Happy New Year...

... and I think this was the best present to all of us, because it said it all)) 

The 2014 Minsk Agreement was indeed a ploy to buy Ukraine time and should be credited for Kiev’s “successful resilience” now, former French president Francois Hollande said on Friday. Confirming former German chancellor Angela Merkel’s assessment of the truce, Hollande also blamed US weakness for the failure to deter Russia. Earlier this month, Merkel described Minsk as “an attempt to give Ukraine time” to build up its military. Speaking with the Kyiv Independent, a pro-government Ukrainian outlet, Hollande agreed, saying Merkel was “right on this point.” “Since 2014, Ukraine has strengthened its military posture. Indeed, the Ukrainian army was completely different from that of 2014. It was better trained and equipped. It is the merit of the Minsk agreements to have given the Ukrainian army this opportunity,” Hollande said, adding that it also stopped the advance of Donbass “separatists” on Mariupol.

Russians always knew it, but it is so nice to know that one is free from any obligations and morality against lowlifes, which West's political "elites" are. This is freedom. 

All the best to all of you in this upcoming and promising to be very turbulent new 2023 and stay safe. Use as the open thread and a little bit of immortal sentimentality and truly great music from the slightly saner times:

They wondered what it will be in the year 1989. What will it be in the year 2023...

Bernhard Gave A Good Treatment...

 ...To the issue of analysis or whatever passes for it in the US media sphere. 

My feel this year was that political, economical and military issues discussed in the main stream media have parted from the objective reality more than they have done at any previous time in my life. I sometimes look into a mirror and think 'well, maybe its just you.' But it is not just me. Other analysts have come to similar conclusion. But, like me, neither of them gets quoted in main stream media and neither is paid in a traditional sense to publish on these issues. Which, thinking of it, may well be the root of this theme.

Excellent piece, in a very typical Bernhard's detailed manner.

Let's Give A Proper Definition.

I mean the term "domination". Often people, understandably, use the term "domination" as a euphemism for the US foreign policy. What many fail to point out is that "domination"--a supremacy or preeminence over another, exercise of preponderant, governing, or controlling influence, as defined my Merriam Webster is not really US actual trait. The US is always hell-bent on domination but it is miserably inept on exercising it, with the exception over Europe, and if anything else it primarily attempts it without success. We all know how US "domination" of Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan went. The US never achieved any "domination" there. Enter Russia, China and India. Good luck "dominating" those, especially Russia and here US dreams of "domination" become nothing more than wet dreams. 

Hence the desperation and loss of any semblance of any class or even legitimacy by the American warmongers such as coward and war criminal Lindsey Graham. Kim Iversen couldn't let it slide. 

As most psychopaths, a preferred type for modern American politics, Graham is, indeed, a coward and a thug, and he cannot stand the feeling of slipping "domination" of the US over not just Russia--only moron could believe that Russia will submit--but over the whole global geopolitical realm and Graham hates Vladimir Putin because he is nothing like him. Same goes for the 90% of American political class which is stuffed with different iterations of Lindsey Graham. 

How people of South Carolina continue to reelect this terrorism enabler and a thug is a complete mystery to me, but then again--people of Arizona were reelecting a thug John McCain for decades. Here is McCain facing a little bit of reality from the US Marine.

At least late John stood there and took it, Graham would have ran away as he did when approached by Russian TV crew a few years back with request for commentary--he simply ran. So, calling for the head of nuclear superpower to be assassinated is so senatorial in the US today. And the US main-stream media are mum. Of course they are. Are you surprised? I am not. Can you imagine a torment they are going through when seeing their Nazi SOBs in 404 being annihilated on the industrial scale. That's gotta hurt.

It Is A Sad Day.

Not just Pele. Russians lost a music figure of scale (even Progarchives  list him) today, whose electronic music permeated Soviet art. But it was his piece from Nikita Mikhalkov's immortal (when Mikhalkov had a talent and ability) At Home Among Strangers, which in reality had a much more complex title At Home Among Strangers, Alien At Home. He also wrote the music for Tarkovsky's movies, such as Solaris, but it was this piece which still resonates 48 years later. 

I am not going to explain what it all means... I will just repeat Margo Simonyan's statement:

I’ve been telling you for a long time to find normal advisers on Russia. Sack all those parasites.

Difficult to explain to children of Dunning-Kruger effect in the West, which is lost.  

The King Is Dead, Long Live The King.

Sadly, we all are going to be there. Great, incomparable, Edson Arantes De Nascimento, Pele is not with us anymore. What a loss for global sports and humanity. 

Pelé, the Brazilian soccer legend widely hailed as "O Rei do Futebol," the king of his sport, the only man to win the World Cup three times, died Thursday at a hospital in Brazil. He was 82. His death has sent the entire soccer world — and specifically Brazil, the nation who’d nurtured and worshiped him — into a state of mourning. It was as if a national treasure had been lost forever, because, in fact, Pelé was one. The Brazilian government made that official declaration at the height of his powers. It kept him at his Brazilian club, Santos, where he ultimately scored most of his 1,281 goals — a still-unsurpassed, albeit disputed, world record.

A tragedy for Brazil and for all fans of the Great Game which Pele defined in 1950s through 1970s. 

Rest In Peace, legend, the King!

The Country With Tattered Economy (c).

Well, we can forgive an intellectual mediocrity with community organizer background for ignorance, but the way Russia's economy which supposed to be "in tatters" performs is best illustrated with that.

