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  1. #2776
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Japan Tightens Sanctions Against Russia Following Deadly Missile Strikes In Ukraine

    TOKYO – Following Russia’s most recent round of missile assaults in Ukraine, Japan reinforced sanctions against it on Friday by adding more items to a list of exports that are prohibited and seizing the property of Russian officials and groups.


    The choice was made after Russia began missile attacks in Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 11 people.


    Germany and the United States had already promised to provide Ukraine with tanks to assist it in fending off any more Russian offensives.


    According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, Japan would adopt export restrictions in line with other major countries “in light of the circumstances surrounding Ukraine and support international efforts to maintain peace.”

    Japan will start banning exports to 49 groups in Russia on February 3 as part of the new restrictions, which might be used to strengthen Russia’s military prowess.


    According to the ministry, these will include items like robots, X-ray inspection equipment, explosives, and robotics and items like water cannons, gas exploration equipment, and semiconductor equipment.


    JSC Irkut Corp, MMZ Avangard, Mikhail Mizintsev, the deputy defense minister, Konstantin Chuychenko, and 14 pro-Moscow persons connected to the “annexation”.


    Of the areas of the southeast Ukraine region are among the 22 individuals and three businesses whose assets Japan would also freeze in Russia.

    Japan Tightens Sanctions Against Russia Following Deadly Missile Strikes In Ukraine

  2. #2777
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    This wunderwaffen talk holds no sway with me
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    hypersonic missiles





    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    Japan Tightens Sanctions Against Russia Following Deadly Missile Strikes In Ukraine
    Fairly well no-one likes them . . . what a surprise

  3. #2778
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    The West Calls Putin's Bluff

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kremlin officials have warned multiple times over the 11 months since the invasion of Ukraine started that Western inference could result in an escalation. However, the United States and other Western allies of Ukraine have repeatedly crossed Putin's supposed red lines.

    "If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will without doubt use all available means to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff," Putin said in September address while the U.S. continued providing Ukraine with more armaments to fight on territory illegitimately annexed by Putin.

    More recently, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov provided such a warning about arming Ukraine in December. He said, "Weapon supplies continue, the assortment of supplied weapons is expanding. All this, of course, leads to an aggravation of the conflict and, in fact, does not bode well for Ukraine."

    If anything, the weapons coming to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from the West escalated after Peskov's remarks. This week alone, President Joe Biden took the large step of saying the U.S. will provide Ukraine with 31 M1 Abrams tanks. His announcement came on the same day that Germany confirmed it would give Ukrainian forces 13 Leopard 2 tanks.

    Kremlin officials and Russian state-controlled media outlets responded to the news of the tanks with outrage. But George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government professor Mark N. Katz told Newsweek that the message from the West was clear: Putin's rhetoric wasn't going to cause them to back down.

    "Putin's redlines are designed to deter Western states from crossing them, but Putin has not been able to prevent the West from crossing several of them," Katz said.

    Lawrence C. Reardon, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, told Newsweek, "There is a growing global perception that Russian leaders resemble the boy that cried wolf."

    He added, "When Russian forces are under pressure, Putin indirectly talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons to defend Russia, especially to defend the newly annexed areas of southeast Ukraine such as the Crimea."

    Reardon said that while Western leaders haven't taken Putin's words as fact, they nevertheless likely don't take Russia's nuclear capabilities—or the chance of an angry Putin using them in Ukraine—for granted.

    "Thus, the recent hesitance by Berlin and Washington to provide sophisticated tanks is not just related to the difficulty of Ukraine absorbing these tanks into their fighting forces, but also a fear of escalating the conflict," he said. "But western leaders are not crying wolf and no doubt have warned Putin that NATO will rapidly escalate involvement should Putin resort to tactical nuclear weapons."

    Katz noted that "Putin and his cronies have already declared that Russia is at war with NATO or the 'Collective West,' not just Ukraine."

    "The U.S. and NATO do seem to take seriously the possibility that there are some things Ukraine might do which could result in Putin escalating the conflict," he said.

    Another reason why Ukraine's Western allies may feel emboldened in their support of Ukraine is that Russia for the most part has stumbled in its war efforts, according to Katz.

    "If Putin's forces are not doing so well against Ukraine, it is hard to see how they can do better by escalating the conflict by attacking any NATO member," he said.

    https://www.newsweek.com/west-calls-...-bluff-1776840

  4. #2779
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    Tanks for Ukraine Have Shifted the Balance of Power in Europe

    When the German and U.S. governments finally agreed this week to supply some of their most formidable battle tanks to Ukraine, the balance of power within Europe perceptibly shifted. For months, President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, fearing an escalation of conflict between the West and Russia, had stubbornly put off Ukrainian requests for the powerful, highly maneuverable vehicles, and the European states most directly vulnerable to Russian aggression—in Scandinavia, the Baltic region, and Central and Eastern Europe—had grown more and more frustrated with Washington and Berlin. Finally, the smaller countries had had enough. In an impressive show of diplomatic muscle, they forced NATO’s two greatest powers to take a step that Biden and especially Scholz have clearly been afraid of taking.

    The episode is a reminder that a security alliance isn’t just a means for major powers, such as the U.S. or Germany, to amplify their own influence by drawing on the forces of smaller nations. In this case, some of NATO’s smaller members and partners understand the Russian threat far more clearly than the U.S. or Germany does, because they don’t have the option of complacency.

    Since the start of the war, Germany and the U.S. have tried to give Ukraine enough military aid to perform well on the battlefield, but not so much that the Ukrainians can drive Russian forces out of all of occupied Ukraine—including areas that Russia occupied in 2014. Washington and Berlin have kept sending the same mixed signals: Russia cannot win the war, and Ukraine cannot be allowed to lose, but in the end, the defenders might have to make some significant concessions to the invaders to secure a peace deal.

