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This week we have a guest post by Tapani from They Talk YouTube Channel . Please make sure you go and like and subscribe to their channel and watch the video related to this post!  Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union died at the age of 91, on 30th August 2022. He was a highly respected statesman abroad but not so much in his own country, Russia. His relationship with President Putin was especially cold. What did Gorbachev think about Vladimir Putin’s Russia? Our focus here isn’t the last days of the USSR or Mr Gorbachev's life story. We are concentrating on his take on how Russia is today and its current leader Mr Putin. Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin (Credit: Turun Sanomat )  HIS LEGACY After the news about the passing of Mikhail Gorbachev the world has once again remembered, and praised, the part that he played in ending the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. In 1990, Gorbachev was given the Nobel Peace Prize “for the leading role he pl...

The war in Ukraine, and the ongoing NATO debate in Finland and Sweden, have activated Russian trolls and propaganda bots. This is especially prevalent in social media. Many users have come across pictures, fake news, strange videos, and publications aimed to influence public opinion in this historic time.  Russia seeks to extend their sphere of influence by using troll factories, such as St Petersburg based "Cyber Front Z". They use methods such as botnets and human troll networks to spread propaganda and perform cyber attacks. They also target social media apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp or TikTok. This is usually called information warfare.  BOTS   You should be aware when surfing on social media and accessing your emails. These are the most common ways to receive propaganda.  Russia uses bots to spread its message and try to make it seem like many people are discussing the same issue. In fact, this is not true. The bots execute what the host computer instructs the...

The Russians have committed war crimes since the beginning of the invasion in Ukraine. Murders, mass executions, torture, looting and sexual assault of women and children are just some of the heinous activities that the invaders have inflicted upon the Ukrainian civilians.  In this post, we look at how war crimes can be defined according to the international law of armed conflict and look at some evidence of these in Ukraine. WHAT IS A WAR CRIME? A '' code of conduct' ' for defining behaviour in a war zone can be traced back for centuries. However, the current laws of armed conflict and international humanitarian law were created around the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Over the years, it has evolved to the Hague Conventions adopted in 1899 and 1907. These focus on the methods of warfare that can be used and what warring parties are allowed and prohibited to do. A few other treaties have been developed since then. A woman and child evacua...

When the President of Russia calls you a traitor and a scumbag, you know you are in trouble! This trouble rang true for Sergei Skripal, and his daughter in 2018 when they were poisoned with Novichok. It is a deadly nerve agent, so lethal that a miniscule amount is enough to kill a human! So what did Sergei Skripal do that was so awful that the President of Russia ordered his assassination? "He is just a scumbag. He is just a spy, a traitor to the homeland." Vladimir Putin  EARLY LIFE Sergei Victorovich Skripal was born on 23 June, 1951 in Kaliningrad Oblast. He grew up in Ozyorsk and his parents were working people. His dad was a land improvement contractor and his mother worked with the local council.  Sergei Skripal in his military uniform He worked his whole life in the military and intelligence, with his career starting in 1972 when he studied military engineering at Zhdanov school in Kaliningrad. He qualified as a sapper-paratrooper. He then moved to Moscow to study at t...

After looking at several poisonings of Russian dissidents, we now have a clear idea of what the Russian secret services are capable of. But, have you ever stopped to wonder where they get these highly toxic, illegal poisons? The notorious ''Kamera'', or ''The Cell'', was said to be the one-stop shop for Soviet Russia's poisonous needs. Where is it located? And is it actually closed down, or is it still operating in the shadows?   ''Kamera'' or LAB X?  In 1921, a secret laboratory was set up under the watchful eye of Professor Igantii Kazakov. Five years later, it was taken over by Genrikh Yagoda, who became the chief of NKVD in 1934. This was the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, tasked with overseeing the country internal public order affairs, as well as the secret police. It was also the same organisation that was responsible for the '' Great Purge '' under Stalin, in which Yagoda was one of the main pl...

What happens when a highly regarded botanist finds traces of poison in the victims s ystem, but the official toxicology reports come up with nothing? How can we know the exact cause of death of Mr Perepilichnyy when the experts themselves are fighting with the evidence? And the final question is how is it possible that there is confusion with evidence if the investigation is processed properly in the first place? Lets see how the police botched the case in this final installation in our Perepilichnyy series. POLICE INVESTIGATION  There has been a lot of controversy and confusion in this case, and how the police handled it. The insurance company, Legal & General, that was providing life insurance for Perepilichnyy launched an investigation into his case as they suspected he died of murder. They signed on a botanist called Monique Simmonds to test whether there was poison presented in his system. She worked at Kew Gardens and had a reputation for helping in these matters. Botanis...

Alexander Perepilichnyy had a strong conscience, and wanted to do something fair and just. Or, maybe he saw an opportunity to clear his name and return back to Russia with his family. Was that the thing that got him killed? Magnitsky also wanted to do the right thing, and report a crime to the authorities, and he was the one that ended up in jail instead, and died in a very painful way. In this installation, we explore why these two Russian nationals were punished by the state for trying to fight crime.  Magnitsky's funeral  Picking up from Part 2 , we left off that Magnitsky died in jail from poor health and ill-treatment. Browder, angry and hurt, wanted to get revenge on his associate's death. So, he took to the media and YouTube. He published a long expose in a major Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta , and there they included handwritten letters from Sergei Magnitsky professing his innocence.  Handwritten letter from Sergey Magnistky  The newspap...