"Who gave this guy edibles before he went on stage"
REPORTER: “Do you think you may have underestimated Putin?”
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 22, 2022
BIDEN: *stares blankly, picks at his teeth* pic.twitter.com/tRVewZbwFc
63 comments:
Remarks by President Biden Announcing Response to Russian Actions in Ukraine
FEBRUARY 22, 2022
•
East Room
2:22 P.M. EST
Well, good afternoon. Yesterday, Vladimir Putin recognized two regions of Ukraine as independent states and he bizarrely asserted that these regions are no longer part of Ukraine and their sovereign territory. To put it simply, Russia just announced that it is carving out a big chunk of Ukraine.
Last night, Putin authorized Russian forces to deploy into the region — these regions. Today, he asserted that these regions actually extend deeper than the two areas he recognized, claiming large areas currently under the jurisdiction of the Ukraine government.
He’s setting up a rationale to take more territory by force, in my view. And if we listen to his speech last night — and many of you did, I know — he’s setting up a rationale to go much further.
This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, as he indicated and asked permission to be able to do from his Duma.
So, I’m going to begin to impose sanctions in response, far beyond the steps we and our Allies and partners implemented in 2014. And if Russia goes further with this invasion, we stand prepared to go further with sanctions.
Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors? This is a flagrant violation of international law, and it demands a firm response from the international community.
Over the last few months, we have coordinated closely with our NATO Allies and partners in Europe and around the world to prepare that response. We’ve said all along and I’ve told Putin to his face more than a month ago that we would act together and the moment Russia moved against Ukraine.
Russia has now undeniably moved against Ukraine by declaring these independent states.
So, today, I’m announcing the first tranche of sanctions to impose costs on Russia in response to their actions yesterday. These have been closely coordinated with our Allies and partners, and we’ll continue to escalate sanctions if Russia escalates.
We’re implementing full blocking sanctions on two large Russian financial institutions: V.E.B. and their military bank.
We’re implementing comprehensive sanctions on Russian sovereign debt. That means we’ve cut off Russia’s government from Western financing. It can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either.
Starting tomorrow and continuing in the days ahead, we will also impose sanctions on Russia’s elites and their family members. They share in the corrupt gains of the Kremlin policies and should share in the pain as well.
And because of Russia’s actions, we’ve worked with Germany to ensure Nord Stream 2 will not — as I promised — will not move forward.
As Russia contemplates its next move, we have our next move prepared as well. Russia will pay an even steeper price if it continues its aggression, including additional sanctions.
The United States will continue to provide defensive assistance to Ukraine in the meantime. And we’ll continue to reinforce and reassure our NATO Allies.
Today, in response to Russia’s admission that it will not withdraw its forces from Belarus, I have authorized additional movements of U.S. forces and equipment already stationed in Europe to strengthen our Baltic Allies — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Let me be clear: These are totally defensive moves on our part. We have no intention of fighting Russia. We want to send an unmistakable message, though, that the United States, together with our Allies, will defend every inch of NATO territory and abide by the commitments we made to NATO.
We still believe that Russia is poised to go much further in launching a massive military attack against Ukraine. I hope I’m wrong about that — hope we’re wrong about that. But Russia has only escalated its threat against the rest of Ukrainian territory, including major cities and including the capital city of Kyiv.
There are still well over 150,000 Russian troops surrounding Ukraine. And as I said, Russian forces remain positioned in Belarus to attack Ukraine from the north, including war planes and offensive missile systems.
Russia has moved troops closer to Ukraine’s border with Russia. Russia’s naval vessels are maneuvering in the Black Sea to Ukraine’s south, including amphibious assault ships, missile cruisers, and submarines.
Russia has moved supplies of blood and medical equipment into position on their border. You don’t need blood unless you plan on starting a war.
And over the last few days, we’ve seen much of the playbook that Secretary Blinken laid out last week at the United Nations Security Council come to pass: a major increase in military provocations and false-flag events along the line of contact in the Donbas; dramatically staged, conveniently on-camera meeting of Putin’s Security Council to grandstand for the Russian public; and now political provocation of recognizing sovereign Ukrainian territory as so-called independent republics in clear violation, again, of international law.
President Putin has sought authorization from the Russian parliament to use military force outside of Russian territory. And this set the stage for further pretexts and further provocations by Russia to try to justify further military action.
None of us should be fooled. None of us will be fooled. There is no justification.
Further Russian assault into Ukraine remains a severe threat in the days ahead. And if Russia proceeds, it is Russia, and Russia alone, that bears the responsibility.
As we respond, my administration is using every tool at our disposal to protect American businesses and consumers from rising prices at the pump. As I said last week, defending freedom will have costs for us as well, here at home. We need to be honest about that.
But as we do this, I’m going to take robust action and make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at the Russian economy, not ours.
We are closely monitoring energy supplies for any disruption. We’re executing a plan in coordination with major oil-producing consumers and producers toward a collective investment to secure stability and global energy supplies.
This will blunt gas prices. I want to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump. This is critical to me.
In the last few days, I have been in constant contact with European leaders, including with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. Vice President Harris met in person with leaders in Germany over the weekend at the Munich Conference, including President Zelenskyy.
At every step, we have shown that the United States and our Allies and partners are working in unison — which Mr. Putin hasn’t been counting on.
We’re united in our support of Ukraine.
We’re united in our opposition to Russian aggression.
And we’re united in our resolve to defend our NATO Alliance.
And we’re united in our understanding of the urgency and seriousness of the threat Russia is making to global peace and stability.
Yesterday, the world heard clearly the full extent of Vladimir Putin’s twisted rewrite of history, going back more than a century, as he waxed eloquently, noting that — well, I’m not going to go into it, but nothing in Putin’s lengthy remarks indicated any interest in pursuing real dialogue on European security in the year 2022.
He directly attacked Ukraine’s right to exist.
He indirectly threatened territory formerly held by Russia,
including nations that today are thriving democracies and members of NATO.
He explicitly threatened war unless his extreme demands were met.
And there is no question that Russia is the aggressor. So we’re clear-eyed about the challenges we’re facing.
Nonetheless, there is still time to avert the worst-case scenario that will bring untold suffering to millions of people if they move as suggested.
The United States and our Allies and partners remain open to diplomacy if it is serious.
When all is said and done, we’re going to judge Russia by its actions, not its words.
And whatever Russia does next, we’re ready to respond with unity, clarity, and conviction.
We’ll probably have more to say about this as and if it moves on. I’m hoping diplomacy is still available.
Thank you all very much.
President Trump Warned Germany and NATO.
Putin delivered.
"On Tuesday, the benchmark price of natural gas for delivery in Europe next month leaped to about €79 ($89.54) per megawatt hour, up from €71.50 ($81.04) at Monday's close, according to data from Independent Commodity Intelligence Services.
Prices have dropped from record highs hit just before Christmas. Still, they remain significantly above where they stood one year ago, when gas traded at €16.30 ($18.47) per megawatt hour."
Joe had a plan for lower gas prices in the USA.
""I do think that the idea that Russia and Saudi Arabia and other major producers are not going to pump more oil so people can have gasoline to get to and from work, for example, is not, is not, right," Biden said
"It [OPEC+'s decision to keep a lid on output increases] has profound impact on working class families just to get back and forth to work," the U.S. President added, as quoted by NPR
Begging Putin, gutless, feckless Joe .
"If you take a look at gas prices and you take a look at oil prices, that is a consequence of thus far the refusal of Russia or the OPEC nations to pump more oil. And we'll see what happens on that score sooner than later," Biden said during his final day at the COP26 United Nations Climate Summit"
Didn’t happen under Trump, 7 years when Obunghole was in office and dementia Joe was eating ice cream.
Kiev's grip on eastern Ukraine weakens as pro-Russians seize army vehicles
What was meant to be a show of strength by Ukraine's army has instead shown how the country is unravelling
Luke Harding in Slavyansk
Wed 16 Apr 2014 14.4
For Kiev's beleaguered army it was meant to be a display of strength. Early on Wednesday a column of six armoured personnel carriers trundled through the town of Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine. Some 24 hours earlier Ukrainian soldiers had recaptured a small disused aerodrome. Their next target appeared to be Slavyansk, the neighbouring town, occupied by a shadowy Russian militia. Was victory close?
The column didn't get far. At Kramatorsk's railway junction, next to an open-air market and a shop selling building materials, an angry crowd caught up with it. Next armed separatists dressed in military fatigues turned up too. Within minutes the Ukrainian soldiers gave up. Without a shot being fired they abandoned their vehicles. The pro-Russian gunmen grabbed them. They raised a Russian tricolour. They sat on top and went for a victory spin.
In theory this was happening in Ukraine, under the control of a pro-western government in Kiev, and several hundred kilometres from the Russian border. In reality large chunks of the east of the country are now in open revolt. Ukraine is rapidly vanishing as a sovereign state. Its army is falling apart. What happens next is unclear. But the Kremlin can either annexe the east, as it did Crimea, again shrugging off western outrage. Or it can pull the strings of a new post-Kiev puppet entity.
People like you didn't even support Great Britain during World War two until Pearl Harbor attack...
You are an isolationist and fascist jackass
.
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
February 22, 2022 at 10:27 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment
“Former President Trump’s adulation of Putin today — including calling him a ‘genius’ — aids our enemies. Trump’s interests don’t seem to align with the interests of the United States of America.”
— Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), on Twitter.
Blinken Scraps Meeting with His Russian Counterpart
February 22, 2022 at 5:53 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 278 Comments
“Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that he had canceled a planned meeting with his Russian counterpart, but that the United States would continue to pursue diplomacy if Russia takes steps to de-escalate its aggression against Ukraine,”
the New York Times reports.
"Trump’s interests don’t seem to align with the interests of the United States of America.”
Or with the interests of our allies or with the interests of all the democratic nations of the world.
The impending Ukraine crisis is not just about Ukraine. That has been the Biden administration’s message from the outset: Any Russian aggression against its southern neighbor is not only an unacceptable violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty but also an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to challenge the international rules-based order. “The stakes go far beyond Ukraine,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told the U.N. Security Council last week. “This is a moment of peril for … the foundation of the United Nations Charter and the rules-based international order.”
The United States was systematically sidelining the U.N. long before Trump took the White House.
The Biden administration’s argument received an air of vindication Monday when Putin all but signaled his intent to invade Ukraine, prompting the White House on Tuesday to call Russia’s actions an “invasion.” Yet, despite its stated concern for the U.N. Charter and the rules-based international order, there is a conspicuous hole at the center of President Joe Biden’s Russia strategy.
Rather than upholding the current international order based on international law and the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter, the United States has itself systematically undermined the most central institutions of the current international system, all the while promoting its global primacy in the name of that very same rules-based order. Blinken admitted as much in an address to the U.N. last May: “I know that some of our actions in recent years have undermined the rules-based order and led others to question whether we are still committed to it.”
Blinken was, of course, referring to the actions of Donald Trump. But the United States was systematically sidelining the U.N. long before Trump took the White House. Neoconservatives and other hawks in the U.S. foreign policy establishment have long held that “American power, not the United Nations Security Council, provides peace and security for the rest of the world.” According to this logic, the United States should not allow the U.N., international treaties or norms to constrain American power. In fact, the thinking goes, America should actively break norms upheld by the United Nations to demonstrate to the world the hollowness of multilateral institutions and the near-omnipotence of American power.
White House now calling Russian movements in Ukraine an 'invasion'
The illegal invasion of Iraq provided such an opportunity. Richard Perle, a leading neoconservative, published an op-ed on the day of the U.S. invasion of Iraq celebrating the death of ''the fantasy of the U.N. as the foundation of a new world order.'' Perle went on to deem the idea of allowing only the U.N. Security Council to decide when international force is legitimate “dangerously wrong.” Instead, the United States assembled “a coalition of the willing” that acted outside — and in defiance of — any authorization by the U.N. Security Council.
The Trump administration further undermined the U.N. system, not only by threatening the staff of the International Criminal Court, pulling out of the U.N. Human Rights Council and defunding the U.N. Reliefs and Works Agency but by directly challenging multilateralism with America “going-it-alone.”
While Democratic administrations see far greater utility in the U.N. system, their policies have not reversed the trend sparked and reinforced by American unilateralism: the overall weakening of the United Nations and the office of the U.N. secretary-general to the point in which the U.N. has lost much of its ability to mediate an end to conflicts. As Blinken stated last week, the Ukraine crisis “is the exact kind of crisis that the United Nations — and specifically this Security Council — was created to prevent.”
While Democratic administrations see far greater utility in the U.N.
More Coldheartedtruth is the President is kicking ass
On CNN Tuesday, reporter Tom Foreman profiled many of the Russian oligarchs — the country's wealthy elites, whose support keeps Vladimir Putin in power — who are being targeted by U.S. and NATO sanctions in the effort to punish the Kremlin for the invasion of Ukraine.
"Many Russian oligarchs who often spend a lot of time outside Russia at their foreign properties have deep ties to Putin," said Foreman. "Newly named to the U.S. sanctions list: Dennis Bortnikov, an official at a Russian bank and son of the director of the Federal Security Service, the modern KGB; Peter Fradkov, with ties to the defense industry; Vladimir Kiriyenko, who has also been sanctioned; and the list could grow."
Foreman also noted that the United Kingdom is placing sanctions on other oligarchs: Gannady Temchenko, and Boris and Igor Rotenberg.
READ MORE: Fox News host rushes to do clean-up for Trump after he gushes over 'genius' Putin
"Temchenko is one of the richest people in Russia, with Forbes estimating his worth at $24 billion," said Foreman. "The Rotenbergs have strong interest in gas and energy companies, and plenty of Russian banks and businesses are also on the list" — and, he noted, they played a key role in integrating assets from Crimea into the Russian economy after Putin's invasion in 2014.
"These individuals have kind of a tacit agreement with the state," said Edward Fishman, a former State Department official sitting down for the segment. "They support Putin politically, as a result, they're allowed to benefit from kleptocratic practices."
