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I don’t agree with half of what RFK jr states in general, but he seems to hit a bull’s eye on the situation in Ukraine:
https://nitter.poast.org/Glenn_Diesen/status/1830110518113186289One consequence: 90% (at least) of the Ukrainian refugees in the West are never going home -at least not voluntarily.
I have no doubt that there are all sorts of shenanigans going on in Ukraine, but when people like RFK state Monsanto is acquiring land in Ukraine and Blackrock owns Monsanto, I just cringe. Monsanto no longer exists having been bought out entirely by Bayer in 2018. Bayer is a German company and whilst I don’t hold big pharma in high esteem they are not owned by Blackrock, Vanguard or other investment management companies. They may own some shares or manage shares held by others in Bayer. Also, investment management companies manage assets owned by their clients such as equity in companies etc. They don’t own those shares themselves.
As I said, I have no doubt shady deals are happening in Ukraine but this kind of crap news just obscures what is really going on.
You can easily search for who owns how much Bayer stock.Who owns what is rather uninteresting, the point is that Ukraine will have to privatize its assets, and Western intenational companies stands to profit. It will be like in Russia in the 1990s.
H
It is is strange, are there not any companies in Ukraine that could invest…in Ukraine? Why do Zelensky keep selling out Ukraine to foreign companies that will of course take a hefty financial win out of Ukraine?
President holds meeting with world’s largest investment company on creation of fund for rebuilding Ukraine
Zelensky meets Black rock, JP Morgan and others..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL74Y_VClaA
Washington wants Ukraine’s resources – US Senator
Kiev is sitting on a “trillion dollars’ worth of minerals” that are “good” for the US economy, US Senator Lindsey Graham says
https://swentr.site/russia/603669-washington-wants-ukraines-resources/
RFK Jr.: Who Really Profits from The Ukraine War?
I like this news item from RT, simply because it shows again that we are not the only nations/people on this planet:
“Russia has consistently been the top target for hackers in recent years, according to Kaspersky Lab ”
https://www.rt.com/business/603728-russia-most-cyber-attacked-kaspersky/
https://archive.is/mhi3sBut RU being attacked by Hackers? No!!!!!
AG
Thanks, yeah I saw that too, but of course as you say, the westerner will not realize that for all the talk about cyberattacks, hackers etc it is Russia that is the biggest victim and the perpetrator are often carried out from western nations!
——
As we all knew, west blocked the peaceful efforts to end the conflict early in the conflict, even Nuland admit as much now:
Victoria Nuland: Ukraine withdrew from the Istanbul agreements after consultations with the USAKyiv at the last stage of negotiations in Istanbul, which took place in the spring of 2022, withdrew from the agreements after consultations with Washington. This was told by former US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in an interview with journalist Mikhail Zygar.
More in the link: https://x.com/nexta_tv/status/1833135022682857569
I do not know much about Robert Fico and his policies but I really appreciate him speaking the truth when it comes to Ukraine:
EU state’s PM accuses world of ignoring Ukraine’s ‘Nazi troops’People eager to condemn the atrocities committed by the Third Reich are at the same time turning a blind eye to Ukrainian troops wearing Nazi symbols today, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has lamented.
https://swentr.site/news/603745-fico-ukrainians-nazi-insignia/
Here in Sweden not even the alleged leftist party, that do not have any power to begin with, dare to speak of any neo-nazis in Ukraine compared that with Robert Fico, a PM, that do not fear speaking the truth!Sigh, the western world is so morally corrupt:
Releasing Canada’s WWII Nazi list will ‘help Russia’ – Ukrainian activists
A government commission named 900 alleged war criminals living in the country but its report has been kept secret since 1986https://swentr.site/news/603596-canada-nazi-list-release/
Oh the nazi-collaborators could be offended if their names get out in the public??
“Language inspectors to start working in Frankivsk”
https://unn.ua/en/amp/language-inspectors-to-start-working-in-frankivsk
I assume this is only the beginning.
Depending on how things will play out a possible ban on speaking Russian will not be a dystopian exaggeration in the future.Jack
A Swedish reader´s comment about Sweden on Paul Robinson´s Russia blog “IRRUSSIANALITY”:
“(…)
Isn’t searching for the “eternal soul” of a country quite useless? Isn’t worldly needs a more reliable clue for interpreting its behaviour?Take Sweden as an example. In the 17th century it was an unusually unscrupulous ravager of its neighbours. There were two reasons for this.
