The Black Sea

Geological Engineer Prof. Dr. Osman Bektaş evaluated the natural disasters, especially landslides and floods, which have been seen intensively in the Eastern Black Sea region in recent years. Stating that earthquakes have a triggering effect on the increase in landslides, Bektaş said, "The Black Sea coast should be ready for an earthquake of 6.6 magnitude or higher at any time. The coastal areas are much more dangerous and risky."

The spill involved heavy M100-grade fuel oil that solidifies at a temperature of 25 degrees Celsius and, unlike other oil products, does not float to the surface but sinks to the bottom or remains suspended in the water column.

Of course over summer water often warms more than 25 degrees and would probably refloat. Some of us remember such experiences from our childhood.

Мазут из затонувших российских кораблей дошел до северо-восточного побережья оккупированного Крыма.

"По радиолокационным снимкам хорошо заметно поверхностное пленочное загрязнение, а не мазут, который находится под водой… Мы видим именно поверхностное загрязнение у порта Феодосия, у мыса Такиль и, предположительно, на большом участке ЮБК - от Партенита до мыса Меганом (Судак)”

The problems of Russian Railways are forcing importers to resort more and more often to delivering goods from the Far East by road instead of rail, and Chinese carriers are taking over the market there.

Logistics companies and drivers from China began to explore this destination in earnest in the second half of 2024, when road freight demand and prices began to rise rapidly due to capacity shortages on rail routes.

Until this year, competition from Chinese transport companies was felt mainly in the Far East and Siberia, while Chinese lorries rarely reached central Russia, because the route to Moscow or St. Petersburg, where a significant portion of imported cargo is sent and then back, exceeds 15,000 kilometres, there are few high-speed roads, especially to the Urals, and the climate and infrastructure are not the most pleasant, says the manager of a federal logistics company. In addition, Chinese carriers are prohibited from cabotage - that is, transporting domestic cargo within Russia, he adds. Traditionally, Chinese applicants have received almost half as many permits to cross the Russian border as Russian drivers have received to cross the Chinese border.

Аналитик Анатолий Несмиян предрекает повторения 1917 года в Россию

Он сравнивает возможные сценарии с историей 1917 года, но с существенными различиями: "Февраль практически неизбежен, а вот с Октябрем есть сомнения: для него нет субъекта, способного повести за собой массы, как большевики в начале прошлого века".
https://www.dialog.ua/russia/307047/_1735470666
@blacksea

The Russian state should apologise to Azerbaijan. Secondly, it must recognise its culpability. Thirdly, it must punish those responsible, bring them to criminal responsibility and pay compensation to the state of Azerbaijan and the injured passengers and crew members. These are our conditions.

Причината морските треви да бъдат основен обект на изследване в проекта е тяхната ключова роля в екосистемата на Черно море и отвъд. Те са от съществено значение за химическия баланс на водата и редица екологични процеси. Затова голяма част от институциите, занимаващи се с екологични въпроси, фокусират усилията си върху изучаването на морските треви.

Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, a scientist who heads the Water Problems Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and served as Russia’s Environment Minister from 1991 to 1996, said Wednesday that at least 200,000 tons of soil had been contaminated with fuel oil along the Black Sea coast following the tanker accident near the Kerch Strait.

“It will grow. There is no doubt about it because the fuel oil remains in the sea and in fairly large quantities,” Danilov-Danilyan said during a press conference. “It will continue to wash up onto the cleaned shore. It will need to be cleaned a second, or third time. We need to prepare for this.”

He also criticized the lack of equipment being deployed and the reliance on untrained, unequipped volunteers.

“There are no bulldozers, no trucks. Practically no heavy machinery,” he said. “Volunteers have only shovels and useless plastic bags that rip apart. While the bags wait to finally be collected, storms arrive, and they end up back in the sea. It’s unthinkable!”

At his annual press conference last week, Putin blamed the oil tankers’ captains for the disaster, claiming they ventured out to sea without authorization.

Crypto mining is to be illegal by 2031 in Caucasian republics (including Chechenia and Dagestan) and occupied Ukrainian territories.

In some of the Russian Far South (parts of Ingushetia, Buryatia), crypto mining will be illegal between mid-November to mid-March.

This is done due to excessive growth of consumption due to mining and difficulties to keeping up with the balance.

Romanian prosecution seeks harsher punishments for incitement to violence, Legionnaire propaganda

The failed coup attempt immediately after the court decision to rerun the presidential elections, woke up Romanian institutions to what are the risks they are facing.

https://www.romania-insider.com/romanian-general-prosecutor-harsher-punishments-incitement-violence-legionnaire-propaganda-dec-2024
@blacksea

The coastal territory sees the cost of stretching between Georgia and Russia when the autocracies in both neighbours are in deep crisis.

Approximately 40% of the tankers' 9,200-ton cargo spilled into the water, polluting a 50-kilometer stretch of coastline in Russia's Krasnodar region.

Reports indicate that both ships had deactivated their tracking systems days before the accident, raising questions about compliance with safety protocols.

Environmental advocates argue for stricter oversight and the retirement of aging vessels.

As incidents like this increase — up 62% in Russia between 2022 and 2023 — preventive measures are more urgent than ever.

Капитанът на единия от трите разляти кораба и заподозрян за петролните разливи. Всички нагоре по веригата са чисти като сълзи.

Сега чакаме да видим кого ще обвинят за липсата на организирано почистване.

The documents appear to contradict Georgescu’s claims that he didn’t receive any foreign campaign support and came first in the Nov. 24 election simply because his message resonated with the Romanian people.

