EDIT: There has been a rather significant correction to this piece.
My preliminary take:
Babchenko struck a deal with the SBU. He participates in this stunt – makes SBU and Lutsenko look competent – possibly gets money, and certainly publicity, for make benefit of his Yandex Koshelek – SBU gets to roll up a few poor bastards they want to roll up anyway – Western MSM and /r/worldnews + /r/europe: muh evil Russian oppressors killing democratic journalists (but being too incompetent for that) on the eve of the FIFA World Cup.
The pro-Ukrainian activist masquerading as a journalist Arkady Babchenko has just been assassinated in Kiev.
Ironically, as his very last Facebook post makes clear, he regarded today as his “second birthday”, on account of having narrowly escaped death four years ago, when he was removed from a Ukrainian military helicopter at the last minute due to lack of space. That helicopter was shot down by rebel forces.
Babchenko, a fiery supporter of the Maidan and the ATO, gained notoriety for making the most extreme anti-Russian statements, expressing satisfaction at the crash of the military transport plane carrying the Red Army Choir to Syria and rejoicing in the deaths of Russian children in the Kemerovo fire.
However, more than anything else he gained his status as a lolcow by dint of his promises to conquer Moscow in a NATO tank from his self-imposed exile in the Ukraine:
I will certainly return to Moscow. I have one more job to do there. I will be on the first Abrams rumbling down Tverskaya, under the NATO flag. And grateful Russians, having forgotten all about Crimea, will be showering flowers on the liberators, and begging for humanitarian aid with downcast eyes. And they will be kicking the toppled statues of Putin, saying that they had been unaware of everything that was happening, and insisting that they had always been against the regime. Remember this Tweet. Good night.
Looks like this project has been indefinitely postponed.
Whodunnit? I don’t know. It could have been Russia, if not to eliminate what was ultimately just a source of comedy, as demonstrate Kiev’s inability to protect its sympathizers. It could have been a svidomy Ukrainian nationalist. It could have been a false flag, perhaps even the first of more to come to justify a resumption of hostilities during the World Cup.
Now we wait to see which of the pro-Ukrainian commenters here suddenly stops posting……
Sweepstake?
Was he Russian?
You really, really ought to make mention of Pavel Sheremet because the Ukrainian government immediately blamed Russia for that and then did a shitty investigation. Some Ukrainian journalists put together a documentary implicating Ukrainian intelligence in the murder.
Killing Pavel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liSa5OFCkf4
The most depressing thing that came out watching the whole Ukrainian conflict(and Syrian conflict) is that there are people engaging in the blackest of black PR methods… murdering people on your own side to generate outrage. Few things are sadder than suspecting people have been murder just to generate newspaper headlines. I believe Russia has done it and anti-Russians have done it… the CIA and most western nations don’t engage in this but they don’t have to when they have so many unseemly allies willing to do the dirty work.
Its pro-Ukrainian insane masquerading as a journalist
Tell me, Master Anatoly, where are all these statues of Putin. I am not aware that any exist. Not even Your ( Ukrainian ) Idiot in Residence, Mr Hack has mentioned them. But being an Idiot, he might not be aware of them. Elucidate, Master Anatoly, please.
On the GoogleTube from Vesti News – ‘Zakharenko Calls Up the Donetsk Reserves: Donbass Gears Up For Full-Scale Kiev Offensive’, vid 5min27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFXCKHoswOI
What Ukraine urgently needs is a demoronization program. The last person to successfully run a demoronization program in Ukraine was Stalin. Even though he was a genius, he still couldn’t devise a program that would save a moron from his stupidity without killing him. This journalist Arkady seems like a beneficiary of a limited scale program with the same objectives as the one Stalin had subjected Ukraine to.
Was he Russian?
Depends upon what the definition of Russian is.
Well, he was an ethnic [Great] Russian (so far as I am aware), nor did he give up his Russian citizenship (also so far as I’m aware), so that makes him a Russian by any definition.
Correct, there was also the Voronenkov assassination.
His name was Ukrainian, and his face had Asiatic features. Might have had some Tatar or Jewish blood in him. Look at these lips:
https://russianlife.com/default/assets/graphics/contributors/babchenko_a.jpg
Arkady Babchenko, during a Facebook debate with Komsomolskaya Pravda journo Dmitry Steshin when the latter was in Slavyansk, asked him for his location so that he could better target the Ukrainian artillery on him.
https://www.kp.ru/daily/26835/3876049/
Here’s a quote from last month from a co-founder of the outlet that created the documentary.
https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/us-state-department-calls-anti-graft-court-slams-human-rights-violations-ukraine.html
Depends if you consider Alisa Rosenbaum, Lenin, Trotsky, Max Boot, Julia ioffe, etc, Russian or not.
