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Then I Woke Up And Saw This. WTF?
This was the weather in my hometown over the last week.
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40-50° F, somewhat sunny, spring was in the air.
And this is what I woke up to today. Two inch of snow with more falling as I write this. "What the f***?"
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Those who have lived on a diet of 'western' news over the last weeks may have the same feeling when waking up to the real data.
Overthrowing Putin?
Sure.
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Yes – U.S. citizens would probably like to see that.
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But why not start with this guy?
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And here is the data from those who really count.
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Wait – wasn't Putin finished after he destroyed the value of the Russian currency?
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Not really.
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And today it's even better …
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Time for another coffee.
Briefing by Igor Konashenkov, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, as of 10:00 a.m. on March 31, 2022
Units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, continuing the offensive, took full control of the village of Zolotaya Niva, crossed the Kashlagach River and consolidated their position in a favorable position.
▪️ The advance within a day was 6 kilometers. Up to 60 Ukrainian nationalists, two tanks, four BMPs, and nine vehicles of various purposes were destroyed.
▪️ Units of the Lugansk People’s Republic, having completed the cleansing of the Zhytlovka settlement from insurgents, advanced 5 kilometers and are fighting with nationalists on the outskirts of the Kremennaya settlement.
In the evening of March 30, high-precision air-launched cruise missiles destroyed large fuel bases in the settlements of Dnepropetrovsk, Lysychansk, Chuguev and Novomoskovsk, from which fuel was supplied to the Ukrainian group of forces in Donbas.
▪️ During the night, operational-tactical and unmanned aircraft hit ▪️ Ukrainian military facilities.
Among them were four command posts, one S-300 surface-to-air missile system south of IZUM settlement and one Buk-M1 near KURAKHOVO, two multiple rocket launchers, one ammunition and rocket-artillery weapons depot, two fuel and lubricant depots and 38 strongholds and areas of ammunition concentration.
▪️ The air defense assets of the Russian Aerospace Forces shot down 18 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the BALAKLEY settlements during the day, VERBOVOYA, VERKHNETORETSKAYA, DOKUCHAYEVSK, KOROLEVKA, KOMARIN, OPYTNOY, PAVLOVKA, REPKI, CHERNIGOV, CHERNOBYL, SCHORS, including one Bayraktar-TB2 near BEZIMYANNOY.
A total of 124 aircraft and 77 helicopters, 216 anti-aircraft missile systems, 341 unmanned aerial vehicles, 1,815 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 195 multiple rocket launchers, 762 field artillery guns and mortars, and 1,689 special military vehicles have been destroyed since the start of the special military operation.
Posted by: sitrep | Mar 31 2022 8:09 utc | 4
A very good article by Laura Ruggeri today at
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/03/31/is-russia-losing-the-information-war/
It gets to the nub of one of the paralysis on the left which leads to analyses including as this one by Yves Engler does “… Canadians should sympathize with Ukrainians who reject Russian influence, and condemn Putin’s criminal invasion..”
To which the quick answer is that to talk of “Putin’s criminal invasion.” is to endorse the imperialist position.
Those who argue that all empires fall and this one will too are making the basic mistake of viewing history as cyclical. It isn’t, there are cycles to be discerned in it but its most prominent feature is change. The US Empire is, in important ways, unique. It is very close to being globally hegemonic not merely militarily or commercially but culturally. (The fact that this blog is written in English is an incidental indication of this.)
And in the past months we have seen how close to complete control of public opinion within its targeted audiences, the Empire has come. The actual history of events in The Ukraine, a history which in the past three decades has been openly rehearsed before us all, has been swept aside by the volume and intensity of media campaigns mounted by institutions that, as most people are aware, are so corrupt that the messages that they convey are almost certain to be the polar opposites of reality. Everyone ‘knows’ that the media lies. And yet everyone ‘believes’ those lies- whatever ‘belief’ may mean.
This has never happened before. In both 1914 and 1939 there was widespread incredulity of the official ‘lines.’ This incredulity seems to have been forgotten but it was there.
The problem that lies at the centre of Imperialism today is its cultural unipolarity- the universal power of the Hollywoods, and there are a few of them, in an era in which the reach of the media, all controlled in the final analysis by US Intelligence, is almost total.
Those who tell us that Putin is a neo-liberal with deep ties to the shock therapists and that the CPC is larded through and through with kleptocrats and corrupt regional ‘bosses’ are telling us nothing new. Or important. What is important- and the current Indian stance is a perfect illustration of this-is that these are alternative cultural, economic and military poles. Their existence as alternatives, challenging the Empire, is an earnest of the competition among and the divisions within the ruling class. Should those divisions be diminished to the point where they could be resolved institutionally, the final defeat of the people in the war against injustice and privilege would become inevitable.
