Wagner Leader Not Finished Yet

The Wagner business in Russia is a bit of a strange one but then i guess if you are using mercenaries to fight your war then you have to expect it to not go smoothly, after all the very definition of a mercenary is someone who only joins a military conflict for personal profit and what they can get out of it.
The details are sketchy but what we do know is that Yevgeny Prigozhin an his 50,000 Wagner troops have played a crucial role in the Ukraine war, capturing cities but Prigozhin has been criticising the Russian military top brass for a while over incompetence and lack of ammunition they are receiving and this
weekend overrun the Russian city's of Rostov and Voronezh and threatened to march into Moscow.
Russian troops attacked the Wagner group until an agreement was mediated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko between Moscow and Prigozhin that Prigozhin is stripped of control of the Wagner Group with some absorbed into the Russian military, and exiled to Belarus in return for mutiny charges being dropped but then it gets a bit hazy because despite exposed cracks in the Russian war as the attackers turn on each other, British top brass are warning that it has made the Ukraine war even more concerning.
Some are seeing this as a bit of theatre as Putin is unlikely to forgive treason quite so easily and Prigozhin is not the type to just disappear quietly into the night and nobody is saying how many loyal fighters are willing to follow Prigozhin to Belarus but it is noted that Belarus is the closest point to attack the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
I'm not sure this business has ended just yet.

Manoeuvring To Become Next Global Power

Great debate on the radio today with a bunch of analysts all agreeing that under Donald Trump, rather than making America Great Again, he is finishing what the first George Bush started and has taken it far enough backwards on the global stage that it is giving way to a successor shaped by the emerging global powers.
With the recent Syria retreat being used as a watershed moment, the analysts gave three possible contenders for America’s crown as number one global superpower, the European Union, Russia and China.
If Trump was to win another term, they reasoned, then his hostility to International Organisations such as NATO and the United Nations along with his America First isolation and general unlikeability, will bring about the succession even quicker although Trump being replaced in 2020 by a more multilateral President who will not cede global leadership to others so easily could restore America’s reputation and delay the inevitable runner up role in the 21st century World.
Of the three competing wannabe's named, the problem i see with the European Union taking the top spot is that it is not integrated enough, old rivalries continue between the individual nations and rather than speaking as one voice as it does on issues such as Climate Change, it is divided on other issues with 28 leaders with different views, some left wing, some right wing, which leads for disagreements and arguments such as we see with the plan for an EU Army and sanctions on certain other countries.
If it can become a United States of Europe, rather than 28 nations trying to reach an agreement then it's chances would improve but closer integration is not likely anytime soon.
Russia is far too corrupt and authoritarian although under Putin it has moved into a position where it is in all the right places globally and mixing it with all the dominant powers but for its sheer size and power, it is too much of a loose cannon to command the respect of the other powers.
China is where i see the next seat of global power, it has been quietly expanding into other nations building infrastructure and pushing their own national interests and it is now confident, and economically strong enough, to assert itself against the other World powers.
The view that China is an authoritarian, undemocratic regime could prove a hindrance although that is softened by it's refusal to join in the West's devastating wars despite increasing its own military strength which so far has stayed in it's bases, relying on soft power instead to push its agenda along with a different type of working Governance.
The age of America may have began properly in 1989 with the demise of Communism but too many illegal wars and belligerent leaders along with an arrogance that the World is there for it to demand of what it will, has proved it's downfall and the manoeuvring for it's replacement has already begun with earnest.

Europeans Trust China & Russia More Than America

A Pew Poll has found that when it comes to doing the right thing regarding World Affairs, there is only one person we Europeans can turn to outside of our own continent and that's Vladimir Putin but if Vlad is off fighting bears or in Siberia or something, our next choice is China's Xi Jinping.
Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Emmanuel Macron top the poll with Britain's Theresa May not even in sight which is fair as you wouldn't trust her to look after your plant when you are on holiday.
America, led by the thatched head of Donald Trump was seventh with even Americans putting Merkel and Macron above their own tiny handed President in trusting them to do the right thing.
Pew said its latest survey showed that international citizens have 'significant concerns about America's role in world affairs under Trump' but then there have been concerns about America's role in the World as far as i can remember regardless of the President.
That we would now look towards Russia and China in a crisis before America is surprising but not unexpected as America's soft power continues to decline under the current Administration.

