It is all words. A sovereign nation can change its constitution as it pleases. Lavrov treads water. Russia incorporated Zaporshye and Cherson without even having control of the territory. Why not simply declare Ukraine included in the Russian federation?
The regime of Ukraine choosed the wrong way when they stole Russian gas flowing through the pipelines, they choosed the wrong way letting Oligarchs with Israeli passport draining the nation of wealth, they choosed wrong when they teamed up with US democrats&republicans in the Deep state conspiracy to threaten Russia head on.
But they were in full rights to decide their own destiny.
Dont overreact….what happened in US election 2020? There were 10 millons more votes than in 2024. What happened in Romania presidential election?
We all know that there was a coup in 2014. Russia abstained foolishly from reacting to that looming threat with the exeption of Crimea take-over.
The word-salat from Lavrov doesnt mean anything.
The regime in Ukraine can decide whatever they want, exactly as Merz does in Germany or Starmer in UK. If EU, via von der Leyen, declares a Fourth Reich they can do it legally. People in Ukraine, EU and Russia has no saying.
We entered the Jungle mode since long. Strong eat weak. Democracy is dead. Liberal-globo-homo-capitalism has shedded their skin off and revealed the Reptilians they are. I dont see ”justice” or ” righteousness” anymore. We have a bunch of evils, some of them more ameable than others.
The bodysnatchers in Ukraine is of no concern in deep democratic, liberal, EU. Havent you noticed?
Good you reverted back to the "topic of the day + frontline sitrep in one big article" format. The alternative you tried last time of separating them in two different back to back articles came off as too fragmented IMHO
But he of course completely ignored the catastrophe that is the situation inside Russia.
Novgorod, Smolensk, Tver, Voronezh, Yaroslavl, Volograd, Saratov, Kalmykia, the Caspian Sea (!!!), etc. etc. etc.
It was 250 drones a day on average the last week, plus now a substantial dose of cruise missiles are starting to be added too, and the trend is extremely negative.
Meanwhile Russia itself has reduced the intensity of strikes and the Kremlin is "negotiating" about DMZs on Russian territory and is doing precisely zero of substance to eliminate the proxy.
GM makes some valid points. Putin has often confessed to his mistakes too.
My gripe is more about manners John. There are a few obnoxious louts on these threads who insist on shouting at anyone they have a disagreement with. It's rather uncivil, and unnecessary.
Overnight, the Ministry of Defense reported the downing of 141 Ukrainian Armed Forces drones.
Enemy channels are publishing footage of attacks on the following targets:
▪️Crimea, Simferopol, GRES area
▪️Oil depot in Uryupinsk, Volgograd region.
▪️Smolensk State District Power Plant.
▪️Afipsky Oil Refinery in Krasnodar Krai (the regional task force reports damage to residential buildings)
====
And note that both the size of the strikes and rate of inflicting damage has increased dramatically.
The last week the average was 250 drones a day, after months of it hovering around 100. Even with 98-99% efficient AD, that means 4-5 targets will be hit every day. It used to be that it was one hit every other day.
This is despite constant strikes on the Ukrainian rear, which have supposedly eliminated most Ukrainian production. And they indeed have done that, but at this point most production is in Europe, not in Ukraine.
Which makes the Kremlin maintaining the pretense that this is a war with just Ukraine and keeping Europe off-limits for strikes while Russia itself is taking constant hits just absurd, and a recipe for eventual total strategic defeat.
Absolutely. Sooooo many catastrophes in Russia, thank goodness there isn’t even the merest whiff of a catastrophe in plucky little Ukraine, all going exceedingly well.
The green Gob and co have the menu organised, just need to sort out seating for Xmas dinner in the Kremlin after the fall of Moscow next week
Ukraine is a fully disposable proxy, nobody cares about it
And only a complete idiot would keep striking at Ukrainian civilian infrastructure while not imposing a blockade on it and think that will solve anything.
Of course people care about it. There are entire crops of politicians who can talk about nothing else, and who send my tax money to Ukrainians while also bringing them here.
Is Putin a complete idiot for not imposing a naval blockade of wheat shipping to Africans? You know so much better how to wage the war, apparently. Russia wants the resources in African countries, so they keep the wheat going along with having Wagner arm governments or criminal groups like the RSF in exchange for access to mines etc. If Russia blocked Ukraine's ships then Russian ships might also be blocked in various ways.
>Is Putin a complete idiot for not imposing a naval blockade of wheat shipping to Africans?
Looks like I have to bring up that situation from last year when Putin was for once confronted by a journalist with the question what is he going to do about it after yet another massacre of civilians in Belgorod carried out with NATO weapons. And his answer was "Well, what can we do about it? We could kill a lot of civilians in Kiev, but what will that accomplish?". Yes, that is what he said.
As if the only option for response to a massacre of civilians in Belgorod is a massacre of civilians in Kiev.
The options of:
1) Targeted precision strikes on Ukrainian political and military leadership and the Ukrainian oligarchy
2) Targeted precision strikes on NATO political and military leadership and key members of the Western oligarchy
3) Targeted precision strikes on the factories that produced those weapons, so that the source of them is cut off
4) Physical isolation of Ukraine so that no weapons can come in
In other words, everything that would have actually made a difference by reimposing deterrence and/or physically preventing future aggression, did not exist as an option in Putin's mind. Or rather, because we know very well he is not that stupid, he wanted it to be excluded from the conversation by default.
It is the exact same situation with what you are saying here.
Had Putin done his job there would have been no blockade of grain shipping to Africans, because Odessa and Nikolaev would now be Russian federal subjects and cars there would have license plates with #90 and #91 codes, the Russian army would control the whole coast, and there would be no need to blockade any shipping, because no weapons would be going to Ukraine through Odessa.
But not only didn't he do his job, he actively sabotaged the SMO in the early months, and before that back in 2014.
>You know so much better how to wage the war
Yes, I do.
Why was Odessa not taken? As it is they made it to Voznesensk, but were stopped because it was too small of a force. Just 50,000 would have taken both Nikolaev and Odessa in March 2022. Just 50,000. But he sent 5,000. Less than that even. Why didn't he send 50,000? Because:
1) He wasn't properly prepared
2) He wasn't properly prepared because he refused to mobilize (and still refuses to this day)
3) He had pre-sabotaged the SMO by ceding Mariupol back in 2014 when Rinat Akhmetov made that call to the Kremlin to order them not to take it when Azov vacated it. Because then Metinvest would have been left without a port. And Putin duly obliged, the order came to the DNR forces to halt, and Minsk was signed.
Which both doomed the city to destruction, and doomed the SMO, because the main Russian forces spent two months in Mariupol instead of taking Nikolaev and Odessa.
Then the grain deal came out of the same considerations -- oligarch interests.
You have to be an absolute imbecile to think it was done in order to please the Africans. Look up who controls Russian grain exports, look up who controls TogliattiAzot and thus had interest in the pipeline to Odessa (it was a grain and ammonia deal initially before the pipeline was blown up in Kharkov). Especially the latter situation. It will all become clear.
>If Russia blocked Ukraine's ships then Russian ships might also be blocked in various ways
Rather than goofing on GM or trying to be dismissive the attacks and their effects, having been verified, need to be categorized and then Russia’s seeming lack of attention discussed.
Meanwhile, what’s with the 1,000 km attack on Russia’s strategic bombers? If true this is an act of war. Or maybe it never happened.
Unless there was another one I haven't heard about that was quite some time ago and was accomplished by semi's loaded with small drones parked in close proximity to the bases.
Those drones do little damage, it's not substantial. Russia's oil output continues unabated, Russians make videos of themselves partying in Moscow while Kiev doesn't even have means for the essentials, like California-style Pride parades.
Yes little according to the pie that is going to be divided….800 billion among Finck, Zel, Donald, Kushner, Witkopf, Vladimir and dream on there’s more to come, many Ukraine casinos Donald has promised.
GM they (?!) never told me I’m only a spy, a bot, a fake, a shadow personality, I had to find out myself. According (they admit!) 80% of rage is among bots, but I can assure you this coming Olympic Games discipline is very close to become 100%. You, I and all will become experts.
Agree 1000% Russia should have set up check points manned by Russian soldiers on all of Ukraine’s borders with Poland , Hungary, Rumania and Moldova, you know with those gates that go up and down like in the cold war movies. That would have fixed it.
Utter nonsense, the Russian military was completely under resourced and under done in 2022 as any half decent military analyst , Russian, US, European or independent has acknowledged.
So Putin has his own private army separate from the Russian military now.
you are either one sad B grade nutter or the most mediocre neocon (pot) plant since Fat Freddy Kagan disguised himself as blimp at the 2019 Russian military airshow,
>So Putin has his own private army separate from the Russian military now.
How does that follow in any way from what I said?
Putin is the supreme commander and the president of the country. So all the resources of the country, and it is the largest and wealthiest one on the planet, are at his disposal.
If he wanted to have an army ready to fight in 2022, he could have had one.
But even as it is, the Russian army was never in a better position to solve the Ukrainian problem than it was in February-March 2022. It had everything it needed. Decapitation strikes on leadership, a force of 100,000 (had they been mobilized in advance) going south from Brest to seal the Polish border, another 50,000 towards Nikolaev and Odessa, no absurd restrictions such as the strict order not to fire unless fired upon, strikes on all NATO assets in Ukraine, which were not officially there, thus nobody could complain about having taken them out, and which still have not been taken out to this day, etc. etc. Lots of obvious steps that were an absolute must to take in order to solve the problem while it had not yet spiraled out of control. But they were not taken.
The result of which is that the story of the next four years has been one of NATO getting progressively more directly involved, Ukraine being pumped up with more and more weapons, and changes in technology under still absolutely absurd self-imposed rules of engagement stalemating the battlefield.
Russia used to have an enormous military-technical advantage, and the reason it stopped advancing in July 2022 and was advancing so slow after March 2022 was the suicidal refusal to mobilize. Meanwhile the enemy was rapidly mobilizing while the Russian army was shrinking because it was all short-term contracts that were expiring and soldiers decided that they want no part of this shit show anymore.
Now that advantage has been largely eroded. Including even in long-range strikes, which should have never been allowed to occur at all as a precedent. The response should have been nuclear, with total annihilation of Poland and Romania (after giving an ultimatum first, of course) the moment the first Western drones flew into Crimea, because from that moment on everyone with a brain knew what was going to follow if the red lines were not enforced.
Last year even the nuclear doctrine was changed, then it was blatantly violated even on terms that were already in it previously on June 1st 2025, and has been blatantly violated every single day on the new terms (missile and mass drone launches towards Russia), and yet the doctrine has been completely ignored. You never make a mockery of your own nuclear doctrine because the consequences tend to be catastrophic...
The rule that they are holding these assets indefinitely is a matter of Brussels internal admin meaning they now do not have to reconfirm the decision to hold the assets, every six months. This ruling will of course be subject to legal order to release them. It makes no difference to anything beyond the power of member states to influence this supranational machinery. It is a bit of theatre aimed at Ukraine to keep it fighting. There has still not been any decision to misappropriate the assets soft promised as backing for all sorts of loans now going bad. Although it will stop a single member eg Hungary acting eg at the behest of the US, to force a release!
Indeed a tale told by the Euro idiots , lacking even sound and fury signifying nothing. … just the usual press release plus grinning pic with the Goblin.
It exposes the fallacy and Hypocracy of the EUs so called International Rules Based order .
EU as a Finacial HUB will never be trusted again outside of the EU .The world is watching just as the USD has also lost its trust in being strong .
The world needs peace and Russia is on a WW2 mentality at present stubbornly with some justification in haveing lost all trust in EU and NATO commitmints.
"If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and If Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible."
-Then-senator Harry S. Truman, 1941
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US GEN.(RET) KELLOGG: It’s the "acme of professionalism" to use Ukraine to fight Russia:
"Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial complex would have to remain, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. "
It is far worse today. The US used to have a real economy to fall back on. All our oligarchs have is a MIC to suck off today. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_IGU_7alJ80
Anglo-murican Imperialist Oligarchy degraded to the point where they can only suck out the Imperialist RENT from the rest of the world. And this is exactly why the most precise definition of Fascism is "Dictatorship of Financial Capital".
***
The main exports from the U.S. to the rest of the world is INFLATION and WAR
David Fishman, a professor of Jewish History at The Jewish Theological Seminary and a member of the academic committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum supports the ADL definition of followers of Stepan Bandera as "freedom fighters against Russia."
Fishman: "For Ukrainian nationalists, UPA and Bandera are symbols of the Ukrainian fight for Ukrainian independence." The ADL claims that the Banderite alliance with Hitler was merely “tactical.”
Stepan Bandera was put in a concentration camp by the Germans along with followers because they were killing Poles. But no media will tell people that as they can't reveal that the Germans were protecting Poles.. (Just like they won't mention that the Soviets had started moving the Baltic peoples to far-flung locations to replace them with Russians before the Germans stopped them, with the Jewish commissars then going into the Baltic countryside to kill people, rape women, cut off their breasts and torture them with fire, and all the other things communists do.) A few years later the Germans let out Bandera and his top men if they'd help fight the Soviets like they had been supposed to do the first time. Sure, they said and went back to killing thousands of Poles again. There is nothing for the ADL to dislike in that.
As for the nationalist leadership in Ukraine in general they sold out in 2014 for government paychecks and a government pension. Practically all nationalist parties and groups in Europe opposed the Biden-financed, pro-oligarch takeover in Ukraine. ONLY nationalists were this united in opposing Biden's and Jew Nuland's coup. Social democrat parties, communists and cuckservatives all supported it.
But those few leftists who support Russia out of Soviet nostalgia can't stop taking about Azov. Funny. Russia is run by a conservative right-wing party and has a thriving market economy. And while Putin himself is merely a conservative reactionary, forced by circumstances, his government includes more determined nationalists. Russia's war effort was saved by the Wagner Group chewing up Ukraine's reserves in Bakhmut, and the Wagners are nationalists, which is why the founder took the call-sign Wagner in the first place, as he was supposedly Hitler's favorite composer.
"I will draw the very last out of this country (Ukraine). I did not come to spread bliss. I have come to help the Führer The population must work, work, and work again.. for some people are getting excited that the population may not get enough to eat. The population cannot demand that. One has only to remember what our heroes were deprived of in Stalingrad . . . . We definitely did not come here to give out manna. We have come here to create the basis for victory."
"What happens to the Russians, to the Czechs, does not interest me in the slightest. What the nations can offer in the way of good blood of our type we will take, if necessary, by kidnapping their children and raising them here with us. Whether the other nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only insofar as we need them as slaves for our culture; otherwise, it is of no interest to me. Whether 10,000 Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch or not interests me only insofar as the anti-tank ditch for Germany is finished."
"We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here."
-Erich Koch, Nazi Reichskommissar (Gauleiter) in Ukraine from September 1941 until August 1944
Here is none other than Himmler, talking about the necessity of settling Eastern Europe in order to bring ‘culture’:
"Eastern Europe never progressed beyond a certain primitiveness. It has never known anything but chaos because it lacked mankind, the valuable bearer of culture, the genius who systematically planned peaceful reconstruction, who ordered the well designed exploitation of the immense treasures and the fertility of the soil."
***
It wasn't just Germans.. there were Hungarians, Austrians, Romanians, Italians, Finns, Croatian Ustashi, French Charlemagne, Spanish Blue Legion, Belgianm Dutch and Scandinavian Waffen... EU 1.0.
My understanding from a number of comments made on MoA is that a large proportion of these assets is comprised of EU government debt. So the money has in effect already been spent. To realise value from these assets they must be sold, presumably at a big discount to compensate the buyer for extra risk of Russian litigation etc, and/or not repaid (to Russia) when the goverment debt matures thus saving the issuer money. In either case this would be a total disaster for the EU nations (and indeed the EU itself if it ever issues joint debt) in the future when they try to raise money on the international markets. This probably explains also the complicated schemes to use the assets as collateral to raise new money- it is because in a sense there is no money there to realise. The complexity of the schemes suggests accounting and legal chicanery to disguise the real underlying position.
The fact they where safeguarded by Euroclear which again I understand is backed by the Belgium State, also gives rise to severe internal issues within the EU, but will act as a clear disincentive for anyone in the future to hold capital within the EU.
Talk about committing economic suicide??? Am I getting this wrong?? But a clear win for the US$D and all other reserve currencies (except maybe the GBP as the UK seems keen on the theft too) including the Chinese¥ and possibly any future BRICS currency. So the question is what is really going on here given the downsides, or maybe more pertinently why?
It appears though that there is significant push back against this act of thievery, with several financial bodies declaring from the outset that this is both illegal and wrong, the latest being Japan iirc, stating they're having nothing to do with it. While I, personally don't have a full understanding of these financial shenanigans, I do see it as another act in the catalogue of "desperate acts", that so far includes: Piracy and Armed attacks on Shipping, an ever increasing number of Piss Plans, a DMZ, or is it an SEZ, a Referendum etc. None of which affect the outcome on the battlefield.
The Bank of England has also come out against it (which, I am sure, must p-off Starmer.) Japan, I believe, declared they would not allow the seizure of any Russian assets held in their banks.
Yes, it's like killing diplomats, as Trump did, killing the great commander Soleimani who stopped ISIS in Iraq when he was visiting Iraq on a diplomatic passport. Sane people refrain from doing it so that your opponents won't do it either. If you start stealing assets like this no one knows who will be next. Saudis could be afraid to place money in the EU, etc. Even during WWII they didn't steal and use German assets, they only froze them.
(Like they froze Japan's assets in the U.S., instead of using them. You don't use confiscated money.
But they also cut off the oil that Japan needed for their industries in an Asia dominated by foreign empires. Causing the Japanese to go for independence and oil through empire themselves instead of the denied trade. Well, Roosevelt's agricultural secretary wrote in his journal some weeks before Pearl Harbor that Roosevelt had asked for ideas on how to provoke Japan into war, so he could go to open war against Germany instead of just bombing their submarines and arming Britain's attack. Roosevelt's first draft of his address to Congress after Pearl Harbor included a war declaration against Germany. But I digress .)
