One of the objectives of the Russian Intelligence Services’ hypothetical involvement in the #Idahomurders (GS) may be the displacement of the Public attention and the media coverage from the #Russia – #Ukraine War onto the US domestic issues and problems. thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2022/12/one-of…

#homophobia

#Putin-#Russia’s sick obsession with homophobia acquiring ideological-cosmic-idiotic dimensions under Putin, while it is not an issue now in the most European countries; points to the deeply rooted, unexplored yet but very clear (Semi-)Fascism thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2022/12/putin-…

German authorities on Wednesday detained 25 members and supporters of a far-right group that the prosecutor’s office said were preparing a violent overthrow of the state, with some members suspected of plotting an armed attack on the parliament.

One active soldier and several reservists are among those being investigated, a spokesperson for the military intelligence service told Reuters. The active soldier is a member of the Special Forces Command, it said.

A former parliamentary lawmaker from the far-right Alternative For Germany (AfD) who serves as a judge in Berlin was also among those detained, along with a former member of a German royal family.

Investigators suspect individual members of the group had concrete plans to storm the Bundestag lower house of parliament in Berlin with a small armed group, the prosecutor’s office said.

One of the suspects, identified as Heinrich XIII P. R. under Germany’s privacy law, had reached out to representatives of Russia, whom the group saw as its central contact for establishing its new order, the office said. It said there was no evidence the representatives had reacted positively to the request.

Heinrich, who comes from the royal House of Reuss, which had ruled over parts of eastern Germany, was seen as the designated leader in the group’s future state while another suspect, Ruediger v. P., was the head of the military arm, the office said.

The House of Reuss had previously distanced itself from Heinrich, calling him a confused man who pursued conspiracy theories, according to local media. The house did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Prosecutors said the raids were conducted by more than 3,000 police officials and security forces across 11 German federal states. Suspects were arrested in the German states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Thuringia as well as in Austria and Italy, said the office.

The suspects are accused of preparing, since the end of November 2021 at the latest, to carry out actions based on their ideology, according to the office. These actions include procuring equipment, recruiting new members and holding shooting lessons, it added.

The focus of the recruitment efforts were primarily members of the military and police officers, the office said.

The group was aware its plan would involve deaths, the office said, adding that its members considered this scenario to be a “necessary intermediate step” towards overarching system change.

The group’s ideology is in the same vein as the far-right Reichsbuerger movement and QAnon conspiracy theorists who share the deep conviction that Germany is ruled by a “Deep State”, the office. It did not name the suspected group.

Members of the Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Reich) do not recognise modern-day Germany as a legitimate state, and insist the former, far larger “Deutsche Reich” still exists despite Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War Two.

The BAMAD said it had worked with the prosecutors on their investigation and shared information with the domestic intelligence service and federal criminal investigators in the run up to Wednesday’s raids.

The detained suspects will appear before a judge at the Federal Court of Justice on Wednesday and Thursday who will issue the arrest warrants and decide on their pre-trial detention.

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 Michael Novakhov @mikenov

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The post Wife, Mother, Councilor, Patriot: How Zhenya Kuleba Parlays Her Access – Kyiv Post appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.

Everybody knows the name of Dmytro Kuleba, the young and flamboyant Foreign Minister of Ukraine. In an exclusive interview, Kyiv Post talks to his wife, Zhenya.

Between her work as a Kyiv councilor and with a humanitarian foundation called Garden City, Zhenya Kuleba has been ranked by Focus magazine as the 44th most prominent woman in Ukraine. Like everyone in Ukraine, the full-scale war by Russia has had a huge impact on her family.

“We will celebrate Christmas and New Year at home this year,” says Zhenya Kuleba defiantly. “For us Christmas and New Year is a symbol that they cannot break us. Even if they are bombing, killing us, we still have a place for celebration, a place for family and a place for a peaceful life.”

Her kids, Yehor, 16, and Luba, 11, have no doubts about celebrating Christmas. Yevheniia, who prefers me to call her by her shortened name Zhenya, confesses that this year’s festive celebrations will not be like last year’s.

