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April 17, 2022
Ukraine Open Thread 2022-50
Comments
@ 340
a long, long time ago, in another Galaxy, I worked for a large Computer company as an engineer in Europe. Only the office in Vienna (Austria) was supporting Russia at this time. Lets call one of the engineers in Vienna Manfred.He was traveling often to Russia to repair medium sized computer systems. I have met Manfred several times during computer courses and it was always fun to listen to the stories of his travel behind the iron curtain. One of his stories was absolutely astonishing. He did fly to Russia and was picked up at the airport (place unknown to me) by the then KGB and was whisked thru customs with no questions asked and was driven in one of this big black russian limousines with curtains blocking the windows to an underground “city”. He had to repair a computer in a large manufactoring plant deep underground. He told me, all the machine tools have been top western brands. He had to repair a computer on a 5 axis machine tool. He told me the workshop was very very big (ever been in Salzgitter by Volkswagen?) and very sophisticated.
You are wondering what is the reason for a nuclear secure place below a steel foundry during the cold war ?
Posted by: None | Apr 18 2022 15:54 utc | 401
@ Chaka Khagan | Apr 18 2022 15:41 utc | 391
pretty much.. yeah..
Posted by: james | Apr 18 2022 15:58 utc | 402
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Apr 18 2022 13:15 utc | 364
You a re right. But then again, they have a higher reproduction rate (in terms of time) than humans. Not sure if for insects the reproductive cells are as sensitive as for mammals, but I would not be too surprised if this offsets the shorter life span.
Would be interesting to know, if insects are mutating significantly away from a control group under non-radioactive conditions.
Posted by: TomD | Apr 18 2022 16:04 utc | 403
interesting suggestion from rolo slavskiy –
“SUGGESTION: I humbly suggest filming videos of captured Ukrainian soldiers having a good time while in captivity. Film them kicking a soccer ball around with their captors. Show them tossing a few drinks back and playing cards. Have a group sing-along to a song that all people in Eastern Europe know.
Will this work? I don’t know. But it’s worth a shot, no?
Sharing photos and videos of shell-shocked soldiers staring blankly in the distance and stating their names and ranks to the camera before being shown videos of chainsaw torture videos made by Azov is a bold strategy, for sure. But does it promote the message of “brotherly nations” and “a future together”? Does it scare soldiers into surrendering?
In my humble opinion, it’s really not that crazy of a proposition. Nor is it that hard to do. A teenager with a pirated copy of Adobe could do it in a few minutes:”
Posted by: james | Apr 18 2022 16:07 utc | 404
Two thousand soldiers trapped underground. Not enough food. Not enough water. Lots of drugs. Lots of guns. Most of the soldiers not all that mentally stable in best of times. What could possibly go wrong?
Posted by: oldhippie | Apr 18 2022 16:09 utc | 405
Roger @394–
Thanks for that economic factoid as it adds to those I posted to the week in review thread. A few of us were smart and reduced our carbon footprint long ago–we’ve been “off the pipe” for almost 20 years now and all our electricity’s from green sources. What’s increased in price is internet connectivity as high speeds are demanded by today’s devices, particularly if you work from home.
Posted by: Martina | Apr 18 2022 14:51 utc | 379
In my daughters’ and granddaughters’ schools and kindergartens, in Sverdlovskaya, there are “bomb shelters”, renovated a few years ago for “historical education”. I’ve never visited them, as a military reservist until 65, I didn’t think that it was a good idea! In this town of 40,000 every school and kindergarten has a “bomb shelter”, for “historical education”.
Posted by: Стивен | Apr 18 2022 16:18 utc | 407
Hard Power Diplomacy
For example, the presence of certain individuals from France may provide Russia with the ability to disrupt the French elections[…] , other European states involved, not only France.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 18 2022 14:06 utc | 370
The most effective way to blow EU is blowing Macron in the wind.