Sounds true.. I remember hearing Martin Armstrong in one podcast alluding to the fact that there's rumor that Russian assets in France had been squandered already.. That is if I remember correctly..
There was a period of time the amount held in Europe kept going down. I think it slowly went down to $135 billion. The Duran guys were making fun of it. I think it went back up to the original amount a couple months ago. It does make you wonder.
It is the long march to provoke an attack from Russia against Europe.
Rutte&Co is doing the same as happened before 2022 - accusing Russia of aggressiveness and in the same time put gasolin on the fire through their own actions.
They plan to poke the Bear until it snaps back. Expect more attacks on Russian bound ships, closure of Baltic Sea, build up of bases in Romania, Poland, Finland and Baltic. Expect deplloyment of long-distance missiles close on Russia, minimizing the response time for Russia. Now it is all up to US to consider how the future will turn up. Either take UK/EU by their ear and defuse the warmongering or play along and thereby make certain a WW3.
I don't think they want an outright war, but they love to focus on Russia to avoid talking about their own failures back home. It's the usual. And the leftist media and parties hate Russia to an insane degree, and a blog like Simplicius' will never mention why. But the leftists in Europe are open about it. I have heard them many times. Russia banned all homosexual propaganda and NGOs, so they are fascists who must be destroyed. Any facts said in favor of Russia marks you as a fascist. So, it's easy for politicians to score points by coming up with new ideas on how to grand-stand against Russia, even though they know that seizing these assets doesn't affect the war.
If europe wants a war with Russia, an excuse can always be manufactured.
Anyway, europeans are metrosexual limpwrists who could not locate their own genitals, not even if you let them use both hands and a magnifying glass. The european strategy since 1917 has been to get Americans to do the fighting for them.
Europeans has been fierce fighters but the good men all died in meaningless Wars. And after the Wars they let some Frankfurter doctrines, liberalism and feminism destroy them. The last thirty years with exchange of the population due house shortage and the following birth decline coupled to massive immigration has certainly altered what a European is.
I dont count the little brits as Europeans as they have done all they can to destroy the continent. They instigated the WW1 through their plans to make France and Russia crush Imperial Germany and then lured Germany to attack Belgium. Yes, they counted on America to do their fight. Same in WW2 where Stalin hoped for the Western destruction with War between France/Britain and Germany. Yanks did the same game - let Europeans killed themselves and then we go in at take the Victory. Churchill did what was expected from the little brits - even joining with Stalinist Russia.
Europeans do have genitals but they are mushy thanks to all these porns from the same people behind Frankfurter School.
The continent has done enough to destroy itself without the brits, although the brits are european in their love of whispering campaigns, fruity pageantry, in seeking to get power by bending the ears of senile monarchs.
And no, the Americans were not seeking to get involved in WWI or WWII - it was the brits and french begging them. Same with 1949, 1999 and 2011.
No, migrants are not the reason europeans are such wimps.
I am sure I read somewhere that most of the assets had matured and where now being held as cash. Either way the suspicion is that they have already been spent and this is all a desperate attempt to cover their arses. Hence, the forced debt of all member states.
No. They are in interest bearing assets. They have ready been giving the interest to Ukraine. They talked about putting then in riskier investments to try and generate more interest. I think they put off on that in an effort to steal the whole principle
Goldhoarder, FYI. a bit late but this on RT today,
"Euroclear was tasked with holding bonds for Russia’s central bank; they have matured into cash but cannot be returned because of EU sanctions. The money is currently parked in short-term deposits at the European Central Bank."
We are nearing the end of a massive $330 Trillion global public/private debt Ponzi scheme that can only be managed by creating more debt. Russia's sovereign Euro assets are less than 0.1% of that and are unlikely to be the domino that brings it all down in Europe. The "great reset" in finance has to happen eventually and what is going on now is positioning to minimize the fallout and consequences.
We live in a world where almost all new money is created as debt, i.e. offsetting balance sheet entries for the borrower and lender. You are correct in that for the EU to send money to Ukraine, they will first have to redeem whatever bonds or other financial instruments they are currently held in. Meaning some other entity will have to buy them. The list of potential buyers is very thin, so the fall back position is that the EU would have to buy them. They do not have cash sitting in a drawer, so they will have to issue debt to do that. Hence the argument about dividing the debt liability among the EU members.
The amount of assets isn't overly material. Its the fact that any country who holds securities there now knows they can be confiscated at any time at the whim of the EU overlords. If the the confiscation starts a bank run it is significant indeed.
This isn't exactly true. The assets are there for a reason. For Russia and the EU to do business together. They would have to end the war in a way that Russia and the EU could go back to doing business. The problem they have is that the EU needs Russia far more than Russia needs the EU. Russia's future is East. This is why Europe can't let go now. They are desperate to bring Russia down and force their resources back into European markets. They truly believed they would kick Russia out of Crimea. Bottle them up in the Black Sea creating a panic in Moscow and a change of government that they would gain leverage over. This is why the conflict can't be resolved
Why the EU decided to freeze Russian sovereign assets in Europe until the Ukraine war ends:
To circumvent a potential veto from Viktor Orban's Hungary, member states invoked an article of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which covers economic stability in times of crisis.
Why the EU decided to freeze Russian sovereign assets in Europe until the Ukraine war ends:
To circumvent a potential veto from Viktor Orban's Hungary, member states invoked an article of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which covers economic stability in times of crisis.
As Europeans try to avoid being sidelined by the United States in negotiations over a peace plan for Ukraine and seek ways to continue financially supporting Kyiv, they took an important step on Friday, December 12 – one that is likely to help their goals. They agreed to freeze the assets that the Russian central bank held in Europe before the conflict began, until the end of the war in Ukraine.
Until now, as with other sanctions the European Union imposed on Moscow, its member states had to unanimously renew the asset freeze every six months. Each time, there was a risk that strongly pro-Russian countries, such as Hungary or even Slovakia, would veto the renewal, potentially letting the Russian institution recover €210 billion in assets for its treasury. Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, Budapest had generally played along with the EU, but in recent months, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is campaigning ahead of his country's 2026 parliamentary elections, has toughened his stance and repeatedly stated that he no longer wants to help Ukraine.
European leaders, therefore, searched the EU treaties for a way to circumvent the unanimity rule and, instead, allow a qualified majority of member states to delay the deadline for renewing the Russian asset freeze. The European Commission, always creative when it comes to legal matters, suggested using Article 122 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which relates to economic stability in times of exceptional crisis.
Russia still owns the assets, but cannot access, move, or sell them while the freeze applies. 
However, it’s possible that the EU has used the interest generated by the frozen cash to help fund support for Ukraine.
Outright confiscation of the €210B principal is still legally and politically contested in Europe. The European Parliament’s research notes major disagreements among legal scholars and governments about whether confiscation is lawful given state immunity, even though some experts argue it could be justified. 
Russia’s central bank has called EU plans illegal and has taken legal action against Euroclear in Russia, and Russia has warned of retaliation. 
Not so sure this should be seen as some kind of technical administrative step because now the EU cabal can tell the dissenting countries that the issue of guarantees for the loan is solved. Russian collateral is there to secure the loan "for as long as it takes" until Ukraine repays the loan or when Russia agrees to pay reparations (good luck in either case)...
What is going to be really interesting is how the euro will be doing vs the USD over the next few days and weeks.
It is a bit more than theatre, from what I have heard, in that it breaches fundamental treaties of the EU, the over-riding commercial treaties between Belgium, Luxembourg and Russia, the statutory rights of member states, and forces debt upon those states (e.g. 53billion Euro in the case of Germany, 2billion on Hungary).
Furthermore, apparently, Belgium is being threatened with the withholding of EU funds if it does not comply.
On the plus side, I can see this achieving nothing but the accelerated demise of the EU.
From the perspective of Orwell's tripolar world of 1984, 2/3rds of the end stage is in plain sight.
East Asia is China's zone and will remain so.
Eurasia will be Russia's zone, as the EU has chosen suicide, it's all over.
Oceania is the interesting one, as there is an ongoing cultural struggle between the US and UK. The outcome of this struggle will determine whether woke Oceania joins the EU on the cultural scrap heap of history or whether Oceania returns to her pirate roots and perhaps even rediscovers mining and manufacturing.
Comment on Oceania (Australia, NZ, New Guinea and assorted specs of land in the pacific) makes no sense to me. The UK has zero influence in this area. I assume you are mainly referring to Australia which is militarily a satrap of the US and an economic satrap of China. The UK , much less the EU has no influence or relevance at all down here.
This is a literary reference. In Orwell's 1984, Oceania mainly meant the 5 eyes, AUS, NZ, Canada, US, and UK, which share history and a language. The big 3 power blocks were constantly in (cold) war with each other, changing partners frequently. The suggestion is that it was all fake, a narrative used to keep the working classes in each power block anxious and confused. The poor quality of life and lack of freedom could be blamed on foreign bogeymen. If Orwell were still living, despite numerous details being different after nearly 80 years, I think he would find today's narratives quite familiar.
Ok,then Orwell wasn’t well informed. The geographical concept of Oceania as currently understood has been around since the 19th century. Poor and confusing choice of terminology on his part.
Anyway probably his wife’s fault as according to some recent feminist “biography” of him , he was a nasty man and his missus wrote most of his stuff for him.
The Five-Eyes is a hugely influential network of intelligence agencies influenced mostly by the CIA and MI6. It's leadership has always been controversial between the two main agencies. And one must remember that regardless of the views of the public, or the governments, or industry, it is this globalist intelligence network serving the international bankers and financiers that informs, and thus leads, all. Orwell's view stands, IMO.
Not so much hugely influential as hugely incompetent, especially where the British element is concerned as the Burgess, Philby etc fiasco’s proved. Australia’s equivalent ASIO is also laughably incompetent as is proved by the fact that in the 1980’s one of it’s heads was a known and longtime member of an Indonesian religious cult.
The “all powerful MI5 , MI6” trope is an urban myth, repeated over and over because it’s all “secret” and therefore anything can be asserted.
Even in relation to Ukraine, which has been an utterly dismal failure from a western intelligence perspective, the same rubbish about MI5/6 influence is recycled.
Britain exerts influence through partial ownership of the FED. City of London is the headquarter of the global banking cartel. Besides, City of London basically runs all the main offshore funds.
AND It still runs Israel through the Pilgrim Society, Privy Council, RIAA, etc.
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Simply speaking, Brits are the wicked brain (Intelligence services/spy networks - colonial legacy) and the slush fund, and the U.S. is the brawn of the Global (Imperialist) Oligarchy.
Reading the so-called MI6 intelligence reports, supposedly leaked to the mainstream media propagandists, has at times been utterly ludicrous. Yet many people gullibly swallowed the propaganda. The most irritating refrain, endlessly thrown back at me in certain comment sections whenever I foolishly try to have a rational discussion, is: “Oh, what about the three days to take Kyiv?” repeated ad nauseam
Flew to LA last week, at my major airport, the passport control didn't even look at the passport. They ask you to stand before camera and wave you in. The thing is that they're having posters for months prior that the photos are destroyed immediately after taking. And now, they're okay without you showing your passport? They really think we are idiots (and probably we are.)
You don't get it. Orwell's '1984' is fiction, with a serious purpose, but still fiction. It isn't intended to predict 21st century geopolitics. It's intended to convey the kind of consequences when power-hungry politicians [that's almost all of them] get the technology to exert 100% control over the people. Exactly what the geographical locations/boundaries of the blocs are is irrelevant.
I wouldn't consider Orwell's description of the 3 power blocks as composed of particular countries but of spheres of influence - those spheres of influence being held in today's terms by Russia, China, and The USA.
Oceania in 1984 is the mainly ethnic European English speaking countries of the former British Empire that existed in 1948. Airstrip One is barely English in 2025.
Carriers are for show, they mean that you are big enough to build costly carriers now. Hugely expensive and easy to target for a comparable navy in modern war. Kind of like if you'd send a huge tank into Donbass.
Anyway, for all their bullying of Taiwan and other countries, claiming the sea even where it belongs to Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and more, China will not invade Taiwan. They just need it as a foreign target in politics, a pattern we have seen so many times. The sea is only favorable to an invasion for a short period each year. Taiwan's modern missiles from the U.S. can sink many Chinese ships even when they leave the harbor. The Chinese would have to deal with a network of islands with cannons and mine fields. They'd have to land possibly half a million men in the first day to be successful, and they have only a few modern ships that can do this. Then the U.S. navy would arrive.
And the Philippines and everyone else would cut off trade with China. China has invested more than a trillion dollars in the U.S., betting on American success, and all that money would be frozen. China's leadership needs economic progress to justify their hold on power. A disastrous war could bring out the protests against corruption that they want to avoid.
Taiwan has invested more in China than the U.S. has. Plenty of Chinese work in Taiwanese industries. Three Taiwanese airlines go between Taipei and Beijing daily. Chinese businesses respect the laws in Taiwan when they do business with them, and vice versa.. The Chinese respect court rulings in Taiwan in business disputes, and the Chinese government approves. In other words, beyond the political rhetoric and the sending of navy ships to move around Taiwan, the Chinese government has acknowledged the republic of Taiwan for generations.
There is a small island right off the Chinese coast that belongs to Taiwan. It is so close you can swim out to it. China has never taken it.
I am down here in Brasil for quite a bit of time time now. I have seen a lot in terms of domestic politics and naturally I have absorbed a fair amount of the culture, in my process of learning their language; and the learning never stops. Some of it I have seen blow up three meters from my face when it started and it went on for days. LIVE from Santa Catarina!!!
Basically south americans do what is good for them, so they can change positions faster than the wind. They also possess a highly developed, very natural BS detector that transcends social class. For them, especially here in Brasil, Trump and the ´Americanos´ are gasbags. Some New York real-estate guyzzzz and garden variety neocons have about as much chance of moving the needle down here, as a fart in a windstorm. All the serious moves, such as infrastructure, were begun over a decade ago and many of them are now in full swing.
Any indication the ´elites´ here are with the program is all show. So all of these frantic reactions done by the US at this point, are strictly ephemeral. Many commentators, even Peppy at times ( and he is from here ), don´t match what I see with my own eyes ´cotidiano´ ( day to day ). The rich down here have been selling things like coffee, since before Rome was overrun in the early 16th century. The locals tell me they are still here and NOBODY even mentions their names. You talk about behind the scenes. You want to talk about power, like you don't even whisper their names? Only God knows how much money they really have! And some fools from New York and Washington are going to change anything?
Whatever moves the US is making now, as George Carlin said ..... it´s all bullshit.
Still, Russia, China, and even the declining US are the only nations at present capable of projecting economic and military influence beyond their borders. Maybe someday India will attain the same status, but not at present.
I love Latin America, but the numerous nations lack a dominant currency and none are regional military powers. Perhaps the new BRICS 'UNIT' trading currency will help those who adopt it. Brazil could, in theory, be the core of a Latin military alliance. If that happened, as well as acquiring S400s and Su 75s, the world could gain another pole. But the last two centuries of disunity make that unlikely.
Perhaps we might consider that the world is moving past the point where military strength is so important.
Consider that the build up of US forces to attack Venezuela is enormously expensive and apparently doomed to fail. Although it isn't clear to me what success might look like. Perhaps just keeping Venezuelan oil in the ground would be "good enough". The US once ousted Chavez for a few days. I can see Venezuelans who might actually hate Maduro hating the US intervention even more. The attempted decapitation strike against Iran was a total failure. Georgia stopped the NED coup. OTOH, Bangladesh was lost. OTOOH, Thailand and China are getting along famously and the machinations on the Cambodian border seem to come and go.
Add to this that the weapons systems the US builds are overpriced and underperforming.
Still, the flight of two Osprey over my home this morning does focus one's mind on the build up to invade Venezuela. My friends and neighbors are pissed off about it though. Of course, a bunch of drunk Marines wandering around town is great for "business". LOL
They look like kindergarteners. It is so very, very sad.
Many will meet the same fate as those conscripted into the AFU. For what? So the capitalist Ponzi scheme can keep running?
Again, China's last recession was in 1979. China has been growing at 5%/year since then. China has won. The Empire is dying.
They don't want power, global power. Brasil wrote that off in the early 19th century, when they seperated from Portugal. What turns them on is doing business. They love it. So, what you said about their preference for BRICS is completely on target.
Has anyone told european citizens who last time I checked had a reaction along the lines of, meh, I think I'll sit this one out. Pass me a grape, thanks.
Andrey Gurulev: I have repeatedly noted that Western structures give the dates of a possible conflict with Russia — 2028-2030
I have repeatedly noted that Western structures give the dates of a possible conflict with Russia — 2028-2030. This is not a prediction of the date of the Russian attack, but an element of strategic planning. The growth of military budgets, the mobilization programs of Germany, France and other countries, and discussions about the deployment of nuclear weapons in Poland and now in Ukraine are part of the long—term architecture of the confrontation. European elites see war with Russia as the only way to maintain their own political and economic viability. If they don't attack now, it's only for two reasons: European society is not ready for war, and the Russian nuclear triad guarantees unacceptable consequences for them.
Of course, work is underway in the NATO analytical centers to find vulnerable points of the Russian deterrence potential. The weaknesses of control systems, mobile complexes, and underwater platforms are modeled. Naive politicians aim at the military to ensure that Russia can inflict damage that it cannot compensate for. The initial mistake is the assumption that Russia will accept the imposed scenario and prepare for a linear war by the conditional year 2030.
The reality is different.
The Russian General Staff does not build mirror schedules for the transfer of troops and phased mobilization. They are working with a catalog of goals that has been approved for a long time. It is not adjusted to meet other people's deadlines — it is activated when certain external actions occur. An attempt to implement Western plans will be perceived as a signal to launch algorithms that have long been prescribed. And these procedures do not resemble a classic battlefield.
The NATO command and control will be the first to be disabled. Headquarters and communication nodes are elements of a single network. Disabling them means the loss of the alliance's ability to coordinate actions. The destruction of physical infrastructure with precision weapons, sabotage of power systems that ensure the operation of command centers.
The next step is the destruction of logistics. Eastern European railway junctions, bridges, ports are accessible targets, key points, without which it is impossible to move the armed forces. The defeat of the transport network makes the transfer of troops technically impossible. The enemy forces simply will not be able to reach the theater of operations. Mobilize as much as you can.
