Image is of Azerbaijan's President, Aliyev (left) and Armenia's President, Pashinyan (right) in a meeting a month or two after Azerbaijan took Nagorno-Karabakh.

  1. Never go to a second location.
  2. Always get the interior ministry post.
  3. Never get in a helicopter or any small aircraft.
  4. If someone with a gun enters your car, they’re gonna kill you.
  5. If someone tells you they’re not going to kill you, they’re calming you down to kill you later.
  6. Never give up your nukes.
  7. Never release the opposition's political prisoners.
  8. Never let the opposition delay elections.
  9. If someone starts to get into German runes, drop them.
  10. Never trust a South American with a German name.
  11. Never move anywhere for a religion.
  12. Never go into the sewers unless you’re a sewer guy.
  13. If someone’s trying to get you to commit a crime, they're FBI (sometimes CIA or military intelligence).
  14. Never become an FBI informant.
  15. If you do become an FBI informant, record everything.
  16. Never relinquish your arms.
  17. Always get it in writing.
  18. If you keep gambling, you’ll eventually win.
  19. Never talk to cops without a lawyer.
  20. Always pay your mercenaries.
  21. Don’t let anyone take your passport.

To add an addendum to rule 3, never put your President and Foreign Minister in the same helicopter or small aircraft. Especially if doing so in bad weather conditions. Especially if you're already under threat from a hostile nuclear power in the region with a proclivity for terrorism (though this probably isn't Israel's doing, in this particular case).

Anyway, Azerbaijan. Not a great country, I think. Did some genocides. They're a petrostate that is hosting Cop29, which I suppose is a way for the bourgeoisie to implicitly convey their contempt for the green movement. They got weapons from Israel, too.

Just for the record, there's an Iranian province called East Azerbaijan, which is not the same as Azerbaijan.

The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Azerbaijan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful. Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]
    ·
    6 months ago

    The term of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky officially ended on Monday (20). Despite this, he will remain head of the country's executive.

    At war with Russia since February 2022, the country has since been under martial law, which makes it impossible to hold elections in the country. The election, which was scheduled to take place on March 31, had already been canceled long before, in November last year.

    On November 6, 2023, Zelensky released a message in which he said that it was not time for elections. At the end of February, he said that any talk questioning his legitimacy was a “hostile narrative”.

    In addition to martial law, the president and experts argue that it would be impossible to hold full elections in Ukraine due to the conditions of the country, invaded by the Russians, and its population -- many have had to flee their homes and even the country. In addition, soldiers would not be in a position to vote.

    The text of the Constitution is not entirely clear on this point. One of the articles, for example, states that the term of office is five years. But, according to “The Economist” magazine, constitutional experts in the country say that martial law provides for an exception, which is in Article 108 of the Charter, which states that the president exercises power until his successor is sworn in - except that elections are prohibited during the period of martial law. Ukrainian legal experts consulted by the Deutsche Welle news agency said they expect Zelensky to remain in power until a new president is elected.

    According to DW, the legitimacy of Zelensky's mandate after May 20 derives not only from the law, but also from broad popular support. A poll conducted by Ukraine's Razumkov Center in January revealed that 69% of respondents trust Zelensky. Less than a quarter said they didn't trust the president.

    Another poll, by the International Institute of Sociology in Kiev (IISK) at the beginning of February, showed that 69% of respondents believe Zelensky should remain in power until Martial Law ends. Only 15% of respondents supported holding elections under the current circumstances, and 10% wanted Zelensky to hand over power to the speaker of parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk.

    • WIIHAPPYFEW [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      6 months ago

      MOTHERFUCKER LINCOLN PULLED AN ELECTION OFF IN 1864, THE SOLDIERS THERE WERE STILL VOTING WHEN THEY WERE ALL DYING OF DYSENTERY AND IT WENT COMPLETELY FINE

    • Wertheimer [any]
      ·
      6 months ago

      I think Ukraine doesn’t need to prove anything about democracy to anyone. Because Ukraine and its people are proving it through their war.

      . . .

      So, when we talk about democracy, I believe that we are the most democratic country in Europe. One of the most democratic countries in Europe, which has proven this not with words, but with strength, weapons, and our lives. Not proving, but we have proven this to the whole world.

      Hm.

      (From Zelensky's interview with the NYT today)

      • jackmarxist [any]
        ·
        6 months ago

        Democracy is when you kidnap people from the streets and send them off to die

      • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]
        ·
        6 months ago

        I mean if he thinks he still has the support of the people why not run an election? I bet Russia would even stop doing missile attacks for a few days to prove they weren't trying to disrupt the elections.

    • TheLepidopterists [he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      Another poll, by the International Institute of Sociology in Kiev (IISK) at the beginning of February, showed that 69% of respondents believe Zelensky should remain in power until Martial Law end

      I'm assuming they only polled Western Ukraine?

      • CTHlurker [he/him]
        ·
        6 months ago

        A lot of the eastern part of the country has already been conscripted and used as human landmine-clearers so their opinions aren't really reflected anywhere.

        • SoyViking [he/him]
          ·
          6 months ago

          Also, there's little point in holding elections in the first place when you've already banned all opposition parties.

          • CTHlurker [he/him]
            ·
            6 months ago

            Only the opposition parties that significantly disagree with him. All the Nazi parties from Galicia are alive and well

    • ziggurter [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      6 months ago

      Libs: Shhhhhhh! He's busy killing hundreds of thousands of working-class people. This is not the time to interrupt him!

      I'm still waiting for the "just kidding", but for some reason it never shows up. blocky-wat

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      The election, which was scheduled to take place on March 31, had already been canceled long before

      not time for elections

      any talk questioning his legitimacy was a “hostile narrative”.

      Slava Ukraini fighting for le epic freedom and democracy!