I just have to keep on asking the questions why Russians don't ask themselves: "Where is all the money?"Quote:
Originally Posted by bsnub
Usually (Russian) Bears only hibernate over the winter. Looks like this one doesn't want to wake up.
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I just have to keep on asking the questions why Russians don't ask themselves: "Where is all the money?"Quote:
Originally Posted by bsnub
Usually (Russian) Bears only hibernate over the winter. Looks like this one doesn't want to wake up.
Berlusconi has ‘reconnected’ with Putin, sent him wine and a ‘sweet letter,’ according to report – POLITICO
Turds of a feather flock together
Silvio Berlusconi has “reconnected” with Vladimir Putin and described himself as one of the Russian president’s “five real friends,” according to an audio recording published in Italian media.
The former Italian prime minister was speaking at a meeting of his Forza Italia party in parliament during discussions on forming a new government,
La Presse reported. In the audio clip, Berlusconi says he is worried about Italy’s relationship with Russia as “ministers have said that we are already at war with them because we provide arms and funding to Ukraine.”
He then adds: “I have rekindled my relationship with President Putin, a bit.”
According to Berlusconi, the two exchanged birthday gifts (Berlusconi turned 86 on September 29, Putin turned 70 on October 7).
“For my birthday he sent me 20 bottles of vodka and a very sweet letter,” Berlusconi can be heard saying in the audio clip. “I replied with bottles of Lambrusco and an equally very sweet letter.”
He adds: “I have been one of his first five real friends.” (Klodyk, Sabang,Oh Ho and Medvedev?)
According to local media, Berlusconi denied the alleged resumption of relations with Putin. “President Berlusconi told parliamentarians an old story about an episode dating back many years,” said a statement from Forza Italia, la Repubblica reported.
Ahead of the Italian election late last month, Berlusconi defended Putin, saying the Russian leader just wanted to replace Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government with “decent people.”
Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister in waiting, has been at pains to distance herself from Russia, describing Moscow’s invasion as an “unacceptable large-scale act of war by Putin’s Russia against Ukraine” and advocating sending weapons to the government in Kyiv.
Boris Bondarev is the only Russian diplomat to have resigned from his post after Moscow launched a military invasion of Ukraine. The former adviser to Russia’s Geneva-based United Nations mission now lives under Swiss protection. He spoke to SWI swissinfo.ch* about his decision and the ongoing war.
This content was published on September 7, 2022 - 11:00September 7, 2022 - 11:00
Boris Bondarev: the Kremlin sees Switzerland as under US orders - SWI swissinfo.ch
Read all about it. :chitown:
Does nothing to prevent the demolishing of your shit narratives. I repeat...Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
I think the two pieces of the article below smash the false narratives pushed on here by the Three Stooges, and coming from a guy who until the invasion this year was a Russian diplomat. The first piece destroys the argument that sanctions do not work when they clearly crippled the Russian military since way back in 2014.
The second renders impotent the argument that there should be a negotiated truce of some sort.
Game. Set. Match to those shit fallacies.
Quote:
But as an export official, I could see that the West’s economic restrictions had serious repercussions for the country. The Russian military industry was heavily dependent on Western-made components and products. It used U.S. and European tools to service drone engines and motors. It relied on Western producers to build gear for radiation-proof electronics, which are critical for the satellites Russian officials use to gather intelligence, communicate, and carry out precision strikes. Russian manufacturers worked with French companies to get the sensors needed for our airplanes. Even some of the cloth used in light aircraft, such as weather balloons, was made by Western businesses. The sanctions suddenly cut off our access to these products and left our military weaker than the West understood. But although it was clear to my team how these losses undermined Russia’s strength, the foreign ministry’s propaganda helped keep the Kremlin from finding out. The consequences of this ignorance are now on full display in Ukraine: the sanctions are one reason Russia has had so much trouble with its invasion.
Quote:
Over the course of the war, Western leaders have become acutely aware of Russia’s military’s failings. But they do not seem to grasp that Russian foreign policy is equally broken. Multiple European officials have spoken about the need for a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine, and if their countries grow tired of bearing the energy and economic costs associated with supporting Kyiv, they could press Ukraine to make a deal. The West may be especially tempted to push Kyiv to sue for peace if Putin aggressively threatens to use nuclear weapons.
But as long as Putin is in power, Ukraine will have no one in Moscow with whom to genuinely negotiate. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will not be a reliable interlocutor, nor will any other Russian government apparatus. They are all extensions of Putin and his imperial agenda. Any cease-fire will just give Russia a chance to rearm before attacking again.
There’s only one thing that can really stop Putin, and that is a comprehensive rout. The Kremlin can lie to Russians all it wants, and it can order its diplomats to lie to everyone else. But Ukrainian soldiers pay no attention to Russian state television. And it became apparent that Russia’s defeats cannot always be shielded from the Russian public when, in the course of a few days in September, Ukrainians managed to retake almost all of Kharkiv Province. In response, Russian TV panelists bemoaned the losses. Online, hawkish Russian commentators directly criticized the president. “You’re throwing a billion-ruble party,” one wrote in a widely circulated online post, mocking Putin for presiding over the opening of a Ferris wheel as Russian forces retreated. “What is wrong with you?”
I've never trusted the swiss since they bankrolled Klaus Barbie's defence.
They will support anyone that keep their blood money cartel going.
