UK Justice Forum 🇬🇧
News and current affairs => A look at the news stories currently making the headlines. => Topic started by: Carana on March 02, 2022, 08:53:19 AM
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Thoughts?
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Thoughts?
Quite a few, none of them very positive or helpful sadly.
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Former MI6 Chief On the Ukraine & Russia Conflict | Oxford Union
Mar 1, 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw5lzKVn3sc
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Putin‘s Power & Western Impotence - David Starkey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he25Rl0fE1c
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Putin‘s Power & Western Impotence - David Starkey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he25Rl0fE1c
Fascinating. Communist Russia has always been aware also that the West; particularly America, capitalism's greatest champions, would never be willing to take a live and let live approach to communism. Another reason for it's leaders to make sure they had the means to defend themselves.
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Fascinating. Communist Russia has always been aware also that the West; particularly America, capitalism's greatest champions, would never be willing to take a live and let live approach to communism. Another reason for it's leaders to make sure they had the means to defend themselves.
do you view Russia’s invasion of a sovereign state as self defence?
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do you view Russia’s invasion of a sovereign state as self defence?
No, but that's an explanation for why they haven't neglected spending on their military as Starkey says the UK has.
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No, but that's an explanation for why they haven't neglected spending on their military as Starkey says the UK has.
You talked about the Russians defending themselves as a reason for their milatary spending. Defending themselves from what exactly? Was the West threatening to invade them and I missed it? The West has surely been caught napping by being dumb and naive and way too trusting obviously. Things will be different in the future, if there is one, and there’s now no guarantees of that thanks to Russia and their “defence spending”.
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Russia appears to be pursuing the same strategy as that which it adopted alongside Assad’s regime in Syria, namely bombing hospitals as seen today with the bombing of a children’s hospital in Mariupol. Putin is obviously trolling the west in the hope of getting a rise out of us and giving him an excuse to bomb us into oblivion too. Very defensive I’m sure, killing sick children.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian–Syrian_hospital_bombing_campaign
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Putin the psycho in Syria 2019... https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/world/middleeast/russia-bombing-syrian-hospitals.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/world/middleeast/russia-bombing-syrian-hospitals.html)
Putin the psycho in Ukraine 2022... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10593177/Ukraine-war-Russia-reopens-evacuation-routes-besieged-cities.html#comments (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10593177/Ukraine-war-Russia-reopens-evacuation-routes-besieged-cities.html#comments)
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Putin the psycho in Syria 2019... https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/world/middleeast/russia-bombing-syrian-hospitals.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/world/middleeast/russia-bombing-syrian-hospitals.html)
Putin the psycho in Ukraine 2022... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10593177/Ukraine-war-Russia-reopens-evacuation-routes-besieged-cities.html#comments (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10593177/Ukraine-war-Russia-reopens-evacuation-routes-besieged-cities.html#comments)
The Russians will of course blame Ukraine for bollowing up theor own hospitals and babies, the ultimate victim blamers (it’s no wonder they’re popular with one or two of the posters on here).
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“As of yesterday morning 760 people fleeing from Ukraine had been admitted to Britain. Ireland, with a 12th of our population, had taken 2,500. The European Union has instituted a visa-free scheme for three years for any Ukrainian citizen. By contrast we will only grant visas to immediate family of those already here and even that stance was the reluctant and gradual product of political pressure.”
What a shameful country the UK has become.
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“As of yesterday morning 760 people fleeing from Ukraine had been admitted to Britain. Ireland, with a 12th of our population, had taken 2,500. The European Union has instituted a visa-free scheme for three years for any Ukrainian citizen. By contrast we will only grant visas to immediate family of those already here and even that stance was the reluctant and gradual product of political pressure.”
What a shameful country the UK has become.
Perhaps , not a shameful country the UK has become but a shameful Conservative Westminster government.
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“As of yesterday morning 760 people fleeing from Ukraine had been admitted to Britain. Ireland, with a 12th of our population, had taken 2,500. The European Union has instituted a visa-free scheme for three years for any Ukrainian citizen. By contrast we will only grant visas to immediate family of those already here and even that stance was the reluctant and gradual product of political pressure.”
What a shameful country the UK has become.
As members of DCFTA since 2016, Ukrainians haven't needed visas to enter EU Schengen countries.
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As members of DCFTA since 2016, Ukrainians haven't needed visas to enter EU Schengen countries.
https://www.etiasvisa.com/etias-requirements/ukrainians
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PETER HITCHENS: One glorious day in Sevastopol 12 years ago, I saw what was coming. That's why I won't join this carnival of hypocrisy
In the long-ago summer of 2010, I found myself in the beautiful harbour of Sevastopol, surveying the rival fleets of Russia and Ukraine as they rode at anchor in the lovely Crimean sunshine.
One great fortress was adorned with banners proclaiming 'Glory to the Ukrainian Navy!' Another frowning bastion across the water bore the words 'Glory to the Russian Navy!'
In the streets of that elegant city, with its porticoes and statues and monuments to repeated wars, sailors from the two fleets mingled on the pavements.
The Russians looked like Russians, with their huge hats and Edwardian uniforms. The Ukrainians looked more like the US Navy on shore leave in San Diego.
It was almost funny to see. I hoped at that time that it would work out well. For the Ukrainians had begun to be silly.
In a country crammed with Russians, they were trying to make Russian a second-class language.
Russians who had lived there happily for decades were pressured to take Ukrainian citizenship and adopt Ukrainian versions of their Christian names.
The schools were promoting a national hero, Stepan Bandera, who Russians strongly disliked and regarded as a terrorist.
And they were teaching history which often had an anti-Russian tinge. Quite a few people told me they felt put upon by these policies. Why couldn't they just be left alone?
Until that point, Ukraine had been a reasonably harmonious country in its 20-odd years of existence. After that visit I saw big trouble coming, both in the Crimea and in the Don Basin, where I also travelled that year.
Far out among the abandoned slagheaps of the dying coalfields, I found the decaying semi-deserted town of Gorlovka, now in the midst of an unofficial war-zone, where it has been since 2014.
This town had been officially renamed Horlivka by Ukraine in its high-handed way, though hardly anybody I met there called it that. Gorlovka in those days still hosted the rather pleasant Cafe Barnsley, the last echo of the Soviet days when Gorlovka had been twinned with Barnsley in a gesture of Communist solidarity with Arthur Scargill's miners.
I remember, that boiling hot, almost silent afternoon, enjoying a Russian beer there, while listening to music from a Russian station on the radio. I wrote rather vaguely at the time that the people of Crimea and Donbas were hoping for – and expecting – a Russian future.
I thought that if Ukraine wanted to be a rigid ethnic nationalist state, then some sort of peaceful deal with its Russian minority was going to be needed. Little did I know what passions I had touched on.
I was amazed to find that I had done something wicked and subversive. The article was attacked as a 'dismaying lapse' by my old friend Edward Lucas, a fine journalist with whom I had spent happy times reporting the collapse of the Soviet Empire, way back in the 1980s.
I especially recall a joyous celebratory dinner with him and others in the decayed 1950s splendours of the Jalta Hotel on Wenceslas Square in Prague, on the freezing night when the Communist regime finally died there.
I replied to his rebuke by warning that 'the conventional wisdom is mistaken, that the open-mouthed sycophantic coverage of such events as the 'Orange Revolution' has done us no favours, and that the future in this part of the world is far from settled and we should perhaps prepare for further turmoil rather than imagine that we have opened a Golden Road of peace and prosperity for ever'.
I asked: 'Are the Anglosphere nations right to treat Russia as a perpetual threat and pariah long after its global ambitions have collapsed and its military power has rusted away? Its regime is miserable. But then so is that of China, with which we seek good relations.'
You see, I have been making this point for a very long time. But it never seems to do any good. In fact, I am accused of being a 'Russian shill' or even a traitor, of parroting Russian propaganda, or things of that kind.
These insults make little impact on me personally because I know they are not true and I have, over the past 30 years been insulted by experts of all kinds. It is normal, if you do what I do.
But such behaviour makes it harder for the country to keep a level head. In the atmosphere of the last few days, I half-expect to be presented with a white feather on the street by a beautiful young woman, because I refuse to join in the war hysteria now gripping the country. And it is hysteria.
I have heard a respected MP calling for the deportation of all Russians from this country – all of them. I have heard crazy people calling for a 'no-fly zone' in Ukraine.
If they got their way it would mean a terrible and immediate European war. I suspect they do not even know what they are calling for. Can you all please call off this carnival of hypocrisy?
I cannot join in it. I know too much. I know that our policy of Nato expansion – which we had promised not to do and which we knew infuriated Russians – played its part in bringing about this crisis.
I know that Ukraine's current government, now treated as if it was almost holy, was brought into being by a mob putsch openly backed by the USA in 2014.
I know that the much-admired President Zelensky in February 2021 closed down three opposition TV stations on the grounds of 'national security'. They went dark that night. I know that the opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk was put under house arrest last year on a charge of treason. Isn't this the sort of thing Putin does?
I know that Ukraine's army has used severe force against Russian civilians in the Don Basin since 2014. The Russians have done dreadful things there, too, but there are plenty of people who will tell you that. The point is that this is not a contest of saints versus sinners, or of Mordor versus the Shire.
I also find it awkward that, when Britain and the USA rightly denounced Putin's illegal invasion of a sovereign country, they seemed to have forgotten that we gave him the idea, by doing this in Iraq in 2003. Unlike them I can truly claim to have opposed both these actions.
I tire of being told that Nato is purely defensive alliance when we know it bombed Serbia in 1999, incidentally killing civilians, when Serbia had not attacked a Nato member.
I also don't recall Libya attacking a Nato member before that 'defensive' alliance launched the air war on Tripoli which also killed civilians, children included, and turned that country into a cauldron of chaos, benefiting nobody.
And then there's the other thing that sticks in my gullet. The countries of the West have egged Ukraine on into a confrontation with Russia which has predictably ended in Putin's barbaric invasion.
But while we stand and cheer at a safe distance, the Ukrainians are the ones who get shelled, bombed, besieged and driven from their homes. Is this honourable? Does sentimental praise for their bravery make up for it?
I would like to end with two quotations. The first is from the American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman who said: 'I am sick and tired of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.'
The other is from the 'Benedictus' in the Church of England's 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which asks God 'to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace', which I fervently pray, for I am not sure that anything else will now do any good.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10581335/PETER-HITCHENS-saw-coming-Thats-wont-join-carnival-hypocrisy.html
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I'm not a fan of Peter Hitchens, but he's right to point out that no-one can claim the moral high ground in this mess. As always, leaders take part in power struggles and ordinary people pay the price.
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I'm not a fan of Peter Hitchens, but he's right to point out that no-one can claim the moral high ground in this mess. As always, leaders take part in power struggles and ordinary people pay the price.
There will always be those who hate the West and America more than they hate Russia/USSR, and they appear to be having a field day with their sanctimonious outpourings right now. I think Ukraine can claim the moral high ground in this mess, unless you can tell me why in your opinion they are just as bad as the Russian invading forces?
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There will always be those who hate the West and America more than they hate Russia/USSR, and they appear to be having a field day with their sanctimonious outpourings right now. I think Ukraine can claim the moral high ground in this mess, unless you can tell me why in your opinion they are just as bad as the Russian invading forces?
Things are not so simple as you think, and the Ukraine government is likely to end up under Russia's control, regardless of morality. Did they know they ran that risk? Probably.
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Things are not so simple as you think, and the Ukraine government is likely to end up under Russia's control, regardless of morality. Did they know they ran that risk? Probably.
You said "no one can claim the moral high ground in this mess". Why can Ukraine not claim the moral high ground as a sovereign state that has been invaded by a force intent on killing its men, women and children? I expect nothing less or more than another fudged answer from you.
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You said "no one can claim the moral high ground in this mess". Why can Ukraine not claim the moral high ground as a sovereign state that has been invaded by a force intent on killing its men, women and children? I expect nothing less or more than another fudged answer from you.
I don't fudge my answers, it's just that I look at the bigger picture and the historical background. Humans have been invading and killing since time began and moral considerations have never stopped them. That's because, as David Starkey explained, power is the aim, not morality.
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I don't fudge my answers, it's just that I look at the bigger picture and the historical background. Humans have been invading and killing since time began and moral considerations have never stopped them. That's because, as David Starkey explained, power is the aim, not morality.
So because "humans have been killing and invading since time began" no one can say they have the moral high ground over anyone else. Right you are then. Ukraine is no better than Russia, look at all the countries they have invaded, and civilians they have murdered. *%87
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()678%
So because "humans have been killing and invading since time began" no one can say they have the moral high ground over anyone else. Right you are then. Ukraine is no better than Russia, look at all the countries they have invaded, and civilians they have murdered. *%87
Killing innocent civilians is never right whoever does it and wherever it happens.
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()678%
Killing innocent civilians is never right whoever does it and wherever it happens.
Do you condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or are you, like, Jeremy Corbyn, only able to offer banal platitudes and generalisations?
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Do you condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or are you, like, Jeremy Corbyn, only able to offer banal platitudes and generalisations?
What if she condemns it in the strongest possible terms?
What difference would that make to anything?
Will the maternity wards be somehow safer if she calls Putin, Hitler?
Maybe if we all change our Facebook profile pictures to Ukranian flags, maybe that'll help.
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What if she condemns it in the strongest possible terms?
What difference would that make to anything?
Will the maternity wards be somehow safer if she calls Putin, Hitler?
Maybe if we all change our Facebook profile pictures to Ukranian flags, maybe that'll help.
WE are where we always are; agree wholeheartedly with VS or suffer the consequences.
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WE are where we always are; agree wholeheartedly with VS or suffer the consequences.
What a very strange post. I don’t expect agreement (in fact I’d start worrying if I found myself agreeing with you about anything), just an answers to my question. It’s called having a discussion. I think Putin is an evil despot and don’t understand why you would be reluctant to condemn him and his actions, but would it seem happily blame the west and their actions for the present situation instead. If yo’re not interested in explaining your point of view to someone who doesn’t get it then that as always is your prerogative. I don’t know what consequences you think I am going to make you suffer, if fact I never realised I had such power (Putin better watch out!).
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I must be very naive as I assumed everyone on this forum would consider Putin’s actions in Ukraine to be indefensible but it seems I was wrong. Clearly there are Putin apologists amongst us and it would seem thst I am the one who is out of step, at least as far as this forum is concerned. I shouldn’t be surprised I guess… (&^&
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Are there really neo-Nazis fighting for Ukraine? Well, yes — but it's a long story
(https://mediaproxy.salon.com/width/1200/https://media.salon.com/2022/03/azov-batallion-ukraine-0309221.jpg)
No, Putin didn't wage war to "denazify" Ukraine — but that nation's shadowy far-right militias are big trouble
Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that he ordered the invasion of Ukraine to "denazify" its government, while Western officials, such as former U.S. ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul, have called this pure propaganda, insisting, "There are no Nazis in Ukraine."
In the context of the Russian invasion, the post-2014 Ukrainian government's problematic relations with extreme right-wing groups and neo-Nazi parties has become an incendiary element on both sides of the propaganda war, with Russia exaggerating it as a pretext for war and the West trying to sweep it under the carpet.
The reality behind the propaganda is that the West and its Ukrainian allies have opportunistically exploited and empowered the extreme right in Ukraine, first to pull off the 2014 coup and then by redirecting it to fight separatists in eastern Ukraine. And far from "denazifying" Ukraine, the Russian invasion is likely to further empower Ukrainian and international neo-Nazis, as it attracts fighters from around the world and provides them with weapons, military training and the combat experience that many of them are hungry for.
Ukraine's neo-Nazi Svoboda Party and its founders, Oleh Tyahnybok and Andriy Parubiy, played leading roles in the U.S-backed coup in February 2014. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and U.S. ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt mentioned Tyahnybok as one of the leaders they were working with in their infamous leaked phone call before the coup, even as they tried to exclude him from an official position in the post-coup government.
As formerly peaceful protests in Kyiv gave way to pitched battles with police and violent, armed marches to try to break through police barricades and reach the Parliament building, Svoboda members and the newly-formed Right Sector militia, led by Dmytro Yarosh, battled police, spearheaded marches and raided a police armory for weapons. By mid-February 2014, these men with guns were the de facto leaders of the Maidan movement.
We will never know what kind of political transition peaceful protests alone might have produced in Ukraine, or how different the new government would have been if a peaceful political process had been allowed to take its course without interference by the U.S. or violent right-wing extremists.
But it was Yarosh who took to the stage in the Maidan and rejected the Feb. 21, 2014 agreement negotiated by the French, German and Polish foreign ministers, under which President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition political leaders agreed to hold new elections later that year. Instead, Yarosh and Right Sector refused to disarm and led the climactic march on Parliament that overthrew the government.
Since 1991, Ukrainian elections had swung back and forth between leaders like Yanukovych, who was from Donetsk and had close ties with Russia, and Western-backed leaders like President Viktor Yushchenko, who was elected in 2005 after the "Orange Revolution" that followed a disputed election. Ukraine's endemic corruption tainted every government, and rapid public disillusionment with whichever leader and party won power led to a seesaw between Western- and Russian-aligned factions.
In 2014, Nuland and the State Department got their favorite, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, installed as prime minister of the post-coup government. He lasted two years until he, too, lost his job due to endless corruption scandals. Petro Poroshenko, the post-coup president, lasted a bit longer, until 2019, even after his personal tax evasion schemes were exposed in the 2016 Panama Papers and 2017 Paradise Papers.
When Yatsenyuk became prime minister, he rewarded Svoboda's role in the coup with three cabinet positions, including Oleksander Sych as deputy prime minister, and governorships of three of Ukraine's 25 provinces. Svoboda's Andriy Parubiy was appointed chairman (or speaker) of Parliament, a post he held for the next five years. Tyahnybok ran for president in 2014, but only got 1.2% of the votes, and was not re-elected to Parliament.
Ukrainian voters turned their backs on the extreme right in the 2014 post-coup elections, reducing Svoboda's 10.4% share of the national vote in 2012 to 4.7%. Svoboda lost support in areas where it held control of local governments but had failed to live up to its promises, and its support was split now that it was no longer the only party running on explicitly anti-Russian slogans and rhetoric.
After the coup, Right Sector helped to consolidate the new order by attacking and breaking up anti-coup protests, in what their leader Yarosh described to Newsweek as a "war" to "cleanse the country" of pro-Russian protesters. This campaign climaxed on May 2 with the massacre of 42 anti-coup protesters in a fiery inferno, after they took shelter from Right Sector attackers in the Trades Unions House in Odessa.
After anti-coup protests evolved into declarations of independence in Donetsk and Luhansk, the extreme right in Ukraine shifted gear to full-scale armed combat. The Ukrainian military had little enthusiasm for fighting its own people, so the government formed new National Guard units to do so.
Right Sector formed a battalion, and neo-Nazis also dominated the Azov Battalion, which was founded by Andriy Biletsky, an avowed white supremacist who claimed that Ukraine's national purpose was to rid the country of Jews and other inferior races. It was the Azov battalion that led the post-coup government's assault on the self-declared republics and retook the city of Mariupol from separatist forces.
The Minsk II agreement in 2015 ended the worst fighting and set up a buffer zone around the breakaway republics, but a low-intensity civil war continued. An estimated 14,000 people have been killed since 2014. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and other progressive members of Congress tried for several years to end U.S. military aid to the Azov Battalion. They finally did so in the fiscal 2018 Defense Appropriation Bill, but Azov reportedly continued to receive U.S. arms and training despite the ban.
In 2019, the Soufan Center, which tracks terrorist and extremist groups around the world, warned: "The Azov Battalion is emerging as a critical node in the transnational right-wing violent extremist network. … [Its] aggressive approach to networking serves one of the Azov Battalion's overarching objectives, to transform areas under its control in Ukraine into the primary hub for transnational white supremacy."
The Soufan Center described how the Azov Battalion's "aggressive networking" reaches around the world to recruit fighters and spread its white supremacist ideology. Foreign fighters who train and fight with the Azov Battalion then return to their own countries to apply what they have learned and recruit others.
Violent foreign extremists with links to Azov have included Brenton Tarrant, who massacred 51 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, and several members of the U.S. Rise Above Movement who were prosecuted for attacking counter-protesters at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in August 2017. Other Azov veterans have returned to Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the U.K. and other countries.
Despite Svoboda's declining success in national elections, neo-Nazi and extreme nationalist groups, increasingly linked to the Azov Battalion, have maintained power on the street in Ukraine, and in local politics in the Ukrainian nationalist heartland around Lviv in western Ukraine.
After President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's election in 2019, the extreme right threatened him with removal from office, or even death, if he negotiated with separatist leaders from Donbas and followed through on the Minsk Protocol. Zelenskyy had run for election as a "peace candidate," but under threat from the right, he refused to even talk to Donbas leaders, whom he dismissed as terrorists.
During Trump's presidency, the U.S. reversed Obama's ban on weapons sales to Ukraine, and Zelenskyy's aggressive rhetoric raised new fears in Donbas and Russia that he was building up Ukraine's forces for a new offensive to retake Donetsk and Luhansk by force.
The civil war has combined with the government's neoliberal economic policies to create fertile ground for the extreme right. The post-coup government imposed more of the same "shock therapy" that was imposed throughout Eastern Europe in the 1990s. Ukraine received a $40 billion International Monetary Fund bailout and, as part of the deal, privatized 342 state-owned enterprises; reduced public sector employment by 20%, along with salary and pension cuts; privatized health care and disinvested in public education, closing 60% of its universities.
Coupled with Ukraine's endemic corruption, these policies led to the looting of state assets by the corrupt ruling class, and to falling living standards and austerity measures for everybody else. The post-coup government upheld Poland as its model, but the reality was closer to Boris Yeltsin's Russia of the 1990s. After a nearly 25% fall in GDP between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine is still the poorest country in Europe.
As elsewhere, the failures of neoliberalism have fueled the rise of right-wing extremism and racism, and now the war with Russia promises to provide thousands of alienated young men from around the world with military training and combat experience, which they can then take home to terrorize their own countries.
The Soufan Center has compared the Azov Battalion's international networking strategy to that of al-Qaida and ISIS. U.S. and NATO support for the Azov Battalion poses similar risks as their support for al-Qaida-linked groups in Syria 10 years ago. Those chickens quickly came home to roost when they spawned ISIS and turned decisively against their Western backers.
Right now, Ukrainians are united in their resistance to Russia's invasion, but we should not be surprised when the U.S. alliance with neo-Nazi proxy forces in Ukraine, including the infusion of billions of dollars in sophisticated weapons, results in similarly violent and destructive blowback.
https://www.salon.com/2022/03/10/are-there-really-neo-nazis-fighting-for-ukraine-well-yes--but-its-a-long-story/
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Are there really neo-Nazis fighting for Ukraine? Well, yes — but it's a long story
(https://mediaproxy.salon.com/width/1200/https://media.salon.com/2022/03/azov-batallion-ukraine-0309221.jpg)
No, Putin didn't wage war to "denazify" Ukraine — but that nation's shadowy far-right militias are big trouble
Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that he ordered the invasion of Ukraine to "denazify" its government, while Western officials, such as former U.S. ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul, have called this pure propaganda, insisting, "There are no Nazis in Ukraine."
In the context of the Russian invasion, the post-2014 Ukrainian government's problematic relations with extreme right-wing groups and neo-Nazi parties has become an incendiary element on both sides of the propaganda war, with Russia exaggerating it as a pretext for war and the West trying to sweep it under the carpet.
The reality behind the propaganda is that the West and its Ukrainian allies have opportunistically exploited and empowered the extreme right in Ukraine, first to pull off the 2014 coup and then by redirecting it to fight separatists in eastern Ukraine. And far from "denazifying" Ukraine, the Russian invasion is likely to further empower Ukrainian and international neo-Nazis, as it attracts fighters from around the world and provides them with weapons, military training and the combat experience that many of them are hungry for.
Ukraine's neo-Nazi Svoboda Party and its founders, Oleh Tyahnybok and Andriy Parubiy, played leading roles in the U.S-backed coup in February 2014. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and U.S. ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt mentioned Tyahnybok as one of the leaders they were working with in their infamous leaked phone call before the coup, even as they tried to exclude him from an official position in the post-coup government.
As formerly peaceful protests in Kyiv gave way to pitched battles with police and violent, armed marches to try to break through police barricades and reach the Parliament building, Svoboda members and the newly-formed Right Sector militia, led by Dmytro Yarosh, battled police, spearheaded marches and raided a police armory for weapons. By mid-February 2014, these men with guns were the de facto leaders of the Maidan movement.
We will never know what kind of political transition peaceful protests alone might have produced in Ukraine, or how different the new government would have been if a peaceful political process had been allowed to take its course without interference by the U.S. or violent right-wing extremists.
But it was Yarosh who took to the stage in the Maidan and rejected the Feb. 21, 2014 agreement negotiated by the French, German and Polish foreign ministers, under which President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition political leaders agreed to hold new elections later that year. Instead, Yarosh and Right Sector refused to disarm and led the climactic march on Parliament that overthrew the government.
Since 1991, Ukrainian elections had swung back and forth between leaders like Yanukovych, who was from Donetsk and had close ties with Russia, and Western-backed leaders like President Viktor Yushchenko, who was elected in 2005 after the "Orange Revolution" that followed a disputed election. Ukraine's endemic corruption tainted every government, and rapid public disillusionment with whichever leader and party won power led to a seesaw between Western- and Russian-aligned factions.
In 2014, Nuland and the State Department got their favorite, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, installed as prime minister of the post-coup government. He lasted two years until he, too, lost his job due to endless corruption scandals. Petro Poroshenko, the post-coup president, lasted a bit longer, until 2019, even after his personal tax evasion schemes were exposed in the 2016 Panama Papers and 2017 Paradise Papers.
When Yatsenyuk became prime minister, he rewarded Svoboda's role in the coup with three cabinet positions, including Oleksander Sych as deputy prime minister, and governorships of three of Ukraine's 25 provinces. Svoboda's Andriy Parubiy was appointed chairman (or speaker) of Parliament, a post he held for the next five years. Tyahnybok ran for president in 2014, but only got 1.2% of the votes, and was not re-elected to Parliament.
Ukrainian voters turned their backs on the extreme right in the 2014 post-coup elections, reducing Svoboda's 10.4% share of the national vote in 2012 to 4.7%. Svoboda lost support in areas where it held control of local governments but had failed to live up to its promises, and its support was split now that it was no longer the only party running on explicitly anti-Russian slogans and rhetoric.
After the coup, Right Sector helped to consolidate the new order by attacking and breaking up anti-coup protests, in what their leader Yarosh described to Newsweek as a "war" to "cleanse the country" of pro-Russian protesters. This campaign climaxed on May 2 with the massacre of 42 anti-coup protesters in a fiery inferno, after they took shelter from Right Sector attackers in the Trades Unions House in Odessa.
After anti-coup protests evolved into declarations of independence in Donetsk and Luhansk, the extreme right in Ukraine shifted gear to full-scale armed combat. The Ukrainian military had little enthusiasm for fighting its own people, so the government formed new National Guard units to do so.
Right Sector formed a battalion, and neo-Nazis also dominated the Azov Battalion, which was founded by Andriy Biletsky, an avowed white supremacist who claimed that Ukraine's national purpose was to rid the country of Jews and other inferior races. It was the Azov battalion that led the post-coup government's assault on the self-declared republics and retook the city of Mariupol from separatist forces.
The Minsk II agreement in 2015 ended the worst fighting and set up a buffer zone around the breakaway republics, but a low-intensity civil war continued. An estimated 14,000 people have been killed since 2014. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and other progressive members of Congress tried for several years to end U.S. military aid to the Azov Battalion. They finally did so in the fiscal 2018 Defense Appropriation Bill, but Azov reportedly continued to receive U.S. arms and training despite the ban.
In 2019, the Soufan Center, which tracks terrorist and extremist groups around the world, warned: "The Azov Battalion is emerging as a critical node in the transnational right-wing violent extremist network. … [Its] aggressive approach to networking serves one of the Azov Battalion's overarching objectives, to transform areas under its control in Ukraine into the primary hub for transnational white supremacy."
The Soufan Center described how the Azov Battalion's "aggressive networking" reaches around the world to recruit fighters and spread its white supremacist ideology. Foreign fighters who train and fight with the Azov Battalion then return to their own countries to apply what they have learned and recruit others.
Violent foreign extremists with links to Azov have included Brenton Tarrant, who massacred 51 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, and several members of the U.S. Rise Above Movement who were prosecuted for attacking counter-protesters at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in August 2017. Other Azov veterans have returned to Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the U.K. and other countries.
Despite Svoboda's declining success in national elections, neo-Nazi and extreme nationalist groups, increasingly linked to the Azov Battalion, have maintained power on the street in Ukraine, and in local politics in the Ukrainian nationalist heartland around Lviv in western Ukraine.
After President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's election in 2019, the extreme right threatened him with removal from office, or even death, if he negotiated with separatist leaders from Donbas and followed through on the Minsk Protocol. Zelenskyy had run for election as a "peace candidate," but under threat from the right, he refused to even talk to Donbas leaders, whom he dismissed as terrorists.
During Trump's presidency, the U.S. reversed Obama's ban on weapons sales to Ukraine, and Zelenskyy's aggressive rhetoric raised new fears in Donbas and Russia that he was building up Ukraine's forces for a new offensive to retake Donetsk and Luhansk by force.
The civil war has combined with the government's neoliberal economic policies to create fertile ground for the extreme right. The post-coup government imposed more of the same "shock therapy" that was imposed throughout Eastern Europe in the 1990s. Ukraine received a $40 billion International Monetary Fund bailout and, as part of the deal, privatized 342 state-owned enterprises; reduced public sector employment by 20%, along with salary and pension cuts; privatized health care and disinvested in public education, closing 60% of its universities.
Coupled with Ukraine's endemic corruption, these policies led to the looting of state assets by the corrupt ruling class, and to falling living standards and austerity measures for everybody else. The post-coup government upheld Poland as its model, but the reality was closer to Boris Yeltsin's Russia of the 1990s. After a nearly 25% fall in GDP between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine is still the poorest country in Europe.
As elsewhere, the failures of neoliberalism have fueled the rise of right-wing extremism and racism, and now the war with Russia promises to provide thousands of alienated young men from around the world with military training and combat experience, which they can then take home to terrorize their own countries.
The Soufan Center has compared the Azov Battalion's international networking strategy to that of al-Qaida and ISIS. U.S. and NATO support for the Azov Battalion poses similar risks as their support for al-Qaida-linked groups in Syria 10 years ago. Those chickens quickly came home to roost when they spawned ISIS and turned decisively against their Western backers.
Right now, Ukrainians are united in their resistance to Russia's invasion, but we should not be surprised when the U.S. alliance with neo-Nazi proxy forces in Ukraine, including the infusion of billions of dollars in sophisticated weapons, results in similarly violent and destructive blowback.
https://www.salon.com/2022/03/10/are-there-really-neo-nazis-fighting-for-ukraine-well-yes--but-its-a-long-story/
Yes. Condemning Russia's actions is the easy part. Understanding how and why the situation arose is the difficult part.
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From 2015 regarding the 2014 Revolution Coup (call a spade a spade)
Why is Ukraine the West's Fault? - John Mearsheimer
https://youtu.be/JrMiSQAGOS4?t=107
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Yes. Condemning Russia's actions is the easy part. Understanding how and why the situation arose is the difficult part.
Obviously condemning Russia’s actions is not something you find easy though. There can be no justification for invading a sovreign nation and aiming your missiles at civilians but by all means give it a go here, I await your justification with interest (and no doubt in vain)…
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Obviously condemning Russia’s actions is not something you find easy though. There can be no justification for invading a sovreign nation and aiming your missiles at civilians but by all means give it a go here, I await your justification with interest (and no doubt in vain)…
Is it OK to arm far right militias & aid them in illegally overthrowing a sitting president though?
Is that OK?
I suppose it has to be if you support Ukraine.
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Ukraine could have chosen a path of neutrality.
Russia was never going to tolerate a NATO state on it's border, & why should it? (Cuban missile crisis anyone?)
They had the option of adopting both EU & Russian trade agreements as late as 2013.
Instead, they chose rabid anti-Russian sentiment, believing the US & NATO would protect them when they poked the Russian bear.
This is why I have little to no sympathy for the Ukranians, they made their bed, they can die in it.
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A BBC News segment on Ukraine didn’t mention it was platforming neo-Nazis
A video shows a five-year-old playing with a gun watched over by a uniformed man from a neo-Nazi organisation. You could be forgiven for thinking this BBC footage was from Louis Theroux’s new documentary Forbidden America. But you’d be wrong.
In fact, this footage was broadcast immediately after Theroux’s documentary about the far-right in the US, on the BBC Weekend News. But unlike Theroux’s expose, this news item failed to mention that the group it platformed is a neo-Nazi organisation known for ultranationalism, anti-semitism, and Nazi iconography.
The Azov Regiment
As part of the BBC‘s coverage of the situation in Ukraine, journalist Orla Guerin reported on people preparing for invasion. The segment covered a training afternoon for civilians organised by the National Guard. But it neglected to tell viewers that it was the Azov Regiment – formerly the Azov Battalion – that ran the training event.
Azov was formed in 2014. Its first commander Andriy Biletsky is now the leader of the far-right ultranationalist National Corps party. In 2010, Biletsky stated that Ukraine’s mission was to:
"lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans]."
Azov’s links to neo-Nazi ideology are well documented. Even the Sun ran an article in January describing it as “neo-Nazi militia”. The paper further stated that:
On the Azov Battalion-affiliated Thule Signal Telegram channel, openly racist jokes and memes are posted.
The US State Department described the group as a “nationalist hate group”, and it’s banned on Facebook.
Enter the BBC
Despite these well-known links, the BBC uncritically visited the Azov training afternoon. It depicted young and old people learning how to fire guns, including “a granny with a gun”. And, perhaps most worryingly, it interviewed an Azov major. Over the footage of the earlier-mentioned five-year-old, Guerin narrates that there’s “a sense of peril for Ukraine and its people, like 5-year-old…”. She continues her dramatic voiceover, stating there’s a “sense that danger is closing in”.
Yet not once does Guerin mention the dangers of the organisation they’re training with. She simply describes Azov as the “national guard”. The soldier who she interviews is captioned as a “Major” with the “National Guard”.
Euro News also covered the same training event. But the difference is that it headlined its article:
Ukraine far-right group offers training to civilians
No excuses
Even if Azov’s links to the far-right weren’t so widely documented, there is no excuse for the BBC not giving its viewers any background information on the organisation it platformed. Moreover, the BBC itself has reported on those links in the past. A 2014 BBC article contains this description of Azov:
Run by the extremist Patriot of Ukraine organisation, which considers Jews and other minorities “sub-human” and calls for a white, Christian crusade against them, it sports three Nazi symbols on its insignia: a modified Wolf’s Hook, a black sun (or “Hakensonne”) and the title Black Corps, which was used by the Waffen SS.
The same article also states:
"As a result, the question of the presence of the far-right in Ukraine remains a highly sensitive issue, one which top officials and the media shy away from. No-one wants to provide fuel to the Russian propaganda machine."
You couldn’t make it up.
The Canary contacted the BBC for a response, but it declined to comment.
Gross negligence or gross manipulation?
At best, the BBC‘s coverage could be gross negligence. It reported on an event and didn’t bother to question who was running it. At worst, it was gross manipulation, deliberately ignoring Azov’s far-right connections in favour of dramatic footage of people ready to arms themselves to fight against the evil Russian invaders.
Either way, the BBC has a responsibility to its viewers that it didn’t uphold in this piece. According to Ofcom in 2020, the BBC “remains the most-used news source”. 56% of adults get their news from BBC One. And according to its charter, the BBC should:
act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output..
With its segment on Ukraine, the BBC failed to do this. Instead, it platformed dangerous racists without comment. Whatever its reasons, this is simply not good enough.
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2022/02/14/a-bbc-news-segment-on-ukraine-didnt-mention-it-was-platforming-neo-nazis/
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NATO Says It Didn't Notice Ukraine Soldier's Apparent Nazi Symbol in Tweet
https://www.newsweek.com/nato-says-it-didnt-notice-ukraine-soldiers-apparent-nazi-symbol-tweet-1686523
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Ukraine could have chosen a path of neutrality.
Russia was never going to tolerate a NATO state on it's border, & why should it? (Cuban missile crisis anyone?)
They had the option of adopting both EU & Russian trade agreements as late as 2013.
Instead, they chose rabid anti-Russian sentiment, believing the US & NATO would protect them when they poked the Russian bear.
This is why I have little to no sympathy for the Ukranians, they made their bed, they can die in it.
I wonder what made the Ukrainian government think that the US and NATO would protect them? Wishful thinking on their part or being given the wrong idea by others?
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When Russia says Ukraine and the USA have developed chemical weapons and are planning to use them are our resident Russian sympathisers inclined to believe them rather than Ukraine who categorically denies this? Rhetorical question, I think I can probably guess the answer...
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When Russia says Ukraine and the USA have developed chemical weapons and are planning to use them are our resident Russian sympathisers inclined to believe them rather than Ukraine who categorically denies this? Rhetorical question, I think I can probably guess the answer...
It's hard to trust either side.
Communists or Nazis?
Take your pick.
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I wonder what made the Ukrainian government think that the US and NATO would protect them? Wishful thinking on their part or being given the wrong idea by others?
The biggest mistake Ukraine made was giving up its nuclear weapons, IMO. I doubt we would be in this situation if they still had them. If this wasn't a major concession to Russia then I don't know what is.
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I wonder what made the Ukrainian government think that the US and NATO would protect them? Wishful thinking on their part or being given the wrong idea by others?
Watch the 2015 Mersheimer lecture I posted earlier. (although at the time he believed Russia ultimately would unify with the west against Iran & China)
Ukraine has been "led down the primrose path" by U.S, EU, NATO foreign policy.
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The biggest mistake Ukraine made was giving up its nuclear weapons, IMO. I doubt we would be in this situation if they still had them. If this wasn't a major concession to Russia then I don't know what is.
That was way back in the 90's.
There was stability, kind of (albeit with mass corruption & poverty), with Ukraine & Russia sharing military bases ( like in Crimea) right up until the late 2000's.
It wasn't until NATO boasted of adopting Ukraine & Georgia into their alliance that Russia started getting twitchy.
Imagine a situation where Canada allied with China & planned to place nuclear arms on the border pointed right at the USA.
The states wouldn't be too keen on the idea.
I imagine that's how Russia feels.
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Trump's brilliant solution.
"Unfortunately, Donald Trump still has access to microphones and this week he gave us his solution to the Russian/western stand-off. At a fundraiser — for himself — Trump told donors that the US should take F-22 jets and “put the Chinese flag on them, and bomb the shit out” of Russia. Trump added: “And then we say, China did it, we didn’t do, China did it — and then they start fighting with each other, and we sit back and watch.” "
Maybe it was a joke. It's hard to tell.
