6 Mar, 2023 17:16

German chancellor identifies who can stop Ukraine bloodshed

Olaf Scholz says Russian President Vladimir Putin must withdraw troops from the neighboring country as a basis for peace talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds the key to ending the bloody conflict in Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said. He insisted Moscow must pull its troops out of the neighboring country in order for peace negotiations to take place.

“It is necessary that Putin understands that he will not succeed with his invasion and imperialistic aggression. And that he has to withdraw troops. This is the basis for talks,”Scholz argued.

Speaking with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, the German leader said Ukraine was “ready for peace, but there must be something done – and this has to be done by Putin.”

He was asked whether he thought there was a prospect of a compromise by which Ukraine could cede Crimea and parts of Donbass to Russia in exchange for certain security guarantees like NATO and EU membership. In response, the German chancellor said the ball was in Moscow’s court and that there would be “no decisions without the Ukrainians.”

Scholz said the Kremlin had underestimated Ukraine’s defense capabilities and the West’s willingness to back Kiev before launching its military campaign last February. (Kek, not Kiev, they don’t have the capabilities, it’s the West)

Speaking on Friday at the Raisina Dialogue, a leading Indian conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics, Lavrov said peaceful resolution to the conflict was contingent on Kiev overturning its own ban on negotiating with Russia.

That was an apparent reference to a decree signed by President Vladimir Zelensky in October 2022, which ruled out talks with his Russian counterpart.

Moscow later dismissed a ten-point peace plan put forward by Ukraine in December as unreasonable, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying Kiev was clearly “not ready for dialogue.” The plan envisioned Moscow’s withdrawal of Russian troops from all territories.

In early February, Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, said the “prospects of peace will be closer when the flooding of Ukraine with weapons stops” and if the leadership in Kiev listens to Russia’s security concerns.

(Scholz shut up Germany, UN, the EU never said a word when Ukraine was bombing and killing 14,000+ ethnic Russians, which they are still doing today)

https://www.rt.com/news/572547-scholz-names-person-ukraine-peace/

6 Mar, 2023 17:17

Boris Johnson reignites cronyism row

The former UK PM has included his father in a list of people to receive a knighthood, according to reports

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has “discredited the honors system” according to a political rival after he reportedly included the name of his father, Stanley Johnson, in a list of around 100 potential candidates to receive a knighthood.

A report by UK newspaper The Times on Monday stated that Johnson, who was replaced as Conservative Party leader first by Liz Truss and later Rishi Sunak last year, added his father to an extensive list of knighthood candidates. Outgoing UK prime ministers traditionally submit lists of potential figures to receive the honor when they leave office.

“The idea that Boris Johnson is nominating his dad for a knighthood – you only need to say it to realize how ridiculous it is,” Labour leader Keir Starmer said on Monday on LBC radio. “It’s classic of a man like Johnson. I mean, I think the public will just think this is absolutely outrageous. The idea of an ex-Prime Minister bestowing honors on his dad – for what?”

Labour shadow health secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC on Monday that Johnson has “discredited the honors system, discredited the office of prime minister.”

The reported move by Johnson will likely renew allegations of cronyism against the former PM, which initially emerged after he nominated his brother, Jo, for a peerage in July 2020. He was designated as Baron Johnson of Marylebone in October 2020.

Stanley Johnson is a former Conservative Party politician and also served as a member of the European Parliament. He was alleged by two women in 2021 to have touched them inappropriately, with Johnson saying he had “no recollection” of an alleged incident in 2003 described by one of the accusers, Conservative MP Caroline Nokes.

Neither Boris nor Stanley Johnson have commented on reports of the potential knighthood.

The decision to confirm or deny knighthood recommendations lies with current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The PM’s office is understood to have expressed concerns about the size of Johnson’s nominations list, as well as some of the names suggested by the former prime minister.

A spokesperson for Sunak said on Monday that reports of Stanley Johnson receiving a knighthood are “speculative”.

https://www.rt.com/news/572552-uk-boris-johnson-father-knighthood/

Why I went to No10 in summer 2019

‘Character is Destiny’: normal mode, self-aware mode and Carrie mode Boris

Dominic Cummings

July 5, 2021

Introduction

‘Character is destiny’, Heraclitus.

‘The trouble about politics is that you can never be certain when your policy has been correct’, Bismarck.

Many have asked me versions of the question: if you knew Boris was so hopeless why did you go to No10 and/or why did you help create then win the 2019 election?

Some pundits have suggested I’m an idiot because I didn’t understand Boris’s character until late 2020.

I and my team worked with Boris in the referendum. Some of us worked with him, officially or unofficially, between the referendum and summer 2019. We knew his skills and his weaknesses.We knew he was, in any objective sense, unfit to be PM.We also knew that he knew too, since he’d told us.

On 24 June 2016 in Vote Leave HQ, just after Cameron had resigned, Boris pulled me into the odd little room where the ‘campaign within the campaign’ was run. What now?Boris told me with a laugh, ‘Obviously it’s ludicrous me being PM — but no more ludicrous than Dave or George, don’t you think?’I agreed and reminded him of the main elements of the deal we’d agreed with Gove about what to do next.

But the question facing us in summer 2019 was not: ‘is Boris fit to be PM?’.

https://dominiccummings.substack.com/p/more-evidence-on-how-the-pms-andp