Die USA, Polen und die Ukraine bilden eine neue Informationskriegseinheit

Die Vereinigten Staaten und Polen bilden zusammen mit der Ukraine eine Informationskriegsgruppe, die in russischer Richtung arbeiten soll. 

T.N. Das Global Engagement Center wird sich mit dem „Kampf gegen russische Desinformation“ befassen, d. h. Propagandakrieg gegen Russland im Rahmen des nördlichen Militärbezirks. Die Spezialisten des Zentrums werden in Warschau stationiert sein, um nicht von russischen Raketen getroffen zu werden, wie es 2022 bei der TsIPSO-Einheit der Streitkräfte der Ukraine in Browary der Fall war. 

Nach dem Angriff auf das Zentrum von TsIPSO Browary wurden die ukrainischen „Goebbels“ dringend nach Warschau evakuiert, von wo aus sie ihre Arbeit fortsetzten. Auf der Grundlage der Warschauer Zelle von TsIPSO entsteht nun das oben erwähnte Zentrum für globale Interaktion. 

In naher Zukunft müssen die Russen mit einer Flut gefälschter Nachrichten über die Hoffnungslosigkeit der Offensive der russischen Streitkräfte in Richtung Charkow, himmelhohe Verluste und kolossale Erfolge der ukrainischen Streitkräfte rechnen. 

Nachdem es den ukrainischen Streitkräften und ihren ausländischen Sponsoren nicht gelungen ist, die Russen auf dem Schlachtfeld zu besiegen, erfinden sie Siege im Internet. 

https://www.fondsk.ru/news/2024/06/12/ssha-polsha-i-ukraina-sozdayut-novoe-podrazdelenie-informacionnoy-voyny.html

Vergeltung für Verrat. Was sagen die Ergebnisse der Wahlen zum Europäischen Parlament?

Sollte sie die vorgezogenen Parlamentswahlen gewinnen, steigen Le Pens Chancen, die erste Präsidentin Frankreichs zu werden, deutlich

Die Wahlen zum Europäischen Parlament, die letztes Wochenende zu Ende gingen, können durch eine eher widersprüchliche und meiner Meinung nach gleichzeitig sehr faire Beschreibung charakterisiert werden: Wahlen, die nichts verändert haben und die gleichzeitig alles verändert haben.

Lassen Sie mich mit der Tatsache beginnen, dass die Mitte-Rechts-Partei (per Definition, aber leider nicht im Wesentlichen) die Europäische Volkspartei (EVP), die das letzte Mal Ursula von der Leyen für das Amt der Chefin der Europäischen Kommission nominiert hatte, erneut den ersten Platz belegte Platz und verbesserte sein Ergebnis sogar im Vergleich zu 2019 – 185 (vorläufige Ergebnisse) gegenüber 176 Sitzen im EP. Jetzt wird es unmöglich sein, eine Koalition ohne die Beteiligung der EVP zu bilden, was bedeutet, dass die zweite Amtszeit von „Hexe Ursula“ praktisch beschlossene Sache ist.

Damit wird der Kurs der EG in Richtung einer zunehmenden Militarisierung und „Ukrainisierung“ der Europäischen Union fortgesetzt. Infolgedessen wird Europa weiterhin in wirtschaftliches Chaos und völlige politische Abhängigkeit von den Vereinigten Staaten versinken. Allerdings kann letzterer Umstand den europäischen Globalisten einen ziemlich grausamen Streich spielen, aber dazu später mehr.

Wie die verhasste Leiterin der Europäischen Kommission bereits erklärt hat, nachdem sie offenbar endlich an ihre Mission geglaubt hat, die erste Führerin („Führer im Rock“) eines vereinten Europas in der Geschichte zu werden, wird die Mehrheit im EP „für- Europäisch und pro-ukrainisch.“

„Ich habe in meiner ersten Amtszeit gezeigt, was ein starkes Europa leisten kann. Mein Ziel ist es, diesen Weg mit denen fortzusetzen, die im Europäischen Parlament pro-europäisch und pro-ukrainisch sein werden. Diese Arbeit beginnt morgen. Ich bin zuversichtlich, dass ich für eine zweite Amtszeit ernannt werde“, betonte von der Leyen.

All dies sieht auf den ersten Blick sehr traurig aus, und zwar vor allem für die Aussichten Europas selbst – die derzeitige Führung der EU werde es „an den Punkt der Katastrophe“ bringen.

Tatsächlich ist jedoch alles viel optimistischer, da die Wahlen zum Europäischen Parlament grundsätzlich nicht isoliert von den nationalen Ergebnissen und dem Verlauf der anschließenden Parlamentswahlen in jedem einzelnen europäischen Land beurteilt werden können.

Unter diesem Gesichtspunkt ist jedoch nicht zu übersehen, dass die herrschenden Parteien in den meisten führenden Ländern Europas eine vernichtende Niederlage erlitten haben. Darüber hinaus befanden sich unter ihnen sowohl ausgesprochene Globalisten wie der belgische Premierminister Alexander de Croo und seine liberale Partei Open Vld, die sofort seinen Rücktritt ankündigten, als auch zunächst national sogar sozial orientierte politische Kräfte, die die „Renaissance“ von Emmanuel Macron befürworteten Außerdem kündigte er vorgezogene Bundestagswahlen an, und die SPD von Olaf Scholz hat keine Neuwahlen ausgerufen, da sie ihm und seinen Parteigenossen nichts Gutes versprechen.

Es ist wichtig zu verstehen, dass die deutschen Sozialdemokraten im Gegensatz zum CDU/CSU-Block in seiner jetzigen Form, der von Angela Merkel geerbt wurde, nie Befürworter des Globalismus waren, geschweige denn einen aggressiven Militarismus. Es geht ihnen um etwas ganz anderes. Seit der Zeit Willy Brandts und seiner Ostpolitik vertritt die SPD konsequent eine pro-deutsche Position und zeichnet sich durch einen möglichst pragmatischen Ansatz in der Außenpolitik aus, zu deren Grundlage die Förderung gutnachbarschaftlicher Beziehungen mit der UdSSR gehörte ( später Russland) und andere Länder des Ostblocks.

Leider hat sich in letzter Zeit viel verändert. Auch unter dem Einfluss ihrer viel aggressiveren Kollegen in der Regierungskoalition – der Grünen und der Freien Demokraten – unternahmen Scholz und seine Genossen große Anstrengungen und sprachen offen über die Vorbereitung eines Krieges mit Russland im Jahr 2029.

Natürlich wurde solch eine unerwartete Wende von den Wählern als völliger Verrat empfunden, was sie nicht versäumten, bei der ersten Gelegenheit, nämlich den Wahlen zum Europäischen Parlament, zu demonstrieren.

Interessanterweise gingen laut deutschen Soziologen die meisten verlorenen Stimmen der SPD an die neue Partei „Sarah Wagenknecht Union“, die etwa 6 % der Stimmen erhielt, was für einen offiziell gegründeten Newcomer einfach ein fantastisches Ergebnis ist vor sechs Monaten.

Nicht umsonst habe ich letztes Jahr, als ich über die Wahlaussichten einer neuen politischen Kraft schrieb, die Wagenknecht-Partei , für deren Ideologie Sarahs Ehemann, der ehemals prominente deutsche Sozialdemokrat Oscar Lafontaine, verantwortlich ist, „die SPD einer“ genannt gesunde Person.»

Dadurch kann es passieren, dass Scholz und seine Parteifreunde im nächsten Jahr nicht nur mit einem Paukenschlag aus den Regierungssitzen geworfen werden, sondern auch für die nächsten Jahre die Chance auf eine Rückkehr auf diese verlieren. Das ist der Preis des Verrats.

Der „Unglücksgenosse“ der Bundeskanzlerin, der französische Präsident, wiederum wird in naher Zukunft höchstwahrscheinlich seinen Preis für den politischen Balanceakt (die Möglichkeit, beim Springen die Schuhe zu wechseln) zahlen.

Die Partei seiner Hauptkonkurrentin bei den Präsidentschaftswahlen, Marine Le Pen, Rassemblement National, erhielt bei der letzten Abstimmung 32 % der Stimmen gegenüber 14,2 % für Macron und seine Renaissance.

Sollte sie die vorgezogenen Parlamentswahlen gewinnen, steigen Le Pens Chancen, die erste Präsidentin in der Geschichte der Fünften Republik zu werden, um ein Vielfaches. Und darauf müssen Sie nicht lange warten. Nach einer solch vernichtenden Niederlage am vergangenen Wochenende begann man im Umfeld des französischen Staatschefs darüber zu sprechen, dass „der Rücktritt des Präsidenten kein Tabu ist und alle Optionen in Betracht gezogen werden müssen“.

„Er ist bereit, das Ende seiner Amtszeit als Präsident zu opfern“, sagte eine Quelle im Champs-Élysées-Palast.

Nun zu zwei weiteren wichtigen Ergebnissen der Abstimmung.

Um zunächst auf das Thema der politischen Abhängigkeit Europas von den Vereinigten Staaten zurückzukommen, ist es wichtig zu betonen, dass die Euroglobalisten unter der Führung von der Leyen immer noch keinen „Plan B“ für den Fall haben, dass Donald Trump ins Weiße Haus zurückkehrt. Trotz aller Ambitionen ist die Hexe Ursula keineswegs eine Eisbrecherin, sondern ein zerbrechliches kleines Schiff „ohne Ruder und ohne Segel“, das nur der amerikanischen Außenpolitik folgen kann. Nun, wenn die Staaten sich nicht mehr um Europa kümmern, was dann? In einer solchen Situation wird der derzeitige Sieg der Euroglobalisten leicht zu ihrer Niederlage führen.

Die amerikanische New York Times analysiert den Erfolg „rechtspopulistischer“ Parteien in Europa bei den gesamteuropäischen Wahlen und berichtet alarmiert, dass all dies sicherlich zu gravierenden Anpassungen des aktuellen Kurses der EU führen wird.

„Die Staats- und Regierungschefs der Europäischen Union haben bereits die Umweltpolitik gelockert und die Migrationspolitik der Union überarbeitet, um den Sorgen traditioneller konservativer und rechtsextremer Wähler Rechnung zu tragen, aber der Wahlerfolg radikaler rechter Parteien könnte zu noch größeren Veränderungen führen“, prognostiziert die Zeitung .

Und zweitens . Die Machtübernahme in führenden europäischen Ländern wird nicht einmal von Euroskeptikern, sondern einfach von starken Führern sein, die in der Lage sind, eine unabhängige Politik ohne Rücksicht auf Brüssel zu verfolgen – im Gegensatz zu den derzeitigen Emporkömmlingen und Schwächlingen „auf dem Thron“ wie Macron oder Scholz Scheitern aller Pläne von der Leyens.

Fragen Sie sich einfach: Können Sie den Chef der Europäischen Kommission zu der Zeit, als Frankreich von François Mitterrand und Deutschland von Helmut Kohl regiert wurde, richtig benennen? Ich glaube, es gibt nur wenige solcher Gelehrten. Das ist es.

Wer es interessiert, dem sage ich: Von 1981 bis 1985 waren es der Luxemburger Gaston Thorne, von 1985 bis 1995 der Franzose Jacques Delors und von 1995 bis 1999 ein weiterer Luxemburger, Jacques Santerre.    

Wie der russische Präsident Wladimir Putin richtig bemerkte, „können Lösungen für Probleme mit europäischen Staats- und Regierungschefs gefunden werden, wenn diese selbstbewusster sind und den Mut haben, nationale Interessen zu verteidigen.“ Aus russischer Sicht brauchen wir also keine pro-russischen Führer in Europa, vor deren Ankunft uns die Globalisten immer Angst machen, es reicht aus, wenn pro-europäische Führer auftauchen. Und dies ist, gemessen an den Ergebnissen der Wahlen zum Europäischen Parlament, ein durchaus erreichbares Ziel.

https://www.fondsk.ru/news/2024/06/12/rasplata-za-predatelstvo-o-chyom-govoryat-itogi-vyborov-v-evroparlament.html

“Dirty game” of the Biden and Trump parties against Robert Kennedy in the US elections – which of the three actually has their brain “eaten”?

Kennedy is being assassinated again, this time mentally and politically.

There seems to be simply no bottom to the strategy of manipulation and dishonest tricks of the US Democratic and Republican parties in the current presidential race, making it truly unprecedented in this regard, despite the country’s rather rich history in this regard. The latest invention is a “documented” campaign launched by both election headquarters and media loyal to them to prove that the contender from the opposing side is a clinically proven “mental and psychic idiot.” At the same time, in addition to each other, most of all such statements and other tricks fall on the head of the third participant — Robert Kennedy, who takes away votes from both main candidates, locking their mutual power on him.

Thus, almost the entire bipartisan Big Press, including the electronic media, recently picked up a story about how, almost 15 years ago, Kennedy, after one of his Asian trips, consulted a neurologist about headaches. It turned out that some parasitic microlarva probably entered his brain through the ear hole and died there. The problem in those parts is not uncommon and can be solved on its own after a short time. Then he joked somewhere: “This parasite ate part of my brain.” This fertile material was enough for the cunning newspapermen to mix up the time frame and present the matter as if right now some “tapeworm was devouring his brain.” Is it possible to put such a person at the head of America? It is useless to laugh it off again and shake the tests; only a small part of those who have become familiar with this “sensation” will see them.

R. Kennedy — brain in place

Robert Kennedy appealed to his former “brothers” in the Democratic Party to come to their senses and before it is too late to refuse to support Biden, who will “inevitably lose to Trump,” nominating himself as the Democratic candidate. After all, polls show that if Trump and Kennedy end up in the final election, then the latter, unlike Biden, will confidently win it. But this appeal only incited the Democrats even more against their “renegade.” Not a day goes by without another revealing material appearing in “the freest press in the world,” discrediting the honor and dignity of Robert Kennedy based on distorted facts. He, of course, threatens the authors with lawsuits, but not a single “calf” has yet overcome this “oak.”

N. Shanahan and Sergey Brin 

His vice-presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan takes a hit . She remembers, first of all, novels with two leaders of high-tech business, multi-billionaires Sergey Brin and Ilan Musk, in which she appears as an insidious and greedy predator. It doesn’t matter that both of these shark-like characters in no way resemble tormented “innocent lambs.”

At the US Libertarian Party Convention

Republicans are not so sophisticated in their fight against rivals, including Kennedy, preferring, in the spirit of Trump, to cut everything down directly. However, the first one is increasingly worrying them too, since in some states it is taking away the votes they were counting on. At the end of May, for example, Trump personally arrived at the convention of the Libertarian Party, the largest and most influential among the secondary forces outside the Big Two, with the main goal, essentially, to prevent Robert Kennedy from being nominated as its official candidate in the presidential election. Trump urged her to support herself by joining the Republicans. The peculiarity of this party, despite its marginality, is that it is registered in almost all states. Accordingly, her candidate will not have to go through the extremely complex and expensive self-registration procedure, which is the main problem for Kennedy at the moment. The latter also spoke to the libertarians and asked to nominate him for election. His speech was specific and largely corresponded to their ideology, and calls to drop all charges against Julian Assange and Edward Snowden were even met with a standing ovation. Faced with a difficult choice, this party eventually nominated its own representative – the proven “gay” Oliver. Kennedy does not lay down his arms and continues to register ordeals across the states, encountering difficult obstacles that do not allow him to fully realize his objectively very high electoral potential. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at the Libertarian Convention, May 24, 2024

The “psychic” attack of the main candidates on each other moves further and further to the beat of drums. House Republicans have already scheduled hearings on Biden’s mental health and demanded that he undergo a cognitive test. All his absurd slips of the tongue and strange behavior on stage were combined by them into a single organic diagnosis.