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Trump's brilliant solution.
"Unfortunately, Donald Trump still has access to microphones and this week he gave us his solution to the Russian/western stand-off. At a fundraiser — for himself — Trump told donors that the US should take F-22 jets and “put the Chinese flag on them, and bomb the shit out” of Russia. Trump added: “And then we say, China did it, we didn’t do, China did it — and then they start fighting with each other, and we sit back and watch.” "
Maybe it was a joke. It's hard to tell.
The good thing about Trump was that other nations (even his own actually) found him unpredictable, potentially nuclear even.
He once quipped that if Russia invaded Ukraine he wouldn't rule out a strike on Moscow.
For all his faults, his unpredictable nature was good for world security IMO.
Contrast that with the Biden administration, weeks prior to the Ukraine invasion he publicly ruled out U.S military intervention in Ukraine!
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OK, this is something that puzzles me. According to David Starkey we're in this mess because the West is like a woke 16 year old girl, only spends 49 pence a year on defence and is completely powerless which has emboldened Russia to act the way it has, yet on the other hand Russia has acted the way it has because it's so shit scared of Western aggression and expansion that it had to get in first before poor little Russia was beaten into submission by Nato.
Nope it makes no sense to me.
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Another perspective.
Why Russia is Invading Ukraine.
https://youtu.be/If61baWF4GE
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More from Peter Hitchens.
Peter Hitchens on Russia's dark future & the West's war hysteria | The Colin Brazier Podcast GB News.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=735Wfs6Ezq8
I wonder what his brother would make of all this?
Sigh, he's still sadly missed, I'm glad we've still got Peter.
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OK, this is something that puzzles me. According to David Starkey we're in this mess because the West is like a woke 16 year old girl, only spends 49 pence a year on defence and is completely powerless which has emboldened Russia to act the way it has, yet on the other hand Russia has acted the way it has because it's so shit scared of Western aggression and expansion that it had to get in first before poor little Russia was beaten into submission by Nato.
Nope it makes no sense to me.
It is a bit more complicated than it seems at first glance.
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It is a bit more complicated than it seems at first glance.
Please explain it to me Mummy.
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Crikey! I didn’t realise until today that Spam writes a column for the Times under the pseudonym “Giles Coren”!
(&^&
Giles Coren: In a cage fight, I’ll take Mad Vlad over Truss
Giles Coren
I bet you think you’ve read just about every possible insight, opinion, viewpoint, prediction and wider cultural overview of the war in Ukraine. And you probably have. At this stage in the media response, everything it is possible to think or say about the war has now surely been thought or said. Many times over, in fact. But, as the great Sherlock Holmes so perspicaciously asseverated: “When you have eliminated the possible, all that is left is the impossible, which might not be the truth, but is at least worth thinking about . . . actually, Watson, that doesn’t make sense at all. May I have another go at it?”
Yes, it’s all very sad but I’m bored with it now. It’s not as if it’s happening in Wales or something. Ukraine is miles away. You probably wouldn’t even hear a nuclear bomb if it went off over Kyiv. I’m fed up with talking about war and death all the time and everyone walking around with long faces. It’s time we got back to discussing important things like Brexit and facemasks and whether one of the upsides to losing the Test series in the Caribbean would be that they might recall Broad and Anderson for a proper send-off at home this summer.
A nuclear war would actually be quite interesting. I mean, we’ve talked about little else for 75 years and there are still so many questions unanswered. Would anyone be dumb enough to press the button? Would the only possible response be a retaliatory strike? Would the inevitable upshot be Mutually Assured Destruction? It’s time we finally found out. I, for one, have been having nightmares for 40 years in which I see a mushroom cloud from my bedroom window, far in the distance, over rolling English hills, and I want to find out if I’ve been getting the mental picture broadly right or not.
What if Putin has a point? What if Zelensky really is a Nazi and Ukraine really was planning to nuke Russia? I’m not saying it is true. What do I know? I’m just saying that if it is, then we’re all going to look pretty bloody silly, aren’t we?
I never liked Ukraine anyway. In fact, I’m going to boycott Ukrainian stuff just to shake things up a bit.
Shouldn’t we all be a bit more like Vladimir Putin? Say what you like about the man, but he gets a lot of exercise, takes social distancing seriously, doesn’t kowtow to public opinion and is ruthless in achieving his ends. In a cage fight, you’re going to bet on him over Liz Truss, aren’t you? Or Gareth Southgate. You don’t have to approve of the Ukraine war to resolve to “be a bit more Vlad” in the office, on the trading floor, on the football pitch, in the bedroom . . .
I was talking about Ukraine way before everyone else. I went there on my gap year and really got to know it and it’s just not fair, all these people going on about it now like they discovered the place. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you I discovered it. But it’s completely ruined now. Just sooooo touristy. In my day you could get a meal and a beer and a bed for the night for, like, a pound? And there was literally nobody on the beaches.
Putin is hot. Some of the best columns in The Times in recent years have been Caitlin Moran’s ones about how she fancies the likes of Ed Balls, Gordon Brown, Aslan and Chewbacca. But on the sexual appeal of Putin, Caitlin has remained mysteriously silent. I don’t know much about what women want, but Caitlin seems to require some sense of a deep down “goodness” in a man (or animal) before she starts to feel fruity. Well, not me! I don’t care about the genocidal monomania, I’m just looking at those cheeky arrow-slit eyes, the vertiginous cheekbones, the barrel-chest, the puffy face like a cartoon gibbon etched onto a pole-dancer’s buttock, and I’m just betting he wouldn’t mess around, you know what I mean? There’d be no sonnets and roses with Vlad, he’d just throw you down and . . .
What’s so bad about a kleptocracy? You’ve got to be ruled by someone. Democracy is meant to be “rule by the people”, but who wanted Brexit? No “people” at all. Not in my part of north London. So that’s whack. And you know what the “aristos” in aristocracy means? No, it’s not “the chinless” or “the red-trousered”, it’s “the best”. But that didn’t pan out either, did it? And what sort of political system do you think we’re running in Britain in 2022 anyway? A symposiocracy (rule by party-goers)? A oenocracy (rule by drunks)? A pseudocracy (rule by liars)? A lagnocracy (rule by omni-shaggers)? Or is our system of government best described as a oenosymposiops1eudolagnocracy (rule by lying, drunken, party-going omni-shaggers)? It’s a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it? So give me the kleptos every time.
Flippin ’eck, Tuckov! With the 2,300 Russian children currently attending English public schools in danger of being thrown out (because a single breach of money-laundering regulations could lead to schools losing their charitable status), it is being suggested that they attend state schools instead. This will be great news for local education authorities as the world’s richest and most demanding families are funnelled into big comprehensives (think Grangeski Hill), demanding (and possibly funding) a swift improvement in education standards, discipline, music, art, parking for chauffeurs, sushi and caviar bars in the dining hall etc.
The “Z” logo is cool. Fashion has been drab lately but the arrival of the cool new pro-invasion “Z” motif could provide just the fillip it needs. Not since Lady Gaga’s meat dress has fashion had a chance like this to be so shockingly relevant.
Now we know why the Russians have been building all those mega basements in Chelsea and Belgravia. They are bunkers in which to sit out the nuclear war they’ve been planning all along. But it’s not too late to build your own. Turn to “Ten Top Tips To Style Up Your Fallout Shelter” in Bricks and Mortar today. The Times — Best for Bunkers.
This proves that Black Lives really do matter. Because a wider European War will kill practically all the white people in the world. It is the wokest international conflagration imaginable, for the number of black people killed will be vanishingly small by comparison. And nobody is going to bother nuking Africa, so with all the white people dead, black people can start all over again, and do it their way this time.
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It is a bit more complicated than it seems at first glance.
To be fair to Starkey, I think he's more an expert on Henry VIII & the Tudors or something.
But he probably still knows more about Russia than the rest of us.
It can be difficult to know who to believe, but I'm sticking with getting my news from Russia Today, just to be on the safe side.
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He wasn't even the best drummer in the Beatles, but a good singer though...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wzIz0beyro (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wzIz0beyro)
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He wasn't even the best drummer in the Beatles, but a good singer though...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wzIz0beyro (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wzIz0beyro)
That flew right over my head for a few minutes.
But bear in mind John 'Lenin' was already dead by the time I was born, & as much as my favourite crisps were Ringos, I'm more a Stones fan, they were far more edgy, or should that be rocky?
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He wasn't even the best drummer in the Beatles, but a good singer though...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wzIz0beyro (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wzIz0beyro)
He and Macca should do a version of “Back (to) the USSR” and all monies raised could go towards the war effort.
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He and Macca should do a version of “Back (to) the USSR” and all monies raised could go towards the war effort.
For many more of these at 20 grand a throw... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHZ_qfuEKRY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHZ_qfuEKRY)
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Just split Ukraine down the middle, let Russia keep east Ukraine & Crimea as independent, let Europe keep west Ukraine as non-Nato country, start repairing relations with Russia, then we should focus all our attentions on annihilating the SNP.
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For many more of these at 20 grand a throw... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHZ_qfuEKRY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHZ_qfuEKRY)
I could do with one of those to shut next door’s dog up.
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Just split Ukraine down the middle, let Russia keep east Ukraine & Crimea as independent, let Europe keep west Ukraine as non-Nato country, start repairing relations with Russia, then we should focus all our attentions on annihilating the SNP.
It's all or nothin' with Pukin, I'm afraid.
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I could do with one of those to shut next door’s dog up.
Hope Ellie isn't reading that on one of her secret visits.
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John J Mearsheimer: The Great Delusion (2018)
Mearsheimer’s lecture, entitled “The Great Delusion”, described the rise and fall of liberal hegemony—the United States’ attempt to remake the world in America’s image— since the end of Cold War.
https://youtu.be/nZVIaXFN2lU?t=267
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It gets better by the minute.
India accidentally fires missile into Pakistan
India says it accidentally fired a missile into Pakistan on Wednesday, blaming the incident on a "technical malfunction" during routine maintenance.
Delhi said it was "deeply regrettable" and expressed relief no one was killed.
Pakistan's military said a "high-speed flying object" had crashed near the eastern city of Mian Channu and its flight path had endangered passenger flights.
Both countries have nuclear weapons............
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-60711653
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It's all or nothin' with Pukin, I'm afraid.
The question is: what exactly is “all” as far as he is concerned? I suspect he wouldn’t stop at Ukraine given the opportunity.
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I'm going to post this twice in case anyone missed it.
Well worth a watch IMO
John J Mearsheimer: The Great Delusion (2018)
Mearsheimer’s lecture, entitled “The Great Delusion”, described the rise and fall of liberal hegemony—the United States’ attempt to remake the world in America’s image— since the end of Cold War.
https://youtu.be/nZVIaXFN2lU?t=267
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The question is: what exactly is “all” as far as he is concerned? I suspect he wouldn’t stop at Ukraine given the opportunity.
Neither would the United States & Europe though, given the chance.
If they could spread liberal democracy the world over, they would.
They already tried it in the middle east for the past 50 years.
Logistically, it would be impossible for Putin to control all of Europe.
I'm inclined to believe he will stop at Ukraine, for now, because he doesn't have the support/finances or power to go much further, he'll stop at Ukraine provided he can install his own Russian puppet there, like it used to be.
All my imaginings, until I read the next article on the balance of world power.
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That flew right over my head for a few minutes.
But bear in mind John 'Lenin' was already dead by the time I was born, & as much as my favourite crisps were Ringos, I'm more a Stones fan, they were far more edgy, or should that be rocky?
At the time the Beatles were a boy band. At 20 yrs old, I was very much a Stones fan and saw them live at this venue;
https://www.wintergardensblackpool.co.uk/stories/a-rock-n-roll-riot
My friend and I managed to avoid injury thanks to some Scottish lads warning us what was going to happen, so we left the stage area and went up to one of the galleries.
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More from political scientist John Mearsheimer following the invasion, well worth the watch.
https://youtu.be/ppD_bhWODDc?t=191
Putin may intend to turn western Ukraine into rubble, knowing he can't control it, but unwilling to let western powers control it either.
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I only recently found the joys of watching Youtube videos at x2 speed, I'm a total idiot for never considering this before.
I can listen to twice the amount of pro Russian propaganda whilst I'm doing the housework.
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Putin's Warning on the balance of world power, St Petersberg Economic Forum 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqD8lIdIMRo
This candid conversation took place with representatives of various media outlets during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, in June 2016. Putin urged journalists to report genuinely on the impending danger that is a nuclear arms race.
Nobody has anything to gain from a nuclear stand-off against Russia. The power hungry decision-makers are few in number, but powerful enough to have subverted mainstream media to misrepresent Russia as the main threat to international security.
Back in 2007, Putin informed that Russia will develop its weaponry to counter US advances. This was said in response to the US missile defense system that was starting to be developed at the time (previously prohibited in international law.)
With the NATO missile defense system on Russia’s doorstep – the threat to international security is very real; not that you would know it via mainstream media.
In 2002, the United States unilaterally and without consultation, withdrew from the landmark Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. President George W. Bush noted that the treaty is “now behind us,” describing the ABM Treaty as a Cold War relic.
Signed in 1972, the ABM Treaty barred both the US and the USSR from deploying national defenses against long-range ballistic missiles. The treaty was based on the premise that if either superpower constructed a strategic defense, the other would build up its offensive nuclear forces to offset the defense.
The superpowers would therefore quickly be put on a path toward a never-ending offensive-defensive arms race, as each tried to balance its counterpart’s actions. Until Bush took office, the Treaty was referred to as a “cornerstone of strategic stability” because it facilitated later agreements, reducing U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals.
The US, assuming that a weakened Russia will never again be in a position to counter US hegemonic power, proceeded to encroach on Russia’s borders through its manipulation of NATO objectives.
Today, there is no instrument in international law that prevents the possibility of mutually assured destruction. Putin has been sending out warnings for over 10 years – all of which fell on deaf ears.
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Obviously condemning Russia’s actions is not something you find easy though. There can be no justification for invading a sovreign nation and aiming your missiles at civilians but by all means give it a go here, I await your justification with interest (and no doubt in vain)…
I thought I'd come back to this, nothing personal just the point about invading sovereign states.
It was OK to falsely claim WMD'S & destroy Iraq because we did it, & we're the good guys. Sure it fostered instability, humanitarian disaster & terrorism. But it's OK, cause we're the good guys.
Then we blasted Libya into oblivion, killing innocent civilians & creating the African migrant crisis, but that was alright because we're the good guys remember.
Then we had a go at Syria because we'd done so well in the previous countries.
And then Afghanistan.
By comparison Putin is way behind the west in terms of international violations, but he's the bad guy remember.
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OK, I've read enough now to form the right opinion
Russian invasion of Ukraine is justified & I stand with Putin.
I'm going to order Russian flag tee shirts & troll liberal safe spaces declaring Glory to Mother Russia.
At least Putin understands there are only 2 genders Finally a politician based in reality, hard to disagree with him on that.
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Who gets NATO’s weapons in Ukraine?
As the war in Ukraine continues, NATO has been pouring weapons into the country under the banner of a campaign supposedly aimed at protecting “free” and “democratic” Ukraine from Russia. One of the many questions that is never raised in the media is: Who is getting these weapons?
Workers must oppose Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from the standpoint of revolutionary socialism. However, the claims of the imperialist powers that they and the Zelensky government are defending “freedom and democracy” against “Putin’s Russia” are cynical and dangerous lies.
Since the US-backed far-right coup in Kiev in 2014, which overthrew a pro-Russian government, Ukraine has been systematically transformed into a launchpad for war against Russia. The build-up of its military and the far right has been a central component of this process and shaped the way that this war has evolved.
The large-scale weapons deliveries now underway are not only a direct provocation against Russia. Their primary beneficiaries, both politically and militarily, are far-right forces in both Ukraine and internationally, who are being strengthened and emboldened.
The Ukrainian armed forces and the Geneva Conventions
Officially, the weapons will primarily go to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. What is not stated, however, is that for the past week, Ukraine’s Armed Forces have been making statements that they intend to undertake actions that likely violate the Geneva Conventions—they constitute war crimes.
On Twitter, Telegram, Facebook and elsewhere, the country’s military has been conducting a depraved social media campaign, posting photos and videos of dead Russian soldiers. The gruesome images—and the glee with which they are posted—testify to the reactionary and right-wing nature of the forces fighting on behalf of imperialism in Ukraine.
The official Twitter account of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is airing particularly violent content, including a number of videos of the burned and dismembered bodies of Russian soldiers who had been traveling in tanks and armored vehicles. They may have been killed by the much-publicized US-made Javelin anti-tank missiles.
On Tuesday, the Facebook account of the Commander of Ukraine’s special forces announced it would no longer take Russian artillerymen prisoner, but kill them on the spot. The post also threatened that surrendering to Ukraine’s special forces would be worse than death and that captured Russian artillerymen would be “cut up like pigs.”
These posts are the announcement of the intent to commit war crimes. Such policies are in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war (POW), which call for the humane treatment of POWs “in all circumstances.”
The social media accounts of Ukraine’s far-right forces, many of which are fully integrated into the army, are likewise rife with violent content and exhortations to commit atrocities against Russian soldiers.
Serhiy Sternenko, a well-known far-right “activist” who is currently serving in Ukraine’s military, has been busy since the start of the war popularizing anti-Russian slogans such as “Russophobia is not enough!” and posting content of dead Russian soldiers.
Among the posts shared by Sternenko was a photo of a dead Russian paratrooper whose parachute failed to open, a dead and frozen Russian soldier, as well as videos of burned Russian tanks and bodies. The celebration of death is accompanied by mocking jokes.
One particularly gruesome TikTok video circulating on right-wing Ukrainian social media shows a young Russian soldier singing behind the wheel of a Russian vehicle. The video later cuts to a video of the same soldier dead in a field from a direct shot to the head.
Significant effort has gone into such propaganda, and it is clearly backed by the Ukrainian government, which is attempting to demonstrate that killing people is “cool” and “fun,” as the leader of the Neo-Nazi group C14 Yevhen Karas told his audience at a political seminar named after the Ukrainian Nazi-collaborator Stepan Bandera in early February. Karas has also bluntly stated that it is precisely because neo-Nazis like him love killing Russians that the West supplies them with weapons.
The Ukrainian armed forces may also be violating the Geneva Conventions by regularly recording and posting videos of captured or surrendered Russian soldiers on social media. Many of the soldiers appear extremely young and are clearly of a poor or rural background, and made to serve in a deadly campaign by the Russian oligarchy. Several seem to be answering under duress and in one video a Russian soldier refuses to shout the right-wing Ukrainian slogan Slava Ukraini!(Glory to Ukraine!) while being humiliated by Ukrainian interrogators.
The Geneva Conventions prohibit POWs from “insults” and “intimidation” being displayed for “public curiosity,” all of which the Ukrainian military is violating with such social media postings.
This reactionary online campaign has reached such a level that even the war-mongering Washington Post noticed and published an article titled, “The gory online campaign Ukraine hopes will sow anti-Putin dissent probably violates the Geneva Conventions,” on Thursday.
The Azov Battalion and the far right
The Azov Battalion, which openly glorifies Nazism and Ukrainian Nazi collaborators and played a principal role in the 2014 coup, has been accused of many war crimes, as well as rape and assassination. Since 2014, it has fully been integrated into the National Guard, thus receiving arms and training from the government. The Ukrainian government allows the Azov Battalion and other far-right formations to run “youth camps,” where children as young as 9 years old are indoctrinated with fascist ideology and taught how to use weapons.
It is these forces that are now receiving a significant portion of the massive weapons deliveries by NATO. The Azov Battalion is reportedly heavily involved in the battle over Mariupol, a city in southern Ukraine. According to a report by Newsweek, it has also formed its own “Azov territorial defense detachment” in Kiev.
Even as he has been threatened and attacked by far-right tendencies like the Azov Battalion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made every effort to further integrate neo-fascist and paramilitary forces into the war effort. At the very beginning of the war, he announced that convicted criminals, including those serving sentences for war crimes, would be amnestied if they were ready to take up arms against Russia. He has called on “foreign fighters” to join the war in Ukraine.
Jonathan Brunson, a former political analyst for the US embassy in Ukraine, bluntly told Newsweek that before Russia’s invasion, “aid to the far-right was plausibly accidental. “But that may no longer be the case, because ‘all hands on deck’ means just that—and enables Ukraine’s far right to play a heroic role they otherwise wouldn’t.”
Not just the Ukrainian far right, but neo-fascist forces from all over the world, including the US and Europe, will now receive combat experience with the most advanced weapons in the world. They will also be able to continue developing their international networks, to which the Ukrainian far right, and especially the Azov Battalion, have long been central.
Speaking to Newsweek, Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremist Project, said: “Immediately after the invasion, some groups within Ukraine affiliated with right-wing extremism, in particular the Azov Regiment, which is now part of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, have put out public calls on social media for volunteers to come and join them. The Azov Regiment issued fairly detailed travel instructions via its social media channels but made clear that a) travel will not be facilitated until the individual is in Ukraine and b) no payment will be given for the volunteers and c) several months of service should be expected.”
US preparations for an “insurgency” in Ukraine
The arming of Ukraine’s far right and its integration into the military effort is neither an accident nor a “mistake.”
The imperialist intervention in Ukraine has historically relied on the mobilization of fascistic forces. The CIA and other Western intelligence services established close ties with Ukrainian Nazi collaborators after the war, integrating them into their structures and deploying them in the Cold War against the Soviet Union.
The build-up of the far right in the lead-up to the 2014 coup and ever since stands in these traditions.
Moreover, since 2015, the CIA has engaged in systematic preparations for an “insurgency” in Ukraine. In January, a report by Yahoo News revealed that for the past eight years the CIA has been overseeing “a secret intensive training program in the U.S. for elite Ukrainian special operations forces and other intelligence personnel.” The program, according to Yahoo, involved “training in firearms, camouflage techniques, land navigation, tactics like ‘cover and move,’ intelligence and other areas, according to former officials.” A former CIA official told the news site that “The United States is training an insurgency,” teaching Ukrainians how “to kill Russians.”
A former senior intelligence official said, “If the Russians invade, those [graduates of the CIA programs] are going to be your militia, your insurgent leaders. We’ve been training these guys now for eight years. They’re really good fighters. That’s where the agency’s program could have a serious impact.”
Over the past year, US officials have repeatedly threatened that they intend to turn Ukraine, which used to be the world’s third-largest nuclear power, into “another Afghanistan” for Russia. This is what is now underway. Unless the working class intervenes in this conflict on an independent, socialist program, the far right, in Ukraine and internationally, can only emerge strengthened and emboldened from this reactionary campaign.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/05/xpbb-m05.html
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I think we can all agree that the Ukranian people are suffering terribly as a direct result of Russia's actions. Clearly Russia is directly responsible for those actions. It's not so clear who might be indirectly responsible for Russia's decisions however.
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I think we can all agree that the Ukranian people are suffering terribly as a direct result of Russia's actions. Clearly Russia is directly responsible for those actions. It's not so clear who might be indirectly responsible for Russia's decisions however.
Well, the western consensus is that Putin is Hitler.
Scratch the surface, you find Putin was telling the truth, the Nazis are actually controlling Ukraine.
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30 April 2021
Ukrainian President Zelensky deepens alliance with far right
Amidst the ongoing military confrontation with Russia, reports have emerged proving that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is seeking to appoint the far-right Serhiy Sternenko as head of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) in Odessa, in an attempt to further his alliance with neo-Nazi forces.
As the former head of the neo-Nazi Right Sector in Odessa, Sternenko was directly implicated in the 2014 Trade Unions House massacre of 46 people. He is a convicted criminal and currently under investigation for murder.
Andriy Bohdan, the former head of Zelensky’s administration, confirmed the president’s offer in a Facebook post in response to questions by a reporter with the online news site Strana. When asked if the rumors were true that Zelensky had offered the position to Sternenko, Bohdan replied, “I think he did it right when they were quickly forming a list of government deputies. An acute personnel shortage as they say.”
While Sternenko had previously claimed that he met personally with Zelensky and was offered the position in 2019, ties between the two had never been officially confirmed by anyone close to the president.
Confirmation of the offer demonstrates that the administration of Zelensky, who came to power in 2019 due to widespread disillusionment and disgust with his right-wing nationalist predecessor Petro Poroshenko, has in fact continued and increased the conspicuous alliance of Ukraine’s oligarchy with neo-Nazi thugs.
As a far-right political operative, Sternenko has a bloody political and criminal history including drug charges, kidnapping and murder.
In February of this year, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years and three months in prison for the 2015 kidnapping and robbery of Serhiy Shcherbych, an Odessa district councilor and member of the pro-Russian Rodina Party.
Following the verdict, protests broke out across the country led by Ukrainian far-right nationalist forces calling for Sternenko’s release. The protests resulted in the trashing of Zelensky’s presidential offices, with 27 police officers injured in the process.
Sternenko has likewise been supported by Ukraine’s most prominent right-wing politicians, former President Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who both criticized Sternenko’s sentencing.
In addition to kidnapping charges, Sternenko is under investigation for the killing of Ivan Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov was killed in 2018 after another man confronted the infamous Sternenko and his girlfriend in the streets of Odessa. According to reports, after a fight broke out Sternenko chased down a fleeing Kuznetsov for over 100 meters and eventually stabbed him to death.
Sternenko first came to political prominence as a right-wing supporter of the US-backed coup in 2014 that ousted the elected pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. The coup heavily relied on neo-fascist forces such as Sternenko, his Right Sector and the Azov Battalion.
Later, as leader of the Right Sector in Odessa, Sternenko was directly implicated in the massacre of 46 people who were horrifically burned to death by right-wing thugs on May 2, 2014, after being forced to take shelter in Odessa’s Trade Unions House.
Since the Odessa Trade Unions House fire, Sternenko’s Right Sector thugs have interrupted a number of memorial events by family members to the victims. None of them have ever been held accountable for the massacre.
Despicably, in the Western press Sternenko is often depicted as a “pro-democracy” and “anti-corruption” activist who has been unfairly prosecuted.
Sternenko previously wore typical neo-Nazi military garb, but now is often seen dressed in a suit with glasses. He even earned himself a law degree in an effort to appear more respectable, garner support from Western imperialism and hide his neo-Nazi ties.
Recently, the rabidly anti-Russian Washington D.C.-based Atlantic Council think tank attempted to whitewash the bloody nature of Sternenko and Ukraine’s far right which the think tank itself supports.
Turning the truth on its head regarding the events of the Odessa massacre in 2014, the Atlantic Council wrote, “Sternenko has been in the public eye for a number of years and has frequently attracted controversy. He initially rose to prominence as head of the Odessa branch of Ukrainian far-right nationalist group Right Sector, and was actively involved in efforts to prevent a Kremlin-led takeover of the Black Sea port city in spring 2014 during the initial phase of Russia’s ongoing hybrid war against Ukraine.”
In March, thanks to the support he received from the US-backed section of the Ukrainian ruling class, Sternenko was released from jail on house arrest. Several Ukrainian parliamentary members had offered to pay Sternenko’s bail, including members from Zelensky’s own Servant of the People party.
Sternenko had been taken into custody after his sentencing in February and is now out on a pending appeal. His case is following a pattern in the Ukrainian judicial system where far-right thugs are rarely convicted or, even when convicted, can later skip out of jail and prison on appeal.
Sternenko’s release conspicuously coincided with the ramping up of hostilities with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and tensions with Moscow as well as Zelensky’s crackdown on the pro-Russian opposition in Ukraine.
In February Zelensky undemocratically banned the popular pro-Russian television stations ZIK, NewsOne, and 112 Ukraine, ostensibly to combat Russian “disinformation.”
The channels are affiliated with pro-Russian opposition leader and oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, who favors a negotiated peace settlement with Moscow and the Donbass separatists. This past week, Zelensky moved even further, banning the stations from YouTube in Ukraine.
By banning the channels, Zelensky has furthered his dangerous confrontation with Moscow over Crimea and the separatist-controlled Donbass region. He has also taken out media outlets which often expose the comfortable relationship between the pro-NATO section of the Ukrainian oligarchy and right-wing anti-Russian fascists like Sternenko.
One of the banned channels, 112 Ukraine, has reported previously on the recruitment and promotion of figures such as Sternenko by the SBU following the anti-Moscow coup in 2014. According to a June 2020 report from 112 Ukraine, Sternenko’s ties to the SBU date back to 2014 and that for some time while in Odessa as head of the Right Sector Sternenko basically worked as a paid employee of the SBU.
For the Ukrainian government, which recently announced a strategy to “retake” Crimea and continues to engage in a potentially catastrophic confrontation with Moscow with the military support from the US, figures such as Sternenko are indispensable for carrying out their dirty work both in the war zone, and when it comes to suppressing popular opposition.
Ukraine’s right-wing Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, who is closely affiliated with neo-Nazi forces such as the Azov Battalion, recently called for the neo-fascists, whom he called “patriots,” to ready themselves to protect the “motherland” from Russia. These statements, like Zelensky’s increasingly open ties with the country’s far right, are further proof that the Ukrainian ruling class is counting on such elements to serve as the spearhead in a potential war with Russia.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/05/01/ukr-m01.html
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How Ukraine’s Jewish President, Volodymyr Zelensky, Made Peace with Neo-Nazi Paramilitaries on Front Lines of War with Russia
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Right Sector commander Dmytro Kotsyubaylo the “Hero of Ukraine” commendation on December 1
Back in October 2019, as the war in eastern Ukraine dragged on, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Zolote, a town situated firmly in the “gray zone” of Donbas, where over 14,000 had been killed, mostly on the pro-Russian side. There, the president encountered the hardened veterans of extreme right paramilitary units keeping up the fight against separatists just a few miles away.
Elected on a platform of de-escalation of hostilities with Russia, Zelensky was determined to enforce the so-called Steinmeier Formula conceived by then-German Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier which called for elections in the Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
In a face-to-face confrontation with militants from the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion who had launched a campaign to sabotage the peace initiative called “No to Capitulation,” Zelensky encountered a wall of obstinacy.
With appeals for disengagement from the frontlines firmly rejected, Zelensky melted down on camera. “I’m the president of this country. I’m 41 years old. I’m not a loser. I came to you and told you: Remove the weapons,” Zelensky implored the fighters.
Once video of the stormy confrontation spread across Ukrainian social media channels, Zelensky became the target of an angry backlash.
Andriy Biletsky, the proudly fascist Azov Battalion leader who once pledged to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen”, vowed to bring thousands of fighters to Zolote if Zelensky pressed any further. Meanwhile, a parliamentarian from the party of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko openly fantasized about Zelensky being blown to bits by a militant’s grenade.
Though Zelensky achieved a minor disengagement, the neo-Nazi paramilitaries escalated their “No Capitulation” campaign. And within months, fighting began to heat up again in Zolote, sparking a new cycle of violations of the Minsk Agreement.
By this point, Azov had been formally incorporated into the Ukrainian military and its street vigilante wing, known as the National Corps, was deployed across the country under the watch of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, and alongside the National Police. In December 2021, Zelensky would be seen delivering a “Hero of Ukraine” award to a leader of the fascistic Right Sector in a ceremony in Ukraine’s parliament.
A full-scale conflict with Russia was approaching, and the distance between Zelensky and the extremist paramilitaries was closing fast.
This February 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukrainian territory on a stated mission to “demilitarize and denazify” the country, U.S. media embarked on a mission of its own: to deny the power of neo-Nazi paramilitaries over the country’s military and political sphere. As the U.S. government-funded National Public Radio insisted, “Putin’s language [about denazification] is offensive and factually wrong.”
In its bid to deflect from the influence of Nazism in contemporary Ukraine, U.S. media has found its most effective PR tool in the figure of Zelensky, a former TV star and comedian from a Jewish background. It is a role the actor-turned-politician has eagerly assumed.
But as we will see, Zelensky has not only ceded ground to the neo-Nazis in his midst, he has entrusted them with a front line role in his country’s war against pro-Russian and Russian forces.
The President’s Jewishness As Western Media PR Device
Hours before President Putin’s February 24 speech declaring denazification as the goal of Russian operations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “asked how a people who lost eight million of its citizens fighting Nazis could support Nazism,” according to the BBC.
Raised in a non-religious Jewish family in the Soviet Union during the 1980’s, Zelensky has downplayed his heritage in the past. “The fact that I am Jewish barely makes 20 in my long list of faults,” he joked during a 2019 interview in which he declined to go into further detail about his religious background.
Today, as Russian troops bear down on cities like Mariupol, which is effectively under the control of the Azov Battalion, Zelensky is no longer ashamed to broadcast his Jewishness. “How could I be a Nazi?” he wondered aloud during a public address. For a U.S. media engaged in an all-out information war against Russia, the president’s Jewish background has become an essential public relations tool.
A few examples of the U.S. media’s deployment of Zelensky as a shield against allegations of rampant Nazism in Ukraine are below....
- PBS NewsHour noted Putin’s comments on denazification with a qualifier: “Even though President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish and his great uncles died in the Holocaust.”
- On Fox & Friends, former CIA officer Dan Hoffman declared that “it’s the height of hypocrisy to call the Ukrainian nation to denazify—their president is Jewish after all.”
- On MSNBC, Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Putin’s “terminology, outrageous and obnoxious as it is—‘denazify’ where you’ve got frankly a Jewish president in Mr. Zelensky. This guy [Putin] is on his own kind of personal jihad to restore greater Russia.”
- Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn said on Fox Business she’s “been impressed with President Zelensky and how he has stood up. And for Putin to go out there and say ‘we’re going to denazify’ and Zelensky is Jewish.”
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Gen. John Allen denounced Putin’s use of the term, “de-Nazify” while the newsman and former Israel lobbyist shook his head in disgust. In a separate interview with Blitzer, the so-called “Ukraine whistleblower” and Ukraine-born Alexander Vindman grumbled that the claim is “patently absurd, there’s really no merit… you pointed out that Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish… the Jewish community [is] embraced. It’s central to the country and there is nothing to this Nazi narrative, this fascist narrative. It’s fabricated as a pretext.”
Behind the corporate media spin lies the complex and increasingly close relationship Zelensky’s administration has enjoyed with the neo-Nazi forces invested with key military and political posts by the Ukrainian state, and the power these open fascists have enjoyed since Washington installed a Western-aligned regime through a coup in 2014.
In fact, Zelensky’s top financial backer, the Ukrainian Jewish oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, has been a key benefactor of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion and other extremists militias.
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The Azov Battalion marches with Nazi-inspired Wolfsangel flags in Mariupol, August 2020 / credit: The Grayzone
Backed by Zelensky’s Top Financier, Neo-Nazi Militants Unleash a Wave of Intimidation
Incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard, the Azov Battalion is considered the most ideologically zealous and militarily motivated unit fighting pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donbass region.
With Nazi-inspired Wolfsangel insignia on the uniforms of its fighters, who have been photographed with Nazi SS symbols on their helmets, Azov “is known for its association with neo-Nazi ideology…[and] is believed to have participated in training and radicalizing U.S.-based white supremacy organizations,” according to an FBI indictment of several U.S. white nationalists that traveled to Kiev to train with Azov.
Igor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian energy baron of Jewish heritage, has been a top funder of Azov since it was formed in 2014. He has also bankrolled private militias like the Dnipro and Aidar Battalions, and has deployed them as a personal thug squad to protect his financial interests.
In 2019, Kolomoisky emerged as the top backer of Zelensky’s presidential bid. Though Zelensky made anti-corruption the signature issue of his campaign, the Pandora Papers exposed him and members of his inner circle stashing large payments from Kolomoisky in a shadowy web of offshore accounts.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (center) meets with billionaire oligarch and business associate Igor Kolomoisky (second from right) on September 10, 2019 / credit: The Grayzone
When Zelensky took office in May 2019, the Azov Battalion maintained de facto control of the strategic southeastern port city of Mariupol and its surrounding villages. As Open Democracy noted, “Azov has certainly established political control of the streets in Mariupol. To maintain this control, they have to react violently, even if not officially, to any public event which diverges sufficiently from their political agenda.”
Attacks by Azov in Mariupol have included assaults on “feminists and liberals” marching on International Women’s Day among other incidents.
In March 2019, members of the Azov Battalion’s National Corps attacked the home of Viktor Medvedchuk, the leading opposition figure in Ukraine, accusing him of treason for his friendly relations with Vladimir Putin, the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter.
Zelensky’s administration escalated the attack on Medvedchuk, shuttering several media outlets he controlled in February 2021 with the open approval of the U.S. State Department, and jailing the opposition leader for treason three months later. Zelensky justified his actions on the grounds that he needed to “fight against the danger of Russian aggression in the information arena.”
Next, in August 2020, Azov’s National Corps opened fire on a bus containing members of Medvedchuk’s party, Patriots for Life, wounding several with rubber-coated steel bullets.
Zelensky Failed to Rein In Neo-Nazis, Wound Up Collaborating with Them
Following his failed attempt to demobilize neo-Nazi militants in the town of Zolote in October 2019, Zelensky called the fighters to the table, telling reporters “I met with veterans yesterday. Everyone was there—the National Corps, Azov, and everyone else.”
A few seats away from the Jewish president was Yehven Karas, the leader of the neo-Nazi C14 gang.
During the Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” that ousted Ukraine’s elected president in 2014, C14 activists took over Kiev’s city hall and plastered its walls with neo-Nazi insignia before taking shelter in the Canadian embassy.
As the former youth wing of the ultra-nationalist Svoboda Party, C14 appears to draw its name from the infamous 14 words of U.S. neo-Nazi leader David Lane: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
By offering to carry out acts of spectacular violence on behalf of anyone willing to pay, the hooligans have fostered a cozy relationship with various governing bodies and powerful elites across Ukraine.
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C14 neo-Nazi gang offers to carry out violence-for-hire: “C14 works for you. Help us keep afloat, and we will help you. For regular donors, we are opening a box for wishes. Which of your enemies would you like to make life difficult for? We’ll try to do that.” / credit: KHPG
A March 2018 report by Reuters stated that “C14 and Kiev’s city government recently signed an agreement allowing C14 to establish a ‘municipal guard’ to patrol the streets,” effectively giving them the sanction of the state to carry out pogroms.
As The Grayzone reported, C14 led raid to “purge” Romani from Kiev’s railway station in collaboration with the Kiev police.
Not only was this activity sanctioned by the Kiev city government, the U.S. government itself saw little problem with it, hosting Bondar at an official U.S. government institution in Kiev where he bragged about the pogroms. C14 continued to receive state funding throughout 2018 for “national-patriotic education.”
Karas has claimed that the Ukrainian Security Serves would “pass on” information regarding pro-separatist rallies “not only [to] us, but also Azov, the Right Sector and so on.”
“In general, deputies of all factions, the National Guard, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs work for us. You can joke like that,” Karas said.
Throughout 2019, Zelensky and his administration deepened their ties with ultra-nationalist elements across Ukraine.
