Russia

Retired U.S. General and former Commander of NATO forces in Europe

19 Apr 2024 9 3

Pavel Felgenhauer

Inserted 1 week ago

“Russia surprisingly stands with the rest of the international community in that it does not want an escalation following Iran's attack on Israel. This could impede Russian interests region. It could embroil Iran in a war that would mean that Iran would be hardly capable of sending more weapons to Russia, and of course, it could engulf Russian troops in Syria and Lebanon in a possible escalation of this conflict into a regional one. Among the Russian establishment are pro-Israeli elements who would not want to have a confrontation with Israel. Israel has not joined sanctions [against Russia], it's not dedicated as an enemy country, Israel is not supplying weapons or military technology to Ukraine, so Russia would want to keep this status quo.”

Aje

Russian defence analyst

14 Apr 2024 5 2

Matthew Schmidt

Inserted 2 weeks ago

“Russia is pushing ill-manned, ill-equipped local offensives anywhere it can. But ill-manned with enough bodies might be good enough.”

Cnn

Associate professor and national security expert at the University of New Haven in Connecticut

06 Apr 2024 2 3

Andriy Yusov

Inserted 2 weeks ago

“They [Russian troops] are ready to pay bribes, which is happening on a massive scale, injure themselves or simply run away to avoid the frontline, as the chances of survival there and the number of losses…remain sky-high for Russians.”

Cnn

Ukrainian Defense Intelligence representative

06 Apr 2024 (approx) 4 3

Sergei Shoigu

Inserted 3 weeks ago

“Since the start of the year, 403 square kilometres [156 square miles] … have come under our control. Russian armed forces continue to push Ukrainian units westwards. Russian forces had captured five settlements, four in Donetsk and one in Zaporizhia, over the last month.”

Aje

Russian Defence Minister

02 Apr 2024 3 2

Annalena Baerbock

Inserted 3 weeks ago

“He [Putin] makes it more than clear that he is beyond the reach of rational arguments and the values of humanity. And he definitely doesn't want to negotiate. If Putin wins in Ukraine, our security and international order will be at risk. Ukraine's support is our own guarantee of security.”

Aje

Foreign Minister of Germany

29 Mar 2024 4 2

Andrei Soldatov

Inserted 3 weeks ago

“The problem is to actually be able to prevent terrorist attacks, you need to have a really good and efficient system of intelligence sharing and intelligence gathering. Trust is needed inside the home agency and with agencies of other countries, as is good coordination. That's where you have problems.”

Nytimes

Expert on Russian intelligence

28 Mar 2024 3 1

Dmitry Peskov

Inserted 3 weeks ago

“All war crimes [committed] by the Kyiv regime are thoroughly documented. We were well aware of these crimes. And, of course, we will make sure that those behind these crimes are duly punished.”

Aje

Kremlin spokesman

28 Mar 2024 1 1

Timothy Snyder

Inserted 3 weeks ago

“The terrorists' car was stopped near Bryansk, which is in western Russia, and so vaguely near Ukraine, which means that the four Tajiks in a Renault were intending to cross the Ukrainian border, which means that they had Ukrainian backers, which means that it was a Ukrainian operation, which means that the Americans were behind it. The reasoning here leaves something to be desired. And the series of associations rests on no factual basis.”

Levin Professor of History at Yale

28 Mar 2024 5 1

Vladimir Putin

Inserted 3 weeks ago

“We have no aggressive intentions towards these states. The idea that we will attack some other country - Poland, the Baltic States, and the Czechs are also being scared - is complete nonsense. It's just drivel. If they supply F-16s, and they are talking about this and are apparently training pilots, this will not change the situation on the battlefield. And we will destroy the aircraft just as we destroy today tanks, armoured vehicles and other equipment, including multiple rocket launchers. Of course, if they will be used from airfields in third countries, they become for us legitimate targets, wherever they might be located.”

