"but the Russians claim that they were backed by Ukraine."
Regarding the Moscow attack, Putin and also the head of the FSB said they suspect that the instigators of the bombing are to be found in the West. Here's why:
The instigators used an earlier video from ISIS-K for the claim. So they gave a finger to ISIS-K who took the whole hand to present a real video (the second claim video).
Then there is another fact: the terrorists had themselves arrested alive on their way nto the Ukraine, which is not normal behavior for ISIS members. The norm is to die as a martyr.
As in recent years, Russia has developed very good relations with Islamic countries, so it is unlikely that the latest attack came from that side.
Of course the attacks were backed, not only by Ukraine, but by MI6 and the CIA.
The fact that the victims hadn't finished dying before we were duly assured by MI6 and the CIA that Ukraine could not possibly have had anything to do with the Crocus attack is a sure tell. That and the western insistence that they had warned Russia (because they knew and planned the attacks) is another.
From Zelensky's point of view, what he says is quite reasonable. The issue is why should anyone outside of Ukraine agree with him. And why US military force have to act like a hitman for hire rather than defending the real national interests? Mr. Zelensky is free to want and like whatever he pleases. However, other people should think through the situation before they react.
Zelensky and his cornered cabal are becoming ever more delusional, and like cornered Netanyahu see dragging America further into the mess they made as the only - delusional - plan to save their own worthless skins.
Fortunately, despite the congressional war lobby desperate to send others' money and kids into their apocalyptic fantasies in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, cooler heads seem to be prevailing in the Pentagon, resulting in, for example, a pathetic Starmer, desperate to bomb Russia and free sausages in Gaza, being this week sidelined, along with fellow cold warriors in the Baltic.
Russia is well on the way to ending the ill-conceived Kursk adventure - again, largely inspired by the Zelensky gang's hope of dragging America further into their delusional project of self-preservation.
But though Vuhledar is now being abandoned, Kurakhove and Pokrovsk neutralized as logistic hubs, and Russia is about to reach the Oskil river south of Kupiansk, Russian progress is grindingly slow even within what might reasonably be seen as their 'natural' boundaries in the South and East of former Ukraine.
...So... I really don't buy all the - to me, paranoid - comments here about WW3.
The Pentagon and the Kremlin will I think be happy enough to accept another Postsoviet frozen conflict, slightly beyond the current Russian line of control.
Trump knows this, and I hope Harris too, though of course nobody knows if or what she thinks.
So unlike the poor victims of doddery Biden's incompetence in Eastern Europe or the Middle East, my guess is that most of us can sleep pretty comfortably for now, as we wait for a new front in the Pacific.
I hope Taiwan will watch and learn from Ukraine, because Ukraine certainly didn't learn from Georgia. Fact is, when push comes to shovel, the US will let any ally drop by a hot potato.
Georgia (with Ukrainian citizen Saakashvili - still I think formally Zelensky's Deputy Prime Minister heading his joke 'National Reform Council' in absentia) has certainly learned from Ukraine.
Hilarious how America and the crowds it sponsors in Tblisi complain so much about the new Foreign Agents Registration Act, which is far weaker, but far more needed, than equivalent controls in America itself.
An excellent analysis and description of Zelenskyy's "last chance" at winning a war, as well as the "rabbit hole" that he and Biden are sharing. There appears to be no NATO nation willing to stick its neck out unless the U.S. leads. Biden, as a lame duck, should not be allowed to escalate this war. He should have been developing a stronger relationship with Putin in order to begin diplomatic efforts at a negotiated peace. Instead, his stubbornness to even communicate with Putin ( as if to show he is so powerful that he won't even talk to a "thug") is a case of poor judgement and weak leadership. Pray that Biden won't act out of spite, that Trump wins the election and negotiations will begin.
Zelensky still shows bravado, but in fact he has already regretted getting into politics a thousand times. That he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and became the last president of the former Ukraine.
Zelenskii speaks Russian in private, or whenever he doesn't think the mike is on. This is something that just about every Ukrainian politician does.
