they mention that people of colour living in Russia have told the BBC about casual discrimination that they experience on a daily basis. There are apparently tens of thousands of people of colour living in Russia including Russian-born people with mixed heritage.

They mention the story of a young man of colour, an economics student age 21. There is a video of this man being refused a taxi ride. He is left standing on the curb. In the video, published on social media, the driver can be heard saying "If I don't like a person, I won't give them a ride. It's my car."

And when this young black man asked the driver if he is racist he replies casually and confidently "Yes, of course."

You don't really expect Russia to be non-racist do you? Many people in Russia are against homosexuals and as mentioned the LGBT community and the woke movement. It's very far right in their culture. Obviously one can't generalise but the distinct impression I get from reading the news about Russia is that it is not a very tolerant society. It is not the kind of society that these Americans are going to find acceptable. Anywhere near it.

And The Times reports that "Some who hope to begin new lives in Russia appear to have little knowledge of the country."

They are not doing their research. They seem to have an ideological view of Russia because of what Putin is saying but it simply isn't the way they believe it is.

A couple who made a move from Canada this year with their eight children to get away from "LGBT ideology" found that their bank account was frozen when they got to Russia and they were disappointed in Russia and ready to "jump on a plane and get out of here". She deleted her video and apologised later. She probably did that to avoid being arrested because if anybody says anything publicly e.g. on social media against Russia when living in Russia they are likely to be arrested. And the prison sentences dished out by the courts are horrendous. The courts are not independent in Russia. They do the Kremlin's bidding. They are a political machine. Justice is not administered in Russia.

Prediction: all the families will return to the US and realise what a relatively great country it is.

Some more on anti-LGBT actions and anti-Christian actions in Russia from an AI bot:

Read this and believe that these Americans are deluded as I have stated.

Here are some examples of anti-LGBT activity in Russia:

"Gay Propaganda" Law (2013): This law prohibits the promotion of "non-traditional sexual relationships" to minors, effectively silencing LGBT advocacy and expression.

Violence and Hate Crimes: There have been numerous reports of violence against LGBT individuals, including physical assaults and killings, often motivated by hate.

Arrests and Detentions: LGBT activists and individuals have faced arbitrary arrests and detentions, particularly during pride events and other demonstrations advocating for LGBT rights.

Censorship: Media and online content related to LGBT rights or issues often face censorship, restricting visibility and discussion of LGBT topics.

Support for Conversion Therapy: Some government officials and organizations promote harmful practices like "conversion therapy," which aims to change an individual's sexual orientation.

Discrimination in Employment and Housing: LGBT people often face discrimination in various areas, including employment and housing, leading to social and economic marginalization.

These activities contribute to a hostile environment for LGBT individuals in Russia, limiting their rights and freedoms significantly.

Christians can face persecution in Russia, particularly certain groups. Here are some key points:

Religious Freedom Restrictions: While the Russian Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, there are significant restrictions, especially for non-Orthodox Christian groups.

State Support for the Orthodox Church: The Russian Orthodox Church receives preferential treatment, which can lead to discrimination against other Christian denominations.

Raids and Harassment: Religious minorities, such as Baptists and Jehovah's Witnesses, have experienced raids, harassment, and even criminal charges.

Extremism Laws: Laws against extremism are often used to target religious groups, leading to accusations against those who express beliefs outside the state-sanctioned norms.

Social Stigma: Non-Orthodox Christians may face social discrimination and hostility from the public, further complicating religious practice.

These factors contribute to a challenging environment for Christians, particularly those who do not align with the Russian Orthodox Church.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Ghostly Evan Gershkovich at Russian trial

The espionage trial of US journalist Evan Gershkovich is concluding. He looks like a ghost. He was smiling before at earlier hearings but I am pessimistic about his prospects. I am sure that he hopes that the US will do a deal and swap some Russian spies for him. That is why the Kremlin detained him on spurious charges. But he could end up in some crappy Russian hell-hole of a jail for years and see his health wane to the point where his life is in jeopardy.

Update: He was released in a prisoner exchange with the US and a number of Russians. Evan was entirely blameless I believe and the Russians imprisoned him on false charges in planning for an exchange some day. It is all crap.

The ghostly figure of Evan Gershkovich at his trial. He is fading away before our eyes. Image: ABC News.

