September 2025

Sep 30, 2025

Featured • EU Fast-Tracks Transformation into Military Bloc Under Von Der Leyen's Unaccountable Leadership, Simplicius, Sep 29, 2025
A particularly timely overview of recent developments political and military. Putin's remarks and Medvedev's, included, are also important. Europe is really walking itself into more and more open war, if NATO begins direct precision assaults on Russia, as Kellogg and others aver should be done -- and Kellogg, for whatever his remarks may be worth -- says have already been approved. The possibility of a "Franz Ferdinand moment" is finally visible to many now. Some say it is already in the rear-view mirror, that we are all sliding down the slippery slope, increasingly out of control. That passive frame of mind -- you know it intimately, don't you? True adulthood beckons, but requires that we abandon it. Take a step, then another.

 • U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg Says President Trump Has Authorized NATO Strikes Against Moscow, The Last Refuge, Sep 29, 2025

Ukraine is not a member of NATO. The United States is the leading force within NATO. Most recently President Trump has repeatedly said that he is brokering missile sales to NATO for transfer to, and use from, Ukraine against Russia. To wit, President Donald Trump has authorized NATO member states to deploy offensive missile systems into non-NATO Ukraine, provided by the U.S. In the latest development, U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine General Keith Kellogg has announced Ukraine has the authority to launch those missile systems deep into Russia, including Moscow. According to General Kellogg, President Trump is authorizing NATO to strike Moscow with U.S. missiles, launched from Ukraine. How is Ukraine not a proxy war between NATO and Russia?

This is escalating madness. We are reasonably intelligent and pragmatic people. We have the objective capability to look at the issues from both sides of the equation. Look at this issue from the perspective of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The U.S. provides the missiles. The U.S. approves the missile locations in Ukraine. The U.S. authorizes the targets of the missiles from their location. NATO provides the satellite guidance system. Ukraine targets Moscow and launches the missiles. How is President Trump not directly responsible for a NATO proxy war against Russia?

The only way for President Trump to make the ‘accountability monkey’ jump now, is to exit NATO. The reason why the EU member states of NATO want escalated war with Russia is financial and economic. Through policy and ideology, the EU/NATO members have walked themselves into an economic dead end. They are out of assets to leverage. The only way out for the EU/NATO leadership is to create a war to erase debt, expand assets and reset the economics.

US President Trump never intended to stop the war in Ukraine - it is a US proxy war the US could stop any time it wants, it doesn't want to. It has been and is now escalating HIMARS strikes inside Russia - attacks only possible with DIRECT US involvement. Before even winning the 2024 US election Trump and Vance made it clear to anyone carefully listening the goal was to dump the cost/consequences on Europe (while still directing military/intelligence operations) and hopefully freeze the conflict while the US provokes similar conflict with China in Asia. And that is what's happening. Russia never agreed to a ceasefire because it knew all along the Trump admin wasn't going to actually end the war and instead continue it on the same trajectory the previous Biden administration was on. There isn't a pause in weapons or fighting, just growing shortages of what the US can afford to send. What it is sending it is still using to kill Russians and degrade Russian industry and infrastructure in Russia to whatever degree possible. The war will end on the battlefield in Ukraine and only if Russia makes it end - not through negotiations the US never seriously considered to begin with. Same goes with China's rise - it will only happen if China makes it happen despite US attempts to stop it. There will be no "accommodation" or "retreat" by the US unless it is forced to.

Sep 29, 2025

 • Vance calls on Russia to ‘wake up’ and accept reality, RT, Sep 28, 2025

US Vice President J.D. Vance has called on Moscow to “’wake up and accept reality,” claiming that Russia has little “to show for” its military effort in the Ukraine conflict. His words echo those of President Donald Trump, who has recently also changed his rhetoric on the issue by stating that Kiev could defeat Moscow. For months, Washington insisted that Kiev would need to give up on certain territorial claims for a US-mediated peace deal with Moscow to move forward. This week, however, the US President made a U-turn by dismissing Russia as a “paper tiger” and urging Kiev to “act.” Vance called on Moscow to sit down at the negotiating table in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

The US would “keep on working for peace, and we hope the Russians actually wake up to the reality on the ground,” he stated while largely repeating Trump’s recent arguments. According to the vice president, Moscow’s forces have “really stalled” and “don’t have much territorial gain to show for” their efforts, with the Russian economy allegedly “in shambles.” Moscow has repeatedly stated it is open to a peaceful resolution of the hostilities at any time but has maintained that any deal must address the roots of the conflict and respect the realities on the ground. This includes the status of the former Ukrainian territories that joined Russia after public referendums.

The US is considering making long-range Tomahawk missiles available for Ukraine, Vice President J.D. Vance told Fox News on Sunday. Several Western news media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and The Telegraph, previously reported that Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky specifically requested the missiles during a meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last week. According to the WSJ, Trump did not oppose the idea and was also open to lifting restrictions on Kiev’s use of US-made weapons for strikes deep into Russian territory, but made no specific commitments during the meeting. The president was previously against giving Tomahawks to Ukraine, according to Axios.

“We’re certainly looking at it,” Vance said when asked if Washington is considering selling the missiles to other NATO members so that they could be handed over to Kiev. When further pressed on the issue of a potential escalation that could follow such a step, Vance said that Trump would ultimately determine Washington’s course of action. The US president’s special envoy, Keith Kellogg, who also talked to Fox News on Sunday, said that “the decision has not been made,” while confirming that Zelensky did ask Trump for Tomahawks. The missiles have a range of up to 2,500km and can be equipped with nuclear warheads. Moscow has repeatedly warned that Western arms supplies to Kiev will not change the situation on the front line and only risk further escalation, potentially leading to a direct conflict between Russia and NATO.

Sep 28, 2025

 • Where 'Democracy' Goes to Die: 'Rule of Law' Again Rears its Head in Hysterical Europe, Simplicius, Sep 27, 2025
Some "garden." There's a full-court press going on to hold the present anti-Russian narratives together and keep anti-Russian leadership everywhere possible. Don't give peace a chance.

 • Zelensky is ‘losing his mind’ – EU state’s foreign minister, RT, Sep 27, 2025

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has issued a sharp rebuke of Vladimir Zelensky, claiming that Kiev has become obsessed with Budapest and is imagining threats that do not exist. Zelensky alleged on Friday that Hungarian drones had violated western Ukrainian airspace, suggesting they “may have been conducting reconnaissance on the industrial potential of Ukraine’s border areas.” “President Zelensky is losing his mind to his anti-Hungarian obsession,” Szijjarto wrote on X in response, adding that “he is now starting to see things that aren’t there.” Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga fired back, stating that “no amount of your attacks on our President will change what we – and everyone – see.”

“We are starting to see a lot of things, Peter, including your government’s hypocrisy and moral degradation, open and covert work against Ukraine and the rest of Europe, serving as a Kremlin lackey,” the Ukrainian diplomat wrote. Szijjarto also accused Kiev of pursuing an “anti-Hungarian policy” after Ukraine declared three senior Hungarian military officials persona non grata earlier on Friday. Relations between Hungary and Ukraine have been tense for years. Budapest has resisted pressure from Brussels and Washington to provide weapons to Kiev or support EU sanctions against Russia, arguing that such moves would harm Hungarian national interests.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has also accused Ukraine of discriminating against the Hungarian minority in its Transcarpathia Region and of undermining his country’s energy security by attacking the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies Russian oil to Central Europe. Hungary blocked EU accession talks with Ukraine earlier this year and has continued to call for negotiations to end the conflict rather than further sanctions or military escalation. Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York this week, Szijjarto warned that as long as the hostilities continue, “events will occur that carry the risk of escalation” between NATO and Russia, insisting that peace is the only way to bring that risk “down to zero.”

Sep 27, 2025

Featured • Kiev false-flag provocation could lead to World War 3 – Zakharova, RT, Sep 26, 2025

Ukraine is planning a possible false-flag operation in Romania or Poland that could escalate into a third world war, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

In a Telegram post on Friday, she pointed to reports in Hungarian media alleging that Kiev intends to stage acts of sabotage in neighboring NATO countries and place responsibility on Moscow.

”Europe has never been so close to the outbreak of World War 3 in modern history,” Zakharova wrote.

According to the information available, the Kiev regime’s plan is to repair several downed or intercepted Russian UAVs, fit them with lethal warheads, and – controlled by Ukrainian specialists – send them disguised as “Russian drones” to major NATO transport hubs in Poland and Romania, Zakharova continued. At the same time, they would run a disinformation campaign across Europe to pin the blame on Moscow and thereby try to provoke an armed conflict between the Russian Federation and NATO, she added.

In order to carry out this alleged provocation, Russian-made ‘Geran’ drones were reportedly delivered on September 16 to the Yavorov training ground in western Ukraine, which hosts the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security of the Hetman Petro Sagaidachny National Academy. The UAVs had reportedly earlier been repaired at the LORTA plant in Lviv.

Zakharova cited Hungarian journalists as saying that the reason for these actions by Vladimir Zelensky is straightforward: the Ukrainian armed forces are suffering a crushing defeat. The collapse of the army, they argued, is no longer limited to the tactical level but has taken on a strategic dimension.

If all this is confirmed, it means that Europe has never been so close to the start of World War 3, Zakharova concluded.

Brussels is not solely responsible for helping Ukraine end its conflict with Russia, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Politico on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday. The comments follow US President Donald Trump’s recent apparent change of stance on Ukraine, after he suggested that Kiev, “with the support of the European Union,” was “in a position to fight and win.” Some observers saw the remark as Trump stepping back from the conflict after failing to make good on his pledge to end it quickly. “He was the one who promised to stop the killing,” Kallas said. “So it can’t be on us.”

Sep 26, 2025

Featured • Crisis Escalation Becomes Euro-Cabal's Final Meal Ticket, Simplicius, Sep 25, 2025
All this is dangerous as hell.

Featured • War Debt and Delusion, Douglas Macgregor, X, Sep 24, 2025

In his latest post to TRUTH SOCIAL President Donald Trump claims that with more dollars, euros and missiles, Ukraine could still regain all its lost territory. President Trump’s statement is a mixture of sentiment and self-delusion, not strategy. Few wars in modern times have been wrapped in so many illusions as this one. The number of Ukrainian Soldiers killed in action (KIA) exceed 1.7. million. The numbers of wounded in action (WIA) are unknown, but anecdotal evidence suggests most of the WIA are seriously disabled. The ongoing mobilization of Ukrainian men in their late fifties and early sixties is not evidence for resilience but of exhaustion. Without constant flows of dollars and euros the Ukrainian State and Society would collapse in a few days.

Very soon, the globalist ruling class in Washington, London, Paris, and Berlin will raise the question, “Who lost Ukraine,” as though it was ever theirs to lose. However, this time, Americans will ask how Washington insiders, Lobbyists, and the sprawling military-industrial-congressional complex persuaded President Trump to imitate President Biden; to prolong, even widen the war in Ukraine instead of ending it? Contrary to popular belief in the West, Russia was never a wobbling power held together by propaganda. Measured in purchasing power, the war has helped Russia to become the world’s fourth-largest economy. Russian factories are humming night and day, producing shells, missiles, and drones at rates the West cannot match.

Not only is the Russian economy thriving, sanctions meant to break its economy have instead pushed global trade eastward and cemented Moscow’s ties with Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Instead of a paper tiger, Russia looks more like an impregnable fortress. Meanwhile, de-dollarization is advancing rapidly...

