7 Apr, 2022 11:35

Moscow accuses Kiev of backpedaling in peace talks

Ukraine’s new proposals for a peace settlement with Moscow are a step back from its previous stance, the Russian FM says

Kiev’s new written proposals on how to resolve the ongoing armed conflict with Russia deviate from what it submitted to Russia during the previous round of talks in Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday. Ukraine apparently wants to stall for time and continue the hostilities, he said, adding that Washington may have a hand in this shift.

The new proposal, which Lavrov said was sent by Ukraine on Wednesday, fails to mention that the security guarantees Kiev wants to obtain from leading world powers do not cover Crimea, he said.

Russia has considered Crimea part of its territory since 2014, when the former Ukrainian region voted to break away in response to the armed coup Kiev. Ukraine says the region was annexed by Russia and claims it to be under its own sovereignty.

Instead of the explicit exclusion of Crimea from the proposed security arrangement, the new document has “vague wording about an effective control,” Lavrov said. Kiev wants to discuss the issue during a future bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, he added.

The Russian foreign minister stressed that the status of Crimea was not up for discussion in any way.

Another deviation comes in the part that describes Ukraine’s commitment to restrict joint exercises with foreign powers on its territory. The previous version said such drills would only be possible if all nations guaranteeing Ukraine’s security agree to them, including Russia. The new version says a “majority of guarantors” must give their permission and does not mention Russia, Lavrov said.

The deviations from Kiev’s previous draft, which was delivered during talks in Istanbul, Turkey last week, exposed Kiev’s “true intentions” of stalling and undermining the peace process, Lavrov said.

The foreign minister said the changes exemplify Ukraine’s inability to stick to agreements and serves as evidence “that the Kiev regime is controlled by Washington and its allies, who push President Zelensky to continue hostilities.”

Lavrov said Russia will continue its efforts to negotiate peace with the Ukrainian government despite what he called a provocative move by Kiev.

I wish Russia would expose the obvious money laundeting in and around Ukraine from the US and EU, and why the politicians and beneficiaries want to continue this ruse

https://www.rt.com/about-us/press-releases/ukraine-peace-talks-proposal/

7 Apr, 2022 11:14

Russia responds to possible expulsion from UN body

Kicking Russia out of the Human Rights Council will have “devastating consequences” - Moscow’s deputy permanent representative

The possible suspension of Russia from the UN Human Rights Council threatens to destroy “the basement of current multilateral system,” First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy said ahead of Thursday’s vote by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on the matter.

Polyanskiy wrote on Telegram that this is a “premeditated tactical move” which, in his opinion, has nothing to do either Russia’s attack on Ukraine nor with alleged human rights violations by Moscow, as these claims “are far from being verified and proven.” However, he warned, the motion, if accepted, “risks devastating consequences for the UN System.”

“Russia plays an important ballancing role, its removal from HRC will deprive developing countries of a vocal and powerful defender. That’s why Western countries are keen to do it and strike the ballance [sic] in their favor,” the official explained.

In Polyanskiy’s words, the West is trying “to undermine UN institutions behind the smokescreen of punishing Russia.” “By doing so they risk to destroy the basement of current multilateral system which emerged after WW2 and has been saving the world from WW3,” he underlined.

He also pointed out to the fact that in 2018, during Donald Trump’s presidency, the US withdrew from the council and “consistently belittled its role.”

Therefore, Polyanskiy argues, Washington “can’t be considered a champion of ‘HRC case’.”

“And knowing the bleak US human rights record and the shameful practice blackmailing ICC (International Criminal Court ) for trying to make US soldiers accountable for their heinous crimes abroad, Washington is the last one to be moralizing others on Human Rights,” he wrote.

Moscow’s diplomat expressed hope that during the upcoming “extremely hypocritical” show Russia’s colleagues from “remaining independent countries” would remember about all these facts.

The move to expel Russia from the council came shortly after Kiev published images of dead bodies in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, northwest of the capital and called them evidence of genocide perpetrated by Russian troops. Moscow denied the allegations and said the Ukrainian government was manipulating public opinion with staged scenes.

The resolution which was endorsed by Western nations before any independent investigation could take place, expresses “grave concern at the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, particularly at the reports of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law by the Russian Federation, including gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights.”

