That reporting is inaccurate if so. If you follow the Ukrainian news story link in the OP, you can click on the link to Kadyrov’s Telegram post and machine translate it or ask a Russian speaker translate its first sentence. It literally says “received from Musk”.

Why would a Nazi need a proxy for X?

They previously had a public exchange in the vein of Musk and Zuckerberg challenging each other to a fight, so it could be either.

Its main strength is that Ukraine would probably want to have Kadyrov’s personal Cybertruck as a trophy, so they’d be careful not to destroy it.

Remember your “to Berlin” car stickers, Russia?

He should have said “the special military operation”. A missed opportunity.

For now. Eventually they will be exchanged and sent back to war.

Must be the XY chromosomes. /s

I dont need updates or news and if something goes down, someone will make a post about it on lemmy, mastodon, matrix or peertube.

That’s fair, but I don’t think the same is true for most people. There is still a lot missing from the Fediverse in terms of prompt or important updates, especially if related to a matter outside the mainstream. I truly wish everyone had a presence on the Fedi platforms, but that’s just not the reality when even some of the biggest ideological opponents of Musk or Zuckerberg still actively use their platforms, even if their views or practices threaten their very existence.

At the end of the day, the reason even Privacy Guides recommends all the alternative frontends for sites like YouTube is to allow people to stay in the loop without having to share anything with those platforms that collect and sell data. With Nitter dead and Threads being the next big thing after Twitter, the federation could work as a viable frontend and potentially more.

Are you really comparing following a video game page, a media outlet, favorite musician or actor to an abusive ex? Are you on Twitter or any of Meta’s platforms? If not, how do you get the updates exclusive to social media? What if it’s a website that has no RSS feed?

There’s no doubt they have an ulterior motive. The way they’re federating right now is very one-sided and basically tells people they can just post on Threads and get the best of both worlds as they reach both audiences.

However, I see no harm from this to the dedicated Mastodon users who boycott or avoid Meta. They now get to follow Threads accounts without sharing their phone number or other personal information with Meta.

The data collection argument is weak, since everything you post on Mastodon is already public.

*Refinery in try-to-pronounce-me

Go with the easiest explanation. The so-called elections are in just a few days and the authorities need to display their ability to keep everything under control.

Exactly. As with Hitler and the Olympics, the 2014 Olympics taking place in Russia empowered Putin to invade Crimea.

My personal suggestions:

• Тільки там by The Hardkiss
• Палала by Anka
• Разом by Tvorchi
• Tsunamia by Yagody
• Time is running out by Skylerr (mostly in Ukrainian)

Edit: Added Skylerr.

Will you ban Russia from competing? You should.

In the history of Russia, it gets better only for a moment, just to say that freedom is chaotic and justify another dictator at the helm for decades.

I think the bigger problem for them isn’t the attention to the funeral but the possibility of independent body examination to figure out the circumstances of his killing.

We knew they have the means of killing people in Europe, so that shouldn’t score Russia any points. On the other hand, the pilot being in Spain proves Ukraine must have granted him citizenship and allowed him to not be bound by any work obligations, just as promised.

According to a pro-Russian Spanish source cited in another Ukrainian article, he was shot 12 times and run over by a car before being found dead on February 13.

Edit: Clarified that the source is pro-Russian (as per the Ukrainian source and as evident).