    That message has sounded more and more discordant to states to Germany’s north and east. The longer the war has gone on, and the more grotesque the crimes and destruction that the Russian government has been willing to commit against its neighbor and ostensible “little brother,” Ukraine, the more these states have become convinced that Russia must not only be denied a victory but be defeated outright. During the 20th century, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were incorporated into the Soviet Union against their will. Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia were ruled as Soviet vassals during the Cold War. These countries’ leaders instinctively understand the threat of Russian imperialism, and take Moscow’s rhetoric about national expansion and greatness as the menace that it is. They want to see Russian power broken.

    Four Nordic countries—Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway—all have their own well-established reasons for unease about Russia. After World War II, Finland and Sweden opted for (or felt obliged to opt for) a neutral stance in the Cold War, staying out of NATO and hoping that, in exchange, Moscow would respect their independence. Norway uncomfortably shares a border with Russia. Denmark, which controls access to the Baltic Sea, has long had to contend with the presence of Russian military force.

    When all of these states saw how easily and with what brutality Vladimir Putin ripped up the post-1945 rule book, embarking on an unnecessary war of national expansion while openly discussing the cultural genocide of another people, their old inhibitions dropped away.

    Finland might be the most remarkable member of this new coalition. For decades, Helsinki studiously avoided doing anything to offend the Soviet Union, to the point that Finlandization became shorthand for when a smaller country partially acquiesces to a larger power in the hope of avoiding too much interference in its own internal affairs. However, as soon as Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Finnish government reacted with vigor. It quickly applied for NATO membership—which is almost sure to be granted, regardless of the recent stance of the Turkish and Hungarian governments. Of all world leaders, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has expressed the need to counter the Russian threat most bluntly. She has regretted European Union weakness in opposing Russian actions in Ukraine since 2014 and said that Ukrainian membership in NATO would have prevented the present crisis. She has openly called for Russia’s defeat, saying that its withdrawal from Ukrainian territory is “the way out of the conflict.” Without hesitation, she recently tied her own country’s security to Ukraine’s. “We don’t know when the war will end, but we have to make sure that the Ukrainians will win,” Marin said. “I don’t think there’s any other choice. If Russia would win the war, then we would only see decades of this kind of behavior ahead of us.”

    Similar sentiments are coming out of Warsaw, Tallinn, Stockholm, and other capitals in Eastern and Northern Europe. If anything, these governments’ positions have been hardening. The Baltic states, which have consistently given the largest percentage of their defense budgets to aid Ukraine, worked together to persuade Germany to give its advanced Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine. Sweden, maybe most surprisingly, raised the pressure noticeably with a pledge to give the Ukrainians its highly accurate Archer artillery system.

    For a while, the U.S. and Germany refused to budge. The Biden administration promised a large number of fighting vehicles, including Bradley armored personnel carriers, but not the Abrams battle tank. Berlin hemmed and hawed, even throwing up new and unexpected conditions on the transfer of Leopards to Ukraine by allied governments. As the NATO states were gathering at Ramstein Air Base in Germany late last week to discuss their latest Ukraine-aid packages, Scholz’s government was insisting that it could not provide Leopards to Ukraine until the U.S. first offered its own battle tanks. This position created the impression in many circles that Berlin was still desperate to protect its relationship with Moscow.

    But other European countries simply would not let up. In what became known as the Tallinn Pledge, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands joined NATO states in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia in calling for Russia to be pushed out of all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea and other areas occupied before last February 24. Always a leader in the anti-Russian coalition, Poland formally asked Germany to let it convey its own Leopards to Ukraine, and other states discussed doing so even without requesting permission.

    Faced with this open revolt, in a breathtaking two days, the U.S. and Germany caved. In addition to granting other nations’ requests, Germany started planning on directly transferring tanks of its own. Then, Biden publicly offered 31 Abrams tanks. Other European states, including Portugal and Spain, immediately piled on with offers of even more tanks.

    A new force has emerged in Europe. By acceding to their smaller allies’ demands, Germany and the U.S. are belatedly recognizing a slow but relentless shift in the Western approach toward Russia—which is being determined not in Washington or Berlin but in the capitals of countries that, until recently, have been seen as junior partners. Moreover, these new drivers of European security strategy are unlikely to ease up. They are among Europe’s richest and fastest-growing economies and have some of the continent’s best-equipped militaries. Plus, they will always have Russia close by, and that reality alone will keep them focused.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...a-nato/672859/

  5. #2780
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    At the Pentagon, push to send F-16s to Ukraine picks up steam

    Excellent news!

    A contingent of military officials is quietly pushing the Pentagon to approve sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to help the country defend itself from Russian missile and drone attacks, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.

    Ukraine has kept American-made F-16s on its weapons wish list since the Russian invasion last year. But Washington and Kyiv have viewed artillery, armor and ground-based air defense systems as more urgent needs as Ukraine seeks to protect civilian infrastructure and claw back ground occupied by Russian forces.

    As Ukraine prepares to launch a new offensive to retake territory in the spring, the campaign inside the Defense Department for fighter jets is gaining momentum, according to a DoD official and two other people involved in the discussions. Those people, along with others interviewed for this story, asked not to be named in order to discuss internal matters.


    Spurred in part by the rapid approval of tanks and Patriot air defense systems — which not long ago were off-limits for export to Ukraine — there is renewed optimism in Kyiv that U.S. jets could be next up.

    “I don’t think we are opposed,” said a senior DoD official about the F-16s, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive debate. The person stressed that there has been no final decision.

    However, Ukraine has yet to declare that fighter jets are its top priority, the official stressed, noting that the Pentagon is focused on sending Kyiv the capabilities it needs for the immediate fight.

