Back in the days when I was one of the British state’s more efficient functionaries, I spoke with British officers who had been in Russia during the Yeltsin period, when they had been able to get up close and effectively inventory the Russian armed forces. (For those who don’t know, I was First Secretary at the British Embassy in Warsaw, I was British Ambassador in Tashkent, and I was taught to be fluent in both Polish and Russian, which included living in St Petersburg as a language student while Ambassador designate).
What we (as I was then a cog in this machine) found was that the strength of the Soviet Union’s Red Army had been massively exaggerated in all our intelligence estimates, on which defence strategy had been based for decades. We had over-estimated the numbers, the mobility and above all the capability of Soviet weapons systems. Much of it was barely functional; the problems with both quality and maintenance were not just the product of the disintegration of the Soviet system, they evidently went back decades.
One interesting thing – and I recall discussing this with a British Brigadier General at the Polish exercise area in Drawsko – was that years of military planning had involved scenarios which revolved around successive defensive lines in Western Europe and eschewed any kind of counter-attacking strategy. That conversation had started because, when the British Army first started exercising on the former Warsaw pact training area at Drawsko, we had to strengthen bridges in Eastern Germany and Western Poland in order to get our tanks there.
We were musing that this had never been considered a problem in cold war strategy, because it was presumed our tanks would never go forward. We now knew they could have, which was interesting the analysts.
The truth, of course, was that it had always been in the interest of MI6, the Defence Intelligence Service, the British armed forces, of their American counterparts, and of all their NATO counterparts, massively to exaggerate the strength of the Red Army. Because the greater the perceived enemy, the more we needed to throw money at MI6, the Defence Intelligence Service, the British armed forces, their American counterparts, and at all their NATO counterparts.
Nothing has changed. Exaggerating the strength of the nominated enemy is still very much in their interest.
It is also, of course, massively in the interest of the arms industry. This is the classic operation of the military industrial complex, which does not just need an enemy, it needs a massive, terrifying, ultra-powerful enemy. Or why would you and I keep feeding the military industrial complex huge sums of money?
We see this operating today. The war profiteers have already made billions from the war in Ukraine. Look at this surge in defence stocks.
The German chancellor has already announced $200 billion of extra defence spending. The market expects to see similar boosts, totalling trillions of dollars across NATO, of money into the arms manufacturers and dealers, as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Yet this is an irrational response. What the Russian invasion of Ukraine has actually revealed is the limitations of Russian power. Those limitations consist both of the capacity of its armed forces, and the desire of its people to be a part of European civilisation, not to destroy European civilisation.
You can pretty well stand inside Russia and throw stones into Kharkiv, where Russian is an everyday language (and locals call the place Kharkov), yet Russia has not yet managed to subdue it. Yet we are supposed to be terrified that the mighty Russian army could roll across Western Europe and its tanks could fight their way through Kiev, Warsaw, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and London? It is plainly an utter nonsense (I address nuclear war later, a quite different proposition).
It says something very interesting about mass psychology that our political and media classes are able to convince the population, both that Russia is an incredible threat to us in our homes, and that the gallant Ukrainians can hold the Russians off. The western political and media class, almost universally, are managing both to crow that Russia is militarily weak, and to claim that we need to throw yet more money at the military industrial complex. As nicely observed by Moon of Alabama.
There are however, even in “respectable” media, a few voices pointing out that what is happening in Ukraine shows NATO defence spending to be already disproportionate. I was very surprised to read this eminently sensible article in Newsweek:
In the longer term, the recognition of Russian military weakness represents a fundamental challenge to U.S. strategy, spending priorities and even its firm hold on the world. It questions Washington’s obsession with a supposed “peer” adversary and the U.S. emphasis on a larger military and ever-increasing defense spending to deal with Russia. Changing the narrative on the Russian military also fundamentally challenges NATO and its European members. Though there might be heightened awareness and even fear of Moscow’s willingness to resort to extreme and even reckless behavior, the reality is that there doesn’t need to be increased defense spending or a renewal of European ground forces….
For Washington, this display of Russian military weakness should be comforting in terms of Moscow’s true military threat to Europe. At the same time though, it exposes the need for a different national security strategy, one that doesn’t imagine Russia as a military equal, and one that doesn’t push Vladimir Putin’s back against a wall.
This war in Ukraine should represent such a moment of epiphany in western political thought.
According to the Russians themselves, Russian military spending is just 5% of NATO military spending. That is about right.
Total NATO spending is over 1 trillion dollars a year. Russian defence spending in 2019 was $65.1 billion a year, just higher than the UK. So nominally Russian spending is a little over 6% of NATO spending a year. Of course, purchasing power in the defence industry makes nominal calculations not entirely helpful. Here is a short link from an excellent discussion from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute of the factors that might make Russian real resources put into defence greater than the nominal total:
Nonetheless, there are strong indications that military goods and services cost less in Russia than in the USA or most of Europe and, therefore, that Russian military spending has a higher purchasing power. For example, unlike the USA and other large European states, Russia still relies on conscription. In addition, Russian career soldiers have lower salaries: for example, in 2019 a Russian lieutenant colonel received approximately $1330 per month, whereas a (lower-ranked) captain in the British Army received more than $4000 monthly. Adequate data to make a similar comparison of the cost of acquiring military equipment is not available.
Converting Russian military expenditure using GDP-based PPP rates (based on data from the International Monetary Fund) gives spending of $166 billion in 2019 (instead of $65.1 billion using market exchange rates). This is still less than one-quarter of US spending of $732 billion. A similar calculation gives Chinese military spending of over $500 billion (instead of $261 billion using market exchange rates).
I would argue that while paying and feeding troops may be indeed be much cheaper in Russia, military hardware costs are much dependent on metals, processors and other internationally traded commodities and an overall comparison to the simple relative cost of living PPP index for Russia is not appropriate. But even using the general IMF PPP calculator, Russian defence spending is, at the very most, 12% of NATO spending.
The idea that NATO has to spend more to match the threat to NATO of Russia is plainly a nonsense.
So those of us who have always opposed NATO’s militarism, NATO’s involvement in illegal wars and NATO’s massive propaganda operation aimed at boosting the funds fed in to the arms manufacturers, the security services and the military, should welcome the opportunity for growing understanding that a large portion of this defence expenditure is not necessary.
The Russian economy is about the size of the Spanish economy. Russian defence spending is, at the highest, 12% of NATO defence spending. Russia is not the great threat to Western Europe. The limit of Russian power has been shown up in its inability quickly to defeat Ukraine, a militarily third rate European power.
But a large section of the western left – including many regular readers of this blog – is not shouting this out. A section of the western left chooses to boost the propaganda of western arms manufacturers by talking up Russian power, claiming the Russian military is massively capable, putting a good gloss on the performance of the Russian military in Ukraine, and insisting that Putin is a strategic genius.
That “left” narrative is music to the ears of NATO and the military industrial complex. So how has the left been manoeuvred into the position of being the amplifiers of the argument of their natural enemies?
The answer, strangely enough, is not intellectual but emotional.
It is rather lonely being a dissident voice in the West, arguing against the consensus of the media and political elite. Even where that political elite completely screws up, as in the invasion of Iraq, where they launched an illegal war, caused the deaths of millions of people, destroyed the infrastructure of a country, yet still lost the war, there are no deleterious consequences for the political elite.
The International Criminal Court is investigating Russian war crimes in Ukraine. It has done nothing effective about western crimes in Iraq, where hundreds of thousands of civilians died.
This level of injustice is hard to stomach. There is a natural yearning for an alternative, for a good power in the world to match the bad power in the world, and to give at least some hope of justice or balance. Thus many on the left have come to idolise Vladimir Putin as the balance to outweigh and thwart the corrupt, warmongering, neo-imperialist Western states.
Syria gave some comfort to this viewpoint. In the war for hegemony that the West has waged all over the Middle East, the contradictions of allying with a country as anathematical to supposed Western values as Saudi Arabia reached their apotheosis. The American-led West was providing arms, finance and logistical and air support to ISIS and closely allied jihadist groups in an effort to overthrow the Assad regime. The western sponsored civil war had already caused devastation and huge refugee flows. Had the western backed jihadists succeeded, the results would have been unthinkable.
Putin saved the world from that, by a small but timely Russian military intervention, and I for one am glad he did. I say that as absolutely no fan of the Assad regime.
So I can sympathise with those who see Putin as the answer to their desire for the West to be counterbalanced. The problem is it is unrealistic. Russia is just not that strong. It has an economy the size of Spain or another second tier Western European state. Any military intervention by Russia that seriously crosses the West is ultimately dependent on nuclear brinkmanship.
The more fundamental point is that Putin is no more a “good guy” than Western leaders. Russia is a massively kleptocratic state where the gap between the extremely wealthy and the exploited general populace is every bit as big as the gap in the West, and until recently was inarguably much bigger. The human rights situation in Russia is poor. In fact in both those respects, the West is moving increasingly to looking like Russia, which is a very bad thing.
Putin’s Russia is no kind of socialist model.
Putin’s image as the strong man of Eurasia is boosted out of all proportion by those on the right who benefit from portraying a powerful enemy: and by those on the left who yearn for a powerful friend. This is the universal boosting of Putin. But in real life he is a much smaller figure, controlling a waning power of very limited resources. He has just made his largest miscalculation. In the last hour the UN General Assembly has condemned the Russian attack on Ukraine. The UN General Assembly is a forum where the US and its allies can normally muster between 2 and 12 votes. They had 141. Russia mustered 5, the kind of position the US, Israel and the Marshall Islands frequently find themselves in. That is the extent of Putin’s diplomatic blunder.
History teaches us it is a huge mistake to attack Russia. The Russian people have an enormous capacity for wartime resilience when attacked. But the plain truth is NATO has never attacked Russia, and though I intensely dislike NATO’s pushing of weapons systems closer to Russia, NATO doctrine has never included plans to initiate war with Russia.
