Attachment 86473
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How very aptQuote:
Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
How is your reported, Germany ,"signed and agreed", Qatar gas agreement going 'arry.
:kma:
Qatar, Germany in deadlock on LNG supply deal – media
The two countries are at odds over the timeframe of the contract
10 May, 2022 11:56
"Germany and Qatar have failed to reach an agreement regarding long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply contracts, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing people close to the talks.
According to the outlet, Berlin will not agree to Qatar’s demand to sign deals for a duration of at least 20 years. Despite seeking to end its reliance on Russian natural gas amid the situation in Ukraine, Berlin reportedly views this timeframe as contradicting its plan to slash carbon emissions by 88% by 2040.
“The issue of LNG contract length potentially putting Germany’s decarburization targets at risk is part of the ongoing discussions with Qatar,” one of the sources told Reuters, noting that Germany is not the only nation eager to secure LNG supplies from Qatar.
Qatar also wants to contractually prevent Germany from rerouting the LNG deliveries to other European states, and this measure is not welcome by the EU, the sources said.
"One of the sources told the publication that the LNG deal between Qatar and Germany “is not expected to happen soon.”
https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2...2a7d5a9fdd.jpg
The opening of the valve is shut until ....
Qatar, Germany in deadlock on LNG supply deal – media — RT Business News
Germany and Qatar at odds over terms in talks on LNG supply deal, sources say - The Globe and Mail
Qatar needs to be beaten with a stick.
...they will oblige :rolleyes:Quote:
...we must note that Qatar was the only Gulf state that tried to obstruct the liberation of Kuwait by preventing a Gulf Cooperation Council decision to adopt the military war to liberate Kuwait during a meeting in December 1990. Then Crown Prince Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa insisted that he will not discuss the liberation of Kuwait unless and until Bahrain is forced to give up the disputed islands with Qatar.
VE Day is a slightly more somber observance in Europe.
National celebrationsEdit
VE Day is celebrated across European nations as public holidays and national observances.
The Allies see no reason to parade through the streets with marching troops and vulgar displays of more recent weaponry, in the same manner that Russians celebrate.
Millions of people died during WWII. Nothing to celebrate about that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Switch
...and a total waste of resources
You've never haggled with an Arab have you hoohoo?Quote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
:rofl:
They settled that dispute in the ICJ.Quote:
Originally Posted by HermantheGerman
The Qataris were bawling their eyes out.
:)
Many times, some decades ago, during my stints in Doha.Quote:
Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
Whilst out hawking in the desert with the sheiks,
Attachment 86510
the souk vendors
Attachment 86511
and via eye contact with passing shy ladies.
Attachment 86509
So around the 1930's then.
:rofl:
The Finns' declaration of intent to join NATO as soon as possible once again makes Putin look like a bloody amateur strategist who has hopelessly miscalculated. With the invasion of Ukraine, he achieved exactly the opposite of what he allegedly wanted: NATO is more present than ever on his doorstep.
^ Yup - in a nutshell.
11 MIN READ
Is Putin Sick – Or Are We Meant to Think He Is?
An oligarch close to the Kremlin was recorded on a tape saying the president is ‘very ill with blood cancer.’ Is this true, idle speculation or disinformation designed to make an erratic and paranoid dictator vulnerable?
Is Vladimir Putin sick or even dying?
The tabloid press, bolstered by a sudden efflorescence of Twitter diagnosticians, certainly seems to think so. Since his Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine got underway, the 69-year-old Russian president’s deteriorating health has been a subject of frenzied speculation — speculation that press secretary Dmitry Peskov has downplayed, citing Putin’s “excellent” health.
Boris Karpichkov, a KGB defector to Britain (and formerly an officer of the Second Chief Directorate, specializing in counterintelligence) thinks his fellow sexagenarian ex-spy suffers from Parkinson’s disease, along with “numerous” other maladies including dementia. “He is — or at least acts — insane and obsessed by paranoia ideas,” Karpichkov told Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper, comparing Putin in this respect to Stalin, who was the victim of at least one stroke.
MORE Is Putin Sick – Or Are We Meant to Think He Is? - New Lines Magazine
Oh yes.Quote:
Originally Posted by misskit
Grab a coffee and read how the murderous, thieving dictator subjugated Russia.
Quote:
On December 20, 1999, Vladimir Putin addressed senior officials of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) at its Lubyanka headquarters near Moscow’s Red Square. The recently appointed 47-year-old prime minister, who had held the rank of lieutenant colonel in the FSB, was visiting to mark the holiday honoring the Russian security services. “The task of infiltrating the highest level of government is accomplished,” Putin quipped.
His former colleagues chuckled. But the joke was on Russia.
Putin became interim president less than two weeks later. From the start of his rule, he has worked to strengthen the state to counteract the chaos of post-Soviet capitalism and unsteady democratization. To achieve that end, he saw it necessary to elevate the country’s security services and put former security officials in charge of critical government organs.
In recent years, however, Putin’s approach has changed. More and more, bureaucracy has displaced the high-profile personalities that previously dominated. And as the Russian president has come to rely on these bureaucratic institutions to further his consolidation of control, their power has grown relative to other organs of the state. But it was not until February, when Putin gave the orders first to recognize the independence of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and then, a few days later, to send Russian troops into Ukraine, that the complete takeover by the new security apparatus became apparent.
In the early days of the war, most branches of the Russian state seemed blindsided by Putin’s determination to invade, and some prominent officials even seemed to question the wisdom of the decision, however timidly. But in the weeks since, government and society alike have lined up behind the Kremlin. Dissent is now a crime, and individuals who once held decision-making power—even if circumscribed—have found themselves hostages of institutions whose single-minded purpose is security and control. What has happened is, in effect, an FSB-on-FSB coup: Russia used to be a state dominated by security forces, but now a faceless security bureaucracy has become the state, with Putin sitting on top.
