The latest lede driving the buzz for the past few days is the claim that Russia and Ukraine were set to meet in Qatar to discuss a mutual ceasefire against hitting each other’s energy grids.
The man is like a merciless hammer, smothering any detractor and rival substacker with the sheer consistency of his delivery, his thorough attention to details, his evergrowing avalanche of admirers and subscriber...let's go!!
It seems Simplicius has moved from one weekly rumor (Ukraine's "dirty bomb") to the next (Ukraine's secret negotiations with Russia in Qatar).
EDIT: and Simplicius latest article is about how Russia has nuclear weapons (since August 1949, he forgot to mention) and could use them in Ukraine or against NATO (which they won't unless the US decides to first-strike, because MAD).
But this is just a further example of how the Western "elites" monopolize the "narrative" and distract from the monumental geopolitical changes that we are presently witnessing, the two most important of which are first, the rise of China as a military, industrial, technological and very soon financial superpower and second the simultaneous end of US hegemony.
If we limit our discussions to the weekly rumor coming out of the pathetic puppet Kiev government propaganda machine, we are really looking at a small leaf of grass and missing the forest behind it.
But then of course it is much easier to repeat ad nauseam "Putin should nuke Kiev" then to seriously think about how the USD is quickly being replaced as the main global currency for international trade - and the monumental consequences of this.
Rereading The Creature of Jekyll Island. The basics bring a calming solace.
The stated goals of so many of our institutions are diametrically opposed by the true spirit of the perpetrators. We line up the latest fall guys, while those yanking on the puppet strings could stare us in the face and we would not even know them.
Any political speculations are blatant divide and conquer. If we understood our true dire situation, the KKK and BLM would have lovingly linked arms decades ago.
A civil war between blue and red would be a joyous cause for celebration for our masters! Democracy is totally dependent on informed constituents. We are worse than ignorant, we think we know!
Those that criticized him 2 weeks ago when the Kursh incursion took place now in an awakening. Zipped now. Those who advocated for thermonuclear bomb on Kiev then? Where are they now?
Another one wants in on the peace initiative- a competitive response to the China Brazil PP – from Qatar, a major US ally, a new ish Major Non NATO vital ally no less
This is a spy caper from the titles to credits, spoon fed to the scriptwriters, WaPo and NYT
Qatar’s State Security Agency Chief Mohammed al-Kuliafi, who is charged with negotiating and publicising this ‘deal’, was recently awarded the CIA peace prize, by none less than CIA Chief George Burns who spends an unholy amount of time in Doha
Only George Burns would have the gall to dream up this fakery- & think nothing of using an Intelligence Officer as a negotiator, rather than a prince or a diplomat – to ensure 100% US spook control – MaK trained as a US lawyer, his accent is not quite Cali, as revealed at the recent Gobal Security conference organised by the Soufan Centre, an FBI organization, but he ticks off the right slangwords
It is foolish to think that VVP would allow negotiations with one such, but of course this is the point, to show he does not
The intention of the Ukraine and US spies is to persuade their MSM ed public that the peace process is between the Ukraine and the RF that the Ukraine is ever intitiating, and that the China-Brazil peace plans count for naught
The esteemed colleague has alerted us to the role here played by CIA Chief William Burns, whom he presents as a canny operator with many years of high level loyal service and proven knowledge of the Russian élites, one of course deeply involved in the Hamas-Israel ‘negotiations’ in Qatar
The RF is under no illusions about the role Qatar has played in their war, and no less so as to Qatar’s key role as a US ally, host to the gigantic US military bases, the largest in the ME, as they call West Asia, and incidentally also host to the Qatar air force
The Qatar covers most of the US bases construction and running costs
Qatar is frequently the US proxy in Africa, on the wrong side of Russia and also, often, of the UAE
When he discusses this rumour, VVP is polite and non committal as to these so called ‘talks’ between RF and Ukraine – his wish, as with say Turkey, is to take every opportunity to draw countries into the Asian alliances, and away from ASaxon (this the essence of the China Peace Plan) – as the interview linked to below makes clear, VVP warmly welcoming Qatar into the SCO ‘family’
Ukraine Rand type think tank report for tuse by US Press- “Qatar co operation and Qatar’s importance as a primary US Ally- 21 April 2024 https://prismua.org/en/ua_qatar/
This Olso think tank Talks up Ukraine- “Qatar’s role in mediation and conflict resolution: Ukraine, Gaza, Afghanistan, and beyond’ 11 June 2024 https://www.prio.org/events/9150 Guess who’s not on the list -no state emissary turned up, except for -Presentation by H.E. Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, Minister of State of Qatar One can see cash & politics at work, but not diplomacy
‘Speaking at a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, Putin acknowledged that Qatar's mediation has enabled children from Russia and Ukraine to be reunited with their families The Russian president also commended Qatar's efforts in Gaza, calling Qatar "one of the most effective mediators in the Middle East crisis between Hamas and Israel." "Russia is also making efforts to resolve this crisis, which, in our deep conviction, can be fundamentally resolved only by implementing the relevant UN decisions, particularly the creation of two states -- Israel and Palestine," Putin said.”
The money quote- “Sheikh Tamim, in turn, thanked Russia for its support in joining the SCO Plus format, which allows non-members to participate in the organization's activities.”
Some good thoughts and links. Thanks. The guys at the Duran have a different view and claim that Qatar is a friend of Russia and BRICS is putting pressure on Russia to talk. Or was putting pressure, using Qatar as an intermediary. Both yours and their view could in fact be correct, at least to a point. I find it odd that Russia would actually want to negotiate this point at all, but also that BRICS might prefer the war to have a negotiated end, and this was a first stage?
The guys from Duran must be wrong - no Russia has no friend which has so much US armour parked on their front dune
BRICS are putting pressure on peace talks, Russia is part of BRICS, how come the BRICS need an intermediary to talk to one of their own? This is more than absurd
It is precisely because RF is one with their allies that RF listens to their allies, and not to US allies and spies crapping around with ....er... crap
- Caramba que sueño mas malo
Peace has to be negotiated by someone and it ain't going to be Putin doing it - you remember he spent years and years at this and he is not foolish enough to start up again
Besides the peace has to be a common peace, that is to say a fait accompl presented to the ynkas - who do not know what peace is or might mean
Only BRICS can do this - because the actually significant doiminant faction ok class in the US wants a deal with the China golden economy, and this is one of the conditions
Wm Burns is the Swiss Army Knife of subterfuge & chicanery, which is appropriate--the Swiss part especially--because he is even trying to shiv the Swiss w/ their very own tool: neutrality
Esteemed colleague! May Allah be with you - it was you who put me on to the role and person of Burns
That he has wreaked these insults on the noble Qataris will backfire badly - it may even help to pull them to their senses (as per the other craven colony of Germany)
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani is exerting an outsized centrifugal pull on U.S. ruling elites, military generals & high-profile figures. An example: the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley [stepped down in Dec 2023] began advising Sheik Mohammad on "security issues" for Qatar before the SMO began, spending outlandish amounts of time in Qatar [not unlike Wm Burns now.]
In fact, a congressional group spoke about needing to investigate Milley's ties to Sheik Mohammad.
After Tucker interviewed VVP in Moscow, he flew to Qatar to make a presentation @ a symposium. Erik Prince of Blackwater [the security organization] presented @ the conference too.
Footprints in the sand leaving quite a trail to Qatar, G, which even the winds of time will not erase
Meant to mention during our earlier convo re: Wm Burns >>
In April 2022 he warned Joe that Vladimir Putin's "desperation" over Russia's failures in Ukraine could lead to the use of tactical nuclear weapons or "low-yield nuclear weapons.
Wm Burns was the psy op-source of all the chatter ever since April 2022 that VVP's *desperation* will drive him to reach for the nukes--chatter which has persisted to today.
There's Putin the Brutal
Putin the Embarrassed
Putin the Desperate
Like gelato flavors in a confectionery: I'll take the stracciatella w/ ribbons of caramel
the main problem is Ukraine is importing over $4 million PER DAY in juice from the EU, and the EU is running out of ways to pay for it (while simultaneously electricity gets more expensive for EU consumers), hence the "we don't know what to do" tone
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is likely feeling the sting of regret as he helplessly observes the German economy plummeting. The harsh reality of Henry Kissinger's words, "It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal," may be resonating with him more profoundly now. Meanwhile, the conspicuous absence of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock's usual rhetoric suggests she may have undergone a reality check or a lobotomy. Scholz's predicament and Baerbock's silence serve as cautionary tales about the perils of aligning too closely with the United States.
Crowd funding for what? Where are they going to find hundreds of high voltage transformers compatible with the Ukrainian transmission system? No such inventory exists.
What John Helmer dubbed Electric Warfare has served Russia so handsomely in the SMO that it would be peculiar for the MOD to surrender an effective wunderwaffen, which they are uniquely situated to deploy
Like the exhortation which kicked off the Spanish-American War--"Remember the Maine!"
Exactly - this electrical warfare is the key to RF victory the soft war way - how to evacuate citizens before laying siege and herding them west, and even out of Ukraine into the welcoming arms of the EU -KK VdL and AS will be delighted to have such bright new malleable and new recruits, leavened with the right portion of the SS and NeoN's
How to degrade military bases and régime bunkers - cut off the sparks - and all those mythical Rheinmetall factories
Finland & the Baltics, esp Estonia, never really closed the book on their Nazi collaboration in WWII & never completely laid to rest their struggle against communism. As a result, they constitute a large Trauma Population, largely untreated, in Europe.
KK, the Extraordinary Foreign Policy Generalissimo for the EU, wrote in Foreign Affairs that there cannot be peace in Europe until VVP is in jail.
Meanwhile, her country Estonia is bringing the Fallen Monuments from the museum basements, the monuments to homegrown heroes who collaborated w/ the Nazis, and reinstalling them in the public square. Like in Ukrainian cities, Estonia is beginning to have torch parades on important anniversaries to honor homegrown Nazi sympathizers.
The world thought Germany, for instance, had thoroughly & admirably & sincerely reckoned w/ its Nazi past—that Germany had done it the right way. But that’s not so. Germany, as a member of the EU, stands shoulder to shoulder w/ Finland & the Baltics and does not call out the revival of Nazi rituals & elements in those countries.
Of course not - the Germans are far too busy to call out the imaginary 'nazis' in their own population; elections in saxony and Thuringia on Sept 1st are predicted to see the 'far ultra extreme hard, practically Hitler' party, the AfD, make huge gains with concomitant losses for the parties of the current german government coalition.
Yes. You should never express joy over a fallen enemy soldier. It is a tragedy. So many lost lives over a thing that you could have discussed between real statesmen - not these clowns, warhawks and heartless peoples starting the confrontation.
Agree with you about the duped and/or conscripted Ukranians. As for mercs, sheep-dips and others promoting this atrocity, hell no. They have fully earned their Darwin Awards, made of pure fools' gold. Good riddance to bad trash. RF would be fully within its rights to target all western gaslight media pressitutes reporting from invaded Russian territory as terrorists and proceed with their immediate liquidation. They should be sent to hell where they and their lying tongues belong.
I feel sorry for both Russian and Ukrainians. Some of them may be ”bad people” or really liking the killing of others. They did choose their way and eventual risk of death. As for foreigners, just doing it for fun or money, so be it.
Indeed. War is a tragedy for both sides. It’s about conquering, killing and suffering at the hands of leaders purposely removed from the reality. Everything else attributed to war is PR.
Which is a constantly overlooked civilization thing actually. Russians have always had more land than people. Unlike tightly-packed Europeans that developed a cutthroat approach to expansion (making even tiny Belgium a ruthless colonizer drenched in blood), Russians were expanding by putting locals in line and to work for a common goal, eradicating their petty squabbles as a byproduct of forcing everyone into the same task force. Being conquered by Europeans meant death for sake of freeing the lebensraum, being conquered by Russians meant that you get fed and put to work because there's so much yet to do together.
That's also why Cold War era American pamphlets about Soviets invading and putting everyone to the sword, including castrating American men (WTAF), are actually a self-damning evidence of what was in the heads of people authoring them.
Well said. It was obvious from the beginning Russia took a measured approach to carve out the bad part of the apple and avoid making applesauce of Ukraine. Of course, western psychopathic neocons had a different idea.
The AFU Kursk assault was doomed to fail. The Russian forces were sitting back in anticipation of an AFU offensive which was telegraphed in advance. Russia's forces are decimating the AFU invaders. According to the Russian Defense Ministry AFU Kursk's losses include:
3,500 troops
262 fighting armoured vehicles
115 motor vehicles
25 artillery guns
4 electronic warfare stations
and a partridge in a pear tree.
7 mlrs launchers
1 mine clearing vehicle
25 infantry fighting vehicles
5 SA launchers
59 tanks
and a partridge in a pear tree.
The operation to neutralize AFU forces is in progress.
AFU's Kursk is like Custard's last stand.
But why did AFU command do it?
Lukashenko said that Ukraine's escalation in the Kursk region is an attempt to push Russia to use nuclear weapons. For those of you who thought it a good idea for Russia to use nukes, bad idea. The Kursk affair is no more than a bothersome fly to Russian command. Why would they escalate to nukes when they're already destroying Ukraine's army surgically, methodically to blissful extinction? Russia controls the theatre of conflict.
A final revealing note. Lukashenko said that if Kyiv and Moscow do not negotiate, the escalation will end with the death of Ukraine.
This German wriggle out is long overdue - if they actually have the courage to go through with it, EU politics and policies may evolve in the better direction
Maybe the land mass of Europe has become like a horrid party--I think of Luis Bunuel's "The Exterminating Angel"--at which one is horridly obliged to remain until that first nonconformist starts edging toward the door, having suddenly remembered that they left the car double-parked--and the spell is broken.
Mention of WWII has surfaced so much as a fetish trope since the SMO commenced--and the belligerents have tolerated the revival of Nazi cultural elements within their countries to a surreal degree [ I include OTAN countries like Fin, Est, Lat & Lith as co-belligerents ]--that it's as if a Victory Day for Europe never really happened in 1945.
