17 Dec, 2023 12:21

Russia wants to improve ties with NATO, not fight – Putin

Moscow has no fundamental disputes with Western countries, but they insist on confrontation, the president has said

Russia does not have the slightest reason to attack NATO, President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that the US-led military bloc is well aware that Moscow has no plans to do so.

In an interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin aired on Sunday, Putin was asked to comment on remarks by US President Joe Biden, who said earlier this month that Moscow might attack the alliance if it prevails in the Ukraine conflict.

The Russian leader dismissed his American counterpart’s speculation as “nonsense.”

“I think that President Biden understands that this is just a figure of speech to justify his misguided Russian policy,”he said, explaining that he does not believe Moscow’s “strategic defeat” would be in the interests of the US.

Putin went on to say that the president of the United States – which he called the “master” of NATO – surely knows that “Russia has no interest… geopolitically, economically or militarily… in waging war against NATO.”

Moscow, he added, has no claims on the territory of the bloc’s member states and only seeks to improve ties with them. However, the West’s political course is making this increasingly difficult, Putin noted, citing the example of Finland, which applied to join NATO after the start of the Ukraine conflict and became a full-fledged member in April.

Russia has no disputes with its Nordic neighbor, Putin said, noting that the last territorial claims were settled after the end of WWII. “We had the most open-hearted, cordial relations…We had no problems, but now are going to, because we are going to create the Leningrad military district and deploy certain military units there. Why did they need that?”

The president added that Russia has no quarrel with other NATO states either. “It is they who are artificially creating problems with us because they don’t want Russia as a rival.”

Russian officials have repeatedly described relations between Moscow and Washington as being at an all-time low, blaming the situation on the US’ support for Ukraine, as well as the country’s stance on arms control.

Earlier this month, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said thetwo powers are balancing on the brink of a hot war, with the last similar stand-offdating back to the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s.

https://www.rt.com/russia/589205-putin-improve-ties-nato/

16 Dec, 2023 19:23

Ukraine missed chance for good deal – Moscow

Kiev has “squandered” its opportunity to negotiate a favorable peace agreement, a top Russian diplomat says

Ukrainian leaders have blown their chance to find a favorable exit from the country’s conflict with Moscow, so any agreement to end the fighting will be inferior to the deal from which President Vladimir Zelensky walked away in March 2022, a top Russian diplomat has claimed.

“Ze’s Ukraine has squandered its chances for such a favorable off-ramp,” Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said on Saturday in an X (formerly Twitter) post. “Any possible deal now will be reflecting its capitulation.”

Polyanskiy made his comment in response to a claim by Michael McFaul, a prominent anti-Russia figure in the West, that Russian President Vladimir Putin was never serious about forging a peace agreement with Ukraine. The Russian diplomat was apparently referring to a preliminary deal reached at peace talks hosted by Türkiye in March 2022. Putin later held up the agreement at a meeting with African leaders, saying Ukrainian leaders had thrown it into “the garbage dump of history.”

“It’s already common knowledge that it was initiated by Ze’s negotiators, and its copy was shown by President Putin himself,” Polyanskiy said. “And this story as well as the direct role of the UK and the US in convincing Ze to reject it was corroborated by many witnesses.”

Since that time, Ukraine has lost hundreds of thousands of troops. Ukrainian forces have suffered more than 125,000 casualties just since June, when their failed counteroffensive began, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. With the US and EU struggling to get approvals for additional military aid to Kiev, the Western media narrative on Ukraine’s prospects has turned gloomier.

McFaul, a US ambassador to Russia under then-President Barack Obama, downplayed his influence over the Ukraine crisis, saying, “I’m just a professor far, far away.” Polyanskiy replied that McFaul was being too modest: “We all know your true destructive role in the post-Soviet space.”

The Russian diplomat noted that in a 2012 interview,McFauldescribed himself as a “specialist on democracy, anti-dictator movements, revolutions.”He added that the professor could take credit for Ukraine’s missed opportunityto make peace because of his “constant warmongering” and “misleading US public on the real situation on the ground.”

(It seems like Bidan Obama admin is getting revenge for any of Trump’s successes and stances to maintain peace and no war around the world. Look at our military, the first thing Bidan does is destroys the military. They are intentionally choosing targets that Trump had successes with or proud of.)

https://www.rt.com/news/589186-ukraine-missed-chance-at-russia-peace-deal/

16 Dec, 2023 20:56

Conscription in Ukraine becoming 'more aggressive' – NYT

Recruiters are “shoving people into cars” and pressing them into service against their will, the American newspaper reported

Ukrainian military recruiters have taken to “snatching” men off the streets and forcing them to fight, the New York Times reported on Friday. With casualty rates soaring, recruiters have allegedly turned to the injured and disabled to fill the ranks.