"Some of Putin's pals were hit with sanctions when Crimea fell in 2014," continued Foreman. "Analysts believe that did slow Russia's roll into Ukraine. And this time, many [like Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI)] say 'the economic consequences for Putin should be steep,' and for 'the oligarchs, their wives and mistresses, and their assets that they shelter abroad.' These sanctions could freeze accounts for these rich Russians, it could limit their travel, stop investments. even keep their grown kids from attending universities in the West. What we don't know is if all this rocking the yachts will make any difference to Vladimir Putin. Right now, the smart money says, maybe."
Foxnews says that you are fucking crazy
Fox News host rushes to do clean-up for Trump after he gushes over 'genius' Putin
Brad Reed
February 22, 2022
Fox News host Pete Hegseth on Tuesday rushed to spin former President Donald Trump's praise of Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a "genius" for invading Ukraine.
While talking with fellow host Jesse Watters, Hegseth dismissed criticism of the former president for gushing about Putin by claiming he was only doing it to get a reaction out of the American media.
"Vladimir Putin lives rent-free in the minds of our media," he said. "No entity has done more to spread Russian propaganda and to prop up the strongman that is Vladimir Putin than our own media. And Donald Trump was happy to troll them on it, as he continues to do to this moment."
READ MORE: MAGA fans are getting duped by ‘shady’ copycats of Trump’s Truth Social app: report
In reality, Trump's praise of Putin was not a one-time occurrence, and he has regularly praised not only Putin, but also North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, whose "love letters" he brought with him to his home in Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House.
Additionally, Trump would also advocate for Russia's interests, such as when he said that the country deserved to be allowed back into the G7 organization of the world's strongest economies.
So the Russians get rich
Donald Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani is expected to cooperate with the House select committee investigating January 6, and potentially reveal his contacts with Republican members of Congress involved in the former president’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The move by Giuliani to appear before the panel – in a cooperation deal that could be agreed within weeks, according to two sources briefed on negotiations – could mark a breakthrough moment for the inquiry as it seeks to interview key members of Trump’s inner circle.
Biden’s Russia sanctions: whyholding back could be part of his strategy
That is the case because even though Trump’s allies and Republican members of Congress already known to have been involved in such efforts have refused to help the panel, Giuliani is now in a position to inform House investigators about any possible culpability.
Broadly, Giuliani has indicated through his lawyer to the select committee that he will produce documents and answer questions about Trump’s schemes to return himself to office on 6 January that House investigators had outlined in a subpoena issued to him last month.
FILE - Former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Michael Flynn, left, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, right, wait for the start of the first presidential debate between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton at Hofstra University, Monday, Sept. 26, 2016, in Hempstead, N.Y. The University of Rhode Island is revoking honorary degrees bestowed upon Flynn and Giuliani. The university’s board of trustees voted Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, to revoke the degrees following internal deliberations.
The former president’s attorney is prepared to reveal his contacts and the roles played by Republican members of Congress in the scheme Giuliani helped orchestrate to have then-vice-president Mike Pence stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.
Giuliani is also prepared to divulge details about Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence to adopt the scheme, and the effort coordinated by him and the Trump White House to have legislatures certify slates of electors for Trump in states actually won by Biden.
But the former president’s attorney has indicated that he will assist the select committee only if his appearance is not pursuant to his subpoena, and does not have to give records or discuss his contacts with Trump over executive and attorney-client privilege concerns.
So, if Putin and Biden meet, what cards does Biden hold, other than deuces? From the file: “Who trusts Biden as commander-in-chief?” this speculation: In talks, Biden will grant de facto control of Ukraine to Putin. Biden will stoutly deny doing so. In exchange, Putin will “deescalate” along Ukraine’s borders. Jen Psaki and the establishment media will spin Biden as a glorious leader whose jawboning averted war. Nobel Peace Prize-worthy, without a doubt. Of course, Putin, the chess player, captures his king. Putin gains real estate and resources, as well as acing NATO out of Ukraine, while Biden champions a lie.
While Putin plays Biden, isn’t it as true that our president is trying to play us, the American people? No, the dog isn’t being wagged here, not strictly. Biden’s handlers found a crisis not to waste. We’re witnessing full diversion mode as American news outlets happily obsess on Ukraine.
Never mind that the U.S.-Mexican border has been dissolved (not breached, but eliminated). Forget that energy prices continue to climb, further fueling inflation, which is the bastard child of profligate federal spending and an obscene volume of money-printing that’s simply indefensible. Democrat-run cities are trending toward eventual collapse as lawlessness pushes these metropolises toward some primitive state. Biden renews a state of emergency under the guise of the increasingly phonied-up COVID pandemic. Affluent white progressives ceaselessly pimp racial hatred, trying to divide Americans to feed their voracious appetites for power. Illicit drug deaths reached 100,000 last year. But let’s stop. The list is too dreary to continue.
A massive diversion is underway. Putin has nothing to do with it. The nation is a cauldron of troubles, any one of which could erupt in crisis, or simultaneous crises that could result in systemic failure. In the 2020s, the nation is confronting the greatest threats to its welfare and being since the 1850s and 1860s. But no matter, Putin may invade Ukraine.
Trust Biden? Given his awful destructive tendencies, I don’t think Hunter trusts Joe. Trust Biden after his Afghanistan fiasco? Trust our intelligence agencies, like the CIA, which is implicated in the most dangerous political scandal in American history -- the Russia Collusion Hoax? Trust that buffoon, Mark Milley, who skirted sedition when he went behind Trump’s back after the 2020 elections to assure his PRC counterpart that Trump would be prevented from launching a nuclear attack on China as, one supposes, the ultimate diversion.
What about the oily Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clinton campaign flunky, who may be enmeshed in the Clinton campaign’s alleged efforts to destroy candidate and then-President Trump? The same Jake Sullivan who assured us that Kabul would stand.
I’m convinced we have the greatest collection of gross incompetents and most corrupted people in positions of power and authority in our nation’s long history.
Putin the chess player sees all this, and he’s playing Biden and the entire rotted establishment that undergirds Biden’s presidency like a fiddle.
Mr. Putin also seemed to overlook that Western democracies and the Western alliance, whatever their problems, remained capable of uniting against a common threat, and of joining together to threaten him and his country with debilitating economic and social damage. The White House has also done a good job of disclosing what its intelligence is gleaning about Russia’s tactics and intentions, repeatedly underscoring the cynicism of Russia’s claims.
The showdown is far from over. There are more feints Russia could make short of sending tanks across the border, including the sort of trouble it’s creating in eastern Ukraine or cyberattacks, like the one Western officials believe it recently made against Ukrainian banks.
Mr. Biden and his allies and partners have been right not to overreact, and to continuously offer Mr. Putin an exit strategy. High-level meetings have been scheduled; Mr. Biden has expressed readiness to meet Mr. Putin again; the leaders of Germany and France are in constant contact with him.
A wary patience at this point is not the same as appeasement, of which the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, accused the West. Whatever Mr. Putin’s end game, his moves for now seek to prod and provoke Ukraine and its Western friends into just the kind of overreaction the hawks advocate. There is no justification for Russia’s recognition of the two comical “people’s republics,” an action as illegal as it is outrageous, but the cataclysm that would befall Ukraine and Europe in the event of a full invasion warrants continuing to give diplomacy a chance.
Have we dispatched a battalion of Corporal Klinger's to Eastern Europe yet?
Can I get a "BWAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!11!!"?
