Public panic in Sweden over war with Russia as Turkey ratifies Stockholm’s bid to join NATO
Press TV – January 24, 2024
Turkey’s parliament has passed a bill on ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership after months of blocking accession, putting the Scandinavian country a “step closer” to becoming a full member of the US-led Western military alliance.
“Today we are one step closer to becoming a full member of NATO,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday.
The Turkish parliament’s decision will come into force after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signs a corresponding decree, which will be published in the government’s official journal.
Hungary, whose prime minister Viktor Orban has friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, remains the only NATO country that has not ratified Sweden’s bid to join.
Last week, the high levels of the Swedish government and defense forces issued a warning to prepare people for the possibility of a Russian attack on the country and asked citizens to be on alert for the possibility of a war, causing Swedes to panic and criticize the country’s leaders.
Taking notice of the call from officials, a multitude of people heeded this caution seriously, causing mass panic, and flocked their way to the market in order to procure fuel and bundles of indispensable and crucial provisions “crisis kit.”
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had no problems with Finland and Sweden and that their accession to NATO did not pose an immediate threat, but cautioned against the expansion of the Western military infrastructure in these territories.
“As for the expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance: yes, this is a problem that is being created, in my opinion, quite artificially in the foreign policy interests of the United States,” Putin was quoted as saying.
“Russia has no problems (with Sweden and Finland), but the expansion of military infrastructure on the territory of this region will certainly cause our response,” he said, stressing that the actions of the Scandinavian states could aggravate “an already difficult situation in the sphere of international security.”
Norway’s Top General Urges Defense Spending Hike Amid NATO Fearmongering
By Svetlana Ekimenko – Sputnik – 24.01.2024
The specter of a “Russian threat” ostensibly looming is being invoked in the West increasingly loudly as justification for ramping up military spending, with Norway’s top brass the latest to lap up this tenuous narrative.
Norway has only a small window of opportunity to ramp up its defense spending in the face of a “looming threat” of military conflict with Russia, the head of the Norwegian Armed Forces has warned.
Jumping on the bandwagon driving the cynical “Russian bogeyman” narrative, General Eirik Kristoffersen claimed in a recent interview that Norway needs to build up its defenses before it is too late.
“The current window of opportunity will remain open for a year or two, perhaps three, which is when we will have to invest even more in our defense,” General Kristoffersen said in an interview with the local outlet Dagbladet. He added:
“We do not know what will become of Russia in three years. We need to prepare a strong national defense to be able to meet an uncertain and unpredictable world.”
The Norwegian general lamented the fact that Moscow was reportedly building up its weapons stockpiles at a greater speed and efficiency than NATO allies had expected.
Currently, NATO member Norway lags behind the alliance’s defense spending requirement of two percent of GDP per year. While originally setting itself the timeline of achieving that goal by 2026, apparently the raucous peddling of the concocted “Russia threat” is forcing Norway’s generals to lose sleep over the ominous forebodings.
“This is a calculated risk. If the danger was imminent right now, then we could not have given so many weapons [to Ukraine]. But that is not the case,” Kristoffersen said, while adding that Ukraine needs to be supported for as long as it takes.
Norway’s chief of defense also went as far as to urge Norwegians to begin stockpiling food, saying that “What the Norwegian population should think about is their own preparedness.”
These remarks by Kristoffersen echo those of his Swedish colleague. Commander-in-Chief Mikael Byden told Swedes to “prepare themselves mentally” for an open conflict with Russia. Another warmonger, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, the NATO Military Committee chief, stated in Brussels last Thursday:
“We have to realize it’s not a given that we are in peace. And that’s why we [NATO forces] are preparing for a conflict with Russia.”
Boris Pistorius, the German defense minister, claimed earlier that Russia may choose to attack a NATO country within “five to eight years.”
While pumping Ukraine with billions’ worth of weapons for its proxy conflict with Russia, the US-dominated alliance has upped the Russia threat narrative in recent months. The rants have been particularly timed to the growing “Ukraine fatigue” and dwindling support for continuing to aid the Kiev regime. Pistorius’ comments echoed a report in the German daily newspaper Bild. Quoting a “confidential Bundeswehr document,” it claimed that a conflict between NATO and Russia could erupt as soon as the summer of 2025.
