Ukrainian biolabs and NeoNazis

 

Oh, man! Where to start here?

First off, I wonder why people talking about this stuff don't mention Chernobyl. In fact, it might be worth a refresher given that these two other issues are somehow filling the 'net.

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history both in cost and casualties.

Chernobyl is sitting firmly in Russian controlled territory as is the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station. The latter is the largest reactor in Europe, and 10th largest in the world. IAEA is unable to monitor these reactors.

Official UA Gov't statement

Ask a Ukrainian about the biolabs or NeoNazis and they will tell you that the reactors are far more problematic. Fortunately:

"Ukrainian energy workers, by risking their own health and lives, were able to avert the risk of a possible nuclear catastrophe that threatened the whole Europe," https://t.me/energoatom_ua/3001

As for bio-labs: Victoria Nuland is yet another example of Biden administration incompetence.  Read her bio, especially her comments about the European Union in 2014, and one has to wonder HOW she ever got her current position. My outspokeness is one reason I am not in either politics or diplomacy. At least I know my weaknesses.

There is a good commentary about Biolabs by Dr. Robert Malone here:

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2022/03/12/ukraine-biolab-watchtower/

Anything I say would come from that, except I will quote him:

What a mess. Are there any grownups in the house?  This is what happens in a world in which no one trusts anyone anymore, integrity is treated as an obsolete concept, both information and legacy media have become weaponized to such an extent that what passes for official reality becomes just a funhouse hall of mirrors, and the experience, intellect and maturity of those entrusted to manage these matters is just not up to the task.

That pretty much sums up the situation of bio-labs since anyone with a speck of knowledge of this issue can tell you that while you may want to think the worst, this is indeed a lot more innocent than you want it to be.

So, you want to trust the Russians who actually possess WMDs that the Ukrainians are doing "biological research" because the US government lied about Saddam Hussein having WMD?

Yeah, right. 

My advice: steer clear of living near any research university with a medical facility.

Neo-Nazis get much more interesting, especially for me. 

Amusing how Ukraine's defence has become an issue in US politics, especially that part, since as I posted about this issue during the Trump Impeachment relating to Ukraine. Trump Derangement Syndrome blinded people to this issue then (no discussion, or it was like Hunter's laptop). Somehow, it becomes an issue when the issue is funding Ukraine's defence in wartime.

Official Statement from Azov Brigade

And it's why I get pissed when people want to bring US Partisan politics up now. 

Just shut the fuck up and do something significant to help Ukraine.

Anyway, yes, those troops existed. Not sure what their status is now since they could have been killed off early in the fighting. As I said in my earlier posts, these Neo-Nazi units were among the ones fighting in the Donbass. That means they would have been on the front when the Russians rolled into that area. I know that one of their leaders was killed long ago. They like to believe that they are keeping up the ideology of Stepan Bandera.

One of the issues with Stepan Bandera is that he has been dead for 62 years. His direct descendants live in Canada. He has become a myth in Ukrainian society.

Translation difficulties: RU is "Azov Base"

As I said in my other Stepan Bandera posts, he did not support racism the way some people claiming to follow his ideology do:

HOPPE: Would you be so kind, Mr. BANDERA, as to explain in detail the conception “Ukrainian nationalism”?

BANDERA: Today the anti-Bolshevik liberation fight in Ukraine is organized and led by OUN, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The conceptions “Ukrainian nationalist,” “nationalistic movement,” differ from similar terms used in the West. The Ukrainian nationalistic movement has nothing in common with Nazism, fascism or national-socialism. Ukrainian nationalism is fighting against totalitarianism, racism, dictatorship and violence of any kind.

Source: https://euromaidanpress.com/2017/02/12/from-cia-archives-stepan-banderas-1954-interview-to-german-radio/ 

And the Bandera clan has Poles and Jews in it as well. And it had them back when he was alive. So....

The neo-Nazi, pseudonationalist organisations have nothing in common with what the OUN-UPA stood for, or Stepan Bandera and his followers were fighting for. I've listed resources for this in other posts.