A new advanced Borei-class nuclear-powered submarine was among three warships that entered service in the Russian Navy on Thursday. Another boat of the same class, which is designed to carry Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles, was floated for the first time on the same day. The Russian military conducted three simultaneous ceremonies, during which naval flags were raised on the new vessels, marking the formal beginning their active service. The Borei-class submarine ‘Generalissimus Suvorov’ was the largest and most powerful of the three. Boats of that class form the backbone of the naval component of Russia’s modern nuclear deterrence. She is the sixth ship of her kind and was welcomed into service in the city of Severodvinsk in northern Russia, but is slated to join the Pacific Fleet. 

As I am on record--explaining to lay person what it means to build such a monstrous machine as Borei-class SSBN may take a few years and will require a serious elaboration on subjects ranging from nuclear propulsion to spherical trigonometry and battle management systems, in other words--to explain that this is THE real high-tech, not some BS of Twitter and Facebook. 

As sad as it sounds, but it is the way it is, that the most advanced technologies are produced in the war-making business and make killing machines a pinnacle of human scientific and technological advancement. So, Russia has now 7 (seven) state-of-the-art SSBNs afloat and she only accelerates in expanding her submarine fleet. 

In other news from "tattered economy", Russia reminded Kiev regime today that she can continue to run out of cruise missiles as long as it takes. It was a reminder that one shouldn't (the message is for the US, really) try to launch shit--another one was shot down today over Saratov--against Russia's strategic objects, such as Engels strategic aviation base--because, in the end, Rammstein is absolutely defenseless. RAND can wet-dream whatever it wants about "de-escalating" by attacking Moscow, but, I am positive, there are at least few still competent people in there, who should understand that if Russia decides to go all in even in conventional strike--most of NATO navies and HQs in Europe and US proper will not survive for long. 

But then there is Russian saying: if you constantly need to forbid the language, to remove monuments, to destroy history--maybe you are building your nation on somebody's land? That is an excellent reference to 404 removing the monument of the founder of the Russian city of Odessa Empress Catherine the Great. So, before it looked like that:

Now, you can see this "composition" like this:

Pretty much self-explanatory and reflects well not on 404, which is done as a country anyway, but on puppeteers from D.C. who are lacking class, culture and history. 

In related news, I heard today Stephen Walt, of The Israel Lobby fame, gave the interview to Foreign Policy rag. 

I read the gist of it. Good God, with "realists" like this who needs neocons. I am on record--the whole of the Political Science and International Relations diploma mill in the US is an absolute academic fraud. Walt should have continued with his biochemistry degree and avoided going into the geopolitics with minimal, if any, understanding of global power balance and mechanism which form it. But, hey, what do I know. I guess I need to write a new book on that, wink, wink;)

Whoops!

Denis Manturov, the head of Minpromtorg, finally explained to TASS those "issues" with CR-929 and they expose, quite well, reasons why I am always stand-offish whenever I speak about joint projects with China. This "insight" explains it very well. 

— Возвращаясь к теме международного сотрудничества, что сейчас происходит с совместным проектом России и Китая по созданию дальнемагистрального широкофюзеляжного авиалайнера CR929?

— Думаю, мы в первом квартале следующего года проведем очередные переговоры, выйдем на понятные перспективы и сроки. Но у наших китайских коллег на сегодняшний день в этом проекте присутствуют заявки на участие от различных производителей компонентов третьих стран. Мы же такой формат для себя не рассматриваем, с учетом сегодняшней ситуации и всех рисков, которые очень хорошо понимаем. Поэтому, чтобы с ними не столкнуться, возможно, примем для себя решение из партнера в рамках этого проекта перейти в статус поставщика агрегатов, компонентов.

Translation: - Returning to the topic of international cooperation, what is happening with the joint project of Russia and China to create a long-haul wide-body airliner CR929? 

 - I think we will hold regular negotiations in the first quarter of next year, and reach clear prospects and deadlines. But our Chinese colleagues today have applications for participation in this project from various manufacturers of components from third countries. We do not consider such a format for ourselves, given the current situation and all the risks that we understand very well. Therefore, in order not to encounter them, we may make a decision for ourselves from a partner within the framework of this project to move into the status of a supplier of aggregates and components.

In other words, geopolitical aims, and whenever speaking about aerospace we need to keep in mind that it is an industry of global importance, of Russia and China diverge here, and diverge seriously. Russia is pursuing, quite successfully, an autarkic model in strategic industries, China does not and the trend in Chinese commercial aerospace is very clear. I already presented here the composition of Chinese C-919 and wrote about it recently. Remember? 

I cannot emphasize enough when speaking about aerospace that China, for all her great economic achievements, is STILL not in the premier league of the aerospace and, as an example, nuclear submarines, among few other sectors. China builds her commercial aerospace with the sight on the West's markets, thinking, very wrongly, that practically all-Western aircraft produced in China, such as C-919, or even joint CR-929 containing a truck-load of Western-made systems, will somehow grant China the entrance to Western market or the markets elsewhere. In this case China sets herself for failure, because commercial aerospace market doesn't work like this. 

Manturov is correct, that if China decides to go this way, Russia must simply withdraw as a partner from this project and contract herself as a supplier. It will release Russia's resources for development of her domestic wide-body aircraft which, most likely, will be redesigned and re-motorized to two PD-35s iteration of an excellent IL-96. Never again will Russia depend on the combined West for anything, especially in such critical industrial field as commercial aerospace. In combat aviation Russia remains one of the two leaders in the world, and, as today's events showed, Russia increases production of SU-57s and today a new batch has been delivered to Russian Air Force (in Russian). 

As Lavrov stated today--the US informed Russia through diplomatic channels that they do not want to fight Russia directly. Sure, who would, but the US thinks it can exhaust Russia. Naive and uneducated people they are in D.C. Not very bright, because they didn't study real economy and war. Same goes for Brussels. But I repeat myself.