The Kremlin has dismissed the report as “fake news,” with spokesman Dmitry Peskov doubting Bild’s credibility. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova compared the leaked plan to a “powerful horoscope,” saying she wouldn’t be surprised if the scenario was provided to the German military by the Foreign Ministry and its notoriously Russophobic chief, Annalena Baerbock.
Germany Can’t Afford Rearmament, Let Alone a ‘War’ With Russia
By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 23.01.2024
Germany must take into account the possibility of a military conflict with Russia and prepare for it over the next three-five years, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told ZDF on January 22.
He insisted that the German Bundeswehr armed forces should become “a credible deterrent,” and that a German combat brigade would be deployed in the Baltics to become “fully combat-ready” by 2027.
In December, Pistorius signed an agreement for the permanent deployment of a Bundeswehr brigade to Lithuania and announced that the reintroduction of compulsory military service in Germany is now on the table.
Does Russia really present an imminent threat to German national security?
“If you ask me, and if you ask most people in my party, the answer is unequivocally no,” Gunnar Beck, Member of the European Parliament for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party who is currently Vice-President of the Identity & Democracy Group in the Parliament, told Sputnik. “Ever since 1990, at the end of the Soviet Union, the Russian government has gone out of its way to intensify economic relations between Russia and Germany. We had extremely favorable energy contracts with Russia. And Russia was a growing export market for our agricultural and industrial goods. It’s due to our government’s policy, vis-a-vis Ukraine conflict that relations with Russia are now almost at an all time low. So, on the one hand, I think, German policy and EU policy has been a provocation. Nonetheless, I think that the Russian reaction to the sanctions in particular has been tough, but at the same time measured. So in my view, Russia is no immediate security threat to Germany. Categorically not.”
Germany Cannot Afford Rearmament
Not only is Germany’s justification for rearmament in question but also the nation’s ability to afford it, according to Beck. German industry is in a dire state as a result of the government’s policies, he stressed.
“Germany currently finds itself in what is probably the most serious economic crisis since the Second World War,” Beck said. “The government’s policies (…) are affecting all leading branches of German industry, which is suffering from high inflation, lack of qualified labor, bureaucracy and high tax levels. As a result, our exports have declined significantly. So we are in crisis, and German industry, which has always been the backbone of German prosperity, in particular, is in crisis.”
He listed three major reasons for the new talk of militarization:
- First, the German government’s energy and climate change policy;
- Second, unprecedented migration into Germany from outside Europe of unskilled workers and the astronomical cost to German public finances;
- Third, Germany’s policies on Ukraine and sanctions imposed on the Russian economy.
Berlin’s decision to follow Washington’s lead and slap sweeping sanctions on Russia has backfired on Germans on a much greater scale than on any of their Russian counterparts, according to the politician.
“In my view, Germany is in no fit state economically and financially to embark upon a massive rearmament program,” Beck said. “If the German government seriously did so, the consequence would be a further significant worsening of the economic crisis. The only way to finance such rearmament would be through a complete reversal of all the other policies and massive remigration of migrants from Germany. The government has given no indication that it is prepared to do so. In other words, I think these declarations are probably largely symbolic. Germany simply cannot afford it.”
Europeans Don’t Want to Fight Against Russia
The majority of Germans are not worried about a military threat from Russia, according to Beck, raising doubts as to whether Pistorius’ militarization plan would gain any popular traction in Germany and other European states.
“Diplomacy should be the West’s weapons of choice in its relations with Russia, not more armaments,” Geoffrey Roberts, emeritus professor of history at University College Cork, Ireland and a leading British scholar on Soviet diplomatic and military history, told Sputnik, stressing that Europeans have zero appetite for a major war with Russia.
“This bellicose rhetoric is part of a campaign by Western hardliners to further militarize Western states and societies, their aim being to prolong the Ukraine war for as long as possible and to create a permanent confrontation with Russia. Predictions of future war with Russia heighten existing tensions and solidify a mindset in which military power is seen as the solution to political problems,” Roberts continued.
Confrontation between Russia and NATO is fraught with serious risks and is “far more dangerous than anything that happened during the Cold war,” according to the professor.