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Ukrainian then-Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk onstage at the neo-Nazi “Veterans Strong” concert / credit: The Grayzone
After Prime Minister Attends Neo-Nazi Concert, Zelensky Honors Right Sector Leader
Just days after Zelensky’s meeting with Karas and other neo-Nazi leaders in November 2019, Oleksiy Honcharuk—then the Prime Minister and deputy head of Zelensky’s presidential office—appeared on stage at a neo-Nazi concert organized by C14 figure and accused murderer Andriy Medvedko.
Zelensky’s Minister for Veterans Affairs not only attended the concert, which featured several [ censored word]emitic metal bands, she promoted the concert on Facebook.
Also in 2019, Zelensky defended Ukrainian footballer Roman Zolzulya against Spanish fans taunting him as a “Nazi.” Zolzulya had posed beside photos of the World War II-era Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera and openly supported the Azov Battalion. Zelensky responded to the controversy by proclaiming that all of Ukraine backed Zolzulya, describing him as “not only a cool football player but a true patriot.”
In November 2021, one of Ukraine’s most prominent ultra-nationalist militiamen, Dmytro Yarosh, announced that he had been appointed as an advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny. Yarosh is an avowed follower of the Nazi collaborator Bandera who led Right Sector from 2013 to 2015, vowing to lead the “de-Russification” of Ukraine.
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Ultra-nationalist militiaman Dmytro Yarosh (right) poses with Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny / credit: Facebook
A month later, as war with Russia drew closer, Zelensky awarded Right Sector commander Dmytro Kotsyubaylo the “Hero of Ukraine” commendation. Known as “Da Vinci,” Kosyubaylo keeps a pet wolf in his frontline base, and likes to joke to visiting reporters that his fighters “feed it the bones of Russian-speaking children.”
Ukrainian State-Backed Neo-Nazi Leader Flaunts Influence on the Eve of War with Russia
On February 5, only days before full-scale war with Russia erupted, Yevhen Karas of the neo-Nazi C14 delivered a stem-winding public address in Kiev intended to highlight the influence his organization and others like it enjoyed over Ukrainian politics.
“LGBT and foreign embassies say ‘there were not many Nazis at Maidan, maybe about 10 percent of real ideological ones,’” Karas remarked. “If not for those eight percent [of neo-Nazis] the effectiveness [of the Maidan coup] would have dropped by 90 percent.”
The 2014 Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” would have been a “gay parade” if not for the instrumental role of neo-Nazis, he proclaimed.
Karas went on to opine that the West armed Ukrainian ultra-nationalists because “we have fun killing.” He also fantasized about the balkanization of Russia, declaring that it should be broken up into “five different” countries.
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Yevhen Karas of neo-Nazi group, C14, pictured delivering the Nazi salute / credit: The Grayzone
“If We Get Killed… We Died Fighting a Holy War”
When Russian forces entered Ukraine this February 24, encircling the Ukrainian military in the east and driving towards Kiev, President Zelensky announced a national mobilization that included the release of criminals from prison, among them accused murderers wanted in Russia. He also blessed the distribution of arms to average citizens, and their training by battle-hardened paramilitaries like the Azov Battalion.
With fighting underway, Azov’s National Corps gathered hundreds of ordinary civilians, including grandmothers and children, to train in public squares and warehouses from Kharviv to Kiev to Lviv.
On February 27, the official Twitter account of the National Guard of Ukraine posted video of “Azov Fighters” greasing their bullets with pig fat to humiliate Russian Muslim fighters from Chechnya.
A day later, the Azov Battalion’s National Corps announced that the Azov Battalion’s Kharkiv Regional Police would begin using the city’s Regional State Administration building as a defense headquarters. Footage posted to Telegram the following day shows the Azov-occupied building being hit by a Russian airstrike.
Besides authorizing the release of hardcore criminals to join the battle against Russia, Zelensky has ordered all males of fighting age to remain in the country. Azov militants have proceeded to enforce the policy by brutalizing civilians attempting to flee from the fighting around Mariupol.
According to one Greek resident in Mariupol recently interviewed by a Greek news station, “When you try to leave you run the risk of running into a patrol of the Ukrainian fascists, the Azov Battalion,” he said, adding “they would kill me and are responsible for everything.”
Footage posted online appears to show uniformed members of a fascist Ukrainian militia in Mariupol violently pulling fleeing residents out of their vehicles at gunpoint.
Other video filmed at checkpoints around Mariupol showed Azov fighters shooting and killing civilians attempting to flee.
On March 1, Zelensky replaced the regional administrator of Odessa with Maksym Marchenko, a former commander of the extreme right Aidar Battalion, which has been accused of an array of war crimes in the Donbass region.
Meanwhile, as a massive convoy of Russian armored vehicles bore down on Kiev, Yehven Karas of the neo-Nazi C14 posted a video on YouTube from inside a vehicle presumably transporting fighters.
“If we get killed, it’s f..king great because it means we died fighting a holy war,” Karas exclaimed. ”If we survive, it’s going to be even f..king better! That’s why I don’t see a downside to this, only upside!”
https://towardfreedom.org/story/archives/europe/how-ukraines-jewish-president-volodymyr-zelensky-made-peace-with-neo-nazi-paramilitaries-on-front-lines-of-war-with-russia/
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So, is anyone here still supporting the UkraNazis?
Are we glad our tax money is spent on advanced military equipment for use by White Supremacists?
(But we're the good guys remember)
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I think we can all agree that the Ukranian people are suffering terribly as a direct result of Russia's actions. Clearly Russia is directly responsible for those actions. It's not so clear who might be indirectly responsible for Russia's decisions however.
My sincerest wish is for Putin to have a fatal heart attack, hopefully within the next few days. I'd also be quite happy to hear that he has been assassinated, or even that he has fallen off a sofa after od'ing on Vodka flavoured Calpol. Anything so long as he gets his comeuppance, which in my opinion is now long overdue.
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My sincerest wish is for Putin to have a fatal heart attack, hopefully within the next few days. I'd also be quite happy to hear that he has been assassinated, or even that he has fallen off a sofa after od'ing on Vodka flavoured Calpol. Anything so long as he gets his comeuppance, which in my opinion is now long overdue.
I imagine the good folk of Salisbury share your wish.
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My sincerest wish is for Putin to have a fatal heart attack, hopefully within the next few days. I'd also be quite happy to hear that he has been assassinated, or even that he has fallen off a sofa after od'ing on Vodka flavoured Calpol. Anything so long as he gets his comeuppance, which in my opinion is now long overdue.
This is disgusting, what has Putin ever done to you to warrant such bile & hatred?
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I imagine the good folk of Salisbury share your wish.
I have friends in Salisbury who say life still isn’t back to how it was before that terrible incident, the one Putrid claims was nothing to do with him.
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From a much longer article, written by a Ukranian who presumably knows a bit more about his country than Hitchens, Starkey or any of the “sages” on this forum:
“Journalists from different countries call me and they all ask the same question: “What is the reason for this war?” The answer is both very simple and quite complex.
Putin has been repeating the mantra for 20 years: “Ukrainians and Russians are one people.” What he actually means is “Ukrainians belong to Russia”. The Ukrainians do not agree with this. He has also publicly said many times that his greatest personal tragedy is the collapse of the Soviet Union. But for most Ukrainians, this was not a tragedy. This was a historical chance to become a European country and regain independence from the Russian empire.
Now that President Putin has aged dramatically in self-imposed isolation during the pandemic, he has decided that he wants to live on in Russian school history books as the leader who was able to re-create the Soviet Union, or the Russian empire, within its former borders. He has no other ambitions. He does not need money — there are no currency exchange offices or expensive restaurants in the afterlife.
He needs Ukraine, Belarus and, I think, other territories that were previously part of the USSR or of the Russian empire. He wanted Russia to be feared and he achieved this. He wanted total political control over the Russian Federation, and he succeeded. A huge country with a one-party system and a destroyed opposition. Like the Soviet Union. Now he denies that Ukrainians are a separate people.
The Ukrainians never had a tsar and were never ready to obey any. The Russians, who lived for centuries in a monarchy, on the contrary, loved their tsars. Sometimes they killed a tsar, but then they would adore the next one. Loyalty to a new monarchy remained in the Soviet era. Of the six general secretaries of the Communist Party of the USSR, only one was fired — Nikita Khrushchev, a Ukrainian. Mikhail Gorbachev aside, the others remained leaders of the Soviet state until the day of their death. In the time that Putin has ruled Russia, Ukraine has had five presidents.
Ukrainians are individualists, egoists, anarchists who do not like government or authority. They think they know how to organise their lives, regardless of which party or force is in power in the country. If they do not like the actions of the authorities, they go out to protest. Therefore, any government in Ukraine is afraid of the street; afraid of its people.
Russians loyal to their authority are afraid to protest and are willing to obey any rules the Kremlin creates. Now they are cut off from information, from Facebook and Twitter. But even before they believed the official TV channels more than the news from the internet.
In Ukraine, about 400 political parties are registered with the Ministry of Justice. This only once again proves the individualism of Ukrainians. Not a single nationalist party is represented in the Ukrainian parliament. Ukrainians do not like to vote for either the extreme left or the extreme right. Basically, they are liberals at heart.
In the 1920s and 1930s peasants were sent to Siberia and the Far East as a punishment for not wanting to join collective farms. Ukrainians are not collective, everyone wants to be the owner of his own land, his own cow, his own crop. Looking at this history, they can safely say: “We and the Russians are two different peoples!”
Now, the Ukrainian army is successfully defending the country. Ukrainians are accustomed to freedom and value it more than stability. For Russians, stability is more important than freedom.
Ukrainians have never accepted censorship. They have always wanted to say and write what they thought. That is why almost all Ukrainian writers and poets of the 1920s and the 1930s were shot by the Soviet authorities. A whole generation of writers of that time is now called the “executed revival”.
If Russia succeeds, another executed generation of Ukrainian writers and politicians, philosophers and philologists may appear, all those for whom life without a free Ukraine does not make sense. I consider myself one of these people, as are many of my friends.
It is scary to write the following words, but I will write them anyway: Ukraine will either be free, independent and European, or it will not exist at all. Then they will write about it in European history books, shamefacedly hiding the fact that the destruction of Ukraine was possible only with the tacit consent of Europe and the entire civilised world”.
Andrey Kurkov is the author of Death and the Penguin. His most recent novel is Grey Bees (Quercus)
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PETER HITCHENS: I keep telling you that Russia isn't strong. This stupid, brutal war has proved it.
I shall never see it again now but I always loved a particular quiet, modest street in southern Moscow.
For once, there were no gigantic buildings or tower blocks, just low, graceful old houses, trees and churches, especially one movingly called ‘The Consolation of All Sorrows’ which, I expect, is pretty full just now.
There, you could – just – believe that the old, kindly Russia, raped and murdered by Communists, might one day come back. How I wish it could have done.
That belief is all gone now.
Yet for years, I thought I owed that hope to the people I had known and liked in Russia, where I spent two of the most astonishing years of my life.
Living in a foreign country, especially a remote and exotic nation, is a great gift. For the rest of your life it informs everything else you ever see or feel. I am stuck with that now. I am forced to care about Russia and the Russians.
I don’t ask you to do the same, only to understand that it is, to me, a duty. And if you think, as some spiteful people do, and have said, that I do all this because I am in Russian pay, or a Putin supporter, or because I am not a British patriot, then you are terribly mistaken.
Generations of my family have faced real danger in the Armed Forces. My father (who hated Stalin and all his works) ferried tanks to the Soviet Union on the terrible Murmansk convoys, pausing on the way to help sink a German battlecruiser.
My daughter served with the 1st Battalion of the Grenadier Guards as an Intelligence officer, in a forward base in Helmand, in Afghanistan. Her husband, my son-in-law, fought the Taliban face-to-face and was wounded in combat. I am impossibly proud of them all.
The truth about patriotism, by the way, is that you feel it far more intensely if you have lived abroad than you do if you have not. And I find the thing about those who have actually faced danger is that they are the least noisy, and the most genuine, about their love of country.
I say what I say about this conflict – especially that Western stupidity helped to bring it about – because I believe it to be true.
I also say it because my forebears fought, among other things, for my freedom to say what is unpopular. So I would be betraying their legacy if I did not use that freedom.
I will not dwell on it. The important thing at the moment is to stand against the wild hysteria that is raging among us.
It is almost funny that music by Peter Tchaikovsky has been removed from a concert because he was Russian. But it is not funny when individual Russians are shunned, as one hears they have been.
It is genuinely tragic when sanctions are imposed which will, as usual, ruin the lives of the poor while doing little to harm powerful villains. And it is deadly serious when unthinking hysteria grips politics and the media.
Too many people think that it is somehow noble and good to call for more war, more weapons and more fighting. Have they seen war? This conflict must end at some point. For those caught up in it, the sooner it ends the better.
I had the bizarre experience last week of being attacked for not being compassionate enough, by one Kelvin Mackenzie, who was the editor of The Sun newspaper during its not-very-compassionate ‘Gotcha’ period. Too many people seem to find war attractive.
More serious still are continuing calls to widen the war with ‘no-fly zones’ and other unhinged follies. If your concern is (as it should be) for the innocent Ukrainian victims of the war, give and do all you can to help them.
But do nothing to extend or prolong war, for the longer and deeper the war is, the more people will die and be maimed.
Do not forget the most basic rules, that the first casualty of war is truth and that the only mercy in war is that it ends quickly. Resist attempts to get you to stop thinking.
Perhaps the single biggest thing we have learned from this attack is that Russia is (as I have long argued) not very big, not very rich and not very strong. Its army cannot achieve its aims.
Putin has, without meaning to, destroyed the Russian bogeyman which we have been told to fear for so long. It would be good if somebody learned something from that, but I don’t suppose they will.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10606263/PETER-HITCHENS-telling-Russia-isnt-strong-stupid-brutal-war-proved-it.html
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From a much longer article, written by a Ukranian who presumably knows a bit more about his country than Hitchens, Starkey or any of the “sages” on this forum:
“Journalists from different countries call me and they all ask the same question: “What is the reason for this war?” The answer is both very simple and quite complex.
Putin has been repeating the mantra for 20 years: “Ukrainians and Russians are one people.” What he actually means is “Ukrainians belong to Russia”. The Ukrainians do not agree with this. He has also publicly said many times that his greatest personal tragedy is the collapse of the Soviet Union. But for most Ukrainians, this was not a tragedy. This was a historical chance to become a European country and regain independence from the Russian empire.
Now that President Putin has aged dramatically in self-imposed isolation during the pandemic, he has decided that he wants to live on in Russian school history books as the leader who was able to re-create the Soviet Union, or the Russian empire, within its former borders. He has no other ambitions. He does not need money — there are no currency exchange offices or expensive restaurants in the afterlife.
He needs Ukraine, Belarus and, I think, other territories that were previously part of the USSR or of the Russian empire. He wanted Russia to be feared and he achieved this. He wanted total political control over the Russian Federation, and he succeeded. A huge country with a one-party system and a destroyed opposition. Like the Soviet Union. Now he denies that Ukrainians are a separate people.
The Ukrainians never had a tsar and were never ready to obey any. The Russians, who lived for centuries in a monarchy, on the contrary, loved their tsars. Sometimes they killed a tsar, but then they would adore the next one. Loyalty to a new monarchy remained in the Soviet era. Of the six general secretaries of the Communist Party of the USSR, only one was fired — Nikita Khrushchev, a Ukrainian. Mikhail Gorbachev aside, the others remained leaders of the Soviet state until the day of their death. In the time that Putin has ruled Russia, Ukraine has had five presidents.
Ukrainians are individualists, egoists, anarchists who do not like government or authority. They think they know how to organise their lives, regardless of which party or force is in power in the country. If they do not like the actions of the authorities, they go out to protest. Therefore, any government in Ukraine is afraid of the street; afraid of its people.
Russians loyal to their authority are afraid to protest and are willing to obey any rules the Kremlin creates. Now they are cut off from information, from Facebook and Twitter. But even before they believed the official TV channels more than the news from the internet.
In Ukraine, about 400 political parties are registered with the Ministry of Justice. This only once again proves the individualism of Ukrainians. Not a single nationalist party is represented in the Ukrainian parliament. Ukrainians do not like to vote for either the extreme left or the extreme right. Basically, they are liberals at heart.
In the 1920s and 1930s peasants were sent to Siberia and the Far East as a punishment for not wanting to join collective farms. Ukrainians are not collective, everyone wants to be the owner of his own land, his own cow, his own crop. Looking at this history, they can safely say: “We and the Russians are two different peoples!”
Now, the Ukrainian army is successfully defending the country. Ukrainians are accustomed to freedom and value it more than stability. For Russians, stability is more important than freedom.
Ukrainians have never accepted censorship. They have always wanted to say and write what they thought. That is why almost all Ukrainian writers and poets of the 1920s and the 1930s were shot by the Soviet authorities. A whole generation of writers of that time is now called the “executed revival”.
If Russia succeeds, another executed generation of Ukrainian writers and politicians, philosophers and philologists may appear, all those for whom life without a free Ukraine does not make sense. I consider myself one of these people, as are many of my friends.
It is scary to write the following words, but I will write them anyway: Ukraine will either be free, independent and European, or it will not exist at all. Then they will write about it in European history books, shamefacedly hiding the fact that the destruction of Ukraine was possible only with the tacit consent of Europe and the entire civilised world”.
Andrey Kurkov is the author of Death and the Penguin. His most recent novel is Grey Bees (Quercus)
I wonder if he thinks they'll be taking Crimea & the eastern regions back any time soon?
Those are Zelenskeys stated aims. Could be a slight problem with that, might well lead to the 'not existing at all' scenario, failing surrender by Russia it's WW3.
I don't think it will come to that, at least I hope not.
But there's going to need to be a compromise somewhere. Like I said before, short of splitting the country down it's eastern side, it's going to be protracted war.
What a lovely time to be alive.
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I expect supporters of the Russian military invasion must be delighted at the prospect of 100,000 or more refugees arriving in this country any day now. This is Putin's gift to you and your country, more refugees for you to moan about and despise.
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I expect supporters of the Russian military invasion must be delighted at the prospect of 100,000 or more refugees arriving in this country any day now. This is Putin's gift to you and your country, more refugees for you to moan about and despise.
I know, not more bloody foreigners, but at least they are white, so that's one positive I suppose.
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From a much longer article, written by a Ukranian who presumably knows a bit more about his country than Hitchens, Starkey or any of the “sages” on this forum:
“Journalists from different countries call me and they all ask the same question: “What is the reason for this war?” The answer is both very simple and quite complex.
Putin has been repeating the mantra for 20 years: “Ukrainians and Russians are one people.” What he actually means is “Ukrainians belong to Russia”. The Ukrainians do not agree with this. He has also publicly said many times that his greatest personal tragedy is the collapse of the Soviet Union. But for most Ukrainians, this was not a tragedy. This was a historical chance to become a European country and regain independence from the Russian empire.
Now that President Putin has aged dramatically in self-imposed isolation during the pandemic, he has decided that he wants to live on in Russian school history books as the leader who was able to re-create the Soviet Union, or the Russian empire, within its former borders. He has no other ambitions. He does not need money — there are no currency exchange offices or expensive restaurants in the afterlife.
He needs Ukraine, Belarus and, I think, other territories that were previously part of the USSR or of the Russian empire. He wanted Russia to be feared and he achieved this. He wanted total political control over the Russian Federation, and he succeeded. A huge country with a one-party system and a destroyed opposition. Like the Soviet Union. Now he denies that Ukrainians are a separate people.
The Ukrainians never had a tsar and were never ready to obey any. The Russians, who lived for centuries in a monarchy, on the contrary, loved their tsars. Sometimes they killed a tsar, but then they would adore the next one. Loyalty to a new monarchy remained in the Soviet era. Of the six general secretaries of the Communist Party of the USSR, only one was fired — Nikita Khrushchev, a Ukrainian. Mikhail Gorbachev aside, the others remained leaders of the Soviet state until the day of their death. In the time that Putin has ruled Russia, Ukraine has had five presidents.
Ukrainians are individualists, egoists, anarchists who do not like government or authority. They think they know how to organise their lives, regardless of which party or force is in power in the country. If they do not like the actions of the authorities, they go out to protest. Therefore, any government in Ukraine is afraid of the street; afraid of its people.
Russians loyal to their authority are afraid to protest and are willing to obey any rules the Kremlin creates. Now they are cut off from information, from Facebook and Twitter. But even before they believed the official TV channels more than the news from the internet.
In Ukraine, about 400 political parties are registered with the Ministry of Justice. This only once again proves the individualism of Ukrainians. Not a single nationalist party is represented in the Ukrainian parliament. Ukrainians do not like to vote for either the extreme left or the extreme right. Basically, they are liberals at heart.
In the 1920s and 1930s peasants were sent to Siberia and the Far East as a punishment for not wanting to join collective farms. Ukrainians are not collective, everyone wants to be the owner of his own land, his own cow, his own crop. Looking at this history, they can safely say: “We and the Russians are two different peoples!”
Now, the Ukrainian army is successfully defending the country. Ukrainians are accustomed to freedom and value it more than stability. For Russians, stability is more important than freedom.
Ukrainians have never accepted censorship. They have always wanted to say and write what they thought. That is why almost all Ukrainian writers and poets of the 1920s and the 1930s were shot by the Soviet authorities. A whole generation of writers of that time is now called the “executed revival”.
If Russia succeeds, another executed generation of Ukrainian writers and politicians, philosophers and philologists may appear, all those for whom life without a free Ukraine does not make sense. I consider myself one of these people, as are many of my friends.
It is scary to write the following words, but I will write them anyway: Ukraine will either be free, independent and European, or it will not exist at all. Then they will write about it in European history books, shamefacedly hiding the fact that the destruction of Ukraine was possible only with the tacit consent of Europe and the entire civilised world”.
Andrey Kurkov is the author of Death and the Penguin. His most recent novel is Grey Bees (Quercus)
Is it simply a case of choosing who you think knows the most and adopting their perspective? I think it's more a case of examining all the information you can from many different sources and forming your opinion from all that.
The Ukranians may not have had a tsar, but they are Cossacks and at times they fought for the tsars of Russia. Their warlike history and their pride in it perhaps explains the men's willingness to fight.
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Is it simply a case of choosing who you think knows the most and adopting their perspective? I think it's more a case of examining all the information you can from many different sources and forming your opinion from all that.
The Ukranians may not have had a tsar, but they are Cossacks and at times they fought for the tsars of Russia. Their warlike history and their pride in it perhaps explains the men's willingness to fight.
The simple fact of the matter is that 80+% of the people of Ukraine do not wish to be ruled by Russia, or to have their country destroyed by them. As you are a supporter of Brexit and the democratic process you should be firmly on the side of the people of Ukraine and their government but still I get the sense that you are sympathetic to the Russian position? Once again I find your logic and thought processes inconsistent and somewhat baffling. It's almost as if being a contrarian and adopting a view contrary especially towards those you have developed an antipathy about on this forum directs your opinions on this and other matters. That's the impression I get anyway.
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You're right, they want independence.
Although they don't actually get independence.
What they really get is absorbed into the US sphere of influence.
Which means being an existential threat to Russia (from the Russian perspective).
So, it's either genuine neutrality with no EU or Nato involvement, or war.
If they hadn't rushed to throw Yanukovich out of office when he'd already agreed to leave there might have been room for diplomacy 8 years ago.
But now we are where we are.
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So it looks like Putin is going out of his way to provoke NATO into joining the war. We are all doomed.
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So it looks like Putin is going out of his way to provoke NATO into joining the war. We are all doomed.
No matter what Putin says, the only way NATO will join in is if Russia attacks a NATO country imo.
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So it looks like Putin is going out of his way to provoke NATO into joining the war. We are all doomed.
Possibly, or Ukraine cedes to the core demands.
A Russian Crimea & Eastern provinces.
No Nato or EU in West Ukraine.
Like I was saying before, 2014 was the flash point.
Putin even accepted/recognised the demands of those in the maidan revolution, but before the ink could be put on any negotiations, western backed far right extremists rushed parliament in an armed insurrection.
E.T.A, huge spelling errors, was on my phone.
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No matter what Putin says, the only way NATO will join in is if Russia attacks a NATO country imo.
Ukraine is already defacto NATO.
We are arming the shit out of it & trained it's soldiers.
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Possibly, or Ukraine cedes to the core demands.
A Russian Crimea & Eastern provinces.
No Nato or EU in West Ukraine.
Like I was saying before, 2014 was the flash point.
Putin even accepted/recognised the demands of those in the maidan revolution, but before the ink could be put on any negotiations, western backed far right extremists rushed parliament in an armed insurrection.
E.T.A, huge spelling errors, was on my phone.
P.S, & that's what prompted Putin to annex Crimea. (in my idiots (me being the idiot) guide to Russia & Ukraine)
A strategic port of huge importance was about to fall into western clutches.
Imagine the situation in reverse, where the U.S was about to lose some seriously important territory.
I reckon they'd defend the shit out of it.
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And for anyone else who didn't know.
In Summer last year, the British sailed a navy destroyer close to or within the Black sea near Crimea.
Turkey gave the Ukranians drones, which they used against the Russians in the Donbas region & the U.S flew a bomber/fighter very close to Russian airspace.
Russia wasn't too impressed by this, as you might imagine.
It's been ramping up for years, while we all worried about climate change, gay rights, gender identity, tearing down our statues, self flagellating over our history & making black lives matter more.
While we distracted ourselves with that nonsense, the other two world superpowers have grown a sense of national identity, pride, formed a close relationship & invested heavily in their military.
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Ukraine is already defacto NATO.
We are arming the shit out of it & trained it's soldiers.
It may be NATO countries which have been doing that, but not officially sanctioned by NATO. Those countries can step back now to protect themselves. I found it quite uncomfortable seeing Zelenskyy begging the British Parliament for help when we all know it's not going to give him what he wants. What the purpose of that was I can't imagine.
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It may be NATO countries which have been doing that, but not officially sanctioned by NATO. Those countries can step back now to protect themselves. I found it quite uncomfortable seeing Zelenskyy begging the British Parliament for help when we all know it's not going to give him what he wants. What the purpose of that was I can't imagine.
That's the path Ukraine has been led to.
We've been dangling the carrot of Western standards & protection for years.
The U.S plan has always been to spread democracy, what we couldn't quite grasp was, or worse still did know, but ran the risk anyway, was that the authoritarian totalitarian states in the world, they're not too keen on that idea, & they're prepared to defend themselves to the death from it.
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Wait until China tries to take back Taiwan.
I sincerely hope I'm wrong & that we'll somehow find a path to world peace, but the world has been around for billions of years & we still haven't found it, so I'm not entirely optimistic for the coming months & years.
Sigh, what bleak outlook I have on the world, even on a sunday.
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Wait until China tries to take back Taiwan.
I sincerely hope I'm wrong & that we'll somehow find a path to world peace, but the world has been around for billions of years & we still haven't found it, so I'm not entirely optimistic for the coming months & years.
Sigh, what bleak outlook I have on the world, even on a sunday.
Pessimistic or pragmatic, I agree with you on previous points of climate change etc, no one in charge in Russia or China and even India care one iota, arm, arm, and arm again knowing full well the impotent west will stand by, whats the point of the Nuke deterrent if its not to be used, the last resort will be too late.
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Pessimistic or pragmatic, I agree with you on previous points of climate change etc, no one in charge in Russia or China and even India care one iota, arm, arm, and arm again knowing full well the impotent west will stand by, whats the point of the Nuke deterrent if its not to be used, the last resort will too late.
It's woken the west up a little hasn't it.
All of a sudden there's talk of needing energy independence & beefing up national security.
Never should have neglected them key aspects of survival in the first place, a f*cking 5 year old could have seen that.
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It's woken the west up a little hasn't it.
All of a sudden there's talk of needing energy independence & beefing up national security.
Never should have neglected them key aspects of survival in the first place, a f*cking 5 year old could have seen that.
What to believe though, there's a story in one of the rags that a fracking site could start producing gas by the end of the year if a ban was lifted , time to reopen the coal mines, there's that much coal in our reserves, trouble is who would go down pit now.
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What to believe though, there's a story in one of the rags that a fracking site could start producing gas by the end of the year if a ban was lifted , time to reopen the coal mines, there's that much coal in our reserves, trouble is who would go down pit now.
Put all them Ukranian refugees to work, but that might be a bit too communist.
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No matter what Putin says, the only way NATO will join in is if Russia attacks a NATO country imo.
It came to within a few miles of doing so this morning.
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I see the
Fail Mail is talking of diesel rationing, the first casualty of war is the truth.
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It came to within a few miles of doing so this morning.
It'll get even closer imo,
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Pessimistic or pragmatic, I agree with you on previous points of climate change etc, no one in charge in Russia or China and even India care one iota, arm, arm, and arm again knowing full well the impotent west will stand by, whats the point of the Nuke deterrent if its not to be used, the last resort will be too late.
The clue is in the word "deterrent". Would you feel safer if the West had no deterrents at all?
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It came to within a few miles of doing so this morning.
Yep, but what are we going to do about it?
There's only one thing we can do, get Putin around the negotiating table, but we've ostracised & demonised him & his country so much that we've shattered any potential relationship.
Putin once said something along the lines of (and I don't really support him, I'm just playing devils ambulance)
...the U.S symbol of an eagle has arrows in one claw & an olive branch in the other....
....but it doesn't use the olive branch.
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The clue is in the word "deterrent". Would you feel safer if the West had no deterrents at all?
What have they deterred ? in this conflict ?
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Yep, but what are we going to do about it?
There's only one thing we can do, get Putin around the negotiating table, but we've ostracised & demonised him & his country so much that we've shattered any potential relationship.
Putin once said something along the lines of (and I don't really support him, I'm just playing devils ambulance)
...the U.S symbol of an eagle has arrows in one claw & an olive branch in the other....
....but it doesn't use the olive branch.
He'll only arrive there from a position of strength .
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He'll only arrive there from a position of strength .
And he was very strong around 2008, when we persisted in stating our determination that Ukraine & Georgia would one day join NATO.
Hi Putin, here's a massive stab in the eye, now can you sell us some cheap gas?
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What have they deterred ? in this conflict ?
You're still alive aren't you? The west's nuclear deterrent is the only thing preventing that button from already having been pushed, probably several times over in the last few decades.
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The clue is in the word "deterrent". Would you feel safer if the West had no deterrents at all?
Under this banner of deterrent which countries in Europe apart from us and France, have them ?
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Under this banner of deterrent which countries in Europe apart from us and France, have them ?
What difference does that make. We've got them and that's sufficient.
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What difference does that make. We've got them and that's sufficient.
I hope it just doesn't come to that, I mean, I've lost most of my hair already, that's not an issue, but I'd rather not lose my skin, I've grown quite attached to it.
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I see the Fail Mail is talking of diesel rationing, the first casualty of war is the truth.
I find this curious logic. Are you suggesting that the possibility of diesel rationing is a media lie?
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What difference does that make. We've got them and that's sufficient.
So what is it that they actually deter, not much use in Salisbury, just say for arguments sake that covid was from a lab by design, what did that deter ?
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I hope it just doesn't come to that, I mean, I've lost most of my hair already, that's not an issue, but I'd rather not lose my skin, I've grown quite attached to it.
I've lost my hair also, out to wash the car now, got to stay presentable lest I meet old nick soon.
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Trump diplomacy was along the lines of mutual respect (although he was still sanctioning Russia, blocking european pipeline projects etc etc) but he tried to be polite, strong but respectful.
Biden diplomacy when he came to office was "Putin is a killer & will pay a price"
Brilliant, thanks democrats.
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And what was Trump saying to the EU & NATO.
You need to up your spending, you need to stop being reliant on foreign energy.
Germany laughed during his speech at the world economic forum.
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So what is it that they actually deter, not much use in Salisbury, just say for arguments sake that covid was from a lab by design, what did that deter ?
Do I really need to spell it out? They deter being nuked of course.
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Anyone heard from Greta Thunberg lately?
Her bitching & whining really helped us, we cut our carbon emissions at her insistence, by getting our power from another part of the world.
Still plenty of carbon, just not over here so that's alright.
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Do I really need to spell it out? They deter being nuked of course.
What as/is deterring strikes against countries which don't have this deterrent, ie the rest of the eu at least.
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And what was Trump saying to the EU & NATO.
You need to up your spending, you need to stop being reliant on foreign energy.
Germany laughed during his speech at the world economic forum.
The germens are quiet now.
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What as/is deterring strikes against countries which don't have this deterrent, ie the rest of the eu at least.
It might help if you read up on what NATO is and how it works for the countries that are signed up to it.
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It might help if you read up on what NATO is and how it works for the countries that are signed up to it.
For those in Europe that haven't , how many attacks have they received ?
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Should Russia decide Moldovia next where is the middle ground in this appeasement or diplomatic solution , there is none imo, its nuclear with publicised and strategic strikes or all out war with Russia , or Russia is left to do what it wants in that region.
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For those in Europe that haven't , how many attacks have they received ?
you didn’t take my advice did you?
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_50068.htm
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The germens are quiet now.
Thousands are marching in protest in Berlin today.
I bet Putin is really scared.
These are the same pricks who would continue to vote for wooly liberal leaders.
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Thousands are marching in protest in Berlin today.
I bet Putin is really scared.
These are the same pricks who would continue to vote for wooly liberal leaders.
Germans marching ought scare him.
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Germans marching ought scare him.
These are post WW2 Germans, shamed by their history into being vehemently opposed to conflict, whilst paradoxically belonging to a continually expanding military alliance that threatens the sovereignty of a rival superpower.
You just couldn't make this shit up.
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Many predicted Nato expansion would lead to war. Those warnings were ignored
Thinking through the Ukraine crisis – the causes
“It would be extraordinarily difficult to expand Nato eastward without that action’s being viewed by Russia as unfriendly. Even the most modest schemes would bring the alliance to the borders of the old Soviet Union. Some of the more ambitious versions would have the alliance virtually surround the Russian Federation itself.”
I wrote those words in 1994, in my book Beyond Nato: Staying Out of Europe’s Wars, at a time when expansion proposals merely constituted occasional speculation in foreign policy seminars in New York and Washington. I added that expansion “would constitute a needless provocation of Russia”.
What was not publicly known at the time was that Bill Clinton’s administration had already made the fateful decision the previous year to push for including some former Warsaw Pact countries in Nato. The administration would soon propose inviting Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary to become members, and the US Senate approved adding those countries to the North Atlantic Treaty in 1998. It would be the first of several waves of membership expansion.
Even that first stage provoked Russian opposition and anger. In her memoir, Madeleine Albright, Clinton’s secretary of state, concedes that “[Russian president Boris] Yeltsin and his countrymen were strongly opposed to enlargement, seeing it as a strategy for exploiting their vulnerability and moving Europe’s dividing line to the east, leaving them isolated.”
Strobe Talbott, deputy secretary of state, similarly described the Russian attitude. “Many Russians see Nato as a vestige of the cold war, inherently directed against their country. They point out that they have disbanded the Warsaw Pact, their military alliance, and ask why the west should not do the same.” It was an excellent question, and neither the Clinton administration nor its successors provided even a remotely convincing answer.
George Kennan, the intellectual father of America’s containment policy during the cold war, perceptively warned in a May 1998 New York Times interview about what the Senate’s ratification of Nato’s first round of expansion would set in motion. “I think it is the beginning of a new cold war,” Kennan stated. ”I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else.”
He was right, but US and Nato leaders proceeded with new rounds of expansion, including the provocative step of adding the three Baltic republics. Those countries not only had been part of the Soviet Union, but they had also been part of Russia’s empire during the Czarist era. That wave of expansion now had Nato perched on the border of the Russian Federation.
Moscow’s patience with Nato’s ever more intrusive behavior was wearing thin. The last reasonably friendly warning from Russia that the alliance needed to back off came in March 2007, when Putin addressed the annual Munich security conference. “Nato has put its frontline forces on our borders,” Putin complained. Nato expansion “represents a serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust. And we have the right to ask: against whom is this expansion intended? And what happened to the assurances our western partners made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact?”
In his memoir, Duty, Robert M Gates, who served as secretary of defense in the administrations of both George W Bush and Barack Obama, stated his belief that “the relationship with Russia had been badly mismanaged after [George HW] Bush left office in 1993”. Among other missteps, “US agreements with the Romanian and Bulgarian governments to rotate troops through bases in those countries was a needless provocation.” In an implicit rebuke to the younger Bush, Gates asserted that “trying to bring Georgia and Ukraine into Nato was truly overreaching”. That move, he contended, was a case of “recklessly ignoring what the Russians considered their own vital national interests”.
The following year, the Kremlin demonstrated that its discontent with Nato’s continuing incursions into Russia’s security zone had moved beyond verbal objections. Moscow exploited a foolish provocation by Georgia’s pro‐western government to launch a military offensive that brought Russian troops to the outskirts of the capital. Thereafter, Russia permanently detached two secessionist‐minded Georgian regions and put them under effective Russian control.
Western (especially US) leaders continued to blow through red warning light after a red warning light, however. The Obama administration’s shockingly arrogant meddling in Ukraine’s internal political affairs in 2013 and 2014 to help demonstrators overthrow Ukraine’s elected, pro‐Russia president was the single most brazen provocation, and it caused tensions to spike. Moscow immediately responded by seizing and annexing Crimea, and a new cold war was underway with a vengeance.
Could the Ukraine crisis have been avoided?
Events during the past few months constituted the last chance to avoid a hot war in eastern Europe. Putin demanded that Nato provide guarantees on several security issues. Specifically, the Kremlin wanted binding assurances that the alliance would reduce the scope of its growing military presence in eastern Europe and would never offer membership to Ukraine. He backed up those demands with a massive military buildup on Ukraine’s borders.
The Biden administration’s response to Russia’s quest for meaningful western concessions and security guarantees was tepid and evasive. Putin then clearly decided to escalate matters. Washington’s attempt to make Ukraine a Nato political and military pawn (even absent the country’s formal membership in the alliance) may end up costing the Ukrainian people dearly.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/28/nato-expansion-war-russia-ukraine
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US officials say Russia has asked China for military help in Ukraine
White House fears move is sign of increasingly close ties between Beijing and Moscow
US officials told the Financial Times that Russia had requested military equipment and other assistance since the start of the invasion. They declined to give details about what Russia had requested.
Another person familiar with the situation said the US was preparing to warn its allies, amid some indications that China may be preparing to help Russia. Other US officials have said there were signs that Russia was running out of some kinds of weaponry as the war in Ukraine extends into its third week.
The White House did not comment. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for a comment.
The revelation comes as Jake Sullivan, US national security adviser, heads to Rome for talks on Monday with Yang Jiechi, China’s top foreign policy official.
Before leaving Washington on Sunday, Sullivan warned China not to try to “bail out” Russia by helping Moscow to circumvent the sanctions that the US and its allies have imposed on President Vladimir Putin and his regime.
