Arms Control Agreements: Washington not interested

 

The Importance of Addressing the Militarization of Space, Submarines, and Threat of Biological Weapons

By Ariel Ky

According to Vladimir Kozin’s report # 72 of 5/29/2022, A TRIPLE JUBILEE: WHY TO REMEMBER?, in the current situation the United States has made it difficult for Russia to negotiate agreements on arms control. He mentions the START-III Treaty, which is still in effect until 2026. It provides for keeping in balance the strategic nuclear missiles of each party to 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads and 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBMs and SLBMs, as well as their heavy strategic bombers.

Kozin summarizes the Agreement on “prevention of incidents on and over high seas prohibited dangerous rapprochement of naval and air vessels of the USSR and the USA while moving in the World Oceans or in the international airspace. Thus, it legally enshrined the then mutual interest of Moscow and Washington to ensure the safety of naval and air vessels in international waters beyond the outer limits of the parties' territorial waters or in the airspace above them.”

He adds that it’s unfortunate that the United States has been unwilling to discuss an agreement on the operation of submarines under the seas, as there have been a number of collisions between Russian and U.S. submarines.

Kozin decries the fact that the Pentagon is nevertheless developing the American global "antimissile shield" by increasing the total stock of interceptor missiles, mainly sea-based, and by improving their guidance accuracy, increasing flight speed and fitting them with individual guided reentry vehicles.

However, he considers that “Russia now has effective means to overcome the global U.S. missile defense system from practically any direction. These capabilities will level out the U.S. ballistic and cruise missile interception infrastructure, despite the enormous sums of money that the USA has allocated to creating a multi-layered ground, sea and space-based missile defense system.”

In a nutshell, Kozin sums up Russia’s dilemma when it comes to negotiating arms control with the United States:

“In the current situation Russia has to be very cautious about addressing the multifaceted problem of arms control, given that Washington is ready, as it has demonstrated more than once, at any time to withdraw from any agreement that it does not like for whatever reason.” He refers in particular to the ABM Treaty, which was “unilaterally and initially denounced by the American side in 2002.” The Russians considered the ABM Treaty as the cornerstone of arms control agreements.

To put it bluntly, how does Russia know if the United States will honor any agreements?

Kozin addresses the shifting geopolitics that Russia must navigate with the war in Ukraine. “Unfortunately, today, when the U.S. ruling circles have set their sights on the destruction of Russia, and statements about the admissibility of nuclear war are appearing in Washington, there is no point in even talking about any new agreement in the arms control system.”

Kozin warns about the arms race happening in the world today. “Many countries have begun developing the latest types of weapons, including those in the "conventional" category, which are capable of delivering warheads to targets at hypersonic speeds while traveling at low altitudes, making them difficult to detect.” This is leading to the militarization of space.

He also mentions the threat of the creation and proliferation of biological weapons, which is growing. In his opinion, an extremely dangerous scenario is developing, fraught with the most unpredictable consequences for humanity.

Kozin then zeroes in on the war in Ukraine. “Earlier this year, the authorities in Kiev, who started talking about nuclear weapons, their drive to the accession to NATO, and their readiness to regain Crimea by military means, added fuel to the fire. The Ukrainian conflict needs to be resolved, based on the complete denazification and demilitarization of this country.”

He insists that the West should stop all military assistance to the Kiev regime and force it to sit down at the negotiating table, and that NATO countries should constructively consider last December's proposals from Moscow on mutual security guarantees.

“Only then will Moscow be able to talk about restoring trust and normalizing the situation, which will allow us to begin the process of negotiating further arms control, a crucial factor in strengthening international security and strategic stability.

Any practical success along this bumpy road, without exaggeration, will bring the well-being and survival of the entire humanity. For the benefits of all.”

To read the report referred to go here

~ Ariel Ky is an American activist living in Mexico 

The Neo-con job

 

 

 

I am so over

the neo-cons,

chief architects

of the con-job.

 

They've made a 

killing 

running their capers.

 

Call them globalists,

Anglo-Zionists,

call them fascists

or oligarchs. 

Mobsters.

 

Call them banksters in London,

or Wall Street and

retired generals 

at Lockheed Martin.

 

They are collectively,

integrated,

united,

arrogantly standing

as Mr. Big. 

 

Now even performing

on Broadway, 

or found in  

a recent edition of

The Atlantic,

Die Zeit, Le Monde,

The Guardian, 

La Repubblica,

The Jerusalem Post,

Kenyan Daily Post

or Chosun Ilbo.

 

 

 

 

It's nearly all the same story.

Piracy,

shrouded

in deception

and muscle,

the mobster kind.

Guns a-blazen.

 

The neo-cons

often get lumped into 

the Republican party.

But the neo-cons work with

both corrupt parties,

they control 

much of everything

across the west

and beyond.

 

These oligarchs

at times have 

competing interests,

though when 

push-comes-to-shove,

the neo-cons

stick together,

as we watch in fear

their endless war 

on Russia and China,

and the global south.

 

It's a hustle,

a canard,

a ruse,

a con-job.

 

And we

are the suckers. 

 

Go stand

on a corner

and complain,

make some noise. 

Arouse the sleeping,

disturb the 

supposed tranquility.

Bruce 

Kiev's war on the Donbass - a trap set for Russia

 

 

Even though Russia and DPR forces are pushing the Nazi-led Ukraine army further away from the city of Donetsk the shelling of civilians continues.

The reason is the US-NATO have long provided the Kiev military with stand-off weapons they can use to attack Donetsk. This war on the Russian-ethnic populations has always been about genocide of the Ukrainian people who live close to the Russian border.

The US-NATO knew that at some point Moscow had to make a decision to protect the people in the Donbass. The western trap was set long ago.

Elon Musk's satellites for the war in Ukraine

 

By Manlio Dinucci (CNGNN – Associazione per un Mondo senza Guerre, Italy)

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world whose wealth nearly doubled in the two pandemic years, offered $44 billion to buy Twitter, which he says would become "the platform for free speech across the country world". Elon Musk owns SpaceX, an aerospace company based in California.