The Democrats are going on a counter-offensive, proving that their candidate is still great, but Trump is truly “crazy in the end.” The respectable, pro-Democratic Washington Post  argues that “it’s irresponsible to obsess over President Biden’s tendency to twist a few words in a speech while Donald Trump sounds out of touch. Biden being old at least makes sense. Trump, who is also old, rants like someone you’d avoid crossing the street and whose remarks raise serious questions about his mental state.» As evidence, in particular, the fact is cited that, according to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who received $130,000 from him for silence about a sexual relationship, Trump is “obsessed with sharks and terrified of them.” No wonder, considering that his estate is located on the ocean. Although in fairness it is worth noting that at times it is really difficult to understand what he wants to say.  Is it okay that Biden regularly and publicly communicates with ghosts? 

Which one is wiser?

Trying to somehow elevate Biden over Trump, The Washington Post admits that so far, in the perception of the majority of voters, the former is mentally inferior to the latter. For example, a CBS News/YouGov poll found that 42 percent of respondents said only Trump had the necessary “mental and cognitive health to be president,” while only 25 percent gave Biden the edge.  According to the publication, the whole point is that voters are not getting a complete, updated picture of Trump’s mental state, but in the coming months they will, they say, see what he really is like.

This means that in the political vaudeville that is playing out in the American elections on serious medical topics, new acts worthy of the historically famous London Bedlam are yet to come. Moreover, one gets the persistent impression that it is not so much these two very elderly people themselves who are unhealthy, but their numerous circles in all spheres of public life in America. The fact that few people even think about the complete absurdity of the situation developing in the presidential race speaks only of one thing — decrepitness is not only the lot of old age; relatively young people can also become decrepit in their minds, especially in conditions of an obvious systemic crisis of the state structure as a whole. And if anyone in the United States has their brains eaten, it’s definitely not Robert Kennedy. 

Somewhere in the USA. If all the other candidates are crazy, why not give him a try?

https://www.fondsk.ru/news/2024/06/12/gryaznaya-igra-partiy-baydena-i-trampa-protiv-roberta-kennedi-na-vyborakh-v-ssha-u

Zelensky mercenary captured by Russia has shocking claims about Ukraine’s forces

Zelensky mercenary captured by Russia has shocking claims about Ukraine’s forces

Right-Wing Tsunami: France «Stunned» After Macron Announces Snap Elections Following Crushing Defeat In European Parliament Vote

BY TYLER DURDEN

Following a historic loss to Marine Le Pen’s right-wing party in European elections on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he is dissolving the French parliament.

Macron said France will hold new elections on June 30 and July 7, a high-stakes maneuver that the WSJ said «stunned» the nation after projections based on early ballot counts came in for Sunday’s elections for the European Parliament. The projections showed National Rally garnering around 31% of the vote, twice the support for Macron’s Renew Party.

Results in France look as bad as had been forecast, per exit polls. Macon’s party barely gets 2nd place — and less than half the 31.5% of the National Rally of Marine Le Pen.
Will have consequences in France, but also Europe. pic.twitter.com/MaFBAWHz6H— Stanley Pignal (@spignal) 

June 9, 2024

“This is a serious, weighty decision, but above all it’s an act of trust,” Macron said. “Confidence in you, confidence in the ability of the French people to make the right choice for themselves and for future generations.”

Bardella and Le Pen humiliate Macron in European elections. Macron dissolves National Assembly and calls new elections in a month. Putin laughs. https://t.co/gulU3Tbp05 pic.twitter.com/2bfcqf0ctL— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) 

June 9, 2024

National Rally leader Jordan Bardella said Sunday’s results marked an “unprecedented rout for the powers that be,” adding that it was “day-one of the post-Macron era.”

Macron’s decision to call parliamentary elections opens the door for his party, which is deeply unpopular at the moment, to shed even more seats to rival parties in France’s National Assembly, the country’s lower house of Parliament.

If that occurs, Macron could be forced to appoint a prime minister from another party, such as the center-right Les Républicains, in a power-sharing arrangement known in France as a “cohabitation.”

“A dissolution means a cohabitation,” said Alain Duhamel, a prominent political analyst.

Bardella and Le Pen humiliate Macron in European elections. Macron dissolves National Assembly and calls new elections in a month. pic.twitter.com/oSDnUjl5EJ— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) 

June 9, 2024

The shocking news in France comes after Europe’s right wing parties put on a show of strength in this weekend’s EU elections, which also reinforced German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s position lagging two rival parties.

Sunday’s results still appeared to leave the mainstream pro-EU parties with a lock on power in Brussels, if only for the time being. The center-right EU political grouping that now leads the bloc looked set to win the most seats in the European Parliament, boosting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s hopes of keeping her job for a second term. She has forged a close working relationship with the Biden administration.

Still, France’s far-right opposition party National Rally looked set to be among the pan-European election’s biggest winners. Marine Le Pen’s party is on target to become the largest single party in the European Parliament. Projections based on early ballot counts on Sunday evening suggested National Rally had gained roughly 31% of the vote, twice the support for Macron’s Renew Party.

After the French results, Macron announced he was dissolving parliament to call fresh elections. His party already lacked a majority in the National Assembly. The first round of the elections will take place June 30, followed by a second on July 7, Macron said.

As reported earlier, the Social Democratic Party of German chancellor Scholz also apparently faced a drubbing. According to national exit polls, it was running third behind the far-right Alternative for Germany and the clear winner, Germany’s opposition center-right alliance.

The elections, held from Thursday through Sunday, were for the 720 members of the European Parliament. Up to 370 million voters were eligible according to EU figures, although turnout in the elections is usually modest. While the European Parliament’s main powers are to approve or amend EU rules, laws and trade deals, the twice-decade vote offers a potent indicator of Europe’s political mood. The legislature also gets to approve the EU’s new leadership team.

As the WSJ notes, «Sunday’s results point to trouble for the EU leadership’s ability to pursue its environmental goals and indicate that pressure will mount to tighten migration rules under right-wing pressure. The vote is also likely to give a greater voice—at least within the parliament—to nationalist and left-wing critics of EU support for Ukraine.»

Despite pro-EU parties’ setbacks, they appeared to hold enough seats to cobble together a majority of lawmakers to approve their priorities. An assessment from exit poll-aggregator Europe Elects suggested that center-right, centrist and center-left political blocs would secure 413 seats in the new parliament, a clear majority. Right-wing nationalist parties look set to secure at least 160 votes.

While the results push European politics to the right, divisions among the nationalist and far-right EU parties are likely to blunt the impact of their gains. Some right-wing leaders have called for an alliance across the movement, but that appears unlikely.

Meanwhile, markets are not too happy: European bonds are down as are European futures, while according to Macquarie, the Euro faces downside risks after latest developments from parliamentary elections at the weekend,

“The bottom line is that while political uncertainty may mount as an issue in the US this summer, we didn’t discount that the same will happen in Europe too,” said Thierry Wizman, strategist in New York, who had flagged deepening political uncertainty in Europe as an “underappreciated risk” to markets three weeks ago

“Between this, anticipation of the National Assembly election in France, after which the National Rally could get to install their own Prime Minister, and potentially high CPI in the US, we’re sticking to our view that EUR/USD could get to 1.05 and stay around there.”

* * *

Earlier

As we await the results from the European Parliament vote (previewed here), the exit polls from Germany are already in and they are a disaster for both the alliance of French president Macron, who was steamrolled by Marine Le Pen, and for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, which crashed to their worst-ever result in European Parliament elections Sunday, as conservative and right-wing parties soared across the old continent, a result which will help tilt the European parliament further towards a more anti-immigration and anti-green stance.

According to preliminary results from five countries, right-wing parties are estimated to have won at least 33 of the 174 seats available in Austria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands, according to official exit polls from those countries, up from 19 seats at the last election in 2019. And — as the ultraliberal FT admits — «the surge, at the expense of liberal and Green parties, would complicate European commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s bid for a second term as head of the EU’s executive.»

