From spy to president: The rise of Vladimir Putin

Salaam

Another update

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The New Far Right is uniting globally and Russia is capitalising on it

In the 60s, Russia took advantage of leftist anti-imperialist movements in an attempt to destabilise the liberal world order. Today, the Russians are trying to repeat the feat with the far-right, only this time, Islamophobia is the rallying cry.

The Civil Rights Movement, opposition to the Vietnam War, and a disillusionment with the authoritarian nature of Communism and socialism gave birth to the international New Left in the 1960s, culminating with global anti-war protests in 1968. Today, a New Far Right is being internationalised, fueled by a primary source: Islamophobia.

Given leftist politics trace their roots in the principles of emancipation, liberation, equality and social justice, it’s easy to forget that the primary terror threat for law enforcement agencies in the Western world for much of the 1970s were leftist organisations.

Leftist terror groups like the Italian Red Brigades, Japanese Red Army, Red Army Faction, the French Action Directe, and the American Weather Underground (founded with the goal of bringing an end to US imperialism), carried out a combined total of more than several thousand terror attacks across Europe and the United States in the 1970s and 80s.

These leftist terror groups shared a common core set of beliefs, including vehement opposition to their own governments, Western colonialism, the European order, US imperialism, Cold War politics, all alongside an expressed solidarity with anti-colonial and civil rights movements.

Many of these groups also shared another stand out feature in common: they were funded by the Soviet Union.

In particular, the KGB and East Germany’s secret intelligence agency—the Stasi—provided European leftist terror groups like the Italian Red Brigades, Red Army Faction and the 2nd June Movement in Germany with funding, arms, and training, with the hope these groups would, through their use of violence, destabilise the European democratic order and weaken Western democratic states.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s, however, support for leftist terror groups dried up, bringing a sudden halt to the terror wave of the New Left.

The Russian ‘New Wave’

Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB operative, aims to restore the glory days of the Soviet Union by turning to the same old playbook. But instead of utilising the far-left, like the Soviet Union had five decades earlier, Putin is galvanising far-right groups across the world to destabilise the European democratic order, undermine Western alliances, and create havoc within Western democratic states – and Islamophobia and xenophobia is the glue that is bringing these far-right groups and individuals across the globe together.

“We are witnessing the emergence of a new internationalised far right: propelled by deep antipathy towards Muslims,” observes Hope Not Hate, a UK based anti-racist advocacy group.

We now know Russia used Islamophobia as a central pivot point in its effort to influence the 2016 US election in Donald Trump’s favour. It did this by establishing online troll farms, amplifying anti-Muslim tweets and posts on social media, while at the same time setting up thousands of fake social media accounts to portray extremist Islamic views as emblematic of the typical American Muslim.

For example, a Facebook page titled United Muslims of America pushed erroneous memes claiming Trump’s opponent, Hilary Clinton, admitted to “creating, funding, and arming” Al Qaeda and ISIS (Daesh). It also purchased advertisements on Facebook promoting fake nationwide Islamic rallies.

Whereas pamphlets were the propaganda medium of choice for leftist radicals in the 1970s, the Internet is the preferred medium for the emerging internationalised far right. Far-right groups share anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant memes, while also amplifying those who peddle in the demonisation of the perceived foreign other.

Russia’s effort to internationalise the far-right via Islamophobia has been so effective that the US ambassador to the United Kingdom lobbied the British government to release infamous anti-Muslim hate preacher Tommy Robinson from prison, who is serving a 13 month sentence for defying a court order.

Robinson’s army of Muslim hating supporters, however, has deliberately misconstrued his prison term to be punishment for protesting against Muslim trial defendants, thus igniting a global far-right protest against encroachments on “free speech,” or rather hate speech.

Far-right groups across the world have made the case of Tommy Robinson akin to a cause celebre, with Donald Trump Junior extending his support for the two-time felon, along with Steve Bannon, President Trump’s former chief-of-staff.