Might have had some Tatar or Jewish blood in him.
My God! Can’t you people fight without help from Jews or Cossacks.
Crop in some long hair on Babchenko and he looks like Gogol, another ‘Tatar or Jew’ too?
I see that Karlin has him pegged as a ‘Great Russian’.
The information war has cranked up since Macron and Merkel visited Russia, and the WC is weeks away now.
You fail to mention his long hook nose – it even rivals Karlin’s magnificent schnaz! (check Karlin’s photo towards the bottom of his Portugese travelogue piece). 🙂
When a goy kills a goy, a jew gets his horns.
That looks kinda like Karlin,
This war was started & Modi elected so Hindus could also Shit posting on Hohols by 2020
https://i.imgur.com/mFGhMpI_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium
Hohols countered by mass migrating to Poland to offset economic decline, and raise per capita income
Hindus responded by putting a friendly regime in Canada to absorb their excess population & match Hohol migrations
So far, locked in a stale mate it seems that all hope lies on Putin.
Will he launch an invasion & decisively end the Hindu-Hohol meme wars?
You no longer have Dharma nor toilet nor warm weather in Border Land aka Ukraine।।
Notice the start (((date)))
https://i.imgur.com/rVfbGAG.jpg
I hope I am not murdered for exposing the secret behind the seemingly insane geopolitics of last few years.
Syria?
That was meant to erode Putin’s ability to intervene & take up the room of Hohols in Germany.
If Israel did not destabilize Syria then Civil Wars would have erupted all across Southern & Eastern Europe as Bollywood stopped making films।।
The murder made Drudge Report, which means the Western media considers this event to be important enough. The headline is what you’d expect. “Anti-Putin Journalist Shot Dead in Ukraine.” (facepalm.)
Incidentally, Babchenko’s story is a great illustration of how the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is overwhelmingly political and not ethnic.
Mint a medal for the unknown hero who butchered this pig.
It’s probably some jackass with a chub haircut and a hard drive full of Putin Khuilo memes, but good is good whoever does it.
Crimea was annexed so Russian & Indian soldiers could unify skin tones for upcoming Pagan Abrahamic world wars।।
If you tell someone this they must own atleast 2 well maintained melee weapons & a firearm, or you must kill them.
(((Babchenko)))
first syllable tells all.
this aside,
someone has done a good deed.
He was likely killed by a local thug, or, as you suggest, by a UA separatist type with a grudge. I do like that pic of him “smartly” saluting from the APC, as if he’s rolling through Red Square on 9 May. He looks like Shia LaBeouf saluting from his seat next to Santa/Ded Moroz on a sleigh 😉 Not to speak ill of the dead though (I’m making sign of the cross for good measure, Western style).
At any rate, this will indeed add ammo to the prescribed narrative to come re. the World Cup: “Russia bad.” Reminds me of Allen Ginsberg, in his “America:”
America you don’t really want to go to war.
America its them bad Russians.
Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia’s power mad. She wants to take our cars from out our garages.
Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader’s Digest. Her wants our auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our fillingstations.
That no good. Ugh. Him make Indians learn read. Him need big black niggers. Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help.
America this is quite serious.
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49305/america-56d22b41f119f
That was a very clever poem. What’s so strange for folks of my age cohort is to see the Left swing so violently anti-anything-RU after 1991.
I don’t know (or even care) about his ethnicity, but his phenotype is not uncommon – I know of two people with a similar one in Moscow, both Russian academics.
Heck, here’s Starikov:
http://weaponews.com/images/2017/05/10/af4e8673e3a8dc647896cf246d5ff91a.jpg
Bill Browder arrested by Spanish police?
Good riddance to a degenerate reprobate.
By the way – the neocon/Anglo-Zionazi propaganda apparatus known as “Wikipedia”, in its obituaries section, describes the killing of this scum as “the Russian journalist and dissident Arkady Babchenko” being assassinated. LOL! How they love to twist things, omit facts, and manipulate perceptions.
His book about the Chechen wars was praised a lot in Hungary. By the usual suspects, so I don’t know if they are any good.
It shouldn’t because it’s all too easy to discredit this by pointing out the journalist from RIA, Vyshinsky is under arrest in Banderastan…..seeing as there has been zilch written about him in the western press- they might want to keep it that way and not draw attention to this by promoting the idea that this prick Babchenko was killed by the kremlin.
A handsome devil, if ever there was!