To give a few examples:
I was "treated" to an Atlantic-Bridge session, featuring some Ukrainian nationalist politician ranting about linguistic politics in Ukraine. After the speech was over, I listened to the guy speak with his entourage - in Russian.
Soon after the so-called "Orange Revolution", I got to hear a spokeswoman for the Yushchenko regime speaking on IP rights in Ukraine. The talk was, of course, in (scripted) Ukrainian. However, the Q&A session was in Russian. The woman could read off of a script, but could not speak on the fly in Ukrainian.
Or the day I witnessed the closing of a public private partnership agreement between a Ukrainian government agency and a Kiev-based businessman. The agreement at issue was written in Ukrainian, as per the requirements of Ukrainian law. The year was around 2006.
I had to translate the agreement into Russia, as none of the signatories understood the words forming the agreement. And I am self-taught in Russian and never even did that in Ukrainian, but I knew more Ukrainian than any of the Ukrainians present did.
Zelensky knows he is a dead man walking and we all know that he is a sociopath who sacrificed the future of his own people with nothing in return. He can't back down because eventually ordinary people will find out that he was used as a pawn by the West in an attempt to destroy Russia (or at least initiate a regime change). After 1 Mio casualties, he has nothing to show and knows that the only hope he has is dragging NATO into a direct war with Russia. It's shameful that the Western media is portraying this man as a hero.
Fact remains that NATO can't fight Russia without risking a nuclear war and humiliation. NATO has emptied its stockpile of weapons and ammo, there are no logistics in place to operate a war on a big scale and its air defence is a joke. Airplane carriers are sitting ducks around the world and its bases could be nuked by Russia any time. Let's be real here, NATO can't get involved and won't get involved.
MOSCOW, September 25 – RIA Novosti. At a Security Council meeting on nuclear deterrence, Vladimir Putin proposed making a number of clarifications regarding the conditions for Russia’s use of nuclear weapons.
"In the updated version of the document ("Fundamentals of state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence." - Ed.) aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state..."
Same day on Russian Telegram: "The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense: Umerov [who made a recent trip to Pentagon for consultations] has just publicly confirmed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have planned operations “outside the country” using long-range weapons for 2025, despite the fact that the West has not yet approved their use"
"Cheap war with many benefits" with "someone else doing it" doesn't come cheap.
Whenever you write anything about the goings on inside of Russia I know I am going to listen to the CIA pushed narrative. Your "report" on the Crocus terror attack is just criminally bad. When has ISIS ever ran away in an attempt to get paid for it's operation? Hint: NEVER It is plain as day this was a western intelligence operation. Talking about Navalny, you say "how much western support he had is unknown is just an outright lie. Joe Biden would say "Come on man" .The FSB released video of Navalny's manager or head of the political group speaking to MI6/CIA, to me it makes no difference it is all 1 in the same. He also never had anything approaching 27% in any type of country wide polling, less than 5%. I could continue but you will just continue to repeat outright lies
Certainly agree on Navalny. Not sure he ever got beyond 2% support - Yabloko (the much bigger real Liberal party) absolutely refused to have anything to do with him.
He was certainly well known.
My impression is that the CIA/MI6 and other deep state actors have been saying for over a decade that one more push and Putin is over and they daren't go back on that now despite it being manifestly stupid.
Personally, I doubt that Navalny (who would have been the ultimate loose cannon for the West if he did have much success) ever had much support from the west except for press releases from security agencies. I doubt if he was provided with a budget of millions of dollars, an all in effort by all the security agencies of multiple countries coordinating their efforts, satellite surveillance results made available to Navalny's well financed and equipped team, the figurative and even actual physical elimination of select opponents, etc. All that and more was present in the Maiden effort in Ukraine. Navalny had none of that.
Why did Navalny leave Germany after rehabilitation and go back to certain arrest and imprisonment in Russia? Quite likely Germany told him........now that you are physically ok., you are on your own, we won't let you set up some kind of government in exile operation and will strictly limit your activities to those that fit our ever changing agenda...... ... So Navalny beat feet in what normal people would have considered a bizarre action. However, even Navalny's supporters never claimed he was normal.
