I meant @204

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Feb 21 2023 5:52 utc | 203

10 minutes to Putin’s speech (assuming it starts on time).
I’m sceptical that we’ll see what this article says we’ll see.
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/russia-is-going-to-war-tomorrow/
I hope we do, though.

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Feb 21 2023 6:18 utc | 205

Shadowbanned @ 87
You really screwed the pooch when you insisted that Russia did not prepare for future military necessities.
Answer me this…has Russia run out of ammunition yet? Would you dare to suggest that their frequent 60,000 per DAY artillery rounds were old Soviet stock?
Is it not logical to assume that while the puppet regime in the Di$trict of Corruption along with their NATOstani minor minions were happily arming and Training the Ukies to the hilt; the RF folks were not producing 152 MM shells on a 24/7 basis along with new surprises in weaponry which are far more advanced than anything produced by the for-profit WarDefense Industries in the U$$A, subtly inclusive of plenty of grift for the bought and paid for pro$titicians squatting over the sewers of the Di$trict.
Oh, you’re a clever poster all right…very well trained and conceivably well-paid. However this time the Pooch screwed you when you slipped up and overlooked the fact that in terms of production of military hardware that since 2014 the Russians have been in a class by themselves with state owned and/or closely monitored development of both quantities and quality of the tools of war.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 21 2023 5:11 utc | 193

I said that society wasn’t prepared. And yes, the MIC wasn’t quite prepared either, but the bigger issue is that the SMO started without preparing society for the need for it and without properly formulating (and then following) the objectives.
Compare to what Stalin did.
The situations are quite similar — back then the West was going to try to kill communism, and that was clear 15-20 years before WWII started, and in the present it has been clear that the West will try to establish firm colonial control over Russia (including eventually settler colonialism) for at least 25 years.
At least 12 years before the war Stalin knew very well what is coming, even if he didn’t know the exact form (e.g. it need not necessarily have been the US and the UK maneuvering Hitler into doing their dirty work for them, but regardless, there was going to be a big war). So he started the most ambitious industrialization program in history, in order to be ready for it.
Then he also knew that internal cohesion will be critical for success and that he cannot afford to have fifth columnists in key positions. So he did the purges while propaganda was doing its job all throughout the 1930s.
The result was that while they still got caught with their pants down on the day of the invasion, society was ready for a big war. And eventually the Soviet Man that Stalin was cultivating in the 1930s prevailed.
On the surface, Putin didn’t get caught with his pants down — he struck first — but once you dig under the surface, the picture is quite different. And he certainly didn’t do the things Stalin did. There was no purge — even though right now the problem is much much worse than it was in the 1930s, there are many more people in Russia today who need to be shot in basements and sent to GULAGs. Granted, the days of taking care of that problem through such direct means are over, but those people haven’t even been removed from their positions.
The country also needed much more in terms of reindustrialization that was done. True, it is not the peasant society it was in the 1920s, it is still living off the Soviet legacy, but people here severely underestimate the damage that the 1990s did. If you have actually seen the discussions on the ground in Russia, you would know. But you haven’t.
And it needed mental preparation. This isn’t the equivalent of that first Soviet generation that is going to be fighting this war, neoliberalism has ruled and corroded Russian society for decades. But Putin himself is a committed neoliberal and he never did much to move Russia away from that poisonous influence.

Posted by: shadowbanned | Feb 21 2023 6:26 utc | 207

@Julian 210
Personally, I would consider only this as a victory:
1. A land bridge to Transnistria, incorporating Odessa and Nikolayev so that can’t become NATO bases;
2. Taking the entire territory east of the Dneiper
3. Total demilitarisation of the rump that is left of Ukraine by destruction of all military units and equipment
4. Compelling the western states of Europistan – the Baltic slagheaps and Poland are irredeemable- to choose between being destitute in NATO or independent outside it.
Anything short of that would be a compromise and a guarantee of future conflict.

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Feb 21 2023 6:32 utc | 209

@Melaleuca | Feb 21 2023 3:24 utc | 162

Something veryyyy strange happened on one of the uninhabited Tongan islands in January 2022. I’m inclined to think it was a supersekret blackops tech experiment.

Yes, the very strange event is called a “volcanic eruption”, more here: Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 21 2023 7:00 utc | 211

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Feb 21 2023 6:36 utc | 214
And last I checked, Russia was still providing natural gas to Ukraine (and to NATO countries via Ukraine). McCain unfortunately wasn’t wrong when he called Russia a “gas station masquerading as a country”.

