“Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny dead, says prison service”, reports the BBC.
August 2023 – Navalny’s sentence is increased to nine years after a conviction on new charges of embezzlement and contempt of court. An additional 19 years at a “special regime” facility are added on charges of extremism.
December 2023 – After going missing for two weeks, the opposition leader is located in a penal colony in the North Arctic.
February 2024 – Alexei Navalny dies in prison.
That is how Vladimir Putin treats his own people. It is a safe prediction that he will be as or more cruel to those Ukrainians who fall into his power. If he gets the chance, I would not put it past him to do as his exemplar Stalin did to the captured Poles at Katyn.
I have seen some strange commentary from both the left and the right regarding Tucker Carlson’s visit to Russia to interview Putin. For instance Mehdi Hasan and James Lindsay both seemed to think there was something wrong with Carlson observing that the Moscow subway is clean, orderly and free of aggressive drug addicts. The historian and journalist William Dalrymple reposted a tweet from Edward Luce of the Financial Times that blasted Carlton for interviewing Putin, but I remember Dalrymple gushing over the valuable insights gained by those who interviewed Osama Bin Laden:
Writers such as Robert Fisk and the former CNN journalist Peter Bergen, both of whom have interviewed Osama bin Laden, and scholars such as Gilles Kepel, Malise Ruthven and John L Esposito, have proved to be more reliable guides to what is going on in al-Qaeda than any number of Downing Streets dossiers or CIA briefing papers.
To that list should now be added the name of The Observer’s Middle East expert, Jason Burke. His new study, Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror is possibly the most reliable and perceptive guide yet published to the rise of militant Islam, the threat it poses and the best way to tackle it.
The more we know about how Putin thinks, the better the chances of defeating him and saving many lives, both Ukrainian and Russian.
Russia didn’t honour her commitment to Ukraine from 1994, so why should they honour any new commitment. As worthless as the Munich Treaty of 1938.
All Russia wants to do is consolidate the territory it has illegally seized since 2014 in an otherwise meaningless “Peace” treaty that it would honour as much as previous commitments (i.e. not much).
Indeed, that is exactly what they intend to do to Ukraine’s intelligentsia & anyone who calls themselves ‘Ukrainian’ & they’ve actually be fairly open about that. I refer the honourable lady to this:
Ukrainians have nothing to lose by fighting to the death.
As worthless as the Munich Treaty of 1938. Or the Minsk II treaty where Ukraine and the West went above and beyond for a faithful implementation.
The astonishing bravery of Ukraine’s political elite, willing to forcefully conscript and sacrifice every last peasant before fleeing to Europe or the USA.
Mr Putin has been an incompetent military commander – if he has now had Mr Navalney murdered, Mr Putin has shown himself politically stupid as well. Even if it was not an intentional murder – putting a high profile opponent in a tough regime prison colony was incredibly stupid (as well as wicked). Just as the military plan of February 2022 was incredibly stupid, drop in lightly armed airborne troops and hope they can somehow hang on whilst the main army tries to push armored columns up very long narrow roads.
Nothing, as such, to do with “Russia” or “Russians” – after all the military commander who saved Kiev in 2022 (and is now in command of all Ukrainian forces) was born in Russia, was brought up in Russia and was militarily trained in Russia. The military failure in 2022 was down to Mr Putin personally – it was his plan and it failed.
As for American public places – they are a mess, a dangerous mess, because the leftist courts (starting in the 1960s) invalidated centuries of Vagrancy Laws, and local, State and Federal governments started (also in the 1960s) to throw free goods and services at the poor – “Cloward and Piven” style policies to create a government dependent underclass and have it massively expand over the decades. That was all Tucker Carlson had to say – there was no need to go around Russian metro stations to make this point.
All Mr Carlson had to do was show film of American towns and cities in, say, 1960 (before Food Stamps, the end of Vagrancy Laws, and so on) and the same towns and cities now. No need to go to Moscow.
As for “denazification” – whatever Ukraine is, a nationalist ethno-state it is NOT.
As well as the military commander of Ukraine being, by some definitions, a Russian (native Russian speaker – born in Russia, brought up in Russia, militarily trained in Russia).
The Ukrainian Defense Minister is not an ethnic Ukrainian – he is a Crimean Tartar (Crimea was made part of, Soviet, Ukraine in the 1950s – it was an administrative move, no one thought in terms of Crimea being part of an independent Ukraine) – the ancient enemies of Ukrainians, who they raided for slaves for centuries, indeed right up to the time that Catherine the Great captured (or rather recaptured) the Crimea from the forces of Islam (the Ottoman Empire)
And the President of Ukraine is a native Russian speaker and a Jew – historically Ukrainians hated Jews (the Ukrainians, Tarus Bulba and so on – right up the 2nd World War, hated Jews even more than they hated Poles), but they voted overwhelmingly for President Zelensky.
