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What Victory Day Means to the Russian People
May 9, 2022 by Gail Sheppard
For those who don't know (or who may have forgotten), May 9 is Victory Day in Russia. It marks the date in which Berlin fell to the Red Army. This is the 77th anniversary of that date. Of course, May 8th is V-E Day for those of us in the West as well. But for some reason, it's fallen down the collective memory hole, only to be replaced by St George Floyd Day. Or Pronoun Day. Or whatever The Current ThingTM is.
The Russians on the other hand are a more serious people than those of us in the more frivolous West. For them, World War II is known as the Great Patriotic War. (It's actually the second one, the other being the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, when he was driven out of the Russian Empire.) It is commemorated because of the great suffering that the peoples of the then Soviet Union withstood under the onslaught of Hitler's armies.
If you're wondering why World War II matters to the Russian people, it's because their losses were catastrophic: 18 million civilians lost their lives along with the 7 million soldiers who sacrificed their lives in defeating Hitler. There is not one Russian family who has not been affected by this war, not one: all have lost at least one relative.
And as odious a figure as Stalin was, it was the Red Army which bore the brunt of the fighting against the Third Reich. I say this as an unrepentant Cold Warrior myself: if it wasn't for the Russians, the Third Reich would still be standing, as Hitler's generals would have taken him out, set up a successor state, and sued the West for peace.
That's why the Russians mean business today when it comes to the Ukraine: they really mean denazification. If you don't believe me, look at the graphic above: it's Field Marshall Georgii K Zhukov, the supreme commander of the Soviet forces. His horse is stomping on a standard of the Nazi regime. As to why we in the West continue to refuse to commemorate this day with our former allies, I leave that up to you to decide for yourselves.
In any event, please take the time to watch this compelling video:
https://t.me/MFARussia/12467
While all of the above in the article is true, there is a caveat to be observed here as well. In reality, the Great Patriotic War marks the victory of one evil empire over another. At the end of the day, that's the God's truth. Nonetheless, most Russians who fought the Germans did fight for their Motherland rather than for Stalin and his police state. And so there is certainly a sense in which Russians can and should be proud of their victory in the war.
Putin's Victory Day speech
An excellent speech. Here's a broadside particularly aimed at Poland:
"The defence of our Motherland when its destiny was at stake has always been sacred. It was the feeling of true patriotism that Minin and Pozharsky's militia stood up for the Fatherland, soldiers went on the offensive at the Borodino Field and fought the enemy outside Moscow and Leningrad, Kiev and Minsk, Stalingrad and Kursk, Sevastopol and Kharkov."
[The reference to Kuzma Minin and Dmitri Pozharsky is clear: these were the heroes who threw out the Poles out of Moscow, thereby ending the Time of Troubles.]
And this sentence is aimed at the Zelensky regime:
"Today, as in the past, you are fighting for our people in Donbass, for the security of our Motherland, for Russia."
[The latter means that as far as the Donbass is concerned, the Russians are there to stay.]
An excellent perspective from Larry Johnson:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/05/america-fails-commemorate-victory-nazis-russia-still-celebrates/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmBlfg3SOKE
And what Victory Day means to the newly-liberated people of Mariupol:
https://thesaker.is/victory-parade-in-mariupol-ukraine-09-may-2022-mariupol-citizen/
Everybody loves a parade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5XipvDHxwI
Anonymous II says
Refreshing. Beautiful. And no rainbows.
Interesting to watch when Putin left the square,
with that so-called gunslinger's walk the MSM went daft over,
that the two big guys walking in front of him (eyes moving everywhere)
were walking the same walk…
Keep your friends close and your guns closer…
I hate that damn red flag, but the parade is awesome, especially Shoigu making the sign of the Cross as he went through the gate.
Yeah, agreed. I despise the Soviet flag. However, as a historian, I applaud the fact that the Russians aren't iconoclastic (like us).
