9 Dec, 2023

Russia won’t allow existence of ‘Nazi state’ on its border – Moscow

Currently, neither the West nor Kiev show the “political will” for peace, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says

Moscow will not allow Ukraine to continue being a “Nazi state”that poses a threat to both Russia and other nations, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

In an exclusive interview with AFP published on Saturday, Zakharova confirmed that thegoals of “denazification” and “demilitarization”of Ukraine, as declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the onset of the conflict in February 2022,remain unchanged. According to Zakharova, the events surrounding the Ukrainian crisis have underscored Russia’s belief in the necessity of launching its special military operation.

“From the very beginning of the hostilities, the [Ukrainian] neo-Nazis have been cynically using the civilian population as ‘human shields’ and brutally treating Russian prisoners of war. Their main goal in this conflict is to kill as many Russians as possible,” Zakharova explained.

We will not allow the existence on our borders of an aggressive Nazi state from whose territory there is a danger for Russia and its neighbors.

Asked about the prospects of somehow settling the conflict, Zakharova said that the only way to reach a“lasting peace” was, effectively, meeting all of Russia’s demands. “It is necessary to confirm the neutral, non-aligned and nuclear-free status of Ukraine, carry out its demilitarization and denazification, acknowledge new territorial realities, and ensure the rights of Russian-speaking citizens and national minorities living in this country,”she explained.

The spokeswoman also confirmed that Russia remains ready to resolve the conflict through diplomacy, stating that Moscow has never refused to do so. However, to make such negotiations possible, “the Kiev regime and its Western curators” must take “practical steps and show goodwill.” Thus far, neither of them have shown such “political will,” she added.

“A comprehensive, sustainable and just resolution of the conflict over Ukraine depends, to a large extent, on addressing its very causes. The West must stop pumping up the Ukrainian military with weaponry, while Kiev must cease hostilities and withdraw its troops from Russian territory,” Zakharova explained, referring to the four formerly-Ukrainian regions – Zaporozhye, Kherson, and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics – that were incorporated into Russia after referendums last fall.

(Russia’s statements are demands & commands now, meaning they have the upper hand; and could end the war by aggressive means. This is the most direct statement Russia has said since the beginning of the operation. Something has changed!)

https://www.rt.com/russia/588812-ukraine-aggressive-nazi-state/

First of two videos with Rudi:

Mayor Giuliani: The Laptop From Hell Created A Case Against Hunter By "End Of 2019"

10:31

https://rumble.com/embed/v3xvhwt/?pub=4

>>20050243. Second and last video

"We've Never Had Bribes At This Level": Giuliani On The Biden Impeachment Inquiry

11:30

https://rumble.com/embed/v3xvjo5/?pub=4

>>20050005, >>20050066 Massive ‘F-ck Joe Biden’ chant breaks out at Army / Navy gamePN

LET'S GO!!!😂🥳

It’s Pretty clear, “Fuck Joe Bidan”! This is the Army Navy Game, really telling. Well, at least we know Joe is not CiC!

0:24

https://rumble.com/embed/v3xwz4d/?pub=4

9 Dec, 2023

Father of American jailed in Ukraine blames Biden

Gonzalo Lira Sr. has claimed that Washington was complicit in the detention of his son for criticizing the Kiev regime

President Joe Biden’s administration was complicitin the arrest of a US citizen who was jailed and tortured in Ukraine for criticizing the Kiev government, the father of incarcerated blogger Gonzalo Lira has claimed, saying his son may have sealed his fate when he also spoke out against Washington.

Gonzalo Lira was apprehended by Ukrainian authorities for the third time in August, while trying to escape the country into Hungary after being released on bail. The Chilean-American journalist had repeatedly criticized the government of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, arguing that Kiev had provoked its conflict with Russia and had no chance of winning.

“This that is happening to my son, he’s a victim of this Biden government and his relation with thatpuppet Zelensky,” Gonzalo Lira Sr. said on Saturday in an interview with US political commentator Tucker Carlson. “Zelensky is a man that has made opponents, political opponents, disappear.”