President of Russia

27 Mar 2024 5 4

Daniel Hoffman

Inserted 4 weeks ago

“You can't do everything. You dial up the pressure on the locals and sometimes you don't get the intelligence you need on a potential terrorist attack. That's where they failed. It's possible they're overextended dealing with the war in Ukraine and dealing with political opposition. This one slipped through the cracks.”

Former senior CIA operations officer who served as the agency’s Moscow station chief

25 Mar 2024 2 1

Leonid Ragozin

Inserted 4 weeks ago

“So will Russians blame Putin for failing to avert the tragedy? Collective psychology is notoriously unpredictable. Some may, but it is unlikely that anything would come of it. Even without this attack, it has been clear to the Russian population that the period of stability, security and economic growth that Putin has been lauded for is long over. War is literally at the door with Ukrainian forces conducting incursions into Russian territory, sending drones to strike oil refineries and destroying Russian battleships in the Black Sea.”

Freelance journalist based in Riga

25 Mar 2024 8 3

Vladimir Putin

Inserted 4 weeks ago

“We know that the crime was committed by the hands of radical Islamists, whose ideology the Islamic world itself has been fighting for centuries. This atrocity may be just a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 with the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime. Of course, it is necessary to answer the question, 'Why after committing the crime the terrorists tried to go to Ukraine?' Who was waiting for them there?”

President of Russia

25 Mar 2024 3 2

Dmitry Peskov

Inserted 4 weeks ago

“The investigation is underway. So far, no versions have been put forward at all. Unfortunately, our world shows that no city, no country can be completely immune from the threat of terrorism. Special services worked tirelessly to defend Russia. The fight against terrorism is an ongoing process that requires full-scale international cooperation. But you can see that now in this most acute confrontational period, such cooperation is not being fully carried out in any way.”

Kremlin spokesman

25 Mar 2024 1 1

Andras Toth-Czifra

Inserted 4 weeks ago

“Russian security personnel have been trained to look at specific, politically important 'threats,'. Due to resource/time/manpower constraints this means that they have less capacity to look at and prevent actual threats.”

Fellow with the Eurasia Program at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute

24 Mar 2024 (approx) 1 1

Alexander Vershbow

Inserted 4 weeks ago

“It seems kind of unbelievable that Russian security services missed this. Clearly, it was an intelligence failure for this to happen in such a prominent venue right on the beltway of Moscow, and to have such a serious death toll despite those small number of terrorists that appear to have actually perpetrated the act. The Russians may choose to link this [terrorist attack] to their war against the collective West and hold the U.S. and its Ukrainian proxies - as they might call them - ultimately responsible. I wouldn't be at all surprised. If they decide to emphasize the U.S. and Ukraine link, then I think we can anticipate very harsh measures at home in the wake of this intelligence failure.”

Former U.S. envoy to Moscow, analyst at the Atlantic Council

23 Mar 2024 5 2

Vladimir Putin

Inserted 1 month ago

“We are counting here on cooperation with all countries that genuinely share our pain and are ready, in their deeds, to truly unite our efforts in the fight against the common enemy of international terrorism. The main thing now is to prevent those who were behind this bloody massacre from committing new crimes.”

Nytimes

President of Russia

23 Mar 2024 2 2

Colin Clarke

Inserted 1 month ago

“ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years. ISIS-K accuses the Kremlin of having Muslim blood in its hands, referencing Moscow's interventions in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria.”

Nytimes

Senior research fellow at the US-based Soufan Centre

23 Mar 2024 4 2

Vladimir Putin

Inserted 1 month ago

“They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border. All the perpetrators, organisers and those who ordered this crime will be justly and inevitably punished. Whoever they are, whoever is guiding them. We will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this strike against Russia, against our people.”

