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Egyik 19

Magyarországról, utódállami területekről, Európáról, Európai Unióról, további földrészekről, globalizációról, űrről

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Danube photos

2022.06.18. 16:35 Eleve

 

Umbriában: X.

Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi. 1295 körül készült freskó-sorozat a bazilika felső
templomának rózsaablakos hajójában (részlet).

Assisi, 2022. VI. 18. Assisi Szent Ferenc életéből huszonnyolc jelenetet elevenítenek
föl a freskók oszlopközökben, az alsó sorban; fölöttük ószövetségi és újszövetségi
jelenetek sora.

 

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Címkék: olaszország nyár photos fénykép építészet italy

Danube photos

2022.06.18. 15:21 Eleve

 

Umbriában: VI.

Assisi, 2022. VI. 18.

 

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Címkék: olaszország nyár photos mezőgazdaság ég építészet fák hegyek italy fényképek

Danube photos

2022.06.17. 18:26 Eleve

 

Umbriában: I.

A középkori város a Subasio hegység teraszain (részlet)

Assisi, 2022. VI. 17.

 

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Címkék: olaszország nyár photos ég madár építészet fák hegyek városkép italy felhők fényképek

Danube photos

2022.05.08. 14:43 Eleve

 

2022. V. 8. Partiumban.

 

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Címkék: tavasz photos virág partium fényképek

2022. V. 1. France, Germany, Greece, European Union, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, United States

2022.05.05. 10:09 Eleve

.

Europe

France
Sunday 1 May 2022 19:34   May Day protests
turn violent in Paris. Banks and a McDonald's restaurant were attacked. Tear gas was used during a May Day protest in Paris, with some protesters angry over Macron's pension reform plans. (Source: SkyNews)

Germany
May 1, 2022  Economy and Climate Minister
Habeck said today that Europe’s largest economy has reduced the share of Russian energy imports to 12% for oil, 8% for coal. Before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Germany got more than half of its natural gas imports from Russia. That share is now down to 35%, partly due to increased procurement from Norway and the Netherlands, the ministry said. To further reduce Russian imports, Germany plans to speed up the construction of terminals for liquified natural gas (LNG). The Energy and Climate Ministry said Germany aims to put several floating LNG terminals into operation as early as this year or next. That’s an ambitious timeline that the ministry acknowledged  'requires an enormous commitment from everyone involved.'  Germany has resisted calls for an EU boycott on Russian natural gas. Germany’s central bank has said a total cutoff of Russian gas could mean 5 percentage points of lost economic output and higher inflation. (Source: AP)

Greece
01.05.2022 
In Greece, metro trains came to a halt and ships stayed docked in ports as workers rallied against soaring food and energy prices. Police said some 10,000 people marched in the center of Athens to protest over the cost of living. (Source: DW)

European Union
Sunday, May 1, 2022  The Conference
on the Future of Europe has been debating proposals to reform the EU since last year but a key meeting today agreed 325 proposals to achieve 49 objectives, and will now go to EU leaders for consideration. The European Parliament approved a draft of the proposals on April 29. Once approved by the conference’s executive, the proposals are likely to go to the heads of the EU’s three principal institutions – the parliament, the commission and the council – on May 9th, Europe day. However, they are likely to meet opposition among many national governments wary of ceding powers to the EU. The proposals were backed by representatives of five of the parliament’s main political groupings, including the European People’s Party, Renew Europe, the Socialists, the Greens and the Left group. These groups will now bring a resolution to the parliament this week in support of a revision of the European treaties to introduce the reforms, said one of the conference chairmen, Verhofstadt. Right-wing MEPs from Identity and Democracy group and the European Conservatives and Reformists group refused to support the proposals, saying there was no public support from them, and they withdrew from the conference on Saturday. The conference also suggests that some members of the European  Parliament be elected through union-wide or “transnational” voting lists, and suggests that the president of the European Commission could be directly elected by EU citizens. A proposal to dispense with the need for unanimity, 'which make it very difficult to reach agreement” – effectively meaning an end the national veto – is likely to be resisted by many national governments. (Source: IrishTimes)

Russia
May 1, 2022 5:26 am  Mariupol civilian evacuation
begins. Some have left the Azovstal steelworks. The Russian defence ministry says some 80 civilians have left the besieged steelworks and were taken to Bezimenne, a village in Russian-held territory in Ukraine. They are being provided with medical care and supplies, it said. President Zelensky said a large group is also on its way to Zaporizhzhia, which Ukraine maintains control of. The United Nations confirmed it was involved with the operation, alongside the Red Cross and the "parties to the conflict". (Source: RNZ)

Ukraine
May 01, 2022 4:13 PM  Nearly 5.5 million people have fled Ukraine
since the start of Russia's war on Feb. 24, according to data from the U.N. refugee agency. Most have entered countries on Ukraine's western border: more than 3 million people have fled to Poland, while more than 817,000 others have fled to Romania and around 520,000 have crossed into Hungary, UNHCR statistics show. The Romanian government is currently giving away free train tickets to Ukrainian refugees arriving in Romania that they can use to travel on to Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia and Bulgaria. (Source: VoANews)

10:34, Sun, May 1, 2022 | Updated 16:38  A tenth Russian General has been killed during fighting near the city of Izyum according to the Ukrainian military. Major General Simonov reportedly died after his command post came under artillery fire by Ukrainian forces on April 30. The bombardment also took out more than 30 Russian armoured vehicles, including tanks. Videos circulating on social media appeared to show the command post being hit by Grad rockets, fired from a multiple-launch rocket system. Presidential adviser Arestovych said in an interview  that some 100 Russian servicemen were also killed in the rocket attack. Russian forces are trying to push south from Izyum towards Slovyansk, in a pincer movement designed to encircle Ukrainian troops defending the Donbas. The strategic importance of the Izyum axis for Moscow was shown with the recent announcement that Russian Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov would take personal command of the offensive there. Reports suggest the Kremlin is strengthening its Izyum front with additional troop deployments. Analysts for the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted that units from the Eastern Military District along with air-defence assets were being sent from the Russian town of Belgorod to the Izyum front. The new units would supplement Russian forces attempting to advance south of the Ukrainian city. 'These forces are unlikely to enable Russian forces to break the current deadlock, as Russian attacks remain confined to two major highways (toward Slovyansk and Barvinkove) and cannot leverage greater numbers, the researchers predicted'. They added: 'Russian forces appear increasingly unlikely to achieve any major advances in eastern Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces may be able to conduct wider counterattacks in the coming days.' (Source: Express)

Asia

Turkey
01.05.2022  There were clashes - and some 160 arrests - in Turkey, where images showed protesters being pinned to the ground and dragged away from the rally. The protest took place despite a ban on the event by the Istanbul governor's office. Among the refrains chanted by the crowd was "Labor and freedom!" Clashes took place as protesters tried to reach the central Taksim Square, particularly significant in Turkish May Day rallies. (Source: DW)

North America

United States
10:27 BST, 1 May 2022 | Updated: 18:26 BST  Microsoft billionaire Gates told the FT: 'We're still at risk of this pandemic generating a variant that would be even more transmissive and even more fatal'. In December 2021, he warned his millions of Twitter followers to brace themselves for the worst part of the pandemic having previously cautioned in 2015 that the world was not ready for the next pandemic. Covid-19 has killed an estimated 6.2million people worldwide since March 2020. Case numbers and deaths have been dropping in recent weeks. Gates - who releases his new book 'How to Prevent the Next Pandemic' in May 3 - advised governments across the world to invest in a team of epidemiologists and computer modellers to help identify global health threats in the future.
A comment: 'Doctor Gates didnt succeed the first time but is working again now, to succeed the second time! Deceitful, evil man!' (Source: DailyMail)

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Címkék: video russia hungary virus holiday romania france book germany europe asia turkey bulgaria austria poland slovakia switzerland greece norway ukraine donbass europeanunion unitednations unitedstates europeanparliament europeancommission thenetherlands europeancouncil northamerica

2022. IV. 30. I. Magyarország, Transcarpathia, Germany, Romania, Kosovo, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

2022.05.02. 14:24 Eleve

.

Európa     Europe

Magyarország
2022.04.30. 20:29  Már több mint 650 ezer ukrajnai menekült érkezett Magyarországra
, akik közül 108 ezren kértek és kaptak ideiglenes tartózkodási engedélyt – jelentette ki a miniszterelnök belbiztonsági főtanácsadója. Bakondi közölte: Magyarországra naponta 8-12 ezren érkeznek Ukrajnából és részben Románia területéről. A menekültek száma várhatóan elérheti azt a 900 ezret, amit előre jelzett a kormány a háború kitörésekor. Társadalmi összefogás nyomán Magyarország eddig 40 milliárd forintot fordított a menekültek ellátására, ennek az összegnek csupán a 2%-át biztosította az Európai Unió – tette hozzá. A kormány kellő higgadtsággal kezeli a helyzetet. A legfontosabb szempontja, hogy távol tartsa Magyarországot a háborúból és a háború árát ne a magyar embereknek kelljen megfizetniük. Bakondi kifejezte reményét, hogy az Európai Unió növeli az ukrajnai  menekültek ellátásának támogatását. Abban is reménykednek, hogy megváltozik az Európai Unió 2015 óta tartó, elhibázott migrációs politikája. Baloldali, liberális csoportok, Soros által finanszírozott szervezetek továbbra is a legális migráció szervezését szorgalmazzák – jegyezte meg. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI, M1)

Transcarpathia
30 April 2022  The Hungarian government is adding new financing of 200 million forints (EUR 531,000) for humanitarian aid and efforts to help the internally displaced and those in need in Transcarpathia
in Ukraine. The government is supporting war refugees both in Hungary and in Transcarpathia, Azbej, the state secretary for assisting persecuted Christians and implementing the Hungary Helps Programme, said in Uzhhorod (Ungvár) after a meeting with the leaders of the Hungarian Cultural Association of Transcarpathia (KMKSZ). Also, an additional 120 million forints will be given in support of other charitable activities, alongside a consignment of medicines and equipment worth 210 million forints destined for Transcarpathia next week. The state secretary met local entrepreneurs involved in the One Meal Programme provided by Hungary Helps. Around 60,000 servings of hot food have been served to refugees in Transcarpathia over the period of a month. Fully 230,000 refugees have officially made their way to Transcarpathia, though the real number may be double that, KMKSZ vice-president Barta said at the event. (Source: dailynewshungary)

Germany
April 30, 2022 
Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, gave the green light for the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine in April 28  The motion has the cynical title “Defending Peace and Freedom in Europe.' It was jointly introduced by the governing parties as well as the opposition, passing by 586 votes to 100, with seven abstentions. Is it a barely veiled declaration of war on Russia? The ten-page motion calls on the German government to “continue and, where possible, accelerate the delivery of needed equipment to Ukraine, including extending the delivery to heavy weapons and complex systems, for example in the framework  of the ring exchange.” The 'ring exchange' refers to a process whereby Eastern European NATO members supply Ukraine with Soviet-era weaponry, which is then back-filled by Germany with ultra-modern equipment. The Bundestag passed its declaration just two days after the US government held a war summit at Ramstein Air Base in Rhineland-Palatinate with representatives of 40 nations to plan the next stage of the escalation. The meeting left no doubt that NATO  itself is the driving force in the war with Russia. At the meeting in Ramstein, Defence Minister Lambrecht (SPD) announced that the German government would now also supply Ukraine with heavy weapons and provide it with “Gepard” anti-aircraft tanks. Just four days earlier, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had warned of a nuclear war and made assurances that everything would be done to avoid a direct military confrontation with the nuclear power Russia. Now he has cast his own warning to the wind. The Bundestag resolution boasts that Germany has “provided a good two billion euros in financial support” since 2014 to Ukraine. How much of this has gone to military projects is not mentioned. One day before passage of the Ukraine motion, the Bundestag debated the first reading of the special fund appropriation of 100 billion euros, which triples the defence budget in one fell swoop this year. Here, too, all parties pulled together. For ammunition shortages alone, 20 billion euros would be required. Planned armament projects - including procurement of nuclear-capable F-35 fighter bombers - meant that the 100 billion in special funds would quickly be depleted Defence Minister Lambrecht said. The Reservists Association is urging a doubling of troop strength. “With around 200,000 soldiers, the Bundeswehr is too small,” association President Sensburg told the Rheinische Post. For national defence, he said, around 340,000 servicemen and women and 100,000 regularly exercising reservists were needed. (Source: wsws)

