Norwegian | Jan 18 2021 16:19 utc | 98
It was just a barn, small one at that. it caught fire and the firefighters say the cause of the fire was a LP gas cylinder.
the data centers are on the same street.
happily I have a VPN that allows me to appear as a US IP so the site is available to me. A lot of sites in the US either can’t or won’t make their sites comply with EU privacy laws so they simply block them to EU addresses.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jan 18 2021 16:48 utc | 103

Three hours, that is hard work, I watched the full conference, Lavrov as usual, experienced, sharp, and on top of it, but somehow he looked a bit tired, I guess anybody would be. It does not make sense to write here about the contents of the conference, they’ll be online soon if they’re not already, but there are always little details, and one of them for me anyway was the fact that only three journalists did not pose their questions in Russian, the Argentinian did it through a translator, the Indian journalist question was in English and Lavrov’s answer was in English too, but then a British journalist who was in Khimki following the Navalny affair questioned Lavrov in English with a British accent, that is to say the old colonialist that still thinks the sun does not set on the Dominion, arrogant and assuming. The answer surprisingly was in Russian, no courtesy deserved by the Brit like the Indian journalist did. And well deserved I would say.

Posted by: Paco | Jan 18 2021 17:06 utc | 105

@dan of steele | Jan 18 2021 16:48 utc | 102

A lot of sites in the US either can’t or won’t make their sites comply with EU privacy laws so they simply block them to EU addresses.

Why would US sites bother with this? Do they believe EU laws apply in the US?

Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 18 2021 17:26 utc | 107

In Putin’s Яussia, Justice come to YOU!!!

Posted by: Malchik Ralf | Jan 18 2021 17:33 utc | 109

In the article @ 109:

According to Le Monde, the hacked documents primarily detail issues that the EMA had with the Pfizer/BioNTech drug. The regulator apparently had three “major issues” with the vaccine: certain manufacturing sites used for its production had not yet been inspected, data on batches produced for commercial use were still missing, and, most importantly, available data revealed qualitative differences between the commercial batches and those used during clinical trials.

Those worries confirm my fears over those mRNA vaccines: there’s an abyss that separates theory from practice, and another abyss after that that separates practice from manufacturing, in medical/biological sciences. The human body is not your average machine: it is millions of times more complex.
And those worries are purely practical. Even the theory behind the mRNA therapy/vaccine is still far from complete; the field of epigenetics is still very young, a little more than ten years old, and there’s a lot to investigate.

Posted by: vk | Jan 18 2021 18:11 utc | 111

FBI vetting 25,000 National Guard troops to prevent insider attack

Pentagon officials are worried about a possible insider attack following the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, prompting the FBI to vet every National Guard member deployed to Washington, D.C. to secure President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

I don’t get this. They all voted for Biden, didn’t they?

Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 18 2021 18:20 utc | 113

Christian J. Chuba @Jan18 18:18 #111
Yeah, this “America First” so-called “populist” also weaponized space, doubled-down on Israel and ME idiocy, supported a coup in Venezuela (including seizing Venezuelan State assets), cut taxes (yet again), and lied about the seriousness of the virus.
Oh, and no pardon for Assange or Snowden to support whistle-blowers and independent journalism that keep the Deep State (that Trump supposedly fights) in check.
I could go on but I won’t belabor the point.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jan 18 2021 19:10 utc | 115

karlof1
Since SSNs are already used as universal identifiers, their use would simplify detection of multiple voting, either intrastate or interstate. As well as voting by dead people, and others not entitled to vote.
ps – cut CC a little slack, why don’t you?

Posted by: gamma | Jan 18 2021 19:28 utc | 117

Re: “Once an accident, twice a coincidence, three times a pattern”
-Norwegian | Jan 18 2021 16:19 utc | 98
“Fool me once, shame on … shame on you. Fool me… You can’t get fooled again!'” fooled again!” GWB, Sept 17, 2002.

