Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

[blindpig]

The path from sanctions to military escalator - paved by misconceptions
Alastair CrookeAlastair Crooke
Source: Al Mayadeen English
8 May 16:23



What lies behind this mess? Well, on the one hand, hubris; but also, the failure to do real homework - and a lack of strategic forethought.

It seems that the war in Ukraine is morphing -- both widening, with a Moldovia-Transnistra and a Polish front opening -- and deepening, with the US preparing for a long-war of Idlib-type attrition designed to weaken and emasculate Russia.

‘New fronts’ are the classical ploys to disperse the opponent’s sharp military focus, by forcing the attention onto fragmented bush-fires lit around the perimeter, which demand action - and perhaps the deployment of troops.

The Polish initiative (co-ordinated directly with the US), is both more grave and sinister. Ostensibly, the objective - as described by the head of Russian External Intelligence (SVR), Sergei Naryshkin - would be to establish military and political control by Warsaw over “its historic territories” which today fall within the boundaries of Ukraine.

Poland would introduce its troops into the Western regions of the country under cover of a mission to “protect the territory from Russian aggression”. Eventually, this would be expected to lead to a partition of Ukraine. The Poles would install a friendly government in the territory they control.

Sinister? Well, very possibly yes. Recall the Idlib model. Turkey (with CIA coordination), invaded the Idlib Province of Syria (also claiming its ‘historic territories’), ostensibly to protect ‘opposition forces’ (i.e. CIA and Turkish-linked jihadists) from the ‘evil Assad regime’.

Idlib then became a semi-autonomous safe haven, under the watchful eyes of Turkish ‘observation’ posts mounted throughout Idlib. The jihadists were ‘normalised’ as a political opposition fighting for democracy, whilst being trained and armed by external Special Operations forces to attempt the overthrow of President Assad.

Is this the American blueprint for the next phase of a ‘long war [against Russia], maybe lasting years’?

Very possibly.

In any event, the EU and the US are likely to agree on a $33 billion budget for Ukraine for the next five months - i.e. through to the US Congressional, mid-term elections! (a timeline that says it all) - that is intended to push massive quantities of increasingly heavy weapons and oodles of cash into Ukraine -- if Russia lets them (which they might not, preferring to destroy the weapons on arrival).

Arguably, the West’s war on Russia has evolved from a failed Financial War - that did not bring about the early collapse of the rouble, nor the Russian financial system – into the all-too-familiar world of mounting, financing and arming an attrition-insurgency.

Or has it? Perhaps it remains true that the financial/sanctions/economic struggle still stands primordial. That does not at all, of course, imply that military outcomes are insignificant. They are not. But rather, it is because the West has misread, and misconceived the Russian conduct of its military operation so badly (through trying to read it through the lens of a blinkered NATO mirroring their own way of war), that a gross underestimate of the risk of catastrophic EU loss in the economic battlespace is possible.

If the risks from sanctions war remain potentially so devastating, why are they being ignored by EU leaders?

This underestimation of the risks facing Europe, principally results from an atmosphere in Washington and Brussels of high euphoria about the course of the military conflict, plus the thrill of inflicting a humiliating civilizational defeat on Putin.

This combination has given rise to a rosy assessment of the battlespace ‘balance of economic strengths’ betwixt the EU and Russia.

Here is the essence: Initially, the EU expected the Russian rouble quickly to collapse due to the EU and US seizing Russian foreign reserves, and the sanctioning of Russia’s Central Bank. And this currency crash, it was assumed, would tip the dominoes to fall in a cascade crash of Russia’s financial institutions.

But this didn’t happen. The EU had calculated solely on the premise of its experience of the 1998 Russian financial crisis, and of the US attempt to crash the rouble in 2014. The short answer as to why their plan failed is that in the interim, Russia had addressed the financial system’s vulnerability to currency attack.

Today, the Russian financial system is stable; its currency has more than recouped initial falls; and its balance of trade has ballooned as a result of today’s higher oil and commodity prices.

Paradoxically the Russian financial situation is stronger than that of many European economies.
Of, course, Russia is experiencing pain. The head of the Central Bank on Friday said that Russia might experience a drop of 8-10% of GDP this year as a result of supply line disruptions, as western states pulled their firms out from Russia. And inflation is high. She gave a figure of 10–12% for real inflation (about on a par with that of Europe). But she also cut interest rates – for the second time in order to stimulate domestic investment.

Far from a picture of imminent economic collapse, she painted one of short-term manageable pain that would largely be righted by 2024 -- in spite of continuing uncertainties.

After the EU scratched heads as to why their initial crash-the-economy plan had failed, the light bulb lit up: Ah! Russia was accumulating so much foreign exchange from selling oil and gas at high prices, that the exchange inflows were bidding up the rouble. Solution: the EU must cease buying Russian oil and gas. It must deprive Moscow of foreign exchange. Then the rouble will be forced into its overdue 'dive'.

Wrong again: In fact, most of the foreign exchange inflows are ‘sterilised’ in Central Bank accounts, precisely so they do not drive up the value of the rouble any further. At the same event when the Central Bank head, Elvira Nabiullina, gave her economic report, Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia's National Security Council, explained exactly why the rouble did not collapse, and the means by which it had been “sovereigntised’’.

But of course, von der Leyen has banned all news (and such explanations) from Russia being posted in the EU – and, under her bidding, the EU is moving ever closer to banning oil purchases from Russia. The EU is back on the sanctions ‘escalator’ - and they seem content to be there.

Experts have warned plainly that banning Russian ‘everything’ portends ‘curtains’ for Europe: spiking inflation; likely energy-rationing; de-industrialisation, recession – and social unrest.

Why won’t the EU change course?

Well, apart from the euphoria derived from pursuing a major ideological world-change, it is because the EU leaders have the military reality back-to-front.

Western leaders claim that Russia’s military timetable, its strategy, and its aim to ‘subsume Ukraine into Russia’, are a shambles. If you believe that, then taking the economic risk to ‘save Ukraine’ and the liberal ‘order’ may be judged valid.

Were you believe also that Russia’s dysfunctional army could ‘lose the war’ in the coming two weeks, or even within a couple of months at most, then EU leaders might judge soaring energy prices – and even inflation – to be merely a transitory phenomenon. And that by the end of summer, normality in prices would return.

Well, the premise on which this fantastical western assessment is based rests on a complete misreading over how a smaller Russian force could use a 'strategy of maneuver and feint' to shape a battlefield on which larger Ukrainian forces are manipulated into immobilized, fixed, defensive positions - and cut off from support, reinforcement and re-supply.

The Clausewitzian doctrine is that victory is achieved by grinding your opponent’s army into dust (and by by-passing urban areas, where possible). Russian forces are grinding down the fixed, encircled positions of the main Ukrainian army in Donbas, exactly now. Will this be victory? No. Ukraine seems destined for ultimate dismemberment (with certain European states seeking a pound of its erstwhile flesh). It will be a moment fraught with the risk of escalation. It will - with hindsight - likely be viewed as but one chapter in a long war.

What lies behind this mess? Well, on the one hand, hubris; but also, the failure to do real homework - and a lack of strategic forethought. Many misconceptions were driven by info-war pressures. Absurd info-war claims, however untrue, could not be countered because ..."We are in an info-war with Russia, aren't we?" To present an alternative view is to 'aid the Russian 'enemy' with its disinformation'. Where were those experts who actually understand Russia? Excluded: All the misjudgments seem to have been driven by staffers with pure animus: Committed activists, led by a supreme Commander who is personally and emotionally invested in the struggle, too.

https://english.almayadeen.net/articles ... ved-by-mis

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NATO biological programs in Kazakhstan
May 10, 21:36



While there is a lot of talk about the revealed programs for the development of biological weapons on the territory of Ukraine, about the same thing is happening with much less noise on the territory of formally allied Kazakhstan.

The biological programs of the Atlantic community in Kazakhstan are no less a threat than the development of bioweapons in Ukraine

The facts discovered in the course of the SVO, testifying to the development of biological weapons by the US intelligence services on the basis of an extensive network of military biological laboratories in Ukraine, caused a wide political and public outcry at the international level. The aggressive expansion of the "scientific" infrastructure of the military departments of NATO member countries in the CIS emphasizes the importance of taking measures to counter new biological threats, primarily in the border regions of Russia.

Kazakhstan (the common land state border with Russia is about 6,000 km), which has a significant scientific and industrial potential, is certainly considered by NATO members as an effective outpost in the confrontation with Russia. In an article by MRI Global (NGO, coordination of research centers of the US Department of Defense) Kenneth Yeh, it is explicitly stated: “Kazakhstan’s attractiveness as a partner is due to its history of participation in the biological weapons program in the former Soviet Union, the current plague surveillance system and experience in combating with outbreaks of infectious diseases, including anthrax, brucellosis, plague and tularemia.

Currently, there are three major military biological programs implemented by NATO members on the territory of Kazakhstan:

- The US Department of Defense Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) of the United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency, DTRA) is a long-term US project deployed on the territory of the former Soviet republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan;

- Germany's Federal Foreign Office's German Biosecurity Program (GBP) - targeted projects in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine;

- The United Kingdom's International Biological Security Program (IBSP) is a British project in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, as well as in the countries of the Middle East and Africa.

All three programs are intensively financed in the direction of the development of special infrastructure, the conduct of scientific research "dual" purpose and training.

BTRP has been operating in Kazakhstan since the early 2000s. During the implementation of this program, the Central Reference Laboratory was established in Almaty in 2017, for which $ 102 million was allocated. The specified research center has the most modern laboratories with high levels of biological safety: BSL-3, ABSL-3 and BSL-2, in which work can be carried out with pathogens of dangerous infections of I-II pathogenicity groups, as well as relevant experimental work on bioassay animals. From 2005 to 2018 Within the framework of BTRP, 30 biological projects were implemented in Kazakhstan, for which $ 25 million was spent.

It is important to note that the planning and coordination of the implementation of the BTRP and IBSP programs was carried out under agreements between the US Department of Defense and the UK Department of Defense. In particular, the US and British military jointly developed the KZ-4 project (2005-2007), aimed at studying endemic viral pathogens. Then the larger project KZ-29 (2009-2014), the purpose of which was a comprehensive study of tick-borne infections, including Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, orthohantaviruses, tick-borne encephalitis, rickettsiosis, and the one-year project TAP-10, during which additional causative agents of brucellosis and coxiellosis were studied. In 2020, DTRA specialists provided the Kazakh side with a three-year grant in the amount of $ 1.5 million,



From 2013 to 2021, the German GBP program implemented three biological projects in Kazakhstan with a total value of € 2.5 million. Military specialists from the Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology (Institut für Mikrobiologie der Bundeswehr) and the German Society for International Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit). The first stage of work was the project "German-Kazakhstan information system for diagnosing infectious diseases caused by potential B-agents" (2013-2016). Relevant work was continued in the project "German-Kazakhstan information system for biosafety and biosecurity" (2017-2019 and 2020-2022). The program involved 5 leading specialized institutions of Kazakhstan: Kazakh National Medical University named after S.D. Asfendiyarov,

There is no doubt that military microbiologists from the USA, Great Britain and Germany received unlimited access to comprehensive information about the epidemiological situation, strains from national collections of pathogenic microorganisms and relevant clinical material.

Obviously, all the presented military biological programs are aimed at obtaining detailed information about the pathogens of especially dangerous natural focal infections circulating in the territory of the post-Soviet countries, including Kazakhstan. Genetic modification of strains of these pathogens can lead to the development of effective biological weapons, the action of which mimics the outbreak of a disease of natural origin.

In addition, concerns are raised by reports of studies of the features of the genome of the indigenous population of Kazakhstan, conducted with the active participation of scientists from Columbia University. Targeted collection and analysis of genomic profiles of representatives of nationalities inhabiting the territories adjacent to the borders of the Russian Federation can obviously be used to develop targeted/selective weapons of destruction, as well as to predict the consequences of exposure to pathogenic agents.

Important information about the complex of scientific projects of NATO countries on the territory of Kazakhstan with brief annotations is available on the website of the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC). The chairman of the organization is the director of the Center for Global Security Studies at the Livermore National Laboratory. Lawrence, former Director of the US Agency for Arms Control and Disarmament, Assistant Secretary of Defense, Chief START Negotiator and Deputy Assistant to the President Dr. Ronald Lehman.

Thus, the available objective data allow us to conclude that the activities of the United States and its allies in creating, financing and controlling the operation of an extensive network of military biological laboratories in Kazakhstan are accompanied by an unprecedented increase in biosecurity risks for the population of Central Asia and neighboring countries. These circumstances require the development, together with all interested countries of the Eurasian space, including China and Russia, of a comprehensive action plan to counter new biological threats, including improving the system for detecting and identifying atypical pathogenic biological agents and organizing mutual control of studies in the field of biosafety that have the potential military application.

https://telegra.ph/Biologicheskie-progr ... aine-05-10 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7608101.html

flower wall
May 10, 17:34



Despite the prohibitions and threats, the inhabitants of Tallinn gathered a whole wall of flowers from the Bronze Soldier.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7607542.html

Google Translator

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From Cassad's Telegram Account:

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forwarded from
Readovka
The map of hostilities and the situation on the fronts on the evening of May 10

News from the fronts has not been brought much today, so today we will start from afar, namely from across the ocean. The Pentagon reported on the work done on arming and training Ukrainian units: out of 90 M777 howitzers promised to Ukraine, 89 were handed over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and 120,000 155-mm artillery ammunition was also sent. The training program for handling these systems was completed by 370 military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - and even a training video is attached .

The head of the intelligence agency of the US Department of Defense said that the Ukrainian conflict has reached a dead end. And White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the United States believes that the situation in Ukraine will be resolved through diplomacy. A lot has been said todaybut little has been done.

And even Lukashenka decided to hold another urgent exercise, and also said that in response to the creation of a 20,000-strong group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the border of Ukraine with Belarus , Minsk would deploy special forces on the border . (And maybe even showed where the attack is being prepared, but we overlooked).

Apparently, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine also had trouble with news from the fronts today . Therefore, I had to give out a photo of 2014 of my own wrecked tank as “victories on the seas”.

On the fronts, in fact, a continuation of yesterday's picture :

In the Kharkiv direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue their bravado, they captured the settlements of Cherkasy Tishki, Russian Tishki, Rubizhnoye and Bayrak. A full-scale offensive is being prepared for Kazachya Lopan and Tsupovka . The RF Armed Forces continue to hold the line in Liptsy . The Ukrainian command is preparing an operation to cross the Seversky Donets near Chepel and cut off the supply lines of the Izyum grouping. The main goal of this undertaking is to divert our forces from the Izyum sector of the offensive.

The Izyum Front continues to break down the fortifications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukrainians get seriously on the Liman direction. To the east, fighting is going on "at the edge" of the Kramatorsk reserve, ours are trying to establish a crossing across the Seversky Donets.

The people's militia of the LPR , with the support of the RF Armed Forces, having completed the cleansing of Popasnaya, reached the administrative border of the LPR , the RF Ministry of Defense told us. As a result of the offensive, up to 120 nationalists, 13 armored vehicles and 12 vehicles for various purposes were destroyed, the department added. Fighting continues near Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.

In Zaporizhzhya and Donetsk , intense fighting in places. Fighting in the morning near Experienced and Sands. Heavy fighting in the Ugledar direction. Contact on the Novomayorskoye-Nikolskoye line. Battles for the village of Pavlovka. Russian air defense systems in the air near the village of Shirokoe, Dnepropetrovsk region, shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft.

On the southern front. The calibration of the Odessa and Nikolaev regions continues. The Ukrainian Operational Command "South" reports that the 4th missile strike has already been carried out on the railway bridge across the Dniester estuary in the Odessa region. In the area of ​​​​Novodmitrovka, Kherson region, a Mi-8 helicopter of the Ukrainian Air Force was shot down.
Heavy confrontation continues on Serpent's Island. Ukraine lost 14 planes and helicopters while trying to seize Zmeiny Island . Another Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle "Bayraktar-TB2"

was also shot down by means of air defense of the Russian Federation this afternoon . Due to the impact of the cluster munition "Hurricane"a civilian died . Another arrival from Ukraine was recorded in the center - near the republican trauma center , parts of a projectile were stuck into the ground .

From the interesting: A message appeared on the network that the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to use Eleek electric bikes in the course of performing tasks by special forces . The transition to electric vehicles is justified by the acute shortage of fuel in the Ukrainian army.



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MilitaryMapZz
about. snake

Another Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle "Bayraktar-TB2" was destroyed by Russian air defense systems this afternoon in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bSnake Island.

The Kiev regime has lost 30 military unmanned aerial vehicles in the area over the past three days. Let me remind you that nine of them are Bayraktar-TB2 drums.

All unmanned vehicles were involved in the failed "PR campaign" of the Kyiv regime to capture on the eve of May 9, the Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War, Snake Island.

In addition, three more bodies of Ukrainian saboteurs, nailed from the sea, were found by Russian servicemen on the shore today. Now, as a result of the failure of the Kiev operation, 27 bodies of militants of Ukrainian special forces units and nationalists remain on Zmeiny.

In total , in the course of an attempt to seize the island, meaningless from a military point of view, the Kiev regime lost three Su-24 bombers and one Su-27 fighter in the Zmeiny area. 10 helicopters of the Ukrainian Air Force were destroyed . Of these, three Mi-8 helicopters with landing troops on board, one Mi-24 support helicopter were shot down in the air. In addition, six more Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters involved in the operation were destroyed on the ground near the settlement of Artsyz, Odessa region.

Also, three Ukrainian armored assault boats "Centaur" with amphibious assault on board were destroyed at sea .

Thus, this adventure ended in disaster for Ukraine. The thoughtless PR action of the Kiev regime to seize Zmeiny Island on the eve of Victory Day led to the senseless death of more than five dozen Ukrainian militants and military personnel of the elite units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine , the loss of four aircraft, ten helicopters, three boats and thirty unmanned aerial vehicles.

[based on data from the Russian Ministry of Defense @mod_russia ]

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forwarded from
Rybar
The situation in the Kharkiv region as of 18:00 on May 10, 2022 The

Armed Forces of Ukraine, national battalions and territorial defense units continue to expand the control zone north of Kharkov . The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is preparing a full-scale offensive against Kazachya Lopan and Tsupovka . The RF Armed Forces continue to hold the line in Liptsy . The fighting is going on in Rubizhne .

At the same time, the Ukrainian command is preparing an operation to cross the Seversky Donets near Chepel and cut off the supply lines of the Izyum group.

The main task of the Ukrainian units in this direction is to divert the forces of the RF Armed Forces on the Izyum and Liman fronts.

Several DRGs have already been sent to the regions bordering Russia. The task of coordinating them and conducting sabotage operations in the border zone with Russia is assigned to officers of the British Special Airborne Service (SAS).

From the Chuguev airfield , the movement of Russian troops is monitored by the Bayraktar UAV, which will aim artillery at columns of troops and equipment crossing from the territory of the Russian Federation.

On the western coast of the Seversky Donets in the village. Zaliman and Chervonoe (to the east of the village of Chepel ) deployed command and observation posts of the 14th brigade and 4th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The main efforts at the moment are focused on forcing small assault groups of the river in the area south of Chepel and seizing control over the settlements of Rudnevo and Ivanovka .

About 300 people from the territorial defense units formed in the west of Ukraine have been deployed under Razdolie . It is likely that the main attack with crossing over the pontoons will be undertaken simultaneously with the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area northeast of Kharkov. High resolution map #map #Russia #Ukraine #Kharkov @rybar * Support us : | (ETH) | (BTC)




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south tower
Residents of the northern regions of Crimea are asked not to worry about the sounds of calls in the liberated territories of the Kherson region.

This is the detonation of Ukrainian shells and mines, which were collected by Russian sappers at the sites of clashes or found in trophy military depots, as well as in various caches.

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forwarded from
Rybar
Losses of the Ukrainian side as a result of a special military operation of the RF Armed Forces as of May 10, 2022

During the day, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost 406 people killed, wounded and captured. The total losses in killed, wounded and captured in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, NGU and State Border Service are over 53 thousand people .

3 tanks , 9 armored vehicles, 11 field artillery and mortars, 3 MLRS, 1 radar, 24 vehicles and special equipment, 2 aircraft, 4 UAVs and 2 boats were lost.

All data are predictable: the Ukrainian side in internal reports does not have the exact number of casualties for each category. Therefore, in internal reports, the tendency is always to underestimate the real number of losses .

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forwarded from
Rybar
Training camps for territorial defense detachments in the north-east of Ukraine

In the Chernihiv and Sumy regions , there is a general mobilization of citizens into the ranks of territorial defense

. First of all, citizens living in the regions bordering Russia are being recruited. After selection, they are sent to training grounds, where they are taught the basics of combined arms combat, as well as sabotage activities as part of small groups.

The plans of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to involve the population of Novogorod-Seversky and Koryukovsky districts in the Chernihiv region, Sumy and Shostkadistricts in the Sumy region, bordering on the Bryansk and Kursk regions of the Russian Federation.

The total number of planned mobilized people is more than 5 thousand people . The emphasis is on the inhabitants of these areas because of their knowledge of the area and the theoretical ability to covertly move through it.

Of course, it is impossible to force everyone to fight and risk their lives, and to attract such a large number of civilians is the wet dream of the Kyiv regime.

However, the potential threat should not be underestimated. Even a few groups that have excellent knowledge of geographical information and the characteristics of the area can cause many problems.

List of polygons where training takes place:

Territorial defense training center in Trostyanets in the Sumy region near the runway -50.4913690, 35.0010240
The polygon of the 91st regiment of the National Guard in Akhtyrka in the Sumy region -50.3066667, 34.8805556
169 training center "Desna" in the Chernihiv region -50.9263889, 30.7572222
Border outpost base in Gremyach in Chernihiv region — High 52.3389079, 33.2904927

resolution

map #map #Sumy #Ukraine #Chernihiv #targets @rybar *Support us: | (ETH) | (BTC)


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forwarded from
Rybar
Probable position areas of the Neptune anti-ship missiles near Odessa

The Ukrainian command has repeatedly announced the use of Neptune anti-ship missiles against Russian ships in the Black Sea. Although the complexes pose a serious danger in themselves, we must not forget that under the "Neptunes" it is actually possible to "legend" anti-ship systems of NATO countries.

Until recently, the exact location of the complexes was unknown. However, launcher positions must satisfy several important criteria:

The possibility of a complete overview of the water area and the simultaneous secrecy of the terrain

Availability of missile launch points and quick retreat routes to the shelter area

Rybar's team analyzed possible locations for the Ukrainian Neptun systems.

The most clearly voiced criteria correspond to Zhevakhova Gora in Odessa . It is located at an altitude of more than 40 meters above sea level, and the highest point is hidden from the Black Sea and the coast.

In the vicinity of the mountain there are three potentially convenient points for the location of the DBK. From these positions, you can freely aim at targets under the cover of earthen hills, and the range of the complex allows you to hit objects at a great distance (up to 280 km).

Coordinates:
46.542373, 30.734370
46.543719, 30.733395
46.545665, 30.731672

And taking into account the constant intelligence support from the United States and NATO countries, there is no need to waste time on aiming at the target: getting out of cover, striking and retreating to a closed position takes the shortest possible time. High resolution infographics #Odessa #analysis #Ukraine

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forwarded from
Rybar
Attack on Donbass from the north: the situation by the end of the day on May 9, 2022 The

allied forces managed to break through the enemy defenses on the Rubizhne-Severodonetsk-Lysichansk triangle .

Lisichansko-Severodonetsk direction, southern flank:

Popasna clearing completed , fire treatment of enemy positions located to the north and west of the settlement is underway.

East of Popasnaya on the western bank of the Seversky Donets , units of the allied forces occupied the settlement. The lower and adjacent heights, there are battles for the settlement. Toshkovka. Establishing control over Toshkovka will allow access to the Lisichansk-Gorskoe road and to the southern outskirts of Lisichansk.

If, at the same time, a blow from Popasna to the south follows, then this will lead to the encirclement of the garrison of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the settlement. Gorskoe-Zolotoe and will block the road to Lisichanskfrom South.

Lisichansko-Severodonetsk direction, northern flank:

Allied forces crossed the Seversky Donets River and entered the settlement. Belogorovka . Fierce battles were going on in the settlement throughout the day, the Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to partially disable the crossing.

Intense battles and artillery duels are going on along the banks of the Donets along the entire length of the Kremenetskiye Lesa National Park in the village of Kremenets . Shipilovo , Privolye , Serebryanka .

In the event that the Allied forces manage to completely take Belogorovka, develop an offensive to the south and occupy the Lisichansk Oil Refinery, the AFU grouping in the triangle of about 8,000 people will be in an operational encirclement.

Severodonetsk-Rubezhnoye:

The enemy was forced out of the territory of the Zarya gunpowder factory in Rubizhnoye .

Fighting continued in the forests adjacent to Severodonetsk.

Limansky direction:

Fights for control over the settlement began. Novoselovka , west of Drobyshevo.

The battles for Liman are complicated by strong forest fires

Izyum direction:

East of Chepel , fighting continues in the forest. The parties are engaged in artillery duels. Great Kamyshevakha was taken .

High resolution map

#Donetsk #Izyum #map #Liman #Lugansk #Popasnaya #Russia #Ukraine #Kharkov @rybar * Support us : | (ETH) | (BTC)


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https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator

[blindpig]

WITH GLOBAL CONSEQUENCES
RUSSIA IS WAGING A SECOND EDITION OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

Ernest Cazal

May 9, 2022 , 11:57 am .


The iconic photo of Yevgeny Khaldei: "Raising a flag over the Reichstag", recorded on May 2, 1945 (Photo: Yevgeny Khaldei

The Russians, and in general in the Global South, understand that the United States and its European vassals are waging an all-out war against the Russian Federation , with the Ukrainian regime proxies on the ground.

Pentagon spokesmen and White House officials can no longer hide the fact that the objective, during the last two decades, but with greater aggressiveness since February, has been to destroy the Russian economy together with its material base, to undermine the social fabric of the Russian Federation and provoke, under these effects, a change of government in the Kremlin to Yeltsin.

Added to this is the military siege that NATO has been widening since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Ukraine was being directed towards US annexation goals via territorial NATOization. The special military operation ordered by President Vladimir Putin came to contain these pretensions, with the weapons power that characterizes it.

The Russian response has not been disdained by the Anglo-Saxon powers, which have opened a financial Pandora's box against the Federation, causing economic and commercial chaos in Europe and across the spectrum of US influence.

In addition, a process of Russophobic "cancellation" is underway that has swept away culture, arts and history itself in which the Slavic peoples of Eurasia are no longer considered an integral part of the very formation of the West.

In short, it would be a second edition of the Great Patriotic War, the anti-Nazi Soviet defense and offensive during the so-called Second World War, which the Russians bring up, and not in a forced way, if we stick to the similarities of yesterday with him today.

That war lasted, for the Soviet Union, 1,418 days and nights, in which it lost 20 million lives and brought enormous economic losses to the great nation led by Stalin. Fascism, with the vanguard Nazi Third Reich, based its ideological component on anti-communism and Russophobia.

The German army was given the task of occupying the Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus and other regions of the Soviet Union. The plan consisted, as currently against the Russian Federation, in destroying that great country and its political and economic foundations.

Stalin and the Communist Party of the USSR prepared the Soviet economy and population to nip in the bud the German-fascist invasion of their own homeland, achieving a rare victory at Stalingrad and decisively defeating the Third Reich on May 9, 1945. .

77 years ago the Soviet people culminated one of the most impressive military feats in recent history, which could not have been done in such a way without the leadership of Stalin, whoever hurts this truth.

That is why Victory Day has a special meaning today, considering that actions are continuously taken from the United States and Europe trying to inflict casualties on the Russian military forces and generate maximum damage to the Russian economy and society. As in the past, under the direction of the Hitlerian Third Reich.

The Nazis' "lightning war" against the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) was planned to overwhelm it in a very short time, perhaps a month, but the response led by the Kremlin came upon them: four years of resistance and then a military offensive They managed to put an end to the plans of conquest and slavery planned by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi acolytes.

The Italian philosopher Domenico Losurdo explains, in his book Stalin. History and criticism of a black legend , the Soviet strategy outlined by the Stalinist leadership:

and they played an important role in reinforcing popular morale» (Roberts, 2006); In addition, they also achieved international importance, as Goebbels observed with displeasure regarding the speech broadcast on July 3, 1941, which "arouses enormous admiration in England and in the United States" (Joseph Goebbels diary note of July 5, 1941). ".

This admiration did not last long, as is known, with the beginning of the Cold War, since the United States proposed what Nazi Germany could not. And after the demise of the Soviet Union, and with the rise of Vladimir Putin to the presidency of the Russian Federation, efforts to undermine the Kremlin and Russian society as a whole from the Anglo-Imperial spectrum were called again.



They raise the Flag of Victory in the city of Melitopol, in southeastern Ukraine, in the first week of April 2022 (Photo: EFE)
For this, they have armed, financed and whitewashed the Nazis of a new stamp and nationality in Ukrainian territory, giving them the de facto keys to a failed state and with personalities, if not openly fascist, at least sympathetic to the Russophobic cause and in in tune with the total "cancellation" in progress. The hand of NATO is everywhere there.

This second edition of the Great Patriotic War, as the Sri Lankan diplomat Dayan Jayatilleka correctly reflects , cannot have a Russian victory if there is no total cohesion in the face of a total war, as happened in 1945:

" Russia has a power bloc that may now have to reformat itself to handle the existential challenge of a global siege, which is part of the West's strategic offensive. The war against Russia cannot be defeated by the state alone. extreme historical situation facing Russia today, it will take a united front of Russian patriots, statists and communists; traditionalists and modernists; conservatives and radicals; romantics and realists to resist and prevail against their adversaries."

And likewise, Jayatilleka concludes, international support is a determining factor when it comes to resisting American stalemate kicks, a support that has been pulling the threads of Soviet history brought up today:

"The thirty-five countries that abstained during the UN vote on Russia and the few that voted with Russia did so not only because of current relations with the Russian Federation but also because their leaderships, ruling parties and publics had a residual memory of the USSR. which made them relatively devoid of Russophobic reflexes. That, coupled with the memories these countries have of Western hypocrisy, has given them a certain skepticism and agnosticism. That was not a memory of tsarist Russia but of Russia. Soviet. These countries, mainly Asian and African, are the embryo of a multipolar world order."

The call to update Victory in Russia Day would involve unifying not only political factors and drawing up an international strategy connected to the Global South: it would also have to include a new economic, financial and commercial logic that is not dependent on neoliberal capitalism, and therefore, to promote the foundations of another system in accordance with the expectations of a new multipolar order. The governments of China and Venezuela (to give a close example), each on their own, have made the same cry, each within their limitations, realities and historical heritage.

Finally, the total war that the West (or Oxidant, with its rust hanging on its face before the eyes of anyone who wants to see it) is waging against Russia has another similarity to Operation Barbarossa in 1941.

The leadership of the Third Reich had in mind to achieve a quick and easy victory against the Soviet Union and then proceed to the occupation of India, Iraq, Egypt and the Suez Canal. Later, he would have thought of seizing, in alliance with Francisco Franco's Spain, Gibraltar and isolating and invading Great Britain, establishing a unified fascist regime under a "new order".

So then the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union was deciding the fate of half the world as it was known, as it was the border between European fascism and the rest of humanity that did not want to be enslaved and degraded to material abjection. and existential of Nazi invoice. The anti-fascist victory contained these plans, however, they were taken up again under the US and NATO aegis during their unipolar moment, but with a "more humane" ideological discourse, already today too hackneyed and hypocritically unconvincing.

Similarly, the Russian Federation would be waging a second edition of the Great Patriotic War on its borders, an updated reminiscence, which is laying the foundations of a multipolar world on the rise, since military victory in Ukraine is imminent (despite the ongoing psychological operations trying to convince us otherwise) and the advance of European fascism in Eurasia is currently being contained. It is a decisive moment for the recent and future history of humanity.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/ru ... rra-patria

Google Translator

Breaking the US hegemony is one thing, a very good thing, replacing it with capitalist/imperialist competition ain't no great shakes imo. We will not have peace, justice and a live-able planet unless capitalism is demolished and replaced by socialism.

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Entry request
May 11, 12:54



1. The military-civilian administration of the Kherson region announced that they intend to submit a request to Putin about the possibility of joining the Russian Federation as a separate entity.
2. Deputy Prime Minister of the Crimean government Muradov said that the liberated territories of Ukraine should become part of Russia as a separate region.
3. Previously, opinions were expressed about the need to annex the liberated territories to the Crimea and create the Tauride Governorate or the expanded Crimean Federal District.
4. So far, it is not clear in what format this process can be implemented - through the creation of the Kherson People's Republic and a subsequent request, or immediately through a direct referendum, so as not to produce entities.
5. From a factual point of view, the integration of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions with Russia is already underway.

Back in March, he wrote that the prolongation of the war in Ukraine would lead to the fact that it would lose even more territories. Until February 24, he could only lose part of the Donbass. After February 24 - the entire Donbass. After March-April, she will lose at least 2 more regions.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7608970.html

Residents of Kherson must decide for themselves whether they want to live in Russia
May 11, 14:14



In addition to the statements https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7608970.html of the military-civilian administration of the Kherson region about their readiness to apply to Putin for entry into Russia.

Kremlin on the current situation.

1. The operation in Ukraine is going according to plan.
2. Martial law in the Russian Federation will not be introduced.
3. Residents of the Kherson region must decide for themselves whether they want to live in Russia, and then apply.
4. The application for the entry of the Kherson region into the Russian Federation must be legally justified.

In fact, this sounds like a proposal / justification for holding a referendum on the territory of the Kherson region on joining Russia.
A popular expression of will can serve as a legal justification, as was the case with the referendum in Crimea in 2014 or is planned in 2022 in the DPR and LPR after the liberation of their territories.
So far, there is no large-scale preparation for the referendum in the Kherson region, but the rhetoric on this score is becoming more and more eloquent.
As a comparison of pro-Ukrainian rallies and events on Victory Day shows (despite the tantrums about the fact that everyone was driven to the march of the "Immortal Regiment" at gunpoint), the alignment of the asset in Kherson is clearly not in favor of Ukraine. It's hard to say for the countryside.

Google Translator

One is tempted to advise 'careful what you wish for', as Putin's Russia is slowly but relentlessly destroying every bit of Soviet advancement. BUT the rate of deprivation is not nearly so great as in Ukraine where the oligarchy was unrestrained in destroying the benefits of socialism.

And not having lived with that, and not having lived under a Nazi controlled regime for the last eight years, with it's random beatings and 'disappearances', the outlawing of all 'left' political parties, it's language laws and hatred for all things Russian, it's racist and genocidal rhetoric, I think I'll keep my stupid mouth shut.