The modern FSB traces its beginnings to the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, when the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, also known as the Cheka, hunted down enemies of the new Soviet state under the fierce leadership of Felix Dzerzhinsky. Its subsequent iterations, the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) and the Ministry of State Security (MGB), evolved under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s rule and were led most notoriously by Genrikh Yagoda in the 1930s and Lavrenty Beria in the 1940s and 1950s. The KGB became the Soviet Union’s primary security agency in 1954 under Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin’s successor. Over the following decade, Khrushchev expanded the Communist Party’s oversight of the Soviet state’s institutions of control, limiting their influence. But after Khrushchev’s ouster in 1964, Yuri Andropov, the longtime head of the KGB, reclaimed the organization’s lost authority, bringing the security service to the height of its power in the 1970s.
Andropov went on to lead the Soviet Union as general secretary of the Communist Party from 1982 to 1984. He was merciless in imposing ideological control. Any “diversion”—such as covert disagreement with Soviet politics—was grounds for prosecution. Some dissenters were imprisoned or placed in psychiatric wards for “retraining,” while others were forced to emigrate. Living in Moscow at the time, I remember police raids to catch indolent citizens and plain-clothes KGB officers—operating like Orwellian “thought police”—surreptitiously roaming city streets, detaining people suspected of skipping work or having too much leisure time. It was an atmosphere of total control, with Andropov’s KGB fully in charge.
By the late 1980s, reforms introduced by Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev loosened the grip of the security forces. Perestroika was supposed to renew the Soviet Union—some scholars even allege Andropov had a hand in the program—but it ended up threatening the survival of the regime. The last Soviet leader turned against his KGB masters, exposing the crimes of Stalinism and proceeding with an opening to the West. When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989 and Soviet satellite states in eastern Europe left Moscow’s sphere of influence, the KGB turned on Gorbachev, two years later launching a failed coup that hastened the Soviet collapse.
The security apparatus was humiliated—but it was not disbanded. Boris Yeltsin, the first president of post-Soviet Russia, considered communism, not the KGB, to be the greater evil. He thought that simply changing the name of the KGB to the FSB would change the organization, too, allowing it to become more benevolent and less controlling. This was wishful thinking. Russia’s security services trace their origins all the way back to Ivan the Terrible’s brutal bodyguard corps, the oprichniki, in the sixteenth century and Peter the Great’s Secret Chancellery in the eighteenth century. Yeltsin’s attempt at reform could not permanently suppress a system with such deep historical roots any more than Khrushchev’s could four decades earlier.
Russia used to be a state dominated by security forces, but now the security bureaucracy has become the state.
In fact, KGB officers were relatively well equipped to endure the collapse of communism and the transition to capitalism. To the security services, the Soviet-era call for a classless society of proletarians had always been merely a slogan; ideology was a tool for controlling the public and strengthening the hand of the state. Former members applied that pragmatic approach as they rose to elite positions in post-Soviet Russia. As Leonid Shebarshin, a former high-level KGB operative, has explained, it was only natural that those who trained under Andropov for a secret war against external and internal enemies—NATO, the CIA, dissidents, and political opposition—should become the new Russian bourgeoisie.
They could handle irregular working hours, succeed in hostile environments, and use interrogation and manipulation tactics when called for. They squeezed every last drop of labor out of their employees and subordinates.
One of their number, Putin, was himself lauded as a pragmatist by Western diplomats after he rose from obscurity to become president of Russia in 2000. Even then, he made no secret of his intention to establish Andropov-style absolute authority, quickly moving to limit the power of the capitalist barons who had flourished in the 1990s under Yeltsin’s frenzied presidency. In Putin’s mind, an independent oligarchy in control of strategic industries, such as oil and gas, threatened the stability of the state. He ensured that business decisions relevant to the national interest were made instead by a handful of trusted people—the so-called siloviki, or affiliates of the state’s military and security agencies. These individuals effectively became managers or guardians of state-controlled assets. Many were from Putin’s native Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg) and most had served alongside him in the KGB. On the corporate side, their ranks include Igor Sechin (Rosneft), Sergey Chemezov (Rostec), and Alexey Miller (Gazprom), while matters of state protection are handled by Nikolai Patrushev (secretary of the Security Council), Alexander Bortnikov (director of the FSB), Sergei Naryshkin (director of the Foreign Intelligence Service), and Alexander Bastrykin (head of the Investigative Committee), among others.
Putin has been convinced that strengthening the state’s “extraordinary organs” would prevent upheaval of the kind that led to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Putting former KGB operatives in charge seemed to offer some economic and political stability. In an effort to maintain that stability, Putin acted in 2020 to extend his presidency, proposing constitutional amendments to circumvent the term limits that would remove him from office in 2024.
Since their ratification, the constitutional changes have given the state broad latitude to address problems ranging from COVID-19 to mass protests in Belarus to Russian opposition lawyer Alexei Navalny’s return to Moscow. As was the case in the Andropov era, all matters are now run through central regulatory bodies—federal organizations that oversee everything from taxation to science (the word nadzor, meaning “supervision,” in many of their Russian names makes them easy to recognize). Criminal prosecutions are an increasingly common tactic used against Russian citizens who complain about abuses of power, request better services, or express support for Navalny, who himself was convicted based on false accusations of fraud and other supposed crimes. A punitive apparatus of control has tightened its grip, led by the technocratic Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, a former tax official, and an assortment of midlevel managers inside the regime bureaucracy.
Putin’s decision to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, and subsequently to launch a “special military operation” to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, followed a similar pattern of punishment for political deviation: he sought to penalize an entire country for what he deemed its “anti-Russian” choice to align with the West. But within Russia, the events leading up to and following the invasion also marked the completion of a political shift that has been years in the making. They exposed the waning power of the siloviki who dominated the early Putin era—and their replacement by a faceless security-and-control bureaucracy.