Posted by: gm | Jan 18 2021 20:10 utc | 119

I don’t get this. They all voted for Biden, didn’t they?
Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 18 2021 18:20 utc | 112
Maybe they should for recruit from Arlington Cemetery. They all voted for Bidet didn’t they? The end can’t be far off when the “Praetorian Guard” can’t be trusted. All that is missing from this farce is Trump stabbed to death in the senate.

Posted by: Tom | Jan 18 2021 20:56 utc | 121

Norwegian #99
:))

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 21:23 utc | 123

gm | Jan 18 2021 20:27 utc | 120
So in EU countries, ISPs are required by default to block any [US only?]site addresses that try to set cookies when you visit them?
Is that what your interpretation of the guideline is?
I cannot say with authority but I do not believe the ISP is responsible for proper cookie use. Rather I believe the website developers are required to meet requirements such as making their content available to those with vision problems and perhaps formatting for viewing on a mobile phone. This EU directive should be known to them as well.
So, rather than inconvenience US users with clicking on cookie notices it is far easier to instruct the server to display the 521 error for any requests coming from IP addresses within the EU

Posted by: dan of steele | Jan 18 2021 21:29 utc | 125

Christian J. Chuba #112

What happened to the 300M doses we were supposed to have in Jan, we only have 30M doses, where did the reserve go?

As the next few weeks roll on, you may consider yourself lucky that those ‘reserves’ were not fully available. I understand that Pfizer etc have a piece of paper expressing immunity from prosecution and liability for their imaginative vaccine but that may be worthless in a murder trial. Even more so if such a trial were to be held anywhere other than the USAi.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 21:57 utc | 127

Norwegian #126

It seems to me Google, Facebook and Twitter are today’s firemen. The future that Bradbury saw is here. Write something the firemen don’t like and it virtually autoignites and disappears. As a bonus you become an un-person.

Thank you, I read that in my youthful days and still often reference it. More so now than past decades.
Sometimes I think the US $1 bill is the autoigniter of our times.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 22:22 utc | 129

S #124
Thank you, your accuracy is a desirable trait in reporting these matters. The west has enough channels for their lying thieving pursuits and MoA should avoid being at their service.
Navalny and the west’s use of him is clearly a sign of their predatory ignorance and dishonesty. I am sure they will keep up their homeside propaganda in favor of their aggressive mendacity in the world. In fact I guess Joe Biden will have little to do but ride on the coattails of a fool such as Navalny. That is about the sum total of the intellectual capacity of Xerxes Biden. Off he goes to another ignominious defeat. Imagine what it will be like after he gets sworn in!

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 23:18 utc | 131

downtownhaiku #130
Thank you for that post. Strategic Culture is a good read and one is mindful that it is a Russian source and no doubt has some affinity with the Russian Government and empathy for Russian people’s point of view. That is perfectly fine. I don’t see it as a craven mouthpiece (like the grauniad is to the UK) but rather an information source.
There is no secret about SC. John Helmer has this to say in a recent report:

Alexei Navalny believes he is throwing down a gauntlet for the Kremlin either to arrest him when he returns to Moscow from Berlin on Sunday, or to allow him to walk freely out of the airport. Either way, from behind bars as a political prisoner or from his Moscow film studio as an opposition candidate for regime change, Navalny and his supporters will announce they have shown strength, the President of Russia weakness. The one outcome Navalny hasn’t counted on is that Russians will be laughing at him.
This is the strategy of Vzglyad, the Moscow online newspaper which publishes sophisticated and accurate analysis of military, intelligence and security issues unmatched by the English-language media. It is almost unnoticed in the west, except for those services who believe it reflects the thinking of key figures, past and present, in the presidential administration. Because the Russian figures don’t think the way the western services or their media organs depict them, Vzglyad hasn’t drawn the attention of foreign reporters as do state media like RT, Sputnik, the Strategic Culture Foundation, and the Valdai Club.

Read this Helmer report it is the style and quality of commentary that you will NEVER see in the western press.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 18 2021 23:31 utc | 133

@vk | Jan 17 2021 14:41 utc | 5
Chinese vaccines gaining momentum overseas
Thanks for the link. I find it interesting that Turkey’s Erdogan is taking a Chinese vaccine in that film — not a US vaccine.