You take the bad (which is extinct anyway) with the good. That's my motto.
I completely understand the Russian POV on that, so I don't get upset about it. The Russians have absorbed the red star and the red flag into their national iconography, devoid of its original meaning, and instead it now represents their glorious defense of the Motherland. It's up there with the double-headed eagle and the imperial banner now, all of which proudly fly from tanks liberating the Donbass.
I think the Russians are simply getting "their own house" in order before turning sights on the rest of the Ukraine. They appear to be concentrating on town to town clearing in the Donbass, which is slow going, and on expanding west along the coast in the south. Once Donbass is conquered, that is most of the trained Ukrainian military either killed or captured.
It has occurred to me that so long as the Russians control Donbass and the southern coast, they can expand to the Dnieper and north to Kiev if they wish. However, their weaponry is such that they can simply hold fast and shoot turkey so long as the hunting is good; i.e., destroy any weapons of any size and bombard any large contingents of troops anywhere in the rest of the country. Sending arms to the Ukraine presumes that they are functional to begin with, that they get to the area in dispute, and that there is someone there to fire them.
My guess is that the Ukrainian govt is going to run out of fuel and soldiers over the next couple of months and the whole thing will collapse at that point. I do hope they drive out Zelensky and set up some other puppet loyal to Moscow.
Ukraine sanctions Europe…
Ukraine turns off Europe-bound gas
https://www.rt.com/russia/555265-gazprom-gas-ukraine-europe/
' Kiev cites "force majeure" to halt a third of Russian transited gas flow to Europe,
while Gazprom says there have been no issues that would justify the move … '
Curious and curiouser…
It seems to be just one transit point and some if not all the suspended gas will be rerouted through Sudzha – at least unless and until it also ceases transmitting. Very strange. It appears that the State Department has been reduced to lobbing grenades into the conflict attempting to set off a chain reaction.
Stepping back, the whole thing reminds me of the way that mobsters exploit a business when they're doing a "bust out". They force the owner who is indebted to them to order as much as possible on credit without any prospect of paying it back, then take the merchandise and leave the business to crash into bankruptcy. This may be the plan of the globalists at this juncture. If we can't have it, no one can and we'll just burn it all after looting everything of value and we'll be fine in our own sphere, the common people be damned.
Perhaps the State Department (who else?)
intends to use its MSM propaganda outlets to blame Putin.
"Look at what the Bad Man made poor Zelensky do to hurt you!"
And if it helps destroy German competition to US industry,
so much the better. After all, what is the purpose of NATO?
To keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down…
That reminds me of the business model of Goodfellas.
If we can't have it, no one can and we'll just burn it all after looting everything of value and we'll be fine in our own sphere, the common people be damned.
@Misha/George/Gail, etc.,
I've seen people commenting on social media about the above quote, and other happenings like military defeat, as a case for the collapse of America and how it parallels the collapse of the Roman Empire. How accurate is this?
Petros,
"When you exhaust every other possibility, what remains, no matter how apparently unlikely, must be the truth."
Russia, China and India are winning the Ukraine War decisively. America is literally funding and arming the defense of the Ukraine to the last Ukrainian. They've been conscripting males from 17-60 and most of the ones captured and surrendered now are 40+. Many Ukrainians have simply fled the country.
And what is the DC Swamp's response? They know, despite the monolithic narrative coming out of most all the US media, that they can't win this war without going nuclear and they are sane enough to fear that. The Ukraine was and is a huge money laundering operation for the American elite. Aid to Ukraine must be seen in that light. They are voting themselves money, indirectly, through Ukraine. That is why they are passionate about futile efforts to send arms. They are clearing out their old stockpiles and creating a market for the latest from Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. I.e., they are making massive amounts of money off of this war, whoever wins.