On February 21, during a nationally broadcast Security Council session, the president’s closest confidants seemed completely in the dark as to what the Donetsk and Luhansk recognition would entail. Naryshkin, of the Foreign Intelligence Service, stumbled over his words as Putin demanded an affirmation of support for the decision. By the end of this exchange, Naryshkin appeared to be trembling with fear. Even Patrushev, a hardcore conservative Chekist, wanted to inform the United States of Russia’s plans to send troops to Ukraine—a suggestion that went unanswered.
For a decision as consequential as the invasion of a neighboring country, it is remarkable how many organs of the state were out of the loop. Economic institutions were caught by surprise—when Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Russian central bank, tried to resign in early March, she was told to just buckle up and deal with the economic fallout. The military didn’t seem to be aware of the entire plan either, and spent months moving tens of thousands of troops around the border without knowing whether they would be asked to attack.
Putin’s clandestine operation was even hidden from other clandestine operatives. Leaders of the FSB department responsible for providing the Kremlin with intelligence about Ukraine’s political situation, for instance, didn’t fully believe that an invasion would happen. Many analysts had confidently argued it would be against Russia’s national interests. Comfortable in the assumption that a large-scale attack was off the table, officials kept feeding Putin the story he wanted to hear: Ukrainians were Slavic brothers ready to be liberated from Nazi-collaborating, Western-controlled stooges in Kyiv. A source in the Kremlin told me that many officials now envision a disaster akin to the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, which ended in a disgraceful withdrawal and helped precipitate the dissolution of the Soviet empire. But in a government that has become increasingly technocratic, institutionalized, and impersonal, such opinions are no longer permissible.
As the conflict continues into its third month and evidence of war crimes mounts, most officials and politicians continue to back Putin.
Big business is largely silent. Economic elites, cut off from the West, have rallied around the flag. Even though some may be grumbling in private, very few are vocal in public. Rare exceptions include the billionaire industrialist Oleg Deripaska, who has repeatedly called for peace; the former Putin associate Anatoly Chubais, known for leading Russia’s privatization under Yeltsin, who has fled to Turkey; the oligarch and former Chelsea soccer club owner, Roman Abramovich, who has tried to facilitate a negotiated settlement; and the entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov, who was forced to sell his shares in his hugely successful online bank, Tinkoff, for kopeks after speaking out against the “operation.”
Putin has never made a secret of his intention to establish absolute authority.
The rest of Russia’s 145 million citizens—except for those tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands who have fled abroad—are similarly falling in line. Having lost access to foreign flights, brands, and payment systems, most are forced to accept that their lives are tethered to the Kremlin. In a sharp departure from the early days of the Ukrainian operation, when public shock was palpable and people took to the streets expressing antiwar sentiment, polling shows that around 80 percent now support the war. The actual number is likely lower—when the state exercises total control, people give the answers that the regime wants. Still, my own conversations with relatives and friends across Russia confirm that speaking against the war is increasingly unpopular. An acquaintance in the resort town of Kislovodsk in the Northern Caucasus, for instance, insisted that Putin needs to complete “the mission of ‘de-Nazification,’ take care of the Donbas, and show Americans not to mess with Russia.”
As the shock wears off, fear has taken its place. In a televised address in mid-March, Putin insisted that Western countries “will try to bet on the so-called fifth column, on national traitors,” implying that all opponents of his “operation” are the unpatriotic enemies. The government’s security branches had previously announced a new law: spreading “fake information,” or any narrative that contradicts the Ministry of Defense’s official story, is a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Independent media outlets were blocked or disbanded, including the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, liberal radio Ekho Moskvy, and Dozhd TV, all of which regularly criticized the government until two months ago. The New York Times, the BBC, CNN, and other foreign media packed up and left the country. Since the end of February, more than 16,000 people have been detained, including 400 teenagers. People have been arrested for just being near a protest. For one Muscovite, merely showing up at Red Square holding a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace was enough to warrant detention.
In this atmosphere of complete repression, political figures who once seemed to offer alternative ideas now echo Putin’s uncompromising words. Former President Dmitry Medvedev has insisted that criticism of the operation amounts to treason. Even Naryshkin, a skeptic in February, has found his war footing and now faithfully parrots the government line. People no longer speak with their own voices; the shadow of Putinist Chekism now covers the entire country.
The journalist and writer Masha Gessen once dubbed Putin “the man without a face.” Today, however, his is the only face, sitting atop an anonymous security bureaucracy that does his bidding. Another coup, either in the Kremlin corridors or on the streets of Moscow, is not likely. The only group that could conceivably unseat the president is the FSB, which is still technically run by nationalist siloviki who understand that some foreign policy flexibility is necessary for internal development. But such officials are no longer the FSB’s future. The indistinct body of security technocrats now in charge is obsessed with total control, no matter the national or international consequences.
The last time the Kremlin built such an all-controlling state, under Andropov’s leadership in the early 1980s, it unraveled when the security forces relaxed their grip and allowed reform. Putin knows that story well and is unlikely to risk the same outcome. And even without him, the system he built would remain in place, sustained by the new security cohort—unless a 1980s Afghanistan-style debacle in Ukraine destroys it all. With this bureaucracy holding tight to power, Moscow’s foreign adventurism might abate. But as long as the structure holds steady, Russia will remain oppressed, isolated, and unfree.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russian-federation/2022-05-10/coup-kremlin
Putler was sick from the beginning. Russian history somehow "demands" that you have to kill your own people in order to make it into their history books.Quote:
Originally Posted by misskit
Russian apartment bombings - Wikipedia
The first would be good, the latter even betterQuote:
Originally Posted by misskit
double
A video update from Jacques Baud, someone who is Swiss, well-informed and balanced.
Where the causes of Russia's Special Military Operation in Ukraine, from the Berlin Wall fall to the recent Moscow parade, are fully covered.
The interviewer :no::no: .
Some may find the 2 hour long video educational.
Jacques Baud’s Biography
"Jacques Francois Baud is a Swiss citizen. He was born in 1955.