A Very Interesting List To Ponder.

It is the end of the year and many resources begin this routine of predicting shit for the next year and procure all kinds of "Top" 5, 10, 25, "events", "economies", "militaries" in the world, lists. This one, however, is from September and it was done by the U.S. News and World Report magazine. I am not 100% sure what criteria have been used but here it is:

And here is where one has to question "tech expertise" of Singapore and Switzerland. While there are many worshipers of Lee Kuan Yew in the West and among candidates for McDonald's (Now, Tasty, Period!) and Burger King employment among graduates of economic departments of Russian universities, one has to question the entry of Singapore in this, let's face it, very prestigious list. While there is very little doubt that Singapore is a very important port and set up policies which are conducive for many companies of note moving some of their manufacturing, such as electronics, to Singapore, I still don't get what is Singapore's Technological Expertise beyond that? 

Even United Kingdom has a claim to its place in this list due to its still significant remaining real expertise in many fields such as aerospace, advanced shipbuilding and in producing Mini Coopers, and being electronics producer is by far not enough for placing Singapore in this list. Can Singapore produce a modern cutting edge submarine? Of course not. But Italy, as an example, can. Granted that Todaro-class is a German Type-212 adapted for Italian Navy. But then again, Italy has Fincantieri, which apart from being Europe's largest shipbuilder, also is the main contractor for US Navy's FFGs. 

It will take several large volumes just to list the required expertise and all technologies which go into manufacturing modern warships. But then again, does Singapore have aerospace industry? But then again, do you see France in this list. Yes, yes, this funny country with a city of Toulouse, where they produce those Airbuses. You know, the ones Singapore Airlines loves to buy and fly. Yes, like this A-380, designed and built in Toulouse. 

And while I by no means try to disparage Singapore's achievements or the expertise, it has to be understood that the country the size of one city with a population of roughly 5.7 million people simply has no size to have technological expertise across the whole spectrum of productive and creative activities which warrant being placed in such a list. 

Can Singapore build a nuclear sub, which requires a monstrous volume of technological and engineering expertise? Here is a French one, the Triomphant-class strategic missile submarines which are fully designed and built in France, including their SLBMs M-51 and nuclear reactor.

Not too shabby, right? Do I have to go into the expertise required for nuclear energy in general, and nuclear propulsion in particular? 

Well, here is my point--the reason I elaborate on this issue (the list, you know) is because it is getting tiresome to constantly keep everything in the perspective and TO THE SCALE. Singapore simply doesn't have and will never have all required resources to be a truly technological power-house, and it takes an enormous effort to explain to a lay person the economic, scientific and industrial depth the nation has to have in order to be introduced into all kinds of Top-10 or Top-15 lists. It is a completely different game at the top. Can Singapore, or Switzerland build the International Space Station? Can they launch and operate something like GPS or GLONASS--this is as hi-tech as it comes--we know the answer. 

It is a tragedy that modern economy and true technological expertise has been trivialized and reduced to merely bean counting of "investment" and stock market, and ignores completely an immense volume of technological expertise which goes into producing space stations, commercial and combat aircraft, ships, automobiles, modern extracting industries and massive machine building complexes. A precise set of expertise which defines those very Top-10s. But, what do I know, right? Meanwhile backward Rooskies started flight tests of another Russian engine, PD-8 and it will get the certificate in 2023 (in Russian). 

But this is so non-glamorous, so not iPhonish.

About Energy, Again.

You already heard (read) Putin's Executive Order on sales of oil, which effectively cuts the EU and the US off the Russia's oil. No, I mean it--the idiots thought that Russia will kneel and crawl back to Washington to ask for forgiveness. To demonstrate the degree of imbecility--there is no other term for description of West's "elites'" abilities--Die Welt, the rag from the country which is being obliterated economically as I type this, decided to "analyze" Russia's economy. 

Russlands Wirtschaft hält den westlichen Sanktionen besser stand als gedacht. Neben den Rohstoffpreisen sind dafür vor allem zwei Gruppen mit geradezu idealen Fähigkeiten verantwortlich. Sie lehnen Putins aggressive Außenpolitik tendenziell eher ab und verfolgen eine Mission.  

Translation: Russia's economy is holding up better than expected against Western sanctions. In addition to raw material prices, two groups with almost ideal skills are primarily responsible for this. They tend to reject Putin's aggressive foreign policy and are pursuing a mission.

Die Welt means, of course, drum roll... drum rolling... German Gref and Elvira Nabiullina. You see, this is another proof that you cannot fix stupid. 99% of graduates of Western "economics" departments are morons with zero grasp of modern world, and you know that I speak and write about it non-stop. Herr Steiner who wrote this BS, and whose "education" is in Philology and Russian Literature, is a classic example of European "expert" who has no clue. Most of them don't, yet he waxes strategic just because he may have read Crime and Punishment in Russian and dined with Moscow's beau monde, who themselves are nothing more than parrots of West's ideological platitudes. 

Meanwhile,

Russia plans to ramp up geological prospecting and exploration of hydrocarbons - gas in particular - in the country’s east as it looks to increase supplies of gas to Asian partners, Russian Natural Resources and Environment Minister Alexander Kozlov has revealed in an interview.“We have set a priority for ourselves in geological prospecting and exploration and in aiding the search for mineral resources, particularly hydrocarbons, to be geographically closer to future consumers and transport infrastructure. For example, the Power of Siberia pipeline, gas from which goes to China. We have made the decision to carry out geological exploration throughout Yakutia and to do everything to [understand the production potential] in relation to hydrocarbons, particularly with gas, to be known. So that there’s not one, but more pipelines going in the eastern direction. Because this is guaranteed revenue for our country, guaranteed sales to a major partner,” Kozlov said.