“During the Soviet-Western Cold war there were many proxy wars and conflicts but nothing comparable in scope, scale and intensity to what is happening in Ukraine,” Roberts noted, referring to the West’s ongoing proxy conflict in Eastern Europe which involves NATO’s Special Forces, weapons, intelligence, military training and sabotage techniques.
“Western hardliners have whipped up an atmosphere of hysteria that could spread violence to other sections of the front-line between NATO and Russia. There is an urgent need for Western governments to heed popular calls for peace and a security settlement with Russia that will avert this new cold war – a conflict that could lead to catastrophe,” the professor concluded.
Moscow is closely observing the tone of European political discourse, warning against provocative rhetoric. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted on Tuesday that many other European countries than Germany have made statements about a “threat” posed by Russia. Earlier in January, Pistorius claimed that Russia could attack a NATO country “one day.”
“Now all European capitals are racing to declare an ephemeral danger that allegedly comes from Russia,” Peskov told reporters. He added that Europe has already invested heavily in the Ukraine conflict, but now see that their plan “failed” and the economic situation was “getting difficult.”
Lavrov debunks US claim on Ukraine talks
RT | January 23, 2024
Moscow has never closed the door to dialogue to end the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday, reiterating that the country’s key goal remains stopping NATO’s unchecked expansion towards its borders.
In a rare interview with CBS News in New York, where he arrived to take part in UN meetings on Ukraine and the Middle East, Lavrov rejected a recent claim by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who alleged that Moscow has shown no “willingness… to engage, to negotiate in good faith” to end the conflict with Kiev.
“It’s not true,” Lavrov stressed, adding that Russia has always been ready to discuss “any serious proposal” that addresses the situation on the ground and the root causes of hostilities. Moscow is also willing to reach a solution “which would guarantee legitimate national interests of Russia and the Ukrainian people,” the diplomat stated.
Lavrov reiterated that Russia is prepared to listen to anyone interested in establishing “justice” in relations between Moscow and Kiev. He insisted, however, that this would require the West to stop its policy of “using Ukraine as an instrument of war against Russia.”
Lavrov recalled that Russia has long voiced concerns about NATO expansion. “The goal is very simple… we’ve been warning publicly since 2008… that NATO’s expansion against all promises [to Russia and the Soviet Union]… was going too far,” he said.
At a 2008 summit in Bucharest, NATO leaders declared that Ukraine would eventually become part of the alliance, sparking a backlash from Russia, which has traditionally viewed the US-led military bloc’s expansion towards its borders as an existential threat.
In December 2021, weeks before the start of the Ukraine conflict, Moscow submitted a draft of security guarantees to the US and NATO, demanding that the West ban Kiev’s accession to the bloc and retreat to its borders as of 1997. The overture, however, was rebuffed.
Officials from Moscow and Kiev said the two sides were close to reaching a peace deal early in the Ukraine conflict, with a key Russian demand being that the neighboring country recommit to neutral status and abandon its NATO ambitions. According to numerous reports, the process was derailed by then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who convinced Ukraine to continue fighting.
NATO’s Steadfast Defender Exercises Threaten Europe’s Security
Sputnik – 22.01.2024
Rather than try to de-escalate the already high tensions in Europe, the Western military bloc NATO proudly announced its intent to launch massive military exercises in the region involving around 90,000 troops.
Dubbed Steadfast Defender 2024, the exercises are going to be held as NATO becomes increasingly involved in the Ukrainian conflict, providing the regime in Kiev with weapons, mercenaries and intelligence to attack Russian territories and people.
As Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko has explained, these military exercises are “another element of the hybrid war unleashed by the West against Russia,” with any event of such magnitude increasing the risk of “military incidents” and further destabilizing security in the region.
There appear to be several goals that NATO seeks to accomplish through Steadfast Defender 2024, explained Mikael Valtersson, a former Swedish Armed Forces officer, defense politician and chief of staff with the Sweden Democrats party.
One of these goals is training NATO soldiers to “fight Russian forces,” Valtersson said, noting that while the exercises’ official narrative is about repelling an invasion, it seems more like preparation “for the eventuality of military missions into Ukraine, Belarus or Moldova.”