Posted by: Cyril | Jan 19 2021 1:21 utc | 135

LOL!
Clinton, Pelosi: Was Russia/Putin involved in the riots?
https://www.foxbangor.com/national-news/clinton-suggests-putin-may-have-known-about-riot-in-capitol-pelosi-wants-9-11-commission-type-probe/

Posted by: Zanon | Jan 19 2021 8:11 utc | 137

Pentagon Accelerates Efforts to Root Out Far-Right Extremism in the Ranks

The nation’s military has a history of downplaying white nationalism and right-wing activism, but the siege of the Capitol has created a new urgency for dealing with them.

I mean they will try.
But, ultimately, they won’t succeed. The Pentagon simply wouldn’t have enough recruits if they did go all in with this purge.
I still stick with my prediction: the USA will enter a “Byzantine Era”, marked by economic, geopolitical decline (more Pacific/West Coast oriented), and by a cultural shift to religious fundamentalism at least in its armed forces.

Posted by: vk | Jan 19 2021 11:47 utc | 139

Dispelling some common “misconceptions” in the West about the Chinese SOEs:
China banking regulator says state-owned enterprises subject to negative govt subsidies

China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in general are subject to negative subsidies from the government budget, the head of the country’s banking regulator said Monday at a forum.
Guo Shuqing, Party chief of the People’s Bank of China and chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, made the remarks at the 14th Asian Financial Forum.
[…]
“On average, the tax burden of SOEs is about twice the size of private enterprises. State-owned enterprises actually assume broader social responsibilities. A consequential engine powering the long-term rapid growth of private factories and foreign companies is tax concessions,” Guo elaborated.
[…]
“China’s banking system boasts the strongest profitability in the world. It’s impossible to grant long-term subsidies to SOEs.”
[…]
The strong competitiveness of Chinese production is not due to a lack of labor protection, Guo said, noting that China’s Constitution and laws provide strong protection for people’s interests and in the past 10 years, the income of Chinese workers has grown rapidly.

Posted by: vk | Jan 19 2021 12:14 utc | 141

@ Posted by: Paco | Jan 19 2021 12:39 utc | 142
Hobsbawm is not bad. You just have to be careful with some of his subjective takes.
There is certainly not anything like Hobsbawm’s “eras” series in terms of timeframe analyzed. If you want that much time period covered in so few pages, you won’t find an equal.

Posted by: vk | Jan 19 2021 13:00 utc | 143

@ Paco | Jan 19 2021 12:39 utc | 142
Then the first book fills that need. The volume listed has an European version (colour/honour vs. color/honor) if that suits (my preference):
Towards the Flame, Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia Dominic Lieven ISBN 978-0-141-39974-4 Penguin/RandomHouse UK (PB)
The above was my first Lieven and was impressed enough to buy the rest in hard-back as keepers for the library. This version won the Pushkin House Russian Book prize. Excellent reading. Thank you for your reply.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jan 19 2021 13:36 utc | 145

Delusions of a closeted traditionalist:
The Trump Ban: The Only Free Speech Zone for American Conservatives Is Russia

Telegram is a massive messenger that can replace WhatsApp and Twitter for many users. The Russian equivalent of Facebook, VK.com has been more reluctant to accept its destiny. I have approached their management personally bringing to their attention the fact that a massive Western Convservative [sic] audience is being repressed and will jump to a new platform for freedom of speech given the knowledge that such a platform exists.[…]
This is the moment Russia has been waiting for but it is unknown if those in the halls of the Kremlin even know that it is happening. The powers that be are not exactly filled with people from the media. Hopefully some of them will read this and realize just what a glorious opportunity Big Tech and the Democrats have given them. And since everything I write is banned anyways I’d be more than happy to run any attempts to absorb Western dissidents. It is not like these words are allowed to be posted on FB anyways.

