Energy can be directed;
I’m turning it up, I’m turning it down…
From “Switchin’ to Glide” by The Kings
“The most dangerous irony is, people are angry with others because of their own incompetence.”
Wealth of Words
I came by the reference I want to talk about in this post through a roundabout and somewhat bizarre path. More than a decade ago, a friend implored me to join LinkedIn so that I could add an endorsement to his professional qualifications. I did both, but my LinkedIn account has lain more or less dormant since then. If you’re not familiar with LinkedIn, it has some things in common with Facebook, and they are mostly the reasons I have avoided Facebook. Both send you a non-stop stream of clickbait: “Mark Chapman, you appeared in 4 searches this week!” so that you will be overcome with curiosity as to who could be looking for you, and down the rabbit-hole you go for hours and hours. Both use algorithms and things you have written or read to match you with people who might be acquaintances, and try to get you to build a network of friends and contacts that the program uses to link you to other networks, and so on and so on.
Which is how I keep getting notifications that Edward Lucas has posted something. Yes, that Edward Lucas, the talking spittoon, Estonia’s first digital citizen, fighting cock of the Baltic Republics and noted Russophobe, onetime compiler of birdcage carpeting at The Economist.
The foregoing considered, it will not surprise you, then, that I would be as likely to eat soup made from boiling turnips and Boris Johnson’s bicycle seat as I would be to pay attention to further gobbling from Lucasville. Normally I just alternate between my LinkedIn messages and the ‘delete’ button. This time the message said “Edward Lucas has shared a link”, and although I could not care less if he shared a bathtub with Satan, something in the tagline made me pause: “Edward Lucas, prospective political candidate for….”
You have got to be shitting me. But no! It’s true. Edward Lucas, as addled as a pithed frog, is dipping a toe in the turbulent waters of national politics – as a Liberal Democrat, no less.
Let’s take a look.
“Hello, I’ve finally reached the point of no return. Democracy is in danger. We need to save it.
I’ve tried journalism, writing books, thinktanks, punditry and advising governments. None of it has worked. We are being cheated and lied to at home. Our enemies are menacing abroad.”
Well, he started out far more honestly than most politicians do, although I would suggest he went past the point of no return several stops back. But it can only be a gift for political dissembling that resulted in the phrase “None of it has worked” when the truth would have looked more like “I sucked at all of them”. Perhaps he is destined for politics.
We could probably go on like this for quite some time; it’s been a while since I got going on the subject of Edward Lucas, and I’d forgotten how much I like it. But to tell the truth, I also checked out the post he linked, and it is the subject of today’s discussion.
As you’re all aware, Russia ordered its western gas customers to pay for the commodity in rubles, to Gazprombank in Russia so that the funds would be safe in Russia from western ‘confiscation’ The reason for this was the theft of approximately $300 billion from Russian accounts in western banks, which had served to receive payments by western gas customers. By seizing these funds, western countries announced that they were helping themselves to Russian gas for free, while the blatant theft served as warning that if Russia continued to supply contracted volumes of gas, its western customers would consider it a gift, since payments could be confiscated at any time. The order to pay in rubles, or to make other arrangements for gas deliveries, was effective at the beginning of April this year.
There was a great show of unified resistance, and Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša announced huffily that ‘nobody in Europe’ would pay for gas in rubles. That proved to be one of those predictions like “telephones will never be taken seriously as a means of communication” by the President of Western Union in 1876, or the official rejection of The Beatles by Decca Records in 1962: “The Beatles have no future in show business. We don’t like your boys’ sound. Groups are out. Four-piece groups with guitars, particularly, are finished.” Within a month of the directive, nine EU member states had opened ruble accounts with Gazprombank and four of them had already commenced payment in rubles. Poland and Bulgaria vehemently and loudly refused – in Poland’s case, likely because it believes itself a natural leader and that if it hung tough, everybody would follow: I’m afraid it is forever getting that wrong. Poland and Bulgaria had their gas supply cut off, and became dependents of the Union. Just a few days ago, Latvia’s supply was also shut off, making the naughty-corner occupants Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark, all of whom refused to comply with the ruble-account requirement. Additionally, delivery to Germany’s Shell Energy Europe was terminated. Latvia replied, “So what? Who cares?” and told anyone who would listen that it had already planned to cease all imports of Russian gas as of January 1st, 2023. How they plan to do that must still be a closely-guarded Latvian state secret, since Latvia’s dependency on Russian gas in 2021 was 92%; probably they meant “the EU will give us free gas”. Eastern European countries frequently attribute magical powers to the EU major states which are second only to those of Gandalf.
In mid-July, Russia declared force majeure on its contracted gas supplies, due to the refusal to return a critical gas turbine which had been sent to Canada for scheduled maintenance, whereupon Canada refused to return it, citing sanctions. Gas supply was reduced to 40% of contracted volumes, and after the scheduled maintenance on Nord Stream I was completed, reduced to 20%. Force Majeure is a mechanism employed in “those uncontrollable events (such as war, labor stoppages, or extreme weather) that are not the fault of any party and that make it difficult or impossible to carry out normal business. A company may insert a force majeure clause into a contract to absolve itself from liability in the event it cannot fulfill the terms of a contract (or if attempting to do so will result in loss or damage of goods) for reasons beyond its control.” Russia’s reason for the declaration apparently is that the turbine has still not been returned, although Canada reversed its decision and claimed the turbine had been returned to Germany for shipping onward. Natural-gas prices in Europe have risen 450% year-on-year.
Anyway, that’s background, although necessary background, and brings us to the topic of discussion; Aura Sabadus’s “Russia’s European Gas Endgame May Hurt Even More than a Total Curtailment”. Because Putin is so evil that it would be better to eat grass and sticks and cover your bodies with animal skins, you’ll only have to do it for a decade or so, and then green alternatives will shoot up through the sludge and beckon the way to endless self-renewing free-energy utopia.
I’m sorry about that; there’s just something about the article that makes it difficult for me to talk about it without being sarcastic. Let’s take a look at it, and I promise I’ll try really, really hard. Just before we do, I want to run a quick summary once again, because the author is going to try to convince you that Russia is inherently an unreliable supplier of natural gas, and Ursula von der Leyen is accurate in her caterwauling that Putin is ‘weaponizing’ gas supplies so as to force the EU into prostitution, or something. Russia supplied not a whiff less than the contracted amount throughout its dealings with the EU – including back when they had long-term contracts – except for two occasions, both initiated by Ukraine stealing gas from the pipeline that crossed its territory, and for which transit it was being well-reimbursed. It is worth highlighting here that on those occasions Ukraine was also stealing from the EU by robbing from its supplies, because you would never know it from the vociferous defense of Ukraine’s integrity by EU members. Russia then commenced an ambitious pipeline project – South Stream – which would bypass Ukraine and remove an habitual troublemaker. Washington and Brussels were having none of it; Ukraine’s right to steal from Russia must be protected, and the two leaned on EU member states to refuse crossing rights until Bulgaria’s al dente spine gave way, and that was the end of South Stream. Nord Stream II is another alternative to Ukrainian transit, but Washington doesn’t like it, so that was stopped as well, days after its construction was completed. Europe gets somewhere around 40% of its gas from Russia, and cannot replace that volume through any combination of suppliers. The new gas-transit contract Russia signed with Ukraine, brokered with celebration and relief by Germany and the European Commission of which Von der Leyen is now head, specified minimum volumes of 65 BCm in 2020 and 40 BCm each year thereafter until the end of 2024. The reference was authored by none other than Aura Sabadus, the author of the article we’re going to discuss. Therefore the EU anticipated at the time either that its gas needs were going to be less by 2024 than they were in 2020, or it was going to be able to arrange alternate suppliers. Following the destruction of MH-17, which was clearly not initiated by Russia, the EU nonetheless participated in sanctions against Russia, through which Russia continued to supply gas to countries who declared it an enemy. Since the beginning of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine EU countries have proudly and openly supplied weapons and money to Ukraine, while the UK’s Boris Johnson shuttled back and forth to Ukraine pressuring its president to prevent him from negotiating a peace while Ukraine was in a reasonable negotiating position and still had most of its military. Then there was the incident with the confiscated turbine. What I want to establish here is a substantiated pattern of constant obstruction by the west, making its squealing now about ‘unreliable Russia’ a travesty. All right; ready?
“For more than a year, its state-owned producer, Gazprom, has been reducing supplies to European consumers, helping to lift gas prices to record levels and sparking fears of a looming energy crisis with dire social and political consequences.”
Bzzzzzt!!! Lie. Up until Canada and its string-pullers decided to try a fast play with the turbine, Russia supplied the contracted volume to the letter. Europe wanted more gas, and used the fact that it was not getting as much as it wanted to argue that Russia was stiffing it. Comes to that, so far as I am aware the contract specified minimum annual volumes; there is nothing that prevents Russia from supplying nothing for six months and then doubling its monthly volume for the remaining six months, and although that would not make much sense, it would certainly fuck over the markets worse than Russia is currently blamed for doing.
And because I know it’s going to come up, let’s deal with it now – yes, Russia is raking in the money because of high prices, so much that it is making more money than it would have done by supplying more gas to bring the prices down, and it even has more gas it can sell to India and China while Europe is squealing in pain. So what? Know who else is making record profits? European energy companies. So much so that BoJo’s government – when he was still mismanaging the UK – proposed a ‘windfall tax’, but then exempted ‘power generators’ while oil companies sulked and resolved to dial back their investments.
“Gazprom’s behaviour so far suggests that it is intent on inflicting maximum pain while scoring maximum gain, and the best way to do so is to maintain uncertainty by supplying gas at the lowest possible levels.”
I suppose there are any number of possible interpretations, but I would submit a perfectly reasonable one is “Gazprom’s behaviour so far suggests that it is determined to nip outlaw behavior like Canada’s in the bud; otherwise its options shrink to sending additional turbines for contracted maintenance as they come due and having those confiscated as well, or operating the equipment past its allowable hours and when it breaks, buy a new one because the warranty has been voided by irresponsible behavior on the part of the operator.”
Besides, what is the purpose of the EU’s sanctions against Russia, if not an expression of intent to inflict maximum pain while scoring maximum gain?
“This creates the impression that Russia is still abiding by its contractual terms but leaves European buyers unable to form a longer-term strategy.”
Ah. So if the contract says ‘pump at least 40 BCm per year’ and Russia does not pump more even though it could, it is ‘creating the impression that it is sticking to the contract’, and it is not Europe’s fault that it brokered a contract which specified 40 BCm even though Europe should have known it would use much more and had no clue where that might be obtained. Because what drives Europe crazy is that Russia’s gas stores are squeaking with strain, they can’t hold any more, and it could easily sell more to Europe and stabilize prices. And in latter years it could always be coaxed to do so, even though Europe always treated Russia like the idiot who you let come out for a beer with you and the guys only because you know you will have someone to make fun of all night long.
Well, things have changed. Russia has written Europe off as a partner, and it’s pretty farcical to see Europe playing the ‘Well, I never; after all I’ve done for you’ card. Europe has long maintained the smug attitude that Russia needs to sell its gas to Europe more than Europe needs to buy gas from Russia. Well, is that true, or not? And if it is, why don’t you just tap one of your many alternative suppliers, instead of shredding your petticoats and watching prices rise? Oh, right; Azerbaijan, I almost forgot. Still run by the Aliev family, whose patriarch and Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliev, was voted Most Corrupt Person Of The Year for 2012 by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). I still remember Europe’s master plan for the Nabucco pipeline, which was going to bring so much gas to Europe from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field that Europeans could at last tell Russia what they thought of it. There were meetings and more meetings, plans and all the administrative fluff that Europe loves so much that lasted for years of entertainment, but not a meter of the pipeline was ever built. Just as well, too, as the volumes Europe was bragging about getting from it exceeded the capacity of the Shah Deniz field. But Europe is amazingly forgiving with some acquaintances; who does it turn to, when it’s having a problem with Russia that involves juggling energy partnership and being a declared enemy of Russia? Azerbaijan, of course. Good thing the same guy is still president as during the Nabucco years; you won’t have to change your email headers or update your Rolodex. I can’t see what could go wrong, it’s sure to be a big success.
The same selectivity is on show for Sabadus’s contemptuous dismissal of Russia’s ‘excuses’ that its turbine maintenance process is being interfered with.
“Experts said the pipeline could operate without the turbine and that the excuse was just another act of Russian blackmail.
At the same time, the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada urged Ottawa not to return the turbine, while the Ukrainian gas transmission system operator, GTSOU, insisted Gazprom could offset the shortfall by ramping up supplies via its own system, whose shipping capacity is bigger than that of Nord Stream 1.
Despite the pressure, Canada’s minister of natural resources said on 10 July that the turbine would be returned to Germany to support ‘Europe’s ability to access reliable and affordable energy’.”
Of course there are several backup turbines. The trouble with switching out an operating turbine and replacing it with a backup is that now the backup is an operating turbine, and eventually it will come due for maintenance once it passes a predetermined number of operating hours, and then you’ll have to send that one off for maintenance, to a country which has already established a policy of impounding them and not returning them. See where I’m going with this? Eventually you will run out of backups, which are there to support pipeline operations in an emergency. As the old saying goes, lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part, and there is no reason Russia should run down all its system redundancy to support comfort for its enemies. But look at that paragraph again. “…the Ukrainian gas transmission system operator, GTSOU, insisted Gazprom could offset the shortfall by ramping up supplies via its own system, whose shipping capacity is bigger than that of Nord Stream 1.” So Ukraine’s solution was to increase pumping through its own system? On which, coincidentally, it would receive higher transit fees? The same country that already provoked the only two gas shutdowns to Europe, because it was stealing gas from the pipeline? The same operator who earlier declared force majeure as an excuse for shutting down a transfer station and offering to reroute the flow through an interconnector under Ukrainian control?
“Only a month earlier, Gazprom had reduced the transit via Ukraine to 40% of contractual volumes, taking advantage of a decision by the country’s grid operator, GTSOU, to declare force majeure at one of the compressor stations in the east of the country.
The operator stopped the transit via the eastern Sokhranivka entry point amid suspicions that Russian occupants were stealing transit gas, offering instead to reroute the inflows via another interconnector under Ukrainian control. Gazprom not only ignored the proposal but also diminished the amount of gas that was supposed to enter via this point.”
So….a Ukrainian declaration of force majeure is above suspicion…but when Russia invokes it, it’s just a pathetic excuse? The same Naftogaz and GTSOU that welcomed a decision by the German gas regulator to include them in the certification process for Nord Stream II, thus ensuring it will never be certified for operation because to do so will make transit across Ukraine completely redundant? The perceptive will have noted that article is also by Aura Sabadus, and may see a pattern emerging. The Nord Stream II pipeline uses all-Russian turbines in its pumping stations, and would not need to return any to foreign and hostile nations for maintenance. Europe is allegedly desperate for gas. But it will not certify the Nord Stream II pipeline for operation. And Ukraine, Russia’s sworn enemy – or at least the Ukrainian government is – gets a veto? Is it too much of a jump for people to make a connection that Ukraine is preventing any resolution of Europe’s gas problems?
Second-largest U.S. exporter Freeport LNG’s Texas plant continues shut since an explosion in early June and its partial restart is not expected until October, curtailing the U.S. export capacity, even amid buoyant demand in Europe.
Fancy that. Did you see any articles by Aura Sabadus – or anyone else in the west – which suggested the explosion at the USA’s Freeport LNG plant was a little too convenient, and would cynically raise gas prices in Europe? I didn’t.
Here it is, in a nutshell. No matter how Europe turns the histrionics and the hair-pulling up to 12, Russia is not going to make any special efforts to help out a union which seizes its gas revenues until they are placed out of reach, then refuses to entertain any monetary compensation which does not grant it complete freedom to steal further at its whim, which proudly supplies weapons to help Ukraine kill its people, which colludes with its enemy to prevent a peace deal so that the fighting must go on and on, and refuses to certify a completed pipeline which could alleviate all its problems because it prefers that its gas supplies transit a war zone.
“Russia’s political manoeuvring has helped to create so much volatility on markets that it has been impossible to predict price movements from one day to another, let alone to plan for the weeks and months ahead.
Its tactics have so far paid off, but may backfire in the long term if Europe proves brave enough to pull the plug on its addiction to Russian gas.”
If you could do that, you would have done it years ago, and you know it. But go ahead; set up deals with the United States and Azerbaijan for all your future supplies, and really put your heads together and brainstorm about how to make electricity from dandelions and wind. Good luck with that. India and China will be happy to get your previous supplies of gas, and they’ll pay a lot less than you will. Still, you might spare a thought now for what kind of endorsement your behavior is advertising to future suppliers. Because you’re kind of an asshole.
“And I was wondering how to depart without self-loathing or sadness, or with as little as possible, when a kind of immense sigh all around me announced it was not I who was departing, but the flock.”
Samuel Beckett, from “Molloy”
I honestly was thinking about just this topic after reading the latest shenanigans of reuters yesterday. The turbine is still in Germany, by the way, and everyone is doing cartwheels trying to explain how that amounts to calling Putin’s bluff. As everyone surely knows, it’s not delivered in Russia because “they’re not asking for it” or “they’re not providing the right documents” or something.
It’s past being farcical now, and my only hope is that the shock of the consequences of this and other stupid choices is enough to wake up the population of Europe. But I’m no optimist, having seen the denial capability of Europeans.
Well done, Mark!
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Thanks very much, Fennovoima! Yes, it’s turning into a bit of a he-said-she-said, with Siemens announcing it has received no complaints from Gazprom about faulty performance of its turbines
https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/siemens-energy-says-it-has-no-damage-reports-from-gazprom-on-nord-stream-1-turbines-2855627
although it does acknowledge the maintenance arrangement, whereby it does not have on-site access to the turbines, but by agreement they are removed from the system and sent to Canada, while Gazprom claims it has complained repeatedly (10 letters) to the Russian office of Siemens, who will probably get the blame in the end for dropping the ball.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/07/30/ukraine-crisis-russia-nordstream-siemens
As the article points out – I think I learned it myself on Moon of Alabama – Nord Stream II uses all-Russian turbines, so this would not even be an issue. But, incredibly, Ukraine’s GTS operator was given an interventive role in its certification.
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“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”
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Hear, hear!
Those who are beginning the “Dial M for ‘Mummy!’” campaign were the geniuses who knocked back long-term supply contracts in favour of exactly the type of spot price deals which were so disastrous (for consumers) and lucrative (for middlemen speculators) when used in the California energy markets around twenty years ago. If memory serves, the leading player in the California rolling brownouts was the splendidly upright and all-American Enron Corporation, whose business model was somewhat idiosyncratic, in a post-moral, get’er done, dynamic sort of way. And it all went so well for Enron and everyone, didn’t it?
Thanks again, Mark. (The “dandelions and wind” line is a killer 🙂 )
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Thanks, Cortes! Yes, it’s funny how Russia making money off Europe’s discomfiture is the pinnacle of cynicism and cruelty, whilst European energy companies making landslide profits – of which the government immediately cuts itself a slice – is just the way business works. Funny also how Ukraine’s obvious attempt to earn itself some transit fees by rerouting gas flow through its own network – on ‘suspicions’ it did not substantiate, nor was it asked to – did not raise any eyebrows.
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Edward Lucas: “I’ve tried journalism, writing books, thinktanks, punditry and advising governments. None of it has worked. We are being cheated and lied to at home. Our enemies are menacing abroad.”
Boris Johnson tried journalism, writing books (well, a novel at least) and punditry as well before becoming London mayor. Clearly Lucas has some big shoes and pants (nappies?) to fill. I see he’s already the Lib Dems’ choice to stand for the electorate of the Cities of London and Westminster in the 2024 general election, if he can wait that long.
Thanks for another detailed post, Mark!
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Ha, ha!! Here’s what I get when I click on that link:
You’re unable to view this Tweet because this account owner limits who can view their Tweets.
Dear Eddie, the Liberal Democrats’ hard bargain, does not let me view his tweets or – heaven forbid – comment on them, perhaps because of previous…umm…unsupportive commentary. But I can see his humble blatherings in the preview pane. I hope he wins; all the glad-handing and grifting will keep him too busy to grace the world with his anus-based philosophy, and it has already been amply demonstrated that the UK could be led every bit as ably by a high-school marching band or the staff of an auto dealership as by any combination of its present politicians.
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The Liberal Democrats. Party of the half-pregnant.
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So Truss was right in her describing the Kiev Clown as a “World Leader”!
BFM.RU
August 4, 2022, 04:37
Escalation in the Donbas
Zelensky has expressed his desire to hold direct talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping
The President of the Ukraine stressed that direct contact “would be useful”.
President of the Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed a desire to hold direct talks with President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping. The Ukrainian leader said this in an interview with the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post, reports TASS.
“I should like to talk directly. I had one conversation with President Xi Jinping a year ago”, Zelensky said.
He added that after February 24, Kiev had officially requested negotiations with Beijing. However, no contacts took place.
Zelensky also stressed that direct talks with Xi Jinping “would be useful, since China is a powerful state that can influence Russia”. At the same time, he noted that he understands the desire of the People’s Republic of China to maintain a “balanced” attitude to the events in the Ukraine.
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RT Russia gives more details of what the Clown said:
Zelensky has said that he should like to hold talks with Xi Jinping on the conflict in the Ukraine.
August 4, 2022, 05: 00
President of the Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with the South China Morning Post newspaper announced his desire to hold direct talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the Ukrainian conflict and called on China to influence the Russian special operation.
“I should like to talk directly. I had one conversation with President Xi Jinping a year ago… But we didn’t have any negotiations with China, although I think it would be useful”, TASS quoted him as saying.
Zelensky called China a powerful state with a powerful economy and noted that this is why the country “can influence Russia politically and economically”. The Ukrainian leader suggested that without the Chinese market, Russia would feel completely economically isolated.
“Of course, I should very much like China to reconsider its attitude towards the Russian Federation”, he added.
Zelensky expressed the hope that China and the whole world will contribute to the restoration of the destroyed infrastructure in his country.
Beijing earlier called on the parties to the conflict in the Ukraine to immediately cease fire and start a peaceful dialogue.
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Mmmmm….yes. I can imagine China would be anxious to forswear a relationship with Russia in favour of a similar relationship with Ukraine, which passed its peak gas production around 2002, if I remember right, and whose other energy resources are almost exclusively located in territories of which it has lost control. The Chinese are whimsical that way.
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Enter prospective “World Leader” Truss:
Sputnik
Liz Truss Launches Verbal Attack on China as She Defends Nancy Pelosi’s ‘Right’ to Visit Taiwan
1 hour ago
Late last month, Liz Truss pledged to counter China’s push for global dominance by forging stronger Commonwealth trade ties if she becomes prime minister. The UK foreign secretary added that she is seeking to offer nations “a clear alternative to growing malign influence from Beijing.”
UK Foreign Secretary and Tory leadership hopeful Liz Truss has lashed out at China’s response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’ visit to Taiwan, while also calling for a de-escalation amid Beijing’s large-scale military drills in the waters around the island.
Hours after Pelosi ended her trip to Taiwan to travel to the next leg of her tour of East Asian countries on Wednesday, Truss expressed support for the House speaker’s decision to visit the island, which is seen by China as a breakaway province.
Speaking at the hustings in the city of Cardiff in Wales, the foreign secretary argued that Pelosi was “well within her rights as Speaker of Congress” to visit the Taiwanese capital Taipei earlier this week.
Truss asserted that “the issue here is the language and the escalatory language that we have heard from China and I think that is irresponsible and I urge them to de-escalate.”
The remarks follow a source in Team Truss reportedly saying late last month that “Liz has almost single-handedly dragged the government into a tougher position on China.”
This was preceded by the foreign secretary promising she would launch a “New Commonwealth Deal” to ensure the 56 Commonwealth countries act as a bulwark against China.
Truss pointed out.
The statement came after Truss accused former Chancellor Rishi Sunak – her rival in the current Tory leadership race – of pushing for a closer relationship with China during a live head-on-head TV debate in late July.
After Sunak insisted that there was a need to acknowledge that Beijing is a “threat to our [UK] national security, it is a threat to our economic security,” Truss challenged his comments, saying, “as recently as a month ago you were pushing for closer trade relationships with China.”
she added.
Separately, the foreign secretary argued that the UK government “absolutely should be cracking down” on Chinese-owned companies such as social-media giant TikTok Inc. and limit technology exports to authoritarian regimes.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded by stating that Beijing “regrets” Truss’ “remarks related to China” and “firmly opposes them.”
the spokesman said.
On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi vowed to impose “tough” sanctions in response to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, warning that “those who offend China will be punished.”
Wang also cautioned that attempts to use Taiwan to contain China’s development are doomed to failure, adding, “the United States should not have any illusions about undermining China’s development and revival.”
The House speaker’s visit to the island has exacerbated even further the already tense relations between China and the West, which is frustrated over what is describes as Beijing’s drive to boost its regional clout.
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What was the Third Reich’s legacy? When you are fully occupied with the front, do not open a second front. China does not need to take Taiwan in order to prevail – although it probably would, just to make the point – and is capable now of producing 7n chips. Those produced so far are fairly crude and do not use the same etching as western chips, but westerners need to get away from the idea that the technological barrier is formed by their brains and that no Chinese is smart enough to discover the process; they must copy it, and if they can’t, they can never do it. China’s chips are certainly sophisticated enough to power military hardware, and a major drawback to western systems is that they are overly complex, with too many sensors and add-ons, only one of which has to fail in order to make the whole system crash.
If Truss thinks the Path To Victory is for the middle class to give up everything that makes life bearable for a world of earthly pleasures and amusements which are western-made and only the wealthy can afford, she is simply pushing the global revolution wagon on down the track. The Davos disciples are cruising for a bruising, and they’re going to get it.
The UK should ‘limit China’s access to western technology’; I hope she’s not talking about British technology. What, like British Leyland? Cars that should come with a wrench already welded to every major part, because it won’t be long before you have to remove it for replacement? Technology like the Type 22 frigates, which were all-missile until the designers discovered they couldn’t afford to fire them for training, and they had to have guns put back on? Tech like the Type 45 destroyers, which couldn’t operate in warm waters?
https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/09/europe/britain-royal-navy-warships/index.html
The Chinese have certainly made technological mistakes, but in general they try to learn from it and move on. And Liz Truss is certainly not an advertisement for “Choose Britain as an ally!!”
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What’s lacking in Germany (particularly) is a course in ‘how to pull your head out of your ass’ up at the ivory tower:
https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-ghostwriter-helps-careerists-get-ahead-with-phd-theses-a-883726.html
Whether you buy your education on the black market or simply have educated out of any common sense whatsoever (an ivory tower common phenomenon), it’s kind of a reverse ‘cream rises to the top’ along the lines of an intellectual ‘flotsam in the septic tank.’
The ‘reverse touch of midas’ in the folk vernacular…
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A ghost writer for writing theses would have been enormous help for the current German foreign minister when she was studying international law or whatever at the University of Hamburg or the London School of Economics.
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Recently I got a shock when looking at the business icons on the map of a local shopping area: there are six or seven different places students can go to get their term papers and even dissertations ghosted. Maybe it’s always been like that and it’s just more visible now? I know that the Evan Tanner series by Lawrence Block has a protagonist who ghostwrites academic papers, but I presumed that was just, well, fiction.
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We discussed this on the old blog back in 2010, and at the time the site I referred to, The Power Vertical – which is now gone, the more reasonable Russophobe left and the remaining more strident Russophobe departed for other projects – was loudly contemptuous of the practice of buying a fake diploma by Russians. I guess he had no idea that the United States was the world leader in diplomas from fake colleges. Why wade through the trouble and expense of ghosting a thesis when you can just go straight to the Magna Cum Laude from St. Regis?
https://marknesop.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/where-did-i-get-my-degree-uh-potemkin-university-california/
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Thanks Mark. That was an excellent, wide-ranging discussion of those “degree mills”.
The places I noticed here weren’t on that level. Even worse, perhaps, they were all places where lazy or struggling students can pay a fee and have someone write a paper or dissertation for them to submit to earn course credits. The danger here is that many courses now are graded wholly or in part by coursework done throughout the academic year. Apparently the old-style end-of-year round of three-hour exams is deemed too stressful. Or something.
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I think we are agreed that both culminate in the same result – an individual winning credentials he/she did not earn through any labor of his/her own, and someone going forth into the job market potentially knowing far less about the subject than those credentials suggest.
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Baerbock and Habeck’s credentials in support of their clear desire to become German federal ministers is their belief in the viability of using “renewables” to provide energy for the utopic “green” society that they yearn for.