30.04.2022   Germany has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to halt the sale of German-owned buildings in Rome that could soon be auctioned off to pay for Nazi war crimes compensation cases. The four properties include buildings in Rome that house the local offices of the German Archaeological Institute, the German Historical Institute, the cultural Goethe Institute and the German School of Rome. Germany argues in its filing that "Italy has violated, and continues to violate, its obligation to respect Germany's sovereign immunity" by threatening to take the buildings to pay complaints filed by victims of Nazi crimes. An Italian court said it would decide on May 25 whether to auction off the buildings. In the ICJ's previous 2012 decision, the judges found Italy's highest court violated Germany's sovereignty by ruling in several Nazi crime compensation cases. Germany argues that it has already paid out billions of euros in compensation for atrocities committed by the Nazi regime since the end of WWII, taking part in extensive reparations and peace treaties with the countries affected. The ICJ is the highest judicial organ of the United Nations, and its rulings are final and legally binding. (Source: DW)

Romania
April 30, 2022  A ship loaded with 70,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn left a Romanian Black Sea port,
allowing Kyiv to dodge a Russian blockade of its key grain exports. (Source: AlJazeera)

Kosovo
April 30, 2022
Six Ukrainian women train in Kosovo to find, clear landmines. The 18-day training camp takes place at a range in the western town of Peja where a Malta-based company regularly offers courses for job-seekers, firms working in former war zones, humanitarian organizations and government agencies. Praedium Consulting Malta’s range includes bombed and derelict buildings as well as expanses of vegetation. Military analysts say it appears Russian forces have employed anti-personnel and anti-vehcile mines, while Ukraine has used anti-tank mines to try to prevent the Russians from gaining ground. (Source: AP)

Russia
14:37, 30 Apr 2022  Kremlin-backed TV Channel One on the popular TV show 60 Minutes
in Russia hosted by wife and husband Skabeyeva and Popov, simulated a nuclear strike on three European capitals as presenters claiming the nukes would obliterate Paris, Berlin, and London in around 200 seconds and there would be 'no survivors.'  It claimed that Berlin could be destroyed by a nuclear strike in only 106 seconds, Paris in 200 seconds and London in only 202 seconds. 'One Sarmat [missile] and that's it - the British Isles are no more,' guest Zhuravlyov said. The show unveiled a map showing how the missiles could be launched from Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea. Putin recently ordered his military to test-fire its Sarmat missiles. Only last week, Putin claimed that his country’s hypersonic missiles could “break through all modern defences” . This comes amid reports that top military brass pushing Putin to stop calling the invasion a “special operation” and instead declare all-out war. (Source: Mirror)

Sat 30 Apr 2022 The Tass state news agency cites Yermakov, the foreign ministry’s head of nuclear non-proliferation, as saying all nuclear powers had a duty to stick to the logic enshrined in joint official documents aimed at avoiding nuclear war. It quotes him as saying: The risks of nuclear war, which should never be unleashed, must be kept to a minimum, in particular through preventing any armed conflict between nuclear powers. Russia clearly follows this understanding. The official documents Yermakov refers to are a joint statement published in January by Russia, China, Britain, the US and France, in which the five countries - which are the permanent members of the UN security council – agreed that the further spread of nuclear arms and a nuclear war should be avoided. Dialogue between Moscow and Washington on strategic stability is formally “frozen”. Yermakov said those contacts could be restarted after Russia completes what it terms its “special military operation” in Ukraine, according to the Tass news agency. Yermakov claimed Moscow believed the US planned to finalise projects to deploy medium- and short-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. "The emergence of such weapons in those regions will further worsen the situation and fuel the arms race,” Tass quotes him as saying.     Moscow’s artillery units had hit 389 Ukrainian targets overnight, according to Russian media. The figure, reported by Russian news agency Interfax, includes 35 control points, 15 arms and ammunition depots, and several areas where Ukrainian troops and equipment were concentrated, it said. The statement added that Russian missiles also struck four ammunition and fuel depots. (Source: TheGuardian)

April 29, 2022  Russian billionaire Tinkov, who has called Moscow's war against Ukraine "crazy," has sold his stake in the company he founded to a firm controlled by Potanin, a tycoon close to President Putin. Potanin's Interros Capital said yesterday that it was acquiring Tinkov's 35 percent stake in TCS Group Holding, the group that owns Russia's second-largest bank, Tinkoff Bank. Interros added that Russia's central bank had approved deal. The RBK news agency estimated the deal at about $2.4 billion. Cyprus-based TCS Group Holding controls a broad range of companies from banking and insurance to mobile phones. The 54-year-old Tinkov has long resided outside of Russia to receive treatment for leukemia. Potanin, 61, is the head of mining giant Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel), which has benefited from high metals prices in recent months. He is Russia's second-richest man, with a fortune estimated at $17.3 billion. (Source: VoANews)

April 29, 2022  Moscow continues to benefit from Europe's energy dependence on Russian oil despite a reduction in sales due to sanctions imposed to pressure it to end its war against Ukraine, according to experts of the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Finland-based research organization. The research released on April 28 shows that Russia has nearly doubled its revenues from sales of fossil fuels to the EU during the two months of war in Ukraine. Soaring prices have more than compensated Russia for the loss in sales volume due to sanctions, the research shows. Researchers at CREA also say new sanctions promise to drive up prices even more, nullifying efforts to prevent Russian President Putin from using energy to pressure the EU and to finance the war against Ukraine. Since the start of the war, Russia has sold 46 billion euros worth of energy resources to the European Union, and the figure continues to rise. This is about twice as much as the amount of sales in the same period in 2021, according to CREA. Even though there was a decline in the volume of sales, the increase in the price of oil brought Moscow about 63 billion euros ($66 billion) on the energy exported on ships and through pipelines since the invasion was launched on February 24. According to CREA, the volume of Russian oil imported by the EU fell by 20 percent and coal by 40 percent. However, gas imports grew, and Germany remains the main buyer. The German government has ruled out a gas embargo because of the economic damage it would cause, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on April 28 during a visit to Tokyo, that Germany must prepare for Russia to suspend gas deliveries. Gazprom forecast a fall in gas output of about 4 percent this year in another sign of the impact of Western sanctions against Moscow. (Source: VoANews)

30 April, 2022  2.8 million people in Ukraine have asked to be evacuated into Russia, said Foreign Minister Lavrov in China's official Xinhua news agency published on the Russian foreign ministry's website. More than 1 million people have been evacuated from Ukraine into Russia since February 24, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said in remarks published early today. The 1.02 million includes 120,000 foreigners and people evacuated from Russian-backed breakaway regions of Ukraine, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics, which Russia recognised as independent just before launching its invasion. According to data from the United Nations, more than 5.4 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the invasion. Lavrov said that if the United States and NATO are 'truly" interested in resolving the Ukrainian crisis, they should stop sending weapons to Kyiv. "By publicly expressing support for the Kyiv regime, the NATO countries are doing everything to prevent ending of the operation through political agreements," Lavrov said. (Source: alaraby *)
* London

Serbia
Saturday, April 30, 2022  Serbia today publicly displayed a recently delivered Chinese anti-aircraft missile system during the military exercises on Batajnica, military airport near Belgrade. Serbia has been arming itself mostly with Russian and Chinese weapons, including T-72 battle tanks, MiG-29 fighter jets, Mi-35 attack helicopters and drones. The sophisticated HQ-22 surface-to-air system whose export version is known as FK-3 was delivered last month by a dozen Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport planes in what was believed to be the largest-ever airlift delivery of Chinese arms to Europe. The Chinese missile system has been widely compared to the American Patriot and the Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile systems although it has a shorter range than more advanced S-300s. Serbia is the first operator of the Chinese missiles in Europe. Vucic said Serbia is also negotiating a purchase of French multi-purpose Dessault Rafale jets, as well as British Eurofighter Typhoon fighters. He said that only “political hurdles” could prevent the purchase of the Western aircraft. Although Serbia has voted in favor of U.N. resolutions that condemn the bloody Russian attacks in Ukraine, it has refused to join international sanctions against its allies in Moscow or outright criticize the apparent atrocities committed by the Russian troops in Ukraine. There are widespread concerns that Russia could push its ally Serbia into an armed conflict with its neighbors to try at least partly to shift public attention from the war in Ukraine. Serbia was at war with its neighbors in the 1990s and does not recognize Kosovo’s independence declared in 2008. It still has frosty relations with NATO-members Croatia and Montenegro as well as Bosnia, whose separatist Bosnian Serb leader Dodik attended the military drill today. An arms buildup in the Balkans could threaten fragile peace in the region. (Source: AP)

Ukraine
30/04/2022 - 07:22  Russian missile strike has hit Odessa airport, rendering its runway unusable.
The general staff of the armed forces posted on Facebook that the Ukrainian military had regained control over four settlements in the Kharkiv region. Zelensky thanked France for sending 'large-scale military shipments that contribute to the Ukrainian resistance'. Kharkiv was hit by multiple Russian shellings today, though President Zelensky says Ukrainian forces are making "tactical successes" in the region. (Source: France24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

Sat 30 Apr 2022 08.51 BST  This week, Russia hit Ukraine’s main fuel producer, the Kremenchuk oil refinery, alongside others. A Russian missile strike on Odesa airport has damaged the runway and it can no longer be used, the Ukrainian military said. Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region today but failed to capture three target areas, Ukraine’s  military said. The Russians were trying to capture the areas of Lyman in Donetsk and Sievierodonetsk and Popasna in Luhansk, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said. The agriculture ministry said yesterday speaking to Ukrainian national TV, that six of Ukraine’s 24 regions had completed their early spring grain sowing despite the Russian invasion. There are no plans to sow in Luhansk due to the fighting. In the last two weeks Russian forces have stolen “several hundred thousand tonnes” of grain in the areas of Ukraine they occupy, Solskyi, Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister said. The Kremlin denied the allegations. He expressed concern that most of what he said was 1.5m tonnes of grain stored in occupied territory could also be stolen by Russian forces. "Queues and rising prices at gas stations are seen in many regions of our country. The occupiers are deliberately destroying the infrastructure for the production, supply and storage of fuel. Russia has also blocked our ports, so there are no immediate solutions to replenish the deficit,” in his nightly video, Zelenskiy said. (Source: TheGuardian)