I would add that the far right groups are not a large segment in Ukrainian politics, and they will most likely become even less of one after the war. https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-the-far-right-just-got-humiliated-in-ukraine-s-election-but-don-t-write-it-off-1.7563138

The OUN-UPA has more in common with the current War in Ukraine. Ukrainians of other nationalities  fought in the UPA ranks, including Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Tatars, Belgians, Russians, and others. Likewise, Ukrainians of all ethnicities are once again fighting to keep their homeland free from being overwhelmed by the Russian Empire.

Bottom line, if you aren't more concerned that two large nuclear reactors are in the hands of the Russians and not being monitored by international authorities, then I really can't persuade you of very much. That is the real issue, not biolabs or neo-nazis.

See also:

• A few words for Christopher Miller about “Banderites” and Ukrainian history
• From CIA archives: Stepan Bandera’s 1954 interview to German radio

No Vladimir Putain is not sane.

 Once again, I wake up to see that the Ukraine war is not over, but it's spreading.

That's bad news for Russia. Especially since the rest of the world sees that Russia is losing badly. Unfortunately, Ukraine is also being destroyed in the process. It will cost quite a bit to rebuild Ukraine when all this is over.

The Russian economy is collapsing due to economic isolation from the west. It has significant gold reserves, but can't sell gold for a bunch of reasons. The current sanctions target money inside Russias’s foreign exchange reserves. But those holdings in EUR and USD are frozen. And for the people who think gold and currency based money are a good thing. Well, the gold market is simply not very liquid. Never in history did the aggregated sales of all central banks (CBs) exceed 400 tons in a year. And when that happened, gold market participants were already accusing CBs of “market manipulation”. Gold only has value, if “gold whales” (i.e., the central banks) aren’t selling it. 

While Russia has 2000t of gold. There is just absolutely no way Russia could sell more than 5-10% of its gold reserves within like a month. If Russia was starting to sell, prices would plummet, as there is simply very little market depth in the gold market.  Compare that to FIAT currency which is backed by a solvent central bank. 

Case in point, the US Treasury bond (UST) market has basically infinite market depth, which was proven in March 2020. If the value of USTs falls below future cash flows become discounted, the Fed will step in. See: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1499339625671938052.html  

Aside: And cryptocurrency: who is backing that? Seriously, you're fucked if someone starts dumping cryptocurrency since it isn't backed by much of anything other than the "block-chain".  

The bottom line is that this war hasn't been working to Putain's plan: militarily or economically. The longer he holds out, the worse the outcome for both Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine is physically ruined and Russia is economically ruined.  While Ukraine can rebuild, it won't be too long before Russia collapses...Again.

A Chinese observer gives a good reason for stronger involvement from the West:

The conflict may escalate further, and the West’s eventual involvement in the war cannot be ruled out. While the escalation of the war would be costly, there is a high probability that Putin will not give up easily given his character and power. The Russo-Ukrainian war may escalate beyond the scope and region of Ukraine, and may even include the possibility of a nuclear strike. Once this happens, the U.S. and Europe cannot stay aloof from the conflict, thus triggering a world war or even a nuclear war. The result would be a catastrophe for humanity and a showdown between the United States and Russia. This final confrontation, given that Russia’s military power is no match for NATO’s, would be even worse for Putin.

The hope is that Putain is rational, but the current situation demonstrates he is not. I know that at least Lithuania is on an alert status. I would also guess that Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania are as well. Those countries are NATO members and an attack on them would trigger NATO involvement.

The longer this lasts, the worse the outcome for everyone--worldwide.

One more comment (adding). Kyiv Independent reports:

⚡️Defense Ministry: Number of Russian casualties hasn't changed for days due to slower offensive.

The official data showing over 12,000 Russian troops killed hasn’t change since March 8 because of decreased confrontation, according to Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar.

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 13, 2022

Sources and Other interesting reading:

• Russian economic collapse will be hard to avoid
• Possible Outcomes of the Russo-Ukrainian War and China’s Choice
  

 

When will the Russians give up?????

