Cracks In The Wall

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Russian State TV pundit Karen Shakhnazarov: “The war in Ukraine paints a frightening picture, it has a very oppressive influence on our society. Ukraine, whichever way you see it, is something with which Russia has thousands of human links. The suffering of one group of innocents does not compensate for the suffering of other innocent people… I don’t see the probability of denazification of such an enormous country. We would need to bring in 1.5 million soldiers to control all of it. At the same time, I don’t see any political power that would consolidate the Ukrainian society in a pro-Russian direction… Those who talked of their mass attraction to Russia obviously didn’t see things the way they are. The most important thing in this scenario is to stop our military action. Others will say that sanctions will remain. Yes, they will remain, but in my opinion discontinuing the active phase of a military operation is very important.”

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32 thoughts on “Cracks In The Wall”

  1. craig, got a kick out of the Relevant People description of you on the twitter page:

    Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily tweeting and blogging nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

  2. Zelensky accuses Russia of holding Mariupol hostage, planning chemical weapons attack – UPI.com

    March 11 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russia a “terrorist state,” accusing it of ordering troops to hold Mariupol hostage while Ukrainian officials have attempted to evacuate civilians from the southern coastal city for days.
    He also accused Russia of planning a chemical weapons attack, pointing to its dissemination of claims that Ukraine has been building chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction with the United States.
    A tired-looking Zelensky made the accusations during his Thursday night address to the people of Ukraine, in which he said humanitarian corridors facilitated the evacuation of nearly 40,000 Ukrainians from the country throughout the day while hundreds of tons of food and medicine were delivered to cities under Russian attack.
    The corridors were organized for the cities of Sumy, Trostyanets, Krasnopillya, Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel and Izyum but the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha where officials have been attempting to evacuate citizens continued to be bombarded by Russians attacks, he said, accusing Russian troops of attacking a corridor meant for Mariupol with tanks.
    “Although we did everything necessary to make the humanitarian corridor work, Russian troops did not cease fire,” he said. “They have a clear order to hold Mariupol hostage, to torture it, to carry out constant bombardment.”
    Russians destroyed the State Emergency Service building in Donetsk region, in which Mariupol resides, he said, adding that beside it was where Mariupol residents were gathered in preparation to evacuate.
    “This is outright terror,” he said. “Blatant terror. From experienced terrorists. The world needs to know that.”
    [continues]

    https://www.facebook.com/100007211555008/videos/926332414737954/

  4. our favorite former U.S. ambassador (second only to ben franklin that is) on colbert last night:

    Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, joins Stephen for a two-part interview focused on the latest developments in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Her book, “Lessons From The Edge,” is available everywhere next Tuesday. #Colbert #Ukraine #MarieYovanovitch

    In part two of her interview with Stephen Colbert, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, gives Stephen a very special gift and talks about the first time she met Ukraine’s heroic president Volodymyr Zelensky. You can read more of Ambassador Yovanovitch’s analysis about Ukraine and Russia in her new book, “Lessons From The Edge,” available everywhere next Tuesday. #Colbert #Ukraine #MarieYovanovitch

  5. congress critter cawthorn gets pushback from fellow GOPers:

    After Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-North Carolina) called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “thug” and “evil” in a video that surfaced earlier this week, Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) gave her colleague a lecture on the Russia-Ukraine war.
    A video of Cawthorn was published on Thursday by WRAL, in which the North Carolina lawmaker was seen insulting Ukraine’s leader, breaking his only party line.
    “Remember that Zelensky is a thug,” Cawthorn said in the 13-second video clip. “Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.”
    Republican Senator Joni Ernst addressed Cawthorn on Thursday in the Senate, recalling her time in Ukraine in 1989, two years before it became an independent state and broke away from the Soviet Union.
    Ernst said she met with a group of farmers there. “The first question they asked ‘what is like to be American’ and ‘what is like to be free?’ They wanted to be free at that time. They were a fledgling democracy. They became a free nation in 1991 and they have been fighting ever since.”
    She said if anyone believes that any country is free of corruption they “are kidding ourselves.”
    “The Ukrainians want to be free, they have been fighting for this for the past 30 years and to just hand them over to an actual murderous thug called Vladimir Putin, is the wrong thing to do,” Ernst added.
    “So to my colleague in the house, I would push back and say it’s not Ukraine that is invading Russia, it is Russia that is invading Ukraine.”
    Newsweek has contacted Cawthorn for comment.
    White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove mentioned Cawthorn’s Ukraine remarks in a Wall Street Journal article on Wednesday, saying that the Republican lawmaker made them during a town hall in in Asheville, North Carolina, on Saturday.
    Cawthorn’s comments go against the bi-partisan support for Ukraine from Congress. Both Republican party leaders in Congress and the Senate have voiced their support for Zelensky.
    Later on Thursday, after the controversial video surfaced, Cawthorn took to Twitter to distance himself from those comments, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion “disgusting.”
    “I am praying for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” he added.
    However Cawthorn didn’t hold back on Zelensky, accusing him of promoting misinformation before posting a link to a conservative blog…
    [continues]

  6. Bugs me when they refer to Cawthorn as “North Carolina lawmaker” when he’s no more a lawmaker than my yard full of squirrels are apex predators. Call him what he is: punk.   

  7. I don’t see the probability of denazification of such an enormous country
    The Lie. The Big Lie.  But it is one way not to end up as cold as KGB agent putin’s heart.

  8. Cawthorn dismissing Cawthorn’s comments. If that ain’t hilarious I don’t know what is. Shades of Fox’s defense that no thinking person would take Fluffy’s comments seriously. 