It does not change the facts that were in the article you posted. Totally smashes Sabangs shit narratives.Quote:
Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
^^ Based on one single dissenters opinion. That's you all over snubs. :rofl:
You fucking moron, Harry posted the article that smashed your shit narrative. You really are looking like a fool. Again.Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
They probably do. They just don't do it out loud lest they are served a cup of glowing tea.Quote:
Originally Posted by HermantheGerman
As War Hits the Homefront, Russia’s Defeat Inches Closer
OCTOBER 19, 2022, 10:45 AM
By many accounts, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is already a colossal failure. The confirmed losses of destroyed and abandoned tanks and other armor alone exceed the entire army of a decent-sized Central or Eastern European country, and the rate of loss doesn’t look likely to be reversed anytime soon. Citing sources close to the Kremlin, Russian independent media has reported 90,000 irrecoverably lost soldiers, including battlefield and hospital deaths plus injuries severe enough to prevent them from ever fighting again. These losses now exceed those incurred during Russia’s wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya, politically devastating conflicts that left deep scars on Russian society that have still not healed today. What’s more, it took Russia 10 years to accumulate its losses in Afghanistan, whereas it has only been fighting in Ukraine for eight months.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “partial mobilization,” which he recently promised will be over in two weeks just before the regular annual military draft begins, has also been a failure on all levels. Russian social media is full of clips of fresh conscripts facing squalor in hastily thrown up tents and cold abandoned barracks without food, uniforms, sanitation, equipment, or commanders, left to fend for themselves or survive on parcels brought by their relatives. As men are grabbed from the streets and sent right to the front with only a cursory training course at best, their relatives are expected to cough up money for basic items that are supposed to be provided by the army, such as first-aid kits or winter clothes.
For hundreds of thousands of Russian families, the war is not only an immediate threat to their livelihoods, as sole breadwinners are thrown into battles without regard for their dependents, but also a massive economic burden. On Telegram, chat groups with hundreds of members are popping up where wives and fiancés exchange tips on where to buy armor and helmets on the cheap while sharing their growing desperation about the chaotic nature of mobilization.
None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who’s been watching Russia. Generals have always treated their military districts as personal fiefdoms and conscripts like serfs existing for the sole purpose of their higher-ups’ enrichment. Ironically, one of the loudest pro-war critics of the Russian Defense Ministry for mismanagement of resources is former Army Gen. Andrey Gurulyov, now a member of the Russian Duma under U.S. sanctions. During his time as a military commander, Gurulyov was himself charged with “labor slavery” involving conscripts. The charges were dismissed, and he went on several tours in Syria. It’s far from an isolated case.
Putin’s final and irreversible retreat from Ukraine wouldn’t be the first time post-Soviet Russia has admitted a humiliating military defeat.
Corruption lies at the heart of the Russian military’s dysfunction on and off the battlefield. BBC News Russian found at least 559 documentable cases of criminal loss of property in the army since 2014, when Russia first invaded Ukraine. Quartermasters have pilfered uniforms, boots, winter gear, and sleeping bags by the truckload. Hundreds of thousands of uniforms that were supposed to go to the newly mobilized have suddenly been reported as missing. Corruption goes all the way down the chain of command. The scale of extortion by local commanders of the newly mobilized appears to be so large that even popular pro-war bloggers are complaining about it.
Investigative reporters and anti-corruption activists have documented the extravagant palaces owned by Russia’s military elite, only to be jailed or driven to exile for their work. Now, some pro-Kremlin bloggers are adopting the same rhetoric, but it’s too little and too late to salvage Russia’s war in Ukraine. Even if their pleas are taken seriously in the Kremlin, a country cannot launch a complete top-to-bottom overhaul of its military, including replacement of the leadership and the sacking of thousands of officers, while in the middle of an all-out war.
Russia’s military disaster will therefore continue to unfold. And it’s getting much closer to many Russians at home, for whom the war has been something between television entertainment and a distant rumble. Until the start of Putin’s mobilization on Sept. 21, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and their surrounding regions were largely spared from providing soldiers for the war, which was crucial for upholding the optics of life carrying on as “normal” for middle-class Russians. Meanwhile, ethnically non-Russian regions provided the cannon fodder, not least because the military was long one of the few dependable sources of income there. As a result, men from Dagestan, Buryatia, and Russia’s Far East have dominated the casualty lists, especially when one compares the number of deaths in relation to the total population.
No matter what they tell pollsters—and whether they support Putin’s imperial war or not—it’s clear that the majority of Russian men don’t want to go anywhere near the front. If they did, they’d have joined the “volunteer” battalions set up since the Ukrainians first beat back the Russians in March, battalions that mostly failed to materialize. And the Russian Defense Ministry wouldn’t be having such a hard time reaching even the initially announced target of 300,000 new conscripts.
What’s more, mobilization has irrevocably broken the social contract wedding Russians to their regime, a modicum of stability and prosperity in exchange for complete disengagement from politics. Even the most loyal servants of the regime do not appear to be safe now, as demonstrated by the mobilization of one of the department heads at the Moscow mayor’s office. Russian social media is brimming with videos of police rounding up men for mobilization at offices, markets, and metro stations. The scale of it is impossible to ignore, and belies initial attempts by the regime’s propagandists on television and elsewhere to dismiss it as isolated cases of a few overzealous draft officers.
Now, it’s glaringly obvious that the indiscriminate rounding up is a feature, not a bug, of Putin’s attempt to plug in the holes on the front in Ukraine. Body bags containing the remains of the freshly mobilized—often inexperienced and untrained—are already returning to Russia. Meanwhile, military installations and infrastructure in Belgorod, a Russian city some 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian border where many of the mobilized are being assembled, is now under daily shelling by Ukraine. The entire myth of Putin’s infallibility is coming apart: Russia’s much vaunted military prowess, the “stability” he promised in his first terms as president, the supposedly omnipotent propaganda which is now forced to make U-turns and admit previously unthinkable retreats, the “power vertical” now torn apart by infighting among Putin’s associates, and a population lined up behind its president.