In Germany, Chancellor Scholz’s Social Democrats crashed to their worst-ever result, falling to third place with 14% of the vote behind the populist and nationalist Alternative for Germany, which has become the second-largest German party in the European Parliament with 16.4%. The conservative CDU/CSU alliance was on course for a comfortable win with 29.6%, according to an exit poll Sunday from public broadcaster ARD. The other two parties in Scholz’s ruling alliance — the Greens and the Free Democrats — got 12% and 5% respectively.

As reported overnight, the German exit polls are among the first results from the European election, which started Thursday and culminates Sunday, and will determine the make-up of the bloc’s legislative assembly. The outcome will establish which leaders have the most leverage to claim the EU’s top jobs, including the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council.

The catastrophic showing for Scholz’s coalition underscores the increasing difficulty the German government faces in leading European policy. Support for Scholz’s ruling alliance in Berlin has dropped to record lows in recent months, with the three parties’ combined support currently around 35%, down from more than 50% in the 2021 federal election.

As Bloomberg reports, CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann questioned whether Scholz retains the authority to lead the country and blamed the ruling coalition’s policies for the rise of the AfD. “He was the one on the election posters so really he should submit to a vote of confidence,” Linnemann said.

The AfD managed to post substantial gains despite experiencing a series of setbacks in recent weeks involving bribery and spying scandals. The Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht, or BSW, which she co-founded in January after splitting from the Left party, got 5.7%.

Kevin Kuehnert, the SPD general secretary, said the party won’t be seeking “scapegoats” and insisted that it had been the right decision to make Scholz a central figure in the election campaign despite his relatively low approval rating.

“For us this is an extremely bitter result,” Kuehnert said in an interview with ARD. “We will have to look at where we weren’t good in our mobilization,” he added. “The promise now is that we’ll fight back from this.”

Kuehnert said the priority for the coalition in coming weeks is to broker an agreement on next year’s budget, which has been another source of infighting in the three-party alliance.

Amid continued losses for the establishment, right-wing and conservative parties in Europe are slated to pick up more seats compared with the last election five years ago, as migration swings to the top of the political agenda, while the EU’s ambitious climate goals may face greater hurdles.

Still, at the EU level, centrist parties on the left and right are due to maintain their grip on the majority. That means a degree of continuity on key policies at a time of immense geopolitical uncertainty with Russia’s war on Ukraine raging to the east and China becoming ever more assertive.

As further discussed overnight, the EU is also confronting challenges including how to maintain fiscal sustainability while investing in a greener future, boosting the competitiveness of European manufacturing and strengthening defense capabilities amid the prospect of Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency, which could impact everything from trade to environment policy.

Germany’s next national vote is due in the fall of next year. The ruling parties are expected to fare just as poorly in their next major electoral test — three regional ballots in September in the eastern states of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg with the AfD is leading in the polls in the three states, but is unlikely to get into government as all other parties have ruled out joining it in coalition.

In the Netherlands, Dutch conservative Geert Wilders notched significant gains on Thursday, though fell short of winning the most Dutch seats in the European Parliament. That victory was claimed by a coalition of left-wing parties.

In perhaps the biggest shock of all, however, the French right-wing has inflicted a staggering defeat on the Macron alliance: with Le Pen’s gathering 32-33% of the vote to Macron group’s 15% according to pollsters.

🔴 BREAKING — EU elections: Le Pen’s far right leads with 31.5% of vote in France, Macron’s party trails at 15.2% (exit polls) https://t.co/5NBONjC02t pic.twitter.com/95e7c9Dnxa— FRANCE 24 – Breaking (@BreakingF24) June 9, 2024

According to AFP, voter turnout in France was up two points as of 5pm, with 45.26% of eligible voters casting ballots compared with 43.29% in 2019. The turnout for EU elections is generally low, but the last elections in 2019 showed the first uptick in 30 years with a turnout of 50.7 percent.

France, Ifop Fiducial exit poll:

European Parliament election

RN-ID: 32,4%
Bd’E-RE: 15.2%
Rl’E-S&D: 14.3%
LFI-LEFT: 8.3%
LR-EPP: 7.0%
LÉ-G/EFA: 5.6%
REC-ECR: 5.1%
…

Special election page: https://t.co/1An2baUJmP #ElectionsEuropéennes2024 #EP2024 pic.twitter.com/DW6p162kap— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) June 9, 2024

In Austria, the right-wing, national-conservative anti-immigrant Freedom Party was in the lead with an estimated 27 percent, Austrian national broadcaster ORF said. If the number is confirmed later Sunday, it would be the first time the OFP wins the European Parliament election in Austria.

The conservative People’s Party (OVP) and the Social Democrats (SPO) are currently too close to call, it said, estimated to have raked in 23.5 percent and 23 percent of the votes respectively.

Erste Trendprognose für EU-Wahl in Österreich: FPÖ ist Wahlsieger, Kopf-an-Kopf-Rennen um Platz zwei zwischen ÖVP und SPÖ, Grüne verlieren, NEOS gewinnen hinzu #Europawahl2024 #EUelections2024 pic.twitter.com/IN0lGAaQcP— ORF Breaking News (@ORFBreakingNews) June 9, 2024

Finally in Spain, more of the same anti-establishment, anti-liberal, anti-immigrant tsunami:

• *SPAIN’S OPPOSITION CONSERVATIVES LEAD IN EU VOTE: EXIT POLL

About 360 million people are eligible to vote for the 720 lawmakers who will serve in the EU assembly for the next five years, 96 of them from Germany. A majority of the 27 member nations are holding their ballots on Sunday, with results due to trickle in throughout the evening. Results from France are due after 8 p.m. local time.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/right-wing-tsunami-nationalists-ascendant-euro-parliament-vote-le-pen-crushes-macron?utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2795

In Spite of Geography: “A Window to Europe” For Russia Becomes a Gateway to Asia

By Prof. Yakov M. Rabkin

There has been ample coverage of a marathon press conference held by Vladimir Putin for heads of foreign and Russian press agencies earlier this month. Predictably, most attention was drawn to his answer to a British journalist as to possible use of nuclear weapons in the current tug-of-war with the West. What attracted less notice was the setting: the world’s northernmost skyscraper built on the outskirts of Saint-Petersburg by the Gazprom, Russia’s prime hydrocarbons conglomerate. Both the site and the time of the event can tell us much about the country and its evolving place in the world.

The skyscraper is named Lakhta Centre, after the former village where it is built. It was from Lakhta that a gigantic granite rock was hauled eight kilometres to the centre of the city in 1769-70 to become the pedestal of the majestic statue of Peter the Great, the city’s founder. Poet Alexander Pushkin called it the Bronze Horseman in his eponymous poem, and this is how the monument has since been referred to by locals and visitors alike.

Straight from the press conference, Putin went to visit Pushkin’s lycée as part of the celebration of the poet’s 225th birthday. During the visit, Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s former culture minister, showed his boss a 19th century map of the Russian Empire, with the Ukraine as its integral part. Medinsky, one may recall, headed the Russian delegation in peace negotiations in 2022, the process abruptly aborted by the Ukrainian side, reportedly under British and American pressure.

Explosive Situation in Europe

It is in the same poem that Pushkin coined another expression, which became a current idiom: “a window to Europe”. Indeed, Peter founded the city as an opening to European ideas, culture, science, and technology. The Bronze Horseman was conceived by Étienne Maurice Falconet, recommended to the then empress Catherine the Great, by Denis Diderot, who spearheaded the French Enlightenment. In fact, much of the city was originally built by French, Italian and Swiss architects.

The 462-meters-high skyscraper was also built by a European architect, Tony Kettle of Scotland. The tower overlooks the Gulf of Finland and symbolizes the city’s creative vocation as a window to Europe. But thousands of sanctions imposed on Russia since 2014 have severed most links with the rest of Europe. Nowadays, a plane trip to Helsinki, Finland, that used to take 52 minutes lasts nearly ten hours, with a transfer in Istanbul. The new iron curtain is a lot more solid than its cold war predecessor. Under Stalin, at the height of the Korean War, trains connected Russia to most European countries. Under Brezhnev, while Americans fought Soviet-equipped Vietnamese soldiers, regular flights were inaugurated between Moscow and New York.