A reason for trying to reduce Azovstal in the next couple of days is that Frenchmen captured there could swing the French election to Le Pen, and a Presidente Le Pen could veto the admission of Finland to NATO. For this reason, Scott Ritter recently said that Le Pen could be the savior not only of Europe but of the world, because Finland in NATO could very well mean World War 3. Posted by: Lysias | Apr 18 2022 13:43 utc | 367 What happens to the EU balance if Le Pen wins in a week?
[…]
We are living in very interesting times.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 17 2022 20:06 utc | 114
It would of course be an earthquake.
And an extraordinary change for peace and Special Op in Ukraine.
But the probability is very low, below 5%. French POW in Azovstal could rise it to 50%
The totality of the political parties, including socialist, communist, extreme left, ecologist, democrat [Christian and secular], the artists, the sportsmen, the academics, the economists, the employers and the trade unions… call to bar the road to Marine Le Pen.
It is a general and international mobilization against the popular expression, it is a question of forcing to abstention the majority of the young people and the working classes and to make elect Macron by the retired pensioners and the rentiers.
The campaign to free FRANCE from Macron go underground. ” je croise les doigts”
A very well done appeal to evict Macron, French independent anti-EU politician, Frexiter for 15 years
In French
https://youtu.be/-NCaw5hLDIs
Posted by: Bastille | Apr 18 2022 16:26 utc | 410
@Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 18 2022 16:10 utc | 399
Thanks for the reply. North America was getting close to an NG price crisis in 2008, then came the GFC recession and then fracking to crash the price. NG has been incredibly cheap in NA for over a decade now, probably helped out a lot of poorer people to make ends meet. The recent price rises will really hit a lot of those people, at the same time that they are paying much more to drive to work. Then we add the increases in food prices (now bird flu to make it even worse!) and you get real distress for so many people. Then the 10-year Treasury seems to have broken out of a multi-decade downtrend, which won’t be good for all those people with the huge mortgages taken out at near zero interest rates. Won’t be as bad as Europe, but still pretty bad.
Good to hear that you went off grid. I didn’t do that, but I downsized so much less space to heat here in middle Canada and I can walk/take a tram to most places I need to get to. Internet and mobile prices suck in North America, my sister in the UK gets them so much cheaper. I save a lot of money and time by not having any cable/satellite TV – all full of mind-rotting garbage.
An approach to removing the steel plant nato/nazi infestation I haven’t heard mentioned would be the liberal use of Israel’s skunk water. If it didn’t drive them out, it would at least make their final days most unpleasant. And, being Knesset approved for use in civilian Palestinian homes and schools, and thus kosher, it would be tough for the msm to accuse anyone of chemical warfare.
Posted by: Pete | Apr 18 2022 16:41 utc | 412
Helmuth von Moltke | Apr 18 2022 15:53 utc | 393
you just see them as bright lines in your picture and therefore you delete the pic right away.
No, no.
Astro image processing requires dozens of shots of the same piece of sky. They are added, aka stacked using specialist sware which ignores any pixel which is significantly different to the others in the same location in the stack. All transient satellite lines are disappeared in this way.
Posted by: lapin | Apr 18 2022 16:44 utc | 413
Posted by: Roger | Apr 18 2022 16:28 utc | 404
Fracking is only viable with low or negative interest rates. USA also has quite a cavalier approach to groundwater quality and seemingly very low standards on drinking water.
Since the days of cheap money are over as Inflation is driven by a $30,000,000,000,000 National Debt and an Annual Budget Deficit of 12-15% GDP you can say goodbye to low interest rates.
USA is about to be hit by a perfect storm of rising energy prices, rising food prices, rising interest rates and collapsing US dollar just as Federal spending comes under profound squeeze and the Defence Budget eats Americans alive. It currently consumes the entirety of Federal Income Tax revenues and is not enough
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 18 2022 16:48 utc | 414
Martina [Posted by: Martina | Apr 18 2022 14:51 utc | 379] is correct about bomb shelters being ubiquitous across former Soviet space. The Kiev metro [Google helpfully reminded me that its search results were for Kyiv] has the deepest station in the world As for the groundwater issue – I’ve wondered about that. Maintained waterproofing and pumps are usually required for maintaining a habitable environment in such situations. I recall a bomb shelter in the courtyard of some Kiev apartments that would flood when there were heavy rains.