Some observations:
1) it is not only the “Western Conservative audience” that’s been censored. Socialist and communists audiences have been censored for decades now – and that’s best case scenario: the CPUSA was infiltrated to the bone by the FBI during the Cold War;
2) that the alt-right will migrate to another social media website is a given. The problem here is that we have to take into account how much did the alt-right grow through vapor since the rise of Trump: it is estimated 75-85% of the volume the alt-right had on Twitter was bots. We don’t know if the mandarins of the alt-right will consider the investment on troll factories and bot farms to be profitable or not outside Facebook and Twitter – which will still retain the neutral mass of the West – as if they found/invade another social media platform, it will be essentially an echo-chamber.

Posted by: vk | Jan 19 2021 14:00 utc | 147

Health workers refusing vaccine is new growing US problem

According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 29 percent of those who work in a health care delivery setting said they would probably not, or definitely would not, take the vaccine, even if it were free and deemed safe by scientists.
Experts say the reasons for vaccine hesitancy among health workers are similar to concerns held by the general population, including worries about potential side effects. Some may also be taking a wait-and-see approach to find out how the vaccine affects people who take it earlier.
“I am definitely concerned that health care workers are electing to wait to get vaccinated,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Those healthcare workers know their system. They’re not stupid.
–//–
@ Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 19 2021 14:16 utc | 148
Evidently, soft power has its limits and will end someday.
But there’s a good distance between stating Russian soft power will increase and stating Russia will become an alt-right paradise.
It’s obvious by now why the American alt-right sees Russia as its ace in hole: the USA is liberal; China is communist; Russia is theirs by divine right (i.e. by exclusion).
The metaphor of a safe haven used as a cornerstone for reconquest and purification of the original land is old: Sulla retook the Roman Republic after retreating and recovering in Greece; Caesar did the same with Gaul. William of Orange came from quasi-mystical capitalist haven Netherlands to symbolically save capitalism in the UK, and the entire history of Portugal (and its unbreakable ties with Spain) is built on the idea of Leon and Castile – as an exile – expelling the Moors. The alt-right probably fantasize about using Russia as a springboard of reconquering and purifying America (see Bannon’s “Judeo-Christian Civilization” hypothesis).

Posted by: vk | Jan 19 2021 14:44 utc | 149

Here is an interesting tidbit from a David Zhang** YT yesterday. According to his sources, PRC food safety testing agencies report finding evidence [by rt-PRC undoubtedly] of sars-CoV2 on at least two domestic food products:
-ice cream (made with “raw ingredients” imported from New Zealand, and Ukraine)
-processed fish products (made with fish imported from Canada
According to Zhang, China’s testing agencies have previously reported finding evidence of presence of sars-CoV2 [again, undoubtedly RNA bits picked up by systematic rt-PCR testing/screening] in *German pork* and farmed fish/seafood from *India*].
Zhang spins this as China blame-shifting/hiding domestic food CV contamination issues already present inside China.
I am guessing Chinese authorities are honestly reporting positive (+) rt-PCR test results in foreign sourced foods, while at the same time downplaying/suppressing news of (+) rt-PCR findings in the domestic sourced foods.
This raises a couple of questions in my mind.
Assuming that, like China, the US and EU/UK health/food safety agencies are also doing systematic rt-PCR testing on their domestic and imported food supplies, why are they *NOT* reporting *ANY* instances of (+) rt-PCR findings?
Could it be that they routinely are getting a *large volume* of (+) rt-PCR findings in their food supplies, but they know scientifically, that getting a (+) rt-PCR is essentially meaningless from a food risk diagnostic standpoint.
And perhaps the western public health agency spokespeople don’t know how to plausibly explain to the public, without appearing to be obvious hypocrites, that, on the one hand, a (+) rt-PCR finding means nothing when it comes to citizens’ food safety, but on the other hand when it comes to quarantining/banning/locking down citizens and shutting down their businesses and the services economy, that a (+) rt-PCR finding has been deployed as the diagnostic gold standard test to determine who gets their freedom taken way.
https://youtu.be/PuDps12qi0Y?t=806
**David Zhang represents positions and interests (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Falun Gong, others) opposed to the current PRC govmt leadership. Zhang is currently expresses a pro-Trump viewpoint.

