Tag: geopolitics

The Kremlin is ‘totally amazed’ by Trump’s concessions to Putin, says a former Russian official

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The Kremlin seems to be surprised at how quickly the American president Donald Trump made concessions his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, just before negotiations began to end the Moscow war in Ukraine, said CNN Vladimir Milov, a former deputy minister of Russian energy.

The Kremlin expected Trump to set certain conditions for Russia, and Moscow “was preparing some sort of offer here and there to do what they call a deal ”, said Vladimir Milov, a former adviser to the late Russian opposition leader. Aleksei Navalnii.

Speaking from exile in Vilnius, Milov claims that, based on what he heard, “everyone in Moscow is totally amazed now that all the concessions they wanted have been made, even before the start of negotiations”.

“This is a shocking result, even by Vladimir Putin’s standards”, Milov commented, according to the source quoted by News.ro.

The long-term relationship between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenski was blown up this week.

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The above is translated from Romanian, so grain of salt on that and it is hearsay, so a bit more salt. It does sound like Trump, though. There are many stories of him making very generous offers, which if not accepted will become much less generous quickly. My sense is this is a good start to ending the war and forming real-world mutually beneficial relationships with Russia, which geopolitically is of the greatest importance to USA, Russia, and Europe, not to mention Ukraine. ABN

Former Ukrainian official suspected of money laundering through France

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NABU (National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine) and SAPO have exposed large-scale money laundering by a former executive of a state-owned special exporter.

During the investigation into the embezzlement of funds from Ukroboronprom defense concern, it was discovered that the suspect, in collusion with other persons, illegally transferred the funds of state-owned enterprises to foreign company accounts under the guise of “agent services” for selling Ukrainian military equipment. The total amount of these transfers exceeds USD 46 million.

At least EUR 13 million of these funds were funneled through multiple intermediary companies and ultimately ended up in the suspect’s accounts. He then used the money to purchase luxury real estate in France, including:

  • a villa worth UAH 86 million;
  • a winery, corporate rights, and 105 land plots worth UAH 229 million;
  • an additional 27 vineyard plots worth UAH 37 million.

Currently, a French court has seized the mentioned assets. NABU is seeking the suspect’s extradition to Ukraine.

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‘I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died’ — Donald Trump

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Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and “TRUMP,” will never be able to settle. The United States has spent $200 Billion Dollars more than Europe, and Europe’s money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back. Why didn’t Sleepy Joe Biden demand Equalization, in that this War is far more important to Europe than it is to us — We have a big, beautiful Ocean as separation. On top of this, Zelenskyy admits that half of the money we sent him is “MISSING.” He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden “like a fiddle.” A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only “TRUMP,” and the Trump Administration, can do. Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the “gravy train” going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues…..

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A prosperous and peaceful world depends on a successful northern alliance between USA, Russia, Europe, Japan, Korea, Canada, Mongolia and anyone else who wants to join and is acceptable. This could be called the ‘Top of the World Alliance’. Its core is Western civilization. The game-theory and KOBK importance of this alliance is so obvious it proves itself. I hope this is where Trump is going and I hope he succeeds. For the moment, Europe can go fuck itself, they have been so stupid. At the end of the day, a Top of the World Alliance benefits all its partners as well as all other nations and regions on earth. Only this alliance is capable of world leadership while fostering peaceful global development. ABN

Assange on Jewish Supremacism

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The right term is Jewish Supremacism. An honest, moral Jew or Israeli is not included in the danger of Jewish Supremacy. What are the ratios of one to the other? That is a separate question. The ratio is probably high enough that all Jews in power or who seek power should be morally required to disavow Jewish Supremacy in any form. Not sure how this affects the Jewish religion today, which is based on the ‘chosenness’ of ancient Israelites. But this should be discussed and openly addressed by all Jews in the world today insofar as their public actions may be affected by their reasoning on this. With savage irony, it does appear that genetically, modern Palestinians are the world’s closest descendants of ancient Israelites. ABM

Intentional Interference – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley Takes No Action to Advance Solicitor General Nominee Dean Sauer

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The Trump administration is experiencing an unprecedented move by federal judges who are overstepping their constitutional limits and ordering Temporary Restraining Orders (TROs) against President Trump.  The judicial activism is in support of ongoing Lawfare operations within the deepest ranks of the administrative state.