Sat, April 30, 2022, 4:01 AM Social media evidence, testimony from residents, and materials seized by Kyiv Oblast police suggest that the Kadyrovtsy regiments in Bucha most likely belonged to the Special Rapid Response Unit (SOBR) and (Special Purpose Mobile Unit) OMON, and that these units, along with other Russian troops, were likely responsible for a significant portion of the massacre that took place there. 'What they do have experience in, in terms of military operations, is really these zachistki, these clean sweep operations, brutal style of house-to-house searches and killings that Russian forces perfected during the Chechen Wars in the 1990s and early 2000s' , independent security analyst Chambers, who specializes in the north Caucasus said. 'It plays into their specialty of targeting civilian populations'. Despite their presence in Bucha in late February, Russian forces were not able to gain full control of the town until several days later on or after March 2. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has identified the 64th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade as one of the Russian military groups responsible for the massacre that ensued in Bucha throughout March, but evidence suggests they were not the only ones involved. According to Halavin, the priest at the Church of the Holy Apostle St. Andrew the First-Called in Bucha,  where a mass grave for around 280 people was dug during the Russian occupation, regiments that included SOBR and OMON units began to replace the original occupying forces later in March. “At the beginning, even though they were, shall we say, strict, they were fair. At the very beginning they would just search my car and tell me to just continue with my work, and so on,” Halavin said. “But after that the others came.” (Source: Yahoo / TheDailyBeast)

April 30, 2022 Ukraine claims that the Ukrainian armed forces use 227mm M270 multiple launch rocket system [MLRS] and M142 high mobility artillery rocket system [HIMARS] delivered from the US. Both missile systems have a caliber of 227mm. The GUR-Ukraine says that on the night of April 22-23, Ukrainian troops used the “latest MLRS” to attack Russian positions near Novobahmutka in the Donetsk region. The M270 and M142 can cover a distance of 480 km on a single refueling. The M270 and M142 use [but are not limited to] the MGM-140 army tactical missile system [ATACMS] which is actually a surface-to-surface missile and is manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The MGM-140 ATACMS weighs 1,670 kg. Develops maximum speed Max 3 and has integrated a system for GPS-aided inertial navigation guidance. In both missile systems, the effective and maximum range is identical: 300 km effective and 500 km maximum in precision strike missiles. Participation in the wars in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq has been officially documented. MGM-140 ATACMS is in service in four countries: the United States, South Korea, Greece, and Turkey. It was built in 1986 but entered service in the early 1990s. (Source: BulgarianMilitary)

United Kingdom
April 30, 2022  Britain’s controversial plan to deport migrants to Rwanda announced just before the May council elections when the Tories fear electoral defeat - the plan applies only to single men, who would be given one-way plane tickets to a country 4,000 miles away, where their asylum claims will be processed.  Even if they are granted asylum, the men would not be allowed back to Britain. Rejected applicants will be deported again. The idea is to deter migrants, stop people smugglers, and ultimately end mass immigration. The scheme particularly targets migrants and asylum seekers who cross the English Channel from France in rubber dinghies, after paying a fortune to people traffickers. Some 6,000 people have crossed the channel this way so far this year, almost three  times the number that had crossed by this time last year. The migrants largely come from Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Somalia, Myanmar and Venezuela. The irony is that the controversial plan is the brainchild of Home Secretary Patel, the daughter of Ugandan-Asian immigrants who arrived in Britain in the 1960s. Initial costs are projected to be up to £30,000 per migrant, although the actual cost is likely to be much higher. Rwanda will receive £120 million from Britain for “economic development”. Britain has form when it comes to deportation. Most famously, more than 162,000 convicts were deported to Australia between 1788 and 1868, the majority for petty crimes such as stealing a sheep, cutting down a tree or poaching. In the early 18th century, it also deported convicts to the American colonies to work; the alternative was execution. Rwanda is the world’s 14th most densely populated country. Rwanda hosts about 174,000 refugees, including 57,000 people from neighbouring Burundi who fled violence in 2015. (Source: TheElephant*)
* edited in Kenya

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Címkék: magyarország ukrajna románia russia európa china gazprom nato ruanda france croatia germany italy asia malta finland turkey kosovo greece australia serbia cyprus caucasus donbass európaiunió unitedkingdom persiangulf unitednations unitedstates southkorea sovietunion kaliningrad blacksea transcarpathia pacificocean donetsk englishchannel bosniaandherzegovina luhansk internationalcourtofjustice

2022. IV. 30. II. Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece

2022.05.02. 11:18 Eleve

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Europe

Europe
30 April 2022 10:00  Ukraine has been calling for the delivery of heavy weapons for weeks. Kyiv needs anti-missile systems, anti-aircraft systems, armoured vehicles, tanks, and other heavy equipment. NATO has been ready to support Ukraine in the war against Russia for years, including help for Kyiv to shift from Soviet-era weapons to modern Western arms and systems, Secretary-General Stoltenberg said on 28 April. Most of the heavy weapons NATO countries have sent to Ukraine are Soviet-built arms still in the inventories of east European NATO member states. The EU agreed to support the Ukrainian resistance through the European 'Peace Facility' with a set of measures ranging from personal protection equipment, first aid kits, fuel and military equipment to defensive platforms designed to deliver lethal force. According to EU officials, the instrument, currently having firepower of €1.5 billion, could and should provide much more assistance if member states would be more willing to do so.    Albania has not sent any aid to Ukraine. Aid has been provided by members of the public and NGOs and drives for food and clothing organised by the Ukrainian embassy. They have offered to take Ukrainian refugees, and there are around 400 in the country at the moment. All political parties are pro-Ukraine, and there is a strong anti-Russian sentiment in the country. Albania has pledged to assist with any NATO-led missions assisting Ukraine, and it has enacted EU sanctions against Russia. President Zelenskyy will address the Albanian parliament next week.    Vienna was providing €17.5 million in aid for the Red Cross and other NGOs. There were questions about whether Austria could support Ukraine. Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer visited Ukraine on 8 April, followed by a visit to the Kremlin on 11 April. Both the Austrian government and the FPÖ have been sceptical of whether Ukraine’s accession to the EU should be fast-tracked. Foreign minister Schallenberg is calling for an alternative approach. “Holding out the prospect of EU accession to Ukraine and at the same time to Georgia and Moldova only raises false hopes that simply cannot be fulfilled,” said Vilimsky, leader of the FPÖ delegation in the European Parliament. The Austrian government is contributing €10 million to the World Bank’s Ukraine assistance programme. A possible appearance of President Zelenskyy had become problematic, the right FPÖ is blocking him from addressing the Austrian legislative. Initially, the Social Democrats (SPÖ) also opposed Zelenskyy addressing the Parliament. As a neutral country, the republic has sent 10,000 helmets and body armour and 100,000 litres of fuel for civilian use.    Belgium has allocated €13.09 million to humanitarian programmes in Ukraine and €2.1 million to support those countries neighbouring Ukraine that have accepted refugees. The political mainstream has condemned Russia. The left Belgian Workers Party blames the US & NATO for provoking Moscow. The party voted against sanctions and condemnations. It accounts for 12% of Belgian MPs and is currently polling at around 16% (Flanders 8.5%, Wallonia 19%). The coalition government is vocal in its support for Ukraine. Incumbent Prime Minister De Croo said that the country had provided €76.9 million in support to the Ukrainian army. Donations have included 5000 assault rifles, 200 anti-tank weapons, 3800 tonnes of fuel and other protective equipment.    As of 27 March, the Bulgarian Red Cross had sent some 220 tonnes of Bulgarian donations: clothes, blankets, bedding, shoes, medicines and hygiene materials. An additional 13,000 food packages have been sent. There is a strong pro-Russian public sentiment among the Bulgarian public. Sixty-seven per cent of Bulgarians are in favour of  neutrality in the conflict, while only 16% believe that Bulgaria should actively support Ukraine and provide weapons. Bulgaria does not officially provide military assistance to Ukraine due to the intervention of the pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party, which is part of the quadruple ruling coalition. Politically, there is an  overwhelming majority in the Bulgarian parliament that supports sending military aid to Ukraine, including three of the four parties in the ruling coalition and two of the three opposition parties. The right Vazrazhdane party is openly pro-Russian. Its leader, Kostadinov, has been banned from entering Ukraine for 10 years. Bulgarian Prime  Minister Kiril Petkov visited Kyiv on 28 April. The delegation included representatives of all parties in the ruling coalition, except for those from the pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party. The official military aid figures from Sofia – 2,000 helmets and 2,000 items of body armour for Ukrainian civilians – belie the vast quantities of Bulgarian weapons flowing into Ukraine. Unofficially, Bulgaria is one of the largest weapons suppliers to Ukraine. The country’s sizeable arms industry produces weapons and ammunition according to Soviet standards, which are used by the Ukrainian army. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Bulgaria has signed new contracts worth over €1 billion, with the volume of arms exported from Bulgaria increasing three to four times. The weapons are exported primarily to Poland and then immediately imported to Ukraine.     