“We will ensure that neither China, nor anyone else, can compensate Russia for these losses,” Sullivan told NBC television on Sunday. “In terms of the specific means of doing that, again, I’m not going to lay all of that out in public, but we will communicate that privately to China, as we have already done and will continue to do.”
The apparent request for equipment and other kinds of unspecified military assistance comes as the Russian military struggles to make as much progress in Ukraine as western intelligence believe they expected.
It also raises fresh questions about the China-Russia relationship, which has grown increasingly strong as both countries express their opposition to the US over everything from Nato to sanctions.
China has portrayed itself as a neutral actor in the Ukraine crisis and has refused to condemn Russia for invading the country. The US has also seen no sign that Chinese president Xi Jinping is willing to put any pressure on Putin.
The two leaders signed a joint statement in Beijing last month describing the Beijing-Moscow partnership as having “no limits”, in another sign that the two capitals were drawing even closer together.
https://www.ft.com/content/30850470-8c8c-4b53-aa39-01497064a7b7
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We've had harsh sanctions for years attempting to restrict Chinese growth, been trying to promote liberal democracy in Hong Kong, much to their ire, & have them encircled around the South China Sea.
Here it comes.
Will China be receptive to aggressive U.S demands (bearing in mind all of the above) or might it seize this opportunity to deliver crushing blows to the U.S hegemony? (Which is bankrupt to the tune of 28 Trillion Dollars)
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Every western country is mired in debt & have massive budgets to accommodate each year.
China are the country that has the money these days, & Russia has a relatively low debt & a huge expanse of resources, so plenty of collateral.
What have we got in the west these days?
We've still got our nukes I suppose.
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Nukes, & an arrogant overwhelming sense of authority & entitlement.
The rest of the world hates us, can't say I blame them.
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“The West is leading Ukraine down the primrose path, and the end result is that Ukraine is going to be wrecked.” — John J. Mearsheimer 2015
The devastation now befalling Ukraine didn’t have to happen, and the fact that it did is the fault of the West generally and of the United States particularly.
That is the view of John Mearsheimer, perhaps the preeminent academic proponent of the “realist school” of international relations.
A seventy-four-year old professor at the University of Chicago, Mearsheimer has suddenly become the most talked about critic of the American foreign policy of the post-Cold War era. He is the author of six books and numerous articles in leading journals of his field. Two of the books elaborate on the importance of a lead role for the realist position in foreign affairs: The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001, 2014) and The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities (2018).
Liberalism and Realism
Realists such as Mearsheimer are a minority among political scientists who specialize in international relations. The field is dominated by an approach variously called “liberalism”, “liberal internationalism” or, at times, “Wilsonianism”. This mainstream view stresses the desirability of American national and allied international structures to foster liberal values abroad, such as the universal rights of individuals, the rule of law, free trade, popular sovereignty and democratic electoral politics. Liberal internationalists are keen to see democracy spread globally, since it is an article of their faith that liberal democracies do not war with each other, thus bringing a “peace dividend.”
Realism, according to political scientist Robert D. Kaplan, is “more a sensibility than a guide to action in each and every crisis.” Realists believe in the following:
Order comes before freedom
Work with the material at hand
Think tragically to avoid tragedy
Not every problem has a solution
Interests come before values
American power is limited
Passion and good policy often don’t go together
Realists are seen by many to be cynical and reluctant to intervene when human rights are being violated abroad. Realists maintain that they tell hard truths about international politics that most people (and especially many Americans) do not want to hear. As can be seen in the list above, realism is rooted in a more pessimistic view of human behavior that few find well-fitted to the American spirit.
The lament
What is Mearsheimer’s “lament” and what does it have to do with Ukraine?
Mearsheimer’s critique begins with the end of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union broke apart and the structure of international power went from “bi-polar” to ”unipolar”, with the United States the sole superpower. Mearsheimer’s realist bent tells him that world politics are anarchic, that there is no “night watchman” or superior power above the nation-state to keep order. Furthermore, the uncertainty about the intentions of other nations sows fear among the “actors” (primarily nation-states). This fear forces each nation to seek as much power as possible and overwhelming power, or “hegemony”, in one’s region. The global system’s regulating mechanism is the “balance of power” wherein each state tries, by shifting alliances, to prevent any one state from domination of any of the major areas of contention: Europe, Eurasia, or the Western Hemisphere.
During the forty year Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union, a bipolar equilibrium became the status quo. Neither side could prevail against the other. Both sides had nuclear weapons. Mutual assured destruction (MAD) kept the two superpowers from direct confrontation, so proxy wars were fought in the “Third World”. But, suddenly (in historic terms), the United States was unopposed atop world power rankings, going from being a status quo power to a revisionist power.
I recall well the euphoria and relief of that time, when “the end of history” was nigh, democracy was on the march and a “new world order” was being born. The older, nineteenth-century balance of power mechanism was thought to be now outmoded. 2 By 1991, Russian power was substantially reduced and China not yet a peer rival. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin, having just resigned from the KGB, was starting his career in politics in his home city of St. Petersburg (the former Leningrad).
In Mearsheimer’s estimation, this shift in the basic structure of world politics presented a dangerous temptation for the only hegemon, the United States. He termed this temptation “aggressive liberalism”. With no peer power to constrain it, American power was free to be guided by the impulse to propagate liberal values in many places—even by force, if necessary.
The result was that American military power went abroad “seeking monsters to destroy” 3 in Libya, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. The phrase “necessity of regime change” was heard often, but American foreign policy managers in time learned an older phrase: “you break it, you own it.” That is, none of these forays turned out positively, on balance, and all of them created power vacuums into which flowed forces antithetical to liberal values.
This is the heart of Mearsheimer’s lament, that unipolarism led the United States to crusades untethered from realist constraints. In Putin’s view, these crusades were evidence of the bitter fruits of unipolarism for the Russian nation, which stood silent and humiliated.
NATO moves East
As the Warsaw Pact was breaking up, Soviet leaders were fearful that NATO would take the place of Russian power in her former client states. According to newly declassified documents, in 1990-1991, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was repeatedly given assurances by several Western leaders that if the USSR would stand aside and allow the reunification of Germany, NATO would not move “one inch” east of the reunited German state. U.S. Secretary of State James Baker said this directly to Gorbachev on several occasions. Top diplomats from Germany and the United Kingdom also gave such assurances.4
This agreement held until 1999, when the Clinton administration reneged and NATO admitted the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. In 2004, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia entered, followed later by Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. Both Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin and then President Putin complained loudly about both the 1999 and 2004 tranches, but Russia was too weakened internally to do much about it.
The admission of the Baltic states especially rankled Putin, since they were the first former Soviet Socialist Republics to join NATO, thereby potentially putting NATO military units on the border of the Russian Federation. Putin has cited the breaking of the“promises” made by Western leaders not to expand NATO into Russia’s “near abroad” as evidence of what he sees as the arrogance of the unipolar hegemon, the United States and her European subordinate client states.
The so-called “color revolutions” following the demise of the USSR—especially the “rose” Revolution in Georgia (2003) and the “Orange Revolution in Ukraine (2004-5)—were undoubtedly seen by Putin as harbingers of his own fate in Russia. A key event in the narrative leading up to the invasion of Ukraine this month was the 20th NATO summit meeting in Bucharest, Romania (April 2-4, 2008). In the final report, it was stated that both Georgia and Ukraine would be in NATO at a future date. Four months later, Russia launched a “peace enforcement” operation in Georgia.
Putin’s lament
In a famous speech given on September 25, 2015, Mearsheimer said that if Putin were to voice his overall demand to the West, it would sound something like this: “You (the West, led by the United States) must stop trying to peel Ukraine away from Russia. If you don’t, I will wreck it before I see it become part of your bloc.”5 But an ongoing debate about Russia-Ukraine asks “is Russia really threatened by NATO or is Putin claiming it is to cover (a) his own failures to build a prosperous Russia or (b) his imperial designs over the former Soviet space?”
One of the principles of realist theory is brought to bear here. All nations have geo-strategic interests that are more or less fixed. In the anarchic world of power competition between nations, it is imperative to know what your opponent’s interests are, and particularly important to know what their vital interests are—that is, the interests for which they are willing to fight. Nations do not respond well to an opponent who says “we do not accept that this is a vital interest of yours.”
Some posit that Ukraine is a sovereign state, free to join any alliance that suits them. This is de jure true, a legal claim derived from the principle of self-determination. But sovereign rights are always de facto constrained by the power to effect them in the real world. For example, Finland has not exercised her de jure sovereign right to an independent foreign policy since 1941, yet she is a stable, prosperous country. Cuba could not exercise her sovereign right to house nuclear weapons on her territory in 1962. If a nation hostile to the United States were to enter into an military alliance with Canada or Mexico, the vital interests of America, buttressed by her power, would override either nation’s sovereign right to do so.
Putin’s claims
The multiple invasions of Russia via the North German Plain—through Poland and Ukraine and then into the heartland of Russia proper—is “Russian Fear of the West” 101. This history alone is sufficient to warrant Russian insecurity vis-a-vis the politics of the table-top flat territory of Ukraine. This fear is built into Russia’s geography and national consciousness, Putin or no Putin, according to Mearsheimer’s theory.
But we do have the man Putin in charge. Is he just inventing the threat from the West for his own ends? True, Putin may indeed be expressing legitimate historical fears and also calculating that his personal fate and that of his regime depend on his diverting attention from domestic political-economic weaknesses. But he has been complaining about NATO’s encroachment since day one of his rule, the first eight years of which saw a sizable increase in the Russian standard of living and sky-high personal popularity. So he was concerned about NATO’s movement eastward even when things were going well for him. That fact would support Mearsheimer’s realist belief that geostrategic structural conditions, not individual leaders, control.
It must also be noted that the United States is the most secure nation in the history of the modern era. With two vast oceans east and west and weaker, friendly nations on our northern and southern borders, we are not, by experience, scarred by the fears and memories of constant threats to our well-being. This benign history can induce us to discount the claimed vital interests of others.
What would Mearsheimer do now about the status of Ukraine? Fundamentally, he believes that Ukraine must be removed from the Russia-NATO confrontation. He would prescribe that Ukraine return to a neutral position, not in NATO but built up economically. That prescription is out of date now, since the existence of any kind of sovereignty for Ukraine is questionable. Mearsheimer’s critique is still useful in an analysis of how we got to this point, and the lessons derivable from that. (He may have more robust opinions about the immediate future for Ukraine that I am not aware of at this writing.)
The Realist Creed ignored
Mearsheimer clearly states that we have drifted into this mess because of insufficient attention to four of the principles of realism listed above.
The first is “work with what you have.” In this case, “what we have” is a newly sovereign state whose geography puts her inside the vital defensive perimeter of a great power. What we have is a former Soviet civilization, lacking the socio-political-cultural dispositions upon which a democracy is built. Nepotism and many other forms of corruption are still problems.Yes, at least some of her people aspire to be “Western”, but these things take time to develop.
Secondly, “think tragically to avoid tragedy.” Obviously, the ultimate tragedy has come. Were we ignoring the odds against our policies? Did we, with the best of intentions, do what Mearsheimer said we did, and lead Ukraine down the primrose path?
Third, American power is limited.” Yes, we can sanction the aggressor after the fact. But even if it’s successful, what cold comfort would it be to the millions of stateless, displaced, injured, or killed Ukrainians? Bluntly put, the fate of Ukraine is of vital national interest of Russia, but not of the European Union or the United States.
And lastly, “passion and good policy often do not go together.” It is hard not to be passionate about a people under the gun, desiring something other than the life they were born into. This is where critics of realism lay on a bitter accusation of heartlessness and abandonment.
But could Ukraine ever be a stable, successful state neutral in foreign policy between Russia and the West? Mearsheimer seems to think so, but I have my doubts. I do not think Putin (or any leader of the Russian Federation possible under present conditions) could risk a democratic, prosperous Ukraine because economic ties with the West would fan her aspirations for cultural, social, and finally, political affinity. If that happened, it would expose the kleptocratic-autocratic conditions in Russia that would be unfavorably compared to life “next door”, where so many Russians visit and have relatives.
Hard lessons
What can we learn? We can remind ourselves that wars are major scramblers of order across the board, and that realists favor the order that a balance of power brings. Socially, economically, culturally, politically and even psychologically, things change for the combatants as well as for the non-combatants, and new problems rush into the vacuums.
Belarus is now closer to being an integrated part of Russia than she has been. This changes things for Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, since Putin has said he will not be removing Russian armed forces from Belarus. Russian air and army units will now be directly on the borders of those countries.
NATO also faces new questions: Will Putin be satisfied with neutralizing Ukraine? Will he move on Moldova, or resume hybrid war tactics in the Baltic States? Will there be an ongoing insurrection in Ukraine?
The European Union, and especially Germany, may have to reorient their system-wide energy policies. The global economy will be disrupted, and for an unknowable period. And on and on.
Enter the blame game and a lesson relearned
In the coming debates about the Ukrainian invasion, we’ll surely hear from both the liberal internationalist and realist schools.
One side will say that the West caused the war by not including Ukraine in NATO in 2008, the West should have better armed the Ukrainians years ago, and should establish a “no-fly” zone in Ukrainian airspace even now. Realists such as Mearsheimer will remind us to think in balance of power terms, what he calls “nineteenth-century man” modes, and eschew “twenty-first century” contemporary globalist-liberalism, “new world order” assumptions. The rise of China to a peer position has already put an end to the unipolar temptations of American global hegemony.
Finally, to the degree to which the West, led by the United States, bears responsibility for the carnage and rubble that has been visited on Ukraine (and clearly, there is some), we should relearn that while all nations must, to some degree, fashion their foreign policies to reflect their deepest felt values, the harder, darker constraints of an anarchic and contentious world must always be the bedrock of our striving beyond our shores.
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/03/09/mearsheimers-lament-u-s-responsibility-and-the-tragedy-of-ukraine/
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You've been sharing some very interesting articles on the forum haven't you Wonderfuspam, challenging the western media narrative & what it's all about, thanks for that, you're not always a pathetic wummy troll, sometimes you share real & interesting stuff.
Yes I do, thanks, don't mention it, but as soon as the fighting stops, I promise to go back to just being a dick.
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You've been sharing some very interesting articles on the forum haven't you Wonderfuspam, challenging the western media narrative & what it's all about, thanks for that, you're not always a pathetic wummy troll, sometimes you share real & interesting stuff.
Yes I do, thanks, don't mention it, but as soon as the fighting stops, I promise to go back to just being a dick.
I was beginning to wonder lol.
Thank you for all the info. It's most interesting and informative.
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I was beginning to wonder lol.
Thank you for all the info. It's most interesting and informative.
Poor attention-seeking Spammy, most sensible people don’t even bother to read his posts. Why should his brand of no doubt pro-Russian propaganda be any more reliable than that supplied by the “MSM” anyway?
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Poor attention-seeking Spammy, most sensible people don’t even bother to read his posts. Why should his brand of no doubt pro-Russian propaganda be any more reliable than that supplied by the “MSM” anyway?
That's a very sensible view; judging posts as unworthy without even reading them. The MSM does offer some in-depth analysis, but it also offers simple slogans for simpler minds imo.
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"Even Henry Kissinger—I think it was in March 2014 in The Washington Post—wrote this line:
'The demonization of Putin is not a policy. It's an alibi for not having a policy.'
And then I wrote in reply to that:
That's right, but it’s much worse than that, because it's also that the demonization of Putin is an obstacle to thinking rationally, having a rational discourse or debate about American national security. And it’s not just this catastrophe in Ukraine and the new Cold War; it's from there to Syria to Afghanistan, to the proliferation of nuclear weapons, to fighting global terrorism. The demonization of Putin excludes a partner in the Kremlin that the U.S. needs, no matter who sits there.
Stephen Frand Cohen
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Stephen F. Cohen: NATO expansion and Russia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mciLyG9iexE
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That's a very sensible view; judging posts as unworthy without even reading them. The MSM does offer some in-depth analysis, but it also offers simple slogans for simpler minds imo.
Some people only hear the pro western propaganda, Russia bad, Putin bad, America can do no wrong.
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That's a very sensible view; judging posts as unworthy without even reading them. The MSM does offer some in-depth analysis, but it also offers simple slogans for simpler minds imo.
I think it is very sensible to ignore posts by a self-confessed WUM and dick. That poster forfeited the right to have his posts read for that reason alone. I am more than capable of finding information and varying views on the conflict without the help of Wonderfulspam FGS, and thanks for your veiled insult - I am not "simple minded", but if you want to catch a couple of "simple slogans" you need look no further than every single one of the WUM's posts - his signature line says it all....
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I think it is very sensible to ignore posts by a self-confessed WUM and dick. That poster forfeited the right to have his posts read for that reason alone. I am more than capable of finding information and varying views on the conflict without the help of Wonderfulspam FGS, and thanks for your veiled insult - I am not "simple minded", but if you want to catch a couple of "simple slogans" you need look no further than every single one of the WUM's posts - his signature line says it all....
Racist much?
Bit of anti Russian sentiment there, why?
Because that's what you've been fed all your life & you won't even begin to entertain the idea of understanding things from the Russian perspective.
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Some people only hear the pro western propaganda, Russia bad, Putin bad, America can do no wrong.
Comforting, but simplistic.
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I think it is very sensible to ignore posts by a self-confessed WUM and dick. That poster forfeited the right to have his posts read for that reason alone. I am more than capable of finding information and varying views on the conflict without the help of Wonderfulspam FGS, and thanks for your veiled insult - I am not "simple minded", but if you want to catch a couple of "simple slogans" you need look no further than every single one of the WUM's posts - his signature line says it all....
Well if you prefer to believe that Putin has invaded Ukraine just because he's a nasty man that's up to you.
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Well if you prefer to believe that Putin has invaded Ukraine just because he's a nasty man that's up to you.
LOL, I know you think I'm a simpleton but even I am not quite that simplistic . I do think Putin is an despicable, irrational, reckless paranoid little man actually but I don't think he invaded Ukraine just because he's nasty, no. I think he did it because he wishes to reassert his authority over former Soviet states, to return to the "glory days" of the USSR, to upset the world order and to throw his weight about a bit, and because he knows he can get away with it. I'm sure his many girlfriends think he's a pussycat, and I know he gives plenty of men the horn so he must have something going for him. But those who refuse to condemn his actions, condone them IMO and I think that's simply inexplicable.
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Well if you prefer to believe that Putin has invaded Ukraine just because he's a nasty man that's up to you.
He's going to try & conquer Europe, even though his troops are falling at over twice the rate of Ukranians, he doesn't care.
Of course he could enter negotians directly with Zelinskey & stop it, try to find a consensus agreement on the future relationship between the two countries, only Zelenskey is threatened with death by his own fighters if he does so.
So there is that minor sticking point.
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The whole idea that he's trying to reclaim the soviet states is a nice pro western theory.
But it is of course nonsense, his troops would be crushed, he doesn't have support from the public.
He'd have to commit his entire military to invasion & occupation over tens if not hundreds of millions of unwilling Europeans.
He's not insane, sure, not a nice man but not so stupid he wants all out war with another superpower.
But Ukraine are insistent they want NATO troops on his border, & the U.S whilst insisting they are not threatening Russia, still want to encircle it with their military.
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LOL, I know you think I'm a simpleton but even I am not quite that simplistic . I do think Putin is an despicable, irrational, reckless paranoid little man actually but I don't think he invaded Ukraine just because he's nasty, no. I think he did it because he wishes to reassert his authority over former Soviet states, to return to the "glory days" of the USSR, to upset the world order and to throw his weight about a bit, and because he knows he can get away with it. I'm sure his many girlfriends think he's a pussycat, and I know he gives plenty of men the horn so he must have something going for him. But those who refuse to condemn his actions, condone them IMO and I think that's simply inexplicable.
I forgot to include compulsive liar and mass murderer in my above description of Putin - oops. Is this libellous btw? Better ask John.
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I was just wondering... if Scotland votes for independence and decides to retain its nuclear base at Fasslane and rejoined the EU, would it be OK for England to launch an all out invasion and flatten Edinburgh and Glasgow a few years later, on the pretext that Scotland posed an existential threat and were being racist and beastly towards English residents still living in Scotland?
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I was just wondering... if Scotland votes for independence and decides to retain its nuclear base at Fasslane and rejoined the EU, would it be OK for England to launch an all out invasion and flatten Edinburgh and Glasgow a few years later, on the pretext that Scotland posed an existential threat and were being racist and beastly towards English residents still living in Scotland?
Could Scotland afford to fund and operate nuclear submarines by itself?
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Could Scotland afford to fund and operate nuclear submarines by itself?
No, it was a rhetorical question, one you've obviously decided to ignore. To be fair if Scotland retained nuclear missiles England would be quite suicidal to invade, so same question but take the nukes out of the Scottish equation. What possible justification could England ever have for invading Scotland? To return to the glory days of the United Kingdom? Because the Scots were discriminating against and treating the English that lived there as second-class citizens? Because Scotland had joined the EU with its new shiny EU army and England felt ganged up against?
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To provide some balance to all the Putin fawning on here. No need to thank me for providing this interesting article from today’s Times free of charge, written by a figure of fun for you to deride, Mr William Hague - I expect he made it all up.:
Putin’s hollow regime could quickly collapse
William Hague
On the night Russia invaded Ukraine, I was reading a new book, The Worst Military Leaders in History, edited by John M Jennings and Chuck Steele. The monumental failings of leadership described range from the well-known death of General Custer and all his men to the less remembered Athenian leader, Nikias, whose disastrous attempt to capture Syracuse led to the collapse of the entire Athenian empire. Three weeks on, it seems like a second edition might have to include the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoygu, and his top brass.
The missile attack on Sunday on a base in western Ukraine and the horrendous shelling of cities reminds us that the Russian armed forces wield colossal firepower, and their ability to get going again should not be underestimated. Nevertheless, in 19 days they have failed to achieve their objectives despite possessing vastly superior forces, suffered huge losses of men and material, turned most of the world against them by indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and rendered the political aim of their war — to unite Ukrainians with Russians as “one people” — permanently unattainable. That has to count as abysmal leadership of historic proportions. It is important to understand why this has happened, and what it means for what happens next.
Some of Russia’s military underperformance reflects the fact that the huge modernisation of its forces is still work in progress. The much-vaunted T-14 tank is not yet in service and the Uran-9 unmanned combat ground vehicle performed badly in Syria. But Russia is hardly unique in experiencing delays in defence procurement. Much more seriously, the tactics chosen by commanders have been wasteful of resources and their soldiers’ lives, advancing in dense groups of vehicles, sticking to roads, failing to screen their flanks and leaving airborne troops isolated. All this has resulted in Russian casualties probably exceeding those suffered by the US in six years of war in Iraq.
Added to these elementary failures of military command is evidence of poor maintenance of equipment, leading to many breakdowns and sophisticated weapons being abandoned in farmers’ field. Perhaps such failings of military culture and standards are the product of a system based heavily on greed, selfishness and corruption right up to the Kremlin itself. But by far the most serious problems are on a strategic scale.
Russia’s inability to establish command of the air over Ukraine has mystified most observers, considering the acquisition of hundreds of modern warplanes since 2010. The best potential explanation has come from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI): that the Russian air force lacks the “practical experience of how to plan, brief and co-ordinate complex air operations involving tens or hundreds of assets in a high-threat environment”. They can fly singly or in pairs, but their pilots have not been trained to fly in larger, sequenced, formations, except for fly-pasts at parades. They look impressive, but do not have the training hours or high-quality simulators that are standard for Nato pilots.
Suddenly, we begin to discern the nature of Putin’s state: a regime that has prized the hardware of power while neglecting the software, that can stage parades which frighten observers and drop random bombs on terrified civilians but would struggle against a powerful adversary; a system ostensibly strong but hollow inside — the natural outcome of being mired in corruption and led by a bully, but only now so clearly revealed.
It is also telling that the Russian high command only informed tactical commanders on the ground that they were going to war, and what their objectives would be, the day before the invasion. This led to woeful co-ordination and planning. In the words of RUSI experts again: “Working out which units a formation is to collaborate with in order to set up encrypted radios takes time; studying the map and assessing routes takes time ... The failure to give subordinates time to prepare reveals a dysfunctional command system in which troops are regarded as an expendable resource in the pursuit of objectives.”
Here again we can see the characteristics of Putin’s rule: the callous carelessness with life, even on his own side, and the need to fool even his own army about what was planned. Tens of thousands of Russian troops probably believed the lie that they were on exercises. Meanwhile, the Kremlin was believing the intelligence assurances of the FSB that Ukrainian resistance would be weak, which is why senior FSB officers are now under arrest. This is a system in which the high command lies to their forces and the spy agencies lie to the high command. To justify what is happening, the entire power structure lies to the outside world and the Russian people. My old sparring partner, foreign minister Lavrov, even managed to assert last week that Russia had not attacked Ukraine at all.
The lies go downwards, upwards and outwards. It is impossible for the soldier at the front or a general in Moscow to know the truth. That is the web that Putin has spun, and it has important implications for the future.
Be clear, this does not mean the Russian armed forces are spent. They have been regrouping and will no doubt learn lessons. And Moscow’s possession of a vast nuclear arsenal remains a central factor in global politics. Yet the weaknesses of the Russian military mirror the political system behind it, a hollow structure that will lose its reputation and respect very quickly when its thieving and selfish reality is revealed to its own people. That may take months or years, but Putin’s henchmen would be well advised to start thinking about their escape route to Pyongyang.
More immediately, the initial military errors and systemic failings mean that Russia cannot now achieve its goal of a pliant Ukraine, however much it widens the war and however many innocent people it kills. Even Moscow’s close friends can see that. Belarus is quietly striving to stay out of the war. China is host to a surprising debate. One leading Shanghai academic has been allowed to publish a paper calling Russia’s “special military operation” an “irreversible mistake” and saying Putin’s best option is to end the war in peace talks. This does not mean these countries will change their approach, but it does show they can see the truth.
Dare the Russian generals tell Putin how much has gone wrong, that multiple military failures have added to a political disaster for him? Have they explained, as talks grind on, that they can only offer a drawn-out and bloody war? They should tell him the truth, that he should now seek peace. They probably won’t, and their place in the pantheon of the Worst Military Leaders in History awaits them.
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https://homesforukraine.campaign.gov.uk/
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No, it was a rhetorical question, one you've obviously decided to ignore. To be fair if Scotland retained nuclear missiles England would be quite suicidal to invade, so same question but take the nukes out of the Scottish equation. What possible justification could England ever have for invading Scotland? To return to the glory days of the United Kingdom? Because the Scots were discriminating against and treating the English that lived there as second-class citizens? Because Scotland had joined the EU with its new shiny EU army and England felt ganged up against?
I'd call it nonsensical myself. When military action is taken justifications are always given, but they're not always the actual reasons for the action. Think Blair's wmd's.
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I'd call it nonsensical myself. When military action is taken justifications are always given, but they're not always the actual reasons for the action. Think Blair's wmd's.
What were the actual reasons in that case then?
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I'd call it nonsensical myself. When military action is taken justifications are always given, but they're not always the actual reasons for the action. Think Blair's wmd's.
Yes it is nonsensical, just as Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is utterly nonsensical. IMO.
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Germans marching ought scare him.
Obviously that's a sarcastic comment (I think), but in reality the German reaction to the Russian invasion will have rocked Russia to its core, and even China will have been totally shocked at how Germany and the EU reacted.
And the fact that Germany's foreign policy changes have met with public support will worry China and Russia.
Germany was effectively an ally of Russia just 3 or 4 weeks ago, refusing to allow UK planes to fly in its airspace when we flew arms over to Ukraine, addicted to its oil and gas.
This disjointed, dysfunctional relationship that EU countries have with each other, with the UK, and with the institute of the EU itself, is what - in part - emboldens both Russia and China to be the international 'trolls' that they are.
The sudden hardening up of foreign policy both by EU countries and the EU itself hasn't just shocked Russia, it's shocked the whole world.
But make no mistake, Putin is scared, he is scared sh**less over this. This was meant to be over in 48 hours, after imposing a puppet government in Ukraine, the same system as Belarus. But Ukraine isn't Belarus.
This has been a catastrophic mistake by Putin and it will end his career, possibly his life.
His days are now numbered, and his levels of paranoia will be through the roof. And as each day passes more of his war machinery gets destroyed, more soldiers get killed. Russia becomes weaker...and weaker....and weaker......
Whilst Europe has risen up, like a phoenix from the ashes, and is getting stronger.....and stronger.......and stronger.
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Obviously that's a sarcastic comment (I think), but in reality the German reaction to the Russian invasion will have rocked Russia to its core, and even China will have been totally shocked at how Germany and the EU reacted.
And the fact that Germany's foreign policy changes have met with public support will worry China and Russia.
Germany was effectively an ally of Russia just 3 or 4 weeks ago, refusing to allow UK planes to fly in its airspace when we flew arms over to Ukraine, addicted to its oil and gas.
This disjointed, dysfunctional relationship that EU countries have with each other, with the UK, and with the institute of the EU itself, is what - in part - emboldens both Russia and China to be the international 'trolls' that they are.
The sudden hardening up of foreign policy both by EU countries and the EU itself hasn't just shocked Russia, it's shocked the whole world.
But make no mistake, Putin is scared, he is scared sh**less over this. This was meant to be over in 48 hours, after imposing a puppet government in Ukraine, the same system as Belarus. But Ukraine isn't Belarus.
This has been a catastrophic mistake by Putin and it will end his career, possibly his life.
His days are now numbered, and his levels of paranoia will be through the roof. And as each day passes more of his war machinery gets destroyed, more soldiers get killed. Russia becomes weaker...and weaker....and weaker......
Whilst Europe has risen up, like a phoenix from the ashes, and is getting stronger.....and stronger.......and stronger.
Which will be of no comfort at all to the dead and dying in Ukraine.
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Obviously that's a sarcastic comment (I think), but in reality the German reaction to the Russian invasion will have rocked Russia to its core, and even China will have been totally shocked at how Germany and the EU reacted.
And the fact that Germany's foreign policy changes have met with public support will worry China and Russia.
Germany was effectively an ally of Russia just 3 or 4 weeks ago, refusing to allow UK planes to fly in its airspace when we flew arms over to Ukraine, addicted to its oil and gas.
This disjointed, dysfunctional relationship that EU countries have with each other, with the UK, and with the institute of the EU itself, is what - in part - emboldens both Russia and China to be the international 'trolls' that they are.
The sudden hardening up of foreign policy both by EU countries and the EU itself hasn't just shocked Russia, it's shocked the whole world.
But make no mistake, Putin is scared, he is scared sh**less over this. This was meant to be over in 48 hours, after imposing a puppet government in Ukraine, the same system as Belarus. But Ukraine isn't Belarus.
This has been a catastrophic mistake by Putin and it will end his career, possibly his life.
His days are now numbered, and his levels of paranoia will be through the roof. And as each day passes more of his war machinery gets destroyed, more soldiers get killed. Russia becomes weaker...and weaker....and weaker......
Whilst Europe has risen up, like a phoenix from the ashes, and is getting stronger.....and stronger.......and stronger.
I agree with much of your post but don’t you think the worse this is going for Putin, the more likely he will do something with catastrophic consequences for the whole of Europe, if not the world?
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US tells allies China signalled openness to provide Russia with military support
Moscow requested equipment including surface-to-air missiles, according to diplomatic cables
The US has told allies that China signalled its willingness to provide military assistance after Russia requested equipment including surface-to-air missiles to support its invasion of Ukraine, according to officials familiar with American diplomatic cables on the exchange.
Two officials familiar with the content of the cables said Washington had told allies that Russia had asked China for five types of equipment, including the surface-to-air missiles. The other categories were drones, intelligence-related equipment, armoured vehicles, and vehicles used for logistics and support.
The cables, which were sent by the US state department to allies in Europe and Asia, were not specific about the level or timing of any assistance that may be provided to Moscow by Beijing. One of the officials said the US had not provided allies with the intelligence underpinning its assessments.
The Financial Times reported on Sunday that Russia had made the request for assistance at some point after the start of the now three-week conflict.
The Russian request and Chinese response have sounded alarm bells in the White House. US officials believe China is trying to help Russia while its top officials publicly call for a diplomatic solution to the war.
The Chinese embassy in the US on Sunday said it had no knowledge of any Russian request or positive Chinese response to Moscow. Russia on Monday also denied making any request to China.
A senior US defence official declined to say if China had provided military support after Russia’s request, but said the Pentagon was watching the situation “very, very closely”.
“If China does choose to materially support Russia in this war, there will likely be consequences for China,” the defence official said.
The official added: “We have seen China basically give tacit approval to what Russia is doing by refusing to join sanctions, by blaming the west and the United States for assistance that we’re giving Ukraine [and] by claiming they wanted to see a peaceful outcome but essentially doing nothing to achieve it.”
Eric Sayers, an Asia security expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said the list of equipment requested by Russia was “shocking” and “speaks to Moscow’s desperation”.
“If Beijing transfer anything on the list I would expect a strong bipartisan push for sanctions and export controls focused on [China’s People’s Liberation Army], but that would only be the start,” Sayers added.
Evan Medeiros, a China expert at Georgetown University and former top White House Asia adviser, said it would be “deeply worrisome” if China transferred weapons to Russia.
“It would be a game-changer for global geopolitics,” Medeiros added. “We risk going back to the days of the Sino-Soviet alliance of the 1950s. Ukraine may become the first proxy conflict in a new cold war.”
On Monday, Jake Sullivan, US national security adviser, met in Rome with Yang Jiechi, China’s top foreign policy official, which another senior US official described as “an intense seven-hour session reflecting the gravity of the moment”.
The US official said the meeting included an “extensive conversation” about Russia and Ukraine, adding that the two officials had also held a one-to-one meeting without their aides.
The official declined to comment on the FT’s reporting that China had responded positively to Russia’s request for military assistance. But she said Washington had “deep concerns with China’s alignment with Russia”.
Asked about the report, Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, said: “I am not in a position to confirm or detail any intelligence from here at this point in time.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the types of equipment detailed in the cables.
On Monday, state department spokesperson Ned Price said: “We are watching very closely to the extent to which the [People’s Republic of China] or any country in the world provides support, material, economic, financial, rhetorical or otherwise, to this war of choice that President [Vladimir] Putin is waging.
“We have been very clear, both privately with Beijing, publicly with Beijing, that there would be consequences for any such support.”
Ahead of the meeting between Sullivan and Yang, the Biden administration last week asked European allies to amplify their message to China that Beijing should not help Russia circumvent sanctions, according to one European official.
China has portrayed itself as a neutral actor despite its increasingly close ties to Moscow. But Chinese media and diplomats have offered support for Russia’s justification for the invasion and blamed the US and Nato for the conflict.
Chinese media have also repeated unsubstantiated Russian claims that the US helped Ukraine build biological weapons labs.
Beijing and Moscow have grown closer in recent years, largely due to their shared disdain for the US and western military alliances such as Nato. Last month, Xi Jinping, Chinese president, and Putin signed a statement in Beijing that described their increasingly close partnership as having “no limits”.
https://www.ft.com/content/52ea7aab-f8d1-46b6-9d66-18545c5ef9b9
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I agree with much of your post but don’t you think the worse this is going for Putin, the more likely he will do something with catastrophic consequences for the whole of Europe, if not the world?
Looks like China might be willing to support him in doing so aswell.
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To think that hundreds of protesters were slaughtered in 2014 in their quest to join Europe, leave Russia & be protected by Nato, only for Nato to leave them out in the cold to be murdered in even greater numbers years later.
It's ridiculous, Nato should just never have been put on the table, anywhere, ever. The U.S knew the risks I think, but also thought that if they stuck democracy on Russia's doorstep it would eventually spread into Russia, topple Putin & the problem would solve itself.
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Obviously that's a sarcastic comment (I think), but in reality the German reaction to the Russian invasion will have rocked Russia to its core, and even China will have been totally shocked at how Germany and the EU reacted.
And the fact that Germany's foreign policy changes have met with public support will worry China and Russia.
Germany was effectively an ally of Russia just 3 or 4 weeks ago, refusing to allow UK planes to fly in its airspace when we flew arms over to Ukraine, addicted to its oil and gas.
This disjointed, dysfunctional relationship that EU countries have with each other, with the UK, and with the institute of the EU itself, is what - in part - emboldens both Russia and China to be the international 'trolls' that they are.
The sudden hardening up of foreign policy both by EU countries and the EU itself hasn't just shocked Russia, it's shocked the whole world.
But make no mistake, Putin is scared, he is scared sh**less over this. This was meant to be over in 48 hours, after imposing a puppet government in Ukraine, the same system as Belarus. But Ukraine isn't Belarus.
This has been a catastrophic mistake by Putin and it will end his career, possibly his life.
His days are now numbered, and his levels of paranoia will be through the roof. And as each day passes more of his war machinery gets destroyed, more soldiers get killed. Russia becomes weaker...and weaker....and weaker......
Whilst Europe has risen up, like a phoenix from the ashes, and is getting stronger.....and stronger.......and stronger.
His days are now numbered
But how would anyone get rid of him?
Can't vote him out, can't protest him out, assassinate him you might only embolden Russian anti western sentiment & his replacement could be even worse (somehow).
Or, would you want to be the senior member of his cabinet who turns to him & says 'I think you've f..ked up' knowing full well you'd later be administered with a nerve agent?
How do you solve a problem like Putin?
I don't think anyone really knows a viable solution.
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What a brave woman
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/14/russian-tv-employee-interrupts-news-broadcast-marina-ovsyannikova
I wonder how many years in a Siberian salt mine she’ll get for this?
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What a brave woman
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/14/russian-tv-employee-interrupts-news-broadcast-marina-ovsyannikova
I wonder how many years in a Siberian salt mine she’ll get for this?
About 3 to 15 years I read.
Putin banned all the western social media so almost all of Russia are totally in the dark, direct messaging is still permitted because it isn't a news feed distributor.
So short of people in neighbouring countries texting their friends/family telling them the truth the media blackout means the majority believe the propaganda.
I read that a poll taken in jan/Feb had something like 60% + support for Putin.
Many Russians love him, he's improved their lives, but also, like Kim Jong Un, those that say they don't love him are risking their lives.
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If you watch Putin's state address he even mentions how the west are decadent & indulge in unnatural human behaviours.
This was his attack on the pop culture & lgbt trans ideology gender swapping that's engulfed us.
China & Russia both impose strict moral societal values & view us as disgustingly immoral sinners.
I have to say I agree with them both on them points.
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That's what China see's when it looks west, financial bankruptcy, moral decay & the U.S aggressively bosses other countries around, they've seen us flatten the middle east & literally create ISIS.
Our poor relationship is a making of our own doing, & we pushed Russia to their side, needlessly.