To suspend a state from the UN Human Rights Council a two-thirds majority vote by the 193-member General Assembly is needed. Russia’s envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia during a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday called the suggestion to kick Russia out from the council “unbelievable” and expressed hope that “UN colleagues will not allow themselves to be manipulated and will not play along with Washington in its extremely dangerous undertaking.”

The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, in his turn, said that the work of the council and UN institutions is “unthinkable without the participation of Russia.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/553450-un-russia-rights-warning/

7 Apr, 2022 10:37

Russian energy paid for in yuan is heading to China – reports

Coal cargoes will arrive this month, followed by crude oil in May

That headline is kekkity!

Russian coal and oil paid for in yuan is about to start flowing into China, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

According to the media outlet, citing Chinese consultancy Fenwei Energy Information Service, several Chinese firms used local currency to buy Russian coal in March, and the first cargoes will arrive this month.

These will be the first commodity shipments paid for in yuan since the United States and Europe hit Moscow with unprecedented sanctions, cutting several Russian banks off from the international financial system.

Traders said that Russian crude sellers have also offered Chinese buyers the flexibility to pay in yuan. The first cargoes of the ESPO grade bought with Chinese currency will be delivered to independent refiners in May, people familiar with the purchases told Bloomberg.

According Fenwei, both steel-making and power-plant coal are being paid for in renminbi. These deals are traditionally made in dollars, but many Chinese buyers temporarily halted purchases after Washington and its allies cut off Russian lenders from SWIFT.

Data shows that Russia was China’s second-largest coal supplier last year. Nearly half of the imports from Russia are metallurgical coal.

Chinese buyers are interested in importing more Russian supplies. However, logistics and financing barriers could ultimately cap the flows, the China Coal Transport and Distribution Association said last month.

https://www.rt.com/business/553443-russian-energy-yuan-china/

7 Apr, 2022 10:31

Russia bans Google ads

The measure comes in response to misinformation and discrimination on its platforms

Finally Russia bans and deplatforms Google!

The Russian state media regulator has banned advertising of Google information resources in the country for non-compliance with laws.

“The complete ban on distribution of advertising on Google and its resources is due to the spreading of misinformation by a foreign entity in violation of the Russian legislation,” the press office of Roskomnadzor said via the regulator’s telegram-channel.

According to the agency, YouTube, a video hosting platform owned by Google, refused to remove over 12,000 videos spreading fake news about the course of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

“In addition, YouTube does not combat the dissemination of information by extremist organizations such as the Right Sector and the nationalist Azov Battalion,” the regulator said, referring to Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary groups.

Roskomnadzor has also found nearly 60 cases of discrimination against the Russian government, the country’s media outlets, public and sports organizations as well as individuals by the video hosting platform.

“In particular,blocking accounts or content of news agencies Russia Today, Russia 24, Sputnik, Zvezda, RBC, NTVand many others was revealed,” the regulator said.

The latest ban will be in effect until Google takes all the necessary steps to completely comply with Russian law, according to the regulator.

https://www.rt.com/business/553446-russia-ban-google-ads/

7 Apr, 2022 09:45

HomeRussia & FSU

Zelensky reveals plans for security summit

The Ukrainian president said the US and six other nations are ready to discuss guarantees for Kiev

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced a summit of countries ready to discuss security guarantees for Kiev. The event would be part of the negotiations to end Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.

“Such a meeting will certainly happen because it was confirmed by the representatives of future guarantors,” Zelensky told Turkish Haberturk TV on Tuesday.

Zelensky named the US, Britain, Turkey, Poland, Germany, France, and Israel as countries that are “ready to meet and discuss a list of security guarantees” for Ukraine.

He added that “communication with the Russian side” will take place after prospective foreign guarantors form a consolidated position on the issue.

The president previously said his country could officially become a non-aligned state in exchange for security assurances. Russia has insisted that Ukraine drop its aspirations of joining the US-led NATO military bloc, which Moscow sees as a threat to its national security.

The sides held peace talks in Turkey late last month, during which the Ukrainian negotiators presented a roadmap for a potential deal to end the hostilities.

Moscow attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered Minsk Protocol was designed to regularize the status of the regions within the Ukrainian state.