Croatian President Milanović (S&D) had made pro-Russian comments on multiple occasions. He caused fear and confusion in Finland & Sweden when he made comments that threatened to scupper their NATO membership bid. The Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and government (EPP) have been supportive of Ukraine against Russia, as has the opposition in parliament. The president’s remarks have become problematic enough for Plenković that he announced he would break off all contact with him. Croatia sent €16.5 million of weapons at the start of March and around €12 million in humanitarian aid with more specific information on the nature of Croatia’s help to Ukraine hard to come by. On 19 April, Plenkovic tweeted that more support would be forthcoming.    Nicosia has contributed 215 tonnes of humanitarian aid, including food, civil protection equipment, medical and pharmaceutical supplies and other essentials. The estimated value is €2m. The Cypriot MFA has contributed over €150,000 to support Ukrainian refugees. The country historically awash with Russian money. The biggest noise coming out of the country regarding Russia’s war on Ukraine was uproar across the Cypriot political spectrum that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy did not draw a direct comparison between his country’s plight and the Turkish invasion and partition of the island of Cyprus. The main opposition party, the left AKEL, is openly pro-Russian and accuses the government of being pro-NATO as a form of insult. The governing Democratic Rally (EPP) is onboard with the common European approach to Ukraine. At the start of April, the US requested that Cyprus send old military equipment it bought from Russia in the late 1990s and early 2000s to Ukraine with promises to backfill with more modern  equipment. This request is being considered, but no decisions have yet been made. Cyprus has not provided any military support, claiming that to do so would leave the country exposed to an attack by Turkey.     Czechia claims to be among the countries giving the most aid to Ukraine. Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office was saying that the Czech share in total help provided stands at 11%. There is a consensus on Ukraine in Czechia’s five-party coalition government. The government has sent 127 tonnes of food while civil society has raised over €140 million in humanitarian aid. The opposition ANO has criticised them for focusing too much on Ukraine and neglecting the Czech people. The right SPD (ID) and the Czech Communist Party have tried the same line of attack. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala visited Kyiv, going there with the Polish and Slovenian Prime Ministers while the city was still under direct daily attack. The Czech Defence Ministry avoids specific details on its military support to Ukraine. Currently €41 million of Soviet-era tanks, guided missiles and drones have been provided.     Denmark has spent over €67m humanitarian aid, covering a wide range of support, from donations to Danish and international organisations, medical supplies, and support for refugees. After years of parties from all parts of the spectrum working to dissuade refugee and migrant flows from the Middle East, the reversal in the country has been a welcoming stance to refugees from Ukraine. The stances taken by Denmark seem to enjoy cross-party support, with the political mainstream pulling together and even voting unanimously on some rules, such as guaranteeing English and Ukrainian language education for refugee children. The Danish political scene is now preparing for a referendum on 1 June on potentially getting rid of Denmark’s EU opt-out on defence cooperation. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen visited Kyiv together with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, where she announced a further increase in spending on military support for Ukraine, taking the total to €134m. This spending includes M113 armoured personnel carriers, anti-tank mines, and mortar shells.    In the EU, Estonia has given the 6th most significant amount of support by value, and globally it comes ahead of much larger countries such as Spain, Canada, and Japan. In the Russian-speaking minority, which has traditionally held very positive views of Russia, 1one in four are pro-Putin and trust Russian news sources. Estonia has been an especially vocal advocate for Finland and Sweden to accede to NATO. President of Estonia Karis accompanied the Presidents of Poland and Latvia in April to the Ukrainian capital. Estonia’s support for Ukraine enjoys broad cross-party support. In cooperation with Germany, Estonia donated to Ukraine a field hospital and medical supplies worth almost €10 million. Almost all of Estonia’s aid to Ukraine has been military in nature. It has given aid to a value of €230 million, including Javelin antitank missiles, 122-mm howitzers, antitank mines, small arms, ammunition, vehicles, fuel, communications equipment, medical supplies, personal protective equipment, and food parcels.    Finland has provided 17 shipments on the humanitarian front, including massive emergency accommodations for up to 5,000 people, shower tents, medical supplies, and 13 ambulances. Given Finland’s 1,400 kilometres stretch of land bordering Russia, much public debate has focused on whether the country should apply to join NATO. Support for NATO membership jumped from 20% to 50% amongst the population, with the idea currently having majority support in parliament. All opposition parties but the far-right single MP party “Power belongs to people” are in favour. The social democrats in government continue to dither on their stance on NATO but are expected to come to a position on 14 May, which some expect to result in application end of May, likely in concert with Sweden. The Ukrainian government has received a total of €15 million in new financial support as well as €1.5 in donations from large Finnish cities. Following the invasion, Helsinki sent 2,500 assault rifles, 150,000 bullets, 1,500 light anti-tank weapons, 2,000 bulletproof vests, 2,000 helmets and some 100 stretchers and two first-aid stations. Two more shipments followed, the latest having been on 19 April. The estimated value of the shipments has been €30 million in total.    France sent 55 tons of material to Ukraine in March, including medical equipment (medicines and oxygen generators), milk for children, IT equipment (smartphones, computers, routers as well as 60km of fibre optics), and 31 generators to reinforce the country’s electrical security. A package of €300m was released to help prop up the Ukrainian economy. France is sending investigators and gendarmes to help collect evidence of Russian war crimes in the country. The right of French politics is pro-Russian - Le Pen tried to play it down during the second round of the presidential election. She was on the record agreeing with most European sanctions and favouring France hosting refugees from Ukraine. In third place was the left Mélenchon, who has traditionally been non-aligned and sceptical of both the EU and NATO. The newly re-elected President Macron positioned himself as a defender of Europe and a supporter of Ukraine. A French cross-party delegation went to Ukraine in early April. Military support from France has consisted of €100m of military equipment delivered to Ukraine, including defensive and optronic equipment, weapons and ammunition, weapons systems, fuel, and artillery guns.     The humanitarian aid by the German government has amounted to a total of €370 million for Ukraine and its neighbouring countries. Another fast-tracked development aid programme will see €122 million disbursed. Kyiv prevented an attempted visit by President Steinmeier. A cross-party delegation of leading MPs from the governing parties has visited Ukraine. Politically, the newish German government struggles with the pacifist wing of Scholz’s social democrats, personified by the party’s parliament whip Mützenich. The largest opposition party CDU's support is needed to pass Scholz’s extraordinary €100 billion modernisation fund for the army. The far-right AfD and the far-left Die Linke have condemned arms deliveries to Ukraine, as they historically are closer to Russia than the West. On 29 April, a letter signed by public personalities called upon Scholz to limit arms deliveries to Ukraine, especially heavy ones, to avoid a third world war. The finance ministry has been rather tight-lipped about Germany’s share of the €24 billion the G7 states have pledged for Ukraine. Berlin provided a €150 million loan on 14 February, with another €50 million a year ringfenced for a green recovery. At the beginning of April, Defence Minister Lambrecht stated that the German government had delivered the second-most arms if measured by weight, third-most if going by value, which she put at €80 billion. On 21 April, the government announced its intention to undergo a ring-swap, giving modern tanks to Slovenia in exchange for Soviet-era tanks going to Ukraine. It supplied the Ukrainians with 100,000 hand grenades, 2000 mines and 5,300 explosive charges, as well as 16 million rounds of ammunition for  handheld arms. Media reports of 21 April put the total at 2500 anti-aircraft missiles, 900 anti-tank guns with 3000 rounds of ammunition, 100 machine guns and 15 bunker busters. Arms deliveries to Ukraine referred to as Zeitenwende saw 1,000 anti-tank weapons, 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles, some 2,700 Strela anti-aircraft missiles, and ammunition. The latest announcement was that “Gepard” tanks will be provided to Ukraine, although munition for the tanks, which the German army hasn’t used in a decade, has yet to be procured from Brazil. Scholz has announced his intention to supply grenade launchers with a range of up to six kilometres and training for Ukrainian soldiers in the use of mortars with a range of 40 kilometres.     Although relations between Athens and Moscow have reached an all-time low due to Greece’s strong stance against Russia, Athens has blocked sanctions aiming to ban Russian owned ships or those with Russian interests from EU ports. The Greek government has committed to the reconstruction of Mariupol’s maternity hospital. It has also sent 20,000 pairs of medical latex gloves, 300,000 pieces of medical protective masks (protection class not less than FFP2), 30,000 respirators, 8,000 protective suits, 1,000 hand sanitizers, and 1,000 pairs of protective glasses. The government also provided Moldova and Slovakia with equipment to help deal with migration waves. In polls, most Greek citizens opposed the decision to send military aid to Ukraine. A speech by President Zelenskyy to the Greek parliament on 7 April was overshadowed by the inclusion of a video message from the far-right militia group, the Azov Battalion, that was addressed to lawmakers. The main opposition Syriza opposed dispatching military equipment and reacted saying the Greek Premier did not consult with any other party in advance. The communist party has been neutral blaming both the US and Russia for the war in Ukraine. The populist pro-Russian “Greek Solution” party has asked to send humanitarian aid only to Greeks living in Ukraine. Both parties have negligible power in the Greek parliament. Since the very beginning, the Greek government has condemned the Russian aggression and PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis immediately sent military aid. Athens sent to Ukraine 40 tonnes of defence material including seized Kalashnikov rifles and anti-tank and specific RPG-18 type weapons.

