Vanguard News Network
VNN Media
VNN Digital Library
VNN Reader Mail
VNN Broadcasts

Old May 14th, 2021 #4741
Robbie Key
Senior Member
 
Robbie Key's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 4,399
Blog Entries: 8
Default

West molding Ukraine into ‘anti-Russia’ & West turns blind eye as crackdown on opposition makes Donbass peace impossible - Putin

14 May, 2021 18:40
Get short URL

Ukraine is being manipulated by the West into a kind of anti-Russia and is becoming a serious risk for Moscow, which constantly needs to deal with issues affecting its national security, according to President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking on Friday, Putin also claimed that Ukraine’s crackdown on opposition politicians means that a peaceful resolution to the unrest in Donbass is becoming increasingly unlikely.

“It is very sad, but it appears that Ukraine is slowly but surely being turned into some kind of antipode of Russia, some kind of anti-Russia,” he told the country's security council, noting that their Western neighbor is being turned into a territory that constantly requires “special attention” from Moscow, “in terms of the security of Russia.”

Putin also claimed that Ukraine is cleansing its politics of anyone who isn’t openly anti-Russia, and accused the West of completely turning a blind eye to the changes.

“The decisions are clearly political and selective, aimed only at one thing – to clean the political field of those forces that advocate a peaceful resolution to the crisis in southeastern Ukraine, in Donbass, and that support good neighborly relations with Russia,” Putin said, noting that opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the Opposition Platform – For Life party, was recently arrested.

“It seems that now everyone who works with Russia will be brought to justice,” he continued.

On Thursday, Medvedchuk was placed under 24-hour house arrest until July 9. He is suspected of treason, and is said to have passed confidential information to Russia. After the court decision, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev branded the decision ‘a witch hunt.’ His ally, politician Taras Kozak, is also accused.

Medvedchuk has a personal connection to Putin, and, on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that he had met the Ukrainian politician many times.

“We don’t intend to interfere in any way, but we want to be sure that it is not about a political witch-hunt or a purge aimed at getting rid of competing forces from the political field,” Peskov said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/523865-put...ne-opposition/
 
Old May 17th, 2021 #4742
Robbie Key
Senior Member
 
Robbie Key's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 4,399
Blog Entries: 8
Default

American ‘regime change’ specialists NED claim credit for Belarus protests & boast of funding Russian opposition during prank call
17 May, 2021 11:46 / Updated 1 hour ago
Get short URL

A pair of notorious Russian pranksters posing as leading Belarusian opposition figures have duped the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) into revealing the extent of US involvement in Eastern European political movements.

In a video call posted on the online channel of pranksters Vovan and Lexus, senior representatives of the American agency disclosed that they have actively financed and supported anti-government campaigns in the region. The officials from the NED, which is funded by Congress and describes its role as “supporting freedom around the world,” also revealed that they are coordinating efforts with prominent political activists in a range of countries, including Russia.

The officials believed they were talking to Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the figurehead of Belarus’ opposition movement, and one of her advisors.

During the call, Nina Ognianova, who oversees the NED's work with local groups in Belarus, outlined the wide-ranging programs the agency bankrolls in the country, insisting that “a lot of the people who have been trained by these hubs, who have been in touch with them and being educated, being involved in their work, have now taken the flag and started to lead in community organizing.”

Ognianova claimed that, through this work, the NED played a role in igniting the colossal street protests that rocked Belarus after long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko declared victory in the country’s presidential election last August. The opposition and many international observers say the vote was rigged in his favor, and tens of thousands took to the streets for demonstrations each weekend after the election.

“We believe that this long-term trust-building that we have had with partners in Belarus has indeed brought the events, or the build-up to the events, of last summer,” Ognianova stated.

“We don't think that this movement that is so impressive and so inspiring came out of nowhere - that it just happened overnight,” she added, “but it has been developing and we have our modest but significant contribution in that by empowering the local actors to do the important work.”

Carl Gershman, the president of the US state-backed agency, told the pranksters that Washington-based funding and policy groups were already working with Tikhanovskaya and her team “very, very closely.” He then asked the opposition figure, who fled to neighboring Lithuania after the election, to set out her thinking on the situation “so we can understand what your strategy is... and how we can be helpful.”

The comments are likely to add fuel to Lukashenko’s previous controversial claims that the widespread domestic opposition to his government is being stoked from abroad.

The pranksters also pushed the NED’s top team to outline their current activity in Russia, asking what they were doing to support anti-Kremlin activists. Gershman replied that such initiatives are “obviously incredibly important and we've emphasized this, going back to the election in August when the demonstrations were taking place in the Russian Far East, and people were connecting with each other and saying we share the same ideals, so we're very committed to helping on that, and we will - working with our networks and our institutes.”

One of the duo, claiming to be Tikhanovskaya's assistant, questioned this, saying, “I know that NED is prohibited in Russia now,” referencing a 2015 government decision declaring it to be an “undesirable NGO.” A number of the group's senior leadership team began to laugh, with Gershman insisting “that doesn't matter. We don't have offices, we're not like Freedom House or NDI [the National Democratic Institute] and the IRI [International Republican Institute], we don't have offices. So if we're not there, they can't kick us out.”

“But we support many, many groups and we have a very, very active program throughout the country, and many of the groups obviously have their partners in exile,” the fund's president added. “So we are very active and we can be very helpful on this issue.” He added that they were “of course” in touch with Leonid Volkov, a Lithuanian-based activist frequently described as the chief of staff of jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny.

Barbara Haig, the deputy to the NED’s president for policy and strategy, also hinted at the potential scale of US funding for political groups, saying, “we have a very ample program in Russia” which “goes even down to the grassroots in provinces - oblasts - outside of Moscow. It is very deep and it is very broad.”

Both she and Gershman expressed concern about Russian military exercises billed to take place alongside Belarusian troops later this year, with Haig asking if the group should be “looking at the deployment of Russian military in the country and how that might be changing over time, and whether we should be raising this with some of our contacts.”

Somewhat ironically, Haig also insisted that opposition groups in Russia are concerned about purported efforts to infiltrate and monitor their activity, saying that “security is a huge issue.” How the NED's most senior figures came to speak with the pranksters, who kept their cameras turned off and spoke in an unconvincing imitation of Tikhanovskaya's voice, is unclear.

The pair, whose real names are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, have previously blagged their way into calls with the likes of Prince Harry, Amnesty International and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. However, they have been accused by some Western commentators of disproportionately targeting opponents of the Kremlin, with their comedy gotchas frequently seeking to generate political controversy.

The NED describes itself as a “private, non-profit, grant-making organization that receives an annual appropriation from the US Congress through the Department of State.” It acknowledges that its “continued funding is dependent on the continued support of the White House and Congress,” but states that its own “independent Board of Directors” is in charge of how the funds are spent. The agency insists that its “independence... also allows it to work with many groups abroad who would hesitate to take funds from the US Government.” Representatives of the NED have been approached for comment.

https://www.rt.com/russia/523956-reg...belarus-prank/
 
Old May 18th, 2021 #4743
Robbie Key
Senior Member
 
Robbie Key's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 4,399
Blog Entries: 8
Default

EU Parliament report says regime change needed in Russia, recommends Brussels launch propaganda TV channel to help it happen

18 May, 2021 15:37
Get short URL

Not content with months of worsening relations and the potential for military escalation, the European Parliament has now put forward a draft report insisting the EU needs to be more confrontational in its approach to Moscow.

A draft report published online by the assembly’s Committee on Foreign Affairs caused consternation in Russian media on Monday, after statements came to light that argued the bloc “should establish with the US a transatlantic alliance to defend democracy globally” and “deter Russia” from supposed aggression in Eastern Europe.

As part of its “vision” for future ties with Moscow, the paper concludes that the EU should put forward a number of incentives designed to persuade Russians that a turn to the West would be beneficial, including visa liberalization and “free trade investment.”

It adds that the bloc “should also convey the potential benefits that it is willing to offer in return for a democratic transformation of Russia,” effectively committing it to a strategy of regime change, without commenting on the popularity of its current government or the preferences of voters.

The document, on which MEPs had an opportunity to offer suggestions earlier this month, claimed that “the situation in Russia is deteriorating dreadfully because of President Putin’s systemic repression of democratic forces,” citing a large number of arrests at unauthorized protests held in January. It also explosively alleged that, in the lead up to parliamentary elections later this year, Putin is “waging a war against the people of Russia” that could worsen as the results come in.

A poll published on Tuesday found that the Russian leader has the support of around 56% of voters, while each of the potential opposition candidates polled in single figures.

One tool in the EU’s arsenal to target “Russian propaganda” and bring about the transition it wants to see would be, according to the report, “the establishment of a Free Russia Television with 24/7 airtime.” With declining audience figures for traditional media, quite why a conventional TV channel pushing out the EU’s talking points would change the landscape in Russia is unclear, given that other state-run broadcasters like America’s RFERL and Britain’s BBC offer similar services already. Furthermore, the presence of a large number of Russian-language news sites and YouTube channels that take a critical stance of the government means that there is no shortage of access to opposition-leaning coverage.

At the same time, the committee puts forward a number of extreme steps that it says the bloc should take. It insists that Brussels “must be prepared not to recognize the parliament of Russia and to ask for Russia’s suspension from international organizations with parliamentary assemblies if the 2021 parliamentary elections in Russia are recognized as fraudulent.”

The EU’s concern for Russian democracy comes amid warnings that the governments of two of its member states, Hungary and Poland, are undermining civil rights and personal liberties at home, while their ruling parties consolidate their grip on power.

Over the course of last year, amid increasing political tensions, trade between the bloc and Russia fell by 21%, bottoming out at $219 billion, down from $417 billion. Brussels has since imposed sanctions against a number of Russian officials for their supposed role in the jailing of opposition figure Alexey Navalny, and alleged “human rights violations” in the policing of subsequent protests.

https://www.rt.com/russia/524149-reg...ganda-channel/
 
Old May 18th, 2021 #4744
Alex Him
Senior Member
 
Alex Him's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 6,834
Blog Entries: 219
Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie Key View Post
A draft report published online by the assembly’s Committee on Foreign Affairs
Let's enjoy this creativity






DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RECOMMENDATION

to the Council, the Commission and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on the direction of EU-Russia political relations
(2021/2042(INI))



The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Russia, in particular those of 12 March 2019 on the state of EU-Russia political relations, of 19 September 2019 on the importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe, of 19 December 2019 on the Russian ‘foreign agents’ law, of 17 September 2020 on the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, of 21 January 2021 on the arrest of Alexei Navalny and of 29 April 2021 on Russia, the case of Alexei Navalny, the military build-up on Ukraine’s border and Russian attacks in the Czech Republic,

