Tag: Russia

They’re Not Independent

Clown World’s propaganda organs in Ukraine and Russia are going under because the USAID money pipeline has been cut off:

The suspension of USAID has had a dramatic effect on both Ukrainian and Russian independent news outlets that relied on the grants to operate and produced work often critical of their governments.
The program that provides billions in U.S. assistance internationally is better known for its humanitarian and medical work, but the funding has also been used for democracy promotion as well as supporting journalism.

Ukraine’s independent media, a collection of small regional outlets, muckraking investigative websites and internet news platforms, have been reeling since the announcement, with some organizations saying that they are just weeks away from slashing staff or closing down entirely.

“We risk losing the achievements of three decades of work and increasing threats to Ukraine’s statehood, democratic values, and pro-Western orientation,” Detector Media, a journalism watchdog, said in a statement on its website last week.

In the immortal words of Chuck D from Public Enemy:

Shut ’em down. Shut ’em down. Shut ’em, shut ’em down.

Shut ’em down. Shut ’em down. Shut ’em, shut ’em down.

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They Smoked it Out

Curses! Those cunning Ukrainian disinformation agents have smoked out the plot!

Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation has accused the viral pop song ‘Sigma Boy’ of being part of an “information war” aimed at promoting a positive image of Russia among young people.

Sigma Boy, performed by 11-year-old Betsy (Svetlana Chertishcheva) and 12-year-old Maria Yankovskaya, has gained attention on TikTok and other platforms since its release in October 2024. The track has reached the top ten on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, peaking at seventh place, and has accumulated millions of views.

Ukraine’s disinformation watchdog, which operates under the National Security and Defense Council, has claimed that Moscow could have manipulated the song’s popularity, drawing comparisons to alleged Kremlin interference in the 2016 US elections. The agency has argued that Sigma Boy “erodes critical perceptions of Russian content” and helps normalize the nation’s cultural influence abroad.

“Sigma, sigma boy, sigma boy, sigma boy
Every girl wants to dance with you
Sigma, sigma boy, sigma boy, sigma boy
I’m so special, it will take you a year to win me.”

I’m pretty sure that under ASCAP’s rules I qualify for a writer’s credit on that one. I mean, I wrote nearly one-quarter of the lyrics.

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Ukraine Peace Proposal

Simplicius dutifully reports what appears more like a Ukrainian fever dream than the leaked US peace plan that it is purported to be:

▪️Trump plans to have a telephone conversation with Putin in late January – early February. He also wants to discuss the situation in Ukraine with its authorities.

▪️Based on the results of the negotiations, a decision may be made to continue or suspend the dialogue.

▪️Volodymyr Zelensky must cancel the decree that prohibits negotiations with Putin.

▪️A meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelensky may take place in February or the first half of March. It is not yet clear whether this will be a trilateral meeting or two separate ones. The meeting is planned to discuss the main parameters of the peace plan.

▪️Starting April 20, a ceasefire is planned to be declared along the entire front line, and all Ukrainian troops will be withdrawn from the Kursk region.

▪️An international peace conference is set to begin at the end of April to formalize an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict. The United States, China, and a number of countries in Europe and the Global South will act as mediators.

▪️Also at this time, the exchange of prisoners will begin according to the formula “all for all”.

▪️By May 9, a declaration of the conference on the end of the conflict should be published. Martial law and mobilization will not be extended in Ukraine, and presidential elections will be held at the end of August.

➖ What is included in the agreement?

▪️Ukraine does not seek to return the territories that were liberated by Russia, either militarily or diplomatically, but at the same time does not officially recognize Russia’s sovereignty over these territories.

▪️Ukraine will not become a member of NATO and declares its neutrality. The decision that Ukraine will not be accepted into the alliance must be confirmed at the NATO summit.

▪️Ukraine will become a member of the European Union by 2030. The EU is committed to rebuilding the country after the war.

▪️The number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is not decreasing, and the United States is modernizing the Ukrainian army.

▪️After the conclusion of the peace agreement, some anti-Russian sanctions will be lifted, and restrictions on the import of Russian energy resources to the EU will be lifted.

▪️Parties that defend the Russian language and advocate peaceful relations with Russia should participate in the elections in Ukraine. The persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church will also cease.

▪️Separate consultations will be held on the issue of EU peacekeepers.