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And Scholtz’s Credo Is “socialism”!
Who’s he kidding?
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Well, the difference seems to me that
A. A “degree mill” can only flourish by its “alumni” finding employment due to inadequate screening by HR or other recruitment services, relatively easily addressed by cleaning house internally of HR people who didn’t do due diligence. “The College of Victoria and Albert, Rockall, Scotland” may sound wonderful to some people but, hey, c’mon, you follow up and investigate. Meanwhile
B. Inadequate control of the “work” and quality of students endangers the reputation of the degree-conferring institution. The lazy guy in one faculty poisons the employment prospects of the graduate of other, well-run faculties in the same institution.
HR departments get away with too much crap.
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I walked into the lobby of one of the libraries at the local university about 5 years ago and noticed that in a rack of various library handouts a couple of ghostwriting companies had promotional materials. I think the library staff cleaned them out a day or so later but it was pretty blatant.
It seems to be an endless battle against ghostwriters and plagiarizers. One of the best stories I have read was a climate scientist reading a report presented to a US Senate Committee and thinking that he could not have written a three-page explanation part better himself. WAIT A Minute. He pulled down a book he had written and, no, he had not done any better when he wrote it 2 or 3 years before.
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From very start when Frau Baerbock started campaigning for political posts, aspersions were cast on the authenticity of her “qualifications”.
Nowt come of it though.
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Or “shit floats”..
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Very good! I’ve been trying to formulate, in the. shortest way possible, a conception of how the “leadership” cadres of the combined West have arrived at this pass. Bravo!
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Well, Truss is clearly not well-educated; she may have gone to a good school, but either it didn’t take or there were no geography courses. Many current global leaders are pig-ignorant or mendacious and contemptuous of the people they are supposed to serve, convinced they can put any garden-variety switcheroo over on the dumb proles. But the problem now seems to be not intellect (except in the aforementioned case of Truss, who is simply too stupid to breathe without instruction), but ideology. I watched a good video (only the first installment of four, apparently) by Tom Luongo at Gold, Goats and Guns yesterday. Sometimes he’s hard to understand because he speaks quite fast and, as usual, he and the interlocutor are trying to talk over one another, with the result that they are speaking at the same time. But he has written and spoken at length on ‘the plan’ that the Davos crowd has for the world, and – interestingly – how it had to be moved ahead a decade because of the election of Trump. I laughed out loud when he said Trump was too weak and lacked the character to carry through on his own plans; that he should have ‘had the character of Putin’. That alone would make the Democrats wet their pants. Anyway, it makes interesting listening and should provoke some good discussion.
https://tomluongo.me/2022/08/02/media-davos-losing-europe-over/
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Well, well, well. Seems those saintly freedom-fighters we trained and funded don’t fight fair. Funny this didn’t make the BBC or CBC. Much like the news that prohibited petal mines are regularly raining down on Donetsk. Accidental ommissions, I’m sure. https://www.rt.com/russia/560193-amnesty-ukraine-humanitarian-law/
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So if Ed Lucas is running as a DimLeb, he is no longer resident of Estonia. Job done? Being in the UK’s Baltic base…
As for Sabadus and just about every other Russophobe of whatever color (wotz her name Norwegian bigot in the Murmansk hotel who let rip and the Norgie embassy said her words were not the ‘official position’ of Norway), there is no bad consequence of writing bollox. On the contrary, it shows that you can produce to order and will make a good little soldier (of one kind or another) in future employment – sic RUSI and other
wthinktanks that are a treadwater for those who want to be administration wonks when their time comes. It’s a feather in the cap. Even the norgie bird will be back once she has completed some mild penance.A the bottom of all this as you most fully point out in your post Mark, the absence of a single f/king legal leg to stand on not addressed in any substantial way, hence the ‘It’s not fair’ type of argument that is now considered as accepted anal-y-tical argument and then copy-pasted across the western web (sic looking at you ‘The Conversation’ and others). It’s little more than balm for lazy d*ckheads who consider themselves more intellegent than the rest of us mere (voting) peasants. They have to believe that they have some sort of semi-cogent argument on their side, however pathetic and couched in important sounding words. The alternative is accepting that we are f/ked. We are not at that stage of the Kubler-Ross model. Let’s just wait until winter….
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That Russophobic slag of a Norwegian consul in Murmansk has been officially told to sling her hooks forthwith and to get the fuck out of here.
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Because it’s funny:
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Is it time for a reminder showing of “Emma: The Calling”? Teaser line – “I’d like to think I’ve been defending freedom from an early age.”
https://americandefensenews.com/2021/05/21/backlash-to-woke-army-recruitment-video-ad-so-severe-comments-blocked-by-army/
Was it popular? Well, I guess it was – people loved that woke message so much that the Army had to disable comments.
…just a week after the series was launched, the Army said it had to disable comments on the videos on May 12 after seeing “a significant uptick in negative commentary which … were not aligned with Army values,” according to Laura DeFrancisco… “Out of respect for our soldiers and their families, we have disabled the comments,” she said.
Tucker Carlson, as has become customary for him, was quite plain-spoken about the whole thing – “While China’s military becomes more masculine as it’s assembled the world’s largest Navy, our military needs to become, as Joe Biden says, more feminine — whatever feminine means any more, since [according to the left’s new gender theories] men and women no longer exist.”
The Davos agenda is all wrapped up with Climate Change and environmental activism and wedge issues like the gender wars, distractions to keep you busy enforcing politically-correct fairness while the world is being re-made around you for the benefit of the controlling elites.
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From a comment at Reminiscence of the Future:
“Interesting news snippet today. UMPO will produce additional AL-31ST for Gazprom, totalling sixty.”
UMPO is PGSC UEC-UMPO, the gas-turbine division of the Ufa Motor-Building Production Association – the largest designer and manufacturer of aircraft engines in Russia – and the AL-31ST is “widely in demand at gas-pumping stations”. It was chosen to equip the Power of Siberia pipeline.
https://en.energas.ru/pressroom/news/2-mln-chasov-narabotali-na-obektakh-gazproma-gazoturbinnye-dvigateli-al-31st-proizvodstva-pao-odk-um/
Despite the Russian in the header, the article is in English and is very informative. It sounds to me as if Siemens is about to get all its gas turbines back, or at least that they will be swapped out in Nord Stream I with domestic designs, so there will not be all this foolishness with sanctions. Thanks, Canada – you and the German Dummkopf Klass just cost Germany millions in lost equipment sales.
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And maybe quite a few skilled jobs in Montreal.
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RT
4 Aug, 2022 20:48
Zelensky accuses Amnesty International of supporting terrorism
Amnesty has stuck by its report that Ukrainian forces endangered civilians
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has accused Amnesty International of siding with “terrorists” after the organization condemned the Ukrainian military for placing weapons in civilian areas in violation of humanitarian law.
“Today we saw a report by Amnesty International, which unfortunately tries to amnesty the terrorist state and shift responsibility from the aggressor to the victim,” Zelensky said in a video address on Thursday evening.
“If someone makes a report that puts the aggressor and the victim on the same level, this cannot be tolerated,” he said, repeating three times that “Ukraine is a victim,” and adding that “anyone who doubts this is an accomplice of Russia – a terrorist country – and a terrorist themselves and a participant in the killings.”’
The report in question was published earlier on Thursday, and detailed 22 cases of Ukrainian forces launching strikes from schools and five examples of troops using hospitals as bases. Amnesty said that it was “not aware” that Ukraine tried to evacuate civilians before occupying these non-military locations.
“We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. “Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law.”
While Amnesty has also accused Russia of breaking international law in the conduct of its military operation, the report was slated online by supporters of Zelensky’s regime, who accused the international organization of peddling “Russian propaganda.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has also pushed back against the report, accusing Amnesty of “creating a false reality” where everyone “is at fault for something.” Instead, he argued that the organization should focus exclusively on alleged Russian wrongdoing.
Amid a torrent of criticism from pro-Ukrainian social media posters, Callamard stuck by the report. “To those who attack us alleging biases against Ukraine, I say: check our work,” she wrote on Twitter. “We stand by all victims. Impartially.” Callamard also accused “social media mobs and trolls” on both sides of the conflict of spreading “war propaganda, disinformation, [and] misinformation.”
In his speech, Zelensky accused the Russian military of “striking at memorials to Holocaust victims” and “at a prisoner of war camp in Yelenovka.” Zelensky was apparently referring to a strike on a Holocaust memorial in March, which actually hit a TV tower nearby. An Israeli journalist stated that the memorial itself was untouched.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a missile strike on the Yelenovka detention facility housing members of the neo-Nazi Azov regiment last week, and has asked the United Nations and Red Cross to investigate the attack. Donetsk People’s Republic officials claimed the facility was targeted to prevent the prisoners from testifying about alleged Ukrainian war crimes.
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I’m loving these massive own goals and their very public nature. I guess this kind of stuff will just end up in the memoryhole in future and left to ‘academics’ far enough in the future so that no-one need be unduly
embarrassesdistressed by having them dug up, though they could always blame it on their ‘youth’ and ‘binary view on complex affairs.’LikeLike
The thorny issue of land ownership and control is covered in a number of comments in the latest Open Thread (Ukraine) at moonofalabama. This is kicked off by
“I think the West has a motif to end the war in UA and freeze the status quo of land gains. Three US multinationals bought recently 17 million hectares of agrarian land in Ukraine. That’s as much as in the whole of Italy. In Germany, this would be worth 400+ billion Euros (26,800 EUR avg. price). According to BRICS, US corporations meanwhile own 30% of arable land in UA.
I’m not informed where exactly in UA that land is located. Does anyone know/have a map?
I speculate: (1) If it is in Novorossia, the vultures can write it off. It might even be that the avoidance of this loss is a big driver behind the announced UAF offensive in the south. (2) The promise of a land reform by RU can sway opinions in the upcoming plebiscites even more in their favor.
Posted by: OttoE | Aug 4 2022 15:41 utc | 41”
“PavewayIV” makes some excellent points, beginning at (currently) #48 and others join the party at regular intervals. (Some years ago I met a few land administration officials from Banderastan and was immediately put in mind of those cartoons where characters have $ signs spinning in their eyes at the prospect of easy money. Not ideal.)
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RT Russian
American Specialist Rogulev said that the West is tired of the Ukraine
Today
Director of the Franklin Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the United States at Moscow State University Yuri Rogulev in an interview with RT commented on the statement of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky that the EU authorities re artificially delaying the provision of macro-financial assistance to Kiev in the amount of €8 billion.
“It has been repeatedly mentioned in various media outlets and various statements that the West is tired. Let us recall, for example, the same notorious Ambassador of the Ukraine to Germany, who was forced out of office. Now there is a discussion in the UK, where different politicians speak out, and in other countries too”, Rogulev said.
According to him, Europe does not need the prolonged conflict at all.
“It directly affects Europe itself, making the lives of Europeans much more difficult. European politicians also have doubts about the fate of Zelensky and the Ukrainian government… So they are not in a hurry to “dump” large amounts of money”, Rogulev told RT.
Earlier, Zelensky had said that the EU authorities artificially delay the provision of macro-financial assistance to Kiev in the amount of €8 billion.
At the same time, he noted that he “does not want” to specify which European country is delaying providing assistance to the Ukraine.
End in sight?
After the midterms in the Land of the Free?
Major task of the guardians of freedom and democracy: how to lose by appearing to win.
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Bum link again!
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Try this if you want to read the original of the above:
https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/5a66f1e2a815f1865d6d0403/62ecc2b1b8f91f0c6e395431
Yeah, it works, and you can feast your eyes on a picture of that slimy twat Elensky to boot.
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There are at least two guiding principles here, if we assume the driving force behind the Ukraine campaign is Washington, as I believe it is, although the Europeans are mostly being used to execute the western end of it. One, the American people like quick, easy victories. The longer a conflict drags on, the more the opportunities for different narratives which suggest the motive might be other than the tried-and-true upholding of freedom and democracy. Two, the American political machine does not like to lose, and unless there is a clear path to something that looks like a victory OR a hapless foreign leader upon whom it can blame failure, it will not give up.
Obviously that results in a conundrum. The conflict has already dragged on far longer than the proponents of quick, easy victories would like. For a while even that might have been turned into a victory, if Russia really had run out of ammunition like they said it would do at any moment. But now it looks like that is not a limiting factor in the slightest. However, the American political administration – a different one, but they are really all the same – was forced to back down in Syria under circumstances the media just was not able to dress up as victory, at least not for America. Two big losses in a row might look like a pattern.
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Although there are links to news sites confirming land sales to foreign companies, eg.
https://truthbook.news/lifestyle/three-large-american-multinationals-bought-17-million-hectares-of-ukrainian-agricultural-land/
there are also contradictory articles which say for example …”Indeed, there is no way for a foreigner to acquire land shares in Ukraine, for example, for agricultural activity.”
https://pravdop.com/en/publications/novosti-kompaniy/pokupka-zemli-inostrannim-licom-v-ukraine-v-2022-godu-02-2022-132/
And, “As of July 1, Ukrainians — not foreigners — can buy and sell up to 100 hectares. Starting in 2024, Ukrainian legal entities will qualify for transactions involving up to 10,000 hectares.
Whether foreigners should be allowed to buy land is one of the bones of contention surrounding the reform. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he plans to put the question to the people in a nationwide referendum, but the outcome of such a vote seems all but certain: More than 80 percent of Ukrainians oppose it, according to an opinion survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in June.”
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Even if there were a law stating that foreigners cannot buy and own land in Ukraine, such a law would not necessarily succeed in stopping foreigners from doing so. Foreigners could buy, own and sell land through owning or having majority share ownership (at least 51% perhaps) of a firm registered and based in Ukraine for the purpose of property speculation in that country.
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There is an article here which confirms your assessment that foreign corporations do already own land in Ukraine
https://global.ilmanifesto.it/the-truth-about-corporations-taking-over-ukrainian-agricultural-lands/
However, it may be that Russia will do in Ukraine what it has already done in Crimea, and return such land to the ownership of Russian citizens or companies …
https://uawire.org/10-000-land-plots-owned-by-ukrainians-in-crimea-fall-under-putin-s-decree-banning-foreign-ownership
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RT in Russian
Secretary General of Amnesty International defended the report on the crimes of Ukrainian troops
August 5, 2022
Agnes Kallamar, Secretary General of the human rights organization Amnesty International, has defended the report on the crimes of Ukrainian troops against civilians.
France-Presse writes about this with reference to her letter:
RIA Novosti quotes the text of the message.
Kallamar stressed that Amnesty International “fully supports” the report’s findings.
The report of the human rights organization Amnesty International refers to the violation by Ukrainian troops of international legal norms and military law.
President of the Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized the human rights organization Amnesty International. According to him, the report “amnestied” Russia.
link
Kallamar is paid by the Kremlin!
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LENTA. RU
Sky News host Bernardi has accused Western media of creating a false image of Zelensky
August 5, 2022
The British TV channel “Sky News” has debunked myths about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. TV presenter Corey Bernardi said that the image of the Ukrainian leader “is not the same as he is portrayed by the Western media”. A recording of the broadcast has appeared on YouTube.
According to Bernardi, the media had created an image of Zelensky as “the second Winston Churchill”. The Ukrainian president was also portrayed as a “great hero” who is supposedly “saving his people” from Russia.
It also seemed to the British journalist that Western media had been hushing up events happening to Russian-speaking citizens in some parts of the Ukraine. “But this is the largest Russian community outside of Russia itself”, said Bernardi. He added that Zelensky had promised to stop the civil war, but had failed to do so. At the same time, it was specified that the pressure on citizens had only intensified during his presidency.
Zelensky, as stated on the TV channel, supported the Right Sector (the organization was recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation). Bernardi also recalled the nationalist Azov Regiment (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) and the words of the President of the Ukraine that this formation was one of the units of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine, and Ukraine’s desire to be included in NATO was a provocation against Russia. The presenter also recalled the disagreements over the Minsk agreements, political persecution and photo shoots for the covers of fashion publications.
In conclusion, Bernardi rebuked the President of the Ukraine for trying to create an image that was at odds with the real picture. “He [Zelensky] is being filmed in a green army sweatshirt. And this is part of his image — a man of action”, he added.
Earlier, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that residents of Western countries are no longer attracted by the image of the President of the Ukraine. In her opinion, Zelensky is no longer interesting, which is why the media had begun to use his wife Elena Zelenskaya. “Now on the political menu, the dish is called ‘Zelensky under Elena’”*, the diplomat sarcastically noted.
At the end of July, Zelensky and his wife posed for the American version of “Vogue”. The politician’s office and the Antonov airport in Gostomel, which has been destroyed during hostilities, were chosen as a background.
*A reference to the popular Russian salad “Herring Under a Fur Coat”.
link
What is the crappy UK news media coming to?
They’ll be saying next that the armed forces of Banderastan — Glory to the Ukraine, to the Heroes Glory! — have been bombarding civilians in the Donbass for 8 years!
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It looks to me to be Sky in Australia The Sky News .com.au and the accent are giveaways. Apparently Cory Bernardi is a former Liberal Senator.
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Yeah, dumb Russkies think Aussies talk like Cockneys. They seldom think I’m English either ‘cos I don’t talk “proper” English.
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Oh my! Look at what Harding of all people wrote of the little Kiev shit’s money that he has stashed away:
Pandora papers
Revealed: ‘anti-oligarch’ Ukrainian president’s offshore connections
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has railed against politicians hiding wealth offshore but failed to disclose links to BVI firm
Luke Harding, Elena Loginova and Aubrey Belford
Sun 3 Oct 2021 12.30 EDT
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That link doesn’t work for me.
Try again:
https://amp.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/revealed-anti-oligarch-ukrainian-president-offshore-connections-volodymyr-zelenskiy
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And the one above works, but it’s the same one as is embedded in the Guardian headline above.
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After the Tom Freidman article in the New York Times and this one, I’d say the UK & US are getting ready to throw Zelensky to the wolves.
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Well, at a minimum they are going to have to acknowledge that he cannot deliver the result they want, and even now the war is a game of diminishing returns for them as fewer Russians are killed, since it is mostly a long-range artillery battle. You have to look at it the way they do – is Zelensky becoming an embarrassment? They want to continue supporting him or their populations will want to know why, but at the same time those people might want more detail on what they got for so much money.
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The endgame is nigh, that’s for sure, as murmurings of dissent are now regularly being reported in the West:
“Junge Welt”[“Young World” — ME]: Western economic sanctions have done Putin a favour
August 7, 2022
RIA Novosti
The economic war waged by the West against Russia has backfired, giving Russian head of state Vladimir Putin a number of advantages, ex-Wall Street financier Michael Hudson has said. This has been reported by Junge Welt.
“They [sanctions] have not only made Moscow economically independent, but also brought additional income to the state budget because of rising energy prices The Russian economy is becoming self-sufficient”, the expert said in an interview with the German publication.
At the same time, Hudson drew attention to the fact that Western countries themselves had aggravated the situation in the economic sector.
“These countermeasures have led to the strengthening of the ruble. It would be fair to say that the US and the EU have shot themselves in the foot”, the economist stressed.
Currently, the special operation of the Russian Armed Forces continues in the Ukraine. It was announced on February 24 by Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to him, the purpose of military action is to demilitarize the neighboring country and denazify its authorities.
The decision to conduct the operation was the reason for new sanctions against Russia by the United States and its allies.
Not to worry, junge Deutsche! With Scholz at the helm, ably aided and abetted by the outstandingly gifted Baerbock and Habeck, you have nothing to fear
Not to mention your fellow countrywoman Von der Lying Bitch as boss of the EU.
And though no longer a member of the EU, rest assured that “Global Britain” and its soon to be dynamic, super intelligent Prime Minister Truss, stand resolutely at your side in this epoch making struggle between the free Western democracies and the evil authoritative regime of the odious “Vlad” Putin.
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Please give generously to the Ukraine. Vova will make sure your donations are wisely invested to ensure freedom and democracy in a sovereign “Independent Ukraine”.
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The Germans have attacked Zelensky for covering up war crimes
August 5, 2022
Die Welt Readers Furious Over Zelensky’s Criticism of Amnesty International Report
Readers of the German newspaper Die Welt condemned Volodymyr Zelensky for his criticism of the report of the human rights organization Amnesty International, published yesterday.
The President of the Ukraine was indignant that the organization had analyzed the actions of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine and come to the conclusion that they violate international legal norms and military law by placing weapons in schools and hospitals in cities and putting civilians at risk.
German netizens, in turn, accused the head of state of covering up for war criminals.
commented Hans G.
said Sasha H.
recalled Gabriele E.
said Rainer S.
wrote Wolfgang P.
said Michael S
RT in Russian
Human rights activist Baraka: Amnesty International told about the Armed Forces of the Ukraine what the media do not report
August 5, 2022
American human rights activist Ajamu Baraka said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke negatively about the human rights organization Amnesty International because it revealed facts about the Ukrainian army that have not been not reported by Western media.
Baraka wrote about this on his Twitter.
“Now Zelensky is hinting that Amnesty International has fallen under the influence of Kremlin propaganda for pointing out the obvious, which the Western press does not report, that Ukrainian troops are using civilians as a shield”, he said.
Earlier, the human rights organization Amnesty International in its report stated that Ukrainian troops had violated international legal norms and military law.
After that, Zelensky criticized Amnesty International. According to him, the report “amnestied” Russia.
Later, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Kallamar defended the report on the crimes of Ukrainian troops against civilians.
link
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Actually, AI’s documentation of instances in which the Ukrainian Army used known civilian public buildings such as schools and hospitals for quarters, commissaries and as points from which to carry out attacks focused only on what they could prove, and is probably very much on the low side.
Ukraine and the west are slow learners. The former got used to the feeling of safety from which it could swagger up and down the other side of the border and thumb its nose and display its ass cheeks, and eventually it got kicked in the sack so hard its balls bounced off its brain pan. The west believed its own juju about the magic powers of its weapons, and its proxies got hammered harder as a result. Does anyone doubt that if Zelensky had negotiated a ceasefire after the first two weeks of fighting, that he would still have most of his country? America’s constant pampering of Zelensky and his maudlin hyperbole such as ‘For us, HIMARS is synonymous with justice’ merely ensure that more of Ukraine will be taken in order to keep the hostile part out of range.
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Izvestia
Amnesty International has responded to Zelensky’s criticism
August 6, 2022
Amnesty International has defended its report on the crimes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The human rights organization Amnesty International said it would not retract its findings about crimes committed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF). This was announced on Saturday, August 6, by the human rights organization.
Earlier, on August 4, the human rights organization announced that the Ukrainian military continued to place military equipment and weapons in schools and hospitals, thus violating military law. The organization’s secretary general, Agnes Callamard, said Amnesty International had documented the accusations leveled against the UAF.
“Ignoring the violations committed by either side in any conflict will not give rise to convincing information about the state of human rights”, the statement said, obtained by TASS.
According to an Amnesty International spokesman, all of the report’s conclusions were based on evidence collected during extensive field investigations.
The report was commented upon by the President of the Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. He was outraged about Ukrainian troops having been accused of violating international legal norms and military law. He regarded the organization’s report as an attempt to “shift responsibility from the aggressor to the victim”.
Callamard, commenting on the Ukrainian leader’s statement, stressed that the report’s conclusions were based on evidence collected by human rights activists during extensive investigations, which had been carried out in accordance with strict legal standards and procedures.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, for its part, stated that it had regularly notified the world community about cases of the use of civilians in achieving military goals.
It’s all lies orchestrated by Putin!!!
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link to above.
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The Ukie representative of AI has quit in protest.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-head-of-amnesty-international-chapter-quits-over-controversial-report-about-civilian-harm/ar-AA10nqKa#image=AAZPON3|11
Note the story claims “The report, which drew the ire of top Ukrainian officials and Western scholars of international and military law, alleged that Ukrainian forces violated international humanitarian laws by setting up bases and operating weapons systems in schools, hospitals and other populated areas…” , plainly to create the impression that international lawyers like Frau Fireball don’t buy it. In fact The Resistance is one guy – Marc Garlasco – who states up front that his disagreement is his personal opinion and in no way affiliated with ‘the guys he works for’, and his Twitter feed is full of rebuttals which suggest he is full of shit. He has, to the best of my understanding, no background in law at all, international or otherwise; when he worked for the Pentagon he was Chief of ‘high-value targeting’, and “an American former Pentagon senior intelligence analyst, now senior civilian protection officer for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and senior military advisor for the Human Rights Council (HRC). Having served for seven years at the Pentagon, becoming chief of high-value targeting, Garlasco left in 2003 and joined Human Rights Watch (HRW) as a senior military expert, specializing in battle damage assessment, military operations, and interrogations for the Emergencies Division, where he investigated human rights issues in a number of different conflicts zones.”
https://hrp.bard.edu/marc-garlasco/
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The Ukie representative of AI has quit in protest.
The above sentence is somewhat misleading.
The person in question is not a Ukrainian, as I at first thought when reading it, but a US citizen, who is head of the AI department of Ukrainian affairs.
I wonder when AI is going to investigate the gruesome murders of Russian PoWs, videos of which atrocious acts having been gleefully spread around social networks by delighted retards?
Perhaps AI is more concerned about the shocking reports of degenerate Russian soldiers looting Yukietard shithouses of their furbishments.
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Raise high the roof beam, carpenter!
Reminds me of movie scenes like that barn-raising in “Witness” with the Amish doings the hard work manually.
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Life at the dacha interspersed with episodes in Petersburg, in Doctorow’s usual elegant diary format:
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2022/08/05/report-on-a-three-week-visit-to-st-petersburg-july-2022/
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Could this possibly be “fake”?
Look at the rag here if you wish.
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Well, what do you think?
“The claim of North Korean assistance comes as several Russian satellite states are providing so-called “volunteer” forces, a sign that some Western intelligence analysts have taken as an indication that Vladimir Putin lacks the political capital to order a mass mobilization within Russia.
Just last month, UK spymaster Richard Moore said he believed Russia’s war effort was “about to run out of steam.”
I wonder if Richard Moore is related to Roger Moore – he was quite the spy as well.
The west is working itself into a perfect ecstasy of name-calling and finger gestures in its attempts to provoke Putin into declaring a general mobilization; the west is so simple as a psychological model, if they are screaming that Putin ‘wouldn’t dare’ or ‘doesn’t have the nuts’, it is a sure bet that they really, really want him to do it. Why? Is that the offramp they are looking for? Sure, Ukraine was overwhelmed and defeated – but it took the entire Russian Armed Forces to do it! Shows how weak they really are.
All indications are that Russia is not only using a fraction of its combat-ready forces, it is rotating them in and out of the line so troops in action get some rest; it is the Ukrainians who are being pounded to jelly without letup, and are having to draft women to fill the empty spaces on the bench. And Russia is not going to be taunted by NATO into ordering a larger commitment than it needs. But still the catcalling persists – Putin won’t order a general mobilization, because he’s afraid he’ll look weak or it will lead to massive protests or the sun will turn blue or whatever; anything to anger him into doing it.
It will be the west’s fault if Ukraine suffers the fate the west wet-dreamed for Russia – reduced to a brooding rump state with captured and confiscated territories all around it that used to be Ukraine, perhaps some of them parceled up and awarded to other East-European states as a pacifier. Because the west forbade Zelensky to hold peace talks while he still had some wiggle room. Now the peace talks would look something like Zelensky asking for a ceasefire and then bursting into helpless tears because he would have to beg. He has nothing left to trade with.
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I think few in the West realize, or if they do, they refuse to admit it, that the bulk of the “boots on the ground” in eastern Ukraine are worn by the volunteer militia of the LDPRs, who are literally fighting for their home ground.
For sure, the artillerists in combat there are, I should imagine, mostly Russian Army, and there are the Chechens, about whom one hears little of now. There are also Wagnerites involved in the fighting, but the majority fighting are citizens of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, which soon will be reunited with Mother Russia.
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RT in Russian
Bloomberg: the strengthening of the ruble has become a “headache” for Western companies
August 6, 2022
The strengthening of the Russian ruble against the euro has caused a “headache” for Western companies that are suffering losses, writes Bloomberg.
The material says that foreign companies are facing huge losses in connection with their decision to leave the Russian market.
Johann Strobl, chief executive of the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank, said that his bank’s profits are growing, given the strengthening of the ruble, but for those who have decided to liquidate their business in Russia, the strong Russian currency has become a “headache”.
In addition, the article also provides confirmation of the French credit bank Société Générale SA, which in the second quarter had pre-tax losses caused by its exit from the Russian market that amounted to €3.3 billion.
As Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten noted earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin had been right when he said that the West’s economic blitzkrieg against Russia had failed because Moscow had been “well prepared for an economic war”.
The British magazine “The Economist” also wrote that the Russian economy is showing resilience despite unprecedented sanctions from the West.
link
So what to do chaps?
Yet another sanctions package?
Over to you , Von der Crazy at the EU, UK-PM to be Truss, and Joe-Shat-My-Pants Biden — the ball’s in your court.
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Further evidence of the lengths to which Europe will go for its master, the United States of America. Much of Europe was reluctant to go along with the initial sanctions, remember, until the MH-17 shootdown appeared like a Godsend and the lurid “Putin’s Killed My Son!!” shrieking from the British tabloids pushed them all into furious unity. You really only have to convince France and Germany; the UK is a given in whatever international lark with which America concerns itself, and the rest will follow. In much if not most of this, Germany has been the big player and it is Germany Europe should blame most for its current troubles.
In any event, we are moving quickly toward some as-yet-unseen endgame. Soon now the hot weather will break, and Europeans will look with increasing panic toward winter and the return of the cold. Amateurish attempts to shame or frighten Russia into giving Europe more gas have failed, Uncle Sam is not going to step into the breach with anything other than token volumes, and gas stores are echoing empty or prohibitively low. Either Europe will return to burning coal this winter on a large scale, or it will freeze, and as the weather turns colder the price of gas will reach heretofore-unimagined heights, because it must compete with Asia for available supply.
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I do wonder about MH17. We know and have seen that Russia keeps its powder dry. They just expelled a lot of Bulgarian diplomats/staff in reponse to the latter kicking out 70 odd Russians from Bulgaria.
I think (speculate even!) that Moscow is waiting for the officia conclusion of the MH17 trial before responding. What that might be, from slap to amputation will be interesting. I would also assume at that point Russia would make public the extensive results of its own investigation which I might assume would include names, military units etc. of those involved.
Speaking of the Netherlands, ‘Teflon Rutte’ seems to be in real trouble with Dutch farmers and grumblings are about, even in his own party.
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The Netherlands has already gone well past what it would take to earn undying loathing from Russia, from its entertainment of ‘secret witnesses’ who are plainly Kiev Ukrainians but whom the defendant cannot challenge because he does not know who they are, to rewriting the law whenever its already-loose Dutch provisions are not loose enough to let the prosecutor do as he wishes. As mentioned in this piece, the Netherlands is one of the countries which refuses to deal in rubles and insists that if Russia wants to sell it gas, it must do so for euros deposited in a European bank where Brussels can confiscate it whenever it thinks Russia needs a lesson. Personally I will be glad if Russia cuts Europe off altogether without a sniff of gas, because they’re such a perfidious lot, but I don’t have a personal stake in it or the possibility of not being able to heat my home, and I understand that risk could colour one’s perspective a little.
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Politico: With Russia distracted, clashes rock Nagorno-Karabakh
https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-distracted-ukraine-clash-rock-nagorno-karabakh-azerbaijan/
Azerbaijan and pro-Armenian separatists are clashing. And Russia’s experienced troops have apparently been pulled away to Ukraine.
…The fierce fighting broke out in an area supposedly under the protection of Russian peacekeeping forces deployed under the cease-fire, which ended the swift but bloody Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020. Both sides hailed the deal as a guarantee of stability and security. But with Moscow increasingly embroiled in its invasion of Ukraine, its commitment to the region has come into question.
The Kremlin has reportedly drawn down some of its more experienced peacekeepers, redeploying them to Ukraine. Instead, young conscripts are now manning the mountain outposts meant to act as a buffer against provocations. Locally, Russia’s reputation is in tatters. ..
####
A quite interesting article, which as usual its title is not supported by its contents in any verifiable or meaningful form (sic much projection). As usual, you have to get almost to the end of the article to find that the EU doesn’t have any kind of meaningful presence on the ground, so this ‘article’ while using contemporary and interesting news of developments in the area is used to sling s/t at Russia, is even weaker than the sum of its parts. Unfortunately this is the lazy kind of opinion/projection ‘journalism’ we are now used to in the ‘free, fair and democratic’ west. In normal times this wouldn’t pass muster but its been a long time since anything was ‘normal’ and we (the west) have not had our heads stuck up our own a*ses.
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Jawohl Amerika!
Germany should prepare for disagreements with China — even at the expense of its prosperity — “Der Spiegel”
Berlin has long relied on globalization and strengthened economic cooperation with Beijing, but this era is coming to an end. Now Germany needs to free itself from its dependence on China — even if it costs it its welfare, it will be difficult, costly and inconvenient for German business and politics.
I even rubbed my eyes when I read this. But no, that’s right. Germany is determined to crack down on China at the behest of the United States. Soros’ funds have simply raised a new generation of European politicians and placed people in key positions. Now there are no cheap energy resources from Russia, no contractors from China.
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From the filthy rag “The Guardian”:
From Adelaide to Ukraine: what drove one Australian to join someone else’s war?
Matt Roe gave up a comfortable life to fight the Russian invasion, despite the risks and the possibility of prosecution in his home country
Sat. 6 August, 2022 02.00
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/06/from-adelaide-to-ukraine-what-drove-one-australian-to-join-someone-elses-war
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I wonder why the first Australian mentioned in the “Guardian” article above was not moved by the very many well authenticated photographs of infants and children, as well as men and women of all ages, who have been persistently and callously murdered as the result of bombardments made by Banderastan “Punishment Battalions” against civilian areas of the Donbass since 2014 to the parent day, as well as by bombardments carried out by the Ukraine Army during that same period of time, of which army those erstwhile “battalions”, now designated as “Nationalist Battalions” have long been part?
Could it really be that that noble Australian mercenary is unaware of the criminal activities that have been undertaken by Ukrainian “heroes” against those Donbass citizens whom they label as “terrorists” for the past 8 years?
And if that be the case, then why not?
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I did not cancel the delete format. The posting that was wrongly formatted should have read thus:
Or maybe he just wanted to try his hand at a
Turkey-an Orc-shoot because, you know, Russians are evil and despised and fair game?So he decided to be a “sniper”. and wreak just vengeance on the Evil Orcs.
Noble warrior for freedom and justice!
Funny how the media calls every twat with a rifle a “sniper”. But if he was so distraught at the sight of a dead child, the results of what the guardians of all that is right in the world nonchalantly labels in their many thousands as “collateral damage”, why wasn’t his sensitive soul affected by the deaths of Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan, Libyan etc. children? Why wasn’t he shocked and distraught at the shooting up of civilians in Tskhinvsli by the Georgians, whose shitwit of a leader thought he’d been given the green light to do so by Uncle Sam?
Truth is, you can do what you like to the Orcs and always be duly accoladed in the West for your noble actions. But when push comes to shove and you think you are all tooled up on the front line to bag a few Russkies, then shit happens — as did to that Frog-Canadian sniper and his Frog-Canadian pal, amongst many others, when they found themselves facing a real army that has air dominance and tanks and artillery.
And they skedaddled pronto as soon as the shit began to fly, their shitwit Yukietard army “brothers-in-arms” having been sliced up into smoking chunks of meat by an Orc tank.
I wonder how long the Adelaide arsehole described in the above Guardian article will stick it out in Banderastan before he ends up as dead meat or is taken prisoner?
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And then the media psychologists and behavioral monitors throw their hands up in the air and wail “There’s so much hate!The people are so divided!”
Congratulations. Look at all the effort you put into achieving that effect.
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Present day — not “parent day!!!
Bloody spellchecker!
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Even if it is tacitly ‘illegal’, you have to admire his nobility, because he did it from conviction. I wonder how many other things which are violations of the law you could make that fit? Would it be kind of okay to rob a bank, as long as it was a Russian bank?
Given the ‘Australia Uber Alles’ idiocy of its COVID policies, I shouldn’t worry too much about prosecution for his actions in Oz. Countries are not the same as they were pre-‘pandemic’.
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Meanwhile at the Western propaganda organ CBS:
RT in Russian
CBS: A huge part of Western military aid to Kiev does not reach the front
August 7, 2022
A significant portion of military aid to the Ukraine from Western countries does not reach the front, and donor countries often do not have the opportunity to control the use of its donations, several people in a CBS documentary have said.
The authors of the film expressed concern that a significant part of the weapons supplied by the West to the Ukraine end up on the black market.
“I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the units on the front line do not receive “switchblade” drones, bulletproof vests, helmets — you can add to the list yourself”, said US Marine Corps veteran Andy Milburn.
He admitted that the weapons could fall “into the wrong hands”.
According to another “hero” of the documentary, Jonas Ochman, only 30% of the weapons supplied to Kiev reach the front line.
Donatella Rovera, senior crisis adviser at the human rights organization Amnesty International, stressed that there is no data on the distribution of military aid in the Ukraine.
“But what’s even more worrying is that at least some of the countries that send weapons don’t seem to think it’s their responsibility to put in place a very efficient mechanism so as to know how these shipments are being used today and how they can and will be used tomorrow,” she said.
Earlier, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu recalled that some of the foreign weapons supplied to the Ukraine end up on the black market.
According to the “Financial Times”, the EU and NATO plan to tighten control over the transfer of weapons to Kiev.
link
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The irony here is that the west goading Russia in to war so it could hoover up military SIGNIT which it could then use to improve its own systems for when the Big One happens. Russia has been very careful about their deployed systems. I doubt even the much vaunted Krusya (sp?) 4 that was supposedly ‘captured’ after being abandoned was kosher, though reports did not ascertain definitively whether it was intact
Now we have the west essentially sending out their out of date and mostly second hand cr*p to Russia which is of little value except to see the design philosophy from a direct point of view.
Good news for terrorists and very violent organized crime groups, come soon to a capital near you in u-Rope. But remember kids, its not your politician’s fault. It’s merely by accident. Again. With better equipment terrorist will be more willing to hit high-value and much better equipped targets.
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Look out! There’s a new ‘expert’ in town. It seems to be that all you need these days to be labeled an expert is talk the right talk – as in what people want to hear – and set up your own consultancy with the words ‘research network’ somewhere in the title.
https://english.nv.ua/nation/russia-generals-trapped-due-in-ukraine-due-to-putin-s-order-russia-ukraine-war-50261541.html
Once again, Putin has made a major blunder; sooner or later, the natural strategists in Ukraine are going to exploit this unvarying series of fuck-ups and drive the Godless Russians into the sea.
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Is that plagiarized from a Ukrainian report back in April, 2022? It sounds awfully familiar.
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Could be; I don’t know. It’s some new site called the ‘New Voice of Ukraine”. Maybe the author wrote an earlier report or something, and simply copied it – I find that all that ‘we’re totally winning and everything the enemy does is stupids’ propaganda all sounds the same after a couple of examples anyway. But it’s only ‘disinformation’ if it comes from a Russian source. In much the same way that ‘HIMARS’ has become synonymous with ‘justice’ in Ukraine (gag, gag), ‘Disinformation’ has become synonymous with ‘stuff we don’t like to hear’.
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What you need to know about The New Voice of Ukraine:
https://english.nv.ua/en/life/about-us-50257487.html
It even has a special section devoted to exposing and sanctioning Western firms exporting items to Russia that could be used by its military:
https://english.nv.ua/business/total-isolation-of-russia.html
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McGuffie…yes, there’s a staunch old Ukrainian name…
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Well back in the 1700’s the two Spanish Generals sent to defend Cuba against the British were something like O’Rourke and O’Shea.
And let us remember that great Francophone Premier of Québec, Daniel Johnson.
IIRC the current Kievian governor of Zaporozhye is named Kim.
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Not forgetting one of the leaders of Chile’s independence back in the early 1800s, one Bernardo O’Higgins.
Being Roman Catholic, the Irish were allowed to emigrate to Spanish colonial America and many of their descendants (especially if they themselves were noble or came from wealthy families) intermarried with Spanish nobility. I understand a lot of French Canadians also have Irish or Anglo-Irish ancestry.
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Oops! Don’t see the above.
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I remember a French skiing champion called Jean Claud Killy. His family name is the result of the frogification of Kelly, one of his forebears having been one of the “Wild Geese”, Irishmen who left Ireland so as serve in the French military.
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Not to mention Bernardo O’Higgins.
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Not Evil Russia’s fault?
LENTA. RU
Handelsblatt: Europe is provoking an energy crisis in third world countries
August 7, 2022
Europe is looking around the world for a replacement for Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) and, as a result, is taking the blue fuel away from third world countries. This is reported by “InoSMI” with reference to the German newspaper “Handelsblatt”.
According to the publication, the Europeans are creating competition in the LNG markets and provoking gas problems in third world countries. It is noted that energy companies in developing countries are no longer able to purchase gas at world prices.
Steve Hill, vice president of oil and gas company Shell, called the gas situation in Asia critical. He said that Europe is pumping gas from the rest of the world and creating an energy crisis in developing countries. For example, Bangladesh has already accused the European Union of luring LNG producers to its side with money and depriving millions of people in developing countries of the blue fuel.
Earlier, Igor Yushkov, a leading analyst at the National Energy Security Fund, said that for several years now there had been a “price arbitrage” system in the world, according to which the LNG supplier sells gas to countries that offer more money. According to the analyst, if before the prices for blue fuel were higher in Asia, today the cost of gas in Europe has overtaken the prices in Asia.
European values — business is business and it is Russia that has forced the free and democratic world to take such drastic steps that are causing fuel shortages in third-world countries, innit?
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GAZETA.RU
Lebanese Minister of Transport Hamia has said that a cargo ship with Ukrainian grain had changed course
August 7, 2022
Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamia said on Twitter that the first bulk carrier carrying Ukrainian grain, the Razoni, has changed its course and is likely waiting for instructions for a new destination.
“The Razoni, which left the the port of Odessa with a cargo of grain and had been rumoured to be in the port of Tripoli in the Lebanon, changed course before arriving at its originally announced destination. The data indicates that it is awaiting instructions to determine its new destination”, he said.
Earlier, a source in the port administration told TASS that the Razoni cargo vessel carrying Ukrainian grain had changed its course and would arrive in the Lebanese port of Tripoli on Tuesday morning.
On July 22, representatives of Russia, Turkey, the Ukraine and the UN signed an agreement on the creation of a grain corridor for the export of agricultural products from the Ukraine via the Black Sea.
Looking for the premium price for its cargo so as to add even more lolly to the Clown Hero’s offshore account, I suppose.
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al-Beeb s’Allah: Ayman al-Zawahiri: How US strike could kill al-Qaeda leader – but not his family
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62400923
…How was it possible to strike so precisely? In the past the US has faced criticism for strikes and targeting errors that have killed civilians.
But in this case, here’s how the type of missile, and a close study of Zawahiri’s habits, made it happen – and why more strikes could follow…
####
This is a horrible military industrial complex advertorial by the BBC masquerading as journalism. Rather than focus on what this means for Afghanistan, neighbors, stability etc., instead it is one giant military orgasm. And of course, don’t speculate on potential consequences.
The following article by ‘China Hand’ Peter Lee does ask and is much better job (not hard –
‘scuse the pun).
Asia Times: Bladed ‘Ninja’ missile decapitated al-Qaeda’s head
https://asiatimes.com/2022/08/bladed-ninja-missile-decapitated-al-qaedas-head/
Missile used to assassinate Ayman al-Zawahiri is part of a frightful new generation of unregulated autonomous weapons
by Peter Lee
…New rules of war
Are new laws or treaties needed to limit these futuristic weapons? In short, yes but they don’t look likely. The US has called for a global agreement to stop anti-satellite missile testing – but there has been no uptake.
The closest to an agreement is the signing of NASA’s Artemis Accords. These are principles to promotes peaceful use of space exploration. But they only apply to “civil space activities conducted by the civil space agencies” of the signatory countries. In other words, the agreement does not extend to military space activities or terrestrial battlefields.
In contrast, the US has withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. This is part of a long-term pattern of withdrawal from global agreements by US administrations…
####
More at the link.
And this is even better despite its cliches:
Asia Times: A closer look at Ayman al-Zawahiri’s ‘death’ in US air strike
https://asiatimes.com/2022/08/a-closer-look-at-ayman-al-zawahiris-death-in-us-air-strike/
Not for the first time, US actions in Afghanistan may not be what they seem – or are claimed to be
####
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Mention was made in a comment above about the Kiev Clown’s wife, who is now getting a larger profile in Banderastan, possibly in preparation for her spouse’s fleeing that shithole of a state that is fighting for its freedom in a proxy US war against the Evil Orcs.
It seems that the persecuted-Jew card is now coming more into play.
The other day, Elensky lied through his teeth in a statement in which, amongst other horrors that the Orcs are meeting out to the darling Banderites, was included their destruction of Ukraine memorials to the “Holocaust’.
It was commented in some alternative media that he was perhaps referring to such a memorial situated near the TV tower in Kiev, which was struck by a Russian missile attack a while back. It was pointed out in the alt-media that a French reporter at the scene had said that this memorial had suffered no damage whatsoever, that the Orcs’ precision strike had successfully been directed at a military communications centre situated on the territory of the tower.
And yesterday, up spoke Zelenskaya, the Clown’s wife, whose dealings with Yukie oligarchs as regards her legally dubious purchase of a luxury penthouse suite in a top-class Crimean hotel had a good while ago caused critical comment, which criticism having been promptly hushed up.
Zelenskaya chirped up yesterday, according to Russian news sources here, about the present Israeli attacks against the population of the Gaza Strip, in that she likened the Israeli “fight for its independence and attacks from Palestinian terrorists” to the struggle that Banderastan is now undergoing in its fight for independence and against attacks by the “Terrorist State”, which term Elensky has started to use more frequently when referring to Russia, having no doubt taken his cue from the US Congress, which is trying to have a law passed whereby Russia will be classified as a “Terrorist State”.
This is rich coming from a Jew who is the head of a state that reveres a noted anti-Semite as its founder, the “Father” of Banderastan, monuments to which Nazi collaborator now having been scattered throughout “Independent Ukraine”, for which fawning reference shown towards Bandera, “Independent Ukraine” has been strongly criticized by the Israeli government.
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meting out!!!
Bloody shitwit spellchecker!
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RT
AI apologizes for hurting Banderastan feelings:
7 Aug, 2022 16:43
Amnesty apologizes after Ukrainian pressure
However, the rights group insisted that it “fully” stands by its findings about Kiev’s behavior
International human rights group Amnesty International has issued an apology for the consternation triggered by its recent report, which, among other things, accused the Ukrainian armed forces of violating “international humanitarian law and endanger[ing] civilians.” The organization has, however, refused to disavow its findings.
In an e-mail sent to Reuters on Sunday, Amnesty said that it “deeply regrets the distress and anger that our press release on the Ukrainian military’s fighting tactics has caused,” as cited by Reuters.
The rights group went on to explain that its “sole objective” in publishing the analysis was to ensure that “civilians are protected.” It also made it clear that it “fully stand[s] by our findings.”
In its email, Amnesty insisted that its observers had sighted Ukrainian forces in the vicinity of residential areas in at least 19 towns and villages across the country. According to the organization, by positioning its forces in such a manner, the Ukrainian military endangered the civilian populations there by subjecting them to the danger of incoming Russian fire.
Soon after the findings were published, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky accused Amnesty of trying to shift the responsibility away from Russian troops. Addressing these criticisms, the group stressed that its findings do not suggest that “Amnesty International holds Ukrainian forces responsible for violations committed by Russian forces, nor that the Ukrainian military is not taking adequate precautions elsewhere in the country.”
The rights group added: “Nothing we documented Ukrainian forces doing in any way justifies Russian violations.”
The report in question was published on Thursday. While lambasting Russian forces, the investigation also took aim at the Ukrainian military, claiming that it had displayed a troubling pattern of “putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war” by operating from residential infrastructure, including schools.
Commenting on the group’s findings, Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, emphasized that “being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law.”
Zelensky, however, lashed out at Amnesty, proclaiming that anyone who doubts that “Ukraine is a victim” is an “accomplice of Russia – a terrorist country – and a terrorist themselves and a participant in the killings.”
Ukrainian officials have also insisted that Kiev is doing its best to evacuate civilians out of harm’s way.
Russia, in turn, pointed out that it had repeatedly called out Ukrainian troops for using civilians as “human shields,” and Amnesty’s findings only serve to confirm that.
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It sounds a bit of an apology like “I’m sorry if the fact you didn’t know what is going on upset you, although as the country’s leader you should know what is going on.” Good for Callamard if she won’t back down, and this is the point where Elensky should drop it if that is the case because he is only worsening his credibility by continuing to push. I don’t have a lot of personal respect for AI’s howling and have found them a bit flaky and political in the past, and I’m not sure what their evidence is in this instance, but it is to their credit that they won’t back down. And if they don’t, each apology only allows them to repeat the accusations.
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7 August Moon of Alabama comment:
Graham Phillips mailing list email from a few days ago:
“Clearly I would love to be writing to you and speaking about my recent, and i feel important, reportage from Severodonetsk, Donbass, and not only. However, due to the actions of the UK government, in the first place i write asking for your support. Not financial support, there’s no point in that for now – please note that i have now suspended ALL my crowdfunding on western platforms – Patreon, and Paypal. Actually, they have both frozen my accounts for as long as I’m sanctioned by the UK government, my bank account is also seized by the UK government with no means of accessing funds there.
If you have a direct debit set up to support me on Patreon, or anywhere, please CANCEL it now.
I will get by in Donbass with what you’ve been kind enough to donate in the past. For now, i need your support in a different way. The UK government have sanctioned me for my work from here in Donbass. They’ve made me the first. the only, British person in history to be sanctioned by his own country. You may well have heard ‘sanctions’ so many times the word appears to mean little. And indeed, if the UK government sanctions a random Russian oblast governor, as they like to do, it likely means little to nothing to them – they didn’t plan to come to the UK anyway, had nothing to lose in the UK.
When the UK sanctions their own citizen, myself, sanctions are not so trivial. I don’t have access to any of my UK bank accounts or as mentioned, Paypal etc. That means I can’t return home to the UK, because i can’t buy a plane ticket – sanctions on me also make it illegal for any British citizen to either give, or receive money from me. So, i ask, say a non-British friend to help me buy a plane ticket, and get home to the UK. And what next? I may have enough left on my Oyster card to get me home on the Tube, but after that how do I even find food money? How do i pay any of my bills? How do i defend myself in court for actions on unpaid bills, when i don’t even have bus money to get to the court, let alone for a lawyer?
Effectively, it’s the UK government forcing me into exile without having the courage to try to strip me of my passport, knowing there are no legal grounds for that. Making me a criminal without any criminal accusations against me. Giving me a criminal punishment with no recourse to any court of law. Actually it’s the UK government simply deciding to do away with our legal system, established by Magna Carta, in 1215, entirely. And for what – because, as they say, I’m a ‘videoblogger who produces video material which threatens the sovereignty of Ukraine’ – and with all their millions, and media might, and BBC etc, if that’s the case, they can’t just make better videos than me, or videos ‘exposing’ any untruths in my own?
The UK government sanctioning me legitimises me as an ‘enemy of the state’ of the UK, and in the last week I’ve received countless death threats of what will happen to me if I return to the UK. It is, simply put, an attempt by the UK government to destroy me in every way they can – by attack on reputation, destitution, attempt to put me in maximum danger, with over 100,000 Ukrainians now in the UK.
And what have i done to deserve this? From 2014, with a handheld camera, filmed and shown you the truth from Donbass. From the start of 2015, I’ve been completely independent as a journalist, an independent British journalist, my work funded by people like yourself. Many times I’ve reached out to you in the past, you’ve supported me, supported my work, via Patreon, Paypal, etc. That is what has covered my costs, made all my work possible, all these years! As i say, there’s no point in that now. So, I’m asking for your support this way.
1/2
Posted by: Mark Marksson | Aug 7 2022 9:32 utc
“Global Britain” with its awe-inspiring majesty!
I’m on Graham’s mailing list but hve not received the above.
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Unless he had a full residency permit for a foreign citizen in Russia, as do I, upon the expiry of his present visa, Graham Phillips should have to leave Russia. However, it seems he is now resident in the DPR, which de jure is part of Banderastan. I presume he has a DPR visa, whose validity would no doubt be spat upon by the authorities in the free and bounteous West.
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GAZETA. RU
WSJ has predicted the failure of Blinken’s trip to Africa because of Lavrov
WSJ: State Department chief Blinken’s visit to Africa may end in failure because of Lavrov
August 8, 2022
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken begins his African tour amid growing concern in Washington about Moscow’s growing influence on the continent, writes The Wall Street Journal.
According to the newspaper’s observers, the leading countries of Africa had not supported the anti-Russian campaign of the West because of the crisis in the Ukraine and taken a neutral position, which is a “wake-up signal” for the White House.
As noted, as part of the tour, Blinken is going to visit South Africa, the Congo and Rwanda. At the same time, the trip of the head of the State Department started after the recent visit to the continent by his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, which makes it difficult for the American diplomat to change the position of African countries towards Russia.
From the point of view of the newspaper’s observers, it is possible that Blinken may fail, since during his trip Lavrov pointed to the responsibility of the United States and the European Union for the rise in food prices, which have seriously hit Africa.
Moscow’s position on the continent is shared by many, for example, in the same African Union they announced problems with the purchase of Russian products because of Western sanctions, which had led to the disconnection of Russian banks from the SWIFT system.
Earlier, the media reported that Lavrov’s visit to Africa shows that the West had failed to make the Russian Federation a pariah.
Lavrov is a pretty hard act for a rank amateur and incompetent such as is Blinken to follow.
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RIA Novosti
08: 00 08.08.2022 (updated: 11: 30 08.08.2022)
The US is looking for a replacement for Zelensky
Columnist Victoria Nikiforova writes that the United States is looking for a replacement for Zelensky
More recently, the head of the Kiev regime in his khaki T-shirt was a global icon, which the progressive media planted around the world like potatoes. He was even called the second Churchill — a comparison with the heavy drinker who triggered the collapse of the British Empire, given only to the most distinguished representatives of the colonial elites on a first-come, first-served basis.
And suddenly it stopped. Zelensky began to scold and scold those who loved him so much recently: American congressmen, journalists, even human rights activists. Suddenly it turned out that everything is somehow wrong in the Ukraine.
Left-wing elites remembered about “Azov “*. Yes, they say, there are such fascizoid bandits in the Ukraine, next to which the Austrian artist is just a baby. American and European Nazis are going to them today to gain experience. It’s good if the Russians denazify them all there. What if someone escapes? He will come back and commit such a genocide at home that Anders Breivik will get jealous. “Maybe the Ukrainian Nazis shouldn’t be walking around so much” left-wing intellectuals timidly asked themselves.
The head of the IAEA deigned to note that the Ukraine military had fired at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, and expressed “concern” about this. Well, thank you for that. Previously, he preferred not to see the Ukraine military trying to provoke monstrous disasters here and there.
Suddenly, the legendary Amnesty International reminded us of itself. In their sensational report, human rights activists noted that by placing military equipment in residential buildings, schools and hospitals, the Ukraine violates international law.
Even before that, Western human rights activists were diligently slandering Zelensky for violating the rights of such a minority as the “Civil Men of the Ukraine”. Yes, it’s a funny phrase, but still. The fact is that a month ago, the head of the General Staff of the Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhny, issued an order prohibiting reservists from leaving their place of residence.
Naturally, at the same time, the Ukrainians ran abroad en masse. But here’s the problem. Border guards let women and children through and nabbed up the men. Neither hastily plastered certificates with seals, nor references to their purely peaceful identity, nor attempts to make them look like minorities helped.
On the western border of the Ukraine, real tragedies were played out. The men suffered. The influential Foreign Policy publication published the sad story of one such a refugee who had tried to cross the Polish border with her American husband. Her husband was allowed to leave, but she wasn’t. “They didn’t look at the fact that I was gay” the peace — loving Ukrainian complained to human rights activists. “They were looking to see if I had a penis”.
This and similar stories were incriminating towards to Zelensky as a violation of the rights of Civilian Ukrainian men. He caught the signal and immediately canceled Zaluzhny’s order, but then a new attack occurred.
This time Zelensky received a message from his compatriot Viktoria Kulgeyko (married Spartz). Interestingly, her career was almost better than Zelensky’s own.
Kulgeiko was born in 1978 in Nosovka, the Ukraine. A “Pioneer”, excellent student, graduated from school with a gold medal. Once on the train from Kiev to Moscow, she met an American. In 2000, she married him, and in 2006, she received American citizenship. She made an excellent political career and in 2020 found herself in the US Congress for the Republicans. That’s not bad, is it?
