Sept 13: E-Stories
Day 566: CombatSit Sevastopol Salavat Putin RUgas RUIndia Kim Musk Dzerzhinsky RUbrands Estonia Austin ZelenskyCorruption G20 Armenia IranSwap BidenA&P ISW UKDef Dębski Fallon SuardiIWP KF&Farrell AP
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
Stories we’re following…
Russia shells 10 communities in Sumy Oblast, injuring 1. The Russian military shelled 10 communities on the border of Sumy Oblast on Sept. 11, causing more than 122 explosions, the Sumy Oblast Military Administration reported. One person was injured.
Russian shelling of Donetsk Oblast kills 2, injures 3. Russian shelling of Krasnohorivka and Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast on Sept. 12 killed two civilians and injured three others, the General Prosecutor's Office reported.
Combat Situation Up-date
During the day, more than 20 military clashes took place. In total, Russian troops carried out three missile and 25 air strikes, and carried out 36 attacks from multiple launch rocket systems on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and populated areas of Ukraine.
In the Bakhmut direction, the Ukrainian Defense Forces are successfully holding back the enemy in the Orekhovo-Vasilevka area of the Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian Defense Forces continue to conduct an offensive operation in the Melitopol direction, offensive (assault) operations in the Bakhmut direction, destroy the enemy and step by step liberate the occupied territories.
During the day, UAF aviation carried out 8 strikes on enemy personnel and military equipment. Units of the UAF missile forces hit 2 artillery weapons, an ammunition depot, a control center and an enemy anti-aircraft missile system.
ISW: Russian border guards complain of equipment shortages. Russian border guards are underequipped and anxious about the possibility of Ukrainian cross-border raids, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote in its Sept. 11 report.
WarGonzo about the fighting at Novoprokopivka on Sept 12 morning:
“In the Zaporizhzia direction, the Ukrainian Armed Forces, with the support of artillery, reached Novoprokopivka and attacked in a forest plantation one and a half kilometers north of the village.”
Ukraine strikes Russian military base of drone operators. Ukraine’s forces carried out a successful strike against a base of Russian operators of Zala and Lancet drones, the military’s Strategic Communications Directorate reported.
Putin signalling negotiations so he can rearm and regroup: "Ukraine lost 71.500 people, 543 tanks and almost 18.000 various armored vehicles during their counter-offensive," Putin said. He added that if the US believes that Ukraine is ready to negotiate, then Ukraine needs to cancel Zelensky’s decree banning negotiations with Russia.
Monique: Any intimation of ‘negotiations’ on behalf of Putin must be read as his attempt to buy time for rearming and regrouping Russian forces. Also note that Putin never mentions negotiating with Ukraine directly. He would never do that because he believes Ukraine isn’t a real nation worthy of consideration.
Behind the Lines
Russian governor claims drone attack in Kursk. An explosive device was dropped from a drone in Rylsk, in the Kursk Region, Roman Starovoyt, governor of the Kursk region, claimed on Sept. 11. (These drone attacks occur daily.)
Sevastopol: There are unconfirmed reports and video clips circulating on social media which appear to show an explosion has occurred near the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.
A fuel oil pit covering an area of 300m² caught fire on the territory of a bitumen production plant in Salavat, the Ministry of Emergency Situations reports.
Russians trying to improve logistics - locomotives launched in port of Mariupol. In the temporarily occupied by the Russian army Mariupol, the invaders launched diesel locomotives in the seaport to solve their military logistics issues.
Meanwhile in Russia
Economic Forum: Putin has confirmed that he is ‘running’ for re-election in March 202 at the eastern economic forum in Vladivostok. He also weighed in on Trump, the US, Musk (“talented and distinguished”) and that the Russians were recruiting 1,000 to 1,500 volunteers a day to fight in Ukraine:
As for the persecution of Trump, for us, in the current environment, it’s good because it shows the rottenness of the American system. It is a politically motivated persecution of one’s competitor.
And this shows who we are fighting … as they said in Soviet times: ‘the bestial face of American capitalism.’
Current authorities have directed American society in an anti-Russian spirit. They’ve done it and now somehow turning this ship in the other direction will be very difficult.
He’s on a roll: Putin said that the British intelligence services, with the help of the SBU, were preparing a bombing at a nuclear power plant in Russia, and added that he could take action in response. He also mentioned, as he did the other day, that the Ukrainian counteroffensive “has delivered no results”. This conflicts with the need for Russia to continue recruiting soldiers. If it were not going well, why hasn’t Russia declared victory?