    But fighter jets may be moving to the top spot soon. Kyiv has renewed its request for modern fighters in recent days, with a top adviser to the country’s defense minister telling media outlets that officials will push for jets from the U.S. and European countries.

    A top Ukrainian official said Saturday that Ukraine and its Western allies are engaged in “fast-track” talks on possibly sending both long-range missiles and military aircraft.

    One adviser to the Ukrainian government said the subject has been raised with Washington, but there has been “nothing too serious” on the table yet. Another person familiar with the conversations between Washington and Kyiv said it could take “weeks” for the U.S. to make a decision on shipments of its own jets and approve the re-export of the F-16s from other countries.

    “If we get them, the advantages on the battlefield will be just immense. ... It’s not just F-16s: fourth generation aircraft, this is what we want,” Yuriy Sak, who advises Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, told Reuters.

    A White House spokesperson declined to comment for this story, but pointed to remarks by deputy national security adviser Jon Finer. He said the U.S. would be discussing fighter jets “very carefully” with Kyiv and its allies.

    “We have not ruled in or out any specific systems,” Finer said on MSNBC Thursday.

    “We have nothing to announce regarding F-16s,” said a DOD spokesperson. “As always, we’ll continue to consult closely with the Ukrainians and our international Allies and partners on Ukraine’s security assistance needs to enable them to defend their country.”

    Ukraine wants modern fighters — U.S. Air Force F-16s or F-15s, or their European equivalents the German Tornado or Swedish Gripen — to replace its fleet of Soviet-era jets. Dozens of the more modern planes will become available over the next year as countries such as Finland, Germany and the Netherlands upgrade to U.S. F-35 fighters.

    Despite the age of Ukraine’s jets, Kyiv’s integrated air defenses have kept Russia from dominating its skies since the Feb. 24 invasion.

    But now, officials are concerned that Ukraine is running out of missiles to protect its skies. Once its arsenal is depleted, Russia’s advanced fighter jets will be able to move in and Kyiv “will not be able to compete,” said the DoD official involved in the discussions.

    Modern fighter jets could be one solution to this problem, argues a group of military officials in the Pentagon and elsewhere. F-16s carry air-to-air missiles that can shoot down incoming missiles and drones. And unlike the Patriots and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems the West is currently sending, fighter jets can move around an area quickly to protect different targets.

    “If they get [F-16] Vipers and they have an active air-to-air missile with the radar the F-16 currently has with some electronic protection, now it’s an even game,” the DoD official said.

    Even if the U.S. decided not to send the Air Force’s F-16s, other Western nations have American-made fighters they could supply. For example, Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Wopke Hoekstra told the Dutch parliament last week that his Cabinet would look at supplying F-16s, if Kyiv requests them. But the U.S. must approve the transfer.

    Senior Pentagon officials acknowledge that Ukraine needs new aircraft for the long term. But for now, some argue that Ukraine has a greater need for more traditional air defenses, such as the Patriots and NASAMs that the U.S. and other countries are supplying, because jets may take months to arrive.

    Sending Ukraine F-16s “does not solve the cruise missile or drone problem right now,” the senior DoD official said.

    Big push for training

    Others say the need for fighter jets is more urgent. Ukraine has identified a list of up to 50 pilots who are ready now to start training on the F-16, according to a DoD official and a Ukrainian official, as well as three other people familiar with the discussions. These seasoned pilots speak English and have thousands of combat missions under their belts, and could be trained in as little as three months, the people said.

    Many of them have already trained with the U.S. military in major exercises before the invasion. In 2011 and 2018, Americans and Ukrainians participated in military drills in the skies over Ukraine.

    In 2011, the Americans brought over their F-16s and taught the Ukrainian pilots, in their MiG-29s and Su-27s, how to protect a stadium in preparation for the 2012 Euro Cup.

    After Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, the U.S. and Ukraine held a second joint 2018 exercise aimed at teaching Ukrainian pilots homeland defense tactics and controlling the skies. The American pilots used their F-15s to replicate Russian fighter tactics.

    Ukraine is pushing the U.S. to start training its fighter pilots on the F-16s now, before President Joe Biden approves supplying the jets, according to the Ukrainian official and one of the people familiar. But there is no appetite in the Pentagon for this proposal, U.S. officials said. One alternative under discussion at lower levels is to start training Ukrainian pilots on introductory fighter tactics in trainer jets.

    Ukraine has also considered contracting with private companies in the U.S. to begin training pilots, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

    It’s likely U.S. military training would not start without a presidential decision to supply American fighters. One concern for the Biden administration all along is that sending advanced weapons could be seen by Russia as an escalation, prompting Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons.

    But officials point out that the F-16 was first built in the 1980s, and the Air Force is already retiring parts of the fleet. While sending Ukraine the stealthy American F-22s or F-35s would be considered escalatory, sending F-16s would not, they said.

    “Let’s face it, a nuclear war isn’t going to happen over F-16s,” the DoD official said.

    One European official agreed, saying F-16s “cannot be considered escalatory.”

    “It’s simply part of the toolkit of having conventional weapons,” the person said.

    Yet F-16s are complex systems that also require massive infrastructure and highly skilled technicians to operate and maintain. Training Ukrainian maintainers would likely take longer than training the pilots, and the U.S. may need to bring in contractors to do some of that instruction.

    Lawmaker support

    Providing F-16s is likely to win some support on Capitol Hill, where Democrats and Republicans alike have chided the administration for not moving quickly enough or for withholding certain capabilities, such as longer-range artillery. Sending Russian-made MiG fighters to Ukraine, via Eastern European countries that still fly them, won bipartisan support, though a weapons swap ultimately never came to fruition.

    Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), who co-chairs the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, said he’s “not against” providing F-16s to Kyiv, but broadly favors providing Ukraine with “whatever works.”

    “You can’t half-ass a war. Putin’s not. You’ve got to meet Putin armor for armor, weapon for weapon, because there’s already an extraordinary disadvantage in number of troops,” Quigley said.

    “Whatever works, whatever they need, send to them.

    “My message when I first started talking about this is what were once vices are now habits,” he said. “Everything we ever proposed was seen as escalatory.”

    But the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), cast doubt on the need to send F-16s into the conflict, where fighters haven’t proved pivotal.

    “I’m not opposed to it,” Smith said. “It’s just not at the top of the list of anybody’s priorities who’s focused on what [weapons] the fight really needs right now.”

    He noted that F-16s, much like older MiG jets debated last year, would be vulnerable to Russian air defenses and fifth-generation fighters. Instead, Smith underscored the need to supply ammunition for air defense batteries, longer-range missiles, tanks and armored vehicles.

    “What we really need to be focused on is air defense, number one,” he said. “And number two, artillery.”

    https://www.politico.com/news/2023/0...raine-00080045

  6. #2781
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    This surpasses the direct involvement in the confrontation Russia and the US had in Afghanistan by far. Not good at all.

  7. #2782
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    Ukraine’s Zelensky sends love letter to US corporations, promising ‘big business’ for Wall Street



    In a video address to a US corporate lobby group, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky thanked companies like BlackRock, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Starlink, insisting “everyone can become a big business by” investing in Ukraine, where “we are defending freedom and property”.

    Ukraine’s Western-backed leader Volodymyr Zelensky sent a love letter to US companies, thanking “such giants of the international financial and investment world as BlackRock, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs” for buying up his country’s assets.

    “Everyone can become a big business by working with Ukraine”, he enticed, claiming that the reconstruction of his nation “will be the largest economic project of our time in Europe”.




    Zelensky likewise praised the Starlink company of billionaire Elon Musk for its technological support, and he called for more Western weapons shipments, including Patriot missiles and Abram tanks.

    The Ukrainian leader delivered these remarks in a January 23 video address to US corporate lobby group the National Association of State Chambers.

    “We are defending freedom and property”, Zelensky declared, portraying the proxy war between NATO and Russia in Ukraine as a battle for the soul of the Western-led capitalist order.

    In a speech to a US corporate lobby group, Ukraine's Zelensky thanked Black Rock, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Elon Musk's Starlink, promising:
    “Everyone can become a big business by” buying up Ukrainian assets
    “We are defending freedom and property”
    More: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/25/ukraines-zelensky-thanks-us-corporations-big-business/ pic.twitter.com/XGZTBab9q9
    — Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 25, 2023


    Zelensky’s government has imposed some of the world’s most aggressive anti-worker policies, passing legislation that “deprives around 73% of workers of their right to union protection and collective bargaining”, which even the US government-funded Solidarity Center of the AFL-CIO labor federation condemned as a “significant assault on worker rights in Ukraine“.

    Zelensky’s staunchly anti-worker, anti-union, and pro-corporate ideology came through clear in the neoliberal rhetoric of the speech he gave to the US chamber of commerce organization.

    He compared governing Ukraine to running a business, and thanked the corporate executives at the conference “for this opportunity to address those who create the globally important economic strength of America”.

    The Ukrainian president’s office published on its official website a transcript of the speech, titled “After the end of the war, American business can become a locomotive of global economic growth”.

    “Thanks to the leadership of the United States of America, which has consolidated the world in defense of freedom, we see how to win this battle”, Zelensky effused.
    The speech sounded less like the words of a stateman and more like an advertisement by a used car salesman – except he is not selling cars; he is selling his country to foreign mega-corporations.

    Zelensky boasted (emphasis added):

    We have already managed to attract attention and have cooperation with such giants of the international financial and investment world as Black Rock, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs.
    Such American brands as Starlink or Westinghouse have already become part of our, Ukrainian, way.
    Your brilliant defense systems – such as HIMARS or Bradleys – are already uniting our history of freedom with your enterprises. We are waiting for Patriots. We are looking closely at Abrams.
    Thousands of such examples are possible!
    And everyone can become a big business by working with Ukraine. In all sectors – from weapons and defense to construction, from communications to agriculture, from transport to IT, from banks to medicine.
    I believe that freedom must always win. And, I invite you to work with us right now.


    In comments clearly seeking to appeal to US conservatives, Zelensky also used the speech to repeatedly condemn “the Iranian regime”, which he demonized as Russia’s “terrorist ally”.

    Zelensky was addressing the 2023 winter meeting of the National Association of State Chambers in Boca Raton, Florida.

    The Indiana Chamber of Commerce tweeted proudly, “Our President Kevin Brinegar is among state chamber leaders at the National Assocation of State Chambers winter meeting in Florida hearing from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He thanked U.S. business leaders for support and for promoting free enterprise”.

    Our President Kevin Brinegar is among state chamber leaders at the National Assocation of State Chambers winter meeting in Florida hearing from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He thanked U.S. business leaders for support and for promoting free enterprise. #ukraine https://t.co/8Ijea6H6mP
    — Indiana Chamber (@IndianaChamber) January 23, 2023


    Ukraine and its Western sponsors plan aggressive neoliberal shock therapy

    In September 2022, Zelensky symbolically rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange via video stream.

    The Ukrainian leader declared that his country was “open for business”, with more than $400 billion in “investment options”.

    At the same time, Zelensky published an editorial in the Wall Street Journal calling on Western corporations to “Invest in the Future of Ukraine”.

    Kiev’s economic ministry launched a program called Advantage Ukraine, which it boasted offers profitable “public private partnerships, privatization and private ventures”, with the help of a “USAID-supported project team of investment bankers and researchers”.