Jacques devoted his life to military service, which he completed with the rank of colonel. His first international success was appointment to the Swiss Strategic Intelligence Service where he served from 1983 to 1990. His specialization was intelligence work with the Warsaw Pact countries (USSR, Poland, Hungary and some others)"
Video available at:
Shared post
Haven't been holding my breath, but I reckon that you finally got something right here.Quote:
Originally Posted by HermantheGerman
Congratulations :)
Allegedly:
Medvedev commented on G7 non-recognition of changes in Ukraine’s borders
14 hours ago
MOSCOW, May 14.
"Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev reacted to the statement of the G7 foreign ministers following a three-day meeting on non-recognition of changes in Ukraine’s borders.
“Changing the borders of Ukraine is not recognized. Let’s put it mildly: our country does not care about the non-recognition of new borders by the G7, the true will of the people living there is important,” he wrote in his Telegram channel
Medvedev did not rule out a major logistical crisis due to sanctions
He urged not to forget the Kosovo precedent.
In his opinion, the countries of the association are waging a covert war with Russia and are not dealing with problems in the field of energy and food.
“Efforts are being stepped up to reduce dependence on Russian energy sources, including the phase-out of coal and oil. This means that the robbery of the citizens of the G7 will continue to support the corrupt regime in Ukraine, the very existence of which is not known to all the inhabitants of these countries,” Medvedev stressed.
In addition, the politician accused the West of interfering in China’s affairs with calls not to help Russia circumvent sanctions.
Medvedev said that the West does not notice the revival of neo-Nazism in Ukraine
Also, commenting on the intentions of the G7 countries to continue sanctions pressure on Russia, Medvedev joked that Moscow was expecting offers of material assistance for the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine.
He also ironically added that the Sevens forgot to mention the inevitable use of strategic nuclear forces by Russia in the conflict and the possible executions of Ukrainian nationalists on the Execution Ground of Red Square through quartering.
Russia launched a special operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal “the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.” For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for “bloody crimes against civilians” in Donbass.
According to the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops, and as of March 25, they completed the main tasks of the first stage – they significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
Medvedev: Sanctions will create a new security architecture in the world."
Medvedev commented on G7 non-recognition of changes in Ukraine's borders
So basically this Puffy stooge reckons Russia can invade who it likes and redraw its borders at will.
Let's hope he gets cancer too.
You missed the, "He urged not to forget the Kosovo precedent", reference, you may be alarmed that, historically, it was others who initiated such modifications.Quote:
Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
A search for Kosovo may suggest you need to eat some:
Attachment 86709
Once again, you prove to be a fucking imbecile.Quote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
Why Ukraine war has no winners
May 14, 2022 by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
Attachment 86728
Russia expects grain harvest of 130 million tonnes of grain, including 87 million tonnes of wheat – “an all-time high in Russian history,” says President Vladimir Putin, Moscow, May 12, 2022
"The war in Ukraine is quintessentially Clausewitzean. And to understand it, we need to return to Carl von Clausewitz, the doyen of modern war, who recognised that war is practically limitless in variety, “complex and changeable,” and noting that every age has its particular kind of war with “its own limiting conditions and its own particular preconceptions.”
Clausewitz’s contemporaneous observations of the character of nineteenth-century warfare are often misinterpreted confusingly as an advocacy of the unchanging nature of war itself. This paradigmatic complacency has engendered the Western narrative of the Ukraine conflict.
Evidently, the Russian side did not conform to the Western narrative. The ensuing bewilderment threatens to fragment western unity. Not all NATO countries are anymore speaking in one voice.
The US President Joe Biden and Britain’s Boris Johnson vow that they will be satisfied with nothing less than a Russian defeat. The New Europeans — Poland and the Baltic States principally — also demand an apocalyptic end to Russia’s history. Somewhat aloof stands Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz who merely says he doesn’t want Russia to “win.” France’s Emmanuel Macron keeps saying that without engaging Russia, European security architecture cannot be built. Then, there are outright sceptics like Greece, Turkey and Hungary.
Biden and Johnson have the upper hand since they manipulate the current set-up in Kiev and leverage the war. But even these two hardened politicians seem to realise lately that things are more complicated. The Joint Vision Statement issued in Washington yesterday following the US-ASEAN special summit completely eschews the usual American rhetoric and hyperbole over Russian “aggression.”
It omits any references to Russia or the Western sanctions and instead underlines “the importance of an immediate cessation of hostilities and creating an enabling environment for peaceful resolution.” (See my blog Indo-Pacific strategy adrift in an illusion.)
Nonetheless, incredible as it may seem, the fact remains that the US Congress is offering Biden a massive war budget to help Ukraine, which exceeds the state department’s annual budget and is more than what he proposes to spend on green energy projects in the US.
Equally, the EU, which imposed such harsh sanctions on Russia, are realising belatedly that the sanctions are hurting European economies more than the Russian economy. In some European countries, the annual rate of inflation is approaching 20%, while prices in the eurozone increased by over 11%, on average. During a videoconference in Moscow on Thursday, President Putin highlighted that:
- Russian companies are steadily replacing Western partners who left due to sanctions;
- 130 million tonnes of grain expected in Russia’s harvest this year, including 87 million tonnes of wheat — “an all-time high in Russian history”;
- Inflation rates in Russia have fallen several-fold on March levels;
- Budget surplus have reached 2.7 trillion rubles;
- There has been a record-breaking foreign trade surplus;
- The ruble is posting “better results than all other foreign currencies” since early 2022.
Critical voices are heard lately that anti-Russia sanctions are only exacerbating the US inflation crisis, and that prioritising aid to Ukraine is distracting Biden from more important domestic issues. Senator Rand Paul has demanded auditing of the gravy train to Ukraine, citing the analogy of Afghan war. He noted that the latest spending package will bring total US aid to Ukraine to $60 billion since the conflict began in February, which is nearly as much as Russia earmarks annually for its entire defence budget!