“Another purpose is to send a psychological message to assure the eastern NATO countries that NATO takes their security seriously,” he continued. “A third purpose is to tell Russia that NATO is ready and capable to act if they must.”
According to Valtersson, a lot of people in the West actually believe in a “possible Russian attack towards European NATO countries in a couple of years,” with this fear being further reinforced by “alarmist statements from leading Western politicians and military leaders.”
“This creates a Russophobic war mentality that easily might lead to escalation and the conflict they have predicted,” he remarked.
Valtersson also pointed out that, while usually conducting military exercises poses no security risks as such events are a “normal part of military life,” holding large-scale drills “near the borders of countries you perceive as enemies” may result in dangerous mistakes being made.
“When both sides are high-strung and look for potential aggressive behavior from the other side, one mistake could quickly lead to escalation. If you really want to de-escalate tensions, you should avoid large-scale exercises near the borders of your adversaries,” he said. “These kind of exercises do nothing to dampen tension between Russia and NATO. It is, in fact, rather a part of an ongoing escalation process, which is bad for the security of Europe.”
The emerging new Cold War “between the West and mainly China and Russia” and the West alienating many countries of the Global South by trying to force them to oppose Russia over the Ukrainian crisis may ultimately divide the world into two competing blocs, “the West and the rest,” Valtersson warned.
“The difference with the first Cold War will be that the non-Western bloc will be incredibly stronger in size, economy, population and even diversity than during the first Cold War,” Valtersson added. “This conflict could be easily avoided if the West had accepted that they can’t dominate the entire globe and that other major powers have their own spheres of interest.”
Faced with looming defeat in Ukraine, NATO wants WW3 to prevent it
By Drago Bosnic | January 22, 2024
Lasting nearly half a century, the (First) Cold War brought the world to the edge of a new abyss, one that would’ve made WW2 look like a bloodless skirmish in comparison. Despite not starting it, in order to prevent the total destruction of the world, Russia initiated its end. It willingly dismantled the Warsaw Pact and the USSR, renouncing immense power, a historically unprecedented move no other superpower in history ever made. And how did the political West see it? Merely as a sign of supposed “weakness”. Not only did the US-led belligerent power pole proclaim victory in the ideological struggle (Moscow renounced communism), but it also wanted a total defeat for Russia and its people. In the 30+ years, everything the United States and its vassals and satellite states did was in line with this goal. The world’s most aggressive military alliance expanded approximately 1000 km to the east.
It should be noted that this was done despite clear promises “not to move an inch” toward Russian borders. Even many Western politicians, experts and pundits expressed concern and protested NATO’s eastward expansion, warning that this would inevitably force Moscow to respond. However, leaked information suggests this is precisely what the political West wanted, as evidenced by revelations published by WikiLeaks. How do we know this is true? Well, its founder is suffering a horrible fate for publishing the secret data. And yet, despite the world knowing all this, NATO is determined not only to continue its aggression, but is also openly escalating it. Namely, on January 18, Dutch 4-star Admiral Rob Bauer, Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, publicly stated that the belligerent thalassocractic alliance is preparing for war with Russia and that people in Europe should do so as well.
Bauer is one of the highest-ranking NATO officials and his announcement should be taken extremely seriously. Although he assessed that the coming conflict would happen in the next 20 years, the moves that the belligerent alliance is making indicate that such a conflict could come at any point. Following a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Bauer told reporters that Western governments should start preparing for war with Russia, including by training civilians how to act when it starts.
“We have to realize it’s not a given that we are in peace. And that’s why we are preparing for a conflict with Russia. […] But the discussion is much wider. It is also the industrial base and also the people that have to understand they play a role,” he said, adding: “It starts there. The realization that not everything is plannable and not everything is going to be hunky dory in the next 20 years.”
Apart from demanding everyone in Europe to get ready for war with a nuclear-armed superpower, Bauer pointed out the example of Sweden, a de facto NATO member for decades at this point. Namely, he praised Stockholm for enforcing ludicrous and pompously announced measures for a mythical Russian invasion, an eventuality that’s effectively beyond any real possibility. However, the Scandinavian country needs to justify its unpopular NATO membership somehow, so it’s putting up this laughable “show of force”.