BERLIN, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Germany on Tuesday halted the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany, after Russia formally recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
Europe's most divisive energy project, worth $11 billion, was finished in September, but has stood idle pending certification by Germany and the European Union.
The pipeline had been set to ease the pressure on European consumers facing record energy prices amid a wider post-pandemic cost of living crisis, and on governments that have already forked out billions to try to cushion the impact on consumers.
But on Tuesday the European benchmark gas price, currently the Dutch March contract , was up 9.8% at 78.95 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) at 1607 GMT, much like the price for the fourth quarter , when Nord Stream 2 had been expected to start.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and now deputy chairman of its Security Council, tried to rub salt in that wound.
"Welcome to the new world where Europeans will soon have to pay 2,000 euros per thousand cubic metres!" he tweeted - suggesting prices were set to double.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germanys-scholz-halts-nord-stream-2-certification-2022-02-22/
Blogger The Real Halfbaked Soars Pundit said...
Mr. Putin also seemed to overlook that Western democracies and the Western alliance, whatever their problems, remained capable of uniting against a common threat, and of joining together to threaten him and his country with debilitating economic and social damage.
And you actually believe this shit.
Can you name one sanction against Russia - ever - that actually fucking worked and did the "debilitating economic and social damage" that is being claimed?
The answer, unsurprisingly, is NO.
Putin's alignment with China, most if not all of the bad actors in the Middle East, and other various shitheels around the world serve to mitigate any real problems for hm.
Joey sprinkles is getting rolled. And all he can do is look like an imbecile while picking his fucking teeth.
Kind of like you and your roommate alky.
Now run along and find us some nice plagiarisms that make you look "smart."
Funny it sure seems our usual suspects all have bought into the trumpian Putin is genius.......why does rat think sanctions are useless.....take over the personal assets of Putin and friends......like canada.....and you have a bunch of pissed off russian's with no source of cash......that would be amusing!!!!!!!!! And a big BWAAAAAAPAAAAAA!!!! for ignorant rat!!!!! Does rat think Putin is a genius....just asking....
why does rat think sanctions are useless
Because they exact no cost and cause no pain to Russia.
This ain't rocket science BWAA.
You want to hurt Russia? Impose ENERGY sanctions on them. Except we can't. Germany needs them to keep from freezing, and the US continues to import millions of barrels of oil from them.
Seize 'personal' assets? LOL. Like you think they're stupid enough to leave THOSE exposed to US sanctions?
And your friend cali was nice enough to post this yesterday -
At close to $600 billion, Russia holds the world’s fourth-largest foreign currency and gold reserves
At the end of June 2020, the value of Russia’s gold assets included in its international reserves surpassed the value of US dollar assets. The value of reserves totalled $561 billion as of end-June. Of that, about 30 % was held in euros, 23 % in gold and 22 % in US dollars.
https://www.bofit.fi/en/monitoring/weekly/2021/vw202103_2/
Those assets are out of our reach to sanction.
Prepare to pay more for gas BWAA, as the only people to be hurt by 'sanctions' on Russia is us.
Ukraine-Russia crisis could push inflation to 10% if conflict escalates
Escalating Russia-Ukraine crisis could push oil prices to $120 a barrel
U.S. inflation is already at the highest level in four decades. The worsening Ukraine-Russia crisis could push it even higher.
That's because the conflict is threatening to send oil prices above $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014, according to RSM chief economist Joe Brusuelas. Oil prices already surged to a fresh eight-year high on Tuesday after Moscow ordered troops into two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, with Brent crude, the global benchmark, hitting $97.63.
A war in Europe – which many foreign policy experts say is a real possibility – could cause oil prices to climb as much as 20% to $120 a barrel, Brusuelas estimated. Should that happen, consumer prices in the U.S. would surge above 10% on an annual basis, the economist said, the highest since October 1981.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/ukraine-russia-crisis-inflation-impact
When you send out your very dumbest fuck to deliver a message to the international community:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1495585817506553856
Some people have the gift of being able to talk endlessly without actually saying anything.
Your mouth has ONE singular purpose lady, and international diplomacy is not it.
Wow rat our resident genius finally has figured out that prices will continue to rise as the Ukraine blows up by trumps genius buddy Putinl......sad it has taken sooooo long for him to figure out that singular truth.....BWAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
Begging Putin, gutless, feckless Joe .
"If you take a look at gas prices and you take a look at oil prices, that is a consequence of thus far the refusal of Russia or the OPEC nations to pump more oil. And we'll see what happens on that score sooner than later," Biden said during his final day at the COP26 United Nations Climate Summit"
Brent North Sea Crude is 96.97 per bbl.
Average Gas Price is 3.537 per gallon.
Wow......oil prices are spiking a shocking development for those not paying attention to the genius Putin.....BWAAAAAAAAA!!!
Compare right-wing complacency about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine with their hysteria about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada ordering the arrests of anti-vaccine mandate protesters who were blocking major thoroughfares. Carlson claims that “Canada canceled democracy,” while ignoring the actual, existential threat to democracy in Ukraine.
This is the authentic voice of Trump’s America First movement — and it would be solidly in control of a second Trump term in a way it was not during most of his first term. Indeed, if Trump stages a comeback in 2024, he may well be counting on more political aid from Putin of the kind that he received in 2016.
So please don’t insult our intelligence by suggesting that Trump is the tough-on-Russia candidate or that his volatility would deter Putin. He’s more about Russia First than America First.
Natural Gas 4.57 per MMBtu.
Seems obvious to me that cramps and the goat fucker are on board with trumps assessment of putin as a genius....sad you fucking idiots root against the US to promote your party, and ignore the country.....
Home heating oil 74.50 per 100 liters
Does rat think Putin is a genius....just asking....
In general? No.
Compared to Joey Sprinkles? I have a 100 lb chocolate lab asleep on my couch right now that is a fucking genius compared to Slow Joe.
Labeling Putin as a genius is an exaggeration. Our president, Putin's adversary, is a fucking imbecile who has been wrong on every foreign policy call he's made from the time he arrived in DC.
You guys have managed to install the very dumbest fuck America had to offer. Compared to Slow Joe, YOU'RE a fucking genius, BWAA.
American Haterd is getting more dangerous every single day.
Biden’s Fog Can’t Hide His Incompetence on Russia, Ukraine
February 23, 2022
By John Kass
Has it only been 34 days since President Joe Biden opened his mouth and his nonsense plopped out?
Yes.
Please don’t tell me that with all the urgent news spin and old generals rattling sabers on TV, with those maps like some Risk board game, you’ve forgotten what our president said a month ago?
He said that if Russia moved into Ukraine, it would be OK with him, if it were only “a minor incursion.”
“It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and we [NATO] end up having to fight about we have to do and not do,” Biden said at a White House news conference on Jan. 19.
To belch such nonsense out publicly was disastrous for him, and the NATO alliance. The world watches and sees his incompetence.
He showed himself for what he is, an old man who was never really all that deep completely out whatever depth he possessed, a man without much of a political future as some 30 House Democrats have decided to resign rather than face what he’s crafted for Democrats come November.
And now other incompetents along with cynics of the bi-partisan American War Party are talking about how America must “show strength” and “resolve” to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in his own backyard, on his own ground?
