The Putin Thread

I thought it would be best to put this in a new thread rather than the Donbass thread because the topic is a bit different and it would be buried quickly in that thread. The idea for this thread is to explore, learn about and/or discuss the man.

Here's a very large documentary about him that's in 4 parts, 1 hour a piece. You have to be logged in to a youtube account to view it:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=RBh-ivZ5C-w

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=wD6xsDTE7ag

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uLb8qr05VL0

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lmoBsl-nriQ

NBC interview:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=m6pJd6O_NT0

There are a few more documentaries as well. I'll see if this thread gets any traction before posting those.

I've seen most of those videos. I kinda like him!

I have to say that every time I have watched Mr. Putin in videos, he has impressed me as a deeply thoughtful, insightful leader. Would that the USA had someone with those attributes. The present lot are at the other end of the spectrum, working for the criminal element who appear to be so evil that it is hard for ordinary folks to believe what is going on and has been planned against them. shockingly. In my opinion, they would appear to be the enemy of all life.

I think this may belong here (but possibly on several other threads as well!).

A major international tipping point happened yesterday in Russia. This video is Alexander Mercouris analyzing Putin's and (Defense Minister) Shoigu's speeches to a non-'western' international audience. They both talk about globalist neoliberal totalitarian colonialism, in quite some damning detail, and (my paraphrase) how Russia and China are going to stop that now.

It's pretty huge that a major world leader (Putin) is now talking openly about what western alt media journalists have been pointing out for years. Now the global south can all start talking about it too, and they will. :muscle:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=DdOJmMOqDfQ

Quote:

---

Posted by Bill Ryan

I think this may belong here (but possibly on several other threads as well!).

A major international tipping point happened yesterday in Russia. This video is Alexander Mercouris analyzing Putin's and (Defense Minister) Shoigu's speeches to a non-'western' international audience. They both talk about globalist neoliberal totalitarian colonialism, in quite some damning detail, and (my paraphrase) how Russia and China are going to stop that now.

It's pretty huge that a major world leader (Putin) is now talking openly about what western alt media journalists have been pointing out for years. Now the global south can all start talking about it too, and they will. :muscle:

---

And more. :thumbsup: This is a Duran livestream, nearly two hours and still going, on the same very important topic.

Putin takes on the Globalists

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qoij5XWCWz0

Quote:

---

Posted by Bill Ryan

Quote:

---

Posted by Bill Ryan

I think this may belong here (but possibly on several other threads as well!).

A major international tipping point happened yesterday in Russia. This video is Alexander Mercouris analyzing Putin's and (Defense Minister) Shoigu's speeches to a non-'western' international audience. They both talk about globalist neoliberal totalitarian colonialism, in quite some damning detail, and (my paraphrase) how Russia and China are going to stop that now.

It's pretty huge that a major world leader (Putin) is now talking openly about what western alt media journalists have been pointing out for years. Now the global south can all start talking about it too, and they will. :muscle:

---

And more. :thumbsup: This is a Duran livestream, nearly two hours and still going, on the same very important topic.

Putin takes on the Globalists

---

They're excellent, picked up large part of that live stream myself. I really like Alexander's intelligent way of explaining things, going of to details included, like to meet the Man one day. Like the Greek too, watch his walkabouts a lot, they're actually a great pair, I hope their channel does not get bounced.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FNBNl4zXMAkAYQw?format=jpg

• President of Russia Vladimir Putin Address to participants and guests of the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security:

August 16, 2022

Ladies and gentlemen,
Esteemed foreign guests,

Let me welcome you to the anniversary 10th Moscow Conference on International Security. Over the past decade, your representative forum has become a significant venue for discussing the most pressing military-political problems.

Today, such an open discussion is particularly pertinent. The situation in the world is changing dynamically and the outlines of a multipolar world order are taking shape. An increasing number of countries and peoples are choosing a path of free and sovereign development based on their own distinct identity, traditions and values.

These objective processes are being opposed by the Western Globalist Elites, who provoke chaos, fanning long-standing and new conflicts and pursuing the so-called containment policy, which in fact amounts to the subversion of any alternative, sovereign development options. Thus, they are doing all they can to keep hold onto the hegemony and power that are slipping from their hands; they are attempting to retain countries and peoples in the grip of what is essentially a neocolonial order. Their hegemony means stagnation for the rest of the world and for the entire civilisation; it means obscurantism, cancellation of culture, and neoliberal totalitarianism.

They are using all expedients. The United States and its vassals grossly interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states by staging provocations, organising coups, or inciting civil wars. By threats, blackmail, and pressure, they are trying to force independent states to submit to their will and follow rules that are alien to them. This is being done with just one aim in view, which is to preserve their domination, the centuries-old model that enables them to sponge on everything in the world. But a model of this sort can only be retained by force.

This is why the collective West – the so-called collective West – is deliberately undermining the European security system and knocking together ever new military alliances. NATO is crawling east and building up its military infrastructure. Among other things, it is deploying missile defence systems and enhancing the strike capabilities of its offensive forces. This is hypocritically attributed to the need to strengthen security in Europe, but in fact quite the opposite is taking place. Moreover, the proposals on mutual security measures, which Russia put forward last December, were once again disregarded.

They need conflicts to retain their hegemony. It is for this reason that they have destined the Ukrainian people to being used as cannon fodder. They have implemented the anti-Russia project and connived at the dissemination of the neo-Nazi ideology. They looked the other way when residents of Donbass were killed in their thousands and continued to pour weapons, including heavy weapons, for use by the Kiev regime, something that they persist in doing now.

Under these circumstances, we have taken the decision to conduct a special military operation in Ukraine, a decision which is in full conformity with the Charter of the United Nations. It has been clearly spelled out that the aims of this operation are to ensure the security of Russia and its citizens and protect the residents of Donbass from genocide.

The situation in Ukraine shows that the United States is attempting to draw out this conflict. It acts in the same way elsewhere, fomenting the conflict potential in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. As is common knowledge, the US has recently made another deliberate attempt to fuel the flames and stir up trouble in the Asia-Pacific. The US escapade towards Taiwan is not just a voyage by an irresponsible politician, but part of the purpose-oriented and deliberate US strategy designed to destabilise the situation and sow chaos in the region and the world. It is a brazen demonstration of disrespect for other countries and their own international commitments. We regard this as a thoroughly planned provocation.

It is clear that by taking these actions the Western globalist elites are attempting, among other things, to divert the attention of their own citizens from pressing socioeconomic problems, such as plummeting living standards, unemployment, poverty, and deindustrialisation. They want to shift the blame for their own failures to other countries, namely Russia and China, which are defending their point of view and designing a sovereign development policy without submitting to the diktat of the supranational elites.

We also see that the collective West is striving to expand its bloc-based system to the Asia-Pacific region, like it did with NATO in Europe. To this end, they are creating aggressive military-political unions such as AUKUS and others.

It is obvious that it is only possible to reduce tensions in the world, overcome military-political threats and risks, improve trust between countries and ensure their sustainable development through a radical strengthening of the contemporary system of a multipolar world.

I reiterate that the era of the unipolar world is becoming a thing of the past. No matter how strongly the beneficiaries of the current globalist model cling to the familiar state of affairs, it is doomed. The historic geopolitical changes are going in a totally different direction.

And, of course, your conference is another important proof of the objective processes forming a multipolar world, bringing together representatives from many countries who want to discuss security issues on an equal footing, and conduct a dialogue that takes into account the interests of all parties, without exception.

I want to emphasise that the multipolar world, based on international law and more just relations, opens up new opportunities for counteracting common threats, such as regional conflicts and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and cybercrime. All these challenges are global, and therefore it would be impossible to overcome them without combining the efforts and potentials of all states.

As before, Russia will actively and assertively participate in such coordinated joint efforts; together with its allies, partners and fellow thinkers, it will improve the existing mechanisms of international security and create new ones, as well as consistently strengthen the national armed forces and other security structures by providing them with advanced weapons and military equipment. Russia will secure its national interests, as well as the protection of its allies, and take other steps towards building of a more democratic world where the rights of all peoples and cultural and civilisational diversity are guaranteed.

We need to restore respect for international law, for its fundamental norms and principles. And, of course, it is important to promote such universal and commonly acknowledged agencies as the United Nations and other international dialogue platforms. The UN Security Council and the General Assembly, as it was intended initially, are supposed to serve as effective tools to reduce international tensions and prevent conflicts, as well as facilitate the provision of reliable security and wellbeing of countries and peoples.

In conclusion, I want to thank the conference organisers for their major preparatory work and I wish all participants substantial discussions.

I am sure that the forum will continue to make a significant contribution to the strengthening of peace and stability on our planet and facilitate the development of constructive dialogue and partnership.

Thank you for your attention.

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--o-O-o--

• The normal insert (embed) "link.mp3" audio file does not work on Project Avalon Forum ... but using .mp3 link in a "embed video" like: [ mov ] link.mp3 [ / mov ] does work as you can see below ... but it looks kind a weird!

• The normal insert (embed) "link.mp3" audio file does not work on Project Avalon Forum...but using .mp3 link in a "embed video" like: [ mov ] link.mp3 [ / mov ] does work as you can see above ... but it looks kind a weird!

I used a Free "Text To Speech (TTS) Reader" called: readloud.net to create a mp3 file!

cheers,
John 🦜🦋🌳

• Putin: "New World Order Worships Satan"

http://static.kremlin.ru/media/event...gfCAjNLd6V.jpg

During the Cold War, it was meticulously and rightly argued by scholars of various stripes that the Soviet Union created what was known as “godless communists.”[1] These “godless communists” built their ideology on Marxism/Leninism, an essentially diabolical system that sought to eradicate religion during that era.[2]

These “godless communists” failed miserably largely because you cannot fight Logos and win. Moreover, the fact that Russia has thrived over the years is a clear indication that Alexander Solzhenitsyn was right all along. Back in 2013, Vladimir Putin changed the political calculus by saying that much of the West was committing political suicide. How?

Ideologues, said Putin, were surreptitiously declaring that “faith in God is equal to faith in Satan.” For many, that was an interesting move by Putin. As Patrick Buchanan put it then, “In the new war of beliefs, Putin is saying, it is Russia that is on God’s side. The West is Gomorrah.”[3] Putin said:

“Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values. Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God, and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.”[4]

• The Washington Times reported then:

“In his state of the nation address, Mr. Putin also portrayed Russia as a staunch defender of ‘traditional values’ against what he depicted as the morally bankrupt West. Social and religious conservatism, the former KGB officer insisted, is the only way to prevent the world from slipping into ‘chaotic darkness.’