Today, Kulgeiko-Spartz is opening the eyes of fellow congressmen to the fact that Kiev steals their money and resells almost all the supplied weapons to the left. She demands that Zelensky stop “playing politics and theatre” and start fighting for real. And then, look, the Ukrainians are sitting in cafés — no, no, urgently to the front, general mobilization!
Inside the US Spartz shakes the theme “we will not let you turn the Ukraine into a second Afghanistan”. Republicans are pushing this with all their might. Democrats criticize, and they are doing this a lot.
The strange thing is not that in Kiev they steal American money and resell Western weapons. The strange thing is that the Americans are talking about it, but how loudly. But this kind of thing has been going on not only for years — but for decades, and no one cared. The leaders of Afghanistan were replaced one after another, and no one prevented them from taking a small share of the cuts and kickbacks. Zelensky has been much less fortunate.
“I’m not at all sure that the president of the Ukraine is what the Western media portrays him to be”, Sky News anchor Cory Bernardi has said only recently. “The Western media cover up all the horrors that are happening under Zelensky with ethnic Russians in the Ukraine… He promised to end the civil war in the Ukraine, but he clearly failed”. Amazing, isn’t it? Hae they finally seen the light?
No, it is pointless to hope for any high morals of the American partners. The global regional committee has simply begun to look for Zelensky’s replacement. The artist is clearly not coping. Today, his place in the progressive media was taken by the same General Zaluzhny, with whom Zelensky has already had issues.
“Icon of the Ukrainian resistance”, “legend”, “iron general” — in this style they write today in the West about Valery Zaluzhny, the head of the Ukrainian General Staff. A photo shoot with the general has just made by Ukrainian Vogue. “Ukrainian children use his name in their games”, the “Straights Times” reports about him, and I’m even afraid to think what the journalists mean. In general, in the West he has been positioned as the new hope for the Ukraine. He’s going to beat the Russians.
Western experts who once loved Zelensky so much are ironic about his jealousy of Zaluzhny. But the thing here is not only in the jealousy of a slender of an intellectual towards a tall, pumped-up military man. It’s much worse.
It’s no secret that Zelensky has always been disliked by local nationalists. But over the past few months, he has given rise to a lot of haters inside the Ukrainian army. It’s not hard to imagine how Zaluzhny felt when Zelensky canceled his orders, and even made a public reprimand towards him.
By the way, back to Churchill. Exactly sixty years ago, the colonial administration of South Vietnam was headed by a protégé of the Americans — a local boy from a good family, Ngo Dinh Diem. He was a very intelligent man, no kidding. He was the first third-world politician to be elevated to the rank of “the new Churchill” by the Americans. That’s what the Democratic Vice president Lyndon Johnson said: everyone liked the comparison, it was reprinted in all the newspapers.
The US pumped South Vietnam with weapons and forced it to fight North Vietnam. However, the South Vietnamese military did not like Ngo Dinh Diem. Most of all, he was disliked by Zuong Van Minh (Big Minh) — a tall and muscular general who believed that the president was corrupt and deliberately leaked military operations.
By 1963, the New Churchill was noticeably fed up with his American masters. Historians still debate whether the CIA was involved in a plot against him or not, but two things are crystal clear: the US intelligence agencies learnt about a military plot against Ngo Dinh Diem and removed their protection from him. The coup was led by General Zuong Van Minh. On November 2, 1963, the New Churchill was abducted, taken to a basement, and shot in the temple. No one really felt sorry for him. Lyndon Johnson was just not up to it: just twenty days later, Kennedy was shot in Dallas, and Johnson became president of the United States.
Interestingly, Big Minh went through all the vicissitudes of the Vietnam War in one piece. In 1975 (after the next president had fled), he announced the surrender of South Vietnam and handed over the affairs to the North Vietnamese comrades, after which he was released to all sides and lived quietly in his villa, where he raised birds and orchids. He died of natural causes at the age of 85. In the 1990s, management Vietnam even discussed whether to award him the title of “Hero of Vietnam”.
I don’t know why I remembered that story. “There are strange encounters…” Sometimes it seems to me that the safest outcome for Vladimir Zelensky would be to have a long sentence somewhere in the Mordovian penal colony. He could have organized an amateur theatre there, lived and did not grieved — he is, after all, a talented person.
* A terrorist organization banned in Russia.
I guess “Civilian Ukrainian Men” is a homosexual party.
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“The Western media cover up all the horrors that are happening under Zelensky with ethnic Russians in the Ukraine… He promised to end the civil war in the Ukraine, but he clearly failed”. Amazing, isn’t it? Have they finally seen the light?
In order for their illusions to fall away and allow them to see through new eyes, the west would first have to wish that the civil war in Ukraine end. Western leaders said nothing when Zelensky campaigned on peace with Russia and an honorable end to the fighting, because nobody knows better than they that you sometimes have to just find your inner bullshit in order to get elected. Nobody really expects you to keep your promises because hardly anyone ever does.
The west does not want the war to end, obviously, and it had any number of opportunities to pressure Ukraine to make peace with Russia like Zelensky said he would, if that’s what the west wanted. It is perfectly happy with war between the two, and feeds and pokes it constantly even as think-tanks speculate – hopefully – that it will last for years. What it will not be willing to do is continue chucking money at the place if Zelensky is on his last legs. I read recently that Ukraine’s GDP is expected to contract by 45% this year – that’s fatal.
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That wondrous sage and outstanding expert on all things Russian, McFaul, has written in an opinion piece that only one person can stop the war in the Ukraine — Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
I have not read the article, the link to which is in a recent MoA comment, because at my age, extreme anger could lead to a seizure, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if in it the bullshitting “academic” referred to the President of Russia as “Vlad”, so knowledgable is McFaul of Russia, the Russian language and culture.
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The best way to avoid a damaging seizure is to have a little one every day, so that you toughen yourself against the big one. Trust me; I know. There is no local newspaper on Mondays, and a shipmate brought in a stack of relatively-current and older issues of The Economist. So that’s what I read all day. I had so many brain bleeds it began to leak out my ears, and everything smelt like pencil shavings and bacon. But the bacon, fortunately, was real.
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Asia Times: Taiwan’s reunification countdown has begun
https://asiatimes.com/2022/08/taiwans-reunification-countdown-has-begun/
Live-fire exercises that began on August 5 were not a drill but the real thing, namely a blockade of Taiwan that China can prolong at will
by Uwe Parpart and David P. Goldman
…Too willfully provocative was Pelosi’s action and too puny were the White House and National Security Council’s efforts to rein her in. Together they persuaded Beijing that this Washington or the next administration under Biden’s successor would continue to vitiate and ultimately aim to discard the One China policy….
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And that there is what we have seen time and again with Non-Agreement Capable (NAC) United States and their spineless u-ropean allies with the likes of Minsk I, Minsk II etc. etc.
Rather than wait and hope it works out (something that a normal person would learn to discard early on in life but often we don’t), Beijing is chosing the timing and means to its advantage, just like Russia. I doubt ‘we’ will handle it any better either.
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Politico: Pentagon still assesses China will not invade Taiwan in next two years
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/08/pentagon-still-assesses-china-will-not-invade-taiwan-in-next-two-years-00050383
But top Defense policy official warns about China’s attempt to “salami slice their way into a new status quo.”
…“It’s clear that Beijing is trying to create a kind of new normal with the goal of trying to coerce Taiwan but also frankly to coerce the international community given the importance of the Taiwan Strait to the global economy,” he added.
Kahl said China’s reaction to Pelosi’s visit was a “manufactured” crisis, noting that U.S representatives regularly travel to Taiwan.
The United States continues to support a One China policy and does not recognize Taiwan as a separate nation, but Washington supports Taipei with arms sales for self-defense.
“Our policy has not changed, it is support for the status quo,” Kahl said. “China’s policy is what’s changed.”…
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More backwards rubbish at the link.
Changing the status quo is not the arrival of the third most powerful person in the United States. No. Changing the staus quo is the reaction to the third most powerful person in the United States visiting Taiwan. The US yet again really does make its own (false) reality.
Khal seems to think that if he really sounds like he belives what he is saying and is convincing enough, then that as good as being true.
As has become depressingly normal, we accuse the other of everything that we have been doing.
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China made it clear that a visit from Pelosi would be unwelcome and would be considered a repudiation of the ‘One China’ policy. And Pelosi and the other Americans who back her – you know, the ones who pretended she is a free spirit and nobody can control her – insisted on her right to visit despite China’s clear warning that there would be consequences. And now when there are consequences, the USA is all like, whoa, where is this coming from? China is serving notice – pretending to be a halfwit is no longer going to serve as a tactic to get you out of a jam.
Sure, other American representatives visit. When they clear their visit in advance and the Chinese are satisfied it is innocent of a political agenda and is not posturing for the world and trying to start trouble. Pelosi’s visit was all of those, and China warned the USA up front. The USA decided to ignore the warning, and is now in the uncomfortable position where it has to make a big show of force, or back down. The former could lead to an actual exchange of hostilities when America is already quite busy starting trouble elsewhere, and the latter will encourage mockery and further disobedience of American diktat.
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An effect of even a short blockade may well be knock on effects on Taiwan’s chip making industry which relies on stuff like… fresh water. All those plans for building plants in the US and u-Rope might get pushed to the right (if they ever come to fruition considering the subsidies required) as stabilizing a wobbly domestic chip industry would come first.
From last year:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/emanuelabarbiroglio/2021/05/31/no-water-no-microchips-what-is-happening-in-taiwan/
…Typhoons are an important source of water supply for Taiwan. As there hasn’t been any last year, the country got little rainfall last summer.
“Especially in central and southern Taiwan, rainfall has been lacking from last October until now,” explains Greenpeace East-Asia campaigner, June Liu. “Furthermore, the delay of the spring rain makes the situation even worse. Domestic water use has been cut off two days a week since April this year in some cities.”
Taiwan is normally a place with plenty of rain. However, due to topographical factors and people’s water use habits, water shortage has not been rare in the past 10 years. This is the most severe since 1964….
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From May of this year:
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/taiwan-cuts-water-supply-tsmc-and-micron-chipmakers-say-they-have-sufficient-reserves/
…The government will reduce water supply to two science parks in Taichung by 15 percent, home to chip fabs operated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Micron Technology.
TSMC said that production would not be affected and that it would ramp up efforts to truck water in. Micron declined to comment…
####
As for defense:
Taiwan Faces Urgent Fighter Pilot Shortage as Xi Tests Defenses
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-04/taiwan-faces-urgent-fighter-pilot-shortage-as-xi-tests-defenses
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Considering the Asia Times analysis earlier, it certainly looks like China is aiming to stretch, twist and generally stress the Taiwanese military to show the cracks, which in turn would mean $$$ to fix and an obvious and open bill that the whole public can see. It’s one thing to declare ‘Never!’, but if you tell the voter it’ll cost you XXX$ and pony up, well.
As appealing as the claim that China fluffed its response to Pelosi’s trip, something similar was said about Russia before it carried out the SMO, particularly by the hardcore ‘DO SOMETHING NOW’ crowd aka ‘PUTIN WEAK!’ I’m in wait and see mode. China has its own way up upping and downing the pain mode.
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Well, I wonder how many times it will have to happen that the USA stakes a loose claim to some subordinate isle or oblast, and says, this here is the very essence of freedom and democracy. I claim it for freedom-lovers everywhere…and the country that has warned them for years to mind their own fucking business takes it over. I wonder how many times that will have to happen before these noodnik freedom-lovers intuit that attracting the brotherly interest of America and selling it on your bid for independence is the kiss of death? Take Ukraine. It wanted to be independent and sovereign, and not only was it permitted to do that, Russia absorbed its debts. But that wasn’t good enough. It had to be independent and sovereign AND a member of a hostile military alliance that keeps starting fights around the world so it can look necessary and needed.
Taiwan has been allowed, just like Hong Kong, to be largely self-governing and to maintain its own military and even its own flag. But of course the parent country is going to draw the line at its associated member taking advice from an avaricious military power that wishes the parent country harm or even destruction.
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EU Observer: Energy companies warn UK gas exports to EU are contaminated
https://euobserver.com/tickers/155718
Energy companies, including Belgian Fluxys and French utility EDF, have warned gas exports from the UK to the EU are “contaminated” with toxic elements that are often radioactive. Removing the materials has cost gas traders an estimated €320m. If the problem is left unchecked pipelines may have to be closed down this winter. EU countries are struggling to replace Russian gas and the UK has become a vital gas bridge.
####
From London with love, I bring to you,
Radioactive gas, a big f/k you…
In other news, the SPD has failed to throw Schroder out of the party, the Rhine is at an all time low with knock on transport effects and Finnish PM Marin thinks all Russian tourists should ‘not be allowed in u-Rope.’ Remember kids, it’s not bigotry when it is right (i.e. in ‘our’ favor).
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Radioactive freedom molecules?
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Saw a story the other day that 70% of foreign military aid does not reach the front lines. The pitch was it was corruption. Sure a few percent. The real cause were Russian strikes. How obvious does this truth need to be before it is reported as such?
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Here are some samples of the good news the west is getting from energy traders, via my OilPrice news:
OPEC+ Increases September Target by a Meager 100,000 b/d. Meeting to set its collective September 2022 production target, OPEC+ has agreed to the lowest monthly quota increase since 1986, at 100,000 b/d, implying that the oil group is still assessing the risks of recession to take more radical steps.
Giant Kazakh Oil Field Halted Amidst Gas Leak. Crude production at Kazakhstan’s 13-billion-barrel Kashagan field was completely halted mid-week amidst fears that pipelines connecting the shallow-water platforms to the shore might be leaking, probably due to equipment corrosion.
UN Head Calls for Taxing “Grotesquely Greedy” Oil. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called governments globally to tax these excessive profits and redistribute them, saying oil companies have been making immoral profits on the backs of the poorest people.
OPEC Promises to Have More Capacity for Winter. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are apparently ramping up spare production capacity to be able to deliver any significant demands in case of a winter supply crisis, seeking to soften the reputational blow following the 100,000 b/d quota hike for September.
Diesel Stocks Indicate Trouble Brewing Ahead. Whilst the markets at large have been focusing on rising gasoline inventories in the US, middle distillate stocks have been nearing critically low levels with this week’s data showing another 2-million-barrel decline, with total inventories more than 21 million barrels below the corresponding point in 2008.
Russian Government Gives Sakhalin-2 to Gazprom. A Russian government decree issued this week saw Gazprom receiving 50% of the Sakhalin-2 LNG project, with the remained of shares split across those project partners who reapply for their share, with Shell (LON:SHEL) seeking to sell its 27.5% stake before it gets too late.
Germany Runs into Legal Issues with Gas Levy. The German government acknowledged that it would have to amend its recently adopted energy security law as it turned out it cannot impose the oft-mooted gas levy on consumers who have their gas contracts with fixed prices, roughly a quarter of all deliveries.
Bad News Will Now Come More Frequently in the UK. With the Bank of England expecting the cap on energy bills to soar to 3,500 pounds, the British energy market regulator Ofgem announced it would review the country’s price cap on a quarterly basis rather than twice a year.
Russia Bans Western Firms from Selling Energy Stakes. The Russian government has banned companies from so-called unfriendly countries from selling shares in key energy projects until the end of the year, implying that US major ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) will not be able to get out of Sakhalin-1.
The one about Germany’s issues with its proposed gas levy is a puzzler, I must say – how is it possible for the government to cock up the implementation of a simple tax law in a country where the Foreign Minister is an international lawyer?
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Hey, Big Sauerkraut! Got y’ ears on? Message coming in from the Mises Institute! You should abandon the following four failed policies at once:
1. The green energy projects.
2. Membership in the European Monetary Union (EMU).
3. Membership in the European Union.
4. Membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and economic sanctions against Russia.
Gosh! No argument here.
https://mises.org/wire/germany-can-save-itself-and-possibly-world-abandoning-four-failed-policies
Oh – and when Uncle Sammy comes calling for all his friends to ‘stand up and be counted’ in his coming ratcheted-up trade war with China, say you’re going to sit this one out. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstories/trade-war-with-china-could-cost-germany-six-times-as-much-as-brexit-ifo/ar-AA10qa2E
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More dough for the Clown and friends’ offshore coffers:
RT
8 Aug, 2022 21:08
Pentagon doles out another $1 billion in Ukraine aid
Washington’s latest military assistance for Kiev marks its largest batch of weaponry since Russia’s offensive began in February
Only about 30% of the weapons sent to Ukraine by the US and its allies have actually made it to the front lines, according to a CBS News investigative report that was released on Thursday. Getting weapons to the troops involves navigating a complex network of “power lords, oligarchs [and] political players,” the outlet cited Lithuanian aid group founder Jonas Ohman as saying. However, facing pressure from the Ukrainian government and its supporters, CBS censored itself on Sunday, deciding to cancel a documentary that it had planned to broadcast on the issue and revising the text version of its report.
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Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Colin Kahl (former professor at the University of Minnesota ) has confirmed data, previously presented by Eliza Slotkina. I wonder what Газета.ру, a newspaper which describes itself as a “state-owned publication”, calmly posted this statement on its Twitter account.
link
No “free press” in Putin’s Mafia State?
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On the most recent “Ukraine Open Thread” comments forum at MoA, in response to a query by Orchard1 (comment 11) regarding Ukrainian casualty figures, this reply by Zuma (comment 26) was given:
Not sure what was published previously but can assist with your query.
Casualties:
(a) Death 74,583
(b) Wounded 151, 019
(c) Mercenaries 2,629
Surrendered: More than 5,000
Initial manpower: 260,200
Attrition Rate: 89.6353%
There was no link to the original source given, unfortunately.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/08/ukraine-open-thread-2022-124.html#comments
If Zuma is correct, then we can probably assume that whatever casualty figures arer given for Russia in the Western MSM are actually the figures for Ukraine.
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<b€Wiener Zeitung has announced a high level of support for the Russian Federation in Germany and Austria
August 9, 2022
RG.RU
In Germany and Austria, the level of support for Russia and President Vladimir Putin is high. Columnist Gerhard Lechner writes about this in the Wiener Zeitung newspaper.
The author of the article calls the impression of unanimous support for Kiev amongst Germans and Austrians misleading, emphasizing that Moscow has an impressive number of supporters, RIA Novosti reports.
Lechner also noted that amongst the inhabitants of Germany and Austria, discontent is brewing owing to the economic consequences of anti-Russian sanctions. Rising inflation, gas shortages and “monstrous” prices are dampening enthusiasm for the Ukraine, he said.
“Many see the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as an instigator of conflict, who hinders the establishment of peace” Lechner wrote.
Americans will soon forget about the “support for the Ukraine” fashion trend, which will soon be replaced by a new one. This opinion was previously expressed by University of Houston professor Adam Ellwanger in an article for The American Conservative magazine. According to Ellwanger, the Ukrainian trend, which replaced COVID-19 in terms of media coverage and attention of the public and politicians, will be replaced by a new “current thing” even before the end of the conflict in the Ukraine. The “current thing” is what the American elite think should be the focus of our attention right now, the professor explained.
link
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“Many see the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as an instigator of conflict, who hinders the establishment of peace” Lechner wrote.
I’m not suggesting he finds the role repugnant; I couldn’t pretend to know what he really thinks. But it is important to remember it IS a role that he is playing and his lines were written for him by Washington and London and Brussels. It is they who wish a conflict without end, and they who do not see it is themselves who are pouring money and political capital into Ukraine so that it may fight on another day and continue its mission of ‘bleeding’ Russia. I daresay there are a few Ukrainians who see it as well.
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Meanwhile, the Clown has called for the non-admittance of Russian citizens to other states and the expulsion of Russians already resident in them And the civilized Frogs have forbidden Orcs from entry to a Frogland Castle.
Russians restricted from visiting the Château de Vincennes in France, media write
August 9, 2022
France-Presse: Russians have been restricted from visiting the Château de Vincennes because of the special operation
Russian citizens have been restricted from visiting the Château de Vincennes southeast of Paris because of the special operation in the Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reports, citing sources.
“Russian citizens can no longer visit the Château de Vincennes, which houses, amongst other things, the archives of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces…” the agency said, citing an “internal order” issued after the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine.
Zelensky has called on the West to close entry for all Russians for a year.
It is noted that on July 28, two Russian women were denied entry to the castle. One of the women, a journalist by profession, told the agency that the guards asked her to show her passport, after which they refused to let her in. When asked about the reasons for this refusal, the woman received the answer: “Because you are Russians”.
https://turbo.ria.ru/20220809/frantsiya-1808220181.html
Bollocks! The Frogs are obviously just scared of Russians nicking the golden shithouse seats in the castle.
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Well they do have a history of collaboration. Some clearly think its a good idea. Maybe they will introduce symbols Russian tourists will have to wear so that they can be idenfied from a distance, for safety’s sake of course.
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When your world is spinning out of control and there seems to be nothing you can do to arrest its sideslip…it’s always comforting to have someone to hate. What is disturbing to me is how quickly, easily and openly the media reaches for that card now – before, it was all PutinPutinPutin, we are trying to remove the cancer of Putin from the world but we really like Russians and understand they are enslaved by Putin. That was always farcical, when at the same time they imposed penalties against opera stars and cats and even trees for having the taint of Russia about them. But now there’s not even a token effort to disguise it – it’s all hate, all the time.
I trust Russians will remember, and stop wasting the effort of trying to be friends with the west. I’m sure people from the ‘western superior democracies’ will still visit Russia – I certainly plan to, and am looking forward to it – and those visitors should be judged on their merits and attitude. But the whole COVID farce laid bare how weak and insecure the majority are, how quickly and easily they could be induced to turn on their fellows because they would not submit to an unproven and mostly ineffective inoculation. Those people are weak and self-absorbed, easily flattered by testimonials to their superior powers of reason and enlightenment, and easily directed to anger by jingoistic slogans and targeted messaging. Those pitiful souls will always go along with what the government orders, however silly or malicious it might be, because the government praises their righteousness and they like praise.
Those people do not make good friends, and should be shunned because their cooperation can always be bought by a pat on the head from the government, and western governments are uniformly and irredeemably anti-Russian.
The ones you want to watch are those who are in the vanguard of the yelling mob, but who pretend to have never been taken in by the Cause Of The Day when it starts to go sideways to the extent that even the not-yet-committed begin to notice they are being set up; pretend, in fact, to have seen through it from the first and to totally get what you are saying. Those are the dangerous ones, because they are the enablers, the facilitators who help such ‘movements’ to stand up and find their feet.
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Yes, they always check to see which way the wind blows and if it’s even remotely in that direction, you can hear the stampede
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RT
9 Aug, 2022 10:18
Ukraine halts Russian oil supply to EU
Crude transit through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline has been stopped, RIA Novosti news agency reports
Ukraine’s state oil pipeline operator Ukrtransnafta has stopped pumping Russian crude through the southern branch of the Druzhba system to the EU, RIA Novosti news agency reported on Monday, citing Russia’s Transneft.
According to the report, transit supplies have been halted to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Igor Demin, spokesperson for the president of Transneft, told the agency that transit through Belarus in the direction of Poland and Germany continues.
Demin explained that Russia cannot make payments for transit due to EU sanctions, although the Ukrainian company is insisting on 100% prepayment for its oil transportation services.
“When making a payment for transit through the territory of Ukraine, the funds were returned to the account of Transneft,” he said, adding, “Gazprombank, which services payments, notified us that the payment was returned in accordance with the EU regulations, that is, the seventh package of sanctions.”
Transneft stressed that it is working on alternative payment options for oil transit services via Ukraine, and has sent an appeal to Gazprombank.
Druzhba, which is one of the longest pipeline networks in the world, carries crude some 4,000 kilometers from the eastern part of European Russia to refineries in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
Who’s weaponizing gas now then?
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And who’s responsible? Let’s recall it was only a few weeks ago that the Americans were chuckling happily that they had structured sanctions so that Russia could not make its payments to its debtors, even though there was no unwillingness or inability to pay. I remarked at the time that this would doubtless be as happily received by those to whom Russia owes payments. Well, looks like I was wrong – they are not happy about it at all. But the whole exercise was specifically constructed to make Russia look like it is welshing on its financial obligations, even though it never has. Who could possibly not know that it is the Americans who are behind it – they bragged about it! So you know who to blame for crazy oil prices in Europe.
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Doktorov on folks getting pissed off with Banderite lies:
Happy days are here again…
All of these Ukrainian allegations following one or another atrocity that they themselves have committed with an eye to false flag propaganda become very tiresome. I think of the atrocities in Bucha, in which the victims were one and all persons suspected by pro-Ukrainian neighbors of having collaborated with the Russian occupation forces. I think of last week’s shouting by Kiev that the missile attack on a POW camp which killed and wounded large numbers of Azovstal defenders in captivity was done by the Russians. This impudent, bare-faced lie which does not stand up to any test of logic, sailed past the editorial teams of our major electronic and print media.
As regards the shelling of of NPP Zaporozhye, more skullduggery from the free and democratic West:
RT Russian
Russian Foreign Ministry: IAEA mission’s trip to Zaporizhia NPP disrupted by UN Secretariat Department
August 9, 2022, 14:40
The planned trip of the IAEA mission to Zaporizhye NPP (ZAES) was disrupted at the last moment by the Security Department of the UN secretariat, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“On June 3, the Russian side and the leadership of the IAEA secretariat fully agreed on the route and schedule of the agency’s international mission to Zaporizhye NPP… However, at the last moment, the “red light” was turned on by the Security Department of the UN secretariat. The trip was disrupted”, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry noted that the Kiev authorities had taken advantage of this situation to strengthen their provocations and attacks on the nuclear power plant.
Russia is ready to provide maximum possible assistance in organizing the access of the IAEA mission to the NPP, the Foreign Ministry concluded.
Earlier, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said that by attacking the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Ukrainian militants endangered the population of all of Europe.
The Russian Defence Ministry called the strikes by the Armed Forces of the Ukraine on the territory of the Zaporizhia NPP nuclear terrorism.
According to the Ministry, a power surge occurred at the Zaporizhia NPP caused by shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on August 7, which caused smoke on the open switchgear of the plant.
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The first comment on MoA’s current Ukraine Open Thread:
How to recreate Fukushima?
Posted by: PavewayIV | Aug 9 2022 5:58 utc | 156
Much of the propaganda spew on Zaporizhia was triggered by the Ukrainian attack on the plant of Aug. 5th. That damaged transformers and power lines that tripped safety protection systems on Unit 4 (then at full power) resulting in a scram and shutting it down. A reactor trip is always a BIG deal ANYWHERE when a reactor is at full power. It remains in cold shutdown today – neither the IAEA, Energoatom (state nuke operator) nor the World Nuclear Association have reported it being restarted or brought back on line.
That only leaves Unit 1 and 2 reactors operating – the other four are reported in cold shutdown. Now, any further insane Ukrainian attack could damage equipment resulting in another reactor trip leaving only one running. That, itself, is an unsafe condition as that reactor (and the spent fuel cooling pools of all six reactors) must rely on outside power for backup. The plant has emergency generators, but they’re located outside. The generators and their fuel supply are extremely vulnerable to damage from shelling or drones.
Thank you for bringing up the topic. I have avoided writing about this, as the prospects are too horrifying. Reactor 4 is not in cold shutdown. Secondary reactions are still happening, producing decay heat. It takes several weeks for the reactor to cool to the state where forced cooling is not needed. An electric power supply is absolutely necessary during this period. There may be no way of safely shutting down a nuclear power plant without outside electricity or functioning diesel generators.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster happened because of a loss of electric power. The earthquake caused a SCRAM of all reactors. The tsunami flooded the backup diesel generators. Connection to the power grid was also lost, likely because of the earthquake. Three reactors reached meltdown.
All of these efects can happen in Zaporizhia, if the power plant comes under heavy shelling. The latest incidents and the disinformation from Kiev solidify my belief that Ukraine cannot be allowed to exist as an independent state.
From what I assume is a FAKE Petri Krohn@139
No, I am very real. 🙂
One of the last defenses against censorship is repeating official lies ad absurdum. I am practicing for that day, not too far in the future.
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More on the nuclear power plant and its shift from the Ukrainian to the Russian grid:
“Rosatom has apparently taken full control of Zaporizhia NPP. Energoatom is reporting that Zaporizhia will cut the interconnect to the Ukraine/European grid and instead resync and connect to the Russian grid that now feeds Crimea and the Donbas. I assume that means all Russian-controlled areas will now be fed from/connected to the Zaporizhia/Russian grid. Furthermore, the rest of Ukraine still on the Ukraine/European grid can no longer be fed from Zaporizhia or connected to it or any grid it feeds. Ukraine cut its system from the Russian grid and switched to the European grid right after the Russians made their move in March.
