Russia

nickndfl said:

Continuois war is not good for anybody. Nobody ever really wins a war.

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Are you kidding?

It's been GREAT for the war machine - the MIC.

It's been great for incompetent pols - to distract, deflect, and amp up the fear factor.

Whole lotta people are getting rich off this new gusher of seigniorage. How can you tell? One way, the fast pace at which the dollar's relative-value is dropping (real-time inflation, from the gusher of New (fake) Money.

We know how it ends - with currency collapse. That's because we've read things that Diaper Joe Biden, Ma Yellin and "professor" Stephanie Kelton (who wrote a book promoting Magic Moneyprinting Theory) have never read.

Lavrov’s Interview With Newsweek Concisely Summarized Russia’s Positions​

This might be the first time that average Americans read a top Russian official’s views without a filter.

It’s rare nowadays for Russian officials to give interviews to Western media, both because the first suspect that their words won’t be accurately reported while the second fear being “canceled”, which is why it’s so important that Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov just gave a written interview to Newsweek. He concisely summarized his country’s positions on the Ukrainian Conflict, multipolarity, and the US’ upcoming presidential election, which will be reviewed.

Regarding the first, he reaffirmed the official position that Kiev should comply with Putin’s ceasefire request from over the summer and that Moscow wants to address the root causes of this conflict, not just freeze it for some time. The spring 2022 draft peace treaty could form the basis for resuming talks with Ukraine if the latter revokes its decree on banning them, though some details would have to change. He also warned against letting Ukraine use Western long-range weapons deep inside of Russia.

As for the second, Lavrov emphasized the regional dimension of multipolarity by referencing several leading blocs before describing BRICS as a model of multilateral diplomacy and confirming the importance of the UN as a forum for aligning the interests of all countries. Respect for one another’s interests, a greater say in global governance for developing countries, and mutual cooperation are considered the driving forces behind this trend. China also shares Russia’s views on this too, he said.

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Why We Moved to Russia​

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"As they say, history repeats itself," a Serbian professor comments on Russophobia

Russophobia, or fear of Russia, had prevailed in Europe for two centuries, Luka Jovanovic, a professor at the University of Kosovska Mitrovica, told Sputnik in an interview dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade from the German invaders, noting that Russophobia was created artificially.

🗣 "Western Europe has always used Russophobia to cooperate with former military adversaries against the USSR in peacetime," Jovanovic stated.

Professor Jovanovic stated that a revisionist movement emerged around the centenary of World War I, attempting to blame Russia, through Serbia, for the conflict. He argued that those responsible for the first war are also to blame for the second, as Hitler used the Versailles Treaty as justification, "although the Germans themselves, German historians prove the guilt of Germany in both wars."

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In the Eyes of Truth with Joseph Rose, EXPAT American.​

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What to expect from the #BRICS2024 Summit in Kazan, Russia

The 16th BRICS summit will take place in Kazan, Russia on October 22-24, marking a significant expansion for the bloc.

Key Highlights:

Expansion: The summit will be the first with the newly admitted members: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, bringing the total membership to 10.
Attendance: Over 32 countries have confirmed their attendance, including 24 heads of state. All BRICS members are participating, with nine countries represented by their leaders and Saudi Arabia sending its foreign minister.
Agenda: The summit is divided into two parts. The first (October 22-23) will focus on BRICS members, centered around the theme "Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security." The second (October 23-24) will be in a "BRICS Plus/Outreach" format, centered around "BRICS and the Global South: Jointly Building a Better World."
Potential New Members: The summit will discuss potential new members, with 34 states already expressing interest in joining BRICS or becoming a BRICS partner country.
Bilateral Meetings: Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to hold over 20 bilateral meetings, including with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Outcomes: A joint declaration by participating nations is expected at the summit's conclusion on Thursday.

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Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Alexei Navalny, continues fight against Putin | 60 Minutes​

Oct 21, 2024

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, remains a defiant critic of Vladimir Putin. She understands she risks being kidnapped or poisoned, but says she’s not afraid.

13:12

I've come to decide that 60 Minutes is trash propaganda and not worth my time.