Just as I have frequently stated Russia has never had any intent to attack the UK; to persuade the population otherwise is the everyday job of the military industrial complex.
But the Russian military industrial complex is just as powerful within Russia as the western military industrial complex is here, and the Russian people are just as exploited by their elites as we are in the West. On either side, the offices of heads of government are not the right place to search for the good guys. Everybody gets lied into war.
It is of course a truism that Russian security concerns were made neuralgic by the ever tightening encroachment of NATO and its missiles. It is a valid point. But it is an equally valid point that NATO has never attacked Russia and none of those missiles has ever been fired at Russia. The point of the missiles was never to fire them at Russia. The point of the missiles was to manufacture and sell them at enormous profit margins and provide large salaries and cash funds for politicians, with endless revolving door jobs for ex-military and civilian defence personnel, who all keep the contracts flowing.
We are now in a position where only a severe Russian military setback can reduce the political momentum for more arms spending, more militarism and more censorship of dissenting opinion in the west – and yet many on the left are hoping for a Russian victory. That despite the fact that not only is Putin’s attack on Ukraine illegal, it is an aggressive war with precisely the same spurious justification as the US-led destruction of Iraq; pre-emptive disarmament to prevent possible attack.
To make matters worse, Putin’s attack is popularly seen as justification of the appalling Russophobia that has formed a fundamental part of the Establishment political narrative in recent years. Putin has appeared to justify years of lies by Russophobes.
I first became fully aware of the untruth of the mainstream Russophobic narrative when it was claimed that Wikileaks had published the Clinton material on the rigging of the primaries against Bernie Sanders, in collaboration with Russia. I knew that was definitely untrue. We then saw an expansion of this narrative, including aspects of the official Skripal story that made no sense whatsoever.
As a result of the invasion of Ukraine, popular opinion holds as validated any lunatic suggestion of evil Russian influence ever to emerge from the disorganised brain of Carole Cadwalladr. “Putin has invaded Ukraine. I told you he fixed the 2016 election” is not a proposition that holds up to a millisecond of logical analysis, but logical analysis is the first casualty of war.
Finally, a couple of thoughts on nuclear weapons. Putin has put his nuclear forces at some kind of initial alert level. In a rational world, this would lead to an increased demand for genuine attempts at nuclear disarmament negotiations, but again I fear that is not in the interest of the elites who control governments. NATO’s insistence on pushing missile systems ever closer to a nuclear-armed Russia and continually ratcheting up Russia’s fear of aggressive encirclement, will make it extremely unlikely that Russia will have any interest in disarmament. Which is so obvious, it proves NATO has absolutely no interest in disarmament either.
I have said much which is highly critical of Russia, and rightly so because Russia had started an illegal war. But that in no way reduces the very large amount of blame that attaches to NATO for its absurd militarism and territorial triumphalism, and the complete lack of interest NATO has shown towards finding a less confrontational approach to Russia.
NATO does not defend the interests of the people of Europe. It embodies the interests of the global elite, who benefit from feeding the military industrial complex. NATO is an instrument of the military and the weapons manufacturers. To exist, it needs an enemy. NATO’s role will always be to secure its own existence and its controllers’ cashflow, by creating enemies.
The only good guys in this are the common people of Ukraine, and the unfortunate conscripts in the Russian army. Let us all pray, hope or think on them tonight.
———————————————
Forgive me for pointing out that my ability to provide this coverage is entirely dependent on your kind voluntary subscriptions which keep this blog going. This post is free for anybody to reproduce or republish, including in translation. You are still very welcome to read without subscribing.
Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
Paypal address for one-off donations: [email protected]
Alternatively by bank transfer or standing order:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
Subscriptions are still preferred to donations as I can’t run the blog without some certainty of future income, but I understand why some people prefer not to commit to that.
Some 15 civilians killed after Ukraine send a missile into Donetsk today. Media in the west in total silence. People have no idea about the crimes being commited by Ukraine, only coverage of what the russians are doing, this deadly attack is a warcrime!
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1503389032323166212
The UK media have been atrocious. I’d imagine it’s the same across the world given the levels of state/corporate interference & control.
I can watch Al-Jazeera coverage, but find the BBC, ITV, Sky and Ch4 seem to be in a competition trying to out-do each other in terms of who can emotionally traumatise UK viewers the most. Unverified footage? no problem.
The invasion is hideous enough without these broadcasters’ exaggerations and sensationalising of events. Bizarrely, the BBC’s coverage changes after midnight, to a more reasoned and rational analysis of events. I watched an American guest(Professor iirc) last night arguing the Ukraine ultimately must become a neutral country and NATO membership is now out of the question. He also stated that the US wouldn’t tolerate a Russian or Chinese military build-up on its borders and thus this whole Ukraine NATO drive was deliberately provocative, and the BBC presenter didn’t interrupt him once.
Imagine had the Iraq invasion been covered like this war, there would have been huge protests in London every single day. War is bloody awful : Take the first Iraq war’s Amiriyah shelter bombing – an aerial bombing attack that killed at least 408 civilians, mainly sheltering women and children. Hideous, no?
> Take the first Iraq war’s Amiriyah shelter bombing – an aerial bombing attack that killed at least 408 civilians, mainly sheltering women and children. Hideous, no?
I was thinking of that atrocity myself but couldn’t remember the details… throughout all the military engagements in the Middle East atrocities committed by “our side” have been infinitely worse than those committed in the Ukraine at present and yet the vast majority of the populations in Britain and France and elsewhere have reacted with a totally different level of shock/horror. It just shows to what extent we have all been brain-washed over the years. Even our local animal food emporium asked for money “to help Ukraine” the other day and yellow and blue are to be seen everywhere. It’s just like some gigantic advertising campaign.
Was the Skripal affair a sign of things to come? I often wonder why it popped up just when it did, are we all victims of (Western) world wide “grooming”?
The West and its allies don’t do “war crimes”. They do “collateral damage”.
The contrast is remarkable. You’d think from the coverage that all wars of choice had been unacceptable for a century or more.
We seem be able whip up a pretext for military action when we need one with relative ease – no awkward questions by the same media asked. When the US kept stating Russia would stage a false-flag to justify it’s invasion, I wonder how much of that belief was the product of thinking *because that’s exactly what we’d do*?
Absolutely and it is the hypocrisy and double standards that are sickening. Here are two of many examples from Lara Marlow, at the time married to and working on the Balkans way with the late Robert Fisk. These are not the most egregious either.
Tony Blair calls RTS “a recruiting sergeant for Milošević’s wars” and a NATO spokesman says it is “the heart of Slobodan Milošević’s propaganda machine”. (p307).
Marlowe, Lara. Love in a Time of War Head of Zeus.
«many examples from Lara Marlow, at the time married to and working on the Balkans way with the late Robert Fisk. These are not the most egregious either.»
Nobody should forget how Putin invaded Cyprus to dismember it, and then invaded Yugoslavia also to dismember it; after that Putin also invaded Iran and Kuwait, and then invaded and did regime change in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lybia, and after that attacked Syria and Yemen too with the same goal. In none of the previous cases Putin and the Russian Federation were sanctioned or “the west” helped their innocent victims. But enough is enough! 😉
Well done to Marina Ovsyannikova, the woman who invaded Russia’s most watched news show yesterday with an antiwar banner: “No war…Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.” She also pre-recorded a video in which she apologised for the prowar propaganda being pushed by the channel, for whom she works. Sacrificed her career and freedom, maybe even her life, for the cause of peace. True moral courage the British media class applauded. People who would never dream of replicating it themselves and who condemn and smear any journalist who reveals or protests the war crimes of western leaders.
U Watt
That is so Hypocritical, coming from an MSM which is universally baying for war. Why has not one media outlet spoken a single word of protest at Johnson’s warmongering? Because they would lose their jobs and maybe their lives under this fascist government in Westminster.
Brave girl.
On the previous page Goose shared a couple of videos taken from ordinary people in the Moscow streets. In one of these videos there was a girl, who asked the interviewer “can I swear?” and then she said “f*ck war”.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/03/the-universal-boosting-of-putin/comment-page-9/#comment-1014210
Reminded me of our other two girls, then popular Tatu music duet. They visited a music contest in the West, in time when the West were going to destroy Iraq. Anything anti-war was prohibited, so those two brave girls wrote ‘f*ck war* on their t-shirts, in cyrillic, to stay true to their position.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khuy_Voyne!
Would she have said “f*ck war” in July 1941? This is a “yes or no” question; no need for lengthy explanations.
She haven’t said her f*ck war on Donbas either.
I cannot help, but stick again to lengthy explanations. It’s the only way to here, as we have no other means to express ourselves.
Her performance is another virtue signalling. Showing to the public that this girl stands for everything good vs everything bad.
Right thing to do, of course. I understand that people feel the need to show their position. But, unfortunately, it’s irrelevant re. stopping the conflict. And, to some extent harmful. Prevents from further research. As if ‘take your side, show you’re a good human and move on ‘.
I don’t think she was alive in 1941.
I think if she wrote ‘un-ban RT’ or ‘stop hate Russians’ they wouldn’t show her passage in the Western media.
She’d have needed to be German in 1941 as they were the aggressors then. Over 800,000 Germans who protested against the war and the Nazis were subject to summary arrest and show trials… Oh.
The Rand Corporation in advice to US imperialism ( September 2019) recommends in “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia” : ‘Providing LETHAL aid to Ukraine…to be carefully calibrated to increase the costs to Russia…without provoking a wider conflict in which Russia….would have significant advantages’
May I please leave it here with a warning on extreme graphic content?
https://youtu.be/ANNhDKGjNK8
May help people understand, that there are no ‘goodies’ vs ‘baddies’ in this conflict. I wish people were more level-headed and could stay above the situations, not taking sides, but better calling to ceasefire and negotiations. I really cannot understand why it’s not the option for many.
