24 Apr, 2023 12:52

Russia and Ukraine still trading with each other is ‘crazy’ – Seymour Hersh

The veteran investigative journalist explains his claims of corruption in Kiev in an interview aired by RT

Russia and Ukraine, despite being locked in an armed conflict, continue to trade products and services with each other, a situation that journalist Seymour Hersh described as “quite crazy” in an interview with the TV show ‘Going Underground.’

“Oil and money transcends any sort of rationality, I guess,” Hersh said in the interview aired by RT on Monday. He added thatit wasn’t too hard to find tell-tale signs of Ukrainian corruption.

Hersh elaborated on his recent allegations of rampant graft in the Ukrainian government. The reporter has claimed that the CIA estimated that President Vladimir Zelensky and his entourage embezzled at least $400 million last year from the money provided by the US to buy diesel for the Ukrainian army.Overpriced fuel bought by Kiev allegedly came via the black market from Russia.

“All you have to do islook at the high life in Kiev today,” he said. “There is a really good high life: the fancy restaurants are going, you can find liquor stores with everything in it, there is a lot of money being pushed around.”

Ukrainian officials have a long history of skimming from procurement contracts, and the conflict with Russia has not changed that, Hersh alleged.

“Everybody is going to brokers. Everybody is now getting third parties involved, because it increases the chance for money on the side. And the corruption there is beyond belief,” he said.

CIA Director William Burns raised the issue of corruption during his visit to Kiev in January, Hersh said, citing information he had been given by a source about the meeting. In addition to briefing Zelensky on complaints from Ukrainian generals about thepresident’s own alleged greed, the US spy chieflisted 35 otheralleged embezzlers.

The Ukrainian leader laterfired 10 of the “most ostentatious” individuals, but others were “left untouched”, Hersh said, describing the crackdown on officials which the Ukrainian government conducted after Burns’ visit.

Meanwhile, Russia continues to pay to Ukraine transit fees for oil and gas, pumped to Eastern Europe via pipelines through Ukrainian territory. The infrastructure was built during the Soviet era to supply consumers in the Warsaw Pact. Washington has described such trade as Moscow “weaponizing” its abundance of energy, Hersh noted.

“I don’t know [whether] I should be giggling about it because it’s really quite a crazy situation,” he concluded.

https://www.rt.com/russia/575256-hersh-ukraine-corruption-zelensky/

24 Apr, 2023 11:20

Dozens of foreign mercenaries killed in Iskander strike– Russia

Up to 60 members of the so-called ‘Georgian Legion’ were eliminated in Donbass, according to the Defense Ministry

Dozens of foreign mercenaries have been killed in a strike on the Ukrainian-held town of Konstantinovka in Russia’s People’s Republic of Donetsk, Moscow has said.

Up to60members of the so-called ‘Georgian Legion’ were killed and15 military vehicleswere destroyed in the attack, while20other mercenaries were seriously wounded, the ministry’s spokesman, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, announced during a briefing on Monday.

The strike, carried out using the Iskander short-range ballistic missile system, targeted alibraryin Konstantinovka, which foreign fighters were using forlodging and storing ammunition, he added. (The video update posted on the board yesterday about Bakmut and Wagner mentioned very similar info, in addition to Wagner stating they would no longer keep POWs.)

“The eliminated militants of the Georgian Legion were involved in thebrutal torture and murderof Russian servicemen near Kiev in March last year,” Konashenkov said.

The Russian militarypossesses data on every foreign mercenarylinked to the killing of Russian POWs, the spokesman claimed. “Every one of them will get their well-deserved retribution,” he added.

In early April last year, a gruesome video emerged online, which purportedly showed Ukrainian forces executing a wounded Russian soldier while the bodies of several other POWs lay in pools of blood nearby. At least one of the troops in the footage had his hands tied behind his back, and was apparently shot in the head at point-blank range.

