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The same folks posting about getting the government off their backs are posting in support of Putin, as if they didn't have a clue about how Putin's government operates.
See, they all have to post online their official declarations of their income and their assets. Which they do (in order to be *transparent* in front of the people they serve.) And they do post their salaries, their assets ( what they supposedly have, officially so, and on the paper ( or rather on the appropriate site) it all looks modest and dandy.
But then a bit later some investigation reveals that such and such official purchased such and such villa in such and such European country, that cost few million dollars, or that official ( or his children) show up in certain designer outfits ( or jewelry, or watches,) for such exuberant price, that it becomes obvious, that it has nothing to do with their "declared income." As in case of the $8 million mansion that Zelensky purchased for his parents in Haifa (Israel) for example.
And these scandals are the never-ending process.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fishbrains
So rumors about "such and such official" allegedly doing things translates to a claim that Zelensky has pocketed $800 million? Seems pretty sketchy to me.
Zelensky purchased a mansion in Israel? I do not see any headlines online about this.
Allegations of designer clothes on some unnamed person's unnamed children mean that Zelensky is grabbing handfuls of cash? Nope, not buying that ludicrous assertion.
I thought that your opinions on the war were ludicrous and unsupported, but compared to this steaming heap of garbage, your war opinions are actually well thought out.
That doesn't say anything positive about your war opinions, it simply means your gullibility on claims about Zelensky is off the charts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by erasure
Learn Ukrainian/Russian then and start looking for more information that you receive from the official mainstream media. Widen your horizons and educate yourself pls.
Lets talk about this mansion thing. It certainly does not help your case.
First, the Scotland Today refers to posts on a Telegram channel, without clarification or reference. So, relying on one source of information of dubious provenance. That is hardly convincing.
Second, while the Scotland Today articles does have the headline that the villa was an $8 million purchase, the body of the article says that it was 790,000 euro. That is off by a factor of 10. A 790,000 euro purchase is not extravagant, I could afford that myself, although it would be a stretch.
Third, Zelensky has been a successful businessman and performer since at least 2012. It is not unreasonable to assume he has some assets available for personal use. Most successful people do.
I think that we can clearly disregard the poorly sourced, alleged purchase of an upper middle class home in Israel as evidence of corruption. it is nothing of the sort.
The Pandora papers article is longer, and itself says:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pandora Papers
In the heat of the campaign, a political ally of incumbent President Petro Poroshenko published a chart on Facebook purporting to show that Zelensky and his television production partners were beneficiaries of a web of offshore firms that allegedly received $41 million in funds from Kolomoisky’s Privatbank.
That ally, Volodymyr Ariev, didn’t provide evidence, and his accusations have never been proven. But the Pandora Papers show that at least some of the details in this alleged scheme correspond to reality. The leaked documents show information on 10 companies in the network that match structures detailed in Ariev’s chart.
So, once again you are taking rumor and allegation and treating it as factual truth.
Do you have anything solid, or just more smoke and mirrors?
Last edited by fishbrains; 02-13-2023 at 07:45 AM..
The same folks posting about getting the government off their backs are posting in support of Putin, as if they didn't have a clue about how Putin's government operates.
Who is in charge of Russia is none of the business of the USA.
Win or lose Crimea, Russia faces "incredible poverty" according to an ex-chief of IMF.
The sanctions are doing irreversible long term harm to the Russian economy by destroying its oil and gas customer base. Other forces, some unknown, have destroyed the delivery infrastructure itself so that even if some of Russia's customers change their mind there is no way to reestablish regular delivery. "Russia", the expert says, "will become another Cuba or Venezuela".
Ukraine, however, will need forever to be on guard. The Russian mindset will not change easily even in the face of defeat any more than defeat has changed the Palestinian mindset. That is why Ukraine needs weapons; their border will have to be guarded as long as there is a Russian army.
Ukraine will probably be rebuilt with the $300 billion seized when hostilities started.
Geopoliticists expect globalization to end, even if it coasts to a gradual halt. Ukraine and the EU may be one of the real winners in this, since trade and migration will limit itself to proximity. Taken as a whole with Ukraine, Europe has enough raw materials and arable land to sustain itself. Russia does, too, for that matter, but most other regions do not.
A newly and permanently impoverished Russia with its collapsing population will not attract much needed immigrants. The rest of Europe will.
Win or lose in Ukraine, Russia has no chance to succeed against the hurricane-force headwinds they have started. Urals crude differentials to dated Brent slipped to minus $30 a barrel in December from minus $24 in November, remaining sharply below the single-digit discounts seen prior to 2022.
Not impressed by Russian military. They seem mean enough, and tough enough. They don't seem bothered by brutal conditions, and death by the thousands.
But whether they are smart enough remains to be seen.
I read that Russians are closing in around Bakhmut. It's been at least seven months.
Also, reading that about half the Ukrainian military is off training on one thing or another.
How could they be bothered by death by the thousands, if they're ---you know---dead?
Apparently you haven't heard of entire populations of "reservists" in some of the ethnic areas refusing to serve. And they were able to get away with this. Others already recruited succeeded in resigning, and returning home.
And if Ukraine loses Bakhmut so what? A almost year ago I was posting that at all cost the Russians should be thinking don't drive into our own Stalingrad like the Nazis did. And all eyes were on a battalion holding out in a factory buying time for the rest of the Ukrainian forces.
And now here we are with the Russians best doing all they can to get the political victory of taking one place. Long before the fields dry up and the possibility of larger scale maneuvers is regained.
It's very important because it means the Ukraine is losing the war. Not only are they not able to retake their territory, but they are losing Bakhmut for the second time. At very best the war is a stalemate for them. At worst the Russians will just keep taking one town at a time, until they reach Kiev. Either way, the Ukraine, can't win the war. At least not with what they have to work with now.
Russia has partially regained the ability to conduct successful information campaigns in support of strategic objectives and even discrete operational aims. Russian hybrid warfare theory has long called for the integration of information campaigns and military operations, with information operations sometimes taking precedence over kinetic activity. Russia skillfully conducted multiple information campaigns over the two decades preceding the re-invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, most notably those that supported the Minsk II Accords in which Germany and France accepted Russia as a mediator rather than a belligerent in Ukraine. The Biden Administration conducted a remarkable and successful counter-information campaign in the months leading up to the February 2022 full-scale invasion, however, disrupting multiple Russian information campaigns intended to induce Ukrainian surrender, separate Ukraine from the West, and create favorable conditions for the re-invasion. The Biden Administration and the West have also cut off and derailed Kremlin-controlled media operations in the United States and Europe since the start of the re-invasion, causing the Kremlin to struggle to conduct successful information operations. Moscow, as a result, has been unable to achieve the objectives that its pre-re-invasion campaigns had been pursuing. Russia has, however, reconstituted the ability to conduct discrete information campaigns in support of specific strategic objectives and to tailor those campaigns to mitigate battlefield setbacks and to set conditions for future planned operations.
Russia is engaging in hybrid warfare on this very forum. C-D is one of the gateways.
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