Unfortunately, Tatyana, far too many people are incapable of understanding anything more nuanced than “‘goodies’ vs ‘baddies’”. (“My enemy’s enemy is my friend”, “If you are not with us, you are against us”, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem,” “Them and us” etc.)
That’s why it’s hard to explain a position which is a complex one. People tend to simplify.
Yesterday on other media someone described in many words how much weapons Russia has, and how Ukraine will be humiliated and crushed. I said them it is not the sort of relationship that Russia is looking for. They seemed to not believe me, so I explained in more words: my husband is bigger and taller than me, he also owns a gun, but these are not the reasons why I’m married to him.
Hope, people start using their brain, finally.
The news media give the public what they want, which is simple answers to complex problems. Sadly such simple answers are almost invariably not accurate. It is much simpler to say, “There is war in Ukraine because Putin is a megalomaniac monster” than it is to go into the history of Russia and Ukraine since 1991.
Or even 1941 and beyond!
I appreciate your comments and your explanations, Tatyana.
But will people ever use their brain? That is difficult for me to believe. Mass media (in the west, which I am familiar with) prefer to control everyone’s brain.
Polish, Czech, Slovenian PMs cross Polish-Ukrainian border on their way to Kiev
I can only say that these are mad men and women as heads of EU states. Are they trying to vaporise us all in a war by travelling to a war zone and making themselves easy targets by either side?
https://tass.com/world/1422205
WARSAW, March 15.
The prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia have crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border on their way to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev by train, Chief of the Polish Prime Minister’s Chancellery Michal Dworczyk said at a briefing on Tuesday.
“The train on which [Polish] Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister for Security Jaroslaw Kaczynski and the prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Slovenia are traveling crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border about an hour ago. The delegation is on its way to Kiev, where it will hold meetings with [Ukrainian] President Zelensky and Prime Minister Shmygal,” he said.
“The delegation represents the European Union,” Dworczyk said. “Preparations for the visit went on for days, it was being kept secret,” he noted. According to the Polish official, a decision about the trip was made at a recent EU summit in France’s Versailles in coordination with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. NATO, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations have been informed of the visit.
According to Warsaw, the goal of the visit is to reaffirm the European Union’s unconditional support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence, as well as to provide a broad package of assistance to the Ukrainian government and society. Dworczyk said that all the details would be announced at a press conference in Kiev.
What an extraordinarily risking thing to do, I wonder who persuaded them it was a good idea? Not that they will be at risk from the Russians, rather, it presents an opportunity for a false flag attack on the train by those interested in escalation. Don’t be surprised if the train is vaporised by a ‘Russian Missile’ on its return journey. The USAF have experience in bombing trains, if you recall the Grdelica train bombing that occurred on 12 April 1999, Serbia. Entirely an accident, even though the jet involved returned to drop a second bomb on it.
” Not that they will be at risk from the Russians, “
No of course not, they’re just there to spread joy and goodwill.
There are people who support your position on spreading joy and goodwill
https://pikabu.ru/story/situatsiya_konechno_strashnaya_no_slova_ved_spravedlivyie_8929233 – translation (Russian to English)
The situation is certainly terrible… But the words are fair.
Video taken from the telegram channel Donezka – https://t.me/donezkiy
Looks as if they are seeking martyrdom… it’s in ,their culture I suppose.
Perhaps from their risk assessment they consider it to be reasonably safe to make the journey and not as dangerous as the media have portrayed it to be.
Germany, which had decided not to buy F35 previously, has changed its mind. This tallies with the new Chancellors swing away from walking a fine line between German independence/Sovereignty and US dictat that Merkel navigated. I am sure the German Air force would have preferred the alternative Franco German/ Euro jet ? Keeping R&D, jobs and manufacturing in house. Its been a great result this invasion by Russia for US arms sales, giving Nato new life and German discipline. France can’t be to happy that Germany like Australia has bought and sold politicians in US control. F35 is the biggest arms contract in history. Overdue, not stealth, unreliable, very low flying hours before needing service and tying in the countries defence budget into feeding US. As the recent wars have shown, jets are very vulnerable to surface to air missiles and do not have the freedom to dominate Air space. Drones taking over for both attack and surveillance at a fraction of the cost. Just as big expensive heavy tanks and ships vulnerable to small cheap missiles. No F35 is more of a political/economic cudgel for US to beat its Nato herd., than a weapon against any ‘enemy.
Fancy expensive jets are only good for bombing poor defenseless Gazan Palestinians or Yemenis who don’t have S400.
Crispa, surely not! Would a paper like the Daily Mail lie to us?
@Bayard, In a bizarre twist of fate, the Heil hasn’t allowed any comments from me for about three weeks. Well, fancy that!
The MSM synchronised propaganda is off the scale.
Just screaming hysteria and not one sentence of real journalism.
Still,they’ve shown their hand now and will never be able to row back from this.
The games nearly up for them.
“Still,they’ve shown their hand now and will never be able to row back from this.”
Of course they will: those who believe the MSM don’t care and those who care don’t believe the MSM.
Douglas MacGregor on The Grayzone with Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate’.
Fahrudin Sharafmal, an Ukrainian journalist, cites Otto Adolf Eichmann and says he will kill Russian children to eliminate the whole nation
https://pikabu.ru/story/v_ukraine_net_natsizma_8928419 – translation (Russian to English)
Eichmann is one of the major organisers of the Holocaust
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eichmann
Scott Ritter warns of US support for the extreme West Ukrainian Nazis, as a rekindling and rallying of the ” pure Arian master race ” within Germany. Kept under wraps of sorts with “denatzification” since WW2, only now to be openly supported. With the Islamophobia, mass refugees from war torn Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and those coming through Libya already in and coming to Europe. Add millions from the basket case that was already Ukraine before the invasion, let alone since. The EU and Nato doing the bidding of US instead of being individual sovereign countries have made their own bed. Neo Liberal casino economics and wars of aggression are booth about to come home to roost. Their populations will be steered by the media to blame the “other” rather than their unpatriotic elites who cashed in.
Sexulised young tik tok girls now employed to sell the talking points by US that the everything about to befall us is the fault of Putin.
Israel will be very concerned at the developments in Saudi Arabia and Gulf States. A tectonic shift/Pivot is taking place much quicker than even Mossad predicted. The Dollar hegemony is toast. Countries such as Brazil, India are having second thoughts. US will push Japan and Germany to militarise and double down. Dangerous times indeed.
I wouldn’t take the reporting of the Saudi position at face value. These are all political games that are being employed to garner maximum benefits for the players.
Saudi only exists because of support by the West, remove that support and they cease to exist. All they have is oil, they have never diversified in any meaningful way, their citizens live high on the hog and rely on foreign labour. They have squandered their riches on the rich man’s trinkets.
Let’s see what actually happens before we bury their worship of the dollar.
stevieboy
“All they have is oil, they have never diversified in any meaningful way, “
That’s because there’s nothing to diversify to, just a desert (though that needs a certain degree of qualification). Without oil, Saudi, like the Gulf states, would be a poor third-world country.
Arian = a follower of the early Christian theologian Arius, who did not believe in the Trinity
Aryan = an invented race of speakers of indo-European, often used as a synonym for Germanic.
Niggle Noggle. Sorry.
Horrible, and another segment that will not be aired on western media, everything considered “bad” for Ukraine and the west is hidden with censorship, that fools the brainwashed westerners that there are no nazis in Ukraine, there are no warcimes by Ukraine. THAT is just propaganda by the evils russians they say. Talk about being useful idiots!
Interesting news today on CGTN (Chinese News channel). The Chinese state are sending humanitarian aid to the Ukraine. Meanwhile, the USA, UK and their sycophantic buddies are sending military aid to the Ukraine !
Go figure – the West sends death, the East sends food and shelter.
Todays news.
“‘Some workers of the civil airport Galileo Galilei in Pisa – they write – have informed us of a very serious fact: ‘humanitarian’ flights depart from the Cargo Village located at the civil airport, which should be filled with provisions, food, medicines and whatever another useful for the Ukrainian populations tormented for weeks by bombings and fighting. But it isn’t so!’
According to the testimony of the workers assigned to the load, when they arrived under the plane, they found crates full of various types of weapons, ammunition and explosives.
‘A bitter and terrible surprise, which confirms the climate of war in which the Draghi government is drawing us. Faced with this very serious fact, the workers refused to load the cargo.’
These are planes that first land on US / NATO bases in Poland, then are sent to Ukraine.
‘We strongly denounce this real falsification, which cynically uses the” humanitarian “cover to continue fueling the war in Ukraine.'”
https://www.oltre.tv/armi-aerei-aiuti-umanitari-pisa-draghi/ – translation (Italian to English)
also
https://www.pisatoday.it/cronaca/partenza-armi-aeroporto-pisa-guerra-ucraina.html – translation (Italian to English)
Who said the books will be burnt soon?
“The State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting (Goskomteleradio) of Ukraine has suspended the validity of permits for the import of publishing products from Russia into the country…
It is noted that the decision to ban the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting was taken in order to protect the inhabitants of the republic from Russian cultural and informational influence.”
https://lenta.ru/news/2022/03/14/antirospechat/ – translation (Russian to English)
Ukraine banned the import of publishing products from Russia
State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine banned the import of Russian publishing products
Journalists in Ukraine are dissapearing or get detained
https://lenta.ru/news/2022/03/11/zbu_journal/ – translation (Russian to English)
SBU began to detain Ukrainian journalists without charges
Security Council of Ukraine detained journalists Taksyur and Dzhangirov without charges.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained several opposition journalists and public figures in Kiev amid a Russian operation. This was reported by relatives and friends of the missing.