Unfortunately, this gives Ukraine ‘nothing to lose’ by attacking power distribution infrastructure in and around the nuclear plant or elsewhere in Russian-held territory. Not only is the loss of power from Zaporizhia NPP substantial, but that capacity loss is doubled again with the loss of Zaporizhia Thermal Electric Plant + Uglegorsk(Vuhlehirsk) TEP. Neither thermal plant is operating today.
Posted by: PavewayIV | Aug 10 2022 7:06 utc | 108”
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The Terrorist State in Action . . .
Armed forces of the Ukraine can interrupt the power lines to the Zaporizhya nuclear power station if Russia begins to disconnect it from the Ukraine electrical power grid.
Such is the statement made by the head of “Energoatom” Pyotr Kotin. “And I think this would be the right decision as regards the Ukrainian point of view.”
0.08.2022, 14:54
The head of Energoatom has granted permission to the Ukrainian Armed Forces to make a strike against the power lines leading to the Zaporizhya nuclear power station
The head of the Ukrainian “Energoatom” Petr Kotin said that the work of the Zaporizhya nuclear power station is under the control of the company’s personnel, and the territory of the station is controlled by the Russian military. He admitted that the armed forces of the Ukraine can cut the power lines leading to the nuclear power plant if Russia decides to disconnect the plant from the Ukrainian power system.
Kotin, in an interview with RBC-Ukraine, said that all orders of the Ukrainian side at the Zaporizhya station are being implemented, but “everything is coordinated with the military, and they consult with representatives of Rosatom”. The head of Energoatom claims that the Russian side is considering switching the Zaporizhya[power supply] to the Crimea. “To do this, it is necessary to completely disconnect the station from the Ukrainian power system and switch to the lines that connect the Crimea — to a substation in Dzhankoy of the Kakhovskaya station, and already it connects with the Zaporizhya station”, he explained.
According to Pyotr Kotin, if Russia decides to take this step, “it will be the right decision to disconnect the lines that they are going to connect.” “I think our armed forces will be ready to do this if the need arises” he is convinced.
Well, it looks like the foul deed has been done by the dastardly Orcs, so what are you gonna do now, Yukietards?
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I’ve only seen the claim from the Ukie side but it doesn’t make much sense to me. The SMO takes care not to target civilians, cutting off power to civilians does harm, ergo it is a contradiction. There really is no need. As far as I have understood it Crimea’s main concern was a lack of water now resolved, not power.
I’m sure Russia doesn’t mind the Ukie claims because it highlights precisely that Russia has not cut power when they quite easily could have done (well if they were properly prepared). It is a sword of damocles though but I don’t see how even Russia redirecting power legimitzed Uke army attacks on a very large nuclear power plant or what it is meant to achieve apart from some wild assed hope that it will make France and Germany ‘DO SOMETHING’ that Russia might take notice of.
Kiev must know that their threats are empty. It’s all too desperate PR.
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It looks to me on its face to be a ploy targeted at the Ukrainian people who are served by it; when they lose their power, even temporarily, it will be because of a decisive and moral move by their government, not because the Russians switched it off. The Ukrainian government will go to considerable lengths to be seen as taking bold action rather than simply reacting to enemy maneuvers and totally unable to anticipate further moves.
If most of Ukraine is already on the European grid, it lends weight to a possibility that Kuh-yiv was going to shut it off to inconvenience ‘the rebels’ anyway, and Russia simply pre-empted the action. But Russia has a fairly good idea by now what the vulnerabilities of conquered territory are, and steps that can be taken to minimize suffering by the civilian population. What I find interesting is it is not the sort of thing the Ukrainian government would do if it did not consider those territories already lost to them. Those areas still ‘loyal’ to Ukraine should not notice any difference if they are on the European grid – unless that begins to fail as well due to extra demand piled on cost-saving efficiency measures, because much of Europe’s electricity comes from gas-powered utility stations.
According to the table in the reference below, those with the most obviously-irreplaceable dependency are Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and The Netherlands. But others have vulnerabilities of 15% and above, and I would consider those to have a hole they could not fill in light of current world prices and constrained availability.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/europes-electricity-production-by-country-and-fuel-type/
Furthermore, look at those countries who still derive more than 20% of their electricity from solid fuels, which mostly means coal. That’s a long way further from ‘green’ than gas, and not a direction in which you would want to see an increase. Germany is a textbook example of a country with its pants around its ankles, bending over to pick up its wallet – 44.64% reliant on coal and solid fuel, 12.56% reliant on gas.
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As far as I have understood it Crimea’s main concern was a lack of water now resolved, not power.
It seems from the Yukie Enrrgom boss’s words below that the Crimea has been linked to the Zaporizhye nuclear power plant for a long while now — since before the hostilities:
The head of Energoatom claims that the Russian side is considering switching the Zaporizhye [power supply] to the Crimea. “To do this, it is necessary to completely disconnect the station from the Ukrainian power system and switch to the lines that connect the Crimea — to a substation in Dzhankoy of the Kakhovskaya station, and already it connects with the Zaporizhye station”, he explained.
Double talk!
On the one hand he says that the Evil Orcs would have to disconnect the Zaporizhye plant from the Banderastan grid in order to switch the Zaporizhye power supply to lines that connect with the Crimea — to a substation in Dzhankoy of the Kakhovskaya station in order to connect power from the Zaporizhye plant with the Crimea grid, but in the same breath he says that the Dzhankoy substation of the Khakovskaya power station already connects with the Zaporizhya station.
Remember when the transmission towers on the then Yukiestan – Crimea border, that narrow strip of land that separates the Crimea from the now “occupied” territory of the Kherson oblast, were demolished by Banderite shitwits? Where do you think the power lines that those towers supported came from?
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Further comments (by “William Gruff”, “Petri Krohn” and “PavewayIV”) discuss the possible need to power down all the reactors – and for that process to go smoothly a reliable source of electricity is required. The diesel backups on site are apparently not considered great enough.
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Russia’s latest position is that it stands ready to assist an IAEA mission to examine the plant’s workings and make recommendations for collective safety. It asks for a highest-level mission, not some token flunky, and reminds that such a mission was arranged a couple of weeks ago but was cancelled by the relevant department of the UN at the last minute.
https://www.daily-sun.com/post/637112/Russia-ready-to-assist-IAEA-in-organization-of-access-to-Zaporozhye-NPP-%E2%80%94-Foreign-Ministry
And in a further example that leopards do not change their spots, and that if leopards could talk they would spout the same old shit regardless of circumstances, Biden insists the way to resolve the problem is for the Russian Army to withdraw and return control of the plant to Ukraine. Russia for some reason is shooting at it even though it already controls it, and has its own people inside – before, they were using it to store weapons, remember; that’s why Ukraine had to shell it. The headline describes it as the ‘Russian-held power plant’.
https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/272647303/us-addresses-attacks-on-russian-held-nuclear-power-plant
Easily explained, pipes up the clown; the Russians are shelling their own positions, probably to gain sympathy – don’t fall for it.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/zelensky-accuses-russia-of-shelling-own-positions-at-nuclear-plant/ar-AA10mBjm
This is likely to continue, as the Ukrainians realize it has become a hot-button issue that is attracting a lot of attention – maybe The World can be persuaded to gib moneys.
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Yes, to power down nuclear reactors, a backup power supply must be at hand. The backup generation at that Jap place where there was a disaster was provided by diesel generators that had been put out of action by a tidal wave that followed the earthquake that had hit the plant — result: reactor meltdown. And it’s a reaction meltdown that the Yukie shitwits are now toying with.
A word about the name of the place where this reactor complex in “occupied” Banderastan is situated.
As usual, there are two ways of spelling the name: one according to the orthography as created by 19th century Ruthenian nationalists supported by the Austrian Empire and used in the dialect spoken by gobshite Banderites, the other in standard Russian.
The name of the place in Yukie is Zaporizhzhya — it means “Below the Rapids”, the rapids having been on the Dnieper. However, there is an adjectival form of the noun Zaporizhzhya which has different adjectival endings according to the grammatical gender and number of the noun it qualifies. Take “Moskva”, for example, the transliteration into the Latin alphabet of the Russian name of the capital city of Mordor: the adjectival form of “Moskva” is “moskovskiy” — and that’s the nominative singular masculine ending (-iy): there are other endings when feminine and neuter nouns, singular or plural, are qualified. For example, the Russian word for “building” is of neuter gender, so if I say in Russian “ I am talking about Moscow buildings”, that would be transliterated from Cyrillic as “ya govoryu o moskovskikh zdaniyakh”, whereas “a/the Moscow building” transliterated from Cyrillic would be “moskovskoye zdaniye”.
And that is why in the translations of articles about the nuclear plant below the rapids there appear slightly differently spelt ways of this place below the rapids. — because of the changed endings of the adjective “zaporizhzhkiy”.
Furthermore, the name of the place is spelt differently in Russian from the way it is spelt in the shitwit borderland dialect. It is spelt thus in Russian : “Zaporozhye”, and the adjectival form of that place name is “zaporozhskiy” (masculine singular adjectival ending).
The name of the region in Russian is “zaporozhskaya oblast’” (feminine singular adjectival ending — and no capitalisation of a place name adjective as in English.
To cut the above long story short, that’s why in what I have written about the power station in question there are sometimes differences in spelling of Zaporozhye and zaporozhskiy.
I rest my case.
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Yes, I saw those comment a bit later. I don’t usually take notice of the PPNN nuclear screechings, but I do know that Scrams are not something to be taken lightly (as PIV) explained and certainly not multiple Scrams.
Vis being already attached to the u-Ropean grid, is there really enough to spare (with comfortable margins) if for whatever reason the NPP is cut off? We know that there are still stand by dirty coal PPs and others in u-Rope that are very well paid to keep ticking-over and ready to pick up the slack in any emergency, but that is only as I understand it to cover a shorter period as I assume that maintenance costs will start to rise if they run at capacity for much longer. It all looks rather ropey to me and best not tested unless in optimal conditions (‘stress testing’ when is safe to do so).
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Not to mention that where coal shipping is done by riverboats, as it is in Germany, close to record low-water levels due to high summer temperatures have meant ships can carry only a fraction of their former loads because their draft, fully loaded, exceeds the depth of the shipping channel. Europe is increasingly at the mercy of the climate, at least as long as it persists with self-destructive sanctions, because cutting off its imports nose to spite its idiot face means it has to rely on coal which it can’t move around in summer, while it freezes in winter. All, all due to its own stupid worship of ideology. And its defense is to screech about ‘renewables’ as if the black-box miracle is just around the corner. Know what? It’s not. At least, not for people who can count.
Over the past five years alone, the Energiewende has cost Germany €32 billion ($36 billion) annually, and opposition to renewables is growing in the German countryside.
“The politicians fear citizen resistance” Der Spiegel reports. “There is hardly a wind energy project that is not fought.”
As a result, the deployment of renewables and related transmission lines is slowing rapidly. Less than half as many wind turbines (743) were installed in 2018 as were installed in 2017, and just 30 kilometers of new transmission were added in 2017.
Solar and wind advocates say cheaper solar panels and wind turbines will make the future growth in renewables cheaper than past growth but there are reasons to believe the opposite will be the case.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/05/06/the-reason-renewables-cant-power-modern-civilization-is-because-they-were-never-meant-to/?sh=3d70baf1ea2b
And that’s in Frau Fireball’s “Green Leader Of The Free World” Germany. Everywhere else except perhaps for Sweden, “green energy” is token dabbling. But don’t take my word for it – see what happens to Germany this winter if some sort of agreement is not struck quickly, and probably not even then because they pretty much have to have the gas storages over 80% full by end October to be confident about facing the winter. Selling rationing and self-sacrifice for lofty principles is already not cutting it, and there will be a panic with the first frost.
But here’s the money shot of that whole piece:
The goal of renewables was to turn modern industrial societies back into agrarian ones, argued Murray Bookchin in his 1962 book, Our Synthetic Environment.
Bookchin admitted his proposal “conjures up an image of cultural isolation and social stagnation, of a journey backward in history to the agrarian societies of the medieval and ancient worlds.”
You can make renewables work, after a fashion, if you have a river of money to pour into them, because they are expensive and are all the way across town from ‘free energy’. But even with a river of money poured into them, they cannot power a modern industrial economy. So there will be a choice to make.
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Another comment in that thread is very interesting also:
“Robert Barnes on the Duran show going on now, just pointed out something awesome:
Jared Leto, who was playing the brother of Nicholas Cage as “Lord of War” – drew a map of Ukraine using cocaine.
That’s the present leader of Ukraine…
Lord of War cocaine scene
Posted by: c1ue | Aug 9 2022 20:19 utc | 54”
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LENTA.RU
”Guancha” has announced Zelensky’s plans to sell the Ukraine to the West for his own enrichment
August 9, 2022
Mass privatization, which awaits Ukraine, will end with the sale of the country to the West, and the head of state will share the profits
Vladimir Zelensky and his team. This opinion has been presented on the Chinese portal “Guancha”.
The author of the material announced Zelensky’s plans to sell the Ukraine to the West for his own enrichment and admitted that “the country will collapse”.
the Chinese journalist said.
The observer added that the transfer of state property into private hands during the conflict seemed to him inappropriate. However, if we perceived this decision as Zelensky’s intention to increase his savings, then his actions became clear.
At the end of July, the Ukrainian government compiled a list of 420 state-owned enterprises that would be privatized or liquidated. The list for 2022 includes 20 assets of the State Enterprise Ukrspirt and the Ukrspirt concern, two agro-industrial complexes and two objects of the wine industry. At the same time, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law banning the privatization of defence enterprises and firms that have entered into an agreement for the repair of equipment of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine.
https://turbo.lenta.ru/news/2022/08/09/ze_planes/
Perhaps Biden’s debauched junky son is an interested party in a possible purchase of Ukraine territory.
Slava Arseholes!
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From a MoA comment:
Telegraph — Summer Before The Storm
The linked in the above linked “Strategic Culture” article The Masque of Pandora
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Don’t know if any of you saw this news yesterday about that waste of space Johnson, who is still acting PM of “Global Britain”. The idiot wanted to meet the Polish ponce Duda, who responded that he had no time to meet him.
I wonder if Duda will have time to meet Truss if she becomes PM, should she then decide to try go gallivanting around meeting European heads of state, albeit the UK is no longer a member of the EU, in the belief that the UK has any meaningful role to play on world stage apart from its being simply the yapping cur of the USA?
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The real Zelensky! Through the eyes of friends and colleagues: a petty, vain gambler, a clown and a drug addict!
Aug. 10th, 2022 at 12:00 PM
Slavs are just too patient with their murderous bosses.
But when the people of the Ukraine finally wake up, they will instantly curse and bury Zelensky, his family + parents..((
God help them open their eyes and allow them to wake up.
I advise you to read it to the end… (7freiheit has illustrated it)
Below is the author’s vision of the fate of Zelebobik, a personal friend and colleague in KVN [“Club of the Cheerful and Resourceful” — TV humorous show in which teams compete — ME], who apparently became an enemy.
President Zelensky:
What happens when a clown with dictatorial tendencies becomes the head of a country
Today, when storm clouds gather over the whole world and we no longer know what is going to happen to us or what kind of new dirty trick the collective West will throw at us, in order to maintain a sober view, it is very important to assess the overall picture of the world,
and not individual fragments of it, no matter how important they may seem to us from within these fragments.
If you follow chess terminology, consider that at this particular historical moment, international grandmaster Putin is playing a simultaneous game session on 38 boards at once, and not all of them are going to be wins for him: in some games he will be satisfied with a draw if the overall result of the session at the end is in his favour.
This text does not pretend to assess the situation on all the boards at once. I shall try to fix the current status quo only on some of them, taken at random, and you will already draw your own conclusions. . . .
Very long article. Use a machine translator if you will.
But here’s an interesting bit:
On February 28, on the 4th day of the war, the Ukraine government decided to pay 15 million hryvnias as one-time assistance to the families of those fallen servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine who had participated in the armed resistance to the invaders. This is 15 million from Shmyhal’s office, and add 100-120 thousand hryvnias to them from Zelensky for each month a serviceman has stays on the front line.
At the current exchange rate of 40 UAH/USD, the family of a deceased “Warrior of the Light” could potentially receive 390 thousand dollars (I think at the maximum, so as not to fool around – 375 thousand dollars for the funeral plus 15 thousand dollars for the fighting). Such is the price of life in the Ukraine.
At the exchange rate of 30 UAH/USD the amount for funeral costs was even more beautiful — 500 thousand dollars. Who pays for this banquet, we know. Who profits from it by understating the number of the dead, accounting for them as MIA or unaccounted for. A grave in a cemetery with full name and years of life is at least a guarantee that the family of the deceased has received money from the government.
And how many unburied corpses are lying around. How many of th unidentified are in mobile and stationary morgues around the country?
And how many are simply buried not to decompose? And these are just military losses, I am not even talking about civilian casualties (no one pays for their deaths!) According to the American side, the Ukrainian side has lost 50,127 people in 3 months of fighting alone. Here is the data as of 06.06.2022.
During the last two months of intensive fighting in June and July you can easily double this figure.
100 thousand dead in less than six months of the war.
This is the result of the work of the “peace president” Zelenski.
And there is a phot of a Yukie military cemetery accompanying the above.
Trouble is, it’s a photo of a military cemetery of Ukrainian soldiers of the 1st Galicia SS, who died during World War II in the battle of Brody in deepest Banderastan, namely in the Lvov region of that shithole state.
In the above link, note the “Stand with Ukraine!” logo.
Yeah, right! Stand with the Waffen SS against the Russian Untermenschen.
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Is it just me or has he been working out and building up his body since the start of this so he looks like a solider, and not his usually svelt self.
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I don’t know about his working out but I dearly wish someone would work the bastard over.
In fact, I think there’s very likely soon going to be a military coup in Banderastan. But what “military” would the instigators be, there’s the rub?
If it’s the “Nationalist” filth, the former “Punishment Battalions”, now long having been integrated into the Yukietard army proper, then there’s going to be a Maidan replay, but without the presence of EU and USA arseholes on the scene, such as were at Maidsn No.1 “Lady” bloody Ashton and that shit Sikorsky and Evil Bitch Nuland and, of course, that now long gone and certainly unlamented prick McCain.
But if it’s the professional Yukie military that ousts the Clown and his gang, there really might be a military junta in the “Mother of Russian Cities” and the EU and the hegemon might look upon such a situation as an “exit ramp”.
Just my two penn’orth, of course, my “expert knowledge” on matters Russian and Yukie being, I am sure, at least on a par with that of, say, Lucas and McFaul.
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Steroids, maybe – why not? It’s interesting how portrayal of him as a druggie is gaining momentum, not losing it. That doesn’t mean it’s true, but I think even the most hardened Zelensky fan would have to confess he is a far different person than we first thought when he was campaigning as a glass-half-full alternative to the wretched money-grubber Poroshenko.
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Add this to the file of u-Rope treating Africa as stupid:
Euractiv avec afp: Tonnes of fruit stranded in EU, South Africa battle of oranges
https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/tonnes-of-fruit-stranded-in-eu-south-africa-battle-of-oranges/
Tonnes of fruit stranded in EU, South Africa battle of oranges
…he South African government was scrambling to issue new documents for shipments that met the new criteria, but hundreds of containers could be slated for destruction, said Chadwick.
South Africa already has an effective anti-moth system, the CGA says.
“Our system does involve cold treatment, but targeted at the risk, whereas the EU measure is a blanket measure that covers all oranges,” Chadwick said…
####
But why don’t they believe us? R*tards in Brussels can’t square the circle but they can jerk it! 😉
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The Ukies are now flirting with claiming the blast in Crimea a day or two ago as having been a Ukrainian attack on a Russian airbase, and that it destroyed nine warplanes.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-kyiv-crimea-81a08f492db4683275d4aa3928cb3c43
They are mocking the Russian explanation that it was an accident, using the favoured Gene Sharp tactic of braying loud laughter whenever any alternate explanation is introduced, to create the impression that anyone who entertains its possibility is an idiot. As I may have mentioned before, if in charge I would adopt “Whatever you have to tell yourself” as an official response to all such media requests for a statement; if not invited to comment, I would offer none.
As usual, ‘analysts’ were quickly located who claimed it could have been done with anti-ship missiles. Ukraine is supposed to have its incredible domestic SSM (Surface-to-Surface) missile, the Neptune (supposedly used to sink the MOSKVA), and is said to have some stocks of the American Harpoon as well. Neither would be a very good choice for striking a land target, and any actual hit on an identified target would be purely accidental. Anti-ship missiles depend on the ship standing out from the search background, which is the sea – relatively flat and featureless. A phenomenon which frequently causes a Harpoon to miss its target is ubiquitous enough to get a name – land capture. When the target vessel is too close inshore the missile seeker is frequently ‘captured’ by some prominent land feature such as a promontory or mountain, and is unable to acquire the targeted vessel against the background. You can doubtless see the unlikelihood that it could be used to attack a land target located inland, even slightly; the seeker simply cannot separate the target out from the background.
Missiles which are designed to do that are cruise missiles, which are not the same thing as Anti-Ship missiles at all, and I’m sure you can see what an escalation it would be for the Americans to be giving cruise missiles to Ukraine. They allegedly balked at giving them the longer-range HIMARS rockets on assumptions that they would lie and promise not to strike targets in Russia proper, while instantly doing it anyway as soon as they had the means – it’s probably another reason the weapons have American operators; because Ukraine could not be trusted with them, as well as not having the experience to operate them effectively. I’m sure Zelensky praises them as effusively as he does because it is America dipping a toe into entering the war with its own military personnel, which he desperately wants to encourage.
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It was most likely a sabotage attack by Ukrainians. A successful one.
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Most assuredly. The Ukrainians are much cleverer than the Russians, and of course they will win back Crimea and maybe even a few Russian territories, as the Russians slink home in humiliation. Just keep that happy picture in your head, Karl.
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It is a possible scenario. Next target will be the Crimea bridge. Do you think the Ukrainians will blow that up too?
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I don’t think the Ukrainians blew up the airbase, although that is a very slick trick, assuming a certain reality and then trying to build on it from there. I think the Ukrainians, with the help of the Americans and their miraculous HIMARS (rhymes with ‘justice’ in Ukrainian, apparently), are able to score the occasional pinprick annoyance, but that their defeat is certain and the longer it takes to acknowledge it, the more Ukrainians will die. All well below the concern threshold in Washington, where the final casualty figures will be used to make a case that Russia mercilessly beat up Ukraine and killed thousands upon thousands, when the attack would never have happened at all if America had made some harmless concessions, and Russia was ready to stop at any point thereafter if good-faith negotiations were possible.
Even if the Ukrainians’ wildest fantasies were true and the explosion did take out 9 warplanes, would that slow the Russian advance? No, it wouldn’t, and it can only end one way. Like the police are fond of saying in movies, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way, but we’re doing it.
Blowing up the Crimea Bridge is a ‘possible scenario’ only if Ukraine is willing to cede the moral high ground it claims for itself, and Washington and London safeguard for it by pretending all the war crimes in Ukraine – such as the Bucha massacre – were carried out by Russians and not Ukrainians. The Crimea Bridge is not a military target, it is a piece of civilian infrastructure. Russia is not ferrying tanks and ammunition across the Crimea Bridge and there is no way the Ukrainians could justify an attack on it other than vanity propaganda, which in its turn would show it cares nothing for its supposedly millions of fellow Ukrainian civilians in Crimea, and in fact hates them all and regards them as enemies. I mean, that is the reality, but it’s not the image its westie besties carefully cultivate, that Ukraine wants to ‘liberate’ Crimea from the Russian occupiers and oppressors. We already saw what their ‘liberation’ efforts did to Crimea, in its criminal curtailment of Crimea’s water supply, electricity and food supplies. It would happily starve them all until they gave in, and then there would be a lot more people lying in the streets with their hands bound and shot in the head.
And those are the people you are yearning to see victorious.
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Like clockwork.
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After eight years of civil war and six months of war against Russia, Ukraine is still shelling downtown Donetsk.
This time they hit an industrial facility which caused an ammonia leak. Authorities are telling people to stay inside and not go out.
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While people in Kiev are sleeping peacefully and “decision making centers” in Kiev have no fear of being hit in spite of Russian (empty) threats before the war started.
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09.08.2022 (13:45)
Russian Defence Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation in the Ukraine
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Huzzah!! Ukrainian victory is surely at hand!
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Enter the Jackal.
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Russia should blanket bomb Kiev in retaliation?
That’s what the USA would have done.
Amerika — stronk!
Remember Fallujah!
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Putin’s “polite war” is an idiotic approach. It should be either no war at all or shock and awe.
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Shock and awe, eh?
You mean like this?
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Quoth General Haushofer. I would suggest – and I’m only indulging this conversation because I have the time and the inclination, I’m well aware it’s not really a ‘conversation’ in the conventional sense, that viewpoints and substantiation mean nothing to you and you are only trolling for a reaction – that Ukraine and its supporters have already been shocked and awed. It’s pretty evident from the wistful prognostications by western ‘analysts’ that Russia will run out of ammunition anytime between a month ago and tomorrow that they actually know almost nothing of Russia’s military capability. You can go on believing – if it’s what you truly believe – that Russia declining to launch a broad-front war against NATO by nuking some of its major cities means that it couldn’t, and it was all a bluff, if you want to. But you would definitely be in a very, very small group; you could probably all meet under a blanket. It’d be cosy, too. You could start your own think-tank: why don’t you do that? Call it “Fishbowl Geopolitical Solutions”. You can have the copyright on the name, I won’t sue you.
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I’d have thought by now that Karl Haushofer knew us well enough that dumping statements insinuating Russian military or political weakness or Putin being a poor leader on us was never going to get more than a yawn and “Here goes Karl again ….” along with some explanation (if we’re feeling charitable) of why and how Karl’s recommendations and solutions will not work. Unless Karl is an extreme masochist who loves being flayed over his opinion that we should go the USA’s way or the highway.
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The last time he poked his head out of his hole was about 2 months ago and to make a very similar comment, namely Donetsk is still being bombarded by the the Ukrainian armed forces, which proves that Russia — weak!
I recall pointing out to him at the time that in early 1945 Nazi Germany was still launching V1 and V2 rocket attacks against southeast England, albeit Germany was not simply “on the ropes” but being beaten arse over tit on all fronts and its military surrendering in droves to the victorious allies — in the West at least.
The Germans, however, did not surrender in droves to the Soviet armed forces: they were scared shitless of them and knew that they were in the process of reaping the whirlwind after their having sown the wind in the USSR.
Which above leads me to further recollect that Colliemum gave me a “bravo” for that reply to the Finnish troll some 2 months ago.
I wonder how Colliemum is?
I fear she is in ill health.
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Your comment re Colliemum makes me feel like “Shallow Hal”, ME. I, too, hope she’s as well as possible. She was a regular at Yalensis’s site. I’ll have a look later.
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I just scanned through the comments for the past 18 days on Awful Avalanche and she hasn’t been posting there (unless under a different nom de guerre). The weather has been exceptionally hot and I’m aware that certain health conditions become more difficult to cope with in warm weather (multiple sclerosis for one).
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I’ll just drop her a line and see what’s up.
Done. Everyone has to sign in initially with an email address, and I still had hers anyway from the last time she vanished. People do, from time to time – we haven’t heard from James in a bit, and it was more than a month before Karl popped up again. I expect things are all right, but you’re perfectly correct that the weather has been rough on older people. Doesn’t hurt to check.
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Hoping that it’s just work and meeting deadlines as an editor of her local paper that is keeping Colliemum away from her KS alter ego.
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From a comment on the Moon of Alabama current Ukraine Open Thread…
Liz Truss, who is running for Prime Minister, has said that London has imposed the toughest sanctions in the world against Russia.
The results of those sanctions:
– Inflation in the UK has passed 9.4%
– British electricity debt hits record £1.3bn
– Electricity prices have risen by 74%
– Millions of British families at risk of rolling blackouts this winter
– Real incomes of Britons fall by a record 2.8%
– Britain is turning into a 3rd world country.
– The UK is likely to enter a recession in the fourth quarter of 2022, with GDP falling by 2.1 percent.
– Inflation will peak above 13%
Elect Liz!
Posted by: rp | Aug 11 2022 14:56 utc
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Off-topic, we can hardly blame the Russians for things falling out of the sky and landing on a sleepy sheep farm in New South Wales.