Yet, Russia has no timeline for this war. It is taking its own time to systematically destroy Ukraine’s military capabilities, industrial base and infrastructure comprehensively. Biden and Johnson thought attrition would set in, as Russia is fighting the “collective West,” after all.
But Putin reminded them on Thursday that Russia won World War II “not only by fighting on the frontlines, but also because of its economic might. At the time, it [Russia] had to confront not only Germany’s industrial potential, but Europe as a whole, enslaved as it was by the Nazis.” Putin deliberately shot off a stark reminder that will resonate in Europe.
An EU consensus on oil embargo against Russia already seems elusive. Twenty European companies have so far complied with Moscow’s end-May deadline to make payments for gas purchases in ruble currency. And they include Germany, Europe’s powerhouse.
The EU’s top executives, Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, two ardent Atlanticists and hardcore Russophobes, pushed the envelope too far. Will EU unity survive these cracks? Scholz’s call to Putin Friday, which reopened a line of communication after several weeks, needs to be understood against this backdrop. Interestingly, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin also spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu on Friday — their first conversation since Russian operations began in February.
Indeed, it is entirely conceivable that the time may be approaching to revisit the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. The closure of all Russian pipelines passing through Poland and Ukraine’s pipeline shutdown leaves Germany tantalisingly close to electricity shortage interrupting industrial production. (here and here)
Bloomberg reports, citing data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that despite Western sanctions, Russia’s oil export revenue jumped some 50% in 2022. Russian shipments have increased by some 620,000 barrels per day in April, returning to their pre-sanctions average. Due to increased demand, more shipments were directed toward Asia. Ironically, the EU, despite the executive’s hardline stance, has so far remained the largest market for Russian fuel with 43% of the country’s oil exports going to the bloc in April, the IEA estimated.
Paradigms, to be relevant, must accurately reflect the reality. When that is no longer possible, the paradigms must be replaced, or the leaderships that rely upon them will inevitably fail. Politicians like Biden and Johnson are used to thinking in terms of a Westphalian world, and are taking time to come to terms with anomalies in the existing paradigm when new powerful trends are dramatically altering the concept of war.
Karl Marx called it the “annihilation of space by time.” The phenomenon of regional conflict has become extinct, and localised violence has global implications thanks to advancement of transportation and communication and technologies. The paradigm-shifting present period is caused by a military-industrial revolution, which makes it a period of sharp, discontinuous change where existing military regimes are being upended by new more dominant ones, leaving old ways of warfare behind.
One would have thought that on a Clausewitzian battlefield, ancient armies arrayed against one another would fire and manoeuver according to the commander’s directions. But in Ukraine, by contrast, these have been replaced with ambient forms of physical and nonphysical violence—sniping, lethal drones, hypersonic missiles, electronic attack, spoofing, disinformation on the other and so on.
Russia is practising a warfare that the West is not used to — where wars aren’t won anymore.
It is highly unlikely that there will be a ceremonial occasion bringing the Ukraine war to an end."
https://www.indianpunchline.com/why-...as-no-winners/
You ought to just STFU, because all you talk is fucking rubbish.Quote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
I'm surprised this isn't in your drivel thread where it belongs.
The c u n t is lying again, unless he counts what he's stealing from Ukraine as "harvest".Quote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
Let's hope the cancer gets him soon.
Oh dear this might hurt Puffy more than the cancer.
Quote:
Sweden is set to follow Finland in applying to join Nato after the country’s ruling Social Democrats party announced on Sunday it was dropping its long-standing opposition to membership of the bloc.
Swedish prime minister Magdalena Andersson said a formal application to join the military alliance could be made within days, in light of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
At a news conference, she said Sweden would be in a “very vulnerable” position if it did not join, adding: “We believe Sweden needs the formal security guarantees that come with membership in Nato.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2079580.html
“Why Ukraine war has no winners“
Even OhOh finally accepts that Russia and Putin cannot win this “war”.
My, mustn't Puffy feel stoopid today.
Quote:
On Sunday afternoon, President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) announced that Finland will seek to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).
Niinistö formally made the announcement in Finnish, Swedish and English, saying that Finland was entering a new era.
"This is a historic day," said the head of state, noting that he had begun the day by visiting the graves of war dead on Finnish Memorial Day.
"These decisions will strengthen, not weaken, our security," said Marin.
It's official: Finland to apply for Nato membership | News | Yle Uutiset
And...
Quote:
A few hours later, Sweden’s Social Democrats said they had jettisoned their previous opposition to Nato membership, with Moscow’s onslaught on Ukraine looking set to usher in the very expansion of Nato Vladimir Putin claimed he wanted to prevent.
“The best thing for the security of Sweden and the Swedish people is to join Nato,” the prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, told a news conference. “We believe Sweden needs the formal security guarantees that come with membership in Nato.”
She said non-alignment had served Sweden well but “will not do so in the future”. Sweden would be “vulnerable” as the only country in the Baltic region outside Nato, she said, adding that Stockholm hoped to submit a joint application with Helsinki.
Finland and Sweden confirm intention to join Nato | Finland | The Guardian
Yet again Russia helps other countries band together . . . what a fucking idiotic place, now and historically
Russia's Winning Ways - Financial
THE LORDS devious gas, oil and other yet to be defined commodities/products, payment rules applicable to "unfriendly" countries.
Previous Foreign imposed oil and gas supply system:
1. Russian gas/oil supplier opens a Euro/US$, the currencies acceptable to both parties and in the contract terms and conditions, account in a Foreign Bank
2. A Foreign gas/oil company orders some gas/oil, from the Russian gas/oil supplier.
3. Russia supplies the gas/oil to the Foreign gas/oil company storage tanks.
4. A foreign gas/oil company deposits Euros in the Russian Gas supplier's Euro/US$ account in a Foreign bank.
Business Gas Supplier | Commercial Gas from Gazprom Energy
Result:
Foreign countries, place sanctions on and break their contracts, with Russian suppliers and steal Russian Euro/US$ deposited in Foreign banks.
