Russia today

[blindpig]

Balancing on the Edge: How Russia is Forming Its Nuclear Doctrine
March 11, 21:12



Balancing on the Edge: How Russia is Forming Its Nuclear Doctrine

A declassified CIA document ( https://t.me/darpaandcia/528?comment=2700 ) from February 7, 2000, provides a detailed analysis of Russia's nuclear deterrence policy. This material shows how our country seeks to find a delicate balance between the credibility of nuclear deterrence and the need to avoid statements that could be perceived as recklessly lowering the threshold for the first use of nuclear weapons.

After the collapse of the USSR, Russia was forced to reconsider the Soviet commitment to never use nuclear weapons first. By 1992, our country had already developed an expanded concept of nuclear deterrence, which provides for the possibility of using the nuclear arsenal to defend against the threat of not only nuclear, but also large-scale conventional aggression.

The Americans note the existence of different points of view within the Russian leadership on the issue of the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. Strategic Missile Forces Commander Yakovlev openly stated that the deterioration of the general-purpose troops
"forced Russia to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons and extend nuclear deterrence to smaller-scale conflicts." At the same time, the President of the Academy of Military Sciences, General Gareyev, warned against over-reliance on nuclear weapons, arguing that copying NATO concepts of the "urgent" use of nuclear weapons could lead to "catastrophic consequences.

" Russian military officials in the journal "Military Thought" noted the advantages of "uncertainty" in describing Russia's nuclear threshold, as this could force potential adversaries to act more cautiously. On the other hand, some experts advocate the adoption of a "special federal law" that would "precisely define the conditions" for the first use of nuclear weapons.

The document pays special attention to the military exercises "Zapad-99", which demonstrated Russia's readiness to use nuclear weapons first in the event of defeat at the level of conventional weapons. The scenario of these exercises apparently simulated NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. For the first time in a decade, strategic bombers carried out simulated strikes with nuclear cruise missiles, approaching Great Britain and Iceland. Three months later, Russian bombers approached northern Canada and Alaska, demonstrating the ability to strike targets in North America.

The document's analysis makes it clear that U.S. intelligence agencies are deeply concerned about the possibility of Russia lowering its nuclear threshold. But they acknowledge thatThere is uncertainty about the level of aggression at which Russia would actually resort to nuclear weapons. Although Moscow has made it clear that its nuclear threshold would be crossed by a massive conventional air attack that threatens its military, economic and political infrastructure, it remains unclear whether Russia would respond to a much lower-level attack with a nuclear strike.

This issue is especially relevant now that US President Donald Trump often talks about nuclear disarmament. However, it must be clearly understood that if Russia’s capabilities to use nuclear weapons are reduced, the West will undoubtedly behave even more brazenly and use the first opportunity to strike our country. Nuclear deterrence is not just a military doctrine, but a guarantee of our sovereignty in a world where only force is respected.

The behavior of the US and Israel towards the Iranian nuclear program is indicative in this regard. Their nervous reaction clearly demonstrates how nuclear weapons change the geopolitical world landscape. A country that possesses a nuclear arsenal automatically moves into a different “weight category” in international relations. This is why any talks on nuclear disarmament must be viewed with extreme caution and mistrust, given the West's penchant for double standards and unwillingness to consider the interests of other countries.

https://t.me/darpaandcia - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9718320.html

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Not Everyone Wants to Join the EU: Armenian Youth Campaigns Massively Against European Integration
March 11, 2025
Rybar



In Armenia, a local youth campaign was recently held to distribute leaflets about the disadvantages of European integration and why it is impossible to leave the EAEU. The campaign took place in 23 cities , which is an impressive scale for Armenia.

Why do the Armenian authorities want to join the EU?
Against the backdrop of political crisis and mistrust of the government, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has taken up the EU accession project. This is linked to an attempt to offer Armenian society a new vision of the future after the defeat in the 2020 war.

The parliament of the republic is considering a law on joining the EU, although Brussels has not yet even invited Armenia to the EU, and this issue is clearly not at the center of attention of European bureaucrats.

Russia reminds that it is impossible to combine membership in the EU and the EAEU. At the same time, in the event of withdrawal from the EAEU, the Armenian economy will collapse , and the West is not offering anything in return.

Such grassroots initiatives show that not everything is so clear-cut in Armenian society : there are still opponents of the idea of ​​European integration and breaking ties with the EAEU.

Moreover, pro-government information resources in Armenia do not report that in the event of a severance of economic ties with the Russian Federation, the Armenian economy will face a catastrophe .

https://rybar.ru/ne-vse-hotyat-v-es-arm ... tegraczii/

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Saakashvili gets another 9 years in prison
March 12, 11:11



The Georgian court sentenced Saakashvili to another 9 years in prison. This time for embezzlement of state funds.

And remember, all sorts of Varlamovs advertised Saakashvili for a small price as a fighter against corruption and an effective state manager.

Yes, those were the days...

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9719084.html

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While The Shit Boils ...

... in the cauldron of Trump's 404 strategery, allow me to remind you why Russian economy is booming, and it is not just because of SMO. Far from it. One of the critical indicators of country's development is transport machine building and here Russia demonstrates just insane development. This video is in Russian, but you don't have to know it to recognize that what you see in it--the fresh 2025 arrivals--are either completely or 90% are made in Russia, including critical asynchronous electric motors and electronics, not to speak of design and interiors.



That includes what is coming--fully Russian high-speed trains. Siemens, yes, that's you--you see, you should have watched Two and a Half Men while it was still good)))

https://youtu.be/mar3UQv7JMI

http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2025/03 ... boils.html

[blindpig]

Tarik Cyril Amar: Putin’s meeting with representatives of the Defenders of the Fatherland Fund
March 13, 2025 natyliesb
By Tarik Cyril Amar, Website, 3/9/25

This is a text from my informal series trying to convey better information about Russian politics than can be found in Western mainstream media. I pay particular attention to statements, policies, or events that the latter either distort, neglect, or entirely ignore – that is, a lot. While I cannot possibly fill that gap, I hope my efforts help Western readers in search of better and more serious coverage.

Here, I address a recent meeting (on 6 March) between the president of Russia Vladimir Putin and about twenty representatives of the Defenders of the Fatherland Fund, all of them women. The Russian presidency’s website has posted a long (over two hours) recording and a full transcript of the meeting, which are the basis for this text. [http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/76418]

The fund is an important institution that emerged from the war between Russia, on one side, and Ukraine and the West, on the other. It was founded by presidential degree in 2023 and has branches in all of Russia’s 89 regions. Its “principle task,” to quote the website of the Russian government, “is individual social assistance and support [сопровождение] of veterans of the Special Military Operation [that is, the war in Ukraine] and of the families of fallen soldiers.”

I had to select aspects that appeared most interesting to me. But those who know Russian will see that it is very well worth listening to the whole meeting.

Some of the meeting consisted of questions, requests, and answers that concerned the details of the assistance and services offered by the fund and Russian public authorities, at the general, that is, federal as well as the regional level, to veterans of the war in Ukraine – or, in the official parlance that was used here, the “special military operation” – and their families. Such issues included, for instance, the standardization of these measures, requests to routinely extend them to further categories of family members, and the status of former prisoners who have volunteered for military service.

Here, incidentally, Putin made clear that this policy – often distorted in the West – makes distinctions: Certain categories of crime, such as treason and terrorism, disqualify prisoners. In essence, only those who have committed more or less ordinary crimes can volunteer.

Another thread running through the meeting may surprise those in the West who rely on Western mainstream media for their (dis)information about Russia: With many of the women present either the widows or mothers of fallen soldiers, the losses and sacrifices of war were by no means avoided in this recorded discussion with the president that is now posted on the presidency’s website. That is a notable fact worth paying attention to.

If anything, the death of Russian servicemen was a central, recurring topic of the meeting, coming up time and again and at length. In a generally patriotic register, unsurprisingly – as, by the way, it would be on any similar occasion in, for instance, the US, the UK, or France. Yet the key point to note is that Putin and his government do not rely on silencing the memory of loss. It is true that Russia keeps its total casualties secret, as does Ukraine. That is what states at war often do. But anyone who things that the Russian public is not permitted to think about the fact that Russians die in this war, needs to watch this discussion: the opposite is true.

Putin also repeatedly took the opportunity to acknowledge the military service, heroism, and sacrifice of the soldiers fighting at the front. Addressing the case of a soldier who had sacrificed himself to protect his unit, the president sent a warning to those in the West, clearly especially French president Emmanuel Macron, who “want to return to the times of Napoleon and forget how that ended.” “Indeed,” he then generalized, “all mistakes of our enemies [yes, that’s the term he used], [our] opponents have begun with just that – with underestimating” Russia and, in particular, its unity.

Putin praised the contribution of, by implication, all civilians in the rear and especially women, to the war effort in terms that may, at first sight, appear rhetorical. But, as he underlined, he meant it: “Your work also brings victory closer […] It’s not hyperbole […] your work facilitates the unity of [our society] around our boys, who are fighting, around our motherland. That is the aim of your work and it accomplished this task. And that is a most important condition for achieving success, I say [that] entirely deliberately.”

What made this explanation particularly interesting was the reference point Putin chose, namely World War I. Not, let’s note, World War II or the Great Fatherland War, that is, the specific struggle against Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945. So much, again, for those in the West who cannot grasp that Putin is not obsessed with the Soviet Union. His horizon is Russia’s history as a whole and hence much wider.

Regarding his view of World War I, Putin revealed two intriguing facets of his thinking. He believes that, first, the Russian Empire of the day was merely months away from winning instead of losing (as it did in 1917, the year of two revolutions) and, secondly, that the decisive factor in its defeat was social disunity. In his own words, “in Russia [social unity] was not achieved during World War I, [instead, our] society began to break down, fall apart […] The fact that our country did not make it through to victory by merely a few months was linked to [that] disintegration of [our] society.”

Unsurprisingly, in that area, Putin sees a decisive difference with the, that is, his Russia of today: “And you,” he assured his audience, but surely also speaking about himself, “your position – that is the most important [thing]: that it unites the country. That is one of the elementary conditions of achieving success.”

Regarding the current search for a way to end the war by Russia and the US (under new management) – despite the Zelensky regime’s delusions and the NATO-EU Europeans’ best efforts to keep the bloodbath going – there were no surprises at this meeting. But there was a particularly and – most likely deliberate – signal that Moscow is not ready to make concessions on what it sees as its vital national interests and therefore indispensable war aims: It was the bereaved mother of a fallen (and highly decorated) 21-one year old elite soldier (from the legendary 810th Separate Guards Naval Infantry Brigade) who stressed that everyone was waiting for “victory” and that “we have to go through with this to the end; we must not make concessions to anyone.”

Unsurprisingly, the president agreed, confirming that concessions are not part of the plan. And that, to quote in full an important passage, “we [Russia] must select for ourselves […] a […] peace which will satisfy us and which will secure tranquility for our country in a long historical perspective. We need nothing from others, but we won’t hand over what is ours. And we need such a kind [of peace], precisely such a kind, which will secure the stable development of our country in conditions of peace and security.”

The phrase “We need nothing from others, but we won’t hand over what is ours” deserves special attention. Not only because it was widely reported in the Russian media. But also because it is important to be clear about what it implies: As Moscow now claims that both Crimea and four eastern oblast administrative regions in Ukraine now belong to Russia, it is crucial not to misunderstand its president here: For Russia – like or not – these regions are now formerly Ukrainian and currently part of “ours.” Putin’s statement was emphatically not about Russia’s border with Ukraine as of 2013.

Western observers and politicians would do very well to note at least three points from this meeting: 1) The above: Russia may be ready for a compromise but it will not compromise its key war aims, and that concerns, of course, not only territory but also Ukraine’s real neutrality. 2) Putin is confident – and probably with good reason – that Russia is united in pursuing these aims. If negotiations should lead nowhere, Moscow will not be afraid of continuing the war. 3) The Russian government sincerely believes – and I guess, so do many Russians – that this is a fight that is fundamentally defensive and that Russia must win it to secure a prosperous and independent future. That again means that Moscow will not agree to a peace – or truce – that does not reflect its de facto victory.

https://natyliesbaldwin.com/2025/03/tar ... land-fund/

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"Farewell to Idealism"
March 13, 18:59



"Farewell to Idealism"

Funny.
In my spare time I read the opus https://t.me/svtvnews/67273 by foreign agent Svetov about "farewell to idealism", which caused an amusing uproar among collaborators and foreign agents. The main message of Svetov's opus is that idealism is crap, I was deceiving myself and deceiving others, there is an ideological void in the opposition, behind which there is nothing at all. Putin may be bad, but who is better? What does the opposition offer instead of Putin? And so on and so forth. In the old days, this would have been called an unconvincing attempt to disarm in front of the party.

The author, apparently, really thought (or skillfully pretends) that the idealistic delirium of the domestic democrats (especially those removed from USAID's payroll) is extremely far from real life and the real needs of the people. Well, in conditions when those who utter this nonsense are removed from the payroll and called embezzlers of American taxpayers' money, the craving for the material clearly begins to outweigh.

Of course, it is still a long way from dialectical materialism. Although the author has rejected idealism in public, he continues to make do with neoliberal phraseology and scraps of libertarian ideas that are poorly applicable to real life. If he had read Stalin's collected works in time, he would have been surprised to discover that his wonderful discoveries on the nature of power have long been laid out on shelves, without any idealistic dross.

At the same time, the author's calculation may be based on the fact that partial repentance for his ideological delusions may in the future create the preconditions for returning to Russia and removing the status of a foreign agent. This desire is growing among some foreign agents now, as they have realized that Russia will not be defeated, and they do not want to remain in the role of eternal emigrants (since their main sources of income and potential audience are in Russia). But they were unable to enter the territory of the Russian Federation in the wagon train of the occupation army, and so the season of changing shoes has begun, when various Latynins and Svetovs begin to find logic in the actions of Russia and Putin, to talk about the objectivity of what is happening in Russia, etc.

The main problem of these people, who are now trying to present themselves as deluded and mistaken, is that the nature of their "insights" is purely material. Expectations were not met, which means the plan "I'll sit in the West for a while, scold Rashka and come back" has cracked. Therefore, parting with idealism and sudden exploration of Putin's strengths is their plan B. In the hope that everyone will forget about the previous one.

They will not forget.

P.S. But it's even funnier to watch other foreign agents running after Svetov shouting that he "betrayed everyone," "he's a collaborator," and "sold out to Putin." Classic EZhG.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9722243.html

The Price of Intellectual Freedom
March 14, 11:00



The Price of Intellectual Freedom

At the beginning of the Ukrainian tragedy, I had a keen sense of powerlessness and pity for people who did not want to see the obvious and predictable. Then, as a result of their emotional reactions to my persistent attempts to convey to them what I saw and knew, a feeling of disappointment and resentment arose. Lately, it has become indifference. I no longer want anyone's "insights" or "repentances" under the pressure of new circumstances.

It is easy to predict that, integrating into the new trend and deprived of the global USAID pacifier, the new "creative class" will once again restructure itself, its chameleon scales will sparkle with new colors of the time, and in a couple of years they will be inspired to tell in Moscow how they "fought" the Nazi regime in Kiev, how they hid their true beliefs from the authorities, and what valuable experts and propaganda personnel they are. I wish them neither good nor evil. They are so arranged and the only thing worth regretting today is so many words and emotions wasted yesterday.

There is no inertia in the world stronger than the inertia of the closest circle of friends, colleagues and relatives, blackmailing rejection, condemnation, loneliness. The price of intellectual freedom is the fastest growing indicator of our time, not measured by any of the exchanges. This is the only battery that feeds hope.

(c) Oleg Yasinsky

https://t.me/olegyasynsky/1793 - zinc

You just need to cut off in advance those who change their skin so easily.
In 2014, I excluded all such people from all possible social circles and subsequently saved myself from almost any disappointments and grief on their account.
When you understand that you are not on the same path with these people, then getting rid of social contacts is quite simple. Although, of course, I understand those for whom this issue affected close relatives and even family. It's more complicated there, but of course there's nothing new about it, given the rich history of civil wars.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9723287.html

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GORILLA RADIO OPENS RUSSIA’S SYRIA FILE FOR NOW



by John Helmer, Moscow @bears_with

“As for the situation in Syria,”, the spokesman for President Vladimir Putin announced on Monday, “violence is taking place there, which cannot but cause our deep concern. This concern is shared in many countries of the world, in international organizations, including the United Nations.” On Tuesday, he added that “Russia supports the stabilization of Syria because of the need to maintain the security of the entire region…Syria is now too explosive a region, which may affect other countries. That is why Russia wants to see Syria prosperous, predictable, and friendly.”

This was stating the obvious. The Kremlin was also not stating a Russian policy.

