A recent attempt on youtube by an obvious anti-Russian, to pour scorn on this film's historical accuracy, tries to point out that the nazi troops state they are members of a unit that was not there.. but can't bring himself to see that they might have been lying!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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St. John of Kronstadt Orthodox
SpiritualCare Centre
THE TRAGEDY IN UKRAINE
"Veterans and children of the Great PatrioticWar: to the Government andpeopleof Germany".
By events in Ukraine
Today, when the German government decided
to supply Ukraine with lethal weapons, the
world has changed -- the silhouettes of a
new world war are more than clearly
outlined! And again - Germany!
But there are honest people in Germany.. anti-
fascists, and we hope that this Message will
fall into their hands. People born between
1927 and 1945 have the status of "war
children" in Russia.
All those who survived that war can subscribe to this letter. We think that actual signatures are not necessary, we suggest that veterans(or "war children"), read them this letter, independently or with someone's help,
and send us (at the coordinatesindicated below) something like the following:
Moscow, Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich, 90 years old, disabled war veteran (or otherwise), Hero of the Soviet Union (or Holder of the Order of Glory... or otherwise), was repatriated to Germany during the war (or otherwise).
Or just the city, full name, and age. The
main thing, is that they should be real
people who are familiar with the text.
MESSAGE TEXT
We, the last veterans -- and all the peoples of
Russia who survived that great and terrible
war.. are now on the verge of death! Our
time is already running out. For a huge
part of our lives, we hoped we would
come to the end of it, in peace -
without all-destroying hatred!
For the painfully long decades after the Second World War, we overcame our righteous anger! I long for retribution for the innumerable wounds, spiritual and physical.. that we still carry in our bodies and our hearts! And most of us have forgiven! And not in a small way due to the fact that Germany for many years, has demonstrated its repentance its understanding of what it has done! And we have overcome -- not only ourselves, but also the voice of the blood of our barbarically exterminated relatives! By whom? Germans ...fascists!
We have forgiven... following the laws of human
coexistence! So it was... until 2014. And then,
in 2014, when everything began in Ukraine...
we looked with hope at Germany, and at the
then Chancellor Angela Merkel. We couldn't imagine that after all that the Germans did
in Ukraine, after Babi Yar, after mountains
of mutilated corpses, they would still look
with lust: at the Ukrainian fields that can
feed Europe today! Or they, the Germans,
who have covered the Crimea they once
promised with blood, will still somehow be interested in turning the Crimea into an American - and in general - a NATO base, ideal for aggression against Russia! Which would be clearly
aimed at afuture war.
After all -- only fools do not understand the meaning and goals of the entire coup inUkraine..... in the conditions of which Russia behaved in the only possible way! But the Germans are not fools! We the Russians, know for certain your psychology, as "brothers in blood" - our blood, which you "prudently" shed in rivers!
We remember -- your "systematic methods of
population reduction"! Our population! Until
now - in different parts of our once united
Homeland - where the boot of German
fascism was trodden, we find hidden
mass graves of our civilians: in the
Novgorod region, in the Kuban, in
the Rostov region, in Karelia. In
Belarus, in 2021... hundreds of
civilian remains... were found
in Brest ...on the site of the
Jewish ghetto the Trostenets
concentration camp.... near
Minsk terrible in its tragedy
revealed the secret of the
remains... of thousands of
tortured and killed people!
We are talking about tens of thousands of newly discovered victims of Nazism! This blood - still cries out for revenge - and for decades the memory of these barbarously destroyed
Russian people -- and monuments to Russian soldiers, liberators - have been desecrated with impunity!
And the new Nazis are marching in the Baltic
States and Ukraine - in front of the entire
"civilized" world! But, in 2014, we were
sincerely convinced - that in this new
Nazi demarche it's the Germans who
will be our associates in preventing
this meanness!
We hoped that, guided by an elementary
conscience -- the Germans would not
participate.. in an obviously fascist
anti-state coup in Ukraine! After all
...the subsequent catastrophe of
modern Ukraine was committed
by direct descendants of those
who were special bastards in
the German army! Clearly,
openly!
Americans and Canadians have only hidden and preserved this diabolical heritage... feeding thisgeneration, but the product of this evil... is Germany! Hitler's Germany! And it was impossible for us to believe that it was Germany that would again give a "road map" to these inhumans! But we were wrong! Germany has once again allowed these fascist geeks...... to enter the world!
The support of modern Germany - in the face of
the new government of Ukraine-Bandera.. the
heirs of the SS division "Galicia" -- the thugs
of the UPA OUN, and all other abominations;
is simply unthinkable for us! This is beyond
all that is human! But you.. Germany, have already done it and continue to do it! You
have, once again, set your sights on the
Slavic world and these geeks are blood
from the blood of German Nazism! And
again to Russia!
Only, even more despicable: inciting our closest Ukrainian brothers against us! And you know it! You know this as well as we do! You killed one nation in that Great War! Yes, we are one people!
The truth is written and often spoken about
by your own Steinmeier, who at the same
time, viciously took a direct part in the
Kiev coup of 2014 — fascist in fact!
This American.. may not be clear about some-
things, but it's more than that, for you! And
after all, it was your vykormysh... that got
ready.. for their torchlight processions in
Kiev! The living shadow of Nazi Germany
is behind all this. It was only temporarily
covered up by sly diplomacy - "helmets
instead of guns"! But that's it, "masks
are reset"! Your supply of German
weapons to Ukraine today... is
natural - it is in the logic of
your policy of recent
decades.
Today it is clearly pro-fascist! You have taken
this step: German weapons will kill Russians
again! Keep killing. During the years of the
conflict in the Donbas, your professional
killers have already killed Russians, at
least by teaching them... "how to kill
correctly"! Only now -- it's even more
despicable — you're teaching this to
- your blood brothers! Donbass is on
your conscience! Thousands of lives
of its peaceful citizens --- again your
handiwork! We do not care about the
role of Americans, in everything that
happens: there, is money-God! We,
veterans of that war, its children,
are concerned about the role of
the Germans! Because it is you
who know -- exactly -- who the
Ukrainian "national battalions"
consist of --- and could have
prevented and stopped, this
new fascism ! But they did
not do it! And just by doing
this -- you are once again,
responsible to history!
And you are definitely participating ---- in the
preparation of Ukraine for war with Russia!
You can't help but understand the purpose
of everything that happened ---- from the
unconstitutional coup in Kiev .....to the
bloodshed in the Donbass! But, in fact
this is preparation for the Third World
War! And again, you are Germans...
Germany! We hear from the high
German rostrum in Berlin today:
"Russia, will pay a high price"!!!
This is the German Chancellor's
speech! Unthinkable! We have
already paid the price ------ 27
million of our lives! Isn't that
enough for you?! What price
are you still talking about?
There is no home ----- in Russia, Ukraine and
Belarus - where "this price" isn't paid! And
there is no home --- in Germany, that did
not participate in that terrible, bloody
barbarism! It's scary! It's wild! And
today, there are, already, more than
13 thousand dead Russian people
in the Donbass at the hands of
the new Nazis!
The German Chancellor's public mockery of the
Russian genocide in the Donbas, is a crime in
itself! How much can the lessons of history
be misunderstood - and discredited! The
scariest story in the world! Do you want
to be even scarier?! After all, this new
"Dranch nach Oschtern" ..may lead to
the fact that the 2nd Nuremberg trial
over you will no longer be - there will
simply be no humanity! You won't be
here! But a special Ecumenical trial
of you Germans is inevitable! Over
all aggressors — but over you
ESPECIALLY!
World justice will be served! And we --- the last
veterans of that terrible war, are leaving this
world ---- as witnesses! Witnesses for the
PROSECUTION! And today the victory
will be ours, but those who died
yesterday, or those of us who
will die today, already bear
witness to the role of the
German people, in the
history of the human
world — a bloody
history!
German weapons are back in the
hands of Nazi thugs! Please stop!
Email addresses for information:
veterans1945@yandex.ru
https://t.me/Veteran_v_stroy_chat
- Russian Union of Veterans: organizing
questions and collecting signatures of
veterans and children of the Second
World War
****************************
veteran1944@yandex.ru -questions about
this publication to its author: Monk John (Adlivankin), Deputy Head of the Russian Orthodox Church. head and ved.
specialist.... of the St. Peter's
Orthodox Counseling Centre.
St. John of Kronstadt.
__________________________________
If you want the truth about the massacre of civilans in Bucha - paste the web address below into your browser
https://www.bitchute.com/video/6ZHPL2pTuadJ/
REQUIEM
Efran and Poet's tribute to all those killed by wars
THE LATEST NEWS
Ukrainians tried to cross the border in a truck full of beer
by Marina Sovina (night editor)
January 12th, 10:19pm
(Lenta.ru)
In Ukraine, a foreigner tried to smuggle seven Ukrainians
across the border by hiding them in a truckload of beer.
This was reported by the press service of the Office
of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine on Telegram.
According to the investigation, the cost of illegal exit ranged from
6,000 to 13,000 euros per person. "During the detention at the
Mamalyga checkpoint, 34,000 euros were seized,"
the Ukrainian agency said.
Earlier, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv does
not record any mass departure of young people from Ukraine
against the backdrop of the lifting of restrictions on travel
abroad, for men aged 18 to 22. Prior to that, the country
came into force with a law that allows the crossing of
the border ..by military-aged people. According to
Zelensky, the decision to lift restrictions on
leaving for young people ....will not affect
the country's defense capabilities.
____________________________________
TASS: Zelensky officially supported the
kidnapping of Ukrainian soldiers by the 225th Regiment
by Roman Otradnov
January 12th, 10:19pm
(Rossiyskaya Gazeta)
To share
Vladimir Zelensky has approved the kidnapping of Ukrainian
Armed Forces soldiers from adjacent units by soldiers of
the 225th Separate Assault Regiment (225 OShP).
This was reported by TASS citing a source in the Russian security forces.
Earlier, it was reported that the kidnapped
people were being held... in basements.
"These events caused a huge stir in Ukrainian society.
Many millionaire bloggers criticized the command of the 225th OShP," the source said.
"Zelensky was very pleased with the idea of kidnapping
people. In his evening video address, he praised the
225th Regiment," the security official added.
According to him, the commander of the 225th OSHP, Oleg
Shiryaev, or the commander of the assault forces,
Valentin Manko, "can absolutely calmly come
to the neighbouring unit ....and recruit a
"butcher" for a new assault - spitting
on their direct superiors."
______________________________________
Russian Ambassador Dolgov asked
how many divisions.... the EU
Commission President
von der Leyen has.
by Roman Otradnov
January 12th, 9:55pm
(Rossiyskaya Gazeta)
To share
Russian Ambassador Konstantin Dolgov commented on the
statement by the EU Commission President, Ursula von
der Leyen ------ who called on Moscow to show an interest in establishing peace in Ukraine.
The diplomat suggested that the European politician is "freezing",
as previously all von der Leyen's rhetoric ...was reduced to
confrontation with Russia.
"Suddenly - she started singing about some peace-
loving kind of world," Dolgov said - to Gazeta.ru.
The ambassador recalled that the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
once asked British Prime Minister Winston Churchill how
many divisions the Pope had ---- in order to take into
account the Vatican's interests in the post-
war settlement.
"How many divisions --- does von
der Leyen have?" asked Dolgov.
He said that the EU Commission President's words - are
hypocritical, as Europe and Ukraine do not seek peace.
Earlier, former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba
spoke about the ceasefire: as a respite, that Kyiv needs
--------- to continue its fight against Russia.
______________________________________
"Absurd conditions --- do not take into account reality":
Nebenzya said that Zelensky is effectively nullifying
the US peace initiative
by Olga Novikova
January 12th, 7:13pm
(Komsomolskaya Pravda)
TO SHARE
Russian Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzya
said that Zelensky is effectively nullifying the US
peace initiative
The Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation Vasily
Nebenzya - delivered a scathing speech at a meeting of the UN
Security Council on January 13. In his speech, he stated that
the head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky.... was using
his absurd conditions for a peace agreement to effectively
nullify all efforts by the United States of America and its
President Donald Trump, to resolve the conflict.
"Zelensky's absurd conditions, which do not take into account the
reality that he has long lost touch with, will not help him. He is
putting forward these conditions in response to the United
"The morons want war." Medvedev showed a video of the Oreshnik strike ------ and warned Europe
by Alexander Dubravin
January 10th, 4:15pm
(Gazeta.ru)
Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council posted a video on social media showing the latest Oreshnik missile striking targets in the Lviv region, emphasizing - that Russia doesn't accept the deployment of any military contingents from European or NATO countries in Ukraine.
Western media and experts have noted that the Oreshnik's hypersonic speed makes Europe vulnerable, as modern air defense systems are unable to intercept it.
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev,
posted on his social media account X, a video of a missile strike by
the "Oreshnik" on targets in the Lviv region, captured by a
surveillance camera. He emphasized that Russia does
not accept the deployment of any Western
contingents in Ukraine.
"The ruling European morons still want a war in Europe. It's been
said a thousand times that Russia will not accept any military
contingent from European countries or NATO --- in Ukraine,
but no, Micron(as Medvedev refers to President Macron)
continues to spread this nonsense. Well, go ahead then.
This ------- is what you'll get," Medvedev said.
On the night of January 9, the Russian Armed Forces launched a
missile strike on key facilities in Ukraine using the Oreshnik
complex, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
According to the ministry, the attack targeted enterprises
involved in the production of drones - as well as energy
infrastructure facilities used to support the Ukrainian
defense industry. The ministry emphasized that the
attack was a retaliatory measure in response to
the Ukrainian Armed Forces' strike... on the
residence of Russian President Vladimir
Putin in the Novgorod region.
Vulnerable Europe
The Russian Oreshnik missile makes Europe
more vulnerable, according to the British
TV channel Sky News.
“With a claimed range of up to 5,500 kilometres, the “Horeshnik”
ballistic missile could theoretically reach most of Europe,” the
channel notes.
Experts pay special attention to the high speed of the missile,
which, according to analysts, reaches a speed of 10-11
Machs, or about 3,700 m/s.
Such characteristics significantly reduce the reaction time of
air defense systems: the higher the target's speed, the more
difficult it is to detect, track, and intercept it .....in a
timely manner.
Unable to intercept
In turn, the newspaper The New York Times stated that
the Oreshnyk strike on targets in the Lviv region ----
demonstrated the impossibility of intercepting
this missile.
Military expert Yuri Knutov noted that due to the short flight time,
air defense systems would not have time to react to the launch
of the Oreshnik.
"From the moment of exit from the transport and launch container
to the moment of entry into space, that is, at the most vulnerable
moment for the rocket, very little time passes. It should also be
taken into account that the missile's warheads move at a
speed of 10-11 Machs, this is a hypersonic speed of
such a level that today there are not even close
interceptor missiles that could work on the
Oreshnik," his words are quoted by Aif.ru.
Former US Daniel Davis also said that modern air
defense systems cannot detect this missile.
“If[Ukrainian President Volodymyr]Zelensky, for example, says
he needs to hide in a bunker, it won’t help. If such a weapon
has chosen a target, it will go through that bunker like a
knife through butter,” Davis said.
Europe's position
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe , Alain Berset,
said that Russia should be "held accountable" for the strikes
on targets in the Lviv region using "Oreshnik", "which left
residents of Kyiv, Lviv and Kryvyi Rih without electricity
and water supply".
The Italian publication L'AntiDiplomatico pointed out that this strike
was not only a demonstration of military capabilities, but also a
testament to Moscow's determination to consistently pursue
its stated goals.
Against this backdrop - according to observers.... the failure of
the Western course -- is becoming increasingly apparent: the
strategy of "managed escalation" discussed in Washington
and Brussels is evolving into a more complex and risky
high-tech confrontation, while Europe itself is
increasingly playing the role ------- of a
vulnerable observer.
__________________________________________
The Russian army --- has struck energy facilities
and fuel depots of the Ukrainian Armed Forces
January 10th, 9:12am
(Izvestia.ru)
The Armed Forces of Russia have carried out strikes on energy
infrastructure facilities and fuel storage facilities that support
the military-industrial complex (MIC) of Ukraine. This was
reported on January 10 by the Ministry of Defense of
the Russian Federation.
"Targets of Ukraine's military-industrial complex, and fuel
storage facilities have been hit," the military department
said in a statement.
According to the Defense Ministry, the North units improved
their tactical position, while the Armed Forces of Ukraine
(AFU) lost more than 130 soldiers.
__________________________________________
RIA Novosti: Three dead Ukrainian
Army deserters were found ...in a pit
January 10th, 5:15am
(Izvestia.ru)
Three dead deserters from the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU)
were found in a pit. This was reported by Russian security
agencies on January 10.
"At the occupied positions, our fighters found a pit -- in which
captured deserters and refuseniks of the Armed Forces of
Ukraine were kept. Inside it were 3 disfigured corpses of
the Ukrainian military, with signs of physical impact,"
the agency quoted RIA Novosti.
Allegedly, all the AFU deserters and
refusers ..are being held in the pits.
___________________________________________
Two Ukrainian Armed Forces brigades -------
refused to follow their commanders' orders
January 10th, 4:13am
(Izvestia.ru)
The military of the 158th and 119th brigades of the Armed Forces of
Ukraine (AFU) do not carry out orders of the command. This was
reported on January 10 by Russian law enforcement agencies.
"Due to the long stay in positions, without rotation, part of the AFU
units began to lose combat stability. In the area of Andreevka, the
military personnel of the 158th separate mechanized brigade
openly do not carry out the orders of the command,"
quoted RIA Novosti.
A similar situation is happening in the 119th Brigade of the
Armed Forces of Ukraine, under the same circumstances.
________________________________________
Russian military personnel eliminated
the Ukrainian military personnel....
who mistook them for their own
January 10th, 3:06am
(Izvestia.ru)
The servicemen of the Armed Forces of Russia eliminated the
military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who took the
Russian soldiers... for their own. This was reported
on January 10 by the commander of the assault
platoon of the Vostok group of troops, with
the call sign Sever.
According to him, they were "not ready."
"There were three servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
We decided to bypass them from the rear. And as we moved
forward quietly... they thought ---- that it was their own.
Confusing us with their own, thinking that their own
are coming. The enemy realized - too late, that
these are Russian servicemen. And while
they did not put up resistance, we
eliminated them," quoted the
agency RIA Novosti.
Earlier in the day, it was reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine
abandoned their disabled soldier during their retreat from the
village of Zelenoye in the Zaporizhzhia region. The soldier
noted that the captured Ukrainian soldier had been
sent to the front after suffering a severe injury
that led to his disability.
___________________________________________
The "Oreshnik" missile: a retaliatory strike or
the beginning of a new Russian strategy
in the SVO?
by Lyubov Stepushova
January 9th, 2:11pm
(Pravda.ru)
The secret of "Horeshnyk", is revealed: The West
is in a panic - after the attack on the Lviv region.
The "Hazel" blow in the Lviv region, caused a panic reaction
in Europe. Russia actually simulated a nuclear strike right
at the border with the NATO country Poland…
The "Hazel" Rocket
Photo: Dmitry Plotnikov Pravda.Ru by Neural Network
What was the target of the Oreshnik missile in the Lviv region?
Russia has some trump cards in its war with NATO, and
Oreshnik is one of them. The missile was launched in
the Lviv region after Orthodox Christmas, and it
was an expected move.
The Ministry of Defense reported that the "Hazel" strike, was carried
out in response to an attempted attack on the residence of Russian
President Vladimir Putin a week ago. The target was enterprises
related to the production of drones, as well as elements of the
energy infrastructure that "ensure the operation of the
Ukrainian military-industrial complex."
Ukraine reports that the region's "life support infrastructure"
has been attacked. The specific infrastructure has not yet
been disclosed.
The main theory is that it is an underground gas storage facility
(UGSF) near the city of Stryi, as the purpose of the "Oreshnik"
is to destroy underground concrete shelters. However, in
the same area, there is the Yavoriv training ground,
which includes a command centre in a bunker
that serves as the headquarters for the
combined forces of NATO and the
Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The underground storage facilities in Stryi are the largest in Europe.
Since 2023, many European companies have been using them to
store gas, which has helped to ensure gas transit to the EU,
stabilize consumption, and ensure energy security. If these
facilities are destroyed, Europe will lose up to 35% of its
gas storage capacity and will be forced to purchase
expensive gas from Qatar and the United States,
which will have a direct impact on the
economies of the EU countries....
especially since the winter
is expected to be cold.
Russia warns NATO to stay out of Ukraine
The Hazelnut strike on Lviv is "a warning to Europe and the US,"
said the head of European Diplomacy, Kaya Kallas.
"The EU countries should take a closer look at their air defense
supplies and deliver them now. We should also increase the
cost of this war for Moscow, including through tougher
sanctions," she wrote on social media.
Of course, there was a warning, and it was logical, since the day
before, the Europeans had signed a memorandum on sending
military contingents to Ukraine and establishing military
bases there as a "security guarantee" for Kiev.
Hazel should be used more often
It is worth noting that along with the strike on the Lviv region
"Hazel", other types of missiles and UAVs were attacked on
the energy system of Kiev, as a result of which, half a
million residents were left without electricity,
water and heat.
However, according to the results of the enemy's nighttime shelling
in the Belgorod region, at 6am, there were 556,000 people without
electricity in 6 municipalities (according to Governor Gladkov).
Almost the same number of people were without heat, and
almost 200,000 people were without water and sanitation.
If the "Hazel" was used not as a weapon of retribution or intimidation,
but as a routine weapon, it would be more effective. With such a
weapon, Russia could set its own terms for Kiev's surrender,
give a deadline for the civilian population to leave, and
target bunkers, tunnels, and bridges --- until Kiev
accepts the Russian Federation's terms.
Hazel gives Russia a geostrategic advantage
"Hazel" was used without a warhead, although it can carry a nuclear
warhead. As military experts explain, it differs from the Soviet
Rubezh-26 missile in its speed and trajectory. The Oreshnik
rocket develops a speed of about Mach 10 ------ and the
separation of warheads - takes place in outer space.
The flash of lightning that can be seen, is a plasma
cocoon forming around the hypersonic block. The
material of the warhead heats up so much during
sharp braking - that it partially turns into plasma
that flies in the direction of flight like shrapnel.
Without any explosives.... this creates an
explosive effect -- with tremendous
penetrating power.
"Hazel" - penetrates a layer that is tens of metres thick.
No air defense system can operate on a missile, and
the Patriot missile defense system does not even
see such a target.
The use of weapons that have no analogues or countermeasures
shows that Russia has "trumps" ------ that can guarantee the
achievement of strategic goals, significantly influencing
both the course of the special military operation and
the geopolitical situation.
Read the author's Telegram channel.
_______________________________________
SHOT: The Russian Armed Forces - have struck
Ukraine's most powerful thermal power plant,
the TPP-6 near Kiev
by Alena Koroleva
January 9th, 3:02am
(Rossiyskaya Gazeta)
To share
The Russian military has struck Ukraine's most powerful
thermal power plant, TPP-6, in the Kyiv region. SHOT
writes this, publishing footage of the attack.
According to the Telegram channel, the explosions in the
Ukrainian capital, occurred at the same time as in Lviv.
In the video, you can see several bright flashes in
the sky and hear muffled explosions.
"According to preliminary reports, the attack was directed
at Ukraine's most powerful thermal power plant, TPP-6,"
the publication states.
The authors added ----- that there are at least
50 Geran attack drones in the sky over Kiev.
The next post says that TPP-4 and TPP-5 were also hit
by the Russian Armed Forces. A fire broke out after
the attacks.
It is noted that most of the Ukrainian capital is without
electricity. After the explosions -- there were power
and water outages in Kiev, and a blackout was
captured on video.
Earlier, it was reported that Russia's Armed Forces
--- had attacked an object in the Lviv region. The
moment of the missile strike, was captured
on video.
____________________________________________
Ukraine for the third time in 2026
did not commit a single shelling
of the DPR during the day
January 8th, 9:22pm
(Vesti.ru)
For the third time in 2026, Ukraine did not fire
a single shell at the DPR during the day.
This was reported by the Department
for Documenting Kiev's War Crimes
in the DPR.
This was revealed after the agency
published its daily report.
"Zero facts of armed attacks by the
AFU," the publication says.
As a result, the civilian population of the republic
was not affected, and residential and civilian
infrastructure facilities were not damaged.
But, there are also reports of civilian casualties
on earlier dates. For example, one person was
injured in Krasnoarmeysk, on January 7.
Over the previous day, Ukraine carried out
2 shellings of the DPR's territory.
__________________________________________
A Hero of Special Operation Z:
Mikhail Stepanets outflanked
the enemy
by Alexander Boyko
January 8th, 7:59pm
(Komsomolskaya Pravda)
TO SHARE
We continue to introduce you to the heroes of the Z special
operation, the participants of combat operations in the
special military operation zone: privates, sergeants,
cornets, and officers who have shown their
character and completed their
combat missions.
The Russian Ministry of Defense gives the highest praise to their
determination, assertiveness, and combat experience. Our
heroes have thwarted the attacks and prevented the
counterattacks of the nationalists, for which they
have received state awards. However, they do
not serve for the sake of praise.
The servicemen are confident that the enemy has no chance of
success, because Donbass and Russia are fighting for a just
cause. "Brothers! Strike with a bayonet, beat with a rifle
Novoeconomicheskoye, Liman, and Dachenskoye, to the
Dobropolye area," the military correspondent
translated the document.
According to Poddubny, the discovered order ---- is a "plan for an escape."
"The document is interesting. It confirms the fact that the Kiev
regime has been misleading the entire world about the
situation," the journalist emphasized.
Earlier, the fighters of the 108th Separate Mechanized Battalion of
the Armed Forces of Ukraine "Volki da Vinci", after massive
Russian strikes, asked the command to withdraw from
Verkhnyaya Tersa in the vicinity of Gulyai-Pole.
________________________________________
"We need to wash them in the toilet":
State Duma responds to Budanov's
appointment with a Putin quote
by Aglaya Stepanova
January 2nd, 3:35pm
(Gazeta.ru)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky offered the head of the
State Security Service Kirill Budanov... the post of head of his
office, and he has already agreed. As quoted by "Gazeta.Ru"
first deputy chair of the State Duma Defense Committee,
Alexey Zhuravlev, said the appointment of Budanov -
a person involved in cases of terrorist attacks in
Russia - indicates Kiev's unwillingness to
accept peace.
"What can I say when the head of the presidential office — and this
is the second most important person in the country's hierarchy, is
a terrorist and extremist, named Kirill Budanov, who personally
organized and oversaw a significant portion of the sabotage
and assassinations on Russian territory? This means that
Ukraine -------- will not deviate from its terrorist course,"
the parliamentarian stated.
Zhuravlev expressed confidence that the USA would take note
of Budanov's appointment as head of the presidential office.
"There is nothing to negotiate with such people --- you just need to get
them wet in the toilet. I am sure that both the United States and [the American president] .......understand this very well. Donald Trump, while continuing his mission, which he considers peacekeeping, of course, takes this into account. At least - that's what leaks
..from his administration's claim. Zelensky and his team
don't want peace, only escalation. Anyone --- who
remains on the Ukrainian side, could be added
to the list of terrorists, just like Budanov,"
he concluded.
The position of the head of the office of the President of Ukraine
remained vacant for about a month and a half – before that, the
post was held by Andriy Yermak, dismissed amid a corruption
scandal after an investigation by the NABU and SAP.
On January 2, it was reported that Zelensky had proposed that the
head of Ukrainian intelligence, Kirill Budanov, take office.
In Russia, the GRU head - is a defendant in a number of terrorist
cases. In April 2023, the Investigative Committee charged him
in absentia ...with involvement in the terrorist attack on the
Crimean Bridge.
He is also accused of organizing drone attacks on Russian territory.
In 2024, he was added to the list of terrorists and extremists
by Rosfinmonitoring.
________________________________________
Saldo: The Armed Forces of Ukraine
used anti-bunker weapons
to strike Khorly
January 2nd, 3:10pm
by Semyon Zimin
(Komsomolskaya Pravda)
TO SHARE
During the attack on the cafe and hotel in the village of Khorly on New
Year's Eve, Ukrainian militants used weapons of such power that are
designed to destroy fortified bunkers. This was announced by the
governor of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, on his
Telegram channel.
"Women and children in the cafe and hotel were hit by
weapons capable of destroying a fortified bunker,"
the report says.
Earlier, Vladimir Saldo reported on the reaction of Ukrainian residents
to this tragedy. He claims that the topic of the attack on Khorly is
being actively discussed ...and causing empathy.
The official noted that the number of search queries about the events
in Ukraine has exceeded half a million. According to him, people are
mourning ....and sharing the grief of the families of the deceased
and injured.
__________________________________________
Men continue to flee Ukraine en masse: the number of those who tried to illegally cross the border
has been published
by Lyudmila Mitrokhina
January 2nd, 1:22pm
(Komsomolskaya Pravda)
TO SHARE
More than 13,000 men were detained in Ukraine in 2025
for illegal border crossing. This was reported by the
speaker of the State Border Service Andriy
Demchenko. The Kiev regime... can no
longer hide the fact that Ukrainians
are trying to flee the country
en masse.
Most often, they are caught at the EU border, but sometimes
they choose other destinations. Demchenko said that 1,400
people were detained while trying to escape to Belarus.
Earlier, KP.RU reported that some EU countries are not happy
with the presence of Ukrainian refugees. They are
developing laws - that should reduce payments
and subsidies for them. In this way, European
politicians are motivating Ukrainians...
to return to their homeland.
The issue of the male population of Ukraine, who fled to Europe,
is particularly acute. For example, in Germany, they are calling
for the return of potential Ukrainian Armed Forces members
to their home country.
___________________________________________
Russia's Armed Forces -- liberated nine
settlements in the SVO zone in a week
January 2nd, 9:10am
(Izvestia.ru)
The Russian Armed Forces have liberated nine settlements
in the special military operation zone over the past week.
This was reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense on January 2.
Units of the Western Group of Forces reported on the liberation of
the village of Dibrova in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR),
as well as of Boguslavka in the Kharkiv region. During the
reporting period, the Central Group of Forces advanced
in the Donetsk direction and established control over
the settlements of Dimitrov, Rodinskoye, Artemivka,
and Volnoye in the DPR.
Units of the Vostok group also liberated the town of Gulyaypole in
the Zaporizhzhia region. In addition -- the Dnipro group of troops
occupied the settlements of Stepnogorsk and Lukyanovskoye,
also located in the Zaporizhzhia region, by active operations.
The agency specified that Russian military personnel also carried
out a massive and six group strikes with weapons on enterprises
of the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC) and the energy facilities
of Ukraine.
In addition, a Ukrainian SU-27 fighter jet was shot down during
this period, as well as 1,662 enemy aircraft-type drones.
