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.
In the U.K. Our systematic racist police still think nothing of being brain dead.
‘The Metropolitan Police have reportedly warned officers they will face disciplinary action if they travel to Ukraine to help fight the invading Russian army.’
It has many rotten worms.
The other stories being published now are about damage limitation. One of 4 teenage soldiers who made it back, charged and then immediately released to his family – wonder where he came back from and what happened to the other 3 idiots in the systematic racist U.K. armed forces.
The other story is of an ordinary idiot who has never been in the army or police who snuck into Ukraine with ‘4 squaddies’ and soon found out that it wasn’t fun and walked back out and home to the mother and son after he had been inspired by the media to just get on a plane to Poland… doesn’t mention anything about how much he was planning on getting paid.
The Ukrainian Nazis have decided that these kids using their phones was what gave away the mercenaries position. I doubt it. I’m sure Russia has eyes everywhere.
Dumb dumber dumbest downtown-abbeyed watching Britons. How are they all linked across Europe and the 5 eyes? By such arseholes as the subject of this article – the lady is a tramp Hitler.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/03/20/meet-ukraine-azov-figurehead-olena-semenyaka-europe-female-fuhrer/
Hope the surrender isn’t long in the coming, but many of these Nazis will be subject to justice they fully deserve. It’s shame they are the ones we are urged to support and cheer as we send deadly weapons to the nutters.
Very disturbing use of torture, human shields, mass graves, white phosphorus and prohibited munitions about to be revealed, according to Andrei Martyanov while being interviewed by Eva. K. Bartlett. Martyanov also has his on blog SmoothieX12.
“But it is an equally valid point that NATO has never attacked Russia and none of those missiles has ever been fired at Russia.”
This bizarre logic asserts that one can feel safe in the face of an ever-encroaching, heavily armed aggressor on the simple basis that they’ve not yet landed a blow.
Similarly skewed is the author’s orthodox measure of the efficacy of the Russian action. No consideration is given to Russia’s strategic avoidance of damage to civilian life and infrastructure. This unusual stratagem, by Western standards, greatly effects the appearance of outcomes toward territory gained and gross dominance of occupation. Russian forces are not executing a US/NATO brand of attack as exemplified in Yugoslavia, Libya, Raqqa, Mosul, Fallujah, etc. This is not an operational shortcoming, although it does incur considerable military expense. Those who cannot see this have little to add to the commentary other than volume; and god help us, don’t we have plenty of that!
The Russian action seeks to address an existential threat whilst inflicting minimum impact upon everyone and everything but those threatening forces. This is a unique goal in modern military function. Far too unique it seems for the comprehension of western minds saturated by the grim standards of preceding experience, as dominated by the hegemon’s lust.
“Russia’s strategic avoidance of damage to civilian life and infrastructure.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/ukraine-mariupol-russia-city-bombed-b2039382.html
What planet are you on? Russia’s strategy here is the same one they used on Grozny and Aleppo; surround the city so nothing gets in or out then bomb and shell the place to rubble until the survivors have to surrender. I suppose you believe those nasty ‘Ukranazis’ are blowing up their own homes to make the Russians look bad.
How do you know anyone is blowing up anything, have you been there?
Are you blind?
No, Pears, I am not blind. But, living as I do in England, my eyes are not strong enough to see events in Ukraine in much detail.
How do you do it? Or do you just see your TV set and “The Times”?
I gather information from a number of sources. How about you?
Anyone want to take a guess how this will develop from now on?
I cannot see Russia refraining from Crimea or their view on Nato membership for Ukraine.
Ukraine however seems to reject both these proposals.
I cannot see Russia refraining from their goals even whatever sanctions west use
So what is next?
Will the ukrainian refusal cause Russia to fight even longer until regime change in Ukraine?
Will Nato/US somehow actually involve itself and thus start shooting at Russia in one way or another?
The Zelensky regime doesn’t have a choice, the US won’t let it. I bet every faction in Ukraine bar the nazis wants someone else to change the regime and take on the odium of surrender. Dolchstoss a-go-go.
“I cannot see Russia refraining from Crimea ..”
Crimea has only become part of Ukraine within living memory and was never part of it before that. Why is it now an unalienable part of the country? There are people living in Crimean Russia now who were born in Crimean Russia. To the extent that the Crimeans have expressed their opinion about being part of Ukraine, it has always been a desire for independence or a return to Russia, something that the Ukraine government has always resisted.
As Putin said, Crimea is not on the table for discussion. It is sorted: it is Russian. End of.
How about letting the people decide with a proper, independently verified referendum with “Independence’ as one of the options.
Because whatever the result, those that disapprove of it will say it was rigged, no matter how “independent” the verifiers. There hasn’t been a referendum or election this century where that hasn’t happened, so it will boil down to “which side do you support” as it always does. Who’s to say that the last referendum that was held in Crimea wasn’t “free and fair”?
There were no independent outside observers present and the UN voted it invalid.
The UN vote was in the General Assembly, not the Security Council, and was non-binding. 100 nations supported the vote, 11 voted against, 58 abstained, and 24 were absent. That’s a bare majority: 100 against 93. Considering the immense pressure the US government exerts on delegates to vote with it, it was about as feeble and ambivalent a vote as you could see.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly_Resolution_68/262
“There were no independent outside observers present and the UN voted it invalid.”
If there were no outside observers there, how did the UN know? There are no “independent” observers at most referendums and elections. Does that mean they are all invalid? Can we rejoin the EU now? Basically, what you are saying is that nothing is valid unless we say it is. Yeah right!
Without verification you can’t prove or even legitimately claim that it was free and fair.
Plenty of verification at that particular referendum, just the wrong sort of verification. I suspect any verification would have been the wrong sort of verification unless the result had been somewhat different.
This war has turned into a national embarrassment for Russia. If they can’t quickly subdue a country the size of Ukraine what chance would they stand against NATO? The alliance would wipe the floor with them and then Vlad would have no other option but to go nuclear and nobody wants that. The best option now would be regime change. Not in Ukraine but in the Kremlin and Putin can go and live out his days in Siberia or a funny farm whilst saner minds sort out any differences they have with Ukraine around a conference table.
As explained by Greg Wood above, the Russian army is not using the US method of killing anything that moves like in Iraq or Syria, their objective is to take over the terrain and above all destroy the nazi/nationalist extremists fighters. The latter know what to expect which is why they are so keen to hang on to places like Marioupol where there are a lot of militant Azov brigades. As they are in a “last stand” situation they are using every trick they can to keep their civilian human shields in the town, so civilian casualties obviously go up and the Russians are discredited.
It is not a “national embarrassment”, it is a considerable national cost to pay but it seems that most Russian people think that when their country is faced with an existential menace they have no choice. In Britain we are fortunate to never have gone through such an experience, except perhaps in WW2… and then it was the Russians who made the sacrifices without which British and US efforts might well have been insufficient. This historical experience is, according to many Russians, a formative part of their national historical narrative, nazi flags and symbols are like a red flag to a bull for them, they’ve been there before… coupled with decades of anti–Russian hate propaganda from the Western world who are now arming and even training (the UK army actually bragged about their training programs).these dangerous and violent thugs.
https://twitter.com/Youblacksoul/status/1505309631542931459
But an invasion/occupation isn’t the same as a fight with NATO. Look at the US’s brutal ‘shock & awe’ Baghdad bombing in 2003 (youtube), they were still fighting an insurgency years later with all their resources.
Russia punches above her economic weight in nuclear weapons due to the Soviet legacy. Their ‘salted’ i.e., Cobalt 59 encased thermonuke, so-called ‘doomsday weapons’ are bloody scary, with the potential to render the entire UK, virtually all western Europe, uninhabitable for a century, due to lethally high radiation. Read about Poseidon – Status-6 Oceanic multipurpose system… and try not to have nightmares.
Their thermonukes are bad enough, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were kiloton-era bombs – modern thermonukes are in the tens of megatons. Look at the research on area impact of a 50 Megaton thermonuke detonated over London. The Russian SS-18 ICBM has a 37.4 megaton yield for reference. Channel 4 recently did a programme examining what it would be like, and Hamish de Bretton-Gordon almost breezily dismissed the idea it’d be the end of the UK. To think that guy is advising the PM.
Russia is 75x the size of the UK and Putin may fancy his chances of survival if his plane is in the air when it all kicks off. Russian citizens can flee to other surrounding countries too. All this talk of WW3 from Zelensky, from his bunker, is outrageous when we as Brits, and other Europeans have no chance of survival if it starts.
The simple fact is, a nuclear war is almost impossible for NATO countries to win in any meaningful sense. And it could well even drag China in and that’d be the end of the US too, that is if Russia hadn’t already hit them.
The deed is done. Lot of postulations. Millions of refugees. Russia successfully torn away from Europe economically and culturally by US UK Nato. So what next? What are the consequences of this decades long war against Russia? I personally think that Putin is very popular at home. The Russian people will now no longer look to emulate Western culture and regroup and circle their wagons, strong in the belief in their religion and deep rooted and passed down family history of the Great Patriotic War. They have a good health care, education, low crime, low drugs problem and low homelessness. I don’t think they will miss our Western “culture” and consumerism. I don’t think they will even depend on the support from China. They have now cut loose and will cope with the economic hardships. I can’t see us in the Collective West coping with an economic crash that we ourselves have brought on with our casino greed economy and dependence on the petrodollar, which is toast. The other kids in the playground, bullied for generations, colonised, exploited for their resources, invaded and ruled over by traitorous elites are now wavering big time.
I think it’s going to get a lot more dangerous. The US and EU have gone so crazy with sanctions, Russian calculation must now be that complete control of Ukraine is their best bet; no war crimes demands and no reparations to a anti-Russia Ukrainian govt.
Russia craves the equal respect it believes it deserves as a military superpower. The EU and US think they can simply sanction and dismiss them; possibly even trying to expropriate Russia’s wealth – which they foolishly left in the west to be frozen.