European officials believe US President Donald Trump is scaling back Washington’s role in the Ukraine conflict and preparing to put the blame for a potential Ukrainian defeat on NATO allies, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. In a surprise move this week, Trump said Kiev could achieve its territorial aims against Russia and wished “good luck” to Ukraine and its European supporters. “This is the start of a blame game,” one European official told the newspaper. Another said Trump is “building the off ramp” so he can pin the conflict’s outcome on others. A third described Trump’s good-luck wish as “tantamount to a handover note,” according to the FT.

John Helmer and I agree that President Trump has lost control over foreign policy to his advisors. That Trump has lost control is clear from Trump’s reference to Russia as a “paper tiger” and his statement that he believes that Kiev is “in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back and might be able “to go further,” suggesting invasion of Russia, if the EU and NATO continue to support Ukraine. Russia, Trump says, is in “BIG economic trouble” and that “this is the time for Ukraine to act.” This is the neoconservative line, and Trump’s advisers have used it to lasso Trump. The peaceful solution seems to be off the table. Kremlin spokesman Peskov indicates that Russia continues to prefer delusion to reality by announcing that Moscow remains open to seeking a peaceful resolution to the hostilities.

European NATO members’ increasing hostility toward Russia is undermining the possibility of a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine conflict, American economist Jeffrey Sachs said on Wednesday. He pointed to a draft peace agreement reached by Russia and Ukraine during 2022 talks in Istanbul that was later abandoned by Kiev after then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson encouraged the Ukrainians to pursue a military victory instead. “Unfortunately, the Europeans are in an absolute state of warmongering, which is also very dangerous,” Sachs told TASS from the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“What could be peace continues with war. And this is a failure of American politics and failure of European politics,” Sachs said.A longtime critic of Western approach toward Russia, Sachs has argued that US and European actions helped drive tensions over Ukraine to boiling point. He expressed skepticism about US President Donald Trump’s efforts to mediate a settlement, saying Washington’s diplomatic team lacks scale and expertise. “There should be professional, detailed, skilled negotiations to get to actual detailed solutions,” he said, adding that Trump is “not a details person” and “not even stable.”

Sep 25, 2025

 • Who’s the ‘paper tiger’ now? The EU will crack under the burden of Ukraine, Nadezhda Romanenko, RT, Sep 24, 2025

Calling Russia a “paper tiger” is, above all, a psychological tactic. For decades, critics of Moscow have used similar language to argue that Russia’s military power is overstated, its economy brittle, and its system fragile.

Trump is not the first to say this, and he will not be the last. But such claims have been proven wrong as often as they have been vindicated – and since the beginning of Russia’s military operation and the ensuing sanctions, they have been proven nothing but wrong. The Russian economy, despite sanctions, has not collapsed. Predictions of its imminent demise have been made repeatedly since 2022, only to be walked back as Moscow adapted, re-routed trade, and leveraged its vast natural resources. That does not mean Russia is just shrugging off the West’s pressure: severe challenges and serious problems do arise and they are being openly discussed and overcome. Yet, the collapse thesis has become increasingly difficult to sustain after years of “imminent collapse” forecasts that never materialized.

This illustrates that narratives of inevitable collapse often serve political purposes more than analytical clarity. Trump’s framing fits neatly into this tradition: the “paper tiger” line does not come from sound economic analysis. It’s simply an attempt to undermine Russia’s psychological standing. For Ukraine, Trump’s affirmation that it can defeat Russia may have been meant as a morale boost. Except it probably doesn’t sound all that encouraging when Kiev realizes it will have to rely on its own nonexistent economy and the backing of European regimes that are struggling both politically and economically – struggles that come from blind support for Kiev to begin with. As EU leaders continue to try to drum up support with tired calls for “unity for Ukraine,” they keep bleeding voters. Defense spending is rising, but weapons and resources are being funneled to Kiev.

In several countries, support for the centrist establishment is in the gutter, and parties that promise to refocus on domestic problems are rapidly gaining popularity. If the burden of carrying Kiev falls entirely to EU nations, this will not only accelerate Ukraine’s own defeat, but also the demise of many of the EU’s own struggling governments. In this sense, Trump’s statement might be read not as a promise but as a test: can the EU demonstrate that it is not itself a “paper tiger”? Trump would love to go down in history as a great peace-maker, but what he wants even more – what he promised the voters who followed his “America First” banner – is to end Washington’s entanglement in losing battles.

The no-fly zone talk is also pointless without the United States. Washington commands the only truly powerful air force in NATO, yet it shows no interest in such schemes. The alliance is deeply divided. Its European members are demanding that America stop “flirting” with Moscow and impose harsher sanctions. Donald Trump, however, is digging in his heels, telling Brussels to impose measures themselves – and add tariffs against India and China while they are at it. Even Trump, who rarely avoids hyperbole, did not join the hysteria. He limited himself to a post on social media and then suggested the drones may have strayed accidentally. That directly contradicted Warsaw’s alarmist claims. The US also quietly declined to participate in Operation Eastern Sentry, a mission designed to protect NATO’s eastern flank. Forced to rely only on European resources, the operation ended up looking feeble and unconvincing.

So what can Western Europe do in this situation? Only what it always does: raise the alarm and toss out outlandish proposals. The more unrealistic the idea, the more it distracts from weakness. The main audience for this show is Russia – NATO wants to puff up its chest and project menace. But the second audience is closer to home.Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk admitted the real goal is to curb pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian sentiment inside Western Europe. In 2022, Western leaders briefly managed to suppress their contradictions and present a united front. They want to revive that atmosphere now, even if it takes hysteria about drones and fantasies about no-fly zones. Will it work? Probably not. Opinion campaigns are under way, but there are no serious polls yet to show whether Western Europeans are buying the story. My belief is that they will not. The mood of 2022 cannot be recreated. The talk of no-fly zones will end the same way as earlier attempts to whip up panic – with nothing.

A joint statement by Ukraine and the EU condemning Russia has received the backing of only 36 out of the 193 UN member states. The US notably abstained. Presented by EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga at the UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, the document describes Russia’s actions vis-a-vis Ukraine as a “blatant violation of the UN Charter.” It also calls on the global community to “maximize pressure” on Moscow, and to support Ukraine’s “territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.”

The joint statement was endorsed by the 26 EU member states, with the exception of Hungary, and also endorsed by Albania, Andorra, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK. Back in February, the UN Security Council rejected a resolution drafted by Kiev and its European backers that contained similar anti-Russian rhetoric. A competing resolution promoted by the US was eventually adopted, with Washington, Moscow, and eight other members voting in favor and five European nations abstaining. That version avoided branding Russia as an aggressor and called for a “swift end” to the Ukraine conflict.

Moscow’s deputy envoy to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, at the time described the outcome as a victory for common sense, claiming that “more and more people realize the true colors of the Zelensky regime.” Moscow has consistently characterized the Ukraine conflict as a proxy war being waged against it by the West. The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that the hostilities would end were Kiev to renounce its claims to the five regions that have joined Russia through referendums since 2014, reaffirm its neutral status, and guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking population on its territory.

Yesterday afternoon at the Kremlin meeting of the Security Council, President Vladimir Putin proposed to extend the current strategic nuclear weapons limitations of the New START Treaty expiring in February 2026, for one more year into 2027. This is the time Putin is giving President Donald Trump to choose between his Golden Dome escalation in space or new terms of nuclear deescalation by treaty with Russia. “Particular attention,” Putin declared, “must be directed towards US plans to expand strategic components of its missile defence system, including preparations for the deployment of interceptors in outer space. We believe that the practical implementation of such destabilising measures could nullify our efforts to maintain the status quo in the field of strategic offensive arms. We will respond appropriately in this case.”

Sep 24, 2025

Featured • Trump Shocks World With Major Ukrainian U-Turn (...Or Did He Fool Us All?), Simplicius, Sep 23, 2025

What he’s really done is recognized that the media and his opponents won’t cut him any slack—which his ego is extremely sensitive to—unless he exaggerates his praise and commitment to the Establishment ‘cause’ by rallying for Ukraine in his final bow. So he went and flipped the script: “They want hysterical cheerleading? Fine, I’ll give it to them.”

After getting into ‘character’, he says: “Ah yes, now I’ve seen the light. Ukraine can win the war and conquer Moscow, good luck to everyone involved, have fun!”

Sadly, Zelensky has again fallen for the trap. He was absolutely wide-eyed with child-like glee and relief during his meeting with Trump today, tragically clueless to the fact that he’d again been set up and thrown to the wolves by ‘Daddy’.

"Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act. In any event, I wish both Countries well. We will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them. Good luck to all!""

DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

And with that, he’s washed his hands of the whole thing, while proudly raking in the profits from the “killing” he so vocally decried—from an earlier statement: (YouTube link only valid on Simplicius substack)

But I do aver this could be a very controversial opinion of mine, given how many people are well wroth with righteous fury over in social media land. Perhaps I’ll turn out to be wrong on this latest Trump twist. One thing is certain, it’s not any kind of usual ‘5D’ Qanon coping that has led to this conclusion, but rather the pieces falling into place into a logical ‘exit strategy’ for Trump, with his usual theatrical flair.

As much a tough guy as Trump likes to portray, he’s actually quite agreeable to a fault, when it comes to pleasing his friends, partners, and even critics. The latest performance gives a deliberately schlocky ‘bow out’ to stage left while leaving his duped audience beaming effusively with dull-eyed stares of counterfeit triumph.

In other words, I think Trump is buying time for Russia to finish Ukraine off while taking a public posture that allows him to appear to support Ukraine.

It appears that Trump is opting for the crazy like a fox strategy, but he is doing it in a clumsy, crass manner in my opinion. In his Truth post, Trump repeats General Kellogg’s false claims that Russia is struggling on the battlefield and is on the verge of economic collapse. Instead of failing on the battlefield, the Russians are steadily advancing and inflicting heavy casualties on Ukraine all along the line of contact.

...As of 2025, many economists and analysts warn that the U.S. economy is showing signs of entering stagflation — i.e., a combination of stagnant economic growth, persistent inflation, and rising unemployment.

Sep 23, 2025

Featured • Moscow ready to respond to any threat – Putin, RT, Sep 22, 2025

Russia is ready to respond to any threats, President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that Moscow still supports a diplomatic path to ease tensions despite the West’s destructive policies.Speaking ahead of the Security Council meeting on Monday, Putin sounded the alarm with regard to the “extreme danger of further deterioration” of the geopolitical situation, particularly amid the Ukraine conflict.= He added that while Russia had offered “specific ideas” to correct this trajectory, these “warnings and initiatives received no clear response.”There should be no doubt about this: Russia is capable of responding to any existing and newly emerging threats. Responding not with words, but through the application of military-technical measures, Putin warned.

He noted Moscow’s decision to abandon the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of ground-based intermediate- and shorter-range missiles last month, describing it as a forced step caused by the need to counter plans to deploy US- and other Western-made missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Putin stressed, however, that Russia is not interested in warmongering and saber-rattling. “We are confident in the reliability and effectiveness of our national deterrent forces, but at the same time we are not interested in further escalating tensions or fueling an arms race.” He added that Russia has always prioritized “political and diplomatic methods for maintaining international peace, based on the principles of equality, indivisibility of security, and mutual consideration of interests.”

Putin signaled that Moscow is ready to prolong the 2010 New START Treaty, the last remaining arms control pact between Russia and the US, which expires in February. It limits each side to no more than 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and 700 deployed delivery systems, and provides for inspections and data exchanges to verify compliance. This initiative, Putin said, “could make a significant contribution to creating an atmosphere conducive to substantive strategic dialogue with the United States.”