“Recruiters have confiscated passports, taken people from their jobs and, in at least one case, tried to send a mentally disabled person to military training,” the NYT reported, citing interviews with Ukrainian lawyers, activists, and draftees.

Among those forced into service were a man with a broken arm, a man whose lawyer said he had “an official diagnosis of ‘mental disability’ from childhood,” andordinary workers cornered as they left their jobsand were forcibly driven to recruitment centers.

The man with the broken arm managed to escape from the recruitment center, he told the newspaper, but others unable to flee are faced with a stark choice:pay a bribe to be deemed unfit for service or get sent to the front line. One recruit who fought last year in Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut in Ukraine)called the bribe “a buyout from death.”

“Videos of soldiers shoving people into cars and holding men against their will in recruiting centers are surfacing with increasing frequency on social media and in local news reports,” the Times noted.

Such videos have been circulating on Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels since mid-2022, and Ukrainian military sources told RT that men of conscription age were beingsnatched from streets and shopping malls less than four months into the conflict.

However, the New York Times’ reporting on the issue comes amid a shift in the Western media’s coverage of the conflict.Western outlets now portray President Vladimir Zelensky as “delusional” for believing that he can succeed on the battlefield, paint Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive as an ill-advised failure, and speculate on whether the Ukrainian military will “unravel” in the coming months.

Although the Ukrainian military does not publish casualty figures, US officials believe that Kiev has lost more than 150,000 men in almost two years of fighting. Aleksey Arestovich, a former aide to President Vladimir Zelensky, puts the figure at up to 300,000, while the Russian Defense Ministrycounts 125,000 Ukrainian casualties between early June and mid-November alone. (That’s less than 6-1/2 months, the operation has been going for 22 months, so its much higher now 300,000+)

Such stark losses, combined with the fact that “many Ukrainian men have either fled or bribed their way out of the draft,” have forced recruiters to resort to these “aggressive conscription tactics,” the Times stated. However, thequality of recruits being sent to the front line has diminished as a result,according to accounts from active servicemen.

“We need people, but trained people, not the green ones we have there now,” a Ukrainian soldier told the BBC earlier this month. “There are guys who had spent just three weeks in training, and only managed to shoot a few times.”

“Everyone who wanted to volunteer for war came a long time ago,” the soldier continued. “Now we're getting those who didn't manage to escape the draft. You'll laugh at this, but some of our marines can't even swim."

https://www.rt.com/russia/589187-ukraine-conscription-draft-nyt/

>>20087962

So the Bidan Admin sent this message from the NYTs, the official mouthpiece of the leftist Admin. They hardly ever tell the truth, so this means the Admin are telling Zelensky its over, and giving the Ukraine military the OK to coup this leader.

>>20087976

Yes and also they want Zelensky gone, he knows too much.

16 Dec, 2023 03:52

West secretly urging Russia-Ukraine talks – Lavrov

The top diplomat says Moscow has “never rejected” peace negotiations out of hand

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that multiple Western leaders had approached him about potential negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine, saying the Kremlin is ready for dialogue so long as it respects Moscow’s core interests.

Speaking alongside his Belarusian counterpart, Sergey Aleinik, on Friday, Lavrov told reporters that some Western powers were increasingly interested in a negotiated settlement, though declined to single out any country by name.

“I do not want to and I have no right to name names, but a number of high-level, well-known leaders of Western countries, including one specific Western leader, a very well-known one, several times… at least via three different channels of communication, sent signals as to why don’t we meet and talk about what to do with Ukraine and with European security,” he said.

Lavrov added that Russia is “always ready to discuss these issues seriously,” but suggested that Kiev has been the unwilling party, saying “We have never rejected the negotiations and this question should not be addressed to us.”

However, the foreign minister stressed that any talks would have to account for “Russia’s legitimate interests” and must mean “putting an end to attempts to build [one’s] own security at the expense of others,” referring to Ukraine’s efforts to join the NATO bloc.

Though Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met for multiple rounds of talks in the weeks after Moscow launched its military operation, the discussions soon collapsed. Kiev has shown little interest in further dialogue in the months since, with President Vladimir Zelensky even signing a decree barring any talks with the current Kremlin leadership.

During a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) earlier this month, Lavrov recalled that the two sides had essentially reached a peace agreement following talks in Istanbul in March 2022, noting that senior Ukrainian MP David Arakhamia, who led his country’s delegation, had recently confirmed this.