Posted by: the pessimist | Apr 18 2022 16:48 utc | 415
@Eric Blair “For US weapons manufacturers, Ukraine is the new Afghanistan, only better. They can charge full retail for sub-par weapons that will be destroyed before possible use.”
Two thoughts: I wonder if anyone knew this was coming when we pulled out of Afghanistan (I know, tin foil hat time) – that it was time to trade up in conflicts.
It’s more recycling tax dollars through defense contractors. Who’ll pay for it? We will, of course.
Posted by: ian | Apr 18 2022 16:49 utc | 416
@lapin | Apr 18 2022 16:44 utc | 406
Astro image processing requires dozens of shots of the same piece of sky. They are added, aka stacked using specialist sware which ignores any pixel which is significantly different to the others in the same location in the stack. All transient satellite lines are disappeared in this way.
No, they are not. I have experience with this process and have written astro-imaging software for image calibration and stacking. You have to exclude the images with satellite trails. This is off topic here, but anyway.
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 18 2022 16:50 utc | 417
Posted by: Karl | Apr 18 2022 6:53 utc | 302
On Telegram someone is reporting Gonzalo’s phone being used and messages deleted which means the account has been hacked or someone has his phone or MacBook.
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 18 2022 16:50 utc | 418
@394 Roger
Re: Natgas
Re: “the US domestic market is starting to be price connected to the world price”
Yes, it is finally happening.
US LNG export capacity has now grown to a more meaningful size (I think much still going to Asia btw). It’s still small compared to growth in global demand, plus of course the hole left by EU’s confused attempts to replace Russian pipeline gas with LNG.
14 bcf/day = 0.396 bcm/day = 145 bcm/year
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=50598
which is a big increase in the past 3 years, but a fraction of continental consumption – over 30000 bcf = 850 bcm in 2021 according to the EIA
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9140us2a.htm
The prices tell the story. US Henry-Hub benchmark futures, are now
DEC 2022 =~ $8.40 / MMBtu
DEC 2023 =~ $5.25 / MMBtu
compared to the $2.50-4.50 range of recent years!
Also compare this to the wild European prices (TTF benchmark futures) of around
~ $30/MMBtu for Dec2022
~ $25/MMBtu for Dec2023
Posted by: ptb | Apr 18 2022 16:53 utc | 419
@ian | Apr 18 2022 16:49 utc | 409
Two thoughts: I wonder if anyone knew this was coming when we pulled out of Afghanistan (I know, tin foil hat time) – that it was time to trade up in conflicts.
The best thing that can happen from a weapon’s manufacturers point of view is if weapons are dumped (Afghanistan) or destroyed (Ukraine). In both cases, the market is “renewed”.
No tin foil required.
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 18 2022 16:54 utc | 420
@Paul Greenwood | Apr 18 2022 16:50 utc | 411
On Telegram someone is reporting Gonzalo’s phone being used and messages deleted which means the account has been hacked or someone has his phone or MacBook.
Do not spread such rumors without a link to back it up.
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 18 2022 16:56 utc | 421
—–No, no.
Astro image processing requires dozens of shots of the same piece of sky. They are added, aka stacked using specialist sware which ignores any pixel which is significantly different to the others in the same location in the stack. All transient satellite lines are disappeared in this way.
Posted by: lapin | Apr 18 2022 16:44 utc | 406
Ahem…I’ve been an amateur astronomer for 23 years now. I know how it’s done. And depending on the equipment you’re using you may either stack your pictures manually using e.g. photoshop or you let indeed software do it automatically (“SharpCap” is what I use with my ZWO Asi 224 cam). But either way, satellites are a major nuisance and of course you delete pics with stripes and don’t use them for stacking. I do for sure.
Just google “starlink astronomy” for tons of articles about the issue.
Posted by: Helmuth von Moltke | Apr 18 2022 16:58 utc | 422
Стивен @400–
Does the local government also conduct Civil Defense Drills that utilize those structures for “historical education”?