SpaceX makes rockets and satellites to build Starlink, a broadband Internet system that once is completed will cover the entire world. SpaceX has so far put 2,500 satellites into orbit with rockets carrying 50 satellites at a time and plans to place 42,000 Starlink satellites in low orbit occupying 80% of this space.

 

Starlink was presented as a commercial satellite system but has fundamental military applications. In fact, satellites in low orbit transmit signals at a much higher speed than those in geosynchronous orbit around the equator. The US Army and Air Force fund and test Starlink to use its military capabilities. For example, last March, the US Air Force reported that conventional and nuclear dual-capacity F-35A fighters had carried out data transmission using Starlink satellites at speed 30 times faster than traditional connections.

SpaceX's Starlink satellites are already being used by the Ukrainian military to guide drones, artillery shells, and missiles into Russian positions. This is confirmed by General James Dickinson, head of the US Space Command, who declared to the Senate that "Elon Musk's Starlink demonstrates in Ukraine what the mega-constellations of satellites can do". 

Elon Musk's SpaceX is part of the group of ten largest commercial satellite operators collaborating with US Space Command at the Vandenberg military Space Force base in California.

Kiev's army told civilians 'we'll leave nothing but ashes'

 

 

Residents of Popasna (eastern Ukraine) told Izvestia correspondent Alexei Poltoranin how the nationalists shot at houses with civilians and kept them in the basements, not letting them out of the city. 

Ukrainian fighters placed firing positions right in the yards, using residential buildings as a shield.

Sanctions – wrecking ball in a global economy

By Sara Flounders 

U.S. government strategists are using sanctions as a wrecking ball to demolish the globalized economy. It is a desperate struggle to preserve their global hegemony and a unipolar world. The policy of consciously demolishing supply chains of essential products amounts to a reckless war on defenseless civilian populations. Sanctions disrupt trade worldwide and send shockwaves far beyond the countries directly targeted. This is well understood by financial planners.

“Food shortages — it’s going to be real,” President Joe Biden said in Brussels March 25 at a NATO press conference, an ominous warning reported around the world. “The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia. It’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well.”

For the first time this intentional disruption is rebounding against the countries imposing the sanctions. Wider sanctions are creating unprecedented inflation — the highest in 40 years — supply chain chaos and sharply higher costs of energy for industries, transport and homes.

Washington is demanding that countries act against their own economic interests and enforce sanctions passed as U.S. legislation, in which they had no voice or prior notice.

In response to the extensive sanctions on Russia, many countries have opened new forms of currency exchanges to carry out trade. This has in turn led to an erosion of dollar supremacy, a bedrock of U.S. economic hegemony.

The U.S. and EU sanctions are creating famines throughout Africa. Sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) are threatened against India and are already imposed on Turkey, a NATO member, for their continuing trade with Russia.

~ Read the rest of this article here

Food prices spur protests

 

 

People from across the globe are taking to the streets in protest against rising food prices and inflation.

Sunday song

 

 

Always good daily updates

 

 

Pirate World, Greece & Iran. Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. G7 oligarch shakedown.

Alex hails from Athens, Greece.

A caveat: If Poland intervenes into Ukraine militarily, Russia will not sit idle

 

 

By Vladimir Kozin

It is not ‘highly likely’. It is a reality.

Poland is actively looking for a way to "correctly" annex Western Ukraine so that it would not have to pay off Ukrainian debts or not receive a serious military response from Russia. The Poles believe that they are returning the original Polish territories: the Lvov, Ivano-Frankovsk, and Vinnytsa Regions, inherited by Ukraine after World War II. The German territories, which were surrendered to Poland by the same agreement, and by the same logic should be returned to the FRG. 

Warsaw is taking specific steps to achieve its intended goal in several directions at once. Poland is among the leaders in providing support to Ukraine, being the largest logistics hub for Western military assistance to Kyiv and sending into Ukraine ‘soldiers of fortune. At the same time, Warsaw is increasing defense spending and is firmly in favor of strengthening the transatlantic link. Several times high-ranking Polish officials –   active and former – insisted to acquire the U.S. nuclear weapons, the idea being enthusiastically supported by the U.S. Ambassador to Warsaw. The same frantic idea was publicly articulated by Zelensky at the 2022 Munich Security Conference 

The loudest calls to impose anti-Russian sanctions come also from Poland. In confirmation of its commitment to its position, Poland terminated the gas supply agreement with Gazprom ahead of schedule, and pretended that it does not need Russian natural gas at all. The Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported that Poland cannot find an alternative to Russian gas, and will receive it in reversed way from Germany, which will lead to a sharp increase in prices for this fuel in the Polish economy. But, it is its choice, rather than Russian intention.

 

The Polish Foreign Ministry declared …

The Polish MFA declared that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine poses a clear threat to the existence of the latter as an independent state. Realizing that the sooner the negotiation process moves from the deadlock, the better chances Kiev has to preserve its sovereignty, Poles do not stop calling on to the Ukrainian authorities not to hammer out any compromise with Russia under any circumstances.

The efforts of Polish diplomats have already prompted the Ukrainian president Zelensky to announce a bill that equate the rights Poles with Ukrainians in Ukraine, giving them the same rights, except for the right to vote in the Ukrainian nation-wide elections, that it is not enough for Warsaw to take control of the territories of Western Ukraine. Kiev has also permitted Polish citizens to occupy top official positions in Ukraine, and fill in the local power structures with its appointees, and to get full clearance for getting a highly sensitive classified Ukrainian state information. 

To this end, activities are actively carried out to introduce Polish advisers and specialists in all spheres of the Ukrainian governmental administrative, economic, financial and military structures. It is noteworthy that the menus of Western Ukrainian restaurants are already being prepared in Ukrainian and Polish languages. But this measure produces no harm compared with other vast administrative and many other rights generously offered by inadequate Zelensky to Warsaw. Obviously, with just one aim: to save inevitably crumbling Ukrainian leaders from a disaster and total irreparable military defeat. Economic and financial disaster in Ukraine has already voluntarily achieved.
Can Ukraine loose its independence?    

What will be the result of such ‘brotherhood’ type steps made by Kiev?  To transform Ukraine into what?  Into a new Polish protectorate or a colony of Poland?  By pursuing a policy of “soft and hard power”, Poland is working out a specially camouflaged scenario. The Poles are pushing NATO to send a peace-keeping contingents to Ukraine, equipped with heavy weapons – unlike normal peace-keepers sanctioned by the UN Security Council.