Its own peasants were politically strong so the aristocracies had to turn elsewhere to find means for their extravagant consumption needs.
Sweden was a pioneer in state building, organizing an efficient bureaucracy long before its neighbours, who had to rely on levies or opportunistic mercenaries. For that reason it was easy for the Swedish state to fall upon them and plunder them.The whole political calculation was turned around about 1700. First, there was a kind of revolution in 1680 when the hitherto ruling aristocratic elite had alienated the whole polity, and was deposed and confiscated. Second, Sweden’s neighbours also built efficient bureaucracies and became more difficult to plunder, which showed itself in the Great Nordic War. So the Swedish state turned to internal economic improvements instead. This policy ruled for about 300 years because it was efficient. It wasn’t abandoned until the whole North Atlantic community succumbed to rentier capitalism in the late 20th century and abandoned improvements altogether.
I believe Russian policies can be explained in a similar way, but I don’t know enough of Russian social history to do it. Perhaps some of the readers of this blog can tip me off?”
(…)”AG. Do you read karlofi? His substack often refers to meetings Putin attends and addresses in various regions of Russia. Some of these relate to how improvements to various things such as education, electricity generation and distribution, supporting families, infrastructure development etc etc.
My impression on reading these is tha Russia is trying hard to develop it’s internal economics, education, infrastructure etc just as they ought to be. I don’t know how successful these regional meetings are at delivering. They could be the equivalent of politicians cutting ribbons and kissing babies but my impression is not that from reading through them. Perhaps Tatyana can inform us how the average russian sees them.
You’ll have to look through his archives to find them but here, here and here are some examples. Whether Putin delivers or not I have noy way to know.
Jack, re Nuland’s interview. Just yeasterday I met this on Pikabu:
https://pikabu.ru/story/otvet_na_post_viktoriya_nuland_iz_gosdepartamenta_priznaet_chto_mirnoe_soglashenie_mezhdu_ukrainoy_i_rossiey_byilo_blizko_k_podpisaniyu_vesnoy_2022_goda_11791080The poster refers to this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTfcmzuA-_Y
And that’s what he says:
In the conversation I was more interested in the topic of the history of the beginning of the confrontation between Russia (Putin) and the West (USA) than in modern realities. Nuland is already a shot down pilot, does not participate in modern politics.(at 20:21) What happened when Putin came to power, no matter as prime minister or already president, the first 5-10 years of Putinism. He begins to systematically undermine the foundations of the open system, he persecutes first television, then newspapers, then radio…
But I wonder why, in their opinion, Putin started doing all this? For the sake of his black soul? For purely villainous reasons, as a hater of freedom? How do they explain this to their supporters – the liberals? Maybe there is a more real motive, more adult, perhaps, connected, perhaps, with the interests of the state? No, it can’t be, he’s just a Disney villain, Mr. Putin.
But then the old lady blurts out:(at 20:45)… he does not allow wealthy businessmen to participate in politics.
Here it is, in my opinion. Here is the motive. Allowing rich businessmen to participate in politics – is this the direct duty of a democratic president, some kind of democratic commandment?
And just recently one such businessman (here stands the link to Khodorkovsky interview, and I guess we discussed it right in this forum thread) admitted that behind him stood the world financial capital personified by Jacob Rothschild. And the souls of world capitalists are so pure-pure, and with all this pure soul they are such selfless supporters of the ideas of freedom and democracy? Especially Jacob Rothschild.
So maybe that is why Putin limited democracy? To prevent world capital from governing the Russian Federation indirectly?
Oh, no, it can’t be, that’s some kind of conspiracy theory…
Also, Jack, I bookmarked some Russian news especially for you, because you were concerned about such things.
September 11. Pro-Russian resistance reported on the strike in Kiev, warehouses with NATO equipment were hit.
On the night of September 11, at 20 minutes past two, the city of Pereyaslav was hit by a strike on facilities used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. <…> The strike was in the direction of the Lageri area, in the southern direction, where industrial warehouses and a huge service station are located
https://ria.ru/20240911/udar-1971986444.htmlSeptember 11. Pro-Russian agents in Ukraine followed a Ukrainian convoy from Vinnytsia for approximately 160 kilometers in order to transmit data on its location to Russian troops for its destruction.
