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Russia Counters EU Shenanigans To Steal Its Frozen Assets
The prime minister of Hungary Victor Orbán posted this morning:
Today, the Brusselians are crossing the Rubicon. At noon, a written vote will take place that will cause irreparable damage to the Union.
The subject of the vote is the frozen Russian assets, on which the EU member states have so far voted every 6 months and adopted a unanimous decision. With today’s procedure, the Brusselians are abolishing the requirement of unanimity with a single stroke of the pen, which is clearly unlawful.
With today’s decision, the rule of law in the European Union comes to an end, and Europe’s leaders are placing themselves above the rules. Instead of safeguarding compliance with the EU treaties, the European Commission is systematically raping European law. It is doing this in order to continue the war in Ukraine, a war that clearly isn’t winnable. All this is happening in broad daylight, less than a week before the meeting of the European Council, the Union’s most important decision-making body, bringing together heads of state and government. With this, the rule of law in the European Union is being replaced by the rule of bureaucrats. In other words, a Brusselian dictatorship has taken hold.
Hungary protests this decision and will do everything in its power to restore a lawful order.
The EU used the Article 122 of the treaty to make the freezing of the Russian assets in Europe permanent by the vote of a qualified majority in the Council of Europe where each nation has a vote. Previously that freeze was voted on every six month and required unanimity. Any country could thus veto further sanctions. Putting the freeze under Art.122 in effect deprives Hungary and others of their veto power.
The whole issue came up because Belgium, where most of the assets are frozen, has fears that any use of the Russian assets for an EU ‘loan’ to Ukraine would in the end require it to pay Russia if the sanctions were lifted. Making the freeze permanent are supposed to shield it from EU member veto.
It is very doubtful that the use of Art. 122, which is for economic emergency “in particular if severe difficulties arise in the supply of certain products, notably in the area of energy”, is applicable. The decision will likely be challenged in court:
Cont. reading: Russia Counters EU Shenanigans To Steal Its Frozen Assets
Palestine Open Thread 2025-286
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Ukraine Open Thread 2025-285
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Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2025-284
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Will CentCom Condemn This Blatant Act Of Piracy?
U.S. Central Command – Press Release Nov. 16, 2025
[Country] Forces Illegally Seize Commercial Tanker in International Waters
November 16, 2025
Release Number 20251116-01
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TAMPA, Fla. – U.S. Central Command forces monitored an incident involving [Country] forces illegally boarding and seizing a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker transiting international waters in the Strait of Hormuz, Nov. 14.
M/V Talara was seized after being boarded by [Country] forces who arrived by helicopter. [Country] operatives then steered the tanker to [Country’s] territorial waters where the ship remains.
[Country’s] use of military forces to conduct an armed boarding and seizure of a commercial vessel in international waters constitutes a blatant violation of international law, undermining freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce. We call on [Country] to articulate to the international community the legal basis for its actions.
U.S. forces will continue to remain vigilant and work alongside our partners and allies to promote regional peace and stability.
I am now waiting for CentCom’s statement on this:
U.S. seizes oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, escalating tensions – CBS, Dec 10 2025
Washington — The U.S. has seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, officials said Wednesday, escalating tensions between the two countries. President Trump said he assumes the U.S. will keep the oil.
Bloomberg first reported the oil tanker seizure. Mr. Trump announced the seizure during a roundtable meeting at the White House, saying the tanker was “seized for a very good reason.”
…
The M/V Talara had been boarded by Iranian forces on November 15 because there was reason to believe that it was carrying Iranian oil that had been illegally smuggled out of the country. On November 19, after the oil on board had been tested, the vessel, its crew and its cargo were released.
The U.S. move, with the intent to keep the oil the tanker Skipper is carrying, is in contrast just blatant piracy.
U.S. Requires Social Strip-Search On Entry
During the 1990s and up to the year 2001 I had visited the United States more than a dozen times. I had touched down and traveled through 22 of its 50 states. About half of that traveling was part of my job, the other half was vacationing and visiting friends.
After the 9/11 attacks the U.S. shut down. Coming in by air plane required to take part in some ridiculous security theater. The previously already annoying waiting in line and questioning by custom and immigration officials got worse. Travelers were no longer welcome. I canceled my already planned future visits.
It now gets worse:
U.S. plans to ask visitors to disclose 5 years of social media history (archived) – WaPo
The United States could begin requiring visitors from countries on the visa waiver program to provide up to five years of their social media history, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection proposal posted to the Federal Register to be officially published Wednesday.