And for what? So that our old, dry bobbing cork in the White House can shore up his weak domestic political numbers that are falling day by day? It’s not working.
America doesn’t believe you, Mr. President. America wants no part of this. You’ve slurred Americans who don’t agree with you on Voter Integrity laws by calling them knuckle-dragging racists. “Jim Crow 2.0!” remember? You’ve portrayed parents of school children as “domestic terrorists,” and unleashed the Department of Justice upon them just because they don’t agree with mask mandates and Critical Race Theory.
And now you want us to band together under your banner to oppose Putin?
I don’t think so. Americans don’t much care what happens in Putin’s backyard. They care about increasing violent crime across America that you do little if anything about. You won’t even condemn the catch-and-release prosecutors fanning the rise of crime.
Americans do care about your inflationary policies that eat away at their paychecks. They care about how whether they’ll afford to get to work with the price of gas going up, after you killed off the American pipeline to satisfy the hard left.
And Ukraine? Isn’t that where your son Hunter Biden scored big on business deals
leveraged by you when you were Vice President?
Yes, Ukraine. That Ukraine. Your son’s sandbox.
And all your horses and media men can’t put your presidency back together again. We don’t want your egg on our faces. Trust me on this Mr. President.
Hasn’t Russia strongman Vladimir Putin done exactly what the U.S. president invited Russia to do?
Russia has long considered Ukraine part of its fading empire and has now moved its forces into Eastern Ukraine. And as Putin made his move all we heard from the Biden White House was confused messaging.
First, it wasn’t an invasion. Then, No! Wait. It IS an invasion. Such confusing messaging does not inspire confidence. And then more confusion from the European Union. It’s all mind-numbing. Ambiguity sucks. Bullets are not ambiguous. Blood is not ambiguous.
“Russian troops have entered into Donbas. We consider the Donbas part of Ukraine,” E.U. official Josep Borrell said in Paris, as quoted by The New York Times.
“I wouldn’t say it is a fully fledged invasion,” Borrell added, “but Russian troops are on Ukrainian soil.”
Not a fully-fledged invasion? With Russian troops on Ukrainian soil? Oh, if you say so.
Adding to the fog is Vice President Kamala Harris. She brought her own fog machine—the one between her ears—to Munich to talk of Ukraine and Russia.
A retired senior U.S. diplomat had this to say:
“She (Harris) was talking about NATO as being stronger than ever before, yet at the same time that NATO’s unity was at stake. And subsequently a question was asked, sometimes journalists do ask questions even this environment, and one journalist asked, ‘How can you square the idea that Putin has already decided to invade with the idea that sanctions are a deterrent?’ And she was unable to answer. You’re scratching your head.”
That retired diplomat is my younger brother, Nicholas S. Kass, who spent more than 30 years working for U.S. government. Now in the private sector, he was a guest the other day on my podcast, The Chicago Way. Here’s a link if you care to listen.
My brother Nick’s judgement is that unclear messaging from the Biden administration undermines confidence in the U.S. across Europe.
NICHOLAS S KASS ON THE SYRIAN TURKISH BORDER
Who would disagree?
In comments Tuesday as he announced sanctions against Russia, Biden said:
“Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belongs to his neighbors?” said Biden.
Who gave him the right? No one gave him the right.
But who gave Putin the incentive to act? You did Mr. President. You and your bi-partisan colleagues who have been intervening in Ukraine for years.
You opened your mouth and your nonsense plopped out.
-30-
(Copyright 2022 John Kass)
Anti American Rhetoric
Republicans have more praise for Putin than the President and the United States of America.
https://youtu.be/pgIp-KFd3d4
Max Boot. The chickenhawk's chickenhawk who never fought in a single war he ever supported.
His claim to fame?
A hat.
Thanks alky.
LOL.
Biden’s Fog Can’t Hide His Incompetence on Russia, Ukraine
Joey Sprinkles' incompetence was most recently on full display with his surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
This is not news alky.
We've known he's a fucking moron for DECADES.
Did Roger actually post about Republican hatred toward Biden after what we saw for four years of Trump? Pretty short memory there. Hatred toward Trump was deep and violent and in our faces.
Big Majorities Reject Book Bans
February 23, 2022 at 8:43 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment
A new CBS News/YouGov poll finds large majorities — more than eight in 10 — don’t think books should be banned from schools for discussing race and criticizing U.S. history, for depicting slavery in the past or more broadly for political ideas they disagree with.
Taiwan Military Put on Alert
February 23, 2022 at 8:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard 32 Comments
“Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has ordered the island’s armed and security forces to step up their surveillance, remain alert for military activity in the region and strengthen combat readiness as tensions between Russia and Ukraine mount,” the South China Morning Post reports.
Trump Wanted Lindsey Graham to Take Out McConnell
LOL
February 23, 2022 at 7:46 am EST By Taegan Goddard 50 Comments
Daily Beast: “Since leaving office, former President Donald Trump has made no mystery of his desire to exact revenge on Mitch McConnell, by rallying pro-Trump senators to block McConnell from returning to his perch as majority leader. But the ex-president has been tight-lipped about who, exactly, he would want to back as McConnell’s prospective dethroner.
“However, in private conversations with close associates over the past several months, at Mar-a-Lago and elsewhere, Trump has batted around a handful of GOP senators’ names in his quest to stick it to the riot-averse ‘dumb son of a bitch’ McConnell. Since at least late last year, Trump has been asking a recurring question.
“Do you think Lindsey could do it?” he has asked advisers.
BUT HE WORRIES LINDSEY MIGHT NOT BE THE OBEDIENT LITTLE LAP DOG HE WANTS.
Eric Greitens Meets with Trump
February 23, 2022 at 7:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard 24 Comments
Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R), who is running for U.S. Senate, met with Donald Trump for 30 minutes at Mar-a-Lago, the New York Times reports.
Trump has made critical comments about Greitens to aides but more recently has been more positive about him.
Steve Jobs’ Heir Eyes Pelosi’s Seat
February 23, 2022 at 7:22 am EST By Taegan Goddard 17 Comments
“Reed Jobs, the well-liked millennial son of Laurene Powell Jobs and the late Steve Jobs, has privately talked about a political run, including for Nancy Pelosi’s seat if it opens,” Puck reports.
The Russian Incursion No One Is Talking About
February 23, 2022 at 7:20 am EST By Taegan Goddard 37 Comments
The Atlantic: “In the space of a month, Vladimir Putin has effectively managed to transform a former Soviet state into an extension of Russian territory, in full view of the United States and Europe, without firing a single shot in the country.
“This isn’t unfolding in Ukraine but neighboring Belarus, which has served as a home for Russian troops and military hardware since the start of the year, ostensibly because of planned drills between the two countries’ militaries.”
Senate Democrats Highlight Proposed GOP Tax Hike
February 23, 2022 at 6:50 am EST By Taegan Goddard 37 Comments
The DSCC is launching a five-figure radio and podcast ad buy knocking the Sen. Rick Scott-created GOP agenda unveiled Tuesday, specifically his call for new income taxes on millions of Americans, Politico reports.
The ad’s last sentence: “If Senate Republicans win, we pay the price.”