Missile defense bases in Poland and Romania are considered as elements of a potential strike configuration and will be destroyed in the first minutes of escalation. Solutions for them are available and do not require further development.
An attempt to deploy tactical nuclear weapons near the Russian borders will be stopped before the actual deployment. No one will take risks and wait for ammunition to appear in the immediate vicinity. The response will be proactive and aimed at destroying the storage infrastructure itself.
The Poseidon and Burevestnik strategic systems do not exist for a first strike. Their task is to provide a guaranteed response in a situation where traditional means of delivery may be weakened. This makes any war with Russia meaningless in military and economic terms.
At the same time, no one in Russia is under any illusions that it will be possible to go through this process without losses. Losses are inevitable — this is part of reality. But another thing is also inevitable: any structure that decides to strike at Russian soil or population will lose the opportunity to continue to exist as a military or political unit. This is not a threat, but a consequence of algorithms that will be activated automatically.
The Western scenario of 2029-2030 is based on an outdated model of a gradual, staged war. The Russian side is not preparing for it. It forms the tools that make the very conduct of the war impossible for the enemy.
The bottom line is simple: there will be no protracted battle. There will be a rapid destruction of NATO's manageability and infrastructure. There will be nothing to restore — the conflict will not have time to move to that stage, which in the West is called conventional.
Admiral Avakyants took a sneak diss shot at Putin a month or so ago on prime tive Russian TV -- he said "All the plans for Europe's destruction have been worked out in detail a long time ago, it is a matter of political will to execute them".
The political will exists, but there is no need for the moment. If NATO does anything serious(some of the actions indicated above) it will be their doom. Russian reaction is not gradual like the Westz its like a spring.
You are exagerating the damage. It is nothing but a scratch. It might seem like much to us, but clearly the leadership, military and the public don't think much of the damage their receiving. Just look at their words, actions, economic activity as well as public sentiment. We are outsiders, they seem to think the price in economic and human lives is very small, and all data I sighted supports this. The decision to eliminate NATO as well the millions that will come out of this decision, is not on the table yet, since they see other options. Russia is not the US, and is not run by pirates and criminals. Heavy decisions weigh heavily, but will be taken when they have to(as SMO clearly shows). Stop thinking in terms of the losses since we don't know the actual damage and , and why they are trivial from the leadership and society point of view.
Back to nonsense again. We get all these fantastic claims from the Western press but never any follow up damage assessments. Come to think of it we never got one from the 12 day war either. Trump just emphatically declared everything was destroyed and left it up to Alt media to argue about it. With various satellite photos of unknown dates to argue over. If these attacks are so successful why start blowing up tankers and pissing other countries off like Turkey? I mean... they won't have anything to pick up anymore since all of Russia's industry is being destroyed. Right?
It's plain to see who is the aggressor. A war to remain relevant. Micron and Queer may be long gone but Europe's appetite for destruction wont go away. Few European men will be interested in this war but many will die. Let's hope some sanity is restored to NATO and the EU in the years to come.
I'm not sure I agree with that given the time in which it was formed. I certainly agree there has been no sanity supporting it for the last 35 years, though.
Well GM that comment was well worth reading! You do have your moments. I can confirm what you are saying. Russia has this all well planned out in advance. As part of NATO in the 80's/90's we had target folders for all transportation corridors to stop a Russian assault through the Fulda gap. Although most of us thought we would be nothing but speed bumps for the advancing USSR herd. I know this is more tactical tha, the strategic fight you are describing. But point being, there are plans upon plans and more contingency plans on both side than people have any clue about. Some are black, top secret, and come to fruition only if XY or Z happens. The Russians are even more thorough in their planning, especially at the strategic level. They have to be because their struggle is indeed existential... Chip
Why did you switch to truth mode? You usually post nonsense. Putin said it plainly. There will be no Russian invasion. There will just be no one left to negotiate with. Russia has been preparing for this moment since 2000. The year their security state pushed Yeltsin out. The bombing of Serbia being his last straw.
They made it very clear they will not be going to war in Europe. Not in the way Europeans are talking about. Putin was very serious here. That "war" will be standoff weapons including nukes. As he said... there will be no one left to negotiate with. Not one Russian boot is going into that cesspool. They been there done that. Look at where it got them?
I realize I'm pointing out the obvious, but removing any chance for Russia to get back its sovereign funds pretty much guarantees that Russia will fight until Ukraine is utterly finished.
It does not remove any chance of Russia getting its money back. It was a decision to remove the internal need for a resolution every six moths to keep holding the assets. Russia knows that only the force of law and various other pressures principally from the US threatening to kill off NATO pronto dramatically immediately closing US bases withdrawing weaponry etc etc, including some new trade detonations, will lever open this horde in EU hands- or the equivalent from the european central bank (selling gold to buy in the dollars demanded if necessary), if they have already spent it.
But it does not bode well for international confidence in the euro which the US can also kill off if it chooses. Although europe seems intent on doing this all by itself.
Jullianne, it's interesting that you mention the ECB buying $$$ with Gold in the light of recent reports elsewhere about Italy's efforts to bring their Gold back in-house.
I'm told there's two parts to the EU's move. One is as you said, to pass a resolution stating that Russia's funds are frozen until the end of the war, with no need for further EU votes. But the second part is where Russia's sovereign funds disappear into the void. It will require unanimous approval of all EU states to release the funds. How likely do you think that will be?
It will not require any agreements of EU member states to release the assets if there is a valid court order. What it will do is stop a US friendly like Hungary pushing the release of the assets in furtherance of a deal between the US and Russia over european heads. That is what they are really afraid of. But alienating the US in this way is not helping their cause, just confirming Trump's bias that he needs this lot like a hole in the head. There is so much economic damage Trump could do europe if they sit on those assets when he wants them released that you might almost wish they would, and bring the misery of the EU to a speedy conclusion.
To be technical, RR should have said that the bonds have been permanently (with just the slightest veneer of conditionality) removed from Russia's possession "absent effective judicial intervention". They have been stolen, in other words, and the fact that a court might order possession restored does not mean they were not stolen. Moreover, courts can order, but orders aren't necessarily obeyed. Along those lines, one of the EU harridans, Ursula or Kaja I think, has scoffed at the idea that any European court would order the bonds restored, and the EU has taken formal action to declare itself immune from certain treaties bearing on the matter. They have declared themselves lawless, in effect. I can say with confidence that under American law, at least, the EU's self-serving declaration that the appropriation was "not permanent" would have no legal effect. It seems almost certain that whatever law governs these bonds and Euroclear would hold the same thing, but I don't know that for sure.
It's true they did this to free themselves from the possibility of some member developing a conscience and the necessary fortitude to end the sanctions (or to do so on behalf of the US), but their primary purpose does seem to be to enable the transfer of that money to Ukraine or the MIC. We'll see if they do it. The Duran boys are pretty sure they will, and it seems likely enough to me. Doing so will mean that Europeans themselves would have to restore the money if ordered, and I think that bakes war into the cake. The current gang in charge won't do that. Or so it seems to me.
I thnk the frozen assets were a Russian boobytrap/land mine. They really don´t need it, care about it and now it servers to help rip the EU into pieces. Russia thinks long term and by the time you see your doom, it is too late.
That would be some serious 3D chess on Russia’s part! But you’re right that Russia is planning long term, while the EU is locked into self harm. I also think you’re right that Russia will be fine without that money, colossal though it be. Even so I expect that they’ll demand it back no matter what. And good day to you too!
Putin said a long time ago that the EU got more assets/funds in Russia than Russia got in the EU. He was really surprised that the EU would risk Russia's confiscating their funds/assets in Russia.
The difference, not in Russia's favour, is liquidity. Russia's assets in the EU are in cash equivalents. Cash is king in the asset heirarchy. Whereas the EU's assets in Russia will mostly be in businesses and so forth. They're not really worth anything unless there's someone willing to buy them, which there may not be in all cases. Regardless, I believe Russia will come out okay financially.
Yes, cash is customarily placed at the top of the list of assets, primarily because it is liquid and can be converted immediately into any other asset.
I don't know the composition of Russia's assets held in Brussels, but we know that the assets are earning interest because the EU is spending that interest on Ukraine. I expect Russia's assets are probably in US Treasuries and Eurobonds for the most part. These are also considered very liquid, just under cash itself.
Cash is at the top of the asset hierarchy only as long as financial markets are operating normally. If everything breaks down (ie Wiemar Germany) then cash becomes almost worthless.
I think you have this precisely reversed. In a fiat currency regime, "cash" is only a form of government debt and is nothing but electronic blips on a screen. Businesses, on the other hand, are real and tangible, not reliant on the creditworthiness of some governmental issuer, and not created by keystrokes. Russia has much the better position here.
Liquidity is a concern, as you mention, but how liquid is western-issued government debt to a country with 50,000 sanctions? And that's not even to consider the extreme risk presented by western lawlessness and out of control debt.
There's often more than one way to look at things in finance and economics. Different people have different outlooks and priorities, and you're free to form your own opinion on it.
An asset such as a business is not liquid nor is its value fixed. It might not be worth anything, or it might even represent a liability. Cash is worth its face value, does not carry a liability and has no counter-party risk. Just because something is 'real and tangible' does not in any way speak to its financial value.
US government debt is presently very liquid. It's the most liquid government debt in the world by far. And the US government very much wants it to remain so. That's why they haven't stolen Russia's sovereign assets and advised the EU not to do it either. If they did steal them, it would damage the reputation and liquidity of US government debt.
Put simply, if Russia had a choice between having its sovereign funds back or confiscating an equivalent book value of foreign companies, they would invariably choose the sovereign funds. That's why Russia does not have the better position in this narrow area.
How about the mich simpler explanation that Nabiulina is a western agent, which all her actions speak to, and that she is more powerful than Putin, which is why she has not been removed despite actively and deliberately sabotaging the economy for four years and fucking up so badly with having that money in Euroclear when the war started?
Stalin would have had her shot in mid-2022 the latest.
That is pretty much Trump's sentiments about his central bank ...the Fed.
Also I don't think Putin phoned up the head of the Russian Central Bank to see when he should initiate what he apparently honestly believed would be a short, threat display only, intervention that would solve the whole problem.
He has publicly admitted that was a very serious mistake on his part.
Edit: The mistake I am referring to was believing that a Russian massive show of force would convince Zelensky who branded himself as the peace candidate to seriously work towards a peaceful solution. I have no doubt it didn't even enter his mind then or since to consult the Russian Central Bank about the best war strategy.
And then she continued to kneecap the reshoring of the domestic Russian economy with 15-20% interest rates for four years because she wasn't informed on time about what exactly?
I don't understand your comment. She was or was not informed about what by whom, when?
High interest rates are the conventional central bank response to serious inflation. There may be other effective responses but almost always other responses in other countries have been disastrous.
I don't know enough about the Russian central bank performance in this regard to confidently say they should tell their citizens that they are betting the central bank (and thus Russian economy) farm on anything I suggest
" I also think you’re right that Russia will be fine without that money, colossal though it be. "
Very true, and you can see it's true by how Russia is already fine without that money. Not having that money for nearly four years while growing the economy and running a war is proof Russia can do, and has done, fine without that money.
In fact, the hardest part was the first year and a half when the Russian economy was refactoring itself to deal with sanctions and to reorient trade with the East, a long overdue move given the East has become more economically powerful than the fading West.
It's a lot easier now for Russia, with both the great pivot to the East as well as achieving critical mass with replacements of Western inputs by local industry. If Russia could do well without those reserves in the first year and a half it can certainly do well without them going forward.
One more thing, not really central to the above, but one factor in Russia not needing those reserves is that the same suicidal behavior by the West, such as cratering its economies by cutting itself off from critical Russian energy and resource inputs, that was part and parcel of the clown car show that also included freezing Russian assets in the West is one of the factors that powered the collapse of the dollar and the euro against gold. What Russia had frozen in the West it made up to a surprising degree by the increase in value of Russia's gold reserves.
Indeed! Gold was at $1880/oz when Russia launched the SMO. It stands at $4300/oz today, so Russia's gold reserves more than doubled in value. They're said to have something like 2300 tons, but I suspect the amount might be higher. The dollar value is about US$300 billion, so Russia's gold reserves have increased in value by about $168 billion during that time. That goes a long way to offsetting the funds that are being stolen by the EU.
Probably more accurate, and more illuminating, is to say that at the start of the SMO a dollar was worth 1/1880th of an ounce of gold and now it is worth less than half that, at 1/4300th of an ounce. The SMO has been exceedingly expensive for the US (along with our other crazy policies).
This isn't just semantics. The framing I suggest places gold as the standard and the dollar as the pretender. With brief interludes, this framework has been more accurate for the last 5,000 years. Gold is money; the dollar is debt.
Like I said, there's different ways to look at it and you're free to choose. You're also free to vote for a reorganized world financial system based on gold. I too believe it would be a good idea.
But that's not the present reality. The reality today is that the US dollar is the de facto reserve currency and it's highly sought after for financial transactions. Debt instruments based on the US dollar, such as US Treasuries, are also highly sought after and are almost as liquid as cash itself.
I'm describing things as they are, not as you or I might prefer them to be.
Russia's focus is more on making the BRICS financial mechanism more important than actually getting that money put back into stasis or even getting it back in the far distant future. Euroclear stealing assets in trust however reluctantly makes it clear to everyone that European governments are desperate and no apparent legal guarantees from them can be counted on.
The trillions of dollars of global smart money will take note and ever so cautiously take action to reduce their exposure. Europe's own central banks and the I.M.F. are telling the E.U. that is the case.
And in the end Russia can negotiate the contested funds out of E.U. control into a fund to rebuild at least the Russian managed parts of Ukraine, once the war is over. Something the videos in the article show will be sorely needed. Something that will keep the post war Russian economy humming and keep the newly discharged soldiers busy. As well as give Russia a head start in the post war p.r. race to see who can do the most to restore civilized life to the damaged parts of Ukraine under their control.
Observing Mariupol today highlights a significant Russian achievement, as it has been restored to a state even better than before its destruction by the AZOV battalion. There are many videos on y/tube illustrating its new grandeur.
"as it has been restored to a state even better than before its destruction by the AZOV battalion. "
No, although I agree with your overall sentiment. I was in Mariupol recently and although there has been much rebuilding it is only about 20% to 25% rebuilt. There are vast swaths of the city which are ruins, such as all of the former residential zones around the Azov steel works.
There are also weird contrasts everywhere. For example, the main road from the region of the Azov works into the center of town for the last eight to ten blocks before the very center has been rebuilt and restored on the left side of the street (heading uphill into the center), and there you see elegant Tsarist era buildings with stylish young people having coffee at sidewalk cafes, shopping etc, and on the other side of the street you see ruins covered in heavy machine gun pockmarks, holes from tank round, blown out interiors and so on.
But where there has been big rebuilding it's truly fantastic, a better city than before. Many people have been moving back.
I doubt that Russia doesn't want or need the $210B, but they have probably written it off and they will demand it back when this is over, just to put a few more nails in the Europeans coffin. This is what happens when you let idiots like Rutte, Fond of Lyin' and Kallas in charge, let it be a lesson if there's anything left when it's over.
The people in power in Russia right now are responsible for draining the country of tens of trillions, in comparison to which the 300 billion in sovereign funds are a rounding error.
And they knew that the funds will be taken a long time ago.
Yet they continue to negotiate and Ushakov was talking about a DMZ in the Donbass yesterday while continuing with the policy of stubbornly not mentioning Kherson and the Zaporozhye at all.
But even those don't solve anything, only taking everything east of the Zhytomyr-Vynnitsia line at the very least makes a material difference.
Why are they negotiating then? And why were territorial exchanges so casually discussed in the leak calls between Ushakov and Witkoff?
And why do they so persistently insist on the negotiations being kept secret?
Could it be that the primary concern is keeping them secret from the Russian people themselves so that how much of a treason the Kremlin is willing to commit is not exposed before it all a fait accompli?
>Because everything will essentially result in some document. That's how they roll.
Which will be completely worthless.
It doesn't matter whether Ukraine is officially in NATO or not, what matters is whether NATO is on the ground in Ukraine. Which it already is, striking Russia directly.
BTW, the new American strategy is not the win many idiots think it it -- it opposes further NATO expansions for a very different reason they imagine, and it is that the US does not want to take further Article 5 commitments. But they will continue to aggressively expand their proxy network and move military assets in closer and closer to their enemies.
>The most paranoid explanation is not necessarily the proper one.
Plenty of history and evidence to back it up in this case though.
<<<<<And why do they so persistently insist on the negotiations being kept secret<<<<
Because anything said by the Russians short of ....this means war, nuclear war, spread all over the world so that it kills everybody currently alive now or in the future.... will be described as treason by people such as your self.
If the boosty link doesn't work for you, I believe it is on youtube also.
Orlov compliments Simplicius like peanut butter and jelly. Like ham and cheese. Like coffee and cream. Like tea and crumpets. Without Simplicius, I don't know if I'd understand what Orlov was talking about. Without Orlov I might not know what it means. Orlov's humor is addictive.
This is from his latest post:
"C5: five core nations that include Russia, China, India, Japan and, of course, the United States. Little do they know that there is already an organization of five core nations: BRICS. The US would be the 6th but it won't be invited."
And yes, his "No Questions Asked" articles are available on YouTube.
I agree. The Kiev nazi regime is just not tolerable to Moscow. Something tells me that the RUAF will not tackle Kramatorsk-Slaviansk now but instead advance in the Dnipro and Kharkov regions. Concerning the Eurorats, they are crumbling down. Russia and the US are clear they want the EU crushed now. Trump doesnt forget who tried to kill him, politically and physically, and neither does Putin.
how is Zelenski going to survive without more shekels - judging by office chairs from the photo of the meeting with Blackrock above he only gets the best and most expensive things.
I had a similar Eames leather office chair the one he sits on costs thousands of USD
That is the EU'S wish. To the last Ukrainian. Their biggest problem is finding the next cannon fodder. It was supposed to be Poland and Romania but their public isn't buying it. They need some sort of believable mass casualty false flag. Are there any twin towers in Warsaw?