Guilty As Charged

The explanation of a sight-seeing trip to Salisbury offered by the two suspects in the Sergei Skripal poisoning for their presence in the area is so implausible that it makes you question just why the Russians chose this flimsy alibi when they could have come up with something far more believable.
The Russian's have made strenuous efforts to challenge the claims made by the UK that thee two were behind the poisoning but after CCTV footage was released, going there for an hour and then leaving because of the snow and maybe happening to pass the Skripal House by accident is beyond weak.
In an interview, the men confirmed they were the people in the CCTV images but they were just there to see: 'it’s famous 123-metre spire, it’s famous for its clock, the first one of its kind ever created in the world, which is still working' and while they were in Salisbury 'maybe approached Skripal’s house, but we didn’t know where it was located'.
British counter-terrorism policing sources have said that they stand by everything they had said in naming two individuals from Russia as being responsible for the attack and listening to the paper thin alibi they have given, they are probably right to.

Insulting Footballers

Russian MPs have prepared a bill introducing fines for public statements insulting the players or coach of the Russian national football team, saying that moral climate was an important condition for sports victories.
The bill has been prepared by a group of lawmakers, headed by MP Vitaly Milonov who explained that: 'They represent our state and the scoundrels who insult them insult the whole nation. We will fine them 10 thousand rubles, in this case they will not have enough money left to buy beer and crisps'.
We can only hope that the English Government doesn't being in anything similar because going by recent World Cup performances, insulting our nations footballers is all we have and if Phil Jones ever gets near the action the nations football fans are going to be financially ruined.      
England start their campaign on Monday against Tunisia and hopes are high as they usually are before the tournament starts, then the doubts start to creep in once they actually start playing.

Show Us The Evidence

Theresa May came to the conclusion very quickly that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter while Boris Johnson today came out and said that the UK has evidence Russia has been developing the nerve agent used in the attack, Novichok, for international assassinations for the last decade.
Russian officials have denied involvement and as yet, our Government has not yet provided any evidence to back up their claims which led Jeremy Corbyn to note caution and for the Government to not 'rush way ahead of the evidence being gathered by the police, in a fevered parliamentary atmosphere'.
We have been here before of course where we are being asked to trust the Government and Intelligence Services, the Iraq War was based on phony dossiers and manipulated intelligence provide George W Bush and Tony Blair the justification for a war they had already decided on waging so excuse us for being cautious when we are asked to take you on trust.
What is similar to the Iraq War build-up is the vilification of anyone who doesn't just swallow the Government line, Corbyn being labelled a 'Putin apologist' and a 'naive dupe' but he is right to question the lack of evidence because the Government have not explained what evidence they have which convinces them that the Russian state was behind the attack.
The facts are sparse on the ground, we have been told that the agent used 'is of a type developed by Russia' and 'Russia have history of assasinations' but that isn't enough to justify their actions especially as we have a history of falsifying intelligence.
Possibly the Government do have concrete evidence to prove Russian involvement but if they did why are they not presenting it to us as they surely would as the questions about 'show us the proof' mount?
As the Government have made such a mess of everything else and as the British public have already been burnt being asked to trust our Government and intelligence services with evidence, i think it is right that we should be wary until we are shown the same evidence that makes our Government so certain it was Russia, if only to galvanise us behind them.

How Russians Want To Punish The Brits

It seems that the Russians people have taken umbrage at the British Government getting uppity about them using nerve gas in our country to knock off their own spies.
Their 23 diplomats told to get out of our country will passed by Brit diplomats going the other way as Russia ordered 23 of our diplomats to clear their desks in response but those Ruskies aren't content and the RT website has asked it's readers how to punish us Brits further and the response was great.
One website user said that Putin should 'abolish all organised queuing in Britain' while another wanted to hit us in the chocolate aisle by 'increasing the price of Freddos in a random and extreme fashion'.
Another wrote that Putin should 'hire an army of people to play rubbish 90s dance music through their phone speakers on all public transport', another said 'interfering with the message so that every single item in the bagging area is unexpected' while our tea obsession was evident in the comments that Russia should 'cut their supply of tea from reaching the British shores' and 'by making digestive biscuits that instantly dissolve in tea'.
Some wanted to get direct on our Brit arse and wanted to 'just nuke 'em' or give us the silent treatment by 'just ignore them'.
My favourite and a bottle of cheap vodka and a potato go to the contributor who said that Putin should 'cut off the gas supply around lunchtime on Sunday just before the British pigs are about to sit down to their revolting Sunday roast!'
The British announcement that we won't send Prince William to the World Cup in Russia must have really stung but what threatens a dangerous escalation is if they do swamp the nation with biscuits which dissolve instantly in tea, that would be taking things too far.