Earlier for members: Top Republican Plans Tax Hikes on 100 Million Americans
The 2024 Campaign Has Already Started Online
February 23, 2022 at 6:45 am EST By Taegan Goddard 9 Comments
“Most politicians with national ambitions are playing coy about running for president in 2024.
But behind the scenes, Republicans are on a quiet and unprecedented spending spree to build the foundations for potential national campaigns,” Politico reports.
“A half-dozen potential GOP candidates, most of whom won’t be on the ballot in 2022, still spent more than $1.4 million each on email list rentals, digital consulting and online fundraising in 2021.”
Congress Struggles for Unity on Ukraine
February 23, 2022 at 6:41 am EST By Taegan Goddard 27 Comments
New York Times: “This week, loud voices emerged urging President Biden to act forcefully to counter Russian aggression. But other lawmakers have used the crisis for partisan advantage, castigating the president and blaming the Biden administration for President Vladimir Putin’s assault on his neighbor.
“Perhaps more telling is the relative quiescence, from both Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress, who are hobbled by divisions in their ranks and seemingly content to let the White House take the lead, the credit or the blame.”
Biden’s First Wave of Sanctions Land with a Thud
February 23, 2022 at 6:34 am EST By Taegan Goddard 35 Comments
Bloomberg: “Instead of a sweeping package that crippled top Russian banks, cut its financial transactions off from the global economy, or personally singled out Vladimir Putin — the U.S. and its allies settled on a modest ‘first tranche’ of penalties. Markets responded with a shrug, underwhelmed by the tit-for-tat approach.”
New York Times: “Putin’s decision on Monday to press ahead with the troop movement suggests that he has concluded that the costs of new sanctions are tolerable, despite U.S. talk of ‘massive consequences’ for his country.”
Russia Warns U.S. Will Face ‘Consequences’ for Sanctions
February 23, 2022 at 6:32 am EST By Taegan Goddard 33 Comments
Washington Post: “Russia warned that Americans will fully feel the ‘consequences’ of U.S. sanctions on the Kremlin after it deployed troops into two pro-Moscow separatist regions of eastern Ukraine. The West is bracing for Russia to retaliate against the measures, which Moscow said would hurt global financial and energy markets.”
The Telegraph: “Putin has the means to cut off critical minerals and gases needed to sustain the West’s supply chain for semiconductor chips, upping the ante in the middle of a worldwide chip crunch. Furthermore, he could hobble the aerospace and armaments industry in the US and Europe by restricting supply of titanium, palladium, and other metals. If he controlled Ukraine, his control over key strategic minerals would be even more dominant, giving him leverage akin to Opec’s energy stranglehold in 1973.”
We'll see who gets hurt most.
More Nations Impose Sanctions on Russia
February 23, 2022 at 6:30 am EST By Taegan Goddard 8 Comments
“Australia, Canada and Japan said they would impose sanctions over the Ukraine crisis as more American allies add to efforts to punish Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin,” the New York Times reports.
“Their moves follow coordinated efforts by the United States, the European Union and Britain to penalize Russia for what President Biden called the start of an invasion of Ukraine.”
National Guard to Help Control Traffic for Truck Convoys
February 23, 2022 at 6:23 am EST By Taegan Goddard 8 Comments
“The Pentagon has approved the deployment of 700 unarmed National Guard troops to the nation’s capital as it prepares for trucker convoys that are planning protests against pandemic restrictions beginning next week,” the AP reports.
Makes perfect sense -
The Ukraine invasion directly benefits the Islamic Republic. That's why, after months of stagnation in Vienna, in the days leading up to Russia's recognition of the separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine, we are hearing that a deal with Iran is close to being signed.
Biden has alluded to securing cheap Iranian oil as an answer to high gas prices in the United States, a policy which has now been picked up by the media. Biden hit on rising oil prices again in his Tuesday speech, as did Kamala Harris in the course of the Munich conference.
Biden is cynically using Russia's destabilization of the global energy market to argue for the return to appeasement for the ayatollahs.
Ukraine was likely sacrificed well in advance in exchange for a lucrative energy deal and Iran's cooperation in Vienna.
https://nypost.com/2022/02/22/bidens-cynical-ploy-to-return-to-iran-deal-because-of-ukraine/
8:04 Pretty clever.
Britain No Longer a Playground for Russian Oligarchs
February 23, 2022 at 9:01 am EST By Taegan Goddard 1 Comment
Wall Street Journal: “For decades, Russia’s ultrarich have flocked to the city once dubbed Moscow-on-Thames, snapping up high-end houses, sending children to elite private schools and leveraging the capital’s status as a global financial hub.”
“London’s allure for oligarchs has faded in recent years amid increased hostility between the West and Moscow. However those oligarchs have left a long trail of property and family that still makes them a potential pressure point for the Russian government.
“It is unclear how far the U.K. government will go to squeeze them amid fears it will damage the attractiveness of its financial center.”
PAKISTAN NOT HAPPY WITH THE TALIBAN?
Taliban Takeover Sparked Spike in Terror Attacks
February 23, 2022 at 9:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard 1 Comment
“The euphoria felt by many in Pakistan over a Taliban victory in Kabul six months ago is subsiding. The government had hoped that a friendly — some would say proxy — regime in Kabul would ease its concerns about the Pakistani Taliban,” the New York Times reports.
“But instead, there has been a spike in terror attacks in recent months, which Pakistani officials say were planned by militants hiding inside Afghan territories.”
“We cannot deny history — the history of our beginnings — or the lingering effects of racism throughout our time. This requires us to confront the sin of racism and to seek to remove the stain from SBC life.”
– Southern Baptist Convention President Ed Litton
Top Stories
Southern Baptist Executive Committee agrees to a resolution with Jennifer Lyell
NASHVILLE. Tenn. (RNS) — Lyell had come forward with a story of abuse and found her story turned against her.
Southern Baptist leaders stress unity, trust during drama-free meeting
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — During Monday's meeting, Baptist leaders tried to put the divisive tone of past meetings behind them.
Giuliani Poised to Cooperate with Select Committee
February 23, 2022 at 9:08 am EST By Taegan Goddard 1 Comment
“Rudy Giuliani is expected to cooperate with the House select committee investigating January 6, and potentially reveal his contacts with Republican members of Congress involved in the former president’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election,” The Guardian reports.
“The move by Giuliani to appear before the panel – in a cooperation deal that could be agreed within weeks, according to two sources briefed on negotiations – could mark a breakthrough moment for the inquiry as it seeks to interview key members of Trump’s inner circle.”
Donald Trump's DNA, not deposition sought in defamation suit
Associated Press
LARRY NEUMEISTER
February 23, 2022, 9:07 AM
NEW YORK (AP) — A lawyer for a woman who accused former President Donald Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s and then filed a defamation lawsuit against him said Tuesday she will not seek to depose Trump prior to trial because it would cause unnecessary delay, but added that a DNA sample was still being sought.
Attorney Roberta Kaplan first made the revelation in Manhattan federal court during a pretrial hearing before explaining the decision to reporters outside the court as her client, E. Jean Carroll, stood by her side.
A deposition, Kaplan said, would “inevitably result in an inordinate amount of delay.”
“We want the case to go forward,” she said.
