Vladimir Putin (R)ushenko Address to the Kremlin Palace: Forcible Annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by the Soviet Union

The government in Moscow signed decrees on Friday to make four Ukrainian regions part of Russia in order to solidify its hold over Ukrainian territory.

Even so, the annexations serve the Kremlin’s interest. Russia only partly occupies the four provinces, and Mr. Putin and his top aides have asserted that Moscow will then be defending its own territory from attacks by Ukraine, rather than the other way around.

Reports from the ground suggest that voting took place essentially at gun point, despite Putin’s claims that the referendums showed the will of millions of people.

“We haven’t lost anything,” Mr. Zelensky said. “It was taken from us. Ukraine did not lose its sons and daughters — they were taken away by murderers. The homes of Ukrainians were destroyed by terrorists. We did not lose our lands — they were occupied by invaders. The world did not lose peace — Russia destroyed it.”

The Russian president framed the annexation as an attempt to fix what he sees as a great historical mistake that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Putin’s speech echoed his major foreign policy aim: restoring Russia as a major global power charged with protecting the Russian speaking world from the continued threat posed by Western forces.

Russia plans to fly its flag over some 100,000 square kilometers of Ukranian territory which is the largest forcible annexation of land in Europe since 1945.

The leader of Russia spoke in St. George’s Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace, where he declared in March of 2014, that the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimean was part of Russia.

Hundreds of Russian members of Parliament and regional governors sat in the audience for Mr. Putin’s speech, as well as many of his cabinet ministers and the four Russian-imposed leaders of the occupied Ukrainian regions.

Still, he continues to hold, as he did in a Tuesday address in the Kremlin, that “attempts made by certain countries to rewrite and reshape world history are becoming increasingly aggressive, ultimately and obviously seeking to divide our society, take away our guiding lines and eventually weaken Russia.”

He reeled off a litany of Western military actions stretching over centuries — from the British Opium War in China in the 19th century to Allied firebombings of Germany and the Vietnam and Korean Wars.

The United States, he said, was the only country to have used nuclear weapons in war. “By the way, they created a precedent,” Mr. Putin added in an aside.

Russia has launched air strikes onUkrainian civilian infrastructure in an attempt to freeze the country during the winter months. The bombing campaign has made life in Ukraine miserable, but there are few signs of Ukrainians backing down.

The Russian Embassy to the Donbas in Ukraine: The Status of the Red Line Campaign and the Challenge of Running the Russian Army in the Cold War

A celebration is taking place on Red Square. The Kremlin’s spokesman said next week would be the time for official approval of the decrees.

The referendums held in occupied territory were in defiance of international law. Much of the provinces’ civilian populations has fled fighting since the war began in February, and people who did vote sometimes did so at gunpoint.

Cementing Russia’s hold over the two eastern regions, an area collectively known as the Donbas that Mr. Putin considers his primary prize, could allow the Kremlin to declare a victory at a time when hawks in Russia have criticized Russian forces for not doing enough to prevent recent breakneck gains by Ukrainian forces in the south and northeast of the country.

A recent draft of hundreds of thousands of Russian civilians into military service has found some opposition, but it is one of many hurdles that Mr. Putin faces to reestablish his control over the war.

Under Donald Trump, Kurt Volker was the US ambassador to NATO and the US special representative to Ukraine. He should be aiming for to brandish the nuclear weapons and make all sorts of threats to Europe so that negotiations can happen. And let me keep what I have already taken.”

Kortunov is the director of the Russian International Affairs Council in Moscow. “President Putin wants to end this whole thing as fast as possible,” he told CNN.

Hundreds of thousands of Russians have left the country, some out of principle or because they were facing persecution, others to avoid Western sanctions or the risk of being drafted into the military. According to the groups, a lot of people have been locked up. Hundreds of western companies withdrew from Russia and many local and foreign groups were shuttered, which forced many other people to either quit public life or lose their jobs.

Western analysts have noted Russia has grumbled consistently about these deliveries, but been relatively muted in its practical response to the crossing of what, as recently as January, might have been considered “red lines.”

Kortunov understands the public mood over the huge costs and loss of life in the war, even though he does not know what goes on in the Kremlin. “Many people would start asking questions, why did we get into this mess? We lost so many people.

He used the same approach to annexing Crimea as he did in the previous years, and there is a threat of nuclear strikes should the Ukrainians try to take the annexed territories back.

Putin, in particular, poses a grave threat. He’s all in, having painted himself into a corner. And he is not about to surrender in Ukraine. While avoiding a clash with Putin, Biden and NATO have been careful in their support of the people ofUkraine, which is one of the greatest threats to the year ahead.

Moscow’s Nuclear Threat: Is Putin Playing Too Hard on NATO, NATO, and the Ukraine? Associated Explosions in Danes, the Germans, and Nord Streams

The first explosion occurred at around 2 a.m., the second at 7 p.m., with a 2.3 magnitude.

Within hours, roiling patches of sea were discovered, the Danes and the Germans sent warships to secure the area, and Norway increased security around its oil and gas facilities.

Russia denies responsibility and says it has launched its own investigation. But former CIA chief John Brennan said Russia has the expertise to inflict this type of damage “all the signs point to some type of sabotage that these pipelines are only in about 200 feet or so of water and Russia does have an undersea capability to that will easily lay explosive devices by those pipelines.”

Russian naval vessels were seen by European security officials in the area in the days prior, Western intelligence sources have said. NATO’s North Atlantic Council has described the damage as a “deliberate, reckless and irresponsible act of sabotage.”

Nord Stream 2 was never operational, and Nord Stream 1 had been throttled back by Putin as Europe raced to replenish gas reserves ahead of winter, while dialling back demands for Russian supplies and searching for replacement providers.

Second and simultaneously, Putin is playing desperately for time – hoping the political clock and the onset of winter in Europe will sap the will and energies of the Western powers that have all but eviscerated his military-industrial machine and destroyed the armed might of Russia.

Other experts were starker in their assessments. “This is more about nuclear blackmail, but it is extremely dangerous,” Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told the BBC, “because we cannot predict how Putin will behave in the future and what is in his mind.”

Volker expects Putin to pitch France and Germany first “to say, we need to end this war, we’re going to protect our territories at all costs, using any means necessary, and you need to put pressure on the Ukrainians to settle.”

Putin does not seem to realize how small of a space he has, and the worry is that he would endanger the lives of others by making good on his nuclear threats.

The fall of Lyman: the fate of Russia and the responsibility of its war on the scale of the ephemeral crisis on the world scale

On Russia’s flagship Sunday political show, “news of the week” on Channel 1, no mention was made about the fall of Lyman until after more than an hour of lavish coverage of Russia’s annexation of most of the world viewed as illegal.

A day earlier, two powerful Putin supporters railed against the Kremlin and called for using harsher fighting methods because Lyman had fallen just as Moscow was declaring that the illegally annexed region it lies in would be Russian forever.

But the soldiers interviewed on the Sunday broadcast said they had been forced to retreat because they were fighting not only with Ukrainians, but with NATO soldiers.

“These are no longer toys here. The deputy commander of one battalion of the Russian army told the correspondent that they were involved in a systematic and clear offensive by the NATO forces. The soldier claimed that his unit had been intercepting discussions by both Poles and Germans on their radios.

The broadcast seemed intended to convince Russians who have doubts about the war or feel anger over plans to call up as many as 300,000 civilians that any hardships they bear are to be blamed on a West that is bent on destroying Russia at all costs.

The idea that Russia is fighting a broader campaign was repeated in an interview with Aleksandr Dugin, a far-right thinker whose daughter, also a prominent nationalist commentator, was killed by a car bomb in August.

“Russia will be sovereign if Ukraine is either allied to it or is part of it,” Mr. Dugin told the host, Dmitri Kiselyov, who has been under sanctions from the European Union and Britain since 2014. This is the condition that we maintain our sovereignty. This is when we’ll be reckoned with. Therefore, in order to respond symmetrically to this terrorist attack, Russia must win and win in all respects.”

Mr. Dugin, like Mr. Putin, has accused Western countries of damaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which ruptured after underwater explosions last month in what both European and Russian leaders have called an act of sabotage.

He said that the West accused us of blowing up the gas line. We have to understand what is going on with the war on the scale and extent that it is unfolding. In other words, we must join this battle with a mortal enemy who does not hesitate to use any means, including exploding gas pipelines.”

The nonstop messaging campaign may be working, at least for now. Many Russians feel threatened by the West, said Aleksandr Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who is from Russia.

Some far-right parties are organizing demonstrations to highlight the high cost of living made worse by Western sanctions against Russia. On the surface it’s a populist position, all about helping the people at home. Beneath the slogans, however, there’s a message that helps Putin by attacking economic sanctions and raising pressure on politicians to ease up on support for Ukraine.

Living in a World: The David v. Goliath Uprising in Iran and the death of 22-year-old Amini

A world affairs columnist is a former CNN producer and correspondent named Frida Ghitis. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. CNN has more opinion on it.

On Sunday, almost by accident, two groups of demonstrators came together in London. One waved the Iranian and Ukrainian flags. When they met, they cheered each other, and chanted, “All together we will win.”

The war in Ukraine and the uprising in Iran are both very different conflicts on the surface. They are being fought by people who decided to risk their lives, to fight back against dictatorships, to protect their right to live as they choose.

The bravery shown in these David v. Goliath battles is almost unimaginable to the rest of us, and is inspiring equally brave support in places like Afghanistan.

The death of 22-year-old Amini last month was the source of the spark. She died in the custody of morality police who had arrested her for breaking rules that made women dress modestly.

In scenes of exhilarated defiance, Iranian women have danced around fires in the night, shedding the hijab – the headcover mandated by the regime – and tossing it into the flames.

Their peaceful uprising is not really about the hijab; it’s about cutting the shackles of oppression, which is why men have joined them in large numbers, even as the regime kills more and more protesters.

