Mike Eckel
Opponent of Quiet Desperation. Contains Multitudes. In Search Of Meanness Or Sublimity. Former Moscow Correspondent. Vladivostok Fanboy. Chaotic Good. @RFERL
- Reposted by Mike EckelFT exclusive: “The US state department is set to fund Maga-aligned think-tanks and charities across Europe to disseminate Washington’s policy positions and challenge perceived threats to free speech.” via @annasophiegross.bsky.social and colleagues
- Reposted by Mike Eckel1/6 The Norwegian services presented their annual unclassified assessments today. Some highlights from Focus 2026 from NIS will follow: "It is in Russia's interest that the Greenland debate causes uncertainty and potential conflict between Europe and the United States."
- 👀Russian Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev -- who is the second-ranking officer at the GRU military intelligence agency -- was shot in Moscow (reportedly in the back) Investigators say it appears to have been an assassination attempt. sledcom.ru/news/item/20... www.interfax.ru/moscow/1071400
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- 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died since the start of the Russian invasion 4 years ago, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tells French TV. An unusual revelation since Ukrainians are tight-lipped about losses. (also a major undercount). www.lemonde.fr/internationa...
- The United States and Russia will reestablish "high-level military-to-military dialogue", according to US European Command. (had been suspended since a few months before the Feb. 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine). t.co/1SKhdiPGnv
- Peter Debbins, the ex-US Army Green Beret who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2021 after confessing to passing classified info to Russia's GRU, is still trying to convince the judge to cut his sentence.
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- Reposted by Mike EckelThese cuts at the Post are going to make the place *less competitive*, not more. Take @yjtorbati.bsky.social. She's a proven scoop-getter with hard-to-replicate skills. She'll get other work. And without people like her, the Post will find itself even further behind.
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- Reposted by Mike EckelMy American colleagues and friends dislike it when I liken the course their country is on to what happened in Russia in the early 2000s. It’s a comparison that’s getting harder and harder to avoid…
- Kremlin now confirming that Trump spoke directly to Putin, requested that Russia refrain from attacking Ukrainian targets. (Peskov specifically says "Kyiv"-- nothing about energy infrastructure or other towns/cities elsewhere)
- 👀The chief of @rosatom.bsky.social says they have "their finger on the pulse" of the situation in Iran, are ready to evacuate few hundred Russian employees at Bushehr nuclear plant if needed. (if they do pull out, that's a strong indication a US attack is imminent) tass.ru/politika/262...
- Chechnya's Ramzan Kadyrov-- heavily slurring, maybe more than usual -- makes an appearance today at the Kremlin, where the UAE president is meeting Putin and other Russian officials.
- Kremlin disses CSIS's newest estimates on Russian war casualties (nearly 1.2 million killed, wounded, and missing, between February 2022 and December 2025). Peskov says only Russia's Defense Ministry has the authority to release such data. 😶
- "At current rates, combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties could reach 2 million by the spring of 2026." www.csis.org/analysis/rus...
- "At current rates, combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties could reach 2 million by the spring of 2026." www.csis.org/analysis/rus...
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- Russia hammered Ukraine's Odesa overnight, injuring at least 2 dozen people and causing widespread damage. Emergency workers are searching rubble for survivors.
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- Reposted by Mike EckelWe just published our full analysis of the ICE killing of Alex Pretti on Bellingcat www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/01...
- Reposted by Mike EckelQuite a statement by the Republican governor of Vermont
- Reposted by Mike EckelOur analysis at @bellingcat.com on the killing of Alex Pretti breaks down the video evidence. He never reached for his gun. Agents sprayed/tackled him while his hands were up. He was disarmed before he was shot. The first shot came from an agent firing at him. www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/01...
- Reposted by Mike EckelIt’s -9 degrees. Downtown Minneapolis is packed for the anti-ICE rally and the crowd keeps growing
- I interviewed Alfred McLaren in 2024, about his late-career involvement in plans to send the Russian "Mir" submersible to North Pole (the 2007 flag planting stunt). Capt. McLaren was always bitter he got pushed out of the effort. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/u...
- Reposted by Mike EckelJack Smith: "My fear is that we have seen the rule of law function in our country for so long that many of us have come to take it for granted. The rule of law is not self-executing. It depends on our collective commitment to apply it."
- Kremlin seems happy about 4 hours of Witkoff-Kushner talks, per adviser Yuri Ushakov, who lasered in on the Trump-Putin Alaska meeting: "without resolving the territorial issue according to the formula agreed in Anchorage, there is no hope of achieving a long-term settlement." t.me/tass_agency/...
- Putin greeting Witkoff and Kushner at the Kremlin this evening (along with an unannounced U.S. official, per RIA: Josh Grunbaum, of the General Services Administration). Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov and negotiator Kirill Dmitriev also present per usual.
- Witkoff and Kushner will meet with Putin today after 7 pm Moscow time, per Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. t.me/tass_agency/...
