Tag: Russia

Three For One

That is the deal made with Russia….we get 3 prisoners they get one…..sounds like a one sided deal but consider there was actually about 20+ prisoners involved with this trade…..

The deal that resulted in the biggest and most complex prisoner swap since the end of the Cold War took more than a year of secret negotiations, reports Reuters. The most well-known names involved are Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, but 22 other prisoners also were in the mix, and at least six nations were involved in the swap. Coverage:

  • 3 US citizens: Russia released 16 people from custody, while US-led Western nations freed eight prisoners. A total of three American citizens were released: Gershkovich, 32, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who was held more than a year; Whelan, 54, a former US Marine held since 2018; and Alsu Kurmasheva, 47, a Russian-American editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who was arrested last year, per the New York Times. All three were expected to arrive at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland later Thursday.
  • Linchpin: The big name freed on the Russian side is Vadim Krasikov, described by the Wall Street Journal as the “linchpin” to the entire deal. Krasikov, seen as a Russian assassin, had been serving a life sentence in Germany after murdering a former Chechen rebel there in 2019.
  • Pulitzer winner, others: Others freed include Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist and prominent critic of Vladimir Putin. He is a contributor to the Washington Post, which has a running list of bios of all those released.
  • Biden: “Their brutal ordeal is over, and they’re free,” President Biden said in remarks Thursday afternoon. He called the deal to secure the prisoners’ freedom a “feat of diplomacy,” adding: “Multiple countries helped get this done. … I personally thank them all again.” The Journal reports that Biden made a pivotal call to the prime minister of Slovenia on July 21, only about an hour before he informed the nation he would not seek reelection. Slovenia released two Russian prisoners key to the swap.
  • In Ankara: The actual exchange took place in Ankara, Turkey, where planes with prisoners from the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Russia converged, per the Times.
  • Two big names: Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, had been detained more than a year, and Whelan, a former US Marine, had been held since 2018. Both were convicted of espionage charges that the US says are bogus.
  • Prison movement: Reuters reports that Whelan and Russian-British dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza had disappeared from view in recent days, and at least seven Russian dissidents had been moved from their prisons. The outlet says the swap involved prisoners held by Russia and Belarus on one side, and prisoners held by the US and Germany, and perhaps other nations, on the other. The AP estimates about two dozen people were involved.
  • Russia’s side: The New York Times reports that among the pro-Putin prisoners freed is Vadim Krasikov, a convicted assassin. Journalist Christo Grozev, who the Daily Beast reports was involved in negotiations, calls the deal “bittersweet” because it shows that as long as Putin “hoards ‘swap capital’ he will always be able to get his killers, hackers, and spies back.”
  • Dissidents: The Washington Post lists Russian dissidents Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin, Lilia Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeeva, Oleg Orlov, and artist Alexandra Skochilenko as among those who’d been moved from their prisons.

Will this make it into some movie in the future…..we seem to glorify these sort of things….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Putin: The Next Peter The Great?

I know while we await the big event of the evening to begin let’s talk about Putin…..every armchair expert’s favorite subject.

Some think that Putin is trying to regain the lost territory from the USSR days….while others think he is trying to become yet another Peter the Great…..

Even Vlad the Invader is thinking of myself as another Peter the Great…..

Russian energy giant Gazprom is reported to have been hit particularly hard by sanctions imposed as a result of the war with Ukraine. An internal report – obtained and published by the Financial Times – has forecast that the company is unlikely to recover gas sales lost as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for at least a decade.

But Gazprom chairman Alexey Miller is apparently pressing ahead with his plan to build an 82-metre triumphal column in front of his company’s landmark St Petersburg Lachta Centre skyscraper. The column will celebrate the defeat of Sweden in the great northern war, after which Russia declared itself to be an empire for the first time.

The conflict was fought by Russia at the head of a coalition including much of what would become Poland and Germany as well as Britain, by virtue of its king, George I, also being the ruler of Hanover. It pitted one of the dominant historical figures of the age, Charles XII of Sweden, against Peter I of Russia – also known by the epithet “the Great”.

On September 10 1721, Russia and Sweden signed the Treaty of Nystad, which awarded Estonia and large parts of what is now Finland to Russia and enabled Peter to declare Russia to be an empire. St Petersburg, which the tsar had founded in 1703 at the mouth of the River Neva on the Baltic Sea, was the seat of the empire and would remain so until February 1917 and the abdication of then tsar Nicholas II.