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US approves $40 billion in aid for Ukraine


The package of military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine was approved by 368 votes in favor and 57 against. | Photo: @SpeakerPelosi
Published May 11, 2022

The White House applauded the House decision as a critical step in assisting Ukraine's fight against Russian operations in the east of the country.

The US House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a new $40 billion aid package for Ukraine proposed by President Joe Biden.

The package of military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine was approved by 368 votes in favor and 57 against.

The White House hailed Tuesday's vote as a critical step in working with Ukrainian forces to counter Russian operations in eastern Ukraine.


The approved figure is higher than the original amount requested by the US president, which amounted to 33,000 million dollars.

The package foresees the allocation of 6,000 million dollars for new arms shipments and the training of the Ukrainian forces; as well as 8,800 million in economic aid.

It also allocates 8,700 million dollars to replenish the warehouses of weapons sent by the US to Ukraine, among other areas.

The package includes $3.9 billion for US forces deployed in the area, as well as $900 million for housing, education and other aid for Ukrainian refugees in the US.


After the sanction in the House of Representatives, the vote in the Senate remains for the approval of the aid package for Ukraine.

Amid the anti-Russian agenda, Republican Congressman Lindsey Graham and Democrat Richard Blumenthal introduced a resolution urging the US diplomat to include Russia on the US blacklist of "states that support terrorism." .

To date, Cuba, Iran, Syria and North Korea make up the list of state promoters of terrorism.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/eeuu-apr ... -0003.html

Ukraine is a Black Hole of US money and arms and only the Masters of War benefit.

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Canada and the Banderites
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MAY 10, 2022
Thierry Meyssan



Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to Parliament to introduce the speech of his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. Out of 39 million Canadian citizens, 1.4 million are of Ukrainian origin, or 3 to 4% of the electorate. This community is very much managed by Banderite organizations that infuse it with their racial ideology.

In previous articles, Thierry Meyssan has shown how the Banderites, collaborators of the worst Nazi exactions in Ukraine and Poland, came to power in Kiev, in the young independent Ukraine. He shows here that, for eighty years, Banderite immigrants have been embedded in the Canadian Liberal Party to the point of occupying the number two position in Justin Trudeau’s current government.

The first foreign fighters to arrive in Ukraine at the start of the war in February, 2022 were Canadians. The first foreign officer arrested by Russian forces on May 3 was a Canadian general. Clearly, Canada, although more than 6,000 kilometers away from Ukraine, has a hidden involvement in this conflict.

In this article, I will show that all Canadian Liberal governments have supported the Ukrainian Banderites since the beginning of the Second World War. They had it both ways during that war, fighting the Nazis, but supporting the Banderites. Worse still, the current Canadian government is composed of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, flanked by a Banderite deputy, Chrystia Freeland.

While the CIA’s connections to the Nazis during the Cold War were not revealed until 1975 with the Pike, Church and Rockfeller Congressional Commissions, and only ended with President Jimmy Carter, the Canadian Liberal Party’s ties to the Nazis continue. Canada is the only country in the world, outside of the Ukraine, to have a Banderite minister, and what’s more, she is the number two in its government.

In 1940, when the United Kingdom was at war but the United States was not, the Canadian Liberal government of William King created the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) to help anti-Bolshevik immigrants against the pro-Soviet Association of United Ukrainian Canadians (AUUC) and the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC). Pro-Soviet libraries and synagogues were banned.

The Liberal Party of the Kingdom of Canada was not created to promote individualism against conservative ideas, but against the Republican idea [1].

During the Second World War, Prime Minister William King was well liked by his fellow citizens, but he was booed by his soldiers when he visited them in Europe. The Liberal Party always held anti-Russian positions, presenting them as anti-Soviet until 1991, and always interpreted Christianity as opposed to Judaism.

Also, at the end of the Second World War, Canada was the main refuge for Lyon Mackenzie (35,000 immigrants) and Baltic Nazis. Among them were Volodymyr Kubijovyč and “Michael Chomiak” whose real name was Mykhailo Khomiak, the editors of the main Nazi newspaper in Central Europe, Krakivs’ki Visti.

Chomiak, who worked under the direct control of the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, never denied his collaborationist past. On the contrary, he always militated for the OUN(B). It is in this spirit that he raised his granddaughter, Chrystia Freeland, the current Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. Far from condemning the crimes of the Banderites, she began her career as a journalist, at the age of 18, working for Kubijovyč’s Encyclopedia of Ukraine (now available on the Internet). Then she worked for The Ukrainian News, the newspaper of the Canadian Banderites, and The Ukrainian Weekly, the newspaper of the American Banderites linked to the ABN and the CIA. She traveled to the Soviet Union at the end of that country. The Soviet authorities questioned the Canadian government for its support of the Banderites and forbade her to return. However, after the dissolution of the USSR, she became the Moscow bureau chief of The Financial Times. Then she became deputy editor of The Globe and Mail and editor-in-chief of Thomson Reuters Digital.

In her articles and books, Sale of the Century: Russia’s Wild Ride from Communism to Capitalism [2] and Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else [3], Chrystia Freeland develops two theses dear to her grandfather. She criticizes the ultra-rich by choosing almost exclusively Jewish examples. She denounces at every turn the USSR, and then Russia.

It should be remembered that fascism was a response to the economic crisis of 1929, proposing a nationalist class alliance by corporation. The nazis and Banderites added a terrible racial dimension. By targeting the super-rich, Chrystia Freeland rightly addresses the main problem of today. Today, only finance is profitable, while production is in crisis. However, she insidiously drifts towards a racial reading by noting that Jews are more numerous among the super-rich than in the population and by suggesting that this correlation is significant.

In 1991, Polish-Ukrainian Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj intervened to make Canada the first country in the world to recognize Ukrainian independence. With his family fortune (Future Bakery), he created a service to distribute news from Ukraine to every member of parliament. He financed the archiving by Volodymyr Kubijovyč and “Michael Chomiak” of documents on Ukrainian nationalists during the Second World War. It must be admitted that the Encyclopedia of Ukraine is not a scientific work, but a rehabilitation of the Banderites and a falsification of history. Because of his family ties, Borys Wrzesnewskyj introduced the future Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko to Canada.

In 1994, Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien negotiated a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with Ukraine, and in 1996 he asked for NATO membership.

In January 2004, Canada, under Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, participated in Washington’s preparation of the “Orange Revolution”. The Canadian ambassador in Kiev, Andrew Robinson, organized meetings of his colleagues from 28 countries to bring Viktor Yushchenko to power. The aim was to break the policy of President Kuchma, who had accepted Russian gas instead of favoring the US search for oil in the Caspian Sea [4].

The Canadian ambassador financed the survey of the Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Studies Oleksandr Razumkov, according to which the presidential election was rigged, and he also provided 30,000 dollars to the Pora! (“It is time!”) association of NATO strategist Gene Sharp [5].

On the basis of the Razumkov poll alone, Pora! organized demonstrations, the election was cancelled and another one called. Canada spent $3 million to send 500 election observers. The second election brought Viktor Yushchenko to power. Yushchenko put together his team, choosing Vladislav Kaskiv (George Soros employee and leader of Pora!) as his special adviser and Anatoliy Gritsenko (U.S.-trained military officer and president of the Razumko Centre) as Minister of Defence.

Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj, was particularly active during the Orange Revolution; his sister, Ruslana, being very close to Mrs. Yushchenko, Katerina Chumachenko. He invested 250,000 Canadian dollars to support the movement and used his apartment in the center of Kiev to coordinate the demonstrations between the two elections. Pora! processions chanted “Ca-na-da!” and flew the maple leaf flag.

Chrystia Freeland began her political career in 2013 with the Liberal Party. She was elected Member of Parliament for Toronto. In 2014, she supported the “Revolution of Dignity” in Kiev (i.e. the Banderites’ coup), of which she met the main actors. She denounced the independence of Crimea and met Mustafa Dzhemilev, the famous US spy during the Cold War and leader of the Tatars. Eventually, President Vladimir Putin banned her from entering Russia.

She was appointed Minister of Foreign Trade by Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2015, then Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2017 and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs in 2019 with the dignity of Deputy Prime Minister. She became Minister of Finance in 2020.

In 2014, Conservative Foreign Minister John Baird visited Maidan Square and met with the main leaders of the protest. Canadian Television considered that he was thus giving an argument to President Putin’s version that this revolution is only a Western manipulation.

The embassy’s spokeswoman, Inna Tsarkova, was one of the leaders of the AutoMaidan movement. The embassy, located next to Maidan Square, was a refuge for the protesters who camped in its hall for a week. The neo-Nazi group C14 [6] took refuge there on February 18 during the massacre.

When Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine on July 17, 2014, the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) sent four inspectors to the crash site. Even before the investigation began, Chrystia Freeland began an international campaign to denounce Russia. She would later use her ministerial status to throw as much fuel on the fire as possible.

After the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych and the rise to power of the Banderites, Canada created Operation UNIFIER (Canadian Armed Forces Joint Task Force-Ukraine). The aim was to train the Ukrainian military and develop their military police. The operation was conducted under the orders of London and Washington. It included the sending of 200 instructors and non-lethal equipment. It ended on February 13, 2022, just before the Russian operation, so as not to place Canada in a war situation.

In 8 years, Canada has given nearly $900 million in aid to Ukraine.

In 2016, Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received with honors Mustafa Dzhemilev, whom his deputy Chrystia Freeland had already met. He had become, in August 2015, the emir of an international Muslim Brigade, co-financed by Ukraine and Turkey to retake Crimea [7].

At the same time, Chrystia Freeland negotiated the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.

When in 2017, the site Russia Insider revealed the criminal past of her grandfather and his still close ties with the Banderites, she denied the facts and denounced Russian “propaganda”. However, on February 27, she appeared with a group of OUN(B) Banderites at a demonstration against Russian aggression. The photo, which she posted herself, was quickly removed from her Twitter account.

Reacting with its Nato partners to the Russian military operation, Canada has modified its budget to set aside $500 million for the Ukrainian army, including the Banderites. It has already sent machine guns, pistols, rifles, 1.5 million rounds of ammunition, sniper rifles and various related equipment (February 14), night vision goggles, helmets and body armour (February 27), 100 Carl Gustav M2 recoilless rifles and 2,000 rounds of 84 mm ammunition (Feb. 28), 390,000 individual field rations and approximately 1,600 flak jackets (March 1), 4,500 M72 rocket launchers and 7,500 hand grenades, as well as a subscription to commercial satellite imagery for $1 million (March 3), cameras for surveillance drones (March 9), M777 howitzers and related ammunition, as well as additional ammunition for the Carl Gustav M2 anti-armour weapon (April 22), 8 commercial model armoured vehicles, and a service contract for the maintenance and repair of specialized drone-carried cameras (April 26), and began training Ukrainian soldiers in the handling of M777 howitzers.

On March 2, Justin Trudeau, who believes in the United States, had some 20 countries sign a declaration denouncing Russian disinformation [8]. The aim is to prevent the dissemination of information about Ukrainian and Canadian Banderites.

On March 10, Canada managed to get some thirty countries to sign a second, very Orwellian declaration, welcoming – in the name of press freedom – the censorship in the West of Russia Today and the Sputnik agency, two Russian public media organizations.

Since the Banderites regime came to power in Kiev, Canada has sanctioned more than 900 Russian and Ukrainian opposition figures and companies. It has added to this list people close to the Russian president and members of their families.

In spite of its declarations of principle in favour of the equality in right of all men, Canada supports without reserve the Banderites, heralds of the racial superiority of the Ukrainians over the Russians.

Note:

This article is a follow-up to :
1. “Russia wants to force the US to respect the UN Charter,” January 4, 2022.
2. “Washington pursues RAND plan in Kazakhstan, then Transnistria,” January 11, 2022.
3. “Washington refuses to hear Russia and China,” January 18, 2022.
4. “Washington and London, deafened“, February 1, 2022.
5. “Washington and London try to preserve their domination over Europe“, February 8, 2022.
6. “Two interpretations of the Ukrainian affair”, 16 February 2022.
7. “Washington sounds the alarm, while its allies withdraw”, 22 February 2022.
8. “Russia declares war on the Straussians”, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, 5 March 2022.
9. “A gang of drug addicts and neo-nazis”, 5 March 2022.
10 “Israel stunned by Ukrainian neo-Nazis”, 8 March 2022.
11. “Ukraine: the great manipulation“, March 22, 2022.
12. “The New World Order being prepared under the pretext of war in Ukraine“, 29 March 2022.
13. “The war propaganda changes its shape”, 5 April 2022.
14. “The alliance of MI6, the CIA and the banditry“, 12 April 2022.
15. “The end of Western domination“, April 19, 2022.
16. “Ukraine: the Second World War never ended“, April 26, 2022.
17. “Washington hopes to restore its hyper-power through war in Ukraine” May 3, 2022.

References:

[1] Canada’s Origins: Liberal, Tory, or Republican?, Janet Ajzenstat & Peter J. Smith, Mcgill Queens University Press (1995).

[2] Sale of the Century: Russia’s Wild Ride from Communism to Capitalism, Crown Business (2000).

[3] Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, Penguin Pres (2012).

[4] «Agent orange: Our secret role in Ukraine», Mark Mackinnon, Globe and Mail, April 14, 2007.

[5] “The Albert Einstein Institution: non-violence according to the CIA”, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, 4 January 2005.

[6] “Ukrainian racial law”, Voltaire Network, 9 March 2022.

[7] « L’Ukraine et la Turquie créent une Brigade internationale islamique contre la Russie », par Thierry Meyssan, Télévision nationale syrienne , Réseau Voltaire, 12 août 2015.

[8] «Un appel à l’action sur la désinformation parrainée par l’État en Ukraine», Affaires mondiales Canada, 2 mars 2022.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/ ... anderites/

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Why We Need War Crime Tribunals in Donbass
May 10, 2022
By Fra Hughes – May 4, 2022

The guilty must be punished, the innocent must have justice, the dead must be remembered, and the living must be held to account.

Where will the Russian ‘special operation’ in Eastern Ukraine go next after the complete liberation of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of the Donbass

Well if I was in charge, the next step after fully liberating Mariupol from the Azov fascists and right-wing nationalist Ukraine army units with their paid mercenary assets would be taking them straight to jail and making a televised appearance before organizing an official war crime panel.

It wasn’t that long ago in modern history that the Nuremberg trials were held and convened to try Nazi war criminals for their heinous and horrendous crimes against humanity.

Their use of gas chambers, forced death marches, systematic murder, torture, and brutalization of civilians – mainly gypsies, Romani, Jews, socialists, communists, partisans, and prisoners of war, which necessitates bringing them to trial.

The guilty must be punished; the innocent must have justice; the dead must be remembered; and the living must be held to account.

The Bandera type of fascists from Ukraine and the Nazi leaders and their cohorts in Finland, Greece, Sweden, Italy, France, and the Netherlands, indeed from all over Europe, should all have been made to face their accusers for their political policies of killing those they believed to be less human.

While some paid the price for their crimes, many were set free.

A large number of Hitler’s governmental scientists ended up developing the space programs at NASA having first perfected their craft on the flying bombs and rocket missile technology for the German Air force.

Many of the leaders of the German army went on to have leading roles in NATO.

Some war criminals were never brought to court.

The crimes they perpetrated against tens of thousands of unarmed civilians went unpunished.

The defeated parties in WW2 were not the only war criminals of the time.

Bomber Harris of RAF command firebombed Dresden.

Fleeing civilian refugees were murdered for no military advantage but as punishment and leverage on the collapsing German war machine.

America dropped not one but two atomic bombs on Japan.

No military target was selected; only civilian cities where people cowering from the American onslaught on Japan were vaporized into thin air.

The legacy of the radiation exposure at that time still causes birth defects to this very day.

This was not the biggest war crime carried out by the American administration on the Japanese population.

They bombed Tokyo, killing more people there than in the two Atomic bomb attacks.

Winston Churchill, who was designated by the people of the United Kingdom as the greatest British leader in the history of that country, presided over the death of nearly 4 million Bangladeshis in a famine he refused to help end.

When coal miners in Wales were on strike, he infamously said, “If they are hungry fill their bellies with lead.”

Today, we have the successors of ‘Bandera’, the Ukraine nationalist leader and fascist from WW2, who are leading the fascist zealots in Mariupol.

The Azov Battalion, along with the Ukraine nationalists, is refusing to surrender.

They are not alone. It is claimed that up to 8000 paid mercenaries are killing the civilian population of Eastern and Southern Ukraine.

Mercenaries are paid killers. They murder for hire, and death to them comes at a price.

In a recent interview with one of these captured killers for hire, it became obvious he was not in Ukraine for any ideological cause.

He had been in Syria as a paid mercenary, killing Syrians for money.

He didn’t travel to Ukraine when Russia initiated its special military operation in Feb 2022. No, he had been a paid mercenary since 2018. For 4 years, he had been a paid killer in a Ukraine infantry unit that rotated to and from the line of contact.

He was in the marine brigade presently under siege in Mariupol.

A self-confessed war criminal.

The Minsk Agreements were the basis of an internationally recognized and agreed ceasefire protocol that prohibited the use of heavy weapons, such as mortar artillery shells being used to break the ceasefire and cause death and destruction.

The British man who surrendered in Mariupol wasn’t a coward: he wasn’t an opponent of the Azov Battalion or a nationalist commander.

He was a man happy to bomb and shell innocent civilians whom he had never met, people who had never attacked him, his family, or even his country. Without a doubt, they posed no threat to him.

He is a coward who happily caused death misery, mutilation, and injury to possibly countless people, and then took his pay, celebrated, and laughed with his mates about how brave they all were!

He told his captors he surrendered because they were beaten, and he had no desire to die for Ukraine.

He wanted to live for his family.

If the people of Donbass released him, he would promise to go back to England and never return.

He just wanted to go home and live a normal life!

He was quite aware: when he participated in destroying people’s lives, these people could never get home again.

The people whom he helped to mutilate and injure would never have a normal life

The family and friends of the people he helped kill would never recover from his criminal actions.

I was shocked, saddened, disgusted, and sickened watching his recorded interview.

It was an interview he requested.

He solicited the British government to help get him released in a possible prisoner exchange.

As a mercenary, under international law, he has no right to be treated as a prisoner of war.

He is not someone defending his home, land, or family. He is not a conscript.

He has wandered around Syria, willingly committing murder, and he did the same thing in Donbass.

Had he not been caught/surrendered, he would have continued to murder and mutilate citizens of other sovereign nations for pay.

He is beneath our contempt. He is beneath our sympathy. He is beneath our mercy.

However, he is not above the law. In Donetsk, for example, he faces the death penalty; a sentence I believe would be appropriate under international law.

Should we, as a society, allow guns for hire killers to simply travel to where they are asked to and murder without any sanction, without conscience, and without accountability, like some psychopathic madman taking human life as a trophy, while demanding his own right to life, to freedom, to having a family, and to living in peace?!

As his crimes were committed against the people of Donbass, against the Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, perhaps the local judiciary (of these Republics) recognized internationally by Russia should hold those guilty of murdering their citizens since the imposition of Minsk Agreements to account.

All the mercenaries and commanders of those accused of war crimes, including killing prisoners of war, torture, rape, murder, and mutilation of Donbass citizens must be brought before War criminal tribunals

Let any evidence be presented, a verdict reached, and justice achieved.

Mercenaries who traveled to Donbass to kill people for money should not be allowed to leave Donbass, as they will only return to murder the innocent people of Eastern and Southern Ukraine again.

They might even return to Syria or perhaps travel to Yemen or Libya to murder at will, while all the time filling their bank accounts with blood money and coffins with the bodies of their victims.

When the conflict is over, let us keep the guilty in jail, keep the society safe from psychotic murderers and mercenaries, and let those who have committed war crimes face the justice they deserve.

https://orinocotribune.com/why-we-need- ... n-donbass/



Zelensky Commemorates Ukraine’s Day of Victory over Nazism using Photo of Soldier with SS Insignia
May 10, 2022

The image was on Zelensky’s official Twitter account for half an hour until it was replaced.

The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, saluted the nation for the Day of Victory over Nazi Germany with a photo of a Ukrainian soldier wearing Nazi symbols on his uniform.

The image that was published contained a soldier in uniform standing in front of some heavy artillery. On his chest there was clearly the insignia of the Totenkopf unit. This symbol, which is a skull and crossbones, was the insignia of one of the Waffen SS divisions, and of the SS organization responsible for the administration of concentration camps.


After several complaints about the photo due to the symbol’s associations with Nazism and its wide use among neo-Nazi groups, the president’s public relations service decided to replace it. The image was displayed on Zelensky’s account for about half an hour.

One of the declared objectives of Russia’s special military operation is denazification. Extremist nationalism has a long history in Ukraine and became even more prominent after the coup in 2014. Far-right ideology has been widely disseminated among the Ukrainian military and throughout the structures of the neo-Nazi Azov battalion.

https://orinocotribune.com/zelensky-com ... -insignia/

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Biden Wanted $33B More For Ukraine. Congress Quickly Raised it to $40B. Who Benefits?

Tens of billions, soon to be much more, are flying out of U.S. coffers to Ukraine as Americans suffer, showing who runs the U.S. Government, and for whose benefit.


US President Joe Biden speaks about the conflict in Ukraine during a visit to the Lockheed Martins Pike County Operations facility on May 3, 2022 (Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

From the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the Biden White House has repeatedly announced large and seemingly random amounts of money that it intends to send to fuel the war in Ukraine. The latest such dispatch, pursuant to an initial $3.5 billion fund authorized by Congress early on, was announced on Friday; “Biden says U.S. will send $1.3 billion in additional military and economic support to Ukraine,” read the CNBC headline. This was preceded by a series of new lavish spending packages for the war, unveiled every two to three weeks, starting on the third day of the war:

Feb. 26: “Biden approves $350 million in military aid for Ukraine": Reuters;

Mar. 16: “Biden announces $800 million in military aid for Ukraine”: The New York Times;

Mar. 30: “Ukraine to receive additional $500 million in aid from U.S., Biden announces”: NBC News;

Apr. 12: “U.S. to announce $750 million more in weapons for Ukraine, officials say": Reuters;

May 6: “Biden announces new $150 million weapons package for Ukraine”: Reuters.

Those amounts by themselves are in excess of $3 billion; by the end of April, the total U.S. expenditure on the war in Ukraine was close to $14 billion, drawn from the additional $13.5 billion Congress authorized in mid-March. While some of that is earmarked for economic and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, most of it will go into the coffers of the weapons industry — including Raytheon, on whose Board of Directors the current Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, sat immediately before being chosen by Biden to run the Pentagon. As CNN put it: “about $6.5 billion, roughly half of the aid package, will go to the US Department of Defense so it can deploy troops to the region and send defense equipment to Ukraine.”

As enormous as those sums already are, they were dwarfed by the Biden administration's announcement on April 28 that it “is asking Congress for $33 billion in funding to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than double the $14 billion in support authorized so far.” The White House itself acknowledges that the vast majority of that new spending package will go to the purchase of weaponry and other military assets: “$20.4 billion in additional security and military assistance for Ukraine and for U.S. efforts to strengthen European security in cooperation with our NATO allies and other partners in the region.”

It is difficult to put into context how enormous these expenditures are — particularly since the war is only ten weeks old, and U.S. officials predict/hope that this war will last not months but years. That ensures that the ultimate amounts will be significantly higher still.

The amounts allocated thus far — the new Biden request of $33 billion combined with the $14 billion already spent — already exceed the average annual amount the U.S. spent for its own war in Afghanistan ($46 billion). In the twenty-year U.S. war in Afghanistan which ended just eight months ago, there was at least some pretense of a self-defense rationale given the claim that the Taliban had harbored Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda at the time of the 9/11 attack. Now the U.S. will spend more than that annual average after just ten weeks of a war in Ukraine that nobody claims has any remote connection to American self-defense.

Even more amazingly, the total amount spent by the U.S. on the Russia/Ukraine war in less than three months is close to Russia's total military budget for the entire year ($65.9 billion). While Washington depicts Russia as some sort of grave and existential menace to the U.S., the reality is that the U.S. spends more than ten times on its military what Russia spends on its military each year; indeed, the U.S. spends three times more than the second-highest military spender, China, and more than the next twelve countries combined.

But as gargantuan as Biden's already-spent and newly requested sums are — for a ten-week war in which the U.S. claims not to be a belligerent — it was apparently woefully inadequate in the eyes of the bipartisan establishment in Congress, who is ostensibly elected to serve the needs and interests of American citizens, not Ukrainians. Leaders of both parties instantly decreed that Biden's $33 billion request was not enough. They thus raised it to $40 billion — a more than 20% increase over the White House's request — and are now working together to create an accelerated procedure to ensure immediate passage and disbursement of these weapons and funds to the war zone in Ukraine. "Time is of the essence – and we cannot afford to wait,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to House members, adding: "This package, which builds on the robust support already secured by Congress, will be pivotal in helping Ukraine defend not only its nation but democracy for the world." (See update below).

We have long ago left the realm of debating why it is in the interest of American citizens to pour our country's resources into this war, to say nothing of risking a direct war and possibly catastrophic nuclear escalation with Russia, the country with the largest nuclear stockpile, with the US close behind. Indeed, one could argue that the U.S. government entered this war and rapidly escalated its involvement without this critical question — which should be fundamental to any policy decision of the U.S. government — being asked at all.

This omission — a failure to address how the interests of ordinary Americans are served by the U.S. government's escalating role in this conflict — is particularly glaring given the steadfast and oft-stated view of former President Barack Obama that Ukraine is and always will be of vital interest to Russia, but is not of vital interest to the U.S. For that reason, Obama repeatedly resisted bipartisan demands that he send lethal arms to Ukraine, a step he was deeply reluctant to take due to his belief that the U.S. should not provoke Moscow over an interest as remote as Ukraine (ironically, Trump — who was accused by the U.S. media for years of being a Kremlin asset, controlled by Putin through blackmail — did send lethal arms to Ukraine despite how provocative doing so was to Russia).

While it is extremely difficult to isolate any benefit to ordinary American citizens from all of this, it requires no effort to see that there is a tiny group of Americans who do benefit greatly from this massive expenditure of funds. That is the industry of weapons manufacturers. So fortunate are they that the White House has met with them on several occasions to urge them to expand their capacity to produce sophisticated weapons so that the U.S. government can buy them in massive quantities:

Top U.S. defense officials will meet with the chief executives of the eight largest U.S. defense contractors to discuss industry’s capacity to meet Ukraine’s weapons needs if the war with Russia continues for years.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks told reporters Tuesday she plans to participate in a classified roundtable with defense CEOs on Wednesday to discuss “what can we do to help them, what do they need to generate supply"….

“We will discuss industry proposals to accelerate production of existing systems and develop new, modernized capabilities critical to the Department’s ongoing security assistance to Ukraine and long-term readiness of U.S. and ally/partner forces,” the official added.

On May 3, Biden visited a Lockheed Martin facility (see lead photo) and “praised the… plant that manufactures Javelin anti-tank missiles, saying their work was critical to the Ukrainian war effort and to the defense of democracy itself.”

Indeed, by transferring so much military equipment to Ukraine, the U.S. has depleted its own stockpiles, necessitating their replenishment with mass government purchases. One need not be a conspiracy theorist to marvel at the great fortune of this industry, having lost their primary weapons market just eight months ago when the U.S. war in Afghanistan finally ended, only to now be gifted with an even greater and more lucrative opportunity to sell their weapons by virtue of the protracted and always-escalating U.S. role in Ukraine. Raytheon, the primary manufacturer of Javelins along with Lockheed, has been particularly fortunate that its large stockpile, no longer needed for Afghanistan, is now being ordered in larger-than-ever quantities by its former Board member, now running the Pentagon, for shipment to Ukraine. Their stock prices have bulged nicely since the start of the war:



But how does any of this benefit the vast majority of Americans? Does that even matter? As of 2020, almost 30 million Americans are without any health insurance. Over the weekend, USA Today warned of “the ongoing infant formula shortage,” in which “nearly 40% of popular baby formula brands were sold out at retailers across the U.S. during the week starting April 24.” So many Americans are unable to afford college for their children that close to a majority are delaying plans or eliminating them all together. Meanwhile, “monthly poverty remained elevated in February 2022, with a 14.4 percent poverty rate for the total US population….Overall, 6 million more individuals were in poverty in February relative to December.” The latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau found that “approximately 42.5 million Americans [are] living below the poverty line.” Americans with diabetes often struggle to buy life-saving insulin. And on and on and on.

Now, if the U.S. were invaded or otherwise attacked by another country, or its vital interests were directly threatened, one would of course expect the U.S. government to expend large sums in order to protect and defend the national security of the country and its citizens. But can anyone advance a cogent argument, let alone a persuasive one, that Americans are somehow endangered by the war in Ukraine? Clearly, they are far more endangered by the U.S. response to the war in Ukraine than the war itself; after all, a nuclear confrontation between the U.S. and Russia has long been ranked by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists as one of the two greatest threats facing humanity.

One would usually expect the American left, or whatever passes it for these days, to be indignant about the expenditure of tens of billions of dollars for weapons while ordinary Americans suffer. But the American left, such that it exists, is barely visible when it comes to debates over the war in Ukraine, while American liberals stand in virtual unity with the establishment wing of the Republican Party behind the Biden administration in support for the escalating U.S. role in the war in Ukraine. A few stray voices (such as Noam Chomsky) have joined large parts of the international left in urging a diplomatic solution in lieu of war and criticizing Biden for insufficient efforts to forge one, but the U.S. left and American liberals are almost entirely silent if not supportive.

That has left the traditionally left-wing argument about war opposition to the populist right. “You can’t find baby formula in the United States right now but Congress is voting today to send $40 billion to Ukraine," said Donald Trump, Jr. on Tuesday, echoing what one would expect to hear from the 2016 version of Bernie Sanders or the pre-victory AOC. “In the America LAST $40 BILLION Ukraine FIRST bill that we are voting on tonight, there is authorization for funds to be given to the CIA for who knows what and who knows how much? But NO BABY FORMULA for American mothers!” explained Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Christian Walker, the conservative influencer and son of GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker in Georgia, today observed: “Biden should go apply to be the President of Ukraine since he clearly cares more about them than the U.S.” Chomsky himself caused controversy last week when he said that there is only one statesman of any stature in the West urging a diplomatic solution “and his name is Donald J. Trump.”

Twitter avatar for @ggreenwald
Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
Noam Chomsky, in an interview this week, says "fortunately" there is "one Western statesman of stature" who is pushing for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine rather than looking for ways to fuel and prolong it.

"His name is Donald J. Trump," Chomsky says.

WATCH:
May 1st 2022

9,209 Retweets28,742 Likes
Twitter avatar for @ggreenwald
Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
Chomsky says he regards Trump as a deeply dangerous figure, yet he is "the one statesman in the West who has said it, and it's the right way out."

"Let's tell the truth," Chomsky says.

Full interview here:


Noam Chomsky on the Russia-Ukraine war, The Media, Propaganda, Orwell, Newspeak and Language
Noam Chomsky shines his light on the Russia-Ukraine war, the role of the media, propaganda, censorship in education, Orwell, Newspeak and language. Is there ...
youtube.com
May 1st 2022

1,165 Retweets5,776 Likes

Meanwhile, the only place where dissent is heard over the Biden administration's war policy is on the 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. programs on Fox News, hosted, respectively, by Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, who routinely demand to know how ordinary Americans are benefiting from this increasing U.S. involvement. On CNN, NBC, and in the op-ed pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post, there is virtually lockstep unity in favor of the U.S. role in this war; the only question that is permitted, as usual, is whether the U.S. is doing enough or whether it should do more.

That the U.S. has no legitimate role to play in this war, or that its escalating involvement comes at the expense of American citizens, the people they are supposed to be serving, provokes immediate accusations that one is spreading Russian propaganda and is a Kremlin agent. That is therefore an anti-war view that is all but prohibited in those corporate liberal media venues. Meanwhile, mainstream Democratic House members, such as Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), are now openly talking about the war in Ukraine as if it is the U.S.'s own:



Whatever else is true, the claim with which we are bombarded by the corporate press — the two parties agree on nothing; they are constantly at each other's throats; they have radically different views of the world — is patently untrue, at least when it comes time for the U.S. to join in new wars. Typically, what we see in such situations is what we are seeing now: the establishment wings of both parties are in complete lockstep unity, always breathlessly supporting the new proposed U.S. role in any new war, eager to empty the coffers of the U.S. Treasury and transfer it to the weapons industry while their constituents suffer.

One can believe that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is profoundly unjust and has produced horrific outcomes while still questioning what legitimate interests the U.S. has in participating in this war to this extent. Even if one fervently believes that helping Ukrainians fight Russia is a moral good, surely the U.S. government should be prioritizing the ability of its own citizens to live above the poverty line, have health insurance, send their kids to college, and buy insulin and baby formula.

There are always horrific wars raging, typically with a clear aggressor, but that does not mean that the U.S. can or should assume responsibility for the war absent its own vital interests and the interests of its citizens being directly at stake. In what conceivable sense are American citizens benefiting from this enormous expenditure of their resources and the increasing energy and attention being devoted by their leaders to Ukraine rather than to their lives and the multi-pronged deprivations that define them?

CORRECTION (May 10, 2022, 20:47 pm ET): This article was edited shortly after publication to reflect that Russia's total annual military budget is $65.9 billion, not $65.9 million.

UPDATE (May 10, 2022, 22:39 pm ET): Shortly after publication of this article, the $40 billion package for the war in Ukraine passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 368-57. According to CNN: “All 57 votes in opposition were from Republicans.”

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/biden- ... kraine?s=r

Fuck Chomsky anyway, 'broken clock'....

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slow news day, so far...

[blindpig]

Pentagon experiments with biological weapons in Ukraine
May 11, 18:02



Russian Defense Ministry briefing on specific Pentagon experiments with biological weapons in Ukraine.
In particular:

1. Counterfeit money widespread in the LPR was infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis
Banknotes were distributed among minors in the settlement of Stepovoe. The organizers of this crime took into account the peculiarities of the behavior of children who have a habit of “putting everything in their mouths” and taking food with unwashed hands. In accordance with the conclusion of the Lugansk Republican Sanitary and Epidemiological Station, the banknotes were most likely infected artificially.

2. Details of the Pentagon's experiments in a psychiatric hospital in Kharkiv region
The main category of experimental subjects was a group of male patients aged 40-60 years with a high stage of physical exhaustion. To hide their belonging to the United States, the experts who conducted biological research arrived through the territories of third countries. Here is a photograph of Florida native Linda Oporto, who directly participated in these works.

3. Mariupol, under Ukrainian control, was used as a regional center for the collection and certification of the cholera pathogen.
Selected strains were sent to the Public Health Center in Kiev, which is entrusted with the functions of further sending biomaterials to the United States. This activity has been carried out since 2014, which is confirmed by the acts of transfer of strains.

