The Sinking Of The Moskva

News reports confirm that the Russian missile cruiser Moskva in the Black Sea was hit by Ukrainian anti-ship missiles and heavily damaged; other reports on Twitter say that it has sunk. Meanwhile,

Rumors are swirling in Russia about Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu having suffered a massive heart attack.

Leonid Nevzlin, a former co-head of the oil giant Yukos, claims that Shoigu is in critical condition.

He also says that 20 top generals have been arrested. pic.twitter.com/9kOJ1Ba0dx

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 14, 2022

The Institute for the Study of War site has made no mention of the damage or sinking of the Moskva, nor has the Militaryland site, although I first saw references to this in the middle of yesterday afternoon. The Oryx site, however, has already confirmed the damage, though not the subsequent sinking. It's hard to imagine that this is not a significant blow to Russian prestige: in response to Sweden and Finland moving to NATO, the Russian response was to threaten them with naval forces:

#Russia will strengthen its borders in case of #Sweden and #Finland join #NATO and will deploy "significant naval forces" in the waters of the Gulf of Finland.

This was stated by Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev. pic.twitter.com/nEQaZU3l1K

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) April 14, 2022

The most complete coverage is at the Red State blog, which itself is a surprise, as US independent media hasn't had much interest in Ukraine. I think the story there has made a correct call:

The politics of the sinking of the Moskva will be seismic. The Moskva is the ship that called upon Ukrainian troops on Snake Island to surrender during the early days of the war and received the memorable response “Russian warship…go f*** yourself” and had a Ukrainian postage stamp designed in honor of the event.

I'm inclined to wait for other developments.