Russia imposed and accepted by most foreign countries, new gas/commodity/products purchasing system:
1. Foreign, gas, oil and other yet to be defined commodities/products, companies open two bank accounts, in a designated Russian Bank. One a Euro/US$ account, the second a Rouble account. The currencies acceptable to both parties and in the contract terms and conditions.
2. Foreign company orders gas, oil and other yet to be defined commodities/products.
3. Russian bank converts the Euro/US$ to Roubles, in a Russian bank, in Russia.
4. The Roubles are in a Russian bank
5. Russia supplies the gas, oil and other yet to be defined commodities/products, to the European companies.
Result:
Russian gas, oil and other yet to be defined commodities/products, are paid for the delivered gas, oil and other yet to be defined commodities/products, and the amount due is in the Russian bank in Roubles. Impossible to sanction and steal
The Russian Rouble becomes a much more international traded currency.
The Russian Rouble exchange rate rises, due to its additional demand/required payment currency, by foreign companies.
Russian Roubles cannot be sanctioned if foreign companies choose to buy Russian produced gas, oil and other yet to be defined commodities and products.
One may ask why Russian didn't demand this system previously. I suspect they were not in a commercial position to do so then.
Now they are.
Dollar falls below 62 rubles on Moscow Exchange first time since January 2020
19 May, 16:27
By 12:01 Moscow time, the dollar fell by 2.45%, the euro fell by 3.07%
MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/.
"The dollar fell below 62 rubles on the Moscow Exchange for the first time since January 2020.
As of 11:48 Moscow time, the dollar fell by 2.31% to 61.98 rubles. By 12:01 Moscow time, the dollar accelerated its decline to 61.89 rubles (-2.45%). The euro fell to 64.65 rubles (-3.07%).
At the same time, the MOEX index lost 0.54% and reached 2,432.13 points. The RTS index rose by 2.07% to 1,237.61 points."
https://tass.com/economy/1453137
18 May, 22:41
Azovstal fighters tell about treatment they receive in hospital after surrender
All soldiers have received medical aid and have been provided with water and food
MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/.
"Russia’s Defense Ministry has released a video showing the hospital in Novoazovsk, where captive Ukrainian soldiers, who surrendered at the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, are undergoing medical treatment.
"I’m being treated OK. I’m not being subjected to any physical or psychological violence," Viktor Shaposhnikov, a member of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, is saying, adding that his injured leg has been examined.
The video is showing hospital wards with captive soldiers. They all have received medical aid and have been provided with water and food, the soldiers are saying.
"The conditions and attitudes are excellent. I have no complaints," Daniil Zhuchenko, who was injured in his leg, is saying. "I’m receiving assistance, medical aid, and having a rest. They said, after six months of rehabilitation I’ll be OK.".
https://tass.com/defense/1452851
Posted on May 18, 2022 by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
Biden returns to time past in the Gulf
"The extraordinary sight of the Biden administration’s entire foreign and security policy establishment representing Washington on the occasion of the passing away of the emir of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan conveys a powerful message. Decoding that message may seem deceptively simple.
The US delegation led by Vice President Kamala Harris included Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, Climate Envoy John Kerry, and CIA Director Bill Burns. Prima facie, this excessive act signals a keen desire to improve relations with the UAE, which has been an anchor sheet of US regional strategies for decades.
Biden realises that the US’ regional policy has withered away during his presidency. Candidate Biden passionately advocated the promotion of democracy and human rights but is now backtracking after the UAE and Saudi Arabia began pushing back.
Biden is aghast that his predecessor Donald Trump is still the toast of the town for the sheikhs who are pining for the latter’s return in 2024. The Wall Street and the military-industrial complex is unhappy that Biden may kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Biden is also annoying Israel and the Gulf Arab allies over his decision to engage with Iran. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are disillusioned that the US is unable or unwilling to protect them from the Houthis of Yemen.
Of course, Biden is not to be blamed entirely. The neoconservatives in his team do not understand Arabs. Perhaps, this was the first time ever that a Saudi Crown Prince shouted down a visiting US National Security Advisor — for broaching human rights issues with him and seeking accountability for Jamal Khashoggi’s killing.
This is not a cultural issue really, as other Western leaders do rather well in the region. French President Emmanuel Macron has done remarkably well, even snatching a massive multi-billion dollar deal for fighter jets with the UAE, right from Biden’s nose-tip while Blinken made Abu Dhabi’s burgeoning ties with China a pre-condition for moving forward on arms supplies.
In strategic terms, in fairness to Biden, geopolitics also became volatile. No matter the denouement in Ukraine, West Asian countries are in no mood to help the US to “erase” Russia. Like the ASEAN, the GCC won’t take sides. But unlike in southeast Asia, the US has a massive military presence in West Asia. Indeed, this is a crisis situation.
Meanwhile, Washington went haywire assuming that West Asia is no longer a priority as the Indo-Pacific strategy became the al-consuming concern. This fallacy has been upended overnight, as Biden’s obsessive need to isolate and weaken Russia critically depends on destroying the OPEC+ which Moscow uses with devastating effect to coordinate with the oil producing countries. Oil trade is Russia’s main source of income, and the higher the price of oil, the more buoyant Kremlin politics becomes. West Asian oil is crucial for weaning Europe away from its heavy dependence on Russian energy.
The West Asian countries have so far stonewalled Washington’s entreaties and continue to work with Russia in the OPEC+ format. The OPEC warns against any EU oil sanctions against Russia. (The UAE foreign minister visited Moscow after the Russian operation began in Ukraine.)
Of course, petrodollar is a key pillar of the western banking system and props up the dollar as the world currency. However, Saudi Arabia is already discussing part of its huge oil trade with China to be conducted in yuan currency and Egypt plans to issue bonds in yuan. The UAE has a currency swap arrangement with China.