Somebody, please, explain to cretins in Die Welt that Germany's, and Europe's, prosperity and economic development in the last half-a-century was based almost entirely on Soviet/Russian affordable energy. Hey, when even such moron as Borrell admits:

"Our prosperity was based on China and Russia. [Russian] Energy and [Chinese] market. And clearly, today we have to find new ways for energy, from inside European Union as much as we can because we should not change one dependency by another. The best energy is the one that you produce at home. And this will produce a strong restructuring of our economy. That’s for sure, people are not aware of that but the fact that Russia and China are no longer the ones that were for our economic development will require a strong restructuring of our economy," Borrell said at the annual conference of EU Ambassadors in Brussels.

One has to take a heed, not to mention to at least try to study basic Physics, especially molecular theory of matter and thermodynamics to understand why EU "prosperity" is a thing of the past. One cannot fight laws of physics by issuing political proclamations--the only skill Western political and "intellectual" class have. 

That brings us to the issue of SMO and why it is going this way and not the other--very simple, Russia is simply waiting. Waiting for what, you may ask? Obviously for irreversible political changes precipitated by military-economic ones. That is why another fine product of the West's BS academics, Charles Kennedy, reacts so sorely to Mr. Medvedev's fun predictions:

Medvedev’s Absurd Predictions: $150 Oil, A U.S. Civil War, And EU Collapse. 

I don't see any absurdity in Medvedev's predictions headlined in the title of Kennedy's piece, because EU is slated for collapse because contradictions between EU nations are unsolvable and we all already see how those cracks begin to widen. Per US civil war, Mr. Kennedy better look around and note America's internal dynamics:

More than half of Americans expect that a civil war will erupt in the United States sometime in the near future, according to a study designed by a group of academics associated with the University of California Davis Violence Prevention Research Program and the California Firearm Violence Research Center. When asked to respond to the statement "In the next few years, there will be a civil war in the United States," 47.8 percent of respondents chose "Do not agree." 36.4 percent said they "somewhat" agreed with the statement, 8.4 percent agreed "strongly," and 5.3 percent agreed "very strongly." The remaining 2.1 percent chose not to respond.

After all, Medvedev, being a troll of the 80th Level, based his predictions on a very real economic and social dynamics of the modern combined West, and it is, pardon my French, a very shitty dynamics all around. Ah, yes, good ol' Dmitry also used to be Russia's both Prime Minister and President and in such a capacity had, still does, the access to the highest state secrets of Russia and knows things we don't know. 

And finally to the "revelations" of the Mozart Group's big honcho about Ukraine:

“A corrupt, fucked up society. I’m not a big fan of Ukraine. Ukrainians violate the Hague Convention. They should not film their crimes on video, so as not to attract the attention of the media. Yes, Ukrainians are violating… They film a number of things they do with prisoners of war, violating the law on military conflicts. Guys, the murder of Russian prisoners (a common thing). It’s not about Ukraine. I had the Ukrainian flag tied to my bag, but I’m not “Oh my God, Ukraine is so awesome!” No, cause… fucked up people are running Ukraine!”

Welcome to the real world and war, pal. I bet they didn't teach this in your educational facilities and USMC. What law of military conflict are you talking about, Colonel? SS were using Russian children for target practice in occupied USSR in WW II, Chechen and US funded separatists loved to cut heads and castrate POWs, so do VSU people. Rape and robbery is their natural MO. Yes, Colonel, it is not about Ukraine, it is about the US desperately grasping at the last straw of her grossly inflated self-proclaimed hegemony and because of that willing to use any means, including genocide to prolong own agony, by inflicting it on millions upon millions of other people. "O, say, can you see..." 

What I Wanted To Write...

 ... as it turned out--I spoke about in my latest video. 

I also speak about RUSI and why for a professional eye some of their "conclusions" are down right risible. So, by the time I finished the video, I understood that I pretty much said what was needed to be written today. So, use as an open thread.

Merry Christmas, Again And Why...

... Iron Dome is not going to help. No, this is not because of this:

Israel is unlikely to support Ukraine with its Iron Dome air defense system over fears that the act could trigger a tough response from Russia, the nation’s former acting national security adviser, Brigadier General Jacob Nagel, said in an op-ed published by The National Interest on Friday. Commenting on Washington’s recent decision to provide Ukraine with its top-notch Patriot air-defense platform, Nagel noted that the move “also puts a spotlight on Israel,” which has consistently refused to send air-defense weaponry to Kiev. The general named several reasons for the refusal. First of all, Israel has “legitimate fears” that if any of its weapons were to be deployed in Ukraine, they eventually could be captured by Russia and would be “all but guaranteed” to be sent to Iran for analysis, Nagel believes. This could help Tehran, Tel Aviv’s archrival for many decades, to find a way to counter the systems, he said.

But because of Iron Dome being nothing but short to very short-range system designed specifically to fight slow ballistic "dumb" projectiles from Palestinian "Katyushas" and is not designed to operate in the modern battlefield. But political factor is understandable and Israel is in geostrategic pickle because she can see how her main sponsor and "defender", meaning enabler, the United States is teetering on the edge of political and economic catastrophe and the only country which can mitigate Israel's "regional issues" is Russia. But purely militarily Iron Dome doesn't make any sense in 404 and will not live longer than promised to 404 Patriot air defense battery. 

In related news, somebody tell Mr. Lukyanov to abstain from commenting on military issues, especially making such risible statements without understanding what force structure and required force, among many other crucial things requiring professional military education, are. 

