Another Russian general killed

Hello,

I tried my best not to talk about the circus of ongoing peace negotiations in this video. I didn't succeed entirely, but it is mostly a video about the assassination of another Russian general that happened yesterday morning in Moscow.

Watch the video on the website or read the transcript below.

Best,
Anders.

Transcript:

Hi, there is still so much focus on possible peace negotiations, ceasefire settlements, and all these things. Trump is pushing on to get a deal very fast. And it's very confusing to follow in the news because seemingly there are very different plans and ideas on the Russian side and on the Ukrainian side. But still, Trump is talking about a deal being just around the corner. And all the time, there is something new. Somebody said something. As I'm recording this, Trump just posted something on Truth Social that might be interpreted as maybe he would be willing to put a little bit of pressure on Russia. Who knows?

The big picture here is just it's super confusing. So many things going on. And as I said, I think before, the big picture of this is that we are getting close to the point where it's becoming clear that Trump's plan for a quick deal are not working. And then we're getting to that point when we will see what will he actually do when it turns out that this is not working. So that's the big picture.

So, what I thought I'd do here instead of focusing on whatever happened just this minute and that's going to be outdated before I get to release this video, I would talk about something else that happened yesterday and I don't think has gotten so much attention in the West. It's actually gotten quite a lot of attention in the Russian press and in Russian commentary, but not so much in the West. And that is the assassination of yet another Russian general in Moscow.

It happened yesterday on the same day that Steve Witkoff was in Moscow to meet Putin. I think he had a three-hour meeting. Well, then there was this assassination of a Russian lieutenant general. I think his name was Yaroslav Moskalik. And he was the deputy commander of the operations department of the general staff. So his job was basically planning of operations and then leading those operations.

According to rumors, he was a very efficient guy. So he was one of the skilled Russian generals and someone that you could see why, for example, Ukraine might be interested in taking him out. If he's actually someone who knows how to get stuff done and solve real problems, and he was also deeply engaged in planning and conduct of operations in Ukraine, well, then definitely he's someone to take out.

He was taken out by a car bomb in a Volkswagen Golf that was parked outside his apartment block in Moscow. So it went off when he stepped out of the door and nobody else was hurt. So he was the only victim of this attack. I think it's really interesting.

Of course, the Russians are spinning this as a terrorist attack, and they're talking about how the Ukrainians are these very immoral persons who would do such a thing. The Ukrainians have not taken responsibility for this attack, but I think there is a very high likelihood that it is them. At least you could see why they would have a motive for doing that. And the Russians are saying that they already have a pretty good idea about the suspect and that it was a guy coming from the Sumy region in Ukraine. So, well, we'll see.

But anyways, I think it's as an attack, it was very well conducted. They took out a serving military officer in the Russian armed forces and they did not hit any civilians. And I think it is really important to keep in mind that Ukraine probably has this capability to do that, to make these kinds of strikes in the Russian capital. This is the second time in recent history that they have done that. But also that this is an absolutely valid military target. There is nothing wrong in going after military officers even when they are back in Moscow. It's not like this guy was not a combatant and so he was somehow out of bounds for what you can do within international law. He was very much a combatant. He was deeply engaged in operations in Ukraine. So, a perfectly valid military target.

It also shows the reach and scope of what Ukraine is doing and that they have this ability to also conduct other types of operations. It's not all just drone warfare. It's also other kinds of operations.

There also was another assassination against a guy who was involved in production and development of new electronic warfare systems. So he's from the military-industrial complex, and I would guess Ukraine probably had something to do with that as well. That is probably more questionable if we go into international law, whether he was a valid target or not. But, I mean, you could definitely understand why Ukraine might want to take out such a guy who keeps on developing these good systems for the Russian army to counter Ukrainian drones. So, that's a different category of targets for these assassinations that we also see. And it's interesting to see that where we can say there are these different categories.

The third category I will mention is war criminals, that we also see these kinds of assassinations against these types of persons, when the Ukrainians believe they have strong evidence that they have been behind war crimes. Very often they will go after the officers who made the decisions to do that. So some officer who picked the target when there was an attack that killed civilians, missile strikes on apartment buildings, these things, they will do what they can to figure out who actually ordered that strike, who made the decision that this was the coordinate to go after, and then they will take out those people. So, that is a third category of targets for these types of assassinations. And I guess we can compare it to what Mossad did for many years where they would be hunting down Nazi war criminals. And we are seeing the same.

So this is just to say that there is this thing going on where Ukraine, the Ukrainian intelligence has this ability to strike deep inside of Russia. There is a very well-functioning intelligence system. Ukraine has very good intelligence services. And I think that is important also to keep in mind that not only can they conduct assassinations like that, but they have pretty wide access inside of Russia to get around these places. And I think that is important to keep in mind when we have these discussions also about how the Americans might pull the intelligence sharing with Ukraine and what that is going to mean for Ukraine's ability to continue the war. Ukraine actually does have a very, very capable intelligence service themselves. So they will still be able to get good intelligence to act on even if they don't get it from the Americans.

So I just wanted to share that story and those reflections because it's something different. The Western media is so covered in Donald Trump's tweets and all this talk about how there's going to be peace any moment. And pretty much whatever expert you ask, they will say, "yeah, probably not". But we'll see. But thank you very much for watching. I will see you again next time.