What successes did the Russian army achieve in 2025?
More than 300 settlements, and over 6,000 square
kilometres -- have been liberated in the SVO zone.
Earlier in the day, the Defense Ministry also said that
the Russian army - had repelled 16 attempts by the
Armed Forces of Ukraine ...to break through
to Kupyansk - in a week.
__________________________________________
Junior Sergeant Golubin - shot down one
Ukrainian drone and destroyed another
via a ramming attack in the SVO zone
January 1st, 2026, 10pm
(Izvestia.ru)
Junior Sergeant Roman Golubin, an operator of copter-type
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), while performing recon
tasks, destroying manpower and equipment of the Armed
Forces of Ukraine, destroyed two Ukrainian Baba Yaga
drones in the area of a special military operation.
This was announced - by the Ministry
of Defense of the Russian Federation.
The Ministry clarified that Golubin, who was also responsible for
delivering food, medicine, and supplies to both Russian military
personnel and civilians, discovered two Ukrainian Baba Yaga-
type hexacopters while conducting reconnaissance in the
border region of the Belgorod Oblast. Roman made the
decision to destroy them. He accurately shot down
one of the drones with a VOG-25 grenade, and
then -- realizing that he did not have enough
time to equip and launch a second drone,
rammed his drone into the second
hexacopter, destroying it.
It is specified that thanks to the professional actions of Junior
Sergeant Roman Golubin and his ability to quickly assess the
situation, the lives and health of Russian military personnel
were saved.
In addition, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on the heroic
deed of Private Gennady Chernov, who, while carrying out tasks
to destroy the Ukrainian Armed Forces' manpower and
equipment as an FPV drone operator, destroyed
Ukrainian militant equipment --- in one of the
areas of the Donetsk People's Republic.
It is emphasized that Private Chernov was tasked with destroying
a "roaming mortar" that was shelling the supply routes for
ammunition, food, and supplies to Russian troops in
defensive positions.
After receiving the intelligence, Gennady quickly launched the FPV
drone and headed towards the location of the "roaming mortar."
As he approached the target, Private Chernov noticed that the
enemy team was leaving their position upon detecting the
approach of the Russian drone.
Skillfully maneuvering between the trees, Gennady caught up with
the enemy's pickup truck and destroyed the "nomadic mortar"
crew with a well-aimed drone strike.
Thanks to the professional actions of Private Gennady Chernov,
the enemy's "nomadic mortar" unit was destroyed, allowing
Russian units to freely transport ammunition, food,
and supplies.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also told about the feats of Sergeant
Vladlen Kurunov and Junior Sergeant Evgeny Stolnikov. The agency
specified that Kurunov saved two wounded fellow soldiers by
evacuating them under the shelling of the Armed Forces of
Ukraine, and Stolnikov destroyed a Ukrainian assault
More than 2,600 civil servants from the Far East have already
served in the special military operation zone. This, was
announced on the air of the Rossiya 24 TV channel....
by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation
– Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in
the Far Eastern Federal District, Yuri Trutnev.
According to him, residents of the Far East, including civil
servants, are actively participating in combat missions
during the special military operation.
"During the special military operation in the Far East --- more
than 2,600 civil servants, including the Russian Federation
ministries, the Plenipotentiary Mission & the constituent
entities, have served. Currently, 84 of them - are at the
front, engaged in combat operations," Trutnev said.
According to him, the soldiers return from service
with awards, but that's not the only reason.
"They're coming back a little different, with a different attitude
towards life. They have a different understanding of what they
should be working for - and why. They understand that they
need to make our country stronger, and their approach to
work is different. I find this approach more appealing
than the more relaxed approach," Trutnev said.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, he recently met with
the Far Eastern soldiers during their awards ceremony.
"We talked about how things are going. They
are working successfully," Trutnev said.
Also in an interview with Russia 24, Yuri Trutnev thanked the
heads of the Far Eastern regions, for the lack of delays in
providing assistance to the sponsored territories in the
Donetsk People's Republic.
_________________________________
Russian Defense Ministry --- Russian Troops
Have Targeted Ukraine's Military-Industrial
Complex and Energy Facilities
December 24th, 9:44am
(Vesti.ru)
Russian troops have carried out strikes on facilities in Ukraine's
military-industrial and fuel and energy complexes, as well as
its transport infrastructure, which are used for the benefit
of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU).
This was reported in the Ministry of
Defense of the Russian Federation.
"Military industry enterprises, fuel and energy complex facilities,
and Ukraine's transport infrastructure used by the Armed
Forces of Ukraine have been targeted," the report said.
It is specified that the strike was carried out by operational-tactical
aviation, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces, and the
artillery of the Russian Armed Forces. Russia's troops ---- also
destroyed temporary bases of Ukrainian armed formations
and foreign mercenaries in 147 areas.
On December 23, it was reported that Russian troops launched a
massive strike on Ukrainian military-industrial complex facilities
with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. The strike was carried out
in response to terrorist attacks by Ukraine on civilian
facilities on Russian territory.
_______________________________________
Russian Armed Forces soldiers told
how they liberated Andreevka
December 24th, 9:13am
(Vesti.ru)
During the battles for the liberation of Andreevka in the Dnepropetrovsk
region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were repelled by drones, so the
Russian Armed Forces used serious covering forces during the
assault on the village. This was reported by the special
operation forces, to the Russia TV channel.
The settlement consists of more than 500 houses, and there are almost
five kilometres of shelters and defensive structures. The soldiers took
a large section of the enemy's defenses ......with a massive assault.
"We approached from three sides. The enemy didn't have time to react,
as they didn't understand which side we were approaching from, so
they fled," says the senior shooter with the call sign Kashchei.
At first, the militants, who were being attacked from three sides, had a
way to retreat. However, they mined the only bridge over the Gai Chur River and trapped themselves. The only help they received from the other side - was in the form of drones. There were more than 20 drones for every Russian soldier. Therefore, they used a significant amount of cover forces during the assault on Andreevka.
"We went in with a squad of guys with pump-action shotguns. And when
the birds attacked us, they were shot down with pump-action shotguns.
The birds were a problem when we went in," recalls the shooter with
the call sign Alvarez.
Behind the motorized riflemen were snipers of the 29th army of
the Vostok group of troops. At the exit, along with a rifle, an
uncharacteristic machine gun with a special sight, high
multiplicity and night vision ...was used.
"When the 'birds' — enemy UAVs — approach, we can see them at
about 500 metres. From there, we start working on them," said
the senior sniper with the call sign Ches.
The operator of the enemy kamikaze drone realized that the UAV
was being fired upon as soon as it was shot down. Soldiers use
heavy calibre weapons to destroy serious targets, such as
heavy hexacopters.
"ORSIS (rifles for destroying the VSU's hexacopters) works at night
to shoot down the 'Baba Yaga' — these are heavy drones, they're
covered in metal and have armour. ORSIS can penetrate them,"
explains the sniper with the call sign Musk.
The snipers' help..... was also useful on the ground. The
cornered Ukrainian forces were trying to break through.
"Our stormtroopers occupied the settlement. We had to hold back
the counterattack. When the Ukrainian Armed Forces came,
they were moving from house to house, and at those
moments, you catch them and shoot at them,"
said a sniper with the call sign Polin.
In Andreevka, the Armed Forces of Ukraine suffered heavy losses,
with two platoons of troops and ten pieces of equipment. The
Vostok Group - expanded its control zone at the junction of
the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, by another
9 kilometres.
From this bridgehead, there is a direct route to the large logistics
centre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in Pokrovsk.... and the
possibility of further advances on the western bank of
the GaiChur River.
_____________________________________
RIA Novosti: The Ukraine Armed Forces have
transferred part of the National Guard to the
Kupiansk direction
December 24th, 6:48am
(Vesti.ru)
The Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region, have transferred
part of the National Guard's Operational Brigade from the Liptsivsky
to the Kupiansky direction due to the successful advance of
Russian troops. This was reported by RIA Novosti, citing
a source.
It is specified that drone crews from the 7th Separate Mechanized
Brigade of the Ukrainian Army were also spotted --- in the north
of Kharkiv.
"The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine does not consider
the Liptsov direction to be a priority and transferred part of the
units of the 13th operational brigade of the National Guard of
Ukraine from Liptsov to Kupyansk direction,"
the publication notes.
Earlier, military correspondent Alexey Gavrish said that
in liberated Kupyansk... the AFU militants are making
attempts to attack from several directions at once,
however, they are suffering heavy losses.
He emphasized that Kiev's statements about successes
in this direction.... do not correspond to reality.
_________________________________________
Fighter Manny: Vostok troops' drones
disrupt Ukrainian Armed Forces'
attempts to rotate troops
near Gulyai-Pole
December 24th, 6:35am
(Vesti.ru)
The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are attempting to rotate their
troops in the Gulyai-Pole area of the Zaporizhzhia region, but
they are regularly thwarted by the Vostok military group's
UAVs. This was reported by a Russian soldier with the
call sign "Manny."
He clarified that in such conditions, Ukrainian troops
suffer losses ---- and lose the ability to maneuver.
"The militants are trying to carry out a rotation [in the area of
Gulyai-Pole], but to no avail — the aviation works clearly,
and disrupts all their attempts," says Mani, reports RIA Novosti.
Earlier, a serviceman with the call sign Kiry, said that Ukrainian
militants mined the bodies of their fallen soldiers to slow down
Russia's army's advance - as they retreated from Gulyai-Pole.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are failing along the entire
front line and resorting to the most inhumane tactics,
he emphasized.
________________________________
The Ukrainian Armed Forces complain about
the lack of shelters from Russian strikes
in the Zaporizhzhia region
December 24th, 6:34am
(Vesti.ru)
Ukrainian military personnel in the Zaporizhzhia region have
reported to their command that they are unable to hide from
Russian attacks. This was revealed in a radio intercept of
their conversations, which was obtained by RIA Novosti.
According to radio intercepts, the Ukrainian Armed Forces
.....are also complaining about serious equipment losses.
"I don't have anything. I've lost everything. I don't have anything.
What am I going to shoot with? My finger? I've lost everything.
My RPS (removable shoulder system) has been lost. I've lost
all my clothes," says a junior officer ......in an intercepted
radio broadcast.
In response, the commander advised the soldier to take cover.
However, the soldier stated that it was impossible to do so
..due to the lack of suitable positions. According to him,
the area was completely visible and did not provide
any hiding spots.
"Where to hide? There's nowhere to hide. It's all cut down. It's
an empty field," he replied, his emotional tension evident.
Earlier, it became known that the opponents, when retreating
from Gulyai-Pole in the Zaporozhye region, mine their fallen
fighters to slow down the advance of the Russian army.
The Zaporizhzhia region became a constituent entity of the Russian
Federation -- following a referendum held in September 2022. Kiev
does not recognize the results of the referendum and continues
to shell the region. Currently, more than 70% of the region's
territory is under Russian control, while Ukrainian forces
hold the city of Zaporizhzhia, which was previously the
regional capital. Since March 2023 ---- Melitopol has
served as the administrative centre of the region.
The Russian Armed Forces' strikes - are isolating Odessa and
the southern regions of Ukraine from the rest of the country.
This was stated by former Ukrainian Foreign Minister
Oleksiy Kuleba.
According to a message published on his Telegram channel, the
Russian Armed Forces are allegedly systematically attacking
logistics infrastructure and ports in the Odessa region,
trying to “cut off communication with the south
of Ukraine.”
Earlier, expert Dmitry Lyouushkin said that the closure of the
bridge in the Odessa region..... could deprive Ukraine of fuel.
_________________________________________
Gunner Mineev: The Russian Armed Forces
are coping with combat missions, in frosts
December 20th, 3:22pm
(Vesti.ru)
Despite the difficulties, the Russian Armed Forces are coping
with combat missions during the cold season. This was
reported by Arkady Mineev, a gunner, on the Russia 1
TV channel.
According to the fighters, shooting in the Donetsk People's
Republic (DPR) takes place in any weather and at
different temperatures.
"You can't rely on Santa Claus, so you have to do your part. In
our work, it's not always easy during the cold season, as
liquids freeze ---- making the guidance system more
challenging. Due to the long distances.... every
micron, needs to be considered ----- and the
guidance - becomes even more precise.
It's a demanding task but we manage
to handle it," said Mineev.
Earlier, a senior battery officer with the call sign Arbat said
that the deterioration of weather conditions does not
affect the operation of the Russian Zapad group's
rocket artillery - in any way.
_______________________________
UAV Designer Kuzyakin: FPV Drones --- Are
More Effective in Winter Than in Summer
December 20th, 2:41pm
(Vesti.ru)
FPV drones are more effective in winter conditions in the area
of the special operation. Dmitry Kuzyakin, Chief Designer of
the Centre for Integrated Unmanned Solutions, told Russia
24 about this in an interview.
According to the designer, the lower amount of moisture in the
air and the absence of vegetation, have a positive effect on
the performance of drones.
"Fighting with FPV drones in winter conditions is much more
effective and efficient than it is in summer. The first reason
is that radio transparency is higher due to the fact that the
air has less moisture and the aerodynamic characteristics
are better at lower temperatures. The second reason is
- the lack of foliage and vegetation, which blocks the
radio signal when drones are flying at low altitudes.
Therefore, in winter conditions, you simply fly
further," Kuzyakin explained.
However, despite the effective use of drones in winter, there
are some limitations and challenges, the expert added.
"But there are nuances. The first nuance is lithium batteries.
Lithium batteries have a number of severe limitations and
problems. They are highly flammable. And, one of their
unpleasant features is the rapid degradation of their
performance at low temperatures," Kuzyakin said.
_________________________________
Russian Defense Ministry: Ukrainian Armed
Forces Lost More Than 1,500 Soldiers --
in a Day
December 20th, 9:20am
(Vesti.ru)
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense's report on the
progress of the special military operation, the Ukrainian
armed forces lost approximately 1,555 soldiers over
the past 24 hours.
According to the Defense Ministry, the Armed Forces of Ukraine
have lost up to 200 soldiers in the North sector, more than 240
soldiers in the West sector, and over 265 soldiers in the
South sector.
In addition, the Center group's troops have destroyed up to 525
Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers in the past 24 hours, while
the East group has eliminated more than 260 enemy
fighters and the Dnipro group has eliminated
up to 65 soldiers.
____________________________________
Military Correspondent Kukushkin: Russian
Armed Forces Storm Reznikovka on the
Shoulders of Running AFU Militants
December 20th, 9:19am
(Vesti.ru)
Russian military forces are storming the village of Reznikovka,
near the liberated city of Seversk in the Donetsk People's
Republic, according to Pavel Kukushkin, a military
correspondent for the Volunteer Corps of the
Ministry of Defense.
In his opinion, the Seversk direction can already
be safely renamed ----- as the Slavic direction.
"Now our guys are storming Reznikovka on the shoulders of fleeing
riders. This is a village that is located on the only highway that
connects Vsushniki east of Slavyansk so far. Therefore, we
are pushing them further to the west," Kukushkin said.
The war correspondent added that the situation is also critical for
the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Krasny Liman, where fighting is
already taking place in the city itself.
Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov emphasized
that the liberation of Krasny Lyman would open the way for
the blockade of the city of Slavyansk.
______________________________________
Defense Ministry: Russian Armed Forces
Liberated Svetloe ------ in the DPR
December 20th, 9:10am
(Vesti.ru)
Russia's troops - have liberated the village of Svetloe in the DPR,
according to the daily report by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Svetloe was liberated as a result of the actions of the Central
Group of Russian Forces.
"Units of the Center military group have liberated the settlement of
Svetloe in the Donetsk People's Republic," the defense ministry
said in a statement.
It is clarified that the Center's military personnel also continued
to destroy the encircled enemy units in the city of Dimitrov,
near Svetloe.
In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost up to 525 fighters in
the Center group's area of responsibility over the past 24 hours.
Earlier..... Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that
Russian troops had completely surrounded Dimitrov.
_______________________________________
Defense Ministry: Russian Armed Forces
Liberated Vysokoye in the Sumy Region
December 20th, 9:09am
(Vesti.ru)
Russian troops have liberated the village of Vysokoye in the Sumy
region, according to the daily report by the Russian Ministry of
Defense. According to the Ministry of Defense, the settlement
was taken under control by the Russian Armed Forces'
"Sever" group.
____________________________________
Military Correspondent Kukushkin:
Dimitrov in the DPR is practically
defeated
December 20th, 9:04am
(Vesti.ru)
The organized resistance of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Dimitrov
has been broken, and we can expect news about the liberation of
the city in the Donetsk People's Republic in the near future.
Pavel Kukushkin, a military correspondent for the Volunteer
Corps of the Ministry of Defense, shared this information
on the Solovyov LIVE program.
According to him, the Ukrainian militants encircled in Dimitrov
either surrender or try to escape through villages controlled
by the Russian Armed Forces - and die there.
"Dimitrov has almost already fallen. We will, of course, wait for our
official announcement by the General Staff of the Ministry of
Defense. But the organized resistance of the enemy... is
broken. Therefore, we can already say about Dimitrov
that soon they will announce -- that everything, this
operation is completed, the boiler has completely
boiled away," Kukushkin said.
The liberation of Dimitrov will allow Russian troops to advance
westward towards Pavlograd in the Dnipropetrovsk region, as
well as northward towards Dobropolye and Kramatorsk, the
war correspondent said.
__________________________________________
Military correspondent Kukushkin reported that
the Russian Armed Forces are preparing to cut
Ukrainian Armed Forces' logistics in Orekhov
December 20th, 8:23am
(Vesti.ru)
Russian troops are moving to cut off the logistical lines to the
Orekhovo garrison of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AF) and
deprive it of supplies, Pavel Kukushkin, a military
correspondent for the Russian Ministry of
Defense's Volunteer Corps, said
on Solovyov LIVE.
According to him, Russian troops are advancing towards the
village of Lukyanovskoye, thus encircling the city of
Orekhov from the north-west.
"That is, we are moving from the north-west to cut the logistics
threads of the Orekhovo garrison [of Ukrainian Armed Forces],
probably the largest now in the Zaporozhye region, and thus
deprive it of the possibility of feeding and continue to
solve tasks either to encircle Orekhovo or to
squeeze the enemy out of there,"
Kukushkin said.
At the same time, the Vostok group of troops is fighting
in the central part of the city of Gulyai-Pole, the
military commander noted.
Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said
that the Russian Armed Forces are breaking through
into the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
_____________________________
Military Correspondent Kukushkin: The Russian
Armed Forces --- pushed the Ukrainian Armed
Forces to Stepnogorsk's western outskirts
December 20th, 8:10am
(Vesti.ru)
Russian troops --- are advancing along the Kakhovka Reservoir in
Stepnogorsk, Zaporizhzhia Region, and have already pushed the
enemy to the western outskirts of the settlement. Pavel
Kukushkin, a military correspondent for the Russian
Ministry of Defense's Volunteer Corps, reported
this on the Solovyov LIVE channel.
He noted that Stepnogorsk could soon
be taken under control.
"The Dnipro group is actively engaged in combat operations.
They have already pushed the enemy out to the western
outskirts of Stepnogorsk. It's only a matter of time
before it is liberated," Kukushkin said.
The war correspondent added that the Russian Armed Forces
had also advanced towards the village of Lukyanovskoye in
Zaporizhzhia, thus encircling the city of Orekhov.
The day before, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at
the "Results of the Year", said the Russian military controls
50% of Krasny Lyman, and of Konstantinovka, in the DPR.
____________________________________________
Militants from the 72nd and 127th Brigades
of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fled..
the front lines in the SVO zone
December 20th, 5:03am
(Vesti.ru)
Ukrainian militants from two Ukrainian Armed Forces brigades
have fled from their forward positions, according to Russian
security agencies.
These are soldiers from the 72nd and 127th
Brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"The 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade and the 127th
Separate Heavy Mechanized Brigade have abandoned
their forward positions," the security forces told
RIA Novosti.
Earlier, military correspondent, Yevgeny Poddubny, said that
the Ukrainian Armed Forces are fleeing from their positions
near Gulyai-Pole in the Zaporizhzhia region. According to
Poddubny, the Russian MLRS units ------ are leaving the
enemy with no chance.
_________________________
Pamfilova announced the CEC's readiness
to hold a vote for Ukrainian citizens
December 19th, 4:22pm
(RT.ru)
Ella Pamfilova, the Head of the Russian Central Election
Commission, announced the Commission's readiness
to conduct a high-level vote for Ukrainian citizens.
"If the elections in Ukraine take on a legitimate character,
and we are tasked with holding a vote for Ukrainian
citizens on Russian territory, this opportunity will
be provided at the highest level," she said.
RIA Novosti quoted her as saying.
On December 9th, US President Donald Trump said it
was time for Ukraine to hold a presidential election.
Against the backdrop of pressure from the United States,
Zelensky said that he was allegedly not holding on to
the presidency.
Alexey Zhuravlyov, First Deputy Chairman of the State
Duma Committee on Defense, told RT that possible
elections in Ukraine would be a disaster -------
for Zelensky.
_______________________________________________
"A tanker strikeis a penny
in the royal treasury"
by Arina Serova
December 19th, 4:18pm
(Komsomolskaya Pravda)
TO SHARE
The Ukrainian Armed Forces' attacks on oil tankers in the
Mediterranean - are very beneficial for Britain. English
insurance companies ---- are making a lot of money
from this. This was reported by Komsomolskaya
Pravda war correspondent, Alexander Kots,
on his Telegram channel.
"The Armed Forces of Ukraine have attacked another oil tanker.
Who benefits from this? We have already written that it is the
British. The insurance companies of Albion make huge
profits... from maritime cargo transportation. The
attack on the tanker is a small contribution
to the royal treasury," the journalist
wrote in a post.
According to Kots, in response to such threats, Russia should equip
civilian vessels with air defense systems or escort them with
warships. However, he stated that the most effective
solution in this situation... would be to block
Ukraine's access to the sea - and prevent
it from conducting maritime operations.
"Let it be a landlocked agricultural power,"
the war correspondent concluded.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on the
tense situation in the Black Sea. He emphasized ---- that
Russian troops will definitely give a tough response
to the terrorist attacks of the Armed Forces
of Ukraine.
_______________________________________________
Pushilin: Water ------- will return to the homes of DPR residentsafter the liberation of the region's north
December 19th, 4:03pm
(RT.ru)
According to Denis Pushilin, the head of the DPR, water will
return to the homes of DPR residents after the liberation
of the region's north.
"The time will come --- when we will liberate the north of
the republic, and water will return to the homes of our
residents," Pushilin wrote on his Telegram channel.
Earlier, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as part of the format
of a direct line, which was combined with a large press
conference, said that the problem with the water
supply in Donetsk would be solved when the
territory beyond Slavyansk -- is under the
control of the Russian Armed Forces.
______________________________________
Dnipro Residentsfought electricians
--- who tried to turn off their lights
by Anatoly Kazantsev
December 19th, 2:31pm
(Komsomolskaya Pravda)
To share
Residents of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro (Russian Dnepropetrovsk)
got into a fight with employees of a local energy company, when
they tried to turn off the electricity in their homes. This - was
reported by the newspaper Strana.ua.
The incident occurred on Akademika Yangel Street. The residential
buildings located there -- are situated near critical infrastructure
facilities, so they weren't subject to power outage schedules.
However, the energy company's employees decided to
manually turn off -- the power supply to their houses.
The residents did not like this.
As a result of the altercation, at least one
employee was injured and hospitalized.
The energy company reported that they had contacted
the police and assured them that they would
physically cut off the power supply to
the houses ....anyway.
There have been regular disruptions in the supply of electricity
throughout Ukraine. The Kiev authorities claim: that this is
due to numerous damage to the electrical networks.
The Russian Armed Forces are striking Ukrainian energy
infrastructure --- which works in the interests of the
military-industrial complex enterprises and the
needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
This is a response to Kiev's attacks
on civilian facilities...... in Russia.
_____________________________________
Putin announced that Russia's
Armed Forces soldiers....are
ready ------- to continue the
special military operation
December 19th, 1:18pm
(Vesti.ru)
After what the Ukrainian Armed Forces have done to civilians, the
Russian military is ready to continue carrying out its tasks in the
special military operation, with great enthusiasm. This was
stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin during the
"Direct Line" program.
The footage was broadcast by the TV channels "Russia 24" and
"Russia 1". The Head of State recounted his dialogue with the
commander of the assault group, Hero of Russia Naran
Ochir-Goryaev, whom he had previously invited to
the program.
"He didn't say it now, but when we were talking in the Kremlin,
he said: when we saw -- what they were doing to the civilian
population, our hands just itch. We are ready to go further
and finish off this reptile," Putin explained.
He added that the officers were reacting to videos showing
how employees of territorial recruitment centres (TCCs
------ the equivalent of military registration offices in
Ukraine) forcibly mobilize men on the streets.
The program "Year in Review with Vladimir Putin" combines
a large press conference with the President and a live line.
_________________________________________
Ministry of Industry and Trade: Over 10 Factories
Producing Heavy UAVs Have Confirmed
Their Effectiveness
December 19th, 12:34pm
(Vesti.ru)
More than 10 enterprises that produce heavy multi-rotor
unmanned aerial vehicles have already proven their
effectiveness, including in the special military
operation zone. This was reported by the
press service of the Ministry of
Industry and Trade.
It is noted ---- that special exhibitions were held, in
which about 400 Russian companies participated.
"Over 10 industrial enterprises specializing in the production
of heavy multi-rotor UAVs have already confirmed their
effectiveness -- including in the area of the special
military operation", the Ministry of Industry and
Trade told the TASS news agency.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russian
drone operators continue to participate in combat
operations ----- even on vacation, as new
technologies allow them to do so.
The head of state also promised to solve the issue of heavy
UAVs, in particular, hexacopters, which are in short supply
in the special operation zone. According to the Russian
leader, the Russian Ministry of Defense is working on
this issue.
At the same time, Putin emphasized that, thanks to the efforts
of Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, the situation with
drones on the front has changed dramatically, and
this is being noticed by the Russian Armed
Forces in the special operation zone.
______________________________________
Medinsky... Russia handed over the bodies
of 1,000 soldiers to Ukraine in exchange
for 26
December 19th, 9:26am
(Vesti.ru)
Russia handed over the bodies of 1,000 soldiers to Ukraine,
receiving 26 in return, according to Russian presidential
aide Vladimir Medinsky. The corresponding post was
published on Medinsky's Telegram channel.
"Within the framework of the Istanbul agreements, the bodies
of 1,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers were transferred to Ukraine.
The bodies of 26 dead Russian soldiers were handed over
to Russia, " the publication says.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia
had handed over more than 11,000 bodies of Ukrainian army
soldiers to Kiev, and received 201 bodies in return.
__________________________________________
The Russian Armed Forces liberated
four settlements in a week
December 19th, 8:59am
(Vesti.ru)
The Russian Armed Forces - liberated four settlements in one
week. This was reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
It is noted that the units of the Vostok military group continued
to advance into the depths of the enemy's defenses and, as a
result of decisive actions, liberated the settlements of
Peschanoye and Gerasimovka in the Dnipropetrovsk
region. The Vostok military group - liberated
Varvarivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Units of the Zapad group of troops managed
to liberate Novoplatonovka village, in the
Kharkiv region.
____________________________________________
Russian Defense Ministry: Ukrainian losses in
the SVO zone amounted to almost 10,000
soldiers in a week
December 19th, 8:50am
(Vesti.ru)
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense's report on the
progress of the special military operation, the Ukrainian
Armed Forces (AFU) have lost approximately 9,920
soldiers in the past week.
Thus, the enemy lost more than 1,425 soldiers in the area of
responsibility of the North group of Russian troops, and
more than 1,515 soldiers in the West group's area
of responsibility.
Fighters from the "South" and "Center" groups have destroyed
over 1,310 and more than 3,505 Ukrainian Armed Forces
fighters, respectively.
In addition, the Ukrainian army lost more than 1,795 soldiers
in the area of responsibility of the Vostok group of troops
and up to 370 people in the Dnipro zone.
____________________________________________
Foreign mercenaries in the Armed
Forces of Ukraine refuse to
follow orders
December 19th, 6:44am
(Vesti.ru)
Maxim Danilchuk, the commander of the 47th Separate Mechanized
Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, known as Zelensky's friend
in Ukraine, has lost control over his unit. Foreign mercenaries in
his brigade refuse to follow his orders.
This was reported by the Telegram channel "Severny Veter".
This channel is close to the leadership of the Russian
Northern Group of Forces.
"The Foreign Legion's militants refuse to take up their positions.
Additionally, they do not want to live in the brigade's barracks,
preferring to rent housing in Sumy," the publication notes.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has repeatedly stated that Kiev
is using foreign mercenaries as cannon fodder. The Armed
Forces of Ukraine have decided to transfer all members
of the so-called "foreign legions" of mercenaries to
assault units.
Foreigners who have arrived in Ukraine have also complained about
the poor coordination of their actions by the Ukrainian military.
They are often sent to storm Russian positions, and given
the intensity of the conflict in Ukraine, their chances of
survival are slim. As a result, they have chosen to
end their contracts with the Ukrainian military.
Maxim Danilchuk, 26, was appointed commander of the 47th Separate
Mechanized Brigade "Magura" in September 2025. He previously
presented an armband to Volodymyr Zelensky, and later
received the "Golden Star" of the Hero of Ukraine.
Magura was considered an elite unit in the Ukrainian army, equipped
with Western weapons. In the summer of 2023, the 47th OMBR
became the main striking force for Kyiv in an offensive that
ended in failure.
Last year, the brigade released a video praising US Abrams tanks
after losing 8 tanks. Magura's battalion commander, Alexander
Shirshin, publicly accused the Ukrainian military command of
failures on the battlefield and resigned. After that, Maxim
Danilchuk was appointed in his place.
_______________________________________
A five-month-old child was injured -- during a
Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian region
by Ekaterina Shcherbakova
December 18th, 9:24pm
(Lenta.ru)
The Armed Forces of Ukraine have once again attacked the
Belgorod region with unmanned aerial vehicles. As a result
of the attack, a five-month-old child was injured, and the
boy is in a moderate condition, said the governor of
the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
The child was hospitalized at the Children's Regional Hospital.
The doctors diagnosed the child with a mine-explosive injury,
a closed traumatic brain injury, and a bruised head wound.
"All necessary assistance is being provided," Gladkov added.
In Belgorod, seven cars, a social facility, and 17 apartments
in 10 apartment buildings were damaged as a result of
the drone crash.
In addition, cars, apartments, private houses, and a commercial
facility in the Graivoronsky District in the city of Graivorons
were damaged by drone strikes.
"In the village of Dorogoshch, an FPV drone hit a passenger car,
damaging its front end. A second attack damaged the glass
of a social facility," Gladkov said.