“We need to be readier across the whole spectrum. You have to have a system in place to find more people if it comes to war, whether it does or not. Then you talk mobilization, reservists or conscription,” he said, adding: “You need to be able to fall back on an industrial base that is able to produce weapons and ammunition fast enough to be able to continue a conflict if you are in it.”
In line with Bauer’s announcement, NATO is to launch a massive military exercise, dubbed Steadfast Defender 2024. Scheduled to begin on January 31, it will include at least 90,000 troops, making it NATO’s largest military exercise since the end of the (First) Cold War. It should be noted that the belligerent alliance officially restarted the conflict in 2022, after decades of its crawling aggression pushed Russia to respond in Ukraine. This was done after numerous US-orchestrated destabilization projects in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere, all of which were aimed against Moscow. NATO itself is merely an extension of America’s strategy of the so-called “full spectrum dominance” and the same goes for the European Union which has repeatedly proven its subservience to US interests. To accomplish its strategic goals, Washington DC is ready to support all sorts of extremist ideologies and individuals.
Worse yet, in an attempt to defeat Russia, it has shown willingness to use banned weapons such as biological (including deadly pathogens) and AI-powered. The latter are particularly important as Americans are increasingly uninterested to serve in the US military, especially as the belligerent thalassocracy is adopting an extremist ultra-liberal ideology that’s simply repulsive to anyone remotely sane. America’s decline is unstoppable at this point, so its political elites are pushing the entire world into yet another abyss, one that it would likely never get out of. Washington DC’s virtually simultaneous aggression against several global and regional powers is making it nearly impossible to prevent such a horrible scenario. This includes pushing the world into a commodities crisis, which can also be interpreted as “preparing everyone” for war, as Bauer already stated. This is an important segment of America’s global strategy.
US actions in the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America also indicate other countries will be targeted, including China, Iran and Venezuela. However, with its unrivaled strategic arsenal, new hypersonic weapons, as well as resurgent conventional military power, precisely Russia is NATO’s top rival. Unable to fight Moscow directly, the US-led belligerent alliance is using proxies and creating new ones to enforce its so-called “containment” strategy against the Kremlin. This includes the reactivation of the old members of its WWII-era geopolitical (and increasingly ideological) predecessor. Fully aware it can’t take the Eurasian giant head-on, to this end, the political West is stoking Russophobia everywhere it can, as it needs to create enemies on Russian borders. It’s important to note that the warmongers in Washington DC don’t care about the destructive consequences for Europe.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.
Letting Ukraine into NATO is ‘basis for World War Three’ – Slovakia
Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico. © Getty Images / Janos Kummer
RT | January 20, 2024
Bratislava will block Kiev’s bid to join the US-led NATO alliance and will stand by a decision to stop supplying weaponry to Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia, Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico has said.
The PM made the remarks on Saturday ahead of his visit to Ukraine to meet his counterpart Denis Shmygal in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod. Fico stressed that his visit serves solely “humanitarian” purposes and promised to openly communicate Bratislava’s stance to Kiev on different issues, including Ukraine’s potential accession to EU or NATO membership.
“I will tell him that there are things on which we have completely different opinions,” Fico told broadcaster RTVS. “I will tell him that we respect them when it comes to joining the EU, but they must fulfill the conditions,” he added, explaining that a situation where “a country that absolutely does not meet any requirements” joins the EU is unacceptable.
He ruled out any possibility of Ukraine joining NATO, insisting such a move would only result in a global catastrophe, apparently caused by a direct collision between NATO and Russia over the issue.
“I will tell him that I will veto and block [a NATO bid by Ukraine] because that is exactly the basis of the third world war and nothing else.”
Fico also promised to reiterate to Shmygal his election campaign pledge to stop providing Kiev with weaponry, stating that the decision remains in force. Still, the weapons restriction applies only to state-sponsored military aid to Ukraine and supplies coming from Slovak military stocks, whereas arms manufacturers are free to sell to the country whatever they like, he noted.
“When Slovak companies don’t make money, American ones will,” Fico noted.
Prior to Fico assuming office following his party’s electoral victory in September, Slovakia had been among Kiev’s top supporters, lavishly supplying it with sophisticated weaponry, including warplanes and anti-aircraft systems. The policy of the previous government has also left the country’s own defense posture badly damaged, new Defense Minister Robert Kalinak claimed earlier this week.
