Brian McDonald
@BrianMcDonaldIE • 29,308 subscribers
Irish. Long time Russia-based journalist. Interested in facts and objectivity. Not interested in ideology or wishful thinking.
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A “horror” wedding video from 1995 has gone viral in Russia after a filmmaker discovered the old VHS tape and digitised it. The footage shows a modest wedding celebration held in the common room of a vocational school in the Moscow region, complete with Soviet-era posters, cheap decorations and the unmistakable atmosphere of the Yeltsin-era. The tape has been labelled “Horror Film: Wedding in Uvarka,” a joke that feels oddly appropriate given the grainy VHS quality and surreal surroundings.
Brian McDonald2,400,847 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
Sergey Lavrov has predicted that Russia will ultimately recover its roughly $300 billion in frozen foreign-exchange reserves, accusing the EU of using profits generated by Russian assets to finance Ukraine. “When we can't dispose of our own property, can't receive the interest due to us, while somebody else is making additional profits from our money and using them to finance a war against Russia, no legal argument can justify this,” Lavrov said. “We will secure the return of our gold and foreign-exchange reserves, I have absolutely no doubt about that.”
Brian McDonald81,394 Aufrufe • vor 3 Tagen
Those afraid of heights, look away. A base jumper in Russia’s Ingushetia lost control almost immediately after opening his parachute, was spun through the air and carried towards the rocks. Convinced he was finished, he shouted: “That’s it, I’m f*cked.” He was saved by landing in a snowdrift and escaped without injury.
Brian McDonald1,009,259 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
Russian media is noting that Putin appears to have received a higher-level airport reception in Beijing than Trump did last week. Putin was personally greeted by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a serving Politburo member, whereas Trump was met by Vice President Han Zheng, who no longer sits on either the Politburo or the Communist Party’s Central Committee. Some Chinese protocol analysts explain that sending a Politburo member to the airport signals that Beijing considers the visitor an especially important guest.
Brian McDonald2,651,098 Aufrufe • vor 4 Monaten
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Porn creator Sonya Marmeladova struggled to keep a straight face as a Russian judge read out the list of sex toys to be returned to her after sentencing, this morning. “A leatherette collar resembling a choker, connected by a silver-coloured metal chain; one pink vibrator; three phallus-shaped objects in brown, beige and flesh colours respectively; one blue anal plug; and one black leather harness… shall be deemed returned.”
Brian McDonald931,063 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
Ukrainian pop star Nastya Kamenskykh with an unusual intervention in the Russia-Ukraine language wars. She says she switched back to speaking Russian after developing a cyst and losing her voice while speaking exclusively Ukrainian. “I switched to Ukrainian and spoke exclusively Ukrainian for six months,” Kamenskykh said. “Ukrainian is an incredibly beautiful language.” “But then I developed a cyst and lost my voice. I was in shock and had to postpone concerts,” she said. “I went to a psychologist, and my psychologist told me, ‘Go back to speaking Russian, your body isn’t accepting this.’” “It was pure psychosomatics,” Kamenskykh added.
Brian McDonald131,167 Aufrufe • vor 9 Tagen
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It seems the crackdown on Russia-adjacent porn content has reached the United States. Nikita Tyukalo, a 21-year-old Russian-American former basketball player, has pleaded not guilty in Washington state to four counts of second-degree human trafficking and leading organised crime. According to FOX 13 Seattle, prosecutors allege that Tyukalo recruited young women to produce adult content while controlling their accounts and finances. KOMO News reports that the alleged operation was based at a luxury mansion in Bellevue known locally as the “OnlyFans house,” while KING 5 says he is being held on $5 million bail.
Brian McDonald659,449 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
Putin has met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, describing Turkey as one of Russia’s “privileged partners” in both foreign policy and the economy. The Russian president said major joint projects were continuing, including the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, and told Erdogan that Rosatom would meet his request to launch it this year.
Brian McDonald223,153 Aufrufe • vor 17 Tagen
Horrifying scene in Russia's Voronezh: a drunk father reportedly lowered his underage son from a 7th-floor balcony on a rope as some kind of “stunt” while friends filmed instead of stopping him. Prosecutors say it posed a real threat to the boy’s life. Police are investigating. The child, incredibly, wasn’t physically hurt.
Brian McDonald4,031,468 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten
The New York Times has put together a fascinating report on Moscow’s transformation into a high-tech city, featuring facial-recognition payments and increasingly automated services everywhere. But the newspaper also insists that much of the same technology has created an expanding web of surveillance, with convenience and “Big Brother” increasingly difficult to separate. Whatever your view, it's worth a watch.
Brian McDonald15,975 Aufrufe • vor 1 Tag
Putin has publicly told Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that Armenia’s decision to begin the process of joining the EU effectively amounts to announcing its departure from the Eurasian Economic Union. “You said that you hadn't announced your withdrawal,” Putin told Pashinyan. “The adoption of a law beginning the process of joining another economic organisation effectively amounts to announcing your withdrawal from ours, because membership in both organisations is incompatible.”