And Russia is going to win. However, the West will never admit it. They will go to their graves insisting that the Ukrainians bravely turned the Russians away from Kiev and Western Ukraine and whatever else the Ukies, if anything, are left with at the end. If there is a negotiated settlement, which in the end is likely, it will be touted as a Ukrainian and Western victory, despite the fact that Russia will have accomplished all of its strategic objectives.
And so the question becomes then, as you state, why are the Western elites bankrupting the EU and the US and creating a recession in the US and depression in Europe? Why are the German elite voluntarily deindustrializing themselves? Why are there so many Europeans considering rejecting Russian gas and oil if it spells economic doom for their economies?
In short, why are Western elites bankrupting Western economies over this fool's errand?
If there is another plausible answer, other than that is what they consciously are intending to do, I'd like to hear it. And the key to understanding that seemingly pathological, self-destructive mindset is to realize that the Western elites (the ones at the highest levels who pull the strings) are not dependent on the health of their own economies for their wealth and livelihood. They are both insulated (money protected from the vicissitudes of the national economies) and diversified (have money invested and stockpiled outside the West).
So they are not shooting themselves in the foot.
Yet why would they destroy their own nations?
In order to "Build Back Better." To recreate these societies in their own WEF vision of what humanity should be.
Now, look at the leading theories as to why Rome fell and tell me you don't see parallels.
I should also say though, I do not believe the Great Reset will work. It is an attempt by Western oligarchs to take over the world. It has been limited to the West by Russia, China, India and much of the Rest. They know colonialism when they see it and have a long, painful memory in that regard. Globalism cannot exist in isolation. That is why Russia is demonized and arms are pouring into the Ukraine.
"Populism", or nationalism, will win the day. Wait for the midterms. The tenor of American society will begin to change over the next two and a half years leading up to the 2024 presidential election. If a MAGA'n is elected with coattails, The House will be controlled by MAGA and it will be a formidable power in the Senate. There is a potential for MAGA to control all three branches but with wider margins than the Dems control Congress now. And if the Democratic Party is sufficiently discredited, MAGA could maintain control indefinitely.
But the key to it all is what happens when MAGA comes to power. Does it fiercely pursue the destruction of the Democratic Party, the DS and the MSM, or does it play ball like it did under Trump's first administration? That will make the difference between a potential American redemption and a future of darkness.
The liberals are an existential threat.
I hear it's going to be next week!
Hey Gail, what will be next week?
Well, there were 3 reports that the MAGA guy was coming back really early this AM, but they were all taken down within a few hours. This means one of two things: 1) it was supposed to be a surprise or 2) something changed to throw the timing off.
MAGA guy coming back as in Trump coming back into power? What? The only thing he might be coming back to is Twitter.
I think she was implying that he might announce for president again. I fully expect that but not til after the midterms. And if he runs he will likely win, unless they steal it again.
Trump will return as The President of The New Republic of The United States.
Well, 5/14 will be a significant date in any case. It turns out both Olaf Scholtz and Sec. of Defense Austin have requested a cease fire directly from the Russians. Putin and Shoigu rejected it, of course. This is the equivalent of begging for mercy. Back in 2015, Merkel did the same thing when the Russians were poised to rout the Ukies and capture or destroy their military and she sued for peace resulting in the Minsk II accords.
https://theduran.locals.com/upost/2137051/ukraine-pleads-for-release-of-azovstal-fighters-scholz-and-austin-ask-for-ceasefire-putin-refuses
I doubt that Russia and the LDPR forces will make the same mistake again.
Interesting. Maybe If/when he does come back he will announce that he is running with DeSantis. Looking across the Republican landscape it seems like DeSantis is the best option. A Trump/DeSantis, or vice versa, ticket would be a great option.
The only problem I see with Trump is the optics of his "failures" to drain the swamp during his presidency. If his voting base doesn't think he is able, or is unwilling, to do it then I'm not sure he will gain the same popularity as he did in 2016. But, with inflation moving in, gas prices at an all time high, looming global war, he may be able to pull it off.