Kiev says that the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

https://www.rt.com/russia/553448-zelensky-security-summit-ukraine/

7 Apr, 2022 08:08

Royal Navy hit by major fuel theft – media

The diesel was reportedly intended for HMS Bulwark amphibious assault ship

More than £250,000 ($327,000) of diesel was stolen from a Royal Navy warship, The Sun reported on Wednesday, describing the incident as one of the UK’s biggest fuel thefts.

The heist was believed to have been underway for weeks at a high security naval base, HMNB Devonport, in the port city of Plymouth in southwestern England.

The “siphoned” diesel was reportedly intended for HMS Bulwark, which is one of two amphibious assault ships in the Royal Navy. “They must have needed one hell of a jerrycan. The fuel that was taken was supposed to power the ship as it undergoes a refit,” a source told The Sun.

Local website Plymouth Live also reported on the theft through sources who said the diesel was not taken directly from the warship.

“The fuel was meant to be in one of those smaller six-wheel tankers, but didn’t arrive,” they said.

The scheme was only uncovered after a suspicious guard decided to check one of the trucks leaving the base.

“Naturally, the Navy is furious about it – even though none of their personnel were involved,” the source told The Sun.

The fuel was provided by a subcontractor working for Babcock International, a London-based aerospace, defense, and nuclear engineering services company. The firm declined to comment on the report when approached by the media.

An urgent investigation has been launched over the incident, with the source saying that leaving such an important vessel as HMS Bulwark “vulnerable and exposed like this is simply a travesty and Babcock has questions to answer.”

A Defense Ministry spokesman told The Sun that it was “aware of… the alleged theft of fuel from a contractor within HMNB Devonport,” adding that “there was no disruption to Defense operations” due to it.

Plymouth Sutton and Devonport MP Luke Pollard reacted to the revelation by saying, “a huge amount of fuel stolen is not only embarrassing, but it also raises serious questions about security at one of our most secure naval bases.”

He was echoed by Rear Admiral Chris Parry, a former commander of the Amphibious Task Group, who insisted that allowing the theft was “incredibly careless. We expect our civilian contractors to look after us a lot better.”

“Right now I’d rather have the fuel go to the Black Sea than the black market,” he added.

The diesel, which can also be used in cars,was allegedly sold on the black market amid the fuel crisis in the UK caused by sanctions on Russiaover the conflict in Ukraine and other factors.

https://www.rt.com/news/553436-uk-navy-fuel-theft/

6 Apr, 2022 21:39

US spies admit running anti-Russia 'info war' – media

Releases to the press were intended to “deter” Russia, even if the intel was flimsy, NBC has revealed

US intelligence officials have leaked information about the Ukraine conflict that wasn’t “rock solid” and outright made up some claims, all to win an “info war” against the Kremlin, according to an NBC News report on Wednesday. The officials admitted to, and boasted about, releasing this misinformation.

When the American media cited US “intelligence” to warn that Russia was preparing to use chemical weapons in Ukraine, and when President Joe Biden repeated these warnings, they were participating in a disinformation campaign, the NBC report reveals.

According to the intelligence officials who came up with the warning, the intention was to discourage Russia from actually using these weapons, even though they themselves rated the intelligence used “low confidence.”

NBC quotes the officials involved in releasing such “low confidence” intelligence, who described their mission to misinform as part of an effort to “undermine Moscow’s propaganda and prevent Russia from defining how the war is perceived in the world.”

Some releases were accurate. For instance, the Biden administration insisted for weeks that Russian President Vladimir Putin intended to launch an assault on Ukraine.

More were fabricated: A report that Putin was “being misled by his own advisers,” as NBC put it, was made up. So was an assertion by US officials that Putin had turned to China for military aid. Despite being fabricated, the latter was released to discourage China from actually doing what the officials said it was doing – sending arms to Russia, they said.

One European official cited by NBC said that the report was “a public game to prevent any military support from China.”

“There’s no way you can prove or disprove that stuff,” a retired intelligence operative told NBC regarding the claims that Putin was being misled by his own team.

Prior to the outbreak of war, US media warned for weeks that Russia was laying the groundwork to attack Russian-speakers in the Donbass region and blame the attack on Ukrainian nationalists, thus generating a pretext for war.