Monique: There is no independent media in Russia so the questions posed by so-called journalists (propagandists) are meant to bring out the messages Putin wishes the West or specific people in the West to known or fear. At the economic forum, he wanted Trump and Trumpy candidates to know that he backs them in some form, and sent a warning to Musk in the form of a masked compliment. The nuclear threats are meant to feed the fears of the ‘pacifist movement’ in Europe, and the denigration of the US is meant to bolster anti-American propaganda. All of this is in contrast with the number of courageous Russians who are signing up in droves to fight in Ukraine.
Regional ‘elections’ in Russia: Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) member Viktor Bout has won a mandate to the Ulyanovsk Region's parliament on the party list, the regional election commission told TASS.
Monique: Please note this is the same Bout, the “merchant of death”, who was convicted in the US and later exchanged for Brittany Griner in December 2022. Bout he used his multiple companies to smuggle arms from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2011 Bout was convicted by a jury at a federal court in Manhattan, of conspiracy to kill American citizens and officials, delivery of anti-aircraft missiles, and providing aid to a terrorist organization; he was sentenced to the minimum 25 years' imprisonment because the crime was due to the sting operation.
The North Korean dictator arrived in Russia. Kim left the North Korean capital on Sunday accompanied by leading officials of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, the government and armed forces, the latest KCNA report said. The sources close to Russian authorities said the talks between Putin and Kim may take place in Vladivostok on Tuesday or at the Vostochny Cosmodrome space launch center in the Amur region in the Russian Far East on Wednesday.
In this clip, Russian state media is praising the North Korean dictator. It’s a new low. Nikolai Starikov praises North Korea's "successful" economy and political system.
Lim Soo-suk, South Korea’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said Seoul was maintaining communication with Moscow while closely monitoring Kim Jong-un’s visit, the Associated Press reports.
No UN member state should violate Security Council sanctions against North Korea by engaging in an illegal trade of arms, and must certainly not engage in military cooperation with North Korea that undermines the peace and stability of the international community.
The Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia) has begun enlisting former inmates who were recruited from prison to join Wagner units and were later granted amnesty for their participation in the war in Ukraine, the investigative news site iStories reported on Monday.
According to the outlet, recruitment messages for the National Guard began appearing in closed chat groups for the relatives of mercenaries in late summer, posing as a pardoned Wagner fighters. Several members of these groups corroborated to journalists that former prisoners who were convicted of crimes of “minor and moderate severity” have been invited to join the National Guard, but “not for leadership positions or even for mid-level officer ranks.”
Reality bites in India: Billions in Russian oil sale profits are stuck in Indian banks.
Commodities such as oil, gold and wheat are typically traded around the globe in U.S. dollars, the world's reserve currency. However Russia's financial system was essentially isolated by Western sanctions imposed after Putin's invasion of Ukraine, making his country unable to make transactions in greenbacks, thus limiting trade.
Russia has become one of India's top oil suppliers and has earned billions of dollars in sales. This has resulted in an accumulation of up to $1 billion each month in rupee assets in Indian banks that cannot be accessed due to restrictions by the Reserve Bank of India, which prevent Russian companies from transferring rupees stored in bank accounts in India to Russia and converting them into rubles, Bloomberg reported. Almost $40B has accumulated and the Russians can’t get it out of India.
China is willing to share development opportunities and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia, China’s vice premier, Zhang Guoqing, was quoted as saying by state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday. China and Russia have maintained a high level of strategic partnership, with cooperation in various fields gaining momentum, Zhang said when meeting Putin.
In Russia, an Airbus passenger plane almost suffered a plane crash due to a technical malfunction and hydraulic problems and was forced to make an emergency landing right in the field. There were 159 passengers and 6 crew members on board the vessel, which landed in the Novosibirsk region. (Monique: we’ll be seeing a lot of this in the next few months as there are shortages for maintenance.)
Fuel shortages in the southern regions of Russia arose due to attempts by oil companies to create an artificial shortage, said Nikolai Shulginov, head of the Russian Ministry of Energy.
“The domestic market’s needs for motor fuel are fully met by production. The situation in the south of Russia is largely connected not with logistical difficulties, but with the fact that someone was simply trying to play on the situation - closing gas stations, creating an artificial shortage. We are trying to stop such actions,” Shulginov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
Iran intends to give Russia short- and long-range missiles - Mossad chief. Iran intends to transfer short- and long-range missiles to Russia in addition to the UAVs that Tehran has been selling to Moscow for the war against Ukraine.