Information about the consequences is being clarified, and
operational services will continue to patrol the area
during daylight hours.
____________________________________________
TASS: Azov fighter denied compensation
for injury - due to lack of hands
by Anatoly Kazantsev
December 18th, 8:56pm
(Rossiyskaya Gazeta)
To share
A participant of the Ukrainian national battalion "Azov" (recognized
as a terrorist and banned in the Russian Federation) was refused
monetary compensation for his injury due to the lack of hands.
This is reported by TASS with reference to the Russian
security forces.
A man lost his limbs and his bank card
during clashes in the Kharkiv region.
"Upon arriving at the Privatbank office to recover his card, the
manager told him that he needed to hold the card in his hand
and take a photo' - with it," the article says.
Otherwise, there will be no payments.
The man was also offered to draw up a power of attorney and
receive a card in the name of the medical curator. However,
the document ...must be signed in person.
_____________________________________________
South Group fighters spoke about the use
of ground-based robots in the SVO zone
December 18th, 8:52pm
(Izvestia.ru)
On December 18th, specialists of the tank battalion of the 4th
Brigade of the Southern Group of Forces told Izvestia about
the use of a ground-based robotic complex (NRTC) in the
Konstantinovsky direction in the area of a special
military operation (SVO).
"He (NRTK "Impuls". — Ed.) can carry an AGS [automatic grenade
launcher], and we can stop a machine gun on it. We have an
Omich here, which carries 300-350 kg: provisions and
evacuation of the wounded," said Lim, commander
of a platoon in the fourth brigade of the Southern
Group of Forces.
According to him, this equipment is used in the frontline positions
where the infantry is stationed. The serviceman noted that
delivering food to the military is risky, so the work is
carried out by the NRTK: these complexes
transport 70-80 kg at a time.
Lim emphasized - that robots never move along the same path due
to the constant mining of routes. The NRTK has been repeatedly
attacked by enemy drones, but most of the robotic systems
have withstood these attacks.
"This robotic trolley ----- has two control protocols: a standard radio transmitter and a relatively new technology used in the Russian
military, a fibre-optic reel. The main advantage of this
technology is ----- that it cannot be jammed by any
electronic warfare system, which significantly
---- increases the chances of reaching the
destination and returning safely," said
Egor Kildibekov, a correspondent
for Izvestia.
The NRTK operator with the call sign Viking noted that tracked
robots can move through mud like a tank, while wheeled
NRTKs get stuck. According to him, the movement is
now mostly in open areas, where people are
vulnerable to drones.
The operator shared that he still feels anxious
when evacuating the wounded using a robot.
"When you get to the destination... of course, it makes you feel
better that you've taken your friend away - and that he's doing
well. The main thing is that he's alive," the soldier concluded.
_______________________________________________
Ukraine was shocked by the flight time
of the Oreshnik -from Belarus to Kiev
by Ekaterina Shcherbakova
(night line editor)
December 18th, 8:49pm
(Lenta.ru)
The flight time of the Oreshnik missile from Belarus to Kyiv
will be one minute and 51 seconds. The calculations were
made and published..... by the Ukrainian newspaper
Telegraph on its Telegram channel, noting that
this is not the best situation for Ukraine.
According to their data, the Oreshnik will fly to Vilnius in one
minute and four seconds, to Rovno, the time may be one
minute and 44 seconds, and to Lviv - two minutes
and 24 seconds.
The authors explained that this is an approximate flight time,
as a neutral reference point in the geographical centre of
Belarus, approximately between Minsk and Bobruisk,
was used for the calculation.
Earlier, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko
announced the deployment of the Russian Oreshnik
medium-range ballistic missile system
on combat duty.
______________________________________
Gerasimov: Up to 30,000 Ukrainian
soldiers desert ------- every month
December 18th, 2:20pm
(Vesti.ru)
According to Valery Gerasimov --- Chief of the General Staff of
the Russian Armed Forces, desertion in Ukraine is becoming
widespread, with up to 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers leaving
their posts every day.
According to his data, about 9 million people have left Ukraine
..since the start of the special operation. The number of
Ukrainians mobilized since the beginning of 2025 has
decreased --- from 28,000 in January to 14,000 in
November, which has led to a steady decline
in the size of the Ukrainian armed forces,
Gerasimov added.
"Desertion is becoming widespread. According to official data, up to
30,000 people leave their posts every month," said the Chief of the
General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
Today, he continued, more than 160,000 criminal cases have
been opened against the Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers
who have deserted.
______________________________________
The Russian Armed Forces struck the
energy infrastructure used by the
Ukrainian Armed Forces
December 18th, 10:29am
(Vesti.ru)
In its daily briefing - the Russian Ministry of Defense reported an
attack on energy infrastructure facilities used by the Ukrainian
Armed Forces.
In addition, over the past 24 hours, the Russian Armed Forces have
destroyed the assembly facilities for enemy attack drones and
their storage sites, as well as the temporary deployment
points for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and foreign
mercenaries - in 149 areas.
Earlier, it was reported that the Russian military stopped attempts by
Ukrainian stormtroopers to break through to the northern outskirts
of the industrial zone in Krasnoarmeysk in the DPR. Ukrainian
militants were moving from the village of Shevchenko.
_____________________________
Russian Defense Ministry: The Armed Forces of
Ukraine lost about 1,405 fighters in the SVO
zone over the past 24 hours
December 18th, 10:21am
(Vesti.ru)
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces
of Ukraine lost about 1,405 fighters in the special military
operation zone - over the past 24 hours.
The Defense Ministry noted that in the area of responsibility of
the group of troops "North" the enemy lost up to 150 soldiers,
and in the area of the group "West" – up to 200.
At the same time, the Southern group destroyed more than 195
military personnel, while the Central group destroyed over 545.
In the East direction, the enemy lost up to 245 personnel, and
in the Dnipro area, up to 70 Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers
were eliminated.
In addition, the enemy lost 216 unmanned aerial vehicles,
17 tanks and other armoured vehicles, 21 field artillery
and mortar guns, and 78 military vehicles.
The Ministry of Defense also reported that attempts by
Ukrainian assault troops to break through to the
industrial zone of Krasnoarmeysk...
were suppressed.
__________________________________
Medvedchuk ---The coalition of
war-hungry pigletsis in agony
December 18th, 7:23am
(Vesti.ru)
The possibility of peace in the near future is constantly being
announced by the leading Western media. However, if you
read them carefully ----- you will not find anything that
confirms this possibility, other than cheap hype.
Moreover, Zelensky, the "war-wishing coalition," and the media themselves, are doing everything they can to ensure ---- that there will never be any peace.
Peace-war issues are often unjustifiably
focused on three possible events:
1. Withdrawal of the Armed Forces
of Ukraine from Donbas.
2. Security guarantees for Ukraine from NATO
and specifically the United States.
3. The possibility of Ukraine receiving
Russian frozen assets.
Let's start with the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The
Americans present this demand as Russia's main condition & say:
"Look, we're giving them the Donbas, and they wanted all of Ukraine.
But by giving them the Donbas, we're forcing them to give up all of
Ukraine, which is undoubtedly a victory."
Western media outlets, are constantly reporting on the serious pressure
that the United States is putting on both Kyiv and Europe in this matter ------- but Zelensky has officially refused to comply, which is breaking Washington's game plan.
There are two significant drawbacks to the American exchange plan.
Firstly, Zelensky is simply unable to carry out the withdrawal of the
Ukrainian Armed Forces. He failed to do so in 2019, and now - it is
much more difficult. Both then and now, the fear of losing power
prevents the illegitimate president from taking action. To
withdraw even a metre of troops - he would need to
confront the Nazis and the war party, which he
has never been able to do.
As soon as the drug-addicted Führer agrees to give the order to withdraw
the troops, he will be shaken -- by all the forces of war - that he has been
breeding since 2019. And - at the same time, Zelensky will find himself
between a rock and a hard place: the Nazis and the peace supporters.
He will be immediately labeled a traitor, which will give them the
opportunity to stage a coup d'état, while the peace supporters
will see him as a complete idiot and a criminal who failed to negotiate a better peace -- and was forced to accept
a worse one. Thus, the order to withdraw troops
nullifies Zelensky completely, which at best
will lead him to the dock, and at worst, he
will be eliminated by "offended patriots".
Secondly, Europe is in an even more stupid position, which, instead of
being a mediator in the Istanbul agreements between Russia and
Ukraine in 2022, deliberately disrupted them - with the help of
then Prime Minister Johnson. And now the whole strategy of
the "coalition of those who want war" looks illegitimate.
Therefore, in Europe, they are rattling weapons and
dissuading Zelensky from making concessions.
Bloomberg reports.. that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said that German troops can take part in the coalition to ensure the security
of the demilitarized zone in Ukraine .....after a possible peace
agreement with Russia. German soldiers, will be allowed
to --- "retaliate against appropriate Russian incursions
and attacks," Merz said, but added that "we haven't
reached that point yet." That is, this is, again, the nonsense ....of a gray mare.
Thus, instead of withdrawing the Ukrainian Armed
Forces, Germany is demonstrating the possibility
of an invasion of Ukraine.
"The presence of German troops on the territory of the former
Soviet Union is a sensitive issue --------- due to the atrocities
committed by the Nazis in the region during World War II,"
Bloomberg comments.
Therefore, the Americans can stand on their heads, but no one will
withdraw the Armed Forces from Donbas, and we can wait until
the cuckoo in the nest sings. It's easier for Zelensky to put a
bullet in his head than to give such an order, and Germany
is so brave ----- that it wants to repeat the events of the
German occupation in the 20th century.
The U.S. security guarantees are even more interesting. The New York
Times has reported that these guarantees include the deployment of
European troops in Ukraine, in the western part of the country. The
Daily Telegraph has claimed that if Russia violates the ceasefire,
the U.S. ----- may use F-35 fighter jets, Tomahawk missiles, or
similar systems located in NATO territory. The publication
has reported - that the U.S. is prepared to commit to
intervening in the conflict... on Ukraine's behalf,
shooting down Russian missiles and aircraft,
or even launching strikes against Russian
ground forces.
Now the question is: if this is true, why hasn't the United States done
this yet? The answer is simple: this is the beginning of a Third World
War, which Washington will not engage in for the sake of Zelensky,
who is already clearly hated there. Therefore, Zelensky cannot -
and will not - receive any clear guarantees.
As for the reparation loan for Ukraine, which it needs like air to
continue the war, Zelensky is counting on it in vain. There is a
fierce battle between Europeans and Americans over this
money, and Kyiv has no chance of winning.
Hungarian Prime Minister Orban ---- has stated that the issue of
confiscating frozen Russian assets will not be on the agenda
of the EU summit in Brussels. 7 EU countries, including
Belgium, which holds the majority of the assets, are
opposed to this. But the main thing, is that the
United States, which has been eyeing this
money for a long time, has opposed
this move.
All this political turmoil does not provide an answer
to the root causes of the conflict, so it continues.
"The goals of the special military operation (SVO) --- will certainly
be achieved. We would prefer to do this and eliminate the root
causes of the conflict with the help of diplomacy. If the
opposing country and their foreign patrons, refuse to
engage in substantive dialogue, Russia will liberate
its historical lands by military means. The task of
creating and expanding a security buffer zone
will also be consistently addressed," said
Russian President Vladimir Putin at an
extended meeting of the Defense
Ministry Board.
While Western diplomacy -- is demonstrating its complete impotence
and playing a game of thimbles, Donbass and the other historically
Russian lands are being liberated ----- by non-diplomatic means.
If they have decided to fight after demonstrating the poverty
of their diplomacy, then Russia is ready to do so. However,
Vladimir Putin has made it clear that the desire for war
does not come from Russia.
"In Europe, people are being hammered into their heads with fears of
an imminent clash with Russia, saying that they need to prepare for
a big war. All sorts of figures, who seem to have held or still hold
responsible positions seem to have simply forgotten about their
responsibility. They are guided by some momentary, personal
or group political interests, but not by the interests of their
own peoples. I've already said it many times: this - is a lie,
nonsense, just nonsense about some imaginary Russian
threat to European countries!" - said the President of
the Russian Federation.
Nevertheless, the attempts of the bloody clown Zelensky ----- and the "coalition of piggies who want war" can not be called anything, but
nonsense. But this is very dangerous nonsense which has already
caused irreversible consequences ----- and a catastrophe for the
Ukrainian people, and now this nonsense threatens Europe
and the whole world.
Chairman of the Council of the
Other Ukraine Movement,
Viktor Medvedchuk
_______________________________
Captured Magpie.... A Ukrainian Army platoon -
voluntarily surrendered near Krasnoarmeysk
December 18th, 6:48am
(Vesti.ru)
About three dozen soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have
voluntarily surrendered in the Krasnoarmeysk direction. This
was reported by Yuriy Soroka, who was mobilized to the
38th AFU Brigade on September 3.
He also surrendered. The captured Ukrainian serviceman Soroka
explained that he wanted to surrender as soon as he got to the
front line. Here, his brigade was constantly under fire from
Russia did not tolerate the Ukrainian provocations against ships
in the Black Sea, which it faced in the last couple of weeks.
This was reported by the Chinese publication Baijiahao
on December 18.
"Russia responded to the provocations
--- with precision," the article says.
Chinese experts point out that the attacks on Russian vessels
were carried out with the clear approval of NATO countries,
which, instead of expressing condemnation, remained
silent and watched the events unfold.
Moreover, it is believed that the planning of these attacks may
have involved Western experts. It is also suggested that
Ukraine's actions were aimed at weakening Russia
during the negotiation process, according
to ABN24.
"Putin did not tolerate the provocations," the article notes.
The publication reported --- that Russia had struck the port of Odessa.
Experts believe that Russia was sending a clear message to Western
powers that it would not tolerate such provocations.
Russia's retaliatory measures have taken NATO countries by surprise,
as evidenced by the silence of officials ..and the alarming articles in
the Western media.
"NATO countries ---- are afraid of Russia's response to provocations, as
Russia has recently lowered its threshold for using nuclear weapons,"
Chinese analysts claim.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiankun said on December 17
that the Chinese authorities are against a unilateral decision of the EU
to use frozen Russian assets. He also added that the parties should
work together.... to create favourable conditions for promoting
peaceful negotiations and a political solution to the
Ukrainian crisis.
On the same day, Guo Jiankun said that the EU countries' attempts
to get closer to China and put pressure on the US... will not affect
China's policy on Ukraine.
_____________________________
Putin said that the military asked him
for awards, always for their comrades.
December 17th, 4:05pm
(Vesti.ru)
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that military personnel
always ask him about awards for their comrades-in-arms.
The Russian leader shared this information during the
ceremony of awarding the Gold Star medals to
Heroes of Russia who participated in the
special military operation.
As the head of state emphasized, such a relationship
between fighters --- cannot be bought with money.
"There is always a request not to forget about them (comrades.
Editor's note), it is always emphasized --- that a combat
comrade deserves the same awards --- deserves the
same attention from the state," Putin said.
Earlier, the Russian leader drew attention to the cohesion and
unity of the Russian Armed Forces. Putin noted that the
special attitude of the people towards the army and
the homeland is at the heart ------ of all of
Russia's victories.
_________________________________________
President Putin had an informal conversation with the soldiers who liberated Seversk
December 17th, 3:58pm
(Vesti.ru)
President Vladimir Putin met with military personnel who
were awarded after the liberation of Seversk...... in an
informal setting. This was reported by RIA Novosti.
On Wednesday, the Russian leader presented "Gold Star"
medals to participants in the operation to liberate the
city of Seversk in the Donetsk People's Republic.
It is reported that the meeting took place after the solemn
ceremony and.. at the request of the head of state, was
held "without cameras". All participantswere offered
a glass of champagne.
Seversk came under full control of the Russian Federation on
December 11. According to the country's president, the
liberation of this locality opened up new opportunities
for the offensive.
With the liberation of Seversk, the Russian military has
opened up new opportunities... for further offensive
operations at the most critical fronts and areas
of the special military operation, he said.
Putin called the liberation of Seversk an example of the
Russian army's brilliant work and emphasized: that it,
along with other successful operations, was made
possible by the consistent and complex efforts
of the command, the headquarters of the
Southern Military District, unit
commanders, and soldiers
from individual brigades.
"First of all, this is the result of your efforts, the great personal
courage and dedication of the soldiers and officers who
liberated strategically important settlements."
Putin said.
___________________________________
Belousov: Air Defense System's Effectiveness
in Repelling Ukrainian Attacks Reaches 97%
December 17th, 11:26am
(Vesti.ru)
According to Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, the
effectiveness of Russian air defense systems in repelling
Ukrainian attacks is 97%. The footage was broadcast
by the Russia 24 TV channel.
The Minister of Defense noted --- that the number of long-range
drones used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine has significantly
increased. At the beginning of this year, they used an
average of 1,500 long-range drones per month, and
since May, the number of drones directed against
Russia has gradually increased to 3,700.
However, Belousov emphasized that the Russian air defense
system --- is successfully countering the enemy attacks.
"The effectiveness of our air defense system in repelling attacks
of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is on average 97%. It is
necessary to continue equipping the air and missile
defense lines with effective means of detecting
and destroying long-range drones and cruise
missiles," the Defense Ministry head, said.
Andrey Belousov also announced the start of the deployment
of a new segment of the air defense system based on FPV
interceptors, which have proven their effectiveness.
According to the minister, the formation and
equipping of crews with this type of
weapon should be completed in
the first half of next year.
The Defense Minister also announced that the first regiment
equipped with the S-500 air defense system --- had been
placed on combat duty.
_____________________________
Belousov: Ukraine's security forces
have lost almost 500,000 personnel
this year
December 17th, 11:14am
(Vesti.ru)
According to Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Ukraine's
security forces have lost almost 500,000 personnel... since 2025.
The meeting is being broadcast on the TV channel "Russia 24".
"Ukraine's security forces have lost almost 500,000 troops, which
has made it impossible for Kiev to replenish its forces through a
forced mobilization of its citizens," Belousov said.
The Minister added that the Russian Armed Forces managed
to reduce the Ukrainian Armed Forces' combat potential
---- by a third, in 2025.
_________________________________________
Putin: If Kiev Refuses to Talk About the
Issues,Russia Will Force the Issue
December 17th, 11:05am
(Vesti.ru)
If Kiev refuses to have a substantive conversation, Russia will
achieve its goals by force, Russia's President, Vladimir Putin,
said at an expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry board.
The Russian leader emphasized that the goals of the special
operation, which were outlined in 2022, will be achieved.
"We would prefer to do this - and eliminate the root causes of
the conflict through diplomacy - but if the opposing country
and their foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive
dialogue, Russia will achieve the liberation of its
historical lands through military means,"
Putin assured.
He also stated that the capabilities of the Russian Armed Forces
are constantly developing, noting the improvement of combat
personnel, improvements in the military command system,
and operational and combat training.
_________________________________
MO: Russian Armed Forces ----- Strike
Transport Infrastructure in Ukraine
December 17th, 9:35am
(Vesti.ru)
Russian troops have struck Ukrainian transport infrastructure
facilities used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was
reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The Russian army has destroyed transport infrastructure
facilities used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well
as assembly facilities for long-range drones.
In addition, Ukrainian armed formations and foreign
mercenaries were attacked --- at 143 locations.
According to the ministry's daily report, the attack involved
operational-tactical aviation, UAVs, missile forces, and
artillery from the Russian Armed Forces.
In addition, the Ministry of Defense -- reported an attack on the
assembly centre for unmanned boats of the Main Intelligence
Directorate of Ukraine.
Earlier, it was reported that Russian fighters destroyed
the Grad MLRS of Ukrainian militants in the Kharkiv
region, which was used to shell Belgorod.
_______________________________
Russian Defense Ministry: The Armed Forces of Ukraine
lost more than 1,300 soldiers in the SVO zone over the past 24 hours
December 17th, 9:26am
(Vesti.ru)
Over the past 24 hours, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have
lost about 1,340 fighters in the special operation zone.
This is reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
As follows from the report of the ministry on the course of the
SVO, in the area of responsibility of the Northern group of
Russian troops, the Ukrainian army lost up to 160
people, in the zone of the group "West" – up to
230 people, in the Southern group – more
than 200 military personnel.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Center group's
troops destroyed over 470 Ukrainian soldiers in a day, while the
East group's troops destroyed amounted to up to 235 soldiers,
and the Dnipro group's ----- were up to 45 soldiers.
_______________________________________
Defense Ministry: Russian Armed Forces
Liberated Gerasimovka in the
Dnepropetrovsk Region
December 17th, 9:15am
(Vesti.ru)
Russian troops have liberated the village of Gerasimovka in the Dnipropetrovsk region. This is stated in the daily report of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The liberation of the settlement contributed to the expansion
of the Russian troops' bridgehead on the western bank of
the Gaichur River, which will allow for a more active
offensive into the Dnipropetrovsk region.
"Units of the Vostok group of troops have taken control of
the settlement of Gerasimovka in the Dnipropetrovsk
region," the Defense Ministry said.
On the eve', Russia liberated the settlement
of Novoplatonovka --- in the Kharkiv region.
_________________________________________
Artillerymen -- clear the territory of Gulyai-Pole
December 17th, 4:20am
(Vesti.ru)
Artillerymen are clearing the territory of Gulyaypol in the
Zaporizhzhia region with high intensity using the Msta-S
installation. This was announced by the commander
of the gun with the call sign Izum...... on the
Russia 1 channel.
Target acquisition and adjustment, are performed in semi-
automatic mode. The ammunition is consumed within a
few hours.
"60-65, is not even per day, but per four hours. When our
troops advance, we do a good job in the offensive, and
we clear the way for our guys ------ from the Ukrainian
Armed Forces," Izyum said.
Their task is to get as close to the front line as possible, so
that they can work not only with the front-line troops,
the soldier said.
________________________________________________
Ukraine.. is afraidof the Polish
president's words to Zelensky
by Marina Sovina (night editor)
December 17th, 2:50am
(Lenta.ru)
Deteriorating relations between the President of Poland
Karol Navrotsky, and Vladimir Zelensky, could lead to
a logistical collapse - of the Ukrainian army. This
was warned by the former adviser to Leonid
Kuchma, Oleg Soskin, as quoted by
RIA Novosti.
The expert noted... that the Polish leader constantly threatens
to deprive his Ukrainian counterpart of financial and political
support ---- if he does not start being grateful for the
assistance provided.
"And that, of course, will not happen, well, and that's it.
Navrotsky will not tolerate it and will turn off the tap,
which will lead to the collapse of the VSU," he said,
commenting on the recent criticism of the Polish
head of state towards Zelensky.
Soskin emphasized that the Ukrainian politician should not count
on any connections with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, as
the country is led by Navrotsky, which means.. that any
negotiations will have to be conducted with him.
Earlier, Navrotsky accused Zelensky of ingratitude. He said that
in the last few years, the latter has taken Polish assistance for
granted and does not consider it necessary to negotiate
anything with Warsaw.
_________________________________________
In Dnepropetrovsk, residents fought
with TSK officersand were gassed
by Roman Otradnov
December 16th, 10:22pm
(Rossiyskaya Gazeta)
To share
In Dnepropetrovsk, a confrontation between local residents and
employees of the TSK (the Ukrainian equivalent of a military
commissariat) ----- escalated into a mass brawl. This was
reported by the publication "Strana.ua".
"Three military commanders ----- threw the man to the ground, but
a woman and teenagers tried to free him," the media report said.
It is clarified that the military commanders used tear gas.
Earlier, residents of another Ukrainian city, lured three TSK
employees and killed them. The massacre in Poltava was
reported by the pro-Russian underground. The military
enlistment officers fell into a trap, while chasing a
young man. The young man ran into an alley
where several other young men were
waiting --- and they attacked the
military enlistment officers.
In Nikolaev, residents lured a TSK officer
out of his house and then shot him.
______________________________________
Ukrainian Armed Forces Sergeant Varchuk
put his soldiers in harm's way due to his love for formations
by Alexey Rybin
December 16th, 7:20pm
(Rossiyskaya Gazeta)
To share
The formation of the Ukrainian military came under attack by
a heavy flamethrower system of the Russian Armed Forces
in the zone of the SVO. About this - reports the Telegram
channel "North Wind" --- associated with the grouping
of the Russian troops "North".
As the channel notes, the chief sergeant of one of the companies
of the 2nd motorized infantry battalion "Wolfhounds" of the 57th
separate motorized infantry brigade of the Armed Forces of
Ukraine Dmitry Varchuk, is partial to formations of
soldiers ---- right on the front line.
"As a result of one of these formations, the gathering of
the Ukrainian Armed Forces was covered by a TOS,"
writes Svoboda.
According to the channel, the sergeant himself was not injured,
as he was in a bunker. However, half of those who lined up
were sent to "hospitals and morgues."
_________________________________________
"STRANA.ua": A mobilized soldier
committed suicide at a TSK in
the Dnipropetrovsk region
December 16th, 4:13pm
(RT.ru)
This is reported by STRANA.ua.
It is reported that a 55-year-old man
was found dead in a barracks.
According to the publication, he was detained in
one of the villages as a draft evader and taken
to the military registration office for a
medical examination.
______________________________
The Russian Armed Forces destroyed transport
infrastructure facilities and an assembly shop
for Ukrainian UAVs
December 16th, 1:40pm
(Vesti.ru)
The Russian Armed Forces have destroyed transport infrastructure
facilities used by the Ukrainian army, as well as an assembly and
storage facility for Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles. This
was reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
According to the agency, the strike was carried out
using operational-tactical aviation, unmanned
aerial vehicles, and artillery.
"The objects of transport infrastructure involved in the interests of
the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the assembly and storage shop of
attack unmanned aerial vehicles were damaged," the
Ministry said in a statement.
In addition, according to the Ministry of Defense, the Russian
army has carried out strikes on temporary bases for
Ukrainian militants and foreign mercenaries
in 154 areas.
_________________________________
Ryabkov: The resolution of
the Ukrainian crisis is on
the horizon
December 16th, 11:22am
(Vesti.ru)
Russia is confident that the world is on the verge of resolving
the Ukrainian crisis. This was stated by Russia's Deputy
Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, in an interview with
ABC News.
The diplomat emphasized that Moscow is seeking a sustainable
solution that addresses the root causes of the conflict, and he
reminded the audience that the situation in 2022 had taken a
dangerous turn, making the special operation inevitable.
"We are quite confident that we are on the verge of
solving this terrible crisis," he said in an interview.
He also said that Russia does not intend to make concessions
on issues of territorial integrity, referring to Crimea and the
new regions that became part of the Russian Federation
following the 2022 referendums. The Deputy Minister
rocket troops and artillery groups of troops of the Armed
Forces of the Russian Federation destroyed transport
infrastructure facilities involved in the delivery of
Western weapons to Ukraine," the Defense
Ministry said, in a daily summary.
In addition, air defense forces on Monday night destroyed
130 Ukrainian drones in the sky over Russian regions.
______________________________________________
Defense Ministry: Russian Armed Forces
Liberated Peschannoye in the
Dnepropetrovsk Region
December 15th, 9:42am
(Vesti.ru)
Russian troops have liberated the village of Peschanoye in the
Dnepropetrovsk region, according to the daily report by the
Russian Ministry of Defense.
The settlement was taken under control --- by fighters of the
Vostok group of the Russian Armed Forces, the report says.
Earlier, it was reported that during the week, Russian military
personnel liberated eight settlements in the special military
operation zone, including the city of Seversk in the DPR.
______________________________
RIA Novosti: Russian Airborne Trooper
Single-Handedly ----- Captures
Ukrainian Stronghold
December 15th, 5:52am
(Vesti.ru)
A soldier from the 11th Guards Air Assault Brigade with the call
sign Grant took control of an AFU stronghold single-handedly.
This was reported by his colleague with the call sign Filin.
In a conversation with a RIA Novosti correspondent, Filin noted
that the task of taking a fortified position was initially
assigned to a group, but during the advance, one
of the fighters was wounded. Grant, however,
decided to continue the combat mission
on his own.
"He was able to advance, shoot, throw grenades at the enemy,
and capture a stronghold. Three or four people were opposing
him. Everyone was surprised that such a young guy could do
that," Filin said.
The paratrooper also noted that he did not expect such actions
from a young soldier at first, but in a combat situation, Grant
proved himself to be an experienced fighter.
Earlier, it was reported that a Russian soldier saved an elderly
civilian -------- after a Ukrainian drone attack - on a civilian car.
____________________________________
TASS: AFU militants surrender
via QR codes on "dollars"
December 15th, 5:49am
(Vesti.ru)
Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are actively
surrendering after being dropped fake dollar bills
with a QR code printed on them that leads to
a corresponding Telegram bot.
This was reported by TASS, citing a source
in the Russian security forces.
According to the source, the surge of those who want to
lay down their arms always occurs after the next drop
of "currency" on the positions of militants.
"In Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, Telegram bots for surrendering
work well. We also add leaflets with QR codes to the bot.
Sometimes.. instead of leaflets, we drop fake dollars,
and there is always a surge of Ukrainian soldiers
willing to surrender," he said.
The security forces added that there are sometimes
provocations: soldiers of the Armed Forces of
Ukraine who do not intend to surrender
write to the Telegram bot for no
reason. However, such
provocateurs ---- are
quickly identified
and blocked.
Earlier, a Russian Armed Forces soldier with the call sign Wind
said that almost all of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters
who are captured by the Russian military, say that they
are cooks or drivers, and that they were forced to go to the front.
___________________________________
Krasava, a Russian Armed Forces soldier:
encircling the Ukrainian Armed Forces
in Gulyai-Pole
December 15th, 4:59am
(Vesti.ru)
Russian military personnel ...have encircled Ukrainian Armed
Forces fighters in Gulyaypole city in the Zaporizhzhia region.
This was reported by the commander of the group, who
goes by the call sign Krasava, to the Russia 24
TV channel.
It is reported that the village of Varvarovka, which was liberated
by Russian troops, is the last settlement along the Pokrovskoye-Gulyaypole supply route.
"Every section is important, because there was a field road in this
section. The enemy was rolling across the river. We cut off the
road and cut off their supply lines. In other words, we are
slowly encircling them in Gulyai-Pole," Krasava said.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the servicemen
of the Russian Armed Forces of the Vostok group - completed the
liberation of the village of Varvarovka in the Zaporozhye region
- and continue to advance into the depth of the AFU defense.
_____________________________________
Senior Lieutenant Alzhanov destroyed an
APU ammunition depot in the SVO zone
December 13th, 9:20pm
(Izvestia.ru)
The commander of a tank company, Senior Lieutenant Renat Alzhanov, destroyed an ammunition depot of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - during the fulfillment of a combat mission.
Russia's Ministry of Defense reports on the feats of the military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the zone of the special military operation (SVO).
