Dispatches

Have the purges begun?  It is reported that Sergei Beseda, head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and his deputy Anatoly Bolyuk, are under house arrest on one of the standard charges, embezzlement, which in this case means letting Putin down big-time with their estimates of Ukrainian resistance.  FSB agents are also apparently investigating other FSB agents who are suspected of talking to journalists.  There are still real journalists in Russia?

One less, as American Brent Renaud was killed by Russian forces in Irpin, near Kyiv.  

Chemical warfare has begun.  Oleksi Biloshytski, police chief of Popasna in the Luhansk district, reports that the town was hit with white phosphorus bombs last night.  If anybody cares, this is forbidden in residential areas under the Geneva Convention.  The chief wrote, "It's what the Nazis called a 'flaming onion' and that's what the Russcists (combination of 'Russians' and 'fascists') are dropping on our towns.  Indescribable suffering and fires."  Bannon, Carlson and the other Haw-Haws will have to tap-dance like Ann Miller tomorrow.

The Russians also attacked a military base in Yavoriv, which is only fifteen miles from the Polish border.  So basically they're playing chicken with NATO.

In another reckless game far away, Iran chose last night to hit the Kurdistan region of Iraq with ballistic missiles not far from an American base.  The apparent intent was to scupper a diplomatic agreement to reinstate the nuclear deal wrecked by Trump.  

More evidence that the Poison Dwarf is over his head:  Syria is bribing its own soldiers to fight alongside the Russians with an offer of $3,000 a month, fifty times the typical soldier's salary.  Putin denies that his mercenaries are being paid at all, just volunteering out of deep concern for the people of the Donbas.  I'm surprised the truckers who courageously harassed the people of Ottawa last month haven't stepped up.  Where are the Prod Boys?  Michigan Militia?  Bone spurs acting up?

Last month Antony Blinken told the UN Security Council that Putin would "fabricate allegations about chemical or biological weapons."  Sure enough, Russian rep Vasily Nebenzya claims not one, not two, thirty laboratories in Ukraine are ready to spread all sorts of gnarly diseases via bird, bats and even insects.  He warns of "danger to the people in European countries" because Ukraine wants to kill everybody or at least give them a really bad cold.  It's literally batshit.  Nebenzya failed to mention Dr. Fauci, surely an oversight.

UK home secretary Priti Patel, who dislikes immigrants and asylum seekers even if they're white, has angered many Brits by failing to unsnarl the red tape keeping Ukrainians out.  Michael Gove, the secretary for (I swear) "leveling up, housing and communities," has a scheme whereby people who take in (carefully screened) refugees will get 350 pounds a month from the government.  Ireland, by contrast, is offering a hundred thousand welcomes.  Maybe not literally but over 14,000 people have offered to open their homes and the government has a "one-stop" center at Dublin Airport where adults are signed up immediately for public services and children get diapers, toys and food.  Leave means leave, and also "blow you, Jack, I'm all right."

In another embarrassment for the British, propagandist Sergei Brilev of Rossiya-1 has a flat in London, a British passport, and is registered to vote.  No knighthood yet but it's early days.

New York museums had a jarring weekend.  On Saturday two women working at the front desk of the Museum of Modern Art were stabbed by Gary Cabana after denying him admission (a previous incident resulted in his membership being revoked).  At the Guggenheim protesters demanding a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine released leaflets folded into paper airplanes over the atrium.  (One of Putin's pals, Vladimir Potanin, was a trustee until last week.)  Formally proclaimed or not, the world is at war.