So Vladimir Putin’s enthusiasm for the project could be said to reflect his own aspirations and ambitions for 21st-century Russia under his leadership. There are a number of parallels the Russian president is keen to stress as part of his projection of himself as a modern-day Peter the Great.

https://theconversation.com/how-vladimir-putin-projects-his-image-as-a-modern-day-peter-the-great-232612

I know a lot has been said about Putin’s ambition and this article takes a good look at those ambitions.

Is he the next Peter the Great?

My thought is no he is not…..in his mind he may be but in action he will fall way short.

Does anyone have a thought they would like to share?

I Read, I Write, you Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Kim-Putin Deal

Here is something that was not reported.

I was wondering when this region would once again grab the attention of the media.

Recently Vlad the Invader visited North Korea…..and after a bit of PR work the two leaders signed a mutual defense pact.

Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un made a big deal of their newly cemented partnership on Wednesday, with the Russian leader calling it a “breakthrough” and his North Korean counterpart labeling it a “most powerful agreement.” But what exactly does it say? Neither side has released the text, and the details in this case are seen as crucial. Coverage:

  • Putin’s words: “The comprehensive partnership agreement signed today provides, among other things, for mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement,” said Putin, per Reuters. The Russian leader is visiting North Korea for the first time in two decades.
  • Unclear: Does that mean Russia would unleash a “full-fledged military intervention” if North Korea is attacked, and vice versa? That’s not clear, reports the New York Times. The newspaper notes that the two nations had a Cold War-era aggression pact of this nature, but it has been defunct since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
  • Hard to assess: At the BBC, Paul Adams writes that it will be difficult to gauge just how groundbreaking this is until the formal text is released. Putin made a point to say the pact “did not exclude the development of military-technical cooperation with North Korea.” But exactly what the aforementioned “mutual assistance” might entail is the big unknown. “Perhaps the two leaders will prefer for that to remain ominously ambiguous.”
  • Potential impact: “Depending on the exact wording of the pact … it could be a dramatic shift in the entire strategic situation in Northeast Asia,” per Reuters, quoting Artyom Lukin of Russia’s Far Eastern Federal University. A big question is what China, which has heretofore been North Korea’s biggest benefactor, will think of all this. So far, Beijing has not weighed in.
  • On the other hand: The two nations already have been assisting each other militarily, notes the Wall Street Journal, with Russia in dire need of North Korea’s ample stock of conventional weaponry. For now, “there is nothing fundamentally new about this relationship today that was not true before Putin’s visit,” says Patrick M. Cronin, the Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute. That would change only if the pact spells out a military commitment to retaliate on each other’s behalf. Still, the fast-growing partnership has ramifications on everything from the West’s ability to limit North Korea’s nuclear ambitions to the war in Ukraine, which could be prolonged as Putin beefs up his arsenal.

Then after this the news is that China is all butt hurt over the visit and the pact….

China was already worried that whatever control it has over North Korea was weakened when Pyongyang reportedly supplied almost 7,000 containers worth of weapons to Moscow. And this is why, in April, the Middle Kingdom sent its third most senior leader within the Chinese Communist party hierarchy, Zhao Leji, to assure the North Korean strongman that Beijing was still a strong ally.

Now the defensive pact that draws Moscow and Pyongyang closer threatens to further diminish China’s influence over Kim. The Kremlin knows that one of Beijing’s greatest fears is that a renegade North Korea may one day point its weapons at China.

And this is a key reason behind Putin’s peace treaty with Pyongyang.

https://theconversation.com/kim-putin-deal-why-this-is-a-coded-message-aimed-at-china-and-how-it-worries-beijing-232863

The US is also concerned with this meeting and the document signed….so much so that it dispatched a carrier group to the South China Sea….

A nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier arrived Saturday in South Korea for a three-way exercise involving Japan for stepped-up military training to cope with North Korean threats, which have escalated following the announcement of a security pact with Russia. The arrival of the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group in Busan came a day after South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The exercise that is expected to start this month, the AP reports.

Not to worry the War Department is on the job.