A united ideological current

According to Hope Not Hate, “Many of those people lionising ‘Tommy’ now probably have little or no idea of the reach and influence of the money behind their man, but Stephen Lennon [Tommy Robinson’s birth name] has long-received support from a coterie of notorious anti-Muslim extremists in the US and elsewhere,” adding that these groups are “determined to stoke conflict and division across Europe.”

While tracing the money behind these far-right groups is not easy, according to Linda Curika, the spokesperson for NATO strategic communications, Russian support for extremists is “all part of a Kremlin strategy to weaken political support for the European Union and NATO.”

“There is a clear ideological link between American white supremacists and the European far-right,” Curika said. “Ideological support that is easily seen. The money is more difficult to trace.”

What is more readily known, however, is the large sums of money funneling into European far-right political parties and organisations from Russian state banks.

For instance, a Kremlin controlled bank extended a 9 million Euro loan to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front party during the 2017 French national election. In Austria, the Kremlin backed far-right extremist Freedom Party formed a coalition government on the back of anti-Muslim sentiment, with some members of the government known for expressing neo-Nazi sentiments.

These Russian backed European far-right political parties and groups interact with influential and prominent figures among far-right groups and individuals in the United States, creating a feedback loop in which anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant memes and tropes are shared, elevated, and amplified.


”Although our country has always had white supremacists, Russia has given them renewed focus and energy, as well as a ready-made worldview. This take on the world includes overt white nationalism, which despises the United States as a decadent and multiracial society,” observes John Schindler, a former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer.

Russian funded far-right propaganda has been so effective, according to Schindler, that white nationalists in the United States, who he says would be unable to find Syria on a map, now express overt support for the Russian-backed Syrian regime leader, Bashar al Assad.

“Ideological synchronicity between the American neo-Nazis and the Kremlin approaches complete overlap,” notes Schindler.

All of this brings us to the dramatic rise of far-right terrorism across Europe, the UK, and the United States. A recent report by Europol found that far-right and separatist groups and individuals were responsible for 137 of 205 terrorist attacks in 2017, while a recent report prepared for Congress by the Government Accountability Office revealed that “of the 85 violent extremist incidents that resulted in death since September 12, 2001, far-right wing violent extremist groups were responsible for 62 (73 percent).”

Essentially, Europe and the United States is reliving the wave of political terrorism both continents experienced in the 1970s and 80s, but this time from the political right, rather than the left, and with Russia again greasing the wheels, only this time with Islamophobia, not anti-imperialism.

https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/the-new-far-right-is-uniting-globally-and-russia-is-capitalising-on-it-19279

Salaam

Another update.

Blurb

China's president Xi Jinping is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok during the Eastern Economic Forum. The three-day meeting brings together the leaders of Russia, China, Japan and South Korea, as well 5,000 delegates from 60 countries.

It's the two leaders’ third meeting and comes amid an escalating US-China trade war and US-led sanctions against Russia. The rapproachement has led the two powers to hold massive, joint wa r games - the largest for Russia since the Cold War.



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Russia’s largest war games in recent history have kicked off in the Far East. The Defence Ministry said the largest military drills since the end of the Cold War will involve about 36,000 tanks and 300,000 troops at sea and on the ground. China is sending 3,200 troops to take part in the Vostok 2018 exercises later this week.

Salaam

Putin has thrown down the gauntlet and did the unthinkable - hes invaded Ukraine.

Latest from British perspective.

Ukraine conflict: Russian invasion ‘going to plan’, says Vladimir Putin

In Russia, there has been talk of martial law being imposed.





Muslim perspectives.

Join us live as we discuss Russia's war in Ukraine, the Prisoner's Covenant and more!



As the Russian army takes Kiev, we discuss how Muslims should react to the current crisis in Ukraine between Nato and Russia

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Background.

Decent all round perspective on whats happening.



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"It's fashionable in the United States and Britain to condemn Putin as some sort of distorted mind," says Noam Chomsky, but he notes no Russian leader can accept the current Ukrainian move to join NATO. He argues a strong declaration that Ukraine will be neutralized offers the path to a peaceful settlement.