    The Ukrainian government cited corporate executives at Google, Alphabet, and Microsoft, who urged more Western companies to buy up the country’s assets.

    Ukraine’s Zelensky told Wall Street his country is "open" for corporations to exploit it with $400 billion in state selloffs
    Economist Michael Hudson says Ukraine's vicious anti-labor policies are reminiscent of Chile's fascist Pinochet regimehttps://t.co/QconroKORI
    — Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 9, 2022


    Geopolitical Economy Report has also reported on the Ukraine Reform Conference and Ukraine Recovery Conference, meetings in which Western governments and corporations have met with top Ukrainian officials to plan aggressive neoliberal shock therapy – like the kind that was imposed on the Russian Federation in the early 1990s, which led to 3.2 million excess deaths, according to UNICEF.

    In a meeting in Switzerland in July 2022, Western and Ukrainian government representatives published economic blueprints that called for Kiev to cut labor laws, “open markets”, drop tariffs, deregulate industries, and “sell state-owned enterprises to private investors”.

    Zelensky has used the emergency of the war to ram through harsh anti-labor legislation, suspending collective bargaining rights and essentially making it illegal for most workers to form a union.

    Economist Michael Hudson compared Zelensky’s extreme neoliberal policies to those of Chile’s far-right US-backed former dictator Augusto Pinochet.

    Western governments and corporations met in Switzerland to plan harsh neoliberal economic policies to impose on post-war Ukraine, calling to cut labor laws, “open markets,” deregulate industries, and “sell state-owned enterprises to private investors.”https://t.co/J0n8db8ZLr
    — Geopolitical Economy Report (@GeopoliticaEcon) July 29, 2022


    In December 2022, Zelensky held a video conference with billionaire Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager.

    In a press release, the Ukrainian government made it clear that BlackRock is overseeing its reconstruction process.

    Zelensky’s office said BlackRock will “advise the Ukrainian government on how to structure the country’s reconstruction funds”, and is “coordinating the efforts of all potential investors and participants in the reconstruction of our country, channelling investment into the most relevant and impactful sectors of the Ukrainian economy”.

    This means that, under Western tutelage, Ukraine has essentially privatized and outsourced its economic policy to BlackRock, one of the world’s most powerful corporations.

    BlackRock, which manages more than $8 trillion in assets, is a robber baron’s oligopolistic dream. The “big three” US asset managers BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street are the largest shareholders in nearly 90% of S&P 500 companies.




    Ukraine’s vice prime minister and minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, published a video in July 2022 that clearly illustrated Kiev’s neoliberal vision for the future.

    The Ukrainian government’s economic plan looked like a scene out of a libertarian science-fiction film, where everything is privatized and corporations are free to exploit anyone without any regulation.

    Ukraine 2030 — the freest and most digital country in the world. Without bureaucracy, but with strong tech industry. Cashless & paperless. This is the future we are building. pic.twitter.com/XWs4E1pPGJ
    — Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) July 14, 2022

    https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023...-big-business/

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    More crap from another propaganda site.

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    Dalai Lama’s envoy to Russia resigns after being named ‘foreign agent’ for condemning the war in Ukraine

    The Dalai Lama’s representative in Russia, Mongolia, and the CIS countries, Telo Tulku Rinpoche (Erdne Ombadykow), has decided to resign as the Supreme Lama of Kalmykia after the Russian Ministry of Justice named him a “foreign agent.”


    “I wish for the people of Kalmykia and all Buddhists in these difficult times to maintain courage, perseverance, and adherence to the ideals of compassion, love, and non-violence,” he said in a statement.


    The Russian Ministry of Justice declared Erdne Ombadykow a “foreign agent” on January 27. Ombadykow left Russia for Mongolia in the fall of 2022, for political reasons. In October, he said on a YouTube broadcast, “The Ukrainian side, of course, is really right — they’re protecting their country, their land, their truth, their constitution, their people. It’s very difficult to say and to accept that Russia is right and that this war is necessary.”

    Dalai Lama’s envoy to Russia resigns after being named ‘foreign agent’ for condemning the war in Ukraine — Meduza

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    Crimea is shaping up to be the battleground that will decide the Russia-Ukraine war

    The war in Ukraine is poised to become even more violent this year with a major Russian offensive expected and more advanced Western-made weapons pouring in to bolster Ukrainian forces. Along these lines, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg recently warned that the war has entered a "decisive phase."

    This new stage of the war could bring the fight to a territory vital to Russia's military capabilities in Ukraine and cherished by Russian President Vladimir Putin: Crimea.

    The Black Sea peninsula, which was invaded by Russian forces and illegally annexed by Putin in 2014, served as a launchpad for Russia's invasion last February and helped pave the way for Russian forces to occupy a significant chunk of southern Ukraine. Crimea continues to be a base of attack for Russian aircraft and warships striking Ukraine.

    "The decisive terrain for this war is Crimea. The Ukrainian government knows that they cannot settle for Russia retaining control of Crimea," retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former commander of US Army Europe, told Insider.

    "The next few months will see Ukraine setting the conditions for the eventual liberation of Crimea," he added, emphasizing that the country will "never be safe or secure or able to rebuild their economy so long as Russia retains Crimea."

    Russia occupies Crimea and a significant swath of southern Ukraine — including the cities of Melitopol and Mariupol — that provides it with a land bridge from its own border to the Crimean peninsula. This area serves as a pivotal supply route for the Russian military. The peninsula, roughly the size of Massachusetts, is home to a number of military bases and Russia's Black Sea fleet.

    Crimea — annexed by the Russian Empire under Catherine the Great in 1783 — also has major symbolic importance to Putin, who has tied Russia's war in Ukraine to its imperial past. Putin has referred to Crimea as a "holy land" for Russia. In many ways, Putin's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 set the stage for the wider war of conquest that he launched last year.