—
That brave girl Marina Ovsyannikova gets 30,000 roubles fine, for her previous activity. The court fined her for calling to participate in protests, she still faces a criminal case under the new law on “fakes”.
https://youtu.be/nmf0rVSlgLE
People discuss this case on Pikabu. They say that the 1st Channel only translates pre-recorded news, also Ovsyannikova’s position is the Channel’s editor.
Anyway, I’ll keep an eye on this.
“Marina Ovsyannikova gets 30,000 roubles fine”.
I’m sure her CIA salary will more than cover this …
Actually, it is normal mood here in Russia, as I’m sure is everywhere. No one wants war.
So much for the prison sentence the MSM were predicting.
La Stampa, Italy, posted photos of Ukraine’s strike on Donetsk city hall, describing it as a Russian strike on Kiev.
Journalists here ask to help with the APPEAL
https://www.lantidiplomatico.it/dettnews-la_stampa_e_la_prima_pagina_della_vergogna_un_appello_allordine_dei_giornalisti/45289_45621/
— translation (Italian to English)
—
Video report from Donetsk on the case was also made by Patrick Lancaster, I posted it earlier with warning on extreme graphic content
https://youtu.be/ANNhDKGjNK8
Information Space controlled by west, policy legislation compilation by think tanks all funded by corporate interest, politicians sign off bills legislation without reading them, a massive wealth transfer ponzi scheme using wars to fleece taxpayers and enrich elites.
There are brave young jouurnilsts we should admire. Patrick Lancaster in Donbas. The New Atlas with Brian Berletic in Thailand who reports the information war going on there.
Phoenix TV from China, too
Patrick Lancaster is the reporter in that video walkthrough of the horrifying cluster-bomb aftermath in Donetsk city centre. His video can also be viewed on his Odysee page:
https://odysee.com/@NotTheBoilingFrog:f/Dozens-Killed-By-Ukrainian-Cluster-Bomb-Attack-On-Center-Donetsk:a
* Content warning: do not watch if you’re squeamish at the sight of blood and recently deceased bodies.*
u tube is forcing watchers to sign into their system to watch it. I’ll be damned. This is censorship by forcing people to be compliant. screw u tube.
It appears to be available on Odysee, which doesn’t require a sign-in:
https://odysee.com/@NotTheBoilingFrog:f/Dozens-Killed-By-Ukrainian-Cluster-Bomb-Attack-On-Center-Donetsk:a
It’s a horrifying English-language walkthrough of the aftermath of a cluster-bomb attack on the civilian centre of Donetsk.
* Content warning: do not watch if you’re squeamish at the sight of blood and recently deceased bodies.*
thanks Dawg, the odysee link worked. What a carnage, for 8 years. We can but hope for a cease fire, watching Zelenski addressing US vested interest puppets with his no fly zone BS gave me the creeps, for they are wasting money on environmental destruction, rather than using these sums to invest in a more sustainable equilibrium.
It looks like this planet is up for grabs, as we are too ignorant to see what needs doing.
Recommended viewing (35mins):
https://thesaker.is/gonzalo-lira-on-five-random-topics/
Covering current on the ground Ukraine situation and Saudi situation. Well worth a watch.
Kind people here say they don’t mind me giving my explanations. May I explain the feelings once more, please? I’ll do my best to illustrate the idea.
Nazism and Ukraine.
I’ll start from The White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, she explores the problem of racism in the US, and clarifies some psychological aspects. One of them is white people ‘minimise’ racism, thus they perpetuate it. This is like, well, like your kid tell you of a problem he’s got in school, and you tell him his problem is not that big, he should simply let it go and move on, dismiss the problem etc. and that is why the problem perpetuates. Adults often react in a wrong way, like ridiculing the problem, shifting kid’s attention on other things, nothing of that works, of course, as the problem itself stays unsolved. The right way would be to recognise the problem, offer support and work together to solve it.
Well, now to Ukraine.
These moods of ultra-nationalism and nazism historically had support of the western parts of the country, when eastern parts are mostly pro-russian, which cultural legacy is zero tolerance to anything connected with nazism. After 2014 several far-right movements got into the new ruling power in Ukraine. Crimea voted to join Russia. Donbas rebelled to have autonomy and the right to elect their own authorities. The collective West geve no support to these regions, justifying Kiev under the pretext of international law, formalizing the issue and dismissing the ideological conflict. Here the point when the real confrontation started.
From Ukraine, via their media we here in Russia received both sorts of messages, some saying there’s no nazi problem, some saying the opposite.
Ultra-national Ukrainian forces started information war. They could not deny nazi problem, because promoting these people into power and establishing national heroes is undeniable. So they turned to ‘minimizing’ nazism. The first argument was, of course, that nazis are small quantity, nothing bigger than in other countries. The second instrument was ‘ridiculing’ nazism. And this method fully discovered the depth of the problem. Ukraine joked on nazism and mimiked it, as if to show the adsurdity of such an idea.
Among other examples, I offer this blog entry
https://gawrusha.livejournal.com/tag/чадский – translation (Russian to English)
and this article, it contains the video
https://www.kp.ru/daily/26327/3210960/ – translation (Russian to English)
The sense is: the ‘creative circle’ of young Ukrainians in Kiev organised an event, to mock and ridicule Russians’ concerns on nazi problem. The menu of the event, I translate for you the names of the dishes, the ones that I remotely understand the allusion for:
At the end of the event, a cake was offered in the form of an anatomically accurate baby lying on a Russian flag. It was cut up and eaten with jokes imitating cannibalism and emphasizing the ethnicity of this baby.
I don’t know to which extent an event like this is acceptable in the West. I believe many would like to dismiss or minimise the meaning. At the same time, I’m sure you wouldn’t tolerate this, if it were a jewish baby cake, or, the menu entries were ridiculing Holokaust.
It’s up to you to judge is it OK, or not.
Tatyana
I was given the impression by somebody who spent two years in a German POW camp that Nazism was a German problem. It’s very shocking and surprising that Nazism has taken root in Ukraine . In fact the intention is to shock the world, same as the shocking events in Azeraijian and in Kazakhstan immediately before it.
I see a pattern here, in which Nato is creating tension, and Russia is trying to bring it under control. Azerbaijan was Nato Britain and Turkey, Kazakhstan was coordinated violence by Nato, and this problem in ukraine is coordinated by Nato.
As such, the really shocking thing is that Nato , our supposed defenders , is coordinating a chain of violent events . They know their purpose, as they previously knew what their purpose in the war on Terror was. To little me this is rule by fear , threatening Europe with war.
We have learnt the hard way that Western bankers have always sold property at the top of the market , just before the economy crashes so people lose all the money they have invested in.property, and the benefit goes toothed new owners.
Is European Nazism a simply a tool to manipulate the value of property? We are not a manufacturing country. rely on swindling the public out of their savings. Our capitalist elites even make money fom hedging, or gambling on things going wrong.
So in short we are not scared of Nazis, we are a scared of capitalism , because it is criminal. Nazism is just a tool to create, fear nothing else.
So, well, Russia has concerns, and they were not worked out, but dismissed and ridiculed, and Russian voices now are banned in the west. My russian-speaking social media Picabu discussed yesterday this videos
https://pikabu.ru/story/ne_vse_nemtsyi_molchat_o_sobyitiyakh_na_ukraine_8929229 – translation (Russian to English)
The comments say ‘we will see if the world change their opinion’, and ‘US is afraid of friendship between Germany and Russia’. And too many commentors doubt if our concerns are heard in the West at all. People here think that the world will be silent on it.
May I please ask if there is here someone from Germany? Can you find out who is the speaker in the video? What is the place? What is the name of the channel?
In the second video, the speaker is Gregor Gysi at the Bundestag (German lower house, parliament.) He seems to be much younger then what I saw in recent pictures (but I might be wrong here.)
I heard a discussion about recent German politics where somebody suggested that the main parties have rigged the rules and now oust unwanted or challenging voices and parties like AfD. Unfortunately these actors play by the old rules which do not exist anymore so they are bound to fail.
The speech was made back in 2014. English subtitles for those interested:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pculDDRKHdg
Apart from Gregor Gysi (I was always a bit suspicious of him but that is personal), the other real left-wing members of the party “Die Linke” (which means “the left”) are the couple Oskar Lafontaine and Sarah Wagenknecht. Oskar left the party which might throw the party out of local parliament in the upcoming election.
The interesting part is that the three guys above seem to be the only MP voices left of all the old left. And Oskar left government and SPD party as finance minister (UK equiv. is chancellor) at the advent of the Yugoslavian war. So here we go again.
https://detv.us/2022/03/17/oskar-lafontaine-resigns-from-die-linke-rt-de/
Laughable, ICC that did nothing on Israel, US, Nato wars past decades is NOW in a hurry to question RUSSIA that is not even a signatory of the ICC!
ICC prosecutor issues official request to Russia to discuss situation in Ukraine
https://tass.com/world/1423351
International Criminal Court is a collective west creation. Just like all so called International Institutions, it is there to prosecute everyone other than its masters. The collective West which has dominated the world for hundreds of years can’t join the real majority of the world in peace. It won’t give up its warlike barbarity. This last ditch effort to confront Russia and then China will either see a nuclear holocaust or a global collapse of the economy. Very few countries are self sufficient in food production and energy. Russia being one !
Jack – the “Hague Invasion Act” – drawn up by G W Bush, to ensure that no citizen or ally of the US would ever be tried at the ICC. We make rules for others which exclude ourselves. Hypocrisy personified.
This guy is there, he doesn’t seem to believe the Russians have ‘stalled’.
“The Russians Are Losing!”? Really? (Prelude to a False Flag)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AcFx5i7Ngs
Pro-Putin propagandist who lives in LA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3OGruy8EJ0
Ignore.
