Lee Heidhues 3.6.2022

Thug Putin will sink to any depth to achieve his brutal and violent goals. The detention of American basketball All-Star Brittney Griner is just one example of how this Thug operates.

Putin welcomes Americans when it suits his purposes. When a visitor can be used to achieve his goals the former KGB operative will take any action necessary.

Now that he is waging a war of aggression in Ukraine, Thug Putin will do anything he can to gain an advantage.

Excerpted from The New York Times 3.6.2022

As tensions rose between Russia and the United States, Russian authorities detained Brittney Griner, a W.N.B.A. star, on drug charges. The Russian Federal Customs Service announced Ms. Griner’s detention on Saturday but said she was stopped at the Sheremetyevo airport near Moscow last month.

The detention of Ms. Griner, 31, a seven-time W.N.B.A. All-Star center for the Phoenix Mercury and a key figure in two champion Olympic teams, comes during an inflamed standoff between Russia and the United States over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and pulls the player in the middle of the most acute crisis between the two countries since the Cold War.

Here is what we know so far about Ms. Griner’s detention.

Russia is talking about potentially serious charges.

The Russian Federal Customs Service said that a sniffer dog had prompted it to search the carry-on luggage of an American basketball player at the Sheremetyevo airport near Moscow, and that it had found vape cartridges containing hashish oil. A state-owned Russian news agency then identified the player as Ms. Griner.

Hashish oil is a marijuana concentrate that has a high concentration of the psychoactive chemical THC, and it is commonly sold in cartridges that are used in vape pens. The Russian Federal Customs Service said that customs officers had noticed vapes after scanning the traveler’s bag.

The customs service said that a criminal case had been opened into the large-scale transportation of drugs, a charge that could carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

It released a video of a traveler who appeared to be Ms. Griner going through airport security with a trolley suitcase and a small backpack, followed by footage of someone examining a package that appeared to be from the traveler’s suitcase.

“Brittney has always handled herself with the utmost professionalism during her long tenure with USA Basketball,” U.S.A. Basketball said on Twitter.

The timing of the detention remains murky. Its political implications do, too.

The screening at the airport occurred in February, according to the Customs Service, raising the possibility that Ms. Griner had been in custody for at least several days. She last posted on Instagram on Feb. 5. The timing provided leaves open the possibility that the case could have been underway in secret for weeks before Russian authorities chose to draw attention to it.

It is still unclear whether Russia might have targeted Ms. Griner as leverage against the United States, which has led a widespread effort to impose harsh sanctions on Russia and its elite.

Citing privacy constraints, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken did not comment on the detention on Sunday at a news conference in Chisinau, Moldova, and did not respond to a question about whether Russia had announced her arrest as retaliation for the economic, military and diplomatic pressure the United States has leveled against Russia in recent days.

But American officials have repeatedly accused Russia of detaining U.S. citizens on doubtful pretexts.

“This follows a pattern of Russia wrongly detaining & imprisoning US citizens,” Representative Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas, wrote on Twitter on Saturday, citing the case of Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine whom a Russian court sentenced to nine years in prison in 2020 on charges of violence against police officers that his family and supporters described as fraudulent.

On Saturday, the State Department released an updated advisory urging American citizens to leave Russia immediately given the “potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials.”

 

 

Lee Heidhues 3.5.2022

Thug Putin’s warmongering aggression, intimidation and harassment has no limits.

Putin’s State police have now detained  American professional basketball player Brittney Griner, alleging she was carrying vape cartridges of hash oil. It’s easy for the authorities to plant illegal substances and then arrest an innocent citizen.

Putin apparently forgot that Ms. Griner has spent much of her professional career playing for the Russian professional club UMMC Ekaterinburg since 2014. Now it’s politically expedient to arrest and terrorize this American woman.

With the World in turmoil over Thug Putin’s blatant warmongering against Ukraine we can expect to read about this reprehensible retaliatory behavior in the coming days and weeks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittney_Griner

SF Gate 3.5.2022

Basketball star Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia after vape cartridges were found in her luggage at the airport, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Griner, 31, has played for Russian basketball team UMMC Ekaterinburg since 2014. It’s not uncommon for WNBA players to work in Russia during the U.S. offseason; Russian teams often pay better than those in America.