Thus, Biden decided that a reset with the UAE is an imperative need. The big question is about the calibration of the reset. The high-level delegation sent to Abu Dhabi shows where the administration’s priorities. Washington is reiterating emphatically the US’ commitment to the security of the UAE. This translates as future weapons sales as well as assuaging the UAE’s security concerns. Will this prioritisation go far enough to meet the Saudi-Emirati expectation of an Article 5 type formal security guarantee by Washington? That is the million dollar question. There is no question that the UAE has profound issues with the restoration of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran and the lifting of sanctions.
But then, if the US concludes a formal Article 5 security agreement with the UAE, there is bound to be similar demand from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc. And as it is, the US is overstretched in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. Make no mistake, Saudi Arabia is also tiptoeing toward a historic transition. The paradox is, Washington also worries that the Saudis and Emiratis may well turn to China and Russia for future weapons sales, which would further weaken the US’ regional influence in West Asia.
Fundamentally, there is a contradiction here. The big message coming out of the dispatch of such a high-level delegation to Abu Dhabi is that the Biden Administration is returning to the old strategies pivoted on the US’ alliance with Israel, the UAE and Saudi Arabia where the leitmotif is the containment of Iran. How this pans out bears watch, given Iran’s close ties with Russia (and China.)
Israel’s deconfliction arrangement with Russia in Syria has unravelled following its somersault on Ukraine (under US pressure.) Surely, it isn’t a coincidence that for the first time, Russia fired the S-300 missiles to thwart an Israeli attack on Syria even as a high-level US delegation was visiting the region.
The bottom line is that the US-Russia confrontation in Ukraine is casting shadows on West Asian region. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov implied in a remark yesterday that the US, an “unfriendly” in Moscow’s description so far is more appropriately called a “hostile” country. It is against such a complex backdrop that the Biden administration’s attempt to reset the US’ ties with the UAE, a major West Asian ally, needs to be weighed.
The presence of Austin and Burns in Harris’ delegation — way beyond the protocol requirement — will be carefully noted in Moscow. They are the kingpins of Biden’s strategy to “bleed” Russia and weaken it forever on the world stage"
Biden returns to time past in the Gulf - Indian Punchline
Stupid Indian.
if Biden really thought it was that important he would have gone himself.
Sh. Khalifa has been dead for a while, and MBZ has been running the show and kept it quiet because - once again - the Presidency of the UAE will not rotate is it is supposed to.
Not that any fucker will argue, Scabby Dhabi has most of the oil.
OhWoe postingQuote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
https://media1.giphy.com/media/2zoIm...giphy.gif&ct=g
Russia Rewrites the Art of Hybrid War
Pepe Escobar
May 20, 2022
Hybrid War is being fought predominantly in the economic/financial battleground – and the pain dial for the collective West will only go up.
"The ironclad fictional “narrative” imposed all across NATOstan is that Ukraine is “winning”.
So why would weapons peddler retrofitted as Pentagon head Lloyd “Raytheon” Austin literally beg since late February to have his phone calls answered by Russian Defense Minister Shoigu, only to have his wish finally granted?
It’s now confirmed by one of my top intel sources. The call was a direct consequence of panic. The United States Government (USG) by all means wants to scotch the detailed Russian investigation – and accumulation of evidence – on the US bioweapon labs in Ukraine, as I outlined in a previous column.
This phone call happened exactly after an official Russian statement to the UN Security Council on May 13: we will use articles 5 and 6 of the Convention on the Prohibition of Bioweapons to investigate the Pentagon’s biological “experiments” in Ukraine.
That was reiterated by Under Secretary-General of the UN in charge of disarmament, Thomas Markram, even as all ambassadors of NATO member countries predictably denied the collected evidence as “Russian disinformation”.
Shoigu cold see the call coming eons away. Reuters, merely quoting the proverbial “Pentagon official”, spun that the allegedly one-hour-long call led to nothing. Nonsense. Austin, according to the Americans, demanded a “ceasefire” – which must have originated a Siberian cat smirk on Shoigu’s face.
Shoigu knows exactly which way the wind is blowing on the ground – for Ukrainian Armed Forces and UkroNazis alike. It’s not only the Azovstal debacle – and Kiev’s all-around army breakdown.
After the fall of Popasnaya – the crucial, most fortified Ukrainian stronghold in Donbass – the Russians and Donetsk/Luhansk forces have breached defenses along four different vectors to north, northwest, west and south. What’s left of the Ukrainian front is crumbling – fast, with a massive cauldron subdivided in a maze of mini-cauldrons: a military disaster the USG cannot possibly spin.
Now, in parallel, we can also expect full exposure – on overdrive – of the Pentagon bioweapons racket. The only “offer you can’t refuse” left to the USG would be to present something tangible to the Russians to avoid a full investigation.
That’s not gonna happen. Moscow is fully aware that going public with illegal work on banned biological weapons is an existential threat to the US Deep State. Especially when documents seized by the Russians show that Big Pharma – via Pfizer, Moderna, Merck and Gilead – was involved in several “experiments”. Fully exposing the whole maze, from the start, was one of Putin’s stated objectives.
More “military-technical measures”?
Three days after the UN presentation, the board of the Russian Foreign Ministry held a special session to discuss “the radically changed geopolitical realities that have developed as a result of the hybrid war against our country unleashed by the West – under the pretext of the situation in Ukraine – unprecedented in scale and ferocity, including the revival in Europe of a racist worldview in the form of cave Russophobia, an open course for the ‘abolition’ of Russia and everything Russian.”
So it’s no wonder “the aggressive revisionist course of the West requires a radical revision of Russia’s relations with unfriendly states.”
We should expect “a new edition of the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation” coming out soon.
