Sunday, March 06, 2022

Ukraine Conflict Roundup - 6 March 2022

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[ Ukraine And The NGO Archipelago ] ... [ "Energy Shortages Could Threaten Social Cohesion": Germany Warns Against Ban On Energy Imports From Russia ] ... [ Zelensky Lambasts West in Tirade Against 'Weak' NATO ] ... [ Now We Have A “Hot War” With Russia & We Are Being Warned That “WW3 Can Only Be Nuclear” ] ... [ Ukrainian MP says country 'feel abandoned by the West' ] ... [ The Unintended Consequences Of The Wests Response To Russia's Invasion/ ]

 

Ukraine And The NGO Archipelago

Authored by David Reaboi at Substack

I’ve half-written several pieces on the unfolding Ukraine crisis—mostly as I see things through the lens of the information warfare business in the West—but my posts on Twitter might be the best place to get quick analysis on it, alongside everything else. The effectiveness of writing think-pieces at all about fast-developing stories is now an open question; the old TLDR (“Too Long, Didn’t Read”) dynamic seems to’ve been replaced by, simply, DR.


 

Even for Americans who, rightly, are opposed to US government involvement in the conflict, the Ukraine issue is massive knot of nearly every important concern: energy, economy, foreign policy, communications and censorship, the end of American hegemony, the Deep State, the limits of knowing, etc. All those intersections are fertile ground for pundits and analysts and citizens to consider.

Most of all, I’ve been alarmed at the predictable onslaught of one-sided propaganda and over-the-top lies coming from Western outlets, and the totalizing moral panic that discourages sober thought about the conflict. Putin’s Russia was certainly the aggressor—but American media from Fox to CNN and NBC supply an airbrushed narrative, a black-and-white morality tale. Not only is the truth in this conflict a shade of gray—but the implications are, as well.

Like BLM, Covid, and other the media and politicians of both parties have locked arms around a consensus. Allegiance to the the narrative must come before independent thought, which brings with it the possibility of questioning that narrative. Dissenters—heck, even questioners—have been shouted down and called, “traitors.”

The agitprop is so thick because Ukraine is ground zero for an ecosystem of influence that, for about a decade, has been able to wield tremendous consensus-making power within the American and western foreign policy community. Influencing the public and policy debate on Ukraine and Russia is precisely what this ecosystem was built to do.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has been a cash machine for western oligarchs. With a very low standard of living and rampant corruption, the country was the perfect place for the very wealthy to make a buck. Unlike Eastern Europe, which had gotten far more expensive by then, Ukraine was a relative badland; pennies-on-the dollar investments in Ukrainian business and infrastructure would produce a windfall if the country moved towards NATO and the European Union.

In 2014, the western-backed Maiden uprising was a Color Revolution regime change effort in order to ensure this glide-path toward NATO and the EU would continue. But that’s only half the battle; the effort required the commitment of American policymakers who would push it aggressively from within the world’s most powerful government, as well.

Western oligarchs invested in Ukraine funded a massive infrastructure of information and influence operations I often refer to as the “NGO Archipelago.”

 



 

Germany's economy minister says he regrets the country is still dependent on imports from Moscow, and that Europe's largest economy is already feeling the impact of sanctions imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck speaks about the impact of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine

Habeck said Germany must free itself from imports of Russian energy

Germany is currently still dependent on Russian fossil fuels, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Thursday.

He spoke out against a ban on energy imports from Russia in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. 

"I would not advocate an embargo on Russian imports of fossil fuels. I would even oppose it," he said after meeting German business leaders.

"We need these energy supplies to maintain the price stability and energy security in Germany," Habeck added.

A shortage in supply could threaten social cohesion in Germany, he warned.

Habeck stressed Germany "must free ourselves" from imports of Russia's gas, coal, and oil.

In February, Germany stopped the controversial Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline. It has since joined other European nations in introducing a raft of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Habeck, however, said Germany has already begun to feel the effects of those decisions.

"The impact of the sanctions and of the war on all sectors of the economy is so strong that we can fear a big impact," Habeck said.

The minister said any hopes that Europe's largest economy would return to post-pandemic levels later this year were dashed.

"We had hoped that we will experience an upswing this spring, a recovery phase. But now we have the consequences of the war," he warned.

Habeck urged consumers do their bit by reducing consumption. "If you want to hurt Putin a little, then save energy," he said.



Zelensky Lambasts West in Tirade Against 'Weak' NATO

from Western Journal

With his life on the line every day his country fights back against Russian forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is angry that Western nations want to avoid alienating Russian leader Vladimir Putin while also backing Ukraine.

NATO leaders on Friday said that establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, as Zelenskyy has begged for, would be a step too far in putting the West on Putin’s list of enemies.