Ukraine is forming a powerful and capable armed force, actively assisted by the West, primarily the US, so its formal status – whether it’s a member of NATO or not – no longer matters. It is America's de facto, if not de jure, military ally, in addition to having unique practical experience in a direct large-scale confrontation with Russia. One might add: it is motivated to pursue it.  

Those military platitudes from people whose only claim to any expertise is their belonging to Moscow' s political beau monde and ability to collect opinions of those who do have one, is becoming really tiresome. The whole point of SMO is, as stated by President of Russia, demilitarization of 404 and this task is carried out with great effect and efficiency, by definition denying 404 any kind of "forming a powerful and capable armed force". Lukyanov should concentrate of expressing himself on matters of "diplomacy" and discussing geopolitical generalities spewed by increasingly senile and detached from... everything Henry Kissinger. Learning about US (and NATO) Military-Industrial capacity would have been a great start but it is a vain hope on my part. 

Speaking of which. Solovyov did show the training of combat cohesion of T-14 Armata tank battalion (in Russian), evidently getting ready for something, wink, wink. And the same as now constantly involved in combat mission and being serially produced Su-57, which naturally was described in the West as merely a show-piece, Armata is also beginning to arrive to the front line units and... don't expect all those "experts" from Russia and the West to eat their hats. They will just move on onto something new. 

Back to Christmas, Larry speaks about religious element of SMO. 

If you ask anyone in America, “When do you celebrate Christmas?” the person will look at you cross-eyed and wonder if you were mentally deficient or in the early stages of dementia (I live in Florida and there are a lot of old people. I’m now one of them!). December 25th, of course! The majority do not realize that the members of the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrate Christmas on January 7th. The differences between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church (which includes Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox) is one of the dynamics at play in Ukraine. 

It is at play in 404 and West's attack on Russia is a Crusade. Nothing new here. I, being only superficially informed about issues of religious doctrine, defer here to Andrei Raevsky who wrote extensively on religious aspect of West's actions and its hatred towards Russia for spiritual reasons. But make no mistake, Russians are aware of the underlying historical and religious reasons for unprecedented geopolitical shift driven by insane and suicidal actions by the West. So, here is you Christmas Day primer and keep in mind that you should always take things in perspective and that on the historic timeline even 1-2 years are just fleeting instances. Merry Christmas again.

Interdimensional Beings For Friday.

My favorite power metal band is back and combination of beauty and musicianship is out of this world. After Miho left, Lovebites are back with vengeance with Fami on bass. Let me put it this way--these gorgeous girls will blow 99.99% of bands today off the stage. They are probably the best metal (no "women" qualifier) band currently. 

The amount of talent here is simply off the scale. 

And then also the latest from another interdimensional musical beings, Valery Stepanov and his friends continue to defy imagination.
 

What a gift! Enjoy...

Of Course They Jump...

And I don't mean Ukrainians favorite pastime of jumping as the method of identifying moskals in their midst--because "those who don't jump, they are moskals". I mean oil prices. 

After two weeks of silence in detailing how it would react to the G7 oil price cap, overnight the Kremlin raised the stakes for the west when state-run Tass news service quoted Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak as saying that Russia may reduce output by 500,000 to 700,000 barrels a day in response to the cap. While not yet formalized, President Putin plans to sign a decree on the nation’s reaction to the threshold on Monday or Tuesday, containing unspecified “preventive measures." “A risk-on sentiment and a weaker US dollar are helping oil today,” said Giovanni Staunovo, a commodities analyst at UBS Group AG. “The Russian comments are also helping but the market probably wants to see it before it believes, hence a muted response.”

They still didn't learn a simple fact--what Kremlin says, it does. It was told to morons that Russia IS NOT going to sell hydrocarbons to countries which implement price caps. By default that means EU. It is so simple. 

It takes a titanic effort to explain to West "educated" (euphemism for being dumbed down finances manipulator) economist how Russian economy operates. Russian strategic industries and resources are now under state's control and operate under the principles espoused in the overall Russia's geopolitical strategy. So, when necessary, the economy reorients itself. That is why West's "strategy" against Russia failed miserably, despite all immense efforts to destabilize Russia's economy and, by default, Russia's war effort. Not only it didn't imped SMO, it, actually, spurred Russia into accelerated rearmament and expansion of military, while economy recovers nicely and the output grows. You can bet your ass on those things not being taught in Western universities, not least because of the caricature on Russian history of the 20th century. 

Meanwhile, Russia and her "broken" economy continue to churn out cutting edge weapons and today the latest in the Project 677 "Lada" the submarine Velikie Luki was floated in St. Petersburg (in Russian). This is the third one of this class, two more are building and, evidently, future ones will have anaerobic propulsion. Naturally, all of these subs are carriers of not just torpedoes but 3M14 and 3M54. They are extremely silent and highly automated.      

As I constantly explain to people who try to compare submarine fleets of Russia and the US that Russia always had a very large component of SSKs, which the US Navy doesn't have. And just in the last 8 years Russia floated out 13 (thirteen) newest diesel-electric subs, all carriers of cruise missiles and extremely advanced platforms for operation in Russia's littoral and remote sea zones. Six more, both of Pr. 636 and Pr. 677 are being built and will be floated out in 2023-2024. In all--19 subs. Not too shabby, eh? So, always keep in mind when comparing two submarine fleets, since USN doesn't have SSKs and operates exclusively nuclear submarines. Russian Navy operates both. Just some food for thought for today.

Why Russia Is Winning...

 ... no comments are necessary, just watch the video here:

https://t.me/mriya24/9659

Or here:

Christmas Wish  

Speaks for itself. Santa, of course, looks suspiciously like... wink, wink. 

It is especially true against Joey's wonderful one-liners and truth bombs. 

Of course, it is a hate speech nowadays, right? 