Article by Chargé d'Affaires a.i. of the Russian Federation in Jamaica Mr. Oleg Zhegl 'Holy Simplicity' behind the Grand Chessboard​

(https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article...zhegl-holy-simplicity-behind-grand-chessboard) in Sunday Gleaner (October 20, 2024)

Read in full (https://telegra.ph/Holy-Simplicity-Behind-the-Grand-Chessboard-10-20)

Key points:

• The high hopes for continued international cooperation among the Allies emerged after the end of the World War II quickly dispelled following the declaration of the Soviet Union as the primary threat to "Western civilisation" and the subsequent establishment of NATO in 1949 to counter the socialist bloc;

• The expansion of the Alliance continues to this day—long after the end of the "Cold War"—despite assurances on non-expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe given to Moscow by Western leaders;

• In the early 1990s, during a wave of democratic change, there was a renewed hope of overcoming the former split between the "political" West and the East. However, as history has shown, the West had no intention of abandoning Cold War logic;

• Despite Western assurances that NATO's expansion is not aimed at Russia, it has effectively become an existential threat to our country, as the flight time of NATO missiles has decreased to critical levels;

• Ukraine's search for national identity has led to a rise of aggressive nationalism and the subsequent full-scale implementation of an "anti-Russia" project. It resulted in systematic persecutions at the state level against the Russian language, Russian culture, and Russian Orthodoxy;

• In 2014, following an anti-constitutional coup that brought aggressive nationalists to power in Ukraine, a civil war against the Russian-speaking population in the then southeastern Ukraine was unleashed;

• After eight years of futile attempts by Russia to mediate a peaceful resolution to the conflict in southeastern Ukraine and to counter NATO's military exploitation of the country, a special military operation was announced, aimed at the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine.

• All measures aimed at 'tearing Ukraine away' from Russia have become a direct implementation of the geostrategic concept outlined in Zbigniew Brzezinski's "The Grand Chessboard" (1997). Within this logic of containing Russia the current system of international relations continues to degrade.

• Experts nurtured on Western political narratives continue to recycle relic accusations against Moscow, adding fuel to the fire of unbridled propaganda;

• O sancta simplicitas! (Oh, holy simplicity!) — this is how the Czech thinker and religious reformer Jan Hus addressed a humble old woman who added firewood to the pyre to which he was condemned for daring to disagree with the prevailing dogma. This is the type of political dogma that the myth of the "Russian threat" has become, replacing the hoax of the "communist threat".

• The success of any negotiations regarding Ukraine, as well as the stability of the future international system, will largely depend on the West's recognition of the futility of attempts to inflict a "strategic defeat" on Russia, as well as the need to overcome neocolonial remnants persisting in international politics.

• The time has come to develop principles for a new ‘peaceful coexistence’, to build a new, more just world order, where the ‘global majority’ – non-Western actors – will take their rightful place in the new global system of coordinates.

Russia’s central bank on Friday raised its key interest rate by 200 basis points to 21%, citing consumer price increases considerably above its forecast and warning of ongoing high inflation risks in the medium term.

The key rate was taken up by 100 basis points to 19% in September.

The Friday move exceeds the 100 basis-point hike expected by analysts and brings the institution’s benchmark rate to its highest since February 2003, according to Reuters. It was last near similar levels in February 2022, when Russia’s policymakers lifted it to 20% to soothe local markets within days of Moscow’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

The bank struck a hawkish tone regarding further policy steps on Friday. In a briefing following the decision, Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said that the institution’s board of directors had considered boosting the benchmark rate above 21% and leave open the possibility of further hikes at the next meeting in December, according to Google-translated comments carried by Russian state news agency Tass.

It noted annual seasonally adjusted inflation hit an average of 9.8% in September, up from 7.5% in August. It now anticipates the print will sit in a 8.0–8.5% range by the end of 2024 — and is running “considerable above” a July forecast of near 6.5-7.0%.
...
Russia’s economy has been constrained by depressed global prices for its key oil exports and by Western sanctions, which have restricted trade to deplete Moscow’s coffers for the war in Ukraine and contributed to declines in the ruble. The U.S. dollar was up 0.36% against the ruble at 12:52 p.m. London time.

The Russian interest rate hikes — which take place at a time when the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve are embarking on steps to ease monetary policy — have raised concerns over a potential stifling of the nation’s economic growth.
...