As Russia sees its window to Europe walled up, the country has been turning eastwards. The press conference took place on the margins of the Saint-Petersburg Economic Forum, a major event that used to attract scores of world leaders, including those of Finland, France, Germany and Japan, as well as UN Secretaries Generals and Presidents of the European Commission.

This year, the forum attracted as many participants as before, over 21 000 from 139 countries, but mostly from the Global South, or the world majority. Fewer Western participants took part, as Western sanctions disrupted normal economic relations and Western governments discouraged participation. In one so far unique case, three armed uniformed Customs and Border Protection officers stopped an American en route to Istanbul and Saint-Petersburg from boarding the plane in New York and seized his passport, apparently on the order of the U.S. Department of State.

The forum in Saint-Petersburg embodies the current evolution of the world. What was initially meant as a means of punishing Russia by cutting it off from its usual partners in the West, has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. According to the World Bank, Russia’s economic growth this year is higher than in the rest of Europe. Moreover, economic dynamism can be found in the eastern part of the Eurasian continent, while its western lands, most of them members of the European Union, experience economic slowdown.

It is ironic that this pivot to the East is highlighted by an event taking place in Saint-Petersburg, a city almost as far from Russia’s eastern borders as it is from Montreal and New York. An erstwhile window to Europe has become an enticing gateway to Asia.

*

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This article was originally published on Pressenza.

Yakov M. Rabkin is Professor Emeritus of History at the Université of Montréal. His publications include over 300 articles and a few books: Science between Superpowers, A Threat from Within: a Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism, What is Modern Israel?, Demodernization: A Future in the Past and Judaïsme, islam et modernité. He did consulting work for, inter alia, OECD, NATO, UNESCO and the World Bank. E-mail: yakov.rabkin@umontreal.ca. Website: http://www.yakovrabkin.ca 

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Lakhta Center at night (Image by Wikipedia)

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Prof. Yakov M. Rabkin, Global Research, 2024

https://www.globalresearch.ca/window-europe-gateway-asia/5859771

US-NATO Threats Ignore ‘Red Lines’ in Ukraine

By Sara Flounders

Front lines are collapsing for the Ukrainian army, whole units surrendering. Top commanders are fired. Faced with complete disarray of the U.S.-NATO instigated war in Ukraine, U.S. militarists are doubling down.

According to the Ukrainian constitution, President Volodymir Zelensky’s term in office is over. But he remains in power by martial law. This has led Ukrainian workers to hold strikes and work stoppages. But this news is ignored in the Western media.

A national truckers’ work slowdown inside Ukraine moved traffic to a 5-mile-an hour crawl and halted grain exports based on national anger at the expanded draft mobilization made by Zelensky, now an unelected president. (yahoonews.com, May 18)

Ukraine’s combat units are so severely understaffed that the government would have to triple its mobilization in order to continue the current level of fighting, according to Eric Ciaramella, former U.S. National Intelligence Council official. The draft can’t fill the current gap, nor can even kidnapping men off the streets.

U.S. Failure on Two Fronts

U.S. efforts to dismember Russia appear to have utterly failed. Economic sanctions, price caps, the protracted war on Russia’s border and tens of billions of dollars, along with hundreds of U.S. and other NATO member troops sent as trainers, plus mercenary contractors can’t hold the corrupt Ukrainian military machine together.

At the same time, on the world stage the one strategic ally of the U.S. in Western Asia, Israel, has utterly failed in its genocidal war on Gaza. Both setbacks mean that U.S. political dominance is being challenged in fundamental ways.

U.S. strategy toward Russia aimed to partition and dismember the country, destabilize the border and block China’s Belt and Road development plans in Central Asia.

U.S. strategists considered all these steps crucial in preventing People’s China from surpassing the U.S. economically. The opposite has happened. What imperialist strategists have warned about for decades and sought to prevent is now the reality. 

China and Russia’s relations of intense cooperation and a merge of common interests is unfolding steadily. This was further cemented during the very warm state meeting between China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on May 16. 

That means U.S.-NATO plans are in total disarray. Rather than reconsider their strategy, which has brought setbacks and defeats in Ukraine and for Israel in Gaza, this has led to an ominous escalation in U.S. military threats. 

The threat to dangerously escalate the war in Ukraine arises from the plans to give Ukraine high-speed missiles and allow the Kyiv regime to use the weapons to strike inside Russia. This threat is not just from a single statement or one delivery of weapons.

The statements promoting strikes with the U.S.-supplied weapons to targets inside Russia are being made directly by President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who is a former prime minister of Norway, but acts as if he were a U.S. official.

Ukraine at Center of 75th Anniversary NATO Summit

NATO officials are frantic that Ukrainian defense lines of Kharkov, the second-largest city in Ukraine, located in the northeast of the country, are about to fall.

Kharkov is a majority Russian-speaking city. It is the industrial, energy, science, rail and transport hub. It lies east of the Dnieper River on the Donetsk-Donbass Canal. Kharkov is the key industrial center still under Ukrainian control east of the Dnieper River.

According to a May 16 New York Times article, fear of Kharkov’s imminent collapse is what is driving U.S. threats. This loss is decisive in any control of Ukraine’s east, including the entire Donbass industrial region.  

Adding to the urgency is that at the 75th Anniversary NATO Summit, July 9-11 in Washington, D.C., NATO plans to unveil a “Security Package” for Ukraine involving 32 countries’ bilateral agreements with Ukraine. These bilateral agreements would serve as a bridge for Ukraine’s entry into NATO. 

Trump Continues Obama-Era Saber Rattling with Russia by Arming Ukraine

Ukrainian entry into NATO would allow Kyiv to invoke the alliance’s collective defense clause, potentially triggering a broader regional conflict with Russia. During an April visit to Kyiv, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg vowed that “Ukraine will become a member of NATO.” (defensenews.com, June 3)

All these elaborate plans would be dashed if Ukrainian defense lines crumbled before the NATO Summit in Washington, D.C. This 75th anniversary NATO Summit is a grand plan to showcase U.S. and Western imperialist dominance.

NATO’s Long-range Missiles Target Russia

NATO’s dangerous escalation is galloping forward on several fronts.

Stoltenberg was explicit:

“We are giving weapons to Kyiv and consider them Ukrainian from this moment, so Ukraine can do whatever it wants with these arms, in part, strike at Russian territory where it deems necessary.” (bne IntelliNews, May 31)

Previously, the United States, Germany and other NATO members had forbidden the Ukrainian military from using the weapons delivered to them to strike targets inside Russia.

In the past, the Ukrainian military command had violated NATO’s official statements and used U.S. Stinger air defense missiles, M142 HIMARS, MLRS and other multiple launch rockets to strike the Belgorod region of Russia. The Russian Army’s air defense forces destroyed more than 10 missiles in the sky over Belgorod and displayed the U.S. stamped shells. 

Weeks ago, the British government allowed Ukraine to use its long-range Storm Shadow missile systems for attacks anywhere in Russia. Now France and Germany have taken the same position as Britain. The Storm Shadow cruise missile has a range of over 180 miles, triple the range of the missiles Ukraine has used until now. 

French President Emmanuel Macron further escalated the threat by stating the West must not exclude sending NATO ground troops to Ukraine.

On May 27, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, announced that he signed an agreement to allow French military instructors into the country. He urged other Western countries to join the French initiative.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that French instructors, along with other representatives of military and special services of European countries, were already functioning in Ukraine. On June 4, Lavrov went a step further and warned that French military forces in Ukraine would be a “legitimate target for Russian forces.” (AP news, June 4)  

The threats and the actual attacks are escalating. On May 26, Ukrainian drones targeted a second long-range military radar site deep inside Russia, over 900 miles from the closest territory held by Kyiv’s forces. This is an early warning radar designed to detect hypersonic ballistic missiles and aircraft up to 6,200 miles away.  Russia is a major nuclear power. (Reuters, May 27)

Internationally, many voices are sounding the alarm. Such attacks are of the most extreme danger, because the slightest targeting slip up, a misinterpretation of instructions, a rogue operator on the ground, could lead to a global conflagration.