The 80-year-old father said his son had bravelyreported on about a dozen Zelensky opponentswho hadbeen “disappeared.”The younger Gonzalo Lira also predicted correctly that the Russian economy would be relatively unscathed by Western sanctions and that NATO members would suffer a boomerang effect from their efforts to arm Ukraine and punish Moscow.

However, it was only after the blogger sharply criticized Biden and US Vice President Kamala Harris that he was arrested for a second time, in May, Gonzalo Lira Sr. told Carlson.

“Isn’t it odd that four days later, after condemning Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Gonzalo was arrested?” the father asked. “Why was he not detained earlier? When he was let go the previous year, he continued the same criticism against the war.” He added, “The USA government, with its silence in the face of this scandalous incident, suggests a degree of complicity, or at least tacit approval of Gonzalo’s arrest.”

Lira contrasted the Biden administration’s “conspicuous lack of response” to his son’s arrest to Washington’s aggressive efforts to secure the release of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in Russia on espionage charges in March.

The younger Lira is relying on a court-appointed Ukrainian attorney who speaks no English for his legal defense. Just before being captured in August, he warned that if he failed to get safely into Hungary and be granted political asylum, he would likely die in a Ukrainian labor camp.

Gonzalo Lira Sr. has called his son a political prisoner and has argued that his case illustrates the absurdity of US claims that the world must defend “freedom and democracy”in Ukraine.“If we are going to protect democracy in the world, let’s start by taking out that puppet called Zelensky,”he said.

https://www.rt.com/news/588814-father-of-jailed-american-in-ukraine-blames-biden/

(The 1st lady of Ukraine that spent a one or two million dollars, in a one day shopping trip to Paris, during “war time”, is begging the US for more money!Oh, Hell No!The more they beg, the less interest the West has. All EU countries have stopped to, not only the US.)

9 Dec, 2023

Zelensky’s wife pleads for more US cash

Ukraine is in “mortal danger” without billions more dollars from Washington, Elena Zelenskaya told the BBC

Ukraine “will die” without continued US military aid, President Vladimir Zelensky’s wife, Elena Zelenskaya, has told British state broadcaster, the BBC. Zelenskaya’s plea came a day after US Republicans shot down a bill that would have given Kiev more than $60 billion worth of arms, ammunition, and training.

In an interview taped on Thursday, Zelenskaya claimed that she sees “signs that the passionate willingness to help [Ukraine] may fade.” (It faded months ago dipshit!)

The day before, Republicans in the US Senate blocked a $110 billion spending bill that would have allocated $61 billion in military aid to Ukraine, as well as more than $10 billion to Israel and $13.6 billion to secure the US’ southern border. Republicans argue that the border funding does not go far enough, and want the bill to include substantial changes to immigration law.

With Congress deadlocked and public supportfor President Joe Biden’s Ukraine policy faltering,Zelenskaya implored the West to keep the weapons flowing.

“We really need the help. In simple words, we cannot get tired of this situation, because if we do, we die,” she said. “And if the world gets tired, they will simply let us die.” (You mean like when you and your husband sent innocent Ukrainian Soldiers to be killed by Russia, when you already had lost?)

The US has allocated a total of $113 billion in Ukraine-related funding since Russia’s military operation began in February 2022. This figure includes almost $45 billion in military aid to Kiev, as well as humanitarian and economic aid, and funding for various US government agencies.

This unprecedented outlay has failedto swing the conflict in Ukraine’s favor, with Kiev’s much vaunted summer counteroffensive ending in a near-total failure to recapture any territory from Russian forces, as well as the loss of over 125,000 troops and 16,000 heavy weapons, according to the latest figures from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Nevertheless, Biden’s State Department has denied rumors that it may push Ukraine toward a peace deal with Russia, and Biden himself has pledged to keep bankrolling the Ukrainian military. The president stated this week that he would be open to meeting some of the GOP’s immigration demands, before warning that a defeated Ukraine would lead to a Russian attack on NATO and “American troops fighting Russian troops.”

Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov condemned Biden’s words as “provocative rhetoric unacceptable for a responsible nuclear power.”