The west seem to be determined to leave Russia with no option but to escalate. And all these ‘Scrappy-Doo’ “Lemme at ’em!” Baltic state leaders and the ever-arrogant Poles, could get obliterated for their absurd bellicosity. The people of Europe never got a direct say as to whether we wanted to defend these inside NATO. many appear to act like US proxies, stirring up trouble on Russia’s borders.
Regime change is very unlikely. The Russians can remember what having a US-friendly president was like and they are not wanting to go there again. They were importing chicken from the US, FFS! Economic success is more important than military victory. Wars are quickly forgotten, but it is impossible to forget that your income no longer provides you with the standard of living you once enjoyed, as you are reminded of it every day.
@ Pears Morgaine March 21, 2022 at 11:36
“This war has turned into a national embarrassment for Russia.”
Just out of curiosity Pears, do you feel embarrassed about the once great institution that has become a national disgrace, the flat-out lying BBC?
I only ask because you give the impression of being someone who still believes everything that they put out.
Your basic misunderstanding is what NATO actually is. It is NOT a unified group of nations with a common understanding. It IS the USA with a bad case of haemorrhoids known as allies. In a ‘real’ conflict, NATO would split and run away and you can guarantee the USA would be hiding across the Atlantic.
As explained in a piece on ‘the Saker’ blog: the USA has never had to defend its homeland and its families from attackers on its own land; Russia has, many times. The two peoples’ psychologies are totally different.
A NATO/USA versus Russia war would be totally stupid. The Russians don’t want it but the USA position is currently war-like – but are they really that stupid?
Russia has pushed for a diplomatic solution for over 10 years, his people support him, he is not a Yeltsin.
“the USA has never had to defend its homeland and its families from attackers on its own land;”
Well it has. The war with Britain in 1812 when British forces burnt Washington but I wouldn’t expect the Saker to know about that and what of 9/11? Possibly you agree with his view that it was a ‘false flag’ of some kind?
I expect The Saker worded his remarks rather more precisely than Stevie Boy gave him credit for. We all know about the War of 1812, in which Britain never seriously threatened the USA or its independence. As many American historians agree, burning down Washington did the Americans a favour: its first incarnation was shockingly primitive.
As for 9/11, obviously it was a false flag. Like all the other false flags staged by US governments, from the “Maine” through the Gulf of Hanoi to MH17 and the Skripals, it is difficult to ascertain exactly who was responsible; but it is glaringly obvious that the official account was a pack of lies. Establishing “plausible deniability” has always been a core CIA skill.
” and what of 9/11?”
You seem to have a real problem with size and scale. I suppose that’s a pre-requisite for believing what you read and hear on the MSM. To compare the various invasions of Russia from Napoleon onwards to the Anglo-American war of 1812 and 9/11, which latter was all over in a matter of minutes, is, to use one of your expressions, laughable.
Long discussion with Scott Ritter about various Ukraine things including what the end of the war might look like. Certainly food for thought.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OAGgLCp7t4 (Youtube, 2h 16m 54s)
Scott Ritter, a former Marine Corps intelligence officer who served with the United Nations implementing arms control treaties, with General Norman Schwarzkopf in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq, overseeing the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as a United Nations weapons inspector, from 1991 to 1998. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ritter
https://youtu.be/6OAGgLCp7t4 (YouTube, 2h 16m 54s)
Ukrainian TV, doctor says he ordered his employees to castrate russian men, because they are cockroaches
https://youtu.be/4VFrDXa9RsU – translation (Russian to English)
The countries that constitute the EU are in real trouble. Nato and its US master have engineerd the loss of European countries individual Sovereignty. Germany’s strong manufacturing economy is going to implode. The rise of the far right in all EU countries will rocket. Huge unemployment and deprivation will be hijacked by blaming the “other”. A re-run of the 1930s.
Gonzalo Lira doing a live broadcast “Mariupol”. now shit scared of the ” knock on the door”.
Ukraine is a European country.
https://youtube.com/shorts/E0MFQtJGXN0?feature=share
Take a look at the link I gave above, your one is part of a whole series from twitter. much worse, beating them and stripping off their trousers. As I don’t understand Russian what are the people saying, do they give their motives? The beatings look quite sexual so I wondered if they were “punishing homosexuals”? Sorry to be so gruesome.
Twitter doesn’t work for me, Bruce.
At least you know now, if there was any lingering doubt, that these aren’t neutral social media platforms as they protested for so long. They are highly politicised organs of US State power and influence.
This forum is one of the very few that allows dissenting voices to express an opinion. The control freaks in the West are as bad as any found in a dictatorship. The only difference being cultural constraints and our history mean they are limited in what freedoms they can remove. But they’ll keep on trying to make us like China whose leaders they envy.
RT was banned and called a ‘mouthpiece of the Kremlin’, but we all know, including the journos writing that crap, that RT operated under the same rules as all other UK broadcasters.
@Tatyana
Edward Luce posted a link to this on Twitter : https://www.kp.ru/online/news/4672522/
Russia admits that 9861 of its soldiers have been killed in less than a month – a stunning death toll, which is two-third of USSR’s total deaths from a decade in Afghanistan. Hard to believe Putin can sustain this politically.
————–
If he’s correct, those are staggering losses. Clearly the invasion has been a disastrous decision and now Russia is in way too deep to simply cut their losses. That’s why imho it’s getting so dangerous. Russian forces may be tempted to flatten Kyiv with a ATBIP; Russian: Авиационная вакуумная бомба повышенной мощности, АВБПМ, rather than sustain far more losses, Kyiv’s geographical location surrounded by probably high-explosive laden bridges, make it a potential death trap for any invading force.
There’s an article in Ars Technica explaining why Ukrainian forces are punching way above their weight and Russia’s high combat death numbers.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink satellite system is being utilised: [Ukrainian] Drone teams in the field, sometimes in badly connected rural areas, are able to use [the Starlink system] to connect them to targeters and intelligence on their battlefield database. They can direct the drones to drop anti-tank munitions, sometimes flying up silently to Russian forces at night as they sleep in their vehicles.
With advanced British, US weapons, Turkish Bayraktar UAV plus SpaceX satellite assisted communications Russian tanks at night are like sitting ducks. A modern day version of ‘Tommy Cookers’ as the German’s famously nicknamed the our M4 Sherman tanks. The German Tiger tank was able to destroy all British – and later American – tanks with a single shot.
Some debate as to whether the era of the tank is over. Built up urban areas and heavily forested areas are quite different from the open deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. I know there are plans for British tanks have a reactive armour like the Israeli-made anti-missile system that deflects incoming projectiles.
Goose @ 21:14
The TV channel that put out that figure of 9681 Russian dead in less than a month is now saying that it was hacked. Make of that statement what you will, but it shows that the figure is contested (and to my mind unlikely). It is not far off the highest Ukrainian claims – they would have claimed even more had they real evidence of massive Russian losses.
“Russia admits that 9861 of its soldiers have been killed in less than a month…”
Rubbish. The Russian government, quite sensibly does not divulge the casualties of its armed forces while the military operation is in progress. Any such figures are presumably invented by creative Western sources.
The link works, but the page is in Russian. When I tried to translate it with Google, I got an error message. Fancy that. So I opened the page with Yandex, and found that it makes no mention whatsoever of Russian losses of any kind.
I would not trust anything published by Twitter. For a start, they would censor anything contrary to the Washington line.
Edward Luce looks like a highly trustworthy and altogether unbiased source.
“His first job was as a correspondent for The Guardian in Geneva, Switzerland.[4] He joined the Financial Times in 1995 and initially reported from the Philippines,[1] after which he took a one-year sabbatical working in Washington, D.C., as speech writer for Lawrence Summers, then U.S. Treasury Secretary (1999–2001) during the Clinton administration”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Luce
Here’s a English translation for you:-
https://www.businessinsider.com/pro-kremlin-tabloid-nearly-10000-russian-troops-killed-ukraine-2022-3?r=US&IR=T
Pro-Kremlin.
‘We was hacked’; yeah, right.
It would explain why the Russian army is desperately trying to recruit more cannon fodder from Syria, Belarus and Chechnya and seeking to hire mercenaries. Never a good sign.
Somebody recently arrived from Kyiv told me that most of the Chechens swopped sides at the first opportunity. They hate Putin as well.
Until I see a URL that shows the Russian government publishing casualty figures I shall treat any such claims as false. As I said in my previous comment, Yandex allowed me to read the cited link – and it said nothing about casualties.
You believe that the Russians would actually publish accurate figures? Hilarious.
No, it’s you that’s believing that the Russians would publish accurate casualty figures, in your post of 16:44. I hope you are having a good laugh at your own expense. Tom Welsh simply said that the Russian government wouldn’t publish any figures, accurate or not, and you have no means of disproving that apart from the tired old line “your sources are lying but mine are telling the truth because reasons”.
It wasn’t the Russian government but a newspaper that normally supports the Kremlin line.
And where is that newspaper supposed to be getting its information from? No matter who reports the figures, the only organisation that actually has access to them and can make them known is the untrustworthy Russian government. If you can’t trust the ultimate source, you can never trust the figures, no matter who reports them.
It doesn’t do Ukraine’s carefully crafted image in the west any favours.
The beating of captured Russian troops is also counter-productive to Ukraine’s military objectives.
For Russian troop morale is said to be low(?) and the sight of captured troops with head injuries, reading forced statements, would certainly motivate troops to fight harder and make Russian troops think twice before surrendering to those thugs.
“Carefully crafted image”. One report describes parts of Western Ukraine running out of food as priority is being given to supporting the troops on the front line. Today’s CGCN war map shows only two areas of actual fighting, near Odessa and Mariupol respectively. The majority of dots, which are in and around Kiev, represent sites where airstrikes are taking place presumably as military targets. The vast majority of the country seems untouched.
CGCN? I don’t think any of the maps being published show anything like the real situation. They are far too committed to diminishing Russian hold on the territory, and the media print them because they’re free.
Correction. The source was China’s CGTN https://www.cgtn.com (not a CGCN). The CGTN maps which appear on and off support the Russian narrative of a focused operation with the main battlegrounds being in the Donbass, other targets are the Ukrainian military logistics, and large swathes of the country, probably 80% at a guess are unaffected.
I agree that no media output should be taken at face value.
Remember.