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From the Telegraph
Trump was right on Russia. He could have been its deterrent
Critics obsessed about his crazy rhetoric, but he held a line against Putin and was no isolationist
Donald Trump is like one of those Roman emperors who everyone hated at the time but historians later admit was prophetic. His advice on Ukraine is to paint Chinese flags on F-22s and bomb Russia. That’s classic Trump: mad, bad, ironic and insightful, because while we want to help, we also don’t want to get hurt. So could we let Beijing take the rap?
The case against Trump is that his bizarre outbursts emboldened Moscow, by flattering Putin and diminishing Nato. He was even accused of threatening to withhold military aid from Zelensky to force him to dish any dirt he might have on the Biden family’s business dealings, earning himself a congressional impeachment. So universal was the perception that Trump was in bed with Putin that, on holiday in Moscow, I spotted a t-shirt that read “Donald Trump: Making Russia Great Again”.
Nevertheless, Putin took Crimea in 2014, under Obama, and invaded Ukraine in 2022, under Biden, so it’s reasonable to guess that this invasion wouldn’t have happened under Trump because it didn’t.
Trump says this is because he told Putin he was ready to drop a bomb on Moscow (“he sort of believed me like 5 per cent or 10 per cent – that’s all you need”), which is embarrassing if a lie and terrifying if true, but it does fit with the substantive record of his administration.
Obama resisted sending lethal aid to Ukraine; Trump did so. From 2017-19, the Trump administration carried out 52 policy actions against Russia, ranging from sanctions to military action against Putin’s client Bashar al-Assad. When Assad used chemical weapons under Obama, America did not reply with force. When he tried the same trick under Trump, Trump hit a Syrian airbase with 59 tomahawk missiles. Separately, US commandos engaged directly with Syrian soldiers and Russian mercenaries. The details were classified but the President bragged about it at a fundraiser.
Trump called out the bad; he mocked the pretensions of the good. At the 2018 Nato summit, he demanded that his allies spend more on the military and pointed out that they were buying energy from the very country, Russia, that they expected America to protect them from. The West wasn’t just sanctimonious, it was cheap and greedy, and its decadence was sapping its deterrence.
In that policy area, Trump, despite being labelled an isolationist, stood in a long line of Republicans who asserted the best way to avoid a fight is to signal to your opponent that if they lay one finger on you, you’ll break their nose.
By contrast, does anyone doubt that Biden’s incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan encouraged Russia to try its luck? Weakness escalates tensions; politicians typically try to extricate themselves from the resulting crises through over-reaction – to bomb North Vietnam or surge troops in Iraq – and now there is talk of imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine. If we don’t do it, says Zelensky, we are complicit in the murder of citizens. His anger is righteous. But the same Westerners who tell us Putin is insane and desperate can’t then advise us to risk nuclear war with him. When a house is on fire, we try to put it out: we don’t show our solidarity by burning down the whole street.
Another common notion is that the Ukrainians are defending the universal principle of “democracy”, when what they’re really fighting for is their homes. That’s a noble cause and we’re right to back them, but Trump regarded such ideological abstractions as artificial, expensive and best avoided. All nations are in competition, he would argue, regardless of political system, and their goals are shaped by history and geography. Russia wants, and will always want, a buffer zone to the West. Trump had no problem with that, in theory, and it was a mistake to needle Moscow with the threat of Nato extension.
Yet for America to be great, its overtures towards friendly nations, including Ukraine, must be respected, and its sense of right and wrong flattered. Given the obvious blow to Pax Americana that the invasion has inflicted, it’s hard to imagine that a second-term Trump would have tolerated it.
We’ll never know. But we have learnt that the president of the day is the real deterrent, and Biden couldn’t deter a troop of delinquent Girl Scouts.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/07/trump-right-russia-could-have-deterrent/
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he told Putin he was ready to drop a bomb on Moscow (“he sort of believed me like 5 per cent or 10 per cent – that’s all you need”), which is embarrassing if a lie and terrifying if true, but it does fit with the substantive record of his administration.
If true then Trump was a stupid genius, he's probably getting charged with corruption & insurrection & f..k knows what else, could even end up in prison, but he knew what foreign policy needed, the art of the deal.
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The idiots protesting him in the streets throughout his entire tenure because he talked about 'grabbing pussy' & keeping the scrounging Mexicans out.
What they didn't realise was, his brashness & insanity (which you can't have without a touch of genius) was temporarily keeping the world safe.
The situation between the three powers was a mess before he ever came to office, none of his doing.
Even if he didn't actually threaten Putin, I get the impression Putin may have been a little apprehensive about f..king around & finding out anyway, because you just never knew what Trump was going to do next.
Tweeting to Kim Jong Un about having a bigger missile button than him & his one works really well, before actually meeting the guy & shaking hands.
There's a lot of suspicion that Trump was in Putin's pocket, but I'm not sure, maybe he was getting Russian cash from somewhere to be friendly to Russia, but some of his actions suggest otherwise.
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He's shifted, this won't make him popular in his own country & is probably too little too late IMO
Ukraine must accept it will never be in Nato, says Volodymyr Zelensky
Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine must recognise it will never join Nato.
The Ukrainian president’s comments sparked speculation that he could be laying the groundwork for a peace deal with Moscow, which wants Kyiv barred from joining the alliance.
"Ukraine is not a member of Nato. We understand that. We have heard for years that the doors were open, but we also heard that we could not join. It's a truth and it must be recognised," Zelensky said during a video conference with military officials.
He said Nato was the "strongest alliance in the world" - but "some of the members of this alliance are hypnotised by Russian aggression".
Russia has long demanded that its neighbour never be allowed to join the alliance, and the Kremlin said last week the war would end "in a moment" if Kyiv agreed, and recognised Russian control of Crimea and separatist-held areas.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/15/ukraine-war-latest-news-russia-putin-zelensky-kyiv-peace-talks/
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Interesting clip from 2010.
Joe Biden (when he was Obama VP) said Russia was a spent power & a dying nation & we don't have to negotiate with them.
Stephen F. Cohen: U.S. Meddles in Russia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MWtaW2Lq7I
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In 2012 Republican Senator Mitt Romney said that Russia was the biggest geopolitical threat to the United States.
Obama's reply was 'the 1980's are calling & that they want their foreign policy back'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bowhUWl6rxQ
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Boycott of Russian gas and oil ‘could cause mass poverty in Germany’
Minister warns an immediate stop to supplies could hurt Germany’s population more than Putin.
Germany has warned that an immediate boycott of Russian gas and oil supplies could hurt its own population more than Vladimir Putin, bringing mass unemployment and poverty.
“If we flip a switch immediately, there will be supply shortages, even supply stops in Germany,” the economic and energy minister Robert Habeck told public broadcaster ARD on Sunday, as Europe’s largest economy intensely searches to diversify its energy supplies in the medium term.
The Green party politician predicted “mass unemployment, poverty, people who can’t heat their homes, people who run out of petrol” if his country stopped using Russian oil and gas.
Few other western economies are as dependent on Russian energy as Germany: 55% of the natural gas, 52% of the coal and 34% of mineral oil used in the country comes from Russia, for which it pays hundreds of millions of euros daily, financially supporting the war machine currently devastating Ukraine.
Habeck said his government was working hard to ensure Germany would be in a position to give up Russian coal by the summer, and to phase out Russian oil by the end of the year, but that a short-term ban on Russian gas could leave his country exposed.
“With coal, oil and even gas we are step by step in the process of making ourselves independent”, the former Green party co-leader said. “But we can’t do it in an instant. That’s bitter, and it’s not a nice thing morally to confess to, but we can’t do it yet.”
The US, which imported roughly 8% of its crude oil needs from Russia in 2021, announced a ban on Russian oil with immediate effect last week, while the UK announced it would phase out Russian oil imports by the end of the year.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has u-turned on a number of foreign policy red lines, consenting to deliver lethal weapons to Ukraine, supporting cutting Russia off from the Swift payment system, and freezing the completed but not yet functional Nord Stream 2 pipeline underneath the Baltic Sea.
But the centre-left leader has said his hands are tied when it comes to banning Russian energy. “Currently there is no other way to secure Europe’s supply with energy to generate heat, for mobility, for power supply and for industry,” Scholz said last week.
Depending on the predictions of various thinktanks and economic institutes, an immediate stop in Russian gas deliveries could shrink Germany’s GDP by as little as 0.1 or as much as 5.2 percentage points.
In an open letter, a number of prominent German scientists, writers and activists have urged the government to take the bold step of cutting itself loose from Russian energy. The Christian Democratic Union party of the former chancellor Angela Merkel has proposed shutting down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline while allowing gas imports via other routes.
Germany’s left-liberal government, meanwhile, is trying to buy time in order to fill up its gas reserves, which were undersupplied by Russian energy companies last year and are largely depleted at the end of the winter.
In its search for alternative sources of energy, short-term solutions are also hard to come by. Simplifying the process whereby new wind and solar farms are to be authorised was one of the promises of the “traffic light” government’s coalition deal, but construction alone will take time.
Building port terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG), as Germany has now vowed to do in the towns of Brunsbüttel und Wilhelmshaven, usually takes at least five years.
“Can’t do is a highly problematic statement”, energy expert Claudia Kemfert told ARD. “Because the likely challenge we are facing is that we have no choice but to can do”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/14/russian-gas-oil-boycott-mass-poverty-warns-germany
July 2018
Trump warning NATO leaders & Germany in particular about buying all their gas from Russia, whilst expecting the U.S to defend them from Russia.
Trump and Stoltenberg get into tense exchange at NATO summit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpwkdmwui3k
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“In the foreseeable future, it was possible that the pro-Nazi regime in Kyiv could have got its hands on weapons of mass destruction, and its target, of course, would have been Russia,” Putin said.
The man’s barking, honestly.
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I’ve no doubt the Russian shills will claim this was made up…
https://youtu.be/RNx3eL8327M
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“In the foreseeable future, it was possible that the pro-Nazi regime in Kyiv could have got its hands on weapons of mass destruction, and its target, of course, would have been Russia,” Putin said.
The man’s barking, honestly.
Not if you're Russian & a non military citizen & believe NATO want to destroy or occupy you & are ethnically cleansing Ukraine of Russian citizens.
To them folk (& me) he's a hero.
If he fails, I'm still hoping the other dear leader will perfect his missiles & save us from the tyranny of the Biden regime. The inflation & gas prices are literally a genocide, worse than any chemical weapons.
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It would be great if we could send our NATO forces in, push the troops back to Moscow then drop a massive bomb on Putin's head.
But unfortunately the guy has codes to a huge nuclear arsenal, so, in reality, we do have to tread carefully.
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GB News.
United Nations 2018
German delegation laugh at Trump's energy security warning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7Owe-MxNu8
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The Spectator
Why the silence over Biden’s links with Ukraine?
Just because Trump dug for that dirt doesn’t mean the dirt isn’t there
‘He has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.’
So once said Robert Gates, the former US defence secretary, of the now president Joe Biden. We don’t yet know if Biden is wrong about the current Ukraine crisis. We may be about to find out.
His speech on Tuesday was at least competent, if not entirely coherent. ‘Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called ‘countries’ on territory that belongs to his neighbours?’ asked the president, in one of his now all-too-familiarly infirm attempts to sound firm.
Yet Biden said his administration, and the broader Nato alliance, are ‘clear-eyed’ and ‘united’ in response to the challenge Putin has thrown down. He said the world is witnessing ‘the beginning of an invasion’ of Ukraine and that the West’s punitive sanctions against Russia will go ‘far beyond’ what had previously been suggested.
He also stated that additional US forces would be deployed in the Baltic States to defend ‘every inch’ of Nato territory. ‘I’m hoping diplomacy is still available,’ Biden concluded. ‘Thank you very much.’
It was a short speech, as most Biden addresses are these days, and perhaps a pleasing contrast to the sinister, unhinged ramblings of the Russian leader in Moscow on Monday night. As Biden trotted off, journalists shouted after him asking if he would meet Vladimir Putin in the coming days.
What’s peculiar is that nobody seems able or willing to ask Joe Biden about his complicated familial connections to Ukraine. That is a Trumpist talking point, after all, and nobody wants to be accused of peddling those. Donald Trump was impeached, you may remember, in 2019 for allegedly attempting to coerce the Ukrainian government into giving over information that might have been damaging to Biden, the man he would soon face in the 2020 presidential election.
But just because Trump dug for that dirt doesn’t mean that dirt isn’t there. After the insanity of Russiagate, the Democratic attempt to bring down Trump over his ties to Russia, you can see why Trump might have wanted to wage his own Ukrainegate against Biden. Trump and his media boosters love to say ‘what if Trump’ when it comes to the media’s coverage of Biden, so much so it is tiresome. But when it comes to Ukraine and Biden, 'what if Trump' is a game worth playing.
What if Donald Trump’s son had been paid one million dollars a year by a Ukrainian energy company? Wouldn’t the talking heads on CNN, MSNBC and even the BBC now be talking about little else? What if Donald Trump’s brother had received a considerable loan from an entity controlled by a businessman with substantial ties to Ukraine? You know the answer.
Yet that is exactly the case with Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States, and almost nobody outside the barmier fringes of the American right bothers to worry about it.
We heard the word ‘kompromat’ a lot in the Trump years. It was used to suggest Putin and his cronies had compromising information on the US president — a ‘pee tape’ involving prostitutes or details of Trump’s financial shenanigans — which they could use as leverage to get what they wanted. But the ‘smoking gun’ of the Trump-Russia inquiry never emerged.
Surely, though, there should be just a little more curiosity among more journalists about Biden’s chequered history with Ukraine and who might know what about it.
When tensions flared in Kiev and the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in 2014, Biden took the White House lead as he did on most foreign policy issues (he travelled to Ukraine six times as vice president). At the time, as chance would have it and as Politico’s Ben Schreckinger has expertly detailed in his book The Bidens, Joe’s son Hunter, a drug addict with arguably no qualifications other than his surname, was on the board of the Ukrainian company Burisma. The founder of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, was then under considerable suspicion for corruption (he has never been charged) – one State Department employee in Kiev called him a ‘poster child for corrupt behaviour.’
In 2016, Biden’s brother James was also given a loan of $500,000 (£360,000) by a family friend called John Hynansky, a successful American entrepreneur with strong ties to his Ukrainian motherland. In 2011, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a US federal agency, had authorised up to $20 million (£14 million) to Hynansky’s Winner Automative Group to expand its dealerships selling snazzy cars in Ukraine.
Let’s be clear: there is no evidence that the Bidens have been corrupt in their dealings with Ukraine. But there are quite a few strange connections and questions which America’s First Family probably should answer more thoroughly. Why aren’t they under more pressure to do so?
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-the-silence-over-biden-s-links-with-ukraine-
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The Spectator
Would Trump have prevented the crisis in Ukraine?
I know Vladimir Putin very well,’ said Donald Trump yesterday, speaking of the Ukraine crisis, ‘he would have never done during the Trump administration what he is doing now.’
As with a lot of Trump utterances, that statement is at once arrogant, preposterous — and probably true.
Maybe it is a coincidence — or Trump’s often-cited luck — that the last major crisis over Ukraine was back in 2014, after Viktor Yanukovych was ousted and Putin annexed Crimea. Or perhaps not.
Back then Barack Obama led the free world and, busy as he was, he offloaded the knotty Ukraine problem on to his Vice President Joe Biden, which I wrote about here yesterday. (Article Above)
In the years since, we’ve heard a lot about Russia’s further expansionist aims in the Donbas, Ukraine, and even the Nato Baltic states. But it is only now, one year into Joe Biden’s presidency, that Putin has made his first significant move since that annexation of Crimea.
In the Trump years, for all the talk of America’s Commander-in-Chief being Putin’s puppet, Russia more or less behaved itself. In public, at least, Putin tolerated the Minsk II accords, signed in 2015 following negotiations between Russia, Belarus, France, Germany, and Ukraine.
Moscow appeared to have a different understanding to the rest of the world as to what the Minsk agreements actually meant. For Ukraine and the West, the accords meant that Russia accepted Ukrainian sovereignty in the Donbas though with certain devolved powers to Luhansk and Donetsk. Russia on the other hand always saw the accords as more of a guarantee of the Russia-aligned status of those two regions.
Perhaps it was this ambiguity in the Minsk accords that meant the Ukrainian situation, while hardly stable, did not boil into a potential international conflict between 2015 and 2022.
Or perhaps it was something to do with Donald Trump being in the White House from January 2017 to January 2021. ‘Russiagate’ theorists will continue to tell you that Trump’s Moscow ties are deeper and more twisted than the exhaustive Mueller inquiry managed to reveal, and that if Putin behaved himself in Ukraine it was because he was getting what he wanted elsewhere, perhaps in the Middle East or something.
A simpler explanation is more likely. Putin, as a slightly comic alpha male authoritarian, saw in Trump something he recognised — an unstable, unpredictable yet potentially decisive actor on the world stage. Rightly or wrongly, he saw in Trump strength whereas in the Democratic leadership he sees only weakness and folly.
Trump also pointed out yesterday that, under his leadership, oil prices stayed low which helped limit Putin’s ability to act. Quite how much credit Trump can take for that is a matter for debate. But it’s reasonable to say that Biden’s ultra-green Build Back Better agenda has so far been much better news for global oil and gas investments than Donald Trump’s administration ever was. As Trump, always with dollar signs in his mind, pointed out yesterday ‘Putin is not only getting what he wanted, but getting, because of the oil and gas surge, richer and richer.’
In its demented ego-driven way, Trump’s view of the way the world works is intriguingly coherent. And painful though it may be for the many experts who have spent years denouncing him as a disastrous monster to admit, he could well be right: if he were in the White House, Putin probably wouldn’t be doing what he is doing.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/would-trump-have-prevented-the-crisis-in-ukraine-
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Biden 'war criminal' remark a new phase in US-Russia relations
One by one, diplomatic bridges between the United States and Russia are being set ablaze.
The latest bit of rhetorical demolition came when Joe Biden labelled Vladimir Putin a war criminal, a move Russia said was "unforgivable".
Mr Biden’s statement was an odd one, albeit not out of keeping for a politician who has a history of making monumental policy shifts in seemingly off-the-cuff remarks (see, for instance, his comments on gay marriage in 2012).
After initially telling a reporter he did not think Mr Putin was a criminal, he came back and reversed himself. If there had been an internal debate at the White House over how to handle the growing calls in Congress and the press to condemn Mr Putin in this way, the president settled it in an aside, not a set-piece speech.
This, of course, will make it harder for Mr Biden and his administration to work with the Russians going forward. Every concession or negotiated agreement, on whatever topic, will invite the rejoinder: How can you associate with a criminal?
Perhaps Mr Biden, in his comments, was simply acknowledging the new reality - that the world's political order has irrevocably shifted, and there’s no going back to the way things were.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60746557
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The demented old man in the Whitehouse could get us all killed, that's what people thought about Trump, but it's the Biden dementia diplomacy I find more terrifying.
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Air Marshal Edward Stringer, a former RAF chief, told LBC nuclear war is "no longer unthinkable".
He added: "It's in the realms of possibility, and that's what people have to get their heads around."
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1581899/NATO-map-countries-attack-Russia-WW3-evg
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Why did the media cover up the Hunter Biden laptop story?
18 March 2022
It’s now a familiar pattern – a sensational news story is dismissed by serious journalists as bogus fake right-wing agitprop. You’d have to be a swivel-eyed conspiracy theorist to believe that. You don’t want to be one of those.
Then, a year or so later, the same important media organs, the same authorities who made you feel crazy for thinking that the story might be credible, turn around and tell you that, yep, it was true all along. It was just politically awkward to say so at the time.
We saw it in the Covid years with the Wuhan lab-leak theory. We saw it to some extent with Jeffrey Epstein. And now we see it with the Hunter Biden laptop story. Yesterday, the New York Times, which still does proper journalism when in the mood, published a long report into the very unusual business dealings of the President’s wayward son. Towards the bottom of the story, the report acknowledges that the evidence against Hunter Biden ‘appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr Biden in a Delaware repair shop.’
Funny that. When the New York Post reported in October 2020 on Hunter’s marvellous laptop – and the potentially incriminating documents on its hard drive – the New York Times, CNN and others went to great lengths to attack the Post’s reporting: it was, liberals insisted, a Trump-led hit job so therefore not credible. Twitter and Facebook actually censored the story. There was an election on and almost nobody wanted to be accused of doing anything that might stop Joe Biden kicking Trump out of the White House.
But the Hunter laptop story raises serious concerns about the Biden family and the role Joe Biden played as Vice President, especially in 2014 when he took the lead on the Ukraine crisis. It’s well-known that Hunter had a ludicrously well paid job at the Ukrainian mining company Burisma, despite having little qualifications for the role beyond his surname. Hunter’s emails, as the Times reports, suggest he was using or hoping to use his father’s vice-presidential visits to Ukraine as leverage in his business dealings. This is potentially a major story that relates to what is now the biggest foreign policy crisis in the world. Yet the story was quickly hushed up and then for several months treated as fake news – even though clearly it wasn’t.
Biden’s past with Ukraine really ought to be better scrutinised. His current top foreign policy people — including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland were heavily involved in America’s handling of the crisis in 2014. It’s not unreasonable to ask if what they did or didn’t do then had any bearing on what is happening now.
The role of Team Biden in Ukraine might also explain why President Barack Obama, who in 2014 delegated responsibility for Ukraine to his Vice President, has been somewhat mute in recent days. Maybe it’s because he’s contracted Covid. Maybe it’s that when it comes to Ukraine and his administration, something very bad went down.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-did-the-media-cover-up-the-hunter-biden-laptop-story-
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More Russian heroes:
“Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station last night in flight suits made in the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag, in what appeared to be a daring statement against the war.
Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a six-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory yesterday, joining the crew of two Russians, four Americans and one German.
In an extraordinary move, the three new arrivals emerged from their Soyuz capsule after docking with the space station wearing bright yellow jumpsuits with blue stripes, instead of the standard-issue blue uniform.”
Putin must be spitting feathers.
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More Russian heroes:
“Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station last night in flight suits made in the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag, in what appeared to be a daring statement against the war.
Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a six-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory yesterday, joining the crew of two Russians, four Americans and one German.
In an extraordinary move, the three new arrivals emerged from their Soyuz capsule after docking with the space station wearing bright yellow jumpsuits with blue stripes, instead of the standard-issue blue uniform.”
Putin must be spitting feathers.
Ah but they had the Russian flag emblazoned on their chest as well, so they'll plead neutrality to avoid a Gulag holiday vacation.
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More Russian heroes:
“Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station last night in flight suits made in the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag, in what appeared to be a daring statement against the war.
Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a six-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory yesterday, joining the crew of two Russians, four Americans and one German.
In an extraordinary move, the three new arrivals emerged from their Soyuz capsule after docking with the space station wearing bright yellow jumpsuits with blue stripes, instead of the standard-issue blue uniform.”
Putin must be spitting feathers.
They better watch out as that madman might cancel their trip home.
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They better watch out as that madman might cancel their trip home.
I'm sure the Americans will offer them a lift home.
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Arnie for president
https://twitter.com/schwarzenegger/status/1504426844199669762?s=21
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A citizen of Mariupol writes a daily update on facebook:
#mariupol #hope I go out on the street during breaks between bombs. I need to walk the dog. She is constantly sneezing, shaking, and hiding behind my feet. I always want to sleep. My yard surrounded by many stories is quiet and dead. I'm no longer afraid to look around.
Opposite the entrance of the hundred-fifth house. The flame devoured five floors and slowly chews the sixth. The fire in the room burns neatly, like in a fireplace. Black tiled windows stand without glass. From them, like tongues, curtains fall out of them. I look at this calmly and cursed.
I'm sure I'm going to die soon. That's a matter of days. In this city, everyone is constantly waiting for death. I just wish she wasn't so scary. Three days ago, a friend of my oldest nephew visited us and told us that it was a direct hit into the fire department. The rescuers have lost their lives. One woman's hand, leg and head tore off. I dream of my body parts staying still, even after an air bomb blast.
I don't know why, but I think this is important. Although, on the other hand, there will still be no burial during combat. This is how the police responded to us when we caught them on the street and asked what to do with our friend's dead grandmother. They advised to put it on the balcony. I wonder how many balconies are dead bodies lying on?
Our house on Mira Avenue is the only one without direct hits. He was hit by shells twice, glass flew out in some apartments, but he was hardly injured and looks lucky compared to other houses.
The whole yard is covered with a few layers of ash, glass, plastic and metal shackles. Me trying not to look at the iron fool flying into the playground. I think it's a rocket, or maybe it's gone. I don't care, it's just uncomfortable. In the third floor window, I see someone's face and it's chasing me. Turns out I'm afraid of living people.
My dog is starting to howl and I understand they are going to shoot again now. I'm standing outside during the day, and there's a cemetery silence around me. There are no cars, no voices, no children, no grandmothers on the benches. Even the wind is dead. A few people on here though. They are lying on the side of the house and in the parking lot covered with upper clothes. I don't want to look at them. I'm afraid I'll see someone I know.
All life in my city is now mumbling in the basements. She looks like a candle in our ward. There's nothing to do to put her out. Any vibration or wind and darkness will come. I try to cry but I can't. I feel sorry for myself, my family, my husband, my neighbors, friends. I go back to the basement and listen to a nasty iron cross there. It's been two weeks, and I can't believe there was once another life.
People continue to sit in the basement in Mariupol. Every day, it's harder for them to survive. They have no water, food, light, they can't even go outside because of constant shelling. Mariupol residents must live. Help them out. Tell me about it. Let everyone know that the killing of peaceful people continue.
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Hunter Biden helped secure funds for US biolab contractor in Ukraine: e-mails
Russia’s assertion that President Biden’s son Hunter was “financing . . . biological laboratories in Ukraine” was based in truth, according to e-mails reviewed by The Post.
A trove of e-mails on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop — the existence of which was exclusively reported by The Post in October 2020 — found that he played a role in helping a California defense contractor analyze killer diseases and bioweapons in Ukraine.
Moscow has claimed that secret American biological-warfare labs in Ukraine were a justification for its unprovoked invasion of the neighboring country last month. It doubled down on the accusations Thursday, claiming the labs produced biochemical weapons at the Biden family’s behest.
“US President Joe Biden himself is involved in the creation of biolaboratories in Ukraine,” Russia’s State Duma speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin said, according to state media.
“An investment fund run by his sun [sic] Hunter Biden funded research and the implementation of the United States’ military biological program. It is obvious that Joe Biden, as his father and the head of state, was aware of that activity,” Volodin continued, demanding a US Congressional investigation and a White House explanation.
US intelligence officials had earlier dismissed Russia’s messaging as war propaganda, explaining that Ukraine’s network of biological labs dedicated to pathogen research were not secret, and had publicly received funding from Washington.
However, Russia’s new claim that the first son’s investment fund was involved in raising money for biolab projects in Ukraine was accurate, according to e-mails involving Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine, first obtained by The Post and initially reported on by The Daily Mail Friday.
Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners invested $500,000 in the San Francisco pathogen research company Metabiota and raised millions more through firms that included Goldman Sachs, according to the e-mails found on the computer, which was abandoned at a Delaware repair shop in April 2019 as Joe Biden ran for president.
Hunter introduced Metabiota to officials at Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where he was a board member, for a “science project” involving biolabs in Ukraine, the e-mails show.
A memo from a Metabiota official to the then-vice president’s son in 2014 said the company could “assert Ukraine’s cultural and economic independence from Russia.”
Metabiota vice president Mary Guttieri also wrote to Hunter about geopolitical issues involving the company’s research in the former Soviet republic in April 2014, two months after Russia invaded and annexed the Crimea region.
“As promised, I’ve prepared the attached memo, which provides an overview of Metabiota, our engagement in Ukraine, and how we can potentially leverage our team, networks, and concepts to assert Ukraine’s cultural and economic independence from Russia and continued integration into Western society,” her memo read.
Days later, Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi wrote to Biden about a “as you called ‘Science Ukraine’ project.”
“As I understand the Metabiota was a subcontract to principal contactor of the DoD B&V [engineering firm Black & Veatch],” his e-mail read. “What kind of partnership Metabiota is looking for in Ukraine?”
The US awarded $23.9 million to Metabiota later in 2014, with $307,091 allocated for a “Ukrainian research projects,” government spending records showed.
The younger Biden bragged to investors that his company organized funding for Metabiota and helped it “get new customers” including “government agencies,” according to e-mails.
B&V had been commissioned in 2010 by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency to build a lab in Odessa, to “enhance the government’s existing surveillance systems to detect, report and respond to bioterrorism attacks, epidemics and potential pandemics,” the company’s website said.
Hunter Biden’s ventures raised the eyebrows of a former CIA officer.
“His father was the vice president of the United States and in charge of relations with Ukraine. So why was Hunter not only on the board of a suspect Ukrainian gas firm, but also hooked them up with a company working on bioweapons research?,” Sam Faddis told the Mail.
‘It’s an obvious Russian propaganda attempt to take advantage of this. But it doesn’t change the fact that there does seem to be something that needs to be explored here.
“Why is Hunter Biden in the middle of all this? Why is the disgraced son of the vice president at the heart of this – the guy with no discernible skills and a cocaine habit?”
Hunter Biden, 52, remains under federal investigation for possible tax fraud. The probe broadened in 2018 to look into how his international business dealings as a lobbyist and investor dovetailed with his father’s political career. He has denied allegations of impropriety.
https://nypost.com/2022/03/26/hunter-biden-played-role-in-funding-us-bio-labs-contractor-in-ukraine-e-mails/
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I agree with much of your post but don’t you think the worse this is going for Putin, the more likely he will do something with catastrophic consequences for the whole of Europe, if not the world?
This is exactly my fear.
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Looks like China might be willing to support him in doing so aswell.
Another of my fears--------
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Another of my fears--------
China has previously stated it's determination to knock the U.S off the number one slot.
As much as the Western media are trying to put a positive slant on things, as if the rag tag Ukraine military genuinely are holding off & even pushing back against the Russian troops, I have a sneaking suspicion we are screwed militarily & economically.
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China has previously stated it's determination to knock the U.S off the number one slot.
As much as the Western media are trying to put a positive slant on things, as if the rag tag Ukraine military genuinely are holding off & even pushing back against the Russian troops, I have a sneaking suspicion we are screwed militarily & economically.
You appear to have a very misconceived notion of the Ukrainian military. They are in fact a very determined force and have been extremely effective in destroying Putin's forces where the opportunities have arisen. You don't need to be an expert to see that the Russian supply lines are in tatters and an army that cannot be resupplied is a dead army.
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You appear to have a very misconceived notion of the Ukrainian military. They are in fact a very determined force and have been extremely effective in destroying Putin's forces where the opportunities have arisen. You don't need to be an expert to see that the Russian supply lines are in tatters and an army that cannot be resupplied is a dead army.
They haven't learnt from their own history of Napolean and Hitlers supply line problems.
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I bet David Cameron’s been feeling smugger than usual these last few weeks
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brexit-could-trigger-world-war-7928607
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Medvedev says ‘new global financial order’ emerging as sanctions failing to affect Russia
FORMER Russian president Dmitry Medvedev spoke of the emergence of a “new financial order” today as more countries move away from the dollar as the world currency.
He described Western efforts to impose “hellish sanctions” on Russia which have escalated since it invaded Ukraine last month as “fruitless” and claimed they would have minimal impact, despite soaring interest rates and a stampede of major firms from the country.
“The world is gradually moving towards a new logic of global relations,” the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council said.
“It is impossible to trust those who freeze the accounts of other states, steal other people’s business assets and personal possessions, compromising the sanctity of private property,” he added.
Russia announced earlier this week that as from today, it will only accept payments for gas in roubles from what it deems “unfriendly countries,” including the United States and those in the European Union.
India is considering an offer to use an alternative to the global Swift cross-border payment system developed by the Russian Central Bank to make bilateral rupee-rouble payments.
Discussions are set to take place on Thursday as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrives in the capital Delhi for a two-day visit.
China and Saudi Arabia have already announced that they are considering a move away from the dollar in oil transactions, with a possible switch to the yuan.
Washington fears the decline of the dollar as the global currency, as it would lose the ability to control world financial markets.
But Mr Medvedev said the actions of US and EU in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — including freezing nearly half of the Russian Central Bank’s reserves — had “tarnished their reputation.”
“The era of regional currencies is coming,” he said, warning that they would have to negotiate a new financial order “no matter if they want it or not.”
The economic restrictions were placed on Russia in retaliation for its war on its neighbour launched on February 24.
Battle is continuing despite signs that an agreement may be edging closer in peace talks held in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky has conceded on the issue of neutrality, saying it was clear Ukraine would never be allowed to join Nato.
His Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed to scale back hostilities in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the issue of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, was not up for discussion with Moscow considering the matter settled.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/medvedev-says-new-global-financial-order-emerging-sanctions-failing-affect-russia
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The western party is over, say goodbye to the U.S dollar & with it our living standards.
Putin has the energy trump card.
Historically, world super powers hold the purse strings for around 80 to 100 years.
The British Empire died in 1944, replaced by the U.S, which has 30 trillion dollars debt & has been trying to print it's way out of crisis for decades, now losing this proxy war in Europe (despite what the Western media are claiming).
I'm thinking of moving to China.
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Big bank chief warns ‘entitled’ Americans of food shortages and inflation
The president of a multi-trillion-dollar asset manager tells US citizens they need to sacrifice their living standards
BlackRock President Rob Kapito told oil and gas executives on Tuesday that “entitled” Americans are about to deal with shortages of food and other goods, and should prepare accordingly. BlackRock, which manages $10 trillion in assets, has been accused of making home ownership unaffordable for millions of Americans.
“For the first time, this generation is going to go into a store and not be able to get what they want,” Kapito told a meeting of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association. “And we have a very entitled generation that has never had to sacrifice.”
“I would put on your seat belts because this is something that we haven’t seen,” Kapito added, warning that Americans will soon face “scarcity inflation” – or rising prices compounded by shortages of everything from food and consumer goods to oil and gas.
The Biden administration has blamed spiraling inflation on Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, with White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield referring on Tuesday to “Putin’s price hike,” and Biden himself said earlier this month that “there will be costs at home as we impose crippling sanctions” on Russia.
However, inflation in the US had hit a 40-year high weeks before hostilities erupted in Ukraine, and Biden’s opponents have warned since last year that his policies – which involved spending more in his first eight months than former President Donald Trump did in 2018 and 2019 combined, and throttling domestic energy production – would trigger price spikes for ordinary Americans.
BlackRock, however, has added trillions of dollars to its portfolio in recent years. The firm managed around $1.3 trillion in assets at the time of the last financial crisis, which soared to $8.68 trillion in January 2021, and passed the $10 trillion mark this January.
BlackRock’s top executives have been rewarded by the Biden administration too, and have helped shape its economic policies. Brian Deese served as the global head of sustainable investing at BlackRock, and now directs the National Economic Council. Wally Adeyemo is a former senior adviser at BlackRock, and now serves as deputy secretary of the Treasury Department. Mike Pyle used to be an investment strategist at BlackRock, and now serves as Vice President Kamala Harris’ chief economic adviser.
The firm has grabbed headlines in recent years for buying up properties throughout the US and turning them over to the rental market. Although the UN has criticized BlackRock’s former owner, Blackstone, for “wreaking havoc with tenants’ right to security and contributing to the global housing crisis,” BlackRock has been hired by the US government to buy up mortgages on its behalf, bringing even more properties under its management.
Americans are expected to bear the brunt of the inflation Kapito warned about in the immediate term. According to estimates published by Bloomberg on Tuesday, the average US household will have to spend an extra $5,200 this year for the same basket of consumer goods. Wages are unlikely to rise to compensate for this expenditure, Bloomberg predicted, due to more Americans entering the labor force.
https://www.rt.com/news/553001-blackrock-americans-inflation-scarcity-/
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Putin vows to cut gas supply tomorrow unless Europe pays in roubles
Russia will cut off gas supplies to Europe if countries refuse to pay in roubles, Vladimir Putin has warned.
The Russian leader said he had signed a decree saying customers must pay in the local currency from tomorrow or their contracts will be terminated. The G7 has previously rejected the demand.
In televised comments, Putin said buyers of Russian gas should open accounts in Russian banks, adding that the move was an important step in strengthening the country’s ailing economy.
European gas prices reversed earlier losses and pushed higher amid fears Europe could abruptly lose its bigger source of natural gas supplies.
Putin's doubling down marks a reversal from earlier today, when both Germany and Italy said they'd received assurances from the Russian president that buyers could continue to pay in euros.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/03/31/ftse-100-markets-live-news-russian-gas-green-energy/
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Will Joe Biden Oversee The Collapse Of The U.S. Dollar?
It’s vital to think through the consequences of the dollar losing its status as the world’s reserve currency.
Will Joe Biden oversee the collapse of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency? Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell appears to think it’s a possibility, based on his recent quip: “It’s possible to have more than one reserve currency.” This is a staggering admission from the one person who wields the most influence over the dollar.
Then again, given the $30 trillion-and-counting federal debt, Powell’s comment should come as no surprise. Distilled, the chances are multiplying daily that the Biden administration is hurtling towards ringing the death-knell for the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
The Wall Street Journal reported an exclusive on March 15 indicating another step towards the dollar’s loss of reserve currency status: Saudi Arabia is considering accepting yuan instead of dollars for oil sales to China. As the Journal noted, this “would dent the U.S. dollar’s dominance of the global petroleum market.”
It would be a profound shift for Saudi Arabia to price even some of its roughly 6.2 million barrels of day of crude exports in anything other than dollars. The majority of global oil sales—around 80%—are done in dollars, and the Saudis have traded oil exclusively in dollars since 1974, in a deal with the Nixon administration that included security guarantees for the kingdom.
Dropping the Dollar Would Hurt Americans Badly
Regardless of who the good guy is in the Russia-Ukraine conflict (if there is one), or what role the United States should play (if any), it’s vital to think through the consequences of the dollar losing its status as the world’s reserve currency. Simply, it would mean a dramatic drop in the standard of living and quality of life for middle-class Americans. For the world, it would mean a realignment of the global economic and financial order.
Reserve currency status means central banks around the world hold dollars in reserve, as an enormous amount of global trade is priced and conducted in dollars. For U.S. citizens, this means a greater quality of life and standard of living, at least in terms of purchasing and financing power, and greater incomes and general economic efficiency.
Reserve currency status also gives the United States a great amount of power and influence over world affairs. Amid the Russia-Ukraine war, Biden slapped economic sanctions on Russia, essentially denying Russia access to dollar reserves. In this, Biden has weaponized the dollar against Russia. Over the last decade or so, the United States has increasingly done likewise to countries that have failed to conform to the United States’s foreign policy goals.
The problem for the United States is, Russia and other countries are now looking for alternatives to the dollar. Sanctions coupled with the Fed’s massive inflation of the dollar supply since the economic crisis of 2008 ($25 trillion, including $9 trillion for the covid response), has shaken confidence in both the U.S. government and the dollar as the world reserve.
Many countries no longer trust the United States, and they are losing faith in the dollar as a stable medium of exchange and store of value. Simply put, the United States has abused the dollar’s standing as the world reserve.