This new Foreign Policy Concept will elaborate on what Foreign Minister Lavrov once again stressed at a meeting honoring the 30th Assembly of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy: the US has declared an all-round Hybrid War on Russia. The only thing lacking, as it stands, is a formal declaration of war.
Beyond the disinformation fog veiling the application of Finland and Sweden – call them the Dumb and Dumber Nordics – to join NATO, what really matters is another instance of declaration of war: the prospect of missiles with nuclear warheads stationed really close to Russian borders. Moscow already warned the Finns and Swedes, politely, that this would be dealt with it via “military-technical measures”. That’s exactly what Washington – and NATO minions – were told would happen before the start of Operation Z.
And of course this goes much deeper, involving Romania and Poland as well. Bucharest already has Aegis Ashore missile launchers capable of sending Tomahawks with nuclear warheads at Russia, while Warsaw is receiving the same systems. To cut to the chase, if there’s no de-escalation, they will all eventually end up receiving Mr. Khinzal’s hypersonic business card.
NATO member Turkey, meanwhile, plays a deft game, issuing its own list of demands before even considering the Nordics’ gamble. Ankara wants no more sanctions on its purchase of S-400s and on top if be re-included in the F-35 program. It will be fascinating to watch what His Master’s Voice will come up with to seduce the Sultan. The Nordics engaged in a self-correcting “clear unequivocal stance” against the PKK and the PYD is clearly not enough for the Sultan, who relished muddying the waters even more as he stressed that buying Russian energy is a “strategic” issue for Turkey.
Counteracting financial Shock’n Awe
By now it’s evidently clear that open-ended Operation Z targets unipolar Hegemon power, the infinite expansion of vassalized NATO, and the world’s financial architecture – an intertwined combo that largely transcends the Ukraine battleground.
Serial Western sanctions package hysteria ended up triggering Russia’s so far quite successful counter-financial moves. Hybrid War is being fought predominantly in the economic/financial battleground – and the pain dial for the collective West will only go up: inflation, higher commodity prices, breakdown of supply chains, exploding cost of living, impoverishment of the middle classes, and unfortunately for great swathes of the Global South, outright poverty and starvation.
In the near future, as insider evidence surfaces, a convincing case will be made that the Russian leadership even gamed the Western financial gamble/ blatant robbery of over $300 billion in Russian reserves.
This implies that already years ago – let’s say, at least from 2016, based on analyses by Sergey Glazyev – the Kremlin knew this would inevitably happen. As trust remains a rigid foundation of a monetary system, the Russian leadership may have calculated that the Americans and their vassals, driven by blind Russophobia, would play all their cards at once when push came to shove – utterly demolishing global trust on “their” system.
Because of Russia’s infinite natural resources, the Kremlin may have factored that the nation would eventually survive the financial Shock’n Awe – and even profit from it (ruble appreciation included). The reward is just too sweet: opening the way to The Doomed Dollar – without having to ask Mr. Sarmat to present his nuclear business card.
Russia could even entertain the hypothesis of getting a mighty return on those stolen funds. A great deal of Western assets – totaling as much as $500 billion – may be nationalized if the Kremlin so chooses.
So Russia is winning not only militarily but also to a large extent geopolitically – 88% of the planet does not align with NATOstan hysteria – and of course in the economic/financial sphere.
This in fact is the key Hybrid War battleground where the collective West is being checkmated. One of the next key steps will be an expanded BRICS coordinating their dollar-bypassing strategy.
None of the above should overshadow the still to be measured interconnected repercussions of the mass surrender of Azov neo-Nazis at UkroNazistan Central in Azovstal.
The mythical Western “narrative” about freedom-fighting heroes imposed since February by NATOstan media collapsed with a single blow. Cue to the thunderous silence all over the Western infowar front, where no mutts even attempted to sing that crappy, “winning” Eurovision song.
What happened, in essence, is that the creme de la creme of NATO-trained neo-Nazis, “advised” by top Western experts, weaponized to death, entrenched in deep concrete anti-nuclear bunkers in the bowels of Azovstal, was either pulverized or forced to surrender like cornered rats.
The Russian General Staff will be adjusting their tactics for the major follow-up in Donbass – as the best Russian analysts and war correspondents incessantly debate. They will have to face an inescapable problem: as much as the Russian methodically grind down the – disaggregated – Ukrainian Army in Donbass, a new NATO army is being trained and weaponized in western Ukraine.
Novorossiya as a game-changer
So there is a real danger that depending on the ultimate long-term aims of Operation Z – which are only shared by the Russian military leadership – Moscow runs the risk of encountering, in a few months, a mobile and better weaponized incarnation of the demoralized army it is now destroying. And this is exactly what the Americans mean by “weakening” Russia.
As it stands, there are several reasons why a new Novorossiya reality may turn out to be a positive game-changer for Russia. Among them:
- The economic/logistics complex from Kharkov to Odessa – along Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Kherson, Nikolaev – is intimately linked with Russian industry.
- By controlling the Sea of Azov – already a de facto “Russian lake” – and subsequently the Black Sea, Russia will have total control of export routes for the region’s world-class grain production. Extra bonus: total exclusion of NATO.
- All of the above suggests a concerted drive for the development of an integrated agro-heavy industry complex – with the extra bonus of serious tourism potential.
Under this scenario, a remaining Kiev-Lviv rump Ukraine, not incorporated to Russia, and of course not rebuilt, would be at best subjected to a no-fly zone plus selected artillery/missile/drone strikes in case NATO continues to entertain funny ideas.
This would be a logical conclusion for a Special Military Operation focused on precision strikes and a deliberate emphasis on sparing civilian lives and infrastructure while methodically disabling the Ukrainian military/logistics spectrum. All of that takes time. Yet Russia may have all the time in the world, as we all keep listening to the sound of the collective West spiraling down."
https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...of-hybrid-war/
Pepe should write Op-Eds for the NYT. :) But really, I hope cooler, wiser heads are thinking how to get our collective selves out of this mess.