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“Truth is the first casualty in the fog of war”



More analysis

A Conclave of Cardinals

The editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs and chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy spells out exactly what I have been saying about the Russian operation in Ukraine being the first step in a conscious and purposeful challenge to the Promethean New World Order that ascended after World War II and has dominated the world for 30 years since the end of the Cold War.

Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine has spelled the end of an epoch in the state of global affairs after President Vladimir Putin launched the action last week. Its impact will be felt for years to come, but Moscow has positioned itself to “become an agent of cardinal change for the whole world.”

The Russian Armed Forces’ operation in Ukraine marks the end of an era. It began with the fall of the Soviet Union and its dissolution in 1991, when a fairly stable bipolar structure was overturned by what eventually came to be known as the ‘Liberal World Order’. This paved the way for the US and its allies to play a dominant role in international politics centered around universalist ideology.

The crisis manifested itself long ago, although there was no significant resistance from major powers who were left unsatisfied with their position in the new political playing field. In fact, for quite a long time (at least a decade and a half), there had been practically no opposition at all. Non-Western countries, namely China and Russia, made efforts to integrate into the hierarchy. Beijing managed not only to do this, but also made the most of the situation to gain a foothold as a dominant player. Moscow, however, came out much worse and took longer to adjust to this new world order and cement a respectable place within its ranks.

The system turned out to be both inflexible and shaky as it conceptually excluded any balance of power. More importantly, however, it did not allow for a sufficient level of cultural and political diversity, which is inherently essential for the sustainable functioning of the world. A uniform worldview that ruled out all others was imposed using various means, including attitudes toward military activity….

This is not an ideological battle like the one witnessed in the second half of the twentieth century. World hegemony is currently being challenged in favor of a much more distributed model. The old Cold War concept of ‘spheres of influence’ is no longer applicable because the world has become much more transparent and interconnected, making isolation possible only to a limited degree. At least, that’s what we’ve thought – up until now.

As has often happened in the past, the current fight is being waged for strategically important territory. The old adage ‘history repeats itself’ is evident when flicking from one media outlet to another. Two different approaches have collided. On one side, there is the exercise of classic hard power, which is guided by simple, unpolished, but plainly understandable principles – blood and soil. Meanwhile, on the other is a modern method of propagating interests and influence, realized through a set of ideological, communicative, and economic tools, which are effective and, at the same time, malleable – commonly referred to as ‘values’.

Since the Cold War, the more modern of these approaches has nearly always been the go-to method. Let’s call it by its fashionable, but inaccurate, name – ‘hybrid war’. For the most part, however, this has never been met with serious resistance, let alone direct armed confrontation.

Ukraine 2022 is the decisive test that will prove which of these approaches will reign victorious. In this sense, those who suspect that the consequences could be a great deal more profound than they thought are correct.

But Russia may not be the only agent of this cardinal change. As we discussed on last night’s Darkstream, I am increasingly of the opinion that the Ukrainian operation is only the first stage in a much larger plan that involves China, and which may involve India, North Korea, and Iran as well. This scenario would account for the refusal of those nations to criticize the Russian action as well as the unprecedented – and completely unmerited – level of rhetoric and quantity of punitive actions by so many of the states and organizations controlled by the New Neo-liberal Rules-based World Order, aka The Empire of Lies aka The Empire That Never Ended aka Globohomo.

My hypothesis, which may or may not be correct, but does offer more comprehensive explanatory power than most of the alternative theories, is that all of these bizarre globalist histrionics are not aimed at Russia, which said from the start it would not be affected by them and has already demonstrated that it meant what it said, but rather, at China, in a desperate attempt to prevent Xi Xinping from opening a second, much more dangerous front against the globalist empire. This hypothesis would also account for the obvious calm with which Russia is enduring the hailstorm of world criticism, as Putin would be aware that he will only be the Hitlerist of all the Hitlers who ever Hitlered until China shows its hand.

https://voxday.net/2022/03/01/a-conclave-of-cardinals/

Salaam

The conflict is ongoing, there's a lot to be said but first off lets get the usual hypocrisy out the way.