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searcher said:

Russian Internet watchdog blocks hundreds of VPN services

Meanwhile, state offices in Russia spend millions on VPNs - why?

beta.thebarentsobserver.com

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I thought the whole idea of VPN's is they couldn't be seen, therefore not blockable??

pmbug said:

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/25/russias-central-bank-raises-key-rate-to-21percent-to-rein-in-inflation.html

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Sounds like what Volker did in the 1980's. Inflation caused by the Viet Nam 'conflict' overseas....

speaking of

Goldhedge said:

I thought the whole idea of VPN's is they couldn't be seen, therefore not blockable??

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VPNs are essentially middlemen (ie. a proxy service). They obfuscate the true origin of internet data requests. They can be IP blocked just like any other internets traffic. Some are easier to identify than others though.

₽2000000000000000000000000000000000000—no, your eyes aren’t playing tricks; this is the amount Russian TV channels have demanded from Google.

A Russian court has imposed a fine on Google amounting to ₽2 undecillion (that’s a 2 followed by 36 zeros) for the company’s failure to reinstate Russian TV channel accounts on YouTube. A total of 17 media companies are involved in the case, according to media reports. (https://www.banki.ru/news/lenta/?id=11008010) Previously, the court ordered Google to restore access to these accounts and, for non-compliance, to incur penalties at a rate of ₽100,000 per day, doubling with each additional day.

Legal proceedings began back in 2020 when the first major media channels were blocked, and over time, the number of channels losing access to their accounts has only increased.

We don’t know about you, but our first thought was: “Mom, when I grow up, I want to make an undecillion!”

InfoDefenseENGLISH
(https://t.me/infodefENGLAND)📱 InfoDefens (https://t.me/InfoDefAll)e (http://cat.general/)

The results of BRICS Summit in Kazan have shown the inability of the West to isolate Russia, the Russian foreign minister says

"Attempts to isolate Russia in the international arena have been a complete failure. Many countries do not follow the West, they are strengthening relations with us in various areas," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the opening ceremony of the 8th World Congress of Russian Compatriots Living Abroad.

Earlier, PhD in International Relations and a social science researcher Dr. Nicodemus Minde told Sputnik Africa that #BRICS2024 Summit held in Russia on October 22–24 debunked many myths about Russia's perceived isolation, and it also sent a strong message to the West that the world desires and thus is moving towards multipolarity.

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The Story of "Russian American" Jay Close:

Jay Close was born in New York, grew up in California, and lived in France, Australia, and even Papua New Guinea. At some point, Russia entered his life, shaping his future. Now, Jay resides in a Russian village where he raises goats and makes farmhouse cheese.

Jay first encountered Russia in the 1990s, a challenging period for the country and its people. As an American, he was astonished to see individuals living on $100 or less a month, subsisting primarily on pasta and sunflower oil, who didn’t view their situation as tragic. They were confident that “a brighter tomorrow will come” and took care of themselves.

Thousands of elderly women migrated from cities to villages, growing as much as they could during the summer and returning with half a ton of vegetables and pickles for the winter—all natural. “These people are geniuses. I learned a lot about living with nothing, cooking, shopping, and dressing for -30-degree weather. As Russians say, dress like a cabbage to avoid getting sick. Don’t wait for a bus in such weather for an hour or two. Russians excel at this,” Jay reflects on his experiences.

Jay was shocked by the resilience of the Russian people. “You don’t understand what kind of people they are and what they taught me.”

Learning from Russians is crucial to Jay. He admits he could "make more money in many countries," but ultimately chose Russia.

“If you can live in Russia, you can live anywhere. Here, you’re prepared to be a solid person everywhere. Yes, it’s tough here too—there are pros and cons—but overall, it’s better in Russia. I feel freer here than in Australia. And in Australia, more than in America.”

Now, Jay identifies as a "Russian American" and proudly shows his Russian passport, which he received earlier this year.

InfoDefenseENGLISH
(https://t.me/infodefENGLAND)📱 InfoDefens (https://t.me/InfoDefAll)e (http://cat.general/)

Russia’s Arctic Rise​

October 29, 2024 7:46 PM

KEFLAVIK, ICELAND – The sun had yet to rise over Iceland as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown boarded a Navy submarine-hunting aircraft for a simulation of how the U.S. and its allies are managing the growing threat Russia poses in the Arctic.