On the value of live prisoners – this is excerpted from over at ZH:
“…Two British nationals who’ve recently been captured by Russian forces in the east as they were fighting on the side of the Ukrainian military have appeared on Russian state TV pleading for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to negotiate their release.
Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, the former having only been captured in Mariupol over the weekend and the latter having surrendered over a week ago – spoke at the prompting of an unidentified man in the footage, and requested that Johnson bring them home in exchange for pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who is being held by the Ukrainian side after Zelensky ordered the opposition leader’s arrest. …”
Seems the Russian government believes they have some value.
Posted by: the pessimist | Apr 18 2022 17:01 utc | 424
Does the local government also conduct Civil Defense Drills that utilize those structures for “historical education”?
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 18 2022 17:01 utc | 416
Certainly during Soviet times this and many other preparedness skills were practiced by school children, including things like first aid and some weapons training.
Posted by: the pessimist | Apr 18 2022 17:05 utc | 425
walt et.al
Bug-report from middel-norway
I just rescued a bumble bee from my hallway window – like I do every year. The starlings arrived a week before Easter. I observed their quest for housing. Last year I noted barn swallows, white wagtails, thrush and a handful of non-migrators nesting in/around the farm.
They thrive on being low on cats, more than high on bugs- apparently.
The cranes arrived yesterday. They have become so numerous, some of them nest around here – maybe because our farm were mash-land a millennia ago?
The number of ducks, geese and even swans migrating over me, have risen, not dwindled.
Posted by: Anne B | Apr 18 2022 17:10 utc | 426
Gonzalo Lira – Chilean envoy is aware of disappearance
https://twitter.com/DeFrente_cl/status/1516084908334145540
the pessimist @418–
Thanks for your reply. I recall Russia being the last major nation regularly conducting CD drills on a national basis, implying it also keeps the related infrastructure in good order. I asked to question in an attempt to gain further confirmation.
@417 Pessimist
It won’t make Zelensky give up Putin’s pal, but it will show foreign nationals that their bodily worth even if double the weight (2 of the British Nationals for 1 Moskal), are not equal to the actual geopolitical game afoot beyond Russia Vs. Ukraine.
Putin is showing the world that Zelensky gets his marching orders from NATO/West.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Apr 18 2022 17:23 utc | 429
Does the local government also conduct Civil Defense Drills that utilize those structures for “historical education”?
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 18 2022 17:01 utc | 416
No. МЧС (EMERCOM) does not conduct those drills, the teachers do the exercises. As Sting asked, do the Russians love their children too? These shelters were used as junk storage for years. Yet after 2014, they were suddenly cleared out and renovations began, “purely for educational purposes”. There is a habit in Russia to take old things, no longer used, from the house/apartment to the shed/garage. Eventually it migrates to the dacha in the village. All along the way it is disassembled and re-used. The same thing happened with these shelters. Almost nothing is wasted.
Did this happen all over Russia? I don’t know, but it was strange that almost all “bomb shelters” were renovated. There were other shelters in town that were not renovated, but they were built on reclaimed land in a swampy area, and were almost submerged, reclaimed by the swamp.
This told me that Russia was preparing for a new Patriotic War.
Posted by: Стивен | Apr 18 2022 17:25 utc | 430
Posted by: the pessimist | Apr 18 2022 17:01 utc | 417
in exchange for pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who is being held by the Ukrainian side after Zelensky ordered the opposition leader’s arrest. …”
Seems the Russian government believes they have some value.
Indeed. Medvechuk is said to have Putin as the godfather of his daughter. Previously Zelensky was demanding the release of 1000 captured soldiers for Medvedchuk, now with these two british throwaways Putin *might* be able to get someone of value to him without having to release a large chunk of potential combatants back onto the battlefield.
Lives have value. Even useless lives.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 18 2022 17:28 utc | 431
—–Unless the Azovstahl bunkers have a fully independent air generation system like submarine systems (very unlikely).
