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19th July 2023
“He cut a deal to save his skin.” Putin had no choice but to reach an agreement with Wagner head Prigozhin in order to end the coup last month – Richard Moore the head of Britain’s MI6 said today. He’s also “optimistic” #Ukraine will prevail against Russia https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-07-19-23/h_2dd4b6c91376262ab748dc313794cde1
19th July 2023
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a crony of Vladimir Putin and the head of the Wagner Group, long helped inflate the Russian president. Now he has cut him down to size
economist.com Post-mutiny Moscow descends into factional murk Vladimir Putin’s authority has suffered a grave blow
19th July 2023
“The public is watching: the Levada Centre, an independent pollster, found that 92% of Russians followed the coup to some extent. Almost half sympathised with Mr Prigozhin’s criticisms of corruption, military incompetence and lies about the war” https://economist.com/europe/2023/07/18/post-mutiny-moscow-descends-into-factional-murk
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19th July 2023
Wagner boss Prigozhin who led mutiny “went to tea with Putin” in recent days. The MI6 boss Sir Richard Moore said: “As far we we can tell Prigozhin is floating around.” He added the Wagner chief went to tea with Vladimir Putin in recent days – an interesting development, given… Show more
19th July 2023
Join us Thursday for a Q&A with
and
about the current situation in Belarus, including the rumors surrounding the arrival of Wagner mercenaries and the transfer of tactical nuclear weapons to the country.
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A TV channel run by the Belarusian Defence Ministry has released a video of Wagner fighters training Belarusian soldiers. The Russian mercenary group was exiled to Belarus after an attempted mutiny in June
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19th July 2023
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar arrived in Ukraine
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19th July 2023
President of the Russian Federation Putin will not go to the BRICS summit, which will be held in the Republic of South Africa in August, President Ramaphosa of South Africa informed “By mutual agreement”, Russia will be represented by Foreign Minister Lavrov
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19th July 2023
Not good. Time for secondary sanctions on countries who help Russia circumvent sanctions.
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Alena Popova
@alenapopova
19th July 2023
Kyrgyzstan is helping Russia circumvent sanctions by supplying sensitive electronics for firms associated with Russia’s defense industry. https://washingtonpost.com/national-secur
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19th July 2023
Difficult to see grain terminal infrastructure as a legitimate military target. This should provoke a strong outcry from the international community, and a swathe of punishing new sanctions against the Putin regime. My prediction – it won’t.
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Oleksiy Goncharenko
@GoncharenkoUa
19th July 2023
These photos were taken in the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk. At night, Russia purposefully attacked grain terminals. The grain infrastructure of international and Ukrainian traders and carriers Kernel, Viterra, CMA CGM Group was damaged. Is this still not enough to recognize… Show more
“I think the neocons thought… the sanctions package would destroy Russia. …I think they thought that Russia would collapse and Putin would be removed. But Zelensky looks defeated. hundreds of thousands dead… For what? For absolutely nothing.” #DavidClews
… Show more
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19th July 2023
Kyrgyzstan is helping Russia circumvent sanctions by supplying sensitive electronics for firms associated with Russia’s defense industry.
In Central Asia, a hidden pipeline supplies Russia with high-tech weapons
In Central Asia, a hidden pipeline of illicit trade supplies Russia with high-tech weapons, including Chinese drones and German electronics
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The world in 2050 in terms of demographics (NYT) The young dominate Africa, South Asia, SE Asia. The old characterize most of Americas, China, Russia, Europe, Iran, Turkey. (Assuming no systemic shocks such as great power war or climate-driven destabilization of intrnl order)
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Replying to
Interestingly that the power balance between China and Russia is completely reversed. Especially when it comes to demographics in the border region, where a Russian population of 6 million faces 90 million Chinese.
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18th July 2023
Washington’s full containment strategy may yet succeed in slowing or reversing China’s rise, but it is already subordinating the interests of key allies, according to Australian media Pearls and Irritations, citing a paper by the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Replying to
#Russia-1 state TV channel confirms the death in #Ukraine of a “legendary” commander known as “Tashkent” 42 year old Denis Ivanov was leader of the occupants’ #Luhansk 2nd Brigade. Despite what the obituary says he was quite a regular figure on propaganda TV. #RussiansGOHOME
In the first half of 2023, Russian courts received 2,076 criminal cases against soldiers accused of abandoning their units without official leave.
19th July 2023
An unnamed Wagner fighter said the Molkino training grounds in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region will suspend operations by July 30.
Moscow seized Danone and Carlsberg’s Russian subsidiaries in retaliation to foreign moves against Russian companies abroad.
Kremlin Loyalists Handed Seized Carlsberg, Danone Assets – Reports
Kremlin loyalists will take control of the seized assets of French food maker Danone and Danish brewer Carlsberg, media outlets reported
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themoscowtimes.com Wagner Announces Closure of Russian Base Members of the Wagner mercenary outfit have
announced the closure of the group’s main base in southern Russia as it redeploys in
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This gives us a yardstick to work with. Nazi Germany, with a relatively young and healthy population of 80 million, started going into military collapse after three million combat losses: 3.75% of the population. Ukraine is a less populous country with far worse demographics.
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TREATIES, AGREEMENTS, CONVENTIONS The #pandemic, the war in #Ukraine, the #ClimateCrisis, new technologies, the rise of #China and changing demographics all impact the relationships between nations. The #UkraineRussiaWar has impacted the price of grains and natural gas… Show more
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Very interesting. Fired but what about those who are basically disappeared by Russian Leaders.
What are Prigozhin’s plans? Is it like film ‘Wag the Dog’. The great Unknown. Remember Putin is a trained KGB agent, he works through schemes. We in the West do not understand this.
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Quotations
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What really changes when it comes down to war? What we can learn?
I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
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Back to Ukraine…millions of people are leaving. Will they return to Ukraine? Will there be a Marshall Plan? Who will benefit … BlackRock and others who are in the game of getting assets at knock down prices and making investments that are double figure profits and often in the long term. Is this what is needed to weed out endemic corruption in Russia and Ukraine?
Enter … Magnitsky Act and Bill Browder
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18th July 2023
Bill Browder on Switzerland enabling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: “The Swiss government wants to be seen to be doing something, but when it comes to reality, the Swiss government doesn’t want to anything because there’s such a lot of money to be made off of dirty Russia money.”
Who Watches the Watchers? 