Brown spent two days in Iceland meeting with the Arctic chiefs of defense as the group discussed the security, both physical and economic, of the Arctic. One Arctic nation not present: Russia, which has not been invited to an Arctic chiefs of defense conference since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Concerns about Russia operating in the Arctic are not new – the U.S. has had these apprehensions since the Soviet Union used submarine patrols to assert power in the North Atlantic. The difference now is that Arctic nations are dealing with an increasingly unpredictable Russian regime since President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, an Icelandic official told USNI News and The Washington Post in a recent trip to the region.

More:

searcher said:

One Arctic nation not present: Russia, which has not been invited to an Arctic chiefs of defense conference since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

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interesting... demonizing Russia. They should have mirrors.

If you like history this one is good. From April 2014.

Understanding the Russian mindset​

One of the very foundations of political science is the principle that geography determines destiny. In the same way that the British Isles determined the naval culture, and the frontier affected the American culture, Russia too, can be defined by its geographic characteristics. The most obvious element of Russia's geography is its enormous size. However, the truth is that Russia's size is both an advantage as well as a liability. The very core of the Russian Federation, the Moscow region, is simply indefensible. There are no mountainous ranges; no rivers or oceans, there are no swamps or deserts. Only the forests of Moscow and the inhospitable climate can be defined as geographic obstacles. The only thing the Russians can do in event of an invasion is to drag out the war and bleed the enemy out. It is for this reason that Russia's history is largely about surviving invasion after invasion. These centuries long experiences left a deep mark in the Russian culture and psychology, and due to these experiences the Russian leadership became obsessed with security and survival.

searcher said:

geography determines destiny.

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Waiting for the flower children to show up and cast spells....

Interesting history. Russians did a number on the 3rd Reich. 26 million Russians dead and the west believes we won WWII.

Russians don't think like the west does. They are survivors.

US authorities are preparing Europe for the gamble of a direct military conflict with Russia, Russian foreign minister says

More key statements made by Sergey Lavrov at the international forum "Inventing the Future":

On BRICS:

The share of national currencies in Russia's settlements with BRICS has reached 65%;

Work on the creation of new payment platforms was launched in BRICS under the Russian chairmanship and will be continued in 2025;

Contacts between southern and eastern regional associations with BRICS should be a step towards multipolarity;

BRICS could play a role in coordinating these associations’ approaches;

Regional and interregional interstate associations have strengthened their role in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These include the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Arab League and the African Union, among others.

On relations with the West:

️ Russia is not closed to dialogue with the West, but will consider proposals on the resumption of contacts based on its national interests;

️Germany has "shamefully resigned" itself to the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines;

️The United States and its allies are destroying the system of globalization that they maintained and announced to the whole world;

️The West signed the verdict of the dollar by turning it into an instrument of punishment for geopolitical competitors.


On the UN Charter:

The UN office should read the Charter of the organization in its entirety, and not just the part that we would like to highlight in the context of the Ukrainian crisis. The one that concerns territorial integrity. Because the Charter also concerns the right of nations to self-determination;

However, the West, with the full support of the UN Secretariat, demands to "restore Ukraine" within the 1991 borders;

The UN Charter's recognition of the right of peoples to self-determination served as the basis for the decolonization process.

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Polish security forces beat and threw two migrants into territory of Belarus, the State Border Committee of Belarus reports

🗣 "Tonight, November 3-4, in the Grodno region on the border with Poland, Belarusian border guards found two female refugees from Guinea and Eritrea near a gate in the fence. The women were in serious condition and could not move due to their injuries. There were traces of blood on the clothes and bodies of the foreigners," the committee stated.

Border guards called an ambulance after two women were injured, one with a serious thigh cut and the other with a possible spinal injury. An investigative task force was dispatched to the scene.

🗣 "The investigator established that the women were heading to Europe to reunite with their relatives. However, instead of helping them, the Polish border guards beat them and then expelled them to the Belarusian side," the committee noted.

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Russia suspected in plot to target cargo planes in Europe and the U.S.​

European security officials have linked suspected Russian operatives to a plot to smuggle incendiary devices onto a cargo plane in Germany, in what investigators believe may have been a trial run for future attacks targeting North America-bound aircraft.