Very little of this makes any sense. NATO holds no significant cards. Russia can accomplish everything that is being offered to it here without the need to agree with either Washington or Kiev. As a starting point to signal a willingness to negotiate a surrender, it’s just barely plausible, but it’s not even remotely close to what Russia would expect to achieve through negotiations.

As Simplicius himself observers: In short: the deal above is a non-starter should it actually appear in even a remotely similar form; it is the mere deluded fantasy of the West to even think Russia needs to stop fighting any time soon, at a time when major Ukrainian strongholds are folding like cheap lawn chairs on a daily basis.

Some of the missing elements:

  • Demilitarization of Ukraine
  • Odessa
  • The withdrawal of NATO from all countries bordering Russia, especially Finland and the Baltics.
  • Compensatory payments for sanctions and seizures.
  • Future non-interference in Ukrainian and Eastern European elections by US, EU, and Western NGOs.

At the rate that Ukraine is losing territory and soldiers, there soon isn’t going to be any point to negotiations. No amount of bluster by President Trump or anyone else is going to change the facts on the ground.

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The Russians Knew

Vladimir Putin admits that the Russians knew the 2020 election was stolen and none of the six Joe Bidens were ever elected President of the United States:

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said the 2020 US presidential election was “stolen” from Donald Trump, and that had the outcome been declared fairly, the Ukraine conflict might have been avoided.

“I cannot disagree with him that if he had been president, if his victory hadn’t been stolen in 2020, perhaps the crisis in Ukraine that arose in 2022 wouldn’t have happened,” Putin has said in an interview published by Russia 1 TV journalist Pavel Zarubin on Telegram on Friday…

Trump has never admitted that he lost the 2020 election, despite courts failing to find evidence of widespread voter fraud. He has consistently alleged the 2020 election was blighted by irregularities, and that he lost despite winning 10 million more votes than Biden.

I’ve never admitted it either, because he didn’t. My early estimates were as accurate in 2020 as they were in 2016 and 2024, the only thing they couldn’t account for was millions, perhaps even tens of millions, of fake votes. I have never, ever believed, not for one second, that Joe Biden got more votes in Minnesota than Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama. The election fraud was clear, blatant, obvious, and statistically undeniable, and the fact that the media not only wasn’t all over it, but actively denied it is one reason that I no longer read any US “newspapers” or watch any US “news” channels.

It’s counterintuitive, but you will actually develop a better sense for what is going on in the world, and in the USA, if you completely ignore what passes for the mainstream news and the conservative news alike. What they report is the Narrative, not the news.

I’m not surprised that the Russians knew exactly what was going on. I assume the Chinese and the Israelis did too. The certain knowledge that the “rules-based world order” of “the Western democracies” was resting on a completely false foundation that was neither rules-based nor democratic was probably what proved the decisive factor in deciding to begin openly opposing it because it meant Clown World had lost the rhetorical high ground.

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The Decisive Front of WWIII

Nick Giambruno explains why he believes neither Ukraine nor Taiwan, but Iran, will be the decisive front in the world war that began in 2022.

I believe proxy warfare will likely determine who wins World War 3 and gets to shape the new world order. Proxy wars are a method by which major powers fight their battles indirectly, using smaller nations or groups as stand-ins rather than confronting each other directly. Major powers support, equip, and finance smaller groups or nations in a proxy war to fight against a common adversary. This support can include military training, weapons, funding, and other resources. The critical point is that the major powers do not engage directly in combat.

There are numerous ongoing proxy wars in World War 3.

However, the ones I believe will prove decisive will be in Taiwan, Ukraine, and the Middle East. The other proxy wars are peripheral in comparison. Unlike in Europe (Russia) or East Asia (China), there is no sophisticated nuclear power to deter NATO & Friends from more aggressive military action in the Middle East. Iran is, therefore, the weak link in the BRICS+ alliance to push for a multipolar world order. That’s why I expect NATO & Friends will make their last stand to scuttle the emergence of a multipolar world order and preserve the US-led world order in the Middle East…

Turkey and, by extension, NATO & Friends were popping champagne over Assad’s ouster. But the celebration may end soon as they realize they have bit off more than they can chew.

Turkey, the US, and Israel will be responsible for the chaos that comes out of Syria, which is likely to balkanize with unpredictable results.

In any case, I have little doubt that NATO & Friends will try to use growing Turkish influence as a way to reshape the geopolitical landscape in the Middle East in their favor as the arbitrary lines (imposed by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of a century ago) that define most modern Middle East nation states collapse.

In other words, NATO & Friends want an incipient Neo-Ottoman Empire to be the dominant power in the Middle East. BRICS+ wants Iran to be the dominant regional power. Nobody knows who will prevail in the Middle East and, by extension, WW3. The situation is fluid, volatile, and uncertain.

There is an excellent chance that NATO & Friends will lose in Ukraine and Taiwan. I think that means they will not be able to stop the emergence of a multipolar world order unless they subdue the Middle East. And they can’t do that unless they overthrow the government in Iran.

The fall of Assad is indeed a setback for BRICS+, but not a decisive defeat. If NATO & Friends want a decisive victory in the Middle East, they will need to take out the government in Iran. That’s why I think Iran will be the decisive battlefield of WW3.

It’s not an unreasonable analysis, but I’m not as confident that the Turks, with their desire for a neo-Ottoman empire, as as firmly allied with NATO & Friends as the anti-Syrian alliance made it appear. Turkey has, after all, applied to join BRICS+ and not necessarily as a trojan horse. I suspect that they will align with whichever side appears to be winning, and if both Ukraine and Taiwan are resolved before the Middle East – which one would assume will be the case – then there is a very good chance that Erdogan, or his successor, will take the opportunity to join the winning side and help put the final nail in the rules-based neoliberal world order.

I also think Japan and Korea will prove to be significant players, as I expect the Japanese to ultimately side with the Chinese in an attempt to escape their ongoing occupation by the US military. But the truth is that no one knows, no matter how persuasively they support their predictions.

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Russia Will Abandon SWIFT

Now that they know they don’t need it, there is no reason for Russia to continue to utilize the erstwhile global payment system:

The SWIFT system should be abandoned to avoid information leaks, VTB CEO Andrey Kostin said in an interview that journalist Pavel Zarubin published on his Telegram channel. “SWIFT should be simply killed, in a good sense of the word, abandoned and no longer used. This is a direct leak of information to our enemies and the main thing is that it is so easy to solve — it is a purely administrative decision, an agreement between the two parties and a few technological solutions, that’s all,” Kostin said.

Several years ago, SWIFT was the main system for processing payments — almost all banking transactions in the world went through it. But in 2014, when Western countries first threatened to disconnect Russia from the system, large countries began to create alternatives. The Financial Message Transfer System (SPFS) appeared in Russia.

It’s now only a matter of time before BRICSIA+ announces its own payment processing system, and eventually, currency. This will be a very positive thing for most people, given the way that the current payment processors play thought police and abuse their privileged positions. But it’s going to have a very negative effect on a lot of Western financial institutions.

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Germany Gives Up

Germany has stopped funding Ukraine. Which means every other European state will follow suit, especially when Trump takes office and the US gravy train stops.

Germany has officially stopped funding Ukraine.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has REFUSED to approve a further €3 billion in military aid for Ukraine.

It’s over.

The smartest thing European leaders can do now is drop all sanctions on Russia, return all the frozen funds to Russia, apologize to Vladimir Putin, and beg him to start the gas flowing to Western Europe again. It’s not smart to deny that you’ve lost an argument, a fight, or a war, because it’s an objectively obvious fact that everyone can observe.

The Allies demanded unconditional surrender from Germany. The Russians would be in their rights to do the same, but simply granting them their original demands will probably suffice. The sooner Clown World accepts that and does so, the better it will be for everyone.

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Denmark Turns to Russia

The fake Trump’s bizarre rantings about acquiring Greenland has sufficiently scared the Danes to the point that some of their politicians want to seek Russian assistance in defending their territory.

The Danish parliament is discussing the possibility of asking Russia for help in the event of aggressive actions by the United States towards Greenland. MP from the Socialist People’s Party Karsten Henge expressed confidence in the need for such measures. “In a situation of extreme escalation and tension, we need to take extreme measures and ask Russia for help to solve this problem. I am sure that our request will be heard, because Russia will not allow Greenland to become part of the United States. It is as disadvantageous for Russia as it is for us,” MK.RU reports him as saying. However, Henge did not specify how Russia could protect Greenland from American influence.

All of this talk of North American Union with Canada and Mexico, and acquiring Greenland by finance or by force, is nothing more than Clown World theater. First, I don’t think the short Trump at Mar-al-Lago is the real Donald Trump, he’s the body double being used by Clown World to try to negotiate a deal with the forces behind the real Trump. Second, all of the talk about merging with Canada and Mexico is part of the same NAU-NAFTA madness that was pushed hard by the Bush-Clinton regime before the neocons took control and shifted the US focus toward establishing Greater Israel. It’s a longstanding Clown World project, so either a) Donald Trump has completely betrayed both America and his base or b) the Trump who is advocating it is not the real Donald Trump.

The fact that the media keeps quoting the fake Trump’s absurdities and does so in mostly favorable terms is the best indication, other than the obvious height issue, that he isn’t the real Donald Trump. The whole point of noticing anomalies is that there should not be any anomalies. Nor is the fake Trump alone; in addition to the six Bidens, the “Hillary Clinton” who received a medal from one of the Bidens quite obviously wasn’t the real Hillary; she was too young, too healthy, and insufficiently overweight to be the real individual.

I understand that it’s very hard to accept that everything that is presented to you by the mainstream Narrative is false, but you have to learn to trust the evidence of your eyes. Don’t take my word for it, just take a close look for yourself and pay attention to the details. If every single detail is not correct, then you can be certain that things are not what they are publicly reported to be.

As for what’s actually going on with regards to Greenland, Occam’s Razor suggests that Clown World is trying to establish a bargaining chip that it can trade Putin in order to convince him to accept a deal where Russia establishes a new border that leaves Odessa with Ukraine. It’s not going to work, but it is an original and creative effort to substitute for the fact that Clown World has nothing else to trade because the Kursk invasion failed and Russia has already taken most of what it wanted in the first place.

And if Andrei Martynov is any guide, the Russians will not lift a finger to defend the Danes or anyone else in Europe.

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Big Serge’s 2024 Ukraine Summary

Big Serge is one of the Internet’s best military historians. Here, in one of his characteristically long and detailed analyses, he provides his 2024 summary of the Ukraine conflict and explains how Ukraine is effectively debellized.

2024 actually saw several very important developments which make the coming shape of the war relatively clear. To briefly recapitulate:

  • Russian forces caved in Ukrainian defenses at depth across an entire critical axis of front. After remaining static for years, Ukraine’s position in Southern Donetsk has been obliterated, with Russian forces advancing through an entire belt of fortified positions, pushing the front into Pokrovsk and Kostayantinivka.
  • The main Ukrainian gambit on the ground (the incursion into Kursk) failed spectacularly, with the salient being progressively caved in. An entire grouping of critical mechanized formations wasted much of the year fighting on this unproductive and secondary front, leaving Ukrainian positions in the Donbas increasingly threadbare and bereft of reserves.
  • An attempt by the Ukrainian government to reinvigorate its mobilization program failed, with enlistments quickly trailing off. Decisions to expand the force structure exacerbated the shortage of manpower, and as a result the decay of Ukraine’s frontline brigades has accelerated.
  • Long awaited western upgrades to Ukraine’s strike capabilities failed to defeat Russian momentum, and stocks of ATACMs and Storm Shadows are nearly exhausted. There are now few options remaining to prop up Ukrainian strike capacity, and no prospect of Ukraine gaining dominance in this dimension of the war.

In short, Ukraine is on the path to debellation – defeat through the total exhaustion of its capacity to resist. They are not exactly out of men and vehicles and missiles, but these lines are all pointing downward. A strategic Ukrainian defeat – once unthinkable to the western foreign policy apparatus and commentariat – is now on the table. Quite interestingly, now that Donald Trump is about to return to the White House, it is suddenly acceptable to speak of Ukrainian defeat. Robert Kagan – a stalwart champion of Ukraine if there ever was one – now says the quiet part out loud:

Ukraine will likely lose the war within the next 12 to 18 months. Ukraine will not lose in a nice, negotiated way, with vital territories sacrificed but an independent Ukraine kept alive, sovereign, and protected by Western security guarantees. It faces instead a complete defeat, a loss of sovereignty, and full Russian control.

Indeed.

None of this should be particularly surprising. If anything, it is shocking that my position – that Russia is essentially a very powerful country that was very unlikely to lose a war (which it perceives as existential) right in its own belly – somehow became controversial or fringe. But here we are.

I couldn’t agree more. The position of Clown World, led by the architects of its strategery like Robert Kagan, was always insane, incoherent, and ill-informed. It’s worth noting that the very champions of the ill-advised proxy war, including Kagan, are now offering their advice to Trump on how to best handle what they call “negotiations with Putin” but are actually a very thin veil for the inevitable surrender.

Russia has not only defeated the Ukrainian forces, it has comprehensively defeated the EU and the USA in military, diplomatic, strategic, and economic terms. This isn’t the “pro-Russian” position, it is the objective position, and with the exception of the economic context, it was always and completely obvious from the start. The problem is that even now, the would-be negotiators completely fail to understand Russia, its leadership, it’s people, and its objectives.

They would do well to stop posturing and pontificating, and instead, read War and Peace.

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Russia’s Presidential Q&A 2024

The difference between the intelligence displayed by the leaders of the sovereign nations and the degenerate leaders of Clown World is underlined given the comparison between the Russian President and the literally senile President of the United States in the former’s annual question-and-answer session.

Alexandra Suvorova: You have cited Germany and Japan as examples. I wish to focus on Germany having a zero percent growth rate, which you mentioned as a case previously known for its economic expansion. Do you believe this is perhaps linked to politics and sovereignty? Not long ago, at the VTB Forum Russia Calling!, you reminisced about Gerhard Schroeder’s birthday celebration, remarking how all the songs were in English, with none performed in German.

Vladimir Putin: There were. It’s an interesting episode. Quite some time ago, it was Gerhard Schroeder’s birthday, he invited me and I attended. There was a small concert, and, as it happened, all the companies performed in English. I remarked at the time, “Even the Hannover girls’ choir sang in English.”

There was, however, one ensemble that performed in German: the Kuban Cossack Choir, which accompanied me. Moreover, this was entirely unexpected on my part. I inquired, “How did you come to know these songs?” They replied, “Out of respect for the Germans, our hosts, we learnt these songs en route and performed them in German, including those from the local region where we are now.” During the intermission, numerous attendees approached me (I recount this as it truly unfolded) and expressed, “We are embarrassed, truly, that only Russian Cossacks performed in German here.”

I recounted this to a colleague who was present at the event, which has now been recalled. You see, sovereignty is a crucial concept; it must reside within, in one’s heart. In the post-war era, I believe this sense – of homeland and sovereignty – has been somewhat eroded among the German people.

Who are the Europeans, after all? They are proud to be European, yet they are foremost French, German, Italian, Spanish, and then European. There is a tendency to smooth out things, to homogenise. Ultimately, this affects everything, including the economy.

I previously spoke about our economic growth – this is largely attributable to the reinforcement of sovereignty, which extends to the economic realm. Many foreign manufacturers have exited our market. What has been the consequence? Our entrepreneurs have started producing these goods domestically, necessitating further research and the engagement of institutions, including those focused on development. All of this – what we are discussing – is the enhancement of technological sovereignty.

Sovereignty manifests itself in various forms: defence, technology, science, education, culture. This is of paramount importance, especially for our nation, because should we lose sovereignty, we risk losing statehood. That is the crux.

Economic growth is also an effect of bolstered sovereignty.

Free trade, as Ian Fletcher and I have proven – not demonstrated, proven – is a lie. Comparative advantage as advertised doesn’t exist as it clearly doesn’t benefit both parties. The economic and political entwinement of nations being beneficial to those nations is also a lie, as it is nothing more than imperialism accruing to the benefit of the ruling imperial elite at the expense of those nations. Neither the occupied European nations nor the imperial USA are the good guys in this conflict. To the contrary, their elites represent, not the future to which they aspire, but the very worst aspects of humanity.

“I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. No Viet Cong ever called me nigger. I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over.”
– Muhammad Ali

Neither Americans nor Europeans have any quarrel with the Russians. It’s their white slave masters who do, and who are destroying their nations and countless Ukrainian lives, in a futile attempt to salvage their wicked empire that never ended.

UPDATE: Speaking of the contrast between the two presidents, blown cover as cover:

The terrifying scandal is that Biden was NEVER president.

Apparently the truth is going to come out sooner than we expected. But this isn’t an admission about Donald Trump winning the 2020 presidential election, which he did, but about Joe Biden’s incapacity from the start of his fake term. And they’re even hinting at the use of the six Bidens.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, as recently as March, called this sham of a president ‘intellectually, analytically… the best Biden ever.’

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