Hey, Tatyana, I think you’d be very interested in that video posted above by Pears Morgaine. It’s a careful and sympathetic review of some of the declarations and arguments made by your trustworthy reporter, Mr “Coach Red Pill” himself, Gonzalo Lira. I think the presenter’s voice is quite clear and the accent should be easy to follow.
Gonzalo has made many predictions over the past few weeks, and we now have the benefit of hindsight to compare what he said with what actually happened, and to review the plausibility of his arguments.
The video also features a short clip of a chat between Mr Lira and Alexander Mercouris, one of your other trusted advisers. They talked about what Lira described as a “fictitious crisis” rather than an invasion: indeed, they discussed some of the reasons why it can’t possibly be an invasion. They both had a very reassuring message for Ukrainians … which was nice.
If Mr Lira appears sincere and his chain of facts coincide with what you know and have observed, then I understand why he appeared trustworthy to you. I offered some reasons to think he might be an expert confidence trickster, but perhaps he may have decided to use his persuasive skills to speak the truth as an amateur
war correspondent‘special military operation’ correspondent instead. Or not.How did his predictions work out? You’ll have to watch the video and find out.
As a wise statesman (who knew how to portray alternative fictions) once stated to a Soviet leader, “Trust, but verify”.
Conor Clyne??? from Tsar Experience??? have you even seen what is his method to earn a living?
“Welcome to the Tsar Experience! I’m Conor Clyne and I help high level Western men live their dream lifestyle in Eastern Europe for 3-12 months per year.
I’ve guided 100s of clients through my consulting, weekend in-person party experiences and online programs to success in living the lifestyle they desire in Eastern Europe.”
Guys are always asking me where to go in Eastern Europe to optimize their chances of meeting sincere beautiful Slavic women.
http://tsarexperience.com/
Someone on Reddit says:
Whatever the fuck he calls his service, “Tsar Experience” or whatever, is euphemism for “ Pimp for Slavic ladies “.
I’m amazed that someone could see Conor Clyne as any sort of expert on political matters at all.
This Conor Clyne guy repeat the lies on Mariupol hospital, the lies was discovered and many living witnesses prove it was a lie. The hospital was evacuated days before Ukrainian military made their fire post in it.
He tells infantile things on giving weapons to civilians! This guy is a halfwit, pretending to be an expert. Ask any man in Russia, where 1 year military service is obligatory, ask of their opinion on this.
This guy is truly dangerous, giving his f*cked opinions, inspiring people to take a gun to go out of their house and become a legitimate target for russian soldiers!
Does any opinion maker even understand the difference between a citizen with a gun and a regular army???
I’ve seen a video, even a military official from Pentagon said it was wrong decision!
Those inspired by their clown comedy actor, and many halfwit opinion makers, went out with their rifles and Molotov cocktails against the tanks, and got chopped into pieces!
People, are you even sane to support things like that???
—
If someone wanted civilians to resist, they should have organised them. Instead, they brought guns in the city square and simply handed them out to any passer by! Many of these guns were immediately sold in the market, many got into the hands of criminals.
https://pikabu.ru/story/v_ayeroportu_zaderzhali_maroderov_8879988 – translation (Russian to English)
Russian army now buys it back, for money, before they start rob and kill each other
https://pikabu.ru/story/vs_rf_sobiraet_rozdannoe_oruzhie_8928825 – translation (Russian to English)
“If someone wanted civilians to resist, they should have organised them. Instead, they brought guns in the city square and simply handed them out to any passer by!”
OTOH, if they wanted to maximise the number of civilian casualties, handing out weapons and giving lessons on how to make Molotov cocktails is a rather effective method.
PM
The first five minutes of that video were just feeble jibes against Lira. I didn’t see the point of listening to 45min worth. Did the guy in Bucharest have anything to say that was worthwhile? An Irish (?) youtuber who is certainly ready to sell himself to anyone, and certainly did not make that video for nothing.
when gonzalo’s your man its safe to say you’ve reached bottom.
Neither Lira nor Clyne have any particular qualifications, and not a film-maker and particularly not a Youtuber who lives by selling consultancy on how to marry Russian or Ukrainian women (what else is he selling?). The only advantage Lira has is that he is on the ground, as I understand it.
Laguerre, it is exactly my point. Lira is in Kharkov, and he was investigating what is going on, probably to make a film. When Conor Clyne speaks from Bucharest, busy supplying Slavic women to rich Western men.
Both of them may tell lies, but quantity of lies from Clyne is inevitably more, compared to Lira.
Anyway, both sources are just opinions of bloggers. I still prefer to get info from those, who are responsible for what they say.
Lira is not in Kharkov, he’s in Los Angeles. The decor behind him is the same as his earlier videos. What are the chances? Contact him and ask him to take his camera to the window, let us see these advancing Russians. I’d have thought if they were that close the sounds of battle would be audible on the recording.
PM
According to Lira’s account he’s lived in Ukraine for ten years. So of course the background is the same as in earlier videos.
That exchange was typical of what passes for argument from the supporters of the official line,
“Your guy’s just a propagandist for Putin, here watch this guy, he may be a propagandist, but it’s the right sort of propaganda”.
Zelensky have really become somewhat of a hero in all this, in the western world that is.
Posting short video selfies everyday, making speeches to western parliaments and so on. I wonder if he have any western PR bureau curating all this telling him what to emphazise when he speak to the western world to get as much support he want.
It was his job before he was elected. He owns a media production company, and was a popular actor himself. Arestovich too was an actor, in Russian films, Ukraine’s delegation speaker on Minsk agreement.
Here is someone shared on other media:
The core decision-making inner circle of Ukrainian President Zelensky is actually based on his circle of friends when he was an actor.
If you just look at their résumé, you can’t tell whether it is a film and television company or a country’s decision-making body.
Scarily it is so, the propaganda appears to work. I visited a dentist this week and was told by a member of the team, what a hero and a brave man Ze is !
Thanks Tatyana for the list, It is really a farce going on, people that have no knowledge about anything but acting in movies, going around the world asking for more and more weapons and Nato involvement, they are basically calling for WW3 but they do not understand that being mere actors.
Herny Smith
Yeah the propaganda is really effective, and it is impossible to start lecturing these people, they are indoctrinated without knowing it, they believe everything they read in the mainstream media on this conflict.
As I see here some comments, appealing to our emotions, inviting to quickly choose a side, and also lies; can I please offer:
Goebbels, 6 principles of propaganda.
important rare intervention from a person who didn’t quickly choose a side nor has any goebellian characteristics whatsoever.
March 18, at 17:00 Moscow time [14:00 London GMT/UTC time] an urgent meeting on biolabs in United Nations Security Council
https://media.un.org/en/webtv/
It is pretty clear that the Chinese are going to smack down Biden with this as well as just laughing at the desperate attempt to get any criticism of Putin from Xi.
Younger Joe’s advocacy of bombing Belgrade, attacking Russia and his efforts at invading and stealing from countries are easy to find and show to him – if he even recognises himself in the mirror anymore.
These Nazis in Ukraine are never coming back. These Nazis in the U.K. and US , nato and ‘West’ who were dumb enough to go kill a russkie for $2k a month have soon found out that video games ain’t like real life. I wonder how the families of the few hundreds of these idiots are going to react when they find their crazy child is never coming back, not even in bits.
What with all the accusations and counter-accusations regarding chemical and biological weapons it’s beginning to look like Dhouma all over again. Can’t be too long until the “White helmets” show up in Ukraine.
I have just watched a message from Arnold Schwarzenegger on twitter which must rank alongside that of Joseph Goebbels propaganda in WW2 he says “people are told this is a war to denazify Ukraine, how can that be Ukraine has a Jewish President whose family were murdered by the Nazis”?
Arnold, it is you who is spreading propaganda. There are many Nazis in Ukraine including the Azov battalions and their supporters at the top of the Ukrainian government. These are well documented facts including their Nazi insignia and torchlight parades.
He goes on, “this is not the Russian peoples war, whole blocks have been flattened by Russian bombs including a childrens hospital and a maternity ward”. These are lies Arnold and have been demonstrated to be propaganda over the past few days.
“There are thousands of Russian bombs raining down on innocent civilians”, no Arnold that is the way the US conducts war. One million Iraqis were killed in the shock and Awe campaign. There depleted uranium munitions were used in the battle of Fallujah. Arnold you are a lying hypocrite.
“Soldiers were lied to by their leadership and were told they were going to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine, none of this is true”. Oh, but it is true Arnold. It is a well documented fact that 14000 ethic Russian people in the Dombass region have been killed since the Ukraine government was overthrown in 2014 and a US friendly one replaced it (I’m looking at you, Victoria Nuland). Nazis have been shelling the ethnic Russians since 2014 and are still doing so today.
This war is a direct consequence of the urge by Nato to expand and to surround Russia, specifically to expand NATO to within 5 minutes nuclear missile flying time from Moscow. This is an existential threat to Russia and Russia is justified in making sure it does not happen.In my opinion, it will not happen – regardless of what Biden and other warmongers in Europe and the US say.
Finally, Arnold, you were married to a Kennedy therefore I assume you are familiar with the Cuban missile crisis. The Soviet Union were placing missile bases in Cuba 100 miles from the US border, JFK would not allow this and ordered a military blockade which many political scientists thought could lead to nuclear war. This NATO expansion is a similar situation with the same stakes involved. Arnold, you are being used by the US government in a similar fashion to how the Germans used William Joyce – nickname Lord Haw-Haw – who broadcast Nazi propaganda to the UK from Germany during the Second World War. The broadcasts opened with “Germany calling, Germany calling”, spoken in an affected upper-class English accent. Arnold you are a propaganda-spreading, lying, foolish warmonger. Go to hell.