Also, I don't believe many people realize just how entrenched the swamp in D.C is, plus you had people within the GOP who were actively fighting against Trump, to people who don't pay attention, that is perceived as failure. If Trump is able to get in then I would imagine that he will be going scorched earth.
Personally, it might be better for DeSantis to remain in Fla and "harden" the target from the Feds. This goes for all resolute (i.e. non-RINO, not-cuckservative governors).
https://www.takimag.com/article/the-governor-principle/print
The thesis is this: the Fed govt is beyond repair. It's too lumbering and immune to reform. Impossible. Best thing would be for all Red-state MAGAesqu governors (this would not inlcude that idiot Hogan, the governor of MD) to remain where they are and let the increasingly incompetent Feds to know that the writ of DC does not extend to Fla, TX, OK, AZ, MO, etc.
Interesting. If it's true, then the US is in an Ottoman-like chaotic state (ca 1821 when the Greeks rebelled against them). It can reconstitute itself (as did the Turks) but remain viable for another century.
This is more QAnon crap. I'll believe it when I see it.
Trump failed, we don't want him back. He is a great meme, but beyond that… Sad!
If they can prove that the people of the United States voted for him, it matters little what other people think, although it's a little hard to believe that ANYONE would prefer Biden.
I wonder how many times someone has read something on this blog and said, "I'll believe it when I see it."
Reagan did follow the disaster that was Jimmy Carter.
Biden could quite possibly be worse than Carter. I wasn't even close to being alive during his presidency so I'm only going off what I have read, but, the economic situation when Carter was president seems to be close to what it is now. The pendulum always swings back, after Carter we got Reagan and after Biden we may get Trump again, or, hopefully someone Reaganesqu who can stabilize things.
Maybe we can invite 'elensky to be our president once he is forced into exile, since we love him so much in the free and democratic West. He exemplifies all our shared values of nepotism, corruption, and sodomy!
That's a good point!
I continue to hope (against all odds to the contrary) that our Pentagon at least is not as delusional as our diplomatic corps or our intelligentsia:
https://thesaker.is/nothing-to-celebrate/
But I'm probably wrong.
Maybe we can hope they are all delusional/inept/whatever you want to call it.
I was listening to the recent episode of The Durand with Robert Barnes, he stated in regards to a upcoming potential false flag to get us in a hot war with Russia (I'm paraphrasing) the the Deep State is not as competent as it used to be in that regard.
I think our biggest hope right now is that none of them are competent, or, at least there are a few sane heads in D.C.
If you aren't bookmarking The Vineyard of the Saker, you should. This is a damning indictment of the Western oligarchy and why we –not Russia–are on the verge of collapse.
"Introduction: You Are What You Believe
"Like the Saker, I have White Russian connections. I know what the generation of my grandparents, adults before the so-called 1917 'Revolution', told me. Then I read a lot about it. What I read only confirmed the living memories. Russia before 1917 was rotten from the inside, a house of cards. The whole 'Revolution' was a story of the treachery of the elite, the aristocrats, including many Romanovs, the politicians, the generals and the new bourgeoisie. Having lost their faith, they replaced all loyalty to the Faith, the Tsar and Home with pure greed. The same thing happened with the USSR. A generation after the people's war won by those trained in the Tsar's Army, the Soviet Union turned into a State in whose official Communist ideology nobody believed any more. The elite had lost faith in it and so the USSR also fell.
"After 1991 the Russian Federation was handed over to the future oligarchs, the new aristocrats, just as before the Revolution the Russian Empire had been far too much in the hands of the past oligarchs, the old aristocrats. Whoever says oligarchs automatically says corruption. And when the rich have enough riches, they next want power and betray to get it. Like the rest of the world, the Russian Federation is a very unequal and corrupt society because of these oligarchs, who simply repeat the Western oligarch model. Have no illusions: Oligarchs rule the Western world. It is illusory to think otherwise. In France Pompidou was and Macron is a Rothschild banker (the ones who own The Economist and much of the rest of the media). French conglomerates stand beside them. In Germany banks and huge automobile and chemical industries put up their political candidates. In the UK all candidates are vetted by the financial sharks of the City. As for the USA, think of Trump or Hoover, and all is clear. Follow the money."