Some 25,000 accounts were part of a network on TikTok directly associated with Georgescu’s campaign and became very active in those two weeks, the document says.

About 800 of those accounts had existed since 2016 — the year TikTok was released — but had barely been active until November of this year.

Logins for Romanian election-related websites were posted on a cybercrime platform of Russian origin as well as on a private Telegram channel known for disseminating data stolen from many countries — but never Russia, according to one of the SRI documents.

The SRI identified more than 85,000 cyberattacks that sought to exploit vulnerabilities in Romania’s election IT system, aiming to obtain access to data, change content and crash the network. The attacks continued for several days, including election day and the day after, and came via 33 countries — making it difficult to attribute responsibility to one nation in particular, the SRI said.

Georgescu claimed he spent no money on his election bid — raising questions about how he managed to run such a successful campaign without dropping a dime.

But a briefing note compiled by Romania’s interior ministry reveals that so-called social media influencers were recruited by intermediary companies, at least one of which appears to have been a ghost entity, to promote an unnamed “ideal candidate” profile before the election on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. These influencers earned around €80 per post for every 20,000 followers they had.

Some of Georgescu’s campaign supporters involved in promoting and buying votes are members of right-wing, extremist movements; have ties to organized crime; or belong to religious cults that were previously involved in promoting pro-Russian, antisemitic, anti-NATO and anti-Ukraine narratives, according to the interior ministry document.

Horaţiu Potra, a former member of the French Foreign Legion, was arrested with 20 other armed men headed for Bucharest

That farm, Jbara Horses, is now in the spotlight after it emerged that Georgescu had been there on Saturday with several men who were later arrested for carrying weapons and suspected of planning to stoke unrest in the capital.

Authorities have launched an investigation into the armed group’s leader, Horaţiu Potra, for “illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, and public incitement”. His 20 associates are also suspected of these crimes.

Georgescu initially denied knowing Potra. On Monday, when he was confronted with photos showing them together, he said he couldn’t “recall precisely” when he had last seen Potra...

The far-right politician had called on his supporters to join him on Sunday in protest against the scrapped vote. Dozens demonstrated alongside him in Mogoșoaia, a Bucharest suburb, while hundreds more came out in Bucharest and other cities.

Potra on Sunday told reporters at a police station in Ploiești, some 80km north of Bucharest, that he had been arrested on his way to the capital. He was headed there “to vote, yes” he said, when asked what he was doing.

The clean-shaven paramilitary — who bears a stark resemblance to the late leader of Russia’s Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin — had been a member of the French Foreign Legion and a military contractor in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Romanian contingent in DRC is dubbed “Romeos”, according to other military contractors present in the country.

Potra was released from pre-trial detention on Tuesday, after authorities raided his properties and found over €2mn in cash, in various currencies...

The police said they found firearms, machetes, swords, a professional drone and more than €20,000 worth of cash in his car which “were allegedly intended to be used to incite some individuals to commit crimes during unauthorised public gatherings and to reward them”.

Adina Marincea, a researcher at the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Holocaust Studies in Romania, said Potra and the other paramilitaries are “very ideological and can probably mobilise bigger networks of people”, drawing on support from some elements within the country’s Orthodox church, connections with the country’s security services and a growing pool of ultranationalist sympathisers.

The Orthodox church issued a rare statement at the weekend for its priests and community not to engage in any vote-related protests. It also started proceedings on Tuesday against one of its most prominent bishops who had expressed support for Georgescu.

Potra and his men have been active in the Central African Republic, where remnants of Prigozhin’s Wagner group remain to this day. Potra denied any association with the Russian warlord or his fighters. He said that in 2016 and 2017, he was training the presidential guard in Bangui, with Wagner arriving later.

According to the UN, a year ago, Potra’s men “intensified their strategic and tactical support” to the Congolese army’s counteroffensive against the M23 rebels and the Rwandan army, although Kigali does not acknowledge being involved in the conflict. The “Romeos” have also pushed back the rebels when they attacked a town where the Romanians run a training camp, said the UN and other military contractors operating in North Kivu.

Potra has, indeed, a deep pool of mercenaries to recruit. Around the time the country joined the EU, in 2007, Romanians were the second-largest contingent in the Foreign Legion behind the French, according to Bogdan Gârbovan, president of the Legion’s veterans association in Romania.

Marincea of the Elie Wiesel Institute noted that the appeal of these groupings with highly “macho” views blending religion with ultranationalism has grown as authorities failed to intervene.

“Public authorities have failed systematically to deal with them and belittled the threat they pose to save face.”

She said that the groups’ fascination with fascist leaders is in part because they “legitimised political violence and killing” of officials deemed as corrupt. “Violence is also considered a political tactic for these paramilitary groups.”

Earlier at the summit on Saturday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had been questioned onstage about Syria’s future, an increasingly uncomfortable encounter as he was asked to explain Russia’s role in the country over the past decade. At one point he was reduced by his interlocutor, James Bays from Al Jazeera, to blurting out: “If you want me to say: ‘yes we lost in Syria, we are so desperate,’ if this is what you need, let’s continue”.

By contrast the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, also a former head of Turkish intelligence, surrounded by a vast entourage, said little in public, sensing his country may be the biggest external beneficiary of Assad’s fall. Turkey has at its disposal the umbrella group of Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army and a relationship of sorts with HTS. But with power comes responsibility. More than any other country in the region it has the power to help Syrians form the independent consensus government their long struggle for liberation deserves.

Първата община, която ще го имлементира е Бургас