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Címkék: brazil russia japan sweden nato france belgium moldova croatia germany latvia europe denmark georgia canada finland turkey bulgaria slovenia austria poland slovakia spain greece ukraine albania cyprus communist estonia europeanunion unitedstates europeanparliament sovietunion czechia worldbank

2022. IV. 30. III. Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden

2022.05.01. 23:56 Eleve

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European Union

European Union
30 April 2022 10:00  Ukraine has been calling for the delivery of heavy weapons for weeks. Kyiv needs anti-missile systems, anti-aircraft systems, armoured vehicles, tanks, and other heavy equipment. NATO has been ready to support Ukraine in the war against Russia for years, including help for Kyiv to shift from Soviet-era weapons to modern Western arms and systems, Secretary-General Stoltenberg said on 28 April. Most of the heavy weapons NATO countries have sent to Ukraine are Soviet-built arms still in the inventories of east European NATO member states. The EU agreed to support the Ukrainian resistance through the European 'Peace Facility' with a set of measures ranging from personal protection equipment, first aid kits, fuel and military equipment to defensive platforms designed to deliver lethal force. According to EU officials, the instrument, currently having firepower of €1.5 billion, could and should provide much more assistance if member states would be more willing to do so.      The Hungarian foreign minister, speaking at the UN on 27 April, said his country’s humanitarian aid to Ukraine has exceeded 1,000 tonnes. The country has also offered to treat injured soldiers of the Ukrainian army. The government maintains that it intends to keep Hungary “out of the war”. It claims its two-thirds victory during the  general elections of 3 April is evidence most Hungarians support its Ukraine policy. There has been no sign Fidesz is willing to soften its position of not providing Ukraine with military aid. The six-party united opposition has previously supported providing military aid. The issue has not been discussed much since the elections. The right “Our Homeland” party, the only other party to make it into the parliament besides Fidesz and the united opposition, has blasted any form of support to the government in Kyiv. “Our Homeland is against military support for the chauvinistic Ukraine, which is pursuing a repressive policy against the Hungarian ethnic group in Transcarpathia, and against serving American interests”, party deputy chair Novák said on 22 April. Hungary’s treaty obligation as a member of NATO would only apply to “helping to defend a member state in the event of an attack, but Ukraine is not a NATO member,” he added.    In March, Ireland announced a €20 million package of humanitarian assistance. Around €2 million of this will go to Ireland-based international NGOs working on the ground in Ukraine, Poland, and Moldova. Over 25,000 refugees have arrived from Ukraine, who are struggling to find accommodation – a symptom of the country’s ongoing housing crisis. The country’s support for the war-torn Ukraine was leading to a debate on the position of military neutrality for the first time since the Second World War. In February, a leftwing lawmaker from the People Before Profit party proposed a referendum to codify the policy into the constitution. Polling suggests there is little public appetite for abandonment of the principle. Two independent Irish MEPs, Daly and Wallace were among the 13 who voted against the European Parliament’s condemnation of the invasion due to its support for NATO and the sending of weapons to Ukraine. Members of the PBP chose not to applaud Zelenskyy after addressing Ireland’s parliament earlier this month. The Fine Gael TD visited the site of the massacre at Bucha, from where he called for war crimes investigations and announced an extra €3 million in funding for the International Criminal Court, €1 million of which would be dispersed immediately to the Prosecutor’s office. The government has strongly condemned Russia’s actions. Foreign Minister Coveney has said the war should prompt “an honest rethink” of Ireland’s security and defence policy and spending (the lowest in the EU). He visited Kyiv on 14 April, meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba and Defence Minister Reznikov. Taoiseach Micheál Martin met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal when he visited Ireland on 20 April. Dublin sent non-lethal assistance such as fuel, helmets, vests, and medical supplies. The government also pledged €1 million in aid to Moldova – a sum that has drawn fire from some quarters for being too low. No military aid has been sent by Ireland.    Italy has pledged €110 million in financial assistance for the Ukrainian government, with some €26 million in humanitarian contributions. Assistance has extended to Poland, Moldova, and Slovakia affected by the influx of Ukrainian refugees. The decision to send weapons was backed almost unanimously by the parliament. Lega’s Salvini supported the government’s line, as did Meloni, leader of the right-wing opposition party Fratelli d’Italia. Doubts surrounding the supply of military aid were voiced by the Five Star Movement (5SM), part of the governing coalition, and the Italian Left party. Former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, head of the 5SM, said his party would oppose the decision to send weapons that are not defensive in nature, such as heavy armaments. We will not look the other way, said prime minister Mario Draghi on 9 April, reiterating Italian support for the embattled nation. To date, the Italian government has allocated roughly €150 million for military aid to Ukraine, with Rome providing both non-lethal military protective equipment and weapons. Weapons to be shipped include Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Milan anti-tank missiles, 120mm mortars, heavy and light machine guns, bulletproof vests, bullets, and munitions. A further announcement will cover the supply of heavier arms, such as M113 and PzH2000 tracked vehicles.    Latvia has given €1.2m in humanitarian aid, gone towards international organisations providing help to refugees, soldiers, their families, media and journalists in Ukraine. Riga’s City Council donated 80 tonnes of aid to the Kyiv region in 11 Mercedes-Benz buses, which will also be donated to help the city restore public transport  infrastructure. 90% of Latvians support Ukraine. However the significant Russian-speaking minority community is split, with about 20% supporting Ukraine, 20% Russia. The rest is 'unwilling' to express an opinion. President Levits visited Kyiv on 13 April. There is broad cross-party support for sending help and championing the cause of  Ukraine on the European and world stages. Latvia joined Lithuania in offering use of its ports to Ukraine to export agricultural products to help sustain the Ukrainian economy and offset a looming global food crisis. Latvia has given €1.2m of financial aid to the European 'Peace Instrument' in support of the Ukrainian military    Lithuania - alarmed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - had put a State of Emergency in place given its geographical proximity to Kaliningrad and Belarus. On the European stage, Lithuania invested heavily in LNG fuel supplies back when Russia annexed Crimea. It is now pushing hard for the EU to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels altogether. There is a political consensus in the parliament with key votes now and historically in support of Ukraine passing unanimously. Lithuania was among the first to close its airspace to Russian planes. The Parliament has recently voted to ban the Russian ‘Z’ symbol and label Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine ‘genocide’. The speaker of the Parliament is currently pressuring Germany, in particular, to not stand in the way of an accelerated EU accession process for Ukraine. Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, Foreign Minister Landsbergis, and the Lithuanian European Commissioner Sinkevičius have all visited Kyiv. The country has given away so much military assistance that there  is now a valid concern that sending more military supplies would risk Lithuania compromising its own defence. Purely military in nature, Lithuania’s support is amounting to 'tens of millions of euros' (at least €30m, likely more), including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, heavy mortars, rifles, and ammunition.    Malta along with Cyprus and Greece, have refused to enforce sanctions against banning ships with Russian owners from their ports. In April 28, Spain turned away a Maltese ship from its own ports over fears it had a Russian cargo that could infringe sanctions. Malta has a cash-for-passport scheme that has seen hundreds of Russians acquire Maltese citizenship for cash and real estate investment. These include many close to or linked to President Putin. The government is supporting Ukraine verbally and invited President Zelenskyy to address the parliament. After meeting with representatives of the Ukrainian community, the foreign ministry shared a note saying that the community was grateful for Malta’s support for Ukraine. The government stated that it sent €1.15 million worth of medicines in March. Malta has not donated any military equipment.    The Netherlands has released some €20 million in emergency humanitarian aid for Ukraine, with a further €10 million for Moldova, aimed at helping the country deal with the flow of Ukrainians fleeing war. The national fundraising campaign Giro555 has collected €160.8 million for Ukraine. Dutch-based international aid organisations have been highly active in Ukraine, providing food, water, medicine, and shelter. The Dutch government gave a €1.5 million grant to the Red Cross to support its humanitarian work. On the fringes, pro-Russian sentiment is more common. The right political party's Forum voor Democratie (FvD) leader, Baudet, made pro-Russia comments following the invasion. The Russian narrative of the war in Ukraine is also fuelling radical ideas in right-wing extremist groups. Dutch leader Mark Rutte has condemned the invasion and spoken out about the importance of a united NATO, reflecting the mainstream opinion in Dutch politics. He was having paid a visit to Kyiv on 2 February. The nation has since backed Rutte's promise. On 14 April, the Netherlands sent a Dutch anti-aircraft missile system, with armoured Howitzers following on 26 April. Around 150 Dutch soldiers have been transferred to Slovakia as part of a German-led initiative to reinforce the eastern flank of the NATO area.    Poland has become the strongest advocate of Ukraine’s EU membership application, with Warsaw having the legacy of initiating the Eastern Partnership format for that purpose together with Sweden in 2009. The frontline NATO country and the main destination for Ukrainian refugees, Poland emerged early in the war as key logistical hub for weapons supplies and humanitarian aid, channelling supplies through its border into the western part of Ukraine. Before the current crisis, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had not visited Ukraine at all, and neither had his predecessor, Beata Szydło, while relations were warm and productive at the presidential level between  presidents Duda and Zelenskyy. The Polish ruling Law and Justice (PiS) government has softened its previously hostile attitude towards the EU. Poland buried the hatched with Ukraine over historical disputes. Morawiecki was among the first to pay a surprise visit to Kyiv in support of the country, hosting a range of leaders in Warsaw and making Poland the main lobbying force on the European level for more support and stronger sanctions against Russia. Morawiecki said Poland had provided Ukraine with weapons worth around €1.5 billion. Warsaw sent more than 200 T-72s – produced by the Soviet Union – into Ukraine in recent weeks along with mobile artillery, drones and rocket launchers. According to Polish defence experts, the share of donated tanks amounts to at least 25% of its 808-strong total tank arsenal. Poland also donated air-to-air missiles for MiG-29 and Su-27 aircraft, portable anti-aircraft missile systems “Perun” and 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers.     Most of the Portuguese political class has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Two Communist party (PCP) MEPs are part of the mere 13 MEPs that voted against the European Parliament’s resolution condemning the war on Ukraine. The PCP has stood out by condemning Ukraine. Portugal MPs squabble over whether a delegation should visit the Ukrainian parliament without receiving an invitation. The Portuguese government has sent various humanitarian aid goods worth €100,000 to Ukraine, including syringes, painkillers and emergency shelter materials like blankets. Lisbon has successfully delivered 70 tonnes worth of gear, both lethal weapons and ammunition, as well as non-lethal helmets or night vision goggles. Another 100 tonnes of material are in transit, including medicine.    Given Romania’s tenuous relationship with the Kremlin, support for Ukraine has been near-unanimous, only marred by the nationalists from AUR trying to score political points by warning against attracting the wrath of Russia. On 19 April Romania was changing its constitution to be able to supply lethal weaponry to allies. Alongside NGOs and private companies, the government has set up a hub of humanitarian assistance in Suceava, operational since 9 March. It has funnelled hundreds of trucks filled with humanitarian aid goods into Ukraine. The Romanian government has been silent about the arms it is supplying to Ukraine since a first public tranche in February. Immediately after the invasion of Ukraine, Bucharest provided €2 million worth of helmets and bulletproof vests. The Romanian Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciuca, visited Kyiv on 26 April. The government has not confirmed reports of Romanian T72 tanks or Soviet-era MiG21 planes having been supplied. It is better not to talk too much publicly on these things, the foreign minister said.    The Slovaks manage the logistics centre in Haniska near Košice, which has been assisting in the transport of aid from EU Member States through Slovakia to Ukraine. So far, almost 600 tonnes of humanitarian material have passed through it. Bratislava has also provided Ukrainian regions with €5 million through cross-border cooperation frameworks, while Slovak citizens continue to collect donations to support Kyiv. There is a clear consensus in the country’s four-party coalition about the need to provide both humanitarian and military help to Ukraine. The two biggest opposition parties and former prime ministers complain that the government is dragging Slovakia into the  conflict by providing military help. Fringe right parties claim similar positions to the opposition heavyweights, calling members of government “lunatics” for providing military help to Ukraine. Slovakia’s Prime Minister Eduard Heger visited Ukraine on 8 April after turning down an invitation to come in March alongside Poland, Czechia and Slovenia, citing “security reasons.” The Slovenian (Sic!) government has provided Ukraine with the S-300 air defence system while negotiating the sale of one battery of self-propelled Slovak-made Zuzana Howitzers. According to the Slovak defence ministry, negotiations are already coming to a close. Slovakia has so far provided other military material assistance worth more than €10 million - ten million litres of diesel, 2.4 million litres of aviation petrol and 12,000 pieces of 120 mm ammunition. The government approved a proposal on April 27 to donate military equipment worth another €2 million. The Ministry of Defence stated that they want to have some of their expenses reimbursed at the European level and based on bilateral agreements.    Financially, Slovenia pledged €1 billion at the international donor conference in April, on top of another €1 million previously donated to charities like the Red Cross and Caritas. Supporting Ukraine is helped by the political support for the besieged country, with the only pro-Russian party performing dismally during the parliamentary elections in April. The Left is anti-NATO, but its campaigning against defence spending cost it half of its MPs.The government has been at the vanguard of campaigning in the EU for Ukraine to be supplied with weapons. Prime Minister Janez Janša was among the first EU leaders to visit Kyiv on March 15. The country was quick to supply Ukraine with arms, sending Kalashnikovs, ammunition and helmets to Ukraine following the invasion in February aboard several aircraft. Janša has been defeated at the polls, putting the Freedom Movement in power, whose foreign policy advisor had previously decried the country’s pro-NATO and anti-Russian policies. Aid for Ukraine has slowed down due to domestic elections and the subsequent careful coalition-building process that followed. The country is in talks to deliver Yugoslav-era tanks to Ukraine as part of a swap deal with Germany in exchange for newer armoured personnel carriers.    Spain provided a specific humanitarian aid package of €31 million, of which €7 million was dedicated to protecting women and children, channelled through UNICEF and the United Nations. Madrid has additionally sent over 20 tonnes of health materials and medicines. CIS released a poll showing that 70.9% of citizens are “in favour” of sending more arms to Ukraine. Spain has contributed with financial aid through the European 'peace fund', amounting to €111 million. Opposition parties are criticising the government’s domestic policy, particularly on energy prices. The matter has become so dire that PM Sanchez held up the last meeting of European leaders in March to attain a derogation to heavily intervene in markets. Sánchez's left-wing coalition partner Unidas Podemos had opposed sending lethal weapons to Kyiv. The party’s Belarra, minister for social rights, has publicly expressed her opposition to the latest arms shipment. Pedro Sánchez, made a journey to Kyiv on 21 April. The extent of Madrid’s support has resulted in the country’s largest-ever shipment of armaments to a foreign country, amounting to some 400 tonnes of military equipment, half of which is through the European 'Peace Facility'. On 21 April, a transport vessel of the Spanish navy shipped 30 military trucks, several heavy transport vehicles, including a plated military ambulance vehicle, and ten smaller vehicles loaded with assorted “light” military material for Ukraine. Previously, the Spaniards had provided the Ukrainian military with 1,370 anti-tank missiles like the Spanish “Alcotán 100” and the “C-90,” which are lighter versions of the US-made “Stinger,” as well as 700,000 rounds for rifles and machine guns.    Following the invasion, Sweden's government increased its humanitarian aid budget by around €58 million while extending a $50 million loan guarantee for Kyiv at the World Bank. Stockholm also provided some 20,000 emergency shelters to the tune of €19 million. The Swedes are primarily concerned with their domestic debate over whether and how their country should accede to NATO, given their proximity to Russia. The 2014 annexation of Crimea had kickstarted a security policy rethink, which resulted in the return of mandatory conscription in 2017. The conservative and far-right opposition parties support NATO membership, while the far-left are opposed and trying to force a referendum. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia prompted a population-wide U-turn on whether  the country should accede to NATO, with PM Andersson stating that she’s “open” to the idea. Andersson’s social democrats continue reckoning with their historic opposition to joining the military alliance. One of Sweden’s social democrat MPs made the trip to Ukraine on 28 April. The traditionally neutral country has helped arm Ukraine at the cost of SEK 900 million (around €87 million), of which more than half is going to the Ukrainian armed forces through the European 'Peace Facility'. The rest went to Ukraine in the form of ammunition, 5000 helmets, 5000 pieces of body armour and 135,000 rations. (Source: EURactiv)

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2022.04.23. 17:14 Eleve

 

Budapest 2022. IV. 23. Hajók a Dunán: Neptun, Legenda, Gondola és hat Viking.