Sep 22, 2025

Featured • Russia Ready to Maintain START Treaty Restrictions For One More Year - Putin, Sputnik International, Sep 22, 2025

 • Robert Kagan Foresees Critical Geopolitical Juncture, Simplicius, Sep 22, 2025

Of course, it’s always amusing to read Kagan on Ukraine, winging anti-Russian incriminations while making no mention of his own spouse’s marquee role in igniting the conflict to begin with. It’s why the PNAC patriarch is able to operate within such a rootless matrix of brazen amorality: the clan he represents exists as a parallel branch of ‘untouchables’ within the private-public complex of the governmental machine. They write their own rules, follow their own codes, and have no one to answer to—which allows them to play the primordial game in the purest way, unburdened by pesky ‘principles’ and other such vestiges of mortal servants of the public who must account for their actions via the natural self-regulating mechanisms of any normally functioning government.

No, Kagan and his ilk are instead apex predators operating within the government’s dusky penumbra, where the boundaries of sanity and legality are conveniently blurred beyond recognition, and where only the echoes of rootless nihilism serve as guiding signposts. They of course always find outlet in places like the Atlantic, run by another Iraq war-neocon in Jeffrey Goldberg.

The clan serves its own.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has slammed Brussels, accusing the EU leadership of mismanaging key areas such as the economy, immigration, and security.In a critical speech at Digital Civic Circles, a network of digital groups promoting conservative values in Hungary, he claimed the bloc was on the brink of collapse due to the failures of its current leaders. The prime minister painted a stark picture of “mountains of debt, crowds of migrants, street violence, the increasingly dark shadow of war, mass layoffs, skyrocketing utility costs, impoverished households, and Brussels bureaucrats running around like panicked chickens,” on Saturday while describing the EU’s troubles.

According to Orban, the EU has fallen short of establishing itself as a credible global power. Instead of rising to meet these challenges, the bloc has become a symbol of weakness, indecision, and internal chaos, he said. He criticized what he called the “tragic” trade deal with the US signed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, adding that the EU’s green policies are “killing European industry.” Energy prices, Orban noted, are “three to four times higher” than in the US, while countries like France are edging toward unsustainable debt levels. “Europe, as we knew and loved it, is over,” Orban warned. “If we deny this, we lose time. If we say it out loud, we gain time.”

The politician contrasted Budapest’s own approach with that of Brussels, pointing to stricter migration controls, a family policy tied to employment, and a tax system that, he said, supports jobseekers. Orban’s criticism, while sharply worded, taps into broader concerns which have been echoed by economists and analysts. Experts from the International Monetary Fund and other institutions have warned that the EU risks long-term stagnation. The IMF projects euro-area growth at just 0.8% in 2025 and 1.2% in 2026, while public debt remains near 90% of GDP and deficits continue to exceed 3%, well above pre-pandemic levels.

Sep 21, 2025

 • Historical Consciousness: What Germany Could Learn from Russia, Peter Haenseler, SONAR21, Sep 21, 2025

 • Zelenskyy’s Wife Spent Over One Million Euro On Single Outfit, South Front, Sep 21, 2025

 • US ‘quietly’ curtailing arms sales to Western Europe – The Atlantic, RT, Sep 20, 2025

The US has ‘quietly’ paused sales of certain weapons to its European allies, The Atlantic has reported. The Trump administration is seeking to stockpile arms as part of its ‘America First’ agenda. Washington has provided Kiev with over $67 billion in arms and military assistance since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Most of the deliveries were made under the administration of former US President Joe Biden. The Pentagon has now identified some weapons as being in short supply and is moving to block new requests for those systems from NATO countries, the outlet said in an article on Friday. The unnamed current and former US administration officials who spoke to The Atlantic could not say how long the hold will last or name the exact hardware on the list.

According to the report, the first evidence of a shift in policy was the Pentagon’s recent decision not to go ahead with the sale of “a multibillion-dollar” Patriot air-defense system to Denmark, despite US and French negotiators previously pressuring Copenhagen to make the purchase. US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby said during a call earlier this month that “he did not believe in the value of certain foreign military sales,” two administration officials told the outlet. The sources claimed that Colby also “did not like” the idea of selling Patriots to Denmark because they are in short supply and should remain in the US.

The Atlantic warned that a prolonged pause in weapons sales to Western Europe “risks creating new rifts with allies, weakening their defenses at a time when Russia poses an imminent threat, and diminishing US military influence across the continent.” Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated in early September that “the constant hysteria about Russia allegedly planning to attack Europe… is either a provocation or sheer incompetence.” “Russia has never had, does not have, and never will have any desire to attack anyone,” Putin said. As for the Ukraine conflict, it was provoked by the West, and Moscow is only defending itself, he stressed.

Sep 20, 2025

Featured • Media Disguise Airspace Violation Claims, Moon of Alabama, Sep 20, 2025

The 'western' media do not reveal the details of the 'intrusion'. They no longer report, but disguise the facts to create opinions.

On top of that some dimwit officials chip in:

Brian McDonald @27khv - 10:04 utc · Sep 20, 2025

Lithuania’s defence minister falsely claims Russian jets flew “over Tallinn.” It was allegedly over Vaindloo Island in the Gulf of Finland, 100km from the capital. She then urges a replay of Turkey’s 2015 shoot-down (an F-16 bringing down a Russian Su-24).

The trouble is, Lithuania has no fighters of its own. Not even one. So what she’s really demanding is that others light the match for World War Three.

link

The small and often imaginary incidents, like this 'incursion', add up in the public mind with the effect of making it more anti-Russian.

This is one of the reasons why the president of Russia is concerned that we are sliding toward World War III.

A group of US senators from both parties introduced a bill that would require Washington to regularly transfer Russian assets frozen in the US to Kiev.According to a document published by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, several amendments must be made to laws signed by former President Joe Biden in 2024. These laws allow the US government to confiscate Russia’s frozen assets and provide military assistance to Ukraine. According to lawmakers from both parties, the Washington administration, in particular, should begin transferring the aforementioned funds to Kiev “every 90 days.” It is assumed that the top US diplomat would allocate at least $250 million to Ukraine during this period.

According to the bill, the Washington administration should “implement a robust, sustained diplomatic campaign to persuade US allies” to also start using at least 5% of frozen Russian assets in Ukraine’s interests. US lawmakers estimate that this would initially amount to approximately $15 billion. Senators believe that other countries should transfer funds to Kiev at least once every 90 days. In addition, senators want to require the Washington administration to report on the amount of Russian sovereign assets, including frozen assets, held outside the United States.

Since the start of the special military operation, the EU, Canada, the US, and Japan have frozen approximately $300 billion in Russian assets. Of these, about $5-6 billion are in the US, with most in Europe, including $210 billion held at the Euroclear international platform in Belgium. As the Russian Foreign Ministry has warned, Moscow will take immediate action in response to the possible confiscation of its assets in the West.

Eight EU countries continue to import Russian gas, media cited European Commission energy spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen as saying. Earlier on Friday, Brussels unveiled plans to ban Russian energy imports to the bloc. Belgium, France, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, and Spain are still receiving Russian supplies, either by pipeline or in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Itkonen added that the European Commission does not have data on the shipments’ ultimate end users. Despite repeated pledges to cut dependence, around 19% of the EU’s gas imports still come from Russia – down from about 45% before 2022.

Reuters noted that Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and France import LNG, while pipeline deliveries through TurkStream reach Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. With Nord Stream pipelines disabled by sabotage in 2022 and transit via Ukraine halted this year, TurkStream remains the only direct route for Russian pipeline gas into the EU. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday that the bloc intends to end imports of Russian LNG from January 1, 2027, as part of new sanctions proposals. At present, there is no blanket ban, with restrictions limited to certain terminals and re-exports.

“This is clearly yet another element in a large-scale information campaign aimed at demonizing Russia and mobilizing additional support for the Kiev regime, as well as an attempt to undermine a political settlement of the Ukraine conflict,” Zakharova said. Russian officials have said drones used in operations against Ukrainian military targets could not physically have reached Polish territory, and have suggested that the incident may have been a provocation by Kiev designed to pit NATO directly against Moscow. Zakharova also drew attention to the 20-nation “drone coalition” supplying Kiev, accusing its members of ignoring the daily reality of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian civilians.

“Moralizing and demarches by the coalition states regarding Russia’s alleged violations of international law are, in this context, blatantly hypocritical and inappropriate,” she said.According to the spokeswoman, Ukrainian drone attacks killed 16 people and injured 116 more in Russian regions over the summer and early September, with the victims including children. “Militants of the neo-Nazi Kiev regime are using drones to hunt defenseless people virtually around the clock, cynically targeting children, women, and the elderly” while deliberately targeting residential buildings, medical and social institutions, schools, and stores, Zakharova said. She added that by supplying such weapons, Western states have become complicit in the crimes committed by Kiev’s forces.

Sep 18, 2025

 • Zelensky ‘losing touch with reality’ – Foreign Policy analysis, RT, Sep 17, 2025

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and his closest advisers are “losing touch with reality,” as shown by a series of policy and legislative mistakes that have sparked public uproar, analysis published in Foreign Policy claims, citing local sources and experts. The Ukrainian government recently attempted to push through two major measures designed to buttress the armed forces, but sources in Kiev have told journalist Paul Hockenos that each spawned backlash and raised questions about whether the country’s leadership is in tune with the concerns of ordinary Ukrainians. A draft law imposing sentences for military insubordination, described as “draconian,” proposed that desertion or absence without leave carry a prison term of up to 12 years, with no amnesty even for voluntary return.

Brussels is pressing ahead with a plan to use €170 billion of Russia’s frozen sovereign assets to back “reparation loans” for Ukraine, the Financial Times has reported. The EU faces growing pressure to find additional funding for Kiev as US cuts back its support. Moscow has condemned the asset freeze and warned that any seizure of its money would amount to “theft.” Western nations froze an estimated $300 billion in Russian funds after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 – some €200 billion of which is held by Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear. The funds have accrued billions in interest, and the West has explored ways to use this revenue to finance Ukraine. While refraining from outright seizure, the G7 last year backed a plan to provide Kiev with $50 billion in loans to be repaid using the profits generated by the funds. The EU pledged $21 billion.

Western states should put Ukraine’s needs above their own, Vladimir Zelensky has suggested, accusing the EU and US of dragging their feet on new sanctions against Russia. Moscow has faced sweeping restrictions from Kiev’s Western backers since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. The EU has adopted 18 sanctions packages and is debating its next measures. Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, Washington has been cautious about new measures amid a thaw with Moscow. Trump has warned, however, that he could turn to sanctions if the conflict persists. In an interview with Sky News aired on Tuesday, Zelensky claimed deliberations about possible blowback from further sanctions were a “dangerous” waste of time.

“I believe that all countries need to stop thinking about themselves and their future relations with Russia, but instead think more about Ukraine, because it’s today and now,” he said. “This is very dangerous, and to be frank, dishonest.” Zelensky said Trump’s call for European countries to cut Russian energy imports and impose tariffs on buyers such as China and India was understandable, but claimed the US must not wait for Brussels, which he accused of hiding behind bureaucracy. “President Trump, I think, believes that if he were to apply all strong sanctions, he would close diplomacy with Russians… But we can’t wait for all European countries to stop relations with Russia,” he said. “All that’s lacking now is a strong sanctions package from the US.”

Assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump and Special Presidential Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg had a lot to say on Russia’s famed might and those recent drone incursions into NATO airspace.

Claiming 19 incursions cannot be an accident, Trump’s envoy said Vladimir Putin “is acting purposefully, he’s sending a signal, and he wants to hear a response,” reports Ukrainska Pravda.

