Neil HauerVerified account

@NeilPHauer

Chechnya & Caucasus, Russia, Syria, heavy metal. Special focus on Russia-Syria and Caucasian ethnic minorities. DMs open for paid work. 🇨🇦 neil.hauer@gmail.com

Yerevan, Armenia
ducoexperts.com/users/neil
Joined April 2014
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  1. Pinned Tweet
    Feb 4

    In recent months, Ramzan Kadyrov has gone further than ever in pushing Chechnya's autonomy & independence. Putin has shown a near-total disregard to his wayward protege - and the longer this goes, the more he will regret it. My latest for :

    12 replies 94 retweets 202 likes
  2. Nov 30

    *eyes roll back into skull*

    .: Rustaveli Avenue in downtown Tbilisi has once again become a key frontline in ’s ongoing struggle between two normative systems: one Western, one Russian.
    1 reply 16 likes
  3. Nov 28

    😬

    1 reply 1 like
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  4. Nov 28

    Read: "there's no actual connection between this thing I don't like and Russia, but I'd sure like there to be so I'm gonna suggest it anyways."

    2 replies 9 likes
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  5. Nov 28

    I'm not sure if there's a surer sign that someone is bullshitting and/or grifting than the phrase "from the Kremlin's playbook."

    3 replies 5 retweets 61 likes
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  6. Nov 27

    Fits alongside other 'curious stories and oddities' such as: -tomatoes are actually a fruit -lobsters are biologically immortal -the Jews deserved it

    1 reply 1 retweet 5 likes
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  7. Nov 27

    Doing some research on RIA Novosti today, when the 'news from our partners' section catches my eye. Turns out there's a lovely promoted video entitled 'The Great Lie: Stalin never carried out any repressions whatsoever.' Normal and good content for Russia's state broadcaster.

    2 replies 14 retweets 34 likes
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  8. Nov 26

    Heading to Tbilisi for the next two weeks. Am still looking for a home for some reporting I'm going to do there, and also open for presentations or conference participation - get in touch for either.

    1 retweet 3 likes
  9. Nov 25

    Sadly, not only do we get a disastrous Obama-era ideologue in spouting his ill-informed takes, we also have intentionally malicious actors like who both advocate the killing/displacement of civilians, and contradict their own 'advice' from months before.

    2 replies 11 retweets 20 likes
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  10. Nov 25

    It always amazes me how can be so excellent on regions like the Caucasus, and so objectively awful on others (in this case, Syria). It's truly stunning that people like Rob Malley and Sam Heller (both of whom advocate for welcoming Assad) are not total pariahs.

    12/ Europe should continue its push for political change and could test an incentives-based approach toward reconstruction, such as the: ☛ Progressive lifting of sanctions…
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    3 replies 22 retweets 62 likes
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  11. Nov 25

    So, we know Russia's deployment in north Syria is Moscow's most challenging to date. But what could happen if violence there b/w Turkish forces and Syrian Kurds escalates, and what options does the Kremlin have? (hint: not many). Me for :

    1 reply 2 retweets 13 likes
  12. Nov 25

    Russia ups its contingent in north Syria further. Medics have arrived in Kobane, the first time they've been deployed in Syria. TASS describes their purpose as aiding local civilians (more hearts & minds) - but they also bolster local RU combat readiness.

    2 replies 5 retweets 3 likes
  13. Retweeted
    Nov 21

    " has finally bitten off more than it can chew in its ceasefire-keeping operations." For , says that despite increasing their numbers, 's military police have struggled to keep the peace in NE :

    1 reply 12 retweets 17 likes
  14. Nov 21

    Listening to people getting upset about the pronunciation of Kyiv/Kiev while sitting in Tbilisi like

    1 reply 1 retweet 14 likes
  15. Nov 21

    Bradley Jardine claims to be a ""thought leader."" Judge for yourself here:

  16. Nov 21

    Excellent read here from on the farce which is the Syrian Constitutional Committee, and how the Assad regime has dominated and stalled the process at every turn. Part of continuing great Russia-related coverage from .

    16 retweets 28 likes
  17. Nov 20

    Coming in second and third in the Putinophile rankings were Crimea and Sevastopol, tranquil bastions of prosperity that certainly have not experienced a single problem since their return to the motherland in 2014.

    2 retweets 12 likes
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  18. Nov 20

    New poll finds Chechnya has the highest support out of any Russian region for Vladimir Putin! As once said about Egypt, 'when someone [in Egypt/Chechnya] calls you and asks, do you support the government, you say "yes."'

    3 replies 19 retweets 63 likes
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  19. Nov 19

    Things to do today: write two articles, pitch 1-2 more, a set of edits and various errands Things accomplished: made Dungeons and Dragons character

    5 likes
  20. Nov 19

    Article title: "Kremlin Fears North Caucasus Again Spinning ‘Out of Control’" Article content: protests in one small Dagestani village resulted in scuffles with police. Author? Why yes, it's Paul Goble!