Attorney Alina Habba, who represented Trump at the hearing, said outside court that she had not previously heard that Carroll's lawyers did not want a deposition, a proceeding in which lawyers in civil cases question likely witnesses under oath prior to trial.
“It's surprising,” Habba said.
As for a DNA sample, Habba said: “None has been demanded.”
Related video: Judge rules Trump must testify in New York financial probe
Kaplan, though, said the DNA sample had been requested after the case was first filed in state court, and the demand still exists after it was moved to federal court.
She said she would be “more than perfectly happy” to wait to interview Trump at trial, which she estimated could occur in as little as six months, after some near-term legal obstacles are cleared.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people alleging sexual assault, but Carroll has consented to being named in the media.
She told reporters outside court that she was looking forward to the trial on behalf of all women “who have been grabbed and groped, assaulted and raped by men in power and are silenced.
“And we are looking to bring justice, at least in this one case, against a powerful man,” she said.
Carroll said she would “never settle, never.”
“This is about principle. It's about a powerful man assaulting and raping a woman and then getting away with it. That's not right,” she said.
Carroll in a June 2019 book said Trump raped her in the mid-1990s in an upscale Manhattan department store.
The book excerpt prompted Trump to deny the allegations and question Carroll’s credibility and motivations in a statement from his White House press office, comments in an Oval Office interview and statements to the media as he boarded a helicopter for Camp David.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule eventually on Trump’s request that the United States take his place as the defendant in the lawsuit. The U.S. Justice Department has asserted that Trump cannot be held personally liable for “crude and disrespectful” remarks he made about Carroll because his remarks were made as he was carrying out his duties as president.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who presided over Tuesday's hearing, ruled last October that Trump cannot use a law protecting federal employees from being sued individually for things they do within the scope of their employment.
He also has rejected a request by Trump's attorneys that the progression of the lawsuit, including depositions, be delayed until the 2nd Circuit rules on whether Trump can be replaced as the defendant.
On Tuesday, the judge seemed to have little patience for arguments by Trump's lawyers saying that Trump should be able to countersue Carroll under a law sometimes used to challenge defamation lawsuits that unfairly make claims.
“I question whether you have the right to do what you want to do,” he said, noting that the lawyers were seeking to countersue more than a year after the case was filed.
Prices of Gas lay at the feet of Biden.
Day #1 he attacked America's oil production and All Three if the Socialist Stooges of CHT cheered.
The ERA of Green Energy Solutions, you all called it .
Embrace your suck.
New York Times
"Published Feb. 20, 2022Updated Feb. 22, 2022
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is indefinitely freezing decisions about new federal oil and gas drilling
.."
Biden's latest Russia sanctions mark new target: the families of Putin's inner circle
By Phil Mattingly, CNN
Updated 1 hour ago Feb 23, 2022
Washington (CNN) - The new US sanctions triggered by Russian's latest actions in Ukraine included targets that in the past have gone untouched: the family members of those in Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.
By designating the sons of two powerful players close to the Russian President, the Biden administration sent a clear signal that its target list for individual sanctions extends beyond public officials and financiers as part of a new effort to shut down pathways for top Putin associates to shield their wealth by giving it to family members.
Denis Bortnikov and Vladimir Kiriyenko, both designated for individual sanctions by the Treasury Department on Tuesday, hold their own prominent positions in Russian business. But both will now have any US-held assets frozen and be barred from dealing with any US persons solely because their fathers serve as Putin's domestic intelligence chief and as one of Putin's closest advisers, respectively.
"They share in the corrupt gains of the Kremlin policies and should share in the pain as well," Biden said Tuesday.
Sanctioning the sons of two of Putin's closest officials doesn't carry the impact of other measures announced on Tuesday, most notably imposing sanctions on two of Russia's most prominent banks and reducing the country's ability to access Western finance.
But they are meant to unsettle a very personal element of the Russian economy, one driven by the reality that Putin's inner circle and the family members tied to them represent an extraordinary consolidation of wealth and power inside the country.
"This is unprecedented because we are extending the reach of US sanctions to prevent the elites close to Putin from using their kids to hide assets, evade costs, and squander the resources of the Russian people," a senior Biden administration official told CNN. "This is a new approach."
It is clear, officials say, that the opening salvo of that approach is unlikely to be the last.
"Other Russian elites and their family members are now on notice that additional actions could be taken on them as well," Daleep Singh, the deputy national security adviser who is leading the White House effort on sanctions, told reporters.
In response to the US sanctions announced Tuesday, the Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov was quoted on the Russian Embassy Facebook page early Wednesday, Moscow time. He said, "It is hard to imagine that there is a person in Washington who expects Russia to revise its foreign policy under a threat of restrictions. I don't remember a single day when our country lived without any restrictions from the Western world. We learned how to work in such conditions. And not only survive, but also develop our state."
While Biden administration officials say they've seen no indication Putin plans to de-escalate, the individual sanctions provide a window into the new elements being weighed, ranging from export controls to the most aggressive financial sanctions ever deployed.
The sanctions are aimed at "powerful Russians in Putin's inner circle believed to be participating in the Russian regime's kleptocracy and their family members," according to the Treasury Department.
Denis Bortnikov is the son of Aleksandr Bortnikov, the powerful head of the Federal Security Service, Russia's domestic intelligence service known as the FSB. The elder Bortnikov, already subject to sanctions in March of last year, was re-designated for sanctions in the new round.
Vladimir Kiriyenko is the son of Sergei Kiriyenko, the former prime minister and current first deputy chief of staff of the presidential office who is viewed by US officials as "Putin's domestic policy curator." The elder Kiriyenko, also sanctioned in 2021, was also re-designated for sanctions on Tuesday.
The re-designations were necessary to create the legal pathway to target their sons for designation, which freezes all property and interests in property in the US, or in possession or control of a US citizen.
The two sons currently hold prominent roles of their own -- Bortnikov as deputy president of VTB Bank, one of Russia's largest financial institutions, and Kiriyenko as the recently installed CEO of VK Group, which serves as the parent company of the Russian social media company VK, which calls itself "the largest European social network."
A third sanctioned individual, Petr Fradkov, serves as the CEO of Promsvyazbank, the military bank also targeted for sanctions on Tuesday. But he, too, carries a key familial tie to the upper echelons of Putin's orbit.
Fradkov is the son of Mikhail Fradkov, an ex-prime minister of Russia and the former chief of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR. The elder Fradkov was targeted for sanctions by the US in 2018.
Administration officials view shielding wealth through family members as a strategy deployed in the past by sanctioned Russian oligarchs and viewed as likely for the array of Russian officials already designated for sanctions over the course of the last several years.
"Elites close to Putin continue to leverage their proximity to the Russian President to pillage the Russian state, enrich themselves, and elevate their family members into some of the highest positions of power in the country at the expense of the Russian people," the Treasury Department said in announcing the sanctions.
As further escalation appears likely, so does a new reality for those family members: they are now firmly in the Biden administration's sanction crosshairs.
TM & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc.
A WarnerMedia Company.
All Rights Reserved.
Financial warfare.
Prominent Russian officials from President Vladimir V. Putin’s inner circle, as well as high-profile Russians from the media world, are the targets of European Union sanctions, details of which are expected to be made public later Thursday.