They we're always going to do that, since there was no chance in hell the USA/EU would back down. Russia can only get their security by demolishing Ukraine. And they can actually demolish Ukraine. So...
What is the point to this adamant European posturing? This attack on tankers and Russian oil infrastructure is very disturbing. The only thing countering it is Trump’s new plan, an if. How will Russia respond? The Ukrainians are already suffering. It is a reprehensible situation. More English adventurism, more death and destruction in Ukraine. These people are crazy they threaten the world’s existence.
At the moment there is frantic noise about Russian assets, Ukraine can win, is on the attack, blah blah- to drown out any commentary on Russian advances and keep up morale in Ukraine itself where the EU is terrified of a massive wave of refugees moving west expecting asylum in western Europe. Winter has barely started.
And natural gas is flowing in the wrong direction, as is electricity. The gas storages are at historical lows, but the EU is pumping gas into Moldova and Ukraine. To make things worse, they are burning gas to produce electricity, which is then also sent to Ukraine.
And that is why the "militarization" of Europe, is just a way to continue the grift. Europe does not have, nor will it be able to achieve in the future, enough energy to ramp up military production. Energy in Europe is the most expensive in the world now, thanks to EU dictators "policies". However, money will still flow to the "militarization" of Europe, because then ursula, kallas, costa, etc will still be able to fill their pockets with stolen money from the dumb european population, due to the "russian boggeyman" narrative that is rampant all over Europe and that the majority of europeans, believe in.
There is the presence of a few million "refugees" already here in the UK/EU, with easy access to bullets & bombs (some allegedly driving Bugattis) who are going to become the enemy within when it all goes sh!t shaped.
EU will open its borders for all the ukrainian nazis. Make no mistake about it. EU only closes its borders to recent christian sirian refugees, fleeing the terrorist regime in Syria, that EU supports.
There is so much that is bonkers now, on both sides of the Atlantic. The cherry on the cake is that Trump looks like he is doped up again. I don´t think he has any real grasp of what is going on. He talks his game but, he is just a bullshitter whom has gotten in way over his head.
Since a very young age I have always wondered what the end of great empires was like and how could people who had it all, ever let it happen. Now I know.
Thank you Simplicius. I wish the best to you and yours in this holiday season.
Speaking of which the renowned military/political commentator and all round savant extraordinaire, the great much maligned “GM” seems to be on early Xmas hols of late.
Alas yes, I hail from that dreary part of the world . Our bit is pretty good though - Southern Highlands.There are hundreds of the bastards in the bush behind our house, many I suspect are zionists.
It's not the end yet, but the empire is struggling, so much so that they are resorting to tactics they never had to do before. Desperate moves come with desperate times. Had the empire retained its power and influence from the past, they would not be doing what they are now. More and more countries understand that it's no longer the empire's way or the highway. There are alternatives now. And the empire is trying to crush those alternatives, without much success. In fact those crushing attempts are showing to more and more countries, that they definitely should no longer stay under the "wing" of the empire. The previous vassals remain vassals and continue to be vassals. That's just how it works and it won't change.
How about an article speculating a little about what this “war with Russia” that Europe seems to be insisting on would actually look like? How would it unfold?
What if Article five IS invoked. Would the US electorate tolerate sending our people over there? Krikey, Venezuela is a problem. If so, how would they get there? What percentage of people and material could actually get in place to fight? If the US does not engage, who does? The entire Brit army looks like an afternoons work in that war. What is if these idiots actually have in mind?
Yes, but if you want to remove the immediate platform for point-blank attack while hoping to avoid an all-out exchange, you take out the EU. And Turkey.
Then the supply of further willing useful idiots will automatically dry up too.
Trump hasn't made any serious peace proposals. I guess they're worried he might do so eventually, but I do not share that concern. He wants Europe to pay the price, not to make peace.
In the age of fire and nuclear war, do you really think the US would risk extinction to help rowdy dwarves? Article 5, the paper it's written on, states that each member decides what form of support it provides, e.g., food aid for troops engaged in combat. NATO doesn't have the resources for a conflict; militarily, in terms of both quality and quantity, it's a disaster. It's all well and good to add up the populations of the alliance members without asking them if they'll go at the sound of the whistle. And since the economy is transformed energy, war is an overconsumption of energy. Does the Alliance have enough? Supply follows demand; in the event of a conflict, the resource-poor Western Europeans would be devastated, militarily and economically. There would be cause for concern, all those new Russian weapons, industrially produced and unused... A serious analysis would take years. So many variables. The certainty is that the US will not budge for the Europeans; on the contrary, they will withdraw their troops.
Aurelien is the best thinker of them all. Have followed him quite a while and his deep thinking should penetrate the skulls of von der Leyen, Kallas and Rutte.
Don't get misled by Aurelien.... he's like John Merschimer... they are more grounded in reality, but still intoxicated by previously being part of the system and consulted by the elites. Hence their cachet...
In actual fact, their pro-system bias means that they can't accept that the system they helped build has become utterly corrupt, and incompetent. They can't entertain the thought that their previous efforts were all for naught, so they miss a lot of the elephants lounging in the tiny room.
>How about an article speculating a little about what this “war with Russia” that Europe seems to be insisting on would actually look like? How would it unfold?
It won't unfold, because Europe has crippled itself to not be able to sustain any military industrial production, enough to provide for any war.
However, the money flow will continue to so called "industrial production of military assets", which in reality will end up in the pockets of Ursula vonder Nazi, Kallas, Costa, etc. It's simply an extension of the now close to being over project Ukraine. Once the grift ends in Ukraine, the EU scum will continue the grift in EU countries themselves and for money to flow, they need to keep the russian boggeyman very much alive, in the minds of the dumb european populations, that are more concerned with football and reality shows, than anything else. And when EU countries collapses, Ursula, Kallas, Costa, etc will "disappear" and reappear in some USA bank or western institution, as if nothing happened, which is the usual practice in the west.
Surely one of the prime candidates to meet the hangman or better still, got hold of by the people. Anyone remember the Whicker Man? Build a big one and stick them all in it.
They have no doubt written it off, but I doubt they have lost it. There are plenty of frozen assets in Russia that will end up offsetting any EU confiscation.
And this is the only good reason for the EU leaders to beat the war drums. To rebuild the Donbass, you will need a huge workforce. At this very moment, Russia is short of all kinds of workers, not least because of the military needs. If you keep the pressure high, the Russians are pressed to keep this force active. When the war is over, people expect the government to quickly rebuild their homes and workplaces, especially the veterans—this could lead to serious trouble for the Kremlin.
As already pointed out, you don't seem to realize that with the war, Russia has actually GAINED population. It did not lose population like Ukraine did. So it has plenty of workforce for the rebuilding effort. Plus, we've seen how Russia also has help from its allies like North Korea, which not only helped in the military operation in Kursk, but is also helping in factories. This will be the smallest problem that Russia will have. In fact I'm pretty sure many russian contractors are already rubbing their hands, given the amount of work for literally years, they will have for the rebuilding of Russia's new territories, which hopefully will be up to Odessa. Europe on the other hand, will receive an influx of nazis, fleeing from Ukraine and if Ukraine becomes land locked, even more will go to other european countries, creating insecurity, increasing extremism and destroying further any quality of life europeans enjoyed before. If Russia fulfills all the goals of the SMO, it's Europe that will be in a world of hurt, not Russia. Even more so with the stealing by EU of russian assets.
I suspect the 'return on investment' will be significant. The money was spent to destroy the EU, and that's not bad. The strange thing is that the EU did it to themselves.
Today, as reported by RT, Russia’s central bank has initiated legal proceedings in Moscow against Euroclear, in a move that comes as the EU approaches a denouement on plans to use Russia’s frozen funds to back a loan to Ukraine.
In the end, it's theft, or an act of piracy on land. A modern form of what were once medieval pillages. And perpetrated by a bureaucratic structure whose existence is due to long-standing treaties signed by various countries. If it now goes against the will of those same signatory countries—say, Hungary, Belgium itself, or others—I don't foresee a very long future for that bureaucracy. After all, it's not an organic structure like a nation, capable of withstanding political attacks of all kinds.
On the other hand, the Russians will put on a serious face and complain, but I suspect that in the most fashionable restaurants and financial corridors of Moscow, over drinks, they're happy and commenting: "Well, what idiots they are. They took the bait! The trap cost 300 billion, but we caught the pig." Goodbye to credibility and the sacrosanct right to private property in the European pigsty. What investors will find it attractive to bring their money to Europe in the future? The EU certainly has the mission of plunging Europe into rapid decline... I always thought the EU was Europe's greatest enemy, and that's how things look.
And so, old Europe is slowly becoming a toothless old woman. It is in this way, by adopting short-sighted attitudes, that it falls into irrelevance and becomes the laughingstock of the world. What centuries ago was the cradle of Enlightenment thought now survives on outdated clichés and absurd mantras that no one believes anymore. And so it is with the passage of time and history.
Well said , having committed moral suicide on altar of wokeism, cultural, military and economic suicide were only a matter of time.
How many generations from the Enlightenment to total Idiocy? It takes many generations to build a civilisation, only a couple to destroy one. We are in a strange way privileged to be able to witness such a rapid collapse in such detail.
In times of collapse civilisational time seems to speed up.
What investors will find it attractive to bring their money to Europe in the future? Euroclear claims to be overwhelmed with calls from foreign investors, the Belgian Prime Minister says the same, and also from companies with assets in Russia. I don't believe in the madness of these individuals to this extent, but rather in the threats of the green dwarf against them; they've washed their hands in the money laundering machine.
"Euroclear claims to be overwhelmed with calls from foreign investors, the Belgian Prime Minister says the same, and also from companies with assets in Russia."
Since neither the eruo nor european stock exchanges have tanked, I'ma call bullshit.
We don't give a damn about your beliefs. What do you know about the stock market? What are your brainwashing sources? Tomorrow I'm calling Euroclear to tell them they're liars. Tell me, you stock market expert, what is Euroclear? What form do these Russian funds held by Euroclear take? You seem like some kind of emerging GM.
It's not just that. It's an act of war. Russia needs to respond swiftly and powerfully. Enough with the gloves on approach, especially with europeans. They are scum and should be treated as such. Same with USA, that continues the theater of "wanting peace", while continuing to supply everything it can to the nazis in Ukraine. I understand that diplomacy has this concept of still having to deal with true enemies, like USA is to Russia, but there's a point when Russia really needs to act accordingly and just cut ties with the terrorists of the world - USA and its vassals, including EU / NATO.
I understand why Russia does not act militarily outside of Ukraine but I do wonder why they have not acted economically, e.g. "You don't want our fossil fuels? Fine, they stop tomorrow."
Of course, Russia has stated it will not break legal contracts that they are making a lot of money from, but they could afford the hit - it would probably be a lot less than 300 billion before the EU is on its knees. And, EU clearly intends doing so, breaking contracts, so what is to lose?
I assume the impact on the oil and gas market prices and the consequences for China, India, et al., are the main impediments?
Why not do a bust-out as private equity does in the United States? Load the existing debts on the Union bureaucracy, declare it and the euro in default, and scram with the cash - freeing the European nations to return to seperate currencies (as they are anyways, the euro is demarked by country) and ridding them of the Brussels Mafia, which is an entity very much in business.
It is all words. A sovereign nation can change its constitution as it pleases. Lavrov treads water. Russia incorporated Zaporshye and Cherson without even having control of the territory. Why not simply declare Ukraine included in the Russian federation?
The regime of Ukraine choosed the wrong way when they stole Russian gas flowing through the pipelines, they choosed the wrong way letting Oligarchs with Israeli passport draining the nation of wealth, they choosed wrong when they teamed up with US democrats&republicans in the Deep state conspiracy to threaten Russia head on.
But they were in full rights to decide their own destiny.
Now it is time to repent.
You underestimate the Will of those muppets and overestimate the role of the Puppetmaster. There are many treads in this fabric.
Dont overreact….what happened in US election 2020? There were 10 millons more votes than in 2024. What happened in Romania presidential election?
We all know that there was a coup in 2014. Russia abstained foolishly from reacting to that looming threat with the exeption of Crimea take-over.
The word-salat from Lavrov doesnt mean anything.
The regime in Ukraine can decide whatever they want, exactly as Merz does in Germany or Starmer in UK. If EU, via von der Leyen, declares a Fourth Reich they can do it legally. People in Ukraine, EU and Russia has no saying.
We entered the Jungle mode since long. Strong eat weak. Democracy is dead. Liberal-globo-homo-capitalism has shedded their skin off and revealed the Reptilians they are. I dont see ”justice” or ” righteousness” anymore. We have a bunch of evils, some of them more ameable than others.
The bodysnatchers in Ukraine is of no concern in deep democratic, liberal, EU. Havent you noticed?
You cant throw allegations at me.
So much going on in such a short space of time! Hang on it's almost 2026.
love that billboard.
Good you reverted back to the "topic of the day + frontline sitrep in one big article" format. The alternative you tried last time of separating them in two different back to back articles came off as too fragmented IMHO
But he of course completely ignored the catastrophe that is the situation inside Russia.
Novgorod, Smolensk, Tver, Voronezh, Yaroslavl, Volograd, Saratov, Kalmykia, the Caspian Sea (!!!), etc. etc. etc.
It was 250 drones a day on average the last week, plus now a substantial dose of cruise missiles are starting to be added too, and the trend is extremely negative.
Meanwhile Russia itself has reduced the intensity of strikes and the Kremlin is "negotiating" about DMZs on Russian territory and is doing precisely zero of substance to eliminate the proxy.
And right on cue the doomer troll enters with the FUD.
The situation is not black and white. Dissenting voices should be welcomed, and challenged, not sneered at.
The troll has form and should not be tolerated.
No reason why they can't be welcomed, challenged AND sneered at, Glasshopper.
GM is a bit of a one-note trumpet to be honest.
GM makes some valid points. Putin has often confessed to his mistakes too.
My gripe is more about manners John. There are a few obnoxious louts on these threads who insist on shouting at anyone they have a disagreement with. It's rather uncivil, and unnecessary.
I get more kissed off at the bloody Nazis myself mate, but I take your point.
It depends if what they're saying is blindingly obvious bullshit, or not.
Some more blindingly obvious bullshit from just last night:
https://t.me/dva_majors/84965
Overnight, the Ministry of Defense reported the downing of 141 Ukrainian Armed Forces drones.
Enemy channels are publishing footage of attacks on the following targets:
▪️Crimea, Simferopol, GRES area
▪️Oil depot in Uryupinsk, Volgograd region.
▪️Smolensk State District Power Plant.
▪️Afipsky Oil Refinery in Krasnodar Krai (the regional task force reports damage to residential buildings)
Strange... they never cite sources for their fake information.
I live in Russia, but nobody knows anything about their attacks; neither official nor unofficial channels confirm their goals.
Neither as successful attacks nor as repelled attacks.
Let's name some sources... so we can see if they're not Ukrainian or Baltic fake channels.
You should honestly do a negative substack of these reports. I never hear of any of this
Last night:
https://t.me/dva_majors/84965
====
Overnight, the Ministry of Defense reported the downing of 141 Ukrainian Armed Forces drones.
Enemy channels are publishing footage of attacks on the following targets:
▪️Crimea, Simferopol, GRES area
▪️Oil depot in Uryupinsk, Volgograd region.
▪️Smolensk State District Power Plant.
▪️Afipsky Oil Refinery in Krasnodar Krai (the regional task force reports damage to residential buildings)
====
And note that both the size of the strikes and rate of inflicting damage has increased dramatically.
The last week the average was 250 drones a day, after months of it hovering around 100. Even with 98-99% efficient AD, that means 4-5 targets will be hit every day. It used to be that it was one hit every other day.
This is despite constant strikes on the Ukrainian rear, which have supposedly eliminated most Ukrainian production. And they indeed have done that, but at this point most production is in Europe, not in Ukraine.
Which makes the Kremlin maintaining the pretense that this is a war with just Ukraine and keeping Europe off-limits for strikes while Russia itself is taking constant hits just absurd, and a recipe for eventual total strategic defeat.
Absolutely. Sooooo many catastrophes in Russia, thank goodness there isn’t even the merest whiff of a catastrophe in plucky little Ukraine, all going exceedingly well.
The green Gob and co have the menu organised, just need to sort out seating for Xmas dinner in the Kremlin after the fall of Moscow next week
Ukraine is a fully disposable proxy, nobody cares about it
And only a complete idiot would keep striking at Ukrainian civilian infrastructure while not imposing a blockade on it and think that will solve anything.
Go back to your old job, the one on which you polished your skills- cleaning toilets.
1. You haven't stated anything that you can back up - even with a fake internet source.
2. Unlike you, Russia knows Ukraine is only one front in this Western-seeded, dirty war.
Of course people care about it. There are entire crops of politicians who can talk about nothing else, and who send my tax money to Ukrainians while also bringing them here.
Is Putin a complete idiot for not imposing a naval blockade of wheat shipping to Africans? You know so much better how to wage the war, apparently. Russia wants the resources in African countries, so they keep the wheat going along with having Wagner arm governments or criminal groups like the RSF in exchange for access to mines etc. If Russia blocked Ukraine's ships then Russian ships might also be blocked in various ways.
>Is Putin a complete idiot for not imposing a naval blockade of wheat shipping to Africans?
Looks like I have to bring up that situation from last year when Putin was for once confronted by a journalist with the question what is he going to do about it after yet another massacre of civilians in Belgorod carried out with NATO weapons. And his answer was "Well, what can we do about it? We could kill a lot of civilians in Kiev, but what will that accomplish?". Yes, that is what he said.
As if the only option for response to a massacre of civilians in Belgorod is a massacre of civilians in Kiev.
The options of:
1) Targeted precision strikes on Ukrainian political and military leadership and the Ukrainian oligarchy
2) Targeted precision strikes on NATO political and military leadership and key members of the Western oligarchy
3) Targeted precision strikes on the factories that produced those weapons, so that the source of them is cut off
4) Physical isolation of Ukraine so that no weapons can come in
In other words, everything that would have actually made a difference by reimposing deterrence and/or physically preventing future aggression, did not exist as an option in Putin's mind. Or rather, because we know very well he is not that stupid, he wanted it to be excluded from the conversation by default.