First.

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Next.

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With the Ukraine and Russia news, we have seen the curtain of the media fall. What they really think is coming to the front. Here are 7 juicy hypocrisies they’ve exposed to us so far.



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Social media on NATO payroll. Weapons dealers with power over policy. NATO obsession with Ukraine since 1946 and more.

At 4:17 it goes mute, here's what I said: "Raytheon is a US weapons company which affects US policy in many spheres like..." Also at 6:54 I meant to say NATO weapons.



And again, Politics and sport dont mix until. . . ..

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People should talk about Palestine as they do Ukraine, says Egyptian squash star Ali Farag.



How very 'liberal'.

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Former Brit PM getting involved in aid convoys?

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More generally

The Least of the Charges

Hypocrisy is arguably among the least of the charges that can be accurately lodged against The Empire That Never Ended. Given that its influence rests entirely on lies, redefinitions, and sophistic rhetorical manipulation, it’s hardly a surprise that an institution also known as The Empire of Lies should be shamelessly hypocritical. But it is worth observing nevertheless, if only to disarm its rhetoric.

Since people insist on bringing up the moral principles of self-determination and freedom of association, I insist that those principles be equally and fairly applied. That is a thing that human beings do, when it comes to questions of morality, to demand that they be universally invoked if they are to be invoked at all. I don’t know what kind of weird moral world people are living in where they think it’s some irrelevant dodge to maintain the essential notion of universalism. Those who use the term “whataboutism” are alleging that their targets are avoiding hard conversations and real engagement through distraction, but that is in fact precisely the function that the term uses in our discourse, to allow people to wriggle out of considering America’s terrible history of crimes abroad. And to the extent that this dynamic is identified at all, it’s never matched with an attendant focus on the stuff that was disallowed from the conversation. People don’t say “that’s whataboutism” at 2:00 and then say “OK let’s get serious about what America’s drug war has done to Mexico” at 2:30.

The people who say “whataboutism” don’t want to talk about carpet bombing in Cambodia. They don’t want to talk about death squads in El Salvador. They don’t want to talk about reinstalling the Shah in Iran. They don’t want to talk about the murder of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo. They don’t want to talk about giving a hit list to rampaging anti-Communists in Indonesia. They don’t want to talk about the US’s role in installing a far-right government in Honduras. They don’t want to talk about US support for apartheid in South Africa. They don’t want to talk about unexploded ordnance that still kills and maims in Laos. They don’t want to talk about supporting the hideously corrupt drug lord post-Taliban regime in Afghanistan. They don’t want to talk about aiding literal Nazis and Italian fascists in taking over the government in Albania. They don’t want to talk about giving support to the far-right government’s “dirty war” in Argentina. They don’t want to talk about the US-instigated far-right coup in Ghana. They don’t want to talk about our illegal bombing of Yugoslavia. They don’t want to talk about centuries of mistreatment of Haiti, such as sponsoring the coup against Aristide. They don’t want to talk about sparking 36 years of ruinous civil war, and attendant slaughters of indigenous people, in Guatemala. They don’t want to talk about our drone war in Pakistan. They don’t want to talk about how much longer this list could go on….

I asked some really basic questions in this post – do you really think the United States operates under the principle of self-determination for other nations? Do Cuba or any other disfavored countries enjoy self-determination from the influence of the United States? Why are we allowed to dictate who neighbors ally with, where Russia is not? Are you all really so blind to your country’s history? And not one comment, among hundreds, has credibly provided a coherent answer to the basic moral questions at hand.

Those limited to the rhetoric should never be expected to directly answer dialectical questions. Because they can’t. All they have is emotion, and emotion is intrinsically irrational and incoherent.

And liars will never be troubled by their inconsistency. It’s the least of their concerns.

https://voxday.net/2022/03/16/the-least-of-the-charges/

Meanwhile in Russia

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A Russian state media employee interrupted a news broadcast live on air to protest against the invasion of Ukraine.