The Fed Has Enabled the Dollar’s Destruction
For decades, reserve status has helped allow the Fed to inflate the supply of dollars. These are dollars backed by nothing, as President Richard Nixon severed the dollar’s convertibility to gold in 1971.
The Fed’s inflation of dollars has worked to destroy the purchasing power of the dollar, by increasing the prices of goods and services throughout the economy. Inflating the supply of dollars, along with artificially lowering interest rates, also sets the stage for boom-bust economic bubbles that crash into recessions.
The Fed’s dollar inflation acts as an invisible, pernicious tax on people who exchange in dollars, especially the poor, middle class, and those on fixed incomes (retirees). The U.S. government has also used inflation to fund its unsustainably enormous federal bureaucracy.
The growth of this welfare-warfare state has helped shake other nations’ confidence in the dollar, because it’s partly the Fed’s enabling of this state that has ballooned the U.S. national debt past $30 trillion. The welfare-warfare state adheres to the tried-and-true economic adage that “if you subsidize something, you get more of it.”
For decades, Congress has subsidized the welfare wing of the federal government, resulting in more Americans on welfare, for longer. Likewise with the warfare wing, or what President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned was the “military-industrial complex” more than half a century ago.
Funding Foreign Wars with Fake Money
It’s no secret that the more money the United States has poured into the warfare state, the more destructive military adventurism and wars of choice our leaders have committed the United States to. The recent examples of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya come to mind. It’s now clear we can add Ukraine to the list.
These kinds of “foreign entanglements” are exactly what the Founding Fathers warned us against. It would behoove Americans to remember what “not worth a continental” meant to the Founders, especially as in just the last two years alone, the United States has quadrupled the supply of dollars, which you can see in the chart below.
(https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/moneysupplyexplosion-1024x778.jpg)
None of this has given pause to Congress, which just signed a $1.5 trillion funding bill last week, complete with $13.6 billion for Ukraine. It’s as if they’re destroying the dollar on purpose.
Serious Inflation Never Ends Well
This debasement of the dollar will not end well. It never does. Look to history. The collapses of all empires share a common thread: the inflationary destruction of their currencies, through government expansion; perpetual wars abroad; and bread-and-circuses and “let them eat cake” (or drive electric cars) on the home-front.
The United States had plenty of warnings over the years. Powell’s statement is mild in comparison to others. On the heels of the 2008 financial meltdown, Erskine Bowles, who led President Obama’s debt commission, said the obvious loud and clear: “I think today we face the most predictable economic crisis in history… I think it’s clear, if you do simple arithmetic, that the fiscal path that the nation is on is simply not sustainable… Deficits are like a cancer, and over time they are going to destroy our country from within.”
Since Bowles’ warning, the United States has more than doubled the national debt.
Even enemies of the United States have issued warnings. Osama bin Laden’s strategy of “Death by a Thousand Cuts” was to keep the United States in a permanent war, to economically bleed the United States dry over time. Of course, bin Laden’s dead. Nonetheless, his strategy is clearly still in play. The U.S. federal debt was some $6 trillion in 2001, as the United States commenced its “War on Terror.” Again, the national debt today is more than $30 trillion.
It’s been said that there are two ways to go bankrupt: gradually, then suddenly. What can’t go on forever, suddenly won’t. So how close has Biden taken the United States to “suddenly”? We don’t want to find out.
There’s zero effective leadership from DC on the United States’s deficits, debt, and dollar madness. But’s it’s not too late. It’s just going to have to take a whole lot more Americans to focus on the issue to force our “leaders” to truly fix it.
https://thefederalist.com/2022/03/17/will-joe-biden-oversee-the-collapse-of-the-u-s-dollar/
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I'm just watching a programme about Thatcher & Reagan. He wanted to put sanctions in place to prevent Russia building a gas pipeline to supply Europe. The Europeans, with Thatcher's support, refused to support him, so he couldn't do it. Whoops!
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I'm just watching a programme about Thatcher & Reagan. He wanted to put sanctions in place to prevent Russia building a gas pipeline to supply Europe. The Europeans, with Thatcher's support, refused to support him, so he couldn't do it. Whoops!
Here's the problem though, logistically, it's probably the best place for Europe to get it's energy & other commodities.
I'm pretty sure America would like a western friendly leader in the Kremlin, because it's supplies could be plundered by the west, & if Russia had a U.S puppet in charge, it could also join NATO, then, it would be in a perfect strategic position to thwart China, the peer competitor.
Biden denies regime change in Russia is the plan, he might say that publicly but whoever genuinely pulls the strings, I reckon this has always been on the agenda.
America are probably hoping Russia exhausts wealth & military & it's people suffer from the sanctions in the Ukraine conflict that the people rise up & topple Putin.
I reckon America will be fighting this war right down to the last Ukranian.
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Ukraine On Fire.
Across its eastern border is Russia and to its west-Europe. For centuries, it has been at the center of a tug-of-war between powers seeking to control its rich lands and access to the Black Sea.
2014's Maidan Massacre triggered a bloody uprising that ousted president Viktor Yanukovych and painted Russia as the perpetrator by Western media. But was it?
"Ukraine on Fire" by Igor Lopatonok provides a historical perspective for the deep divisions in the region which lead to the 2004 Orange Revolution, 2014 uprisings, and the violent overthrow of democratically elected Yanukovych.
Covered by Western media as a people's revolution, it was in fact a coup d'état scripted and staged by nationalist groups and the U.S. State Department.
Investigative journalist Robert Parry reveals how U.S.-funded political NGOs and media companies have emerged since the 80s replacing the CIA in promoting America's geopolitical agenda abroad.
https://youtu.be/pKcmNGvaDUs?t=1
(1h 30m)
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Good to see Victor Orban defeat the globalists again.
Hungary said No, we don't want multiculturalism & disintegration of Christian values, no, we don't want LGBT taught to children in our schools.
We rely on Russian energy & imports so, no, we are not going to starve ourselves by fighting with Russia, we're not going to attack Putin, No, Nato is not passing it's weapons through our country into Ukraine.
Hungary for the Hungarians!
"We have such a victory it can be seen from the moon, but it's sure that it can be seen from Brussels,"
"We will remember this victory until the end of our lives because we had to fight against a huge amount of opponents," Orban said, citing a number of his political enemies including the Hungarian left, "bureaucrats" in Brussels, the international media, "and the Ukrainian president too -- we never had so many opponents at the same time."
"The whole world could see this evening in Budapest that the Christian Democrat politics, the conservative politics and the nationalistic politics won,"
"Our message to Europe is that it's not the past but the future. This will be our common European future."
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Hungary held a referendum with the following questions.....
1) Do you support holding information events on sexual orientation to minors, in public education institutions without parental consent?
2) Do you support the promotion of gender-reassignment treatments to minors?
3) Do you support the unrestricted exposure of minors to sexually explicit media content, that may influence their development?
4)Do you support showing minors media content on gender changing procedures?
Voter turnout was almost 70% & over 92% voted No to all of the above.
Orban is a hero & protector of Hungarian children.
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This war is scary, I thought it would be over by now.
There is going to be food & fuel shortages in the coming months & Martin lewis believes we could be close to civil unrest due the inflation.
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The super rich, top 1% have been buying luxury doomsday bunkers for the past few years.
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/doomsday-luxury-bunkers/index.html
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WW3 fears as China stages massive ‘Taiwan invasion’ drills and boasts it would defeat US and UK in any conflict
(https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15723481/ww3-fears-china-stages-taiwan-invasion-drills/#)
FEARS of World War Three have been sparked after China staged massive military drills "invading Taiwan".
Beijing also boasted about defeating the US and the UK in any conflict - and says it is confident the advantages are on its side.
The latest drill includes assault landings and island-control exercises in a bid to demonstrate the communist state's military might.
It was conducted as the country is preparing its soldiers in case of an insurgency in Taiwan, Chinese state media reports.
The People’s Liberation Army has conducted a series of drills in the past years focusing on the embattled island.
According to data collected by the South China Morning Post, China has conducted 20 naval exercises in the first half of the year - while another 13 exercises were carried out in 2020.
Footage released from China’s state broadcaster CCTV shows simulations of amphibious landing, two types of drones, and launch rocket systems.
The clip shows a small group of soldiers acting out missions and amphibious assault vehicles firing guns at sea.
It comes a month after China vowed to invade Taiwan if it seeks independence, with the Chinese defence ministry spokesman warning any move toward gaining independence would mean “war”.
Ren Guoqiang said during a press briefing that Taiwan's unification with the mainland is a "historical inevitability" before adding any attempt to declare independence would be a “dead-end road” resulting in “war”.
Meanwhile, tensions are rising after the US sent a warship through the Taiwan Straits and held an exercise in the South China Sea this week.
The move, according to experts, was an attempt to contain China politically and militarily, the Global Times reported.
In a statement released on Thursday, Senior Colonel Shi Yi said the PLA Eastern Theater Command tracked and monitored the course of the USS Benfold guided-missile destroyer.
He added that the provocations show America is the biggest destroyer of peace and stability - as well as a security risk in the Taiwan Straits.
And Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, says the US is attempting to contain China's military power in the region.
It comes as earlier this week HMS Queen Elizabeth entered the South China Sea in a risky move that challenged China's claim to control vast swathes of the area.
The UK risked "punishment" from China by taking part in wargames involving eight ships, including three from Singapore, experts said.
Song said the US warships are encouraging the UK vessels to provoke China but the PLA is the stronger force thanks to a number of factors including the troops, the combat capabilities, and logistics support.
He added that the PLA is prepared and the advantage is on their side.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15723481/ww3-fears-china-stages-taiwan-invasion-drills/
OK, this is getting really, really scary now.
If this keeps up I might have to reconsider my decades long abstinence from drink & drugs.
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This video explains in simplified terms exactly why the western world is screwed.
We are approaching the final death throes of the American Empire.
The Chinese Empire is coming.
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xguam0TKMw8&t=2323s
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While the U.S, Britain & EU countries continue to fuel the bloodshed by sending further arms to the Ukranian Neo Nazis, with Biden not even speaking to Putin, the voice of reason speaks...
"It doesn't make sense that Russia and Ukraine aren't sitting down and working out some kind of an agreement,"
"If they don't do it soon, there will be nothing left but death, destruction, and carnage."
"This is a war that never should have happened, but it did, "The solution can never be as good as it would have been before the shooting started, but there is a solution, and it should be figured out now—not later—when everyone will be DEAD!"
Donald Trump.
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You appear to have a very misconceived notion of the Ukrainian military. They are in fact a very determined force and have been extremely effective in destroying Putin's forces where the opportunities have arisen. You don't need to be an expert to see that the Russian supply lines are in tatters and an army that cannot be resupplied is a dead army.
You were saying?
This is probably the first time Boris has ever told the truth.
Boris Johnson admits Russian victory in Ukraine is ‘a realistic possibility’ as Putin steps up onslaught
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/russia-could-win-ukraine-war-admits-boris-johnson-donbas-mariupol-b995670.html
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The Western MSM are beginning to admit to what I was saying weeks ago....
The awful truth is dawning: Putin may win in Ukraine. The result would be catastrophe
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/24/the-awful-truth-is-dawning-putin-may-win-in-ukraine-the-result-would-be-catastrophe
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Are we ready for the coming food shortages people?
Supermarkets are now rationing cooking oil & Britain's farmers are reducing output due to the exorbitant cost of fertilizer & fuel, so grain , meat, milk & egg shortages are on the way.
Seriously folks, start stocking up on big sacks of rice & pasta because you may well need it.
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Farmers warn country is ‘sleepwalking’ towards food shortages
FARMERS have warned of impending food shortages as the cost of living crisis impacts on food production.
Gareth Wyn Jones, a farmer from Snowdonia, told GB News today that producers are reducing their output due to the increased cost of fuel, fertiliser and feed.
He said: “We’re sleepwalking into food shortages and that’s a fact.
“I could take you to ten farms in the surrounding area now that are turning down their production - chicken farmers, egg producers, milk producers, even beef and lamb because feed prices are going through the roof.
“We’ve got absolutely ridiculous fertiliser prices and we can’t forget that half the food produced in his world comes from artificial fertiliser.”
He made his comments during a debate whether the war in Ukraine could bring global food shortages during On The Money with Liam Halligan on GB News.
Mr Wyn Jones said the Government was out of touch and its white paper on food production is over six months behind schedule.
He said: “The people that are on the forefront are the farmers we’re seeing the first effects
“We want to produce food at affordable rates for our consumers and customers and it’s not going to happen because the foods are not going to be there.
“This is the scary bit because unless we have got the four F’s…feed, fertiliser, fuel, and the last and very, very important one is finance.
“People are going to need finance to get their farms up and running. I just can’t understand why this Government isn’t pushing for local food chains, for people to be producing more food in surrounding areas seasonally.
“It’s just ludicrous what’s going on, and it’s scary as a farmer sitting here and watching my friends talking about cutting their livestock down to half because they’re not going to go out and spend money on fertiliser.
“They’re just going to cut down on the stock they’ve got as we’ve seen with the dairy boys, pulling the plug on the feed, pulling the plug on the fertiliser.
He added: “There’ll be less flowing milk coming into our food chain, there will be massive repercussions.
“We’ve got an amazing country, we can produce this stuff but we have to have the backing of the Government - they have to understand what’s happening on the ground.”
Neil Charlick, CEO of the charity Gillingham Street Angels, said there has been a massive increase in visits to its food bank.
He said: “We found that last month there was a 25% increase in people using our services.
“We fed 12,500 people last month. That was the first month that the increase was that large.
“I think it’s going to get worse. I’m getting reports every day from the food bank which say we were just struggling to get enough food and we’re quite lucky that we’ve got local supermarkets, local farmers who supply stuff to us.”
https://www.cornish-times.co.uk/news/farmers-warn-country-is-sleepwalking-towards-food-shortages-545195
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An interview with Garry Kasparov. Well worth a listen, imo.
https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/1518284919155437574
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Oh my what are we to do?
The climate change believers and the vegans will be the winners.
Oh how wonderful, no fuel to produce Meat, milk, eggs, butter... we shall all eat berries. No M&S plant food for vegan foodies- mushrooms and berries from now on.
No cars no deliveries but we will save this planet and live happily everafter, well, what's left of us.
I find the hysterics about Ukraine to be baffling. We are not in Europe, They are not in NATO so WTF are we sending them arms? It is time for the UK to stop interfering in other peoples bloody wars! spending money we haven't got. us tax payers are simply fed up! We are being taxed out of our homes/businesses for what? Not for the benefit of the indigenous population anyway.
Europe is a very large area why can't the refugees not flee to Germany/France/ Belgum/ Romania/ well ok maybe not Romania. many other EU countries.?
and while we starve and freeze due to fuel shortages - the boat people are doubling up their invasion across the channel. 5 million pounds per day to keep them in hotels etc and counting...
I also think it is pathetic to ban tennis players who just happen to be Russian- I mean if they turn up with a kalashnikof and several rounds of Amo then fair enough... but a tennis bag with tennis gear. Oh Boy
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Oh my what are we to do?
The climate change believers and the vegans will be the winners.
Oh how wonderful, no fuel to produce Meat, milk, eggs, butter... we shall all eat berries. No M&S plant food for vegan foodies- mushrooms and berries from now on.
No cars no deliveries but we will save this planet and live happily everafter, well, what's left of us.
I find the hysterics about Ukraine to be baffling. We are not in Europe, They are not in NATO so WTF are we sending them arms? It is time for the UK to stop interfering in other peoples bloody wars! spending money we haven't got. us tax payers are simply fed up! We are being taxed out of our homes/businesses for what? Not for the benefit of the indigenous population anyway.
Europe is a very large area why can't the refugees not flee to Germany/France/ Belgum/ Romania/ well ok maybe not Romania. many other EU countries.?
and while we starve and freeze due to fuel shortages - the boat people are doubling up their invasion across the channel. 5 million per day and counting...
I also think it is pathetic to ban tennis players who just happen to be Russian- I mean if they turn up with a kalashnikof and several rounds of Amo then fair enough... but a tennis bag with tennis gear. Oh Boy
5 million crossing per day? Wow, it’s risen quite substantially since last year then hasn’t it? That means by my calculations the population of Britain will be approx a billion higher than China’s by the end of the year.
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5 million crossing per day? Wow, it’s risen quite substantially since last year then hasn’t it? That means by my calculations the population of Britain will be approx a billion higher than China’s by the end of the year.
Error well spotted! congratulations. still hanging onto my every word good I like that! xx
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Error well spotted! congratulations. still hanging onto my every word good I like that! xx
Not quite “hanging on your every word”, more like raising a quizzical eyebrow at some of the absolute nonsense you do come out with sometimes. Always entertaining though, welcome back.
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Ukraine is going to be a little land-locked country by the end of this, but hey, at least they'll get to join the EU & NATO!
Russian forces capture several villages in push into eastern Ukraine
Ukrainian army driven out of Velyka Komyshuvakha and Zavody, while concern grows over Transnistria
Russian forces have pushed deeper into eastern Ukraine and captured several villages in their offensive to fully control the two provinces of Donbas, Kyiv has said, while to the west there are mounting fears that the war may spill over into neighbouring Moldova.
The Ukrainian defence ministry said on Wednesday that Russian forces had pushed Kyiv’s army out of Velyka Komyshuvakha and Zavody, in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, and gained control over Zarichne and Novotoshkivske in Donetsk.
The Kremlin said this month it was pulling its forces out from around Kyiv to focus on capturing the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas, which have been controlled by pro-Russia separatists since 2014.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region of Donbas, said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday that Russian forces “continue to deliberately fire at civilians and to destroy critical infrastructure”.
The interior ministry of Moldova’s pro-Russia breakaway region of Transnistria, which borders western Ukraine, said on Wednesday that shots were fired overnight from Ukrainian territory towards a village housing a large Russian ammunition depot.
The ministry also said drones were observed over the village, and it claimed they too had been launched from Ukraine. Its statement came after a series of explosions in the unrecognised region that authorities there referred to as terrorist attacks.
Russia’s foreign ministry has refused to rule out Transnistria – occupied by Russian forces for decades – being drawn into the war, saying Moscow was “concerned” by the explosions targeting the state security ministry, a radio tower and military unit.
It was not clear who is behind the blasts in Transnistria but the attacks gave rise to international alarm that Moldova could be Russia’s next target or that Moscow could try to use the breakwaway region as another launching point to attack Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, claimed that Russian “special services” were working to “destabilise the situation in the [Transnistria] region, to threaten Moldova. They show that if Moldova supports Ukraine, there will be certain steps.” The UN and US have expressed alarm but have not yet backed Kyiv’s claim that Moscow was responsible.
Meanwhile, blasts were heard on Wednesday in three Russian provinces bordering Ukraine, reports said, and an ammunition depot near Staraya Nelidovka in Belgorod province caught fire. Russia earlier accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod but Kyiv has not confirmed responsibility for incidents reported on Russian territory.
The Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said it was natural that Russian regions where fuel and weapons were stored were learning about “demilitarisation” – a pointed reference to Moscow’s stated objective for the nine-week-old war in Ukraine, which it calls a special military operation to disarm and “denazify” its neighbour.
“If you [Russians] decide to massively attack another country, massively kill everyone there, massively crush peaceful people with tanks, and use warehouses in your regions to enable the killings, then sooner or later the debts will have to be repaid,” Podolyak said. “Karma is a cruel thing.”
Russia’s defence ministry said its Kalibr missiles had struck an arms depot in Ukraine’s southern-central Zaporizhzhia region storing “foreign weapons and ammunition supplied to Ukrainian troops by the US and European countries”.
The ministry said Russia’s air force destroyed 59 Ukrainian military targets overnight. Petro Andryushchenko, an official in Mariupol, said Russian forces hit the Azovstal steel plant there, where about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters and 1,000 civilians are still holed up, with 35 airstrikes over 24 hours.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/27/russia-forces-capture-villages-eastern-ukraine-war
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USA & EU: "Quick, send more weapons, that'll help broker peace"
Further arming Ukraine will only destroy it. The west must act to end this war now
By providing arms but avoiding military intervention western leaders are prolonging this hideous conflict. Talks are the best way out
ew people in the west doubt that Ukraine is fighting a just war. Russia’s invasion was entirely unprovoked. Whatever complaints it may have had about Nato expansion or Ukraine’s mistreatment of Russians in Donbas, nobody had attacked Russia, and nobody was planning to. Vladimir Putin launched a straightforward war of aggression and territorial conquest.
It follows that supporting Ukraine is the right thing to do. But it is not at all clear that the kind of support we are giving (and not giving) is the right way to go about preserving the Ukrainian nation.
The longer this war rages on, the more Ukrainians will flee their homeland, and the more devastation will be wrought upon their homes, cities, industry and economy. Yet the west’s current approach of supporting Ukraine’s war aim of defeating the aggressor, and providing arms for that purpose while pointedly avoiding direct military intervention, is guaranteed to prolong the war. Russia’s progress may be slowed, but it’s highly unlikely to be stopped, far less pushed out of Ukraine, and in the meantime the grinding destruction and hideous war crimes will continue.
No day goes past without some senior western politician proclaiming that Ukraine will be “successful” and that Russia is “failing”. This is certainly morale-boosting. But it is clearly nonsense.
The fact is, day by day, more towns and cities are destroyed and then fall to the Russians. In two months, the area under Russian control – originally just the breakaway parts of Donbas – has grown to perhaps five times the size. If Russia continues to suffer “defeats” at this pace, then in another two months the entire south of Ukraine will be in ruins, cities such as Odesa will resemble Mariupol, and thousands upon thousands more Ukrainians will have died.
Worse, as the war goes on, and more towns are destroyed, it becomes less likely that Ukrainians who have fled to other countries will ever return, because they will have no homes or workplaces to come back to. How many citizens of Mariupol will ever return? If Russia’s aim was to exterminate the Ukrainian nation, then the west’s approach is helping to do just that.
Surely, if the lives of Ukrainian people are our concern then the west has to do something to stop the war – now. Encouraging the Ukrainians to continue, however just their cause, is merely making their country uninhabitable.
The trouble is, there are only two ways to stop the war quickly, and neither is palatable to most western leaders.
One would be for Nato to enter the war and make a quick, massive and decisive strike to cripple Russia’s invasion forces. Unlike with Russia’s actions, it would have every right under international law to do so. When Putin intervened in Syria, he very carefully framed this as a response to a request from Syria’s legitimate and internationally recognised government. The west could do the same in Ukraine. Putin himself has no such justification for his invasion.
The risk involved in this – of a third world war – is obvious, and it’s why the west refuses to intervene directly.
The other option is to persuade Putin to implement an immediate ceasefire, by inviting Russia to comprehensive peace talks. Western leaders are disinclined to parley with a butcher such as Putin. But they did it with Serbia’s Slobodan Milošević, only months after the massacre at Srebrenica, and the result was the Dayton agreement that put an end to the war in Bosnia in 1995.
To get Putin to the negotiating table at all, everything would have to be up for discussion – including Ukraine’s borders, Russia’s age-old security concerns, perhaps even the very logic of basing today’s international frontiers in that part of Europe on what were internal borders in the USSR, drawn up by communist leaders precisely to prevent Soviet republics and regions from being viable independent states. The outcome of the talks does not need to be predetermined. The important thing is to talk rather than fight.
Western leaders cannot bring themselves to broach these matters, which would seem to reward Putin for attempting to redraw the map by force. They would rather fight – or more accurately, let Ukraine fight, in the hope of defeating Russia. But if one thing is certain it is that Putin will never accept defeat. He is already too deeply invested in this war to back off with nothing to show for it. If western leaders think that their arms-length encouragement of Ukraine will bring about a Ukrainian military victory, then they are fatally misreading Putin’s intentions and resolve. For Ukraine’s sake, we need to stop him now, one way or the other, before nothing is left of the country we want to protect.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has abruptly transformed the world. Millions of people have already fled. A new Iron Curtain is grinding into place. An economic war deepens, as the military conflict escalates, civilian casualties rise and evidence of horrific war crimes mounts.
It’s our job at the Guardian to decipher a rapidly changing landscape, particularly when it involves a mounting refugee crisis and the risk of unthinkable escalation. Our correspondents are on the ground in Ukraine and throughout the globe delivering round-the-clock reporting and analysis during this perilous situation.
We know there is no substitute for being there – and we’ll stay on the ground, as we did during the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the first Russo-Ukrainian conflict in 2014. We have an illustrious, 200-year history of reporting throughout Europe in times of upheaval, peace and everything in between. We won’t let up now.
Tens of millions have placed their trust in the Guardian’s fearless journalism since we started publishing 200 years ago, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. We’d like to invite you to join more than 1.5 million supporters from 180 countries who now power us financially – keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent.
Unlike many others, the Guardian has no shareholders and no billionaire owner. Just the determination and passion to deliver high-impact global reporting, always free from commercial or political influence. Reporting like this is vital to establish the facts: who is lying and who is telling the truth.
And we provide all this for free, for everyone to read. We do this because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people can keep track of the global events shaping our world, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action. Millions can benefit from open access to quality, truthful news, regardless of their ability to pay for it.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/27/ukraine-war-end-putin-russia-talks
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Vladimir Putin has warned that if any other country intervenes in Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, Russia will launch a quick-fire military response.
Speaking to politicians in St Petersburg, the Russian president said that "if anyone sets out to intervene in the current events from the outside and creates unacceptable threats for us that are strategic in nature, they should know that our response... will be lightning-fast".
Putin said that the military would not hesitate to use the most modern weaponry, in an escalating war of words days after Russia warned of a “real” threat of World War Three breaking out with the West sending arms and cash to Kyiv.
"We have all the tools for this, that no one else can boast of having. We won't boast about it: we'll use them, if needed. And I want everyone to know that," Putin said.
"We have already taken all the decisions on this."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/04/27/ukraine-war-news-russia-latest-weapons-attacks-kyiv-putin/
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No attempts to de-escalate by our leaders, instead doubling down, hell bent on WW3 in support of a non NATO country.
West should provide warplanes, says Liz Truss
Britain and other Western powers should provide warplanes to Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will say, as part of long-term military support.
In a major speech in London, Ms Truss will argue that the West "must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support" for the country.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61239075
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All this could have been avoided if they'd have nuked him at the start, now he's saying going on I dare you.
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All this could have been avoided if they'd have nuked him at the start, now he's saying going on I dare you.
Sounds rather extreme.
A better option would have been to give the security guarantees that Russia requested when it massed troops on Ukraines border & asked to negotiate.
That request was rebuffed entirely by the USA, now we'll just have to make do with continually funnelling weapons into Ukraine & starving ourselves to death whilst paying ridiculous fuel prices as a result of our own sanctions.
Still, it will all be worth it to keep that relatively small patch of land free from Russian control.
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I've lived through a few US Presidents, but this one takes the unfortunate cookie and scares the hell out of me...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0AoyNdZ-RY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0AoyNdZ-RY)
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I've lived through a few US Presidents, but this one takes the unfortunate cookie and scares the hell out of me...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0AoyNdZ-RY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0AoyNdZ-RY)
It was obvious he was in cognitive decline prior to the 2020 election, but he somehow became the most voted for president in U.S history, & the other guy sent mean tweets so they couldn't vote for him again.
I'd like for someone to tell me how the world was worse under Trump.
And cackling Kamala Harris is next in line. We are doomed.
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The EU woman Ursula van whatsername had the audacity to say Russia is blackmailing countries over gas.
What are sanctions if not coercion?
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Yet more escalation & inflammatory rhetoric from our leaders.
This is totally ridiculous, why are they pushing for WW3 & not attempting to negotiate or compromise?
There isn't a cat in hells chance that Russia will roll over & give up Crimea, they've got a massive naval base there with warships & nuclear arms.
This is unnecessary & frankly terrifying.
What the hell are they doing?
Ben Wallace backs Liz Truss and says Russia should be pushed out of 'the whole of Ukraine' - including Crimea
Both Ms Truss and Mr Wallace's remarks imply that the UK government believes Russian forces must leave not just the territory occupied since the current invasion at the end of February, but also areas they occupied and annexed previously.
Ben Wallace has reinforced Liz Truss' view that Russian forces must be pushed out of "the whole of Ukraine" - and suggested this should include Crimea.
Speaking at an event at Mansion House on Wednesday evening, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Western allies, including the UK, must "double down" and "keep going further and faster" to "push Russia out of the whole of Ukraine".
Asked on Sky News if Ms Truss was referring to Crimea, which was invaded and annexed by Russia back in 2014, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace replied: "Well, the international community believes Russia should leave Ukraine.
"The international community has condemned Russia for its invasion of Crimea, which was illegal in 2014. Its invasion of Donetsk, recognising it is illegal, is somewhat different.
"We don't recognise it and we've constantly said that Russia should leave sovereign territory. So that hasn't changed."
'We are supporting Ukraine's sovereign integrity'
Pressed on how far the West will support Ukraine in expelling Russian forces, Mr Wallace added that there is a "long way to go" before there is the prospect of Ukraine taking back control of Crimea.
"There's a long way to go before Ukraine pushes into Crimea," he told Sky News.
"I think what I would certainly say is, we are supporting Ukraine's sovereign integrity. We've done that all along. That, of course, includes Crimea.
"But you know, first and foremost, let's get Russia out of where they are now in its invasion plans and help Ukraine resolve and actually remember the Minsk agreement, which Russia has basically ripped up, was all about trying to resolve those two occupied territories.
"But the key thing is to continue to support Ukraine's sovereign integrity and their ability to defend themselves".
Both Ms Truss and Mr Wallace's remarks imply that the UK government believes Russian forces must leave not just the territory occupied since the current invasion at the end of February, but also areas they occupied and annexed previously including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region.
Truss: China must 'play by the rules'
In her speech on Wednesday evening, the foreign secretary also singled out China for its silence on the war in Ukraine, warning the country to "play by the rules".
China voted to keep Russia as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council earlier this month and previously abstained from a Security Council vote condemning the invasion at the outset of the conflict.
"China is not impervious. They will not continue to rise if they do not play by the rules," Ms Truss said.
"China needs trade with the G7. We represent around half of the global economy. And we have choices.
"We have shown with Russia the kind of choices that we're prepared to make when international rules are violated."
Addressing the UK's allies in the keynote foreign policy speech, the foreign secretary also declared that the war in Ukraine "is everyone's war because Ukraine's victory is a strategic imperative for all of us".
Her speech came after a 63rd day of fighting, which saw Kherson particularly badly hit.
At one point, Russian television channels were knocked off-air following a series of explosions in the southern city which has been occupied by Russian troops since early in the war.
https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-ben-wallace-backs-liz-truss-and-says-russia-should-be-pushed-out-of-the-whole-of-ukraine-including-crimea-12600491
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Hope they wait a day or two, I'm off on holiday next weekend , I don't mind if its the last hoorah.
Russia's state TV tells viewers 'we're all going to die someday': Nuclear war is 'most probable outcome', viewers are told, 'but we will go to heaven while they simply croak'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10762143/Ukraine-war-Russian-state-TV-says-nuclear-strike-probable-losing.html
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Hope they wait a day or two, I'm off on holiday next weekend , I don't mind if its the last hoorah.
Russia's state TV tells viewers 'we're all going to die someday': Nuclear war is 'most probable outcome', viewers are told, 'but we will go to heaven while they simply croak'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10762143/Ukraine-war-Russian-state-TV-says-nuclear-strike-probable-losing.html
And western leaders are utterly delusional.
I saw one US spokesman say they have the full support of the international community.
They don't, they only really have the support of western allies.
China, India, Pakistan, Syria, parts of Africa etc etc are refusing to condemn Russia's military operation & don't support the sanctions.
I hope you're not going too far abroad for your holidays because you might not be able to get back!
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If you haven't seen it I highly recommend watching Oliver Stone's 'Ukraine on Fire' instead of chatting about Maddie.
It has some disturbing scenes, but that's the reality of war.
The US directly interfered with & provoked Ukraine into civil unrest prior to the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The current war is a result of U.S attempts to pull Ukraine into the US sphere of influence.
Ukraine was & is a badly divided country with the West being pro Europe & the East being pro Russia.
The solution would be to split the country down the middle, but that's not what the USA wants.
Their intent is to put a NATO ally right on Russia's border.
How could Russia not perceive that as a threat?
If the situation were reversed the US wouldn't stand for it.
I cringe when I see people flying the Ukraine flag, people don't have a clue that what they're showing support for is actually WW3.
The only voice of reason in Europe is Hungary's Victor Orban, he say's there can't be a military solution & must be diplomacy, but that's not what the U.S & EU want.
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Ukraine On Fire.
Watch if you want to understand the current conflict, or just fly Ukrainian flags like sheep led by wolves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKcmNGvaDUs
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Getting prepared ?
Missiles loaded onto nuclear sub HMS Audacious after Moscow's threat to Britain
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1602546/ukraine-news-missiles-loaded-hms-audacious-moscow-threat
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Getting prepared ?
Missiles loaded onto nuclear sub HMS Audacious after Moscow's threat to Britain
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1602546/ukraine-news-missiles-loaded-hms-audacious-moscow-threat
Ramping right up.
All in defense of bankrupt corrupt non EU non NATO country.
I didn't vote for any of this.
I'd have chosen diplomacy but Anerican Neo Cons have other ideas.
They want regime change in Russia & they're prepared to risk nuclear war to achieve it.
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Getting prepared ?
Missiles loaded onto nuclear sub HMS Audacious after Moscow's threat to Britain
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1602546/ukraine-news-missiles-loaded-hms-audacious-moscow-threat
Did you watch that documentary Barrier.
Seriously, if you do nothing else this afternoon you need to see it to understand.
We are being lied to.
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Biden asks Congress for $33bn more aid for Ukraine as conflict escalates
https://www.ft.com/content/d1c1ac2c-7ecd-4cb4-a33b-58fd06de0b3d
America are only 30 odd trillion dollars in debt, just chuck another 33 billion on the end, what does it matter eh?
I wonder how they'll ever pay it all back?
Real Time World Debt Clock
https://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html
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I caught sight of the forum twitter page today & was a bit horrified to see the suggestion we should be sticking it to Putin already.
Has anyone seen them hypersonic Missiles? Missile defence systems are powerless to stop them.
I know I fool around & talk nonsense but christ, Putin has proven he doesn't bluff.
There needs to be descalation but almost everywhere I read people are suggesting we should be ramping things up.
It's insane, more insane than me.
Where are the sensible diplomats of the world?
I've barely slept since the conflict started. Watch the videos on nuclear testing, it scares the crap out of me.
The leader of the free world has obvious dementia & he's the guy we rely on to protect us all.
I think I might need to buy some cyanide capsules just in case, now that would please the forum.
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Wow, Spammy. For once you sound sincere. I must be dreaming ;)
I'm not sure what "sticking it to him" actually means.
Attempts to appease him by basicly turning a blind eye appear to have simply emboldened him.
I'm looking for an enlightening interview with Garry Kasparov, which offers a lot of context....
Found it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC_ywMII-aI
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Wow, Spammy. For once you sound sincere. I must be dreaming ;)
I'm not sure what "sticking it to him" actually means.
Attempts to appease him by basicly turning a blind eye appear to have simply emboldened him.
I find this interview with Garry Kasparov offers a lot of context:
https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/1518284919155437574
What attempts have their been to appease him?
The last interview I watched with Kasparov he said 'Ukraine is getting stronger' the guys a bit delusional, because the military map says the total opposite.
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Biden asks Congress for $33bn more aid for Ukraine as conflict escalates
https://www.ft.com/content/d1c1ac2c-7ecd-4cb4-a33b-58fd06de0b3d
America are only 30 odd trillion dollars in debt, just chuck another 33 billion on the end, what does it matter eh?
I wonder how they'll ever pay it all back?
Real Time World Debt Clock
https://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html
How much more would it cost if this "special military operation" expands further into the former Soviet bloc countries?
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What attempts have their been to appease him?
The last interview I watched with Kasparov he said 'Ukraine is getting stronger' the guys a bit delusional, because the military map says the total opposite.
Have you watched the interview I posted?
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Have you watched the interview I posted?
Yes I did, he only sees a military solution, rather than making the sensible suggestion of laying down arms & splitting Ukraine between east & west.
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How much more would it cost if this "special military operation" expands further into the former Soviet bloc countries?
Putin knows he can't occupy all of Europe, he's bad but not completely insane.
His goal is to de-nazify Ukraine, destroy it's military, he doesn't want a neo nazi NATO state on his doorstep, look up Stepan Bandera, Zelenskey's celebrated war criminal.
The western media will have us believe that Ukraine is some peaceful beacon of liberal democracy, rather than the corrupt, bankrupt hell hole it really is.
Like I said, I see people flying the Ukrainian flag & cringe at their stupidity, they're supporting a state that throws opposition politicians in prison & has statues of Nazi sympathisers.
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Another interesting interview with Alexsandr Dugin (dubbed Putin's Rasputin).
https://youtu.be/Du7fOoW_euE
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Putin knows he can't occupy all of Europe, he's bad but not completely insane.
His goal is to de-nazify Ukraine, destroy it's military, he doesn't want a neo nazi NATO state on his doorstep, look up Stepan Bandera, Zelenskey's celebrated war criminal.
The western media will have us believe that Ukraine is some peaceful beacon of liberal democracy, rather than the corrupt, bankrupt hell hole it really is.
Like I said, I see people flying the Ukrainian flag & cringe at their stupidity, they're supporting a state that throws opposition politicians in prison & has statues of Nazi sympathisers.
I haven't seen what could indicate that he wanted to take over the whole of Europe (so far), but to restore the former glory of the Soviet bloc / Tsarist Russian Empire.
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I haven't seen what could indicate that he wanted to take over the whole of Europe (so far), but to restore the former glory of the Soviet bloc / Tsarist Russian Empire.
And how would he manage that?
He'd need millions of troops on the ground to be able to occupy & hold surrounding countries, logistically impossible.
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The Guardian have caught up with what I said yesterday.
Inflammatory rhetoric from Liz Truss, talking of pushing Russia out of the whole of Ukraine.
Liz Truss risks recklessly inflaming Ukraine’s war to serve her own ambition
The foreign secretary’s belligerent comments on Russia reduce Ukraine to a pawn in the Conservatives’ power struggle
he foreign secretary, Liz Truss, is playing with fire. On Wednesday night she described Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a “rogue operator” lacking rationality, and with “no interest in international norms”. As a result, she said: “We will keep going further and faster to push Russia out of the whole of Ukraine.” She is clearly revelling in her imagined proxy war on the Russian bear and no one in Whitehall appears able to restrain her.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/28/liz-truss-ukraine-war-russia-conservative-power
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And how would he manage that?
He'd need millions of troops on the ground to be able to occupy & hold surrounding countries, logistically impossible.
As I said I haven't found anything about wanting to expand militarily into the traditionally "western" world. However, have you listened to the Dugin interview?