The Russian Foreign Ministry tried to say more than the obvious. In its statement of March 7, the Ministry explained that “alarmed by the sharp aggravation of the situation in Syria…we call on all authoritative Syrian leaders who can influence the further development of the situation on the ground to do everything possible to end the bloodshed and prevent civilian casualties as soon as possible…We reaffirm our principled position in support of the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic. We hope that all states that have an impact on the situation in Syria will contribute to its normalization. We are committed to close coordination with foreign partners in the interests of the speedy de-escalation of the situation.”

As a policy, this was ambiguous on whether Russia recognizes Ahmed Al-Sharaa as president of the government which has replaced Bashir al-Assad by force. The Ministry term, “authoritative Syrian leaders”, avoids the problem of what the new president’s real name is, since it is suspected that al-Sharaa is not his real family name, nor is it Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, which is a nom de guerre.

The Ministry term is also a plural one, intimating that now, soon or later, Russian policy will recognize other Syrian leaders. These may include Qadri Jamil, a Syrian Kurd, educated in Moscow whose proto-communist political party has been backed by the Russians for more than a decade. This week Jamil was the first Syrian political leader to be received officialy at the Foreign Ministry in Moscow. The communiqué issued by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov indicated Russian support for the Syrian Kurds based primarily in the northeast.

“A discussion was held,” Bogdanov said, “on the development of the situation in Syria, including the tragic events that occurred in the coastal areas of the country. At the same time, special emphasis was placed on the need to establish an inclusive political process with the participation of representatives of all ethno-confessional groups on the basis of initiatives of UN Security Council Resolution 2254 in the interests of ensuring the unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic. In this context, the importance of the agreement signed on March 10 in Damascus between the President of the transition period of Syria A.Sharaa and the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces M. Abdi was noted.”

This is a reference to Mazloum Abdi (aka Mazloum Kobane) who has been the head of the Kurdish military forces, and who met with Al-Sharaa in Damascus on March 10; reportedly, they agreed on terms for Kurdish administrative autonomy. Jamil met Bogdanov to brief him the next day. In Damascus on January 28, Bogdanov met with al-Sharaa. The boilerplate of his communiqué indicated that al-Sharaa did not agree to “formalising pertinent arrangements” for the future of the Russian bases at Khmeimim and Tartus, but that the two sides would keep negotiating.

There is no public record that Bogdanov has met with other Syrians between al-Sharaa at the end of January and Jamil this week, following the start of the rebellion. There is also no record of who gave the orders for the opening of the Khmeimim base to the Alawite refugees over the weekend.

For what is happening at the bases in Syria, and Russian policymaking in Syria, listen to the 45-minute discussion with Chris Cook by clicking here:


Source: https://gradio.substack.com/p/gorilla-r ... -broadcast

Three hours after this broadcast, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Maria Zakharova, updated the number of refugees at Khmeimim to between 8,000 and 9,000. “The Khmeimim airbase opened its doors to local residents who were looking for salvation from the pogroms,” Zakharova reported. “Our military has sheltered more than 8,000, these are statistics at the time of yesterday, maybe even closer to 9,000 Syrians. I think this is the best answer to the question of our real contribution to the fate of the Syrians.” She did not say what the Russian plan is for their future security.

Asked about the safety of civilians, including Russian citizens, who are in Syria, Zakharova said “the current authorities in Damascus are aware and responsible for ensuring the protection and legitimate rights of all Syrian citizens, regardless of their religious affiliation. We are closely monitoring their efforts to equalize the situation with law and order.” The reference to “the current authorities in Damascus” implies the Russian belief that the current regime may not last.

There have been no official Russian government statements on the situation inside or around the Tartus naval base. According to Italian monitoring website Itamilradar, the submarine Krasnodar has anchored offshore from Tartus, accompanied by the tug Churov.


Source: https://www.itamilradar.com/2025/03/08/ ... o-again-3/

At the same time, three Russian military cargo vessels are reported to have left the Mediterranean heading home. The locations of several other Navy vessels based at Tartus have not been reported since February 22.


Source: https://russianfleetanalysis.blogspot.com/

The Russian military blogs have been publishing reports on the rebellion in Latakia for several days, including this press release of March 7: “The Military Council for the Liberation of Syria sets the following goals for itself: 1. Liberation of the entire territory of Syria from the occupiers and terrorist forces. 2. The overthrow of the HTS regime and the dismantling of its repressive sectarian apparatus. 3. Protecting the lives and property of all Syrians. 4. Restoration of state institutions on national and democratic foundations. 5. Preparation for the return of refugees. 6. The creation of a single sovereign state.”

Subsequent reports have come Boris Rozhin of the Colonel Cassad blog and Mikhail Zvinchuk’s Rybar:


Source: https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin March 10, 16:33


Source: https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin/


Source: https://t.me/s/rybar

According to Syrian reporter Laith Marouf, “Turkish helicopters and drones have been active in coastal Syria providing cover for the Wahhabi Contras during the first two days of the insurgency, they have since limited their air support to drones. There were no Turkish fixed- wing aircraft in active operation. I am not sure what the official Syrian-Russian meetings have led to, but judging from the actions on the field, Russia has been guaranteed safety for its bases if it limits its actions to only opening its bases to refugees and turns a blind eye to the slaughter outside their fences. Iran is unable to provide any support from the bases: all Iranian military and civilian flights over Syrian and Lebanese airspace have ceased since early February; under threat of being shot down by Israel and US.”

For a detailed situation report by Marouf on March 8, click to view.


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McSlwUxbf1k

Marouf reports his evidence on the al-Sharaa family. Wikipedia profiles report evidence on the names, places of birth and family tree of son Ahmed and father Hussein here and here.

For the introduction to this broadcast, for access to the 20-year Gorilla Radio archive, and for Chris Cook’s blog, click here and here.

https://johnhelmer.net/gorilla-radio-op ... e-for-now/

[blindpig]

THE GEOPOLITICS OF THE LOWER DEPTHS – REVIEW*


by Jean-Marc Bovy, Geneva
@bears_with

Do you remember Sergei Skripal, that double agent poisoned in Great Britain, they said, by the Russian secret services? What has become of them, Sergei and his daughter Yulia, since they survived one of the most violent poisons that there are? Why don’t we see them any longer? And there are other troublesome questions which only a great adventurer of investigating in troubled waters could tackle.

John Helmer, Australian citizen, has been an independent press correspondent in Moscow for almost thirty years. Returned to the country, he continues to animate a site that deserves its name, Dances with Bears. His strong columns, well-documented on topics of politics, society and economics, are illustrated by drawings and humorous collages by his own hand.

Helmer knows how to connect his topical comments to the entire historical past of Russia by placing them back in a global geopolitical context. In the Anglo-Saxon tradition, which does not don’t bother with Cartesian logic, he cultivates originality, even a certain entertaining wit, which doesn’t fear contradicting itself when reality itself pushes him to contradictory conclusions.

Helmer is the author of Skripal in Prison published in 2020, two years after the mysterious poisoning of double agent Skripal and of his daughter Yulia on the bench of a Salisbury town park. Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer convicted of having sold his services to the MI6, lived in England after Russia had exchanged him for its own agents captured by the Anglo-American services. The poison in question has been identified as a nerve agent of Russian origin called Novichok; despite its formidable toxicity, however, it had not sent its victims to the other world.Helmer is the author of Skripal in Prison published in 2020, two years after the mysterious poisoning of double agent Skripal and of his daughter Yulia on the bench of a Salisbury town park. Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer convicted of having sold his services to the MI6, lived in England after Russia had exchanged him for its own agents captured by the Anglo-American services. The poison in question has been identified as a nerve agent of Russian origin called Novichok; despite its formidable toxicity, however, it had not sent its victims to the other world.

Even before an investigation could be conducted on the circumstances of this failed attack, Prime Minister Theresa May had pointed the finger at Russia by asserting “it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for this reckless and despicable act” against Sergei and Yulia Skripal. The prosecution has raised an international scandal which led to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats by Great Britain and many other Western countries.


Left: Prime Minister Theresa May who made her accusation against Russia in the House of Commons on March 14, 2018; here is the text of her speech. Right: headline and lede from The Guardian, March 27, 2018.

Seven years have passed since the attempted Salisbury murder and we are still waiting for the irrefutable evidence to transform the “highly likely” culpability attributed to Russia in this abortive poisoning into certainty.

In a second work on the Skripal case published at the beginning of this year, John Helmer applies himself with the talent of a detective to exposing the smokescreen that the British authorities and their system of justice have created to cover their tracks and prevent light from being shed on what can only be called the Salisbury mystery.

The title chosen for his investigation speaks for itself: Long Live Novichok! The British poison which fooled the world.

To reach the conclusion that perfidious Albion is behind the crime he has accused Russia of committing, Helmer presents a series of facts and arguments which only seasoned lawyers and forensic experts can argue in opposition. So far, Helmer’s incendiary book has not provoked any reaction from our media which had made so much noise at the time of the events in 2018.

It’s a safe bet that silence will continue to reign over the Skripal Affair before it is finally forgotten. The fate of Sergei Skripal and his daughter continues to be ignored. Under the pretext that they needed to be protected from further attacks by Russia, they were sequestered by the British justice system and have shown no further sign of life for seven years. In the land of Habeas Corpus, it has become possible to incarcerate the victims of a crime and keep them in secret so that they cannot come forward to testify about their experiences, which could contradict the official version of events.

Helmer’s columns and numerous books focus primarily on Russia and its relations with the outside world. This should not, however, be interpreted as a pro-Russian bias. In The Man Who Knew Too Much About Russia, he himself recounts how he suffered intimidation from the Soviet and Russian secret services, from which he is happy to have emerged alive. Regarding the nature of the regime in Russia, he puts the president’s allegedly autocratic power into perspective, as Putin plays at best the role of an arbiter, often manipulated, within an all-powerful oligarchy.

During his decades in Moscow, in parallel with his work as an investigative journalist, Helmer has been a consultant in the mining sector, particularly in the field of rare and precious metals. This knowledge of the mining sector gives him a very deep insight—one could not say it more aptly — into current geopolitics. This has recently been enriched with a new dimension that, in the eyes of a leader like Trump, is crucial: the geopolitics of metals and rare earths has become just as relevant today as the geopolitics of pipelines.

Witness this excerpt from a recent column in Dances with Bears: “Someone has convinced President Donald Trump of two simple ideas. The first is that because the US auto, aerospace, and artificial intelligence industries are heavily dependent for their supplies of lithium, titanium, and other rare earth minerals (REM) on two enemy states, China and Russia, they should be replaced as quickly as possible by a friendly source. The second idea is that, in order to break this dependency, the cheapest solution is to take over the Ukrainian sources of these minerals and metals at zero cost of acquisition — zero cost because the Ukraine can be pressed to hand over its sources as payback for the US financing of the war against Russia. The someone who convinced Trump of these two ideas was Elon Musk.”


Source: https://johnhelmer.net/

In Helmer’s eyes, this outcome is a hustle and a plan for simpletons. “How to make losing the war in the Ukraine look like a win – this is President Donald Trump’s purpose in presenting himself and his administration as in favour of peace and of cashback to the United States…This is a hustle – it is an attempt by a combination of threats and rewards to convert a political and military defeat into a ready money profit; call the process peacemaking, Trump himself the peacemaker, and the outcome peace.”

Russia continues to be at war with the United States on the Ukrainian front and will under no circumstances allow the Americans, or the Kiev regime they effectively support, to get their hands on Ukraine’s rare earths. The bulk of these coveted resources is located on the Russian side of the front, with a small portion on the Ukrainian side near the firing line. Peace is not a commodity to be bargained away.

[*] This essay has been published in the March 16, 2025, edition of Antipresse, which is based in Geneva and directed by Slobodan Despot. The author, Jean-Marc Bovy, is Swiss; he was educated at the University of Geneva and Lomonosov University in Moscow. He has been an interpreter in Russian and French, an international commodity trader, and business consultant at the Centre Patronal in Lausanne. He is a regular analyst of Russian affairs in Antipresse. For the original in French, read here. To follow the podcasts of Slobodan Despot, click.

https://johnhelmer.net/the-geopolitics- ... more-91283

******

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko and Russia’s terms for a cease fire

This morning’s online edition of Le Monde has a front-page article entitled “Direct report on the war in Ukraine: Russia reiterates its conditions for a truce, including the certainty that Ukraine will not join NATO.” The article attributes this statement to Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, without explaining who he is and what that tells us about the Russian position.

In this brief survey of latest news on the war and prospects for peace negotiations, I open with a remark on Grushko drawn from my own past experience in one-on-one talks with him here in Brussels going back to the days when he served as Russian Ambassador to NATO, a post he held for five years or more. I think in particular of his role in the days just prior to the launch of the Special Military Operation. In mid-January 2022, Grushko held talks in Brussels with NATO leadership relating to the Alliance’s response to the ultimatum that Deputy Minister Ryabkov had sent to Washington and Brussels in mid-December 2021 calling for a roll-back of NATO infrastructure and personnel to the status quo in 1994, i.e., before the waves of NATO expansion eastward. Note that up to the start of the war Russia maintained three fully-staffed embassies in Belgium: the one headed by Grushko accredited to NATO, an embassy accredited to the European Union (unfilled since the start of the war) and an embassy accredited to the Kingdom of Belgium (still active).

It was perfectly clear from my earlier meetings with Grushko that he was in the Liberal camp of Russian diplomatic personnel, very much dedicated to normal relations with the West. He held these hopes to the very end, as I understood when I heard his debriefing on talks with NATO about the Russian ultimatums. This took place on 13 January in the Russian embassy, Brussels. He still hoped for better times. Soon afterwards Grushko was transferred back to Moscow.

The relevance of this observation is that Grushko’s coming forward a day ago to restate the Russian position on its hard terms for entering into peace negotiations demonstrates that the Ministry, on instructions from Vladimir Putin, is firm and unwavering in its demands, namely neutrality for Ukraine, territorial concessions to acknowledge Russian annexation of the Donbas and Novaya Rossiya oblasts, no foreign troops or infrastructure in Ukraine. One may say that these are non-negotiable and will either be accepted by Trump or the war will go on as long as needed to bring about Ukrainian capitulation. From statements to the press by Waltz, Rubio and Witkoff this past weekend, it appears that Team Trump is working to agree details on these demands with the Russians so that success is within reach, though by no means guaranteed.

Note: I speak here of ‘peace negotiations’ because the Russians are uninterested in a 30-day ceasefire for a variety of reasons I set out below. They insist on entering at once into talks for a durable peace on terms that respect their security concerns.

*****

Last evening’s Vladimir Solovyov talk show had a lot of empty blather from his usual panelists, plus RT director Margarita Simonyan. As usual, Simonyan took the conversation away from the concrete issues of the day, of which there are many, to the cultural realm in her exploration of the very peculiar words of the Ukrainian national hymn which open with “So long as Ukraine has not yet perished…” – which is almost a word for word borrowing from the opening words of the Polish national hymn, and points to a shared culture of death and self-destruction.

In the midst of this idle chatter, there was one outstanding panelist, Colonel Buzhinsky, who is an occasional contributor to the program, bringing real military experience to bear on his analyses. Buzhinsky pointed out that a 30-day truce is utter nonsense. In practice, it takes a week or more for shooting to stop along a line of contact that runs between 1,000 and 2,000 km. Moreover, a cease-fire must be monitored by personnel on the ground. All talk about how U.S. and other satellites can assure the proper observance of the cease-fire is groundless. There are climatic issues that interfere with satellite imaging; there are night-time conditions among other factors making such remote, hands-off monitoring imperfect and unreliable. And so some agreement about deployment of neutral monitors is essential. As for actual deployment of monitors, it may take up to six months given the vast length of the line of contact.

That is, per Buzhinsky, monitors, not peace-keepers. He insists that the British plan for sending troops to Ukraine is a subterfuge for de facto establishment of British bases in Ukraine, with likely emphasis on positioning such bases on the Black Sea coast, where they will be a permanent threat to Crimea and to Russian naval assets. The French also have in mind putting troops into the Odessa area, which they have coveted for more than two centuries. This is all totally unacceptable to Russia.

*****

Finally, both the Evening with Vladimir Solovyov and News of the Week broadcasts yesterday directed attention to the fate of the several thousand Ukrainian troops who are now completely surrounded in several pockets within the Kursk oblast and face conditions of surrender or annihilation. President Trump has appealed to Vladimir Putin to release them on humanitarian grounds. However, as last night’s Russian state television made crystal clear by its reportage on the devastation that Ukrainian forces inflicted on Kursk in the seven months of their occupation going back to the August incursion last year, war crimes have been committed against the civilian population including torture and summary execution. Under Russian law these acts are categorized as terrorism and under no circumstances is simple release to be considered. All those who are detained will undergo a filtration process of debriefing to ascertain their degree of involvement in the crimes.