Virtually ALL of the media noise is coming from ‘The West’ not from Russia. The military operation continues to plan regardless of the noise. The majority of opinions are just that, opinions !
There are no cameras or press in the Russian control and planning centres. They know what they are doing, no-one else does, until it happens.
No one who has taken the least trouble to inform themselves is under any illusions as to the nature of Ukraine’s regime and its supporters. In my carefully considered opinion they give Nazis a bad name.
As for people who don’t trouble to inform themselves, it doesn’t matter what they think. Their ideas cannot harm Russia any more than their governments’ deliberate policy is already doing. And they have absolutely no influence, let alone control, over their own governments.
Paying attention to the Western MSM is not informing oneself. On the contrary, the very first step towards informing oneself is to ignore them.
That doctor has since retracted that statement.
https://www.ladbible.com/news/medic-apologies-after-saying-he-ordered-staff-to-castrate-russians-20220321
An admission, of course, that he made it. So much for Russian disinformation.
USA, UK, Nato, and the West bringing democracy to the world (!):
‘President for life’ Zelensky bans opposition parties and seizes control of all media platforms:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oifqp1bJp8Y
Brent crude graph today at 115 Dollars. Predicted to rise to 300. Was 60 last May. Apart from South African farmers settling in Russia there must be a few people looking at following them. Going to Ireland won’t help.
Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund soon to be under control of Stoltenburg? Oh dear. At the interview he was asked how he did in previous job. ‘Well I destroyed Ukraine. Will soon start a European war with Russia. Have told Bulgaria not to allow gas and oil to transit to Serbia. Trying to get Finland and Sweden to join Nato. Is that ok?’ ‘Well thats good work … you’ve got the job.’
Gonzalo Lira reporting from Ukraine, now under real threat for speaking out.
“Predicted to rise to 300”
By whom?
Someone selling oil futures, I suspect.
Not all opposition parties, only the socialist and Russian-language ones. He’s happy for Svoboda and all the other neo-Nazi parties to remain an electoral option.
A dose of reality from “smothieX12 ” on YouTube.
Eh?
Andrei Martyanov’s Web site at smoothiex12.blogspot.com/
One of the very few highly reliable sites for information on the Ukraine situation and other military matters involving Russia. Along with The Saker, John Helmer, and a few others. Most Western sources are either completely poisonous or, at the very least, subject to embarrassing gaffes and errors.
Svoboda’s support has collapsed from 37 seats (out of 450) in 2012 to just one in 2019. They’re hardly a major force in Ukrainian politics.
UKIP got us out of the EU with just one seat.
Rubbish.
To which part of my comment are you objecting: that UKIP were instrumental in the UK leaving the EU, or that they had only one seat in Parliament?
News today,
Ukrainian security service detained a TikToker, who filmed and posted Ukrainian army using a shopping mall as their stock for arms and also as a garage for military wehicles.
https://youtu.be/juuJ16O1mqA
The shopping mall is Retrovill, near Kiev. Some data confirm it was closed, non-working.
Russian MoD video of the Ukrainian vehicle, firing and then hiding in the mall. Video ends with the strike
https://youtu.be/uxomSiCeSu8
The damaged shopping mall is here, and perhaps all over the westerrn media. For sure on BBC and CNN.
https://youtu.be/ZoPZI6U_wqg
Anatoliy Sharij is sure that social media helped the strike, he shows revealing photos on his smartphone screen
https://youtu.be/VhvK_uizBW4
—
How do I say that Russian Arrmy doesn’t target civil buildings, when they are formally civil buildings, but in fact are military targets?
That’s the nature of war, Tatyana.
The MSM wishes to paint Russia as the scum of the earth and of course Ukraine will understandably try to aid them in that.
You can’t blame Ukraine for manipulating emotions with such coverage and producing propaganda and fake images, designed to upset western audiences.
Russia is the one with the firepower destroying their country. Ukraine’s only option is asymmetric warfare, and that includes producing propaganda.
Put yourself in their position, would you not do the same?
Russia needed an English speaking spokesperson to put an alternative perspective on why ‘x’ or ‘y’ are military targets. Because if you don’t explain someone in the western MSM will for you.
I wish it never happened. I wish people were sane enough to negotiate all the concerns. Ukraine says they cannot be nazi, because their president is Jewish. I wish they better had a Ukrainian president, caring of his people. I also wish they had someone more experienced for the president, because Zelensky is an infantile person, easily deceived and manipulated into playing great role, which he is not fit for. I also regret very much, that adult men are currently far from power in Ukraine. I regret ultra-nattionalistss ideologised all the country into war, having thrown the common sense away.
Yeah, we know on here.
I think people here try to take in all information sources and process it fairly and then try to reach a more objective view.
While I believe Russia has made a terrible error in this invasion, the starry-eyed treatment Zelensky is getting for his martyrdom quest in the west(?) is misguided. His govt weren’t an admirable lot, very corrupt and allowing the far-right militias to act with impunity.
The often MSM repeated: Zelensky is Jewish, therefore Ukraine can’t have a problem with the far-right.
That looks at things entirely from parliamentary representation perspective where the far-right aren’t well represented. But they don’t need parliamentary representationt The heavily armed, CIA trained Azov Battalion and Pravyi sektor etc, are ‘tolerated’ by Kyiv given almost impunity (UN findings). They’ve reach an agreement with Zelensky and co to leave each other alone.
Since Russia has been silenced in the freedom of speech loving West, the West would have heard nothing anyway.
“destroying their country”
Their propaganda has obviously convinced you, then. There is none so easy to convince as those predisposed to believe, there is no such thing as selective gullibility.
You still in denial? Even your RT is ‘celebrating’ the destruction of Mariupol.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/vladimir-putin-threatens-civilians-to-break-mariupols-spirit-n603hhwbz
My, RT eh? Why should I believe them? Go on, convince me!
I thought RT would be right up your street. So where do you get your information from?
I don’t. You don’t have to know what has happened to know what hasn’t happened. The number of probable outcomes in any given situation is always quite small, whereas the number of improbable outcomes is infinitely large.
Link? Where exactly did you read that on RT?
“I don’t. You don’t have to know what has happened to know what hasn’t happened.”
Err. Are you saying you base your opinion on no information at all? Interesting.
What information do I need to know that you have been convinced of something that you present as the truth on this forum, except the fact that you do so present it?
An amazingly informative video from Eva Bartlett with Russian Military expert Andrei Martyanov on Russia’s denazification operation in the Ukraine. This shows what brutes the Ukrainian forces are and what absolute prats and ignorant fools the Western governments and their military and political commentators are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxZMhCtYN2k
I look forward to the war crimes tribunals when, I hope, as with the Nuremberg trials, even pseudo-journalist assholes like Luke Harding and his ilk will get their comeuppance.
My thoughts are with Gonzalo Lira. The Daily Beast has done a hit piece on his reporting from within Ukraine and contacted the Ukrainian Government about him. Gonzalo is in real danger as the Tick Toker. His blog about his predicament is frightening
https://www.thedailybeast.com/gonzalo-lira-is-a-pro-putin-shill-in-ukraine-and-a-sleazy-manosphere-dating-coach
It’s long.
No matter, I can tell by the headline it’s a lot of ad hom, always the clinching argument.
It reads like one gobshite media outlet trying to out gobshite another gobshite media outlet. Irrelevant junk.
The West doesn’t commit “war crimes”, so there will be no trials.
Western leaders rely on cover from a press and MSM they’ve duped into supporting the justness of their wars, and a forced political consensus for cover. One of the big reasons Iraq dissenters within parliament were abused and attacked, was because of fear, fear that ones resisting could gain traction later and hold them to account. Robin Cook became seen as a mortal enemy by the Blair administration.
One of the big reasons UK, US and Canadian citizens will struggle to free ourselves from our two-party systems is reaching a political forced consensus for war would be much, much harder.
We are increasingly pseudo-democracies; military, big tech / surveillance states.
Regarding the twitter feed showing the adults and children tied to lamp posts – according to RT these were gypsies who were accused of allegedly stealing food in Lviv. Their faces etc were painted with some stuff which is hard to remove and irritates the eyes, and they were abused by some a territorial outfit which would appear to be taking the law into their own hands. It is still up on RT if you want to look. The twitter feed has been banned. The report says that gypsies, Africans, etc have been routinely discriminated against when trying to get to safety outside Ukraine and in other regards.
Since many can’t get RT, here is the report – sorry about the space:
Roma people tied to lamp posts and sprayed with dye in Ukraine – reports
The harsh treatment is reportedly punishment for robbery or persecution based on nationality
Roma people tied to lamp posts and sprayed with dye in Ukraine – reports
FILE PHOTO: Members of Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces. © AFP / Felipe Dana
Photos of people in Ukraine being tied to lamp posts and sprayed with green antiseptic dye appeared on social media on Monday. According to reports, they were taken in the western city of Lviv. The victims are reportedly Roma (also known as Gypsies).
Several people, including teenagers and families with women and children, were reportedly tied to lamp posts with duct tape, their faces sprayed with antiseptic dye known as ‘zelyonka’ in former Soviet countries. The green-colored substance is very difficult to wash away and can cause chemical burns to the eyes.
According to local media, the victims were punished for trying to steal from passengers on a bus. However, there are claims on social media that they were only trying to steal food, as they were starving after escaping from Kiev.
Some social media users say the harsh punishment was due to the victims’ nationality. The atrocious act has been blamed on members of Territorial Defense Forces, a recently established volunteer branch of the Ukrainian military. Masked uniformed men are present in pictures from the site.
Lviv, which is located in western Ukraine near the Polish border, has so far been mostly spared by the ongoing conflict in the country. In mid-March, Russia bombed a mercenary base at the Yavoriv range outside the city, saying that up to 180 foreigners who went to fight for Kiev were killed there. Ukraine put the death toll at 35.
Reports of persecution of foreigners and minorities by radicals have also come from other parts of Ukraine since the Russian attack began in late February.