Russian prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of 18 years for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

"Gershkovich, 32, was arrested March 29, 2023, while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. Authorities claimed, without offering any evidence, that he was gathering secret information for the U.S. He pleaded not guilty, according to the court, and The Wall Street Journal and the U.S. government have called the trial a sham." - ABC News.

Russian court has sentenced US journalist Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison, Russian news agencies report from the court in Yekaterinburg. As mentioned he could well die in a Russian prison. A lot do. He is going to start his sentence in a "high security correctional facility" which is where the judge sent him. His employer says that he was simply doing his work as a journalist. He did not admit guilt during the trial. The prosecutor asked for 18 years. It is claimed to be a sham trial for political purposes.

This is how he looks normally:

Image: DPA

Why the F did he go to Russia in the first place? His work I guess demanded it BUT change your job if you are a journalist who has to go to Russia and do some reporting. Just don't do it because you will be jeopardising your life and your death will be slow and grisly. The Russian administrators are b**t***ds.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Russian fencer uses F-word multiple times against Ukrainian opponent

This is the European Fencing Championships in Basel. Olena Kryvytska, the Ukrainian, won the bout with a score of 15:9. But in the video you can see how badly behaved the Russian was after Olena refused to salute her at the end of the bout which I presume is part of the etiquette in fencing competitions. 

Screenshot from the video.

To me it shows us how many Russians 'just don't get it'. They don't understand what is going on in the war in Ukraine thanks to Putin's incessant television propaganda and news blackouts because he terrorises independent newspapers in Russia. 

And therefore this Russian fencer competing under the Georgian flag (why!?) becomes enraged when her Ukrainian opponent - who beat her - does not do the polite thing at the end. 

And the Ukrainian fencer was correct. How could she salute and be polite to a Russian who is a citizen of  country bent on destroying Ukraine in an illegal war? This problem is the same for tennis players. Ukrainian tennis professionals have refused to shake hands with their Russian competitors at the end of the match.

There is a strong argument that all Russian athletes should be banned from all competitions during this war but I understand that they are sometimes entirely innocent and victims of Putin themselves.

Here is the video:

"F*ck, why do they act like that? F*ckers. Why the f*ck are they allowed to do anything? Have they lost their f*cking minds?" - Russian fencer Maya Guchmazova (competing under the Georgian flag) when the Ukrainian fencer Olena Kryvytska refused to salute her.

The incident took… pic.twitter.com/5FEGw3bT8f

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) June 18, 2024

Of course this has nothing to do with cats! Directly. But indirectly it has everything to do with cats and other animals. Hundreds of thousands as you probably know by now have been killed by Putin's forces. He has also killed many thousands of wild animals. It is Armageddon for animals in Ukraine thanks to that terrorist, tyrant Putin who professes to be an animal lover. We must think of the animals as well as the human victims.

The man is destroying Russia as well, in small steps compared to Ukraine where he likes to shell grandmothers with their cat companions in one-bed flats at night.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Was the Kremlin behind the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7th?

The Hamas terrorist attack on Israel October 7, 2023 has sparked a Middle East war. A war which has cooled the support by the West of Ukraine and its defence of an illegal invasion by Russia. There is no evidence that Moscow knew about the October 7 attack but it has certainly massively improved their chances of winning the Ukraine war.

What dirty deeds have been dreamt up in the Kremlin to terrorise the world?

Speculating, it either was or would have been a very clever move to work with Hamas in the Gaza Strip to organise that well documented and horrific attack which resulted in an equally horrific retaliation by Benjamin Netanyahu in effectively destroying the Gaza Strip and allegedly killing 30,000 innocent civilians as well as some of the terrorists.

But it's gone a lot wider than that which is what I think Putin would wish for because he wanted to divert attention from the Ukraine war. He wanted to divert support by America for Ukraine to supporting Israel instead. We know America supports Israel very substantially. It appears to me that America's focus has been pulled away from supporting Ukraine in providing armaments and is now firmly fixed on supporting Israel.

This has worked extremely well for Putin and it is probably fair to say that Ukraine is now losing the war in defending their country. They are in retreat. They are building defensive systems and digging in. They no longer aspire to push Putin's forces out of Ukraine. They are simply trying to defend their country and settling on the current status quo in terms of the extent of the Russian invasion. This has gradually happened since the Hamas terrorist attack.