President Putin said clearly to Zelensky: order these soldiers to lay down their arms and we will spare their lives and treat them decently, otherwise they face destruction. Zelensky responded yesterday on television that Putin is lying, that his troops are not surrounded and are performing their orders. Meanwhile, the United States satellite intelligence supports the Russian claims of the entrapment of the Ukrainians, which alone explains Trump’s appeal to Putin.

When you watch the testimony of the Russians in Kursk who spent seven months in their cellars, deprived of heat, electricity, water, food and fearing for their lives when the Ukrainians by night came around to steal whatever they could, you involuntarily wish for the extermination of these Ukrainian bastards.

****

I note in conclusion that in his latest online video talk Professor Nicolai Petro at the University of Rhode Island discusses the likelihood of a military coup in Ukraine overthrowing the Zelensky regime. I have had some joint projects with Petro in the past. He is one of the best-informed experts on Ukraine, bringing to the table not only academic knowledge but personal knowledge from years of travels in Ukraine, where he also has owned an apartment.

I do not know how close a military coup is to realization, but I do believe that it is the only way out of the Ukrainian mess. There are NO responsible, level-headed leaders of an opposition in Ukraine who could succeed Zelensky and take the country back to normalcy. The big names – Poroshenko, Tymoshenko – are themselves as insane as Zelensky in their fervor to continue the war to victory over Russia. Ten years of brain-washing have rendered Ukrainian civil society unable to understand their own interests. The only hope for the country will be some kind of imposed technocratic leadership, most likely coming from the military where some shreds of realism may yet have survived. It will take several years of exposure to real news reporting, to real consideration of the vast losses of men and wealth that the country has suffered before the country is ready for democracy.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025

https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/03/17/ ... ease-fire/

[blindpig]

PUTIN DEMONSTRATES HOW TO TELEPHONE A PERSONALITY CULT



by John Helmer, Moscow @bears_with

President Vladimir Putin has solved the problem of how to conduct telephone calls with Donald Trump’s personality cult.

Following Trump’s tweeted claim in the early morning of Tuesday that “many elements of a Final Agreement have been agreed to” the telephone call which took place over two hours of the early Moscow evening, ended without agreement on any “final” point.

Trump has remained uncharacteristically silent. The only tweet he has issued since the call with Putin has been an attack on a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama”.

The US media have remained in the dark, while detailed results have been compiled and published by the Russian media. According to these sources, Putin agreed to the creation of “expert groups” to work on the military, political, and economic end-of-war settlement. This is a signal that the efforts by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron to continue the war on their terms will be excluded, and that the Russian military advance westward will continue on all salients. Russian targeting of British, French and US military units on the battlefield, at Odessa, Dniepropetrovsk, and Kharkov and at staff bunkers in western Ukraine will continue.

In response to Trump’s demand for a 30-day ceasefire – the Anglo-American proposal which was announced with Ukrainian officials in Jeddah on March 11 – Putin said no. Instead, he agreed to suspend the Russian electric war campaign, and for thirty days halt strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure on condition that Trump will reciprocate with a stop to Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.

No agreement was reached on Trump’s attempt to save the encircled Ukrainian forces in Kursk. Instead, Putin agreed that Ukrainians who surrender on the battlefield will not be shot. Putin also offered an exchange of prisoners of war, 175 to 175; and the return from Russian hospitals of 23 seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers.

Although the discussion by the presidents touched on naval operations on the Black Sea, including targeting flights by US drones and NATO fixed-wing aircraft, no agreement was reached.

The assessment in Moscow is that Putin has turned a battlefield restriction he has already imposed on the General Staff into a concession he now requires Trump to enforce on the Zelensky regime. The ball, as US officials have insisted they have put in Moscow’s court, has been played back into Washington’s court.

The US and NATO media appear to have been paralyzed by lack of information from Trump and other US officials.

CNN had reported Trump on Sunday as staking out his agenda for the Putin talks. “Trump himself suggested as much while speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, saying that US negotiators have discussed ‘dividing up certain assets.’ ‘We’ll be talking about land. A lot of land is a lot different than it was before the war, as you know. We’ll be talking about land, we’ll be talking about power plants, that’s a big question,’ Trump said.” The Moscow record indicates there was no discussion of these points, and they have been reserved for later talks at the expert group level.

Trump’s real estate investment associate, Steven Witkoff, had been sent to Moscow to meet with Putin to prepare for the telephone call. He then told the New York Times that his talks with Putin had “narrowed the differences between them”. There is no evidence of this in Moscow.

Comprehensive reporting has been published by the Russian state agency RIA Novosti.




Source: https://ria.ru/20250318/razgovor-2005807349.html

The Kremlin communiqué has reversed the ceasefire proposal into a ban on US military and intelligence support for the warfighting. “In the context of the initiative of the President of the United States on the introduction of a 30-day truce with the Russian parties a number of significant points were identified concerning the provision of effective control over a possible ceasefire along the entire line of combat contact, the need to stop forced mobilization in Ukraine and rearmament of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. There were also serious risks associated with the inability of the Kiev regime, which has repeatedly sabotaged and violated the agreements reached. Attention is paid to the barbarian crimes of a terrorist nature committed by Ukrainian militants against the civilian population of the Kursk region. [It was] emphasized that the key condition for preventing the escalation of the conflict and working in the direction of its resolution by political and diplomatic means should be complete ending of foreign military assistance and [battlefield] intelligence information to Kiev.”

The White House has issued no response.

There is no record that the sanctions war was discussed between the presidents.

Earlier in the Moscow afternoon, in a speech to the business lobby, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Putin had attacked the US and the European allies for the economic war. “Sanctions are neither temporary nor targeted measures; they constitute a mechanism of systemic, strategic pressure against our nation,” Putin said. “ Regardless of global developments or shifts in the international order, our competitors will perpetually seek to constrain Russia and diminish its economic and technological capacities…Here, the Ministry of Finance has tallied them. I state with confidence: 28,595 sanctions against individuals and legal entities. This exceeds – by a significant margin – all sanctions ever imposed on all other nations combined.”

If Putin raised this issue with either Witkoff or Trump, there is no sign in Moscow or Washington of their answer.

https://johnhelmer.net/putin-demonstrat ... more-91298

*******

Ever Predicted, Never Happening: Russia's Collapse

Badmouthing Russia's economy has a certain tradition:

Russia's Collapse - Foreign Affairs, Sep 1, 1999
Russia Is Finished - The Atlantic, May 2001
The Russian Economic Crisis - CFR, Apr 2010

Since the start of the Special Military operation in Ukraine many outlets joined the above doomsayers of the foreign policy blob.

Since then most reports about Russia's economy predicted a collapse or at least severe difficulties. Here are some from just the previous six months:

Russia's economy is signaling a fate worse than recession - Business Insider, Sep 26 2024
Humiliation for Putin as Russia could plunge into 'economic collapse' to plug £30bn debt - Express, Oct 7 2024
Putin's Economy Approaches 'Burnout Point' - Newsweek, Oct 8 2024
Russia’s economy is overheating but Putin cannot change course - Atlantic Council, Oct 31, 2024
Russia’s War Economy Is Hitting Its Limits - Foreign Policy, Nov 14 2024
Russia’s economy is doomed - New Statesman, Nov 28 2024
Russian rouble collapse exposes deep problems in the country’s economy - The Conservation, Dec 3 2024
The Russian Economy Remains Putin’s Greatest Weakness - Foreign Affairs, Dec 9, 2024
Russia’s war economy spirals out of control as 2025 brings looming stagnation - NZZ, Jan 7 2025
Is 2025 the year that Russia’s economy finally freezes up under sanctions? - Atlantic Council, Jan 8 2025
Russia’s war economy is a house of cards (archived) - Financial Times, Jan 13 2025
Putin's war economy is running on fumes as inflation and shortages surge - Kyiv Independent, Jan 15 2025
Don’t Blink Now, Trump. Russia’s Economy Is Cracking. - Bloomberg, Feb 10 2025
Russia’s economy is stagnating – but that won’t force it to end the war - The Conservation, Mar 10 2025
The Russian economy is on the brink of collapse and Putin knows it - Independent, Mar 13 2025
Russia’s economy would struggle to cope with peace - Reuters, Mar 17 2025

Meanwhile the Russian economy is doing well. Its economy is growing faster than most other.

Russia to grow faster than all advanced economies says IMF - BBC, Apr 16 2024
IMF raises forecast for growth in Russia's GDP by 0.1 pp in 2025 - Interfax, Jan 17 2025

The lesson from this? Much of what one reads in mainstream media about Russia (and other so called enemies) is garbage.

Posted by b on March 18, 2025 at 16:00 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/03/e ... l#comments

Trump Seeks Russian Support For War On Iran

The readouts from the U.S. and Russian side about yesterday's phone call between President Trump and President Putin has me concerned about the potential of another war in the Middle East.

The Russian readout has 674 words. It is quite specific about Ukraine issues. There is a two sentences paragraph about the Middle East:

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump also addressed some other international issues, including the situation in the Middle East and in the Red Sea region. Joint efforts will be made to stabilise the situation in the crisis spots and establish cooperation on nuclear non-proliferation and global security.

What those 'joint efforts' might be is not specified.

With just 227 words the U.S. readout is much shorter. There is much less on Ukraine. A whole one fourth of the readout is with concern to the Middle East:

The leaders spoke broadly about the Middle East as a region of potential cooperation to prevent future conflicts. They further discussed the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons and will engage with others to ensure the broadest possible application. The two leaders shared the view that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.

Iran, not mentioned by the Russian's, is mentioned in the context of nuclear ('strategic') weapons.

Iran seems to be the next item on Trump's international meddling list.

Recently leaked documents point to major U.S. planning for a war with Iran. The suddenly renewed U.S. bombing of Yemen, despite no recent attacks by Ansarallah on international shipping, seem to be a provocation towards that:

Tehran has begun circling the wagons as a new phase is beginning in Trump’s foreign policies, with tensions rising steadily over the nuclear issue. The October deadline is drawing closer by the day for invoking the snapback clause in the JCPOA (2015 Iran nuclear deal) to reinstate UN Security Council sanctions will expire, and Iran’s enrichment programme, on the other hand, has apparently reached a point where it already has a stockpile to make “several” nuclear bombs, per the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran however has Russian and Chinese backing:

On March 14, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi hosted a joint meeting in Beijing with the Russian and Iranian deputy foreign ministers where he proposed five points “on the proper settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue”, which, for all purposes endorsed Tehran’s stance. It was a resounding diplomatic victory for Iran.
Interestingly, the Beijing meeting was timed to coincide with the conclusion of a 6-day naval exercise at Iran’s Chabahar Port with the theme of Creating Peace and Security Together between the navies of Iran, Russia and China.
...
Moscow has lately waded into the Iran nuclear issue and is positioning itself for a mediatory role potentially. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently came out against attaching extraneous issues (eg., verifiable arrangements by Tehran to ensure the cessation of its support for resistance groups in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria) to the nuclear negotiations. Lavrov said frankly, “Such a thing is unlikely to yield results.”

Before the renewed bombing of Yemen Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Lavrov had their own phone call. The short U.S. readout said:

The Secretary informed Russia of U.S. military deterrence operations against the Iran-backed Houthis and emphasized that continued Houthi attacks on U.S. military and commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea will not be tolerated.

It did not mention that Russia spoke out against it:

The Russian Foreign Ministry, in a readout on Saturday, stated that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Lavrov and informed him about the US decision to attack the Houthis. It said Lavrov, in response, “emphasised the need for an immediate cessation of the use of force and the importance of all parties engaging in political dialogue to find a solution that prevents further bloodshed.” Well, the shoe is on the other foot now, isn’t it?

Trump seems to believe that he can gain Russia's support, or at least its neutrality, in a futile conflict with Iran, by offering to end the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine.

Russia however seems to completely reject such plans.

Posted by b at 14:58 UTC | Comments (79)

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/03/t ... l#comments

How could Russia pass up such a DEAL?

What's Trump gonna do when he realizes that he has no cards?

[blindpig]

THE MORAL OBLIGATION TO WIN – DR TRUMP, MR TRUMP, AND THE MORALITY OF US WARFIGHTING IN THE UKRAINE AND YEMEN



by John Helmer, Mosco @bears_with

In the very first Pentagon press briefing of the Trump Administration, held this past Tuesday, Air Force Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich, who directs US military operations on the Ukraine battlefield and in Yemen, announced: “President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, they understand that when America gets involved in a fight, it’s our job to also end that fight as fast as humanly possible because we have a moral obligation to win and win decisively.”

This isn’t the morality of self-defence, sovereign rights, human rights, just or holy war, the rules-based order, or even the morality of the ends justifying the means. This is war fighting for its own sake – and to prove that MAGA means MAWWA — Make America Win War Again.

In this discussion with Ray McGovern and Nima Alkhorshid, the prospects are analysed for a negotiated end-of-war settlement in the Ukraine following the telephone call between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump.

The discussion then asks the question: If Trump is to be acknowledged as the peacemaker in the war against Russia, what is he doing launching air and missile raids on Yemen to kill as many of the Houthi (Ansar Allah) leaders as he can find?

Is this President Jekyll, President Hyde? Which one of them, or is it both of them who believe he has the “moral obligation to win and win decisively”?

View and listen to the hour-long discussion here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0IIJmULuh8

https://johnhelmer.net/the-moral-obliga ... and-yemen/

Tulsi Gabbard left this one in an ambulance. As I've said, a zero credibility sycophant.

[blindpig]

How Beria made the atomic bomb
March 20, 23:08



I watched the domestic TV series "Atom".
It turned out to be a quite watchable comic book movie based on the Soviet nuclear project.
The main message is quite correct - under the leadership of Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria, the Chekists, intelligence officers and scientists together implemented the nuclear project and gave the country a nuclear shield. And not only that.
Lavrentiy Pavlovich did not even shoot anyone or "grind them into camp dust", he just threatened a couple of times in the style of meme jokes like "You can be free. Bye" and a demonstration of Stalin's resolution "Calm the fool".

In general, he effectively managed a zealous fool from counterintelligence, a project curator mired in women (I can't stand Guskov at all after "4 days in May", he was a real piece of crap), infantile scientists and Germans brought from Germany. However, in the entire series, only one character was shoved into the camp, and even then, for good reason (his personal dislike for the Germans was ruining the project), to dig a pit for a reactor under the supervision of the GULAG chief. In general, the Bloody KGB in the film looks rather positive and mainly scares, rather than punishes. It threatens with a finger, but-but, make a bomb, comrades.

Well, Fitin also looks like a smart leader (as does the intelligence line, although it is still quite crumpled), and Kurchatov is cured of infantilism somewhere in the middle and he himself begins to build scientists who do not understand where they ended up and what they are doing. When the Bloody KGB organizes everything correctly, Soviet scientists make scientific breakthroughs, and our intelligence agents drag secret documents to the USA - everything works out in the end and Lavrenty Pavlovich is happy. Stalin is not in the film, so he is the main one here. Perhaps this is the most complimentary film about Beria of all that I have seen, although this is rather because he is not particularly scolded here, which distinguishes him favorably from the usual perestroika and post-perestroika films, where Beria is usually a "bloody executioner".

In general, if you do not take the film too seriously and do not consider all this as a manual on the history of the Soviet nuclear project (this is immediately beside the point), then it is quite possible to watch it. A kind of comic book movie. If it were not for the sagging "love stories", it would have looked more cheerful. Some scenes are shot well, although it is obvious that the series did not have enough budget for more colorful scenes with equipment and a nuclear test.

In general, it is so-so shot, but the film has the right message. They noted the contribution of everyone - scientists, intelligence officers, and the Bloody KGB. As it was. Without any of this "contrary to".
And the fact that the authors piled up a bunch of improvisation is more a question for the script. In some moments I laughed at the stupidity of what was happening.
But I repeat, it is quite watchable.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9736890.html

Deadline for Ukrainians in Russia
March 20, 21:00



Ukrainian citizens who have not settled their legal status in Russia have until September 10 to resolve this issue or leave Russia.
Time is running out for those who like to sit on two chairs.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9736528.html

The Year of "Crocus"
March 22, 15:15



A year ago, a terrorist attack occurred in Crocus. The perpetrators were found and are in prison. The organizers and inspirers are still walking free.

(Video at link.)

Peace be upon the ashes of all those who perished.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9739524.html

Blogging will be included in OKVED
March 22, 14:07



From May 1, bloggers' activities will be officially recorded in the All-Russian Classifier of Types of Economic Activity (OKVED)

As expected, the matter will not be limited to just the advertising tax and economic control over the blogosphere will be strengthened.
It can be expected that taxes on advertising revenues from bloggers will increase after some time. High-profile cases of info-gypsies will contribute to this.