Bro, can you update me on the Hungarian situation? I have some questions and would like your input. To recap: Vona promised to step down after the election if he lost and that would open up space for a return to its nationalist roots. He did.
However, from what I understand, the rot in Jobbik is even deeper than many thought. There was a party election this month and a two candidates, Tamas Sneider (a “moderate”) and Laszlo Toroczkai (/ourguy/) fought it out. Laszlo lost by a few percentage points and there now appears to be a growing rift.
Before the elections, I asked you how come Jobbik managed to go from “far-right” to complete shills in record time. I still don’t understand how the rot spread so quickly, are there any postmortems and/or inside leaks which would help us understand this better with the benefit of hindsight?
I do not want to glorify Fidesz. I take your words about Orban’s corruption seriously. Nevertheless, Jobbik was very useful as a right-wing radical front, keeping Orban worrying about his right flank. If they collapse as a potent force, the pressure will come from the left, and that’s bad news all around. You hinted before that you thought Orban’s stance on migrants etc had a touch of expediency and you’re not sure if he is all that genuine and how much of it is just playing for the galleries. If that is even remotely true, this will get amplified.
Toroczkai got something like 46% of the vote in the internal party elections if I understand it correctly, and there will be a general party platform released on June 23rd. He has said that his voting base is large enough in to force through a right-wing platform, a model of which he himself has already released publicly in order to serve as a baseline. He has threatened that if it isn’t accepted, then he’ll go his own way. What’s your sense? How good are the chances of that happening if the corrupted Jobbik leadership cadre dismisses his demand and cucks even more á la Vona?
Furthermore, radical voices like Dúró Dóra was purged, and people in the Polish nationalist circles tell me he was one of their few genuine radicals left. Not a good sign. I’d be hoping that you could enlighten me on the Hungarian political situation, especially as it related to the right-wing, a little bit.
P.S. I heard that there are upcoming district elections in Hungary and apparently Jobbik has allied with liberal and even communist(!) parties, is this correct? Post-Vona, I’d thought that there would be a normalisation of sorts.
OT – Israel and Russia have reached an agreement allowing the SAA to retake the areas adjoining the occupied Golan.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/29/russia-israel-agree-deal-hold-back-iranian-militias-assad-prepares/
So, once again, the DC think-tankers have been made to look like idiots.
The Russians have restored a sovereign Syria in all the areas that really matter. The Yanks are left doing a bit of minor looting of oil in the eastern desert, and their presence there has screwed-up their relationship with Turkey, and left them with the responsibility of handling a brewing PKK vs Arab tribes war.
Bill Browder arrested by Spanish police?
You mean Putin-critic Bill Browder?
Note the careful wording (italicized). It doesn’t actually say that Magnitsky was a lawyer (he was an accountant), only that he was “employed” as a lawyer.
If true, that’s pretty great, hopefully this means direct conflict between Israel and Iran over Syria becomes less likely.
Russia’s role in Syria is quite impressively constructive so far.
I’m sceptical. There is no enforcement mechanism: Russia has no means to keep Iran out of Southern Syria. And Israelis have promised to bomb Iranian forces anywhere in the country, not just in the South.
There are rumours that Americans might abandon their Al-Tanf outpost as part of a deal. If true this will be a genuine victory for Russia.
Seems like there’s a new trend of leaving false flag victims/conspirators alive.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/1001831643345227778
Look who is back.
https://static.life.ru/posts/2018/05/1121665/58a6e6a12f0e1f7f46466d6f6a1e708c__980x.jpg
Why kill off a loyal asset?
It would discourage others from joining your side.
This, the Skripal case and the new MH17 claims are parts of the pre-WC anti-Russia campaign.
You know, it’s not unusual in the End Times for the dead to rise.
(Will the next big ruse reveal be along the lines of “I was just pretending to be retarded”)
Not just for Russia, for the whole world.
The next ploy of the Ukrainian “secret services” should be like this: They should stage a total collapse of the Ukraine’s economy and the state. You see if they successfully pull this off and convince the world that the Ukraine’s state has collapsed – there would be no reason for Russia to invade them. It’s official, folks, they are morons.
If that’s the case, then it is a pretty incompetent campaign. Russia will be able to say, with justice, that the whole western world raged about muh Putler and came out looking like utter fools. Furthermore, it sinks the SBU and the Ukrainian side massively, because nobody wants to look like a fool after trusting a third party.
Russia’s “show proofs”, which was mocked and derided by many shitlibs can no longer be mocked nearly as effectively. Russia will be able to say: oh you mean like Babchenko?