“The former government left us without our own anti-aircraft defenses, without combat aviation, and we don’t even have the promised 700 million for MiGs, which the government also handed over to Ukraine,” Kalinak told the Standard newspaper.
Macron Does a Putin, Ends Up Shooting Own Foot
By Finian Cunningham | Strategic Culture Foundation | January 20, 2024
French President Emmanuel Macron sought this week to revamp his tattered authority over a nation that seems to have grown weary of this self-important charlatan.
In a special media conference lasting two and half hours broadcast to the nation, it seemed Macron was taking a leaf out of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s book. Putin gives an annual marathon press conference taking questions from journalists and the public on all and sundry national and international issues.
It didn’t go so well for Macron who ended up appearing as if he was pleading to be given respect.
There is no doubting Putin’s command of issues. Over four hours, he can hold the audience’s interest with cogent rational arguments, making his points with comprehensive facts and figures. Putin’s approval rating among the Russian public is riding high consistently in what can be deduced as genuine respect for his leadership.
It beggars belief that any Western leader could comparably acquit themselves, speaking freely for several hours on diverse topics. Biden, Sunak, Scholz, and Trudeau are joke figures who wilt under any scrutiny.
Macron tried to do a Putin this week with his nationally televised presser and the French people weren’t impressed. Polls showed, cited by NPR Radio, that a big majority (64 percent) of French disapproved of their president’s performance and the content of his views. He was criticized for peddling reactionary ideas.
Macron talked a lot about the need for national unity and restoring France’s international reputation. He called for a “civic rearmament” which was a strange way to promote national renewal. It smacked of fascism. Like much of his pitch, Macron sounded insecure, authoritarian, and chauvinistic. His views were more assertions than reasoned arguments. He was obviously concerned about the popularity of opposition leader Marie Le Pen, and he traduced her as leading a “party of lies”.
Not a good move by Macron especially when many French citizens can see that Monsieur Le President is himself a flagrant liar.
During his appeal to the nation, Macron spun the outrageous calumny that France must support the Ukrainian regime with billions of more euros because, as he lied with a bare face, if Russia wins the war in that country (a war instigated by NATO), then Putin would continue an expansionist invasion of Europe.
Talk about absurd scaremongering. Macron must take his compatriots for complete fools to peddle such hogwash on primetime TV.
Macron said his countrymen and women need to agree to supply more Scalp cruise missiles to the (Nazi-adulating) Kiev regime in order to maintain attacks on Russian territory, such as the strikes on Belgorod at New Year which killed dozens of civilians. These French-supplied missiles have also been used to target the Russian territory of Crimea.
Just as Macron was exalting supposed French values, it turned out that an entire company of French mercenaries was killed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov by a devastating Russian missile strike. At least 60 French special forces were blown apart. Paris is denying that French forces were killed.
Russia summoned the French ambassador in Moscow the next day to deliver an official rebuke to Paris on the involvement of its troops in the war. This is not a new discovery by any means. American, British, Canadian, Polish, and other NATO mercenaries have been long-tracked by Russia as unofficial participants in the two-year conflict. The French have taken a particularly significant role in sending foreign legionnaires to Ukraine to fight Russia.
Macron has involved his country in a reckless covert war with Russia – all in total deception of the French people.
This gives the lie to the real nature of the war in Ukraine. It is a U.S.-led NATO proxy war against Russia, which Russia is winning despite the array of foreign weaponry, funding, and troops.
Macron, the pathetic puppet who seems to have delusions of grandeur as if he is a reincarnation of Napoleon or De Gaulle, is immersing his country into a futile but recklessly dangerous war with nuclear-powered Russia.
If Macron spent the billions he has funneled into propping up a corrupt Neo-Nazi regime in Kiev on funding French public services and paying French workers a decent salary then maybe the French public would not have so much contempt for the former Rothschild investment banker sitting in the Elysée Palace.
Macron was elected president in May 2017 with the promise to “restore French greatness”. He was re-elected again narrowly in 2022. But his lies, empty promises, and delusions are finally catching up with him.