Responding To Russia

The clock is ticking around to the midnight deadline and Britain's 'response' if Russia doesn't admit to the killing of  Sertgei Skripal with military grade weapons on UK soil.
Theresa May must be looking at her phone to check if she has any missed calls with a Moscow dialling code but what if Putin hasn't called by midnight, what can May actually do about it?
As she has called it 'an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom' this would enable her to invoke Article 51 of the United Nations charter and all of NATO could tilt their nuclear weapons eastwards but as Russia as many more nuclear weapons than us, they would just tilt theirs westwards so that won't happen.  
As it stands, the only threat we have made is to withhold Prince William from going to the World Cup in June but it is being rumoured that they may request that England refuse to go.
Far better would be to go but play really badly and get knocked out at the first stage but denying the Russians the sight of Dele Alli shanking the ball off the pitch and falling over like he has been shot by a cannon in the box is so far our only plan.
We could go for expelling Russian Diplomats like we did after the last Russian murdered here, Alexander Litvinenko, or banning or expelling Putin's pals which include Chelsea's owner Roman Abramovich and Arsenal's Alisher Usmanov.
Relegating Chelsea is a plan i can get behind, at least docking them points but some would call for the same to Arsenal so we won't do that.
Russia Today (RT) is likely to get the hook with Ofcom sniffing around especially as it recently yanked Fox off the British airwaves for being not as fair and balanced as it stated.
Other media outlets owned by Russians and another pal of Putin's include the Independent, i and Evening Standard all owned by Evgeny Lebedev which would leave a large hole if they were pulled, especially the i which has become an above average newspaper.
Seems we are stuck with playing badly at the World Cup and not letting the Royals watch us doing it but May decides to dock Chelsea points or make them play Alvaro Morata in attack and David Luiz in defence every game as punishment, then i can support that.

Don't Say We Didn't Warn You Mr Putin

All the evidence points to the fingerprints of Russia all over the assassination attempt of Sergei Skirpal and the Prime Minister is under pressure to come out and condemn Russia and not just spout more of the carefully scripted words like 'it appears' and 'it seems highly likely that the Russian state was responsible for the attacks'. 
If all the evidence leads straight to the Kremlin's door, why is the Prime Minister not coming out and pointing the finger?
As usual, it's prudent to follow the money as Theresa May's Government has received millions in Russian donations since they came to power, the friends of President Putin donating an estimated £3 million into Conservative Party coffers.
The Electoral Commission initially declared many of the donations as 'impermissible' before subsequently backing down and allowing them.
Attempts to introduce legislation to prevent certain Russian individuals entering Britain or block their assets were blocked by the Tories for 'technical reasons which were never explained.
The Russians, all friends of Putin, are not donating out of the kindest of their hearts because they like Theresa May and her cabinet,they expect something for the Rubles they shove her way and what they are getting is a weak Prime Minister who has demanded a response from Moscow to the accusation that they were behind the release of military grade nerve agent on the British mainland by
the end of today otherwise we will respond. 
Our response? Not sending Prince William to the World Cup in June. They will rue the day they messed with Britain when the heir to the British Throne doesn't go watch a football match in Russia.
Then, when it all cools down and things have moved onto the latest stupid thing Donald Trump has said, we can all be friends again and Russian Cheque's will be gratefully received by Mrs May and her bunch once again.

Damn Those Pesky Ruskies

It is always an amazing coincidence that whenever a review of the military is on the way, suddenly we are under threat from someone so we need to throw more money at the military.
We have had a succession of bogey men we need protecting from such as Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jung Un and the default bad guys of the Kremlin who are back at the top of the bogey man list this time around.
Russia wants to cause 'so much pain to Britain that it could launch an attack killing thousands and thousands and thousands' so said the Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson, in a well worn tactic of saying don't make the cuts here otherwise it's KAPOW and a mushroom cloud over Buckingham Palace.
Russia responded by saying the comments showed he lost his marbles and worthy of something from Monty Python which is fair enough as they have just been accused of planning to commit mass murder on us Brits.
The irony that the Defence Secretary wants to secure the funding for weapons that would cause thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths shouldn't be lost here nor the fact that the military has recently taken delivery of a £3bn ship and secured funding of £133 billion for nuclear weapons
which should keep us all warm and snug while the austerity drive goes on.
If Russia really wanted to cause chaos in Britain, it would do what it did in America and make sure the worst Party won the election so campaigning for the Conservatives re-election and keeping a divvy like Williamson in charge of the military should be there mission.