As the farmer says, you wouldn’t fare too well if the object had fallen on you, especially if the pointy bit had been facing downwards when it hit.
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LENTA.RU
Nebenzya warned of a monstrous provocation by Kiev if the Russian military leaves the Zaporizhye nuclear power station
August 12, 2022
Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Vasily Nebenzya has stated that the possible consequences of the withdrawal of the Russian Armed Forces from the Zaporozhya Nuclear Power Plant. . if the military leaves, Kiev would use the station for “monstrous provocations”.reports RIA Novosti.
“Those who propose the withdrawal of Russian troops should be aware of the consequences that this plant would be left without protection and could be used by Kiev and nationalist groups for the most monstrous of provocations”, Nebenzya emphasized.
According to the diplomat, it was now possible to prevent a catastrophe at the plant thanks to the Russian military, who ensure the protection of the Zaporozhya nuclear power plant, “day after day, repelling the attacks of the Kiev regime on this facility in coordination with the plant personnel”.
“Thanks to their efforts, it has so far been possible to protect the key facilities of the station and prevent a nuclear catastrophe. We know what the Kiev regime is capable of, and the world has already been able to verify this”, the permanent representative concluded.
Nebenzya also expressed doubts that Kiev was strongly interested in the trip of a delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the ZNPP. He noted that Russia could have organized a visit by inspectors from the international agency to the station as early as early June, but the trip was cancelled because of the position of Kiev and its Western sponsors.
https://turbo.lenta.ru/news/2022/08/12/posledstviya/
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And the response to the above statement made at the UN Security Council by Her Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador to the UN:
GOV.UK
Statement by Ambassador James Kariuki at the UN Security Council briefing on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine
Return full control of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities to their rightful sovereign owner: UK statement to UN Security Council
link
Are these Western “diplomats” for real?
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In other word, Russian armed forces must evacuate the “occupied territories” of Banderastan and ne’er a word about the Banderite maniacs’ bombardment of the Zaporozhya nuclear power station.
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Yes, return it to the control of the Ukrainians and everything will magically be all right, because they are naturally a peaceful people and do not seek advantage. Like in 2014, when Azov Battalion tried to storm the plant and seize control – probably a lot of them were nuclear scientists or technicians, and just wanted to help. Or that Westinghouse USA has been inveigling for years for a foothold in Ukraine to supply nuclear fuel, and has been doing so at Zaporozhya for some time, as Ukraine ‘struggles for energy independence’. How switching your supplier signifies ‘independence’, I’m not sure.
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Of course that’s just posturing for the Oiks; how would the Americans react if asked to leave Okinawa, where they are most decidedly not liked? And that’s just one example. I’m pretty sure they didn’t build the world’s largest US Embassy like Fort Zinderneuf in Baghdad because military chic was ‘In’.
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RBK
The Russian Defence Ministry has announced the destruction of HIMARS missiles and a radar station
August 12, 2022
The Russian armed forces have attacked locations of the 56th motorized infantry brigade, the 8th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine and an American radar station. In the first case, 70% of the military personnel died, according to the Ministry of Defence.
Russian armed forces have shot down two HIMARS missiles near Nova Kakhovka, as well as four missiles from an Olkha MLRS near Chernobaevka in the Kherson region of the Ukraine, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
The Russian Aerospace Forces have destroyed an AN/MPQ-64 counter-battery radar station manufactured and supplied to the Ukraine by the United States, the ministry added. This happened on the territory of the Donetsk region, its administrative borders in the DPR had been established as state ones.
“As a result of the offensive actions of the allied forces in the Soledar area, the losses of the 14th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine amounted to more than 2 thousand people”, the ministry says.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, the strikes near Opytny and Nevelskoye in the DPR had caused the loss of 70% of the personnel of the 56th motorized infantry brigade of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine stationed in the DPR. In addition, as a result of a strike on the 28th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine, up to a hundred people had been killed and nine units of military equipment destroyed, the ministry said. “The personnel of the 23rd battalion of the brigade had left their combat positions in full strength without permission and departed for the rear areas”, the statement said.
Russia launched a military operation in the Ukraine more than five months ago, on the night of February 24th. President Vladimir Putin stated that the purpose of the special operation was to save the inhabitants of Donbass from “genocide by the Kiev regime”, as well as the demilitarization and “denazification” of the neighbouring state.
The Ukraine severed diplomatic relations with Russia, declared martial law and declared general mobilization.
During this period, the Russian Defence Ministry has reported on the destruction in the Ukraine of more than 4.2 thousand tanks and other armored vehicles, 146 helicopters, 267 aircraft, 1.7 thousand drones, 3290 field artillery pieces and mortars, 797 MLRS and 365 anti-aircraft missile systems.
link
It’s all lies, I tells ya!
Russia — lie!
Russia — weak!
Amerika — strong!
Amerika — good!
Amerika always tell truth!
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Wrong link, I think.
Better link:
https://www.rbc.ru/politics/12/08/2022/62f623c49a79473e23322ea4
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Amerika — strong!
That why Amerika always win wars!
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IA REGNUM
Polyansky: no one at the UN Security Council has supported the Kiev version of the bombardment of the Zaporozhya nuclear power plant
IA REGNUM
August 12, 2022
The UN Security Council has not supported the Kiev version of the bombardment of the Zaporozhya nuclear power plant, Dmitry Polyansky, Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, said on August 12 in a Telegram channel.
According to him, in the course of the last discussion, no one supported the Ukrainian version of the bombardment of the Zaporizhzhya NPP, despite the obsession with accusations against Russia. Polyansky expressed hope that the results of the meeting would keep the Ukrainian leadership from reckless provocations.
As REGNUM reported earlier, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council, had commented on the bombardment of the territory of the Zaporozhya power plant by Kiev troops.
link
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In Italy, the consequence of Zelensky’s statements about the return of the Crimea have been described as dangerous
August 12, 2022
La Stampa: Zelensky’s desire to take the Crimea back off Russia will end in a world war
Ria.ru
Volodymyr Zelensky’s statements about the need to take the Crimea from Russia could turn the Ukrainian crisis into a fully-fledged world war, writes Domenico Quirico in an article for the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
In his opinion, Moscow would perceive the consequences of a possible attack by Ukrainian forces on the peninsula of “Sevastopol, Malakhov Kurgan and Count Tolstoy” [references to the Crimean War — ME] much tougher than the confrontation in the Donbass. “If Zelensky, as he announced in one of his latest evening addresses to the nation, decided to start the “return of the territories” precisely from the Crimea, these six months will turn out to be only a temporary stage before hell”, the author of the material claims.
He stressed that the Ukrainian leader is not capable of taking such a desperate step without a go-ahead from the West, and this is likely to involve the US and Europe in direct confrontation.
“An attempt to retake the Crimea, a manoeuvre that cannot happen without a green light from the Americans, means that the prevailing idea will be to fight to the bitter end, totally, without limit of means; and the elimination of what little there is left of the possibility of a treaty and a settlement of interests, the only path that leads at least to a truce”, summed up Quirico.
The newspaper’s readers agreed with the author’s opinion that the Kiev regime is responsible for the current state of affairs.
“At the end of the day, the only real problem is Zelensky”, said a user with the nickname Nexus.
[Bollocks! For “Zelensky” read “Washington”]
“If the situation were not so tragic and could not get much worse, it would be downright comical. The US thought they were using Zelensky to wage a proxy conflict with Russia without getting their hands dirty and by only spending a little money, and now more and more they are discovering that in fact Zelensky is using them for his own purposes and dragging them to that level of conflict that was absolutely not in the plans. And they no longer know how to get out of it”, maxunstoppable noted.
Earlier, the President of the Ukraine, during a video message, once again stated that Kiev would definitely have the Crimea returned to its control and announced an international summit on the “de-occupation” of the region. At the same time, he found it difficult to voice the timing of the “return” of the peninsula.
As Georgy Muradov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Crimea, emphasized, the idea of separating the peninsula from Russia is steadily leading the Ukrainian state to complete collapse.
The head of the Parliamentary Committee of the Republic on Civil Diplomacy and Interethnic Relations, Yuriy Gempel, in turn, noted that the peninsula was too tough a nut for Ukrainian nationalists to crack since it is reliably fortified.
https://turbo.ria.ru/20220812/krym-1809141810.html
That’s rich — such an article appearing in La Stampa!
Only a couple of months ago, following a Banderite Grad missile attack against Donetsk civilians in Donetsk city centre, La Stampa published an edition with a full front page photo of the bodies of victims of that attack as they lay dead on the street. Below the huge photograph it read: Dead civilians in Kiev following a Russian missile attack.
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I’m glad you brought that up – the missus and the little ‘un (not really little any more, she’s nearly as tall at 15 as I am) just returned from a European holiday they had been on the very verge of taking in 2020, when The Greatest Public-Health
OpportunityCrisis In History struck, and international flights disappeared from public options. That was the second holiday we lost to the ‘pandemic’ – she and I had been scheduled to take a cruise before that and I had wangled time off that I couldn’t get back, so we had to sit at home. Anyway, they spent a couple of days in Paris and the rest in Rome. Wonderful time, fabulous food, bla bla, and although they took only a tiny backpack each, I quickly noticed new shoes and a handbag in the photos that were sent home. But she told me after they got back that they encountered no bias whatsoever against Russians; quite the contrary, people they met voluntarily offered positive comments about the country and its leader. Locals and other tourists always ask where you are from, and while they would have said ‘Canada’ although the missus is a Russian and that would have been the language they used for conversation between themselves, they were met in the Rome part by our nieces, who are from St Petersburg. The missus also said it was not at all hard to find Russian-speakers anywhere they went and the waitress at their favourite restaurant in Rome was Ukrainian and so nice they can’t wait to see her again.When I am challenged by someone who says, “Everyone I know hates Putin”, or hates Russians or whatever, I regularly reply, how many people do you know? I remember that Russian girl from Florida, Zhenya, on the old blog – she claimed she had escaped Russia through Finnish Karelia, and when she saw the degree of civilization there after the dump she had come from, she was overcome and wept; a story made for western newspapers. Maybe she was just a super-dramatic person, I couldn’t say as we never met and I am not really ‘someone she knows’. If I recall correctly the discussion was about alcoholism in modern Russia with a seasoning of how nobody believes Russian statistics. Anyway, her position was that ‘Nobody I know’ gives Russian-supplied statistics any credibility. I countered, how many people do you know? Personally, having met and spoken with them on frequent occasions, recognize them when you see them on the street, that sort of thing. I made a wild-ass guess that the average person, when saying ‘everyone I know’, is almost certainly talking about a pool of less than 200 people, and it might be much less than that. Try it. Think of everyone whose name and face you can think of, including those you knew in school and half of whom might be dead now or you will for other reasons never see them again. Less than 200? I imagine so.
So when the missus says “Everyone I met in Europe” was noticeably positive about Russia and Putin, she’s talking about probably less than 20 people, and just means people she spoke to where the conversation lasted long enough to come ’round to ‘where are you from?’ That certainly could not be cited as representative of broad public attitudes. However, I found it extremely interesting and generally contradictory of the mainstream meme “Everybody hates Russians”. Which, by the way, is prevalent in the Russian media as well, although for opposite reasons, whereby it is meant to create a unifying “You and me against the world” effect.
I guess we all should have learned by now not to believe what the mainstream media says, and to mistrust it even when it says something we want to believe is true. But it seems – going now from other data – that the notion everyone hates Russians because of their beastly treatment of the poor Ukrainians is not even close to true; yes, I know, a lie, surprise! Not even everyone in Europe, which is supposed to be a bastion of Russia-haters. I think you would find, if you did an exhaustive survey, that the people who hate Russia always did.
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The people whom I know and communicate with are very few in number: they are my very, very old uncle and aunt, a cousin, my sister, who is 1 year and 1 day younger than I am, my two nieces and my nephew. Of these, I only communicate regularly with one niece.
Before 24 February of this year, I regularly communicated with my nephew, who is a WOII in the British army. He had earlier been hauled up twice before by army investigators as regards his communicating with someone in Russia, but he had continued to write.
Following the unprovoked attack of Russia against dear little, peace-loving Banderastan, my nephew’s regular emails ceased.
Of my former workmates down the pit, one had been regularly communicating with me for the past 5 years or so. Three years ago, he and his wife visited me in Moscow. They had booked a cruise holiday from St. Petersburg to Moscow. They were both in raptures over Russia.
Following his return to the UK, my old workmate regularly wrote about his strong desire to visit Russia again.
Only a few days after 24 February this year, he angrily wrote to me: “How can you justify this?” and went into a tirade about the wickedness of Russia’s unprovoked war against the Ukraine and the killing by the Russian armed forces of Ukraine civilians.
I tried to put him right. He replied: “You have your point of view: I have mine!” He then ceased communicating with me.
Every working week I communicate at any given time with about 8 Russian citizens whom I teach English on line.
Yesterday, one of these students told me of the experience of two of his colleagues who this week had been on a business trip to Paris. Apparently, his colleagues were in a restaurant there, when a waiter approached them at their table and informed them that the restaurant manager wished to know if they could speak Ukrainian. They told him they could not. The waiter went away, only to return a little later in order to tell them that the manager had asked them to leave the establishment because they were Russians.
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It was the general ignorance displayed by Canadians during the ‘pandemic’, the jingoism for public-health restrictions and special identifiers for the ‘vaccinated’ – not to mention ‘privileges’ for the jabbed which had been everyone’s ‘right’ just months before that finally obliterated my former tolerant and semi-amused affection for Canada. I still live here because it’s still not a bad place to live, with a comfortable standard of living and a generally good availability of services, but that’s because it is convenient for me. If I was told tomorrow I would have to move to the USA, it would not bother me – all my former loyalty for Canada is gone and it’s just another big country to me.Behavior such as you describe I simply put down to general ignorance and stupidity, with which I would credit a good three-quarters of the global population and nearly 100% of the political strata.
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Well, your instinct that “less than 200” people are truly known by any of us seems well-founded, bearing in mind “Dunbar’s Number”:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number
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I had no idea – damned scientists, always analyzing our behavior. I just made it up, it was a lucky guess.
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You’re too modest. Pattern recognition is a great skill, perhaps what distinguishes us best.
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BFM.RU
August 13, 2022, 02:43
The Foreign Ministry has declared a possible cessation of diplomatic relations with the United States if it declares that the Russian Federation is a “sponsor of terrorism”.
Moscow has already warned Washington about points of no return
Russia has informed the United States that diplomatic relations between the two countries may be downgraded or severed in a number of cases. Alexander Darchiev, Director of the North American Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, spoke about one of them in an interview with TASS.
The diplomat called the current situation in the world “turbulent” and accused Washington of “trampling upon international law and absolute taboos”. An unacceptable scenario, the implementation of which Russia would harshly react to, would be the recognition of the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism, Darchiev said.
“In this context, I shall mention the legislative initiative now being discussed in Congress to declare Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism”. If this is implemented, it will mean that Washington has crossed the point of no return with the most serious collateral damage to bilateral diplomatic relations, up to a decrease in their level and even a cessation of them”, the diplomat said.
Earlier, the Saeima [Parliament — ME] of Latvia had recognized Russia as a sponsor of terrorism. Lithuania made a similar decision in May.
https://www.bfm.ru/news/506529?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=mobile
Do it, USA shitwits!
Please!
A total break from the degenerate “free and democratic West” and its despotic hegemon is the way to go!
I wonder if the dumbarse US “diplomats” have noticed yet that Russia does not bluff?
Away with the filth!
Eurasia and the rest of the world — the majority of states that are not satraps of Uncle Sam — have long had enough of the degenerate USA and its “rules based world order”.
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National Interest Analyst Hyman Warns West of Attrition from Aid to the Ukraine August 13, 2022
https://turbo.lenta.ru/news/2022/08/13/zapad_ukraina/
The West needs a strategy to avoid attrition in the Ukraine because neither side in the conflict can continue like this, said Gerald F. Hyman, an analyst with The National Interest (NI).
[The stalemate meme! — ME]
According to him, the West is spending billions of dollars on weapons for the Ukraine, and Russia has a large number of armoured vehicles, missiles and other weapons in its arsenal. The whole thing looks like a “war of attrition” and will lead to a “long and painful stalemate”, says the expert, warning of the risks.
Hyman said that the military conflict affects not only the Ukrainians, but also their allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had signaled to NATO that he would demand five billion dollars a month from partners in aid to Kiev, he said.
Despite the fact that the West was ready to help the Ukraine, but this would not last forever, the author is sure.
A protracted conflict would make Westerners doubt the investment into the Ukraine, the analyst believes. He recalled that the allied countries were heading into recession and are already suffering from high inflation rates.
“Cracks are already forming in the previously united political front in the United States. Some Republicans, still a minority, now oppose the Ukraine’s continued unrestricted funding”, Hyman explained. According to him, French President Emmanuel Macron had long been opposed to the “humiliation” of Russia, in Italy the situation resembled the post-war period, and Boris Johnson’s successor as British prime minister was unlikely to staunchly support the Ukraine.
[I don’t know, I wouldn’t put it past the stupid cow! — ME]
In this regard, further “heroism” of the Ukrainians would seem superfluous to the West, Hyman believes. “Now NATO allies, together with Zelensky, need to develop a long-term viable strategy, a plan with realistic goals”, he stressed.
Earlier, The Washington Post wrote that the successes of the Ukrainian army had stalled. [Successes? What successes might they be? — ME] Journalists pointed to the absence of signs of preparations for a “major counteroffensive.”. [What happened to the “”Kherson Offensive”? — ME]
Heroic Banderites have fought the Evil Orcs to a standstill, right?
The war is now at a stalemate, right?
Billions are being pumped into Banderastan and they’re asking for more but no ROI foreseeable in the near future, right?
And the grand strategy of the Washington filth is hurting their “allies”.
Badly!
Exit ramp!
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The trouble with a war of attrition is that it’s good for business with the American military-industrial complex. They build more Javelins and HIMARS for Ukraine, and Russia helpfully blows them up, so they have to be replaced. Every once in awhile, the Ukrainians have a little success, blow up a fuel dump with a HIMARS rocket or something, and it’s big news in the western media. America hopes it will go on forever.
My local rag today carried a story – probably from Associated Press, I didn’t notice but nearly all their international content is from AP – which claimed Russia is ‘struggling’ to find enough soldiers to relieve those on the front line in Ukraine. It further claimed Russian military officials are visiting prisons and offering the prisoners amnesty if they will go to fight in Ukraine. As substantiation, it cites a woman who does not want to be named because she fears reprisals, but who was told by her boyfriend, who is an inmate serving a current term. I’m not kidding. And the meme that the Russian effort is about to collapse – unless, of course, Putin orders a general mobilization, which everyone knows he wants to do but doesn’t dare because the people would come into the streets in their hundreds of thousands and throw him out of the Kremlin – staggers on like a zombie; if Ukraine can just hold on a few more weeks, glorious victory will be theirs and bla de bla and bullshit-bullshit-bullshit.
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LENTA.RU
American political scientist Ulman says that the United States has been struck by incurable “historical amnesia”
August 13, 2022
https://turbo.lenta.ru/news/2022/08/13/amnesia/
Political scientist Harlan Ullman said that the United States was suffering from an incurable disease — “historical amnesia”. In an article that he has written for “The Hill”, the expert states that a “gene of stupidity” in the strategic and political DNA of the state is the reason for this.
“Deadly as pandemics are, America’s ‘historical amnesia’ could prove to be a much more severe affliction. Judging by the course of our history, this disease may be incurable. It is still very contagious and is passed down from generation to generation of Americans”, the specialist emphasized.
The American expert recalled that 58 years ago, Congress approved a resolution on the Gulf of Tonkin incident, following the adoption of which resolution, the United States entered the war in Vietnam.
According to the official version of the authorities, during a patrol in the international waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, a US destroyer was attacked by several North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The vessel was not damaged; there were no casualties amongst its crew.
Congress responded to the incident “with extraordinary speed”. A policy of “shoot first, ask questions later” was followed., which policy was adhered to 39 years later by George W. Bush, when he , “unleashed” American forces to neutralize Saddam Hussein and his “weapons of mass destruction”.
Contemporary US actions reflect previous decisions during the Cold War — of this the political scientist is sure. In his opinion, the American authorities are making the same mistakes, regardless of the personalities of their politicians.
“Today, America’s economic and military power in absolute terms is great. But in relative terms, both of these critical indicators are falling… Does the rather grim diagnosis of American ‘historical amnesia”’ really point to there being an incurable disease in the United States? Yes, that’s how it seems to all of us”, concluded Ulman.
Maybe they are just educated shitwits, as are Jonson and Truss and very many other “leading politicians”.. But the American are full of their “exceptionality”, whereas the British are full of their nostalgic post-imperial bullshit about their “Global Role”.
American hubris that has led to their nemesis and British bullshit! that no longer baffles brains.
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Gore Vidal started calling his country the United States of Amnesia way back in the 90s, I think. What’s taught in schools is closer to myth than history–simplified, flattering narratives of national greatness and progress. Which means current events, for most people, lack any context or background, except what the media supplies, which is why it’s so easy for MSM mouthpieces to spin and skew the facts, steering public opinion wherever they want it to go. I think many people are too ignorant to know how ignorant they are. They’ve watched a few shows on a subject and figure they’re “up” on it. History, especially, comes to them via movies and dumbed-down documentaries. “Woke” minorities have their own narrow, fanatic grasp of (their particular) history. Instead of breeding humility and an awareness of complexity as it ought to, “history” over here just deepens people’s stupidity, smugness, and intellectual laziness. No basis for a democracy. But then we’re not a democracy, we just think we are.
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I watched a USA made documentary about the Battle of Kursk on YouTube the other year. I didn’t watch watch it for long. It began something like: “Nobody has heard of this battle which was a crucial victory of the Soviets against the Nazi invaders. The battle took place in the middle of Ukraine, around the Kursk salient …”.
It was then when I stopped watching.
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Well it is close if you look at a map.
I was impressed back in March to have a CBC reporter in Lvov tell me that Mariupol was on the Black Sea. Apparently he studied geography with Liz Truss
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Voronezh, where I used to live and which city and its region Svidomites consider to be Ukrainian, is close too, but it’s a Russian city.
Kharkov is a Ukrainian city though — it was the first capital of the country that now calls itself “Independent Ukraine” but which was a creation of the USSR in 1922 and called the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which subject republic of the USSR encompassed what Russians called “The Borderland”, namely Украина.
Kharkov is about 20 miles from the Russian border.
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Well, it is sort of on the Black Sea. I mean, continentally. Apparently that is an acceptable standard.
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Well said. I particularly enjoyed the imagery of “I think many people are too ignorant to know how ignorant they are”; you have a flair for the pungent aphorism. Unfortunately, ignorance far surpasses the bounds of America, although to the best of my knowledge American leaders are the only ones who celebrate it. Oh, they call it ‘folksy charm’ or ‘the common touch’ and claim anti-intellectualism makes you a fun guy to go for a beer with, but at bottom it is the very ignorance Mencken satirized. It should be amusing to watch large demographics weepily eulogize ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’ when they get all the ‘news’ that informs their opinions from CNN or the BBC, but it’s really not; it’s just…kind of sad.
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Yes–sad, maddening, but above all, for me anyway, scary, because public opinion is supposed to act as a brake on the powerful so they can’t just do whatever the hell they want; what electorates think is supposed to matter to governments and give them pause in their plans; but now it seems the art of manipulating public opinion has succeeded so well that, provided the ‘information space’ has been sufficiently saturation-bombed with propaganda beforehand, governments can take public acquiesence as a given–even in the cynical prosecution of a proxy war that kills thousands, employs neo-Nazi death squads, enriches corrupt politicos, wrecks whole economies, risks nuclear war, ruins international diplomatic relationships, explicitly aims at the overthrow of foreign governments, etc, etc. It’s the total absence of vocal opposition to all this in the public arena that feels new, and chilling. Roger Waters and a handful of bloggers–that’s it. That’s the extent of public opposition to the most reckless, criminal military adventurism of my lifetime. Maybe this winter will wake up at least a few Europeans. Or maybe they’ll just go from being stupid to being stupid and cold. We’ll see. (Point taken about the US not holding a monopoly on ignorance. But if there is anything they can claim to still lead the world in the production of, maybe it’s that.)
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Kommersant
13.08.2022, 11:45
Export of goods from the European Union to Russia increased by 18% in a month
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5512801
In June, the EU countries increased their exports of goods to Russia to €4.45 billion, which is 18% more than in May (€3.78 billion). Exports of perfumery and cosmetics grew the most (38%, to €234 million), as well as medical instruments (optical, measuring, control) – by 38% to €286 million, RBC writes, citing Eurostat data.
Exports of plastics and plastic products also grew by 16% to €234 million, and electrical equipment and components by 7% to €187 million.
The largest exporter of goods to Russia among the EU countries is Germany (€1.16 billion in June, +5.4% versus May). The second place is occupied by Italy (€523 million, +2.9% compared to May). Exports from the Baltic countries in June increased by 34% compared to May, to €481 million.
Exports from European countries to Russia have been growing for the second month in a row, recovering after April, when its smallest volume was recorded (€ 2.78 billion), the newspaper notes. However, it is still well below 2021 levels. In June of that year, the EU exported goods worth a total of €7.21 billion.
Perfume and cosmetics, eh?
Where do the Orcs get the money from to buy such luxuries for the Orcesses?
Exporting goods to Mordor is not in the “We stand with Banderastan” spirit, surely?
Anyway, I thought the Evil Empire was isolated, a pariah state — held even to be a “terrorist state” by some, such as plucky little Latvia and Estonia, who really show the mettle that they are made of in combatting the non-European East Slavic Untermenschen.
Hang on though! Even the plucky Balts have increased their exports to Russia.
And the good old Fatherland, the most important of the USA’s European colonies and occupied by the forces of all that is right and good for the past 77 years, is still the main exporter to Russia. How can Shit Scholz explain that?
Wonder what Ursula von Lying-Sack-of-Shit thinks of all this?
Nobody cares what Borrell thinks, though: he’s almost as useless as was “Lady” fucking Ashton as regards depths of incompetence and ignorance when acting as nothing more than a talking head in the service of the EU bureaucracy.
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But all it would take is a ‘new report’ from some think-tank in Washington which claimed Russia was using perfume to make chemical weapons and that scented products are therefore dual-use and all such exports must stop immediately, and Europe would groan and comply. They are not allies in any real sense, obviously not military but not to be ever again relied upon as trade partners, either. As soon as the Americans identify a European export as a necessity in Russia, they will make up some cockamamie excuse to have it banned and Europe will not have the nuts to tell them to mind their own business. The only demographic that Washington can still bully is its vassals.
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IA REGNUM
In Kiev they have said that a resumption of peace talks would be a victory for Russia
August 13, 2022
The consent of the Ukrainian side to negotiations with Moscow will mean the defeat of the Kievregime and Europe. This was announced on April 13 by Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of the Ukraine in an interview with the Ukrainian edition of Babel.
“Negotiations with the Russian Federation today would mean only one thing: that Russia has won. This would be put down as a defeat for the Ukraine, a defeat for Europe and for democratic values as such”, he said, commenting on the words of an expert from Britain, Timothy Ash, that such negotiations could resume autumn 2022.
Podolyak also added that, in his opinion, the fact of such negotiations could “fix a civilizational catastrophe” and their beginning would allegedly be followed by the fall of “the entire global security system”.
[Because only the USA is allowed to take military action against sovereign states in the interests of
USAglobal security? — ME]At the same time, the adviser to the head of the office of the Ukrainian president added that, in his opinion, Kiev had already paid a high price, which is more expensive than the possibility of an immediate ceasefire.
As REGNUM reported earlier, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation said earlier that over 70 servicemen of the 30th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine had been killed and more than 300 soldiers of the 30th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine wounded by high-precision missiles near the Gavrilovka railway station in the Kharkov region.
link
No peace talks then?
How about an unconditional surrender?
Would that suit you dimwits?
Would that be a ”victory” for the Ukraine — better said, the last Ukrainian standing?
Well, not actually the last standing: Elensky will be in his Miami mansion then— or Israel.
That’s where his mother and father buggered off to quite a while back, “inheritors of ‘Kievan Rus’’ that they are, as is their son.
That’s a term the Clown uses on his Saturday night TV pep talks to describe himself and the “Ukrainian Nation”.
Funny is that! The monsters associated with the person whom Zelensky considers the “Father of the Ukrainian Nation” had quite a fun time, apparently, butchering the Clown’s antecedents and others of the same tribe.