The SMO, unwittingly,revivified that.
This really is an Electric War--and the SMO forced everyone to touch the Third Rail
I'd rather see the destruction of the EU, now that Germany is waking up to the economic realities & whilst being the main contributor to the EU federalist project, I hope it leads to the dismantlement or self-implodes with all the corruption & nepotism.
So Ukraine did 3 major offensives during the last few years. If their operational reserve stands around 100k personnel now and it seems that they used less than a fifth of it, then this Kursk offensive smells like a similar feint thrust like they did with all of their previous offensives: focusing the Russians reserves on a distant part of their main target. This could explain this Kursk offensive, we shall see....
There was actually an article in the DT this week about how a desperate Putin was going to resort to a nuclear incident and had ordered Russian soldiers to set tyres on fire in the coolin tower of the ZNPP - despite many wester reports that these were UAF drone attacks. The FT reported that because Ukrainian staff at the ZNPP were routinely tortured and locked up they were understaffed and the fire was a safety issue - quoting sources from the UN monitoring body. All total BS of course. But what is occurring in much of the UK press is that the Kursk attack is being hailed as the next Cobra (not Bulge) and Putin is desperate and will use nukes or similar. And guess what happens next?
It really seems that Ukraine’s fate is sealed. Putin warned quite a while ago now of dire consequences to Ukrainian statehood should they continue to attack Donbass. This little adventure was carried out to prevent peace, a desperate gamble by those set to lose the most when Ukraine ceases to exist and the inevitable tribunal begins. Expect a maddeningly long yet maximal conclusion to the war that challenges the attention span of the west as Ukraine is completely destroyed. The question of what to do with the Nazi portion of Ukraine once Odessa and Kiev fall has likely been decided. The war truly will be fought to the last Ukrainian and by the time that happens Russia, China, and Iran will be absolutely unstoppable, having been forced by a bitter west to fight together to the end of the empire.
It was not sealed. Within 2 months Putin had finalized a negotiated agreement with Ukraine in Turkey. Now is very different, Ukraine won't exist and its NATO neighbors will be defanged.
Russia has lost tens of thousands, possibly up to a hundred thousand and more, many of them among its best people.
And it's clear from the Kursk invasion that Russia does not have the conventional forces to bring about a quick end to this war. We were told that Russia was building up forces around Kursk to make an invasion into Sumy region. Where are those forces repelling the invasion that has actually happened yet in the other direction? It was probably an expedient Ukrainian lie to help cover up for their own build-up. If the Ukrainians are currently over-extended, then the Russians are clearly over-extended too.
Hence loosing so many of its best people is what Russia can afford the least. To stem these losses, Russia has to go nuclear. The Kursk invasion provides the opportunity to use nuclear weapons on Russian territory, so there is much less of a political threshold to it than to using them over Ukrainian territory. Worried about nuclear contamination? Use air bursts at relatively high altitudes to induce EMP's that fry the electronics of the equipment that the Ukrainians are using. Let them take place close to the border to minimize the effects on your own forces and also to let them spill over into Ukrainian territory. Civilians are gone, including those (probably very few if any) with pacemakers, so no need to worry about them either. Time your nuclear blasts for the most expensive American spy satellites passing overhead in low orbits to fry their electronics too as well as to burn out their sensors.
It's not such an outlandish idea. Some strategists in Russia itself have already called for lowering the nuclear threshold to sober up the West. The time and opportunity is now.
Politically, BRICS states ought to realize now that Ukraine and the West are hopeless. The Ukrainian foreign minister made a visit to China just prior to the Kursk invasion talking about peace. The BRICS must realize now that the only solution to the Ukrainian problem there is is a military one. Russia cannot be expected to bleed itself out to bring about this solution. Nuclear is the only way.
And I don't buy the idea that Germany or anyone else in the West is running out of money. Money never runs out in times of war. It's only after the war that hyperinflation comes for the loosing party. Prior to that happening, they will print all the money they need, that's for sure.
"And it's clear from the Kursk invasion that Russia does not have the conventional forces to bring about a quick end to this war." Nonsense.
Kiev gathered a few thousand reserves to launch a suicidal attack on nearly empty Russian border territory that contained only a few small villages and no significant military assets. It was a purely terrorist attack aimed at killing and capturing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure in small villages mostly populated by old people. Kiev played up the nazi angle and "German tanks again in Kursk" deliberately to inflame Russian anger at the terrorist attack.
Kiev's strategy was the classic strategy of terrorists who have few resources who attack an opponent with overwhelmingly larger forces: use your few forces in a horrific terrorist attack that ignites such anger in your opponent that the opponent's over-reaction accomplishes what you want.
Kiev wanted to so enrage Russia that Russia would strike US and NATO military assets that helped Kiev, like US satellites and AWACS aircraft, or US/NATO bases that provide the arms Kiev used to attack Russia and to kill Russian civilians. Starting WW3 in hot mode directly between the US and Russia is a key objective for Kiev, because they know that such a war guarantees the US will not get "Ukraine fatigue" but will fight Russia directly.
Looking at it from Russia's side, Russia is fighting the special op and winning despite the very small outlay of resources by Russia. Russia is perfectly happy going slow and wiping out the nazi regime steadily and methodically, even if that annoys Internet commentators who have short attention spans or who lack patience. Such an approach allows Russia to keep growing its economy and to keep developing the country, as Russia has done, pulling ahead of both Japan and Germany to become the world's fourth largest real economy.
It doesn't make sense for Russia to station many troops in regions like Kursk to prevent suicide attacks that are wildly self-destructive for Kiev. The way such attacks are deterred is by having the ability to react quickly to contain them if they happen, and then by ensuring the destruction of any state that attempts them. That's what will now happen to the Kiev regime.
Russia rapidly moved enough spare forces into Kursk to stop Kiev's attack. It did that without in any way reducing the tempo of Russia's successful forward progress all along the rest of the 600 mile front. Now Russia has shifted gears into destroying the men (and women) and arms Kiev sent into Kursk. It's making good progress on that despite not even shifting into full attack mode. There's no doubt in any experienced observer's mind that Russia will annihilate every soldier and weapon Kiev sent into Kursk.
Beyond that, Russia has already opened a "Sumy offensive" by beginning to systematically annihilate Kiev's logistics chain and reserves in Sumy that might have supported the Kursk incursion. As anybody who keeps track of events on the Donbass front or the state of Kiev's electrical grid can tell you, when Russia sets itself to systematically annihilating the enemy's logistics it does a very thorough job, taking its time to well and truly tear the heart and muscle out of that logistics chain.
Kiev's incursion into Kursk was stupid mainly because it helped Russia free itself of having to pretend it cared about negotiations. That lowers the political restraint imposed by Russia's relationship with China, which wants to position itself as a more neutral party interested more in a neutral peace than only an unconditional defeat of the nazi regime in Kiev. It also helps give Russia air cover with other BRICS nations. Now everyone can see that yes, the only solution to the Ukrainian problem is a military solution.
But that doesn't have to be nuclear. I agree the use of nuclear weapons is on the horizon, but it is on the horizon as a risk of WW3 between the US and Russia, regardless of whether the US's own delusions or the delusions or self-centered, corrupt calculations of the US's dwarf vassals end up pulling the US into nuclear holocaust. Russia has more than enough conventional military strength to finish the job in Ukraine with conventional weapons.
More copium which fails to appreciate the pr disaster which is the Ukrainians invasion of the Kursk region. The Russian general staff left an important border region defenceless which has led to tens of thousands of civilians having to flee from the fighting. The AFU may well be taking heavy casualties but they are still advancing in Russian territory with little or no air cover. Sorry if thus was happening to the US you and many others would be pouring scorn on the Americans for failing to defend and quickly repel an invasion of their territory. The AFU invasion is 2 weeks old with no sign of the Russian Armed Forces getting a grip on the situation. The generals of the Red Army of WW2 would be turning in their graves if they could see the current fisco in the Kursk region.
Abject nonsense. Let's pick the wings off your fly...
"the pr disaster " Russia doesn't give a hoot what people think who fall for propaganda for morons. Reality isn't lies on social medial, it is the annihilation of Kiev's forces.
"left an important border region" Ah, no, the border area in Kursk oblast next to Ukraine isn't important, it's mostly empty with very few villages and no military assets. It wasn't "defenceless" either, as Russia rapidly stopped the incursion and killed half of the initial invaders and since then thousands more and almost all of their armored vehicles.
"tens of thousands of civilians having to flee" No, it was nearly 200,000 civilians evacuated, not just tens of thousands. But those people were evacuated from anywhere near where Kiev could strike (which they could do from Ukraine, as they've been doing to cities in Russia) to a) avoid having to move large numbers of air defense units away from larger cities to cover scattered villages and b) to enable Russia to wage brutally unrestricted warfare against every nazi who stepped foot in Russia.
"they are still advancing in Russian territory" Nope. They've been stopped cold. There's no "line" in Russian territory, just a sponge-like region very near the border where there are more nazis, a gray zone where small units from both sides are roaming, and then a region where Russia clearly dominates despite the occasional raid by (literally) a handful of nazi saboteurs. The maps created by propagandists in the West showing territory occupied by Kiev are fake, because they don't show the sponge-like interweaving of both sides. There are no "advances" by Kiev, just occasional runs by very small groups, at times only two guys to a place where they take a selfie and then run out before they're killed, to use as feedstock so that complete imbeciles in the west think Kiev is "advancing".
"with no sign of the Russian Armed Forces getting a grip on the situation." Hey, you should go to work in Brussels to help plan the next defeat based on clueless delusion. "no sign?" What do you call killing around 5,000 of Kiev's invaders and wiping out all of their armor while completely containing them and systematically destroying all the support they need to stay alive?
"We were told..." Therein is the heart of the problem.
Putin, et al, aren't going to disclose details of a Nazi extermination program, no matter what rumor or curveball gets presented.
Money? Why not print $1,000 Trillion dollars? Because the Purchasing Power falls proportionately to the increase in money volume.
It is a childish fantasy that "Europe and the USA" can print their way into winning wars. The Covid/Central Bank fake economy just gave Western Morons a hint of double digit inflation, any exercise in printing/conjuring will have an angry citizenry starving or scalping.
Not a single data poibt or non-western source to back up your claims. Look, I'm as sour on Russian propaganda as I am on western propaganda, but if you are going to claim that Russia has lost its best and brightest you need to build out your thesis.
Their overall objective in Kiev is for themselves: to keep the war going ($$$) and for US/NATO: cause as much chaos as possible for Russia. Can't do the latter playing only defense.
OTOH they are burning Kiev's more limited mobile forces which are capable of counterattacking. If/when those become critically depleted, it lets RF make bolder forward moves everywhere.
It'll certainly be the end of Ukraine, as in they'll literally eliminate most of their own population. But we knew that already, that's why the US put the Bandera group in charge.
I hate to pop your bubble but after 2 weeks and with minimal air cover AFU troops are still making progress on the Kursk front forcing tens of thousands of Russian civilians to flee from the fighting. You are deluding yourself if you believe the quite obvious falsehoods in the Russian mod reports calling this an attempted invasion of Russian territory. What nonsense. Ukrainian forces are still advancing, you might not like that but it is the reality of the situation. Russian forces ned to get a grip on the situation before public trust starts to be eroded in the war effort. If the Ukrainian invasion continues into September then Putin could start to face an erosion of public support. Heads should roll for the abject failure to defend the border on such an important region.
"Lukashenko said that Ukraine's escalation in the Kursk region is an attempt to push Russia to use nuclear weapons."
When I read about the reported 30% of Ukrainian forces lining up along the border I guessed this was the case. A very tempting target, I'm sure. They send ~3,000 soldiers into Kursk to stir up trouble, then herd 30% of their forces at the border.
I'm not buying the Kursk explanations. 100k civilians displaced, propaganda footage for the ages, and yet another Russian red line crossed. I'm gonna say it - it's been a week of cope. And ya the donbass is being sacrificed but the donbass was lost anyway. They are making better use of their forces this way.
In 2022, the Ukrainians were winning the war. In hindsight, had the west gone all in, it might have proven decisive. Z may have a point that if all the equipment for the 2023 counteroffensive had arrived 1 year earlier they would have been in crimea by now.
Oh, where they winning? I probably missed that part. Luckily they didn’t win as that would have led to the ‘liberation’ of Donbass and Crimea. At that point the only option for Russia would be… a lot of mushroom clouds
Lol if Donbas is lost how tf can they hold any of Kursk? If you think sending your troops on suicide missions is a good use for them you’ve probably got a future in the AFU!
Lol yeah let's sacrifice Donbass ,land full of natural resources worth billions of not trillion dollars for a suicide mission. Thankfully, Russians are good at math unlike yourself
All this constant talk about energy war, yet Kiev constantly has power for Zelensky to come up with his dumb television statements and make more bullshit comments on social media. Russia should just completely and permanently cut off the power of Kiev and its surrounding regions. Destroy the electrical transmission stations and hit all fuel dumps.
Ukraine always likes to target and blow up bridges too. Yet Russia for some demented reason doesn't bother to destroy the bridges in Kiev that cross to the east or the bridges in Dnipro either. Maybe they want the Ukrainian military to keep sending their stuff eastwards. And most of the UA's assets should be eastward already anyway. Whatever they are waiting for seems to be rather incomprehensible.
It's way simpler than that. Russians simply want all this equipment and forces to reach the frontline because that's where they are much easier to destroy.
It also makes Russian logistics easier and 404 logistics harder.
You propagate for the ”american/british/israeli” way of Warfare: TOTAL destruction and total disrespect for the civilians. Russia wouldnt have me as a supporter if they killed of ukrainian civilians just like US did in Iraq/Afghanistan and Israel right now in Gaza/Westbank/Libanon.
There is always a time after a War. Good to have electricity, water supply and wastewater cleaning then.