So, There Is Still Some Honor Left...

 ... and that is a hopeful sign, despite modern GOP infested with chicken-hawks and neocons, aka RINOs.  

Only 86 out of 213 Republican members of the US House of Representatives showed up to hear Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky address Congress in Washington on Wednesday, according to The Hill. The snub occurred after the House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly rejected the proposal for an audit of military and other aid to Ukraine earlier this month. Zelensky’s visit to the US was his first trip abroad after Russia launched a military campaign in the neighboring state in late February. He thanked the US for the support and requested more heavy weapons, including tanks and aircraft. Some Republicans, however, have been demanding more transparency from the government when it comes to helping Ukraine. “Sadly, what I didn’t hear tonight was a clear explanation of where the first $50 billion we sent to support their efforts went,” Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who attended Zelensky’s speech, said in a video message on Twitter. She said that she would “not support sending additional money to this war” until an audit was completed.

So, that's good. What is even better is this: 

The US Senate has greenlit legislation authorizing the administration of President Joe Biden to seize the American assets of Russian officials, businessmen and entities and send the proceeds to Ukraine. South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said the change in the law would raise “billions of dollars” for Kiev. The amendment was proposed by Graham and Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat. It passed unanimously and was added to a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package, which the Senate then passed by 68 votes to 29, comfortably clearing the 60-vote threshold necessary to advance the legislation. The amendment changes US law to allow the Department of Justice to sell off the assets of “oligarchs…and other sanctioned entities,” Graham explained before the vote. “I expect over time billions of dollars in seized assets will be sent to help Ukraine,” the South Carolina lawmaker wrote on Twitter afterwards. The Department of Justice has already called on Congress to amend US law so that money confiscated from sanctioned Russians can be given to Ukraine.

Why? First, I don't see any downside to the US stealing already stolen money by what remains an active strata of Russian crooks. Second, it is an excellent demonstration of the robber nature of modern America which needs to constantly produce an emotional highs in order to cover up and spin her kinetic (emphasis on kinetic) military impotence, despite a vast nuclear arsenal.  China, this is for you--take a heed. Today, in my latest video I give a little bit of treatment of this issue:

Because even militarily insignificant delivery (when? nobody knows) of a single battery of the Patriot (PAC3 or 2) was spun by dumb US media into something radical, which is expected from people who have zero military-technological background and who do not understand that by spinning it they damage already destroyed reputation of the US weapon systems further. Especially when Russia will demonstrate video and photo evidence of this system being destroyed. Russians, however, use this spin to their own advantage to keep public (namely Western) opinion on this because PR payoff, once this Patriot is annihilated, will be huge. PsyOps 101--blow something out of proportion and then discredit it in real life by practical means (empirically), get the pop-corn and observe the butt-hurt and sore losers after that.

Vladimir Putin signing the order forbidding Gazprom from buying gas from joint ventures with Western companies, such as Wintershall DEA and OMV, for more than established by Russia price for 1,000 cubic meters (in Russian), automatically kills remnants of Western involvement into the Russian natural resources, plus shuts down a shady Western "brokerage". Many people in NYC and London are having a bad bad day. Here is the order itself (in Russian, obviously) and as they say--the revenge is best served cold. So, here we are today and this is your primer.  

Mr. Smith Speaks...

 At Larry's blog:

The primary purpose of war is the destruction of the enemy’s ability to resist. That is a long process – weapons and ammunition destroyed, supply routes blocked, war production stopped, political will broken. And it’s a bloody process – the enemy’s soldiers must be killed or maimed. Clausewitz –

Fighting is the central military act… The object of fighting is the destruction or defeat of the enemy… Direct annihilation of the enemy’s forces must always be the dominant consideration.

Why “dominant consideration”? Simple – once you have destroyed the enemy’s power, you can do anything you want. Take territory without destroying power? Not so good. One may wonder whether this is understood at West Point given the number of TV generals who say Russia is losing because it’s given up territory and was “defeated” in Kiev. Don’t they remember that the US took Kabul and Baghdad quite early? That didn’t end either of those wars, did it?

Yes, this fabled Clausewitzian "compelling the enemy to do our will"(c). Or, as Generalissimo Stalin stated:"If the enemy doesn't surrender--it is annihilated", quoting Maxim Gorky from his 1930 article in Izvestia about class struggle. Stalin used this quote in February 23, 1942 Order #55 for Red Army. Very appropriate and very... Clausewitz. Read the whole thing at Larry's blog, including his excellent review of the "Dirty Dozen" concept:

Count me amused by the Westerners voicing shock and outrage over the fact that Russia is using a group of former convicts to help fight the new Nazis in Ukraine. This was not Putin’s unique idea. He obviously is a Lee Marvin fan:

In relation to Mozart Group, however, it has to be understood that they can teach very little to VSU since it is absolutely unique truly modern continental war and it is beyond the experiences of the American military. I want to stress--I am not talking about some tweaking of the Field Manuals, I am talking about a completely new approach to the opponent which in some crucial types of weaponry--Air Defense, Stand Off Weapons and EW is simply better, sometimes much better that the US military itself. Per Rogozin's wound--I hope he learned his lesson of not celebrating his birthday in the front-line city filled with Kiev's regime sympathizers and intel assets. He can "congratulate" himself now with the fact that, while he was lightly wounded, a few people, including his security guard, got killed. This IS the difference between military and intel professionals and, however smart, civilian leadership. Professionals would never do what Rogozin did, because they are honed and "endeared" to the idea that their professions are ones of the closest to death and probability of being killed, especially in operational and combat zones is very high. Now he learned, I hope.

Newspeak.

Thanks to Thermobarbaric for pointing this out.