 

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2022.04.15. 17:07 Eleve

 

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2022.04.15. 16:56 Eleve

 

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2022.04.14. 12:17 Eleve

 

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2022. IV. 2. Hungary, Romania, European Commission, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, globalization

2022.04.07. 10:04 Eleve

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Hungary
Saturday 02/04/2022 - 08:31  Viktor Orbán, 58, Hungary's Prime Minister, who has been serving for twelve years now is the EU's longest-serving leader and could on Sunday renew his time at the helm of the eastern country for another four years. His party, Fidesz, currently has a slight lead over the opposition, which banded together to present a single candidate for the top job and in most constituencies. His campaign was, as is now usual, filled with attacks against Brussels -  its "imperialist tantrums" and "pro-immigrant bureaucrats" - and thin allusions to a possible Huxit. He cast himself as the protector of traditional - read Christian - European values and promoted an "illiberal democracy" agenda. European Union institutions responded to this barrage of attacks after a while, but they let Orbán get away with them for many, many years. Orbán was shielded by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and by the European People's Party. The centre-right EPP was sharply criticised for how long it took them to condemn Orbán and Fidesz's domestic policies and to proceed with a possible expulsion course. Fidesz is now out of the European People's Party (EPP) group in the parliament, having chosen to leave in March 2021 right before it could get expelled  the party had been suspended from the EPP in 2019. "In my view, the Hungarian Fidesz delegation in the European Parliament, and Fidesz when it was in the EPP, strengthened the topics of rule of law, democracy, human rights and women's rights in the EP as a whole and also in the EPP group. This was precisely because Fidesz challenged all of these values so strongly,' Pietikainen, a Finnish EPP MEP, told. "Without the challenging from Fidesz of these values, it could even be that we would now have a less defined and less united position on rule of law, human rights violations or gender equality issues. Sometimes the paradox is  that by challenging something you end up strengthening the principle you challenge," she argued. The question before Orbán was expelled from the EPP was would he form a separatist group in the parliament? As Fidesz is not included in any other group, they are independent, they don't have much to say inside of Parliament, their voice is now practically not heard. The constant attacks on the EU it undertook seemed to have boosted MEPs' resolve to protect the bloc as a liberal beacon. The European parliament's MEPs triggered Article 7 proceedings - calling for  the suspension of certain rights - against Hungary and Poland in September 2018 over rule of law concerns. While MEPs have triggered Article 7 and have now pushed for the use of the new rule of law mechanism against Hungary to financially sanction member states, nothing much has happened. Action is out of their hands. The Commission acts as the defender of EU legislation. It has launched and won multiple court cases against Budapest over changes in the Hungarian Constitution, the lowering of the retirement age for judges, the crackdown on NGOs and the treatment of migrants and refugees. Yet, not much has changed. The rule of law issue practically off the table due to the Russian aggression on Ukraine. Orbán knows he doesn't need to fear the Commission or sanctions. The EU has many other challenges and you do need the support of Hungary's prime minister for tackling these challenges, so they have to make various compromises. "The rule of law mechanism keeps being postponed and it has been watered down anyway and only applies to some very, very specific violations of rule of  law and not a general drift towards authoritarian rule', Enyedi, a professor and senior researcher at the Central European University's Democracy Institute said. Yet even though the Council - especially Poland which has similarly drawn the ire of Brussels -  largely protects Orbán from MEPs' wrath. Orbán's veiled references to a Huxit are not seen as credible by his fellow heads of state who are still reeling from the consequences of the UK's departure from the union. The Hungarian government did a lot on its multilateral foreign policy and close ties with Russia and China to demonstrate for the EU institutions that it has other strategic options but these strategic  options are not genuine. Neither Russia, nor China, would be ready to provide that sort of financial transfer for Hungary which amounts to 3-4% of its annual GDP. So no, leaving the European Union is not an option. Orbán's shift toward a semi-authoritarian regime may have also impacted the bloc's enlargement - unchanged since the accession of Croatia in 2013. The Hungarian leader has been developing closer ties with leaders in the Western Balkans, where many countries hope one day to become member states. "The very strong ties between Serbian  President Vučić and Orbán mean that if Serbia was accepted, the Orbán bloc will get stronger and nobody wants that', Enyedi said. As for Orbán's hope of exporting its "illiberal democracy" model to other member states, this too has largely stalled, mostly because, as is the case in the European Parliament, right-wing parties across the bloc do not actually align on many issues. Even the Visegrád group, comprising the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, has many cracks and these are widening because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with Warsaw  resolutely anti-Russia while Orbán has been much more conciliatory. He put a lot of energy into supporting forces that could undermine liberal democracy in Europe, Enyedi stressed - a Hungarian bank provided a €10.7 million loan to French presidential candidate Le Pen to fund her campaign. He has been trying to build a right-wing alliance for a long time, which was not successful, and actually now, the prospects are not very good, he concluded. (Source: euronews)

April 2, 2022  Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, has a strong portfolio of positive qualities. One is charm. In his presence, even critics admit to feeling the man’s powerful magnetism. The extension of charm in professional terms is public relations: Orbán loves PR – and he spares no expense on it. That is one reason the former liberal anti-communist student is set to win his fourth consecutive general election tomorrow. He and his Fidesz party have won five in total, with its first coming in 1998. Fast forward to spring 2010, and they had long  rebranded as centre-right conservatives. Orbán returned to power in 2010, with a two thirds constitutional majority in parliament. His administration set about rewriting the constitution (or “fundamental law”) with only superficial cross-party consultation. The result involved wide-ranging changes, ranging from the seemingly innocuous – defining the country as simply “Hungary”, dropping the title of “Republic” – to reforms affecting the appointments of state officials, the judiciary, the constitutional court and election law. The latter was vexatious, with the new 106 single-member constitution boundaries indicating gerrymandering practices. The enactment of the fundamental law can be seen as initiating a long series of battles with the European Commission, European Parliament and other EU bodies over legislation and policies. The European Commission was alerted by the lowering of the retirement age for judges from 70 to 62, widely seen as a way to remove older, less sympathetic figures to Fidesz lawmakers’ conservative ideals. The European Court of Justice later ruled the new mandatory age was incompatible with European law, but very few of the affected judges returned to their former duties. In addition, examples began to emerge of the reduction of independent media outlets; measures against homosexuals; licensing of the tobacco retail sector; recognition of churches; the regulation of NGOs. On the international stage, Hungary’s cosying up to Putin’s Russia – including a €12bn contract to build a new, Russian-designed and funded nuclear power plant – and to China, have raised more questions. By 2020, the European Commission declined to make any payments, access the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (meant to aid EU economies to recover from the Covid pandemic). Budapest protested, claiming the commission’s decision was politically motivated by “left-wing” and “Soros-funded institutions”. Then, Russia invaded Ukraine. With Hungary’s eastern border abutting Ukraine, Orbán’s reaction has been to support all initial EU sanctions against Russia. He has refused to agree any moves to cut energy ties to Moscow, claiming it would cause a disproportionate burden on the population and economy, as Hungary is largely dependent on Russian gas for its energy needs. While the opposition claims the election is about whether Hungary moves towards the West and democracy or the east, Orbán has cast his election campaign as a choice between himself as peacemaker and the opposition as warmongers - he is the author of “strategic calm”, and is the only guarantor and protector of Hungarian security. This has cemented his ratings in the polls, putting him on track to win on 3 April. Where will this leave the EU as it tries to cope with the threat of Russia? If Brussels wants his cooperation over Russia, it can hardly be punishing Orbán by holding back EU funds. But having given a slew of pre-election handouts, state coffers are largely empty. So Orbán arguably needs EU funding as much as the EU needs him to help tame Putin. Orbán and his PR operation will be working at full output, both at home and abroad to argue his case. (Source: TheNewStatesman)

Romania
April 2, 2022 9:03 am ET  The military base Mihail Kogalniceanu, Romania, near the Black Sea, until recently was little more than a stopover. The base is now part of a new front line for NATO in Romania, which shares a 400-mile-long border with Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, fears have increased that the conflict could spread beyond Ukraine’s borders. The cornerstones of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization states that an attack on one of its 30 members represents an attack on all. Russia’s invasion has prompted the alliance to place an unprecedented number of troops, planes and vehicles on alert. The alliance has deployed 40,000 troops on its  eastern flank, along with significant air and naval assets. Mr. Stoltenberg has noted that Russian President Putin has said he wants NATO pushed back from its eastern positions, but the invasion has instead brought a greater number of alliance troops to his doorstep. The military base on Romania’s Black Sea coast is bustling with troops from U.S., France and Belgium as part of new defensive reinforcements. The troops are part of four new battle groups recently deployed by NATO in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia. The battle groups’ mission is to reinforce NATO’s eastern defenses and deter Russian aggression. They are there to complement the forces that NATO sent to Poland and the Baltic countries after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Every day, helicopters and jet fighters fly overhead and tanks roll across empty fields as part of regular military exercises. U.S. troops have for years used the aging compound’s airstrip as a transit point for supplying operations in Afghanistan. In recent weeks American and allied militaries have deployed more than 1,800 personnel, hundreds of vehicles and other military equipment to the wind-swept fields. The base is now home to about 3,000 soldiers, including around 1,900 Americans, some of whom have recently been deployed from Germany. More soldiers are expected to arrive in the coming months, according to U.S. and French officials. Col. Minguet is the commander of a new NATO force that includes about 500 French and 300 Belgian troops. Last week, NATO started deploying troops in other parts of Romania as part of large-scale military exercises, Col. Minguet said. Eventually, some troops could be stationed in other military bases across the country, he added. The base includes a post office, a theater and stores. In the nearby town of Mihail Kogălniceanu, for many locals Russia has long been a very distant threat. But its invasion of neighboring Ukraine has raised fears of an imminent attack on Romanian soil. Codrin, who owns a local grocery store, welcomes NATO’s protection. “If the base wasn’t here, the danger would be bigger,” she said. Others disagree. Diaconescu, a 28-year-old delivery man, said the new military presence adds fuel to the fire. “We are a target now,” he said. “Why do they come here to disturb us?” (Source: TheWallStreetJournal)

European Commission
April 2, 2022  Many Ukrainians who fled the war have found it impossible to exchange their hryvnias for euros or other currencies in their host country in the EU. This is because the National Bank of Ukraine was forced to suspend the exchange of hryvnia banknotes for foreign cash in order to protect Ukraine’s limited foreign currency  reserves. As a consequence, credit institutions in EU Member States were unwilling to carry out the exchange due to the limited convertibility of hryvnia notes and exposure to exchange rate risk. Yesterday the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Council Recommendation on the conversion of hryvnia banknotes into the currency of host Member States by persons fleeing the war in Ukraine. 'Some Member States are considering introducing national schemes that support limited hryvnia convertibility per person and the Commission’s objective is to promote a consistent approach to such schemes,' says the press release. “The schemes should provide for a maximum limit of 10,000 hryvnias per person, without charge, at the official exchange rate published by the National Bank of Ukraine. The duration of such schemes should be at least three months.” (Source: EUNeighboursEast)