The Kyiv councilor for Shevchenkivsky District, who represents the Servant of the People party, believes there will not be huge celebrations at Sophia’s Square with a big Christmas tree and people drinking mulled wine as in past years.

But Putin’s Russia will not be spoiling her party. Zhenya will be celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25 (according to the Gregorian calendar), and not on Jan. 7 (the Julian calendar), like most Ukrainians normally do. She outlines her reasoning. “We have to be connected to Europe, so even in this field of strong tradition, we are trying to be closer to Europe and to switch our celebrations to December.

With snow and ice already appearing on the streets of Kyiv, the 41-year-old councilor is making sure residents will be able to deal with the harsh winter conditions and anything else Putin throws at them, by establishing emergency shelters called “points of invincibility.” These are places where Kyivites can stay warm up, enjoy a hot drink, and recharge their mobile phones and laptops.

Zhenya says President Zelensky was justified in his recent spat with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. “He started to prepare these emergency centers, but he was doing it so slowly, that when the missile attacks on Nov. 23 happened, we were not prepared.”

She adds: “During that weekend members of the city council tried to visit the 400 centers and found many of them closed because they didn’t have generators. The funny thing is the war has been going on for nine months and we were not prepared. We should have predicted Russia would leave us without light and water.”

Family life and relationships can sometimes be difficult in normal conditions, but in wartime they can be amplified. On February 24, the day of the full-scale invasion, Zhenya was on vacation with her daughter Luba in Egypt, while her son Yehor was in Kyiv.

Being looked after by grandparents, she knew he was safe, but she got him out of the country and they were back in Kyiv by the beginning of May. As a councilor, Zhenya knew she was needed in Kyiv. But what made her feel proud was that her kids had decided to return and support her rather than stay on in Europe.

“The kids wanted to be with me and felt more connected to Ukraine than ever before. They felt more patriotic than prior the war,” she says.

Zhenya feels sorry for those whose education has been disrupted by the war. “They can’t attend school normally,” she says. “As soon as they get there the sirens go off. They go to the shelter and can’t have proper classes. For most kids they don’t go to school for knowledge, but to see friends and have conversations and try to get a normal life.”

Giving them a “normal life” is not easy and can be quite challenging.

“For the first time during the war my daughter asked me if she could invite her friends to stay overnight. It was scary because not only was I responsible for my own kids but other peoples’. I allowed it to happen and for them it was something really important because it felt like a part of peaceful life had returned.”

As well as looking after her family and Kyivites in her day job, Zhenya is also reaching out with humanitarian help to parts of eastern Ukraine with her NGO Garden City. “We used to do work in Luhansk and Donetsk oblast alone. I know people in these regions and we help them a lot.

“Now I am organizing a series of evacuation trips for the people from Slovyansk and other cities in the Donetsk region. We have partners in France, and they provide them with half a year place to stay, food and even a small amount of money to live on.”

Despite her straight-talking, another side of Zhenya is revealed when I ask her how she copes in this war situation. Is it something you can get used to? She tells me about a two-day-old baby killed by a Russian missile strike on a hospital’s maternity ward.

“When I heard about this I was crying half the day,” she says. “My friends are dying, people I know are dying. Every time it is a tragedy. Most Ukrainians believe in God and it is easier to go through the war believing in God.”

Although Zhenya is a native of Kyiv, she reveals that her parents are Russian speakers, because they are from the Russified generation. Nevertheless, she always speaks Ukrainian with her family – husband Dmytro and kids. “It was our personal decision. Kyiv has switched to Ukrainian, as well as parts of eastern Ukraine.”

She tells me that some people believe that no matter what language you speak, you can still be patriotic and defend your country. She reminds me there are people who are fighting in this war on our side who speak Russian.

Zhenya says she had friends in Russia before, but those contacts were severed in 2014, not Feb. 24, 2022. “For us we already knew that our neighbor was our enemy.”

“At the beginning of the war, even the President tried to address Russians. A lot of Ukrainians were writing to different Russian groups, trying to explain what was happening in Ukraine,” she says. “But then they stopped because we understood as a nation that we were wasting our time.”