The day before, the resistance reported strikes on the location of the AFU and the parking lot of equipment in the suburbs of Uman in the Cherkasy region of Ukraine. Earlier that day, Ukrainian media reported a series of explosions in the Cherkasy region amid an air raid alarm. Later, local authorities announced the destruction of an infrastructure facility in the Uman area. In Rodnikovka, the suburb of Uman, there’s a former airport, the hangars of which are used to store military equipment. Units are also being re-equipped there before being sent to the front.
https://ria.ru/20240911/podpole-1971964185.htmlSeptember 12. Russian drones destroyed AFU ammunition depot in Chernihiv region.
During aerial reconnaissance in one of the villages, the movement of Ukrainian soldiers was detected, and in a forest area they discovered a platoon stronghold with an outbuilding where a warehouse with ammunition was located.
Rosgvardia UAV operators carried out a targeted strike on targets using FPV drones. Objective control means managed to record a large-scale fire and multiple secondary detonations at the warehouse. A few minutes later, the entire territory of the militants’ deployment site was engulfed in flames
https://ria.ru/20240912/vsu-1972318966.html
—
ET, I have to ship some orders and I’ll return later this evening to answer.ET, I looked at the links, thank you very much!
Unfortunately, I can’t comment on Putin’s meetings in general, I just don’t watch them. I’m also not aware of engineering schools or RusHydro.
But I can say about RANEPA, since my son was choosing a university this year and we visited and he was seriously considering the possibility of studying there. We talked with students and teachers, with the dean and head of the department and it was precisely the Liberal Arts direction with a specialization in creative management.My son chose another university, but the Academy left the best impressions. And by the way, they have an active student exchange program with China. Although, in the university that my son chose, in his group of about 20 students, there is also a guest from China (I advised my son to learn Nihao and show hospitality. We really appreciate our friendship with China and we want boys and girls be comfortable here in Russia).
So I can only comment as a “user” of everything described in Karlof’s articles. I’m very pleased with the roads and medicine in the country, as well as the level of digitalization of everything.
Paper bureaucracy has practically disappeared from our everyday life. We have an excellent tool “GosUslugi (state service)” – a digital platform where you can receive and submit any information to government agencies. This is how we make an appointment with a doctor, find out the results of final school exams, register the purchase of real estate, pay taxes and even vote (and blockchain technologies are involved there).
There’s currently a wide discussion in society about education – about abandoning the Bologna system and at least partially returning to the educational standards of the USSR. I mean that the fundamental knowledge in that old system is incomparably deeper and prepares specialists of a much broader profile. But I will be able to judge expertly only in about 4 years, when I see how my son’s bachelor’s degree proceeded.This weekend I reserved for a travel. I’ve never been to the Kaspian Sea, so I intend to go to Dagestan and see with my own eyes how they are doing there. The culture of Dagestan is not completely alien, since I live in Krasnodar, very close to the Caucasus. But I want to see the Sulak Canyon, the deepest in Europe; the unique ekranoplan Lun; and also compare the Caspian Sea with the Black and Azov Seas of my region.
On the way back I want to visit Elista, the capital city of Kalmyk Republic. This region’s population are buddhists. I want to see the biggest statue of Buddha in Europe, see some etno things and ride a camel, and try national cuisine 🙂
Then I’ll be able to say something about all these big things, like education, power projects, etc.ET
I had intended to read that Substack but found myself overwhelmed with the events since October and how they played out in Germany, re: hate speech etc.
May be I manage to catch up in the future.Yes what you say is among the most overlooked matters in the reporting about RU – if you can call it that. Because after Febr. 2022 its really difficult for me to actually look into German dailies and magazines which – should – provide that. It´s soooooo horrible. Beyond any description.
e.g. I just finished reading a review of a new big study about Grosny and Chechen history. The reviewer is a moron. I can´t read these pieces any more without screaming.
So I would agree and it´s probably highly significant what is going on in the regions.
(Since it´s usually the “small” everyday thing that change matters in the long run. Just the way Europe and the US have so candid disregard for BRICS that they will suddenly find themselves on the dark side of the moon long after it´s too late to do anything about it. Because they didn´t bother to look closely with genuine curiousity.)
p.s. I have yet to read Tatyana´s insights above.
