Russia Declares War on Ukraine<<MOD WARNING>>

In fact, Ukraine being a breadbasket country, it could greatly benefit the EU in terms of grain production.

 

The Russian people have been effectively disarmed.

https://www.guns.com/news/2018/10/26/putin-says-russia-needs-stronger-gun-restrictions

 

---
Why pretend to be a moron? A rocket weighing 200 tons in a fixed shaft and a rocket weighing 6 tons in a car are the same for you.
--

 

And an anti-air system is the same in your mind as a nuclear surface-to-surface system.

 

I don’t agree.
Restrictions to freedom of speech tend to assist corrupt officials.
Unlike the way it is in Russia, in Ukraine unrestricted freedom of speech results in many journalistic investigations that result in corrupt officials being imprisoned or, at least, shamed into leaving their posts and country. This translates to better transparency and accountability. Because of this alone one can state with high degree of confidence that corruption in Russia is a lot worse than in Ukraine.
I know that Russians hate to be rated below Ukrainians on any measure, but that’s just the truth.
Also - don’t try to argue against this by saying that currently the freedom of speech is severely restricted in Ukraine - that’s normal for a country that is in a legal state of war. I wouldn’t imagine a pro-Russian TV or politicians existing in the U.S. if we had a real hot war with each other. Under normal circumstances, freedoms in Ukraine are, by far, much better than what Russians have, which results in better governmental transparency.

 

And not a single shred of credible evidence to these claims.

 

That list was written by whites. Uk is the most corrupt nation on earth as it launders the most money.

 

Interesting take. I've never been to Russia so I can't verify one way or another. I found most of the Russians that I have met abroad to be likeable outside the tacky resorts.

 

I'm sure the German agri companies like Monsanto had invested heavily in Ukraine. I'm also sure the mafia families in Ukraine made a killing when they bought up the farms of the millions who were forced to leave for Russia after the coup and then resold them to the multi national agri corporations.

Hopefully with the Russian takeover, the lands will go back to their rightful owners.

 

Socialism = Communism

People just don't get it until it is too late.

 

I hear the invaders are already engaging in a bit of grain re-diztribuzion:

 

The war is over. Russia won, or haven't you heard? Next step Odessa.

 

It is in her last interview DW:
The journalist from the Netherlands in the recent interview asked Zelensky about corruption in Ukraine which made him mad. I could not find video, but the link to this case is here:
https://sud.ua/ru/news/publication/...-zhurnalistke-na-ee-utverzhdenie-o-korruptsii

 

Tend to agree.

 

I believe, from what I saw of her interview, that she was talking about corruption there in the 2008 time frame, and of course that corruption does not automatically make Ukraine undemocratic. Every country has corruption and corruption can take many forms.

 

True, but for that it is not necessary to take Ukraine in the EU.

 

You haven't made a good case for why they should not be in the EU so far. If nothing else, it would help them to overcome corruption anyway. They should have something to aspire to and a hopeful path forward. I'm sure Romania, for instance, was in no better shape when it joined.

 

Vladimir Putin is a reflection of the Russian people. If Vladimir Putin didn't give the people what they wanted, he wouldn't have survived very long. Yet he did survive and restored a country ravaged by criminals who were financed by foreign banks, and gave it back to the Russian people.

The American people should be so lucky.

Washington and Collective West
arrogance - lies - corruption - wars - greed
hypocrisy - immorality - thievery - blackmail

​

R U S S I A​

 

Bingo. Spot-on.

 

Ukraine War: the war within a war for Snake Island

Defence and Security Analyst Professor Michael Clarke explains why the Russians are fighting for control of the small Snake Island in the Black Sea.​

By the way, from what I saw today in this video from Denys Davydov:



... Snake Island will be in range of Ukraine's spiffy new MLRS rockets.

 

I think you mean "medicines".

 

Of course it is, Jeanette...Putin can rest easy now and go back to his silk sheets.

 

Or national socialism, which always seems to be the end game of Big Government.