The USA and many transatlantic Alliance’s member states have already sent too many ‘advisers’ and “instructors” with the aim to kill Ukrainians and Russians in Ukraine by deadly weapons.  Deliberately, with commitment. The Russian and Ukrainian citizens will remember such barbaric acts for ever.

It will be a new occupation of Ukraine. Now by Poland. The last one took place for several years during its German Nazi occupation in 1941-1944.

Poland is going to do the same under the guise of the alleged peacekeeping mission ‘for maintaining security’. Despite the refusal received, Warsaw continues to insist on the need for the participation of its military contingent in the “defense” of Ukraine from “Russian aggression” though the third aggression versus Donbass was launched not by Russia, but by Kiev from 2014 till 2022. It has to be reminded of Ukrainian military shelling of civilians in Donbass for nearly eight successive years, when 14,000 civilians have been killed and 34,000 wounded by the in-discriminatory fire prohibited by the Minsk Accords of 2014-2015. Under the guise of conducting exercises, the Polish Armed Forces are forming task force groups near the borders with Ukraine and Belarus, and are staffing logistic support units to a full-fledged wartime status.

The direct annexation of Western Ukrainian territories and their incorporation into the Polish Republic is unlikely to be approved by the European community. 

Russian response

First, It will be strongly condemned by the Russian Federation. Based on this, the Polish ‘swallowing Ukraine’ scenario creates a new third formidable security threat to Europe – the first one: moving the U.S. tactical nuclear weapons from 1953 and the U.S. missile defense systems from 2011 as a forward-based capabilities on the European continent, and the second one: after Kiev deployed nearly 60,000 troops’ near Donbass with intention ‘to contravene’ completely it in mid-February-beginning of March 2022. 

 

US has built an 'Aegis Ashore' missile launch facility in Poland that can fire first-strike attack nuclear capable cruise missiles into Russia in just a matter of minutes. If Poland grabs part of Ukraine will US-NATO build military bases and missile launch sites even closer to Russian borders? A Cuban missile crisis in reverse.

Parrying opponents' questions about the scale of Russia's response, the Poles proceed from the fact that the country has the status of a NATO member and the "main ally" of the USA in the ‘Eastern front’ in the Eastern Europe. However, all Polish scenarios for the division and disintegration of Ukraine will pose a threat to the Russian Federation, which will subsequently be neutralized because of internationalization of the conflict created by NATO and implemented in the form of a Ukrainian proxy war. 

The successful implementation of the peaceful takeover of the Western Ukrainian regions can go in further claims to all the territories in the Eastern Europe that will affect the interests of Russia's main ally in the Collective Security Treaty Organization, namely, Belarus. Obviously, Poland's irrelevant actions are not aimed at the speedy settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but at the realization of its territorial claims, even by involving Europe into a direct military confrontation with Russia.
No doubt: the participation of the Polish military contingent in hostilities on the side of Ukraine on the Ukrainian soil will inevitably lead to Russian retaliatory military strikes.

~ Dr. Vladimir Kozin is a Member, Russian Academy of Military Sciences; Member, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and Vice President, Russian National Institute for Global Security Research 

Congress sends $40 BILLION to who?

 

What was happening in Ukraine even before the war with Russia began? 

This video (above) gives the viewer a better understanding of the long-time deadly conflict. 

Was the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol really loaded with Nazis? See their tats (below)

Are the so-called leaders from the US-EU complete and utter fools? 

You be the judge....

 

Ukraine on the verge of debt collapse

 

By Lucas Leiroz

In recent months, many Western countries have offered financial assistance to Kiev, with billions of dollars and euros being sent to assist in the purchase of weapons and military equipment to be used against Russian forces. For the Western media, such aid is a “humanitarian effort”, and for Ukrainian propaganda it is an “example of cooperation between Ukraine and the West”. But none of this is real. It is just simple business. Kiev is taking loans it will have to pay back in the future. And, certainly, payment will only be possible at the expense of a major inflationary crisis.

One of the largest global risk analysis agencies, Moody’s Corporation, recently issued a report in which it downgraded Ukraine’s credit score from Caa2 to Caa3, which corresponds to “poor” or “high risk”. At the same time, the agency’s perspective on the credit situation in Ukraine changed from “under review” to “negative”, with expectations of significant deterioration in the short term.

Among the justifications for such classification, the agency emphasized the widespread debt situation that the country is currently in. Loans recently taken by Kiev from Western countries as a result of the military conflict have now reached a highly worrying level, which precludes the existence of any optimistic expectation of rapid economic and social recovery. The company predicts that Kiev’s debt will jump from 49% of the national GDP – last year’s rate – to 90% in 2022, forming an absolutely catastrophic scenario in the coming months.

 

In fact, Western loans are acting as an important form of aid in the immediate purchase of military material, which allows Ukraine to continue fighting for an extended period of time, despite the zero chances of victory. The problem, however, is that the constant taking of loans is creating an unsustainable debt for the Ukrainian economy, which will result in default.

This scenario aggravates a series of previous factors that were already harming the country’s economy. Ukraine was already in debt for almost half of its GDP before Moscow launched the special operation. Now, with the general costs of the current conflict, there are already estimates by the World Bank in economic losses around 45% of the country’s GDP. Furthermore, with the current situation, the Ukrainian government has lost a considerable part of its tax revenue. Adding all this to the current loans, there really does not seem to be any good expectations in the economic area in Ukraine, regardless of the outcome of the military conflict.

Recently, the G7 announced a new aid program for Ukraine, which includes several billion-dollar packages sent by each of its members. The public objective of the measure, this time, is to “save” the Ukrainian economy, not just to encourage militarization. However, the practice of offering loans is maintained on a large scale. Donations to Kiev, although existing, are few and of low value – as, for example, the recently announced German donation of one billion euros. In general, loans remain the norm, both for immediate aid and for long-term macroeconomic recovery planning. Obviously, the propaganda effect of this is immense, both for Zelensky and his allies. But the seriousness of the real situation cannot be ignored by analysts: Ukraine will not have enough money to pay for all this.