Full video below: (see link)

In the West, as usual, they will not notice.

Russia imposed sanctions against European companies
May 11, 22:56



Russia imposed sanctions against European companies

The Government of the Russian Federation has approved a list of legal entities against which retaliatory sanctions are being introduced. The corresponding resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers was published on Wednesday on the official portal of legal information. The list includes 31 organizations from Germany, France and other European countries, as well as from the USA and Singapore. Among them are former European subsidiaries of Gazprom, traders and operators of underground gas storage facilities.

As follows from the document, it will no longer be possible to perform a number of transactions with such companies. In particular, Russian authorities, legal entities and citizens will not be able to conclude transactions with them and organizations under their control, fulfill obligations to them under completed transactions, and conduct financial transactions in their favor. This includes the concluded foreign trade contracts.These bans were established earlier by a decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Cabinet of Ministers, by its resolution, also determined additional criteria for transactions that are prohibited from being performed with companies from the sanctions list of the Russian Federation. Among them are transactions concluded in favor of these persons, or providing for the making of payments, transactions with securities with the participation or in favor of such companies, or involving the entry into the ports of the Russian Federation of ships owned or chartered by sanctioned persons, in their interest or on their behalf. .

As specified in the document, "the prohibitions provided for by this resolution are carried out if the persons implementing special economic measures have information that the action is performed in favor of the persons under sanctions."

In addition, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation was appointed responsible for sending proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers on making changes to the list, as well as on granting temporary permits for certain transactions with persons under sanctions. The Decree comes into force from the day of its official publication.

Sub-sanctioned companies

In particular, the Russian sanctions list includes Gazprom Germania GmbH, Gazprom Schweiz AG, Gazprom Marketing & Trading USA Inc, Vemex, Wingas, EuRoPol GAZ. On March 31, 2022, the Gazprom Group ceased participation in the German company Gazprom Germania Gmbh and all its assets, including Gazprom Marketing & Trading Ltd. The holding no longer owns the St. Petersburg-based subsidiary Gazprom Export Business Services, which in turn is the sole founder of Gazprom Germania GmbH. The Russian holding said that these companies should stop using Gazprom's trademarks.



Gazprom Germania is an international group of companies that, through its subsidiary Gazprom Marketing & Trading, is engaged in natural gas trading in the UK spot markets, as well as the sale of liquefied natural gas in Southeast Asia, through its subsidiary Gazprom Schweiz AG, it trades natural gas in countries Central Asia and the former Soviet Union, as well as in Austria, Italy and Serbia. Natural gas is traded and marketed in Germany mainly through Wingas and in the Czech Republic and Slovakia through Vemex Gazprom Germania.

Gazprom Germania is also the operator of several large gas storage facilities in Germany, in particular, in cooperation with Wingas in the settlements of Jemgum and Reden, and several projects have also been developed in Serbia, Austria and the Czech Republic.

EuRoPol GAZ is a joint venture between Gazprom and Poland's PGNiG, which owns the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline.

(c) TASS

PS. And further.

1. Gas supplies to Europe through the Ukrainian GTS decreased by 3, as Ukraine cut off the supply due to "force majeure".
2. The EU has failed to impose an embargo on Russian oil. The terms are being discussed.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7610240.html

Google Translator

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Ukraine - Congress Passes The Bucks, Realism Sneaks In, Poland Plans For More War

After a lot of talk about defeating Russia in the Ukraine and an alleged lack of Russian fighting abilities Congress passed another $40 billion fund for weapons and economic support. That brings the total to some $53 billion for Ukraine.

Most of the money will go to the U.S. weapon industry, the CIA and to various Ukrainian oligarchs. Hardly anything will be received by those in need.

With that packet now passed reality is allowed to sneak into U.S. media reporting on the issue.

Not one but two reports in the New York Times suddenly lament about the huge area of land the Russian troops have taken in east Ukraine:

How much of Ukraine does Russia hold?
Ukraine War’s Geographic Reality: Russia Has Seized Much of the East

From the later:

Nonetheless, the Donbas seizure, combined with the Russian invasion’s early success in seizing parts of southern Ukraine adjoining the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, gives the Kremlin enormous leverage in any future negotiation to halt the conflict.
And the Russians enjoy the added advantage of naval dominance in the Black Sea, the only maritime route for Ukrainian trade, which they have paralyzed with an embargo that could eventually starve Ukraine economically and is already contributing to a global grain shortage.

I have often pointed out that the Ukrainian frontline will have a huge number of casualties from Russian artillery strikes. It is even worse than I had thought:

At the main hospital in Kramatorsk, a city in Donetsk, ambulances stream in day and night, carrying soldiers wounded at the front, who describe being pinned down by near constant shelling.
About 80 percent of the patients are wounded by explosives such as mines and artillery shells, said Capt. Eduard Antonovskyy, the deputy commander of the medical unit at the hospital. Because of this, he said, very few patients have serious injuries. Either you’re far enough from an explosion to survive or you aren’t, he said.

“We either get moderate injuries or deaths,” Captain Antonovskyy said.

Additional to those more realistic reports the NYT allowed one of it authors to write an opinion piece against the widening of the war:

America and Its Allies Want to Bleed Russia. They Really Shouldn’t.

At first, the Western support for Ukraine was mainly designed to defend against the invasion. It is now set on a far grander ambition: to weaken Russia itself. Presented as a common-sense response to Russian aggression, the shift, in fact, amounts to a significant escalation.
By expanding support to Ukraine across the board and shelving any diplomatic effort to stop the fighting, the United States and its allies have greatly increased the danger of an even larger conflict. They are taking a risk far out of step with any realistic strategic gain.
...
When I was in Ukraine during the first weeks of the war, even staunch Ukrainian nationalists expressed views far more pragmatic than those that are routine in America now. Talk of neutral status for Ukraine and internationally monitored plebiscites in Donetsk and Luhansk has been jettisoned in favor of bombast and grandstanding.
...
What’s more, the invasion has led directly to greater military spending in second- and third-tier European powers. The number of NATO troops in Eastern Europe has grown tenfold, and a Nordic expansion of the organization is likely. A general rearmament of Europe is taking place, driven not by desire for autonomy from American power but in service to it. For the United States, this should be success enough. It is unclear what more there is to gain by weakening Russia, beyond fantasies of regime change.
...
Diplomatic efforts ought to be the centerpiece of a new Ukraine strategy. Instead, the war’s boundaries are being expanded and the war itself recast as a struggle between democracy and autocracy, in which the Donbas is the frontier of freedom. This is not just declamatory extravagance. It is reckless. The risks hardly need to be stated.

Indeed. The current U.S. strategy will end in a catastrophe for Ukraine because it is based on false narratives. Lt.Col. (ret) Daniel Davis has consistently provided a more realist view of the military situation in Ukraine. His latest piece fits that record:

Russia’s Progress in Donbas Means Ukraine Likely Won’t Win the War

Over the past few days, a flurry of senior leaders in both Ukraine and Washington have issued defiant claims of not merely resisting Russian aggression, but pushing towards outright victory. While such aspirations are entirely understandable, it is unwise to set policy seeking a preferred outcome if there does not exist a rational path by which Ukraine could accomplish that objective. At present, most indicators, fundamentals of war, and current battlefield trendlines support the prospect of a Ukrainian defeat.

Davis correctly describes the current military situation on the ground and concludes:

By continuing to seek a military victory in Ukraine, Ukraine’s troops will continue fighting, no negotiated settlement will be realistically sought, and most likely Russian troops continue making progress. As a result, more Ukrainian civilians and troops will continue to be killed and wounded, more cities destroyed, and the economic and food crises – for both Ukraine and the world – will worsen. The most likely outcome will not change (a negotiated settlement, not a Ukrainian military victory), but the cost to Kyiv will be much, much worse.

Another former military man who has a realist view of the war is Col. Douglas Macgregor (ret). During the first Gulf war he led a unit in the Battle of 73 Easting:

Macgregor was the "squadron operations officer who essentially directed the Battle of 73 Easting" during the Gulf War. Facing an Iraqi Republican Guard opponent, he led a contingent consisting of 19 tanks, 26 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 4 M1064 mortar carriers through the sandstorm to the 73 Easting at roughly 16:18 hours on 26 February 1991 destroyed almost 70 Iraqi armored vehicles with no U.S. casualties in a 23-minute span of the battle.

The previously quoted Lt.Col. Davis was wounded in the same battle. As both men have seen real mechanized war it is not by chance that they have come to similar conclusions.

Macgregor warns of a widening of the war through a Polish intervention in west Ukraine which would eventually drag NATO into the war:

The Threat of Polish Involvement in Ukraine

The war against Russia in Ukraine has evolved, but not in the way Western observers predicted.

Why would Poland, with the help of Lithuania, try to take western Ukraine? It is all about history:

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a country and bi-federation of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch in real union, who was both King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. It was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th to 17th-century Europe. At its largest territorial extent, in the early 17th century, the Commonwealth covered almost 1,000,000 km2 (400,000 sq mi) and as of 1618 sustained a multi-ethnic population of almost 12 million.

Here is how that commonwealth looked on a map with current borders:



There have been talks for a while that Poland would send a 'peacekeeping' force to occupy Galicia in west-Ukraine. I for one predicted it on February 24, at the very onset of the war:

Thanks to Stalin's additions to the Ukraine three countries, Poland, Hungary and Romania, have claims to certain areas in the Ukraine's western regions. If they want to snatch those up again it is now probably the best time to do so. Despite being part of NATO, which likely would not support such moves, those three will have domestic policy difficulties to withstand the urge.
An official looking document now says that a Polish/Lithuanian operation will start on May 22-24.

Lord Of War @lord_of_war____ - 14:46 UTC · May 10, 2022
The document was sent to the President of the State Border Service of Ukraine, Serhiy Daynek, stating that it is 22-24. May joint "Lithuanian-Polish peacekeeping contingent" consisting of 4 battalions, 9,500 soldiers and 279 units of military equipment [planned to enter the territory of Ukraine. Another confirmation of the development of plans for the occupation and further division of the country. Even if this particular document turns out to be false (which is not excluded), it does not change the general course of the West in relation to Ukraine.
picture

9.500 soldiers are way more than fit into 4 battalions. A battalion has typically some 400-800 soldiers. These are more like three small brigades with 3-4 battalions each.

A Polish/Lithuanian move is exactly what Col. Macgregor is warning of:

Ten weeks after the conflict began, it is instructive to re-examine the strategic picture. The war against Russia in Ukraine has evolved, but not in the way Western observers predicted. Ukrainian forces look shattered and exhausted. The supplies reaching Ukrainian troops fighting in Eastern Ukraine are a fraction of what is needed. In most cases, replacements and new weapons are destroyed long before they reach the front.

Confronted with the unambiguous failure of U.S. assistance and the influx of new weapons to rescue Ukrainian forces from certain destruction, the Biden administration is desperate to reverse the situation and save face. Poland seems to offer a way out. More important, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have both expressed the desire to erase the borders between Poland and Ukraine.

Unconfirmed reports from Warsaw indicate that after Washington rejected the proposals for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, along with the transfer of Polish MIG-29 aircrafts to Ukrainian pilots, the Polish general staff was quietly instructed to formulate plans for intervention in the Ukrainian conflict by seizing the western part of Ukraine. Naturally, military action of this scale would require Kiev’s approval, but given Washington’s de facto control of the Zelensky government, approval for Polish military intervention should not be a problem.

Presumably, the Biden administration may hope that a collision involving Russians and Poles in any form—including air and missile strikes against Polish forces on the Ukrainian side of the border—would potentially call for the NATO council to meet and address Article V of the NATO treaty.

It would mean that NATO, or at least major parts of it, would actively join the Ukrainian proxy war against Russia. While I believe that Russia has withheld forces from the current war to eventually defend against NATO, any entry of it into the war would significantly extend the fighting and the danger of a nuclear exchange would become imminent.

Posted by b on May 11, 2022 at 15:43 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/05/u ... l#comments

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From Cassad's Telegram Account:

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Сolonelcassad
Ukraine tried to exchange the remaining captured Russian soldiers for the release of wounded Natsiks from Azovstal. Russia refuses this option, as it is satisfied with the usual exchange of prisoners of war according to the standard 1 to 1 format, where the Russian Federation already has a many times larger exchange fund.

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forwarded from
Balkan gossip girl
Colleagues write that Aleksandar Vucic had such a good dinner in Brussels with Josep Borrell that he is now forced to take the National Security Council to an extraordinary meeting.

According to available information, tomorrow the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo will apply for membership in the Council of Europe. In fact, this means a violation of the promises made under the agreement concluded in Washington and the escalation of the Kosovo conflict.

In addition, the countries of the Western Balkans were given a condition: only those who joined the sanctions against Russia would be able to participate in meetings at which European security policy would be discussed.

Giving up the right to a sovereign policy and the interests of one's own state is the price of partnership with the most "democratic" countries of this world.

@balkanossiper — setting global trends since June 28, 1914

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forwarded from
Pool N3
Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin:
According to information received by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the US State Department has tasked controlled NGOs with launching a campaign to discredit the special military operation in Ukraine in Russian society. A set of primitive but alarmist slogans designed to sow panic has been prepared for stuffing into Telegram channels and social networks.
Their main content boils down to the fact that the “democratic Kyiv regime”, supported by the “great and terrible” West, is about to inflict a crushing defeat on “totalitarian” Russia, and only a large-scale civil protest is supposedly able to save the country from imminent catastrophe.
In order to increase the impact on the audience, the American Foreign Office instructs its sponsors to actively use obscene language, offensive expressions and vulgar images when distributing propaganda. It is recommended not to disdain the spread of the most incredible fakes aimed at dehumanizing, dehumanizing the political and military leadership of the Russian Federation in the eyes of the people.
Washington believes that this approach is most effective for urban youth. It is assumed that, having "swallowed" this nonsense, it will take to the streets and launch "liberal-democratic" changes in Russia, that is, beneficial to the West.
In such actions of the US State Department, there is much in common with the traditions of the Ministry of Public Education and Propaganda of the Third Reich and its head Goebbels, who considered intellectualism the worst enemy of any propaganda. He also owns the phrase "Give me the media and I will make a herd of pigs out of any nation." With the Russians, Goebbels then - in 1941 - did not succeed.Washington can't do it either. And the State Department would like to give advice not to slide into the battlefield. See that you yourself do not throw yourself from the steepness into the sea and perish in the water.

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forwarded from
cryogen
On Zmeinoy Island, English and American high-ranking officers disappeared during the landing. For their sake, the Ukrainian military fought for two days. But it was not possible to return the officers, or at least their bodies. According to our source in the General Staff, an American marine lieutenant colonel, as well as an English major from the commando brigade of the marine corps, landed on Zmeiny Island together with Ukrainian fighters. They coordinated the work of NATO intelligence assets and the Ukrainian landing forces. Both officers landed in the first wave. But then the Russians shot down three helicopters and one landing craft was sunk. The remaining boats withdrew, leaving the first wave of landing on the shore. According to our source, London and Washington demanded that Zelensky make every effort to return their officers. Despite several attempts to re-land on the island, it was not possible to find out the fate of the English and American marines. It is assumed that they died in battle with the Russians. But so far, as our source says, there is no confirmation of this information. It is possible that both were captured. In turn, the attempt to return their bodies cost the Ukrainian forces several planes and helicopters shot down, as well as several dozen dead marines and special forces.

***

forwarded from
ADEQUATE Z
The lady who claims to become an American ambassador in Kyiv, at the Senate hearings, agreed with the opinion expressed there that in the information space Russia is outplaying the enemy. You can rejoice at this, but in passing, no more. There is no need to rush to rejoice.

The fact that the enemy is presented as "Russia is outplaying the West" should be understood approximately as "Russia is heard in the Western information space, no matter what, and nothing can be done about it." It's really good. It is important. But this is not an end in itself, but a means, or rather, one of the means.

It will be possible to record victory in the information war approximately at the point when at least half of the enemy's population will come to the firm conviction that it is not ready to bear the costs of confrontation and that it is necessary to crawl out of the policy of confrontation. It is necessary not only because it has become completely insatiable and not hot, but also because the cause of their side is unrighteous: this is a very important part of the rationalization of such a position. There are tools and prerequisites for achieving this result, but to say that it has already been achieved would be to engage in self-deception.

Therefore, everything we do in this area must be continued, developed and increased. Therefore, taking this opportunity, I want to say once again: all our foreign compatriots, day after day, convincingly bringing the truth to their local circle of friends in hostile countries, are doing a job of exceptional importance. Each local resident, washed out of enemy propaganda, is a step towards the transition of the number of sentiments into the quality of a political course.

And when this transition occurs, then it will be possible to fix the outcome of the information confrontation. Until then, there is no need to rush.


***

forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin with a brief summary of the results of the operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine at 23.00 on May 11, 2022, especially for the Voenkor Kotenok Z @voenkorKotenok channel :
1.
Mariupol.
The unhurried assault on Azovstal continues. Having lost waste heaps, the enemy continues to hold key buildings on the territory of the plant, which are subjected to heavy air and artillery strikes, which leads to an increase in losses.
2.
Zaporozhye.
On the line Kamenskoye-Orekhov-Gulyaipole without changes. There is also no significant progress on the Gulyaipole-Velikaya Novoselovka line.
3.
Carbon.
On the line Novomikhailovka-Ugledar-Velikaya Novoselovka without changes. Heavy fighting is noted in the Novomikhailovka area.
4.
Marinka.
There is no significant progress in the village. Fights, as before, are going on in the area of ​​the waste heap.
5.
Avdiivka.
Fighting continues near the Avdiivka-Konstantinovka highway. It is reported about the undermining of the dam by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to impede the advance of the advancing troops. There are also battles near Novobakhmutovka and in the Troitsky area.
6.
LPR.
After the capture of Popasnaya, the enemy's defenses were probed in the direction of Artemovsk. Fighting continues in the area of ​​Toshkovka and Voevodovka. The enemy continues to be pushed back from Rubizhne. There are also heavy battles in the area of ​​Belogorovka, where there is a threat to the communications of the Severodonetsk group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Both sides are suffering serious losses. Nevertheless, the risks of encirclement of a part of the Donbass grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are growing.
7.
Raisin.
Heavy fighting continues in the area of ​​Kurulka and Pashkovo, as well as at Velikaya Kamyshevakha. Near Yampol, the enemy suffered heavy losses and was forced to withdraw. Troops are approaching Krasny Liman from the northwest. The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hastily transfers reserves here to support the sagging front.
8.
Kharkov.
The enemy continues to attack in the direction of Liptsy and Kazachya Lopan, intending to push the Russian troops further from Kharkov. There is also an advance from Stary Saltov in the direction of Ternovaya, in the area where fighting is taking place. It is obvious that reinforcement of the grouping is required in the Kharkov direction. The approach of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the borders increases the threat of shelling of settlements on the territory of the Russian Federation, which will be problematic to suppress without control of the north of the Kharkiv region.
9.
Nikolaev.
No significant changes in both the Nikolaevsky and Nikopol directions. Fights are positional in nature.
10.
Odessa.
No significant changes. The enemy stopped trying to land on Zmeiny Island, having suffered serious losses. According to some sources, foreign military advisers were among those killed on Zmein. Plans to take Serpentine by May 9 failed.

@voenkorKotenok

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator

[blindpig]

Ukraine Shuts off Flow of Russian Gas to Europe at Donbas


Ukraine Stops Russian Gas Flowing to Europe Through Key Pipeline. Pipeline operator halts gas through border point that accounts for a third of Russian exports to Europe via Ukraine. | Photo: Twitter @aogarza

Published 12 May 2022 (47 minutes ago)

In a statement, the operator of the gas transmission system in Ukraine (GTSOU) announced its decision to suspend transit operations due to security reasons and “force majeure”.

Ukraine shut off this Wednesday the flow of natural gas exported from Russia to Europe from a station located in Donbas, now controlled by Russian forces. In a statement, the operator of the gas transmission system in Ukraine (GTSOU) announced its decision to suspend transit operations due to security reasons and “force majeure”.

According to the note, the company blocks the flow of gas from the Sokhranivka connection point, located in the eastern Ukrainian region of Lugansk, in the conflict-ridden Donbas area, which is currently under the control of the Russian Army.


Kiev has also demanded that Russia's state-owned Gazprom - which holds a monopoly on gas pipelines and Russian gas sent to Europe – shift gas volumes to the transit point in the northern city of Sudzha, in territory that Ukraine controls.

Russia's Gazprom, for its part, maintains in a statement that such a reorganization would be “technically impossible” and adds that there is no reason for the interruption of the flow.

For its part, the European Commission considers that this cut may affect the transit of gas to European Union (EU) member countries, and furthermore, it qualifies that it does not represent an immediate problem of security of supply.


The Sokhranivka metering station handles up to 32.6 million cubic meters per day, or about a third of the Russian gas flowing to Europe through Ukraine.

Russia and its state-owned gas giant Gazprom account for more than 40 percent of gas imports to the 27 countries that make up the EU bloc, via three major pipelines: Nord Stream 1, which runs through the Baltic Sea, another pipeline that crosses Ukraine (Droujba or Amistad), and a third through Belarus (Yamal).

Since the beginning of the Russian operation in its western neighbor, Europe has been divided over sanctioning the energy it receives from the Eurasian country, given the EU's heavy dependence on Russian supplies.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ukr ... -0004.html

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“Stay Safe”: The Whole World Is in Harms’ Way
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MAY 11, 2022
Jim “Fergie” Chambers

This house, a small homestead for a family of 6, in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk, was hit with a Ukrainian rocket last week. Shells continued to land nearby as we spoke with this family yesterday, as they have very day for 8 years

In short, those of us who have any means to contribute to the international struggle of humanity against the great vampire that is the collective west, whether in Donbas, Palestine, Latin America, or Detroit, ought to do so tirelessly, and we ought to go far beyond petitions, posts and marches. This is the most responsible choice, until sovereignty, prosperity and peace is a reality for everyone on earth.

This is not a dispatch, editorial, or an article, but a brief note.

On an almost daily basis, I hear from well-meaning comrades or acquaintances back in the West who urge me to “stay safe;” some even question whether I’ve been irresponsible in my decision to come to Donbas, given that I have children at home. Of course, anyone existing in a war zone ought to be prudent in their actions, and keep their eyes open at all times. This should go without saying.

But it occurs to me that there is a real disconnect in the imperial core, when it comes to the realities that billions of people on earth face every day, those under the yoke of imperialism, whether directly due to war and occupation, or indirectly, by way of sanctions, economic or political plunder.

Yes, myself and many of my comrades who are doing our best to shed a tiny ray of light on the true nature of the US-sponsored civil war in Ukraine are constantly surrounded by shelling; indeed, we may be under greater threat from our own governments, which are increasingly hostile to journalists and activists who dare push back against the prevailing narratives about Russia, Syria, “Israel,” China, and so forth.

But as we are whisked to and fro, often with heavy security or military escort, many donning protective gear which is more comprehensive than that of the common soldier, we are always returning to the relative safety of lodging outside of “red zones” like the Petrovsky or Kirovsky districts of Donetsk, or the hotbeds of Kherson, Gorlovka, Kirovsk, and other settlements along the front line. Most of us are here temporarily, and our job is only to see and to speak, while millions here have lived for years in thick of it.

Men (and some women) of fighting age are nearly all back and forth from the front, while their families carry on with life as usual: to work, to school, to sleep, under shelling, facing the long haul of a fight which is continuously extended by the arms our western taxes are shuttling to the vassal state in Kiev. Running water, especially hot water, cell service, internet and electricity are frequently out of service, and nowhere is truly safe. Ukrainian forces continue to kidnap civilians, use them as human shields, and block humanitarian corridors. Those within Ukrop-controlled areas who dare too resist are subjected to harassment, detainment, torture and execution. The poorest areas are the most affected, and the least noticed by the “humanitarian” outcries of the liberal West. Bono and Angelina Jolie have not come to Donetsk or Lugansk.

Yes, I have a family. Yes, I have plenty to lose, and so does every single human being here, every last one of whom lacks the resources to move with fluidity, to make a choice about whether or not to fight, with arms or with words, or to escape to a life safe from war, and free from exploitation.

In short, those of us who have any means to contribute to the international struggle of humanity against the great vampire that is the collective west, whether in Donbas, Palestine, Latin America, or Detroit, ought to do so tirelessly, and we ought to go far beyond petitions, posts and marches. This is the most responsible choice, until sovereignty, prosperity and peace is a reality for everyone on earth.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/ ... harms-way/

Briefing on the Results of the Analysis of Documents Related to the Military Biological Activities of the United States on the Territory of Ukraine
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MAY 11, 2022
May 11, 2022

The Russian Defence Ministry continues to study materials on the implementation of military biological programs of the United States and its NATO allies on the territory of Ukraine.

We have already mentioned Robert Pope, director of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Programme and author of the idea of the Central Depository of Highly Dangerous Microorganisms in Kiev.

In his statement of April 10, 2022, Pope said that “…there is no reason to claim that research related to the development of biological weapons is taking place in Ukraine…”. He previously claimed that “…the Americans did not find biological weapons when they first started working with Ukraine, and they still haven’t. In addition, Ukraine lacks the infrastructure to develop and produce biological weapons…”.

I would like to recall that the term “biological weapons” includes biological formulations that contain pathogenic micro-organisms and toxins, as well as the means of delivery and use of said formulations.

While the priority for Ukrainian healthcare is socially significant diseases such as HIV, poliomyelitis, measles and hepatitis, US customers are interested in a completely different nomenclature: cholera, tularemia, plague and hantaviruses.

As a result of the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, facts of work with the specified pathogens, which are potential agents of biological weapons, have been revealed. At the same time, it was noted that Ukraine had sent a request to the manufacturing company regarding the possibility of equipping the Bayraktar drones with aerosol equipment.

In addition on March 9, three unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with 30-litre containers and equipment for spraying formulations were detected by Russian reconnaissance units in Kherson region. At the end of April, 10 more were found near Kakhovka.

All this information calls into question the statements of American experts.

We have previously provided a scheme for US coordination of biological laboratories and research institutes in Ukraine. Its preliminary analysis suggests that Ukraine is essentially a testing ground for the development of biological weapons components and the testing of new samples of pharmaceuticals.

The Russian Ministry of Defence was able to clarify the said scheme.

It should be noted that the ideologues of US military-biological activities in Ukraine are the leaders of the Democratic Party.

Thus, through the US executive branch, a legislative framework for funding military biomedical research directly from the federal budget was formed. Funds were raised under state guarantees from NGOs controlled by the Democratic Party leadership, including the investment funds of the Clintons, Rockefellers, Soros and Biden.

The scheme involves major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Moderna, Merck and the US military-affiliated company Gilead. U.S. experts are working to test new medicines that circumvent international safety standards. As a result, Western companies are seriously reducing the cost of research programmes and gaining a significant competitive advantage.

The involvement of controlled nongovernmental and biotechnological organisations, and the increase in their revenues, allows the leaders of the Democratic Party to generate additional campaign finance and hide its distribution.

In addition to US pharmaceutical companies and Pentagon contractors, Ukrainian state agencies are involved in military bioweapons activities, whose main tasks are to conceal illegal activities, conduct field and clinical trials and provide the necessary biomaterial.

Thus, the US Department of Defence, using a virtually internationally uncontrolled test site and the high-tech facilities of multinational companies, has greatly expanded its research capabilities, not only in the field of biological weapons, but also in gaining knowledge about antibiotic resistance and the antibodies to specific diseases in populations in specific regions.

It should be noted that not only the US, but also a number of its NATO allies are implementing their military-biological projects in Ukraine.

The German government has decided to launch a national biosafety programme independent of Washington, D.C., starting in 2013. Twelve countries, including Ukraine, are involved in the Programme.

On the German side, the programme involves the Institute for Armed Forces Microbiology (Munich), the Robert Koch Institute (Berlin), the Loeffler Institute (Greifswald) and the Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (Hamburg).

New documents reveal that between 2016 and 2019 alone, three and a half thousand blood serum samples of citizens living in 25 regions of Ukraine were taken by military epidemiologists from the Bundeswehr Microbiology Institute.

The involvement of institutions subordinate to the Bundeswehr confirms the military orientation of biological research carried out in Ukrainian laboratories and raises questions about the goals pursued by the German armed forces in collecting biomaterials of Ukrainian citizens.

The documents obtained also show the involvement of Poland in Ukrainian biolaboratories. The participation of the Polish Institute of Veterinary Medicine in research aimed at assessing the epidemiological threats and spread of the rabies virus in Ukraine has been confirmed. Characteristically, the research in question was carried out jointly with the US-based Battelle Institute, a key contractor for the Pentagon.

In addition, Polish funding for the Lvov Medical University, which includes a member of US military biology projects, the Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene, has been documented. The organisation has been running a retraining programme for specialists with experience of working with dual-use materials and technologies since 2002.

The special military operation by Russian troops succeeded in obtaining additional information about bio-incidents in Ukraine.

For example, materials indicating the intentional use of a multidrug-resistant tuberculosis pathogen in 2020 to infect the population of the Slavyanoserbsky district of the LPR were examined.

The flyers, made in the form of counterfeit currency notes, were infected with the tuberculosis agent and distributed to minors in Stepovoe village. The organisers of this crime took into account the behaviour of children, who have a habit of “putting everything in their mouths” and taking food with unwashed hands.

The results of bacteriological studies have confirmed the resistance of the isolated bacteria to first- and second-line anti-TB drugs, meaning that the disease caused by them is much more difficult to treat and the cost of treatment is much higher.

According to the conclusion of the Lugansk Republican Sanitary and Epidemiological Station, “…the contamination of the notes was most likely carried out artificially, as the material contains extremely dangerous strains of the pathogen in concentrations capable of ensuring infection and development of the tuberculosis process…”.

In his conclusion, the chief doctor of the Lugansk Republican TB Dispensary also notes that “…there are all signs of deliberate, man-made contamination of the flyers with highly pathogenic biomaterial…”.

We previously reported on trials of potentially dangerous biological drugs on one of the least protected categories of people – patients of the Kharkov Regional Clinical Psychiatric Hospital No 3.

We have received new information revealing details of the Pentagon’s inhuman experiments on Ukrainian citizens in Psychiatric Hospital No 1 (Streleche village, Kharkov region). The main category of subjects was a group of male patients aged 40-60 years with a high stage of physical exhaustion.

In order to conceal their US affiliation, the biological research experts travelled via third countries. Here is a photograph of Florida native Linda Oporto, who was directly involved in these works.

In January 2022, the foreign nationals conducting the experiments were evacuated in an emergency and the equipment and drugs they were using were taken to western Ukraine.

Russian Defence Ministry specialists have carried out work directly in two biolaboratories in Mariupol.

Evidence of emergency destruction of documents confirming work with the US military establishment was obtained. A preliminary analysis of extant documentation indicates the use of Mariupol as a regional centre for cholera pathogen collection and certification. The selected strains were sent to the Public Health Centre in Kiev, which is responsible for the onward shipment of biomaterials to the United States. These activities have been carried out since 2014, as evidenced by the transfer of strains.

An act of destruction of the pathogen collection dated February 25, 2022, according to which cholera, tularemia and anthrax pathogens were handled there, was found in the sanitary and epidemiological laboratory.

Part of the collection of the veterinary laboratory was not destroyed in a hurry. In order to ensure safety and secure storage, 124 strains were exported by Russian specialists and their study was organised.

The presence in the collection of pathogens that are uncharacteristic of veterinary medicine, such as typhoid, paratyphoid fever and gas gangrene, is a cause for concern. This could indicate the laboratory’s misuse and involvement in a military biological programme.

We will continue to examine the full volume of material received from the Mariupol biolaboratories and will inform you about the results.

The Russian Ministry of Defence has information that provocations are being prepared to accuse the Russian Armed Forces of using weapons of mass destruction, followed by a “Syrian scenario” investigation to fabricate the necessary evidence and assign blame.

The high likelihood of such provocations is confirmed by requests from the Kiev administration for personal skin and respiratory protection equipment that provides protection against toxic chemicals and biological contaminating agents. The supply to Ukraine of organophosphorus poisoning antidotes raises concerns. In 2022 alone, more than 220,000 ampoules of atropine, as well as preparations for special treatment and disinfection, were delivered from the USA at the request of the Ukrainian Ministry of Health.

Thus, the information obtained confirms that the United States is implementing an offensive military-biological programme in Ukraine to study the possibility of forming controlled epidemics in specific territories.

The special military operation of the Russian Armed Forces has crossed the US military-biological expansion in Ukraine and stopped criminal experiments on civilians.

Briefing on the results of the analysis of documents related to the military biological activities of the United States on the territory of Ukraine

🗂 Documents

Slides

Addendum

Mateo K., [11/05/2022 16:07]
[Forwarded from ZradaXXII (Сергей)]
Igor Kirillov, Chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, made several statements:

The special military operation of the Russian Armed Forces made it possible to stop criminal experiments on civilians of Ukraine;
Ukraine is a training ground for the West for the development of biological weapons components and testing of new samples of pharmaceuticals;
The Russian Ministry of Defense has information about the Pentagon’s experiments on Ukrainian citizens in a psychiatric hospital near Kharkov;
The United States tried to hide their participation in biological experiments on patients of a psychiatric hospital in Ukraine;
Fake money distributed in 2020 in the LPR were infected with a strain of tuberculosis resistant to anti-tuberculosis drugs;
Collection of biomaterials from Ukrainians by epidemiologists of a Bundeswehr Institute confirms the military focus of research in Ukraine;
The information available to the Russian Defense Ministry confirms the implementation of the US offensive military biological program in Ukraine;
The leaders of the Democratic Party are the ideologists of the US military-biological activities in Ukraine;
Pfizer, Moderna, Merck and other pharmaceutical companies are involved in US military biological activities in Ukraine;
Military biological projects on the territory of Ukraine, in addition to the United States, are being implemented by Germany and Poland;
US specialists are testing new drugs bypassing international safety standards, reducing the cost of research;
Ukrainian government agencies are involved in military biological activities in the country along with Pentagon contractors;
At the end of April, ten more UAVs were found in the area of Kakhovka, equipped with containers and equipment for spraying biorecipes.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/ ... f-ukraine/

Bolding added.

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Everyone is forgotten and nothing is remembered: The war in Ukraine and Russia’s reawakening
Originally published: Midwestern Marx on May 6, 2022 by Marius Trotter (more by Midwestern Marx) (Posted May 11, 2022)

On May 2, 1945, the Red Army raised the banner of victory over Berlin’s Reichstag after the fall of the German capital. Adolf Hitler had committed suicide in his bunker less than 48 hours before. He had slaughtered 25 million of the Soviet Union’s people to wipe out the “Judeo Bolshevik menace” once and for all, yet failed to break them. After the most titanic, nightmarish war in modern history, after rivers of blood shed from Kiev to Moscow, from Stalingrad to Kursk, the workers and farmers of the Soviet Union had vanquished the most vile killing machine the world had yet seen.