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 18 2022 3:47 utc | 267
Isn’t it built as a nuclear-bunker? Won’t that require an independent system?
Posted by: Stonebird | Apr 18 2022 11:18 utc | 341
How can people still live in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Do you know? Shouldn’t we have seen some evidence of a clean-up?
Born in 1960, living where the Chernobyl fall-out fell – I am beginning to question the whole narrative.
Posted by: Anne B | Apr 18 2022 17:37 utc | 432
The problem with satellites (and airplanes) for astronomers (amateur and professional) is that they leave behind ugly lines on your photographs, if you are doing pictures of deep sky objects like nebulas or galaxies. So – no, I don’t have a photo of a satellite, since you just see them as bright lines in your picture and therefore you delete the pic right away.
Posted by: Helmuth von Moltke | Apr 18 2022 15:53 utc | 393
So it’s a question of esthetics?
I have never been able to spot one, so probably my optics is as lousy as my optician.
Posted by: Anne B | Apr 18 2022 17:42 utc | 433
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 18 2022 16:50 utc | 418
Off topic yes>
But you are way off, most of my light frqmes contain trails these days; bravo Musk.
PixInsight for example does what I said, otherwise I would have no frames to stack at all most nights.
Posted by: lapin | Apr 18 2022 17:46 utc | 434
So it’s a question of esthetics?
I have never been able to spot one, so probably my optics is as lousy as my optician.
Posted by: Anne B | Apr 18 2022 17:42 utc | 434
For amateurs it’s essentially just aesthetics, yes. It’s like if you would do a nice painting on canvas and then some crosses over it with a ball pen.
For the problems professional astronomy has with satellites, I would refer you to a Google search for e.g. “starlink astronomy”, since I don’t want these off-topic postings to get completely out of hand.
Posted by: So it’s a question o | Apr 18 2022 18:01 utc | 435
@Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 18 2022 16:48 utc | 415
I remember from my 2000s peak oil days that there seems to be quite a tight correlation between oil prices above about US@120 per barrel for an extended period and recession. Without the increasing amount of debt, the interest rate that leads to financial dislocation has also been lowering over time – you can see the lower and lower peaks over the past decades. Like two sides of a crusher with the distance between the two sides getting smaller all the time. Then add in, as you have stated, increasing food costs.
The only way out for the US government is to inflate the debt away with deeply negative real interest rates and ongoing inflation in the 10%+ range. Of course, now with the “China (or is it Vietnam now?) price” that will lead to a rapidly falling exchange rate (exacerbating inflation) and the speeding up of the immiseration of the majority of the US population who will be unable to gain wage increases in line with inflation. That’s if the authorities can manage to stop a jump to hyperinflation when the currency collapses. The currency collapse will also make all the US foreign bases way too expensive to run.
Стивен @423–
Спасибо большое! The year 2014 makes total sense. You helped confirm information I’ve previously read over the last several years. Seventeen months ago, I wrote this short item, “Russian’s Love Their Children; Americans get ready to evict millions at first of January”, but confused the artist as I tied the song to Putin’s answer to a question put to him at his annual year-end marathon press conference. I’d been following Putin’s many news conferences and other public appearances since the Maidan Coup, but hadn’t written about him much after I began my VK blog, although I’d commented about his focus on Russian families, often highlighting those passages from his speeches to provide the great contrast between him & Xi to Western politicos who don’t give a damn about their people.
So, again, much thanks for your reply! I certainly hope events prove Neoliberals love their children too.
@Posted by: ptb | Apr 18 2022 16:53 utc | 420
The EIA still project growth in US natural gas production, but after all the capital destruction in the past decade from the shale sector and rising interest rates that may not come to pass.
This report gives a good coverage of LNG terminals in the process of being built (two) and the prospects of others. A big question is if North American gas demand continues to recover (although there could be demand destruction in the electricity generating sector as providers switch from gas to coal – although coal prices are also going up too due to exports) the contest for the marginal BTU between domestic and international consumers could really ramp up domestic prices.
martina @ 385
I guess they built the nuclear bunkers at the steel plant first, and the factories on top of it.