What does this mean going forward? Putin’s final and irreversible retreat from Ukraine seems like a fantastical notion. But it wouldn’t be the first time post-Soviet Russia has admitted a humiliating military defeat. In the mid-1990s, Russia was beaten by a much smaller force in the First Chechen War, after launching an ill-thought out assault on Grozny, Chechnya’s capital, based on poor intelligence and sheer hubris. As hard a hit as it was to their imperial pride, leading politicians and media figures found it in themselves to say to the Russian public: The war is over and we lost. Many of those people are still around today, including top military commanders like Anatoly Kulikov, who managed the ceasefires and retreats.
If that precedent offers some hope that reason and reality could again prevail, it also serves as a warning. Defeat in Chechnya set off a wave of ultranationalist resentment, the same obsession with humiliation and revenge that infuses Putin’s speeches about Ukraine and defines so much of the Russian debate today. Unless Russia faces a national reckoning after losing the war in Ukraine—something akin to Germany’s reinvention after World War II—the cycle of imperial resentment and revanchism will only repeat itself.
As War Hits the Homefront, Russia's Defeat Inches Closer
Posted on October 22, 2022 by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
Russia’s homage to Nord Stream pipelines
"David Brinkley, the legendary American newscaster with a career that spanned an amazing fifty-four years from World War II once said that a successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. How many American statesmen ever practised this noble thought inherited from Jesus Christ remains doubtful.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stunning proposal to Turkish President Recep Erdogan to build a gas pipeline to Turkiye to create an international hub from which Russian gas can be supplied to Europe breathes fresh life into this very “Gandhian” thought.
Putin discussed the idea with Erdogan at their meeting in Astana on October 13 and since spoke about it at the Russian Energy Week forum last week where he proposed creating the largest gas hub in Europe in Turkey and redirecting the volume of gas, the transit of which is no longer possible through the Nord Stream, to this hub.
Putin said it may imply building another gas pipeline system to feed the hub in Turkiye, through which gas will be supplied to third countries, primarily European ones, “if they are interested.”
Prima facie, Putin does not expect any positive response from Berlin to his standing proposal to use the string of the Nord Stream 2, which remained undamaged, to supply 27.5 billion cu. metres of gas through the winter months. Germany’s deafening silence is understandable. Chancellor Off Scholz is terrified about President Biden’s wrath.
Berlin says it knows who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines but won’t reveal it as it affects Germany’s national security! Sweden too pleads that the matter is far too sensitive for it to share the evidence it has collected with any country, including Germany! Biden has put the fear of God into the minds of these timid European “allies” who have been left in no doubt what is good for them! The western media too is ordered to play down Nord Steam saga so that with the passage of time, public memory will fade away.
However, Russia has done its homework that Europe cannot do without Russia gas, the present bravado of self-denial notwithstanding. Simply put, the European industries depend on cheap, reliable supplies of Russian for their products to remain competitive in the world market.
Qatar’s energy minister Saad al-Kaabi said last week that he cannot envisage a future where “zero Russian gas” flows to Europe. He noted acerbically, “ If that’s the case, then I think the problem is going to be huge and for a very long time. You just don’t have enough volume to bring (in) to replace that (Russian) gas for the long term, unless you’re saying ‘I’m going to be building huge nuclear (plants), I’m going to allow coal, I’m going to burn fuel oils.’”
Quintessentially, Russia plans to replace its gas hub in Haidach in Austria (which Austrians seized in July.) Conceivably, the hub in Turkiye has a ready market in Southern Europe, including Greece and Italy. But there is more to it than meets the eye.
Succinctly put, Putin has made a strategic move in the geopolitics of gas. His initiative rubbishes the hare-brained idea of the Russophobic European Commission bureaucrats in Brussels, headed by Ursula von der Leyen, to impose a price cap on gas purchases. It makes nonsense of the US’ and EU’s plans to put down Russia’s profile as a gas superpower.
Logically, the next step for Russia should be to align with Qatar, the world’s second biggest gas exporter. Qatar is a close ally of Turkey, too. At Astana recently, on the sidelines of the summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), Putin held a closed-door meeting with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. They agreed to follow up with another meeting soon in Russia.
Russia already has a framework of cooperation with Iran in a number of joint projects in the oil and gas industry. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak recently disclosed plans to conclude an oil and gas swap deal with Iran by the end of the year. He said that “technical details are being worked out – issues of transport, logistics, price, and tariff formation.”
Now, Russia, Qatar and Iran together account for more than half of the world’s entire proven gas reserves. Time is approaching for them to intensify cooperation and coordination on the pattern of the OPEC Plus. All three countries are represented in the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).
Putin’s proposal appeals to Turkiye’s longstanding dream to become an energy hub at the doorstep of Europe. Unsurprisingly, Erdogan instinctively warmed up to Putin’s proposal. Addressing the ruling party members in the Turkish parliament this week, Erdogan said, “In Europe they are now dealing with the question of how to stay warm in the coming winter. We don’t have such a problem. We have agreed with Vladimir Putin to create a gas hub in our country, through which natural gas, as he says, can be delivered to Europe. Thus, Europe will order gas from Turkey.”
Apart from strengthening own energy security, Turkiye also can contribute to Europe’s. No doubt, Turkiye’s importance will take a quantum leap in the EU foreign policy calculus, while also strengthening its strategic autonomy in regional politics. This is a huge step forward in Erdogan’s geo-strategy — the geographic direction of Turkish foreign policy under his watch.