Look around you- the current political climate is Orwellian, the Two Minute Hates have been replaced by 24/7 Hates of Russia and Putin.
When the Snowden revelations came out the thought struck me that humanity was nearing a final stage in its evolution as a species with a central brain, like a beehive, in which the minds of every one of the billions of individuals who make up the species will be controlled by government.
This is a part of what Ruggeri has to say:
“…The “information war over Ukraine” didn’t start in response to Russia’s military operations in 2022. It was initially unleashed in Ukraine. Since 1991 the U.S. spent billions of dollars, and the EU tens of millions, to tear this country apart from Russia, not to mention the money spent by Soros’ Open Society. No price was deemed too high due to the importance of Ukraine on the geopolitical chessboard. U.S. influence operations led to two colour revolutions, the Orange Revolution (2004-05) and EuroMaidan (2013-14). After the 2014 bloody coup, with the removal of any counterweight, U.S.-NATO influence turned into full control and violent repression of dissent: those who had opposed Maidan lived in fear – the Odessa massacre being a constant reminder of the fate that would befall anyone who dared to resist the new regime.
“The promotion of Neo-Nazi tendencies intensified, together with the cult of Nazi collaborationist Stepan Bandera; members of terrorist organizations such as the Azov Battalion and other ultranationalist groups joined government and the Ukranian National Guard, the past was erased and history re-written, Soviet monuments were destroyed, Russian-speakers faced daily threats and discrimination, pro-Russian parties and information outlets were banned, Russophobia was inculcated in children starting from kindergarten. In 2020 alone ultranationalist projects, such as the “Young Banderite Course”, “Banderstadt Festival of Ukrainian Spirit”, etc. received almost half of all the funds allocated by the Ukrainian government for children’s and youth organisations.
“Ukrainians who lived in the separatist People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and couldn’t be targeted by influence operations were targeted by rockets, bombs and bullets: the former compatriots had been recast as enemies almost overnight. While all quality of life indicators revealed a marked decline, large segments of the population lived in a permanent state of cognitive dissonance: they were told that discriminating LGBT is wrong but discriminating Russian speakers is right, remembering Soviet soldiers who had fought Nazism in WW2 and liberated Auschwitz is wrong, remembering the Holocaust is right. Because cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling, people resorted to denial and self-deception, embraced whatever opinion was dominant in their social environment to seek relief….”
On the last thread we had two contributors jeering at Strategic Culture and sites like it (which would include this one) where some people regard VV Putin as a superman or see China as the collective saviour of us all what they missed is the recognition that without these sites do not take the space that would otherwise be occupied by perfect sites, always correct, run by saintly people with unsullied motives etc but even more sites parroting the puppet talk from the MSM.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 31 2022 15:50 utc | 84
Finally able to get through to Kremlin website for the link to Putin’s remarks. Here is the complete machine translation without any emphasis by me, although there are some passages deserving such treatment.
Today I have signed an Executive Order that establishes the rules for trade in Russian natural gas with so-called unfriendly states. We offer counterparties from such countries a clear and transparent scheme. To purchase Russian natural gas, they must open ruble accounts in Russian banks. It is from these accounts that payment will be made for gas delivered starting tomorrow, from April 1 of this year.
If such payments are not made, we will consider it a failure to fulfill obligations on the part of buyers – with all the ensuing consequences. No one sells anything to us for free, and we’re not going to do charity either. That is, existing contracts will be stopped.
I would like to stress once again that in a situation where the financial system of Western countries is used as a weapon, when companies from these states refuse to fulfill contracts with Russian banks, enterprises, individuals, when assets in dollars and euros are frozen, it makes no sense to use the currencies of these countries.
In fact, what’s going on, what’s already happened? We supplied European consumers with our resources, in this case gas, and they received it, paid us in euros, which they then froze themselves. In this regard, there is every reason to believe that we have supplied part of the gas supplied to Europe virtually free of charge.
This, of course, cannot continue. Moreover, in the case of further gas supplies and their payment under the traditional scheme, new financial revenues in euros or dollars can also be blocked. Such a development of the situation is quite expected, especially since some politicians in the West talk about it, speak publicly. Moreover, it is in this vein that the heads of government of the EU countries speak. The risks of the current state of affairs are, of course, unacceptable for us.