The Cost of Chaos: The CNN Perspective on Putin’s History in the Middle East, and the Challenges It Entails for the Future of the World

Russia entered Syria’s civil war less than a decade ago in order to save the dictator Bashar al-Assad.

In Kherson, he has planted mines in large areas of territory that have recently been withdrawn from, much like the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia. Cambodian de-mining experts were called in to help with the difficult task facing Ukranian in 2022. Russian armies have also left behind evidence of atrocities and torture which is similar to that of the Khmer Rouge.

There are organizations that have been added to a list of foreign agents and non-desirable organizations that intend to damage their reputation in Russia.

It is no wonder that Putin chose to go to Iran for the first time since his war in Ukraine began. Is it any wonder Iran has trained Russian forces and is now believed to have provided Russia with advanced drones to kill Ukrainians?

While very different in ideologies, these two regimes have in common one thing: they’re both willing to project power abroad.

Niloofar Hamedi was the first journalist to report on the case of Mahsa Amini. Journalists are a deadly profession in Russia. It’s also criticism of Putin. In an effort to keep Navalny in a colony, Putin’s people used charges to try and kill him.

For people in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, there’s more than passing interest in the admittedly low probability that the Iranian regime could fall. It would have a big impact for their countries and their lives. After all, Iran’s constitution calls for spreading its Islamist revolution.

It is a time of uncertainty and expectation for the rest of the world. Seven months ago, some viewed Putin as something of a genius. That myth has turned to dust. The man who helped prevent uprisings, enter wars, and tried to influence elections is no longer with us.

Editor’s Note: Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, a vice president at New America, and a professor of practice at Arizona State University. Bergen is the author of “The Cost of Chaos: The Trump Administration and the World.” The views he expresses are his own, not that of this commentary. View more opinion on CNN.

With his allies and citizens expressing concern, an increasingly isolated Putin has once again taken to making speeches that offer his distorted view of history.

The rationale for the war in Ukraine is defined in his revisionist account, which says that Russia has always been a part of the country.

The book, titled “Afghan Crucible” by historian Elisabeth Leake, shows that the Soviets planned to install a puppet government and leave Afghanistan as soon as possible after invading the country in 1979.

During the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the US was initially reluctant to escalate its support for the Afghan resistance, fearing a wider conflict with the Soviet Union. The Soviets lost their total air superiority in Afghanistan due to the CIA’s supply of anti-aircraft missiles to the Afghans.

There are still questions and uncertainties surrounding the US approach to the war and differences with the Ukrainians despite the amazing pictures of Biden in Kyiv. This happens in both types of weapons that the US is prepared to give and in different scenarios about how the war will end. The phrase “as long as it takes” can mean different things to different people and there is every sign that this war, which Putin cannot afford to lose, could grind on for many bloody more years, testing Western resolve.

The US handed over a new aid package to the nations of Ukraine which included the first ever transfer to that nation of the air and missile defense system, the Patriot Air and Missile Defense System.

Vladimir Putin’s “Command” with the Romanov Revolution: The Second World War War and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

The withdrawal of soviet troops from Afghanistan two years before the collapse of the Soviet Union was sure to have made a huge impact on Putin’s views.

He must know that the Russian loss in 1905 weakened the Romanov monarchy, as seen in the history books. The Russian Revolution was caused by Czar Nicholas II’s leadership during the First World War. Subsequently, much of the Romanov family was killed by a Bolshevik firing squad.

In the early hours of that day, President Vladimir Putin announced that he had ordered Russian troops into Ukraine. Everything we believed in got compromised, according to a Russian journalist who is in exile in London.

In his recently published book “Command: The Politics of Military Operations fromKorea to Ukraine”, the professor at King’s College London explains how Putin went to war with his countrymen.

The economic damage has already put an end to Putin’s two-decades strong reputation for providing “stability” — once a key basis for his support among Russians who remember the chaotic years that followed the collapse of the USSR.

Michael Bociurkiw is a global affairs analyst who in summer relocated from Canada to Ukraine. He is senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and has been with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Monday’s bridge explosion in Zaporizhia, Ukraine: Putin’s first publicly-attacked war-torqued territory

The bridge explosion came amid a surge in the Ukrainian counteroffensive that has taken control of key pockets of Russian-controlled territory, such as regions Putin recently annexed.

The significance of the strikes on central Kyiv, and close to the government quarter, cannot be overstated. Western governments should see it as a red line being crossed on this 229th day of the war.

The area around my office in Odesa was quiet as the air raid sirens went off, with reports of three missiles and five drones being shot down. At this time of the day, nearby restaurants would be bustling with customers, and chatter of upcoming weddings and parties.

Monday’s attacks also came just a few hours after Zaporizhzhia, a southeastern city close to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, was hit by multiple strikes on apartment buildings, mostly while people slept. At least 17 people were killed and several dozens injured.

But the proximate reason for this action was in fact Putin’s utterly inhumane carpet bombing of Ukrainian infrastructure. This is all part of Putin’s misguided, and likely futile, effort to hammer the nation into submission – a hail of rockets designed to knock out electricity, water, and other critical civilian infrastructure as winter looms.

The scenes were reminiscent of the early days of the war, when some outlets moved their operations to underground bomb shelters. A group of people taking cover on the platforms at a metro station while a small group sang Ukrainian songs.

Businesses have been told to shift work online as well as millions of people will spend most of the day in bomb shelters, at the urging of officials.

With thousands of asylum seekers returning home, the attacks can cause more damage than before, causing another blow to business confidence.

Back then, anyone who predicted how the anniversary would be marked might have considered a Russian military parade and visit by Putin to a leader who had been installed by Moscow.

dictators seem to like hardwiring newly claimed territory with record-breaking infrastructure projects. Putin personally opened the bridge by driving a truck across it. The world longest sea crossing bridge was to be built in the year that China reclaimed Macau and Hong Kong. The $20 billion, 34-mile road bridge opened after about two years of delays.

The Kremlin blast of December 14, 2014: Putin is on an unusually thin ice in Ukraine and his attempts to destroy the KGB, Russia and India

The humorous meme lit up social media channels as soon as the blast happened, like a Christmas tree. Many shared their sense of jubilation via text messages.

Sitting still was never an option for Putin, who was consumed by pride and self-interest. He responded in the only way he knows how, by unleashing more death and destruction, with the force that probably comes natural to a former KGB operative.

It was also an act of selfish desperation: facing increasing criticism at home, including on state-controlled television, has placed Putin on unusually thin ice.

Before Monday’s strikes, the Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, had told Ukrainian journalist Roman Kravets in late August that, “by the end of the year at the minimum we have to enter Crimea” – suggesting a plan to push back Russian forces to pre-2014 lines, which is massively supported by Ukrainians I’ve spoken to.

What is crucially important now is for Washington and other allies to use urgent telephone diplomacy to urge China and India – which presumably still have some leverage over Putin – to resist the urge to use even more deadly weapons.

Against a man who probes for weakness and tends to exploit divisions, the most important thing for the West right now is to show unity and resolve. Western governments should realize that rhetoric and sanctions have no effect on Putin’s actions. They need to keep giving arms to the Ukrainians and training them, even if that means sending military experts to the front to speed up the integration of high tech weapons.

High tech defense systems are needed to protect vital energy infrastructure around the country. With winter just around the corner, the need to protect heating systems is urgent.

What the suffering of Ukraine has inferred from the years of Putin’s support of the most extreme right-wing governments and the RN, Bardella, and Salvini

The time has also come for the West to further isolate Russia with trade and travel restrictions – but for that to have sufficient impact, Turkey and Gulf states, which receive many Russian tourists, need to be pressured to come on board.

On Monday, state television not only reported on the suffering, but also flaunted it. It showed plumes of smoke and carnage in central Kyiv, along with empty store shelves and a long-range forecast promising months of freezing temperatures there.

Supporting Putin has turned out to be a more complex strategy than the far right expected. Many of Putin’s former and current supporters had a history of backing a man with authoritarian leanings.

The daily images of bombed out schools, hospitals, playgrounds and apartment buildings, and the determined, so-far-largely-successful pushback by Ukraine, has prompted many – though not all – former fans to reconsider their admiration.

After warm words against Putin, the leader of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy will become the next prime minister and will send weapons to help Ukraine. Likewise, Matteo Salvini, who once called Putin “the best statesman on Earth” and used to sport a shirt with Putin’s face on it, now insists he supports Ukraine.

A separate Pew poll shows that the views of Putin and Russia have been lost among members of the far-right. Among Salvini’s Lega backers, confidence in Putin to do the right thing regarding world affairs collapsed, from 62% last year to 10% now.

Jordan Bardella, the acting president of the RN, warned anyone who suggested that the party had a financial relationship with Russia that they would be sued. A multimillion dollarloan from Russia was partly finance Le Pen’s presidential campaign. Le Pen said French banks refused to give her a loan.)

The leadership of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been trying to balance out their support for Russia with their opposition to Berlin’s policies because they think it will create hardship for Germans.

The CPAC, a conservative political action group, called on the Democrats to “end the gift-giving to Ukraine” and focus on the US in a recent message that framed the conflict along Putin’s preferred lines. The group quickly deleted the post, and claimed that it did not go through proper vetting.

The founder of the America First Political Action Conference bellowed “Can we get a round of applause for Russia” days after the beginning of the Russian bombing of Ukraine.

Trump claimed that Putin was playing Biden like a drum, and that it was not pretty to watch. (Trump hasn’t been praising Putin as much lately. More of the time, he uses the war to praise himself.

Even the leaders of former Soviet Republics, including autocratic ones Putin protected in the past, are letting him down. Only one, the Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, has stood with the Kremlin.

The United States where most of the people want continued support for Ukraine even though Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons, a few prominent far-right figures still defend him.

Tucker Carlson has used his influential spot on Fox News to spout pro-Putin propaganda. Newly-elected Sen. JD Vance of Ohio has said, “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another,” while former Trump economic advisor Peter Navarro has declared Ukraine “not really a country,” and former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has praised Putin by saying, “I have enormous respect for him.”

A Correspondence to CNN’s Dean Obeidallah, The Fox News News Investigate “The Times” about the Russian Embassy in Ukraine, and when Russia invades Ukraine

Dean Obeidchler is a former attorney who is now the host of the “The Dean Obeidallah Show” and a columnist for the Daily Beast. Dean Obeidallah is a follower. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has an opinion on it.

The GOP Senate candidate in Ohio later flip-flopped, saying that he wanted “the Ukrainians to be successful.” But as The Washington Post detailed on Sunday, Vance’s original remark is causing Ukrainian Americans who are lifelong Republicans to support his Democratic opponent, Tim Ryan, in that too-close-to-call Senate race.

The Kremlin denounced the transaction and said the US would prolong the Ukrainian people’s suffering.

Putin’s forces launched a brutal barrage of missiles against Ukrainian civilian targets and power facilities that caused the country to experience massive electricity shortages and led to Biden’s approval of an additional $725 million in security aid for Ukraine.

It’s astounding that Kevin McCarthy is going to make himself the leader of the pro-Putin wing of my party. Cheney made the comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“He knows better, but the fact that he’s willing to go down the path of suggesting that America will no longer stand for freedom, I think, tells you he’s willing to sacrifice everything for his own political gain.”

Meanwhile, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — who recently declared that if Republicans win the House in next month’s elections that she expects McCarthy “to give me a lot of power and a lot of leeway” — blamed Ukraine for the war shortly after Russia’s attack, saying that “Ukraine just kept poking the bear and poking the bear, which is Russia, and Russia invaded.”

Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham are some of the conservative Fox News stars who’ve been laying groundwork with the Republican base to make them aware of the possibility of an end to US assistance for Ukraine.

And just last week, Ingraham derided former Vice President Mike Pence for referring to the United States as the “arsenal of democracy” and suggested our massive military is too depleted to help other countries such as Ukraine. Jim Banks of Indiana, a GOP congressman, said that we can’t putAmerica first by giving blank checks to countries that don’t have a solution to their problems.

As Biden suggested, McCarthy and some of his fellow Republicans may or may not get it. But there’s one person who fully gets it: Vladmir Putin. People will have a lot to celebrate if the GOP regains control of the House.

David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN and author of A Red Line in the Sand, is a member of the French Legion of Honor. He worked for CBS News and The New York Times. His own views are reflected in this commentary. View more opinion at CNN.

First, he wants to distract his nation from the obvious; that he is losing badly on the battlefield and failing to achieve even the scaled back objectives of his invasion.

The Kremlin, Macron, and the EU are in a hurry: a European roadmap to preserve Europe’s peace and prosperity during the winter

This ability to keep going depends on a host of variables – ranging from the availability of critical and affordable energy supplies for the coming winter, to the popular will across a broad range of nations with often conflicting priorities.

In the early hours of Friday in Brussels, European Union powers agreed a roadmap to control energy prices that have been surging on the heels of embargoes on Russian imports and the Kremlin cutting natural gas supplies at a whim.

These include an emergency cap on the benchmark European gas trading hub – the Dutch Title Transfer Facility – and permission for EU gas companies to create a cartel to buy gas on the international market.

While French President Emmanuel Macron waxed euphoric leaving the summit, which he described as having “maintained European unity,” he conceded that there was only a “clear mandate” for the European Commission to start working on a gas cap mechanism.

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, is skeptical of any price caps. Now energy ministers must work out details with a Germany concerned such caps would encourage higher consumption – a further burden on restricted supplies.

These divisions are all part of Putin’s fondest dream. The Kremlin believes that Europe is failing to agree on essentials and that Manifold forces in Europe are central to achieving success.

Several issues are at odds between Germany and France. The conference call was scheduled in order to reach someaccommodation, but has since been canceled.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/opinions/putin-prolonge-war-ukraine-winter-andelman/index.html

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: How Putin and Poland have impacted the Italian War on the High-Tech Sector of the Kremlin

And now a new government has taken power in Italy. Giorgia Meloni was sworn in Saturday as Italy’s first woman prime minister and has attempted to brush aside the post-fascist aura of her party. One of her far-right coalition partners said they were very fond of Putin.

In the LaPresse audio clip, Berlusconi said he had returned Putin’s gesture with bottles of Lambrusco wine, adding that he knew him as a peaceful and sensible person.

Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister, said during the campaign he did not want the sanctions against Russia to hurt people more than they hurt them.

Poland and Hungary, longstanding allies who were united against liberal policies of the EU in order to reduce their influence, have now disagreed about the future of Ukraine. Poland has taken deep offense at the pro-Putin sentiments of Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orban.

This is difficult. Congress’s likely new Speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, has warned the Biden administration cannot expect a “blank cheque” from the new GOP-led House of Representatives.

Meanwhile on Monday, the influential 30-member Congressional progressive caucus called on Biden to open talks with Russia on ending the conflict while its troops are still occupying vast stretches of the country and its missiles and drones are striking deep into the interior.

Mia Jacob, the caucus chair, sent a statement to the reporters clarifying their comments in support of Ukraine. The Secretary of State called his Ukrainian counterpart to thank him for America’s support.

Ukrainians have learned that they are stronger than was expected of them. Have those who have underestimated them learned their lessons? Military help has allowed Ukraine to survive but not crush its enemies.

All these actions point to an increasing desperation by Russia to access vitally-needed components for production of high-tech weaponry stalled by western sanctions and embargos that have begun to strangle the Kremlin’s military-industrial complex.

Russian production of hypersonic missiles has all but ceased “due to the lack of necessary semi-conductors,” said the report. Plants that make anti-aircraft systems have stopped production and Russia has to get rid of its defense stocks for replenishment. Thirty years ago the Soviet era ended.

In North Korea, Kim has been successful in establishing black market networks abroad to get what he needs to fuel his war machine. The United States has recently sanctioned and uncovered a vast network of shadow companies and individuals centered in hubs from Taiwan to Armenia, Switzerland and Germany to source high-tech goods for Russia’s collapsing military-industrial complex.

The Justice Department has brought charges against individuals and companies for bringing high tech equipment into Russia.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Ilyushenko-Burgini met in Kiev before Feb. 24, 2022 to discuss the future of the Cold War

One of the most hard-lined people still is Russia’s puppet leader in the east, who said they were not going to kill you, but to convince you. We will kill you if you don’t want us to believe you. We’ll kill as many as we have to: 1 million, 5 million, or exterminate all of you.”

How did people imagine Ukraine before Feb. 24, 2022? Post-Soviet Chernobyl might have been conjured up by some in order to conjure mail-order brides and shaven-head mobsters. Most probably didn’t think of Ukraine at all. The country popped up on most people’s radar only in connection to Western political scandals and Russian war making. Few Westerners visited the country, and one journalist recently confessed that they may have concluded that it was like Russia but without all the nonsense.

The talks were apparently productive. The Chinese said they were thorough, frank, and constructive. Biden said, “We were very blunt with one another” but agreed to try to avoid a new Cold War. The President said it wasn’t “Kumbaya” but the sides are more likely to start a war.

The contest between the two systems is far from over. And Biden was correct when he said it was critical to prove that democracy could deliver for the people.

That is just one of the reasons why this was the perfect moment for this meeting to occur, and it isn’t the only reason.

The Chinese-Russia Strategic Partnership after the Kherson Invasion: A Predictive Tale of a Russian President and a Misleading Prime Minister

After Russian invaders conquered Kherson, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky returned to the devastated city to show his gratitude to his people.

Now Biden has made it possible for the Ukrainian people to stand strong against a Russian President so obsessed with conquering his neighboring country that he has destroyed Russia’s standing in the world, rolled back three decades of progress and seems prepared to send untold numbers of Russians to die to prevent a democracy from flourishing next door to his autocracy.

China and Russia have a strategic partnership, and Wang will provide an opportunity for the two countries to continue to discuss the issues of shared interest.

Tellingly, Putin chose not to attend the G20 summit in Bali, avoiding confrontations with world leaders as he increasingly becomes a pariah on the global stage.

Biden is definitely not the only leader with a strong hand. Xi has just secured an unprecedented third term as China’s leader, and he can now effectively rule for as long as he wants. He doesn’t have to worry about elections, the press or the opposition party. He is the absolute ruler of a country for a long time to come.

There are a lot of daunting problems faced by Xi. China is hesitant to reveal economic data because of the slowed down economy. China’s Covid-19 vaccine, once a tool of global diplomacy, is a disappointment. The rest of the world will slowly return to normal after the H1N1 epidemic, but China is banning public transportation as a result.

Also crucial in the epochal competition between the two systems is showing that democracy works, defeating efforts of autocratic countries such as China and Russia to discredit it and proving that unprovoked wars of aggression, aimed at suppressing democracy and conquering territory, will not succeed.

Vladimir Zelensky, the Russian ambassador to Ukraine, and his role in the future of the FAIR system: “What has the Russian military done for Ukraine?”

A Ukrainian anti-aircraft rocket is believed to have shot down a Russian missile that was headed for the Ukrainian city of Lviv. President Zelensky insisted that the missile was not Ukrainian.

Whatever the circumstances of the missile, one thing is clear. “Russia bears ultimate responsibility, as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Wednesday.

Russian retaliation – an onslaught of missile attacks – has expanded as Ukrainian forces have continued to push back Russian units and reclaim territory seized in the early days of the war.

Many Russian soldiers have rebelled against what they have been told to do and refuse to fight. The Defense Ministry believes Russian troops may be capable of shooting retreating or deserting soldiers.