As for Trump, he was a speed bump on the way to total oligarchic control. (I still believe he's coming back, however. Somebody has to pick up the pieces of the collapse of our civilization.)
I take the Saker's political views with a grain of salt. Too socialistic, too class crit. I have nothing against money, old or new. It is greed ("love of money") that is the root of all evil, not money itself. The bible also states, "Money answers everything." and Christ Himself assumed class divisions in His parables. Envy is as much of a sin as avarice.
Class is a fact of human existence, regardless of the political arrangement – even in the old Soviet Union and the CCP. I'm a monarchist by religious conviction and experience. Realities being as they are, I would settle for a one-party, dominant party state informally allied with the most conservative Christian confessions.
That being said, the Saker has incisive commentary and analysis from the point of view of (another branch) of the Resistance. I would never want them to rule, but they are very useful to fight the current regime.
Misha, I too agree with your assessment of Saker's CRT/left-wing worldview. Still, the fact that we here in the West have absolutely no idea what the heck's going on East of the Elbe River, mainly because our press is more tightly controlled that it makes North Korea blush, leaves us with few alternatives for information.
When it comes to Russia, Russkiy Mir, and traditional Orthodoxy, Saker is one of the only games in town. Especially when it comes from an in situ perspective (realizing of course that he doesn't live in Russia but his contacts are first-rate).
This piece from The Saker is a priceless assessment of two months of war in the Ukraine (ninety-four footnotes, a man after my own heart). The author's final conclusion is ominous for Europe:
"The only culprit for the current situation is the NATO alliance and political elite of its leading country, United States. Negative economic and social trends within the collective West will provoke a backlash from their populations, characterized by violence. No matter what form of instability it takes, Europe will be far more exposed to the crisis, given that Washington will use every instrument at its disposal, for sake of its own survival, to transfer the negative consequences of its current moves onto its European satellites in the future."
Agreed. I'm not opposed to socialism, though, as long as it's not built on a materialistic and Marxist basis, avoids internationalism, and instead embraces Christianity and nationalism.
Class and social hierarchy are, like you say, a fact of human existence, so rather than trying to overthrow what is basically natural law through class war, we should instead focus on class co-operation through mutual love, respect, and patriotism.
You should also bookmark Jacob Dreizin:
"The "Maidan regime" aimed to reinvent the Ukraine, to write Russia out of its history completely, so much that the Ukraine's role in WWII was more-or-less erased, save for glorification of Banderite guerillas—the Volhynia genocide folks—in the far northwest.
"It was supposed to be a revolutionary New Society, built from zero, with almost no real connection to its censored past (other than semi-mythological narratives about Bandera and other heroes who fought Russia, Poland, etc.)
"Sound familiar, Americans?
"Revolutionary regimes always do this.
"Fortunately, the USA has a strong Federal structure, and the Red States told American Brezhnev (Brandon), the LockDown's Syndrome freaks, and the Progressive Culture Warriors to go to hell. [Emphasis added by me.]
"The Ukraine had no such backstop.
"All it had was billions of dollars in IMF economic aid and U.S. & Co. military aid.
"And now, we see the outcome."
Word on the street about the aftermath of the Russian SMO. Pay particular attention to how more European firms are switching to the ruble (Courtesy of The Vineyard of the Saker):
"How about those sanctions? European Gas Buyers Switch to Ruble Payments – It's reported another 14 firms – on top of the existing 20 – have requested the paperwork to set up accounts too. Italy and Germany – huge consumers of Russian gas – are among those that have switched. Draghi Says "Most Gas Importers" Have Opened Ruble Accounts With Gazprom
"Ukrainian refugees are showing their mettle by knifing and killing a man in Poland who stepped up to defend a young woman that was harassed by the refugees. Other stories are coming out of Europe of refugees refusing to live next to people that are not white and four of them just decided to grab a villa in France, belonging to a Russian, and they moved right in. This trend can only continue.
