Free Russia Report

A reminder: Members are encouraged to share the news they found most interesting - and important in the chat: https://t.me/+jFRMFUpcxQwwNmFh ... not referring to flashy click-bait news copied by a thousand channels

wtf

Some reporting by the chat members will continue for the moment in the chat: https://t.me/+jFRMFUpcxQwwNmFh

I've been asked for recommendations of English channels, but I'm really not the right person to address as I scoured the Ukrainian, russian and ruZZian sources. Here's a channel I can recommend: https://t.me/MorgothsDarkness Mostly war videos, but also news and they fact-check.

Okay, a last one, because it's so funny.: Former Trump US National Security Adviser announced Trump's capitulation to Putin Trump has shown weakness in resolving the war in Ukraine because he has followed Russia's lead, his former national security adviser John Bolton said. He drew attention to the concessions to the Kremlin, which the new White House administration actually announced its readiness for. According to Bolton, it is unacceptable to allow Russia to "encroach on the sovereignty of Ukraine, involve US enemies such as North Korea in its war, and then betray the Ukrainians by agreeing to the loss of their territories without security guarantees or the prospect of joining NATO." "By making these and other concessions even before the start of negotiations, Trump actually surrendered to Putin," Bolton stated. He noted that Russia's military actions were "deplorable," but Trump still "justifies Putin's decision to invade." Bolton believes that such a position harms national security interests, which "will go far beyond Central Europe, and this is clearly understood" by US adversaries in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region. To prevent this, Washington "must unequivocally support Ukraine and all NATO allies assisting Kyiv": "It is not in our national interest to allow the Kremlin's unprovoked aggression to prevail. Shame on the Trump administration," Bolton concluded. He also commented to CNN, saying that after such a start of dialogue with the United States on Ukraine, "the Kremlin drinks vodka directly from the bottle," because "it was a great day for Moscow." Can't say that the man is wrong. https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2025/02/13/eks-sovetnik-ponatsbezopasnosti-ssha-zayavil-okapitulyatsii-trampa-pered-putinim-a155112

Dear subscribers I am shutting down the Report Group project, as it doesn't work out. The Ukraine Report is already closed and will be deleted. As well as Israel Report and Free Russia Report. Thank you for your time and wish you the best

Just shooting out the last posts.

domestic gas prices increasing

prices lower than tomorrow

medals

Russia’s military spending soars, surpassing all of Europe’s defense budgets combined — The Financial Times — Meduza https://meduza.io/en/news/2025/02/13/russia-s-military-spending-soars-surpassing-all-of-europe-s-defense-budgets-combined-the-financial-times

Chinese one-child policy in reverse 😵‍💫 another mad suggestion https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2025/02/12/vpravitelstve-prizvali-biznes-zastavlyat-sotrudnikov-rozhat-detei-a154999

Rosenberg on how trump has handed putin a diplomatic win https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8ed3nk3n6ro

Galleoti on trump-hegsgeth statements. A very good day for putin; a bad day for Ukraine and international democratic community https://youtube.com/watch?v=giVMY5LHBjA&si=kLmxzyxDCe0NZO5f

Aaaaaaand ..... we also have this about the 2025 harvest: Kindly reported by Interfax ... According to him, there is a whole range of factors that lead to a decrease in the harvest. Among them, he, in particular, named the decline in the technological efficiency of grain production. "This is already a fact - a lower yield with the same level of sowing," he said. The quotas for seed imports also raise concerns. "We got the last harvest under conditions when quotas for imported seeds had just been introduced. Everyone knew that they would be, so we dragged in as many seeds as possible and formed reserves. This year there are no reserves ( of imported seeds - IF ), the safety margin has melted away sharply," said the head of the union. "In the seed fund, priority is definitely given to domestic genetics. And it simply gives a 20-30% lower yield." @freerussia_report

Another region running out of money In the Saratov region, patients with diabetes mellitus, oncology and cardiovascular diseases risk being left without preferential medicines in the next six months. 3 billion rubles are not enough to purchase drugs for them, said the head of the regional Ministry of Health Vladimir Dudakov at a meeting in the regional Duma, 164.ru reports. Money allocated from federal and regional budgets will be enough only for a few months: diabetics will be provided with medicines until May, cancer patients - until July, and "heart patients" - until August. @freerussia_report

A new first Russian criminal organisations using FPV drones to kill their rivals Well, why not? Progress in russia includes all and everything. @freerussia_report

"It will last no more than six months." Former Russian Finance Minister stated that the National Welfare Fund is almost completely exhausted The funds of the National Welfare Fund of Russia, which were actively spent on patching up budget "holes" after the start of the war, will only be enough to finance state expenditures for six months in the event of a serious drop in oil prices. This is the assessment given in a column for RBC by the former Minister of Finance, former Chairman of the Board of the FC Otkritie Bank Mikhail Zadornov. He points out that the volume of liquid assets of the fund — currency and gold in accounts at the Central Bank — as of February 1 had fallen to 3.8 trillion rubles, or less than 2% of GDP. Pre-war it was 7.4% of GDP. The money from the fund, which the government had been saving for years at the expense of the budget's oil and gas super-revenues, went to finance the defense order and large-scale budget expenditures, which gave the economy a stimulus of 10% of GDP over three years, or 20 trillion rubles. But as a result, the government has almost no reserves left, while military and war spending continues to grow: in 2025, they will amount to 13.2 trillion rubles, +22% than 2024, twice the 2023 figure, and almost four times more than in pre-war 2021. Balancing the budget can only happen after the end of the war. And reducing the budget deficit is “a key factor in defeating inflation,” which “is increasingly felt by the population and businesses.” Pre-war, the NWF held $113.5 billion in liquid assets, but by early 2025, only $37.5 billion remained. The Z-regime spent two-third ($76 bn) in 3 years, using 6.5 trillion rubles to cover the budget deficit and pouring hundreds of billions of rubles into state corporations that needed bailouts from sanctions and funds for the Kremlin’s mega-projects. @freerussia_report

Again horses and bicycles... The Z-channel Dontstopwar published another video about the difficulties with transport at the front, asking "What does the ban on personal transport in the SMO lead to?" @freerussia_report