“We know that there were some issues dealing with vape cartridges and other items but let me be very clear,” Lee, who represents Griner’s hometown of Houston, Texas, in Congress, said on Saturday. “Brittney Griner is a United States citizen, she was a guest in Russia…and I will be demanding her release.”

Griner, who rose to fame at Baylor and currently plays for the Phoenix Mercury, was taken into custody at Sheremetyevo airport outside of Moscow. The Russian Federal Customs Service claims it found vape cartridges of hashish oil during a search of her bags and has opened a criminal case on the American. The Times reports transportation of drugs can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in a Russian prison.

https://www.sfgate.com/world/article/Brittney-Griner-arrested-in-Russia-16979646.php

Text and Photos – Lee Heidhues 3.5.2022

It was a sunny day at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco as an enthusiatic crowd kicked off the campaign to fight the Right Wing mercencary campaign to Recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

A posse of Recall supporters, in the best Trump January 6, 2021 insurrectionary style, showed up and attempted to disrupt the rally.  Shouting into bullhorns, yelling and screaming these people showed their true colors. Anti-democratic reactionaries funded by the most Right wing financiers in America these people have no respect for democracy.

The People who cherish democracy can expect more of these Orwellian tactics to rear their ugly head in San Francisco leading up to the June 7 election.

Following are several photos displaying the tactics those reactionaries who suppress free speech are utilizing in their attempt to bring down the democratically elected chief law enforcement officer in San Francisco.

This is not democracy. This is harassment.

 

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a lethal and murderous Chess match.

The Ukrainians have just taken one of  Vladimir Putin’s major pieces off Board.

The Independent U.K. – 3.3.2022

A high-ranking Russian general has been killed during fighting in Ukraine, in what experts say will be a bitter blow for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Andrei Sukhovetsky was the commanding general of the Russian 7th Airborne Division and a deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army, and by far the most senior Russian figure to have died in the conflict so far.

A military source said Maj Gen Sukhovetsky had been killed by a sniper.

Christo Grozev, executive director of investigative journalism website Bellingcat, tweeted that confirmation of his death would be a “major demotivator” for the Russian army.

Vladimir Putin confirmed that a general had been killed in a speech updating the Russian people on the progress of the conflict, eight days into the deadly invasion.

He was a respected paratrooper, practised in missions in “hostile territory”, and reportedly had been decorated for his role in the annexation of Crimea.

Sergey Chipilev, a deputy of the Combat Brotherhood Russian veterans group, wrote on social media: “With great pain, we learned the tragic news of the death of our friend, Major General Andrey Sukhovetsky, on the territory of Ukraine during the special operation. We express our deepest condolences to his family.”

Russian newspaper Pravda, which also reported his death, said Mr Sukhovetsky graduated from the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School in 1995, having started as a platoon commander before rising to chief of staff of the Guards airborne assault unit.

Maj Gen Sukhovetsky, 47, had steadily risen through the military ranks to take a series of leadership positions, and he took part in Russia’s military campaign in Syria.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-kill-andrei-sukhovetsky-b2027858.html

Thug Putin continues to wage his War against Ukraine while Russian authorities are arresting protesters of all ages.  Children and grandmothers are not immune from the brutality of the Russian authorities under the direction of Putin.

The Guardian 3.2.2022

Police in Moscow detained two women and five children who wanted to lay flowers at the Ukrainian embassy.

The children, aged 7 to 11, were held with their mothers in a police van before being taken to a police station. They were released hours later, according to anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova.

Arkhipova said that the two women detained were Ekaterina Zavizion and Olga Alter along with Liza, 11, Gosha, 11, Matvey, 9, David, 7, and Sofya, 7.

The anthropologist, who works at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, wrote on Facebook: “None of what’s happened is holding up in my head.”