After receiving the coordinates of the designated target --- the commander of the tank company secretly moved the combat vehicle to a firing position and began firing. As a result of accurate and targeted shooting, both the ammunition depot ----- and the enemy personnel, numbering up to five people, were destroyed.
It is noted that during the operation, Russian soldiers were exposed to enemy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
However, the professional and courageous leadership of the senior lieutenant allowed them to complete their tasks... without any losses.
The Ministry of Defense also reported --- that Senior Lieutenant Sayan Khadnaev, commander of a self- propelled artillery battery, completed the task of destroying an armoured group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
It was clarified that, as a result, two infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and two mortar crews that were trying to attack Russian soldiers... were destroyed.
As a result, the enemy lost its defensive capabilities, which led to its subsequent defeat.
___________________________________________
Grandmother Nadia on the liberation
of Seversk:"It was like I had
entered paradise"
by Maria Panyutina
December 13th, 7:01pm
(Komsomolskaya Pravda)
TO SHARE
A resident of Seversk --- shared her
impressions of the city's liberation
Photo: Alexey BULATOV.
A resident of Seversk Nadezhda Kondrashova spoke about
how the townspeople survived the years of occupation -
and felt relief after liberation. The woman shared her
first impressions - emotionally - with the military
correspondent of KP.RU, Grigory Kubatyan.
"I came to Lisichansk with the help of Russian guys. I was
well received. It was like - I had gone to heaven, after those cellars. We were waiting for the Russians, for our own people. It may have been four years.... but we did not give in," said Grandmother Nadia.
Nadezhda Kondrashova, a resident of the liberated city of
Seversk, thanked our soldiers and described life in the
city while it was under the control of the Ukrainian
Armed Forces.
Grandmother Nadya waited for our soldiers in Seversk
Kondrashova clarified that Seversk was completely destroyed
after the shelling. For 4 years, the residents of the city lived
under the occupation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and
tried to resist on their own. The woman emphasized that
the population.. was overjoyed to see Russian soldiers.
Earlier, KP.RU wrote that Russian fighters on December 11,
established full control over Seversk. Currently - work is
underway to clear basements and de-mine residential
buildings. Russian President Vladimir Putin noted,
that the previously given promise to liberate
Seversk by December 15th...... was
fulfilled on time.
___________________________________________
Poddubny: We talked with Belousov ---- about
problems in important areas and directions
December 13th, 5:53pm
(Vesti.ru)
At a working meeting of military correspondents with Russian
Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, the issues in important
areas and directions were discussed. This was reported
by VGTRK war correspondent and Hero of the Russian
Federation Yevgeny Poddubny.
The dialogue was extremely constructive and frank, he said.
"I can't give you any details --- such meetings are held behind closed
doors. We talked about problems in the most important areas, and
directions. First of all, about the development of new unmanned
systems," Poddubny wrote in his Telegram channel.
The war correspondent noted - that the Minister is controlling the
modernization of weapons, the logistical support of the Russian
Armed Forces - and other issues. The meeting also discussed
new social support projects ----- for participants in the smo.
The Ukrainian military leadership sent soldiers to positions
near Seversk in the Donetsk People's Republic without
prior information that the town was already under the control of the Russian army.
This was told in an interview with TASS by a serviceman of
the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Viktor Demidov, who
surrendered to the servicemen of the "South" group
of troops.
"We were told that there was a second front line. We were led
there by a drone. When we arrived, we didn't even know that
there were Russian soldiers around. We spent four days in
a bunker," he said.
According to the prisoner, there were four older men in their unit
who had health problems. These problems were not taken into
account during the mobilization, and they were sent to the so
-called "second front line." Demidov also reported that on
the fourth day, the group decided to surrender.
Earlier --- a prisoner from the 53rd Mechanized Brigade of the
Armed Forces of Ukraine Yaroslav Doly said that Ukrainian
soldiers are sent to the front line in summer uniforms.
On December 11th, the Russian Ministry of Defense
showed footage from the liberated city of Seversk.
___________________________________
Solovyov: In Dimitrov,the remnants of the defeated Ukrainian garrison are surrendering en masse
December 13th, 11:39am
(Vesti.ru)
In Dimitrov, the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), the remnants
of the defeated Ukrainian militant garrison, are surrendering
en masse. This was reported by journalist Vladimir Solovyov
on his Telegram channel.
According to the host, Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers
are surrendering to Russian soldiers of the 5th
Zaharchenko Brigade. Solovyov posted a
video of a Ukrainian prisoner of war.
"I am Ilya Eduardovich Fanailov - born on November 1, 1992, in Kramatorsk city. I voluntarily surrendered,"
the militant said.
____________________________________________
Platoon commander with the call sign Tyrone:
the enemy in Gulyai-Pole abandoned
everything and fled
December 13th, 11:13am
(Vesti.ru)
During the first breakthrough in Gulyai-Pole in the Zaporizhzhia
region, Russian troops captured two streets.... almost without
resistance. Ukrainian soldiers abandoned their positions and
retreated, as the commander of a platoon with the call sign
"Tiron" revealed in an exclusive interview with Russia 1
TV channel.
"We took two streets at once with our first push. They
just threw everything and ran away. There was
almost no fighting," the soldier said.
Systematic clearing continues ---- in the occupied neighbourhoods
of Gulyai-Pole. UAVs are working ahead of the infantry, scanning
the area for several kilometres. Their task -- detect the enemy,
warn about a counterattack, and clear the way ------ for the
motorized riflemen.
"The Armed Forces of Ukraine are trying to hold their positions,
but they are unsuccessful. They are moving from house to
house, trying to gain a foothold. However, our recon
forces and our infantry comrades are advancing,"
said the commander of the UAV strike platoon,
who goes by the call sign "Honda."
Earlier, VGTRK war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny
reported that Gulyaypole and its surroundings are
under full fire control by Russian drones.
________________________________________
Kovalenko: The night strike on Odessa was
the most massive in the entire south
of Ukraine
December 13th, 9:41am
(Vesti.ru)
The nighttime air strike on Odessa was the most massive
attack on the region. This was stated by the Ukrainian
military expert, Alexander Kovalenko.
The expert claims that the purpose of the attack was to
"disable the energy sector throughout the region."
"Without exaggeration, this is the most massive
raid on Odessa and the region," he wrote on
his Telegram channel.
He also pointed out that the air defense system had
demonstrated its vulnerability from the sea.
Later, this attack was described as the largest not only for
the Odessa region, but for the entire south of Ukraine.
On December 13th, the head of the city's military administration
reported that a significant part of Odessa is left without heating
and water supply due to the shutdown of energy infrastructure
facilities that provided heat and water. On the same day,
Ukrainian media reported that air raid alerts were
issued in 11 regions of the country,
including Kyiv.
On the night of December 13, the Russian Armed Forces launched
a massive attack on the military-industrial complex (MIC) and
energy facilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). The
Russian Ministry of Defense noted that the attack was
carried out using high-precision ground- and sea-
based weapons..... aeroballistic hypersonic
Kinzhal missiles, and long-range drones.
The Russian Armed Forces began striking Ukrainian infrastructure
on October 10th, 202 ----, two days after the terrorist attack on the
Crimean Bridge, which Russia's authorities believe was carried
out by Ukrainian intelligence agencies.
The Russian side also claims to have targeted defense industry
facilities, military command and control systems, and
communication networks throughout Ukraine.
__________________________________
Russian air defense forces shot down two
HIMARS missiles and 169 drones in the
SVO zone..... during the day
December 13th, 9:28am
(Vesti.ru)
"Two US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launchers and 169 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down by air defense systems," the Russian Ministry of Defense report said.
The ministry clarified that since the start of the special operation,
a total of 669 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 102,347 drones, 639 anti-
aircraft missile systems, and other equipment....... have
been destroyed.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that a serviceman
Khabibullin saved two wounded comrades in the SVO zone.
In the Sumy region, the Russian Armed Forces destroyed the
personnel and equipment of two mechanized, motorized
infantry, infantry, Jaeger, and assault brigades, two
assault regiments of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,
three territorial defense brigades, and a border
detachment of the Ukrainian Border
Guard Service.
Over the course of a week - the enemy lost more than 1,470
troops, as well as a tank, 8 armoured vehicles, 72 vehicles,
12 field artillery pieces, 2 counter-battery radar stations,
and 18 ammunition and material depots in the area of
responsibility of the Northern Group of Forces.
The troops of the Zapad military group - continued to destroy the
Ukrainian Armed Forces group encircled on the left bank of the
Oskol River. The settlements of Kurilovka and Kucherovka, in
the Kharkiv region - were liberated. It is also reported that formations of 4 mechanized, airborne, 2 assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a territorial defense brigade, and two brigades of the National Guard - were defeated.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces - lost more than 1,530 soldiers in this
area, as well as 2 tanks, 34 armoured vehicles, 17 of which were
of Western production, 98 vehicles, and 11 field artillery pieces.
Seven electronic warfare stations and 47 ammunition depots
were destroyed.
Over the past week, units of the Southern Group of Forces have
liberated the settlements of Seversk and Chervonoye (DPR).
The group's fighters defeated the personnel and equipment of
four mechanized, airborne, two assault, airborne-assault, and
mountain-assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,
a marine infantry brigade, 2 territorial defense brigades,
and two National Guard brigades.
Over the course of the week.... the South Military Group's forces
suffered over 1,095 casualties, including 24 armoured vehicles
(6 manufactured by NATO countries), 81 vehicles, and 8 field
The Black Sea Fleet's forces destroyed an unmanned Ukrainian
Armed Forces boat in the central part of the Black Sea.
In response to the terrorist attacks of Ukraine on civilian objects on
Russia's territory ------- the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
from December 6 to 12 launched a massive strike and five group
strikes -- including aeroballistic hypersonic missiles "Dagger",
as a result of which, the enterprises of the military industry
of Ukraine and the objects of the fuel and energy complex
that provided their work, transport, airfield and port
infrastructure used in the interests of the Armed
Forces of Ukraine, assembly shops, places of
storage, pre-flight training and launch of
long-range attack UAVs, fuel depots
and military-technical equipment
as well as temporary locations
of Kiev's armed formations
and foreign mercenaries
- were hit.
________________________________
A Russian Armed Forces soldier ---
who raised the flag in the centre
of Krasnoarmeyskfelt proud
of his country
December 12th, 11:25am
(Vesti.ru)
In an exclusive interview with Russia 1, a Russian soldier
with the call sign "Electrode", said that he felt proud of
his country --- when he raised the national flag in the
liberated city of Krasnoarmeysk, in the Donetsk
People's Republic.
On December 1, it became known that Russian troops had
liberated Krasnoarmeysk. A fighter - with the call sign
Elektrod, raised the Russian flag in the centre of
the city --- near Donetsk University.
"I felt proud. For the guys, for
Russia," the soldier shared.
_________________________________
Ushakov: A ceasefire can only be achieved
...after the Ukrainian Armed Forces
withdraw from Donbas
December 12th, 10:48am
(Vesti.ru)
A ceasefire in Ukraine can only be achieved after the
withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donbas,
according to Yuri Ushakov, an aide to
the Russian president.
He made these statements in
a comment to journalists.
"A ceasefire can only be achieved -------- after the
withdrawal of Ukrainian troops," Ushakov said.
According to Ushakov, the head of the Kiev regime,
Vladimir Zelensky, still opposes the withdrawal
of Ukrainian troops from this territory.
"And this -- is one of the requirements that the Americans
make to him, yes. In any case - whatever the situation -
this territory is the Russian Federation's territory and
it will be under the control of our administrations,"
the Russian presidential aide added.
Earlier, Ushakov suggested that Zelensky may consider
the Ukrainian presidential election ...as a chance to
achieve a temporary ceasefire.
_________________________________
Russian Defense Ministry: Kiev Allows
UAVs ------- to Drop Poisonous Shells
December 12th, 7:36am
(Vesti.ru)
The Kiev regime plans to drop shells with chemical warfare
agents --- from drones. This was announced by Alexey
Rtishchev, the head of the Radiation, Chemical
and Biological Protection Troops (RCBP) of
the Russian Armed Forces.
He said that during the offensive in the Vremyevka tactical
area, on December 9th --- the Ukrainian Armed Forces'
unmanned systems control centre was destroyed.
It contained documents --- related to the technical
requirements for the Ukrainian-made Baba Yaga
unmanned aerial vehicle.
"These documents -- were agreed upon with the National Guard
of Ukraine in 2024. According to paragraph 39 of the technical
requirements, the UAV must deliver up to 15 artillery shells
equipped with "nerve-paralyzing, skin-irritating, or
suffocating agents," he said.
Rtishchev noted that, contrary to the requirements of the
Chemical Weapons Convention, the Kiev regime - openly
admits the possibility of using chemical warfare agents.
He clarified that since the start of the special military operation,
NATO countries have supplied Ukraine ------- with 280,000 military protective suits and gas masks, 150,000 sets of antidotes ------- and 20,000 tests for the rapid detection of chemical warfare agents.
In addition, in 2025, Kyiv requested over 200,000 gas masks
and chemical protection suits, as well as more than
160,000 individual dosimeters.
________________________________
Russian Defense Ministry: Ukraine continues
to use banned chemical weapons in its
conflict with Russia
December 12th, 7:28am
(Vesti.ru)
The Russian military department - has recorded systematic
violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention by Kiev.
This was stated by Major General Alexey Rtishchev, Chief of
the Chemical Defense Troops of the Russian Armed Forces,
at a briefing on Friday.
"During the special military operation, more than 600 cases of
the use by the Ukrainian side of chemical means to combat
riots - chloroacetophenone CS - and listed chemicals, such
as chloropicrin, and prussic acid --- were documented," the Major General said.
According to him, the Armed Forces of Ukraine regularly use
Similarly to the ABM Treaty, the US unilaterally pulled
out of the INF Treaty in 2019. However, instead of
simply stating it wished to develop weapons
beyond the treaty’s limitations, the Trump
administration accused Moscow of
violating the treaty by lying about
the range of its 9M728/9M729
missiles used by Iskander
missile systems.
Nonetheless, within 2 weeks of the US’ formal
departure from the treaty, in August 2019, it
began testing the first of multiple missiles
that violated the treaty’s limitations.
The origins of the INF Treaty lay in a dramatic
showdown, across Europe, in late 1983,
triggered by Washington’s deployment
of ITS Pershing-II intermediate-range
ballistic missiles (IRBM) to Europe.
With a 900-mile range, a flight apogee of just 60 miles,
and a maneuverable, radar-guided reentry vehicle,
the missile could put an 80-kiloton nuclear war-
head on Moscow in between 6 and 11 minutes
...according to Pentagon leaders. Such a fast
strike time gave the Soviets just minutes to
identify, analyze and respond to the threat,
greatly increasing the risk of them mis-
reading a situation and launching a
mistaken nuclear return volley,
believing it to be their
only chance.
In addition, tensions in Europe had already been
ramped up by years of psychological operations
designed to increase Soviet anxieties, such as
US bombers charging Soviet borders and
turning away at the last second
That’s why, when NATO began the vast, ultra-realistic
“Able Archer-83” war games, simulating an all-out
attack on the Soviet Union, in November 1983, it put Soviet fears through the roof.
However, it wasn’t until after the war games had
concluded, several days later, that NATO
commanders discovered key signs: the
Soviets had loaded hundreds of strike
aircraft in East Germany and Poland
with nuclear bombs, and orders to
strike “front-line targets” at a
moment’s notice.
The INF Treaty eliminated missiles like the Pershing-II,
banning land-based missiles with ranges of between
500 klms and 5,500 klms. This significantly cooled
tensions in Europe... although the treaty was only
between the US and Soviet Union -- now Russia --
which left other countries, such as China, free to
develop their own intermediate-range missiles.
The INF’s absence now is especially poignant,
considering the long-standing Russian fears
over a NATO Aegis Ashore missile system,
built on a land base in Deveselu, Romania.
While the US claimed the system was purely
defensive, Moscow noted... that Aegis can
also be used to launch offensive missiles.
Among the missiles tested after the INF Treaty lapsed
was a land-based Tomahawk missile with a range of
1,600 kilometres - a cruise missile US Aegis
cruisers have fired at sea for years.
1992 Treaty on Open Skies
The Open Skies treaty... was an attempt to increase
transparency and put to rest fears of an impending
attack by the other side. The deal allowed 35
partner nations to perform reconnaissance
overflights over other nations... using
specialized aircraft with specialized
equipment. However, flights could
not interfere with other military
activities and could be refused
by the overflown nation, for a
variety of reasons.
The US sent signs it was interested in leaving the
treaty as early as 2019, claiming it was caused
by Russia refusing US Open Skies aircraft
access to several areas almost a decade
earlier - denials Moscow insisted were
within its rights under the treaty.
The US finally made the move on May 21ST 2020,
meaning the six-month cooldown time had the
US leaving the treaty, after the November 2020 elections, that Trump lost.
The decision sparked an outcry across Europe, with Ukraine being one of the loudest critics;
that nation having long used Open Skies to perform overflights in western Russia, to calm its nerves about troops and
installations there.
Indeed, the Open Skies Treaty was drafted precisely to
avoid the type of anxious confrontation... unfolding on
the Russia-Ukraine border, over the last two months.
The Democrats publicly attacked Trump’s withdrawal
as illegal then... although much of their criticism
focused on his refusal to notify Congress before
pulling out. However, in March 2021, a leaked
message --- sent to concerned “international
partners” by the Biden administration said
it was afraid that doing so “would send
the wrong message to Russia and
undermine our position... on the
broader arms control agenda.”
Istanbul, Astana Declarations
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) has its origins in the November
1972 multilateral talks in Espoo, Finland
...intended to further the peaceful
cooperation of the Detente era.
Today, the OSCE has 57 members and 11 observers
and continues to serve as a regional forum for
resolving international issues.
Two of its most important declarations of principles
came at summits in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1999 and in
Astana (now Nur-Sultan), Kazakhstan, in 2010,
which, among other topics, affirmed each
nation’s right to its own security in the
context of an international community.
"The security of each participating State... is
inseparably linked to that of all others. Each
participating State, has an equal right to
security. We reaffirm the inherent right
of each and every participating State
...to be free to choose or change its
security arrangements, including
treaties of alliance, as they evolve.''
''Each State also has the right to neutrality. Each
participating State will respect the rights of all others in these regards. They will not
strengthen their security ...at the
expense of... the security of
other States.'' the Astana
declaration states.
While the OSCE met in Vienna, Austria, 2 weeks ago,
the talks yielded no major breakthrough. Earlier this
week -- when the US and NATO delivered separate
written responses to Russia’s December security
proposal -- the US response was considerably
more intransigent, while NATO’s, sent from
Brussels and speaking for 30 member
states, acknowledged the Russian
security concerns and proposed
mutual briefings in the NATO-
Russia Council and the re-
establishment of their
respective envoys in
Moscow & Brussels.
However, neither reply gave deference to Russia’s
central concern --- the eastward expansion of
NATO and the impact that has on Russian
security, especially since now, the US
explicitly regards Russia as a
challenger to its position ...as leader of the post- Cold War global order.
Speaking on Thursday, about the US response,
in particular, Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergey
Lavrov said "The principle that one should not strengthen one's security -- at the expense of
the security of others is deliberately avoided.
Neither the Istanbul or Astana declarations are mentioned by our Western partners in the discussions on European
security that are currently
taking place. We cannot
accept this.”
Morgan Artyukhina is a writer and news editor at
Sputnik’s Washington, DC, bureau... focusing on
international & breaking news. Born in southern Maryland, she studied Russian, Central, and
East European Studies, at the University of
Glasgow and is a former history professor.
At Sputnik, she covers military technology,
the expanding neoliberal police state, and
the ongoing struggles against it in the US
and around the globe.
Image: palestine
Paul Larudee: Zionist Dream
Turning into Nightmare
November 25th, 5:26pm (FNA)
Paul Larudee, political activist and commentator,
says Zionists have come to this understating
- that Zionism is now nearing its predestined
self-annihilation.
Speaking in an interview with FNA, Larudee
said, “Zionism planted the seeds of its own
destruction the moment they created a
plan for a Jewish state in someone
else's homeland. It is increasingly
becoming an international pariah
...contributing to the wars and
conflicts in West Asia, South
America, Africa, and other
parts of the world. It only
creates more enemies
for them.”
Paul Larudee is an - Iranian-born - American political
activist who is a major figure in the pro-Palestinian
movement. Based in the San Francisco Bay area,
he is involved with the International Solidarity
Movement, & was a founder of the Free Gaza
Movement & the Free Palestine Movement.
Larudee was a member of the US delegation
aboard the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla,
which was attacked by Israeli forces.
Below is the full text of the interview:
Q: Yaakov Sharett says “Israel and the Zionist
enterprise were born in sin.” What do we
learn about the nature of Israel?
A: Such words from a Zionist leader's son may help to
gradually sink doubts into the minds of other Zionists,
but we must not forget that many Jews were opposed
to Zionism for decades before 1948. It is unfortunate
that as Zionism became more successful in its
genocidal project, it also became more
acceptable to more Jews. But that is
now being reversed. As Zionism
becomes more racist, violent,
and aggressive, it is starting
to lose Jews who cannot
stomach such behaviour.
Q: Such a significant assertion was made by the son
of a signatory to the Israeli declaration in 1948. Do
you believe settlers will learn a lesson to end their
occupation of the Palestinians’ land?
A: There are two kinds of settlers that are being used
to colonize the West Bank and Jerusalem. The most
aggressive and violent are the ideological settlers,
who think of themselves as conquering soldiers,
much like the Europeans who took the land from
the native peoples in the western hemisphere.
They want to expel all Palestinians by any means
necessary, and take their land. They do not need
Israel to paint a rosy picture. They are ready to
endure hardship, although Israel actually
helps and enables them. The other type
are the opportunists. Israel builds
subsidized housing and industrial
parks on Palestinian land... and
makes it attractive for settlers
to move there. Israel creates
many advantages for them...
so as to increase the Jewish
population in the occupied
territories and push the
Palestinians out.
Q: Yaakov Sharett predicts a dark future for Israel
and asks settlers to immigrate from Israel; like-
wise, Lawrence Wilkerson, former Israeli State
Department aide, said Israel will be gone in
some 20 years. How do you assess
these statements?
A: Clearly, Sharett is being a realist in this case.
Despite Israel's influence, propaganda, bribes
and manipulations of other governments, it is
increasingly becoming an international pariah,
contributing to the wars and conflicts in West
Asia, South America, Africa and other parts of
the world. They believe that this makes them
strong, but it only creates more enemies for
them. Sharett seems to understand that the
Zionist dream is proving to be unsustainable.
It can only be realized by committing greater
and greater crimes, but even many Zionists
consider this too high a price for their dream,
and their dream is turning into a nightmare.
Zionism planted the seeds of its own destruction
the moment they created a plan for a Jewish
state on someone else's homeland.
Image: palestine
UN Must Prevent Normalization of
Israeli Violation of Human Rights:
Iran Envoy
November 20th, 11am (al Manar)
Iran’s ambassador to the UN office in Geneva
put the onus on the United Nations: to take
action: against the normalization of the
systematic violation of human rights
and humanitarian laws, by the
Zionist regime.
In an address to a meeting between ambassadors
of the member states of the Organization of
Islamic Cooperation, residing in Geneva,
and to members of the Commission of Inquiry of the UN Council on Human
Rights, held on Friday, Esmaeil
Baqaei Hamaneh called for the
clarification of true and false
narratives, referring to the
stories... that equate the
victims of Israeli crimes
with the perpetrators
of the heinous acts.
“It is the duty of all of us to clarify the true and false
narratives, the narrative that equates the victims
of Israeli crimes, with their killers, which is
humanly shocking, legally unfounded,
and morally shameful,” the Iranian
envoy stressed.
He added that the inquiry commission has an historic
responsibility --- to prevent the normalization of
systematic human rights violations by the
Israeli regime.
The Iranian diplomat invited all the participants in the
meeting to call for justice; and not allow war crimes,
crimes against humanity, and blatant violations of
human rights, to become normal, Press
TV reported.
In May, the UN Human Rights Council agreed to initiate
an international probe into “systematic” human rights
abuses committed during the asymmetrical war
between ‘Israel’ and Palestinian resistance
groups in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The 47-member forum adopted a resolution presented
by Pakistan on behalf of the OIC and the Palestinian
delegation to the UN, by a vote of 24 states in favour, 9 against, and 14 abstentions.
The UN rights body agreed to establish “an ongoing
independent, international commission of inquiry”
into the war to probe the “underlying root causes
of recurrent tensions and instability, including
the systematic discrimination and repression
based on group identity.”
Israeli troops have, on numerous occasions, been
caught on camera, brutally killing Palestinians...
with the videos going viral online and sparking
international condemnation.
The Tel Aviv regime has been criticized for its extensive
use of lethal force against, and extrajudicial killing of,
Palestinians... who do not pose an immediate threat
to the occupation forces, or to the Israeli settlers.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Palestinian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, called
on the International Criminal Court to launch an
immediate investigation into the Tel Aviv
regime’s crimes, in the occupied
Palestinian territories --- after
the Israeli forces shot dead a
young man, in the northern
part of the West Bank.
Source: Iranian Agencies
Image: Bill Dores
China is no threat
to people in the US; Wall Street,CIA & the Pentagon are
-- Analyst
October 16th, 3:14pm (PressTV)
US political analyst and activist Bill Dores says
China is no threat to the people in the US., but
Wall Street, the CIA, and the Pentagon, are.
Dores, a writer for Struggle/La Lucha and a longtime
antiwar activist, made the remarks in an interview
with Press TV on Saturday, after the CIA launched
a new mission centre to address what it calls “the most important geopolitical threat” posed... by China.
CIA Director William Burns said in a statement last week
that the new unit, called the China Mission Centre, will
“further strengthen our collective work on the most
important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st
century, an increasingly adversarial Chinese
government.”
Burns said that his agency will still focus on other threats
as well, including those emanating from Russia, North
Korea and Iran.
The CIA’s renewed attention to China is the latest evidence
of the Biden administration’s focus on Beijing as its main
foreign policy target.
Since taking charge of the White House earlier this year,
the Biden administration has been directing resources
toward countering China.
Why is the CIA targeting China?
“The CIA is grabbing more tax money --- to start a ‘mission
centre’ aimed at China, which it calls the ‘most important
geopolitical threat we face.’ This is ominous news
- considering the agency’s history of 'fabricating'
evidence to start wars, e.g. Iraq’s nonexistent
‘weapons of mass destruction,’” Dores
commented to Press TV.
“US troops have left Afghanistan. But not a dime has been
slashed from the bloated US military budget. Indeed, it’s
being increased to $778 billion from $753 billion to face
the alleged ‘Chinese threat.’ That’s more than the
combined military budgets of China, India,
Russia, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Germany,
France, Japan, South Korea, Italy
and Australia,” he added.
“It’s also been revealed that US Special Forces have been
operating secretly on Taiwan for two years. Meanwhile...
the US Congress will not pass the Build Back Better Act
to modestly extend our social safety net,” he added.
“The People’s Republic of China... has five times the population of the United States. But it spends only
$258 billion on its military. China’s forces are
deployed in - or around - the borders and
coasts of China. By no stretch of the
imagination is China threatening
he US militarily. Why would it?
For what gain?” he asked.
“So, what the Sam Hill is a ‘geopolitical threat.’ It’s a
twisted concept based on the twisted premise that
the United States, with 4 percent of the world’s
population, should dominate the world
politically & economically. And that
really means the billionaires and
millionaires, that Occupy Wall
Street protesters called the
‘One Percent,’” he stated.
China’s economic ‘threat’ to US
“China’s real ‘threat,’ in the minds of the US corporate
ruling class, is economic. China produces more than
the United States, and its economy is growing much faster,” the analyst said.
“It has achieved this, not by destroying the economies of
other countries with war and sanctions, but by growth,
and trade. China’s Belt and Road Initiative has greatly
weakened the stranglehold Wall Street banks once
held on the world economy. An article in the US
magazine Foreign Policy whined: that China is
‘whittling away’ at the murderous ‘sanctions
regime’ the US and West Europe use -- to
‘punish’ countries that defy their
dictates,” he explained.
“US corporations do, of course, invest in China. They make
a lot of money there. But they cannot dictate to China's
government the way US oil companies dictated to the
Shah of Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Or
the way they dictate to their paid servants in the
White House and the Capitol today,”
he observed.
“Politicians and news media tell working-class people in
the US that China’s growth is, somehow, a threat to our
well-being. They conceal the fact: that China’s dynamic
growth is the biggest single factor staving off a global
economic collapse,” he said.
“Yet it is their own Wall Street masters who have shut
down plants all over this country and foreclosed on
millions of homes. It is they who used the techno-
logical revolution as a weapon, to drive down
wages and destroy millions of jobs,”
Dores said.
Washington’s ‘hate China’ campaign
“Washington raises several phony issues in its ‘hate
China’ campaign. One is the alleged persecution of
the Uighur people in Xinjiang Province. There’s
nothing but hypocrisy here,” the analyst said.
“If this claim were true - and I’ve seen no reliable evidence
that it is - Washington would be the last to care. The US
leads the world in mass incarceration and murder
by police,” he noted.
“According to the Equal Justice Initiative... ‘Millions of
Americans are incarcerated in overcrowded, violent,
and inhumane jails and prisons.. that do not provide
treatment, education, or rehabilitation.' A majority
are from the oppressed Black, Latin and Native
nations... targeted by the police,” he said.
“Among the incarcerated are dozens of political
prisoners, such as Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard
Peltier and Jamil Abdullah Al Amin, who have
spent decades behind bars on framed-up
charges,” he stated.
“Last year’s Black Lives Matter uprising..... highlighted
the extent of racist police murder in the US. Between
1980 and 2018, the US police killed more than 30,000
people. Half of those killings were misclassified,
according to a study published in the Lancet
medical journal,” he said.
US supports ‘ethnic cleansing and
murder of Palestinian people’
“We also can't forget that Washington not only supports
but subsidizes --- the ethnic cleansing and murder of
Palestinian people --- by the racist state of Israel,
including the mass imprisonment of 2 million
people in the giant concentration camp
called the Gaza Strip. The US also has
no problem with the oppression of
the majority Muslim people of
Kashmir, by the Indian state,” Dores noted.
“The US accuses China of stealing ‘intellectual property,’
a twisted concept indeed. Perhaps the West should pay
China for inventing paper, iron smelting, the seed drill,
the compass, rockets, gunpowder and other
innovations... that made its economic
development possible,” he said.
“There is the accusation of currency manipulation. But
Washington... has flooded the world with devalued
dollars ever since the Nixon administration took
the dollar off the gold standard in the 1970s.
The US has long used the dollar as an
instrument of financial warfare,”
he said.