However, Biden’s words appear to mark his administration’s latest tactic in trying to convince Republicans to back the aid bill. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed on Thursday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Republican lawmakers that “we’ll send your uncles, cousins and sons to fight Russia” if they continue to block funding for Kiev.

https://www.rt.com/news/588804-zelensky-wife-military-aid/

==Ukraine has been promising eliminating Corruption since the late 1990s and fail always. EU report of 2021. PDF attached

EU Special Report 23, 2021

Global_UE.png

Reducing grand corruption in Ukraine: several EU initiatives, but still insufficient results

About the report:

Ukraine has been suffering from grand corruption and state capture for many years. Our audit assessed whether EU support in Ukraine was effective at fighting grand corruption. Although the EU had introduced several initiatives to reduce corruption opportunities, we found that grand corruption was still a key problem in Ukraine. We make several recommendations to improve the EU’s support, in particular that specific actions should be designed and implemented not only to target grand corruption (including the oligarchic structure), but also to help remove impediments to free and fair competition.

• ECA special report pursuant to Article 287(4), second subparagraph, TFEU.

Executive summary

I. Ukraine has been suffering from corruption – particularly grand corruption – for many years. The EU has backed several reforms to increase the rule of law and fight corruption in Ukraine.

II. Although EU key documents mention the fight against corruption, they make no specific reference to grand corruption. “Grand corruption” is defined as the abuse of high-level power that benefits the few, and causes serious and widespread harm to individuals and society. Oligarchs and vested interests are the root cause of this corruption. Grand corruption and state capture hinder competition and growth, and harm the democratic process.

III. Preventing and fighting corruption in Ukraine is one of several EU objectives for EU assistance in Ukraine. The Commission and the European Advisory Mission Ukraine supported capacity-building for institutions engaged in fostering the rule of law, in particular the newly-created anti-corruption institutions. We focused our audit on grand corruption as this is the main obstacle to the rule of law and economic development in Ukraine. We audited whether the European External Action Service and the Commission have effectively assessed the specific situation in Ukraine as regards grand corruption, and taken the necessary action to support reforms in Ukraine. We focused on the EU’s contributions to judicial and anticorruption reforms during the 2016-2019 implementation period.

IV. The European External Action Service and the Commission have viewed corruption as a cross-cutting priority, and channelled funds and efforts through a variety of sectors. Overall, we found that this approach focused insufficiently on grand corruption. While the EU has helped to reduce corruption opportunities, grand corruption remains a key problem in Ukraine. Judicial reform is experiencing setbacks, anti-corruption institutions are at risk, trust in such institutions remains low, and the number of convictions resulting from grand corruption is small. Although the European External Action Service and the Commission have viewed reducing corruption as a cross-cutting issue, they have not designed and implemented a specific strategy to tackle grand corruption. The projects we examined were not exclusively focused on fighting grand corruption, but half of them included some activities that indirectly addressed the problem.

V. The Commission’s support for civil-society projects and independent journalism was a relevant course of action, and helped not only to ensure transparency but also to expose corrupt practices.

VI. The Commission supported the Antimonopoly Committee’s activities and corporate governance reforms of State Owned Enterprises, but the focus was initially on aligning Ukrainian legislation with EU standards and principles rather than on enforcing competition law.

VII. The Commission and the European Advisory Mission Ukraine have provided intensive assistance for judicial reform. However, a substantial number of judges, prosecutors and members of judicial governance bodies still need to undergo integrity vetting. The Commission also helped to set up and develop specific anti-corruption institutions. However, we found that the existing environment in Ukraine puts the sustainability of these institutions at risk, as they still rely on the unreformed judicial, prosecution and law-enforcement sectors.

VIII. EU projects also helped to shape a number of digital tools for preventing corruption, but several tools required further commitment from the national authorities. The current lack of accurate databases is known to make such tools less efficient for crosschecks and transparency. EU projects are working on these issues.

IX. Coordinating EU conditions with other donors has played a part in amending Ukraine’s Constitution, strengthening the legal framework, and setting up institutions….

(Had to remove the link.)

>>20050456

(Following the 23rd EU report on the Corruption of Ukraine, the country promises again to get in EU)

9 Dec, 2023 15:31

Zelensky clamps down on corruption to win EU’s favor

The bloc has made anti-graft reform one of the key conditions for starting accession talks

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has approved a new package of laws aimed at tackling endemic corruption in the country in hope of bringing Kiev closer to EU membership.