Monique: Felix Dzerzhinsky was born to a wealthy Polish family. He was Lenin’s closest advisor and became the head of the Cheka, Soviet Russia’s secret police, which was considered the vanguard of the Bolshevik Party and the largest secret police in the 20th century. He was known as the “Knight of the Revolution”.
The Cheka killed or deported the ‘enemies’ of the state, foreign and domestic. They had a foreign intelligence branch to conduct espionage, subversion, and sabotage abroad from the get go. Dzerzhinsky’s units organised and executed mass murder, mass repression, imprisonments, and gross violations of human rights.
It was only due to their ruthlessness that the Soviets seized power, and then were able to maintain it through cruel methods: eliminate any form of opposition to the Bolsheviks.
Putin is the heir of the Cheka dynasty and it isn’t surprising that the Russian state would choose to erect a statue honouring Dzerzhinsky’s violent legacy.
Speaking of Stalin: The new Russian history textbook for the high schoolers in grade 11, which will be distributed in all of the Russian Federation, is another attempt to rehabilitate Stalinism and a means of propaganda justifying the war with Ukraine.
The new textbook contains an entire range of detailed quotes by Stalin. Russian children are meant to graduate with the idea that while “things are not so clear-cut,” this Stalin person was an outstanding figure.
The post-war USSR is depicted as a dynamic “golden age”: of course, there were difficulties, but the main thing is that the country became one of the two most influential ones in the world. The Bolshevik ideology helped in winning the war against Hitler, and thus it must be good.
The West and the United States are portrayed as aggressors who, to quote the book, “oppress Russia’s national interests.” According to the propagandists who drew up the textbook, it was the West that started the Cold War.
The authors believe that the USSR did not fall apart due to the decolonization of the peoples conquered by Moscow, but simply failed to reform, and the insidious West took advantage of this. This led to “the biggest geopolitical catastrophe — the collapse of the USSR,” say the authors, quoting Vladimir Putin.
Theresa Fallon: Putin’s privatisation plan for foreign companies in Russia includes forced sale at less than 50% of the value—plus a 10% tax to the Russian govt. Beijing is likely taking note. Well established brands get a Russian makeover after their takeovers. IKEA is now Swed House & Levi’s is now JNS. What must really sting is that a Chinese company has taken over the Mercedes plant just outside Moscow.
Remember the Chinese opera singer, Wang-Fang, who sang amid the destruction of Mariupol?
“When I saw that Ukrainian nazis are killing the children of Donbas, it caused a flurry of angry emotions in me, so I decided to come to Donbas and help the children,” said Chinese opera singer Wang-Fang in response to her visit to Mariupol.
Next to her is her husband Zhou Xiaoping. He is a member of the People's Political Consultative Council under the Chinese Communist Party. He blames the destruction of the drama theater not on Russia, but on Ukraine. And also supports Russian propaganda, in particular, about "protecting local residents from NATO attacks."
Spiegel Abroad- Karin Kneissl has long been criticized for her Kremlin connections. The former Austrian Foreign Minister is now moving to St. Petersburg, Russia. The background is a new job. Kneissl is to head the newly founded think tank Gorki. She had already presented the project in June at the economic forum in Saint Petersburg. Kneissl said at the time that it was a think tank affiliated with the state university of the Russian metropolis.
Fun Fact: Kneissl, who moved to live in Russia in the summer of 2023, brought two of her ponies to the Leningrad region, The Insider reports. Earlier, the telegram channel Fighterbomber, close to the Russian Ministry of Defense, wrote about sending ponies to Russia. On Sept 9, Fighterbomber wrote that "important and secret ponies flew away on a separate plane”.
Allied support
Denmark announced a new financial aid package to Ukraine worth $833 million that is ment for procurement of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, tank ammunition and anti-aircraft guns. It is the largest Danish aid package to Ukraine thus far.
Sweden to consider sending fighter jets to Ukraine - reports. The Swedish government will shortly commission the Swedish Armed Forces to investigate the conditions for sending JAS-39 Gripen to Ukraine. The government wants information on how a handover affects Sweden's defense capabilities and how they are replaced.
G7 condemns 'sham elections' held by Russia on Ukrainian territory. Foreign ministers from the G7 group of major industrialised countries condemned the staging of what they called “sham elections” by Russia in occupied Ukrainian territories
“We … unequivocally condemn the staging of sham ‘elections’ held by Russia on sovereign Ukrainian territory in Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia oblasts and Crimea,” the G7 statement said in a statement, published by the UK’s Foreign Office, on Tuesday.