Activists accuse Ukrainian authorities of abusing black people
There were incidents of African students being denied entrance to trains and buses carrying refugees out of country. Those who managed to reach the border with Poland were forbidden by border guards from standing in the same lines with Ukrainian nationals, called the N-word, and even beaten up. The African Union has decried these incidents as “shockingly racist and in breach of international law.”
Indians studying in the country told Russian media about similar treatment. They also complained about being kicked out of bomb shelters, with locals telling them they wouldn’t help them because India isn’t helping Kiev in the conflict.
Moscow sent troops into the neighboring country last month following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the breakaway Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered Minsk Protocol was designed to regularize the status of the regions within the Ukrainian state.
Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join NATO. Another goal of the military operation is to “denazify” the country, according to Moscow. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it had been planning to retake the two republics by force.
You get racists all over sadly, Ukraine no exception.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53055857
What’s described is reprehensible but it’s frontier justice. What happens when normal law and order breaks down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoM5yx1IVFY
I find it odd that Putin has claimed to want to destroy the far right in Ukraine when he’s nurtured links with it elsewhere in Europe.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/3/20/the-ukraine-russia-war-put-europes-far-right-on-the-back-foot
Andrea Martyanov on his smothieX12 blog on YouTube has a piece ” Liz Truss goes to Russia “
There has been a Greek community in Mariupol for a long time. They have no allegiance to Russia. Many report that they were used as human shields and shot at by Azov trying to flee.
Reports from whom?
Pears Morgan. You needn’t worry about socialism or real democracy for working people coming to Europe or UK. By the time the Biden Administration has finished with its policy of destroying the German economy, the resulting crash in Europe will herald the rise of fascism and Nazis as in the 1930s. Russia, this time being able to defend itself and self sufficient, will be immune from European wars that will occur. US and their simple minded greedy strategies will run back across the Atlantic and leave Europe to its fate. Only to find the situation at home in chaos also. Keep watching BBC Aljazeera France 24, and DW telling you Russia losing in Ukraine and that we can sort out our energy needs from Gulf States ?! Andrae Martyanov’s description of of leaders in his Liz Truss piece is both funny and true. If our system of government and politics is so good, why are we in such debt and dire straits ? We’ve run out of poor defenceless countries to invade and steal from. Trying to Steal from Russia and China is the last desperate fling.
“Russia, this time being able to defend itself”
Not with the army it sent into Ukraine it won’t.
Great video that should be shared with those that believe Ukraine is a democracy – a propaganda line we have heard past month by the warmongers:
“Tucker Carlson: Everyone Is ‘Lying’ — Ukraine Is Not a Democracy”
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/03/22/fncs-carlson-everyone-is-lying-ukraine-is-not-a-democracy
And before anyone starts…. yes one could disagree on Carlson on other topics but on this topic he is on point.
Jack. The Democrats have a problem. The US is falling apart. You need a car to get to work. Most live on the breadline. Yet another war somewhere else in the world to pay for. After Ukraine it will be somewhere else, and so on. Forever Wars…..That’s all we are good at.
If the price of Brent Crude is 115 Dollars now, while Russia still supplies both oil and gas to and through Ukraine fulfilling its contractual obligations, what will it be when the contracts run out ? Discuss…The financial press will always talk down the price of gold and how low it has been kept. US Treasuries and property speculation have not been productive. The surplus countries have bought US debt and property. I wonder what amounts are held “off shore” , Switzerland, and The City of London ? All unproductive. Michael Hudson is the man to read.
“Tucker Carlson: Everyone Is ‘Lying’ “
“Everyone” includes him.
Bayard. Do please point out/list the lies Tucker has uttered.
Are you saying you’ll only believe that Tucker Carlson lies if someone itemizes every lie he’s told? Wow! That’s pedantic.
As an alternative, would you accept Mr Carlson’s own testimony? If so, here it is:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/sep/14/fox-news-host-tucker-carlson-i-lie
If you want some examples of his mendacious and sensationalist tendencies, have a browse of this:
Why Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson pretends to hate elites – YouTube (8m 37s)
Tucker Carlson: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) – YouTube (24m 52s)
Trevor Nelson: The Worst of Tucker Carlson – The Daily Show – YouTube (21m 42s)
Oh, isn’t he such an adorable opinionated mouthpiece of the right-wing Fox corporation … ?
It’s quite interesting to look at his page on Politifact, which ranks his controversial statements on a veracity scale. Results:
‘True’ (0%), ‘Mostly true’ (4%), ‘Half true’ (4%), ‘Mostly false’ (19%), ‘False’ (38%), ‘Pants on Fire’ (33%)
Wikikettle, with pleasure: he said “Everyone Is ‘Lying’ “. “Everyone” includes him. Therefore he is lying. Either that or not everyone is lying and he is telling the truth, in which case he is lying when he says that everyone is lying.
UN Secretary General condemns war as ‘unwinnable’.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/03/1114392
There are no winners in war. Russia has calculated that it’s in its existential interests not to have US-Nato-UK bases, missiles and WMD in Ukraine. The bases and Nato personnel were already there, just called something else. Russia has been under economic siege blockade for decades. The irony is that it was forced to become self-sufficient and decouple from the western casino banking economy. It has very little debt. To exclude Russia from Europe culturally, politically, economically and European-wide security structure, is a disaster for Europe. This is agreed upon by many conservatives in US and Europe. The problem is all the power lies with the neo liberals who have captured all forms of government. The media, politicians and judicary. Russia will never be regime-changed by our NGOs or by our military. The countries surrounding it will be set on fire by us, as we have just done to Ukraine. The consequences of that will rebound on us with huge refugee flows destabilising us and growth of far-right parties not to mention a cataclysmic banking crash. Russia will be OK, I don’t think it needs China, which is tied into globalisation. So “splendid isolation” and real sovereign independence is what Russia will have. We on the other hand are basically fucked.
Sounds like Putin’s 12-D chess manoeuvre has worked out to utter perfection! You need to inform the Russians of the good news!! Btw who are these conservatives you reference who are not themselves also doctrinaire neoliberals?
Fonso, these Conservatives range from Peter Hitchins in UK, Col Douglas Macgregor in US, Scott Ritter who took part in the Iraq war, before and during, Colin Powell’s chief of Staff : Col Wilkerson and others not in the pay of the arms industry or highly paid think tanks. Most Generals on leaving service go through the revolving door into lucrative donor funded media jobs and appearances, repeating that days talking points to stay in demand. Only a few say dare to say the truth. Losing your job and being smeared as a Putin apologist is the norm if you speak out. Being imprisoned in Belmarsh if you reveal the war crimes of our leaders like Jullian Assange or exiled like Edward Snowdon. If you claim we are a Democracy with basic freedoms, better than other regimes, why be afraid of the alternative view or unpalatable truths ? The whole world is seeing the rank racist hypocrisy of our massive propoganda against Russia for what it is. The whole world is NOT the Collective Intitled West. It encompasses Central and Latin America, the Carribean, Africa, India and Asia. All of those countries populations are desperate to develop and those off the burden of their corrupt elites following on from their colonial masters. Its the betrayal of those ‘revolutionary’ elites like the PLO and ANC that is tragic. In UK the betrayal by the left and New Labour. Irony now is that old one nation conservatives in UK and a few Republicans and Liberatarians like Ron Paul say the same things as the old left. That politicians are now controlled by the donors and the rich are getting super rich, while the middle and working class is being destroyed. No wonder the China model of a centrally planned economy not in the controlled of the billionaires has lifted millions out of poverty. In my opinion, Europe has been fucked by US and is no ally. What India does next is crucial, will it normalise relationship with China and join the East or will it follow the Western ex colonial masters. The question India needs to ask, is will its millions be better off under a Chinese type system or a Western Neo Liberal model. Any rational person would hope for the sake of the vast majority that they befriend China.
Russia does not need Europe or China. It is self sufficient in food and energy. Very small population, now no longer needing to look West for respect or East. Fully sovereign and Independent. Unlike us in the Collective gulag of UK plc, and EU ” soviet commission ” . Ask the P&O workers sacked on mass. Ask them why they voted for Bafoon Toff ?
Scott Ritter again on The Grayzone now live
Mandy Rice-Davis had the answer to that.
Been busy elsewhere for few days but good to see that we are still posting on this article. Maybe a new one soon? Still want to hear CM’s view on Afghanistan. Hope you are all well. Especially Tatyana, who has commented admirably under pressure from arseholes. I don’t have the patience.
So I’ll start with:
“The Global Times is publishing a series of stories and cartoons to unveil how the US, in its superpower status, has been creating trouble in the world one crisis after another.
This is the first installment.“
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1256665.shtml
‘Rostislav Ishchenko on the war in the Ukraine’
http://thesaker.is/rostislav-ishchenko-on-the-war-in-the-ukraine/
&
https://thesaker.is/rostislav-ishchenko-on-will-poland-invade-the-western-ukraine/
https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1805180/#sel=81:80:k,81:80:k
“ The former US secretary of defense and CIA director, Leon Panetta, admitted openly that “We are engaged in a conflict here. It’s a proxy war with Russia, whether we say so or not …”. “
https://failedevolution.blogspot.com/2022/03/confirmed-nazis-are-proxy-army-of-us.html?m=1
&
Obama gets his deserved spanking although by a think tank!
https://www.cato.org/commentary/americas-ukraine-hypocrisy
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/03/more-sanctions-on-russia-will-destroy-europe/
There’s plenty more – the mengele doctors, male and female who are nothing more than bad butchers. The idiots who were drawn like moths to the tiki torch Nazi camps, little children learning banderists Nazi songs and salutes; the Tatoos !! The Nazis hiding in shopping centres and schools unable to realise they are being watched all the time as they drive back from their firing positions; the utter stupid Yankee, Canuk, Brazilian, Korean and British morons who have been lured to their doom – never to come back as they get s fucc – KinzHell – ed to vapour for their dumb mass/social media moronic beliefs. Nothing to even be sent back to their families.
Goodnight and sleep well – in May let’s celebrate victory day as it hasn’t been since 1945!
DunGroanin. Scott Ritter has been on The Grayzone with Aaron Mate and Max Blumenthal again yesterday. He has more accounts of his time in the wars including Madelline Allbright. I hope Scott publishes a memoir.
