Z Ukrainy płyną kolejne sygnały o narastającym kryzysie politycznym, który mogłoby rozładować pozbawienie wpływów Andrija Jermaka, człowieka pełniącego funkcję szefa biura prezydenta, uważanego za szarą eminencję Bankowej i głównego decydenta w kluczowych obszarach polityki ukraińskiej.
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Poland is building billions worth of fences on its borders with Belarus and Russia, and politicians shamelessly justify this spending by fighting agents and infiltrating foreign intelligence. These are arguments in the spirit of "the dark people will buy it," because fear is more than political gold, it's the holy grail of populists of all sorts, including those masquerading as liberals. Not that I adore General Cuckoo, but his foolish words in which he fantasized about war with Russia are not new in our public discourse, after all. After all, the current prime minister has made the slogan "pre-war" his main fuel for politics, at home and abroad.
As another moral boost, the media and politicians recently tried to spin an affair around the two thousand visas issued to Russian citizens already after the full-scale aggression against Ukraine. Such figures were found in a report by the Supreme Audit Office, which investigated visa procedures at the Foreign Ministry under the United Right.
Listen to the "Eastern Bloc" podcast:.
https://open.spotify.com/show/4R0FjS5t23AQ7Zxtzfxbjx?si=3ab3822ff207433a
What surprised me at most is that anyone is really surprised that Poland issued visas to Russians. People of the likes of Blaszczak and Kaminski tried to sell us the fiction of closed fortified borders, and this version was seamlessly adopted by Kosiniak-Kamysz, Tusk and Siemoniak after them. But the truth is that these borders are closed only to people with different skin color. Migration from Russia or Belarus was readily accepted by Poland, and there was not even a need for a public debate on the subject.
So we live in Poland in several, sometimes contradictory, fictions. And the world is often simpler, especially the digital world. Belarus' Nasha Niva describes how Belarusian services operate abroad. All it takes is Telegram, where Belarusian diasporas and organizations operating in exile organize themselves in groups and chat rooms. All you have to do is join them and siphon propaganda quietly, or, like Serevan "Sergei" - post an ad in them about the possibility of making money.
As it happened, he was looking for those willing to do a one-time paid assignment, for example, on the eve of the Belarusian Day of the Will, celebrated by Belarusians in exile and banned at home, which falls in March. There was a need to take some photos and videos of the commemorative events and demonstrations.
"Sergei's" are more numerous and bear different names. A certain "Alex" focused on the Belarusian community in Lithuania. He became active in the chat rooms of the diaspora there, for example, before the attack on the Belarusian store Kropka. On its facade in July of this year, unknown perpetrators wrote in Lithuanian: "Go home, Belarusian pigs."
We've watched the James Bond movies, we're enthralled by Tom Cruise as Etan Hunt (#many of us are enthralled and I'm not ashamed of it), more than a few of us have probably watched all the seasons of the The American Job series. But clandestine missions by foreign, hostile intelligence services are not just about spectacular explosions, cliff dangles and multiplied identities. Today, Russian and Belarusian services simply recruit people online, and they may be people who would never have thought of working for the KGB or FSB, and went into exile with pure intentions.
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/granicyzacji-ciag-dalszy-szmydt-zdradzil-nas-zabetonuja/
The emigrant plight is not a sweet one, so you can always catch someone who is in crisis and just happens to need those few extra hundred for two hours of work on the weekend and sending photos, for example, from the parking lot of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry. There is no longer a need for agents trained for years, no need for long-term recruitment. Today, simple digital applications and gig-economy, the "trickle-down economy" treated as the norm are enough to make a person a spy.
This is a major challenge for counterintelligence agencies and for the diasporas themselves, who are well aware of them, by the way. But that doesn't mean at all that if we cordon ourselves off with fences and build extensive fortifications, we'll have peace of mind. Building social resilience to threats is neither about building barriers - more imagined than real - nor about scaring people into war.
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In the "Russia bans everything" series, the authorities have just taken aim at quadrobing. It's an interesting hobby that combines fun and physical activity, involving moving around on four "paws" and imitating the movements of animals.
In the case of children, teenagers, but also avid quadrobers in adulthood, this includes styling - a headband in the shape of animal ears, a mask or painted face and tails pinned you know where. In Russia, quadrobing is causing unrest, and those who practice it are becoming targets of harassment, organized heckling and even open aggression.
The Russian State Duma has decided to come to the aid of the aggressors, and is already working on a piece of legislation that would simply ban quadrobing. Especially since politicians saw it as a dangerous ideology and hostile propaganda, aimed mainly at children and young people. Now deputies are considering what sanctions to apply. Among the proposals was even criminal liability imposed on parents whose children attach cat ears to jump on four paws.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SF4mExZNhE
The deputy chairman of the Proud Education Committee, Jana Lantratova, believes that punishment is needed for promoting quadrobing in the media, videos and the Internet. She considers the new hobby, which is growing into a youth subculture, a serious problem, because, according to her, "some teenagers refuse to take off their masks for days, bark at classes and even bite classmates, and fix themselves in elevators and stairwells" (Russian independent media have not established such cases). Together with experts, the deputy plans to explain "who is introducing the fashion for degenerate behavior and why."
Quadrobing has even grown into an international issue. During a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States on October 8, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asked a delegation from Armenia whether they also have a problem with quadrobers there. Undoubtedly, this is the number one topic, especially for Armenia, which is licking its wounds after losing the war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
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The editors of Ukrayinska Pravda, a major news and opinion portal, decided on Wednesday, October 9, to publish a statement referring to systemic pressure on editors and journalists by the Ukrainian president's office. "We would like to draw the attention of our colleagues, partners and international organizations to the constant and systematic pressure exerted by the Office of the President on the editors and individual journalists of Ukrayinska Pravda. We would like to remind you that the values of Ukrayinska Pravda since its founding in 2000 have been editorial independence, objectivity and the ability to freely proclaim the truth," the editors write, and go on to list the actions of people from the President's entourage and the President himself that are striking at the magazine's work.
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/multimedia/podcast/ukraina-musi-dbac-o-polityke-historyczna-a-nie-chowac-glowe-w-piasek/
Indeed, officials from the president's office were said to have been banned from talking to Ukrayinska Pravda journalists. Pressure is also being put on advertisers to drop their cooperation with the portal. The text also recalls the confrontation between Zelensky and UP journalist Roman Kravets that occurred during a press conference in August. During the public forum, the president reacted nervously to a question about people on his team. In the process, Zelenski accused the entire editorial staff of being biased and working on commission (he did not specify whose).
This situation is another sign of the growing political crisis in Ukraine, which could be defused by removing the influence of Andriy Yermak, the man who serves as head of the President's office, considered the gray eminence of Bankova and the main decision-maker in key areas of Ukrainian politics. Yermak's personality has been a source of much internal tension in Ukraine, and there have long been claims in the public debate that he has concentrated too much power in his hands, and that the methods he resorts to have little to do with transparency and democracy. Political frustration is exacerbated by the lack of elections, which cannot take place as long as martial law is in effect in Ukraine.
However, there is no indication that Zelenski is ready to take decisive steps to clear the atmosphere.