Posted by: gm | Jan 19 2021 14:49 utc | 151

Posted by: vk | Jan 19 2021 14:44 utc | 149
Your theory of retreat to better return later is plausible, if not realistic on their part. A plot much favored by Hollywood too, what good Hollywood hero does not first get the living crap beaten out of him before, restored by the love of a good woman, he rises up like Godzilla and lays waste to all before him?
Koestler, if I remember right, spends a good deal of time on that subject in “Act of Creation”, I can’t remember the French phrase now.
Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jan 19 2021 14:45 utc | 150
My pleasure, I enjoyed it and it widened my horizons a good deal. You never know whether these things are going to be of interest or not, so always a pleasure when it works out.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 19 2021 15:13 utc | 153

Global Times reports on an essay published by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Check it out b or other German barflies) deeming “China’s system, although ‘authoritarian,’ is ‘very successful.'” [My Emphasis]
“It explained that as long as a society can reach the following goals – improving social welfare, increasing consumption choices, safeguarding domestic security, promoting education, and providing good healthcare – people will support and trust the system even if their influence in the decision-making process is limited. Such can ‘in part ensure the legitimacy’ of the social system….
“But the authors’ introspection stopped from digging problems as they tried to shift blame to the rise of populism in the US.”
No examination of Neoliberalism’s utter failure to deliver benefits to the masses while expropriating the wealth they produced for delivery to the class of Financial Parasites. At least the writers at Global Times get it right:
“In Western countries, the so-called democracy has also brought about waves of populism, the more fundamental reason for which is quite a few Western elites have been long ignoring the needs of the people. Populism consists of anti-elitist sentiment. The grassroots’ appeals are often given the cold shoulder in a Western democratic system….
“Populism, which helped crown Donald Trump, is being blamed today. Yet it all started from the widening gap between rich and poor. When German scholars use the US populist government as a scapegoat, they overlooked the real question – without addressing the growing inequality in a Western system, will there be a second Trump in the future?” [My Emphasis]
The fatal thrust is delivered in the two closing paragraphs but still omit naming the actual culprit, which is the ideology of Neoliberalism:
“The article raised the support and trust of people when it comes to judgment over the legitimacy of a society. In this regard, data speak louder than words. According to a poll conducted in 2020 by US-based global public relations and marketing consultancy firm Edelman, 95 percent of Chinese trust their government while the US government only saw an approval of 48 percent.
“What other excuses will the Western world have to question the legitimacy of the Chinese system? If the West, especially the US, the beacon of democracy, actually senses the crisis and does not wish to lose the competition, it should stop burying its head in the sand.” [My Emphasis]
The problem isn’t heads being buried in sand; rather, it’s the design of the ideology to exploit and degrade a nation’s masses so they’re left with relatively nothing compared to the nation’s Financial Parasites, all so the latter will always have their Free Unearned Lunch.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 19 2021 17:55 utc | 155

I found this article to be quite curious given the technological competition between China and the West, “Chinese university confirms feasibility of establishing space-to-ground quantum communication network”. The article reports on a thesis recently published in Nature:
“According to the article, based on the connection of China’s Beijing-Shanghai quantum communication network, the world’s first quantum-encrypted network, and the Mozi satellite, the Chinese research groups demonstrate the world’s first integrated space-to-ground quantum communication network over 4,600 kilometers that combines a large-scale fiber network of more than 700 fiber quantum key distribution (QKD) links and two high-speed satellite-to-ground free-space QKD links.
“According to the abstract of thesis, the QKD technique has the ‘potential to enable secure communication and information transfer,’ which is one of the most advanced features for quantum communication network. It also noted that the research staff have taken more than two years to conduct stability and safety tests on it, and proved that the Beijing-Shanghai quantum communication network can withstand all currently known quantum hacking methods and ensure cyber safety.” [My Emphasis]
Seems China will soon have a capability immune from NSA hacking and eavesdropping. I’d also say China’s not concerned with the publication of such an advancement.
This second noteworthy article, “Shanghai, other coastal regions vow to achieve peak CO2 emissions ahead of national schedule”, I found important because if China can make such a rapid advancement, then there’s no excusing other nations inabilities. Yes, the article does note the regions’s advantages over others within China, which ought to be seen as a plus for other developing nations as they too try to enhance their economies without generating additional carbon pollution.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 19 2021 18:19 utc | 157

Wonder how he had time to play golf.
White House Releases List of President Trump’s Accomplishments – And It Is Historic!

