“Ukraine – Russia”

WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Russia’s mobilization has exposed the mounting pressure the Kremlin is under as its armed forces show signs of “increased weakness and frailty” in the war in Ukraine, Britain’s Chief of Defense Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said on Friday.

“There are pressure points. There is some brittleness to the Russian armed forces,” Radakin told a small group of reporters in Washington.

But Radakin cautioned that the conflict was slow-moving, with Ukraine poised to take further, incremental advantage of Russian “pressure points.” He did not predict any sudden Russian battlefield collapse.

#Ukraine: A Russian T-72B3 tank was taken out by an ATGM fired by the Ukrainian 95th Brigade in the vicinity of Olhivka, #Kharkiv Oblast. pic.twitter.com/tHmbWtkXsP

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 30, 2022

THE 2021 film Operation Mincemeat begins with the narrator saying: ‘In war, truth is protected by a bodyguard of lies’. The same is true of the war in Ukraine. While we know the truth about the gangster state that is Russia and its malevolent dictator who has ordered the murder of more than a dozen people on British soil, supervises state terror and torture at home and initiated an illegal and bloody war, we are not being told the whole truth about Ukraine. It is not the freedom-loving democracy its propagandists claim.

As Russia’s recent partial mobilization has shown, he is desperate

As the world wonders what happened to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, many suspect that Russian President Vladimir Putin is behind the sabotage. At first glance, it appears strange that Russia would damage pipelines that its own companies run. But Putin has several possible reasons for carrying out the attack.

One reason could be that Gazprom (the Russian state-owned gas giant) wants to avoid paying penalties for failing to fulfill its contractual obligations. Since August 31, Russia has halted gas exports via both Nord Stream pipelines, which follows a similar move in July where the Kremlin cited erroneous maintenance issues as the cause of the short shutdown that month. Despite the ceasing of operations, Gazprom is still contracted to provide gas to European nations, and it has become clear that the cessation is a political stunt. But after the explosions disabled the pipelines, Gazprom can claim force majeure, and avoid paying for its failure to deliver gas. Claiming force majeure would not be novel either, as Gazprom already tried to do so earlier this year under similarly suspicious circumstances.

A top Russian officer reportedly had his face ‘smashed’ during a brawl with furious conscripts after telling them their lives were going to be thrown away on the front lines in Ukraine.

The mobilised recruits turned on the Russian lieutenant-colonel after he bluntly said: ‘You are all cannon fodder, you are facing slaughter.’

The high-ranking officer had bones in his face broken in a brawl in which ‘every single one of them was drunk’, say reports.

Related video…

Vladimir Putin accused the United States of creating a nuclear weapons ‘precedent’ by bombing Japan at the end of the second World War in an unhinged speech calling the West ‘satanists’ and accusing ‘Anglo Saxons’ of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines.

The Russian despot ranted about sex-change operations, claimed America is occupying Germany and Korea and vowed to ‘smash’ the West in the disturbing remarks as he announced the annexation of four regions in Ukraine.

His saber-rattling is another terrifying hint that he is prepared to use nuclear weapons as he vowed to use ‘all available means’ to hold onto Russian-occupied areas of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Deep beneath the Baltic Sea, a remotely controlled submarine releases a mine which nestles beside a gas pipeline.

Other mines are laid at critical junctures along hundreds of miles of piping connecting Russia and Germany. They contain the equivalent of hundreds of pounds of TNT.

When they are detonated – either by a timing device or remotely from a secret control room – the aftershocks are felt 800 miles away and seismologists liken the blasts to earthquakes.

Hopes that post-Soviet Russia would join the ranks of prosperous liberal democracies have proven to be a chimera

The collapse of the Soviet system led to a period of hope in Russia. Throughout the 2000s, it was popular to describe Russia as a “normal country.” The changes it went through during its transition from Soviet communism to a Westernized, market-based economy and parliamentary system were agreed to be irreversible, setting the stage for the country to eventually join the club of liberal democracies.

