Debate Highlight: Stephen Walt asks Michael McFaul, former US Ambassador to Russia, about NATO's desire to eventually absorb Ukraine.

According to McFaul, the US was lying when it said in 2021 that Ukrainian membership in NATO was still on the table. He quickly realizes the problem with saying US diplomats can't be trusted.

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Former President George W. Bush: “The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean of Ukraine.”

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Ukrainian fighters from Azovstal are continuing to surrender in Mariupol. According to one DPR commander, who’s reportedly overseeing the process, 1800 Ukrainian troops have surrendered thus far.

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Zelensky’s secret police continue arresting Ukrainians suspected of pro-Russian views.

In the latest raid witnessed by Western journalists, SBU special forces detained an old lady in a village that had briefly been under Russian control.

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George W. Bush gets duped by Russian pranksters, admits to fake Zelensky that NATO expansion broke U.S. promise to Gorbachev.

“Listen, times change. […] The U.S. must be flexible adjusting to the times,” said Bush in justifying Washington’s decision to disregard the assurances made to Gorbachev in 1990.

The former U.S. president also admitted that he always felt it was necessary for Ukraine to become a member of NATO and the EU.

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The coming food catastrophe: War is tipping a fragile world towards mass hunger.

From The Economist:

The high cost of staple foods has already raised the number of people who cannot be sure of getting enough to eat by 440m, to 1.6bn. Nearly 250m are on the brink of famine.

Russia and Ukraine supply 28% of globally traded wheat, 29% of the barley, 15% of the maize and 75% of the sunflower oil. The war is disrupting these supplies.

The scene is set for a blame game, in which the West condemns Mr Putin for his invasion and Russia decries Western sanctions.

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💰 Ruble reaches four-year high against the US dollar and a seven-year high against the Euro on Friday.

Reaching 57.67 rubles against the 1 dollar represents the ruble’s strongest position since March 2018, as more European companies appeared to be complying with Vladimir Putin’s demand that they switch to paying in Russia’s currency for natural gas.

Last month, Gazprom halted gas flows to Poland and Bulgaria for non-compliance. In Finland, flows on a main pipeline are set to stop in the early hours of Saturday after the country refused to pay in rubles.

“The exchange rate could go even stronger,” said Evgeny Koshelev at Rosbank. “The overhang of hard currency liquidity can’t be absorbed by internal means -- banks are less and less interested since there’s no demand, the population doesn’t have any way of using it.”

As reported earlier, the Russian currency has become the world's best-performing currency in 2022, despite a sharp drop in April, sparked by unprecedented sanctions.

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❗️Top commanders of Azov Battalion, the notorious elite neo-Nazi unit within Ukraine’s National Guard, surrender to Russian forces in Mariupol.

Azov Battalion commander Denys Prokopenko, his deputy Svyatoslav Palamar, and the commander of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade Serhiy Volyna are among the 2439 Ukrainian fighters who surrendered to the DPR and Russian forces at Azovstal, Russian MOD confirms.

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History professor at Yale University argues that Russia is a fascist state.

“People disagree, often vehemently, over what constitutes fascism. But today’s Russia meets most of the criteria that scholars tend to apply. It has a cult around a single leader, Vladimir Putin. It has a cult of the dead, organized around World War II. It has a myth of a past golden age of imperial greatness, to be restored by a war of healing violence,” — writes Dr. Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale University and the author of many books on fascism, totalitarianism and European history.

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The West has artificially separated the Ukrainian and Russian peoples, says former UN expert.

From Alfred de Zayas’s Twitter:

It is not Russia who wanted to be an enemy of NATO. It is NATO that needed an enemy for its raison d'être and unilaterally assigned this role to Russia.

NATO has done nothing but threaten and provoke since 1991. The Ukrainian tragedy is a direct consequence of our own behaviour as predicted by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Cohen.

Peace in Europe and for the world requires that all Europeans look for and find their common ground. The Russians are very much Europeans and will remain so.

The West has artificially separated the Ukrainian and Russian peoples who have lived together in peace for centuries.

The Ukrainian and Russian languages are extremely close as the Ukrainian and Russian cultures. Their differences are artificially generated for geopolitical reasons.

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European Film Academy president calls for ban on Russian culture.

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Putin has “a black heart” and “Stalin’s taste for blood,” says Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) while explaining to his constituents why he voted for the $40 billion Ukraine aid package.

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Sanctions against Russia will not stop the war in Ukraine, they will only impoverish the citizens of the EU, says Croatian Member of the European Parliament Mislav Kolakušić.

If the EU was serious about preventing wars, it would impose sanctions on the United States, Kolakušić argues.

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“Your mission is to destroy as many Russian troops as you can,” former President Bush tells a Zelensky imposter while reassuring him of continued U.S. support.

George W. Bush was duped into believing he was on a call with the Ukrainian president when, in fact, he was speaking to Russian pranksters.

During the call, Bush also admitted that the U.S. had lied to Gorbachev about not expanding NATO and noted that Russia’s grievances would stop being an issue once Moscow was defeated in Ukraine.

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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) speaks out against any kind of peace agreement in Ukraine, suggests end goal is retaking Donbas and Crimea, followed by regime change in Russia.

While speaking at WEF, Manchin also noted that he and the strategists he talks to have never seen an "opportunity" like this war to "do what needs to be done" against Putin.

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“What have I done for Ukraine today?” — Zelensky calls on world leaders at Davos to keep asking themselves that question despite the urge to focus on the problems of their own countries.

The crowd responded with a standing ovation, except for the Chinese delegation, which reportedly didn’t clap and remained seated.

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Kissinger: The West should push Ukraine to negotiate with and cede territory to Russia.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the former U.S. Secretary of State warned that attempts to inflict a crushing defeat on Russian forces in Ukraine will have disastrous consequences for the long-term stability of Europe.

After saying that Western countries should remember Russia’s importance to Europe and not get swept up “in the mood of the moment,” Kissinger also pushed for the West to force Ukraine into accepting negotiations.

Attempts to retake occupied territory from Russia “would not be about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself,” the veteran statesman noted.

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❗️Hungary’s Orban declares state of emergency, says world is on the brink of an economic crisis.

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Americans are growing less supportive of the anti-Russia sanctions as the U.S. economy falters, a new AP poll finds.

From AP News:

Now 45% of U.S. adults say the nation’s bigger priority should be sanctioning Russia as effectively as possible, while slightly more — 51% — say it should be limiting damage to the U.S. economy.

In April, those figures were exactly reversed. In March, shortly after Russia attacked Ukraine, a clear majority — 55% — said the bigger priority should be sanctioning Russia as effectively as possible.

The shifts in opinion reflect how rising prices are biting into American households — surging costs for gas, groceries, and other commodities have strained budgets for millions of people — and perhaps limiting their willingness to support Ukraine financially.

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Somewhere in California.
“Viva a Rusia! Viva a México!”

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❗️Zelensky urges West to speed up heavy weapons deliveries and declares intention to take back all of Ukraine, including Crimea.

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