"A further trend: All of the reliable commentators on the SMO indicate that it is soon over. We do not know the shape that it will take though. Martyanov speaks about a definite trend on accelerating demoralization of VSU and the pronounced trend on the collapse of the VSU defenses is also very pronounced now as we can see from lack of equipment, ammo and very high losses. Ritter in his last video, talks about days or weeks. Larry Johnson talks about a Ukraine headed for defeat.
"Today the Russian delegation to the UN will take the latest documents on military biological activities of the United States on the territory of Ukraine to the Security Council.
"Zelenski is not dominating the MSM headlines in the last number of days."
Ukrainian President Zelensky to Address World Economic Forum's Globalist Davos Summit:
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the globalist forum of elites in Davos, Switzerland later this month, the World Economic Forum (WEF) announced on Friday.
The annual meeting of business elites and government leaders will once again take place in the Swiss ski resort of Davos later this month after being held virtually during the prior two years during the Chinese coronavirus crisis.
On Friday, the Klaus Schwab-led group announced: "The President of Ukraine, [Volodymyr Zelensky], will join our Annual Meeting virtually as the war continues to devastate his country."
The meeting, which will run from May 22nd to 26th, will feature globalist heavyweights such as European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Joe Biden's Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, German climate and economy minister Robert Habeck, the director-general of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde.
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February by Russian forces, Zelensky has become a staple on Western media, and has frequently appeared via video link in parliaments and congresses around the world, including the British, Canadian, and German parliaments, and the Congress of the United States.
The comedian turned president previously addressed the World Economic Forum in January of 2020 and has a biography page on the WEF's website dedicated to him.
The President of Ukraine, @ZelenskyyUa, will join our Annual Meeting virtually as the war continues to devastate his country. Watch his special address on our website and across social media. https://t.co/kBg1cN6ZHT #wef22 pic.twitter.com/uQnukPODNH
— World Economic Forum (@wef) May 13, 2022
Following the escalation of the invasion of Ukraine, which began with the annexation of the Crimea in 2014, the World Economic Forum announced that it would be suspending ties with Russia.
President Putin has previously been featured at Davos meetings.
"We are not engaging with any sanctioned individual and have frozen all relations with Russian entities," a WEF spokesman said in March.
Describing what is to be expected this year, the WEF, which has spearheaded the idea of a "Great Reset" of capitalism in the wake of the Wuhan virus pandemic, said: "Against a backdrop of deepening global frictions and fractures, it will be the starting point for a new era of global responsibility and cooperation."
The announcement of Zelensky's Davos attendance comes after the European Union announced that it would be sending an additional €500 million in military aid to Ukraine. This follows the U.S. House of Representatives, including all but 57 Republicans, voting to send another $40 billion in military and other forms of aid to Ukraine on Tuesday.
The U.S. bill still needs Senatorial approval, but despite widespread economic issues across the U.S. under the Biden administration there is bipartisan support to send more American taxpayer dollars to the war-torn country.
It also comes as the NATO is looking to expand its membership to include Sweden and Finland, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson already signing defensive pacts with the two Scandinavian countries and pledging British soldiers to their protection while they consider joining the military alliance.
The global food crisis, in part a result of the invasion of Ukraine, which is one of the top food producers in the world, will also likely serve as a topic of conversation at Davos.
Under the WEF's previously stated goals for its Great Reset, the globalist group has advocated for humans consuming lab-manufactured meat and sustaining themselves with protein from bugs for a supposedly more sustainable future.