Why is the US Navy in the South China Sea?
“And there is the issue of ‘free navigation’ in the South
China Sea. Which raises the question, what is the US
Seventh Fleet doing in the South China Sea anyway?
For that matter, why is the US Fifth Fleet off the
coast of Iran and the US Fourth Fleet off the
coast of Venezuela,” Dores said.
“Every year, ships carry $3.4 trillion worth of goods
through the South China Sea. Most of that is
bound to and from China,” he said.
“The PRC has no interest in stopping that commerce.
It does have an interest in keeping US warships
away from its coast and ports,” he said.
“For the past seven years, the US Navy has helped Saudi
Arabia impose a naval blockade that is starving the
children of Yemen. US sanctions, backed by the
US Navy, are the main obstacle to commerce
between nations in the world today,”
he said.
“Instead of new CIA mission centres, military bases and
fleets of warships and warplanes all over the world, the
US should do what China does: Invest in schools,
health care, housing, railroads and renewable
energy. Bring all the ships, planes, troops
and spies home. The world would be a
much better and safer place,”
he concluded.
Image: Sa’dollah Zarei
Iran won’t let US, Turkey, Israel
create crisis in Caucasus
Sunday, October 3rd, 11:51am (PressTV)
by Sa’dollah Zarei
The fact of the matter is, that if there is no more time for
preventing a conspiracy from taking shape... there is
still time to thwart the conspiracy that has formed.
Here are some points with regards to this issue:
1) What the US, the Zionist regime, the governments of
Turkey and Azerbaijan, and the West in general, are
pursuing in the regions north of Iran is, firstly, a reaction to the great achievements of the
Islamic Republic and the resistance front.
When the criminal Zionist regime refers to the Republic of
Azerbaijan as “Lebanon of Israel,” it means that there is
a “Lebanon of resistance” that has foiled any Israeli
conspiracy over the past forty years and turned
into a major crisis for the occupying regime.
Why is a front led by the US, Zionist regime, Turkey and
Azerbaijan, talking about launching a pan-Turan move
-ment here? Because a powerful religious movement
has, for more than 40 years, disrupted the plots of
colonialists and criminals. So, it is quite clear that the enemy, although very hardworking, is in a state of “passivity.”
Here is another important question: will this evil conspiracy
ever yield any result? The answer is that there is a serious
antidote to prevent the realization of this tension-making
scheme, and if it enters the scene, it will definitely
thwart the plan, as it has happened so far.
2) Some people make a mistake here and say that the Syunik
agreement with North Karabakh... is a matter that concerns
the governments of Azerbaijan and Armenia and that Iran’s
objection to it is not a matter of concern. They argue that
the implementation of the agreement is to the detriment
of Iran’s regional situation, but it is a natural
consequence and thus does not create a
right for Iran to legitimize its opposition.
The answer is clear; This is not an agreement between the
two countries on a disputed region, but one on creating a
region meant to undermine the security, political and
economic position of a third country.
While acknowledging their military and political failure, in
Afghanistan, the Americans explicitly speak of pursuing
a proxy war model to make up for their defeat. Shortly
afterwards, it becomes known that they had sent a
signal to Azerbaijan to launch and attack and a
signal to Armenia to, in turn, show tolerance
and accept the post-war reality, and at the
same time, following the end of a recent
44-day Karabakh war, the US stated
that they 'support' the agreements
reached between Azerbaijan and
Armenia. All this suggests that
the US has been standing behind this war and the situation that ensued.
Simultaneously, the Azerbaijani government announced
the widespread use of Israeli attack drones in the war,
and the Armenian army called the UAVs the main
reason for its heavy casualties in the war. This
means that it was an American-Israeli war.
Everyone knows, that the administration of Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is a Christian govern-
ment dependent on the West, but it's interesting that
in this war, the United States and Israel destroyed the forces and facilities belonging to a pro-West
Christian administration, and supported a
Muslim government instead! Isn’t that
a telltale sign?
The question is, what kind of “proxy war” US officials
were talking about in the course of their withdrawal
from Afghanistan? Was it possible for the US to
start such a war in Afghanistan? Which forces
could be used by the US to launch a proxy war
in Afghanistan? Could the US bring the Taliban
- which was taking power - into a proxy war?
Proxy war with whom? The answer is no.
Was the Afghan army able to enter a proxy war? The
answer's clear. Was the army that was not even able
to defend Kabul for an hour, against the Taliban —
which took control of the capital without firing a
single shot — ready to enter a proxy war?
Could the old mujahedeen forces.. serve
as the proxies of the American war? The
answer is clear. The old forces, besides
having an anti-American spirit... have
currently no military capability. Could
the USA... create a ''proxy force'' in
Afghanistan, in the medium term,
with the Taliban et al present on the scene? The answer to this
question is also, no. This is
because... for at least the
next 50 years... US crimes
will be in front of the eyes
of the Afghan people, and
the prospect for any kind
of Afghan-American,
cooperation...
is bleak.
So, what did the Americans mean by a proxy war? In fact,
the Americans wanted a proxy war where there was a
fertile ground... and the required strength. From the
American point of view, the “ethnicity” factor must
be emphasized and turned into a winning weapon
against anti-American revolutionary uprisings.
The Americans have long focused on the
model of racism and pan-Turanism... in
the case of this region, and considered
them as “a possible solution,” or more
accurately, the last “remaining arrow,”
and pinned their hopes on it.
Therefore, the prominent role of this tendency, in the
developments in the north, and its overlapping in the
Caucasus, besides the intention to highlight the anti
Iranian and anti-Islamic edges in the rhetoric of the
officials of these countries, tell us that we are
facing a “semi-hard” proxy war.
When Azeri President Ilham Aliyev speaks openly in an
interview about the widespread presence of Israeli
forces and equipment in the Caucasus, and the
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis, he
is, in fact, blowing the lid off a proxy war.
3) Saudi Arabia’s measures are yet another issue that is indicative of the proxy war in the developments
unfolding in Iran’s northwestern frontiers, on
the one side, and its scale, on the other. The
Saudis have explicitly said that they are
working to launch a 24-hour television
network for the Turkish region of the
Caucasus called “Turk national.”
Why is the Saudi regime in the Caucasus trying to launch
such a TV network? The people in this region are neither
Arabs nor Sunnis in order for them to be the audience of
a Sunni Arab country. At the same time, it is obvious that this decision cannot be implemented without the consent and cooperation of the governments in the region.
4) Naturally, on this front, Iran can't remain silent and turn
a blind eye to the dimensions and consequences of the
action that being along its borders; therefore, it has to
react, but what is the due reaction? There is no doubt
that military conflict & dragging Iran into the military
arena is a well-known policy of the American front.
On the other hand... we know that what is intended for the Caucasus region is not even a full-fledged military
war, let alone a regional and multilateral war. We
are thus not talking about a war in the sense
that it is perceived. We are talking about
actions that disturb the peace of this
region and the interests of the
powers around it.
Isn’t it true... that the Azerbaijani government says Israeli
drones and forces have been involved in the recent war
between the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the Republic of
Armenia? Isn’t it true that the Israelis explicitly referred
to the Republic of Azerbaijan... as “Lebanon of Israel”?
Since there are talks about the formation of a definite
security threat against the Islamic Republic, Iran has
the right to dismantle and confront the centre of
conspiracy against itself, without coordination
with any place or individual.
This type of Iranian confrontation is not so incomprehensible
to Zionists. Interestingly, an Israeli institution wrote a few
days ago: “Iran may want to retaliate against Israeli attacks
in Syria in Azerbaijan.” The regime is attacking areas in
Syria under the false pretext that Syria has become a
base for the presence of Iranian military personnel.
The Israeli institute asks what problem would arise
if Iran attacked a base in Azerbaijan, where Israeli
force are possibly present?
Of course, Iran knows very well how to use developments
to the detriment of its enemies. The Islamic Republic will
naturally begin with negotiations, to fraternally resolve
the issue between neighbours on Iran’s northwestern
border. Over the past 2 decades, the United States,
Turkey, and the Zionist regime have faced ultimate
defeat in any sedition that they incited and gotten
out of the situation while fraught with humiliation.
They are inciting sedition while they do not have
the power to tolerate and manage the war. If
these acts of sedition are not put aside, they
will face defeat, thanks to Iran’s measures.
(The views expressed in this article.... do
not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)
Image: Boris Malagurski
It’s time for NATO to leave Kosovo
before it does any more damage
October 2nd, 10:36am (RT)
By Boris Malagurski, a Serbian Canadian documentary
film director, known for “The Weight of Chains”,
enlisted in the catalogue of the Library of
Congress, whose work has been show- cased on international festivals...
including Raindance in London.
Follow Boris on Twitter @malagurski
Just as it all ended badly for the West’s military interventions
in Vietnam and Afghanistan, so it will in Kosovo. NATO has
overstepped its mandate, overplayed its hand, and
overstayed its welcome.
As the last US military helicopters were leaving Kabul,
Afghanistan, many, including myself, emphasized the
similarities with America’s embarrassment in Saigon,
South Vietnam – but one parallel that few dared to
draw, was with Kosovo.
When I merely asked “Is Kosovo next?” on Twitter, it
sent Albanian media outlets into a frenzy. Kosovo’s
Albanian majority celebrates the NATO troops as
saviours – NATO bombed Serbia, to take away
control of its Southern province of Kosovo in
1999. Since then, NATO has been sponsoring
a nation-building project... that seemed to have culminated in 2008, when Kosovo’s
provisional authorities declared
independence from Serbia.
It wasn’t an ‘end of history’ moment. Serbia and much of
the world didn’t recognize Kosovo as an independent
country, and Kosovo itself remained heavily
dependent on Western aid... and military
support. Most Albanian politicians are
aware of this and they are highly
obedient with regards to NATO,
whose KFOR troops are
‘keeping the peace’
in Kosovo.
However, NATO has overstepped its mandate. UN Security
Council Resolution 1244, which put an end to NATO’s war
with Yugoslavia, guarantees Serbia’s sovereignty over
Kosovo, while NATO has pushed for an independent
Kosovo from day one of their occupation. The
resolution also called for... the return of an
agreed number of Yugoslav and Serbian
personnel to maintain a presence at
significant sites and key border
crossings.... NATO has never
allowed this to happen. The
last Serbian prime minister
who called for this agree-
ment to be honored, was
assassinated in 2003, a little over a month
after his request.
On the other hand, what are the results of NATO’s nation
building in Kosovo? Close to a 30% unemployment rate.
One of the poorest areas of Europe... with as much as
45% of the population living below the official poverty
line, and 17% being extremely poor. Former Kosovo
Liberation Army terrorists, some accused of
trafficking weapons and human organs,
replaced their military uniforms with
politicians’ suits and are governing
the entity. The previous president
of Kosovo, nicknamed ‘The Snake’
...is currently being tried for war
crimes, and crimes against
humanity, at The Hague.
He’s the one who unveiled the Bill Clinton statue in
Kosovo’s capital. Bill then came to celebrate with
‘The Snake’.
Kosovo’s recent license plate row with Serbia was just
the latest example of a leadership in Kosovo incapable
of dealing with real issues, but rather... going into
conflict... to cover its incompetence. Instead of
negotiating with Belgrade, Kosovo unilaterally
used force --- to implement the removal of
Serbian license plates. And all that NATO
was willing to contribute to deescalate
the tensions... was to offer its KFOR
troops, to replace Kosovo’s special
unit, without even trying to resolve
the essence of the dispute. What
is NATO still doing in Kosovo?
Probably the same thing it was doing in Afghanistan.
Hoping a bad decision to go in, will eventually pay
off somehow. But it won’t. It didn’t in Vietnam, it
didn’t in Afghanistan, and it won’t in Kosovo.
So it’s time for NATO to start packing
its bags.
The statements, views and opinions expressed
in this column, are solely those of the author,
& don't, necessarily, represent those of RT.
Image: Iqbal Jassat
“Normalization":Betrayal of Palestineby Arab despots no easy road
by Iqbal Jassat
October 1st, 11am (PressTV)
Pinning Palestinians down while applying harsh
measures of violent repression -- accompanied
by a fanatical settler movement of arch-racists
given free reign to attack and plunder -- is a
notorious game Israel has elevated to a
daily ritual.
In fact the routine of inflicting war crimes has all
the hallmarks of a rogue regime entirely caught
up in a misplaced belief --- that to engage in ethnic cleansing, is a religious obligation.
Conflating Judaism with a racist political ideology
of Zionism has been part of a strategy designed
to deceive, distort and divert. It has its roots in
the first Zionist congress held on the eve of
the 19th century.
That this is well documented and widely known is
not in dispute. Indeed... awareness of Zionism's
goal to dismember and dislodge Palestinians
from their centuries old homeland and
forcibly impose thereon a foreign
entity known as Israel, has
always been a bedrock
for resistance.
Israel has thus always been considered an enemy
thrust upon a native population through the most
horrific forms of terrorism. The memories of Deir
Yassin remind the world of bloody massacres
committed by Zionist terrorists which didn't
spare hundreds of villages... to
colonize Palestine.
That more than seven decades later the expansionist
goals of Zionism are still being pursued at great
human cost to successive generations of the
indigenous Palestinian population, is
reflected in daily atrocities.
None of these facts, as attested to by historians, as
well as organs of the United Nations, are contested.
Though of course Israel and supporters of it seek
to distort and malign commentators who speak
truth to power, as anti-Semitic.
Yet against this background of terrorism and current
conditions siege, occupation, killings and mass
imprisonment - recorded and broadcast via
mainstream media for all the world to
witness - it is bizarre that a handful
of Arab regimes, have broken rank
with Palestine's freedom struggle.
And at a time when even Haaretz describes
the atrocities by Israel, as a pogrom:
"Residents of the Palestinian communities in the south-
eastern West Bank have experience of settler attacks
- when they graze their flocks, work their fields, or
even have a picnic on their own land.... But they
cannot recall an attack like the one experienced
Tuesday -- by the small communities of Khirbat
al-Mufkara, al-Rakiz and al-Tuwani. On Simhat
Torah, dozens of young Jews, most of them
masked, conducted what can only be
described as a pogrom."
The treachery associated with what has become known
as "normalization" is an outrageous manifestation of
betrayal and collaboration. Limited to the UAE,
Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco,.. these regimes
have in effect confessed that the protection
of their shaky thrones... counts for more...
than legitimate rights of the Palestinians.
As unelected self-imposed despots fearful of democratic
values, they have bargained that "normalization" with
the usurper of Palestine will "guarantee" safety and
protection for them. In other words, just as Egypt
has done, these oligarchs have outsourced their
intelligence networks and security apparatus to Israel, knowing full well that in doing so, they have abandoned Palestine.
Though the abnormality of the implicit recognition of an
illegal colonial enterprise, has been in sharp contrast
to countless Arab League resolutions... the deal of
"normalization" pushed by Trump and vigorously
backed by the Biden administration... has exposed these leaders - as surrogates of western imperialism.
The case of Bahrain's role in the "Abraham Accords"
reveals the soft underbelly of Arab dictatorships.
Besides being financially dependent on its
neighbours especially the UAE and Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain’s alliance with Israel is
designed to entrench its power and
crush any resistance to author-
itarianism or efforts towards
freedom and democracy.
In 2011, during the onset of the Arab Spring uprisings,
Saudi Arabia sent troops to Bahrain to suppress anti
-government protests. This trend continues today
by Israel --- equally committed to maintaining the
status quo, and preventing the success of any
popular uprisings.
In this context, one may justifiably condemn Bahrain’s gross insensitivity and abject abdication of Palestine's freedom struggle... as treacherous.
Showcasing Israeli war criminal Lapid’s visit to Manama
where he is set to open the embassy flying Israel's flag
is utterly outrageous. This follows the opening of a
Zionist embassy in Abu Dhabi, and will likely be
establishing one in Rabat. Sudan thus far has
reportedly said that it has no plans yet to
open an embassy in Khartoum.
Not surprising therefore that the Arab street across these
capitals have vowed to end "normalization". The iron-
fisted grip held by Arab despots notwithstanding,
human rights movements (many banned and
leaders exiled) have declared their outright
rejection of America's much-vaunted
Abraham Accords.
Stirrings in Sudan are becoming more vocal despite
Khartoum's attempts to silence critics. In Bahrain
the main opposition group, al-Wefaq National
Islamic Society declared Lapid’s trip as a
"threat", saying, "This is provocative
news and this trip is completely
rejected, and he (Lapid) should
not set foot on Bahraini soil."
Their message is clear: "Any (Israeli) presence on Bahraini soil --- means incitement."
Iqbal Jassat is an executive at the Johannesburg-
based Media Review Network (MRN), a socio-
political advocacy group, that concerns
itself with media and political analysis.
(The views expressed in this article do
not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)
Image: Paul Antonopoulos
Greece And FranceTake First Step
Towards European Independence
Following AUKUS Debacle
September 28th (South Front)
by Paul Antonopoulos,
independent geopolitical analyst
Signing of Franco-Greek Agreement is the
beginning of supplanting NATO in Europe.
Of the 30 NATO member states, Greece is one of the few
to spend well over 2% of its GDP on defense, as agreed
upon by NATO Defence Ministers, in 2006. However,
Greece’s high spending (relative to GDP), is not
because it is positioning itself as a buffed-up
military state opposed to Russia, as per the
aims of NATO, but rather, to defend itself
against the threats of another NATO
member, Turkey.
With NATO consistently downplaying Turkish aggression
against Greece and the new AUKUS pact creating
distrust between the Anglosphere and the
Europeans... Greece has ensured new
extra security assurances against
its long-time enemy.
Greece’s strengthened partnership with France highlights
that the immediate consequences of the AUKUS alliance
are already being felt, as the two countries are making
the first serious steps towards a Europe independent
of Washington.
Alexis Papahelas, one of Greece’s top journalists, explained
that the Franco-Greek security pact is Macron’s “revenge”
against the Americans as it will strengthen European
autonomy. He also confirmed persistent rumours
that a defensive pact between France and
Greece was almost reached last year,
but ultimately broke down at the
last minute for “unknown
reasons.”
To put the situation in context, Greece for a year and a half-
received bids from six countries, including France, the U.S.
and UK for brand new navy frigates. The finalization of a
deal was continuously delayed... due to Greece’s
insistence, that a frigate purchase must include a defense agreement.
Greece signed its 12-month Mutual Defense Cooperation
Agreement (MDCA) with the US last year, but ultimately
did not decide on which frigate bid to accept. With
negotiations for a Franco-Greek defence pact
last year stalling, Athens ultimately decided
to sign the MDCA... with Washington. This
was rumored to be partially motivated
as part of 'negotiations' to pressure
the French to accept Greek terms.
However, with the sudden emergence of AUKUS, European
trust in the Anglosphere quickly diminished, and thus
galvanized Franco-Greek discussions on European
independence. And finally, a deal to purchase
three brand-new French Belharra-class
frigates, was stricken.
For his part, Mitsotakis said on Tuesday morning at the
signing of the agreement that:- “It is an historic day for Greece and France. Today’s development is an
initiative that responds to the demands of the
times on our continent. It paves the way for
an autonomous and strong Europe of the
future. Whether there is a timetable for
creating a European army: the debate
on European military autonomy,
evolves. Options such as this
corporate defense partner-
ship, move to this central
strategic choice.”
Effectively, Greece and France are advocating for a pan-
European military that would likely drive out NATO, as
the premier defensive pact in Europe.
Another demonstration that this pact is aimed at
supplanting NATO... is its careful wording.
Although Turkey was not mentioned
explicitly, there is little doubt that
part of the motivation for the
Franco-Greek defense pact
was Turkey’s unilateral
aggression in the
Mediterranean.
Even just minutes after the signing of the Franco-Greek
agreement, former Dutch diplomat Fons Stoelinga
tweeted: “EU autonomy in security and defense.
NATO still does not address the problem of
NATO-member Turkey destabilizing the
whole Eastern Mediterranean region.
France and Greece now react and
signed a security bilateral pact.”
The mutual defense assistance clause of the agreement
ensures that if Greece or France is attacked on its
territory, the other will come to assist, even if the
attacking country is part of other alliances.....
including NATO. This is an obvious message
directed towards Turkey, a NATO member
that on a daily basis violates Greek air-
space and threatens to invade its
Aegean islands.
These violations and threats receive no repercussions from
NATO as individual members are unwilling to risk their
economic relations with the country, whilst many
NATO leaders still believe that Turkey is a
bulwark against Russia.
France for most of its modern history, but especially
galvanized under President Emmanuel Macron.. had
an ambition of creating a more independent Europe.
The European experience under former U.S.
President, Donald Trump, and the recent
snub from President Joe Biden, with the
AUKUS debacle... has only increased the urgency of achieving European
independence from Washington.
Despite this ambition, as well as warning Europe that it will
become secondary in world affairs, if it does not become
independent, it appears that France can finally kickstart
its project alongside Greece.
Achieving EU unity is a difficult prospect, because minnow
states like Lithuania prioritize the interests of Washington
rather than the continent, but as Paris and Athens have
shown --- they will move ahead, in changing the geo-
political balance in the Mediterranean and will not
wait, while member states continuously bicker
amongst themselves on foreign policy issues.
If France and Greece can create strong foundations for an
independent Europe, it will only be inevitable before more
EU member states become interested in also being
integrated into a continental structure that is
independent of transatlantic alliances.
Image: Eric Zuesse
Why did the Taliban win against
the Americans in Afghanistan?
by Eric Zuesse
August 21st, 2021
Why did the communists win
against the Americans in Vietnam?
Why did the communists win
against the capitalists in the
Russian Revolution?
Why did the American Revolutionists
win against the British Empire?
I shall here propose an answer to all of them, because that answer applies to all such cases, as I'll explain:
When an imperialistic society is as corrupt as Britain has been since the creation of the British East India Company in 1600, and as America has been since the end of World War II in 1945, with its takeover and control by the MIC (military-industrial complex), which has inevitably produced the cancerous growth of America’s permanent-warfare state, what, then, is the reason to continue living by staying merely as a colonist or a vassal-regime (or even as the imperialist regime itself), which means, when the imposed regime is so profoundly corrupt --- as any
imperialist power necessarily is --- to accept such corruption, as this?
There’s something that is worse than dying... and it is to continue
living under a regime that one utterly despises. That’s a dragged
-out death, instead of a quick death. A regime which is as
corrupt as any imperialistic regime inevitably is, will be
intolerable for a significant number of the residents in
any one of its vassal-nations or “colonies.” Death, for
them, isn’t such a bad choice, if it means that they'll
go down fighting to overthrow it. They are driven by
the motivation, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”
This is a motivation that few, if any, of the imperialistic regime’s hired
soldiers (regardless of whether conscripted or not) can match. And
when they are foreigners who are fighting on a foreign soil (instead
of locals who are defending their land’s own locally determined
rulers), they especially and certainly cannot match such
motivation, because only the locals can be fighting with
a patriotic spirit. This is an intrinsic weakness in any
empire. And imperialist leaders tend to ignore it,
because they don’t want to understand how
repulsive they are, to virtually anyone but
their own boot-lickers.
Ultimately, the demoralization of a hired soldier’s continuing to place
his very existence in jeopardy so as to continue the war to enslave
and control the resisting local subject-population will mount high
enough to produce self-contempt, desertion, and sometimes
even suicide, in the oppressing power’s forces, especially if that’s a foreign power.
No longer will the rationalizations(that “We are protecting the residents here”) be able to continue fooling the invading-force’s soldier, and the imposed stooge- regime’s soldier. They both (the foreign regime, and its imposed local stooge-government or colony) are there really, to control the local subject-population; and, ultimately, enough of the oppressor’s forces will know this to cause the imposed stooge-government, to be conquered by those indigenous residents there - people who will be recalled as heroes, by the other
residents in that land.
This is an advantage that any revolutionists
have, against the imposed regime.
This is the real meaning of “martyrs,” in the deeper sense than
merely of a religious type — it is instead of the patriotic type; it
concerns the land -- and not necessarily any religion -- such as
Christianity, Islam, or Marxism. Their loyalty is to Afghanistan;
or it is to Vietnam; or it is to Russia; or it is to China; or (before
America became imperialistic) it was to America. And so forth.
It is to the local land, not to any dictators. It is to the country
that the foreign invader’s forces are occupying. The
invader’s forces and their imposed stooge-regimes
can’t match this motivation.
Similarly, when the American invaders were conquered by the
residents of Vietnam, the winners were the Vietnamese, not
really the communists; and, in fact, the Marxist philosophy
(or ‘religion’) subsequently has waned there. America, in
Vietnam, as in Afghanistan, was the invader, in a land
which had not invaded their own.
That similar situation exists in Afghanistan. The Sauds had invaded
America on 9/11, with the assistance of G.W. Bush, Condoleezza
Rice, and perhaps others in the Administration. And so, the U.S.
-imposed soldiers in Afghanistan couldn’t even possibly have
been fighting against Afghanistan for any authentically
patriotic real (factually true) reason, at all. Therefore,
lies were constantly needed by the U.S. regime, not
only against Iraq, but even against Afghanistan.
(Furthermore, if Bush’s objective had really been to identify whom
and how was actually behind the 9/11 attacks, then he would have
pursued that at the U.N. Security Council and would have gotten
unanimous backing for it, which would quickly have isolated
and led to the destruction of Al Qaeda. It could all have been
done without any war between nations, and also fully in
accord with international law. To the extent that 9/11 was state-sponsored terrorism, it was actually being
sponsored by the Governments of the U.S. and
Saudi Arabia.
George W. Bush, who was buddy-close with the Sauds, used 9/11 as
an excuse to trash both the U.S. Constitution and international law
so as to hoist yet higher his own tyranny, his own power - not only internationally but also.. in his own nation. An imperialist would,
of course, like to trash both, and to hoist his personal power as
high as possible. And GWB had the boldness to do it, and -
because America has been imperialistic ever since 1945
(i.e., international aggressions... have been America’s
culture since 1945) — he has been able to enjoy the
success of getting away with doing it. However,
everyone else, and especially outside America’s MIC, suffers from it.
What have the mere soldiers of invading and occupying
imperialist powers actually earned by having placed
their own lives at risk? Maybe a tombstone back
home, in the country that had invaded and
occupied that colony.
By contrast, even if a defending soldier has died as a
hero among the locals in a failed revolution against
the imperialist power, any tombstone will be
unnecessary to be that person’s memorial,
because the true memorial is in the heart,
and in the mind, of the locals there, not
in anything that is in the land of the
invading foreign power.
And, so, I propose that the answer, to the question here, is that,
whereas America’s Founders were waging war as heroes
(because their war was just), today’s Americans are
waging war as villains (because our wars are unjust
- imperialistic aggressions, instead of heroic
defenses against an aggressor). Between
America’s founding and the present time,
America has switched from doing war
against military occupiers, to doing
war as military occupiers.
And this, I maintain, is the reason why: “The Taliban’s 80,000
troops have retaken Afghanistan with cities falling like
dominos while the 300,000-strong government forces,
better equipped and trained, mostly melted and
surrendered with no will to fight.”
What today’s Taliban are to today’s Afghanistan is therefore what
the 1776 American Revolutionists were to the America of that era.
It’s not the ideology; it is the love of that land there, which has
motivated the residents’ forces to victory, against the forces
of the invading-and-occupying foreign power. This can
happen in any land, at any time.
America went into Vietnam focused on the “body counts.” That’s
how stupid America’s imperialistic leaders were, back then. The
only motivation they really understood was fear: “body counts.”
They’ve evidently learned nothing since. That is how corrupt
America is.
Right now in America, the ‘debate’ about Afghanistan is about Joe
Biden, who is basically irrelevant. He wanted to end America’s
military occupation there, just as Trump did, and just as
Obama did. He acted on it, whereas they did not — they
didn’t want to be accused by their political opponents
of having ‘lost Afghanistan on their watch’, but Biden
was evidently willing to risk it.
His only failure in the matter is that he kept lying to the American
people (and probably also to himself) about how chaotic the
evacuation would inevitably be, and about how collapsed
Afghanistan is, and has been, ever since the Soviets
invaded there in 1979.
Throughout America’s imperialistic era, the U.S. Government has
routinely been lying to the American people. Imperialism isn’t as
bad for the imperialistic nation’s public as it is for the conquered
land’s people, but it is very bad, even for them. The only people
who benefit from it are the billionaires, who control companies
such as Lockheed Martin, and ExxonMobil, and Amazon.
Those are the people (the owners), who hire the leading
politicians, including the members of Congress, and the
Presidents, to spread their empire, and their control.
They also hire the ‘journalists’ who shape their nation’s public
to support these invasions and military occupations. The
Government officials of an imperialistic regime represent
not the nation’s public - but its aristocracy - who hire and
appoint millions of the rest, the many agents (employees,
etc.) of the few billionaires. The billionaires really control
their country. After all: America is a thoroughly corrupt
country, just as any imperialistic country is. (All
imperialistic countries, are controlled by their
aristocracy. And every aristocracy is corrupt.)
The public in Afghanistan have long known this fact about America -
that it is corrupt. And this is the main reason why the Taliban now
rule that country. They represent that land. Not this land. It’s a
different culture, and a different place. To most Afghans,
America represents only corruption. There is nothing
unique about what is now happening in Afghanistan.
It has been happening for thousands of years, and
it’s just replaying an ancient script, but in that
particular location.
However, instead, the U.S.-and-allied media are focusing on Biden’s
bit part (which was always in a supporting role) in America’s
invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. So, probably
nothing will be learned from America’s invasion and
occupation of Afghanistan, just as nothing was
learned from America’s invasion & occupation
of Iraq, and from America’s invasion and
occupation of Vietnam, and from the
many other such post-WW-II
American foreign disasters.
For America’s billionaires, these have all been great successes
(very profitable); and, so, probably nothing that’s useful to the
American people will be learned from history; and, instead,
the myths will continue that have caused “The Military” to
be either the highest-respected or the second-highest-
respected of all of the 19 named institutions in America - the world’s permanent- warfare state.
The American military wastes the most money and the most blood
of any institution in America, but Americans nonetheless respect it
enormously. That, too, is a mark of an imperialistic country. The
way to control a public is to sustain the myths. U.S.-and-allied
billionaires make sure that it is done - however much it costs.
As regards the future of Afghanistan itself: On August the 19th,
the most reliable geostrategic reporter and analyst, Alexander
Mercouris, headlined at The Duran, “US Freezes Afghanistan
Reserves, Threatens Economic Crisis. Russia Works to
Establish New Government”, and he explained why the
Taliban will either cooperate with Russia, China, and
Iran, or else will degenerate yet further into a failed
state, especially because the U.S. and its allies will
do everything possible to strangle the fully looted
Government of Afghanistan — the new Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan. So: even after the US
and its allies have all left that land, the war
against the people there will continue, in
full force, from the same people, though
with different methods.