  9. whaddaya know, the GOPers actually helped pass something

    the hill:

    The Senate passed a massive bill to fund the government and provide new Ukraine-related aid, sending the 2,741-page bill to President Biden’s desk. 
    Senators voted 68-31 on the bill, which includes $1.5 trillion in government funding and $13.6 billion in aid tied to Ukraine. 
    The bill moved at lightning speed through Congress, passing the House less than 24 hours after it was unveiled early Wednesday morning. The Senate’s vote comes less than two days after the bill was introduced. 
    The Senate also passed by voice vote a days-long continuing resolution to buy time to get the massive legislation, which funds the government through the end of September, to Biden’s desk, after which he’s expected to sign it. 
    “It’s been a very productive and very bipartisan week in the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. 
    “This bipartisan funding package is a significant and far reaching win for the American people and I’m glad the Senate moved as quickly today as I hoped we would. To my colleagues on both sides of the aisle I say bravo, a job well done,” Schumer added. 
    […]
    The deal on Ukraine funding includes roughly $6.5 billion for the Department of Defense, including more than $3 billion to bolster U.S. European Command and $3.5 billion to backfill equipment that the United States has sent to Ukraine.
    It also includes nearly $4 billion for the State Department and nearly $2.8 billion for the U.S. Agency for International Development, including more money for humanitarian assistance programs.
    [continues]

    BTW, it was noted yesterday that what was passed for ukraine is more than ukraine’s annual defense budget.

  10. could it be the tuck is really working for vlad instead of rupert? somebody needs to check his off shore bank accounts

  13. One of the proofs the Russians were using for chemical weapons by Ukraine was movements of large amount of ammonia. 
    I find that less compelling for chemical weapons as it is for many tank busting IED’s. Fertilizer bombs, cheap easy to make. Fill a barrel with ammonium nitrate add diesel fuel, a primer, bury it in the road and wait.
    Jack

  14. Finally a WaPo article on gas prices that doesn’t sound like the US is the only or worst country in the world experiencing inflation.

    The highest oil prices since the 2008 financial crisis are dealing a heavy blow to the global economy, slowing Europe’s pandemic recovery to a near stall and complicating the fight against inflation in the United States.

    China, the world’s largest oil importer, will probably strain to reach this year’s economic growth target, while developing countries in North Africa and the Middle East confront the danger of social unrest over rising energy and food costs, economists said.

    The interruption of Russian oil shipments, including the U.S. import ban that President Biden announced Tuesday, represents one of the largest supply disruptions since World War II, according to Goldman Sachs. With other major oil producers unable or unwilling to increase output in the short run, the per-barrel price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, hit $128 earlier this week, up nearly 65 percent since Jan. 1.

    About time.  I’m getting very weary of the talking heads, including Mika in her best breathless Andrea Mitchell impersonation, talking about inflation in the US hitting 7.9% as if the US is the only place in the fucking world seeing prices rise.  In fact, we’re somewhere near the middle.

  19. Speaking of cracks in the wall.
    It looks like the Ukraine Army has taken out a third Russian general. One general is luck, 2 maybe a coincidence, 3 is skill. As I told a friend the Ukraine army may be good, but they aren’t that good. There is some serious intelligence and shot spotting help happening. This has to be a serious blow for the Russian army as there were probably lesser support staff also killed with the generals. 
    So is this what happens when an army designed to fight  a 20th century WWIII encounters th 21 century?
    Jack

  20. More cracks

    Putin has placed the head of the FSB’s foreign service and his deputy under house arrest after blaming them for intelligence failings that saw his army handed a series of embarrassing defeats in Ukraine, it has been claimed.

    This also falls under “how do you deal with a paranoid dictator”. Remember, the first day of the war Russia sent in Chechnya fighters to assassinate Ukraine’s president. Ukraine claimed they were able to stop it because someone in the FSB tipped them off. I didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe it now, but I wasn’t the intended audience. It looks like Putin did believe.
    So far, I think they are playing him like a goddamn fiddle.
    Jack

  21. KGC
    Good to see you was thinking about you yesterday. How is the move going and how are you doing.
    Having been through the process myself I know it is not easy. I still haven’t found the remote for one of my TVs. I know I packed but which box.
    Jack

  22. Biden, EU and G-7 stripping Russia of MFTP status.  My guess is Putin is doing to Xi what Trump did to him.

  25. videos of zelensky showing up daily in the streets or at his office in a city amidst constant attack are subtle challenges to putin who hides isolated with only his bodyguards, sits behind a long table or holds forth to flunkies who sit yards away.

    no bare-chested macho man on horse no longer, more sniveling snake hiding in the grass. 

     

  26. Lotsa Kabuki Theater going on. It’s like at any minute Rod Serling is going to appear with a fatherly, “Consider this, if you will….”

  27. KGC…….👍.  And after having lost so much “stuff” due to various simple twists of fate: fire, theft, weather, etc….I really am becoming inclined towards the “Let it Go” or “Leggo of it” outlook,  cause the stuff that’s gone just wasn’t all that to begin with.    

  29. So now there are 8 new generals who don’t want to suffer the fate of their predecessors.  Watch for the attacks and brutality to increase.

  32. The only way to stop it is to rid the world of Vlad.   He should be getting very paranoid by now, that someone close to him will take him out.

    The only way to slow the terror in Ukraine is to close the sky. 

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/11/europe/leaving-russia-analysis-robertson-intl-cmd/index.html

    “Putin has shaped the Russian state entirely in his image, a move that will not be easily righted. The majority are cowed, the complicit in too deep to reverse their actions, his sanctioned cronies warned to swallow their anger and take the losses for the team…”

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