Readout: Sec of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke by phone today with his counterpart, Ukrainian MoD Rustem Umerov “to congratulate him on his appointment and to reiterate the steadfast U.S. support for Ukraine on Monday. Secretary Austin provided an update on U.S. security assistance efforts and exchanged views with Minister Umerov on priorities to support Ukraine’s immediate battlefield needs and capability requirements over the long term. Secretary Austin and Minister Umerov also discussed the agenda for the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting to be held next week at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.”
US threatens new sanctions against North Korea in case of arms transfer. The United States will closely monitor the results of the planned meeting between the leaders of the Russian Federation and North Korea and "will not hesitate" to impose new sanctions "if both countries commit another violation of arms transfer restrictions," Spokesperson for the U.S. State Department Matthew Miller stated at a press conference on Sept. 11.
President Zelenskyy said the “decision-making process in Germany is moving forward” regarding the supply of Taurus missiles after a meeting with the country’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, the BBC’s diplomatic editor, Paul Adams, said on Monday.
Zelenskyy: Corruption cases in Ukraine don't involve foreign funds. In an interview with CNN published on Sept. 10, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that cases of corruption in Ukraine don't involve financial or military aid sent by Kyiv's partners.
Monique: Since June 2022, Zelenskyy’s government has been rooting out corrupt officials and stakeholders across Ukrainian state offices and infrastructure. The Kyiv Independent has reported on these dismissals and subsequent legal action taken against the perpetrators. One of goals of the Ukrainian government is to prepare Ukrainian state for EU and NATO accession. Eliminating corrupt practices is an essential part of this process.
Poll: Most Ukrainians consider president directly responsible for corruption in government. According to a recent poll published by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, 78% of surveyed Ukrainians believe that the president bears direct responsibility for corruption in the government and regional administrations. Only 18% of respondents disagreed with this statement.
Monique: Ukrainians want this issue addressed, and have for a very long time. There are a number of Ukrainian NGOs that have worked on this aspect of their state for years. They and Ukrainians in general look to the Ukrainian government, headed by Zelensky, to tackle this issue. Another step was taken on Tuesday. Zelenskyy vetoed a parliamentary bill that sought to retain closed asset declarations for officials, and posted a video on his official channel:
“In the morning, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed a law that preserved restrictions on electronic declaration. Restrictions are unacceptable.
Declarations must be open. They have to be open immediately. Not in a year. The register should be opened now. Actually, the law should be voted on with this main amendment. Preferably quickly.”
Council of Europe sets out principles for holding Russia accountable for war damages. The justice ministers of the Council of Europe member and observer states have adopted the so-called Riga principles, outlining how Russia should be hold accountable for the losses and damages it has caused in Ukraine, the Council announced on Sept. 11. The ministers highlighted the need to ensure the proper functioning of the register of Damages in Ukraine, a record of evidence and claims for damage, loss, or injury caused by the Russian aggression.
The Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Legal Affairs and Human Rights recognized that Russia has become a dictatorship.
"The enormous power of the president, resulting from an extremely long tenure in office, coupled with the absence of any checks and balances, such as a strong parliament, an independent judiciary, a free media and a vibrant civil society, has turned the Russian Federation into a de facto dictatorship."
Poll: Majority of EU citizens favor continued support for Ukraine.
The majority of EU citizens favor measures in support of Ukraine against Russian aggression, including humanitarian, economic, and military means, based on a survey by Eurobarometer published by the European Commission on Sept. 11.
According to the poll, 86% of Europeans approve of the continued EU humanitarian aid to the people affected by the war. Some 77% accept welcoming refugees, 71% support sanctions, while 67% and 65% believe the EU should support Ukraine on its path toward European integration and the single market, respectively.
Finally, 65% of respondents favor economic and financial support for Ukraine, and 57% think that the EU should support the purchase and supply of military equipment and training to Ukraine.
Ukraine, Germany to build wind farm in Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. The Ukrainian government and the German company NOTUS energy agreed on Monday to jointly build a wind power plant in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, capable of providing electricity to almost 1,000 households.
German Foreign Minister Baerbock said Berlin would encourage its partners to deliver available air defence systems to Ukraine for this winter.
“We need to stretch a winter air defence shield over Ukraine’s critical infrastructure,” Baerbock said after her visit to Kyiv on Monday, according to Reuters.