Channel One editor Marina Ovsyannikova ran on to the set of the network's live nightly news show on Monday evening, shouting: “Stop the war. No to war."

The journalist, who has a Ukrainian father and Russian mother, held a sign saying: “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.”

The poster was signed in English: “Russians against the war”



She was fined then released.



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Since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, more than 13,000 Russians protesting in the streets have been arrested. Correspondent David Pogue talks with a young woman detained for demonstrating against the war; and with a former Parliament Member, forced to leave the country, who describes Putin's efforts to eradicate dissent.



Putin warns Russia against pro-Western ‘traitors’ and ‘scum’

Salaam

A long overdue update. Ill give several perspectives so brothers and sisters can get a rounded view of whats going on.

First from a western perspective.

Blurb

You asked for a six month update, here it is.

If one thing is clear after six months of fighting in Ukraine, it's that there is little chance of an imminent, overwhelming battlefield victory to end the war.

Instead, the struggle has become (as expected) one of attrition and economics. A question of Russian economic resilience, matched against the will of Ukraine and its allies to carry on the fighting, and Europe's ability to endure rapid and deep cuts in the supply of Russian energy resources.

In this 6 month update on the war, I focus not on the battlefield so much as the politics and economics of the war, and ask the question of how much pain is being inflicted, and if we should expect them to carry on in a way that winning a long war requires.



From a more pro Russian perspective.

Signs of a Winter Offensive

Col. Douglas Macgregor observes an ongoing buildup of Russian forces that suggests a winter offensive is planned.

The stupefying air of self-righteousness the Biden administration assumes when it attacks erstwhile strategic partners such as Saudi Arabia or delivers moralizing lectures to Beijing’s leadership, or when its media surrogates express contempt for the Russian state, is downright dangerous. Political figures in Washington are ready to indulge any transgression if it is committed in the name of destroying Russia. They do not view U.S. foreign policy in the context of a larger strategy, nor do they comprehend Russia’s capacity to hurt the United States, a bizarre judgment of Russia’s actual military and economic potential.

The ongoing buildup of 700,000 Russian forces with modern equipment in Western Russia, Eastern Ukraine and Belorussia is a direct consequence of Moscow’s decision to adopt an elastic, strategic defense of the territories it seized in the opening months of the war. It was a wise, though politically unpopular choice in Russia. Yet, the strategy has succeeded. Ukrainian losses have been catastrophic and by November, Russian Forces will be in a position to strike a knockout blow.

Today, there are rumors in the media that Kiev may be under pressure to launch more counterattacks against Russian defenses in Kherson (Southern Ukraine) before the midterm elections in November. At this point, expending what little remains of Ukraine’s life blood to expel Russian forces from Ukraine is hardly synonymous with the preservation of the Ukrainian state. It’s also doubtful that further sacrifices by Ukrainians will assist the Biden administration in the midterm elections.

The truth is Moscow’s redline concerning Ukrainian entry into NATO was always real. Eastern Ukraine and Crimea were always predominantly Russian in language, culture, history, and political orientation. Europe’s descent into economic oblivion this winter is also real, as is support for Russia’s cause in China and India and Moscow’s rising military strength.

Remember, the globalist media operates in terms of a) daily and b) weekly news cycles. As such, they are completely incapable of correctly analyzing events that take months to unfold. While its “Ukraine is Winning” Narrative is obviously false and openly mocked, the full extent to which it is untrue will not be understood until the winter offensive is well underway.

https://voxday.net/2022/10/28/signs-...ter-offensive/

Serious escalation. Nord stream was sabotaged.



It wouldn't surprise me if UK did the deed, but at the direction of the USA.

A Tremendous Opportunity

The US Secretary of State, whose department threatened to destroy Nord Stream 2 even before the beginning of the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine, now says the USA considers the destruction of the Russian gas pipelines to be a “tremendous opportunity”. Indeed.