So Ukraine is hardly “racist” – it is NOT “Nazi”, so “denazification” is nonsense.
A “Nazi” state can not have a Jewish President, and nor is the commander of the Ukrainian military (the man who saved Kiev in 2022) a likely person to be leading a “racist” crusade to exterminate Russians, after all if he was doing that he would have to shoot HIMSELF.
From Marc Champion, writing at Bloomberg today: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-02-16/alexey-navalny-death-dissident-s-fate-shows-the-true-face-of-putin-s-kremlin?srnd=premium-uk
Freddo:
The astonishing bravery of Ukraine’s political elite, willing to forcefully conscript and sacrifice every last peasant before fleeing to Europe or the USA.
Really? Zelentsky has stayed, and not fled anywhere.
He hasn’t run out of peasants yet. And in the meantime there is still a massive amount of aid that can be redistributed to the worthy.
Remind me, when is the next Ukrainian election scheduled?
I have no great issue with Carlson interviewing Putin. Like any other journalist, he should be free to interview anyone he wants.
But that does not make him seem any less ridiculous for having done it.
The US is sure in a curious state right now, torn between an addlepated TweedleDem and an unbalanced TweedleRep.
I’d point out to you that you only know this through what is broadcast on a corrupt and mendacious media.
I don’t like Trump, but I judge him by his actions. Sumbitch is actually unique in recent American political history, in that he actually did what he said he would when in office. He’s also someone who at least presents some reason to believe that he’s an American patriot, versus the rest of these assclowns who’re pretty obviously not acting in the interest of the American people.
I’ll agree that Trump triggers a visceral reaction in people. I do not, I repeat, like him. But… Given the choices? I’ll be voting for him. Better a Trump than the alternative, which I see as basically signing up for suicide at the hands of the transnational class.
That said, with regards to Putin? Navalny’s death was foreordained, and he knew it. Putin and his handlers will brook no opposition.
Putin and his coterie are the worst things that have happened to Russia since Lenin and Stalin; they’re putting the final nails into the coffin as we speak, and I suspect that the Russian Federation is going to be a failed disaster state on the level of Somalia with nukes. Someone had better be thinking very carefully about how the hell they’re going to disarm them, because the whole mess is going to implode before the end of the decade. The demographics and the losses in Ukraine make that almost as certain a thing as you could postulate, short of a Frederick the Great level of international statesmanship miracle. Putin ain’t no Frederick the Great, either…
I’ll take a well meaning narcissist blow-hard (Trump) over a dementia addled, corrupt pedophile (Biden)
Because nothing like that could happen in the UK nor the US.
Especially a high profile individual who is implicated with a wide reaching program of honeypots, and child exploitation, which have been used to bribe and blackmail those in positions of influence worldwide.
Epstein, one minute a run of the mill school teacher, next minute he’s running a multibillion dollar hedge fund. But now he’s dead. Similar in many respects to ( sufferer from autism ) Sam Bankman-fraud. Another who the ‘liberals’ conveniently forget. Let’s hope Sam survives longer the Jeffrey.
Freedo: Zelensky could easily have fled. Plenty of others would have. I find your cynical, pathetic response unedifying..
Are you in favour of Ukraine surrendering?
@Perry
Ukraine’s political elite must be eliminated as it cannot be re-educated. Ordinary Ukrainians must experience all the horrors of war and absorb the experience as a historical lesson and atonement for their guilt. The liberated and denazified territory of the Ukrainian state should no longer be called Ukraine. Denazification should last at least one generation – 25 years
This was not written by Putin but by Timofey Sergeytsev who has no role in the Russian government and is described in wikipedia as “one of the ideologists of modern Russian fascism” which, to me, seems a little like quoting David Duke as representing Donald Trump’s foreign policy. It also says he “[doesn’t] have any serious influence on anything”, which, coincidentally is how much influence David Duke had on Trump’s foreign policy.
The only actual member of the Putin government I can see talking on this article said (again just quoting from the wikipedia article on this):
Putin’s national security adviser Nikolai Patrushev said that “the Americans by using their proteges in Kyiv decided to create an antipode of our country, cynically choosing Ukraine for this, trying to divide an essentially single nation” and that “the result of the policy of the West and the Kyiv regime under its control can only be the disintegration of Ukraine into several states”
Which certainly isn’t great, but is an indication of his thinking, or at least what he claims his thinking is, that it is western interference in Ukraine that precipitated this. And that, too, is much of Putin’s direct message in his interview with Carlson.
