Thoughts on God and Stuff
May 9 is Victory Day in the former Soviet states. It is the day that Hitler’s forces surrendered to the Soviet Union in 1945. The day is celebrated by Russia and the former Soviet states, since 1946. It is the greatest patriotic holiday in their culture, and WW2 veterans receive great honoron this day. As a side note, I also first met my Eastern […]
Read more
It is interesting to see Russia and the US trading barbs over the failure of the “Geneva accord.” Far too often I see statements in the US media that “Russia agreed to disarm the pro-Russian separatists” and how they have failed to do so. What remains largely unsaid is that the agreement covered the pro-Russian separatists, the Kyiv government, and […]
Read more
The propaganda machine is running at full speed on Ukraine, and I am not speaking about Russia. I just read this story about how “Russia is quick to bend the truth about Ukraine,” and what came to mind is how quick the US and EU are to bend the truth as well. For instance, this article says that “100 soldiers […]
Read more
The last few weeks were filled with stories about Russia using natural gas as a “tool” against Ukraine. I will not defend Russia against this accusation, but I will defend their right to raise the price – sort of. Everyone is shouting about how evil Russia is, raising the price of natural gas to Ukraine from $268/mcm (thousand cubic meters) to $485/mcm. Yatsenyuk, […]
Read more
We have now gotten to where I can point at this article, where I said that Putin will not march into Ukraine, nor try to take over (more of) the country. Listen to the Western news, and you might disagree. Who would benefit from a Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the resulting war? Nobody. It would cause a major military […]
Read more
I wanted to give some more “ultra-nationalist” news on Ukraine, as ignored by US news media and reported by the Russian news media, before the Crimean referendum vote in a few hours. Mainly because I believe there will be lots of extra fodder in the propaganda and far-right arena after Crimea votes to join Russia. I want to go back to […]
Read more
Here we are, about 5 hours before polls open in Crimea for a referendum vote on Crimea remaining under Ukraine’s sphere of influence, or moving to Russia’s. Everyone knows the outcome already – the US, the EU, and Ukraine all admit that the Autonomous Republic of Crimea will again move to Russia’s control. So what is the current propaganda mill spitting out […]
Read more
Every time Russia cites “the threat of violence from ultra-nationalists” as forcing them to intervene in Crimea, the US counters that “there is no evidence” of these threats. The US news reports that with all the journalists they have on the ground, they have found no signs of any ultra-nationalist’s operating in Ukraine. Vladimir Posner, a Russian journalist and CNN advisor […]
Read more
I was asked my view on the situation in Ukraine. I have been privately predicting what will happen for several weeks, fairly successfully. And yes, I can back this with emails between myself and sources in Ukraine. My short-term view of what will happen in Ukraine is: The current “new government” in Ukraine: The current government, and the next (elected May 25) will […]
Read more
I had an ex-US military friend disagree with me on if the troops active in Ukraine’s Crimea could be substantiated as Russian or not. His argument was that journalists confirmed that the men were from Russia, they carry modern Russian weapons only available to the Russian military, all the vehicles are painted the same color, their uniforms are new and uniformly colored, and they sport Russian […]
Read more