– having regard to Rule 118 of its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (A9-0000/2021),

A. whereas Russia is continuing its aggressive behaviour on the border with Ukraine and interfering with acts of terrorism on the territory of EU Member States, such as Czechia, and its eastern neighbours, inter alia by supporting the illegitimate regime of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus;

B. whereas the situation in Russia is deteriorating dreadfully because of President Putin’s systemic repression of democratic forces such as when just two weeks after the arrest of Alexei Navalny Russian authorities detained more than 11 000 peaceful demonstrators, bringing the total number of Russians detained since January 2021 to more than 15 000;

C. whereas these domestic developments are a warning to the EU of what may come in the preparation and in the aftermath of the September 2021 parliamentary elections in Russia, when Mr Putin, in the same manner as Mr Lukashenko in Belarus, is waging a war against the people of Russia;

D. whereas in its resolutions of 17 September 2020, 21 January 2021 and 29 April 2021 Parliament called for a review of the EU’s policy vis-à-vis Russia, including the five guiding principles agreed in 2016, emphasised that future EU relations with Russia would depend on the pace of Russia’s democratic transformation and called for the EU institutions to devise a new strategic approach on the assumption that any dialogue with Russia must be based on respect for international law and human rights;

E. whereas the five EU guiding principles for relations with Russia have deterred the Kremlin regime from further aggression against Ukraine, but they are silent with respect to containing President Putin’s war against the people of Russia;

F. whereas the new EU strategy should be centred on the ‘push-back, contain and engage’ principles aimed at strengthening the EU’s capacity to combat the Kremlin’s threats, especially in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) region, including Belarus, as well as in Russia itself, by defending human rights and assisting Russia’s transformation into a democracy in accordance with the principle of ‘democracy first’;

G. whereas the EU strategy on Russia should be based on the assumption that the people of Russia can transform their country into a democracy;

H. whereas the EU strategy on Russia should work in the interest of the EU and offer Russia a constructive dialogue aimed at promoting the values of human rights and democracy;



1. Recommends that the Council, the Commission and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) review, together with the Member States, the EU policy vis-à-vis Russia, including the five guiding principles, and develop a comprehensive EU strategy towards Russia based on the following principles and actions:

Deterring the Russian threat – pushing back against the security threat

(a) the EU, together with NATO and international partners, should deter Russia and keep stability in the EaP region by pressing Russia not to interfere in the region and to return the occupied territories in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood;

(b) the EU should be ready to call for the exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT payment system if the Russian authorities continue their aggressive threats and military action against EU Member States and EaP neighbouring countries;

(c) the EU must have a clear goal and plans on how to cut its dependency on Russian gas and oil, at least while President Putin is in power;

Containing the Russian threat – fighting Russian interference in the EU and Eastern neighbourhood countries

(d) the EU should initiate security compacts with EaP countries that have an association agreement with the EU and propose a new EU integration strategy for Eastern Partners building on former Commission President Romano Prodi’s formula of ‘everything, but the institutions’;

(e) the EU should continue its work on the containment of Russian hybrid threats with instruments able to eliminate Russian hybrid influences from the EU and its Member States;

Engagement to support democracy – pushing back with sanctions, financial controls and international investigations

(f) the EU should establish with the US a transatlantic alliance to defend democracy globally and propose a democracy defence toolkit, which should include joint actions on sanctions, anti-money laundering policies, rules on the conditionality of economic and financial assistance, international investigations, and support for human rights activists and defenders of democracy;

(g) in line with the ‘democracy first’ principle, the EU should strengthen the requirement of conditionality in its relations with Russia by including in any dialogue or agreement with Russia measures aimed at protecting human rights and the holding of free elections; accordingly, the EU and its Member States should revise their investment support and economic cooperation projects, starting with the halting of the Nord Stream 2 project;

(h) the EU should increase its ability to prepare and adopt sanctions against the Russian authorities for their systemic repression of democratic forces in Russia and to centralise EU decision-making by making the triggering of sanctions automatic in cases of corruption or violation of human rights, including by updating the EU global sanctions mechanism (EU Magnitsky Act) to address cases of corruption;

(i) the EU should establish partnerships on its sanctions policy with EU-based non-governmental organisations such as Bellingcat, so that these organisations can assist it in preparing and investigating cases in a comprehensive way;

(j) the EU should establish a centralised anti-money laundering framework, including an EU authority for financial controls, to be put under Parliament’s supervision and to be entrusted with the protection of the EU and its Member States from illicit financial practices and influences from Russia;

(k) the EU should initiate and contribute to international investigation of crimes committed by President Putin’s regime against the people of Russia together with the crimes committed by Mr Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus, within the framework of an impunity platform and an EU Justice Hub; in the context of those investigations, the EU should establish a task force of advisers to assist national and international investigations, trials and the setting-up of EU tribunals, and report periodically to Parliament on the state of political freedoms in Russia;

Engagement to support democracy – supporting a pro-democracy society in Russia

(l) the EU should confront the Russian-language propaganda of President Putin’s regime and support the establishment of a Free Russia Television with 24/7 airtime;

(m) the EU must be prepared not to recognise the parliament of Russia and to ask for Russia’s suspension from international organisations with parliamentary assemblies if the 2021 parliamentary elections in Russia are recognised as fraudulent;

(n) the EU should adopt and announce a strategic vision for its future relations with a democratic Russia, which should include a broad offer with conditions and incentives such as visa liberalisation, free trade investment and modernisation programmes, and a strategic partnership; it should also convey the potential benefits that it is willing to offer in return for a democratic transformation of Russia;

Engagement to support democracy – Eastern Partnership success as an inspiration for the people of Russia

(o) the EU should adopt an ambitious strategy to support the successful development of EaP countries, which would serve as a good example and would incentivise the Russian people to support democracy; accordingly, the EU should propose to EaP countries that have an association agreement with the EU a new momentum of European integration with a view to keeping their motivation for reforms;



2. Instructs its President to forward this recommendation to the Council, the Commission, Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the governments and parliaments of the Eastern Partnership countries and the G7 countries, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the President, Government and Parliament of the Russian Federation.