Like other Western so-called leaders, the French president has trashed his country’s economy to fuel a U.S.-led covert war against Russia in Ukraine. The warmongering is being done behind the Western public’s back with outrageous mendacity and deceit.
Macron and other Western charlatan leaders lament the loss of their political authority as if that is some kind of mystery or the fault of Russian propaganda and misinformation. The reasons for the growing public contempt of Western politicians are obvious to everyone but the liars in office.
An Epoch of Great Changes Is upon Us
Russian Avangard Hypersonic Missile
By William Schryver | imetatronink | January 19, 2024
One of my current X followers posted earlier today:
“I am against the Ukraine war from the very beginning (mainly because for the first time a foreign war can actually get ME killed with Russia’s missiles), but at this point I also think we can’t just let Russia win which means we lose and that would mean a lot of negative things.”
I will not speak to his fears of “Russia’s missiles”, except to say I am convinced Russia will not strike anyone that hasn’t done something to provoke it in a manner that warrants such a response — at least not so long as the Putin regime remains in charge.
In any case, Russia WILL win this war. Decisively. She will dictate the terms of its cessation. Russia will emerge from this war significantly more powerful than she was just two years ago, and on a trajectory to become even more powerful in coming years.
As I wrote in a recent article:
“… the Russian armed forces, fighting on their own ground, on and under their adjacent seas, and in the air above their spheres of control, constitute the most potent and battle-hardened military force on the planet.”
As for the US empire’s European vassals: at no point in the last 500 years has Europe been more militarily, politically, socially, and spiritually debilitated. If the entire current military capacity of Europe were combined, it would not stand a chance of defeating Russia in a war. Rather, it would be systematically and comprehensively slaughtered.
And, as I have argued in crescendo over the past several years, the long-pervasive belief in American military supremacy is a myth; a mirage; a fallacious narrative fashioned from fables and Hollywood films.
The US military has not won a war since WW2. They have mercilessly bombed the crap out of many smaller, weaker countries, killed millions of people, and yet never once achieved strategic victory.
Not since WW2 have they faced anything even faintly approximating high-intensity warfare.
Indeed, never at any time in history has the US military fought against a great power adversary at the height of its strength.
And now, here in 2024, the US military has never been in a more weakened state relative to any of its potential great power adversaries — namely, Russia, China, and Iran.
Iranian Shahed-238 loitering cruise missiles, three variants.
As I repeat often, I am convinced the failed US/NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine will produce the following results:
— It will greatly accelerate the decline of the American Empire.
— NATO will cease to be a credible military/political alliance.
— The EU will cease to be a credible monetary/political alliance.
And, as the broken hegemon rapidly recedes, political, economic, and social chaos is certain to engulf much of the world as the major and minor players on the planet scramble to secure their respective spheres of influence and establish new centers of global and regional power.
An epoch of great changes is upon us.
Zelensky serves Western elites – exiled opposition leader
RT | January 19, 2024
President Vladimir Zelensky is serving the interests of the collective West and not Ukraine, effectively conducting a modern “crusade” against Russia, according to the former leader of Ukraine’s biggest opposition party Viktor Medvedchuk.
The current conflict is not that different from the past Western pushes into the East, such as Napoleon’s or Hitler’s invasion of Russia, Medvedchuk wrote in an article posted on his website on Friday, suggesting that this particular “crusade” is being waged by proxy.
“Europe has traditionally labeled Russia a ‘barbaric country,’ using this as a pretext for invasion. Napoleon was bringing ‘freedom and civilization’ to Russia, Hitler was saving it ‘from the Jews and the Bolsheviks,’ thus, all the invaders said that they wished only good for the Russian people, and really wanted to bring them into the Western world,” Medvedchuk wrote.
In reality, only the “treasures and resources of Russia and its people” were actually meant to make it into the “Western world,” while Russians themselves were bound to get “slaughtered,” he added.
The current Ukrainian leadership has defined their country as an “Anti-Russia,” with Kiev making a big effort to portray its citizens as people universally hating anything Russian, Medvedchuk noted, suggesting that the effort is primarily meant to impress their Western sponsors.