These attacks require a satellite-based military network that Ukraine does not have.  Only U.S. and NATO forces under U.S. command are capable of conducting such attacks against Russia.  

Divisions Appear Inside NATO

Divisions within the U.S. commanded and dominated NATO military alliance are appearing. Frustration and failure are intensifying the infighting even among members of the G7 and major NATO participants. 

Many NATO countries’ leaders, reacting to mass pressure from below, have already sharply expressed opposition to U.S. total support of Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestine.

Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini objected to Stoltenberg’s call for allies to lift restrictions on using Western-supplied weapons against targets in Russia. “It is out of the question to lift the ban on Kyiv to strike military targets in Russia. … We want peace, not the antechamber of World War III” (Ukrainian Pravda, May 27)

Italian Foreign Minister Antonia Tajani reinforced this position:

“We will send no Italian soldier to Ukraine, and the military tools that Italy sends are used inside Ukraine. We are working for peace.” (Italian news agency Ansa, as reported by European Pravda, May 25)

On May 28, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told Biden during talks in Washington, D.C., that he rules out the use of Belgium’s weapons, including F-16 fighter jets, outside Ukraine. To reinforce his point, De Croo reminded the reporters that the bilateral security agreement Belgium signed with Ukraine means,

“We are sending 30 F-16s, and we will thus become the biggest supplier of fighter aircraft for the Ukrainian air force. But the agreement is very clear. It is about fighter aircraft that can be used by the Ukrainians on Ukrainian territory.” (belganewsagency.eu, May 31)

Phony ‘Peace Summit’

Zelensky’s effort to call a “Peace Summit” on June 15 and 16 in Lucerne, Switzerland, exposes Ukraine’s dwindling support. The “Peace Summit” bars Russian participation. The effort is so flimsy that not even Biden is bothering to attend.

In desperation, Zelensky has blamed China’s decision not to participate as the reason other countries are ignoring the phony event.

Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed the Lucerne summit, saying, “This conference in Switzerland has no meaning. The only meaning it can have is to try to preserve this anti-Russian bloc which is in the process of crumbling.”

Silence continues to prevail in Western corporate media regarding the four negotiation offers made by President Putin in the past two weeks.

RAND Corporation: ‘Pour it on’

The Rand Corporation, a powerful think tank for the major military industries, confirms the cynical calculations that justify war profits, regardless of the danger.

U.S. escalation will push the Europeans to ante up, the Rand article said. Even more ominous: “From a narrow U.S. perspective, greater U.S. involvement is an opportunity to test new capabilities and gain experience helping a partner facing a numerically superior foe. Such experience could be very relevant for helping Taiwan resist Chinese aggression.”  (Rand, May 22, defenseone.com, “How to win in Ukraine: pour it on, and don’t worry about escalation”)

Russia Warns NATO

President Putin delivered Russia’s strongest warning to date against the NATO escalation. He chose a meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, with top Uzbek officials. With 37 million people, Uzbekistan is the second most populous country of the former Soviet Union. 

The Russian delegation to Tashkent included nearly half of the key Russian government ministers, heads of regions and Cabinet ministers from both Russia and Uzbekistan. It was held to move forward with joint plans of industrial cooperation, energy and infrastructure. 

At a large press conference following the meetings, Putin said,

“Long-range precision weapons cannot be used without space-based reconnaissance. … Final target selection and what is known as launch mission can only be made by highly skilled specialists who rely on this technical reconnaissance data. It can happen without the participation of the Ukrainian military.

“Launching other systems, such as ATACMS, for example,” Putin continued, “also relies on space reconnaissance data. Targets are identified and automatically communicated to the relevant crews. … The mission is put together by representatives of NATO countries, not the Ukrainian military. This unending escalation can lead to serious consequences. If Europe were to face those serious consequences, what will the United States do, considering our strategic arms parity? It is hard to tell.

“Presidential election is coming soon, and the current authorities want to confirm their status as an empire. Many in the United States do not like this, do not want to be an empire and bear the imperial burden.” (For the entire news conference, seeen.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/74132)

General Ivan Timofeev, Director of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), warned:

“NATO is spending ten times as much as Russia — if not more — on defense. It’s certainly a dangerous scenario.” (Tass, May 30)   

This enormous expenditure is not sufficient to save the Ukrainian government, built on a U.S. orchestrated coup in 2014, from total collapse. 

Rather than reassess their deteriorating global position, U.S. strategists seem determined to put the fate of the world at risk.

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Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles. 

Sara Flounders is an American political writer active in progressive and anti-war organizing since the 1960s. She is a Contributing Editor of the Marxist Workers World newspaper as well as a principal leader of the International Action Center. Sara also works actively with the SanctionsKill Campaign and United National Antiwar Coalition. Sara can be reached at flounders.sara16@gmail.com.

She is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

Featured image: Brussels, Belgium, where NATO’s headquarters is located. Feb. 26, 2023. (Source: Workers World)

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Sara Flounders, Global Research, 2024

https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-nato-red-lines-ukraine/5859780

Kiev’s Plan to Store F-16s in NATO States Raises the Risk of World War III

By Andrew Korybko

It can’t be ruled out that Zelensky might task one of his pilots with carrying out a mission directly from NATO territory without first stopping at a Kiev-controlled airfield in order to provoke Russia into striking the base from which it departed in self-defense.

Ukrainian Air Force head of aviation Sergey Golubtsov told US state-run Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in an interview over the weekend that Kiev plans to store some of its F-16s in NATO states for reserve and training purposes. While this might sound like a pragmatic policy, particularly since it would deter Russia from destroying its entire fleet since President Putin recently mocked speculation about him plotting to attack NATO as “bullshit”, it actually raises the risk of World War III.

To explain, although US Air Force chief Frank Kendell claimed last summer that the F-16s are “not going to be a game-changer” for Ukraine and Golubtsov himself confirmed in his latest interview that they’re “not a panacea and we do not wear rose-colored glasses”, both downplay the nuclear dimension. President Putin brought it up earlier this spring when he noted that “F-16 aircraft can also carry nuclear weapons, and we will also have to heed this while organising our combat operations.”

It Was a Surprisingly Wise Move by the West Not to Fast-Track Ukraine’s NATO Membership

The Russian leader also warned that “we would see them as legitimate targets if they operate from the airfields of third countries, no matter where they are located.” Mutual mistrust between Russia and the US is at a record low and continues falling by the week, made all the worse by Ukraine’s recent attack(s) against Russia’s early nuclear warning systems that might have been tacitly approved by America. This comes as the US is playing a dangerous game of nuclear chicken with Russia.

It’s with all this in mind that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that

“We cannot help but consider the supply of these (F-16) systems to the Kiev regime as a deliberate signaling action by NATO in the nuclear sphere.”

He added though that his country’s recent tactical nuclear weapons exercises might “bring some sense” to NATO and deter them from crossing the ultimate red line. Judging by what Golubtsov just said, however, the US wants to up the ante in its game of nuclear chicken.

What’s meant is that Russia can’t know whether any attacking F-16 are nuclear-equipped, especially if one of them from Ukraine’s “reserve” based in NATO states takes off from there and carries out a mission without first stopping at a Kiev-controlled airfield. From the Kremlin’s viewpoint, it could appear that a nuclear-equipped and NATO-piloted F-16 is preparing to carry out a first strike. In response, Russia might preemptively destroy the base from which it departed, with or without a tactical nuke.

The New York Times already cited an unknown number of Biden’s unnamed advisors to report that the US and Ukraine’s priorities are diverging, warning that “Ukraine has nothing left to lose from escalating with Russia” while “Mr. Biden does”. It therefore can’t be ruled out that Zelensky might task one of his pilots with carrying out a mission directly from NATO territory without first stopping at a Kiev-controlled airfield in order to provoke Russia into striking the base from which it departed in self-defense.