Identical processes can be expected in civil humanitarian aid. Actually, I have been writing since 2022 that it would be appropriate to introduce simplified state licensing of private humanitarian aid to combat fraud.

P.S. The blogger registration registry has not yet shown itself in any way. It is still unclear how law enforcement practice works. But there are numbers in the profiles.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9739282.html

Traitor Gordievsky has died
March 22, 8:52



Traitor Oleg Gordievsky, who betrayed his country in the 1980s and later lived in Britain under the protection of MI6, died a natural death (or so they say)
. One can only regret that the death sentence handed down to him in the USSR was never carried out.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9739095.html

Efremov to be released on parole
March 24, 2:27 PM



Efremov will be released on parole.
He still had 3 years to serve.
He served 4.5

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9743049.html

School vs. Park in Saratov
March 24, 15:49



A reader from Saratov asked to cover the problem that arose in the city with the construction of a school right in the park.
I am publishing his letter.

Good afternoon, dear Colonelcassad. I have been a reader of your blog for a long time, but now I am contacting you in connection with the critical situation in our city of Saratov. We need to bring this situation to the federal level before April 2025, so as not to allow local authorities to make an irreparable mistake. I ask you to publish my appeal on your blog and / or pass it on to other bloggers who, in your opinion, would be interested in it, for distribution.

Three years ago, the Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation V.V. Volodin instructed local authorities to eliminate the second shift in city schools in [/img]connection with numerous requests from citizens of our city of Saratov, and he himself promised to help with funding. This year, funds were allocated for 4 large schools. The situation is adequate for 3 schools, but for the last one (Gymnasium No. 75 named after D.M. Karbyshev, where my children also study in the 2nd shift) - wild for most city residents.

This gymnasium is located in an area built in the 1950s and 1960s, and naturally there are no free plots of the required size in the public domain. Over the 3 years of this program, local authorities have not bothered to find a site for expanding the school, and since the money was federal, it must be used immediately. And they could not think of anything better than to give half of the Territory of Childhood Park, located in the center of the district, for the development of the school. This park is the only park in the Leninsky District of Saratov with a population of over 300,000 people and the only green area within walking distance for 5 microdistricts with a population of over 50,000 people. In 2012, the park was renovated and opened with great fanfare with the participation of the governor. During the renovation, the park was divided into 2 zones - "improved" (benches, playground, etc.) and "wild" (sports town, grove, "Health Trail"). Since 2012, the park has hardly been repaired, although money for its maintenance was regularly allocated from the budget, but even in this state, in good weather, it is completely occupied by city residents. In the evening, you can walk there for hours and not find a free bench or children's facility. Currently, 2 large residential complexes are being built in the surrounding microdistricts, which will increase the load on the park, and in the future, 3 neighboring microdistricts with houses built in the 1950-1960s ("Youth Village", "4th Quarter", "Tekhsteklo") will be rebuilt, which will also increase the load on the park. We asked to repair the park and achieved its inclusion as a candidate for the federal program "Accessible Urban Environment", but the local authorities had other plans for it.

In addition to the fact that the construction will destroy half of the park, there is one more point - within walking distance (1 km) from the park there are 7 schools (No. 102, 4, 48, 103, 80, as well as Lyceum No. 50 and Gymnasium No. 75) on all sides except the southeast. Most of these schools are underloaded even with training in 1 shift. The only reason for the overload of Gymnasium No. 75 is the lack of its own school in the Severny Posyolok microdistrict. School No. 46, located at the far end of the microdistrict, is extremely inconvenient (a ravine with a garage area runs along the southern side of the district - this is not a place where children should go without an escort, so they have to get to school along the perimeter of the microdistrict, and not directly) and in this regard, most parents of this microdistrict strive to send their children to Gymnasium No. 75.

When the Severny Posyolok microdistrict was being developed in the 1970s, a private sector block was left in it, where they planned to build a school for this microdistrict in the future. The same place is indicated for the construction of the school in the "General Plan of the Municipal Formation "City of Saratov"", approved by the decision of the Saratov City Duma dated December 27, 2022 ( https://saratovmer.ru/genplan/ ). I learned about this from the residents of the block themselves, many of whom have lived their entire lives waiting for resettlement.

In addition to this location, we selected 5 more locations for building a school, but from the point of view of the local administration, they all have 1 drawback - they need to be bought out (which they have not gotten around to in 3 years), and construction needs to start now.

We were collecting signatures in defense of the park and the real breakdown of opinions of the townspeople is as follows - about 3-10% (this range is due to the place of collection) for the construction of a school in the park, 20% against the development of the park, but refused to sign as if nothing would happen, and the remaining 70% signed. Many residents then joined the initiative group, took forms and began collecting signatures from their neighbors themselves. Some residents did not believe us until the very end that this was even possible and we had to show them reports about it.

The local press and TV (although who watches them now) provide the most one-sided coverage of what is happening, in all the stories the construction of the school is approved by 5-10 people from the parental activists of the 75th gymnasium and the management of local educational institutions. "Pocket parents", teachers, kindergarten workers and other people dependent on the budget are driven to all meetings and gatherings "with the residents of the district", we find out about them at the last moment (these people tell us about this, since they are also in shock from what is happening).

We ask to bring this situation to the federal level, since the local administration, solving its immediate problems, will ruin the life of the entire district and instead of "The School that Volodin Built" for many years will receive "The Park that Volodin Destroyed".

We are not against the school, we are for the park.

Sincerely, Vitaly Bakayev,

Videos on the topic Pros and Cons were published here https://djhooligantk.livejournal.com/2000584.html

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9743180.html

Google Translator

******

Putin’s Senior Aide Patrushev Shared Some Updates About The Arctic & Baltic Fronts
Andrew Korybko
Mar 24, 2025



The Arctic front of the New Cold War is thawing a lot quicker than the Baltic one since the first is where the US could prospectively cooperate with Russia while the second is where the UK could try to provoke a crisis with Russia.

Putin’s senior aide Nikolai Patrushev, who ran the FSB for nearly a decade (1999-2008) before chairing the Security Council for over 15 years till recently (2008-2024), shared some updates about the Baltic and Arctic fronts of the New Cold War in a recent interview with Russia’s National Defense magazine. He began by blaming the Brits for orchestrating Baltic tensions in order to disrupt the incipient Russian-US normalization process and associated talks on Ukraine.

In connection with that, he also warned that some NATO members (presumably led by the British) are practicing cyberattacks against Russian ships’ navigation equipment and suggested that they might have been responsible for recent claims of sabotage in the Baltic, which prompted a larger naval presence. This same expanded presence poses a threat to Russia’s interests and could manifest itself through terrorist attacks against its underwater pipelines, tankers, and dry cargo ships.

Russia plans to defend against this through unmanned underwater systems and strengthening its Baltic Fleet. As for one of the worst-case conventional threats, that of Finland and Estonia teaming up to blockade Russia inside the Gulf of Finland, Patrushev expressed confidence that his country could overcome that plot and punish the aggressors. This segued the conversation into a discussion about Finland, which Patrushev said has a friendly population, unlike its government.

He mentioned how the authorities there distort history to avoid talking about the goal of “Greater Finland”, which took the form of occupying Northwestern Russia, placing its inhabitants into concentration camps, and exterminating the Slavs there. Just like Finland was used by the Nazis as a springboard for aggression against the USSR, so too did Patrushev warn that plans might be afoot for NATO to use it as a springboard potential aggression against Russia.

He then said a few words about how the Arctic is opening up as a new front of competition, mostly due to its resources, but reaffirmed that Russia wants peace and cooperation there instead of rivalry. The Northern Sea Route (NSR), which commemorates its 500th-year conceptualization this year, can help bring that about. Russia will continue developing regional infrastructure and building ice-class vessels for facilitating transit through these waters year-round. It was on that note that the interview ended.

Reviewing Patrushev’s briefing, the first part about blaming the Brits for tensions in the Baltic aligns with what Russia’s Foreign Spy Service (SVR) recently claimed about how the UK is trying to sabotage Trump’s envisaged “New Détente”. It might therefore very well be that they’re attempting to open up this front for that purpose, first through unconventional acts of aggression like “plausibly deniable” terrorist attacks and then possibly escalating to a joint Finnish-Estonian blockade of the Gulf of Finland.

Exposing these plots and expressing confidence in Russia’s ability to overcome them were meant to respectively ensure that the Trump Administration is aware of what the UK is doing and to deter the UK’s regional proxies from going along with this since the US and even the UK might hang them out to dry. Patrushev’s words about Finland were important too in the sense of reminding everyone that governments don’t always reflect the will of the people on the foreign policy front.

At the same time, however, everyone should also be aware of the Finnish government’s historical distortions and the threat that its reckless foreign policy poses to its own people. Wrapping everything up, Patrushev pointed to the Arctic’s importance in Russia’s future planning, and his reaffirmation of its peaceful intentions could be interpreted as a willingness to partner with the US there like their representatives discussed last month in Riyadh. The NSR can also become a vector for cooperation too.

Putting everything together, the Arctic front of the New Cold War is thawing a lot quicker than the Baltic one since the first is where the US could prospectively cooperate with Russia while the second is where the UK could try to provoke a crisis with Russia, but it remains to be seen whether any of this will unfold. Russian-US cooperation in the Arctic is likely conditional on a ceasefire in Ukraine whereas a Russian-NATO conflict in the Baltic orchestrated by the Brits is conditional on them misleading the US about this.

Putin’s interest in a lasting political solution to the Ukrainian Conflict bodes well for the Arctic scenario just like Trump’s criticism of NATO bodes ill for the Baltic one so both ultimately come down to their will. They’re the two most powerful people on the planet so their ties will greatly determine what comes next on those fronts and every other one too. It’s precisely for this reason why the British want to ruin their relations, but after Patrushev just exposed their Baltic plot, that’s a lot less likely to succeed than before.

https://korybko.substack.com/p/putins-s ... hev-shared

[blindpig]

Brian McDonald: You may not have heard of Yevgeny Primakov. But in Moscow’s corridors of power, his ideas are very much alive — and shaping how Russia is engaging the United States right now
March 25, 2025
By Brian McDonald, Twitter, 3/24/25

You may not have heard of Yevgeny Primakov. But in Moscow’s corridors of power, his ideas are very much alive — and shaping how Russia is engaging the United States right now.

As US-Russia talks grind on, one thing is clear: the Kremlin is not looking for a reset. It’s not looking for escalation either. It’s playing for time, leverage, and options. This is classic Primakov doctrine at work: strategic independence and multi-vector diplomacy.

Primakov served as foreign minister and prime minister in the 1990s, under the very pro-American Boris Yeltsin. He wasn’t a romantic about the West. He understood that a unipolar world would always treat Russia as a subordinate. So he proposed a different model: a multipolar order, where Moscow balances power blocs, not joins them.

At the heart of Primakov’s approach: Avoid binary alignments Preserve maximum sovereignty Cultivate ties with multiple great powers Reject ideology in favor of national interest

Sound familiar? It should — it’s back in vogue in Moscow.

Today’s negotiations with Washington reflect this logic. Russia isn’t begging for sanctions relief or threatening a grand bargain. It’s conducting strategic procrastination: waiting out electoral cycles, testing Western unity, and keeping all doors ajar.

At the same time, Moscow is deepening ties with China, hedging with Indiai, and engaging the Global South. But crucially, it avoids formal alliances. No junior partner status. No ideological camps. This is diplomacy in the Primakov mold.

Even BRICS, the SCO, and alternative payment systems trace back to his thinking: global structures that aren’t anti-Western, but post-Western — frameworks that sideline the need for Western approval.

This stands in contrast to older ideas like Surkov’s “Great North” — a failed dream of Russia-West integration. And Gorbachev’s ‘Common European Home.” That world no longer exists. Primakov understood that early.

The current diplomatic posture is not improvisation. It’s strategy. And it means Moscow won’t be pressured into picking sides in a US-China conflict or trading Ukraine for relief. It will maneuver — but only on sovereign terms.

Primakov’s legacy is now embedded in Russia’s foreign policy culture: cautious, multi-directional, sovereign. As the US pushes for deals, it’s confronting a Russia that remembers the 1990s — and refuses to repeat them.

https://natyliesbaldwin.com/2025/03/bri ... tates-rig/

Kommersant’ report on Putin’s remarks about Donets, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhe
March 26, 2025
By Geoffrey Roberts, 3/24/25

Below is a translation of the Kommersant’ report of Putin’s private remarks to Russian businessmen on Russia’s retention of the four incorporated territories of Lugansk, Donets, Kherson and Zaporozhe. This section comes at the end of a very long report by the journalist of the public proceedings of the businessmen’s congress – at which Putin also spoke.

Andrei Kolesnikov

Kommersant’

18 March

https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/7586520

In the closed part of the meeting, some participants told me, Vladimir Putin did not talk to the businessmen about business. He said he was leaving that to the Deputy Chief of the [Presidential] Administration, Maxim Oreshkin, with whom they could resolve all the issues.

Then he talked to the elected congress delegates of about what he had been thinking about preparing for conversation with Donald Trump.

First off, they had to sit through the traditional historical digression. From the beginning there could have been very little bloodshed, said Vladimir Putin. They just needed to hear him, Vladimir Putin, and start talking. First, about recognising Crimea. Then, when it became clear that they did not want to listen, about recognising the autonomy of the Lugansk and Donetsk republics. Finally, about recognising them, as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhe regions, as part of Russia. And the further point at which Russia could be stopped, be pushed back, the less chance there was to reach an agreement. And in the end, it turned out that Russia could no longer be stopped…

“They don’t have time to dig in,” said Vladimir Putin…

Now, according to my interlocutors, the talks at the negotiations are about the fact that what has been achieved cannot be taken away from Russia and that Crimea, Sevastopol and the four known territories should be recognised as part of Russia: the Lugansk and Donetsk republics, the Kherson and Zaporozhe regions.

If this happens in the near future, the meeting participants told me, Russia will not lay claim to Odessa and other territories that currently belong to Ukraine.

But this point may also shift, because “they don’t have time to dig in.”

https://natyliesbaldwin.com/2025/03/kom ... zaporozhe/

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SVR on EU policy towards Russia
March 26, 18:57



SVR on EU policy towards Russia

1. The EU leadership has adopted the propaganda techniques of the Third Reich to intimidate the average European with the Russian "threat"

2. Brussels is tired of its rhetoric about democracy and freedom of speech and has adopted Nazi methods of mass manipulation of consciousness.

3. The EU leadership plans to manually direct the leading media to "correctly present the Russian question"

4. The EU leadership wants to convince Europeans of the "existential danger" emanating from the Russian Federation, which can only be prevented by destroying Russia.

5. EU manuals are aimed at hammering into Europeans the idea that Russia is a "second-rate power that has no right to dictate terms"

P.S. And yet, relatively recently, there were times of maniacal fantasies about "Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok".

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9748146.html

Google Translator

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The Delusion That Russia Can Be Separated From Either China Or Iran

Seemingly a central delusion of current US foreign policy

Roger Boyd
Mar 28, 2025

The Trump administration seems to sincerely believe that it can make a deal on Ukraine that will not meet Russia’s repeatedly stated security needs, and that such a settlement will facilitate Russia’s acquiescence to a Western military attack on Iran and/or somewhat of a distancing of Russia from China. Even writing the above words makes plain the utter delusional state of anyone that believes such nonsense. But it does seem that the US administration is so deluded, a condition pointed to by the US extreme haste and lack of diplomatic professionalism and competence in its negotiations with Russia over Ukraine.

Instead of simply dumping Ukraine and pointing to the Ukraine War as a “Biden problem” that the US needs to extricate itself from, the administration is digging itself deeper and deeper into the conflict in a vain attempt to reach an agreement with Russia that will heavily neutralize it as part of the Russia-Iran-China pole of resistance against the US Empire. Then the administration can get on with its decades-old wish to crush independent Iran, itself a delusional fever dream, to gain both Middle East supremacy and fulfil the desires of the supremacist Zionists.

That Iran is a vast and extremely mountainous nation with its capital far in the mountainous north (vs. the much smaller Iraq with its major cities sitting in the southern plain) with a population of 91 million (vs. Iraq’s 17 million) and extensive indigenous military industrial capabilities (vs. an Iraq destroyed by two decades of war and sanctions) seems to not penetrate the thick skulls of the US administration. Also that unlike in the two wars against Iraq, neighbouring countries such as Saudi Arabia will in no way provide bases from which to attack Iran and that unlike Iraq with its primitive Scuds, Iran has an extensive array of leading edge missiles. None of this seems to matter, even the ability of Iran to utterly destroy the oil and gas output of the region (creating a global economic depression) together with US bases and much of Israel. Neither the predictable colossal shock of the world at such naked US/Western aggression, and the utter destruction of what remains of US soft power and legitimacy; especially among the Muslim nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Stans.