“As part of this defense of ‘Christian values,’ Russia has adopted a law banning “homosexual propaganda” and another that makes it a criminal offense to ‘insult’ the religious sensibilities of believers…

“Although Mr. Putin has never made a secret of what he says is his deep Christian faith, his first decade in power was largely free of overtly religious rhetoric. Little or no attempt was made to impose a set of values on Russians or lecture to the West on morals.”[5]

Certainly, Putin put the moral equation back on the table. Kevin Barrett declared that Putin was trying to “put the fear of God in the New World Order.” Barrett moved on to make the forceful argument that much of the Zionist establishment in the West is afraid of Putin because the establishment lives in fear. “Russian President Putin is resisting,” said Barrett. “That is why the Western propaganda machine is calling him names.” Barrett continued to argue cogently:

“It is worth noting that Russia and Iran – the two nations most successfully resisting NWO regime change – are doing so in the name of God…. Putin’s reference to Satanism was a pointed rebuke to the New World Order elites, who – though they push militant secularism on the societies they are trying to undermine – are closet Satanists.

“Anyone who doubts this should run the name ‘Lt. Col. Michael Aquino’ through a search engine. Aquino, an avowed Satanist, and credibly accused mass child abuser, was rewarded for his crimes against children with an appointment as Chief of Psychological Warfare for the US military…

“The shock troops of the NWO’s war against religion and tradition (and Russia and Iran) are the neoconservatives. Operation Gladio terrorist Michael Ledeen explains:
“‘Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our society and abroad. We tear down the old order every day, from business to science, literature, art, architecture, and cinema to politics and the law. Our enemies have always hated this whirlwind of energy and creativity which menaces their traditions (whatever they may be) and shames them for their inability to keep pace … We must destroy them to advance our historic mission.’

“Putin is stopping New World Order ‘creative destruction’ in Syria and Ukraine. He is part of a growing coalition opposing the NWO – not just religious traditionalists, but also progressive anti-globalization forces, including Hugo Chavez inspired anti-imperialists in Latin America.”

Kudos for Barrett here. The regime proved Putin right by applauding the Pussy Riot,[6] a Trotskyite group that ended up having sex (literal pornography) at the Moscow National Museum. (We have discussed this issue in the past.) The interesting thing about all this was that Neocons like Seth Mandel of Commentary were on the front line defending the Pussy Riot.[7]

But the crucial point here is that Putin, like Emmanuel Kant and even John Adams and others, understands that a nation cannot exist without objective morality, and objective morality cannot exist without Logos,[8] the essence and sustainer of the moral universe.

In that sense, and whether he notices it or not, Putin was implicitly or indirectly attacking the Neo-Darwinian ideology, which states that objective morality is an illusion and has no metaphysical basis. It is here that we find again that Neo-Darwinian metaphysics is intellectually useless and worthless because it denies the very essence of a moral universe.

As we have noted in the past, serious Darwinists agree that objective morality is an illusion. The noted biology philosopher Michael Ruse once again said that “there are no grounds whatsoever for being good…. Morality is flimflam.”[9] Yet like his intellectual antecedent Charles Darwin, Ruse ends up contradicting himself in the very next sentence by saying, “Does this mean that you can just go out and rape and pillage, behave like an ancient Roman grabbing Sabine women? Not at all. I said that there are no grounds for being good. It doesn’t follow that you should be bad.”[10]

Well, duh! If there are no grounds for objective morality, then good and bad are also illusion. And if good and bad are just illusion, then Nietzsche’s transvaluation of all values is the next logical step. What is good for you may not be good for me, and there is no way of adjudicating competing explanations. In that kind of world, might makes right. Ruse does not really have a problem with this argument here. In fact, he moves on to say that morality “is something forged in the struggle for existence and reproduction, something fashioned by natural selection. It is as much a natural human adaptation as our ears or noses or teeth or penises or vaginas. It works and it has no meaning over and above this. If all future food were Pablum, we would probably be better off without teeth.

“Morality is just a matter of emotions, like liking ice cream and sex and hating toothache and marking student papers. But it is, and has to be, a funny kind of emotion. It has to pretend that it is not that at all! If we thought that morality was no more than liking or not liking spinach, then pretty quickly it would break down.

“Before long, we would find ourselves saying something like: ‘Well, morality is a jolly good thing from a personal point of view. When I am hungry or sick, I can rely on my fellow humans to help me. But really it is all bull****, so when they need help I can and should avoid putting myself out. There is nothing there for me.’ The trouble is that everyone would start saying this, and so very quickly there would be no morality and society would collapse and each and every one of us would suffer.

• “So morality has to come across as something that is more than emotion. It has to appear to be objective, even though really it is subjective.”[11]

Ruse, like some genetic theorists, really believes that “morality is an illusion put in place by your genes to make you a social cooperator…”[12]

This, by the way, is logically congruent with Darwin’s survival of the fittest. (I am currently writing a critique of Kevin MacDonald’s recent book for Culture Wars magazine, and these issues will be thoroughly and methodically examined.) And survival of the fittest is logically congruent with Zionism. If evolutionary theory “explains how warfare contributed to fitness in the course of the evolution of Homo sapiens,” as scholar Bradley A. Thayer maintains,[13] then how can a serious Darwinist say that Social Darwinism or even Zionism is really bad on a consistent and logical basis?

Thayer, of course, struggles mightily to rationally defend the thesis that “Warfare contributes to fitness”[14] and that “people wage war to gain and defend resources”[15] while maintaining that social Darwinists were wrong in taking social Darwinism to its logical conclusion. He says that “social Darwinists perverted Charles Darwin’s argument” and “distorted evolutionary explanations because they misunderstood Darwin’s ideas and were ignorant of or consciously chose to ignore the naturalistic fallacy. Those who use evolutionary theory to explain aspects of human behavior must recall the social Darwinists’ errors. Doing so makes it possible not only to avoid repeating errors but also to advance scientific understanding.”[16]
But Thayer moves on to make this argument:

• “The ultimate causation for warfare is anchored in Darwinian natural selection and inclusive fitness….warfare can increase both the absolute and relative fitness of humans…From the classical Darwinian perspective, warfare contributes to fitness because individuals who wage war successfully are better able to survive and reproduce.”[17]

Thayer repeats this thesis over and over in the course of the book:
“An ultimate causal explanation for warfare based in evolutionary theory begins with the recognition that warfare contributes to fitness in certain circumstances because successful warfare lets the winner acquire resources.

“For evolutionary biology, a resource is any material substance that has the potential to increase the individual’s ability to survive or reproduce. As such it may be food, shelter, or territory, especially high-quality soil or wild foods; abundant firewood; or territory free of dangerous animals, such as lions, or insect infestations, or disease; and also status coalition allies, and members of the opposite sex.”[18]

And then this: “Warfare might be necessary then for offensive purposes, to plunder resources from others. In these circumstances, an individual becomes fitter if he can successfully attack to take the resources of others.”[19]

Thayer cites evolutionary theorist William Durham saying that “War is one means by which individuals ‘may improve the material conditions of their lives and thereby increase their ability to survive and reproduce…Thus successful warfare would help the tribe gain resources, and for a widen agricultural economy land is critically important.”[20]

So, is Thayer really against social Darwinism? Ideologically, yes. Consistently and logically? No. I honestly don’t blame him, for his intellectual grandfather could not solve that problem either and had to live in contradiction until his dying day. Darwin declared at the end of his Origin of Species:

• “Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows.”[21]

Correct me if I am wrong here: isn’t Darwin saying that war and famine and death are things that will get the higher animals ahead? It is agreed among scholars that this is Darwin at his best. Yet when social Darwinists took Darwin’s thesis and spread it across the political spectrum, Darwin disagreed![22]

If “Jewish intellectual and political movements” are in the struggle for survival, then the Goyim must swiftly be eliminated. That is certainly consistent with Darwin’s grand scheme. If people cannot see this and try to avoid this vital contradiction, then you can be sure that they are not to be taken seriously or they do not want to follow their own ideological project to its bitter end.

So, when people are trying to maintain an objective morality by either appealing to the so-called “evolutionary theory” or even DNA, then you can be sure that those people either are out of touch with the scholarly literature, are not well equipped to understand or articulate their own position, or are just deliberately lying.

Furthermore, to appeal to reciprocal altruism to prove objective morality, a central protocol in Darwin’s grand scheme,[23] is also a dead end because the life of Mother Theresa and countless other examples prove that this idea will not work. I was hoping that modern Darwinists would make some good improvement on this warfare theory, but so far virtually everyone has failed.

I am certainly not asking people to drop their cherished belief. In fact, there are many people who believe in the tooth fairy. But so long that this Neo-Darwinian ideology remains intellectually incoherent and morally indefensible, they can leave me out of it.

• Going back to Putin, he said in 2013:

“People in many European countries are ashamed, and are afraid of talking about their religious convictions. [Religious] holidays are being taken away or called something else, shamefully hiding the essence of the holiday.”[24]

The Zionist regime, of course, made the false accusation that Putin was persecuting homosexuals. But Putin moved on to diffuse the regime’s silly argument this way: “We need to respect the rights of minorities to be different, but the rights of the majority should not be in question.”[25]

So, yes, Patrick Buchanan. Putin is one of us! Any serious politician who stands against the diabolical establishment is one of us. As Friedrich Hansen of Asia Times put it, “Make no mistake, Putin is not targeting homosexuals, as he made clear with his welcoming them to the Sochi Olympics. It also seems only fair to remind Western readers that ever since the 1980s, Sotchi has been the center of Russia with a vibrant homosexual subculture. Rather, Putin is addressing the whole gamut of post-modern incarnations of the ‘sex and drugs’ revolution: binge drinking of both genders until the doctors move in, elite illicit drug use, unmanageable crime rates, surging divorce numbers, Hook-Up sex on campus, out of wedlock births, fathers and mothers in puberty, abortion on demand, public nudism and human copulation in parks, gay promiscuity with a good conscience, swinger clubs and darkrooms, ruthless Internet dating and pornography and what have you.”[26]

How does the regime respond? Well, you know the drill. Owen Matthews, a useful idiot, declared in the Spectator that Putin has a “new plan for world domination”![27] In order to slander Putin, Matthews indirectly linked him with Willi Munzenberg, a revolutionary Jew who wanted to take the Western world to perdition at any cost. Munzenberg was so passionate about his revolutionary goal that he wrote:

• “We must organize the intellectuals and use them to make Western Civilization stink! Only then, after they have corrupted all its values and made life impossible, can we impose the dictatorship of the proletariat.”

When Putin said that Russia will “defend traditional values that have made up the spiritual and moral foundation of civilisation in every nation for thousands of years,” Matthews declared that Putin “is on to something.” What is it? Matthews told us: “Putin’s new mission goes deeper than political opportunism. Like the old Communist International, or Comintern, in its day, Moscow is again building an international ideological alliance.”[28]

He again emphasized this point so that readers could get it: “And again, like the Comintern, Putin appears convinced that he is embarking on a world-historical mission.”[29] He moved on to talking about “Putin’s conservative Comintern.”

