Russian Thermal Power Plant On Fire After Reported Cross-Border Missile Attack

"Belgorod, a Russian city which lies just north of the Ukrainian border not far from Kharkiv,
has reportedly come under repeat fire from Ukraine forces in the last 24 hours. "The governor of a Russian border region accused Ukraine of shelling an apartment block there but a Kyiv official said a stray Russian missile was to blame, in only one of a series of apparent strikes on Russian border towns," Reuters reported Thursday, citing that "a school had been damaged in a village close to the border, and that the top floor of an apartment block had been struck in the city of Belgorod."

While this is not the first instance of Ukrainian cross-border strikes (Kiev's denial of responsibility notwithstanding), on Friday things have escalated with a reported nighttime missile strike on Belgorod's thermal power plant, with further reports that it has plunged much of the city into darkness." ZH

In Latvia, Putin’s War on Russian Media Plays Out on the Big Screen

"Viewers in Latvia’s capital of Riga came out last week to see a screening of "F@ck This Job," a documentary about independent Russian broadcaster TV Rain (Dozhd) and its struggle to survive Vladimir Putin's war on the independent media.

It was directed and narrated by Vera Krichevskaya, a co-founder of TV Rain with Sindeeva, who arrived in Riga just after a tour of U.S. universities. TV Rain now has a broadcast license in Latvia and has moved some of its staff to an office in Riga.

The screening in Riga raised some uncomfortable questions about the role of a Russian media company in an EU and NATO country with a large Russian population.

The film itself thoroughly engaged the audience. “F@ck This Job” tells the story of a smart, lively, privileged woman who is married to a wealthy prince (a banker) and decides to start a TV channel. The year is 2010. Dmitry Medvedev is president, sharing burgers with Barack Obama and promising change; money is flowing; Moscow is getting cool and anything is possible. Sindeeva drives her bright pink car into Moscow from her suburban mansion to renovate studio space in a former candy factory, hire talented young hipsters and put her bright pink “optimistic channel” on air. As political life starts to break bad — Medvedev hands the presidency back to Putin, protest after protest is held in Moscow over falsified elections and breaches of the constitutional right to assembly, Russia annexes Crimea and starts a proxy war in Donbas — the TV Rain team turns out to be filled with brave, tough journalists reporting live from all over, including paddy wagons on the way to another detention." MT

Young government official from Moscow sent to fight in Ukraine without training and killed

"The head of a department at the office of the Mayor of Moscow was sent to fight in Ukraine
without any combat experience. Russian media report that the official has been killed in hostilities in Ukraine.

Source: Meduza, a Latvian-based Russian media outlet, citing Natalya Loseva, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of RT, a Russian propaganda TV channel 

Details: Loseva said that Aleksey Martynov, 28, was killed in Ukraine on 10 October. He headed a department in the Moscow Mayor’s office.

Quote: "He was conscripted on 23 September. When he was younger, he served in the Semyonovsky Regiment [...]. He had zero combat experience. He was deployed to the front several days [after being conscripted]." UAP