L'ETEROGENESI DEI FINI - Uno degli obiettivi dell'operazione speciale lanciata dalla Russia in Ucraina era quello di demilitarizzare il paese, trasformato dagli USA in una piazza d'armi della NATO. Ma spesso azioni intenzionali producono conseguenze non intenzionali...in questo caso la riduzione del potenziale bellico dei paesi europei che, nella foga di trasferire armi all'Ucraina, stanno svuotando i loro arsenali. Rottamarle in patria sarebbe costato meno e non avrebbe causato centinaia di migliaia di vittime. @LauraRuHK

RAND Corporation: Poland and Ukraine - Guardians of the New Iron Curtain

The experience of West Germany, which stood guard at the centre of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, can be useful for Poland and Ukraine, which together with NATO are defending the frontline centre of Europe, says US think tank. https://www.rand.org/blog/2023/09/poland-and-ukraine-defending-europes-future.html

RAND emphasises that "West Germany received a guarantee by joining NATO in 1955". And it did so "despite Germany's split and some reluctance in Europe, for example from France."

"The U.S. supported West Germany's accession then and supports Ukraine now. NATO leaders have agreed to accelerate its admission."

▪️ In the coming years, Warsaw and Kiev will have much larger forces than West Germany had in the early years, with 325,000 active-duty troops in Poland and nearly 700,000 in Ukraine, RAND calculates:

"These forces are modernising and are among the strongest in democratic Europe. Ukrainians are battle-hardened for high-intensity modern warfare."

The US think tank also considers an expanded US military presence in Poland and Ukraine a prerequisite. It is about F-35 stealth fighter jets with new-generation missiles, as well as promising ground-based operational-tactical missile systems PrSM with a range of 500 kilometres.

▪️ We note a very important detail in the RAND text. It mentions Germany, which joined NATO "despite the split", and the acceptability of the same option for Ukraine in a "reduced form".

Thus, potentially, the US is ready for Ukraine to join NATO without mentioning the 1991 borders. The main thing is that it should be in the bloc and it should be possible to place NATO military infrastructure there.

As they say, don't count your chicken before they hatch. After all, it was the West's desire to make Ukraine a NATO member and the militarization of its territory that became one of the main reasons for launching the SMO.

And the special operation cannot be stopped until one of its main objectives is reached. Naturally, Russia will not be satisfied with the option of resolving the Ukrainian crisis when even a part of Ukraine ends up in NATO. (Source: Elena Panina) https://t.me/EvPanina/11316 @LauraRuHK

By voting in favour of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) the European Parliament legalized the practice of spying on journalists - the EMFA allows the installation of spyware on journalists' phones for the sake of "national security" and forces journalists to reveal the identity of their sources. While it claims to reduce the concentration of media ownership and place limitations on state funding, the EMFA's real targets are countries such as Hungary, where many media rely on government funding rather than foreign actors and NGOs. @LauraRuHK

🔥 Russia's PMI outperforms the world

Following the release of S&P Global's PMI data for September, J.P.Morgan put together their own report summarizing some of the results.

Thus, it turned out that the Russian manufacturing sector is blooming. In fact, Russia ranks first in the world in terms of manufacturing PMI, followed by Kazakhstan.

In contrast, Germany finds itself at the bottom of the ranking, confirming that manufacturing in the country is now on the verge of disaster.

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Robert Gates, US Secretary of Defense under Bush and Obama, former head of the CIA, writes: "The United States now confronts graver threats to its security than it has in decades, perhaps ever. Never before has it faced four allied antagonists at the same time—Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran—whose collective nuclear arsenal could within a few years be nearly double the size of its own. Not since the Korean War has the United States had to contend with powerful military rivals in both Europe and Asia. And no one alive can remember a time when an adversary had as much economic, scientific, technological, and military power as China does today.

The problem, however, is that at the very moment that events demand a strong and coherent response from the United States, the country cannot provide one. Its fractured political leadership—Republican and Democratic, in the White House and in Congress—has failed to convince enough Americans that developments in China and Russia matter. Political leaders have failed to explain how the threats posed by these countries are interconnected. They have failed to articulate a long-term strategy to ensure that the United States, and democratic values more broadly, will prevail." @LauraRuHK https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/robert-gates-america-china-russia-dysfunctional-superpower?utm_campaign=tw_daily_soc&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_posts

🇺🇦 JUST HERE FOR THE PR OPPORTUNITY, GUYS - 00:54 Ukrainian saboteur captured in Crimea divulges that the purpose of the reconnaisance group was to photograph themselves against a picture of the Ukrainian flag on the territory of Crimea.

Is such cheap propaganda worth risking one's men for?

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THE MOST DEFINITIVE PROOF I AM UNDER "RUSSIAN INFLUENCE" I have finally returned to Hong Kong after spending a few months abroad. When i cooked borscht despite the temperature hovering around 30 degrees it didn't take long until my guest realized i had been to Russia. I blamed the jetlag for my poor judgement, which hopefully is confined to food choices only.

AVVERTENZA - Spesso mi capita di leggere traduzioni dei miei post che quando va bene sono in un italiano scadente, quando va male travisano addirittura il senso. Nella quasi totalita' dei casi si tratta di traduzioni automatiche che recano il mio nome nonostante io non ci abbia mai messo mano. Apprezzo le intenzioni di chi desidera condividere i miei testi in una lingua diversa da quella in cui li scrivo, ma per evitare fraintendimenti sarebbe utile inserire un link al post originale in modo da permettere un confronto con la traduzione.

Ukraine will never become a member of the EU, regardless of what Ursula promised Zelensky in return for cannon fodder. "Expanding the size of the EU to include nine new countries including Ukraine would cost the existing members more than €256bn (£220bn), internal calculations have revealed.

The knock-on effect would be to turn many countries that currently enjoy net financial benefits of the EU into net contributors." @LauraRuHK https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/04/adding-nine-countries-eu-cost-existing-members

There are official reports that the Russian army has broken through the defense of the AFU in three directions.

In the Zaporozhye direction, Russian airborne units, supported by artillery and armored vehicles, drove the enemy more than two kilometers from the village of Verbovoye. The plot with the video of the liberation of the village was published by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

The footage shows how Russian soldiers enter a forest plantation, ground by artillery fire, strewn with the corpses of  AFU soldiers.

The airborne units conducted additional reconnaissance using UAVs, after which the assault detachments entered the battle, the commentary says.

"The quick and coordinated actions of the Novorossiysk assault paratroopers did not allow the enemy to resist. The personnel of the AFU was destroyed," the press service reported.

According to available data, a large number of enemy equipment and manpower were destroyed, several dozen militants surrendered.

Good news comes from other directions as well. In particular, the press service of the 105th Motorized Rifle regiment of the DPR fighting near Maryinka reports on the breakthrough of the Ukrainian defense and the exit to the borders of the village of Georgievka.

"Our army managed to break through the enemy's defenses to the north of Maryinka and reach the outskirts of the village of Georgievka. The enemy has begun withdrawing troops from the village," the regiment's press service said in a statement.

Information is received about the advance of the Russian group in the Svatovo-Kremennaya direction towards Borovaya. Ukrainian media confirms the breakthrough and the advance of Russian troops in this direction.

#source

@Slavyangrad

L'Ucraina non diventerà mai un membro dell'UE, indipendentemente da ciò che Ursula ha promesso a Zelensky in cambio di carne da cannone. L'ampliamento dell'UE a 9 nuovi Paesi, tra cui l'Ucraina, costerebbe ai membri attuali più di 256 miliardi di euro, come hanno rivelato calcoli interni che qualcuno ha passato al Financial Times.

Se l'Unione Europea si espandesse molti Paesi che attualmente ricevono benefici finanziari dall'UE diventerebbero contribuenti netti. ll saldo da positivo diventerebbe negativo. Per non parlare dei fondi all'agricoltura: l'Ucraina diventerebbe il maggiore beneficiario, lasciando all'asciutto altri paesi, e le conseguenze per il settore sarebbero devastanti. @LauraRuHK https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/04/adding-nine-countries-eu-cost-existing-members

Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT, shared with Global Times (GT) reporters Wang Wenwen and Xia Wenxin how media outlets from countries, such as Russia and China, have challenged the West's monopoly on global public opinion by offering alternative voices as well as her personal experiences and RT's development since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. Simonyan: "It is difficult to overestimate how important it is for Russian and Chinese media to work together in the international news space. It is simply a matter of survival of Russian and Chinese voices on a global stage. We are virtually alone in confronting the most powerful army of Western mainstream journalism, and such dominance makes for a dangerous, bellicose world.

We are proud that RT is available in Chinese on popular Chinese social media platforms - Weibo, Bilibili, and Douyin. RT's Weibo account is well ahead of AFP, Financial Times, Associated Press and BBC in terms of audience engagement and follower growth rate." @LauraRuHK https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202310/1299249.shtml

