fake news, the version you regurgitated here
Posted by: knighthawk | Jan 23 2024 9:22 utc | 102
—
Verbatim!
Here is the video of the exchange ==> https://youtu.be/i4Z9g7BOEt8?t=119
Maximalist objectives are the current fashion.

Posted by: too scents | Jan 23 2024 9:32 utc | 103

Well Austin is apparently back at work – at home. Russia is apparently flying along the Israel Syria border. Scholz blames Russia for his energy crisis and his party hacks seem to accept this. The EU is preparing for Russia to invade even though they haven’t left Donetsk. The Houthi are telling the USUK they are not scared of WWlll, but I think I am. It’s a really f@&k@d up world we live in but we in the west need this war – apparently – to hide our economic and social collapse as we can’t think of what else to do.

Posted by: Inki | Jan 23 2024 9:47 utc | 105

1 & 4
While Natonazis slaughter russian civilians the chessmaster
will make us happy with another senseless whining speach & another pathetic red line. This wannabe chessmaster needs professional medical help to sort his red lines in his head. I fear that he will no longer see the wood for the red line trees

Posted by: SlowSoft | Jan 23 2024 9:51 utc | 107

Inki | Jan 23 2024 9:47 utc | 104
An insane leadership in the west and the sheeple for the most part cheering their own destruction. Incredible to watch. Like some science fiction movie, but as the saying goes truth is stranger than fiction. The joys of American style dumbocracy and privatization… not to mention hollyweed.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 23 2024 10:27 utc | 109

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 23 2024 10:38 utc | 109
I wonder why those fire bags are not closed. I remember in 2014 I think the whole Ukrainian army was surrounded in a what some people called cauldron and that’s when the Minsk agreement was signed. I know nothing about military strategy or tactics but it seems that avoiding frontal assault on Avdeevka would save some lives, potentially on both sides.

Posted by: RB | Jan 23 2024 10:58 utc | 111

My friend Misha in Kiev informs me that it is still easy to bribe your way out of conscription, as long as you still have money. The moment you don’t have it,  though, you’re done.
Also he says that most people have totally emotionally disconnected from the war. They don’t give a damn how it goes, just as long as it stops. They’ll happily settle for Russian  rule, what they want is an end to the killing. 
 
[To be clear, this is someone I know in real life who’s stayed with me in my house more than once. He told me back in early February 2014 that the Maidan “protests” would break up the country. Over the years he told me about the nazification of Ukrainian society, unlike the delusional crap of people like the Faker who insisted Ukrainians would rise up against the nazi regime the moment Russia arrived at the door. He’s been very accurate so far.
In his view, by the way, both Ukranazistan and Russia have already lost because of the deaths, destruction and hatred caused by the fighting.]

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jan 23 2024 11:42 utc | 113

I wonder why those fire bags are not closed.
Posted by: RB | Jan 23 2024 10:58 utc | 110
Why shut down a good thing. Zelensky needs to show the west he can hold the lines to keep the gravy train running. A cauldron only eliminates what is within it when it is closed. A firebag is more akin to a slaughterhouse where the lambs constantly file in.
Also, in demilitarizing Ukraine, Russia has set up a fixed line of destruction rather than a line of destruction that rolls across Ukraine destroying civilians homes and infrastructure as it goes.
Its all about maximizing Ukraine military losses and minimizing Russian losses.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 23 2024 12:05 utc | 115

@RB 110
The Ukranazis are much stronger on the Avdeevka flanks and the ground is open, so they can take a huge toll with drones of Russian attacks. They in fact depleted their forces in the city to shore up the flanks. This is the reason for the sudden major Russian advance in the city itself. It isn’t just a question of why Russia
isn’t closing the cauldrons. Russia at the moment is incapable of closing the cauldrons without taking unacceptable losses. What Russia can do, however, is advance through the city to split the Ukranazi defence line, and that’s what it is doing.

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jan 23 2024 12:16 utc | 117

An idea that The West is weak is delusion. At this moment they cannot wage ground war but the population of Eastern Europe would be good enough for this. Poland is an immense reservoir of such would be soldiers.
Furthermore The West can use cruise missiles in a very massive attack against Russia. Their escalation capacity is huge. Even the nuclear exchange between EU and Russia would be no problem for USA.
The Western elites are not afraid, contrary to the Russian oligarchs. They do not care about their population. Specially Anglo Saxons (their elites) who never experienced a social revolution still have that aristocratic mindset.