PS: The philosopher Zizek headlined at RT on August 20th, “The
true enemy for Islamists is not the West’s neocolonialism or
military aggression, but our ‘immoral’ culture”, and he said
“it was not neocons who boosted Islamic fundamentalism,
this fundamentalism grew up in a reaction to the influence
of Western liberal secularism and individualism.”
He did not understand that though religious fundamentalists
(including the Taliban) focus especially on sexual and gender
issues, a person didn’t have to be at all religious in order to
consider the financial and economic corruption of the
imperialists and of their stooges to be disgusting.
Americans didn’t invade & occupy Afghanistan, in order to
spread “liberal secularism and individualism,” but in order
for US-and-allied billionaires to expand their wealth, their
empire, and their global control. Even if the Taliban and
other religious persons might object only (or even just
mainly) to the sexual and gender issues... a broader
segment of the Afghan population were repelled by
the rampant financial and economic corruption of
the imperialists, and of their stooge-rulers.
This was not a defeat for “secularism and individualism.”
It was a rejection of imperialism: a rejection of it even by people who don’t understand what “imperialism” means.
(Source: Strategic Culture Foundation)
Image: Iqbal Jassat
Israel is committed to
aggressively pursuing
'Zionist colonialism',
says analyst
August 14th, 9:38am (PressTV)
A political commentator says Israel is relentlessly
following its "Zionist colonialism" in the occupied
Palestinian territories, and the evacuation orders
handed out to indigenous Palestinian families in the West Bank and Jerusalem al-Quds, are in line with the regime’s land
expropriation policies: to build more illegal settler homes.
“Israel aggressively pursues Zionist colonialism, which
has been the bedrock of the regime’s illegal ethnic-
cleansing agenda for the last seventy or more
years,” Iqbal Jassat, an executive member
of Johannesburg-based Media Review
Network, told Press TV, in an
exclusive interview
on Saturday.
He lambasted the Tel Aviv regime’s systematic theft of
Palestinian property as “a reprehensible disregard
for the inalienable rights of indigenous
Palestinians to their own lands
and homes.”
“The racist practice of evacuation, is a misleading
interpretation of forced expulsion, illegal under
the international law. It is also indicative of
the Group Areas Act [of 1950], under the
former apartheid regime of South
Africa,” Jassat noted.
The South African analyst also criticized the United Nations
and the International Criminal Court (ICC), for their
“impotence” ...to prevent Israel's unjust and
blatant violations of international
conventions and principles.
“It also raises serious questions about the inherent biases
existing within these institutions. These biases prevent
the exercise of law --- to halt land grabs, home demolitions, expulsions and incremental genocide,” he pointed out.
Jassat went on to say that Western countries’ decades-long
guilty conscience has prevented these states from
criticizing Israel, for its barbaric and brutal
practices, as such denunciations would
be treated as anti-Semitic.
“The US and its allies in NATO view Israel as a bulwark of
their interests in the heart of the Muslim world. They,
therefore, place their so-called security goals
above injustices against Palestinians,”
the analyst said.
“Moreover, the Arab world is mainly made up of unelected
despots, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates and Bahrain. Their collective view, pivots
on the false notion... that their security is tied
to Israel. That explains the close proximity
between their notorious intelligence
services and Israel's Mossad
and Shin Bet.”
Jassat further noted that the controversial normalization
agreements that several Arab states have struck with Israel, have stifled opposition to the Tel Aviv regime’s colonialist and expansionist policies.
He said the unacceptable betrayal of the Palestinians'
struggle for liberation from the Israeli occupation,
has even resulted in the regime being granted
observer status, at the African Union.
Image: Daniel Patrick Welch
Peak hypocrisy: US is ''concerned'' aboutChina's nukes
by Daniel Patrick Welch
August 7th, 11:45am
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warns of
China's nukes, on the anniversary of his own
country dropping the only one ever.
The US empire never disappoints in its endless quest
to project the behavior of a true sociopath. As with
Goebbels’ Big Lie (which he stole from the US's
Bernays anyway), the tried-and-true strategy,
is to attack others, for actions it has itself
performed on a regular basis.
Hence the whole Russiagate charade about foreign
interference in sacred elections by a country other
than the US —reigning and uncontested champion
of regime change campaigns. Now comes Blinken,
the US talking head du jour on the world stage, to
warn Asia about China’s nuclear weapons. Huh?
If irony wasn’t dead, Blinken and crew (Winken, Nod
et al) would track it down and strangle it with their
bare hands. On August 6th, the State Department
announced Blinken’s warning... to China’s
neighbours: THE ANNIVERSARY OF HIS
OWN COUNTRY’S DROPPING OF A
NUCLEAR BOMB on Hiroshima.
I would say “not to put to fine a point on it,” but it just
can’t possibly be sharpened any further. Run that
back, with the reverse tape noise and all.
The ONLY country EVER to drop a nuclear bomb on another,
the United States, chooses the very anniversary of the first of those two genocidal crimes against humanity, to express grave concern about China’s nuclear
arsenal. I guess you could just drop the mic
here — there really is so little left to say.
What comes after tragedy and farce?
Even Old Man Marx didn’t mention
a third, though I might venture
Cynicism Made Flesh?
Of course, Blinken--I just can’t stop saying the name… it’s like
DICK Cheney and COLIN Powell, or that library cop Bookman
from Seinfeld—Blinken isn’t to blame for the blasphemy of
rewriting history. He and his cohorts have a generational
head start on stupid. Seventy-five years of relentless
assault on Americans’ knowledge of history and
political consciousness, has left a populace
with a Hollywood understanding of WWII
that has almost no relation to reality.
Even Eisenhower knew (and said) that the bombings were of no
military use. Lost to Americans’ history—but importantly, not
the world’s—is the cold truth that Truman knew as well and
didn’t care. Perhaps the meanest, and most small-minded
of US presidents, he offed a hundred thousand Japanese
in one fell swoop, just to scare the Russkies. And by his
own admission, never lost a night’s sleep. Brrrrrrrr.
But Back to the Future: Blinken’s degenerate idiocy also further
exposes the infantile disorder of the Lesser Evilists and the rest
of the Harm Reduction menagerie. He is himself, of course, no
more than a cardboard clown, or more likely made entirely of
wood, spouting vituperations like a useful ventriloquist’s
dummy while sitting on the knee of whoever plays Edgar
Bergen in this cynical farce. The masters who pay
Blinken, Biden, (O)Bama, Bush and Bacchus
keep them on a short leash. The sociopaths
in charge make the real decisions.
The notion that “getting back to normal” would yield anything other
than a smooth return to the endless killing machine was not just
wishful thinking, but deliberate self-delusion, a lazy and selfish
need to play pretend and self-soothe while the world burns.
Unforgiveable, really. From Iran to Venezuela, Russia, China and
beyond, and with clockwork precision, the Enemies of Humanity
are ramping up war fever, concocting lies & manipulating truth
and fear like never before. The New York Times’ perversion of
the Tokyo medal counts, to pretend the US won, is more than
instructive: it is the stock in trade and lifeblood of the
predator class, honing its exceptionalist rhetoric to
wield when needed. Dark days ahead.
Daniel Patrick Welch is a writer of political commentary and
analysis. Also a singer and songwriter, he lives and writes
in Salem, Salem, Massachusetts with his wife. Together
they run The Greenhouse School. He has traveled
widely, speaks five languages and studied Russian
History and Literature at Harvard University.
Welch has also appeared as a guest on several TV and radio
channels to speak on topics of foreign affairs and political
analysis--around his day job. He can be available for
interview requests as time and scheduling permit.
Despite the price of being outspoken against US foreign policy
and military adventurism -- which can be steep, in today's
circumstances -- he believes firmly, as did Rosa
Luxemburg, that "It will always be the most
revolutionary act, to tell the truth out loud."
Welch wrote this commentary for the Press TV website.
Image: Finian Cunningham
Russia-Chinathe Endgame
by Finian Cunningham
July 3rd, 1:41pm (Sputnik)
The consolidation of the Russia-China alliance this week
spells the endgame for Western imperialism and the
never-ending wars that it spawns.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and China’s leader Xi
Jinping celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Sino-
Russian Treaty of Friendship, first signed in July
2001. The hallmark of that historic accord is a
mutual commitment to peace, prosperity
and global stability.
As Putin commented, the alliance between Russia and China
is a vital source of “stability at a time of increasing geo-
political turbulence”. The latter remark is an oblique
reference to the US-led Western states which are
driven by ratcheting up antagonism and
tensions with Moscow and Beijing,
using all sorts of spurious
complaints.
The attempt by Washington (whether Republican or Democrat)
and its Western minions to make trouble with Russia and
China has become almost frenetic. Step back from the
daily headlines in Western media and it is glaring just
how much the agenda has become irrationally
hostile towards Moscow and Beijing.
Week after week there are unfounded allegations about
Covid-19, & so on. It’s like a mad cacophony to wind
up tensions. Nevertheless, the deranged attitude of
Western ruling cliques is but the death throes of a
world order that has reached its expiration.
Russia and China’s partnership has hugely transformative
geopolitical significance. Both these giant nations straddle
the continents of Asia and Europe, connecting the Pacific
with the Atlantic, ranging from the Arctic to the
Mediterranean. Both are committed to a vision
of a multipolar world where nations cooperate
for mutual development.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) linking Eurasia with
Africa and the Americas is the vision of the future, and
Russia is a key partner in implementing that
ambitious win-win project for global peace
and prosperity.
This vision stands in stark contrast to the prevailing Western
capitalist paradigm which operates through dominance,
control and exploitation for American and European
profiteering. That kind of centuries-old system
necessarily involves imperialist conduct ...
whereby the natural resources of foreign
nations are commandeered by brute
military force, conflict, subjugation,
subterfuge, skulduggery and
other machinations.
The multipolar vision of global relations advocated by Russia
and China is the nemesis of the Western imperialist system.
And that explains why the Americans and their European
vassals make every effort to demonize and distort
Russia and China.
But the geopolitical potential of Russia and China is
unstoppable. There is a force of natural justice that
all nations will inevitably subscribe to as the only
reasonable, feasible & sustainable way forward.
It’s about people-centered development ...
versus profit-driven disorder.
Moreover, the partnership between Russia and China is a
geographer’s wonder study. Russia is the world’s largest
national territory by landmass. With over 17 million sq.
kilometres, it covers 11 time zones out of the world’s
total of 24. The abundance of natural resources that
Russia possesses is astounding, from reserves of
natural gas, oil, metals and minerals, to forestry,
agriculture and fisheries. It also can boast of
highly advanced technology in multiple
sectors. And... it shares a long land
border with China, for easing trade.
Meanwhile, China has a population of 1.4 billion people, ten
times that of Russia. With highly advanced technology and
manufacturing, China is not only a vast market for Russian
resources, it is also a gateway to the world economy.
China has already become the world’s biggest
economy over the United States, according
to some measures.
The US and Europe are post-industrial economies that are
also post-peak of their prime. Their “prime” was always
based on an extractive predatory relationship with the
rest of the world that was predicated on inflicting
conflict and poverty on others.
As China and Russia build on their strategic partnership for
mutual prosperity and peace the upshot will inevitably
entail the endgame for Western imperial powers,
which are atrophying from massive inequality,
indebtedness, moral decadence and
social decay.
Fortunately, too, and this is crucial, Russia and China have
military defenses from new generations of hypersonic
weaponry that make them impregnable against any
warmongering notions by the United States. A
failing empire like the US and its Western
satellites is always a dangerous time, as
it tries to prevent the inevitable collapse,
but starting a war with Russia & China
...is not an option.
The views & opinions expressed in the article
do not - necessarily - reflect those of Sputnik.
Image: Barry Grossman
Barry Grossman:US, Israel
Adopting Bullying Tactics
for ICC War Crimes
Investigation in
Palestine
June 30th (FNA)
Barry Grossman is an international lawyer and political
commentator focused on human rights related issues.
He has been extensively published, on various legal
subjects and is a frequent commentator on political
affairs. He has taught law at the University of
Melbourne’s Faculty of Law and Monash
University’s Faculty of Law.
Below is the full text of the interview:
Q: How do you see the ICC ruling and the
issue of anti-Semitism raised by Israel?
A: To be sure, Benjamin Netanyahu has himself said that
“when the ICC investigates Israel for fake war crimes,
this is pure antisemitism”.
There can of course be no doubt that antisemitism is real;
indeed, every bit as real as Islam-phobia. But the long
standing ruse of conflating antisemitism with any and
all criticism of Zionism or Israel, is no longer taken
seriously, by a growing and very substantial
minority of people in the wider population.
Meanwhile the tactic of tarring everyone who resists Zionism
or criticises Israel with the antisemitism brush is having the
unfortunate, though not necessarily unintended
consequence of discrediting even the most
genuine efforts to draw attention to those
people whose speech is, indeed,
motivated by little more than
hatred for Jews.
Q: There are huge media attacks towards ICC’s probe to
Israeli war crimes in Palestine. Do you believe the ICC
can make a correct ruling under this media hegemony?
A: Propaganda about the ICC case published by the
Atlantic World’s Corporate Media Cartel is of course
preceded by pressure and instructions from think-
tanks, as well as the security/policy making
apparatus, which are, of course, fully
infiltrated by individuals promoting
Zionist agendas.
In that regard, both the US and Israel have openly declared
their hostile intentions towards the ICC and there is already
clear evidence that they're deploying all their usual tactics,
including intimidation, extortion, bribery and garden variety
corruption, to get politicians around the world, lawyers
involved in making Palestine’s case, and members of
the ICC to fall into line.
That said, if the myriad jurisdiction related technicalities
raised by Israel can be overcome, I am quite sure the
ICC is capable of reaching what many of us consider
the correct position regarding ubiquitous war crimes
and other violations of international law, perpetrated
by the occupation.
The real problem is that the ICC is quite limited in its ability
to enforce any ruling against responsible individuals and
Israeli organizations, so long as the key Atlantic World
nations continue to provide unqualified support for
the occupation, or, at the very least, to remain
neutral, in the face of clear evidence of the
occupation’s crimes.
A second very significant strategic issue arises from a
prevailing political reality which dictates that, in order
to make a reasonable finding about the occupation’s
crimes, the ICC will also have to use its authority to
investigate violations of international law alleged
against Hamas and other Palestinian groups ---
bearing in mind that the law of armed conflict
does not concern itself with the order in
which things played out and any finding
against Palestinian groups will certainly
receive far more traction, both in the
international community as well as
in occupied Palestine, than any
finding of culpability on the
part of the occupation.
Indeed, from where I sit, I do not see Palestine as
having much to gain from this process, but it
does stand to lose no small part of the
standing in public opinion, which it
has taken decades to develop, at
the cost of thousands of
Palestinian lives.
Q: Is it hypocrisy that Israel says Palestine is not
a sovereign state to have a delegation at ICC?
A: Hypocrisy hardly even begins to cover it. No nation
is in a position to dictate that Palestine is not a
sovereign nation-state, even if the UN has not
yet extended Palestine’s observer nation
status to full membership --- the way it
quickly recognized Israel’s existence
as a full member, in 1949.
It is also worth remembering that
31 UN member nations still do
not recognize Israel.
Of course, none of this is relevant to the Palestinian
delegation’s participation in ICC proceedings
investigating allegations of war crimes and
other violations of international law
committed against Palestinians by
Israeli nationals & organizations,
even though Israel is not, itself,
a party to the ICC treaty.
On the other hand, the Palestinian Authority (PA),
whose statehood and sovereignty has been
subject to intense dispute across the
international community... is a
signatory to the Rome Statute
(that is, the ICC Treaty), so it
would be bizarre, if it was
not permitted to have a
delegation present, at
the ICC proceedings.
Image: US Encirclement of China
US Encirclement of China:
A 'Progress' Report
by Brian Berletic
May 22nd (The Saker)
We post this long-read article in full -
as the New Eastern Outlook site has
been down for a number of days.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing are not merely
the recent results of former US President Donald Trump’s
time in office – but rather, just the latest chapter in US
efforts to contain China, that stretch back decades.
Indeed, US foreign policy has, for decades, admittedly aimed at encircling and containing China’s rise, and maintaining primacy over the Indo-Pacific region.
The “Pentagon Papers” leaked in 1969 would admit in
regards to the ongoing US war against Vietnam that:
…the February decision to bomb North Vietnam and the
July approval of Phase I deployments make sense only
if they are in support of a long-run United States policy
to contain China.
The papers also admitted that China, “looms as a major
power threatening to undercut [American] importance
and effectiveness in the world and, more remotely but
more menacingly, to organize all of Asia against
[America].
The papers also made it clear that there were (and still are),
“three fronts to a long-run effort to contain China: (a) the
Japan-Korea front; (b) the India-Pakistan front; and (c)
the Southeast Asia front.”
Since then, it is clear that from the continued US military
presence in both Japan and South Korea, the now two
decades-long US occupation of Afghanistan on both
Pakistan’s and China’s borders, and the emergence
of the so-called “Milk Tea Alliance” aimed at over-
throwing Southeast Asian governments friendly
with China and replacing them with US-backed
client regimes – this policy to contain China
endures up to today.
Assessing US activity along these three fronts reveals
the progress and setbacks Washington faces -- and
the various dangers to global peace and stability
Washington’s continued belligerence poses.
The Japan-Korea Front
Military.com in their article, “Here’s What It Costs to
Keep US Troops in Japan and South Korea,” reports:
In all, more than 80,000 US troops are deployed to Japan
and South Korea. In Japan alone, the US maintains more
than 55,000 deployed troops — the largest forward-
deployed US force anywhere in the world.
The article notes that according to the US Government
Accountability Office (GAO), the US spent “$34 billion
to maintain military presences in Japan and South
Korea between 2016 and 2019.”
The article cites the GAO providing an explanation as to
why this massive US military presence is maintained in
East Asia:
“…US forces help strengthen alliances, promote a free
and open Indo-Pacific region, provide quick response
to emergencies and are essential for US national
security.”
“Alliances” that are “strengthened” by the physical
presence of what are -- essentially, -- occupying US
forces, suggests the “alliance” is hardly voluntary and claims of promoting a “free and open Indo- Pacific region” is highly subjective – begging the question of, to whom, is the Indo-Pacific “free and open”.
And as US power wanes both regionally in the Indo-
Pacific as well as globally, Washington has placed
increasing pressures on both Japan and South
Korea to not only help shoulder this financial
burden, but to also become more proactive
within Washington’s containment strategy
toward China.
Japan is one of three other nations (the US itself,
Australia, and India) drafted into the US-led
Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – also
known as the “Quad.”
Rather than the US solely depending on its own military
forces based within Japanese territory or supported by
its Japan-based forces, Japan’s military along with
India’s and Australia’s are also being recruited to
take part in military exercises and operations
in and around the South China Sea.
India’s inclusion in the Quad also fits well into the US
3-front strategy that made up Washington’s contain-
ment policy toward China as early as the 1960s.
The India-Pakistan Front
In addition to recruiting India into the Quad alliance, the
US helps encourage escalation through political
support and media campaigning of India’s
various territorial disputes with China.
The US also targets Pakistan’s close and ongoing
relationship with China – including the support of
armed insurgents in Pakistan’s Baluchistan
province.
Recently, a bombing at a hotel in Quetta, Baluchistan
appears to have targeted China’s ambassador to
Pakistan, Ambassador Nong Rong.
The BBC in its article, “Pakistan hotel bomb:
Deadly blast hits luxury venue in Quetta,”
would claim:
Initial reports had suggested the target
was China’s ambassador.
Ambassador Nong Rong is understood to be in Quetta
but was not present at the hotel at the time of the
attack on Wednesday.
The article also noted:
Balochistan province, near the Afghan border,
is home to several armed groups, including
separatists.
Separatists in the region want independence from the
rest of Pakistan and accuse the government and
China of exploiting Balochistan, one of
Pakistan’s poorest provinces, for its
gas and mineral wealth.
Absent from the BBC’s reporting is the extensive and
open support the US government has provided these
separatists over the years and how – clearly – this is
more than just a local uprising against perceived
injustice, but yet another example of armed
conflict-by-proxy waged by Washington
against China.
As far back as 2011 publications like The National
Interest in articles like, “Free Baluchistan” would
openly advocate expanding US support for
separatism in Pakistan’s Baluchistan
province.
The article was written by the late Selig Harrison
--- who was a senior fellow at the US-based
(corporate-financier funded) Centre for
International Policy --- & would claim:
Pakistan has given China a base at Gwadar in the
heart of Baluch territory. So an independent
Baluchistan... would serve US strategic
interests, in addition to the immediate
goal, of countering Islamist forces.
Of course, “Islamist forces”... is a euphemism for US-
Persian Gulf state sponsored militants used to both
fight Western proxy wars, as well as serve as a
pretext for Western intervention. Citing
“Islamist forces” in Baluchistan,
Pakistan - clearly - serves as an example of the latter.
In addition to op-eds published by influential policy
think tanks, US legislators like US Representative
Dana Rohrabacher, had proposed resolutions
such as (emphasis added),
“US House of Representatives Concurrent Resolution
104 (112th): Expressing the sense of Congress that
the people of Baluchistan, currently divided
between Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan,
have the right to self-determination and
to their own sovereign country.”
There is also funding provided to adjacent, political
groups supporting separatism in Baluchistan,
Pakistan, as listed by the US government’s
own National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) website under “Pakistan.”
Organizations like the “Association for Integrated
Development Balochistan” are funded by the US government and used to mobilize people
politically, constituting clear interference
by the US, in Pakistan’s internal
political affairs.
The Gwadar Port project is a key juncture within China’s
growing global network of infrastructure projects, as
part of its One Belt, One Road initiative. The US
clearly opposes China’s rise & has articulated robust strategies to counter it; everything up to and including, open war, as seen in the Pentagon Papers, regarding the Vietnam War.
The recent bombing in Baluchistan, Pakistan demonstrates
that this strategy continues, in regards to utilizing local
militants to target Chinese-Pakistani co-operation, and
is one part of the much wider, region-wide strategy:
of encircling and containing China.
The Southeast Asia Front
Of course the US war against Vietnam was part of a wider
effort to reassert Western primacy over Southeast Asia
...and deny the region from fueling China’s inevitable rise.
The US having lost the war and almost completely retreating
from the Southeast Asia region saw Southeast Asia itself
repair relations amongst themselves and with China.
Today, the nations of Southeast Asia count China as their
largest trade partner, investor, a ''key partner'' in infra-
structure development, a key supplier for the region’s
armed forces, as well as providing the majority of
tourism arrivals throughout the region. For
countries like Thailand, more tourists
arrive from China, than from all
Western nations combined.
Because existing governments in Southeast Asia have
nothing to benefit from by participating in American
belligerence toward China, the US has found it
necessary to cultivate and attempt to install
into power various client regimes. This has
been an ongoing process, since the
Vietnam War.
The US has targeted each nation individually for years.
In 2009 & 2010, US-backed opposition leader-in-exile,
Thaksin Shinawatra, deployed his “red shirt” rioters
in back-to-back riots - the latter of which included
some 300 armed militants and culminated in city-
wide arson across Bangkok, and the death of
over 90 police, soldiers, protesters, and
bystanders.
In 2018, US-backed opposition groups took power in
Malaysia after the US poured millions of dollars, for
over a decade, in building up the opposition.
Daniel Twining of the US National Endowment for Democracy subsidiary – the International
Republican Institute – admitted, during a talk by the Center for Strategic & International Studies, that same year, that:
…for 15 years working with NED resources, we worked
to strengthen Malaysian opposition parties -- and guess
what happened 2 months ago after 61 years? They won.
He would elaborate on how the NED’s network played a
direct role in placing US-backed opposition figures into
power, within the Malaysian government, stating:
I visited and I was sitting there with many of the leaders
the new leaders of this government, many of whom
were just our partners we had been working with
for 15 years and one of the most senior of them
who’s now one of the people running the
government said to me, ‘gosh IRI you
never gave up on us even when we
were ready to give up
on ourselves.’
Far from “promoting freedom” in Malaysia ---- Twining
would make clear the ultimate objective of interfering
in Malaysia’s internal political affairs, was to serve
US interests, not only in regards to Malaysia, but
in regards to the entire region and specifically
toward encircling and containing China.
Twining would boast:
…guess what one of the first steps the
new government took? It froze Chinese
infrastructure investments.
And that:
[Malaysia] is not a hugely pro-American country. It is
probably never going to be an actual US ally, but this
is going to redound to our benefit, and and that’s
an example of the long game.
It is a pattern that has repeated itself in Myanmar over
the decades --- with NED money building a parallel
political system within the nation and eventually
leading to Aung San Suu Kyi and her US-backed
National League for Democracy (NLD) party
taking power in 2016.
For Myanmar, so deep and extensive is US backing for
opposition groups there, that the elections virtually
guarantee US-backed candidates win.. every single
time. The US National Endowment for Democracy’s
own website alone... lists over 80 programs and
organizations receiving US government money
- for everything from election polling, and
building up political parties - to funding
media networks and “environmental”
groups used to block any Chinese-
initiated infrastructure projects.
The move by Myanmar’s military in February this year,
ousting Aung Sang Suu Kyi and the NLD, was meant to correct this.
However, in addition to backing political groups
protesting in the streets, the US has – for many
decades – backed and armed ethnic rebels
across the country. These rebels have now
linked up with the US-backed NLD and are
repeating the US-backed regime change
tactics used against the Arab World in 2011 --- in nations like Libya, Yemen,
and Syria – including explicit calls
for “international intervention.”
A US-Engineered “Asia Spring”
Just as the US did during the 2011 “Arab Spring” – the US
State Department, in a bid to create synergies across
its various regime change campaigns in Asia, has
introduced the “Milk Tea Alliance” to transform
individual US-backed regime change efforts in Asia, into a region-wide crisis.
The BBC itself admits in articles like, “Milk Tea
Alliance: Twitter creates emoji for pro-
democracy activists,” and that:
The alliance has brought together anti-Beijing protesters, in Hong Kong and Taiwan, with pro-democracy campaigners in Thailand and Myanmar.
Omitted from the BBC’s coverage of the “Milk Tea Alliance”
(intentionally) is the actual common denominators that
unite it – US funding through fronts like the National
Endowment for Democracy and a unifying hatred
of China - based exclusively on talking points
pushed by the US State Department itself.
Circling back to the Pentagon Papers and recalling the
coordinated, regional campaign the US sought to
encircle China with – we can then look at more
recent US government policy papers like the
“Indo-Pacific Framework” published in the
White House archives from the Trump
administration.
The policy paper’s first bullet point asks:
How to maintain US strategic primacy in the Indo-Pacific
region, and promote a liberal economic order, while
preventing China from establishing new, illiberal
spheres of influence, and cultivating areas of
cooperation to promote regional peace
and prosperity?
The paper also discusses information campaigns designed
to “educate” the world about “China’s coercive behaviour
and to influence operations around the globe.” These
campaigns have materialized in a propaganda war
fabricating accusations of “Chinese genocide” in
Xinjiang, China, claims that Chinese telecom
company Huawei is a global security threat,
and that China – not the US – is the single
largest threat to global peace and
stability today.
In reality US policy aimed at encircling China -- is
predicated upon Washington’s desire to continue
its own decades-long impunity upon the global
stage, and the continuation of all the wars,
humanitarian crises, and abuses, that
have stemmed from it.
Understanding the full scope of Washington’s
“competition” with China... helps unlock the
confusion surrounding unfolding individual
crises like the trade war; the ongoing
violence and turmoil in Myanmar;
bombings in southwest Pakistan;
students mobs in Thailand; riots
in Hong Kong; and attempts by
the US to transform the South
China Sea, into an inter- national conflict.
Understanding that these events are all connected - then
assessing the success or failure of US efforts - gives us a clearer picture of the overall success of Washington in encircling China. It also gives governments and
regional blocs a clearer picture of how to manage policy, in protecting against US subversion: that threatens national, regional, and global peace
and stability.
Brian Berletic, is a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
Australians should be ashamed that they have a regime propped up to serve US racist agendas!
Image: sanctions infograph
How Exceptional America Is
by Eric Zuesse
September 30th, 2020
America is becoming exceptionally exceptional. In some votes
at the UN General Assembly - the Assembly of nations - only
Israel, or one or two other U.S. allies, vote along with it, and
all others either vote against it, or else abstain in order to
prevent U.S. retaliation against their own nation. No other
nation is anything like that. In fact, on many occasions,
the U.S. arm-twists other delegations -- in order to get
them to abstain from voting so as to make less stark,
and less embarrassing, America’s international
isolation. But America is also extraordinarily
exceptional in other ways, which have
nothing to do with the UN.
America is truly an exceptional nation. As the
Republican Party magazine National Review
stated, on September 15th, “Last week,
the US and Israel were the only states to vote against a General Assembly resolution on the coronavirus response. Some have seized upon that vote to paint the
USt as a bad faith actor that stands alone in the world.”
However, this vote wasn’t about only “the global
coronavirus response.” It was — perhaps even
more importantly - about U.S. sanctions against
Iran, Venezuela, Syria, Russia, China, and other
countries that the U.S. regime considers to be
its enemies. (None of these countries ever
invaded or even threatened to invade
the USA; all of those sanctions are
100% U.S. aggression.
They are target-countries that America’s aristocracy
wants to take over. (The world’s U.S.-sanctioned
countries are marked in red -- on the map of the
world below.) Israel strongly supports sanctions
against both Syria and Venezuela, and routinely
invades and bombs Syria just for good measure.
So, it joined America’s position on that.
That UN General Assembly vote was held on September
11th. America’s Associated Press bannered the next day,
“UN assembly approves pandemic resolution; US, Israel
object”, and reported that, “The 193-member world body
adopted the resolution by a vote of 169-2, with Ukraine
and Hungary abstaining. It was a strong show of unity
by the UN’s most representative body, though many
countries had hoped for adoption by consensus.”
The AP further stated:
It calls on governments and international financial institutions
“to provide more liquidity in the financial system, especially
in all developing countries.” It supports recovery plans that
“drive transformative change towards more inclusive and
just societies, including by empowering and engaging all
women and girls.”
And it urges UN member nations “to adopt a climate- and
environment-responsive approach to COVID-19 recovery
efforts”, including by aligning investments and domestic
policies with the UN goals & the 2015 Paris agreement
to combat climate change. …
By a vote of 132-3, the assembly amended the resolution to
urge all countries “to refrain from promulgating and applying
any unilateral economic, financial or trade measures not in
accordance with international law and the Charter of the
United Nations that impedes the full achievement of
economic and social development, particularly in
developing countries.”
The United States was then overwhelmingly defeated in
attempts to remove 2 paragraphs from the resolution,
one referring to women’s rights to “sexual and
reproductive health” --- and the other --- to
“promoting global sustainable transport.”