I keep hoping I will hear that the Russians have announced their surrender when I listen to the news (Ukraine and Moscow are 3 hours ahead of UTC). Sadly, I think Francis Fukuyama is mostly correct in his predictions in Heading for Defeat [1]:

1. Russia is heading for an outright defeat in Ukraine. Russian planning was incompetent, based on a flawed assumption that Ukrainians were favorable to Russia and that their military would collapse immediately following an invasion. Russian soldiers were evidently carrying dress uniforms for their victory parade in Kyiv rather than extra ammo and rations. Putin at this point has committed the bulk of his entire military to this operation—there are no vast reserves of forces he can call up to add to the battle. Russian troops are stuck outside various Ukrainian cities where they face huge supply problems and constant Ukrainian attacks.
2. The collapse of their position could be sudden and catastrophic, rather than happening slowly through a war of attrition. The army in the field will reach a point where it can neither be supplied nor withdrawn, and morale will vaporize. This is at least true in the north; the Russians are doing better in the south, but those positions would be hard to maintain if the north collapses.
3. There is no diplomatic solution to the war possible prior to this happening. There is no conceivable compromise that would be acceptable to both Russia and Ukraine given the losses they have taken at this point.

Also, Mark Hertling has some good observations on twitter as well.

I said it yesterday on @cnn, I'll say it again today.

Having worked w/ UKR's army, I expected them to be very good. And they have been better than I expected.

Having seen Russian forces in training & exercises, I expected them to be bad. They are worse than I expected. 1/10

— Mark Hertling (@MarkHertling) March 12, 2022

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1502667856772747266.html 

Even though this article is titled as being to the left, it applies to the right as well.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/a-letter-to-the-western-left-from-kyiv/

The Western Democracies and Russia signed agreements to ensure Ukraine's neutrality. They are failing miserably in keeping their word as Ukraine is falling.  Point 5 in the Fukuyama piece is the most useful:

 It is much better to have the Ukrainians defeat the Russians on their own, depriving Moscow of the excuse that NATO attacked them, as well as avoiding all the obvious escalatory possibilities. The Polish MiGs in particular would not add much to Ukrainian capabilities. Much more important is a continuing supply of Javelins, Stingers, TB2s, medical supplies, comms equipment, and intel sharing. I assume that Ukrainian forces are already being vectored by NATO intelligence operating from outside Ukraine.

So, you can support Ukraine without pushing for "direct involvement". Give Ukraine the supplies to fight this war. 

Footnote:

[1] I disagree with his assessment of Biden's MiG decision. US publicly promised MiGs then went back on that promise. That was a very bad move. The US isn't making a very good show of saving the world. The US appears slightly less competent than Russians in how they are handling this matter.

Here's a woman politician with an assault rifle I can get behind!

Nope, she's not from the States, but I bet that headline got your attention. She's Kira Rudik: She's a businesswoman who has worked in the US. Now, she is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament since 2019 and Current leader of the Голос (Holos) Political Party.  Голос has a dual meaning of either "Voice" or "Vote":

 It has two meanings, and both are very important to us. <...> Because Voice is their [the voters'] voice, by which they demonstrate a desire for change, it is their voice of change. On the other hand, it is their vote, that they can cast [in elections]. <...> The voice, in fact, characterizes Ukrainian voters and their desire for change. What else, if not the voice?

This is a party I can really stand behind. 

I might have a lot of qualms if she were in the States, but she's in Ukraine and she will defend he country with her life. She has made it clear that her reason for bearing arms is to defend Ukraine.

Hence the assault rifle. 

She may not be the leader, but she is as strong a voice as Volodomyr Zalenski.

Are we concerned with the #chemical attack as #Biden said?

Well, I am more concerned that #Russian forces are bombarding nuclear plant and turned off Chernobyl cooling system off the electrical grid.@CNN pic.twitter.com/WSq5fayBKA

— Kira Rudik (@kiraincongress) March 11, 2022

She's somebody that is very persuasive for the Ukrainian cause and seen on US and other western media. I haven't been able to interview her, but she is one of many sources I follow on Twitter for news about the Ukraine War.

I haven't met her in person yet, but I hope to someday. I hope that we can work together to rebuild Ukraine and get it firmly in the European Union.

I hope she can inspire support for Ukraine and its freedom in the United States. After all, this is a woman who gets the Second Amendment.

🇺🇦Слава Україні!
💪Разом до перемоги!

See also:

• https://twitter.com/kiraincongress
• Wikipedia Kira Rudik