Russia couldn’t have planned a better outcome even if it wanted to.
If someone thinks that the other side is fundamentally wrong and not credible, proofs won’t matter to them, only their conviction.
Russians can say whatever they, most of West won’t care and mock them instead.
That is why it is not a Russian victory, but another step to reinforce Russia’s negative image.
This is a Western PR campaign for domestic audience.
For example I heard that a lot of ordinary people in the West actually think that Skripal is dead. If the Western public can be simply brainwashed that Putin is a “murderer”, then who needs the actual murders? lol
I think someone speculated higher up in the thread that Babchenko is (part-)Jewish? While not exactly concrete proof, apparently he had lived in Israel before (at the end of the article, the rest is just blah blah blah https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/30/arkady-babchenko-still-alive-staged-assassination/).
Aside from being an overall dick move, this stunt really was quite cruel to his wife.
What a clown show… I think there’s a good chance Babchenko was meant to stay hidden until after the World Cup but then they aborted when they thought people might ask too many questions about Sheremet.
Unfortunately you’re probably right. I was hoping this bizarre event/stunt would jolt people out of that habit, at least momentarily, but the reactions I’m seeing in the usual places (such as /r/Europe) you have every single critical question/objection being attacked viciously and swept aside.
People are just so indoctrinated that it doesn’t matter anymore about actual evidence. It really is a deranged cult at this point.
Interesting that the BBC is still carrying the original story, with an “update”:
Voice of America’s current story has him both alive and dead:
Here is a picture of the “suspect” — Putin himself?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeZEpzaXUAArw7p.jpg
In predictable manner, the murder of Babchenko was the main BBC headline earlier today, with it making CNN headline news as well.
Compare that coverage to the murder of Oles Buzina, as well as the coverage of journalists beaten and-or censored in Kiev regime controlled Ukraine – whose politics are the opposite of Babchenko’s.
CNN noted that Babchenko didn’t express regret over the Russian Army choir killed in a plane crash, because he felt sorrow over the deaths in Ukraine which he attributed to Russia. Reminded of how some responded to the 9/11 deaths and the disdain they received from Western establishment elites, as well as some others.
You sure he was an ethnic Russian, with no ethnic Ukrainian background, to go along with his svido slant? Babchenko passes for a Ukrainian name.
It looks exactly like Kharkov mayor Kernes with a beard and without glasses.
Well going on holiday is different to living. He was doing a media drive on the Israeli television channels for a week last summer. Tourist visa is three months.
He probably has some family knowledge of Jewish ancestors, but is not able to prove it to the authorities.
If he could manage to qualify for Israeli citizenship, he would be exiling in Israel by now, instead of in third-world Ukraine, even if the latter suits his clown circus mentality.
He was doing some kind of media campaign for a week in Israel in the last week of May 2017, and they put him on the main television channels.
Doesn’t seem an attempt for exile or asylum.
https://www.facebook.com/9tvcoil/videos/699464346907109/
The news today feels like another example of the hideous laughter of the gods.
A good man like Jesus did not resurrect. But of all deserving people, this dude was able to return – twice.
Speaking of his wiki article, the infamous Philip Cross collective is contributing.
https://twitter.com/AudreyAurus1/status/1001870102520836101
Yeah. And the “Putin kills journalists” meme just lives on, even though it almost couldn’t be farther from the actual Russian reality (i.e. very few journalists have actually been killed since around 2008, even before that they were safer than your average Russian per capita and Russia’s overall homicide rate as of 2017 is at US levels).
Talk about propaganda…
I mean how is this news, at all, internationally!?!?
I was almost shocked to see this actually trending on Twitter, except not really, because MSM’s Russia coverage has crossed the line a long time ago. But still… WHAT. THE. FUCK. This is headline news? Trending on Twitter? Have they gone totally nuts?
I really feel this is exceptionally bizarre even by their standards, which is really saying something. A textbook case of selective reporting and well, pure propaganda.
The comic opera element of Ukrainian nationalism has endured.
This is Billy Bob Thornton. Amazon paid for the promotion of the second season of Goliath
http://www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/tvbanners/13232843/p13232843_b_v8_ac.jpg
Well going on holiday is different to living
http://www.tank-net.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=38893&page=882#entry1370864
Ok, so what I suspect happened.
Babchenko struck a deal with the SBU. He participates in this stunt – makes SBU and Lutsenko look competent – he possibly gets money, and certainly publicity, for make benefit of his Yandex Koshelek – SBU gets to roll up a few poor bastards they want to roll up anyway – Western MSM and /r/worldnews + /r/europe: muh evil Russian oppressors killing democratic journalists (but being too incompetent for that).