I ask her how long this war will last. “People in Ukraine are ready to suffer as much as they need to liberate our territory and to stop this genocide. It is not something new for Ukraine.

“We always remember the Holodomor [the artificial famine of 1932-33] when they wanted to destroy our people, our nation, our country. For us it is not a new experience. Russia only brings us suffering and death – nothing good.”

Zhenya holds the opinion that Kyiv is now more dangerous due to more missile strikes than during the beginning of the war. “Although we had Russians very close, Bucha, Irpin and Borodyanka, we had electricity, water and everything,” she says. “They didn’t bomb Kyiv heavily. Now Kyiv is full of people, we have a lot of traffic jams, most people have come back home, and Kyiv looks like the city before the war.”

If there is any light relief in this interview it is that Zhenya introduces me to the family’s two dogs. Gustav is a five-year-old Jack Russell Terrier and Benjamin, a one-year-old Toy Poodle.

I ask if either of her pets have met Patron, the famous dog that sniffs out deadly mines. The expected answer is no, with a giggle, but before the war Zhenya acknowledges that people used to say Gustav was like the dog from the film Milo From The Mask, but now everyone thinks of him as Patron.

Zhenya doesn’t have contact with the President, but has access to members of the Ukrainian Parliament as a Member of the Servant of the People, and those from other parties as they have a shared common goal. But then there’s one person who can find time to see her and the children – her dashing husband, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

The post Wife, Mother, Councilor, Patriot: How Zhenya Kuleba Parlays Her Access appeared first on Kyiv Post.

 Michael Novakhov @mikenov

A suspected Islamist militant, angered by Indonesia’s new criminal code, killed one other person and wounded at least 10 in a suicide bomb attack at a police station in the city of Bandung on Wednesday, authorities said.

The suicide bomber was believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State-inspired group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) and had previously been jailed on terrorism charges, Indonesian police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo told a news conference.

The police chief said the attacker, identified as Agus Sujatno, was released in late 2021 and investigators had found dozens of documents protesting the country’s controversial new criminal code at the crime scene.

“We found dozens of papers protesting the newly ratified criminal code,” he said.

Though there are sharia-based provisions in the new criminal code ratified by parliament on Tuesday, Islamist hardliners could have been angered by other articles that could be used to crackdown on the propagation of extremist ideologies, analysts say.

West Java police chief Suntana earlier told Metro TV that authorities had found a blue motorbike at the scene, which they believed was used by the attacker.

Attached to the bike was a note carrying a message decrying the new criminal code as “an infidel product,” Suntana said.

Todd Elliott, a senior security analyst at Concord Consulting in Jakarta, said it was likely the attack had been planned for some time and was an ideological rejection of the country’s new laws.

“While all the attention is on some of these sharia-based provisions in the criminal code and how that is an indication of the spread of conservative Islam in Indonesia, there are also changes in the criminal code that hardliners would not support,” he said.

“Including outlawing any ideology that goes against the state ideology, Pancasila, and that would also include extremist ideology.”

Video footage from the scene of Wednesday’s attack showed smoke rising from the damaged police station, with debris n the ground.

“Suddenly I heard the sound of an explosion… I saw a few police officers come out from the station and they couldn’t walk properly,” Hanes, a 21-year-old street vendor who witnessed the explosion told Reuters.

Islamist militants have in recent years carried out attacks in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, including at churches, police stations and venues frequented by foreigners.

Members of JAD were responsible for a series of suicide church bombings in the city of Surabaya in 2018. Those attacks were perpetrated by three families, who also attached suicide vests to their young children, and killed at least 30 people.

In 2021, a pair of JAD newlyweds carried out a suicide bomb attack at a cathedral in Makassar, killing only themselves.

In an effort to crack down on militants, Indonesia created a tough new anti-terrorism law after suicide bombings linked to JAD.

The group, which is now largely splintered, has been significantly weakened by a wave of arrests by the counterterrorism agency in recent years, analysts say.

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