The text was taken from - https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo...-692665_EN.pdf
__________________
Where should they dig the Very Deep Pit?
Piglet said that the best place would be somewhere where a Heffalump was, just before he fell into it, only about a foot farther on.
(c) Alan Alexander Miln
 
Old May 25th, 2021 #4745
Crowe
Senior Member
 
Crowe's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 8,089
Default

Russia deploys nuclear capable bombers to Syria.


Quote:
MOSCOW -- The Russian military said Tuesday it has deployed three nuclear-capable long-range bombers to its base in Syria, a move that could strengthen Moscow's military foothold in the Mediterranean.

Russia's Defense Ministry said that three Tu-22M3 bombers have arrived at the Hemeimeem air base, located in Syria's coastal province of Latakia and the main hub for Moscow's operations in the country.

The ministry said bomber crews would fly a series of training missions over the Mediterranean. The Tupolev Tu-22M3, code-named Backfire by NATO, is a supersonic twin-engine long-range bomber which is capable of carrying nuclear weapons and has a range exceeding 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles).
That's just enough bombers to wipe the Zionist bandit state off the map after their iron dome runs out of missiles shooting at bottle rockets. . Wishful thinking, but at the very least, next time someone bombs Syria, they might just get bombed back.
__________________
Low-IQ bible scholars are legion, the big book o' bullshit is catnip to the underbrained. --ALEX LINDER
 
Old May 26th, 2021 #4746
Ray Allan
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 15,170
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowe View Post
Russia deploys nuclear capable bombers to Syria.




That's just enough bombers to wipe the Zionist bandit state off the map after their iron dome runs out of missiles shooting at bottle rockets. . Wishful thinking, but at the very least, next time someone bombs Syria, they might just get bombed back.
Here are the beautiful Russian birds.

__________________
"Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy."

--Henry A. Kissinger, jewish politician and advisor
 
Old September 22nd, 2021 #4747
Robbie Key
Senior Member
 
Robbie Key's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 4,399
Blog Entries: 8
Default

Ukraine's Parliament Passes Bill Banning Anti-Semitism

September 22, 2021 17:20 GMT
By RFE/RL

Ukraine's parliament has passed a law defining anti-Semitism and banning it in the country.

The Verkhovna Rada on September 22 approved a second reading of the bill by 283 votes with the required minimum of 226, sending it to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for his signature to become law.

Zelenskiy, who is Jewish, has said he lost relatives in the Holocaust.

An estimated 0.2 percent of Ukraine's population of 41 million is Jewish.

The legislation defines anti-Semitism as hatred of Jews, calling for or justifying attacks on the minority, making false or hateful statements about Jews, and denying the mass extermination of Jews during the Holocaust.

Damaging buildings, monuments, or religious institutions would also fall under the definition of anti-Semitism.

"The lack of a clear definition of anti-Semitism in Ukrainian legislation does not allow for the proper classification of crimes committed on its basis," the law's authors said.

"In practice, this leads to the actual impunity of offenders," they said.

Under the bill, victims can claim compensation for material and moral damage and violators may face penalties under existing hate-crime laws.

An estimated 1.5 million of Ukraine's pre-World War II Jewish population was killed in the Nazi Holocaust.

In one of the worst atrocities, nearly 34,000 Jewish men, women, and children were killed in mass shootings on the edge of the capital, Kyiv, on September 29-30, 1941, in what is known as the Babyn Yar massacre.

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-pass.../31473362.html
 
Old October 30th, 2021 #4748
Mick Walker
Banned
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 996
Default Why Russia Is Walking Away From NATO and European Union

NATO feels no need to concede. Nor does it feel under any moral or political obligation to do so. Russia, on the other hand, is not the Russia of the 1990s, says Paul Robinson in an interview with SCF.

Sometimes things get so bad that one party feels it is best just to walk away from the relationship. That reasoning, notes Professor Paul Robinson in the following interview, seems to be behind Russia’s recent decision to cut diplomatic links with the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Russia has similarly rebuffed relations with the European Union, lamenting that they also have broken down and become dysfunctional. These moves do not signify a sinister Russian agenda, according to Robinson. It simply reflects a frustration with and disillusionment in diplomatic channels that Moscow has pursued over several decades with both blocs. Henceforth, it may be more productive for Moscow to deal with individual states on a bilateral basis rather than through mediation with collective groups. This is because, as Robinson explains, both NATO and the EU have become encumbered with “groupthink” and “group polarization” whereby the blocs have adopted extremely prejudicial attitudes towards Russia. Paradoxically, the group position tends to be not representative of all individual members. He cautions, however, that tensions between East and West may persist and even escalate.

