#Russia MFA Maria Zakharova just went on another psychedelic trip declaring that it was #Lenin who gave #Poland independence in 20th century.[^1] The statement reads like a classic Armenian Radio joke: not Lenin, but Red Army not “independence”, but military invasion not “gave”, but tried to take it As a reminder, immediately after Bolshevik came to power in 1917 they crushed all internal opposition[^2] and started what we would today describe as a classic imperial expansion to the West.[^3] They conquered #Estonia #Lithuania #Latvia #Belarus to meet serious resistance in #Ukraine supported by #Poland. So they invaded Poland in 1919 but in 1920 lost at outskirts of Warsaw[^4] and finally signed a Treaty of Riga[^5] which was a compromise between exhausted Bolshevik and equally exhausted Poland, which, unfortunately dumped Petlura’s Ukraine in the process. There’s one more interesting piece here: Russians occasionally use the story of “thousands of Russian prisoners murdered in Poland” in 1920’s as a “moral justification” for their Katyń Massacre in 1940. The first detail they’re skipping is how exactly these prisoners appeared in Poland in the first place - they surrendered when Bolshevik failed their invasion. The second detail they skip is that they chose to start invasion at the time of the largest European pandemic of influenza, when 25-50 million people died on the continent, including in Poland, including Soviet prisoners. The third detail they skip is that 40% of the prisoners chose not to return to the world’s workers’ paradise and instead chose to stay in Poland or move to Europe, while Soviet historiography in #USSR of course counted them all as “dead” (for the cause).

Захарова рассказала о роли Ленина в становлении Польши

Официальный представитель МИД России Мария Захарова в своем Telegram-канале ответи�...

(in Russian) [^2]:

Bolsheviks Shooting Anarchists

[^3]:

Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919 - Wikipedia

[^4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Soviet_War [^5]:

Treaty of Riga - Wikipedia

When taking part in annual #Christmas family activities, such as removing all the spyware your mother has collected over the year by watching ‘Update your Windows NOW!!!’ adverts on #Facebook, let’s remember to thank the people who make these enjoyable, people-connecting activities possible: A Reuters investigation reveals the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp decided to accept high levels of fraudulent advertisements from China. Internal company documents show Meta wanted to minimize “revenue impact” caused by cracking down on the scams. https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-tolerates-rampant-ad-fraud-china-safeguard-billions-revenue-2025-12-15/ #meta

When the new head of #MI6 tells you about the dangers of power shifting from citizens to “private corporations and individuals”, it’s worth listening to. To me it’s rather clear that she alludes to the recent #Twitter #Meta and Musk rants about “censorship” in the context of the DSA fines they received for fostering scam and hate on their platforms: as states race for tech supremacy, or as some algorithms become as powerful as states, those hyper-personalised tools could become a new vector for conflict and control. Power itself is becoming more diffuse, more unpredictable as control over these technologies is shifting from states to corporations, and sometimes to individuals. And at the same time, the foundations of trust in our societies are eroding. Information, once a unifying force, is increasingly weaponised. Falsehood spreads faster than fact, dividing communities and distorting reality. We live in an age of hyper-connection yet profound isolation. The algorithms flatter our biases and fracture our public squares. And as trust collapses, so does our shared sense of truth – one of the greatest losses a society can suffer.

GOV.UK

Speech by Blaise Metreweli, Chief of SIS, 15 December 2025

Blaise Metreweli, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service on how SIS is keeping the UK safe in a world where the rules of conflict are being rewri...

#Poland media report that Krzysztof Galos, a Polish man from Krakow, was killed in a #Russia detention center in #Taganrog in 2022, but the family only learned about his fate now. The man was not involved in politics or the war in any way. His relatives say: My uncle had no connection to Ukraine. He didn’t know anyone there. He denied the whole time that there was a real war going on there. Mr. Galos went to #Ukraine on vacation to see what was happening there. His car was last recorded by a surveillance camera near the Ukrainian power plant in #Zaporizhzhia. The Polish man turned the wrong way and drove right into a Russian military checkpoint. His last message the man sent to his family on 19 April 2023: I can’t answer. Everything’s fine. I love you. Since then, there has been no contact with him. Memorial, an independent Russian human rights organization, obtained information that the guards were ruthless towards the Polish man, regularly beating and torturing him: His legs were completely bruised, they stopped functioning, and he soon died. The information was reportedly provided by another prisoner in Taganrog. Source:

Wyborcza.pl

(in Polish, paywalled)

#Poland media report that Krzysztof Galos, a Polish man from Krakow, was killed in a #Russia detention center in #Tagarnog in 2022, but the family only learned about his fate now. The man was not involved in politics or the war in any way. His relatives say: My uncle had no connection to Ukraine. He didn’t know anyone there. He denied the whole time that there was a real war going on there. Mr. Galos went to #Ukraine on vacation to see what was happening there. His car was last recorded by a surveillance camera near the Ukrainian power plant in #Zaporizhzhia. The Polish man turned the wrong way and drove right into a Russian military checkpoint. His last message the man sent to his family on 19 April 2023: I can’t answer. Everything’s fine. I love you. Since then, there has been no contact with him. Memorial, an independent Russian human rights organization, obtained information that the guards were ruthless towards the Polish man, regularly beating and torturing him: His legs were completely bruised, they stopped functioning, and he soon died. The information was reportedly provided by another prisoner in Tagarnog. Source:

Wyborcza.pl

(in Polish, paywalled)

Meanwhile #Russia military channel “Voennyi Osvedomitel” posts videos of “our FPV drones pounding the same monument at which Zelensky filmed himself”. But then, let’s quote directly because it’s get even better: A couple of Ukrainian military women filmed a video near it and almost became the target of one of the drones. It can be seen that the approaches to the stele are controlled by enemy infantry, but the stele itself and its immediate surroundings are now effectively a kill zone for Russian Armed Forces operators. Meanwhile, Russian Ministry of Defense published the following statement: Subdivisions of the Western Military Group are exercising reliable control over all areas of the liberated city of Kupiansk. In the attached video spokesman of “Zapad” Group explains “I’m now in the advance command point” while standing an undisclosed cellar 😄 Am I the only one who sees some inconsistency in fierce pounding of a zone that you say you 100% control? 🤔