Stalin was eager to exploit the symbolism of storming the Reichstag, the symbolic heart of German power, in time for May Day, and have the red banner waving from the top of the building as a great propaganda victory. The Red Army waged a ferocious battle with fanatical SS die-hards to seize the building.

The first Red Army soldier to scale the Reichstag and raise the flag on top of it was not a Russian but a Kazakh by the name of Rakhimzhan Koshkarbayev, who scaled the Reichstag on April 30.1 However, it was not suitable for a propaganda photograph because it was too late at night. In addition, the building had not been fully secured from the enemy and the flag was taken down by German soldiers the next day. The day after, the last Nazis had finally been cleared from the building, the flag was raised once again and photographed. Accounts differ, but according to the photographer himself the man who raised the flag was a 18 year old Russian soldier from Kazakhstan named Aleksey Kovalev. He was assisted by two other soldiers, a Muslim soldier named Abdulraham Ismailov from Dagestan in the Caucasus, and Leonid Gorychev, from Minsk in Belarus.2

The photographer was Yevgeny Khaldei, a Ukrainian Jewish Soviet naval officer. His father and three of his sisters had been murdered by the Nazis during the war-only his mother survived the war. He was from Donetsk in the Donbass, the coal mining hub of eastern Ukraine, in many ways the West Virginia of the USSR. The young man who raised the red banner went on to live in Kiev for much of the rest of his life, where he served in the Kiev Fire Department, and is buried there.

They were Ukrainians. They were Russians. They were Soviets. They were all these things.

The iconic photograph became the symbol of the Red Army’s ultimate triumph over Nazism.

Exactly 69 years later, on that very exact day, the fascist enemy re-emerged on the soil of the former Soviet Union. War was declared on Russia, the peoples of the former Soviet Union, and on all socialists and trade unionists everywhere in the world. It happened on May 2, 2014.

On that date, in the Russian speaking majority city of Odessa in Ukraine, pro Russian demonstrators, socialists, Communists and trade unionists took to the streets demonstrating against the new Ukrainian ultranationalist government in Kiev, which had taken power in Euromaidan coup against the Ukrainian President Yanukovych a little over two months earlier.

They were rejecting moves to pass laws discriminating against the Russian language, criminalizing Ukraine’s Communist Party, and laws honoring Ukrainian fascists who had collaborated with the Nazis as national heroes. Chief amongst these “heroes” being Stepan Bandera, the aspiring little Ukrainian Hitler whose forces participated in the Babi Yar massacre and Lvov Pogrom against the Jews alongside the Nazi SS, and also committed genocide against 50-100,000 Poles in Galicia and Volhynia.

The demonstrators were viciously attacked by a mob of armed neo-Nazi thugs of Right Sector. They were driven into the old Soviet Trades Union building by the mob. The building was set on fire by Molotov cocktails wielded by the Nazis. People who attempted to flee the burning building were gunned down or clubbed to death. When the embers burned out, the fascists moved in and finished off those who may have still been alive, eliminating the survivors execution style. At least 46 were dead and hundreds wounded. The dead included a pregnant woman who was strangled to death with steel wire, and the youngest victim was a 17 year old boy who was a member of the Ukrainian Communist Party’s Youth League.3

Ukraine’s then acting, later elected President Poroshenko appointed Ihor Palytsia, one of the ultra nationalists who had led the mob, acting governor of Odessa only four days after the massacre. The message was clear- in the new post 2014 Ukraine, Nazis could murder, torture, and rape with impunity. They would not be punished. They would be the law.

This massacre barely registered in the West. It was described blandly in the U.S. and Western European media as the ‘Odessa clashes’ in which both sides were equally at fault. This despite the fact that neo Nazi Right Sector proudly took responsibility for the murders on its own website and praised the perpetrators of the killings as heroes.

In the 21st century, open unabashed Nazis spilled blood the day after May Day, in a house of the working class, in broad daylight. The lack of punishment, consequences or even condemnation for this outrage only made the vile monster hungrier. It had tasted blood now and from here on out, its appetite would only increase.

The lines of battle were drawn.

Just nine days after this atrocity, the people of Ukraine’s industrial coal country of the Donbass, centered around Donetsk(the photographer Yevgeny Khaldei’s hometown) voted to secede from the Ukrainian state. The miners, the working class backbone of eastern Ukraine, took a stand against the reemerging Nazi menace. The people of Donetsk and Luhansk wanted no part in a state where people would be burned alive by fascists for speaking Russian, for being Communists or taking pride in their Soviet past. Like their ancestors had, they took up arms against the swastika.

The fascists mobilized for their counterattack. For eight years- 2014 to 2022- the people of the Donbass were besieged by the Ukrainian military and neo Nazi paramilitaries. They were bombed, they were shelled, they were terrorized and yet they did not bend, they did not break, they did not give in.4 A popular front mobilized to defend the Donbass consisting of Slavic nationalists and Communists alike. Not only ethnic Russians but numerous other peoples- anti fascist Ukrainians, Cossacks, Ossetians, Abkhazians, Chechens, Georgians, Siberians, Spanish communist internationalist volunteers, even Afghans who had supported the pro Soviet communist Afghan government.

Thirteen to fourteen thousand people in the Donbass died in those eight years. Including hundreds of children. No marches. No petitions. No 24/7 trembling proclamations of incredulous outrage on CNN or MSNBC or the New York Times. Not a mumbling word from the ‘civilized’ liberal West, worse, Obama and Biden alike legitimized the Kiev government and armed the fascist killers. Even many Western ‘socialists’ essentially yawned.

Only when the Russian Army, at long last, came to the aid of the Donbass on February 24, 2022, was Western liberal and ‘leftist’ opinion awakened. Only then did we see volcanic indignation. The last to wake up, they will be the first to go back to sleep, when their tech oligarch masters and social media “thought leaders” instruct them to.

Today, this war continues. In the ruins of Mauripol, in the open Ukrainian plains, in the hills of the Donbass. Russian soldiers, Chechen auxiliaries, Ukrainian soldiers and civilians alike die by the thousands as we speak, and Ukrainians witness the destruction of their country as it becomes a battleground between Russia and NATO in the opening salvos of a new Great Power conflict. Russia and their allies in Ukraine have resolved that the Right Sector and Azov Battalion Nazis must be pounded into the dust. The lynchers of Roma, the torturers and rapists of Russian women and children, the architects of genocide and hatred who spent nearly a decade terrorizing the people of the Donbass like wild beasts, cannot be permitted to be their neighbors. And NATO is equally determined to arm these fascists to the teeth, to effectively use all of Ukraine as a human shield for its Great Game of advancing NATO’s eastern flank. This war will not end until one side or the other breaks.5

As heinous as this war is, and whatever criticisms one can make of Russia’s conduct of it, it must be said- Russia did NOT start this conflict. No resolution of the war is possible without an honest reckoning with this fact.

One anticipates all the programmed responses- but Putin is bad. Putin is a monster, Putin is a war criminal, Putin is insane. Putin threatens democracy and freedom and European civilization.

No one wants to be seen as championing an invasion by a stronger country by a weaker one. Yet the history of the USSR reveals that barely more than 30 years ago it was all one country. Being a Russian or a Ukrainian, a Belarussian or a Kazakh, was akin to being a Texan or a Californian, a Michigander or a Virginian. What appears superficially as one nation invading another country is in fact more akin to a civil war- one side of Ukraine identifies as the descendants of those who fought in the Red Army against fascism, while another identifies with those who fought on the side of fascism. NATO is backing one side of this civil war, and Russia is backing the other. The miners of Donetsk represent one pole, and Bandera loving Nazis of Lvov represents the other. And most of Ukrainians are stuck in a hellish battleground between these two different poles. And it is telling which side the Western establishment has chosen.

This is not about this or that leader. It is not about Vladimir Putin’s mind or personal psychology. It is not about the admittedly many flaws, injustices and yes crimes of the current Russian state.

It’s about the Russian nation and the Russian people . And between two warring sides of the Ukrainian people. As well as numerous other countries of the former USSR which have been impacted by the same history(particularly Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, etc). Virtually every family was impacted by the war. Every major city is full of monuments and memorials to the dead. The Great Patriotic War is more than merely another historical event. It is, quite literally, at the very core of the Russian and eastern Ukrainian people’s identities. It was a war in which had they not prevailed, their nations would have literally ceased to exist- they would have either been dead, or slaves of the Fascists. China also has a similar collective memory of its brutal struggle against Japanese fascism in the same world war, with unknown millions giving their lives as well.

The broad masses of these countries know, in their bones, that fascism came within a hair’s breadth of annihilating them as a people. Generation after generation has passed on the message- remember what your ancestors did. Never forget. Never. And never allow it to happen again. Russia and China are the two leading anti fascist powers in the world, since that struggle is foundational to their modern identity.

The West flatters itself too much, and tells fairy tales about how they slew the Axis on their own. Endless brainless and stupid films, video games and Netflix series reinforce this nonsense. The reality is, the Nazi and Imperial Japanese monsters were poised to devour the Earth, only to bash their brains out against the hard rocks of the great Eurasian fortress presented to them by the Soviet Union and China. Had the Axis captured Eurasia’s vast pools of hundreds of millions of people as slave labor, seized their oil, gas, agriculture, and wheat, seized their coal and iron and uranium, Hitler and Hirohito would have ruled the globe. Britain and yes, the United States would have been swallowed. It is insane how this elemental fact is ignored.

Had these people of the former USSR and China not made this sacrifice, we’d ALL be living under the swastika and the Rising Sun. It quite literally decided the fate of all humanity.

And yet neither country gets respect from Western governments and elites in the subsequent 80 years. What they got, and continue to get, is decades of Cold War, arms race, hostility, relentless demonization, and most insultingly- constant equations between their societies and Fascism in popular Western discourse, even by the so called intelligentsia.

Russia(and China) is tired of the insults. Tired of the ingratitude. Tired of the hypocrisy.

The fact is, for all the U.S./European liberal intelligentsia’s pontification about ‘totalitarianism’, of equating Communism with fascism, the reality is that since 1945, the real unholy alliance has been between liberal ‘democracies’ and fascism.

The greatest American President of the last century, Franklin D. Roosevelt, hoped to turn the wartime alliance with Stalin against the Axis into an enduring framework for a peaceful post war global order. There were even plans for the Soviet Union to be a recipient of Marshall Plan aid after the war to help them rebuild.6

Alas, FDR died right before the hour of final victory. And a sinister shift occurred at the highest levels of the U.S. government. Harry S Truman, representative of the more hardline, anti communist and pro business factions of the American elite, took over the Democratic Party. He and his allies decided on a course of confrontation instead of cooperation with the USSR. McCarthyism ushered in a new intolerant climate domestically, to purge American society of all elements that might have supported peace and cooperation with the USSR.

Due to the Cold War, an Iron Curtain descended not only over Europe, but the narrative about the Second World War. The Soviet and also Chinese contributions to the Allied victory could not be honored or acknowledged in the West in any way because that interfered with the consensus that these peoples were now “the enemy”. A revisionism prevailed whereby the Western Allies were the sole authors of the victory over the Axis, while Communism was simply another form of ‘totalitarianism’ equivalent to, and in some ways actually worse than the Nazis.

But even more ugly, the remnants of the defeated Nazi regime merged into the emerging CIA, beginning with the Gehlen Organization. In its global war to vanquish the Communist menace, the American intelligence apparatus recruited over 1,000 former Nazis from the Wermacht, SS, and Gestapo to assist with collecting information against the Soviet enemy and planning insurgency and counter insurgency operations. For these enlisted fascists, they were continuing the same war against the ‘Judeo Bolshevik’ menace that had started in 1941- they were simply working for a different boss.7

A new war to contain and destroy the communist enemy began, directed from Langley, Virginia instead of Berlin. One of its first major operations in 1949 was the CIA arming and supplying Bandera’s Nazis in western Ukraine, who were still waging an insurgency against the Soviet state. Thousands of Soviet soldiers and police died up into the 1950’s, when Bandera finally fled to West Germany for refuge, only to be assassinated by the KGB.8 When the CIA failed to directly destabilize the USSR on its home turf, they began a campaign to choke off the Soviets from international allies in the Third World. Scorch the earth around it, and gradually starve the Bolshevik redoubt economically until it crumbled from within.

As documented by Vincent Bevins in ‘The Jakarta Method’, this was a systematic global campaign to wipe out communist and leftist movements worldwide to ensure the preeminence of the U.S. dominated global capitalist system. In South Korea, Guatemala, El Salvador, Iraq, Vietnam, the Philippines, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and most spectacularly Indonesia, fascist death squads armed, trained and directed by the CIA killed and tortured millions of communists to prevent the Third World from aligning with the Soviet Bloc and China. Over a million butchered in Indonesia alone, 200,000 in Guatemala, 200,000 in South Korea, 60,000 across South America in Operation Condor in the 1970’s and 80’s.

While much of the general population was ignorant of these crimes, the liberal elite, especially those in the educated upper classes were aware of them, and embraced it as necessary for the survival of their ideal society. When Suharto mass murdered the Indonesian Communist Party and its sympathizers out of existence, the New York Times proudly proclaimed that this event was “a gleam of light in Asia”. Liberalism is fine with breaking some eggs to build their omelet, as long as they can outsource the violence elsewhere. The rapists and the torturers can do their nasty work to the wretched of the Earth, and they can imagine their souls are pure.9

And so it continues to this day, with the New York Times readers with their BLM flags and pronouns in their online profiles, cheering for the triumph of the Azov Nazis for ‘democracy’.

American liberalism has thus retained a double character since World War II- liberal freedoms, pluralism and tolerance in the imperial core, which it could afford due to a prosperous middle class satisfied with the status quo. Yet this prosperity was sustained by genocidal violence abroad that enabled the super profits to roll in that made this arrangement possible.

By contrast, the USSR and Eastern Bloc supported countless struggles against Western colonialism across the Third World. National liberation movements from India to Cuba, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua, from Vietnam to South Africa received invaluable economic and military aid from the Soviet bloc.

Much ink has been spilled about Soviet and Russian totalitarianism, yet if the words democracy are to mean anything real, the breaking of centuries of Western colonial rule over the darker nations must count as the greatest expansion of freedom and democracy across the globe in modern history. And it was the Soviet Union, not the Western liberal democracies, that made the great contribution to that new dawn of freedom.

This is why even now, so many African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian governments have refused to take sides in the war between Ukraine and Russia, and at the grassroots of much of the Global South there is widespread sympathy for the Russian narrative. The populations of these countries remember who stood for their freedom, and who wanted to keep their populations in chains. The New York Times and the Times of London express bewilderment at this fact. In Delhi and Mombasa, Beijing and Sao Paulo, it is the common sense perspective that liberal ‘democracy’ is little more than a Trojan Horse for Western domination, and that Russia, whatever its flaws, stands as a counterbalance to the dictatorship of New York, London and Paris over the non Western world.

The standard historical narrative of the entire 20th century is wrong. The struggle was not between liberal democracy and the totalitarian twins of Communism and Fascism, but rather between those who wished to preserve Western supremacy over the globe, and those who thought a re-division of the Earth’s spoils in favor of the billions in Asia, Africa and Latin America was more just. ‘Communism’ was just a convenient label to smear the latter camp, whether the antagonists in question were in fact communists or not. Russia had to not only be defeated but humiliated, so that the superprofits of the West were never more threatened. Everything that had been built since 1917 had to be demolished.

This was never more apparent with how American banks and multinationals treated the defeated Russians after the USSR finally capitulated in 1991. As in 1945, there was an opportunity to mend relations between the West and Moscow and have a fresh start. This did not happen.

That opportunity was lost. Instead of providing economic aid and favorable loans to Russia, as American corporations did to Germany and Japan after World War II, the IMF and American free market advisors imposed a brutal neoliberal austerity regime on the Russian working class. Millions died from poverty, alcoholism, disease and crime as the country’s wealth was looted by rapacious oligarchs. The publicly owned economy was gutted so a tiny minority could become obscenely wealthy. The male life expectancy declined by 10 years in just five years. Women were enslaved in the sex trade. Millions of orphans lived on the cold streets, selling drugs and prostituting themselves to survive. It was the greatest demographic disaster Russia experienced since the Nazis invaded, and it was in peacetime.10

The Clintonite liberals and the free marketeers tried to complete what Hitler failed to accomplish-the final and total destruction of Russia as a cohesive social, cultural and economic unit. In the 1990’s it looked very likely that Russia would permanently become a failed state, perhaps itself break up into even smaller and weaker entities akin to Yugoslavia. Mitterand’s derisive quip that Boris Yeltsin’s Russia was little more than “Upper Volta with nukes” wasn’t far from the truth.

In Russia’s moment of weakness, NATO advanced further and further towards Russia’s borders. Advancing 600 miles to the east and encircling Russia with U.S. troops, bases and batteries. This humiliation was swallowed over and over again for 30 years by the Russians.

The rise of Vladimir Putin to power in Moscow halted this disintegration, and brought Russia back from the brink of total destruction. He reigned in the worst excesses of the oligarchs, stabilized the economy, and put some key parts of the nation’s natural resources such as oil and gas under state control. He did not expropriate the oligarchs, but he diminished their political importance. A KGB veteran, he represented remnants of the old Soviet bureaucracy, particularly the intelligence agencies, who wanted to rebuild Russia into a great power. He presided over a regime with one foot in the Soviet past and another foot in the post Soviet kleptocracy, albeit in a more managed form than under Yelstin. For 20 years, this unstable, contradictory transitional state held together, barely.

Putin, representing this alliance between the former Soviet security state and Russia’s business class, wanted a good relationship with the West and did not wish to be an international arsonist. He even attempted to join NATO, but was rebuffed.11 He wanted to play ball with the West, but not at the cost of Russia’s sovereignty. The atrocities in the Donbass reawakened the Russian people from their post Soviet stupor, indifference and despair. The motherland was in danger again. The Russian bear roused itself from its slumber and roared.

In 2020-22, signs that NATO was preparing an all out push against Russia proliferated. One all sides, U.S. backed color revolutions and military provocations popped up on Russia’s borders- first the war by Turkish backed Azeri forces against Russia’s ally Armenia in 2020, then protests against Russia’s ally Lukashenko in Belarus, then the protests/coup attempt against the Russian friendly government in Kazakhstan in January 2022, which Russia sent troops to quell.

Putin didn’t single handedly bring Russia into this war. Had he not acted, he would have lost his nationalist legitimacy with the Russian people. Russia’s oligarchs face the prospect of being permanently marginalized, as this war has led to their investments, properties and hedge funds in the West going up in flames due to U.S./EU sanctions. Putin’s place in the Kremlin stands on shaky ground- antagonizing the oligarchs whose support he has been so reliant on, cutting himself off from the West to go into the arms of Beijing, and riding a wave of Russian national fervor. It could either be a masterful strategic move, or a fatal blunder.

If Putin’s government fails to accomplish the objectives in Ukraine of de militarization and de Nazification, or achieves an unsatisfactory result after all the sacrifices his people have gone through, his government will be swept aside and someone even more hardline will take his place. The Communists, being the best organized opposition party, are the most likely to take the reins of state power in that situation.

Russia will have to patch things together with the other former Soviet republics to halt the NATO drive to the east- which means a break with narrow Russian nationalism. Closer economic and mutual military defense pacts are already in the process of being built between Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other former SSR’s.12 And with China’s rise there is an increasingly favorable economic environment in Eurasia for such initiatives. The tribes of the USSR that were apart must come together once again. The alternative is eternal impoverishment, dismemberment, division and humiliation- a return to the 1990’s. It is no longer possible to fence sit or take half measures.

China, facing U.S. military encirclement itself since Obama’s ‘Pivot to Asia’ and confronted with the alarming remilitarization and rearming of its old genocidal adversary Japan with U.S. encouragement, needs Russia at its back just as much Russia needs Beijing at its back. Europe and the West consolidate into one fortress, and Eurasia consolidates into another.

Russian and Belarussian, Kazakh and Armenian, Caucasian and Siberian, Chinese and either all stand together, or they all fall.

In closing, the words of the Soviet poet Olga Bergholz, whose prose is engraved in stone at a memorial to the Siege of Leningrad, is appropriate:

Here Lie Lenin graders-Here are City Dwellers-men, women and children. And next to them, Red Army soldiers. They defended you, Leningrad, the cradle of the Revolution with all their lives. We cannot list their noble names here, there are so many of them under the eternal protection of granite. But know this, those who regard those stones-no one is forgotten, and nothing is forgotten.

Every May 9, not only in Russia but increasingly across most former Soviet republics, hundreds of thousands turn out for the “Immortal Regiment” celebrations. They carry with them the photographs of their relatives and ancestors who fought in the Red Army. Being Russian means honoring the memory of the dead of that war. Had those men and women not prevailed, their nation would not exist. They fight not because they are barbaric, or bloodthirsty, or brainwashed, but because the weight of their historical debt leaves them no choice. They remember.

And yet in the current political discourse in the West especially, everyone is forgotten, and nothing is remembered.

Marius Trotter is a writer residing in Massachusetts. He comments on history, politics, philosophy and theory.

Notes:
1.↩ m.azh.kz
2.↩ www.spiegel.de
3.↩ ‘Council of Europe issues report on far right massacre in Odessa’ www.wsws.org
4.↩ Donbass: Documentary by Anne Laure-Bonnel, 2016: www.youtube.com
5.↩ For independent journalism documenting Azov Battalions atrocities:
Patrick Lancaster- Youtube www.youtube.com
6.↩ ‘Roosevelt and Stalin: Portrait of a Partnership’ by Susan Butler.
Vintage Press, 2016.
7.↩ “In Cold War, U.S. Spy Agencies Used Over 1,000 Nazis’ www.nytimes.com
8.↩ “Cold War Allies: The Origins of the CIA’s Relationship with Ukrainian Nationalists’ www.cia.gov
9.↩ Vincent Bevins, The Jakarta Method, Public Affairs Press, 2020.
10.↩ “Privatization ‘raised death rate’, BBC News news.bbc.co.uk
11.↩ ‘Ex NATO head says Putin wanted to join alliance early in his rule’ www.theguardian.com
12.↩ ‘Russia, Belarus, Call on Former Soviet nations to help form USSR style union’ www.newsweek.com

https://mronline.org/2022/05/11/everyon ... emembered/

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Finland joins NATO
May 12, 1 p.m.



Finland's leadership has stated that it supports the application to join NATO. As expected, a symmetrical statement will follow from the leadership of Sweden. As mentioned earlier, the new Iron Curtain will stretch from the Barents to the Black Sea. The campaign in Ukraine determines exactly where it will pass south of Belarus. The farther west the better.

1. The issue of Finland's entry into NATO will be organizationally resolved before the end of the year. Just like Sweden.
2. Accordingly, by 2023 or even earlier, we can expect a strengthening of the NATO grouping in Finland. This will require a build-up of forces in Karelia and the Leningrad region.
3. The question of the responsibility of those who moved the Iron Curtain from Central Europe to the current borders still hangs in the air. Some of them are still alive. The consequences of their criminal activity are obvious.
4. In fact, Finland is no longer a neutral country, since it supplied military aid to Ukraine.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7611535.html

Google Translator

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EU stumbles over Russian oil slick


Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán (R) with President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Budapest, May 10, 2022

The European Union officials are insisting that oil sanctions against Russia are coming. On Sunday, France’s Ecological Transition Minister Barbara Pompili was certain that “we will reach (an agreement) by the end of the week.”

But the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has warned EU that it would be impossible to replace more than 7 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil and other liquids exports potentially lost due to sanctions or voluntary actions.

The fine print here is that the Western entreaties on OPEC to increase oil production is falling on deaf ears not so much due to diplomatic recalcitrance as the group’s genuine inability to implement higher hikes due to under-investment in oil and gas ventures that has left some Opec+ members with dwindling spare capacity (with the exception of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.) In fact, in March, OPEC+ production production recorded a decline for the first time in 13 months and is currently around 1.48mn b/d under the coalition’s quota system.

OPEC+ members, including Russia, have agreed to raise output by about 432,000 barrels per day in May, as part of a gradual unwinding of output cuts made during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is seething anger in Washington that Saudi Arabia and the UAE refrain from stepping up production. Hence the renewed talk of the 15-year old Damocles’ sword in the form of a US legislation to punish these countries — NOPEC bill — which aims to modify the existing antitrust law to revoke the sovereign immunity that has long protected OPEC and its national oil companies from lawsuits in American federal courts.

If signed into law, the US attorney general would gain the ability to sue the oil cartel or its members Saudi Arabia or the UAE in federal court. (Other producers like Russia, which works with OPEC in wider group known as OPEC+ to withhold output, could also be sued.) But the energy superpowers know this threat is a load of baloney — that the US is in no position to dictate terms. In fact, when the US Congress passed a version of the bill in 2007, it died under veto threat from President George W. Bush who said it could lead to oil supply disruptions as well as “retaliatory action against American interests.”

The “retaliatory action” that Bush feared, which President Biden should fear even more, could today include Saudi retaliation by way of terminating the use of the dollar for its oil trade, which would of course lethally undermine the dollar’s status as the world’s main reserve currency and significantly reduce the US influence in global trade.

Some recent reports suggest that Saudis are already in talks with Beijing on usage of local currencies for some portion of their oil trade, something that China also has been seeking lately. Interestingly, in a recent commentary, the well-known Chinese political thinker Zhang Weiwei argued strongly in favour of a new thinking in Beijing against the backdrop of the US’ harsh sanctions freezing the foreign exchange reserves of the Russian Central Bank and removing Russia from the the Swift international settlement system. Prof. Zhang wrote:

“The current (Russian) decision to link natural gas and other raw materials to the ruble can be said to be a revolution against the hegemonic order of the US dollar. Very inspiring. As the world’s largest economy (based on purchasing power parity), the largest trader of goods, the largest consumer market and investment market, we (China) must boldly conceive and practice the construction of a financial system in the “post-American era”… We have a good hand, we have abundant natural resources, including a large amount of rare metals, we have the most complete industrial chain in the world, we are the only one in the world that can produce almost everything from the first industrial revolution to the fourth industrial revolution All product countries. Linking the renminbi to our special resources, to many products, is a new idea that we can consider.”

Be that as it may, Biden is highly unlikely to take the NOPEC path. The powerful American Petroleum Institute (which holds veto power on the Hill) thoroughly rejects the very idea of a lawsuit against OPEC for antitrust behaviour and market manipulation, which it fears could trigger “serious, unintended consequences” by giving Opec members an opportunity to reciprocate against US companies and even undermine their ability to sustain growing production.

Suffice to say, it is incredible that the EU is planning to commit harakiri this weekend by imposing oil sanctions against Russia. But then, it is one of those queer coincidences that at such a transformative period in world politics, the EU’s executive branch is headed by two arch-Atlanticists and hawkish Russophobes — Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. When Biden is set to sign a $40 billion bill to defeat Russia in the proxy war in Ukraine, the least these two decision-makers can do to supplement the war effort is to cut Europe’s umbilical cord with Russia in oil trade — something that had survived even the high noon of the Cold War era (US diplomatic skulduggery notwithstanding.)

So, von der Leyen travelled to Budapest yesterday to persuade President Viktor Orban to join her chariot to storm the Russian citadel. Orban threatens to veto EU sanctions against Russia, since Hungary is critically dependent on Russian oil supplies, which come overland through the Druzhba pipeline at ridiculously low cost price. Orban visited Moscow on February 1 when he and President Putin agreed on a new long term gas contract at favourable price.

Hungary needs more time (and investments) to reduce its dependency on Russian gas. But Orban is a smart politician too. Von der Leyen crossed Orban’s path, irritated alike by his authoritarian tendencies at home and his warm ties with Kremlin, and in an itch to teach him a hard lesson decided in March to withhold EU funding for Hungary by invoking the “rule-of-law conditionality mechanism.”

Perhaps, von der Leyen thought she could incentivise Orban. Of course, going slow on the EU’s conditionality mechanism prescribing a “rules-based order” for Hungary is a counterfactual that is impossible to test. The word so far from Budapest is that no deal was struck. But the bottom line in the Hungarian saga is that EU member states can muster “smart power” within the group’s treaties to frustrate the Commission using a mechanism outside of it to try and get to them. In systemic terms, this highlights the limits of European integration via the backdoor: what the EU can actually achieve institutionally without treaty change.

It is far too premature for the EU to talk about stabilising prices or reducing dependence on Russian energy resources because these processes will take time. On the other hand, these sanctions won’t deter the Russian operation in Ukraine, while the ensuing turbulence in the world oil market will not spare European economies too.

https://www.indianpunchline.com/eu-stum ... oil-slick/

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Another day of thin coverage...Fatigue, security concerns of one or both sides, censorship? I dunno.

[blindpig]

Matthew VanDyke - Some 3 Letter Agency Dude With An Obsessive Compulsion For Publicity

Matthew VanDyke: US citizen held in Libya emerges on Syria's frontline - Guardian, Nov 9 2012

An American who fought alongside Libyan rebels, and who was detained in Tripoli's Abu Salim prison for six months before returning home to Baltimore in late 2011, has turned up on the frontline of the uprising in Syria.
Matthew VanDyke said that he was in Aleppo to film a documentary alongside the Syrian rebel army. But he claims he is also advising the rebels on weaponry based on his experience in Libya.

"I go to sleep and wake up to the sound of artillery shells, and Assad's jets flying overhead and bombing the city," VanDyke, 33, wrote in the first of a series of emails with the Guardian. "Most of these booms signal the death of more civilians in Aleppo."

VanDyke claims to be a journalist-turned-freedom-fighter-turned documentarian, but others accuse him of being a misguided thrillseeker who repeatedly puts himself at risk.
...
He said he was also offering advice on weaponry, including the anti-aircraft Dushka machine guns he used while fighting in Libya, though that claim has been questioned by people who know him and who have spent time on the ground in Syria.

Matthew VanDyke and Obsessive Compulsive Freedom Fighting, Wrath-Bearing Tree, Apr 12, 2015

Yet for all the exciting adventures VanDyke experiences, it is impossible to get out of one’s head the idea of a reenactment, of middle-aged office workers walking through the woods in Civil War uniforms and young men playing paintball between mounds of dirt. It is all so clumsy, so sad and trivial. He travels to Afghanistan to place an American flag in Bin Laden’s house. He makes the first real friends of his life in combat. Van Dyke’s whole life, his whole idea of freedom, consists in this idea of acting, repeating typically dangerous situations under the gaze of the camera; and while the adventures he finds himself in are ostensibly new, they feel old and worn out. VanDyke very much wants to believe otherwise. He wants to believe his experiences are immediately made hallowed through the ever-present camera, which turns the ephemeral and pointless violence he witnesses, the aimless and meandering journey he travels, into something much more. But it doesn’t quite come off. The camera instead dictates his adventures, hollowing out his experiences, transforming a war and people’s lives into an unfunny Jackass skit.
This Guy From Baltimore Is Raising a Christian Army to Fight ISIS…What Could Go Wrong? - Mother Jones, May 28 2015
In late February, a Baltimore-born, self-proclaimed freedom fighter named Matthew VanDyke beamed into Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News show from Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region. A few days earlier, he had announced on Facebook that he was in Iraq to “raise and train a Christian army to fight” ISIS and that he had formed a company called Sons of Liberty International (SOLI) to provide “free military consulting and training to local forces fighting terrorists and oppressive regimes.” For months, the so-called Islamic State had terrorized Iraq’s Assyrian Christians, forcing many to flee their homes and villages and seek safe haven among the Kurds. With ISIS on the march across Iraq and Syria—and making headlines for its brutal beheadings of journalists and aid workers—the story of an American taking an on-the-ground role in the fight sparked a media frenzy. VanDyke, who is 35 and holds a master’s degree in security studies from Georgetown, was soon featured by media outlets across the country, including the New York Times, USA Today, the Baltimore Sun, and MSNBC.

This wasn’t the first time VanDyke had become a media sensation. A few years earlier VanDyke had made international headlines after he was captured in Libya, where he had been fighting alongside rebel forces to overturn the regime of Moammar Qaddafi. He eventually escaped, and he would later say that his Christian faith deepened during his six-month imprisonment. A film about VanDyke, who had traveled across the Arab world by motorcycle, won best documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014.

Why American veterans are dropping everything to train Ukrainians - Christian Science Monitor, May 11 2022



The war in Ukraine has attracted U.S. military veterans and Western legionnaires like no foreign battlefield in recent memory. But what motivates midcareer professionals – often now married, with children, and with their former military lives receding into memory – to drop everything and step into the trenches of another nation’s fight?
...
“In the past, we didn’t get involved in Ukraine because, when it was just involving Donbas, there was no way to have an effect on the outcome of the conflict. Now there is,” says Matthew VanDyke, who founded SOLI in 2015. The former documentary filmmaker was motivated at the time by his own experiences being held captive for five months in Libya while fighting with Libyan revolutionary forces in 2011.
“It’s also just a very clear conflict, with a democracy being invaded by essentially an authoritarian state, and a land grab,” says Mr. VanDyke, who wears a beard, hair combed back, and tactical military clothes. “It’s a no-brainer as far as right and wrong in this.”

Well, if you say so ...

Related:

Fact Sheet on the National Endowment for Democracy - Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, May 7 2022

The United States has long used democracy as a tool and a weapon to undermine democracy in the name of democracy, to incite division and confrontation, and to meddle in other countries’ internal affairs, causing catastrophic consequences. 
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), as one of the US government’s main “foot soldiers”, “white gloves” and “democracy crusaders”, has subverted lawful governments and cultivated pro-US puppet forces around the world under the pretext of promoting democracy. Its disgraceful record has aroused strong discontent in the international community. 

In today’s world, peace and development is the theme of the times, and the trend towards greater democracy in international relations is unstoppable. Any attempt to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs in the name of democracy is unpopular and is doomed to failure.
...

Posted by b on May 12, 2022 at 6:57 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/05/m ... icity.html

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From Cassad's Telegram Account:

***

Сolonelcassad
The Kremlin reports no progress in negotiations with Ukraine. Given the US exchange rate, they can not be expected until autumn or even winter.
The Kremlin also clarified that all companies subject to Russian sanctions (31 in total, including former subsidiaries of Gazprom) will not be able to participate in the process of purchasing Russian gas. Thus, attempts by European countries to use these companies by nationalizing them for subsequent purchases of Russian gas are blocked, driving the EU into the proposed scheme through Gazprombank.
To date, 4 European companies have already paid for Russian gas under this scheme. The rest, who have already opened ruble accounts with Gazprombank, are now studying the necessary payment documents (the information is confirmed by the American media).

***

Сolonelcassad
The Gauleiter of the territories of the LPR occupied by the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that over the past day, the situation of the Severodonetsk grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had seriously deteriorated.