Posted by: arby | Jan 19 2021 19:27 utc | 159

@ Bemildred | Jan 19 2021 15:13 utc | 153
Yes, there are those seminal books. Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads, A New History of the World ISBN 978-1-4088-3997-3 Bloomsbury was one (up to post World War II when it went off the rails with poorly digested recent ‘history/propaganda’). The book’s treatment of history as something other than western owned was refreshing, shedding a new light on non-European contributions and opening the doors of curiosity and interest. A far cry from the first history books I read where history was mostly comprised of kings and the battles they fought in some year or another. Thanks for your kind reply.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jan 19 2021 20:18 utc | 161

As an addendum to my post above @162, I would very much suspect that viral contamination of food products being shipped to China to be deliberate, particularly when the source countries are ones under the Empire’s heel like Canada or Ukraine. Probably spooks with spray bottles misting it directly on products destined for China.

Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 19 2021 20:30 utc | 163

@William Gruff | Jan 19 2021 20:18 utc | 162
Pardon me, but…
if US, EU, UK, etc., are NOT doing regular systematic pcr monitoring of food production/processing system output *after* huge meatpacking,poultry plant/abattoir fruit-veg processor shutdowns [that *were* publicized widely in 2020] due to massive covid superspreader outbreaks across the ‘Advanced West’, then it is deliberate malfeasance, if not something even much darker.

Posted by: gm | Jan 20 2021 0:12 utc | 165

@William Gruff | Jan 20 2021 1:57 utc | 166
You can search the internet just as well as I can, so I don’t know why you are even trying to throw that BS against the wall.
https://www.just-food.com/news/trading-through-covid-19-and-beyond-daily-food-industry-updates-wednesday-23-december-free-to-read_id144405.aspx
May 20 Reuters story on German abattoir outbreaks
https://www.pigprogress.net/Health/Articles/2020/5/Covid-19-French-and-Dutch-slaughterhouse-staff-test-positive-588262E/
https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2020/05/14/German-slaughterhouses-under-fire-over-COVID-19-spread
https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2020/06/24/coronavirus-outbreaks-and-closures-hit-europes-meat-factories/
Despite all these ongoing covid spreading issues at Western food plants, known >9 months ago, AND an accelerating covid death rate in the West, no systematic food production safety PCR testing regime put place in any Western countries???
At the same time western goverments are locking down people, and taking away their livelihoods based upon broad based pcr tests (of people, not the food they consume) ???

Posted by: gm | Jan 20 2021 2:43 utc | 167

gm @167
Check for yourself: USDA – Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)
No mention of testing the food supply itself for coronavirus. Considering it would be a billion dollar operation involving scores of thousands of trained personnel one would think it would get a mention on their page about the pandemic if they were doing it.
Should the US and EU be screening the food supply? Absolutely. Are they? No. Employees in the packing plants are being tested but there is no testing of the products themselves that are being processed. Just because they should be testing the food supply doesn’t mean that they are testing.
If you read the department and agency press releases you will see their emphasis has been on helping to keep production up so there will be no serious shortages. They don’t even mention the possibility of food being contaminated with coronavirus.

Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 20 2021 13:17 utc | 169

Another data center hit by Lee RV Oswald’s Spanish cousin?
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/massive-explosion-rocks-downtown-madrid