Connection between Kremlin and Hamas

There is good evidence that Moscow has provided support to Hamas in the past. The Kremlin has had a long relationship with Hamas. The Washington Institute states that the KGB "funded, trained, advised, and equipped anti-western terrorist and militant groups in the region, including groups that saw the destruction of Israel as their primary goal."

They add that "Russian-made weapons had found their way to Hamas for years. In May 2021, senior Hamas leader Osama Hamdan gave an interview to Russia's investigative Novaya Gazeta, in which he said, "I think the Russian people should be proud they gave the oppressed peoples of the world weapons with which they can defend themselves. The weapons were sent to our region in the sixties and seventies."

The Kremlin has provided material support to Hamas according to The Washington Institute. So there's a connection between the Kremlin and Hamas and it doesn't take a great leap of imagination to believe that Putin and his cronies dreamt up a way of dissipating Western support for Ukraine which for Putin was the stumbling block to success in Ukraine.

Putin could never win the war in Ukraine as long as the West in particular America provided extensive multibillion support in terms of armaments to the Ukrainian military. This has substantially dried up. It is said that the Republicans are stopping the continuing support of Ukraine but it seems to me from a purely strategic point of view the Middle East in conflict is highly beneficial to the Kremlin.

Expanding Middle East war

The Middle East war is expanding. And will continue to expand. The current news is that a senior Iranian commander was killed in an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus (update: 2 senior Iranian generals were killed). That is the latest news and I would expect there to be an Iranian retaliation. The indications are that the Middle East may well enter into a long-term conflagration. 

Although Israel is a proxy for America and Iran does not want to enter into a war with America through Israel. This probably prevents an escalation due to Iran's substantial involvement. But...

"Tehran vows decisive response to airstrike" - The Times April 2, 2024.

"Attack threatens to escalate Middle East crisis" - The Times.

In parallel I would expect Putin to cement his land grab of the eastern part of Ukraine and in the south in order for him to have an open corridor from Russia to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. He will deem eastern Ukraine as part of Russia and settle on that.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Russian 'corpse' in body bag smoking. More Russian propaganda.

Putin lies so much I don't think he knows the difference between fact and fiction. Here's a video from Russia of a bunch or 'corpses' in black body bags with one of them dragging on a fag 😎🤢. We are not told what is happening but my imagination tells me Putin's cronies were setting up some sort of scammy propaganda news feed to further pull the wool over the eyes of naive Russian citizens (usually the died in the wool elderly who love the man). It is all Kremlin pantomime. The Kremlin is a theatre of lies.

Update! The Full Fact website claims that "The clip was filmed during the production of a music video for a Russian rapper, in at least 2020." Fine. This sounds reasonable but it does not change the fact that Putin is an inveterate liar on a gargantuan scale and is constantly involved in spreading propaganda to pull the wool over the eyes of Russian citizens.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

White Coat Waste Project stops American taxpayer funding of Putin's Cat Lab (and more)

This is a cross post. It's important. The brilliant White Coat Waste Project (WCW) are an incredibly important organisation. They work independently and they lobby the US government to change their incomprehensible ways. They call it 'madness' that Americans through their taxes fund cruel animal experiments abroad. They are correct. It is mad on several levels.

And isn't just any old foreign country. The American government has been funding through the Department of Defence (DOD) and via a disgraced Wuhan lab funder, EcoHealth Alliance, experiments on the coronavirus found in bats discovered in a mineshaft in the north of China.

RELATED: Stronger evidence that COVID-19 started at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

On my research, the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been involved in military biowarfare testing. They have connections to the military. This novel coronavirus was discovered in bats. It killed people early on and it seems that it was decided to develop it as a biowarfare agent. 

And it is now believed by many that the Covid-19 pandemic started at the Wuhan lab. And to think that via EcoHealth Alliance American taxpayers were funding this laboratory.

It is madness as WCW state. But through tireless campaigning and lobbying, WCW have achieved a very important milestone. They have convinced the US government to stop this funding.

White Coat Waste Project stops American taxpayer funding of cruel animal experiments in foreign countries. Image: WCW.

RELATED: White Coat Waste Project pressured Biden administration into defunding Russian animal experiments.

The American taxpayer was also funding cruel tests on cats in Russia for, as I understand it, military purposes. Clearly, this went under the radar from the perspective of the American public. Through WCW the ridiculousness of this funding was exposed and through tireless campaigning they have stopped it.