Everybody is flexing their muscles and no one is paying attention to the consequences of their actions.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Peace In Our Time

I am sure that most knowledgeable people recognizes those words (if not look it up)…..but this time it is used in conjunction with the conflict in Ukraine.

The world has seen enough carnage and stupidity and they have come together to try and work out some sort of peace for Ukraine…..

Officials from more than 100 countries gathered in Switzerland over the weekend to discuss ways to end the conflict in Ukraine, devising a “peace formula” even as Western leaders continue to flood the battlefield with weapons.

The conference kicked off on Saturday near the city of Lucerne, where delegations from the US, Germany, France, and scores of other states met to consider how to achieve a “just and lasting peace for Ukraine.” However, a joint communique issued by the participants on Sunday offered no new proposals, instead repeating generic statements about Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” and the “principles of sovereignty.”

In place of a workable peace plan, the joint statement outlined three basic points regarding the safety of nuclear facilities in Ukraine, the importance of food security and the global supply chain, and the need for prisoner of war exchanges between Kiev and Moscow. It went on to reiterate past United Nations resolutions calling for an end to the war.

Ahead of her speech at the meeting on Saturday, US Vice President Kamala Harris announced an additional $1.5 billion in aid for Kiev. This includes funds to rebuild infrastructure, $379 million in humanitarian assistance, and another $300 million to support “civilian security.” The new package follows the over $50 billion in US military aid already supplied throughout the war, including long-range missiles, main battle tanks, and other heavy weapons.  (I have a problem with the cash for interior stuff….a good place for corruption to take control….and what the Hell is “civilian security”?)

Ukraine’s War Backers Hold ‘Peace’ Conference

Good idea but for one small thing….Russia was not included and for this to work they need to be heard.

Putin put out his own version of a ‘peace’ deal….

Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out four conditions for Ukraine that he said would lead to an immediate ceasefire and, ultimately, an end to the conflict. According to the Kremlin, Kiev’s neutral, non-aligned, non-nuclear status and the lifting of all Western sanctions are necessary conditions for ending the conflict.

In a speech to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday, Putin said that if Ukraine withdraws its forces from the four regions annexed by Moscow – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson – then he would order a halt to operations and begin negotiations to end the war.

Putin Makes Public Peace Offer to Ukraine

This is a no go for the territories involved are one of the biggest disputes of this as well as Ukraine and NATO….NO I am not supporting Russia’s claim to anything….just that it could be a starting point for massive negotiations.

This is not the first time that ‘peace’ has been attempted….there was an offer in 2022….

In April 2022, Ukraine and Russia were on the brink of signing a deal to end the war just weeks after it began. The New York Times published documents showing President Vladimir Putin was willing to make concessions to get an agreement signed.

According to the documents, Putin initially sought to have Kiev recognize Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. However, a draft agreement from April 15, 2022, suggests both parties were prepared to set aside the issue to end the conflict. “Paragraph 1 of Article 2 and Articles 4, 5, and 11 of this Treaty shall not apply to Crimea and Sevastopol,” the document says.

In December, Ukrainian negotiator Oleksandr Chalyi explained that an agreement was reached in the spring of 2022, stating the two sides “managed to find a very real compromise. We were very close in the middle of April, in the end of April, to finalize our war with some peaceful settlement.”

Documents: Putin Was Willing To Compromise To End War in 2022

Now if they were close then what changed?

Why is no one actually aggressively pursuing a peaceful road?

I have an idea why….but it is too gruesome to mention and I hope I am wrong.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Russian News….(None Of It Good)

0500 hrs and it is 87 degrees….top that!

Right now there is a laser focus on the carnage that is Gaza and a lot of news around Ukraine/Russia mash up goes under reported.

I will try to let my readers know of things that are a changing…..this is not in support of Russia just me reporting on news that fell through the cracks of the MSM.  (So please withhold in lame misguided BS)

Star Wars!  Oh my bad…. Space Wars……

War Department has said that there is a new Russian weapon in orbit….

The militarization of space is really heating up after the Pentagon accused Russia of launching a satellite that national security officials believe is capable of attacking other satellites in orbit, the BBC reports.

And most chillingly, this satellite, which the Russians launched last week, is on the same orbit as a US government satellite.

“Russia launched a satellite into low Earth orbit that we assess is likely a counter space weapon,” said Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder on Tuesday, as reported by the BBC.