As posted in the article, Navalny got roughly twenty six percent of the vote in a Moscow election. In polling, he is reputed to never have had more than two or three percent nationally. Outside of Moscow, he was seen as a politician. And in Russia, politics/politician are literal dirty words. Outside of Moscow, Putin is *not* seen as one of those detestable politicians whatever else they might think of him. That is part of the reason for the reservoir of good will that Putin has in Russia.
From "Servant of the People", the TV series in which he played before 2019, Zelenski switched to "all peoples/all leaders are my servants". He asks and receives. With delays, slowly, gradually , but they respond to his order... How it got here, I keep wondering...
Why is this hard to believe? The sociopaths who rule the West would annihilate us all without hesitation, if that were what it took for them not to lose their perches.
I can’t fault Zelenskyy for doing everything he can to support Ukraine’s fight against Putin & Russia. After all, his country is being destroyed. Putting the US and Europe at risk seems to him a small price to pay to achieve his objectives. But his objectives are not our objectives and the risks he proposes we run aren’t reasonable for us. Nevertheless we should support him, somewhat. Without our support Putin wins. That can’t be good for either the Ukrainians, the Europeans or us. And we should give him enough support to win the war. But what does winning mean? Recovering all Ukrainian territory and putting Putin in the dock are probably beyond our collective ability and risk tolerance. Putting US troops in direct combat with Russia is also beyond our risk tolerance. Too much chance of escalation to nuclear war. Supporting Harris is a fools errand. She is not a deep thinker or a reliable ally. As a closet Marxist she has more in common with Putin than with Zelenskyy. And, consider that her ‘mentor’, Barack Obama only gave Ukraine blankets and MREs. Also consider that Biden, her copilot, is the guy who told Zelenskyy that Ukraine was lost and he needed to bug out. Finally, favoring one US candidate over the other is not a good strategy for Ukraine. Zelenskyy’s optimal strategy is to make sure that either candidate will see the war to an acceptable conclusion. I suspect that the Harris Campaign is putting pressure on Zelenskyy to support them. Why not? They’re coercing everyone that they can.
You clearly haven't understood the conflict. Zelensky had many chances to opt for peace but chose escalation instead. Sadly, nobody in the West asks what the people in Donbass want and. fact remains that they don't feel Ukrainian, never have been Ukrainian, don't speak Ukrainian and don't want to be part of Ukraine since the US orchestrated a coup in Kiev in 2014. You can't keep something together that doesn't belong together. It's that simple.
Agreed. Whenever I hear "Ukrainians fighting for their homeland" - I think of the Troops of the old Donbas militias, which are now in the Russian Army. They are the ones fighting for their homeland, religion, and families. Kyiv's Troops from central and western Ukraine probably don't care what happens in the east. I'm sure the parents of all the dead Kyiv Soldier's might wonder what their children died for.
I also don't think Russia winning is that bad for anyone really. Kyiv can stop losing its brave Soldiers, Europe can get back to using Russian energy, and I don't think it really matters one way or the other for the US. Certainly doesn't involve Canada. I think the whole "they're fighting for our security" is a crock.
China probably just wants the war over so it can develop its trade routes to Europe.
"but the Russians claim that they were backed by Ukraine."
Regarding the Moscow attack, Putin and also the head of the FSB said they suspect that the instigators of the bombing are to be found in the West. Here's why:
The instigators used an earlier video from ISIS-K for the claim. So they gave a finger to ISIS-K who took the whole hand to present a real video (the second claim video).
Then there is another fact: the terrorists had themselves arrested alive on their way nto the Ukraine, which is not normal behavior for ISIS members. The norm is to die as a martyr.
As in recent years, Russia has developed very good relations with Islamic countries, so it is unlikely that the latest attack came from that side.
Of course the attacks were backed, not only by Ukraine, but by MI6 and the CIA.