In addition to continuing the fighting for Belogorovka, the RF Armed Forces have already begun to establish fire control over the key supply route for the AFU grouping - Soledar-Lysichansk.
The section between Verkhnekamenka and Lisichansk is under fire. Accordingly, with the strengthening of fire control over this road, the Severodonetsk grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will find itself in an operational environment. The Armed Forces of Ukraine will have to switch supplies to the secondary road Verkhnekamenka-Lysichansk through Topolevka.

Hence the heavy fighting for Belogorovka, where the APU continues to counterattack and prevent the expansion of the bridgehead, striking at the crossing.

***

Сolonelcassad
The Nazis from Azovstal continue to record fillers in the mode of a daily serial about the fact that they need to be urgently rescued. Now to the Pope, then to Elon Musk, then to the UN Secretary General.
But no one needs "living heroes of Azovstal". There will be no deblockade and corridors. Attempts to exchange the wounded for Russian prisoners of war also failed.

***

forwarded from
Readovka
Map of hostilities and the situation on the fronts on the evening of May 11

The Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation carried out a missile attack on Voronezh ! Calmly. Differently. In the Ukrainian town of the same name, they hit an air-to-surface missile, you can see the results . But seriously, normal news from the front was not delivered today. Today only these.

Arrivals across our territory have begun again. The news about the shelling of the Belgorod region comes to the fore today . The village of Solokhi was not lucky, many of our people suffered . Earlier it was reported about explosions in the village of Dubove. Now Shebekino is reporting shooting at the border.

Well, “according to tradition” arrivals in the long-suffering Donetsk: the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck from the MLRS in the Kirovsky district and the Tekstilshchiki district .

On the fronts , the picture is the same. All the same, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are "pressing" in the north of the Kharkiv region . We are still “pressing” the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the south of the Kharkov region . The positions are still the same.

There are fights at Kozachya Lopan , and to the north of Stary Saltov . We have a small advance south of Yampol . But ours, apparently, failed to gain a foothold in Belogorovka : the Armed Forces of Ukraine report the destruction of our pontoon bridge. Chechens report success at Severodonetsk , occupy the outskirts of the city. In the direction of Lisichansk, battles are going on along the Orekhov-Toshkovka line . There is no more interesting information from the fronts, but at the same time, intense battles are going on along the entire line of contact of the front, with rare breaks, from Kharkov to Nikolaev .

During the day , information was received that the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in order to slow down the advance of the army of the DPR and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, blew up a dam near Avdiivka .

Mariupol continues to be “ironed”. The militants are asking for help on the Internet, but so far they have collected only likes. The situation they have there is completely bleak: there are many wounded, food and water are running out. They don't want to give up, they're afraid. But, in fact, this is their only chance to survive. From the thick of things, Vladlen speaks publicly .

In the meantime , Odessa and Nikolaev will be framed and calibrated, more details have come in about the battles for Fr. Serpentine . According to reports, the landing operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine completely failed with heavy losses. In its course, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost 4 aircraft, several Mi-8 transport and combat helicopters and an Mi-24 attack helicopter, many Bayraktars and several assault boats. During the hostilities, several air defense batteries of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were also hit by fire, one battery was completely destroyed, up to 8 Pechora air defense systems were broken and put out of action. The total losses of the enemy amounted to 78 people dead and several dozen more reported missing. Half of the losses are accounted for by foreign PMCs. Also during the landing, English and American high-ranking officers disappeared. They landed on the island in the first wave. They were "covered" by ours, along with three helicopters and a landing craft. All the next two days they tried to return them, but to no avail, even the corpses could not be taken away. They say that NATO officers were gunners, but it is not clear why they went to the island? At present, O. Zmeiny , apparently, is not occupied by the garrison of any of the warring parties.

From interesting:

Today, the network featured strange explosions from Kramatorsk and Dolgenkiy , with smoke of a very strange color. The MoD claimed to have blown up tanks of ammonium nitrate;

The Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down their own drone and rejoice : UAVs from Soviet times;

The United States published a list of weapons provided to Ukraine;

And most importantly, Putin said that there would be no mobilization.



***

forwarded from
Gaz-Father
Kupriyanov: Gazprom cannot use the EuRoPol GAZ gas pipeline to transport Russian gas through

Poland Among them is the EuRoPol GAZ company, which owns the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. A ban has been established on transactions and payments in favor of persons under sanctions, in particular, for Gazprom, this means a ban on the use of a gas pipeline owned by EuRoPol GAZ to transport Russian gas through Poland,” said Sergey Kupriyanov, official representative of Gazprom.

Coupled with the history of reduced Ukrainian transit, the possibility of gas supplies to Europe is sharply reduced. Of course, Gazprom stated that it was impossible to increase pumping through the Sudzha, although technically 120 million cubic meters per day could be sold through it, which exceeds the entire contractual volume of transit. But the Russian company will not do this: by blocking Yamal-Europe, it did not leave Ukraine the opportunity to escalate transit flows through its territory. Gazprom will now wait for prices to rise, perhaps once again nodding to Nord Stream 2, whose bankruptcy was stopped until September.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator

Slim pickin's, indeed.

[blindpig]

Russian AF Destroys Ukrainian Missile Systems, Command Posts


Russia Vows to Block Transfer of S-300 Missile System to Ukraine, Says Targeting Arms Shipments ‘Fair Game’. | Photo: Twitter @Katmrs45

Published 12 May 2022 (7 hours 25 minutes ago)


According to a statement of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian Army also managed to destroy four Ukrainian command posts using high-precision missiles in the Soledar area of the Donetsk People's Republic.

Russian Air Forces have destroyed a Ukrainian S-300 missile system in Kharkov, killing 170 Ukrainian nationalists in the Donetsk region.

According to a statement of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian Army also managed to destroy four Ukrainian command posts using high-precision missiles in the Soledar area of the Donetsk People's Republic.

In their turn, the artillery units of the Russian Army launched attacks on 14 command points, seven Ukrainian artillery units and 358 areas of military formations and armaments of the Ukrainian Army.

Since February 24 and the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the Kremlin has made it clear that Russia has no plans to occupy Ukraine, but rather, the aim of its mission is the "demilitarization" and "denazification" of the neighboring country, given that Western powers are using it to invade Russian territory.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Rus ... -0030.html

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Briefly in Severodonetsk. 05/12/2022
May 12, 9:16 p.m.



According to the situation near Severdonetsk on the evening of May 12.


1. The enemy failed in his attempts to hold Voevodovka. The bridge between Rubizhne and Severodonetsk was blown up. Despite the fact that the Gauleiter of the LPR recognized the loss of Voevodovka yesterday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine asserted today that Voevodovka is still holding out. Although the undermined bridge speaks best of how the battles ended. Also taken South.

2. Fights for Belogorovka continue. The main supply route Soledar-Lysichansk is under fire from the RF Armed Forces. Vehicle traffic is unsafe. Most likely, part of the supply will be switched to a secondary road through Verkhnekamenka.
The enemy shells the crossing near Belogorovka. Both sides confirm serious losses on both sides. Judging by the published photographs, our main losses fell on the crossing of the Seversky Donets. However, the very fact of fighting for Belogorovka confirms that it was not possible to completely block the crossing of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

3. An offensive is developing north of Popasnaya in the direction of Kamyshevakhi (creating a threat to cover the fortified area in Zolote and Gorsky) + they are probing the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the direction of Artemovsk.

4. There are battles for Orekhovo and Toshkovo. To date, no significant progress has been reported.

5. There are also battles on the outskirts of Severodonetsk. In the morning it was reported about the occupation of houses on the outskirts of the city. The current situation there is unclear.

6. The battles for Privolye began. After the capture of Privolye, an attack on Novodruzhesk can be expected.

The enemy recognizes the deterioration of the operational situation for the Severodonetsk grouping, but expects to hold on due to the transferred reserves from Artemovsk.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7612364.html

"It was NATO that clearly and openly declared war."
May 12, 11:15 p.m.



Italian communists about NWO.

"It was NATO that clearly and openly declared war."

Supporters of the Italian Communist Party are convinced that NATO unleashed the Ukrainian conflict, and Russia is forced to defend itself, writes Il Giornale. The author of the article is indignant that the communists "dared" to place the St. George ribbon on their leaflets.

Portraits of Lenin and Stalin, two "pillars of the Marxist doctrine," hang on the walls. The red flags of the Italian Communist Party, with the hammer and sickle, are flying everywhere, in memory of the USSR. Even the medical masks bear the symbol of the Soviet Union they mourn. It is no coincidence that it was from these walls, from the office of the Communists in the Italian city of Zagarolo (Zagarolo), that a scandalous leaflet came out with the letter Z - a symbol of the Russian operation in Ukraine.



Known history. Perhaps you remember her. On the occasion of Victory Day, a division of the Communist Party of Monti Prenesini-Cassilin last Sunday, May 8, paid tribute to the soldiers who liberated "Europe from the Nazis and Fascists" . And it doesn't even matter that it was for the most part the merit of American and British soldiers.The fact is that on a leaflet announcing the event at the place Z, the first letter "Zagarolo" (the city of Zagarolo), there was a symbol depicted on Putin's tanks, and even in the form of a St. George ribbon.

Despite fierce disputes and indignation of local authorities, the communists did not come out with a refutation, on the contrary, they tried with all their might to defend their position. In an interview with the Quarta Repubblica program, they explained that "Z is also depicted on transport that supplies food and humanitarian aid to the population, and not only to those from Donbass, but also to Ukrainians." As for the causes of the conflict, the communists are sure: "It was NATO that clearly and openly declared war." This is a conflict fueled by "capitalism" and "Putin is forced to defend himself." Everyone has their own theory: "Genocide? Where? Show us, document the facts." And again: "I want to see real images, not fake."

Mauro Alboresi, secretary of the Italian Communist Party, explains: "
Is it appropriate to depict it on leaflets, also in the form of Z? "This is not a provocation, no." And maybe yes. Who cares. Clenched fist and forward.

Giuseppe De Lorenzo

https://inosmi.ru/20220512/kommunisty-254120059.html - zinc
https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/cronache ... tin-si-sta -difendendo-2032949.html - original source

The asshole passage about "the great merits of American and British soldiers" especially pleased me.
Well, the Italian Communist Party has a sound position, even though it has little effect on anything. However, this once again shows that the adequate anti-imperialist left is generally sympathetic to Russia's actions in Ukraine, seeing the root of evil in the actions of the US and NATO, which ignited another war.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7612544.html

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Stoltenberg and Norway: War-Mongering and Total Hypocrisy
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MAY 12, 2022
Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein



When a sculptor thinks of making a statue to political hypocrisy in international affairs, Norway is undoubtedly the model to be used. The Scandinavian country on the one hand hosts negotiations and dialogues in which it supposedly acts as mediator and annually awards the Nobel Peace Prize, while at the same time, as a member of NATO, it participates in all the outrages that the United States feels like doing anywhere on the planet, sowing war, destruction and death.

In relation to the Nobel Peace Prize, beyond the real worth of some of its winners, everyone knows that its award is due to political calculations that result in the insertion of Norway and its foreign policy on the planet. In other words, the prize can be used as a battering ram for aggressive European and NATO policy. How else can it be understood that it has been awarded to notorious murderers who have caused the pain of millions of people? In this sense, one can point to the ignominy of peace being associated with, for example, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Kissinger, Menachem Begin, Frederick de Clerck, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Barack Obama, and Juan Manuel Santos, among others. In the latter case, the political calculation reached such a level that even contrary to the Prize’s own practice, it was not awarded to the two negotiating parties, but only to one of them. Only Norway’s ignominy could make such a nonsense possible.

It should be remembered that in this area Alfred Nobel’s will stated that “…a fund should be constituted, the interest of which shall be distributed each year in the form of prizes to those who during the preceding year have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of existing armies and for the conclusion or promotion of peace processes”. The prize should be awarded only to those who have always devoted themselves to the promotion of peace, not to those who wage war and when they are defeated or fail to defeat the enemy, are forced to negotiate as a consequence of the repudiation their actions impose on the majority of the world’s inhabitants.

The reason why Norway and the Nobel Foundation have transformed the prize into a political instrument is perhaps due to the sale of its assets to the oil sector, as announced by the Stockholm-based organisation’s new director Vidar Helgesen in an interview with Swedish radio SR. With this decision, the Nobel Foundation continues to “sell its soul to the devil” as it has indirectly held stakes in the arms, tobacco and non-renewable energy industries for several years, in contravention of Nobel’s own will and the spirit of the Prize.

As a pristine expression of its warmongering will, Norway has sent Jens Stoltenberg to take over as Secretary General of NATO, the world’s largest terrorist organisation. In the build-up to the current political, military, economic and diplomatic conflict that NATO has unleashed in Europe, Stoltenberg has led the way from its very inception.

As early as June last year, in an interview for the German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Stoltenberg announced that he saw cooperation between China and Russia as a threat to the West and a serious challenge to NATO. In response, the Norwegian’s response was aimed at strengthening cooperation with countries in the Pacific region, adding that China’s rise represents “a fundamental shift in the global balance of power”. In this regard, he said that in relation to Russia, NATO intended to continue with its strategy of “containment and dialogue”. What a dialogue!

This decision makes clear NATO’s willingness to expand globally, in the first instance by moving threateningly close to Russia’s borders, but also by extending its presence in other regions of the world such as the Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean.

In this context, in December 2021, during a visit by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to Brussels, Stoltenberg affirmed that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would continue its eastward expansion, despite Russia’s protests, recalling that the Alliance had invited North Macedonia and Montenegro to join the organisation.

In the same vein, on 5 April, during a press conference, the Norwegian claimed that NATO needed to expand cooperation with its partners in the Asia-Pacific region, arguing that China had not condemned Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

In the same way, NATO made its presence felt in Latin America and the Caribbean, not only through the illegal occupation of the Falkland Islands where it has introduced nuclear weapons, but also through the designation of Colombia, first as an extra-continental partner of the Alliance in 2017 and more recently since December 2021 as a global partner, which gives the government of the Latin American country an endorsement to continue violating human rights, maintain impunity for the daily murders and massacres against social leaders, human rights promoters and ex-combatants under the peace agreement; As well as carrying out sap work to destroy Latin American and Caribbean integration by violating the agreement reached in January 2014 at the Second Summit of CELAC in Havana, in which Latin America and the Caribbean was declared a zone of peace. Likewise, in such a condition, the Colombian government, sending messages to its masters in the North, has squandered all kinds of anti-Russian rhetoric in order to “seek a little corner on their altars” as Silvio says.

This decision is a clear expression of Norwegian duplicity and falsehood, which on the one hand acted as a “facilitator” of the talks between the government of that country and the FARC guerrillas, while at the same time granting a bailout to that same administration in order to transform Colombia into the main instrument for unleashing military aggression and generating regional conflicts in accordance with the interests of the United States and NATO. This follows the tradition started by Juan Manuel Santos, who as defence minister ordered a military invasion of Ecuador in 2008, afterwards receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 as president.

In a recent interview Stoltenberg claimed that NATO had never made a promise of eastward expansion. But the German magazine Der Spiegel in its 18 February edition released a confidential document confirming that NATO broke promises not to expand. The magazine described Stoltenberg’s version as “questionable”.

The document, found in the British National Archives by US political scientist Joshua Shifrinson, gives details of a meeting between the foreign ministers of Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom and France in the German city of Bonn on 6 March 1991 to discuss the security of Poland and other Eastern European countries. The letter notes that there was unanimous agreement that NATO membership for Eastern European countries was “unacceptable”.

At an earlier meeting in 1990 involving the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the German Democratic Republic (GDR), France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States to discuss the final agreement on Germany’s future, which was signed in Moscow later that year, the parties expressed the view that coalition expansion should be limited.

For its part, the German government was explicit in explaining to the Soviet Union that NATO would not expand either formally or informally to the east,” according to Raymond Seitz, the US representative at the meeting, as quoted in a document published by Der Spiegel.

The information adds to that obtained from other classified files which state that then US Secretary of State James Baker gave his Soviet counterpart, Eduard Shevardnadze, “firm assurances” that “NATO jurisdiction or forces would not move eastwards”. On a visit to Moscow in February 1990, Baker was even more explicit in stating that the alliance would not move “one inch to the east”. A day afterwards, on 10 February, Germany’s own Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl repeated the same pledge to Gorbachev, stating: “We believe that NATO should not expand the sphere of its activity. We have to find a reasonable solution. I understand correctly the security interests of the Soviet Union”.

It is clear from the above that the Norwegian official has lied with impunity in order to pursue the aggressive and expansive policy that characterises NATO and has been the direct cause of the current conflict in Ukraine.

NATO’s support for Ukraine in order to provoke Russia and unleash a war that Moscow pre-empted has been going on for some time. Stoltenberg himself, during a press conference a day before the meeting of the heads of state of the warmongering alliance, acknowledged that: “NATO allies have trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops since 2014”. Likewise, so that there would be no doubt about his expansionist and interventionist project during his speech at the Munich Security Conference in February this year, in a crude attempt to intimidate Russia and the world, he assured that the budget of the Atlantic Alliance had increased by 270 billion dollars since 2014, coincidentally when the Western coup d’état in Ukraine took place.

While deceiving with a supposedly pacifist vocation, Norway, hand in hand with NATO, is preparing daily to play a leading role in the wars that the Alliance is preparing around the world, especially assuming its mission as NATO’s southern flank and the European country with the largest number of kilometres of border with Russia.

In this context, the Alliance is stockpiling armour, artillery and logistical equipment inside the Norwegian caves, according to US Navy Colonel William Bentley, who said: “Any equipment deployed in advance reduces costs and in turn accelerates our ability to support operations in times of crisis, so we can begin to prepare to use the equipment, which is already in place, to respond to any crisis that may exist. The cave complex, which NATO has been using since 1981, is staffed by 100 Norwegian and US personnel and contains enough equipment to support 15,000 Marine Corps personnel, according to Magnus Nordenman, director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council in Washington.

In a continuation of its war-mongering activity, Norway sent 4,000 anti-tank missiles and various types of protective and other military equipment to Ukraine. Similarly, on Wednesday, April 20, Norway’s own Minister of Defence, Bjorn Arild Gram, announced his government’s decision to provide Ukraine with the Mistral air defence system. In a communiqué from that office, it was reported that about 100 missiles have already been sent to Kiev.

Here is the pearl that establishes the character of these guys and this government: in the communiqué, the defence office makes it known that: the Norwegian Armed Forces plan to replace this type of air defence, and therefore, its supply to Ukraine “will not have a major impact on the national operational capability”. Norway’s “gift” to Ukraine is verified because – according to the same statement: “The missile will be phased out by the Norwegian Armed Forces, but it remains a modern and effective weapon that will be of great benefit to Ukraine”. In other words, they are sending to Ukraine a weapon that they no longer use and are scrapping.

Elsewhere, in the expansion of the conflict area, on 23 April the Norwegian frigate Fridtjof Nansen arrived in the port of Trieste in Italy as part of the US Navy strike group led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, afterwards conducting naval manoeuvres in the northern Adriatic Sea.

This unbridled deployment of resources by the Norwegian armed forces is curious, when only four months ago, in January this year, the Norwegian military began forcing its personnel, both men and women, to return used underwear when they finish their military service, according to the Norwegian State Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). Thus, the Norwegian High Command asked servicemen and women to return – in addition to their equipment – the pants, panties, bras and socks provided to be washed and reused by new recruits after their service is over. This is the miserable attitude of a government and an armed forces that imposes absurd restrictions on its soldiers while it wastes billions of dollars on weapons, waging wars all over the world on the tail of the United States. Not even the armed forces of the world’s poorest country would do that, out of basic respect for human dignity.

But unsurprisingly, every lackey has his reward. Norway’s government has decided to appoint Stoltenberg to the post of Governor of the Executive Board of the country’s central bank, a post he will take up at the end of his term in the Atlantic Alliance on 30 September. Every man for himself!

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/ ... hypocrisy/

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Army of Secret Propagandists in Ukraine Funded by U.S. to Win Western Hearts and Minds for NATO Policies
By Evan Reif - May 12, 2022 3
Facebook


[Source: facebook.com]

In my previous article on the Kyiv Independent, I touched on the Media Development Foundation (MDF), a “media accelerator” founded in 2013 by the CEO and CFO of the Kyiv Independent, Daryna Shevchenko and Jakub Parusinski.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a CIA offshoot that tries to advance U.S.-style democracy and capitalism in foreign nations, provided the seed funding, and provides about one-quarter of its overall funding. The remainder comes from either North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) affiliated agencies or right-wing groups.


[Source: ned.org]

This predates the Kyiv Independent by almost a decade and is, I believe, the real linchpin of what it does. The goals of the organization are quite comprehensive.

First, to train and network armies of freelance journalists (most of whom are interns) who work as a content mill for papers large and small throughout Ukraine. This ensures a constant stream of pro-NATO and pro-U.S. propaganda spread throughout the Ukrainian press. According to the MDF, they have been quite successful in this, writing thousands of articles for partner papers as of 2018, a number that has certainly increased subsequently.


[Source: mediadevelopmentfoundation.org]

Second, to provide McKinsey-style consultancy for these papers. MDF can offer advertising support, foreign grants and search-engine optimization, along with experienced web designers and marketing. This, along with the access to their content mills, can greatly improve the fortunes of a news outlet. Many of the papers they have worked with are, or have become, very successful. This comes with strings attached, of course, and those strings lead back to Washington.

Third, to launch new media platforms. They did not seem to have a lot of success with this up until they hit the jackpot with the Kyiv Independent.

In order to understand the magnitude of this NED operation, it is necessary to examine the network of partnerships the MDF has created. This is not a complete list, as it appears that much of the information on MDF’s previous activities was scrubbed, intentionally or not.

Regional Champions


[Source: Screen capture of Jakub Parusinski’s Medium post]

The MDF’s regional champions program is one that aims to find small news agencies which they can build up. Beyond the training seminars, ad support and marketing assistance, MDF assists the regional champions in securing NED and other foreign grants. This is a competitive process and only a few will be selected each year. While they make mention of the application process, it would be reasonable to assume NED also requires a certain level of commitment to American foreign policy goals.

According to Parusinski’s medium post, the MDF has worked with these papers, among others. It would appear that this program is, or at least was, supposed to be a yearly venture. This list is not exhaustive and I have picked only the most notable examples.

Tvoe Misto: A Lviv paper with more than 200,000 Facebook followers and 25,000 YouTube subscribers this “regional champion” of the MDF runs lovely articles comparing Russians to Orcs and paying tribute to neo-Nazis.

Hromadske TV: A spin-off of Hromadske International, a media NGO funded by a real rogue’s gallery of NATO government and intelligence agencies, such as the NED, the British, German and French Embassies, USAID, the World Bank and even NATO itself. More on them later.

Hromadske: Turnaround of TV station and digital publisher — Jnomics Media


[Source: jnomics.media]

Nakipelo: A Kharkiv outfit, this one is yet again openly NED-funded. This one seems to have a smaller profile than most of the others, probably because Kharkiv is mostly Russian and so has been less receptive to the Maidan regime.

6262.com.ua: This Sloviansk-based paper has a little bit of everything. Beyond news, it also runs classified ads and a radio show. This one will be more important later, as its owner is heavily involved in MDF activities.

Vchasno: Based right on the front lines in Krasnoarmeysk, this one is only really notable for once again being openly NED-funded.

Tribuna: Switched from a paper to an aid organization during the war. Not terribly notable beyond the question of why a Ukrainian aid organization would have its entire site in English.

The Core of it all?

In keeping with their mission, the MDF launched another project, called CORE, in 2021. According to its site “CORE is a brand new initiative of unprecedented scale. Not only we would like to help the existing local publishers bring their operations and sustainability to a totally different level, but also to catalyze new local media projects and ventures. There is a generation of new local media leaders and we want to help them prosper in the new digital-first and audience-first environment.”

They claim 100 local media brands, 15 million unique visitors and 2.2 million subscribers, so their reach is considerable in a nation of 44 million. The difference here from the “classic” MDF, as far as I can tell, is mostly scale. This also feeds into their goal to launch new media enterprises, as one of CORE’s stated goals is to connect publishers (with whom they have worked, vetted and trained) with local communities which have a need for their services.

Their funding came from the sources you would expect:


[Source: The MDF Facebook page]

This is also the arm through which the MDF does its McKinsey-style consulting work, referred to as “Consultancy and Mentorship.”

The team here is a mix of some familiar characters with some new ones. Let’s take a look at a few of them.


[Source: Screen capture of CORE Mentorship website, image has been machine-translated for English speaking audiences.]
Andrey Dikhtyarenko


[Source: Mr. Dikhtyarenko’s LinkedIn]

Andrey is a journalist and editor for “Radio Svoboda,” which is Radio Free Europe’s Russian service. Radio Free Europe was founded by the CIA and is operated by the U.S. Government. Andrey focuses on the Donbas region in particular, where CIA-sponsored death squads have been carrying out countless war crimes for eight years. CORE does not disclose this, naturally. Instead, they list only his stint at Realnaya Gazeta.

Andrey is their content and editorial consultant. There is no real mystery as to what sort of consulting a CIA agent would give your newsroom, only how to remove the smell of sulfur after he leaves.

He would also go on to become web editor at suspline, which is a part of Ukraine’s national public broadcasting.


[Source: Facebook]

Galgis Geldiyev


[Source: Jnomics media website. Mr. Geldiyev is a partner in this organization]

Galgis was the executive producer for hromadske.ua, a news agency funded almost entirely by NATO governments and their cutouts. He also worked alongside fellow MDF co-founders Daryna Shevchenko and Jakub Parusinski at jnomics media, yet another media consultancy firm. Jnomics has a detailed breakdown of how they “transformed” hromadske, even dedicating a section to their assistance from NATO governments and NGOs. Mr. Geldiyev has also done some work for VOA, although it does not seem to be anywhere near the scale of Andrey’s.

Now that we have found the spooks and their money, let us see some of what they have done with it.

Hromadske is a very good place to start.

Hromadske:

Hromadske.ua is a large digital media outfit, with nearly one million followers on Twitter. I have already revealed its NATO funding above, so we can look at some of its current staff.

Their current editor-in-chief, Yevheniia Motorevska, works two jobs. First with Hromadske, and second with the Public Integrity Council, a UK and U.S.-funded Ukrainian government agency tasked with ferreting out corruption. While corruption is a serious problem in Ukraine, it is also a very good cudgel to use against your enemies.


[Source: Facebook]

Prior to that, she worked for Slidstvo.Info, one of the most shameless propaganda outfits of this war. Currently, their focus seems to be doxing Russian soldiers and “collaborators,” although prior to that they focused on (anti-NATO) oligarchs. This is controlled directly by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a U.S.-based NGO which receives the lion’s share of its funding from the U.S. government as you can see on page 25 of this document.

Ukrayinska Pravda
Not related to the original Pravda, this was founded in 2000 by Georgiy Gongadze, a Georgian right-wing terrorist. One of the most popular news outlets in Ukraine, they now have nearly one million followers on Twitter.

As is fitting for their history, they are unbelievably far-right. Indeed, the site has an entire section dedicated to historical revisionism. They worship Bandera and the OUN, alternate between denying and justifying genocide, and defend the SS Galicia division, war criminals responsible for many atrocities, I am still surprised from time to time how brazen the Ukrainian far right can be, in this country which the press tells us has no Nazi problem.

Their executive director, Andrey Boborykin, works for CORE. The editor-in-chief, Andrey’s wife Sevgil Musayeva, got somewhat famous back during the Maidan coup for founding Crimea SOS, an NGO founded with NED cash working for the return of Crimea to Ukrainian control, mostly by offering what they call “verified information” but given their funding, is likely anything but.

RIA Media Group
No dramatic NATO ties here; however CEO Oleg Horobets runs papers in Vinnitsa, Zhytomyr, Ternopil, Khmelnytski and Koziatyn. Between these cities, there is a population of more than 1.5 million, which is yet more evidence for just how much reach CORE (and its NED paymasters) have within Ukraine.

Horobets and RIA Media are proudly displayed as clients on the front page of CORE’s site, and Mr. Horobets works as a consultant for CORE.

There is more. CORE brags about its 100 brands and 15 million users a month. I will not pretend that this list is comprehensive, but I hope I have demonstrated that there is a long-running, lavishly funded and shockingly widespread Western propaganda operation running throughout the Ukrainian press. With time and further research, I hope that others and I can uncover even more connections between the MDF, NED and Ukrainian media, as I am sure they exist.

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/0 ... -policies/

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NY Times Shifts Pro-War Narrative, Documents Failure of US in Ukraine
Suggests the US End Its the Proxy War on Russia

by John V. Walsh Posted onMay 13, 2022

The New York Times has a job to do – and it has done that job spectacularly well over the past few months. The Times is a leader, in the opinion of this writer, the leader in spelling out the US narrative on the war in Ukraine, a tale designed to keep up morale, give the war a high moral purpose and justify the untold billions pouring from the taxpayers’ pockets into Joe Biden’s proxy war on Russia. Day in and day out in page after page of word and picture it has been instructing one and all, including politicians and lower level opinion shapers, exactly what to think about the war in Ukraine.

So, when the Times says that things are not going well for the US and its man in Kiev, Volodymyr Zelensky, it is a man bites dog kind of story. It tells us that some truths have gone from uncomfortable to undeniable. Such was nature of the page one story on May 11, headlined "Russians Hold Much of the East, Setbacks Aside."

Even that anti-narrative headline softens the bitter truth. The first paragraph of the story fesses up more completely, stating, "Obscured in the daily fighting is the geographic reality that Russia has made gains on the ground." Not "holding" ground but "gaining" ground. Not exactly a morale booster.

The Times goes on, "The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its forces in eastern Ukraine had advanced to the border between Donetsk and Luhansk, the two Russian-speaking provinces where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine’s army for eight years.". Here it reminds us that the first shots in this war were not fired on February 24, as the narrative goes, but eight long years ago in the Donbas. It is a jolting reminder for those who base their support for the war on "who fired the first shot," that their "moral" view has a considerable blind spot.

The Times continues: "…. the Donbas seizure, combined with the Russian invasion’s early success in seizing parts of southern Ukraine adjoining the Crimean peninsula ….gives the Kremlin enormous leverage in any future negotiation to halt the conflict."

It goes on: "And the Russians enjoy the added advantage of naval dominance in the Black Sea, the only maritime route for Ukrainian trade, which they have paralyzed with an embargo that could eventually starve Ukraine economically and is already contributing to a global grain shortage." More bad news.

More, "Russia has all but achieved one of its primary objectives: seizing a land bridge connecting Russian territory to the Crimean peninsula." And, "The last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in this area, at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, has been whittled to a few hundred hungry troops now confined mostly to bunkers." Ouch!

Finally, turning its attention to the economy, the Times states: "The war has "put Ukraine’s economy under enormous stress, with the heavy devastation of infrastructure and production capacities," the bank said in an economic update. It estimated that 30 percent to 50 percent of Ukrainian businesses have shut down, 10 percent of the population has fled the country and a further 15 percent is displaced internally." That is a grand total of 25% of the population displaced from their homes.

This sad tale of failure, misery and death is broken up by considerable verbiage, some anecdotes from the front and the testimony of Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence, whose testimony is guarded but bleak. But read with thought, there is a big failure looming over the enterprise.

So, in a panic the US continues to throw mountains of cash at the problem, about $63 billion if one includes the recent infusion of about $40 million about to whistle through the Senate and already passed by the House with only 57 Nays, all Republican. (And therein lies another story, the demise of antiwar sentiment in the Democratic Party and its rebirth among the populist Tucker Carlson Republicans who have joined with the GOP libertarians on this one.)

But why this abrupt shift in tone by the Times. Lax editorial oversight? This does not appear to be the case, because right on cue on the same day we are treated to an Opinion piece entitled: "America and Its Allies Want to Bleed Russia. They Really Shouldn’t." It suggests that it is time for the U.S. to wave the white flag.

The piece concludes thus:

"But the longer the war, the worse the damage to Ukraine and the greater the risk of escalation. A decisive military result in eastern Ukraine may prove elusive. Yet the less dramatic outcome of a festering stalemate is hardly better. Indefinite protraction of the war, as in Syria, is too dangerous with nuclear-armed participants.

"Diplomatic efforts ought to be the centerpiece of a new Ukraine strategy. Instead, the war’s boundaries are being expanded and the war itself recast as a struggle between democracy and autocracy, in which the Donbas is the frontier of freedom. This is not just declamatory extravagance. It is reckless. The risks hardly need to be stated."

It appears some in the Foreign Policy Elite and other precincts of the Deep State have seen the looming disaster for the proxy war on Russia being waged by Biden, Nuland, Blinken and the rest of the neocon cabal. The prospect of nuclear holocaust lying at the end of this road may be enough to rouse them from their Exceptionalist torpor. They seem to want to stop the train that they have set in motion before it runs off the cliff. It is not clear whether they will prevail. But it is clear that we need to drive those responsible for this dangerous debacle out of power -before it is too late.

https://original.antiwar.com/john-v-wal ... n-ukraine/

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Remember the Maine: The Alleged Russian Atrocity at Bucha Looks Like Another in a Long Line of False Pretexts for War
By Jeremy Kuzmarov - May 13, 2022 0


[Source: theparadise.ng]

Unproven massacre by Russian troops in Bucha was used to compel passage of Ukrainian Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 and escalate U.S. military intervention

From the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine to the infamous Gulf of Tonkin incident to the chemical weapons attacks in Syria that were falsely blamed on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, the American public has routinely been fed disinformation in an effort to get them to support wars of aggression on the principle that they are being fought in self-defense.

The alleged massacre by Russian troops in Bucha, a town 63 kilometers north of Kyiv, following a Russian retreat on March 30, appears to be the latest such incident designed to garner support for a wider U.S. war against Russia.


Sinking of the U.S.S. Maine, which was blamed on Spain to justify the U.S. invasion of Cuba and the Philippines. [Source: yellowsjournalismsawar.blogspot.com]

On March 31, the mayor of Bucha, Anatoli Fedoruk, heralded the liberation of Bucha from Russian occupiers; notably, he made no mention of any massacre.


Anatoli Fedoruk, mayor of Bucha. [Source: mronline.org]

The New York Times reported that the Russian withdrawal was completed on Saturday, April 2, and that the Russians “left behind them dead soldiers and burned vehicles, according to witnesses, Ukrainian officials, satellite images and military analysts.” No mention of any massacre.

The Times article from April 2, authored by Andrew E. Kramer and Neil McFarquhar, was titled: “In Broad Retreat From Kyiv, Russia Seeks to Regroup.” It pointed out that “Ukrainian soldiers from the Azov battalion walked through the remnants of a Russian military convoy in the recently liberated town of Bucha on Saturday, just outside the capital after the Russians withdrew.”