The Nazis were indeed a mortal threat to Russia during WW2. But the Russians then also lived under a severe communist dictatorship, which in turn had aspirations for world domination. Russia today cannot be compared to it during WW2. The Cold War never ended for the US/UK/Nato. It only took a brief pause and then got on with Clinton's foul play and enlargement of NATO. Meantime Putin transformed Russia to a semi-democracy and a western like materialism. So did Ukraine. Too keep Russia as an enemy and call them names for thirty years was the dumbest thing West have done.
And I understand why the Russian feels they are under attack from the Nazis again (they are) and I agree with you - they will deal them a defeat.
I would explain it for you if you had the intellectual capacity to comprehend it. But since it's obvious you are a willfully ignorant troll I won't waste my time.
Hey Mikey are you joking, world domination. Think Trotsky's killing and then socialism in one country thought up by Stalin. How does that fit into world domination. He had just finished the Moscow show trials and hardly had time for world domination let alone USSR domination.
You speak of the years 1936-1938. What about the period 1922-1979?
Why did Stalin arm and build such a tremendous force before the WW2. Have you read Icebreaker from Suvorov?. What did Stalin do after WW2? What did the communists do after Stalins death?
USSR is not the same as todays Russia. But West treat them as a forever enemy.
Ok Mikey so where does the world domination come into it, also no I wasn't talking of the 2 years you refer to but 1924 till 53 and really much further as Stalinism vis a vis socialism in one country was still de rigeuer till the late 80s. The USSR under Stalin did not continue Bolshevism and opposed violently the 4th International culminating in the murder of Trotsky.
I have wondered about this as well; I guess the question is how much equipment is already east of Dnipro and how much still flows in from West of the river. To my simple mind, if you cut the bridges and destroyed the oil depots, then you could take all the UKR equipment and personnel East of the Dnipro at less cost; but the arms and personnel to the west would be more difficult. Therefore, I presume Russia wants to destroy everything in terms of UKR equipment and personnel that is West of the Dnipro as well. But that will always be vulnerable to re-supply by Europe. Unless you take the land as well…
reconnaissance and search locate and destroy Kiev enemy in Skrylevka and Sheptakovka (if I spelled them right). Well that's right in the heart of the Kursk invasion area. That's not behind a hard pressed front line fighting off a dynamic invasion/expansion attack.
And it is not shelling from a distance. It means men in APC or even on foot 'searching'.
If allied forces can do that in the middle of that 'occupied' and 'controlled' area then things are definitely not as they been put to us here and there.
For instance the idea of 'closing the bag' from the Eastern end and capturing allied forces and civilians in all that area south of the Seim and north of the border looks infeasible.
And the women:
Sad to find the Kiev women are as ill informed and stupid as their men. Though not surprising really, I suppose. They go to die in 'defence of their land' in their minds whilst actually in the process of invading land which is not theirs but belongs to their Donbas compatriots.
But they have no 'compatriots', do they? They notionally eliminated all that 10 million as soon as they started this. 'Body bag' has a whole new meaning for me now since I saw vids of Palestinians putting shredded pieces of baby leg and foot into tiny shopping bags and have seen vids of allied soldiers putting body parts of Kiev Ukrainians into small bags, too. I don't like the thought of shattered pieces of women being put into such. But that's where they're going.
In order to feed American arms profits.
p.s. 'here and there'. 'literary' burble. not referring to anything put to us here; I meant 'generally'.
If you can be convinced to believe absurdities you can be motivated to commit atrocities or die for stupidity. This war is an information war, demonstrating the wests monopoly on what people believe and how to manipulate how people think. The issue now is they have gone to far and forced many people to start thinking. Now the situation of group think arise and they know all the answers the challenge is to brain storm on the questions by convincing each other the lies are actually truths by convincing more of the believers to be more indoctrinated.
A month after Paulus surrendered to the Soviets at Stalingrad, Goebbels gave his "Total War" speech and 24 months later Germany was completely crushed and Goebbels killed his children. Information, talk, narrative, fiction, bullshit.
That is the issue with the perspective on war today it is glorified and reduced to more economics, destruction of equipment and the financial cost. This negates the actual inconvenient barbarity and inhumanity of the conflict where the actual objective is killing other human beings or creating enough suffering to force the other side to concede.
The war of perception, the war against Western minds, continues alongside the real war with real soldiers with real blood dying on the fields of the black earth. Yes, they will keep at it and mess around as long as no one drops a bomb through their bunker roof.
It will continue to spread rumors about invasions of Transnistria and offensives from the Zaporozhye front.
Russia's window of opportunity may well be closed if the Partial Ukraine suddenly becomes a member of NATO. It is probably the only thing that can save Ukraine from total dissolution, but also something that Bankova will never agree to. Or...never say never.
That Russia is now using conscripts in the war to clear Kursk is a defeat and pure slaughter of young people. It may be wise to just keep the Ukrainian force down and decimate it bit by bit but the longer the incursion is allowed to go on the greater the damage in terms of perception in Russia.
In total war the rage of the population is very important. Pinpricks like this drive up recruitment and stoke that anger. If rump Ukraine is admitted to NATO expect the hot war everyone is afraid of, and if the west attacks Russia directly in retaliation for the total razing of their “NATO ally” western capitals will burn. The problem for the west is that no one here gives a fuck, and no one here knows how to do anything useful. I don’t know a single person in the US who wants their kids fighting Russians over Ukraine. This dynamic looks a lot different in Russia. We are again forcing Russia into total societal mobilization. How do you think that ends? Every pinprick raises the societal temp in Russia a little bit. We hope they will blink but only a totally clueless idiot reads history and comes away with that conclusion. Over and over and over such idiots come to power in Europe.
…and in US. It is US containment strategy that led to this War. Europeans were oblivous and let it happen. NATO-enlargement was the first stupid move. Bombing Serbia the next. Letting US start colour revolution in Ukraine, Georgia and North Africa the beginning of this War. Sanctions on Russia (and its partners in Europe), sabotaging the build of the Nordstream2, was an act of War against Germany. Merkel playing good dog meanwhile.
The Europeans destroyed their own continent twice in the last century! And they appear to have learned nothing… except that the Americans will bail them out. It appears Americans became delusional enough to believe in the dream of global dominance, partnering with the rump of the British empire. This particular shitshow started with WWI. It’s hard to see what continental Europe gets out of another conflict. Unless the dream of Anglo-global governance under the UN isn’t dead yet.
The Brits might well have kept most of the Empire and Commonwealth except for their penchant for involving themselves in European Wars. The death of millions of young Brits and their Colonies' best ensured their future would shrink.
I have been surprised and continue to be surprised about just how much of this war has proved to be a war for the information space and for perceptions. There are a number of target audiences here - western publics (multiple), US voters, Russian and Ukrainian publics and the ROW. Well NATO is vertainly winning the war with its own public. I doubt this translates anywhere else, certainly not the Russian public and still less the Russian regime. I do however think that NATO has fallen into the trap of believing its own propaganda and appears to shut out dissent, at least in large part. But I wonder if the absence of real discussions with Russia, all of this PR guff is not intended also to try to send a message to Russia - "we know and you know you are not desperate and won't resort to WMD type incidents, but we are and might. So agree terms or else?".
This seems to be a continuing theme of NATO escalation and the crossing of so called "red-lines". Having started this war and decided now it is being lost, NATO would like to close it down on advantageous terms. The despotic Putin regime is desperate and humiliated so presumably its support can be overturned by a few more wily operations and missile strikes?? Surely NATO realises the risk of MAD so does not want to start WW3, and I hope all of this is just words. But if these thoughts are remotely correct, then it shows the depth of misunderstanding of Russia. And that also has been a theme.
It is the dubious behavior of Western leaders that confuses the Kremlin. The Indians called it speaking with a forked tongue. The masters are the leaders of Israel who are not even dubious but lie constantly.
The so-called Western democracy is not transparent or based on indisputable rules and laws. Political leaders today go to elections by saying one thing and then doing the opposite (Meloni). UK releases 5000 prisoners to make room for ordinary people and a lot of hooligans who demonstrated and created riots in connection with the murders of three girls in Southport. Signal politics and real politics are not connected.
If you translate it into foreign policy or geopolitics, it creates enormous uncertainty by the counte part. The US has proven that it no longer deals with "realpolitik" (Reagan, Helmut Kohl) but gambles and pushes its perceived opponent as far as possible and beyond. (the Israeli modus operandi).
In Europe, the UK was the mad dog, France the sane poodle and Germany the sluggish St. Bernhard, but through the EU a situation has arisen where EU representatives without the support of the people practice foreign policy and geopolitics together with the madmen in NATO headquarters. NATO is not its own entity but controlled by the US. As long as the national states within the EU do not stand up against the US game, they will be drawn into a nightmare that they did not think was possible. And guess what? We're already there - no one knows how to get out of this because the rules of the game are don't blink first.
What are you talking about? What happened to Macron and the French army? It was just months ago that he was saying France is willing or will soon join Ukraine on the battlefield. Again, where is the West? Hiding behind Ukraine.
They repeat the lies so often with the full support of the complicit Western MSM, that in the end they believe their own lies and all the propaganda. All you have to do is look at the so-called Ukraine Summer Offensive. They literally thought the Russians were going to throw their weapons away and run at the first sight of NATO tanks & AFV. How many AFU died there, oh just another 100K there abouts, just cannon fodder, Elensky does not give a damn for the loss of life of his forces & now Kusk. How I wish I could drop the likes of Boris Johnson & elensky on the front line & watch these elitist pigs lose their legs & guts.
"Well NATO is certainly winning the war with its own public."
Doubtful. For those addicted to their Dumbphone, need to "google" "facts, verify via Wikipedia, then those very bad, evil Russkies are deservedly on the ropes.
For those that understand that all 100% of Western Media is owned, then Russia and Ukraine get sympathy for being bled for power and profit.
Lol, keep lying, Yankee. Donbas will soon be Russia's. Land worth billions if not trillions of dollars. Ukraine is sacrificing many of its best and most trained troops in Kursk. And Russia gets to kill them. This was a bad move expect the West especially America to call it out soon
I'd agree that UK has generally taken the lead in Ukraine but don't believe USA was left out of the loop in Kursk. Too much American ISR would be needed via satellite. More like a good cop/bad cop routine with the USA urging restraint in public, but fully involved in Kursk behind the scenes.
The availability of Russian conscripts on Kursk is interesting. There is probably some benefit to getting them blooded defending Russia itself.
As far as public perception goes, the most important is that of Russian citizens. The Ukrainian incursion has set many civilians scrambling, lives list and completely disrupted. I don't see Russian attitudes towards the war souring because of this, but it is a real risk and one possible motive for Ukraine to undertake this operation.
The west/NATO want the huge ZNP badly, it is a potential cash cow and critical to European energy needs. It is also a tricky area for Russia to defend, it would be a big loss for Ukraine to be successful there.
That's a lie. Russians are moving on and not disturbed. It is about 12 days and not much progress. They know that the plan is to let Ukraine in so they can eliminate their best troops.
As a consolation prize for not being able to defeat the Russian military on the hot LOC, OTAN mercs & a handful of Ukrainians are rambling around the Kursk countryside, scarfing up undefended villages, some of them no more than sleepy hamlets, but a village or a hamlet captured is yet another ‘W’ to put in Ukraine’s column of wins & losses [where the Ls are piled up hip deep.]
The numbers matter. What they couldn’t do in Robotino or in Krynky they can easily do in the wide open fields & farmsteads 400km from the LOC. The LOC is where the adversary is. Here, far from where the war is actually being fought, the pickings are easier.
Making it up as they sweep into Russia, the OTAN mercs & a handful of Ukrainians are inventing a new war, a war they can win. Rather than meet the enemy on the actual battlefield, they can strike fear in the hearts of the rural folk who, 5 minutes before the marauding soldiers showed up, were washing the dishes or getting breakfast for the kids or drinking coffee.
Ukraine’s fondness for terrorism as a substitute for military prowess is equaled only by its proclivity for PR victories.
"What they couldn’t do in Robotino or in Krynky they can easily do in the wide open fields & farmsteads 400km from the LOC".
And they may make hay while the sun shines. Soon they will be no more. They have entered Russia violently with weapons in hand, and they will never return home. As the old saying has it, "It's a kopeck to get in, but a rouble to get out".
Or, as Prince Alexander Nevsky put it rather more directly, "Those who come to us in peace will be welcome as a guest. But those who come to us sword in hand will die by the sword!"
Kit Klarenberg + Alexander McKay, Kursk is a British plan to make sure that there cant possibly be a peace agreement. They want the Russians to fight and bleed for every inch of land in Ukraine and keep the Russian international containment siege permanent. https://www.youtube.com/live/SokN9EkjHcg?si=YxgViwOMozHixLfl
Thx for this. Kit Klarenberg is a great investigative journalist
I can see the Brits + the collective West attempting to *contain* Russia themselves--but I do not see this happening in the international community beyond the West.
I confess that was my own conclusion. Klarenberg and McKay only mentioned the British lead drive in Ucraine, in a moment where Germany was backing off and the US was using Qatar for an agreement. Why are they doing is another story. I suspect it is all about the international shadow financial tax haven, drug money laundring, fake big4 accountancy, bullion manipulation, political bribery etc controlled by the City of London. In particular the ruso-iranian corridor to the Indian Sea.
1) It's obvious that there WERE secret negotiations ongoing in Qatar. Whether or not they were about attacks on energy supplies, I don't know. But...
2) The invasion on Kursk was NOT authorized/planned by the USA, hence Putin's (genuine) anger and bye-bye secret Qatar negotiations.
3) Even if Ukraine fails to expand its Kursk bridgehead, it's gonna hold onto a sliver of Russian territory as long as possible, just for the PR benefits.
4) The PMR thing is just a warning (via Salaru, one of the dumbest men on planet Earth LOL) - if Sandu loses the elections in October (which, atm, she isn't likely to do) then yes, Ukraine will come here and kill us all. But it'd be political suicide for the pro-USA lackeys in Moldova for it to happen now.