These reports cited Pentagon and State Department officials and unnamed “intelligence sources,” none of whom provided evidence to back up their claims. When pressed,State Department spokesman Ned Pricesaid that those who doubted the claims were finding “solace in the information the Russians are putting out.” Now the NBC story reveals that the assertion was indeed cooked up by US spies.

“It doesn’t have to be solid intelligence,” one US official said. “It’s more important to get out ahead of [the Russians], Putin specifically, before they do something.”

While the officials cited in the report admitted to at the very least exaggerating their claims, another unnamed US official quickly responded to the network, insisting that the National Security Council and “intelligence community” made sure to “validate the quality” of everything they released to the public.

One of the authors of the NBC story is Ken Dilanian, a national security reporter shown in 2014 to

havehad a “collaborative” relationship with the CIA. He was disavowed by his then-employer, the Los Angeles Times, as the result.

https://www.rt.com/russia/553428-spies-fake-news-ukraine-nbc/

7 Apr, 2022 08:05

HomeRussia & FSU

Armenia announces Azerbaijan peace talks agreement

Work to delimit the borders will begin by the end of April, PM Nikol Pashinyan says

Armenia has said that it reached an agreement with Azerbaijan to set up a commission on border delimitation by the end of April. The countries fought a bloody war over the control of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, with the latest military escalation happening this March.

Yerevan's statement came after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met with European Council President Charles Michel in Brussels on Wednesday.

The border commission will be “authorized to deal with security and stability issues along the border,” Pashinyan’s office said in a statement. It added that the sides agreed to start preparations for definitive peace talks.

Michel released a statement confirming the plans for the joint commission. He welcomed “the restoration of railway lines, while encouraging Armenia and Azerbaijan to also find effective solutions for the restoration of road links.”

Azerbaijan, meanwhile, has not commented on the outcome of the meeting. But Aliyev proposed to launch peace talks during his phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, according to the president’s press service.

Yerevan and Baku fought a 44-day-long war in 2020, during which Azerbaijan captured parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory controlled by Armenians since the early 1990s. A Moscow-brokered ceasefire saw Russian peacekeepers deployed in the area.

The situation on the ground has remained tense, however, with both sides accusing each other of hostilities.

https://www.rt.com/russia/553437-armenia-azerbaijan-border-commission/

7 Apr, 2022 07:02

Pentagon confirms ‘complete withdrawal’ of Russian troops

The US military said Russian forces cleared out of the Kiev region in what Moscow called a “good faith” measure

Russian soldiers have “completely” vacated areas around the Ukrainian capital, Kievand another city nearby, the Pentagon has said, following a pledge from the Kremlin to “drastically” reduce military activity in the region as negotiators attempt to bring an end to the fighting.

The Pentagon has observed a full withdrawal from the formerly besieged areas, a senior military official told reporters on Wednesday during a background briefing.

“We would assess that Russian forces near Kiev and Chernigov have completed their withdrawal from the area to re-consolidate and refit in Belarus and in Russia,” they said, adding, “We are not showing Russian forces in or around Kiev or to the north [of] Kiev, and we’re not showing Russian forces in or around Chernigov.”

The statement comes after Russia declared plans to significantly pull back its forces in the two cities late last month, saying it would be a show of good faith as peace talks brokered by Turkey inch forward. Days prior, the Russian military noted that it had achieved its main goals in the area and would shift the focus to the “liberation” of the Donbass regions in the east, which declared secession from the government in Kiev in 2014 and have since been recognized as independent by Moscow.

The withdrawal has been marred by controversy, with Ukrainian officials alleging that hundreds of civilians were killed in the town of Bucha on the outskirts of Kiev before Russian soldiers left the area. Though Moscow has unequivocally denied the charge and requested a United Nations Security Council meeting to address the matter, Washington and some Western allies have taken Kiev’s side, with US President Joe Biden suggesting Russia may be responsible for “war crimes.”

Despite the accusations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted that his country would continue negotiations with Moscow, saying “Ukraine must find peace” after repeatedly expressing interest in direct talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

https://www.rt.com/russia/553432-pentagon-confirms-complete-withdrawal-of/

Russia said there will be a lot of lawsuits, this is the start

7 Apr, 2022 09:53

Russia names price for canceled sporting showpiece

A Russian official has outlined substantial compensation demands after the country was stripped of the event

Russia will seek tens of millions of dollars in compensation after the Volleyball Men’s World Championship was removed from the country, an official has said.