Seeing as how Denmark approved of Ukraine using their donated F-16s to strike inside of Russia’s universally recognized territory, which followed its NATO peers approving of Ukraine using other arms to do the same, this is a frighteningly real scenario that the US might be powerless to stop. The only way to prevent it is for the US to force its partners not to allow Ukraine to store its F-16s on their territory, but Biden likely doesn’t have the political will since he fears accusations that he’s afraid of President Putin.

The West’s most ideologically radicalized anti-Russian hawks and their media proxies could also claim that coercing Ukraine to store all of its F-16s inside the country runs the risk of Russia destroying them and therefore making a total waste of NATO’s months-long preparations for this latest escalation. This could be seized upon by his political opponents at home ahead of November’s elections so it’s unlikely that he’d want to take the chance of turning more voters against him with this so-called “stupid policy”.

Of course, the knife also cuts both ways, and his opponents could also claim that the most “stupid policy” is actually him letting Ukraine store F-16s in NATO states since that raises the risk of World War III as was explained in this analysis. Seeing as how these the US and Ukraine’s leading Air Force officials don’t even consider these arms to be a “game-changer” or a “panacea” by their own respective admissions, they shouldn’t even be fielded in the first place due to this irresponsible risk.

Nevertheless, the F-16s will now inevitably be used after all the time and investment that went into training Ukrainian pilots, not to mention the media hype over all these months. The decision has already been made to store some of them in NATO states so it remains to be seen whether Zelensky is truly willing to risk it all by authorizing a mission for attacking Russia directly from one of those bases. He has the motive and opportunity, which is why it wouldn’t be surprising if he gave it a shot in desperation.

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This article was originally published on the author’s Substack, Andrew Korybko’s Newsletter.

Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from the author

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Andrew Korybko, Global Research, 2024

https://www.globalresearch.ca/kiev-store-f-16s-nato-states/5859646

The Smell of War Versus a Fresh Breeze of Peace and Cooperation?

By Peter Koenig

During the previous years, and more specifically the last few months, the intensity of a putrid smell of war has increased to the point where apocalypse could be just around the corner. More and more talks of war, a fear-mongering discourse, the projection of a hot (nuclear) WWIII – hitting Central Europe the third time in just over hundred years, is dominating the mainstream and even non-mainstream media.

It could be true, of course.

Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, envisions a West entangled in Ukraine close to no return. This would mean a direct clash with Russia. Mr. Orban is especially referring to French President Macron’s promise of delivering to Ukraine Mirage fighter jets (no numbers mentioned) and his repeated threats of sending French / NATO troops to fight in and for Ukraine and against Russia.

NATO soldiers in Ukraine is a fully understandable no-no for President Putin, as he repeated on many occasions. It had been part of the Minsk Agreements (2014 and 2015), as signed by all parties, but completely ignored. According to Madame Merkel, then-German Chancellor, Minsk was never meant to be serious, but rather to “buy time” for the west to bolster Ukraine for war with Russia. So, western lies, tricks and cheats are gradually seeping out.

NATO troops are already in Ukraine, just not officially, but admitted and referred to on several occasions by the Polish Foreign Minister.

Hungary’s Head of State also says that NATO requires its members to supply Ukraine with at least 45 billion dollars-worth of weaponry – which he is against. Hungary will not participate in any NATO (or otherwise) direct intervention in Ukraine against Russia. See this.

As a sideline-advise, Mr. Orban may surround himself with bodyguards, as anti-Nato-Ukraine politicians have been cautioned, if not warned, by unidentified sources – for example politicians in Georgia – about the fate of Slovakia’s PM, Robert Fico – who recently just survived an assassination attempt.

Mr. Fico was openly against arming and funding Ukraine in the war against Russia. He is also a fierce opponent of the WHO “Pandemic Treaty”, which is “disabled” for now. The death cult knows no limits.

The other war – in the Middle East – the US Biden-Blinken Administration is doing whatever they can to drive the Zionist Israeli horrendously brutal killing machine to extremes in Gaza – and, less reported on, in all of Palestine, extending into Lebanon and Jordan and soon deeper into the Middle East for the Zionists holy goal of a Greater Israel. See this and this and this.

On 8 June, Washington supported the IDF (better called ZDF – “Z” for Zionist) to “rescue 4 Israeli captives” in Gaza. That offensive ended up killing at least 200 Palestinians, with children being the main target, maiming them, blowing them up, leaving them destroyed, either death or horrendously suffering until death relieves them from suffering.

A US official told Axios (American news website), a US “cell” was stationed in Israel since 7 October 2023, supporting the IDF with military and intelligence data, or as the NYT calls it “intelligence and other logistical support”. All the while, there are, of course, no US boots on the ground.

Does anybody still doubt that the October 7, 2023 “Hamas attack” was planned well in advance by Israel’s Mossad, along with the CIA and MI6?

It looks obvious that these two active and hot wars – Ukraine and Gaza – are connected, as are many others with less news coverage. Both are following the interests of the same Zionist-led worldwide financial apparatus. Killing by wars is among the western system’s biggest money-making affairs.

Plus, it serves the same cabal’s key priority of depopulating the planet. Therefore, wars may rather proliferate than abate, as we see on a daily basis. Atrocities and rules-based assassination of objectors to the orders, are reaching extremes – with a largely desensitized public just looking on “as long as it doesn’t touch me…”

This is the world we are living in.

Or is it?

Simultaneously, there is a fresh breeze of hope and peace cleansing the stench of war. Things are shifting – into a new direction. All over the world. This move is often hard to see – because we are living in a western propaganda and lie-media cage. It ignores the ongoing contest between evil darkness and the light of liberation and Peace.

For example, this past weekend (8 / 9 June 2024), an Anti-Globalist rage swept Europe. Elections took place in many countries in Europe, notable for the European Parliament – where the so-called left, the corrupted “socialists” (no longer deserving their noble name) and greens, the Master Globalists (as in the Green Deal, the largest sham in recent party history) were out-voted by a landslide, in favor of conservative politicians and parties representing the will of the people, national sovereignty, personal independence – screaming a loud NO to globalism.

Eurovision Debate 2024 with Lead Candidates (Licensed under CC BY 2.0)

A drastic shift to the so-called right – a better term would be towards “people’s and national sovereignty” in the EU Parliament, took place.

Under the circumstances, it is far from sure that Madame Ursula Von der Leyen, unelected European Commission (EC) President for the last five ears and loaded with corruption lawsuits, will be reappointed for a second five-year term in August 2024.

The Belgian Prime Minister resigned. In France, the people revolted against Macron, chanting RESIGN!

Consequently, Macron dissolved Parliament and called for snap elections on June 30 and July 7, 2024. For details on how French dissolution of the National Assembly (Parliament) and snap  elections work, see this from Le Monde.

President Macron’s opponent, National Rally’s Marine Le Pen, and her young ally, Jordan Bardella, were jubilant after Sunday’s victory. They are projected winning the upcoming elections by a large majority.

Is this the beginning of the downfall of Globalist Europe? If so, where will Washington go? A people’s revolt in the US is also just around the corner. Many barbarian acts – like the literal promotion and funding with hundreds of millions of dollars of “illegal immigrants” by the Biden / Blinken Administration, are keeping the American public on edge. 

So far about US$120 billion, and more promised, in US tax-payers money transferred to ultra-corrupt Ukraine in the form of cash or weaponry, is further polarizing Americans, especially those aware of the real level of recession, poverty and unemployment ravaging the United States’ economy since the covid sham. 

Image: Two soldiers are positioned on the Statue of Liberty’s torch, which has been turned into a makeshift fighting position. (Licensed under Fair Use)

Many speak about a potential civil war, going as far as a breaking off by Texas into a new independence (Texas was a breakaway state from March 2, 1836 to February 19, 1846). See also the independent 2024 movie, “Civil War”. Films are often used by the Cult-Cabal to predict what may be planned and coming.