The Azov Battalion is a notorious neo-Nazi outfit so it could not have ushered in much of a liberation.[1]

The Times reported further that it had found the bodies of six civilians. “It was unclear under what circumstances they had died, but the discarded packaging of a Russian military ration was lying beside one man who had been shot in the head,” the paper said.

This would indicate that they were probably Russian soldiers that were killed or civilians friendly toward the Russian military who had received food from them.


Azov Battalion “liberators” of Bucha. [Source: nytimes.com]
Azov Battalion Sweep

On April 2, hours before the massacre was reported in international media, the U.S. and EU-funded Gorshenin Institute online [Ukrainian language] site Left Bank announced that:

“Special forces have begun a clearing operation in the city of Bucha in the Kyiv region, which has been liberated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The city is being cleared from saboteurs and accomplices of Russian forces.”

The Russian military had by this point completely left the city so, as Joe Lauria reported in Consortium News, this sounded like reprisals. The state authorities would be going through the city searching for “saboteurs” and “accomplices of Russian forces.”

Sergiy Korotkikh, head of the Nazi territorial defense at Bucha, shared a 30-second video on Telegram of Azov Battalion troops walking along a deserted street in Bucha and a fragment of conversation afterwards:

“Those guys without blue armbands, can we shoot them? Fucking of course!”


Sergiy Korotkikh [Source: reftight.euromaidanpress.com]

This clearly indicates that the Ukrainian army forces carried out civilian shootings in Bucha which have gone unacknowledged by politicians and in the mainstream U.S. media.

“Apparent Atrocities“

It was only after the Azov Battalion sweep—on Sunday, April 3—that the world learned of the Bucha massacre.

According to Wikipedia, Mayor Fedoruk at this time reported that 412 bodies were found in the aftermath of the incident, many with their hands bound behind their backs and shot at close range.

An inquiry by Radio Free Europe claimed to confirm the use of a basement beneath a campground as a torture chamber. Many bodies were found mutilated and burned, and girls as young as fourteen were reportedly raped by Russian soldiers.


Alleged victims of Bucha. Photo courtesy of Ukrainian Defense Ministry. [Source: consortiumnews.com]

Human Rights Watch reported, based on an eyewitness testimonial, that soon after they occupied the city in early March, Russian forces went door to door, searching residential buildings, claiming they were “hunting Nazis.” 16 unlawful killings were attributed to Russian forces, including nine summary executions and seven indiscriminate killings of civilians.

Human Rights Watch also documented that Russian soldiers executed five men in Bucha in a separate incident prior to their withdrawal and that a man was shot on his balcony by Russian troops while smoking a cigarette and that a 9-year old girl was shot in the shoulder while trying to run away from Russian forces.

These findings contradict the Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that “not a single local resident has suffered from any violent action” while Bucha was “under the control of the Russian armed forces,” and that the evidence of crimes was a “hoax, a staged production and provocation” by authorities in Kyiv.

However, oddly, there is not a single piece of video footage of Russian troops in Bucha engaged in wide-scale civilian killings; not a single snapshot, social media update, or text message.


Were these crocodile tears? Zelensky at Bucha. [Source: lbc.co.uk]

The chief regional prosecutor in Bucha, Ruslan Kravchenko, told Human Rights Watch on April 15 that 278 bodies had been found in the town since Russian forces withdrew—but he did not specify who was the source of their death.

Serhii Kaplychnyi, head of the municipal funeral home in Bucha, said that during the Russian occupation, his team placed dozens of bodies in communal graves, though at least some of the victims were Ukrainian soldiers.


Ukrainian authorities in Bucha exhume bodies from a mass grave behind the Church of St. Andrew and All Saints, where local authorities and volunteers placed bodies of those who died and were killed during the occupation of the city by Russian forces. [Source: hrw.org]

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We strongly condemn apparent atrocities by Kremlin forces in Bucha and across Ukraine. We are pursuing accountability using every tool available, documenting and sharing information to hold accountable those responsible.”

The word “apparent” is significant because it acknowledges that the atrocities are not confirmed. The Pentagon in fact admitted on April 4 that it could not independently confirm the stories of Russian atrocities at Bucha.

Leaked Satellite Images Offer No Smoking Gun

The BBC and other Western media outlets purported to have smoking-gun proof that Russia was behind a major massacre in Bucha when they reported on satellite images from March 19 showing dead bodies that were in the same place that they were found by Ukrainian forces after the Russian troops had withdrawn.

According to the BBC, this directly contradicted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s claim that footage of bodies in Bucha was “staged” after the Russians withdrew.


[Source: bbc.com]

The number of bodies in the satellite imagery is only six, however, which is well short of the total of 412 civilians that the Ukrainian government claimed Russian troops had massacred in Bucha.

Former U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence Officer Scott Ritter pointed out, furthermore, that dead bodies left to rot on the street for nearly two weeks would be badly bloated and decomposed with black faces and putrid liquid coming out of them—which was not shown in the satellite imagery.

According to Ritter, evidence that could be extracted from the images showed that the bodies appeared to have been killed within 24-36 hours of their discovery—meaning that they were killed after the Russians withdrew from Bucha.

Many of the bodies had white cloth strips tied to their upper arm, a visual designation which indicated either loyalty to Russia or that the persons did not pose a threat to Russians.


[Source: youtube.com]

Ritter said that the evidence overall is strong that the Ukrainian police carried out a cleansing operation in Bucha on April 1 and murdered people. However, the Ukrainian government—which is losing the war—saw an opportunity to gain sympathy for its cause in the West by blaming the Russians and building momentum for more military support.

Ritter added that the U.S. knows very well who killed so many people in Bucha—they have the satellite photos—but that the U.S. “isn’t in the business of truth.” Rather, they are “in the business of promulgating Ukrainian lies”—which aim to “advance the narrative of Russia as a genocidal state massacring Ukrainian civilians”—which is not what happened.

Car footage from April 1 purports to show dead bodies in the same place as the March 19 satellite images. Chilean journalist Gonzalo Lira, who was detained by Ukrainian Security Services (SBU), asserted that the car video was of high-production quality that could only be achieved with high-end equipment, suggesting it was made by government intelligence agencies.


[Source: bbc.com]

Another section of the road showed more dead bodies from March 11. Russian sources claim the bodies were in fact moving and were not dead.


[Source: bbc.com]

Whether the latter is true is uncertain. However, the number of bodies on the satellite images amounts to at most nine—well short of 412 and not consistent with genocide. The condition of the bodies and existence of white cloth strips beneath their arms further suggests that they were killed by the Azov battalion—which has received arms from the U.S. and training from the CIA and/or U.S. Special Forces who are experts in psy-war (creating atrocities and blaming them on the enemy).

Russians Acted Like Savages

On April 6, The Washington Post published an article entitled “In Bucha, the scope of Russian barbarity is coming into focus. The article claimed:

“The name of this city is already synonymous with the month-long carnage that Russian soldiers perpetrated here. But the scale of the killings and the depravity with which they were committed are only just becoming apparent as police, local officials and regular citizens start the grim task of clearing Bucha of the hundreds of corpses decomposing on streets and in parks, apartment buildings and other locations … investigators uncovered evidence of torture before death, beheading and dismemberment, and the intentional burning of corpses … ‘[The Russians] didn’t act like men; they acted like savages’ … [The Russians] made the city an arena for blood sport …”

This was characteristic of media coverage.

The media and political establishment from this time began to clamor for greater U.S. military intervention. Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) even called for shooting down Russian planes.


Adam Kinzinger [Source: cnn.com]

President Biden called Putin a war criminal because of what happened at Bucha and told the conference of North America’s Building Trades Unions: “If I gotta go to war, I’m going with you guys,” causing the audience to cheer with gusto.

Lend Lease Act of 2022
The war fever resulting from the alleged Bucha massacre led to the unanimous passage by the U.S. Senate on April 6 of the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022, which loosened regulations on military shipments to Ukraine using World War II language.

The law states that lent or leased defense articles “are intended for Ukraine’s government or the governments of other Eastern European countries affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

This expansion allows the president to expedite delivery of military supplies to other countries that may be in Russia’s sights.

The Lend-Lease Act followed from an emergency $13.6 billion aid package to Ukraine that was passed with only three dissenting votes in Congress.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who supported both measures, called the Bucha massacre “pure evil,” adding that Russian troops are carrying out a “genocide” in Ukraine. “When we murder wantonly innocent civilians because of who they are, whether it be their religion, their race, or their nationality, that is genocide, and Mr. Putin is guilty of it,” Schumer said.


Senator Chris Coons on Face the Nation. [Source: cbsnews.com]

On April 28, the Lend-Lease bill was approved in the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 417-10.


[Source: govtrack.us]

All of the Democrats, including the entire progressive caucus and “the Squad” and all but 10 Republicans, approved the bill after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited everyone to the Speaker’s Dining Room for a photo exhibit that “capture[d] many of [the Russian] atrocities…unthinkable, grotesque, diabolical atrocities.”


Nancy Pelosi with Volodymyr Zelensky. [Source: theguardian.com]

On May 9, after a visit to a Lockheed Martin plant in Alabama that produces the Javelin anti-tank missiles that are supplied to the Ukrainian military, President Biden signed the Lend-Lease bill into law, stating that the “atrocities the Russians are engaging in [ie. Bucha] are just beyond the pale.”


President Biden flanked by Vice-President Kamala Harris and sponsor Ben Cardin (D-MD) as he signs the Ukraine Democracy Lend-Lease Act on May 9. [Source: cnn.com]

Like other military aid programs to Ukraine, the Lend-Lease bill by implication would have no legitimacy if the atrocities attributed to Russia were either exaggerated or actually committed by Ukraine.

Long Pattern of False Pretexts

The Russian “massacre” at Bucha is but the latest in a long line of false slanders or half-truths directed against Russia that have been used to compel support for legislation that provokes conflict and advances regime-change efforts.

In 2012, the U.S. Congress passed the Magnitsky Act, sanctioning Russia based on false allegations that the Russian government had stolen $230 million from an American hedge-fund manager in Russia and Democratic Party donor named Bill Browder and tortured to death his lawyer, Sergey Magnitsky, who was a whistleblower in the case.

Magnitsky in fact was an accountant specializing on off-shoring money for the wealthy who was being investigated as an accomplice in Browder’s scheme to rob the Russian government, and likely died of a heart attack.[2]


The late John McCain (R-AZ), a Russia hawk and strong supporter of the Magnitsky Act and new Cold War, speaks near portrait of Sergey Magnitsky. [Source: mccaininstitute.org]

In 2016, the U.S. accused the Russians of meddling in the U.S. election when evidence about this was discredited and at best thin.[3] Earlier, the Russians were accused of shooting down a Malaysian airliner when thorough investigations pointed to the likely culpability of the Ukrainian intelligence services, with possible CIA backing.[4]


The downing of the MH17 Malaysian jet—another false flag? [Source: rt.com]

The Russians were additionally falsely accused of a) paying bounties for killing U.S. soldiers in Afghhanistan; b) selling COVID vaccine R&D secrets from the West; c) hacking into Vermont’s power grid, and; d) ordering the poisoning of the Skirpals and Alexei Navalny.

All of these incidents fit a larger pattern in U.S. history of disinformation and deception that has fueled the permanent warfare state and has greatly increased the threat of nuclear Armageddon.

===============


1.The Times also noted that in the nearby town of Irpin, “members of the Odin Unit, which includes foreign fighters from the United States and United Kingdom, took cover on Tuesday as they moved through the streets and cleared remaining Russian forces.” The presence of U.S. and UK mercenaries does not give confidence that the people of the region would view the defeat of Russian troops as a genuine liberation. ↑

2.See Jeremy Kuzmarov and John Marciano, The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War As Tragedy, the Second As Farce (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2018), 13, 14. ↑

3.Kuzmarov, The Russians Are Coming, Again. ↑

4.See John Helmer, with Max van der Werff, Liane Theuerkauf and Sam Bullard, The Lie That Shot Down MH17 (John Helmer, 2020). ↑

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/0 ... s-for-war/

[blindpig]

Reverse of Russian gas to Poland closed
May 14, 14:14



The reverse of Russian gas from Germany to Poland was closed. Despite Poland's loud chatter about giving up Russian gas, Russian sanctions against European gas companies and stories that the EU will soon give up "dirty and smelly Russian gas", Poland continued to pump Russian gas through Germany via a virtual reverse, as a result of which it became one of the leaders of the European Union in terms of occupancy of gas storage facilities.

The official representative of Gazprom, Sergei Kupriyanov, said that Germany had stopped supplying Russian gas in reverse to Poland. This was reported in the Telegram channel of the company.

“On May 2, Germany stopped the physical reverse of Russian gas to Poland via Yamal – Europe. However, a virtual reverse for Poland immediately arose from the applications of consumers in Italy and France, which are provided through the Polish corridor,” Kupriyanov said.

According to him, the resulting gas is used by Warsaw to pump its underground storage facilities, while UGS facilities in Europe are currently filled at an average of 34 percent, and UGS facilities in Poland at 80 percent. The official representative of "Gazprom" stressed that this week, on average, the requests of European consumers for the supply of gas from Russia in transit through Ukraine were increased by 43 percent.

On April 27, Gazprom suspended gas supplies under existing contracts to Bulgaria and Poland. The company explained that it had not received payment in rubles from the countries, and stressed that deliveries would be resumed as soon as payment was made using the new details.

https://lenta.ru/news/2022/05/04/reverse/ - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7614538.html

We need an exchange. Exchange, no matter what...
May 13, 16:45



We need an exchange. Exchange, no matter what...

Why did the topic of negotiations between Putin and Zelensky reappear.

The situation in Donbas is deteriorating for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the threat to the Severodonetsk grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is more than real. Hence the transfer of reserves to Soledar and fierce battles for Belogorovka, as well as attempts to slow down the development of the offensive from Popasnaya.
At the same time, the Kremlin's position does not change, the meeting is possible only for the signing of an already agreed agreement. No one will meet with Zelensky just like that.
The United States obviously wants to equate Putin with Zelensky, remaining, as it were, "above the fray." Such a meeting itself would be a victory for the United States. Therefore, the puppet again voices the old thesis, which is obviously rotten for Russia. From here and the standard answer about "it is necessary to prepare conditions".

Along the way, through the actualization of such topics, they want to again actualize the issue of exchanging the Nazis for Azovstal, who have become too toxic for the Zelensky gang, as long as they remain alive.
Russia continues to adhere to the position - either captured or in the ground. Any concession in this matter would obviously be a grave mistake. Medvedchuk did not work. It did not work with Macron. With the UN Secretary General and the IWC did not work. Erdogan did not work. Now they are trying to blackmail the prisoners.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin/48446 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7613481.html

Google Translator

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BEFORE THE COLONIZED SUICIDE OF EUROPE
RUSSIA RESUMES THE OFFENSIVE IN THE GEOPOLITICS OF OIL
May 13, 2022 , 1:26 p.m.


Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo (Photo: The Wall Street Journal)

"Considering the current perspective of demand, it would be almost impossible to replace a loss of volumes of this magnitude": this was said by Mohammad Barkindo, Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to the European Union (EU) at the beginning of april.

As a result of the coercive measures imposed on the Russian energy circuit by the United States, and in chorus by the EU, Barkindo raised his analysis of the energy spectrum in light of the geopolitical events that we know:

"We could potentially see the loss of more than 7 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil, and also exports of other derivatives, as a result of current and future sanctions or other voluntary actions."

Days later, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak commented that Russia's crude oil production could decrease between 4% and 5% in April compared to March, due to difficulties with the insurance of the industry's ships. Of course, difficulties caused by Western "sanctions".

On the other hand, crude oil prices have been affected by volatility, increasing considerably when the United States introduced a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas. This helps the actors who are involved in commercial dynamics, typical of the oil industry, to avoid marketing Russian oil products.

Even the general secretary of the Union of Austrian Industrialists, Christoph Neumeier, predicted the danger of prohibitive measures because they can lead to further growth in energy prices . And he added that while Russian coal and oil could be replaced in the medium term, phasing them out would still incur huge financial costs, and replacing Russian gas in the medium term is simply impossible.

The world oil industry is a vast network where each thread has certain pieces. If one of those pieces is blocked from its proper function, the rest tend to slow down accordingly.

SIXTH PACKAGE OF EU "SANCTIONS"

This Tuesday, May 10, Josep Borrell put on the table the sixth package of "sanctions" against Russia prepared by the European Commission, so that this proposal becomes a fact; the 27 member states of the European bloc can only adopt the measures unanimously.


This package of "sanctions" has been quite controversial but not surprising at all, because after the rounds of direct measures against the oil industry, then the financial system and in parallel against authorities of a State, what follows is the oil embargo. And the sequence of the sanctioning manual on Venezuela can shed clear light in this regard.

However, this time the EU tried to promote these "sanctions" without success so far:

*The embargo was a gradual one on Russian oil imports, the plan of which was based on EU countries refusing to supply crude from Russia for six months and not buying any more Russian oil products by the end of this year. At the same time, to shape the circumstances of Hungary and Slovakia, they were given 20 months to stop importing Russian oil and gas.
*The exclusion of other Russian banks from the SWIFT payment messaging system, including Gazprombank, which EU member states use to pay for Russian gas.
*"Sanctions" on people who spread "wrong" information about Russia's war in Ukraine.
*Ban on the broadcast of several Russian television channels.

At the end of these discussions, they failed to finalize the embargo, and the stone in Borrell's shoe was Hungary due to its heavy dependence on Russian gas. In addition, Hungary is part of the Druzhba pipeline route, through which Russia sends crude oil to Europe, and is one of the largest in the world in terms of capacity and length.

In addition to that, it is recalled that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the country needs five years to abandon Russian oil and that he rejected the current EU proposals to ban the supply of Russian oil to the EU, because such a measure is a "nuclear bomb" against the Hungarian economy.

Currently, the European population is experiencing the onslaught of "sanctions" on Russian gas on which they are highly dependent. A total gas embargo could cause a serious energy crisis in several countries on that continent. Don't forget that the EU accounts for 40% of Russian gas consumption and 31% of oil derivatives, and that much of the energy infrastructure is geared towards Russian oil.

They continue with the rope around their necks .

RUSSIA'S ANTI-SANCTIONS AGENDA

Russia has adopted a roadmap to minimize the damage of "sanctions". It is evident that, since before 2014, the government of President Vladimir Putin was preparing for the current geopolitical scenario, so just to name one of the many measures, it is known that by August 2015, Russia established the Government Replacement Commission of Imports in order to counteract the impacts of the "sanctions". This allowed companies to develop approaches on how to resist the imposition of such measures.

Russian authorities acknowledge the seriousness of the new restrictions, however, they were predictable and Russian government officials say the country prepared for it. The Russian economy will withstand the ongoing financial war.


Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo (Photo: The Peninsula Qatar)

It is necessary to indicate that from the beginning of the sanctioning day, the Bank of Russia took actions that could allow the stabilization of the ruble, and at a broad level of the financial markets and basic products. For example, in March, the ruble had strengthened to 105 rubles per dollar, in April it was around 80 rubles per dollar , showing a considerable rebound.

Likewise, the Russian government also focused its actions on the transport system and the provision of new national and international logistics corridors, increasing the performance capacity of the routes to China, Georgia, Turkey and Iran.

The Russian diplomat Vladimir Chizhov showed at the end of February that Russia knows how to calculate the risks and face the consequences of any possible "sanction". Chizhov emphasized that the measures would have a boomerang effect, since very often they end up hitting those who impose them. In this case, they have further exacerbated the negative consequences for Europe itself and will continue to get worse.

It can clearly be inferred that, since time immemorial, Europe, serving as the appendage of Asia, maintains historical ties of interconnection and interdependence with Russia. That nexus is what Washington constantly tries to break, since that union could create a new conglomerate of countries that would, in such a case, be a strong competitor of the United States in global markets.

It remains for Europe to remove the guise of vassal of the North Americans, something that does not seem to happen in the near future.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/ru ... l-petroleo

Google Translator

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Russia suspends gas supply to Finland for non-payment


Last April, Finland's government committee for economic policy decided not to pay for Russian gas in rubles, as required by the Kremlin. | Photo: Sputnik Novosti
Published May 14, 2022 (2 hours 32 minutes ago)

Last April, Finland's government committee for economic policy decided not to pay for Russian gas in rubles, as required by the Kremlin.

As of Saturday, May 14, the supply of Russian gas will be suspended in Finland, according to the company RAO Nordic, a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned Inter RAO, reported this Friday.

RAO Nordic said that they are "forced to suspend the import of electricity from May 14" because they can no longer "make payments for electricity imported from Russia."

The entity pointed out that "it has been importing electricity from Russia to Finland and selling it to the Nord Pool exchange for many years", so they maintain a solid commercial agreement.


However, the payment for the energy sold after May 6 "has not been credited with funds in (the) bank account" of the company, so they have decided to cut off the supply.

Meanwhile, Fingrid, the operator of the Finnish transmission system, communicated on its website that although the electricity supplied by Russia covers "approximately ten percent of the total consumption of Finland", access to energy sources "in Finland is not threatened”.

Senior Vice President of Power System Operations at Fingrid, Reima Päivinen, stated that Russia's "lack of importing electricity will be made up for by importing more electricity from Sweden and generating more electricity in Finland."

The precedent of the differences between Helsinki and Moscow is the decision made by the Finnish president, Sauli Niinisto, and the prime minister, Sanna Marin, to urgently request, last Thursday, their membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). .

At the end of April of this year, the Finnish Minister of European Affairs and Governance announced that, in accordance with agreements reached in the "government committee for economic policy", her country refused to "pay in rubles" for Russian gas.

On the other hand, at the beginning of May, the Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, assured that "in a few months we will be able to give up Russian fuel resources.

Moscow has warned Finland about the risks involved in its accession to NATO, an action with which the front will have 1,400 kilometers of common line with Russian territory.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/rusia-su ... -0008.html

Google Translator

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Aurora: Communist Women in the Donbas Resistance
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MAY 13, 2022
Jim “Fergie” Chambers


Katya and Svetlana show off their Soviet-themed redesign of the DPR flag

A 3-part interview with Svetlana and Katya, from the Donetsk Marxist-Feminist organization

13.05.2022, DONETSK, DONETSK PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC-

Nearly two weeks ago, I spent the May 1st, International Worker’s Day, with six members of the Donestk-based Marxist feminist group “Aurora.” The group is part of a larger Marxist collective in Donbas and Ukraine, and when it is possible, hosts study groups, events, and various forms of collective labor. Many of the men in their larger collective are fighting on the front now.

We walked all over the city, visiting a number of parks and monuments, learning about the history of the workers’ movements, especially the miners, and getting to know one another. We also stopped at a small memorial to the victims of the May 2nd, 2014 Odessa massacre, when Ukrainian fascist vigilantes murdered at least 40 anti-Maidan protestors. Two of those killed in the massacre, Andrey Brazhevsky and Vadim Papura, were close friends of the women in “Aurora,” and they laid flowers for them with their photos at the memorial. They chose Mayday, a day before the anniversary of their death, because as they put it, it was “the last day they marched with us as comrades in struggle.”


Aurora laid photos of Andrey Brazhevsky, 26, and Vadim Papura, 17, both killed at the trade union building in the Odessa Massacre

Yesterday, May 12th, I was able to catch up with Svetlana Valkovich and Katya Ladnova, the founders of Aurora, to interview them more extensively about their group, and their perspectives on Donbas. I’ve organized that interview into three parts, below:

Part One focuses on the reason the group was founded, and the issues facing working-class women in the post-Soviet world:

https://vimeo.com/709449664?embedded=tr ... r=42301792

Part Two is the fascinating personal narrative of Svetlana and her husband, how they escaped Kiev, and the Kharkov, under the persecution of Ukrainian Nazi groups:

https://vimeo.com/709501129?embedded=tr ... r=42301792

Part Three is a discussion on the reality that Donbas has faced under attack by Ukrainian forces, and how the International Left ought to view the conflict:

https://vimeo.com/709506179?embedded=tr ... r=42301792

Find Katia and Svetlana on Telegram:
Katya Ladnova: t.me/katia_from_mordor

Svetlana Valkovich: t.me/donbasstarlight

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/ ... esistance/

I'm generally not keen on video but these women should be listened to.

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Is It Coincidence That Some CIA Torture Techniques are so Popular With Ukrainian Neo-Nazis?
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MAY 13, 2022
Ekaterina Blinova


© Photo : Sonja van den Ende

While the US rushed to vilify Russia’s latest UN Security Council Arria-Formula summit on Kiev’s human rights violations, one might wonder as to why Ukrainian neo-Nazi torture sites have so much in common with CIA secret prisons, says Dutch journalist Sonja van den Ende.

“I participated in the UN Security Council Arria-Formula meeting on 6 May 2022″, says Sonja van den Ende, an independent journalist from Rotterdam, Netherlands. “The goal of this meeting was to present to the United Nations (UN) members evidence about war crimes committed by the Ukrainian Army in cooperation with the Azov Battalion which was provided by us, journalists on the ground, in Donbass. The evidence was presented in the form of videos and oral testimonies, from residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, especially Mariupol, Volnovakha and Melitiopol”.



However, the Western UN members, especially representatives from the US, the UK, Norway, Albania, and France, paid little if any attention to the Donbass people’s stories, according to the Dutch journalist. Furthermore, they behaved in an arrogant way, she adds.

“They completely ignored us and didn’t ask any questions”, she notes. “I personally made some remarks at the end of the meeting. I asked them if they want WWIII and why they don’t listen to us, the journalists, who are working on the ground”.

Following the meeting, Rodney Hunter, political coordinator at the US Mission to the United Nations, claimed that Russia “misused” the Security Council and the UN to “spew falsehoods”. He even went so far as to dismiss Russia’s report and testimonies of Donbass witnesses and foreign journalists as “disinformation, lies and false narrative”.

The US is using human rights and international law selectively and only when it fits in its agenda, says van den Ende: Washington routinely turns a blind eye to the crimes committed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, while pointing the finger of blame at Russia. Still, it raises the question whether Washington has any moral authority to lambast Russia, given that “the US is the largest perpetrator, who is waging wars around the globe in many countries”, notes the journalist.

She is also perplexed by the US administration’s current attempts to instrumentalise the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against Russia, given that Washington never recognised the jurisdiction of this legal body. Moreover, on 2 September 2020, then-President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on ICC officials over the court’s investigation into alleged war crimes committed by the US in Afghanistan. (Later these sanctions were revoked by Joe Biden).

Mariupol’s ‘Biblioteka’ Black Site

No matter how hard the West tries to depict Ukrainian nationalists and neo-Nazis as patriots and heroes, the truth is continuing to find its way out. Following the liberation of Mariupol, residents talked to journalists, describing the Azov Battalion’s hideous misdeeds, which went contrary to the Western press’ narrative.

Der Spiegel was caught red-handed by another German outlet, Junge Welt, deleting a video featuring an evacuee from Mariupol’s Azovstal, Natalia Usmanova, who subjected the Ukrainian government and neo-Nazi Azov militants to harsh criticism. According to Der Spiegel, the video was removed “because of discrepancies in content that were subsequently discovered”.

Van den Ende, who visited Mariupol twice, notes that a lot of gruesome stories concerning Ukrainian neo-Nazis were circulating in the city after it was taken under the control of militants from the notorious Azov, Dnipro, and Shakhtersk battalions in 2014. For several years, Ukrainian nationalists cracked down on supporters of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in Mariupol.

“I got to know this in March [2022] and most likely other journalists who were in Mariupol also heard that there was a torture site [there] called ‘Biblioteka’ (‘Library’), or as Western countries used to call those facilities during the US War on Terror, a ‘black site'”, says the Dutch journalist.

The “Library” secret torture prison appeared at Mariupol Airport in June 2014, being run by the Azov Battalion and “supervised” by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), according to Vasily Prozorov, a former SBU officer. People detained for links to the DPR or pro-Russian ideas were called “books”. After being checked, the prisoners were kept in the refrigerators of the airport restaurant. According to the testimonies of former detainees, Ukrainian nationalists used different torture techniques, including waterboarding, asphyxiation, breaking fingers, etc.

“People involved in the anti-Ukrainian resistance, and the struggle against the Kiev authorities, were subjected to severe torture”, Prozorov told Russian newspaper Izvestia in March 2022. “Two men were tortured to death in front of my eyes. In total, during my rotation (one month), about 200 people were processed through the ‘Library'”.

Van den Ende notes that torture techniques used at the Mariupol secret prison were strikingly similar to those used by the CIA at the agency’s black sites across the world. The existence of the CIA’s overseas torture sites was confirmed in a 2014 US Senate Intelligence report on the use of what was termed “enhanced interrogation practices” by the US intelligence agency. The Dutch journalist does not rule out that the Azov Battalion and other Ukrainian nationalist militants were specifically “trained” to torture their detainees. She notes that waterboarding – the CIA’s most famous tool – was also widely used in the “Biblioteka”.

“The Azov Battalion is a cruel militia based on the Nazi ideology and despite the West is trying to deny it, you can see it clearly from their symbols, their outfit, their flag and their torch marches, which they perform every year, especially in commemoration of their idol Stephan Bandera, the Nazi leader of Ukraine in WWII!” she says.

Western Leaders Know What’s Going On

Van den Ende bemoans the fact that just a few foreign correspondents are working in the Donbass conflict zone. The Western corporate press and Hollywood celebrities have never visited the region, she notes, citing American movie star Angelina Jolie’s latest trip to the western Ukrainian city of Lvov. Apparently, Western leaders and their spin doctors know that their narrative contradicts the reality on the ground in Donbass, according to the journalist.

“They don’t want to visit the war-torn [Donbass] region and they prevent their journalists and celebrities from going there, because it’s not on their agenda and not in their interest. They don’t care about human suffering, they use it when it suits them”, says the Dutch journalist. “The West knows very well that they support right-wing extremists [in Ukraine], as they supported jihadists in Syria. They use them as proxies, so they don’t fight directly themselves. They use this tactic in all their wars, in their colour revolutions and regime changes, training these proxies and supporting them with money and weapons”.

However, it seems that some forces within Western elites have started to realise that the US and NATO have gone too far by arming Ukraine and ramping up the conflict in Eastern Europe, according to van den Ende.

Thus, Pope Francis noted in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that the “barking of NATO at Russia’s door” may have forced Russia to start the special operation in Ukraine. Jeffrey Sachs, a former adviser to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), urged the US to negotiate with Russia and reconsider NATO’s expansionist strategy in his April op-ed for CNN.

“If more intellectuals would stand up against their own regimes, some common sense would come back”, the Dutch journalist suggests. “But I am afraid, common sense is completely gone with politicians in the West, they are following a war plan. They want war with Russia. Why? My guess is that their financial system is broken and they need a new system, like the ‘Great Reset’ and the ‘Green New Deal’, so they push their agenda of war, to distract the population from the real problems and the agenda they follow”.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/ ... neo-nazis/

[blindpig]

“Don’t Mess With Donbas”: A Day with American Communist Ex-pat and DPR Veteran Russell “Texas” Bentley
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MAY 12, 2022
Jim “Fergie” Chambers

https://vimeo.com/709031551?embedded=tr ... r=42301792

Earlier this week, I was pleased to make the acquaintance of Russell “Texas” Bentley, a 62 year-old native of Austin, Texas. In 2014, after a long and adventurous life, including a tour in the US army in Germany, and various forms of activism in the US, he made his mind up to come to Russia, and then to Donbas, to take up arms with the resistance fighters of the Donetsk People’s Republic against the post-Maidan Ukrainian regime.
Russell, a self-described Communist, who now resides in Donetsk with his wife Lyudmila, is certainly a lightning rod; he is unapologetic in his opposition to the United States, and as irreverent as he is dedicated.

Say what you will about his presentation, which this author finds refreshing in its directness; Russell is someone who has put his anti-imperialist action where his mouth is, and this is something from which we might all learn.

On Wednesday, May 11th, the Donetsk Day of the Republic, we drove together to the Kievsky district of Donetsk, the site of enormous destruction and ongoing shelling, mere kilometers from the Ukrainian front lines. It was here, between an airport and a monastery, where Russell first saw combat upon his arrival to Donbas. He told his story, and waxed on a few different subjects, in the video linked above.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/ ... s-bentley/

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Ukraine-Russia: Sanctions Against a ‘Pro-Russian’ Professor from the University of Montreal, or Freedom of Speech?
May 13, 2022
By Arnold August – May 9, 2022

Starting on March 23, Canadian state-owned French-language media, Radio-Canada, and private French-language media outlets in Quebec, launched a campaign to sanction a University of Montreal professor. The campaign then spread to a Toronto daily and even into the US. What’s going on? Apparently, it is because the professor concerned is “pro-Russian.” I propose to set the record straight.

Radio-Canada, funded by Canadian taxpayers, dealt a first blow on March 23. Journalist Romain Schué, working for the Radio-Canada French-language news channel RDI, headlined an accusatory article with the ominous word “malaise,” referring to a certain “uneasiness” at the University of Montreal following remarks made by Professor Michael J. Carley on social media. Mr. Schué took snippets from Professor Carley’s Twitter feed, which quickly attracted derogatory comments, fostering the notion of a non-sensical, hair-brained professor. The article was also based on anonymous quotations hostile to Professor Carley. Mr. Schué appears to want to discredit the professor out of hand, dismissing him as “pro-Russian” or “pro-Putin.” Such characterisation intentionally leaves out the fact that Carley is a professor of history with more than 50 years of research and publishing on Soviet and Russian foreign policy. He has done extensive research in Russian archives and seeks to explain Soviet perspectives from a Russian vantage point. There are few people working today in any language who have done as much work on interwar Soviet foreign policy.

It can be surmised that in the current environment of Russophobia, the appellation “pro-Russian” or “pro-Putin” might be more than enough to sink the said professor at the University. Our journalist, Romain Schué, does not seem embarrassed by the ironic fact that his main source of information against the professor is derived from American sources. For example, in denigrating the Strategic Culture Foundation, in which Mr. Carley published some articles, Schué cites the U.S. State Department view that the Strategic Culture Foundation is “managed by Russian information services and is very close to the Kremlin.” Furthermore, the source provided by Mr. Schué to discredit a Carley tweet about the strike against the maternity hospital in Mariupol, was a Radio-Canada program on its own RDI channel specializing in supposedly “decoding fake information” (dealt with in detail below). This media outlet relies in turn on the American ABC and allied British BBC. This situation requires some serious contemplation. In any case, as a historian, by using Russian and other sources, Professor Carley clarifies and expands the Russian perspective. He may be taking sides, but this position stems from a reading of sources, studies and his own investigative trips to Russia. He is an expert with a long-term view of relations between Russia and the West.

The manner in which Mr. Schué’s article is written demonstrates an increasingly ugly attempt to keep the US-Canada-NATO narrative on the Ukraine-Russia conflict as airtight as possible. I have rarely seen such an effort made to impose a blanket media blackout. It is the sort of atmosphere that prevails when a country is at war, and Canada is indeed now at war with Russia, using Ukraine as proxy.