'The Great Reset' is upon us. French President Macron declared that in the wake of the Chinese coronavirus modern capitalism "can no longer work" at the Davos summit. https://t.co/LQFI8aNzgz
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) January 31, 2021
Kinda late in the day. Both Chancellor Scholz and SecDef Austin are signaling their desire to "cry uncle." Scholz called Putin and Austin called Shoigu two days ago, somewhat with their hats in hand.
As events unfold, I feel more comfortable commenting on what's going on and less on the "why". There is what I call the "diary of a madman" factor. It may just be that the consul is a horse and there's no rhyme or reason to the West's actions because the true leaders are either fools or insane, or both.
Incitatus would likely have done less damage
than Boris or Biden. He had more horse sense
than the two of them put together…
Hopefully it has struck others here in a way similar to which it has struck me that if I were scripting leaders in the West on how best to destroy their own power and elevate Russia and China to global hegemony, I could not do better than what has actually transpired by the Hand of God.
Having cornered the Third Rome by the expansion of EU/NATO, Russia had to step in, retake historical Russian land and generally clean up the region. It has thwarted attempts at coups in Belarus and Kazakhstan and intervened in the Ukraine to defeat NZ's led by a Jewish puppet gov't under the control of the US State Department and supported by the EU led by the Germans, of all people.
Setting aside the pathological wall of lies that constitutes the Western media, in reaction to this Russian operation to safeguard Russians in the Ukraine (over 14,000 of which were killed in the Donbass over the last eight years), the West went on a spree of sanctions that, though draconian, have served only to wreak destruction on their own economies, especially that of Germany. Attempts to cease Russian energy imports are economic suicide.
Moreover, the West is pouring weapons into the Ukraine at an alarming rate. I say alarming because what they are doing is emptying out their old weapons caches to provide a market for the MIC. The plethora of arms are sometimes inoperable or ineffective, are often intercepted and just as often, the Ukrainians are not trained to operate them so they benefit no one (except the black market and the MIC). None of these efforts have changed the outcome of the war.
Yet the West persists at all these futile efforts notwithstanding the fact that Russia is clearly winning and the Russian economy has brushed off the sanctions packages, the ruble is stronger than pre-war and Russia has insisted on a gas for rubles arrangement which is eroding the value of the euro and strengthening the ruble.
Russia has also made it clear that it is annexing the Donbass and Novorossiya, probably all the way over to Transnistria, and that this is a done, non-negotiable deal. With Russia poised to destroy the lion's share of the Ukrainian army in the Donbass and having captured almost the entire southern coastal region, Olaf Scholtz and Lloyd Austin sue for peace. But they are talking to the wrong side. They need to press Ukraine to surrender. The West knows it is looking into the abyss. By the end of the year, Russia will probably have rerouted its gas and oil to Asia and India and will not renew European contracts. And that could be very dark indeed.
Russia is writing this screenplay. Everyone else is just reading their assigned lines. Russia has been intending to pivot east ever since the coup d'etat in the Ukraine and the resulting war. The failure of Minsk II demonstrated clearly that the West is led by pathological liars that simply cannot be trusted and are inherently hostile toward Russia. This thing is being driven by Russia and everyone else is simply performing to type as the Russians trusted they would.
That is one reason I no longer watch, for example, Bannon or Fox or Levin, etc. It's all scripted by the CIA and State Department at this point whether they are conscious of it or not. Tucker is really the only hold out in the big media. Dr. Steve Turley does some good material on it as well. And, of course, there are the Duran and the Saker. There are a few others, but everyone else is or might as well be on the payroll of the DS. Of course, they are all discredited by their myopia and stupidity.
As to Western elites, there are some who actually believe that they are engaging in creative destruction. This does not make them evil geniuses but merely diabolically foolish. It is a bizarre dynamic where anti-industrial Greens are allowed to deindustrialize a whole country (Germany), for example. But business will eventually put a stop to this. The Scholtz/Austin plea may be the serious beginning of the end for them. Schwab's vision and the Green vision are not the same. Schwab wants everything turned over to oligarchs, many of whom own parts of the industrial complex. The Greens are happy with anything that threatens fossil fuels.