Paul Robinson’s*biography*includes currently being Professor of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa where he teaches Russian and military history, among other topics. He writes extensively for international media on relations between Russia and the West. Prior to graduate studies at Toronto and Oxford Universities, he served as a regular officer in the British Army Intelligence Corps from 1989 to 1994, and as a reserve officer in the Canadian Forces from 1994 to 1996. He also worked as a media research executive in Moscow in 1995. Robinson is the author of six books,*including*Russian Conservatism: An Ideology or a Natural Attitude?

More here...

https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...uropean-union/
 
Old November 2nd, 2021 #4749
Mick Walker
Banned
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 996
Default Why is Ukraine not welcome in NATO?

Amid numerous discussions about the future of Ukraine – a country that has been unable to form a single nation in 30 years of independence, and is torn apart by interethnic, linguistic and economic contradictions, Europe should ask itself just what Ukraine really means to it. And the answer will be the same – a buffer zone, because this clearly reflects Ukraine’s geopolitical role in relations with NATO and the EU. The Alliance needs Ukraine as a buffer zone.

During the early 1990s, when Ukraine was not yet torn apart by civil war, NATO was seriously eyeing this former Soviet republic. As for Russian president Boris Yeltsin, he also left the possibility for Russia to become a member of NATO. In 1994, NATO signed a framework agreement with Kiev as part of the Partnership for Peace initiative.

Five years later, Ukraine demonstrated its “pro-Atlantic” slant by supporting NATO’s operation in the Balkans. On June 12, 1999, Kiev even closed the country’s airspace for Russian planes flying to Pristina for several hours. That move caused an angry backlash from many Ukrainians, who consider themselves a part of the Orthodox Slavic world. And still, the first small step towards Euro-Atlantic integration seemed to have been made.

There is no place for failed states in the Alliance

Twenty-seven years on, Ukraine is a fragmented country, with a crumbling economy, a corrupt government and a vague foreign policy. Its biggest foreign policy breakthrough was gaining a “visa-free” status, which gives Ukrainian citizens a chance to look for illegal jobs in prosperous European countries without the need to apply for entry visas. That said, all the assistance Ukraine got from the United States and Europe did not help it to bring back Crimea or gain victory over its own citizens in Donbass. Moreover, Brussels and Washington have strong doubts about the country’s defense capability. The fact is that of all the post-Soviet countries NATO was smart enough to accept only the former Soviet Baltic republics, which spent 2 percent of their GDP on defense – a great deal of money considering their small budgets (for comparison, Belgium spends 0.9 percent and Hungary 1.27 percent).

With Ukraine’s official defense outlays of at least 5.93 percent of GDP (2021) the country should be a mighty military power not afraid of anyone and a welcome new member for NATO. However, military supplies have long become a source of easy money for the country’s political elites, and the change of presidential teams did not change this a tiny bit. Ukraine keeps getting all imaginable foreign assistance, which is written off, disappears on the front line of a smoldering war and is resold to third countries. Meanwhile, despite its wealth of unresolved problems, Kiev keeps knocking on NATO’s door, apparently hoping that Brussels will help sort them out.

More here...

http://thesaker.is/why-is-ukraine-not-welcome-in-nato/
 
Old November 2nd, 2021 #4750
Mick Walker
Banned
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 996
Default Russia ready to respond, if US warship ventures into its Black Sea waters — senator

As the Vice Speaker of the Federation Council pointed out, the US warship’s joint operation with NATO forces in the Black Sea was a provocation that should be viewed in conjunction with the developments in southeastern Ukraine

MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/. Russia is ready for countermeasures, if a US warship ventures into its territorial maritime waters and stages a provocation in the Black Sea, Vice Speaker of the Federation Council (the upper house of Russia’s parliament) Konstantin Kosachev told the Rossiya-24 TV Channel on Monday.*

"Countermeasures are possible but I am certain that they will be used only when and if the Americans begin crossing the red lines and provoking the Russian fleet in the region, begin crossing our territorial maritime borders and entering our territorial waters. We have repeatedly demonstrated the Russian side’s resolve on this score. And, naturally, we will be ready to do that in this situation," the senior Russian senator said.

More here...

https://tass.com/defense/1356723
 
Old November 21st, 2021 #4751
Mick Walker
Banned
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 996
jewsign Russia's Maddening Patience - Why Doesn't She Strike Back When Attacked?

A lot of commentators noticed a curious fact: during the May 9 parade in the Red Square in Moscow, Putin appeared in the presence of Israeli prime minister Netanyahu. Around that same time, Israeli air force was firing rockets at Syrian and Iranian targets in Syria (lots of which the Syrian air defenses shot down) and the Syrians were firing back at Israeli positions on the Golan Heights (which are occupied Syrian territory, so it didn’t count as an attack on Israel proper).

Why didn’t Russia rise to the defense of its ally Syria? Moreover, there was talk of selling Russia’s very powerful S-300 air defense system to Syria, and that offer was subsequently withdrawn. Is this really how an ally behaves?

More here...

https://russia-insider.com/en/politi...tacked/ri23653
 
Old November 21st, 2021 #4752
Johan
Banned
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 4,231
Default

Russia-NATO war over Ukraine is becoming increasingly unavoidable

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the West isn’t taking his country’s “red lines” seriously and the US and its allies could be about to sleepwalk into a dangerous conflict with the world’s largest nuclear power.
Red lines are about deterrence. The purpose of drawing them in the first place is to communicate crucial security interests and the severe consequences that would ensue if they were undermined. In essence, Moscow’s ultimatums are intended to stop the West from making a dangerous miscalculation.