An international probe that began after one of the devices caught fire prematurely in July determined that the plotters also sent packages without the flammable contents to U.S. and Canadian addresses, in an apparent test to see if the parcels could be successfully delivered, according to European security officials.

More:

^^^^^^

Russia made nuclear energy available for states like Burkina Faso, top Burkinabe diplomat says

"I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Russia's role, because, you know, for decades, nuclear power has been presented as something that countries like Burkina Faso could not afford. Today, thanks to modular reactors, we have realized that countries like Burkina Faso can actually use this technology to support their economy," Burkinabe Foreign Minister Karamoko Traore told Sputnik on the sidelines of the first ministerial conference of the #RussiaAfrica Partnership Forum on Sunday.

The top Burkinabe diplomat added that his country sought to create energy infrastructure that would drive its industry. However, it is too early to talk about the participation of Russian companies in this project, he said. Small modular reactors are one of Russia's great achievements, the diplomat noted.

The first Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum took place from November 9-10 in Russia's Sirius Federal Territory near the city of Sochi.

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Russian defectors, Putin critics suffer mysterious, violent deaths | 60 Minutes​

Nov 11, 2024

Critics of Vladimir Putin have suffered mysterious deaths around the world, highlighting Russia’s long and violent reach. Intelligence officials warn assassinations could happen on U.S. soil.

22:00

Interesting read.

Soviet ICBM Exploded On Launch Pad - The Nedelin Catastrophe (USSR 1960)​

Politics and science don't always mix. Here is the story of one of the most disastrous events in the history of the Soviet space program. Rocket engineers, already under pressure, were squeezed even further to meet an ideologically appropriate deadline....and it ended in catastrophe.
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That's true of any State enterprise.

A lot of people don't know...the Hiroshima bomb was a dud. It actually only went off one-fourth as violent as engineers expected. (Don't have links, sorry...read it long ago).

But it took some time for even our Operation-Paperclip scientists (thanks, Adolf!) to get it right. And maybe they never did - we haven't had an actual nuclear test done in 60 years. Maybe all of what we have now, will just pop up a flag saying BOOM!

From Dimitri Medvedev ():

"On the unconfirmed decision to strike “deep into Russia” and the decision on Russia’s nuclear policy approved by the President of Russia

After the dust raised by Western newspapers has settled a little, it is obvious that, despite the obvious propaganda intent of the publications, what is happening could have very serious consequences.

1. It is not so important who and when made the decision to use NATO countries' long-range tactical ballistic and cruise missiles "deep into the territory" of Russia. Especially since there have already been attempts to use them against our country.
2. It is not so important how many of them the enemy has today. As well as the fact that their use, in the opinion of our enemies, should have not only a military, but also an informational effect.
3. It is not so important that these missiles will not be able to make a significant contribution to the enemy's military actions.
4. It is not so important that with such decisions the current US administration is deliberately creating such an escalation of the conflict that Trump’s team will have to deal with.
5. One thing is important - what the Head of the Russian State said on 12.09. And as a result - today a new version of the Fundamentals of State Policy in the Sphere of Nuclear Deterrence was approved. The use of the Alliance missiles in this way can now be qualified as an attack by the bloc countries on Russia . In this case, the right arises to launch a retaliatory strike with weapons of mass destruction on Kiev and the main NATO facilities, wherever they are. And this is already WWIII.

Maybe old man Biden really did decide to leave this life gracefully, taking a significant part of humanity with him..."

t.me/ForeignAgentIntel

️Scott Ritter: "The United States Has Attacked Russia"️

In an interview with Patrick Lancaster, former Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter delivered a stark assessment of recent developments in the Ukraine war. Ritter stated unequivocally that Ukraine’s use of U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles on Russian territory, such as Bryansk, constitutes a direct attack by the United States on Russia.

“These strikes can only happen with U.S. involvement in targeting,” Ritter explained. “This makes the U.S. an active participant in the war. By Russian standards, this is an act of war.”

Ritter warned that such actions escalate the conflict to dangerous levels,and potentially triggering a broader war. The consequences, he argued, could be catastrophic, with no clear path to de-escalation unless the U.S. reverses its course.