5) Biden ain't deciding jack shit. This is all Deep State boys handling the Ukraine/Russia stuff.
6) Germany's just trying to save face because, as the SIX MONTHS of budget negotiations last year revealed, they are out of money. It just isn't there. And Germany has been rich (not credit card rich but cash rich) for a long, long time. Hell, in 2021 they gave over 30 billion just to the United Nations and foreign aid stuff. It's impossible to describe what a shock it is for Germans not to be rich anymore - just saw an ARD (German channel) documentary on the rise of (local, ethnic) Germans going to food banks because they can't even feed themselves, and the tone was 100% "how the hell is this possible?" Germany was literally the EU's last producer of tangible goods for export, not "financial services", and now its economy is cratering.
6b) To be fair, the Netherlands also produces a lot of tangible goods (esp food), but that's declining rapidly as well.
7) Not mentioned in the OP for obvious reasons, but holy shit is Israel entering into near civil war mode as its various factions have now all got their knives out. I mean the nightly number of (Jewish!) protesters on the street is HUGE. And at he same time, Hamas agreed to let the PA take over Gaza so the Palestinians are getting MORE united. Crazy.
8) If life ever gets you stressed out, just think of the number of foreign leaders who are sweating bullets because they have no f--ing idea who's driving the train in America right now :)
Like all western idiots his evidence is that he believes it, therefore is has to be true. He saw it on cnn and they would never tell a lie, right? It's shocking how few in the west know ANY history more than a decade old.
Agree with all except for the secret negotiations.
Negotiate about what exactly? You can’t practically call someone illegitimate and then negotiate with them.
What was likely happening (if anything was happening at all) is that others ex-Russia were trying to figure out a way out of this mess. Kind of how the Gaza “negotiations” are being conducted right now.
With the same results: everything stays the same or escalates.
I agree with you on most things but in the spirit of active debate, a few provocative comments...
"It's obvious that there WERE secret negotiations ongoing in Qatar" - Yes, but those were almost certainly the ongoing, totally routine negotiations for prisoner and corpse exchanges.
"The invasion on Kursk was NOT authorized/planned by the USA" - I don't believe that. On the contrary, it seems far more likely that all the play acting about Syrsky not telling the US is just lies to help the US disclaim responsibility. What are they going to say? "Yes, we the US participated in an attack against Russia. Let's move WW3 out of the phony war phase into a hot phase right now."?
"Even if Ukraine fails to expand its Kursk bridgehead, it's gonna hold onto a sliver of Russian territory as long as possible, just for the PR benefits." That's not really saying anything, because "as long as possible" boils down to at most a few months of slaughtering Kiev's troops. I agree that Kiev's attack had PR benefits in mind, but it really was about trying to drag the US into WW3 as a result of a Russian response in the heat of anger that struck US and NATO assets, like AWACS aircraft, directly. At the end of the day PR benefits don't translate into stopping Russian advances or the collapse of Kiev's defenses.
"But it'd be political suicide for the pro-USA lackeys in Moldova for it to happen now." Since when have the delusional elites at the helm of the US's EU vassals ever given a hoot about political suicide? They think they can ride the new wave of thought control into sunny new, highly lucrative gigs that are subsidized by the US, and they're ready to see the economies and even the societies of their countries in ruins if that's what it takes to kiss their master's ring.
You're right about Germany, but they know how to handle that: they just tell their sheeple that it's all Russia's fault. Same with the Netherlands.
You're also right about the crazy situation in Israel, but the problem for decent people in the world is that what all of the Israeli factions yelling at each other have in common is that they all want to kill all of the Palestinians. It doesn't matter which faction comes out on top of Israeli disputes, the faction that wants to kill all of the Palestinians now without caring about the hostages, or the faction that wants to get their hostages back and only after that wants to kill all of the Palestinians.
You're right about foreign leaders not knowing who's driving the US train, but I don't think that bugs them. On the contrary, I think that many of them see that as an opportunity to leverage a weak and unguided US into giving them more money.
Although Joe's decline is now officially & formally acknowledged, the foreign leaders have recognized this for some time--but playing the game well meant that they could not make the knowledge public.
For the entire span of the SMO they have been working w/ the *hands behind the throne*--and those hands for the next 5 months are well-known to the OTAN vassals: Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Wm Burns, Lloyd Austin, Charles Brown, Janet Yellen, embassy people, etc.
The CIA & the State Department have internal Deep State structures as well--by which I mean entities within those agencies are at liberty to inaugurate various *adventures* w/ Ukraine independently, like Mrs. Nuland was wont to do, without Joe needing to be in the loop. Crocus City may have been an outcome of that.
Recall, too, the highly-detailed nytimes write-up from last March of the CIA's partnership w/ Ukraine, dating at least from Maidan but most likely from the Orange Revolution. Unelected, unchanging fixtures of Permanent Washington have collaborated clandestinely in Ukraine's intel ops across several administrations--and OTAN has been along for the ride.
Most dramatically in Project Ukraine we have been able to isolate & identify two different OTAN variants, just like microbiologists discovering a new strain of virus in the lab.
There is ordinary OTAN, the security alliance.
And then there is OTAN-K, a mutation of ordinary OTAN, a type of ISIS-K hybrid-chimera of OTAN
On the original LOC, ordinary OTAN assists Ukraine & occasionally fires ATACMS @ the Kerch Bridge
By the Kursk incursion, however, a mutation had manifested, as if ordinary OTAN had undergone a gain-of-function process, some kind of protein splicing, and OTAN-K emerged.
According to the news posted by RIA Novosti 4 hours ago, Russian SVR (intelligence service) reported that the Kursk incursion was planned by the secret services of the US, UK, and Poland. They conducted training of the military personnel as well. And now the whole western PR media machine is working hard to put the blame only on the UKR command.
Generally astute, but it is obvious that the US planned the Kursk incursion, and germany has tried in the past to stop aid. Then some American snaps his fingers and the money and weapons resume.
The only twist here for Germany, is that they may simply be prioritizing Israel at the moment. Am I cynical enough? But Germany actually did account for 30% of Israel's arms imports from 2019-2023, per NYT this year
I ask my "liberal friends" (here in the USSA) about the 35 trillion US debt load and I get that "deer in the headlights look..." Their body language suggests, "what in the hell are you talking about?" These are supposedly educated people who have NO effing clue. They don't/won't talk about Gaza or Ukraine. It's as if this is all happening on Mars or a more distant planet. The brainwashing here is thorough and effective. Now all in on mattress-back-Kamala...the latest war criminal to float to the top. Tick-tock...time is running out for the Empire of Lies.
And...their running dogs. Good riddance. And FJB and his cackling gun moll associate.
As the Taliban opines, "you've got the watches...we've got the time". Insert Putin and the Russians for the Taliban and there's your update. Revenge...a dish best served cold.
the services portion of GDP is at an all time high of 72% (1990 - 60% & 47% in the 50's) yet the 'problem' is price gouging (or gauging as heelsup explained) by grocers who operate on a 1-2% margin. if people are financially illiterate they probably think the govt can just print $ without consequence (as numerous 'economists' have told them)
>> 1) It's obvious that there WERE secret negotiations ongoing in Qatar. Whether or not they were about attacks on energy supplies, I don't know. <<
That whole framing is just based on the Collective West narrative. Simp has published Lavrov's video where he wholesale rejects that Zelensky formula process.
In terms of "stick and carrot": What would Russia have to gain from an isolated "energy ceasefire"? Russia's "stick" is huge here: Ukraine's energy sector is in critical condition. Ukraine's "stick" isn't anywhere big enough: they may have blown up one or two oil depots in western Russia. The scarce and over-engineered NATO weapons alone used in the attacks likely had been more valuable than the easily replaced oil depots.
If anything, Russia would demand a much more valuable "carrot" in any such "energy security working group", such as: An immediate end to all "energy sanctions" by USA, EU, NATO. Immediate "unfreezing" of stolen Russian assets including shares and bonds in energy companies used as financial trading collateral. Re-opening of global financial traffic, including Swift transactions. That these "sanctions" counter-weight to the wholesale destruction of the Ukraine energy sector isn't even on the table of the "energy working group's" agenda betrays the one-sided NATO framing.
And even that "carrot" of "ending the sanctions" has shrunk and it's significantly smaller today than it used to be in 2022. It may not be near large enough to even entice Russia anymore, who, after an initial reduction in trade, by now have gained more from their forced economic independence of the USA, than even the pain incurred by the hurting ((Washington's)) vassal states, most notably UK and Germany.
Kit Klarenberg + Alexander McKay, Kursk is a British plan to make sure that there cant possibly be a peace agreement. They want the Russians to fight and bleed for every inch of land in Ukraine and keep the Russian international containment siege permanent. https://www.youtube.com/live/SokN9EkjHcg?si=YxgViwOMozHixLfl
It appears that Simplicius has dropped yet again!
The man! His brain! This war! His pen!!
What insights, what angles, what bombshells today?
Let's discuss what The Thinker has mustered to convey....
Why don't you start?
making me so hungry.
I consider myself a fellow soldier in the Simplicius Army, riotous and hooligan as it may be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdqEbdglqhI
The man is like a merciless hammer, smothering any detractor and rival substacker with the sheer consistency of his delivery, his thorough attention to details, his evergrowing avalanche of admirers and subscriber...let's go!!
It seems Simplicius has moved from one weekly rumor (Ukraine's "dirty bomb") to the next (Ukraine's secret negotiations with Russia in Qatar).
EDIT: and Simplicius latest article is about how Russia has nuclear weapons (since August 1949, he forgot to mention) and could use them in Ukraine or against NATO (which they won't unless the US decides to first-strike, because MAD).
But this is just a further example of how the Western "elites" monopolize the "narrative" and distract from the monumental geopolitical changes that we are presently witnessing, the two most important of which are first, the rise of China as a military, industrial, technological and very soon financial superpower and second the simultaneous end of US hegemony.
If we limit our discussions to the weekly rumor coming out of the pathetic puppet Kiev government propaganda machine, we are really looking at a small leaf of grass and missing the forest behind it.
But then of course it is much easier to repeat ad nauseam "Putin should nuke Kiev" then to seriously think about how the USD is quickly being replaced as the main global currency for international trade - and the monumental consequences of this.
Rereading The Creature of Jekyll Island. The basics bring a calming solace.
The stated goals of so many of our institutions are diametrically opposed by the true spirit of the perpetrators. We line up the latest fall guys, while those yanking on the puppet strings could stare us in the face and we would not even know them.
Any political speculations are blatant divide and conquer. If we understood our true dire situation, the KKK and BLM would have lovingly linked arms decades ago.
A civil war between blue and red would be a joyous cause for celebration for our masters! Democracy is totally dependent on informed constituents. We are worse than ignorant, we think we know!
oh ffs
The guys behind, the pressganged Ukraine civilians,
With machine guns;
The guys in front and swagger, of President Voldemort,
With machine guns;
Western fascist mercenaries, NATO-trained troops,
With machine guns.
They now ride into Kursk, into Russia.
Who is freed?
Those that criticized him 2 weeks ago when the Kursh incursion took place now in an awakening. Zipped now. Those who advocated for thermonuclear bomb on Kiev then? Where are they now?
Well done, Simplicius.
Bedtime for me. Coffee and cream, cottage cheese, eggs, and Simplicius for breakfast tommorrow morning.
Caper in Qatar
Another one wants in on the peace initiative- a competitive response to the China Brazil PP – from Qatar, a major US ally, a new ish Major Non NATO vital ally no less
This is a spy caper from the titles to credits, spoon fed to the scriptwriters, WaPo and NYT
Qatar’s State Security Agency Chief Mohammed al-Kuliafi, who is charged with negotiating and publicising this ‘deal’, was recently awarded the CIA peace prize, by none less than CIA Chief George Burns who spends an unholy amount of time in Doha
Only George Burns would have the gall to dream up this fakery- & think nothing of using an Intelligence Officer as a negotiator, rather than a prince or a diplomat – to ensure 100% US spook control – MaK trained as a US lawyer, his accent is not quite Cali, as revealed at the recent Gobal Security conference organised by the Soufan Centre, an FBI organization, but he ticks off the right slangwords
It is foolish to think that VVP would allow negotiations with one such, but of course this is the point, to show he does not
The intention of the Ukraine and US spies is to persuade their MSM ed public that the peace process is between the Ukraine and the RF that the Ukraine is ever intitiating, and that the China-Brazil peace plans count for naught
The esteemed colleague has alerted us to the role here played by CIA Chief William Burns, whom he presents as a canny operator with many years of high level loyal service and proven knowledge of the Russian élites, one of course deeply involved in the Hamas-Israel ‘negotiations’ in Qatar
The RF is under no illusions about the role Qatar has played in their war, and no less so as to Qatar’s key role as a US ally, host to the gigantic US military bases, the largest in the ME, as they call West Asia, and incidentally also host to the Qatar air force
The Qatar covers most of the US bases construction and running costs
Qatar is frequently the US proxy in Africa, on the wrong side of Russia and also, often, of the UAE
When he discusses this rumour, VVP is polite and non committal as to these so called ‘talks’ between RF and Ukraine – his wish, as with say Turkey, is to take every opportunity to draw countries into the Asian alliances, and away from ASaxon (this the essence of the China Peace Plan) – as the interview linked to below makes clear, VVP warmly welcoming Qatar into the SCO ‘family’
Annexe and Quotes and Links
Breaking News - https://nitter.poast.org/East_Calling 17 Aug
“Negotiations Russia Ukraine in Qatar” WaPo August 17 2024 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/08/17/kursk-ukraine-russia-energy-ceasefire/
The NYT piled in with their own lying report, identical footprints in the sand ‘Ukraine says its incursion will bring peace; Putin’s plans may differ’ https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/19/world/europe/ukraine-russia-zelensky-putin-ceasefire.html
Qatar got the cash to beef up their soft power
Ukraine Rand type think tank report for tuse by US Press- “Qatar co operation and Qatar’s importance as a primary US Ally- 21 April 2024 https://prismua.org/en/ua_qatar/
This Olso think tank Talks up Ukraine- “Qatar’s role in mediation and conflict resolution: Ukraine, Gaza, Afghanistan, and beyond’ 11 June 2024 https://www.prio.org/events/9150 Guess who’s not on the list -no state emissary turned up, except for -Presentation by H.E. Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, Minister of State of Qatar One can see cash & politics at work, but not diplomacy
RF Army mutiny June 24 2024 - a very curious report – maybe a reader can explain? https://mofa.gov.qa/en/statements/qatar-concerned-over-the-developments-in-russia
“Qatar and Ukraine: Strong relations built on diverse Partnerships, Shared interests “ Extensive strong relations with the Ukraine: Strong relations built on diverse partnerships, shared interests 5 June 2024 https://www.qna.org.qa/en/News-Area/Special-News/2024-06/05/0061-qatar-and-ukraine-strong-relations-built-on-diverse-partnerships,-shared-interests
Even Reuter’s has been press ganged – June 5 2024,“Ukraine’s Z, Qatari emir, discuss how to end war, Qatari news reports’ https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraines-zelenskiy-qatari-emir-discuss-how-end-war-qatari-news-report-says-2024-06-05/
“Putin thanks Qatari Emir for his efforts on Ukraine “ 4 July 2024 AA https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/putin-thanks-qatari-emir-for-his-efforts-on-ukraine/3266243
‘Speaking at a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, Putin acknowledged that Qatar's mediation has enabled children from Russia and Ukraine to be reunited with their families The Russian president also commended Qatar's efforts in Gaza, calling Qatar "one of the most effective mediators in the Middle East crisis between Hamas and Israel." "Russia is also making efforts to resolve this crisis, which, in our deep conviction, can be fundamentally resolved only by implementing the relevant UN decisions, particularly the creation of two states -- Israel and Palestine," Putin said.”
