A Russian meme in response to Biden’s comments about a “Putin’s tax” is making the rounds online:

Mishustin: Mr. President, in accordance with your orders, we imposed a tax on gas and electricity in the U.S.

Putin: And the food?

Mishustin: That was done in May.

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The Putin’s tax meme.

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American historian and Yale professor Timothy Snyder argues that Russia is out to starve the world, and that WWII was actually all about Ukraine.

From Snyder’s Twitter thread:

The idea that controlling Ukrainian grain can change the world is not new. Both Stalin and Hitler wished to do so. […] Controlling Ukrainian agriculture — this was in fact Hitler's central war aim.

Putin's hunger plan is meant to generate refugees from North Africa and the Middle East, areas usually fed by Ukraine. This would generate instability in the EU.

When the food riots begin, and as starvation spreads, Russian propaganda will blame Ukraine, and call for Russia's territorial gains in Ukraine to be recognized, and for all sanctions to be lifted.

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❗️Medvedev: Ukraine may soon disappear from the world map.

From Medvedev’s Telegram post:

I saw the news that Ukraine wants to receive LNG from its overseas owners with a 2-year payment deferral under the Lend-Lease Program, otherwise they will simply freeze in the winter.

But who said that in two years Ukraine will even exist on the world map? Although the Americans don’t care anymore — they have invested so much into the “anti-Russia” project that nothing else really matters for them.

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❗️Putin set to deliver a major speech on the state of the world at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 17.

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SPIEF, Russia’s premiere economic forum, kicks off in St. Petersburg.

Western investors are out.
The Taliban is in.

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Ukrainian losses in Donbas are reaching astronomical levels, with up to 1,000 soldiers killed or wounded daily.

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SPIEF 2022 ROUNDUP

Today is the last day of the 25th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum under the theme “New Opportunities in a New World”. Here are some key takeaways:

SPIEF is an event for business leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and others to network, discuss, and make deals. This year, the forum took place against the backdrop of war in Ukraine, global volatility, and unprecedented sanctions against Russia. Despite this, some 14,000 participants attended SPIEF in 2022, slightly up from 13,500 last year.

In 2021, 890 agreements were signed at SPIEF, valuing 3.271 trillion rubles. This year more than 690 agreements totally worth over 5.6 trillion rubles ($99.8 bln) have been concluded.

Vladimir Putin also gave a highly anticipated speech at the plenary session on June 17th:

▪️“The era of unipolarity is over.” What this will bring in the future remains to be seen. The dynamism of the current moment is an opportunity for entrepreneurs and leaders;
▪️Russia “will normalise the economic situation” and has already “stabilised the financial markets, the banking system and the trade network”;
▪️“The dire forecasts for the prospects of the Russian economy […] have not materialized”;
▪️“After peaking at 17.8 percent, inflation now stands at 16.7 percent and continues dropping”;
▪️“The [Russian] federal budget has a surplus of 1.5 trillion rubles and the consolidated budget – a surplus of 3.3 trillion ruble”;
▪️The West is waging an “economic Blitzkrieg” against Russia, which Putin said has not gone well for the European Union, with calculable losses of $400 billion due to blowback from sanctions;
▪️Western economies continue to print money. US money supply grew by 38% in just 2 years. 20% in the EU over the same period. This policy is not sustainable, and Western Leaders, not Russia, are to blame for inflation and rising prices in their countries.

The full speech includes more details, also regarding the war in Donbass. React with 👍 if you would like to hear more about SPIEF 2022.
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U.S. Embassy in Moscow gets new address, named after the DPR.

"The United States Embassy in Russia has a new official address," the Moscow City Hall said in a statement.

The embassy is now located at the Donetsk People's Republic Square, referring to a breakaway region in eastern Ukraine that Russia recognized as independent on February 22.

The new address was chosen in a public vote with the participation of nearly 280,000 Moscovites, the city hall noted.

In February 2018, a street outside the Russian Embassy in Washington was named after Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician who was shot dead outside the Kremlin in 2015.

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Ukraine receives first batch of HIMARS from U.S.

“HIMARS have arrived to Ukraine. Thank you to my U.S. colleague and friend Secretary Austin for these powerful tools! Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov wrote on Twitter.

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Some in Congress are now openly calling for the breakup of Russia.

Yesterday, the US government’s Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, or Helsinki Commission, held a Congressional briefing titled "Decolonizing Russia". Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) opened up the presentation, which may be the first in a series, by claiming that Russians “have in essence colonized their own country,” arguing that Russia is “not a strict nation, in the sense that we’ve known in the past.”

Present at the meeting was also Casey Michel, who last month authored a piece in The Atlantic titled "Decolonize Russia" and which seems to have been the impetus for the briefing. According to Michel, decolonizing Russia is not solely about "partitioning" and "dismembering" the Russian Federation, but about a supposed authentic commitment to "anti-imperialism."

Which countries would the proponents of this idea like to carve out of Russia? The meeting mentioned Chechnya, Tatarstan, Dagestan, and Circassia. Siberia is to be divided into several Republics.

As we've highlighted in a previous post, some voices in the US/NATO camp have adopted a pro-Balkanization line with respect to the Russian Federation, just as the West sought the breakup of Yugoslavia some 30 years ago. What differs today is the openness with which this is advocated. The language of "decolonization" smudges over what are, in effect, old neo-conservative talking points and foreign policy positions. It's "woke"/"intersectional" neo-conservatism.

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Africans praise Russia, say Ukraine “sold out to the West.”

Speaking to CNN, influential MK veteran Obbey Mabena referred to the Russians as the first white people “who treated us as equal beings.”

“Russia is our friend. Our friend’s enemy is our enemy,” he summed up.

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Ukraine releases first footage of U.S.-supplied HIMARS firing on Russian positions.

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Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland unexpectedly lights up in colors of the Russian flag.

The photo was taken by one of our editors on Friday night.

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There is no rational path to a victory for Ukraine, says Lt. Col. Daniel Davis.

“Russia is methodically moving through and destroying the Ukrainian armed forces in the Donbas. More than capturing territory, they’re destroying their ability to defend the country anywhere else,” Davis noted.

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Ukraine has lost the war and the Western sanctions against Russia have failed, says retired U.S. Army colonel and Virginia politician Richard Black.

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Lavrov compares the West’s policy towards Moscow with that of Hitler, says the EU and NATO are building a coalition for war with Russia.

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A Russian outpost in Izyum, Kharkov Oblast, was reportedly among the first hit by the U.S.-supplied HIMARS that had recently made their debut on the Ukrainian battlefield.

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Not a U.S. proxy war? Ukraine is crawling with special forces and CIA agents, NYT reveals.

In an article titled "Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine," anonymous western officials admit that the U.S. is operating “a stealthy network of commandos and spies,” to provide Ukraine with weapons, intelligence and training.

Also working alongside the Americans inside Ukraine are a few dozen commandos from other NATO countries, including Britain, France, Canada and Lithuania.

But the scope of the operation extends far beyond the territory of Ukraine, with much of the activities taking place at bases in Germany, France and Britain.

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Americans must embrace the Ukraine war as their own and do more to defeat Russia, says Washington Post columnist Max Boot.

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Boris Johnson tells Americans that high inflation and the billions of dollars Biden is spending on Ukraine is “a price worth paying” for defending democracy and freedom in other countries.

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