    1 reply 2 retweets 27 likes
  21. Nov 19

    Reminder that there was an assassination attempt on Zelimkhan in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2015, where he was shot multiple times. Swedish authorities have nevertheless deemed that this poses no danger to his immediate relatives.

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  22. Nov 19

    Reports that two nephews of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, the Chechen man assassinated in Berlin in August, have been expelled from Sweden and deported to Georgia. Islam and Karim Khangoshvili, 19 and 20 years old respectively, were denied asylum.

    2 replies 8 retweets 9 likes
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  23. Nov 18

    Water cannons and tear gas used to forcefully disperse protesters in Tbilisi today. Second violent crackdown on protests by the Georgian Dream government in five months, after nearly a decade since the last time.

    2 replies 14 retweets 20 likes
  24. Nov 18

    Meanwhile riot police about to start (or have already begun according to some reports) forcefully dispersing protesters in Tbilisi. Georgian Dream looking increasingly like Saakashvili's UNM in mid-2012 - i.e. increasingly desperate, arrogant, and on verge of losing power.

    equipped w/riot gear, water and sound cannons takes positions to push away peaceful away from the parliament. Live broadcast shows protesters with their hands in the air, police push.
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    7 retweets 10 likes
  25. Nov 18

    Russian military police also deployed to Tishrin dam area today, their most significant move away from the northern border area to date h/t

    1 retweet
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  26. Nov 18

    After being met with rocks last week, today's joint Russian-Turkish patrol near Kobane got a warm Molotov welcome. Seems things are going well. h/t

    2 replies 8 retweets 10 likes
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  27. Nov 15

    But not me!

    1 reply 6 likes
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  28. Nov 15

    The thing about Armenia is: *everyone* here is Armenian.

    12 replies 1 retweet 35 likes
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  29. Nov 14

    Amazing how many times in the past 150 years Turks have just been the victims of conniving ethnic minorities, despite controlling the state and its armed forces 😲

    4 replies 5 retweets 31 likes
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  30. Nov 14

    "Not that many Armenians were killed, but also they were really evil and killed lots of Muslims and invited Russia and so clearly mass ethnic cleansing was the only solution"

    1 reply 2 retweets 20 likes
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  31. Nov 14

    . with the classic Armenian genocide denial double whammy: "it never happened" plus "they deserved it"

    This Tweet is unavailable.
    9 replies 23 retweets 83 likes
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  32. Nov 13

    Quite pleased with the little list I've cultivated here

    4 replies 12 likes
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  33. Nov 13

    I do believe it's time

    1 reply 18 likes
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  34. Nov 13

    "Mom, can I go see Lil John?" "Absolutely not Aramchik!" "Okay fine. Then what about the Pokr Hovhannes show?" "Oh yes Aram jan! He sounds so talented!"

    1 reply 1 like
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  35. Nov 13

    Spend your summer in KHASHURI, the Ottawa of Georgia!!

    1 reply 7 likes
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  36. Nov 13

    If you want to feel like you are dying, physically (because your bus is 30 minutes late in -30 degree weather) and emotionally (because Ottawa is 80% bureaucrats and has the vibrancy of a 20k post-Soviet industrial town), Canada's capital is the place for you. Otherwise, avoid.

    2 replies 12 likes
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  37. Nov 13

    It really says something that Tbilisi's massive main road tear-up job (Chavchavadze) is nearing completion after five months, while Ottawa's (Elgin) is more than halfway through its two-year timetable with almost no progress visible. Lord, our capital is an embarrassment.

    3 replies 1 retweet 9 likes
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  38. Nov 13

    The decline of the region-wide insurgency in the North Caucasus has opened the space for a new, more peaceful way of challenging authorities: civil society movements. Recent months have shown that authorities have no clue how to deal with it. My analysis:

    2 retweets 12 likes
  39. Nov 12

    My one time flying with , I was charged $75 to check the bag that my three other flights that day allowed as a carry-on, and then was not given so much as a glass of water on a seven-hour Transatlantic flight. Never again.

    So 's new way to rip off customers on a half-empty flight is to charge them if their hand luggage + carry on bag are 11 kg instead of 10. I had to pay more than the cost of the ticket. Fuck you and I'll throw a party when you go bankrupt. Last time flying Norwegian.
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    2 replies 8 likes
  40. Nov 9

    Great anecdote from an Armenian entrepreneur at Georgia: "When I was 12, I asked my parents, can I go to the George Michael concert? They said no. So I Armenianized his name and asked, can I go to the Gevorg Mikhailyan concert? And they said, of course you can!"

    3 replies 14 retweets 110 likes
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  41. Nov 8

    Ramzan Kadyrov's mortal threats to social media users in Chechnya and beyond hit new heights this week. They also really laid bare the extent to which the Kremlin is unwilling or unable to do anything about it. Good writeup from

    1 reply 7 retweets 11 likes