His original name was Olga but he realised early on that women couldn't advance that far in soviet society.
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His original name was Olga but he realised early on that women couldn't advance that far in soviet society.
Oopsy, where then does the The City of London stand?
How Putin’s Oligarchs
Bought London
From banking to boarding schools, the British establishment
has long been at their service, discretion guaranteed.
https://mcusercontent.com/ea8e8120d9...New_Yorker.pdf
Great article thanks for the link kiora
“The English political establishment, like everything else in London, appears to be for sale. Russian oligarchs have donated millions of pounds to the Conservative Party, and have enlisted British lords to sit on the boards of their companies.
A Russian magnate told Catherine Belton, “In London, money rules everyone. Anyone and anything can be bought.” The Russians came to London, the source said, “to corrupt the U.K. political elite.”
Abramovich’s purchase of the Chelsea Football Club was to build “a beachhead for Russian influence in the UK,” and raise Russia’s profile.
England itself has been a silent and handsomely compensated partner in Putin’s kleptocratic designs and, in the past two decades, Russian oligarchs have infiltrated England’s political, economic, and legal systems.”
Biden hitting home runs:
https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-...28fdb679a43116
He says putin must go & calls out Russia's fake democracy.
Just one of many books published in the last few years about global corruption at the highest level of politics, government and business.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39979237-moneyland
“Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How To Take It Back by Oliver Bullough
Join the investigative journalist Oliver Bullough on a journey into Moneyland - the secret country of the lawless, stateless superrich.
Learn how the institutions of Europe and the United States have become money-laundering operations, undermining the foundations of Western stability. Discover the true cost of being open for business no matter how corrupt and dangerous the customer. Meet the kleptocrats. Meet their awful children. And find out how heroic activists around the world are fighting back.
This is the story of wealth and power in the 21st century. It isn't too late to change it.”
Yep. If voters voted for Brexit to get the EU influence out of the UK, they voted for a Conservative government that was allowing the Putin Oligarchs influence in!
Boris Johnson and The Conservatives in exchange for deals and donations were happy for London to still be influenced by the Russian oligarchs while playing the right wing nationalist card against the EU, of which they had been an influential member. As Brexit UK and Trumpist USA distanced themselves from the countries of the EU, Putin was hoping a fractioning West could allow him time for the preparations for assault on the territories of the former Soviet Empire? Now ironically more people in the UK may realise that a close co-operation, economically and politically, with a free Europe is in their interest...
Kevin Rudd summing up the geopolitical positioning from Aussi boat people incarcerated on Nauru etc, the strategic vacuum left in the SW Pacific by recent / current Aussi governments, the Solomon Islands possible military deal with China, and especially the US vs China possible hot war brewing alongside China's declining "reputation" within Europe based on the current Ukraine War situation.
As a China studies expert since 18 years old and a fluent Mandarin speaker himself & PM of Aust. twice, well worth a listen...OR you can buy the book and report back to the rest of us!:)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/progr...mental-cruelty
While Russia is concentrating on Ukraine Azerbaijan troops have entered disputed land in Armenia.
Azerbaijan is aligned with Turkey while Armenia is with Russia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q_uKCEj2Xk Putin's Revenge: Part Two
The inside story of how Vladimir Putin came to see America as an enemy.
In the winter of 2014 Putin hosted the Olympic games as part of his campaign to revive Russian greatness. But Putin’s moment of glory was tarnished by protests in Ukraine demanding that the Ukrainian government move away from Russia towards the West.
The collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geo-political catastrophe of the century according to Putin. First, as Prime Minister and then as President he came to see America as a growing threat. He saw Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as an adversary and he wanted to get her back. He waited for the right moment.
Putin’s chance to strike at American democracy came with the 2016 Presidential elections. Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta had 60,000 emails hacked as part of a campaign that the American government linked to Putin. The emails were released to Wikileaks, who publicly released them.
25min Donald Trump was quick to seize the story of the hacked emails. He didn’t focus on the source of the leaks, instead he exploited the content of the emails. Trump did not see this as an attack on democracy. He was encouraging a foreign power to interfere in the election. To Trump it was just part of the circus. His response was just to invite Russia to do it more.
The Obama administration wanted congressional Republicans to join him in calling out Putin and Russian interference in the election. He wanted it to be a bi-partisan statement of condemnation of Moscow’s interference and not to be accused of the politicizing of intelligence information.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell warned he would not join an effort to publicly challenge Putin.
It was a moment when politics and partisan positioning appears to take precedence over national security. In other words, they are so worried about each other, Democrats and Republicans as adversaries that they can’t get around the idea that there is a bigger adversary.
1h ago 10:12
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has once again delivered a moving late-night national address.
Referencing his earlier interview with Russian journalists, he said:
Today is the day when we see again and again how far we are from the Russian Federation. Imagine, they were frightened there in Moscow because of my interview to Russian journalists. To those of them who can afford to tell the truth. When journalists were preparing to publish our interview - and we spoke with them this afternoon - the Russian censorship agency came out with a threat. That’s what they wrote - they demand not to publish the conversation. It would be ridiculous if it wasn’t so tragic.
They destroyed freedom of speech in their state, they are trying to destroy the neighbouring state. They portray themselves as global players. And they themselves are afraid of a relatively short conversation with several journalists.Twitter
Well, if there is such a reaction, then we are doing everything right, then they are nervous. Apparently, they have seen that their citizens have more and more questions about the state of affairs in their country.”
1h ago 00:09
Evening summary
It’s nearly two a.m. in Ukraine, and there have been reports of air raid sirens and missile strikes in cities across Ukraine, including in Lutsk, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, and Rivne. Here are some of the key developments of the past few hours:
- Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy used a video interview with independent Russian media outlets to signal his willingness to discuss having Ukraine adopt a “neutral status,” and also make compromises about the status of the eastern Donbas region, in order to secure a peace agreement with Russia. But he said he was not willing to discuss Ukrainian demilitarisation, and that Ukrainians would need to vote in a referendum to approve their country adopting a neutral status.
- Russia’s communications and Internet regulator said in a public statement it would investigate the outlets that interviewed Zelenskiy and told them not to distribute the interview.
- Despite reports that Zelenskiy had been pushing to speak on video during the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles tonight, and some statements of support from celebrities in his favor, it was not clear if the Academy had agreed, or if it would opt instead for watered-down references to the conflict and vague statements of support.
- Talks between Russia and Ukraine are expected to continue in Turkey in the coming days.