Alexander Yaremenko, secretary general of the Russian Volleyball Federation, said that a lawsuit was being prepared and would be lodged with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland.

“We’ve have been working on it for the last week, there are some technical issues: to form an application, to pay for the lawyers. The amount of compensation is about $80 million,” Yaremenko confirmed to Match TV.

The 2022 edition of the FIVB tournament was due to be held from August 26 to September 11 across 10 Russian cities.

However, FIVB announced in March that Russia would be stripped of the event due to the military offensive in Ukraine.

A new, “accelerated” bidding process has been opened to find a new host for the event, FIVB later said.

The appeal from the Russian Volleyball Federation follows a similar step from the Russian football authorities, who are seeking compensation from UEFA after it removed the 2022 Champions League final from St. Petersburg.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said in March that the funds saved from the cancelation of international events due to be held in Russia would be redirected into the development of domestic sport for athletes and ordinary citizens.

>>16029061

Oops heres the sauce

https://www.rt.com/sport/553447-russia-compensation-world-volleyball-championship/

7 Apr, 2022 07:49

Ruble stronger than before Ukraine crisis

The Russian currency is trading at a six-week high

The Russian ruble strengthened to 75 rubles to the US dollar and 81 against the euro on Thursday, reaching its strongest levels against major currencies since February 19.

The ruble plunged to historic lows after Russia launched the special military operation in Ukraine, and the US and its allies imposed unprecedented sanctions targeting the country’s financial system. On March 7, the Russian currency fell to as low as 150 rubles to the dollar.

The ruble nosedived on February 24, immediately after the start of the military operation, as international penalties targeted its freely traded currency. Western countries froze Moscow’s foreign reserves, making it difficult for the Bank of Russia to support the ruble by selling foreign currencies.

The Russian government took steps to stabilize the sanctions-hit economy, helping the currency to bounce back from record low levels. The central bank introduced immediate capital controls, including a ban on foreigners selling Russian assets, as well as mandated hard currency sales by exporters.

The Russian currency received another boost after President Vladimir Putin announced in March that “unfriendly countries” that imposed sanctions against Moscow must now pay for Russian natural gas in rubles only. The demand received a negative response from the EU; however, Hungary and Slovakia said they were ready to accept the new way of payment. Moscow has also indicated that in the future, all Russian commodities will have to be paid for in rubles.

Another factor in favor of the ruble was the announcement by the Bank of Russia on March 25 that the regulator is resuming gold purchases at a fixed price of 5,000 rubles ($52 at the time) per 1 gram between March 28 and June 30. The move effectively links the ruble to gold, and since gold trades in US dollars, this sets a floor price for the ruble in terms of the dollar, establishing a new exchange rate between the two currencies closer to the levels seen on Thursday.

https://www.rt.com/business/553438-ruble-stronger-before-ukraine-crisis/

6 Apr, 2022 22:12

Valuable Russian art seized

Finland cites EU sanctions to seize $46 million in Russian art on loan overseas

Finland announced on Wednesday that its customs service seized Russian artwork that was returning after being loaned to exhibits in the EU and Japan, citing EU sanctions against Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine. The paintings and sculptures in question belong to Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery and St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, among others, and their value has been estimated at $46 million or more.

The seizure took place over the weekend at Vaalimaa, the busiest crossing on the Finland-Russia border, but Finnish Customs confirmed it at a press conference on Wednesday.

“The shipments that have now come under criminal investigation were detected as part of our customary enforcement work,” Sami Rakshit, the director of enforcement at Finnish Customs, said.

The agency justified the seizure by saying that “a paragraph” of the EU sanctions against Russia – imposed over the course of the past six weeks due to the escalation of hostilities in Ukraine – referred to artwork.

The unspecified number of paintings and sculptures was being stored “with overall consideration for their value, characteristics and safety,” pending a full investigation, Finnish Customs said. The Finnish Foreign Ministry will consult the European Commission about the fate of the works.

According to Russian media, the trucks contained over 200 paintings from the Hermitage and Tretyakov which had been on loan to the ‘Grand Tour: Dreams of Italy from Venice to Pompeii’ exhibit in Milan, Italy. Another shipment was on exhibit in Japan and was also coming home via Finland.