“Obviously, that’s something that we’ll continue to monitor,” Ryder told ABC News. “Certainly, we would say that we have a responsibility to be ready to protect and defend the space domain and ensure continuous and uninterrupted support to the joint and combined force. And we’ll continue to balance the need to protect our interests in space with our desire to preserve a stable and sustainable space environment.”

https://futurism.com/the-byte/pentagon-russia-orbital-weapon

If you are a worry wart then maybe the time to do so is now.

Vlad the Invader (Putin) has offered up a plan for a ceasefire with Ukraine….

Vladimir Putin insists that Russia is ready to keep fighting in Ukraine, but he’s reportedly also amenable to “freeze the war” there—with one big condition. Russian sources tell Reuters that their leader is prepared to negotiate a ceasefire, but one recognizing that territory currently under Russian control would stay that way. Those sources say Putin thinks he can sell such a concession as a win to the Russian people, and that he’d rather avoid another national mobilization, as the last one he ordered caused his popularity to plummet. Freezing the conflict now along battlefield lines would leave Russia with “substantial chunks of four Ukrainian regions” in its possession, or about 18% of Ukraine. Asked for comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was open to dialogue on the matter and didn’t want “eternal war.” More:

  • Ukraine’s take: Kyiv likely won’t agree to any deal in which Russia gets to keep territory it has already seized, notes the Kyiv Independent. Ukraine has its own peace plan, including a summit in Switzerland next month—”a real diplomatic track that has every chance of contributing to a just peace,” National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Lytvynenko said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has consistently said Ukraine will take back all of its territory seized by Russia, including Crimea, and in 2022, he signed a decree saying talks with Putin were “impossible,” per Reuters.
  • US take: Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he didn’t think Putin was serious about wanting to negotiate peace. A US State Department rep tells Reuters that “the Kremlin has yet to demonstrate any meaningful interest in ending its war, quite the opposite,” and that any peace talks must respect Ukraine’s “territorial integrity, within its internationally recognized borders.”
  • Macron weighs in: The French president similarly doesn’t think Putin is at all serious about a goal of peace, specifically because the Russian leader has rejected a truce with Ukraine at the Olympics, reports the Hill. “This is a big clarification moment, because every week until now President Putin was claiming to be available for peace,” Macron said in an interview that aired Thursday on CNBC. “So for everybody in the world, it’s clear he is the one who decided to launch his war, and he is not ready to make peace.” Zelensky also ruled out an Olympics truce.
  • White House debate: Meanwhile, citing sources involved in the discussion, the New York Timesreports there’s “vigorous debate” in the Biden administration over allowing Ukraine to use US-supplied weapons to strike targets across the border in Russia for the first time. The sources say Blinken now supports what would be a dramatic shift in policy because Russia is attacking Kharkiv with weapons placed just over the border, knowing that Ukraine can only respond with non-US weapons.

Tee Hee!  This is a none starter.   Why?  Neither Zelensky or the War Department will accept this…..but to me at least there may be an opening for talks on ending the carnage in Ukraine.

Blinken, who is Sec of State, is pushing for US weapons to be used inside Russia.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is leading a push within the Biden administration to allow Ukraine to use US-provided missile systems and other weapons to hit Russian territory, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The report said there is a “vigorous debate” within the administration in the wake of Russia’s new offensive in Kharkiv, which was launched from over the border in Russia’s Belgorod oblast.

It’s unclear how many other high-level officials agree with Blinken, but the pressure is growing on President Biden to lift the prohibition on Ukraine using US weapons on Russian territory, a ban that, according to the Times, is designed to “avoid World War III.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and many other members of Congress are also calling to lift the ban. Ultra-hawk Victoria Nuland, who left the State Department in March, appeared on ABC News this week to make the pitch for Ukraine to extend its use of US weapons to Russian territory.

“I think there’s also a question of whether we, the United States and our allies, ought to give them more help in hitting Russian bases, which heretofore we have not been willing to do,” Nuland said.

Moscow recently warned the UK that if Ukraine used British weapons on Russian territory, Russian forces would target UK military sites in Ukraine “and beyond.” The warning came after British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Ukraine had the “right” to use British arms in attacks on Russia.