Thank you, now I don’t have to listen to him.
Mr. Schwarzenegger is himself an actor voted into politics, I think he feels he must support his fellow Ze 🙂 They both are trained to tell anything with a straight face.
Exactly, this the meme they have been using past week reeks of ignorance/propaganda, ‘ Oh the prez there is jewish so how could they be nazis.’
People that say that (excluding the ukrainian gov itself) have no idea about Azov or Pravy Sektor because media is not covering it!
The fact that Ukraine have a jewish president and that he is collabing with nazis is of course a story in itself.
“How Ukraine’s Jewish president Zelensky made peace with neo-Nazi paramilitaries on front lines of war with Russia”
https://thegrayzone.com/2022/03/04/nazis-ukrainian-war-russia/
Russia should do more to call out and expose these groups.
The silliest invitation to learn about ethnicity of those figures involved.
Zelensky is Jewish, as well as many others in this plot.
Nuland, Ned Price, Sherman, Biden’s daughter married a Jewish man, Trump’s daughter too, Kolomoyski is jewish. The whole Ukraine is densely populated with people of this ethnicity. Learn history about the settlement ‘red line’ within the Russian empire. Understand why Hitler attacked Poland, why Nazi death camps were located here. Learn the history of 500,000 Jewish Ukrainians emigrating to Israel, forming the significant share in the Jewish population of the state, and the sad history of them defending themselves from hostile arab neighbors, trying to find protection in the USA. Find out the ethnicity of those holding highest positions in global media and global money.
Things are complicated. I haven’t yet decided if it is a struggle for money, or a struggle for domination.
Israel gives the lie to this meme.
But, it’s important to remember that although all Israelis are Jewish, all Jews are not Israeli.
Actually, a proportion of Palestinians have Israeli citizenship and even though the apartheid state treats them unequally, you are incorrect to say all Israelis are Jewish.
There were some doubrs on Mr. Lira’s credibility. Let me suggest his new video
https://youtu.be/h6XvLVAuhgo
Please see him explaining his methods of reasoning and giving his education backgrounds at 1:30
He says he studied philosophy at Dartmouth. In my university philosophy course included logic, I believe the same is in Dartmouth 🙂
I don’t know any better method to come to a conclusion, than logic, and Mr. Lira explains in detail how it is done, for those who didn’t study logic as a science (please, no offence intended, it is just a remark on terminology and a reminder that Mr.Lira is trained to make analysis). I hope they in Dartmouth also teach to make introspection, to take into account assumptions, to calculate errors, as well as train to quickly notice logical fallacies, and also to remember that a conclusion can be drawn on the basis of false facts, but the falsity of the basic facts does not necessarily mean the falsity of the conclusion.
Facts.
Mr. Lira speaks on Yavorov training ground, and this fact was first reported by Russian MoD. I mentioned it here on March 13
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/03/the-universal-boosting-of-putin/comment-page-9/#comment-1014164
The next day I brought the information on Yavorov collected from official Ukrainian TV, also videos of the strike
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/03/the-universal-boosting-of-putin/comment-page-9/#comment-1014194
And also accusation of Mr. Podolyak of disclosing the mercenaries arrival
https://pikabu.ru/story/otvet_na_post_raketnyiy_udar_po_yavorovskomu_poligonu_pod_lvovom_8921103#comments
So, where Mr. Lira is lying?
Why should anyone think of him as of unreliable source?
to say one more thing on logic and common sense – surprise surprise – Tne New York Times now confesses that Hunter Biden’s laptop story was true.
https://youtu.be/iiloKxcqp6M
Fox News asks what all those TV channels will say now, and Miss Psaki, and President Biden himself, and those intelligence officers, and social media, who claimed that this was Russian disinformation. And how this influenced the elections.
It’s time to remember Ashley Babbitt, a patriotic US veteran who was gunned down in the Capitol while trying to protest the results of this election.
I wouldn’t disagree that Mr Lira is familiar with formal logic. However, I don’t see much of it on display in his pronouncements on video. What I do see is a lot of strong rhetoric, including many instances of informal (aka “quasi-formal”) fallacies – especially appeals to authority and appeals to emotion. If you’re familiar with logic terminology, we can get on to that later.
You pointed out that Arnie Schwarzenegger is trained to say anything with a straight face, implying that he could be lying. I don’t doubt it; he lied to his wife for years about an affair with the housemaid. You say the same about Zelensky, with a similar implication. Well, Gonzalo Lira not only has a record of lying but he has also produced videos training people to lie: that’s the core methodology of “pick-up artistry”, from which he has recruited thousands of followers. He’s also a conspiracy theorist and many of his videos are stuffed full of what the majority of people (though perhaps not a majority here) would identify as total bullshit. “Why should anyone think of him as of unreliable source?” OK, we’ve talked about his general trustworthiness, without consensus; now we can examine what he actually said. In the video linked by Pears Morgaine, Conor Clyne (who you clearly don’t like, and therefore don’t believe) identified a set of Gonzalo’s claims and predictions that turned out not to be true. I have a transcription of his criticisms, so we can examine the claims more closely later when I have more time. And we can use logical terminology, and even logical formulae, if you like.
Lot of armchair strategists. Reality on the ground is that Russia will never allow western foreign weapons and forces let alone missiles and WMD in Ukraine. Lots of actors involved in selling propoganda to western populations. US UK Nato have achieved in separation of Russia from European integration and economy. They will still however carry on their objective of Regime Change in Russia. Ukraine is just one of many former Soviet Union countries they will set on fire to achieve this goal. They have given up on economic manufacturing trade development within their own countries long ago. Their Imperial ambitions of war by any means to dominate others is in their DNA. A massive effort is underway using NGOs in Thailand as they did in Hong Kong. So if you are looking for well paid jobs, plenty of ” Charities ” and “Think Tanks” to work for. The new foot soldiers for the old UK and new US empires. Meanwhile Russia has actual soldiers determining realities on the ground.
Thank you Dawg, but I have no desire to discuss him. I’m sure someone else here would be happy to assist you in this exciting and entertaining endeavour.
Sergey Lavrov interviewed this morning. I’m not sure if it’s the full or edited version but very interesting:
https://www.rt.com/shows/rt-interview/552197-lavrov-rt-interview-ukraine/
Also, many heartfelt thanks to Tatyana. You are doing great work and providing a great service Tatyana. Thank you very much or, thank you so much, as they say these days.
Peter. Indeed Lavrov has repeated that any weapons or mercenaries sent to Ukraine will be destroyed.
News coming everyday so many of them. Besides Hunter Biden’s laptop, today another United Nations Security Council meeting was held, on Pentagon funded biolabs in Ukraine.
Herre is the link to UN channel, Russian representative speaks at 8:20
https://youtu.be/xri173Ivyao
and, another link, in Russian, at 12:50
https://youtu.be/3y8N7wo875o
He says about direct payments from US ministry of defense to Ukrainian ministry of defence. He mentions Ukrainian MoD ‘research facilities’ in Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa and Lvov. He names Joanna Wintrol for the US. From docs published on-line another name appears: Maria Zambon, Public Health England,, London, UK. For Germany I haven’t yet found the name.
The place in Donbass named Peski: the village had 2160 residents back in 2001, there were severe battles there 2014-2016, 70 people died in 2018 of resistent tuberculosis, by January 2019 only 9 people left in the village as 95% of buildings are destroyed.
Nebenzya says that Pentagon-Ukraine projects UP-4, UP-8 and P-781 run since 2016 and United Nation was not informed of it.
—
I downloaded published docs, and also saved the investigation of a Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva on similar biolabs in Georgia. I know russian sources are banned now in the West, so I uploaded on my Google Disk to share. Surprisingly, Google notified me of forbidden content on my disk 🙂 So I had to store it in another place.
a small addition to the previous comment.
Ms. Joanna Wintrol gave an interview, still available here
https://medium.com/u-s-embassy-kyiv/u-s-defense-threat-reduction-office-partners-with-ukrainian-government-to-keep-our-nations-safe-b25d7d62c46b
Interesting what she said:
“As one example, my team has arranged hands-on trainings for the National Police, Security Service of Ukraine and the State Border Guard Service to strengthen our cooperation on the topic of “dual use” items. These are items that have a legitimate purpose, but if they fall into the hands of a bad actor, they could be used to create a dangerous weapon.”
Ah, she doesn’t forget to add “Russia has disseminated false information about this program” below 🙂
The UN’s own site provides coverage of the meeting with a more audible translator. CNBC are perhaps not too favourable towards enabling a western audience to hear what the Russian representative is saying:
https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1a/k1acipvvs4
The meeting starts at 29:00 and Nebenzya (is that his name?) begins speaking at 36:20.
Thank you very much, Peter! I had to switch off my electric tea pot, because the noise didn’t allow to listen to the video. I also tried to adjust the volume on my speakers, and I was surprised it only had a very limited volume scale.
Well, I got very cold and had to listen over and over for 3 or 4 times, to finally hear what Nebenzya was telling.
His first name is Vasily, another form of Basil, like my granddad. His patronim is Alexeyevich, like Alexey, my husband’s name. He was born in Volgograd, former Stalingrad, the city with the greatest ever WW2 monument in Russia. Among other monuments in the world, which people build to honour what they believe to be important
https://youtu.be/YEPJDkZRdJU
Interesting meeting, indeed! After Russian statement, other countries had a word to say.
Albania – nothing to see here, it’s russian desinformation
USA – Russia poisoned Scripal and Navalny, nothing to discuss here
Ireland – let’s talk about war, let’s not talk about biolabs
France – there’s no bioweapons in Ukraine, Russia has no proof, UN doesn’t know about bioweapons in Ukraine, disinformation
UK – let’s talk about war in Ukraine
Ghana – let’s have a look what do they have there in the biolabs?