The list, which officials said had been finalized by European Union ambassadors and was obtained by The New York Times, was in the process of going through the bloc’s legal service before being published and officially entering into force. It includes Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, and Anton Vaino, Mr. Putin’s chief of staff.
E.U. officials said the sanctions were a first step toward punishing those involved in the recognition of the so-called republics of Donetsk and Luhansk on Monday, which the bloc regards as a violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. They promised heavier penalties if Russia escalates its hostilities in Ukraine into a full-blown invasion.
It is unclear whether the final roster of targeted individuals could change before taking effect, but the list appears to have been compiled in coordination with American officials who were drawing up their own set of sanctions.
Two more prominent individuals on the list were Maria Zakharova, the director of the foreign ministry’s Information and Press Department, who is the ministry’s spokesperson; and Margarita Simonyan, who leads the television network RT.
The top Russian military leadership and senior executives with state-owned VTB bank, which itself was not listed, featured in the sanctions package, as did a number of other media personalities that the European Union regards as “propagandists.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin — a Russian businessman with close links to Mr. Putin who owns, among other things, the mercenary group Wagner — was included on the E.U. sanctions list alongside several members of his family.
The sanctions mean that the individuals will face travel bans to the European Union, as well as asset freezes — although the asset freezes could be tricky to implement, given the willingness of European banking systems to conceal Russian wealth in complex ownership structures.
Classic fascism is to declare that the government systems, and replace the leadership and install loyalists in the government systems, then install the President or prime minister and impose regulations on businesses that benefit the government's policies.
This below is the current Republican party now.
Because of the egocentrism and megalomania of the current ruling class, our country is inexorably and stealthily marching toward a tyrannical one-party socialist oligarchy beholden to a globalist agenda. These elites, in their determination to achieve political and societal status in perpetuity, are willingly allied with the relatively small number of true believers in their midst whose sole focus is to transform America into another failed socialist nation.
In a major step toward accomplishing that goal, the ruling class in both Canada and the United States have calculatingly acquiesced to these ideologues maliciously exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic in order to permanently consolidate their political and societal status.
The current and ongoing fascistic actions of the government in Canada in dealing with the trucker protest have revealed that this process is more advanced in Canada than it is the United States. However, this nation is not far behind as its government has also declared a de facto war on America’s unwashed masses they claim are marinated in white supremacy and racism as these “deplorables” endlessly plot insurrections and domestic terrorism.
Fearful of the spread of a populist uprising, the true believers in Canada’s ruling class, as personified by Justin Trudeau, convinced the rest of their fellow ruling elites that they must violently stifle a peaceful grass roots political protest fomented by their deliberate abrogation of individual freedom. They have brutally assaulted the demonstrators they refer to as domestic terrorists by invoking “emergency measures” designed for wartime. This has allowed the government to unilaterally and without any legal basis freeze bank accounts and seize assets, censor non-state-sanctioned media, jail people without due process and outlaw any political demonstrations opposed to the regime.
12 of last 15 posts are more copy pastes by the brainless stooges here. I'm out.
Same here, it is all they have, no debating just endless pablum of cut n paste.
Until 1984, I was leaving the Democratic party. But I figured this out when Ronald Reagan attacked the flight coordinators union and designed the tax system to favor the rich. I realized this.
The GOP
The epicenter for all these plagues on the American people is the Republican Party, which has, since the 1920s, unabashedly stood for white, wealthy, well-off men and the corporations they run.
Embracing the defiance of flight attendants displayed nearly 100% by white men, eight Republican senators have written to the Attorney General demanding that people who assault flight crews not be put on the "no-fly" list.
Senators Cynthia M. Lummis (WY), Mike Lee (UT), James Lankford (OK), Marco Rubio (FL), Kevin Cramer (ND), Ted Cruz (TX), John Hoeven (ND) and Rick Scott (FL) are all betting it's good politics to pander to aggrieved men who feel having to wear a mask on an airplane is an assault on their sense of agency.
Ted Cruz ranting that it should be illegal for President Biden to announce he's going to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court is just the latest in the GOP's racist and put-women-back-in-their-place hustle.
As I noted last week, when a political party has no real policy plans or core beliefs, they fall back on demagoguery, misogyny and racism. Nixon blazed the trail with his Southern Strategy, Bush the Elder fine-tuned it with Willie Horton, and Donald Trump laid it right out in the open for the world to see.
America's in deep trouble, with our political system hijacked by billionaires; cultural voices like Fox and social media sowing hate and division for profit; toxic masculinity driving hate crimes, murders, and air rage; and more than half the country so desperately hanging on by their fingernails that they can't deal with an unexpected $1000 expense.
Progressive Democrats offer a way for Americans to recover our control of government — our agency — and thus a way towards our becoming a nation that cares for its own and works to heal, rather than tear apart, the American social contract.
They'd accomplish this by getting big money out of politics to put voters back in control of elections, while putting into place policies mentioned earlier and supported by the majority of Americans.
November may well be our last chance to undo much of the damage the GOP has inflicted on us these past 40+ years and build, finally, a nation that truly realizes its founding promise of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Anonymous The Real Coldheartedtruth said...
Classic fascism is to declare that the government systems, and replace the leadership and install loyalists in the government systems, then install the President or prime minister and impose regulations on businesses that benefit the government's policies.
Yup.
CANADA.
Now North Korea with hockey.
Slapped a supercharger on the old plagiarism clown car, eh alky?
LOL.
Thomm Hartman - former Putin STOOGE on Russia Television (RT)
https://www.salon.com/2022/02/23/americans-loss-of-political-agency-a-void-created-by-the-itself_partner/
Got anything other than plagiarized class warfare tropes alky?
A little Robbie "Third" Reich perhaps?
LOL.
The epicenter for all these plagues on the American people is the Republican Party, which has, since the 1920s, unabashedly stood for white, wealthy, well-off men and the corporations they run.
Except for one thing - all those white, wealthy, well-off men and the corporations they run, those WOKE corporations, vote DEMOCRAT.
That SALT deduction that Trump fucked them on? Yeah, DEMOCRATS look to restore that.
LOL @ the looney tunes alky troll squad asshole.
Labeling Putin as a genius is an exaggeration. Our president, Putin's adversary, is a fucking imbecile who has been wrong on every foreign policy call he's made from the time he arrived in DC.
In comparison to the NATO world leaders... he looks smart. Maybe even a genius if you use the term as loosely as some people do. But I doubt he "actually" has an IQ in the 140 range.
But at the end of the day, Putin is a bully who knows who he can push around and who he cannot. That is really his skill. Being a bully.
Biden is getting beaten up.
Americans don't want his WAR.
" Politico/MorningConsult poll revealed.
Just 40 percent of voters approved of Biden’s management of the conflict, while 45 disapproved, including 35 percent who said they strongly disapproved."
When Biden Begged Putin for Oil.
Putin knew Joe could be had on the cheap.
Biden said Americans must feel pain of his policies.
No thanks.
Change your Energy Policies, retract your Executive Orders.
I told ya so, he knows less about economics as the Three Socialist Stooges of CHT.
Ch can't quit using Sleepy Joe because he has been played like a kid in grade school by....
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