A key political ally of Zelensky, Arakhamia said that Russia’s primary goal had been to pressure Ukraine to accept neutrality and abandon plans to join NATO. Kiev did not trust Moscow to keep its word and wanted “security guarantees” from third parties, Arakhamia said, also pointing out then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s role in discouraging the talks.

Western leaders have so far said little about new peace talks in their public comments, though recent media reports have indicated that US and European officials have quietly broached the issue behind the scenes. According to US officials cited by NBC,Washington is now “worried that Ukraine is running out of forces”and cannot succeed on the battlefield, reportedly prompting new interest in negotiations.

(Those fuckers knew Ukraine could never win, Bidan and Zelensky promised “down to the last Ukrainian”. When they use the word “Forces” its to reduce the actual humans to an oblique term, so it doesn’t as bad and the US never has to apologize. At this point they are blaming this on losing too many soldiers, instead of the real cause that the US citizens, House and Senate will not send one more dime. There seems to be no regrets for causing so many Ukrainians killed. Zelensky is going to be taken out for continuing this farce, and the west will give the go order.)

https://www.rt.com/russia/589159-lavrov-west-ukraine-talks/

>>20088099

Thatsnotableand is very likely

17 Dec, 2023 13:43

=Russia’s Belgorod region under attack – governor==

A gunfight between Russian and Ukrainian forces is underway in a border village, Vyacheslav Gladkov has said

The Russian village of Terebrino, in Belgorod Region, has been attacked by Ukrainian forces, local Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Sunday. The village is located just some 2km from the Ukrainian border.

Terebrino, as well as several other locations along the border, came under artillery fire, with a gun battle between Russian and Ukrainian troops erupting on its outskirts, the governor said. The shelling caused damage to power lines, disrupting the electricity supply to several other villages.

Gladkov did not elaborate on the size of the attacking force, stating only that the situation remains “under control” of the relevant authorities.

Southwestern Belgorod, along with other Russian regions bordering Ukraine, has repeatedly been struck during Moscow’s conflict with its neighbor, with border towns hit by drones, missiles and artillery.

The latest major incident came last Tuesday, when a Ukrainian Tochka-U tactical ballistic missile was shot down over the region. Russian officials have consistently charged that Ukraine is targeting civilian infrastructure along the border, which they have denounced as terrorism.

Ukrainian forces have also staged several minor raids into Russian territory, with Belgorod Region being one of the areas most affected. The incursions, however, have failed to produce any meaningful military impact, resulting only in civilian casualties for Russia and heavy losses for the attacking Ukrainian forces, according to Moscow.

(Told you yesterday that their new war plans were terrorism on Russia soil. Headline from yesterday. Ukraine is well trained terrorists not soldiers.)

16 Dec, 2023 15:22

Ukraine planning new ‘counteroffensive’ – Welt

Kiev still has “big plans” underpinned by Western equipment not yet destroyed, the report says

At the same time, Bild reported on Friday, citing sources, thatUkraine was drawing up a “new war plan.” According to the magazine, Kiev has shelved plans to push Russia out of the territories it claims as its own and is insteadfocusing on inflicting maximum losses on Moscow.

“Our goal is to have the kill ratio as positive as possible,” an unnamed officer told Bild, adding that if Kiev achieved a ratio of losses of 10 to 1 in its favor, it would advance, while a ratio of 1 to 1 would ultimately mean retreat.

https://www.rt.com/russia/589174-ukraine-new-counteroffensive-strategy/

https://www.rt.com/russia/589210-belgorod-region-attack-ukraine/

This is funny, RT on Trump and Putin’s comment

17 Dec, 2023 07:57

Biden making Putin happy – Trump

The Russian president has previously said that the indictment of the GOP presidential frontrunner looks like political persecution

Former US President Donald Trump has quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin to prove his point that democracy in America is in serious danger.

Speaking at a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination proclaimed that incumbent Joe Biden, who is likely to be his main rival in the 2024 presidential election, was “a threat to democracy.”

He went on to say that “even Vladimir Putin… says that Biden’s – and this is a quote – ‘politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russiabecause it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy’.”

The whole world is watching the “political persecution” of Joe Biden’s opponent, who is “kicking his ass,” Trump said, apparently referring to his performance against the incumbent president.

He also recalled that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – whom Trump described as “highly respected” – had said that the Republican frontrunner is “the man who can save the Western world” as he could have stopped many global crises, including the Ukraine conflict.