I received an email from WCW which states that the US House panel that funds the Department of Defence (DOD) has passed its 2024 spending bill which includes key language that WCW wanted to see in the bill and which cuts DOD funding to the Wuhan animal lab and other laboratories in China, Russia and other adversarial nations.

And the bill also cats funding for other animal experiments and virus hunting as they call it or other projects in China.

The WCW campaign documented at least 32 animal testing laboratories in Russia and China which were receiving funding from American taxpayers.

Also, following their efforts, the NIH (National Institutes of Health) has recently disqualified the Wuhan animal lab and all animal lives in Russia from taxpayer funding.

If and when the bill is passed by the full US House and becomes law later in 2023 the then statute will disqualify all labs across China and Russia from Pentagon funding as well.

WCW worked with House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Members Reps. Chris Stewart (R-UT) and Dave Joyce (R-OH) to include this important measure in the bill. They commented as follows:

Statement from Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President, White Coat Waste Project:

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to foot the bill for foreign enemies’ animal experimentation labs, and we’re proud of the progress we’re making to find, expose and defund this waste and abuse in Wuhan and beyond. If signed into law, this bill would prohibit the Pentagon from sending tax dollars to white coats in dozens of animal labs run by China, Russia and other adversarial nations. Our Worldwide Waste campaign first exposed how the DOD, NIH, USAID, and other federal agencies recklessly ship billions of tax dollars to unaccountable foreign animal labs, including how EcoHealth funneled funds to the Wuhan lab for dangerous gain-of-function animal experiments that likely caused COVID and how taxpayer unwittingly funded a Kremlin-linked lab crippling cats. The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!”

Statement from Congressman Chris Stewart (R-UT)

“Our foreign adversaries, particularly China, have proven they should not and cannot be trusted with American taxpayer dollars to conduct laboratory research and experiments. Cutting American funding to research labs in adversarial nations that pose a threat to our national security should never be a partisan issue. I’d like to thank my colleagues who have recognized the importance of this effort.”

American Blue Cat

Ever heard of the American Blue Cat? I doubt it because according to a very earlier writer about the cat breeds, Rush Shippen Huidekoper, writing in 1895 this was a name for the Russian Blue of today. 

The naming of the cat breeds can be a little bit confusing and problematic sometimes. Back in that time more than 120 years ago, this cat breed had been given many names including "Blue Cat", "Maltese Cat", "Archangel Cat", "Russian Cat", "Spanish Blue", and "Chartreuse Blue". 

Russian Blue photo copyright Helmi Flick.

RELATED: What is a blue Maltese?

Apparently, the author explained that the name "American Blue" is "probably due to the fact that the Maltese for some years has been a very favourite cat in America, and has probably been bred more carefully than any other breed of cat, so that its representatives formed a distinct type of good quality".

That is a little bit of history which may interest one or two readers. The Russian blue today is a popular cat breed from we are told the city of Archangel on the north coast of Russia (Arkhangelsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia). The blue coat sits very nicely with the fact that Archangel is a cold city by some standards.

If you are interested in reading about the Russian blue cat breed today, please click on the following link.

Cat wearing hard hat lines up with construction workers

It is said that this relaxed cat was used as a PR exercise for the annexation of Crimea by Russia. I have no idea if it's true but it is claimed on Twitter. But was it a joke? As I said, no idea. But there has to be a story behind this cat and I can't find it. You can see that the construction workers are being interviewed by a reporter from a Russian TV station. 

It doesn't really help me much except to confirm that this is probably a Russian or Crimean ginger tabby-and-white cat (male as gingers are nearly always male). And the guys look like Russians but I could be stereotyping. The cat is probably a good luck charm for the workers who adopted him. Stray cats are good at inveigling themselves into the lives of humans so they are cared for and good for them. 

The photos were probably taken in Russia or Crimea. I favour the latter. The guy on the left is wearing a hard hat that is 3 sizes too small (at least). I cannot see how it can protect him :) !

Cat wearing hard hat with construction workers. Photo: Twitter.

Cat wearing hard hat on construction site in Russia or Crimea. Photo: Twitter.