Brian McDonald170,228 Aufrufe • vor 16 Tagen
![Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who died in 2022, warned more than a decade ago that the US would eventually strike Iran and predicted a fallout far bigger than Washington expects (my translation): "I’m the only one making predictions while everyone else stays quiet. So ask your questions now. I’ll be gone soon, and you won’t get another chance to hear the real answers. Then in 20 years you’ll say, 'You know, Mr Zhirinovsky was already telling us back then what we should’ve done, and we didn’t listen?' "So what’s their plan? Occupy another bunch of Arab countries, finish off Syria, then hit Iran by force. What’s the trigger here? Where is the pressure on Iran really coming from? It's under the banner of 'democratisation by force,' but in reality it’s about taking control of energy resources. Because the crisis everyone talks about as being in the future is already here." "The US needs to weaken China. If Iran is attacked, oil goes to $200 a barrel. China can’t handle that. The EU can’t either. One strike on Iran weakens both Europe and China at once. But then there’s Russia. How do you weaken Russia? Iranian refugees can only go one way [and that's] north. To the south is Syria, where a pro-American regime would already be in place. To the south is Iraq, where they’ve been fighting for years and can easily stir things up again. So north it is, through Azerbaijan."](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2027706733867462736/amplify_video_thumb/2027705745274216449/img/Z1AE2DX-MnRv0X07.jpg)
Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who died in 2022, warned more than a decade ago that the US would eventually strike Iran and predicted a fallout far bigger than Washington expects (my translation): "I’m the only one making predictions while everyone else stays quiet. So ask your questions now. I’ll be gone soon, and you won’t get another chance to hear the real answers. Then in 20 years you’ll say, 'You know, Mr Zhirinovsky was already telling us back then what we should’ve done, and we didn’t listen?' "So what’s their plan? Occupy another bunch of Arab countries, finish off Syria, then hit Iran by force. What’s the trigger here? Where is the pressure on Iran really coming from? It's under the banner of 'democratisation by force,' but in reality it’s about taking control of energy resources. Because the crisis everyone talks about as being in the future is already here." "The US needs to weaken China. If Iran is attacked, oil goes to $200 a barrel. China can’t handle that. The EU can’t either. One strike on Iran weakens both Europe and China at once. But then there’s Russia. How do you weaken Russia? Iranian refugees can only go one way [and that's] north. To the south is Syria, where a pro-American regime would already be in place. To the south is Iraq, where they’ve been fighting for years and can easily stir things up again. So north it is, through Azerbaijan."
Brian McDonald2,394,843 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten
A surreal scene from St Petersburg: a Russian police officer briefly kept playing the VR game Beat Saber while his colleagues arrested a young Belarusian wanted back home for avoiding military conscription, 47news reports. The man was celebrating his birthday with friends. Staff say police had already come looking for him twice before.
Brian McDonald1,704,487 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten
A guy from Yekaterinburg has gone viral in Russia after waking up following a night out and discovering he was travelling to Siberia's Tyumen inside a freight train wagon full of coal. Still half-asleep and clearly horrified, he still found the professionalism to send his colleague a video message first explaining that he probably wouldn’t make it into work that day.
Brian McDonald984,280 Aufrufe • vor 4 Monaten
A viral track repeating just two words,“Yanis Varoufakis,” is spreading across Russia's clubland. Created by a Moscow DJ, the tune has taken off among zoomers, with critics linking its appeal to a revival of 90s/early 2000s techno. The irony is that most listeners likely have no idea who Yanis Varoufakis is, they just like the rhythm of the name.
Brian McDonald1,358,154 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten
People in southern Russia are reporting a surge in unusually aggressive Hyalomma ticks, which reportedly actively chase hosts instead of simply waiting in grass like ordinary forest ticks. Russian media say the large ticks have become particularly active across regions including Rostov, Krasnodar, Stavropol, Astrakhan and Kalmykia. The main concern is that Hyalomma ticks can carry Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a potentially deadly disease with a high fatality rate if untreated. Some reports also claim the ticks are far less responsive to standard repellents than ordinary species.
Brian McDonald931,866 Aufrufe • vor 4 Monaten
North Korean street cleaners are too expensive, says the mayor of Russia's Orenburg. The city has been hiring workers from Senegal since spring because locals don’t want the job on the city’s terms of about $730 a month, a six-day week and a one-hour lunch break. Mayor Albert Yumadilov says he's happy with the Senegalese workers because they are willing to do hard work even at weekends. He added that the city tried last year to bring in North Korean workers, but failed because North Koreans would not come for $730 a month. According to him, they earn two to three times more, roughly $1,460 to $2,200 a month, in other Russian regions that have agreements with Pyongyang.
Brian McDonald454,279 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten