The Brink of War?

[Moses]

India cancelled its wheat exports in order to "salvage its falling inventories." “There is a sudden spike in the global prices of wheat arising out of many factors as a result of which the food security of India, neighboring and other vulnerable countries is at risk,” an official notification banning exports said. The notification was dated May 13, 2022.
(https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/india-prohibits-wheat-exports-with-immediate-effect-to-calm-local-prices-122051400133_1.html.)

The following report from S&P contains interesting information of how Russia arrived at its figures. Note that the the Russian figures include wheat from the Crimea and the Donbas regions, which are internationally recognized as illegally annexed Ukrainian territories. Note, too, that the expected yields are dependent on the weather.

The Russian government's official numbers include the territory of Crimea, unlike the USDA's. The Ukrainian government's statistics also exclude Crimea and the conflict zones in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

I imagine, too, that the yield depends on having people and machinery to harvest it. I understand Russian combine harvesters are built with CLASS technology, i.e, technology from a German company. Getting parts, etc., might be a problem. Replacing the dead and wounded killed in Ukraine might take longer.

No. Russia does not include Donbass as it is counted as independent state.

And about harvesters: have you even heard about RostSelMash - Russian manufacturer of harvesters what controls about 19% of world's harvesters market? Besides RostSelMash Russia has 3 more big manufacturers of harvesters and few more middle sized.

Some of RostSelMash harvesters may even work without pilot:


https://youtu.be/S_LaQhQO1qA

[cdnmatt]

More rumors circulating of Russian generals plotting a coup against Putin.

Can't really blame them, as being a Russian general is a fairly dangerous occupation these days considering how many of them Ukraine keeps knocking off.

[Moses]

More rumors circulating of Russian generals plotting a coup against Putin.

Can't really blame them, as being a Russian general is a fairly dangerous occupation these days considering how many of them Ukraine keeps knocking off.

Darling, such rumors circulating only in brainless heads. Persons with brain knows what army isn't power player in Russia: everything is controlled by security services here. And Putin, as a formerly member of that clan, has full trust from them: as a formerly head of FSB he is warrant for saving their leading role in Russia.

[cdnmatt]

Well, doesn't really matter. Russia is still getting their asses handed to them by a much smaller defender, and it'll only begin getting worse in the near future now that Biden has reauthorized the lend-lease program.

[cdnmatt]

And UN warns that millions will die shortly if that port in Odessa isn't opened back up within 60 days.

https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-must-open-black-sea-ports-before-millions-die-hunger-2022-5

[Dragonman]

No. Russia does not include Donbass as it is counted as independent state.

And about harvesters: have you even heard about RostSelMash - Russian manufacturer of harvesters what controls about 19% of world's harvesters market? Besides RostSelMash Russia has 3 more big manufacturers of harvesters and few more middle sized.

Some of RostSelMash harvesters may even work without pilot:


https://youtu.be/S_LaQhQO1qA

Russia recognized the two occupied area as "independent states" after they are occupied by Russian troops. That's is like robbers taking over your has but saying you still own it.

I assume that you were counting the Russian, and probably the Belarussian, Crimean and Donbass markets along with those of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Georgia and the Republic of South Africa in the 19% of the world's harvesters market (https://world-agritech.com/2021/08/31/rostselmash-celebrates-5-years-of-tractor-production/)? The latest figures I can find for harvester-thresher production are from 2019 https://wits.worldbank.org/trade/comtrade/en/country/ALL/year/2019/tradeflow/Exports/partner/WLD/product/843351), and show that Russia exported only 977 of them, far down the list dominated by the PRC (14,395), the EU (8,049), the USA (5,657), Thailand (1,754) and Japan (1,018). I have not doubt that Russian production has increased since this figures were compiled - but then, so have those of the countries listed.

[alvnv]

The rumors about Putin’s dementia must be true. On May 9 he sat there with his lap covered with a throw - like an old babushka. What’s next? Maybe he’ll take on knitting, because he clearly is incapable of running the gas station he calls a country

[Moses]

Russia recognized the two occupied area as "independent states" after they are occupied by Russian troops. That's is like robbers taking over your has but saying you still own it.

I assume that you were counting the Russian, and probably the Belarussian, Crimean and Donbass markets along with those of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Georgia and the Republic of South Africa in the 19% of the world's harvesters market (https://world-agritech.com/2021/08/31/rostselmash-celebrates-5-years-of-tractor-production/)? The latest figures I can find for harvester-thresher production are from 2019 https://wits.worldbank.org/trade/comtrade/en/country/ALL/year/2019/tradeflow/Exports/partner/WLD/product/843351), and show that Russia exported only 977 of them, far down the list dominated by the PRC (14,395), the EU (8,049), the USA (5,657), Thailand (1,754) and Japan (1,018). I have not doubt that Russian production has increased since this figures were compiled - but then, so have those of the countries listed.

No. You should take a look at RostSelMash structure: it own few brands, some you count as from USA and Canada because manufacturing or assembling plants are located there. RostSelMash group if count all brands is 5th largest harvester manufacturer in World.

[Moses]

The rumors about Putin’s dementia must be true. On May 9 he sat there with his lap covered with a throw - like an old babushka. What’s next? Maybe he’ll take on knitting, because he clearly is incapable of running the gas station he calls a country

It was +5C in Moscow at that day. Every visitor of parade got rug at this day as a gift from organizers.

[Dragonman]

No. You should take a look at RostSelMash structure: it own few brands, some you count as from USA and Canada because manufacturing or assembling plants are located there. RostSelMash group if count all brands is 5th largest harvester manufacturer in World.

World's major combine harvester players, from "Combine Harvesters Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)," (https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/global-combine-harvester-market):
1. CLAAS
2. John Deere
3. Zhengzhou Arnisy Machinery Co.
4. Yanmar Co,
5. Kubota Agricultural Machinery.

In the section on company profiles, RostSelMash doesn't merit a mention, so it cannot be as important as you claim.

With regard to its ownership of foreign firms, it bought Canadian firm Buhler Versatile in 2001, and distributes through Python Manufacturing Inc. in North America.

At the moment, a Google search at "https://www.rostselmash.com/eng/about/hist%e2%80%a6/" returns "404. Page Not Found."

[Dragonman]

It was +5C in Moscow at that day. Every visitor of parade got rug at this day as a gift from organizers.

The average weather in Moscow in May (https://www.weather25.com/europe/russia/moscow?page=month&month=May): "The temperatures in Moscow in May are quite cold with temperatures between 9°C and 19°C."

From https://en.climate-data.org/asia/russian-federation/moscow/moscow-6390/t/may-5/:
Moscow weather in May
Temperature May 13.2°C | 55.7°F
Precipitation / Rainfall May 60mm | 2.4 inches
Temperature May max. 17.7°C | 63.8°F
Temperature May min. 7.4°C | 45.4°F

[dab69]

It was +5C in Moscow at that day. Every visitor of parade got rug at this day as a gift from organizers.

Poor babies +5C about 58F

[Dragonman]

Poor babies +5C about 58F

5C is actually about 41F.

The Moscow weather forecast for May 9 was an overnight low of +5C. But, at 10AM, the temperature should have been approaching the forecast high of +10C (https://www.accuweather.com/en/ru/moscow/294021/may-weather/294021).

If one looks at any of the news reports on YouTube of the parade, there seem to be no rugs donated by the organizers being worn by guests in the grandstand or anywhere else. No-one seems to be wearing gloves scarves or hats (apart from the military, of course), e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5XipvDHxwI). Putin clearly is not, though he is wearing a heavy coat (perhaps to cover the bullet-proof jacket he has been speculated as wearing: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1607521/vladimir-putin-victory-day-speech-bulletproof-jacket-health-russia-ukraine). The Times of Israel's comment on the weather was that "the sun was glinting off Putin’s bald head as he waved to the thousands of soldiers lined up in tight rows (https://www.timesofisrael.com/very-bad-options-putins-muted-victory-day-rally-shows-he-has-little-to-celebrate/).

[Dodger]

Russia has apparently cut the electricity supply to Finland immediately following Finland’s announcement that it would be joining NATO.

Finland has already responded that Russia provides a very small percentage of Finland’s electricity so there’s no major concern. One would expect that risk management performed by Finland leading up to its decision to join NATO would have already planned how to mitigate this risk. Some say “It’s impossible to read Putin”, others are now saying “You can read him like a book”.

https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-05-14-22/h_262d0e26d1cc51988e0fd58db9d255b4

Putin is losing it. Why?

Finland and Sweden’s membership in NATO will redraw the geopolitical map of northern Europe and create a largely unbroken ribbon of member states facing Russia from the Arctic to the Black Sea. In doing so, the land border between NATO countries in Europe and Russia will effectively be doubled from approximately 770 miles to 1,600 miles (1,034 kms). This geopolitical change puts Russia at tremendous risk in the event there was a military conflict between Russia and NATO member countries.

The U.S. has a Patriot Defense Missile System (and other assets) deployed in Poland as a proactive measure to counter any potential threat to U.S. and Allied forces and NATO territory – which underpins NATO’s commitment to Article Five.

Putin has never been happy with this missile defense system being so close to Russia’s border (major understatement), and now with Finland joining the Alliance, it’s highly likely that the U.S. will be deploying additional Patriot Systems (and other assets) along Finland’s eastern border as well.

Also this week:

“Ukraine appears to have won the Battle of Kharkiv”:

https://nypost.com/2022/05/14/russian-forces-retreat-as-ukraine-appears-to-win-battle-of-kharkiv/

Don’t even try to figure out what Putin’s thinking now – because he hasn’t the foggiest clue what to do next. In the words of Finland’s President “Moscow only has itself to blame for this”.

[Moses]

Russia has apparently cut the electricity supply to Finland immediately following Finland’s announcement that it would be joining NATO.


It is how West mass media explain to you? By fact Finland can't pay for electricity because of Western sanctions. As soon as money finished, Russia stopped to supply electricity: no money - no honey.

[Moses]

5C is actually about 41F.

The Moscow weather forecast for May 9 was an overnight low of +5C. But, at 10AM, the temperature should have been approaching the forecast high of +10C (https://www.accuweather.com/en/ru/moscow/294021/may-weather/294021).



Forecast was wrong. It was windy day, with sometimes rain+snow. Low snow clouds at area of basing of aircrafts were exactly reason why flight program was cutted.

12539

12540

[Moses]

The average weather in Moscow in May (https://www.weather25.com/europe/russia/moscow?page=month&month=May): "The temperatures in Moscow in May are quite cold with temperatures between 9°C and 19°C."

From https://en.climate-data.org/asia/russian-federation/moscow/moscow-6390/t/may-5/:
Moscow weather in May
Temperature May 13.2°C | 55.7°F
Precipitation / Rainfall May 60mm | 2.4 inches
Temperature May max. 17.7°C | 63.8°F
Temperature May min. 7.4°C | 45.4°F

Historical records for May 9 2022 shows 39F at 9 am in Moscow and "feels like 32F"

12541

the same in Celcius:

12542

https://www.worldweatheronline.com/moscow-weather-history/moscow-city/ru.aspx#

[Moses]

Poor babies +5C about 58F

are you sure? you miscalculate that at almost 20 degree... see above... it was 39F

[Dragonman]

Historical records for May 9 2022 shows 39F at 9 am in Moscow and "feels like 32F"

12541

the same in Celcius:

12542

https://www.worldweatheronline.com/moscow-weather-history/moscow-city/ru.aspx#

Note that the document to which you link clear states "Forecast," not "Historical record" at the top of the second column (https://www.worldweatheronline.com/moscow-weather-history/moscow-city/ru.aspx).

Your comment "Forecast was wrong. It was windy day, with sometimes rain+snow. Low snow clouds at area of basing of aircrafts were exactly reason why flight program was cutted," does not explain how "the ground portion of the parade took place with good visibility and under only somewhat cloudy skies" (see, e.g., https://www.forbes.com/sites/craighooper/2022/05/09/purged-nervous-putin-cuts-russian-air-force-from-2022-victory-day-parade/?sh=1b6e05857f1a), and (as noted earlier) "the sun was glinting of Putin's bald head" (https://www.timesofisrael.com/very-bad-options-putins-muted-victory-day-rally-shows-he-has-little-to-celebrate/). Videos of the parade show only broken cloud and flags not flapping in high winds (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5XipvDHxwI).

[Dragonman]

are you sure? you miscalculate that at almost 20 degree... see above... it was 39F

If your figure is correct about the weather at 10AM in Moscow on May 9, why is no-one's breath steaming? Breath will steam when the outside temperature is less than 45 degrees Fahrenheit or 7.22 Celsius. At 5 Celsius, there should be white clouds of breath everywhere! (https://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/why-can-i-see-my-breath-when-it%E2%80%99s-cold and https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-you-see-your-breath-when-it-s-cold)

[cdnmatt]

What would be great to see is once Finland and Sweden join NATO, maybe we could have NATO change the rules a bit and include other countries such as Taiwan, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and so on.

NATO is already over 50% of the world's military might, and not sure how much of a difference Sweden and Finland will make, but I'm sure it'll be noticeable as both are strong militaries. Then if we add those other countries, we're probably sitting around 65 - 70% of the world's military might in a single defense alliance.

That seems like it would make for a better deterrent against China invading Taiwan, because current trajectory looks like this Ukraine war will be slowed down considerably if not over by year's end. Then after the CCP have their little shindig later this year, it'll be time for China to invade Taiwan, because of course they will... they're already doing things like building life sized replicas of both, Taiwan naval bases and US naval bases based in Japan and Guam in large lakes within their entire, then their military blow the shit out of them for practice.

[dab69]

all the people he murdered and we're really fixated on
the weather forecast ...

the other Hitler would have a lot to learn
from these ones

[Dragonman]

all the people he murdered and we're really fixated on
the weather forecast ...

the other Hitler would have a lot to learn
from these ones

When you are fully vaccinated and boosted, but in quarantine anyway because your Covid-19 contract tracing app has indicated you have come within 2 meters of a confirmed COVID-19 case for more than two minutes over the past 14 days, and are awaiting test results, the mind may fixate on the most trivial things to pass the time.

[cdnmatt]

A ukrainian wins EuroVision: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1fl60ypdLs

A couple hours after winning, Russia bombs Leviv again, because of course they do...

Too bad a Russian didn't win EuroVision this year, eh Moses? Oh right, Russia wasn't invited this year.

[Moses]

Too bad a Russian didn't win EuroVision this year, eh Moses? Oh right, Russia wasn't invited this year.

who said to Matt, what country need invitation? country need to pay for to participate... It was Russian decision not to play that game this year

[Moses]

What would be great to see is once Finland and Sweden join NATO

Erdogan said Turkey will veto it untill Finland and Sweden will announce Kurdish organizations as a terrorist. Will see what Finland and Sweden will choose: principles or NATO.


maybe we could have NATO change the rules a bit and include other countries such as Taiwan, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and so on.


Yeah, crazy Liz Truss already spoke about that. It is pity when nation has so stupid leader of Foreign office...



That seems like it would make for a better deterrent against China invading Taiwan, because current trajectory looks like this Ukraine war will be slowed down considerably if not over by year's end.

Matt, do you forgot what US and your Canada recognize Taiwan as a part of China officially?

[Moses]

does not explain how "the ground portion of the parade took place with good visibility and under only somewhat cloudy skies" (see, e.g.,

Do you expect what airbases are located right on Red Square??? Some airbases are in 300-500 km, for example Tu-22 bombardiers are based in Engels (735 km)

[cdnmatt]

Erdogan said Turkey will veto it untill Finland and Sweden will announce Kurdish organizations as a terrorist. Will see what Finland and Sweden will choose: principles or NATO.

Turkey is just pandering to Putin and trying to stay on his good side. They're not actually going to veto Finland and Swedn's NATO application. It's just politics.


Matt, do you forgot what US and your Canada recognize Taiwan as a part of China officially?

Not sure about Canada, but with the US gloves are off atm. US State Department recently removed all references to Taiwan being a part of China from its website. Small detail, but important one.

While the Ukraine war has been ranging, about 10 - 14 days ago China held huge war games close to Taiwan. And atm the US is currently holding large war games out there as well as a show of force to China as to what will happen if they invade. We all know China will invade Taiwan, because Xi is getting old and is drunk on power. Kind of like Putin.

[cdnmatt]

Russia better be careful, sounds like they stand a decent chance of ~22,000 troops being cut off from supplies and stranded in Ukraine.

[Dragonman]

Matt, do you forgot what US and your Canada recognize Taiwan as a part of China officially?

WRONG!! The USA does NOT recognise Taiwan as part of China officially. The so-called "Shanghai Communiqué" of 1972 simply acknowledged that "all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China." The US "One China" policy refers to a United States policy which recognizes the PRC as the sole legal government of China, but only acknowledges, and does not endorse, the PRC position that Taiwan is part of China.

On May 5, 2022, the US State Department removed that statement, as well as one stating that it does not support Taiwanese independence from its US-Taiwan relations webpage. The PRC objected, and the US response was that "There is no change to our ‘one-China’ policy," noting that U.S.-Taiwan ties are "guided by" the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances." On 29 June, 2021, the US House of Representatives passed a bill banning purchase of maps depicting Taiwan as part of China.

I believe that Canada follows a “One China Policy,” which acknowledges that there is only one Chinese government, does not recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state and does not maintain official government-to-government relations with Taipei. This also is different from Beijing’s “One China Principle” that insists Taiwan is a part of China and will be reunified with the mainland one day under the Chinese Communist Party.

[Dragonman]

Even former PRC diplomats don't believe Russia is losing in its "special military operation in Ukraine. See The Diplomat (https://thediplomat.com/2022/05/a-former-chinese-ambassadors-trenchant-comments-on-ukraine-war-attract-notice/) for comments made by Gao Yusheng, a 75-year-old career diplomat and former PRC ambassador to Ukraine. Gao argued the country has been in a “continuous, historical process of decline” since the demise of the Soviet Union. “The so-called revitalization of Russia under Putin’s reign is based on a false premise. Russia’s decline is evident in all areas… and has had a significant negative impact on the Russian military and its combat capabilities,” he said. According to Gao, the odds are stacked so heavily against Putin that “it’s only a matter of time before Russia is fully defeated.” He faulted the Putin regime for “considering the former Soviet Union as its exclusive sphere of influence” and “violating the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of other former Soviet states,” which resulted in “the greatest threat to peace, security, and stability in Eurasia.”

[Moses]

A ukrainian wins EuroVision: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1fl60ypdLs

A couple hours after winning, Russia bombs Leviv again, because of course they do...

Too bad a Russian didn't win EuroVision this year, eh Moses? Oh right, Russia wasn't invited this year.

Romania officially declared, what it send 12 point to Moldova, but organizers moved these 12 points to Ukraine.

Azerbaijan, Georgia - 6 countries in total declared protests because of wrong calculation of their votes.

How votes has been manipulated: EBU just changed results.


In the analysis of jury voting by the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) pan-European voting partner after the Second Dress Rehearsal of the Second Semi-Final of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, certain irregular voting patterns were identified in the results of six countries.

In order to comply with the Contest’s Voting Instructions, the EBU worked with its voting partner to calculate a substitute aggregated result for each country concerned for both the Second-Semi Final and the Grand Final (calculated based on the results of other countries with similar voting records).

This process was acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor.

The EBU takes any suspected attempts to manipulate the voting at the Eurovision Song Contest extremely seriously and has the right to remove such votes in accordance with the Official Voting Instructions, irrespective of whether or not such votes are likely to influence the results and/or outcome of the voting.

[Moses]

Surprise for sanctions: GDP of Russia in 1st quarter grew 4% in annual rate.

Germany 0.2%
UK 1%
US -1.4%

Do your countries really want shoot own legs? Do you really want to pay for that by highest inflation in modern history (6,1 in EU) and highest prices for gas, gasoline, food?

[Moses]

Even former PRC diplomats don't believe Russia is losing in its "special military operation in Ukraine.

For sure "former diplomat" has knowledges what is going on in Ukraine :))))) He has the same news from medias. How works medias knows everyone - medias posts what it's owner think should be. It is how "Nazi battalion "Azov" from "New-York Times" 2015 became "ultra-right battalion "Azov" in "New-York Times" 2022.

EU and US collaborate with Nazi. Shame.

[Dragonman]

Surprise for sanctions: GDP of Russia in 1st quarter grew 4% in annual rate.

Germany 0.2%
UK 1%
US -1.4%

Do your countries really want shoot own legs? Do you really want to pay for that by highest inflation in modern history (6,1 in EU) and highest prices for gas, gasoline, food?

The headline from the report by Interfax says "Russian GDP growth slows to 1.6% in March, estimated at 3.7% in Q1 - Econ Ministry" (28 Apr 2022 18:23, https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/78752/). That is, it is an estimate. not a fact.

Reuters, on the 27 April 2022, using the same Economics Ministry information, ran the following headline - "Russia's GDP decline could hit 12.4% this year, economy ministry document shows" (https://www.reuters.com/business/russias-gdp-decline-could-hit-124-this-year-economy-ministry-document-shows-2022-04-27/). The body of the article stated: "Russia expects the economy to contract by 8.8% in 2022 in its base case scenario, or by 12.4% under a more conservative scenario, an economy ministry document showed on Wednesday, further evidence that sanctions pressure is taking its toll.
The conservative forecast is in line with that of former finance minister Alexei Kudrin, who said earlier this month the economy was on track to contract by more than 10% this year in its biggest decline in gross domestic product since 1994.".

[Dragonman]

For sure "former diplomat" has knowledges what is going on in Ukraine :))))) He has the same news from medias. How works medias knows everyone - medias posts what it's owner think should be. It is how "Nazi battalion "Azov" from "New-York Times" 2015 became "ultra-right battalion "Azov" in "New-York Times" 2022.

EU and US collaborate with Nazi. Shame.

Gao Yusheng's comments were not made to the media but made at a closed-door event hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences think tank, said a report by China's Phoenix News. They were made during an internal webinar hosted by the government-affiliated China International Finance 30 Forum and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His edited remarks were taken down (i.e., censored) within hours of going live on Wednesday. They were reported by, e.g., Newsweek (https://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-war-china-ambassador-1705615), Le Monde (https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2022/05/15/china-draws-initial-military-lessons-from-russia-s-difficulties-in-ukraine_5983567_4.html), The Diplomat (https://thediplomat.com/2022/05/a-former-chinese-ambassadors-trenchant-comments-on-ukraine-war-attract-notice/), Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-12/rare-russia-criticism-within-china-shows-simmering-policy-debate), and other media outlets. But the remarks were NOT made to the media, which you would have known had you read any of the reports before reacting.

[Moses]

The headline from the report by Interfax says "Russian GDP growth slows to 1.6% in March, estimated at 3.7% in Q1 - Econ Ministry" (28 Apr 2022 18:23, https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/78752/). That is, it is an estimate. not a fact.

Reuters, on the 27 April 2022, using the same Economics Ministry information, ran the following headline - "Russia's GDP decline could hit 12.4% this year, economy ministry document shows" (https://www.reuters.com/business/russias-gdp-decline-could-hit-124-this-year-economy-ministry-document-shows-2022-04-27/). The body of the article stated: "Russia expects the economy to contract by 8.8% in 2022 in its base case scenario, or by 12.4% under a more conservative scenario, an economy ministry document showed on Wednesday, further evidence that sanctions pressure is taking its toll.
The conservative forecast is in line with that of former finance minister Alexei Kudrin, who said earlier this month the economy was on track to contract by more than 10% this year in its biggest decline in gross domestic product since 1994.".

wait till today news will be translated to English... it is not "estimated" numbers anymore, but statistic report

I think it is result of growing prices on almost all main Russian export articles: in natural units it slightly contracted, but in money it is almost doubled.

[dab69]

wait till today news will be translated to English... it is not "estimated" numbers anymore, but statistic report

I think it is result of growing prices on almost all Russian main export articles: in natural units it slightly contracted, but in money it is almost doubled.

Results from Nazis stealing from Ukraine.
Probably selling body parts too(live dissections)

[Moses]

Results from Nazis stealing from Ukraine.
Probably selling body parts too(live dissections)

For your information: in Russia black market on body parts doesn't exists. Here is the same law as in Switzerland: doctors may use body parts from died bodies if it suits, and nobody need agreement with relatives, unless person before death declared restrictions. We haven't here long waiting for donors of any kind of body parts. My brother got 2 kidneys twice in year just after waiting 1 week for results of tests.

[Dodger]

McDonalds is leaving Russia.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/16/business-food/mcdonalds-russia-exit/index.html

[Moses]

McDonalds is leaving Russia.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/16/business-food/mcdonalds-russia-exit/index.html

It already left Donetsk Republic few years ago. Here is result:

12544

12545

12546

ДонМак = DonMac

[Moses]

Today Reebok announced what it sold Russian network of branded shops (over 100 shops) to Turkish company with 70% discount. Loss is around $1 bln.

Turkish company already announced what it will keep shops and continue sales: because it is... Reebok's distributor. Russians lost nothing, Turkey got business. Reebok lost $1bln. Sanctions...

[dab69]

For your information: in Russia black market on body parts doesn't exists. Here is the same law as in Switzerland: doctors may use body parts from died bodies if it suits, and nobody need agreement with relatives, unless person before death declared restrictions. We haven't here long waiting for donors of any kind of body parts. My brother got 2 kidneys twice in year just after waiting 1 week for results of tests.

exorcisms not working-
need more "deer antler blood" baths...

[Dodger]

It already left Donetsk Republic few years ago. Here is result:

12544

12545

12546

ДонМак = DonMac

As long as they change the name and remove the golden arches I don't think McDonald's cares.

Maybe they can rename it "McPutins".

[Moses]

As long as they change the name and remove the golden arches I don't think McDonald's cares.


Nobody cares about the cares of McDonalds anymore here: all brands what left Russia lost rights for trademark protection and protection of "grey" import: any their foreign distributor may start business here. And many already started - only 39 countries joined sanctions. Distributors from other 81% of countries are lined up for to take place of exiting under pressure own govts brands.

Premiere of iPhone SE here was just 1 day late than in rest of world and it is on the market already despite Apple left Russian market before world premiere of SE.

[Dragonman]

Nobody cares about the cares of McDonalds anymore here: all brands what left Russia lost rights for trademark protection and protection of "grey" import: any their foreign distributor may start business here. And many already started - only 39 countries joined sanctions. Distributors from other 81% of countries are lined up for to take place of exiting under pressure own govts brands.

Premiere of iPhone SE here was just 1 day late than in rest of world and it is on the market already despite Apple left Russian market before world premiere of SE.

Has the Russian Federation formally withdrawn from the following treaties, particularly the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, of which it is a signatory and which provide international protection for trademark matters?

the Madrid Agreement concerning the International Registration of Marks 1891–1967;
the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks of 1989;
the Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Union) 1957–1977;
the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property;
the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights 1994 (the TRIPS Agreement);
the Nairobi Treaty on the Protection of the Olympic Symbol 1981;
the Trademark Law Treaty 1994; and
the Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks 2006.

Has it also withdrawn from the "Treaty on Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin of Goods of the EEU," which the Russian Federation signed in November 2020. If firms have registered trademarks in any of the Eurasian Economic Area countries (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan are the other members along with the Russian Federation), they are protected in the Russian Federation.

If the Russian Federation has withdrawn from these treaties, then Russian Federation trademarks are no longer protected internationally.

[dab69]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-children-s-camp-that-became-an-execution-ground/ar-AAXjlmW?cvid=b7ca9f8be8f44efc8371d4ceb2485d02

The children's camp that became an execution ground

Since Russian forces were pushed back from Kyiv at the end of March, the bodies of more than 1,000 civilians have been discovered in the Bucha region - many hastily buried in shallow graves. The BBC's Sarah Rainsford has been investigating what happened at a children's summer camp - now being treated as a crime scene.

It is easy to miss the killing spot at first in the gloom. But in a cold, damp basement on the edge of the woods that made Bucha a popular get-away spot before the war, five Ukrainian men were forced to their knees and shot in the head.

To the right of the entrance, there are stones coated in blood that has turned dark red. Lying among that is a blue woollen hat with an exit hole in one side and its rim soaked in blood. In the wall, I counted at least a dozen bullet holes.

A couple of steps away are the remains of a Russian military ration pack - an open can of rice porridge with beef and an empty packet of crackers. A name daubed in graffiti on a wall is a reminder that the scene is a children's camp. But when Russian troops moved into Bucha, just outside the capital, in early March, Camp Radiant became an execution ground.

The story of the summer camp killings is chilling but so is this detail: more than 1,000 civilians were killed in the Bucha region during a month under Russian occupation, but most did not die from shrapnel or shelling. More than 650 were shot dead by Russian soldiers.

Now Ukraine is searching for their killers.

Volodymyr Boichenko lived in Hostemel, just up the road from Bucha and near the airfield where the first Russian forces landed to try to overthrow Ukraine's government. When his sister Aliona Mykytiuk decided to flee before the fighting reached her, she pleaded with Volodymyr to join her. He was a civilian, not a soldier, but he wanted to stay and help. So he spent the days searching Hostemel for food and water to bring to neighbours, including children, who were trapped in their cellars by the constant shelling and Russian airstrikes.

A chatty 34 year old, who had travelled the world in the merchant navy, Volodymyr phoned his family from Hostemel most days to reassure them he was safe. Aliona would wait nervously for his brief calls: she knew he had to move to higher ground to get a connection and if the shelling was heavy it was impossible to leave the bomb shelter. As supplies ran low, she urged her brother to try to escape but by then the roads were blocked.

The last time Aliona heard from him was on 8 March. Volodymyr wasn't the demonstrative type, but that day he told his sister not to worry about him. "He said 'I really love you,' and that was so painful to hear," Aliona sobs, rubbing her eyes hard but unable to stop the tears. "There was fear in his voice."

Four days later, Volodymyr was spotted by neighbours close to Promenystyi, as it's known here, or Camp Radiant. Then he disappeared.

In March, the fighting around Kyiv was intense and the small town of Bucha was at the epicentre. The withdrawal of Russian troops in early April revealed scenes that shocked the world: the bodies of residents slumped in the streets where they'd been shot.

Moscow tells anyone who will listen that the killings were staged, an idea that is as twisted as it is patently false. Determined to hold those responsible to account, Ukrainian investigators are busy collecting the hard evidence on territory now back under their control.

"We don't know what Putin's plans are, so we are working as quickly as possible in case he drops a bomb and destroys all the proof," says Kyiv regional police chief, Andrii Niebytov.

That evidence includes a field full of civilian cars pierced with multiple bullet holes, now piled up on the edge of Bucha. They are vehicles that were shot at when families tried to flee. One still has a length of white cloth at the window, hung to show the soldiers that its occupants were no threat. Step too close, and you catch the sickly smell of death.

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAXjaJq.img?w=768&h=432&m=6

When the bodies beneath Camp Radiant were discovered on 4 April, Volodymyr Boichenko was among them. Aliona had spent weeks frantically calling hospitals and morgues. That day she was sent a photograph to identify. She knew it was her brother before it had even downloaded.

"I hate them with every cell of my being," Aliona cries, about Volodymyr's killers. "I know that's wrong to say about people, but they are not human. There was not one patch on those men's bodies that was not beaten."

The five men had been found crouching on their knees, heads down and hands bound behind their backs.

"We know they had been tortured," the police chief told the BBC. "The Russian army has crossed the line of how war is conducted. They were not fighting the military in Ukraine, they were kidnapping and torturing the civilian population."

Neither the Prosecutor's Office nor the SBU security service will disclose details of ongoing investigations, but some Russian military were so careless at covering their that tracks there are likely to be considerable clues to work with. Ukrainian territorial defence units have even discovered lists of soldiers at some abandoned positions. One appears to be part of a rota for litter duty, another includes passport details and mobile phone numbers.

[Moses]

If the Russian Federation has withdrawn from these treaties, then Russian Federation trademarks are no longer protected internationally.

Since "Russian Federation trademarks" are under sanctions - who cares?

West froze and steal half of Russian gold reserve and you still have hopes what Russia will protect Western properties? Wrong. But Russia still has bilateral agreements in countries where it is interested in mutual protection.

[Moses]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-children-s-camp-that-became-an-execution-ground/ar-AAXjlmW?cvid=b7ca9f8be8f44efc8371d4ceb2485d02

The children's camp that became an execution ground

Since Russian forces were pushed back from Kyiv at the end of March, the bodies of more than 1,000 civilians have been discovered in the Bucha region - many hastily buried in shallow graves. The BBC's Sarah Rainsford has been investigating what happened at a children's summer camp - now being treated as a crime scene.



Results will be the same as British "investigations" about Novichok: nobody knows but "highly likely", almost 5 years already left, but still no one court made decision. "Bucha case" is forged by Nazi scene.

[dab69]

Results will be the same as British "investigations" about Novichok: nobody knows but "highly likely", almost 5 years already left, but still no one court made decision. "Bucha case" is forged by Nazi scene.


Welcome to Camp Putin
"работа сделает тебя свободным"
("work will set you free" =Auschwitz)

[Moses]

Welcome to Camp Putin
"работа сделает тебя свободным"
("work will set you free" =Auschwitz)

Welcome to Orwell's World.

Have you seen investigations about MH17?

12547

Look at the pic - official pic from JIT presentation, - missile with this serial number has been manufactured in 1986 in Russia and send to... Ukraine. Since that time it was in Ukrainian military brigade at the West of Ukraine - small town Striy near Lviv. Surprise...

But Western medias will continue their "highly likely".

[Moses]

Bloomberg today:


Russian Current Account Surplus Surges to $96 Billion (3:22 p.m.)
Russia’s current account surplus more than tripled in the first four months of the year to $95.8 billion, the central bank said, as prices surged for its oil and gas exports and imports plunged under the weight of sanctions imposed by the US and its allies over Putin’s invasion.

The surplus on the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, was the highest since at least 1994. The steady inflow of revenue from energy and other exports has -- aking with strict capital controls -- helped support the ruble, turning the Russian currency into the best performer in the world this year.

[Dragonman]

Since "Russian Federation trademarks" are under sanctions - who cares?

West froze and steal half of Russian gold reserve and you still have hopes what Russia will protect Western properties? Wrong. But Russia still has bilateral agreements in countries where it is interested in mutual protection.

Interestingly, TASS (https://tass.com/economy/1447575?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=google.com&utm_referrer=google.com) reported "Anti-Russian sanctions 6 May, 02:49 US Treasury excludes intellectual property protection from sanctions against Russia." It stated, "WASHINGTON, May 5. /TASS/. The US Department of the Treasury excluded transactions related to the patent right, copyright and other forms of intellectual property protection from sanctions introduced against Russia, according to the general license released on Thursday."
"Transactions in connection with a patent, trademark, copyright, or other form of intellectual property protection in the United States or the Russian Federation that would be prohibited by the Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 587 (RuHSR), are authorized," the document says.
The general license authorizes "the filing and prosecution of any opposition or infringement proceeding with respect to a patent, trademark, copyright, or other form of intellectual property protection, or the entrance of a defense to any such proceeding."

This is despite the fact that the Russian Federation is legalizing the theft of intellectual property rights: "Russia made good on its threat to suspend intellectual property rights with a decree that patent holders from countries that are deemed “unfriendly” to Russia would not be entitled to compensation or damages resulting from “compulsory licenses” granted to patents.
As of the writing of this blog, the Russian government could determine that any patent owned in Russia is needed for national security (or another purpose) and give the rights to a Russian company to use the patent without the threat that they would face any lawsuits or have to pay any licensing fees" (https://www.gerbenlaw.com/blog/trademark-and-patent-rights-are-under-threat-in-russia/).

Note the conditional language - "could determine." Has such a determination actually been made and published?

"Moreover, these measures violate the TRIPS Agreement to which Russia is a party. However, the Russian constitution was amended in 2020 to give the Russian constitution precedence over treaty obligations. It is difficult to predict whether the March 6 decree reducing some patent royalty rates to zero will be held to be grounded in the constitution. But because of the politically charged atmosphere surrounding the Ukraine war, it seems prudent to assume that no Russian court will overrule the March 6 Russian decree on the basis of the TRIPS Agreement" (https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/trademark/1177238/intellectual-property-in-russia). That is, the assumption of judicial impartiality and the rule of law is negated under Putin. TRIPS stands for The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization.

Western nations have frozen but not stolen Russian gold reserves by banning individuals, including gold dealers, distributors, wholesalers, buyers and financial institutions, from buying, selling or facilitating gold-related transactions involving Russia and the various parties that have been sanctioned. The gold is still there but no-one can do anything with it while the sanctions are in place.

Ironically, the Russian Federation was reported in April 2022 as "‘preparing legal action’ to unfreeze $600bn foreign currency reserves" (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/19/russia-preparing-legal-action-to-unfreeze-600bn-foreign-currency-reserves). The article also stated, "a similar threat made by Russia’s finance minister, Anton Siluanov, who said earlier this month that the Kremlin would sue if the west tried to force it to default on its sovereign debt." However, the article also noted: "In one example of such a legal case involving central bank reserves, the UK supreme court ruled in December against a Venezuelan appeal to allow access to almost $2bn of gold it held at the Bank of England."

Given the widespread looting by Russian forces in Ukraine, the irony of a thief threatening to resort to legal action is exquisite.

[cdnmatt]

But Russia still has bilateral agreements in countries where it is interested in mutual protection.

If you haven't noticed, so does the West. Our offering of mutual protection seems to be appealing to folks too, as Finland and Sweden are joining up right now. Cool, eh?

If you haven't noticed, they're joining NATO, not Russia. Maybe that's the question folks like Putin and the Russian leadership should be asking themselves -- why are all these countries constantly leaving the Russian orbit and aligning with the West? Might serve Russian interests better than constantly playing the victim card like Putin does with, "oh, the West is being mean to us, I had no choice but to invade Ukraine", and blah, blah...

[dab69]

Bloomberg today:

Billions more for Putin to steal from
stupid Russian people.

Now he can murder more of them.

[dab69]

Ukrainian air defence shoots down 11 Russian aerial targets, aircraft destroys Russian crossing
Ukrayinska Pravda


On 15 May, Ukrainian Air Defences destroyed 11 Russian aerial targets; Ukrainian attack aircraft destroyed a Russian crossing over the Inhulets River.

Source: Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Facebook

Quote from Air Force Command: "On 15 May, attack aircraft of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces once again targeted and hit the occupiers’ river crossing. This time, the crossing over the Inhulets River.

Fighter jets continue to patrol Ukraine’s airspace; attack and bomber aircraft carry out missile and bomb strikes on the occupiers’ positions, clusters of their troops, and convoys of their military equipment."

Details: On 15 May, anti-aircraft missile units of the Ukrainian Air Force shot down 2 Russian cruise missiles, 3 Orlan-10 UAVs, and a Ka-52 helicopter.

The Air Defences of the Land Forces damaged a Mi-28 helicopter and 4 Orlan-10 UAVs.

Overall, Ukrainian forces hit 11 aerial targets:

2 helicopters (Ka-52, Mi-28)

7 Orlan-10 UAVs

2 cruise missiles.

https://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-air-defence-shoots-down-210701191.html

[Dragonman]

Among the tragic stories emerging from this mad conflict are this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y62l_IYzKKg - and accompanying news reports such as this from the NY Post ("Captive Russian troops claim commanders kill their own wounded soldiers" - https://nypost.com/2022/05/16/russian-commanders-allegedly-kill-their-own-wounded-soldiers/) that Russian army officers are killing their own wounded soldiers, while other soldiers "had committed suicide because they could no longer cope with the bungled invasion."

If Ukraine has violated Article 13 Footage of the Geneva Conventions - which provide POWs with protections (Article 13: “Prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity. Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited”), I think the response should be to cite Putin's own words back at him, i.e., it is not a war but a special military operation. Russia very carefully has avoided any open declaration of war, even though one was expected in his May 9 speech.

Peter the Great built the beautiful city of St. Petersburg in an attempt to prove that Imperial Russia was a civilized European nation. Putin's Russia, despite its imperial trappings, is proving it is not.

[Dragonman]

..... But Russia still has bilateral agreements in countries where it is interested in mutual protection.

1992 – Collective Security Treaty – established the Collective Security Treaty Organization including Armenia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan used to belong to CSTO but withdrew.

I can't think of any countries that might be interested in invading them - apart from Russia which occupied all of them at one point historically.

[cdnmatt]

Peter the Great built the beautiful city of St. Petersburg in an attempt to prove that Imperial Russia was a civilized European nation. Putin's Russia, despite its imperial trappings, is proving it is not.


Peter the Great is also on record saying he always stated he wished he was ruler of a civilized nation like Sweden, instead of a crazy nation like Russia.

[Dodger]

Nobody cares about the cares of McDonalds anymore here:

I'm not quite sure that the 60,000 Russian employees of McDonalds would agree.

[Ruthrieston]

And the evidence of the appalling war crimes committed against innocent civilians in Ukraine continue to accumulate. Russia will be isolated and punished severely by the civilised world for decades to come, and rightly so.

[Dodger]

How Dictators can still manage to spawn and spin their webs in a modern world is hard to comprehend. Sadly, it lends credence to the old saying that "people are sheep".

Here's a snippet from the article linked below that's both historically accurate and extremely depressing at the same time

"The rule of dictators and despots has often been protracted over many years, if not decades. The instruments of dictatorship are well known, including the use of brutal security services, torture chambers, and a culture of fear and repression. State-controlled media project an image of popular support and invulnerability. Dictators depend heavily on the support of their armed forces and police, as well as the backing of elites who are often from the same clan, tribe or political party. While dictators amass wealth, their populations usually are reduced to grinding poverty".

https://theglobalobservatory.org/2011/11/the-fate-of-dictators/

[Dodger]

Has Vladimir Putin fallen into the Dictator Trap?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAKfyrp8AMk

[cdnmatt]

Has Vladimir Putin fallen into the Dictator Trap?

Don't think we need a "professor" to tell us that. heh.

[Moses]

If you haven't noticed, so does the West. Our offering of mutual protection seems to be appealing to folks too, as Finland and Sweden are joining up right now. Cool, eh?



Don't cry "Huraaa!" before jump. Erdogan yesterday told "We don't say "yes"

[Moses]

Overall, Ukrainian forces hit 11 aerial targets:

2 helicopters (Ka-52, Mi-28)

7 Orlan-10 UAVs

2 cruise missiles.

https://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-air-defence-shoots-down-210701191.html

Well "Ukrainian said"... They lying as breathing... If count all targets what they announced already, they already have damaged all Russian aircrafts... twice...

[Moses]

1992 – Collective Security Treaty – established the Collective Security Treaty Organization including Armenia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan used to belong to CSTO but withdrew.

I can't think of any countries that might be interested in invading them - apart from Russia which occupied all of them at one point historically.

It was about bilateral agreements about intellectual property protection...

[Moses]

I'm not quite sure that the 60,000 Russian employees of McDonalds would agree.

Why? These shops will continue to work. Like they did in Donetsk. Why they should worry?

12548

[Moses]

And the evidence of the appalling war crimes committed against innocent civilians in Ukraine continue to accumulate. Russia will be isolated and punished severely by the civilised world for decades to come, and rightly so.

yes-yes... 39 countries of 198... good luck to "isolation"

meanwhile EU already dropped idea to embargo on Russian oil transportation because of few vetoes, yesterday again failed voting about embargo of Russian oil import to EU

by the way:

- just at past Friday Israel again launched 22 missiles to Syrian territory, Israel many years occupies Gaza strip, Israel killed 6 foreign citizens in foreign countries ... maybe someone of you wants to talk about aggression of Israel and it isolation? (FYI: 16 of 22 missiles have been intercepted by 20-years old S-300 "Made in Russia")

- yesterday Mr. Alzheimer signed order to send US troops to Somali. What do you think if Russia and allies will start send weapon-ammo to Somalians and share intelligence data with them where American troops are located?

- chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said on Wednesday that the United States has the capabilities to conduct strike operations in Afghanistan if a threat emanates from the country’s territory. Huh? "Territory" is located on different continent.

Doubled standards?

[dab69]

Well "Ukrainian said"... They lying as breathing... If count all targets what they announced already, they already damaged all Russian aircrafts... twice...

No that is Putin winning "election" of stupid Russian sheep
with 140% of the "vote"...

Now he can kill and rob the dumb peasants that support him.
Especially the old ones. Younger are not as cocksure ignorant.

[Moses]

Reuters: Yesterday 267 Ukrainian soldiers and officers with white flags capitulated in "Azovstal" in Mariupol. They were divided on two parts. Smaller part has been escorted to Donetsk territory. Bigger part - to Crimea.

I think I know how they were sorted: Nazi from "Azov" battalion were send to Donetsk, soldiers from Ukrainian army - to Crimea. Because Russia has no death penalty in criminal code, but Donetsk Republic has, so everyone of Nazi from "Azov" will be interrogated what he did at past 8 years.

[Dragonman]

It was about bilateral agreements about intellectual property protection...

Oh - you mean all those international treaties and other bilateral agreements I mentioned?

I was very interested to note that Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated March 5, 2022 No. 430-r (http://ips.pravo.gov.ru:8080/default.aspx?pn=0001202203070001) explicitly notes Taiwan (China) as an "unfriendly nation," separate from the PRC. Russia imports many products from the PRC which are made at Taiwanese-owned operations. Although this trade is officially considered in the statistics as part of Russian-PRC trade, will these products be sanctioned too?

Russia adopted adopted new legislation matching international standards for the protection of intellectual property rights by, in particular, increasing sanctions for, and improving legal mechanisms to combat infringements of intellectual property rights as part of its accession to the World Trade Organization. I will not be surprised if soon there are moves to expel it from that body, in view of its new legislation on IP rights belonging to "unfriendly countries." See "Invasion of Ukraine: Russia’s Trade Status. Tariffs, and WTO Issues" (https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11881).

[dab69]

Russians confirm they are hitting Ukrainian targets with banned cluster and phosphorus weapons Security Service of Ukraine

The Russian invaders confirm that they are using phosphorus and cluster weapons in Ukraine, which are prohibited by international conventions.

Source: another intercept of the invaders' conversation by the Security Service of Ukraine

Details: These are particularly dangerous and inhumane types of weapons.

Thus, the Russian Federation continues to grossly violate the laws and customs of war, in order to destroy as many peaceful Ukrainians as possible.

Since 2014, the Security Service of Ukraine has repeatedly recorded the use of prohibited weapons by Russian occupiers in the area of the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone/Joint Forces Operation. Since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, these war crimes have been committed by the occupiers along the entire front line. The Security Service of Ukraine documents each of them.

The intercepts and the collected data will be included in the materials for the international courts, so that no Russian war criminal escapes punishment, the intelligence service notes.

Quote from the occupier: "Yes, they are still waiting for Volodka (Putin -ed.). To get all this f*cked up, he will withdraw the troops and f*cking fire "Topols" here. And so, you see, everything that was forbidden by international conventions: cluster bombs, phosphorus – we were allowed everything, we let everything go there."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russians-confirm-hitting-ukrainian-targets-112214181.html


More war crimes by Herr Putin and his Nazi mob

[Moses]

Oh - you mean all those international treaties and other bilateral agreements I mentioned?

I was very interested to note that Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated March 5, 2022 No. 430-r (http://ips.pravo.gov.ru:8080/default.aspx?pn=0001202203070001) explicitly notes Taiwan (China) as an "unfriendly nation," separate from the PRC. Russia imports many products from the PRC which are made at Taiwanese-owned operations. Although this trade is officially considered in the statistics as part of Russian-PRC trade, will these products be sanctioned too?


why they should be? the most annoying is US propaganda, but did you heard of any "sanctioned products" for to export from Russia to US besides rocket engines?



Russia adopted adopted new legislation matching international standards for the protection of intellectual property rights by, in particular, increasing sanctions for, and improving legal mechanisms to combat infringements of intellectual property rights as part of its accession to the World Trade Organization. I will not be surprised if soon there are moves to expel it from that body, in view of its new legislation on IP rights belonging to "unfriendly countries." See "Invasion of Ukraine: Russia’s Trade Status. Tariffs, and WTO Issues" (https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11881).

"If soon"? There are strong pressure for to expel already... who cares then about "adopting new legislation"???

[cdnmatt]

Don't cry "Huraaa!" before jump. Erdogan yesterday told "We don't say "yes"


It's called politics, Moses. Turkey isn't going to block their approval.

[dab69]

Final communication from the Moskva cruiser: Two holes, lying on its side

Ukrayinska Pravda
Sun, May 15, 2022, 5:17 AM·2 min read

OLENA ROSHCHINA - SUNDAY, 15 MAY 2022, 13:17

Pivden (South) Operational Command has posted a recording of communications from the Moskva cruiser that took place as the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet was sinking.

Source: audio recording on the Pivden Operational Command page on Facebook

Quote: "The final recording of communications aboard the Moskva cruiser: shouting about two hits, rolling to the side, need to save the crew."

Details: The communications officer informs the tugboat that there is an emergency on the ship: "Moskva-1 - two holes, propeller stalled, sinking, lying on its side."

The man shouts that there is a hole below the waterline and a roll of 30 degrees.

He says "there is no way to get closer" to the tugboats.

"We’re doing our best to save the crew," he says from the Moskva cruiser.

Background:

In the evening of 13 April, it became known that Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles had hit the Moskva missile cruiser, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. After that, the cruiser with its 16 cruise missiles was forced out of action and sank.

Experts analysed satellite images and determined the exact coordinates of the Moskva cruiser at the time when it was hit by the Ukrainian Neptune missile and concluded that half of the crew had been killed or wounded.

CNN and The New York Times reported that the US had allegedly helped Ukraine with intelligence regarding the location of the Moskva cruiser. The Pentagon denied this: "The Ukrainians have their own intelligence capabilities to track and target Russian naval vessels, as they did in this case."

Investigative journalists believe that the crew of the Moskva cruiser may have been two-thirds conscripts. Relatives of the Moskva sailors searched for them and were told that the cruiser was not on a combat mission and the sailors were missing in action. Survivors, however, said that the cruiser was on its way to Odesa with a landing force.

Forbes estimated that the sunk Moskva cruiser was worth US$750 million.

The Ukrainian postal service issued stamps commemorating the sinking of the cruiser that included the Ukrainian border guards’ phrase "Russian warship, go f#ck yourself".

https://www.yahoo.com/news/final-communication-moskva-cruiser-two-101751781.html


Now Putin can brag about his big submarine

[Moses]

Russians confirm they are hitting Ukrainian targets with banned cluster and phosphorus weapons Security Service of Ukraine

The Russian invaders confirm that they are using phosphorus and cluster weapons in Ukraine, which are prohibited by international conventions.

Source: another intercept of the invaders' conversation by the Security Service of Ukraine

Details: These are particularly dangerous and inhumane types of weapons.

Thus, the Russian Federation continues to grossly violate the laws and customs of war, in order to destroy as many peaceful Ukrainians as possible.

Since 2014, the Security Service of Ukraine has repeatedly recorded the use of prohibited weapons by Russian occupiers in the area of the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone/Joint Forces Operation. Since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, these war crimes have been committed by the occupiers along the entire front line. The Security Service of Ukraine documents each of them.

The intercepts and the collected data will be included in the materials for the international courts, so that no Russian war criminal escapes punishment, the intelligence service notes.

Quote from the occupier: "Yes, they are still waiting for Volodka (Putin -ed.). To get all this f*cked up, he will withdraw the troops and f*cking fire "Topols" here. And so, you see, everything that was forbidden by international conventions: cluster bombs, phosphorus – we were allowed everything, we let everything go there."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russians-confirm-hitting-ukrainian-targets-112214181.html


More war crimes by Herr Putin and his Nazi mob

US and EU collaborate with Nazi, shame on you.

By the way: white phosphorus bombs aren't prohibited weapon despite that you read in your medias. They are for to start fire, not for to hit people. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-white-phosphorus-russia-ukraine/

So is using it a war crime?

Because of its incendiary effects, the use of phosphorus in war is supposed to be tightly regulated under international law — but it is not banned. Phosphorus is not classed as a chemical weapon under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

When used as a weapon, it can cause fire to rain down on targets, inflicting indiscriminate damage. It is illegal, therefore, for phosphorus to be used near civilians, because international law requires that combatants distinguish between civilian and military elements.

There have been documented civilian casualties from the use of white phosphorus in war zones around the world, including Syria, Afghanistan, Gaza and elsewhere, according to Human Rights Watch.

The organization has called on world leaders to close loopholes in the international agreement governing incendiary weapons, or fully ban them, but claims that "a small number of countries have blocked progress."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced this week that the U.S. assesses that "members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine," and noted "credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians" — but he did not include any mention of allegations involving use of white phosphorus.

About clustering bombs: as per UN human right commissar report both side uses clustering bombs. Well...

[Moses]

It's called politics, Moses. Turkey isn't going to block their approval.

Yes, yes. The same as Hungary isn't going to block oil embargo, Biden announced 200 rubles per 1 dollar, and your happy messages about "expert announced default of Russia at March 16"...

EU commissars announced "tomorrow oil embargo" already second month. At past week Borrell "we will have embargo at next Monday", yesterday "we don't warrant embargo".

Yesterday EU announced what payment for gas to Gasprombank doesn't break sanctions anymore... Orwell.

[Moses]

Final communication from the Moskva cruiser: Two holes, lying on its side

Ukrayinska Pravda
Sun, May 15, 2022, 5:17 AM·2 min read


"Ukrainska Pravda" translation "Ukrainian Truth" . It is already oxymoronic.



Investigative journalists believe

some people even believe in gods, should I follow them?

[Dragonman]

[QUOTE=Moses;290568]US and EU collaborate with Nazi, shame on you.

By the way: white phosphorus bombs aren't prohibited weapon despite that you read in your medias. They are for to start fire, not for to hit people. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-white-phosphorus-russia-ukraine/

Confused again on both counts.

1. You keep parroting the Putin claim about Nazis in Ukraine, in particular the use of the Azov regiment, while ignoring Nazi and Neo-Nazi groups in Russia. Neo-Nazi, far right and xenophobic groups admittedly do exist in Ukraine, but they also exist in other countries, including Russia. While they may be vocal, can be prone to violence, they are numerically small, marginal and their political influence at the state level is non-existent. Skinheads and Neo-Nazi groups in Russia a much bigger problem and threat than the Ukrainian far right. Neo-Nazi membership in the Azov regiment has been estimated at no more than 20%. In parliamentary elections, the far right only rarely exceeded 3% of the popular vote, far less than in much of the rest of Europe.

Putin has used Neo-Nazi groups in Russia to obliterate his opponents, particularly in a movement called "Nashi" or "Ours," and later in two rival Kremlin proxies, the nationalist “Young Russia” group and the anti-immigration “Locals” group. These organizations became bridges between the Neo-Nazi subculture and the Kremlin. Russia is so anti-Neo-Nazi that it permitted German Neo-Nazis to be trained at Russian camps. The participants received training in how to use weapons and explosives. They were also trained in close combat. Swedish and Finnish nationals were also among the trainees. Participants went on to join Russian militias active in eastern Ukraine. (https://www.dw.com/en/german-neo-nazis-trained-at-russian-camps-report/a-53692907). I believe you acknowledged in an earlier post that such training had taken place.

Is this a case of our Neo-Nazis are all right but yours are not?

2. Article 1 of Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons defines an incendiary weapon as "any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of flame, heat, or combination thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target". Article 2 of the same protocol prohibits the deliberate use of incendiary weapons against civilian targets (already forbidden by the Geneva Conventions), the use of air-delivered incendiary weapons against military targets in civilian areas, and the general use of other types of incendiary weapons against military targets located within "concentrations of civilians" without taking all possible means to minimize casualties.

"About clustering bombs: as per UN human right commissar report both side uses clustering bombs. Well..."

Cluster bombs are banned under an international treaty (the 2010 Convention on Cluster Munitions) that prohibits the use, transfer, production and stockpiling of the weapons. The treaty cites the failure of many submunitions to explode on impact, leaving dangerous ordnance in fields and urban areas that could kill or maim people. Russia and Ukraine are among the countries who are not signatories to the treaty. But an attack of any kind that indiscriminately attacks civilians would probably be a war crime if their use was neither a military necessity nor proportional to the threat they are facing, and so against the Geneva Conventions. Moreover, based on the Geneva Conventions standard of command responsibility, the commanding General as well as anyone else in his chain of command is culpable.

[Moses]

========== Is this a case of our Neo-Nazis ========

yeah, I remember how Roosevelt said "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." Now you have "our Neo-Nazi" for to collaborate and to support. Brilliant.

Difference btw Russia and Ukraine is: in Russia Neo-Nazi sits in jail, in Ukraine they sits in parliament, government and army's headquarters, parading by center of capital.

PS and in US Neo-Nazi shoots about 10 victims per each accident.

[Moses]

Shameless Ukrainian government calls the capitulation of "Azov" battalion in Mariupol "Ukrainian rescue operation" in official news.

Russian army had meeting with "Azov", Donetsk Republic gave buses for evacuation, hospitals in Donetsk and Crimea accept wounded Ukrainian soldiers, but it is "Ukrainian rescue operation".

This is all you have to know about "Ukrainska pravda" (Ukrainian truth).

[Dragonman]

I now realize the meaning of "my truth" to the "woke generation" as displayed in postings about the success and righteousness of Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine that was supposed to be a victory in seven days. On Day 83 (May 17), victory seems less assured but comments about Russian successful and righteous actions continue. In this context, these truths are not the same as facts (i.e., the quality of being actual, something that actually exists), but something that simply serves the deepening of the poster's own beliefs. They are straight out of Trump's playbook - "alternative facts" as Kellyanne Conway called them.

[dab69]

US and EU collaborate with Nazi, shame on you.





Not shame on Putin and the Russian Nazis -
invading and killing thousands on both sides.
Go bathe in "deer antler blood" ceremony with murderer that
steals your money and enslaves/kills your nephews.

And the Moskva "sunk from a fire on board-"
you ignorant old dinosaur.

[dab69]

Kremlin Tells Russians: Don’t Worry, This War Will ‘Make Your Lives Better’

Nearly three months into Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, amid skyrocketing prices at home and potentially decades of economic gains lost, the Kremlin insists its war will “make life better” for ordinary Russians.

“We are in fact now living in the conditions of a perfect storm and the moment of truth, that very storm and moment of truth that will ensure and protect our interests, and make it so that your lives are better, more comfortable, more stable, and more secure,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

Speaking at the “New Horizons” education marathon, Peskov insisted that “our president knows where he is leading our country,” and that “the whole country supports him.”

The Kremlin, he said, is “confident that we will win and achieve all our goals”—a jarring claim after Russian forces have repeatedly been forced to retreat from what they believed would be a quick victory in Ukraine, and ordinary Russians have been forced to bear the brunt of the economic fallout.

The war that the Kremlin has depicted as a heroic crusade against nonexistent neo-Nazi leaders in Ukraine has led to hundreds of foreign companies cutting ties with Russia, killed as many as 27,000 Russian troops, and, according to Ukrainian intelligence, left Putin’s military in shambles.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/kremlin-tells-russians-don-t-115327498.html

[Andy]

What a strange feeling when people accuse each other of aiding the Nazis at a forum dedicated to gay affairs in a Buddhist country... I wish this thread had never existed.

[Moses]

Russia will be isolated and punished severely by the civilised world for decades to come, and rightly so.

You lost rights to call yourself "civilized" in August 8 1945 when first nuclear bomb has been dropped on the heads of Japanese civilians. Since that day you are more barbaric than tribes in Amazonian basin.

Half of your "civilized world" still has "death penalty" in criminal code, but at the same time prints on money bills "In God we trust", another half still has classes and must to bow and curtsey in front of sick "aristocrats", who call themself "kings" and "queens" just because they have specific family names... even more: some of your countries have foreign queen as a head of state... why you call your countries sovereign then?



you ignorant old dinosaur.

at first: you have no idea how old I am, at second: I am glad to see what you have no arguments for to dispute subject and have to switch on discussion of my personality for to keep your face in front of my arguments... good luck, you may continue - show your "culture" in full blooming... by the way: do you still think what


+5C about 58F

how much is 2+3?

[cdnmatt]

You lost rights to call yourself "civilized" in August 8 1945 when first nuclear bomb has been dropped on the heads of Japanese civilians. Since that day you are more barbaric than tribes in Amazonian basin.

Half of your "civilized world" still has "death penalty" in criminal code, but at the same time prints on money bills "In God we trust", another half still has classes and must to bow and curtsey in front of sick "aristocrats", who call themself "kings" and "queens" just because they have specific family names... even more: some of your countries have foreign queen as a head of state... why you call your countries sovereign then?

Cool, too bad the Russian military sucks so badly, eh?

[Dragonman]

A sign of change in Russian media coverage of the Ukrainian special military operation?

While it has not yet been reported in the Taiwanese press, it has been reported in the "South China Morning Post" (published in Hong Kong under the new laws on press freedom there) under the headline "Ukraine war ‘will get worse for us’, that retired Russian colonel Mikhail Khodarenok participated in the "60 Minutes" program Russian state TV and made some interesting comments, e.g., "Don’t swallow ‘informational tranquilisers’, military analyst Mikhail Khodaryonok warns viewers, in a rare criticism of Putin’s invasion. “The main thing in our business is have a sense of military-political realism: if you go beyond that then the reality of history will hit you so hard that you will not know what hit you,” he said" (https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3178134/ukraine-war-will-get-worse-us-retired-russian).

Earlier, retired former PRC Ambassador to Ukraine Gao Yusheng made similar comments during an internal webinar hosted by the government-affiliated China International Finance 30 Forum and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Phoenix News Media, a partially state-owned television network, published an edited transcript of his remark “with revisions from the ambassador himself.” This was removed very quickly from the Internet, however.

Gao's words reflect the Ukrainian perspective, and Khodarenok's a Russian perspective broadcast live on one of twice-daily flagship talk shows on Russian state TV in a studio discussion that promotes the Kremlin line on absolutely everything. Khodarenok had previously made his views known, writing in Russia's Independent Military Review in February (before Moscow attacked Ukraine), criticising "enthusiastic hawks and hasty cuckoos" for claiming that Russia would easily win a war against Ukraine. His conclusion back then: "An armed conflict with Ukraine is not in Russia's national interests." So the channel and the host, Olga Skabeyeva, must have known what he was going to say.

It seems that "The other guests in the studio were silent," and that "Even the host, Olga Skabeyeva, normally fierce and vocal in her defense of the Kremlin, appeared oddly subdued."

Other reports include:
CNN Report: Former Russian colonel criticizes the country's invasion of Ukraine on state television (https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-05-17-22/h_03b8b926d3f8aa69994c715250c7dd00).
BBC Report: Retired colonel speaks out on Russian TV (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61484222).
NY Times Report: On a Russian talk show, a retired colonel stuns his colleagues by pointing out that the invasion isn’t going well. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/world/europe/russian-state-tv-ukraine-invasion.html). This report said "A military analyst on one of Russian state television’s most popular networks left his fellow panelists in stunned silence on Monday when he said that the conflict in Ukraine was deteriorating for Russia, giving the kind of honest assessment that is virtually banished from the official airwaves."

The BBC report concludes: "So what happened on 60 Minutes? Was this a spontaneous, unprompted and unexpected wake-up call on Ukraine that slipped through the net? Or was it a pre-planned burst of reality in order to prepare the Russian public for negative news on the progress of the "special military operation"? It's difficult to say. But as they say on the telly, stay tuned to Russian TV for further signals."

[Dodger]

A sign of change in Russian media coverage of the Ukrainian special military operation?

While it has not yet been reported in the Taiwanese press, it has been reported in the "South China Morning Post" (published in Hong Kong under the new laws on press freedom there) under the headline "Ukraine war ‘will get worse for us’, that retired Russian colonel Mikhail Khodarenok participated in the "60 Minutes" program Russian state TV and made some interesting comments, e.g., "Don’t swallow ‘informational tranquilisers’, military analyst Mikhail Khodaryonok warns viewers, in a rare criticism of Putin’s invasion. “The main thing in our business is have a sense of military-political realism: if you go beyond that then the reality of history will hit you so hard that you will not know what hit you,” he said" (https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3178134/ukraine-war-will-get-worse-us-retired-russian).

Earlier, retired former PRC Ambassador to Ukraine Gao Yusheng made similar comments during an internal webinar hosted by the government-affiliated China International Finance 30 Forum and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Phoenix News Media, a partially state-owned television network, published an edited transcript of his remark “with revisions from the ambassador himself.” This was removed very quickly from the Internet, however.

Gao's words reflect the Ukrainian perspective, and Khodarenok's a Russian perspective broadcast live on one of twice-daily flagship talk shows on Russian state TV in a studio discussion that promotes the Kremlin line on absolutely everything. Khodarenok had previously made his views known, writing in Russia's Independent Military Review in February (before Moscow attacked Ukraine), criticising "enthusiastic hawks and hasty cuckoos" for claiming that Russia would easily win a war against Ukraine. His conclusion back then: "An armed conflict with Ukraine is not in Russia's national interests." So the channel and the host, Olga Skabeyeva, must have known what he was going to say.

It seems that "The other guests in the studio were silent," and that "Even the host, Olga Skabeyeva, normally fierce and vocal in her defense of the Kremlin, appeared oddly subdued."

Other reports include:
CNN Report: Former Russian colonel criticizes the country's invasion of Ukraine on state television (https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-05-17-22/h_03b8b926d3f8aa69994c715250c7dd00).
BBC Report: Retired colonel speaks out on Russian TV (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61484222).
NY Times Report: On a Russian talk show, a retired colonel stuns his colleagues by pointing out that the invasion isn’t going well. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/world/europe/russian-state-tv-ukraine-invasion.html). This report said "A military analyst on one of Russian state television’s most popular networks left his fellow panelists in stunned silence on Monday when he said that the conflict in Ukraine was deteriorating for Russia, giving the kind of honest assessment that is virtually banished from the official airwaves."

The BBC report concludes: "So what happened on 60 Minutes? Was this a spontaneous, unprompted and unexpected wake-up call on Ukraine that slipped through the net? Or was it a pre-planned burst of reality in order to prepare the Russian public for negative news on the progress of the "special military operation"? It's difficult to say. But as they say on the telly, stay tuned to Russian TV for further signals."

I’ve spotted the same news releases which seem to be flooding the airways right now.

First it was former Russian colonel who made very frank and critical comments regarding the war effort on Russian TV, followed by a regular commentator in Russian media, who also commented on Russia's broader isolation. He stated …"Let's look at this situation as a whole from our overall strategic position," he said. "Let’s not swing missiles in Finland's direction – this just looks ridiculous. The biggest problem with our military and political situation is that we are in total geopolitical isolation. And the whole world is against us — even if we don’t want to admit it."

I wonder if this is the beginning of the “movement” so many have been hoping for?

Moses is certainly in a better position to tell us if this type of “open” reporting is something new – or if comments critical of Russia’s war efforts like this have been communicated in Russian media in the past.

https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-05-17-22/h_03b8b926d3f8aa69994c715250c7dd00

[Dragonman]

I’ve spotted the same news releases which seem to be flooding the airways right now.

First it was former Russian colonel who made very frank and critical comments regarding the war effort on Russian TV, followed by a regular commentator in Russian media, who also commented on Russia's broader isolation. He stated …"Let's look at this situation as a whole from our overall strategic position," he said. "Let’s not swing missiles in Finland's direction – this just looks ridiculous. The biggest problem with our military and political situation is that we are in total geopolitical isolation. And the whole world is against us — even if we don’t want to admit it."

I wonder if this is the beginning of the “movement” so many have been hoping for?

Moses is certainly in a better position to tell us if this type of “open” reporting is something new – or if comments critical of Russia’s war efforts like this have been communicated in Russian media in the past.

https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-05-17-22/h_03b8b926d3f8aa69994c715250c7dd00

I was reminded of another statement about the end of a war - that by former Emperor Hirohito: …. "But now the war has lasted for nearly four years. Despite the best that has been done by everyone — the gallant fighting of the military and naval forces, the diligence and assiduity of Our servants of the State, and the devoted service of Our one hundred million people — the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest."

I expect a similar statement from Putin - or his successor - sometime soon.

[cdnmatt]

Yep, Russians won't stop fighting until they're simply unable to fight anymore.

What irks me about this whole thing is how Putin keeps playing the victim card. What a dick.

[cdnmatt]

And Finland parliament approves NATO application -- 188 in favor, 8 against.

[cdnmatt]

Average Russian guy just living his life gives a tour around a mall or two with a Western friend, then his thoughts on the whole mess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vQgx28vNsg

[Andy]

Average Russian guy just living his life gives a tour around a mall or two with a Western friend, then his thoughts on the whole mess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vQgx28vNsg

I am the same Moscow citizen as this guy, and I share all his feelings with him.

[cdnmatt]

I am the same Moscow citizen as this guy, and I share all his feelings with him.


Yeah, been watching some of his vids, he's pretty good. Apparently, Russia is bringing back the Moskvich and will manufacture them out of the once Renault owned factory before Renault noped out of Russia.

Apparently, no air bags or ABS even, and mayor of Moscow was on TV saying every Russian will be proud to be an owner.. USSR is back, baby!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-16/moscow-revives-soviet-era-moskvich-car-as-renault-leaves-russia

[dab69]

Sweden and Finland have applied to join NATO.
Finland has an 830-mile border with Russia, so Russia's border with NATO would more than double.
Russia has made repeated threats and said it would have to retaliate if they join.

Sweden and Finland applied on Wednesday to join the NATO military alliance, likely frustrating a long-term aim of President Vladimir Putin to roll NATO borders back.

If accepted, their presence would instantly more than double the border between NATO countries and Russia, from around 750 miles to around 1,600.

At present, NATO has land borders with Russia spanning 754 miles across northern Norway, eastern Latvia and Estonia, and the borders with Poland and Lithuania around Russia's Kaliningrad region.

Finland joining would add 830 miles of continuous border along northwestern Russia, taking the total to 1,584 miles. Sweden has no land border with Russia, but is a major presence along the coast of the Baltic Sea.

The increase in public and political support in Sweden and Finland for joining NATO came after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

Experts have said the development is an own goal for Russia, which partly justified its invasion of Ukraine as a way to stop NATO expanding further.

Russian officials have repeatedly threatened the two countries, saying they would have retaliate against a membership bid. As the application became a reality, Russia moderated its tone.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/map-shows-how-russias-border-with-nato-would-more-than-double-with-finland-and-sweden-as-members/ar-AAXoJci?li=BBnb7Kz

Putin moderating is threats?
Sounds like Baby Trump.

[Moses]

Russian officials have repeatedly threatened the two countries, saying they would have retaliate against a membership bid. As the application became a reality, Russia moderated its tone.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/map-shows-how-russias-border-with-nato-would-more-than-double-with-finland-and-sweden-as-members/ar-AAXoJci?li=BBnb7Kz

Putin moderating is threats?
Sounds like Baby Trump.

"Officials" do their job. Putin already told to president of Finland what Russia has nothing against Finland in NATO during their phone talk.

Erdogan yesterday said what Turkey will allow new members of NATO only if US will take Turkey into F-35 program.

Meanwhile Russia just agreed on 450 additional flights to Turkey per week. Right now there are 290 flights per week btw Russia and Turkey. High season is starting.

[Dragonman]

Meanwhile Russia just agreed on 450 additional flights to Turkey per week. Right now there are 290 flights per week btw Russia and Turkey. High season is starting.

The TASS report (https://tass.com/economy/1452979) has the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak telling reporters on Wednesday: ""Agreements were reached to increase the number of flights both from the side of Turkish Airlines and from the side of our companies that will be flying (sic)." That is, he doesn't name Aeroflot or any other Russian airline as providing such additional flights..

Maybe this is why: "Aviation safety: 20 Russian airlines added to EU Air Safety List" (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_2389 - Press release11 April 2022 Brussels): The Commission has updated the EU Air Safety List, which is the list of airlines that are subject to an operating ban or operational restrictions within the European Union, because they do not meet international safety standards. Following the update, 21 airlines certified in Russia are now included on the EU Air Safety List. This reflects serious safety concerns due to Russia's forced re-registration of foreign-owned aircraft, knowingly allowing their operation without valid certificates of airworthiness. This is in breach of international aviation safety standards.

Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean said: “The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has allowed Russian airlines to operate hundreds of foreign-owned aircraft without a valid Certificate of Airworthiness. The Russian airlines concerned have knowingly done so in breach of relevant international safety standards. This is not only a clear breach of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention), but it also poses an immediate safety threat. We are living in the context of Russia's unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine. However, I want to make it crystal-clear that this decision is not another sanction against Russia; it has been taken solely on the basis of technical and safety grounds. We do not mix safety with politics.”

[cdnmatt]

Now here's a prime example of how and why the West is different. Quick news segment from tonight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y23mTSviCZo

I'm assuming that wouldn't be allowed in Russia, but the news commentator is right. Bush made a massive freudian slip while giving a speech recently.

[Moses]

The TASS report (https://tass.com/economy/1452979) has the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak telling reporters on Wednesday: ""Agreements were reached to increase the number of flights both from the side of Turkish Airlines and from the side of our companies that will be flying (sic)." That is, he doesn't name Aeroflot or any other Russian airline as providing such additional flights..

Maybe this is why: "Aviation safety: 20 Russian airlines added to EU Air Safety List" (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_2389 - Press release11 April 2022 Brussels): The Commission has updated the EU Air Safety List, which is the list of airlines that are subject to an operating ban or operational restrictions within the European Union, because they do not meet international safety standards. Following the update, 21 airlines certified in Russia are now included on the EU Air Safety List. This reflects serious safety concerns due to Russia's forced re-registration of foreign-owned aircraft, knowingly allowing their operation without valid certificates of airworthiness. This is in breach of international aviation safety standards.

Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean said: “The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has allowed Russian airlines to operate hundreds of foreign-owned aircraft without a valid Certificate of Airworthiness. The Russian airlines concerned have knowingly done so in breach of relevant international safety standards. This is not only a clear breach of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention), but it also poses an immediate safety threat. We are living in the context of Russia's unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine. However, I want to make it crystal-clear that this decision is not another sanction against Russia; it has been taken solely on the basis of technical and safety grounds. We do not mix safety with politics.”

1. Turkey isn't EU, so nobody cares
2. Russia already maintained own Air safety register and list, and it is recognized by Turkey, so everything still is in order: certificates are valid. Russian certificates.
3. Yes, names of companies aren't pronounced: there are a lot of companies in Russia, why he should list them in short message?
4. "Cristal clear" lie: all aircrafts became "not safe" in one day, for sure it is "technical and safety ground", no politic and pressure here.

[cdnmatt]

Moses, you do realize this would all be easier it we could just all be friends, right?

[Moses]

Sometimes even Bush may say truth.

Former President George W. Bush: “The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean of Ukraine.”


https://youtu.be/MQjFsOTsvTA

[dab69]

. High season is starting.

and Nazi blitzkreig continues

Heil Putin

[Moses]

Be warned: Ukrainian brain-washed refugees have strange habit to burn Russian flags. Sometimes along with house and houses of neighborhoods.

12549

[dab69]

and Russian Nazis still murdering and invading...
Blitzkreig continues...

[dab69]

In a country where independent media and commentary has all but disappeared from public view, it's rare to hear dissenting voices on the many state-controlled TV networks in Russia — particularly now with the country at war with Ukraine.

But one well-known military analyst and veteran has stood out this week after he appeared on state TV and gave a damning assessment of the Ukraine invasion, or what Russia calls its "special military operation."

"The situation, frankly speaking, will get worse for us," Mikhail Khodaryonok, a retired Russian army colonel, told the "60 Minutes" talk show on Rossiya-1 TV program hosted by Olga Skabeyeva, who's renowned for her pro-Kremlin stance.

"You should not swallow informational tranquilizers," Khodaryonok told the host as he warned that Ukraine was in no way near being beaten by Russia, and that Kyiv could mobilize and arm a million people if it wanted to.

Khodaryonok, who is also a defense columnist for the gazeta.ru newspaper and a graduate of one of Russia's elite military academies, according to Reuters, had previously warned the country against invading its neighbor Ukraine, saying it was not in Russia's national interests.

His advice unheeded, Russia is now almost three months into a bloody conflict in Ukraine with only a few significant territorial gains in the east and south, and with the invasion likely to turn into a long-term war of attrition with Ukraine's fighters showing a bravery and resilience underestimated by Moscow.

Russia has already had to scale back its apparent strategy to invade Ukraine from the north, east and south and has now focused its fighting forces on eastern Ukraine, in the Donbas region.

Khodaryonok emphasized that even if Ukraine had to rely on hundreds of thousands of conscripts that only had rudimentary military training, what mattered is that their hearts would be in the fight, and that would not bode well for Russia.

"The desire to defend one's motherland in the sense that it exists in Ukraine — it really does exist there and they intend to fight to the last," Khodaryonok said before he was interrupted by Skabeyeva who was trying to downplay the effectiveness of Ukraine's forces.

"We need to treat this million Ukrainian soldiers as a reality in the nearest future," he said.

Neither Khodaryonok nor Skabeyeva could not be reached for comment, Reuters reported.
'The world is against us'

On the global stage, Russia is widely ostracized and has been sanctioned to the hilt, with even its erstwhile allies in China and India edgy over how long the conflict could last.

"The main deficiency of our military-political position is that we are in full geopolitical solitude and — however we don't want to admit it — practically the whole world is against us ... and we need to get out of this situation," Khodaryonok continued on the talk show, with the other studio guests appearing dumbstruck by his outspoken critique.

While Russia is increasingly isolated, the West appears more united than ever. Ukraine's allies in the West continue to supply arms to Kyiv and Russia's invasion has seen the Western military alliance NATO tighten its security measures. In fact, Russia's invasion has only served to strengthen the alliance, with Finland and Sweden now looking to join the organization.

Russia predicated its onslaught of Ukraine largely on opposition to it joining NATO (a prospect that was not imminent) and has invariably blamed NATO for the invasion, as well as accusing the military alliance of preparing to invade what Moscow sees as Russian territory in east Ukraine, where two pro-Russian, self-proclaimed republics are located in the Donbas.

But its response to NATO's forthcoming expansion to include Finland and Sweden has been muted. Although it initially threatened "retaliatory steps" against the expansion, with President Vladimir Putin calling it "a problem," it has since said the expansion doesn't make a big difference to it.

Geopolitical analysts have noted there is little Russia can actually do about the enlargement anyway, although Russia has threatened to act if NATO military infrastructure is placed in Sweden or Finland.
Read more

NATO is about to get bigger and Putin is unhappy: Here are 3 ways Moscow could react

Khodaryonok said Russia needed to see the reality of the situation in Ukraine. "The main thing in our business is to have a sense of military-political realism: if you go beyond that then the reality of history will hit you so hard that you will not know what hit you," he said.

"Don't wave rockets in the direction of Finland for goodness sake — it just looks rather funny," Khodaryonok said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-whole-world-is-against-us-russian-military-analyst-gives-damning-assessment-of-ukraine-war-on-state-tv/ar-AAXptLr?li=BBnb7Kz

[Moses]

At past 72 hours already over 1200 soldiers from Ukrainian army and Nazi "Azov" battalion capitulated and went out of bunker under "Azovstal" forge.

They are going out at day and night. Buses for their transfer running non-stop.

12550

12551

12552


https://youtu.be/vvbCPFB_OyM

[Moses]

New Mariupol's administration announced, that after end of capitulation "Azovstal" will be demolished - it will be city new park-place, since almost 100 years old metal works plant can't be adapted to modern standards of ecology for manufacturing plants.

On the pictures: "Azovstal" before conflict:

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[dab69]

Russian forces gunned down a 14-year-old boy playing soccer and two teen brothers out for a walk after they seized control of villages in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions in the early weeks of the war, a new investigation reveals.

The teens were just a few of the victims of what Human Rights Watch has described as Russia’s “abhorrent, unlawful, and cruel” campaign against civilians from late February through March. Having interviewed dozens of survivors, the human-rights group on Tuesday revealed new “evident war crimes” that it says must immediately be investigated.

Survivors from the village of Yahidne recalled Russian soldiers holding more than 350 residents hostage in a school basement for 28 days, under such abysmal conditions that many of those who lived through the ordeal were still hospitalized in mid-April for conditions they developed during their time in captivity.

Seventy of those trapped in the basement were children, five of them babies, survivors said.

“After a week, everyone was coughing violently. Almost all the children had high fevers, spasms from coughing, and would throw up,” one survivor was quoted saying, noting that detainees were deprived of food for the first several days.

Ten of the older hostages are said to have died during their weeks in captivity.

In other cases, survivors recalled Russian troops searching for any excuse to kill villagers, and then executing them even if they didn’t find one.

Anastasia Andriivna, 66, a survivor from Andriivka, told Human Rights Watch her 45-year-old son had been murdered after Russian forces found a military overcoat from his time in the National Guard in 1993.

She found his body in a barn after Russian forces withdrew. “He was lying there in a fetal position, with his hands tucked under his head, and his jacket draped over his shoulders. He had been shot in the ear, with blood covering his face,” she was quoted saying.

In the village of Mokhnatyn in the Chernihiv region, a passing Russian convoy gunned down two 17-year-old twin brothers, Yevhen and Bohdan Samodiy, along with their 18-year-old friend, Valentin Yakimchuk, according to the report.

In the village of Nova Basan, 14-year-old Dmytro Solovei was simply kicking around a soccer ball on a playground when Russian forces shot him dead. His older brother was then shot as he tried to recover his sibling’s body.

Perhaps most disturbing of all, Russian troops appeared to be under orders to carry out indiscriminate executions. One survivor, a resident of Novyi Bykiv, told investigators that Russian soldiers who held him and several others hostage said they had orders to kill eight detainees and asked for “volunteers.”

When no one came forward, they picked eight men at random.

Human Rights Watch also documented instances of enforced disappearances and torture. The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed its troops are only targeting military sites and avoiding aggression against civilians, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The International Criminal Court sent its largest-ever team of investigators to Ukraine earlier this week to probe hundreds of cases of alleged war crimes.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-troops-held-babies-hostage-executed-boy-on-playground-report/ar-AAXpNi3?cvid=53ec75381a8746e6a87f32b152a2d303

[Moses]

Here is report on capitulation with photos and videos. It is published in Russian "Komsomolskaya pravda" newspaper - private owned, but still quite propagandist.

URL to Goggle translated version in English (https://www-kp-ru.translate.goog/daily/27393/4588115/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp)

Some quotes:


The Nazis did not apologize, they were not afraid, but they could not look us in the eye. The enemy at Azovstal began to surrender


The strangers were all with weapons, however, machine guns were thrown behind their backs, pistols in buttoned holsters. The "Azovites" reached the exit from the yard and stopped in some confusion. In front of them stretched the floodplain of the River, delightful in its greenery and width. And on the other side of Naberezhny Prospekt, the Sarmat restaurant nestled. Those who left the factory were, without exaggeration, shocked by the view. One of the strangers exhaled: "Oh, now would be a barbecue!"/


THEY didn't look into the asphalt, but they didn't look into our eyes either. All young, up to twenty and a little more. Very cool gear, everyone. But the weapon is the same - our eternal Kalashnikov. They weren't dirty, they weren't haggard and scared. Rather tense. So far, they had all the required stripes - from yellow-black flags to "Azov" chevrons


18-year-old "Azov" Nazar from Lviv broke away from another mine and for the first time in many months I heard the Ukrainian language live:

- Ztokhnuvshi people with people ... (pushed people with people, in Ukrainian)

Dmitro noticed that “everyone got along just fine” and said that he was from Mariupol. But Vlad did not agree here:

- I am from Poltava, I left to fight in the fourteenth year, because I understood that I could not get along there. Here we all speak Russian. And they spread rot on the Russian, they adopted a bunch of laws!

Dmitro squeezed out:

- Well, yes.



An hour later, the first batch of “zahistniks” left the factory. Before passing under the tracks, they tore off their sweaty armor, threw off their helmets and weapons, and went into captivity. They didn't feel defeated, more like losers. Lost one battle. And yet, they believed in our mercy and knew for sure that they would not shoot their legs and gouge out their eyes. How did the "Azov" with our prisoners.


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One of the surrendering Nazis wears the chevron of the SS division "Galicia" on his right hand. The other is a stylization of the emblem of the 3rd SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf". Denazification as it is. Well, fascism, which is not in Ukraine. Photo: Dmitry STESHIN

[Moses]

https://vk.com/video-133441491_456259200 - fresh 2 min video without any comments.

New numbers: to 10am today already 1730 soldiers from Azovstal are capitulated. Total number expected to be 2500 after end of capitulation.

[Dragonman]

1.
1. Turkey isn't EU, so nobody cares
2. Russia already maintained own Air safety register and list, and it is recognized by Turkey, so everything still is in order: certificates are valid. Russian certificates.
3. Yes, names of companies aren't pronounced: there are a lot of companies in Russia, why he should list them in short message?
4. "Cristal clear" lie: all aircrafts became "not safe" in one day, for sure it is "technical and safety ground", no politic and pressure here. .

Typical responses.

It is one thing in principle to agree to increase the number of flights between two countries, but in practice it is more difficult because only a certain number of take-off and landing slots per hour for each runway. Thus, one of the problems for airlines is the availability, timing, and cost of such slots, which can cost millions of US dollars each. The average cost of a landing slot at London Heathrow Airport, for example, was around USD 2.5 million (https://www.iba.aero/insight/what-is-a-landing-slot-and-how-much-is-one-worth-december-2019/). Istanbul Airport is already the busiest in Europe and the world's second busiest, so I expect the competition for new slots will be fierce - and their cost increasing.

The other problem is the availability and cost of all the other airport services an.airline uses, e.g., check-in counters, arrival/departure gates, and so on. The list of tariffs for Turkey's airports' services for 2022 runs to more than 60 pages (https://www.istairport.com/tr/business_web/Documents/ucret-tarifesi-en-v2.pdf). Of course, these tariffs are factored into ticket prices, but the landing/take-off slots must be purchased first for a scheduled airline.

[Moses]

Typical responses.

It is one thing in principle to agree to increase the number of flights between two countries, but in practice it is more difficult because only a certain number of take-off and landing slots per hour for each runway. Thus, one of the problems for airlines is the availability, timing, and cost of such slots, which can cost millions of US dollars each. The average cost of a landing slot at London Heathrow Airport, for example, was around USD 2.5 million (https://www.iba.aero/insight/what-is-a-landing-slot-and-how-much-is-one-worth-december-2019/). Istanbul Airport is already the busiest in Europe and the world's second busiest, so I expect the competition for new slots will be fierce - and their cost increasing.

The other problem is the availability and cost of all the other airport services an.airline uses, e.g., check-in counters, arrival/departure gates, and so on. The list of tariffs for Turkey's airports' services for 2022 runs to more than 60 pages (https://www.istairport.com/tr/business_web/Documents/ucret-tarifesi-en-v2.pdf). Of course, these tariffs are factored into ticket prices, but the landing/take-off slots must be purchased first for a scheduled airline.

It is irrelevant reply, since in 2019 when Turkey has been visited by 7 mln Russians such heavy air traffic already has been achieved without problems.

You can easy check it in calculator: 7000000 / 51(week)/(average capacity of 1 aircraft) and then multiplicate to season coefficient for summer (something btw 2 and 3, because much more tourists prefer to visit Turkey at summer weeks) - you will find what at peak weeks traffic was above 800 flights per week.

By the way: have you heard about new Istanbul airport with 5 runways? It may serve now up to 75 mln passengers per year and after completion in 2025 will have 8 sets of runways and will have capacity to serve 150 mln passengers per year - the same amount what all 6 London's airports have together. Flightradar24 shows what even now "next 7 days scheduled" in IST is 4140+ flights , and for LHR (Heathrow) that number is 4024.

[cdnmatt]

Moses, I'm still totally dumbfounded as to how you're a supporter of this war. For example, I along with many others were absolutely sickened when Bush and his cronies invaded Iraq, and believe him along with Cheney, Rumsfield, Wolfowitz and so on should currently be sitting in the Hague.

The fact that you'll just blindly support this war because it happens to be waged by Russia is beyond me. You do realize that at the end of the decade, this doesn't bode well for Russia, right? You do know the Russian people are currently shooting themselves in the foot by waging this war, right? In about 5 years time, you guys are going to wake up and realize you're now a poverty stricken wasteland that is nothing more than the world's natural resource depot.

There will be no winners here, only destruction, heartache, and loss of life. And for absolutely no reason. Why you would ever be in support of this is beyond me. I was totally against the Iraq invasion, remember even participating in some anti-war protests, and somewhat got involved in a group. Didn't pan out, but nonetheless.
are

[Moses]

Moses, I'm still totally dumbfounded as to how you're a supporter of this war. For example, I along with many others were absolutely sickened when Bush and his cronies invaded Iraq, and believe him along with Cheney, Rumsfield, Wolfowitz and so on should currently be sitting in the Hague.

The fact that you'll just blindly support this war because it happens to be waged by Russia is beyond me. You do realize that at the end of the decade, this doesn't bode well for Russia, right? You do know the Russian people are currently shooting themselves in the foot by waging this war, right? In about 5 years time, you guys are going to wake up and realize you're now a poverty stricken wasteland that is nothing more than the world's natural resource depot.

There will be no winners here, only destruction, heartache, and loss of life. And for absolutely no reason. Why you would ever be in support of this is beyond me. I was totally against the Iraq invasion, remember even participating in some anti-war protests, and somewhat got involved in a group. Didn't pan out, but nonetheless.
are

Sorry Matt, "blindly support" - is about you. And here I not meant your physical limitations. How much relatives you have in Ukraine and may ask them about situation? How much of them were killed by nationalist at East Ukraine at past 8 years? If your answer will be "zero" and "zero" then is better for you to read carefully what I'm posting here.

From the beginning, far before start of "hot time" - from my predictions what that conflict will push Russia much more close to China, what this conflict will have Ukraine not as a subject, but as a object, what EU and US will be not able to exclude Russia from global World economy.

Do you remember all that bullshit that you gladly bring here? About ruble "soon 200 per 1 dollar"? About default twice in March and twice in April? About European gas embargo, what I told from beginning - is not possible in nearest 3-4 years (at least). About European oil embargo promised already about 10 time until 2 days ago European Commission accepted what it is failed.

Don't read these BBC, CNN or FOX. Look for data at World Bank statistic, at statista site, at tradeconomic site. And for sure don't trust any Ukrainian news - they are 100% bullshit - agony of dying regime.

And: I don't support war. I support elimination of Nazi.

[cdnmatt]

And: I don't support war. I support elimination of Nazi.

Ok then. How about the Russian children? Do you support them, and want them to live a good life? You know, the ones who are currently about 12 years old or so.

You do know that due to this war, they're going to have a much more difficult time in life now, right? I'm sorry, and I'm not happy to say this, but this does not end well for Russia.

I'm still perplexed as to why you're in support of this.

[latintopxxx]

Im just sad, two beautiful people slaughtering one another....and lets stop saying "Russians"...lets say "Putins minions"....

[Moses]

Moses, I'm still totally dumbfounded as to how you're a supporter of this war. For example, I along with many others were absolutely sickened when Bush and his cronies invaded Iraq, and believe him along with Cheney, Rumsfield, Wolfowitz and so on should currently be sitting in the Hague.



Maybe we here aren't "sickened" because our "Iraq" is laying just behind Russian border and many of us have relatives in "Iraq", some of they are already killed at past 8 years by totally crazy from nationalistic ideas and propaganda "Iraqis"?

After 09/11 where died 2977 persons, coalition of US, UK, AU and Poland made Mosul flatten as desert.

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In East Ukraine died over 16000 Russians... tell me, what do you expect from Russia?

[Dragonman]

It is irrelevant reply, since in 2019 when Turkey has been visited by 7 mln Russians such heavy air traffic already has been achieved without problems.

You can easy check it in calculator: 7000000 / 51(week)/(average capacity of 1 aircraft) and then multiplicate to season coefficient for summer (something btw 2 and 3, because much more tourists prefer to visit Turkey at summer weeks) - you will find what at peak weeks traffic was above 800 flights per week.

By the way: have you heard about new Istanbul airport with 5 runways? It may serve now up to 75 mln passengers per year and after completion in 2025 will have 8 sets of runways and will have capacity to serve 150 mln passengers per year - the same amount what all 6 London's airports have together. Flightradar24 shows what even now "next 7 days scheduled" in IST is 4140+ flights , and for LHR (Heathrow) that number is 4024.

I am aware of Turkey's new international airport as I have flown into and out of both it and the old one. I also noted it was already the busiest in Europe and the world's second busiest.

Nothing in your response negates my comments about competition for landing and take-off slots as Russian airline companies serving routes to Istanbul (Aeroflot, Azimuth, Azur, Nordwind, Pegas Fly, Pobeda, Rossiya, and Ural, and charters like RedWing) are in competition with other airlines for such slots, whether it has five runways or eight. This is also true for summer months, when tourists from other countries like to visit Turkey. After all, it is the problem of increasing competition that drives countries to build larger airports.

I also know that the "150 million passengers annually" is usually qualified as "should ultimately serve" (e.g., https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/reports/massive-capacity-expansion-is-planned-for-istanbul-airports-with-competing-private-interests-172557). I believe that, in English, this conditional clause is suggesting that something is unlikely or not particularly probable - like Putin believing Russia should easily subdue the Ukrainians.

[Up2U]

A good read from the NYT opinions:
We Should Say It. Russia Is Fascist. https://nyti.ms/3PvEYXR

[Dragonman]

Here is report on capitulation with photos and videos. It is published in Russian "Komsomolskaya pravda" newspaper - private owned, but still quite propagandist.

It is a gross understatement to state that the article is "still quite propagandist"!

Komomolskaya Pravda has been owned since 2017 by a the ESN Group headed by Grigory Victorovich Berezkin, one of Putin's pet oligarchs. The Kremlin has trusted him with the purchase of some media assets that are important for Putin's domestic propaganda system. He is also "the owner of a tabloid that is deferential to the Russian leader" (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-media-rbc-sale-idUSKBN1972KO). Berezkin's ESN Group has links to Gazprom. He is also on the board of various state-owned corporations.

He is also Number 107 on the UK's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, HM Treasury "CONSOLIDATED LIST OF FINANCIAL SANCTIONS TARGETS IN THE UK, CONSOLIDATED LIST OF FINANCIAL SANCTIONS TARGETS IN THE UK, Last Updated:19/05/2022 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1076656/Russia.pdf).

[Ruthrieston]

There is no justification for the appalling war crimes committed by the Russian army, the International Court will continue to investigate and the evidence of these crimes continues to mount up. Human Rights Watch tells the truth, the free press in the rest of the world tells the truth, the Russian lies and unforgivable violence has no justification at all. Isolation and convictions for these war crimes are all that lies ahead for Russia. There is no justification for supporting an insane dictator like the Putin creature.

[Dragonman]

There is no justification for the appalling war crimes committed by the Russian army, the International Court will continue to investigate and the evidence of these crimes continues to mount up. Human Rights Watch tells the truth, the free press in the rest of the world tells the truth, the Russian lies and unforgivable violence has no justification at all. Isolation and convictions for these war crimes are all that lies ahead for Russia. There is no justification for supporting an insane dictator like the Putin creature.

Unfortunately, the Russian Federation (along with China, Israel, Libya, Qatar and the USA) has not ratified the convention establishing the International Criminal Court, so it is unlikely Putin (like GW Bush, despite accidentally admitting it) will be tried as a war criminal.

[Moses]

Unfortunately, the Russian Federation (along with China, Israel, Libya, Qatar and the USA) has not ratified the convention establishing the International Criminal Court, so it is unlikely Putin (like GW Bush, despite accidentally admitting it) will be tried as a war criminal.

It is more easy to say who ratified convention, since 88 of 198 countries in World recognize ICU, while 110 not.

[Moses]

We Should Say It. Russia Is Fascist.

It is shame what US and EU still collaborate with Ukrainian Nazi.

Precise quote from speech of adviser of UA president in Ukrainian TV. Mikhail Podoliak:


For me, it is important that we liberate the Kherson region, and as harshly as possible for both collaborators and the Russian military. We need the waters of the Sea of Azov. I am in favor of forgetting the word "Russians" in the Kharkiv region. I am in favor of forgetting the word "Russians" in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions

Typical Nazi speaking.

[Moses]

By the way: for to help to World with food, yesterday, Russia offered 25 mln t of grain. It is ready for delivery.

I think payments will be rubles or in national currencies for to avoid unfair money arrests.

[Dragonman]

It is more easy to say who ratified convention, since 88 of 198 countries in World recognize ICU, while 110 not.

1. ICU? Intensive Care Unit?

2. As usual, your information is wrong. 123 countries are State Parties to the UN Treaty and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Out of them 33 are African States, 19 are Asia-Pacific States, 18 are from Eastern Europe, 28 are from Latin American and Caribbean States, and 25 are from Western European and other States. You can find a listing of them at https://asp.icc-cpi.int/states-parties. 31 other countries have signed but not ratified the Treaty, including Russia and the USA. Ukraine signed the Rome Statute on 20 January 2000, but due to a 2001 constitutional court ruling declaring the treaty incompatible with Ukraine's constitution, the government has not ratified the Statute.

3. The Rome Statute is a UN Treaty. The UN has 193 members - not 198. It also has two observers - The Vatican and Palestine.

3. The point of my comment - which you missed or ignored - is that Putin was unlikely to be tried by the ICC as a war criminal because Russia is not one of the State Parties to the Roman Statute. Whether or not history convicts him as a war criminal remains to be seen.

[cdnmatt]

Typical Nazi speaking.

You invaded their country, destroyed all their towns, cities and infrastructure, raped their children, tortured and murdered others, et al.

I'm not sure what kind of response you were looking for, but that seems pretty legitimate to me.

And would you quit with the Nazi shit? Everyone knows it's simply not true. The hard line right wingers in Ukraine won 2% of the vote in the last election, and the President himself is Jewish, so this whole "we're getting rid of Nazis" thing just doesn't fly with the rest of the world.

[Moses]

1. ICU? Intensive Care Unit?

2. As usual, your information is wrong. 123 countries are State Parties to the UN Treaty and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Out of them 33 are African States, 19 are Asia-Pacific States, 18 are from Eastern Europe, 28 are from Latin American and Caribbean States, and 25 are from Western European and other States. You can find a listing of them at https://asp.icc-cpi.int/states-parties. 31 other countries have signed but not ratified the Treaty, including Russia and the USA. Ukraine signed the Rome Statute on 20 January 2000, but due to a 2001 constitutional court ruling declaring the treaty incompatible with Ukraine's constitution, the government has not ratified the Statute.

3. The Rome Statute is a UN Treaty. The UN has 193 members - not 198. It also has two observers - The Vatican and Palestine.

3. The point of my comment - which you missed or ignored - is that Putin was unlikely to be tried by the ICC as a war criminal because Russia is not one of the State Parties to the Roman Statute. Whether or not history convicts him as a war criminal remains to be seen.

123 signed, but ratified by parliament only 88

[Moses]

You invaded their country, destroyed all their towns, cities and infrastructure, raped their children, tortured and murdered others, et al.

I'm not sure what kind of response you were looking for, but that seems pretty legitimate to me.

And would you quit with the Nazi shit? Everyone knows it's simply not true. The hard line right wingers in Ukraine won 2% of the vote in the last election, and the President himself is Jewish, so this whole "we're getting rid of Nazis" thing just doesn't fly with the rest of the world.

yes-yes, listen more Ukrainians... did they published already, what Russian army has special breakfast menu with roasted Ukrainian toddlers?

"simply not true" looking into your eyes from each UA army photo - SS emblems, "black sun" emblems, Totenkopf emblems,...

[cdnmatt]

I'm curious Moses, how do you think his all ends for Russia? This is going to go on for years, but at the end of it all, what do you see for Russia? Do you think Russia is going to win out and be better off in 2032 than it was in 2022 or something, or?

[dab69]

Unfortunately, the Russian Federation (along with China, Israel, Libya, Qatar and the USA) has not ratified the convention establishing the International Criminal Court, so it is unlikely Putin (like GW Bush, despite accidentally admitting it) will be tried as a war criminal.

Putin will not last another year on this earth.
He will be with the other Lenin and Hitler

[Dragonman]

123 signed, but ratified by parliament only 88

Still wrong - you need to consult up-to-date information such as the International Criminal Court website "Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute) (https://asp.icc-cpi.int/states-parties: STATUS AS AT : 20-05-2022 09:15:46 EDT) that I cited earlier. The same information is on the Human Rights Watch website, though that was current in 2020 (https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/02/qa-international-criminal-court-and-united-states) which states what I posted earlier, namely: "11. Which countries support the ICC? The ICC has the backing of established and emerging democracies around the world. Its governing body, the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), currently consists of 123 countries that have ratified the Rome Statute: 33 from the Africa region, 19 from the Asia-Pacific region, 18 from Eastern Europe, 28 from the Latin American and Caribbean region, and 25 from Western Europe and North America." Note the clause "currently consists of 123 countries that have ratified the Rome Statute." I am assuming that the ICC would definitely know which countries have ratified the treaty, i.e., "sign or give formal consent to (a treaty, contract, or agreement), making it officially valid." To ratify means their Parliaments have given official approval.

Moreover, as of January 26, 2022, 43 States out of the 123 States Parties to the ICC Statute are now bound by "Kampala Review Conference Amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the crime of aggression and war crimes" (https://www.pgaction.org/news/italy-sweden-kampala.html; https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XVIII-10-b&chapter=18&clang=_en: STATUS AS AT : 20-05-2022 09:15:46 EDT). These amendment relate to the crime of aggression. The amendments define the crime of aggression in accordance with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3314. Acts of aggression are: invading another state; bombing another state; blockading the ports or coastlines of another state; attacking the land, sea, or air forces, or marine or sea fleets of another state; violating a status of forces agreement; using armed bands, groups, irregulars or mercenaries against another state; allowing territory to be used by another state to perpetrate an act of aggression against a third state.

The last would particularly apply to the actions of Belarus and the so-called People's Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, which are formally recognized so far only by Russia, each other, South Ossetia and Abkhazia (in a form of mutual admiration society as no-one else acknowledges their independence). So far, even Belarus does not recognize them.

[dab69]

yes-yes, listen more Ukrainians... did they published already, what Russian army has special breakfast menu with roasted Ukrainian toddlers?

"simply not true" looking into your eyes from each UA army photo - SS emblems, "black sun" emblems, Totenkopf emblems,...

Quite stylish.
Your report on casual wear is noted.
Fashion sense is important...

[Moses]

I'm curious Moses, how do you think his all ends for Russia? This is going to go on for years, but at the end of it all, what do you see for Russia? Do you think Russia is going to win out and be better off in 2032 than it was in 2022 or something, or?

Look at Turkey. Member of NATO occupies half of foreign country already 50 years - North Cyprus. What do you think about it? Modern generations even don't know that fact.

US killed hundreds of thousands in Vietnam, had poisoned half of country with chemicals. There is huge "War museum" in Saigon. US tourists visits it by tens of thousands yearly without any blush on their faces.

Most human population has memory shorter than cartoon's fish Dory has. Guppies, ticktockers.

When Russia got Crimea in 2014, a lot of European countries spoke about sanctions and had implemented sanctions. In 2022 public suddenly got news what since 2015 Italy supplied Russia with parts for tank targeting devices. It is how business works. When government will need some business - it will just talk and make agreements.

All these cries about Russian evils will be stopped just like switched off by one click. And lemmings will start run to different side - all together - under commands translated via CNN, BBC, FOX, Russia-1 and Pravda. Human civilization saw it many times already, and now translators are personal - in each smartphone lemming has personal translator, government even doesn't have to print order on the paper and to stick it to telegraph pole; all govts have own mass-medias for that: at one year "Azov" is "Nazi battalion", after 1 year is ultra-right battalion, at next year it is battalions of patriots.

Look at Mr. Alzheimer - he without any blush on the face explains to nation what fuel prices are so high because "Putin did it", despite what prices are such high since 2021 already. He will not mention what inflation is so high at past 3 months because of expenses of his govt. UK will have this year maximal inflation since 1980, but Johnson will explain it not by his stupid decisions, but he says "because of Putin".

For 3/4 of the world even current conflict is something what for you is conflict btw Somaliland and Somali - something what is going somewhere far-far from here.

[cdnmatt]

Oh good, Putin has decided to start making battlefield decisions. Apparently he's not happy with the generals, and has taken the approach that if you want something done, you need to do it yourself.

I'm sure this will end up wonderfully.

[Dragonman]

US killed hundreds of thousands in Vietnam, had poisoned half of country with chemicals. There is huge "War museum" in Saigon. US tourists visits it by tens of thousands yearly without any blush on their faces.

Most human population has memory shorter than cartoon's fish Dory has. Guppies, ticktockers..

The fact that "Most human population has memory shorter than cartoon's fish Dory has. Guppies, ticktockers," probably explains why the top 10 destinations for Vietnamese students wanting to study elsewhere are Japan, US, Australia, Korea, Canada, France, UK, Germany, Finland and New Zealand.

"Despite the global pandemic, Vietnam is still in the top 10 countries, in terms of citizenship, with the largest number of international students in the United States, with 32,507 students studying at all education levels in calendar year 2020, according to data from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In addition, Vietnam remains the sixth leading country of origin for all international higher education students in the United States, with 21,631 students studying at U.S. institutions of higher education in the academic year 2020-2021. Among community college enrollment, Vietnamese students continue to constitute the second largest group of foreign students, accounting for almost 11 percent of all international enrollments, according to the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) annual Open Doors Report (https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/vietnam-education-and-training).

"In 2020, there were 17,030 Vietnamese students studying in ROC (Taiwan), making Vietnam the largest source of overseas students in Taiwan for the first time." Huynh Tam Sang and Tran Hoang Nhung, "Retaining Vietnamese Talents in Taiwan," 2 August 2021 (https://taiwaninsight.org/2021/08/02/retaining-vietnamese-talents-in-taiwan/). They - or their parents and grandparents - must have forgotten that ROC (Taiwan) was on the US/South Vietnamese side.

"Therefore, asking the question as to what attracts Vietnamese students in such countries as Japan, the USA and Australia, it is possible to answer confidently – not only the education quality, a high level of the infrastructure and availability of necessary specialities, but also the opportunity to find a job in these countries and to become a resident of these countries" "Vietnamese students in Russia and abroad: tendencies and prospects" by Maria Nikolaevna KOZHEVNIKOVA, Moscow Automobile and Road Construction State Technical University (MADI), 125319, Moscow, Leningrad Avenue, 64, Russia. E-mail: kozhevnmariya@yandex.ru. (https://www.revistaespacios.com/a18v39n49/a18v39n49p21.pdf).

This paper also notes the difficulty of establishing reliable statistical data for the Russian Federation : "The fact that the author, writing this paper, faced a serious disruption in statistical data of domestic and foreign sources is of interest. Thus, according to the UNESCO data, in 2013, 1419 students arrived in Russia from Vietnam, whereas data being published over many years basing on the information of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia give the number of 4676 people (Export of Russian educational services 2016)."

[dab69]

Ukraine's human rights ombudsman said a one-year-old boy was raped by Russian soldiers then died.

She said her office gets new reports of sexual violence by Russian soldiers every day.

These include cases where minors are raped, she said.

A one-year-old boy died after being raped by two Russian soldiers, the Ukrainian Parliament's Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday.

The accusation is one of the most horrific from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but is not unique.

Denisova Liudmyla Leontiivna said in the statement that it gets reports of sexual violence against Ukrainians every day, including against children.

The majority of new reports were coming from around Kharkiv, she said, though did not give a specific location for the allegation about the one-year-old. Most reports were made by relatives or, for those who did not die, by the victims themselves, she said.

Russian forces have this week been withdrawing from the area around Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, which had long been subject to heavy attacks.

The commissioner said on Thursday that her office recieved 10 reports of sexual violence in one hour on Thursday, including eight cases of minors being raped.

"I appeal to the UN Commission for Investigation Human Rights Violations during the Russian military invasion of Ukraine to take into account these facts of genocide of the Ukrainian people," Leontiivna said.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has repeatedly been described as a genocide by Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and reports of rape have been widespread.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/1-old-boy-died-being-115513157.html

[dab69]

Russia claims that it has a new laser weapon that can cook drones over three miles away in seconds.

A senior US defense official said there was nothing to corroborate these claims.

Ukraine's president ridiculed the Russian claims, comparing them to those of Nazi Germany.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ridiculed the Russian claims of a new "wonder weapon" in an evening address, comparing Russia's propaganda and claims of a game-changing laser weapon to those of Nazi Germany.

"The clearer it became that they had no chance in the war, the more propaganda there was about an amazing weapon that would be so powerful as to ensure a turning point," he said, referring to the Nazi propagandists who hyped so-called "wunderwaffe" during World War II.

"We see that in the third month of a full-scale war, Russia is trying to find its 'wonder weapon,'" he said. "This all clearly shows the complete failure of the mission."

Though Russia was largely expected to achieve victory over Ukrainian forces in a matter of weeks, if not days, the Russian forces have experienced setback after setback.

There have been reports of Russian troops surrendering without a fight, sabotaging their combat systems, and disobeying orders, Russian generals dying at alarming rates, and serious losses in poorly executed assaults. After the push on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv stalled, Russia was forced to redirect its efforts to fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Although Russia's war effort has faltered, a senior US defense official said Thursday that Russian still has a "significant" amount of combat capability left to throw into the already brutal conflict. "This could be a prolonged fight," the official said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraines-zelenskyy-mocks-russian-claims-193754285.html

[Dragonman]

In an earlier post, Moses commented that "Most human population has memory shorter than cartoon's fish Dory has. Guppies, ticktockers." One of the most telling proofs of this comment is illustrated by the constant refrain from Russia about eliminating the "Nazi" influence in Ukraine. There is no acknowledgement from the Russian side of the existence of the treaty known in Germany as the Hitler-Stalin Pact but more commonly referred to as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This Pact laid the foundation for the outbreak of World War II in Europe. No acknowledgement, either, of the secret supplementary protocol to it in which Germany and the Soviet Union agreed on the partition of Poland and Eastern Europe, including Finland. Stalin said of the Pact, "For many years now, we have been pouring buckets of shit on each other's heads, and our propaganda boys could not do enough in that direction. And now, all of a sudden, are we to make our peoples believe that all is forgotten and forgiven? Things don't work that fast." The Russian Federation, however, has embarked on a quite "1984" approach to history, with "Winston Smith" functionaries rewriting history to bring it in line with current political thinking.

[dab69]

Ukraine's army said it blew up a Russian radio jammer in a Wednesday Facebook post.

Aerial video shows the semi-hidden equipment in flames amid a cluster of rural buildings.

The location has been identified as the Kharkiv region, where Russians have been in retreat.

Ukraine's army shared a video on Wednesday showing the destruction of a valuable Russian radio jammer hidden among farm buildings in Kharkiv.

The video, posted to the Facebook page for a branch of the Ukrainian military, showed an aerial view of rural buildings, annotated to point out Russian equipment hidden there.

What appeared to be an antenna could be viewed sticking out. There were at least six vehicles, described by Ukraine as armored fighting vehicles, guarding it.

A few seconds in, the video cuts to footage of plumes of smoke and flame coming from the same spot. The footage doesn't show the moment of the strike, or give an detail about the weapons used.

Ukraine said the equipment it destroyed was a R-330Zh, also known as the "Zhitel," which "is designed for automated detection, direction-finding and analysis of radio signals," according to the Ukrainian army statement.

The Zhitel is key to Russian electronic warfare, according to the website Army Technology, which wrote that it also works to jam satellite communications with a range of 20-30km and cellular signals up to 50km away.

The attack was a joint operation between Ukrainian ground and air forces, the army's post said.
A compsite showing, on the right, an aerial view of buildings as posted by the Ukrainian army; and left, an aerial view as they appear on Google Maps. They have the same building footprint.
Left: Google Maps imagery dated 2022 of farmhouses in Izyum, Kharkiv Oblast. Right: The aerial view posted by the Ukrainian Army.Google Maps / Command of the Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine / Insider

The army's statement did not identify when or where the strike took place, but open-source intelligence enthusiasts on social media geolocated it to a tiny settlement outside Izyum, a city 120 km southeast of Kharkiv.

Google Maps imagery dated to 2022, at the site they identified, showed the same building footprint as well as the same distinctive blue-and-white striped rooftop as appears in the video. The two are compared in the image above.

Ukraine said on May 14 that Russian troops were withdrawing from the Kharkiv region.
An aerial video still from the Ukrainian army showing a dark plume of smoke coming from a rural building. It has been identified as being in Kharkiv Oblast.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, agreed in a May 13 report that Ukraine "appears to have won the Battle of Kharkiv."

It said that Russian ground troops were still attempting to hold onto various areas, including Izyum.

https://news.yahoo.com/video-shows-ukraine-blowing-sophisticated-103048777.html

[Ruthrieston]

The rape and murder of a one year old boy................even I did not think the Russian army could sink so low...

[Moses]

The rape and murder of a one year old boy................even I did not think the Russian army could sink so low...


the use of a lie so colossal that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously."

Nazi uses Hitler's technique and you repeating it...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

[Dragonman]

Nazi uses Hitler's technique and you repeating it...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

Adolf Hitler, in Mein Kampf (1925): the use of a lie so colossal that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously."

Vladimir Putin in 2022: The operation would aim for the “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine,” referring to the Kremlin’s contention that Ukraine’s military threatens Russia and that it is run by neo-Nazis.

[Moses]

Adolf Hitler, in Mein Kampf (1925): the use of a lie so colossal that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously."

Vladimir Putin in 2022: The operation would aim for the “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine,” referring to the Kremlin’s contention that Ukraine’s military threatens Russia and that it is run by neo-Nazis.


This is Ukraine, 2021. Kiev. Shame on EU and US for collaborating with Nazi.


https://youtu.be/8WTEwknp1fo

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By the way: number of capitulated soldiers from "Azovstal" is now 2474... There are tens of foreign soldiers of fortune within them. Prosecutors already have started interrogations.

[Dragonman]

This is Ukraine, 2021. Kiev. Shame on EU and US for collaborating with Nazi.

This is Russia 2022: "Russian neo-Nazi mercenaries who collect enemies’ ears 'to be deployed in Ukraine.' A band of Russian neo-Nazi mercenaries who sadistically collect enemies' ears are set to be deployed in Ukraine, it has been claimed. The militia group, called Rusich, has been spotted on the Russian-Ukrainian border near to where Vladimir Putin's forces are expected to launch their next offensive. The unit is linked to private military company, the Wagner Group, which is backed by the Kremlin and is said to currently have 1,000 soldiers operating in eastern Ukraine. Rusich was founded nearly a decade ago in St Petersburg by Red Army paratrooper Aleksei Milchakov, 30, and Yan Petrovsky, 33 - after the pair met at a white supremacist event. It quickly gained notoriety in 2014 during fighting between Moscow-backed separatists and Ukrainian military. Militia group Rusich was founded by sadistic neo-Nazi paratrooper Aleksei Milchakov, and has sent out propaganda encouraging mercenaries to "spill litres of blood from vile Russophobes." Milchakov has previously posted horrific pictures of himself slicing off the ears of dead soldiers on social media, reports The Times. On his Vkontakte account he has also shared snaps of him carving the kolovrat, a Slavic far right swastika. And has previously boasted about being a neo-Nazi and claims he "got high from the smell of burning human flesh".https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/russian-neo-nazi-mercenaries-who-26667959; 8 Apr 2022)

Notorious Russian neo-nazi Alexei Milchakov recently sat down for an “interview” in which he spoke about his time in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine, in 2014, and how much he enjoyed cutting off the ears of Ukrainian soldiers and smelling the scent of burning human flesh. A monster. (https://twitter.com/christopherjm/status/1344073381830930432) ((https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rusichs-neo-nazi-mercenaries-head-for-kharkiv-prjndp9rl, Thursday April 07 2022, 2.45pm BST).

Alexei Milchakov is a St Petersburg neo-Nazi who moved from decapitating puppies and calling on fellow Neo-Nazis to kill down-and-outs back in Russia to torturing Ukrainian soldiers in Donbas as part of a formation called ‘Rusich’.

Other Russian neo-Nazis include Yan Petrovsky, one notorious Russian neo-Nazi sadists who took photos of themselves over the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers they had mutilated has been arrested in Norway in the previous Donbas invasion, was arrested in Norway in 2016.

[Moses]

This is Russia 2022: "Russian neo-Nazi mercenaries who collect enemies’ ears 'to be deployed in Ukraine.' A band of Russian neo-Nazi mercenaries who sadistically collect enemies' ears are set to be deployed in Ukraine, it has been claimed. The militia group, called Rusich, has been spotted on the Russian-Ukrainian border near to where Vladimir Putin's forces are expected to launch their next offensive. The unit is linked to private military company, the Wagner Group, which is backed by the Kremlin and is said to currently have 1,000 soldiers operating in eastern Ukraine. Rusich was founded nearly a decade ago in St Petersburg by Red Army paratrooper Aleksei Milchakov, 30, and Yan Petrovsky, 33 - after the pair met at a white supremacist event. It quickly gained notoriety in 2014 during fighting between Moscow-backed separatists and Ukrainian military. Militia group Rusich was founded by sadistic neo-Nazi paratrooper Aleksei Milchakov, and has sent out propaganda encouraging mercenaries to "spill litres of blood from vile Russophobes." Milchakov has previously posted horrific pictures of himself slicing off the ears of dead soldiers on social media, reports The Times. On his Vkontakte account he has also shared snaps of him carving the kolovrat, a Slavic far right swastika. And has previously boasted about being a neo-Nazi and claims he "got high from the smell of burning human flesh".https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/russian-neo-nazi-mercenaries-who-26667959; 8 Apr 2022)

Notorious Russian neo-nazi Alexei Milchakov recently sat down for an “interview” in which he spoke about his time in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine, in 2014, and how much he enjoyed cutting off the ears of Ukrainian soldiers and smelling the scent of burning human flesh. A monster. (https://twitter.com/christopherjm/status/1344073381830930432) ((https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rusichs-neo-nazi-mercenaries-head-for-kharkiv-prjndp9rl, Thursday April 07 2022, 2.45pm BST).

Alexei Milchakov is a St Petersburg neo-Nazi who moved from decapitating puppies and calling on fellow Neo-Nazis to kill down-and-outs back in Russia to torturing Ukrainian soldiers in Donbas as part of a formation called ‘Rusich’.

Other Russian neo-Nazis include Yan Petrovsky, one notorious Russian neo-Nazi sadists who took photos of themselves over the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers they had mutilated has been arrested in Norway in the previous Donbas invasion, was arrested in Norway in 2016.

Milchakov and his "group" are freelancers hired by Lugansk Republic since 2014 when he ran from Russia because of few criminal cases At 2014 they had successful fight with Ukrainian Nazi battalion "Aydar" and won it. About 40 soldiers from "Aydar" have been killed. They also did some "delicate job" in Syria for Syrian govt. They aren't part of any division of Russian army, while openly and recognized by World Nazi "Azov" and "Aydar" battalions are part of Ukrainian state army.

Again big lie in Western mass-medias.

Shame on US and EU for collaboration with Nazi.

On the photo: members of "Azov" (rus/ukr: "Азов") battalion

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[Dragonman]

Milchakov and his "group" are freelancers hired by Lugansk Republic since 2014 when he ran from Russia because of few criminal cases At 2014 they had successful fight with Ukrainian Nazi battalion "Aydar" and won it. About 40 soldiers from "Aydar" have been killed. They also did some "delicate job" in Syria for Syrian govt. They aren't part of any division of Russian army, while openly and recognized by World Nazi "Azov" and "Aydar" battalions are part of Ukrainian state army.
12567

1. You do not deny that Milchakov and his gang are RUSSIAN neo-Nazis? His Vkontakte website (https://vk.com/slava_geroyam_rossii) calls him "АЛЕКСЕЙ МИЛЬЧАКОВ - ГОРДОСТЬ И СЛАВА РОССИИ! Слава России!!! Героям - слава!!! In English: ALEXEY MILCHAKOV - THE PRIDE AND GLORY OF RUSSIA! Glory to Russia!!! Glory to heroes!!!" (sic). The rest of the entry states: Издревле в России, рождались герои, Во славу Отчизны на подвиг идя Не мало имен помнит книга истории, То гордость России - ее сыновья!" (or From ancient times in Russia, heroes were born, For the glory of the Fatherland, going for a feat. Not a few names remember the history book, That is the pride of Russia - its sons!).
2. Luhansk PR is a Russian client-state that owes its current existence to a previous Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory and which currently receives Russian military support.
4. You seem to be boasting of the success of these neo-Nazi mercenaries/freelancers.
5. Their "successful fight with Ukrainian Nazi battalion "Aydar"" was an ambush on 5 September near Privetnoye village between Luhansk and Metalist at Vesela Hora of soldiers of the Aydar Battalion AND the 80th Air Mobile Brigade. The 40 bodies returned by the separatists after negotiations included men from both units (https://wikimili.com/en/80th_Air_Assault_Brigade_(Ukraine)). Note that this was an ambush.

[dab69]

Nazi uses Hitler's technique and you repeating it...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

We are invading innocent countries?
Russia is still murdering people.

[dab69]

December 1, 1991 Ukrainians vote 92% in favor of independent Ukraine
from Nazi Russia and pea-brained dinosaurs...

[dab69]

Zelenskyy says UN, Red Cross order Russia to take its 'mountains of corpses'

"They abandoned their military," Zelenskyy said in an interview with a Ukrainian news outlet. "They were dying, but they didn't care. Recently I was told that they are only now thinking about taking the corpses.

"When the war started…they used to pretend that there were no corpses," he continued. "The UN and the Red Cross said – take these bags away. Mountains of corpses of their military."

UKRAINE'S ZELENSKYY PUSHES FOR NEW SECURITY AGREEMENTS WITHOUT RUSSIA, APART FROM PEACE TALKS

Moscow has long relied on its propaganda machine to fuel support for its conflict in Ukraine and Putin has refused to declare open war on Kyiv, instead calling it a "special military operation."

Reports surfaced early in the invasion that Russia was potentially relying on a "mobile crematorium" to dispose of dead soldiers to help cover the evidence of mounting causalities.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/zelenskyy-says-un-red-cross-order-russia-to-take-its-mountains-of-corpses/ar-AAXz6HT?li=BBnb7Kz

[dab69]

New Evidence Shows How Russian Soldiers Executed Men in Bucha


BUCHA, Ukraine — It is the last time the men would be seen alive: In two videos, Russian paratroopers march them at gunpoint along a street in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, Ukraine. Some of the Ukrainian captives are hunched over, holding the belts of those in front of them. Others have their hands over their heads. “Walk to the right, bitch,” one of the soldiers orders them.

The videos, filmed March 4 by a security camera and a witness in a nearby house and obtained by The New York Times, are the clearest evidence yet that the men were in the custody of Russian troops minutes before being executed.

“Hostages are lying there, against the fence,” the person filming one of the videos says. He counts: “One, two, three, for sure, four, five, six … ” In total, nine people are being held.

Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times

The men are forced to the ground, including one wearing a distinctive bright-blue hooded sweatshirt.

The video ends. But eight witnesses recounted to the Times what happened next. Soldiers took the men behind a nearby office building that the Russians had taken over and turned into a makeshift base. There were gunshots. The captives did not return.

A drone video filmed the next day, also obtained by the Times, is the first visual evidence that confirms the eyewitness accounts. It showed the dead bodies lying on the ground by the side of the office building at 144 Yablunska St. as two Russian soldiers stood guard beside them. Among the bodies, a flash of bright blue was visible — the captive in the blue sweatshirt.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/evidence-shows-russian-soldiers-executed-141908975.html

[Dodger]

"Breaking News"

Putin bans Joe Biden and 900 other U.S. diplomats from entering Russia.

The list that Putin published also included the name of the late U.S. Senator John McCain who died in 2018. Maybe his secretary should have reviewed the list before it was circulated.

This takes me back to around 2017 when Putin banned John McCain (and others) from entering Russia. I loved McCain's response to a CNN news reporter who asked hom how he felt about the ban: McCain replied..."Oh darn!...now I have to tell my wife Cindy that our vacation plans in Siberia this year have to be canceled".

https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-05-21-22/h_32fad6190cca49efbc59d92fd4f0aeb9

[Moses]

We are invading innocent countries?


Of course you did. And does.

Half of Cyprus is now under control of NATO member - Turkey.

Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq (even twice), Libya, Syria... do you have short memory?

What about Yugoslavia, it doesn't exists anymore because of you.

[Moses]

"Breaking News"

Putin bans Joe Biden and 900 other U.S. diplomats from entering Russia.

The list that Putin published also included the name of the late U.S. Senator John McCain who died in 2018. Maybe his secretary should have reviewed the list before it was circulated.



No. Putin just shows what he sees no difference btw died MacCain and alive (yet) Biden.

[thaiophilus]

What about (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism) Yugoslavia, it doesn't exists anymore because of you.



Classic propaganda technique.

[Dragonman]

Of course you did. And does.

Half of Cyprus is now under control of NATO member - Turkey.

Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq (even twice), Libya, Syria... do you have short memory?

What about Yugoslavia, it doesn't exists anymore because of you.

Short-term memory loss - Russian style.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus covers one-third, not one-half, of the island. Turkey invaded Cyprus for much the same reasons advanced by Putin for invading Ukrainian regions of Luhansh, Donetsk and Ukraine itself, namely the lives of ethnic Turkish Cypriots were being threatened by ethnic Greek-Cypriots. This followed a coup d’etat that overthrew the legitimate government. The coup was staged by the Greek officers of the National Guard, under the direction of the-then Greek dictator Dimitrios Ioannidis ( and in conjunction with the EOKA-B ultra-nationalist organization, which has been characterized as a terrorist organization. During the invasion, EOKA-B massacred some 210 Turkish-Cypriot men and boys – though it is not reported that they raped any of the boys.

The USSR sent North Vietnam money, arms, and military advisors who often took on a far more active role than their title suggested. It has been acknowledged that roughly 3,000 Soviet soldiers served in North Vietnam during the war, though they were designated as Soviet “military experts,” allowing the USSR to claim that no Soviet “soldiers” served in the war (https://medium.com/perceive-more/the-little-known-role-of-the-soviet-union-in-the-vietnam-war-2da12f2b6c4e).

The USSR’s 10-year invasion of Afghanistan is well-known, as is the fact that some 14,500 personnel were killed there. This number is smaller than the reported number of Russian military personnel so far reported killed in Ukraine. USSR forces invaded in December 1979, under the pretext of upholding the Soviet-Afghan Friendship Treaty of 1978. The invasion began with a massive military airlift into Kabul, involving an estimated 280 transport aircraft and three divisions of almost 8,500 men each. It ended in ignominious failure although the mujahideen were fragmented politically into a handful of independent groups, and their military efforts remained uncoordinated throughout the war. (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviet-tanks-roll-into-afghanistan).

The US invasion of Afghanistan was based on the claim that the Islamic Emirate would not surrender Osama bin Laden. Its aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban government from power. If GW Bush's advisor Condoleeza Rice had been an Asian or Islamic specialist instead of a Russian one, they would have known that the Afghan code of Pashtunwali and its principles of hospitality and asylum made surrendering bin Laden an impossibility.

American involvement in Libya was as part of the 2011 multi-state NATO-led coalition’s military intervention in Libya to implement UNSC Resolution 1973, in response to events during the First Libyan Civil War. Non-NATO participants included Qatar, the UAE, and Jordan.

The American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War refers to the American-led support of Syrian rebels and the Syrian Democratic Forces . It involves military forces from some NATO and some non-NATO countries such as Jordan, and was initially aimed at ISIL which had captured and was beheading western nationals. Russian participation in the Syrian Civil War on the side of Bashir al-Assad is well-known.

Less well-known is the fact that in September 2015 the Federation Council, (Russia’s upper house of parliament) authorized the Russian president to use armed forces in Syria. Russian air and missile strikes began targeting ISIL, the Army of Conquest, al-Nusra Front, and the Free Syrian Army. Russia has also provided armament and air support to Turkey and to the Syrian Democratic Forces in their operations against ISIL in Syria. During the course of the Russian intervention, Russia moved beyond bombing just military targets and began bombing hospitals and medical facilities as well as killing thousands upon thousands of civilians. Consequent on this, Russia's seat at the UN Human Rights Council was taken away in October 2016.

Yugoslavia doesn't exist anymore for the same reason Czechoslovakia, the USSR and the British Empire don't exist anymore - people voted for separate independent states! The Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes - Yugoslavia's original name - was cobbled together after WW I. Reasons for its breakup range from the cultural and religious divisions between Catholic and Orthodox Christians and the Muslim populations, between the ethnic groups (including the Bosniaks and Kosovars) making up the state, to the memories of WWII atrocities committed by all sides, and centrifugal nationalist forces.

The first Gulf War was in responses to the unprovoked Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on the grounds that it rightfully belonged to Iraq as a successor state to the Ottoman Empire, although Kuwait had been a British protectorate since 1899, before the end of the Ottoman Empire. The second invasion was based on the US claims that Iraq had a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program and posed a threat to the United States and its allies. The similarity between this claim and those used by the Russian Federation for invading Ukraine is obvious.

[dab69]

Short-term memory loss - Russian style.

.

Dinosaur Alzheimers? or just stupid?

[dab69]

No. Putin just shows what he sees no difference btw died MacCain and alive (yet) Biden.

Putin hallucinating in naked antler blood Nazi ceremony

[Moses]

The American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War refers to the American-led support of Syrian rebels and the Syrian Democratic Forces . It involves military forces from some NATO and some non-NATO countries such as Jordan, and was initially aimed at ISIL which had captured and was beheading western nationals. Russian participation in the Syrian Civil War on the side of Bashir al-Assad is well-known.

Whatever, but Russian army is only army located in Syria, that is invited officially to Syria by legitimate Syrian government, government that is recognized by world and UN. While US and "US-led" are intruders. Point.

Fact what US calls group of bandits "democratic forces" doesn't make presence of American army on Syrian territory legal.

[Dragonman]

Whatever, but Russian army is only army located in Syria, that is invited officially to Syria by legitimate Syrian government, government that is recognized by world and UN. While US and "US-led" are intruders. Point.

Fact what US calls group of bandits "democratic forces" doesn't make presence of American army on Syrian territory legal.

One point of view - inaccurate as usual as the Bashar al-Assad government is NOT universally recognized as the legitimate representative of all the Syrian people.

The Syrian National Council (SNC), a Syrian opposition coalition based in Istanbul, Turkey, formed in August 2011 during the Syrian civil uprising (which escalated into civil war) against the government of Bashar al-Assad, is recognized by 27 UN members, the Republic of Kosovo and the European Union as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people in the midst of the Syrian Civil War, with three of those being permanent members of the Security Council (https://syriancouncil.org/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_the_Syrian_National_C ouncil).

The Syrian Democratic Forces is the self-bestowed name for the official defense force of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. It is an alliance of forces formed during the Syrian civil war composed primarily of Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian/Syriac, as well as some smaller Armenian, Turkmen and Chechen forces. It is not a name given by the US to any group.

The fact that Russia illegally occupies and annexes Crimea, and recognizes parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions as "People's Republics," doesn't make presence of Russian armed forces on Ukrainian territory legal.

[Moses]

One point of view - inaccurate as usual as the Bashar al-Assad government is NOT universally recognized as the legitimate representative of all the Syrian people.

The Syrian National Council (SNC), a Syrian opposition coalition based in Istanbul, Turkey, formed in August 2011 during the Syrian civil uprising (which escalated into civil war) against the government of Bashar al-Assad, is recognized by 27 UN members, the Republic of Kosovo and the European Union as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people in the midst of the Syrian Civil War, with three of those being permanent members of the Security Council (https://syriancouncil.org/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_the_Syrian_National_C ouncil).

The Syrian Democratic Forces is the self-bestowed name for the official defense force of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. It is an alliance of forces formed during the Syrian civil war composed primarily of Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian/Syriac, as well as some smaller Armenian, Turkmen and Chechen forces. It is not a name given by the US to any group.

The fact that Russia illegally occupies and annexes Crimea, and recognizes parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions as "People's Republics," doesn't make presence of Russian armed forces on Ukrainian territory legal.

Every time you write a lot of letters, but letters will not substitute facts:

- Member of NATO took part of Cyprus and keep it already 50 years

- Syria represented and recognized in United Nations by representative from state government.

Rest is just letters...

[Dragonman]

Every time you write a lot of letters, but letters will not substitute facts:

- Member of NATO took part of Cyprus and keep it already 50 years

- Syria represented and recognized in United Nations by representative from state government.

Rest is just letters...

Letters (?) Member of NATO took part of Cyprus and keep it already 50 years.

Fact: This is a very simplistic view of a very complicated situation with a long history and involved two NATO countries, both members since 1952. Greece, then ruled by a junta, conspired with EOKA, organized by Colonel Georgios Grivas (a Greek citizen and later a general in the Greek army) to unite Cyprus with Greece as part of a grander scheme to revive the Byzantine Empire - which included what is now Turkey. Greece had already stationed a military division in Cyprus. On 15 November 1967, Greek Cypriot National Guard under his direct command overran two small villages on the critical Larnaca, Limassol, Nicosia intersection, resulting in the deaths of 27 Turkish Cypriots. The immediate result of this event was a Turkish ultimatum, which prompted the Greek military government to recall both the Greek Division and General Grivas to Athens. The second Greek junta overthrew the President of Cyprus after he expelled 550 Greek officers from the Cypriot National Guard. The President was overthrown on July 15 1974 by a coup d’état executed by forces of the Cypriot National Guard under direct instructions from Greece. The National Guard was led by Greek officers and consisted of Greek-Cypriot conscripts. The coup was swiftly followed by the Turkish invasion of Cyprus on 20 July in defense of Turkish Cypriots.

The similarities between the Turkish position on the security of Turkish Cypriots and the Russian position on the security of ethnic Russians in Ukraine (who were under no threat prior to the "special military operation") should be obvious to you.

Letters: Syria represented and recognized in United Nations by representative from state government.

Fact: You originally wrote " legitimate Syrian government, government that is recognized by world and UN." I pointed out that the Bashar al-Assad government is not universally recognized by the world, including by three permanent members of the Security Council - France, the UK and the USA - do not recognize it. Moreover, you are factually incorrect in stating that al-Assad government is "recognized by the United Nations." The UN's own website points out that IT DOES NOT RECOGNIZE STATES - https://www.un.org/en/about-us/about-un-membership. Quote of the UN website: "How does a new State or Government obtain recognition by the United Nations? The recognition of a new State or Government is an act that only other States and Governments may grant or withhold. It generally implies readiness to assume diplomatic relations. The United Nations is neither a State nor a Government, and therefore does not possess any authority to recognize either a State or a Government. As an organization of independent States, it may admit a new State to its membership or accept the credentials of the representatives of a new Government." It then describes the procedure for gaining admission. The admission of the representatives of any particular government is decided by a majority vote of members - but not by the UN itself. There are many UN member states that are not recognized by other member states, e.g., the two Koreas do not recognize each other. In fact (not letters), the Republic of Turkey does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus.

"Every time you write a lot of letters, but letters will not substitute facts" and "Rest is just letters" - actually, they are words composed of letters. Letters may not substitute for facts but they can be used to form words which explain the facts. All I have done in my postings is point out where I believe you are factually incorrect in your many assertions. The fact that you ignore many of the points I make because you cannot disprove what I write is telling.

I was prompted to join this board by one of your own earlier postings in response to one which referred to the Turkish president as "Erdowan." Your response was something along the lines that his name is "Recep Tayyip Erdogan." In Turkish, it is written "Erdoğan" (note the line over the "g") and is pronounced as "Erdohan" or "Erdowan" Fact, not letters.

[Moses]

Dab69. Please continue to delight us with your "civilization", "culture" and political correctness. After all, there is not a drop of racism or fascism in it.

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Comment for members: it isn't private message, it was posted on this page.

[dab69]

Dab69. Please continue to delight us with your "civilization", "culture" and political correctness. After all, there is not a drop of racism or fascism in it.

12576

Comment for members: it isn't private message, it was posted on this page.


Doesn't appear to be slander...

[dab69]

veteran Russian diplomat to the U.N. Office at Geneva resigned his post Monday, saying he is "ashamed" of his country's invasion of Ukraine.

Boris Bondarev, 41, confirmed his resignation in a letter delivered Monday morning at the Russian diplomatic mission blasting the “aggressive war unleashed” by President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

“For twenty years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on Feb. 24 of this year,” he wrote

[dab69]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-winter-war-that-one-time-finland-humiliated-the-russians/ss-AAXBBk6?li=BBnb7Kz#image=14

The Winter War That One Time Humiliated the Russians

[Moses]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-winter-war-that-one-time-finland-humiliated-the-russians/ss-AAXBBk6?li=BBnb7Kz#image=14

The Winter War That One Time Humiliated the Russians

It is hard to call "humifaction" war, in which Russia got 11% of territory of Finland.

Historical view on this war without of propaganda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War

[Moses]

Sanctions on Russian fertilizers what have been announced in "5th packet" are already canceled: "suddenly" EU and US got - Russia is #1 in fertilizers export and these sanctions will lead to World famine.

Even more "humiliation": payments in rubles make ruble stronger as it never been at last 5 years. Ruble is now 23,6% stronger against USD than year before, Euro is 7 years low, today it was lower than 60 rubles per Euro:

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[dab69]

perhaps to Russians mass murders and invasions are their own reward.

[Moses]

perhaps to Russians mass murders and invasions are their own reward.

You misspelled word "Americans" - the only nation what dropped nuclear bombs on the head of civilians.

[dab69]

Bondarev's Full Resignation Letter:
"My name is Boris Bondarev, in the MFA of Russia since 2002, since 2019 until now – Counsellor of the Russian Mission to the UN Office at Geneva.

For twenty years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on February 24 of this year. The aggressive war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine, and in fact against the entire Western world, is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also, perhaps, the most serious crime against the people of Russia, with a bold letter Z crossing out all hopes and prospects for a prosperous free society in our country.

Those who conceived this war want only one thing – to remain in power forever, live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts comparable in tonnage and cost to the entire Russian Navy, enjoying unlimited power and complete impunity. To achieve that they are willing to sacrifice as many lives as it takes. Thousands of Russians and Ukrainians have already died just for this.

I regret to admit that over all these twenty years the level of lies and unprofessionalism in the work of the Foreign Ministry has been increasing all the time. However, in most recent years, this has become simply catastrophic. Instead of unbiased information, impartial analysis and sober forecasting, there are propaganda cliches in the spirit of Soviet newspapers of the 1930s. A system has been built that deceives itself.

Minister Lavrov is a good illustration of the degradation of this system. In 18 years, he went from a professional and educated intellectual, whom many colleagues held in such high esteem, to a person who constantly broadcasts conflicting statements and threatens the world (that is, Russia too) with nuclear weapons!

Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not about diplomacy. It is all about warmongering, lies and hatred. It serves interests of few, the very few people thus contributing to further isolation and degradation of my country. Russia no longer has allies, and there is no one to blame but its reckless and ill-conceived policy.

I studied to be a diplomat and have been a diplomat for twenty years. The Ministry has become my home and family. But I simply cannot any longer share in this bloody, witness and absolutely needless ignominy."

[Moses]

Well, well. New law is proposed in Ukrainian parliament. It brings "fresh note" to Ukrainian military service in army: commanders will have rights to kill soldier if soldier refuses to fulfill order.

https://itd.rada.gov.ua/billInfo/Bills/Card/39562 official site or parliament, texts are in Ukrainian language.

[Dragonman]

Well, well. New law is proposed in Ukrainian parliament. It brings "fresh note" to Ukrainian military service in army: commanders will have rights to kill soldier if soldier refuses to fulfill order.

https://itd.rada.gov.ua/billInfo/Bills/Card/39562 official site or parliament, texts are in Ukrainian language.

Quote: "commanders will have rights to kill soldier if soldier refuses to fulfill order."

Not quite - one of Moses' exaggerations.

It is not a "new law" proposed to the Ukrainian Parliament. It is "Amendments to Article 22-1 of the Statute of the Internal Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to ensure the possibility of termination of criminal offenses in a special period." i.e., during the invasion bu the armed forces of the Russian Federation.

The amendment is actually the removal of a clause in the Article, specifically "the words "in this case not causing death to the soldier" to be excluded."

The section on the justification for the change is interesting (https://itd.rada.gov.ua/billInfo/Bills/pubFile/1288784). The following is based on an AI translation from Ukrainian to English and so the English may not be perfect.

"ПОЯСНЮВАЛЬНА ЗАПИСКА до проєкту Закону України про внесення зміни до статті 22-1 Статуту внутрішньої служби Збройних Сил України щодо забезпечення можливості припинення кримінальних правопорушень в умовах особливого періоду / EXPLANATORY NOTE to the draft Law of Ukraine on amendments to Article 22-1 of the Charter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine possibility of termination of criminal offenses in the conditions of of the special period

The justification for the amendment is "to ensure the possibility of termination of criminal offenses in a special period (hereinafter - the draft law) was developed to strengthen the capacity stop criminal offenses committed by military personnel in the context of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation."

The purpose of the amendment is to define the legislative framework for implementation of opportunities to stop a criminal offense that falls under signs of a criminal offense related to non-obedience, resistance, or threat to the chief, violence, self-abandonment combat positions and designated locations of military units (units) in the areas of combat missions, and which is committed military in a martial law or a military situation, with the purpose of detention of such a serviceman.

The essence of legislation is that it amends the Article 22-1 of the Internal Charter Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, approved by the Law of Ukraine "On the Charter internal service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which provide for an exception cases of causing death to a military man when using weapons for termination of criminal offense committed a military person, if otherwise it is impossible to stop such criminal offense."

SO, the Ukrainian Parliament amended existing legislation to permit certain actions in certain specific situations under certain specific conditions, i.e., the use of deadly force if all else fails for criminal actions by soldiers during the invasion by the armed forces of the Russian Federation - not just for disobeying orders.

[Moses]

SO, the Ukrainian Parliament amended existing legislation to permit certain actions in certain specific situations under certain specific conditions, i.e., the use of deadly force if all else fails for criminal actions by soldiers during the invasion by the armed forces of the Russian Federation - not just for disobeying orders.

Disobeying orders is criminal during even peace time. So now there will be no courts and investigation. Just head shot.

[Dragonman]

Disobeying orders is criminal during even peace time. So now there will be no courts and investigation. Just head shot.

Another puerile oversimplification.

Of course, in Putin's Russia, wounded Russian soldiers don't even have to disobey an order before being shot by an officer - they simply have to be wounded. Just do an Internet search for the reports, such as that by The NY Post (https://nypost.com/2022/05/16/russian-commanders-allegedly-kill-their-own-wounded-soldiers/) which included a video of captured Russian soldiers making the claim.

[dab69]

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Outgoing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sharply criticized Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the killings of innocent civilians in Ukraine, saying while the two of them have been tagged as killers, “I kill criminals, I don’t kill children and the elderly.”

Duterte, who openly calls Putin an idol and a friend, voiced his rebuke for the first time over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in remarks aired Tuesday where he blamed the three-month old war for the spike in global oil prices that has battered many countries, including the Philippines.

While stressing he was not condemning the Russian president, Duterte disagreed with Putin’s labeling of the invasion as a “special military operation,” and said it was really a full-scale war waged against “a sovereign nation.”

“Many say that Putin and I are both killers. I’ve long told you Filipinos that I really kill. But I kill criminals, I don’t kill children and the elderly,” Duterte said in a televised weekly meeting with key Cabinet officials. “We’re in two different worlds.”

[Dodger]

.

I don’t kill children and the elderly,” Duterte said in a televised weekly meeting with key Cabinet officials. “We’re in two different worlds.”

The fact that a low-life like Duterte has the audacity to compare his "killings" to those of someone else is appalling to say the least. Where do they get these animals?

[Moses]

Where do they get these animals?

Oh, it is very easy to explain: Ukrainian Nazi made it - 8 years of living in undergrounds because of bombing, killing, violence and discrimination at the East of Ukraine may make some people from Donbass quite angry.

[Moses]

Looks like Mr. Alzheimer got lowest approval rating in his history: 39% only. Biden again will blame Putin? :))

12584

[Moses]

Nice trolling: UAE send 1 mln barrels of oil to EU, first time since 2020. Oil tanker is approaching Rotterdam. Name of the ship is... "Moscow spirit".

12585

[Dragonman]

Nice trolling: UAE send 1 mln barrels of oil to EU, first time since 2020. Oil tanker is approaching Rotterdam. Name of the ship is... "Moscow spirit".

12585

The troll here is you. Trolling, by the way, is defined by Merriam-Webster as "to antagonize (others) online by deliberately posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content."

As can be seen on the vessel's stern, it is registered in Nassau, Bahamas. As it hasn't "gone dark" (i.e., it's position can be tracked; it is currently off the Tunisian coast between Bizerta and Annaba), I guess it's not owned by a Russian oligarch. If it was, that might be considered worthy of a comment.

[Moses]

As can be seen on the vessel's stern, it is registered in Nassau, Bahamas. As it hasn't "gone dark" (i.e., it's position can be tracked; it is currently off the Tunisian coast between Bizerta and Annaba), I guess it's not owned by a Russian oligarch. If it was, that might be considered worthy of a comment.

Exactly. "Moscow Spirit" is going to Rotterdam Bloomberg says https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-24/uae-sends-rare-cargoes-of-crude-toward-europe-amid-russia-snub

[dab69]

Looks like Mr. Alzheimer got lowest approval rating in his history: 39% only. Biden again will blame Putin? :))

12584


Well Biden didn't get 146% of the "vote" like Putin did

[Dragonman]

Exactly. "Moscow Spirit" is going to Rotterdam Bloomberg says https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-24/uae-sends-rare-cargoes-of-crude-toward-europe-amid-russia-snub

The way your mind works never fails to puzzle me. The Bloomberg headline is "UAE Sends Rare Cargoes of Oil Toward Europe Amid Russia Snub. Emirati crude oil sails toward Europe after a gap of two years. UAE crude goes to Egypt for the first time since at least 2017."

The opening lines of the article are: "The United Arab Emirates has started shipping rare cargoes of oil toward Europe, where crude buyers are snubbing imports from Russia in the wake of the nation’s invasion of Ukraine."

The oil isn't being "sent" - it is being shipped because it has been bought. So what point are you trying to make about the vessel's unfortunate name in the circumstances?

[Moses]

His attempts to draw attention from the murders of his country by calling out others for "facism" and "pretend Nazis".
More propaganda but lame, low class, and rather scummy.

Yes-yes. Fascism is here. as per Western mass-medias, but fascists are marching in Ukraine. Paradox. Western medias can't lie :)) Right?

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[Moses]

Today Lukoil (Russian oil and gas company) announced what it finished deal with Shell in acquisition of all Shell's gasoline station in Russia. As per rumors Lukoil got whole network for 1/4 of real price. Lukoil almost doubled own gasoline stations network in Russia, Shell announced loss $1 bln.

How did you said? "Sanctions"?

[dab69]

yes color of uniforms is a logical reason to murder them.
pretend "evidence" of the propagandist /apologist.

such a crime to have uniforms and salutes
any excuse to invade and gain a port
and draw attention away from your murderous countries real crimes

[dab69]

Today Lukoil (Russian oil and gas company) announced what it finished deal with Shell in acquisition of all Shell's gasoline station in Russia. As per rumors Lukoil got whole network for 1/4 of real price. Lukoil almost doubled own gasoline stations network in Russia, Shell announced loss $1 bln.

How did you said? "Sanctions"?

you're clearly not worried about lives and blood
only your scurvy rubles

[Moses]

yes color of uniforms is a logical reason to murder them.
pretend "evidence" of the propagandist /apologist.

such a crime to have uniforms and salutes
any excuse to invade and gain a port
and draw attention away from your murderous countries real crimes

Oh, we have progress here: now you see uniform and "salutes". Well, congratulation. What you will say next? It is carnival?

I will continue that pressure until you will suddenly start to see what all previous 8 years you kept your tongue in ass, while Ukrainian Nazi and fascists murdered Russians at the East of Ukraine.

Do you want to see real "murderous countries real crimes" - type "Hiroshima and Nagasaki" in Google...

[dab69]

we only see the murders of your countrymen by their dictator as you brag about rubles

[Moses]

we only see the murders of your countrymen by their dictator as you brag about rubles

Yeah. You will not type "Hiroshima and Nagasaki" - "It was so far ago". Well, type " Mosul 2003".

Russia now does less than UK or US did at past years in XXI century. Counter in Ukraine is still more than 30 times lower than fatalities counter in Iraq. So shut up dear, you haven't moral rights to say "murders". You hands are in blood what is 30 times thicker.

[Dragonman]

Today Lukoil (Russian oil and gas company) announced what it finished deal with Shell in acquisition of all Shell's gasoline station in Russia. As per rumors Lukoil got whole network for 1/4 of real price. Lukoil almost doubled own gasoline stations network in Russia, Shell announced loss $1 bln.

How did you said? "Sanctions"?

As all press reports note, e.g., "Neither Shell nor Lukoil have provided the financial details of the sale" (e.g., https://www.energyconnects.com/news/oil-and-gas/2022/may/shell-completes-sale-of-retail-and-lubricants-businesses-in-russia/), how do you know it was for 1/4 of the real price?

By the way, "Moscow Spirit" is owned by the Canadian shipping firm TeeKay Shipping, headquartered in Vancouver, and all its ships' names end in "Spirit."

[Moses]

By the way, "Moscow Spirit" is owned by the Canadian shipping firm TeeKay Shipping, headquartered in Vancouver, and all its ships' names end in "Spirit."

Who cares? We discuss nice trolling from UAE - to ship oil to EU by the tanker named "Moscow spirit".

Mr. Alzheimer has so warm relation, that Saudi and UAE even decline to pick up his phone calls. Congratulations to smart American diplomacy and brainless president. Now he has support of 39% of nation only.

Saudi, Emirati Leaders Decline Calls With Biden https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-emirati-leaders-decline-calls-with-biden-during-ukraine-crisis-11646779430

[dab69]

Yes redirect our attention away from the war with
pictures of parades as "justification"

Mothers of dead conscripts from Russia’s sunken Moskva asked to accept sons’ deaths in ‘accident’ at seaRussian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, wrote that more than a month since the Moskva cruiser, a vessel able to carry up to 500 in personnel, was destroyed in the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry still doesn’t recognize this fact. Its bureaucrats have admitted so far only one person died and 27 are missing.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mothers-dead-conscripts-russia-sunken-125700189.html

[dab69]

more rubles for Putin to steal from your country so he can wear $17,000 dollar sweatpants
and buy more watches

[Moses]

Yes redirect our attention away from the war with
pictures of parades as "justification"

Yeah, this "redirect" burns your eyes. Your countries collaborating with Nazi. Shame.

[Moses]

Strong sanctions "hurts" Russia: Norwegian Equinor transfers all interests to Rosneft (Rusoil) and quits from Russia. Norwegian Equinor announced loss 1.08 bln dollars. Rosneft got shares in project.

https://www.equinor.com/news/20220525-exits-joint-ventures-russia

[dab69]

Yeah, this "redirect" burns your eyes. Your countries collaborating with Nazi. Shame.

only in the reptilian dinosaur brain of an old fool.
in the words of your diplomat

"warmongering, lies and hatred. It serves interests of few, the very few people thus contributing to further isolation and degradation of my country. Russia no longer has allies, and there is no one to blame but its reckless and ill-conceived policy."

[Moses]

only in the reptilian dinosaur brain of an old fool.
in the words of your diplomat

"warmongering, lies and hatred. It serves interests of few, the very few people thus contributing to further isolation and degradation of my country. Russia no longer has allies, and there is no one to blame but its reckless and ill-conceived policy."

yeah, always exists possibility of existence of one renegade in big mass of people... one "diplomat" did that, so what?

by the way: should we now to talk about Snowden or Assange?

[alvnv]

It’s IRONY - not trolling, and Russia is at the receiving end (much like in this war - pun intended) as other meanings of the word spirit are:
* Ghost - as “real” Moscow died in Black Sea and its ghost is delivering non-Russian oil as a penance to absolve Russia’s sins
* Ethanol - reference to Russia’s alcoholism
* Essence - “Russia is a gas-station masquerading as a country” (RIP John McCain)
I could keep going…

[Dragonman]

Yeah. You will not type "Hiroshima and Nagasaki" - "It was so far ago". Well, type " Mosul 2003".

Russia now does less than UK or US did at past years in XXI century. Counter in Ukraine is still more than 30 times lower than fatalities counter in Iraq. So shut up dear, you haven't moral rights to say "murders". You hands are in blood what is 30 times thicker..

You mention above and elsewhere the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The justification of it at the time was to save lives, as the alternative was a US invasion. It is a matter of historical record that "Military advisers to President Harry S. Truman warned that such a ground war would result in the deaths of tens or hundreds of thousands of young men in the US Armed Forces, as well as the deaths of many Japanese military personnel and civilians. After receiving no reply to his threat that "prompt and utter destruction" would follow if the Japanese did not surrender unconditionally, Truman authorized the use of the bomb on Japan" (https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/rise-to-world-power/us-wwii/a/the-manhattan-project-and-the-atomic-bomb).

It was a choice between two evils. It has been estimated by more recent scholars, however, that this bombing, terrible as it was, saved the lives of 30 million people, according to the 2020 book "Atomic Salvation," written by Dr. Tom Lewis, an Australian intelligence analyst.

You note in another posting: "Russia now does less than UK or US did at past years in XXI century. Counter in Ukraine is still more than 30 times lower than fatalities counter in Iraq. So shoot up dear, you haven't moral rights to say "murders". You hands are in blood what is 30 times thicker."

Russian Federation hands are not clean, either. The Russian Federation, as the legal successor to the USSR and inheritor of its UN Security Council seat, inherits to its history of atrocities.

Consider that in the USSR's brutal nine-year conflict in Afghanistan from 1979, "an estimated one million civilians were killed, as well as 90,000 Mujahideen fighters, 18,000 Afghan troops, and 14,500 Soviet soldiers" (https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/08/the-soviet-war-in-afghanistan-1979-1989/100786/). Compare the number of Soviet soldiers killed with the number so far in Ukraine: "From 4 a.m. on 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 24:00 midnight on 22 May 2022 (local time), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 8,462 civilian casualties in the country: 3,930 killed and 4,532 injured." (https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2022/05/ukraine-civilian-casualty-update-23-may-2022). And that is only in 90 days.

The death toll among Russian military forces hasn't been reported by Russian authorities since the beginning of the "special military operation," but estimates already put it at "Up To 15,000 Russians Have Died In Ukraine: U.K. Defense Ministry" (https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/05/23/up-to-15000-russians-have-died-in-ukraine/?sh=7c724905b113). If this is correct, then it already exceeds the Afghan war death toll by 500 men.

It has been said that the quantity of coffins returning from Afghanistan was one of the tipping points that led to the downfall of the USSR. Perhaps that is why Putin will not reveal the true number of deaths among Russian military force - including dead generals.

If you persist in dragging historical events with high death tolls from the 20th century into these pages, let's go really far back and consider the death tolls of the expansion of the Grand Duchy of Moscow (a small and insignificant European principality) across all the previous indigenous inhabitants of North, Central and East Asia, even into Alaska, in its transformation in the Russian Empire. And let's take just one -18th-19th century instance - the Circassian or Tsitsekun genocide. This was the Russian Empire's systematic mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and expulsion of 80–97% of the Circassian population, around 800,000–1,500,000 people, during and after the Russo-Circassian War (1763–1864) (See, e.g., "150 Years Ago, Sochi Was the Site of a Horrific Ethnic Cleansing" (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/150-years-ago-Sochi-was-the-site-horrific-ethnic-cleansing-180949675/"). The Circassians are not Slavs, however. I believe the latest Russian census figure for the number of Circassians in Russia was 718,729. In contrast, the death toll from Hiroshima and Nagasaki was estimated in the 1970s at 210,000 total dead.

Look to Russian history and see how bloodstained it really is.

[dab69]

yeah, always exists possibility of existence of one renegade in big mass of people... one "diplomat" did that, so what?

by the way: should we now to talk about Snowden or Assange?



**yawn**

[Dragonman]

The South China Morning Post (or SCMP) is a daily newspaper published in Hong Kong under that territory's current press laws and national security laws. It recently fell to 148th place in Reporters Without Borders' 2022 annual index on press freedom, a drop of nearly 70 places in a single year. Hong Kong ranked 18th place in 2002, the year the index began, but now ranks just below the Philippines and Sri Lanka, and slightly above Turkey and India in those ratings, and seven places above Russia. Even so, the SCMP publishes quite revealing articles on Russia's "special military operation" that pass the current press and national security laws.

Today's opinion article by Chayanika Saxena is entitled "How Russia’s Ukraine invasion echoes Soviet Union’s Afghanistan misadventure" (https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3178689/how-russias-ukraine-invasion-echoes-soviet-unions-afghanistan?module=opinion&pgtype=homepage). The lead-in states: "The crises in Ukraine and Afghanistan have been transformed into geopolitically disconnected concerns even as there is much that connects them. Russian aggression in Ukraine serves as a critical reminder of the dangers associated both with the misuse of history and its wilful abandonment."

Further down, Saxena writes: " The war in Afghanistan, which lasted a decade, transformed what was expected to be a limited Soviet intervention into a full-fledged crisis. The Soviet invasion cost it men, material and morale while accelerating its eventual disintegration.
The Soviet intention to flex its capabilities, fresh on the heels of the US failure in Vietnam, might have partly fuelled its decision to march into Afghanistan. But in doing so, it underestimated the strength of its adversaries, particularly their will to fight, giving the Soviets their own Vietnam.
Yet despite the lessons it offered, Russia seems to have learned little from the errors of its political predecessor. Having underestimated its Ukrainian counterparts just like it did the Afghan mujahideen, the Russian army has begun resorting to ill-conceived tactics such as indiscriminate bombing. Waging a conflict that it refuses to label as war, Russia’s current “special military operation” has destroyed Ukrainian cities while sending more than 6 million people into refuge.
It is significant to recall here that at the height of its involvement in Afghanistan, which also involved an obscene use of Soviet air power against Afghan cities, more than 1 million Afghans lost their lives while 6 million left to seek refuge in different parts of the world. Hence, expecting different outcomes when the larger Russian military templates have proven to be similar across the two conflicts amounts to wishful thinking."

The last sentence is particularly interesting.

An article on 21 May 2022 by Jun Mai (based in Beijing) was titled "Russia’s war on Ukraine based on flawed logic, Chinese military scholar wrote in article scrubbed from the web" (https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3178631/russias-war-ukraine-based-flawed-logic-chinese-military?module=hard_link&pgtype=article). That article's lead-in read: "Russia has chosen a path ‘long forsaken by human civilisation’, military scholar and Sino-Vietnam war veteran Gong Fangbin says. Gong is among a small but growing number of Chinese intellectuals voicing scepticism about Moscow’s rationale behind invading Ukraine."

Gong Fangbin is a retired professor of the People’s Liberation Army National Defence University, the PRC's top military academy. The article reports him as writing: "“I still don’t see how any country would have dared to invade the world’s No 2 military power. Russia has shown the world time and again that no one dares touch an inch of its land.” The article by Jun Mai's view of Gong's words was that they were "countering Moscow’s argument that it was cornered by the West and NATO into invading Ukraine."

I wonder what the CPC and the Chinese government really think about what is happening in Ukraine and Russia?

[Moses]

From $97 to $113 per barrel, the price of Brent oil on international markets rose from late February to May 20.

This time, the rise is largely due not to objective market reasons, but to the reaction of the markets to the loud disputes of European politicians around the sixth package of anti-Russian sanctions, which implies an embargo on the purchase of Russian oil. The purpose of the sanctions is not hidden - to deprive Russia of oil and gas revenues.

So far, everything is happening exactly the opposite. If the first package of sanctions, adopted even before the start of the special operation in Ukraine, "rallied" dozens of countries at once - right up to French Polynesia, then the sixth - quarreled Europe. Hungary vetoed the oil embargo, Poland promised to push through the package in a reduced form.

Meanwhile, this spring, the Reserve Fund of the Russian government replenished by 791.6 billion rubles. through additional oil and gas revenues. And according to Bloomberg forecasts, by the end of 2022, Russia can earn about $321 billion from oil and gas exports, which is a third more than in 2021.

[Moses]

Kissinger says Ukraine should cede territory to Russia to end war

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/24/henry-kissinger-ukraine-russia-territory-davos/

Former U.S. secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger said Monday that Ukraine should cede territory to Russia to help end the invasion, suggesting a position that a vast majority of Ukrainians are against as the war enters its fourth month.

Speaking at a conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Kissinger urged the United States and the West to not seek an embarrassing defeat for Russia in Ukraine, warning it could worsen Europe’s long-term stability.

In his comments Monday, Kissinger, a longtime advocate of a realpolitik approach that has nations putting their practical aims in front of morals and principles, urged European leaders to not lose sight of Russia’s place in Europe and risk the country forming a permanent alliance with China.

[Moses]

DPA: NATO countries agreed not to supply a number of weapons to Ukraine

There are informal agreements between NATO countries to refuse to supply certain weapons systems to Ukraine, the German agency DPA reported, citing sources. The alliance believes that it is necessary to minimize the risk of a direct military confrontation with Russia.

According to the DPA, NATO fears that Russia may regard the supply of tanks and military aircraft "as entry into the war" and then take "retaliatory military measures." The ruling Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) told the agency that Germany knows about the agreement of the NATO member countries.

The NATO spokesman said that all decisions on the supply of weapons are a private matter of the countries belonging to the alliance. The unnamed European diplomats said they stuck to the informal arrangements out of fear they might otherwise not have the "full support" of their NATO partners in the event of an attack. For this reason, Poland did not supply Soviet-made MiG-29 fighters to Kyiv, DPA claims.

https://www.zeit.de/news/2022-05/25/nato-staaten-durch-absprachen-krieg-mit-russland-verhindern

[Moses]

Israel refused the US request for the supply of Spike anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, according to the Axios portal. The missiles are produced in Germany using Israeli technology. Under an Israeli license, he must approve the transfer of missiles to a third party.

Spike missiles are developed by Rafael. They have several modifications, equipped with an infrared homing system. The range is from 0.4 to 8 km, the flight speed reaches 130–180 m/s. Their cost is estimated at about $ 200 thousand.

Two weeks ago, Israeli Defense Ministry Director General Amir Eshel met in Washington with US Deputy Defense Secretary Colin Kahl. He asked Mr. Eshel if Israel would agree to supply Spike missiles to Ukraine. The Israeli Defense Ministry Director General refused.

He explained that Israel is ready to send Ukraine only non-lethal military equipment. As an unnamed senior Israeli official told Axios, Israel is concerned that if the Russian military is killed by Israeli weapons, Russia will retaliate "damaging Israel's security interests in Syria."

https://www.axios.com/2022/05/25/israel-rejects-spike-missile-ukraine-germany-russia

[Dragonman]

Kissinger says Ukraine should cede territory to Russia to end war

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/24/henry-kissinger-ukraine-russia-territory-davos/

Former U.S. secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger said Monday that Ukraine should cede territory to Russia to help end the invasion, suggesting a position that a vast majority of Ukrainians are against as the war enters its fourth month.

Speaking at a conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Kissinger urged the United States and the West to not seek an embarrassing defeat for Russia in Ukraine, warning it could worsen Europe’s long-term stability.

In his comments Monday, Kissinger, a longtime advocate of a realpolitik approach that has nations putting their practical aims in front of morals and principles, urged European leaders to not lose sight of Russia’s place in Europe and risk the country forming a permanent alliance with China.

Kissinger is one of those dinosaurs that Moses earlier dismissed - but now seems to give credence to. He has not held political office since January 20, 1977, or more than 45 years ago.

The Ukrainians' answer to Kissinger: "‘Davos Panicker,’ Ukraine slams Henry Kissinger for saying country must cede land to Russia."

"Kissinger’s “solution” to the war is contrary to what Ukrainians want. An overwhelming majority of the population is against any territorial concession to Russia.
A poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology between 13 and 18 May found that 82 per cent of all respondents said they did not want to cede land to Russia. “Only 10% believe that some territories can be abandoned in order to achieve peace and preserve independence,” the survey said.
The survey added: “Even in the East, which is currently experiencing intense fighting, 68% are against concessions (only 19% are ready to make concessions), and 83% are opposed to concessions in the South (only 9% are ready to make concessions).
“It is also important to see that among the respondents currently living in the occupied territories, 77% are against any territorial concessions (18% are ready to make concessions). At the same time, 82% of those who left the occupied territories after February 24, 2022 oppose any concessions (only 5% support concessions).” (https://theprint.in/world/davos-panicker-ukraine-slams-henry-kissinger-for-saying-country-must-cede-land-to-russia/969994/).

Taiwan knows what Kissinger's solutions to geopolitics means for the people in the countries involved, e.g., "Taiwan Expendable? Nixon and Kissinger Go to China," by Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, The Journal of American History, Vol. 92, No. 1 (Jun., 2005), pp. 109-135.
"Op-Ed: How Nixon’s fabled trip to China, 50 years ago this week, led to today’s Taiwan crisis," https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-02-21/richard-nixon-henry-kissinger-trip-to-china-50th-anniversary-taiwan-vietnam-war

William Stanton, a 34-year veteran U.S. diplomat whose final posting was as director of the American Institute in Taiwan (2009-2012), served as the U.S. embassy political counselor in Beijing from 1995 to 1998. He attended a presentation at which Kissinger enthusiastically described his respect and affection for China, commenting at one point that while many regard him as a purely “realpolitik” practitioner, this was not the case, and he had to admit that when it came to China in particular, there is a “warm spot” in his heart. Stanton later commented: " I was rather astonished by Dr. Kissinger’s expressed warmth toward China. When he was done speaking, I turned to the Chinese analyst sitting next to me and observed, “He really doesn’t know anything about China, does he?” The analyst responded simply: “We know that, but he’s useful to us” (https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4170721).

Stanton's comment could now read "He really doesn’t know anything about Russia, does he?” A Russian analyst's reply of “We know that, but he’s useful to us” would be equally true.

[Moses]

Kissinger is one of those dinosaurs [...] He has not held political office since January 20, 1977, or more than 45 years ago.


Yeah. Exactly because of that he has been invited to held speech in Davos, right?


The Ukrainians' answer to Kissinger: "‘Davos Panicker,’ Ukraine slams Henry Kissinger for saying country must cede land to Russia."

Who cares about about Ukraine's "answer"? Ukraine is object in this conflict, it isn't subject. Big countries plays geopolitical chess, Ukraine is the pawn on the chessboard.

[Dragonman]

Yeah. Exactly because of that he has been invited to held speech in Davos, right?

Who cares about about Ukraine's "answer"? Ukraine is object in this conflict, it isn't subject. Big countries plays geopolitical chess, Ukraine is the pawn on the chessboard.

Kissinger was a Cold War strategist but the Cold War ended when the USSR self-destructed. As Kissinger himself said on May 9, 2022, "We are now living in a totally new era." At that time, he also said that he thought that Putin had "miscalculated the situation he faced internationally and he obviously miscalculated Russia’s capabilities to sustain such a major enterprise — and when the time for settlement comes all need to take that into consideration, that we are not going back to the previous relationship but to a position for Russia that will be different because of this — and not because we demand it but because they produced it" (https://www.ft.com/content/cd88912d-506a-41d4-b38f-0c37cb7f0e2f).

As a dinosaur from the past, his views are irrelevant and distasteful, as the response on social media has shown (see, e.g., https://www.newsweek.com/henry-kissinger-ukraine-russia-territory-comments-1709636). Dr. John Chipman, current CEO of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (which is a world-leading authority on global security, political risk and military conflict) and a specialist in international security, dismissed Kissinger's speech as "An unfortunate intervention by Dr Kissinger at #wef22 — There is no strategic reason for Ukraine to concede its sovereignty to Putin, and every strategic reason for the West to support Kyiv to defeat Putin. There is no reason to be frightened of victory." As he's 98 years old, I suspect that in the intervening two weeks, he forgot what he had earlier stated.

If you're going to use a chess analogy to dismiss the Ukrainians as pawns on the chessboard (presumably with Putin as King), remember that pawns on a chessboard can checkmate kings. Garry Kimovich Kasparov, Russian chess grand master and former World Chess Champion will show you how at https://www.masterclass.com/articles/can-a-pawn-take-a-king-explained.

[Moses]

If you're going to use a chess analogy to dismiss the Ukrainians as pawns on the chessboard (presumably with Putin as King)

It is your presumption. My presumption: Putin is one of chess players.

[Moses]

At May 15, 2022, in Warsaw, Poland, at the Catholic mass bishop Richard Williamson hold speech about current situation in Ukraine. He spoke in English, translation to Polish has been clipped out. Here is video with Russian subtitles.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTHCtBl2DWY

[dab69]

Kissinger is one of those dinosaurs that Moses earlier dismissed - but now seems to give credence to.



Early childhood friends...

Anyway the real estate to end the war clearly clearly shows the war is not about imaginary "Nazis" .
It's a land grab of Nazi proportions. The invaders want it all, the women and children dead, the grain and farm implements stolen...

[Dragonman]

It is your presumption. My presumption: Putin is one of chess players.

If the king is in check, and the checked player has no moves to get out of check, the king is checkmated and the player loses.

[Moses]

Instead of listening to "Ukrainian answers", look at Ukrainian actions. And Zelensky’s actions over the past month are as follows: more than 10 political parties have been banned, the former: Minister of the Interior Avakov (he is also the main patron of the Nazis), Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, Speaker of Parliament Turchynov, President Poroshenko were summoned to the prosecutor’s office, so far as witnesses, in a case of treason.

Zelensky removes everyone who can interfere with him in peace negotiations with Russia, removes those who may try to seize power in Ukraine, while accepting Russia's conditions.

Because, no matter how long the conflict lasts, the end will be the same - peace negotiations. And the situation is working against Ukraine: the main resource that will run out first is Ukrainian conscripts. Ukraine has already mobilized everyone from the age of 18 to 60. The West will not be able to prolong the conflict "until the last Ukrainian" indefinitely: conscripts are not an endless resource.

As soon as Zelensky clears the "political clearing" from the highest "trees", and will be sure that no one will throw him out of the presidency, his current "heroic" rhetoric will be replaced by a search for a compromise.

[Dragonman]

At May 15, 2022, in Warsaw, Poland, at the Catholic mass bishop Richard Williamson hold speech about current situation in Ukraine. He spoke in English, translation to Polish has been clipped out. Here is video with Russian subtitles.

You really should research who this person is, and his standing in the Roman Catholic Church, before citing him. He is a renegade British former bishop. He has been suspended indefinitely from his episcopal functions until he unequivocally and publicly distances himself from his stated position on the Holocaust, which he denies happened. He has been excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church. In Germany, he is a convicted criminal. Williamson was formerly a member of the ultra-conservative Society of Saint Pius X but was kicked out in 2012 for disobeying orders from his superiors. He was excommunicated by the Vatican in 1988 after he was ordained by a fundamentalist archbishop against papal orders, and again in 2015.

If you really believe that Putin wants to "deNazify" Ukraine, this so-called Holocaust-denying ex-bishop is probably the last person you should link to on this board.

[dab69]

The Ukrainians attempt to identify the dead: on the body just brought in, the forensics team turned up two bank cards, as well as badges for a Russian motorised rifle brigade.

"At least this one has a chance of getting home," the man in charge announced, displaying the finds, including a soiled fragment of T-shirt printed with the Army of Russia logo.

Moments later, I confirmed that the man I had just seen exhumed had been a young, married soldier from Siberia. Next to his body bag, a carefully posed black-and-white photograph from his social media profile stared out from my phone.

Russia has a proud slogan: "We don't abandon our own." It's a big part of President Vladimir Putin's supposed justification for invading Ukraine, where he falsely claimed Russian-speakers needed protection.

That pledge appears not to apply so much to Russia's own soldiers.

"The bodies we've found show they treat people as rubbish, as cannon fodder," Col Volodymyr Liamzin told the BBC. "They don't need their soldiers. They throw them here, retreat - and leave the bodies."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61571855?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Bmicrosoft%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D

[Moses]

You really should research who this person is, and his standing in the Roman Catholic Church, before citing him. He is a renegade British former bishop. He has been suspended indefinitely from his episcopal functions until he unequivocally and publicly distances himself from his stated position on the Holocaust, which he denies happened. He has been excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church. In Germany, he is a convicted criminal. Williamson was formerly a member of the ultra-conservative Society of Saint Pius X but was kicked out in 2012 for disobeying orders from his superiors. He was excommunicated by the Vatican in 1988 after he was ordained by a fundamentalist archbishop against papal orders, and again in 2015.

If you really believe that Putin wants to "deNazify" Ukraine, this so-called Holocaust-denying ex-bishop is probably the last person you should link to on this board.

Does it matter? He had speech in Poland in Warsaw 2 weeks ago. In Catholic community. What do you think - they didn't know who he is?

[Dragonman]

Instead of listening to "Ukrainian answers", look at Ukrainian actions. And Zelensky’s actions over the past month are as follows: more than 10 political parties have been banned, the former: Minister of the Interior Avakov (he is also the main patron of the Nazis), Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, Speaker of Parliament Turchynov, President Poroshenko were summoned to the prosecutor’s office, so far as witnesses, in a case of treason.

Zelensky removes everyone who can interfere with him in peace negotiations with Russia, removes those who may try to seize power in Ukraine, while accepting Russia's conditions.

Because, no matter how long the conflict lasts, the end will be the same - peace negotiations. And the situation is working against Ukraine: the main resource that will run out first is Ukrainian conscripts. Ukraine has already mobilized everyone from the age of 18 to 60. The West will not be able to prolong the conflict "until the last Ukrainian" indefinitely: conscripts are not an endless resource.

As soon as Zelensky clears the "political clearing" from the highest "trees", and will be sure that no one will throw him out of the presidency, his current "heroic" rhetoric will be replaced by a search for a compromise.

Stop dealing in half-truths! The actions were carried out in accord with Ukrainian law by the appropriate Ukrainian legal forces.

Ukraine's national security and defence council took the decision to ban 11 parties from any political activity because of their ties with Russia.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) summoned former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, former Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov and former Interior Minister Arsen Avakov for questioning on Viktor Medvedchukʼs "coal case." The case concerns the organization of illegal coal supply schemes from the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk. Petro Poroshenko not only asked Medvedchuk to contact the leadership of the Russian Federation but also ensured the adoption of the necessary decisions in all Ukrainian instances.

This was as legal as Putin using the Duma to outlaw the word "war," and as legal as his purging of the Kremlin of Russian officials he blames for the fact that the invasion of Ukraine was not going according to his plan.

[Moses]

Ukraine's national security and defence council took the decision to ban 11 parties from any political activity because of their ties with Russia.


What is "half truth"? I just wrote facts: more than 10 parties has been banned. Legal parties became illegal just because President signed order.

So it is censorship? Because these 11 parties have voters in Ukraine and support of part of Ukrainian nation. And ban means total ignorance of opinions of part of Ukrainian population.

By the way: how many TV channels were closed at the same time? Radio stations? Newspapers?

But anyway: thank you for confirmation about ban of 11 political parties.

[dab69]

Concertgoers in Russia chant ‘F**k the war!’


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R36xAJFdMNo

[dab69]

Is the war in Ukraine sounding the death knell for attack helicopters?


The large number destroyed has sparked a debate among experts over whether the aircraft are under-performing or being used poorly by Russian forces.

Saturated with anti-aircraft defences, both long-range systems and short-range missiles that can be carried and launched by a soldier (Manpads), the skies above Ukraine are deadly for helicopters.

The numerous videos on social media of Russian helicopter gunships being shot down are very public evidence of the extent of the losses.

Russia has lost at least 42 helicopters since its February 24 invasion and Ukraine seven, according to specialist blog Oryx, which has recorded material losses from photographs and videos taken from the battlefields.

Attack helicopters were designed to aid troops and tanks on the battlefield.

They are armoured themselves and heavily armed, but as the conflict shows, they too are extremely vulnerable.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraine-attack-helicopters-grave-110600595.html

[Dragonman]

What is "half truth"? I just wrote facts: more than 10 parties has been banned. Legal parties became illegal just because President signed order.

So it is censorship? Because these 11 parties have voters in Ukraine and support of part of Ukrainian nation. And ban means total ignorance of opinions of part of Ukrainian population.

By the way: how many TV channels were closed at the same time? Radio stations? Newspapers?

But anyway: thank you for confirmation about ban of 11 political parties.

You're still dealing in half-truths. The 11 political parties were suspended, i.e., banned from any political activity for the period of martial law. They have not been disbanded. Contrary to your assertion that the parties "have voters," most of them were not represented in the parliament. The parties did not become illegal "just because President signed order," but their activities were suspended because Ukraine's national security and defence council took the decision to ban the parties from any political activity.

By the way: how many TV channels were closed at the same time? Radio stations? Newspapers?

Ukraine closed 3 TV stations owned by by a Russia-linked magnate close to Vladimir Putin. I cannot locate on the Internet any reports of Ukraine closing down newspapers or radio station. There have been no reports of Ukrainian authorities banning the use of certain words, or of Ukraine blocking access to Facebook, etc. If you know of any, please post the links.

Why haven't you commented on the fact that Russia shut down of country’s only independent TV channel and a liberal radio station. Or the fact that Putin banned the use of the word "war" in relation to the so-called "special military operation," blocked access to Facebook and major foreign news outlets, and enacted a law to punish anyone spreading “false information” about its Ukraine invasion with up to 15 years in prison."Russia Takes Censorship to New Extremes, Stifling War Coverage" (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/world/europe/russia-censorship-media-crackdown.html).

[Ruthrieston]

I read that Marks & Spencer is the latest retail outlet from the civilised world to withdraw all it's business from Russia. More doors are closing on the war criminals.

[Dragonman]

In 1904, Leo Tolstoy (author of "War and Peace") wrote a public letter denouncing the Russo-Japanese War, which has sometimes been compared with Russia’s war in Ukraine. “Again war,” he wrote. “Again sufferings, necessary to nobody, utterly uncalled for; again fraud, again the universal stupefaction and brutalization of men.”

In one of his most famous pacifist writings, 1900’s “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” Tolstoy presciently diagnosed the problem of today’s Russia: “The misery of nations is caused not by particular persons, but by the particular order of Society under which the people are so bound up together that they find themselves all in the power of a few men, or more often in the power of one single man: a man so perverted by his unnatural position as arbiter of the fate and lives of millions, that he is always in an unhealthy state, and always suffers more or less from a mania of self-aggrandizement” (How to read Dostoevsky and Tolstoy during Russia’s war against Ukraine: scholar, https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/dostoevsky-and-tolstoy/).

Were he alive today, he'd probably write the same thing again about Putin - "that he is always in an unhealthy state, and always suffers more or less from a mania of self-aggrandizement.”

[Moses]

I read that Marks & Spencer is the latest retail outlet from the civilised world to withdraw all it's business from Russia. More doors are closing on the war criminals.

Yes. They did. I think this will be the same story like with Reebok and Nike.

Nike announced end of business in Russia in March. Shops are still working. Reebok announced end of business in April then sold network of shops to Turkish distributor of Reebok and shops are still working. A lot of brands did the same - loudly announced quit and then silently returned to the market. Money.

Apple announced quit in March. Distributor re:Store kept doors closed only for 1 week, and then it started import of Apple products from another countries.

McDonalds in Moscow will be reopened at June 12 by its franchise company.

Law that ends trademark protection for companies and brands who leaving Russia works - companies changes decision to leave, or distributors of that brands from another countries come and restore presence of brand on Russian market.

[Moses]

Yes, it is best way to find support.

Ukraine moved to direct threats against Hungary because of its position regarding the imposition of an embargo on Russian oil. Olena Zerkal, Advisor to the Minister of Energy of Ukraine, made a corresponding statement.

Ukraine has decided to join the pressure on Hungary, but since it has no levers of influence on Hungary, Kyiv has chosen the most suitable method for them, i.e. began to threaten and blackmail. As Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine Olena Zerkal stated, the Druzhba oil pipeline passes through the territory of Ukraine and it is up to the Kyiv regime to make an "accident" on it, after which oil will no longer be supplied to Hungary.


Ukraine has an excellent leverage in its hands - the Druzhba oil pipeline (...) In my opinion, it would be very appropriate if something happened to it

she said, adding that this would be a response to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the language that he "understands and imposes on the EU."

[Moses]

Forte dei Marmi has become a seaside haven for Russia’s ultrarich in recent years, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky owns a villa there too.

12590

12591

[alvnv]

Pathetic

[dab69]

========130000 Russian troops surround Ukraine's borders=====

This is fiction. Game of US. US trying to push war, because they want to stop North Stream - 2 gas pipeline, but Germany doesn't agree. If war will starts then Germany will have to abort North Stream and US will be able to sell gas to Europe. With working North Stream US has no chances: Russian prices are unbeatable.

But fact is: "Russian troops" are based in camp near Yelnya - small town in Smolensk district, that is near Belorussian border. Just read news carefully and you will see that town name, newspapers say Yelnya is located near Ukrainian border, but by fact Yelnya is 100 km from Belorussian border and distance to closest point on Ukrainian border is 248 km. By the way: distance from Yelnya to closest point of Moscow is 249 km. So "near Ukrainian border" is just propaganda: with the same proximity to truth they can write "Russian troops are near Moscow" - 248 vs 249 km

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/01/07/world/europe/ukraine-maps.html

Pictures from Google map, you may check my measurements yourself:

12214

12215

Moses sure knows his shit...

[Dragonman]

McDonalds in Moscow will be reopened at June 12 by its franchise company.

Law that ends trademark protection for companies and brands who leaving Russia works - companies changes decision to leave, or distributors of that brands from another countries come and restore presence of brand on Russian market.

Again, half-truths.

McDonald's earlier had announced it would sell its Russian business to a local buyer and "de-arch" all its restaurants in the country, meaning that the company's name, branding, menu, and logo could not be used. McDonald's had about 850 locations in Russia, of which only about 100 were locally owned and which had refused to close. Complicated legal agreements made it hard for the company to enforce closures at such franchise stores.

On May 19, however, McDonald's announced that it had struck a deal to sell its Russian business to Alexander Govor, its current licensee in the market. Govor will acquire all of McDonald’s locations in Russia and will operate them under a new brand. He also agreed to retain employees for at least two years, on equivalent terms, and fund the salaries of corporate employees who work in 45 regions of the country until the deal closes and existing liabilities to suppliers, landlords and utilities.

Gorov will rebrand the restaurants under a new name (https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-russian-businessman-alexander-govor-bought-hundreds-mcdonalds-restaurants-2022-5#gorov-will-rebrand-the-restaurants-under-a-new-name-neither-mcdonalds-or-govor-disclosed-the-price-of-the-deal-3).

Note that the restaurants will be re-branded and operated by Govor's organization.

Therefore, logically, the statement "McDonald's in Moscow will be reopened at June 12 by its franchise company" is false.

Changes in Russian legislation, particularly the "Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 06.03.2022 No. 299 "On Amendments to Clause 2 of the Methodology for Determining the Amount of Compensation Paid to a Patent Owner When Deciding to Use an Invention, Utility Model or Industrial Design without His Consent, and the Procedure for Its Payment," allow local companies and individuals to use inventions, utility models and industrial designs held by owners from “unfriendly countries” without their consent and without paying any compensation.

This is government-sanctioned theft - and a two-edged sword. Foreign governments under pressure from their own industrialists could introduce legislation specifically voiding Russian intellectual property rights and patents on significant Russian inventions if there is international consensus that this Russian decree signifies that Russia has backtracked on its 2017 acceptance of the TRIPS Agreement, to date the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property.

The long-term effect of this law will probably be an example of The Law of Unintended Consequences" (the phenomenon in which any action has results that are not part of the actor's purpose), such as increasing the probability that firms from the 48 countries on Russia's unfriendly list will probably not consider future investment in, or cooperation with, any Russian organization in future. Academics cooperating with Russian counterparts in work that could lead to the registration of patents and intellectual property rights will reconsider such cooperation. The longer-term effects for the Russian economy are likely to be bleak, whatever the outcome of the "special military operation."

Incidentally, Putin's vocabulary is an interesting insight into his personality, particularly his penchant for avoiding the use of the word "war" in relation to the Russian Federation's invasion of other countries. For example, the use of "special military operation" for the invasion of Ukraine, and "peace enforcement operation" for the 2008 invasion of Georgia. This is doublespeak, a public speaking skill that employs methods and language that are intended to be euphemistic, obscure, and ambiguous. It is essentially being verbally evasive. In the USA, under Trump, doublespeak statements were "alternative facts." Its use lets leaders avoid the reputational costs of lying, such as under GW Bush "torture" was "enhanced interrogation." He's lying - and he knows he's lying.

[Dragonman]

========130000 Russian troops surround Ukraine's borders=====

This is fiction....... Just read news carefully and you will see that town name......

Moses sure knows his shit...

An internet search using the term "130000 Russian troops surround Ukraine's borders" turns up no reports with that exact wording, i.e., "surround Ukraine's borders." There are reports with similar headings, some of which mention Yelnya - I did "read news carefully and you will see that town name,..." but I also noticed they all also include mention of other gathering sites.

Four examples:

1. A 23rd February BBC report "Ukraine conflict: Where are Russia's troops?" (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60158694) stated, "Military units heading into Ukraine will be drawn from up to 190,000 personnel gathered close to Ukraine's borders in recent months). The body of the report stated, "On Friday, the US government said Russia had between 169,000 and 190,000 personnel in and around Ukraine. A statement by the US ambassador to the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Michael Carpenter said: "This estimate includes military troops along the border, in Belarus, and in occupied Crimea; Russian National Guard and other internal security units deployed to these areas; and Russian-led forces in eastern Ukraine." That is, the troops are "gathered close to Ukraine's borders."

2. A CNN report on February 15th said "Russia has surrounded Ukraine on three sides. Here's where an invasion could be launched" (https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/12/europe/russia-ukraine-invasion-paths-map-cmd-intl/index.html), stating "Russia has amassed more than 130,000 troops near Ukraine's border in recent weeks, according to US estimates, raising fears from Western and Ukrainian intelligence officials that an invasion could be imminent." Yelnya was only one of the sites mentioned for troop concentrations. That is, the troops are "near Ukraine's borders."

3. An Al Arabiya report (https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/02/14/US-Over-130-000-Russian-troops-now-staged-outside-Ukraine) stated "The Russians have deployed missile, air, naval and special operations forces, as well as supplies to sustain an invasion. This week, Russia moved six amphibious assault ships into the Black Sea, augmenting its capability to land on the coast." That is, the troops are "now staged outside" Ukraine's borders. Al Arabiya refers to the build-up of forces in Yelsk (rather than in Yelnya), i.e., a town in the Gomel Region of Belarus just across the border with Ukraine.

4. On January 22, 2022, The Atlantic Council report "Russian Hybrid Threats Report: Troops arrive in Belarus as propaganda narratives heat up" (https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/russian-hybrid-threats-report-troops-arrive-in-belarus-as-propaganda-narratives-heat-up/) had stated that "More recently, the DFRLab observed equipment from the 36th Motor-Rifle Brigade in Transbaikal and the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade in Vladivostok arriving in Brest, the 37th Motor-Rifle Brigade in Buryatiya arriving in Rechitsa near Gomel, and the 38th Motor-Rifle Brigade arriving in Yelsk near Mazyr. Equipment from an undetermined unit has also been observed arriving in Gomel city." The Brest and Gomel regions (the latter containing Rechitsa, Mazyr and Yelsk) are on the Ukrainian border, with the Gomel region being north of Kyiv.

Not so much fiction as alternative truth as it directs attention to one area of build-up and redirects it away from other reports.

[Dragonman]

Irony: a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character's words or actions is clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.

Best quote on the Ukrainian "special military operation" so far by Putin: "Stealing other people's assets has never brought any good to anyone." At the 3.27 minute mark in the May 27 report "Putin says 'Thanks God' European companies are leaving Russia," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2ZBw5y8Fqo, during a video conference at the EAEU Economic Forum.

[Moses]

A German enters a bar and orders a beer.
The bartender tells him:
- 100 euro!
German in shock
— Why 100 euros? yesterday was 10 euros!
— Well, today it is 100 euros.
— Why 100, damn it?
— I explain: 10 euros is a beer. 10 to help Ukraine. 20 — assistance to European countries that have imposed sanctions and are not members of the EU. 10 euros to help the UK, for the successful implementation of sanctions against Russia. Another 10 euros to the Balkan countries as assistance for the purchase of furnace coal. And finally 40 euros for a gas subsidy for the EU and a fund to help maintain sanctions!
The German silently took out the money and gave the bartender 100 euros. The bartender took them, put them in the cash register and gave him 10 euros back.
The German is confused
— Wait, you said 100, I gave you 100! Why are you giving me back 10 euros?
— Ahh ... the beer is over...

[Dragonman]

A German enters a bar and orders a beer.
The bartender tells him:
- 100 euro!
German in shock
— Why 100 euros? yesterday was 10 euros!
— Well, today it is 100 euros.
— Why 100, damn it?
— I explain: 10 euros is a beer. 10 to help Ukraine. 20 — assistance to European countries that have imposed sanctions and are not members of the EU. 10 euros to help the UK, for the successful implementation of sanctions against Russia. Another 10 euros to the Balkan countries as assistance for the purchase of furnace coal. And finally 40 euros for a gas subsidy for the EU and a fund to help maintain sanctions!
The German silently took out the money and gave the bartender 100 euros. The bartender took them, put them in the cash register and gave him 10 euros back.
The German is confused
— Wait, you said 100, I gave you 100! Why are you giving me back 10 euros?
— Ahh ... the beer is over...

Vladimir Putin walks into a meeting with all his remaining generals and demands, “How is my special military operation against Ukraine and NATO Nazis going?"

The generals all look at each other very nervously.

"Well...." demands Putin again, "Tell me now!!"

The most senior general stands and says, "Well we have been fighting for 95 days. We have lost over 28,700 brave soldiers, 12 generals, more than 650 tanks and about 3,000 other armored vehicles, 5 ships, 200 planes and drones, and 2000 trucks so far."

"And what of NATO’s losses?" Putin asks

"Well..." the general scratches his head nervously. "Well... they haven't turned up yet"

[Moses]

A record volume of Russian oil is on board tankers, with unprecedented amounts heading to India and China as other nations restrict imports because of the war in Ukraine.

Between 74 million and 79 million barrels from the OPEC+ producer were in transit and floating storage over the past week, more than double the 27 million barrels just before the February invasion of Ukraine, according to Kpler. Asia overtook Europe as the largest buyer for the first time last month, and that gap is set to widen in May, according to the data and analytics company.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-26/russia-has-record-oil-volumes-at-sea-as-cargoes-shift-to-asia

[Moses]

Oh, yeah.

WSJ: "Russia's blockade of Ukraine ports is further complicating dire baby formula shortages in the US". It explains all. Who else should be blamed? :)) :)) :))

Putin is behind of all US's troubles. In every unpleasant situation you should blame Putin. How else democrats may explain their f*ckups?


Year 2025. Democrats greet tsar Putin in the Capitol.

12592

[Moses]

Zelensky starts to cut "most high trees" around him, even in anti-Russian opposition parties.

Yesterday: (Reuters) - Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was prevented from leaving Ukraine to take part in a meeting of a NATO body in Lithuania, his party's parliamentary faction said on Saturday.

Poroshenko was stopped twice at a border crossing with Poland while he was on his way to the meeting of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly, a consultative interparliamentary organisation, the statement said.

[Dragonman]

A record volume of Russian oil is on board tankers, with unprecedented amounts heading to India and China as other nations restrict imports because of the war in Ukraine.

Between 74 million and 79 million barrels from the OPEC+ producer were in transit and floating storage over the past week, more than double the 27 million barrels just before the February invasion of Ukraine, according to Kpler. Asia overtook Europe as the largest buyer for the first time last month, and that gap is set to widen in May, according to the data and analytics company.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-26/russia-has-record-oil-volumes-at-sea-as-cargoes-shift-to-asia

The full report also stated: China and India have snapped up millions of barrels from the country to take advantage of hefty discounts on the flows. Some of the interested buyers in Asia are more motivated by economics rather than taking a political stand,” said Jane Xie, a senior oil analyst at Kpler in Singapore." It also noted, "Vessels are forced on longer voyages when transporting crude -- such as flagship Urals -- from Russia’s western ports to Asia rather than Europe, with a one-way journey to China typically taking around two months."

Of course the Chinese and the Indians are buying the heavily discounted oil - they're motivated by the economic considerations as they are not stupid. But they are not making a political statement by doing so.

[Dragonman]

Zelensky starts to cut "most high trees" around him, even in anti-Russian opposition parties.

Yesterday: (Reuters) - Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was prevented from leaving Ukraine to take part in a meeting of a NATO body in Lithuania, his party's parliamentary faction said on Saturday.

Poroshenko was stopped twice at a border crossing with Poland while he was on his way to the meeting of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly, a consultative interparliamentary organisation, the statement said.

All the English-language reports state that "Ukrainian media reported Poroshenko could not cross the border due to "technical problems" with a permit allowing him to leave the country."

Zelensky's name is not mentioned, and the Ukrainian government has yet to issue a statement on the reasons why he was stopped.

With regard to "even in anti-Russian parties," Poroshenko is being investigated for treason in connection with the financing of Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country through illegal coal sales in 2014-15.

Who are the other "most high trees" being cut down?

[Moses]

with a one-way journey to China typically taking around two months."

Of course the Chinese and the Indians are buying the heavily discounted oil - they're motivated by the economic considerations as they are not stupid. But they are not making a political statement by doing so.

Haha :)) "Two months" :))

Five days! Look here:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-26/rare-ship-to-ship-transfers-keep-oil-moving-from-russia-to-china?srnd=premium-europe



Buyers are using creative ways to maintain flows as more shipowners shun Russian oil due to the potential fallout from financial sanctions, according to shipbrokers. Small vessels are being used to shuttle between Russia’s Kozmino port and the waters off Yeosu in South Korea, where cargoes undergo ship-to-ship transfer to supertankers for the next leg of the journey to China.

The number of shipowners and insurers willing to handle Russian crude is dwindling, said shipbrokers, created a logistical challenge for producers and buyers working with fewer tankers. The new approach isn’t to dodge sanctions but to more effectively deploy the available fleet, they added.

This process is unusual for ESPO crude, a type of Russian oil that’s typically loaded onto smaller tankers for a direct, five-day journey to China. While it adds to overall sailing time and costs, the brokers said the practice is becoming more common as shipowners and buyers prioritize a ready supply of small vessels to ferry oil out of Kozmino in short runs.

12593

[Moses]

All the English-language reports state that "Ukrainian media reported Poroshenko could not cross the border due to "technical problems" with a permit allowing him to leave the country."

Zelensky's name is not mentioned, and the Ukrainian government has yet to issue a statement on the reasons why he was stopped.

With regard to "even in anti-Russian parties," Poroshenko is being investigated for treason in connection with the financing of Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country through illegal coal sales in 2014-15.

Who are the other "most high trees" being cut down?

"Zelensky will accuse Poroshenko of high treason and execute him in order to prevent the interception of power"? Who from the Western media will publish this?

Of course, everyone will pretend that everything is going well. But everything will go the same way as it already happened in the history of Ukraine just a few years ago, when Yanukovich himself imprisoned his then rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Each (!!!) Ukrainian president has been accused of murdering his opponents: Kravchuk - Boyko, Kuchma - Gongadze, Yushchenko - Getman and Stenchuk, Yanukovich even had criminal records in his past when was elected as a president, Poroshenko - Chernovil.

North Somalia.

[Moses]

At this week:

President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky intends to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a new draft law, which will spell out the special legal status of Polish citizens located on the territory of Ukraine.

According to the representative of the Verkhovna Rada in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Olga Sovgirithe bill will be introduced in the near future.

“The President of Ukraine announced that a draft law on the special legal status of Polish citizens in Ukraine will be submitted to Parliament in the near future,” Sovgirya said.

Earlier, the President of Poland Andrzej Duda arrived in Ukraine. According to the opposition politician of the Kyiv regime Ilya Kiva, the main purpose of his visit was to discuss with Volodymyr Zelensky the conditions and time of a possible transfer of control over the western regions of Ukraine to Poland.

[Moses]

The full report also stated: China and India have snapped up millions of barrels from the country to take advantage of hefty discounts on the flows.

Of course the Chinese and the Indians are buying the heavily discounted oil

Prices are "heavily discounted" against market, and are few times higher than prices in long-term contracts. Do you need proof? Look here then:

Ursula von Leer Leyen in an interview on MSNBC yesterday https://twitter.com/StarboyHK/status/1530420997135863811


What we always have to do is find the right balance between not hurting our economy because that’s our strongest side against this Russian aggression, Putin’s aggression, and taking the example of oil, what should We have to be wary of it that if we cut off completely and immediately from today on (Russian) oil, he (Putin) may be able to take the oil that he does not sell to the European Union to the world market where prices will increase and sell it for more

So EU saves Ukraine from Putin when buys oil from Russia :)) :)) :)) :)) :))

Orwell.

[Dragonman]

Haha :)) "Two months" :))

Five days! Look here:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-26/rare-ship-to-ship-transfers-keep-oil-moving-from-russia-to-china?srnd=premium-europe

12593

As usual, you selectively quote to score a point. The Bloomberg article's opening sentence is "A logistically risky and costly transfer of crude between tankers at sea highlights the steps at least one Chinese buyer is willing to take to ensure the smooth flow of oil from eastern Russia to Asia." Only after that sentence does the article include the text you cited.

[Dragonman]

Prices are "heavily discounted" against market, and are few times higher than prices in long-term contracts. Do you need proof? Look here then:

Ursula von Leer Leyen in an interview on MSNBC yesterday https://twitter.com/StarboyHK/status/1530420997135863811



So EU saves Ukraine from Putin when buys oil from Russia :)) :)) :)) :)) :))

Orwell.

What Twitter says she said is "To save Europe from Putin, we must continue to buy Russian oil. Because if we don't, Putin will sell it elsewhere and profit more from higher prices, so we better buy Russian oil and not let him profit" (https://twitter.com/StarboyHK/status/1530420997135863811).

[Dragonman]

At this week:

President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky intends to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a new draft law, which will spell out the special legal status of Polish citizens located on the territory of Ukraine.

According to the representative of the Verkhovna Rada in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Olga Sovgirithe bill will be introduced in the near future.

“The President of Ukraine announced that a draft law on the special legal status of Polish citizens in Ukraine will be submitted to Parliament in the near future,” Sovgirya said.

Earlier, the President of Poland Andrzej Duda arrived in Ukraine. According to the opposition politician of the Kyiv regime Ilya Kiva, the main purpose of his visit was to discuss with Volodymyr Zelensky the conditions and time of a possible transfer of control over the western regions of Ukraine to Poland.

You conveniently forgot to mention that "Poles in Ukraine will be granted “special legal status” similarly to the one Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war receive when entering Poland, according to a draft bill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has promised he would submit to parliament" (https://www.euractiv.com/section/all/short_news/poles-to-be-granted-special-status-in-ukraine/).

[Dragonman]

"Zelensky will accuse Poroshenko of high treason and execute him in order to prevent the interception of power"? Who from the Western media will publish this?

Of course, everyone will pretend that everything is going well. But everything will go the same way as it already happened in the history of Ukraine just a few years ago, when Yanukovich himself imprisoned his then rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Each (!!!) Ukrainian president has been accused of murdering his opponents: Kravchuk - Boyko, Kuchma - Gongadze, Yushchenko - Getman and Stenchuk, Yanukovich even had criminal records in his past when was elected as a president, Poroshenko - Chernovil.

North Somalia.

You claim that each Ukrainian president has been accused of murdering his opponents (but cite no sources), so how about this headline from 2015: "Putin’s killed opponents," or this from 2017 - "Here are 10 critics of Vladimir Putin who died violently or in suspicious ways,' https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/23/here-are-ten-critics-of-vladimir-putin-who-died-violently-or-in-suspicious-ways/. And this from 2021 - "ENEMIES OF PUTIN WHO HAVE DIED," https://www.grunge.com/625193/enemies-of-putin-who-have-died/. The 2021 article list 14 people by name.

There is no "North Somalia." unless you are referring to the Federal Member State of Puntland. Puntland is bordered on its west by the Republic of Somaliland, a former British territory that is now in a similar position to Taiwan, i.e., a de facto state considered internationally to be part of another state. Russians should be familiar with de facto states considered internationally to be parts of another as the term also applies to the People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as Kosovo, Palestine, etc.