At the other end of the political spectrum, David Cameron likened Putin to Hitler.[30] John McCain, Lindsey Graham, among other usual suspects, all placed Putin and Hitler on equal footing.[31]

Historian Paul Johnson (sad to say) even went so far as to say that Putin and Hitler are basically two sides of the same coin. Johnson said that Putin
“believes in a strong Stalinist state. His goal is to reverse the events of 1989–the end of the Soviet state and dissolution of its enormous empire. He seeks to do this by using what remains of Russia’s Stalinist heritage: the military, a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons and immense resources of natural gas and other forms of energy.”[32]

Johnson was sad because “there is no Churchillian voice to sound the alarm and call the democratic world to action.”[33]

Johnson has got to be kidding. What he ended up saying was that someone like Churchill needed to step up and start lying to the West about Putin. It was so sad to read silly comments such as this by a generally good historian like Johnson. But since Johnson himself was intellectual crippled by the Zionist establishment, he could not think clearly.

But the real question is this: why did puppets of the current regime hate Putin so much? Well, Putin suggested back in 2013 the Soviet government was guided by a dark force whose “ideological goggles and faulty ideological perceptions collapsed.”[34]

“The first Soviet government,” Putin added, “was 80-85 percent Jewish.”[35] Sounds like Putin has read Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Two Hundred Years Together. If so, then it seems clear that much of the entire media had good reasons to fear him. Perhaps Putin has been encouraged by Solzhenitsyn’s bravery. It was Solzhenitsyn who said:

• “And thus, overcoming our temerity, let each man choose: will he remain a witting servant of the lies, or has the time come for him to stand straight as an honest man, worthy of the respect of his children and contemporaries?”[36]

Putin was saying enough is enough. And this may be one reason why nearly all the major news outlets were relentlessly slandering him. Kevin Barrett ended up his excellent article saying, “God bless President Putin, who is putting the fear of God into the New World Order.” Let us hope that he will never be weary in well doing, for in due season he shall reap, if he faints not.

This slightly altered article was first published in the summer of 2015 and 2019.

[1] See for example William Husband, “Godless Communists”: Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia, 1917–1932 (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2002); Daniel Peris, Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998).
[2] See for example Sabrina Petra Ramet, Religious Policy in the Soviet Union (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 4; for similar studies, see also John Anderson, Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
[3] Patrick J. Buchanan, “Vladimir Putin, Christian Crusader?,” American Conservative, April 4, 2014.
[4] Marc Bennetts, “Who’s ‘godless’ now? Russia says it’s U.S.,” Washington Times, January 28, 2014.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Peter Pomerantsev, “For God and Putin,” Newsweek, September 10, 2012.
[7] Seth Mandel, Contentions: Putin Vs. the Punk Rockers,” Commentary, August 17, 2012.
[8] E. Michael Jones has made this very point in his article “Ethnos Needs Logos: or Why I spent Three Days in Guadalajara Trying to Convince David Duke to Become a Catholic,” Culture Wars, June 2015.
[9] Michael Ruse, “God is dead. Long live morality,” Guardian, March 15, 2010.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Bradley A. Thayer, Darwin and International Relations: On the Evolutionary Origins of War and Ethnic Conflict (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004), 96.
[14] Ibid., 99, 100, 107, 114.
[15] Ibid., 99.
[16] Ibid., 102.
[17] Ibid., 103, 104.
[18] Ibid., 108.
[19] Ibid., 109.
[20] Ibid. 110, 111.
[21] Darwin, Origin of Species, 459.
[22] For a decent historical study on this, see for example Gertrude Himmelfarb, Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1962). Darwin was not as open-minded as people thought he was. “Former Darwin enthusiast St. George Mivart published anonymous articles critiquing Darwin’s theory. A gifted zoologist, Mivart would eventually publish a volume titled The Genesis of Species, an influential book that raised serious questions about the limits of natural selection, especially in its application to man. Far from rejecting Darwin wholesale, Mivart continued to embrace evolution and believe that the physical capacities of human beings had developed from the lower animals. But he continued to insist—like [Alfred] Wallace—that man was radically unique from the rest of creation and had a soul. Egged on by Thomas Huxley, Darwin became increasingly bitter over his former disciple’s criticisms, despite Mivart’s attempts to be personable in private correspondence and his public praise of the ‘invaluable labours and active brains of Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace.” John G. West, Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science (Wilmington: ISI Books, 2007).
[23] See Denis L. Krebs, The Origins of Morality (New York: Oxford University, 2011), 41-42.
[24] Neil Buckley, “Putin urges Russians to return to values of religion,” Financial Times, September 19, 2013.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Friedrich Hansen, “Putin Stands Up to Western Decadence,” Asia Times, February 28, 2014.
[27] Owen Matthews, “Vladimir Putin’s new plan for world domination,” Spectator, February 22, 2014.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Owen Jones, “David Cameron and the cynicism of comparing Putin to Hitler,” Guardian, September 3, 2014.
[31] Michael Kelley, “11 Prominent People Who Compared Putin To Hitler,” Business Insider, May 23, 2014.
[32] Paul Johnson, “Is Vladimir Putin Another Adolf Hitler?,” Forbes, April 16, 2014.
[33] Ibid.
[34] “Putin: First Soviet government was mostly Jewish,” Jerusalem Post, June 20, 2013.
[35] Ibid.
[36] Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Solzhenitsyn Reader (Wilmington: ISI Books, 2007), 558.

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Vladimir Putin: "The Are Bluffing, And I Will Tell You Why!"

• ... Interview with Rossiya TV

The President answered questions from Pavel Zarubin of Rossyia 1 TV channel.

https://i0.wp.com/www.frontnieuws.co...-interview.jpg

Pavel Zarubin: Mr President, we have just followed your meeting with the head of Senegal who is also the current leader of the African Union. He expressed, and actually in the past week many countries have expressed concern not so much about the food crisis, but they are afraid of large-scale famine because world food prices are climbing and so are oil and gas prices, These issues are interrelated.

Naturally, the West blames Russia for this, too. What is the real situation at this point, how is it developing? And what do you think will happen in the food and energy markets?

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Yes, indeed, we are seeing attempts to place the responsibility on Russia for developments in the global food market and the growing problems there. I must say that this is another attempt to pin the blame on someone else. But why?

First, the situation with the global food market did not become worse yesterday or even with the launch of Russia’s special military operation in Donbass, in Ukraine.

The situation took a downturn in February 2020 during the efforts to counter the coronavirus pandemic when the global economy was down and had to be revived.

The financial and economic authorities in the United States, of all things, found nothing better than to allocate large amounts of money to support the population and certain businesses and economic sectors.
We generally did almost the same thing, but I assure you that we were much more accurate, and the results are obvious: we did this selectively and got the desired results without affecting macroeconomic indicators, including excessive inflation growth.

The situation was quite different in the United States. The money supply in the United States grew by 5.9 trillion in less than two years, from February 2020 to the end of 2021 – unprecedented productivity of the money printing machines. The total cash supply grew by 38.6 percent.

Apparently, the US financial authorities believed the dollar was a global currency, and it would spread, as usual, as it did in previous years, would dissolve in the global economy, and the United States would not even feel it. But that did not happen, not this time. As a matter of fact, decent people – and there are such people in the United States – the Secretary of the Treasury recently said they had made a mistake. So, it was a mistake made by the US financial and economic authorities – it has nothing to do with Russia’s actions in Ukraine, it is totally unrelated.

And that was the first step – and a big one – towards the current unfavourable food market situation, because, in the first place, food prices immediately went up, they grew. This is the first reason.

The second reason was European countries’ short-sighted policies, and above all, the European Commission’s policy in regard to energy. We see what is going on there. Personally, I believe that many political players in the United States and Europe have been taking advantage of people’s natural concerns about the climate, climate change, and they began to promote this green agenda, including in the energy sector.

It all seems fine, except for the unqualified and groundless recommendations about what needs to be done in the energy sector. The capabilities of alternative types of energy are overestimated: solar, wind, any other types, hydrogen power – those are good prospects for the future, probably, but today, they cannot be produced in the required amount, with the required quality and at acceptable prices. And at the same time, they began to belittle the importance of conventional types of energy, including, and above all, hydrocarbons.

What was the result of this? Banks stopped issuing loans because they were under pressure. Insurance companies stopped insuring deals. Local authorities stopped allocating plots of land for expanding production and reduced the construction of special transport, including pipelines.

All this led to a shortage of investment in the world energy sector and price hikes as a result. The wind was not as strong as expected during the past year, winter dragged on, and prices instantly soared.

On top of all that, the Europeans did not listen to our persistent requests to preserve long-term contracts for the delivery of natural gas to European countries. They started to wind them down. Many are still valid, but they started winding them down. This had a negative effect on the European energy market: the prices went up. Russia has absolutely nothing to do with this.

But as soon as gas prices started going up, fertiliser prices followed suit because gas is used to produce some of these fertilisers. Everything is interconnected. As soon as fertiliser prices started growing, many businesses, including those in European countries, became unprofitable and started shutting down altogether. The amount of fertiliser in the world market took a dive, and prices soared dramatically, much to the surprise of many European politicians.

However, we warned them about this, and this is not linked to Russia’s military operation in Donbass in any way. This has nothing to do with it.

But when we launched our operation, our so-called European and American partners started taking steps that aggravated the situation in both the food sector and fertiliser production.

By the way, Russia accounts for 25 percent of the world fertiliser market. As for potash fertilisers, Alexander Lukashenko told me this – but we should double-check it, of course, although I think it is true – when it comes to potash fertilisers, Russia and Belarus account for 45 percent of the world market. This is a tremendous amount.

The crop yield depends on the quantity of fertiliser put into the soil. As soon as it became clear that our fertilisers would not be in the world market, prices instantly soared on both fertilisers and food products because if there are no fertilisers, it is impossible to produce the required amount of agricultural products.

One thing leads to another, and Russia has nothing to do with it. Our partners made a host of mistakes themselves, and now they are looking for someone to blame. Of course, Russia is the most suitable candidate in this respect.

Pavel Zarubin: Incidentally, it has just been reported that the wife of the head of our largest fertiliser companies has been included in the new European package of sanctions.

What will all this lead to in your opinion?

Vladimir Putin: This will make a bad situation worse.

The British and later the Americans – Anglo-Saxons – imposed sanctions on our fertilisers. Then, having realised what was happening, the Americans lifted their sanctions, but the Europeans did not. They are telling me themselves during contacts: yes, we must think about it, we must do something about it, but today they have just aggravated this situation.

This will make the situation in the world fertiliser market worse, and hence the crop prospects will be much more modest, and prices will keep going up – that is it. This is an absolutely myopic, erroneous, I would say, simply stupid policy that leads to a deadlock.

Pavel Zarubin: But Russia is accused by high-ranking officials of preventing the grain that is actually there, in Ukrainian ports, from leaving.