And if you look at the issue as a whole, the transfer of payments for the supply of Russian gas to Russian rubles is an important step towards strengthening our financial and economic sovereignty. We will continue to consistently and systematically move in this direction within the framework of the long-term plan, to increase the share of settlements in foreign trade in the national currency and the currencies of those countries that act as reliable partners.
By the way, you have probably heard that many traditional suppliers of energy resources to the world market are also talking about diversifying settlement currencies.
Let me repeat once again: Russia values its business reputation. We comply with and will continue to comply with our obligations under all contracts, including gas contracts, and we will continue to supply gas in the established volumes, I want to emphasise this, and at the prices specified in the existing long-term contracts.
I emphasize that these prices are several times lower than the current quotes on the spot market. What does that mean? Simply put, Russian gas is cheaper energy, heat, light in the homes of Europeans, an affordable cost of fertilizers for European farmers, and therefore, food in the end. Finally, this is the competitiveness of European enterprises, and hence the salaries of Europeans, citizens of European countries.
However, judging by the statements of some politicians, they are ready to neglect the interests of their citizens, if only to please their overseas master, the suzerain. Some kind of populism inside out: people are encouraged to eat less, dress warmer to save on heating, refuse to travel – and all this supposedly for the benefit of those people from whom these voluntary deprivations are demanded for the sake of abstract North Atlantic solidarity.
Such dubious approaches and actions in economic, energy, food policy on the part of Western countries have been observed for more than a year.
By the way, the food crisis will be followed by another inevitable, another wave of migration, including primarily to European countries.
Nevertheless, step by step, decisions are being made that push the world economy to a crisis, lead to the severance of production and logistics ties, lead to an increase in global inflation and increased inequality, to a decrease in the well-being of millions of people, and in the poorest countries – I have already said this – to the tragedy of mass starvation.
Naturally, the question arises: who is responsible for this? Who will be responsible for this?
It is clear that the United States will again try to solve its problems – namely its own problems – at someone else’s expense, including launching a new wave of emissions and budget deficits. It has already grown exorbitantly, and in the leading European economies the record is broken by inflation, and in the United States. And at the same time, they are trying to blame their mistakes in economic policy on us, they are always looking for someone to blame. It’s pretty obvious, we’re seeing it.
I would like to add that the United States will try to capitalize on the current global instability, as it did during the First and Second World Wars, during its aggressions against Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria and so on. Global markets are falling, and the value of shares of companies of the American military-industrial complex is only growing. Capital is flowing into the U.S., depriving other regions of the world of development resources.
As a result, Europeans are not only forced to fork out, but also, in fact, with their own hands to undermine the competitiveness of European companies, to remove them from the global market. For Europe, this means large-scale de-industrialization and the loss of millions of jobs, and against the background of rising prices for food, gasoline, electricity, housing and communal services, there is also a radical decline in the standard of living of citizens.
This is the price that the ruling Western elites offer to pay to people, as I have already said, for their ambitions and short-sighted actions both in politics and in the economy, including for the economic war that they are trying to unleash against Russia, or, one might say, have already unleashed.
It didn’t start now, it didn’t start in the last month. Illegitimate sanctions and restrictions have been imposed against our country constantly, for many years. Their goal is to restrain Russia’s development, undermine our sovereignty, and weaken our potential in production, in finance, in technology.
Let me repeat that all these sanctions were prepared in advance, they would have been introduced in any case, I want to emphasise this. In fact, these are sanctions for our right to freedom, for the right to be independent, for the right to be Russia. For the fact that we do not want to dance to someone else’s tune, to sacrifice our national interests and traditional values.
The collective West is not going to abandon the policy of economic pressure on Russia. Moreover, of course, he will look for new reasons for sanctions, namely pretexts. Therefore, it is not worth counting on changing these approaches, at least in the near future.
In this regard, I would like to ask the Government, the Bank of Russia and the regions to ensure that the sanctions pressure on our country, as it was in previous decades, will continue when organising systematic work to develop the economy and its individual sectors. That is the objective reality.
What do I consider important to note here and I ask you to draw the attention of all colleagues to this? Considering the situation in each specific industry, sphere, it is necessary to focus not only on overcoming the challenges of the current year, but also to build long-term development plans based on the internal capabilities of our economy, Russian science and education system. We must rely primarily on private business initiative and healthy competition, strive to maximize the load of our enterprises, create new competencies and increase Russia’s global competitiveness as a whole.
At the same time, the key indicators of the effectiveness of economic policy for us should be the preservation and creation of jobs, the reduction of poverty and inequality, improving the quality of people’s lives, the availability of goods and services. It is with these requirements in mind that we discussed the situation in the construction and housing sector last week.
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 31 2022 16:33 utc | 95
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