The tourist visa lasts for three months, but he was only in Israel for two weeks in May 2017.
My guess would be that it was originally planned to maintain this stunt for a longer time – or maybe even indefinitely by getting Babchenko a new identity – but that they botched the staging of the murder so badly, that they got cold feet and decided to reveal it after only a day.
The whole thing is just clownish
How he is joking about it and talking with his fans on Facebook – he has a scary amount of online fans.
https://www.facebook.com/babchenkoa
Just like his “killer”.
https://twitter.com/I_Katchanovski/status/1001881371835449344
It is unlikely that this was planned at all. It looks like an ad-hoc stunt that nobody thought through – even minimally. E.g., the wife was reported as finding the body and calling police, but today they claim that she didn’t know he was still alive. So who did she find? It also happened very quickly, a reversal within 24 hours – no time for the story to bear any PR fruit, and the quick reversal is fatal for credibility. It has obviously been improvised, then somebody higher up found out and told them to cut it out immediately.
It shows a continuing disfunction in the core roles of Kiev government. When this goes down, and it almost certainly will once the economic consequences of Maidan break with the Russian economy are fully implemented, it will collapse very quickly. One of those situations when nobody will want to stick around. 2019-20 will be crucial: elections (always destabilizing in Ukraine), post World Cup, and the end of gas transit income. If there is a cold winter, and if EU has some structural or economic problems (they are over-due), it could get really ugly for Kiev.
We would have to wait until there is a nationalist government in Russia for this to happen. Putin seems determined to prop up the Ukraine economically for some reason. He even agreed to continue gas transit past 2019!
Well, it not reasonable to supply the Balkans via the Ukraine after South Stream was cancelled.
Fortunately, that is only a small amount of the transferred NG.
https://twitter.com/MarkAmesExiled/status/1001936937882669062
(((Babchenko)) lives…
but
(((Seth Rich))) remains dead.
one tires of these
(((Jewish tricks))).
I don’t believe it. Russia is trying to get North Stream 2 built, they will say what Germans need to hear. Russians have learned that the way one does a ‘deal‘ is to get their side upfront and vaguely promise whatever is required for later. Then ‘things change’, or it is ‘not in writing’. West has been doing it forever. Time to adapt. We are in for a few ruthless decades as everybody starts copying the Western methods.
Do you know that the value of Gazprom’s exports to Europe + Turkey was only $38 billion in 2017?
https://www.finanz.ru/novosti/aktsii/vyruchka-gazproma-ot-eksporta-gaza-v-2017-godu-vyrosla-do-$37-8-mlrd-zamglavy-kholdinga-1015001816
When you consider all the costs involved in extraction and transportation (they paid $3 billion just for Ukrainian transit in 2017) the profit from Gazprom’s business with Europe should be well below $30 billion – that’s at most 2% of Russian GDP at current exchange rate.
By contrast, that $3 billion, that Ukraine earned in 2017 represents 3% of Ukraine’s GDP. The Ukraine is more dependent on Gazprom’s exports to Europe, than even Russia is!
Putin should have ended Ukrainian transit back in 2014 even if it meant sacrificing half of European sales. Russia would handle it, but the Ukrainian regime may not.
I think that with this “successful” “operation” Ukraine demonstrated just how quickly it was able to close the civilizational gap with the West in terms of degeneracy.
It came barely a couple of months after the bizarre story of the Scripals poisoning and now they’ve managed to outdo the West in terms of stupidity.
One thing that I really don’t understand is how faking the death of that moron helped capture his “killers”? Aren’t you supposed to follow the would be assassins = since you already know who they are – and then at the last moment you prevent them from carrying the assassination, or you slip them blank bullets, or make the moron wear a Kevlar or something?
How did this sitcom that they staged help them catch the “killers”? Did they follow the would be assassins to the nearest bar and waited for them to get drunk and lament loudly the missed career opportunity of killing that imbecile and then they jumped on them: “A-ha, so you admit that you were planning to kill the idiot, but we are just so smart that we pretended that we beat you to it”.
Either way, my point is that Ukraine has managed to close the civilizational gap with the West, they are all officially degenerates now.
The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg said that the Kiev regime has good reason to believe that Russia has been behind fake news concerning Ukraine. As if the Kiev regime hasn’t previously stated fake news about Russia. One example concerning what Petro Poroshenko said about Jews in Crimea. See:
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/07/17/dnc-kiev-regime-collusion-isnt-americas-best-interests.html
On a related matter, has there been any follow-up to what Mustafa Dzhemilev recently claimed as noted below?