Putin made the cited remarks in September, when he suggested that the growing number of indictments against the former US president was a campaign against an important political figure unleashed in plain sight.“They have just exposed their internal problems,”the Russian leader said.

In recent months, Trump has found himself at the center of several cases, four of which have resulted in indictments; in total, he faces 91 criminal counts. The first allegation states that he paid hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels; Trump has denied having an affair with her.

The second case centers on Trump’s alleged removal of classified documents from the White House after leaving office. Meanwhile, two other indictments focus on his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Despite being embroiled in a number of legal battles, the former president announced last November that he would run for office again in 2024. Several recent polls have suggested that Trump would beat Biden in a hypothetical rematch next year by a comfortable margin.

https://www.rt.com/news/589196-trump-putin-democracy-rotten/

Jeff Roe Resigns from Ron DeSantis Super PAC After Staff Leaks Massive Turmoil Amid Campaign Collapse

December 16, 2023 | Sundance

1/2(read the wholearticle its glorious, wow seems like illegal or grossly illegal things occurred. Jeff Roe drained the coffers dry before leaving, just like Sundance said he would)

Following a scathing insider report of the turmoil within the campaign and SuperPAC for presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, chief strategist Jeff Roe resigns.

It is stunning to contemplate the starting point of $269,000,000.00 [and more since] has essentially done nothing except destroy the public image and brand of Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis. No presidential campaign has ever amassed such a proactive funding war chest and blown it to smithereens before the first votes have even taken place==.

Never Back Down Super PAC Chief Strategist, Jeff Roe, delivered the following statement via

The Washington Post presented a scathing report [SEE HERE] outlining details provided by 22 people in the DeSantis campaign and Super PAC.Within hours of that report being posted, Jeff Roe quit.

WaPo – […] With just weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, the experiment is now in tatters. The super PAC that funded almost all of the DeSantis advertising and field programs and much of the candidate’s travel and events has been sidelined by the people that created it.

[…] Five senior officials have left Never Back Down since late November. Three officials with Roe’s firm were fired, andthe board chairman and the founding chief executive both resigned, amid internal concerns about legal compliance. A verbal conflict from inside the group’s Atlanta offices became public, as did DeSantis’s own misgivings about the outside group’s leadership. The governor and his campaign staff have been frustrated by reporting on the drama around Never Back Down and critical of the group’s ad strategy, with DeSantis’s second campaign manager, James Uthmeier, publicly instructing donors to give elsewhere for TV ads.

Rather than a new playbook for presidential campaigns, the broader DeSantis project has exposed the dangers of depending on emerging loopholes in campaign finance law that allow candidates to turn over traditional election efforts to groups that can take donations of any size from corporations or individuals.

“The super PAC model of winning a presidential primary, I think, is staggering, if not on the ropes,” said one DeSantis donor. “And if you’re going to have a successful presidential primary campaign you need to be able to raise hard dollars.”

[…] On Saturday, a top official at Never Back Down elaborated on the firings in a statement that for the first time publicly suggested their rationale. “Following mismanagement and conduct issues, including numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information, senior officials were terminated,” said Never Back Down chairman Scott Wagner. “We don’t have time to indulge false narratives from those with ulterior motives.”

The Post asked employees for a response. A lawyer for the employees then contacted Wagner claiming his assertions were categorically false and he revised his statement, replacing the first sentence with:“Following some opinions regarding mismanagement and conduct issues, including some who believed there appeared to be numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information, NBD and some senior officials parted ways. ”

A representative for the three former employees declined to comment Saturday….

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/12/16/jeff-roe-resigns-from-ron-desantis-superpac-after-staff-leaks-massive-turmoil-amid-campaign-collapse/

>>20088283

2/2

Three people familiar with the super PAC’s decision-making described reasons for suspecting the three fired officials of wrongdoing, but the organization did not provide clear evidence implicating them. Two other people familiar with the inner workings of the group said they are not aware of proof.

[…] Still, some inDeSantis’s orbit are holding out hope for a comeback. During his first campaign for governor, DeSantis won despite shaking up his team late in the race. (Must be Paul Ryan! Kek)

“Clearly, we are underperforming. Clearly we haven’t lived up to the billing. But I do think this adaptive behavior is going to produce better results in the end,” said Dan Eberhart, a DeSantis donor. “Clearly, Haley has some momentum nationally. Clearly, Trump is lapping the field. But I think he’s got an underdog’s chance at pulling off a humongous upset.” (read more) (underperforming is not the problem to fix, he never performed to begin with and is backed by never trumpers, it was never going to work.This guy is only sticking around to hoover up the remaining money!)