The fact that the victims hadn't finished dying before we were duly assured by MI6 and the CIA that Ukraine could not possibly have had anything to do with the Crocus attack is a sure tell. That and the western insistence that they had warned Russia (because they knew and planned the attacks) is another.
From Zelensky's point of view, what he says is quite reasonable. The issue is why should anyone outside of Ukraine agree with him. And why US military force have to act like a hitman for hire rather than defending the real national interests? Mr. Zelensky is free to want and like whatever he pleases. However, other people should think through the situation before they react.
Zelensky and his cornered cabal are becoming ever more delusional, and like cornered Netanyahu see dragging America further into the mess they made as the only - delusional - plan to save their own worthless skins.
Fortunately, despite the congressional war lobby desperate to send others' money and kids into their apocalyptic fantasies in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, cooler heads seem to be prevailing in the Pentagon, resulting in, for example, a pathetic Starmer, desperate to bomb Russia and free sausages in Gaza, being this week sidelined, along with fellow cold warriors in the Baltic.
Russia is well on the way to ending the ill-conceived Kursk adventure - again, largely inspired by the Zelensky gang's hope of dragging America further into their delusional project of self-preservation.
But though Vuhledar is now being abandoned, Kurakhove and Pokrovsk neutralized as logistic hubs, and Russia is about to reach the Oskil river south of Kupiansk, Russian progress is grindingly slow even within what might reasonably be seen as their 'natural' boundaries in the South and East of former Ukraine.
...So... I really don't buy all the - to me, paranoid - comments here about WW3.
The Pentagon and the Kremlin will I think be happy enough to accept another Postsoviet frozen conflict, slightly beyond the current Russian line of control.
Trump knows this, and I hope Harris too, though of course nobody knows if or what she thinks.
So unlike the poor victims of doddery Biden's incompetence in Eastern Europe or the Middle East, my guess is that most of us can sleep pretty comfortably for now, as we wait for a new front in the Pacific.
I hope Taiwan will watch and learn from Ukraine, because Ukraine certainly didn't learn from Georgia. Fact is, when push comes to shovel, the US will let any ally drop by a hot potato.
Georgia (with Ukrainian citizen Saakashvili - still I think formally Zelensky's Deputy Prime Minister heading his joke 'National Reform Council' in absentia) has certainly learned from Ukraine.
Hilarious how America and the crowds it sponsors in Tblisi complain so much about the new Foreign Agents Registration Act, which is far weaker, but far more needed, than equivalent controls in America itself.
An excellent analysis and description of Zelenskyy's "last chance" at winning a war, as well as the "rabbit hole" that he and Biden are sharing. There appears to be no NATO nation willing to stick its neck out unless the U.S. leads. Biden, as a lame duck, should not be allowed to escalate this war. He should have been developing a stronger relationship with Putin in order to begin diplomatic efforts at a negotiated peace. Instead, his stubbornness to even communicate with Putin ( as if to show he is so powerful that he won't even talk to a "thug") is a case of poor judgement and weak leadership. Pray that Biden won't act out of spite, that Trump wins the election and negotiations will begin.
I think Biden prefers to blame it on Kamala.
You could be right. I fear that neither of them are making the ultimate decision. It’s a matter of how & when.
Can’t wait to hear the talking heads in the trad press start calling World War Three a good thing for the United States
I prefer calling them the Regime Press.
I call them Voice of NATO
You are VERY correct Sir!
As Joe and Volod say: Good for Scranton!
Zelensky still shows bravado, but in fact he has already regretted getting into politics a thousand times. That he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and became the last president of the former Ukraine.
The 'acting president' is only the frontman in a ruling troika with Yermak and Budanov.
A friend with contacts at the State Department told me some time ago that they see Yermak as the main problem.
Good profile here:
https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraines-real-power-broker-yermak-zelensky-russia-war-biden-2023-12?international=true&r=US&IR=T
Interesting that the troika talks together in Russian.
insightful
thanks
Zelenskii speaks Russian in private, or whenever he doesn't think the mike is on. This is something that just about every Ukrainian politician does.