Breaking news.
8. Why is it so so slow to dislodge the Nazi murderers from Mariupol?
Because the anti-Nazis are having to respect that human shields are being used by the Nazis.
There are still Greeks being kept prisoner by the Zalensky’s Nazi scum ‘army’.
“The president of the Pontian association claimed that the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Azov Battalion were hiding in civilian houses.
“The armed units of the Aidar and Azov battalions have been deployed inside the houses of the citizens, making any attempt of the citizens to escape impossible,” he said.
“Our compatriots are either in the basements or on the floors of their apartments, forced to take water from radiators,” Iosifidis continued, adding that he speaks to fewer and fewer people every day.
“Those who manage to charge their mobile phones from the car, tell me about a state of absolute terror. The [neo-Nazi] militants eat and drink, rob civilians and threaten them inside their homes,” “
https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/03/24/pontian-mariupol-azov-battalion/?amp
Is that on the nato agenda today?
The people of Russia must Join together at this critical time in world history and not squander their resources; In my opinion they must use them for three main things:
Being self sufficient in tanks, fighter planes and missiles etc is important and just as Iran has proven after being sanctioned since the Shah was overthrown it now has the biggest inventory of precision-guided missiles anywhere in the Middle East. Witness the US Al Asad airbase in Iraq totally destroyed last year with just 15 missiles. Russia only needs to be economically and militarily strong enough to prevent the US and NATO from crushing her. The above two resources and nuclear weapons of which Russia has in abundance will prevent that.
Once you have those three and no one can take them away from you, everything else is easy.
All this because NATO wanted to have Ukraine admitted as a member and possible NATO bases and nuclear missiles 5 minutes flying time from Moscow. The US and Gen Sec Stoltenberg said even a short time ago, and before the Russian intervention in Ukraine, that its policy on Ukraine in NATO has not changed i.e. NATO membership is still open.
Russia said ‘very well, we are a country with self respect and we will not be threatened by NATO nor will we be treated as vassals by them, unless our security concerns are assured’, then NATO and its vassals have a major problem.
The Al Assad base is still operational and has over 1,000 US military personal. The rockets barely scratched it.
Russia imported $34 billion worth of food and agricultural raw materials in 2021. Gas and oil prices set globally so we all pay the same whatever.
No-one is obliged to believe the US government telling us everything is fine, nothing happened. re al-Assad airbase (former British mandate era Habbaniyya airbase). The attack had a very serious effect on the US personnel, which they concealed at the time. Though not as serious as Harry Law maintained.
How do Russia and Iran have to pay the same as everybody else for using their own oil? Price is set by OPEC supply usually set by quotas agreed between members and demand.
Iran just sent a warning and gave the US many hours to take cover. The US never hit back, because of the far bigger bases in Qatar and the 5th fleet in Beirut. Not only has Iran underground factories churning out thousands of precision guided missiles, they have missile silos all over the vast deserts and coasts of Iran, as has Hezbollah. Not only as a warning to Israel and the US but their satraps just across the Strait of Hormuz in their Glass palaces. Israel and the US have tried and failed to get these missiles included in the JCPOA. There are many papers out on the capability of these game changing missiles, they agree that if Metropolitan Tel Aviv 52 Sq Miles was targeted by Hezbollah missiles alone [130,000] the viability of Israel as a state would be severely questioned.
All the yesterdays news in a nutshell:
Madeleine Albright dies and ends up near the Styx River. She holds out two coins to Charon.
Charon: – Sorry, payment is accepted in rubles only.
?? take a bow , I hope you are here all week! ?
Superb!
Albright and Soros – two old people who, somehow, managed to look much older even than they were. Picture of Dorian Gray?
I think we are headed for nuclear war because of uncompromising macho assholes on all sides.
Take today’s news from NATO : The United States will provide anti-ship missiles to Ukraine.
I hate Russia’s invasion, as I’ve stated, but I’m becoming convinced the US wants a limited nuclear war in Europe, akin to a ‘controlled burn’ in a forest to prevent a future wildfire in the form of a US vs China/Russia war.
Russia could crush Ukraine, thus all we are doing by pumping in sophisticated weaponry is delaying the inevitable and making the Dresden approach look more appealing to Russia. All the talk is of ever more arms, resistance , “fight on, fight on!!”. This is nuclear armed Russia ffs! It’s not Saddam’s Iraq vs Iran.
Where are the western peacemakers; the UN has been gutted and has a US placeman at its helm. NATO has a US placeman. The fact Joe Biden has never looked happier says a lot about the US mentality here.
“a limited nuclear war in Europe,”
Goose, what is that even? Air flow is not limited. Neither is precipitation and rivers and sea currents and water and crops.
We are a pale blue dot ?
That is the minimal and maximum limit of our existence.
Unless rapturer flat earthers, JW’s and Chosen who really believe in sky fairy tales get any where near dangerous weapons – I wouldn’t let them near q-tips for the brain damage they would do to themselves.
And btw trying to limit your war to far away places is now academic since the hypersonic gliders can come find you in the last hole in the world. Space stations won’t help either. So they’ll have to wait till they have got of this little speck in space before they can consider a limited Armageddon.
People in the US believe all sorts of strange things, why not a limited nuclear war? They had one in Japan, after all.
Rather macabre subject and I’m prone to moments of despair and blackness so forgive me.
It’s beholden on all to compromise for peace. Make damn sure it doesn’t happen.
London is ‘well-prepared’ if Russia launches nuclear attack, says mayor Sadiq Khan.
Had to laugh at this claim London is ready for anything, even a nuclear strike!.
Nagaski was 21 kiloton(thousand) i.e. equivalent of 21,000 tonnes of TNT – 263,000 people sadly died and the city was obliterated.
Note the prefix.
Today’s nukes are in the megatons(mega – millions), ICBMs multiple warheads combined can be 60 megaton range yield, that’s the equivalent of 60,000,000 tonnes of TNT vs Nagasaki’s 21,000!! Detonated at an altitude of 500 m above the Thames how ready would London be, Mr khan?
Tested in 1961 the Tsar bomba was 50-58 megatons – In theory, the bomb would have had a yield in excess of 100 Mt if it had included the uranium-238 fusion tamper which figured in the design but which was omitted in the test to reduce radioactive fallout.
Maybe we should take all these politicians and diplomats: US, Russian; Chinese, UK(including Khan) to a remote location and give another demonstration. Without a doubt they quickly renounce the idea such wars are in any meaningful sense winnable.
Sorry, the US 5th fleet is in Bahrain not Beirut.
Interesting article here: https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/23/pentagon-drops-truth-bombs-to-stave-off-war-with-russia/
It highlights the battle going on between the practical, hardheaded realism of the US DoD which understands how catastrophic a ‘megaton’ thermonuclear weapon exchange would be. And a political class who think in terms of ‘winnable wars’ and seemingly have no understanding, or worse, have views shaped by recent military ‘misadventures’ like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
Naive and/or bellicose NATO politicians(esp. Baltic state leaders and Poland) urging no-fly zones and direct confrontation are the modern day equivalent of those promoting the cavalry charge at the start of WW1 (1914- 1918) – a previously viable tactic, brutally exposed by unbroken lines of German machine-gun fire and artillery, ranks decimated.
Only now, such misguided or naive thinking risks a global disaster.
Wow! People share how propaganda works:
https://pikabu.ru/story/propagandistskaya_voyna_v_ukraine_mezhdunarodnyie_piarfirmyi_lobbistyi_vashingtona_i_agentyi_tsru_8956464 – translation (Russian to English)
Mintpress.com
https://www.mintpressnews.com/ukraine-propaganda-war-international-pr-firms-dc-lobbyists-cia-cutouts/280012/
did an impressive homework and described in sufficient detail how the system of strategic Ukrainian propaganda works at the present stage.
Key “partner media” in different countries of the world (mainly Western Europe and Russian-language media of the left spectrum) receive the necessary and very detailed temniks in real time
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1QE65-hyob6BzyFwYheQXLZjjlxnNsrrs
on how to cover various events in Ukraine. For example, the blocking of the Zaporozhye and Chernobyl nuclear power plants, calls for the establishment of a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine, and so on.
https://www.thepr.network/ 4 Old Park Lane London United Kingdom W1K 1QW, phone +44 0203 137 6605
which acts as an integrator of a network of ’boutique PR agencies’ and is closely connected with the British regulator in the field of communications UK Government Communication Service Strategy and Evaluation Council, as well as with the international network of independent PR agencies ICCO Worldwide (by the way, special regards to Andrey Barannikov, SPN and Elena Fadeeva Fleishman-Hillard Vanguard, longtime partners of ICCO).
—
I told you we are in the middle of info war, don’t trust anything until you check with several sources from both sides.
“I told you we are in the middle of info war, don’t trust anything until you check with several sources from both sides.”
Even then you can be none the wiser. The “my sources are better than your sources” argument doesn’t really convince anyone who is not already predisposed to believe one way or the other. Really, all you can do is apply logic and probability: Is this likely? If it is, then that makes this more likely. E.g. the maternity hospital in Mariopol: leaving out the labels, what is more likely, that one side, knowing what huge propaganda damage will be caused to them, would shell a maternity hospital of no military importance and full of women and babies, or that the other side knowing what huge propaganda damage will be caused to the first side if that side were to shell a maternity hospital full of women and babies, would empty that hospital of civilians and use it as a firing point against the other side?
Unfortunate really that the only people seen evacuating the hospital were civilians. ‘Crisis actors’ I suppose.
Whatever propaganda damage was caused isn’t as bad as the propaganda damage caused by the whole unnecessary, illegal and disastrous war.
Who says that the war is unnecessary, illegal and disastrous war? That’s right, you. It’s your opinion only.
I can however clearly see that this invasion was literally done in a hurry in the last moment against the impending onslaught of the CIA trained ukro-orc army. There are videos circulating filmed by ukranians themselves showing columns after columns going to Donbass around 20th of February. Why were they not trying to protect Kiev instead? There is enough evidence that they were trying a final solution for Donbass. The same was said by Putin, he even asked LPR/DNR to prepare for mass evacuation of ppl, just in case.
