VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 (@VelvetBlade) header
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Writer of written things. Visual biographer of stick figures. Analyst. Activist. Digital Gardener. On BlueSky.

Joined May 2019
Photo by VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 (@VelvetBlade)Photo by VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 (@VelvetBlade)Photo by VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 (@VelvetBlade)Photo by VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 (@VelvetBlade)Photo by VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 (@VelvetBlade)Photo by VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 (@VelvetBlade)Photo by VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 (@VelvetBlade)Photo by VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 (@VelvetBlade)Photo by VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 (@VelvetBlade)Photo by VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 (@VelvetBlade)
VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 retweeted
Today @cpartisans and SilentCrow took down Russia's Federal State Statistics Service — the nerve center behind every socioeconomic number this regime produces. Full breakdown below 👇
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VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 retweeted
Hahahaha. “Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil infrastructure have been greeted with a ‘shrug’ in Washington, according to a U.S. official who spoke to the Kyiv Independent. Another figure close to the administration told the Kyiv Independent that much of the administration's rhetoric around Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure was aimed at a domestic audience, pointing out that the CIA was still supplying Ukraine with intelligence on Russian air defense dispositions that helped facilitate Ukraine's deep-strike campaign.” kyivindependent.com/ukraine-…
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VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 retweeted
This map shows quite clearly what the Russians had in mind in terms of a successful conquest of Ukraine: annexation of about 40% of the country and subordination of the rest. It's from a leaked presentation of May 2022, circulated by the closely Putin-linked oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, describing the absorption of southern and eastern Ukraine into Russia and the systematic redistribution of its ports and industries among Russian oligarchs. Russia seems to have intended to seize most of the industrialised areas of Ukraine, leaving the less valuable (and more Ukrainian-speaking) rural and agricultural regions under the control of a rump, landlocked Ukrainian state governed by a pro-Moscow regime. It's safe to assume that Russia would also have taken over Moldova at some point.
Actually quite curious what a 100% successful Russian invasion of Ukraine would’ve looked like; IE would they have even bothered with occupying western Ukraine
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VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 retweeted
"Putin will wage war. I don’t know when, but he will. And you, Europeans, will be surprised to discover that this war is aimed at you, too... You think that what is happening in Moscow has nothing to do with you—that it’s our problem. Putin hates people like me, certainly. But through us—in Russia, or through the revolutionaries in Ukraine or Georgia—it is you he hates: your democracy, your society, your freedoms. Do you think his regime is merely a threat to us? Your awakening will be brutal." Anna Politkovskaya, in Paris, 2005. She was assassinated in the lobby of her apartment building on October 7, 2006—Putin’s birthday.
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Russian forces have begun taking civilians from occupied Oleshky to Russia, apparently disregarding previously announced agreements governing the operation. The operations are being conducted by the Russian military, without American representatives or teams from either side’s ombudsman office present. Russia’s state news agency TASS is openly filming the operation. There is no indication that civilians are being given a choice of where they wish to go. No buses or other vehicles designated to transport evacuees to Ukrainian-controlled territory are visible. The operation raises serious concerns that Russia is once again exploiting a humanitarian evacuation to forcibly transfer Ukrainian civilians. The parallels with the evacuation of Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant are disturbing. Once again, Moscow appears to be disregarding agreed procedures while controlling the fate of Ukrainian civilians.
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‼️Oha. - Ganz so "irrelevant" scheint das AfD-Leak wohl doch nicht zu sein. - ZDF heue Exklusiv: "Regelmäßig haben Mitarbeiter des Abgeordneten als "VS-NfD" ("Verschlusssache - Nur für den Dienstgebrauch") eingestufte Dokumente an Frohnmaiers private AOL-Mailadresse weitergeleitet. Darunter waren viele Papiere mit Russland-Bezug: etwa Dossiers zur OSZE-Konferenz in Berlin im Juli 2018, Protokolle des Auswärtigen Amtes zu Ukraine-Verhandlungen, der Lage im syrischen Bürgerkrieg oder zum von Russland verübten Skripal-Giftanschlag im März 2018 in Großbritannien. Private Mailkonten für Verschlusssachen: Streng verboten Dutzendfach leitete sein Büro auch die eingestuften wöchentlichen Unterrichtungen des Bundesverteidigungsministeriums zur Sicherheitslage bei Auslandseinsätzen der Bundeswehr ans private Konto weiter." zdfheute.de/politik/deutschl…
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VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 retweeted
Another mass surrender of Russian forces near Kupiansk - resulting from Ukraine's ongoing operations clearing out old soviet gas pipeline networks. This is the town Putin claimed only 45 days ago Russia had "liberated".
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VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 retweeted
🇪🇪 ✊ Estonian Prime Minister refuses to tone down his rhetoric toward Russians: “I’m not going to hold back” “Putin is a dictator who kills women and children. And he will continue to do so until he is forced to change course,” Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said. Speaking to Delfi, he said he had received no direct requests from the US to soften his rhetoric. The politician added: “Appeasing dictators only leads to humiliation, and freedom will ultimately be lost anyway.”