Would Russia and China sit idly by while the US starts to pick of their resistance one nation at a time? Of course not. China with its massive strategic oil reserves, its ability to accelerate even more its move away from imported-oil driven transport, and its close relationship with Russia and the Stans, will weather the storm better than most. Of course, Russia will benefit massively from the huge run up in oil prices. Both will take actions to support Iran and to punish the US, with Russia working to replenish Iran’s military inventories and basic supplies while China is in a position to cripple the US (including its MIC) through the limitation of critical exports. Central Asia and ASEAN, and possibly even India, would also come closer to Russia and China as they distance themselves more from the US.

A US large-scale attack upon Iran may very well turn out to be the equivalent of the Athenian attack upon Sicily, one that sapped its strength and hastened its fall. For Israel it may very well be the equivalent of a “bridge too far” as utter chaos and destruction is wreaked within and its Big Brother protector is shown to be much weaker than advertised.



Russia may actually end up saving the US administration from its own delusions by refusing to accept the terms on offer with respect to the war in Ukraine and continue fighting until Ukraine collapses. A collapse which would free up much of the now battle-hardened Russian military to support Iran.

The alliance between Russia and China is not one that can be undermined by a US and West that has repeatedly displayed its dogged determination to subjugate both rather than deal with them in good faith and on equal terms. Any parallels drawn between Nixon’s 1972 opening to China and the current period are utterly destroyed by the vast differences between that period and the present. All the while, China is removing its dependencies upon Western technological goods and in many areas leaving the West in its technological advancing dust. Without such dependencies, together its its massive strategic oil reserves, access to the vast oil and gas resources of Russia and Central Asia and its ever increasing electric transport footprint, China will be able to easily withstand whatever sanctions and export controls are thrown at it. Even an energy embargo, or attempt to crush China’s economy through exceptionally high oil prices will only boomerang back on the West while greatly strengthening Russia. The shoe is rather on the other foot with China’s ability to cripple the West through selective export restrictions while residing within the EurAsian continent surrounded by allies and neutrals.

Any outright triggering of a war by the US over Taiwan could also easily become another Sicilian Expedition for the US, as its economy (and MIC) become crippled without critical imports, sanctions and attempts at a blockade fail, and the vaunted US navy and armed services suffer a humiliating defeat. The only real risk to China would be that the US administration would react with a nuclear murder suicide.

https://rogerboyd.substack.com/p/the-de ... -separated

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Major policy statements by Putin in Murmansk on 27 March that Western media have ignored

Yesterday evening’s Russian news programs carried a great deal of information that is highly relevant to our understanding of how the Kremlin now views the prospects for Donald Trump’s peace initiative succeeding and on how the war may play out should the ongoing cease-fire talks fail. Yet none of this has been picked up by major Western media to date. We may assume that the usual explanation for such silence applies in this case: Western governments do not yet know what to make of it and how to react, so the media are waiting for a signal from above on the proper spin for their eventual coverage.

Let us now take the plunge, summarize what Putin said, look at what other news of the day provides as context for his remarks, and synthesize all of this to come to some conclusions.

First, I offer the links to the presidential website entry on Putin’s visit to the nuclear submarine Arkhangelsk near Murmansk on 27 March which includes his statements about the present situation in the Ukrainian army that bear upon the recommendation he makes for how the war may end.

Putin ‘s visit to the Arkhangelsk came on day two of his visit to Russia’s major naval base in Murmansk where on day one he spoke to a gathering dedicated to the Russian activities in the Arctic and emphasized his government’s commitment to restoring Russia’s operating bases in the Far North and to making living conditions, wages and other considerations very attractive for would-be Russian settlers. The objective is to properly exploit the defense, logistics and natural resources possibilities of the region under conditions of close competition with the USA and other major global powers for control of the Arctic.

Putin’s visit to the submarine Archangelsk on day two followed successful completion of its sea trials and imminent entry into active service. His chat with staff inside has the appearance of being off the cuff, in answer to a question posed by a serviceman on the submarine. But clearly what he said was well prepared in advance: it was programmatic and was directed over the heads of those on board the ship to leaders in Washington, New York (UN), London, Paris and Brussels. Whether the remarks were properly received and considered in the West is another matter.

English version: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/76557

Russian version http://www.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/76557

*****

Putin told the crew on the Arkhangelsk that Russia has the strategic initiative along the entire line of confrontation in the Donbas and Kursk and is proceeding with liberating its territory. In Lugansk oblast, 98% of the territory is now in Russian hands. In Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhie, more than 70% of the land is now controlled by the Russians.

At the same time, he noted changes in the enemy forces that bear upon the further conduct of the war and on its outcome. Specifically, the neo-Nazi Azov battalion that from the first days after the coup d’etat of 2014 was a major force determining government policy in an extreme nationalist direction, notwithstanding their integration into the regular armed forces of Ukraine have kept their Nazi ideology and behavior intact and now appear to be taking control of the army. Azov units played a big role in the invasion and occupation of the Kursk oblast, where they committed atrocities against the civilian population and left their swastikas on facades of buildings, as Russian television has shown.

These observations by Putin must be put together with news separately reported by the Ministry of Defense that the Ukrainians have been violating the terms of the partial cease-fire dating from 18 March and have been attacking Russian energy infrastructure each day, causing severe damage to some important gas and oil installations. This suggests that Zelensky has lost control over his own armed forces. Accordingly, the Russian Ministry has announced that it reserves the right to suspend the cease-fire at any time and to respond in kind by renewing attacks on the energy facilities of Ukraine.

All of the foregoing must be taken into consideration when we look at the single most important part of what Vladimir Putin said on board the submarine Arkhangelsk on the 27th.

He returned to the issue which Russia raised some months ago when responding to candidate Trump’s proposal to broker a cease-fire in the first days after taking office, namely Russian objections that Ukraine does not have a legitimate president with whom a lasting agreement can be negotiated. Putin now added that since all Ukrainian officials are appointed by their president, there is no legitimate government in Ukraine at any level.

For this reason, he now proposed that Ukraine must be put under temporary management from outside, and he called for this to be undertaken by the United Nations. In that case, the USA, Europe, Russia, China and other members of the Security Council would be jointly responsible for that temporary external control, whose job it would be to supervise free and fair elections and install a new government corresponding to the wishes of the Ukrainian people. That government would then enter into negotiations for a treaty that will end the war.

Without saying it directly, Putin was indicating Russia’s next scenario should the ongoing U.S.-brokered cease-fire and peace fail.

That his proposal would not meet with approval by other interested parties was surely taken for granted. Indeed, no sooner did Putin make his proposal than UN Secretary General Antonio Gutterez declared that Ukraine does have a legitimate government. We may assume that the EU will say the same shortly.

No matter. Putin intended his proposal to be a scenario that would be activated after the present talks fail, after the Russians finally smash the Ukrainian armed forces and force a capitulation. This could happen after the Russian army pushes back the Ukrainians to the Dnepr River. Given that Russia has no interest in taking all of Ukraine, it would then call for the outside collective management of the rump Ukrainian state until a proper government could be elected for conclusion of a peace treaty.

*****

Apart from Putin’s remarks on board the Arkhangelsk, which is a general-purpose ship with a variety of missiles on board, he also officiated remotely at the commissioning of another new nuclear submarine, the Perm, which is the first of its kind carrying primarily Zirkon nuclear armed hypersonic cruise missiles with 1,000 km range. In a separate statement about the Perm, he said that it was capable of leveling London to the ground. This was a delayed response to recent statements coming from British defense officials that their four Trident submarines could destroy 40 Russian cities, a notion which Russian military experts have trashed in state television broadcasts.

It is also worth noting, that while in Murmansk, Putin spoke about the sharp increase in naval shipbuilding now going on in Russia, much of it in the shipyards of St Petersburg. He was accompanied to Murmansk and seconded in his explanations of the new navy vessels now under construction by Andrei Kostin, CEO of the VTB (former USSR Foreign Trade Bank), who has been put in charge of the shipbuilding industry as well. Note that Kostin, like his bank, is now highly visible in Russia. VTB commercials fill the airwaves during television intermissions, largely replacing the ad space previously taken by the country’s largest savings bank, Sber.

Kostin is a strong Putin supporter and a hard-line patriot. He has now taken the place in public life formerly held by Sber chairman German Gref, who was one of the last prominent Liberals in the Putin entourage.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025

https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/03/29/ ... e-ignored/

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Some Media Still Claim A Putin-Trump Alliance Even As There Is None

President Putin of Russia recently gave a speech to the 6th International Arctic Forum. It was a big picture talk touching many issues. Putin also mentioned U.S. attempts to acquire, by whatever means, Greenland.

It is not astonishing that several 'western' media picked up on this. But what is astonishing is how the headlines divert from each other. It is like two different speeches were held, listened to and reported on.

On one side there are claims that Putin is somewhat endorsing or supporting Donald Trump's attempts to steal Greenland from Denmark:

Putin’s endorsement of Trump’s Greenland takeover reflects their vision of a new world order - The Guardian, Mar 28 2025
Why is Vladimir Putin Encouraging Donald Trump’s Greenland Ambitions? - National Interest, Mar 28 2025
As Vance heads for Greenland, Trump's land-grab hopes get Putin thumbs-up - NBCnews, Mar 28 2025

Other outlets present a very different view:

Putin threatens Trump’s plan to take Greenland - Metro, Mar 28 2025
Putin sends US chilly warning on Greenland push - New Daily, Mar 28 2025
Putin warns of Arctic war if US takes Greenland as Britain and France to send 'reassurance force' to Ukraine - LBC, Mar 28 2025

Reading Putin's speech I find little in support of the claims the first group of headlines are making.

There is no endorsement stealing Greenland in it - none. Just a minder that this is not the first time a U.S. president tries to get Greenland. This while warning of potential reactions:

Meanwhile, the role and importance of the Arctic for Russia and for the entire world are obviously growing. Regrettably, the geopolitical competition and fighting for positions in this region are also escalating.
Suffice it to say about the plans of the United States to annex Greenland, as everyone is aware. But you know, it can surprise someone only at first glance. It is a profound mistake to treat it as some preposterous talk by the new US administration. Nothing of the sort.

In fact, the United States had such plans as far back as 1860s. As early as that, the US administration was considering possible annexation of Greenland and Iceland
...
In short, the United States has serious plans regarding Greenland. These plans have long historical roots, as I have just mentioned, and it is obvious that the United States will continue to consistently advance its geo-strategic, military-political and economic interests in the Arctic.

Russia, Putin says, will have to react to this:

As to Greenland, this is an issue that concerns two specific nations and has nothing to do with us. But at the same time, of course, we are concerned about the fact that NATO countries are increasingly often designating the Far North as a springboard for possible conflicts and are practicing the use of troops in these conditions, including by their “new recruits” – Finland and Sweden, with whom, incidentally, until recently we had no problems at all. They are creating problems with their own hands for some reason. Why? It is impossible to understand. But nevertheless, we will proceed from current realities and will respond to all this.

I must emphasise: Russia has never threatened anyone in the Arctic. However, we are closely monitoring developments in the region, formulating an appropriate response strategy, enhancing the combat capabilities of the Armed Forces, and modernising military infrastructure facilities.

There is nothing in Putin's speech that would support the Guardian, NBCnews or National Interest take. It seems their authors are still laboring under a Russiagate Derangement Syndrome. They are seeing - just like during Trump's first presidency - every U.S. action, not matter how bad, as being in Russia's favor. Russian warnings are portrayed as endorsements of open U.S. hostility.

When will they learn that the gig is up?

Posted by b on March 29, 2025 at 15:30 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/03/s ... .html#more

[blindpig]

Craig Murray: Putin Is No Hitler
March 29, 2025
By Craig Murray, Consortium News, 3/14/25

There is a logical fallacy that dominates European neoliberal “thinking” at the moment. It goes like this:

“Hitler had unlimited territorial ambition and proceeded to attempt conquest of all Europe after annexing the Sudetenland. Therefore Putin has unlimited territorial ambition and will proceed to attempt conquest of all Europe after annexing Eastern Ukraine.”

This fallacious argument gives no evidence of President Vladimir Putin’s further territorial ambition. For evidence of Putin’s threat to the U.K., Prime Minister Keir Starmer risibly refers to the Salisbury “novichok” affair, perhaps the most pathetic propaganda confection in history.

But even if you were to be so complacent as to accept the official version of events in Salisbury, does an assassination attempt on a double agent credibly indicate a desire by Putin to launch World War 3 or invade the U.K.?

Hitler’s territorial ambitions were not hidden. His desire for lebensraum and, crucially, his view that the Germans were a superior race who should rule over the inferior races, was plain in print and in speeches.

There is simply no such evidence for wide territorial ambition by Putin. He is not pursuing a crazed Nazi ideology that drives to conquest — or for that matter a Marxist ideology that seeks to overthrow the established order around the world.

The economic alignment project of BRICS is not designed to promote an entirely different economic system, just to rebalance power and flows within the system, or at most to create a parallel system not skewed to the advantage of the United States.

Neither the end of capitalism nor territorial expansion is part of the BRICS project.

There is simply no evidence of Putin having territorial goals beyond Ukraine and the tiny enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It is perfectly fair to characterise Putin’s territorial expansion over two decades as limited to the reincorporation of threatened Russian-speaking minority districts in ex-Soviet states.

That it is worth a world war and unlimited dead over who should be mayor of the ethnic Russian and Russian-speaking city of Lugansk is not entirely plain to me.



Secessionists barricade in Luhansk in June 2014. (Qypchak / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

The notion that Putin is about to attack Poland or Finland is utter nonsense. The idea that the Russian army, which has struggled to subdue small and corrupt, if Western-backed, Ukraine, has the ability to attack Western Europe itself is plainly impractical.

The internal human rights record of Putin’s Russia is poor, but at this point it is marginally better than that of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Ukraine. For example the opposition parties in Russia are at least allowed to contest elections, albeit on a heavily sloped playing field, whereas in Ukraine they are banned outright.

Still less convincing are the arguments that Russia’s overseas political activities in third countries require massive Western increases in armaments to prepare for war with Russia.

Western Meddling & Destruction


EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Jan. 22 in European Parliament addressing Ukraine, EU-U.S. relations and the EU’s global role. (European Parliament, Flickr, CC-BY-4.0)

The plain truth is that the Western powers interfere far more in other countries than Russia does, through massive sponsorship of NGOs, journalists and politicians, much of which is open and some of which is covert.

I used to do this myself as a British diplomat. Revelations from USAID or the Integrity Initiative leaks give the public a glimpse into this world.

Yes, Russia does it too, but on a much smaller scale. That this kind of Russian activity indicates a desire for conquest or is a cause for war, is such a shallow argument it is hard to believe in the good faith of those promoting it.

I have also seen Russian military intervention in Syria put forward as evidence that Putin has plans of world conquest.

Russian intervention in Syria prevented for a time its destruction by the West in the same way that Iraq and Libya were destroyed by the West. Russia held back the coming to power of crazed Islamist terrorists, and the massacre of Syria’s minority communities. Those horrors are now unfolding, in part because of the weakening of Russia through the Ukraine war.

For those nations that destroyed Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya to argue that Russia’s intervention in Syria shows Putin to be evil, is dishonesty of the highest degree. The United States has had a quarter of Syria under military occupation for over a decade and has been stealing almost all of Syria’s oil.

Pointing at Russia here is devoid of reason.

Strangely, the same “logic” is not applied to Benjamin Netanyahu. It is not argued by neoliberals [neocons] that his annexations of Gaza, the West Bank and Southern Lebanon mean he must have further territorial ambitions. In fact, they even fail to note Netanyahu’s aggressions at all, or portray them as “defensive” — the same argument advanced much more credibly by Putin in Ukraine, but which neoliberals [neocons] there outright reject.

A Transformed EU

The economies of Western Europe are being realigned onto a war footing, led by the utterly transformed European Union. The enthusiastic proponents of genocide in Gaza, who head the EU, are now channelling an atavistic hereditary hatred of Russia.

The foreign policy of the EU is propelled by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen [Germany] and Vice President Kaja Kallas (Estonia). The fanatical Russophobia these two are spreading, and their undisguised desire to escalate the war in Ukraine, cannot help but remind Russians that they come from nations which were fanatically Nazi.

To Russians this feels a lot like 1941. With Europe in the grip of full-on anti-Russian propaganda, the background to Trump’s attempt to broker a peace deal is troubled and Russia is understandably wary.