From the Russian viewpoint, of course, Turkiye’s strategic autonomy and its grit to pursue independent foreign policies works splendidly for Moscow in the present conditions of western sanctions. Conceivably, Russian companies will start viewing Turkiye as a production base where western technologies become accessible. Turkiye has a customs union agreement with the EU, which completely removes customs duties on all industrial goods of Turkish origin. (See my blog Russia-Turkey reset eases regional tensions, Aug 9, 2022)
In geopolitical terms, Moscow is comfortable with Turkiye’s NATO membership. Clearly, the proposed gas hub brings much additional income to Turkiye and will impart greater stability and predictability to the Russia-Turkey relations. Indeed, the strategic links that tie the two countries together are steadily lengthening — the S-400 ABM deal, cooperation in Syria, the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, Turk-stream gas pipeline, to name a few.
The two countries candidly admit that they have differences of opinion, but the way Putin and Erdogan through constructive diplomacy keep turning adverse circumstances into windows of opportunity for “win-win” cooperation is simply amazing.
It does need ingenuity to get the US’ European allies source Russian gas without any coercion or boorishness even after Washington buried the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the depths of the Baltic Sea. There is dramatic irony that a NATO power is partnering Russia in this direction.
The US foreign policy elite drawn from East European stock are rendered speechless by the sheer sophistication of the Russian ingenuity to bypass without any trace of rancour the shabby way the US and its allies — Germany and Sweden, in particular — slammed the door shut on Moscow to even take a look at the damaged multi-billion dollar pipelines that it had built in good faith in the depths of the Baltic Sea at the instance of two German chancellors, Gerhard Schroeder and Angela Merkel.
The current German leadership of Chancellor Olaf Scholz looks very foolish and cowardly– and provincial.
The European Commission’s Ursula von der Leyen gets a huge rebuff in all this which will ultimately define her tragic legacy in Brussels as a flag carrier for American interests.
This becomes probably the first case study for historians on how multipolarity will work in the world order. "
https://www.indianpunchline.com/russ...eam-pipelines/
More putin arse kissing from the jingly gobshite-for-hire.
Not a bad article about the actual Vlad Putin-
Portrait of Power - Claremont Review of Books (Full article).
Quote:
Though he is a competent politician capable of delivering well-received speeches, Russia’s president has never relished public adulation: he lacks the charisma of the demagogue. Despite various successes and a few notable failures in the foreign policy realm—and at the time of this writing it is not yet clear where the Ukraine war will fall on this spectrum—Putin is also a less visionary statesman than his admirers believe. Nor is Putin an especially original thinker. Certainly he is more cunning, more genuinely curious about the world and how it really works, and consequently more effective, than most Western statesmen today. But that is an embarrassingly low bar in the age of mediocrities like Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macron, and Olaf Scholz. The closer one looks at Putin and his political career, the less remarkable he appears. Putin is at his core a quintessential Russian state servant, a career bureaucrat who ascended to national leadership because of his more mundane qualities, not because of any that made him stand out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
I remember this clearlyQuote:
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing more than 300, injuring more than 1,000, and spreading a wave of fear across the country. The bombings, together with the Invasion of Dagestan, triggered the Second Chechen War.[1][2] The handling of the crisis by Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time, boosted his popularity greatly and helped him attain the presidency within a few months.
The blasts hit Buynaksk on 4 September and in Moscow on 9 and 13 September. On 13 September, Russian Duma speaker Gennadiy Seleznyov made an announcement in the Duma about receiving a report that another bombing had just happened in the city of Volgodonsk. A bombing did indeed happen in Volgodonsk, but only three days later, on 16 September. Chechen militants were blamed for the bombings, but denied responsibility, along with Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov.
And somehow I believe it
Here it was easily "forgotten" cause we were afterall talking chechens(muslims).
He is a cynic, in my opinion, and this is his 'goodnight read':
Attachment 94270
I'm guessing this thread us divided into two parts, bafflingly so:
Putin is dangerous:
No: sabang, ohwoe, backspit
Yes: fairly well the rest of the world
Putin is far from being Machiavellian, he is a KGB thugQuote:
Originally Posted by helge
Putin Appointed 'Chief Exorcist' as Kremlin Whips up Satanic Panic
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been named "chief exorcist" by the head of the country's Orthodox Church as the Kremlin seeks to redefine the goals of its invasion of Ukraine.
Putin, when he invaded the neighboring country on February 24, used the term "denazification," saying that was the goal of his so-called "special military operation," but now his security council is shifting to the phrase "desatanization."
Aleksey Pavlov, assistant secretary of the security council of the Russian Federation, is now calling for the "desatanization" of Ukraine, saying that there were "hundreds of sects" in the country where citizens have abandoned Orthodox values.
"I believe that, with the continuation of the special military operation, it becomes more and more urgent to carry out the desatanization of Ukraine," Pavlov said, according to state-run Russian news agency Tass.
"Using internet manipulation and psychotechnologies, the new regime turned Ukraine from a sovereign state to a totalitarian hypersect," said Pavlov.
The Russian politician added that, in Ukraine, "there are hundreds of sects, sharpened for a specific goal and flock."
Pavlov said he is particularly concerned about the "Church of Satan", which allegedly "spread across Ukraine" and "is one of the officially registered religions in the United States."
Pavlov said he sees manifestations of "satanism" in "calls to kill Russians" and that these are welcomed at the state level.
He said that the Kyiv government is forcing citizens to abandon Orthodox values, and is working "reformat" the minds of Ukrainian citizens, to force them to abandon centuries-old traditions, to ban the true values that the Orthodox faith, Islam and Judaism carry.
When Putin said in September that he had annexed four territories in Ukraine following sham referendums, he accused Western nations of "outright Satanism."
"The dictatorship of the Western elites is directed against all societies, including the peoples of the Western countries themselves. This is a challenge to all," Putin said.
"This is a complete denial of humanity, the overthrow of faith and traditional values. Indeed, the suppression of freedom itself has taken on the features of a religion: outright Satanism."