A new academic report on efforts to integrate Marine Corps boot camp recommends dropping gender-specific salutations for drill instructors, but service leaders are not convinced they want to take that step. The lengthy report, commissioned by the Corps from the University of Pittsburgh in 2020 and completed in 2022, points out that half of the military services already have done away with gendered identifiers for training staff.

I briefly looked over the gist of this report as well as visited the site of this Lab in Pittsburgh and can confidently state that pseudo-sciences are increasingly present in American and Western universities and, obviously, the issue of combat training long ago became in the US Armed Forces the matter of voodoo-dancing, bad spirits exorcism rituals and developing a newspeak for already demoralized force. It has nothing to do with real combat training, cohesion of sub and units and tradition. 

Tucker and Candace speak about this issue a day ago. 

In general, at this stage any humanities "degree" obtained in the last 10 years from any US university should be viewed as disqualifying factor in any discussion on matters concerning history, politics, national security and real economy. The imposition of totalitarian (non)thinking is in full swing in the West and, eventually, this will also completely corrupt even STEM and natural sciences field. In fact, this is also in progress as I type it. 

Physicists Need to Be More Careful with How They Name Things. The popular term “quantum supremacy,” which refers to quantum computers outperforming classical ones, is uncomfortably reminiscent of “white supremacy”

I wrote about this insanity before. We observe a complete societal collapse, one institution after another, US military is in progress, STEM and free scientific inquiry are next. This is how civilizations die.

Of Note.

So, Mr. Shoigu said these key words: 

During a Russian Defense Ministry meeting on Wednesday, Shoigu proposed a number of measures to strengthen the security of the Russian Federation, including creating a special grouping of troops on the country’s northwestern border and expanding Russia’s armed forces to amount to 1.5 million servicemen in total, with some 695,000 of them being contract soldiers. ... Shoigu went on to suggest creating a number of new military groupings, including five new artillery divisions, eight bomber aviation regiments, and one fighter regiment, as well as six army aviation brigades. 

How about  5 (Five) new naval infantry divisions (!!! holy-molly), three motor-rifle divisions, two air-assault division, a number of brigades will be transformed into divisions, among other measures. This is NOT about VSU, which is primarily a spent force right now and Russia slowly, in economical way, annihilates the remnants of Ukraine's mobilization "potential". No, this is about NATO and where it will be moved back. Recall December 2021 Ultimatum? This is about NATO and finishing off US "hegemony", which is being finished as I type it. 

Here is something to consider:

China’s imports of oil, pipeline gas, LNG, and coal from Russia have hit a total of $68 billion since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, up from $41 billion for the same period last year, as Western buyers shun or have banned imports of many Russian energy products, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.  

You also heard about India, right? 

For India, the reorientation of Russian economic diplomacy toward the Asian region presents huge business opportunities. Who would have thought nine months ago that Russia was going to be the largest supplier of oil to India, leapfrogging Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the US? According to Reuters, India purchased about 40% of all export volumes of Russian Urals grade oil transported by sea in November, when European countries accounted for 25%, Turkey 15% and China 5%. The figures speak for themselves: in November, while Russia supplied 909,000.4 barrels of crude oil to India per day, the corresponding figures were for Iraq (861,000.4), Saudi Arabia (570,000.9), and the US (405,000.5) Suffice it to say that when Modi upfront listed energy as his talking point with Putin, it reconfirms that India is giving a wide berth to the G7’s hare-brained scheme to impose a price cap on Russian oil exports.

And Eurasian dynamics is such that even with consuming EU's, grossly inadequate, resources, the US is no competition to an emerging military and economic giant of BRICS and associated members. But grasping at the last straw is what makes Washington MO and Russia is fully ready. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will provide $1.85 billion in military aid to Ukraine, rolling out funding for a Patriot missile battery as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Washington for his first known trip out of his country since Russia invaded in February. The White House announcement came just hours before Zelenskyy landed at Joint Base Andrews, just outside the capital. The package includes $1 billion in weapons and equipment from Pentagon stocks, including the Patriot battery for the first time, and $850 million in funding through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Part of the USAI will be used to fund a satellite communications system, which likely will include the crucial SpaceX Starlink satellite network system owned by Elon Musk.

As I am on record--Patriot's, including PAC3 version, record is dismal, as is of all other types of NATO weapon systems availed to Kiev regime, and the only way NATO can avoid of a single battery of Patriot PAC3 to be annihilated immediately is to deploy it in the midst of civilian infrastructure--a MO of VSU--such as apartment blocks, kindergartens and other buildings of such a nature. As is reported:

The decision to send the Patriot battery comes despite threats from Russia’s Foreign Ministry that the delivery of the advanced surface-to-air missile system would be considered a provocative step and that the Patriot and any crews accompanying it would be a legitimate target for Moscow’s military. But the White House is pushing back against the notion that delivery of the Patriot amounts to an escalation of U.S. involvement on behalf of Ukraine. A senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said that Biden has been clear that his administration would “lean forward” in supporting Ukraine but it is “not seeking to engage in direct war with Russia.”

As I am also on record--the only war the US can fight against Russia is a nuclear one, but we all know what it means, so the semantics game and usual media spin form Washington are already unfolding. Russia, however, has no illusions about West's intentions. So, in a larger scheme of things all this is not significant in relation to the overall situation at the front in former Ukraine or to the economic collapse in progress in the EU and, to a certain degree, in the US. 

Here Brian Berletic gives a good explanation on how Western media obfuscate, a euphemism for outright lying, a dire situation for VSU in Bakhmut. 