Russian MP, Vitaly Milonov, said gays should be kept in shelters like cats and sterilized

NEWS AND COMMENT: Russian MP Vitaly Milonov is vehemently anti-LBGT. He hates gay people and said that they should be confined to shelters and sterilized like shelter cats. He seems to reflect a substantial segment of Russian society which is hugely illiberal, repressive and backward thinking in respect of equality of rights and attitude towards gay people, the LBGT movement and ethnic minorities. An illiberal society is one in which freedom of thought is restricted.

Anti-LGBT+ Russian MP Vitaly Milonov. Photo in public domain.

Why should this be? It seems to me to be a throwback to the Stalin area. He didn't like gays either and the Russian government told people how to think and it seems that Putin has indoctrinated the citizens of Russia to stop thinking for themselves and to catch up with enlightened thinking. The world has changed thankfully in accepting and respecting gay people, diversity and the LBGT+ movement. Russia is living in the dark past.

The attitude of this segment of Russian society is similar to that of Britain about a hundred years ago when homosexuality was decried and seen as a mental illness. Gay people were seen as dangerous and punished. It was illegal to be gay! A mad world.

I'm thinking particularly of the amazing gay man, Alan Turing, who helped to crack the Enigma machine during the Second World War. He was played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the film Imitation Game. Alan Turing killed himself by eating an apple laced with cyanide because he was so badly persecuted by the state. That is why the Apple Computer company's symbol is an apple with a bite taken out of it.

Russian MP Vitaly Milonov, a notoriously homophobic member of the State Duma, made the comment that gay people should be kept in shelters and sterilised like cats when responding to a question from a presenter on the Russian radio station RT. The recording has been removed. He was called out by the head of Russia's Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeev, who said that Milonov was calling for people violate Russian law. It appears to be an impotent law.

Milonov also said that "Homosexuality is disgusting. Homophobia is beautiful and natural."

Obviously, what caught my eye was the way that he has equated gay people with shelter cats. An extraordinary way to describe gay people and utterly unacceptable. He is the disgusting one. Russia has a problem with this highly illiberal, right wing and ignorant attitude. Both Russia and China are bad apples.

Super pretty female all-white British Longhair kitten born March 2021

The video, photograph and the breeding is by Альбина Шконда, Moscow, Russia. A wonderfully pretty kitten. The British Longhair is less well-known than the shorthaired variant but more beautiful. I am surprised the breed is not more popular. Read more on this breed by clicking on this link.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Is this Bengal cat really pink or is this photo-editing?

I want you to tell me in a comment. I have not had a proper comment on this website for a decade!! Or that is what it feels like. I believe that this Bengal cat, bred in Penza, Russia, has a pink background colour to their coat but it is not as pink as we see despite the fact that I have photo-edited the image myself to reduce the pink tint. But if I do it more the hand and wall colour starts to look wrong.

 

Pink Bengal cat with glorious spots. Photo: Sergey Kurenkov.

Bengal cats just don't have pink coats. It's just not right. It's never been seen it before. And I'm not sure what the genetics are to produce this colour. It is entirely unnatural for a cat to have a pink coat! That's obvious because a coat is meant to provide camouflage and pink is not camouflage. In fact, it is the opposite to camouflage because browns and greens are the colours of the landscape.

Russian cat breeders tend to do some extraordinary things. They love their cats and there are quite a few cat breeders in Russia. In the West we don't get much of a chance to discuss Russian cat breeder and their cat fancy. I think we are missing out.

Another nice thing about this cat is the brown doughnut spots are a kind of rusty-brown which integrates well into the pink background. However, I wonder whether this rusty-brown appearance is because the image is photo-edited slightly pink.

If there is any genuineness about the pinkness of this Bengal cat then I would have to say that this is a unique cat, in which case there should be a lot of people talking about it but there are not. The picture comes from a Facebook page concerning the breeding of cats, the members of which are breeders and a lot of them are from Russia or Russian satellite states as I understand it.

CLICK FOR SOME PAGES ON THE BENGAL CAT COAT

Mother who treated her daughter as a cat

The child, Datse, who acted like a cat. Photo: Ministry of the Interior.

This is a story from Russia, specifically a town 80 miles north of Moscow called Taldom. A girl, Datse, aged six was living with an adult man and woman. It is believed that the woman is the child's mother. The mother appears to be obsessed with neo-Nazi ideology. There are pictures of her performing the Nazi salute. All three lived in a disgusting and filthy apartment with 19 domestic cats.