It is the exact same situation with what you are saying here.
Had Putin done his job there would have been no blockade of grain shipping to Africans, because Odessa and Nikolaev would now be Russian federal subjects and cars there would have license plates with #90 and #91 codes, the Russian army would control the whole coast, and there would be no need to blockade any shipping, because no weapons would be going to Ukraine through Odessa.
But not only didn't he do his job, he actively sabotaged the SMO in the early months, and before that back in 2014.
>You know so much better how to wage the war
Yes, I do.
Why was Odessa not taken? As it is they made it to Voznesensk, but were stopped because it was too small of a force. Just 50,000 would have taken both Nikolaev and Odessa in March 2022. Just 50,000. But he sent 5,000. Less than that even. Why didn't he send 50,000? Because:
1) He wasn't properly prepared
2) He wasn't properly prepared because he refused to mobilize (and still refuses to this day)
3) He had pre-sabotaged the SMO by ceding Mariupol back in 2014 when Rinat Akhmetov made that call to the Kremlin to order them not to take it when Azov vacated it. Because then Metinvest would have been left without a port. And Putin duly obliged, the order came to the DNR forces to halt, and Minsk was signed.
Which both doomed the city to destruction, and doomed the SMO, because the main Russian forces spent two months in Mariupol instead of taking Nikolaev and Odessa.
Then the grain deal came out of the same considerations -- oligarch interests.
You have to be an absolute imbecile to think it was done in order to please the Africans. Look up who controls Russian grain exports, look up who controls TogliattiAzot and thus had interest in the pipeline to Odessa (it was a grain and ammonia deal initially before the pipeline was blown up in Kharkov). Especially the latter situation. It will all become clear.
>If Russia blocked Ukraine's ships then Russian ships might also be blocked in various ways
How if Ukraine had no coast?
LOL
Rather than goofing on GM or trying to be dismissive the attacks and their effects, having been verified, need to be categorized and then Russia’s seeming lack of attention discussed.
Meanwhile, what’s with the 1,000 km attack on Russia’s strategic bombers? If true this is an act of war. Or maybe it never happened.
Unless there was another one I haven't heard about that was quite some time ago and was accomplished by semi's loaded with small drones parked in close proximity to the bases.
Those drones do little damage, it's not substantial. Russia's oil output continues unabated, Russians make videos of themselves partying in Moscow while Kiev doesn't even have means for the essentials, like California-style Pride parades.
"little damage":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeXof9lc7ak
https://x.com/Tendar/status/1836822868992156032/video/4
Yes little according to the pie that is going to be divided….800 billion among Finck, Zel, Donald, Kushner, Witkopf, Vladimir and dream on there’s more to come, many Ukraine casinos Donald has promised.
Blackrock to the rescue. What's in it for them? Does that leave anything for any one else?
Ambivalent about Trump. His idea to of Palestine as a holiday destination reminds me of Auschwitz. Too many ghosts!
Who cares about ghosts or demons, as long as they sell its OK. The Holocaust industrial complex, French broadcast every day food.
Those pride parades have spread outside of California..like a virus . Even with Trump in power it continues.
Idiot das muss ich nicht einmal übersetzen.
GM they (?!) never told me I’m only a spy, a bot, a fake, a shadow personality, I had to find out myself. According (they admit!) 80% of rage is among bots, but I can assure you this coming Olympic Games discipline is very close to become 100%. You, I and all will become experts.
Agree 1000% Russia should have set up check points manned by Russian soldiers on all of Ukraine’s borders with Poland , Hungary, Rumania and Moldova, you know with those gates that go up and down like in the cold war movies. That would have fixed it.
Yes, indeed, and unironically.
Putin had the resources to do that in 2022 without using nukes.
He no longer does.
Utter nonsense, the Russian military was completely under resourced and under done in 2022 as any half decent military analyst , Russian, US, European or independent has acknowledged.
You are a raving loony with a Putin fixation
>the Russian military was completely under resourced and under done in 2022
1) I said "Putin had the resources", not "the Russian military had the resources"
2) Whose fault was it that it wasn't prepared?
3) It did in fact have the resources to end Ukraine's existence in 2022, but there was a political veto on using them
4) Who has become proportionally more powerful since 2022? Ukraine or Russia?
So Putin has his own private army separate from the Russian military now.
you are either one sad B grade nutter or the most mediocre neocon (pot) plant since Fat Freddy Kagan disguised himself as blimp at the 2019 Russian military airshow,
>So Putin has his own private army separate from the Russian military now.
How does that follow in any way from what I said?
Putin is the supreme commander and the president of the country. So all the resources of the country, and it is the largest and wealthiest one on the planet, are at his disposal.
If he wanted to have an army ready to fight in 2022, he could have had one.
But even as it is, the Russian army was never in a better position to solve the Ukrainian problem than it was in February-March 2022. It had everything it needed. Decapitation strikes on leadership, a force of 100,000 (had they been mobilized in advance) going south from Brest to seal the Polish border, another 50,000 towards Nikolaev and Odessa, no absurd restrictions such as the strict order not to fire unless fired upon, strikes on all NATO assets in Ukraine, which were not officially there, thus nobody could complain about having taken them out, and which still have not been taken out to this day, etc. etc. Lots of obvious steps that were an absolute must to take in order to solve the problem while it had not yet spiraled out of control. But they were not taken.
The result of which is that the story of the next four years has been one of NATO getting progressively more directly involved, Ukraine being pumped up with more and more weapons, and changes in technology under still absolutely absurd self-imposed rules of engagement stalemating the battlefield.
Russia used to have an enormous military-technical advantage, and the reason it stopped advancing in July 2022 and was advancing so slow after March 2022 was the suicidal refusal to mobilize. Meanwhile the enemy was rapidly mobilizing while the Russian army was shrinking because it was all short-term contracts that were expiring and soldiers decided that they want no part of this shit show anymore.
Now that advantage has been largely eroded. Including even in long-range strikes, which should have never been allowed to occur at all as a precedent. The response should have been nuclear, with total annihilation of Poland and Romania (after giving an ultimatum first, of course) the moment the first Western drones flew into Crimea, because from that moment on everyone with a brain knew what was going to follow if the red lines were not enforced.
Last year even the nuclear doctrine was changed, then it was blatantly violated even on terms that were already in it previously on June 1st 2025, and has been blatantly violated every single day on the new terms (missile and mass drone launches towards Russia), and yet the doctrine has been completely ignored. You never make a mockery of your own nuclear doctrine because the consequences tend to be catastrophic...
GM in his best evoking rage
The rule that they are holding these assets indefinitely is a matter of Brussels internal admin meaning they now do not have to reconfirm the decision to hold the assets, every six months. This ruling will of course be subject to legal order to release them. It makes no difference to anything beyond the power of member states to influence this supranational machinery. It is a bit of theatre aimed at Ukraine to keep it fighting. There has still not been any decision to misappropriate the assets soft promised as backing for all sorts of loans now going bad. Although it will stop a single member eg Hungary acting eg at the behest of the US, to force a release!
Just saying.
Indeed a tale told by the Euro idiots , lacking even sound and fury signifying nothing. … just the usual press release plus grinning pic with the Goblin.
It exposes the fallacy and Hypocracy of the EUs so called International Rules Based order .
EU as a Finacial HUB will never be trusted again outside of the EU .The world is watching just as the USD has also lost its trust in being strong .
The world needs peace and Russia is on a WW2 mentality at present stubbornly with some justification in haveing lost all trust in EU and NATO commitmints.
We are marching headlong into WW3
Why Every time they say "rules based order" it sounds like "Protection Racket"?
youtube.com/shorts/CuJsngZJi7U
The Rules based Order:
The mob muscle to the dry cleaning owner:
"You can pay the 'insurance' costs to us or perhaps
an unfortunate fire torches your business. Is a $1000-month really that expensive?
Sure, take 24 hours to decide because the rates are going up."
Once you grok that the USSA and "West" is an organized crime
operation, things start to make more sense...the scales fall off the eyes.
It's the same banker/pirate class that's run this shit-show for many
generations.
Iran in '1953, Guatemala in 1954, Chile in 1973.
Now the Iranians, Russians and Venezuelans are
the new targets. Purely coincidence that all three sit
on very large pools of oil. A new "Trail of Tears" dressed up
and sold as 'fighting for democracy' and other ragged tales
and lies they never stop spinning.
"new targets"?
"If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and If Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible."
-Then-senator Harry S. Truman, 1941
***
US GEN.(RET) KELLOGG: It’s the "acme of professionalism" to use Ukraine to fight Russia:
rumble.com/v32wuhu-retired-us-general-keith-kellogg-on-using-ukrainians-to-fight-russia.html
***
Fmr CIA director Morell openly advocates to kill Russians and Iranians, 2016:
youtube.com/watch?v=-Ivt2NmbyGg
***
"Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial complex would have to remain, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. "
-George F. Kennan, 1987
It is far worse today. The US used to have a real economy to fall back on. All our oligarchs have is a MIC to suck off today. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_IGU_7alJ80
Yup. Imperialist war pigs only want to manufacture weapons at home. Not the consumer goods:
youtu.be/idkurWogst8?t=1191
***
Anglo-murican Imperialist Oligarchy degraded to the point where they can only suck out the Imperialist RENT from the rest of the world. And this is exactly why the most precise definition of Fascism is "Dictatorship of Financial Capital".
***
The main exports from the U.S. to the rest of the world is INFLATION and WAR
youtube.com/watch?v=jYkiMcR1Rj8
youtube.com/watch?v=PVFvEmhey_k
You are correct. Shudda said "current" targets...old wine in new fascism. Thanks.
NATO vs. Russia will be decided with nuclear weapons.
I don’t think so .
At , least I hope not .
Once that starts …it will be hard to contain .
NATO will be put aside by Blackrock, corpses for money and in the end money alway wins.
Look who is in charge:
David Fishman, a professor of Jewish History at The Jewish Theological Seminary and a member of the academic committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum supports the ADL definition of followers of Stepan Bandera as "freedom fighters against Russia."
Fishman: "For Ukrainian nationalists, UPA and Bandera are symbols of the Ukrainian fight for Ukrainian independence." The ADL claims that the Banderite alliance with Hitler was merely “tactical.”
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-lobby-group-adl-rehabilitates-hitlers-accomplices-ukraine/35021
The EU/zionists' beloved thugs: https://x.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1497747535783411714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1497747535783411714%7Ctwgr%5Ed4849f62406d42e9dd9fc77acaebb34fd35e2006%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Felectronicintifada.net%2Fcontent%2Fisrael-lobby-group-adl-rehabilitates-hitlers-accomplices-ukraine%2F35021
Stepan Bandera was put in a concentration camp by the Germans along with followers because they were killing Poles. But no media will tell people that as they can't reveal that the Germans were protecting Poles.. (Just like they won't mention that the Soviets had started moving the Baltic peoples to far-flung locations to replace them with Russians before the Germans stopped them, with the Jewish commissars then going into the Baltic countryside to kill people, rape women, cut off their breasts and torture them with fire, and all the other things communists do.) A few years later the Germans let out Bandera and his top men if they'd help fight the Soviets like they had been supposed to do the first time. Sure, they said and went back to killing thousands of Poles again. There is nothing for the ADL to dislike in that.
As for the nationalist leadership in Ukraine in general they sold out in 2014 for government paychecks and a government pension. Practically all nationalist parties and groups in Europe opposed the Biden-financed, pro-oligarch takeover in Ukraine. ONLY nationalists were this united in opposing Biden's and Jew Nuland's coup. Social democrat parties, communists and cuckservatives all supported it.
But those few leftists who support Russia out of Soviet nostalgia can't stop taking about Azov. Funny. Russia is run by a conservative right-wing party and has a thriving market economy. And while Putin himself is merely a conservative reactionary, forced by circumstances, his government includes more determined nationalists. Russia's war effort was saved by the Wagner Group chewing up Ukraine's reserves in Bakhmut, and the Wagners are nationalists, which is why the founder took the call-sign Wagner in the first place, as he was supposedly Hitler's favorite composer.
Stepan Bandera's MI6 Alliance Exposed:
substack.com/home/post/p-159633379
"I will draw the very last out of this country (Ukraine). I did not come to spread bliss. I have come to help the Führer The population must work, work, and work again.. for some people are getting excited that the population may not get enough to eat. The population cannot demand that. One has only to remember what our heroes were deprived of in Stalingrad . . . . We definitely did not come here to give out manna. We have come here to create the basis for victory."
"What happens to the Russians, to the Czechs, does not interest me in the slightest. What the nations can offer in the way of good blood of our type we will take, if necessary, by kidnapping their children and raising them here with us. Whether the other nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only insofar as we need them as slaves for our culture; otherwise, it is of no interest to me. Whether 10,000 Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch or not interests me only insofar as the anti-tank ditch for Germany is finished."
"We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here."
-Erich Koch, Nazi Reichskommissar (Gauleiter) in Ukraine from September 1941 until August 1944
phdn.org/archives/holocaust-history.org/works/imt/imtnew/03/htm/t406.htm
***
Here is none other than Himmler, talking about the necessity of settling Eastern Europe in order to bring ‘culture’:
"Eastern Europe never progressed beyond a certain primitiveness. It has never known anything but chaos because it lacked mankind, the valuable bearer of culture, the genius who systematically planned peaceful reconstruction, who ordered the well designed exploitation of the immense treasures and the fertility of the soil."
***
It wasn't just Germans.. there were Hungarians, Austrians, Romanians, Italians, Finns, Croatian Ustashi, French Charlemagne, Spanish Blue Legion, Belgianm Dutch and Scandinavian Waffen... EU 1.0.
My understanding from a number of comments made on MoA is that a large proportion of these assets is comprised of EU government debt. So the money has in effect already been spent. To realise value from these assets they must be sold, presumably at a big discount to compensate the buyer for extra risk of Russian litigation etc, and/or not repaid (to Russia) when the goverment debt matures thus saving the issuer money. In either case this would be a total disaster for the EU nations (and indeed the EU itself if it ever issues joint debt) in the future when they try to raise money on the international markets. This probably explains also the complicated schemes to use the assets as collateral to raise new money- it is because in a sense there is no money there to realise. The complexity of the schemes suggests accounting and legal chicanery to disguise the real underlying position.
The fact they where safeguarded by Euroclear which again I understand is backed by the Belgium State, also gives rise to severe internal issues within the EU, but will act as a clear disincentive for anyone in the future to hold capital within the EU.
Talk about committing economic suicide??? Am I getting this wrong?? But a clear win for the US$D and all other reserve currencies (except maybe the GBP as the UK seems keen on the theft too) including the Chinese¥ and possibly any future BRICS currency. So the question is what is really going on here given the downsides, or maybe more pertinently why?
It appears though that there is significant push back against this act of thievery, with several financial bodies declaring from the outset that this is both illegal and wrong, the latest being Japan iirc, stating they're having nothing to do with it. While I, personally don't have a full understanding of these financial shenanigans, I do see it as another act in the catalogue of "desperate acts", that so far includes: Piracy and Armed attacks on Shipping, an ever increasing number of Piss Plans, a DMZ, or is it an SEZ, a Referendum etc. None of which affect the outcome on the battlefield.
The Bank of England has also come out against it (which, I am sure, must p-off Starmer.) Japan, I believe, declared they would not allow the seizure of any Russian assets held in their banks.
Indeed. If you start breaking the agreed-upon rules others can do that too. And no foreign nations can trust assets placed in the EU.
Note that even Ukraine let Russian gas pass through Ukraine in pipelines, until Ukraine refused to renew the contract.
Yes, it's like killing diplomats, as Trump did, killing the great commander Soleimani who stopped ISIS in Iraq when he was visiting Iraq on a diplomatic passport. Sane people refrain from doing it so that your opponents won't do it either. If you start stealing assets like this no one knows who will be next. Saudis could be afraid to place money in the EU, etc. Even during WWII they didn't steal and use German assets, they only froze them.
(Like they froze Japan's assets in the U.S., instead of using them. You don't use confiscated money.
But they also cut off the oil that Japan needed for their industries in an Asia dominated by foreign empires. Causing the Japanese to go for independence and oil through empire themselves instead of the denied trade. Well, Roosevelt's agricultural secretary wrote in his journal some weeks before Pearl Harbor that Roosevelt had asked for ideas on how to provoke Japan into war, so he could go to open war against Germany instead of just bombing their submarines and arming Britain's attack. Roosevelt's first draft of his address to Congress after Pearl Harbor included a war declaration against Germany. But I digress .)
"Even during WWII they didn’t steal and use German assets, they only froze them."
Same as the EU leaders did yesterday, freezing the Russian sovereign assets in Europe until the Ukraine war ends.
But I thought the windmills would save them .
Sounds true.. I remember hearing Martin Armstrong in one podcast alluding to the fact that there's rumor that Russian assets in France had been squandered already.. That is if I remember correctly..
There was a period of time the amount held in Europe kept going down. I think it slowly went down to $135 billion. The Duran guys were making fun of it. I think it went back up to the original amount a couple months ago. It does make you wonder.
Orlov: Europe wants to steal its own debt.
https://boosty.to/cluborlov/posts/d62d0834-98b4-4a5c-8754-f7925d6bbeab
It is the long march to provoke an attack from Russia against Europe.
Rutte&Co is doing the same as happened before 2022 - accusing Russia of aggressiveness and in the same time put gasolin on the fire through their own actions.
They plan to poke the Bear until it snaps back. Expect more attacks on Russian bound ships, closure of Baltic Sea, build up of bases in Romania, Poland, Finland and Baltic. Expect deplloyment of long-distance missiles close on Russia, minimizing the response time for Russia. Now it is all up to US to consider how the future will turn up. Either take UK/EU by their ear and defuse the warmongering or play along and thereby make certain a WW3.