Russia is currently conducting tactical nuclear drills that it launched in response to provocative rhetoric from Western officials about sending troops to Ukraine. The Times report said that the US was also considering deploying troops for training, although Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown said there were “no plans” to do so at the moment.

(antiwar.com)

This is a decision to be made by those above my pay grade….my only concern is when did America’s top diplomat start working for the War Department?

A warmongering jerk like Blinken has no place in the State Department which is suppose to focus on diplomacy not starting wars.

But alas the conflict will rage on.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ukraine Update

Ukraine?

Is there still a war going on there?

Yes there most certainly is a continuing conflict going on in Ukraine. You have not heard much about it because most people are so wrapped up in the Israel-Gaza thing to care the old hat conflict in Ukraine.

Let me give an update….

The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that its forces have captured five villages as part of a renewed ground assault in northeastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials haven’t officially confirmed whether Russian had taken the villages, which lie in a contested “gray zone” on the border of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and Russia. Ukrainian journalists reported that the villages of Borysivka, Ohirtseve, Pylna, and Strilecha were taken. Russia said the village of Pletenivka also fell, the AP reports. The Institute for the Study of War, Washington-based think tank, described recent Russian gains as “tactically significant.”

The renewed assault has forced more than 1,700 civilians residing in settlements near the fighting to flee, according to Ukrainian authorities. It comes after Russia stepped up attacks in March targeting energy infrastructure and settlements, which analysts predicted were a concerted effort to shape conditions for an offensive. Russia’s recent push in Kharkiv also seeks to exploit ammunition shortages before promised Western supplies can reach the front line and pin down Ukrainian forces in the northeast, keeping them away from heavy battles in the Donetsk region where Moscow’s troops are gaining ground, analysts said.

Russian military bloggers said the assault could mark the start of a Russian attempt to carve out a “buffer zone” that President Vladimir Putin vowed to create to halt Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and other Russian border regions. Fears also mount that Russia might be able to cut supply routes and besiege Kharkiv, a city of 1.1 million, per the AP. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Friday evening in a video on X that Russian forces were expanding their operations. He called on the country’s Western allies to ensure that promised deliveries of military aid swiftly reach the front lines. “A package that truly helps is the actual delivery of weapons to Ukraine, rather than just the announcement of a package,” he said.

As this conflict wears on we should ask the question with all the investment by the West….can Ukraine win this thing?

The long-awaited counteroffensive last year failed. Russia has recaptured Avdiivka, its biggest war gain in nine months. President Volodymyr Zelensky has been forced to quietly acknowledge the new military reality. The Biden Administration’s strategy is now to sustain Ukrainian defense until after the U.S. presidential elections, in the hope of wearing down Russian forces in a long war of attrition.

This strategy seems sensible enough, but contains one crucially important implication and one potentially disastrous flaw, which are not yet being seriously addressed in public debates in the West or Ukraine. The implication of Ukraine standing indefinitely on the defensive—even if it does so successfully—is that the territories currently occupied by Russia are lost. Russia will never agree at the negotiating table to surrender land that it has managed to hold on the battlefield.

https://time.com/6695261/ukraine-forever-war-danger/

That is just sad.

One year ago, all signs were encouraging. Ukrainian forces had been bloodied, but they held on to territory in the east in defiance of expectations. Successful counteroffensives allowed Ukraine to regain territory in the south. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy defiantly declared the coming year one of “our invincibility.” American aid to the country offered a king’s ransom in artillery and anti-tank weapons through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, and the flow seemed unceasing.

Inspired by Ukraine’s stunning success against the much larger and more advanced military, the West galvanized behind Zelensky and his troops. Tragically, all these indicators led to unrealistic expectations.

Ukraine can no longer win

No one wants the carnage to stop….the US has elections….Russia is obstinate….the rest of NATO waits for the US to act….the rest of the world has stopped caring….

It is a dilemma that the Ukrainians are paying for with their lives.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Remember Terrorism?

First of all….I would like to wish everyone a ‘Happy Earth Day’….

Now he is a subject that has taken a backseat in the media….and because it is under reported the American people have moved on to the point of blocking this out of their minds.

AQ is a mere shadow of its former self and ISIS, well ISIS is still there and still performing acts of terror and mayhem.

Then just recently the world got another wake up call….the attack in Moscow.