Vladimir Putin: They are bluffing, and I will explain why.

First, there are some objective things, and I will mention them now. The world produces about 800 million tonnes of grain, wheat per year. Now we are being told that Ukraine is ready to export 20 million tonnes. So, 20 million tonnes out of 800 million tonnes amounts to 2.5 percent. But if we proceed from the fact that wheat accounts for merely 20 percent of all food products in the world – and this is the case, this is not our data, it comes from the UN – this means that these 20 million tonnes of Ukrainian wheat are just 0.5 percent, practically nothing. This is the first point.

The second. 20 million tonnes of Ukrainian wheat are potential exports. Today, the US official bodies also say that Ukraine could export six million tonnes of wheat. According to our Ministry of Agriculture, the figure is not six but about five million tonnes, but okay, let us assume it is six, plus it could export seven million tonnes of maize – this is the figure of our Ministry of Agriculture. We realise that this is not much.

In the current agricultural year of 2021–2022, we will export 37 million and, I believe, we will raise these exports to 50 million tonnes in 2022–2023. But this is apropos, by the way.

As for shipping out Ukrainian grain, we are not preventing this. There are several ways to export grain.

The first one. You can ship it out via the Ukraine-controlled ports, primarily in the Black Sea – Odessa and nearby ports. We did not mine the approaches to the port – Ukraine did this.

I have already said to all our colleagues many times – let them demine the ports and let the vessels loaded with grain leave. We will guarantee their peaceful passage to international waters without any problems. There are no problems at all. Go ahead.

They must clear the mines and raise the ships they sunk on purpose in the Black Sea to make it difficult to enter the ports to the south of Ukraine. We are ready to do this; we will not use the demining process to initiate an attack from the sea. I have already said this. This is the first point.

The second. There is another opportunity: the ports in the Sea of Azov – Berdyansk and Mariupol – are under our control, and we are ready to ensure a problem-free exit from these ports, including for exported Ukrainian grain. Go ahead, please.

We are already working on the demining process. We are completing this work – at one time, Ukrainian troops laid three layers of mines. This process is coming to an end. We will create the necessary logistics. This is not a problem; we will do this. This is the second point.

The third. It is possible to move grain from Ukraine via the Danube and through Romania.

Fourth. It is also possible through Hungary.

And fifth, it is also possible to do this via Poland. Yes, there are some technical problems because the tracks are of different gauges and the wheel bogies must be changed. But this only takes a few hours, that is all.

Finally, the easiest way is to transport grain via Belarus. This is the easiest and the cheapest way because from there it can be instantly shipped to the Baltic ports and further on to any place in the world.

But they would have to lift the sanctions from Belarus. This is not our problem though. At any rate, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko puts it like this: if someone wants to resolve the problem of exporting Ukrainian grain, if this problem exists at all, please use the simplest way – through Belarus. No one will stop you.

So, the problem of shipping grain out of Ukraine does not really exist.

Pavel Zarubin: How would the logistics work to ship it from the ports under our control? What would the conditions be?

Vladimir Putin: No conditions.

They are welcome. We will provide peaceful passage, guarantee safe approaches to these ports, and ensure the safe entry of foreign ships and passage through the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea in any direction.

By the way, several ships are stuck in Ukrainian ports at this point. These are foreign ships, dozens of them. They are simply locked up and their crews are still being held hostage.