Russia's Cold War Debt Cleared

America may have won the Cold War but while the Russians have paid off the last of their debt, Americans are going to pass legislation to increase their debt ceiling above £20 trillion so something doesn't seem right.
Russia took on the The Soviet Union's foreign debt of £66bn in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed and a £123m payment to Bosnia and Herzegovina will finally clear the bill.
In recent years, Moscow has cancelled billions of dollars in debt owed to the Soviet Union by countries in Africa, Asia, and Central America. In 2013, Russia wrote off almost the entire $32 billion debt owed by Cuba.
According to the Russian Finance Ministry, other countries still owe the Soviet Union about £34 billion, but how that works is unsure as i'm sure the argument will be how can they pay money to a country that doesn't exist.
The fact that the home of Capitalism is 20 trillion in the hole while Russia has cleared their debts has not gone unnoticed by the Ruskies. 

Consequences Of Russian Revolution 100 Years Ago Today

As revolutions go, the French one is second only to the Russian one for world wide consequences and it all began 100 years ago today when the Russians marched in protest in Saint Petersburg (then known as Petrograd) demanding the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II over the Russian involvement in WW1, the monarchy's crackdown on demonstrations and bread shortages.
The protests would lead to the rise of the Communists and the eventual overthrow of the Government by the Bolshevik Party comprising of leaders Stalin, Lenin and Trotsky who would form the Soviet Union and spread Communism throughout Eastern Europe and Asia.
Trotsky wanted to spread Communism around the World but on the death of the brains behind the revolution, Vlaidimir Lenin, the erratic Stalin took over the reigns, had Trotsky assasinated and began his reign of authoritarian rule which ended with the death toll attributed to Stalin at 50 million excluding wartime casualties.
Communism and the fight by the West against its growth became the defining feature of the middle and late 20th Century and continues today with the rise of China to Superpower status and it all began by protests a century ago.  

Of Course Russia Helped Trump Become POTUS

It is without doubt that the Russian President Putin would want Donald Trump to be the man sat inside the White House because he ran rings around President Obama and sees Trump as an even bigger softer target to push the Russian agenda.
That Trump seems content to bend America over and invite Russia to be gentle can either be down to some Trump master-plan or Trump being a political novice that Putin is going to play like a piccolo.
Putin is a hard nosed Politician, Trump is a four times bankrupt reality TV man with a child's temperament and wholly unsuitable for the top job so Putin must think Christmas and all his Birthdays have come at once.
Regarding the Russian hacking to help their man get elected, it would be shocking if they didn't as it would be shocking if America did not try to influence internal affairs of nations worldwide.
The Americans and the Russians are the World leaders in the field of intervention, research by political scientist Dov Levin found that the US and the USSR/Russia together intervened no less than 117 times in foreign elections between 1946 and 2000.
Where Russia 'helped' Donald Trump to gain power, America 'helped' Boris Yeltsin take the Presidency in the 1996 election after the USSR split.
Removing leaders or 'regime change' has been an American thing for decades, since the tune of the century America has taken it upon themselves to remove the leaders of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Ukraine so while allegations of Russian interference in the US elections are undoubtedly alarming for Americans, nobody was invaded or who cities and populations laid to waste in bringing their choice of leader to power. 
The US has interfered with impunity in the internal affairs of so many other countries but my question would be why is Donald Trump so adamant that Russia wasn't involved somewhere in the process because the big news would be if they wasn't

Bad Week For Russian Sport

It hasn't been a good week for Russian sport which began with the threat of expulsion from Euro 2016 and ended with the IAAF’s ban Russian track and field athletes competing at the Rio Olympics.
Russia insists it has been doing everything possible to clean up its act but the report from the World Anti-Doping Agency says otherwise so it will now be Rwanda following out Romania at the opening ceremony in 48 days time.
The WADA report explains how testing officers were intimidated and deliberately misled and how athletes giving addresses in closed military cities making it impossible to test them.
Of course there is sympathy for the country’s honest athletes who are the innocent victims of the blanket ban on competing but such is the grey area of drugs in Russian athletics, it appears to be the correct decision.
What i don't agree with is allowing athletes to race again once their ban for doping has expired, they still have the benefits to their body gained from when they were legally taking performance enhancing drugs, such as muscles developed while taking steroids, so a life ban would not only put a stop to anyone gaining an advantage but act as a deterrent.
In the 100 metre final at the last World Championships in Beijing, of the seven finalists, four   
have served bans for taking banned substances and we have no reason to doubt that even without Russia competing in the summer Olympics, we will still be watching athletes who are either profiting, or have profited, from chemical enhancements.

Would I Lie To You?