    The fight to retake Crimea could be extremely bloody, in a war that's already led to massive casualties for both sides. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who has maintained that negotiations will be necessary to end the war, in November said the likelihood of Ukraine kicking Russia out of Crimea "anytime soon is not high, militarily."

    But there also appears to be a growing cohort of military experts who believe that reclaiming Crimea is imperative to Ukraine's long-term survival, and contend that Ukrainian forces have already shown they have the ability to get the job done. A threatening campaign against Crimea could also provide a boost to Kyiv's negotiation power in any future peace talks.

    "As long as the peninsula remains in the Kremlin's hands, Ukraine — and Ukrainians — cannot be free of Russian aggression," Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Ukraine's former defense minister, recently wrote in Foreign Affairs.

    "After consecutive months of battlefield success, it is clear that Ukraine has the capacity to liberate Crimea," Zagorodnyuk went on to say, adding, "Ukraine should therefore plan to liberate Crimea—and the West should plan to help."

    'Crimea is our land'

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pledged to expel Russian forces out of all occupied territory, including Crimea. With a new Russian offensive expected to begin in the near future and a fierce desire to retake control of occupied territories, Kyiv has pushed hard for more advanced weapons from the West.

    "Crimea is our land, it is our territory, it is our sea and our mountains. Give us your weapons and we will bring our land back," Zelenskyy said via video link at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos this month.

    This week, the US and Germany announced they will send advanced Leopard and M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, fulfilling a major request. Ukraine has emphasized that tanks will be necessary to regain control of occupied territories that Russians have mined and are likely to defend with trench networks.

    President Joe Biden on Wednesday said the US would provide Ukraine with 31 M1 Abrams tanks. Ahead of the announcement, a senior administration official told reporters that the tanks were being provided not only to bolster Ukraine's defensive capabilities but also to give it the ability to reclaim "sovereign territory." The official said this includes Crimea.

    "Crimea is Ukraine. We've never recognized the illegal annexation," the official said.

    Similarly, Biden on Wednesday said, "With spring approaching, the Ukrainian forces are working to defend the territory they hold and preparing for additional counter-offensives. To liberate their land, they need to be able to counter Russia's evolving tactics and strategy on the battlefield in the very near term."

    A number of top military experts contend that the West's apprehensiveness surrounding various weapons is prolonging the war and hindering Ukraine's ability to take the fight to the Russian invaders at a pivotal moment.

    "The allies must simply stop the 'give them part of what they need, slower than they need it' approach to supplying Ukraine. This approach has gone on too long already. Ukraine needs more air defense systems, tanks, and long-range artillery — and rockets to do what is necessary," retired US Army Lt. Gen. James Dubik, now a senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of War, wrote in a recent op-ed for The Hill.

    Providing Ukraine with tanks is "very important," Hodges said, before adding that "they are only part of the overall effort required for Ukraine to win, to defeat Russian forces, and to compel them to leave Crimea." To successfully boot Russia out of Crimea, Hodges underscored that Ukraine will need long-range precision strike weapons like the longer-range ATACMS missiles that can be fired from a truck-mounted HIMARS launcher.

    Liberating Crimea could be achieved by isolating the peninsula via air and land attacks to sever and disrupt Russia's main links to Crimea — the Kerch Bridge, which has already been sabotaged by Ukraine, and the so-called land bridge (occupied territory linking Russia to Crimea).

    Once Crimea is isolated, Ukraine would need to employ a "wide array of long-range systems against the exposed Russian facilities and groupings in Crimea, making it untenable for them, and compelling them to leave," Hodges added.

    That said, the Biden administration has so far pushed back on providing Ukraine with long-range missile systems that could be used to strike inside Russia or reach certain installations in Crimea.

    Hodges said the US government's unwillingness to provide longer-range weapons has effectively provided "sanctuary" for Russian systems in Crimea and elsewhere that are "killing innocent Ukrainians."

    "Delivering capabilities which will deny Russia any sanctuary for its air, drone, and missile strikes will enable Ukraine to make Crimea untenable for the Russians," Hodges added.

    'We have crossed a threshold'

    If Ukraine moved to retake Crimea, it could renew concerns that Putin might turn to a nuclear weapon. Putin has made a number of nuclear threats since the war began, vowing to protect Russia's territorial integrity.

    But many top military analysts have repeatedly said that Putin's nuclear threats are largely designed to deter further Western support for Ukraine, and are skeptical he would actually use such a weapon. Ukraine has pushed Russian forces out of areas Putin now claims as part of Russia, such as Kherson, without facing a nuclear response. And Russian assets in Crimea, including air bases, have already been targeted with Ukrainian attacks.

    "There is more clarity on their tolerance for damage and attacks," said Dara Massicot, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, recently told the New York Times. "Crimea has already been hit many times without a massive escalation from the Kremlin."

    As things stand, there's a slim chance Russia and Ukraine will hold talks or negotiations to end the war. Putin's decision to illegally annex four Ukrainian territories in September, despite the fact Russian forces do not fully occupy these regions, effectively threw the possibility of talks out the window. Ukraine has been clear it will not agree to any deals requiring it to cede territory to Russia, and it's highly unlikely Moscow would ever walk back on its new territorial claims in Ukraine.

    In short, the fighting will continue, and the West's involvement in the war is so deep that it's reached a point of no return.

    "Foreign policy rests on the credibility of countries and especially the credibility of the big powers. If the US and its main allies were seen as unable to defend a victim of aggression on the European continent — try to imagine, what does it mean for foreign policy elsewhere?" Araud said, pointing to the potentially reverberating consequences of a Russian victory — particularly for other places that face threats from much larger powers, such as Taiwan.