 

I couldn't care less about Belarus or Russian political system. Only a completely ignorant person can possibly claim that Ukraine is a democratic state. It is not. It is a corrupted and totalitarian state.

The real Zelensky: from celebrity populist to unpopular Pinochet-style neoliberal

https://thegrayzone.com/2022/04/28/zelensky-celebrity-populist-pinochet-neoliberal/

How has Zelensky’s record been on democracy – freedom of speech and press, political pluralism and treatment of different political parties? How does it compare to past presidents of post-Soviet Ukraine?

I agree with Jodi Dean who argues that democracy is a neoliberal fantasy in a sense that it cannot exist in neoliberal systems of government controlled not by people but by supranational institutions. As mentioned earlier, this became especially evident after the Maidan when foreign ministers were appointed by these institutions to present their interests in Ukraine. However, in his reforming zeal, Zelensky went further. In early February 2021, first three oppositional television channels—NewsOne, Zik, and 112 Ukraine—were shut down. Another oppositional channel Nash was banned in the beginning of 2022, before the beginning of the war. After the war broke out, in March, dozens of independent journalists, bloggers, and analysts were arrested; most of them are of leftist views. In April, television channels of right-wing leaning—Channel 5 and Pryamiy—were shut down as well. Moreover, Zelensky signed a decree obliging all Ukrainian channels to broadcast a single telethon, presenting only one pro-governmental view on the war.

All these developments are unprecedented for the history of independent Ukraine. Zelensky’s proponents argue that all the arrests and media bans should be written off for military expediency, ignoring the fact that the first media closures happened one year before the Russian invasion. As for me, Zelensky only uses this war to strengthen dictatorial tendencies within his regime of government, which started being formed right after Zelensky came to power—when he created a party machine to control the parliament and rubber-stamp neoliberal reforms without regard to public mood.

The National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) was used by Zelensky in 2021 to sanction certain people – mostly political rivals. Can you explain what the NSDC is and why Zelensky was doing it and whether it was legal or not.
After his popular support plummeted in 2021, Zelensky launched the unconstitutional process of extrajudicial sanctions against his political opponents, imposed by National Security and Defense Council (NSDC). These sanctions involved the extrajudicial seizure of property without any evidence of illegal activities of the relevant individuals and legal entities. Among the first to be sanctioned by the NSDC were two parliamentary deputies from the Opposition Platform “For Life” (OPZZh)—Victor Medvedchuk (later arrested and shown on TV with his face beaten up after interrogation) and Taras Kozak (managed to escape from Ukraine), as well as members of their families. This happened in February 2021; in March 2022, 11 oppositional parties were banned. The decisions to ban oppositional parties and sanction oppositional leaders were taken by NSDC; they were put into effect by presidential decrees.

The Constitution of Ukraine states that The Council of National Security and Defense is a coordinating body: it “co-ordinates and controls the activity of bodies of executive power in the sphere of national security and defense.” This has nothing to do with prosecuting political opponents and confiscating their property—something NSDC has been doing since 2021. It goes without saying that this know-how of Zelensky’s regime is unconstitutional—only courts may decide on who is guilty or not and confiscate property. But the problem is that Ukrainian courts turned out to be unprepared to serve as Zelensky’s puppets. After the head of Ukraine’s Constitutional Court Oleksandr Tupytskyi called Zelensky’s unconstitutional reforms a “coup,” Zelensky had nothing to do but to rely on NSDC to push forward his unpopular policies. What about the “dissident” Tupytskyi? On March 27, 2021—also in violation of the Ukrainian Constitution—Zelensky signed a decree canceling his appointment as a judge of the court.

Under Stalin’s rule, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) created “troikas” to issue sentences to people after simplified, speedy investigations and without a public and fair trial. What we observe in the case of NSDC is a very similar development, only NSDC unconstitutional trials have a bigger number of participants—all the key figures of the state, including the president, the prime minister, the head of Ukrainian security service, prosecutor general of Ukraine, etc. One NSDC meeting can decide destinies of hundreds of people. In June 2021 alone, Zelensky put into effect a NSDC decision to impose sanctions against 538 individuals and 540 companies.