Since then, the term has been used more frequently on Russian state TV, while Putin's staunch ally, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, has branded the conflict as a holy war against Satanism.
On Tuesday, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, called Putin "a fighter against the Antichrist" or "chief exorcist," according to local news outlets.
Kirill said that Putin is fighting against the manifestation of globalism, and "the name of the one who will claim global power will be associated with the end of the world."
Kirill told Russian citizens not to be afraid of death amid Putin's decision to mobilize reserve troops to fight in Ukraine.
"Go bravely to fulfill your military duty. And remember that if you lay down your life for your country, you will be with God in his kingdom, glory and eternal life," he said in a sermon at the Zachatyevsky Monastery in Moscow on September 22.
Kirill has justified Putin's decision to invade Ukraine in February on spiritual and ideological grounds.
Putin Appointed 'Chief Exorcist' as Kremlin Whips up Satanic Panic
Sounds very much likeQuote:
Originally Posted by misskit
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...npdomjan14.jpg
Its good that we get all viewpoints on TD, it gives an insight into posters' mental state . . .
^ Who is that?
Grigori Rasputin.
I'm guessing with a name like that he drools everywhere whenever Putin rings his metaphorical bell.Quote:
Originally Posted by misskit
A bit like the wanketeers really.
Rasputin, a mad monk, who basically dictated policy to the Czar and Czarina . . . obviously with disastrous consequences.Quote:
Originally Posted by misskit
Russians, same old same old
Quote:
Originally Posted by misskit
Mozambique has chosen Russia as its partner for Graphite mining, and the heartbroken US still waits
by Bishnu Rathi
October 25, 2022
in Africa, Geopolitics, Global Issues
"The rising importance of Mozambique in the global scale cannot be denied. Mozambique has been among the fastest growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa over the last 20 years, with average annual real GDP growth of 7.4 percent. Various indicators of human development progress—such as GDP per capita, poverty headcount, and life expectancy—have significantly improved. This strong performance was aided by the determined implementation of credible macroeconomic policies and structural reforms, a favorable external environment, donor support, and in recent years, the discovery and exploitation of natural resources.
Scramble for Mozambique resources:
Africa in general and Mozambique in particular are part of a burgeoning conflict between the United States and China. Mozambique was one of five African countries invited to the US-convened Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken launched on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week on September 22 in New York. The MSP is part of the United States’ effort to gain control of essential minerals for the renewable energy transition, many of which are now mostly produced in China. Blinken specifically mentioned the graphite mine in Balama, Mozambique.
“Graphite from this mine will soon be sent for further processing to a plant in Louisiana, where it will create more jobs and where it will provide graphite used for batteries by American electric vehicle companies,” he said in a recent interview.
US hopes get dashed:
However, everything is not in order for the United States. Workers at the Balama graphite mine, as well as 100 workers at the adjoining Ancuabe graphite mine were on strike on the same day Blinken revealed America’s intentions to exploit resources in Mozambique. Work was halted at both mines. Miners claim they are paid less than the $162 monthly mining minimum pay. Local workers first went on strike in Balama, demanding wage parity with staff brought in from outside, as well as perks such as health insurance. There are also concerns that if more people are relocated by the new graphite mines, an uprising will be fostered, as it was with those displaced by the ruby mines.
Don’t be fooled; it’s entirely possible that the recent anti-US backlash in Mozambique was sanctioned by the Maputo government.
You see, recently, the United States and Mozambique have broken ties. The US attempted to warn African countries not to engage with US-sanctioned Russia. America attempted to divide several African nations’ foreign policies by telling them who to buy from and who not to buy oil and other critical commodities from. However, many African countries, notably Mozambique, refused to submit to American diktats. African governments emphasised their independence in foreign policy decisions. Furthermore, Mozambique’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy stated that the government may purchase Russian oil in Roubles.
“I am sure that we will study and verify the feasibility of this offer [from Russia]. If it is viable, for sure [Russian oil] will be acquired” in roubles, Carlos Zacarias said.
To be certain, this is only a minor component of the wider picture of growing camaraderie between Russia and Mozambique.
The southern African country abstained on two resolutions voted on by the United Nations General Assembly, one condemning Russia for the humanitarian situation in Ukraine caused by the war and the other suspending Moscow from the Human Rights Council.
Furthermore, Moscow has accelerated the process of forging stronger economic and security relations with Mozambique.
Valentina Matviyenko, the Russian Federation’s ‘Federation Council’ Speaker, led a delegation of prominent and experienced Russian senators on a reciprocal visit to Maputo, Mozambique, a few months ago. The group met with the Legislative Assembly, the Russia-Mozambique Parliamentary Friendship League, and ultimately with Mozambique’s President, Filipe Nyusi. The discussions centred on Russia-Ukraine ties as well as key topics of Russia-Mozambique bilateral relations.
However, in the context of bilateral economic collaboration, the Mozambican Head of State expressed satisfaction with Russia’s willingness to strengthen bilateral cooperation with Mozambique, particularly in the economic and social areas.
During meetings with Mozambican leader Filipe Nyusi, Speaker Valentina Matviyenko spoke to the need to improve commerce between Russia and Mozambique, which amounted to around US$109 million in the previous year, and assessed trade as being considerably below its potential. Matvienko also encouraged the Mozambican government to designate priority areas for expanding cooperation.
All in all, the fantasy of the Biden administration to fill its coffers by exploiting Mozambique is in shreds. For long, Africans have put up with the discriminatory treatment they receive from Western countries. African political and economic systems have always been annexes to global political and economic systems, lagging behind in global socioeconomic and political advancement for ages. However, they are now retaliating against the condescending and paternalistic attitude of Western nations. African countries are aware of the value of self-determinism and self-sufficiency in the cotemporary politico-economic environment. They will form coalitions based on their national interests. American neocolonialist dreams of puppeteering Africa would remain a delusion."
https://tfiglobalnews.com/2022/10/25...s-still-waits/
Hey Oh Doh, how come you have hidden your repo?.