Cervelli al macero - Oltre agli apprezzamenti graditi per il lavoro non retribuito che svolgo, non passa giorno che io non riceva critiche di qualche tipo, le piu' assurde in italiano. Si tratta ovviamente di persone che trovano sostegno psicologico nel vedere confermate le loro convinzioni e i loro pregiudizi, cosa che in se' non sarebbe un grosso problema ma che lo diventa quando perdono la capacita' di interagire con chi e con tutto cio' che esiste fuori dalla loro bolla, il diverso da se' e dal proprio gruppo di riferimento. A quel punto scatta un meccanismo difensivo che li porta a rubricare come nemico chiunque non aderisca alla loro ortodossia. La complessita' fa paura, analizzarla richiede impegno e un notevole sforzo intellettuale, quindi si preferiscono le narrazioni semplici e preconfezionate, il comfort della propria bolla impermeabile, una sorta di realta' parallela che si alimenta di illusioni, fantasie compensatorie, il culto di vari personaggi, liturgie e rituali di appartenenza. Come e' stato ampiamente studiato, queste bolle producono estremismo, definito da Lenin malattia infantile del comunismo, ma il discorso vale per ogni ideologia, e radicalizzano i loro membri fino al punto che essi, perdono lucidita' e capacita' di analisi. Nelle bolle l'emotivita' domina sovrana e chi vi abita non riesce ad uscire dalla logica amico/nemico. Chi non capisce la differenza tra uso critico/analitico e uso propagandistico delle fonti che cito forse ha sbagliato canale. Se tanto vi turba che un giorno io citi Foreign Affairs, Politico e il Guardian, e il giorno dopo RT, RIA Novosti, Global Times, China Daily, Press TV, scegliete un canale piu' allineato del mio e cullatevi nella beata ignoranza di quello che scrivono i vostri avversari, chiunque essi siano. @LauraRuHK

😂 Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan snubbed the European Security summit in Spain. This is not simply a failure of "European diplomacy", which has become an oxymoron, but also a product of the EU's risky gamble: supporting Western puppet Pashinyan to wrestle Armenia away from its ally, Russia. This gamble angered Aliyev who now sees the French and German position as biased towards Armenia. https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20231005-european-security-summit-in-spain-clouded-by-azerbaijan-snub?utm_term=France24_en&utm_campaign=twitter&utm_source=nonli&utm_medium=social

Here is a book that didn't age too well. 😂 Written in 2005 by Mark Leonard who, thanks to Soros' support, a couple of years later founded the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), it contains so many bombastic claims and exaggerations that anyone spouting them today would be mistaken for a stand-up comedian... or Josep Borrell, whose reference to Europe as an idyllic garden surrounded by the jungle drew both ire and hilarity. Mark Leonard argued that the EU embodies the most compelling idea of what the world will - and should - be like. Thankfully Soros' vision found few imitators outside Europe, and rather than making the idea of sovereign states anachronistic, it caused a backlash even within Europe itself. Leonard these days writes articles such as "The world is changing — and not in Europe’s favor". Reality is a bitch, isn't it? 😂 @LauraRuHK https://www.politico.eu/article/world-changing-not-europe-favor-european-union-gloabal-politics-strategic-autonomy/

Are Ukrainian Nazis going out of fashion in the West? Discrediting them now might be a clever move to prepare the ground for future developments: when the US throws Zelensky and his coterie under the bus very few tears will be shed. ▪️According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as many as 2,000 Ukrainian members of Hitler's Waffen-SS were admitted to Canada after the war. The Nazi soldiers posed as refugees and anti-Soviet freedom fighters to get admittance, and British authorities facilitated their escape from Europe. Now Canadian bureaucrats are reviewing the Deschenes Commission report — a 1980s-era independent inquiry that looked at Nazi war criminals in Canada — with an eye to making more of it public.

Governor General Mary Simon said Rideau Hall is sorry for honouring Peter Savaryn — a former chancellor of the University of Alberta who served in the same Nazi unit as Yaroslav Hunka — with the Order of Canada.

"We express our sincere apology to Canadians for any distress or pain his appointment may have caused," a spokesperson for Simon said.

The vice-regal office is also examining the Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals previously awarded to Savaryn, who also served as president of the Ukrainian World Congress, a group that represents the Ukrainian diaspora.

Struck by former prime minister Brian Mulroney, the Deschenes Commission's final report was released in 1986 and is composed of two parts.
The first, which included recommendations to make it easier to extradite war criminals, was released publicly. The second was marked secret and the names of Nazis who had found shelter in Canada were never released. @LauraRuHK https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-deschenes-commission-ex-nazis-1.6986364

Former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has expressed his view that Ukraine is "unsuitable for EU membership," as reported by Die Welt.

▪️ During his interview, Juncker characterized Ukraine as a nation plagued by "widespread corruption across all levels of society." He also referenced past experiences of the EU dealing with rule of law issues in "so-called new members," and he believes such issues should be avoided in the future, indicating his reluctance for Kiev to become an EU member in the near future.

▪️ Additionally, he underscored the importance of avoiding "false promises" to the people of Ukraine, who he noted are facing significant challenges. He argued that such an approach would be unfair to the country itself. However, Juncker also suggested the possibility of a more limited form of EU integration for Ukraine.

@Slavyangrad