Tatyana,
Thank you, that’s very interesting. You seem to be doing a lot of travelling! How easy do you find it to travel by train or plane? Or did you really drive all the way to Moscow to inspect RANEPA? Personally, I prefer trains, much more civilised than planes or cars. For short trips I walk or use my bicycle. When I was younger, I used to go on long cycle-tourning trips for my holidays, at least 1,000 miles, which gives you a much more intimate experience of foreign countries than any other mode of transport.
Russia really is a huge, fascinating country. I’d never heard of the Sulak Canyon, yet it seems to be deeper than the famous Grand Canyon in the US. I would love to experience the Trans-Siberian railway one day.
Best wishes, and enjoy your holiday!
Neil
PS. A Venezuelan family recently moved in next door to me, and the wife is called Tatyana! She doesn’t seem to have any Russian connection. She asked me to call her “Tati”. Of course she was surprised when I explained to her that “tatty” (especially in Scotland) means “potato”, and can also be used to refer to clothes which are old, worn out, ragged or full of holes. 🙂
Neil, thanks for your kind wishes!
It was much faster and easier to travel by plane, but since the beginning of the war the airport in my city is closed.
Trains, I don’t like them. This summer I tried it and it cost me my favorite redmi smartphone, which I charged in the train and its accumulator swelled up. Well, I don’t like sitting around doing nothing for so long while the train is moving.
I really feel comfortable travelling by car. I visit Moscow several times a year, because nearly all my family is now there. It takes about 16 hours driving, not so much. If I leave at 7 am, then I’m arriving before midnight.
I not only inspected RANEPA, but also 3 other universities. My son needed help with all that, and I was happy to assist.Quite a funny case of the name Tati in your language 🙂 I was wondering what do all those trolls mean when distorting my forum name. Anyway, it’s no funnier than the word ‘Scott’ sounding exactly ‘cattle’ in my language. As a linguist, I perhaps have a professional deformation, so no longer laugh at it.
Actually, for lack of a more appropriate thread, I intended to post here this:
today this link was shared on Russian social media
https://sam.gov/opp/505b2b2cb4c140239c054f39ef333f81/view
The Pentagon announces a tender worth 34 million US dollars for the optimization of AgriShock (a computer modeling of the consequences of using nuclear weapons on agriculture), it is necessary to include Eastern European countries in it.
Any ideas why?Tatyana
Thank you for the links on Russian action against arms transport. Russia need pick up on speed though since big transfers/tanks keep reaching even into Russia proper (Kursk).—
In other news:
Navalny allies claim disgraced 1990s oligarch behind assault in EU
Leonid Nevzlin allegedly masterminded an attack on Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov several months ago
https://swentr.site/russia/603966-nevzlin-attack-volkov-navalny/
Big news right? Nope I googled this news and there were just about 1-2 semi-msm articles on it. So not even when Navalny’s OWN organisation blame someone else than Putin for assassination attempts against Navaly the western msm do not have any interest in covering it. Oh no, that would ruin the anti-Putin narrative.In other news:
Russia warns NATO of ‘direct war’ over Ukraine
Moscow’s envoy to the UN has reiterated where the Kremlin’s red line ishttps://swentr.site/russia/603985-nato-war-russia/
Ukraine lacks the capability to use Western long-range systems, Putin added, noting that targeting for such strikes requires intelligence from NATO satellites, while firing solutions can “only be entered by NATO military personnel.”
https://swentr.site/russia/603934-putin-warning-nato-weapons/
Russia need to act way more boldly by now. Ukraine might send deep strikes into Russian territory, perhaps against the Kremlin building.
What west is doing is beyond senseless by now. It is like Russia would give Afghanistan, Iraq missiles after US invaded those nations, with the specific goal for Iraq and Afghanistan to strike US soil. It would be unheard of of a provocative move!Not to mention the west deep down do not even believe Ukraine could win over Russia so what exactly is this purpose of letting Ukraine sending long-distance missiles against Russia!?