Russia
0839 GMT (1639 HKT) April 2, 2022    "Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics," military maxim attributed to Gen. Bradley, an American general during World War II. Russian President Putin often evokes the Soviet Union's epic defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II to justify his country's invasion of Ukraine. He hasn't paid enough attention to the lessons of the "Great Patriotic War" he reveres.     Ukraine has become a graveyard for Russian tanks - Ukrainian soldiers are using everything from drones to Javelins to destroy tank convoys.    The once-vaunted Russian army has become bogged down in Ukraine not just because of resistance but by something more prosaic: logistics. Putin has struggled to feed, fuel and equip his army. There have been reports of Russian troops looting banks and supermarkets, tanks running out of fuel, and soldiers using substandard forms of military communication - like smartphones - that have contributed to what Ukraine says are the deaths of at least seven Russian generals. "The evidence suggests that Putin thought he could win a quick victory with the deployment of special forces and airborne units," says Johnson, a professor of military history at the University of Notre Dame.    Brutality can backfire in war. Putin has potential allies in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine are two Slavic nations that share religious and cultural ties. Many Ukrainians have relatives in Russia and speak the language. And there has historically been more allegiance to Russia in the eastern part of the country. But the Russian army's brutality, though, is having the opposite effect. Russia's army has been accused of bombing hospitals, shopping malls, apartment buildings and a theater, been accused of trying to starve a Ukrainian city into submission by blocking humanitarian relief. Many Soviets despised and feared Stalin. He murdered about four million Ukrainians by starving them during one infamous period known as the Holodomor. That's why some Soviets initially welcomed Hitler as a liberator, he had many potential allies in the Soviet Union. Stalin was so hated that roughly a million Soviets served in the German army, says Johnson, the Notre Dame historian. But Hitler's brutal treatment of civilians quickly stiffened Soviet resistance. "Instead of taking advantage of large numbers of people who might been sympathetic or at least think the Germans were better than the Soviets," Johnson says, "Hitler rapidly alienated all those groups." An estimated 26 million Soviets died during World War II. One was Putin's two-year-old brother, Viktor, who died after the German army lay siege to a Russian city, blocking the delivery of food and water.    Last summer, Putin published a lengthy essay entitled "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" that sought to explain that there was an artificial division between the two countries and that "true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia." Some of the strongest reaction to Putin's rhetoric stems from his claim that the Russian army is striving for the "de-Nazification" of Ukraine and seeks to protect people who have been "abused by the genocide of the Kyiv regime." Putin's claim about "de-Nazification" is trying to justify invading a democratic country - led by a Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust - by claiming he's there to fight Nazis. By telling lies that Ukraine is run by Nazis bent on genocide, Putin is making a mockery of people who survived the Holocaust, says Snyder, author of "On Tyranny."    We don't know how the war in Ukraine will end. Putin could still prevail. He could split the nation and seize the energy-rich resources of Eastern Ukraine and consolidate his hold on the country's coastline. In war no one side has a monopoly on brutality. A far-right group with a history of neo-Nazi leanings has played a crucial role in Ukrainian resistance. Ukrainian soldiers have been accused of shooting Russian prisoners. If Ukraine somehow preserves its independence and its territory, a Ukrainian victory will be depicted as another Great Patriotic War. (Source: CNN)

Ukraine
April 2, 2022 12:12 AM GMT+2  Ukraine recaptured more territory around Kyiv as Russian soldiers moved away from the capital. Regional governors in Kyiv and Chernihiv said Russians were pulling out of areas in both those provinces, some heading back across borders to Belarus and Russia. Russia has painted its draw-down of forces near Kyiv as a goodwill gesture in peace talks. Ukraine and its allies say Russian forces have been forced to regroup after suffering heavy losses. The negotiations led to a prisoner exchange yesterday, with the release of 86  Ukrainian troops, said Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office said. Ukrainian forces went on to take back Bucha, its mayor said yesterday in a video. In Irpin, a commuter suburb northwest of Kyiv now back in Ukrainian hands, volunteers and emergency workers carried the dead on stretchers out of the rubble. In southwest Ukraine, anti-air defences thwarted an attempted attack on critical infrastructure in the Black Sea port of Odesa, the Ukrainian military said. Odesa's governor, Marchenko, said three missiles fired from an Iskander missile system in Crimea had hit a residential district, causing casualties. Russia denies targeting civilians. Russia says the southeastern region of Donbas, where it has backed separatists since 2014, is now the focus of its war efforts. The besieged and bombarded Azov Sea port city of Mariupol has been its main target there. Conditions yesterday made it impossible to go ahead with a plan to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. A total of 6,266 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors yesterday, said Tymoshenko. In the Russian border city of Belgorod, a logistics hub for its war effort, Moscow said Ukrainian helicopters struck a fuel depot, causing a huge fire which destroyed several oil tanks. Ukraine denied  responsibility for the incident. Kremlin spokesman Peskov said the incident could jeopardise Ukrainian-Russian peace talks, which resumed today by video link. Russia will strengthen its western borders, Peskov said later. A Russian threat to cut off gas supplies to Europe unless buyers paid with roubles by yesterday was averted for now, with Moscow saying it would not halt supplies until new payments are due later in April. United Nations aid chief Griffiths will travel to Moscow today and then to Kyiv as the U.N. pursues a humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine, U.N. Secretary-General Guterres told. (Source: Reuters)

Saturday 2 April 2022, 9:14am  In the northern city of Chernihiv surgeon says Russian pledge to cut back military activity in the region is false. Russia said it would reduce “military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv," after talks in March 28. There has continued to be heavy shelling in cities. "They're nearby, they destroy our city, they destroy the electric, they destroy water, they destroy our supermarkets,' Bondarenko said. "We don't have electricity, we don't have water. We have a little gas. Once or twice in a day our government sends us a little water in cars," he said. It was "perfect" if they had water for five minutes or light from a diesel generator that meant they were also able to recharge the phone. He said they had bandages and some antibiotics at the hospital he worked at, where they were treating badly injured patients wounded by the shelling. Explosions sounded in the background and he moved to a place of safety. (Source: ITV)

April 2, 2022 As talks between the nations resumed yesterday, some Russian forces continued pulling away from around Kyiv. They are likely resupplying, Ukrainian and Western officials have said. President Zelenskyy said Russia is leaving a treacherous landscape in its wake as the invading forces retreat. 'They are mining the whole territory, they are mining homes, mining equipment, even the bodies of people who were killed," Zelenskyy said in a video late yesterday. He urged residents to wait to resume their normal lives until land mines could be cleared and the danger of more shelling has passed. Ukrainian troops retaking territory in the north carefully navigated streets. They attached cables to the dead bodies of civilians to pull them off the street, fearing they were boobytrapped, and placed red rags on remnants of unexploded ordnance. (Source: TheAssociatedPress)

April 2, 2022  European Parliament President Metsola yesterday visited Kyiv to express the European Union’s support for the Ukrainian people and condemn the Russian attack. She travelled on the invitation of the Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament, Stefanchuk. Metsola made three promises to the Members of the Ukrainian Rada. She said Europe would not let this aggression unchallenged, those responsible will be held accountable. 'We need more and harder sanctions,' she added. She also confirmed the support of the European Parliament to Ukraine’s aspiration to become a candidate for EU accession. And she promised that “we will take care of the Ukrainian families that have been forced to flee until the day they can safely return to their homes”. She added the EU would create the Ukraine Solidarity Trust Fund and organise an International Donors Conference to help rebuild Ukraine. Metsola met President Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Shmyhal, Chairman of the Rada Stefanchuk, and representatives of the political groups of the Rada, among others. (Source: EUNeighboursEast)

United Kingdom
16:29, 2 APR 2022  Russian ambassador Kelin has warned that the arrival of British weapons will make the conflict in Ukraine 'even bloodier' and stressed that British arms convoys will be 'legitimate targets' as soon as the high-precision weapons cross the Ukrainian border. They exacerbate the situation, Kelin has told TASS news agency, after the UK's Defence Secretary, Wallace, announced the successful deployment of British-made Starstreak anti-air systems in Ukraine. Britain will soon be sending smart weapons similar to the Switchblade “kamikaze” drones sent to the Ukrainians by the US. The UK has so far given Ukraine weapons and other equipment worth over £100 million according to documents published by Chancellor Sunak on March 23. Mr Wallace appeared to tell two Russian hoax callers last week that Britain had sent over 4, ,000 missiles to Ukraine and supplies were running low at home. Responding to the apparent gaffe, Mr Wallace said: "Things must be going so badly for the Kremlin that they are now resorting to pranks and video fakes." As well as weaponry, medical supplies are also being sent to Ukraine. South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) said the supplies could maintain a field hospital for up to a fortnight. (Source: DailyStar)

United States
April 2, 2022  The Biden administration intends to work with allies to provide Soviet-made tanks to Ukraine to help its defense in the eastern Donbas region. It would mark the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine in February that the U.S. has worked to transfer tanks to Ukraine. Unnamed officials said the T-72 tanks would be delivered within 'days, not weeks.' The tanks would allow Ukraine forces to conduct long-range artillery strikes on Russian targets in Donbas, which borders Russia. The move was requested by President Zelenskyy, who held an  hourlong phone call with President Biden his week. The U.S. would act as an intermediary. Zelenskyy last week singled out tanks as equipment needed by his country. The transfer of tanks to the heavily contested Donbas region comes as Russia has appeared to have shifted its military focus away from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. (Source: USAToday)

April 2, 2022  The United States has provided more than $1.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion of its neighbor. The U.S. Defense Department has announced it is allotting $300 million in "security assistance' for Ukraine to bolster the country's defense capabilities. Pentagon press secretary Kirby said yesterday that the gear in the new package includes laser-guided rocket systems, unmanned aircraft, armored vehicles, night-vision devices, ammunition and medical supplies. The U.S. also continues to work with its allies and partners to identify and provide to the Ukrainians additional capabilities, he said. (Source: RFERL)

