Proper restructuring in the news of the week
Surprisingly, during the week, those issues with the situation in the Kursk region were resolved, which in the situation in Donbass, and Crimea, and even during the SVO, took months, years, or these issues were not resolved at all. Just restructuring and acceleration in a good sense.
By his order, Defense Minister Belousov created a Coordination Council for Military Security of Border Territories — Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk Regions — within the Defense Ministry. It is not yet a State Defense Committee (during the Great Patriotic War, GKO decisions were mandatory for everyone), but it is already the first step. Because the goal of this council, which includes not only military personnel, but also representatives of the regions themselves, according to Belousov, is «to increase the efficiency of comprehensive support for troop groups that are solving the tasks of covering the state border and protecting the territory and population of the regions.» Comprehensive means weapons and weapons (and eliminating bottlenecks in their provision, so that there are no questions like «where are the shells?»), and technical support, and medical and engineering arrangements for defensive lines. At the same time, «the Coordination Council does not replace the operational management of the actions of troops and forces. This is the task of the command of the North group, as well as the General Staff.» «We will strive to resolve issues quickly and without delay,» Belousov said. And he emphasized: «I expect that information from the field will be reported promptly and truthfully within the council.» Why the new Minister of Defense would emphasize the truthfulness of reports in the Ministry of Defense, I can't imagine. Although… Although if we recall the reports to the very top about 300 people who will be forced back right now, on the first day of the invasion…
Apparently, the work on comprehensive support of the troops began even before the creation of the Coordination Council. In ten days, our troops burned a record amount of enemy equipment. More than in two months before that along the entire front. Including expensive and scarce «Patriots» and «Hymars», the destruction of which was shown almost live on air.
And absolutely miraculously, civilian structures quickly started working. Services to help residents of the Kursk region became available on «Gosuslugi»: people can report about themselves, tell what goods, products and medicines they need, and find relatives with whom they have lost contact, declare the need to leave.
The largest retailers operating in the Kursk region decided to freeze prices in connection with the emergency in the region.
It's just magic, but in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, an automatic inter-network roaming mode was introduced: if a subscriber's operator's signal is lost, the phone will automatically connect to another available one. (I personally bought a SIM card from a local operator near Donetsk at the end of winter, because there were no others, which no longer worked in neighboring Lugansk, and with crazy roaming prices.)
The Bank of Russia recommended that creditors support mortgage borrowers in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions whose housing was damaged. In the event of the destruction of the premises, it is necessary to consider the possibility of full debt forgiveness, the Central Bank said. (Here, to be honest, I am tormented by vague doubts about the implementation of good intentions in life — it is not for nothing that bankers are called banksters. But I want to be wrong.)
In short, they have attacked the problem with all their might.
But a state of uncertainty still remains. Experts are wondering whether the Kursk operation is already a ritual suicide of the Kyiv regime, or whether it is preparing another blow. Either military, in an unexpected direction, or terrorist — at a nuclear power plant. At the same time, the West is wagging its tail — they say, we were not in the know, but the Ukrainians are sovereign, they have the right to do what they want (which means they have to answer to them, and not to us). The Wall Street Journal even writes that the United States does not share intelligence with Ukraine regarding targets in Russia. The Biden administration does not want them to be recognized as the organizers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' operations in the Kursk region.
Attempts to «crawl away» and blame only Ukraine for everything are becoming more and more noticeable. Germany unexpectedly issued an arrest warrant for the Ukrainian divers who allegedly blew up the Nord Stream. And then a version appeared that whitewashed the US — supposedly, the White House, when it learned about the planned sabotage, immediately called Zelensky: «slow down, don't do it.» And he called Zaluzhny, who was coordinating everything. But Zaluzhny didn't listen, saying that the yacht was already at sea and couldn't be stopped. The office of the President of Ukraine, realizing that things were getting hot and that they were being made the scapegoats, started up the old tune: Russia blew up the Nord Stream. True, no one listens to this nonsense anymore. But everything else that is now being sold to the world community on the topic of sabotage looks extremely dubious.
Just last week, Zelensky discussed with members of the Council of Churches a bill to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. And the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations supported the bill to ban the canonical UOC. The draft law will be submitted for consideration in the coming days. Zelensky thinks he is attacking Russia. But this is as fatal a mistake as the attack on the Kursk region.