All in all, Russians were in their right to attack the ukro-orcs in Donbass + the fake manouvers around Kiev to split their army.
It’s certainly my opinion, one derived by gathering information and deciding for myself, but it’s not mine alone.
Russian forces were first spotted gathering near Ukraine’s border on 10th December 2021, more than three months before the invasion began, the planning must’ve started some weeks if not months earlier. Sorry but the claim that this was done at the last minute just doesn’t stand up. Anyway what happened to the ‘De-Nazification’ and “De-Militarisation’?
“Unfortunate really that the only people seen evacuating the hospital were civilians”
Seen by whom? Were you there?
The fact the CIA has been training Ukrainians in insurgency warfare for 8 years (since 2014) is revealing and concerning.
That’s real hands-on experience using Javelin anti-tank missiles and covert communications systems; worth far more than being handed an instructional manual and a brief lesson or two by some trainer. As anyone who has perfected a skill knows: practice really does make perfect, or at least more capable.
This looks like a trap that was sprung for Russia and they’ve fallen right in it. Otherwise why would the US have invested so heavily in such training?
Can only surmise Russia linking up with China is the US’s great fear.
Russia has ample natural resources, the scientific/technical know-how and many original ideas, but for whatever reason, possibly financial – they lack the capacity to rapidly mass-produce the most modern defence equipment. It’s the same with Russia’s lagging space programme. In defence, consider the T-14 Armata tank, for example, seen in Moscow parades, it has not been utilised in Ukraine afaik. It has the latest deflective armour and other protections. But forces are using the more vulnerable T-72s and the T-80s.
T-14 not even in series production let alone service. Production should start later this year having been delayed from 2015 and the tank should enter service c.2025. Delay caused by problems with engine and other systems and because at $4 million a pop Russia really can’t afford them. Initially no more than 100 will be built so along with the delay giving time for suitable counter measures to be developed it’s unlikely to be a game changer for a while yet.
Hence why Russia looks enviably to manufacturing behemoth that is China. China would have completed a full production by now and be looking to building the next tank.
Linked to military, the Russian space programme is a similar disaster zone too, with the Director of the Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin frequently sounding off against SpaceX. Some in the west still believe Russia is a communist country, but it’s a grossly unequal country and seems to squander most of its potential. The sanctions will likely make or break the country. Sadly it’s always ordinary folk who suffer though, and the current western Russophobia makes me sick.
Take today, the reported decision by the US-based Space Foundation to remove the name of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. What next, people called Russell changing their names? They’ll be erasing history and record of Russia’s heroism in WW2 soon. It’s getting ridiculous.
“Take today, the reported decision by the US-based Space Foundation to remove the name of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.”
That’s just silly.
Pears Morgan. Expensive Jets, Tanks, Ships are a thing for the Western Military Industrial Profit Complex to churn out. Russian economy is very small compared to the combined economies of the Collective Intitled West, with over thirty countries their populations. Russia has also to defend a huge land mass. The revolution in drones means small countries like Yemen can destroy oil refineries in Saudi Arabia and Gulf States. People in glass houses throwing stones…We use ISIS and Nazis as proxies, arming them to the teeth. Russia Iran and China can do the same. The myth that Russia invaded Ukraine with a massive superiority of numbers is just another lie. The capacity of the Russian defence industry against Nato Expansion is far less than the Nato Attack industry. I would think the Russians are concentrating their production on Hypersonic missiles rather than tanks, don’t you ?
@Wikikettle “We use ISIS and Nazis as proxies….”
I don’t….
Whereas the successor to the American M1 Abrams tank (which entered service in 1980)… does not exist. The M1 is about as old as the Russian T-80.
“The Abrams was due to be replaced by the Future Combat Systems XM1202 but due to its cancellation, the U.S. military has opted to continue maintaining and operating the M1 series for the foreseeable future by upgrading with improved optics, armor and firepower”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1_Abrams
The British Challenger 2 tank entered service as recently as 1998, but ceased production in 2002.
Not really needed and tanks looking increasing vulnerable anyway.
“Can only surmise Russia linking up with China is the US’s great fear”.
The Washington mob’s greatest fear has always been that Eurasia would make peace with itself and become a closely integrated, prosperous community that would not need the USA for anything – and that would be too strong for the USA to threaten. Logically, Europe is just a large extremity of Eurasia – a bit bigger than India, but small compared to the whole continent. (Calling Europe a “continent” is anomalous, as it is very solidly joined to Asia. It’s the result of prejudice that Europeans were superior to Asians and therefore needed their own continent).
Hence the desperate efforts to provoke Russia (and China) at all costs. The effect, as intended, has been to make European leaders rage against Russia and cut off their noses – or rather, those of their helpless citizens – to spite their faces. This will at least delay the unification of Eurasia, which would leave the USA as a rather useless external remnant – which has not paid its way in terms of production for at least 50 years.
It’s truly amazing how, in today’s world, being willing able to lie on an industrial scale elicits the admiration of so many. The british and Americans churn out Big Lies daily, and congratulate themselves of their expertise at “information war”.
The Russians, meanwhile, say little but mostly tell the exact truth when they do – and are mocked for their lack of savoir-faire.
It is now crystal clear that The West is run by the lineal descendants of Edward Bernays and Dr Josef Goebbels. Perhaps we should all shake ourselves and remember who is known as the Father of Lies.
Once again russian pranksters manage to prank the british, this time it is Patel:
Russian pranksters trick UK Home Secretary (VIDEO)
Priti Patel told the pranksters that Britons “clearly” aren’t afraid of taking in Ukrainian neo-Nazis
https://www.rt.com/news/552647-russian-prank-priti-patel/
(use a VPN if you cannot access RT)
The end result of a very successful Propoganda war is that the populations start to turn off when what they’ve been told about Russian losses and failures actually transpires into tens of millions of refugees entering Europe and unaffordable fuel and gas prices. On a military level Nato is defenceless against Russian Hypersonic missiles.
The Ruble value going up !
As I said previously, they never learn.
Evil Truss thinks it’s okay for ‘people’ to travel to the Ukraine to fight;
Evil Patel thinks it’s okay to allow neo-Nazi Ukranians to enter the UK.
On 22 May 2017, an Islamist extremist suicide bomber detonated a bomb at the Manchester Arena. Twenty-three (23) people died, including the attacker, and 1,017 were injured.
The UK Security Services and the UK Government had supported and encouraged UK/Libyan people to travel to Libya to fight and unseat the legal government of Libya. the Government and Security Services also arranged for the priority evacuation of fighters from Libya back to the UK.
The Manchester bomber and his family were part of those supported by the Government and Security Services.
Patel and Truss, amongst others, are undermining our security – again.
We have had an exhaustive enquiry into this tragedy, sometimes daily reported by the BBC etc, with the government’s causative and enabling role never mentioned. An extraordinary act of rendering oneself deliberately blind to a hole in the narrative virtually crying out to filled.
…and there Youtube blocked the russian pranksters channel following pressure by british MoD!
https://sputniknews.com/20220326/youtube-blocks-channel-of-russian-pranksters-vovan–lexus-after-spoof-calls-with-uk-ministers-1094212385.html
How could these people and companies slam Russia on freedom of speech when they block and censor every little critcism or prank!?
I want to enlarge on an earlier post of mine up thread with a proposal already made by Russia which is essential to solve this crisis….
The United States has the Monroe doctrine by which in 1823 U.S. President James Monroe proclaimed the U.S. protector of the Western Hemisphere by forbidding European powers from colonizing additional territories in the Americas. In return, Monroe committed to not interfere in the affairs, conflicts, and extant colonial enterprises of European states.
During the Cold War era, President John F. Kennedy invoked the Monroe Doctrine during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when he ordered a naval and air quarantine of Cuba after the Soviet Union began building missile-launching sites there. Ronald Regan was the last President to Use it.
Now we have the “Masters of the Universe” saying their sphere of influence covers the whole of the Western hemisphere from the tip of South America Tierro del Fuego to the United States which is well over 6,000 miles away and anywhere North, East and West of the United states including the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and that European powers or any peer nation who challengers that doctrine [as Biden’s National Security advisor said recently] will be dealt with decisively.
In view of the above, the United States insist on the right of Ukraine to join NATO, Ukraine has a large border with Russia and historically has been the gateway for hostile armies to attack Russia, Nazi Germany was the latest to try and in defending themselves the Soviet Union lost 10.s of millions of citizens.
But it is worse than that NATO would put in bases with Nuclear tipped missiles as they have done with Poland and Romania with a flight time of just 5 minutes to Moscow, just recently President Zelensky has mooted the acquisition of nuclear weapons.
George Kennan US statesman foresaw the dangers when he said in 1998 the expansion of NATO would be an ‘epic fateful mistake’ and a “strategic blunder of potentially epic proportions” he was right. Individuals as diverse as Henry Kissinger, John Mearsheimer and Noam Chomsky have indicated the provocative nature of Ukraine joining NATO. In my last paragraph I propose a solution to the immediate security problem.
Quite clearly and rightly Russia views the entry of Ukraine into NATO as an existential threat to its existence, a threat the United States has taken no heed of and ignores with contempt, this is a red line which Russians say will not be crossed and as a nation with huge self respect are prepared to fight anyone who threatens its existence.
I now propose a new doctrine I think it should be called the ‘Putin doctrine’ it will mirror the Monroe doctrine but will not encompass an area the size of the Western Hemisphere which is approx 36 million sq miles as claimed by the USA, it will be far more reasonable and will only be applicable to encompass Russia’s National security requirements [to be negotiated] These requirements have already been proposed by the Russian side and will involved all members of NATO and all other European states with an interest in the security architecture of the region, with the intention of making the security of all stakeholders indivisible.
It would be so much easier to just disband NATO and eject all foreign forces, ie. the USA, from Europe. Lance the boil, squeeze the puss out.