The U.K. continues to play the most unhelpful of roles. They have despatched Morgan Stanley’s Jonathan Powell to advise Zelensky on peace talks. As former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s chief of staff, Powell played a crucial role in the illegal invasion of Iraq.

Wherever there is war and money to be made from war, you will find the same ghouls gathering. Those involved in launching the invasion of Iraq should be excluded from public life. Instead Powell is now the U.K.’s national security adviser.

I am not a follower of Putin. The amount of force used to crush Chechnya’s legitimate desire for self-determination was disproportionate, for example. It is naive to believe that you get to be leader of the KGB [sic] by being a gentle person.

But Putin is not Hitler. It is only through the blinkers of patriotism that Putin appears to be a worse person than the Western leaders behind massive invasion and death all around the globe, who now seek to extend war with Russia.

Here in the U.K., the Starmer government is seeking actively to prolong the war, and is looking for a huge increase in spending on weapons, which always brings kickbacks and future company directorships and consultancies for politicians.

To fund this warmongering, New Labour are cutting spending on the U.K.’s sick, disabled and pensioners and cutting aid to the starving overseas.

Labour Friends of Israel has published a picture of Starmer meeting with Israeli President Herzog, six months after the International Court of Justice’s interim ruling quoted a statement by Herzog as evidence of genocidal intent.

The Starmer government was voted for by 31 percent of those who bothered to cast a vote, or 17 percent of the adult population. It is engaged in wholesale legal persecution of leading British supporters of Palestine, and is actively complicit in the genocide in Gaza.

I see no moral superiority here.

https://natyliesbaldwin.com/2025/03/cra ... no-hitler/

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Sometimes mainstream media tell the truth…

About nine months ago, I alerted readers of these pages to a feature length article in The Financial Times which described the generalized prosperity in Russia since the start of the Special Military Operation and transition to a war economy. That article quoted extensively from Rosstat and other Russian official sources. It highlighted the fact that truck drivers were now earning four times what they made before the war and how Russia’s lower classes did especially well under conditions of full employment that even penetrated to the one-factory towns that languished as from the Yeltsin years of the mid-1990s when that factory shut its doors. Considering that over-all the FT is notoriously anti-Putin, anti-Russian that one article was something to celebrate.

Now in today’s online edition of the FT we find another feature article entitled ‘Russia’s war economy fuels rustbelt revival” that is more focused geographically in long deprived regions and focused topically on the consumer sector of goods and services.

See https://www.ft.com/content/559ca59f-7fd ... b562acdc7b

Given that many of you may not have subscriptions to the FT and cannot access the article, I will provide here some indicative information that it carries.

The opening couple of paragraphs set our expectations:

Russian retailers are rushing to set up shop in the country’s rustbelt, tapping into new wealth flowing from soldiers’ bonuses and rampant military production.

Shops, restaurants and gym chains have opened up in Russia’s most deprived regions, which serve as recruiting pools for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The country’s war economy has also created jobs, increased salaries for factory workers and injected unprecedented sums of money into historically poor towns and cities.

The regions used for this study include Kirov oblast, Tyumen oblast, Penza oblast, Kabardino-Balkarian, Irkutsk oblast, Khabarovsk krai, and Khanty-Mansia. The geography stretches from Central Russia out to the Far East.

The reporter actually did some independent research, as we see in the following:

The number of retail and hospitality jobs advertised in the southeastern Khabarovsk region almost doubled in the year to January 2025, according to Financial Times analysis of vacancies posted by a sample of Russian businesses.

The FT also relied on official Russian statistics (Rosstat), as for example, the chart on nationwide unemployment from 2017 to 2025.

The remarks about how army enlistment has affected family budgets is precise to a given sample region, Mari El, which offers $35,600 as the starting bonus for army recruits. That sum is three times the annual salary in the region. To be sure, the sign-up bonus varies from region to region. Then there is the pay-out in case of death while on active duty. That comes to 12 million rubles, or $140,000.

Yes, there is heightened inflation ever since the SMO began, jumping from perhaps 4% to the near 10% per annum now.

On the one hand, the journalist tells us that “wage increases are being undermined by high inflation.” On the other hand, we read that “Nominal incomes in the traditionally disadvantaged republic [Mari El] have grown by almost 80 per cent from December 2021 to 2024 compared to a roughly 60 per cent increase in Moscow, according to Rosstat…” You can buy a lot of prime steaks when your salary goes up by 80% and food only goes up by 10%.

What are the signs of prosperity that the article points to? They are the opening of beauty salons, the trend for all women to go to manicurists, the entry of national chain supermarkets and fast-food outlets, the long waiting times to reserve a table at quality restaurants, the opening of a private dog grooming service in one town. In short, the generalizations are based on examination of how people are living their daily lives.

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Note that Max Seddon and the other Russia-bashing FT reporters based in their Riga, Latvia offices had no role in preparing this article. Riga was an anti-Russia center when George Kennan did his language studies there prior to entering the U.S. diplomatic service and it remains precisely that today.

The lead author of this article, Daria Mosolova, is a relatively recent hire. Her LinkedIn entry tells us that she got her bachelor’s degree in comparative literature (French) at University College London and then took an advanced degree in international relations at the London School of Economics. While at LCU, she was for one year editor in chief of Pi Media, which is their student journalism society.

Mosolova joined the FT in 2022 as a trainee and is in rotating 6-month assignments to various FT desks. She served one term in Brussels and now is based in London, assisting with Russia coverage in the area of economics and business. It will be interesting to see how long Mosolova remains at the FT. But she likely has a promising career ahead of her if the editors have tolerated her dollop of truth amidst their general Russia-bashing.

https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/03/30/ ... the-truth/

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Some Media Still Claim A Putin-Trump Alliance Even As There Is None

President Putin of Russia recently gave a speech to the 6th International Arctic Forum. It was a big picture talk touching many issues. Putin also mentioned U.S. attempts to acquire, by whatever means, Greenland.

It is not astonishing that several 'western' media picked up on this. But what is astonishing is how the headlines divert from each other. It is like two different speeches were held, listened to and reported on.

On one side there are claims that Putin is somewhat endorsing or supporting Donald Trump's attempts to steal Greenland from Denmark:

Putin’s endorsement of Trump’s Greenland takeover reflects their vision of a new world order - The Guardian, Mar 28 2025
Why is Vladimir Putin Encouraging Donald Trump’s Greenland Ambitions? - National Interest, Mar 28 2025
As Vance heads for Greenland, Trump's land-grab hopes get Putin thumbs-up - NBCnews, Mar 28 2025

Other outlets present a very different view:

Putin threatens Trump’s plan to take Greenland - Metro, Mar 28 2025
Putin sends US chilly warning on Greenland push - New Daily, Mar 28 2025
Putin warns of Arctic war if US takes Greenland as Britain and France to send 'reassurance force' to Ukraine - LBC, Mar 28 2025

Reading Putin's speech I find little in support of the claims the first group of headlines are making.

There is no endorsement stealing Greenland in it - none. Just a minder that this is not the first time a U.S. president tries to get Greenland. This while warning of potential reactions:

Meanwhile, the role and importance of the Arctic for Russia and for the entire world are obviously growing. Regrettably, the geopolitical competition and fighting for positions in this region are also escalating.
Suffice it to say about the plans of the United States to annex Greenland, as everyone is aware. But you know, it can surprise someone only at first glance. It is a profound mistake to treat it as some preposterous talk by the new US administration. Nothing of the sort.

In fact, the United States had such plans as far back as 1860s. As early as that, the US administration was considering possible annexation of Greenland and Iceland
...
In short, the United States has serious plans regarding Greenland. These plans have long historical roots, as I have just mentioned, and it is obvious that the United States will continue to consistently advance its geo-strategic, military-political and economic interests in the Arctic.

Russia, Putin says, will have to react to this:

As to Greenland, this is an issue that concerns two specific nations and has nothing to do with us. But at the same time, of course, we are concerned about the fact that NATO countries are increasingly often designating the Far North as a springboard for possible conflicts and are practicing the use of troops in these conditions, including by their “new recruits” – Finland and Sweden, with whom, incidentally, until recently we had no problems at all. They are creating problems with their own hands for some reason. Why? It is impossible to understand. But nevertheless, we will proceed from current realities and will respond to all this.

I must emphasise: Russia has never threatened anyone in the Arctic. However, we are closely monitoring developments in the region, formulating an appropriate response strategy, enhancing the combat capabilities of the Armed Forces, and modernising military infrastructure facilities.

There is nothing in Putin's speech that would support the Guardian, NBCnews or National Interest take. It seems their authors are still laboring under a Russiagate Derangement Syndrome. They are seeing - just like during Trump's first presidency - every U.S. action, not matter how bad, as being in Russia's favor. Russian warnings are portrait as endorsements of open U.S. hostility.

When will they learn that the gig is up?

Posted by b on March 29, 2025 at 15:30 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/03/s ... .html#more

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The validity and memory of the Great Patriotic War on its 80th anniversary

Ernesto Cazal

March 28, 2025 , 5:25 pm .


Russian service members take part in a Victory Day military parade in Moscow's Red Square on May 9, 2022. (Photo: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Right to the future
When Field Marshals Wilhelm Keitel, German commander of the Wehrmacht High Command, and Georgy Zhukov, one of the Soviet Union's finest Russian military strategists, signed the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany in Berlin on May 9, 1945, the Great Patriotic War had lasted 1,418 days and nights. The Second World War was entering its sixth year, with the European chapter, undoubtedly the bloodiest, coming to an end.

The Nazi invasion of Soviet territory began on June 22, 1941, and from then until the final liberation of the socialist republics and Eastern Europe and the final victory in the Reich capital, the history of this war was marked by unprecedented tragedy and heroism on the so-called Eastern Front.

Soviet casualties, the majority of whom were civilians, reached 27 million, the highest death toll of the entire Second World War—the Red Army lost more than 8 million soldiers and officers. Accounts of genocide and resistance in books and films reveal the sacrifices endured by a diverse but unified people who decided to build an epic tale of resilience and military strategy on the ruins that fascism scattered across the Eurasian continent.

"Fascism sought to subject human existence to rules as monotonous, heartless, and absurdly cruel as those that govern the stratification of sediments on the seabed, the erosion of mountain ranges, and temperature changes. It sought to subjugate reason, soul, work, will, and the actions of man by turning him into a mineral and instilling in him the unhappy and cruel docility of a slave, like that of a brick that falls from a roof and falls on a child's head."

The above is an excerpt from Stalingrad —previously titled For a Just Cause —the novel by writer and journalist Vasili Grossman that preceded the monumental Life and Fate , which together portray the fictional experience of the front line, but based entirely on the stories he collected and reported as a war correspondent on the ground .

These demands were resisted with fortitude and courage by the civilians who formed part of the militias, in one profession or another, whether in the production of goods and services or as armed militants, alongside the Red Army, first in defense of towns and cities besieged by the Nazi onslaught, and then in the breaking of enemy lines on the road to their own liberation and that of other European peoples.

But the horrors of the Blitzkrieg preceded and germinated the subsequent epic: in one of, if not the best anti-war film, Come and See from 1985, directed by the Belarusian Elem Klimov, we are active spectators of how the eyes and the entire face of its child protagonists, Flyora and Glasha, involved in the partisan front, change from innocence and childlike tenderness to crudeness and gloom as they become eyewitnesses, and almost victims, of the genocide that the Wehrmacht carried out village by village.

At the end of the film, Flyora is filled with vigor and determination to carry out the feat, along with millions of her compatriots, of liberation and the right to a future. The experience of extreme violence, fear, and pain incubated the determination that would lead the partisans and the Red Army to destroy the Nazi machine.

The high-ranking leaders of the Third Reich, who sought to replicate the successes of the Blitzkrieg in Western Europe, realized within days of the invasion that their judgment, which underestimated the quality of Soviet strategists and troops, was flawed. Joseph Goebbels's diaries are full of confessions about the poor state of Hitler's strategy in the face of the stubborn reality of his existential enemy; as early as July 2, he wrote: "Overall, the fighting is going on very hard and stubbornly. In no way can it be called a walk in the park. The Red regime has mobilized the people."

The Great Patriotic War gave a unique sense of nationhood to the Soviet Union, devastated on its western flank during the first steps of Operation Barbarossa, interrupted after a few months by the popular will to exist, to give life a sacred character against the mechanized death of fascism, as the hymn of the poet Vasily Lebedev-Kumach ("The Sacred War") said and was sung among trenches, rationing and blood: "Let the noblest fury boil like a wave, / This is the war of the people, a sacred war..."

With the mobilization of the entire population, Stalin's political and military leadership and the high command developed a strategy, adapted to the different phases of the war, that elevated arms production, military logistics, and the political and economic dimension to an unprecedented level, given the geographic and demographic size of the nation and the events that made it possible to give a national and patriotic character to this scene of death and destruction.

Milestones
The course of the Great Patriotic War can be divided into key stages leading to the historic victory of May 9, 1945. The Blitzkrieg was defeated beneath the walls of Moscow in January 1942, paving the way for a series of events that would mark the fate of the German-fascist decline.

In his dispatches, collected in the volume War Years , Grossman recounted the sorrows, heroic deeds, and reflections of the Soviet people on the line of contact with the enemy, and was an eyewitness to the Battle of Stalingrad, now Volgograd, which lasted from July 17, 1942, to February 2, 1943, a turning point in the Second World War, a fact that was known at the very moment of victory, as analyzed by the Jewish-Ukrainian journalist in the pages of Red Star , the newspaper of the Red Army:

"By chance, or perhaps it was the will of fate, the new 6th Army clashed with Chuikov's Stalingrad Army. Then, in the autumn of 1942, on the Volga, the 6th Army attacked furiously and rammed our deadly defenses. Here, on the Dnieper, the roles were reversed: it was the Red Army that was on the offensive, and Hollit's 6th Army that was defending. There, at Stalingrad, in the critical period of the Great Patriotic War, the huge masses of Paulus's armored troops, supported by the squadron of the skilled air pirate Richthofen, rammed the great Volga defense line for one hundred days and one hundred nights. There, on that line, the world witnessed the catastrophe that had befallen the strategy of the German high command. The German offensive crashed against the steadfastness of the Russian infantry, against the wise and lacerating force of the Soviet artillery. There, while they were suffering cruel and Under the harshest adversity of enemy fire, face to face with a greedy and terrible death, the soldier, officer, and general of the Red Army rose to their gigantic stature, displaying all their strength, patience, talent, and wealth of soul, their clear and iron will. Along with the corpses of the German dead, the grenadier and assault divisions struck from the lists of personnel, along with the Stuka tanks and dive planes, the doctrine of fascism's world hegemony and the doctrine of the offensive strategy of the German fascist troops were also eliminated, smashed, and burned. After Stalingrad, Hitlerism began to talk about defense; after Stalingrad, fascism began to vociferate about the "Eastern Wall," about the "Dnieper Wall," about the "Leningrad-Odessa Line," about the preservation of the occupied lands and the wealth acquired through plunder. Before Stalingrad, the fascists talked about something else: domination over the entire world. And behold, the divisions of the Red Army, which in the autumn of 1942 had defended Stalingrad, were preparing in January 1944 to deal the decisive blow to the German 6th Army, which had gone over to the defensive at the Nikopol parade ground on the lower reaches of the Dnieper.

Indeed, the enemy's defeat at the Kursk Arc and the Dnieper radically changed the entire course of World War II, leading to the final expulsion of the invaders from the territory of the Soviet Union.

After which the main international milestones of the Great Patriotic War began to occur, demonstrating that the Third Reich and its need for Lebensraum —a racist-geoeconomic conception of German imperialist expansionism—were disintegrating as the liberation of Austria, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia progressed.

The necessary march on Berlin paved the way for the end of 12 years of Hitlerism and a fascist coalition in Europe, heralded by the red banner of the 150th Order of Kutuzov, Second Class, Idritsa Rifle Division, iconically raised over the Reichstag in the German capital.


The Victory Banner over the Reichstag (Photo: Yevgeny Khaldei)

The victory against the Kwangtung Army of the Japanese Empire in Manchuria (China) in August 1945 marked the definitive end of the Great Patriotic War, closing a cycle of enslavement and terror inaugurated by European fascism and which spread to the Asian continent and, subsequently, to other latitudes with different faces and discourses.

We can witness the aftermath to this day.

A Second Great War
The all-out war that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has waged against the Russian Federation for the past decade, with the 2014 Euromaidan as the turning point in the offensive, takes up the motifs of the Great Patriotic War and brings it to the present.

The Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine and Donbas has been the response, since 2022, to the "attempt to revive ideologies based on hatred and the supremacy of some peoples over others and the justification of violence", resurrecting the "ideas that led humanity to the worst tragedies of the 20th century", as the Russian ambassador to Venezuela, Sergei Melik-Bagdasarov, pointed out in an exclusive interview with Misión Verdad .

The responsibility toward the future that Grossman pointed out, the ambassador recalls, is the main reason why this Second World War "continues to defend historical truth and undo any attempt at ideologies based on hatred and intolerance."

Faced with threats from NATO and global fascism targeting Russia, the three years of war, which have evoked significant reminiscences of the feat accomplished 80 years ago, are constituting a significant milestone at all levels of geopolitics and geoeconomics. All the countries that formed part of the Soviet Union, and that were liberated by it from Nazism, are establishing or changing positions on the international political and economic landscape, depending on the results of the conflict.

The United States, in its imperial decline and since Donald Trump's return to the White House, appears to be changing its behavior toward Russia, although doubts remain about its transparency on the matter, especially given the consistent record of treaty non-compliance by Washington and its acolytes. The Minsk Protocols are as fresh in memory as the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact is in the historical imagination.

The historical analogies between the NATO-Russia conflict and the Great Patriotic War are striking, considering that both conflicts saw paradigms in international relations shift, as well as the socioeconomic dynamics of each country and region. Revolutions in military affairs developed, and cultural "cancellations" occurred—far-right fascism in the 20th century and liberal fascism in the 21st century—among other features such as the Battles of Kursk, which in 1943, 2024, and 2025 represented a final offensive attempt by the fascist side on Soviet and Russian territory, respectively.

The current military siege on Russia brings to mind countless similarities between one war and the other, so far apart in time, that they stand out due to the contemporaneity of the existential background of both exploits. President Vladimir Putin's government currently has the political-military balance in its favor, on the verge of victory against kyiv, and the blindness and narcissism of NATO, on the verge of implosion, in addition to the OME and Trump's own vacillations in the face of defeat.

This 80th anniversary, which commemorates the heroism and sacrifice of millions of people who fought against fascism and defended the freedom and sovereignty of their homeland, heralds the relevance of history in all its splendor: memory is the presence, renewed today, of the 1945 victory as a symbol of unity, fortitude, and patriotism.

Honorably preserving the memory of the veterans and victims of the Great War, educating new generations about the horrors of war and the value of peace, and reaffirming the commitment to combat fascism and historical revisionism, while avoiding minimizing the Soviet role in the Allied victory, all serve to promote national cohesion in a Russia under attack and insult from all sides.

But this legacy is also valid for the entire Global South, convincing us that fascism can be defeated if it is fought with unified strategies, even on several fronts, in order to build models of society that forget the past of oppression and choice, whatever its color, toward a present and a near future of comprehensive sovereignty and peace.

https://misionverdad.com/memoria/vigenc ... niversario

Google Translator

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Intellinews: Putin’s approval rating at 80%, trust remains high
March 30, 2025
Intellinews, 3/14/25

Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to enjoy the trust of 83% of the Russian populace, according to a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), conducted between March 7 and 9, TASS reported on March 14.

The trust rating was up 2% increase from the previous survey. Similarly, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) reported that 79.3% of participants affirmed their trust in the president, reflecting a 0.6% uptick.

In terms of job performance, 83% of those surveyed by FOM approved of Putin’s actions, while VCIOM’s data showed a 77.2% approval rating, a 0.5% rise.

The Russian government’s management of the country received a 57% approval rating in the FOM poll, with 59% endorsing Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s performance. VTsIOM findings were slightly lower, with 52.4% approving of the government’s handling of affairs and 53.1% supporting the prime minister’s efforts.​

Support for political parties also showed notable improvements. FOM’s research indicated that backing for the ruling United Russia party increased by 2%, reaching 46%. Conversely, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) experienced a 2% decline, settling at 7%, while the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) saw a 1% decrease to 8%. The A Just Russia-For Truth party maintained steady support at 3%, and the New People party observed a 1% rise to 3%.

VTsIOM’s data presented a slightly different picture: support for United Russia stood at 34.9%, a 0.4% decrease; the KPRF’s backing increased by 0.4% to 10.4%; the LDPR experienced a 0.7% decline to 10.5%; A Just

Russia-For Truth saw a 0.4% increase to 4.4%; and the New People party’s support remained constant at 6.6%.

https://natyliesbaldwin.com/2025/03/int ... ains-high/

Key points from Putin’s speech on placing Ukraine under UN control | Trump Angry Over Putin’s Comments
March 31, 2025
RT, 3/28/25

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed placing Ukraine under a temporary international administration as one possible way of resolving the ongoing conflict. The idea, he said, draws on international precedent and would aim to restore legitimate governance before any peace deal could be finalized.

During his meeting with Russian nuclear submarine officers on Thursday, President Putin described a possible international mechanism for stabilizing Ukraine – placing it under temporary external administration coordinated by the United Nations.

Here are the key takeaways from Putin’s proposal:

Problem: Collapse of legitimacy in Kiev

Putin argued that Ukraine’s constitutional legitimacy has broken down due to the expiration of Vladimir Zelensky’s presidential term last year and the lack of elections since – rendering all of his government’s claims to authority invalid.

“Presidential elections weren’t held… under the constitution, all officials are appointed by the president. If he himself is illegitimate, then so is everyone else.”

Consequence: Power vacuum filled by radicals

Putin has warned that groups with neo-Nazi views, such as the notorious Azov battalion – which receive Western weapons and actively recruit followers – could increasingly exert de facto control in Ukraine, potentially replacing formal civilian authorities.

“Amid the de facto illegitimacy… Neo-Nazi formations are receiving more weapons,” and could take “the actual power in their hands.”

Putin argued that this makes negotiating with Ukraine’s current government even more unreliable and unstable: “It’s unclear who you’re even signing any documents with – tomorrow new people could come and say, ‘We don’t know who signed this – goodbye.’”

Suggestion: UN-led temporary external administration

Putin proposed the use of a UN-led transitional authority, referencing prior international missions such as in East Timor, Papua New Guinea, and parts of former Yugoslavia.


“In such cases, international practice often follows a known path – under UN peacekeeping, through what is called external governance, a temporary administration.”

Purpose: Restoring constitutional order and setting a legal framework for stable peace

The main goal, according to Putin, would be to organize democratic elections and install a functioning, legitimate government trusted by citizens and recognized globally. He stated that only such leaders could sign peace agreements that would be recognized worldwide and upheld over time.

“Why do this? In order to hold democratic elections, in order to bring to power a government that is capable and enjoys the trust of the people, and then begin negotiations with them on a peace treaty, sign legitimate documents that will be recognized worldwide and will be reliable and stable.”

Not the only option – but a viable one

Putin emphasized that this idea is not the only possibility, but an example drawn from historical precedent.

“This is just one option… I’m not saying other options do not exist, but it is hard right now, or maybe even impossible, to lay everything out clearly because the situation is changing so fast,” he said.

Multilateral cooperation beyond the West

Putin said such an initiative should involve not just the UN or the US, but a broader coalition, including BRICS nations and others Russia considers reliable.

“We will work with any partners – the US, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, BRICS countries… and, for example, North Korea.”

He also stressed that Russia remains open to working with the EU, even though Moscow’s trust in the Western European countries has been fundamentally undermined by their manipulation of peace efforts as a tactic to buy time and rearm Ukraine.

***

Trump Says He’s ‘Pissed Off’ at Putin, Threatens ‘Secondary Tariffs’ on Russia

By Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, 3/30/25

President Trump said on Sunday that he was “pissed off” at Russian President Vladimir Putin and warned he could hit Russia with “secondary tariffs” on its oil if a peace deal to end the Ukraine war isn’t reached.

Trump said he was unhappy with Putin questioning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy. On Friday, Putin suggested replacing Zelensky with a “transitional administration” to prepare for elections in Ukraine.

Putin’s comments came after Zelensky said that he believes the Russian leader will soon be dead. “He will die soon, that is a fact, and everything will be over,” Zelensky said in an interview on March 26.

Trump has previously criticized Zelensky for not holding elections and even called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator,” but said in a phone interview with NBC News that he was “angry” over Putin’s comments about the Ukrainian leader.

“If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault — which it might not be — but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia,” Trump said.

“That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States. There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25- to 50-point tariff on all oil,” the president added.

It remains unclear if the current negotiations between the US and Russia will lead to a full ceasefire in Ukraine and a lasting peace deal. While both sides have nominally agreed to stop targeting energy infrastructure and halting attacks on the Black Sea, fighting continues to rage across the frontlines, Russian strikes are pounding Ukraine, and Ukraine is still launching drones into Russia

https://natyliesbaldwin.com/2025/03/key ... -comments/

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The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation will consider the issue of lifting the ban on the Taliban
March 31, 17:08



The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation will consider the issue of lifting the ban on the Taliban

In April, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation will consider the issue of excluding the Taliban from the list of terrorist organizations and banning their activities on the territory of the Russian Federation.

In fact, for 3 years now, the Taliban have been dealt with not as terrorists, but as the de facto rulers of Afghanistan.
The Taliban carried out their last terrorist attacks against the American occupation administration in 2021, after which they no longer need them, since now they rather need to solve counter-terrorism problems related to the fight against the Khorasan province (ISIS).

In general, the decision is long overdue. We need to work with the Taliban, remembering that this movement is not homogeneous - there are both moderate factions and crazy characters. We need to work with the moderates. We need the Taliban to more intensively soak the ISIS in their country, continue to reduce drug production and destroy poppy fields + in the future - joint ventures for the extraction of rare earth metals.

The worst-case scenario for us is an internal split in the Taliban, followed by another civil war, an increase in the number of refugees mixed with terrorists (all of this will come to us through Central Asia), as well as a resumption of growth in heroin production (since 2021, the Taliban have significantly undermined it). In fact, the US is working in this direction, and ISIS is one of the US tools for destabilizing Afghanistan.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9756893.html

Google Translator

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Racist Allied Underestimation Of Russia's Abilities Led To Its Win

Yesterday I had linked the New York Times whitewashing of President Biden's (proxy) war against Russia:

Today's long-read from the NYT is some weird whitewashing and fake history. Anyone who, during the last three years, has read more than the propaganda from the New York Times already knew each and every of these points:

The Partnership: The Secret History of the War in Ukraine (archived) - New York Times
Key Takeaways From America’s Secret Military Partnership With Ukraine (archived) - New York Times
A U.S. base in Wiesbaden, Germany, supplied the Ukrainians with the coordinates of Russian forces on their soil.
U.S. intelligence and artillery helped Ukraine quickly turn the tide against the Russian invasion.
The Biden administration kept moving its red lines.
Ultimately, the U.S. military and C.I.A. were allowed to help with strikes into Russia.
Political disagreements in Ukraine contributed to the 2023 counteroffensive’s collapse.

Alex Cristoforou also remarks on it:

NYT article admits that this was more than proxy war between the US and Russia. It was as close as could be to an all out hot war between the two sides (US and Russia).
NYT however is running cover for the Biden administration. When you read through this very long article, the conclusion is that the Biden administration and US military command were easily defeating Russia until...

The Ukraine Generals started acting up and disobeyed US orders.
Zelensky chased "big wins" for PR reasons, failing to follow US strategy.
Resulting in the 2023 counteroffensive 'failure.' Trust was broken between US and Ukraine.
What followed was the US keeping Ukraine in the game up to the US elections, by striking targets in Crimea and pre-2014 Russia.
Trump entered the WH and decided to wind the war down, handing Russia the win.
"History Is Written by the Victors."
In this case the NYT has decided that the US (under Biden) was victorious, IF not for the insubordinate Ukrainian Generals and ego of Zelensky. Trump will be blamed for the end result capitulation.

The article 100% explains why NATO and the Europeans still believe that they can win this war. Peak delusion and propaganda.

The U.S. has in fact lost the war. If you do not believe so (yet) please read this remarkable piece:

‘Please don’t use my name’ A report by journalist Shura Burtin on the growing war weariness among Ukrainians - Meduza, Mar 27 2025

The frontline reporting is extremely grim. Ukraine and its army are done with.

But back to the New York Times piece.

Alex Cristoforou's diagnosis of delusion and propaganda does not go deep enough.

A quote from the New York Times piece reveals that a very real factor behind starting and losing the war is pure racism:

Within the coalition, the prevailing wisdom was that the 2023 counteroffensive would be the war’s last: The Ukrainians would claim outright triumph, or Mr. Putin would be forced to sue for peace.
...
They didn’t have to be as good as the British and Americans, General Cavoli would say; they just had to be better than the Russians.

U.S. General Christopher G. Cavoli is the commander of the United States European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe. His lack of historic knowledge and respect of the abilities of Russian soldiers should have disqualified him.

It is for racist people like him that the U.S., UK and Ukraine failed to recognize that have had no chance to win.

Posted by b on March 31, 2025 at 16:16 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/03/r ... .html#more

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Sergei Ryabkov's International Affairs Interview--What's Been Published
Lavrov and Wang Yi notes too.
Karl Sanchez
Apr 02, 2025



Monday excerpts from Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov’s interview with the International Affairs magazine began to appear in Russian media. I went to the publication’s website to get the interview, translate and publish it for the Gym. That wasn’t to be since the publication is only leaking one part yesterday, another today, and promises to show the whole interview on the 3rd. Personally, I find this behavior unacceptable, reprehensible and irresponsible. The pace of events is so rapid that by the 3rd new developments will likely have occurred making whatever else is revealed to be passe. So, I’ve decided to publish what’s available for Gym readers. Part one is from yesterday. Part two is from today.

Part One:

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in an interview with the International Affairs magazine spoke about the approaches of the American administration to resolving the Ukrainian crisis.

"We have not heard a signal from [US President Donald] Trump to Kiev to end the war. All that we have today is an attempt to find a certain scheme that would first allow us to achieve a ceasefire, as it is conceived by the Americans. And then move on to some other models and schemes, in which, as far as we can judge, today there is no place for our main demand, namely, the solution of problems related to the root causes of this conflict. This is completely absent, and it must be overcome. We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we also cannot accept all this as it is. We certainly have a deeply and carefully thought-out set of our own priorities and approaches to this topic, which is being worked out and worked out, including by our negotiating team at recent talks with the Americans in Riyadh," Sergei Ryabkov said. [My Emphasis]

Part Two:

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in an interview with the International Affairs magazine spoke about US President Donald Trump's intention to implement the doctrine of American superiority.

"At the heart of what is happening is the desire of President Trump and his people to put into practice their famous slogan MAGA: Make America Great Again. It is clear that this slogan has already been erased and repeatedly attacked by the opponents of the current administration. Both inside the United States and in different parts of the world. But the fact is a fact. President Trump has deep convictions and is determined to implement the doctrine of American superiority by the means that he considers correct, and there are a great many of them. By the way, I am not sure that this has worked out in what was called "draining the Washington swamp" during President Trump's first term in office, and to the implementation of a large, I would say, global plan, shifting a significant burden of ensuring their own security onto the allies. As I understand the approaches of the current administration, it is self-evident that for decades many US allies, primarily in Europe, have been abusing the American "military umbrella". And the costs that the American side incurred in this regard now require, in general, reformatting and shifting a significant share of them to other countries. Plus, the Trump administration has peculiar approaches to resolving many conflict situations in the world. If we try to single out a certain algorithm that is characteristic of solving these problems, then, I think, the root core element of this approach can be called the introduction of the "shock and awe" method, when if there are "carrots", then huge, and if there are "sticks", then those that cannot be dodged and then the "client" will rub the bruised place for a very long time. This is Make America Great Again in different manifestations. Accordingly, we are dealing with a significant difference in the doctrinal approach to foreign policy in general from what was practiced by Democratic administrations, and Republican administrations before Trump as well," Sergei Ryabkov said. [My Emphasis]

My past experience with Mr. Ryabkov is that he like Lavrov has many things to say and is very concise in his rhetoric. What little is provided above tells me much more is being hidden. Today Ryabkov talked with his Iranian counterpart in Moscow about the brewing crisis caused by the West. Here’s the main part of the media note:

The two leaders continued to discuss the situation around Iran's nuclear programme with an emphasis on possible joint steps to stabilise and reduce tensions artificially and unreasonably escalated by Western countries, which diligently hush up their numerous gross violations of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and are trying to manipulate the IAEA's authority and verification capabilities for opportunistic political purposes.

The illegality and inadmissibility of the use of military force by Iran's opponents in the context of a settlement and the unacceptability of external threats to bomb Iran's nuclear energy infrastructure, which will inevitably lead to large-scale and irreversible radiological and humanitarian consequences for the entire Middle East region and the world as a whole, were emphasised.

As usual, the “numerous gross violations of UN Security Council Resolution 2231” are covered up “for opportunistic political purposes” that are promised to result in Iran being “bruised.” The #1 problem is what Ryabkov noted at the beginning of part two: The Outlaw US Empire still seeks Full Spectrum Dominance but now with a different euphemism—MAGA—which many nations want it to mean Make America Go Away.

After yesterday’s second Security Council meeting in four days Lavrov was asked to tell what he could about it. The problem with essentially continual Ukraine ceasefire violations of the 18 March agreement while Russia has complied 100% was officially made known to the Americans. The implementation issues related to the resumption of the Black Sea Grain deal were discussed with it now being up to Team Trump to get Russia’s considerations satisfied, which as most now know won’t happen. And third, Lavrov said the following about how the resumption of diplomatic relations was proceeding:

The third issue on which we are working with the Americans is the elimination of "irritants" that seriously interfere with the work of our Embassy in Washington and the American Embassy in Moscow. It is clear that we did not start creating these obstacles. The Obama administration was also actively noted in this field. We only responded in accordance with the law of reciprocity, which no one has abolished in diplomacy.

There was a meeting in Istanbul. A second meeting is being prepared now. There are contacts by phone and video conference. I do not want to make predictions, but we see the progress that has been made and the desire of our American partners to remove these obstacles to the normal work of diplomats in each other's capitals, which are completely unacceptable from the point of view of diplomatic practice.

I interpret the above to be progress is being made slowly, and from earlier information that the Americans are dragging their feet. I initially thought normal relations would be revived by the end of March, but that assumption appears incorrect.

One last point of importance comes from remarks made by Wang Yi during his three-day visit to Russia regarding the continuing Outlaw US Empire Imperialism:

China Will Never Accept ‘America First’ by ‘American Bullying’

“Instead of fixing its own problems, Washington is trying in every way possible to shirk responsibility and shift the blame, resorting to tariffs, up to and including blackmail and ultimatums,” China’s foreign minister said, commenting on the Trump 2.0's trade wars.

“The US itself is sick but is forcing others to get treatment,” Wang said, emphasizing that Trump’s trade wars will “cause serious damage not only to the global market and trade order, but the US’s reputation” as well. “‘America First’ cannot be achieved by American bullying, especially to the detriment of the interests of other countries,” he said.

I tried to find what others reported Wang Yi saying about America having its hands in other nations pockets but failed so they must stand as hearsay. As I noted in replies to comments last night, push-back against Trump is happening in Congress as personified by Senator Cory Booker’s record-breaking speech, that was clearly a D-party team effort. Here’s part of one report:

Booker's speech officially surpassed the previous record set in 1957 by noted segregationist Strom Thurmond, who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes to oppose the Civil Rights Act. And it was widely viewed online: By the evening, his speech had eclipsed 350 million likes on TikTok live, and more than 115,000 people were watching his office's livestream on YouTube.

Booker's speech took aim at President Trump, White House senior adviser Elon Musk and policies that he said show a "complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution and the needs of the American people."

The speech covered a wide range of topics, from health care and Social Security to immigration, the economy, public education, free speech and foreign policy. And it included portions of letters that Booker said he had received from affected constituents, as well as public comments from world leaders, in recent weeks.

IMO, Senator Booker was the proper symbolic choice to deliver this address. Compared to the web returns I got last night, today there’re many more hit pieces aimed at Mr. Booker having nothing to do with our current political scene. Granted much of what Senator Booker said could also be directed at the prior administration. One of the more serious accusations directed at R-Party people was their refusal to return to their districts for town hall meetings with concerned, outraged constituents.

https://karlof1.substack.com/p/sergei-r ... al-affairs

Very Important Report by General Director of the Russian Export Center Veronika Nikishina to Putin
Nikishina reported to the President on the development of non-resource non-energy exports of Russia
Karl Sanchez
Apr 03, 2025



General Director of the Russian Export Center Veronika Nikishina holding Made in Russia Logo, like her lapel pin.

Here’s the Kremlin’s full explanation of the meeting:

Veronika Nikishina, General Director of the Russian Export Center Joint-Stock Company, reported to the President on the development of Russia's non-primary non-energy exports and the contribution of state export development institutions to the realization of the export potential of domestic businesses.

The old derogatory description by the West of Russia as a Gas Station with Nukes implied it had no other source of economic power. Of corse, that was never 100% correct but it did point to an area of Russian economic weakness and vulnerability that was exploited during the Cold War. When Putin became Russian president, he began a long-term effort to reverse that situation, make Russia’s economy resilient and protect it from the vagaries of hydrocarbon prices and Western attempts to lower Russia’s volume of their exports. Of course, hydrocarbon development continued as the newly forged friendship with China also came with access to that market primarily for natural gas. The area that was vastly improved was industrial and manufacturing through a series of steps taken during Putin’s first presidency and then his time as Prime Minister when he further implemented those initial steps. The 2014 sanctions as Putin has stated were a boon that forced Russia to increase its internal investment to improve itself while turning East and South for new markets. Several National Projects were organized to further boost and support these efforts. And since Putin, Russia has become an investment-based industrial economy very similar in its working to that of China, the results being almost as spectacular as those made by Russia when it moved its industrial base to the Urals at WW2’s outset. The report you’ll now read showcases how successful Russia has become in the face of an almost unprecedented economic war:

Vladimir Putin: Veronika Olegovna, with the insurance support of your group, one trillion 380 billion projects have been implemented, right?

V. Nikishina: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: What is missing? Money?

V. Nikishina: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

No. The Russian Export Center–-we are part of the VEB Group--is a specialized institute for supporting key sectors of Russian industry, such as mechanical engineering, forestry and agro-industrial complexes, metallurgy, and high-processing chemicals. At the REC, we understand the importance of this work, at least for the following three reasons.

First, no country in the world can be successful if it does not have effective and strong non-primary exports, because this characterizes the country's connectivity with key partners. This is exactly why for many years our economic power in these industries has been limited by various protectionist measures, and this began long before 2022–-just in 2022, as they say, the masks were dropped.

Second, non-primary exports form a cluster of globally competitive companies. And in order for them to maintain their leadership and compete in foreign markets, they need to constantly improve their products technologically. In other words, non-primary exports are such an engine of technological improvement and our leadership of these companies.

And third, which is very important, non-resource exports create high-performance jobs, high-paying jobs. Moreover, one workplace in the production of non-primary goods forms two jobs for subcontractors due to intersectoral cooperation. These are those who supply components, transport industries, technologists, engineers, and so on. Currently, six million jobs in Russia are created at the expense of non-primary exports.

We, the Russian Export Center, are part of the export support system, which has passed through three stages in recent years.

The first stage began in 2018, when in accordance with your Decree ["On national goals and strategic objectives for the development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024"], non-primary exports were defined as one of the national goals. In 2019, a national project was formed and the formation of the best export support system in the world–-and I will confirm this with figures-–began, which consists of three elements. These are tools, they were contained in the national project, they were provided with resources, and, accordingly, the infrastructure that provided these tools.

Why do we have the best state export support system in the world? From 2018 to 2021, our non-primary exports grew by 28 percent, which means that they grew at a rate significantly higher than the world's. In 2021, we had an absolute record for non-primary exports.

2022--sanctions. The second stage of life, the evolution of the export support system, has begun. The main task of this stage was to reconfigure the severed trade ties and reorient to the markets of friendly countries.

At the end of last year, we believe that we completed this stage–-we completed it quite effectively, because now in the structure of our trade, non-primary exports account for 85 percent of friendly countries. At the end of last year, our non-primary exports to friendly countries grew by eight percent in physical terms.

And from 2025, we are in the third stage. We would like to thank you once again for the fact that our updated national project ["International Cooperation and Export"] has also been approved among the national projects approved for the next strategic cycle.

On the results of the Russian Export Center's work during this period. Over the past four years, our support measures have supported non-primary exports by more than five trillion rubles, more precisely, five trillion 250 billion rubles, that is, every ninth ruble of non-primary exports went to foreign markets with our support.

We have developed a set of tools at every stage of the exporter's life cycle--from the origin of the idea to start exporting to the direct export transaction and even after-sales service.

I cannot fail to note the very important role of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in achieving the national goal, which is very ambitious, but feasible. In almost every region, regardless of its export power, we have formed and effectively operate regional highly professional teams.

A lot of governors personally and regularly promote the export assets of their regions. 83 regions have specially created infrastructure--export support centers for promoting small and medium-sized business exporters.

In general, I would like to say that our SME-segment exporters have shown very high adaptability to all the difficulties of the last period, starting with the coronavirus pandemic. Since 2020, the number of SME exporters in our country has almost doubled.

About our plans for the future. Last year, the updated strategy of VEB Group was approved, and the REC set a target to ensure at least 12 trillion rubles of non-primary exports by 2030. We understand how to solve this problem, and we are ready for it.

We will move in two directions. First, we will expand the geography of our export supplies. And we will increase the range of products that we are ready to offer our partners.

Here I would like to draw your attention to one of the most effective tools for raising awareness of our products abroad, because one of the problems for new markets is ignorance of our capabilities. This is the "Made in Russia" program.

We thank you for supporting this program. If you remember, last year in Harbin, at the EXPO, you visited our stand. Our stand was one of the elements of our festival and fair "Made in Russia". The interest of Chinese consumers in Russian products after such events is huge.

Even the foreign media noticed us. Just last week, both Bloomberg and CNN wrote about our program, its effects, and the fact that China, as they wrote, is booming for Russian products.

Since last year, we have held five festivals in different provinces of China and in the United Arab Emirates. Since this year, thanks to your support, the program has become a government program. We are currently working with the Ministries of Industry, Agriculture, Culture, Sports, and Economy to develop an action plan.

I would like to report separately on our partnership with ASI [the Agency for Strategic Initiatives]. Starting this year, our "Made in Russia" program becomes a partner of the "Know Our People" contest–-a growing brand contest that you support. The winners of this competition this year and beyond, who have export potential, will be the users of all our support measures to promote the "Made in Russia" program.

We wanted to present such a bird as a symbol of our partnership with ASI. This tricolor bird is the logo of our "Made in Russia" program. We create awareness of our products: we mark such a bird and products, and electronic virtual shelves under the umbrella brand "Made in Russia", and pavilions–-and it already" flies " to many markets of friendly countries.

This bird is made by the hands of masters of the Nizhny Novgorod brand "Khokhloma", and this is an updated design of the brand "Khokhloma". Personally, the governor [Gleb Nikitin] promotes products to foreign markets. We believe that this bird, this gift is a symbol of the fact that a strong country brand "Made in Russia" is the sum of strong brands of individual Russian companies, which we have more and more.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. [My Emphasis]

And if the investment into the creation of this agency hadn’t occurred, the results would be dismal. The sanctions regime would have been far more effective. And this government support is not just for state/publicly owned enterprises, but for small and medium sized companies whose numbers have doubled thanks to this program. Unmentioned most of the time is a public corporation organized by Putin in 2007, the Roscongress Foundation which is “a socially-oriented non-financial development institution, the largest organizer of all-Russian, international, congress, exhibition, business, public, youth, sports, and cultural events.” The Foundation supports the REC’s trade exhibitions internationally and thus supports Russia’s growing economy. Indeed, there’s a plethora of organizations founded as businesses and business promoters that were born over the 25 years of Putin’s leadership, some ideas being his but many coming from team members and from outside the government. Recall that Russia has a unique tri-sector configuration acting as the consultants to its economic planning: Labor, Business and Government. The result is the hybrid Social-Capitalist system now in existence and steadily being improved. I recently read an excellent overview of China’s economy, “China’s Economic Model Revisited,” that can provide an insight into what Russia’s doing as the two nations are clearly sharing experiences along with trading. The major match is China’s economic power is based on its massive public investments in most areas of the economy, particularly massive infrastructure investment made and owned by the public so the semi-private and private systems can benefit and thus benefit the overall society. The key is the elimination of most rent seeking opportunities, an area Russia still needs to improve.

In closing, I must again remind readers what Putin forwarded as Russia’s future plans just over thirteen months ago in his Leap Day Address to the Federal Assembly and then added to in his speech to the Congress of Russian Industrialists and Entrepreneurs just a few weeks ago. Yes, both are long reads, but they are critical if people want to know and understand what Russia has planned and how it aims to accomplish its goals despite continual Western interference. Yes, the SMO will end, probably at the beginning of 2026, but the illegal sanctions will continue as promised. And who knows what other absurdities Team Trump will concoct.

https://karlof1.substack.com/p/very-imp ... by-general

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From Cassad's telegram account:

Readovka
✔
Chukotka to support veterans for 80th anniversary of Victory — one-time assistance will amount to ₽200 thousand

In anticipation of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the authorities of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug are paying special attention to veterans. The region's governor, Vladislav Kuznetsov, emphasized that the main task is to support the heroes who not only fought for their homeland, but also restored the country after the war, making it strong and independent. In honor of the anniversary, WWII veterans living in the district received one-time assistance in the amount of ₽200 thousand. In addition, additional benefits are paid annually on Victory Day:

— ₽10 thousand — to residents who survived the siege of Leningrad, the siege of Sevastopol and Stalingrad, former underage prisoners of concentration camps, as well as home front workers;

— ₽10,000 for citizens born before May 9, 1927;

— ₽5,000 for residents born between May 9, 1927 and May 8, 1945.

Support for veterans and citizens who suffered during the war is provided at the regional level annually as part of social measures dedicated to Victory Day.
Telegram
Vladislav Kuznetsov
One of the tasks in preparation for the 80th anniversary of the Victory is to support the main heroes of this holiday. They did not just win, but were able to rebuild the country, made it strong and independent.

This year, for the 80th anniversary of the Victory, veterans of the Great Patriotic War in our district…

https://t.me/readovkanews/94791

Google Translator

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Three steps towards
April 4, 9:42



Kirill Dmitriev held talks with representatives of Trump's team in Washington. Dmitriev became the first Russian figure of this level in Washington since the beginning of the war.

Following the talks, the parties positively assessed the progress towards concluding an American-Russian deal and ending the war, and also spoke positively about the resumption of normal diplomatic and economic relations. At the same time, Dmitriev noted that there is a group of countries that are trying to disrupt the Russian-American deal (it is not hard to guess that this is Britain and Co.).

It can be noted that Ukraine was again discussed without Ukraine and the EU. For the US, these are obviously separate negotiations. We can expect more hysterics in Europe with demands to be allowed to the negotiating table.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9763002.html

Google Translator

That guy looks entirely too much like a Wall St lawyer. Are we sure he ain't?

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Russia calls US threats of war against Iran 'unacceptable'

US President Donald Trump said over the weekend that ‘there will be bombing’ if Iran does not ‘make a deal’ on the nuclear issue

News Desk

APR 3, 2025


(Photo credit: Russian Foreign Ministry)

The Russian Foreign Ministry warned on 3 April that US threats of attack against Iran are “unacceptable” and could result in a “catastrophe.”

“The use of military force by Iran's opponents in the context of the settlement is illegal and unacceptable. Threats from outside to bomb Iran's nuclear infrastructure facilities will inevitably lead to an irreversible global catastrophe. These threats are simply unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also told Life magazine that the “consequences of this, especially if there are strikes on the nuclear infrastructure, could be catastrophic for the entire region.”

Russia and the US have recently held talks on ending the war in Ukraine. Ryabkov said these talks have not resulted in a breakthrough.

Regarding tension between Tehran and Washington, Ryabkov said Russia “condemns US threats.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry comes after US President Donald Trump renewed his threat to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.

“If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing. But there's a chance that if they don't make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago,” the president said on Sunday. Iran issued a formal complaint to the UN Security Council and said it would respond to any threat.

Trump had sent a letter to Iranian leadership in early March, threatening an attack if Tehran did not come to the negotiating table.

Iranian officials said they would not negotiate under threats and economic sanctions, which Trump has imposed with full force as part of his “maximum pressure” policy.

This week, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran has officially responded to Trump’s letter signaling a willingness for indirect talks, which the US is reportedly considering.

However, Washington is simultaneously beefing up its forces in the region in preparation for a potential attack. This follows several reports over the past two months that Israel is planning to strike at the Iranian nuclear program.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht Ravachi held talks on the nuclear issue with Ryabkov on Wednesday.

“The sides stressed the illegality and inadmissibility of the use of military force by Iran's opponents to resolve disagreements and the unacceptability of threats from the outside to bomb Iran's nuclear energy infrastructure, as this will inevitably lead to large-scale and irreversible radiological and humanitarian consequences for the entire Middle East region and the world as a whole,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

China, Russia, and Iran released a joint statement on 14 March demanding an end to “unlawful” US sanctions against the Islamic Republic after meetings in Beijing between the three countries.

Tehran insists that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, in line with a religious fatwa against weapons of mass destruction, as well as the fact that it is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

https://thecradle.co/articles/russia-ca ... acceptable