“Ukraine will not lose this war. Ukrainians have a moral superiority over Russia, that’s obvious,” Kellogg also noted, specifically praising Ukraine’s advanced drone production capabilities.

As to Russia, he said during the interview at the YES Annual Meeting 2025, “They talk a big game,” adding that Putin often likes to tout that Russia is a nuclear power, but other Western powers have nuclear weapons too.

On the topic of Russian superiority, “We’d kick their ass (…) They’re not as good as Putin says they are.” He also credits Ukraine with helping curb Moscow’s military might.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine also confirmed to U.S. President Trump that Russia is “not winning” the war, according to Kellog.

“If he was winning, he’d be in Kyiv,” Kellog added, again giving credit to Ukraine for slashing Russia’s military power.

Sep 17, 2025

 • Lindsey Graham threatens two NATO states over Russian oil, RT, Sep 16, 2025

US Senator Lindsey Graham has threatened Hungary and Slovakia with consequences if they do not halt purchases of Russian oil. The Republican from South Carolina issued the warning after President Donald Trump renewed calls for NATO states to end energy imports from Moscow, in apparent frustration over the pace of peace talks between Moscow and Kiev. The president was “right to demand that Europe stop buying Russian oil,” Graham wrote on X on Monday. He conceded that the EU had largely done so, adding it was “now virtually down to Hungary and Slovakia… to step up to the plate soon.” “If not, consequences should and will follow,” he warned.

As for Trump admitting that Zelensky must make a deal, the big question remains whether Trump is willing to use the significant leverage the United States has over the Ukrainian leader. So far Trump has not been willing. He could simply cut off the weapons and money flows to the Zelensky government if he wanted to – but he’s not even threatening to at this point. Such actions would result in huge pushback from Trump’s own Republicans. So for now, his urging Zelensky to the peace table appears to just be empty words, with no threat of repercussions. Meanwhile: TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CLEARS FIRST UKRAINE ARMS AID PACKAGE PAID FOR BY ALLIES, SOURCES SAY. Currently, there are reports indicating that Trump and Zelensky might meet again next week. At this point, there’s no sign of a Putin-Zelensky meeting being anywhere on the horizon.

Sep 16, 2025

Featured • Macron admitted NATO behind Ukraine conflict – Sachs, RT, Sep 15, 2025

French President Emmanuel Macron has privately admitted that NATO is the driving force behind the Ukraine conflict, prominent American economist Jeffrey Sachs has said. Macron, along with other Western leaders, has repeatedly claimed that Russia launched its military operation against Ukraine in 2022 without provocation and has insisted that Moscow is solely responsible for the conflict. However, speaking during a foreign policy debate with the Italian daily il Fatto Quotidiano, Sachs recalled that when Macron awarded him the Legion of Honor in May 2022, the French leader privately told him “exactly the opposite of what he says publicly” and admitted that “NATO was causing this war.”

“I just want everyone to know this,” Sachs said, adding that he is “disgusted” by the French president. Sachs further condemned Western European leaders, describing them as warmongers who “just want to go to war.”= The economist emphasized that the Ukraine conflict had actually begun in 2014, when the US “actively participated in a violent coup” that overthrew the government in Kiev. “That’s what started the war,” Sachs said, noting that in the following years Washington helped build the Ukrainian army into the largest in Europe. He added that as Russia sought peace, then-US President Joe Biden rejected Moscow’s overtures and vowed to “crush” Russia with sanctions. Sachs argued “there is an easy way to peace” which involves Ukraine committing to neutrality and NATO halting its eastward expansion.

He suggested that US President Donald Trump might be open to such an approach, but claimed that “now it’s Europe who’s filled with warmongers that continue the war,” singling out Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Moscow has long maintained that Kiev’s NATO aspirations were one of the root causes of the conflict and has repeatedly described the confrontation as a Western-led proxy war against Russia. Russian officials have nevertheless signaled readiness for a peace deal, provided it addresses Moscow’s security concerns and the new territorial realities. However, they have repeatedly noted that neither Kiev nor its European backers appear to be genuinely interested in a settlement.

The EU is seeking to orchestrate a Ukraine-style ‘Maidan’ in Serbia by fueling the violent protests that have swept the Balkan country since late last year, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said. The unrest erupted in Serbia in November 2024 after a roof collapse at the railway station in the city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people. The incident triggered public backlash, with activists accusing the government of corruption and demanding accountability. The list of demands later expanded to holding snap elections and the resignation of President Aleksandar Vucic. The latter has branded the protesters “terrorists” seeking to “bring down the state” under foreign influence. In response to public pressure, the Serbian authorities also agreed to some concessions, including the resignation of several ministers and the publication of documents related to the Novi Sad canopy collapse.

In a statement on Monday, the SVR said that the unrest is “largely a product of EU subversive activity,” adding that the main goal of Brussels is to bring “a compliant and loyal… leadership to power in one of the largest countries in the Balkans.” The agency said EU efforts had radicalized youth, pushing them “from peaceful protests to more revolutionary methods of struggle and violence.” It argued, however, that attempts to reproduce a Western-backed “color revolution” in Serbia were faltering due to “patriotic sentiment, the unifying influence of the Orthodox Church, and memories of NATO aggression and the bombing of the country.”

According to the SVR, Brussels plans to exploit the anniversary of the Novi Sad disaster on November 1 to intensify pressure. It claimed EU institutions were “brainwashing” Serbian youth with promises of a “bright European future” while using supposedly independent media outlets as vehicles for influence. The goal, the SVR said, is to mobilize protesters and stage a “Serbian Maidan,” referring to a series of Western-backed protests in Ukraine in 2013-2014 that resulted in a coup that ousted President Viktor Yanukovich. EU officials have said they are closely monitoring the situation in Serbia while denouncing what they describe as excessive use of force by law enforcement.

Sep 15, 2025

Featured • Trump Finally Outwits Europe and the Neocons on Ukraine?, Simplicius, Sep 14, 2025
Worthwhile for its discussion of Trump's gambit calling out EU states and thus extricating himself from their schemes for war; for the third successful use of a pipeline to bypass defenses or in this case, a river; and an incremental battlefield update, which is basically more of the same: small but steady advances by the Russians.

 • European NATO members displeased with US reaction to ‘Russian drone incursion’ – media, RT, Sep 14, 2025

European NATO states are reportedly ‘dismayed and confused’ by Washington’s reaction to an alleged Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace, according to Reuters. Some members of the bloc view US President Donald Trump’s reluctance to outright blame Moscow for the incident on Wednesday as a sign that he is not committed enough to their defense, the news agency reported on Saturday, citing unnamed European officials. US aircraft also played no role in repelling the alleged attack, according to Reuters. US officials said it was because the Dutch military was responsible for Polish airspace within NATO at the time.

“Trump’s handling of the incident has ranged from dismay to confusion and unease,” Reuters said. A German official told the news agency that European NATO members “cannot rely on anything” with the Trump administration.An Eastern European diplomat called Washington’s “silence” on the matter “almost deafening,” while an Italian official told Reuters that NATO members were mostly displeased with the US reaction. The Polish government stated that its military tracked at least 19 alleged violations of its airspace by Russian drones over a seven-hour period on Wednesday, describing the episode as “deliberate” and “unprecedented.” It also convened an emergency UN Security Council meeting over the incident.

Trump downplayed the accusations, suggesting that the alleged incident “could have been a mistake.” He also said he was “not happy about anything having to do with that whole situation” and expressed hope that it would just “come to an end.” Moscow responded by saying Warsaw’s claims were not supported by evidence and hyped up by the “European party of war.” Drones used in strikes against Ukrainian military targets could not “physically” reach Polish territory, Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said. European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, condemned the alleged incursion as “reckless” and expressed solidarity with Poland.

Sep 10, 2025

 • US lawmaker moves to block Ukraine aid, RT, Sep 9, 2025

Sep 9, 2025

Featured • PATRICK LAWRENCE: A Nation of Narcissists, Consortium News, Sep 9, 2025
Read it please.

 • NYT Pushes Another Scare Report About Nuclear Sites In Ukraine, Moon of Alabama, Sep 9, 2025

 • Orban outlines EU security ‘guarantee’ plan, RT, Sep 8, 2025

Partitioning Ukraine into Russian and Western zones of influence is the likely outcome of the conflict and the only reliable guarantee of the EU’s security, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. Kiev has pressed its Western backers for security guarantees as a precondition for a settlement with Russia, first pushing for NATO membership and later floating ideas such as ‘peacekeepers’ and a buffer zone with Western military patrols. Moscow has rejected Ukrainian membership in NATO or Western troops on its territory, stressing that any settlement must include Kiev’s neutrality, demilitarization, and recognition of Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye as Russian territory.

Orban, however, has suggested it is time for the West to acknowledge Russia’s “inevitable” military victory and to begin deciding how Ukraine should be partitioned. ”Europeans all so elegantly talk around security guarantees, but the security guarantee actually means the division of Ukraine,” Orban told guests at the annual Civic Picnic in Kotcse on Sunday. “The first step has already been taken – the Westerners have accepted that a Russian zone exists.” He referred to earlier remarks by US President Donald Trump that Ukraine regaining Crimea was “impossible.”“The result would be a Russian zone, a demilitarized zone and, eventually, a Western zone…The only question is how many kilometers away from the border of the Russian zone a demilitarized zone should be established,” he stated.

Orban noted the outcome would only slightly differ from the pre-conflict balance, when Ukraine itself acted as a buffer between Russia and NATO with “50% influence” each in the country. He said this division would help end the conflict and benefit all sides, particularly the EU, which he warned is on the verge of “collapse” and lacks the means to fund the conflict further. The Hungarian leader has long criticized Brussels over its “warmongering” stance on Russia and support for Ukraine. In his speech, he repeated his warning that Ukraine’s EU accession would trap the bloc in a permanent conflict with Moscow, calling instead for an EU-Russia security pact.

Russia has no plans to exact vengeance on Western countries that cut ties and pressured Moscow over the Ukraine conflict, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Speaking at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations on Monday, Lavrov stressed that Russia did not intend to “take revenge or vent anger” on companies that decided to support Western governments in their push to support Kiev and impose economic sanctions on Moscow, adding that hostility is generally “a poor adviser.” “When our former Western partners come to their senses… we will not push them away. But we… will take into account that, having fled at the order of their political leaders, they have shown themselves to be unreliable,” the minister said.

According to Lavrov, any future market access would also depend on whether the companies would pose risks to sectors vital to Russia’s economy and security. The minister stressed that Russia is open to cooperation and has no intention to isolate itself. “We live on one small planet. It was Western-style to build Berlin Walls… We do not want to build any walls,” he said, referring to the symbol of the Cold War that split the German capital from 1961 to 1989. ”We want to work honestly, and if our partners are ready to do the same on the basis of equality and mutual respect, we are open to dialogue with everyone,” he said, pointing to the Alaska Summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, as an example of constructive engagement.

Sep 8, 2025

Featured • Can Trump re-adjust in the post-Tianjin SCO moment? Was the timing of China ‘throwing down the SCO gauntlet’ entirely fortuitous?, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Sep 8, 2025

The gloves are off. The SCO Summit was a clear demonstration of the reality of power starkly coalescing, on the one hand, and one of power visibly ebbing, on the other. The amazing military parade was the summit counterpart – it spoke loudly: You want to take us on? ‘We are ready’.

China has thrown down the gauntlet with precision timing. (You’d almost think they had planned it that way …). ‘History is being written – in Russian and Chinese ink’, observed one Russian commentator.