The US views the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines as a “tremendous opportunity” to wean EU states off Russian energy, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Friday.

With winter approaching, Blinken said that the US wants the bloc to use less fuel.

Washington has for years been trying to convince EU leaders to swap Russian gas for its LNG.

The severity of the damage to the undersea conduits now means that the bloc is “indefinitely deprived” of Russian gas via this route, Russian energy operator Gazprom stated on Friday.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Blinken boasted that the US is now “the leading supplier of [liquefied natural gas] to Europe.” In addition to shipping its own fuel to Europe, Blinken said that the US is working with European leaders to find ways to “decrease demand” and “speed up the transition to renewables.”

https://voxday.net/2022/10/01/a-tremendous-opportunity/

Putin is the Russian deep state’s man. He was chosen to expand Russia’s political influence to old sovviet borders. On the other hand Biden is also the American deep state’s man. He was chosen to expand american political influence. These two crushed in Ukraine. This is why the war is still ongoing. It is actually a war between the East and the West. We Muslims should not support neither.

Salaam

I agree, but the problem with wars

You May Not Be Interested in War, But War Is Interested in You

They have a habit of not minding their own business.

What we could be witnessing is the preliminary conflicts before WW3 occurs.

Winds of Change

I don’t think The Scorpions will be writing any ballads if the rumors that Germany is attempting to break free of US hegemony are true:

Solid German business sources completely contradict the “message” delivered by the German Council on Foreign Relations on the trip to China. According to these sources, the Scholz caravan went to Beijing to essentially lay down the preparatory steps for working out a peace deal with Russia, with China as privileged messenger.

This is – literally – as explosive, geopolitically and geoeconomically, as it gets. As I pointed out in one of my previous columns, Berlin and Moscow were keeping a secret communication back channel – via business interlocutors – right to the minute the usual suspects, in desperation, decided to blow up the Nord Streams.

Cue to the now-notorious SMS from Liz Truss’s iPhone to Tony Blinken, one minute after the explosions: “It’s done.”

There’s more: the Scholz caravan may be trying to start a long and convoluted process of eventually replacing the US with China as a key ally. One should never forget that the top BRI trade/connectivity terminal in the EU is Germany (the Ruhr valley).

According to one of the sources, “if this effort is successful, then Germany, China and Russia can ally themselves together and drive the US out of Europe.”

Another source provided the cherry on the cake: “Olaf Scholz is being accompanied on this trip by German industrialists who actually control Germany and are not going to sit back watching themselves being destroyed.”

The borders of the Great Bifurcation may not be what the rulers of the neo-liberal world order believe they are going to be. They’ve already discovered that 87 percent of the global population are on the other side of the fence, and that 87 percent may be growing as Europeans realize that their US-imposed “freedom and democracy” is actually nothing more than a long-term societal suicide pact.

The remarkable truth of the matter is that it would probably be less economically painful for Europe to cut ties with the USA than with both Russian and China. So, the real question would appear to be how intent is China on undercutting the global dominance of the USA.

I wish it were needless to say that a peaceful transition to a bifurcated global economy would be a much better outcome than Europe needing the Sino-Russian Alliance to militarily defeat the USA in order to remove Europe’s subordination to the globalist elite. But history suggests that at least some amount of direct war between the forces of the Nationalist Alliance and the US military in service to the Neo-Liberal Empire will be necessary before the latter accepts the situation.

https://voxday.net/2022/11/06/winds-of-change/

As much as I loathe both sides leadership (Zelensky is a rabid Zionist and Putin well, we all know his record), I support a negotiated settlement and more generally hope the world isnt hurtling towards a future like this.

Salaam

Another update. Zelensky recently went on a trip to Washington. Two different perspectives.

1st.

The Guardian view on Zelenskiy in Washington: a pivotal moment

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s highly choreographed visit to Washington was a significant international moment. Not long ago, Mr Zelenskiy had been adamant that his place was always on the frontline with his people. This week, however, he made a lightning trip in person, via Poland, to Washington itself, meeting President Joe Biden at the White House and delivering a primetime address to the US Congress before heading back into his suffering country less than 24 hours later.