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-charges-moscow-has-brought-up-to-1-million-russians-into-crimea/29253575.html
Where is his proof? Why should Russia feel a need to hide such on account of a “crime” (sic)? Russia very openly built a bridge connecting Crimea to the rest of Russia.
As for the comments about the past, the Tatars didn’t predominate Crimea before Rus, which modern day Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are descended from. If anything, the Tatars came in as latter day occupiers, involved in a slave trade against Slavs and others. Tatar raids from Crimea into Russian territory was a reason for why Catherine the Great took back Crimea. Within reason, many see Russia as the legit heir to Rus. Following the Mongol subjugation, the territory of Russia emerges as the strongest and most independent of Rus land. prior to the Mongol subjugation, the territory of Russia was showing signs of having greater influence.
Independent polling show a clear well over 2/3 majority in Crimea supporting the area’s reunification with Russia. This includes the majority of Crimea’s ethnic Ukrainians. The Tatars are under 15% of Crimea’s population.
Putin has condemned the Soviet WW II era collective punishment against the Tatars, in conjunction with his support for a multiethnic/multilingual Crimea – recognizing that Russian is the overall preferred language there. In comparison, Dzhemilev is on record for essentially advocating the ethnic cleansing of Russians from Crimea.
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-crimea-tatars-dzhemilev/25374059.html
Related:
https://www.eurasiareview.com/09062016-enhanced-russia-bashing-at-the-new-york-times-analysis/
Yeah, I noticed this too and found it odd… how the hell could she have not known if she was the one who found the body? Just google “Babchenko wife found” and you can find many news reports reporting that she was the one who found the body.
“It is unlikely that this was planned at all. It looks like an ad-hoc stunt that nobody thought through – even minimally. ”
In hindsight, one could say the same thing for Maidan killings and MH17, too. It makes me even think that Babchenko is a Kremlin asset of highest value.
Bizarre how the Kiev regime is trying to pass this escapade off as some kind of a sophisticated Intel op.
As expected, the BBC is soft in downplaying the extent of this farce.
Like the JRL/Paul Robinson propped Mr. Meduza (Kevin Rothrock) should be saluted for saying that he won’t trust the Kiev regime again.
The reasoning was there beforehand – something noted a bit further up this thread and not at phony, crony, baloney JRL.
In 1982 the French did something similar with a Romanian dissident called Virgil Tanase.
The NYT screws up again:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/opinion/arkady-babchenko-russia-ukraine.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region
In line with its ongoing BS:
https://www.eurasiareview.com/09062016-enhanced-russia-bashing-at-the-new-york-times-analysis/
This was a monumental f..k-up and western journalists know it. You see it on their sour faces as they are forced to interview the usual Russia-hating ‘analysts’. The whole thing makes no sense, so it will most likely be quickly put aside. But I fully expect the McFaul’s of this world to include it on their lists of Russia’s mis-deeds – Babchenko will be right there, listed and unexplained to add more to a bizarre list of nonsense, accidents, etc…
To believe that the wife ‘knew nothing‘ as she discovered Babchenko all by herself (she didn’t touch him?), that she ‘mourned‘ for 24 hours, that the fake killing somehow flushed out the ‘real killers‘ – this is too stupid even for BBC-CNN. An amateur hour.
When West allies itself with morons, like Saakasvilli or the Kiev circus show, they eventually become morons themselves. Eastern Europe, especially its more provincial corners, is full of smaller-than-life and desperate characters whose main ambition is to escape the lives they have been given. They know no boundaries, they yearn too deeply, they existentially detest reality. As allies they always eventually f..k-up. My guess is that we are only at the beginning, the real weirdness is about to start. And then come the tears.
Delayed gratification is at the core of any success. $3 billion might be 3% of Ukraine’s GNP, but in 2014-17, it was still only $3 billion that West could easily replace. It would had made no difference.
Russia has always been slow in getting going, but after it gets going it is often unstoppable. Maybe it is the size, or resources, maybe the character. Time is on Russia’s side – Kiev’s position is not sustainable. When West experiences its next economic downturn the desperate situation in Ukraine will be hard to correct. Living standards have not improved, the Western aid will eventually dry up, or will have to be paid back.
Once Russia has reliable gas-oil pipelines to Germany and China, the game is over. They will simply slowly starve the Russia-hating states in eastern Europe: no exports to Russia, no cheap energy and resources, no transit fees. Western strategists know this, that’s why they are trying to do something now. Let’s see if they succeed. But if Russia sits on its advantage, it will eventually prevail.