I do not believe.
Azov Stal was built in 1930
The Nazi invasion damaged it in 1941; after the liberation, in 1943, it was repaired and left again.
Nuclear bombs did not yet exist.
Since then, the plant has never stopped until the end of February 2022
Posted by: FZappa | Apr 18 2022 19:12 utc | 439
Bad news about Gonzalo Lira 😞 on Twitter
Posted by: Giovanni Dall'Orto | Apr 18 2022 19:16 utc | 440
Wow. From the Daily Beast ‘about’ page:
Independent. Irreverent. Intelligent. The Daily Beast delivers award-winning original reporting and sharp opinion in the arena of politics, pop-culture and power. Always skeptical but never cynical, The Daily Beast reaches more than 1 million readers a day. Tracy Connor is Editor in Chief and Heather Dietrick is CEO. The Daily Beast is based in New York and is an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI).
Now the ‘never cynical’ Daily Beast can brag about how they informed the SBU Gestapo of U.S. citizen journalist Gonzalo Lira’s whereabouts in Ukraine. He’s either dead by now or has been taken to an SBU Gestapo black site for a little torture. I wonder who else is on the Daily Beast Kill list?
The Daily Beast: weaponized cancel culture for anyone not parroting the NATO Ukraine narrative (= spreading Russian ‘disinformation’).
Posted by: PavewayIV | Apr 18 2022 21:01 utc | 441
@439 Roger
Don’t know if you’ll see this. I played the coal-vs-gas game briefly circa 2010ish. (fun fact: you know who got screwed worse than anyone in the energy biz? pension funds of coal miners). Anyway, coal used for power generation is all about transport cost, the extraction cost is negligible. It’s basically fixed cost, varying by customer location based on how far the power plant is from a mine/processing-facility or port. However there are a bunch of particulars, both regulatory and technical, that require certain types to be used in plants of certain regions. At $8 henry hub you ought to see dispatching to coal where it hasn’t been retired yet.
Posted by: ptb | Apr 18 2022 21:34 utc | 442
@
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C7DE2KFJHs
Posted by: Jon | Apr 18 2022 12:12 utc | 357
Re Rania Interview with Tarik
I watched all of it. There was something strange about it. I couldn’t figure it out.
Like ‘the dog that didn’t bark’ feeling.
It turns out it wasn’t a dog but a elephant – in the room sense.
Not a single mention of China and the grand alliance.
Or the words ‘multipolar world’.
It did have have the mandatory Putin bad mad and Russian invading being wrong!
Nothing about it being a pre-emptive to stop the built up forces plan to retake the breakaway regions with mass force and challenge Russian borders directly with nato proxies.
That’s the dog that didn’t bark in that whole interview. Curious.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 18 2022 22:34 utc | 443
“Too many people are ignorant of Hitler’s Plan Ost, similar British plans, similar CIA plans, the plan Brezinski articulated in Grand Chessboard, and the Outlaw US Empire’s #1 policy goal stated in 1996 and again in 1999… The only differing feature from Outlaw US policy goals and Hitler’s Plan Ost is the former doesn’t seek lebensraum, only that the land be vacant so its resources can be exploited.”
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 17 2022 21:58 utc | 165
***
The former may indeed be thinking of *lebensraum*, but planning ahead:
Climate Change Could Make Russia’s Frozen Siberia Far More Habitable by the 2080s
A few years ago I did see a Russian observation—apologies, no link to hand—that indicated they were very aware of this thinking on the part of US geostrategists. Regime-changing Russia and chopping it up into several smaller-population and -economy puppet statelets for resource extraction and depopulation is obviously the immediate benefit they seek in addition to freeing them up to focus on China after, but a few decades from now they appear to definitely want that *lebensraum*.
“… few have recognized the struggle for what it actually is.”
Yes. Far too few.
Posted by: Vintage Red | Apr 18 2022 22:46 utc | 444
Norwegian | Apr 18 2022 16:54 utc | 421
re: I wonder if anyone knew this was coming when we pulled out of Afghanistan (I know, tin foil hat time) – that it was time to trade up in conflicts….
US via DDEisenhowr agreed to truce in Korean War…in order to enable the Indochina conflict which had been prepped long before the French surrendered after DienBienPhu. I am not sure DDE knew that VietNam war was coming, but there is good evidence that RMNixon knew as early as his 1953 visit to Saigon as Vice-Pres when he assured the mis-leaders in Saigon that US would back them up if the French were forced out [not to be confused with his later, quickie visit in 1969 as President]. Our US mis-leaders dreaded having simultaneous wars in VN and Korea with 10.000 mile logistics.
Posted by: chu teh | Apr 18 2022 23:10 utc | 445
About Gonzalo Lira,
I had a bad fee ling when I watched his last report. Really thought and think that he has been taking awfully high risks considering the savagery of the UkroNAZIs.
Maybe his US citizenship may have spared him the worst? I do hope so.
Let’s pray he is still alive and will soon be released.
Posted by: CarlD | Apr 19 2022 0:28 utc | 446
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 18 2022 14:06 utc | 376
well said. I totally agree.
Posted by: Paul | Apr 19 2022 1:45 utc | 447
Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Apr 18 2022 8:20 utc | 320
Perhaps the NATO code books could be handy too?
Posted by: Paul | Apr 19 2022 1:49 utc | 448
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 18 2022 18:04 utc | 438
As I said, I cannot confirm that this is Russian-wide. The control of the local Duma is United Russia, with a very strong KPRF membership. I know members of both very well. All of them love Russia. What most westerners don’t understand, is you don’t have to be Russian, to be Russian. I won’t go into the Russian language to explain this. I merely offer this video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoOblmOSAbU Centuries ago, Peter the Great said, ” A Russian is he who serves and loves Russia”.
Posted by: Стивен | Apr 19 2022 8:18 utc | 449
Nazi commander calls on Pope to save them.
“Major Serhiy Volyna, the commander of a marine brigade in Mariupol, published an open letter to Pope Francis on Monday urging him to help secure the evacuation from the Avozstal plant ”
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/battle-of-donbas-has-begun-ukraine-says-russia-has-launched-new-eastern-offensive-1.4855936
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 19 2022 14:29 utc | 450
The majority of brainwashed Americans think the world will be a better place if Putin is removed from office, the same Americans also think that the world would be better if Kim Jong-Un was removed as well as Xi Jingping of China, and Iran’s president as well.
“Only 12% of Americans think the world be a better place if President Zelensky was removed from office.
Americans of all political stripes largely agree that the world would be a better place without Vladimir Putin in office as Russia’s president, but Republicans are even more sour on their country’s own leader.
A Morning Consult poll released on Monday revealed that 83% of Americans believe the world would benefit if Putin left office.”
https://www.rt.com/news/554118-poll-republicans-see-biden-more-harmful-than-putin/
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 19 2022 15:00 utc | 451
UNSG Bilderberger and Club Madrid member Antonio Guterres caught lying.
https://www.rt.com/russia/554161-russia-denies-un-secretary-general-putin-contact/
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 19 2022 15:04 utc | 452
Hey you, yeah you in Europe working two jobs just to keep the lights and heating on, guess what, the EU is going to rebuild Ukraine using hundreds of billions of Euros, and you and your family and your children will pay for it.
“The European Union is planning to provide most of the funds needed for Ukraine’s reconstruction, Bloomberg reported citing sources in the European Commission.
According to the publication, the commission is working on a scheme which would support Ukraine on a long-term basis as the bloc expects to be responsible for providing the lion’s share of the funds for the country’s reconstruction. To do that, the EU plans to set up a solidarity trust fund. It will reportedly be based on the post-Covid-19 recovery fund for EU member states and help finance investments and reforms in Ukraine, the sources said.
The EC has not unveiled the exact amount of money they plan for the fund to raise, as Russia’s military operation in Ukraine is still ongoing. However, sources say the figure would amount to hundreds of billions of euros over the next several decades. ”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 19 2022 15:14 utc | 453