Video footage on social media apparently showed one of the women explaining to a crying girl from inside a cell that the “task is for fewer people to gather and say they’re against the war”.

Arkhipova said that police allegedly threatened to strip the women of custody over the five children. They face a trial and a fine on unspecified charges, Arkhipova added. She wrote: “The parents are in fear.”

A 77-year-old artist and activist, Yelena Osipova, was also marched away by a group of police while she protested against the war in St Petersburg.

Thousands of people in cities across Russia have been defying police threats and staging protests against the invasion of Ukraine. Authorities have a low tolerance for demonstrations and marches, and attending them can have serious consequences including fines, arrests and even imprisonment.

OVD-Info said that authorities have arrested more than 320 anti-war protesters across 33 Russian cities. A total of 6,840 people have been detained since Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, ordered the invasion of Ukraine last Thursday.

Another sign held by one of the children featured a Russian flag followed by a plus sign and a Ukrainian flag, equalling a heart.

The OVD-Info website, which monitors protests and arrests across Russia, said that children up to the age of 14 cannot be legally held for more than three hours.

The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who shared images of the children, said it was another sign of the toll that Putin’s war against Ukraine is taking on children.

He wrote on Twitter: “Putin is at war with children. In Ukraine, where his missiles hit kindergartens and orphanages, and also in Russia. 7 y.o. David and Sofia, 9 y.o. Matvey, 11 y.o. Gosha and Liza spent this night behind bars in Moscow for their ‘NO TO WAR’ posters.

“This is how scared the man is.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/02/moscow-police-arrest-children-for-laying-flowers-at-ukrainian-embassy

Lee Heidhues 1.10.2023

THE WEBSITE IS CONTINUALLY UPDATED.

IT SHOULD BE VIEWED ON A DAILY BASIS TO WITNESS WARMONGER PUTIN’S HORRIFIC WAR CRIMES AGAINST UKRAINE.

I received a link to NUREMBERG 2022: LET’S PUNISH PUTIN’S CRIMES TOGETHER

https://www.nurnberg2022.org/en

It comes directly from Ukranian citizens who are fighting Putin’s War of Aggression against their nation.

There are videos, some of which are very graphic and show the horror being unleashed on the People of The Ukraine.

Viewing the images conveys the message of the catastrophe now being unleashed by Vladimir Putin and his military. It is an unspeakable War Crime.

Thug Putin’s War on Ukraine is being undermined by his own army of conscript soldiers.

These young men, forced to participate in the War of Aggression are taking a heroic stand and telling Thug Putin, “We don’t want your War.”

These soldiers want to live their lives in PEACE and not be a part of Putin’s unhinged crusade.

New York Times 3.1.2022

WASHINGTON — Plagued by poor morale as well as fuel and food shortages, some Russian troops in Ukraine have surrendered en masse or sabotaged their own vehicles to avoid fighting, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday.

Taken together, these factors may help explain why Russian forces, including an ominous 40-mile convoy of tanks and armored vehicles near Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, have come to a near crawl in the past day or two, U.S. officials said.

Some entire Russian units have laid down their arms without a fight after confronting surprisingly stiff Ukrainian defense, the official said. A significant number of the Russian troops are young conscripts who are poorly trained and ill-prepared for the all-out assault. And in some cases, Russian troops have deliberately punched holes in their vehicles’ gas tanks, presumably to avoid combat, the official said.

The World may be decrying and imposing sanctions against Thug Putin and his warmongering in Ukraine.  The reality is that the world’s insatiable appetite for oil and gas does not stop even as the Russian people are feeling the pain caused by Thug Putin’s War of Aggression.

Excerpted from Daily Mail U.K 3.1.2022

Vladimir Putin’s grip on the world’s oil and gas taps means that Europe and the US are still buying almost $1billion-a-day from Russia. The UK also imports smaller amounts from Russia.

It was revealed the West is still paying Russia more than $1billion-a-day for oil and gas that Putin can use to subsidise his $15billion-a-day invasion of Ukraine as his troops remain bogged down after hitting fierce resistance from Volodymyr Zelensky’s heroes.