The hotline and Telegram channel were launched as a Ukrainian military intelligence project, which aims to assist Russian soldiers who want to defect in order to live in a new country.

One leading Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, who has settled in Berlin after fleeing in March, told me last week that while he hoped this is not the case, he is prepared to accept the reality – like many of his countrymen, he may never be able to return to his homeland, to which he remains deeply attached.

The West is trying to discourage the country of material resources from pursuing this war by eliminating Russian oil and gas. “We have understood and learnt our lesson that it was an unhealthy and unsustainable dependency, and we want reliable and forward-looking connections,” Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission told the G20 on Tuesday.

Putin wanted this conflict to drive wedges into the western alliance and he has been proven wrong. The long-stalled joint French-German project for a next- generation jet fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System was beginning to move forward after rumors began circulating on Monday.

It’s not clear yet if Putin has learned that revenge is not an appropriate way to act on the battlefield or off the battlefield and in the final analysis it will most likely be a bad thing for Russia.

A tale of fairy tales and tragedy: The story of Ieveniia, a displaced woman in Ukraine, who lost her husband in December 2011

Long nights with the promise of a miracle: December is the month of fairy tales, when we peer into the darkness only to be reassured of the “happily ever after.”

“We used to joke that our life was like a dark fairy tale inclined towards a happy ending. And now it’s over,” says Ievheniia, a displaced Ukrainian woman in Poland who this December is nursing her two-month-old son – and raw grief for the child’s father.

With a newborn baby, Ievheniia was unable to travel back to Ukraine for her husband’s funeral. She asked relatives to livestream it for her. But Russia’s continued attacks on critical infrastructure has made Internet connection in Ukraine unreliable – what she got was a few short recordings. Denys was dead when he was buried.

The most important moments in the Ukrainian fairy tale can be seen via video link. This is what love looks like in a time of war, shifted to the digital space and disrupted mid-plot.

And so it was via a video call that Ievheniia, a 36-year-old PhD candidate working as an IT consultant, told me her story. She relied on a stranger to raise awareness of the fight that has claimed the lives of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers.

As we hurry to bring gifts to our loved ones, enchanted by the flickering of Christmas lights, we must remember the country in Europe plunged into darkness by Russia’s barbaric imperialist war.

Ievheniia, a fairy tale woman from Poland, and her father died in a hospital after her first encounter with the army

Ievheniia arrived at an enlistment office after driving across the country under Russian bombardment. She was interviewed on a Friday and told to return the following Monday to sign a contract with the Armed Forces.

On the weekend, she decided to take a pregnancy test, just in case. “With war and evacuation, the ground was slipping under one’s feet,” she said with a laugh. “On top of that, it turned out that I was pregnant.”

The pregnancy test gave a twist to the plot because the woman who was going to defend her homeland joined the flow of refugees in Poland.

While being separated by war, Ievheniia and Denys sought to show their partnership to the state. The everyday ingenuity of the country at war was at work; now, Ukrainian servicemen are allowed to marry via a video call. “Instead of (by) boring civil servants, we got married remotely by a handsome man in a uniform. I had nothing to complain about,” Ievheniia said.

Over the following months, Denys kept the magic alive via the Internet, with flower deliveries and professional photoshoots ordered for Ievheniia from the trenches.

When one morning she did not pick up the phone, Denys raised the alarm all over Warsaw and a rescue squad found Ievheniia unconscious in her rented flat. A delay could have resulted in death. A Caesarean section followed. The dad was able to meet his son because he was born two months early.

Under martial law, Ukrainian men of fighting age, let alone servicemen, are not currently allowed to leave the country. Yet as is appropriate for a fairy tale, Denys got permission, crossed the border, and spent five days with his family.

“It was a magical time filled with ordinary things: shopping, registering with a pediatrician, laughing, talking. He left after that. It was his birthday on November 17 and we sent him greetings,” Ievheniia remembered. He was killed the next day.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/opinions/ukraine-christmas-fairy-tales-death-dovzhyk/index.html

Zelensky: What it takes to win the world, not what to do if you want to be a dictator: The story of the war zone for Ukraine

Italo Calvino, the celebrated Italian journalist and editor of folktales, among other works, called them “consolatory fables” because it is that a rare fairy tale ends badly. The time to be consoled has not yet come if it does. Instead, it is time to act.

And we must not be deluded by the narrative logic of a fairy tale. The child will not use magic to defeat the monster. Like ten months ago, Ukrainians need military aid sufficient to bring a decisive victory over Russia, not just prolong the fight with enormous sacrifices. Our collective effort is what makes Ukrainian victory possible.

I wondered how to fight against evil when I was a teenager, after reading a lot of fantasy books. Can I turn away and just stay with my daily life? Ievheniia told me. There is a chance for all of us to find out.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress “extraordinary,” saying the country’s fight against Russian aggression has “proven that they are a really good investment for the United States.”

In Paris, I witnessed how Zelensky pulled up to the lysée Palace in a modest car, while Putin traveled in an armored limousine. (The host, French President Emmanuel Macron, hugged Putin but chose only to shake hands with Zelensky).

Biden’s secret visit, which involved the president leaving the US unannounced and heading to an active war zone, matched some of the colorful stagecraft that Zelensky – a master of public relations – has used to maintain Western support for his people and the multi-billion-dollar pipeline of weapons and aid.

Zelensky grew up in the rough and tumble neighborhoods of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine where he learned to fight back against the people who attacked him.

He knew exactly what he needed to do once he got into a position of being bullied by someone like Putin, says the former political journalist and founder of the Kyiv-based think.

When the US offered to evacuate the leader when Russia launched its full-scale invasion, he joked: “I need bullets, not a ride.”

Emergence of Zelensky’s international influence in the fog of war: from a nightclub to geopolitics in Ukraine to the crisis in Ukraine

Amid the fog of war, it all seems a long, long way since the heady campaign celebration in a repurposed Kyiv nightclub where a fresh-faced Zelensky thanked his supporters for a landslide victory. He looked in shock as he stood on stage and counted the votes against incumbent Petro Poroshenko.

The war appears to have turned his ratings around. Zelensky had his ratings approved by 90% just days after the invasion. Even Americans early in the war rated Zelensky highly for his handling of international affairs – ahead of US President Joe Biden.

His bubble includes many people from his previous professional life as a TV comedian in the theatrical group Kvartal 95. Even in the midst of the war, a press conference held on the platform of a Kyiv metro station in April featured perfect lighting and curated camera angles to emphasize a wartime setting.

As for his skills as comforter in chief, I remember well the solace his nightly televised addresses brought in the midst of air raid sirens and explosions in Lviv.

Zelensky wears hoodies and T-shirts in Silicon Valley, rather than suits, in a modern way to project his confidence and competence to a younger, global audience.

Journeying to where her husband can’t, Zelenska has shown herself to be an effective communicator in international fora – projecting empathy, style and smarts. She met with King Charles at a refugee assistance center in London when she visited the Holy Family Cathedral. (Curiously, TIME magazine did not include Zelenska on the cover montage and gave only a passing reference in the supporting text).

Zelensky has a strong international influence despite the signs that it could be waning. For example, last week, in what analysts called a pivotal moment in geopolitics, the G7 imposed a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian crude – despite pleas from Zelensky that it should have been set at $30 in order to inflict more pain on the Kremlin.

These two headline packages alone could impact the course of the war. Russia’s most potent threat now is the constant bombardment of energy infrastructure. It is making the winter more difficult for some, turning cities into dark for as much as 12 hours a day in the hopes of draining high Ukrainian sense of pride.

The speech was just one of the hundreds Mr. Zelensky has given this year in a relentless campaign not only to steel his country to fight Russia’s army but to galvanize support for Ukraine abroad.

Zelensky achieved a thing that Putin most wanted to achieve but failed to achieve, which was to rally support domestically in order to distract from his failures at home. Michael Popow, a New York-based strategic analyst told me that Putin thought it would be painful to be shown up by a comedian.

As Zelensky said in a recent nightly video address: “No matter what the aggressor intends to do, when the world is truly united, it is then the world, not the aggressor, determines how events develop.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s White House visit Wednesday will symbolically bolster America’s role as the arsenal of democracy in the bitter war for Ukraine’s survival and send a stunning public rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky compared his nation’s resistance against Russia with Britain’s lonely defiance of the Nazis in the days before the US entered World War II during a video address to the UK Parliament earlier this year, and his arrival in the US capital will sharpen the parallels to the earlier meeting of Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt.

His visit is happening with extraordinary security. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t even confirm the early reports that she’d welcome Zelensky to the US Capitol in an unexpected coda to her speakership, saying on Tuesday evening, “We don’t know yet. We don’t know.

Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who visited Ukraine earlier this month, said on CNN’s “AC360” that Zelensky was coming to Washington on a specific mission. “He’s trying to draw a correlation between our support and Ukraine’s survival and victory in the future, that’s how he’s trying to do it,” he said.

The US matching its aid to the evolving strategy of Russia’s assault onUkrainians reflects the decision on “Patriots”. Russia’s brutal missile attacks on cities and electricity installations, which were mounted in an effective attempt to weaponize bitter winter weather to break the will of Ukrainian civilians, would be better countered by the system.

Zelensky’s trip shows a critical moment when US support is crucial for the future of the war in Ukraine and not just for the moment.

With Republicans poised to take over the majority in the new year, his visit to Congress will play into an important debate about the future of Ukraine aid. Some pro-Donald Trump members have warned that billions of dollars in US cash sent to Ukraine should be used to fortify the US southern border with a surge of new migrants expected within days.

Zelensky and the two days of infamy when America was attacked by airplanes: 1941, December 22, 1941, a tragic day in Ukraine

Zelensky gave a virtual speech to Congress in which he evoked Mount Rushmore and “I have a Dream Speech” by King. He referred to the two days of infamy when Americans experienced the fear of aerial bombardment.