• source

• dutch 🇳🇱 (+ Multi-Language Options). 🦜🦋🌳

~~~

Helpful note from Bill:

This Saker article is dated 4 June, nearly 3 months ago. Since then, the Ukraine grain export issue has been (largely!) resolved.

• Putin Lays Out How U.S. Caused Its Own Inflation Crisis:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-W1jiPqfkEA

Vladimir Putin has been widely accused of responsibility for the economic woes of the West but he pointedly does not agree. In a recent address the Russian leader explained how flagrant overprinting of money by both the US and the EU and subsequent excessive spending abroad is much more to blame for rising prices than anything he and the Russian government could have done. Jimmy and America’s comedian Kurt Metzger discuss how much more sophisticated Putin’s analysis is compared to what most American politicians deliver.

• Vladimir Putin Press Conference at Shanghai Cooperation Organization - September 2022 ENG 🇬🇧 Subtitles:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rm5icaLbUMA

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a press conference at the conclusion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, September 16, 2022

• 00:10 - What are the prospects for the SCO and the important benefits for Russia?
• 02:11 - Comments on the latest developments in Ukraine, including the Ukrainian counter-offensive?
• 06:28 - Comments on Ukraine's Security Guarantee Draft?
• - Adjustments on the Special Military Operation in Ukraine?
• 10:44 - Turkish President Erdogan's role in mediating between Putin and Zelensky
• 12:09 - Comment on the grain shipment from Ukraine?
• 18:37 - Can you give details on your bi-lateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Xingping?
• 21:00 - New sanctions imposed on key figures
• 23:35 - Comment on the current situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan
• 24:33 - Will you visit Bali, Indonesia for the G20 Summit?
• 25:34 - Comments on the current energy crisis in Europe including oil and gas, Nordstream 1 and sanctions.

In Russian with English 🇬🇧 subtitles **Disclaimer** All videos in this Playlist are subtitled in English without any additional commentary or opinion. Videos are complete recordings of original source material and are offered here as a service to those looking for uncut videos who cannot speak either language and prefer subtitles to read alongside the original language instead of a dubbed interpreter voice-over. Comments are left open for public engagement, though YouTube does flag some that may be deemed either Spam or Inappropriate. It may take a day or two for me to go through every one, and it is up to me to decide whether to approve them. Normally I approve comments in the name of public expression. All opinions in the comment sections belong to the authors.

• Putin's Press Conference on Ukraine, Terrorism, Fertilizers and the Energy Crisis in Europe:

https://i0.wp.com/www.frontnieuws.co...-oorlog-Z2.jpg

Last week, President Putin gave an important press briefing at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Samarkand. He disclosed several crucial points that have not been reported by the Western media. For example, he warned that Russia could soon take off its velvet gloves in the war in Ukraine and that only three of the 120 ships that left Ukraine under the UN food program went to poor countries.

moonofalabama.org:

Last week, the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization met in Samarkand. The meeting was not very remarkable. It was business as usual. Iran will soon join the organization and several other countries want to conclude association agreements with it.

An important extra was an unscripted press conference by President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation. There is a video with English 🇬🇧 subtitles and the Kremlin will provide an English 🇬🇧 transcript as usual . Putin made some important points that were not covered in the “Western” coverage because they contradicted the propaganda stances that the “Western” media has taken. Below I've cut out parts and added some comments.

About the SCO:

Vladimir Putin: The most important thing is economic development everywhere and at all times. And the SCO, the cooperation with the SCO countries, creates conditions for the development of the Russian economy, and therefore also for the social sphere and for solving the tasks associated with improving the living standards of our citizens.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization includes countries whose populations, as has often been said, comprise almost or even slightly more than half of humanity. This is 25 percent of global GDP. And most importantly, the national economies in the region, those of the SCO member countries, are developing much faster than others in the world.

The SCO markets are where global economic growth takes place. But the “west” excludes itself from these regions. “Western” policy is hostile to many of the major SCO members. That policy creates barriers that hinder “western” industry from taking advantage of that growth. These are self-destructive measures.

There is a question about military strikes within Russia. Putin didn't seem too concerned about that.

There's nothing new about that. Frankly, I even find it a bit strange to hear your question, because western countries have cultivated the idea of ​​the collapse of the Soviet Union and historical Russia and Russia as such, at its core.

I have already quoted these statements and studies of some figures in Britain during and after the First World War. I quoted extracts from the writings of Mr. Brzezinski in which he divided the entire territory of our country into specific parts. Admittedly, he later changed his stance a bit, believing it was better to hold Russia against China and use it as a tool to fight China. That will never happen.
…
But they have always strives for the dissolution of our country – this is very true. It is a pity that at some point they decided to use Ukraine for these purposes. […] This is what some US-led western countries have always pursued – to create an anti-Russian enclave and turn things upside down, threaten Russia from that direction. In essence, our main objective is to prevent such developments.
…
In doing so, we see attempts to commit terrorist attacks and damage our civilian infrastructure.

• 40% of Belgian food producers stop or reduce their activities due to shortages and rising costs

We have indeed reacted rather reluctantly, but that will not last forever. Recently, the Russian armed forces dealt some serious blows there. Let's call them warning shots. If the situation continues, our response will have more impact.

On Saturday, the Russian army destroyed electricity distribution systems at a power plant in Slaviansk. Dima of the Military Summary channel showed two open source photos provided by NASA that show the problems with the Ukrainian electricity network. Especially in the east the light goes out.

• September 17, 2021

https://i0.wp.com/www.frontnieuws.co...80%2C240&ssl=1
Source: NASA – Click to enlarge

• September 17, 2022

https://i0.wp.com/www.frontnieuws.co...80%2C235&ssl=1

Source: NASA – Click to enlarge The attack on Slaviansk followed several Ukrainian attacks on electricity infrastructure in Russia and in areas under Russian control.

• Putin calls such attacks terrorism:

Terrorist attacks are serious business. In fact, it involves the use of terrorist methods. We see this in the killing of officials in the liberated areas, we even see attempted terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation including – I'm not sure if this has been made public – attempted terrorist attacks in the area of our nuclear facilities, nuclear power plants in the Russian Federation. I'm not even talking about the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

We are monitoring the situation and will do our best to avoid a negative scenario. We will respond if they fail to see that this approach is unacceptable. They are in fact no different from terrorist attacks.

In early August, some Ukrainian commandos had destroyed high power lines at the Kursk nuclear power plant.

In Russia's Kursk region, Ukrainian saboteurs have blown up power lines feeding the Kursk nuclear power plant, the press service of Russia's Federal Security Agency said.

According to the agency, six explosions took place on August 4, 9 and 12 in the Kurchatov district of the Kursk region. The explosions were aimed at power lines.
…
The incident has been the subject of criminal proceedings under Section 2 of Article 205 (Terrorist Attack) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Security forces are looking for saboteurs. The National Guard has strengthened the security of nuclear installations.

Back to Putin's press conference.

He is asked about a negotiating document from Ukraine. He didn't see it, but explains what happened to the negotiations at the end of March/beginning of April:

Frankly, I'm not familiar with what they came up with this time. In fact, we started this when we were negotiating with the incumbent authorities in Kiev and concluded this negotiation process in Istanbul with the well-known Istanbul Agreement, after which we withdrew our troops from Kiev to create the right conditions for the conclusion of this agreement. Instead of reaching an agreement, Kiev immediately rejected all agreements, shoved them in a box and said they would not pursue any agreement with Russia, but would instead pursue victory on the battlefield. Let them try.

Ukraine's turnaround came in early April after then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson threatened Kiev with all "Western" support.

Putin says the special military operation will continue without change of plans.

Putin later comments on the deal to let Ukraine export its grains:

As of today – as of yesterday or the day before yesterday – 121 ships have left Ukrainian ports. Only three of the 120 ships went to the poorest countries under the UN food program. About 35 percent, maybe a little more, of the grain exported from Ukraine went to European countries, to non-poor countries, and certainly not to the poorest countries in the world. And only 4.5 percent of the shipments went to the poorest countries under the UN program.
…
The same goes for our fertilizer exports. This is unprecedented. I would say that this is an outrageous and shameful decision by the European Commission to lift the ban on the purchase of Russian fertilizers – but only for their countries, for EU Member States. But what about the poorest countries in the world?
…
So they have lifted the sanctions on our fertilizers. The Americans were actually the first to lift them because they are generally pragmatic people.
…
But there are still problems with cargo and insurance, plus the existing ban on entering our ports from where our fertilizers are exported, and with financial transfers and arrangements. They all know this and keep saying that this problem will be fixed but no one is actually doing anything about it.

• General Cloutier and the Dungeons of Azovstal

To be fair, the UN Secretary General is making an effort to resolve these issues.

• This scandal was new to me:

You have probably heard about 300,000 tons of Russian fertilizer stuck in European ports; our companies say they are willing to provide it for free – just unblock it and release it, and we will give it to the poorest countries and developing markets. But they still hold it, and this is absolutely amazing.

They don't want Russia to make money – but we don't make a profit by giving away fertilizer. I just don't understand what they are doing. What is the purpose of all this? There is so much talk about helping the poorest countries, but in reality the exact opposite is happening.

I have the impression – and this is especially true for the European countries – that these former colonial powers still live in the paradigm of colonial philosophy, and that they are used to living at the expense of others. They still fail to let go of this paradigm in their day-to-day policies. But it is time to draw certain conclusions and act differently, in a more civilized way.

Questions follow about China, the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, US sanctions against certain individuals and their children and the G20.

Then comes a final question about the energy crisis in Europe about which Putin had a lot to say:

The energy crisis in Europe did not start with the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, in Donbass; it actually started much earlier, a year earlier or even earlier. Strange as it may seem, it started with the green agenda.
…
To pursue short-lived political considerations, they chose to completely halt hydrocarbon energy programs in their countries. Banks stopped lending, …
…
Now we see that prices for, say, natural gas in the United States have risen and production is growing, but not as fast as they would like – and the reason is that banks are afraid to take out loans to provide.
…
These are erroneous green agenda reference points, rushing things, and green energy is unprepared to demand massive energy resources to support economic and industrial growth. The economy is growing while the energy sector is shrinking. This is the first drastic mistake.

• The second error concerns natural gas.

We have tried to convince Europeans to focus on long-term contracts rather than just the market. Why? I've said it before and I'll say it again: Gazprom needs to invest billions in development, but it needs to be confident that it will sell gas before making any investments. This is what long-term contracts are all about.

• Influential Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin says Russia is fighting "global liberal elites" with war in Ukraine

The sellers and buyers enter into mutual obligations. They said, "No, let the market regulate itself." We kept telling them, "Don't do it or it will lead to drastic consequences." But in fact they forced us to include a significant portion of the spot price in the contract price. They forced us to, and Gazprom had to include both the oil and oil products basket and the spot price in the gas price. The spot price started to rise, raising the price even in long-term contracts. But what does this have to do with us? That's the first.

Putin is right about this. The privatization and “liberalisation” of the European gas and electricity markets has never made sense and has indeed had very negative consequences.

Second, I have often told them. “Gazprom does not supply gas”. Look, are you normal people or what? Poland has chosen to impose sanctions on the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline and close the route. I said to [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz, “Why are you calling me? Call Warsaw and ask them to reopen the route.” That's all. That's the first.

Is Scholz really that stupid?

Second. Two lines of the gas pipeline run through Ukraine. Ukraine is being supplied with weapons, but they have closed one of the lines for them. They also closed another line that supplied 25 billion cubic meters of gas – I won't talk about the exact amount, but they closed the entire route. for what? Call Kiev and ask them to reopen the second line.


And finally, Nord Stream 1. One turbine after another goes down.

Siemens has the maintenance contract for the turbine pressure pumps, but due to sanctions it cannot fulfill this. There is, of course, a solution to the lack of natural gas in Europe.

After all, if they need it urgently, when things get this bad, they'll just lift the sanctions on Nord Stream 2, with its 55 billion cubic meters a year - they just have to push the button and they'll get it to the hallway. But they have chosen to shut it down themselves; they can't fix one pipeline and have sanctioned the new Nord Stream 2 and won't open it. Are we to blame for this?

Let them think carefully about who is to blame and let no one blame us for their own mistakes. Gazprom and Russia have always fulfilled all obligations under our agreements and contracts and will continue to do so without ever defaulting.

It is indeed a sign of cowardice that European politicians are blaming Russia for problems they themselves have created. They try to hide it, but the facts are all there to point it out. Should Europe really run into energy problems during the winter, the political punishment they will receive will be brutal.

• dutch 🇳🇱 (+ Multi-Language Options). 🦜🦋🌳

https://www.eastasiaforum.org/wp-con...KISTAN-SCO.jpg

• source picture here

http://whynotnews.eu/pix/Vladimir-Putin-Sept2022.png

President of Russia Vladimir Putin:
Good evening, I am listening.