In addition to arguing against the language on sanctions,
the United States opposed all references to the World
Health Organization, which the US administration had
stopped funding, accusing the UN agency of failing
to do enough to stop the virus from spreading
when it first surfaced in China.
Nowhere in the AP’s article was any mention made that
in the “vote of 169-2,” the two nations which had voted
against the Resolution were the US and Israel, but only
that there had been “objections from the United States
and Israel,” regarding attachment, to the Resolution, of
the Amendment that added the anti-sanctions provision
to it. This omission was not an error. It is a type of
omission that is common in propaganda. America
was more isolated than that ‘news’-report
made clear.
This vote was about only a “Resolution,” a statement of
the various nations’ values, to work toward, not about
any nation’s policy, but the U.S. and Israel don’t share
those goals — not even rhetorically. This opposition
to that Resolution’s goals, was truly exceptional.
In particular, nothing is more abhorrent to the US regime
--- than to stop or impede its sanctions. These sanctions
include, for example, punishments against any company
or government that will, in any way, assist in Russia’s 96%
completed NordStream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany,
for the EU to buy Russia’s pipelined natural gas instead of
America’s fracked, canned, shipped, natural gas. The U.S.
regime insists that EU nations buy the far costlier trans-
Atlantic-shipped fracked US liquefied natural gas (LNG).
That insistence upon the EU’s wasting money, in order to
prop-up America’s fracking industry, is, indeed, exceptional,
because European nations haven’t customarily been treated
as being mere colonies of other powers. America is treating
purchasers from, or cooperators with, that competitor (Russia),
as being its enemies. The way the U.S. Representative stated
this (after a lengthy diatribe which blamed China for Covid-19
and said that the U.S. had quit the World Health Organization
because WHO lacked “independence from the Chinese
Communist Party”) was: “Economic sanctions are a
legitimate means to achieve foreign policy, security,
and other national and international objectives, and
the United States is not alone in that view or in that
practice.” (That exact same sentence had, earlier,
been stated by the US regarding a different matter,
on 18 November 2019.) Actually, the U.S. regime is
very “alone” on it. Furthermore, the other part was
also a lie: the U.S. regime asserts that coercing
corporations and countries to not buy from the
lowest-cost supplier, is within its sovereign
right to do.
However, as Professor Alfred de Zayas, who until recently was
the UN’s top expert on this topic, explained in depth on 27th
June 2019, that assertion is blatantly false, on many clear
grounds concerning international law. It is a blatant lie, no
matter how many times the U.S. regime asserts it (and
asserts that the US regime isn’t “alone” in asserting it).
Even back when Barack Obama (the man who repeatedly
claimed that “The United States is and remains, the one
indispensable nation”) was America’s President, the US
was exceptional at the United Nations. For example, on
24th November 2014, I headlined “U.S. Among Only 3
Countries Officially Backing Nazism & Holocaust-
Denial”, and reported that - “In a UN vote, on
November 21st, only 3 countries - the US, Ukraine, and Canada — voted against a resolution to condemn racist fascism,
or nazism, and to condemn denial of Germany’s World War II Holocaust against, primarily, Jews.''
This measure passed the General Assembly, on a vote of 115
in favour, 3 against, & 55 abstentions (the abstentions were
in order not to offend U.S. President Obama, who was
opposed to the resolution).” Then, on 21 June 2015,
I headlined “America’s UN Ambassador Continues
Standing Up for Nazis” and noted that, again,
Obama’s UN Ambassador, Samantha Power,
had stood up for nazism; she had just
delivered an address -- in Ukraine --
rallying that country’s supporters
of nazism to war against Russia.
Then, on 21 November 2017, I headlined “Trump
Continues Obama’s Support of Nazism”, and
reported that:
On November 16th, US President Donald Trump, acting
through an agent of his agent, UN Ambassador Nikki
Haley, voted at the UN against a resolution that
condemns bigotry, and especially condemns
nazism & all forms of racism. He thus, yet
again, continues in the tradition from his
predecessors, Presidents Obama, and
Bush, each year, placing this nation in
the company of only one or two U.S.
allies throughout the world who join
with the US in refusing to commit to
opposing and doing everything to
reduce, not just political Nazism
(which, of course, is past), but
ideological nazism, racist
fascism - institutionalized
bigotry (which, sadly, is
not past).
But, be that as it may, the U.S. is also exceptional in
many other ways. I listed some of those on July 13th.
There are two main reasons why the U.S. regime is able
to coerce other nations to not violate its will. One is that
although publicly available reports allege it spends
approximately 37% of the entire world’s military
expenditures, the U.S. regime actually - spends
around 50% of the entire world’s military costs,
and therefore, it possesses an extraordinary
physical capacity to impose its will, if and
when merely economically blockading an
‘enemy’ country (via sanctions) fails to do the job of getting it to comply.
And the other main reason is that, since the US government
is at least as corrupt as the average “third-world” country is,
but is instead one of the world’s richest countries, arranging
pay-offs to other world leaders, in order to obtain their
cooperation, is easily affordable... (These payoffs are
being paid by all US.taxpayers, not by only America’s
billionaires, who reap all of the profits from the
empire that is imposed.)
American exceptionalism is real. It’s not the type of
exceptionalism that the regime’s propaganda claims
to be the case, but, nonetheless, it is real.
(Strategic Culture Foundation)
Image: sanctions map
Please watch the video above... We have never existed in such peril, and yet almost no-one is able to act.
Nuclear words: Putin's FINAL warning:
(People DO need reminding -- unless US, UK and French policy changes, and stops being so 'exceptional' -- that is, outside the UN legal Charter and thus, criminal --- there will be a reaping.)
BREAKING: Russia's State TV Advising Russian Citizens on how to survive a World War ! WAKE UP NOW - AND STOP THE WAR ON CHINA/RUSSIA !
The Doomsday clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists website now has the final singular moment that will bring civilization to final nuclear annihilation, at 90 seconds to midnight.
This is the closest it has ever been. Scott Ritter says it should be 2 seconds
World Will Not Survive the US' Neocons' Doctrine of US World Hegemony - Paul Graig Roberts Wednesday, February 7th, 2018
"The government of the United States is clearly in demonic hands. We are overflowing with proof", writes American well known analytist and ex- official Paul Graig Roberts in his website.
Take today (2-2-18) for example. A report from the House Intelligence Committee was released that is proof that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice --- and the Democrat National Committee, are now in a conspiracy against American democracy and the President of the United States, with the full support of the presstitute media.
As if that is not enough, also released today, is the Pentagon’s new Nuclear Posture Review. A nuclear posture review specifies a country’s attitude to nuclear weapons and their use. In past posture reviews, nuclear weapons were regarded as unusable except in retaliation for a nuclear attack. The assumption was that no one would use them. There was always the chance that false warnings of incoming ICBMs would result in a nuclear button being pushed - setting off Armageddon.
There were many false warnings during the Cold War
President Ronald Reagan, was very concerned about a false warning, ending in mass death & destruction.
This is why his principal goal was to end the Cold War, which he succeeded in doing. It did not take successor governments long, to resurrect the Cold War.
The new US nuclear posture is a reckless, irresponsible, and destabilizing departure from the previous attitude toward nuclear weapons. The use of even a small part of the existing arsenal of the United States would be sufficient to destroy life on earth. Yet, the posture review calls for more weapons, speaks of nuclear weapons as “usable,” and justifies their use in First Strikes, even against countries that do not have nuclear weapons.
This is an insane escalation. It tells every country that the US government, believes in the first use of nuclear weapons against any & every country. Nuclear powers such as Russia & China must see this to be a massive increase in the threat level from the US.
Those responsible for this document should be committed to insane aslyums, not left in policy positions where they can put it into action.
The neoconservatives are a small group of conspirators. Most neoconservatives are Jews allied with Israel. Some are dual-citizens. They created an ideology of US world hegemony, specifying that the chief goal of US foreign policy, is to prevent the rise of any other power that could serve as a constraint on US unilateralism.
As neoconservatives control US foreign policy, this explains US hostility toward Russia and China and also the neo-conservatives’ use of the US military to remove governments in the Middle East, seen by Israel as obstacles to Israeli expansion. For two decades --- the US has been fighting wars for Israel in the Middle East. This fact proves the power and influence of the insane neo- conservatives. It is certain, that people as insane as the neoconservatives, would launch a nuclear attack on Russiaand China.
The Russian and Chinese governments seem to be completely unaware of the threat that the neo- conservatives pose to them. I have never experienced in interviews with Russians and Chinese, any awareness of the neo- conservative ideology. Possibly, it is too insane for them to grasp.
Ideologues such as the neoconservatives are not fact-based
They are chasing their dream of world hegemony. Russia & China are in the way of this hegemony. Having learned the limits of conventional military power—after 20 years the US “superpower” has been unable to defeat a few thousand lightly armed Taliban in Afghanistan—the neo-conservatives know: conventional invasions of Russia or China, would lead to the total defeat of US forces.
Therefore, the neoconservatives have elevated nuclear weapons to a First Strike, usable, arsenal that in the neoconservative dream of world hegemony can be used to destroy Russia and China.
Ideologues who divorce themselves from the facts create a virtual world for themselves. Their belief in their ideology blinds them to the risks for them- selves and others that they impose on the world.
Thanks to the American liberal/progressive/left, the entirety of the world is faced with a far more likely nuclear demise than ever threatened us during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
By its collaboration with the military/security complex & the corrupt Hillary DNC, the liberal/progressive/left has forever discredited itself. It is now seen by every thinking person worldwide as an insane propaganda ministry --- for the neoconservatives’ plan to use nuclear weapons to eliminate constraints on US unilateralism.
The liberal/progressive/left has endorsed “hegemony or death.”
They will get death. For all of us.
(Source - DONi News Agency)
According to: PaulGraigRoberts.org
Legendary memorial at Saur-Tomb ''restored by May 2017''
DPR authorities have finished restoring the Saur-Tomb by May 2017. It was announced by the Building Minister, Sergey Naymets.
‘Saur Tomb has been being restored since November, and we planned to finish this by May 2017’, the Minister said.
He said "many people contributed to this project of restoration of the memorial damaged by shelling," Naumets noted.
____________________________
Cool Russia!
[Eng Subs] Children of Donbass, "Toys for Poroshenko" Music Video by Artem Grishanov
POWERFUL - PUT THIS ON HEADPHONES. I guarantee you will cry - and if you don't - please seek psychiatric help.
Full Text: Official Declaration of the Malorossiyan Federation
Zakharchenko announces a new federal state, Malorossiya, (means ''Little Russia'') as the legal successor of Ukraine. DONi News Agency
On 18.7.2017 the Head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, declared the creation of a new federal state, Malorossiya, which will become the legal successor of 'Ukraine'. The new state formation, will consist of 19 regions of the former Ukraine with the capital in Donetsk city. Kiev remains a historical and cultural centre, without the status of capital city.
Here is the full English translation of the declaration:
Political Declaration
The project of the state of "Ukraine", formulated 150 years ago and implemented in different versions during the 20th century, has reached its logical conclusion --- and led to the country's disintegration, civil war and the death of tens of thousands of people, including children, women, and elderly people.
And this process is irreversible. An attempt to turn the story back will result in "balkanization" of the conflict, expansion of chaos, escalation of civil war and even bigger numbers of casualties.
To stop the civil war and avoid new victims, we representatives of the majority of the regions of former "Ukraine" assembled in Donetsk on July 18, 2017, discussed the current situation and came to the following conclusions:
- the state of "Ukraine" has revealed itself as a failed state and demonstrated its being incapable of granting its inhabitants a peaceful and prosperous present and future;
- the current authorities – elected in Kiev, after the coup d'etat, against the backdrop of political terror and the absence of elections in the Crimea and Donbass, are illegitimate;
- the state of "Ukraine" is on the brink of economic catastrophe and depopulation;
- an ultranationalist coup is brewing in Kiev, as a result of which outright neo-Nazis will come to power insteadof "Banderites with a European face";
- the Ukrainian nationalistic project (the Galician one) has discredited itself, by the shedding of civilians' blood in the country;
- the ideology of "Ukrainism" has proved to be misanthropic, mixed with xenophobia (Russophobia, anti-Semitism, Polonophobia) and neo-Nazism (the ideology of national exclusivity and superiority);
- resulting from historical development and due to the Maidan, the word "Ukraine" is forever associated with the names of the Nazi accomplices, Bandera and Shukhevich, with the tragedies of the Baby Yar, the Volyn massacre & Khatyn, and, nowadays, with the mass murder of people on the Maidan, in the Trade Unions' House in Odessa, and Genocide of the Donbass people.
On the basis of the above, we believe that the state of "Ukraine", in the form it was established, after the collapse of the USSR, is UNSERVICEABLE.
We, representatives of the regions of the former "Ukraine", propose to re-establish the state and to proclaim the state of MALOROSSIYA, under an historical background, out of the former "Ukraine". In this case, it is of fundamental importance to rename the country, since "Ukraine" as a state, is guilty of war crimes, mass terror and the genocide of its own people.
In turn, the new name of the country, based on historical traditions, will enable us to reunify those pieces of the former "Ukraine" that seemed to have parted ways forever, including because of participation in the civil war, on different sides of the front line.
We must turn the page of our people's history, which is flooded with the blood of our brothers and sisters.
Malorossiya is an INDEPENDENT, SOVEREIGN state, with a new name, a new flag, a new constitution, a new state structure, new principles of social and economic development, and new historical prospectives.
But this is NOT A REVOLUTION ! This is a return to history. This is a novelty that restores, not destroys.
In view of the economic plight of the country, the chaos & disintegration potential, and regarding the possibility of launching a "war of all against all", we consider it necessary to declare a state of emergency for the transition period – up to 3 years. During this time, the process of adoption of the new Constitution and the establishment of the rule of law, should be completed.
Under a state of emergency, a ban on the activities of political parties and foreign funds is to be introduced, & penalties for criminal offenses, especially against the person, are to be increased. The fight against corruption will be toughened, as well as the penalties for it.The shadow arms market is to be eliminated, including by registering weapons in accordance with the new law.
In the same period an investigation is to be carried out, with the involvement of foreign specialists –- from Russia, Belarus & the European Union –- into the crimes committed by the Maidan Kiev regime: the murders on the Maidan, the murder of Odessa citizens in the Trade Unions' House on May 2nd, 2014, and the war crimes in Donbass, in the so-called ATO.
In the same period, the People's Tribunal is to be prepared to charge the state criminals who have led the country into disintegration and civil war: V.F. Yanukovich (with a request to Russia for his extradition), P.A. Poroshenko and his clique: Turchinov, Yatsenyuk, Kolomoisky, Paruby, Nalivaichenko and others.
We are sure that, having recovered from the criminal neo-Nazi ideology of "Ukrainism", we will be able to build a new society on the basis of friendship and mutual assistance -- but not hatred and envy. The creative genius of our people will manage to bring Malorossiya to the forefront of global civilization and play a role in history. The role of Good, and Truth.
Official translation by the DONi Donbass News Agency, 07/18/2017
(Source - Russia Insider)
_____________________________________________
Nato – A Dangerous Alliance May 24th
As Nato ends its summit in Brussels, Rae Street explains why the military alliance remains a threat to world peace
When the Warsaw Pact ended, after the collapse of communism, some optimists might have expected Nato to be broken up too. After all, the Labour Party in Britain had been opposed to Nato in the mid-1980s. But that was not to be. The US, which had always dominated Nato, quickly began to reinvent Nato and furthermore, to expand it.
Following the end of the Warsaw Pact many central and east European governments wanted to join Nato. This, of course, was music to the ears of the US military manufacturers. Indeed, the chair of the expand Nato committee, Bruce Jackson, was technical director of Lockheed Martin, the largest military manufacturer in the world. So, for the new Nato members because of the policy on “interoperability,” that is Nato personnel being able to use the same military equipment, it was out with the old Soviet military hard- ware and in with sales of, for example, Lockheed’s military aircraft ,costing millions of dollars.
This continues to this day in countries which can ill afford it, with struggling economies. The latter includes Greece. Think of the situation in Greece today.
Expanding Nato up to the borders with Russia, was a provocative policy. The dangers were pointed out but the military industrial complex and the “hawks” in the West, took no notice.
To this day, this helps President Vladimir Putin: more and more of the Russian people believe that “the West” is against them.
Decades later, we read: “British troops have arrived in Estonia, as part of a major Nato mission in the Baltic states, to deter Russian aggression.”
From the start, Nato has always held a nuclear armed policy. It continues to claim that nuclear weapons “preserve peace.” Manifestly, nuclear weapons do not deter conflict.
Governments, including Britain’s, now analyse the main threats to security as cyber warfare and terrorism. Remember September 11th 2001, when New York was attacked by terrorists in planes, brandishing knives?
The US then had and still has, 13 nuclear armed Trident submarines, of which several will be roaming the seas fully operational. Britain has four, with one constantly on alert at sea.
Were these any use in the madman’s attack on Westminster, or in any terrorist attacks?
Trident is “integrated” into Nato. Even worse, Nato still has a policy of “first use of nuclear weapons.”
When the then minister of defence, Geoff Hoon, was asked in Parliament why Britain has a policy of “first use,” he replied: “Because of our obligations to Nato.”
Under the direction of the US administration, with its policy of global domination, Nato has established a string of nuclear-armed bases across Europe, in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, at Incirlik.
The latter is now causing deep problems as relations between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the US, become more and more fractious.
There is now a real problem for Nato, as Erdogan is a repressive dictator — how can Turkey remain in Nato?
Nato states are supposed to uphold principles of human rights and democracy, notably lacking in Turkey today.
The nuclear-armed bases come under Nato’s “nuclear sharing policy” — in effect a violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Nato continues to expand. The policy of not acting “out of area” was dropped long ago. “North Atlantic” simply means, a domination of policies by the US.
Nato claims in its “strategic concept” that “the promotion of Euro-Atlantic security is best assured through a wide network of partner relationships with countries and organisations around the globe.”
In 1994 Nato established the Partnerships for Peace across Europe, extending as far as Uzbekistan.
Nato surrounds Russia from the west and east. These Partnerships for Peace (note the language again) now include 22 states, including “neutral” Ireland.
Then there is the ''Mediterranean Dialogue,'' with ''arrangements'' with countries in the Middle East. Few people realise that Nato carries out military exercises with Israel.
Nato has also established bilateral relations — named individual partnerships — with Afghanistan, Australia, Iraq, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand and Pakistan.
In this part of the globe, where Nato carried out a military exercise in 2014 with Japan, named Ocean Shield, they are surrounding and menacing China, as the enemy.
Then there was the statement by Nato that “co-operation between Nato and the United Nations continues to make a substantial contribution to security in operations round the world.
“The alliance aims to deepen political dialogue and practical co-operation with the UN, as set out in the Nato/UN declaration, signed in 2008.”
This seems like Nato bidding to be the UN's military arm.
This hardly accords with the UN Charter. It was the Organisation for Security & Co-operation in Europe, set up under Chapter 8, of the UN Charter, to prevent and resolve conflict by non-military means and to promote co-operation in humanitarian and other fields.
The 54 member states stretch from Iceland to Kyrgyzstan and include Russia. Alas, how many times do you read of their work in the press, compared with the times you hear about Nato?
Nato is sold to us as a peace-making body. After all, the US is home to the finest PR companies in the world.
To summarise, Nato is pursuing yet more militarism and war:
- All Nato states are required to increase their military budgets to 2 per cent of GDP. That means stealing more money from social needs. Readers of the Morning Star know those all too well: the NHS, education, adult social services; the list is endless.
- Nato member states will have to spend 20 per cent of defence budgets on military equipment: warships, war planes, drones, bombs. By fuelling the arms race, Nato makes a mockery of moves for conflict resolution.
- Nato and its member states multiply interventions outside their territory and increase their presence through world- wide partnerships and “coalitions of the willing.”
- Nato extends its nuclear policies as a supreme “guarantee for the allies’ security,” notwithstanding that the majority of countries in the world are negotiating a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. In the meantime, nuclear weapons in Europe — under the guise of Nato — and elsewhere, are being modernised at a cost of many tens of billions of dollars and pounds. Think of Trident at a cost of £205 billion.
The Nato summit will be held and activists will beholding a “counter-summit” with protesters organising workshops and a demonstration.
CND activists will be there from the UK, but -- we also need people to raise the issues with their MPs, write letters to the press and raise awareness on social media.
Let’s put pressure on the government to invest in social welfare, not Nato, not war.
(Source - Morning Star)
In 2017 in the Donbass - give the children Peace!
Ethnic Ruthenes of sub-Carpathian Ukraine demand autonomy
Activists of a Slavic ethnic group known as Ruthenes -- or Rusyns -- who reside in the Trans-Carpathian (sub-Carpathian) region of Ukraine, have turned to President Pyotr Poroshenko with a demand:
recognize the results of 1991's regional referendum --- when 78% of the region's residents, voted in favor of granting it the status of a self-governing region.
"We have two main demands - to recognize the Rhuthenes as an ethnos and to acknowledge the regional referendum of 1991, where 78% sub-Carpathians voted for the region being a self-governed territory within Ukraine," Vesti quoted Ivan Palinkash, the leader of the Ruthene movement & a member of the People’s Council's presidium of Sub-Carpathian Ruthenes.
Natalya Magalina, a deputy of Uzhgorod district council, told the meeting of leaders of Ruthene ethnic organizations it is important to maintain the Ruthene language by establishing minimal norms for broadcasting in the native tongue, over the state regional TV Channel Tisa-1.
This isn't the first time that the Ruthenes of the sub- Carpathian area have asked the Kiev government to recognize the outcome of the referendum held 25 years ago. The Coordination Council of Ruthene Organizations of the Trans-Carpathian Region turned to the central authorities with the same requirement, the previous time, in the summer of 2015.
It was also in the summer of 2015 that the activists of Ruthene organizations adopted an appeal to the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe & the UN, as well as to the parliaments of Hungary, the Czech Republic, & Slovakia, to wield pressure on President Poroshenko and force the Ukrainian government towards accepting the result of their referendum.
The Ruthenes are an indigenous sub-Carpathian people. Ukrainian authorities do not consider them to be a separate ethnos, and continue calling them Ukrainians, although the UN has issued recommendations more than once, to recognize their status as a separate ethnos.
More than that, Kiev accuses the leaders of Ruthene organizations of making appeals for encroachments on the territorial integrity of the country.
(source - TASS)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Zionist lobby preventing West from criticizing Israel: Analyst Fri Dec 16, 2016
The European Union has censured the Israeli regime for destroying Palestinian shelters and structures in the occupied territories. According to a statement by the European bloc, the Tel Aviv regime has demolished 866 structures so far in 2016 in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli military control.
Anthony Hall, editor-in-chief of the American Herald Tribune from Alberta, says that the European states have been under the influence of the Zionist lobby to go along with Israeli interests - and thus refuse to slam crimes against the Palestinian people.
“Every government within the EU has a very strong Israeli lobby, and this is one of the dilemmas that the Western people are facing,”Hall explained.
“Not only the governing parties but the opposition parties as well, are constraining discussion and discourse within a very narrow range, that puts Israeli priorities at the top of the list in all our Western countries,”he added.
The professor also called on Western citizens to“intervene directly and make contact with the Palestinian people, directly.”
“We, as the citizens in the EU, citizens in Canada, & citizens in the US, have to find ways to bypass the constraints of our governments & the biases and power of this lobby over our governments,” he noted.
Hall criticized the EU for its forensic accounting of homes demolished in Palestine.
“This type of numerical accounting fails to really describe the nature of this destruction of homes in its broader context ------ where thousands of Palestinian people are in dungeons and being tortured in Israeli incarceration facilities,” he said.
“The reality: that the world is letting this happen is very discouraging,” he added.
Hall warned that the prospect of a Palestinian state is no longer viable, given the emphasis on building up settlements, and destroying the structures of the indigenous people of Palestine.
"This goes beyond apartheid,” he said.
The Israeli policy of demolishing houses in the West Bank to build illegal settler units has affected 5,704 Palestinians, of whom, 1,221 have been rendered homeless, including 586 children.
(source - PressTv)
_____________________________________
UN Adopts"Paper Tiger" Resolution, on Israel's Withdrawal from the Syrian Golan
Fahwad Al-Khadoumi -The UN General Assembly adopted yet another resolution demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, in line with a resolution of June 4, 1967.
However, UN General Assembly resolutions are non-binding and no more than a paper tiger, with- out a unanimous decision by the permanent UN Security Council members, to enforce them; A highly unlikely prospect.
In its latest resolution, the UN General Assembly again condemned Israel's non-compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 497 (1981).
The General Assembly reiterated that Israel's decision from December 14th, 1981, to impose Israeli laws, administration & custody on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, is null and void -- and has no legality at all.
The latest UNGA resolution was adopted by an overwhelming majority of UN member States.
The resolution --- reaffirmed the illegality of acquiring territories ----- through the use of military force. The General Assembly also repeated that Israel's continued occupation & enforcement of Israeli law & administration violates international law, the UN Charter, & the Geneva Convention's principles on the protection of civilians during war.
During the UNGA session, a number of states condemned the Israeli practices in occupied Syrian Golan, calling on Israel to withdraw from Golan, in line with June 4th, 1967.
37 states proposed the now adopted draft resolution. However, UNGA resolutions are non-binding and no more than a paper tiger, unless permanent Security Council members are willing to put their money where their mouth was, when they adopted UNSC Resolution 497 (1981) - decades ago.
Moreover, none of the permanent UNSC members - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US - took any tangible steps when the now former Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, defiantly declared that "Israel and the Golan are part and parcel" and that "the international community should get used to facing the fact that Israel will permanently annex the Syrian territory".
Most favourite scapegoat
The favorite scapegoat among permanent UNSC members, with regard to supporting Israel and neglecting Israel's illegal occupation of Golan is the US. However, Russia is in no way more actively pursuing Israel's adherence with UNSC Resolution 497 (1981) -- than any other -- of the self-anointed permanent UNSC members. In April 2016, Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin, were ominously silent about the Golan when Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited Moscow.
Russia failed to respond to what Netanyahu had declared "a red line" - occupation of the Golan.
A brief review of recent history pertaining to the Israeli occupation, international affairs & Israel's use of the Golan to wage war on Syria, suffices to show that the UN System has failed, utterly, and that it is perverted to the point that many analysts call for abolishing the UN altogether.
In June 2013 an Austrian UN Disengagement & Observer Force (UNDOF) officer told the press that Israel is -- running a joint operations room with the insurgents in Syria in the Golan.The UNSC failed to respond and more importantly, failed to take action. In July 2013, the Syrian permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, Dr. Fayssal al-Hamwi, noted how Israel, since it occupied the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967, has displaced about half a million of the Golan´s original inhabitants.
Also in Feb. 2014, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu preempted a public relations quagmire by visiting a field hospital for "Syrian Freedom Fighters" in the Golan to show how much Israel cares and does, on the humanitarian front. It turned out that the "Freedom Fighters" belonged to the Syrian Al-Qaeda franchise, Jabhat al-Nusra.
In March 2014, Israel launched one of many military attacks against Syrian military and security forces, from the Golan, while the UNSC and most media were "silent".
In April 2014 The Director of Israel's Military Intelligence, Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi, a protegé of the now deceased Ariel Sharon, was appointed to head the Israeli Defense Forces Northern Command.
NSNBC international editor-in-chief, Christof Lehmann, reported that the appointment of Kochavi, indicated that Israel was planning large-scale military operations in the Golan in the near future and the widening of the Syria war. Lehmann was right on the money.
In May 2014 Israel denied Syrians in Golan the right to participate in Syrian elections. The UN was "silent". In mid-April 2016, ahead of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed that Israel would hold on to the Golan.
A UNDOF withdrawal has left a 12-16 km wide corridor uncontrolled by the UNDOF... In 2013, it transpired that Israel was giving support to Jabhat al-Nusrah, such as a joint intelligence and military operations room in the Israeli occupied Golan, plus logistical support, weapons, field hospitals, and direct combat support.
In September 2014, Israeli machinations, resulted in the displacement of UNDOF troops from a 12-16 kilometer-wide corridor in the disengagement zone in the Golan by Jabhat Al-Nusra.. The corridor has since been used to supply Al-Nusra and the other terrorists and to launch attacks against Syria.
All permanent UNSC members with the exception of Russia were "silent". Russian diplomats tentatively spoke out against terminating the peace keeping mission in the Golan. The UNSC failed to act.
In 2015 it came out that Israel planned a major hydrocarbon extraction project in the Golan. Partners in crime include Genier Energy.
On the board of directors? Dick Cheney, James Woolsey, Bill Richardson, Jacob Lord Rothschild, Rupert Murdoch, Larry Summers and Michael Steinhardt, among others. Other players involved include the Israeli subsidiary, Afek Oil and Gas, American Shale, French Total and BP. Thus, there exists a broad and powerful nexus of US, British, French and Israeli interests: at the forefront of pushing for the break-up of Syria and control of what's believed to be potentially vast untapped oil and gas resources in the country.
On April 20th, 2016, NSNBC international editor- in-chief Christof Lehmann -- said Netanyahu's "Red Line" would be a litmus test for Russia, as a permanent UNSC member. On April 21st, after talks between Netanyahu and Putin in Moscow, it could be concluded that Russia failed -- spectacularly.
In September 2016, Israel started a wave of home demolitions in the Golan. The UNSC was "silent".
In October 2016, Israel announced plans to build 1,600 settlement units in the Golan, & none of the permanent UNSC members took any action.
So much for the latest UN General Assembly paper tiger.
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The UK Labour MPs who didn’t back the Yemen vote have blood on their hands by David Wearing
Presenting the motion in the Commons, Thornberry was subjected to a series of ill-judged interruptions by Labour MPs, such as Kevan Jones, Toby Perkins and John Woodcock. Indeed, Thornberry received more vocal support in the chamber from the SNP group than from her own supposed comrades.
According to subsequent reports, some Labour members even tried to work with their Tory counterparts, in order to defeat their own party’s motion.
Woodcock, a former 'Progress' Chair, claimed that British support is “precisely focused on training the Saudis” to improve their targeting - so as to “create fewer civilian casualties” - parroting the official government line. The idea that the Saudis’ “widespread & systematic” attacks on civilian targets are just a series of well- meaning errors, is one that, to put it as gently as possible, lacks credibility.
And if decades of training provided by the British to the Saudi pilots hasn’t prevented these supposed errors by now --- it seems rather unlikely that it will in the near future.
In any case, this misrepresents the true nature of the UK's role. When the intervention began, the foreign secretary Philip Hammond, vowed to “support the Saudis in every practical way short of engaging in combat”, including “spare parts, maintenance, technical advice, resupply” and “logistical support”. The reality is that the Saudi Air Force, roughly half UK-supplied and half US-supplied jets, could barely function, without this ongoing assistance from Washington and London.