In the end, the economic situation will threaten to topple governments and either the leaders will relent or they will be replaced with leaders who will change course. The Russians thought this out quite well. If you want a Europe that politically resembles Hungary, you have to devise a method of displacing current leadership. This is an excellent method to accomplish that little task.
We are watching Divine Providence at work.
Russian guy walks into a bar with a t-shirt saying "Ukrainians have three problems".
A Ukrainian walks up to him and says: "Looking for trouble, pal"?
– See, that's your 1st problem, you pick on people who didn't wrong you.
Walks away, hours pass, bar closes, Russian leaves the bar, bunch of Ukrainians waiting outside.
– See, that's your 2nd problem, you can't do stuff on your own and need to gang up with others.
Furious Ukrainians pull knives.
– See, that's your 3rd problem, you bring knives to a gun fight.
Did you make this up?! Too funny.
I saw it in the comments on another blog.
Sensible Ukrainian response to t-shirt:
How many problems? Three?
Then truly blessed are we…
Even though things on the ground seem to be going Russia's way, the West does have an ace up their sleeve: total war. At this point, in order to hang on to power at all costs, they may have to pull the trigger and mobilize NATO.
A sobering analysis from unz.com ("It's the War Mobilization, Stupid!")
"As I write this, stocks, crypto, and even the bond market aren't just swirling around the porcelain bowl, they're plunging through the pipes and well on their way to the sewage treatment facility. The worst inflation in 40 years, driven in part by higher food and energy costs from Biden's war on Russia, has forced the Fed to start ratcheting interest rates upward, pushing America towards 1970s-style stagflation at best, or a 2008 or even 1929 scenario at worst. Biden's ever-escalating giveaway of US tax dollars to Ukraine is contributing to the economic as well as military mayhem.
"Is Biden senile? Is Harris an idiot? Are the Democrats suicidal? Though the answer to the first two questions is undoubtedly "yes," I'm not sure that the Democratic Party leadership and the oligarchs who own it are entirely bent on political self-destruction. There must be some sort of method in their apparent madness. And I think I know what it is:
"It's the war mobilization, stupid!"
:The oligarchs who own the Democratic Party (who may overlap somewhat with the ones that own the Republicans) aren't going to seek success in 2022 and 2024 by riding a strong economy. Instead, they are hoping to win by dragging us into war and pounding their chests and telling us to support our fearless wartime leaders—and if you don't you're a treasonous unpatriotic Russia-loving Putin-loving Trump-loving transphobic white nationalist conspiracy theorist scumbag."
Otto von Bismarck: 'Do not expect that once taking advantage of Russia's weakness, you will receive dividends forever. Russian has always come for their money. And when they come – do not rely on an agreement signed by you, you are supposed to justify. They are not worth the paper it is written. Therefore, with the Russian is to play fair, or do not play.'
Looks like it's all over in Mariupol
https://www.rt.com › russia › 555591-azovstal-captives-surrender-ukraine
' Ukraine orders Azovstal fighters to surrender — RT Russia …
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has confirmed in its social networks, on Tuesday evening, that its servicemen holed up at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol have been ordered to surrender. "The garrison "Mariupol" has completed the assigned combat mission. '
I wonder what constitutes a Russian "defeat" for the collective West? The Russian's not getting their economic demands met?
Well, that ain't happening: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/rwe-opens-euro-account-russia-pay-gas-spokesperson-2022-05-16/
As a general rule of thumb, victors (or those who appear to be winning) get to dictate financial terms on their adversaries (i.e. "unfriendly countries). Two months ago Putin demanded that all Russian oil/coal/LNG be paid for in rubles. Everybody laughed. (Even I thought that was audacious.)
Now, on an almost daily basis, you see major European companies doing just that.
As for the ruble itself, it's trading at the highest rate that it has in eight years.