The morning of December 7, 1941, was terrible at Pearl Harbor as the sky was black from the planes attacking you. Just remember it,” Zelensky said. “Remember September 11, a terrible day in 2001 when evil tried to turn your cities, independent territories, into battlefields. When innocent people were attacked, attacked from air, just like nobody else expected it, you could not stop it. We experience the same every day in our country.

The wartime British leader sailed to the United States aboard HMS Duke of York, dodging U-boats in the wintery Atlantic and took a plane from the coast of Virginia to Washington, where he was met on December 22, 1941, by President Franklin Roosevelt before their joint press conference the next day.

After several days of scheming and meetings, the two leaders plotted the downfall of Germany and Imperial Japan and laid the foundation for the Western.

Churchill, who had pined for US involvement in World War II for months and knew it was the key to defeating Adolf Hitler, said during his visit, “I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, and yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home.”

The historical parallels are likely to be appreciated by the Ukrainian leader. He paraphrased one of Churchill’s most famous wartime speeches in an emotional address to British members of parliament in March.

The War Between Ukraine and the Cold Cold War: Deliverables for the USA and the Mid-Atlantic Region, Including the Patriot Air Defense System

The first item on the deliverables list is the Patriot missile systems. They are described as the US’s “gold standard” of air defense. NATO uses almost 100 personnel in a battalion for each weapon and requires them to be properly trained.

More precision weapons are vital: they ensure Ukraine hits its targets, and not any civilians remaining nearby. And it means Ukraine does not go through the hundreds or thousands of shells Russia appears to burn through as it blanket bombards areas it wants to capture.

The new deal will likely include the supply of guidance kits, or Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), which Ukraine can use to bolt on to their unguided missiles or bombs. This increases the accuracy and the rate at which they burn through their rounds. The money will be spent on replacements and stocks.

But Moscow is struggling to equip and rally its conventional forces, and, with the exception of its nuclear forces, appears to be running out of new cards to play. The use of nuclear force is less likely now that China and India have joined the West in opposing it.

Whatever the eventual truth of the matter – and military aid is opaque at the best of times – Biden wants Putin to hear nothing but headline figures in the billions, to sap Russian resolve, push European partners to help more, and make Ukraine’s resources seem limitless.

The remnants of the Trumpist “America First” elements of that party have echoed doubts about how much aid the US should really be sending to the edges of eastern Europe.

Realistically, the bill for the slow defeat of Russia in this dark and lengthy conflict is relatively light for Washington, given its near trillion-dollar annual defense budget.

Zelensky’s “War in Kyiv” and the Ukraine’s War with the West: A Primer from a “Realistic” Speech of Putin

He is an inspiring rhetorician, and he is also the embodiment of how Putin has turned ordinary Ukrainians into wartime heroes.

The speech was meant to bring attention to the struggles of Ukrainian people and to give us the desire to be warm in our homes to celebrate Christmas.

Zelensky’s historic address helped strengthen both democrats and republicans who understand what is at stake in this fight against Putin and Russian aggression and now with their ally, Iran, as well.

Clinton said no one is asking for a blank check. The Ukrainians have proven to be a great investment for the United States. They are not asking us to be there to fight their war. They’re fighting it themselves. They’re asking us and our allies for the means to not only defend themselves but to actually win.”

“I hope that they will send more than one,” she added. She said that there had been reluctance by the US and NATO to provide advanced equipment, but added that she had seen how effective the Ukrainian military was.

Clinton, who previously met Russian President Vladimir Putin as US secretary of state, said the leader was “probably impossible to actually predict,” as the war turns in Ukraine’s favor and his popularity fades at home.

Following President Zelensky’s visit to the US, Moscow said the war in Ukraine was set to last a long time.

After the Zelensky summit at the White House where US President Joe Biden promised more military assistance to the Ukrainians, the Russian Foreign Ministry condemned what it called the “monstrous crimes” of the regime in Kyiv.

Maria Zakharova said that even if the West provides military support, it will not make any difference.

“As the leadership of our country has stated, the tasks set within the framework of the special military operation will be fulfilled, taking into account the situation on the ground and the actual realities,” Zakharova added, referring to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Peskov added that “there were no real calls for peace.” But during his address to the US Congress on Wednesday, Zelensky did stress that “we need peace,” reiterating the 10-point plan devised by Ukraine.

Peskov told journalists, however, that Wednesday’s meeting showed the US is waging a proxy war of “indirect fighting” against Russia down “to the last Ukrainian.”

The Putin regime has done a good job of forcing out alternatives that are more democratic and on the other side, you have the fear of going to the streets unless there is a clear path forward.

February 24 is considered the point of no return by a woman who still lives in Moscow and is going to be called by CNN. “Life turned into a nightmare from which it is impossible to wake up, round-the-clock reading of the news, protests at which there were more security forces than civilians,” she told CNN via an encrypted messaging service, describing the shame and hopelessness she feels. The enemy is our country. On our behalf, on my behalf, this terrible massacre is being waged,” she said.

Maria does not want CNN to publish her full name or employer’s information because of her personal security concerns. The NGO for which Maria works is deemed a foreign agent under Russia’s recently expanded law on foreign agents, which means she is at risk of being persecuted.

The repression of dissent has been brutal. According to a monitor, there are more than 19,700 people who have been imprisoned for protesting against the war in Russia, and many are being tried every week for spreading false information about the invasion.

A court in Moscow used the law earlier this month when it sentenced Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin to more than eight years in prison for speaking up about the alleged killing of civilians by Russian troops in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, outside Kyiv. The images of civilians bodies were not real, and the Kremlin denied any involvement in the killings.

Since the war started, any remnants of a free press have gone away. Western publications and social media sites have been blocked online, forcing Russians who want alternatives to official propaganda to go underground using a virtual private network, or VPNs, which allow people to browse the internet freely. Data from Sensortower, an apps market research company, show the top eight VPN apps in Russia were downloaded almost 80 million times in Russia this year, despite the government’s efforts to crack down on their use.

The US Border Patrol recorded 36,271 encounters with Russian citizens between October 2021 and September 2022. The number includes people who were taken into custody or expelled by the border force, which is much higher than the previous two years.

According to its surveys, the people who are leaving are younger and more educated than the general Russian public.

If you take the Moscow intelligentsia, I would say that about 70% of them are gone. It’s journalists, it’s people from universities, sometimes schools, artists, people who have clubs and [foundations] in Moscow that got closed down,” Soldatov said.

The status of the educated middle-class in the country is relevant to both the economic and political prospects of the nation, according to a Russia expert at the German Marshall Fund. She pointed to the exodus of liberal, educated Iranians following the country’s 1979 revolution as an example of what can happen when large numbers from such demographics leave the country.

Maria doesn’t care if her friends and son leave or not, she wants to stay in Russia. Her elderly mother can’t – and doesn’t want to – travel abroad, and Maria is not willing to leave her. “If I knew for sure that the borders would not be closed and I could come at any time if my mother needed my help, it would probably be easier for me to leave. She told CNN that she is scared by the fact that something else could happen at any moment.

She still believes her work is important, but said she is struggling to see any hope for the future. Like Olga, she described her own life as a perpetual cycle of panic, horror, shame and self-doubt.

You are torn apart constantly, and are you to blame? Did you do enough? Can you do something else or not, and how should you act now?” she said. There are not any prospects. I was an adult, and didn’t know what to expect, but I was pretty sure what would happen next. Nobody knows anything. People don’t even understand what will happen to them tomorrow.”

Soldatov said he had begun to question his own identity. “The things we held dear, like the memory of the Second World War, for instance, became completely compromised,” he said, referring to Putin’s baseless claim that Russian forces are “denazifying” Ukraine.

“It’s part of the Russian national identity that the Russian army helped to win the war (against Hitler’s Germany) and now it feels absolutely wrong because this message was used by Putin. He said that he began to question the history after reading pre-war rhetoric in Germany, which he said was influenced by a favorable reaction by some parts of the Russian society.

Maria, a historian by training, has spent many years taking part in anti-government protests, describing her as a liberal deeply opposed to Putin. “I always knew that our country should not be led by a person from the KGB. She said that it is too deeply related to horrors and deaths.

The expectation that there is an immediate wave of protests on the streets and calls for government change that actually has an effect is not realistic in Russia according to Berzina.

Most of the opposition and opinion leaders are either in prison or abroad. There is no leader or power base in the people and they are open to political action, but they are not going to fight against the security forces.

The contest between democracy and autocracy is far from over, but autocracy’s appeal has diminished in the past 12 months due to the very public display of its fatal flaws. When you can’t tell leaders they’re wrong, they will make mistakes – even catastrophic ones. The more powerful and ruthless the ruler, the higher the likelihood that no one dares challenge his wisdom, even if he leads his nation toward a cliff.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine: Repressions, Internet searches, and social media banning blasted by the czar

At the time, Putin insisted his forces were embarking on a “special military operation” — a term suggesting a limited campaign that would be over in a matter of weeks.

Their lives change rapidly within hours. The next day, Russian President Vladimir Putin launches his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The war has disrupted the Soviet era in which there were democratic reforms and financial integration with the West.

Even Russia’s most revered human rights group, 2022’s Nobel Prize co-recipient Memorial, was forced to stop its activities over alleged violations of the foreign agents law.

Russia’s anti-LGBT laws have been greatly expanded by the state, which says the conflict in Ukraine is an attack on traditional values.

For now, repressions remain targeted. Some of the laws are not enforced. If the moment arises, the measures are intended to crush wider dissent.

The media was forced to shut down because of new “fake news” laws that criminalized reporting that did not follow the government’s line.

Internet users are also subject to restrictions. American social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook were banned in March. More than 100,000 websites have been blocked by the Kremlin’s internet czar since the beginning of the conflict.