On Friday, Zelensky signed three bills into law which had been approved by the parliament earlier in the day. The first increases the maximum number of staff at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau from 700 to 1,000, with its authors arguing that the measure would allow the body to crack down on graft more effectively.

The second reorganizes the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office to give it more autonomy and changes the process of selecting senior prosecutors.

The third law allows the National Agency on Corruption Prevention to check the property bought by officials and their family members before they were appointed to their posts.

In addition, Zelensky also signed a bill on the rights of ethnic minorities that takes into account the expert assessment of the EU Council. The initiative lifts some restrictions on languages used in the EU, but it does not apply to Russian, which the Ukrainian authorities have tried to eliminate from all public spheres.

The laws were passed after theEU Commission recommended opening formal accession talks with Kiev last month, but demanded that Ukraine implement a series of anti-corruption reforms. However, some EU states, including Hungary and Austria, oppose speeding up the integration process.

While Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called the EU’s proposal “unfounded and poorly prepared,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg warned that rushing the process could alienate other candidates.

Ukraine has been plagued by rampant corruption for several decades. The country ranks 116th out of 180 on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, and in recent months, it has been rocked by several high-profile bribery scandals in the defense industry.

The problem has not gone unnoticed in the West, with CNN reporting in October that the US was pressuring Ukraine to do more about corruption, indicating that further aid would depend on Kiev’s progress in this area.

Orban has also cited the problem as one of the main obstacles to Ukraine’s EU accession, while his newly elected Slovak counterpart, Robert Fico, has argued against sending billions of euros in aid to the country for the same reason.

Andrey Yermak, the head of the office of President Zelensky, has rejected the idea that Ukraine is one of the world’s most corrupt countries, calling it a false “Russian narrative.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/588799-zelensky-corruption-reforms-eu-membership/

9 Dec, 2023

Better propaganda needed for conscription – Zelensky aide

Mikhail Podoliak weighed in on a video showing armed Ukrainian soldiers serving draft notices to gym-goers

Mobilization in Ukraine will be difficult, Mikhail Podoliak, a top aide to President Vladimir Zelensky, has acknowledged, adding that Kiev intends to hone its propaganda campaign for this purpose.

Speaking on Ukrainian TV on Friday, Podoliak was asked to comment on a=recent raid by Ukrainian officials and armed service members on a gym in western Ukraine, where all males present were served with draft notices. Incidents of potential conscripts being ambushed by draft officials in shopping malls, restaurants, and other public places have become more frequent in recent months.

The senior aide defended the conscription drive, accusing reluctant Ukrainians of wanting “to live in a free state where you can behave as you please, but not wanting to protect the rights that you love,” adding “that the situation will drastically change if Russia achieves victory”. (The honed propaganda.)

Podoliak also said thatKiev intends to change “the propaganda element of the mobilization procedures.”He explained that much depends on whether the government can win over those who “don’t really understand what the war is and what consequences it may lead to if it’s not finished in the right way.”

Ukraine announced a general mobilization shortly after the start of the conflict with Russia in February 2022, barring most men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the country. The conscription drive, however, has been marred by rampant corruption and draft dodging. According to the BBC, around 20,000 potential conscripts have fled the country to avoid being sent to the front lines, with approximately the same number caught in the process.

In late November, Zelensky teased a new “complex plan” of mobilization, without providing details. Aleksey Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, signaled that Kiev had signed contracts with recruitment companies to entice those reluctant to enlist. Earlier, the official said that during the conflict with Russia, every Ukrainian citizen “has to fight a war or perform a service.”

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said last month that Kiev’s Western backers had advised Ukraine to lower the minimum conscription age to 17 and increase the maximum to 70, as well as calling up more women.

Kiev’s push to address its manpower issues comes amid a faltering counteroffensive, which started in early summer but has failed to gain any substantial ground. Moscow has described Ukraine’s losses as devastating.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said Kiev has lost over 125,000 soldiers in the past six months, adding that Western arms deliveries and Ukraine’s decision to commit its strategic reserves to the fight “only increased the number of casualties.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/588785-mobilization-difficult-ukraine-propaganda/