Brasil – let’s investigate
Kenia – stop war, and yes, let’s investigate biolabs
Norway – we don’t know anything about bioweapons, Russia has no proof, stop war
Gabon – stop war
India – we stand for peace, we welcome the last round of Russia-Ukraine negotiations, implement BTWC
China – Russia and Ukraine are in the forth round of the negotiations, we hope for peace. We also hope Europe, USA, NATO and Russia negotiate to build a security system, so that every country is safe. We need a BTWC mechanism, to control bioweapons. We need to get answers to Russian questions, this is not such a difficult request position.
Mexico – BTWC provides for a response in case of doubt. There are such mechanisms, so why don’t we just turn to the text of the convention?
UAE – forbid bioweapons and stop war
Russia again – We have brought you new materials and documents, confirming US – Ukraine cooperation. Refute this if you can. But don’t excuse yourself with “Russian propaganda”. Just answer the questions we ask.
We don’t say that Ukraine has bioweapons. We assert that the United States is engaged in bioweapons, using the territory and scientific resources of Ukraine.
The argument about ignorance of the UN is untenable, the program is secret, it is not reported to the UN. We will continue to inform the international community of new facts.
Well, the Convention on Bioweapons on the United Nations website
https://www.un.org/disarmament/ru/biological-weapons/
Text of the Convention in English, linked ton the UN website
https://front.un-arm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BWC-text-English.pdf
Article VI
(1) Any State Party to this Convention which finds that any other State Party is acting in breach of obligations deriving from the provisions of the Convention may lodge a complaint with the Security Council of the United Nations. Such a complaint should include all possible evidence confirming its validity, as well as a request for its consideration by the Security Council.
(2) Each State Party to this Convention undertakes to co-operate in carrying out any investigation which the Security Council may initiate, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, on the basis of the complaint received by the Council. The Security Council shall inform the States Parties to the Convention of the results of the investigation.
—
So, Russia brought it all to Security Council in accordance with Article 6 of the Convention. It says in very simple words – lodge a complaint, give evidence, request SC to consider it. SC may initiate an investigation on the basis of the complaint.
Do I understand it right, that the point is UNSC should agree to investigate and all the battle is about this?
China are still the only adults in the room.
How much sooner would this situation in Ukraine be brought to a conclusion if all the Western warmongers and arms dealers followed this line?
.
Interesting paragraph from Thomas Roeper- Anti-Spiegel – road trip to Melitopol:
The most common complaint in Ukraine
I have often reported that probably the most important issue in Ukraine is the amount of ancillary housing costs, i.e. water, electricity and heating. After the Maidan, state subsidies were abolished under pressure from the IMF, so that the bills are about as high as in Germany.
There really wasn’t an occasion where we talked to the people on the ground where people didn’t come to us to tell us about it. Countless pensioners have told us in tears that their pension amounts to 2,000 or 3,000 hryvnia (about 60 to 90 euros), but the additional costs are 3,000 hryvnia. Without the help of friends and children, they could not buy anything to eat, not to mention medicines.
These complaints were dominant everywhere. And these mistakes, made in Kiev under the guidance of the US, the West and the IMF, and the completely out of control corruption in Ukraine, are Russia’s greatest chance to win the hearts of the people. Russia does not even have to spend anything on this, because Russian gas is burned in Ukraine, which is many times more expensive than it should be due to the many pockets that want to earn from it, details can be found here.
As a first step, Russia would simply have to reduce ancillary housing costs to Russian levels, and approval for the Russian military operation would rise sharply. I suspect that this is exactly what will happen soon when Russia takes over the supply.
How stupid is he? Russian troops invade your country, destroy your home and kill your family and then he thinks people will be placated with lower gas bills.
Scott Ritter latest interview on Maverick Multimedia.
I wish you would stop repeating those deliberate untruths, Pears. The Russian government has repeatedly made clear that their armed forces have as a very high priority to avoid all civilian casualties. To that end, they have been assiduously refraining from attacks on civilian areas. Even Ukrainian soldiers who surrender are treated well. Essentially, the Russians regard ordinary Ukrainians as cousins and friends.
The relatively small numbers of bitter end Nazi terrorists are a different matter, just as ISIS and their colleagues are in Syria and Iraq. One of the main objectives of the military operation is to get rid of them, and break their paralysing grip on Ukraine’s politics and people. The Nazis, like other terrorists, like to set up their weapons right among civilians, to use them as human shields. Therefore the Russians have had to go around such areas, isolating them for the time being. Winkling out the terrorists will be the hardest part of the operation.
Meanwhile the Russians have opened up and guarded safe escape routes for civilians. Unfortunately the Nazis often bombard those routes, and the Russians cannot suppress the bombardment (yet) because it comes from the middle of civilian areas. The Nazis have threatened to kill any of their human shields who try to escape to freedom, and have often carried out such threats.
When someone persists in refusing to take on board the simplest arguments put to them, in taking statements out of context and in trotting out the same specious arguments again and again, it is hard not to conclude that they are either a troll or a shill, however, to avoid upsetting sensibilities, I am manfully resisting that conclusion.
“The Russian government has repeatedly made clear that their armed forces have as a very high priority to avoid all civilian casualties. To that end, they have been assiduously refraining from attacks on civilian areas.”
Tell that to the citizens of Mariupol (44% of whom are ethnic Russians). I’m sure they’re in much need of a good laugh.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/mariupol-city-ukraine-russia-war-b2039537.html
I suppose you believe it’s all the work of ‘Nazi terrorists’.
Oh! Sam Hancock from London, writing on Ukraine:-) another MuckRack verified journallist
https://muckrack.com/samhancock95
I especially liked his essay on “Ukrainian mother Yaroslava Antipina takes to social media every morning”.
Poor Ukrainian mother turns out to be the Chief strategy officer at JMind Systems, with offices in Kiev (Ukraine), Limassol (Cyprus) and Los Angeles (USA).
https://mmr.ua/profiles/yaroslava_antipina
JMind is a company that makes ‘anything on Internet’ for money.
https://jmind.systems/
—
Doesn’t look like a random woman, does she? Pears Morgaine? Are you banned in Google?
” Poor Ukrainian mother turns out to be the Chief strategy officer at JMind Systems “
Your point being….?
“I have often reported that probably the most important issue in Ukraine is the amount of ancillary housing costs, i.e. water, electricity and heating”.
Surely some mistake. Seems to refer to the UK.
Another country ruined by demands from the IMF that it dismantle social support systems and go hell-for-leather for total “free” market rule.
Watched Mr. Lira latest video. He explains why mainstream journalists are corrupt
https://youtu.be/PMbsPHQaoQ4
He says he was attacked by someone from The Daily Beast. I supposed it must be Julia Davis, Ukraine born woman, monitoring russian media.
Then, I remembered about Mr. Lira’s supposed ability to manipulate a woman in bed, and I thought he is unlikely to use this sort of language that he used in his video, towards a woman.
So I visited the Daily Beast website and chose a person with the most f*cked up facial expression 🙂 Adam Rawnsley, my guess. Would be curious to know if I’m right 🙂
Interesting his MuckRack page is
https://muckrack.com/adam-rawnsley
Adam Rawnsley VERIFIED
Reporter, The Daily Beast
U.S.
As seen in: The Daily Beast, Medium, MSN, MSN Canada, MSN South Africa, WIRED Magazine, Yahoo Canada, Yahoo News, Yahoo News UK, Yahoo, Yahoo Finance UK and more
Reporter at @TheDailyBeast. Used to be FP and Wired. Occasional Bellingcat contributor. Fellow, @FPRI. Talk to me: adam.rawnsley@ gmail.com or protonmail.com
FPRI stands for Foreign Policy Research Institute.
34% of their funding in 2018 was “grants” and their president is Carol Rollie Flynn
https://www.fpri.org/contributor/carol-rollie-flynn/
“… A 30-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)…”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Policy_Research_Institute
“The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) is an American think tank based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that conducts research on geopolitics, international relations, and international security in the various regions of the world as well as on ethnic conflict, U.S. national security, terrorism, and on think tanks themselves. It publishes a quarterly journal, Orbis, as well as a series of monographs, books, and electronic newsletters.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbis_(journal)
“Orbis is the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s (FPRI) quarterly journal of world affairs. Published by Elsevier…”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsevier
“Elsevier (Dutch: [ˈɛlzəviːr]) is a Netherlands-based publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as The Lancet and Cell, the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, the Trends and Current Opinion series of journals, the online citation database Scopus, the SciVal tool for measuring research performance, the ClinicalKey search engine for clinicians, and the ClinicalPath evidence-based cancer care service…”
—
Julia Davis’ muckrack page is no less interesting
https://muckrack.com/julia-hirschfeld-davis
She is also writer/creator for TV Series, and an actress
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0204920/
She discusses with Eric Swalwell, Demo congressman for California, what they call “art installation”. In Lvov, someone installed baby strollers on a square, to claim Putin kills babies. This was posted on Twitter by Christina Pascucci from Los Angeles, another MuckRack journalist
https://muckrack.com/christina-pascucci
and an actress
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0664482/
Let us not forget who were complicit in this war Cameron and Hague both guilty of lying to the British people, of course the US are primarily to blame notably V Nuland [F- -k the EU] and the US state dept, but that US vassal Hague lying to the House of Commons has a lot to answer for, here is a letter I sent in 2014 asking him to apologise for telling lies to the British people.
From: Harry Law [mailto:harrylaw
Sent: 24 April 2014 14:51
To: Feedback Consular Services (Sensitive)
Subject: Foreign Secretary’s statement on Ukraine to House of Commons.
Dear Sir/Madam.
I sent an e-mail to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 13th March 2014 and a follow up one on 7th April 2014, asking the Foreign Secretary to correct a misleading statement he made to the House of Commons on 4th March 2014. I have not received any replies. I wish to make a formal complaint. Here is the complaint.
