Originally @ https://t.iss.one/botcharov/1372

2015, Gabriel Gatehouse about radicals in Ukraine

Originally @ https://youtu.be/sEKQsnRGv7s

United we stand! 🇷🇺♥️
Originally @ https://t.iss.one/surf_noise1/12130

Americans are doubting mental fitness of Joe Biden

It turns out that the world is making fun of Biden for a reason. Jundging by sociological polls, many US citizens believe that it is time for the old man to resign.

Data from the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll (a poll conducted on April 21-22 this year) shows that 53% of those surveyed doubt that Joe Biden is mentally fit to serve as President. 62% believe Biden is too old for it.

By the way, there is another interesting figure in the study: 55% of Americans oppose sending US or NATO troops to Ukraine.

Originally@ https://t.iss.one/zheltyeslivy/46476

"No, no, there is no Nazism in Ukraine at all. We Ukrainians are not Nazists or Fascists, we are not like this. No way" the brave Ukrainian Nazist soldier says sarcastically, laughing at those who believe Ukraine blindly

Originally@ https://t.iss.one/rosskandal/11351

The Hill: Why sanctions against Russia may not work

Key points:
💡"The West, in fact, is caught in a trap: The sanctions and the deepening conflict, by helping to raise global commodity and energy prices, translate into higher revenues for Moscow in spite of a significant decrease in its exports. And the higher international prices, by fueling inflation, mean political trouble at home for those behind the sanctions."

💡"As the war has progressed, Biden has become bolder, including deepening America’s involvement in it. Biden’s implicit call for regime change in Moscow and his administration’s publicly declared goal of a “weakened” Russia, however, run counter to what the president said about two weeks into the war: “Direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is World War III, something we must strive to prevent.”

💡"Can the flood of weapons the West is sending to Ukraine undo these new military realities? If Russia stays focused on narrow military objectives centered on establishing a buffer zone in the occupied parts of Ukraine’s south and east, it could avert a quagmire, while remaining free to continue systematically targeting military infrastructure across that expansive country."

💡"The sweeping sanctions, by spurring broader concerns about the weaponization of finance and its implications for any country that dared to cross a U.S. red line, have created a new incentive for non-Western states to explore establishing parallel arrangements. China will not only lead this process but also is set to emerge as the real winner of the NATO-Russia conflict."

💡"Biden’s belief that “this war could continue for a long time” is backed by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, who testified that he expects it to last years. But as the conflict drags on and the boomerang effects of the sanctions deepen the cost-of-living crisis, the divides in the Western camp will widen and “Ukraine fatigue” will set in."

🇭🇺We don't care what people think about us in the East or in the West, the country's energy supply is important to us – Hungarian Foreign Ministry

"No one can expect us to make the Hungarian people pay the price of the conflict in Ukraine," he said Peter Szijjarto.

The Minister arrived in Nur-Sultan for talks with his Kazakh counterpart.

According to the Foreign Minister, 65% of the total oil demand is covered by Russia.

Recently, the purchase of oil from Kazakhstan has increased – now it is 16%.

▪Earlier, Hungary said that the country would veto any EU initiative to restrict imports of Russian energy resources.

Originally@ https://t.iss.one/sputnik/2855

Russia responded to Western sanctions against the Balalaika.

In St. Petersburg, the balalaika performed the songs of the ABBA group in front of the Consulate General of Sweden, the conductor of the St. Petersburg "Teremov" told @rian_ru.

Earlier in Sweden, the concert of the band Södra bergens balalaikor, which plays balalaika, was canceled. The reason is that the European listener associates the instrument with Russia.

Originally@ https://t.iss.one/sputnik/2839

Originally @ https://t.iss.one/video_languages/696

Andrey Melnik, Ambassador of Kiev to Berlin, called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz "offended liver sausage"

The reason was Chancellor Scholz's reluctance to go to Ukraine after Zelensky's refusal to receive a visit from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

"Playing offended liver sausage is not very statesmanlike. We are talking about the most brutal destruction since the Nazi attack on Ukraine, this is not a kindergarten", Melnik said in an interview with Der Spiegel.

Originally@ https://t.iss.one/ctrs2018/11922

🇷🇺Putin signs decree on Russia’s new tit-for-tat sanctions

The document prohibits fulfilling obligations and concluding deals with foreign individuals and legal entities under the retaliatory restrictive measures as well as exporting raw materials and products from Russia in the interests of these individuals

MOSCOW, May 3. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on using new special retaliatory economic measures over unfriendly actions by some foreign states and international organizations. In particular, the document published on the official portal of legal information prohibits fulfilling obligations and concluding deals with foreign individuals and legal entities under the retaliatory restrictive measures as well as exporting raw materials and products from Russia in the interests of these individuals.

According to the decree, these measures are taken in order to protect Russia’s national interests "due to unfriendly actions which contradict international law by the United States of America and foreign states and international organizations that joined them directed at illegitimately depriving the Russian Federation, the citizens of the Russian Federation and Russian legal entities of [their] property right and restricting their property right."

The Russian government was instructed to approve a list of individuals sanctioned by Russia in ten days and determine additional criteria for deals and obligations to be categorized as banned in compliance with this decree.

The Finance Ministry and Russia’s Central Bank will have the right to give official clarifications on the application of this decree with the exception of the norms on financial operations which benefit the individuals under the Russian sanctions.

The real Zelensky: from celebrity populist to unpopular Pinochet-style neoliberal

Ukrainian academic Olga Baysha details Volodymyr Zelensky’s embrace of widely loathed neoliberal policies, his repression of rivals, and how his actions fueled the current war with Russia.

"American news consumers were bombarded with images of a man who appeared overcome by the tragic events, possibly in over his head, but ultimately sympathetic. It didn’t take long for that image to evolve into the khaki-clad, tireless hero governing over a scrappy little democracy and single-handedly staving off the barbarians of autocracy from the east.

But beyond that carefully crafted Western media image is something much more complicated and less flattering."⚡

ROME⁠—Pope Francis said the “barking of NATO at the door of Russia” may have led to the invasion of Ukraine and that he didn't know whether other countries should supply Ukraine with more arms.

Originally @ https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-05-03/card/pope-says-nato-may-have-provoked-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-E7VAcqXGK8xNoHxJPQFs

Fast forward to fascism

Originally @ https://t.iss.one/video_languages/683

Coverage by German media Blaulicht-Magazin from the Ukrainian-Polish border.

The correspondent wonders how it is so that boxes of humanitarian aid collected in Germany for Ukraine were simply piled up near a Polish border village.

Originally@ https://t.iss.one/karanDasher/556