🇺🇸 The US has urged the Baltic states to “keep it down” and stop making harsh statements about Russia. Wait, what? Reuters reports, citing sources, that US officials have approached Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in recent weeks. Washington believes that strong rhetoric about the Russian threat could escalate tensions and undermine European security. Among the remarks that reportedly caught Washington's attention was a claim by European leaders that Russia has been “cornered like a rat” by its war against Ukraine and is resorting to increasingly desperate measures. Apparently, they've been asked not to say things like that anymore.
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VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 retweeted
Stanford University student Elsa Johnson became a target of the Chinese Communist Party in 2024. Elsa attended a private school as a child with a heavy focus on foreign languages and became fluent in Mandarin Chinese while still in elementary school. Years later after she was accepted to Stanford, she studied international relations and researched Chinese industry and military tactics while working at the Hoover Institution on campus. She soon came to the attention of members of the Chinese Communist Party, which has a heavy presence at Stanford and throughout Southern California. There are currently more than 1,000 Chinese students attending Stanford each year, and the university has received more than $64,000,000 in private donations from Chinese individuals and organizations since 2010. In June 2024, a man claiming to be a fellow Stanford student named Charles Chen contacted her online. She was not initially suspicious as they had many mutual associates, and his photos and posts appeared to be centered on campus. But his questions and requests quickly put her on edge as he invited her on a paid trip to China. And he seemingly knew details about her that she had never shared with him. When she tried to disengage with him, she began receiving threatening phone calls by Chinese speakers. Elsa contacted Stanford administrators and the FBI, who told her Charles was likely affiliated with the Ministry of State Security, had been posing as a Stanford student for years, and had targeted at least ten other female students since 2020 in a similar manner. They also told her she was under physical surveillance on campus by the Chinese Communist Party. Elsa wrote articles in the Stanford Review and The Free Press about Chinese influence on campus, and in March 2026 testified about espionage threats on college campuses before the House Committee on Education and Workforce. For episode 270 of the Spycraft 101 podcast I spoke with Elsa about being targeted by a foreign government right in the middle of a US college campus. The episode is available now. #stanford #college #student #china #hooverinstitute   open.spotify.com/episode/6KO…
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NEW: Russia is actively supporting Houthi operations to disrupt global energy markets by providing the Houthis with satellite imagery of Saudi oil and military infrastructure. Russian satellites have routinely been positioned above major Saudi energy and military sites in the days prior to and after Houthi attacks on those sites since July 2026. (1/2)
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VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 retweeted
В Турции задержали 85 членов банды Далтонс, которая подожгла Starlink в Польше. Группировка управляется из России. Занимается убийствами, вымогательством и наркоторговлей. Лидер "Кан Далтон" задержан в России в 2024, но не экстрадирован в Турцию. Потому что Кремль — это ОПГ.
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VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 retweeted
German soldier led local branch of Putin-linked Night Wolves biker club for years, The Insider finds Dual German-Russian citizen Alexander Sautner was only dismissed from the Bundeswehr on Feb. 5, 2026. theins.press/en/news/298842
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VelvetBIade 🧃🍥 retweeted
She’s quote-tweeting Dmitriev, who “welcomes” Newsmax. Again, read this: theatlantic.com/internationa…
DOCUMENTING OLESHKY Four American journalists from Newsmax will be on the ground in Oleshky, embedded with Russian and Ukrainian humanitarian leaders. Serving as neutral observers, they will independently record and permanently document this historic humanitarian mission.
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For more background
🇺🇸🇷🇼🇨🇩 Weeks after Tim Kennedy was shot three times in eastern Congo... Washington sanctioned the army he was fighting Treasury hit Rwanda’s Ministry of Defense for deploying thousands of troops alongside the M23 rebels in North and South Kivu, and Zigama Credit and Savings Society for moving the money that buys their weapons and launders the gold that comes out of rebel-held mines into Rwanda. That is the same war Erik Prince’s contractors are in on the Congolese side, under a contract to secure and tax the mining areas Washington wants American companies in, and the September ambush that wounded Kennedy and killed a former New Zealand commando happened on one of those mining-revenue operations. The sanctions put the US government where Prince already was: on Tshisekedi’s side against Kigali, which was Washington’s Africa partner until the minerals deal made Congo worth more. Rwanda now has a choice between pulling its troops out of the Kivus or watching its defense ministry get cut off from dollars, and M23 has to decide whether to keep fighting with its bank frozen. Source: Reuters, New York Times / Writer: Daniel
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In other words, various business deals are being discussed that will ensure that russia’s criminal war engulfs the rest of Europe the way it first unfolded in Georgia, then Ukraine
New: The US and Russia are discussing bringing American oil majors back to Russia, reviving energy exports to Europe via the Druzhba pipeline and a host of other business deals as Washington seeks to entice Putin to end the war in Ukraine. as.ft.com/r/2349d7fb-66a0-43…
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President Zelensky said at an Oct. 27 briefing with journalists that Moscow’s demands for “security guarantees” and a separate deal with NATO could lay groundwork for a wider war in Europe. He warned that rewarding aggression or letting Russia dictate NATO’s future or any nation’s security endangers the continent. Ukraine and its allies must reject any side deal that gives Moscow a veto over Europe’s defense.
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❗️ Claims that Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska is allegedly opening a rehabilitation center in Israel named after Volodymyr Zelenskyy are false.
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❗️ This fabrication is part of Russia’s ongoing systematic disinformation campaign aimed at personally discrediting Ukraine’s leadership and their family members in the eyes of the international community.
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