To give a few examples:
I was "treated" to an Atlantic-Bridge session, featuring some Ukrainian nationalist politician ranting about linguistic politics in Ukraine. After the speech was over, I listened to the guy speak with his entourage - in Russian.
Soon after the so-called "Orange Revolution", I got to hear a spokeswoman for the Yushchenko regime speaking on IP rights in Ukraine. The talk was, of course, in (scripted) Ukrainian. However, the Q&A session was in Russian. The woman could read off of a script, but could not speak on the fly in Ukrainian.
Or the day I witnessed the closing of a public private partnership agreement between a Ukrainian government agency and a Kiev-based businessman. The agreement at issue was written in Ukrainian, as per the requirements of Ukrainian law. The year was around 2006.
I had to translate the agreement into Russia, as none of the signatories understood the words forming the agreement. And I am self-taught in Russian and never even did that in Ukrainian, but I knew more Ukrainian than any of the Ukrainians present did.
Zelensky knows he is a dead man walking and we all know that he is a sociopath who sacrificed the future of his own people with nothing in return. He can't back down because eventually ordinary people will find out that he was used as a pawn by the West in an attempt to destroy Russia (or at least initiate a regime change). After 1 Mio casualties, he has nothing to show and knows that the only hope he has is dragging NATO into a direct war with Russia. It's shameful that the Western media is portraying this man as a hero.
Fact remains that NATO can't fight Russia without risking a nuclear war and humiliation. NATO has emptied its stockpile of weapons and ammo, there are no logistics in place to operate a war on a big scale and its air defence is a joke. Airplane carriers are sitting ducks around the world and its bases could be nuked by Russia any time. Let's be real here, NATO can't get involved and won't get involved.
I dunno Ghani is alive and well and living The High Life off his stolen loot.
Saakashvili would be doing the same if he hadn't made the tomfool decision to return to Georgia.
MOSCOW, September 25 – RIA Novosti. At a Security Council meeting on nuclear deterrence, Vladimir Putin proposed making a number of clarifications regarding the conditions for Russia’s use of nuclear weapons.
"In the updated version of the document ("Fundamentals of state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence." - Ed.) aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state..."
Same day on Russian Telegram: "The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense: Umerov [who made a recent trip to Pentagon for consultations] has just publicly confirmed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have planned operations “outside the country” using long-range weapons for 2025, despite the fact that the West has not yet approved their use"
"Cheap war with many benefits" with "someone else doing it" doesn't come cheap.
Whenever you write anything about the goings on inside of Russia I know I am going to listen to the CIA pushed narrative. Your "report" on the Crocus terror attack is just criminally bad. When has ISIS ever ran away in an attempt to get paid for it's operation? Hint: NEVER It is plain as day this was a western intelligence operation. Talking about Navalny, you say "how much western support he had is unknown is just an outright lie. Joe Biden would say "Come on man" .The FSB released video of Navalny's manager or head of the political group speaking to MI6/CIA, to me it makes no difference it is all 1 in the same. He also never had anything approaching 27% in any type of country wide polling, less than 5%. I could continue but you will just continue to repeat outright lies
Certainly agree on Navalny. Not sure he ever got beyond 2% support - Yabloko (the much bigger real Liberal party) absolutely refused to have anything to do with him.
He was certainly well known.
My impression is that the CIA/MI6 and other deep state actors have been saying for over a decade that one more push and Putin is over and they daren't go back on that now despite it being manifestly stupid.
jsarnak
You seem to have been in a hurry to post.
Personally, I doubt that Navalny (who would have been the ultimate loose cannon for the West if he did have much success) ever had much support from the west except for press releases from security agencies. I doubt if he was provided with a budget of millions of dollars, an all in effort by all the security agencies of multiple countries coordinating their efforts, satellite surveillance results made available to Navalny's well financed and equipped team, the figurative and even actual physical elimination of select opponents, etc. All that and more was present in the Maiden effort in Ukraine. Navalny had none of that.