Western political systems are in turmoil, beleaguered by populist politics promising everything, yet lacking the tools by which to resolve anything. Western alliances are riven by doubt and uncertainty, with political stability fissuring under pressure from the failures of western borrow and spend policies. Even The Economist concedes that “a new reality is taking hold”.

...Can Trump re-adjust in the post-Tianjin moment? Will a continuation of his demand for U.S. entitlement to financial hegemony now lead – in the face of a defiant SCO bloc – to a weakening of America? Was the timing of China ‘throwing down the gauntlet’ entirely fortuitous? Or, is the West’s financial status more brittle than generally understood?

Does Trump even enjoy the leeway from his unseen bonds to seize on nuclear détente as his Nobel Prize story, should he so choose?

Zelenski seems to now acknowledge that when he redefines what victory means:

Zelenskyy spoke to ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz Friday in an interview that aired on ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday.

...Asked by Raddatz what victory looks like for his embattled country, Zelenskyy said the survival of Ukraine.

"Putin's goal is to occupy Ukraine," Zelenskyy said.

"[Putin] wants, of course, to occupy us totally. For him, this [is] victory. And until he can do it, the victory is on our side," he said. "So that's why for us to survive is a victory. Because we are surviving with our identity, with our country, with our independence."

There is zero evidence that Putin's, or -more correct- Russia's goal was or is to occupy Ukraine.Russia wants to liberate the Russian population that, since the 1990s, was trapped in east Ukraine. He wants to prevent that Ukraine joins NATO. Neither requires the Russian army to move into the feverish anti-Russia center and western parts of Ukraine.

But it is of course convenient to claim that and to declare victory even after the government has moved to Lviv (aka Lvov, Lemberg) near the Polish border and called it a day.

I just wonder how the population there would react if Zelenski or his successor were then to arrange a well deserved Victory parade.

Sep 7, 2025

Featured • When The Pentagon Shifts Its Priorities Will U.S. Strategy Follow?, Moon of Alabama, Sep 6, 2025

It is difficult to believe though that the Trump administration will be able to change U.S. grand strategy. Any change will typically happen only at a snail's pace. It would need all party support over multiple administrations. The pivot to Asia was launched by the Obama administration in 2010 and has since has been followed by all later ones.

...But a shift in resources may well be all that there is.

Over the last year the U.S. has urged its 'allies' to invest more in defense than previously. Moving U.S. resources away from where allies take over is not a real change of strategy.

The U.S. pulls back from Ukraine but pushes the Europeans to continue the war against Russia. The general aim of 'weakening Russia', thus stays the same.

So while U.S. military resources are shrinking or shifting to geographically more nearby issues the overarching grand strategy aim, the achievement of global U.S. primacy, may well stay the same. It is just that other are pushed to carry a bigger burden for it. Colby's pressure on Australia and Japan is pointing that way.

Putin highlighted the deployment of NATO military infrastructure near Russia’s borders as a direct security concern. He pointed to the planned US missile defense system in Eastern Europe (later installed in Poland and the Czech Republic) as an example, asserting that it upset the strategic balance and could be used against Russia. He remarked, “Plans to expand certain elements of the anti-missile defense system to Europe cannot but fail to cause concern in Russia… This work proceeds in a unilateral fashion, without the consent of the Russian Federation.” He suggested this could lead to a new arms race, undermining global stability.

Putin framed NATO’s actions as part of a broader US-led unipolar world order that marginalized Russia. He argued that this unipolarity, enforced through NATO, threatened the sovereignty of other nations, including Russia, by imposing Western values and military dominance. He stated, “What is a unipolar world? However one might embellish this term… it is a world in which there is one master, one sovereign… This is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within.”

Besides criticizing the unipolar approach, Putin also advocated for a multipolar world and a new security framework that respected Russia’s interests, implicitly rejecting NATO’s role as the sole guarantor of European security. He proposed that security should be based on mutual respect and international law, not military blocs, stating, “We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law… No one feels secure anymore because no one can feel that international law is like a stone wall that will protect them.”

The historical record clearly shows that it was the West, not Putin, who has provoked the current war in Ukraine. Russia’s demands, as expressed by President Putin in 2007 and 2008, were not unreasonable. I think it is important to understand these historical moments if you want to properly assess what Russia’s goals and objectives are now. Russia is now firmly committed to creating a multipolar international political, security and economic new world order. He is not just paying lip service to the concept… He is actively engaged as a political mid-wife helping give birth to something new. Does Donald Trump and his team understand that? I don’t think so.

The new strategy would largely overturn the focus of the first Trump administration’s 2018 National Defense Strategy, which placed deterring China at the forefront of the Pentagon’s efforts.

“It is increasingly clear that China and Russia want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model,” the opening paragraphs of that document said.

The shift “doesn’t seem aligned with President Trump’s hawkish views on China at all,” said a Republican foreign policy expert briefed on the report, who like others was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.

The president has continued to express tough rhetoric toward China, including imposing staggering tariffs on Beijing and accusing Chinese President Xi Jinping of “conspiring against” the U.S. after he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a military parade in the country’s capital.

Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s policy chief, is leading the strategy. He played a key role in writing the 2018 version during Trump’s first term and has been a staunch supporter of a more isolationist American policy. Despite his long track record as a China hawk, Colby aligns with Vice President JD Vance on the desire to disentangle the U.S. from foreign commitments.

President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account that India and Russia are now firmly tied to China and have drifted away from the US orbit. Trump also demanded that Europe end Russian oil imports and place pressure on China.

“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!” Trump wrote on Friday. The post is a response to a trilateral meeting between Chinese President Xi, Russian President Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Modi.

Western businesses are welcome to return to Russia if they have not supported the Ukrainian army and have met all obligations to their employees and the state, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. In an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok released on Saturday, Peskov outlined Moscow’s approach to foreign companies that left the Russian market after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 and Western sanctions. He stated that “it would be wrong to say we are not interested in these companies returning.” According to Peskov, many companies that left “reserved the right to return, fulfilling all their obligations to employees and to Russian regions… With them, of course, we need to conduct a very careful, respectful dialogue, observing our interests.”

Other companies, however, abandoned their employees without paying out salaries or fulfilling their social obligations, Peskov said. He added that they will still be allowed to return as long as they make amends. “Everyone should be allowed back. It will just be very expensive for them to return.” The Kremlin spokesman stressed that the only companies that are not welcome are those that have supported the Ukrainian military. “These companies have already become enemies, and that is how they should be treated,” he said.

As Western companies exited the Russian market, they lost billions of dollars in assets. BP alone reportedly took a write-off of more than $25 billion from exiting its Rosneft stake. McDonald’s, which sold its Russian restaurants to a local licensee, had to write off $1.3 billion. A Reuters analysis earlier this year estimated that foreign companies exiting the country lost more than $107 billion. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow remains “open to cooperation, particularly with our friends,” and has never “turned away or pushed anyone out.” He added that many Western companies “are eagerly waiting for all these political restrictions to be lifted,” while some continue to operate in Russia.

The US has begun to phase out foreign funding programs for NATO countries bordering Russia in an effort to push its European allies to pay for their own security, Financial Times has reported. Pentagon officials last week told Western European diplomats that Washington will no longer fund programs aimed at training and equipping the militaries of the bloc’s eastern member states, the outlet wrote on Thursday, citing anonymous officials.mMoscow has long insisted that it views eastward NATO expansion, and the military buildup of countries on Russia’s western border as a security threat. The funding for the Pentagon program needs to be approved by the US Congress, but the White House has not applied for more money, according to FT.

The availability of previously approved funds reportedly ends next September. Western European diplomats were “startled” by Washington’s move, and worried whether their domestic funding could cope with the loss, the outlet wrote. “It’s causing a lot of concern and uncertainty,” the newspaper cited one diplomat as saying. The cut corresponds with US President Donald Trump’s earlier executive action on realigning foreign aid with his ‘America First’ doctrine, FT said, citing a White House official. “This action has been coordinated with European countries in line with the executive order and the president’s long-standing emphasis on ensuring Europe takes more responsibility for its own defense,” the official reportedly said.

Sep 6, 2025

Featured • US generals involved in European plan to send 10,000 troops to Ukraine – WSJ, RT, Sep 5, 2025

Top US military officials have been involved in drawing up a plan for “security guarantees” for Kiev advocated by Paris and London that includes a massive troop deployment to Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing a European diplomat. The scheme drawn up primarily by European army chiefs includes two groups of forces that are to be sent to Ukraine, according to the report. One of them would be tasked with training and assistance to the Ukrainian military, while the second would serve as a “reassurance force” for Kiev. The troops are to be deployed once Moscow and Kiev reach a peace deal. A total of 26 nations agreed to contribute to “security guarantees” for Ukraine in various ways, French President Emmanuel Macron said earlier this week, following a meeting of the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ – a group of Kiev’s European backers.

The current commitments would allow for a deployment of over 10,000 troops to Ukraine, the WSJ source said, adding that the plan “received input from some US generals,” including the US head of the NATO Allied Command Operations. The level of US involvement in the scheme remains unclear, the report said, adding that there have been no clear statements from President Donald Trump. Russia has expressed strong opposition to any NATO troop deployment to Ukraine. On Friday, President Vladimir Putin warned that foreign soldiers would either become targets for Russian forces or serve no purpose if a genuine peace agreement were reached.

Any Western troops deployed to Ukraine would either become legitimate targets for Russian forces while hostilities continue or irrelevant in the event of a peace deal, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin commented on the recent meeting of Ukraine’s European backers – dubbed the “coalition of the willing” – in Paris. He reiterated Moscow’s opposition to the group’s proposals for the deployment of troops to Ukraine. “The West’s dragging of Ukraine into NATO was one of the causes of the conflict. If any troops show up now, while the hostilities are ongoing, we would consider them legitimate military targets,” Putin said. “If decisions are made that result in long-term peace, then I simply see no sense in such a presence,” he added. “Nobody should doubt that Russia would implement the agreed terms fully. We will respect security guarantees that both Russia and Ukraine need to be offered.”

Putin also noted that Kiev’s backers have not seriously discussed security guarantees with Moscow. The coalition – including the UK, France, Germany, and other European nations providing weapons to Kiev – is weighing possible security commitments, although many of its members have publicly rejected sending ground forces to Ukraine. Earlier this week, former Polish President Andrzej Duda said the Ukrainian leadership is “dreaming” of drawing NATO into a direct war with Russia. He referred to a 2022 incident when a Ukrainian missile struck a Polish border village, killing one person, and Kiev swiftly accused Moscow of attacking the member of the US-led military bloc.

Sep 5, 2025

Featured • Vladimir Putin Updates Reporters and the World on Russia’s Ukraine Policy, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Sep 4, 2025
All those people waving Ukraine flags probably won't read this, but they should. The rest of us -- please, please do. Putin is a positive fellow, and a truthful one. He has found, as he explains here, that truth is the best policy, the only one that wears well. He did not emphasize the dangers of the present situation, but we need to be aware of them. Long-range missiles being prepared by the UK, Ukraine, and Germany for use against targets deep in Russia? This is truly playing with fire. The risk of war, nuclear war, is greater than most people think. I don't want to be Chicken Little, but we need to understand this. On the flip side, the benefits of peace and mutual security are almost limitless. We could work together in the interests of humanity. We could face the crises of the still-new century with common purpose and shared values, like quarreling neighbors who set aside their respective grievances because a flash flood threatens them both. The bottom line is that the children must be protected and saved. The savagery and barbarism of Israel has to end now, and the ridiculous charade of unpopular European leaders gathering every few days to nurse their bizarre Russophobia together at the expense of the rest of the world has to be seen as the dangerous nonsense it is. Where is "the," or any, peace movement in all this? What seeds there may be must be watered and tended with care, and fertilized with care. By us.