Posted by: zorge | Jan 23 2024 12:46 utc | 119

Posted by: aletsan | Jan 23 2024 9:48 utc | 105
More blind luck than anything, but “insert code here” was what I saw, I pasted in the text from your link, and voila! Thank you. Lol, I doubt I could easily recreate how I did it though. Just wish configuring add-ons on Firefox in Android was easy. I’m typing this while using Windows.

Posted by: Babel-17 | Jan 23 2024 12:55 utc | 121

Thank you Babel-17.
You are right about not being the most easy thing to do.
Having a bit of coding knowledge helps.
So, here is a small explanation about how to apply the script:
You can manipulate how a site works and is displayed using Greasemonkey which is an addon you install in your browser.
So, first you install the Greasemonkey addon to your browser.
After you install Greasmonkey, you go to its menu and select: New user script.
A new tab will appear with an empty script template.
You delete everything and paste the script I posted.
You press the save button to save the script and you open/reopen MoA site.
If you want to make any changes to the script you go to Greasemonkey menu, select the script and choose edit.
You make the changes you want, save script again and open/reopen MoA site to check the result.
I don’t really use small devices to do serious stuff on the internet, so I can’t help you all with applying it on them.
But the steps should be the same, you usually only need to adapt to the specific platform small changes.

Posted by: aletsan | Jan 23 2024 13:26 utc | 123

https://t.me/ZandVchannel/97255

‼️BREAKING
‼️🇷🇺💥🇺🇦🏴‍☠️ There are reports that the settlement of Pletenevka in the Volchansky district of the Kharkiv region has been taken under the control of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
If this information is confirmed in the near future, it will mean that the creation of a buffer zone to the south of the Belgorod region has begun.
This is a reasonable decision, especially if we take into account the regular shelling of Shebekino, Valuyok and other settlements of the region, including Belgorod.

https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/99288

🚀🛸 In Russia, trials of anti-drone missiles are concluding, and they are expected to be deployed on the air defense missile systems in the Special Military Operation soon, according to a source cited by RIA Novosti.
The mini-missiles will be utilized within upgraded “Pantsir” systems. These new missiles follow the standard “Pantsir” configuration with an acceleration stage and a cruising stage but significantly reduced in size both in diameter and length.
As a result, each “Pantsir-SM” combat vehicle can now be equipped with 48 anti-drone missiles instead of the standard 12.

Posted by: anon2020 | Jan 23 2024 14:20 utc | 125

There are reports that the settlement of Pletenevka in the Volchansky district of the Kharkiv region has been taken under the control of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation

==>
https://t.me/boris_rozhin/110503

The rumors about the occupation of the village of Pletnevka by Russian troops on the border of the Belgorod and Kharkov regions do not correspond to reality. There are currently no large-scale offensive operations being carried out there.

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Jan 23 2024 14:46 utc | 127

shаdοwbanned | Jan 23 2024 14:44 utc | 126:
The US set it up in such a way that it will be a lose-lose for Russia no matter what.
The Americans just think that you can’t live a humane life other than the way they do – and of course the Europeans do, to a certain extent. But Russia has managed without the entire West for many decades – and the same applies to China – and even in Cuba, which has been under sanctions for decades, life shouldn’t be that bad, if there is even a life without Porsches and Mercedes. The total inability and unwillingness of those in power in the West to put themselves in the position of others will inevitably cost them their asses.

Posted by: Oliver Krug | Jan 23 2024 15:03 utc | 129

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Jan 23 2024 14:44 utc | 126
Russia won’t ‘rebuild Ukraine’, they will just beat on the AFU until the state fails, and isolate the collapsing state from itself. And then exercise tight filtering of whoever is allowed to enter Russia.
When the smoke settles, we will see what’s left.

Posted by: unimperator | Jan 23 2024 15:16 utc | 131

Philip Roddis quotes Andrew Korybko today on the meaning of that strike on French “mercenaries” in Ukraine. He calls it a massive blow to France’s prestige. To put that in perspective, it follows a year in which France was pretty comprehensively kicked out of West Africa by the natives. More than a blow to ‘prestige’ that had a substantial economic cost for France’s predatory ruling class.
“…Russia carried out a successful strike against dozens of mercenaries in Kharkov last week that ended up killing at least five dozen of them, the majority of whom were reported to be French. Moscow blamed Paris for their deaths by turning a blind eye to them traveling to Ukraine, which Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu claimed that his country is powerless to prevent because “we are still a democracy”. That sheepish response lent credence to the Kremlin’s claims and left the Elysse with egg on its face.
https://steelcityscribblings.uk/wp/2024/01/23/the-french-mercenaries-slain-in-ukraine/
“What just took place was a powerful blow to French prestige since it represents the largest single loss of its mercenaries in recent memory. It remains unclear exactly how qualified each of the deceased were, such as if they were naïve self-styled “volunteers” or had prior experience with their armed forces, but Russia’s strike nevertheless taught France a lesson that it won’t soon forget. Turning a blind eye to its citizens’ mercenary activity in Ukraine backfired by leading to a major loss of prestige instead of the expected gains.
“Paris thought that the dispatch of its citizens to that country would imbue their own with “glory” after they came back from their “safari” with a bunch of stories to tell about how many Russians they killed. Fighting against Russia isn’t the same as fighting against non-state actors in Africa, however, since the first has the technological prowess to kill these mercenaries before they even know what happened. That’s exactly what occurred after they took Russia’s media-reported “weakness” for granted….”
https://steelcityscribblings.uk/wp/2024/01/23/the-french-mercenaries-slain-in-ukraine/

Posted by: bevin | Jan 23 2024 15:40 utc | 133

How is public France going to conceal the death of 60 people in the army?
How are they going to prevent people from talking?

Posted by: g wiltek | Jan 23 2024 16:27 utc | 135

The Russian forces in the south of Avdeevka used a several kilometer long tunnel or pipe (unknown to the Ukrainians) to enter the urban district in the sw portion of the city in force. They surprised the Ukrainians, beat back reinforcements and disrupted the rotation process, and cut off the forces in the air defense base to the south which they then captured. Quite an effective operation.

Posted by: the pessimist | Jan 23 2024 16:39 utc | 137

djuric_zlatko on X: The son of a brigadier general of the French army was killed by a strike by the Russian Armed Forces at a point of temporary deployment of foreign mercenaries in Kharkov. His partner (also killed) came from a hereditary military dynasty in France.
According to Mash, the name of the Frenchman eliminated by a high-precision strike is Sabastien Claude Remy Benard. He served in the RICM (formerly the Moroccan Colonial Infantry Regiment) in the Marine Light Armor unit. For reference: it was these groups that equipped the famous AMX-10RC wheeled tanks, which Paris proudly sent to Kiev as military aid. During the process, this scrap metal was deemed unsuitable for mechanized combat.
Benard first arrived in Ukraine in 2022, but did not receive the desired position in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and returned to his homeland. A year later he tried his luck again and joined the 5th Assault Brigade. On July 3, in the Bakhmut area, he participated in the medical evacuation of his wounded fellow countryman Maxim Leconte (a rifleman from the International Legion of Terrestrial Defense), who publicly admitted that the much-hyped Ukrainian counteroffensive turned out to be a bloody failure. On January 16, he was killed by a Russian missile strike.
His partner is Alexis Drion. He is the son of Frédéric Drion, who became a brigadier general in the French army in 2001. Alex joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces no later than last year. He served in the 2nd Battalion of the International Legion. Also was killed on January 16th.
The remaining 60 killed and about 20 wounded mercenaries are recognized activists of Nazi groups in France and other EU countries. Each of them served in the army and even belonged to a battalion of alpine hunters. Many were fired for inappropriate behavior, after which they left for Ukraine. In total, more than a hundred mercenaries from France died during the fighting in the SMO zone

https://t.me/vicktop55/20515

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Jan 23 2024 17:20 utc | 139

Biden postponed the State of the Union Address until March 7. This is to give the neocons an extra month to end the Ukraine war. He’ll declare “victory” for “stopping Putin from conquering Ukraine” and then move on. Most people will forget there was a Ukraine war by 2 weeks later. The Ukraine War is a big problem for the Dems, and they need it well shutdown before the election.
They’re probably also pulling strings to get Biden a Nobel Peace Prize for ending the Ukraine War.

Posted by: JackG | Jan 23 2024 17:27 utc | 141

@ JackG | Jan 23 2024 17:27 utc | 141
This most likely has more to do with domestic politics, especially seeing that Super Tuesday in the primary process occurs two days before on 5. March. The DNC and Biden’s other backers probably would not want unchurned sour news from Ukraine or the Middle East or a poor State of the Union performance to influence the bleaters – I mean voters.

Posted by: kvp | Jan 23 2024 18:02 utc | 143

How is public France going to conceal the death of 60 people in the army?
How are they going to prevent people from talking?
Posted by: g wiltek | Jan 23 2024 16:27 utc | 135
Very easy: all medias are under control, and Russia Today and Sputniknews are banned.
True, those sites are available through a VPN, but only pro-Russian people will access them, when the great majority of the population only looks, listens or reads the lying medias.
The given information is: Russia is lying. And most people believe it.

Posted by: Naive | Jan 23 2024 18:41 utc | 145

Please no. This platform is low tech with a purpose. Otherwise we will be tracked and identified. No anonymous posting anymore.
Posted by: alek_a | Jan 23 2024 7:12 utc | 93
Every post is filled with snowflakes demanding a safe space, so that they don’t have to scroll past posters they don’t like.
it’s like being on a college campus, with the Woke demanding that no dissident voices be heard.
But the demands that B actually change to a format that discourages people from commenting?
That sounds familiar. I heard that a lot from the Davos crowd. It was one of their main themes. And I hear it from the likes of Obama and Nikki Haley.
So who are the actual trolls? Those who post criticisms of Russian policy, or those who call for censorship and banning of dissenting voices?

Posted by: wagelaborer | Jan 23 2024 19:02 utc | 147

Promo video for defender 24, the largest Nato exercise since end of cold war. Exercise in which article 5 has been triggered.
https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1749864943552204823
These exercises will with certainty contain dummy attack runs against Russia. Perhaps one will be the real thing thing but the sure thing is that this is designed specifically as a provocation, to try and provoke Russia into launching a strike.
That coupled to the obvious publicly spoken intention of assorted Euro elites to have a war with Russia.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 23 2024 19:13 utc | 149

The theft has begun.

Victor vicktop55
@vicktop55
Belgium will transfer €611 million (58.3 billion rubles) to Ukraine from income received from interest on frozen Russian assets.
The information was confirmed by the head of the Belgian Ministry of Defense, Ludivine Dedonder (pictured), Belga News Agency reports.
The total amount of frozen Russian assets in the EU is about €180 billion (17 trillion rubles), most of them are located in Belgium, the agency clarified.

Once this is over, unless the west is a glow in the dark sheet of glass, it will be repaying everything it has stolen.
The recent Russian presidential decree, I assume covers things like the various consulates and so forth that were owned by Russia in the US along with the current currency theft. If it also covers private assets that have been stolen, the list to be repayed will be long.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 23 2024 19:31 utc | 151

@ unimperator | Jan 23 2024 18:47 utc | 146 with the report of the new strikes on those forces that France say don’t exist…..
Thanks for that. So now are the French going to deny that they are grieving their dead?
Its idiots all the way down.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 23 2024 19:45 utc | 153

@canuck | Jan 23 2024 19:54 utc | 154
—
Dima’s work ethic overshadows his tendency to fantasize.

Posted by: too scents | Jan 23 2024 20:00 utc | 155

by Sam | Jan 23 2024 0:51 utc | 75
Yes, I do agree certainly on some points, sure. But, I also try to explain how I see it.
I mean Strelkov, Gonzo etc. are not smarter than an average eloquent or not poster here at MoA. We all could see that it was a hasty operation at the minimum cost and personnel that SMO was meant to be done with and how it got transformed to a mega-operation now.
Russian army and a society needed a shake up and such ‘filtering’ of events, eventually got it there.
After the embedded NATO troops and Ukrainian Nazis started firing back, killing Russian soldiers and destroying the tanks around Kiev, only then it was clear to RF (Putin, Lavrov and Duma) that a quick Istanbul treaty would buy the time to reshuffle military capacity and introduce another posture. Failing that, and already withdrawn from Kiev, smeared with Bucha-land, still one can give the cudos to RF, on how they balanced all that out, by using proper and aggressive hybrid war on all fronts, slightly upping the ante on the front-lines in a pretty steady curve. Also not just in Ukraine but in Syria and the worldwide.
I just hope that this conflict will make Russian Military more flexible, as indeed it has been a monolith difficult to move, but when it does – it revolutionizes itself.
What I understand, it shed some Cold War personnel, some ‘festina lente’ disrespecting officers, it created the deal between the State and Military that no private army is doing a proper Military job. The State also kept the promise to pour the resources in properly equipping and arming the Military, surely cutting the corners, but at the end getting there.
From the military point Artemovsk/Bakhmut storming was very stupid move, but it helped the State to fulfill the promise given to the Military. Private military is gone and outlawed.
I would disagree that Martyanovs and Johnsons did more damage to RF than an average Strelkov, or Prigo, even Sladkov that was tamed throughout.
I think nowadays RF media posture seems in order and certainly some Westerners reporting, were briefed, over the time, after the Russian media and social journos’ meeting with Putin.
It would be better to have a current military, organized and supplied, starting SMO some 2 years ago. Sure thing.
But from the previous wars, we know that it takes some time for the military to become combat operational, instead of combat ready.
So, as far as the complex situation is, it would be a fair to say that, so far, Russia did pretty good and have learned a lot on all of the levels.
So, dooming makes a bad mood, as it is unfair to many people working in the support of Russia, China, Palestine and justice in general and it is very counterproductive in discussion.
However, in order to win over the evil, I understand that one just has to be a bit more evil. Or, we change to a different formula?

Posted by: whirlX | Jan 23 2024 20:03 utc | 157

Posted by: unimperator | Jan 23 2024 18:47 utc | 146
Taking out ministry of defense officials, that is a cheeky move. The west just doesn’t seem to understand that Russia has escalatory dominance in Ukraine.

Posted by: Mike R | Jan 23 2024 20:15 utc | 159

whirlX | Jan 23 2024 20:03 utc | 157
You haven’t taken into account the bio and nuke sites that were a primary target in the opening week. All pro Russian maps at that time just painted sections of Ukraine in broad swathes of red which was very deceiving. Ukraine map makers showed narrow lines of advance. I went back to these after the Rus mod briefings on capture bio docs began and all lines of advance headed directly towards bio and nuke sites.
In hindsight it becomes obvious that the US quickly twigged as to the targets of the advance and set up artillery ambushes taking out the leading columns.
There was one bio lab in the center of Kiev but six around its outskirts, some of which Russia would have captured, another to the north that was captured. Zap NPP. Fourty tons of enriched uranium and thirty tons of plutonium according to Gossi. What was it doing there. Ukraine does not make its own fuel rods.
Placing a threat on Kiev tied up a large number of Ukie forces that could have been used to prevent capture of Mariupol and linking of the land bridge. Ukraine opened negotiations on the second day – the 25th I assume and Russia pulled its forces back from Kiev once the basic peace agreement had been signed.
Three purposes to the move on Kiev, none of which was the capture of Kiev. Though Russia of course would have taken it if Ukraine simply capitulated.
Then there is the fact, which Russia has proved in a number of cases that they agree willing to risk lives to end conflict as peacefully as possible.
At no time did Russia have to pull forces from other sectors of it borders to reinforce e the Ukraine grouping. Recall at the time of the pullback from Kherson there was and exercise in the east I think involving 50,000 troops and of course much hardware.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 23 2024 20:22 utc | 161

Ghost of Zanon | Jan 23 2024 20:17 utc | 160
Dima is ok but often wanders into tin foil hat territory. This showed up strongly on Lira’s round tables where the round table would consist of three or four war commentators. History legends bloke and similar would be consistently factual.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 23 2024 20:27 utc | 163

I think the Biden administration is nauseous over the idea that the United Nations International Court of Justice might decide it’s worth the time to investigate if Israel has created genocidal conditions in Palestine, at the same time its proxy army in Ukraine is getting obliterated by Russian led forces, and while the Houthi thumb their nose at American might, and openly hamper shipping in protest of Israel’s genocide.
Biden does not want to deliver applause lines at a State of the Union Address about Israel that only all the Republicans will cheer for*, nor does he want to put purple state Democrats in the position of having to cheer on the war in Ukraine, not while Zelenskyy is getting subsidized so heavily with tax payer funds, yet seemed to be losing his war.
Team Biden is probably hoping for a deal to be made on aid to Ukraine, and border security, so that he can tout bipartisanship while ignoring Palestine. Ideally he’ll want the conflict in Ukraine to be mostly frozen as the AFU sits in fortified positions, and Netanyahu is made to understand that the IDF has to chill out in the week prior to his speech, so his administration can have its compliant media lie that a peaceful solution is getting closer.
*If notable Black members of Congress are seen sitting on their hands while Biden praises Israel, and Republicans cheer, it could be disastrous for Biden’s hopes to get out the Black vote in a yooge way. Ditto that if Biden doesn’t have a deal to close the border, yet still has to talk about the situation there. Here in America the deluge of illegal migrants has strained the resources of cities where lots of Black voters live, alongside other displeased Democrats as well.

Posted by: Babel-17 | Jan 23 2024 20:34 utc | 165

“My friend Misha in Kiev informs me that it is still easy to bribe your way out of conscription, as long as you still have money. The moment you don’t have it, though, you’re done.
Also he says that most people have totally emotionally disconnected from the war. They don’t give a damn how it goes, just as long as it stops. They’ll happily settle for Russian rule, what they want is an end to the killing.
[To be clear, this is someone I know in real life who’s stayed with me in my house more than once. He told me back in early February 2014 that the Maidan “protests” would break up the country. Over the years he told me about the nazification of Ukrainian society, unlike the delusional crap of people like the Faker who insisted Ukrainians would rise up against the nazi regime the moment Russia arrived at the door. He’s been very accurate so far.
In his view, by the way, both Ukranazistan and Russia have already lost because of the deaths, destruction and hatred caused by the fighting.]
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jan 23 2024 11:42 utc | 113″
I believe you. However, this raises the question of what is anyone going to do about it? As long as the secret police in Ukraine will shoot when ordered to do so, Zelenskii has nothing to fear from the populace.

Posted by: Feral Finster | Jan 23 2024 20:46 utc | 167

“How is public France going to conceal the death of 60 people in the army?
How are they going to prevent people from talking?
Posted by: g wiltek | Jan 23 2024 16:27 utc | 135”
simple – they don’t care. Since people of influence and authority weren’t hurt, it doesn’t matter how many expendables died.

Posted by: Feral Finster | Jan 23 2024 20:49 utc | 169

But the fact Russia has gone out of its way to avoid giving NATO a casus belli is clear proof they fear the reaction.
Posted by: Micron | Jan 23 2024 20:30 utc | 164
no. they refuse to give nato a casus belli not out of “fear”, but because everyone knows that nato wants said casus belli.
so the russians just ignore the bait. must be frustrating for you guys, eh?

Posted by: Justpassinby | Jan 23 2024 20:59 utc | 171

Posted by: Justpassinby | Jan 23 2024 20:59 utc | 171
Quite right, the cowards are the western supporters of the ukronazis, not the Russians.
They prove it day after day.

Posted by: Naive | Jan 23 2024 21:18 utc | 173

Posted by: Micron | Jan 23 2024 20:30 utc | 164
US military policy has always been reckless and Russia understands that well. That is why US puppet NATO engages in these provocative actions, thinking they will intimidate Russia. Russia is playing the long game, and understands that it has the upper hand, so it’s not about to jump several steps up the escalatory ladder just because the West does stupid things. In this case, 1) Russia hit a hotel with French fighters 2) Ukraine (with NATO backing) shelled a marketplace in Donetsk city 3) Russia hit back with another missile strike, this time taking out French defense officials. It would seem that the French arseholes have to wonder at this point, what happens next if Macaroon greenlights another strike against Russia/Donbass/Crimea. The West keeps taking head shots, most of which miss, while Russia delivers body blows, which are now taking their toll. Russia is well aware that the West is delusional and erratic, and wants to avoid tapping too deep into the crazy. The West has to be brought to the point where it is bruised, battered and too exhausted to keep the fight going.

Posted by: Mike R | Jan 23 2024 21:33 utc | 175

by Mike R | Jan 23 2024 20:15 utc | 159
Russia just does stuff and is not talking about it,
That is how it should be. It just waits for NATO to enforce some fake preamble to the Article 5. on personnel loses that triggers some whatever. Nobody cares. If NATO really uses out-of-Ukraine assets to attack Russia in Crimea or otherwise, I do not believe that Russia will knee-jerk on that, but it will send accumulated massive answer when and where appropriate.
Russia creating the buffer, not far from Kharkov. Just does the stuff.

Posted by: whirlX | Jan 23 2024 21:41 utc | 177

Posted by: alek_a | Jan 23 2024 7:12 utc | 93
«Please no. This platform is low tech with a purpose. Otherwise we will be tracked and identified. No anonymous posting anymore.»
It is *psudonymous* posting, the major security services most likely track and identify every pseudonym here, unless exceptionally skilled techniques are used (VPNs like Tor and others are probably not sufficient without great precautions like “burner PCs” or “burner cellphones”). Even more generally:
https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1186271838386774018
NN Taleb, 2020: “every financial transaction done on Planet Earth since 2005 is traceable (the aftermath of Sep 11). Even if one uses prête-noms. Even if one uses cryptocurrencies, art work, etc. You cannot hide anything anymore.”
“Live unnoticed” “The nail that stands out will be hammered”

Posted by: Blissex | Jan 23 2024 21:56 utc | 179

Posted by: Micron | Jan 23 2024 20:30 utc | 164
It’s so obvious that the Russian leadership fear an overreaction by the west and they are wise to do so. Imagine they flatten Kyiv as the west would have done what do you think would happen? My guess is they would all pile in on Russia and then it’s nuclear war. It’s unfortunate that soldiers are dying for what seems like a small sliver of land but Russia doesn’t want it all. They didn’t really want the Donbass. They wanted peace. But that became an impossibility. The USUK don’t. One has to take the psychosis of the other side into consideration.

Posted by: Inki | Jan 23 2024 21:58 utc | 181

The multi-polar world … each for himself.
@ Posted by: rk | Jan 23 2024 9:12 utc | 101
I understand your frustration and I have no quick reply. However I have witnessed over the years the West under the strong leadership of Washington applying sanctions and pressure on most continental Asian countries. Those countries have, over a generation, developed strong links. That was done piece by piece without fanfare. There is a very interesting series on Chinese television called yuanfangdejia; a television team traveled all around China and then in all countries where China has projects in Africa, Kazakhstan, Belarus and so on. Those projects are roads, railways, factories.
Flour and water make a weak mass just after they are mixed together. The mass becomes strong if you pound it repeatedly. The US pounded on Asia and Asia becane strong as a result. People from the West see Asian countries as an amorphous mass, but a geheration of pounding has transformed Asia; the people are educated, creagive and very efficient. I lived close to five months in a college in China among very enthusiastic students while I studied the language with young people from Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan,Thailand, Korea and Jaoan. No one from North-America or Europe there.
If I were Washington or Israel I would be polite with my Palestinian and Yemeni neighbours.

Posted by: Richard L | Jan 23 2024 22:27 utc | 183

“You cannot hide anything anymore”
Posted by: Blissex | Jan 23 2024 21:56 utc | 179
This is a new variation on the usual craven submission to Big Brother. “I have nothing to hide, so I don’t care if they spy on me.”
What they want is an end to anonymity online. At this point, Big Brother may know, but his minions do not.
They want a government-issued ID to be required for people to access the internet, and for all comments online to be made with your official name, not a pseudonym.
That way, not only Big Brother, but your boss, your neighbors, the local Antifa group….can all use your opinions to fire, shun, or attack you. You would have to censor yourself or live in fear.
Maybe you don’t think that’s a big step forward towards total submission to the Empire, but I do.
And I don’t want to live like this.
“Live unnoticed” “The nail that stands out will be hammered” may be good advice when they roll out the increased monitoring, but it is no way to live, and it goes against human rights.

Posted by: wagelaborer | Jan 23 2024 22:49 utc | 185

Apparently the EU decided against the seizure of RF central bank assets, it’s a losing proposition in every way. Another bluff called by the RF. Russians are now patrolling the skies over Syria, they just upped the ante against the USA, let’s see if Netanyahu is crazier than the Europeans and goes to war with Russia to further USA plans. It’s ok to spend the cookie jar money but never bet the farm.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Jan 23 2024 23:45 utc | 187

Posted by: bevin | Jan 23 2024 15:40 utc | 133
Did you catch the latest news via Dima that after the initial attacks killing some 60 French fighters based in Kharkov (be they mercs or Foreign Legion), that France sent X number of *Military Officers* to sign for and receive the bodies but RF struck again and killed those Officers. Lol. Talk about a message of “Keep Out”.

Posted by: Jacko.Blanchard | Jan 24 2024 0:27 utc | 189

Phew. A normalish thread. Thanks all.
@ Posted by: zargo | Jan 23 2024 20:23 utc | 162
Not me. I have figured out over recent years that there was something askew with the Bolshevik ‘Revolution’. It was obviously externally coordinated – as the ‘Color’ things have been over the decades since. It was wire that Lenin ‘made’ the borderlands into the resurgent Khazaria…and he exterminated the Romanovs! An action that would have seemed unnecessary after their overthrow. Unless ordered by some greater masters.
I won’t be surprised if Kruschev, who did the same , is equally ‘venerated’ and Gorby and Yeltsin at their centenaries.
Weird about Stalin though. He did something similar post war with that borderland. The fact that Yalta was the place the ‘victors’ met to slice Europe – but the genius of stuffing Lenin and putting him on display in a cabinet, before he could totally hand over the whole RF – is in my mind one of the most amazing historical unexplained actions! I hope some explanations come before my demise.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jan 24 2024 0:45 utc | 191

But the fact Russia has gone out of its way to avoid giving NATO a casus belli is clear proof they fear the reaction.
Posted by: Micron | Jan 23 2024 20:30 utc | 164
And the fact that NATO refuses to put boots on the ground in Ukraine is evidence they fear Russias response.

Posted by: HERMIUS | Jan 24 2024 1:14 utc | 193

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 24 2024 1:01 utc | 192
I have said it before (but a while ago so apologies for repetition) I think it is probable that the Russians were spooked into acting faster than they liked because of fear of a nuclear missile in Ukraine.
In the month leading to the SMO, I believed that Russia would not respond in Ukraine, but would deliver their “technical” response in Syria. I was surprised by the sudden decision to enter Ukraine.
Now it was just a very few days after the Munich conference where Z called for nuclear arms and the attendees from NATO all applauded and said yay!.
So my gut feeling is that they acted very swiftly to stop that event. They were NOT as prepared as they would have liked but the need for urgent action prompted an unusually swift action. They probably had intelligence that there was stuff in Zaporizhia.

Posted by: watcher | Jan 24 2024 1:48 utc | 195

by watcher | Jan 24 2024 1:48 utc | 195
Yes. True. There was some awkward warning from the USA to RF not to use technology that was planted there. It was and still is bizarre:
As CNN, discloses.

Posted by: whirlX | Jan 24 2024 2:18 utc | 197

It’s so obvious that the Russian leadership fear an overreaction by the west and they are wise to do so. Imagine they flatten Kyiv as the west would have done what do you think would happen? My guess is they would all pile in on Russia and then it’s nuclear war. It’s unfortunate that soldiers are dying for what seems like a small sliver of land but Russia doesn’t want it all. They didn’t really want the Donbass. They wanted peace. But that became an impossibility. The USUK don’t. One has to take the psychosis of the other side into consideration.
Posted by: Inki | Jan 23 2024 21:58 utc | 181

Russia will never flatten Kiev (spell it right, please). They already had to destroy it once in 1943, and it was a much smaller city then. They have no intention of doing it again.
What can and should be flattened is Bankova Street, but even that is off-limits.
More importantly, DC absolutely doesn’t care enough about Kiev to start a nuclear war.
Not just about Kiev – Article 5 is a fiction. Nobody is sacrificing Boston for Poznan or Atlanta for Craiova. They won’t even do it for Berlin or Amsterdam.
Crucially, if they are crazy enough to be itching to press the red button, then they are going to start WWIII anyway, and there is little that can be done to stop it. Then the task is to hit first while being as prepared as possible to first, prevent, second, repel, and third, survive the second strike.
The current behavior of the Kremlin has many parallels with what it did in the 1930s — back then it was also a lot of effort to avoid war, create a common security framework (much of the current rhetoric is straight up lifted from that era), then it switched to trying to persuade Hitler to come to his senses, and we know what happened. Stalin was caught with his pants down. But at least he had strategically prepared for war, he was caught slipping tactically and operationally.
But there were no nukes back then, so who strikes first wasn’t as consequential. It still was monstrously consequential though — the USSR never fully recovered and eventually fell apart.
Now there are nukes, and the Kremlin is again in Leopold the Cat mode.

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Jan 24 2024 2:45 utc | 199