The New York Times confirmed the authenticity of the clip, saying it had been filmed on March 30 in a village near Kiev. Ukrainian news agency UNIAN shared the video from the execution site on social media with the caption: “The Georgian Legion is helping the Ukrainians with mopping up Kiev Region.”

One of the members of the Georgian Legion, who was identified among the Kiev troops shown in the footage, had given an interview several days after the incident, vowing that his unit wouldnot be taking any Russian prisoners.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case over the execution, saying Ukrainian forces had “committed a harsh violation of the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War.”

Moscow estimated last year that at least 350 citizens from the former Soviet republic of Georgia had been fighting on the Ukrainian side during the conflict.

https://www.rt.com/russia/575255-ukraine-georgia-mercenaries-iskander/

24 Apr, 2023 14:07

US had secret plan to kill Wagner PMC commanders– WaPo

An attack against the military group in Mali might have been planned by Ukraine, leaked papers reportedly say

US officials considered killing military leaders of the Russian private military company Wagner in an attempt to curb its allegedly growing influence in Africa, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.

A document allegedly leaked by a US guardsman on a Discord server mentions dozens of options for “coordinated US and allied disruption efforts” against Wagner, including “kinetic” ones, the newspaper reported. The US also thought about providing information to help Ukraine kill commanders of the group in Africa, the document claims.

The trove of documents showed little evidence that the CIA, the Pentagon and other US agencies have caused any major setbacks for Wagner in the past six years, according to the Post. They did mention a single “successful unattributed attack in Libya” that “destroyed a Wagner logistics aircraft,” but the newspaper didn’t provide details about the operation.

Western nations have long accused the Wagner group of spreading malign influence in Africa. Its head, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, has described the services provided by his employees as furthering the anti-colonialist aspirations of African nations.

Anas El Gomati, a Libya-based commentator interviewed by the Post for its story, claimed that Wagner was “probably the most destabilizing actor” currently operating in the country. Libya was one of the most prosperous nations on the continent, before a NATO-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi resulted in his brutal death in 2011. The country has since been fractured among warring factions.

Another leaks-based story published by the Post on Monday pointed the finger atUkraine’s military intelligenceservice GUR and its head,Kirill Budanov, as the would-be attackers against Wagner in Africa. The Ukrainian agency planned such an operation in Mali, an NSA document reportedly said.

The Post described Budanov as “an ambitious 37-year-old general and rising star in the Ukrainian military,” for whom US and European officials privately express “admiration” and whose “audacity sometimes makes them nervous.”

Russia accused GUR of masterminding the attack on the Crimean Bridge last October. The powerful explosion killed the seemingly unwitting driver of a truck – carrying a disguised bomb as well as a couple in a car – which happened to be nearby when the device went off.

https://www.rt.com/news/575264-wagner-africa-kinetic-option/

I can understand why the Kremlin brought in Wagner, because they are as fearless and brutal as the GRU and Ukranian upper military.

24 Apr, 2023 07:31

Kamikaze drone crashes east of Moscow – reports

The Ukrainian-designed aircraft was carrying 17kg of military explosives, local media said

A drone laden with explosives has crashed in a rural areaeast of Moscow, Russian media outlets reported on Monday. The aircraft was reportedly of Ukrainian design and carried some 17kg of C4 explosives.

The drone was discovered on Sunday in Bogorodsky district, which is30km(18.64 miles) from the eastern outskirts of the Russian capital, TASS reported, citing a source in law enforcement.

News outlet SHOT said the drone had been identified as a Ukrainian-made UJ-22 Airborne. First presented to the public in 2021, this fixed-wing aircraft has arange of up to 800kmor twice that distance if used for a one-way kamikaze mission. It can carry a payload of up to 20kg.

SHOT sources said the drone had apparently run out of fuel before crashing in Moscow Region. It was carrying30 pieces of C4explosive used by military engineers. The total weight of its cargo was estimated at 17kg, according to the report.

News channel MASH claimed that the payload had consisted of M112 block demolition charges produced in Canada. Images purportedly shot at the crash site and circulated on social media showed what appeared to be M112 charges.