Posted by: gm | Jan 20 2021 14:49 utc | 171

Putin’s meeting with Gazprom CEO Miller provides a good look at the state of Russia’s power-infrastructure development and the state of its export sales to China; yet oddly, there was no mention of Nord Stream 2’s status. Miller reports on the status of getting all Russian households hooked into the national gas grid:
“Your instructions regarding signing medium-term five-year programmes on connecting users in the regions to the gas grid have been fulfilled: all 67 programmes have been signed, their objectives and tasks through 2025 have been outlined.
“Gazprom is almost tripling the financing. The total volume of investment by Gazprom over this period will reach 526.1 billion rubles. We plan to build 24,400 kilometres of gas pipelines and connect 3,632 cities and villages to the grid. By the end of 2025, 35 regions in Russia will have a complete gas network. It will amount to 90.1 percent of what is technically possible to do in the country regarding connecting users to the grid.
“Also, Mr President, in accordance with your instructions, we have set the goals for 2030. By 2030, the technically possible connection to the gas grid in Russia will be completed by 100 percent. We also signed plans and schedules with the regions for the synchronisation of works for 2021. Starting January 1, Gazprom and the regions are gathering a new speed, a new pace of work.
“So, there are two priorities for us at the moment: the social focus of the programme to provide gas supply and the further connection of rural areas to the gas grid.”
IMO, it’s crucial to understand that in many ways Russia remains a developing nation similar to that of China. It’s also creating something that doesn’t exist within the Outlaw US Empire and probably never will–a national gas grid. For example, my village will never be connected and instead propane is supplied to those houses and businesses that choose its use.
Miller tells Putin international demand for Russian gas is higher than ever, and that the supply to China has gone well beyond contracted expectations. And as noted in an earlier comment, that the facilities for a massive expansion in Russia’s Petrochemical industry are proceeding apace was confirmed by Miller.
Here Putin reviews EAEU status prior to a discussion addressing the implementation of integration projects:
“The Union is consistently expanding its common market of services. It already includes 53 sectors and will embrace another five areas this year.
“I would also like to note that the Union countries have endorsed a concept on forming an EAEU common financial market. Preparations are underway for creating a common electricity market. We have embarked on implementing the programme for establishing common markets of gas, oil and petroleum products. This is a complicated issue.”
A common financial market firewalled against encroachment by the West merits close watching. And much integration occurred thanks to the pandemic. One of the major benefactors in this whole process is Iran, while major help was delivered to all the ‘Stans.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 20 2021 19:49 utc | 173

thank you, karlof1@173/4. your insights are much appreciated as are your links.

Posted by: emersonreturn | Jan 20 2021 21:15 utc | 175

Grieved @176–
The transition of power from one leader to the next–succession–has always been troublesome as we just witnessed. What I see in Russia is Putin has set a very high benchmark for performance, adherence to duty and promotion of all things Russian–IMO he’s the best Tsar Russia’s ever had. As for Putin being illiberal, he’s the exact opposite given his tolerance, openmindedness, and patience, and he makes very clear those things he abhors, things that are shared by billions. He’s made it very clear that he has no time for dishonesty, a trait that is constantly smeared and mocked by the completely dishonest West. Yet, he and his associates refuse to stoop to the level of their dishonest detractors, which merely serves to enrage the latter even more as they try to place the blame for their immorality onto him and Russia.
The person that replaces Putin will need to emulate him as best as possible to be successful, and it will be a great help that Putin will be available to act as tutor and mentor. The path Putin has set Russia on is in its best interests and has the support of the great majority of Russians, and its goals are mapped out to 2030 currently, which will likely be extended further into the future as we go forward.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 20 2021 23:59 utc | 177

emersonreturn @178–
Thanks for this and your previous replies! I don’t think Putin would have been as successful a leader of the USSR, however, because of its governing structure. Indeed, although its tragic to say so, Putin benefitted politically from the rapine visited upon Russia by the West and was forced to solve a series of numerous crises atop of the terrorist assault launched by NATO in the Caucasus. In light of that event, I find it amazing that Putin has any tolerance for NATO whatsoever. And I’d very much like to know his genuine thoughts about 911.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 21 2021 1:14 utc | 179

In followup to my own post @73 on the reputation protection of Assange, I’m only making explicit which is common implicit knowhow. So the two women in the Swedish case have now reappeared and there’s a book(how long does that take to publish?), a TV program and likely a campaign to press home again the image of Assange as a rapist. To reimpose the reputational damage which had weakened when the legal threats were removed. I expect there is bad faith involved but the amplification will to large extent be spontaneous and more about variants of confirmation bias .

Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Jan 21 2021 8:59 utc | 181