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Sources

Ray Manzarek, Keyboardist And Founding Member Of The Doors, Dies At 74

REUTERS, NME

Worldcrunch

Ray Manzarek, keyboard player and founder member of the 1960s rock band The Doors died late Monday aged 74, following a battle with cancer.

Manzarek, who lived in Northern California's Napa Valley wine country for the past decade, had been seeking treatment for bile duct cancer at the RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, Germany, the group's manager Tom Vitorino told Reuters.

Manzarek was of Polish descent, born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. In 1965, front man Jim Morrison and then-UCLA film student Manzarek formed The Doors after a chance meeting at Los Angeles' Venice Beach, NME recalls.

Manzarek’s trademark piercing electric organ sound defined some of the band’s cornerstone hits like Light My Fire, Break On Through to the Other Side or 1971’s mesmerizing Riders on the Storm, helping the psychedelic rock band sell more than 100 million records worldwide.

After The Doors disbanded following the death of Morrison in 1971, Manzarek continued to make music, releasing a number of solo albums and then as part of the group Nite City.

Artists from all over the world have taken to Twitter to pay tribute to the seminal keyboardist.

Sad to here about Ray Manzarek passing. I was lucky to get a chance to rock out with him & the other two Doors.. cheers mate say hi to Jim.

— Billy Idol (@BillyIdol) May 21, 2013

He helped oil the hinges on my squeaky Doors of perception. RIP Ray Manzarek

— Nick Frost (@nickjfrost) May 21, 2013

Thanks for the great music Ray Manzarek!

— Krist Novoselic (@KristNovoselic) May 21, 2013

An interview with Ray Manzarek youtube.com/watch?v=18RcxR… "we exist to make music together" rest in peace, Ray

— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) May 20, 2013

Aw, I loved Ray Manzarek. He wrote the soundtrack to so many epiphanies. RIP Brother Ray

— Carl Barat (@carlbaratmusic) May 20, 2013

RIP Ray Manzarek words cannot express...

— Slash (@Slash) May 20, 2013

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

The Real Purpose Of The Moscow Drone Strike? A Decoy For Ukraine's Counterattack

Putin is hesitant to mobilize troops for political reasons. And the Ukrainian military command is well aware that the key to a successful offensive lies in creating new front lines, where Russia will have to relocate troops from Ukraine and thus weaken the existing front.

The Real Purpose Of The Moscow Drone Strike? A Decoy For Ukraine's Counterattack

Police officers stand in front of an apartment block hit by a drone in Moscow.

Anna Akage

-Analysis-

On the night of May 30, military drones attacked the Russian capital. There were no casualties – just broken windows and minor damage to homes. Ukraine claims it had nothing to do with the attack, and it is instead the frenzied artificial intelligence of military machines that do not understand why they are sent to Kyiv.

While the Ukrainian president’s office jokes that someone in Russia has again been smoking somewhere they shouldn’t, analysts are placing bets on the real reasons for the Moscow strikes. Many believe that Kyiv's real military target can by no means be the capital of Russia itself: it is too far from the front and too well defended – and strikes on Russia, at least with Western weapons, run counter to Ukraine’s agreements with allies, who have said that their weapons cannot be used to attack inside Russia.

If the goal is not directly military, maybe it is psychological: to scare the residents of the capital, who live in a parallel reality and have no idea how life feels for Ukrainian civilians. Forcing people to live with this reality could push the Kremlin to retreat, or at least make concessions and negotiate with Kyiv. If neither sanctions nor the elite could sober Vladimir Putin up, could angry Muscovites?

But neither Russia's military command nor its political leadership depends on the opinion of citizens. And there are enough special forces in Moscow to crush any mass protest.

Laying bare Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inability to guarantee his country's security, in front of Russia’s remaining international partners or among the country’s elites, is also an unlikely goal. The Russian army has already seen such embarrassing failures that a few drone strikes on the Kremlin can’t possibly change how Putin is seen as a leader, or Russia as a state. So why would Kyiv launch attacks on Moscow?

Let's go back to the date of the shelling: May 29 is Kyiv Day, a holiday in the Ukrainian capital. It was also the 16th attack on Kyiv in May alone, unprecedented in its scale, even compared to the winter months when Russia had still hoped to cut off Ukrainian electricity and leave Kyiv residents, or even the whole country, freezing in the dark.

The backdrop: the Ukrainian counter-offensive to liberate the occupied territories, which is in the works, if not already launched.

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