“Zelensky paints the Ukrainians as ardent haters of Russia. He does this for a reason: hundreds of billions of dollars in Western aid flow to him and his circle. And the Ukrainian people get nothing from these funds except death, poverty and suffering,” Medvedchuk said, squarely accusing Zelensky of committing “genocide” of the Ukrainians.
The Jewish Zelensky introduced Nazi standards of the death of Ukrainian soldiers for the interests of the Western elite. Citizens of Ukraine have been strictly forbidden to remember who they are, what language they speak, what faith their ancestors were, what culture they grew up in.
Medvedchuk predicted that the inevitable failure of the Western crusade is bound to result in a collapse of modern Ukraine. He urged Ukrainians to rebel against Zelensky and his government, who had long sold them out as “cannon fodder” for NATO.
“In this situation, the salvation of the Ukrainian people lies in turning their weapons against Zelensky. We need to save our people and take back the land Zelensky sold. There is simply no other way for Ukrainians. They are driven to slaughter, their land is cleared of them, Zelensky’s team receives super profits for their blood,” he wrote.
Medvedchuk was the leader of the Opposition Platform – For Life, the second-largest group in the Ukrainian parliament, until his arrest in April 2022. The party was banned in July that year, and Medvedchuk was sent to Russia in exchange for several Ukrainian POWs in September.
Since then, he has been promoting a platform that would make Ukraine a neutral state that prioritizes its own national interests, as opposed to being an enemy of Russia.
Biden Warns Congress Lack of Ukraine Aid Could Lead to US Troops on Ground
Sputnik – 18.01.2024
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden met with congressional leaders and warned them that not approving additional funding for Ukraine could possibly result in the deployment of US troops to that country, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Thursday.
“The president conveyed a sense of urgency about the stakes for our NATO partners in the region, what it would mean for our NATO partners in the region, and certainly we don’t want to see our own troops put in a position where we might need to put boots on the ground,” Jean-Pierre said.
On Wednesday, US House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the United States’ status quo on Ukraine is unacceptable.
Johnson also said Congress needs a clearer explanation from the Biden administration about its strategy in Ukraine, the endgame and accountability for US funds. The speaker also added that US border security must be the top priority.
Biden’s supplemental request includes more than $60 billion for Ukraine.
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From the Archives
How Bill Gates Premeditated COVID Vaccine Injury Censorship
By Dr. Joseph Mercola | March 30, 2021
In 2000, everything about Bill Gates’ public persona changed. He morphed from a hardnosed and ruthless technology monopolizer into a soft, fuzzy and incredibly generous philanthropist when he and his wife launched the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.1
It was a public relations coup. May 18, 1998, the U.S. Justice Department, in collaboration with 20 state attorneys, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft.2 At that time, the company was 23 years old and was ruling the personal computer market. The Seattle Times described the fallout from the antitrust lawsuit:3
“The company barely escaped being split up after it was ruled an unlawful monopolist in 2000 for using its stranglehold on the PC market with its Windows operating system to cripple competitors, such as Netscape’s Navigator Web browser.”
How would the world be different today if the company had been split? Yale law professor George Priest described the antitrust lawsuit as “one of the most important antitrust cases of its generation.”4 In 2002, a court settlement placed restrictions on Microsoft to curb some of its practices for five years.
It was later extended twice and then expired May 12, 2011. The lawsuit had a dramatic effect on “the emergence of an entirely new field called IP (intellectual property) antitrust,” Iowa law professor Herbert Hovenkamp told the Seattle Times.5
Later, large sums donated from the foundation made the news multiple times, including $9.5 million to GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines), a second $7.5 million to GAVI and $6.8 million to the World Health Organization in 2017.6
By June 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic, the Gates Foundation’s donations totaled 45% of WHO’s funding from nongovernmental sources.7 Once mainstream media’s attention was no longer on Gates’ antitrust activities and focused on the philanthropist actions of the foundation, Gates publicly turned his attention to vaccinating the world, long before COVID-19.8
Event 201: A Preplanned Pandemic
In a deep dive into the Gates Foundation’s charitable donations, The Nation found there were $250 million in grants to companies where the foundation held corporate stocks, including Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Sanofi and Medtronic. The money was directed at supporting projects “like developing new drugs and health monitoring systems and creating mobile banking services.”9 … continue
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