If Russia ended its special operation today, the result would be a Ukraine militarily defeated, politically disorganized and economically indebted, dependent on constant Western aid – which would result in new debts, in an endless cycle. The best way to handle the situation is through a formal surrender on the part of Zelensky, accepting the peace conditions demanded by Moscow, and initiating negotiations for the restructuring of the country. With a neutral and demilitarized Ukraine, there would be possibilities for cooperation with both Russia and the West for economic reconstruction. But, apparently, this is not the desire of the Ukrainian president and his team.

The most likely scenario is that Russia will be forced at some point to increase the intensity of the operation to achieve its objectives of neutralization, demilitarization, and sovereignty for Donbass, which will make Kiev leave the conflict in a much more disadvantageous situation and much more economically dependent on the West. Post-special operation Ukraine will only be able to pay off its debt in the long term, after successive re-negotiations, and through a large tax rise and inflationary crisis, with the final consumer being punished for the mistakes made by the Kiev Junta.

In the same way that the UK only paid off its debts to the US for reconstruction after WWII in the 2000s, Kiev will face long times of debt in the coming decades. And this may be even worse if this “aid” – which only benefits Western creditors themselves – is not cut now. 

~ Lucas Leiroz is a researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and geopolitical consultant

More insurrection by Kiev's troops

 

 

The militants of the battalion of the Cherkasy Territorial Defense refuse to fight and recorded a video message: 

1. On May 22, we were sent to the front line to carry out a combat mission; 

2. Heavy weapons were not provided; 

3. We refused to carry out the task; 

4. Our weapons and protective equipment were taken from us; 

5. We are threatened with arrest and prosecution; 

6. We have two "dead" and a large number of "wounded"; 

7. There is no qualified medical care and funding; 

8. We don't want to be cannon fodder.

These troops are Ukraine's territorial battalions (Volksturm or home guard) composed of guys in their forties and fifties. In Kiev's desperate losing move they've sent these men to the front lines in Donbass. They were never intended to be front line soldiers but to be in their home oblasts for rear area duties. 

So this troop revolt indicates the last gasps of the US puppet regime in Kiev. They have essentially lost this war. But Washington and Brussels won't allow them to talk peace with Russia.

Washington wants Kiev to fight til the last Ukrainian is dead. All to 'overextend and unbalance' Russia as was called for in the 2019 Rand Corp. report. 

 

Captured Ukrainian soldier urges his comrades-in-arms to lay down their arms and said that the Nazi's are catching Ukrainian soldiers who refuse to continue fighting and taking them to an unknown destination. Likely killing them.

Garden love

 

I planted more veggies yesterday in my plot at the Brunswick community garden. My peas (previously planted) are just beginning to pop up along my wobbly trellis.

In addition I've planted kale, spinach, carrots and collard greens. 

Next to go in will be eggplant, tomatoes, peppers and onions. I think they will all fit in nicely.

Volunteering to come out of the ground is a Milkweed plant that attracts endangered Monarch butterflies. Everyone who has a plot at the garden is urged to allow the Milkweed to grow. I've got one already emerging in a corner spot.

Getting water at the gardens is facilitated by a solar-powered device that pumps the water into large tubs in various spots across the garden. All I need to do is fill up a water can and take it to my plot.

 

I'm kind of surprised that quite a few of the available plots at the garden so far are not being prepared for the growing season. Hopefully that will change in the next few weeks.

I ride my bike to the plot and all needed tools are available in a shed on the grounds. Bike riding is one of my lifetime joys and gardening has become another super-wonderful experience for me. I love getting my hands in the dirt and watching things grow. 

In my line of work seeing real change either takes a very long time or rarely happens. Maybe that is why I love gardening so much - I can actually see clear results fairly quickly and can then eat them!

I'm so happy to have this bit of ground to play with.

Bruce  

RFK Jr. podcast interview with Bruce Gagnon on Ukraine

 

 

 
How can we afford another war - and with a nuclear power?

 
 
Thanks goes to Catholic Worker activist Kathy Boylan in Washington DC for suggesting that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. interview Bruce Gagnon about Ukraine.
 
The recent interview carried on a detailed and interesting discussion covering many of the key aspects of the current tragic war.
 
Around the same time as the interview was done, the US House of Representatives voted to send another $40 billion to Ukraine (Biden had only requested $33 billion). This comes at a time when the Congress has repeatedly told the American people that there is no money for Medicare4All, no money for Student Loan Debt forgiveness, money has been taken out of the climate change budget to send to the war zone, and infrastructure across the US continues to deteriorate at alarming rates.
 
Gagnon reviewed the many diplomatic attempts by Russia since at least 2007 to get the US-Europe to stop NATO expansion and regular war games up to its borders.
 
At the time of the collapse of the former Soviet Union, then US Secretary of State James Baker promised Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand 'one inch' eastward toward Russia. This was in return for Gorbachev agreeing to the reunification of the divided Germany. Since that time NATO expansion has been on full-steam ahead.
 
In addition, Gagnon reminded that the US has built missile launch facilities in Romania and Poland that can fire first-strike nuclear-capable Tomahawk cruise missiles that could reach Russia in a very short time. A Cuban missile crisis in reverse. What if China or Russia were building similar missile launch bases in Canada or Mexico? The US would go ballistic!
 
NATO (in order to justify its existence and to funnel more taxpayer funds into the military industrial complex) is now going global as it recruits 'partners' like Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and others to help encircle China. NATO is an offensive war machine and a grave danger to world peace.
 
Listen to the podcast interview here

Shrink wrapping $40 BILLION

 

Why?

 

$40 BILLION     

pissed down

the rat hole,

forever gone

to the MIC and

other selected crooks

with their greedy hands out,

lined up by the 

shrink-wrapped

pallets,

loaded with America's

past and future.

 

While back home

folks can't afford

medical care,

rising rents,

food prices,

heat for their homes,

and growing potholes

in roads 

that lead to 

worn-out bridges.

 

But the Dems

have a plan,

what ever it might be?

It certainly ain't for us.

 

What happened to

the 'squad'

which was going to DC

to shake things up

for the folks back home?

Been there,

done that....

 

It's an

Empire of lies.

 

Deception comes at us 

from all directions,

from both parties,

from Madison Ave,

Hollywood,

and Mr. Big's 

media whores.

All ignoring the real issues

as things heat up.

 

But don't complain,

you might be called

a 'Putin-ista'.

 

Better to surrender

to serfdom,

endless war,

and the dark arm.

 

Bruce 

Kiev's troops angry at their commanders

 

 

We are servicemen of the 79th Brigade, 2nd and 3rd battalions. We are located in the village of Yampol. 

Our commanders led us into the forest to dig in, we had a couple of shovels for a lot of people… we were trashed – we didn’t even have time to attach a bayonet.

Root cause of Ukraine conflict named by ex-German SPD leader

 

 

By New Cold War

A veteran top German politician has said the West’s refusal to listen to Moscow’s concerns is one of the main causes of the current conflict in Ukraine. Oskar Lafontaine, who from 1995 until 1999 served as chair of the Social Democrats (SPD), accused the West of ignoring Russia’s security interests for years.

In an interview with left-wing newspaper Junge Welt published on May 21, Lafontaine argued that “for a long time, we have been in a situation where Russia and China have been militarily encircled by the US.” The former SPD leader said Moscow had made it clear to NATO for 20 years that Ukraine should not become part of the military alliance – a scenario, which, according to Lafontaine, would mean US missiles deployed on the Ukraine-Russia border.

“These security interests were consistently ignored,” the politician said. And this was “one of the key reasons for the outbreak of the Ukraine war.”

Speaking of Ukraine’s NATO aspirations, the former SPD chair dismissed the argument that every country is free to decide what alliance to join.

“Everyone knows that the US would never accept Cuba’s accession to a military alliance with Russia, nor the deployment of Russian missiles on the US border with Mexico or Canada,” Lafontaine argued.

According to the German politician, Russia’s key concern in Ukraine is not NATO accession per se, but the prospect of missiles appearing on the border with minimal warning time.

Lafontaine broke down the Ukraine crisis into three key phases: firstly, NATO’s relentless eastern expansion, despite warnings from within the US that the strategy risked a conflict with Russia; secondly, President Putin’s “decision to invade Ukraine”; and thirdly, Joe Biden’s “war of attrition.”

The politician said America’s $40 billion dollar aid package for Ukraine, consisting mostly of weapons, is further “proof that the US does not want peace.”

“They want to weaken their rival Russia and say so quite openly,” he added.

Lafontaine, however, clarified that he condemns the war, “just like I condemn without any qualification all other wars that violate international law.”

 

The politician argued that further arms to Ukraine will prolong the war, meaning “yet more people will die.” He accused politicians in the West of thinking purely in the categories of ‘victory’ and ‘defeat,’ while ignoring the “most important” aspect, which is saving people’s lives.

According to Lafontaine, “those, who do not want more people to die, must be against any prolongation of the war, and consequently also against any weapons delivery.”

He criticized the argument that by providing military support to Kiev, the West is helping Ukraine defend itself, questioning why no one called for supporting “countries attacked by the US with deliveries of German weapons” in the past.

Speaking of Russia sanctions, Lafontaine claimed that they “are increasingly hurting people here at home – especially those with lower incomes, who can no longer pay their energy bills.”

    We are shooting ourselves in the knee. The US is probably laughing at us, because they are hardly affected by the sanctions, they can sell their liquefied natural gas in Europe in bigger quantities and their defense industry is getting a lot of business.

The former SPD chair believes the current German leadership is in no position to work in the country’s own best interest, being nothing more than a “loyal vassal of the US.”

Lafontaine noted that the Green Party, which is part of the ruling coalition, has firmly entrenched itself in the role of the “extended arm of the US in the Bundestag” since the Yugoslav war. The party “supports every US decision when it comes to wars,” the politician said, adding that the Greens only pay attention to human rights violations when those happen in Russia or China.

The party’s current stance illustrates a radical transformation from a pacifist political force it once was. The Social Democratic Party, which the current Chancellor Olaf Scholz is a member of, too, has changed dramatically, according to its former chair, drifting away from its principles of peace, disarmament and social improvements.

Lafontaine reserved special criticism for the German press, which “is blind to the US war crimes” while offering a platform for warmongers.

The veteran German politician said that many in Germany feared that the “war will spread,” calling on the public to take to the streets in keeping with the tradition of the “peace movement of the 1980’s.”

Finland gambles with its gas supply

 

  Finland's gas future depends on Russian supplies to Latvia 

By Dmitry Sikorsky 

The refusal of the Finns to use Russian energy resources will come back to bite them, Alexey Grivach, deputy director of the National Energy Security Fund, said in a conversation with the FBA "Economics Today", adding that there is nothing economic in this story. [There is less and less REAL economy in the West, which is substituting financial tricks for the real economy, with central banks simply printing currency to cover debts. The system is fraying around the edges.]

Finland was left without Russian gas

Finnish gas distributor Gasum announced the termination of Russian gas supplies by May 21, 2022. The reason for the situation was Helsinki's refusal to pay for raw materials under the ruble conversion scheme through Gazprombank.

Gasum claims it is ready for such a development of events, and is betting on Balticconnector, a gas pipeline laid along the bottom of the Gulf of Finland from Estonia to Finland, but the rhetoric of the Finnish side is doubtful.

Firstly, the Finns do not have LNG terminals today, so Helsinki cannot buy LNG on the free market, and secondly, the situation is the same in neighboring Estonia, whose economy was powered by Russian gas until February 2022.

Helsinki announced the purchase of a floating LNG terminal from the United States (one of the beneficiaries of this decision), but it is not known when it will be connected to the network. [But besides that, LNG is not a viable substitute for pipelined gas when large amounts are required, because it costs about 40% more than the latter. This makes the decision against Russian gas extremely costly and threatens whole industries while causing immense inflation in households that heat with gas.]

Theoretically, it is possible to link the Finnish energy sector with LNG terminals in Lithuanian Klaipeda and Polish Świnoujście, but this scheme is unprofitable. Pulling gas from there is very expensive, especially without long-term contracts for the supply of LNG. [Actually all sanctions on Russia will prove prohibitively expensive for Europe.]

With the rejection of Russian gas, oil and electricity and the hasty entry into NATO, the Finns are working at a loss. The political elites in Finland are trying to reorient the country towards the United States, despite the enormous losses. [This is based on the gravely erroneous belief that the US is a source of economic and military security. The events in Ukraine are absolute proof that the US has nothing at all to offer to the world except lies and false hopes. The lend-lease, for example, is a hopeless debt trap from which there is no escape. The Ukrainian economy has been shattered by the war. Ironically only Russia offers the stability that Ukraine needs.]

“Finland's gas actions are politically motivated. All this time, anti-Russian hysteria was fueled in Helsinki against the backdrop of the government’s decision to apply for NATO membership,” concludes Grivach.

With the entry into the Alliance, the Finns will have an adventure: the Turks have set a price for agreeing to the NATO application of the Scandinavian countries.

The case may turn into another "small NATO", when the security of Finland and Sweden will be guaranteed directly by the United States. It is obvious that the Finns have worsened their situation economically and geopolitically, turning themselves into a borderland.

“The Finnish authorities are telling the population that it was Russia that stopped the supply of electricity and gas. This is stated in order to justify their choice towards NATO. The Finns accuse us of being tough, but in practice they are breaking off relations,” Grivach sums up.

Helsinki unilaterally refused to cooperate with the Russian energy sector, stopping payments for gas and electricity. "Inter RAO" was forced to stop the supply of power generation after overdue payments by Finland.

“It is the same with gas as it is with electricity. At the same time, the Finns are solving their commercial problems: in 2021, they reduced the intake of raw materials in Russia and refused to pay the difference on the “take or pay” principle,” Grivach states.

The violation of contractual obligations by Finland occurred after the commissioning of the Balticconnector. Today, the Finns cover up those contractual violations that they previously allowed themselves by refusing to pay in rubles.

“Through Balticconnector, it is possible to supply LNG from the Klaipeda terminal and Russian gas that continues to flow to Latvia, but if Riga stops gas cooperation with Russia, then there will be no raw materials,” concludes Grivach.

The LNG terminal in Klaipeda (in Lithuania) will not be enough for Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The situation will become catastrophic if the Latvians refuse Russian gas, and Estonia does not complete its small LNG project by winter.

Japanese protest US-Quad military alliance

 

 

Hundreds of people rallied at Tokyo's Shiba Park on May 22 to protest Joe Biden's three-day visit to Japan, as international tensions are running high over the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

Biden arrived in Japan on Sunday and is set to attend a summit on May 24 where he will meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to promote the "Quad" mechanism. 

The Quad, officially the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, was initiated in 2007 by then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and supported by then leaders of the US, India and Australia. 

"I oppose Biden's visit to Japan. I think it will bring about a new crisis to Asia. I think the US-Japan alliance aims to dominate Asia by military operations. Now the alliance is planning to gradually involve Japan and its Self-Defense Force in wars," said Ryusuke Motoyama, a member of the Bureau of Affairs of the Executive Commission for Preventing Constitutional Amendment for War.  

Reviewing latest developments on Ukraine

 

 

Regis Tremblay:

Bruce Gagnon discusses the danger of Sweden and Finland joining NATO; the $40 BILLION gift to Ukraine is almost as large as Russia's entire military budget of about $60B. 

And, we compared the US economy to the Russian economy: a "Tale of Two Countries."

Jeju April 3 US-directed massacre museum

 

Jeju Island, South Korea (April 3) museum that records the horrific massacres directed by the US following the defeat of the Japanese in WW II.

After the war the US took control of Korea and installed former Koreans who collaborated with the hated Japanese occupiers as 'security forces'. It soon became clear that the US did not intend to allow real 'democracy' in Korea.

As a result protests occurred all over Korea - including on Jeju Island. The US responded with brutal crackdowns and killings that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on Jeju.

For years it was illegal to speak of the Jeju massacres - but only in recent years has the story surfaced and the memorial museum was built on Jeju to reveal the truth to the world.

Anti-NATO rally at U.S. airbase in Turkey

 

 

Hundreds of people gathered near Incirlik Air Base in the southern Turkish province of Adana last week to voice their opposition to the military presence of the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

While Turkey claims it is their base (while true in a sense) it is the US-NATO that ultimately control the operation there.

The US has had between 50-100 airplane launched tactical nuclear weapons at Incirlik for years. 

The US-NATO also have the same nukes stationed at bases in Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy.

U.S. continues economic war on Cuba

 

 

May Day in Cuba attracts visitors from around the world, including many working-class people from the United States who stand in solidarity with Cubans and denounce the U.S. economic war against the island.

Sunday song

 

Inside a Nazi run prison near Lugansk

 

 

From March 2014 to March 2022, Aidar took over and militarized a sausage factory near the village of Polovinkina, north and slightly west of Lugansk. They turned part of it into a prison for LPR civilians and military, near-starving them, torturing them, and killing some. It is unknown how many were held there over the years, many didn't return to their families. If dead, their bodies have not yet been found. 

Based on what I heard at that former prison, and the testimonies published before and since its March 2022 liberation, Aidar were indeed very much guilty of war crimes. 

Although Ukrainian forces and secret services have committed the same heinous torture and executions as the Nazi battalions, it is important to emphasize the Nazi presence and crimes, given the wave of “I stand with Ukraine” virtue signalling which has overtaken the woke world since late February. 

To be clear, those who make that statement are, naively or otherwise, standing with active Nazis who proudly declare their hate-filled ideologies and proudly imprison, rape, torture and execute civilians.

One soldier's story....

 

There is a mass surrender of Ukrainian soldiers in the LNR against the backdrop of the surrender of the Azov militants from Azovstal: “We want to live,” says a serviceman of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. 

Facing 8 years for leaving his position [from the US puppet regime in Kiev] to survive at any cost, the POW of the 1st battalion of the 79th Ukrainian Brigade nonetheless chose to preserve his life.

Scott Ritter on US Withdrawal from Disarmament Treaties w/ Russia

 

 

Our guest this time is Scott Ritter, former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer. He also served with the United Nations implementing arms control treaties.

We thank GN board member Will Griffin for doing all the tech work to make this show happen.

These are the questions that I placed before Scott.
 

• Soon after the 2003 US initiated ‘shock and awe’ in Iraq I was watching C-SPAN one evening. The speaker at a big event, loaded with Pentagon & CIA brass, was then Naval War College professor Thomas Barnett. He spoke about his new book called ‘The Pentagon’s New Map’. During his talk Barnett said the US would not ‘do treaties’ anymore. In recent years we’ve seen the US withdraw from the ABM and INF treaties. Why is the US moving away from ‘Arms control’ – particularly with Russia and China?

• The ABM Treaty was a 1972 arms control treaty between the US and the former Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems used in defending against ballistic missile-delivered nuclear weapons. Talk a bit about the treaty and why George W. Bush pulled the US out of it.

• The INF Treaty was an arms control treaty between the US and the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the treaty in 1987. The treaty in part was created due to huge international protests against US and Soviet nuclear missile deployments in Europe during the early 1980’s. Talk about the treaty and what happened to it.
  

•  Today the US has built two missile launch facilities called ‘Aegis Ashore’ in Romania and Poland that can fire so-called ‘missile defense’ systems (the shield after a Pentagon first-strike attack) or nuclear-capable cruise missiles. Isn’t this a Cuban missile crisis in reverse for Russia? 

Bruce

Feeding the people after liberation

 

 

Пища жизни Донецк (Food for Life Donetsk)

I don't know alot about this organization but have been watching many of their videos.

Early on as Mariupol was liberated by Russian and DPR forces these folks came into the city to feed the people who could for once safely come out of their basements where they had been hiding.

Their website says:

During the 5 years of its activity, the volunteers 'Food for Life. Donetsk' were able to cook more than 1,760,618 servings of hot meals.

The military actions are continuing for more than five years in Donbass. During these years of war, the social infrastructure and economy of Donetsk region has been destroyed. People of different social status and age found themselves in a dire life situation.

The duty of a civilized cultural society is to join forces and help all those in trouble. This is the hallmark of a human being – to show compassion for another one’s misfortune!  

771 more surrender at steelworks in Mariupol

On May 16, the surrender of the militants of the Azov nationalist grouping and Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen plus a number of foreign mercenaries blocked at the basement of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol began. Presumably, more than 2,000-2,500 Ukrainian militants were hiding at the enterprise having 27 km corridors before that moment, about 800 of them have been members of the Azov nationalist faction banned in Russia. 

In the past 24 hours, one more group of 771 militants of the Azov nationalist formation have surrendered at the Azovstal plant.

A total of 1,730 militants have surrendered since May 16th by the evening May 19th, including 80 wounded.

All those in need of inpatient treatment are treated in medical facilities in the Donetsk People's Republic in Novoazovsk and Donetsk. 

The Ukrainian military who have come out and laid down their arms have been taken to the pre-trial detention center in the Yelenovka, the Donetsk People's Republic, where investigative actions are being carried out with them.

It is significant to note that on the morning of May 17th, this center was fired at by the AFU [Kiev's US-backed army] from a multiple launch rocket system. The Kiev regime has always treated its citizens in this way. This story was no exception.

 

Inside the Azovstal steelworks where Nazis hide during the Russian liberation of Mariupol. The city had been controlled by the Azov Battalion since just after the US directed coup d'etat in Kiev in 2014.

Russia's firm position is that no Nazi criminal will escape responsibility. Now only the court will determine the involvement of each surrendered person in the commission of war crimes and will impose a fair punishment on the guilty. Only servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who have not stained themselves with criminal activity will be subject to subsequent exchange. The State Duma of the Russian Federation is already considering an initiative to legislate a ban on the exchange of military and Nazi criminals.

The actions of the Russian side are consistent and logical. On the contrary, the Kiev authorities and the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who have repeatedly stated the impossibility of unblocking Mariupol by military means, stubbornly delayed the beginning of the inevitable surrender.

Neo-Nazis from Azov began large-scale child recruitment activities back in 2015, organizing the so-called Youth Corps camps on the initiative of the leader of the National Corps, A. Biletsky. In 2015, children from 9 to 18 years old were admitted to them, and since 2016, from 7 to 18 years old.

According to eyewitnesses, neo-Nazis from "Azov" did not limit themselves to "children's camps" and expanded their grouping at the expense of underage orphans. Confirmation of this is the situation with the Pilgrim orphanage in Mariupol. For all 8 years since 2014, the "Azovites" have been working closely with the pupils of this orphanage, teaching them military affairs, including sniper shooting. According to media reports, in 2014, children from "Pilgrim" helped the APU to dig trenches near Mariupol, and in October of the same year to build roadblocks. According to residents of Mariupol, during the events of February-April 2022 the Children's Rehabilitation Center "Republic Pilgrim" was the headquarters of the territorial defense, where militants from "Azov" and other radical groups were based. There is video evidence that teenagers from the "Pilgrim" participated in hostilities on the side of neo-Nazis, and also set fire to the homes of civilians.

~ Dr. Vladimir Kozin is a Member, Russian Academy of Military Sciences; Member, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and Vice President, Russian National Institute for Global Security Research.

Hard to laugh at Bush's slip of tongue

 

 

 In a speech at his presidential center in Texas, former President George W. Bush accidentally switched "Ukraine" with "Iraq" in a line meant to criticize Vladimir Putin's "wholly unjustified and brutal invasion."

Time to put an end to US hypocrisy

 

 

 
By Xin Ping (China Daily)

As the US and its allies imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia, a new economic and cultural Iron Curtain is descending on the European continent. While the unilateral sanctions continue to hurt Europe and the world at large, the US has launched a new campaign to isolate Russia in international organizations.

On April 7, the United Nations General Assembly voted to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council, after the US accused Russian troops of torturing and killing Ukrainian civilians in the town of Bucha. The US also tried to put pressure on Indonesia, which holds the G20 Presidency this year, to kick Russia out of G20 forum of major economies of the world. To the disappointment of the US, however, Indonesia insisted on inviting President Putin to the G20 Summit. But for the US and its Western allies, there is no shortage of occasions for them to display rudeness and arrogance: having their representatives walk out of the G20 finance ministers' meeting when the Russian delegate began to speak. On the Latin America front, supported by the US, the Organization of American States recently approved suspension of Russia's observer status. The US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman even went so far as to indicate that the US has been "investigating the prospects" of expelling Russia as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Behind the attempts to exclude Russia from all international organizations and turn Russia into the "pariah on the international stage" as President Biden put it, the real purpose of the US is to maintain its hegemony in international affairs. But the hypocrisy is that the country itself is the biggest transgressor of international rules.

Despite its own track record of mass killing and human rights violations, the US constantly criticizes the human rights situation of other countries, a typical act of double standards. From Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan to Libya, Somalia and Syria, the US started 10 wars between 1989 and 2017 and caused 6 million casualties. From the end of World War II in 1945 to 2001, among the 248 armed conflicts that occurred in 153 regions of the world, 201 were initiated by the US. A report from Brown University revealed that the wars launched by the US in the two decades following the 9/11 terrorist attack killed more than 900,000 people. In June 2018, the US pulled out of the Human Rights Council, calling it a "cesspool of political bias" and "hypocritical body" that "makes a mockery of human rights". As it rejoined the council this year, the US not only failed to reflect upon its own human rights record and take concrete steps to improve it, but instead expelled Russia from the body out of political bias and purpose.

 

 

Obsessed with its self-conceived "exceptionalism", the US keeps criticizing others for violating international law while applying international rules selectively or placing its own "house rules" above international law. The US asks others to follow the "rules-based order", but tramples on international rules and withdraws from international organizations at will itself, as evidenced by its unilateral military intervention or wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, as well as its pulling out of UNESCO, JCPOA, and the Paris Agreement. It also puts domestic law above international law, and has exercised long-arm jurisdiction and imposed economic sanctions against Russia, Iran and the DPRK, which seriously damaged the fair and just international trade environment. The US is undoing its own credibility and reputation and undermining international order by bringing the world back to the era of a lawless jungle. Just as Noam Chomsky pointed out, "We're a rogue state, the leading rogue state by a huge dimension—nobody's even close. And yet we can call for war crimes trials of others, without batting an eyelash."

As the conflict in Ukraine continues, negotiation rather than confrontation is the only way out. US unilateral sanctions against Russia are illegal and not authorized by the United Nations. Excluding Russia, a permanent member of UN Security Council and a nuclear power, from international organizations is by no means a constructive move. The spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric once warned that such a move will set "a dangerous precedent." After all, there are already enough lessons from the wishful attempts to provoke confrontation and division and preserve hegemony.

~ Xin Ping is a commentator on international affairs, writing regularly for the Global Times, China Daily, etc.

959 Azov Nazis surrender at Mariupol steelworks

 

 

On Wednesday, the Russian MoD reported that a total of 959 militants, including 80 injured, surrendered to Russian forces over the past three days.

Western corporate media did not use the word 'surrender'. Instead they followed their 'leader' elensky in Ukraine calling it an 'evacuation' of the Azovstal steelworks underground bunkers where the Nazis have been hiding for weeks.

The New York Times reported the following: 

Breaking News: Ukraine ended its “combat mission” in Mariupol and said fighters were being 'evacuated', signaling that the battle at a steel plant was over.

 

This is basically why I largely boycott the western media. They lie all the time.

These soldiers are not being sent to Ukraine, but to the DPR [Donbass] and Russia. All the communication strategies that Kiev can use to try to transform this mismanagement into a pseudo-victory will not change this fact, this reality!

Although Volodymyr elensky has tried to make people believe that those who are now leaving the Azovstal factory will be exchanged, and will therefore be able to return home, this is not the case for many of them. The fighters of the neo-Nazi Azov regiment, and some or all of the soldiers of the 36th brigade of the FAU, will have to answer for their crimes against the civilians of the Donbass, and will therefore be tried, with no possibility of being released at the end of the military operation or exchanged for Russian soldiers. Potential foreigners present in Azovstal [still not surrendering] will not be exchangeable either.

Bruce 

 

Good reporting from the Donbass

 

 

By Eva K Bartlett

Report from Kirovsk, a Lugansk People's Republic city I visited on May 5. It continues to be shelled by Ukrainian forces who were at the time reportedly 15-20 km away. According to local media, it was again shelled a few days ago.

The city's head of administration, Victoria Ivanovna, said its proximity to the line of separation has meant the shelling has been intense, with Ukrainian forces from 2014 targeting infrastructure, including  schools and kindergartens. According to her, for a year and a half, the city was deprived of water, blocked by Ukraine—a war crime.

Andrey Vitalievich Marochko, a Lieutenant Colonel of LPR said that the reason the advance of LPR & Russian forces is not very fast is due to Ukraine's tactics of holding civilians hostage as human shields.

"What makes it difficult to advance is that on the other side, on the occupied side, there are citizens like us, citizens of the Lugansk People's Republic, who were forced to be in occupation for all these eight years. So, we care for their lives, naturally. We request pinpoint strikes on military infrastructure facilities and the accumulation of enemy manpower and equipment.

When planning an offensive, the leaders of the people’s militia of the Lugansk People’s Republic, as well as the military of the Russian Federation, take into account the principle that we shouldn’t leave scorched earth behind us, but liberate the territory. That is why we have  difficulty advancing in all areas of the terrain.

Let’s not forget that the Ukrainian troops are using civilians as human shields. There is a lot of confirmation of the testimonies of people we have already liberated that the Ukrainian troops are literally putting civilians in front of them to prevent our troops from hitting concentrations of their equipment and armaments.

They also hold people as hostages. Just recently, in Popasnaya village we liberated over 20 people whom Ukrainian nationalists locked away in a basement, and the youth who were kept there, they used them as a slave labour, to carry manpads, create some fortifications... They threatened them that unless they take up arms, their relatives would be killed. All of this combined complicates the advancement of our troops." 

~ Eva Bartlett is a Canadian activist, commentator, journalist and blogger who has spent time reporting on the US-NATO war in Syria. While in Syria she helped blow the lid on the fake chemical attacks that the US tried to use to discredit the Syrian government. She's been in the Donbass region the past couple months.