 • SITREP 9/5/25: Rumblings of New 'Major' Russian Offensive as Elite Units Regroup, Simplicius, Sep 4, 2025
Ukraine has lost this war. The longer it goes on, the smaller the eventual Ukraine will be, both in terms of land and in terms of men and boys, since the latter are now legally leaving if they can.

 • France’s Macron Says 26 Countries Willing To Send Troops as a US-Backed ‘Reassurance Force’ for Ukraine, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Sep 4, 2025

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that a number of countries have pledged to provide troops as part of a “reassurance force” to send to Ukraine after a peace deal was reached, a plan Russia has made clear it would never accept.

Macron made the comments alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after hosting a summit of the so-called “coalition of the willing,” a group of 35 countries that support Ukraine. He said that 26 countries pledged to provide troops on land, at sea, or in the air, signaling that not all countries are willing to deploy troops on the ground in Ukraine.

...One US official told the Post that the American role in the deployment was yet to be determined. “There is a difference between offer and agree,” the official said. “That’s the president’s call. He has not made any decision yet.”

The insistence on putting troops from NATO countries on the ground in Ukraine could end up sinking the peace process as Moscow has repeatedly rejected the possibility and says that it must be involved in any talks about security guarantees for Ukraine.

Sep 4, 2025

Featured • The West has a big problem: it can’t stop lying. Even to itself, Tarik Cyril Amar, RT, Sep 3, 2025

There is an aspect of this intense and unremitting Western addiction to lying that should not be overlooked because it plays a key role in making Western disinformation so persistently toxic: The West never acknowledges, corrects, or regrets its fake news, at least not while doing so would still make a difference.

Bewailing, for instance, the “mistake” – really, enormous crime – of the Vietnam War? Maybe, a little, if there’s a self-pitying (Rambo I, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket) or squarely delusional (Rambo II) movie in it that sells.

Admitting, on the other hand, that the “Maidan Sniper Massacre” of 2014 was a mass-murderous false-flag operation conducted by ruthless Ukrainian nationalists and fascists, such as, prominently, the recently assassinated Andrey Parubiy? Definitely not. Never mind the painstakingly detailed, conclusive studies of Ukrainian-Canadian scholar Ivan Katchanovski, which are easily available as an open-access book from one of the world’s most reputable academic publishers.

Because if the West were to recognize this fact, a keystone of the edifice of lies erected to justify its cynical and devastating use of Ukraine in a failed proxy war against Russia would crumble: the silly conceit that the regime change operation of 2014 was “democratic,” “from below,” and soaked in national “dignity.” Instead we’d have to face the reality of subversion, manipulation, and the betrayal of a nation to the West’s geopolitics, which is mercilessly cruel as well as bunglingly incompetent.

And then, what next: Admitting that Russia was indeed provoked, for over three decades? That the Ukrainian far right is powerful and dangerous: a hotchpotch of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and assorted other fascists which the West has “normalized” and armed beyond their wildest dreams? That Ukraine’s leader Vladimir Zelensky is a corrupt authoritarian with a dependency problem?

Ukraine must recognize its territorial losses, guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking population, and agree to a security arrangement that poses no threat to Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. In an interview with the Indonesian newspaper Kompas released on Wednesday, Lavrov signaled that Russia is open to talks with Ukraine, but noted that a “durable peace” is only possible if Moscow’s territorial gains — including Crimea, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Kherson Region and Zaporozhye Region — are “recognized and formalized in an international legal manner.” The regions overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in public referendums in 2014 and 2022. Lavrov further asserted that peace hinges on “eradicating the underlying cause” of the conflict, which stems from NATO’s expansion and “attempts to drag Ukraine into this aggressive military bloc.”

“Ukraine’s neutral, non-aligned, and nuclear-free status must be ensured. These conditions were spelled out in Ukraine’s 1990 Declaration of Independence, and Russia and the international community used them to recognize Ukrainian statehood,” the foreign minister said. Another cornerstone of a potential settlement is Kiev’s promise to ensure human rights. At present, Kiev “is exterminating everything connected with Russia, Russians, and Russian-speaking people, including the Russian language, culture, traditions, canonical Orthodoxy, and Russian-language media,” he said. He added that Ukraine “is the only country where the use of the language spoken by a significant portion of the population has been outlawed.”

Ukraine’s Western backers should accept that military efforts against Russia are failing and should instead focus on undermining its economy, including by sanctioning its trade partners, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday. Germany remains one of Ukraine’s largest arms suppliers and has pledged long-term backing for Kiev. Despite that support, Russian forces continue to make frontline advances, Merz told the ProSiebenSat.1 media outlet. He argued that the priority should now shift toward intensifying sanctions. “We must ensure that this country, Russia, is no longer able to maintain its war economy,” he said. “In this context, I’m talking about economic exhaustion, which we must help bring about. For example, through tariffs on those who still trade diligently with Russia.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the comments on Wednesday, writing on Telegram: “Your exhausting rod is not long enough, Herr Merz.” Moscow has touted its resilience to Western sanctions as a hallmark of Russian economic sovereignty and has questioned the logic of politicians who pursue such policies. “Many of the things they do harm themselves,” President Vladimir Putin remarked at a business forum in May. “One would think they would not do this or that thing to avoid self-harm. But those dimwits do, pardon my words. Leading world economies are going into a recession just to spite us.”

Sep 3, 2025

Featured • Alastair Crooke: Trump and Violent Zionism, Judging Freedom, Sep 3, 2025

Featured • Ukraine's Best Security Guarantee Is Finlandization, Moon of Alabama, Sep 3, 2025

The simple secret of living peacefully next to a mighty neighbor, Finland had found, was to behave well:

Lacking any security guarantees from the West or anyone else, Finland exercised this independence not by turning anti-Russian—which would almost certainly have resulted in another invasion—but by building one of the most successful countries in Europe. “People didn’t wait for perfect conditions. They worked with what they had,” Risto Penttilä, a foreign-policy expert, explains.

In politics and in the media Finland carefully avoided anything that could anger Moscow. To most outsiders, what became known as “Finlandisation” was a servile form of appeasement. To Mr Stubb and most of his countrymen, “it was the definition of realpolitik at a time when we did not have a choice.” It allowed Finland to stick to its core values: universal education, social welfare and the rule of law.

The 'Finlandization' of Ukraine, if done seriously, would satisfy major Russian demands - neutrality, demilitarization and denazification. It is a realistic base for successful peace talks.

I am encouraged that the Economist, as a major mainstream outlet, has picked up on this.

For the idea to ripen it will have to wait until the powers-that-be have recognized that all other variants of 'security guarantees', be they troops on the ground or weapon-fabrications, are rather pipe-dreams than serious plans.

The EU’s cheap-gas lifeline just got handed to Beijing instead. With three signatures, Russia, China and Mongolia rerouted half a century of energy history eastward. On Tuesday, the three countries signed a legally binding memorandum for the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline – a roughly 2,600-km line, at an estimated cost of around $13.6 bn, that will carry 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas every year through Mongolia into northern China’s industrial heartland. While the pricing structure has yet to be fixed, the signatories have effectively redrawn the European energy map. For decades, this gas was the bedrock of German and Western European industry, piped from Russia’s Yamal fields in the Arctic through Nord Stream 1 directly into Germany. Now, that same supply is being redirected east.

Isn’t there already a pipeline? Yes. Power of Siberia 1, which came online in 2019, snakes east from Yakutia into northeastern China. What makes this deal different? Power of Siberia 2 is different: it will run a more direct route through Mongolia, which will gain access to the gas, tapping the very Yamal fields in western Siberia that once connected to Germany through the Nord Stream and Yamal-Europe pipelines, as well as transit revenues. Unlike POS1, which sources Russia’s Asian-facing fields, POS2 will draw gas from Arctic reserves that once fed Europe’s factories.

In other words, it closes the chapter of Europe as the main customer for Russian gas and hard-wires China as the new anchor market. What’s the timeline? The memorandum is binding but still vague. Key details such as pricing formulas, financing structures, and construction deadlines have not been finalized. One thing is clear though: once the backbone of EU’s growth, the gas will instead be sent into pipelines running east through Mongolia to China. For Brussels and Berlin, it’s not just a loss of supply but a structural break: the age of cheap Siberian gas for Europe is over.

As well as as the Power of Siberia 2 signing, Moscow also pledged to boost flows on existing lines. POS1 volumes will rise from 38 to 44 billion cubic meters a year – roughly a quarter of what the EU once bought from Russia. Russia’s Far Eastern route, piping gas in from the Sakhalin mega-projects, will rise from 10 to 12 billion cubic meters – about a tenth of what Europe used to purchase from Moscow annually. But the big figure is Power of Siberia 2: 50 billion cubic meters annually, slightly less than the Nord Stream 1 pipeline once carried into Germany before it was blown up. Add it all together and China will be importing over 100 billion cubic meters of Russian gas every year – volumes comparable to the flows that for decades underpinned Europe’s industrial base.

For the EU, the symbolism is brutal. The same Arctic molecules that drove the post-war boom and kept German factories competitive are now earmarked for China. The EU attempted to cut itself off from Russian supply after 2022, in a rupture that was allegedly tacitly backed by NATO. Since then, the bloc has been forced to buy US LNG at much higher prices than Russian pipeline gas, triggering an energy price crisis across the bloc and helping drive Germany into recession. With Power of Siberia 2 signed, the option of reversing course and reconnecting Europe to Russian gas has effectively vanished.

Oswald Spengler, eccentric German arch-conservative, brilliant author of “The Decline of the West,” and proud pessimist extraordinaire (“optimism is cowardice”), could also be rather woke: You will find no more disdainful scorn or biting derision for the West’s navel-gazing than his. Skewering the Occident’s “provincial presuppositions,” naïve vanity, and self-crippling narrow-mindedness, Spengler dismissed its compulsive solipsism as producing a “prodigious optical illusion” of self-importance. Today, a little over a hundred years after these observations, Spengler would feel grimly vindicated. The string of international events – on a scale from “remarkable” to “game-changing” – that has just unfolded first at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, then around Beijing’s massive 80th-anniversary World War II victory parade, should bring home to even the most somnambulant inhabitant of the Western mainstream media bubble two key facts about our world as it really is.

First, a new global order centered on Eurasia (minus a small, odd, and dismal peninsula, compulsively fixated on the Atlantic and masochistically obedient to the US) and the Global South is emerging unstoppably. China’s President Xi Jinping made clear in Tianjin that its custodians will relegate the West’s farcical “rules-based international order,” this ugly aberration that has facilitated the Gaza genocide and other mass crimes, to the rubbish heap of history. And second, the West is missing its chance to play a role in shaping what is coming after its half-delusional and entirely brutal “unipolar moment.” Stuck in self-defeating complacency, as illustrated by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s bigoted dismissal of the SCO meeting as a “performative” get-together of “bad actors,” current Western establishments are determined to keep self-marginalizing.

In Slovak leader’s Robert Fico’s apt terms, most of the Western leadership will go on playing “frog at the bottom of the well,” all too happy to live without a clue. Maybe that’s all for the better: It is hard to see them make a sincere contribution to a world built on “sovereign equality,” “international rule of law,” and “multilateralism” (Xi Jinping), “valid and unshakable” UN principles (Russia’s Vladimir Putin), and a type of “connectivity” that respects “sovereignty and territorial integrity” (Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi).