Remember, Lawfare in its purest form is not designed to win the final legal battle. Instead, it is a construct to use the law to create obstacles that will eventually fall under higher judicial review; but the larger intent is to impede the presidency, stall the inevitable, and maintain morale for the political activists and their media support systems.  Lawfare is a political construct intended to manipulate public opinion.

In the Dellinger v Bessent case, where President Trump has fired Hampton Dellinger at Treasury, a three-judge District of Columbia, Circuit Court, have intervened and maintained a TRO against President Trump blocking him from removing Dellinger from his position as Special Counsel of the Office of Special Counsel, at the Treasury Dept. [CASE pdf HERE]

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C. issued a temporary restraining order on February 12, restoring Dellinger to his position pending a further, preliminary order.  The District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the administration’s appeal in a 2-1 decision on Saturday, saying it was premature, given that Jackson’s order was only temporary.

Judge Florence Pan and Judge J Michelle Childs, both activist robed women, ruled to maintain the TRO and deny injunctive appellate relief.  Judge Gregory Katsas dissented from the Lawfare decision saying while TRO’s are not usually appealable, in this instance the TRO violates the Article II constitutional power of the President to conduct his official duties.  [Dissent Outlined Below]  Katsas would have granted the government’s stay.

Regardless of the DC Circuit Court decision, Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris has now filed an “APPLICATION TO VACATE THE ORDER ISSUED BY THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND REQUEST FOR AN IMMEDIATE ADMINISTRATIVE STAY” with the Supreme Court. [pdf HERE] The application by Acting SG Harris relies heavily on the dissenting opinion of Judge Katsas.

Before getting to the dissent opinion which frames the application to the Supreme Court, it is worth noting that President Trump’s Solicitor General nominee, Dean Sauer, is still in limbo.  In fact, the Senate Judiciary Committee has taken NO ACTION since receiving the nomination from President Trump on January 20, 2025.  SEE HERE and SEE HERE

Considering that President Trump is under a Lawfare assault that will inevitably lead all the cases to the United States Supreme Court, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has taken no action toward the confirmation of Solicitor General Dean Sauer.

This is not accidental.

The U.S. Solicitor General is the fourth highest ranking member within the Dept of Justice. The task of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) is to supervise and conduct government litigation in the United States Supreme Court. All Supreme Court litigation is channeled through the Office of the Solicitor General and is actively conducted by the Office. The United States government is involved in approximately two-thirds of all the cases the U.S. Supreme Court decides each year.

Senator Chuck Grassley well understands the importance of Solicitor General Sauer during this critical time.  However, Senator Grassley is also in direct opposition to President Trump on the issue of tariffs.

Chuck Grassley receives major funding for his personal wealth from Big Ag and multinational lobbyists.  Grassley is intentionally slow walking the OSG nomination in order to impede President Trump and support the Lawfare efforts against him.

Grassley, like most of the republican Senators in the upper chamber, are ideologically and financially opposed to President Trump agenda.  MAGA supporters need to understand exactly what is happening in the background.

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Geopolitics — Evan X

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Here’s a thread on how I look at geopolitics.

State actors rarely act ideologically.

Everyone was blinded by Zionist ideology, obscuring their ability to look at the landscape objectively.

States always act to maximise security, power, influence, or a combination of all.

Ideological states do not survive.

Think of USSR. 

Power is always priority.

Everything takes a backseat when it comes to survival.

Military strength, economic influence, political stability are the key determinants of power.

If a state doesn’t have any of the above, they have no leverage in diplomatic relations.

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US drops website wording on not supporting Taiwan independence

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Taipei – The U.S. State Department has removed a statement on its website that it does not support Taiwan independence, among changes that the island’s government praised on Sunday as supporting Taiwan.

The fact sheet on Taiwan retains Washington’s opposition to unilateral change from either Taiwan or from China, which claims the democratically governed island as its own.

But as well as dropping the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence,” the page has added a reference to Taiwan’s cooperation with a Pentagon technology and semiconductor development project and says the U.S. will support Taiwan’s membership in international organizations “where applicable.”

The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is its strongest international backer, bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

“We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side,” the State Department website reads in the update posted on Thursday. “We expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the (Taiwan) Strait.”

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U.S. deporting African and Asian migrants to Panama in diplomatic breakthrough

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Washington — The U.S. is deporting unauthorized migrants from nations in Africa and Asia to Panama, a major diplomatic breakthrough for the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, internal federal documents obtained by CBS News show.

The ministry said Wednesday’s deportation flight included 119 deportees from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The costs of the deportations under the agreement will be covered by the U.S., the ministry added.