“We are doing everything to ensure that these works are returned to Russia,” Mikhail Shvidkoy, the special envoy of the Kremlin for international cultural cooperation, told journalists, blaming the “quite complicated” geopolitical situation for the seizure. “But I hope that all things that were taken abroad will return to the Russian Federation in due time.”

Russian conductors, performers, artists, and even cats and treeshave found themselves subject to ‘cancelation’ by the US and its allies, after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February.

In the most recent incident, Britain’s National Gallery changed the title of an 1890 painting by French impressionist Edgar Degas from ‘Russian Dancers’ to ‘Ukrainian Dancers,’ after a campaign by Ukrainian activists.

https://www.rt.com/russia/553429-finland-seized-art-sanctions/

Report: Ukraine Crisis Profiteering by US Oil Giants

April 7, 2022

An analysis released Tuesday by a trio of groups highlights how Big Oil has cashed in on various crises over the past year — including the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and the global climate emergency —while enriching wealthy shareholders.

The new report from BailoutWatch, Friends of the Earth, and Public Citizen explains that there are two main tactics that fossil fuel giants use to benefit investors: “First, they repurchase shares of their own stock and retire them, reducing the number of shares outstanding and driving up the value of each share remaining in investors’ hands.”

“Second, they increase dividends, the quarterly payments investors receive for owning shares,” the report continues. “Oil and gas dividends, historically bigger than other sectors’, have spiked in recent months, outstripping every other industry group.”

“Amid high gas prices and war in recent months, oil and gas companies have kicked both tactics into overdrive,” the groups found, based on reviewing public statements and securities filings from the 20 largest U.S.-headquartered fossil fuel corporations.

During the first two months of 2022, “seven companies’ boards authorized their corporate treasuries to buy back and retire $24.35 billion in stock — a 15 percent increase over all of the buybacks authorized in 2021,” the report states.

Six of those decisions came in February 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine lifted stock prices. The total since the start of 2021 is $45.6 billion.

As Public Citizen researcher Alan Zibel put it: “Big Oil executives are reaping windfall profits while accelerating the climate crisis and sticking consumers with the bill.”

Zibel also acknowledged efforts to blame President Joe Biden for rising prices, rather than industry profiteering.

The analysis also reveals that in January and February, 11 companies raised their dividends — “often extravagantly” — and notes that “nine were increases of more than 15 percent and four were increases of more than 40 percent.”

“Six companies have begun paying additional dividends on top of their routine quarterly payments, including by implementing new variable dividends based on company earnings — a way of directing windfall profits immediately into private hands without any possibility of investment, employee benefits, or other uses,” the document points out.

“So far in 2022, these companies have started paying out an initial $3 billion in special windfall dividends,” the report adds. “Four of these companies — Pioneer, Chesapeake, Conoco, and Coterra — announced variable dividends beginning August 2021, as prices began to rise.”

Chris Kuveke of BailoutWatch said in a statement that “Big Oil is living the second half of their unspoken mantra ‘socialize losses, privatize gains.'”

“Two years after winning multi-billion dollar bailouts from the Trump administration, these newly flush companies are pocketing billions from an international crisis, and they don’t care how it affects regular Americans,” Kuveke added…

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/07/report-ukraine-crisis-profiteering-by-us-oil-giants/

Jerks

April 6, 2022

Michael Brenner explains why he will abstain from any further writing on the subjects of Ukraine and U.S. relations with Russia, China or the Solomon Islands.

There will be no more from me on the subject of Ukraine; nor on our relations with Russia, China or the Solomon Islands.

There are a number of reasons for this abstention.

First, I’ve said just about everything I have to say about the macro issues and I see no reason either for repetition or examining day-to-day events which others do extremely well. (Moon of Alabama; Alexander Mercouris at YouTube).

Second, it is manifestly obvious that our society is not capable of conducting an honest, logical, reasonably informed discourse on matters of consequence. Instead, we experience fantasy, fabrication, fatuousness and fulmination. At a more personal level, this impression is reinforced by messages from persons whom I’ve known and respected telling me that I’m in the pay of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “mad,” “too clever by half,” “a Furtwaengler fan”

(Netrebko=Furtwaengler=Hitler), a “closet Bolshevik,” a conspiracy monger, “never met a payroll” (? don’t ask me), and/or “crossed a line” — red, amber, green or any other damn color.