In 1982 the French did something similar with a Romanian dissident called Virgil Tanase.
Interesting (pseudo-) parallel, suggests that the original plan was for him to be dead for several months (hence bye bye World Cup).
In the case of Tanase, I think it was a case where the murderer sent by the Romanians turned, and the idea was to pretend he finished the job and then he could defect or something. (?) I cannot find anything in English, a Hungarian website is the source of all my information.
So the way it would make any sense would be if the murderer turned, and then after the supposedly successful action he’d talk to the people who sent him, and create a highly compromising video or sound recording of it, thereby getting the evidence against those who sent him.
They did drift slightly to the left of Fidesz. They are still firmly for the fence and against immigration, but they now adopted Another Polish Perspective’s rhetoric that “this is not the biggest problem in Hungary.”
Dóra Dúró (for simplicity’s sake I put family name last as is customary in English) is a woman. Her husband was kicked out a few years ago.
I will write more later today, now I have to go.
The morning American based CNN show hosted by flacks Romans and Briggs didn’t spin it as a stupid move by Kiev. They also gave credence to the view that the wife didn’t know about it.
It’s funny to observe all those journalists getting attacked by Ukrainian nationalists and Western Ukrainophiles for whining about the impact of this affair on their professionality and on Ukraine’s credibility (both fair points, for once), while Babchenko was only doing what he had to do to avoid Mordor’s death squads. Of course there are even allegations that said Western journalists are on Putler’s payroll. 😀 😀 😀
Typical example (read the replies):
https://twitter.com/shaunwalker7/status/1001861493917474816
2 possible “explanations” which might possibly give some sense to what otherwise appears to be pure farce.
OR
In the 1st case, the question arises why the plot was aborted, perhaps as suggested by Beckow a higher-up decided it wasn’t such a good plan after all.
I cannot find anything in English,
If you don’t read French, google translate the article I referred to which give all the details, including the defection of the Romanian “assassin” Mateï Haiducu to the DST (the former French domestic intelligence agency).
https://lexpansion.lexpress.fr/actualites/1/actualite-economique/fausse-mort-de-babtchenko-le-precedent-virgil-tanase-en-france_2012995.html
Tanase is alive and well in France. Over the past decade he has published generally well-received biographies of Chekhov, Camus, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky; his earlier work was primarily fiction (including his 1990 novel La vie mystérieuse et terrifiante d’un tueur anonyme — “The Mysterious and Terrifying Life of an Anonymous Killer”).
Ridiculously funny
https://twitter.com/BungeeWedgie/status/1002084905948467202
So Syria has recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia:
https://sputniknews.com/world/201805291064903741-syria-ossetia-abkhazia-recognition-reaction/
Probably not that significant but it feels satisfying.
I don’t agree with this. $3 billion is the amount that has to be paid every year. That’s $15 billion over 5 years. This sum is large enough that it could well provoke political discussions in the West: how much do they care about the Ukraine exactly?
There are other costs we could have imposed on Western partners of Ukraine. Instead Russia foolishly took up the burden of financing Ukrainian regime, when it was at its most vulnerable. Reducing transit after 2020 won’t have the same impact: the Ukraine will suffer to be sure, but regime will survive. They spent the last 4 years consolidating their position with Kremlin’s help.
Пустячок, а приятно!
It seems that Poroshenko is taking full credit for the triumph.
For the study of anti-Russian propaganda, this is a good sample:
https://twitter.com/MaxFosterCNN/status/1002135821363933185
Host Max Foster and his skewed panel of Kate Andrews, Rachel Shabi and Stig Abell, are oh so full of it.
As someone put it at another thread, too bad that mediocrities have a good deal of influence in keeping down quality sources, who successfully and quite conclusively debunk the high profile BS with facts and fact based opinions.
A point relating to these articles:
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/10/11/slanting-against-russia-us-establishment-pastime.html
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/12/12/countering-anti-russian-propaganda.html
I also don’t understand what the Kremlin wishes to accomplish with maintaining normal economic relations with Ukraine. Ukraine is a lost cause, totally hostile to Russia, and I can see no way to change it after the annexation of Crimea. Even if Russia gave back Crimea, it’d be like robbing someone and then giving it back: he wouldn’t trust you afterwards anyway.