Deterrence rests on the three Cs: capability, credibility, and communication. Russia has the military capability to act if its red lines are crossed, it’s demonstrated credibility in terms of its preparedness to act on threats, and it knows the specifics must be communicated clearly to avoid the West making any mis-steps that would necessitate a forceful response. However, the weakness in its red lines is the current lack of detail as to what would happen if another nation took a step too far.

More here
 
Old November 22nd, 2021 #4753
Robbie Key
Senior Member
 
Robbie Key's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 4,399
Blog Entries: 8
Default

Reports of Ukraine invasion are American disinformation, Moscow claims

22 Nov, 2021 18:41
Get short URL

Quote:
The US State Department is behind a spate of reports that Moscow is planning to order a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, threatening to plunge the world into a war, Russia's top foreign intelligence agency has insisted.

In a statement issued on Monday, the press service of the SVR said that claims troops were massing on the shared border between the two Eastern European nations as a precursor to all-out conflict were falsified. “Recently, officials in Washington have been actively intimidating the world community by alleging Russia is preparing for ‘aggression’ against Ukraine,” it said.

“According to data we have received, the US State Department is using diplomatic channels to share with its allies and partners absolutely false information about the concentration of forces on our territory in advance of a military invasion of Ukraine,” the communique reads.

The SVR went on to say that Washington is painting “a terrible picture of how hordes of Russian tanks will start crushing Ukrainian cities,” and that this is being amplified by Western media. Citing former Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, the officials said that “the more monstrous the lie, the more willingly the crowd will believe it.” “Of course, such a line fits into the anti-Russian mentality of the West,” the intelligence service concluded. In addition, the service compared the situation to the buildup to a short military conflict fought against Georgia in 2008, when former President Mikhail Saakashvili began a campaign to retake territory held by separatists, before the country's troops were pushed back by Russian forces.

Earlier that day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a number of articles alleging that an invasion of Ukraine could soon be underway were part of a “targeted information campaign.” According to him, “it’s about building tensions – it’s an attempt to portray Russia as threatening the peace process.”
https://www.rt.com/russia/540986-ukr...isinformation/
 
Old December 4th, 2021 #4754
Mick Walker
Banned
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 996
jewsign US Intel Accuses Russia of Planning 'Multi-Front Offensive' Against Ukraine as Early as 2022

Over the last several weeks, tensions have remained high between the US and Russia as American authorities have accused Moscow of laying the groundwork for a potential invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected the unsubstantiated claims.

Newly surfaced US intel reports have accused Russia of planning a "multi-front offensive" against Ukraine sometime within the next year, a charge that marks the latest claim pinned to the Kremlin amid weeks of heightened tensions.

Citing sources and a US intelligence document,*The Washington Post*reported late Friday that planning is allegedly underway by Moscow for a military offensive as early as 2022 that will include up to 175,000 troops.

An unidentified source with knowledge of the sensitive information alleged to the outlet that Russian forces would be "twice what we saw this past spring during Russia’s snap exercise near Ukraine’s borders".


More here...

https://sputniknews.com/20211204/us-...091236545.html
 
Old December 5th, 2021 #4755
Mick Walker
Banned
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 996
jewsign WaPo: Russia Is Building Up Capacity That Would Allow It a Multi-Front Invasion With 175,000 Troops

As tensions mount between Washington and Moscow over a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine,*U.S. intelligence has found the Kremlin is planning a multi-front offensive as soon as early next year involving up to 175,000 troops, according to U.S. officials and an intelligence document*obtained by The Washington Post.

The Kremlin has been moving troops toward the border with Ukraine while*demanding*Washington guarantee that Ukraine will not join NATO and*that the alliance will refrain from certain military activities in and around Ukrainian territory.*The crisis has provoked fears of a renewed war on European soil and comes ahead of a planned virtual meeting next week between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The Russian plans call for a military offensive against Ukraine as soon as early 2022 with a scale of forces twice what we saw this past spring*during Russia’s snap exercise near Ukraine’s borders,” said an administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.*“The plans involve extensive movement of 100 battalion tactical groups with an estimated 175,000 personnel, along with armor, artillery and equipment.”

The unclassified U.S. intelligence document obtained by The Post, which includes satellite photos, shows Russian forces massing in four locations.*Currently, 50 battlefield tactical groups are deployed, along with “newly arrived” tanks and artillery, according to the document.

While Ukrainian assessments have said Russia has approximately 94,000 troops near the border,*the U.S. map puts the number at 70,000 — but it predicts a buildup to as many as 175,000 and describes extensive movement*of battalion tactical groups to and from the border*“to obfuscate intentions and to create uncertainty.”*[Maskirovka alive and well at the tactical level, but a public and slow-boil buildup over many months violates every tenant of maskirovka in the strategic sense.]

The U.S. analysis of Russia’s plans is based in part on satellite images that “show newly arrived units at various locations along the Ukrainian border over the last month,” the official said.

Details of the U.S. intelligence provide a picture that*Secretary of State Antony Blinken began to outline this week on a trip to Europe, where he described “evidence that Russia has made plans for significant aggressive moves against Ukraine” and warned there would be severe consequences, including high-impact economic measures, if Russia invaded.

Biden said he is preparing measures to raise the cost of any new invasion for Putin, who has dismissed the U.S. warnings as rumors and said Russia is not threatening anyone.