Thirty years later, however, it seems clear that Russia’s much-heralded modernization effort was a failure.

In the early 1990s, the political scientist Claus Offe explained the nature of the unique challenges faced by countries across the post-communist region, which he called the triple transformation: the political transition from autocracy to democracy; the economic transition from planned to market economy; and a national transition from empire to nation-building. While post-communist countries saw varying degrees of success, it is the failure to modernize along all three dimensions that distinguishes Russia.

Decades of green scaremongering have brought Germany to the brink of blackouts.

In Germany, as in the rest of Europe, the energy crisis is deepening. The German government was even forced last month to delay its long-scheduled shutdown of Germany’s two remaining nuclear power plants, out of fear its energy supplies would not last through the winter.

Yesterday afternoon, tens of thousands of Czechs gathered in Prague calling for the resignation of the government and a “180-degree turn” in the country’s foreign policy.

… Like last time, this protest will almost certainly be portrayed by the media as overtly “pro-Russian”. But the reality is more complex — and perhaps even more troubling for the West.

… Indeed, for the first hour or so Ukraine was hardly mentioned. Speakers mostly focused on the cost-of-living crisis, with one listing price increases for potatoes, eggs and other everyday items. Nonetheless, the war was ever present through a group of pro-Ukraine counter-demonstrators standing at the top of the square.

And if there was one overriding concern, it was not support for Russia, but loathing for the western international order. Many flags and placards called for exit from the EU and NATO; others included calls to “stop censorship” and “stop green poverty.” One attendee said the goal is for the Czech Republic “to leave NATO and stop serving American interests.”

Not Pro-Russian but anti-western order. I wonder how closely aligned the man on the street in Prague is with the man on the street in Berlin etc. Nothing in Canada’s MSM about this.

From the NYT – Protests in Prague Signal a Troubled Winter Ahead in Europe

Tens of thousands gathered in the Czech capital for the second such protest in a month, spurred by an energy crisis and rising prices that are affecting countries across Europe.

PRAGUE — Thousands of protesters flocked into Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Wednesday, demanding the resignation of the government of the Czech Republic as an energy crisis stoked popular unrest that will be closely watched in other European capitals.

Despite a rain-soaked start, demonstrators hoisting Czech flags and chanting, “Shame! Shame!” turned out for the second time in a month to rally under the slogan “Czech Republic First.” They were a hodgepodge of figures with a broad range of causes, including Kremlin sympathizers and those who said they are fighting a “global elite.”

At the outset of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin believed in a quick victory that did not come to pass. How strong is Russia’s army really?

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Moscow did everything it could to maintain its status as a superpower — including as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. When it became clear that Russia could not claim a right to the spot as an economic power, it instead defined its greatness in military terms.

Over the decades, Russia’s army has been touted as one of the strongest in the world. Indeed, a nuclear-armed military. As if to remind the world of this fact, President Vladimir Putin has regularly treated both Russians and the world to perfectly choreographed parades and military exercises.

BERLIN — Two days after a pair of explosions under the Baltic Sea apparently ruptured giant natural gas pipelines from Russia to Germany, the consensus hardened on Wednesday that it had been an act of sabotage, as the European Union and several European governments labeled it an attack and demanded an investigation.

Experts said it could take months to assess and repair the damage to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which have been used as leverage in the West’s confrontation with Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. News of a possible attack on the lines heightened already intense fears of painful energy shortages in Europe over the winter.

But the central mystery remains: Who did it?

In phone calls to friends and relatives at home, Russian soldiers gave damning insider accounts of battlefield failures and civilian executions, excoriating their leaders just weeks into the campaign to take Kyiv.

#Ukraine: Extremely rare footage from the South showing two Ukrainian Su-24M strike aircraft in action; four parachute-retarded bombs are dropped from each aircraft, most likely the Soviet 250kg OFAB-250ShN/ShL fragmentation bombs.

A Russian tank is seen destroyed. pic.twitter.com/518TaFKCFD

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 27, 2022