I don't think they want an outright war, but they love to focus on Russia to avoid talking about their own failures back home. It's the usual. And the leftist media and parties hate Russia to an insane degree, and a blog like Simplicius' will never mention why. But the leftists in Europe are open about it. I have heard them many times. Russia banned all homosexual propaganda and NGOs, so they are fascists who must be destroyed. Any facts said in favor of Russia marks you as a fascist. So, it's easy for politicians to score points by coming up with new ideas on how to grand-stand against Russia, even though they know that seizing these assets doesn't affect the war.
If europe wants a war with Russia, an excuse can always be manufactured.
Anyway, europeans are metrosexual limpwrists who could not locate their own genitals, not even if you let them use both hands and a magnifying glass. The european strategy since 1917 has been to get Americans to do the fighting for them.
Europeans has been fierce fighters but the good men all died in meaningless Wars. And after the Wars they let some Frankfurter doctrines, liberalism and feminism destroy them. The last thirty years with exchange of the population due house shortage and the following birth decline coupled to massive immigration has certainly altered what a European is.
I dont count the little brits as Europeans as they have done all they can to destroy the continent. They instigated the WW1 through their plans to make France and Russia crush Imperial Germany and then lured Germany to attack Belgium. Yes, they counted on America to do their fight. Same in WW2 where Stalin hoped for the Western destruction with War between France/Britain and Germany. Yanks did the same game - let Europeans killed themselves and then we go in at take the Victory. Churchill did what was expected from the little brits - even joining with Stalinist Russia.
Europeans do have genitals but they are mushy thanks to all these porns from the same people behind Frankfurter School.
The continent has done enough to destroy itself without the brits, although the brits are european in their love of whispering campaigns, fruity pageantry, in seeking to get power by bending the ears of senile monarchs.
And no, the Americans were not seeking to get involved in WWI or WWII - it was the brits and french begging them. Same with 1949, 1999 and 2011.
No, migrants are not the reason europeans are such wimps.
I am sure I read somewhere that most of the assets had matured and where now being held as cash. Either way the suspicion is that they have already been spent and this is all a desperate attempt to cover their arses. Hence, the forced debt of all member states.
No. They are in interest bearing assets. They have ready been giving the interest to Ukraine. They talked about putting then in riskier investments to try and generate more interest. I think they put off on that in an effort to steal the whole principle
I believe the assets are invested in European sovereign debt. No need to confiscate when they already have the funds. Just bad PR.
Goldhoarder, FYI. a bit late but this on RT today,
"Euroclear was tasked with holding bonds for Russia’s central bank; they have matured into cash but cannot be returned because of EU sanctions. The money is currently parked in short-term deposits at the European Central Bank."
We are nearing the end of a massive $330 Trillion global public/private debt Ponzi scheme that can only be managed by creating more debt. Russia's sovereign Euro assets are less than 0.1% of that and are unlikely to be the domino that brings it all down in Europe. The "great reset" in finance has to happen eventually and what is going on now is positioning to minimize the fallout and consequences.
We live in a world where almost all new money is created as debt, i.e. offsetting balance sheet entries for the borrower and lender. You are correct in that for the EU to send money to Ukraine, they will first have to redeem whatever bonds or other financial instruments they are currently held in. Meaning some other entity will have to buy them. The list of potential buyers is very thin, so the fall back position is that the EU would have to buy them. They do not have cash sitting in a drawer, so they will have to issue debt to do that. Hence the argument about dividing the debt liability among the EU members.
The amount of assets isn't overly material. Its the fact that any country who holds securities there now knows they can be confiscated at any time at the whim of the EU overlords. If the the confiscation starts a bank run it is significant indeed.
Very good point. No gold bars there, alas for the EU gangsters.
This isn't exactly true. The assets are there for a reason. For Russia and the EU to do business together. They would have to end the war in a way that Russia and the EU could go back to doing business. The problem they have is that the EU needs Russia far more than Russia needs the EU. Russia's future is East. This is why Europe can't let go now. They are desperate to bring Russia down and force their resources back into European markets. They truly believed they would kick Russia out of Crimea. Bottle them up in the Black Sea creating a panic in Moscow and a change of government that they would gain leverage over. This is why the conflict can't be resolved
Why the EU decided to freeze Russian sovereign assets in Europe until the Ukraine war ends:
To circumvent a potential veto from Viktor Orban's Hungary, member states invoked an article of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which covers economic stability in times of crisis.
From Le Monde:
Why the EU decided to freeze Russian sovereign assets in Europe until the Ukraine war ends:
To circumvent a potential veto from Viktor Orban's Hungary, member states invoked an article of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which covers economic stability in times of crisis.
As Europeans try to avoid being sidelined by the United States in negotiations over a peace plan for Ukraine and seek ways to continue financially supporting Kyiv, they took an important step on Friday, December 12 – one that is likely to help their goals. They agreed to freeze the assets that the Russian central bank held in Europe before the conflict began, until the end of the war in Ukraine.
Until now, as with other sanctions the European Union imposed on Moscow, its member states had to unanimously renew the asset freeze every six months. Each time, there was a risk that strongly pro-Russian countries, such as Hungary or even Slovakia, would veto the renewal, potentially letting the Russian institution recover €210 billion in assets for its treasury. Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, Budapest had generally played along with the EU, but in recent months, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is campaigning ahead of his country's 2026 parliamentary elections, has toughened his stance and repeatedly stated that he no longer wants to help Ukraine.
European leaders, therefore, searched the EU treaties for a way to circumvent the unanimity rule and, instead, allow a qualified majority of member states to delay the deadline for renewing the Russian asset freeze. The European Commission, always creative when it comes to legal matters, suggested using Article 122 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which relates to economic stability in times of exceptional crisis.
be interesting if the reason the EU/Euro "Elites" want the Ukraine conflict to continue is that the have seized and spent the "frozen" Russian assets.
Russia still owns the assets, but cannot access, move, or sell them while the freeze applies. 
However, it’s possible that the EU has used the interest generated by the frozen cash to help fund support for Ukraine.
Outright confiscation of the €210B principal is still legally and politically contested in Europe. The European Parliament’s research notes major disagreements among legal scholars and governments about whether confiscation is lawful given state immunity, even though some experts argue it could be justified. 
Russia’s central bank has called EU plans illegal and has taken legal action against Euroclear in Russia, and Russia has warned of retaliation. 
Not so sure this should be seen as some kind of technical administrative step because now the EU cabal can tell the dissenting countries that the issue of guarantees for the loan is solved. Russian collateral is there to secure the loan "for as long as it takes" until Ukraine repays the loan or when Russia agrees to pay reparations (good luck in either case)...
What is going to be really interesting is how the euro will be doing vs the USD over the next few days and weeks.
It is a bit more than theatre, from what I have heard, in that it breaches fundamental treaties of the EU, the over-riding commercial treaties between Belgium, Luxembourg and Russia, the statutory rights of member states, and forces debt upon those states (e.g. 53billion Euro in the case of Germany, 2billion on Hungary).
Furthermore, apparently, Belgium is being threatened with the withholding of EU funds if it does not comply.
On the plus side, I can see this achieving nothing but the accelerated demise of the EU.
From the perspective of Orwell's tripolar world of 1984, 2/3rds of the end stage is in plain sight.
East Asia is China's zone and will remain so.
Eurasia will be Russia's zone, as the EU has chosen suicide, it's all over.
Oceania is the interesting one, as there is an ongoing cultural struggle between the US and UK. The outcome of this struggle will determine whether woke Oceania joins the EU on the cultural scrap heap of history or whether Oceania returns to her pirate roots and perhaps even rediscovers mining and manufacturing.
Comment on Oceania (Australia, NZ, New Guinea and assorted specs of land in the pacific) makes no sense to me. The UK has zero influence in this area. I assume you are mainly referring to Australia which is militarily a satrap of the US and an economic satrap of China. The UK , much less the EU has no influence or relevance at all down here.
This is a literary reference. In Orwell's 1984, Oceania mainly meant the 5 eyes, AUS, NZ, Canada, US, and UK, which share history and a language. The big 3 power blocks were constantly in (cold) war with each other, changing partners frequently. The suggestion is that it was all fake, a narrative used to keep the working classes in each power block anxious and confused. The poor quality of life and lack of freedom could be blamed on foreign bogeymen. If Orwell were still living, despite numerous details being different after nearly 80 years, I think he would find today's narratives quite familiar.
Ok,then Orwell wasn’t well informed. The geographical concept of Oceania as currently understood has been around since the 19th century. Poor and confusing choice of terminology on his part.
Anyway probably his wife’s fault as according to some recent feminist “biography” of him , he was a nasty man and his missus wrote most of his stuff for him.
LOL!
The Five-Eyes is a hugely influential network of intelligence agencies influenced mostly by the CIA and MI6. It's leadership has always been controversial between the two main agencies. And one must remember that regardless of the views of the public, or the governments, or industry, it is this globalist intelligence network serving the international bankers and financiers that informs, and thus leads, all. Orwell's view stands, IMO.
Not so much hugely influential as hugely incompetent, especially where the British element is concerned as the Burgess, Philby etc fiasco’s proved. Australia’s equivalent ASIO is also laughably incompetent as is proved by the fact that in the 1980’s one of it’s heads was a known and longtime member of an Indonesian religious cult.
The “all powerful MI5 , MI6” trope is an urban myth, repeated over and over because it’s all “secret” and therefore anything can be asserted.
Even in relation to Ukraine, which has been an utterly dismal failure from a western intelligence perspective, the same rubbish about MI5/6 influence is recycled.
Incompetence has nothing to do with influence. Incompetent or not, Western leadership leans on them for directions and policy decisions.
Britain exerts influence through partial ownership of the FED. City of London is the headquarter of the global banking cartel. Besides, City of London basically runs all the main offshore funds.
AND It still runs Israel through the Pilgrim Society, Privy Council, RIAA, etc.
***
Simply speaking, Brits are the wicked brain (Intelligence services/spy networks - colonial legacy) and the slush fund, and the U.S. is the brawn of the Global (Imperialist) Oligarchy.
youtube.com/watch?v=KaooeJzsRU8
Reading the so-called MI6 intelligence reports, supposedly leaked to the mainstream media propagandists, has at times been utterly ludicrous. Yet many people gullibly swallowed the propaganda. The most irritating refrain, endlessly thrown back at me in certain comment sections whenever I foolishly try to have a rational discussion, is: “Oh, what about the three days to take Kyiv?” repeated ad nauseam
Flew to LA last week, at my major airport, the passport control didn't even look at the passport. They ask you to stand before camera and wave you in. The thing is that they're having posters for months prior that the photos are destroyed immediately after taking. And now, they're okay without you showing your passport? They really think we are idiots (and probably we are.)
Perhaps they are IDing you through the photo which is connected to your passport info?
And don't forget the "trilateral commission".
BTW look up who was the grandfather of the new MI6 head.. personally recommended by Mossad:
youtu.be/Va6CHzvUerk?t=759
youtube.com/shorts/0BIVuGtfDGc
youtube.com/watch?v=SbL9cDjyB8o
It's called fiction.
An odd hill of pedantry to plant one's flag in.
You don't get it. Orwell's '1984' is fiction, with a serious purpose, but still fiction. It isn't intended to predict 21st century geopolitics. It's intended to convey the kind of consequences when power-hungry politicians [that's almost all of them] get the technology to exert 100% control over the people. Exactly what the geographical locations/boundaries of the blocs are is irrelevant.
You realize that his novel was a work of fiction?
I wouldn't consider Orwell's description of the 3 power blocks as composed of particular countries but of spheres of influence - those spheres of influence being held in today's terms by Russia, China, and The USA.
Oceania in 1984 is the mainly ethnic European English speaking countries of the former British Empire that existed in 1948. Airstrip One is barely English in 2025.
Please ask ChatGPT to help you with the story in 1984. Then all will be clear (hopefully).
I think i can manage without the garbled woke megaphone bot that is chatgpt.
There are better magic bots out there , though still mere bots.
The Monroe Doctrine will expand to include Oz, Japan, Korea, South East Asia and Japan. Tahiti will join with Quebec.
China is very big already, they will have enough problems.
Russia and Iran will stand nicely.
India and the Eastern 'Stans will likely straddle China and Russia.
Jews will leave Israel and move to Ukraine.
The UK is hosed.
I think China having 3 carriers, plus air defence and hypersonic missiles will put an end to US Navy adventurism in the Western Pacific.
The Chinese carriers are unworkable junk. Like their subs.
Carriers are for show, they mean that you are big enough to build costly carriers now. Hugely expensive and easy to target for a comparable navy in modern war. Kind of like if you'd send a huge tank into Donbass.
Anyway, for all their bullying of Taiwan and other countries, claiming the sea even where it belongs to Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and more, China will not invade Taiwan. They just need it as a foreign target in politics, a pattern we have seen so many times. The sea is only favorable to an invasion for a short period each year. Taiwan's modern missiles from the U.S. can sink many Chinese ships even when they leave the harbor. The Chinese would have to deal with a network of islands with cannons and mine fields. They'd have to land possibly half a million men in the first day to be successful, and they have only a few modern ships that can do this. Then the U.S. navy would arrive.
And the Philippines and everyone else would cut off trade with China. China has invested more than a trillion dollars in the U.S., betting on American success, and all that money would be frozen. China's leadership needs economic progress to justify their hold on power. A disastrous war could bring out the protests against corruption that they want to avoid.
Taiwan has invested more in China than the U.S. has. Plenty of Chinese work in Taiwanese industries. Three Taiwanese airlines go between Taipei and Beijing daily. Chinese businesses respect the laws in Taiwan when they do business with them, and vice versa.. The Chinese respect court rulings in Taiwan in business disputes, and the Chinese government approves. In other words, beyond the political rhetoric and the sending of navy ships to move around Taiwan, the Chinese government has acknowledged the republic of Taiwan for generations.
There is a small island right off the Chinese coast that belongs to Taiwan. It is so close you can swim out to it. China has never taken it.
IMHO the "Donroe Doctrine" is doomed.
BRICS is already too cemented in place in South America.
The Chancay port in Peru is operating
HSR from Brazil to Chancay is being constructed, and given Chinese ingenuity will be completed "next week" (I slightly exaggerate)
The US military will show again how it learned to fight in a jungle and lose.
I am down here in Brasil for quite a bit of time time now. I have seen a lot in terms of domestic politics and naturally I have absorbed a fair amount of the culture, in my process of learning their language; and the learning never stops. Some of it I have seen blow up three meters from my face when it started and it went on for days. LIVE from Santa Catarina!!!
Basically south americans do what is good for them, so they can change positions faster than the wind. They also possess a highly developed, very natural BS detector that transcends social class. For them, especially here in Brasil, Trump and the ´Americanos´ are gasbags. Some New York real-estate guyzzzz and garden variety neocons have about as much chance of moving the needle down here, as a fart in a windstorm. All the serious moves, such as infrastructure, were begun over a decade ago and many of them are now in full swing.
Any indication the ´elites´ here are with the program is all show. So all of these frantic reactions done by the US at this point, are strictly ephemeral. Many commentators, even Peppy at times ( and he is from here ), don´t match what I see with my own eyes ´cotidiano´ ( day to day ). The rich down here have been selling things like coffee, since before Rome was overrun in the early 16th century. The locals tell me they are still here and NOBODY even mentions their names. You talk about behind the scenes. You want to talk about power, like you don't even whisper their names? Only God knows how much money they really have! And some fools from New York and Washington are going to change anything?
Whatever moves the US is making now, as George Carlin said ..... it´s all bullshit.
Best wishes Cheryl.
Still, Russia, China, and even the declining US are the only nations at present capable of projecting economic and military influence beyond their borders. Maybe someday India will attain the same status, but not at present.
I love Latin America, but the numerous nations lack a dominant currency and none are regional military powers. Perhaps the new BRICS 'UNIT' trading currency will help those who adopt it. Brazil could, in theory, be the core of a Latin military alliance. If that happened, as well as acquiring S400s and Su 75s, the world could gain another pole. But the last two centuries of disunity make that unlikely.
"Russia, China, and even the declining US are the only nations at present capable of projecting economic and military influence beyond their borders"
You may now add Thailand to that list :)
LOL
Perhaps we might consider that the world is moving past the point where military strength is so important.
Consider that the build up of US forces to attack Venezuela is enormously expensive and apparently doomed to fail. Although it isn't clear to me what success might look like. Perhaps just keeping Venezuelan oil in the ground would be "good enough". The US once ousted Chavez for a few days. I can see Venezuelans who might actually hate Maduro hating the US intervention even more. The attempted decapitation strike against Iran was a total failure. Georgia stopped the NED coup. OTOH, Bangladesh was lost. OTOOH, Thailand and China are getting along famously and the machinations on the Cambodian border seem to come and go.
Add to this that the weapons systems the US builds are overpriced and underperforming.
Still, the flight of two Osprey over my home this morning does focus one's mind on the build up to invade Venezuela. My friends and neighbors are pissed off about it though. Of course, a bunch of drunk Marines wandering around town is great for "business". LOL
They look like kindergarteners. It is so very, very sad.
Many will meet the same fate as those conscripted into the AFU. For what? So the capitalist Ponzi scheme can keep running?
Again, China's last recession was in 1979. China has been growing at 5%/year since then. China has won. The Empire is dying.
They don't want power, global power. Brasil wrote that off in the early 19th century, when they seperated from Portugal. What turns them on is doing business. They love it. So, what you said about their preference for BRICS is completely on target.
I wish you a great week Cheryl.
Yeah, a Brazilian judicial-commie junta is such an authentic form of governance.
When someone says “commie” we know we’re looking at a brain washed idiot.
It’s like a flashing red light alerting us to ignorance.
Look up Lula and get back to us.
Yep, it doubled down.
"Commie" bad, capitalist good. LOL
🤣 A gem: ” whether Oceania returns to her pirate roots and perhaps even rediscovers mining and manufacturing.”
So true!
Australia and nz call uk mummy and usa daddy so oceania is easiest
Has anyone told Russia that they’re going to war against Europe?
Has anyone told european citizens who last time I checked had a reaction along the lines of, meh, I think I'll sit this one out. Pass me a grape, thanks.
A war with Russia is ludicrous on so many levels.
I called Putin a few weeks ago and gave him the orders verbally in English.
Oh well … that’s good I guess. As long as he’s in the loop.