On Saturday, Putin explicitly said that any country that stands with Ukraine to support it in the skies would be considered an enemy.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainians will die because of the temporizing and half-measures of NATO members that fear Putin more than they support freedom, according to Axios.

The “narrative” that supporting a no-fly zone leads directly to Russian aggression on their own counties is the “self-hypnosis of those who are weak, under-confident inside,” Zelenskyy said.

“All the people who will die starting from this day will also die because of you, because of your weakness, because of your disunity,” he continued.

Zelenskyy sought to portray the need for a no-fly zone in the stark terms of Ukrainian survival, saying the NATO summit was a “weak summit, confused summit, summit which shows that not everyone considers the struggle for freedom to be Europe’s number one goal.”

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Now We Have A “Hot War” With Russia & We Are Being Warned That “WW3 Can Only Be Nuclear”

by Michael Snyder, SHTF plan, 6 March 2022

 

We are watching a slow-motion horror show unfold right in front of our eyes, and nobody seems to have a way to stop it.  The vast majority of the global population did not want World War III to happen, but it has started anyway.

For years I have been warning that such a conflict would erupt if we did not change course, and now here we are.  I am very angry at Vladimir Putin for launching a full-blown invasion of Ukraine because he didn’t need to do that.  And I am also very angry at the Biden administration, European leaders, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for endless provoking the Russians and for refusing to negotiate an agreement that could have settled all of this peacefully.  I blame both sides for the war because in my opinion it could have been avoided so easily.  But now that World War III has begun, there will be no going back.

On Thursday, the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service made a statement that should be a major league wake-up call for all of us.

According to Sergei Naryshkin, Russia is now engaged in a “hot war” with western powers…

Also on Thursday the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergei Naryshkin, issued a series of bombshell statements which may reveal Moscow’s broader aims in the war concerning how Russia’s sees its ultimate security aims. Naryshkin said that “for us this is no longer a Cold War with the West but a hot war,” according to Interfax. He said in the rare statement that “Russia now has a real chance to put an end to the war that has been waged in the Post-Soviet space for the past 30 years” – as also quoted in TASS.

If that is how the Russians really view things, that is extremely sobering.

Because a “hot war” between two sides armed with nuclear weapons has the potential to spiral out of control very easily.

Continue reading >>>
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Ukrainian MP says country 'feel abandoned by the West'

from GBNews


 

A Ukrainian MP has said the country feels “abandoned by the West” as she condemned the response of the UK and US to the Russian invasion.

Inna Sovsun, deputy leader of the Holos Party, said the rollout of sanctions on Russia is not at “the same speed as the rollout of the atrocities of the war”.

“Right now, there is this feeling of betrayal… and we do feel abandoned by the West,” the 37-year-old told the PA news agency.

“We are extremely disappointed with both the UK government and the American government… we were hoping for the sanctions to be more rapid and more overwhelming.

“Not a single pound should be going into Russia right now – they will be using that to buy weapons with which they will continue to be killing Ukrainians.

“The rollout of sanctions isn’t on the same speed as the rollout of the atrocities of the war that (Vladimir) Putin launched against us.”

 

Ms Sovsun said this lack of action from the West meant she was “angered” by a speech from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which the politician said Ukrainians are “inspiring the world”.

“I’m sorry but that just got me so angry, because I don’t want to be inspiring, I want to be able to read a book to my son when putting him to bed, who I haven’t seen for eight days,” Ms Sovsun said.

“We don’t want to be inspiring…. we don’t want to be the beacon of democracy – in Ukraine, we just want to stay alive.

“We want every single Russian kicked out of every single country that says they love Ukraine… and want to support us.

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The Unintended Consequences Of The Wests Response To Russia's Invasion/

from The Daily Sceptic, 6 Marcg 2022

The West has responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in three main ways: pouring arms into Ukraine to buttress the country’s defence; imposing heavy sanctions on Russia to cripple its economy; and essentially ‘cancelling’ Russia by shutting down its foreign media, censoring its cultural exports, and banning its athletes from international competitions. The hope seems to be that either one of three things will happen: the Russians will be defeated or forced to withdraw; Putin will be overthrown in a palace coup or popular uprising; or he’ll be brought to the negotiating table and made to accept terms highly unfavourable to Russia. While this strategy may work, I’ve yet to read a cogent defence of it. In fact, the strategy could have a number of negative second-order effects – i.e., unintended consequences – that haven’t been properly thought through. As several people have observed, the West’s response seems to have been slapped together on the fly amidst a storm of social media outrage, as opposed to being carefully devised after consideration of all possible eventualities Continue reading >>>
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