From what I can gather, creating chaos and destabilizing the western world would suffice to gain ground.
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As I said I haven't found anything about wanting to expand militarily into the traditionally "western" world. However, have you listened to the Dugin interview?
Not yet, & I've got to go out in a bit but will watch when I get back.
If you've got an hour watch Oliver Stone's Ukraine On Fire....it paints a rather different picture to the reasons for the conflict than our media would have us believe, there are disturbing scenes, but that's reality for you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKcmNGvaDUs
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As I said I haven't found anything about wanting to expand militarily into the traditionally "western" world. However, have you listened to the Dugin interview?
From what I can gather, creating chaos and destabilizing the western world would suffice to gain ground.
The U.S destabilized Ukraine prior to 2014 & since, the hypocrisy of it!
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Not yet, & I've got to go out in a bit but will watch when I get back.
If you've got an hour watch Oliver Stone's Ukraine On Fire....it paints a rather different picture to the reasons for the conflict than our media would have us believe, there are disturbing scenes, but that's reality for you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKcmNGvaDUs
Ok, will do. I watched the first part of Stone's documentary on Putin a few years ago. It made him sound like a likeable guy who just wanted to put his country first. If only.
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The U.S destabilized Ukraine prior to 2014 & since, the hypocrisy of it!
??
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??
You're saying Putin hopes to destabilize the western world.
The U.S deliberately destabilized Ukraine with intent to make it a western bulwark on Russia's border & from there destabilize Russia.
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Another interesting interview with Alexsandr Dugin (dubbed Putin's Rasputin).
https://youtu.be/Du7fOoW_euE
He talks sense, a vision for a multipolar world with Russia as one of many players.
Easy to see why America aren't too pleased about that, it's a threat to U.S world supremacy via the petrodollar.
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I've lived through a few US Presidents, but this one takes the unfortunate cookie and scares the hell out of me...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0AoyNdZ-RY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0AoyNdZ-RY)
This is scary as hell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRxpf0cGweU
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Ukrainian reporters are beginning to wake up & tell the truth....
Today is another grim day for Ukraine.
And as much as I understand your anger, dear Ukrainians, I'm gonna report what's happening, not what you would like to happen.
Better times will come, hopefully. But right now, Russia is crushing the Ukrainian defense in many areas.
https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1519590404261302272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
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The western media were telling us Russia couldn't win, that Putin's forces were being pushed back, the military map is showing an entirely different picture, Russia have made & are making major territorial gains in the south & east of the country & now there is admission the war could continue for years.
Russia-Ukraine War Could Last 10 Years: UK Foreign Secretary
Russia Ukraine War: Ms Truss indicated that the war in Ukraine could be a long drawn out affair and that Europe "must be prepared for the long haul".
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/russia-ukraine-war-could-last-10-years-uk-foreign-secretary-2927511
The first casualty of war is the truth.
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Russian submarine strikes Ukraine with cruise missiles
Russia has used a diesel submarine in the Black Sea to strike Ukrainian military targets with Kalibr cruise missiles.
The Russian defence ministry released a video showing a volley of Kalibr missiles emerging from the sea and soaring off into the horizon - to what the ministry said were Ukrainian military targets.
This is the first time Russia's military has reported using submarine strikes against Ukrainian targets, Interfax news agency reported on Friday.
It comes as Ukraine said Russia has taken "colossal losses" in fighting in the east of the country as it attempts to capture the Donbas, exceeding Kyiv's own "serious losses".
Meanwhile, a border checkpoint at a village in Russia's Bryansk region bordering Ukraine came under mortar fire from Ukrainian territory, the regional governor said on Friday, with no casualties.
Russia is pounding the entire front line in the eastern Donetsk region with rockets, artillery, mortar bombs and aircraft, Ukraine has warned. Joe Biden, the US president, wants to send £26bn more in aid.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/04/29/ukraine-news-russia-war-latest-putin-nuclear-donbas-nato/
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??
Carana, don’t, you’ll only encourage him.
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Carana, don’t, you’ll only encourage him.
I'm not even wumming here old chap, I'm genuinely interested in our impending nuclear demise.
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He talks sense, a vision for a multipolar world with Russia as one of many players.
Easy to see why America aren't too pleased about that, it's a threat to U.S world supremacy via the petrodollar.
It doesn't make sense to me as we already live in a multipolar world.
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I'm not even wumming here old chap, I'm genuinely interested in our impending nuclear demise.
Won't be long.
Ukraine LIVE: 'What prevents us from striking UK?' Putin allies encourage brutal attack
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1603456/ukraine-live-russia-vladimir-putin-volodymyr-zelensky-uk-attack-weapons-solovyov
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The U.S destabilized Ukraine prior to 2014 & since, the hypocrisy of it!
How so?
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How so?
NGO's, dangling the carrot of EU & NATO membership for years, & what we're Joe Biden & his son up to over there, strictly honest business I'm sure. U.S senators were there interfering, encouraging & supporting uprising. The U.S encourage revolutions all around the world when there are financial & strategic gains to be made.
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Oh great...
Better fill the fuel tank & stock the fridge-freezer now before oil hits $200 a barrel.
The people who will suffer as a result of this nonsense are us.
European Union likely to approve Russian oil embargo next week: report
Embargo expected to be announced in new sanctions package against Moscow
European Union countries next week are likely to approve a phased embargo on Russian oil, dealing a significant economic blow to Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, The New York Times is reporting.
The newspaper, citing EU officials and diplomats involved in the discussions, reported that ambassadors will meet Wednesday to go over a finalized proposal, and the expectation is they will approve the measures by the end of next week.
As the oil embargo is phased in, the European countries will turn to increased imports from Persian Gulf countries, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, The New York Times reports.
In addition, a fresh wave of EU sanctions will target Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, and several high-profile Russians, the officials added.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that a full ban on Russian oil was possible after Germany changed its stance this week.
The reversal from Germany, which had been one of the main opponents of the EU severing oil and gas trade with Russia, comes after Berlin struck a deal with Poland to import oil by way of one of its Baltic Sea ports, according to that report.
On Wednesday, Germany’s representatives to the EU lifted their objection to a Russian oil embargo under the assumption the country had enough time to find alternative supplies, two German government officials who spoke to the newspaper said.
The EU reportedly pays state-controlled Russian firms around $1 billion a day for energy.
Around 12% of Germany's current oil supplies come from Russian imports, down from 35% at the beginning of the Ukraine war, according to German Economy Minister Robert Habeck.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/european-union-russian-oil-embargo
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Russian operation in Ukraine contributes to freeing world from Western oppression - Lavrov
It is obvious that the collective West’ attempts to hinder the natural course of history, to solve its problems at the expense of others are doomed, the minister said
Russia's special military operation in Ukraine is contributing to liberating the world from Western neocolonial oppression, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Xinhua news agency.
"It is obvious that the collective West’ attempts to hinder the natural course of history, to solve its problems at the expense of others are doomed," the minister said, "Today's world has several centers of decision-making, it is multipolar. We see how dynamically Asian, African and Latin American countries develop. Everyone has a real freedom of choice, including ways of development and participation in integration projects. Our special military operation in Ukraine also contributes to the process of freeing the world from the West’s neocolonial oppression, which is densely mixed with racism and an exceptionality complex."
As Lavrov noted, today we are talking not about a new Cold War, but about "the persistent desire of Washington and its satellites, who think of themselves as 'masters of human destiny,' to impose an American-centric model of the world order." "It has gotten to the point where a Western minority is trying to replace the UN-centric architecture and international law formed as a result of World War II with its own ‘rules-based’ order. Washington and its allies write these very rules themselves and then impose them on the international community as obligatory for implementation", the Russian foreign minister continued.
Destructive US policy
Lavrov stressed that the US has been pursuing a destructive course for decades. The minister, in particular, cited the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, the attacks on Iraq, Libya, its attempt to destroy Syria, as well as "color revolutions" in a number of countries, including Ukraine. "All this has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and led to chaos in various regions of the planet," he added.
The Russian foreign minister noted that the Westerners are trying "with the most brutal methods" to suppress countries that seek to conduct an independent foreign and domestic policy, and it is not only about Russia.
"We can see how ‘bloc thinking’ is being imposed in the Asia-Pacific region. Look at the so-called Indo-Pacific strategy promoted by the US, which has a clear anti-Chinese orientation," Lavrov pointed out, "In the spirit of the archaic Monroe Doctrine, the US seeks to dictate how and by what standards to live in Latin America. This explains the long-standing illegal trade embargo against Cuba, sanctions against Venezuela, and attempts to ‘sway’ stability in Nicaragua and some other countries. The continuing pressure on Belarus is also along these lines. This list could be continued."
According to the Russian minister, the sooner the West comes to terms with the new geopolitical realities, "the better it will be for itself and for the whole international community." "As Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized at the Boao Forum, 'We [have to] <…> uphold the principle of indivisible security, build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture, and oppose the pursuit of one's own security at the cost of others' security,'" Lavrov concluded.
https://tass.com/politics/1445755
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Russia FM asks US, NATO to stop supplying arms to Ukraine
Sergey Lavrov, in an interview with Xinhua, says the US and NATO should stop arming Ukraine if they are interested in resolving the crisis.
Russia’s foreign minister has again urged the United States and NATO to stop supplying Kyiv with arms if they are “really interested in resolving the Ukraine crisis”, Chinese state media has reported.
“If the US and NATO are really interested in resolving the Ukraine crisis, then first of all, they should wake up and stop supplying the Kyiv regime with arms and ammunition,” Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with China’s official Xinhua news agency.
The US and several European countries have supplied weapons worth billions of dollars to Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. US President Joe Biden has asked Congress for $33bn to support Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly warned Washington against continuing its military assistance to Kyiv, accusing the US of “pouring oil on the flames” of the war.
The Kremlin had previously called Western arms deliveries to Ukraine a threat to European security.
Months into an invasion that failed in its short-term aim of capturing Kyiv, Moscow is now intensifying operations in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
But Lavrov told China’s official Xinhua news agency that the “special military operation … is proceeding strictly according to plan”.
China has avoided condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and defends its firm friendship with Moscow, with state media often echoing the Russian line on the war.
Russia said Western sanctions and arms shipments to Ukraine are hampering peace negotiations. Lavrov said the talks continue – but that progress is difficult.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Polish journalists that chances were “high” talks to end the conflict could end without any agreement.
“The risks that the talks will end are high because of what they (the Russians) have left behind them, the impression that they have a playbook on murdering people,” Interfax news agency quoted Zelenskyy as telling Polish journalists.
The shaky talks have not been held in person for a month.
Western sanctions
The West has imposed wide-ranging sanctions largely cutting off Russia’s financial sector from the global economy. Hundreds of multinational corporations have also exited Russia in the wake of the war in a blow to its economy.
European countries have pledged to cut reliance on Russian gas to deprive Moscow of revenue.
In his interview with Xinhua, Lavrov said that Russia could “retool” its economy to guard against potential “unlawful hostilities”.
He added that the sanctions-hit country will focus on moving away from the US dollar and lean less on imports, while boosting its tech independence, Xinhua reported.
Moscow has pursued a “de-dollarisation” policy for several years, calling on partners such as China and India to conduct payments in other currencies.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian prosecutors say they have pinpointed more than 8,000 war crimes and are investigating 10 Russian soldiers for suspected atrocities in Bucha, where dozens of bodies in civilian clothes were found following Moscow’s retreat.
Moscow denies the claims.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/30/russia-fm-urges-us-nato-to-halt-kyiv-arms-supply-state-media
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NGO's, dangling the carrot of EU & NATO membership for years, & what we're Joe Biden & his son up to over there, strictly honest business I'm sure. U.S senators were there interfering, encouraging & supporting uprising. The U.S encourage revolutions all around the world when there are financial & strategic gains to be made.
Are you referring to Oliver Stone's documentary or whatever it is?
Putin has him eating of his hand.
Ukraine
In December 2014, Stone made statements supporting the Russian government's narrative on Ukraine, portraying the 2014 Ukrainian revolution as a CIA plot. He also refutes the claim that former Ukrainian president (who was overthrown as a result of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution) Viktor Yanukovych was responsible for the killing of protesters as claimed by the succeeding Ukrainian government. Stone said Yanukovych was the legitimate president who was forced to leave Ukraine by "well-armed, neo-Nazi radicals". He said that in "the tragic aftermath of this coup, the West has maintained the dominant narrative of ’Russia in Crimea’ whereas the true narrative is ’USA in Ukraine’".[192][193][194][195][196][197] The University of Toronto's Stephen Velychenko, the author of several books on Ukrainian history, and James Kirchick of The Daily Beast criticized Stone's comments and plans for a film (Ukraine on Fire, 2016).[198][199] In March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Stone criticized the action, concluding "Russia was wrong to invade."[200]
Russia
In a June 2017 interview with The Nation to promote his documentary on Vladimir Putin, Stone rejected the consensus findings of the United States’ intelligence agencies that Russia sought to influence the 2016 presidential election. Stone accused the CIA, FBI, and NSA of cooking the intelligence. He said: "The influence on the election from the Russians to me is absurd to the naked eye. Israel has far more influence on American elections through AIPAC. Saudi Arabia has influence through money... Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers have much more influence on American elections... And the prime minister of Israel comes to our country and addresses Congress to criticize the president's policy in Iran at the time—that's pretty outrageous."[201]
Russia passed a law in 2013 banning the targeting of minors in the propagandizing of homosexuality.[202] In a 2019 interview with Putin, Stone said of the law that "It seems like maybe that's a sensible law". Stone later said he's not anti-gay/LGBTQ.[203][204]
Stone voluntarily took the Russian Sputnik V vaccine for the COVID-19 virus, despite being a decade older than the recommended maximum age for it. He also said it was "madness" that their vaccine was being ignored, and further added, "Russia’s been one of the most advanced countries, if not the most advanced country."[205]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Stone#Political_views
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It might be worth reading a bit about what Euromaidan was about.
The protests were sparked by the Ukrainian government's sudden decision not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. Ukraine's parliament had overwhelmingly approved of finalizing the Agreement with the EU,[81] while Russia had put pressure on Ukraine to reject it.[82] The scope of the protests widened, with calls for the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych and the Azarov Government.[83] The protesters opposed what they saw as widespread government corruption, the influence of oligarchs,[84] abuse of power, and violation of human rights in Ukraine.[85] Transparency International named Yanukovych as the top example of corruption in the world.[86] The violent dispersal of protesters on 30 November caused further anger.[5] The Euromaidan led to the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.
(...)
The demonstrations began on the night of 21 November 2013, when protests erupted in the capital, Kyiv, after the Ukrainian government rejected draft laws that would allow the release of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and suspend preparations for signing the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement with the European Union, to seek closer economic relations with Russia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan
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On Yanukovych :
... This private opulence was all paid for with public money. Embezzlement in the Yanukovych era is said to have taken the form of theft, corruption in public procurement, rigged energy prices, and misuse of carbon-emissions allowances.
Yanukovych and his associates, known as ‘the Family’, are believed to have embezzled as much as $37 billion and stashed it in bank accounts and company shares around the world, including in EU countries such as Austria, Latvia, Cyprus, Italy, and the Netherlands.
In 2014 the EU put in place sanctions including visa bans and asset freezes against Yanukovych and his associates. These sanctions played a significant role in supporting the Ukrainian government in its efforts to restore the rule of law and were expected to lead to the successful confiscation and restitution of the stolen assets held in Europe to Ukraine. However, seven years down the line, little has been achieved in terms of asset recovery while the number of individuals subject to sanctions has declined from the 22 individuals sanctioned initially to just eight today.
This points to several shortcomings in the way both sanctions and asset recovery work in the EU.
...
https://transparency.eu/corruption-opulence-and-decadence-in-ukraine/
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Yes yes Carana, it was a revolution of dignity with not a hint of any outside interference anywhere, & definitely not a coup.
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Even when the dignified protesters armed themselves & stormed government buildings, still wasn't a coup, just a dignified revolution & the USA had nothing to do with promoting & supporting any of it, anywhere.
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"Russia passed a law in 2013 banning the targeting of minors in the propagandizing of homosexuality"
Based Putin.
It's much better in the western world where we teach kids that there's no such thing as gender & you can just pick which sex you are depending on which way the wind blows.
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When Trump supporters disagreed with the election & stormed the capitol building, that was an attempted insurrection & as bad as 9/11 or Pearl Harbour, but when Ukranians do a similar thing it's a dignified revolution!
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There were millions of Ukranians who didn't go to Maidan square & protest & didn't want to overthrow Yanukovich, but they never got a say in the matter, violent mob rule won the day.
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Janet Yellen calls for EU caution on Russian energy ban
US Treasury secretary warns full European import embargo on Moscow would dent global growth
APRIL 21 2022
“Medium-term, Europe clearly needs to reduce its dependence on Russia with respect to energy, but we need to be careful when we think about a complete European ban on say, oil imports,”
She said an immediate ban by the EU would “clearly raise global oil prices” and “would have a damaging impact on Europe and other parts of the world”. Yellen added that “counter-intuitively”, a total embargo may not have such a negative impact on Moscow’s finances, with Russia benefiting from higher prices.
The focus of western allies should instead be on trying to reduce “proceeds from sales of oil and gas” for Russia. “If we could figure out a way to do that, without harming the entire globe through higher energy prices that would be ideal. And that’s a matter that we’re all trying to get through together,” she said.
https://www.ft.com/content/0738a816-cb3c-44f9-9257-7a8489bf4c9c
The EU are intent on storming ahead with a Russian oil embargo, despite warnings this would plunge us into recession & enormous oil prices.
Brilliant, we won't be able to afford food or petrol, but it's worth it for Ukraine though, just utterly ridiculous.
Where's the referendum in Britain or Europe for whether the public agree with starving themselves & losing their jobs, all in support of Ukraine?
EU leaders are acting like, well, Putin really.
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When Trump supporters disagreed with the election & stormed the capitol building, that was an attempted insurrection & as bad as 9/11 or Pearl Harbour, but when Ukranians do such a thing it's dignified revolution!
Come one, it's not the same thing at all.
The Ukrainian parliament had overwhelmingly voted in favour of the EU-Ukrainian Association Agreement, but Putin put pressure on the then corrupt president to prevent it, resulting in his last-minute refusal to sign it.
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Come one, it's not the same thing at all.
The Ukrainian parliament had overwhelmingly voted in favour of the EU-Ukrainian Association Agreement, but Putin put pressure on the then corrupt president to prevent it, resulting in his last-minute refusal to sign it.
It is the same thing.
The people attempted to take matters into their own hands, violently.
If non brexiteers stormed parliament because they disagreed with the decision they'd have been thrown in prison.
Ukraine is a divided country & we have no business arming it or having anything to do with it really.
Leave the plebs to fight it out among themselves.
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From today’s Sunday Times
#DFTT
Putin fixer’s troll factory’ turns fire on social media and pop stars
Research has found the president’s ally may be behind pro-Kremlin propaganda on a bizarre variety of platforms
April 28 2022, 12.01am
A Russian troll factory has spread lies about the war in Ukraine across social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, according to research commissioned by the government.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said: “We cannot allow the Kremlin and its shady troll farms to invade our online spaces with their lies about Putin’s illegal war. The UK government has alerted international partners and will continue to work closely with allies and media platforms to undermine Russian information operations.”
The multilingual disinformation campaign has been detected across all the biggest social media companies. However, the attacks are centred on Telegram, Instagram and YouTube. On TikTok, which is most popular with teenage users, the British-backed researchers found so-called influencers being paid to amplify pro-Kremlin narratives about the war in Ukraine, using the same “Z” branding as the Russian armed forces.
The disinformation campaign urges users to target mainstream western media outlets and post specific messages about world leaders who oppose the Russian invasion, including Johnson, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, and Josep Borrell, the EU foreign affairs chief.
Subscribers to CFZ were urged to disseminate a video that presents Ukrainians as a “Russophobic terrorist organisation” that “tortures and brutally murders in the style of Islamic terrorists”, along with the instruction: “We ask our acquaintances from other countries to do the same.”
A bizarre collection of social media accounts owned by bands and performers were also hit, including the French dance producers Daft Punk and the Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren.
“The Kremlin has been implementing a series of information operations designed to deliver persuasive disinformation and propaganda,” an internal British government report said.
“Some of these information operations are targeting the conflict zone in Ukraine, some are engaging in information control for Russian domestic public opinion management, and others focus upon international audiences.”
It is suspected that the operation is run by Prigozhin, whose life changed dramatically after meeting Putin. He spent nine years in prison in the 1980s for offences including robbery and fraud. When released in 1990, Prigozhin set up a chain of restaurants in St Petersburg and became known as “Putin’s chef” after personally serving dinner to the Russian president and Jacques Chirac, then the president of France.
It was not long before he started carrying out catering for Kremlin banquets. In five years he won government contracts worth more than £2 billion, according to the Anti-Corruption Foundation set up by Alexei Navalny, the jailed critic of the Kremlin.
Western intelligence agencies believe the lucrative contracts were a ploy to hand Prigozhin slush funds to be used in deniable “black operations” around the world.
One of his key tasks is thought to be the provision of funds for the Wagner Group, a shadowy band of 5,000 mercenaries linked to assassinations, election-rigging and cyberwarfare. He denies any link to the organisation.
The group is said to be present in as many as 12 countries, including Sudan, Syria, the Central African Republic, Madagascar and Mozambique.
Wagner’s membership includes citizens of Belarus, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine, although it is mainly staffed by former Russian soldiers, intelligence officers and criminals.
The Foreign Office has already imposed an asset freeze and travel ban on Prigozhin, saying he was “responsible for significant foreign mercenary activity in Libya and multiple breaches of the UN arms embargo”.
He is also accused of financing the notorious St Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, a bot factory that supported Donald Trump in the 2016 US election.
Prigozhin allegedly oversaw operations including the creation of hundreds of fictitious online personas and the use of stolen identities. The FBI has said the actions were taken to reach a significant number of US citizens for the purpose of interfering with the country’s political system, including in the 2016 election.
Following the latest discovery, the British government alerted western allies and shared evidence of the disinformation campaign with the social media giants, in an attempt to remove the propaganda from their platforms.
Since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the British government has already sanctioned key Kremlin figures for spreading disinformation, including Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, and Maria Zakharova, the foreign affairs spokeswoman.
Ministers also approved sanctions against Russian state media organisations, including the Kremlin-funded TV-Novosti which owns RT, formerly Russia Today, and Rossiya Segodnya, which controls the Sputnik news agency.
Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, said: “These are insidious attempts by Putin and his propaganda machine to deceive the world about the brutality he’s inflicting on the people of Ukraine.
“This evidence will help us to more effectively identify and remove Russian disinformation and follows our decisive action to block anyone from doing business with Kremlin-controlled outlets RT and Sputnik.”
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^^
Yes SV, the worrying thing is that this could be used as reason for further online censorship, America are already at it with their own disinformation regulation board.
The head of the board was involved in censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story prior to the 2020 election.
50 odd intelligence experts were trotted out to back up the claim that the whole story was a Russian hoax when it was in fact true.
Thankfully, Elon Musk might save Twitter from the American disinformation.
Elon Musk slams Biden's 'discomforting' 'Disinformation Governance Board' on Twitter comparing it to the Nazi regime: GOP demands it's 'dissolved' as its 'head' DEFENDS linking Hunter's laptop to Russia
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10764173/Bidens-new-disinformation-head-DEFENDS-tweet-linking-Hunter-Bidens-laptop-Russia-Trump.html
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Prior to the 2016 election & during Trump's tenure, the western democrat controlled media continually ran stories about Trump being a Russian plant, pretty much every news station except Fox were spreading an outright lie, it was the main topic on CNN almost every day.
Can't trust what you read in the news anymore, the reports from Ukraine included, best to cast a sceptical eye over everything.
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WH pick for Big Brother-like disinformation board spread lie about Hunter Biden laptop
Guess it takes one to know one?
(https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/hunter-biden-laptop-front-page.jpg)
President Biden’s pick to lead his Department of Homeland Security’s Big Brother-like Disinformation Governance Board has her own history of posting disinformation online.
Nina Jankowicz, who was a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, has repeatedly cast doubt on The Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
During a series of live tweets during the presidential debate between Biden and Donald Trump in October 2020, Jankowicz had referenced the laptop.
“Back on the ‘laptop from hell,’ apparently—Biden notes 50 former natsec officials and 5 former CIA heads that believe the laptop is a Russian influence op,” Jankowicz tweeted.
“Trump says ‘Russia, Russia, Russia,'” she added.
Her tweet resurfaced immediately after she revealed she’d been named executive director of the new disinformation bureau on Wednesday — as conservatives slammed her as a “leftist radical” and expressed doubt in her ability to spot misinformation.
Jankowicz tried to brush off the controversy surrounding her old laptop tweet, saying: “For those who believe this tweet is a key to all my views, it is simply a direct quote from both candidates during the final presidential debate. If you look at my timeline, you will see I was livetweeting that evening.”
But the Russian misinformation expert had told the Associated Press just a week earlier that there was doubt the laptop even belonged to Hunter and there were multiple red flags that emails uncovered from the device were legit.
“We should view it as a Trump campaign product,” Jankowicz said at the time.
Jankowicz had also tweeted a link to a news article in October 2020 that she said cast “yet more doubt on the provenance of the NY Post’s Hunter Biden story.”
“Not to mention that the emails don’t need to be altered to be part of an influence campaign. Voters deserve that context, not a [fairy] tale about a laptop repair shop,” she added in another tweet.
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson slammed Jankowicz on Wednesday as a “beacon of misinformation” over her dismissal of the laptop – and accused her of “furthering the false media narrative” with her series of tweets.
Jankowicz, who has researched Russian disinformation tactics and online harassment, also previously praised Christopher Steele — the author of the since-discredited Trump-bashing dossier.
In August 2020, Jankowicz tweeted about the former British spy’s appearance on the Infotagion podcast, writing: “Listened to this last night – Chris Steele (yes THAT Chris Steele) provides some great historical context about the evolution of disinfo. Worth a listen.”
Steele’s fake dossier, which sparked the probe into whether former President Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with Russians during the 2016 election, was eventually debunked by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
More recently, Jankowicz flagged concerns about the potential for Elon Musk to takeover Twitter.
“I shudder to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what that would look like for the marginalized communities,” she said in an interview with NPR ahead of Musk’s takeover deal emerging.
Since then, the billionaire Tesla CEO has vowed to make it a free speech haven.
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley seized on Jankowicz’s tweet about free speech, tweeting: “The Biden Administration’s new anti-speech czar is apparently no fan of the @elonmusk Twitter acquisition. This is the person Joe Biden just put in charge of policing Americans’ speech. Using the power of the government.”
Jankowicz and the DHS didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki had no comment when asked about Jankowicz’s ability to head the disinformation board during Thursday’s media briefing.
“I don’t have any comment on the laptop … And I don’t know who this individual is, so I have no comment on that specifically,” Psaki told reporters.
https://nypost.com/2022/04/28/wh-pick-for-disinformation-board-spread-hunter-biden-laptop-lie/
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Ukranian disinformation
How Ukraine's 'Ghost of Kyiv' legendary pilot was born
Ukraine's fighter pilots are vastly outnumbered by the Russians, and have become legendary - thanks in part to the story of an alleged flying ace called the"Ghost of Kyiv".
This hero is said to have downed as many as 40 enemy planes - an incredible feat in an arena where Russia controls the skies.
But now the Ukraine Air Force Command has warned on Facebook that the "Ghost of Kyiv is a superhero-legend whose character was created by Ukrainians!".
"We ask the Ukrainian community not to neglect the basic rules of information hygiene," the message said, urging people to "check the sources of information, before spreading it".
Earlier reports had named the ace as Major Stepan Tarabalka, 29. The authorities confirmed that he was killed in combat on 13 March and honoured with a Hero of Ukraine medal posthumously.
Now, the air force stresses that "Tarabalka is not 'Ghost of Kiev', and he did not hit 40 planes".
It describes the "Ghost of Kyiv" as "a collective image of pilots of the Air Force's 40th tactical aviation brigade, who defend the sky over the capital", rather than a single man's combat record.
For weeks, Ukrainians did not have a name to go with the "Ghost of Kyiv" - but that did not stop the story going viral on social media.
It was used as a marketing brand by a Ukrainian model aircraft manufacturer, while Ukrainian Iryna Kostyrenko showed off a military badge inspired by the legend.
And the defence ministry tweeted a video celebrating Tarabalka's heroism.
Military experts told the BBC they doubted that one pilot could have downed as many as 40 Russian planes.
Ukrainian military historian Mikhail Zhirohov described the Ghost of Kyiv story as "propaganda for raising morale". Speaking to the BBC from Chernihiv, he said that early on in the war the Russians dominated Ukrainian airspace, so a Ukrainian pilot "could only shoot down two or three".
"It's essential to have this propaganda, because our armed forces are smaller, and many think we can't be equal to them [the Russians]. We need this in wartime," he said.
The fact that Ukrainian pilots are still denying Russia total mastery of the skies, flying inferior, older Russian-designed MiG-29s, inspired this modern legend.
With all its military might, Russia has had more than two months to knock out Ukraine's air defences - and failed.
The Ukrainian authorities fuelled the Ghost of Kyiv legend just days into the war.
The Ukraine Security Service (SBU) showed a fighter pilot on the Telegram messaging service, with a caption calling the "Ghost of Kyiv" an "angel" for downing 10 Russian planes. But it did not name the "angel", and media reports later said the photo used was an old one.
A Ukrainian military expert who requested anonymity told the BBC the Ghost of Kyiv story "has helped to raise morale at a time when people need simple stories".
Ukraine's morale has also been boosted by the Moskva story.
First, Ukrainian border guards defied the Russian missile cruiser with a rude gesture, commemorated with a popular postage stamp. Then Ukraine allegedly sank it - the pride of Russia's Black Sea Fleet - with two Neptune missiles. Russia admitted there was a fire on board, and that the ship sank, but made no mention of a missile attack.
Heroic fighter pilots have entered the national mythology of other countries too. The UK celebrates the brave Royal Air Force pilots who outwitted the mighty Nazi Luftwaffe in the 1940 Battle of Britain.
And Russia itself glorifies the sacrifices of its World War Two pilots, who were outgunned by the Germans. Some deliberately crashed into enemy planes after running out of bullets.
Legends like the Ghost of Kyiv are not surprising when there are such contrasting figures given for Russian and Ukrainian losses: there is plenty of room for embellishment.
On 30 April, the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff said that in the war so far Russia had lost 190 planes and 155 helicopters.
But independent military analysts Oryx reckon the Russian losses to be 26 planes and 39 helicopters, as well as 48 drones (UAVs).
Both Russia and Ukraine are very secretive about their own losses. Counting is difficult, because aircraft often crash in Russian-held territory, and some manage to land in Russia.
Experts agree that in most cases Russian aircraft were downed with surface-to-air missiles, especially man-portable air defence systems (Manpads).
Justin Crump of the security consultancy Sybilline says the Ghost of Kyiv legend is important because in our social media age "people need myths, heroes and legends, to provide cohesion and meaning".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61285833
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Tucker Carlson: This is why Democrats are taking us to war with Russia
Fox News host gives his take on the real motivation behind U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGvO8b-tiaM
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Putin explains to President Xi that he’s fighting a proxy war against NATO.
“How’s it going?” asks Xi.
“So far, we’ve lost a flagship, 20,000 troops, 8 generals, 500 tanks and 100 planes”, says Putin.
“What about NATO?” asks Xi.
“They haven’t turned up yet.”
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Tucker Carlson: This is why Democrats are taking us to war with Russia
Fox News host gives his take on the real motivation behind U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGvO8b-tiaM
Ah, Tucker Carlson. The US voice of RT (formerly Russia Today).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmaiqCIM5cE
There's a clip floating around of Tucker and Farage streamed on Russian TV with translated subtitles. I might be able to find it again if anyone's genuinely interested (no guarantees as it was months ago).
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Ah, Tucker Carlson. The US voice of RT (formerly Russia Today).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmaiqCIM5cE
There's a clip floating around of Tucker and Farage streamed on Russian TV with translated subtitles. I might be able to find it again if anyone's genuinely interested (no guarantees as it was months ago).
Tucker makes a fair point.
What would the U.S reaction be if China formed an alliance with Mexico & Canada?
That would legitimately be considered a security threat to the USA.
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More of this sort of thing 8@??)(
Russian diplomat Boris Bondarev resigns over ‘criminal’ war in Ukraine
I have never been more ashamed of my country, says counsellor to UN mission in Geneva
George GryllsMay 21 2022, 6.00pm
In an excoriating resignation letter, he said the war launched by President Putin was a “crime against the Ukrainian people” that would ruin the Russian economy as well as “all hopes and prospects for a prosperous free society”.
“The aggressive war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine, and in fact against the entire western world, is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also, perhaps, the most serious crime against the people of Russia, with a bold letter Z crossing out all hopes and prospects for a prosperous free society in our country.”
He added: “Those who conceived this war want only one thing — to remain in power for ever, live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts comparable in tonnage and cost to the entire Russian navy, enjoying unlimited power and complete impunity.
Boris Bondarev’s excoriating resignation letter
Boris Bondarev’s excoriating resignation letter
NOT KNOWN
“To achieve that, they are willing to sacrifice as many lives as it takes. Thousands of Russians and Ukrainians have already died just for this.”
Bondarev is not the first official to have resigned over the war in Ukraine. Anatoly Chubais, a longtime aide to Putin, quit in March. This month the head of the Russian consulate in Edinburgh appeared to step down when he posted a critical message of the government on Instagram, only for diplomats to later insist the post had been a “fake”.
In his letter Bondarev reserved particular criticism for Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, a highly educated official who speaks multiple languages including Sinhalese, the native tongue of Sri Lanka.
“Minister Lavrov is a good illustration of the degradation of this system,” Bondarev said. “In 18 years, he went from a professional and educated intellectual, whom many of my colleagues held in such high esteem, to a person who constantly broadcasts conflicting statements and threatens the world with nuclear weapons!
“Today the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not about diplomacy. It is all about warmongering, lies and hatred. It serves the interests of few, the very few people thus contributing to further isolation and degradation of my country. Russia no longer has allies, and there is no one to blame but its reckless and ill-conceived policy.”
“I studied to be a diplomat and have been a diplomat for 20 years. The ministry has become my home and family. But I simply cannot any longer share in this bloody, witless and absolutely needless ignominy.”
Bondarev told the Associated Press today: “It is intolerable what my government is doing now. As a civil servant, I have to carry a share of responsibility for that, and I don’t want to do that.”
He said he had not received any reaction yet from Russian officials, but added: “Am I concerned about the possible reaction from Moscow? I have to be concerned about it.”
Asked if some colleagues felt the same, he added: “Not all Russian diplomats are warmongering. They are reasonable, but they have to keep their mouths shut.”
He suggested his case could become an example. “If my case is prosecuted, then if other people want to follow, they would not,” he said.
Hillel Neuer, the director of the Swiss non-governmental organisation UN Watch, said: “Boris Bondarev is a hero. We are now calling on all other Russian diplomats at the United Nations — and worldwide — to follow his moral example and resign.”
“Bondarev should be invited to speak in Davos this week,” Neuer added, “and the US, the UK and the EU should lead the free world in creating a programme to encourage more Russian diplomats to follow and defect, by providing protection, financial security and resettlement for diplomats and their families.”
8@??)(
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Tucker makes a fair point.
What would the U.S reaction be if China formed an alliance with Mexico & Canada?
That would legitimately be considered a security threat to the USA.
Russia is hardly a squashed hamburger, though, is it? It even has its own NATO-like alliance with other countries, initally the Warsaw Pact and, following the latter's disintegration, the CSTO.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_Security_Treaty_Organization
IMO, Putin's in search of a swan song, and somehow imagines himself to be restoring the former Soviet Union (against the will of most of those former countries), or perhaps sees himself as a reincarnation of Peter the Great.
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Ukraine's former President blocked from leaving the country
(Reuters)
Ukrainian media reported Poroshenko could not cross the border due to "technical problems" with a permit allowing him to leave the country.
"Poroshenko had received all the formal permissions to leave the country and had been included ... in the official delegation of the Parliament of Ukraine for this event," his European Solidarity parliamentary faction said.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/ukraine-s-former-president-blocked-from-leaving-the-country/ar-AAXPtk2?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=fb438787ba4c434197d755b1e0a35f62
I'm not at all sure that we are being allowed to see the broader picture here. It concerns me greatly that the view we are permitted is a totally one sided one.
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Ukraine's former President blocked from leaving the country
(Reuters)
Ukrainian media reported Poroshenko could not cross the border due to "technical problems" with a permit allowing him to leave the country.
"Poroshenko had received all the formal permissions to leave the country and had been included ... in the official delegation of the Parliament of Ukraine for this event," his European Solidarity parliamentary faction said.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/ukraine-s-former-president-blocked-from-leaving-the-country/ar-AAXPtk2?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=fb438787ba4c434197d755b1e0a35f62
I'm not at all sure that we are being allowed to see the broader picture here. It concerns me greatly that the view we are permitted is a totally one sided one.
The first casualty of war is the truth.
Snake Island, Ukranians fought to the death & defiantly told the crew of a Russian war ship to 'F' off.
You can even buy T-shirts with that as a slogan.
The Ghost of Kiev, the hero Ukranian fighter who shot down multiple Russian jets.
The western media spread it, people bought it, before a later admission none of that was actually true.
The Ghost of Kiev was a morale boosting propaganda tale & the Snake Islanders surrendered.
Ukrainian forces are being slowly & steadily flattened in the South & East, Russia have almost captured the entire Donbas & will be heading for Odesa before long.
Ukraine's best option is retreat, surrender & try to find terms with Russia, but the United States will never let the puppet Zelenskey stand down.
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If it's truth you're after, Pulitzer prize winner Chris Hedges has some painful truth about the wider geopolitical & economic reasons for the USA/Europe vs Russia & China.
Hedges: No Way Out but War
(https://i0.wp.com/scheerpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/No-Guts-No-Gory-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C739&ssl=1)
Permanent war has cannibalized the country. It has created a social, political, and economic morass. Each new military debacle is another nail in the coffin of Pax Americana.
The United States, as the near unanimous vote to provide nearly $40 billion in aid to Ukraine illustrates, is trapped in the death spiral of unchecked militarism.
No high speed trains. No universal health care. No viable Covid relief program. No respite from 8.3 percent inflation. No infrastructure programs to repair decaying roads and bridges, which require $41.8 billion to fix the 43,586 structurally deficient bridges, on average 68 years old. No forgiveness of $1.7 trillion in student debt. No addressing income inequality. No program to feed the 17 million children who go to bed each night hungry. No rational gun control or curbing of the epidemic of nihilistic violence and mass shootings. No help for the 100,000 Americans who die each year of drug overdoses. No minimum wage of $15 an hour to counter 44 years of wage stagnation. No respite from gas prices that are projected to hit $6 a gallon.