The DeSantis loyalists promise to keep swinging for the fences. However, everything aroundtheir effort was/is built upon fraud, manipulation, deceit and astroturf. This outcome should not come as a surprise to those who have followed along.

Almost everyone in the operation and in the promotion thereof, are retreads from the failed Ted Cruz campaign of 2016. Someone in professional GOPe circles had the idea to enmesh the Never Trump group with the Bush team and try to build a brand image for Ron DeSantis that could co-opt the MAGA base.

It was a stupid strategy from the outset, made even worse by their tone-deaf missing of reality. Tens-of-millions of core base voters have their eyes wide open now. They are not going to destroy the movement, and the collapse of Ron DeSantis just shows how strategically smart the base voter has become.

At a certain point, the pretending hits the sunlight of reality.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/12/16/jeff-roe-resigns-from-ron-desantis-superpac-after-staff-leaks-massive-turmoil-amid-campaign-collapse/

KanekoaTheGreat

@KanekoaTheGreat

NEW - Tucker Carlson, David Sacks, and Congresswoman Lunatalk about Biden blocking a peace deal at the start of the Ukraine War, resulting in the death of hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainians.

@TuckerCarlson

: "This war wouldn't be still in progress, were it not for the Biden administration, abetted by the leadership of the Republican Party."

"Zelensky just said they are going to call up 40-year-olds - what does that tell you? There are no more 25-year-olds."

"I'm talking about the people who pushed the war, who went to the Munich Security Conference, the Vice President, President, & Undersecretary of State who said to Zelensky that we want you to join NATO knowing that was Russia's red line.

They knew that and did it anyway. They wanted a war. They destroyed Western Europe's economy by blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline… But the main thing they did was destroy Ukraine."

@DavidSacks

: "I personally believe that there are half a million people in Ukraine who are dead right now because we do not have an honest, public conversation in the United States.

If the mainstream media honestly reported that there was a deal available in the first month of this war to end the war and all we had to agree on was for Ukraine not to be part of NATO, which it never will be anyway because it's not going to win this war.

If the mainstream media does report that, I think the American people would have said, of course, we should sign that deal - why would we block it?"

@realannapaulina

: "Part of the reason why I've been so vocal about not giving Ukraine any more funding is that the parliament intent once this war is over - they actually want to take all of the equipment we've provided them and essentially start their own Wagner group.

And I think that the fact is that the Republican Party as a whole, even McConnell, I mean, many people have been complicit in really just supporting the military-industrial complex.

And frankly, if Trump had been in office, I think this would have never happened. There would have been peace talks."

@TuckerCarlson

: "The Israelis were honest enough, as you remember Naftali Bennett, to say over a year ago there was a peace deal in progress, and it was scuttled by the U.S.

That's a massive moral crime, like the blood of those kids is on their hands. Yet they're running around lecturing us about democracy and how they're on the right side of history.

The opposite is true. They've committed a horrific crime, and the main victim has been Ukraine, and they're still posing as the defenders of Ukraine."

14:36. Watch video

https://x.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1734870287618027657?s=20

>>20088314

This statement from the donor clearly neglects that PDJT saved DeSadist ass at the last minute by endorsing him. Its a much repeated, so there is no possibility coming from behind because Trump would never do it again, and DeSadist has alienated 99% of Trump supporters. These donor have insanity or extreme TDS

“Clearly, we are underperforming. Clearly we haven’t lived up to the billing. But I do think this adaptive behavior is going to produce better results in the end,” said Dan Eberhart, a DeSantis donor. “Clearly, Haley has some momentum nationally. Clearly, Trump is lapping the field.But I think he’s got an underdog’s chance at pulling off a humongous upset.” (read more)

>>20088548

This statement from the donor clearly neglects that PDJT saved DeSadist assat the last minute by endorsing him. Its a much repeated, so there is no possibility coming from behind because Trump would never do it again, and DeSadist has alienated 99% of Trump supporters. These donor have insanity or extreme TDS

[…] Still, some inDeSantis’s orbit are holding out hope for a comeback.During his first campaign for governor, DeSantis won despite shaking up his team late in the race.

“Clearly, we are underperforming. Clearly we haven’t lived up to the billing. But I do think this adaptive behavior is going to produce better results in the end,” said Dan Eberhart, a DeSantis donor. “Clearly, Haley has some momentum nationally. Clearly, Trump is lapping the field.But I think he’s got an underdog’s chance at pulling off a humongous upset.” (read more)