There are dozens of countries on the visa waiver program list, including many European nations, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, Brunei, Singapore, Qatar, Israel and Chile.
The proposal suggests adding social media as a “mandatory data element” for an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) application.
Applicants would also have to provide additional information “when feasible,” according to the proposal. The list includes telephone numbers used in the last five years, email addresses used in the last 10 years, IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos, and biometrics, including facial, fingerprint, DNA and iris data.
It would also require applicants to provide information about their family members, including names, telephone numbers, dates of birth, places of birth and residences.
A visitor will also have to use a U.S. government supplied app and pay some US$ 40 for the privilege. European visitors will have to break their countries data protection laws to provide family member data.
The most egregious request though is for social media data. The proposal says:
Cont. reading: U.S. Requires Social Strip-Search On Entry
Zelenski Defies Trump, Rejects Peace Deal
Trump’s ceasefire or peace initiative for the war in Ukraine is in tatters after the acting president of Ukraine Vladimir Zelenski rejected (archived) one of its core points:
Ukraine will not surrender territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared Monday, rejecting a central Russian demand that President Donald Trump had incorporated into his latest proposal to end the Kremlin’s war.
“Under our laws, under international law — and under moral law — we have no right to give anything away,” Zelensky said, after meeting with top European leaders to discuss Trump’s plan Monday. “That is what we are fighting for.”
Zelenski would not reject Trump’s plan without the support from European leaders. Indeed, as Blooomberg reported two days ago, Starmer (24% approval rating), Merz (22%) and Macron (10%) had set out to sabotage it:
The continent’s primary objective is to avoid a situation where a battered Zelenskiy is forced by the US to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s Donbas region and agree to a deal without any serious American security guarantees.
We have noted long ago that the only real security guarantee a sovereign Ukraine can get is from Russia:
But any such guarantee will of course come with conditions attached to it. Either Ukraine will accept those or it will never be secure from outer interference.
That is simply a fact of life Ukraine has had to, and will have to live with.
Trump’s recent National Security Strategy set out the end of the conflict in Ukraine as one of its aims. The U.S. is thus likely to press further on Kyiv.
There are several ways to do that. The U.S. could threaten to end all intelligence support for the Ukrainian military. It is still delivering constant detailed analyses from satellite pictures and other sources that only the U.S. can provide. This allows Ukraine to know where Russian forces are moving. Blocking such data would be immediately felt on the battlefield.
Another possibility is for the U.S. to tell the NABU anti-corruption investigators, which it controls, to open a case against Zelenski. After recently removing Zelenski’s advisor Andrei Yermak simply by searching his office NABU has been remarkably silent. Yermak has not even been served with an official suspicion. He might be offered a deal to become a witness against Zelenski.
Another alternative is for Trump to simply walk away from the issue for another six months or so. By then the already catastrophic electricity situation in Ukrainian cities (2×4 hours per day max) as well as on the battlefield will have worsened sufficiently to make a land-for-peace deal even more attractive than it is today.
Russia’s Economy Is Still ‘Bleeding Out’?
> Russia’s economy is bleeding out. And despite western worries about the Kremlin propaganda offensive in Africa and Asia, it is largely isolated internationally. <
Source: Vladimir Putin’s ship of fools is sinking fast. Will he take everyone down with him? – Simon Tisdall / Guardian, Sep 24, 2022
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> Putin’s economic ruination of Russia, though still a work in progress, is matched by plummeting geopolitical influence. <
Source: Putin should have accepted Trump’s deal. Now Russia’s collapsing economy could lead to his downfall – Simon Tisdall / Guardian, Dec 7, 2025
Meanwhile Russia’s GDP continues to rise.
h/t: Brian McDonald
Palestine Open Thread 2025-283
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Ukraine Open Thread 2025-282
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The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-281
Last week’s posts on Moon of Alabama:
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Other issues:
Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-281
Ukraine – Roadblocks To A Peace Agreement
The new U.S. National Security Strategy says with regards to Ukraine:
It is a core interest of the United States to negotiate an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, in order to stabilize European economies, prevent unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability with Russia, as well as to enable the post-hostilities reconstruction of Ukraine to enable its survival as a viable state.
The U.S. is pressing forward with that mission. With the help of the Ukrainian anti-corruption vertical (the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor Office (SAPO) and the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) – all created by the U.S. after the 2014 Maidan coup) it has removed Andreij Yermak from his position as the head of the president’s office.
The next step is to press the acting President Vladimir Zelensky to agree to a peace agreement with Moscow. This will require him to give up land that the Ukrainian army is still holding.
If Zelenski proves to be unwilling to do so the anti-corruption vertical will open a case against him and remove him from his office.
A piece on Ukrainian corruption in today’s NY Times can be seen as an urgent warning:
Zelensky’s Government Sabotaged Oversight, Allowing Corruption to Fester (archived)
Ukrainian leaders blame independent advisers for failing to prevent graft. A Times investigation found that President Volodymyr Zelensky’s own administration removed guardrails.
To protect their money, the United States and European nations insisted on oversight. They required Ukraine to allow groups of outside experts, known as supervisory boards, to monitor spending, appoint executives and prevent corruption.
Over the past four years, a New York Times investigation found, the Ukrainian government systematically sabotaged that oversight, allowing graft to flourish.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration has stacked boards with loyalists, left seats empty or stalled them from being set up at all. Leaders in Kyiv even rewrote company charters to limit oversight, keeping the government in control and allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to be spent without outsiders poking around.
Supervisory boards serve an essential oversight function, allowing independent experts, typically from other countries, to scrutinize major decisions inside Ukrainian state-owned companies.
Isn’t it funny that the NY Times has known this ‘for the past four years’ and was only now ready to reveal it? It is quite obvious that something has switched.
Cont. reading: Ukraine – Roadblocks To A Peace Agreement
New U.S. National Security Strategy – Fortify America, Compete China, Strangle Europe, Forget The Rest
The White House has released the new National Security Strategy of the United States (NSS) (pdf, 33 pages).
It is quite different from the last one released in 2022 under the Biden administration.
The new NSS marks the end of the rather infamous Wolfowitz doctrine:
The “Wolfowitz Doctrine” is an unofficial name given to the initial version of the Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994–1999 fiscal years (dated February 18, 1992). As the first post-Cold War DPG, it asserted that the United States had become the world’s sole remaining superpower following the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, and declared that its principal objective was to preserve that status.
The memorandum, drafted under the direction of Under Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, generated considerable controversy and was subsequently revised in response to public criticism.
In contrast to the Wolfowitz doctrine the introduction to the new NSS asserts:
After the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy elites convinced themselves that permanent American domination of the entire world was in the best interests of our country. Yet the affairs of other countries are our concern only if their activities directly threaten our interests.
The NSS is based on different consideration:
The questions before us now are: 1) What should the United States want? 2) What are our available means to get it? and 3) How can we connect ends and means into a viable National Security Strategy?
It next lays out principals, priorities and global regions.
The most remarkable point in the new NSS is, in my view, the acceptance of China as a (near) equal competitor.
As Twitter commentator summarized the paper:
- “Trump Corollary” to Monroe Doctrine is now the core pillar.
- China downgraded from existential threat to economic competitor.
- Taiwan deterrence = “ideal” but conditional on allies paying up.
- Indo-Pacific secondary, Western Hemisphere + homeland first.
- No more democracy crusades, no value imposition abroad.
- Tariffs quietly admitted as failure, focus shifts to multilateral pressure.
- Biggest shift since 1945: from global cop to fortified hemisphere power.
- Allies will be asked to foot the bill while US rebuilds at home.
- Fortress America is back.
Cont. reading: New U.S. National Security Strategy – Fortify America, Compete China, Strangle Europe, Forget The Rest
The Knives Are Out For Hegseth
The knives are out for the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The leaks from the Pentagon about him will continue until Hegseth is gone.
The officers do not want a boss who is giving illegal orders while scapegoating the generals and soldiers who follow them:
At the White House on Monday, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, read a statement that said Mr. Hegseth had authorized the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack, Adm. Frank M. Bradley, “to conduct these kinetic strikes.”
She said that Admiral Bradley had “worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.”
Bradly gets pushed forward to take the beating while Hegseth and Trump claim innocence:
Bradley will have the chance to address outstanding issues about the strikes when he speaks with lawmakers Thursday behind closed doors. Some lawmakers have said the Trump administration appears to be making Bradley into something of a scapegoat.
“Looks like they’re throwing him under the bus,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), often a critic of the administration, “but these kinds of decisions go all the way to the top.”
Adm. Bradley had the poor choice of following an illegal order or getting fired.
In my recent piece abut U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean I suggested that the head of Southern Command, Adm. Alvin Holsey, was made to retire because he rejected orders to kill survivors of U.S attacks:
On the very same day those survivors were rescued, October 16, the DoD announced that the head of its Southern Command was ‘stepping down’: ..
…
It now seems clear that Admiral Holsey got fired for not following Hegseth’s illegal order and for ordering the rescue of the survivors of the strike.
A piece in today’s Wall Street Journal confirms this impression:
Cont. reading: The Knives Are Out For Hegseth
Palestine Open Thread 2025-280
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Ukraine Open Thread 2025-279
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NATO Thinks Of ‘Pre-emptive Strikes’ Against Russia To ‘Defend’ Against Something That Did Not Happen
As it is becoming obvious that Ukraine is losing in the proxy war against Russia, the ideas European governments are are throwing around are getting more crazy.
Some are now eager to ‘pre-emptively’ attack Russia in ‘retaliation’ for alleged ‘hybrid attacks’ against European countries. Those ‘hybrid attacks’ are mostly pure fantasies.
Politico was first to report this nonsense:
Europe thinks the unthinkable: Retaliating against Russia – Politico, Nov 27 2025
Countries are looking at joint offensive cyber operations and surprise military drills as Moscow steps up its campaign to destabilize NATO allies.
Russia’s drones and agents are unleashing attacks across NATO countries and Europe is now doing what would have seemed outlandish just a few years ago: planning how to hit back.
Ideas range from joint offensive cyber operations against Russia, and faster and more coordinated attribution of hybrid attacks by quickly pointing the finger at Moscow, to surprise NATO-led military exercises, according to two senior European government officials and three EU diplomats.
“The Russians are constantly testing the limits — what is the response, how far can we go?” Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže noted in an interview. A more “proactive response is needed,” she told POLITICO. “And it’s not talking that sends a signal — it’s doing.”
What are the ‘hybrid attacks’ in question?
Russian drones have buzzed Poland and Romania in recent weeks and months, while mysterious drones have caused havoc at airports and military bases across the continent. Other incidents include GPS jamming, incursions by fighter aircraft and naval vessels, and an explosion on a key Polish rail link ferrying military aid to Ukraine.
The idea to ‘pre-empivly’ attack Russia comes from an Italian defense paper:
Last week, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto slammed the continent’s “inertia” in the face of growing hybrid attacks and unveiled a 125-page plan to retaliate. In it, he suggested establishing a European Center for Countering Hybrid Warfare, a 1,500-strong cyber force, as well as military personnel specialized in artificial intelligence.
To me that looks like someone is seeking additional NATO payments. Three days later a Italian NATO general furthered the idea:
Cont. reading: NATO Thinks Of ‘Pre-emptive Strikes’ Against Russia To ‘Defend’ Against Something That Did Not Happen
Soldiers Have ‘Duty To Refuse’ Hegseth’s Order To Commit War Crimes
My post on Trump’s war on Venezuela two days ago mentioned a Washington Post report (archived) about a war crime directly ordered by U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth:
The longer the U.S. surveillance aircraft followed the boat, the more confident intelligence analysts watching from command centers became that the 11 people on board were ferrying drugs.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. “The order was to kill everybody,” one of them said.
A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck.
The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack — the opening salvo in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.
The Intercept had previously reported (archived) the second strike the U.S. military had launched against survivors:
People on board the boat off the coast of Venezuela that the U.S. military destroyed last Tuesday were said to have survived an initial strike, according to two American officials familiar with the matter. They were then killed shortly after in a follow-up attack.
…
Last week, a high-ranking Pentagon official who spoke to the Intercept on the condition of anonymity said that the strike in the Caribbean was a criminal attack on civilians and said that the Trump administration paved the way for it by firing the top legal authorities of the Army and the Air Force earlier this year.
“The U.S. is now directly targeting civilians. Drug traffickers may be criminals but they aren’t combatants,” the War Department official said. “When Trump fired the military’s top lawyers the rest saw the writing on the wall, and instead of being a critical firebreak they are now a rubber stamp complicit in this crime.”
The high-ranking Pentagon official is correct in that the strikes against boats in international waters are criminal attacks on civilians.
But the killing of survivors of such strikes is more than that. It is undoubtedly a war crime.
Hegseth’s order to kill survivors was clearly illegal. It was the duty of the soldiers in the line of command to reject the order. That they have not done so but followed the order is in itself a war crime.
How do we know this?
Because the Department of Defense’s LAW OF WAR MANUAL (LOWM) (pdf) says so:
Cont. reading: Soldiers Have ‘Duty To Refuse’ Hegseth’s Order To Commit War Crimes
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