It Is A Well-Known Fact...

 ... that Obama's uncle liberated Auschwitz, while Western Allies captured Berlin. 

МОСКВА, 18 апр — РИА Новости. Посольство России в Берлине получило уведомление о нежелательности участия официальных представителей РФ в памятных мероприятиях по случаю 79-й годовщины освобождения узников концлагерей, заявила официальный представитель МИД РФ Мария Захарова.  

Translation: MOSCOW, April 18 – RIA Novosti. The Russian Embassy in Berlin received a notice that it is undesirable for Russian officials to participate in commemorative events on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the liberation of concentration camp prisoners, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

There is no need to discuss Zakharova's response, because I write in this blog for 10 years now about unrelenting rewriting and falsifying of history of WW II by the West. E.g. as was noted on many occasions before, professionally respected by me Colonel Macgregor continues to spread what amounts to Nazi propaganda about the Red Army and USSR in WW II having absolutely no background in real history of WW II other than cherry picking dubious (Norman Davis, anyone) sources and anecdotal "evidence" from whatever the environment of Baltic or Ukrainian people he grew up with. I am on record--Russia must repatriate remains of Red Army soldiers buried anywhere in Europe, especially Germany, and remove the monument in Treptower Park and bring it back to Russia. The generation of Western Allies who fought heroically in WW II is pretty much gone now and there is no need in trying to convince the West about who and how defeated Nazism. 

Small minority of Europeans who know the truth makes no difference whatsoever in public opinion and they will continue to know anyway because this is what normal people do. The rest, who cares--it is over for the West anyway and the trajectory to oblivion is well defined. The break between Russia and the West is final and, as was pointed out by me on many occasions, a traditional Russophobia of Europeans, always near the surface, was released by Washington and as this proverbial genie it is now out of the bottle. This is THE point--these are not just "elites", this is the majority of population. Modern Western "values" are incompatible with Russian values which are effectively Christian conservative values and NO, so called American "Christian conservatives" are not really conservatives in their outlook. 

A move away from conducting financial transactions through Western payment systems, including SWIFT, is vital for Russia and its trading partners, the head of the country’s second-largest lender has said. Speaking on Thursday at the Data Fusion 2024 conference, VTB CEO Andrey Kostin called for the promotion of digital financial settlements in Russia and allied nations. Such a step would end the dominance of the dollar and gain full sovereignty in the financial sector, he claimed. “SWIFT has announced plans to carry out digital payments soon, but we need to kill SWIFT in our settlements, we need to completely get away from it and involve our partners in this as well,” the banking executive insisted, highlighting major work that is being done by the Bank of Russia to achieve the goal. According to Kostin, VTB is currently working on a pilot project to bring the digital ruble into general use, including in cross-border payments.

This is just one sign out of many which testify to an ongoing decoupling of Russia from West's political and economic institutions. Cultural will follow, because true European culture has been already largely transplanted onto Russian soil. Classic and best of modern European culture lives and thrives in Russia. The rest is trash and shouldn't be allowed in. The Iron Curtain is in order and it is Russia now who begins to erect it.  

Peter Hitchens And Pepe Escobar Weigh In.

First is ever classy Peter Hitchens weighing in in a series of interviews on the state of the British society. He is not optimistic, especially when discussing the "education". I agree on many points with him and the tragedy with school education (including private ones) which unfolds in the combined West is already having a major geopolitical effect. 

Then, Pepe writes a superb piece on Germany and NS2 which symptomatically is titled Frozen Deutschland. As Pepe notes:

Translation: gas from Nord Stream 2 will be absent during the coming winter in Europe and the pipeline, at best, might start running only by mid-2022. And that certainly ties in with the politicking angle, as the German regulators are de facto waiting for the new German ruling coalition to emerge, including the neoliberal Greens who are viscerally anti-Nord Stream and anti-Russia. The European energy executive did not mince his words on a quite possible scenario: “If Germany does not obtain their oil and natural gas by land now they cannot fashion a fall back position, as there is not sufficient LNG capacity or oil for that matter to supply the EU this winter. They are going to freeze. Much of their economy will be forced to shut down. Unemployment will soar. It would take four years to build up LNG capacity for natural gas but who will build it for them?” Germany has zero margin of maneuver to dictate conditions to Gazprom and Russia. The gas that Gazprom won’t sell to northern Europe will be sold to eastern and southern Europe via Turk Stream, and most of all to Asian clients, which do not engage in blackmail and pay much better than the Europeans.

Russia IS already redirecting a lot of her resources to Asia and, in general, countries like Germany will be supplied on the "what's left" or "leftovers" bases. I wrote about it a year or so ago, during the oil crisis--those who are interested they may find it. It all, actually, ties extremely well with what Peter Hitchens says, because the products of this "education", which was in a downward spiral since 1990s, are beginning to reach important posts in EU nations and in the US. As Pepe duly notes:

It will be up to the “resolve of Poland and Lithuania” to “counter the Kremlin threat”. The ideal framework in this case should be the Lublin Triangle – which unites Poland and Lithuania with Ukraine. These are the lineaments of the new Iron Curtain, erected by the Atlanticists, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, to “isolate” Russia. Predictably, German Atlanticists are a crucial part of the package. Of course, to be successful, these actors should “also seek greater U.S. and UK engagement”, with every movement complementing “the role of NATO as the ultimate guarantor of peace in the region”. So behold, EU mortals: a “perfect storm of Russian aggression during the coming winter months” is all but inevitable. Watch it on your screens while you properly freeze.

It goes without saying that most of modern Atlanticists on both shores of the Atlantic are extremely incompetent and something tells me that Russia at this point is really indifferent to new Iron Curtain and, in fact, as I am on record constantly, this new Iron Curtain could be a blessing in disguise to Russia who seeks to preserve her culture, traditions and sanity.