The original article published by RDI on March 23 that led to the accusations against the professor is translated into English from the original French. However, the current updated French version includes a very brief reference to an April 4 press release issued by Professor Carley. The main thrust of the article remains the same. Read the English here to reach your own conclusions.

Who is Professor Michael J. Carley?

According to the University of Montreal website, Michael Jabara Carley was born in Brooklyn, New York and studied at George Washington University and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. After having been professor of history at Akron University (Ohio), he became director of the Department of History at the University of Montreal (2007-2014). As a full professor, he pursues his research on relations between the USSR/Russian Federation and Western countries.

He was a member of CÉRIUM (Centre d’études et de recherches internationales de l’Université de Montréal – University of Montreal Centre for International Studies and Research) but was dropped unceremoniously with the stroke of a pen by the director of that Centre, simply on the basis of the RDI article.

Professor Carley is a specialist in international relations in the 20th century and on the history of Russia and the Soviet Union. His research interests focus on relations of the Soviet Union with Western Europe and the United States between 1917 and 1945. He is the author of three books (two of which have been translated into several languages) and about 100 articles and essays on French intervention in the Russian Civil War (1917-1921), on Soviet relations with the Great Powers between the two world wars, on questions of “appeasement,” on the origins and conduct of the Second World War, and on topical issues. He is the author of over 115 book chapters, and his articles has been the recipient of some 15 awards. His works have been published in Canada, the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Russia and elsewhere, and translated into a dozen languages.

Professor Carley has recently worked on two major book projects. The first deals with the confrontation between Soviet Russia/USSR and the West from 1917 to 1930. This work, entitled Silent Conflict: A Hidden History of Early Soviet-Western Relations, was published in 2014 by the American publisher, Rowman & Littlefield. The French translation, Une guerre sourde: L’émergence de l’Union soviétique et les puissances occidentales was published by PUM in 2016. A Russian translation was published in 2019. The second project, supported by a major research grant from the Canadian government think tank, SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council), focuses on the origins and creation of the “Grand Alliance” against Nazi Germany during World War II. Writing of this second work is now complete in three volumes (1930-1941). Vol. 1 of his trilogy has been accepted for publication. The working title of the trilogy is “A Near-Run Thing: The Improbable Grand Alliance of World War II.”

He speaks, reads and writes English and French, and he reads Russian. One of his articles caught my eye: “Chrystia Freeland: Kiev’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa (2017).” There is widespread unease in Canada as a result of the much-discussed ties between Freeland, currently Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister in the Trudeau government, and Ukrainian neo-Nazis. A great many Canadians might like to figuratively shake the hand of Professor Carley for daring to write such an article, right from within the hallowed halls of academia.

In his article, Mr. Schué tries to ridicule Professor Carley’s tweets about “the Fascists in Ukraine,” “the evacuation of civilians” being blocked by “Azov troops, the Fascists,” adding contemptuously that Carley does not hesitate to share messages from official Russian organizations that “conjure up the presence of Nazis in Ukraine.” Conjure up? The journalist might have discovered evidence right here in Canada, in four fully documented articles in English, followed by other sources in French. Canadian journalists: “A friend of oligarchs and right-wing Ukrainian nationalists: Chrystia Freeland and Canadian imperialism,” by Bruce Katz, Montreal, “The Canadian-led quest to protect US hegemony in Latin America: Chrystia Freeland and Canadian imperialism,” by Bruce Katz, Montreal, “Long history of Ukrainian-Canadian groups glorifying Nazi collaborators exposed by defacing of Oakville memorial,” by Aidan Jonah, Toronto, “America’s Trojan-horse at the heart of the Canadian government: Chrystia Freeland and Canadian imperialism,” by Bruce Katz, Montreal. Taken together, these pieces and many others shed light on the issue, whereas RDI’s Schué goes out of his way to deny and ridicule the fact that the Ukrainian regime is Nazi-infested.

One wonders why the journalist limited himself to just a few characters worth of tweets, while ignoring the in-depth and well-documented articles that Carley himself wrote on the subject, all available in his University of Montreal bio, such as “Why Canada Defends Ukrainian Fascism,” March 2018. Should this source not have constituted one of the main points of information that an ethical journalist might expect to have consulted?

In a recent Canada-based webinar on Ukraine, Canadian peace activist Ken Stone provides full information not only about Ottawa’s 21st-century support for Nazi forces in Ukraine, but Canada’s astonishing but relatively unknown 100-year-long interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine. This intrusion has always taken place on the side of right-wing forces and, since World War II, has easily morphed into [English YouTube] active support for pro-Nazi activities and with subtitles in French.

Still not satisfied? How about an excellent source that Mr. Schué would no doubt hold in high esteem? The reference is President Zelensky himself who declared about the Azov Battalion: “They are what they are. They were defending our country … They are a component of the Ukrainian military.” One can see for oneself in this one-minute confession.

That was Fox News. Even CNN must admit:



Should the journalist feel any “unease” when proven wrong by his colleagues at CNN?
“Unease” directed not against Carley but against Romain Schué’s article
As of 2 PM on March 30, the tweet by Mr. Schué promoting his initial article cited above on state-run media there are 178 tweets and retweets in favour of upholding Carley’s right to freedom of speech (not including the many positive responses to such tweets). In contrast, only 53 tweets indicated that action should be taken against the professor (often very briefly: “Dehors!” “Get out!”), while 59 comments were too ambivalent to be rated.

In the Schué article itself, published on the state-sponsored RDI website, another type of readership has provided a somewhat different outcome. The majority of comments support sanctions against Professor Carley. However, the comments indicate that this option takes the quoted Twitter snippets at face value, with readers completely unaware of Carley’s extensive work and expertise on Russia and the Soviet Union.

Strike against the Mariupol Maternity Hospital

In his article, Mr. Schué also accuses the professor of relaying “false information,” by questioning the alleged Russian bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol. At the core of this story is a pregnant and vulnerable woman. But what proof does the RDI journalist offer of a Russian atrocity? He relies on RDI’s “anti-fake news” program, Les Décrypteurs (The Decoders in English.) Since the Ukraine crisis began, it has dedicated itself to superficially denigrating news items that do not bend to the NATO narrative. On the Russian foreign ministry’s attempt to set the record straight on the Mariupol maternity hospital incident (see below), the program screams “fake” [“Faux”].” In the picture on the left below, it focuses on the Russian allegation that the hospital had been forcefully evacuated by the Azov forces who then took control of the premises for military purposes well before the strike. True or false? We deal with this below, relying on a surprise witness. On the right below, we view the Russian source trying to identify the victim, Marianna Vishemirskaya who, with her newborn child, ran as a virtual loop in all Western media as “a victim of Russia.” The Russians were wrong about her actual role, but spot on regarding the photographer, Evgeniy Maloletka.



The actual victim, Marianna Vishemirskaya, was interviewed. Here, in her own words, is this YouTube video that provides an account of what really happened. Note that she indicates how the patients were forceful evacuated by Azov personnel who replaced them and stole their food. There was no bomb, but rather a strike that could only have come from the Ukrainian side.

In her own words with English subtitles: https://youtu.be/mPo-DSrIEB4

Ms. Vishemirskaya calling out the photographer Evgeniy Maloletka is confirmed by his photo’s byline.



On photographer Maloletka’s Facebook page, after feigning interest in her dire situation by trying to photograph her in the hospital (despite her opposition), he then turns against her to defend the official Ukrainian version that also coincides with that of the Associated Press.

This has been corroborated from the ground in Ukraine. Eyewitnesses explain how the hospital was forcibly evacuated by the Nazi battalion, which then used it as a military base. See [English] the account here.

The point of this journalistic dive into the maternity hospital controversy is not to win people or journalists, such Mr. Schué or RDI’s Les Décrypteurs, over to either the Russian or NATO narrative. However, given that one of the cornerstones of Mr. Schué’s allegations against Professor Carley is the controversy concerning that maternity hospital, the latest revelations point to the necessity for the University of Montreal and the Canadian public to showcase Professor Carley’s expertise, and to continue resisting pressures to sanction him and deny his right to freedom of speech, not to mention academic freedom.

As a Quebecois, it is very disappointing to find that our French-language state media has sunk so far into the abyss of US talking points. In contrast, the tradition of the late 1950s and 60s, when its journalism indeed had some positive features, set it apart from other North America media. It is painfully ironic that the smug Canadian liberal notion that “we are better than the US” does not hold water when it comes to reporting on RDI, such as that by Mr. Schué. For example, this pompous holier-than-thou attitude contrasts to the “bad” FOX News, far to the “right” of the RDI “liberals,” which recently carried a full and uncensored interview with author Dan Kovalik, an analyst who defends the Russian position on Ukraine. The interview was conducted by none other than notoriously right-wing Tucker Carlson, and can be viewed here.

Having followed RDI since the beginning of the Ukraine-Russia crisis, it has become clearer every day that the channel is acting as a mere satellite of US/Canada/NATO infomercials. In other words, the “pro-US” Mr. Schué’s piece is merely the latest episode and part of a pattern. In preparation for a March 14, 2022, Canada-based webinar, a personal invitation was sent to the editors of RDI’s Les Décrypteurs (Alexis de Lancer and Jeff Yates). Letter:



The RDI journalists did not respond. In my webinar presentation, I dealt with the Mariupol maternity hospital issue, prefaced by the long history of the US employing false flag operations as a pretext for invasion or other types of aggression. In addition, I provided further information, with photos taken from the RDI site, clearly indicating that the publicly financed platform is not only increasingly pro-US, but actually embedded in the legion of 1,000 Canadian military personnel fighting and training alongside the Nazi-infested Ukrainian armed forces. This is objective journalism? Those who have been taken in by Mr. Schué should perhaps reconsider. Can RDI be relied upon to make a judgment in the present circumstances. Here is the 10-minute webinar video of my presentation in English, and in French.

Bucha: Professor Carley’s redemption?

This may seem far-fetched seeing that, according to mainstream media, the latest accusation against Russia is a slam dunk, the final nail in the coffin of Russia’s credibility. However, in its enthusiasm to go for the bear’s jugular, NATO may be dragging itself into a major “weapons of mass destruction” fiasco. Before rising to the challenge, and separating fact from fiction, it should be said that Bucha occurred after the Schué article was published. Yet, the defamation of Professor Carley has a very long and unfortunate shelf life. If this type of journalism is allowed to carry on without being challenged, there is no real expiry date. Its one-size-fits-all smear thus automatically deflects against the professor. It is incumbent on us to deconstruct the latest incident.

We have to begin on March 30, in the town of Dmytrivka, around seven miles southwest of Bucha, the day before the Bucha killings that allegedly occurred on the 1st of April. On March 30, a video was proudly shot by Ukrainian soldiers that, according to the New York Times, appears to show Ukrainian troops killing captured Russian soldiers. This story was posted by award-winning journalist Evan Hill who, as his bio shows, is non-partisan.

According to the Times, “a video posted online on Monday (April 4) and verified by The New York Times, appears to show a group of Ukrainian soldiers killing captured Russian troops outside a village west of Kyiv. ‘He’s still alive. Film these marauders. Look, he’s still alive. He’s gasping,’ a man says as a Russian soldier with a jacket pulled over his head, apparently wounded, is seen still breathing. A soldier then shoots the man twice. After the man keeps moving, the soldier shoots him again, and he stops.” Read NYT full article. To view the actual video [viewer discretion advised] click here.

While the RDI correspondent Mr. Schué did not write a follow-up article on Professor Carley, he is continuing his pro-NATO/US crusade. For example, on April 3, he tweeted by screeching “Shocking and dramatic images,” based on a tweet by a well-known Ukrainian boxer personality, Klitschko, who refers to Bucha as “genocide.”



This social media flurry is part of the US/NATO attempt to discredit any opposition to NATO, whether it emanates from Professor Carley or anyone else who dares to resist the airtight Western talking points. Furthermore, Ukrainian sports personality Klitschko, seemingly Mr. Schué’s new favourite journalistic source, features the most hateful pro-NATO Russophobia on his Twitter feed. One tweet features a montage of Putin in a coffin being gleefully watched over by a contented Zelensky. In addition, it is noteworthy that not one of his hundreds of tweets makes any reference to a negotiated peace settlement between Kyiv and Moscow. On the contrary, they promote the Nazi-infested Zelensky government’s never-ending pursuit of war against Russia, even while hypocritically pleading “against war” and for “peace.” Ironically, as Mr. Schue ridicules the professor for taking Nazification in Ukraine seriously, the “pro-Kremlin” allegation of Ukrainian Nazification is actually confirmed by the Klitschko Twitter feed. Readers can judge for themselves (many of the Klitschko tweets and selfie videos are in English.) Thus, it is not surprising that the American CNN, like Mr. Schué, is attracted to Klitschko and likewise promoting him.



Yet, there are alternative interpretations of the “Bucha massacre,” such as this fully-documented article that is worth reading, “Staged Massacre in Bucha,” April 5, 2022. As this article is being written, it is becoming clear to many commentators and journalists, that the “Bucha Massacre” is turning into a typical “weapons of mass destruction” lie, like the one that led to the 2003 US Iraq war. If this is not convincing enough, here is another series of documented articles, with the link on the last article to access them all:

• Fake: bodies of civilians have been lying on the streets of Bucha since March 11

• Fake: “Meduza” proved, civilians in Bucha were killed by Russian troops

• What happened in Bucha? A full analysis of the Ukrainian provocation

• Fake: Russian soldiers killed a young Ukrainian woman in Bucha

• Fake: Russian soldier brags about killing civilians in Bucha

• Fake: Photos of soldiers who killed civilians in Bucha were made public

• Fake: Russian soldiers killed children in Bucha

• Fake: Bodies on the streets of Bucha weren’t laid out on purpose

• Ukrainian special forces found no bodies in Bucha

One point comes to mind. While the fake news about Bucha has emerged since the original Schué article was published, it has since been updated as a result of the press release circulated by Professor Carley’s lawyer concerning the RDI journalist. Yet, Mr. Schué did not bother to bring any of the above information on Bucha to the attention of the Quebec public. Why not? The information is available to everyone. Nor does the following seem to be of interest. On April 7, the Trudeau government’s budget granted 500 million dollars of military aid to the Ukraine in the following terms, as expressed by Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland:

“But the mutilated people of Bucha, shot with their hands tied behind their backs, have shown us that this is not enough. Putin and his henchmen are war criminals. The world’s democracies—including our own—can be safe only once the Russian tyrant and his armies are entirely vanquished.”

Mr. Schué’s Twitter feed does not show any interest in the ongoing debunking of the fake news, and its consequences, about Bucha. He is, however, infatuated with the visit of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Kiev, seen walking with Zelensky. We recall when all the journalists in Canada showed contempt and ridicule for the Trump-Johnson duo. Now this has been converted almost overnight into a sycophantic admiration of Boris Johnson, as Mr. Schué’s tweet shows.

“Incredible pictures! First G7 head of state to come to Ukraine, in the streets of Kyiv. Symbolic images that could mark a turning point in Western aid?”



See the video of the Johnson-Zelensky promenade via Mr. Schué’s tweet here: https://twitter.com/RomainSchue/status/ ... 5776543755

Now, did the relatively limited, hushed-up exposure of the filmed killings in the town of Dmytrivka’s on March 30 lead to the massively circulated narrative of the 1st of April about Bucha? Did NATO orchestrate an international uproar about Bucha as a cover up for Dmytrivka? Can this be confirmed? Not for the moment. Can the Dmytrivka-Bucha cause-and-effect scenario be discounted? Not for the moment, either. The proof, the Dmytrivka spectre is still haunting NATO to the extent that it is raised quite often even by corporate media. For example, on April 8 CNN interviewed former NATO Supreme Allied Supreme Commander Gen. Wesley Clark and asked him about the executions in Dmytrivka. Clark did not deny that they took place. However, he downplayed them and offered some astonishing reasoning:

“CNN/Jim Sciutto: How do you do that [executions]? How do you manage that? Even as they witness what Russia is doing? CLARK: You’ve got to have training in advance. You’ve got to have people understanding the rules. You’ve got to have command visibility over their actions. But I will tell you, Jim, that this fighting in Ukraine is so brutal. It’s so personal. It’s so painful for these people that I’m not excusing it, but it’s not unexpected. People — the Russians are executing Ukrainian soldiers. They’re executing civilians. They’re doing horrible things. And the passions are running very high. So, I would urge the Ukrainian chain of command to do everything they can to restrain their own soldiers. Those captured Russian soldiers need to be interrogated, brought back (ph). They’re an important intelligence source. Don’t do anything else to them.”

Therefore, as seems to be the case, the haunting suspicion by commentators that Bucha was indeed a grotesque false flag to cover up for Dmytrivka, and that this cynicism still remained a nagging spectre a week after the incident, points toward confirming the eerie feeling that Dmytrivka did in fact result in Bucha. The facts surrounding Dmytrivka-Bucha indicate that this, and other embarrassing issues such as the maternity hospital, cast a very dark shadow of doubt on the journalistic credibility of RDI’s Romain Schué being used to silence Professor Carley.

Perhaps the most damning feature of this controversy is the barely-veiled attempt of a US/NATO-led cover up of Bucha. This is the April 3 pinned tweet by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs:



On April 5, Twitter concealed the tweet’s content, forcing visitors to click their way to the actual tweet. This is the tweet that was concealed:



The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is demanding that the above tweet be restored. Another indication that the NATO allegations appear to be on shaky ground is the following:



The UK, a NATO member that holds the presidency of the UN Security Council at this time, just vetoed a request by Russia to discuss Bucha. Let that sink in. NATO is leveling the most serious charges against Russia and its leaders. However, there is no forensic or other evidence to prove anything. And to top it off, Russia is denied the right to present its case at the UN Security Council.

The Montreal face of the Nazi-infested Ukrainian government

Several other conglomerate media in Quebec, Canada and the US followed the March 23rd RDI/Schué lead. The other pieces offer nothing substantively new. However, in keeping with a commitment to full transparency, they are published here in full, with some minor comments so that readers can reach their own conclusions. Nevertheless, one of these, the most important privately-owned French-language daily in Quebec, La Presse, did offer some originality. Firstly, La Presse saw the opening pioneered by Schué and thus extended his buzz word of “malaise” (unease) to screech in the headline: “Sanctions demanded against a pro-Russian professor.” Secondly, it was the first outlet commenting on the controversy related to Professor Carley’s comments, that is the media promotion of an unconditional, Montreal-based Ukrainian supporter of the Nazi-infested Ukrainian government, Katia Sviderskaya. Ms. Sviderskaya, a student at the University of Montreal, is reported to have said to La Presse:

“If nothing else is done [aside from removing his name from the university’s research institute and some negative comments by the administration] Katia Sviderskaya is convinced that the professor will encourage pro-Russian students to speak up, as happened last month. At the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, she reports that a classmate backed Carley’s arguments. ‘He wrote me to say that he was right on certain points, that the western media was reporting all kinds of things, that there were Nazis in Ukraine…’”

She’s clear that there is an intention to snuff out views different from hers. This self-avowal should have acted as a signal to the University community and the public to drop all the harassment and smearing of the professor. Thirdly, La Presse reported on a petition being circulated at the University against the professor, co-sponsored by Katia Sviderskaya.

One of the two most important private English-language newspapers in Canada, The Globe & Mail, headlined that “Montreal students have launched a petition against a long-time history professor over ‘shocking comments’ he made on social media that supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” Two University of Montreal students, [one of whom is Katia Sviderskaya] have launched a petition against a long-time history professor over “shocking” comments he made on social media that supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Montreal Gazette had its own angle, trying to corner the university with a thinly-veiled threat with this headline: “Université de Montréal defends professor taking pro-Russian stance on Ukraine invasion.

The Journal de Montréal did not mention the petition or the controversy, but did provide Sviderskaya with a free plug.

Newsweek from the US headlined, “Montreal Professor’s Support of Russia’s Ukraine Invasion Prompts Student Petition,” mainly citing The Montreal Gazette.

The evolving situation in Ukraine and its global implications means that someone of the calibre of Professor Carley, commenting as a Russia expert and historian, far from being muzzled or sanctioned, should be allowed to express himself freely, whether one agrees with him or not.

The RDI-led campaign is intended to forbid any divergence from the official US/Canada/NATO line on Ukraine by pressuring the University of Montreal to act against a professor exercising his right to freedom of speech. While officially remaining neutral on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the University of Montreal has not caved into the demands for action to be taken against Professor Carley.

In conclusion, is the documented evidence above not sufficient to warrant an immediate end to the defamation against Professor Carley? Whether one agrees with him or not, his right to both freedom of speech and academic freedom must be protected. The threatening demands for sanctions should not be repeated, and furthermore he must be reinstated in his position at CÉRIUM, the University’s Center for International Studies and Research. There remains one other outstanding question. Should the state-run RDI and the Professional Federation of Quebec Journalists launch an inquiry into the validity of Mr. Schué’s article and its conformity with journalistic ethics?

https://orinocotribune.com/ukraine-russ ... of-speech/

****************************************

Starlink Network Expansion
May 14, 15:50



Starlink Network Expansion

The American company SpaceX has published an updated map with coverage areas of the Starlink global satellite communications system.

32 countries, mostly European, have been added to the new list. In a number of states, including Latin American, African and Southeast Asia, Starlink will appear by the end of 2022 - the beginning of 2023.

Interesting in this list is the inclusion of the countries of the post-Soviet space, namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Armenia, in the category of "expecting in 2023".

What does it threaten?

During a special military operation, Starlink complexes proved their effectiveness in critical conditions:

Efforts to destroy cell towers and repeaters on the territory of Ukraine were leveled.

In the territories where Starlink is used, Russian television and radio channels are completely banned from broadcasting. The presentation of information is selective.

Relatively stable and fast data transfer between units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine via secure channels has been ensured.

Currently, active anti-Russian propaganda is going on in the post-Soviet space, sponsored by the UK and the USA and implemented through a number of NGOs and NGOs.

Connecting the population of Russia's allied countries to Starlink will allow you to control the flow of information passing to the consumer, blocking everything except "useful" for the West.

In the future, adding the activities of numerous NGOs and NGOs, this can lead to an even greater split and subsequent distance from interaction with the Russian Federation.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin/48551 - zinc

I published materials about the priority military purpose of this network back in 2020.
Many people realized this only in 2022, when the successful premiere of the Pentagon's new military technology took place in Ukraine.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7614952.html

Google Translator

**********************************

From Cassad's Telegram Account:

***

Forwarded from
KHARKOV OUR
Speaking of Kraken. Look on the net, read what people are writing now who remained for some time in Tsirkuny, occupied by Russian troops, then left. Moreover, these are the people who were waiting for the arrival of Ukrainian forces. They write that after the capture of the village, local residents found guards - a lot of things remained in the houses of the village (not that the Russian troops did not take anything at all, but they clearly did not "take out the whole village cleanly", as Ukrainian propagandists stubbornly told). The Kraken took these guards out, almost killed them, and declared that there would be no guards in Tsirkuny. As a result, the village is taken out clean, now without any quotes. For the "Kraken" this is a familiar, hereditary, so to speak, thing, because their ancestors "Azov", when they were still the "National Battalion", and not the regiment of the National Guard, also engaged in punitive operations and related looting. Now they will be made "saviors" of Kharkov and, apparently, they will hand over the city "for feeding". They will make a sign of ideological and combat success from Kharkovneo-Nazism Ukrainian nationalism. Of course, it is pointless for professionals to talk about which of the "Krakens" are brave fighters. But people who know the situation from the "trukhans" will read every second about how the "Kraken" liberated that village, this village, that village, this village - and they will believe, of course.

***

Forwarded from
Нежурка
We left our (Kharkov) direction to Belgorod. There are rumors in the city about the evacuation, that everything is bad, that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will almost capture the city.

My dears, I traveled from the other side of the border and everything that is possible, we know all the layouts: where and who is sitting, where he went, who from the enemy is acting weird.

Briefly speaking.

I would advise in Kharkov to carry out the evacuation.
Everything is fine: our fighters are at their posts, our artillery is working, air defense - in general, they work wonders, intelligence runs, aircraft flies (and how).

***

Forwarded from
Kherson Herald
British military sent to Ukraine

After the complete defeat of foreign mercenaries and militants who arrived in Ukraine, it became known that British military personnel and officers were already in Ukraine, and, acting under cover, the latter were located in the Zaporozhye and Kharkiv regions of Ukraine, i.e. operate at the forefront. Information on this subject was voiced by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

“British undercover officers are still regularly involved in directing the Ukrainian military on the front lines, as well as coordinating the actions of various branches of the military using NATO intelligence. In early May, the British, for example, were actively working in the Zaporozhye region. English officers thus draw up maps of the operational situation on the Ukrainian front.

The deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine is direct evidence that NATO is in direct confrontation with Russia, while experts note that if there is direct evidence that the British military is participating in hostilities against Russia, preventing the conduct of a special operation, this leaves the Russian side the right to qualify the actions of the British military as direct aggression.

***

Forwarded from
Readovka
The State Security Service of Latvia hacked the Telegram channel of one of the main Russian-speaking authors on military topics from a pocket phone in the hope of getting rid of pro-Russian views

in the country Fedorov - employees removed access to the channel from all administrators from a seized phone . The frightened relatives of the young man, who are now in Riga, cannot influence the situation in any way, pick up the phone, which was actually stolen from the parents’ apartment, or in some other way stand up for Kirill - they are under severe pressure, they and his lawyer are threatened with big problems.

The Telegram channel "War History of Weapons", as well as the YouTube channel "History of Weapons", did not give rest to the Latvian authorities because of the pro-Russian positions of its owner Kirill Fedorov , who has been held under arrest for almost two months since March 17, 2022 unfounded accusations of treason. Until recently, the State Security Service did not have access to the phone of the author of one of the main Russian-language channels on military topics, however, judging by the unfolding events, they got it the day before - on May 13, all administrators suddenly lost access to publications .

The authors, realizing that Fedorov’s phone is certainly being attacked by the state security service, expected such a turn of events and prudently created a backup Telegram channel . It turns out that the fight against pro-Russian content in an unfriendly country continues somewhat unsuccessfully .

***

Forwarded from
League of Gentlemen
For decades, the main recipients of US weapons were Israel and Egypt. Now Ukraine is ahead .

This graph clearly demonstrates that the US is not at all interested in peace negotiations right now . However, is it reasonable for the West to continue to arm and support Ukraine?

First , the longer the fighting continues, the more likely we are to see an escalation into a wider conflict between Russia and NATO.
Second , there are good reasons to be skeptical about the ability of Ukrainian forces to win such a fight. They excel at territorial defense, but going on the offensive to reclaim territories is another level of challenge.

In a year, the United States has not allocated as much money to Afghan or Iraqi security forces as it is now pouring into Ukraine. In many ways, the reason for such actions is explained by the fact that the security and stability of Europe and the inviolability of the liberal international order are more important for the United States than the Middle East or South Asia .

***

Forwarded from
China army
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine forbade soldiers and officers to publicly criticize foreign military equipment

1. A new order was received by the troops.
2. Servicemen are forbidden to speak publicly in the media and social networks negatively about military equipment supplied from abroad.
3. Violators are waiting for disciplinary action, as well as removal from office.
4. The new document was developed at the request of the media people of Zelensky's office.
5. The Kiev leadership is closely monitoring the situation. It was revealed that Ukrainian militants are now actively criticizing American M-113 armored personnel carriers, Javelin complexes, and British anti-aircraft systems . In addition, Polish tanks, Czech Dana howitzers , began to be criticized .

***

Forwarded from
Readovka
0:52
Latvia is afraid of the voice of the people - today the Town Hall Square in Riga was completely blocked by the police in order to prevent protesters from approaching the building of the Riga City Council

Kadry just a few minutes before the Riga City Council announced the decision to demolish the monument to the Liberators of Riga. As we can see, the Town Hall is completely empty - the police completely cordoned off the entrance so as not to let the protesters through.

“The authorities are afraid of the voice of the people, they do not let people come here so that they cannot say that such a government is not needed. The authorities that destroy monuments destroy flowers with bulldozers ,” the activist says.

Recall that today the parliamentary commission allowed the demolition of the monument to the Liberators of Riga, and the Latvian Seimas lifted legal restrictions. The Riga City Council approved the dismantling of the memorial - the authorities began preparations for the demolition of the monument.

****

Forwarded from
Poddubny |Z|О|V| edition
In mid-April, Washington decided to provide Ukraine with unmanned coast guard boats.

At that time, at a briefing in the Pentagon, it was not announced what kind of ships they were talking about and what missions they would carry out.

Now, information has appeared that a batch of rather miniature unmanned stealth boats of the MANTAS T-12 type will be transferred to Ukraine.

A group of Ukrainian military personnel has also been trained to manage them, having been trained at the US Naval Base Little Creek, Virginia.

Experts do not exclude that it is the
MANTAS T-12 Kiev that will be used in the Black Sea near Odessa, which of course will affect the events around the Snake Island.

From the technical characteristics of MANTAS T-12 follows:

⁃ the body of the drone is 3.6 meters long and 0.9 meters wide, during the campaign it rises above the sea surface by only 18 centimeters;
⁃ seaworthiness up to 4 points;
⁃ cruising range up to 120 miles;
⁃ estimated payload of 63.5 kilograms;

According to the director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, Brian Clark, in other circumstances, the maritime drones that are sent to Ukraine are intended for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and for mine action operations.

“ But I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ukrainians, when they start using MANTAS T-12s, think about how to put a lethal warhead on them, in case they want to use drones to attack Russian ships ,” says Clark.

If everything develops according to the voiced scenario, then given the payload and the maximum speed of the MANTAS T-12 of 40 knots, Kyiv will receive a guided sea mine, and Russian ships will be a serious threat from the enemy.

***

Forwarded from
Vladislav Coal
Summary of hostilities on May 13, 2022 from Vladislav Coal

Briefly: the liberation of Dolgenkiy, the fighting for the crossing in the Belogorovka area, the intensification of hostilities in the Ugledar area.

The Kharkiv direction is unchanged: the Ukrainian counter-attack was stopped, the Ukrainians control the Prudyanka-Pytomnik-Rubezhnoye line, and fighting continues in the Liptsy area. The Armed Forces of Ukraine cannot develop an attack on the right bank of the Donets because of the blown up bridges. In the area of ​​Chuguev and Balakleya - no changes. There is also no information about new attempts to cross the Donets south of Balakleya. There is information about the transfer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Kharkov direction to Lisichansk.

PAVLOGRAD ARCH:

The northern flank of the arc (from Izyum to Popasnaya) - Dolgenkoye was liberated in the Izyum area , an offensive was launched towards the Valley and Bogorodichny with the aim of reaching Slavyansk and the final encirclement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Svyatogorsk. There is no up-to-date information about the situation between Oskol and Yampol, fighting continues in the area of ​​Aleksandrovka and Novoselovka. In the Belogorovka area, despite the losses, they managed to take a foothold on the left bank of the Donets. Information about the beginning of the fighting in Severodonetsk is confirmed, but at the moment these are advanced units. On Bakhmutka , the battles for Orekhovo and Toshkovka continue. Feeding blows are inflicted on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Zolote .

The central front (from Popasnaya to Marinka) - the battles for Kamyshevakha and fire in the Svetlodar direction continue. In the Avdeevka area, the offensive continues on Kamenka, Novokalinovo, Novoselovka Second and Novoselovka in order to cut the Avdeevka-Konstantinovka highway. Fighting intensified in Marinka and Novomikhailovka.

The southern flank of the arc (from the Dnieper River to Maryinka) - the sector of the front in the Ugledar region became more active. Fights go on a segment between Pavlovka and Vladimirovka. There is no information about the battles west of Ugledar.

Mariupol cauldron - the assault on Azovstal continues, previously 2,000 Ukrainian militants remain at the plant, 600 of them are wounded.

Kherson-Nikolaev direction - the front line is unchanged: the Black Sea - Aleksandrovka - Maksimovka - Snigirevka - Vysokopolie - the Dnieper River.

Past reports: April 16, April 18 , April 19 , April 20 , April 24 , April 26 , May 4, May 5 , May 7 , May 8 , May 12 Support

the Russian army through the OPSB
5336690160214260 (Evgeny Grigorievich P)
Telegram
Vladislav Coal
Vladislav Coal. Together we write on the fireproof residue from the reconstruction.

Military-political weather forecast @griaz_zamerla

***

Forwarded from
Readovka
Map of hostilities and the situation on the fronts on the evening of May 13

Over the past day, the topic of the loss of an entire battalion at the crossing over the Seversky Donets near Belogorovka has been actively discussed. There are different versions among the people - from the negligent attitude of the commanding staff on the ground, to the heroic deed of our fighters during heavy battles. For example, former Defense Minister of the DPR Igor Strelkov chose an interesting tactic - “I know, but I won’t say about the personal losses of the BTGr at the crossing. One thing is for sure - the losses are great, but without having been in this "hellish hell" it is impossible to say with certainty why they were incurred. We hope that the errors will be analyzed and appropriate measures taken to prevent them further.

The situation on the fronts today is as follows:

On the Kharkov front , the situation continues to be very tense. The units of the RF Armed Forces fired at the positions of the Ukrainian troops in the areas of the settlements of Petrovka, Pitomnik, Russian Tishki and Ternovaya in order to prevent their further advance.

Izyum front. Tonight, in the Slavyansk direction, the village of Dolgenkoe was liberated from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Unfortunately, traces of the terrible atrocities of Ukrainian militants against the civilian population were once again found on the spot. According to unconfirmed reports, another plane of the Ukrainian Air Force was shot down northwest of Izyum. A sort of "Bermuda Triangle" for the Ukrainian Air Force.

The Luhansk Front today pleases with success. The bridge connecting Rubizhne and Severodonetsk was blown up. The main supply route Soledar-Lysichansk is under fire from the Allied Forces. To the north of Popasnaya, an offensive is developing in the direction of Kamyshevakhi. The beginning of the battles for Privolye is marked. In turn, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continues to strengthen the grouping in Artemovsk (Bakhmut) in order to prevent a breakthrough from Popasnaya.

On the Donetsk front , the allied forces are trying to move towards the settlement. Maryinka and Novomikhailovka. In the afternoon it was reported about the assault on the settlement. Kamenka and Novoselovka-2 by the People's Militia of the DPR and the RF Armed Forces.

The Zaporizhzhya Front does not sleep - heavy fighting is noted on the outskirts of Vugledar. The settlement of Pavlovka, which adjoins the southwestern outskirts of Vugledar, several times passed from the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

On the southern front , another loss is noted for the Ukrainian air force near Zmein. This time , a 4th generation MiG-29 fighter crashed into the Black Sea. The Ukrainian command is preparing an offensive with the forces of the 28th and 60th Motorized Rifle Brigade in the Nikolaev and Krivoy Rog directions. Systematic artillery shelling of the positions of our troops in Vysokopolye and Knyazevka is being carried out.