Njet, no but MMA is now coming to the Capitool
https://news-pravda.com/russia/2025/11/30/1900566.html
Andrey Gurulev: I have repeatedly noted that Western structures give the dates of a possible conflict with Russia — 2028-2030
I have repeatedly noted that Western structures give the dates of a possible conflict with Russia — 2028-2030. This is not a prediction of the date of the Russian attack, but an element of strategic planning. The growth of military budgets, the mobilization programs of Germany, France and other countries, and discussions about the deployment of nuclear weapons in Poland and now in Ukraine are part of the long—term architecture of the confrontation. European elites see war with Russia as the only way to maintain their own political and economic viability. If they don't attack now, it's only for two reasons: European society is not ready for war, and the Russian nuclear triad guarantees unacceptable consequences for them.
Of course, work is underway in the NATO analytical centers to find vulnerable points of the Russian deterrence potential. The weaknesses of control systems, mobile complexes, and underwater platforms are modeled. Naive politicians aim at the military to ensure that Russia can inflict damage that it cannot compensate for. The initial mistake is the assumption that Russia will accept the imposed scenario and prepare for a linear war by the conditional year 2030.
The reality is different.
The Russian General Staff does not build mirror schedules for the transfer of troops and phased mobilization. They are working with a catalog of goals that has been approved for a long time. It is not adjusted to meet other people's deadlines — it is activated when certain external actions occur. An attempt to implement Western plans will be perceived as a signal to launch algorithms that have long been prescribed. And these procedures do not resemble a classic battlefield.
The NATO command and control will be the first to be disabled. Headquarters and communication nodes are elements of a single network. Disabling them means the loss of the alliance's ability to coordinate actions. The destruction of physical infrastructure with precision weapons, sabotage of power systems that ensure the operation of command centers.
The next step is the destruction of logistics. Eastern European railway junctions, bridges, ports are accessible targets, key points, without which it is impossible to move the armed forces. The defeat of the transport network makes the transfer of troops technically impossible. The enemy forces simply will not be able to reach the theater of operations. Mobilize as much as you can.
Missile defense bases in Poland and Romania are considered as elements of a potential strike configuration and will be destroyed in the first minutes of escalation. Solutions for them are available and do not require further development.
An attempt to deploy tactical nuclear weapons near the Russian borders will be stopped before the actual deployment. No one will take risks and wait for ammunition to appear in the immediate vicinity. The response will be proactive and aimed at destroying the storage infrastructure itself.
The Poseidon and Burevestnik strategic systems do not exist for a first strike. Their task is to provide a guaranteed response in a situation where traditional means of delivery may be weakened. This makes any war with Russia meaningless in military and economic terms.
At the same time, no one in Russia is under any illusions that it will be possible to go through this process without losses. Losses are inevitable — this is part of reality. But another thing is also inevitable: any structure that decides to strike at Russian soil or population will lose the opportunity to continue to exist as a military or political unit. This is not a threat, but a consequence of algorithms that will be activated automatically.
The Western scenario of 2029-2030 is based on an outdated model of a gradual, staged war. The Russian side is not preparing for it. It forms the tools that make the very conduct of the war impossible for the enemy.
The bottom line is simple: there will be no protracted battle. There will be a rapid destruction of NATO's manageability and infrastructure. There will be nothing to restore — the conflict will not have time to move to that stage, which in the West is called conventional.
Of course the General Staff has detailed plans.
Admiral Avakyants took a sneak diss shot at Putin a month or so ago on prime tive Russian TV -- he said "All the plans for Europe's destruction have been worked out in detail a long time ago, it is a matter of political will to execute them".
The political will exists, but there is no need for the moment. If NATO does anything serious(some of the actions indicated above) it will be their doom. Russian reaction is not gradual like the Westz its like a spring.
250 flying bombs a day on average (!!!!) and half a dozen industrial sites blowing up every day very much is such a need
You are exagerating the damage. It is nothing but a scratch. It might seem like much to us, but clearly the leadership, military and the public don't think much of the damage their receiving. Just look at their words, actions, economic activity as well as public sentiment. We are outsiders, they seem to think the price in economic and human lives is very small, and all data I sighted supports this. The decision to eliminate NATO as well the millions that will come out of this decision, is not on the table yet, since they see other options. Russia is not the US, and is not run by pirates and criminals. Heavy decisions weigh heavily, but will be taken when they have to(as SMO clearly shows). Stop thinking in terms of the losses since we don't know the actual damage and , and why they are trivial from the leadership and society point of view.
Back to nonsense again. We get all these fantastic claims from the Western press but never any follow up damage assessments. Come to think of it we never got one from the 12 day war either. Trump just emphatically declared everything was destroyed and left it up to Alt media to argue about it. With various satellite photos of unknown dates to argue over. If these attacks are so successful why start blowing up tankers and pissing other countries off like Turkey? I mean... they won't have anything to pick up anymore since all of Russia's industry is being destroyed. Right?
It's plain to see who is the aggressor. A war to remain relevant. Micron and Queer may be long gone but Europe's appetite for destruction wont go away. Few European men will be interested in this war but many will die. Let's hope some sanity is restored to NATO and the EU in the years to come.
there has never been any sanity supporting NATO. its leaders are managers wearing expensive suits, the ultimate cosplay.
I'm not sure I agree with that given the time in which it was formed. I certainly agree there has been no sanity supporting it for the last 35 years, though.
fair enough. however, if NATO would have been serious, Gladio would've disappeared instead of festering like an open infection.
Good, good GM. Clear sighted as ever.
Well GM that comment was well worth reading! You do have your moments. I can confirm what you are saying. Russia has this all well planned out in advance. As part of NATO in the 80's/90's we had target folders for all transportation corridors to stop a Russian assault through the Fulda gap. Although most of us thought we would be nothing but speed bumps for the advancing USSR herd. I know this is more tactical tha, the strategic fight you are describing. But point being, there are plans upon plans and more contingency plans on both side than people have any clue about. Some are black, top secret, and come to fruition only if XY or Z happens. The Russians are even more thorough in their planning, especially at the strategic level. They have to be because their struggle is indeed existential... Chip
That's because he didn't write it. It is a copy-and-paste from the link he gave. Not knocking GM on this -- he never said that he wrote it.
Thanks for spending the time on this comment.
Why did you switch to truth mode? You usually post nonsense. Putin said it plainly. There will be no Russian invasion. There will just be no one left to negotiate with. Russia has been preparing for this moment since 2000. The year their security state pushed Yeltsin out. The bombing of Serbia being his last straw.
They made it very clear they will not be going to war in Europe. Not in the way Europeans are talking about. Putin was very serious here. That "war" will be standoff weapons including nukes. As he said... there will be no one left to negotiate with. Not one Russian boot is going into that cesspool. They been there done that. Look at where it got them?
Yes. Well, back in 2019 they certainly implied it.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3063.html
I realize I'm pointing out the obvious, but removing any chance for Russia to get back its sovereign funds pretty much guarantees that Russia will fight until Ukraine is utterly finished.
It does not remove any chance of Russia getting its money back. It was a decision to remove the internal need for a resolution every six moths to keep holding the assets. Russia knows that only the force of law and various other pressures principally from the US threatening to kill off NATO pronto dramatically immediately closing US bases withdrawing weaponry etc etc, including some new trade detonations, will lever open this horde in EU hands- or the equivalent from the european central bank (selling gold to buy in the dollars demanded if necessary), if they have already spent it.
But it does not bode well for international confidence in the euro which the US can also kill off if it chooses. Although europe seems intent on doing this all by itself.
Jullianne, it's interesting that you mention the ECB buying $$$ with Gold in the light of recent reports elsewhere about Italy's efforts to bring their Gold back in-house.
I'm told there's two parts to the EU's move. One is as you said, to pass a resolution stating that Russia's funds are frozen until the end of the war, with no need for further EU votes. But the second part is where Russia's sovereign funds disappear into the void. It will require unanimous approval of all EU states to release the funds. How likely do you think that will be?
It will not require any agreements of EU member states to release the assets if there is a valid court order. What it will do is stop a US friendly like Hungary pushing the release of the assets in furtherance of a deal between the US and Russia over european heads. That is what they are really afraid of. But alienating the US in this way is not helping their cause, just confirming Trump's bias that he needs this lot like a hole in the head. There is so much economic damage Trump could do europe if they sit on those assets when he wants them released that you might almost wish they would, and bring the misery of the EU to a speedy conclusion.
To be technical, RR should have said that the bonds have been permanently (with just the slightest veneer of conditionality) removed from Russia's possession "absent effective judicial intervention". They have been stolen, in other words, and the fact that a court might order possession restored does not mean they were not stolen. Moreover, courts can order, but orders aren't necessarily obeyed. Along those lines, one of the EU harridans, Ursula or Kaja I think, has scoffed at the idea that any European court would order the bonds restored, and the EU has taken formal action to declare itself immune from certain treaties bearing on the matter. They have declared themselves lawless, in effect. I can say with confidence that under American law, at least, the EU's self-serving declaration that the appropriation was "not permanent" would have no legal effect. It seems almost certain that whatever law governs these bonds and Euroclear would hold the same thing, but I don't know that for sure.
It's true they did this to free themselves from the possibility of some member developing a conscience and the necessary fortitude to end the sanctions (or to do so on behalf of the US), but their primary purpose does seem to be to enable the transfer of that money to Ukraine or the MIC. We'll see if they do it. The Duran boys are pretty sure they will, and it seems likely enough to me. Doing so will mean that Europeans themselves would have to restore the money if ordered, and I think that bakes war into the cake. The current gang in charge won't do that. Or so it seems to me.
I thnk the frozen assets were a Russian boobytrap/land mine. They really don´t need it, care about it and now it servers to help rip the EU into pieces. Russia thinks long term and by the time you see your doom, it is too late.
Best of the day to you Richard.
That would be some serious 3D chess on Russia’s part! But you’re right that Russia is planning long term, while the EU is locked into self harm. I also think you’re right that Russia will be fine without that money, colossal though it be. Even so I expect that they’ll demand it back no matter what. And good day to you too!
Putin said a long time ago that the EU got more assets/funds in Russia than Russia got in the EU. He was really surprised that the EU would risk Russia's confiscating their funds/assets in Russia.
The difference, not in Russia's favour, is liquidity. Russia's assets in the EU are in cash equivalents. Cash is king in the asset heirarchy. Whereas the EU's assets in Russia will mostly be in businesses and so forth. They're not really worth anything unless there's someone willing to buy them, which there may not be in all cases. Regardless, I believe Russia will come out okay financially.
A paper cash, is king vs tangible assets? Or were Russia's fund in gold?
Yes, I'm sure Russia will be okay regardless.
Yes, cash is customarily placed at the top of the list of assets, primarily because it is liquid and can be converted immediately into any other asset.
I don't know the composition of Russia's assets held in Brussels, but we know that the assets are earning interest because the EU is spending that interest on Ukraine. I expect Russia's assets are probably in US Treasuries and Eurobonds for the most part. These are also considered very liquid, just under cash itself.
Cash is at the top of the asset hierarchy only as long as financial markets are operating normally. If everything breaks down (ie Wiemar Germany) then cash becomes almost worthless.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/12/13/why-the-eu-decided-to-freeze-russian-sovereign-assets-in-europe-until-the-ukraine-war-ends_6748461_4.html
I think you have this precisely reversed. In a fiat currency regime, "cash" is only a form of government debt and is nothing but electronic blips on a screen. Businesses, on the other hand, are real and tangible, not reliant on the creditworthiness of some governmental issuer, and not created by keystrokes. Russia has much the better position here.
Liquidity is a concern, as you mention, but how liquid is western-issued government debt to a country with 50,000 sanctions? And that's not even to consider the extreme risk presented by western lawlessness and out of control debt.
There's often more than one way to look at things in finance and economics. Different people have different outlooks and priorities, and you're free to form your own opinion on it.
An asset such as a business is not liquid nor is its value fixed. It might not be worth anything, or it might even represent a liability. Cash is worth its face value, does not carry a liability and has no counter-party risk. Just because something is 'real and tangible' does not in any way speak to its financial value.
US government debt is presently very liquid. It's the most liquid government debt in the world by far. And the US government very much wants it to remain so. That's why they haven't stolen Russia's sovereign assets and advised the EU not to do it either. If they did steal them, it would damage the reputation and liquidity of US government debt.
Put simply, if Russia had a choice between having its sovereign funds back or confiscating an equivalent book value of foreign companies, they would invariably choose the sovereign funds. That's why Russia does not have the better position in this narrow area.
Eventually the gas will have to be turned on. And so it shall be. With a tax on top to repatriate every penny. With interest.
Might take a generation, but every penny will be returned.
At the end it will be american company's in coperation with russians, that will sell the russian gas and oil to europe
I think our fearless leader is even at this moment trying to figure out how to reconnect Nord Stream II and get royalties on every cubic meter.
How about the mich simpler explanation that Nabiulina is a western agent, which all her actions speak to, and that she is more powerful than Putin, which is why she has not been removed despite actively and deliberately sabotaging the economy for four years and fucking up so badly with having that money in Euroclear when the war started?
Stalin would have had her shot in mid-2022 the latest.
GM
That is pretty much Trump's sentiments about his central bank ...the Fed.
Also I don't think Putin phoned up the head of the Russian Central Bank to see when he should initiate what he apparently honestly believed would be a short, threat display only, intervention that would solve the whole problem.
He has publicly admitted that was a very serious mistake on his part.
Edit: The mistake I am referring to was believing that a Russian massive show of force would convince Zelensky who branded himself as the peace candidate to seriously work towards a peaceful solution. I have no doubt it didn't even enter his mind then or since to consult the Russian Central Bank about the best war strategy.
And then she continued to kneecap the reshoring of the domestic Russian economy with 15-20% interest rates for four years because she wasn't informed on time about what exactly?
I don't understand your comment. She was or was not informed about what by whom, when?
High interest rates are the conventional central bank response to serious inflation. There may be other effective responses but almost always other responses in other countries have been disastrous.
I don't know enough about the Russian central bank performance in this regard to confidently say they should tell their citizens that they are betting the central bank (and thus Russian economy) farm on anything I suggest
Russia holds an equivalent amount of european assets, and the moral
high ground
" I also think you’re right that Russia will be fine without that money, colossal though it be. "
Very true, and you can see it's true by how Russia is already fine without that money. Not having that money for nearly four years while growing the economy and running a war is proof Russia can do, and has done, fine without that money.
In fact, the hardest part was the first year and a half when the Russian economy was refactoring itself to deal with sanctions and to reorient trade with the East, a long overdue move given the East has become more economically powerful than the fading West.
It's a lot easier now for Russia, with both the great pivot to the East as well as achieving critical mass with replacements of Western inputs by local industry. If Russia could do well without those reserves in the first year and a half it can certainly do well without them going forward.
One more thing, not really central to the above, but one factor in Russia not needing those reserves is that the same suicidal behavior by the West, such as cratering its economies by cutting itself off from critical Russian energy and resource inputs, that was part and parcel of the clown car show that also included freezing Russian assets in the West is one of the factors that powered the collapse of the dollar and the euro against gold. What Russia had frozen in the West it made up to a surprising degree by the increase in value of Russia's gold reserves.
Indeed! Gold was at $1880/oz when Russia launched the SMO. It stands at $4300/oz today, so Russia's gold reserves more than doubled in value. They're said to have something like 2300 tons, but I suspect the amount might be higher. The dollar value is about US$300 billion, so Russia's gold reserves have increased in value by about $168 billion during that time. That goes a long way to offsetting the funds that are being stolen by the EU.
Probably more accurate, and more illuminating, is to say that at the start of the SMO a dollar was worth 1/1880th of an ounce of gold and now it is worth less than half that, at 1/4300th of an ounce. The SMO has been exceedingly expensive for the US (along with our other crazy policies).
This isn't just semantics. The framing I suggest places gold as the standard and the dollar as the pretender. With brief interludes, this framework has been more accurate for the last 5,000 years. Gold is money; the dollar is debt.
Like I said, there's different ways to look at it and you're free to choose. You're also free to vote for a reorganized world financial system based on gold. I too believe it would be a good idea.
But that's not the present reality. The reality today is that the US dollar is the de facto reserve currency and it's highly sought after for financial transactions. Debt instruments based on the US dollar, such as US Treasuries, are also highly sought after and are almost as liquid as cash itself.
I'm describing things as they are, not as you or I might prefer them to be.
It did appear that leaving those assets in Euroclear as the SMO commenced was a strategic error. Well maybe not.
Russia is doing well without it. They'll demand it back purely on principle.
John
Russia's focus is more on making the BRICS financial mechanism more important than actually getting that money put back into stasis or even getting it back in the far distant future. Euroclear stealing assets in trust however reluctantly makes it clear to everyone that European governments are desperate and no apparent legal guarantees from them can be counted on.
The trillions of dollars of global smart money will take note and ever so cautiously take action to reduce their exposure. Europe's own central banks and the I.M.F. are telling the E.U. that is the case.
And in the end Russia can negotiate the contested funds out of E.U. control into a fund to rebuild at least the Russian managed parts of Ukraine, once the war is over. Something the videos in the article show will be sorely needed. Something that will keep the post war Russian economy humming and keep the newly discharged soldiers busy. As well as give Russia a head start in the post war p.r. race to see who can do the most to restore civilized life to the damaged parts of Ukraine under their control.
Observing Mariupol today highlights a significant Russian achievement, as it has been restored to a state even better than before its destruction by the AZOV battalion. There are many videos on y/tube illustrating its new grandeur.
thx for the info and suggested lookup
"as it has been restored to a state even better than before its destruction by the AZOV battalion. "
No, although I agree with your overall sentiment. I was in Mariupol recently and although there has been much rebuilding it is only about 20% to 25% rebuilt. There are vast swaths of the city which are ruins, such as all of the former residential zones around the Azov steel works.
There are also weird contrasts everywhere. For example, the main road from the region of the Azov works into the center of town for the last eight to ten blocks before the very center has been rebuilt and restored on the left side of the street (heading uphill into the center), and there you see elegant Tsarist era buildings with stylish young people having coffee at sidewalk cafes, shopping etc, and on the other side of the street you see ruins covered in heavy machine gun pockmarks, holes from tank round, blown out interiors and so on.