The permanent war economy, implanted since the end of World War II, has destroyed the private economy, bankrupted the nation, and squandered trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. The monopolization of capital by the military has driven the US debt to $30 trillion, $ 6 trillion more than the US GDP of $ 24 trillion. Servicing this debt costs $300 billion a year. We spent more on the military, $ 813 billion for fiscal year 2023, than the next nine countries, including China and Russia, combined.
We are paying a heavy social, political, and economic cost for our militarism. Washington watches passively as the U.S. rots, morally, politically, economically, and physically, while China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, and other countries extract themselves from the tyranny of the U.S. dollar and the international Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a messaging network banks and other financial institutions use to send and receive information, such as money transfer instructions. Once the U.S. dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency, once there is an alternative to SWIFT, it will precipitate an internal economic collapse. It will force the immediate contraction of the U.S. empire shuttering most of its nearly 800 overseas military installations. It will signal the death of Pax Americana.
Democrat or Republican. It does not matter. War is the raison d’état of the state. Extravagant military expenditures are justified in the name of “national security.” The nearly $40 billion allocated for Ukraine, most of it going into the hands of weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon Technologies, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing, is only the beginning. Military strategists, who say the war will be long and protracted, are talking about infusions of $4 or $5 billion in military aid a month to Ukraine. We face existential threats. But these do not count. The proposed budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in fiscal year 2023 is $10.675 billion. The proposed budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is $11.881 billion. Ukraine alone gets more than double that amount. Pandemics and the climate emergency are afterthoughts. War is all that matters. This is a recipe for collective suicide.
(Read More....)
https://scheerpost.com/2022/05/23/hedges-no-way-out-but-war/
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During more than 40 years of active journalism, including a stint as a defence reporter, I have never once been prevented from writing anything by a so-called ‘D’ Notice (nowadays they are officially DSMA Notices, if you care), until now. I used to scoff when people told me that such things were common, or that I was constrained in reporting by them. Now I cannot. Peter Hichens
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https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2022/05/peter-hitchens-coming-soon-the-day-i-stop-watching-the-bbc-which-is-more-narrow-minded-than-a-1950s-.html?cid=6a00d8341c565553ef0282e1532598200b
There is an obvious question which immediately springs to mind on reading that paragraph. I know the conclusion I arrived at when reading it last week and I can't really say I'm the least bit happy about it.
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**********
During more than 40 years of active journalism, including a stint as a defence reporter, I have never once been prevented from writing anything by a so-called ‘D’ Notice (nowadays they are officially DSMA Notices, if you care), until now. I used to scoff when people told me that such things were common, or that I was constrained in reporting by them. Now I cannot. Peter Hichens
**********
https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2022/05/peter-hitchens-coming-soon-the-day-i-stop-watching-the-bbc-which-is-more-narrow-minded-than-a-1950s-.html?cid=6a00d8341c565553ef0282e1532598200b
There is an obvious question which immediately springs to mind on reading that paragraph. I know the conclusion I arrived at when reading it last week and I can't really say I'm the least bit happy about it.
We are living under the Military industrial & Economic dictatorship of the United States.
Super Imperialism by Financial Capitalism.
See how the U.S has blocked Europe from buying Russian energy?
Europe is now expected to buy fuel from the USA at nearly 8 times the price.
Brazil, Russia, India, China known as BRICS, with more countries joining soon, have been gradually de-dollarizing for the past near decade.
The U.S reserve currency dictatorship has impoverished the global south & exploited the earths natural resources at an unsustainable rate, but BRICS, with Saudi Arabia also weighing up selling oil in Yuan, are extracting themselves from the Dollar hegemony.
We are witnessing the death of the U.S empire, & I think the USA might just commit suicide before ever allowing a world where China & Russia are on an equal footing with them.
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Ukraine Fires Own Human Rights Chief For Perpetuating Russian Troop 'Systematic Rape' Stories
For over the past two months, an avalanche of stories have hit Western mainstream press which purported to document instances of mass rape carried out by Russian troops against Ukrainian civilians. One particular story in Time took off, driving outrage and condemnation by Western officials and receiving repeat coverage on CNN and other major US networks.
It alleged "a systemic, coordinated campaign of sexual violence" - relying chiefly on testimony gathered by Ukraine's appointed top human rights representative. It included a particularly shocking story of 25 teenage girls being gang-raped by Russian troops - nine of which became pregnant. According to the report:
Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Lyudmyla Denisova said that 25 teenage girls were kept in a basement in Bucha and gang-raped; nine of them are now pregnant. Elderly women spoke on camera about being raped by Russian soldiers. The bodies of children were found naked with their hands tied behind their backs, their genitals mutilated. Those victims included both girls and boys...
As has been the pattern in prior wars, whether in Syria or Libya, the media claims got more and more sensational and over-the-top as the conflict intensified, and as Western powers became more deeply involved, yet with no concrete or definitive proof.
But one consistent detail in the majority of the stories is that the aforementioned Ukraine human rights ombudsman, Lyudmyla Denisova, is often the central figure feeding Western correspondents the shocking rape stories.
For example, she's featured in this April Newsweek piece:
Lyudmila Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament's Commissioner for Human Rights, alleged on Friday that Russian soldiers have raped children during the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
In a Facebook post, Denisova alleged that an 11-year-old boy was raped by Russians in front of his mother who was tied to a chair and forced to watch as it happened in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
Many such stories which presented ever-more horrifying details as the war progressed quickly went viral, particularly among pro-Ukraine activists on Twitter and other social media, to the point where prominent pundits would begin casually agreeing amongst themself that Russians simply are "animals".
And below is another example among many, which tended to be based on "reports say" for many of the most central, damning claims...
But recently, within the last couple of weeks, as investigators began to dig deeper into the allegations, it seems the media stories started to dry up. The geopolitical analysis blog Moon of Alabama details what happened in the following:
However, a bunch of eager NGOs in Ukraine, hoping for fresh 'western' money for new 'rape consultation and recovery' projects, tried to find real rape cases. They were disappointed when they found that there was no evidence that any rape had taken place
(machine translation):
On May 25, a number of media outlets and NGOs published an open appeal to Lyudmila Denisova calling for improved communication on sexual crimes during the war.
The signatories insist that Denisova should disclose only information about which there is sufficient evidence, avoid sensationalism and excessive detail in their reports, use correct terminology and take care of the confidentiality and safety of victims.
"Sexual crimes during the war are family tragedies, a difficult traumatic topic, not a topic for publications in the spirit of the 'scandalous chronicle.' We need to keep in mind the goal: to draw attention to the facts of crimes," the appeal reads.
An entire global activist movement even sprang up which focused on highlighting Russian sexual crimes in Ukraine, based on the premise that Russia's military is using "rape as a tool" as part of its arsenal to spread a campaign of terror...
And now on Tuesday, Interfax, Politico, The Wall Street Journal, and others are reporting that Lyudmyla Denisova has been fired - precisely for floating and perpetuating fantastical claims of mass rape but without providing evidence...
"Ukrainian lawmakers dismissed the country’s ombudsman for human rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, in a no-confidence vote on Tuesday, concluding that she had failed to fulfill obligations including the facilitation of humanitarian corridors and countering the deportation of Ukrainians from occupied territory," The Wall Street Journal reported late in the day.
"Lawmaker Pavlo Frolov said Ms. Denisova was also accused of making insensitive and unverifiable statements about alleged Russian sex crimes and spending too much time in Western Europe during the invasion," the report added.
Frolov said in a Facebook post announcing her dismissal as the country's top human rights investigator:
"The unclear focus of the Ombudsman's media work on the numerous details of ‘sexual crimes committed in an unnatural way’ and ‘rape of children’ in the occupied territories that could not be confirmed by evidence, only harmed Ukraine."
Needless to say this is an absolutely devastating blow to Ukraine's 'information war' which has been in full force since the Russian invasion (as naturally in war each side will enter into propaganda campaigns against the other simultaneous to the actual ground war, and while seeking to sway world opinion).
Angry pushback has started already within hours after the news of Denisova's removal was confirmed, including from UN accounts and US media pundits...
That Ukraine's parliament took the drastic step of dismissing her in such a public manner also speaks volumes - strongly suggesting that Ukrainian officials themselves don't believe the bulk of the 'systematic rape' claims.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-fires-human-rights-chief-perpetuating-russian-troop-systematic-rape-stories
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The unpalatable truth in Ukraine
At one point in the novel “Sign of the Four,” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s inimitable detective Sherlock Holmes explains and demonstrates to Dr. Watson his method of observation and deduction. Confronted with an apparently inexplicable circumstance, Dr. Watson is utterly perplexed. He simply cannot understand how the event in question came to pass, given the facts as he understands them and the laws of nature. Slightly irritated at his plodding companion’s bafflement, Holmes once again shares with him the methodological key to solving all such mysteries: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
And the truth is, once we have eliminated all the impossible scenarios, the least improbable outcome of the war in Ukraine is a Russian victory.
Note that I did not say such an outcome would be desirable. Russia’s inevitable victory is anything but. Nor did I say it would be total. The outcome of this war is going to fall far short of the Kremlin’s initial hopes and expectations. Nor, finally, did I say it would be without significant cost. Any conceivable Russian victory now will entail such a loss of blood and treasure that it will have to be judged Pyrrhic at best.
But it will be a victory nonetheless — and we in the West had better come to grips with that hard truth.
Let’s begin by eliminating the impossible.
The first unrealistic endgame is the reduction of Ukraine to a vassal state of the Russian empire. This would entail the kind of operation initially envisioned by the Kremlin: a quick decapitating military strike, the installation of a pro-Moscow regime in Kyiv and either the formal incorporation of Ukraine into the Russian Federation or its informal incorporation into a Russian sphere of influence (like Belarus).
While perhaps the initial objective of Russia’s “special military operation,” this outcome is now obviously an impossibility. Russia did not have the ability to impose this vision in February, and it is decidedly less able to impose it 100 days later. Indeed, even the Russians themselves have conceded as much. Their rhetoric and military operations suggest that even they believe such an outcome to be beyond the realm of the possible.
The second impossible scenario is the total defeat of the Russian military and the restoration of Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders. In this scenario, the Ukrainian military, having blunted the initial Russian offensive, launches a successful counter-offensive that ultimately drives the Russians not only out of the territories they captured in 2022 but out of the Donbas and Crimea as well. The resulting political dispensation would be an independent Ukraine restored to its internationally recognized borders and free to join NATO and/or associate with the European Union (EU) as it saw fit.
While advocated by many within and beyond Ukraine, this outcome is simply impossible. Whatever the shortcomings displayed by Russian forces in the opening phase of the war – when they were first stopped at the gates of Kyiv and then driven from the north of the country altogether – recent battlefield developments suggest that they have found their footing and are not going to be pushed out of the territories taken in 2014.
Indeed, there is no reason to believe that they will even be displaced from much of the territory they have seized along the coast of the Sea of Azov. While there will doubtless be shifts on the battlefield as a result of offensives here and counter-offensives there, the correlation of forces simply do not augur a total victory for Ukraine. So, despite the willful delusions of some and the idealistic hopes others, this outcome is simply impossible.
The third and final impossible scenario is a limited Ukrainian victory that would reverse all or most of the Russian gains since Feb. 24, 2022. In this scenario, while the Donbas and Crimea remain in Russian hands, all the territory captured by Russia since its recent re-invasion would be liberated by Ukrainian forces and restored to Ukrainian control.
While once viewed as a realistic outcome, by now it should be obvious that this is impossible. Just as Ukraine lacks the ability to liberate all its pre-2014 territory, it also lacks the ability to liberate the recently conquered territory in the Donbas or along the Azov coast. Unlike in the north of Ukraine, these territories are central to Russian interests in Ukraine and, as such, Russia simply will not withdraw from them as it withdrew from Kyiv earlier in the war. Nor will Ukrainian forces – themselves, it should be noted, suffering terrible attrition all along the battle front and growing weaker with each passing day – be strong enough to compel them to do so. No, like the previous two scenarios, this one is simply an impossibility.
And that leaves only one other conceivable outcome: a fragmented and partly dismembered Ukraine, neither fully part of the West nor entirely within the Russian sphere of influence. A Ukraine fragmented in that the whole of the Donbas and perhaps other territories will be left beyond Kyiv’s control; partly dismembered in that Crimea will remain part of Russia (at least in Russian eyes); and not fully part of the West in that it will not be free to join NATO or even to have a meaningful partnership with the EU. Simply put, this outcome is not only not impossible, it’s not even improbable.
And when this final scenario comes to pass, who will have won the war in Ukraine?
Well, it won’t be Ukraine. While such an outcome will satisfy the basic existential goals of Kyiv, it will be a far cry from the more maximalist ambitions expressed both before and after Feb. 24. No, when this scenario inevitably comes to pass, it will clearly be a defeat for Kyiv.
Similarly, such an outcome will not satisfy the maximalist ambitions of those in Moscow who thought that their initial thunder run would resolve the Ukraine issue once and for all. But it will satisfy the Kremlin’s most basic and fundamental geopolitical desideratum: a neutralized Ukraine beyond both the geopolitical ambit of NATO and the geoeconomic orbit of the EU. It will also “restore” Crimea to its rightful place in Russia. And finally, it will demonstrate that interfering in Russia’s natural sphere of influence is unwise. In these ways, when the impossible has been eliminated, the resulting outcome will clearly be a victory for Moscow.
All of which suggests that, at the end of the day, it might be necessary to tweak Holmes’s aphorism just a bit. At least when it comes to thinking about the possible outcomes of the war in Ukraine, perhaps it ought to read something more like: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable unpalatable, must be the truth.”
Andrew Latham is a professor of international relations at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minn., and a non-resident fellow at Defense Priorities in Washington, D.C. Follow him on Twitter @aalatham.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3509458-the-unpalatable-truth-in-ukraine/
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I missed this piece by Hitchens from a few weeks ago....
Can anyone explain to me why this was called evacuation and not surrender?
I laughed out loud in Marks & Spencer when I found that they are now selling something called ‘Chicken Kyiv’.
This is apparently just like their old ‘Chicken Kiev’, only with added propaganda. I am told that there is now also a ‘No Chicken Kyiv’ for vegans, without any actual chicken in it.
Not since the wild frenzy after the death of Princess Diana have I ever met such a wave of ignorant sentiment. Nobody knows anything about Ukraine. Everyone has ferocious opinions about it.
The other night I shocked a distinguished Oxford academic by informing her that the lovely, angelic, saintly, perfect Ukrainians had blocked off the water supply to Crimea in 2014.
She was rightly shocked by this nasty, uncivilised act of spite, but it was far more shocking that this highly educated person did not know this important fact.
In the same way almost nobody, in education, politics or journalism, knows about the nasty, racist roots of Ukrainian nationalism, the horrible history of the vicious Stepan Bandera (now a Ukrainian national hero), or the Kiev state’s discriminatory scorn for the Russian language. If Canada treated its French speakers as Ukraine treats its Russian speakers, there would be international outrage.
Worst of all is the widespread ignorance of the fact that President Volodymyr Zelensky, in my view an admirable man, was elected on a programme of peace with Russia. But when he tried to do as he had promised, he was blocked by parts of his own army, who publicly confronted him and humiliated him.
At the same time his political rivals, including the neo-Nazis who very definitely do exist in Ukraine, went on the streets to denounce any sort of deal. President Zelensky crumbled. And the war came.
I have mentioned here before that the first act of violence in this war was actually the Western-backed mob putsch which overthrew Ukraine’s lawful government in 2014.
This was the true beginning of all the horror. And while it does not excuse the idiotic and brutal Putin invasion, it very much helps to explain it.
Look, I respect those who take Ukraine’s side in this war. They have a valid point of view which I happen not to share. But what I object to is the wholly one-sided nature of public opinion here. It is so bad that it is a positive disadvantage to know anything about the subject.
And it reached its peak last week when the Ukrainian defenders of the Mariupol steelworks, many of them in fact the neo-Nazis of the Azov battalion who proudly wear SS emblems on their official uniforms, surrendered.
The UK media coverage of this event strove mightily not to mention the neo-Nazis and to avoid using the word ‘surrender’.
The Mariupol garrison was said instead to have been ‘evacuated’ into Russian-held territory. Pictures showed them disarmed and being frisked by Russian soldiers. But we are so much in the grip of a one-sided view of this conflict that we could not even admit they had capitulated.
Refusal to accept such obvious reality is a sign of madness.
I personally have no idea what British interest is served by slavishly backing the American policy of stirring up trouble in Ukraine and goading Russia into combat.
Perhaps someone could explain it to me, over a plate of ‘Chicken Kyiv’ and a bottle of vodka. But for any debate to take place, we’ll have to start accepting that there are two sides to this argument.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10840777/PETER-HITCHENS-explain-called-evacuation-not-surrender.html
Yeah, it's no wonder he got a DSMA Notice over something, he was pulling no punches, utterly based view of the whole situation right here.
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There's a change of atmosphere in Donbas - a sense that Russia has momentum
The reality on the ground is the West hasn't sent enough of the heavy artillery and equipment Ukraine needs. What they have is being used up at an astonishing speed and they are losing a lot of men every day.
https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-theres-a-change-of-atmosphere-in-donbas-a-sense-that-russia-has-momentum-12632082
Ukraine forces outgunned up to 40 to one by Russian forces, intelligence report reveals
Grinding conflict in east is ‘seriously demoralising’ Ukrainian forces, dossier says
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-war-intelligence-russia-kyiv-military-b2096715.html
Things are not going well for Ukraine & the collective West. How the media mood has changed from the triumphalism in feb/march when the Russians were forced back from Kyiv.
I think Ukraine, what's left of it, may end up landlocked, their last remaining port city is Odesa & I'll be very surprised if Russia don't make a move on it at some point, after capturing the Donbas.
During the 2014 revolution coup, the definitely not Nazi Ukranians burned down the trade union house in Odesa, killing around 40 anti-Maidan (pro Russian) demonstrators. No one has ever been prosecuted for this act of mass murder, & I don't think Mr Putin will have forgotten that.
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The idiot Liz Truss, who previously encouraged British soldiers to go & fight in Ukraine, has stated that the captured British soldiers that were sentenced to death the other day are prisoners of war.
I think this is incorrect, the captured soldiers are mercenaries, & therefore not covered by the Geneva convention. Unless Britain has declared war on the Donetsk People's Republic.....
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I missed this piece by Hitchens from a few weeks ago....
Can anyone explain to me why this was called evacuation and not surrender?
I laughed out loud in Marks & Spencer when I found that they are now selling something called ‘Chicken Kyiv’.
This is apparently just like their old ‘Chicken Kiev’, only with added propaganda. I am told that there is now also a ‘No Chicken Kyiv’ for vegans, without any actual chicken in it.
The other night I shocked a distinguished Oxford academic by informing her that the lovely, angelic, saintly, perfect Ukrainians had blocked off the water supply to Crimea in 2014.
She was rightly shocked by this nasty, uncivilised act of spite, but it was far more shocking that this highly educated person did not know this important fact.
In the same way almost nobody, in education, politics or journalism, knows about the nasty, racist roots of Ukrainian nationalism, the horrible history of the vicious Stepan Bandera (now a Ukrainian national hero), or the Kiev state’s discriminatory scorn for the Russian language. If Canada treated its French speakers as Ukraine treats its Russian speakers, there would be international outrage.
Oh the Hitchins how I do miss Peter THE great!
"I laughed out loud in Marks & Spencer when I found that they are now selling something called ‘Chicken Kyiv’.
This is apparently just like their old ‘Chicken Kiev’, only with added propaganda. I am told that there is now also a ‘No Chicken Kyiv’ for vegans, without any actual chicken in it."
or the pancake without the pan...same thing?
"The other night I shocked a distinguished Oxford academic by informing her that the lovely, angelic, saintly, perfect Ukrainians had blocked off the water supply to Crimea in 2014.
She was rightly shocked by this nasty, uncivilised act of spite, but it was far more shocking that this highly educated person did not know this important fact"
The problem with OXFORD is it is way over rated now, well into cancel culture and going with the tw..ter crew. They ruling dons and chancellors seem to have joined the ranks of the useful idiots. Can a highly educated person change a fuse wire? well each to their own.
'course Russian cyber crims attacked Ukraine's electric Grid.. poof!! lights out... yes there was tit for tat spats.
The Pope has joined the 'Russian' side alledgedly by claiming they were provoked by NATO ooh err ouch!
There are indeed two sides to every story. AND the Nazis do live and breed in the Ukraine.
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The idiot Liz Truss, who previously encouraged British soldiers to go & fight in Ukraine, has stated that the captured British soldiers that were sentenced to death the other day are prisoners of war.
I think this is incorrect, the captured soldiers are mercenaries, & therefore not covered by the Geneva convention. Unless Britain has declared war on the Donetsk People's Republic.....
Someone somewhere will declare war on our behalf. Can we just stop the f..k playing savoir to all and sundry and BUTT OUT of other peoples fights.
Phony Tony and his 'children' with Irish passports did OK out of the Iraq war... big bucks in arms trade. dead people shouldn't have stood in front of bullets and bombs just in case anyone asks ...
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Yep, who could have foreseen that continually threatening to expand NATO right up to Russia's front door step, might be considered by the Russians as an act of provocation.
I'll tell you who, the United States, they knew exactly what they were doing, only it's backfired & Russia look like reclaiming their sphere of influence , & now we in the collective west can just freeze in the dark as a result of our own refusal to buy affordable Russian fuel.
The United States has locked us allies in. Europe can't benefit from affordable trade with Russia & China, we need to be at war with them, for the sake of the U.S military industrial complex.
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Yep, who could have foreseen that continually threatening to expand NATO right up to Russia's front door step, might be considered by the Russians as an act of provocation.
I'll tell you who, the United States, they knew exactly what they were doing, only it's backfired & Russia look like reclaiming their sphere of influence , & now we in the collective west can just freeze in the dark as a result of our own refusal to buy affordable Russian fuel.
The United States has locked us allies in. Europe can't benefit from affordable trade with Russia & China, we need to be at war with them, for the sake of the U.S military industrial complex.
Good ole US of A drag us into every dog fight...
Yeah, looks like the greens have won.. we will have net zero emissions very, very soon because only the uber wealthy can afford private jets and heated pools in 20 bedroom mansions. AND food which requires to be cooked using fuel the rest of us can only dream of.
I do believe Russia will grab land from Ukraine- Trukey seems to be piggy in middle they don't want an expansion of NATO due to the Sunni Muslim terrorists and Kurds (PPK) enclaves apparently enjoying the high life in Sweden. Pleasant Norway play all faces they have.
SNP Scotlands oil... ooops hahahaha!
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Russia is done with the West. The divorce is nearly complete
Russia is done with the West. The divorce is nearly complete. In the past few days we’ve heard from all major Russian leaders the same thing, “The West will play by our rules now.”
You can decide for yourselves whether Russia is writing checks they can’t cash, but in the words of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov telling the BBC bluntly, “We do not care about the eyes of the West.” Lavrov has always been the soul of politeness and discretion when dealing with European media.
His open hostility towards his BBC interviewer was not only palpable, it was hard to argue with. He followed that up with:
“I don’t think there’s even room for maneuver left anymore,” Lavrov replied.
“Because both [Prime Minister Boris] Johnson and [Foreign Secretary Liz] Truss say publicly: ’We must defeat Russia, we must bring Russia to its knees. Go on, then, do it.”
Russia’s leadership never talks in such openly blunt terms. It’s almost like Lavrov was channeling comedian Dennis Miller who used to say, “Feeling froggy, take that leap.”
See where it gets you.
Russia knows it has the West on the ropes. We need what they produce and now they are determined to set the rules on who gets them and for what price. It knows that European leaders are puppets with Klaus Schwab’s hand up their asses.
And it knows Davos has zero leverage over Russia’s actions from here on out.
Which brings me to the statements linked above by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, speaking at a panel at the St. Petersburg Economic Investment Forum (SPEIF) who just put the situation in the starkest terms there is.
“The game of nominal value of money is over, as this system does not allow to control the supply of resources. …Our product, our rules. We don’t play by the rules we didn’t create.”
Miller’s statement should be thought of as a statement of principle across all theatres of operation for Russia. This doesn’t just apply to natural gas or oil. This is everything, all of Russia’s dealings with the West from here on out will be on its terms not the West’s.
This is clearly the biggest geopolitical middle finger in the post WWII period.
Miller is clearly laying out the rules for a new, commodity-centric monetary system, one based on what Credit Suisse’s Zoltan Poszar called ‘outside money’ — commodities, gold, even bitcoin — rather than the West’s egregious use of ‘inside money’ — debt-based fiat and credit — to perpetuate old colonialist behavior well past its use-by date.
I laid out the basic problem in an article from March after Russia soft-pegged the ruble to gold.
Today’s “Inside Money” standard, known colloquially as the Dollar Reserve standard, is actually what I like to call “Milton Friedman’s Nightmare.” It is nothing more than a system of competitively devalued and inflated debt-based scrips running around drinking each other’s milkshakes until everyone’s glass is empty.
Miller is definitely a glass full kinda guy now.
These comments came after Gazprom began cutting gas flows to Europe through the Nordstream 1 pipeline using the cover story of repaired gas turbines trapped in fascist Canada which couldn’t be shipped back to Siemens because of sanctions.
Now Germany and Canada are trying to figure out how to circumvent the sanctions to get these turbines back.
At the same time Miller pledged more gas to China (up 67% yoy through May) because Russia is interested in energy stability for its friends, while its enemies can starve.
Reuters is reporting that “Russia’s Gazprom increased gas supplies to China by 67% in the first five months of this year, the company’s CEO Alexei Miller said on Thursday.”
It was also on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their second phone call since the Ukraine war began. Xi told Putin that China is “willing to continue to offer mutual support (to Russia) on issues concerning core interests and major concerns such as sovereignty and security,” as quoted in state broadcaster CCTV.
The arrogance of EU commissars never ceases to amaze me. These people all but declare war on Russia and then act shocked (Shocked, I say!) that Russia then treats them like that.
On the same day that four members of the EU Commission — France, Italy, Germany and Romania — approve fast-tracking Ukraine’s membership application, France’s Emmanuel Macron urges Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to go to the bargaining table with Russia.
Even if Zelenskyy were to make those overtures to Russia, given his public statements on what his terms are, there would be absolutely zero chance that Russia would agree to show up for talks.
At this point I see nothing more than Russia continuing to grind out the Ukrainian army, taking what territory they want and then shepherding through local elections by the conquered territory to either become independent states or part of Russia.
It’s likely the latter at this point since Russia is now issuing Russian passports in regions they’ve taken from Ukraine, which the EU, of course, will refuse to honor until no one cares what they think anymore.
The rules are changing rapidly. Looking ahead there is a real danger that what Russia has set in motion leads to something no one wants to contemplate. Of course the West helped create this situation by forcing Putin’s hand to invade Ukraine, so who’s to blame about where this all leads to may, ultimately, be an irrelevant point.
Let’s hope the noises coming from the West about the sanctions having gone too far and the chest-beating of the worst US and British neocons is no longer being taken seriously by anyone with their fingers anywhere near the launch codes.
If that’s the case than these new rules will be grudgingly accepted only after a lot of borders have been redrawn, new alliances formed and a different world order established.
This morning at the President Putin declared the old world order dead. He finished his speech where he detailed how the West was committing suicide to suit the wishes of The Davos Crowd with the following definitive statement:
“Russia is entering the coming era as a powerful sovereign country. We will definitely use the enormous new opportunities that time opens up for us. And we will become even stronger.”
Putin is correct here. Russia is getting stronger by the day. The West took their best shot at destroying Russia and missed the mark. He clearly identified the real culprits for Europe’s and the US’s problems, subservience to an oligarch class who feel entitled to rule the world.
When the war started I wrote about what I thought Putin’s intentions were. Then it was speculation:
Russia held all the cards in the negotiations over Ukraine and we recklessly pursued a policy of insults and amateurish propaganda, refusing to believe Russia wouldn’t make her final stand.
By putting boots on the ground, planes in the air and missiles up the ass of every Ukrainian military installation across the country, Russia turned the ‘might makes right’ argument of the US and Europe on its head.
The game has changed because the rules have changed. It’s no longer a game of rhetorical chicken and virtue signaling.
Today it is fact. When Putin made his move on Ukraine the ultimate goal was the end of Russia treating the West as an equal and leading the Global South out of what he has called “vassalage.” The reason Putin is hated is because he realizes there are two types of countries, “sovereigns” and “vassals.”
It’s been his life’s work to make Russia into a ‘sovereign’ state free from the West.
From Russia’s perspective their military operation in Ukraine was their Declaration of Independence from the old ‘rules-based order’ of the post-WWII era. Justified or not, we are now in a new age.
The question is now, how many will survive into it.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2022-06-22/russia-done-west-divorce-nearly-complete-analysis
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Exile On Main Street - The Sound Of The Unipolar World Fading Away
The future world order, already in progress, will be formed by strong sovereign states. The ship has sailed. There’s no turning back.
Let’s cut to the chase and roll in the Putin Top Ten of the New Era, announced by the Russian President live at the St. Petersburg forum for both the Global North and South.
The era of the unipolar world is over.
The rupture with the West is irreversible and definitive. No pressure from the West will change it.
Russia has renewed with its sovereignty. Reinforcement of political and economic sovereignty is an absolute priority.
The EU has completely lost its political sovereignty. The current crisis shows the EU is not ready to play the role of an independent, sovereign actor. It’s just an ensemble of American vassals deprived of any politico-military sovereignty.
Sovereignty cannot be partial. Either you’re a sovereign or a colony.
Hunger in the poorest nations will be on the conscience of the West and euro-democracy.
Russia will supply grains to the poorer nations in Africa and the Middle East.
Russia will invest in internal economic development and reorientation of trade towards nations independent of the U.S.
The future world order, already in progress, will be formed by strong sovereign states.
The ship has sailed. There’s no turning back.
How does it feel, for the collective West, to be caught in such a crossfire hurricane? Well, it gets more devastating when we add to the new roadmap the latest on the energy front.
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, in St. Petersburg, stressed that the global economic crisis is gaining momentum not because of sanctions, but exacerbated by them; Europe “commits energy suicide” by sanctioning Russia; sanctions against Russia have done away with the much lauded “green transition”, as that is no longer needed to manipulate markets; and Russia, with its vast energy potential, “is the Noah’s Ark of the world economy.”
For his part Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller could not be more scathing on the sharp decline in the gas flow to the EU due to Siemens’ refusal and/or incapacity to repair the Nord Stream 1 pumping engine: “Well, of course, Gazprom was forced to reduce the volume of gas supplies to Europe by 20%+. But you know, prices have increased not by 20%+, but by several times! Therefore, I’m sorry if I say that we don’t feel offended by anyone, we are not particularly concerned by this situation.”
If this pain dial overdrive was not enough to hurl the collective West – or NATOstan – into Terminal Hysteria, then Putin’s sharp comment on possibly allowing Mr. Sarmat to present his business card to “decision-making centers in Kiev”, those that are ordering the current shelling and killing of civilians in Donetsk, definitely did the trick:
“As for the red lines, let me keep them to myself, because this will mean quite tough actions on the decision-making centers. But this is an area that shouldn’t be disclosed to people outside the military-political leadership of the country. Those who deserve appropriate actions on our part should draw a conclusion for themselves – what they may face if they cross the line.”
Baby please, stop breaking down
Alastair Crooke has masterfully outlined how the collective West’s zugzwang leaves it lumbering around, dazed and confused. Now let’s examine the state of play on the opposite side of the chessboard, focusing on the BRICS summit this Thursday in Beijing.
As much as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and ASEAN, now it’s time for a reinvigorated BRICS to step up its game. In conjunction, these are the key organizations/instruments that will be carving the pathways towards the post-unipolar era.
Both China and India (which between them were the largest economies in the world for centuries before the brief Western colonial interregnum) are already close and getting closer to “the Noah’s Ark of the world economy”.
The G20 – hostages of the Michael Hudson-defined FIRE scam that is the core of the financialized neoliberal casino – is slowly fading away, while a potential new G8 ramps up: and that is directly connected to BRICS expansion, one of the key themes of this week’s summit. An expanded BRICS with a parallel G8 configuration is bound to easily overtake the Western-centric one in importance as well as GDP by purchasing power parity (PPP).
BRICS in 2021 already added Bangladesh, Egypt, the UAE and Uruguay to its New Development Bank (NDB). In May, at Foreign Ministry-level debates, Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Thailand were added to the 5 BRICS members. Leaders of some of these nations will be connected to the Beijing summit.
BRICS plays a completely different game from the G20. They aim for the grassroots, and it’s all about slowly “building trust” – a very Chinese concept. They are creating an independent Credit Rating Agency – away from the Anglo-American racket – and deepening a Currency Reserves Arrangement. The NDB – including its regional offices in India and South Africa – has been involved in hundreds of projects. Time will tell: one day the NDB will make the World Bank superfluous.
Comparisons between BRICS and the Quad, a U.S. concoction, are silly. Quad is just another crude mechanism to contain China. Yet there’s no question India treads on tightrope walker territory, as it’s a member of both BRICS and Quad, and made a vastly misguided decision to walk out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – the largest free trade deal on the planet – opting instead to adhere to the American pie-in-the-sky Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).
Yet India, long term, skillfully guided by Russia, is being steered to find essential common ground with China in several key issues.
BRICS, especially in its expanded BRICS+ version, is bound to increase cooperation on building truly stable supply chains, and a settlement mechanism for resources and raw material trade, which inevitably has to be based in local currencies. Then the path will be open for the Holy Grail: a BRICS payment system as a credible alternative to the weaponized U.S. dollar and SWIFT.
Meanwhile, a torrent of bilateral investments from both China and India in the manufacturing and services sector around their neighbors is bound to lift up smaller players in both Southeast Asia and South Asia: think Cambodia and Bangladesh as important cogs in a vast supply wheel.
Yaroslav Lissovolik had already proposed a BEAMS concept as the core of this BRICS integration drive, uniting “the key regional integration initiatives of BRICS economies such as BIMSTEC, EAEU, the ASEAN-China free trade agreement, Mercosur and SADC/SACU.”
It’s only (BRICS) rock’n roll
Now Beijing seems eager to promote “an inclusive format for dialogue spanning all the main regions of the Global South via aggregating the regional integration platforms in Eurasia, Africa and Latin America. Going forward this format may be further expanded to include other regional integration blocks from Eurasia, such as the GCC, EAEU and others.”
Lissovolik notes how the ideal path from now on should be “the greater inclusivity of BRICS via the BRICS+ framework that allows smaller economies that are the regional partners of BRICS to have a say in the new global governance framework.”
Before he addressed the St. Petersburg forum on video, President Xi called Putin personally to say, among other things, that he’s got China’s back on all “sovereignty and security” themes. They also, inevitably, discussed the relevance of BRICS as a key platform towards the multipolar world.
Meanwhile, the collective West plunges deeper into the maelstrom. A massive national demonstration of trade unions this past Monday paralyzed Brussels – the capital of the EU and NATO – as 80,000 people expressed their anger at the rising and rising cost of living; called for elites to “spend money on salaries, not on weapons”; and yelled in unison “Stop NATO.”
It’s zugzwang all over again. The EU’s “direct losses”, as Putin stressed, provoked by the sanctions hysteria, “could exceed $400 billion a year”. Russia’s energy earnings have hit record levels. The ruble is at a 7-year high against the euro.
It’s a blast that arguably the most powerful cultural artifact of the entire Cold War – and Western supremacy – era, the perennial Rolling Stones, is currently on tour across a “caught in a crossfire hurricane” EU. On every show they play, for the first time live, one of their early classics: ‘Out of Time’.
Sounds much like a requiem. So let’s all sing, “Baby baby baby / you’re out of time”, as one Vladimir “it’s a gas, gas, gas” Putin and his sidekick Dmitry “Under My Thumb” Medvedev seem to be the guys really getting their rocks off. It’s only (BRICS) rock’n roll, but we like it.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-exile-main-street-sound-unipolar-world-fading-away
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Anyone been reading about the dangerous & reckless shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant?
I've been thinking this all week & Peter Hitchens is the first British journalist I've seen actually speak the truth about the matter. The western media would have us believe Russia are shelling themselves.
A war in which Ukraine can do no wrong
Have you noticed how Ukraine and Ukrainians cannot do anything bad? I think President Volodymyr Zelensky is actually quite a decent person. But his attempt to get all Russians banned from travelling to Europe is bigoted and foolish. Russians do not all agree with their government’s stupid, bloody invasion. But Zelensky gets away with this proposal because Ukraine is a sainted nation.
Now we have the weird episode of the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station which has been in Russian hands since they illegally seized it in March.
This, whatever the provocation may be, is an extraordinarily stupid thing for anyone to do. But who is doing it? Well, since the Russian Army is dug in there, it is extremely unlikely that the Russians are doing it.
So who is doing it? Martians? North Koreans? Eskimos? When I put the words ‘Ukrainians shell Zaporizhzhia’ into Google, that search engine responded by saying: ‘No results found for “Ukrainians shell Zaporizhzhia.” ’ Instead I got several accounts of the Russians apparently shelling themselves. The BBC reported online on Friday that the power station had ‘come under heavy fire’. But who from? It is not even stated. Normally reporters are urged to avoid using the passive voice. But for Ukraine, this rule has been suspended.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International, once revered by liberal global opinion, has made a cringing apology for a report in which it pointed out (as far as I know accurately) that Ukrainian troops had been sheltering in civilian buildings. Who really doubts it? Troops do this, even if they are not supposed to.
But Amnesty now says it ‘deeply regrets the distress and anger that our press release on the Ukrainian military’s fighting tactics has caused’. This is ridiculous. If news is reduced to childish one-sided propaganda, how can the citizens of adult democracies possibly make serious decisions about which policy we should follow?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11109173/PETER-HITCHENS-didnt-Doctor-warn-Comprehensives-far-scarier-Daleks.html
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An example of the absolute madness and / or blatant evil lying b........ry of the Russians:
“If we are talking about the Nazis, then Hitler united the majority of European countries under his banner in order to attack the Soviet Union. Today, roughly the same group of countries support Zelensky,” Lavrov (Russia’s Foreign Minister) said.
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Putin and his fan club must be feeling a teensy bit concerned right now. Can’t help but find the current situation rather delicious which is bad of me I know…Ukraine to take control of Moscow would be an outcome no one foresaw this time a year ago.
ETA no sooner had I made this post than the Wagner group under Prigozhin decided to halt their march on Moscow. Oh well, I wonder what tomorrow will bring, we certainly live in interesting times…
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Did anyone happen to see Trudeau, Elensky & the Canadian parliment applauding (twice), a literal Nazi who bravely fought the Russians in WW2? Putin vindicated again. Not a good look for NATO & the collective West.
Makes one wonder if we're really on the right side of history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKcmnrE5oY
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The Russia, Ukraine war is not about NATO expansion, they said.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf5xEBwBhds&t=74s