Calibration today looked like this: in Nikolaev, the rear object of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was destroyed ; in the Kharkiv region , 3 bridges were blown up, necessary for the transfer of Ukrainian forces ; work was carried out on separate objects in Odessa.

Upon arrival. Ukrainian troops regularly shell Kherson - residents report single explosions coming from Nikolaev. The cities of the Donetsk People's Republic continue to be under massive shelling. Under the distribution were - Kuibyshevsky, Petrovsky, Kirovsky districts of the city of Donetsk and Staromikhaylovka. The Armed Forces of Ukraine also fired on Dokuchaevsk - one person was killed, four were injured, among them two RT operators were injured.

Fortunately, today there were no artillery strikes on our border territories , but there were terrible shots of shelling in the Belgorod region.

👁Of the interesting , one can note the fact that NATO, in the course of saturating the Ukrainian front with its models of weapons, sends obsolete Western scrap metal to the Russian Press. Surprisingly, sometimes it comes even to anti-aircraft guns of the Second World War.



***

Forwarded from
South wind
In connection with the greatly increased threat of registration of the "Severodonetsk boiler", as a diversionary maneuver, the Armed Forces of Ukraine may well attempt to counterattack in the Nikolaev direction .
True, it is worth noting that for this purpose two brigades - 28 and 60 ombr, are clearly not enough. The latter was completely formed after the start of hostilities as part of the reserve corps and was equipped with weapons and military equipment according to the residual principle.
The APU's stake on success is possible only through long-range artillery, which will operate as part of separate "wandering" guns under the cover of urban development and Nikolaev. It is possible that Ukrainian troops will adhere to the “creeping offensive” tactics
worked out over the years in the Donbass, trying to occupy separate strongholds along the entire line of contact.
As for the counterattack in the direction of Aleksandrovka, this will not be the first and even the second attempt for the 28th brigade to advance in the coastal direction. Most likely, the Ukrainian command believes that it will be able to achieve some kind of cover for the advancing units from the remaining ship and boat staff of the Ukrainian Navy.

***

Forwarded from
Rybar
The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continues to strengthen the grouping in Artemovsk (Bakhmut) in order to prevent a breakthrough from Popasnaya.

During the day, three Ikarus buses with soldiers of Ukrainian armed forcings proceeded to the city through Konstantinovka .

A few hours later, two armored personnel carriers were also transferred there: one of them proceeded under its own power, the other on a hitch.

***

Forwarded from
Rybar
In order to restore control over the right-bank part of the Dnieper , an offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is being prepared by the forces of the 28th and 60th OMB in the Nikolaev and Krivoy Rog directions.

A rotation of personnel was carried out, reinforcements of the territorial defense arrived and Western-made weapons and ammunition were delivered.

Systematic artillery shelling of the positions of the RF Armed Forces in Vysokolye and Knyazevka is being carried out .

Tactical planes and helicopters of army aviation operate daily from the airfields of Dolgintsevo and Alexandria .

Reconnaissance and target designation is carried out by the Leleka and Bayaraktar UAVs from the Kanatovo airfield .

In total, it is planned to involve more than 15 thousand people in the offensive.

It will probably take place simultaneously with the counter-offensive in the direction of Aleksnadrovka .

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator

[blindpig]

If Ukraine Is Winning Why Is The U.S. Requesting A Ceasefire?

Yesterday the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu.

Why?

The U.S. readout of the call says:

On May 13, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Russian Minister of Defense Sergey Shoygu for the first time since February 18. Secretary Austin urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication.
Austin initiated the call and the U.S. is seeking a ceasefire in Ukraine!!!

Are we not told that the Ukraine is winning the war? That it will soon push the Russian forces back over the border? The operation to 'weaken Russia', which Austin had publicly announced two weeks ago, does not seem to go that well.

Told ya so!

Gonzalo Lira thinks that the call points to a soon coming collapse of the Ukrainian forces. Let us hope that this is indeed the case because it seems to be the only chance that the war will end soon.

The Ukraine is losing up to 15,000 men per month to the war. The total Ukrainian casualties, dead and wounded, are likely already at 50,000. The weapons the U.S. and others provide, are not sufficient to sustain the war. The Ukraine has only 3 days reserves of diesel and gasoline left. The main parts of its forces are immobile and are getting surrounded by Russian forces. Their situation is hopeless.

The Pentagon of course knows this all and that is why Austin initiated the call and asked for a ceasefire.

The Russia side will not agree to a ceasefire. At least not unless the 'west' offers to take back some of the 6,400 sanction measures it has initiated against Russia.

There are recently a number of other issues that also go in favor of Russia:

*The economic outlook for Russia is good. It will have a record wheat harvest. Its internal measures to compensate for the results of sanctions are working. Counter sanctions Russia has now initiated against its enemies are starting to become effective.
*Hungary has blocked European sanctions against Russian oil.
*Turkey is slowing down if not prohibiting the entry of Kurd friendly Sweden and Norway into NATO.
*The U.S. weapon deliveries to Ukraine will stop on May 19 unless Congress passes authority for new ones.
*Senator Rand Paul has held up the required bill with the quite reasonable demand to have a inspector general scrutinize where the $40 billion 'for Ukraine' will be going. The Democrats will certainly dislike that.
*U.S. gasoline prices have hit a record high.
*European natural gas prices have also jumped after the Ukraine blocked the flow from Russia through one of the pipelines and while the flow through the Yamal pipeline in Poland has been stopped due to Russian counter sanctions.
*Le Monde has verified and published a video that shows a Ukrainian 'volunteer battalion', led by a known criminal, torturing Russian prisoners of war.
*Russia has published new material about the U.S. military biological 'research' in Ukraine. Other countries will also have questions about these activities.

The British Ministry of Defense claims that Russia lost a significant amount of material and men in an attempt to cross the Seversky Donets river. However the aerial pictures published by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry show that about half of the destroyed vehicles are BMP-1 with the original small one man turret and the stubby 73 mm gun. Russia is said to no longer have these. All its active service BMP-1 are said to have been upgraded and now have different turrets with 30 mm machine cannons with longer rifles. There must have been a larger battle over the crossing with probably both sides taking heavy losses. Moreover the fighting is now on the western side of the river. The Russian forces thus must have crossed the river in significant numbers.





Posted by b on May 14, 2022 at 17:02 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/05/i ... .html#more

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From Cassad's Telegram Account:

***

Ukrzaliznytsia stops running evacuation trains. The reason for this decision in the company called a significant decrease in demand for such flights. For example, on May 12, the company carried 30 thousand passengers, and only 177 of them were on evacuation trains. Instead, more and more people use the usual service of Ukrzaliznytsia.

Therefore, for now, there will be one flight left to evacuate people from the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region.

At the same time, it was announced that up to 40% of the volume of transportation by rail was restored from what had taken place before February 24

***

forwarded from
Newspaper PRAVDA
Brotherly help

The Communists of the Moscow City Committee have been collecting humanitarian aid for the residents of Donbass for a month. Party members take the problems of people affected by Bandera very close to their hearts.

An operational headquarters was formed, in each district leaflets about the collection of aid were posted on social networks and distributed on the street to passers-by. Caring Muscovites left their contacts, some expressed a desire to join the Communist Party .

The collected donations were used to purchase canned food, cereals, baby food, goods for children and personal hygiene items. Particular attention was paid to the children of Donbass: they should receive all the best. The record was set by the Alekseevsky local branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation: he managed to collect a total of about three tons of humanitarian aid, boxes occupied the entire premises of the district committee.

The collected cargo turned out to be too large for the vehicles of the Moscow City Committee, and the communists, under the control of the secretary of the Moscow City Committee, the head of the Communist Party faction in the Moscow City Duma, Nikolai Zubrilin, over and over again transported him to the Lenin state farm. It was from the farm, which is headed by Pavel Grudinin, that another humanitarian convoy departed on April 25.

Assistance to the residents of Donbass was provided by all our friendly organizations: VZhS - Hope of Russia, the Red Line TV channel, Children of War and many other representatives of left-wing patriotic forces.

***

forwarded from
Kherson Herald
Trophies of the Red Army in the battles for the liberation from the Nazis of the Kharkov region in 1943? No, this is May 2022, the place is the same

Rare PPS-43, PPSh, SKS, Maxim machine gun , Mosin rifles, MP-38/40, Magnum pistol, Winchester shotgun, Mauser 98k and finally more modern RPK and AK

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forwarded from
RIA_KotZ
0:57
We are working! On the first day, we rolled up to the abandoned fortified area of ​​the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Mariupol highway. Hundreds of meters of trenches, concrete pillboxes, caponiers for tanks. And not a single crater, not a single spent cartridge case, not a single bloody piece of camouflage. The Ukrainians did not even think of defending themselves here. But they just packed up and went south - to the cities of Volnovakha and Mariupol. It is more convenient to defend there, you can hide behind a human shield. And the longer the special operation lasts, the more often they will turn this trick.

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forwarded from
INTERNATIONAL FAN
1:51
And this is a very important story - about how many victims of the conflict are actually buried in Mariupol now.

A lot of messages and satellite photos began to appear on the network that huge mass graves were dug up on the outskirts of Mariupol, where bodies are dumped. We debunked this fake.

The FAN military commander went to Stary Krym, the pictures of which are given by the authors of stuffing. However, the graves did not appear here now, this is one of the largest cemeteries not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe.

We show the real situation and show honestly. There are really a lot of fresh graves, but even in this difficult situation, each deceased is buried in a separate coffin. The method of burial in trenches was chosen solely for the sake of a faster burial process - bodies are collected throughout the city.

Above each coffin are plates with a serial number. After identification, it is replaced by the personal data of the deceased. This is clearly seen if you walk along the fresh graves.

Please circulate this report and do not believe false information and stuffing.

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forwarded from
Kherson Herald
1:03
"9 hours in line" - in Kyiv, car owners have to go through a real test to fill up their car

There is almost no gasoline and diesel left in Kyiv. At rare gas stations, where there is still at least a little fuel and lubricants, kilometer-long queues line up.

According to the estimates of the Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Sviridenko, gasoline reserves will last only 5 days, and diesel - for 3.

At the same time, Kiev is very hopeful for the supply of 350-360 thousand tons of fuel from various logistics routes by the end of May. Sviridenko

noted that on average Ukrainians now use 13 thousand tons of fuel per day

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator

The Maxim machine gun is of WWI vintage! As are the Mosin rifles(which remained standard issue with the Soviets in WWII just as the Nazis used the Mauser98.)

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The US Could’ve Prevented this War just by Protecting Kyiv from Nazis
May 14, 2022
By Caitlin Johnstone – May 9, 2022

As we hydroplane toward the brink of nuclear armageddon while Bono and the Edge play U2 songs in Kyiv, it’s probably worth taking a moment to highlight the fact that this entire war could have been avoided if the US had simply pledged military protection for Zelensky against the far right extremists who were threatening to lynch him if he enacted the peacemaking policies he was elected to enact.

To be clear, what we are indulging in here is entirely an act of fantasy. In imagining what would have happened if the US had pledged to protect the Ukrainian government from an undemocratic violent overthrow at the hands of fascists instead of waging a horrific proxy war, we are imagining a world in which the US government acts in the highest interest of all instead of working continuously to dominate the planet no matter how much madness and cruelty it needs to inflict upon humanity. A world in which the US hadn’t been taking steps toward the orchestration of this proxy war for many years.

With that out of the way, it’s just a simple fact that for a fraction of the military firepower the US is pouring into Ukraine right now, it could have prevented the entire war by simply protecting Ukrainian democracy from the undemocratic impulses of the worst people in that country.



When he was asked by The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel last month what he thinks is preventing Kyiv from signing a peace agreement with Russia, John Mearsheimer, whose analysis of this conflict has been prophetic for many years, replied as follows:

I think that when Zelensky ran for president he made it very clear that he wanted to work out an arrangement with Russia that ended the crisis in Ukraine, and he won. And what he then tried to do was move toward implementing the Minsk II agreement. If you were going to shut down the conflict in Ukraine, you had to implement Minsk II. And Minsk II meant giving the Russian-speaking and the ethnic Russian population in the easternmost part of Ukraine, the Donbas region, a significant amount of autonomy, and you had to make the Russian language an official language of Ukraine.

I think Zelensky found out very quickly that because of the Ukrainian right, it was impossible to implement Minsk II. Therefore even though the French and the Germans, and of course the Russians were very interested in making Minsk II work, because they wanted to shut down the crisis, they couldn’t do it. In other words, the Ukrainian right was able to stymie Zelensky on that front.

When Mearsheimer says that the Ukrainian right was able to stymie Zelensky, he doesn’t mean by votes or by democratic processes, he means by threats and violence. In an article last month titled “Siding with Ukraine’s far-right, US sabotaged Zelensky’s mandate for peace,” journalist Aaron Maté wrote the following:

In April 2019, Zelensky was elected with an overwhelming 73% of the vote on a promise to turn the tide. In his inaugural address the next month, Zelensky declared that he was “not afraid to lose my own popularity, my ratings,” and was “prepared to give up my own position—as long as peace arrives.”

But Ukraine’s powerful far-right and neo-Nazi militias made clear to Zelensky that reaching peace in the Donbas would have a much higher cost.

“No, he would lose his life,” Right Sector co-founder Dmytro Anatoliyovych Yarosh, then the commander of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, responded one week after Zelensky’s inaugural speech. “He will hang on some tree on Khreshchatyk—if he betrays Ukraine and those people who died in the Revolution and the War.”


In a 2019 interview with Maté, the late great scholar Stephen Cohen made the following comments:

But ultimately you have a situation now which seems not to be widely understood, that the new president of Ukraine, Zelensky, ran as a peace candidate. This is a bit of a stretch and maybe it doesn’t mean a whole lot to your generation, but he ran a kind of George McGovern campaign. The difference was McGovern got wiped out and Zelensky won by, I think, 71, 72 percent. He won an enormous mandate to make peace. So, that means he has to negotiate with Vladimir Putin. And there are various formats, right? There’s a so-called Minsk format which involves the German and the French; there’s a bilateral directly with Putin. But his willingness—and this is what’s important and not well reported here—his willingness to deal directly with Putin, which his predecessor, Poroshenko, was not or couldn’t or whatever reason—actually required considerable boldness on Zelensky[‘s part], because there are opponents of this in Ukraine and they are armed. Some people say they’re fascists but they’re certainly ultra-nationalist, and they have said that they will remove and kill Zelensky if he continues along this line of negotiating with Putin…

Zelensky cannot go forward as I’ve explained. I mean, his life is being threatened literally by a quasi-fascist movement in Ukraine, he can’t go forward with full peace negotiations with Russia, with Putin, unless America has his back. Maybe that won’t be enough, but unless the White House encourages this diplomacy, Zelensky has no chance of negotiating an end to the war, so the stakes are enormously high.

In an article titled “Why Russia Went to War Now,” Antiwar’s Ted Snyder explains that Putin likely made the decision to invade because Kyiv wasn’t respecting Minsk II and because future NATO membership with Ukraine was being kept on the table while weapons poured into the country from the US.


“Zelensky wouldn’t talk to the leaders of the Donbas, Minsk was dead and Russia feared an imminent operation against the ethnic Russian population of the Donbas,” Snyder writes. “At the same time, Washington had become a leaky faucet on promises of flooding Ukraine with weapons and open doors to NATO: two red lines Putin had clearly drawn.”

But, again, Zelensky couldn’t enact Minsk because it had been made abundantly clear to him that he faced a horrific death by fascist lynch mob if he did. If the choice is between taking a chance on a US proxy war and getting Gaddafied in the public square, I think many leaders around the world would opt for the former.

So Zelensky made peace with the Nazis, whose will for Ukraine aligned with Washington’s.

But what this means is that every major factor which led to Russia’s decision to invade could have been nullified by the US government. A guarantee of no NATO membership for Ukraine could have been made. The weapons supplies could have been stopped. And Zelensky and his government could have received protection from the US military against the armed fascists who would repeat their violent acts of 2014 upon them.

It would have been wins all around. We wouldn’t be staring down the barrel of nuclear armageddon. Ukraine would have been spared the horrors of an insane proxy war. Western powers wouldn’t be sending arms to literal Nazi factions. And the US would actually be protecting Ukrainian democracy, instead of just pretending to.

But, again, we are only indulging in fantasy here. Fighting Nazis, protecting democracy and waging peace are not things the US empire actually does in real life. The US is the most tyrannical and murderous regime on earth, by a truly massive margin, and it will happily risk the life of everyone on earth if it means securing planetary rule.

But sometimes it’s nice to imagine the kind of world we might be living in if we were not ruled by psychopaths.

https://orinocotribune.com/the-us-could ... rom-nazis/

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Netherlands Freezes 640M Euros From Russia and Belarus640 million dollars. May. 13, 2022.[/b]


Coordinator Block announced the freezing of Russian and Belarusian assets accountable for 640 million dollars. May. 13, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@sherrybaudet

Published 13 May 2022


On Friday, the coordinator for compliance and monitoring of the implementation of sanctions against Russia said that 640 million euros has been frozen in the Netherlands.

Stef Blok, the coordinator for compliance and monitoring of the implementation of sanctions against Russia, announced that assets totaling 640 million euros from Russia and Belarus in the Netherlands had been frozen.

According to the announcement, financial transactions for 425 million euros have been blocked. In addition, six aircraft and 24 ships cannot be transferred to the owners as sanctions also hit them.

The report said that customs authorities have control over 34 000 containers, 11 300 declarations for imports, and 77 500 declarations for exporting goods.

"Thousands of containers were stopped at the port of Rotterdam. Luxury yachts are more often found on the French Riviera than on the IJsselmeer. But they are being built here. As for the real estate market, it is of little interest to people under sanctions," said Block.


Today the cabinet adopted Stef Blok's final report on compliance with the sanctions against Russia. The recommendations from the report are being adopted and the implementation of the sanctions continues. This continues to be a matter that has the full attention of the government.

Head of the Dutch Foreign Ministry in 2018-2021, Block was designated as coordinator last April for a six-week term. The coordination of actions of relevant ministries and departments to accomplish the sanctions imposed by the EU against the Russian Federation is the main task of Block as coordinator.

Last February 24, the Russian government launched a special military operation in Ukrainian territory in response to the request made by the heads of the Donbass republics. Despite repeated statements of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, clarifying that Moscow has no plans to occupy its neighboring country, several states have decided to impose sanctions against the Kremlin and some institutions and individuals related to the conflict.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Net ... -0017.html

[blindpig]

Battle for Serpent's Island May 7-8
May 15, 12:36 p.m.



Battle for Serpent's Island May 7-8.

The idea of ​​the operation to capture Serpentine came to the Ukrainian authorities from London. His goal was to overshadow the celebration of Victory Day in Russia, the DPR and the LPR;

The assault on the island began on the evening of May 7 after a lengthy reconnaissance of Serpentine from Ukrainian UAVs;

With the onset of darkness, 3 Ukrainian Su-24 bombers with a covering Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 fighter, flying up to the island at extremely low altitudes, launched a bombing strike. The duty aviation forces of the Black Sea Fleet destroyed all enemy aircraft over the sea;

After the strike, the enemy sent the first landing troops to the island. The special forces units of the main intelligence department of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on three landing assault boats of the Centaur project approached the Serpent, having managed to land 24 saboteurs. All Ukrainian boats were flooded, eliminating the possibility of evacuation. During the ensuing battle, the Russian military managed to push the enemy's special forces to the coast and destroy

Kiev there and made another attempt to storm. Under the cover of a Mi-24 helicopter, 3 Mi-8 transport-landing troops with special forces on board advanced to the island. In one of the Mi-8s there was the coordinator of the landing of units - the Deputy Commander of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for Aviation - Colonel Igor Bedzai;

The entire helicopter group, when approaching the island, was destroyed by Russian Aerospace Forces fighters. The pilots, the landing force and the coordinator of the operation were killed.

Another 6 helicopters for the landing of the second wave were in full readiness at a military airfield in the Odessa region. The airfield was hit by high-precision weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which destroyed 6 Ukrainian Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters;

Within two days, aviation of the Black Sea Fleet and air defense systems destroyed 30 Ukrainian UAVs in the Zmeinoye area, including 9 attack "Bayraktar-TB2";

The action invented by the West led to the senseless death of more than 50 Ukrainian militants and servicemen of the elite units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the loss of 4 aircraft, 10 helicopters, 3 boats and 30 UAVs;

(c) https://t.me/zvezdanews
Footage with killed saboteurs on Serpentine herehttps://t.me/boris_rozhin/48625

As for our losses. From what was published it is known about:

1. Damaged air defense system "Tor" (the enemy declared it as destroyed)
2. Destroyed ZU-23/2 (1-2 pieces)
3. Destroyed Mi-8 helicopter
4. Destroyed landing craft of the "Serna" type "(it seems to have been lifted there by a crane the other day - the condition is unknown, but apparently they will let it go to the metal)
5. Two damaged / destroyed patrol boats of the Raptor type.
6. Losses in people are unknown, but they were when the UAV hit boats and a helicopter.
7. Most of the ground buildings of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the island are seriously destroyed.

Ukraine indirectly acknowledged the failure of the attempt to capture Zmiyiny Island (in addition, some names of the dead officers became known), but stated that it would continue attempts to capture it. In the following days, several more UAVs were shot down over the island, including 2 Bayraktars.

Of the unsubstantiated claims.

1. From our side, they wrote in social networks that foreign military advisers died on the island. So far, there is no actual confirmation of this information. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has not officially confirmed this topic.
2. On the part of Ukraine, they wrote about the defeat by missiles and even the sinking of the frigate "Admiral Makarov" and the auxiliary ship "Vsevolod Bobrov". Both ships were seen in Sevastopol after May 8 without visible damage. But familiar sailors confirm

In general, this story somewhat smoothed over the painful impression after the loss of "Moscow", and the Black Sea Fleet confirmed its control over the northwestern part of the Black Sea. But the very fact of contesting this control suggests that the enemy will continue to try both to take possession of Serpentine and to move the fleet to the coast of Crimea. It is clear that the war here is not with Ukraine, but with NATO, therefore, it is by no means possible to underestimate the enemy here, so as not to be surprised later by unpleasant surprises, as was the case with the death of the Moskva cruiser.

In general, the picture is gradually clearing up and over time, of course, we will learn more details about the largest battle on the Black Sea since the Great Patriotic War.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7615801.html

Boomerang "Black Sun"
May 15, 10:58



How ironic.
The US is supplying weapons to Black Sun characters in Ukraine.
A character with the emblem of the "Black Sun" shot 10 people in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

The character is detained. Most of the victims are blacks.

In the video, 18-year-old Peyton Gendron (nickname "jimboboiii") gets out of the car and immediately opens fire on passers-by, after which he heads to the store, where he kills several more people with a headshot - all of his victims are predominantly African American. At the end of the video, the shooter points his weapon at the man under the counter, but then spares him by saying "sorry". Gendron was detained by the police - he turned out to be an ideological Nazi. A weapon with Nazi inscriptions was confiscated from him - in particular, it had runes on it, as well as the names of the terrorists Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Oslo in 2011, and John Ernest. By the way, on the clothes of the criminal in the photographs from social networks, the emblem of the "black sun" flaunts, which is used, among other things, by the Nazis from Azov.

Video here https://telegra.ph/file/1c5e5cd5b737af611e76f.mp4 (18+)

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7615728.html

Corruption factor
May 15, 15:31



Corruption factor

Senator Rand Paul's blocking of $40 billion in military aid to Ukraine is, of course, a temporary phenomenon, but at the same time it is remarkable. In the motivational part, Senator Paul pointed out in plain text that the huge money allocated to Ukraine could simply be stolen, and demanded at least minimal control over their spending. Which is what caused the delay.

Naturally, the question arises - why does Senator Paul say that money can be stolen in the "democratic" USA or in the "democratic" Ukraine? Senator Paul answers it himself, pointing to the experience of Afghanistan, where the United States, according to Brown University estimates, pumped $2.31 trillion over 20 years (from the fall of 2001 to the summer of 2021). The result of the war is known - the Taliban (banned in the Russian Federation) won, and after 20 years they again control the whole of Afghanistan.

At the same time, even before the US fled from Kabul, even the American media openly wrote that a significant part of American aid to the Ghani government was dissolved in an unknown place, mostly nodding that it was plundered by the functionaries of the Afghan puppet regime and local warlords. However, there were also questions about the American public and private defense contractors who actively mastered this money.

But this story was far from unique. The United States has spent, according to various estimates, tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars trying to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Here, too, as you know, they failed (Russia and Iran tried). Already during the war, in the American media, the unflattering facts of embezzlement of American funds allocated for the “Syrian democratic revolution” began to surface. In particular, it was revealed that no one knows where the more than $350 million allocated by the CIA for the training of Syrian Free Army militants in training camps in Turkey has gone.

In fact, the money was spent, and the militants were not actually trained. In fact, they simply stole it, attributing it to military operations in Syria. Also, the late head of the White Helmets, Le Mesurier, who threw himself out of a window in Istanbul, was accused of stealing money “for democracy”. According to a number of versions, together with Le Mesurier, the tails of the special services involved in financing the activities of the White Helmets were cleared, with the help of which they not only fabricated various fakes about “Assad’s chemical weapons”, but also mastered “democratic financing” through the special services, since there was practically no control over the spending of funds entering Syria.

In addition, one can also recall the accusations of the occupation administration of Paul Bremer, which oversaw the "reconstruction of Iraq" and received tons of cash from the United States, some of which disappeared in an unknown direction. According to an investigation by the US Congressional Commission, of the $60 billion in cash delivered to Iraq, $12 billion completely disappeared without any documents. Most of the remaining money was spent on ordinary handwritten receipts that left serious doubts about their authenticity and did not give any understanding at all whether imported cash was spent. Similarly, the British Parliament eventually found out that of the £16bn allocated to Iraq by Britain, £8bn was missing.

In general, for those who tend to remember previous US wars, it is quite obvious that the probability that a significant part of the allocated funds will again be dissolved in an unknown direction is close to 100%. Senator Rand Paul is clearly of the same opinion, which is why he demands increased oversight of spending, but it seems that under the conditions of Ukraine this oversight will not help anyway.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin/48665 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7616291.html

Turkey blocks Sweden and Finland from joining NATO
May 15, 14:36



Turkey blocks Sweden and Finland from joining NATO

Sweden has so far failed to convince Erdogan to withdraw his blocking vote to keep Sweden out of NATO. Erdogan demands recognition of the PKK as a terrorist organization and its ban on Swedish territory. What the Swedes do not want to go to. Negotiations are ongoing.

"Drug Rejep" as a skillful player has successfully gained his price and is now in the bargaining stage, hoping to get a good foreign policy gesheft from the US and NATO, which are in a hurry to accept Sweden and Finland into NATO.
Turkey knows that the US is running out of time, so it puts forward such conditions, hoping that in order to "persuade" Erdogan (so that he "persuaded the Turkish people"), the US and NATO will pay him a good geopolitical price.

Turkey immediately makes it clear that, in principle, of course, it is not against it, but it wants to get something serious for it. The case when Erdogan decided to stick his scimitar in the back of his "allies" in NATO. An extra reminder that, of course, you can do business with him on the principle of "nothing personal, just business" (as Russia did in Syria), but you definitely shouldn't turn your back on him.

Thus, now the issue of Sweden and Finland joining NATO depends on bargaining with Turkey.
I have no doubt that he will be successful for "friend Rejep" who has a "golden share" in his hands.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7616053.html

Google Translator

Roosting chickens, strange bedfellows,snake pits and Turkish delight, whadda day....

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Gas integrity
May 15, 19:58



According to Bloomberg, the European Commission approved the purchase of Russian gas under a scheme that Putin announced in March.

To cover up its inability to abandon this scheme (although there were so many screams that no one would cave in under the scheme proposed by Putin), the EU was not able - propaganda is propaganda, but to provoke their own economic collapse with their own hands (the tycoons of German business bluntly stated that the cessation of purchases of Russian gas will lead to the collapse of entire sectors of the German economy) the EU was not ready and is now trying to hide its deflection behind wordings like "we transfer in euros, but we don't know what's going on in Gazprombank." And they also want to oblige companies that will buy gas under this scheme to declare that they are transferring money for gas in euros. Although it is known even without this that they had to transfer money into euros, and then convert it into rubles through a ruble account, which, according to Bloomberg, has already been done by 20 European gas companies (plus dozens of others on the way, led by ENI). But since the leadership of the EU adheres to the principle "it is better to seem, not to be," it was de facto forced to bend before Putin's scheme, and in words will tell everyone that it is not.

The reasons for this are banal - in the 20th of May, new deadlines for paying for gas come, and what happens to those who do not want to pay under this scheme was clearly shown by the example of Poland and Bulgaria, which were turned off at the click of a button. Many looked at it, thought about it and began to study the issue of opening ruble accounts in Gazprombank.
Of course, not all EU countries will pay under this scheme, about a third or even half of the EU countries will continue to buy Russian gas under the new scheme, accompanied by chatter that "no one caved in, because democratic ideals do not allow."

Against this background, Russia is now studying the possibility of implementing a similar scheme for selling oil for rubles to unfriendly countries. Lovers of "Baltic mixtures" hello.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7616681.html

Air defense systems of the RF Armed Forces on the territory of Ukraine. March 2022
May 15, 22:55



An interesting trophy document captured by soldiers of the 1117th battalion "Rus".
The document presents the positions of Russian air defense systems on the territory of Ukraine, indicating the settlements and coordinates where they are located.
Judging by the specified settlements, the documents were relevant for about 2-3 weeks of March before the withdrawal of troops from the Kyiv and Chernigov directions.
With a very high degree of probability, information was collected and brought to the Armed Forces of Ukraine through NATO channels.
This is to the question of how, for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, NATO reconnaissance means remove part of the fog of war. Therefore, we must clearly understand that in Ukraine there is a proxy war with the United States and NATO.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7617352.html

Google Translator

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Finland Challenges Russia by Formalizing Decision To Join NATO
Published 15 May 2022 (5 hours 57 minutes ago)

The Government of Finland officially announces its decision to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), despite warnings from Russia.

On Sunday, May 15, the President of the Republic and the Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy finalized a report on Finland's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

"The report will be submitted to Parliament once it has been endorsed in the plenary session of the Government," the Finnish Government said in an official statement on Sunday.

On Saturday, the President of the Nordic country, Sauli Niinistö, at a press conference together with the Prime Minister, Sanna Mari, and the heads of Defense, Antti Kaikkonen, and Foreign Affairs, Pekka Haavisto, said that Finland is "entering a new era".

In turn, Mari described the decision as historic and said that, as a member state, Finland will be responsible for the security of the North Atlantic Alliance as a whole.


For his part, Chancellor Haavisto indicated that if the Parliament gives its approval to the proposal, Helsinki could make the official request to NATO by the middle of next week.

Finland and its neighbor Sweden stayed out of NATO during the Cold War, however, both countries have reconsidered their stance after the launch of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in late February.

Russian leaders have argued that the accesion of new members into NATO and the deplyment of strategic weapons on their country's doorstep is in violation of the principle of “indivisible security,” meaning neither the West nor Moscow should be allowed to strengthen its own security at the expense of the other party.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Fin ... -0005.html

Switzerland: Banks Unfreeze 3.4 Bln Worth of Russian Assets
Published 13 May 2022

Swiss banks have released 3.4 billion dollars from confiscated Russian assets.

The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) reported that about 3.4 billion dollars in frozen Russian assets in Bern had been released.

Bern has released nearly $3.4 billion in Russian assets over the last month, which had been frozen under new sanctions, a recent report from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) indicates.

After seizing a number of additional Russian accounts worth $2.2 billion, tallies show a net reduction of $1.17 billion in total frozen assets compared to April 7, demonstrating that close to $3.4 billion has been released over the same time period. Swiss banks are currently holding $6.33 of locked-down Russian assets.

Regarding these unblocked assets, SECO senior official Erwin Bollinger explained that some of the frozen accounts were liberated due to a lack of evidence showing they belonged to a sanctioned entity.


Despite the repeated denial of the claims saying that the country has protected Russian money because of its secrecy laws, because of what Switzerland has been considered President Vladimir Putin’s ally. During a telephone call held between the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, this last has requested Washington to correct "this misleading impression immediately."

Switzerland was one of the countries which chose voluntarily freeze Russian assets, using as pretexts under sanctions over the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Swi ... -0020.html

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From Cassad's Telegram Account:

***

forwarded from
War on fakes
The Telegraph published a text about the wives of the militants of the nationalist Azov battalion.

The material tells about the meeting of Ukrainian women with the Pope and their planned visit to London. The girls claim that "Putin does not want to let the soldiers go." This is directly refuted by the decision of the President of Russia not to storm the dungeons of Azovstal, but, on the contrary, to organize a humanitarian corridor and the opportunity to surrender.

One of the heroines, Yulia Fedosyuk, declares that “our husbands are ordinary people, patriots, not neo-Nazis. They love their country and fight for our common values.” The publication first calls Azov an ultra-nationalist movement, but then reports that “the entire legacy of far-right extremism has been purged from the ranks of Azov.”

It is noteworthy that Yulia Fedosyuk herself does not hesitate to post photos of Adolf Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” banned in Russia on social networks .

We have repeatedly written that the ideas of Nazism are actively promoted by members of the Azov national battalion. The fact that there are many Nazi movements in Ukraine was said even before the start of the special operation - including in Western sources . This was also discussed in the UN report . The most famous of them is the national battalion " Azov", which is part of the National Guard of Ukraine. During the special operation, many crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazis are recorded - both against their fellow citizens and against Russian prisoners of war. Cruel tortures and murders of Russian servicemen, a video in which a Ukrainian member of the theatre- defense tortures a man and stabs him in the eye, a swastika carved on the body of a girl tortured in Mariupol, testimonies of those who visited the militant prison organized at the Mariupol airport, execution of people " without blue armbands" by the gang of the nationalist "Boatswain", who was a member of the leadership of Azov.

The wives of the “Azovites” accuse the Ukrainians, including the fighters of the 36th Marine Brigade, who surrendered, of betrayal. But this is not betrayal, but rationality: the Ukrainian military is well aware of the hopelessness of their situation. In addition, many of them do not share the Nazi views that are cultivated by Azov, which is why many fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine prefer to surrender.

The thesis that in Russian captivity the military is brutally refuted by the Ukrainians themselves , who claim that they are not used violence. Some of the captured Ukrainians refuse to return home and remain in the territories controlled by Russia.

The theses promoted by the British media are aimed at the Western reader, who wants to be convinced that there is no Nazism in Ukraine. This is another refutation of the myth about the neutrality and objectivity of Western media when covering events in Ukraine.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator