To understand why there has been so much escalating rhetoric about Russia going to invade Ukraine at any moment, you must realize the intent. The motives of the crisis narrative are crystal clear.
Everything about the Russia invasion of Ukraine has to be increasingly imminent, horrible and loomingly catastrophic for the planet, so that when it doesn’t happen the glorious victory for Dear Leader Biden can be proclaimed and amplified from the mountaintops.
Russia has absolutely no plan to invade Ukraine and doesn’t even have a role in this theatrical production from the White House.
The way the game is played; and believe me, everything about this is a game; they must take the manufactured crisis to the brink of thermonuclear war, so that Joe Biden can save the world and be seen as this legendary diplomat.
In the annals of U.S. history there has never been such an important summit. The nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize that Ron Klain wants in this mid-term election year is dependent on magnanimous and strategic Biden overcoming all geopolitical odds to save the world.
Everything is carefully planned and scripted with a ‘this’, then ‘that‘ approach toward sequencing. Earlier today, the Sunday news talk shows were filled with pending invasion rhetoric. Putin was mere moments away from a massive army entering Ukraine.
The smells of heavy diesel loomed in the valleys as the thundering sound of tank tracks approached ever closer. Dark men with black weapons were beating drums and carrying the flag of Mother Russia, as millions were seen marching by U.S. spy satellites in the region. The birds all fled as the sounds of the battle groups began converging on the Ukraine border. “The Russians are coming; The Russians are coming” one lad shouted to the CNN crew as he whizzed by on his bicycle, trying to pedal fast while carrying a bag of sausages for his sullen and sickly grandparents in eastern Ukraine.
CBS David Martin and Margaret Brennan reported {link} the Russian generals were informing their troop commanders of the invasion plans. CNN then broke into the news cycle quoting three sources {link} “saying that the US has intelligence indicating that orders have been sent to Russian commanders to proceed with an attack on Ukraine.” Things looked really bad just before noon…
Everything within the game must be looming on the precipice of crisis in order for it to have maximum impact when it doesn’t happen.
However, it was always never going to happen, because it’s pretended. It’s all a big performance, a ruse, built on a completely manufactured scenario they know will never happen… because the White House is making it up.
After a full day of doomsaying invasion talk, the White House exhausts themselves promoting a National Security Council meeting and then strategically releases the following picture to promote the importance:
Turning all the nameplates to face the cameras was a nice touch by Chief of Staff Ron Klain. However, unfortunately the optics of the narrative engineering was as subtle as a brick through a window. I would suggest that Klain call the publicity dept of the CCP central committee in Beijing for advice on subtlety. The Chinese have years of propaganda experience using similar tactics with North Korea messaging.
I digress…
So, within the script… today, the end of the world is nigh and the White House defenders of the universal spirit of righteousness and morality, convene an emergency meeting to outline their magnanimous plan to save us. At least that was the script through 4:00pm Eastern.
Allowing a few hours for the narrative to simmer, the White House then declares that French President Emmanuel Macron has brokered a meeting between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, putting the brink of the end of the world on hold:
(WHITE HOUSE) – As the President has repeatedly made clear, we are committed to pursuing diplomacy until the moment an invasion begins. Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Lavrov are scheduled to meet later this week in Europe, provided Russia does not proceed with military action.
President Biden accepted in principle a meeting with President Putin following that engagement, again, if an invasion hasn’t happened. We are always ready for diplomacy. We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences should Russia instead choose war. And currently, Russia appears to be continuing preparations for a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon. (read more)
Yes, let the church bells ring from the mountains as Ronald Reagan’s 1986 Helsinki summit with Michael Gorbachev has now been eclipsed in strategic geopolitical importance.
France and the United States jointly announce that the brilliant and incredibly strategic Joe Biden, and the dastardly villain of all things villainous, Vladimir Putin, will meet and come to an incredibly intense agreement over the Ukraine invasion that Putin never planned.
Together both leaders will save the world from a war that Putin never intended to participate in.
WASHINGTON DC – U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have agreed to hold a bilateral summit, followed by a meeting with all relevant parties, on the security situation in Europe, after both leaders spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, the Elysée said.
But the meeting “can only be held at the condition that Russia does not invade Ukraine,” the Elysée said in its readout of the calls.
Macron spoke with Putin twice on Sunday, the first time for an hour and 40 minutes and the second for an hour, as Western leaders attempt to de-escalate the crisis sparked by the deployment of more than 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine’s borders. Macron’s second call with Putin came after the French president spoke with Biden for around 15 minutes.
In its readout, the Elysée said Macron had proposed the summit between Biden and Putin, and then with all parties, “to discuss security and strategic stability in Europe,” with Biden and Putin having “both accepted the principle of such a summit.”
The summit would be prepared by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a meeting scheduled for this Thursday, February 24. The Elysée added Macron “will work with all stakeholders to prepare the content of these discussions.” (read more)
President Biden spoke with President Emmanuel Macron of France today. They discussed ongoing diplomacy and deterrence efforts in response to Russia’s military buildup on the borders of Ukraine.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 20, 2022
With Dear Leader’s State of the Union speech less than two weeks away, the urgency of the meeting is important.
Yes, all of this…. every single part… all of it… is a complete manufactured fraud for domestic and international political consumption.
The U.S. intelligence community, White House, State Dept and media are all playing a role to give Joe Biden a win on the international stage, using a crisis that is entirely made up.
And Ron Klain is likely going to demand a Nobel Peace Prize for Joe Biden for all this effort. Watch…
Oh, how we have fallen.
We’ve gone from being led by people like The Hero of New Orleans to The Dumbass of the Donbass.
Ref: New Orleans, we’re led by the Confederacy of Dunces (I read it and thought it grossly overrated, but it fits here)
Would you mind telling us a bit about what you did and what you didn’t liek about this new orleans novel?
I’d love to read that.
WkR
dk
Hello, Dieter,
A Confederacy of Dunces is supposed to be a comic novel set in New Orleans. The author (John Kennedy Toole) was a misanthrope, and it shows. I found every last character to be unsympathetic (that seems to have been a thing in a certain kind of highbrow “literature,” but with no one to root for I lose interest).
“Russia invasion imminent”.
Brought to you by the same “Intelligence Officials” who lied to the American public about Afghanistan for 20+ years….
The same people (Sullivan) that helped organize a massive Trump-Russia collusion narrative, DAILY vilifying Russia, KNOWING they were lying…
…so now Sullivan is negotiating WWIII with Putin
None of this is possible without propaganda media. Remember how the portrait of the news was “trusted news” now it’s pure propaganda to herd the public.
Its all owned by globalists, all of it and….we don’t need it or have to have it. Read your Bible when you want the news, life will blossom.
Like farm animals, we will be fed but not trained or taught, slaves. We will plow and produce but freedom is never an option. Even if we were freed from these people the most important question would be “ will we get to keep our phones and service.” A whole generation will have to die off to understand freedom.
Silver lining? When half the vaccinated people eventually die, the Dems will never again win an election. I noticed that a lot of Never-Trumpers also got the jab.
Pardon me while I throw up.
Did you see who is in charge of America…
God help us…
As long as the Media has no integrity, the Demcommies can literally play this game until 100 years after we are supposed to drown in the rising seas around us. Only 70 years until the unaware wise up, I hope.
I see that the fences topped with barbed wire have been put up in time for the State of the Union lies.
What do you do if you throw a war and nobody shows up?
Can’t wait for PowerlineBlog to come out “Week in Pictures: National Security Edition” where they might use that photo of the Biden Team to help illustrate our ‘best & brightest’.
…It really looks Joe was given a pop quiz, to see how many of his senior staff he could still remember.
Russian FF hours before SOTU would be a nice point to address but prompt is loaded for the puppet. Addlib is not FJB
Biden’s ‘victory’ against Putin
CAROLINE GLICK
Biden’s ‘victory’ against Putin
NATO, and the U.S.’s credibility as an ally, have become the latest victims of the Trump-Russia conspiracy.
(February 20, 2022 / JNS) Several commentators have argued in recent days that the crisis between Russia and Ukraine has been a godsend for President Joe Biden ahead of the midterm elections in November.
The argument is fairly straightforward. With tough talk and without endangering any U.S. forces, Biden is managing to block Russian President Vladimir Putin from carrying through on his plan to invade Ukraine. Since Biden and his advisers have been signaling that such an event would precipitate a U.S.-Russia war, (i.e., World War III), simply by talking tough, Biden is preventing a world war. Obviously, this is a historic, indeed, an epic achievement that without question blots from the public’s memory Biden’s incompetent and strategically disastrous surrender in Afghanistan.
While at first glance this claim seems reasonable, it is problematic on several counts. The first problem with the claim is that according to an ABC News poll, most Americans don’t care about the events in Ukraine and believe the United States should stay out of the conflict. It’s hard to see how Biden’s actions in an area Americans are unconcerned with will move the needle of public support in Biden’s favor. Americans cared about Biden’s decision to lose the war in Afghanistan and leave in humiliation because it was an American war that he chose to end dishonorably. Ukraine is not America’s war. So the public doesn’t care.
Beyond the fact that Americans don’t really care about what happens to Ukraine, there is a second problem, which is that Biden’s messaging on Ukraine and Russia is demonstrably false and misleading.
The administration’s first misleading message is that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would precipitate World War III because it would put the United States in a shooting war with Russia. This claim is simply wrong. In his speech on Tuesday, Biden made clear that the United States will not go to war to defend Ukraine. It will not send U.S. forces to fight on Ukraine’s behalf. This is a statement that Biden and his advisers have made multiple times in recent weeks. This statement on its own is enough to make clear that there is no chance of a world war opening as a consequence of a Russian invasion.
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Biden’s dismissal of a U.S.-Russia war as a possible outcome of a Russian invasion is not a function of any anti-war predisposition on his part. It is a function of four considerations, which are not subject to change.
First, the U.S. public is unprepared and unwilling to go to war against Russia. With 53% of Americans opposing U.S. involvement in the Ukraine crisis, a presidential decision to go to war is unthinkable.
Second, the United States has no formal commitment to defend Ukraine’s independence. For nearly 20 years, successive administrations have worked behind the scenes to block any possibility of Ukrainian membership in NATO because they didn’t want to be formally committed to protecting Ukraine from Russia.
This then brings us to the third reason the United States will not take up arms to defend Ukraine. While the U.S. national interest is advanced by an independent Ukraine willing to stand up to Russia and that welcomes the United States and the European Union as allies, that interest cannot compete with the U.S. interest in avoiding war with Russia. And as a result, it is against the U.S.’s national interest to wage war for Ukraine.
Finally, the United States has a limited military capacity to fight a ground war in Ukraine against Russia. Russia has 150,000 troops deployed along its border with Ukraine. Putin can manage their logistical supply lines because they are in Russia. The United States has neither the forces nor the will to send tens of thousands of soldiers to Ukraine to fight the Russian army. It cannot compete.
So far from rebuilding U.S. credibility on the world stage after his Afghanistan debacle, Biden’s empty threats of world war have exposed America’s weakness and the hollowness of America’s commitment to its allies.
Biden hasn’t only been bluffing about the prospect of world war. He is also bluffing about sanctions. Biden said on Tuesday that if Russia invades Ukraine, the United States will impose sanctions on “key industries” in Russia. But just as his talk of World War III was entirely empty, so his threats of sanctions have no foundation in reality.
Immediately after pledging to impose sanctions in retaliation for a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Biden said that such sanctions—presumably on Russia’s energy exports to the West—would also hurt Americans in their pocketbooks. With inflation rates in the United States at 39-year highs, and with public faith in their president’s stewardship of the economy at all-time lows, you don’t need to be an A-list political consultant to understand there is zero chance that in an election year Biden will impose sanctions on Russia that will boomerang against U.S. consumers.
The argument that Biden comes out ahead from the Ukraine crisis also ignores what Putin has gained from the crisis on the one hand, and what the United States has lost on the other hand. Without ordering any of his soldiers to cross the border into Ukraine, Putin has already achieved what he set out to accomplish: keeping Ukraine permanently out of NATO.
While Biden hasn’t formally agreed not to bring Ukraine into NATO, his announcement that the United States will not defend Ukraine against a Russian invasion, while 150,000 Russian troops are poised at the Ukraine border, leaves no room for doubt that Ukraine will not be made a NATO member nation. Not now, and not in the foreseeable future. For all intents and purposes, Biden’s speech on Tuesday transformed Ukraine from a U.S. client state into a Russian satellite state.
This brings us to NATO itself. On Tuesday, Biden claimed that the Ukraine crisis has made NATO stronger and more unified than ever. But the opposite is the case. By threatening Kyiv, Putin exposed that at least as far as Russia is concerned, NATO is no longer a functioning military alliance. Poland, the Baltic states and other former Warsaw Pact nations that joined NATO after the Cold War continue to view Russia as a threatening enemy.
Germany, France and other Western European NATO members view Russia as a partner. Throughout the current crisis in Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been acting more like Russia’s ally than America’s. Scholz recently put forward the suggestion that Ukraine should accept the status that Finland suffered throughout the Cold War. It was independent in its domestic affairs but compelled to toe Moscow’s line in its security policies and international positions. Notably, last year Putin penned an article touting precisely this position.
While it still remains unclear if Putin will invade Ukraine, it is also unclear why he would feel it necessary to do so. Simply by sending his troops to the Ukraine border, he ended any chance of Ukraine joining NATO and effectively destroyed NATO as an anti-Russian military alliance.
This brings us to the direct losses the United States has suffered due to Biden’s handling of the Ukraine crisis. Rather than undo the damage he caused to U.S. credibility with his abject surrender of Afghanistan to the Taliban, Biden exacerbated the damage. By threatening war one moment and pledging not to go to war the next, Biden turned himself—and through him, the United States of America—into a joke on the world stage.
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky felt compelled to tell Biden to tone down his rhetoric about an imminent Russian invasion twice in under a week, and insist Biden’s warnings did not correspond with the situation on the ground, it became clear that U.S. support is not what it once was. Biden’s “support” for Ukraine has arguably done Ukraine more harm than good in the present emergency.
When seen in the context of Biden’s wider foreign policy, his decision to adopt a saber-rattling posture while declaring he has no saber is even more disturbing. While making entirely empty threats at Russia, Biden is genuflecting to Iran and China. Taken together, it becomes impossible to claim that Biden’s handling of the Russian threat to Ukraine has strengthened him either domestically or internationally.
Given its destructive effect on both the United States and NATO, what stands behind Biden’s strategically indefensible position on Ukraine?
This is an obvious farce and holds no interest for me or anyone I know.
There is no “water-cooler” conversation about “the Russians”, only about Canadian Truckers and bank accounts and health concerns. Maybe its different in NY or DC or Masschusetts. The liberals I know are all booking their trips to Europe this spring so they don’t believe it either.
Sorry, they have been upstaged with their Kabuki Theatre.
NOTE: Whenever the Top Level Officials meet to discuss imminent war…..THEY DO NOT WEAR MASKS.
I’d wager that 80% of Americans could give a flying you know what about Ukraine or it’s border. However, that same majority damn sure want the invasion of our southern border stopped yesterday. Politicians who haven’t figured that out by now best be looking for another line of work.
But what if Putin invades just a little bit? Let’s say he occupies the northern coast on the sea of Azov and secures the Crimean Canal to ensure Crimea has water. It would give Putin another way in to protect his interests in Crimea.
You know Putin wants to embarrass SlowJoe without expending too much military effort and a small invasion like this will take the wind out of Joe’s sails, set up better security for the Russia leaning population, and secure Crimea against any Ukrainian action to cut off the water supply.
Hows Joe gonna like that? A limited action will never get Nato involved, will give Putin a domestic victory, and will send Joe flubbering around not knowing what to do next.
Sundance should consider alternatives, especially if there is a summit and Putin senses weakness from Old Joe.
to label this kind of garbage activities by Tony Blinken and his band of fools as “Banana Republic” level stuff would be an insult to Banana Republics everywhere
Putin Declares Formal Recognition Of Ukraine Separatist Regions As Sovereign States – Monday, 21 Feb 2022 – 1:30PM ET
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/donbas-rebel-leaders-formally-urge-immediate-russian-military-assistance
Taiwan makes 90% of the worlds most advanced integrated circuits (“chips”), an incredibly difficult tech to master and one which China hasn’t stolen, yet, because of the incredible machines needed to make them.
‘Xi watching with pleasure!’ China gloats as failure to contain Russia boosts Taiwan plot – CHINA’s leader Xi Jinping is watching the West’s reaction to the Ukraine crisis “with pleasure,” a former UK Ambassador to Russia has warned. – Monday, Feb 21, 2022
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1569553/China-latest-Xi-Jinping-Taiwan-latest-Russia-invasion-Ukraine-news-world-war-3-vn
“It has distracted the United States from its focus on China and if we have a war in Europe, then the United States is going to stay distracted for a while to come.
“It has also strengthened Xi’s relationship with Russia and China.
“The China-Russia relationship was in, in any case, doing very well as a natural economic complementarity, but it will push Russia further into Chinese arms.
“And if the West does back down seriously on Ukraine, which I don’t think the West is going to do, and I’m not suggesting that it should, then they will draw conclusions about how the West would behave if it really came to the crunch point on Taiwan.”
US Army War College study recommends Taiwan make it an announced policy to destroy those chip factories if China invades. Of course, if they don’t, we should using cruise missiles. I think this study makes the latter IMPLIED without having to say it. Since those factories have to be FAR cleaner than an operating room, destroying them 100% would be trivially easy.
Broken Nest: Deterring China from Invading Taiwan
15,333 DOWNLOADS
Since November 22, 2021
https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol51/iss4/4/
Better yet, put in place a plan that allows the Chicoms to take the factories but the information they get (big nasty computer virus) will destroy most of Chinese networks and computing.
Taiwan is gone. Just hasn’t happened yet.
China Sanctions Raytheon, Lockheed Over Taiwan Deal To “Safeguard Its Sovereignty” – FEB 21, 2022
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/china-sanctions-raytheon-lockheed-over-taiwan-deal-safeguard-its-sovereignty
The big wildcard in today’s dramatic escalation in tensions over east Ukraine, is how and when Beijing will react to Putin’s announcement recognizing the Donbass region as independent and immediately deploying “peacekeeping” forces to Donetsk and Lugansk.
A hint as to what may be coming, came earlier on Monday when China said it would impose new sanctions on U.S. defense contractors Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin due to their arms sales to Taiwan, stepping up a feud with Washington over security and Beijing’s strategic ambitions.
Note that the tweet linked below is marked as “The following media includes potentially sensitive content” which is in itself bizarre:
Russia Will Officially Recognize Breakaway Ukrainian Regions As Independent Nations – Formal Russian recognition of separatist regions of Ukraine could provide a pretext for invasion.
FEBRUARY 21, 2022
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44383/putin-will-decide-on-russia-recognizing-breakaway-ukrainian-regions-today
It’s also important to note that Putin’s decision to hold this meeting on national television seems almost certain to have been intended, in part, to show that Russian authorities are unified in their positions regarding Ukraine. In fact, at one point, Russia’s President forcefully pushed Sergei Naryshkin, head of the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service, to say he unequivocally would support recognition of DNR and LNR independence. As he was pressed, a visibly flustered Naryshkin also declared that he would support outright Russian annexation of those areas.
“could provide a pretext for invasion”
Could also simply allow the new independent regions to establish governing documents that align them with Russia culturally and economically, seek economic and military aid, etc …
… with no Russian invasion necessary
Yep, if Ukraine allows it without military intervention… which they probably will. A HUGE pie in the face for them.
I don’t care, actually. At this point there is no way the shuffling gait, senile, Afghanistan fiasco, perverted moron can get this theorized Nobel Prize conspiracy theory crap.
Putin: Check! Biden: King Me!
Playing the wrong game there Joe, aren’t ‘ya?
21 Feb 2022
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=245233
Update (525pm ET): In the latest development out of the Donbas, Reuters reports that under its new agreement with separatist leaders, Russia has a right to build and establish military bases in eastern Ukraine.
Everybody has a plan till they get punched in the mouth
Biden is trolling to steal more US tax Dollars from the Ukraine. The man is a PROVEN Money Launder.
Put in is smarter. Why not cancel the Fake Summit, and announce there was never any planned invasion?
Agree. How utterly simple Biden is making it for Putin to simply pull the rug out from under him and make a public fool out of our resident…oh, wait…
Cone of Silence
If I recall
Quick: Send Kamala Harris to the talks. Her brilliance will blind Putin into submission (if he doesn’t laugh himself senseless first).
Here’s what it looks like to me; You wake up to the house filled with smoke and the crackling sound of wood burning hot. So, you get up, open the bedroom window and go back to bed.
This country is on fire and somehow we the people are supposed to believe Ukraine is all important. Nope
Who was MICHAEL Gorbachev?
The Obama award make the peace prize a joke.
SOTU drinking game: take a drink every time he stops making sense and do a shot when he says “come on,man” or threatens to beat some one like he is a 12 year old
Right on the money… the biggest losers ever elected are leading the free world!!!
Putin just signed the law recognizing both republics as independent and then signed mutual cooperation treaty with them.
Which means his forces can now enter that territory b/c of invitation of the “legitimate governments” of those new republics.
so the date is
22 02 2022
Notice the symmetry
The people pictured in the meeting have a combined IQ slightly above a wet potato chip, the generic kind of chip.
Someone just won this fiasco and it was not Biden
An hour ago, Putin recognized the 2 break-away areas of the Ukraine.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/donbas-rebel-leaders-formally-urge-immediate-russian-military-assistance
So…given that these areas have sizable ethnic Russian populations, now what?
If the idea that Russia is NOT planning an invasion to help these areas is correct, will Putin really not back up his diplomatic recognition with something more substantial?
Possibly this “official recognition” is as far as he will go: the separatists are otherwise on their own…or…are they receiving covert aid from Moscow?
Military units in the Donbas can now openly drive across the Russian border and swap their old gear for the latest spec stuff. Also resupply with unlimited, if needed, munitions and fuel.
As the Donbas militia are probably as well trained and, given 8 years of trench warfare, certainly more battle hardened than the Russian Army it is probable that the Russian Army itself will not need to cross the border.
It will now be very interesting to see the Ukrainians response.
The Biden team will be spitting blood.
Here’s what’s gonna happen next…
But first, background:
Russia wanted to revert back to the pre-color revolution situation. They needed the Ukraine to implement the Minsk Accords with the Russian timeline sequence. This would have allowed them to put a Yanukowich 2.0 in charge of the Ukraine.
The Germans promised them this outcome. In return, Russia would help the Germans destabilize Poland through the border attack from last fall from the Russian proxy Belarus. Lukaszenko openned up a travel agency and started to import large numbers of Syrians into Minsk, the Germans built him some staging camps a few miles from the Polish border.
But Biden got in the way of a plan… a plan that was too clever by half.
Poland withstood the migrant assault from Belarus, and the dictator Lukaszenko was left with 15 to 20 thousand Syrians in his capital Minsk. This was a very bad situation both in terms of internal problems (Belorusians don’t like being flooded with Syrians) and international (bad publicity for attacking three borders: Polish, EU, NATO). So Merkel had to bail out Lukaszenko (legitimize him, meeting with photo ops, phone calls, and BBC interviews). This was done to prop him up.
So you could say that Putin borrowed his proxy Lukaszenko out to Merkel and she broke him.
But Putin didn’t get the Minsk Accords in return. (That’s why the Germans and their proxy the French were so understanding of Putin.)
So what Putin basically did today was said to the Germans : screw you.
I lent you Lukaszenko, but didn’t even get a lousy t-shirt.
His exact words were: “That’s not what we agreed to!”
So Putin recognized the two autonomous regions as independent client states under Russian protection.
This will create a war which Putin will fight with his proxies in the region. The other combatant will be the Ukraine, armed with US funding and arms. (With all the kickbacks to the Senate election campaigns that go with that territory.)
In the not too distant future, there will be two more regions in Eastern Ukraine that will pass resolutions declaring themselves autonomous regions. And rinse, repeat. And then two more, etc. About 1/3 of the Ukraine is ethnic Russians.
The Germans in the mean time, will find a way to import Russian gas, paying for Russias proxy war.
The tell is if they don’t close the Nord Stream II pipeline. If the US agrees to let them open it up, then the war in the Ukraine becomes kabuki theater since it will be funded by German Euros.
And naturally, NATO will be the bad guys because… well… Russia only wants to be secure… etc. (They’ve been saying the same thing since Catherine the Great’s reign about 250 years ago.)
As for the US, Biden’s polls will not go up like defense spending…
… and no Noble Prize will be awarded for bringing peace to the Ukraine this year, or for years to come.
Many thanks to you and John in MK above for the remarks!
A “Russian invasion” with no Russians! Very interesting! 🙂
Did Putin just announce independence of parts of Ukraine? What did Klain put into motion?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/vladimir-putin-announces-independence-for-parts-of-ukraine/vi-AAU8tRz
Putin Orders Peacekeeping Operation In Ukraine’s Breakaway Regions
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/donbas-rebel-leaders-formally-urge-immediate-russian-military-assistance
Update (422pmET): It appears that boots are about to hit the ground. According to Reuters and RIA, Putin has ordered a peacekeeping operation in Eastern Ukraine’s breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
PUTIN ORDERS RUSSIAN ARMED FORCES TO START ‘PEACEKEEPING MISSION’ IN E. UKRAINE BREAKAWAY REGIONS — RIA
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN HAS ORDERED RUSSIAN TROOPS INTO UKRAINE – FT REPORTER TWEET
“Putin has ordered Russian troops into Ukraine. The decrees on recognizing the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics order the Russian armed forces to go into separatist territory on peacekeeping missions.”
The day after the CCP Virus Olympics ended and while most US military are on a national holiday day off…
A great post by Sundance. It points out two universal truths: politicians really do think we the people are just that stupid and uninformed; and politicians are actually that stupid and uninformed about we the people.
There is a serious energy crunch underway in Europe caused by a reluctance to buy gas at the current high prices and to use their vast amounts of stored gas instead. They got so carried away doing this that they have already used 95% of their stored gas, reducing it to an unheard of level when they are only half way through winter. Their timing could not have been worse given the current situation as they were about to have to buy Russian gas in large quantities, as all LNG terminals are already fully booked.
If the US/UK/EU now impose sanctions on Russia there is every reason to believe that the Russians would counter sanction as they did, to much pain in the EU Ag sector, in 2014.
If they decide to do that the obvious option they have, as it is not actually a ‘sanction’ and doesn’t break any contracts they might have, is to slow down or stop supplying the nat gas spot market. This will either mean that the Europeans go seriously short of gas and what gas there is will be at crazy prices (incidentally making the US/EU very unpopular with other nat gas buyers round the World also hit with higher prices) or they will be forced back onto Russia’s favoured long term supply contracts, as Hungary with excellent foresight did last September.
I am in England and am pleased to have wood fires with plenty to burn.
Note to citizens of Keev: do not be standing in your driveway with your seven kids when “Bomber” Biden needs to look tough with a drone strike.
Fair warning.
Amazing what Russia can do with a GDP (2020 – $1.483T) less than CA (2020 – $3T) or TX (2021 – 2T). It reached an all-time high of $2.29T in 2013 when oil was $129/barrel.
And then Putin pulls out to screw it up for Brandon for his sanctions on freedom seeking eastern Ukrainians
And dumb people will believe this!
LOL Slightly wrong genius.
Putin just sent troops in under “Peace Keeper” mandates.
China will now move on Taiwan.
Biden is a weak fool and the whole world can see it.
“The smells of heavy diesel loomed in the valleys as the thundering sound of tank tracks approached ever closer. Dark men with black weapons…” Sounds like Ottawa.