Violent Ukrainian nationalist forces like Right Sector, Azov, and Sternenko’s militants have become indispensable foot soldiers in Washington’s project, and therefore their lengthy record of violence and terrorism has been obscured. Even as Zelensky now faces threats to his life from these same forces, they are still celebrated in Western media as heroes of democracy.

The paradox is revealing: The very groups hailed as Ukraine’s “defenders of democracy” are also those eroding it from within, threatening to assassinate the president if he pursues peace. Though an unintended consequence, this perilous dynamic flows from U.S. policy and reveals its true aims.

The U.S. strategy in Ukraine was never about protecting Ukrainian democracy. It was—as Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin admitted—about sustaining a proxy war to “weaken Russia.” The emergence of violent antidemocratic forces in Kiev has not been a casualty of that strategy, but its central instrument.

Moscow is committed to countering the xenophobia promoted by the West, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RT. She made the remarks as President Vladimir Putin concluded his four-day visit to China by attending a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday, marking the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II. She argued that efforts by some politicians and media outlets to downplay or “distort” the victory of Russia and China in World War II show that “fascism, Nazism, racism, and xenophobia have not been completely eradicated.”

“These were the views our country fought against 80 years ago, and we are still confronting them on the international stage today,” she said. Zakharova added that Russia is determined to preserve the memory of WWII, as well as defend international law and “the true values that our world is built on.” “They haven’t yet been crippled by the Western liberal dictatorships that try to sway us towards a distorted understanding of people,” she said.

When the news broke that a suspect had been arrested in the assassination of former Rada speaker, far-right Maidan figure Andrey Parubiy, much of the initial discussion revolved around Russia. Ukrainian authorities are predictably looking for a “Russian footprint.” But the suspect’s own words tell a very different story – a story of a grieving father who turned his despair into violence, and in doing so, revealed a deeper crisis within Ukrainian society itself.

The man accused of murdering Parubiy, one Mikhail Stselnikov, is not a shadowy foreign agent, but a Ukrainian whose son went missing in the war against Russia. His confession was blunt: his act was driven by personal revenge against the Ukrainian authorities. He says he chose Parubiy because he lived nearby, and he would’ve chosen former president Pyotr Poroshenko if that were more convenient. This choice of target is not random: these are men who, since the 2014 Maidan revolution, took Ukraine down the path the path toward confrontation with Russia, NATO aspirations, and ultimately, a devastating war.

Sep 2, 2025

Featured • Ukraine Needs Neutrality, Not Military Guarantees - Jeffrey Sachs, Sputnik International, Sep 2, 2025

Security guarantees for Ukraine do not require a military presence from Europe or the United States, but rather a commitment to neutrality as outlined in the country’s original constitution, well-known US economist and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University Jeffrey Sachs told Sputnik in an interview. “And in this sense, I think neutrality for Ukraine doesn’t need all sorts of fancy military guarantees. It doesn’t need European boots on the ground. It doesn’t need American airplanes flying overhead. It needs the clarity that Ukraine will be neutral, as Ukraine declared in its original Constitution when it declared independence,” Sachs said.

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has said he had always been a staunch opponent of Ukraine joining NATO, warning that such a move would have sparked a civil war. Yanukovich served as president from 2010 to 2014, when he was ousted in the Western-backed Maidan coup and forced to flee the country, seeking refuge in Russia. Shortly afterward, the Ukrainian parliament formally stripped him of his presidential title. The protests began after Yanukovich decided to suspend preparations for Ukraine’s signing of an association agreement with the EU, explaining that the deal would have imposed harsh economic conditions and included terms he deemed unacceptable.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Yanukovich said he had always worked toward EU accession, which he described as a strategic goal of his presidency. “Indeed, I purposefully worked to bring Ukraine closer to the European Union and ultimately set the goal of Ukraine’s accession,” he said. However, in his words, Kiev’s Western European partners behaved condescendingly during the talks. “They showed no understanding of the complexity of Ukraine’s economic situation. Frankly, they displayed arrogance,” he added.

Yanukovich stressed that while he had been firmly committed to pursuing Ukraine’s EU integration, he had always rejected NATO membership. He said he had “clearly and distinctly understood that this is a disaster for Ukraine” and a “road to nowhere.”

“It is a direct path to civil war,” he emphasized.

Sep 1, 2025

Featured • Israel’s ‘new, violent Zionism’ as a harbinger of Imperial geo-politics of submission and obedience, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Sep 1, 2025

The clear response that Dr Hude gives in his book Philosophie de la Guerre is that war without limits cannot be the solution, because it cannot deliver long-lasting ‘deterrence’ or de-radicalisation:

“On the contrary, it is the most certain cause of war. Ceasing to be rational, despising opponents who are more rational than it is, arousing opponents who are even less rational than it is, the Leviathan will fall; and even before its fall, no security is assured”.

Hude identifies too such extreme ‘will to power’ without limits as necessarily containing the psyche of self-destruction within it.

For a Leviathan to function, it must remain rational and powerful. Ceasing to be rational, despising opponents who are more rational, and angering opponents who are less rational than it is itself, the Leviathan then must – and will – fall.

This is precisely why Iran, even now, knows it must prepare for the Big War as Leviathan ‘arises’. And so too, must Russia – for it is one single war being prosecuted against recalcitrants to the American new order.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has threatened new strikes into Russia, days after claiming that Kiev possessed a brand-new long-range missile capable of reaching Moscow. Zelensky wrote on Telegram that he had been briefed by Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Aleksandr Syrsky, on the current battlefield situation. “We will continue our active actions exactly as needed to protect Ukraine. Forces and means are prepared. New deep strikes have also been planned,” he said on Sunday, without providing further details. Earlier this month, Zelensky claimed Ukraine had developed the long-range Flamingo missile with a reported range of 3,000 kilometers – which would be enough to reach not only Moscow but also Russian cities beyond the Ural mountains. The Ukrainian leader, however, said that mass production is not expected for the next several months.

British media outlets cast doubts on whether the Flamingo was developed in Ukraine, noting similarities with the FP-5 cruise missile produced by the UK-based Milanion Group and unveiled at an arms expo in Abu Dhabi this year. The UK has also been supportive of Kiev’s long-range strikes, having provided it with Storm Shadow missiles in the past. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that there is “nothing surprising” in the similarities, adding that “Ukraine has long turned into a testing ground for Western weapons. There are more than enough examples.” On Friday, the Kyiv Independent also reported that Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau has launched an investigation into Fire Point, the defense firm linked to the development of the Flamingo missile, after reports it misled the government on pricing and deliveries.

Andrey Parubiy, a far-right Ukrainian politician who was shot dead in Lviv on Saturday, directly ordered attacks on Donbass and provoked a “civil war” with eastern Ukraine after the Maidan coup, ex-Ukrainian diplomat Andrey Telizhenko has told RT. Parubiy, an MP and former speaker of the Ukrainian Rada, played an active role in the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, as well as in the nationalist government it brought to power. He had deep and long-running ties to Ukraine’s neo-Nazi movement, co-founding the far-right Social-National Party of Ukraine. “During the cabinet of ministers meetings, [at] which I was present, Parubiy directly ordered the mass shellings of the people of Donbass,” Telizhenko told RT on Saturday.

“He said, ‘We do not care who those people are. Russians, they’re Moscali [a Ukrainian slur for Russians], we should kill them,’” the former diplomat, who was an adviser to Ukraine’s prosecutor general at the time, said. That’s a direct citation from Parubiy during the cabinet of ministers meeting, in which he pushed to provoke the civil war in eastern Ukraine, which has now led to a big massive conflict. Parubiy and his team were “working directly with the Jamestown Foundation, a former CIA central think tank in Washington, DC,” Telizhenko claimed. This is not just a collaborator with the West. He’s a Nazi. He was directly supporting the Nazi movement in Ukraine. According to Telizhenko, Parubiy directly coordinated the shootings during the Maidan coup.

“He was coordinating the radicals on Maidan, when to shoot, who to shoot and how to shoot, even who to shoot [among] their own” and “provoking insurgents within the coup itself,” he said. “His team was responsible for blocking the anti-sniper unit [from] coming to Maidan.” Parubiy “also covered up the shootings” in the subsequent investigation, as well as blocking the probe into the 2014 Odessa massacre, Telizhenko said. “He was responsible for closing down the case and destroying the evidence [of] his involvement in the coordination of that terrorist attack,” he said. The far-right MP was reportedly responsible for organizing, arming, and transporting the militants which burned 42 anti-Maidan activists to death in the Odessa Trade Unions House.

Whether the bloody war in Ukraine will come to an end in the foreseeable future remains to be seen. But if it does, two brute facts are almost certain. First, Russia will continue to occupy about 20 percent of the land that previously belonged to Ukraine; second, Ukraine will not relinquish its claim to recover its land. The issue this map exercise brings into sharper focus is: how much should Ukrainians care about the differences between the feasible options they face today? If we start with the fact that recovering the equivalent of northern New England now is not a realistic option, the operational question is how much they should care about the further loss of Delaware?

If Russia were prepared to, in return, withdraw from the 400 square miles of territory it now holds in Sumy and Kharkiv—an area slightly larger than Cape Cod—that would by no means be an even trade. But if Ukraine’s alternative is to continue a war in which, at the end of every month, Russian forces have taken another hundred to two hundred square miles of Ukraine—as they have every month this year—then which of these unpalatable options offers the better road ahead?

NATO still aims to ‘win’ its war against Russia and the US has apparently decided to back its European allies.

There is growing evidence that not only have the Ukraine peace talks stalled, but NATO has won over Washington to not only continue the war but to expand it.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin has flown off to meet with his two buddies, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un, in China on an unprecedented four-day jaunt, NATO, with full US backing, is stepping up its effort to hand the Russian army a major defeat and, following that, introducing NATO troops to “stabilize” Ukraine.

NATO should have been dissolved back in 1990 as the alliance had fulfilled its mission of confronting the Soviet Union, renowned US economist and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University Jeffrey Sachs said.The interview was conducted ahead of the Eastern Economic Forum, which will take place in Vladivostok from September 3–6. The economist is going to participate in a session “UN Development Agenda Beyond 2030.””First of all, NATO should have ended in 1990 when President Gorbachev ended the Warsaw Pact, the Western countries should have said yes, and we end NATO,” Jeffrey Sachs said. “It became, instead, a mechanism of US power expansion, which is not what NATO should be. This eastward movement of NATO since 1990 has been wholly unjustified and contrary to Western promises.”

Sachs expressed skepticism about Europe’s ability to establish an independent security framework to replace NATO.”The problem with Europe is, as everybody knows, there isn’t really a Europe. There are so many countries squabbling with each other,” Sachs noted, highlighting that Europe has been at war with itself for 1,000 years. In February 2024, Putin said in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson that Russia could become a NATO member in the early 2000s if the US showed sincere interest. Clinton, however, “was cold” to this idea, according to Putin. In recent years, Russia has highlighted NATO’s unprecedented military activity near its western borders. Ukraine’s plans to join the bloc were among the reasons why Russia says it launched its special military operation in February 2022.

Parubiy carried too many secrets – and in Ukraine, secrets can be fatal. He knew far too much about the real shooters on the Maidan in February 2014. As “commandant,” he oversaw the units who guarded the square, and he was positioned to see what others could not. He knew what really happened when the snipers opened fire, when the bloodbath claimed lives and forced Yanukovich to flee. He knew names, structures, and the chain of command. That knowledge made him dangerous.