Despite sanctions – Germany apparently imports Russian oil via India. Because of the war in Ukraine, Germany stopped its direct imports of oil from Russia. But now the material apparently comes via a detour. The beneficiaries: Indian billionaires and Russian investors.
On the lighter side: CNN: Scottish zoo to adopt bear saved from Russian-occupied Ukraine. The Five Sisters Zoo in Scotland will adopt an Asiatic black bear who suffered severe trauma in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast, CNN reported on Sept. 11. The bear was rescued from an abandoned zoo on the outskirts of Yampil in Donetsk Oblast, when Ukrainian forces liberated the village in October 2022.
DefenceOne, Marcus Weisgerber: What do we do with Elon and Starlink?
Now that Elon Musk has acknowledged withholding satellite internet service to Ukraine, the U.S. Air Force secretary said the military needs commercial services available.
"If we're going to rely upon commercial architectures or commercial systems for operational use, then we have to have some assurances that they're going to be available, and there are different ways we can get there," Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said during a Monday afternoon briefing at the Air & Space Forces Association's annual Air, Space, Cyber conference.
"We have to have that," he said. "Otherwise they're a convenience and maybe an economy in peacetime, but they're not something we can rely upon in wartime. And we need both."
Ukraine's military has relied on Musk's SpaceX Starlink satellite internet for military command and control since Russia invaded in February 2022. The U.S. military and its allies routinely rely on commercial services in wartime. Musk disabling Starlink access reportedly prevented Ukrainian forces from attacking Russian warships in Crimea last year. [continue]
Bloomberg: US Senator calls for investigation following allegations Elon Musk disrupted Ukraine's strike on Russian fleet. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) has called for an investigation into Elon Musk and his company, SpaceX, Bloomberg reported on Sept. 12. The U.S. Congress should investigate "whether we have adequate tools to make sure foreign policy is conducted by the government and not by one billionaire," Warren said on Sept. 11 in Washington, D.C.
Putin has been asked what he expects from the 2024 US election. He said that whoever wins he does not expect any significant change in foreign policy towards Russia from the US, which he says views Russia as an enemy despite there being many people there who would prefer to have decent businesslike relations. You can bet he’s doing everything possible to sway the electorate through proxies, or simply inject a high degree of chaos in the electoral milieu.
US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announces launch of a formal impeachment investigation into Biden. The allegations concern Hunter Biden and his business dealings and the Joe Biden’s role in them.
Around the World
Thousands of people have been killed in Libya in the devastating flooding caused by heavy rains this weekend, aid agencies confirmed. Ten thousand people were missing, an official said, in a disaster that was exacerbated by the collapse of two dams.
Decode39: The G-20 delegations set the stage for many tangible deliverables: The Cotton Road. Among them was the launch of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), a massive rail and sea infrastructure network to create a commercial corridor (suitable for both energy and goods) from the Indian subcontinent across the Arabian peninsula all the way to Europe. The IMEC could speed up trade between India and Europe by 40% and help normalise relations between Israel and the Gulf states, which the White House has been pushing for. Beijing has already voiced its opposition to the IMEC, which it sees as part of a US project to “contain” China.
Nikkei: China no longer top exporter to U.S. as trade rift widens.
China likely lost the title of the top exporter of goods to the U.S. in the first half for the first time in 15 years, outpaced by Mexico and Canada amid decoupling between the world's two biggest economies.
American imports from China between January and May fell about 25% on the year to $169 billion, U.S. Commerce Department data shows. They accounted for 13.4% of the U.S. total -- a 19-year low and down 3.3 percentage points from a year earlier. Imports fell across a range of product categories, particularly semiconductors, which plunged by half.
Imports from Mexico, meanwhile, grew to $195 billion, an all-time high for the period, with Canada not far behind at $176 billion. Both countries are expected to remain ahead of China for the full first half of 2023. [continue]
Armenia holds military drills with US amid souring relations with Russia. Armenian and U.S. forces on Sept. 11 started joint military exercises, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. The drills, which will continue until Sept. 20, come amid deteriorating relations between Armenia and Russia.
The Justice Department’s antitrust trial against Google begins today. The case will determine whether Google illegally used its popular search engine to throttle competitors in search and advertising. It’s the first such case against a major tech company in more than 20 years and could affect the tech landscape — and Google’s reach — for the next decade and beyond.
Russia targeted civilian cargo ship with missiles last month, UK says—The Guardian
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has said Russia targeted a civilian cargo ship in the Black Sea with multiple missiles last month.