More here...

https://anti-empire.com/amp/wapo-rus...175000-troops/


More LIES and BULLSHIT from the ✡ stream media
 
Old December 8th, 2021 #4756
Mick Walker
Banned
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 996
jewsign Who’s Telling the ‘Big Lie’ on Ukraine?

The U.S. group think still driving the Ukraine crisis began at least eight years ago, as detailed in this article by Robert Parry on Sept. 2, 2014.

Exclusive: Official Washington draws the Ukraine crisis in black-and-white colors with Putin the bad guy and the U.S.-backed leaders in Kiev the good guys. But the reality is much more nuanced, with Americans consistently misled on key facts, wrote Robert Parry.

you wonder how the world could stumble into World War III much as it did into World War I a century ago all you need to do is look at the madness that has enveloped virtually the entire U.S. political/media structure over Ukraine where a false narrative of white hats vs. black hats took hold early and has proved impervious to facts or reason.**

The original lie behind Official Washington’s latest “group think” was that Russian President Vladimir Putin instigated the crisis in Ukraine as part of some diabolical scheme to reclaim the territory of the defunct Soviet Union, including Estonia and other Baltic states. Though not a shred of U.S. intelligence supported this scenario, all the “smart people” of Washington just “knew” it to be true.



More here...

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/12/0...ie-on-ukraine/


War's are the ✡ Harvest
 
Old December 9th, 2021 #4757
Mick Walker
Banned
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 996
jewsign Pentagon Chief Austin Rejects ‘Red Lines’ in Ukraine, Taiwan as US Draws its Own

As Washington postures as “standing up” to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he rejects “red lines” in the situations surrounding Ukraine and Taiwan. However, his comments came as his commander-in-chief was drawing new ones.

Speaking to online news outlet*Defense One on Tuesday, Austin said he prefers a flexible approach to the tense situation in Eastern Europe, where Kiev and NATO have alleged the Russian Army is massing for an invasion of Ukraine.

More here...


https://sputniknews.com/20211208/pen...091362365.html

Imagine a world without the JEWSA and it's VASSALS
 
Old December 9th, 2021 #4758
Serbian
Senior Member
 
Serbian's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 21,682
Default

U.S.-Ukraine Plan Emerges… Make Another Afghan Quagmire for Russia

Finian Cunningham

December 7, 2021
© Photo: Public domain

U.S. President Joe Biden and his top aides continue to assert that Russia is building up forces to attack its western neighbor.

A senior U.S. Democratic Senator revealed more than he intended when he gleefully expressed a desire to see Russia invade Ukraine and for it to become another “Afghan quagmire”.

Senator Chris Murphy who sits on the policy-influencing Senate Foreign Relations Committee told CNN at the weekend: “Ukraine can become the next Afghanistan for Russia if it chooses to move further.”

Murphy (48) is a vociferous anti-Russia hawk having previously declared Moscow a “permanent, persistent” national security threat to the United States. He is well connected to the U.S. foreign policy establishment through his committee work in the Senate and before that as a lawmaker on foreign relations committees in the House of Representatives. He is prominently associated with the Atlantic Council and Foreign Affairs journal which are the premier forums for debating U.S. imperial objectives.

Thus, Murphy’s remarks about comparing Ukraine to Afghanistan can be seen as not just an unfortunate slip of the tongue. His remarks reveal a deep-going calculation by Washington planners.

The massive media campaign orchestrated by the U.S. State Department and intelligence agencies over the past four weeks in which Russia is accused of planning an invasion of Ukraine is an extraordinary development. Bereft of facts or credible logic on the part of Russia, instead it seems most plausibly to be a contrived crisis aimed at provoking Moscow into a conflict.

Just last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was playing to the gallery by “warning” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that there would be severe repercussions if Russia invaded Ukraine. Moscow has dismissed these claims as unsubstantiated hysteria. It maintains that troops within its own territorial borders are a sovereign internal matter. In any case, the satellite images purporting to show Russian mobilization actually refer to military formations nearly 300 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.

Nevertheless, U.S. President Joe Biden and his top aides continue to assert that Russia is building up forces to attack its western neighbor. When Biden holds his video call with Putin Tuesday, it is expected to be a major talking point for the American side, even though the evidence for such serious claims is scant.

Western news media regurgitate tendentious American claims along with dubious satellite images as if they are solid facts. There is an unmistakable echo of the media-driven fabrication over alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which was used to justify the U.S. and British war in 2003.

U.S. intelligence has also been shared at an unprecedented level with European and NATO allies in a bid to convince skeptical nations such as Germany that Russia is allegedly intending an invasion. U.S. intel is claiming that the offensive is only weeks away, perhaps at the end of next month.

The whole media frenzy has a madcap tone that is disconnected from reality. The buildup of military forces in the region is by the NATO-backed Kiev regime which has half of its total troop numbers now positioned near the contact line against pro-Russian separatists in southeastern Ukraine.

The Kremlin warns that the Kiev regime is ready to launch an offensive against the breakaway region to settle the more than seven-year civil war by military force. The Ukrainian political leadership has consistently shown disregard for implementing the 2015 Minsk peace accord.

Moreover, the United States and other NATO members have supplied billions of dollars worth of lethal weaponry to the Kiev regime as well as military trainers on the ground. The latest consignment of arms from the U.S. includes Javelin anti-tank missiles. In concert with this arms funneling to a Russophobic regime, the U.S. and NATO powers have embarked on rapid deployment of warships, nuclear-capable bombers and reconnaissance planes in the Black Sea region.