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I wonder what the slimy rat thinks of his grandfather, who fought in the Red Army against the Nazis? Perhaps the foul Clown Prince of Banderastan’s grandfather should have better fought in Bandera’s Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which was devoted to creating an ethnically “pure” Ukraine free of Poles, Romanians, Slovaks, Hungarians and Russians of course.
Oh yes! And of Jews.
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Obviously if a missile shard or a bullet got Podolyak, it would be a miracle, as he will not ever be near any of the fighting where Ukrainians are being coerced to go to their deaths. The most idealistic about the purity and nobility of the Ukrainian effort are always the political hacks who have nothing to do with business at the sharp end. Including Elensky, of course, who only looks military in his ‘trademark’ olive-drab T-shirt and his occasional awkward-looking flak jacket on the occasions he does visit the troops in the field. It must have been a hundred years since the last national leader was killed in battle at the head of his forces.
Meanwhile, as I often mention, it perfectly suits the USA and Britain for the Ukrainians to be wiped out if that’s what it takes, because in the end they are Slavs and it’s like an all-white audience at an international fight watching two black men beat the shit out of one another. One of them will win, of course, but one of them will lose, too. Is the glass half-empty, or half-full?
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Russia lies!
RT in Russian
Captured soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine have declared their unwillingness to return to the Ukraine
August 13, 2022
Soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine who have surrendered and laid down their arms have refused to return to Ukraine on an exchange basis.
The Russian Ministry of Defence has announced this on its Telegram channel.
The report says that captured Ukrainian marines, national guardsmen, and representatives of the airborne assault and ground forces have decided to remain on the Russian-controlled side of the territory because of their unwillingness to fight and the fear of being on the front line again.
The ministry also released a video of Oleksandr Zhyzhin, a leading seaman of the Armed Forces of theUkraine, who had surrendered and said he did not want to return to the Ukraine.
Earlier, a captured soldier of the 53rd mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces, Vadim Agafonov, told reporters that Ukrainian soldiers were being prepared for an attack on the Donbass and Russia.
On August 3, Russian Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin said that the purpose of the UAF strike on the pre-trial detention center in Yelenovka was an attempt to intimidate Ukrainian servicemen so that they would not surrender.
link
To the Heroes — Glory!
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“Guardian” opinion piece on Truss:
Opinion
Liz Truss is easy to mock, but she could do more damage than Boris Johnson ever did
The Tory leadership frontrunner is a calculating workaholic who readily drops positions that no longer serve her
Fri 12 Aug 2022 06.00
And she’s shit hot at maths the article says.
No good at geography though!
link
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I believe the ‘calculating’ part, and readily dropping positions that can no longer prove useful is about as unusual in a politician as a taste for acorns in a squirrel. Truss likely wants the office for the pomp and circumstance – it certainly isn’t because she wants to ‘serve the country’ – but she likely is mindful of the growing presence of women in high office and sees herself as an ‘inspiration’ to women everywhere. Consequently she would expect to have to show daily that she can be tougher than any man, and could be expected to be as belligerent as a Saturday-night drunk. A big win for Britain all around, he said sarcastically.
I have heard from Vivian – sorry to mention her and Truss in the same breath, but this is as good a spot to put it in as any – and she is fine, just a little tired. She does have regular problems with her back and she does mind the heat but is otherwise okay, I’m sure we are all glad to hear. She said writing her daily rant is about all she can manage at the moment. If you are keeping an eye on her, she posts here:
https://independencedaily.co.uk/
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And the Baltic Chihuahua shithole states continue their endless yapping . . .
RT in Russian
The head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry has proposed that the EU ban entry of Russians into EU member states
August 13, 2022
AP
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has proposed to the EU that entry of Russian citizens into the countries of the community be banned. This is reported by the agency BNS.
According to him, Vilnius believes that the imposed restrictions are more effective if they operate at the level of the European Union.
He also said that Estonia’s decision to stop letting Russian citizens into the republic with Schengen visas “is essentially very similar to the restrictions” applied by the Lithuanian side.
Earlier, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said that the country was closing its borders to Russian citizens with Schengen visas issued by the republic.
Russian Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov, in an interview with RT, called the decision of the Estonian Foreign Ministry to close the borders for Russians with Schengen visas, as well as to limit the issuance of tourist visas to Russian citizens by a number of European countries, as complete nonsense.
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They used to make Jews wear Stars of David and live in ghettos. Identifying an ethnic group as hostile, dangerous, “the other” is still alive and well in free, democratic Europe it seems.
They’ll be demanding next that Russians wear red Soviet stars or whatever so that they be identified, because though they might look like “us” they are “different”, not really human.
Vilnius was once the European city with the highest Jewish population in Europe — up to 1939, that is.
The Lithuanian Jews had all but gone when the Red Army threw the Nazis out of Lithuania in 1944.
Wonder where they went?
The German Nazis rid Lithuania of its Jews all by themselves, didn’t they?
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And how does that square with Europe’s insistence that ‘we’re not anti-Russian, we’re anti-Putin, and we want to liberate the beloved Russian people from his oppressive authoritarianism’?
The Balts are great haters, but they’re not really especially good at anything else, and when their populations subside into ethnic statistical irrelevance it will not be much of a loss. If I were running Russia I would cut them off completely from everything; they could be supplied by Europe to their heart’s content, but they would not get a Watt of electricity or a cubic meter of gas or a pint of oil out of my country, and the rails would end in cauterized nubs at their border. No vendors would sell to them, no buyers would buy from them and their citizenship would automatically disqualify them from entry. Let them become a noisy pustule on Europe, which would become responsible for their care and feeding.
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Hi, there is an online petition to European Parliament against this, not a huge fan of petitions but useful to spread the word for now
https://www.change.org/co/p/european-parliament-no-ban-of-visas-for-russian-citizens-in-the-eu/
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@markchapman, I didn’t click more to read all of this petition and it seems to be focused on Russian liberal intelligentsia in Europe, but I can’t delete my comment here. So please ignore the link
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Okay. But the missus was asking only this morning – we were discussing the western childishness on punishing Russians by making their travel as complicated as possible – “Why am I punished?” She is a Canadian by citizenship. But as I pointed out, the aim is to punish everyone who has any connection with Russia – family, business, cultural – so that overthrow of the Putin ‘regime’ appears a reasonable alternative to continued punishment. Therefore Russian liberal ‘intelligentsia’ and their children squirreled away in Europe’s comforting arms are subject to the same circuitous travel torture if they want to visit relatives or friends. It’s the sort of ridiculous treatment that demands a response, and exactly the kind of American blanket bullshit that is becoming its stock in trade. With the inbred Europeans as their vocal and willing enablers. If there’s a good thing about it, it showcases Russia’s former ‘partners’ in the kind of repugnant light that will ensure they will never again be so regarded.
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It is disgusting. I would like to do some European-wide action, still trying to find useful people. Will see if I have any joy with European left
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Remember Russiagate? The confected accusations against Trump during his period in the White House of somehow being either a hapless dupe of the Kremlin or some kind of master agent?
Larry Johnson provides background information on the question of declassification of Government materials in order to round out our understanding of the 8 August raid on Trump’s home in Florida:
https://sonar21.com/clarifying-the-system-and-authorities-to-classify-information-trump-followed-the-law/
The Section 1.7 clarification appears to be key.
Well, that plus this comment:
Victor says
13 August 2022 at 02:55
Here’s what they were really after (translated from https://vz.ru/news/2022/8/10/1171907.html):
TV and radio presenter Vladimir Solovyov anecdote commented on the searches in the estate of former US President Donald Trump in Florida.
“During the search of Donald Trump, it was found:
– Budenovka (communist military hat);
– PPSH (a type of Soviet machine gun);
– Parachute straps;
– Bear Skin
– Flag of the USSR
– Push-button phone with Russian layout;
– Portrait of Putin on a horse, painted in oil;
– Honey with pepper;
– Hat-ushanka (Russian winter hat);
– The second component of the Sputnik V vaccine;
– Encyclopedia about turbines for gas pipelines;
– Tomik Pushkin in the original;
– TV signal of the channel “Solovyov Live”;
– Banknote with a face value of 500 rubles;
– Discount card of the store “Pyaterochka” (Russian chain of convenience stores);
“Login and password from the personal account of the portal “State Services”
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I knew it but they missed the cheap Russian Vodka. Rachel Maddow will have an orgasm on live TV.
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Is she still given air space to rant on about the Evil Russians?
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Provocation imminent: Zik-Zik announces that ‘any Russian’ who shoots at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant will become a ‘special target’ of the Ukrainian security services.
“Every Russian military officer who either shoots at the plant, or shoots under the cover of the plant, must understand that he becomes a special target for our intelligence, for our special services, for our army,” the president said.
He added that “every day” of Russia’s occupation of the plant “increases the radiation threat to Europe”.
Blatant extortion through nuclear terrorism – help us, or there will be a nuclear ‘accident’ which will menace all of Europe.
https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/newsworld/ukraine-to-target-russian-troops-at-nuclear-plant/ar-AA10DyIT
Naturally the Beeb did one of its world-famous ‘investigations’ which determined that Ukrainian workers at the plant are held at gunpoint, and it is very stressful. How did they learn this? Well, two people who claim to work there texted them; no way to independently verify their identities or the accuracy of their statements, because of course they spoke under the condition of anonymity and the Beeb did not use their ‘real names’.
I wonder what they would report if I texted them, claiming to be Putin, and ordered them to get out of Ukraine or I would drone their Limey git asses? Can you imagine the excitement? Can you imagine the story?
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It seems to have been conveniently forgotten that Russian and Ukrainian forces worked jointly at the mothballed Chernobyl atomic power station lest some radiation disaster take place.
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Following a few comments suggesting just such an imminent provocation (See PavewayIV #22, S #31 for example), a welcome “Keep calm” reminder:
“If someone looks at the map, you’d notice that Kakhovka hydroelectric station (GES) is ~150 kms to the south of Energodar nuclear electric power plant (NPP)on the Dnipro river.
If by any chance, the Ukies could bomb the Kakhovka GES and break the dam, it won’t trouble the Energodar NPP — water won’t flow upwards. It won’t even flood Kherson, as water will just flow out to Dniprovski Gulf, and to the Black Sea. There’s lot of marshy land to absorb the water. The other matter is that the Ukies doesn’t have the fire power to break the Kakhovska dam.
On the matter of Energodar NPP, the Ukies can shoot any amount, but they won’t be able to damage the concrete cover. The nuclear waste is safeguarded against a nuclear bomb attack, so the Ukies can play their Himars comedy. The nuclear plant itself is also safeguarded against such attack…by the Soviets, not by the Ukies of today (or yesterday). RF forces took over the Energodar NPP and Kherson, Zaprozhzhia at the very beginning for a reason. They played that 40-mile long convoy near Kiev also for the same reason. While everyone was panicking, the RF forces did the job.
Russia, of course, would make a big noise about Ukies trying to make a nuclear catastrophe, but they know very well that the Ukies can’t do much. Why not keep the panic button high for some more time, until RF forces would do something else?
In the next few days, Bachmyt, Kramatorsk, Slovyansk will taken in a cauldron. Then, it’d be the end of the story for the Ukie forces.
Posted by: rp | Aug 13 2022 22:00 utc | 71”
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Oops. I forgot to mention that those comments are on the latest moonofalabama Open Thread.
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I saw a snippet of news earlier today whilst browsing the Orc Kremlin controlled media that warnings have been given out that the Evil Regime might just shut down the Zaporozhya reactors.
Better stock up on candles Yukietards!
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Did the BBC not say that the Yukietard personnel at the power plant are being forced to continue to work “at the point of a Kalashnikov”?
I should be very surprised if that august organisation didn’t, especially if Rainsford or her colleague Rosenberg reported this latest dastardly deed of the Evil Orcs.
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Well, they said ‘at gunpoint’ – but what gun is common as muck in Orcland? When the children climb out of their straw and stumble to breakfast, isn’t there an AK-47 on the table for field-stripping practice before they are allowed to eat?
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No Orc home is without one!
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Full disclosure; the missus did learn to disassemble, assemble and fire one when she was a lass. But she was a Pioneer, and learned it there. Not too different from military cadet programs here, except they would faint at the sight of an AK; they use .22’s.
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Uselessa von der Leyen goes into geopolitical raptures over a deal which will see Israel – yes, Israel! – supply Europe with LNG. In a few years.
https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/eu-eyes-israeli-natural-gas-in-deal-with-egypt/ar-AAYv0lP?cvid=73458ddd9f954720a84ea20135a3c248https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/eu-eyes-israeli-natural-gas-in-deal-with-egypt/ar-AAYv0lP?cvid=73458ddd9f954720a84ea20135a3c248
Officials said exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe were likely to rise under the deal, but it would probably take a couple of years before shipments could be expanded.
But the report led off with “EU nations seeking to reduce their reliance on Russian gas because of the war in Ukraine may soon be able to source supplies from Israel instead.”
Soon. I guess how satisfied Europeans are with their LNG availability depends on their interpretation of ‘soon’. Does suggest the Euromedia expects the war to go on for quite some time, though, dunnit?
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Fact-Checkers claim a video widely circulated which purports to show a burning wheat field in Ukraine is actually video of a burning wheat field in Michigan, in July.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/08/12/fact-check-video-shows-wheat-field-fire-michigan-not-ukraine/10264198002/
Thing is, they blame the hoax on Larry Johnson. It’s a pretty common name, but I’m going to go ahead and postulate it’s the same Larry Johnson who runs Son of the New American Revolution.
Did Larry fuck up, or is this Ukraine and its sock monkeys looking to label him a spreader of disinformation?
Addendum: the clip is attributed to Larry ‘Johnston’, not ‘Johnson’, and the icon is different from the one used by Larry Johnson. Looks like just a coincidence.
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The Orcs are coming! The Orcs are coming!
RT in Russian
WP: countries on the eastern flank of NATO have urged the US to speed up the supply of weapons
August 14, 2022
The Baltic countries and a number of states in Eastern Europe have called on the United States to speed up arms deliveries. This is reported by The Washington Post (WP).
“HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, Reaper drones, counter-battery radars are what we need most in terms of … combat power”, Kusti Salma, Chancellor of the Estonian Ministry of Defence is quoted by the publication as saying.
It is noted that a number of countries in Eastern Europe are insisting that the number of US military in the region be increased in order to “keep Moscow at bay”.
Earlier, the US representative in NATO reported that Washington had decided to deploy the élite 101st Airborne Division to European countries to “protect NATO’s eastern flank”.
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Yeah, those pesky Orcs are going to be taught a lesson they won’t quickly forget by the USA military “élite” — just like those Afghans were.
I forget where I read it now — on MoA or Reminiscences of the Future perhaps — but an analysis was made of the number of the “élite” who are to be deployed in the Chihuahua states, Romania etc. and what that meant as regards “boots on the ground”, as they like saying, in those inconsequential Eastern European NATO member states that are apparently quaking in fear of an Orcish onslaught.
The figures arrived at were less than impressive.
Pathetic sabre rattling off the USA, as usual, and equally pathetic whinging off certain Eastern European shitholes of states.
The Russians are certainly not shitting themselves, though, about this coming “élite” deployment. I recall how only a few weeks ago, in a rare case of his losing his diplomatic “cool”, Lavrov saying in response to statements by the British Army Chief of the General Staff that the UK should prepare for a land campaign against Russia and to similar statements by Idiot Johnson and others: “Well, why don’t you try it then?”
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‘A number of eastern-European countries’: let me guess – Poland and the Baltic squealers.
Really, the need for haste is not to ensure a Russian defeat, but to stave off a Ukrainian defeat. They keep pretending there is going to be a big counteroffensive, but are actually retreating on all fronts. When you desperately need counterbattery radars, it’s because you are being shelled with a frequency that means you can’t advance – defensive fire is expected. But the western ‘leaders’ remain convinced, or maintain the pretense of being convinced that if Ukraine can just hold on a little longer, the Russian pressure will collapse – they simply cannot keep it up. Running out of ammunition, scouring the prisons for more men, hiding out in the aisles next to Fiction & Biographies hoping to catch likely lads returning their library books. Ukraine Must Not Be Defeated.
It’s too much to hope for that Ukrainians will remember it was the United States, the UK and Germany (mostly) that kept the pressure on which prevented Ukraine from an honourable surrender while it still held all its former territory except the DNR/LPR. Or that Poland and the Baltic squealers kept up a chorus of agonized screams for even more intervention from the aforementioned busybodies and self-appointed Justice League. No, more likely Ukrainian history will reflect that the NATO nations tried their very best to help, because they love Ukrainians so much. Better hope that’s true, because there are going to be a lot of them growing up in western diasporas. Still feel as crowded as it ever did in the Old Country, though: it’ll be a lot smaller.
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The President of Latvia has urged that tourist visas to Russians be stopped
August 14, 2022
Latvian President Levits has said that it was necessary to stop issuing tourist visas to Russians
Izvestia
Latvian President Egils Levits has said that his country, together with Finland, Estonia, the Czech Republic and other like-minded states, should put forward a demand at the European level to stop issuing tourist visas to Russians. This was reported on August 14 by Apriņķis.lv
In his opinion, this would place additional sanction pressure on Russia, writes Gazeta.Ru.
At the same time, Levits noted that he knows about the reluctance of a number of European countries to refuse Russian tourists. For example, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has expressed doubts about this.
“I think we need to talk about this, to speak on principle”, said the President of Latvia.
He also believes that it is necessary to revise the residence permits already issued to Russians in Latvia.
“The sale of residence permits by past governments, their unjustified generosity in issuing residence permits to Russians, behind which the selfish interests of “political businessmen” were hidden, has created risks for the country’s security and contributed to “bilingualism” [on the territory of Latvia]”, Levits said.
[Bilingualism not allowed in Latvia! Hear that, Brussels — in bilingual Belgium? Human rights issue do you think, von de Liar?]
On August 11, the Latvian Seimas called on the EU countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russians and Belarusians. At the same time, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said that Tallinn had decided to close the borders for Russians with Schengen visas issued in Estonia.
A day earlier, it had become known that a proposal to ban the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian citizens had been submitted for discussion in the EU. As Senator of the Federation Council Sergei Tsekov said in an interview with Izvestia, if the EU decided to ban Russians from entering the countries of the community, this would be a violation of international law and demonstrate the stupidity of the EU leadership.
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Shit! That means millions of Russians soon might not be able to go on holiday or buy a seaside cottage in Chihuahua Land, where Russians are despised to distraction.
Arise ye oppressed masses and overthrow the tyrant!
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I suppose Mr Levits wouldn’t like to be reminded of which nation in 2019 sent the biggest number of tourists to Latvia.
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There were many summer holiday homes built along the Latvian coast during Imperial Russian and Soviet times and in Latvia were situated permanent homes of the retired Soviet élite. I know two Russian families who regularly spent their summers in Latvia. They clearly don’t do that now, and those Russians who still want to spend the summer months on the Latvian Baltic coast shall soon have to forget about doing so — for no other reason than they are Russian.
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Wrong choice, Liberast arseholes!
Latvia Torn Between Money and Fear of Russia
February 19, 2015
https://eurasianet.org/latvia-torn-between-money-and-fear-of-russia
Poor liberast dears who fled the “Putin regime” and surrendered themselves to the tender care of the Latvians.
I wonder what the “Medusa” filth are going to do now — those libtard whinging journalists who worked for Lenta.ru and left Russia to set up shop in Riga because their previous employer had become “Kremlin controlled”.
And there’s a gaggle of Navalnyites based in Riga as well.
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And the hunt for Evil Orcs never ceases . . .
LATVIA’S GOLDEN VISAS, MONEY FROM RUSSIA
Who are the people from Putin’s inner circle with properties in Latvia?
20 March 2022
https://en.rebaltica.lv/2022/03/20/
Re:Baltica is part of an international group of 80 journalists from 27 media outlets who are gathering new information on the assets of sanctioned Russian billionaires, servants and propagandists in Europe, USA, and elsewhere after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In few weeks, we found over 145 properties – villas, flats, yachts, private planes – worth over 17 billions US dollars. The Usmanov, Tokarev and Mazepin families own property in Latvia, but some of them won’t be touched until the sanctions are extended to the family members of Putin’s inner circle.
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I wonder if there is a similar organization that seeks out American warmongering profiteers — you know, such as that lying bastard and now extremely wealthy lying bastard of a war criminal Blair, who, together with the US president, knelt down and asked “god” for guidance as regards giving them the green light to wage war against Iraq without having a UN mandate to do so?
Bush said god gave him the OK to do so.
Pity that god didn’t tell him at the same time that there were no WMDs in Iraq.
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God told Bush to invade Iraq? I don’t think it was that simple. Certainly there was some horse-trading going on. God – let me invade Iraq and I will let the New Orleans Saints win the Super Bowl
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See if you can find Zelensky’s swanky villa in wherever-it-is. Oh, but he’s entitled to live a little – you know, gloriously leading his nation in combat and all.
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The missus is a peacenik, and reminds me regularly that ordinary people in Russia and the Baltics get along fine; it is the rabid nationalists and the government elites who constantly stir the cauldron of hatred. The former because they consider everyone inferior to nationals, and the latter in transports of loyalty to their European and American masters. Official Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian positions are seldom based on surveys, and frequently have their roots in fear among the leadership that if the Russia vermin in their populations get too many rights, they will take over and the precious whatever dying-out language will be lost to the world. Just before I left for vacation I had nearly finished a lengthy comment reiterating that the population of each of the tiny countries climbed a predictable slope under the Soviet Union to a peak reached on the eve of independence, and then a matching decline to the present day, where the populations of all three are at risk of statistical irrelevance. I also polled each nation for electricity rates and gas prices, and most are at record highs, so I guess their idiot leaders are eager for more of the same.
But of course as I was thrashing away at the keyboard in my usual catching-rolling-marbles typing style I accidentally changed screens, and away went all that work. I used to have Lazarus, and it was a Godsend because it saved the last x-number-of-characters you typed in case of a accidental quark away from your work, but I don’t have it anymore. Anyway, I had no time to type it all again and if it is lengthy I usually can’t remember everything I said anyway.
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RIA Novosti
The commander of the platoon “Kraken” has admitted that defeating the Russian army is impossible
August 14, 2022
The commander of the “Kraken” platoon rated the training of his fighters as a “2” on a five-point system
[video insert of the bastard making a statement inserted in the linked below RIA article — ME]
Platoon commander of the Ukrainian national unit “Kraken” Dmitry Strelnikov believes that Kiev has no way of defeating the Russian army.
Earlier, a source close to the defence ministry of the LPR told RIA Novosti that servicemen of the People’s Militia had captured a militant from the Kraken national battalion.
The national battalion “Kraken” had lost its combat capability after having suffered Russian strikes.
“Initially, I joined the territorial defence force and we just stood at a checkpoint, just checking cars so that there was no looting and the like, then they took us away from the checkpoint and said that we now were part of the military structure. In April, the military took away our “tickets” (exemption from military service document) and said that we belonged to a military unit, and gave us the “Kraken” uniform insignia”, Strelnikov told reporters.
He said that there were no people with any special training in his company, as had been stated by Ukrainian television.
“They took us away somewhere, where we jumped over all sorts of obstacles for about five days, they showed us how to disassemble and assemble an assault rifle, and that’s all … If we take a five-point system (training – ed.) – I rate it at “two”.
The military personnel are much better prepared, than in my company. Nobody wanted to fight: they wrote reports”, Strelnikov said.
He clarified that no one knew how to shoot from foreign weapons that the unit had.
“I can’t say that the unit to which I belong is some kind of special or specially trained one, there is absolutely nothing special about it. And what they say on the air of Ukrainian television is some kind of fake information. An Information war is going on. It seems to me that we do not have any kind of opportunity to defeat the Russian army”, said the Kraken unit platoon commander.
link
Clearly, the Orcs must have tortured him so that he make such a statement.
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Sounds like he’s, er, cracking.
I’ll get me coat.
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He only joined up for the craic [pronounced /krak/ — it’s Irish].
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Funnily enough, “strelnik” means “shooter” in Russian and “Strelnikov” means “Shooterson” , sort of, or McShooter or MacShooter if you are a Celt.
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Or O’Shooter if you wish, or apShooter if you’re Welsh.
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Since there are now many people from the Indian subcontinent living in Britain, you could also say “Strelnikwalla” (“walla” being a general watered-down Anglo-Hindi suffix for “expert”).
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It’s a cracker! It’s the way you tell ’em.
Who used to say that? He was from Belfast.
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Must be said in a Norn Ireland accent.
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Frank Carson
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14.08.2022 11:07
Ukrainian nationalists from the “Kraken” abandoned their commander during a retreat
Soldiers of the Ukrainian nationalist unit “Kraken” abandoned their wounded commander during their retreat near Belogorovka in the LPR. According to RIA Novosti a source close to the defence ministry of the LPR stated that the People’s Militia had captured Dmitry Strelnikov, the commander of a Kraken platoon.
According to the nationalist, their platoon had been sent to Belogorovka in order to take control of high ground where a machine-gun crew was to be placed.
“We began to walk calmly. We came under fire. We started to take cover. Something exploded behind me. I was wounded”, Strelnikov said, as quoted bybthe news agency. “Because of loss of blood, I became very weak and could not walk.”
As the captured militant has pointed out, his subordinates left him under a tree and left.
“I waited until the morning. No one came, and I crawled into the forest. I crawled through the forest for two days”, he said.
Having spent two days in the forest, the nationalist continued to move on. He was found by Russian servicemen, who provided him with first aid and evacuated him.
As a result of the fact that Strelnikov was not provided with medical care in a timely manner, he lost a hand.
“If I had received medical assistance in time, there would have been no question of any loss of a hand”, he stated. “The military who took me prisoner could not take me away because they were shooting. Because of that, I lost a hand.”
It is noteworthy that, according to Strelnikov, his platoon had not been warned that the allied forces were advancing when they were sent on their mission. They were assured that the situation in the area was calm.
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Keep on sending money and weapons, USA!
The Banderites must not be defeated!
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Why can’t Russia and Ukraine be friends? Why are Eastern Slavs killing each other for the benefit of the United States?
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Your concern over Eastern Slavs is heartwarming. I agree with that and add that if any needs to die, Its those West European leadership cretins.
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GAZETA.RU
14.08.2022 14:24
Newsweek: The true nature of Volodymyr Zelensky is tiring his Western masters
Western countries are starting to get tired of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is revealing his true nature more and more. Steve Cortez writes about this for Newsweek.
According to the journalist, the West is finally starting to look at the Ukrainian president with open eyes. “For months, the Ukrainian president has enjoyed incessant flattery from the American press and celebrities”, he writes. “But now”, the author continues, “the reality of Zelensky’s rule in Ukraine is becoming undeniable even to his most ardent supporters in the West”.
As Cortes points out, gradually the list of claims made by Western curators about their ward is only growing. Now, in addition to horrendous corruption, Zelensky has been charged with banning all opposition media and parties, as well as having carried out a purge, as a result of which the Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova and the head of the SBU Ivan Bakanov have lost their posts.
“Americans are very annoyed”, the author of the article continued, “by the numerous and grandiose photo shoots of the president of ‘Independent’[Ukraine]“.
To the surprise of Cortes, the above is already enough for Zelensky to lose all support, but this has not happened.
As the journalist summarizes, apparently, the Ukraine does not affect any of Washington’s vital national interests, and the direct intervention of the United States has only harmed all the participants in the conflict. “This is just not our fight, and Zelensky — hell, he’s just not our fighter”, concluded Cortez.
link
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Ukraine has been shelling the Zaporozhnyi NPP for a while now.
Russia should really close the NPP down at least for a while. If Ukraine manages to cause a major disaster there the Crimean peninsula and southwestern Russia will be contaminated.
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C’mon Karl – you can do better than that! The Russians should make long-range missile strikes against German windmills or something.
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I will be away for a couple of days, on vacation, so if I disappear from this forum it is not because I am dead or tied to a chair under interrogation. Just enjoying the sand castles in Parksville, where we go every summer for a little R&R. Be good to one another, and see you soon.
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TASS
14 AUG, 20:24
US seeking to label Russia as state sponsor of terrorism with others’ hands — diplomat
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that the West has failed to isolate Russia, as it has failed to cancel Russian culture and history
MOSCOW, August 14. /TASS/. The United States’ plans to isolate Russia in the world have failed, which explains Washington’s attempts to label Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism with the hands of others, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.
