Law, Power, and Justice

Thursday 2 July 2026

Russia:

· Russia is due to hold elections for the lower house State Duma in September.

· A member of the liberal Yabloko party was detained in Moscow on Thursday in connection with donations she allegedly made to a banned organization. Elena PEREPELIT, -60. was detained 8 days after Yabloco deputy leader was convicted of spreading false information about the Russian army and jailed for seven years. (The Moscow Times).

· Residential neighborhoods are a legitimate target for Russian terrorists.

Epstein:

· Today is the deadline for Todd Blanche to comply with Judge Sullivan’s order in Katie Phang’s lawsuit over the Epstein files.

Friday 3 July 2026

Article:

Hockenos, Paul (7/2/26) The Strategy behind the battle for Crimea. Foreign Policy.

· The 390 mile stretch – from Crimea to Rostov-on-Don is called the “Highway of Death” by Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.

· The Ukrainians are incapacitating the coastal route along the Sea of Azov and “taken out Crimea’s northern bridges across the Chongar Strait.” They have “choked maritime supply routes and disrupted rail services, leaving the only practical route to Crimea the Kerch Bridge…” Most of the traffic on the Kerch bridge is people exiting Crimea.

· “Ukraine has triggered critical fuel and ammunition shortages in Russian-occupied territories in the south around Zaporizhzhia and Kherson…” In one strike, Ukraine “torched ammunition and fuel bound for positions in Zaporizhzhia, along with up to 50 military vehicles.”

· “The Crimea offensive is thus acutely hampering Russia’s ability to execute military operations in its southern theatres.”

· They have reduced “Russia’s refining capacity by about a quarter….blackouts have paralyzed Sevastopol…” Gasoline sales were suspended for civilians.

· The halting of fuel supplies “complicates troop rotations, the evacuation of wounded, and supply of weapons.”

· Ukrainians are trying to turn Crimea “from a peninsula into an island…” the strategy is to strangle every supply route across occupied southern Ukraine.

· Crimea is central for the distribution of supplies and sustainment through “either the land routes or Crimea.” Hopefully this will allow Ukraine to go on a counteroffensive and take back territory.

· This is what is called “shaping the battlefield.” The Ukrainian weapon attacks force Russians to bypass the most cost-efficient routes and to “reroute convoys through circuitous detours…”

· Ukraine, by exhausting Crimea, “exacerbates the already serious public discontent in occupied Crimea.”

· Outages have even knocked out water pressure in parts of cities.

· This ties down more and more of Russia’s resources containing dissent, diverting soldiers, and testing new ways to supply Crimea.

By threatening Crimea, Ukraine is sending a message that Putin’s invasion of the peninsula did not deliver the security he promised