    "Without saying it, and maybe without knowing it, we have crossed a threshold. Now, for the West, a defeat of Ukraine is unacceptable," Araud said. "We have done so much now that the victory of Russia will be a real defeat of the West, and I think the West will not accept it."

    https://www.businessinsider.com/crim...ine-war-2023-1

  11. #2786
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    'Crimea is our land'
    Creative thinking. Crimea was part of a Ukrainian state from it's independence in 1991 until 2014.

  12. #2787
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Crimea was part of a Ukrainian state from it's independence in 1991 until 2014 when Russia invaded it.
    FIFY.

  13. #2788
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    Rarely has an 'Invasion' been so welcomed. Interesting contrast to the 'Liberation' of Iraq.


    Unimportant News of the Day:-



    Australia, France to produce ammunition for Ukraine


    Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles say Australia and France will jointly produce ammunition for Ukraine.


    The pair held a press conference in Paris overnight alongside French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu.

    “We are really pleased to be able to announce today that Australia and France are working together in providing supply of 155-millimetre ammunition to Ukraine … to make

    “It represents a novel co-operation between Australian and French defence industry.”

    Lecornu said several thousand 155-millimetre shells will be manufactured, with Australia supplying the gunpowder and French firm Nexter producing the ammunition.
    “This partnership will allow us over time, over the coming weeks and months, to assist Ukraine,” Lecornu said.

    The meeting comes amid a thawing of relations between Australia and France following the previous coalition government’s decision to scrap a multibillion dollar submarine deal with the European country in favour of nuclear-powered vessels as part of the AUKUS security pact.

    Colonna alluded to the past tensions as she welcomed the Australian ministers.

    “It is the first time that our consultations have taken place at this level – in the so-called 2+2 format – since an incident I shall not come back to,” she said.
    -AAP

    Australia, France to produce ammunition for Ukraine - InDaily

    We're friends with France again!

  14. #2789
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Rarely has an 'Invasion' been so welcomed.
    That is a massive lie. From 2014...


  15. #2790
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Australia, France to produce ammunition for Ukraine
    Of course now the frogs n diggers have kissed and made up.

    "Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the French firm had agreed to a "fair and an equitable settlement" of 555 million euros (US$584 million) for Australia, ending a decade-old multi-billion-dollar submarine contract."

    Australia announces compensation deal with France for scrapped submarine contract
    "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect,"

  16. #2791
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    Boris Johnson says Putin threatened to target him with missile attack

    Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson has claimed President Vladimir Putin threatened to target him with a missile attack before ordering Russian forces into Ukraine.

    The apparent threat -- denied by the Kremlin -- came in a telephone call just ahead of the February 24 invasion, according to a BBC documentary to be broadcast on Monday.


    Johnson and other Western leaders had been hurrying to Kyiv to show support for Ukraine and try to deter a Russian attack.


    "He sort of threatened me at one point and said, 'Boris, I don't want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute', or something like that," Johnson quoted Putin as saying.


    The Kremlin on Monday, however, dismissed the accusation as a "lie".

    "What Mr Johnson said is not true. More precisely it's a lie," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.


    "Moreover, this is either a conscious lie -- then you need to ask Mr Johnson for what purpose he chose this version of events -- or it was unintentional and in fact he didn't understand what President Putin was talking to him about."


    Johnson emerged as one of the most impassioned Western backers of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.


    'Playing along'


    But prior to the invasion, he says he told Putin that there was no imminent prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, while warning him that any invasion would mean "more NATO, not less NATO" on Russia's borders.


    "He said, 'Boris, you say that Ukraine is not going to join NATO any time soon.


    "'What is any time soon?' And I said, 'well it's not going to join NATO for the foreseeable future. You know that perfectly well'."


    On the missile threat, Johnson added: "I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate."

    The BBC documentary charts the growing divide between the Russian leader and the West in the years before the invasion of Ukraine.


    It also features Zelensky reflecting on his thwarted ambitions to join NATO prior to Russia's attack.


    "If you know that tomorrow Russia will occupy Ukraine, why don't you give me something today I can stop it with?" he says.


    "Or if you can't give it to me, then stop it yourself."

    Boris Johnson says Putin threatened to target him with missile attack



    Seems there would be a recording of this phone call. No?

  17. #2792
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    Ukraine says Poland sending ‘positive signals’ about providing F-16 fighter jets

    A top Ukrainian official on Monday said Poland is sending “positive signals” about sending F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv as the next big debate over Western security assistance for Ukraine heats up.

    Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, wrote on Telegram that Poland is ready to “pass them on to us in coordination with NATO.”

    NATO allies would have to first gain permission from the U.S., which manufacturers the F-15s and F-16s, if they want to send from their stocks. There are also other Western fighter jets Ukraine would like to get its hands on, including the Eurofighter Typhoon.
    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

  18. #2793
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    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    That is a massive lie. From 2014...

    I like the "to be continued" at the end of the video.

  19. #2794
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    Russia is losing the energy war as Putin’s winter gas attack backfires

    Vladimir Putin expected to use gas exports this winter to blackmail Europe and weaken Western support for Ukraine. Instead, this tactic appears to have backfired disastrously and critically undermined Russia’s position on European energy markets.

    In September 2022, I anticipated that Putin’s plan to cut gas supplies to Europe and leave consumers to freeze would fail. With the cold season now almost over, this prediction has so far turned out to be correct. Contrary to the Kremlin’s expectations, Western consumers not only stayed warm in their homes; many European companies have actually been turning to Ukraine to place surplus gas volumes in local storage facilities.

    Admittedly, Europe has been lucky. Demand and supply have been balanced because consumption remained muted thanks to unseasonably mild temperatures and falling industrial demand. Meanwhile, there have been sufficient alternative deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the global market amid a lack of competition from China, which has been struggling with the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.