The money quote- “Sheikh Tamim, in turn, thanked Russia for its support in joining the SCO Plus format, which allows non-members to participate in the organization's activities.”
A typical glass half full a glass half empty Euro –y detaché to Doha think tank y approach https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/russian-ukrainian-conflict-what-does-it-mean-to-qatar-55415
Some good thoughts and links. Thanks. The guys at the Duran have a different view and claim that Qatar is a friend of Russia and BRICS is putting pressure on Russia to talk. Or was putting pressure, using Qatar as an intermediary. Both yours and their view could in fact be correct, at least to a point. I find it odd that Russia would actually want to negotiate this point at all, but also that BRICS might prefer the war to have a negotiated end, and this was a first stage?
The guys from Duran must be wrong - no Russia has no friend which has so much US armour parked on their front dune
BRICS are putting pressure on peace talks, Russia is part of BRICS, how come the BRICS need an intermediary to talk to one of their own? This is more than absurd
It is precisely because RF is one with their allies that RF listens to their allies, and not to US allies and spies crapping around with ....er... crap
- Caramba que sueño mas malo
Peace has to be negotiated by someone and it ain't going to be Putin doing it - you remember he spent years and years at this and he is not foolish enough to start up again
Besides the peace has to be a common peace, that is to say a fait accompl presented to the ynkas - who do not know what peace is or might mean
Only BRICS can do this - because the actually significant doiminant faction ok class in the US wants a deal with the China golden economy, and this is one of the conditions
Was the June 24 "mutiny" in the Qatari communique perhaps from 2023?
That would align w/ Prigozhin's March for Justice last summer
Great links. Thx
It is largely down to you, who put me on the right path
? I guess it must be Prig
Wm Burns is the Swiss Army Knife of subterfuge & chicanery, which is appropriate--the Swiss part especially--because he is even trying to shiv the Swiss w/ their very own tool: neutrality
He is a player is he not - dealing with the Israelis has either poisoned him or liberated him or both
What an insult for the proud haughty Qatari ruling class to have to put up with these barbarians
Esteemed colleague! May Allah be with you - it was you who put me on to the role and person of Burns
That he has wreaked these insults on the noble Qataris will backfire badly - it may even help to pull them to their senses (as per the other craven colony of Germany)
Allah Akbar, G !
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani is exerting an outsized centrifugal pull on U.S. ruling elites, military generals & high-profile figures. An example: the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley [stepped down in Dec 2023] began advising Sheik Mohammad on "security issues" for Qatar before the SMO began, spending outlandish amounts of time in Qatar [not unlike Wm Burns now.]
In fact, a congressional group spoke about needing to investigate Milley's ties to Sheik Mohammad.
After Tucker interviewed VVP in Moscow, he flew to Qatar to make a presentation @ a symposium. Erik Prince of Blackwater [the security organization] presented @ the conference too.
Footprints in the sand leaving quite a trail to Qatar, G, which even the winds of time will not erase
An oasis of high information, honoured neighbour
The Qatari ruling class have a case of the west is great disease, ditto Saudis, Kuwaitis etc
They all bid on expensive Western paintings of Madonnas - if that ain't haram what is
But this will change
Meant to mention during our earlier convo re: Wm Burns >>
In April 2022 he warned Joe that Vladimir Putin's "desperation" over Russia's failures in Ukraine could lead to the use of tactical nuclear weapons or "low-yield nuclear weapons.
Wm Burns was the psy op-source of all the chatter ever since April 2022 that VVP's *desperation* will drive him to reach for the nukes--chatter which has persisted to today.
There's Putin the Brutal
Putin the Embarrassed
Putin the Desperate
Like gelato flavors in a confectionery: I'll take the stracciatella w/ ribbons of caramel
Thanks for this, confirms the Qatari fakery
Th FT article on Ukraine's energy shortages is interesting ly bereft of any real ideas as to what 'we' may do
Despite being from an EU official who must know something about the subject
It suggests crowd funding! Put the peons to work
Hamster wheel will replace Peloton in the living room
For electricity generation naught better than hamsters
the main problem is Ukraine is importing over $4 million PER DAY in juice from the EU, and the EU is running out of ways to pay for it (while simultaneously electricity gets more expensive for EU consumers), hence the "we don't know what to do" tone
I wonder what will happen when they lose the coal mines around Pokrovsk?
The EU will pay - the RF scheme is to bleed Ukraine, gently for a war, but mercilessly to bleed the EU and NATO
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is likely feeling the sting of regret as he helplessly observes the German economy plummeting. The harsh reality of Henry Kissinger's words, "It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal," may be resonating with him more profoundly now. Meanwhile, the conspicuous absence of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock's usual rhetoric suggests she may have undergone a reality check or a lobotomy. Scholz's predicament and Baerbock's silence serve as cautionary tales about the perils of aligning too closely with the United States.
Well the EU will pay, take it out of the recently stolen from the CBR €1.5B, to a start
The EU will have it every way they want - they want to plead poverty so they can frisk up their hundreds of billions Eurobonds scheme
Do not believe the poverty plea
Crowd funding for what? Where are they going to find hundreds of high voltage transformers compatible with the Ukrainian transmission system? No such inventory exists.
They are not pleading for crowd funding they are pleading poverty
So to justify their theft of CBR assets, and to strong arm EU countries into paying or to go along with their Eurobonds grab for money and power
What John Helmer dubbed Electric Warfare has served Russia so handsomely in the SMO that it would be peculiar for the MOD to surrender an effective wunderwaffen, which they are uniquely situated to deploy
Like the exhortation which kicked off the Spanish-American War--"Remember the Maine!"
For Russia it's "Remember the Minsk!"
Exactly - this electrical warfare is the key to RF victory the soft war way - how to evacuate citizens before laying siege and herding them west, and even out of Ukraine into the welcoming arms of the EU -KK VdL and AS will be delighted to have such bright new malleable and new recruits, leavened with the right portion of the SS and NeoN's
How to degrade military bases and régime bunkers - cut off the sparks - and all those mythical Rheinmetall factories
Finland & the Baltics, esp Estonia, never really closed the book on their Nazi collaboration in WWII & never completely laid to rest their struggle against communism. As a result, they constitute a large Trauma Population, largely untreated, in Europe.
KK, the Extraordinary Foreign Policy Generalissimo for the EU, wrote in Foreign Affairs that there cannot be peace in Europe until VVP is in jail.
Meanwhile, her country Estonia is bringing the Fallen Monuments from the museum basements, the monuments to homegrown heroes who collaborated w/ the Nazis, and reinstalling them in the public square. Like in Ukrainian cities, Estonia is beginning to have torch parades on important anniversaries to honor homegrown Nazi sympathizers.
The world thought Germany, for instance, had thoroughly & admirably & sincerely reckoned w/ its Nazi past—that Germany had done it the right way. But that’s not so. Germany, as a member of the EU, stands shoulder to shoulder w/ Finland & the Baltics and does not call out the revival of Nazi rituals & elements in those countries.
Neither did Germany call out the same in Ukraine.
Of course not - the Germans are far too busy to call out the imaginary 'nazis' in their own population; elections in saxony and Thuringia on Sept 1st are predicted to see the 'far ultra extreme hard, practically Hitler' party, the AfD, make huge gains with concomitant losses for the parties of the current german government coalition.
The simple truth is that Russia cares more about the ukrainian people than the gang at Bankova.
Yes. You should never express joy over a fallen enemy soldier. It is a tragedy. So many lost lives over a thing that you could have discussed between real statesmen - not these clowns, warhawks and heartless peoples starting the confrontation.
The least common denominator - BOOMERS
I express joy at any Ukraine Nazis killed
Agree with you about the duped and/or conscripted Ukranians. As for mercs, sheep-dips and others promoting this atrocity, hell no. They have fully earned their Darwin Awards, made of pure fools' gold. Good riddance to bad trash. RF would be fully within its rights to target all western gaslight media pressitutes reporting from invaded Russian territory as terrorists and proceed with their immediate liquidation. They should be sent to hell where they and their lying tongues belong.
I feel sorry for both Russian and Ukrainians. Some of them may be ”bad people” or really liking the killing of others. They did choose their way and eventual risk of death. As for foreigners, just doing it for fun or money, so be it.
Indeed. War is a tragedy for both sides. It’s about conquering, killing and suffering at the hands of leaders purposely removed from the reality. Everything else attributed to war is PR.
Yes, bloodshed in Eastern Europe is not in my interest, as it’s become a last refuge of sorts, so no doubt it’s under attack.
Which is a constantly overlooked civilization thing actually. Russians have always had more land than people. Unlike tightly-packed Europeans that developed a cutthroat approach to expansion (making even tiny Belgium a ruthless colonizer drenched in blood), Russians were expanding by putting locals in line and to work for a common goal, eradicating their petty squabbles as a byproduct of forcing everyone into the same task force. Being conquered by Europeans meant death for sake of freeing the lebensraum, being conquered by Russians meant that you get fed and put to work because there's so much yet to do together.
That's also why Cold War era American pamphlets about Soviets invading and putting everyone to the sword, including castrating American men (WTAF), are actually a self-damning evidence of what was in the heads of people authoring them.
Wise!
Good insight.
Gang = the jew
Well said. It was obvious from the beginning Russia took a measured approach to carve out the bad part of the apple and avoid making applesauce of Ukraine. Of course, western psychopathic neocons had a different idea.
The AFU Kursk assault was doomed to fail. The Russian forces were sitting back in anticipation of an AFU offensive which was telegraphed in advance. Russia's forces are decimating the AFU invaders. According to the Russian Defense Ministry AFU Kursk's losses include:
3,500 troops
262 fighting armoured vehicles
115 motor vehicles
25 artillery guns
4 electronic warfare stations
and a partridge in a pear tree.
7 mlrs launchers
1 mine clearing vehicle
25 infantry fighting vehicles
5 SA launchers
59 tanks
and a partridge in a pear tree.
The operation to neutralize AFU forces is in progress.
AFU's Kursk is like Custard's last stand.
But why did AFU command do it?
Lukashenko said that Ukraine's escalation in the Kursk region is an attempt to push Russia to use nuclear weapons. For those of you who thought it a good idea for Russia to use nukes, bad idea. The Kursk affair is no more than a bothersome fly to Russian command. Why would they escalate to nukes when they're already destroying Ukraine's army surgically, methodically to blissful extinction? Russia controls the theatre of conflict.
A final revealing note. Lukashenko said that if Kyiv and Moscow do not negotiate, the escalation will end with the death of Ukraine.
This is the end, my friend. (Ukraine)
https://youtu.be/CIrvSJwwJUE
The partridges & the pear trees are esp what Germany can no longer provide
lol
This German wriggle out is long overdue - if they actually have the courage to go through with it, EU politics and policies may evolve in the better direction
Maybe Italy wriggles out too
Maybe the land mass of Europe has become like a horrid party--I think of Luis Bunuel's "The Exterminating Angel"--at which one is horridly obliged to remain until that first nonconformist starts edging toward the door, having suddenly remembered that they left the car double-parked--and the spell is broken.
Mention of WWII has surfaced so much as a fetish trope since the SMO commenced--and the belligerents have tolerated the revival of Nazi cultural elements within their countries to a surreal degree [ I include OTAN countries like Fin, Est, Lat & Lith as co-belligerents ]--that it's as if a Victory Day for Europe never really happened in 1945.
The SMO, unwittingly,revivified that.
This really is an Electric War--and the SMO forced everyone to touch the Third Rail
You are right she's a wriggler that one! She got c blocked by VdL and KK in Brussels and she's itching for revenge
Besides she's right
I think we are due for an upgrade from Europe - Hungary Serbia and now Germany Italy backing away from the simple minded NeoN's bipolarisms
But wait until you hear AS's latest! I'll post later today
I'd rather see the destruction of the EU, now that Germany is waking up to the economic realities & whilst being the main contributor to the EU federalist project, I hope it leads to the dismantlement or self-implodes with all the corruption & nepotism.