Question: Now that the SCO summit is over, summing it up, can you tell us how you regard the SCO’s development prospects and what the most important thing is for Russia in the SCO?

Vladimir Putin: The most important thing always and everywhere is economic development. And the SCO, cooperation with the SCO countries, creates conditions for the development of the Russian economy, and thus for the social sphere and for resolving the tasks related to improving the living standards of our citizens.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation includes countries whose population, as has been said many times, comprises almost or even slightly more than half of humanity. It is 25 percent of world GDP. And, most importantly, the national economies in the region, those of the SCO member states, are developing much faster than others in the world.

Now we had a separate meeting. I sat next to the Prime Minister of India at the working dinner. India’s GDP grew by 7 percent, China’s by more than 5 percent. China was in the lead for quite a time and its potential is tremendous. Our trade with these countries is growing fast. If these rates are preserved, and they are bound to be for many objective reasons, we will be one of these countries, next to them, ensuring our interests. This is what we are doing and this is the main point.

Question: This question is certainly worrying very many people in our country. People have already developed certain concerns over the course of the special military operation in Ukraine. We are increasingly seeing strikes, raids and acts of terror even on Russian territory. We are hearing all the time very aggressive statements that the final goal of Kiev and the West is Russia’s disintegration. Meanwhile, many think that Russia’s response to all of this is very restrained. Why is that?

Vladimir Putin: There is nothing new about this. Frankly, I find it even a bit strange to hear your question because Western countries have cultivated the idea of the collapse of the Soviet Union and historical Russia and Russia as such, its nucleus.

I have already cited these statements and studies by some figures in Great Britain during World War I and after it. I cited excerpts from Mr Brzezinski’s writings in which he divided the entire territory of our country into specific parts. True, later he changed his position a bit in the belief that it was better to keep Russia in opposition to China and use it as a tool to combat China. It will never happen. Let them address their own challenges as they see fit. But we are seeing how they are handling them and, most likely, they are doing harm to themselves in the process. Their tools are no good.

But they have always been seeking the dissolution of our country – this is very true. It is unfortunate that at some point they decided to use Ukraine for these purposes. In effect – I am answering your question now and the conclusion suggests itself – we launched our special military operation to prevent events from taking this turn. This is what some US-led Western countries have always been seeking – to create an anti-Russia enclave and rock the boat, threaten Russia from this direction. In essence, our main goal is to prevent such developments.

With regard to our restrained response, I would not say it was restrained, even though, after all, a special military operation is not just another warning, but a military operation. In the course of this, we are seeing attempts to perpetrate terrorist attacks and damage our civilian infrastructure.

Indeed, we were quite restrained in our response, but that will not last forever. Recently, Russian Armed Forces delivered a couple of sensitive blows to that area. Let’s call them warning shots. If the situation continues like that, our response will be more impactful

Terrorist attacks are a serious matter. In fact, it is about using terrorist methods. We see this in the killing of officials in the liberated territories, we even see attempts at perpetrating terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation, including – I am not sure if this was made public – attempts to carry out terrorist attacks near our nuclear facilities, nuclear power plants in the Russian Federation. I am not even talking about the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant.

We are monitoring the situation and will do our best to prevent a negative scenario from unfolding. We will respond if they fail to realise that these approaches are unacceptable. They are, in fact, no different than terrorist attacks.

Remark: Good afternoon, Mr President.
Kiev presented draft security guarantees for Ukraine the other day…

Vladimir Putin: Wait a second. I have something to add to my answer to the first question. You said that we are seeing activity here and there. But Kiev has announced that it has launched an active counter-offensive operation. Let’s see how it unfolds and how it ends. Please go ahead.

Question: Kiev recently published draft security guarantees for Ukraine. What can you tell us about this, and what is your assessment of this project?

Vladimir Putin: Frankly, I am not familiar with what they have come up with this time. We, in fact, started with this when we were negotiating with the incumbent Kiev authorities and, in fact, completed this negotiating process in Istanbul with the well-known Istanbul agreement, after which we withdrew our troops from Kiev in order to create the proper conditions for concluding this agreement. Instead of concluding an agreement, Kiev immediately turned down all agreements, shoved them into a box and said they would not seek any agreement with Russia, but instead would pursue victory on the battlefield. Let them try. They are just now trying to do this with the counteroffensive. Let’s see how it ends.

As for security guarantees, and these were fairly tough security guarantees, they were required from our side, from the main NATO countries and regional states, including Turkiye. Overall, we agreed with this – to a large extent. There were some things that required minor adjustments but overall we agreed and these were quite serious requirements. However, the Kiev authorities shelved them.

What have they come up with? I don’t know because they change their position on every issue almost every day. I must have a look.

I would like to recall in this connection that before the start of the special military operation, we talked about security principles and measures on ensuring the security of Russia itself but nobody deemed it necessary to respond to this. Unfortunately.

Question: Good afternoon, Mr President.
Could you please share your opinion on the course of the special military operation? Is it necessary to adjust the plan?

Vladimir Putin: No, the plan will not be adjusted. The General Staff takes real-time decisions in the course of the operation and some are considered a key, the main goal. The main goal is to liberate the entire territory of Donbass.

This work continues despite the attempts of the Ukrainian army to launch a counter-offensive. We are not stopping our offensive operations in Donbass itself. They continue. They continue at a slow pace but consistently and gradually, the Russian army is taking more and more new territory.

I must emphasise that we are fighting not with a full army but only with part, with contracted forces. But, of course, this is linked with certain personnel parameters and so on. This is why we are not in a rush in this respect. But essentially, there have been no changes. The General Staff considers some objectives important and others secondary but the main task remains the same and it is being carried out.

Question: Did President of Turkiye Erdogan make proposals on your meeting with Zelensky at this meeting?

Vladimir Putin: He always suggests meeting with Zelensky. He has been doing this for a long time and there is nothing bad about it. The President of Turkiye is making a substantial contribution to normalising the situation, including resolution of the food problem. The export of Ukrainian grain via Odessa is largely the result of his work. So, he is really making a tangible contribution to resolving a number of serious issues that are arising in connection with this crisis. And, of course, it is only natural that he also suggests meeting with President Zelensky, thinking that it may produce some positive result. He did not raise it at this meeting.

Question: On what conditions could there be dialogue with Ukraine now, if it is possible at all?

Vladimir Putin: But they refuse. The first condition is that they agree to it. But they do not want it. Mr Zelensky has publicly announced – I do not know where exactly, but he said it publicly – that he is not ready and does not want to talk to Russia. Well, if he is not ready, fine.

Question: You have spoken a bit about your meeting with Mr Erdogan. Could you elaborate on the things you discussed with him regarding the grain deal? Is it still in effect? Will grain and our fertiliser be delivered to the poorest countries?

Vladimir Putin: Well, what we just said at the summit, and the things I said – did journalists hear them?

Remark: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: Then I will have to say it again. Firstly, President Erdogan was one of the initiators of this deal, plus obviously the UN, but he was also one of the leaders to have organised the implementation of this idea.

As of today – as of yesterday or the day before – 121 ships left Ukrainian ports. Only three of the 120 ships headed for the poorest countries under the UN food programme. Some 35 percent, maybe a bit more, of the grain exported from Ukraine went to European countries, to non-poor countries, and definitely not to the world’s poorest countries. And only 4.5 percent of the shipments were sent to the poorest countries under the UN programme.

At our bilateral meeting, President Erdogan also raised the issue of sending the bulk of these grain exports to the poorest countries under the UN food programme, but it is not up to us. We only took on the obligation to organise the grain exports. We are doing this, but the United Nations, as well as all other participants in this process, should ultimately achieve the goal for which this process was organised. But I know that the Secretary-General [UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres] – and I say this with absolute sincerity – is taking necessary efforts, he is really doing his best, but so far he has not succeeded either.

The same applies to our fertiliser exports. This is something unprecedented. I would say this has been an outrageous and shameful decision by the European Commission to lift the ban on the purchase of Russian fertilisers – but solely for their countries, for EU member states. But what about the world’s poorest countries?

So what about the rhetoric claiming that “all our joint efforts should be aimed at preventing famine in these poorest countries”? Is it all bluff? Is it done solely to solve their selfish tasks and problems they created themselves, with their own hands, both in the food and energy sectors?

And now they are trying to resolve their self-inflicted problems at someone else’s expense. This is just outrageous. But I hope that our colleagues in the European Commission will let common sense prevail to correct this mistake – and let’s consider it a mistake, a misunderstanding – and make the right decisions.

The same applies to the export of Russian fertilisers.

And it would be good to consider the opportunities provided by Belarus, one of the world’s largest potassium fertiliser producers.

So they have lifted sanctions on our fertilisers. The Americans were actually the first to lift them, since they are generally pragmatic people. Speaking of Ukrainian grain exports, do you know who actually exports it? It is done by American companies, which are the owners of this grain for the most part. It appeared to be that land in Ukraine was sold to US companies long ago – and they are simply exporting their own grain. That is apparently the reason behind so much talk about it. But I digress.

What is important is that sanctions have been lifted on our fertiliser exports – but there are still issues as regards freight and insurance plus the existing ban on entering our ports where our fertilisers are exported from, as well as on financial transfers and settlements. They are aware of this all and keep saying this problem will be solved, but no one is actually doing anything about it.

To be fair, the UN Secretary-General is taking efforts to solve these issues. He has regular contact with all participants in this process. So far, not everything has worked out. Hopefully, the Secretary-General’s negotiations will be successful.

We have no doubt that we will sell our goods; we sell them now and will continue to sell them in the future as there is great demand for them in the markets. The point is that if things continue this way, they will not reach the poorest countries. You have probably heard about 300,000 tonnes of Russian fertiliser stuck in European ports; our companies are saying they are ready to provide it for free – just unblock and release it, and we will donate it to the poorest countries and to developing markets. But they are still holding it, and this is absolutely astonishing.

They do not want Russia to earn money – but we are not making a profit by giving away fertiliser. I just do not get what they are doing. What is the purpose of all this? There has been so much talk about providing help to the poorest countries, but exactly the opposite is actually happening.

I have the impression – and this is particularly true for European countries – that these former colonial powers are still living in the paradigm of colonial philosophy, and they are used to living at the expense of others. They still fail to get rid of this paradigm in their daily policies. But it is time to draw certain conclusions and act differently, in a more civilised manner.

Question: Your most important bilateral meeting has taken place with the leader of China. This was a very important meeting, given the tense atmosphere across the globe, and the whole world was following it. What are the most important outcomes of the meeting?

Vladimir Putin: As strange as it may sound, there was nothing of paramount importance. This was actually a routine meeting between us. We have not met in person for a while, since my trip to Beijing for the opening of the Olympics, and we simply stated a significant increase in bilateral trade.

Our trade stood at US$140 billion last year, as I mentioned earlier, and we had set the goal of reaching US$200 billion, but we considered it to be a long-term task. This year’s mutual trade is expected to reach some US$180 or even US$190 billion, meaning that the goal of US$200 billion is about to be achieved, and I believe this is the bottom line.

We spoke about additional efforts required to expand bilateral trade, and what needs to be done in the current conditions to efficiently resist the illegal restrictions and all sorts of trade wars being unleashed here and there by our so-called trade partners, who apply various illegitimate restrictions.

Nevertheless, we have to take action to respond to this in some way. We are aware of what is happening.

We also spoke about the need to expand trade and settlements in national currencies, which are gradually increasing – not as fast as we would like it to, but there is progress, nonetheless. We talked about major projects we are implementing and mentioned infrastructure projects that would allow us to unblock growing commodity flows. These were the topics of discussion.

But we also mentioned some crisis-related issues and we spoke about them in a friendly yet principled manner.

Let us wind thus up, shall we? I have yet to finish speaking there. They are still waiting for me.

Go ahead, please.

Question: The US Department of the Treasury has not only increased the number of people under sanctions but also made changes as to their occupation and age limits.

Vladimir Putin: What limits exactly?

Remark: Age limits. I will explain: along with your aide Maxim Oreshkin and the general director of the Mir payment system, they now include Maria Lvova-Belova…

Vladimir Putin: I do not understand, what about Maxim Oreshkin?

Remark: They have become sanctioned by US Department of the Treasury.

Vladimir Putin: Maxim Oreshkin? Under sanctions?

Reply: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: Apparently, [he has been sanctioned] for his meeting with Mr Erdogan; he went to Turkiye and met with Mr Erdogan, and they immediately sanctioned him afterwards.

Reply: As regards age, they also included Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, who was sanctioned for “organising the capture of children from Ukraine,” as the Americans have worded it. Those targeted by sanctions also include Ramzan Kadyrov and his underage children, three of his 14 children.