I don’t think Carlson did a great job, though that does tend to be his style — letting his interviewees speak at length, with prompts and limited challenges — but although the interview is long, rambling, self serving and definitely with a very pro Russian, anti west spin, I think most intelligent westerners should listen to it. It certainly puts forward a different point of view than the standard insipid “goodies and baddies” paradigm of the western media. Putin is certainly a baddy, but the west’s behavior does not leave it looking particularly clean either. And it certainly puts forward a number of indubitably true facts that most westerners would find shocking.
Plus I think they should also listen to the always insightful hosts of Triggernometry and their analysis of the interview. Kisin is one of the few well informed people on the subject that gives an honest and balanced viewpoint, even if I disagree with his recommendations.
By no means am I advocating for Putin, he is a monster, but I am advocating understanding the reasons behind his actions, understanding that the west is not at all a clean honest broker, and understanding that the story portrayed in the western media is not at all the whole truth. It is only by knowingyour opponent that you can deal effectively with them. Whereas the current American administration looks at this tragic situation to wag the dog and generated lots of tax payer money for their political contributors.
Ukraine suspended elections because it is in a state of total war, much like Britain did during World War 2. Of course your friend Putin still holds elections because he knows his political opponents will die in jail.
I am in favour of not forcefully drafting people for WWI-style suicide attacks while the olichargy happily avoids the draft and steals the foreign aid. I’m also in favour of holding elections so the people get a chance to express their opinion on the current state of affairs (never mind that political opposition has been closed down). I realize that this may seen by some of the libertarian mindset as cynical or pathetic. That is a cross I can bear; my internet hard man days are behind me.
I am willing to be surprised by Zelensky using his newfound wealth after the war to care for the maimed and wounded, but not holding my breath for it.
I know who wrote it, but the problem with the thrust of your argument is you are acting as if this was published in the New York Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung or Guardian, rather than state mouthpiece RIA Novosti. I don’t think you understand Russia at all.
Following Perry’s initial link I end up at this useful English language wiki page. Quite terrifying.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Russia_Should_Do_with_Ukraine#Author
The defence of Avdiivka appears to have collapsed. But it’s more important that we talk about the death in prison of the failed candidate for Moscow Mayor. Because, look!! over there …
Navalny was working with MI-6 to start a color revolution in Russia. His death is simply the death of a spy. Nothing more, nothing less.
Ukraine will have to negotiate whether it likes it or not, as will Russia and for the same reason.
It is clear that neither side will be in any position to dictate to the other. To do that, you need to win. Totally and conclusively and in such a way that your enemy knows beyond any doubt that any further armed or other resistance is either futile or can only incur a cost out of all proportion to the effort (these two not being quite the same thing).
Who’s right – morally, practically or militarily – alas seldom has anything to do with it.
These considerations are the bread and butter of the armchair generals, strategists, tacticians, “geopoliticians”, “analysts”, “theorists” and Cliff knows what else.
I’m not pretending I don’t fit into any or all of these categories but I have no say whatsoever.
Who actually does? Who is genuinely in charge on either side?
Don’t forget, this war which anybody within the desolation somebody has created can see as clear as day, isn’t. It’s a “special military operation”. I don’t believe anybody has actually declared war on anybody else.
So who will actually negotiate with who and over what?
And why should any party within said desolation take a blind bit of notice?
Which does, perhaps make nonsense of my original assertion.
But here we are. You’ll have nothing and you’ll be happy perhaps being taken to it’s logical conclusion.
Kremlin apologists and other assorted stooges out in force today I see.
@John Galt
Whoever may end up taking over from Vlad – by whatever means – does have a degree of deniability precisely because there has been no formal declaration of war.
When actually was the last time somebody did formally declare war?
Of course you can dismiss me as a Kremlin apologist if you wish. It’s very convenient to do so.
This, folks is why your government is mired in debt, elevating foreign nobodies who have no particular merit but a grasping palm for other people’s money, and a grudge to settle in their own country.
And that vile cauldron of notorious traitors spewing it’s poisionous filth Oxford and Camebridge is still seethinng, to this day.
They’ve just abandoned their old allegiance, international communism and having attached themselves to their newest fad, international fascism, still burrowing away in the foundations of the British and american state.
Traitors to a man (or woman).