Third, it is self-evident that our national leaders, elected or appointed, are equally incapable of sober deliberation, of intellectual honesty (with themselves as well as us), of elementary logic, even of acknowledging factual realities. Consequently, the resulting behavior defies rational analysis. The capstone to these shambles came with U.S. President Joe Biden’s off-the-wall speech on Warsaw and ensuing botched attempt at cleaning up the mess.

Frankly, a president of the United States has to be pretty dim to talk about eliminating the leader of a strong, willful, enemy government. President John F. Kennedy went down that dark tunnel and paid with his life – and Castro didn’t possess 3,800 nuclear warheads (he later had to borrow them from Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev). Regime change in Moscow, of course, has been the administration’s goal since Day No. 1; the wet dream of juveniles visualizing cutting the Gordian knot with one magical stroke? But only a reckless and feckless leader broadcasts his intention while visiting his target’s hostile neighbor. So, it was left to our NATO ambassador, then U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, then the State Department’s public relations flack to “walk it back.”

Habitual use of that moronic term itself is an indicator of our conceit and arrogance. It is not an apology, nor an admission of error. What it really means is: “Look. I slipped up in saying what I really think – maybe jetlag; but now this one is causing me heartburn. So, let’s lighten up and just erase it from memory.”

Strolling It Back

Yet, you can’t simply erase things like that. People beyond the cowed press corps have heard it — like the guy to whom you passed the black spot. To add to the insult, Biden the next day told us (and “killer/war criminal” Putin) that he didn’t really “walk” it back; rather it was a sort of “stroll back.”

In the course of his stroll, he made a number of pit-stops to emit accusations that the Putin gang in Ukraine were the same Russians who suppressed the Hungarians in 1976, the Czechs in 1968 and the Afghans in the 1980s. It was in their DNA, thereby seconding James Clapper and Wendy Sherman, among others…

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/06/jerks/

>>16029145

Jerks. Part 2 kekkity

Anyway, back from his stroll Biden was asked whether he had found closure on the “get rid of Putin” affair. What are you talking about? was his reply. There is nothing to stroll back or correct at any gait. I stand by what I said in Warsaw: “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest!”

To depict accurately this kind of vaudeville, we have to revert to colloquial street vocabulary. To be frank,Biden simply was discovering his inner “jerk.”

That’s a uniquely emotive term with unmatched connotations and imagery. Its synonyms are not “stupid, ignoramus, dimwit, bumbler, fool, tone-deaf.” You can be any or all of those things as well as a jerk — OR not necessarily be a jerk. Moreover, you can be intelligent, informed, well=spoken and either non=jerk or jerk. Examples: the ubiquitous Michael McFaul, Obama’s man in Moscow, is quintessentially of the type — a model by which to measure all others.U.S. Sen. ed Cruz, now auditioning for the position of America’s court jester, is an alternative model for those who prefer to relish their jerks Harvard-educated.

By contrast, Victoria Nuland is a ruthless, mean-spirited, dogmatic, shamelessly impolite ideologue cum provocateur. But she is not a jerk. On the other hand, let’s consider Tony Blinken. He has great potential and has taken remarkable strides in that direction in the past few months, but perhaps needs a bit more seasoning to establish fully his credentials. Or, make a selection from among the parade of luminaries, wannabes and used-to-be “experts” — in particular, the military/Intelligence ones whose astonishing divorce from reality sheds light on our serial failures in the coercive use of force over the years — who clutter the airways.

(The species jerk is not restricted to the U.S. The spreading of its congenial habitat abroad has seen prime specimens appearing in a number of locations: e.g., U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson along with his sidekicks Foreign Minister Liz Truss and Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace).

Jerks tend to be erratic in behavior, disjointed in their thinking, highly tolerant of inconsistency, unable to sustain a project and accident prone.They thrive in nihilistic and narcissistic societies like ours where embarrassment doesn’t exist. The jerk has a natural preference for a fluid decision process and ambiguous policy. For that spares him the need to discipline his own thoughts, to systematically weigh choices, and to make commitments to pursue a definite line of action.