So Ukraine did 3 major offensives during the last few years. If their operational reserve stands around 100k personnel now and it seems that they used less than a fifth of it, then this Kursk offensive smells like a similar feint thrust like they did with all of their previous offensives: focusing the Russians reserves on a distant part of their main target. This could explain this Kursk offensive, we shall see....
There was actually an article in the DT this week about how a desperate Putin was going to resort to a nuclear incident and had ordered Russian soldiers to set tyres on fire in the coolin tower of the ZNPP - despite many wester reports that these were UAF drone attacks. The FT reported that because Ukrainian staff at the ZNPP were routinely tortured and locked up they were understaffed and the fire was a safety issue - quoting sources from the UN monitoring body. All total BS of course. But what is occurring in much of the UK press is that the Kursk attack is being hailed as the next Cobra (not Bulge) and Putin is desperate and will use nukes or similar. And guess what happens next?
It really seems that Ukraine’s fate is sealed. Putin warned quite a while ago now of dire consequences to Ukrainian statehood should they continue to attack Donbass. This little adventure was carried out to prevent peace, a desperate gamble by those set to lose the most when Ukraine ceases to exist and the inevitable tribunal begins. Expect a maddeningly long yet maximal conclusion to the war that challenges the attention span of the west as Ukraine is completely destroyed. The question of what to do with the Nazi portion of Ukraine once Odessa and Kiev fall has likely been decided. The war truly will be fought to the last Ukrainian and by the time that happens Russia, China, and Iran will be absolutely unstoppable, having been forced by a bitter west to fight together to the end of the empire.
Ukraine's fate was sealed when Russia decided to launch the SMO.
No.
Yes.
It was not sealed. Within 2 months Putin had finalized a negotiated agreement with Ukraine in Turkey. Now is very different, Ukraine won't exist and its NATO neighbors will be defanged.
Russia has lost tens of thousands, possibly up to a hundred thousand and more, many of them among its best people.
And it's clear from the Kursk invasion that Russia does not have the conventional forces to bring about a quick end to this war. We were told that Russia was building up forces around Kursk to make an invasion into Sumy region. Where are those forces repelling the invasion that has actually happened yet in the other direction? It was probably an expedient Ukrainian lie to help cover up for their own build-up. If the Ukrainians are currently over-extended, then the Russians are clearly over-extended too.
Hence loosing so many of its best people is what Russia can afford the least. To stem these losses, Russia has to go nuclear. The Kursk invasion provides the opportunity to use nuclear weapons on Russian territory, so there is much less of a political threshold to it than to using them over Ukrainian territory. Worried about nuclear contamination? Use air bursts at relatively high altitudes to induce EMP's that fry the electronics of the equipment that the Ukrainians are using. Let them take place close to the border to minimize the effects on your own forces and also to let them spill over into Ukrainian territory. Civilians are gone, including those (probably very few if any) with pacemakers, so no need to worry about them either. Time your nuclear blasts for the most expensive American spy satellites passing overhead in low orbits to fry their electronics too as well as to burn out their sensors.
It's not such an outlandish idea. Some strategists in Russia itself have already called for lowering the nuclear threshold to sober up the West. The time and opportunity is now.
Politically, BRICS states ought to realize now that Ukraine and the West are hopeless. The Ukrainian foreign minister made a visit to China just prior to the Kursk invasion talking about peace. The BRICS must realize now that the only solution to the Ukrainian problem there is is a military one. Russia cannot be expected to bleed itself out to bring about this solution. Nuclear is the only way.
And I don't buy the idea that Germany or anyone else in the West is running out of money. Money never runs out in times of war. It's only after the war that hyperinflation comes for the loosing party. Prior to that happening, they will print all the money they need, that's for sure.
Not so much money as arms and knowhow - they all plead poverty to excuse their lack of competence
The BRICS are very much certain that peace can be negotiated, why should they not be - patience -ask Sun Tzu - 'in war prepare for peace', and so on
The westies say what is peace - Asians say this is merely common sense
Cut the nuclear bot crap -
If you understand nothing do not be so hasty to show off your ignorance
Does your mom know that you're up this late after taking your meds, Joe? Get well soon, bro.
"And it's clear from the Kursk invasion that Russia does not have the conventional forces to bring about a quick end to this war." Nonsense.
Kiev gathered a few thousand reserves to launch a suicidal attack on nearly empty Russian border territory that contained only a few small villages and no significant military assets. It was a purely terrorist attack aimed at killing and capturing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure in small villages mostly populated by old people. Kiev played up the nazi angle and "German tanks again in Kursk" deliberately to inflame Russian anger at the terrorist attack.
Kiev's strategy was the classic strategy of terrorists who have few resources who attack an opponent with overwhelmingly larger forces: use your few forces in a horrific terrorist attack that ignites such anger in your opponent that the opponent's over-reaction accomplishes what you want.
Kiev wanted to so enrage Russia that Russia would strike US and NATO military assets that helped Kiev, like US satellites and AWACS aircraft, or US/NATO bases that provide the arms Kiev used to attack Russia and to kill Russian civilians. Starting WW3 in hot mode directly between the US and Russia is a key objective for Kiev, because they know that such a war guarantees the US will not get "Ukraine fatigue" but will fight Russia directly.
Looking at it from Russia's side, Russia is fighting the special op and winning despite the very small outlay of resources by Russia. Russia is perfectly happy going slow and wiping out the nazi regime steadily and methodically, even if that annoys Internet commentators who have short attention spans or who lack patience. Such an approach allows Russia to keep growing its economy and to keep developing the country, as Russia has done, pulling ahead of both Japan and Germany to become the world's fourth largest real economy.
It doesn't make sense for Russia to station many troops in regions like Kursk to prevent suicide attacks that are wildly self-destructive for Kiev. The way such attacks are deterred is by having the ability to react quickly to contain them if they happen, and then by ensuring the destruction of any state that attempts them. That's what will now happen to the Kiev regime.
Russia rapidly moved enough spare forces into Kursk to stop Kiev's attack. It did that without in any way reducing the tempo of Russia's successful forward progress all along the rest of the 600 mile front. Now Russia has shifted gears into destroying the men (and women) and arms Kiev sent into Kursk. It's making good progress on that despite not even shifting into full attack mode. There's no doubt in any experienced observer's mind that Russia will annihilate every soldier and weapon Kiev sent into Kursk.
Beyond that, Russia has already opened a "Sumy offensive" by beginning to systematically annihilate Kiev's logistics chain and reserves in Sumy that might have supported the Kursk incursion. As anybody who keeps track of events on the Donbass front or the state of Kiev's electrical grid can tell you, when Russia sets itself to systematically annihilating the enemy's logistics it does a very thorough job, taking its time to well and truly tear the heart and muscle out of that logistics chain.
Kiev's incursion into Kursk was stupid mainly because it helped Russia free itself of having to pretend it cared about negotiations. That lowers the political restraint imposed by Russia's relationship with China, which wants to position itself as a more neutral party interested more in a neutral peace than only an unconditional defeat of the nazi regime in Kiev. It also helps give Russia air cover with other BRICS nations. Now everyone can see that yes, the only solution to the Ukrainian problem is a military solution.
But that doesn't have to be nuclear. I agree the use of nuclear weapons is on the horizon, but it is on the horizon as a risk of WW3 between the US and Russia, regardless of whether the US's own delusions or the delusions or self-centered, corrupt calculations of the US's dwarf vassals end up pulling the US into nuclear holocaust. Russia has more than enough conventional military strength to finish the job in Ukraine with conventional weapons.
More copium which fails to appreciate the pr disaster which is the Ukrainians invasion of the Kursk region. The Russian general staff left an important border region defenceless which has led to tens of thousands of civilians having to flee from the fighting. The AFU may well be taking heavy casualties but they are still advancing in Russian territory with little or no air cover. Sorry if thus was happening to the US you and many others would be pouring scorn on the Americans for failing to defend and quickly repel an invasion of their territory. The AFU invasion is 2 weeks old with no sign of the Russian Armed Forces getting a grip on the situation. The generals of the Red Army of WW2 would be turning in their graves if they could see the current fisco in the Kursk region.
Abject nonsense. Let's pick the wings off your fly...
"the pr disaster " Russia doesn't give a hoot what people think who fall for propaganda for morons. Reality isn't lies on social medial, it is the annihilation of Kiev's forces.
"left an important border region" Ah, no, the border area in Kursk oblast next to Ukraine isn't important, it's mostly empty with very few villages and no military assets. It wasn't "defenceless" either, as Russia rapidly stopped the incursion and killed half of the initial invaders and since then thousands more and almost all of their armored vehicles.
"tens of thousands of civilians having to flee" No, it was nearly 200,000 civilians evacuated, not just tens of thousands. But those people were evacuated from anywhere near where Kiev could strike (which they could do from Ukraine, as they've been doing to cities in Russia) to a) avoid having to move large numbers of air defense units away from larger cities to cover scattered villages and b) to enable Russia to wage brutally unrestricted warfare against every nazi who stepped foot in Russia.
"they are still advancing in Russian territory" Nope. They've been stopped cold. There's no "line" in Russian territory, just a sponge-like region very near the border where there are more nazis, a gray zone where small units from both sides are roaming, and then a region where Russia clearly dominates despite the occasional raid by (literally) a handful of nazi saboteurs. The maps created by propagandists in the West showing territory occupied by Kiev are fake, because they don't show the sponge-like interweaving of both sides. There are no "advances" by Kiev, just occasional runs by very small groups, at times only two guys to a place where they take a selfie and then run out before they're killed, to use as feedstock so that complete imbeciles in the west think Kiev is "advancing".
"with no sign of the Russian Armed Forces getting a grip on the situation." Hey, you should go to work in Brussels to help plan the next defeat based on clueless delusion. "no sign?" What do you call killing around 5,000 of Kiev's invaders and wiping out all of their armor while completely containing them and systematically destroying all the support they need to stay alive?
"We were told..." Therein is the heart of the problem.
Putin, et al, aren't going to disclose details of a Nazi extermination program, no matter what rumor or curveball gets presented.
Money? Why not print $1,000 Trillion dollars? Because the Purchasing Power falls proportionately to the increase in money volume.
It is a childish fantasy that "Europe and the USA" can print their way into winning wars. The Covid/Central Bank fake economy just gave Western Morons a hint of double digit inflation, any exercise in printing/conjuring will have an angry citizenry starving or scalping.
Not a single data poibt or non-western source to back up your claims. Look, I'm as sour on Russian propaganda as I am on western propaganda, but if you are going to claim that Russia has lost its best and brightest you need to build out your thesis.
Their overall objective in Kiev is for themselves: to keep the war going ($$$) and for US/NATO: cause as much chaos as possible for Russia. Can't do the latter playing only defense.
OTOH they are burning Kiev's more limited mobile forces which are capable of counterattacking. If/when those become critically depleted, it lets RF make bolder forward moves everywhere.
It'll certainly be the end of Ukraine, as in they'll literally eliminate most of their own population. But we knew that already, that's why the US put the Bandera group in charge.
By my math, the partridges in pear trees cance each other out.
I hate to pop your bubble but after 2 weeks and with minimal air cover AFU troops are still making progress on the Kursk front forcing tens of thousands of Russian civilians to flee from the fighting. You are deluding yourself if you believe the quite obvious falsehoods in the Russian mod reports calling this an attempted invasion of Russian territory. What nonsense. Ukrainian forces are still advancing, you might not like that but it is the reality of the situation. Russian forces ned to get a grip on the situation before public trust starts to be eroded in the war effort. If the Ukrainian invasion continues into September then Putin could start to face an erosion of public support. Heads should roll for the abject failure to defend the border on such an important region.
"Lukashenko said that Ukraine's escalation in the Kursk region is an attempt to push Russia to use nuclear weapons."
When I read about the reported 30% of Ukrainian forces lining up along the border I guessed this was the case. A very tempting target, I'm sure. They send ~3,000 soldiers into Kursk to stir up trouble, then herd 30% of their forces at the border.
I'm not buying the Kursk explanations. 100k civilians displaced, propaganda footage for the ages, and yet another Russian red line crossed. I'm gonna say it - it's been a week of cope. And ya the donbass is being sacrificed but the donbass was lost anyway. They are making better use of their forces this way.
Zelensky had many more (and much bigger) PR victories in 2022. PR alone doesn't win wars.
In 2022, the Ukrainians were winning the war. In hindsight, had the west gone all in, it might have proven decisive. Z may have a point that if all the equipment for the 2023 counteroffensive had arrived 1 year earlier they would have been in crimea by now.
All in! ya!
Oh, where they winning? I probably missed that part. Luckily they didn’t win as that would have led to the ‘liberation’ of Donbass and Crimea. At that point the only option for Russia would be… a lot of mushroom clouds
"Oh, where they winning? "
Kiev, the Ghost Of Kiev forced the mighty Red Army to run for their lives.
Lol 😂😂😂 no one believes you. Donbas is falling, land worth billions if not trillions due to the natural red and industries present there.
The Ukrainians were never winning this war. It was over before it started.
If Ukraine wanted to go to war they should have picked Russia for their side.
Uncle Sam is long in the tooth, incontinent, demonstrably untrustworthy, and living off fading memories.
Foolish, foolish Ukrainians.
From comments under a millenium 7 video about kursk:
“Who decides what is a Russian red line exactly, an americunt or the brutish”
“The so called pointless Russian ‘red lines’ are a western media invention.”
The Red Line invented by the West was to cover the brown streak in their white undies.
Lol if Donbas is lost how tf can they hold any of Kursk? If you think sending your troops on suicide missions is a good use for them you’ve probably got a future in the AFU!
Lol yeah let's sacrifice Donbass ,land full of natural resources worth billions of not trillion dollars for a suicide mission. Thankfully, Russians are good at math unlike yourself
All this constant talk about energy war, yet Kiev constantly has power for Zelensky to come up with his dumb television statements and make more bullshit comments on social media. Russia should just completely and permanently cut off the power of Kiev and its surrounding regions. Destroy the electrical transmission stations and hit all fuel dumps.