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy likening the efforts to end Russia's war on Ukraine to "Groundhog Day"-- "no one would want to live that, repeating the same thing for weeks, months, years. Yet, that's exactly how we live now. And every forum like this [Davos] proves it." t.co/baCwoudtG4
- Witkoff and Kushner will meet with Putin today after 7 pm Moscow time, per Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. t.me/tass_agency/...
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- The Kremlin releases video showing Putin addressing Trump's Greenland offer... drawing parallel to the U.S. purchase of Alaska, suggesting Trump should offer a good price and Danes should accept ("Denmark has always treated Greenland as a colony and quite harshly, if not cruelly, towards it.")
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- Reposted by Mike EckelFor the second time in two days, Trump appears to confuse Iceland and Greenland. "They‘re not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you. I mean, our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland has already cost us a lot of money."
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- Reposted by Mike EckelTrump in Davos, Switzerland: "Without us, right now you'd all be speaking German". German is the main language of Switzerland.
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- About 4,000 residential buildings in Kyiv are still without heat as of today, and around 60 percent of the entire Ukrainian capital remains without electricity, per Zelenskiy. t.me/V_Zelenskiy_...
- Putin and Witkoff will meet in Moscow on Thursday, per Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. t.me/tass_agency/...
- More than 1 million people in Kyiv are without electricity, as a result of Russian attacks on Ukraine's grid and energy infrastructure. Temperatures have been around -10 to -15 C for more than a week.
- Belarus's presidential office has just now released a 30-second video of Lukashenko (wordlessly) signing the invitation, accepting the offer to join Trump's Board of Peace.
- 😶
- Norway's prime minister. 👇 www.regjeringen.no/en/whats-new...
- Am thoroughly underwhelmed by Lukashenko's Epiphany dip/swim.
- Reposted by Mike EckelDidn’t believe this was true but have checked and am told it was sent to the Norwegian government yesterday.
- Reposted by Mike EckelBessent on Greenland: "Peace through strength. Make it part of the US and there will not be a conflict because the US right now, we're the hottest country in the world, we're the strongest country in the world. Europeans project weakness. The US projects strength."
- Reposted by Mike EckelNew from us: Public opinion on nearly every aspect of President Donald Trump’s first year back in the White House is negative, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds. www.cnn.com/2026/01/16/p...
- Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian today.
- These eerie emergency heating shelters have popped around Kyiv, as authorities help people cope with heat and electricity outages caused by Russian air strikes, which have deliberately targeted energy facilities.
- Reposted by Mike EckelStunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...
- Reposted by Mike EckelWorth every second
- “If Iran falls, for Russia this isn't just a humiliation, it's probably the last holdout of authoritarian countries that align with them…that isn’t North Korea.” @nicolegrajewski.bsky.social www.rferl.org/a/russia-ira...
- Russian military recruiters are abducting men from their homes and forcing them to sign contracts to fight in Ukraine -- even if they are totally wasted drunk. Bonkers story by @thebarentsobserver.com ru.thebarentsobserver.com/kak-v-rossij...
- Russian military recruiters are abducting men from their homes and forcing them to sign contracts to fight in Ukraine-- even if they are heavily intoxicated. Bonkers story from @thebarentsobserver.com. ru.thebarentsobserver.com/kak-v-rossij...
- noteworthy that Russia's Foreign Ministry is now characterizing the Iranian protests as a "color revolution" -- "peaceful protests transformed – through the actions of provocateurs trained and armed abroad – into brutal and senseless violence." t.me/MFARussia/28...
- More than 100 Russian drones and missiles fired at Ukraine cities overnight, targeting energy infrastructure and civilian residence, per authorities. Large parts of Kyiv are still without power, or water, or heat-- or all 3. This is Kharkiv region 👇
- Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's lightning-rod former prime minister, says anti-corruption investigators searched her party's offices. "More than 30 heavily armed men ... seized the building and took employees hostage.... they took work phones, parliamentary documents and personal savings."
- Kyiv's mayor says the electricity situation in the Ukrainian capital is "extremely difficult," says critical infrastructure is suffering shortfalls. t.me/vitaliy_klit...
- Russia's Defense Ministry says it's targeting energy infrastructure it claims is used by Ukraine's military (never mind the fact that municipal heating plants are used by tens of thousands of civilians) t.me/tass_agency/...
- amid serious rumors that Chechnya's Ramzan Kadyrov is on his death bed (getting dialysis at a Moscow hospital), Chechen govt releases dodgy video of meeting, supposedly Monday, chaired by Kadyrov, who is heavily slurring (unclear if more than normal). Sons Akhmat, Adam get cameos.
- Russia's Defense Ministry says it's targeting energy infrastructure it claims is used by Ukraine's military (never mind the fact that municipal heating plants are used by tens of thousands of civilians) t.me/tass_agency/...