Cutting off the natural gas would also be a way of punishing Europe. There might be some legitimate concern here for the Kremlin, because some of their best friends in Europe are there – Hungary and Slovakia would be cut off from Russian natural gas. In the case of Hungary, Russia is just about to start building two new reactors for the Hungarian nuclear plant in Paks. The contract was signed in January 2014. I’m sure this business would’ve been lost, had Russia cut off our natural gas. Similarly, Russia managed to sold (in an overly corrupt manner, with Orbán’s entourage enriching themselves in the process) metro cars to Budapest. That business would’ve been lost as well. I think there was some other business as well. Though maybe they are not that big deals for the Russian economy as a whole, taken together with the loss of export revenue, I think it might’ve made sense to keep the natural gas export going.
Your ilk has been saying this since the 1990s. How has it worked out?
You think it is still 2014 in Ukraine.
Not quite. On this particular matter, it’s within reason to say that you can’t rob what’s reasonably yours, with the Kosovo and northern Cyprus situations as reference points, relative to the well over 2/3 pro-Russian majority in Crimea, coupled with the overall history involving that area.
On another point that you bring up, Ukraine shouldn’t be considered a lost cause for Russia, while recognizing the challenges for improving the situation.
What is “your ilk” for a fucked in head, attention-whore,algorithm ,spambot attention-whore retard like you?
Kiev has proven it’s position as non-sustainable , multiple times since the 90’s you stupid prick. (failed ) revolutions, (failed) half revolutions, even less closer to EU membership then they were in 1991, failed President, failed state, failed economy, perhaps the biggest non-war emmigration in history, more oligarchic control than before the euromaidan crap……you dumb prick
It’s barely close to 2004 Ukraine you idiot. In the meantime, somewhat implausibly,Russian life expectancy has gone considerably past Ukraine’s…and that’s just 1 practical reality out of thousands I could list
I remember you telling this story before 🙂
The immediate priority for Orban would have been dealing with the consequences of energy crisis, that disruption in Gazprom’s shipments would create. Mostly likely he would request a bailout from the EU. Every Eastern European country would probably ask for a bailout, cause they are all 100% dependent on Gazprom – sounds like fun!
On the other hand Serbia seems perfectly willing to take EU/NATO dick, theft of Kosovo notwithstanding…You talked about winning hearts and minds of Ukrainians, well the key element of this IMO is showing to them in robust fashion that we are actually going to win.
Ukrainians must come to see the Kremlin as “inevitable evil” so to speak. For now, the common thinking in Ukraine is that Russia is one sanctions package away from breaking apart. Putin’s dithering in the face of Western pressure reinforces that perception.
Bailout? I guess the difficulty would be where to get the natural gas. There are probably not enough LNG terminals in Europe. It would be more expensive, too, but that wouldn’t be a big problem. Domestic production in Hungary can cover roughly two thirds of households’ consumption, while the rest could be covered from non-Russian import (at least currently), so that leaves industrial etc. consumption without a source. I don’t know how much import could be increased from other sources, and how much of natural gas consumption could be converted to something else.
However, as far as I know, Russia (and the USSR before it) has always kept itself to the energy export agreements, no matter what. This is probably to build up reliability (a long term game), and this results in European countries not spending much to diversify their natural gas sources.
The exception is when they have a dispute with Ukraine, because for historical reasons they always promise in the agreements to transport the natural gas to the former Soviet border instead of the Russian border, and they have no control over what Ukraine does within its borders. So whenever there’s a trade dispute with Ukraine, Ukraine can cut off the transit, and then Russia is blamed for not fulfilling its obligations.
https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/styles/inline_image_desktop/public/inline-images/2018-05-30_10-48-04.jpg
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-30/journalists-killed-russia-after-putin
That would be a problem for industrial users. If you take out a substantial chunk of supply from the market (15-20% that goes through Ukraine), the prices go up. For all suppliers and the LNG gas would be sold at higher prices, too. As it is, even with full supplies from Gazprom available, all alternatives are 2 times more expensive (to cover very substantial fixed investment and transport costs).
In 2014-15 Russia had no good alternatives. In a few years they will, if China, Nord Stream 2, and Turkey are online, Russia will have upper hand in any negotiation or a crisis.
Today the living standard differential between Russia and Ukraine is 3 to 4 times higher. I don’t see a realistic way for Ukraine to start closing that gap. By 2020-25, this will become an acute problem for Ukraine, they will be an island of poverty surrounded by substantially richer countries on all sides. That is a political dead-end and will lead to new instability. West has no long term solution: they were hoping to collapse Russia economically – didn’t happen. Some in the West would like an accelerated ‘EU-NATO’ for Ukraine – that is also not going to happen. That leaves status quo that is unsustainable. Or they can start selling Ukraine’s farm-land to raise some quick money. But there will be no miracle, and when next crisis hits, Ukraine will go into a tail-spin.