Posted by: Unnamed | Feb 21 2023 7:19 utc | 213

Read both that and Simplicius new article ( https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-220-terminal-approach
).
Regarding “full war”, I’d tend to think it won’t happen. The new offensive, when successful and tactically superior force ratios, can develop operationally. Most Ukie forces are tied up in defending the various Donbass strong points, and a new offensive can squeeze the supplies without needing to destroy any bridges. We’ll see what happens, the ongoing week will be interesting.
The grinding strategy is the actual framework for a (the) new offensive.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Feb 21 2023 6:18 utc | 209

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 21 2023 7:29 utc | 215

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Feb 21 2023 5:39 utc | 203
I read through ninety percent of the piece until I got to the claim that Russia has lost 100,000 dead and wounded, and Ukraine maybe 150,000.
Complete and total concern troll bullshit.
Go back and read the Alexandr Roger’s piece I linked to earlier – it describes you to a T.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Feb 21 2023 7:34 utc | 217

Good morning campers, well todays the day.
I predict it will be more of the same slow and steady, with an adjustment to special anti-terrorist operation instead of SMO, taking all of Ukraine back under Russian control (eventually)
Plus a massive warning and ultimatum,
This war against Russia has visibly only been killing Russian speaking people. The great Vladimir Putin will remind the west of that. If you want brinkmenship well now you’v got it.
I can sense the west wetting their pants.
But don’t worry he promised us 72 hours to evacuate so thats 24 of Feb.
I,m ready are you ? were all refugees now.
I love the smell of karma in the morning.

Posted by: Mark2 | Feb 21 2023 7:35 utc | 219

I second Simplicius latest “SitRep 2/20 – Terminal Approach” here:
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-220-terminal-approach
Important points:

So not only was the futuristic F-22 AN/APG-77 AESA radar revealed to be a dud unable to even lock onto its target, but the much-vaunted NATO standard Link 16 had trouble performing even over uncontested allied territory, losing its datalink to the C3 flight shadowing the jet fighter. Imagine how it would perform in an actual contested, adversarial environment full of EW suppression? But can one really be surprised?
And by the way, while the F-22 will likely soon retire in abject ignominy, without a single confirmed kill to its name, the superior Russian Su-57 got what was likely the single longest air-to-air kill in history as its very first scalp.

After being exposed, the ‘NAFO’ crowd quickly deflected by switching to the purported ongoing ‘struggles’ of Wagner troops in Bakhmut. It is claimed that Wagner’s been suffering from great shell hunger, and has made a video pleading for the Kremlin to send them more shells. This has ignited speculation on whether an internal ‘feud’ of sorts is developing between the politically ascendant Prighozin and the Kremlin holdovers.
However, two interesting items were shared which shed a different light on developments. Firstly, this message from a purported Russian unit supplying Wagner troops: [Shows Tweet from someone who lists the exact amounts of ammunition supplied to Wagner]
Followed by this most intriguing (purported) MI6 transmission:
MI6 transmitted intelligence to the President’s Office and the General Staff that PMC Wagner has no problems with weapons and shells, and all publications are an information campaign to distract the attention of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Russian army continues to implement its strategy to encircle Bakhmut. According to British intelligence, next week will be the most active on the eastern front, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces need to be ready to retreat from the city.
This of course, coming after some of us had already ventured the suspicion that this could be the case. There was something really ‘off’ about the contrived nature of the back and forth. I allow that there could be something to it, and the other natural thought-train was that the Kremlin could be intentionally limiting Wagner’s allowance, not for ‘political feud’ reasons, but rather to rein them in, slightly, for they might’ve been progressing too quickly in Bakhmut to suit a particular operational imperative the Kremlin had in mind to coincide with their next incoming phase of operations.
Of course, that’s crude speculation. But the above two bits of info are otherwise quite intriguing in their own right, and point to an ongoing ‘maskirovka’ dance on all sides.

So much for the concern trolls bitching and moaning about Wagner’s and Prigozhin’s alleged claims.
Then he speculates that Putin may be about to declare war on Ukraine:

Now, given the rumors that Putin’s speech could be premised on these various allegations against NATO’s and Ukrainian war crimes, this lends an interesting timing as—like mentioned above—these recent releases could be the ‘laying of the groundwork’ to justify the announcement of new military/political escalations.

He further connects the dots on Transnistria and Moldova and suggests:

The fact is, Transnistria remains a crucial ‘pressure point’ in the escalating hybrid war against Russia, and they know they can ‘activate’ this point via their stooges in Moldova at any time to try and throw Russia off balance and tailspin the conflict into unpredictable directions, in order to stymy Russia’s near-certain imminent annihilation of the AFU.

He then suggests that Zelensky is ready to abandon Bakhmut, now that the Biden visit is over.
He ends with this interesting note:

One last message:
Russia is most likely preparing a major offensive on February 24 in a number of areas, Vitaly Barabash, head of the Avdiivka military-civil Administration, said on the telethon.: “According to intelligence data, the Russians are moving additional forces to the Donetsk direction (Avdiivka, Bakhmut, Ugledar, Marinka). A couple of weeks ago, about 160 battalions were concentrated – now it is already 190. Even with incomplete equipment – this is a lot of people. We understand that, most likely, they are preparing for something. On February 24, they will probably attack, ” Barabash said.

190 battalions is between 114,000 and 150,000 men, depending on strength. And that’s just in the Donetsk area.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Feb 21 2023 7:53 utc | 221

Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 21 2023 4:12 utc | 179
it was Macgregor’s idea, not mine. they’ll be scrambling to fix the loophole, but I’m not sure how efficient they actually are.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 21 2023 7:58 utc | 223

Moscow’s Grand Strategy is to spark economic collapse in the USA. Economic Collapse is only way Moscow achieves its War Aims as outlined in Dec 2021.
The Ukrainian Civil War is a sideshow to the main event.

Posted by: Exile | Feb 21 2023 8:01 utc | 225

Returning yet once more to Simplicus’s article, it was indeed another possibility that the Bakhmut operation is “slowed down” in order to encourage Zelly send more troops there. Whatever troops are near Bakhmut, won’t be somewhere else, and consequentially won’t be available to defend a potential cut of supply, or even a cauldron forming from the north, or south, or both.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 21 2023 8:14 utc | 227

Moscow’s Grand Strategy is to spark economic collapse in the USA.
Posted by: Exile | Feb 21 2023 8:01 utc | 230
—
Russia is missing out by not syndicating the advertising rights to Putin’s speech.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 21 2023 8:28 utc | 229

Current time in Moscow: 11:32 AM
Twenty-eight minutes to Putin’s speech… 🙂

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Feb 21 2023 8:33 utc | 231

For me a win would be (not a win for rus or china)(a win for the people),
1. the political system in US is replaced with something that is less manageable for the entrenched class. It may be direct democracy, multiparty democracy, autocracy, anything but this illusory democracy.
2. The US ability to extract rent from the r-o-w is finished/neutralized.
3. Big tech firms are kicked out of our lives e.g. android kicked out of our mobile handsets and smart devices.
4. Biometric surveillance legislatures are rolled back.
5. Details of ownership of anything and everything anywhere in the world is publicly available.
6. Justice system should be transparent. Judges should have a fixed tenure of 1 year and selected/lotteried(drawn randomly from a lot) from among educated people, and ineligible for re-appointment, and would be subject to the same laws afterwards.
7. 70% of earth’s surface marked as inviolable by human activities. (That is minimum. Actually it should be close to 98-99%)
8. A system of eugenics. based only on criminality. Maximum offsprings allowed to a couple, if even one is a criminal, to be limited to one. Crimes are killing, maiming, psychologically damaging a child, trespassing on the earth’s inviolable areas etc. not some made up thing like opposition to use of gendered grammar in the french language.
9. Educating people what a bias is, types of biases, what indoctrination is, why people subscribe to indoctrination, why people try to appear smarter than they really are.
10. Educating people what slothness is, what dulling is, what hubris is, that people have a natural tendency to slouchness, why people would generally become a couch potato, rather than exercising mind and body and metta. why people will subscribe to any philosophy, cult or religion, when doing the minimum as ordered in them makes them feel satisfied that they no longer have to do anything else.
As I started to write the comment, number of points increased. For me 1,2,3 is necessary for this thing to be called a win.

Posted by: RealBesat | Feb 21 2023 8:57 utc | 233

Hat tip “Rob Rudolf” of Slavyangrad chat.
Link to watch the speech by Putin here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO-e_04qag0

https://t.me/Slavyangrad/34414

Posted by: Down South | Feb 21 2023 9:02 utc | 235

Live coverage with English language translation at Sputnik: https://sputniknews.com/20230221/president-vladimir-putin-delivers-annual-address-to-russian-parliament-1107648407.html

Posted by: West of England Andy | Feb 21 2023 9:09 utc | 237

Thanks Hermit (79) and Nick (187). I was just about to question bottle’s (laughable) idea of the USA being a beacon of sanity, but you beat me to it.

Posted by: joey_n | Feb 21 2023 9:25 utc | 239

Biswapriya Purkayast #214

Lukoil is even supplying Ukranazistan with refined oil through Bulgaria! That’s literally helping your enemy.

That is but one troubling aspect of this war. As I see it Russia is absolutely committed to attract nazis, soldiers and weapons into the web and destroy them and if giving them fuel to travel to a single narrow front and meet their destruction is the way, then I can see the method in the madness. They are also draining nazi mercenaries across the world as well as their ISIS buddies. I gather Russia finds this outcome an efficient and productive exercise.
Equally if the immense destruction is confined to a narrow band of villages and cities as it is and the demilitarisation is achieved by absolute collapse of the nazi forces then that saves the vast settled cities and lands west from being absolutely leveled as those few villages are in the east. Sure they are copping a bombing of strategic infrastructure but not demolition/destruction.
A collapse and capitulation is the best outcome here with the vanquished tasked to clean up their social cancer, eradicate the nazi enclaves, self manage their restoration and all beholden to Russian rubles as the hryvnia will be abolished.
The war has now openly engulfed NATO who will perhaps focus its attention to their threatening overreach as was Russia’s stated intention back in December 2021. I have no doubt the Russian leadership was well aware of the reluctance – terror even – of NATO actually seriously considering such a demand. Perhaps they will have to do just that simply to retain their ‘legitimacy’ pomp and hierarchy.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 21 2023 9:37 utc | 241

I may have missed it, of course (easily done) but one thing is unclear to my pedestrian brain. The Outlaw Empire wants to weaken Germany by depriving it of Russian oil. So it blows up Nord Stream 2 pipelines with, thanks to Mr Hersh’s analysis, Norway’s active involvement.
The latter stands to benefit hugely as it has significant oil assets and a pipeline to Poland. Germany, Poland and Norway are notionally on the same side i.e. anti-Russia. So why can’t Germany just get Norwegian oil via Poland? Why does Germany need to involuntarily de-industrialise by importing expensive US LNG or marked-up Russian oil via India? Wouldn’t the Outlaw Empire have been prudent to blow up Norwegian oil pipelines too? Or is that coming?

Posted by: Vragtes | Feb 21 2023 10:02 utc | 243

From IntelSlava

🇷🇺⚡️The speech of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin has begun.
🇷🇺⚡ A year ago to protect our people on historical lands. To eliminate the neo-Nazi regime of the established regime in Ukraine, a decision was made on the SMO. Step by step we will carefully and consistently solve the tasks set before us – Putin
🇷🇺⚡Russia did everything possible to solve the problem in Ukraine by peaceful means. But the statements of Western leaders turned into a forgery and a lie.
🇷🇺⚡️Putin : the promises and statements of Western rulers turned into forgery and cruel lies. The West supplied weapons, trained the nationalist battalions. Even before the start of the SMO, negotiations were underway on the supply of air defense systems and aircraft. We remember Kyiv’s attempts to obtain nuclear weapons.
🇷🇺⚡Putin: The United States deployed bases and biological laboratories near our borders, mastered the theater of military operations, prepared Ukraine for a big war.
🇷🇺⚡Putin: while Donbass was on fire and blood was shed, and Russia was sincerely striving for a peaceful solution, the West was playing on people’s lives, playing with “marked cards”. They behaved the same way, destroying Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria. The concept of honor and decency is not for them.
🇷🇺⚡️Putin : we firmly defend not only our interests, but also the position that there should be no division into “civilized” countries and the rest. We were sincerely ready for a constructive dialogue.
🇷🇺⚡Putin: in response, we received an indistinct, hypocritical reaction. NATO expanded to our borders, new missile defense position areas were created.
🇷🇺⚡Putin: we received a refusal on all fundamental positions. It became clear that the go-ahead for the implementation of aggression had been given. The threat grew every day. By February 2022, everything was ready for the next punitive action of Kiev in the Donbass.
🇷🇺⚡Putin: Kyiv’s actions completely contradicted UN resolutions. It was THEY who started the war. And we used force to stop it.
🇷🇺⚡Putin: Kyiv’s next goal was to strike at Crimea and Sevastopol. Now Kyiv is openly talking about it. They revealed what we already knew so well
🇷🇺⚡️Putin : we are defending our home, and the goal of the West is unlimited power. they have already spent more than $150 billion on arming Kyiv.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : they spare no expense to encourage unrest and coups around the world. At a conference in Munich, Russia was blamed so that everyone would forget what the West had done in recent decades. Entire regions are in chaos. American experts say that as a result of the wars unleashed by the United States after 2001, more than 900 thousand people died, more than 38 million became refugees.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : in the 1930s, the West opened the way to power in Germany for the Nazis, today they are making “anti-Russia” out of Ukraine, this project goes back to the 19th century, Austria-Hungary, Poland nurtured it to tear off historical territories from our country.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : Recently, one of the brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was given the name “Edelweiss” as a Nazi division that participated in the deportation of Jews, executions of prisoners of war, and punitive operations. SS chevrons are very popular in Ukraine. Wehrmacht marks are applied to the equipment.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : The West doesn’t give a damn who to bet on in the fight against us. The main thing is that they fight with our country, fulfill their will, serve as a weapon against Russia.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : we are not at war with the people of Ukraine, they themselves are a hostage of the Kiev regime and its Western masters, who occupied this country, destroyed its industry and robbed its wealth.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : the responsibility for the escalation of the conflict lies entirely with the Western elites and the Kiev regime, for which the Ukrainian people are a stranger.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : the more long-range Western systems will come to Ukraine, the further we will be forced to move the threat away from our borders.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : The goal of the West is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, to end us once and for all. We will respond accordingly, because we are talking about the existence of our country.
🇷🇺⚡Putin: more and more aggressive information attacks are being carried out against us. The main target is the younger generations.
🇷🇺⚡Russia cannot be defeated on the battlefield – Putin!

Posted by: Down South | Feb 21 2023 10:38 utc | 245

From IntelSlava

🇷🇺⚡Putin : family is the union of a man and a woman. So say the sacred books of all world religions. But the West is also trying to revise these sacred texts.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : The West will try to undermine and split our society. they relies on national traitors who exude the poison of contempt for their Fatherland. It has always been so.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : who has embarked on the path of direct betrayal, commits terrorist and other crimes, will be held accountable under the law. But we will not “hunt for witches”, settle scores with those who have abandoned their homeland. They have to live with it.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : we are all proud that our people have taken a principled position in relation to the SMO, understood the meaning of actions, supported our actions. This support showed real patriotism, a feeling that is historically inherent in our people.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : I want to thank all the people of Russia for their courage and determination, to say thank you to our heroes – soldiers and officers of the army and navy, employees of the National Guard, special services, patriots, volunteers.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : special words to the residents of the DPR and LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. You yourself have determined your future, made a firm choice.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : we have started and will continue to build up a large-scale program for the restoration and development of new subjects of the federation. To revive enterprises and jobs, the ports of the Sea of Azov, which has become the inland sea of Russia.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : our duty is to support families who have lost relatives, loved ones. Help them raise their children, raise them, educate them. The family of each member of the SMO should be surrounded by care and honor.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : I propose to create a special state fund for targeted, personal assistance to the families of the dead soldiers and veterans of the SMO
🇷🇺⚡Putin : today both military personnel, and mobilized, and volunteers endure the hardships of the front together. Not all issues of supply and monetary allowance have been resolved.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : for all participants of the SMO, incl. volunteer, you need to establish a regular vacation of at least 14 days at least once every six months, excluding travel time.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : officers and sergeants who have shown themselves to be competent, modern and decisive commanders will be promoted to higher positions on a priority basis, sent to academies.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : the task is to launch mass production of the latest weapons. This work is underway, its pace is increasing.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : both experienced and young specialists work at our factories, in the design bureau, aimed at a breakthrough, true to the traditions of Russian gunsmiths – to do everything for victory.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : I propose to launch a special program of preferential rental housing for defense industry workers. A significant part of the payment for housing will be covered by the state.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : The West has deployed not only a military, informational, but also an economic front. Nothing has been achieved and never will be.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : the initiators of the sanctions provoked price increases, job losses, business closures, and an energy crisis in their own countries.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : The West tried to collapse the ruble, provoke inflation, steal reserves, break production chains. The goal of the West is to make our citizens suffer and destabilize society from within. The calculation was not justified.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : the share of the Russian ruble in international settlements doubled compared to December 2021 and amounted to 1/3, and with the currencies of friendly countries – more than half.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : defense is the highest priority, but we must not destroy our own economy. We have everything to ensure security and create conditions for the sustainable development of the country.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : changes in the structure of the economy are a vital necessity. We know what is necessary for the sovereign and confident development of Russia.
🇷🇺⚡️Putin : the banking sector has stood the test, turning a profit, inflation is under control.
🇷🇺⚡The banking sector has withstood the attack and looks like it will win. Let us all endure and win!
🇷🇺⚡Putin : it is necessary to strengthen the deoffshorization of the economy, business must operate in Russian jurisdiction.
🇷🇺⚡Putin: we remember what problems the late Soviet economy faced. The Russian economy was created on a market basis. However, in the end, our economy became oriented towards the West, as business was aimed at selling resources and making quick profits. It took years to break this trend, and we have achieved visible change.
🇷🇺⚡Putin: the image of the West as a safe haven turned out to be fake. Those who considered Russia only as a source of income have lost a lot. In the West they were simply robbed.
🇷🇺⚡Putin: none of the ordinary citizens of the Russian Federation regretted those who lost their accounts in foreign banks, lost their yachts. People remember both the privatization of the 90s and demonstrative luxury.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : those who grew up in the Donbass and Novorossia and fought for them should become the main pillar in the development of these regions.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : in early February, a NATO statement was made with the actual demand for Moscow to “return to the implementation of the strategic offensive arms treaty”, including the admission of inspections to our facilities. We know that the West is involved in Kyiv’s attempts to strike at our strategic aviation bases. Now they still want to inspect our defense installations? This sounds like bullshit.
🇷🇺⚡Putin : The United States and NATO openly say that their goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, and at the same time they are going to drive around our facilities? I have signed a decree on putting new ground-based strategic systems on combat duty. Are we going to let them in there?
🇷🇺❗A week ago, I signed a decree on putting the latest ground-based missile systems on combat duty.

Posted by: Down South | Feb 21 2023 10:44 utc | 247

Posted by: Down South | Feb 21 2023 10:44 utc | 250, 252…..
Thanks. Your transcriptions are greatly appreciated.
Na Zdravje! from Slovenia.

Posted by: Andrew Celestina | Feb 21 2023 10:57 utc | 249

@Richard Steven Hack | Feb 21 2023 10:59 utc | 253
“It is amazing how Putin laid out literally everything concerning the Russian economy and social matters and how they should be improved. Compared to the lame crap one gets from western leaders, it’s rather impressive.
As I’ve often thought, the only world leader today who could possibly be referred to as a “statesman” is Putin. Everyone else only comes up to his shoulder, if not his navel. Biden doesn’t even come up over Putin’s shoes – he’s more like the muck on the soles.”
Agreed.

Posted by: the pessimist | Feb 21 2023 11:08 utc | 251

@ Turk152 205
The US harvests local rage, like Banderite rage against Russia in Ukraine. As I understand it Erdogan’s group got rich building holiday resorts in South East Turkey, so maybe there’s a little bit of bad feeling about dodgy building down there to exploit before his upcoming elections.
But that would work on a false assumption that Muslim Turkey would allow itself to be poked by Uncle Sam. Syria has demonstrated that it won’t be poked by 12 years of poking . Whoever comes next to the seat of power is going to be no better, or probably much worse than the one in power now.
But it is quite astonishing that non-Muslim Ukraine has allowed itself to be poked into a frenzy if Xenophobia, to the point of sacrificing all its males, and exporting all its females to the obvious dangers of being homeless abroad.
I’m not going to blame the US for earthquakes, nor blame the Ukranians for being gullible about Uncle Sam , and bulldog Johnson bearing gifts. Britain seems to be in a swooning love affair with both of them. So we’re not in a good position in our glasshouse, to throw stones at anyone, even if they are both quite capable of any crime imaginable.
I just hope we don’t get allow ourselves to be duped by Polish generals telling us Russia is losing on Breakfast time BBC Radio 4.

Posted by: Giyane | Feb 21 2023 12:25 utc | 253

Noam @241
Looks like Democrat malarkey to me. I live in Minnesota. This state is totally dominated politically by the fact that the 9 Black Robes (aka the Extreme Courtesans) several years ago made a “ruling” that extended the “one man one vote” silliness to change the composition of the state senates from the original concept into that faux democratic hooha. Upshot of that is that currently the Democrap Former Labor party totally dominates the state due to the fact that the Twin Cities metroplex contains well over half the voters of the state.
Here in the U$$A, suburban voters rule. They possess a certain amount of agency while having effectually zero common sense. There are no traditions or value systems resident in these anti-communities. If the goddamned court had left well enough alone, there would be some balance in Minnesota between the ants nest and the entire rest of the state, including such urban areas as Duluth, Rochester and all the remaining modest-sized cities.
Politically, the U$$A at present does not need more faux democracy. It needs more balance. In one of Lincoln’s more telling speeches he exclaimed that “…you can fool some of the people all of the time”. That caveat prescription is writ large today.

Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 21 2023 14:22 utc | 255

The specific article I quoted from in post #133 is The defeat of Ukraine is becoming clearer. That article also says, “President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has asked his intelligence services (MİT) to investigate what is now only a hypothesis.”
In another article on voltairnet.org, According to Senator Diana Ivanovici Șoșoacă, earthquake in Turkey and Syria was caused by the U.S., more details are given:

Romanian senator Diana Ivanovici Soșoacă, speaking on 8 February before the Romanian Parliament, observed that:
One minute before seismographers detected the earthquake, Turkish gas and oil pipelines were shut down (NB. This is the only allegation we were unable to verify).
24 hours before the earthquake, 10 Western countries recalled their ambassadors from Ankara.
5 days before the earthquake, several Western countries, including Romania, issued a travel warning to Turkey without providing a motivation.
The earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria was followed by more than 150 aftershocks, the most violent being the second one, not the first. Atypically, it had no epicenter, but erupted along a fault line over several hundred kilometers. Further tremors are likely to occur, including in Istanbul.

I’ve never heard of an earthquake with no epicenter. I just googled this, and https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/06/world/turkey-syria-earthquake-epicenter-maps-dg/index.html shows an epicenter for the initial quake. There’s a red dot also shown for the 7.5 magnitude aftershock, but it’s not labeled as an “epicenter”.
I don’t want to take time to look further into this.

Posted by: metamars | Feb 21 2023 16:24 utc | 257

Is the linked article anti-semitic? If not, why not? This type of question lurks in the background of any discussion of the Ukrainian power structure. How does one approach such a question reasonably, as opposed to making poorly-grounded accusations or skipping over the subject because of fear of getting dog-piled if you phrase your supposition in the wrong way?
Is the linked article well-grounded? If not, is it dog-whistling to those who are predisposed to jump to predictable conclusions?
https://www.unz.com/article/jewish-corruption-in-ukraine/

Posted by: John Schmeeckle | Feb 21 2023 17:44 utc | 259

@emersonreturn | Feb 20 2023 20:34 utc | 59
@joey_n | Feb 21 2023 9:25 utc | 244
It is always a pleasure – and a delight to know that it is noticed 🙂

Posted by: Hermit | Feb 21 2023 21:02 utc | 261

Governments in functioning democracies do not work that way.
Posted by: watcher | Feb 20 2023 21:19 utc | 69
German democracy and American democracy have always been functioning for what they were designed for: the plundering of people.

Posted by: Colin | Feb 21 2023 22:19 utc | 263

A goddess making ads:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gyYFIfmvr0
A goddess with 80 yo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRpCn9SGZDw
A goddess because she is a spirit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlBF4VHGEFU

Posted by: Jeeva | Feb 22 2023 2:31 utc | 265

Posted by: Unnamed | Feb 21 2023 7:19 utc | 217 — McCain unfortunately wasn’t wrong when he called Russia a “gas station masquerading as a country”.
And the US is a too-big-to-fail bank masquerading as a country.
Also, McCain was a devil masquerading as a human being.

Posted by: kiwiklown | Feb 22 2023 8:56 utc | 267