I am telling you--one can literally develop a cottage industry of debunking shit of Western media and make a living just on that alone. But, we need to constantly keep our eyes on a bigger prize. Could the biggest of them be a destruction of NATO as such, not just rolling it back to the borders of 1997? Possible. Some European clowns begin to get the idea. 

French President Emmanuel Macron has reiterated his belief that the conflict in Ukraine will inevitably be resolved at the negotiating table, and that the West and NATO in particular will have to come up with security guarantees not only for Kiev, but Moscow as well, to secure a lasting peace. “The day of peace will involve discussions. First and foremost for guarantees to Ukraine, for its territorial integrity, its long-term security. But also for Russia, as a party that it will be to an armistice and peace treaty,” Macron said in an interview with the TF1 and LCI channels broadcast on Tuesday.

But the term "negotiations" as perceived by Russia now has a much more menacing for the combined West connotation--a dictation of the terms of surrender. Even this event tells the story.

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Tuesday that Ukraine “is not an ally” of his country and warned against bringing “war” to the Balkans. “Ukraine is not an ally. It’s being forcibly made into one. It was cynically granted the status of an EU candidate. That’s what the EU is today: squalor, zero.” Talking to reporters, he also hit out against Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic for his proposal to have Ukrainian troops trained in Croatia. Milanovic said such a move would “bring war” to the country. “You keep pushing moral blackmail,” he addressed Plenkovic, “but you have no morals yourself. Go to Ukraine and fight.”

You know, as they say, the writing is on the wall. Can they read in Washington? We'll see. As I always stress--in historic terms 10 years is nothing, a second really. I can only imagine what we will be talking about in a couple of years time. If humanity survives the death of the West.

I Know The Long Weekend Is Coming.

But I want to repeat something what I posted a few months ago, about the death of (Western) civilization by legendary Joe Lynn Turner. 

And then Joe provides this masterpiece. Not surprisingly, shot and produced in... Russia.  

This is artistic and human maturity as expressed in art. For everything else there is CNN and MSNBC.

Ania Reporting From Moscow.

Lovely Ania is in Russia, if someone didn't know that. Watch all her reports from there. I will dedicate more to courageous women of real journalism (Eva Bartlett is the prime example) more soon. But here is Ania today. 

Enjoy winter Moscow, while we here in the Pacific Northwest "enjoy" our Winter storm.

This Is A Serious... LOL.

Wait a minute, how could this be, wink, wink?

МОСКВА, 20 декабря. /ТАСС/. Компания "Транснефть" получила заявки от Польши и Германии на прокачку нефти на декабрь, 2023 год и первый квартал следующего года соответственно, несмотря на сообщения о нежелании продолжать поставки. Об этом заявил президент "Транснефти" Николай Токарев во вторник в эфире телеканала "Россия-24". "Вот объявили, что не будут брать с первого января у России нефть. А к нам пришли заявки сейчас от польских потребителей: на следующий год 3 млн тонн дайте нам, и на декабрь 360 тыс. тонн, и на первый квартал Германия уже подала заявку - тоже дайте", - сказал он.

Translation:  MOSCOW, 20 December. /TASS/. Transneft has received applications from Poland and Germany to pump oil for December, 2023 and the first quarter of next year, respectively, despite reports of unwillingness to continue deliveries. This was stated by Transneft President Nikolai Tokarev on Tuesday on the air of the Rossiya-24 TV channel. “They announced that they would not take oil from Russia from January 1. And now we have received applications from Polish consumers: give us 3 million tons next year, and 360 thousand tons for December, and Germany has already submitted an application for the first quarter “Give it to us too,” he said.

Of course, Transneft has a long-term (through 2024) contract with Polish operator Orlen, but... but... what about sanctions, price caps and shit like that? Nah, it is all for the show. The latest EU (9th) "horrible" sanctions cancelled for Russia... succory, acetone and... lasers (here I start to giggle uncontrollably) with... rhododendrons. WTF. This horrifying "package" moved Elena Karaeva to write an acerbic and hilarious piece for Ria (sadly, only in Russian) on this matter. You see, there are reportedly 130 PR agencies from the US alone which are in charge of "spinning" the SMO. But somebody forgot to tell those "experts" that reality is a bitch and no amount of spin can substitute food, heat and military victory. But what do I know? 

Meanwhile, the info from Bakhmut is dire for VSU and, without going into long elaborations, there seems to be a nice "little" cauldron forming which will collapse the front. VSU even throws formations from Kherson to Bakhmut. Make your own conclusions. The reports about losses of VSU are mind-boggling even from the actively pro-Kiev regime US "Mozart" group. 

Ukrainian units training with Mozart “have been taking extraordinarily high casualties,” Milburn told Newsweek. “The numbers you are reading in the media about 70 percent and above casualties being routine are not exaggerated.” 

Meanwhile: 

The Kremlin has commented on a statement by Andrey Gurulev, a retired general and MP, who earlier said that Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a special military operation zone as Russia continues its campaign against Ukrainian forces. Earlier on Tuesday, Gurulev said that “our commander-in-chief has been to the special military operation zone,” referring to Putin. “When it comes to the visit to the special military operation zone, it … was very important that [the president] did not just receive a report on the situation… but talked to every commander personally,” the retired general said, adding that “personal communication provides full understanding of what is happening now and what would happen in the future.” “If he [Gurulev] means the headquarters, where he [Putin] was on Friday, then yes,” Peskov told Russia’s Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.

Somebody needs to tell Gurulev (a very dubious figure to put it mildly) to shut his yapper once in a while, but since the info is out, let's start the stop-watch before "anonymous official" from Pentagon, State Department, CIA, NASA, USDA etc. (take you pick) will tell NYT that they saved Vladimir Putin's life by telling Kiev not to kill him, right;))  So, here we are today.