The visit was much more than a Christmas celebration of Ukraine’s defiance and of Mr Zelenskiy’s immense role in it. Instead, it was a political event with important future implications for Ukraine, the United States and Russia, and for the conflict more generally. It was clearly focused on what should happen in 2023 rather than what has happened already.

Mr Zelenskiy had three principal objectives. The first was to rally American and, by extension, global support. The second was to intervene at a pivotal moment in the war and in US politics to advance that effort. The third was to make an ambitious pitch for even more financial and military support from the only state that is in a position to supply it, and thus to strengthen Ukraine’s resistance during a bitter winter, with the prospect of fresh fighting in the spring.

In public, Mr Zelenskiy produced another media-savvy performance, especially in his address to Congress. He spent every hour in Washington in his iconic olive-green fatigues, and emphasised the immediacy of his cause by presenting Congress with a battlefield Ukrainian flag that he had collected from soldiers on the frontline in Bakhmut on Tuesday. He skilfully mixed gratitude with fresh requests for support. US aid and support was not charity, he insisted, but an investment in the “global security and democracy” for which the US and its allies stand.

It is clear that the Biden administration agrees with that. The deeper questions of the visit, however, are how urgently Washington wants that investment to bear fruit and what price it is willing to pay. Weapons and money are the twin keys to the answer. Mr Biden and his aides will have assured Mr Zelenskiy that the US wants Russia to be defeated in Ukraine. But they will also have told him that they do not want a wider conflict and that they may have a different definition of what defeat could look like.

The toughest arguments behind closed doors will have focused on Ukraine’s demands for more and better weaponry, and on the terms to be set for ending the conflict. At home, though, finance is an even bigger political issue for Mr Biden. The US has already spent more than $48bn on humanitarian, financial and military support; another $2bn in military aid was announced during the visit. The administration also aims to get another aid package, worth almost $45bn, through Congress before the Republicans take over the House of Representatives in January.

The US domestic political question is whether bipartisan support continues in January. Mr Zelenskiy’s visit was in large part directed towards ensuring that it does. But the real issues this week will have been military and strategic. Russia is preparing a fresh ground assault, perhaps during winter. Another Ukrainian counterattack is expected too. Mr Zelenskiy is the hero of the hour. But Washington is increasingly looking towards an endgame in 2023. The end of the conflict is increasingly in the US’s hands, not just those of Russia and Ukraine.

Some on both sides of the Atlantic made the comparison between Mr Zelenskiy’s wartime flight from Kyiv this week and Winston Churchill’s visit to Washington after Pearl Harbor in 1941. For that comparison to be intellectually useful rather than merely sentimental, it is important to remember that Churchill’s visit marked the moment in the second world war when the US began to take charge of the allied cause in Europe. The same thing may be true this time over Ukraine.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...pivotal-moment

2nd perspective.



Spot the difference. How Putin was portrayed a couple of decades back to the way hes portrayed now. It was never about whether Putin is a 'good' or a 'bad' guy. Its whether the money men can reconcile with states national and geopolitical goals. Thats why since the early 2000s Putin aligned Russian Oligarchs and their wealth was feted in the UK. Now its clear that Putin will not submit to the 'Rules based order' they have been sanctioned and persona non grata. (Now there is a sudden concern about about how these Russian oligarchs obtained their wealth, as if they didnt know before).

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Russian oligarchs and companies have been investing in London for two decades, encouraged by British politicians of all stripes, but critics say the 'London laundromat' cleans dirty money from Russia and across the globe. The FT examines why it took Russia's invasion of Ukraine to put the issue in the spotlight and whether new sanctions and measures to tackle the problem go far enough.

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An example of the horror the Russians have wrought in Ukraine, its hard to believe. Gives you an idea what many in the Middle East (not sure if these type of munitions were used in Afghanistan) went through.

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More examples.

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