Great comment Harry Law. Bernie Sanders put forth this very argument just days before russian intervention
“Does anyone really believe that the United States would not have something to say if, for example, Mexico or Cuba or any country in Central or Latin America were to form a military alliance with a U.S. adversary? Do you think members of Congress would stand up and say, well, you know, Mexico is an independent country and they have the right to do anything they want. I doubt that very much.”
https://cnsnews.com/article/washington/susan-jones/sen-bernie-sanders-hypocritical-us-insist-we-do-not-accept-spheres
Andrei Martyanov has posted this, with links to some astonishingly good Russian patriotic songs. Please notice, in the first, the background of the monument to Great Patriotic War in Donetsk – a sacred site that resonates with all Russians.
And here is the link:
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/03/larry-posted-some-good-stuff-about.html
Thanks for the link, Tom Welsh.
One day, a person I respect said:
“During the war, one should not speak badly of one’s own *side*. Never. Even if they are wrong. Even if your side is wrong during the war, you must not speak ill of it. It seems to me that this is a very simple principle, very old, primitive, but it is true.
When nothing threatens, when the war is over – then, yes. Then you can say: “This was not so, and this was not so. Let’s try to prevent this from happening in the future.”
This statement of his has always puzzled me. I believe that the truth always stands higher than the position of either side. I stay true to my principles, today.
Well, so, the show doesn’t correspond to my aesthetic feelings.
Neither the acting, nor the musical, nor the costumes, nor the make-up. But most of all I don’t like that the set of big ideas was simplified, rhymed and literally read out in recitative.
I think that such a performance trivializes these ideas, and they deserve a much more elaborate perfomance. To reach the hearts.
I think it depends on whether “our” side in a war consists of everyone in our nation, fighting in a good or at least justified cause; or a small clique of cynical warmongers, stoking a war for their own advantage.
I’ve already said that I’m not religious, but I really appreciate many of the ideas of Christianity for their centuries-old support of humanity in us, and for the fact that they glorify the spark of mind in humankind, calling to resist our biologically determined aspirations. I believe that in the course of the evolution of civilization this has been one of the important currents. And even if there is no God, then religion still was worth inventing.
With my humble language skills, and with the help of Google Translate, here are the lyrics to this song. It is full of allusions to biblical mythology:
In the blackness of abyss the Beast woke up
And the price was announced to the God
All caved in, even our brothers in Christ
Everyone caved in, but my country didn’t.
It was a fruitful leap year
And the Death drank blood to satiety
The roof of heaven bent under the clouds of lead
Everyone caved in, but my country didn’t.
chorus
Half the sky is flames
Half the sky is smoke
Behind us is Moscow
And with us is God
Half the sky is flames
Half the sky is smoke
With us is Russia
And with us is God
The memory of fathers wasn’t betrayed here
The land of grandfathers wasn’t given away here
The lives were not valued higher than homeland here
One can’t find words to describe the price.
And again the Russian power feels in the hands
For the motherland’s sake either live or die
For centuries my undefeated country
Stands and holds the roof of heaven.
Even if death on the cross is pre-destined
Still we won’t kneel
In a field of blood, one for all
Donbass stands and holds the roof of heaven.
For those who prefer to picture Ukraine as innocent victims, and Putin as unprovoked agressor, and nazi as non-existent minor group, and Ukraininans as civilised europeans with no whatsoever ethnic intolerance.
“Donbass is not just a depressed region. There is a wild number of unnecessary people. I am absolutely conscious about this. There are approximately 4 million inhabitants in the Donetsk region. And at least 1.5 million extra. We do not need to understand Donbass. We need to understand the Ukrainian national interest. And the Donbass should be used as a resource. Regarding the Donbass. I don’t know a recipe for how to do it quickly. However. The most important thing to do: there are people who just need to be killed” – Bogdan Butkevich
https://youtu.be/hCD4RS9LsTI
“We need to understand: do we need these people or do we need territory? Would it be my will – I would flood everything there with napalm, so that in five years rapeseed would grow there” – Svyatoslav Stepkin (Gorky Luk *Bitter Onion*)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf_m7ZI4Rh8
Two very important speeches. Note that Colonel General Rudskoy did give exact casualty figures for the Russian armed forces.
“As of today, 1,351 servicemen have been killed and 3,825 wounded”.
https://thesaker.is/speech-of-the-head-of-the-main-operational-directorate-of-the-general-staff-of-the-armed-forces-of-the-russian-federation-colonel-general-sergei-rudskoy/
@Tom Welsh
Probably the far higher figure displayed briefly.
I don’t say that with any sort of pleasure, all loss of life is tragic, on both sides, civilian and military.
Russia seem to be on far firmer ground over their Ukraine biolabs presentation yesterday though. The stuff emerging from Hunter Biden’s ‘Laptop from Hell’ is damning. Even the Daily Mail online has now picked up on it:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10652127/Hunter-Biden-helped-secure-millions-funding-military-biotech-research-program-Ukraine.html
Two shocking highlights:
It wasn’t just in Ukraine: did gain-of-function research in Wuhan lead to Covid-19? The US is at or near a million Covid-related deaths.
Situation not looking good for us in the Collective Entitled West today. As predicted the Houthis have struck again in Saudi Arabia oil facilities. US patriot missiles unable to to stop winged missiles and drones. The barbarick war against Yemen using our weapons and ‘ advisors ‘ has consequences. The days of Full Spectrum Domination are over. Poor countries don’t need huge military budgets to defend themselves. That predicted 300 Dollars a barrel for Brent crude might need reviewing. Along with the TV and Radio, I also got rid of my car years ago.
Just as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Reuters Trainer, could have been released six years ago, if only the UK had paid back the money stolen from Iran; So, the Yemen ‘conflict’ could be halted within a week if only the UK stopped the weekly flights from the UK made by BAE (Warton) to arm, support and supply the Saudi’s.
Imagine if the people of Scotland were being discriminated against by the central UK government by having their customs and rights denigrated, then were refused a referendum on some form of devolution or self determination by the UK state because they [the UK state] did not want Scotland to have self determination. If a referendum was held in Scotland and the UK government declared it null and void, against international law and refused to recognise it, what would the Scots do?
This is what happened in Ukraine, leaving aside the Crimea for the moment, in the Dombass region over 90% of the people rejected the coup and voted for independence in 2014 on a near 80% turnout. This was rejected by the Ukraine government who later called the seperatists ‘terrorists’ and over the next 8 years proceeded to shell the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of the Dombass causing the deaths of approx 14,000 men women and children. Unfortunately the UN charter only calls for self determination of all peoples, without saying ‘which’ people that is the problem, are Catalonian’s a people? Are the Basques a people? Or the many different peoples who make up the European continent, but who in theory could claim self determination based on the UN charter? Difficult isn’t it? The Minsk agreements backed by France and Germany were meant to sort these issues out with the possibility that some form of self government, devolution or Federal arrangement could be agreed to, just like in Scotland or Wales. The Minsk agreements were rejected by the Ukrainian government, France and Germany would not pressure the Ukrainian government to any sort of compromise and the shelling of the “terrorists” continued. The Russians quite rightly saw this amongst other issues as a Genocide so they intervened. If the Scots held a referendum sometime in the future and 90% of them voted for separation on an 80% turnout, and the UK central government rejected that vote as being illegal, accused the Scottish people of being terrorists and proceeded to shell them with artillery and missiles from the borders of England, what would the Scots do? As I indicated in my earlier posts up thread the US worked long and hard for regime change in Ukraine in the run up to the coup in 2014, the Neo con Victoria [F**k] the EU] Nuland spent $6 Billion dollars on NGO’s etc to support the coup, her success is why we now have a civil war in Ukraine and are on the brink of a nuclear war or as of now, a new cold war.
Helluva job Biden who appointed ‘F**k the EU’ Nuland to continue her Ukraine antics.
Harry Law. As events unfold , India meeting with China yesterday is a major development. Even if US overthrow Bin Salman in Saudi Arabia and install another brother of his, the kingdom will have to come to terms with Syria and Iran. The first thing Saudi Arabia should do is stop the war in Yemen, pay compensation and rebuild Yemen and Syria. However the US won’t allow this move to peace. Consequently oil price will go Hypersonic.
I have noted how much of the media in India has pushed the US propaganda against Russia in outlets like WION. No doubt NGOs and the Kashmir issue will now be pushed by US if India changes course. It was significant that India did not entertain UK diplomatic mission prior to Chinese foreign Minister arrival. Pakistan is also in a very bad state politically and economically. It will be very wary of the rapprochement of India and China. Both Modi and succesive Pakistani leaders have used religion to stir up poor populations for power. Partition was a tragedy.
On Newsnight on BBC 2 last night, they had a female Ukrainian parliamentarian (didn’t catch her name) via live link.
She was really quite adamant that the newly declared Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic wouldn’t be allowed to break away, or any serious autonomy by the govt in Kyiv. These uncompromising people are the ones the West have encouraged to be like this. Democratically minded people should believe people have sovereignty over their clearly defined areas, and if enough want independence a referendum should be held.
Kyiv’s failure to introduce the Minsk-envisaged federalism is a large part of the reason this misguided Russian invasion happened.
How the hell she expects to win these people over, well she didn’t explain that part?
Ben ‘Full Tonto’ Wallace – gets his full serving.
IT IS EXPLOSIVE!
The pranksters have redacted something that Wallace said that concerns U.K. national Security. But of course the Kremlin has it. The rest is pure gold.
Even better – There is another to come!
‘Not at all Pretty just Petty’ Patel, the Home Office minister, dressed up in her best finery in front of the British and Ukrainian flags , channeling pure fascist leaderinne audition – ‘us Brits are obviously not at all bothered by the Nazis as you can see by how we have managed perception here in the U.K.’ she can barely contain her glee!
Wowzer!
Main points from Wallace:
Confirmation of U.K. direct involvement in training and supplying Zelensky’s Nazi Army for 5 years in the Ukraine directly;
Escalation – by confirming the supply of anti aircraft missiles with night vision! ;
Confirmation of at least 2 supply routes in smuggling these weapons;
There is a positive for Wallace, his initial reaction to the prankster request for nukes- Bens eyeballs involuntarily almost pop out their sockets! It almost shows a genuine human reaction. I’ll give him that.
He stated explicitly that Russia – not Putin – would be a lot upset by any such developments!