 Mother who treated her daughter as a cat. Photo: East2West

The child apparently moved around the apartment on all fours, responded to the call "kitty kitty" and ate cat food. She has an older sister aged 12 who can't remember going to school. She had difficulty walking and doesn't know how to speak properly.

The girl looks as if she is about three years old, half her real age. It appears that the police stumbled upon this disastrous scene when they spotted what they believed was a suspicious man. When the man saw the police he tried to hide from them and entered a house located in Saltykov-Shchedrin Street. The police followed him into the house where they discovered the distressing scene.

 Mother who treated her daughter as a cat. Photo: Ministry of Internal Affairs

The man apparently was born in 1955 and the woman was born in 1986. Both girls were taken to hospital for health checks. The older girl has been taken into care. When the younger girl was found she was naked and emaciated. 

Comment: the story is not as extraordinary as it seems. Every now and then these sorts of bizarre stories pop-up of families allowing themselves to generate into chaos. They give up. They totally lose any attempt to maintain standards. The problem is that the vulnerable members of the family, the children and no doubt the cats as well, are the ones who suffer. I hope the cats are rehomed but I would be very surprised that they are or have been. There should be criminal prosecutions for child neglect but as this is Russia I'd doubt it will happen.

Although we should be slow to criticise. We don't know the history of backstory. Why did it happen? There must be an underlying reason. Perhaps the mother's parents indoctrinated her into Nazi obssessiveness and traumatised her.

This is also a case of cat hoarding but that is a secondary issue sadly.

Source: The Sun. There are no pictures of the child except for the pixelated one on this page which I presume was taken after she was rescued from her hell.

Cat revived from near-death by firefighter in Volgograd, Russia

This is a video that I missed when it was first aired on February 28, 2018. It is a dramatic cat rescue and it is quite hard to watch because the cat is clearly near the point of death having been pulled out of what appears to be an apartment fire which killed three people.

 Cat revived from near-death by firefighter in Volgograd, Russia. Screenshot.

The cat appears to have been poisoned by inhaling smoke. We don't know whether the cat also suffered from heat exposure. Both smoke and heat can have long-term effects upon the health of an animal or a person.

We know that firefighters can suffer from heart attacks due to constant exposure to heat and of course we all know that people can die of suffocation in fires because of the smoke and fumes. Therefore, this cat's rescue is quite special. It is also nice to see firefighters attempting, often times successfully, to rescue companion animals from fires.

In these acts they are treating companion animals on an equal footing to human beings. Both are being rescued from a life threatening situation. The dedication to rescuing animals is the equal of the effort and dedication required to rescue the people. This is something that we should all strive for and which pleases me no end.

What is dramatic and harder look at is how the cat is near death and the firefighter administers heart massage, referred to as CPR, because it in addition to the heart massage he forces oxygen down the cat's throat. He does not use one of those special masks but does the best that he can with what equipment he has.

The cat revives but at one stage you think he's going to pass away. You can see this moment etched on his face. It's that close. He is on the cusp of life and death. He falls on the side of life. His owner is distraught. She is distressed and relieved at the same time. Starkly contrasting and conflicting emotions swill around her head.At the end, the cat looks noticeably better but the long-term prognosis might not be good. 

What of the smoke and carbon particles inside the cat's lungs. Will that cause health problems in the future? What would a veterinarian provide as a prognosis for this cat? And the heat may have damaged his heart as it does the heart of firefighters.

It's great to see his survival but I fear for his longevity.

Cat thrown away in Russia saved from a waste processing plant

This video, in a tweet on the Twitter.com website, shows us a Russian waste processing plant worker removing a tuxedo cat from a sack inside a box next to a fast moving conveyor belt on which there is a ton of waste products being conveyed to a device which probably crushes it. 

If the worker in the video had decided to throw the sack onto the conveyor belt the cat would have been killed in minutes. So this man has been praised for rescuing this cat. The cat was apparently healthy and has been checked out by a veterinarian. The cat has also been taken to the ministry in charge of waste in Russia where he will be looked after by the employees and I would hope live out the rest of his life safely. 

The minister in charge has praised the employee who saved the cat and in a commonsense way advised that if people don't want to keep their cat they can take the animal to a shelter rather than putting them into a bag and throwing a bag on the rubbish dump. Common sense indeed but it takes a particularly callous person to do it.

