On this day in 1865, the last sizeable contingent of Confederate forces surrender to Union troops at Fort Towson, Oklahoma. The Rebels are commanded by Stand Watie, a Cherokee and the only Native American Confederate general of the Civil War.
Day: June 23, 2026
🇷🇺🚽 𝗟𝗮𝘃𝗿𝗼𝘃 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺𝘀 𝗕𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 | 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁s 𝗶𝗻 𝗥𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀
BLUF: The country that, as a matter of state policy, blocks, jams, and criminalizes independent domestic media, blocks, censors and criminalizes internet and social media usage, criminalizes speech critical of the Kremlin or its war in Ukraine, is running a censorship psyop (IPSO) through its own state-controlled media. The worst part about it is that aggregators in the west are spreading the Kremlin narrative more than the story would propagate organically.
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov submitted an op-ed to Politico Europe titled “Ukraine, Europe and Global Security.”
Politico pulled it before publication without explanation.
However, Lavrov’s editorial was rife with falsehoods and historical revisions which would trigger such an editorial decision.
The Russian Foreign Ministry immediately announced the pull, labeled it censorship by “Brussels”, and published the piece on the RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
Kremlin- and Russian Intelligence-controlled RT ran it under the headline “Censored Lavrov article Politico refused to publish.”
Kremlin spokesperson Maria Zakharova declared it proof that “Brussels blocks information from Russia.”
The piece itself argues that Western diplomacy is a deceptive cover for NATO expansion, that Europe orchestrated a coup in Kyiv in 2014, that the real goal of European peace proposals is to preserve Ukraine as an anti-Russian military platform, and that a NATO-Russia confrontation could escalate to nuclear exchange.
All of the same misinformation and propaganda points have been repeated over and over by the Kremlin and its proxies since 2014, when Russia first invaded Ukraine.
Repeating it on the fifth year of its illegal war of aggression does not equate to newsworthiness.
Acting shocked that a major Western news outlet is not interested is performance for the toiletless masses.
What makes the censorship grievance worth examining is who is making it.
Russia has imprisoned 27 journalists on criminal charges since the full-scale invasion began.
Calling the war a war carries up to 15 years in prison.
Between 1,500 and 1,800 journalists fled Russia after February 2022 rather than face prosecution.
Nearly every independent domestic media outlet has been banned, blocked, or declared a foreign agent or undesirable organization: Meduza, TV Rain, Echo of Moscow, and Novaya Gazeta were shut down or are in exile.
Foreign services such as BBC Russia, Deutsche Welle, France 24, Radio Liberty have all been blocked in Russia without legal process or explanation.
As a result of the row and amplification from Western aggregators, Lavrov’s article reached every audience it needed to reach.
The Politico pull, an editorial decision by an independent news organization, gave it the viral hook it would not otherwise have had.
Whether the submission was made in good faith or as a setup for the rejection is a question worth asking although either outcome served Moscow’s interests.
In the West, a private outlet declining to publish a Russian foreign minister’s op-ed is an editorial decision.
In Russia, it would be a sentencing guideline.
