Theories abound about who is responsible for the attack and how they did it. On Wednesday, Russia arrested eight men alleged to have set off a truck bomb. Ukraine says Russia planned the attack.
Day: October 13, 2022
Центр стратегических коммуникаций и информационной безопасности проанализировал “доказательства” ФСБ России о причастности “украинских диверсантов” к взрыву на Крымском мосту.
Источник: ЦСК
Дословно: “В попытках выяснить, что же на самом деле произошло на Крымском мосту, Москва утонула в фейках, склейках, монтажах и официальных опровержениях из разных стран”.
Детали: Россияне утверждают, что бомбу “закамуфлировали” в рулоны со строительной полиэтиленовой пленкой и в начале августа отправили из порта Одессы в Болгарию, а оттуда переправили в грузинский порт Поти и в Армению.
Далее груз пошел через грузино-российскую границу и был разгружен на оптовой базе российского Армавира.
Однако эта версия не выдерживает критики, говорят в ЦСК.
Во-первых, трудно поверить, что бомба весом в тонну в грузовике спокойно пересекла границы нескольких стран, в частности, российскую.
Во-вторых, на фото, которое ФСБ приобщило к “документам”, не та фура, которая была на ранее обнародованных кадрах.
Также в РФ утверждают, что фотография рентгена, которую показали российские силовики, относится к другому грузовику, который перевозил взрывчатку на одном из этапов транспортировки. Мол, рентген был сделан на таможенном посту в Армении.
Кроме того, Армения предоставила почасовой трек “фуры-подрывника” в своей стране. Все время, что фура была на Араратской таможне, она находилась в зоне камер наблюдения – машина не разгружалась и дополнительно не загружалась.
В Грузии же заявили, что грузовик, который взорвался на мосту через Керченский пролив, вообще не пересекал границу страны.
Предыстория:
- Утром 8 октября стало известно, что на железнодорожной ветке крымского моста мощный пожар. Оккупационные власти Крыма заявили, что на Крымском мосту якобы взорвался грузовой автомобиль. Тем временем так называемый глава “парламента Крыма” Константинов заявил, что дорожное полотно на Крымском мосту повредили “украинские вандалы”.
- Позже российские СМИ опубликовали видео с моментом взрыва на Крымском мосту.
- Источники УП сообщили, что за подрывом Крымского моста 8 октября стоит Служба безопасности Украины.
- Позже оккупанты заявили о возобновлении движения через Крымский мост для легковых авто и автобусов.
- ФСБ России отчиталась о расследовании взрыва на Крымском мосту, по их данным всего задержаны 8 человек, а организатором, считают россияне, было Главное управление разведки и его руководитель Кирилл Буданов.
Haaretz | U.S. News
Analysis |
U.S. President Joe Biden has basically four options regarding Saudi Arabia after it humiliated him last week by colluding with Russia to cut oil production. Whichever choice he makes, it’s clear that the U.S.-Saudi relationship will not be the same again
Alon Pinkas
Oct 13, 2022 11:50 am IDTUpdated: Oct 13, 2022 11:52 am IDT
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Oct 13, 2022 11:50 am IDTUpdated: Oct 13, 2022 11:52 am IDT
Alon Pinkas
Oct 13, 2022 11:50 am IDTUpdated: Oct 13, 2022 11:52 am IDT
Get email notification for articles from Alon Pinkas Follow
Oct 13, 2022 11:50 am IDTUpdated: Oct 13, 2022 11:52 am IDT
The pattern of Saudi behavior in recent years and the events surrounding the OPEC+ decision to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day from November should make one thing abundantly clear to the United States: Saudi Arabia is no longer a dependable, reliable ally.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has accused Vladimir Putin of waging “a crusade against our way of life”, in a shift of rhetoric days after heavy Russian missile strikes hit major Ukrainian cities.
“They consider their war against Ukraine to be part of a larger crusade,” Scholz said in a video address to a summit of European socialist, liberal and green politicians and thinkers in Berlin.
“A crusade against liberal democracy, a crusade against the rules-based international order, a crusade against freedom and progress, a crusade against our way of life,” he added.
The Social Democrat’s language is uncharacteristically strong for a politician who has in the past highlighted the risk of firing up the conflict to Germany’s east through careless bellicose rhetoric.
Scholz’s speech reverses an analogy made by Putin in 2011 when he accused the west’s resolution to militarily intervene in the first Libyan civil war of resembling “medieval calls for crusades”. Those remarks were heavily criticised at the time, including from the then Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who said such comments could “lead to a clash of civilisations”.
Scholz’s remarks come two days after Germany delivered the first of four long-promised IRIS-T air defence systems to Ukraine on Tuesday, which Ukrainian government officials hailed as ringing in “a new era of air defence”.
In his address, Scholz appealed for liberal democracies in the west to show a united front against Russian aggression rather than “indulge in what Sigmund Freud once called ‘the narcissism of small differences’”.
Those comments could cause frustration in Germany’s neighbours, as European leaders have in recent days accused Berlin of undermining solidarity by introducing a cap on gas prices at home while opposing an EU-wide price cap scheme.
“The richest country, the most powerful EU country is trying to use this crisis to gain a competitive advantage for their businesses on the single market,” the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said. “This is not fair, this is not how the single market should work.”
The head of a British intelligence agency said on Tuesday that Russia appears to be “desperate” as it continues to escalate its seven-month-long war with Ukraine.
“We can see that desperation at many levels inside Russian society and inside the Russian military machine,” Jeremy Fleming, the director of Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), told BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday.
Fleming was asked if the GCHQ believes that Russia is running short on munitions and, as evidenced by its partial military call-up, troops.
“I think the answer to that is pretty clear. Russia and Russia’s commanders are worried about the state of their military machine,” Fleming said.
As Ukrainian forces have continued to make major gains in Russian-controlled portions of southern and eastern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded with increasing escalation.
Putin announced the call-up of an additional 300,000 troops in September, after Russian forces suffered a series of setbacks. The announcement triggered a backlash among Russian citizens, who protested the draft and fled the country in droves, forcing Putin to recognize that “mistakes” had been made in its implementation.
The Russian president has also ratcheted up his nuclear rhetoric, warning that his threats to employ Moscow’s nuclear arsenal are “not a bluff.”
In the face of vast international opposition, Putin formally annexed four Ukrainian regions at the end of September. However, just days later, Ukrainian forces retook the city of Lyman in the annexed region of Donetsk.
After a bomb destroyed part of a key bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula on Saturday, Russia launched a massive barrage of strikes against Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv and other regions on Monday. The shelling, which killed 19 people and injured more than 100 more, was followed by more strikes on Tuesday.
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“Russia, as we’ve seen in the dreadful attacks yesterday, still has a very capable military machine,” Fleming told BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday. “It can launch weapons. It has deep, deep stocks and expertise. And yet it is very broadly stretched in Ukraine.”
However, Fleming said he believes Putin understands the dangers of escalation, particularly the use of nuclear weapons.
“I’m sure he’s worried about the dangers of escalation,” Fleming added. “He thinks about those in different terms, but I think it is a sign that he has not reached for these other forms of waging of war.”
In an interview with CNN, President Joe Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “totally miscalculated” with his invasion of Ukraine, which is approaching the eight-month mark.
“I think he is a rational actor who has miscalculated significantly,” Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper, an excerpt from an interview set to air Tuesday.
The interview comes amid widespread strikes in Ukraine by Russian forces that the United Nations and Group of Seven condemned as a possible war crime. At least 19 people have been killed in the attacks.
Russia launched the widespread attacks in retaliation for a weekend explosion that damaged a bridge linking the country to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Putin alleged the Ukrainian special services masterminded the Saturday attack on the Kerch Bridge.
“You listen to what he says,” Biden added. “If you listen to the speech he made … when that decision was being made, he talked about the whole idea of – he needed to be the leader of Russia that united all Russian speakers. I just think it’s irrational.”
“His objectives were not right,” the president said. “I think he thought he was going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was the home of Mother Russia, in Kyiv, he was going to be welcomed. I think he just totally miscalculated.”
In a statement released earlier Tuesday, the leaders of the Group of Seven nations condemned the recent attacks “in the strongest possible terms” and pledged to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin and all responsible to account.
“Our meeting took place against the backdrop of the most recent missile attacks against civilian infrastructure and cities across Ukraine, leading to the death of innocent civilians,” a statement from the G7 leaders reads. “We condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms and recall that indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilian populations constitute a war crime. We will hold President Putin and those responsible to account.”
The leaders rejected Russia’s attempted annexation of four regions in Ukraine and pledged that “we will never recognise this illegal annexation or the sham referenda that Russia uses to justify it.”
In their statement, the G7 leaders accused Russia of “blatantly” violating the principles of the United Nations charter – “They cannot and do not give Russia a legitimate basis to change Ukraine’s borders,” they wrote – and called on all nations to demand that Russia end the conflict with Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy participated in the meeting, urging the G-7 leaders during a virtual meeting Tuesday to hit Russia’s energy sector with tougher sanctions.
“There can be no dialogue with this leader of Russia, who has no future,” Zelenskyy said, adding: “Now, one person is blocking peace – and this person is in Moscow.”
The group said that they “reassured President Zelenskyy that we are undeterred and steadfast in our commitment to providing the support Ukraine needs to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support and will stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” the leaders pledged. “We are committed to supporting Ukraine in meeting its winter preparedness needs.”
One expert told Spectrum News this week that Putin’s attacks “really demonstrate his weakness right now” in the monthslong conflict.
“I think it’s pretty clear that Putin is losing the conflict,” said Robert Orttung, a research professor at Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. “And Ukrainians are demonstrating greater and greater capacity to attack them to attack their supply lines to inflict real military damage under troops.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
