Russia is slowly dialing up the pain dial

February 03, 2022

Source

It has begun.  Small stuff, but quite worth mentioning.

• The Belarusian military has taken control of a Ukie reconnaissance drone and forced it to land.  The Ukie ambassador was summoned.  Details here.
• Russia has banned the German propaganda outlet Deutsche Welle.  Here is a machine translation of the official announcement on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website:

On the content of response measures against the German media operating on the territory of the Russian Federation in connection with the ban on the broadcasting of the RT DE TV channel in Germany

MEDIA RELEASE As part of the response measures announced on February 2 in response to the unfriendly actions of the FRG to ban satellite and other broadcasting of the German-language television channel RT DE, the Russian side intends to implement the first stage of response measures: – closure of the correspondent office of the German television and radio company Deutsche Welle in the Russian Federation; – cancellation of accreditation of all employees of the Russian Bureau of Deutsche Welle; – termination of satellite and other broadcasting of the Deutsche Welle television and radio company on the territory of the Russian Federation; – initiation by the competent authorities of the Russian Federation of the procedure for considering the issue of recognizing Deutsche Welle as a foreign mass media outlet acting as a foreign agent; – launching the process of forming a list of representatives of state and public structures of Germany involved in restricting the broadcasting of RT DE and otherwise putting pressure on the Russian media operator, who will be banned from entering the territory of the Russian Federation. The list is not expected to be published. Information on the next steps in the response will be posted in due course.

Better late than never.

There is a lot more going on, I will be back with an analysis later.

Cheers

Andrei