Those circumstances, of course, also play to the advantage of those participants who know their mind, have a fixed objective, and are prepared to promote them outside formal deliberations. In a government where the two types predominate like Biden’s, therefore, there is no internal pressure for an already weak president to get a grip and straighten things out.

Example: the day after Biden initiates a cordial telephone conversation with China’s President Xi Jinping where he expresses the desire to avoid serious conflict and reaffirms U.S. continued commitment to the principle of “One China,” State Department officials meet their Taiwanese counterparts in Vienna to work out new arms sales and the promotion of Taiwan’s membership in specialized U.N. agencies….

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/06/jerks/

>>16029166

Jerks. Part 3

That dissipated whatever trust remained between Beijing and Washington. Yet, senior officials could not see the obvious. A few months later, Blinken and Nuland were asking Foreign Minister Wang Yi to A) cut back on imports of LNG so that more would be available for Germany which had just shut down NORDSTROM II, and B) join the sanctions campaign against its close ally and partner Russia because otherwise the U.S. would get angry.

This after a year of denunciation, sanctions and threats -— including moves encouraging Taiwan independence. Yi, predictably, didn’t mince words in rejecting the American proposals out of hand and took the occasions to treat both to stern lectures about American misdeeds. The general point to make is that the template for defining a jerk includes a disregard for past events and the tenor of past relationships — (s)he experiences life as a series of discrete episodes unencumbered by ‘history.’

This absurd behavior can be understood as a manifestation, at the highest level of American government, of the “I Need, I Want: The World is There to Accommodate Me” attitude thatpervades our narcissistic culture. Immature, yet fertile in its production and encouragement of jerks.

The antics of jerks would be entertaining to observe, for those with a sardonic sense of humor anyway, were the circumstances not so perilous. So, trying to analyze the kaleidoscopic conditions they produce is deeply frustrating and dispiriting. I give up. That won’t make any difference one way or the other. It would allow for a leisured visit to Montevideo to listen to Russian soprano Anna Netrebko sing Un bel dì, vedremo (One find day we’ll see.)

Finally, after distributing the above remarks, the question of continuing commentaries may well be moot as the audience melts away like factual reporting in the fevered editorial offices of CNN and The New York Times.

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/06/jerks/

Israel, Russia Clash Over Ukraine

Israel has pissed off top diplomat of Russia

Long article, some snippets

But years of goodwill have now been put on the line with Foreign Minister Lapid’s remarks. And now Russia has struck back. Sergey Ivanov, head of the department of diplomacy and consular service at the Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy, wrote a scathing critique of Israel on Wednesday, posted on the ministry’s Telegram page. It holds nothing back, openly condemning Israel for a variety of sins, including its treatment of the Palestinians.

Ivanov wrote that many Western journalists and political analysts have opportunistically become overnight “Ukraine experts” just as Western politicians, such as Lapid, are making rash statements to boost their popularity.

“Serious politicians, especially at such a high level as Minister Lapid, have no right to talk idly,” Ivanov warned. “They should be aware of the possible consequences of what they say, including with regard to relations with Russia.” He wrote:

“It is especially regrettable that these ill-considered statements have not been made by a Western official (Russians have long become immune to what they say) but by the Foreign Minister of Israel, a major regional partner with which Russia has a decades-long history of multifaceted relations.

“Under the pretext of ensuring its national security, Israel has for several years delivered air strikes at targets in the SAR, this on top of the existing differences with Damascus. These actions grossly violate international law, trample upon Syria’s sovereignty, and run the risk of further escalating confrontation in the region. They have repeatedly led to Syrian civilian casualties, including among children, not to mention the damage done to the combat potential of the Syrian armed forces and accordingly to the efficacy of their efforts to eliminate the terrorist presence on Syrian soil.

Attacks by the Israeli Air Force are directly threatening the Russian military personnel who are providing assistance to the legitimate Syrian authorities in their fight against terrorism. Fifteen Russian officers were killed in an air strike on a Syrian facility in Latakia on September 17, 2018.Israel wrongfully believes that the incident has been forgotten. However, even after that tragedy, on multiple occasions, Israeli pilots on combat missions in Syrian and Lebanese airspace used civilian aircraft as shields, thus putting them in great danger. And once again, we are hearing the same claims that the air raids are to eliminate threats to Israel’s national security.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/07/israel-russia-clash-over-ukraine/