He also knew the truth about Odessa, May 2, 2014 – the day the Trade Union House went up in flames and dozens of anti-Maidan activists died. International monitors called it a massacre, but the state buried accountability. Parubiy, as head of the National Security and Defense Council at the time, was in the middle of it all. He saw who gave the orders, who turned away, who allowed the fire to consume the building. Those responsible never faced justice, and Parubiy carried the story inside his head.

He knew the full picture of the early days in Donbass, when provocations, manipulations, and engineered violence pushed Ukraine into a war against its own people. He knew the true sponsors and curators. He knew which political figures, which structures, which financial backers prepared and paid for the bloody upheaval. All of this knowledge made him a threat not to Russia, but to those much closer: the networks who had built their power in those years and who now sit on fragile foundations.

For them, Parubiy, – a close ally of former president Petro Poroshenko, beaten by Vladimir Zelensky in 2019 – was no longer an ally. He was a liability. And in the brutal logic of power, liabilities are erased. This is why his assassination looks less like an act of foreign aggression and more like an act of internal housecleaning. It was a calculated decision to tidy up loose ends, to remove a man who could, at any moment, destabilize the whole system by speaking truths that were never meant to surface. His silence was demanded, and silence was achieved.

So while the official story will continue to speak of Russian agents, of another “terrorist act” in Moscow’s hybrid war, many in Kiev understand otherwise. They know Parubiy was not struck down by outsiders but by insiders. They know it was not the Kremlin's revenge for 2014 but Ukraine’s own structures, its own power brokers deciding that one of its founding fathers had become excess baggage.

In this sense, his death is a signal to others: no one is safe, and no secret is too old to kill for.

Berlin has shelved plans to possibly deploy German soldiers to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, Bild reported on Sunday, citing government sources. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had earlier signaled openness to Berlin joining a possible peacekeeping mission in Ukraine. The idea had been floated by the so-called “coalition of the willing” – a group of Western states pushing for continued aid to Kiev. The group has proposed deploying NATO troops to monitor a potential future ceasefire with Russia as part of security guarantees for Ukraine, despite Moscow’s consistent rejection of any Western military presence in Ukraine under any guise. Trump, however, said last week that American troops would not be deployed to Ukraine, insisting that the EU should “front load” security guarantees for Kiev, not the US, including with regard to peacekeepers.

Andriy Parubiy was the primary Ukrainian political activist during Victoria Nuland’s organized Maidan revolution. In common parlance, this assassination might be considered throwing a bag over a potential risk.

...Long ago, the opposition elements in eastern Ukraine labeled Parubiy a ‘nazi’ and accused him of working in collaboration with U.S. intelligence (CIA).

Andriy Parubiy knew a lot about western intelligence operations in Ukraine.

Andriy Parubiy is dead now.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy knows a lot about western intelligence operations in Ukraine.

The White House believes certain European governments are quietly obstructing efforts to end the Ukraine conflict by encouraging Kiev to push for unrealistic demands, despite publicly endorsing President Donald Trump’s peace initiative, Axios has reported. Trump administration officials are increasingly frustrated with what they describe as the EU’s “maximalist” position and its expectations for Washington to shoulder the burden while contributing little themselves, the publication wrote on Saturday. “The Europeans don’t get to prolong this war and backdoor unreasonable expectations, while also expecting America to bear the cost,” an anonymous top US official said. “If Europe wants to escalate this war, that will be up to them. But they will be hopelessly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”

On August 27, Chisinau turned into a stage for a geopolitical spectacle. To mark the country’s 34th Independence Day, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, and Donald Tusk flew in for the celebrations. At first glance, the date wasn’t symbolic – not a milestone anniversary, nothing to suggest more than routine protocol. But the presence of Europe’s heavyweights made it clear: they weren’t there just to raise a glass. Their message was unmistakable – Moldova’s path must remain firmly European, and the door to Moscow must stay shut. The timing was no accident either. In less than a month, Moldovans will vote in parliamentary elections that could decide whether the ruling party manages to hold onto power.

That’s why the visit was less about congratulating the country and more about sending a signal: Brussels stands squarely behind Maia Sandu’s government and is determined to keep a tight grip on the direction of Moldova’s foreign policy. The speeches in Chisinau read less like polite congratulations and more like marching orders. Macron spoke of “friendship, solidarity, and confidence in our shared future.” Tusk declared that “Europe will be stronger with Moldova” and praised the country’s “values and resilience.” Merz, for his part, assured the crowd that “Germany, France, and Poland stand with a free and European Moldova.” Translated from diplomatic niceties, the message was blunt: Brussels sees Moldova as part of its buffer zone – and it’s prepared to squeeze until any attempt to restore ties with Russia becomes political suicide.

All of this is happening against the backdrop of a decisive vote. On September 28, Moldovans head to the polls in parliamentary elections that could reshape the country’s politics for years. The ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) is at real risk of losing its majority. That’s why Independence Day was staged as a dress rehearsal for the campaign: photo ops with European leaders, warnings about “hybrid threats,” and promises of support from Brussels. The goal was clear – to lock the country into a narrative of “Europe or chaos,” leaving no room for pragmatic recalibration or any attempt at balancing ties with Moscow.

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 • ‘The Real Purpose In Making The Bomb Was To Subdue The Soviets.’ Now It’s Happening Again, On A Vast Scale. Why? – July 22 At Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos Reporter, Jul 19, 2023

 • Bulletin 330: "'The real purpose in making the bomb was to subdue the Soviets.'* Now it's happening again, on a vast scale. WHY?" A conversation with acclaimed historian Peter Kuznick and Greg Mello in Los Alamos, July 22, Jul 7, 2023

 • Ukraine War Makes it Harder to be a Nuclear ‘Dove’ | Our Land, Laura Paskus, New Mexico in Focus, Jun 30, 2023

 • Bulletin 329: Russia rules out nuclear disarmament negotiations; second week of Ukrainian offenses fail; what will US and NATO do? Build 60 projects in LANL's Pajarito Corridor?, Jun 17, 2023

 • Ukraine; Biden's Manicheism; the U.S. cannot even conduct a nuclear arms race, let alone win one, LASG friends ltr, Mar 16, 2023

 • Ukraine protest and updates, pit production delays and cost increases in NNSA's new budget, LASG friends ltr, Mar 14, 2023

 • Antiwar rally 2 pm Saturday in Albuquerque; LANL pits delayed, endorse the "Call for Sanity"; Ukraine update; the Nordstream investigation (and likely impeachment) "imperative" LASG friends ltr, Mar 11, 2023
 • Ukraine losses mount toward critical point; ANSWER rally against the war is now 2 pm (not 1 pm), March 18, Albuquerque; nearly half U.S. citizens believe WWIII is near, LASG friends ltr, Mar 7, 2023

 • Ukraine news and views; antiwar rally March 18; pending guest editorial; pit production precis, LASG friends ltr, Mar 3, 2023

 • Bulletin 325: Understanding the Nordstream sabotage and punishing those responsible, Feb 18, 2023

 • Ukraine news with comments and excerpts; bookmark for future reference if desired,LASG friends ltr, Feb 8, 2023

 • Bulletin 324: Opposition to Ukraine war gains visibility in New Mexico and via our web site, more broadly, Feb 6, 2023

 • Anti-nuclear activist opposes helping Ukraine, encourages peace, Santa Fe New Mexican, Feb 5, 2023

 • Bulletin 323: "Nuclear Hotseat" interview / Ukraine war updates, Feb 4, 2023

 • Bulletin 322: Right and Left To Join in D.C. Protest: ‘Not One More Penny for War in Ukraine’ / Bulletin of Atomic Scientists resets clock, blames Russia, Jan 25, 2023

 • $10 Trillion for Nuclear War: Racing to the Nuclear Cliff, The Socialist Program with Brian Becker, Jan 10, 2023

 • Bulletin 321: Last day for 2022 donations! / A few quick updates, Dec 31, 2022

 • Bulletin 320: Neocon humiliation -- or nuclear exchange / The centrality of war resistance in moral politics / 3 days left for 1:1 donation match!, Dec 29, 2022

 • Bulletin 319: Ukraine; NDAA: omnibus appropriations bill; fundraising --thank you; some matching funds still available, Dec 21, 2022

 • Stop the war now, Jean Nichols, The Taos News, Dec 19, 2022

 • Bulletin 318: Speak out now against further U.S. escalation in Ukraine; daily updates for your use, Dec 14, 2022

 • Agenda for tonight's emergency Ukraine meeting in Albuquerque, and by Zoom, Nov 15, 2022

 • Bulletin 314: Reminder re next week's antiwar, disarmament, & nuclear safety events: come if you can or tune in, outreach needed; pit interview on KNME tonight 7 pm; fundraising drive continues; erratum, Nov 11, 2022

 • Bulletin 313: Important meeting about Ukraine next week; DNFSB hearing in Santa Fe; more, Nov 7, 2022

 • Biden Administration releases aggressive nuclear strategy envisioning "first use" of nuclear weapons in wars like Ukraine, press release, Oct 27, 2022

 • Bulletin 310: Speak up! We urge you to take up the call for peace in Ukraine, Sep 25, 2022

 • Pope Francis: "World War III has been declared." We agree. Stop LANL's pit factory; Stop the U.S. war against Russia, presentation, Jun 15, 2022

 • Bulletin 301: Oppose the war! Demand and create accountability for lawmakers who fund and promote more war in Ukraine, May 16, 2022

 • Grave dangers loom in Ukraine war votes and escalations; opportunities open for journalists and citizens; We urge news media to widen debate, pose questions, create accountability, press release, May 16, 2022

 • LASG friends ltr: Thursday evening public discussion in Albuquerque: Ukraine, propaganda, progressives supporting Nazis and war, May 10, 2022

 • Escalation in Ukraine: The Nuclear War Danger is Real, Brian Becker & Greg Mello discuss the U.S. policy of waging proxy war on Russia, BreakThrough News, May 4, 2022

 • Bulletin 299: Emergency call to action: stop Biden's proposed $33 billion war escalation, Apr 28, 2022

 • Bulletin 298: Talk on pits & renewed U.S. nuclear weapons production Tuesday evening 4/26/22; antiwar billboard; what you can do, Apr 25, 2022

 • The core debate, Searchlight New Mexico, Mar 23, 2022

 • Bulletin 294: Please consider forwarding this fine statement from UNAC re Ukraine, Mar 23, 2022

 • Nuclear expert speaks on the dangers of war between the US and Russia, World Socialist Website, Mar 15, 2022

 • A Proposed Solution to the Ukraine War, Consortium News, Greg Mello, Mar 7, 2022

 • Bulletin 293: Ukraine conflict: If you want a ceasefire (as we do), stop firing, Mar 5, 2022

 • Bulletin 292: Statement on the Ukraine conflict and war with Russia, Mar 1, 2022

 • "What can we in New Mexico do?," LASG letter, Feb 23, 2022

 • Bulletin 288: US nuclear weapons since 2020: continuity and change, Dec 7, 2021 (see discussion of US, NATO, and Russia)

 • Nuclear experts speak on the dangers of war between the US and Russia, World Socialist Web Site, Apr 15, 2017

 • US Leaders Reject “Nuclear Winter” Studies, Ignore Existential Danger of Nuclear War. Turn a Blind Eye towards Armageddon, Steven Starr, Global Research, Nov 1, 2016

 • The Ukraine Conflict: What's Behind It? Why Is It Important?, Sep 26, 2015

 • Bulletin 200: Warhead budget bloat; U.S.-caused Ukraine catastrophe at the brink; hello peak oil, Feb 8, 2015