West tells Ukraine it can’t afford victory – WSJ
Kiev has reportedly been told it must abandon its hopes of defeating the Russian militaryTatyana, sorry to hear Krasnodar airport has been closed because of this horrible and totally unnecessary war. I am firmly of the view that the war was deliberately provoked by the West, and that western leaders had been trying to provoke or start one for decades. Anyone who actually wants to start a war is bonkers in my view. Especially a war against Russia!
Sorry, I should have mentioned that Tatyana next door speaks very little English, although her husband is fluent. The word “Tati” doesn’t exist in the English language, it’s a Spanish name or nickname. The small town where I grew up in Scotland is sometimes called the “tattie toon” (“toon” is Scots dialect for town), because they grow so many potatoes (PLENTY of rain, plus free fertiliser in the form of seaweed on the nearby beach, which is very beautiful). I hope that one day you will be able to visit Scotland, and see for yourself how beautiful it is.
Tatyana
apparently updating WMD computer program/software is SOP. And since Europe is a possible space of war it makes sense from their POV
Scholz say exactly what Putin is saying, somehow when Putin is saying it, it is considered “propaganda” “disinformation” “threats:
Scholz: Berlin will not lift restrictions on its more advanced weaponry, even if Kiev’s other allies do
“I’m sticking to my stance, even if other countries decide differently,” Scholz said. “I won’t do that because I think it’s a problem.”
“It would only be tenable to deliver [these weapons] if we determine and define the targets ourselves, and that is again not possible if you don’t want to be part of this conflict,” he stressed.https://swentr.site/news/604037-scholz-long-range-weapons-kiev/
The Georgian war of 2008 was like a pre-run for the Ukraine war by the west:
Georgia to apologize for starting 2008 war – media
A former prime minister has described the conflict as a deliberate provocation aimed at dividing Georgians and OssetiansSpeaking at an election campaign event in the city of Gori on Saturday, Ivanishvili, who leads the ruling Georgian Dream party, claimed that a 12-year investigation concluded the 2008 conflict was “provoked by Saakashvili’s criminal regime” with “outside” assistance, and was aimed at disrupting national unity and dividing the two brotherly nations.
https://swentr.site/russia/604038-georgia-to-apologize-for-starting/
Back then we had the pro-nato/us Mikhail Saakashvili that was triggered by the west to attack Russia, not because west care about Georgia but because they hate Russia and use Georgia as a a proxy against Russia. Same today with Zelensky. West could not care less how many ukrainians that die they only use ukrainians as cannon fodder. There is no way Ukraine will be admitted to western insitutions like EU, Nato still west keep luring and prentending, using it as a carrot.
Interesting also that even though even EU admitted that it was Georgia, not Russia, that started the war in 2008, time and time again one read by the media that it was Russia that started that war as some obvius fact:
Georgia started war with Russia: EU-backed report
One thought that Russia would be more active, more surveilling of these people going from Syria to Ukraine:
Ukraine sought deal with Syrian terrorists – Turkish media
Kiev reportedly promised to provide Hayat Tahrir al-Sham with dozens of drones in exchange for the release of Chechen and Georgian extremistshttps://swentr.site/news/603752-ukraine-deal-syrian-terrorists/
250 Ukrainian military servicemen in Syria’s Idlib to train terrorists to use drones: Report
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/09/17/733428/Ukrainian-military-Syria-train-terrorists
KURSK, 20 Sep – RIA Novosti. In the first days of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ attack on Kursk Oblast, many civilians were killed, especially zealous were mercenaries, in particular from France, Georgia and Poland, who dealt with people “like cockroaches,” Vladimir Maltsev, a resident of Sudzha, told RIA Novosti. “Many people were killed when we were leaving. They killed acquaintances,” the source said. According to him, people who arrived at the temporary accommodation point in Kursk said that “many more women were killed, raped, and abused.” The Ukrainians themselves, according to eyewitnesses, warned residents that if they did not leave, “mercenaries would come, they would leave no one behind.”
odd conversation by Kelly Vlahos (Responsible Statecraft) with former British diplomat Ian Proud.
I find Proud interesting enough to dip in from time to time (well not difficult to be interesting regarding the horrible aray of British elites) but he manages to not mention Craig once (he even talks about Uzbekistan and human rights!) in 33 min….
For Vlahos it takes 32 minutes to actually express serious criticism of the US (“nothing will change” sort of thing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjQ3hCIAWi4