The board had lit you up nice and red for the coming festive season. :)
The colour too easily identifies him as a Mainland Chinese pretending to be 'British' and 'Canadian'.Quote:
Originally Posted by hallelujah
Putin: ‘The Situation Is, to a Certain Extent, Revolutionary’
Pepe Escobar
October 28, 2022
Putin in fact did nail where we are: on the edge of a Revolution.
"In an all-encompassing address to the plenary session of the 19th annual meeting of the Valdai Club, President Putin delivered no less than a devastating, multi-layered critique of unipolarity.
From Shakespeare to the assassination of Gen Soleimani; from musings on spirituality to the structure of the UN; from Eurasia as the cradle of human civilization to the interconnection of BRI, SCO and the INSTC; from nuclear dangers to that peripheral peninsula of Eurasia “blinded by the idea that Europeans are better than others”, the address painted a Brueghel-esque canvas of the “historical milestone” facing us, in the middle of “the most dangerous decade since the end of WWII.”
Putin even ventured that, in the words of the classics, “the situation is, to a certain extent, revolutionary” as “the upper classes cannot, and the lower classes do not want to live like this anymore”. So everything is in play, as “the future of the new world order is being shaped before our eyes.”
Way beyond a catchy slogan about the game the West is playing, “bloody, dangerous and dirty”, the address and Putin’s interventions at the subsequent Q&A should be analyzed as a coherent vision of past, present and future. Here we offer just a few of the highlights:
“The world is witnessing the degradation of world institutions, the erosion of the principle of collective security, the substitution of international law for ‘rules’”.
“Even at the height of the Cold War, nobody denied the existence of the culture and art of the Other. In the West, any alternative point of view is declared subversive.”
“The Nazis burned books. Now the Western fathers of ‘liberalism’ are banning Dostoevsky.”
“There are at least two ‘Wests’. The first is traditional, with a rich culture. The second is aggressive and colonial.”
“Russia has not and does not consider itself an enemy of the West.
Russia tried to build relations with the West and NATO – to live together in peace and harmony. Their response to all cooperation was simply ‘no’.”
“We do not need a nuclear strike on Ukraine, there is no point – neither political nor military.”
“In part” the situation between Russia and Ukraine can be considered a civil war: “When creating Ukraine, the Bolsheviks endowed it with primordially Russian territories – they gave it all of Little Russia, the entire Black Sea region, the entire Donbass. Ukraine evolved as an artificial state.”
“Ukrainians and Russians are one people – this is a historical fact. Ukraine has evolved as an artificial state. The only country that can guarantee its sovereignty is the country which created it – Russia.”
“The unipolar world is coming to an end. The West is incapable of single-handedly ruling the world. The world stands at a historical milestone ahead of the most dangerous and important decade since World War II.”
“Humanity has two options – either we continue accumulating the burden of problems that is certain to crush all of us, or we can work together to find solutions.”
What do we do after the orgy?Amidst a series of absorbing discussions, the heart of the matter at Valdai is its 2022 report, “A World Without Superpowers”.
The report’s central thesis – eminently correct – is that “the United States and its allies, in fact, no longer enjoy the status of dominant superpower, but the global infrastructure that serves it is still in place.”
Of course all major interconnected issues at the current crossroads were precipitated because” Russia became the first major power which, guided by its own ideas of security and fairness, chose to discard the benefits of ‘global peace’ created by the only superpower.”
Well, not exactly “global peace”; rather a Mafia-enforced ethos of “our way or the highway”. The report quite diplomatically characterizes the freezing of Russia’s gold and foreign currency reserves and the “mop up” of Russia’s property abroad as “Western jurisdictions”, “if necessary”, being “guided by political expediency rather than the law”.
That’s in fact outright theft, under the shadow of the “rules-based international order”.
The report – optimistically – foresees the advent of a sort of normalized “cold peace” as “the best available solution today” – acknowledging at least this is far from guaranteed, and “will not halt the fundamental rebuilding of the international system on new foundations.”
The foundation for evolving multipolarity has in fact been presented
by the Russia-China strategic partnership only three weeks before imperially-ordered provocations forced Russia to launch the Special Military Operation (SMO).
In parallel, the financial lineaments of multipolarity had been proposed since at least July 2021, in a paper co-written by Professor Michael Hudson and Radhika Desai.
The Valdai report duly acknowledges the role of Global South medium-sized powers that “exemplify the democratization of international politics” and may “act as shock absorbers during periods of upheaval.” That’s a direct reference to the role of BRICS+ as key protagonists.
On the Big Picture across the chessboard, the analysis tends to get more realistic when it considers that “the triumph of ‘the only true idea’ makes effective dialogue and agreement with supporters of different views and values impossible by definition.”
Putin alluded to it several times in his address. There’s no evidence whatsoever the Empire and its vassals will be deviating from their normative, imposed, value-laden unilateralism.
As for world politics beginning to “rapidly return to a state of anarchy built on force”, that’s self-evident: only the Empire of Chaos wants to impose anarchy, as it completely ran out of geopolitical and geoeconomic tools to control rebel nations, apart from the sanctions tsunami.
So the report is correct when it identifies that the childish neo-Hegelian “end of history” wet dream in the end hit the wall of History: we’re back to the pattern of large scale conflicts between centers of power.
And it’s also a fact that “simply changing the ‘operator’ as it happened in earlier centuries” (as in the U.S. taking over from Britain) “just won’t work.”
