Exclusive: Documents obtained by journalists show the role of ‘Department 4’ within a Moscow University in training operatives for the military

Last April, Vladimir Putin visited the campus of Bauman Moscow state technical university, set on the banks of the Yauza River in the east of the city and home to some of the country’s brightest scientific minds.

He toured the campus, met undergraduates and boasted about Moscow’s ambitious plans for space missions to the moon and Mars. “You have everything it takes to be competitive,” Putin told the students.

What the Kremlin readout of Putin’s visit did not mention was a secret faculty inside the university, known simply as Department 4, or “Special Training”.

    • Riverside@reddthat.comEnglish
      27·
      8 hours ago

      Do you understand how overrepresentation of an issue on media (including social media) is a form of propaganda? The media spectrum being dominated by pro-US and anti-Russia stations means that we get 10 times the focus on one vs the other.

      If there were appropriately weighted representation of such news in Lemmy, commies like me wouldn’t need to remind everyone constantly that the US is doing even worse, but as things stand, in order to be fair to reality it is necessary to engage in whataboutism.

      • Zorque@lemmy.worldEnglish
        51·
        8 hours ago

        If youre a communist and youre backing Russia, youre doing it wrong.

        Now if you’re a soviet apologist on the other hand…

        There is also the evidence that this Russian interference is directly impacting how US is being run. Does that not factor into your value judgment?

        No one can, in good conscience, say that the US isnt having a significant negative impact on world stability… but obviously it’s not happening in a vacuum.

        • Riverside@reddthat.comEnglish
          23·
          6 hours ago

          Where in my comment did I back Russia?

          There is also the evidence that this Russian interference is directly impacting how US is being run.

          This is mostly a conspiracy theory, though, the whole “agent krasnov” etc etc. If there is overwhelming evidence of systematic funding of political parties, campaigns and propaganda that’s by Israel, not by Russia. “The american government is run by Putin” is about as well documented as “the Jews run the world”, that is, none at all.

          Blaming the US behavior on Russia, as if the US didn’t constantly go to war in the middle East, as if the Biden administration hadn’t funded the most extreme phase of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, is bullshit to excuse the US and blame “le evil country”

          Nothing I’ve said in this comment is a commandment of the Russian government, they’re proto-fascist, racist, queerphobe scum. Thay doesn’t mean they run the world.

          • Zorque@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            3 hours ago

            Where in my comment did I back Russia?

            You’re right, you didn’t explicitly back them.

            It doesn’t have to be run by the Russian government to be affected by it. This article is about election meddling, not deep state conspiracy stuff. Do you deny that meddling? That it has had a serious impact on the US and a wide array of other countries?

            Intentional destabilization while not mucking about with actually controlling it is often times even worse, especially when it comes to as influential country as the US.

            That doesn’t mean they have no culpability… but as I said, it’s not a vacuum. There’s always more than one factor, and ignoring any in favor of only one is intentional ignorance of the worst kind.

    • Matty Roses@lemmy.todayEnglish
      33·
      8 hours ago

      Hey, you want to argue the world should be treating the US as a pariah state as well, I have no objection.

      The UK doesn’t quite do that, though, do they? How’s that war in Iran going?

      • Zorque@lemmy.worldEnglish
        32·
        7 hours ago

        And how much is the Russian interference having on US action? Ignoring that for the obvious baddy is exactly what this interference is meant to do. You’re essentially helping them do their job.