The U.S. has long had difficulty deporting migrants from Africa and Asia, due to the long distances involved in deportations to the Eastern Hemisphere and decisions by governments in those continents to limit or reject American deportations flights.

The flights also underscore how aggressively and quickly the Trump administration is moving to convince countries across the region to accept migrants who are difficult to deport, even though they are not citizens of their nations.

The governments of El Salvador and Guatemala have already agreed to accept migrant deportees from the U.S. who are not from their countries. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has even offered to accept and detain suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua who are expelled from the U.S.

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The Trump Doctrine

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I have written about the Trump Doctrine for several years; however, as we enter this critical inflection moment perhaps a revisit is worthwhile to consider.

What you will notice from President Trump’s responses to questions during foreign leader engagements is the unique nature of his honesty.   In the most consequential of ways, President Trump is the most consequential foreign policy leader in generations.   We forget that during Trump’s first term in office, the headlines about North and South Korea were not about conflict, but rather about the possibility of unification on the Korean peninsula.

♦President Trump’s foreign policy approach brought North and South Korea together away from the table of conflict.  ♦President Trump’s foreign policy approach brought Serbia and Kosovo together away from the table of conflict.  ♦President Trump’s foreign policy rallied the Gulf Cooperation Council to stop Qatar’s support for Islamic extremists via the Muslim Brotherhood. ♦President Trump’s foreign policy brought Turkey and the Kurdish forces together away from war and conflict.  ♦President Trump’s foreign policy created a ceasefire to stop the bloodshed in Syria.  President Trump mediated a cessation of hostilities between India & Pakistan in the Kashmir region. ♦President Trump’s foreign policy brought Israel and the UAE together… and then Bahrain… and then Sudan in the Abraham Accords.

President Trump executes a unique doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It is a fundamental shift in approaching both allies and adversaries; summarized within the oft repeated phrase: “economic security is national security.”

The Trump Doctrine using economics to achieve national security objectives and global peace is a fundamental paradigm shift.  Modern U.S. history provides no easy reference for the effective outcome.

President Trump doesn’t just represent an office or title, nor does he simply represent the majority of the American people; President Trump’s voice is the voice of every ordinary person, what the non-English speaking world defines as “simple people,” and he channels a global message from the majority to the top of the highest power structures.

[I highly recommend this article. It provides a clear summary of Trump’s politics and why they are the way they are; why he does what he does. ABN]

Continue reading “The Trump Doctrine” →

JD Vance goes after European allies in Munich Security Conference speech | DW News

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UPDATE: Terrific speech, right on the money. If Vance can keep this up and follow through with decisive action, I will be impressed. He’s an excellent rhetorician but in politics words only mean so much. Let’s see what happens. We have to closely watch every potential MAGA candidate who might take over after Trump. Vance is high on the list. He appears to not be another Mike Pence. Speaking of traitors, at least some of the main actors who threw open our border under Biden and lied about it need to be held accountable. Some of their crimes were as serious as they get. You were in charge of protecting but did the opposite and used citizens tax money to pay for your perfidy. Basically, you acted like a general in a foreign army at war with USA. ABN

Dalai Lama’s elder brother, who led several rounds of talks with China, dies at 97

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NEW DELHI (AP) — The elder brother of the Dalai Lama and former chairman of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, Gyalo Thondup, who led several rounds of talks with China and worked with foreign governments for the Tibetan cause, has died. He was 97.

Thondup died at his home in Kalimpong, a hill town in the Himalayan foothills of eastern West Bengal state, on Saturday evening, media reports said. No other details were immediately released about his death.

Tibetan media outlets credited Thondup for networking with foreign governments and praised his role in facilitating U.S. support for the Tibetan struggle.

The Dalai Lama led a prayer session for Thondup at a monastery in Bylakuppe town in India’s southern state of Karnataka on Sunday where the spiritual leader is currently staying for the winter months.

He prayed for Thondup’s “swift rebirth,” in accordance with Buddhist traditions, and said “his efforts towards the Tibetan struggle were immense and we are grateful for his contribution.”

Thondup, one of six siblings of the Tibetan spiritual leader and the only brother not groomed for a religious life, made India his home in 1952 and helped develop early contacts with the Indian and U.S. governments to seek support for Tibet. In 1957, Thondup helped recruit Tibetan fighters who were sent to U.S. training camps in subsequent years, a report by the U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia said.

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