Unlike The US...

... for all America's monstrous problems in economy, in government and military, the UK and its premier military institution Military Academy in Sandhurst didn't produce a competent military thinker and commander since esteemed Sir Mike Jackson retired. US still remains grossly declining but superpower and can still theoretically deploy (under ideal, fantastic that is, conditions) a sizeable force to fight some smaller country. British Army, meanwhile, is a joke. All British ground forces can do is to deploy one fully combat ready brigade, maybe two. It is about two weeks worth of fighting similar to SMO's intensity for these two brigades to be wiped out. So, what's left for Britain? Right--terrorist, murder, diversionary and pseudo intelligence activity, because the rest is beyond British economic and military capabilities. And that drives many Sandhurst types completely nuts--they still think about the Empire on which the sun never sets. Not surprising, with such "historians" as late John Keegan and his student Anthony Beavor (a graduate of Sandhurst), among others, history and large scale combined arms operations are not British forte--too small and too insignificant. So...

Mr. Lugovoy, recall the guy who allegedly "killed" Mr. Litvinenko, who, obviously was "removed" (hack job, as usual) by MI-6 people, today discloses (obviously from a blessing of his former organization, aka KGB-FSB) that British were directly involved in Crimean Bridge sabotage and now the names are being stated. 

К теракту на Крымском мосту может быть причастен бывший офицер разведки Соединенного Королевства Кристофер Найджел Доннелли, который сейчас занимает должность советника главы МИД Литвы Габриэлюса Ландсбергиса. Об этом в своем Telegram-канале пишет депутат Госдумы Андрей Луговой (ЛДПР), который направил запрос генпрокурору России Игорю Краснову с просьбой проверить деятельность Доннелли на причастность к теракту на Крымском мосту. «В теракте на Крымском мосту четко прослеживается британский след. Тщательно продуманный план террористической операции, многоходовка и координация – все указывает на причастность западных спецслужб, действующих по заказу правительства Великобритании», – указывает парламентарий. 

Translation: Former intelligence officer of the United Kingdom Christopher Nigel Donnelly, who is now an adviser to Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, may be involved in the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge. State Duma deputy Andrei Lugovoy (LDPR) writes about this in his Telegram channel, who sent a request to Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov with a request to check Donnelly's activities for involvement in the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge. “There is a clear British trace in the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge. A carefully thought-out plan of a terrorist operation, multi-movement and coordination - all point to the involvement of Western intelligence agencies acting on the orders of the British government, ”the parliamentarian points out.

Use GOOGLE to translate the whole piece with juicy details of Mr. Donnelly's so called "intelligence" and teaching career (in Sandhurst, naturally) with specialization in... Russia, and you will understand that with "specialists" like that UK doesn't need any enemies because it is being run by sore losers who still cannot reconcile themselves to the fact of UK being inconsequential in any economic or military aspect of civilization. US is, for now. But why, you may ask, this is so significant? Simple: once Russian judicial system designates Donnelly and his MI-6 and UK MoD buddies as terrorists, which is most likely, because Lugovoy obviously acts as more than just Member of State Duma but on behalf of FSB too, Mr. Donnelly better do some plastic surgery and remain in UK, because he will become hunted by people who know much more than just the art of killing the Skripal's cat or hack job of poisoning Litvinenko. That is the significance of all that and, if you followed the news, UK was getting black marks from Russia as of lately non-stop. UK is disposable, US is not, but London, evidently, still doesn't understand that it is a pip-squeak in a larger scheme of things. 

Speaking of which:

Turkey has begun to pay partially in rubles for the Russian gas it receives, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez told a local broadcaster on Tuesday. Over the coming months, Turkey will increase the share of ruble payments for Russian gas, the minister told the TRT Haber television channel. Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, Russia demanded that the so-called “unfriendly” countries – a designation of Moscow for most of the Western countries – pay for their Russian gas supply in rubles. Several EU countries have refused and saw their gas supply from Russia cut off. Turkey is not on the “unfriendly” country list, but both Turkey and Russia have tried to boost bilateral trade in local currencies for years. Turkey may also host a conference of natural gas suppliers and importers as part of its efforts to set up – with Russia – a natural gas hub locally, Donmez told TRT Haber.

So, how much London's banking, audit and insurance "complex" is worth? Pretty much worthless in the new geopolitical reality. Again, the tragedy of the combined West, I repeat, is in the fact that it long ago lost the touch with the reality and cannot properly size itself up. It is not as "big" as it always thought. In fact, it is dramatically smaller in the larger scheme of things and, in a metaphysical sense, Russia's war with it is about cutting it to size, in which UK's role is that of a regional European island who will do as told. I think Colonel Donnelly is about to learn about it.  Somebody will certainly write to him and it is not going to be from UK military (intel) pension fund.

In conclusion:

Russia is not engaged in negotiations with the US over Ukraine, a senior Russian diplomat said on Tuesday, signaling, however, that Moscow remains completely open to talks with Kiev. When asked by reporters over possible bilateral talks with Washington on Ukraine, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko replied, “No, we are not.” However, the diplomat stated that Moscow is ready to hold negotiations with Ukraine “without any preconditions,” except for the key condition – “that Ukraine shows goodwill.” Rudenko offered a reminder, however, that Ukraine has adopted a law prohibiting talks with Russia. “That’s their choice. We have always said we are ready for such negotiations, which had been interrupted not at our fault,” he added.

You see, Russia can also do lawyering. This is your primer for Tuesday.