Wow, ignorance & conspiracy crap on display in comments here is laughable. The Alex Jonesifaction of average brains, just like the “Dark Forces” explanations during Communism. MI6/CIA did it! All from crayon drawing jokers would couldn’t find Kyiv or Odesa let alone Avdiivka on map 😀
JG:
I should think that ‘megalomaniac’ fits Trump better than ‘narcissist’.
I note that some degree of megalomania is very much needed if one is to take on the American Deep State.
Megalomania is also needed in dealing with German cheapskates, eager to leave the defense of Europe to the Americans. Months before the election, Trump has already obtained results in this respect.
It’s valuable to pay attention to things…
Who was it, again, that warned Europe about becoming dependent on Russian energy exports? Who got laughed at, incessantly, by all the right people? Who was it that suggested that maybe, just maybe, the various major NATO “allies” ought to get their acts together? Mmmmm?
Yeah. Trump. Megalomaniac? Narcissist? Either way, I don’t care: Bastard was right, and warned everyone. Who made mock of him, and ignored the warnings.
Europe enabled everything that Russia has done in Syria and Ukraine; without that oil money, Russia wouldn’t have the resources to be a threat to anyone but itself. Europe was told what it was doing; Europe ignored the warning. F*ck “Europe”. I’m tired of being expected to clean up the messes their unique “genius” keeps getting them into.
I spent a year of my life, living in the evidence of sanctions-busting Europe while I was assigned to FOB Speicher in Iraq. Protestations about what great “allies” the French, Belgians, the Italians, and everyone else are fall rather flat on my ear. I know what “Europe” was up to during the post-Desert Storm years: Making money from the Food for Oil scam, without heed paid to whether or not that money was going to the people of Iraq rather than their own merchants of death.
Again, f*ck “Europe”.
Most of the people in this “Europe” are too stupid to get out of their own way: You have the spectacle of Germany first making Putin rich enough to become a major problem, and then you watch the same idiots decide to de-industrialize and import millions of Third-World degenerates, many of whom were victims of the same Syrian debacle that they enabled. Germany deserves everything it gets, in the coming years. Same with France, same with Italy. I really don’t care, watching them all get swamped with the “migrants”, because they’re the same set of idiots that enabled the entire situation to exist by voting to commit suicide-by-socialism. Gee, your taxes are so high your own kids can’t marry and start families…? Worried about who will take care of you and keep the lights turned on while you drift off into senility? Sure; let’s just import the people we need, from all those so-successful little countries of Africa and the Middle East. That’ll work…
Meanwhile, the American taxpayer can just keep on keeping on paying our defense bills. While we “smart Europeans” malign and bad-mouth the only people who really give a f*ck about Europe’s future. Ironically Jewish, that bit…
Let me make something clear to the morons who think that Biden is on Ukraine’s side: Burisma, from which he took money? That was a Russian front company. Owned by a Russian. Not Ukrainian. Clinton, Biden, and Obama have been in Russia’s pockets since the beginning of this, and only a damn fool would believe otherwise. Remember Uranium One? Remember the “Reset Button”? Note how Putin has said, recently, that he’d prefer Biden be re-elected than have Trump back? Do you actually, y’know… Read the f*cking news for comprehension, and note all the things that Biden has done for Russia, not the least of which was not cracking down on machine tool sales and banking from Austria? D’ya ever wonder how all those drones keep showing up with American chips and Austrian engines in them, from the supposedly sanctioned Iran? Or, just why Iran operates with impunity in the Red Sea?
You rail on and on about the Bad Man Trump, but you’re too stupid to make out your real enemies, the ones who’ve cozened you all along. Who didn’t want the North Sea gas lines built in the first place? Who threatened them, again?
I swear to God, the biggest joke God has played on the world in this century is putting Trump up as an “International Leader”. He looks so ridiculous, but how many times has he been right? Remember all those oh-so-smart “European Leaders” laughing at him behind their hands? Saying what a buffoon he was, what a fool? The ones who kept right on investing in Russia, buying Russian energy?
Yeah, that narrative kinda blew up after 24 February, 2022, didn’t it? Your leaders made your beds; now you get to lie in them. You voted for these people who’re hell-bent on destroying you, the same way we did here with the Democrats.
I’d laugh, but it’s a little painful to watch all this happen.
“I’d point out to you that you only know this through what is broadcast on a corrupt and mendacious media.”
You know nothing about me, so you can point out whatever you like until the cows come home.
Are we to assume then that you have some sort of “secret source” beyond publicly available information for your own knowledge of the current political landscape?
Freddos’ concerns for free elections- during a war – is touching.
Complete evasion of the issue. As I have said several times in response to Freddo’s jeers, Zelensky remained in Kyiv when he could have fled to safety.