If it came down to a game of 'Would I Lie To You' between Russia and the United States it would be a tough call because both are about as honest as the day is long, a day on Jupiter that is. 
Both are pointing the finger at each other in the latest round of 'you-did, no-you-did' as Russian jets buzz American planes in the region.
The Americans are saying the Russians acted in an 'unsafe and unprofessional manner' after a Russian SU-27 fighter jet intercepted a US aircraft approaching its border.
The Russians replied that the American planes were turning off their identification transponders and flying towards Russian airspace.
'The US Air Force has two solutions, it can either not fly near our borders or turn the transponder on for identification' shrugged a burly looking Russian.
The Pentagon said its Air Force RC-135 plane had been flying a routine route in international airspace when it was intercepted.
Who to believe? On the one hand the Russians have been doing to Britain exactly what they have accused the Americans of doing and flying towards British airspace without identification before turning away sharply while America, well, you would be crazy to take anything that comes from their military at face value so its like a bun fight between a used car salesman and an estate agent, you can't believe either.

Setting A Precedent

In 1967, Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria and have occupied it ever since.
Now Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will never withdraw and 'the time has come after 40 years for the international community to finally recognise that the Golan Heights will remain under Israeli sovereignty forever'.
There you go Russia, all you need to do is keep hold of Crimea for another 38 years and it's yours, unless of course there is one rule for an illegal Israeli land grab and another for everyone else.

Fly Us To The Moon Mr Putin

Russian news agency TASS reports that Russia is planning several missions to create a permanent base on the moon by 2030.
The USSR tried and failed to create a base in the 1970s and shelved the project in 1976 until such a time that the technology was available to pick it up again.
Now the Russians have the new Angara A5 rockets they have revisited the idea and have completed testing and are setting a course on establishing a permanent base on the surface of the moon, which will include a solar power station, telecommunication station, technological station, scientific station, long-range research rover, landing and launch area, and an orbiting satellite.
Exciting stuff even though it feels that it is something we should have been planning decades ago but better late than never.

Own Goal

UK impose sanctions on Russia.
British Steel Company SSI goes into liquidation with the loss of 1700 jobs citing a slump in demand for steel in Russia for its problems.   
I think that's called an own goal by the UK Government, must have given Putin a chuckle though.

I Don't Like It But I'm Staying Here

I do love the argument that if you don't like it, you should go live in Russia or Cuba but by coincidence the same argument is used in Russia or Cuba where they say if you don't like it, go live in USA or UK but the argument is futile because of the logistics to moving abroad.
Why would anyone go to Cuba, Russia or anywhere if they didn't have a job there or somewhere to live and what about having to learn a new language and the whole change in culture.
You wouldn't be able to listen to the radio or watch the TV because you wouldn't understand any of the programmes and then there are the problems with schools for the kids and driving on the opposite side of the road.
Least of the problems is the expense of hiring an International removal firm and the weather, Cuba would be far too hot for my pale skin and Russian winters are legendary harsh.
Far better and much easier to stay here and moan about things we don't like and if we didn't vote for the current Government, it is perfectly legitimate to say i will stay here and bitch about the things rather than go through the upheaval and expense of upping-sticks and moving to Havana or Moscow thank you.
Besides, hanging about here really annoys the people who say silly things like that.

Aug 21 1940 - Russian Revolution Takes Another Twist

A post taking real life incidents from this day in history and my view of them as if they were happening today and what my honest view would have been then on that day and ignoring hindsight or knowledge of how it ended.

Revolutions are hardly ever neat and clean and the Russian one a little over 20 years ago continues to serve up twists as turns as another of the key figures, Leon Trotsky, has been found dead, the victim of an ice pick to the head.
Second only to Vladimir Lenin in the early stages of Soviet communist rule, the former head of the Red Army's star waned dramatically on the death of Lenin when he lost the power struggle with Stalin over who was to become Lenin's successor and was exiled and sentenced to death for treason.
He found himself in Mexico where he continued to criticise Stalin and the direction that he was taking Communism in the Soviet Union.
Stalin, never one to take criticism lightly, ordered his death and the inevitable conclusion happened in Trotsky's Office after he had survived a previous gun attack on his family home.
Now that the two intellectuals of the Revolution, Lenin and Trotsky, have left the scene, the death bell has been sounded for the Lenin/Trotsky idea of 'Permanent Revolution' that would see Communism expanded to include other countries, the Stalinist 'Socialism in one country' idea now holds sway under the totalitarian stewardship of Uncle Jo and the revolution takes another lurch away from the very ideals that it was based upon.