But where there has been big rebuilding it's truly fantastic, a better city than before. Many people have been moving back.
Your eye witness account is greatly appreciated.
I don't think they planned it that way, but that is certainly how it is turning out.
I doubt that Russia doesn't want or need the $210B, but they have probably written it off and they will demand it back when this is over, just to put a few more nails in the Europeans coffin. This is what happens when you let idiots like Rutte, Fond of Lyin' and Kallas in charge, let it be a lesson if there's anything left when it's over.
No, it doesn't.
The people in power in Russia right now are responsible for draining the country of tens of trillions, in comparison to which the 300 billion in sovereign funds are a rounding error.
And they knew that the funds will be taken a long time ago.
Yet they continue to negotiate and Ushakov was talking about a DMZ in the Donbass yesterday while continuing with the policy of stubbornly not mentioning Kherson and the Zaporozhye at all.
But even those don't solve anything, only taking everything east of the Zhytomyr-Vynnitsia line at the very least makes a material difference.
Why are they negotiating then? And why were territorial exchanges so casually discussed in the leak calls between Ushakov and Witkoff?
And why do they so persistently insist on the negotiations being kept secret?
Could it be that the primary concern is keeping them secret from the Russian people themselves so that how much of a treason the Kremlin is willing to commit is not exposed before it all a fait accompli?
>Because everything will essentially result in some document. That's how they roll.
Which will be completely worthless.
It doesn't matter whether Ukraine is officially in NATO or not, what matters is whether NATO is on the ground in Ukraine. Which it already is, striking Russia directly.
BTW, the new American strategy is not the win many idiots think it it -- it opposes further NATO expansions for a very different reason they imagine, and it is that the US does not want to take further Article 5 commitments. But they will continue to aggressively expand their proxy network and move military assets in closer and closer to their enemies.
>The most paranoid explanation is not necessarily the proper one.
Plenty of history and evidence to back it up in this case though.
But that's all GM has....
GM
<<<<<And why do they so persistently insist on the negotiations being kept secret<<<<
Because anything said by the Russians short of ....this means war, nuclear war, spread all over the world so that it kills everybody currently alive now or in the future.... will be described as treason by people such as your self.
GM
<<<<<< Ushakov was talking about a DMZ in the Donbass<<<<<
He was talking about it alright. He was saying it was a crazy idea that bore no connection to reality.
I like Dmitri Orlov's take: Europe is trying to steal its own debt.
https://boosty.to/cluborlov/posts/d62d0834-98b4-4a5c-8754-f7925d6bbeab
If the boosty link doesn't work for you, I believe it is on youtube also.
Orlov compliments Simplicius like peanut butter and jelly. Like ham and cheese. Like coffee and cream. Like tea and crumpets. Without Simplicius, I don't know if I'd understand what Orlov was talking about. Without Orlov I might not know what it means. Orlov's humor is addictive.
This is from his latest post:
"C5: five core nations that include Russia, China, India, Japan and, of course, the United States. Little do they know that there is already an organization of five core nations: BRICS. The US would be the 6th but it won't be invited."
And yes, his "No Questions Asked" articles are available on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/@DmitryOrlovAndClub
Not just Ukraine. I dont see how this war ends without either a Minsk 3.0, or WW3. In other words, russia either capitulates or goes all the way
I agree. The Kiev nazi regime is just not tolerable to Moscow. Something tells me that the RUAF will not tackle Kramatorsk-Slaviansk now but instead advance in the Dnipro and Kharkov regions. Concerning the Eurorats, they are crumbling down. Russia and the US are clear they want the EU crushed now. Trump doesnt forget who tried to kill him, politically and physically, and neither does Putin.
how is Zelenski going to survive without more shekels - judging by office chairs from the photo of the meeting with Blackrock above he only gets the best and most expensive things.
I had a similar Eames leather office chair the one he sits on costs thousands of USD
That is the EU'S wish. To the last Ukrainian. Their biggest problem is finding the next cannon fodder. It was supposed to be Poland and Romania but their public isn't buying it. They need some sort of believable mass casualty false flag. Are there any twin towers in Warsaw?
"Are there any twin towers in Warsaw?"
Yes, of a sort.
And just as obviously push other nations towards BRICS.
They we're always going to do that, since there was no chance in hell the USA/EU would back down. Russia can only get their security by demolishing Ukraine. And they can actually demolish Ukraine. So...
It's an interesting overview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGczA97hmTw
What is the point to this adamant European posturing? This attack on tankers and Russian oil infrastructure is very disturbing. The only thing countering it is Trump’s new plan, an if. How will Russia respond? The Ukrainians are already suffering. It is a reprehensible situation. More English adventurism, more death and destruction in Ukraine. These people are crazy they threaten the world’s existence.
Just remember. Words are cheap.
The point is to remember how Syria was destroyed.
Striangulation, isolation, constant air strikes, all of that continuing for over a decade with the passive cooperation of the Kremlin.
Eventually only a hollow shell remained and it was knocked over easily.
It will take more effort in Russia's case, but the exact same scenario is unfolding. Including the part about the cooperation of the Kremlin.
Spot on there ,sooooo many similarities between Syria and Russia, very hard to tell the difference , I agree.
LOL
At the moment there is frantic noise about Russian assets, Ukraine can win, is on the attack, blah blah- to drown out any commentary on Russian advances and keep up morale in Ukraine itself where the EU is terrified of a massive wave of refugees moving west expecting asylum in western Europe. Winter has barely started.
And natural gas is flowing in the wrong direction, as is electricity. The gas storages are at historical lows, but the EU is pumping gas into Moldova and Ukraine. To make things worse, they are burning gas to produce electricity, which is then also sent to Ukraine.
And that is why the "militarization" of Europe, is just a way to continue the grift. Europe does not have, nor will it be able to achieve in the future, enough energy to ramp up military production. Energy in Europe is the most expensive in the world now, thanks to EU dictators "policies". However, money will still flow to the "militarization" of Europe, because then ursula, kallas, costa, etc will still be able to fill their pockets with stolen money from the dumb european population, due to the "russian boggeyman" narrative that is rampant all over Europe and that the majority of europeans, believe in.
There is the presence of a few million "refugees" already here in the UK/EU, with easy access to bullets & bombs (some allegedly driving Bugattis) who are going to become the enemy within when it all goes sh!t shaped.
EU will open its borders for all the ukrainian nazis. Make no mistake about it. EU only closes its borders to recent christian sirian refugees, fleeing the terrorist regime in Syria, that EU supports.
There is so much that is bonkers now, on both sides of the Atlantic. The cherry on the cake is that Trump looks like he is doped up again. I don´t think he has any real grasp of what is going on. He talks his game but, he is just a bullshitter whom has gotten in way over his head.
Since a very young age I have always wondered what the end of great empires was like and how could people who had it all, ever let it happen. Now I know.
Thank you Simplicius. I wish the best to you and yours in this holiday season.
Wars and therefore war commentators don’t get holidays.
Can be but, some are on permanent vacation if it is just propaganda. :P
Speaking of which the renowned military/political commentator and all round savant extraordinaire, the great much maligned “GM” seems to be on early Xmas hols of late.
Perhaps the USAID cheques finally stopped.
>the end of great empires
How is this the end of the empire when it has been expanding and eliminating the few pockets of resistance the last several years?
I spoke to soon , no sooner had the last shovel full of earth been heaped upon the grave, a hand reached forth from within.
In the distance a cuckoo’s cry…..
or squarking cockatoo.
A squarking cockatoo?
Your not from down that way like me, are you?
I have a sneaking suspicion that GM is a Soviet Commie.
No not a plain died in the wool Commie, but a radical Soviet- I tell ya.
He does worship Stalin, after all.
Alas yes, I hail from that dreary part of the world . Our bit is pretty good though - Southern Highlands.There are hundreds of the bastards in the bush behind our house, many I suspect are zionists.
You could be right about the blustering blowhard.
It's not the end yet, but the empire is struggling, so much so that they are resorting to tactics they never had to do before. Desperate moves come with desperate times. Had the empire retained its power and influence from the past, they would not be doing what they are now. More and more countries understand that it's no longer the empire's way or the highway. There are alternatives now. And the empire is trying to crush those alternatives, without much success. In fact those crushing attempts are showing to more and more countries, that they definitely should no longer stay under the "wing" of the empire. The previous vassals remain vassals and continue to be vassals. That's just how it works and it won't change.
How about an article speculating a little about what this “war with Russia” that Europe seems to be insisting on would actually look like? How would it unfold?
What if Article five IS invoked. Would the US electorate tolerate sending our people over there? Krikey, Venezuela is a problem. If so, how would they get there? What percentage of people and material could actually get in place to fight? If the US does not engage, who does? The entire Brit army looks like an afternoons work in that war. What is if these idiots actually have in mind?
Ah, so we are starting to converge on the same opinions?
Yes, but if you want to remove the immediate platform for point-blank attack while hoping to avoid an all-out exchange, you take out the EU. And Turkey.
Then the supply of further willing useful idiots will automatically dry up too.
Only the dillusional Sir KStamer.Merz.an Macron could help you answer that .they keep sabotaging Trumps peace proposals over Ukrainian bodies.
https://dearscotland.substack.com/p/wag-the-dog-anyone
Trump hasn't made any serious peace proposals. I guess they're worried he might do so eventually, but I do not share that concern. He wants Europe to pay the price, not to make peace.
In the age of fire and nuclear war, do you really think the US would risk extinction to help rowdy dwarves? Article 5, the paper it's written on, states that each member decides what form of support it provides, e.g., food aid for troops engaged in combat. NATO doesn't have the resources for a conflict; militarily, in terms of both quality and quantity, it's a disaster. It's all well and good to add up the populations of the alliance members without asking them if they'll go at the sound of the whistle. And since the economy is transformed energy, war is an overconsumption of energy. Does the Alliance have enough? Supply follows demand; in the event of a conflict, the resource-poor Western Europeans would be devastated, militarily and economically. There would be cause for concern, all those new Russian weapons, industrially produced and unused... A serious analysis would take years. So many variables. The certainty is that the US will not budge for the Europeans; on the contrary, they will withdraw their troops.
https://aurelien2022.substack.com/p/you-cant-get-there-from-here
This is a good start
Aurelien is the best thinker of them all. Have followed him quite a while and his deep thinking should penetrate the skulls of von der Leyen, Kallas and Rutte.
Don't get misled by Aurelien.... he's like John Merschimer... they are more grounded in reality, but still intoxicated by previously being part of the system and consulted by the elites. Hence their cachet...
In actual fact, their pro-system bias means that they can't accept that the system they helped build has become utterly corrupt, and incompetent. They can't entertain the thought that their previous efforts were all for naught, so they miss a lot of the elephants lounging in the tiny room.
You may be quite right. But I appreciate people who can change their mind, see what was wrong and repent. No human is right 100% of the times.
>How about an article speculating a little about what this “war with Russia” that Europe seems to be insisting on would actually look like? How would it unfold?
https://news-pravda.com/russia/2025/11/30/1900566.html
It won't unfold, because Europe has crippled itself to not be able to sustain any military industrial production, enough to provide for any war.
However, the money flow will continue to so called "industrial production of military assets", which in reality will end up in the pockets of Ursula vonder Nazi, Kallas, Costa, etc. It's simply an extension of the now close to being over project Ukraine. Once the grift ends in Ukraine, the EU scum will continue the grift in EU countries themselves and for money to flow, they need to keep the russian boggeyman very much alive, in the minds of the dumb european populations, that are more concerned with football and reality shows, than anything else. And when EU countries collapses, Ursula, Kallas, Costa, etc will "disappear" and reappear in some USA bank or western institution, as if nothing happened, which is the usual practice in the west.
Article 5 applies, if, when and to the extent that the Americans say it does.
No more, no less.
Same could be said for the rest of the NATO Treaty.
To paraphrase President Orban in a piece written by b: "The rise of the Brusselian Mafia."
Rutte what a fucking moron
It’s the lack of oxygen in the closet he lives in apparently.
Certifiable
Surely one of the prime candidates to meet the hangman or better still, got hold of by the people. Anyone remember the Whicker Man? Build a big one and stick them all in it.
From Mr Putin's perspective, this must be the best ~300 billion euros that Russia has ever lost.
They have no doubt written it off, but I doubt they have lost it. There are plenty of frozen assets in Russia that will end up offsetting any EU confiscation.
And the vast assets gained in the Donbass and other liberated regions.
And this is the only good reason for the EU leaders to beat the war drums. To rebuild the Donbass, you will need a huge workforce. At this very moment, Russia is short of all kinds of workers, not least because of the military needs. If you keep the pressure high, the Russians are pressed to keep this force active. When the war is over, people expect the government to quickly rebuild their homes and workplaces, especially the veterans—this could lead to serious trouble for the Kremlin.
Russia has already organised the workforce required.
Millions of Eastern Ukrainians fled to Russia, and will be able to return.
As already pointed out, you don't seem to realize that with the war, Russia has actually GAINED population. It did not lose population like Ukraine did. So it has plenty of workforce for the rebuilding effort. Plus, we've seen how Russia also has help from its allies like North Korea, which not only helped in the military operation in Kursk, but is also helping in factories. This will be the smallest problem that Russia will have. In fact I'm pretty sure many russian contractors are already rubbing their hands, given the amount of work for literally years, they will have for the rebuilding of Russia's new territories, which hopefully will be up to Odessa. Europe on the other hand, will receive an influx of nazis, fleeing from Ukraine and if Ukraine becomes land locked, even more will go to other european countries, creating insecurity, increasing extremism and destroying further any quality of life europeans enjoyed before. If Russia fulfills all the goals of the SMO, it's Europe that will be in a world of hurt, not Russia. Even more so with the stealing by EU of russian assets.
I expect European skilled workers to start moving east—where the good jobs are and the need for serious skills is great.
I suspect the 'return on investment' will be significant. The money was spent to destroy the EU, and that's not bad. The strange thing is that the EU did it to themselves.
I suspect that you are 100% correct, my friend.
Today, as reported by RT, Russia’s central bank has initiated legal proceedings in Moscow against Euroclear, in a move that comes as the EU approaches a denouement on plans to use Russia’s frozen funds to back a loan to Ukraine.
In the end, it's theft, or an act of piracy on land. A modern form of what were once medieval pillages. And perpetrated by a bureaucratic structure whose existence is due to long-standing treaties signed by various countries. If it now goes against the will of those same signatory countries—say, Hungary, Belgium itself, or others—I don't foresee a very long future for that bureaucracy. After all, it's not an organic structure like a nation, capable of withstanding political attacks of all kinds.
On the other hand, the Russians will put on a serious face and complain, but I suspect that in the most fashionable restaurants and financial corridors of Moscow, over drinks, they're happy and commenting: "Well, what idiots they are. They took the bait! The trap cost 300 billion, but we caught the pig." Goodbye to credibility and the sacrosanct right to private property in the European pigsty. What investors will find it attractive to bring their money to Europe in the future? The EU certainly has the mission of plunging Europe into rapid decline... I always thought the EU was Europe's greatest enemy, and that's how things look.
And so, old Europe is slowly becoming a toothless old woman. It is in this way, by adopting short-sighted attitudes, that it falls into irrelevance and becomes the laughingstock of the world. What centuries ago was the cradle of Enlightenment thought now survives on outdated clichés and absurd mantras that no one believes anymore. And so it is with the passage of time and history.
Well said , having committed moral suicide on altar of wokeism, cultural, military and economic suicide were only a matter of time.
How many generations from the Enlightenment to total Idiocy? It takes many generations to build a civilisation, only a couple to destroy one. We are in a strange way privileged to be able to witness such a rapid collapse in such detail.
In times of collapse civilisational time seems to speed up.
What investors will find it attractive to bring their money to Europe in the future? Euroclear claims to be overwhelmed with calls from foreign investors, the Belgian Prime Minister says the same, and also from companies with assets in Russia. I don't believe in the madness of these individuals to this extent, but rather in the threats of the green dwarf against them; they've washed their hands in the money laundering machine.
"Euroclear claims to be overwhelmed with calls from foreign investors"
Yep, all those foreign investors trying to get their money out of Brussels and Euroclear.
"Euroclear claims to be overwhelmed with calls from foreign investors, the Belgian Prime Minister says the same, and also from companies with assets in Russia."
Since neither the eruo nor european stock exchanges have tanked, I'ma call bullshit.
We don't give a damn about your beliefs. What do you know about the stock market? What are your brainwashing sources? Tomorrow I'm calling Euroclear to tell them they're liars. Tell me, you stock market expert, what is Euroclear? What form do these Russian funds held by Euroclear take? You seem like some kind of emerging GM.
It's not just that. It's an act of war. Russia needs to respond swiftly and powerfully. Enough with the gloves on approach, especially with europeans. They are scum and should be treated as such. Same with USA, that continues the theater of "wanting peace", while continuing to supply everything it can to the nazis in Ukraine. I understand that diplomacy has this concept of still having to deal with true enemies, like USA is to Russia, but there's a point when Russia really needs to act accordingly and just cut ties with the terrorists of the world - USA and its vassals, including EU / NATO.
I understand why Russia does not act militarily outside of Ukraine but I do wonder why they have not acted economically, e.g. "You don't want our fossil fuels? Fine, they stop tomorrow."
Of course, Russia has stated it will not break legal contracts that they are making a lot of money from, but they could afford the hit - it would probably be a lot less than 300 billion before the EU is on its knees. And, EU clearly intends doing so, breaking contracts, so what is to lose?
I assume the impact on the oil and gas market prices and the consequences for China, India, et al., are the main impediments?
Russia is showing the world that they honor their contracts -- as the USSR did throughout the whole of the Cold War.
Yes, poorly written by me implying it was only the profitable contracts they uphold. I did mean all.
Why not do a bust-out as private equity does in the United States? Load the existing debts on the Union bureaucracy, declare it and the euro in default, and scram with the cash - freeing the European nations to return to seperate currencies (as they are anyways, the euro is demarked by country) and ridding them of the Brussels Mafia, which is an entity very much in business.