With its “war on terrorism,” the United States launched a global campaign against the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks as well as a number of other targets. The campaign probably created more terrorists than it killed. Moreover, U.S. interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq—the first with only a tangential relationship to al-Qaeda, the second with no connection whatsoever—killed a huge number of civilians as well.

Having failed to accomplish its poorly defined objectives, the United States eventually refocused on other national security threats. The “war on terrorism” disappeared from the headlines. Today, the world is more worried about the wars conducted by states: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s attack on Gaza, and the potential conflict between China and Taiwan.

But as the latest attack in Moscow demonstrates, some terrorist organizations are still going strong. On May 22, militants associated with the Islamic State chapter in Afghanistan attacked concertgoers at a Moscow venue, killing more than a 100 people. It was a shocking reminder of how vulnerable states can be in the face of determined non-state actors.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or Daesh according to the Arabic acronym) is perhaps the most prominent terrorist organization operating in the world today. It emerged from the wreckage of the U.S. war in Iraq and the civic uprising against Bashar al-Assad in Syria. For several years beginning in 2014, these radical Islamists managed to govern a vast swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria. Though it attracted recruits from around the world, ISIS also attracted the enmity of a range of states that otherwise didn’t agree on anything else. After repeated attacks by these diverse states—the United States, Russia, Syria, Iraq—the self-declared caliphate collapsed in 2019.

Even without its mini-caliphate, the Islamic State persists. It still launches attacks within Syria and wields considerable influencein the huge al-Hol facility in eastern Syria for detained ISIS fighters and their families (along with many unfortunates who have no connection to ISIS).  It still has something of a foothold in Southeast Asia. Several groups in both the Sahel and in sub-Saharan Africa are still operating.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/09/the-return-of-terrorism/

Terrorism did not go away nor was it defeated….however the importance in the media did go away….but now with this attack there should be a renewed interest in the happenings around ISIS and other groups bent on destruction and death.

But after all how important can it be when we have an election to fret over?

How will this play out?

Your thoughts, please.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Scary Scenario For The UK

Ever since Vlad the Invader went into Ukraine and starting thumping his chest with nuclear warnings and threats the whole world has been a tither with predictions of Putin marching down some Main Street…..but a report by an UK general gives a dire prediction….

A British general admitted on Tuesday that the UK couldn’t handle a war with Russia for more than two months as London has significantly depleted its military stockpiles by arming Ukraine.

Lt. Gen. Robert Magowan, the deputy chief of the defense staff, made the comments during a British parliament hearing where he was urging for more military spending.

MP Mark Francois, a member of the Conservative Party, asked Magowan if it was true that the UK “couldn’t fight Putin for more than a couple of months in a full-on shooting war because we don’t have the ammunition and the reserves of equipment to do it.”

Magowan said Francois’ statement was true. British Defense Minister Grant Shapps was also at the hearing and downplayed the lack of UK military readiness, saying any war with Russia would be fought alongside NATO allies, and referred to Article 5 of the alliance’s treaty that outlines mutual defense commitments.

“For people watching, and hearing that the UK isn’t ready for war exclusively with Russia, it’s important to understand that because we are in NATO and Article 5 exists, we would never be in that situation,” Shapps said, according to The Telegraph.

The comments came after a report from the House of Commons defense committee found that the British military was “increasingly overstretched” and wasn’t ready for a war with Russia. In December, The Times of London reported that the UK had “nothing” left in its military stockpiles after sending so many weapons to Ukraine.

Despite the state of the British military, the UK is one of the NATO countries most involved in the Ukraine proxy war. A recorded conversation between two German military officers that was recently published by Russian media revealed that British soldiers are “on the ground” in Ukraine helping Ukrainian forces fire Storm Shadow missiles.

(antiwar.com)

So arming Ukraine and now Israel is putting the UK at risk in the of a Russian conflict.

Would not commonsense dictate that country comes first and screw the others?

Just a thought.

Please if there is nay more info on this situation then share with my readers….I am sure they will appreciate it.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Defeat Russia At All Costs

Hit them hard with everything you have…..but not like that.

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine the US and the NATO nations have imposed heavy sanctions (something I serious doubt) on the invader….financial sanctions mostly economic sanctions all in an attempt to weaken the Russian economy and its war machine….and this included sanctions on their oil industry where they derive a lot of their working capital.