Speaking to the House of Commons on Wednesday, Sunak said: “I can tell the House today that thanks to declassified intelligence, we know the Russian military targeted a civilian cargo ship in the Black Sea with multiple missiles on 24 August.”
A statement released by the UK Foreign Office said the attacks were “thwarted by Ukrainian forces who shot down multiple missiles heading towards Odesa port.”
“The missiles, which included two Kalibr missiles fired from a Black Sea Fleet missile carrier, were successfully shot down by Ukraine’s forces on 24 August,” the statement said.
“Intelligence shows that an intended target was a Liberian-flagged cargo ship berthed in the port,” the statement added.
The Sneak Peak with Francis Farrell
Olga and I were joined by Francis Farrell, a war reporter with The Kyiv Independent, to talk about Ukraine’s counteroffensive. The full episode drops on Thursday.
Sławomir Dębski: Russia’s ‘secret channel’
“Russia has in no way abandoned its initial plan to install a pro-Russian government in Kyiv…Russia wants to enlist the West to force Kyiv to accept the so-called “peace for territory” swap and to coerce Ukrainians to resign themselves to the amputation of their country.
The real scenario in the minds of Russia’s leaders is not the Korean one: for them, a part of Ukraine integrated into the West is unacceptable. The real scenario that inspires them is the Georgian scenario of 2008-9: it consisted in stirring up the bitterness felt by Georgians after the “betrayal” of the West, in twisting the knife in the wound, so as to demoralize them, make them lose heart, make them plunge back into the corruption and cynicism characteristic of the “Russian world” and finally resign themselves to electing a new government that we now know was a government of collaboration.”
“The first step was to set up a “secret channel” with the American administration. During the Second World War, this secret channel was provided by the highly Sovietophile Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt’s right-hand man. The advantage of the secret channel is that it enables Moscow to influence decision-makers directly, behind the scenes, behind the backs of the allies, sheltered from the media.”
“Thanks to Hopkins, who relayed the Kremlin’s propaganda, Roosevelt abandoned half of Europe to Stalin.”
“It concerns the secret channel set up between West Germany and the Kremlin from the end of 1969. On the Soviet side, “journalist” Vyacheslav Kevorkov acted as an intermediary with Andropov. On the German side, his contact was Egon Bahr, a close associate of Chancellor Willy Brandt. This secret channel remained in place under Helmut Schmidt. Thanks to the Ostpolitik of which Egon Bahr was the architect, the USSR was able to establish a parasitic coexistence with the West that lasted for years, gave the dying Soviet economy a breath of fresh air and enabled Moscow to carry out the gigantic armaments program that is still bearing fruit today, since Putin’s army makes use of arsenals dating back to this period.”
“Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met for several hours in April in New York with Richard Haass, a former diplomat and outgoing president of the Council on Foreign Relations, European expert Charles Kupchan and Russian expert Thomas Graham, both former White House and State Department officials and members of the Council on Foreign Relations. On the agenda were the fate of the occupied territories.”
Monique: Dębski is the director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), which holds a conference every year in Warsaw. The news about the ‘back-channel’ talks between the Americans mentioned above and Russian authorities was reported on in the summer. Nothing new.
How much influence these Americans have on US foreign policy decision-making regarding Russia is something that will be revealed in time. The news tells me more about the Americans involved than the supposed impact on the Biden administration. They have no official position within the administration, and are conducting talks with Russian authorities counter to the American foreign policy position.
The Haass faction operates within the US think tank establishment, and it embraces a realist geopolitical view of international affairs, which refuses to see Russia as an aggressor state. Russia has ripped up international law and embarked on a campaign of genocide intended to kill Ukrainians. The focus is on this faction, but I can imagine that there are others in the US, as there are European think tanks and influence pushers that advocate the same doggie dog worldview.
There’s another disturbing aspect to this post: These comments feed into the narrative that the Americans are actively back-stabbing Ukraine and her allies, which has been circulating on Telegram and other social media platforms since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian propaganda depicts the US as a dishonest puppet master, pulling Ukraine’s strings for its own aims. The US is principally concerned with selling its military arsenal- it’s the ‘military industrial complex that motivates foreign policy. In this narrative, Ukraine has no agency and merely jumps when America demands it. What’s more is that president Zelensky is often pictured as the Jew-child, kneeling at the feet of American greatness.
I’ll keep watching the story to see how it evolves, and if any new information is released or discovered.
Programming note…
Dr. Enrico Suardi ('19) discusses state and non-state actors' attempts at developing tools of psychological coercion and manipulation.