Ukraine always likes to target and blow up bridges too. Yet Russia for some demented reason doesn't bother to destroy the bridges in Kiev that cross to the east or the bridges in Dnipro either. Maybe they want the Ukrainian military to keep sending their stuff eastwards. And most of the UA's assets should be eastward already anyway. Whatever they are waiting for seems to be rather incomprehensible.
Oh dear - you really do not have a clue do you - That's sad and sad
Read S's posts going back a few years and you might learn something
There there, all will be alright
maybe they dont think its smart to blow up a bridge they're gonna have to replace when they own the land
The Soviet Union during WWII had no such compunctions.
This is not ww2 and the Soviet Union no longer exists so what's your point?
The point is that Russia can be nice or it can win.
Russia can be nice or not. Either way, Ukrainians can take the slow acting poison or bullet to the head. I don't think Russia cares.
We've been hearing that one literally for years now but it never seems to happen.
It's way simpler than that. Russians simply want all this equipment and forces to reach the frontline because that's where they are much easier to destroy.
It also makes Russian logistics easier and 404 logistics harder.
You propagate for the ”american/british/israeli” way of Warfare: TOTAL destruction and total disrespect for the civilians. Russia wouldnt have me as a supporter if they killed of ukrainian civilians just like US did in Iraq/Afghanistan and Israel right now in Gaza/Westbank/Libanon.
There is always a time after a War. Good to have electricity, water supply and wastewater cleaning then.
As noted elsewhere, during WWII the Soviets saw the Nazis as an existential threat and acted accordingly.
The Nazis were indeed a mortal threat to Russia during WW2. But the Russians then also lived under a severe communist dictatorship, which in turn had aspirations for world domination. Russia today cannot be compared to it during WW2. The Cold War never ended for the US/UK/Nato. It only took a brief pause and then got on with Clinton's foul play and enlargement of NATO. Meantime Putin transformed Russia to a semi-democracy and a western like materialism. So did Ukraine. Too keep Russia as an enemy and call them names for thirty years was the dumbest thing West have done.
And I understand why the Russian feels they are under attack from the Nazis again (they are) and I agree with you - they will deal them a defeat.
None of which explains why Russia refuses to treat Ukraine as an existential threat, which it clearly is.
I would explain it for you if you had the intellectual capacity to comprehend it. But since it's obvious you are a willfully ignorant troll I won't waste my time.
The people running Ukraine lied to get elected, then overstayed their terms. I doubt the whole of Ukraine is onside for this war.
Nobody will ask them. The only question that matters is whether their orders are carried out.
Hey Mikey are you joking, world domination. Think Trotsky's killing and then socialism in one country thought up by Stalin. How does that fit into world domination. He had just finished the Moscow show trials and hardly had time for world domination let alone USSR domination.
You speak of the years 1936-1938. What about the period 1922-1979?
Why did Stalin arm and build such a tremendous force before the WW2. Have you read Icebreaker from Suvorov?. What did Stalin do after WW2? What did the communists do after Stalins death?
USSR is not the same as todays Russia. But West treat them as a forever enemy.
Ok Mikey so where does the world domination come into it, also no I wasn't talking of the 2 years you refer to but 1924 till 53 and really much further as Stalinism vis a vis socialism in one country was still de rigeuer till the late 80s. The USSR under Stalin did not continue Bolshevism and opposed violently the 4th International culminating in the murder of Trotsky.
Lots of German Grampas and Grandmas with Russian fathers.
It may be incomprehensible for your uneducated mind, but many of us clearly see what is happening.
A modicum of intuition and a clear eye can see the writing on the wall. You don't need Einstein to run the math.
I have wondered about this as well; I guess the question is how much equipment is already east of Dnipro and how much still flows in from West of the river. To my simple mind, if you cut the bridges and destroyed the oil depots, then you could take all the UKR equipment and personnel East of the Dnipro at less cost; but the arms and personnel to the west would be more difficult. Therefore, I presume Russia wants to destroy everything in terms of UKR equipment and personnel that is West of the Dnipro as well. But that will always be vulnerable to re-supply by Europe. Unless you take the land as well…
Offensive forces generally do not blow up bridges in the direction of their advances.
Here is Maria Zakharova's full statement on the WaPo article: https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/maria-zakharova-denies-indirect-talks
...plus my update on the Middle East crisis.
What i got from that:
no ceasefire negotiations
germany is/isn't going to finance Kiev
western/ukie disinfo in top gear & necessary
rump into nato is mooted
trasnitsia mooted
uk & kiev collaborate turn backs on USA
moscow may want to use kursk as killing field
povrosk in danger
losses in kursk v great
women in thousands join Kiev forces
and it 's nice to have all that corroborated.
my comments:
heartening news from kursk:
reconnaissance and search locate and destroy Kiev enemy in Skrylevka and Sheptakovka (if I spelled them right). Well that's right in the heart of the Kursk invasion area. That's not behind a hard pressed front line fighting off a dynamic invasion/expansion attack.
And it is not shelling from a distance. It means men in APC or even on foot 'searching'.
If allied forces can do that in the middle of that 'occupied' and 'controlled' area then things are definitely not as they been put to us here and there.
See the post from MoD: https://t.me/mod_russia_en/15816
For instance the idea of 'closing the bag' from the Eastern end and capturing allied forces and civilians in all that area south of the Seim and north of the border looks infeasible.
And the women:
Sad to find the Kiev women are as ill informed and stupid as their men. Though not surprising really, I suppose. They go to die in 'defence of their land' in their minds whilst actually in the process of invading land which is not theirs but belongs to their Donbas compatriots.
But they have no 'compatriots', do they? They notionally eliminated all that 10 million as soon as they started this. 'Body bag' has a whole new meaning for me now since I saw vids of Palestinians putting shredded pieces of baby leg and foot into tiny shopping bags and have seen vids of allied soldiers putting body parts of Kiev Ukrainians into small bags, too. I don't like the thought of shattered pieces of women being put into such. But that's where they're going.
In order to feed American arms profits.
p.s. 'here and there'. 'literary' burble. not referring to anything put to us here; I meant 'generally'.
If you can be convinced to believe absurdities you can be motivated to commit atrocities or die for stupidity. This war is an information war, demonstrating the wests monopoly on what people believe and how to manipulate how people think. The issue now is they have gone to far and forced many people to start thinking. Now the situation of group think arise and they know all the answers the challenge is to brain storm on the questions by convincing each other the lies are actually truths by convincing more of the believers to be more indoctrinated.
"Information" in war is a sideline.
Brute force is the yardstick.
A month after Paulus surrendered to the Soviets at Stalingrad, Goebbels gave his "Total War" speech and 24 months later Germany was completely crushed and Goebbels killed his children. Information, talk, narrative, fiction, bullshit.
That is the issue with the perspective on war today it is glorified and reduced to more economics, destruction of equipment and the financial cost. This negates the actual inconvenient barbarity and inhumanity of the conflict where the actual objective is killing other human beings or creating enough suffering to force the other side to concede.
We've heard similar statements out germany in the past.
They always fold.
We've heard similar statements from you in the past, like them this is just ignorant nonsense
You appear unable to provide a substantive response.
The war of perception, the war against Western minds, continues alongside the real war with real soldiers with real blood dying on the fields of the black earth. Yes, they will keep at it and mess around as long as no one drops a bomb through their bunker roof.
It will continue to spread rumors about invasions of Transnistria and offensives from the Zaporozhye front.
Russia's window of opportunity may well be closed if the Partial Ukraine suddenly becomes a member of NATO. It is probably the only thing that can save Ukraine from total dissolution, but also something that Bankova will never agree to. Or...never say never.
That Russia is now using conscripts in the war to clear Kursk is a defeat and pure slaughter of young people. It may be wise to just keep the Ukrainian force down and decimate it bit by bit but the longer the incursion is allowed to go on the greater the damage in terms of perception in Russia.
Thx, Simplicius, for another good update.
In total war the rage of the population is very important. Pinpricks like this drive up recruitment and stoke that anger. If rump Ukraine is admitted to NATO expect the hot war everyone is afraid of, and if the west attacks Russia directly in retaliation for the total razing of their “NATO ally” western capitals will burn. The problem for the west is that no one here gives a fuck, and no one here knows how to do anything useful. I don’t know a single person in the US who wants their kids fighting Russians over Ukraine. This dynamic looks a lot different in Russia. We are again forcing Russia into total societal mobilization. How do you think that ends? Every pinprick raises the societal temp in Russia a little bit. We hope they will blink but only a totally clueless idiot reads history and comes away with that conclusion. Over and over and over such idiots come to power in Europe.
…and in US. It is US containment strategy that led to this War. Europeans were oblivous and let it happen. NATO-enlargement was the first stupid move. Bombing Serbia the next. Letting US start colour revolution in Ukraine, Georgia and North Africa the beginning of this War. Sanctions on Russia (and its partners in Europe), sabotaging the build of the Nordstream2, was an act of War against Germany. Merkel playing good dog meanwhile.
U.S. Containment Strategy has nearly completed the containment of the U.S and Europe. They should declare themselves Exceptional and Contained.
Nobody will ask Americans or europeans what they want.
The Europeans destroyed their own continent twice in the last century! And they appear to have learned nothing… except that the Americans will bail them out. It appears Americans became delusional enough to believe in the dream of global dominance, partnering with the rump of the British empire. This particular shitshow started with WWI. It’s hard to see what continental Europe gets out of another conflict. Unless the dream of Anglo-global governance under the UN isn’t dead yet.
The Brits might well have kept most of the Empire and Commonwealth except for their penchant for involving themselves in European Wars. The death of millions of young Brits and their Colonies' best ensured their future would shrink.
I have been surprised and continue to be surprised about just how much of this war has proved to be a war for the information space and for perceptions. There are a number of target audiences here - western publics (multiple), US voters, Russian and Ukrainian publics and the ROW. Well NATO is vertainly winning the war with its own public. I doubt this translates anywhere else, certainly not the Russian public and still less the Russian regime. I do however think that NATO has fallen into the trap of believing its own propaganda and appears to shut out dissent, at least in large part. But I wonder if the absence of real discussions with Russia, all of this PR guff is not intended also to try to send a message to Russia - "we know and you know you are not desperate and won't resort to WMD type incidents, but we are and might. So agree terms or else?".
This seems to be a continuing theme of NATO escalation and the crossing of so called "red-lines". Having started this war and decided now it is being lost, NATO would like to close it down on advantageous terms. The despotic Putin regime is desperate and humiliated so presumably its support can be overturned by a few more wily operations and missile strikes?? Surely NATO realises the risk of MAD so does not want to start WW3, and I hope all of this is just words. But if these thoughts are remotely correct, then it shows the depth of misunderstanding of Russia. And that also has been a theme.
It is the dubious behavior of Western leaders that confuses the Kremlin. The Indians called it speaking with a forked tongue. The masters are the leaders of Israel who are not even dubious but lie constantly.
The so-called Western democracy is not transparent or based on indisputable rules and laws. Political leaders today go to elections by saying one thing and then doing the opposite (Meloni). UK releases 5000 prisoners to make room for ordinary people and a lot of hooligans who demonstrated and created riots in connection with the murders of three girls in Southport. Signal politics and real politics are not connected.
If you translate it into foreign policy or geopolitics, it creates enormous uncertainty by the counte part. The US has proven that it no longer deals with "realpolitik" (Reagan, Helmut Kohl) but gambles and pushes its perceived opponent as far as possible and beyond. (the Israeli modus operandi).
In Europe, the UK was the mad dog, France the sane poodle and Germany the sluggish St. Bernhard, but through the EU a situation has arisen where EU representatives without the support of the people practice foreign policy and geopolitics together with the madmen in NATO headquarters. NATO is not its own entity but controlled by the US. As long as the national states within the EU do not stand up against the US game, they will be drawn into a nightmare that they did not think was possible. And guess what? We're already there - no one knows how to get out of this because the rules of the game are don't blink first.
What are you talking about? What happened to Macron and the French army? It was just months ago that he was saying France is willing or will soon join Ukraine on the battlefield. Again, where is the West? Hiding behind Ukraine.
I hope you are wrong
The misunderstanding is deliberate. When you lie for a living you have to believe those lies at least a little.
They repeat the lies so often with the full support of the complicit Western MSM, that in the end they believe their own lies and all the propaganda. All you have to do is look at the so-called Ukraine Summer Offensive. They literally thought the Russians were going to throw their weapons away and run at the first sight of NATO tanks & AFV. How many AFU died there, oh just another 100K there abouts, just cannon fodder, Elensky does not give a damn for the loss of life of his forces & now Kusk. How I wish I could drop the likes of Boris Johnson & elensky on the front line & watch these elitist pigs lose their legs & guts.
"Well NATO is certainly winning the war with its own public."
Doubtful. For those addicted to their Dumbphone, need to "google" "facts, verify via Wikipedia, then those very bad, evil Russkies are deservedly on the ropes.
For those that understand that all 100% of Western Media is owned, then Russia and Ukraine get sympathy for being bled for power and profit.
Lol, keep lying, Yankee. Donbas will soon be Russia's. Land worth billions if not trillions of dollars. Ukraine is sacrificing many of its best and most trained troops in Kursk. And Russia gets to kill them. This was a bad move expect the West especially America to call it out soon
Lying about what? Which yankee? Bloodthirsty womans are the worst.
"Russia's window of opportunity may well be closed if the Partial Ukraine suddenly becomes a member of NATO."
And what is NATO going to do that they aren't already doing?
NATO is a large bag of wind blowing wherever American Hot Air wants it.
I'd agree that UK has generally taken the lead in Ukraine but don't believe USA was left out of the loop in Kursk. Too much American ISR would be needed via satellite. More like a good cop/bad cop routine with the USA urging restraint in public, but fully involved in Kursk behind the scenes.
The availability of Russian conscripts on Kursk is interesting. There is probably some benefit to getting them blooded defending Russia itself.