President of Russia

23 Mar 2024 3 1

Nikolay Mitrokhin

Inserted 1 month ago

“The Friday attack showed complete impotence of Russia's special services, national guard and the entire law enforcement system. Where are the helicopters for speedy deployment to critical sites in the metropolitan conditions of Moscow? Where are the armed vehicles? Where are these pumped-up stern guys from [promotional] videos? We know where they are - burned down with their vehicles on the roads of the Kyiv region, sitting in underground holes near Donetsk or patrolling the Luhansk region … not where the real danger is but there the crazy president decided to wage a war.”

Research Fellow at Bremen University

23 Mar 2024 1 1

Alisher Ilkhamov

Inserted 1 month ago

“Very probably, Russian special services knew about [the attack] beforehand, and, possibly, they directed it pursuing political goals - to possibly discredit Ukraine, justify a new wave of mobilisation and tighten the screws in general. One just has to ask a question - who will benefit? I'm somewhat doubtful that ISIL has any serious interests in Russia. Putin, on the other hand, does gain from the attack. To become a victim of ISIL is to trigger sympathies worldwide. This is some sort of a public relations [trick] to improve [Russia's] international reputation. So, there's a whole bunch of benefits for Putin's regime. Of course, that cost the lives of his citizens - that he spits on.”

Head of Central Asia Due Diligence, a think tank in London

23 Mar 2024 4 1

Dmitry Kolezev

Inserted 4 weeks ago

“The intelligence services are focused on political investigation and intimidation of citizens. They do not fulfill their direct responsibility to protect society from real threats. The March 22 attack at the Crocus City Hall looks like a grandiose failure on the part of the state. Fantastic amounts of money are spent on 'security,' but in reality, this security is not provided.”

Russian political observer

22 Mar 2024 4 2

Charles Michel

Inserted 1 month ago

“We are not intimidated by Russia. And we think this is fair, that the revenues of those foreign assets will be used for Ukraine because they are victim of this aggression launched by Russia.”

Aje

President of the European Council

22 Mar 2024 5 5

Dmitry Peskov

Inserted 1 month ago

“We are at war. Indeed, it started as a special military operation but as soon as a clique was formed and the collective West joined in on Ukraine's side, it turned into war for us. I am convinced of that. Everyone should understand this to summon up inner strength.”

Kremlin spokesman

22 Mar 2024 4 3

Sergei Shoigu

Inserted 1 month ago

“After the start of operation of the new facilities, the volume of production actually increased by almost 2.5 times. If we talk about the manufacture of artillery ammunition, the volume of production of components for this ammunition has been increased almost 22 times; 75 percent of components are being restored.”

Aje

Russian Defence Minister

21 Mar 2024 2 2

Leonid Ragozin

Inserted 1 month ago

“Several factors contributed to achieving this surreal result: the intense brainwashing through Russian state media that channel the Kremlin's toxic propaganda; vote-buying through the expansion of the welfare state and various social benefits on the eve of the election; and ballot stuffing and rigging through the opaque early voting and electronic voting systems.”

Freelance journalist based in Riga

19 Mar 2024 3 4

Tim Less

Inserted 1 month ago

“Putin is… planning to mobilise more men, once the election is over. Among other things, he has banned the exit of fighting-age men from the country and banned the antiwar candidate, Boris Nadezhdin, from standing in the election, for fear he may generate opposition to the war effort. Putin appears to have concluded that further mobilisation is essential to press home Russia's advantage on the battlefield and that this is what he will do.”

Lecturer at Cambridge University's Centre for Geopolitics

18 Mar 2024 5 2

Ella Pamfilova

Inserted 1 month ago

“This is a record figure. The turnout is a record - an unprecedented 77.44 percent. This has never happened in the history of the new Russia. We proved to ourselves that we are an independent nation … and in the face of the West we showed that we are united. We are proud of this.”

Aje

Russia electoral chief

18 Mar 2024 1 3

Vladimir Putin

Inserted 1 month ago

“No matter who or how much they want to intimidate us, no matter who or how much they want to suppress us, our will, our consciousness - no one has ever succeeded in anything like this in history. It has not worked now and will not work in the future. Never.”