All the signals point to an invasion by an emboldened Kiev regime of the breakaway Donbass region. The plight of the ethnic Russian population in the face of wanton aggression will bring strong political pressure on Moscow to intervene militarily.

However, the dutiful Western media will report this like a self-fulfilling prophesy and lay the blame on Russia for “violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity”. Putin will be denounced as Europe’s “new Hitler” along with other absurdities laundered as truth. More economic sanctions will be unleashed against Moscow and most likely the Nord Stream 2 gas project between Russia and the European Union will be axed as a matter of Brussels’s “solidarity” with oppressed Ukraine.

The Americans will of course be laughing all the way to the banks in Wall Street invested in U.S. gas exports to Europe.

But the even bigger prize for Washington is the Machiavellian ploy that Russia will become bogged down in a long, bloody war against Ukrainian military battalions – some of them diehard Neo-Nazi fanatics like the Azov Battalion – which will be armed to the teeth by the United States.

This is akin to the infamous scenario connived by the Carter administration under the influence of national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1979 when the Soviet Union was lured into Afghanistan to combat U.S.-backed Mujahideen fighters armed with Stinger missiles. That decade-long war grievously damaged the Soviet Union and arguably led to its collapse in 1991. No doubt, it is seen as Washington statecraft’s finest moment.

It seems the ghost of Brzezinski is trying to make a second coming for Ukraine.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...re-for-russia/
__________________
Christianity and Feminism, the two deadliest poisons jews gave to the White Race


''Screw your optics, I'm going in'', American hero Robert Gregory Bowers
 
Old December 10th, 2021 #4759
Mick Walker
Banned
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 996
jewsign Conflict in the Ukraine: Do Americans Realize What Is at Stake?

Seven years after President Biden and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, played key roles in carrying out the*2014 putsch*that toppled Ukraine’s democratically elected president and ignited a deadly civil war, the U.S. and NATO have escalated hostilities toward Russia in Ukraine and in the Black Sea. As the conflict between the US and Russia over Ukraine threatens to erupt into a hot war, and neocons on both sides of the US political spectrum exhort Biden to get tough on Russia, the question arises whether Americans understand the recent history of Ukraine, particularly the US role in causing and intensifying the conflict, the fascist influences that pervade Ukraine’s military, and the anti-democratic actions of Ukraine’s current President Zelensky.

The civil war in Ukraine has festered for seven years and exacerbated tensions between Russia and the West. The situation has markedly deteriorated since Biden was installed as president in January 2021. This is not unexpected given Biden’s long history of aggression toward Russia and US interference in Ukraine, a nation that borders Russia but lies 5600 miles distant from the US Prior to the US 2020 election, Biden regularly leveled*epithets*at Russia’s President Putin, denounced Russia as the US’ greatest threat, and assured the Council on Foreign Relations that he supported*NATO enlargement,*particularly membership for Ukraine. Once Biden took office, bellicose actions followed the rhetoric. In April 2021, the Biden administration made evidence-free allegations that Russia committed "cyberespionage" and attempted to interfere in the US election, and imposed draconian economic*sanctions*as penalty. That same month, Blinken*accused*Russia of amassing troops near the Ukraine border (which means inside Russia), a move which would have been justified, if accurate, given Russia’s fears that the civil war in Ukraine would spill over onto Russia territory and threaten its own national security.

Hostile US rhetoric and punitive sanctions occurred against a backdrop of military maneuvers. In May 2021, NATO conducted*massive wargames, dubbed "Steadfast Defender 21," involving 9,000 NATO troops from 20 nations, with special focus on the Black Sea region. In June 2021,*US and NATO warships entered the Black Sea, including the US guided-missile destroyers USS*Laboon*(DDG-58) and the USS*Ross; the French diving support ship FS*Alizé; the UK’s guided-missile destroyer HMS*Defender*and patrol vessel HMS*Trent; and the Netherlands frigate HNLMS*Evertsen. Russia contends that the British warship HMS*Defender*purposely violated Russia’s territorial waters, on June 23, by sailing across Russia’s border near Cape Fiolent, on the Crimean Peninsula. This flagrant intrusion was immediately followed by the Dutch frigate*Evertsen’s*sortie near the Russian border in the Black Sea. Its attempted incursion was only prevented when Russia’s jets flew by – at a safe distance from the vessel.

More here...


https://original.antiwar.com/maria_g...t-is-at-stake/


All war's, are the Jews Harvest
 
Old December 11th, 2021 #4760
Johan
Banned
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 4,231
Default

NATO membership still possible for Ukraine, alliance chief says

NATO’s membership door remains open to Ukraine, the alliance’s top official said Friday, adding that Moscow will have no say over which countries have a right to join the Western military alliance.

“It is for Ukraine to decide its own path,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said following talks with top French military and diplomatic officials in Paris.

Ukraine’s quest to eventually join NATO has been a major point of contention with Russia, which has used Kyiv’s increasingly closer ties with the West as a justification for its military buildup on Ukraine’s borders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking guarantees from Washington that it will preclude future Ukrainian membership in NATO. Putin has also complained about allied military assistance to the country.

Meanwhile Ukraine has called on allies to fast-track its path to membership.

More here
 
Reply

Tags
#1

Share


Thread
Display Modes


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:59 PM.
Page generated in 1.49453 seconds.