Vladimir Putin: Underage, right? This is the first time I have heard about this.

Remark: This has just happened.

Vladimir Putin: I was busy with other issues; I do not know about that.

Question: What do you think about these sanctions?

Vladimir Putin: I believe this sounds like schizophrenia, because imposing sanctions on underage children is simply outrageous. It seems that they have simply lost track of what they are doing.

As for our Commissioner for Children’s Rights, as we know, she has been involved in bringing our children from areas of hostilities: from Syria and Iraq, those children who have remained there due to various circumstances against their will, and I hope she will continue to do this, God bless her.

This is a noble mission; she risks her life and health. It is only natural that she helps to bring children from areas of hostilities or danger zones in Donbass. What’s wrong with that? We must thank her and bow our heads. Why impose sanctions against her? This is the first time I have heard about it, and it is outrageous.

Question: I have a question on the developments around Armenia and Azerbaijan. Do you think any attempts are being made by other countries to have an effect on the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh while Moscow is conducting the special military operation in Ukraine? And does Russia now have enough resources to continue extending its influence on our colleagues to secure peace?

Vladimir Putin: As you can see, there are enough resources. The latest border incident has nothing to do with Nagorno-Karabakh at all: it took place in a totally different region on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Indeed, we regret these events and the casualties. Russia has been a major influence in containing this conflict, and I hope this continues to be so. So, answering your question, there are sufficient resources so far, thankfully.

Question: One final question regarding the G20. The SCO summit will conclude today, but its leaders will soon meet as part of the G20. Is there any certainty about your visit to Indonesia, and what could interfere with your plans to visit Bali?

Vladimir Putin: I will see, I have visited Bali, and it is a beautiful place, but this is actually not about beauty. We will see how the situation develops in our economy and other areas.

I have an invitation to visit the G20 summit; the President of the hosting nation [Indonesia] personally informed me about it when he visited Moscow, and then he telephoned me and said once again, “Bear in mind that there is certain pressure, but my stance is firm and we would like to see you at this summit.“ I will see and then we will make a decision. Russia will take part in the event.

Now one concluding question, alright? There are many of you, and just one of me.
Please go ahead.

Question: Good evening, Mr President, and thank you very much. I will be quick. You just mentioned ships with grain that left for Europe, although it is not experiencing a food crisis but an energy one, and this is what my question is about. Recently, the president of the European Commission and a number of other top European officials…

Vladimir Putin: The Chairman of the European Commission.

Question: Yes. In the heat of their efforts to find a solution to the energy crisis, they offered their citizens to send skyrocketing electricity bills not just to anyone, but personally to you. What will be your response to this? Are you going to pay these bills in case you suddenly start receiving them? Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: I have not heard anything about this either, I know nothing about it. This is yet another attempt to shift the blame onto someone else, as they say.

The energy crisis in Europe did not begin with the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, in Donbass; it actually started much earlier, a year before or even earlier. As strange as it may seem, it started with the green agenda. The green agenda is definitely important, and we need to take climate action and avoid reaching the point of no return when climate change becomes irreversible, with the Earth becoming a planet in the solar system that once had the atmosphere, according to scientists, but no longer has one, and the temperatures are now +500°C. Of course, no one wants this to happen, but everything must be done carefully and gradually.

To pursue momentary political considerations, they chose to completely close down the hydrocarbon energy programmes in their countries. Banks stopped extending loans, local authorities have stopped allocating land plots for future development, and implementation of plans for energy infrastructure construction was stopped as well, with huge cuts in investment in conventional energy. But this all started happening a few years back.

Now, we see that prices, say, for natural gas in the United States have risen and production is growing, but not as fast as they would like it to – and the reason is that banks are afraid to issue loans. Specialists and experts are perfectly aware of this, and all these populist statements claiming that someone is to blame for this elsewhere are made only to protect themselves from their citizens’ indignation. This is what it’s done for, and this is only the first part of this farce.

These are erroneous reference points in the green agenda, rushing things, and the green energy being unprepared to meet to the demand for huge energy resources to support economic and industrial growth. The economy is growing while the energy sector is shrinking. This is the first drastic mistake.
The second mistake concerns natural gas.

We made attempts to persuade the Europeans to focus on long-term contracts rather than solely on the market. Why? I said it before and will repeat it once again: Gazprom needs to invest billions in development but it must be confident that it will sell gas before making investments. This is what long-term contracts are about.

Mutual obligations are incurred by the sellers and the buyers. They said, “No, let the market regulate itself.“ We kept telling them, “Don't do it or it will lead to drastic consequences.” But in fact, they forced us to include a significant share of the spot price in the contract price. They forced us to do this, and Gazprom had to include both the oil and oil product basket but also the spot price in the gas price. The spot price began to grow, causing the increase in the price envisaged even in long-term contracts. But what does it have to do with us? This is the first thing.

Second, I told them many times. “Gazprom is not supplying gas.” Look, are you normal people or what? Poland chose to impose sanctions against the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline and shut off the route. I told Mr [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz: “Why are you calling me? Call Warsaw and ask them to reopen the route.” That is all there is to it. That’s the first.

Second. Two lines of the gas pipeline run through Ukraine. Ukraine is being supplied with weapons, but it went ahead and closed one of the lines for them. They also shut off another line that supplied 25 billion cubic metres of gas – I will not talk about the exact amount, but they shut off the entire route. What for? Call Kiev and ask them to reopen the second line.

And finally, Nord Stream 1. One turbine goes out of order after another. Are we breaking them? As regards the latest turbine breaking down and being taken out of service – what actually happened? There was supposed to be a routine inspection and maintenance works; they opened the unit in the presence of Siemens specialists and found an oil leak there, which created a danger of an explosion. They saw it, and they put their signatures under the document. The turbine has to be repaired and it is not operational, with a risk of fire and explosion. But what does it have to do with us? Go ahead and repair it.

We were told: look, they delivered a turbine from Canada but Gazprom will not accept it. But Gazprom is right in doing so. We said so many times: Gazprom’s contract for servicing turbines is not with Siemens but with a UK-based Siemens subsidiary. That is what it is all about. And this UK-based subsidiary must provide documents that specify that sanctions have been lifted from the turbine as this is our property, and Gazprom must be sure of it because it may choose to sell it, say, to Iran, China or some other country. It means that the sanctions have been lifted and it is in a proper technical condition. The Siemens subsidiary must provide [guarantees] but has not provided anything but idle talks. That is what it is all about.

Also, it was necessary to make amendments in the logistics contract as the turbine was supposed to be delivered from Canada to St Petersburg, but it was delivered to Germany. This may seem unimportant at first glance but it has practical importance. Look, are we making all this up? And this is what led to Nord Stream 1 stopping operation.

After all, if they need it urgently, if things are so bad, just go ahead and lift sanctions against Nord Stream 2, with its 55 billion cubic metres per year – all they have to do is press the button and they will get it going. But they chose to shut it off themselves; they cannot repair one pipeline and imposed sanctions against the new Nord Stream 2 and will not open it. Are we to blame for this?

Let them think hard about who is to blame and let none of them blame us for their own mistakes. Gazprom and Russia have always fulfilled and will fulfil all obligations under our agreements and contracts, with no failures ever.

Thank you. All the best.

• source
• dutch 🇳🇱 (+ Multi-Language Options). 🦜🦋🌳

--o-O-o--

• Allan McDigger quote:

"Wow, that was some impressive press conference, he is an excellent speaker and doesn't hide behind lecterns, doesn't have any tele-prompters with his answers, and yet he is able to give such in depth answers to every question, plus he had some 'alternative' comments about the present deplorable state of gas supply brought about by our own dim-witted politicians".

https://i0.wp.com/www.frontnieuws.co...sgezichten.jpg

• Putin: Lessons From Childhood

As a child growing up in Leningrad, Vladimir Putin lived in a run-down five-story building. He and his parents shared an apartment with two other families. The yard was filled with garbage, and the garbage was filled with rats.

"Putin and his friends used to chase after them with sticks, until one day a large rat, which he had cornered, turned and attacked him, giving him the fright of his life. The memory stayed with him, and years later he would draw the lesson: ‘No one should be cornered. No one should be put in a situation where they have no way out."

The story is recounted in Philip Short’s biography, Putin. Several lessons from childhood can be found in the biography that seem to have been formative for Putin. Three of them stand out.

• No One Should be Cornered

Despite the repeated promises of the US, Germany, the UK and NATO that NATO would not move further east, NATO kept moving east. NATO kept encroaching, moving closer and closer to a Russia that had been explicitly left out of the European Union and now saw the US led military alliance devouring territory as it moved right up to its borders. Russia was being cornered.

As early as 2008, when NATO first announced at the Bucharest summit that Ukraine and Georgia will become members of NATO, the Russian leadership made clear that they saw this decision as an existential threat. Putin warned that NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine was "a direct threat" to Russian security. John Mearsheimer quotes a Russian journalist who reported that Putin "flew into a rage" and warned that "if Ukraine joins NATO, it will do so without Crimea and the eastern regions. It will simply fall apart."

Over a decade later, Putin was issuing the same plea to the US. On December 2, 2021, Putin asked the US for immediate negotiations and sent a proposal on mutual security guarantees. He asked the US for "reliable and long-term security guarantees" that “would exclude any further NATO moves eastward and the deployment of weapons systems that threaten us in close vicinity to Russian territory.”
The US declined and closed the door. Russia had no way out.

With NATO crowding Russia’s borders, Ukraine being flooded with lethal NATO weapons and tens of thousands of elite Ukrainian troops massing along the eastern border with Donbas, like that rat in Putin’s yard, Russia was cornered. With its warnings and pleas for immediate negotiations being ignored, Russia saw no way out.

That does not justify the invasion of Ukraine. But the next move had been learned by Putin in his childhood.

• Never Bluff

There were many rules taught by the KGB that Putin had already learned as a child "scrapping with the other kids." One of them was "Don’t reach for a weapon unless you are prepared to use it . . . It was the same on the street. [There] relations were clarified with fists. You didn’t get involved unless you were prepared to see it through."

When Putin said in 2008 that "if Ukraine joins NATO, it will do so without Crimea and the eastern regions," the West ignored him, thinking it was a bluff. But Putin learned as a child not to bluff. You don’t threaten action unless you are "prepared to see it through."

With the US becoming increasingly directly involved in the war, not only providing weapons, training and targeting intelligence, but even going so far as war-gaming with and advising the Ukrainian military, Russia set a new red line.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked the US to go beyond the HIMARS rocket systems with their 50 mile range and provide "a missile system with a range of 190 miles, which could reach far into Russian territory."

On September 15, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova declared that if the US agrees to supply those longer range missiles to the Ukrainian army, "it would cross the red line and become an actual party to the conflict." The Russian spokeswoman then added that "In such a scenario, we would have to come up with an adequate response." Russia, she reminded the West, "reserves the right to defend its territory using any means available."

A week later, on September 21, Putin repeated that warning himself. On top of the threat of longer range missiles, Putin said some leading NATO countries had talked about the possibility of using nuclear weapons against Russia and said, “I would like to remind those who make such statements regarding Russia that our country has different types of weapons as well, and some of them are more modern than the weapons NATO countries have. In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. Putin then said, “This is not a bluff.”
As a child, Putin learned that you "Don’t reach for a weapon unless you are prepared to use it."

Recognizing that providing Ukraine with longer range guided missiles that could strike Russian territory "would likely be seen by Moscow as a major provocation," that that provocation could lead to World War III and that the benefits "during the next stage of the war" "would be minimal," Biden seems to be resisting Zelensky’s latest request.

• Never Back Down

Putin is not spontaneous or rash. His ex-wife, Lyudmila, said that "Everything he did was always thought through." A Swedish diplomat who knew him said that "he sizes up his opponents coldly and soberly, and anticipates his own and others’ actions well before he makes the first chess move."

When you do make that move, you commit to the sequence of moves it sets off. "If something happens," Putin once said, "you should proceed from the fact that there is no retreat. It is necessary to carry it through to the end." The KGB taught that rule, but Putin says that he already knew it because he "learnt it much earlier, scrapping with kids."

Putin would repeat that "carry it through to the end" formulation. "If you want to win a fight," he said, "you have to carry it through to the end, as if it were the most decisive battle of your life."

Though the US and its NATO allies repeatedly commit to arming and aiding Ukraine for the duration, Putin has shown no sign of retreating or backing down. Having seemingly now concluded that Russia is fighting, not a regional war against Ukraine, but a protracted global war against "the entire Western military machine," on September 21, Putin ordered a partial mobilization of up to 300,000 reserves. The mobilization will include only military reservists "who served in the armed forces and have specific military occupational specialties and corresponding experience," representing about 1% of Russia’s full potential.