President of Russia

18 Mar 2024 0 3

Svetlana Chunikhina

Inserted 1 month ago

“The deep split within the totalitarian reality is manifested through the way Putin fanatically clings to the necessity of extending his endless cadences through 'election' while fully neutering the very essence of competition and open ending. In Russia, they consider elections as the most prestigious way to legitimise power. But totalitarian reality doesn't generate any prestige. It only generates fear and submissiveness.”

Vice president of the Association of Political Psychologists, a group in Kyiv

16 Mar 2024 4 2

Boris Bondarev

Inserted 1 month ago

“The low turnout of Putin's electorate could play in favour of the opposition's plan, but only if the anti-Putin electorate mobilises to show up at polling stations. One of the main obstacles to that is the perception among many antiwar Russian citizens that the election is just a spectacle and there is no sense in participating in it. If this reluctance to vote is overcome, then, we may well witness a protest vote significant enough to dent Putin's legitimacy claims, which could dampen the war fervour and plant a seed of doubt in the political elite.”

Former Russian diplomat

15 Mar 2024 3 2

Marina Miron

Inserted 1 month ago

“Domestically, Putin is poised to prioritise addressing Russia's demographic challenges, a longstanding focus of legislative efforts. On the foreign policy front, Russia is likely to persist in its opposition to what the Kremlin perceives as a unipolar global order dominated by the United States. On the Ukraine war front Putin is committed to continuing the war. From a military standpoint, there is little indication of a shift in the overarching strategy, although some refinements may be made regarding the roles of specific branches of the Russian armed forces, notably the Black Sea Fleet. Russian forces might adopt a gradual territorial expansion approach, particularly focusing on northern regions such as Kharkiv … and southern areas like Odesa.”

Aje

Postdoctoral researcher in the War Studies Department at King’s College London

15 Mar 2024 6 3

Maria Zakharova

Inserted 1 month ago

“As a result of the ill-considered provocative actions of even one or two EU or NATO member states, the Ukrainian crisis could absolutely go beyond its geographical borders, acquire a completely different scale and develop uncontrollably. Accordingly, the question today is how to avoid the risks of further escalation. They are obvious and frightening to all sensible people.”

Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman

13 Mar 2024 3 5

Vladimir Putin

Inserted 1 month ago

“Nevertheless, their [the raiders'] main goal, and I am sure of it, is to disrupt the presidential election in Russia, or at least somehow interfere with the normal process of expressing the will of the citizens. That's the first thing. The second is the information effect, which I have already mentioned. But the third is, if they succeed in getting some opportunity, some advantage, some bargaining chip in a possible future negotiation process: [they will say] we will give this back to you, but you will have to give that back to us.”

Pravda

President of Russia

13 Mar 2024 1 1

Oleksii Baranovskyi

Inserted 1 month ago

“We were well prepared. We chose the most convenient border areas for the incursion and entered … Belgorod and Kursk oblasts of Russia. Now there are combat clashes, and developments are unfolding as we speak. Literally every half hour or hour, some new geographical names [of places reached] appear. We won't name them, as we are still in full control of the initiative. We are Russian citizens. We are going home to liberate our homeland from Putin's dictatorship.”

Aje

Member of the Freedom of Russia Legion

12 Mar 2024 5 1

Steven Basham

Inserted 1 month ago

“If you can actually control the economy, then you can probably move a little bit faster than other countries out there. But the West will have more sustaining power. The West is just starting their ramp-up of building the infrastructure to add in the munitions capability that is needed.”

Cnn

Deputy commander of US European Command

11 Mar 2024 3 4

Dmitry Peskov

Inserted 1 month ago

“It is quite understandable that he [the pope] spoke in favour of negotiations. Unfortunately, both the statements of the Pope and the repeated statements of other parties, including ours, have recently received absolutely harsh refusals.”