China might harbor a desire to become the new sheriff, but the Beijing leadership definitely is not interested. And even if that happened the Hegemon would fiercely prevented it, as “the entire system” remains “under its control (primarily finance and the economy).”
So the only way out, once again, is multipolarity – which the report characterizes, rather vaguely, as “a world without superpowers”, still in need of “a system of self-regulation, which implies much greater freedom of action and responsibility for such actions.”
Stranger things have happened in History. As it stands, we are plunged deep into the maelstrom of complete collapse.
Putin in fact did nail where we are: on the edge of a Revolution"
https://strategic-culture.org/news/2...revolutionary/
Sounds like something a Russian would have written prior to Putin ordering his assassination.Quote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
Putin 'under threat' as rising Kremlin star confronts him in tense face-to-face meeting
A mercenary chief, thought to be a potential successor to Vladimir Putin, confronted the Russian leader face-to-face and criticised his mismanagement of the war in Ukraine, according to US intelligence.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the brutal private army, the Wagner Group, has challenged Vladimir Putin face-to-face over the failings in the war in Ukraine. The rare act of defiance, revealed by US intelligence reports, shows the growing influence of Mr Prigozhin within Kremlin circles. The mercenary chief and close Kremlin confidant is believed to have confronted President Putin himself about the mismanagement of the war, according to American intelligence officials.
According to US intelligence sources, the tense confrontation was seen as significant enough to include in the daily briefing provided to US President Joe Biden.
During the meeting, the Wagner Group chief took particular aim at Russia's Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, as he tries to oust him.
He has regularly criticised the Russian military effort under Mr Shoigu in the past month while calling for more funding to be directed to his mercenary group.
Earlier this week, the Institute of the Study of War (ISW) suggested that Mr Prigozhin's rise and the success of Wagner in Ukraine could "pose a threat to Putin's rule."
The ISW report said: "Prigozhin continues to accrue power and is setting up a military structure parallel to the Russian Armed Forces, which may come to pose a threat to Putin's rule."
They added that Wagner's victories on the battlefield were “undermining the authority” of Russian President Putin.
Mr Prigozhin's mercenary army is the only Russian force in Ukraine which is seizing land, following a series of setbacks for the national army.
In recent days, Wagner mercenaries have led the efforts to capture Bakhmut, a strategic town in the Donetsk region.
Russian soldiers have deployed artillery to pummel the town, which is key for Ukraine’s supply lines.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the relentless strikes on Bakhmut showed Moscow’s “craziness”.
In a nightly address, Mr Zelensky said: “Day after day, for months, they have been driving people there to their deaths, concentrating the maximum power of artillery strikes there."
Samuel Ramani, a defence analyst, said President Putin desperately "needs the optics of some kind of an offensive victory to assuage critics at home and to show the Russian public that this war is still going to plan".
Vladimir Putin at risk of Kremlin coup as Wagner chief confronts him over bungling war | World | News | Express.co.uk
WHAT IS NEXT? Is there life after Putin? How does he go and who replaces him?” Such are the questions that weigh heavily these days on the minds of the Russian elite, its bureaucrats and businessmen, as they observe the Ukrainian army advancing, talented people fleeing Russia and the West refusing to back down in the face of Vladimir Putin’s energy and nuclear blackmail. “There is a lot of swearing and angry talk in Moscow restaurants and kitchens,” one member of the elite says. “Everyone has realised that Putin has blundered and is losing.”
This does not mean that Mr Putin is about to bow out, be overthrown or fire a nuclear weapon. It does mean that those who run the country and own assets there are losing confidence in their president. Russia’s political system appears to be entering the most turbulent period of its post-Soviet history. Western governments, too, are starting to worry that Russia could become ungovernable.
“Never before has Vladimir Putin been in such a situation in the 23 years of his rule,” says Kirill Rogov, a Russian political analyst. In the past, when confronted by difficult situations such as the loss of the submarine Kursk and its 118 crew members in 2000, or an appalling school siege in 2004 that ended with the deaths of 333 people, he managed to deflect responsibility and retain his image as a strong leader. “Now he is planning and executing operations that are visibly failing.”
The invasion of Ukraine on February 24th was a shock to the Russian establishment, which had persuaded itself that Mr Putin would not risk full-scale war. But the mixture of his initial, if limited, military advances, the absence of an economic collapse in Russia, and early attempts at peace negotiations calmed nerves. (Heavy drinking may also have helped; it became so acute that Mr Putin started to complain in public about alcoholism.) Some members of the elite even, for a while, persuaded themselves that Mr Putin could not lose.
This view has been shattered by Mr Putin’s “partial” mobilisation. It showed that his “special military operation” was faltering; and, by drafting more troops, he was seen to be dragging the country deeper into the conflict. And as a mass exodus and extensive draft-dodging have shown, his attempt to turn his venture into a new “Great Patriotic War” has so far failed. The mobilisation has broken the basic premise of the public’s acquiescence to the war: that it would not demand its active participation. In Moscow, Russia’s richest city, where men were being press-ganged in the streets, the mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, felt compelled on October 17th to announce that conscription was over. Other regions, with less lobbying power, will have to make up the shortfall.
Mr Putin cannot win his war, for from the very start it had no clear goals; and, having lost so much, he cannot end it without being deeply humiliated. Even if the fighting in Ukraine were to cease, a return to peaceful pre-war life is all but impossible under his belligerent presidency. Meanwhile, the economy is starting to show the effects of sanctions and of the exodus of the most skilled and educated members of the workforce; consumer confidence is on the slide.
A ceremony on September 30th, in which, after a ranting speech against the West, Mr Putin annexed four provinces in Ukraine that he does not actually control, was so absurd that it probably undermined his aura of strength even within Russia. As Tatyana Stanovaya, a political consultant, puts it: “Until September, the Russian elites had made the pragmatic choice to support Putin…but matters have progressed so far that they may now have to choose among various losing scenarios.”