But then he spoils it by saying that we will look at how we are ready to work on future developments…
It’s not his fault. Patel though I have no sympathy for. She is bitch of the order of Margaret and Madeline.
There are a lot of private PR corporations and thousands of these Coke snorting. Champagne swilling ,Caviar (did that luxury food get cancelled? ?)quaffing Mad men and women types who have been brought in to overide actual civil servants in this madness against Putin Bashing – which is all about pushing Russophobia, which is all about as usual another attempt at conquering these lands and its resources.
ii /77 th etc – As most recently MintPress revealed and Tatyana linked to above.
Heads will roll – genuine Civil Servants will cheer.
See for yourself. The rest of the world already has.
https://odysee.com/@RaymondTheBrave:5/Full-Video-by-Vovan-and-Lexus-with-UK-Secretary-of-State-for-Defence-Ben-Wallace:a
Get plenty of popcorn for her petty majesty’s latest.
Patel’s a teflon, tory, nazi. She will probably attempt to fire some minions, but she wont be going anywhere, unfortunately.
Remember, she was already fired by May for collusion with the Israelis, but like sh!t on your shoes you can never get rid of, she is still here.
Rumour has it that she is supplying lampshades made of refugee tattoos for Boris’s flat !!
What astonishes me is that it is so easy for these guys to prank call a UK minister twice in a time when you’d expect heightened security protocols. You’d have thought they’d have learned after the first time with Ben Wallace. I do hope HM armed forces have better security protocols when it comes to ordering a nuclear strike though you have to wonder.
DunGroanin, Wallace said we are going into the Black Sea and we will talk to you about supplying weapons for you to use, [sounds like the UK are going to help Ukraine sink Russian warships]. He then said the UK warship sailed near Crimea and Russia acted illegally. No they did not, Johnson deliberately and provocatively ordered the British warship to enter Crimean waters without permission and was warned off. Even if you accept Johnsons opinion that Crimea has been illegally annexed, then under the rules of international law Russians have the right to recognition as being the occupier of the area, with all the corresponding rights and responsibilities conferred on the occupier by International law. As an example just try leading an armed group over the Occupied Golan Heights or the Occupied West Bank and see what the IDF would do. You would be shot dead. So Johnson sent that warship into territory without permission thereby putting all hands in danger of death.
Wallace and Johnson are very dangerous and foolhardy people who may be the death of all of us.
A sinking feeling coming on. Putin did say that he didn’t think a sinking would start a nuclear exchange. We’ve done our worst, much more than I even thought possible by seizure of their central bank reserves. Even a chemical false flag in Ukraine or Poland pushed to enter West Ukraine will not stop Russian ‘military and technical ‘ response. The days of Lavrov’s attempts at reason and dialogue are over. Russia only has its voice in the strength of its arms now. US is quite happy to see Europe burn.
Ben Wallace is being mooted as the possible next head of NATO. Though, they’ve recently voted to extend the Grim Reaper’s term by another year.
I agree, this escalation by the UK is insane.
Maybe the US has some newfangled (Starwars) tech that can deny/defeat Russia’s ICBMs, but the rest of us in Europe won’t be so lucky surrounded by Iskander-Ms and other shorter range nukes.
More worrying is all the talk of a ‘likely’ chemical attack. The Soviets may have used such weapons but the suited up and practised using it in offensives.
If seems utterly implausible therefore to me that a country as powerfully armed as Russia would resort to some militarily nonsensical, one off, hit and run style attack, with say Sarin. To no military advantage, but huge international opprobrium and possibly risking NATO’s involvement.
The US can’t criticise the use of white phosphorus as they used it extensively in Iraq to clear out insurgents in Fallujah, in Anbar province and elsewhere. Israel has used it extensively in Gaza, and claims it’s not a banned weapon.
Given they’re saying it’s a ‘red line’ isn’t that an open invitation to conduct a false-flag by those who want NATO to be dragged in?
The ‘intelligence’ people pushing this must think everyone was born yesterday. Although, no doubt the MSM will accept it without question.
Goose, the head choppers in Syria used chemical weapons in Syria, they did so in order to get the West involved on their side against their enemy Assad, as you know chemical weapons were a red line and a desperate move if not logical move on their part, luckily they did not succeed, thanks to Russia. By the way here is a short list of the chemical weapons the US has used in the past Agent Orange in Vietnam which is even today killing many people, depleted uranium ammunition many thousands of tons used in Iraq, and still causing thousands of deformities in babies born today. These cancer causing munitions producing fine dust particles when exploded are still not cleared from the major battle fields in Iraq and constitute contamination which will last for thousands of years. The Architects of these wars just don’t care, since all that matters are the effectiveness of such weapons in piercing a tanks armour [very effective].
Biden just raised the ante
” Putin ‘cannot remain in power’ – Biden
US president demands regime change for Russia “
https://www.rt.com/news/552774-biden-demands-regime-change-putin/
(to access RT, install a VPN)
Not that there have been any doubt about the intent of the U.S on this matter.
The whole thing smells.
Putin is ultimately responsible for the invasion and blame falls on Russia.
But let’s be honest, the US’s policy has been to use Ukraine to prod and provoke Russia. They forced Ukraine’s leadership to take maximalist positions over the Minsk accords, while training Ukrainians in Florida in the art of insurgency tactics, presumably in the full expectation Russia would eventually snap and be forced to cross the border?
Hunter Biden’s bizarre role adds another layer of intrigue, he’s some sort of DoD go-between, raising finance for military sponsored biolabs doing deadly pathogen research. Do a Twitter search titled: “Hunter Biden sick” – if that stuff allegedly from his laptop is real, its contents involved a heady mix of pedophilia, incest – with his dead bother’s 12 year daughter – crack cocaine, virology and bioweapons. And that’s only what can be shown by blurring out his genitalia.
Why the authorities and media are protecting him, idk? Maybe it’s his US DoD links? Like the film ‘Lord of War’, where a dealer in illegal arms, played by Nicolas Cage, walks free after telling an interpol agent who has been pursuing him, he’ll shortly be released with no charges levelled by the top brass. Hunter seems to be above the law in the US.
If USA assassinate President Putin, then there will no doubt be an outcry in Russia. Russia is not Iran. It has been the goal of US to subsume Russia and its resources for decades and it has conducted an actual war against it. Goose blames Russia for the invasion and, like the West, tries to demonise all the blame on President Putin himself. Goose ignores the fact that the Russian population supports its President in his attempts over decades to integrate into Europe, Nato, and yet stay independent. How can Goose agree on on US bases, missiles and WMD in Ukraine? The war started in Ukraine many years ago; Russia has entered and will end it. Call it an “invasion” if you like.
Goose you can’t have it both ways.
If US does start a campaign of “Putin must go” as it did with Assad, then take heed of what Scott Ritter said of what will befall us by switching on our radars.
@wikikettle
“you can’t have it both ways.”
I can. Because life ain’t black and white and blame can be distributed among various actors.
Nothing contradictory in holding the view that the US have used Ukraine as a proxy to achieve a geopolitical strategic objective of isolating Russia. While also believing Russia have made a terrible error by conducting a full-scale invasion. Russian forces who haven’t been seen as liberators, they’ve been bogged down in hostile territory; supply lines attacked; troops freezing to death under fierce US-trained, western supplied resistance.
To this day I’m still not clear exactly what Russia wants out of this conflict? What does victory look like? Their current demands: for Ukraine’s neutrality; Crimea to be recognised as Russian territory; and DPR/ LPR recognition, seem more likely to have be achieved without an invasion. The invasion will make Ukraine’s leadership even less likely to compromise. And unless Russia uses devastating force to dislodge Zelensky and the govt, that situation won’t change. And devastating force against a country that was invaded in a ‘war of choice’ would be so morally disproportionate, the consequence would likely be worldwide outrage and NATO’s involvement.
The US and UK (Basra) never completely pacified Iraq or Afghanistan, with IEDs regularly claiming lives right to the end of our occupations. Why on earth did Putin think they could quickly tame, a much larger, by population, better equipped country, trained in insurgency by the US? That was just hubris on Putin’s and Russia’s part.
Goose, you plonker,
“.. conducting a full-scale invasion”
You can’t tell the difference between a special operation and a war can you?
When fools fail to remember what they foreswore never to forget, they readily rush in where angels fear to tread.
A full scale invasion??? ?
Goose
There are 2 main goals.
One goal is denazification: I guess Russia taking out especially Azov brigade in Maripol and/or making sure Ukraine ban the group in an agreement.
Second goal is to destroy ukrainian army by destroying their weapons, vechicles, tanks and so on and thus block Ukraine joining Nato.
Second goal is close to finished from what I understand.
Hilarious!
https://youtu.be/u6PrTHKo_0E
you may start at 5:50
An Ukrainian does his best to emotionally describe russian occupation and war crimes, until his lie is exposed, so he has to admit he tells lies ‘because the more lies the better’ and ‘why not’.
Joe Biden as head of the Foreign Relations Committee Was talking up war with Iraq years before the Iraq invasion in 2003, yet he has the gall to call Putin a war criminal and beast, I have just watched a video of Hunter Biden’s career and I can say Joe is as corrupt as they come, In fact I prefer Hunter’s honesty.
“Europe consumes 500 billion cubic meters of gas, while America and Qatar can offer 15 billion, up to the last molecule… That is why German and Austrian politicians told me: “We cannot just destroy ourselves. If we impose sanctions on Russia in the oil and gas domain, we will destroy ourselves. It’s like shooting yourself in the foot before rushing into a fight.” This is how certain rational people in the West see it today.”
With the doomsday predictions of Russian military failure in Ukraine coming unstuck and the blowback from Russia sanctions beginning to bite, Europeans are caught in a bind. They will be resentful as time passes.
https://www.indianpunchline.com/bidens-reality-check-in-europe/
Harry
Joe did a lot more than just talk up the invasion of Iraq, he was an absolutely vital architect of it.
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/01/19/bidens-key-role-in-the-crime-of-the-century-the-2003-u-s-invasion-of-iraq/
Of course he knows he can rely on an obedient, chauvinist media (liberal and conservative) to suppress his own unapologetic war criminality.