“They are using others to materialize their idea [to add Russia to this list]. As a matter of fact, the Baltic states have already spoken out on this topic,” she said in an interview with the Voskresny Vecher (Sunday Evening) with Vladimir Solovyov program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.
She stressed that the West has failed to isolate Russia, as it has failed to cancel Russian culture and history. “It did not happen. The world has paid no heed to everything Washington was saying. The West has self-isolated from our country and then it triggered Plan B – to do harm wherever possible. Mostly by proxy,” she said, adding that Washington prefers to do it via those countries, which joined the European Union not long ago. In her words, the governments of Eastern European nations are not “the elite, which is responsible for its steps,” and Washington is making use of it.
She recalled that Moscow has clearly explained to Washington which consequences this step (listing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism) may entail. “If they can read, they, probably, understand. We have said that many times – not only orally, but also in written commentaries, and even translated them into English. So, the question is to the people we deal with. But everything has been said many times,” Zakharova stressed.
Latvia’s parliament on Thursday adopted a statement recognizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine as terrorism and declaring Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. Apart from that, the Latvian lawmakers called on EU countries to suspend issuing entry visas to Russian nationals. Commenting on this statement, Zakharova said that Latvia’s steps are rooted in visceral xenophobia and have no grounds.
Ukraine also called on the United States to add Russia to the list of state sponsors of terrorism. The same calls have been heard from a number of US lawmakers.
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Rada Deputy Goncharenko has announced negotiations with the British Ministry of Defence on the destruction of the Crimea Bridge
August 15, 2022
Deputy of the Ukraine Verkhovna Rada Oleksiy Goncharenko has said that Kiev had held talks with British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace at the NATO summit in June about a plan to destroy the Crimea Bridge, RIA Novosti reports.
The parliamentarian drew attention to the statement of expert Igor Korotchenko made on air on the Rossiya 1 TV channel, who said that, according to some information, a plan for striking the bridge was allegedly being developed under the personal supervision of the head of the British Defence Ministry.
Goncharenko also published a photo from the talks, which, in addition to him and the head of the British Ministry of Defence Wallace, shows British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Kiev on the Crimea Bridge
In July, Aleksey Arestovich, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, said that the Ukrainian military could attack the Crimea Bridge as soon as they had the first technical opportunity to do so.
The Ukraine Ministry of Defence itself admitted that the Armed Forces of the Ukraine could strike the Crimea using American missiles. Thus, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Vadim Skibitsky, said that Ukrainian troops could use American HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) multiple launch rocket system (MLRS), which the Ukraine had begun to receive from Western partners from the end of June, to strike at Russian targets.
At the same time, the American edition of “The Drive” notes that the Ukraine is unlikely to be able to strike at the Crimea Bridge using Western missiles, since the object is covered by air Defence and electronic warfare systems, and the Ukraine does not have long-range missiles which could reach the Crimea Bridge from territory controlled by Kiev
Russian response
Crimea political expert Ruslan Balbek, in response the statement by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence also pointed out that the region is reliably protected by a layered air Defence system. He added that only the liberated territories of the Ukraine, which are currently controlled by Russian soldiers, adjoin the peninsula.
Olga Kovitidi, member for the Crimea in the Federation Council, pointed out that the distance and the presence of a large number of missile defence systems make the Crimea Bridge inaccessible to the enemy, and the Russian military knows all the technical capabilities and characteristics that could be used by the Armed Forces of the Ukraine for such an attack.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov promised that Moscow would “take note” of the threats to destroy the Crimea Bridge that are coming from the Ukrainian authorities. According to him, the Russian army is a “responsible structure” and would not disregard the statements of “talking heads” in the Ukraine, and all attempts to threaten the object would be stopped.
In turn, the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov assured that the security of the Crimea is guaranteed by Russian military preventive and additional measures taken, and the threats of the Ukraine regarding the Crimea Bridge have been “taken into account” by the Kremlin
https://turbo.lenta.ru/news/2022/08/15/krym/
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No can do for Ukraine, unless they get much heavier weapons.
The longest range ATACMS for the HIMARS is 300 km range with a 150 kg warhead (they also have 300kg warhead version with 150 km range). The Russians had a hard time taking out the much smaller Atoka bridge with 500kg warhead Kalibrs, so I wouldn’t lose sleep over this.
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Captain Wallace, formerly of the Scots Guards, now Her Majesty’s Minister of Defence, will sort things out for the Yukies good and proper, I’m sure.
Yukies, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled,
Yukies, wham Elensky has aften led;
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victory!
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Well, that’s good news, because if that Crimean bridge ever did get destroyed, London bridges would be falling down under a rain of Russian hypersonics shortly afterward.
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As I’m sure I’ve said before, the dolts in Zelensky’s bandar-log parliament are making Russia’s arguments for it – it must seize and hold territory deep inside what used to be Ukraine because Ukraine intends to attack civilian infrastructure. Therefore, objects it has already identified as being on its target list must be put out of its reach.
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I have just received the following on Telegram from someone who had earlier said that Russia was revanchist: I said it was not and the following was his reply:
The USSR collapse was a geopolitical loss.
The ‘90s were an extremely difficult time for Russians: the usual simple days were replaced by huge unemployment and banditry. Everyone laughed at Russia and Russians, until this day, until Putin decided to show the world that he had balls. And many Russian men with whom I work support him as much as possible.
This is a general revanchist attitude, reminiscent of what happened to Germany after the First World War, although much milder.
Russians are a warlike people and if you don’t want to blame Putin, then lay the blame for this on the West; and if you want to destroy something, then destroy the West.
I’m not just saying this: I can see what is happening to the people I communicate with. You don’t know how many opinions I’ve heard and how many people I hear here, and there are a lot of them. And I catch the general trend: “Now we will show what we are capable of”.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. We young Russians, through communication on the Internet, see how weak Western Europeans are, both in character and physically. Russia will blow everyone to pieces.
Russians are smart, brave and strong. Only one problem that I see is financial education, and I guess it’s going to be solved.
Europe is weak as fuck.
Written by Vladimir, my 23-year old son.
When he was 18, he thought Navalny was shit hot.
His English is good, isn’t it — apart from his vulgarities.
Don’t know where he picked them up.
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I meant to mention, in my earlier discussion of the missus’s peacenik message, that she avowed the message pushed by the western media – everyone hates you – while not true, is amplified by the Russian government. Everyone hates us – and a useful propaganda message it is to united the people in common loathing of the west and in readiness to do as their government asks.
As the missus points out, not everyone in Europe and probably few outside a vocal minority feels this way, and Russia really is not widely hated, nor is the west’s general population by Russians. However, it would behoove us to notice that when the messaging from the western media and from the Russian government is in accord, it suggests the west is on the edge of committing to war while it thinks it can still win…and the Russian government thinks the west has gone too far to turn back.
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So you think that Russian media reports about EU states banning or considering banning entry to Russian citizens, the banning of exhibitions of Russian works of art in USA European colonies, the banning of Russian performers, operas and music by Russian composers who died long ago etc., etc. has all been “amplified” by the Russian “Kremlin controlled” media so as to raise the ire of Russian citizens and to psych them up for war against the hegemon and its lickspittle NATO “allies”?
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Is the following another example of the Kremlin controlled media amplifying anti-Russian sentiment in the West and Banderastan?
21: 06 16.08.2022 (updated: 22: 57 16.08.2022)
The media told about Zelensky’s desperate ploy, unprofitable for the West
TAC: Zelensky’s demand to recognize Russia as a sponsor of terrorism has crossed all boundaries
Hail the chief!
MOSCOW, Aug 16-RIA Novosti. The desperate attempt of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to force the West to recognize Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism is aimed solely at obtaining its own benefit and has no basis in fact. This point of view was expressed by political commentator Doug Bandow in an article for the magazine The American Conservative.
So far, Zelenskiy has unsuccessfully pushed the West to actively intervene militarily in the Ukrainian crisis. Now he’s trying to force Washington to announce that Moscow is a sponsor of terrorism. However, his idea has only one problem: Russia it is not a country that sponsors terrorism,” the author noted.
The journalist stressed that the United States constantly abuses this term, putting the label “sponsor of terrorism” on states that they do not like. As an example, the USA labels Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria as such. According to the author of the article, because of this practice, the real meaning of the term has turned out to be extremely vague, which in theory allows even Washington itself to be declared a sponsor of terrorism.
Bandow stated.
The observer also stressed that declaring Russia a sponsor of terrorism would have two significant consequences: This would have a very negative impact on US relations with countries that continue to cooperate with Moscow, as well as significantly complicate the settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine by means of negotiations.
“Zelensky’s political demands have crossed all the borders of any sovereign state. The only ones who can benefit from this move are those who hope to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, regardless of the devastating consequences for the Ukraine itself”, the author concluded.
In late July, the US Senate passed a resolution calling for the State Department to recognize Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism” because of the events in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria and the Ukraine. The same request had been earlier officially addressed to Washington by Kiev.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, for his part, said that adding Moscow to the “list of sponsors of terrorism” would not change much in practical terms. At the same time, as local media reported, Blinken had been under pressure on this issue for several weeks. So, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi warned that Congress itself would put Russia on the list if the State Department did not do so.
According to the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin is extremely negative about the possible consequences of this step for relations between the two countries.
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What, pray, does Nancy Pelosi hope to accomplish before she shuffles off this mortal coil – a moment, I should add, that cannot come too soon? Is she trying to leave a deathless legacy as The Greatest American Hater? A thoughtless grandstander constantly acting out in attention-grabbing stunts like ripping up her copy of Trump’s State of the Union Speech (which slow-motion revealed to be pre-torn so she wouldn’t embarrass herself struggling to tear several sheets of paper), Pelosi regularly leaps into the spotlight to wrestle attention onto herself. She cares nothing for potential broad negative national effects of her harebrained antics, just as long as she is getting attention. I beg your pardon, Grim Reaper – do you entertain special requests?
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I think that an underlying theme of Russian reporting – which is likely government-influenced to some degree – reflects that the west unfairly despises and discriminates against Russians rather than the ‘our partners’ and ‘our colleagues’ nonsense which used to prevail, and I think that is so because our nieces said it was when they joined the missus in Rome. They are from St Petersburg. I further note this is a departure from when Russia appeared to hope to salvage some relationship with the west. What that might further mean is certainly open to interpretation.
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To be fair, Vova communicates online with folk the world over and he says he gets hardly any hassle off people simply because he is Russian.
I asked if he had Ukrainian contacts. He has. Never any nastiness. I said to him, “From the Donbass, of course?” ,
“From almost everywhere”, he said, “including Kiev”.
He said the only shitwits who try it on with him because he is an Orc come from the USA, but he says that they are dumb kids who do this: he says almost all the Americans that he deals with are very pally and helpful.
He does some kind of bitcoin business for some firm and earns good money. I don’t know what he does exactly because I just can’t get my head around bitcoin. It’s his No.2 job. He works in a school by day teaching robotics or whatever. That’s his No. 1 job.
One thing in Vova’s favour that may well counter any negative reaction off potential Russophobes is his command of English. He certainly doesn’t speak English with a Russian “Boris and Natasha” accent. Most think he is British when he speaks English. In fact, I think he speaks with a slight North American accent. And he uses a lot of USA slang which I sometimes do not understand. That’s because he talks a lot with Americans about what he calls “music”. He can take off Black American English very well because of his USA music connections.
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Yes, as I think I mentioned, the waitress they met at their favorite restaurant in Rome was a Ukrainian from Kiev. They said she could not have been nicer. Of course, that does not prove anything, it is an individual experience. But I think she’s right – well, if for no other reason than that she always is – that regular folk in fairly large numbers in all these countries, including the yappy Baltics, do not support their leaders’ campaigns of breathless hatred.
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Re: Baltics.
When my family and I were in Cyprus in 2015, my wife and our 3 children just chanced into a little shop across the road from the hotel where we were staying. She
The place was owned and run by an elderly couple who had moved to Limassol after having retired. They were all over my wife and children, started chatting away in Russian with them. The couple were from Tallinn. They were not former Russian citizens of Estonia: they were Estonians. They spoke fluent Russian because, clearly, they had been brought up and spent most of the lives in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic — you know, that place occupied by the Evil Orcs after those nice Nazis had been fucked off by those Red Army barbarians.
I remember how my wife brought back one day some barbecued fish from the shop that the owners had recommended she try. I don’t know what it was: white flesh and very, very tasty. Some Mediterranean species: a John Dory, I think.
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“… He does some kind of bitcoin business for some firm and earns good money …”
Vova may be doing what is called bitcoin mining, in which computers check bitcoin transactions and chains of bitcoin transactions to make sure they are all legit. He doesn’t have to check all bitcoin transactions or all chains, just part of a chain I think, because bitcoin mining chews up a lot of computer power and generates heat (which he could probably use to help heat the place where he lives).
How Does Bitcoin Mining Work?
Your Vova sounds like a very savvy young fellow … wonder where he gets it from? …
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Not from me! When I was 23, I was working down a bloody coal mine, and at weekends, playing rugby. Highly intellectual pursuits!
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This is what he does — he’s just told me: he works for an American firm on the digital marketplace for crypto collectibles and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
I haven’t a bloody clue what that means.
But the firm likes him, has just given him a pay rise and increased his commission after his having done one month with them.
He’s earning good money, but it’s all gobbledygook to me.
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He says he has passed his probationary period working in an NFT project as a marketing manager. They told him that they liked his vision and way of thinking — his strategic thinking. He has now got a fixed salary and % on his sales, which latter “could possibly be huge”, he says.
Bloody smart arse!
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He also wrote to me earlier:
Lot’s of liberal-Russians now support Putin.
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You have sown the wind and now you shall reap the whirlwind!
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Guardian Russophobe Simon Tisdall, who regularly for years wrote russophobic op-eds in that rag, mostly on Tuesdays,
The West may stab the Ukraine in the back, writes The Guardian
August 15, 2022
RIA Novosti
Tisdall of the Guardian writes that the West could stab the Ukraine in the back this winter
Europe, panic-stricken over rising energy and food prices, could deal a treacherous blow to the Ukraine this winter, writes Simon Tisdall in an op-ed for The Guardian.
“Now there is an uncomfortable, even troubling question: should the Ukrainians brace for a backstab this winter? Public outrage over the conflict is giving way to worry bordering on panic over its worrisome implications for energy prices, food prices and the cost of living” he writes in the publication.
The author notes that this raises doubts about the stability of the West.
In addition, he called the April statement by British Foreign Minister Liz Truss, in which she demanded that Russia withdraw from the Crimea to the borders that existed before 2014, crazy.
“Sounding like a crazy Generalissimo, Truss vowed: ‘We will continue to push Russia out of the Ukraine more actively.’ Who is ‘we’. You and whose army?” writes the observer.
In Tisdall’s opinion, in fact, the United States is only concerned about not going to war with Russia, while London is “hiding behind Washington’s refusal to fight”. Other European states are behaving in the same way, such as Germany, France and Italy, the author believes.
He concludes that at some point the EU may force the Ukraine to sign an interim peace deal with Russia to ease Europe’s economic pain.
https://turbo.ria.ru/20220815/ukraina-1809667665.html
Exit ramp — quick!
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Link to the Tisdall article doesn’t work.
Again:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/14/putin-war-europe-ukraine-west
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Neither does the above link.
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The Tisdall article was in yesterdays Observer. It’s a long article.
Try again with the link:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/14/putin-war-europe-ukraine-west
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Yes!
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Strange goings on — those repeated links above do in fact work now.
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My Internet connection here must be at fault. Often becomes unstable.
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Arsehole Tisdall begins;
The west’s strategic aims in Ukraine – to repulse Russia’s invasion, restore national sovereignty and score a victory for global democracy over “the forces of darkness” – were clearly set out by US president Joe Biden in Warsaw in March and subsequently endorsed by UK and European leaders.
What has always been less clear is whether they honestly expect to achieve these aims, given Nato’s less than heroic refusal to get directly involved. An uncomfortable, even distressing question now arises: should Ukrainians prepare for a stab in the back this winter?
NATO refuses to get directly involved?
In defence of a non-NATO state?
That’s NATO the defensive alliance?
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“Global democracy,” ha! Led by that country whose officials (e.g. John Bolton weeks ago) openly admit they sponsor coups around the world!
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Oh and look! Harding adds a footnote to Tisdall’s rant.
And get this off Tisdall: he talks about a “
regime-threatening defeat for Russia” . . .
perhaps an exasperated, emotional Biden unintentionally hit on the best idea when he concluded his Warsaw speech with an ad lib about Putin, addressed to Russians as much as anyone else. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” he growled. . . .
Addressed to Russians???
. . . Biden’s right. Putin is a foul ogre, a war criminal, a monstrous throwback from a bygone age. As previously argued here, he is unfit to rule.
With him gone, the crisis he single-handedly engineered would not disappear – but would be more easily resolved. In fact, this may be Ukrainians’ (and Russians’) only hope of a happy ending.
Get Putin. Take him down. Lock him up. That’s a strategic aim all could and should energetically pursue.
Have a talk to my son, Tisdall next time you’re in Russia!
Been here lately, have you?
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I have read that Guardian op-ed again this morning — and again and again. It is utter propagandistic, hysterical trash. It illustrates the level to which journalism in the UK has sunk. It is Goebbelsesque in its content.
Tisdall, who passes himself off as a foreign affairs expert, has been writing such shite for years.
How does he get away with writing such crap that he winds up his latest drivel with?
Get Putin. Take him down. Lock him up. That’s a strategic aim all could and should energetically pursue.
Rhetorical question: because that is US bog standard, that of Rachel Maddow, CNN, Fox News etc. that is endlessly pumped into the Exceptional[ly dumb] Nation.
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What a ‘victory for democracy’! Even though we hold all countries to be sovereign, here is the UK- well, that assrocket Tisdall and his electroshock-therapy-bunkmate Harding – advocating the overthrow of a democratically-elected leader on behalf of a country they used to sneer at as the most corrupt in Europe, and neither of them a member of NATO! Yes, that democracy is a marvelous value, but only ours counts.
‘The crisis he single-handedly engineered’….ummm, no; he had quite a bit of help from the west, first overthrowing Ukraine’s democratically-elected leader and then pushing it into the ring with Russia, all with the aim of making Washington Europe’s main energy supplier.
If there really is a God, He will rain pestilence and hellfire on NATO. Whaddya say, God – got any nuts? And if there isn’t one, most of this is pretty pointless.
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The Kiev regime is insanely & transparently bombing Zaporozhe Nuclear Power Plant in a desperate bid to retain faltering Western attention and support
– The Real Politick with Mark Sleboda
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Murmurs and doubts seem to abound more and more now in the free and democratic West as the end of summer approaches . . .
LENTA.RU reports on an article in “Myśl Polska”— “Polish Thought”:
Myśl Polska: Polish media will call defeat for Kiev in the special operation a victory for the Ukraine
August 16, 2022
Political scientist Konrad Renkas has suggested that if the Ukraine was defeated in a special operation, the Polish media would write about this as a strategic victory for the Ukraine. He writes this opinion in an article for the newspaper Myśl Polska.
Renkas said that local publications would continue to censor data on possible future defeats of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine, calling a failure of Kiev a success for the Ukraine. “Even the final defeat of the Kiev authorities in this unnecessary conflict will still be presented as their strategic victory”, he predicts as the reaction of publications.
The expert said that Polish media propaganda had been ineffective against a backdrop of a decrease in the country’s population that believes in “dangerous tales about the inevitable victory of Kiev”.
“To put it simply, any outcome of the conflict, any terms of a truce, will be presented in the land of the “Third Commonwealth” [Poland — ME] as an unprecedented defeat for Russia. It cannot be otherwise — and that’s the whole point!” Renks concluded.
https://turbo.lenta.ru/news/2022/08/16/poland/
Surely “Myśl Polska” is an oxymoron?
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LENTA.RU
Kuleba has accused the West of waiting for the failure of the Ukraine
August 16, 2022
A number of Western states expect Kiev to fail in its confrontation with Moscow, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba is sure of this, RIA Novosti reports.
According to him, such a scenario would solve the problems of the West, caused by the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, without any effort on its part.
“Foreign ministers often ask me in interviews and conversations: ‘How long can you hold out?’ instead of asking, what else needs to be done to win in the shortest possible time”, Kuleba explained.
As the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stressed, under such conditions, it seemed that the West as a whole expected Kiev to be defeated and the problems associated with it would then go away by themselves.
Kuleba’s statement came against the backdrop of a number of Western media reports about the West’s fatigue and disappointment in the Ukrainian leadership. For example, The New York Times has pointed to the existence of serious contradictions between Kiev and Washington, and The Guardian did not rule out a “treacherous stab in the back” of the Ukraine by Western countries this winter. But at the same time, in official rhetoric, representatives of the West continued to actively support Kiev, sending it new packages of both financial and military assistance.
Earlier, the media reported that the worsening economic situation in Western countries could lead to a decrease in support for the Ukraine.
https://turbo.gazeta.ru/politics/news/2022/08/16/18338678.shtml
Don’t worry, Kuleba! The whole world stands by the Ukraine.
Meanwhile, in the early hours of this morning . . .
IA REGNUM
A detonation of ammunition has occurred in the Dzhankoysky district of the Crimea
August 16, 2022
A detonation of ammunition occurred at a warehouse in the Dzhankoysky district of the Republic of them Crimea early in the morning on August 16, local authorities have reported.
The detonation happened in the village of Maiskoye around 06:00, RIA Novosti specified with reference to the village authorities. About 2,000 people have been evacuated. Single explosions are still continuing at the moment.
Earlier, as REGNUM reported, the head of the Republic of the Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said that he had left for Maiskoye. The circumstances of the incident are being investigated. Oleg Kryuchkov, adviser to the head of the Crimea, urged that people on social networks “not make conjectures about the incident and wait for official information that will appear in the near future”.
link
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Another Ukrainian sabotage attack against Russian military in Crimea today. Even Russia admits that it was a sabotage attack.
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Why have you written the above? Couldn’t you wait to tell everyone here about this news? If you had checked above, you would have seen that this incident in Crimea had already been reported here.
Too excited about this news to check?
Go back in search of more “bad news for Russia”.
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Do you think that the act of sabotage in the Crimes earlier today is a “game changer”?
And why “admitted” above?
That suggests that the Russian Ministry of Defence had been somehow forced “confess” that it was an act of sabotage and not an accident.
Here is how RT IN RUSSIAN reports what the Russian Ministry of Defence has ANNOUNCED about today’s the act of sabotage:
«Ущерб нанесён ряду гражданских объектов»: Минобороны РФ заявило о диверсии на военном складе в Джанкое
16 августа
“Damage was caused to a number of civilian facilities”: the Russian Ministry of Defence has announced an act of sabotage at a military warehouse in Dzhankoy
16 August 2022
The cause of the fire and subsequent detonation of ammunition at a military depot near Dzhankoy was sabotage, the Russian Defence Ministry has said. As a result, damage was caused to a number of civilian facilities, in particular residential buildings, power plants, and power lines. Railway tracks were also damaged. According to the Crimean authorities, two people were injured; one of them received outpatient care and was allowed to go home, the second was operated on: he is now in a moderate condition. As the head of the Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, said, more than 3 thousand people had were evacuated in the Dzhankoy district, and a cordon was set up in a five-kilometre zone.
The fire and subsequent detonation of ammunition in one of the military units in the Dzhankoy district in the north of the Crimean peninsula occurred as a result of sabotage, the press service of the Russian Defence Ministry reported.
“On the morning of August 16, as a result of sabotage, a military warehouse near the village of Dzhankoy was damaged. Damage was caused to a number of civilian facilities, including power lines, a power plant, a railway track, as well as a number of residential buildings”, the statement says.
No serious injuries were reported as a result of the incident.
The Ministry of Defence added that necessary measures were being taken to eliminate the consequences of the sabotage.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defence had reported that at about 06:15 Moscow time, in the area of a village in the Maisky Dzhankoysky District of the Crimea, a fire broke out on the territory of a temporary storage area for the ammunition of one of the military units, after which shells stored there detonated.
As a result of the incident, two civilians were injured.
“As a result of the situation in the Dzhankoy district, we have two victims. One of them received outpatient care and was allowed to go home. The second victim was operated on. Today, his condition is assessed as moderate, there is no threat to his life”, said Konstantin Skorupsky, Minister of Health of the Republic, said on the Crimea 24 TV channel.
According to the head of the region, Sergey Aksyonov, over 3 thousand local residents had been evacuated from the villages of Maisky and Azov: 121 people were taken to temporary accommodation centres. At the same time, about 20 civilians had refused to leave their homes, remaining in the cellars.
A cordon has been set up in a five-kilometre zone around the military unit.
“We went to the site of the fire by helicopter. There, the explosion had unfortunately been so strong that shells have been scattered around in a field. Sappers are going to be employed there Single detonations are continuing to occur. I’m not ready to say how long this will continue, but specialists are working on the spot”, RIA Novosti quotes him as having said.
Also on this topic
”Nothing is threatening their lives.”
Two people have been injured during an ammunition explosion in the Dzhankoy district of the Crimea
On the morning of August 16, in the Dzhankoy region of the Crimea, a fire broke out on the territory of one of the military units, which led to an explosion…
In addition, during the scattering of ammunition, railway tracks in the Dzhankoy region were damaged, which delayed the movement of passenger trains. The railway track has already been restored, but traffic will resume only after the completion of all necessary security measures.
“After consultations with the leadership of the Crimean Railway, a decision was made to stop passenger trains coming from the mainland at Vladislavovka station. There, passengers will be provided with buses for transporting them to the nearest bus stations”, the head of the Crimea noted.
He added that whilst the authorities of the region are operating under a state of emergency of a regional nature, the boundaries of the safety operation area increasing, taking into account the affected settlements in the Dzhankoy district.
As soon as the detonations end, the commission will begin to inspect damaged households, which will be provided with necessary assistance.
Recall that on August 9, several aircraft shells detonated at the Saki airfield near the village of Novofedorovka. The Ministry of Defence noted that “there was no firing directed at the ammunition storage area at the airfield”.
“Only a violation of fire safety requirements is considered to have been the main reason for the explosion of some ammunition at the Saki airfield. There are no signs, evidence, and even more so, there are no facts of intentional firing at the ammunition in order to destroy it”, said an RIA Novosti source in the Ministry of Defence.
As a result of the incident, one person died and nine others were injured.
link
No “admissions” anywhere in the above reports.
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Yukietards are a laugh a minute:
RBK
Zakharova has condemned the Ukraine Foreign Minister over the departure of his family because of the special operation
August 16, 2022
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commented on the departure of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba’s family from the country with the words “dogs come first”.
Earlier, Kuleba admitted that his children, parents and dogs had left the Ukraine after the start of a special military operation.
“On the night of 24 to 25 (February), I got to the border at the very moment when my children, parents and dogs arrived there. I hugged and kissed everyone, I entered the Ukraine: they left the Ukraine”, he said in an interview with Dmitry Gordon. (In Russia, Gordon is included in a list of persons and organizations as regards information about their involvement in terrorism or extremist activities.)
“That’s all you need to know about the true patriotism of the Kiev regime. Dogs come first”, wrote Zakharova.
In July, Zakharova accused the Ukrainian authorities of not wanting peace. She said this in response to the words of Kuleba, who had said that before the parties return to negotiations, the situation at the front must change: “I tell all partners simply: ‘Russia should sit down at the negotiating table after their defeat on the battlefield’”, he said.
“Here is the answer to all those who reproach Russia for ‘not negotiating with the Kiev regime’: the Kiev regime itself has refused to negotiate. Today, this was once again confirmed by Kuleba”, said Zakharova in response.
link
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Should have begun above as:
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commented on the departure of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba’s FAMILYfrom the country with the words “dogs come first”.
On day one of the the SMO, Kubela packed off his family —and dogs! —abroad, since when he he has continuously pushed for war that will only end in negations following the defeat of Russia in the battlefield!
That’s what he said!
He believes that the the Clown’s rattling begging bowl will result in an endless supply of weapons from the munificent Uncle Sam, which weapons will ensure victory against the Orcs.
As I have said many times before, I really do believe these people are mentally retarded.
What Kubela is saying is that he is totally in sync with the Washington plan to fight right down to the last Yukietard.
And, unlike Kubela’s family —and dogs, the vast majority of that bastard’s fellow countrymen have scant opportunity to flee the killing zones that he and the USA are creating in that non-country of Banderastan.
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Putin: A Biography
Aug 15, 2022 Guest: Philip Short has written several definitive biographies including Mao:
A Life and Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare. He latest biography is called Putin.
Letters and Politics
13.5K subscribers
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