The Invasion of Russia and its Implications for the Security and Security of the Cold War, and the Status of the Russian Exodus

Many of the government’s perceived opponents left the war’s early years due to fears of persecution.

Meanwhile, some countries that have absorbed the Russian exodus predict their economies will grow, even as the swelling presence of Russians remains a sensitive issue to former Soviet republics in particular.

Russia’s banking and trading markets looked shaky in the initial days of the invasion. Hundreds of global corporate brands, such as McDonald’s and ExxonMobil, reduced, suspended or closed their Russian operations entirely.

Ultimately, President Putin is betting that when it comes to sanctions, Europe will blink first — pulling back on its support to Ukraine as Europeans grow angry over soaring energy costs at home. A ban on oil shipments to countries that abide by the price cap is likely to make the pain worse in Europe.

When it comes to Russia’s military campaign, there’s no outward change in the government’s tone. Russia’s Defense Ministry gives daily briefings about successes on the ground. Putin assures everyone that everything is going according to plan.

Russia underestimated the Ukrainian people’s willingness to resist, because of the length of the war.

Russian losses are officially over 6,000, but it is a highly taboo subject at home. Western estimates place those figures much higher.

NATO looks likely to expand to Russia’s borders with the addition of long-neutral states Sweden andFinland, as a result of Russia’s invasion.

It would not have been normal for Central Asians to criticize Russia’s actions out of concern for their own sovereignty. Both India and China have purchased discounted Russian oil, but stopped short of fully supporting Russia’s military campaign.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Zelensky in the Light of the First Missiles: a State of the Nation Address in November and December 2020

A state of the nation address, originally scheduled for April, was repeatedly delayed and won’t happen until next year. Putin’s “direct line” was a media event where he fields questions from the ordinary Russians.

An annual December “big press conference” – a semi-staged affair that allows the Russian leader to handle fawning questions from mostly pro-Kremlin media – was similarly tabled until 2023.

The Kremlin has given no reason for the delays. Many suspect it might be that, after 10 months of war and no sign of victory in sight, the Russian leader has finally run out of good news to share.

As the New Year approached, Mr. Zelensky recounted moments of despair and triumph alike, and heralded the resolve of his fellow Ukrainians. He claimed that the first missiles destroyed his illusions, but also showed Ukrainians what they are capable of.

There were many notable moments during the war and Mr. Zelensky explained in a videotaped speech how he was standing in darkness in front of a Ukrainian flag.

This year has grabbed our hearts according to a transcript posted on his official website. We have cried out all the tears. All the prayers have been yelled. There are 311 days. We have a lot of things to say.

The Rise and Fall of the Bolshevik Regime: An Empirical Letter to the U.S. and a Call to Arms?

All Ukrainians — those working, attending schools or “just learning to walk” — are participating in Ukraine’s defense, Mr. Zelensky said. He said that is not the right way to think about 2022, which could be called a year of losses.

Mr. Zelensky claimed that the world rallied around Ukraine, from the halls of government in foreign countries to the top of the search results.

And finally, to those who felt nuclear saber-rattling was an oxymoron in 2022 – that you could not casually threaten people with nukes as the destruction they brought was complete, for everyone on the planet.

Europe doesn’t welcome in an era of greater security despite the drop in Russia. It is not surprising that there are calls for greater defense spending when Russia reveals itself to be less threatening.

The West was happy to send some of its weaponry to its eastern border, unlike Russia which was divided and reticent. Moscow is realizing how limited its non nuclear options are and it seems like its red lines are shifting constantly. This wasn’t supposed to happen. So, what does Europe do and prepare for, now that it has?

Some of the credit goes to Putin, whose imperialist ploy to conquer neighboring Ukraine struck like a thunderbolt. It is no longer a vague ideal to be free. No longer was the battle for democracy a metaphor. This was a real war with missiles, carnage and death.

There have been claims that Russia has lost the war. A stalemate in its favor is possible, or even a reversal of fortune. NATO could lose patience or nerve over weapons shipments, and seek economic expediency over long-term security, pushing for a peace unfavorable to Kyiv. But that does, at this moment, seem unlikely.

And finally, Moscow is left with a question nobody ever wants to learn the answer to: if its supply chains for diesel fuel for tanks 40 miles from its border do not function, then how can they be sure The Button will work, if Putin reaches madly to press it? Nuclear power is not more vulnerable to being revealed to be a nuclear power than to revealing its strategic missiles and able to retaliate.

America has done this before. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the most dangerous nuclear confrontation so far, the Soviet Union’s position shifted in a matter of days, ultimately accepting an outcome that favored the West. Had “red lines” thinking been in vogue, America might well have accepted an inferior compromise that weakened its security and credibility.

The Rise and Fall of Democracy Towards an Open Society: What 2023 Really Means to the World, Why Russia, China or Iran?

It was an open question. Many believed that autocracy would prevail, but that the better system would prevail. Today how many of you think that is true?

How many people believe Russia, China or Iran are a better model for an open society than an open society with challenges? How many believe the US would be better off with a more autocratic president?

In 2022, the democracy fought back and won. The autocrats went on the defensive. populism began to diminish. At the moment, many of the positive trends – forged with great effort and through enormous human suffering – look promising.

With the headway democracy just made – a poor showing for election deniers in the US midterm elections, an exodus of Russians from their own autocratic country, an upsurge of support for embattled Ukraine – democratic leaders need to show they can navigate the economic challenges of the coming months. All the while, they will face the continuing efforts of ambitious autocrats such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to regain the upper hand.

The autocracy brothers wanted the world to think their system was superior, a message that would preemptively quiet any doubts at home. According to the non-partisan democracy monitor Freedom House, democracy was losing ground for sixteen years in a row. According to the research, about 20% of the world’s population lives in what is called “Free countries”.

In 2022, while these global strongmen struggled, self-assured “geniuses” like Elon Musk – who more than once appeared to side with autocrats – revealed their own shortcomings, and oppressed populations fed up with decades of tyranny demanded change.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/opinions/democracy-china-russia-2023-ghitis/index.html

The end of democracy: a crisis in the wake of the Cold War and the emergence of a democratic alliance with the regime of Russia

The invasion strengthened NATO, a democratic defense alliance, in a way nothing had in decades. Even Sweden and Finland – countries that had long cherished their neutrality – wanted to join.

The rules and regulations were thrown out to make room for something else. China didn’t stock up on certain drugs during the time they were there. Various models have estimated that more than one million deaths have been caused by the disease, according to reports.

No one expected the “Woman, Life, Freedom” activists to continue defying the regime and its brutality. How far will they go? How far will the regime go to snuff them out? How will the rest of the world respond?

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/opinions/democracy-china-russia-2023-ghitis/index.html

The campaign of Donald Trump, Bolsonaro, Sunak and Le Pen: the political crisis in Brazil, Portugal, and the United Kingdom

Former President Donald Trump launched a new presidential campaign. The British called it a lead balloon. He’s becoming an increasingly isolated, rather pathetic figure after many of his top choices failed in the midterm elections and election deniers fared badly. Even his calls for Republicans to unite behind Kevin McCarthy as the new House Speaker seemed to do little to quell the rebellion this week. And while the struggle over the speakership may have seemed dysfunctional, it was democracy, in all its messy wrangling, on display. Trump’s legal troubles seem endless.

In Brazil, Trump’s doppelganger, Jair Bolsonaro, lost his bid for reelection. He refused to acknowledge his defeat or attend the inauguration of the man who defeated him. Bolsonaro decamped to Florida.

In the UK, the populist Boris Johnson lost the premiership and after an embarrassing interlude with the hapless Liz Truss, the decidedly non-populist centrist, Rishi Sunak, became prime minister. Back when Johnson was leading Britain out of the EU, populists across Europe wanted their own versions of the same thing. We didn’t hear that anymore. Marine Le Pen had to run from her record of being friendly to Putin because she was defeated by PresidentEmmanuelMacron in France.

Putin War Ukraine: The Last Day of World War II – Russia Wraped War on February 24, 2022 – What Has Happened to Moscow?

I was supposed to be in Ukranian on February 24, 2022. We were forced to stay in Moscow because my husband broke his shoulder a few days before that. He had surgery that morning.

tens of thousands of people have died and millions more have been displaced as a result of the war. It has wreaked destruction on cities, driven a global food and energy crisis and tested the resolve of western alliances.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/18/opinions/one-year-anniversary-putin-war-ukraine-russia-wrap-opinions-ctpr/index.html

The Russian Revolutionary War Against Ukraine and Its Endure: A Memories of Andrei Kolesnikov and His Husband Egor Gaidar

Zaporizhzhia was February 23, 2022. I thought that I would celebrate my husband’s birthday the next day. Our life was getting better. My husband was running his own business. Our daughter had started school and made friends there. We were lucky to have arranged support services and found a special needs nursery for our son. I can now work after having time to work. I felt happy.

We are trying to live in the here and now. But the truth is, we are heartbroken. While physically we are in Prague, our hearts have remained in Ukraine.

The Czech Republic provided opportunities to Ukrainians, so my husband got a job. I found special needs classes for my son. He has a learning support assistant, and he attends an adaptation group for Ukrainian children. My daughter goes to a Czech school while studying in her Ukrainian school remotely.

At the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, there is a senior fellow named Andrei Kolesnikov. He is the author of several books on the political and social history of Russia, including “Five Five-Year Liberal Reforms.” Russian modernization and Egor Gaidar’s legacy have roots.

We were woken up that morning to find that the invasion had begun. I wrote an open letter denouncing the war, which was co-signed by 12 Russian writers, directors and cultural figures. Soon it was published, and tens of thousands of Russian citizens added their signatures.

On the third day we, my husband and I, left Russia. I felt that it was some kind of moral obligation. I could no longer stay on the territory of the state that has become a fascist one.