A military defeat might well lead to the collapse of the regime, with all the associated risks for those who have supported it. Mr Putin’s bellicosity meanwhile “raises the question of whether the Russian elites are prepared to stick with Putin until the bitter end, particularly amid growing threats to use nuclear weapons,” Ms Stanovaya notes. Mr Putin has gone from being a perceived source of stability to one of instability, and danger. This week Ksenia Sobchak, reputed to be Mr Putin’s god-daughter, fled ahead of arrest, a sign that the elite is now devouring its own.
Abbas Galyamov, a political analyst who has spent time in the Kremlin, argues that in the next few weeks and months the elite, whose members have always trusted Mr Putin’s ability to preserve his regime (and them), will realise that it is up to them to save it and even their own lives. This, he says, will intensify the search for a possible successor within the system.
Mr Galyamov’s list of potential candidates includes Dmitry Patrushev, the son of Nikolai Patrushev, who is the head of the Security Council and one of the chief ideologues of the regime. Mr Patrushev junior is a former minister. Though part of the family, he could be seen as a fresh face because of his youth. More familiar possibilities include Sergei Kiriyenko, the deputy chief of staff at the Kremlin; Mr Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow; and Mikhail Mishustin, the prime minister, who could make an alliance with some of the security men and play the role of a moderate negotiator with the West.
Yet, as Alexei Navalny, Russia’s jailed opposition leader, argued recently in the Washington Post, the hope that “Mr Putin’s replacement by another member of his elite will fundamentally change this view on war, and especially war over the ‘legacy of the USSR’, is naive at the very least.” The only way to stop the endless cycle of imperial nationalism, Mr Navalny argued, is for Russia to decentralise power and turn itself into a parliamentary republic. In what looked like an appeal to the Russian elite, Mr Navalny argued that parliamentary democracy is also a rational and desirable choice for many of the political factions around Mr Putin. “It gives them an opportunity to maintain influence and fight for power while ensuring that they are not destroyed by a more aggressive group.”
This “more aggressive group” has already started to emerge. It includes Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former criminal known as “Putin’s chef”, who runs a group of mercenaries called the Wagner group, and Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman of Chechnya, who has his own private army. Both men are seen as personally loyal to Mr Putin. Ekaterina Schulmann, a political scientist, has likened Mr Prigozhin’s men to oprichniki—a corps of bodyguards established by Ivan the Terrible—who have plunged the country into chaos. Russia’s dictator wants to turn Ukraine into a failed state. Instead, he is fast turning Russia into one.
Russia’s elite begins to ponder a Putinless future | The Economist
Don't tell me you read that BS?Quote:
Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
The first line?Quote:
Originally Posted by HermantheGerman
Yes.
It only takes that long.
You can see why Puffy is all upset.
Attachment 94419
2 Nov, 03:43Updated at: 06:41
UN committee adopts Russian draft resolution on prevention of arms race in space
The resolution drew support from 124 delegations, while 48 voted against it and 9 abstained.
UNITED NATIONS, November 1. /TASS/.
"The UN General Assembly First Committee on Tuesday adopted Russia’s draft resolution on Further Practical Measures for the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space.
The resolution drew support from 124 delegations, while 48 voted against it and 9 abstained. The resolution is now expected to be considered by a full General Assembly in December. The document underscores the importance of taking urgent measures in order to forever prevent the deployment of weapons in the outer space, use of force or threat of force in the outer space, from space against Earth and from Earth against objects in space. The document calls on all states to achieve via negotiations corresponding legally binding multilateral agreements.
The UN General Assembly First Committee approved the Russian draft resolution "No first placement of weapons in outer space." The document was supported by 123 delegations, with 50 voting against and 4 abstaining. The draft document is now expected to be reviewed by the General Assembly’s full membership in December.
The document was co-authored by 18 other states. It calls to promptly begin a substantial work based on the updated version of the 2008 draft agreement on prevention of deployment of weapons in space, use of force or threat of force against space objects, introduced by Russia and China. It reaffirms the need for examination and adoption of practical measures during development of agreements for prevention of an arms race in the outer space.
The committee approved without a vote the Russian draft resolution on Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures in Outer Space Activities.
The committee also adopted the Russian draft resolution "Transparency and confidence-building measures in outer space activities" without a vote. The document states that the UN Secretary General must inquire about opinions and proposals of member states on practical implementation of transparency measures, contained in the 2013 report of Group of government experts on transparency and trust-building measures in space."
UN committee adopts Russian draft resolution on prevention of arms race in space - World - TASS
Putin? Transparency?Quote:
The document states that the UN Secretary General must inquire about opinions and proposals of member states on practical implementation of transparency measures
:smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing: :smileylaughing:
except russia's elite is comprised of the FSB and criminal organisations who are all beholden to putinQuote:
Originally Posted by bsnub
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...putin-s-people
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
Say it ain't Smo Oh Ho, A photo saya a thousand word I hope this aint your wife or gf
https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?...id=94534&stc=1
Indeed.Quote:
Originally Posted by david44
Many of whom have lost lots of money because of his stupid, pointless invasion.Quote:
Originally Posted by baldrick
Remember Mussolini, Ceausescu, Caesar, etc.
Many oligarchs are taking a breather in their other homeland, Israel.Quote:
Originally Posted by baldrick
SureQuote:
Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
Heard about themQuote:
Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
What is your point ?
Hardly 'many', to be fair . . . ah, to have a passport of convenience - but they are still tracked and blocked from entering many countries based on having Russian citizenship and being part of the 'clan'.Quote:
Originally Posted by helge
I bet that there is atleast 20 jews in that "elite"Quote:
Originally Posted by panama hat