In a statement to the House of Commons on 4th March 2014, the Foreign Secretary deceived the House about the legitimacy of the new regime in Ukraine. He led the House to believe that the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, had removed President Yanukovych from power on 22 February 2014 in accordance with the Ukrainian constitution and that therefore “it is wrong to question the legitimacy of the new authorities. It is simply untrue that the Rada followed the procedure laid down in the Ukrainian constitution to impeach and remove a president from power.
Article 108 of the Ukraine constitution has four circumstances whereby a President can be replaced, the powers of the President of Ukraine terminate prior to the expiration of term in cases of:
1) resignation;
2) inability to exercise his or her powers for reasons of health;
3) removal from office by the procedure of impeachment;
4) death.
The procedure, laid down in Article 111 of the constitution, is not unlike that required for the impeachment and removal from power of a US president, which could take months.
Thus, Article 111 obliges the Rada to establish a special investigatory commission to formulate charges against the president, seek evidence to justify the charges and come to conclusions about the president’s guilt for the Rada to consider.
Prior to a final vote to remove a president from power, it requires
(a) The Constitutional Court of Ukraine to review the case and certify that the constitutional procedure of investigation and consideration has been followed, and
(b) The Supreme Court of Ukraine must certify that the acts of which the President is accused are worthy of impeachment.
The Rada didn’t follow this procedure at all. No investigatory commission was established and the Courts were not involved. On 22 February 2014, the Rada simply passed a bill removing President Yanukovych from office.
Furthermore, the bill wasn’t even supported by three quarters of the members of the Rada, as required by Article 111 for the removal of a president from office – it was supported by 328 members, when it required 338 (since the Rada has 450 members).
Justifying UK support for the new regime in Kiev in the House of Commons on 4 March 2014, the Foreign Secretary said:
“Former President Yanukovych left his post and then left the country, and the decisions on replacing him with an acting President were made by the Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, by the very large majorities required under the constitution, including with the support of members of former President Yanukovych’s party, the Party of Regions, so it is wrong to question the legitimacy of the new authorities.”
The Ukrainian President had not resigned, he is still the legitimate President of Ukraine, therefore the Foreign Secretary’s statement was a calculated deception of the House of Commons, designed to give the impression that the procedure prescribed in the Ukrainian constitution for the removal of a president from office had been followed, when it hadn’t.
Because this statement was fundamentally wrong can I be assured that the Foreign Secretary will tell the House of Commons at the earliest opportunity, and through them the British people, that the statement he made on 4th March 2014, was false.
I await your response
Regards Harry Law
Lying is part of the job and is as natural as breathing for the political class.
What do you call an honest politician ? unemployable.
Unelectable. Being a man of principle and integrity was what, ultimately, did for Jeremy Corbyn. And, obviously, he would not rubberstamp yet another imperial proxy-war mission, like the one currently being staged in Ukraine. He had to be removed and replaced by an Establishment puppet, pronto. Believing in the rule of law does not go along with being a member of the Establishment’s wholly-owned and run Opposition.
A man of principle and integrity who shat on all of it you mean. Corbyn betrayed everything he stood for and then betrayed the British people the gutless poltroon. Ramsay Macdonald Mk II.
Harry, you raise one interesting question.
Recently, there were bits of information in media, that US may create ‘government in exile’ for Zelensky. Someone commented, that Yanukovich is already ‘in exile’ in Russia.
Me personally was very excited on this, because never in my life I would miss an opportunity to watch a battle of governments in exile!!!
I imagine the faces of ordinary Ukrainians, as well as of ordinary Russians, who want to simply stop this farce and make peace.
Harry Law
If you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve nothing to be afraid of. Maybe he was economising on words as well as hotel bills. Tory thrift. Thanks for clarifying that issue, because others here have claimed Zelensky was made president legally in 2019 as incumbent. The Tories were unelectable until Nick Clegg stabbed the British people in the back , so you can add him to your list of Ukranian-warmongering Tories if you like. Once in office it has been impossible to get them out.
As to our kind host Mr. Murray himself – he has no account within MuckRack, but they created up to 7 pages on his articles
https://muckrack.com/craig-murray-1 (change 1 for 2, update the page, then for 3, etc. up to 7, the 8 links to 404 error page)
So, they see him as a journalistt, track his articles, check where were they shared. The account profile is not verifyed, that means Mr.Murray never claimed his account.
The same tracking on unverifyed profile page is for Mr.Mercouris, Mr.Lira, Conor Clyne
Well, at least we can see these are not involved into CIA led net of journalists, but still being spyed on 🙂
Sorry for posting too much, could not miss this – no surprise Bellingcat is verified there in MuckRack network 🙂
https://muckrack.com/media-outlet/bellingcat
Scope: International
Language: English
Country: United Kingdom
List of journalists at the bottom of the page, clickable, all verified:
Al-Khatib, Hady – Syria
Colborne, Michael – Canadian in Prague, researching far-right
Grozev, Christo – Netherlands, Hilversum
Higgins, Eliot
Khachatryan, Narine – Armenia, Erevan
Macguire, Eoghan – lead editor at Bellingcat. He previously worked at CNN, NBC and Storyful
Toler, Aric – Kanzas City
Tsalov, Yordan – London
Waters, Nick – London
Wild, Johanna – Germany, Netherlands
Zwijnenburg, Wim – Netherlands
—
I see all MuckRackers use Twitter identificators in their bio. Like Eogan Macguire’s page https://muckrack.com/eoghan-macguire says: Journalist. Editor @Bellingcat. Previous @CNNi, @NBCNews, @AJEnglish, @TheTimes
and all the @*** are links to Twitter accounts
Scott Ritter in his latest interview on Maverick Multimedia gives a lot of new information on the invasion. From the bio labs to the strategy of Russian plan, that he thinks will force the West to withdraw Nato to 1997 limits. He also explains that the economic war on Russia has failed and that despite all the provocations, Russia still honors its energy contractual obligations to Ukraine and the West ! He says Russia still has in its tool box its own unused Sanctions, if imposed, that would devastate Europe. Very interesting interview.
The people of Taiwan must be really worried that they will be used and sacrificed just as Ukraine was by the US war on containing Russia and China. Russia is capable of survival outside the global economic system, being self sufficient. China has pointed out that the ” International Community ” that US keeps parroting, is only a fraction of a few countries in North America, Europe and Japan. The rest of the Global World has had enough of these few countries domination.
The link
https://www.rt.com/russia/552285-donbass-russia-ukraine-history/
gives a description of how the Donbass emerged as a unique region, with its own unique economy, whilst being used as a political pawn at various stages in history as Ukraine and Russia evolved. It suggests that those who migrated to the Donbass when its coal mining started to spawn a wider range of industry came not only from Russia but also from areas to the West. It suggests that at one stage in the 20th century, Ukrainian politicians within the USSR tried to impose the Ukrainian language on the Donbass, which suggests that ‘Derussification’ is not unique to the past 8 years.
The history of southern Russia and Ukraine is clearly much, much more complicated than narratives projected by a variety of actors in 2022…..
It seems complicated Rhys because as the local told the lost traveller asking how they could get to where they were looking for ‘I wouldn’t start from here!’ .
Perspective, as in a useful map, requires scale. Let’s start not at 2014 or 1990 or even 1945. But zoom out to 1900 as the old European Imperial powers and the emerging US power ganged up once again to dismantle the Czars Russia using their trained professionals, new religion and finance to set the Bolsheviks into Russia and their internecine internal conflicts between these who played for the world powers and the deal revolutionaries who resisted that duplicity.
We need to look at both these European wars and always always understand that it was just a continuation of the same prize which is the massive Russian lands and peoples and their resources along with the great island that was and is still being hunted – with whatever the latest proxy financed armies that are raised to achieve that.
Adam Tooze covers it better than many and has maps to look at too!
‘Brest-Litovsk – Imperial Germany and the troubled birth of modern Ukraine’
https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-96-brest-litovsk-imperial?s=r
It would be interesting to know your opinion on biological weapon labs in Ukraine, uncovered by Russians. US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nuland admitted of their existence. Similar labs exist in other post Soviet countries too.
The bio lab papers reveal that samples from the Ukrainian labs were sent to the UK and other countries. So it can be inferred that the USA bio programme is leading to the proliferation of dangerous bio weapons materials throughout the West.
Porton Down in the UK states that its research is aimed at defensive protection, but if the source of the threat materials is the USA, then what are we to infer ?
The Collective West has broken all the Arms Control Treaties and now the Chemical and Biological Convention. NPT also. While shouting to the world for years that Iran is just about to have the bomb tomorrow ! Rank Hypocrisy
They should have the title of International Community of Rogue States.
Community of United Nationalistic Terrorists (C…)
Stevie Boy. I would love to hear Lavrov start referring to us the Collective West as you suggest. He would say it to the presstitutes with a completely straight face…brilliant. Do you recall when he mentioned pussies?
Paul Craig Roberts provides an excellent summary.
“The Fake News Matrix”
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/03/20/the-fake-news-matrix/
Apparently men, women and even some kids are being punished by Ukrainian forces for various things. The person who put this twitter thread together states these kinds of videos are being posted to telegram etc. Not easy watching folks, so don’t if you are easily upset.
https://twitter.com/Youblacksoul/status/1505309631542931459
Azov Nazis, specifically. Fascists have always perpetrated these barbaric, sadistic acts against civilians under the cover of wars and dictatorships. It was their hallmark in Spain, WW2, Chile, Argentina.
This from the mouth of Zelensky ‘the Jew’:
“Addressing Putin’s allegations that there are neo-Nazis in Ukraine’s government, Zelensky described them as “laughable.” “
https://www.rt.com/russia/552345-ukraine-russia-nato-compromise/