We moved to Berlin. A refugee camp next to the main railway station housed thousands of Ukrainians who had been arriving daily. And I started writing a new book. It starts like this:

“This book is a confession. I am guilty for not reading the signs much earlier. Russia’s war against Ukraine was my responsibility. My peers and our predecessors are also as well. Regrettably, Russian culture is also to blame for making all these horrors possible.”

This whole year has been full of tears and worries. I read about people who were killed by Russians, such as a teammate, a school director, and a friend’s parents.

Time and again since the Russian invasion started, I’m haunted by the darkness in my father’s eyes during the re-telling of chilling dinnertime stories of relatives shipped off to the Soviet gulag, never to return. Stories of millions of Ukrainians who starved to death in Stalin’s manmade famine of 1932-33.

What has changed since February 24, 2022, when Russian missiles began falling? The fear felt by Ukrainians has been replaced with anger, as they fight off drones and rockets.

My passport is a novel in stamps, one year after the full-scale invasion. London and Ukraine are the only places I have a life where I teach Ukrainian literature.

I expected our former classmates from Zaporizhzhia to be drug- and alcohol-free but they’ve volunteered to fight. My hairdresser, whom I expected to remain a sweet summer child, turned out to have fled on foot from the Russia-occupied town of Bucha through the forest with her mother, grandmother and five dogs.

The West and the Kremlin expected my capital to fall in 3 days, but it did not. The Russians have managed to bring closer to eternity the number of stars that one can see over Kyiv.

We have experienced several eras since February 22, 1992. The first was euphoric, when Putin suddenly, after a significant time of stagnant ratings, received more than 80% approval from the population.

By aborting the past, he canceled the future. It is simpler to live like this when your superiors decide what to do for you and you take for granted everything you are told by propaganda.

It is not possible to adapt to what happened for my family and me. As an active commentator on the events, I was labeled by the authorities as a “foreign agent,” which increased personal risk and reinforced the impression of living in an Orwellian anti-utopia.

On the evening of February 23 I washed my dog, cleaned the house, took a bath and lit candles. I have a cozy, one-bedroom apartment in a northern district of Kyiv. I loved taking care of it. I loved the life I had. All of it – the small routines and the struggles. That night was the final one of my life.

The next morning my phone was buzzing from all the messages and missed calls. A headline in all caps on the website of the Independent read: “Putin declares war on Ukrainians.”

The Battle of Volgograd. The Great Patriotic War and the fate of the Europeans: how Vladimir and I met Vladimir in February 2002 at the Russian Embassy

I remember talking to colleagues, trying to assemble and coordinate a small army of volunteers to strengthen the newsroom. I called my parents to make sure they got the supplies they needed.

The life I knew started falling apart soon after, starting with the small things. It no longer mattered what cup I used to drink my morning tea, or how I dressed, or whether or not I took a shower. Life no longer mattered, only the battle did.

It was easy to forget the struggle, sorrows and joyful moments of the pre-war period when the full scale invasion began a few weeks ago. I remember being upset but I don’t recall how I got upset with my boyfriend. The life I had was taken from me on February 24.

And besides the obvious battles, there was another one to fight – trying to claim my life back. The life Russia stole from me and millions of Ukrainians.

I was no longer concerned with my personal ambitions. Only the common goal was crucial – to raise our flag and show that we are fighting even under these circumstances.

I couldn’t enjoy my victories on the track. They were only possible because so many defenders had laid down their lives. I received messages from soldiers on the frontline. It was my main motivation to continue my career, because they were so happy to follow our achievements.

Life values have changed. I enjoy seeing and talking to my family and friends. I believe in our victory, that all of us will return to our beloved country, like other Ukrainians. We need the world to help us.

The wonderful Russia of the future is what Navalny likes to shorthand for a country without Putin.

Putin has not faced protests or international sanctions since last February. Human rights and media groups have been shut down for being foreign agents.

On February 2, Putin paid a visit to the southern Russian city of Volgograd to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory at what was then called Stalingrad, a crucial turning point in what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War.

“Those who draw the European countries, including Germany, into a new war with Russia – and all the more irresponsibly declare this as a fait accompli – those who expect to win a victory over Russia on the battlefield, apparently do not understand that a modern war with Russia will be completely different for them,” he warned.

“A return to rapid warfare with tanks ruins this new strategy that Russia has just set its sights on,” Baunov wrote. “New people may also be needed to hold the front, and this is risky.”

Exactly why this is risky should be clear: The first mobilization caused major tremors in Russian society. Hundreds of thousands of Russians cast their votes. Protests erupted in ethnic minority regions where police faced off against anti-mobilization demonstrators. A flurry of videos and public complaints about lack of equipment and poor conditions for newly mobilized recruits appeared on Russian social media.

The mercenary group says it is no longer recruiting prisoners, but Wagner’s costly battlefield successes have raised Prigozhin’s profile. While the oligarch has no official government office or administrative power, his ability to deliver some results and his swaggering PR operation have vaulted him significantly closer to Putin.

How close, exactly, is a matter of intense debate. In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Russian author and journalist Mikhail Zygar called Prigozhin’s ambitions “the most hot topic for speculation in Moscow,” noting that he is accumulating a political following that would potentially allow him to challenge Putin.

Some Russians are taking refuge in the form of political apathy. CNN recently spoke to several Muscovites about how their lives have changed since last year, on condition that their surnames not be used over the risks of publicly criticizing the government.

Ira has no fear of her son being mobilized because she does not have a son. She said that her 21-year-old daughter started going to kvartirnik, informal, word- of-mouth gatherings in private apartments, reminiscent of underground performances held in the Soviet era.

Ira said she felt acute anxiety in February and March of last year, immediately after the invasion. She had just bought an apartment and was worried that work might dry up and she wouldn’t be able to pay her mortgage.

In the spring, she said it got a lot worse. “Now it seems we’ve gotten used to a new reality. I started to meet and go out with girlfriends. I started to buy a lot more wine.”

The restaurants are now full, she said, but added: “The faces look completely different. The hipsters – you know what hipsters are? – there are less of them.”

Russia’s War-on-The-World: Is Russia Ready to Rejoin the World? Olya recalls a time in the life after the Russian invasion

Olya is an events organizers with two teenage children and she said their family had decided for more domestic holidays. Europe is closed to direct flights from Russia and there are more limited opportunities to travel outside of Europe.

Life carries on, Olya said, even though there is a war on. “I can’t influence the situation,” she said. My friends tell me we do what we can. It doesn’t help to be depressed.

The Russian government can be helped by the resilience of parts of the Russian economy despite sanctions. The government ran a higher-than- expected deficit despite the war costing it more money, but the International Monetary Fund sees a return to growth for Russia.

He said that those who reorganized quickly are seeing growth. We did not end many deals in January and the activity usually picks up in February.

He spoke about the cutoff of western imports and their effect on everyday life. It might be a challenge if we are talking parts for the Mercedes Benz G-Class.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/19/europe/russia-ukraine-war-anniversary-intl-cmd/index.html

Geopolitically Spontaneously Visited Crimea: A Tale of Two Cities, Three Cities: The Case of Biden in Kiev

Georgy said he was skeptical of state media, saying he looked for other sources of information. And he acknowledged that he could theoretically be called up in another wave of mobilization.

I need to explain. Chechnya was part of the new independent Russian Federation that claimed independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. (The other one was Tatarstan.) But world leaders were by then quite fed up with the discovery that all those union republics that they had for decades regarded simply as administrative units of Russia — Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan and others, still harder to pronounce — appeared to be real things. It wasn’t the slimmest chance that independent Ichkeria would be recognized because of the shock of this new geography.

Biden’s trip to Ukraine can only be judged by the events of the past, like the Berlin visits of Kennedy and Reagan. In other words, his gesture will be an empty one if Russia – which appears to be mustering for a spring offensive – wins the war.

Keeping Biden’s plans secret required extraordinary measures on the part of the White House. In the weeks leading up to Biden’s travel, he and top aides repeatedly shot down the possibility of a trip to Ukraine. The effort was made to keep that position in the hour leading up to Biden arriving.

Ukraine is an active war zone where the US military has no control, making Monday’s visit different from previous presidential trips to Iraq or Afghanistan. White House officials had repeatedly ruled out a visit earlier in the year.

Jake Sullivan is a national security adviser to Biden who is traveling with a small retinue.

Biden was prevented from making a similar trip by security precautions. When he visited Poland in April last year, the White House did not even explore the potential for a trip across the border, even though Biden said he had voiced interest.

When the prime ministers of Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic came to Kyiv by train in March, they began visiting the city again. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited on April 9 followed by visits from the Canadian Prime Minister, the German Chancellor, the French President and the Italian Prime Minister.

Even Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden, paid a surprise visit on Mother’s Day last year to a small city in the far southwestern corner of Ukraine. She met with Zelenska at a former school that was converted into temporary housing for displaced Ukrainians, including 48 children.

With the war nearing its one-year anniversary on February 24, Biden is hoping to demonstrate to the world his commitment to Ukraine even though it is not certain how long US and western resolve can last.

But it remains unclear what parameters Zelensky might be willing to accept in any peace negotiations, and the US has steadfastly refused to define what a settlement may look like beyond stating it will be up to Zelensky to decide.

The Russian Embassy to Kiev on Saturday night: President Joe Biden on a Valentine’s day out with the United States, and his visit to Ukraine

American officials told CNN on Saturday the US has recently begun seeing “disturbing” trends and there are signs that Beijing wants to “creep up to the line” of providing lethal military aid to Moscow without getting caught.

US officials have shared information about a recent shift in China’s stance with allies and partners at the Security Conference over the last several days, but they would not specify what the intelligence was about.