Russia sees NATO encroachment and NATO presence in Ukraine as an existential threat. Putin learned as a child that "there is no retreat" and that "you have to carry it through to the end, as if it were the most decisive battle of your life."

• source

dilapidated five-storey building. He and his parents shared an apartment with two other families. The yard was filled with garbage, and the garbage was full of rats, writes Ted Snider.

“Putin and his friends chased them with sticks until one day a large rat he had cornered turned and attacked him, giving him the fright of his life. The memory stayed with him, and years later he would learn the lesson: 'No one should be cornered. No one should be put in a situation where he has no way out.'”
The story is told in Philip Short's biography, "Putin". The biography contains several childhood lessons that seem to have been defining for Putin. Three of them stand out.

• No one should be cornered

Despite repeated promises from the US, Germany, the UK and NATO that NATO would not move further east, NATO continued to move east. NATO continued to advance, ever closer to a Russia explicitly kept out of the European Union and now watching the US-led military alliance devour territory and reach its borders. Russia was cornered.
As early as 2008, when NATO announced at the Bucharest summit that Ukraine and Georgia would join NATO, the Russian leadership made it clear that it saw this decision as an existential threat. Putin warned that Georgia and Ukraine's NATO membership posed "an immediate threat" to Russian security. John Mearsheimer quotes a Russian journalist who reported that Putin “burst out in anger” and warned that “if Ukraine joins NATO, it will do so without Crimea and the eastern regions. It will just fall apart. It will just fall apart.”
More than ten years later, Putin made the same plea for the US. On December 2, 2021, Putin asked the US for immediate negotiations and sent a proposal on mutual security guarantees. He asked the US for "reliable and long-lasting security guarantees" that would "preclude any further move by NATO eastward and the deployment of weapon systems that threaten us in close proximity to Russian territory."

The US rejected this and closed the door. Russia had no way out.

• Zelensky wants to destroy the whole world by drawing the West into a nuclear war with Russia

With NATO advancing to Russia's borders, Ukraine was awash with deadly NATO weapons and tens of thousands of Ukrainian elite troops gathered along its eastern border with Donbas, like that rat in Putin's yard, Russia was cornered. Because his warnings and pleas for immediate negotiations were ignored, Russia saw no way out.
That does not justify the invasion of Ukraine. But the next step Putin had learned in his youth.

• Never bluff

There were many rules taught by the KGB that Putin had learned as a child while “scratching around with the other kids.” One was “You only threaten with violence” if you are “willing to carry it out” … It was the same on the street. “There relations were clarified with fists. You didn't get involved unless you were willing to carry it out."
When Putin said in 2008 that “if Ukraine joins NATO, it will do so without Crimea and the eastern regions”, the West ignored him and thought it was a bluff. But Putin learned not to bluff as a child. You don't threaten action if you're not "willing to carry it out."
As the US became more and more directly involved in the war, not only providing weapons, training and targeted intelligence, but even going so far as to play war exercises with and advise the Ukrainian military, Russia established a new red line.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked the US to go beyond the HIMARS missile systems with their 80-kilometer range and "provide a 350-kilometer missile system that can reach well into Russian territory."

On September 15, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, stated that if the US agreed to supply these extended-range missiles to the Ukrainian military, "it would cross the red line and become a de facto party to the conflict." become." The Russian spokeswoman then added: "In such a scenario, we should come up with an adequate response." Russia, she reminded the West, "reserves the right to defend its territory by any means available."

A week later, on September 21, Putin himself repeated that warning . In addition to the threat of longer-range missiles, Putin said some leading NATO countries had discussed the possibility of using nuclear weapons against Russia and said: "I want to remind those who make such statements about Russia that our country also has different types of weapons. , and some of them are more modern than the weapons that NATO countries have. In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the weapon systems at our disposal. Putin then said, "This is not a bluff."
As a child, Putin learned that "you don't reach for a weapon if you are not willing to use it."
Biden acknowledges that providing Ukraine with longer-range guided missiles capable of hitting Russian territory "would likely be perceived by Moscow as a major provocation ," that provocation could lead to World War III, and that the benefits "during the next phase of the war, would be minimal," Biden appears to be resisting Zelensky's latest request.

The opening salvos have been thrown - What are Putin's next steps in Ukraine?

• Never back down

Putin is not spontaneous or rash. His ex-wife, Lyudmila, said that "everything he did was always thought through". A Swedish diplomat who knew him said that "he judges his opponents coldly and soberly, anticipating his own actions and those of others before making the first chess move."

When you make that move, you commit to the sequence of moves it initiates. “If something happens,” Putin once said, “you must assume that there is no retreat. It is necessary to carry it out to the end.” The KGB learned that rule, but Putin says he already knew it because he "learned it way before, while scratching with kids."
Putin would repeat that "persist to the end" formulation. “If you want to win a fight,” he said, “you have to endure it to the end, as if it were the most decisive battle of your life.”
While the US and its NATO allies have repeatedly pledged to arm and help Ukraine while it lasts , Putin has shown no sign of withdrawal or hesitation. Having apparently come to the conclusion that Russia is not waging a regional war against Ukraine, but a protracted global war against " the entire Western military machine ", Putin ordered a partial mobilization of up to 300,000 reserves on September 21. The mobilization will only include military reservists “who have served in the military and have specific military professional specialties and corresponding experience”.representing about 1% of Russia's full potential.

German hospital refuses to treat Russians

Russia sees the advancing NATO and NATO presence in Ukraine as an existential threat. Putin was taught as a child that "there is no going back" and that "you have to hold on to the end, as if there is no turning back".

• dutch 🇳🇱 (+ Multi-Language Options). 🦜🦋🌳

• Jordan Peterson Leaves Piers Morgan SPEECHLESS on Vladimir Putin!!!:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4os-nOVyo68

i have no strong opinion of Jordan Peterson either way. But In this case, he makes perfect sense to me, and all this end of September stuff, with whats coming on the 24th ,along with the Vatican calling in their money and all confirms we are in for some serious stuff come winter in Europe.

Peterson is right, the greedy money changers here in the west and around the world have backed themselves into a non negotiation with someone who holds the commodity cards. He has the gas, he holds the heat card, the energy card
Only Media propaganda is holding this anti Putin lie up.

Just a note about the msm news. Yester-day when Putin's speech and mobilisation came to light the vibe on the main stream seemed that of delight, they have had some good ukrainian news the past few weeks and yester-day seemed to be the cherry on top. Some of the alt commentators suggest this mobilisation was part of the planning and not some rash, last minute decision. It was coming anyways.

I think the mobilisation is going to be strong enough to police the 1ooo km front lines while keeping regular army resources at the ready in the event the west decides to fight the Russian on the ground. They are saving the best for last. Everyone knows reservists are a bit less experienced than the regulars. This will be a trial by fire for 3ook.

NATO and the U.S. are chompin' on the bit. They want to have their victory cigars but Putin is not kidding around. There is going to be hell to pay for a lot of people and it just seems like it's getting worse every day.

• Putin Just Called Their Bluff And It's About To Get Real Bad:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=PH4S_maL5nA

The United States has stepped up the rhetoric around nuclear war in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's speech around nuclear war. Is the U.S. actively engaged in war? This is only the third time Russia has mobilized its army so this is serious business.

• Vladimir Putin Addresses Russian Security Council (October 26, 2022):

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WfrYKX7h03U

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses members of the Russian Security Council and heads of various security agencies of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The brief talk addresses recent security threats to Russia and CIS members, the current state of affairs in Ukraine, and the need for continued collective efforts of CIS members in joint security ventures.

• October 26, 2022 The President’s opening remarks at a meeting with the heads of CIS security and intelligence agencies

http://static.kremlin.ru/media/event...zsjvI4DqAi.jpg

President of Russia Vladimir Putin:

"Mr Bortnikov, colleagues,

Good afternoon.

I am happy to welcome you to Moscow for a regular meeting of the Council of Heads of the CIS Security and Intelligence Agencies.

First of all, I would like to say that over the past years the Council has become a highly popular venue for discussing a broad range of professional issues, coordinating strategic decisions on protecting our states and the Commonwealth of Independent States as a whole from internal and external threats.

Our joint efforts are especially important now. The potential for conflict remains very high both in the world as a whole and at the regional level. We see the rise of new risks and challenges to our collective security.

This is caused above all by a dramatic aggravation in global geopolitical confrontation. The world is changing and becoming multipolar before our very eyes. However, some members of the international community are doing everything in their power to preserve their faltering hegemony and to this end, they are using various political, military, economic, information and other methods and means, from destroying the legal framework of strategic stability to adopting unilateral sanctions against those who reject their policy.

They do not even stop short of openly subversive actions. I am referring to the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. This actually amounts to the destruction of the common European energy infrastructure. This is being done, although, to put it mildly, these methods are doing colossal damage to the European economy and are seriously impairing the quality of life for millions of people. And besides, they are keeping silent about who has done this and who stands to gain from it.

Some countries have long been using the tactics of blackmail, pressure and intimidation throughout the CIS space. In particular, attempts continue to be made to implement ‘colour revolution’ scenarios, methods involving nationalism and extremism are employed, and armed conflicts, which directly threaten the security of all CIS members, are being stoked.

We can see the goals of those who are doing this in Ukraine, which has been made an instrument of US foreign policy. The country has actually lost its sovereignty and is being directly governed by the United States, which is using it as a battering ram against Russia, Belarus, which is a member of our Union State, and the CSTO and the CIS in general.

At the same time, we can see the United States’ real attitude to its client states. Ukraine was almost immediately turned into a testing site for military biological experiments and is being flooded with weapons, including heavy weaponry, without any heed to the Kiev regime’s statements about its desire to obtain nuclear weapons. The Kiev authorities have declared this desire publicly, but everyone keeps silent. We also know about their plans to use a so-called “dirty bomb” as a provocation.

As for threats in the CIS space, I would like to say that the level of threat coming from ISIL, Al Qaeda and other terrorist organisations has not decreased. They are trying to infiltrate CIS countries and are creating undercover cells, while the concentration of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, especially on the borders of Central Asian states, certainly carries the potential risk of invasion in the region.

It is obvious that the CIS as a whole and its individual states have never faced such comprehensive threats before. It is therefore our common task to protect our nations from them as much as possible, to strengthen stability and peace in the CIS space and to continue to promote mutually beneficial integration processes, which have provided an example of truly partner relations over the past decades.

We must make use of all the forces and means available to us to fulfil these tasks. Of course, we must also make the fullest possible use of our experience and contacts, which, as we have seen more than once, are noticeably increasing the potential and efficiency of each of our agencies.

One of the priority tasks is to jointly counter any attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of the CIS countries. We know what this is. To resist it, we must more actively reveal and curb the work of foreign secret services, aimed at destabilising the situation in each individual CIS member-state.

It is also important to continue our coordinated systemic struggle against terrorism. Recently, there has been positive dynamics in this respect. Thus, terrorist crimes, including acts of terror have gone down in practically all CIS states.

It is necessary to continue developing counterterrorism cooperation. In particular, we must continue to exchange information on persons taking part in or suspected of terrorist and extremist activities. We must focus on revealing and blocking terrorist infiltration channels under the cover of migration flows, including the spread of foreign mercenaries with combat experience, which poses a serious threat to us.

The black market in arms operating in Ukraine is creating serious challenges. Cross-border criminal groups are actively involved in smuggling these arms to other regions. These are not just small arms. There is a persistent risk of criminals getting hold of more powerful weapons, including portable air defence systems and precision weapons.
Furthermore, the act of terror on the Crimean Bridge and sabotage attempts at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant – after all, such attacks have already been carried out around it – and many other incidents show the need to take enhanced security measures at critical transport and energy facilities. These facilities and crowded places must be protected as reliably as possible in the first place.

Some tasks remain as urgent as before. This applies to countering cybercrime and drug trafficking, eliminating cross-border criminal groups and, of course, developing cooperation in protecting state frontiers.

I am confident that the current meeting will help us implement our common mission on enhancing the security of our countries and the CIS in general. It will certainly improve the joint activity of our secret services aimed at neutralising common threats.
Colleagues and friends,

I wish you success in your very important work that is complicated but very much in demand.

I am grateful for your attention.

Thank you.

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A highly prescient Nexus Magazine article, published in 2017, 5 long years ago. (This is one of the 200 free articles presented in this thread: 200 free Nexus magazine articles from the last 14 years)

Who Is Vladimir Putin? Why Do the US Government and the Western Media Demonise Him?

https://projectavalon.net/Who_is_Vladimir_Putin.pdf