Meanwhile, the Russian military fended off a naval drone attack on the port of Sevastopol overnight, Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev reported on Monday. One of the UAVs was destroyed by Russian fire, while another “exploded on its own” outside the city harbor, he said on social media.

https://www.rt.com/russia/575231-moscow-region-drone-explosives/

24 Apr, 2023 13:49

Defense spending in Europe back to Cold War levels – SIPRI

The UK was 2022’s biggest spender in the region at $68.5 billion, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Europe’s military expenditure saw its sharpest year-on-year increase in at least 30 years in 2022, driven by the conflict in Ukraine, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) latest annual report. Meanwhile, totalglobal military expenditure was up 3.7%in real terms, reaching a new height of $2.24 trillion.

Worldwide, the three biggest spenders last year were theUnited States, China and Russia, together accounting for 56% of the total. US spending dwarfed that of its geopolitical adversaries, however, reaching a total of $877 billion, while Beijing spent $292 billion and Moscow about $86.4 billion, according to SIPRI data.

The sharpest rise by far(13%)was seen inEurope, however, largely driven by Russian and Ukrainian spending, but also by ramped-up fears in neighboring states.

“Military aid to Ukraine and concerns about a heightened threat from Russia strongly influenced many other states’ spending decisions,” the report explained.

In Central and Western Europe, military expenditure surged to a total of $345 billion, surpassing in real terms the spend in 1989 as the Cold War drew to a close. Compared with more recent years, expenditure by these states was still 30% higher in 2022 than in 2013.

Russia’s military operation in Ukraine had an “immediate impact” on military spending decisions in the region, SIPRI noted. This was seen not just in short-term boosts but in “multi-year plans to boost spending from several governments,” Dr Diego Lopes da Silva, a senior researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme said.

Some of the biggest increases were witnessed in Finland (up 36%), Lithuania (up 27%) and Sweden (up 12%), the data shows.

In theUS, the bulk of its increase in expenditure was accounted-for by the “unprecedentedlevel of financial military aid it provided to Ukraine,” SIPRI said.

Notably, while Washington’s military aid to Ukraine last year totalled $19.9 billion – the largest sum given by any country to a single beneficiary since the Cold War – it still represented only 2.3% of the US’s total defense spending for the year.

Skyrocketing defense spending is “a sign that we are living in an increasingly insecure world,” according to Dr Nan Tian, another senior SIPRI researcher.

“States are bolstering military strength in response to a deteriorating security environment, which they do not foresee improving in the near future,” he said.

(This is due to the Bidan curse as president. Trump spent money on industry, farms and energy, Bidan spends money on death and destruction)

https://www.rt.com/news/575262-europe-defense-spending-sipri/

24 Apr, 2023 10:04

US government ‘annoyed’ by Macron’s Ukraine push – Bloomberg

The French leader’s initiative on peace negotiations “hasn’t gone down well in Washington,” sources told the agency

The White House is “annoyed” by French President Emmanuel Macron’s unilateral attempt to initiate diplomatic negotiations on the Russia-Ukraine conflict with mediation by China, sources have told Bloomberg.

According to people familiar with the US government's thinking on the issue, the recent move by the French leader “hasn’t gone down well in Washington,” the agency reported on Sunday.

The sources claimed that “the White House was annoyed by what they see as Macronfreelancing on a delicate diplomatic issuewithout consulting with allies.” (There is no diplomacy, they must not understand the word.)

The people quoted by Bloomberg also said they did not believe the French president’s initiative would be successful, pointing out that he had proposed other peace plans during the conflict, but later backtracked on them.

They claimed it was “clear” that Beijing had no intention of using its influence on Moscow regarding the situation in Ukraine, the report said.

Last week, Bloomberg cited anonymous sources as saying France has been looking to revive peace talks between Russia and Ukraine by this summer with Chinese help.

Macron was claimed to have asked his foreign policy adviser, Emmanuel Bonne, to work directly with Wang Yi, the top Chinese official in charge of foreign relations, on formulating a roadmap for settling the crisis.

During his visit to Beijing earlier in April, Macron urged his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to use his influence to make Russia “come to its senses” regarding Ukraine. However, according to media reports, he failed to persuade China to closer align its policy on the conflict with the Western one.

Beijing has been saying for months that peace talks are needed in Ukraine, while stressing that any settlement should respect the interests of all parties. Chinese officials have also blamed the outbreak of the conflict on the actions of the US and its allies, including NATO’s eastward expansion.

Following his trip to Beijing, Macron tried to distance Paris from Washington’s aggressive line on China, saying “the Europeans can’t resolve the crisis in Ukraine,” so they mustn’t allow themselves to be dragged into the confrontation between the US and China over Taiwan. Europe should look for“strategic autonomy,” he insisted.

Macron’s efforts to improve relations with China and get involved in the peace process in Ukraine have been criticized by other EU nations as premature andjeopardizing the bloc’s unity. (EU is not united, they are just puppets for Bidan)

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who also visited China, has fully backed the US stance on Taiwan. Her Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki said that the EU will be “shooting into our own knee” if it tries looking for “strategic autonomy” because it will only make the bloc dependent on Beijing.

https://www.rt.com/news/575248-macron-biden-china-ukraine/

24 Apr, 2023 11:44

EU not ready to finalize new Russia sanctions – Borrell

The bloc is working on an 11th round of punitive measures against Moscow

EU foreign ministers are not ready to agree a new package of anti-Russian sanctions, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, told reporters on Monday as he arrived for a meeting in Luxembourg.

Asked whether the EU would impose sanctions on Russian nuclear energy, the diplomat replied that the bloc is not in a position to complete a new package of measures. “We will continue discussions,”Borrell added.

The statement comes as the 27-nation bloc compiles its latest round of sanctions against Moscow, having already imposed ten packages since 2014 in response to the crisis in Ukraine.

According to Bloomberg, the EU is planning to prohibit the transit of certain goods through Russia in its new round of measures, including technological goods and certain types of vehicles. It is also aiming to close any loopholes being used to evade existing sanctions.

In addition to a transit ban, the EU could target ships that do not turn on their navigation systems as a potential way to dodge sanctions.

The next package is also expected to feature around 30 new listings and further restrictions on Russian firms and entities,including state-run nuclear power corporation Rosatom,Bloomberg wrote.

However, there have been reports that the EU has exhausted its options for further economic restrictions against Russia, and that new measures are likely to be limited to expanding the list of individuals subject to asset freezes and travel bans.

Last week, an unnamed EU official told the Financial Times: “We are done. If we do more sanctions, there will be more exemptions than measures.”

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov claimed on Monday that the EU had run out of measures to target Moscow and “no longer knows what to do to hurt Russia.”

“They say that they'll ban exports to our country – okay. It isn’t as if apart from those countries that impose restrictions, there are no others. We will buy the same goods, andperhaps better quality, from friendly states, if necessary,” Siluanov said. He insisted that Russia isfully committedto producing its own versions of vital products.

https://www.rt.com/business/575247-eu-new-russia-sanctions-fail/

24 Apr, 2023 12:47

EU lawmakers urge France to expel Chinese ambassador

Last week, Lu Shaye questioned the legal basis for the sovereignty of former Soviet republics, drawing widespread criticism

Dozens of MPs representing a number of European countries have called on France to boot out China’s ambassador to the country, Lu Shaye. Last week, the senior diplomat questioned whether former Soviet republics can today be regarded as sovereign within the current framework of international law – a comment that landed him in hot water with several EU member states.

An open letter to French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and published by newspaper Le Monde on Sunday listed 80 lawmakers as signatories.

In it, they urged Paris to “declare Ambassador Lu Shaye persona non grata immediately as a response to his completely unacceptable behavior.”