Wang is scheduled to arrive in Russia this week in his new position as top foreign policy adviser to China’s leader, and the first time a Chinese official will go there since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Around 7 p.m. ET on Saturday night, President Joe Biden was out in Washington on a Valentine’s week date-night, lingering over rigatoni with fennel sausage ragu before returning with his wife to the White House.

The next time he was seen in public was 36 hours later, striding out of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv into a bright winter day, air raid sirens wailing a reminder of both the risks and reason for visiting Ukraine as it nears a second year of war.

Cloaked in secrecy and weighted with history, Biden’s trip was the work of months of planning by only a small handful of his senior-most aides, who recognized long ago the symbolic importance of visiting the Ukrainian capital a year after Russia tried to capture it.

It was more than symbolism that drove Biden to risk going to an active war zone with no US military assets on the ground.

In conversations behind closed doors at the Mariinsky Palace on Monday, Biden sought to engage President Volodymyr Zelensky in a detailed and urgent discussion about the next phase of the war, which US officials describe as having arrived at a critical juncture.

This is much larger than just Ukraine. He had blue-and- yellow tie over his neck, and said that it was about freedom and democracy in Europe.

Joe Biden, the American Ambassador to Ukraine, was on a trip to Kinyiv for a war-torn country

The trip was very fluid and it was a part of that. The realities of a US President going into a war zone with no control over air space were daunting as the White House officials looped in on the planning.

The decision was made in the Oval Office on Friday, when Biden gave the go-ahead. When the trip began, US officials went to Moscow to let them know that Biden was on the ground.

Biden hadn’t boarded Air Force One in a regular plane but in a smaller one called a C-32, a plane which is more suited to the job.

The flight would stop at a US base in Germany before continuing on to Poland. As he jetted eastward, Biden’s focus was plotting out his conversations with Zelensky, hoping to use his limited time wisely in discussing the coming months of fighting.

Part of my disappointment is that I cannot see the humanitarian crisis in person like I do in other places, Biden said at the time. “They will not let me – understandably, I guess – cross the border and take a look at what’s going on in Ukraine.”

He would take the trip this time around, because of the enhanced set of US air assets overhead that were keeping an eye on the Polish border. A small group of people, including the Secret Service and advisers, boarded the train for a trip to the center of the war-torn country.

It was the culmination of a process that started months ago, as Biden watched as a parade of his foreign counterparts made their way into Ukraine.

In the planning stages for this trip, Biden was presented with a range of options for a visit to Ukraine but decided that only the capital Kyiv made sense as a venue, a person familiar with the matter said.

“This was a risk that Joe Biden wanted to take,” said White House communications director Kate Bedingfield. He directed his team to get it done even though it was hard.

On Monday, after the trip concluded, national security adviser Jake Sullivan declined to say whether Biden had to overrule Secret Service or military officials in order to proceed with the trip.

He was presented a very effective operational security plan. He heard that presentation, he was satisfied that the risk was manageable and he ultimately made a determination (to go),” Sullivan said.

Jermaine Biden in Kiev: Why the U.S. should not act that way with NATO air defense systems in the war of Ukraine

The president of the United States, in overcoat and shades, strolled through Kyiv in daylight, visiting a historic church as air raid sirens wailed and standing exposed alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky in the city’s vast, open and iconic St. Michael’s Square.

Biden might have lacked the poetry of “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Two defining trips to divided Berlin by Presidents John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan in the 90s sent their own images of US resolve to the Kremlin as Biden’s visit made history.

But by not visiting Ukraine, Biden would have been implicitly admitting that there were some things that Putin could prevent him from doing – in effect showing US weakness.

“President Biden has claimed the upper hand … and tomorrow Putin will have to reply to what happened today,” Rudik said, referring to a speech in which Putin is expected to rally the Russian people on Tuesday.

Biden has so far declined to agree to the request, which gets to the heart of a dilemma that defines his war strategy: How far to go to help Kyiv win while avoiding a direct clash between the West and Russia.

Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, complained on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that Washington had taken too long to send game-changing weapons to Ukraine in the past and should not make the same mistake with warplanes. The Republican said that he thinks the Biden administration is now considering the dispatch of F-16 fighter planes.

It would make it possible for Ukrainian troops to strike at Russian air defense systems inside Russia. The use of NATO aircraft in such operations – even with Ukrainian pilots – could prompt the Kremlin to conclude the alliance has directly intervened in the war, increasing the risk of a disastrous escalation of the conflict Biden has tried to avoid.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/20/politics/joe-biden-kyiv-visit/index.html

“Biden in [Kyiv]. Demonstrative humiliation of Russia”: Vladimir Putin and the “special military operation”

The journey that required energy and endurance and was very dangerous was an attack on critics who questioned whether Biden should be thinking about a reelection race at 80.

Biden was criticized by some GOP members for going to Ukraine. The trip was denounced by the lawmaker as being incredibly insulting and sign of an “America Last” policy. It was “breathtaking” that the vice president would help Ukraine defend its borders and not do the same for the U.S., according to the congressman who is at the center of a legal dispute over his cell phone.

This is offensive. The President of the United States, Joe Biden chose to force the American people to pay for the war inUkraine on our President’s Day. I can not express how much Americans hate Joe Biden,” Greene said in a tweet.

There may be nothing more presidential than standing for the foundational US values of freedom and democracy and the right of a people to repel tyranny enforced at the point of the gun from a more powerful foreign oppressor whose fight for independence mirrors America’s own.

“Biden in [Kyiv]. Demonstrative humiliation of Russia,” Russian journalist Sergey Mardan wrote in a snarky response on his Telegram channel. “Tales of miraculous hypersonics may be left for children. Just like spells about the holy war that we’re fighting with the entire West.

Biden might have visited the fronts in eastern Ukraine if he had, according to the former Federal Security Service officer, who was an army veteran.

Even if the grandfather is brought to Bakhmut, it won’t bother him because he is not good for anything but simple provocations.

Some hardliners in the military community like Girkin have criticized what they consider to be a “soft” approach on the battlefield by Putin’s generals.

Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, is known for making belligerent pronouncements in an apparent bid to shore up his nationalist credentials.

The ongoing invasion will be one of the topics that Putin will talk about during his speech to the Federal Assembly on Tuesday.

Participants of what Russia refers to as its “special military operation” will be in attendance but foreign guests or representatives will not be invited, the Kremlin’s spokesperson told reporters Monday.

The trip to a active war zone on Monday was a shot in the arm to the people of Syria who have been devastated by Russia’s attacks.

Recall that in the early days of the invasion, Ukraine said it found Russian forces had brought along their dress uniforms apparently expecting a victory parade.

What Do You Want to Know About Vladimir Putin and Why Did he Choose to Become a General Relativity During the Cold War?

Biden walks with a stiff neck. Even though he has no shortage of competence, he has no shortage of courage.

Biden revealed the plan for Putin to make it look like the war was caused by Ukrainian provocation, before it happened. He rallied the NATO alliance that was so derided by former President Donald Trump.

Who can forget the infamous phone call after which Trump was impeached, when Zelensky implored the US President for help to deter an aggressive Russia? Trump’s response, “I would like you to do us a favor though,” trying to push Ukraine into launching an investigation against Biden, the candidate Trump claimed was weak, even though he feared him as his most effective opponent.

A joyous Zelensky said Biden’s visit “brings us closer to victory,” adding it will “have repercussions on the battlefield in liberating our territories.”

The author of “OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation got Left Behind” is a journalist based in New York. If you follow her, you’ll get notifications about her. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely her own. CNN has more opinions on it.

For Americans who came of age after the end of the Cold War, this renewed threat of nuclear annihilation is both new and terrifying; for those who lived through the original Cold War, this is no doubt a hair-raising reboot.

This is a battle between freedom and oppression. It’s worth nothing, though, that Putin’s emphasis on cultural and gender warfare is also correct, in its own way.

He is of course lying and fear-mongering when he fulminates about same-sex marriage or the prospect of a gender-neutral God and when he says that the West seeks “the destruction of the family, cultural and national identity, perversion and the abuse of children are declared the norm.” There is a relationship between conservative religiosity and autocracy on one side and liberal tolerance and democracy on the other.

Conservative religiosity isn’t a requirement for autocracy, and you can see that at the previous era of Russian autocracy. The autocrats in Beijing, who are funding Russia and building nuclear weapons, aren’t really bringing conservative Christian principles to China.

They are embracing traditionalism, which is a backward-looking national identity. Make [x country]) has been the refrain among the analysists of global authoritarians. Again, great. Evan Osnos wrote about how China is trying to become great again. In an interview with CNN earlier this month, Gen. David Petraeus said thatPutin intended to make Russia great again. And, of course, we all know the American version.

It’s informative, though (and scary) to realize the extent to which a number of right-wing Americans believe Putin has a point about the West being degenerate, and seem comfortable bringing a strongman in to restore the traditional order.

The differences between East and West are not related to one another but between those who want liberal democracies that allow people to live freely, no matter their religion, sexual orientations or beliefs and those who prefer strong men who use the law to impose conservative values.

The Divide Between Russia and the U.S. Isn’t Just Across the Line: The Case for a Fair, Freer and Fair Russia

Donald Trump was a big fan of Putin, elevating the dictator’s status as a pro-Trump conservative. The GOP in the US has a better opinion of Putin than it did of Biden, Harris, Pelosi and the Democrats.

Meanwhile, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed that “NATO has been supplying the neo-Nazis in Ukraine with powerful weapons and extensive training on how to use them.”

Putin has made Russia a leading light for Christian nationalists all over the world, standing against Western decadence. And many Christian nationalists, including in the United States, have gotten in line.

This is not just a divide between Russia and the US. Russia has a lot of divisions as feminists, LGBTQ rights advocates and democracy activists push for a freer and fair country. And it’s a divide within the US, too, between the Americans who want liberal democracy to thrive, and those who want their ideology to rule us all.