Why did Navalny leave Germany after rehabilitation and go back to certain arrest and imprisonment in Russia? Quite likely Germany told him........now that you are physically ok., you are on your own, we won't let you set up some kind of government in exile operation and will strictly limit your activities to those that fit our ever changing agenda...... ... So Navalny beat feet in what normal people would have considered a bizarre action. However, even Navalny's supporters never claimed he was normal.
As posted in the article, Navalny got roughly twenty six percent of the vote in a Moscow election. In polling, he is reputed to never have had more than two or three percent nationally. Outside of Moscow, he was seen as a politician. And in Russia, politics/politician are literal dirty words. Outside of Moscow, Putin is *not* seen as one of those detestable politicians whatever else they might think of him. That is part of the reason for the reservoir of good will that Putin has in Russia.
All these people with so much knowledge and certainty. Amazing
If Zelensky has been paying any attention to Putin, he wants WW3.
Mİ6 and the Tugendhat faction are wallowing in nostalgia like an old, worn-out admiralty widow 😁
From "Servant of the People", the TV series in which he played before 2019, Zelenski switched to "all peoples/all leaders are my servants". He asks and receives. With delays, slowly, gradually , but they respond to his order... How it got here, I keep wondering...
I find it hard to believe the US or NATO will go to war to save Ukraine. It's too insane.
When you are desperate anything is possible
Why is this hard to believe? The sociopaths who rule the West would annihilate us all without hesitation, if that were what it took for them not to lose their perches.
Riddle me this one? Who smoked the Nordstreem pipeline? I'll wait.
I can’t fault Zelenskyy for doing everything he can to support Ukraine’s fight against Putin & Russia. After all, his country is being destroyed. Putting the US and Europe at risk seems to him a small price to pay to achieve his objectives. But his objectives are not our objectives and the risks he proposes we run aren’t reasonable for us. Nevertheless we should support him, somewhat. Without our support Putin wins. That can’t be good for either the Ukrainians, the Europeans or us. And we should give him enough support to win the war. But what does winning mean? Recovering all Ukrainian territory and putting Putin in the dock are probably beyond our collective ability and risk tolerance. Putting US troops in direct combat with Russia is also beyond our risk tolerance. Too much chance of escalation to nuclear war. Supporting Harris is a fools errand. She is not a deep thinker or a reliable ally. As a closet Marxist she has more in common with Putin than with Zelenskyy. And, consider that her ‘mentor’, Barack Obama only gave Ukraine blankets and MREs. Also consider that Biden, her copilot, is the guy who told Zelenskyy that Ukraine was lost and he needed to bug out. Finally, favoring one US candidate over the other is not a good strategy for Ukraine. Zelenskyy’s optimal strategy is to make sure that either candidate will see the war to an acceptable conclusion. I suspect that the Harris Campaign is putting pressure on Zelenskyy to support them. Why not? They’re coercing everyone that they can.
You clearly haven't understood the conflict. Zelensky had many chances to opt for peace but chose escalation instead. Sadly, nobody in the West asks what the people in Donbass want and. fact remains that they don't feel Ukrainian, never have been Ukrainian, don't speak Ukrainian and don't want to be part of Ukraine since the US orchestrated a coup in Kiev in 2014. You can't keep something together that doesn't belong together. It's that simple.
Agreed. Whenever I hear "Ukrainians fighting for their homeland" - I think of the Troops of the old Donbas militias, which are now in the Russian Army. They are the ones fighting for their homeland, religion, and families. Kyiv's Troops from central and western Ukraine probably don't care what happens in the east. I'm sure the parents of all the dead Kyiv Soldier's might wonder what their children died for.
I also don't think Russia winning is that bad for anyone really. Kyiv can stop losing its brave Soldiers, Europe can get back to using Russian energy, and I don't think it really matters one way or the other for the US. Certainly doesn't involve Canada. I think the whole "they're fighting for our security" is a crock.
China probably just wants the war over so it can develop its trade routes to Europe.
What a mess.
For Russia there is no more going back to Europe and deliver them cheap energy anymore. That train has left the station.
Zelenskii has no more authority in his own house than the family dog.