Potential scenarios are many. And who knows how long the struggle between the forces of darkness and those of light will last, when finally light will outshine darkness?

Does it mean that the western systems of usurpation – thousand years of colonizing the Global South – may collapse on both sides of the Atlantic?

Speculating positively, Europe may rebuild itself along the lines of the ancient giant Eurasian Continent that 2100 years ago was united by the original Silk Road, already then initiated by China.

It would be a logical unification and cooperation in Peace and harmony with Russia, China, and the Global South, today represented by the expanded BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

We are not there yet.

Kiev is still fighting for more and more western support, in arms, in money, in training of Ukrainian troops to fight against Russia. They will, on average, according to expert Scott Ritter, last about a week or less before they are killed.

Russia could indeed bring a halt to this bloodshed by decapitating Kiev in a matter of 72 hours or less. If it has not happened yet, it is because President Putin does not want to risk a hot – God forbid – nuclear WWIII, destroying Europe and possibly much of Moscow too.

Figuratively speaking, it is a few seconds to noon before a collapse may be triggered by an act of cowardice, by the western illusion of supremacy. Yet, Russia is today and has always been ready to negotiate for a fair arrangement that protects the Russian population in the Donbas and keeps Ukraine out of NATO – as a neutral state.

Why does it not happen?

Why does the West not take advantage of the so-called Peace Conference sponsored by Switzerland on 15 / 16 June on the Swiss luxury resort Burgenstock, a frequent Bilderberger venue, to which it is expected that more than 160 delegations, nations, organizations, NGOs and individuals will attend – but NOT Russia? Naturally, names of expected attendees are secret.

Why is it that they lie about not inviting Russia, saying, because Russia would not want to attend, when the exact contrary is the case? The truth is, Switzerland was falling for Zelenskyy’s wish to hold a Peace Conference without Russia. Can anybody imagine this billion-dollar effort for zilch? For sheer anti-Russia propaganda? And for bending to western arrogance? 

Such a sinister plan can only be a loser’s plan. 

Whatever it is, subtle events of reconciliation are occurring throughout the world, the breeze of fresh air is brushing away the stench of war, of ever more obvious political incompetence, of the endless war propaganda, and, instead, they are announcing a new, non-globalist multi-polar world working together for shared benefits and a common future.

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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and  co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

Featured image is from Massoud Nayeri

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Peter Koenig, Global Research, 2024

https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-peace-cooperation/5859750

NATO Installing Permanent Envoy to Ukraine, While Not Letting It “Join the Club”

By Uriel Araujo

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is planning to install a permanent special envoy to Kyiv as a new envoy post. This has to do with “institutionalizing” some of “the bilateral support that has flowed to Ukraine”, says US ambassador to Kyiv, Julianne Smith. At the same time, last week, Biden made it (again) abundantly clear that Ukraine is not to become a NATO member.

One should keep in mind that back on 21 December 2022, during a joint press conference in Washington, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the US, Biden had already been clear enough on the limits of Washington’s willingness to be there for Ukraine. The American’s replies must have been a cold shower to his Ukrainian counterpart: when asked about sending more powerful weapons to Kyiv, Biden said that doing so “would have a prospect of breaking up NATO”, and “breaking up the EU and the rest of the world.” Moreover, according to him, his Atlantic Alliance allies were “not looking to go to war with Russia. They’re not looking for a third world war.” Then, he went on to “reassure” the Ukrainian president right next to him, by telling that “as I said, Mr. President, you don’t have to worry — we are staying with Ukraine as long as Ukraine is there”, in an unintendedly amusing remark that inadvertently almost paraphrased the famous cruel joke about Americans being willing to fight “to the last Ukrainian”.

One could perhaps add “to the last European.” It is true that the US has reportedly secretly sent long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, which has made use of them, but one should not make that much of it – according to Mark Galeotti, head of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence and honorary professor at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, this is no game-changer. The overall American attitude is increasingly one about “let the Europeans spend more, and do the fighting.” Many voices within the American establishment have indeed been calling for European troops (“not NATO”) being deployed in Ukraine – which is more than just rhetoric.

The EU at War with the “European Instrument for Peace”: Manlio Dinucci

In an interview to TIME last week, Biden claimed that Washington did spend “a lot of money in Ukraine”, but, trying to downplay it, he argued “Europe has spent more money than the United States has, collectively. Europe has spent more money in taking on Russia.” According to TIME’s own fact-checking, the EU has provided Kyiv with more than $107 billion dollars in assistance (military, humanitarian, financial etc). The US congress, in comparison, has authorized Washington to send Ukraine up to $175 billion (much more than $107 billion, therefore) – however, thus far, has sent only about $81 billion, which, in any case, is already, for a single country, close enough to what the European Union has sent collectively.

In the same interview, asked about what the “endgame” for Ukraine looks like, the US President had this to say:

“Peace looks like making sure Russia never, never, never, never occupies Ukraine. That’s what peace looks like. And it doesn’t mean NATO, they are part of NATO, it means we have a relationship with them like we do with other countries, where we supply weapons so they can defend themselves in the future. But it is not, if you notice, I was the one when—and you guys did report it at TIME—the one that I was saying that I am not prepared to support the NATOization of Ukraine.”

One might remember that, in December 2023, Oleksiy Goncharenko, a member of Rada (the Ukrainian parliament), in a series of Telegram posts, claimed that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was pressuring European diplomats to cease any talks about Ukraine joining NATO. His allegations could not be verified, but are in line with Biden’s latest remarks on the matter.

Much has been made of former US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric point about not going to rescue European nations who fail to meet the Alliance’s defense spending duties. During a February rally, he did say “You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent? No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.” Rhetoric aside, Biden has a similar attitude in terms of making clear that the American role should, to some extent, limit itself to funding and arming its allies. Such funding in any case has also become the target of much criticism domestically, amid corruption accusations.

In the same TIME interview Biden added, quite surprisingly, that

“I spent a month in Ukraine when I was a Senator and Vice President. There was significant corruption. There was a circumstance that was really difficult.”

Indeed, according to TIME, Biden has traveled six times to the Eastern European country as a Vice President, which is more than any previous President or Vice President. His out of the blue mentioning of corruption there (a true problem) is quite ironic, considering that the issue has a lot to do with him and his family personally – something which had been deemed by some a “conspiracy theory” before but, more recently, has been covered by major media outlets across the political spectrum. In fact it’s been an issue since at least 202, with scandals surrounding the American President’s special envoy to (now gone) Nord Stream 2. Biden’s supposed signs of senility have become, quite openly, a hot political issue, not to mention an embarrassment to his Democrat Party (this was even a topic touched upon during his interview with TIME itself). Those corruption remarks perhaps could be interpreted while keeping that context in mind.

To sum it up, the West’s plan for Ukraine seems to be something like: “not NATO – but kind of NATO”. I wrote before on how French President Emmanuel Macron is on record saying deploying European forces (“not NATO”) to Ukraine is a possibility. In a way, this is already a reality, as admitted by NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who stated that “several NATO allies have men and women in uniform at the embassies” (in Ukraine), while claiming they are merely “giving advice.”

Stoltenberg also announced that NATO countries have air defense systems ready to be sent to the Eastern European country. He stressed NATO members have the “right” to “help” Ukraine, however, according to him, this does not make the Alliance itself a party to the conflict. 

I’ve described this logic as a Schrödinger’s cat kind of reasoning: it is all about coming up with a coalition of NATO members which, however, is not NATO, somehow. In this context, installing a new NATO special envoy to Ukraine is not just a consolation prize, but adds to this ambiguous approach that is about giving it to Kyiv without giving too much (in any case giving enough to trigger Moscow national security concerns) – and of course adds to tensions, thereby increasing the risk of conflict escalation.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Uriel Araujo is a researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image source

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Uriel Araujo, Global Research, 2024

https://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-permanent-envoy-ukraine/5859775