If there is Yemeni blood on the hands of the Saudi-led coalition - then that blood is also on the hands of the coalition’s western backers, enablers and apologists.
The Saudis and their allies can only wage this war because the Anglo-American suppliers of their air forces are providing active, material support. And British and American politicians can only collude in these outrages, because the political cost on them, so far, has been low. However, it is in the gift of their constituents – you, the reader – to change that equation.
(source - The Guardian)
This could be defeated --- with a UNITED LABOUR PARTY !!!
But unfortunately, there are "entryist" MPs who, for decades, have been groomed by CIA cold war relic organisations -- like the Atlantic Council -- and are now trying to misdirect the Labour Party towards cuts, a militarised police, and a US war agenda... and their anti-peace MPs are hobbling Labour.
129 Labour MPs voted to stop support for Saudi Arabia’s campaign in Yemen. The vote was defeated by a majority of 90.
The motion called for ---- support to be withdrawn from the Saudi government until a United Nations investigation could determine whether the Saudi bombing had breached international law.
The motion didn't explicitly include a suspension of UK arms sales.
100+ Labour MPs didn't vote on the motion. If all of them had voted to support it, the government would have been defeated.
The following, are the Labour MPs who abstained, or weren't present to vote.
Adrian Bailey Andy Burnham Angela Eagle Angela Smith Ann Clwyd Ann Coffey Anna Turley Barry Sheerman Ben Bradshaw Bridgit Phillipson Caroline Flint Catherine McKinnell Chris Bryant Chris Elmore (Teller) Chris Evans Chris Leslie Clive Lewis (ill) Connor McGinn Dan Jarvis David Crausby David Lammy Diana Johnson Fiona MacTaggart Frank Field Gareth Thomas Gavin Shuker Geoffrey Robinson George Howarth Gerald Kaufman Gill Furniss Gisela Stuart Gloria De Piero Graeme Jones Graham Allen Graham Stringer Heidi Alexander Helen Jones Ian Austin Ian Murray Ivan Lewis Jamie Reed Jim Fitzpatrick Joan Ryan John Mann John Spellar John Woodcock Judith Cummins (Teller) Julie Elliott Kate Hoey Keith Vaz Kevan Jones Kevin Barron Liz Kendall Luciana Berger Lucy Powell Madeleine Moon Margaret Beckett Margaret Hodge Maria Eagle Mark Hendrick Mary Creagh Meg Hillier (Paired) Melanie Onn Michael Dugher Mike Gapes Natascha Engel Neil Coyle Nia Griffith Pat McFadden Paul Flynn Peter Kyle Phil Wilson Rachel Reeves Rob Flello Rob Marris Roberta Blackman-Woods Rosie Cooper Rushanara Ali Ruth Smeeth Shabana Mahmood Siobhain McDonagh Stephen Kinnock Susan Jones Toby Perkins Tom Blenkinsopp Tom Watson Tracy Brabin Tristram Hunt Vernon Coaker Wayne David Wes Streeting Yasmin Qureshi Yvonne Fovargue
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‘How Can I Deselect My Labour MP?’ A Short Guideto Reselection and Democratic Accountability by Eric Sim, excellent free advice here:
Nicolas J S Davies is the author of Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq. He also wrote the chapters on “Obama at War” in Grading the 44th President: a Report Card on Barack Obama’s First Term as a Progressive (Lol) Leader.
In the past weeks, Burundi and S. Africa have joined Namibia in declaring their intention to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). They are likely to be followed by a parade of other African countries, jeopardizing the future of an international court, which has prosecuted 39 officials from 8 African countries, but has failed to indict a single person who is not African.
Ironically, African countries were among the first to embrace the ICC, so it is a striking turnaround that they are now the first to give up on it.
But it is the United States that has played the leading role in preventing the ICC from fulfilling the universal mandate for which it was formed, to hold officials of all countries accountable for the worst crimes in the world: genocide; crimes against humanity; and war crimes - not least, international aggression, which the judges at Nuremberg defined as “the supreme international crime”, from which, all other war crimes follow.
As the ICC’s founding father, former Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz, lamented in 2011: “You don’t have to be a criminologist to realize that if you want to deter a crime, you must persuade potential criminals that, if they commit crimes, they will be hauled into court and be held accountable. It is the policy of the US to do just the opposite as far as the crime of aggression is concerned.
"Our government has gone to great pains --- to be sure that no US citizen will be tried by any international criminal court, for the supreme crime of illegal war-making.”
The US has not only refused to accept the jurisdiction of the ICC over its own citizens. It's gone further, pressuring other countries to sign Bilateral Immunity Agreements (BIA), in which they renounce the right to refer US citizens to the ICC for war crimes committed on their territory.
The US has also threatened to cut off US aid to countries that refuse to sign them. The BIAs violate those countries’ own commitments under the ICC statute, and US pressure to sign them, has been rightly condemned: as an outrageous effort to ensure impunity for US war crimes.
Resistance to US Impunity
To the credit of our international neighbours, this US strategy has met with substantial resistance. The European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution, stating that BIAs are incompatible with EU membership, and urging EU- member states and countries seeking EU membership not to sign them.
Fifty-four countries have publicly refused to sign BIAs, and 24 have accepted cut-offs of US aid as a consequence of their refusal. Of 102 countries that have signed a BIA, only 48 are members of the ICC in any case ----- and only 15 of those countries are on record as having ratified the BIAs in their own parliaments.
Thirty-two other ICC members have apparently allowed BIAs to take effect without parliament- ary ratification, but this has been challenged by their own country’s legal experts in many cases.
The US campaign to undermine the ICC is part of a much broader effort by the US government to evade all forms of accountability under the laws that are supposed to govern international behaviour in the modern world --- even as it continues to masquerade as a global champion of the rule of law.
The treaties US policy systematically violates today, were crafted by US statespersons and diplomats, working with foreign colleagues, to build a world where all people will enjoy some basic protections... from the worst atrocities, instead of being subject only to the law of the jungle or “might makes right.”
So current US policy is a cynical betrayal of the work and wisdom of past generations of US citizens, as well as of countless victims over the world to whom we are effectively denying the protections of the UN Charter & Geneva Conventions, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and many other multilateral treaties our country ignores, violates or refuses to ratify.
Avoiding jurisdiction in international courts is only one of the ways that the US evades international accountability for its criminal behaviour. Another involves an elaborate, well-disguised, public relations campaign that exploits the powerful position of US corporations in the world of commercial media.
Major Propaganda Funding
The US government spends a billion dollars per year on public relations or, more bluntly, propaganda, including $600 million from the Pentagon budget. The work of its PR teams and contractors is laundered by US news- papers --- and repeated and analyzed ad nauseam, by monolithic, flag-waving TV networks.
These profitable corporate operations monopolize the public airwaves in the US, and also use their financial clout, slick marketing, and the support of the US State Department to maintain a power- ful presence in foreign and international media markets.
Foreign media in allied countries provide further legitimacy and credibility to US talking-points and narratives as they echo around the world. Meanwhile, Hollywood fills cinema and TV screens across the world with an idealized, glamorized, inspirational version of the US that still mesmerizes many people.
This whole elaborate “information warfare” machine presents the US as a global leader for democracy, human rights and the rule of law, even as it systematically and catastroph- ically undermines those same principles. It enables our leaders to loudly, persuasively, demonize other countries and their leaders as dangerous violators of international law, even as the US and its allies commit far worse crimes.
Double Standards
The phrase “aggressive war” is also a no-no in the Western media - when the US government launches wars, across international borders. In the past 20 years, the US has violated the UN Charter to attack at least eight countries (Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya & Syria), and the resulting wars, have killed about two million people.
A complex whirlwind of conflict and chaos rages on in all the countries where the US and its allies have lit the flames of war since 2001, but our US leaders still debate new interventions ---- and/or escalations as if we are the fire brigade not the arsonists. (By contrast, the US government and the Western media are quick to accuse Russia or other countries of “aggression” --- even in legally murky situations, such as after the US-backed coup in 2014, that ousted the elected president of Ukraine.)
Systematic violations of the Geneva Conventions are an integral part of US war-making. Most are shrouded in secrecy: the propaganda machine spins the atrocities that slip through into the public record, as a disconnected series of aberrations, accidents and “bad apples,” instead of as the result of illegal rules of engagement and unlawful orders from higher-ups.
The senior officers and civilian officials who are criminally responsible for these crimes in US & international law -- systematically abuse their powerful positions to subvert investigations, cover up their crimes, & avoid any accountability whatsoever.
Pinter’s Complaint
When UK playwright Harold Pinter was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, he bravely and brilliantly used his Nobel lecture to speak about the real role the US plays in the world, and how it whitewashes its crimes. Pinter recounted a meeting at the US Embassy in London in the 1980s in which a senior embassy official, Raymond Seitz, flatly denied US war crimes in Nicaragua ---- for which the US was in fact, convicted of aggression by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Seitz went on to serve as Assistant Secretary of State, US Ambassador to the UK, and then Vice-Chair of Lehman Brothers.
As Pinter explained: “this ‘policy’ was by no means restricted to Central America. It was conducted throughout the world. It was never-ending. And it is --- as if it never happened.
“The United States supported - and in many cases engendered every rightwing military dictatorship in the world, after the end of the Second World War. I refer to:- Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. The horror the US inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged, & can never be forgiven.
“Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did... they take place? & are they in all cases, attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is 'yes', they did take place, and are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn’t know it.
“It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happ- ening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to the US. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power, worldwide, while masquerading... as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant - even witty - highly successful, act of hypnosis.”
If, in 2016, the world seems to be more violent and chaotic than ever, it's not because the US lacks the will to use force or project power, as both major party candidates for President, & their military advisers appear to believe, but because our leaders have placed too much stock in the illegal threat and use of force, and have lost faith in the rule of law, any international cooperation and diplomacy.
After a century of commercial dominance, & 75 years of investing disproportionately in weapons, military forces & geopolitical schemes, perhaps it is understandable that US leaders have forgotten how to deal fairly and respectfully with our international neighbours. But it's no longer an option, to muddle along, leaving a trail of death, ruin and chaos in our wake, counting on an elaborate propaganda mach- ine, to minimize the blowback on our country and our lives.
Sooner, rather than later, US citizens & our leaders must knuckle down and master the very different attitudes & skills that we will need to become law-abiding global citizens in a peaceful, sustainable, multipolar world.
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Russia ends treaty limiting plutonium production in response to recent US escalation of hostility Fort Russ News - Topwar.ru - Lenta - News.Ru - translated by J. Arnoldski
TopWar: On October 3rd, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on suspending compliance with the agreement with the US on disposing weapons-grade plutonium. The main reason for this decision was pointed out as the “unfriendly attitude of the US towards Russia.”
Sources from the State Duma have reported that Russia is ready to resume the agreement, if the US cancels all the anti-Russian sanctions. Plus, Russia demands that the US reduce its military contingent in Europe, before Russia resumes compliance with the protocols. The State Duma’s statement reads:
“Acting according to the agreement and the protocols of the agreement can be resumed after the US eliminates the reasons which led to this radical change in circumstances: after the US reduces its military infrastructure and the number of its troop contingents deployed on the territory of the NATO countries having joined NATO after September 1st, 2000, down to the level at which they were on the day that the agreement and its protocols entered force.
"Since then NATO has grown to encompass 9 states of Eastern Europe. Just around the corner is NATO’s 10th state to be included since 2000 - Montenegro.”
In addition, Russia has demanded, as one of its conditions, that Washington cancel the so-call- ed Magnitsky Act.
We await a reaction from the US.
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Popov: Russia can and should withdraw from 1997 treaty with Ukraine By Eduard Popov for Fort Russ - translated by J. Arnoldski -
The other day, the disturbing news came from Lvov, the unofficial capital of Ukrainian Galicia, that the Lvov regional council has filed a lawsuit to forcibly evict the Pushkin Russian Cultural Centre. As the head of the regional council, V. Girnyak, said in his statement, organizations tied to the Anti-Terrorist Operation are preparing to transfer the building on Korolenko Street. The Lvov deputies hardly expect to earn more money from these “ATOers.” Rather, the eviction of Pushkin Russian Cultural Centre is explained by a different motive: once again, punishing anyone ideologically representative of an “enemy” Russian culture.
This centre’s building was leased to the Russian community of Lvov, in 1990. In 1999, the then mayor Vasiliy Kuybida, set the symbolic rent fee of 5 hryvnia (around $1 back then).
Let us quote one founding document signed by Ukraine, the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between the Russian Federation and Ukraine from May 31st, 1997. Point 12 of the agreement reads: “The High Agreeing Parties shall protect the ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious identities of national minorities on their territory and create conditions for the fostering of their identity….they will contribute to creating equal opportunities and conditions for studying the Russian language in Ukraine and the Ukrainian language in the Russian Federation, training pedagogical staff for teaching these languages in educational establishments, and for these purposes, provide equal state support.”
Points 1-2 of the agreement are based on the recognition of the friendly relations between the countries and their territorial integrity. Hence why the agreement is often called a border treaty. For Ukraine, whose territorial sovereignty over some territories (including Galicia, which was part of the Second Polish Republic until September 1939) is quite disputed, this agreement was a real gift. It is no coincidence that a number of patriotic politicians in Russia, demanded that this document not be signed.
Russia’s recognition of Kiev’s sovereignty over territories included in the Ukrainian state is founded on Ukraine’s observance of the rights of its Russian- cultured citizens. After the coup d’etat in 2014, Ukraine began pursuing a policy of cultural genocide (ethnocide) against the Russian-cultured population.
Now Ukraine is discussing the initiative of the scandalously infamous politician Irina Farion, to deprive Russian residents in Ukraine of civil rights.
In fact, this measure is already being implemented. The number of Russian schools has rapidly declined while Russian organizations are being prosecuted and their activities are under close surveillance by Kiev’s intelligence services.
In accordance with the 1997 treaty, an entire network of federal & regional organizations of Ukrainians is funded in Russia. For example, in the Rostov region there is a city-level and regional national-cultural autonomy of Ukrainians.
The organization receives funding from the city and regional budgets. Its head, the businessman Makarchuk, is a member of the Public Chamber of the Rostov region and is proud of his friendship with Rostov governor Vasili Golubev. Meanwhile, Makarchuk is published on the website of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Svoboda party and frequently makes Russophobic statements.
Unfortunately, Russia is largely to blame for the fact that the civil rights of Russian-cultured people in Ukraine are being massively violated. An example of this is the patronizing policy of Rostov region's authorities. But on the federal level as well, the state does not make sufficient (or any) efforts to defend the Russian population of Ukraine (nearly half of the country’s total population).
Meanwhile, a more responsible attitude towards obligations would lead to discussion of the 1997 treaty. In a situation in which the second country (Ukraine), massively violates the treaty’s basic premises, then Russia has the right to withdraw from the treaty with all the legal and political implications. I see no reason for the Russian budget to support the activities of Ukrainian organizations in Russia, or recognize the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine.
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WHITE HELMETS -- SHAM
The Ron Paul Institute has pointed out: “We have demonstrated that the White Helmets are an integral part of the propaganda van- guard, that ensures obscurantism of fact and propagation of Human Rights fiction that elicits the well-intentioned and self righteous response from a very cleverly duped public. A priority for these NGOs is to keep pushing the No Fly Zone scenario which has already been seen to have disastrous implications for innocent civilians in Libya, for example.”
What better chance to push “the No Fly Zone scenario” than arriving within “moments” of the convoy tragedy, filming it and creating a propaganda scenario before any meaningful forensic investigation could even be started, since the trucks were still burning. And of course, the “White Helmets”, aka “Syrian Defence Force”, were filming, rather than attempting to put out the fire and rescue those in the burning trucks.
[Ed. Yet the UK's Guardian, that snivelling wreckage of a "Liberal" newspaper, lies, & describes them as "the White Helmets, a volunteer rescue group," quotes their accusations of Syrian & Russian "constant bombing of civilians" and calls for a "no-fly-zone" now --- as in Libya.]
The Russian Defence Ministry subsequently caused outrage by claiming that their Drone footage: “shows the bombed Syrian aid convoy included a truck full of militant fighters carrying mortar guns.”
However: “The footage emerged as the United Nations rowed back from describing the attack on the aid convoy as air strikes, saying it did not have conclusive evidence about what had happened.”
It must be asked, why on earth, after long and protracted negotiations over the convoy would Syria and or their Russian ally risk the wrath of the US & “coalition”, and of further decimation of the country, by laying themselves open to accusations of bombing aid convoys?
The tragedy has emphatically achieved 1 thing, however. Wiped from the headlines, is another atrocity - the US bombing which killed over 60 Syrian soldiers and wounded over 100 others, just two days earlier, on Saturday 17th Sept. - causing Russian Foreign Ministry spokes- woman Maria Zakharova, to comment: “We are reaching a really terrifying conclusion for the whole world: That the White House is defending Islamic State. Now there can be no doubts about that”, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Again - Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who will guard the guards?
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US prepares an Islamic army in Kosovo
Pravda.Ru - The US is preparing a reserve echelon in the territory of its Kosova enclave. But to keep a secure strategic space, the Southern Serbian provinces may be separated from Kosovo. Given the total apathy of the authorities of Republika Srpska... this plan is inching closer to its implementation.
The goal of the Americans is clear: if Berlin's discontent ousts US bases from Germany, after all, the US will have a spot in Kosovo. It's no secret that the crime and terrorist mayhem plaguing Kosovo, is under the patronage of the US.
Yelena Guskova, a Senator, and member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina), honoured with many Russian and Serbian state awards, commented to Pravda.Ru on this matter, in an interview.
Former Commander of the French foreign legion in Kosovo -- General Jacques Ogar, has recently confirmed to Pravda.Ru, evidence obtained from confidential US sources -- that there are at least five ISIS training camps in Kosovo, which are preparing suicide bombers and an army of Islamists to conquer Europe.
Having found no evidence that proved Milosevic was guilty, the Hague tribunal exonerated him. What do you think of it?
Slobodan Milosevic is a very significant historical person in Serbia's modern history, and the whole of Yugoslavia. In the early 1990s he was seen as the last communist in Europe -- who should be annihilated. His own country turned him over to the Hague; the so-called new government -- after the colour revolution of 2000.
However he was a leader who defended his country and the truth. He combated a large amount of lies at the Tribunal, which tried to prove that only the Serbs were guilty of all the events of the 1990s, as they were charged with collective crimes.
No leader of the Muslim territories of Yugoslavia was convicted, only Serbian ones. The figure of Milosevic was very important, but they didn't manage to find any evidence.
His brother Borislav Milosevic says they secretly took some samples of food and water Slobodan had been given and tested it in Moscow. And it turned out that poison had been added. And it was difficult to breathe for him, which means that something was infiltrated into the air.
Then he stopped eating, but the process had been launched. His death is mysterious but the Tribunal admitted that he was not responsible for crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Colonel Jacques Ogar, who was Commander of a foreign legion in the territory of Yugoslavia in the UN group admits that they were ordered to stand for the Kosovars against the Serbians... Western troops openly supported separatists and participated in punitive actions against the Serbians. Do you have such data?
Surely. I'm a Head of the Centre for the Study of the Contemporary Balkan Crisis at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Our main task is to collect documents and publish them. There occur more and more documents on the events since 1990, which confirm it.
It's absolutely clear that international organizations were biased. The Albanians approach their dream - to create a big country with an Albanian population only. The US has worked a lot to support this movement, as Kosovo is a project of the US.
And they would have got independence long ago, unless it was for Russia. Russia said No to their plans in 2007. it disturbed them, and now they do not influence Russia, but try to govern the Serbian authorities. But I think the process hasn't been completed, & there's a chance to return Kosovo to Serbia.
As they say, there are 8 ISIS training camps in the territory of Kosovo. It is reported that they train suicide bombers to carry out acts in the Western Europe and create a whole army to conquer it. How can you comment on this?
When huge flows of refugees were going across the Balkans in Europe, there were mainly young men and almost no couples. They were well- dressed, were going by three, and had enough means to live in decent hotels. It is clear that there are those among them who should stay in the Balkans & orchestrate implementation of their leaders' aims.
As the Serbian officials struggle to join the EU, they implemented all the terms. And they were told, to not only to let in these refugees, but also to build camps for them. Many stayed in the South, where the population is majority Muslim . A great quantity went to Kosovo and Metohija.
And there's an uncontrolled NATO base Bondsteel there, where enormous resources are deployed. This territory is not controlled by anyone. And when questions of the US military camps in Europe occur, no one speaks of Kosovo.
In Kosovo's camps, where terrorists are trained, they are set absolutely free. It's very dangerous for the whole of Europe, and the Balkans first of all. The US, though, wants to whip Serbia into submission and recognize the independence of Kosovo and Metohija.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska, and Serbians who reside there, are hampering these plans.
There is evidence that, as early as in the mid- 1990s the US aimed to go down to the Balkans when the agreement with Germany terminated if they had to leave. They need a territory in Bosnia & Herzegovina, in Kosovo, Metohija, Montenegro, Serbia & Macedonia. Republika Srpska hampers implementation of this plan today.
They need to annihilate the Republic and make the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina a unitary state. They didn't manage to conduct a colour revolution in the Republika Srpska, while the terror acts, which may be backed by Muslims in other territories, may be fruitful.
These plans may come forward in the nearest future, and it's a threat for the whole of Serbia. As there is a plan to separate the Southern regions of Serbia, where a lot of Albanians and Muslims reside. Today Serbian officials regard these refugees calmly, as well as capable of possible terrorist acts. But it should be paid 'special attention'.
there's a big difference between the news, and the truth - if you want the latest news and the truth, say, on Brazil - then please go to our One Union page.
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US/UK elite bankrolled A. Hitler
Germans were paid in company shares for loans that managed Germany's war reparations -- thus US capital began to actively integrate into the German economy.
The total amount of foreign investment in German industry during 1924-1929 amounted to almost 63 billion gold Marks (30 billion was accounted for by loans), and the payment of reparations — 10 billion Marks. 70% of revenues were provided by bankers from the US, and most banks were from JP Morgan.
As a result, in 1929, German industry was in second place in the world, but it was largely in the hands of the USA's leading financial-industrial groups.
"Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie", main supplier of the German war machine, financed 45% of the election campaign of Hitler in 1930, and was under the control of Rockefeller's "Standard oil".
Morgan, through "General Electric", controlled the German radio and electrical industry, via AEG and Siemens (up to 1933, 30% of the shares of AEG were owned by "General Electric") and through the Telecom company ITT — 40% of the 'phone network in Germany.
In addition, they owned a 30% stake in the air- craft manufacturing company "Focke-Wulf".
"General Motors", belonging to the DuPont family, established control over "Opel".
Henry Ford controlled 100% of the shares of Volkswagen. In 1926, with the participation of the Rockefeller Bank, Dillon, Reed & Co, the second largest industrial monopoly in Germany, after I.G Farben, merged with metals group, "Vereinigte Stahlwerke" (Steel trust) plus Thyssen, Flick, Wolff, Feglera etc.
US co-operation with Germany's military- industrial complex, was so intense and pervasive, that by 1933, the key sectors of German industry, & large banks such as the Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, Donat Bank, etc, were all under the control of US financial capital.
The political force that was intended to play a crucial role in the Anglo-American plans was being simultaneously prepared.
We are talking about the funding of the Nazi party and A. Hitler personally.
As former German Chancellor Brüning wrote in his memoirs, from 1923, Hitler received large sums from abroad. Where they went, is not known, but they were received through Swiss and Swedish banks.
It is also known that, in 1922 in Munich, a meeting took place between A. Hitler and the military attache of the US to Germany -- Captain Truman Smith -- who compiled a detailed report for his Washington superiors (in the office of military intelligence), in which he spoke highly of Hitler.
Through Smith's circle of acquaintances, A. Hitler was introduced to Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl, (Putzie), --- a graduate of Harvard University who played an important role in the formation of A. Hitler as a politician, rendered him significant financial support, and secured for him, acquaintance & communication with, senior British figures.
Hitler was prepared politically, but, as Germany reigned in prosperity, his party remained on the periphery of public life... The situation changed dramatically with the beginning of 'the crisis'.
In the autumn of 1929, the collapse of the US stock exchange was triggered by the Federal Reserve, and the next stage of the Anglo-US financial circles' strategy, had started.
The Federal Reserve and JP Morgan, decided to stop lending to Germany --- inspired by the bank crisis & economic depression in Central Europe.
In September 1931, England abandoned the gold standard, deliberately destroying international payments systems and completely cutting off "financial oxygen" to the Weimar Republic.
But a financial miracle occurred for the Nazi party: in September 1930 as a result of large donations by Thyssen and I.G. Farben --- the party got 6.4 million votes & took 2nd place in the Reichstag;- after this, more generous investments from abroad were activated.
The main link between the major German industrialists and foreign financiers, became H. Schacht.
On January 4th, 1932, a meeting was held with the largest English financier, a Mr M. Norman, A. Hitler, and von Papen, which concluded a secret agreement on the financing of the NSDAP.
This meeting was also attended by US policy-makers, the Dulles brothers --- something their biographers do not like to mention.
On January 14th, 1933, a meeting between Hitler, Schroder, Papen & Kepler took place, where Hitler's program was fully approved. It was here that they finally resolved the issue of the transfer of power to the Nazis, and on 30th January, A. Hitler became Chancellor.
The implementation of the next stage of the strategy thus began.
The attitude of Anglo-American ruling circles to the new government was very sympathetic. When Hitler refused to pay reparations, which naturally called into question the payment of war debts, neither the UK or France pressed their payment claims.
Moreover, after a visit to the US in May 1933, H. Schacht was placed, again, at the head of the Reichsbank, and, after his meeting with the President and the biggest bankers on Wall Street, the US allocated Germany new loans --- totalling $1 billion.
In June, during a trip to London & a meeting with M. Norman, Schacht sought an English loan of $2 billion and a reduction and then the cessation of payments, on old loans.
Thus, the Nazis got what they could not achieve with the previous government.
In the summer of 1934, Britain signed the Anglo- German transfer agreement, which became one of the foundations of British policy towards the Third Reich, &, at the end of the 30's, Germany became the main trading partner of England.
Schroeder Bank became Germany's main agent in the UK & in 1936 his New York office teamed up with the Rockefellers, to create Schroeder, Rockefeller & Co. investment Bank, which the Times magazine called the Berlin-Rome "economic propagandist axis".
As Hitler himself admitted, he conceived his 4- year plan on the basis of foreign financial loans, so it never inspired him with the slightest alarm.
In August 1934, US Standard oil acquired 730,000 acres of land in Germany... then built large oil refineries which supplied the Nazis with oil.
At the same time, Germany secretly took delivery of the most modern equipment for aircraft factories, from the US, which would begin producing German planes.
Germany gained large numbers of military patents from US firms Pratt and Whitney, Douglas, and Curtis Wright --- and it was US technology, building the Junkers-87.
In 1941 --- as world war ll was raging --- US investments in Germany's economy amounted to $475 million. Standard oil invested - 120 million, General motors - $35 million, ITT - $30 million, and Ford - $17.5 million.
The close financial & economic co-operation of Anglo-American and Nazi business circles, was the backdrop against which, in the 30's, a policy of appeasement led to world war II.
Today, as the world's financial elite begins to implement the 'Great depression 2' plan with its subsequent transition to the "new world order", identifying its key role in the organization of crimes against humanity, becomes a priority.
Yuri Rubtsov is a doctor of historical sciences, academician of the Academy of military sciences, & a member of the International Association of historians of world war II.
Image: Results of UN vote condemning glorification of fascism
Image: Leonard Peltier
FREE POLITICAL PRISONER LEONARD PELTIER NOW!!!
Indigenous rights activist Leonard Peltier,
in prison in the US for 38 years, received the first international human rights prize of Uruguay's Mario Benedetti Foundation.
At a ceremony in Montevideo, where the winner was announced, the human rights group calls Peltier the longest-serving political prisoner in the Americas, AFP reports.
Peltier, a Native American activist who was a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), was convicted in 1977 for the alleged murder of two US FBI agents during a 1975 shootout on the
Pine Ridge Reservation in S. Dakota.
He was sentenced to 2 consecutive terms of life imprisonment.
"Leonard Peltier, who on September 12th, 2014, turned 70, has spent over half his life in prison. He's a symbol of resistance to repressive state policies by the US, where there are people in jail for ethnic, racial, religious & ideological reasons," the foundation's statement says.
Ricardo Elena, a member of the foundation's honorary board, says Peltier's case "is one that is repeated over and over: violation (of rights), persecution, eviction, invasion and expropriation of indigenous people, from the time it was 'discovered', until now.
"It doesn't just happen in the United States; it is happening in southern South America, with the (indigenous) Mapuche people, and with indigenous people in North America," he states.
Elena says the United States "likes to think it's the seat of democracy, but it has political prisoners just like a dictatorship might have."
The Mario Benedetti Foundation was founded to support human rights and cultural causes in line with the work of the Uruguayan writer after whom it was named, who died in 2009.
Peltier is incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
James Swan, the head of the Black Hills chapter of the United Urban Warrior Society - a nonprofit group that helps Native Americans fight racial discrimination and injustice - describes Peltier as a political prisoner whose case needs to be reviewed by an independent body.
"What we want people to realize is that this is an injustice," AP quotes Swan as saying.
Peltier, 66, was given two life sentences in '77, on false charges of killing 2 FBI agents.
Peltier asserts that he is innocent and the FBI framed him for political reasons, especially for his activities as a member of the Native American Movement. He has lodged numerous appeals against the conviction - but all unsuccessfully.
He's been denied parole again and again, and will not be eligible for it again until 2024, when he turns 79.
Peltier's relatives say he suffers a number of health problems such as diabetes, arthritis, and the loss of vision in an eye after a minor stroke.
Many activists say Leonard Peltier is the most important political prisoner in the US.
In a review of the US' human rights record, at a United Nations Human Rights Council UPR conference in Geneva, a group called for a new trial for him.
The US Human Rights Network filed a 423-page submission to the Geneva meeting about him.
One item, entitled “Political Repression - Political Prisoners,” about 1970's cases, indicts the FBI: accusing COINTELPRO of “maiming, murdering, false prosecutions and frame-ups, destruction and mayhem throughout the country.”
It cites the FBI for targeting the Puerto Rican Independence Front, the Black Panther Party, the Weather Underground, the American Indian Movement, the Black Liberation Army, as well as “peace activists and everyone in between,” and says “many of today's political prisoners” in the US were jailed indefinitely as a result.
Repression has grown since 9/11, it says.
The political repression paper demands an “immediate criminal investigation into the conspiracy,” and also new trials for two aged activists jailed on murder charges, Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier.