Lu is no stranger to controversy, having made a reputation for himself during his four years in office as an embodiment of China’sassertive foreign policy, commonly known aswolf-warrior diplomacy.

Lu’s comment “violate[s] international law” and constitutes a “threat against the security of European partner countries of France,” the authors insist. The MPs also accused the outspoken Chinese diplomat of having made inflammatory remarks in the past. They cited the comments he made last August about the Taiwanese people needing to be “re-educated” after China regains control over the self-governing island.

On Saturday, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania lodged a joint protest over Lu’s latest comment, made to a French TV channel. The three Baltic nations summoned their Chinese chargés d’affaires to “provide explanations.”

In a statement on Sunday, the French Foreign Ministry emphasized its solidarity with NATO’s Eastern European allies and called on China to clarify its position on the issue.

Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell, in turn, described the remarks made by Beijing’s envoy in Paris as “unacceptable.”

The controversial interview featured Ambassador Lu claiming that “countries of the former Soviet Union don’t have effective status in international law because there is no international agreement to make their status as a sovereign country concrete.”

He also offered the opinion that Crimea had originally been Russian and had been gifted to Ukraine by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in the mid 1950s. (Which is true!)

Meanwhile, the Chinese Embassy in Francedeleted a transcript of Lu’s interviewfrom its official account on the WeChat social media platform, just hours after having posted it early on Monday.

Speaking to the press on Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning reiterated that Beijing “respects the sovereign-state status of the participating republics after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.” She also stressed that China was among the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the new states.

https://www.rt.com/news/575258-european-mps-call-france-expel-chinese-envoy/

24 Apr, 2023 15:12

(Whiny) Warsaw slams German stance on Ukraine’s NATO bid

Berlin, Paris and other Western European capitalshave always been against Kiev joining the bloc, the deputy foreign minister said

The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine could have been avoided altogether if Germany hadn’t tried to delay Kiev’s membership of NATO, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk has claimed.

“It’s known that France, Germany, and countries in Western Europe, in general, have always been against Ukraine joining either the EU or NATO,” Wawrzyk told Polskie Radio on Sunday.

Recent comments by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius were a sign that Berlin’s opinion is unlikely to change, the diplomat insisted.

Pistorius suggested on Thursday that “this is not the time to decide” about Ukraine’s place in NATO. The bloc’s members should consider this issue “with a cool head and a hot heart. Not the other way around,” he said.

“The question is when will the time for those ‘cool heads’ arrive? Five, ten or 30 years after the war [in Ukraine]?” Wawrzyk asked.

“If Germany… had not tried to delay Ukraine’s accession into NATO, if Ukraine had received an invitation to join the alliance many years ago in Munich, there wouldn’t have been a war in Ukraine today,” he claimed.

Warsaw, which has been among Kiev’s main backers in the EU during the conflict, is “constantly trying to convince the Western partners to change their minds and for Ukraine to join the alliance as soon as possible,” the deputy foreign minister said.

“In our opinion, the sooner this happens, the better, because it’ll be a guarantee of security not only for Ukraine and Poland, but also for the entire region,” he said.

Russia, which considers NATO’s eastward expansion a major security threat, had singled out the need to prevent Ukraine from joining the US-led bloc among the main reasons for its military operation in its neighboring country more than a year ago.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed during his visit to Kiev last week that “all NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a member,” but didn’t specify when exactly it would happen.

Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov reacted to Stoltenberg’s statement by saying “NATO’s continued line of absorbing and drawing Ukraine” into the bloc was further proof that Moscow’s decision to launch its military operation was the right one.

https://www.rt.com/news/575261-ukraine-nato-poland-germany/

1 hour ago

Republicans Must Go On Offense In Debt Ceiling Debate | Russ Vought On Republicans’ Impending Battle

10:11 minutes

https://rumble.com/embed/v2hkcgk/?pub=4

Bannon just announced Tucker and Fox have parted way. Breaking news

His last show was Friday night, no more shows