As far as public perception goes, the most important is that of Russian citizens. The Ukrainian incursion has set many civilians scrambling, lives list and completely disrupted. I don't see Russian attitudes towards the war souring because of this, but it is a real risk and one possible motive for Ukraine to undertake this operation.
The west/NATO want the huge ZNP badly, it is a potential cash cow and critical to European energy needs. It is also a tricky area for Russia to defend, it would be a big loss for Ukraine to be successful there.
It is also pretty difficult to attack.
That's a lie. Russians are moving on and not disturbed. It is about 12 days and not much progress. They know that the plan is to let Ukraine in so they can eliminate their best troops.
As a consolation prize for not being able to defeat the Russian military on the hot LOC, OTAN mercs & a handful of Ukrainians are rambling around the Kursk countryside, scarfing up undefended villages, some of them no more than sleepy hamlets, but a village or a hamlet captured is yet another ‘W’ to put in Ukraine’s column of wins & losses [where the Ls are piled up hip deep.]
The numbers matter. What they couldn’t do in Robotino or in Krynky they can easily do in the wide open fields & farmsteads 400km from the LOC. The LOC is where the adversary is. Here, far from where the war is actually being fought, the pickings are easier.
Making it up as they sweep into Russia, the OTAN mercs & a handful of Ukrainians are inventing a new war, a war they can win. Rather than meet the enemy on the actual battlefield, they can strike fear in the hearts of the rural folk who, 5 minutes before the marauding soldiers showed up, were washing the dishes or getting breakfast for the kids or drinking coffee.
Ukraine’s fondness for terrorism as a substitute for military prowess is equaled only by its proclivity for PR victories.
Yep
The last sentence - these are both the same side of their last half coin
"What they couldn’t do in Robotino or in Krynky they can easily do in the wide open fields & farmsteads 400km from the LOC".
And they may make hay while the sun shines. Soon they will be no more. They have entered Russia violently with weapons in hand, and they will never return home. As the old saying has it, "It's a kopeck to get in, but a rouble to get out".
Or, as Prince Alexander Nevsky put it rather more directly, "Those who come to us in peace will be welcome as a guest. But those who come to us sword in hand will die by the sword!"
As so often, Gary Larson had an apposite comment. Sometimes a picture is worth way more than a thousand words.
https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/far-side-bear-playing-in-a-pile-of-human-bones.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=750&dpr=1.5
Excellent LOL
Kit Klarenberg + Alexander McKay, Kursk is a British plan to make sure that there cant possibly be a peace agreement. They want the Russians to fight and bleed for every inch of land in Ukraine and keep the Russian international containment siege permanent. https://www.youtube.com/live/SokN9EkjHcg?si=YxgViwOMozHixLfl
Thx for this. Kit Klarenberg is a great investigative journalist
I can see the Brits + the collective West attempting to *contain* Russia themselves--but I do not see this happening in the international community beyond the West.
I confess that was my own conclusion. Klarenberg and McKay only mentioned the British lead drive in Ucraine, in a moment where Germany was backing off and the US was using Qatar for an agreement. Why are they doing is another story. I suspect it is all about the international shadow financial tax haven, drug money laundring, fake big4 accountancy, bullion manipulation, political bribery etc controlled by the City of London. In particular the ruso-iranian corridor to the Indian Sea.
Thank you for another comprehensive analysis.
A few comments:
1) It's obvious that there WERE secret negotiations ongoing in Qatar. Whether or not they were about attacks on energy supplies, I don't know. But...
2) The invasion on Kursk was NOT authorized/planned by the USA, hence Putin's (genuine) anger and bye-bye secret Qatar negotiations.
3) Even if Ukraine fails to expand its Kursk bridgehead, it's gonna hold onto a sliver of Russian territory as long as possible, just for the PR benefits.
4) The PMR thing is just a warning (via Salaru, one of the dumbest men on planet Earth LOL) - if Sandu loses the elections in October (which, atm, she isn't likely to do) then yes, Ukraine will come here and kill us all. But it'd be political suicide for the pro-USA lackeys in Moldova for it to happen now.
5) Biden ain't deciding jack shit. This is all Deep State boys handling the Ukraine/Russia stuff.
6) Germany's just trying to save face because, as the SIX MONTHS of budget negotiations last year revealed, they are out of money. It just isn't there. And Germany has been rich (not credit card rich but cash rich) for a long, long time. Hell, in 2021 they gave over 30 billion just to the United Nations and foreign aid stuff. It's impossible to describe what a shock it is for Germans not to be rich anymore - just saw an ARD (German channel) documentary on the rise of (local, ethnic) Germans going to food banks because they can't even feed themselves, and the tone was 100% "how the hell is this possible?" Germany was literally the EU's last producer of tangible goods for export, not "financial services", and now its economy is cratering.
6b) To be fair, the Netherlands also produces a lot of tangible goods (esp food), but that's declining rapidly as well.
7) Not mentioned in the OP for obvious reasons, but holy shit is Israel entering into near civil war mode as its various factions have now all got their knives out. I mean the nightly number of (Jewish!) protesters on the street is HUGE. And at he same time, Hamas agreed to let the PA take over Gaza so the Palestinians are getting MORE united. Crazy.
8) If life ever gets you stressed out, just think of the number of foreign leaders who are sweating bullets because they have no f--ing idea who's driving the train in America right now :)
By what evidence do you are state there 'were' 'secret negotiations' in Qatar - sounds very Secret Serbvice -y linked in
There were people talking to people as always everywhere, maybe
In the lack of any objective facts it is best to dismiss
Once again- read the news, it is the CIA
'negotiations' is overblown inaccurate and untrue
Quite.
Like all western idiots his evidence is that he believes it, therefore is has to be true. He saw it on cnn and they would never tell a lie, right? It's shocking how few in the west know ANY history more than a decade old.
It was so secret, even those at the meeting didn't know why they were there.
Agree with all except for the secret negotiations.
Negotiate about what exactly? You can’t practically call someone illegitimate and then negotiate with them.
What was likely happening (if anything was happening at all) is that others ex-Russia were trying to figure out a way out of this mess. Kind of how the Gaza “negotiations” are being conducted right now.
With the same results: everything stays the same or escalates.
"You can’t practically call someone illegitimate and then negotiate with them."
exactly, 'elensky has been illegitimate since May.
Rumours abound, maybe Russia allowed the rumours to circulate as it doesn't change facts on the ground.
I agree with you on most things but in the spirit of active debate, a few provocative comments...
"It's obvious that there WERE secret negotiations ongoing in Qatar" - Yes, but those were almost certainly the ongoing, totally routine negotiations for prisoner and corpse exchanges.
"The invasion on Kursk was NOT authorized/planned by the USA" - I don't believe that. On the contrary, it seems far more likely that all the play acting about Syrsky not telling the US is just lies to help the US disclaim responsibility. What are they going to say? "Yes, we the US participated in an attack against Russia. Let's move WW3 out of the phony war phase into a hot phase right now."?
"Even if Ukraine fails to expand its Kursk bridgehead, it's gonna hold onto a sliver of Russian territory as long as possible, just for the PR benefits." That's not really saying anything, because "as long as possible" boils down to at most a few months of slaughtering Kiev's troops. I agree that Kiev's attack had PR benefits in mind, but it really was about trying to drag the US into WW3 as a result of a Russian response in the heat of anger that struck US and NATO assets, like AWACS aircraft, directly. At the end of the day PR benefits don't translate into stopping Russian advances or the collapse of Kiev's defenses.
"But it'd be political suicide for the pro-USA lackeys in Moldova for it to happen now." Since when have the delusional elites at the helm of the US's EU vassals ever given a hoot about political suicide? They think they can ride the new wave of thought control into sunny new, highly lucrative gigs that are subsidized by the US, and they're ready to see the economies and even the societies of their countries in ruins if that's what it takes to kiss their master's ring.
You're right about Germany, but they know how to handle that: they just tell their sheeple that it's all Russia's fault. Same with the Netherlands.
You're also right about the crazy situation in Israel, but the problem for decent people in the world is that what all of the Israeli factions yelling at each other have in common is that they all want to kill all of the Palestinians. It doesn't matter which faction comes out on top of Israeli disputes, the faction that wants to kill all of the Palestinians now without caring about the hostages, or the faction that wants to get their hostages back and only after that wants to kill all of the Palestinians.
You're right about foreign leaders not knowing who's driving the US train, but I don't think that bugs them. On the contrary, I think that many of them see that as an opportunity to leverage a weak and unguided US into giving them more money.
Although Joe's decline is now officially & formally acknowledged, the foreign leaders have recognized this for some time--but playing the game well meant that they could not make the knowledge public.
For the entire span of the SMO they have been working w/ the *hands behind the throne*--and those hands for the next 5 months are well-known to the OTAN vassals: Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Wm Burns, Lloyd Austin, Charles Brown, Janet Yellen, embassy people, etc.
The CIA & the State Department have internal Deep State structures as well--by which I mean entities within those agencies are at liberty to inaugurate various *adventures* w/ Ukraine independently, like Mrs. Nuland was wont to do, without Joe needing to be in the loop. Crocus City may have been an outcome of that.
Recall, too, the highly-detailed nytimes write-up from last March of the CIA's partnership w/ Ukraine, dating at least from Maidan but most likely from the Orange Revolution. Unelected, unchanging fixtures of Permanent Washington have collaborated clandestinely in Ukraine's intel ops across several administrations--and OTAN has been along for the ride.
Most dramatically in Project Ukraine we have been able to isolate & identify two different OTAN variants, just like microbiologists discovering a new strain of virus in the lab.
There is ordinary OTAN, the security alliance.
And then there is OTAN-K, a mutation of ordinary OTAN, a type of ISIS-K hybrid-chimera of OTAN
On the original LOC, ordinary OTAN assists Ukraine & occasionally fires ATACMS @ the Kerch Bridge
By the Kursk incursion, however, a mutation had manifested, as if ordinary OTAN had undergone a gain-of-function process, some kind of protein splicing, and OTAN-K emerged.
The result: terrorism
Spot on with your comment about Israel
The US/CIA have been in charge of Ukraine since at least 2014. You bet they were involved in the Kursk operation... Chip
According to the news posted by RIA Novosti 4 hours ago, Russian SVR (intelligence service) reported that the Kursk incursion was planned by the secret services of the US, UK, and Poland. They conducted training of the military personnel as well. And now the whole western PR media machine is working hard to put the blame only on the UKR command.
Generally astute, but it is obvious that the US planned the Kursk incursion, and germany has tried in the past to stop aid. Then some American snaps his fingers and the money and weapons resume.
The only twist here for Germany, is that they may simply be prioritizing Israel at the moment. Am I cynical enough? But Germany actually did account for 30% of Israel's arms imports from 2019-2023, per NYT this year
5) 100% accurate. 6) USA doesn’t have the money either!
I ask my "liberal friends" (here in the USSA) about the 35 trillion US debt load and I get that "deer in the headlights look..." Their body language suggests, "what in the hell are you talking about?" These are supposedly educated people who have NO effing clue. They don't/won't talk about Gaza or Ukraine. It's as if this is all happening on Mars or a more distant planet. The brainwashing here is thorough and effective. Now all in on mattress-back-Kamala...the latest war criminal to float to the top. Tick-tock...time is running out for the Empire of Lies.
And...their running dogs. Good riddance. And FJB and his cackling gun moll associate.
As the Taliban opines, "you've got the watches...we've got the time". Insert Putin and the Russians for the Taliban and there's your update. Revenge...a dish best served cold.
and winter is coming
the services portion of GDP is at an all time high of 72% (1990 - 60% & 47% in the 50's) yet the 'problem' is price gouging (or gauging as heelsup explained) by grocers who operate on a 1-2% margin. if people are financially illiterate they probably think the govt can just print $ without consequence (as numerous 'economists' have told them)
Can't have General Inflation without Government conjuring fiat money out of thin air, relative to the size of the real economy.
Ergo. Reduce Government, especially the deadweight in D.C. and working people might have a fighting chance of survival.
>> 1) It's obvious that there WERE secret negotiations ongoing in Qatar. Whether or not they were about attacks on energy supplies, I don't know. <<
That whole framing is just based on the Collective West narrative. Simp has published Lavrov's video where he wholesale rejects that Zelensky formula process.
In terms of "stick and carrot": What would Russia have to gain from an isolated "energy ceasefire"? Russia's "stick" is huge here: Ukraine's energy sector is in critical condition. Ukraine's "stick" isn't anywhere big enough: they may have blown up one or two oil depots in western Russia. The scarce and over-engineered NATO weapons alone used in the attacks likely had been more valuable than the easily replaced oil depots.
If anything, Russia would demand a much more valuable "carrot" in any such "energy security working group", such as: An immediate end to all "energy sanctions" by USA, EU, NATO. Immediate "unfreezing" of stolen Russian assets including shares and bonds in energy companies used as financial trading collateral. Re-opening of global financial traffic, including Swift transactions. That these "sanctions" counter-weight to the wholesale destruction of the Ukraine energy sector isn't even on the table of the "energy working group's" agenda betrays the one-sided NATO framing.
And even that "carrot" of "ending the sanctions" has shrunk and it's significantly smaller today than it used to be in 2022. It may not be near large enough to even entice Russia anymore, who, after an initial reduction in trade, by now have gained more from their forced economic independence of the USA, than even the pain incurred by the hurting ((Washington's)) vassal states, most notably UK and Germany.
Find Tucker's interview with Massey, where he slips out that every member of Congress, every Senator has an "AIPAC guy" to report to.
American Israeli Political Action Committee. Hmm.. nothing to see here...move along.
Massie's wife died shortly thereafter. Cause of death unknown.
Kit Klarenberg + Alexander McKay, Kursk is a British plan to make sure that there cant possibly be a peace agreement. They want the Russians to fight and bleed for every inch of land in Ukraine and keep the Russian international containment siege permanent. https://www.youtube.com/live/SokN9EkjHcg?si=YxgViwOMozHixLfl