What is it about Putin that excites you, Freddo? The fragrance of a thug?
JJM said:
I know that you know nothing of Trump or Biden personally, that you can only “know” what you “know” via the reports of others.
Or, are you claiming to be personally acquainted with both parties such that you have intimate personal knowledge of them? You have had extensive personal contact, you have spent significant time with them?
That’s the only way your current lunatic assertion could be true. So, which is it? You’re claiming a personal relationship, here?
Or, more likely, that you’re a fully brainwashed and indoctrinated victim of the media, an institution that we know lives on lies via the proven performance they’ve demonstrated since, oh… The Spanish-American War, shall we say?
APL
Talking of, killing [ or having ] your political opponents or even supporters who may not be entirely copacetic with your aims and methods, killed. Let’s spare a minute for poor old Seth Rich, a Democrat political activist who’s murder in 2016, remains unsolved to this day. It’s just a coincidence that certain document leaks, embarrassing to the DNC stopped after the Rich murder.
Then there was Gonzalo Lira who was declared dead last month in a Ukrainian prison. SNAP!
Lira, an American citizen, had his case raised with Matthew Miller at the US State department, who said “We’ll recover American drug addicts who’ve transitioned, from Russian custody, but American citizens who live in Ukraine ? They can go fuck themselves. – No, he didn’t say that, just kiddin’.
But without actually articulating the sentiment, tho, Miller said:- US citizens that disagree with our policies can rot in foreign prisons. This administration really doesn’t care about that type of individual.
One myth that needs to be busted is the Ukrainian “ammunition and shell shortage” supposedly wicked white American Republicans (Ukrainians are also white – indeed it is, perhaps, the whitest country on Earth – but the left overlook that for the moment) denied the Ukrainian army shells and bullets and this is why the wicked white Russians (who are really no more white than the Ukrainians – if anything they are less so) are winning victories.
I was talking to British military people only yesterday – the Ukrainians had plenty of bullets and shells, the whole Biden Administration campaign (blaming wicked white people in Congress for the defeat in Ukraine) is a lie.
Paul, can’t you see the tactic you mention in a later comment about the US getting Chinese nationalists and South Vietnam and others dependent on aid then removing it is happening right now in Ukraine, and that the shells ans missiles have been dribbled out slowly in order to throttle Ukrainian abilities? What reason would you have for believing the ammo shortage isn’t real? Because officers with skin in the game say so?
rhoda klapp.
Because the Ukrainians have been firing lots of shells, if they did not have the shells they would not be able to fire them.
The plan is to blame Ukrainian defeats on “MAGA Republicans” denying aid (that this was the plan was clear last year) – but, in reality, vast sums of money, from various countries, continue to flow into Ukraine. And aid-in-kind, including shells (from various sources), continues to flow.
Well, personally I don’t know how much money flows actually to Ukraine. I suspect most of it sloshes around in the donor countries until it ends up in someone’s pocket. To judge the aid by monetary value is useless. That part of it is a great lootable pile of money. It isn’t arrms delivered to the front. Look at the various escalations as this or that weapon is promised but not shipped, when it only involves taking them out of reserve storage. Look at the F-16 delay, or the mean supply of Patriot sams.
The US, the Democrat admin, are milking this for all they can get, stretching the timeline as long as they can. If they lose power, and access to the pile of cash, they’ll pull the plug in an instant, they don’t care about the Ukranian people, the ones with no access to the pile but who will be the ones to suffer if they lose. Powerful forces in the IUS, as bent as those in Russia, are pulling the strings. It suits them to hamstring Ukrainian efforts. And ammo shortage especially of the most effective weapons is the way they do it. Just because Ukraine still has shells to fire doesn’t mean they are not rationed.
rhoda klapp.
The plan appears to be simple – the Ukrainians lose the war, and the Administration blames “MAGA Republicans” and the Democrats run on “the Republicans lost Ukraine – they are puppets of Putin!”.
And if even more money is voted for Ukraine – the plan will be the same, and the media (which is controlled by the left) will never say “but the Republicans did approve the money”.
As for how much of the money goes in corruption – we just do not know as there is no real auditing.
But then the auditing of the Federal Reserve system is largely fake – and that corrupt scandal has been going on for more than a century.
“There is a great deal of ruin in a great nation” – yes indeed, but the corrupt decline has already been going on for a very long time (for example the money has been a corrupt joke for almost 91 years – and contracts have been void for almost 91 years).
The end will be soon.
Absolutely incorrect, there is a ‘shell famine’.
They flow in significantly reduced quantities, that is indisputable.