Кота в завязанном мешке обнаружили на мусоросортировочном комплексе по обработке ТКО в Ульяновске. Он мог бы попасть в сепаратор, если бы не бдительность одного из работников.

Видео: vk/gorkomhoz73 pic.twitter.com/HO2ExUJpEn

— ТАСС (@tass_agency) December 22, 2020

This sort of human behaviour is not confined, obviously, to Russia. It happens everywhere on the planet and is a wanton example of animal abuse. To treat a sentient being as an item of rubbish is psychopathic behaviour. But you might be surprised how often it happens. There are countless examples on the Internet of domestic cats being abandoned deep in the countryside in cat carriers which are locked, incidentally, where they die of starvation. Or kittens are thrown out of car windows when crossing a busy junction. The chances of the kitten surviving under those circumstances are remote but some remarkably do. And there are some equally remarkable rescues from busy roads by decent people and sometimes police officers. They rescue the cats at a genuine danager to themselves.

Translation of the tweet: "A cat in a tied sack was found at a waste sorting complex for MSW processing in Ulyanovsk. He could have got into the separator, if not for the vigilance of one of the workers."

The best thing about this Russian cat rescue is that we have it on video, I suppose because the facility has inbuilt security cameras which record everything. The bloke who took the cat out of the sack was obliged to do it under the terms of his employment so it was not a deliberate act of cat rescue. He was just looking for certain objects which cannot be placed on the conveyor belt. He, therefore, had to open the sack to see what was inside. Tuxedo cats are black cats with a small white areas on the front, on their chest. They may have white paws but by and large they are wholly black cats with small areas of white caused by the piebald gene.

Were recent terrorist bombs in America organised by Russia's foreign military intelligence agency?

There has been a spate of terrorist activity in America, most recently the pressure cooker bomb exploding in New York City's Chelsea district wounding 29 people.

Law enforcement is trying to find out who is behind it and the reason for it. It occurred to me that the reason for it could be to ensure that Donald Trump becomes the next president of the United States of America. If that is the reason and it might sound far-fetched then the organisation behind these bombs could be Russian intelligence as directed by Vladimir Putin. This is because Putin believes that if Donald Trump becomes president there will be a rapprochement between the two nations which will lead to the lifting of financial sanctions against Russia.

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Sorry for temporarily putting on hold posts about cats. I only do this very rarely.

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Russia is in dire need of financial assistance. They are burning through their reserves very quickly. There is no likelihood of a price rise in oil in the near or medium-term future. Russia is dependent upon all revenues for its balance of payments. There is increased poverty in Russia. Putin remains popular but his popularity is waning due to the financial crisis.

Donald Trump has made it known to the world that he admires Putin. They could readily enter into a dialogue on the lifting of sanctions and even the acceptance by America of Russia's invasion of Crimea.

The Russian state has a history of criminal activity including assassinations and murders in other countries and in Russia. Dissidents who emigrate from Russia and settle in other countries such the UK sometimes end up dead at the hands of highly skilled assassins employed by Russia's foreign military intelligence main agency which is commonly called the GRU.

I'm simply putting out this suggestion as an idea because law enforcement in America is struggling to find the reason for the recent bombings. The likely suspect would be Muslim extremists inspired by ISIS but bearing in mind the imminent election of the new president of the USA in 49 days it is timely to create chaos with terrorism in order to make Donald Trump more popular and therefore more likely to win because he has consistently presented to his supporters a hard line towards law and order, immigration and terrorism.

Only recently, in fact shortly after the New York pressure cooker bomb, he said that terrorism must stop giving a clear signal that if he became president he would do all could to heighten and make more rigourous the fight against terrorism in United States of America.

Terrorism now will make it more likely that Donald Trump makes it to the White House and Putin wants him there.

Siamese Miniature Cat

The Toybob is a Siamese miniature cat with a short tail. The short tail for a cat is called a "bobtail". This very rare cat breed originates in Russia. Miniature cats are rare anyway so is particularly rare to see a Siamese cat with a bobtail which is also a very small cat. This cat breed ranges in weight from 2-5 pounds fully grown.

Annie - photo by Giselle who lives with Annie.

 Annie the cat in the photograph is about 4 pounds in weight.  This qualifies Annie as a miniature cat.

You can read more about this cat breed on this page.