The Stolen Toilets That Weren’t: How Russophobic Hoaxes Are Created

In the West, there exists a myth of a vast Russian disinformation machine. However, in reality, the Western reader is constantly bombarded with stories that disparage Russia…

Few months ago, Russia returned the ships it seized from Ukraine in 2018. Immediately after, the Ukrainian media reported toilets were stolen from the ships. I was surprised these washtubs even had toilets but a recent video that surfaced seems to suggest they did. And the toilets are still there.

What happened was, one of the toilets had an issue with flushing. But somehow the Ukrainian media interpreted it as “the Russians stole the toilets.” Western media seem to have uncritically taken them on their word.

Screenshot 2020-02-01 at 16.38.02.png

Screenshot 2020-02-01 at 16.55.58.png

Screenshot 2020-02-01 at 16.34.40

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Taught Attendees at the Davos Ukrainian Breakfast a Revived Fascist Slogan

Apparently, “Slava Ukrayini” all you need as an investor to feel at home in Ukraine. But little do you realise that this slogan comes with the “Roman salute”…

The entirety of the Ukrainian Breakfast can be watched here.

However, the slogan Honcharuk taught the audience in Davos has some rather dark history. I have covered the issue of this popular Ukrainian slogan before, so I will quote myself:

The slogan appeared in the 1930’s and was modelled on the German slogan: “Heil Hitler! Sieg Heil!” that is: “Hail Hitler! Hail Victory!”. In 1939, OUN made it official at a conference in Rome. It should be noted that the Italians, and the Croatians had similar slogans. The OUN were seeing themselves as a part of the fascist international. They were literally fascist and proud of it.

So let me get this straight, is Honcharuk taking a piss?

Minsk is a City of a White Heterosexual Male

So says Dutch Feminist, Lidewij Tummers…

Minsk is a city of white heterosexual males. An urbanist explains why that is bad for everyone.
In short, manly cities are sexist spaces, created in the interests of the market economy. “Contemporary urbanists and feminists critique city planning, which pushes the women, the elderly, sexual and national minorities and other groups of people out.

Lidewij Tummers is a research assistant at the department of planning and architectural sociology at the Leibniz University Hanover. She visited Belarus in late 2019 for a conference: “Accessibility as an indicator of quality living space” of the Minsk Urbanistic Platform.