If the West can cripple the oil industry then they, Russia, would most likely try to find a way to end this conflict, right?

So hit them hard and often…..but not like that.

If so then the latest move by the US is a bit confusing….

US officials are losing patience as Kiev fails to heed American demands to stop attacking Russian energy infrastructure. The White House fears the attacks will lead to an increase in oil prices and trigger reprisals by Moscow.

According to the Financial Times, “The White House had grown increasingly frustrated by brazen Ukrainian drone attacks that have struck oil refineries, terminals, depots, and storage facilities across western Russia, hurting its oil production capacity,” adding that US officials are concerned with “driving up global oil prices and provoking retaliation.”

The demands to halt attacks on Russian oil facilities may appear confounding to Kiev after NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg green-lit Ukrainian attacks inside Russia last month. Additionally, President Joe Biden has vowed to cripple the Russian economy, and the West has used sanctions and price caps in an effort to curb Moscow’s energy exports.

The White House may see increasing gas prices at home as a primary concern with the 2024 election on the horizon. Bob McNally, a former White House energy adviser, said, “Nothing terrifies a sitting American president more than a surge in pump prices during an election year,” as cited by FT.

As Ukrainian losses on the battlefield have continued in recent weeks, Kiev has conducted more attacks on Russian soil. This has led the Kremlin to evacuate thousands of children from a border region. Ukrainian forces also successfully attacked seven energy targets in Russia last week.

Washington’s fear that attacks on Moscow’s energy infrastructure will prompt retaliatory strikes on Ukrainian energy seems to have materialized. On Friday, the BBC reported, “A million people are without power across Ukraine after Russian missiles targeted energy infrastructure,” with Kiev’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko saying Moscow aimed to cause “a large-scale failure of the country’s energy system.”

(antiwar.com)

Is it win at all costs or is it just a geopolitical game of Risk?

Biden is really good, like most politicians, of speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

And the game goes on….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Is ISIS-K?

The other big news on Saturday….

By now most everyone who lives above ground has heard about the horrific terrorist attack in Moscow…..but for those that have been under a rock….

While firefighters continued to pull bodies from the rubble and put out the lingering flames Saturday after a terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City concert hall, people came to the site to leave flowers and teddy bears in honor of the victims. Questions about how such an attack, which killed more than 100 people and injured more than 150, could happen were mixed with expressions of grief and concerns about the future.

Some Russians wondered about the Russian security forces’ inability to prevent the attack. “Why is it that they say that there were warnings from foreign security services, but our services were completely indifferent?” asked a woman in Moscow. “How can this happen in 2024?” Another woman pointed out that the government seems to concentrate on watching dissidents. “There are cameras everywhere that can trace opposition people going to a rally, and they are also stopped in the metro,” she said. “Does it mean that cameras are targeted on people who carry a book … but you can carry a bomb or a Kalashnikov, and that will be OK?”

The group that carried out this attack is known as ‘ISIS-K’….who are these barbaric bunch?

Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), named after an old term for the region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality.

One of the most active regional affiliates of the Islamic State militant group, ISIS-K has seen its membership decline since peaking around 2018. The Taliban and U.S. forces inflicted heavy losses.
But the United States sees the group as an ongoing threat. General Michael Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told Congress last March that ISIS-K was quickly developing the ability to conduct “external operations” in Europe and Asia. He predicted it would be able to attack U.S. and Western interests outside Afghanistan “in as little as six months and with little to no warning.”
Attacks within the U.S. itself were less likely, he said.
 
The United States has said its ability to develop intelligence against extremist groups in Afghanistan such as ISIS-K has been reduced since the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country in 2021. The U.S. military has said it can see the “broad contours” of an impending attack, but does not have the specific detail it did previously.
 
(reuters.com)
This is not a ‘new’ group by any means….
 
U.S. intercepted communications confirming the group carried out twin bombings in Iran that killed nearly 100 people.
 
In September 2022, ISIS-K militants claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul.
 
The group was also responsible for an attack on Kabul’s international airport in 2021 that killed 13 U.S. troops and scores of civilians during the chaotic U.S. evacuation from the country.
 
More info will be passed on as it becomes available to people like me.
 
You now know as much as anyone else on this group.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”