    Much was also due to the resilience of European markets, which responded promptly to Russia’s decision to cut gas supplies to a trickle in 2022, forcing gas prices to reach record levels. Far from breaking Europe’s resolve, Putin’s energy war against the EU has shocked the bloc into fast-tracking its energy transition, completing projects which had been long overdue or forgotten and seeking alternative supplies to plug the gaping Russian shortfall.

    With Russia’s share of European imports plummeting from 40% to less than 10% towards the end of 2022, European companies turned to global LNG markets, sourcing 96.3 million tons in 2022, up from 56.3 million tons the year before. Thanks to a raft of policies mandating storage targets, most underground facilities reached 90% fullness or higher by the start of the heating season on October 1, overshooting the target by ten percentage points. This means that as winter comes to an end, storage facilities remain at some of their highest levels and gas prices have fallen to a 16-month low.

    There are still lingering risks. An unexpected cold snap later in February or the early weeks of spring, a steep recovery in Chinese demand, or the possibility of a major escalation in Ukraine could spook markets and lead to more volatility or price spikes. Despite these potential threats, European energy markets are now clearly better prepared to absorb potential shocks.

    Europe has been working to expand its LNG importing capacity, which is set to increase by no less than 20% this year. Undoubtedly, much will also depend on the availability of LNG supplies globally. However, the fact that Germany managed to commission three LNG terminals within less than a year to replace lost Russian pipeline imports points to the extraordinary ability of European markets to respond in the face of formidable challenges.

    Projects that have been long delayed or forgotten have not only been resurrected but also promptly completed. For example, after many years of hesitation, Bulgaria managed to bring an interconnector with Greece into commercial operation that allows the Bulgarians to tap alternative Caspian gas and LNG. Meanwhile, Germany and France established bidirectional gas flows, which will allow not only Germany to export gas to France, but also to import from this direction. Even Romania, which had long been averse to exporting domestically produced gas, has seen some volumes shipped physically to neighbouring Bulgaria.

    Putin’s energy war against Europe has served as a catalyst for renewable projects. With the permitting process fast-tracked across the EU, installations of solar panels and heat pumps had one of their best years to date. Solar capacity shot up by 41.4GW or 25% year-on-year to 208.9GW in 2022 and is set to grow even faster in 2023.

    Russian imports of coal and oil were also hit by a raft of European sanctions as EU consumers stopped taking coal and seaborne oil in the second half of 2022. This meant that Russia’s share in EU imports of coal and oil dropped to less than 15% in 2022, compared to over 45% for coal and 25% for oil the previous year, according to the latest Eurostat figures.

    There are now signs that Europe’s large economies may be staving off recession and indications that energy markets are regaining an even keel, but the same cannot be said about Russia’s own gas sector. Russia’s total gas output fell 12% in 2021 to the lowest level since 1990. The situation is even worse for state producer Gazprom, whose production fell year-on-year by 20% in 2022, the largest annual drop in the company’s history. Gazprom managed to increase gas exports to China by 5.4bcm but lost most of its 140bcm European market. It also took a hit on the domestic Russian market, losing market share to independent producers in 2022.

    Gazprom may now be looking to partially revive its fortunes by using Turkey as a back door. It plans to sell gas to the Turkish gas incumbent BOTAS, which would then sell it on to Europe as whitewashed Turkish gas. This might allow Moscow to recover at least some of the losses incurred in 2022. At the same time, the fundamental nature of the shifts that have taken place over the past twelve months mean Russia now has little hope of returning to its formerly dominant position in Europe’s energy markets.

  20. #2795
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    this tactic appears to have backfired disastrously and critically undermined Russia’s position on European energy markets.
    And been replaced by Russia's position in Indian, Chinese and other energy markets. What's so disastrous about that? The disaster is on Europe.

  21. #2796
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    ^Did you miss this?

    Russia’s total gas output fell 12% in 2021 to the lowest level since 1990. The situation is even worse for state producer Gazprom, whose production fell year-on-year by 20% in 2022, the largest annual drop in the company’s history. Gazprom managed to increase gas exports to China by 5.4bcm but lost most of its 140bcm European market. It also took a hit on the domestic Russian market, losing market share to independent producers in 2022.
    Graph starts at February 24, 2022

    Natural Gas



  22. #2797
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    Yes, it has been a mild Winter- and it will affect every natural gas & oil exporters "Terms of Trade". I'm aussie- I know all about commodity cycles.

    Have you seen this:-

    Russia posts record current account surplus

    There is a thread devoted to this, but the Economic Sanctions have not worked, indeed boomeranged. We even feel it here down under.

  23. #2798
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    And been replaced by Russia's position in Indian, Chinese and other energy markets. What's so disastrous about that? The disaster is on Europe.
    They're flogging everything on the cheap. Big deal.

  24. #2799
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    Little explanation needed- if my 'Household' has way more income coming in, than expenditure going out I'm doing pretty well.

  25. #2800
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    Russia has done remarkably well with the sanctions so far. This year will tell the story on how successful they will be as energy sales to europe dwindle drastically. Putin still has a level of support somewhat due to shutting down and gaoling of politicians and all aspects of opposition from TV to press to even the citizens free speech. One only has to see the timidity of many of the citizens to speak their mind when questioned by journalists. Russias huge financial reserves built up over many years with this conflict in mind are now dwindling. Putin better hope Erdogan can gaol enough opposition supporters and rig enough of the election to stay in power or he might lose a valuable ally.
    They say you can judge a man by the company he keeps. China North Korea Venezuela Iran Sth Africa Zimbabwe. Need I say more?
    Last edited by Hugh Cow; 01-02-2023 at 07:30 AM.

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