Globalization
Sat 2 Apr 2022 08.26 BST  How war in Ukraine is affecting food supply in Africa and the Middle East? Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could mean less bread on the table in Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere in the Arab world, where millions already struggle to survive. Prices of basics such as oil and wheat are shooting up and shortages are showing on supermarket shelves in Lebanon, Somalia, Egypt.     Lebanon already mired in economic crisis and battling inflation before the war broke out in Ukraine, now finds itself grappling with even higher price rises for wheat and cooking oil. The fears around wheat imports - more than 60% of which came last year from Ukraine - are particularly acute because Lebanon’s reserves are limited. The huge explosion that tore through Beirut’s port in August 2020 and killed more than 200 people also destroyed the main grain silos. The country is thought to have enough wheat to last only about six weeks. The government has said it is trying to secure fresh imports from India, the US and Kazakhstan – all of which would entail grain travelling much longer distances on increasingly expensive shipping routes. Shortages are already starting to show on supermarket shelves. Some bakeries are rationing bread. “From 24 February to 21 March we have seen a general increase of 14% on food prices,” says Hoxha, country director for Care International. “For bread, for example, it’s 27%. For white sugar it’s 72%. For sunflower oil it’s 83%.” Fears are also mounting over the cost of fuel, essential to the supply of electricity and water. Lebanon’s 1.5 million Syrian refugees live in abject poverty and are dependent on food aid. The decision of some countries to bar exports has exacerbated the problem. Last week the Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, asked Algeria to exempt it from a ban on sugar exports imposed in mid-March. Hoxha says Care tried to buy vegetable oil from Turkey but had been unable to do so. “This will be one of the most difficult Ramadans that Lebanon has faced,” says Hoxha.     The worst drought for four decades; hunger so widespread that famine could develop within months; a resurgence in violence by jihadi terrorists seeking to overthrow the fragile government: even before 24 February, Somalia had more than enough on its plate. Now, the country is having to contend with the skyrocketing price of staple goods. Before February 24, food prices had already been increasing because of the drought, with livestock dying or decreasing in quality, and harvests of cereals such as sorghum well below long-term averages. “A week ago, the 20-litre jerrycan of cooking oil was $25, today it’s about $50. A litre of gasoline was $0.64 and today it runs about $1.80 – it’s crazy,” Osman, a trader, told this week. The drought gripping the country has been building since October 2020. The UN has warned that Somalia could be tipped into famine this year if the rains expected in the next few weeks aren’t plentiful enough. In 2011, the last time Somalia saw famine, almost 260,000 people are believed to have died. In Somalia about 1.4 million children under five are thought to be acutely malnourished and more than 4 million people are reliant on emergency food aid. While it does not depend as heavily as some countries on wheat imports, Somalia has many other reasons to fear the ripple effect of the war in Ukraine. Wilton, a spokesperson for the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), says most of the agency’s food assistance in Somalia was done through cash transfers, which were highly vulnerable to market fluctuations. WFP in Somalia is “just about” to receive the last shipment of food – a delivery of yellow split peas – that left the port of Odesa before it was forced to shut, Wilton adds. “After that, we currently don’t have any visibility on further expected shipments. So yes, there is a real concern that scarcity of some of these commodities coming into Somalia and the region could drive prices up.”     The bread is so central to the Egyptian way of life that it is known as aish – literally, “life”. For decades, tens of millions of Egyptians have been able to pop to their local bakery and pick up subsidised flatbread for just a few pennies. Soon, however, that fixed price could rise, as the government seeks to respond to the rise in wheat costs. Consumers are already seeing big increases in the cost of non-subsidised goods. Egypt is the world’s top importer of wheat. Last year, Egypt imported more than 70% of its wheat from either Russia or Ukraine. The first challenge for the state is to seek alternative suppliers away from the Black Sea. This week, France’s agriculture minister said his country would “stand by” Egypt “to make sure it gets the wheat that it needs in the coming months”. Wheat from France has in the past been considered too moist. Other big exporters such as Australia or Canada bring with them significant extra costs in terms of transportation, in a time of high fuel prices. Last month, the minister of supply, Moselhy, implored Egyptians not to worry, saying that the country’s stocks were sufficient for at least four months and that there was “a political will and vision to maintain wheat reserves”. The local harvest, he added, was expected to bring in 1m tonnes more than anticipated. However, with the average price per tonne of imported wheat about $100 more expensive now than last year, many also expect the government to act on the subsidised loafs. The programme had already been a target before the Ukraine invasion; last year President Sisi declared: “It’s not realistic that I sell 20 loaves for the same price as a cigarette … This must stop.” Now such a move seems inevitable. But in a country where about a third of the population live below the poverty line, it remains to be seen if the government is prepared for the social ramifications. “When prices jump, and poor people cannot feed their families, they will be on the streets,” warns Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, last weekend. (Source: TheGuardian)

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2022. IV. 1. Hungary, European Union, Europol, Ukraine, China, United States

2022.04.01. 22:25 Eleve

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Hungary
Friday, April 1, 2022 Only weeks ago, Hungary’s prime minister was proclaiming that Sunday’s parliamentary election would determine whether his country could be defended from the “gender madness” overtaking the West. As war rages in neighboring Ukraine, Viktor Orbán’s strategy for winning a fourth consecutive term has shifted away. Orbán - cautiously balancing his Western alliances and economic ties with Russia - describes an existential choice the peace and security embodied by him and his Fidesz party, or the threat of war and chaos. “If we want peace, we must vote for Fidesz,” Orbán said at a campaign rally in March 29. “If we want to risk our peace, we can vote for the left.” Orbán - the longest serving head of government in the European Union - will on Sunday face a serious challenge to his power. Opinion polls forecast a close race, with a small lead for Fidesz. United for Hungary, a diverse coalition of six opposition parties, has put aside ideological differences to create a front against Orbán and his political and economic system, which they say is rife with corruption, graft and a pervasive erosion of democratic freedoms. The coalition has nominated Márki-Zay, a 49-year-old economist and mayor of a small Hungarian city to face Orbán as its candidate for prime minister. Speaking at a rally in the capital Budapest in March 29, Márki-Zay, a self-described Christian, said Orbán had created a “single-party state” and the election is about Hungary’s future as a Western-style democracy. “We strongly belong to the West, belong to NATO, and belong to the EU,” he said. Orbán, 58, has long been accused by critics in the EU, his policies have made Hungary the subject of European court proceedings. The EU withhold billions in funding over concerns that his government was flouting the rule of law. Orbán -  who for more than a decade nurtured close political and economic ties with Russia under President Putin, giving him a reputation as the Kremlin’s closest ally in the EU - has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And declared his country’s neutrality in the conflict. “Hungarian policy is neither Ukrainian-friendly nor Russian-friendly: it’s Hungarian-friendly,” Orbán said in a radio interview on March 27. He has voted for most EU sanctions against Russia. He allowed the deployment of NATO troops into  Hungary. Orbán’s government has refused to supply Ukraine with weapons or allow their transit across the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. It has antagonized President Zelenskyy. The opposition parties have tried to show to the Hungarian population what the cost of 'Russian friendship' is by pointing out Orbán’s policies. As election day approaches, Márki-Zay continues to make campaign stops around the country, bringing United For Hungary’s message to voters in the face of what he calls a media blackout on the opposition. Hungary’s government is arguing against sanctioning Russian energy imports - such a move would destroy the country’s economy. It has used both party and state resources to campaign on the claim that the opposition coalition, if it wins on Sunday, would deploy weapons and soldiers into the conflict in Ukraine and draw Hungary into war. Recent polling shows that the vote is likely to be the closest in recent years, though Fidesz maintains a slim lead in most measurements. A survey by Zavecz Research conducted between March 23 and 25 showed support for Orbán’s government at 44% compared to 42% for the opposition. The poll’s margin of error was 3.5%. (Source: AP)

01/04/2022 - 09:26  After a campaign dominated by Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, Hungarians will vote in a general election on Sunday, April 3. Polls are giving the edge to incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. His Fidesz party will face a united opposition coalition. All options are on the table. The mobilisation in the last few days will be key in turning out the estimated half a million undecided voters in the country of 9.7 million. Today Orbán, 58, will hold a final rally in the town of Székesfehervár. His rival from the opposition coalition Márki-Zay will hold his last event in the capital tomorrow. Orbán will doubtless use the opportunity to drive home his message that he represents "peace and security", in contrast to the "dangerous" opposition. Hungary has neutral stance on the war. Traditional ally Poland's view is that Russian gas imports could be phased out by the end of the year. There was no feasible way to make Hungary less dependent on them. While going along with support for Kiev at an EU level, Orbán's government has refused to let weapons for Ukraine cross its territory. It's basic question: whether Hungary should be involved or remain out. This message has been much more effective than the opposition's criticism of the government. President Zelensky singled Orbán out for criticism. In return the Hungarian government has accused Ukraine of attempting to interfere in April 3's election. Orbán is the seasoned doyen of European politics. Hungary has enjoyed economic and social success over the past 12 years. Fidesz's propaganda machinery is far more effective than the opposition's capability to reach voters. The campaign has seen the government cap energy prices and promise voters various financial sweeteners. The opposition says Fidesz's economic management has left the country ill-equipped to combat galloping inflation. It is eating up these measures. As for Márki-Zay, 49, he is a mere figurehead who has no party and no MPs. He gained prominence by defeating Fidesz to become mayor of Hódmezővásárhely. He says the country must choose the path "of Europe, not of the East'. He has had the tough task of leading a coalition of parties ranging from the right-wing through to liberals, greens and social democrats, united by the goal of removing Orbán. The election will be held at the same time as a referendum on LGBT issues. The polling will for the first time be monitored by a team of more than 200 international observers who will monitor the fairness of the vote. (Source: France24)

European Union
April 1, 2022 9:46 am   The EU-China ‘April Fool’s Day’ summit. Thanks to Putin’s war and a frozen investment deal, the EU’s summit with China will be among the toughest. Diplomats preparing for the summit say they expect the two EU leaders to spell out "very clearly" to Xi that the Russian aggression is "central" to the future of EU-China relations. The big question is how closely the Chinese will stick to Russian President Putin in his assault on Ukraine.  Xi has called Putin his "best friend" and EU leaders say they have 'very reliable evidence' that Beijing has considered sending military support to Putin's troops in Ukraine. China has also taken to blaming NATO for the crisis and has supported the Kremlin's desire to rewrite the future security architecture of Europe - much against the wishes of the EU and NATO. China may have hoped to focus more on cooperation in the summit, such as climate change. But these issues of potential common ground will all take a back seat now. Officials say von der Leyen and Michel will tell Xi "how much the population in China cherish the economic fruits with the West and have a yearning for luxury products made in Europe' -  which is clearly a warning of what might follow should he 'breach the current balance position and over-support Putin.' Beijing has made clear that while it doesn't want the war to go on, it's not going to ditch the guys who started it. In a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in March 30, his Chinese counterpart Wang said the two countries "have withstood the new test of evolving international landscape, remained on the right course and shown resilient development momentum." Brussels hit a hard pause on an EU-China investment deal last May, stuffing the product of seven years of negotiations in the freezer amid tit-for-tat sanctions related to China's crackdown against its Muslim minority in Xinjiang. As long as members of the European Parliament are under sanctions, this is not moving an inch. No progress is expected at the summit. Beijing has imposed a trade embargo on Lithuania, after the Baltic nation and Taiwan deepened their diplomatic and trade ties. China sees this as a breach of the "One China" policy. The EU, which has sole competence over trade issues, took action on behalf of Lithuania against China at the World Trade Organization. Diplomats said this week that China’s adherence to International Labor Organization standards are still a sticking point. Health is definitely on the menu - but don't expect any serious debate on the origins of COVID-19. China last year reacted with outrage to a World Health Organization plan to audit labs, accusing the probe of "arrogance toward science.' Western leaders are calling for new international health rules that would require countries to be more transparent about an outbreak. In late February, Russia objected to such a proposal from the U.S., on sovereignty grounds. (Source: Politico)

Europol
(April 1, 2022) In view of protecting the European Union and Ukrainian refugees from criminal threats,
Europol has deployed operational teams to the frontline countries neighbouring Ukraine within the framework of the Agency’s response to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.  Europol now has operational teams in Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova, with an upcoming deployment planned to Hungary, coming at the request of these countries, These teams, comprised of Europol specialists and guest officers, support the national authorities with secondary security checks and investigations at the European external borders to identify criminals and terrorists trying to enter the EU in the refugee flow and exploit the situation. These operational teams are also gathering information in the field, which is used to develop criminal threat assessments at the European level and to support investigations.  Europol has already carried out such a service at the request of EU Member States in the migration hotspots in the Mediterranean as of 2016. This complements Europol’s active engagement with Ukrainian law enforcement through the Ukrainian liaison officer present at Europol’s headquarters in the Netherlands. All this intelligence gathering activity is allowing Europol to anticipate developments and coordinate operational activities with EU Member States to respond to the activities of criminal groups seeking to take advantage the war in Ukraine. (Source: Europol)

Ukraine
April 1, 2022 8:45 PM GMT+2  At least 31 people have been confirmed killed as a result of March 30's rocket strike on the regional administration building in southern city of Mykolaiv, local emergency services said in an online post today. Rescue workers had to pull victims from the rubble after the attack blasted a hole through the side of the building. (Source: Reuters)

April 1, 2022 10:07 AM GMT+2  Russian forces are withdrawing from the northern Chernihiv region but have not yet left entirely, the local governor said in a video address today, adding that Ukrainian forces were entering and securing settlements previously held by Russian troops. Russian troops "are still on our land,' Governor Chaus said. Russia said in March 30 it would scale down operations in the Chernihiv and Kiev regions. (Source: Reuters)

Apr 1, 2022 at 9:19 am ET  Zelensky fires two generals for being ‘traitors’. 'I do not have time to deal with all the traitors. But gradually they will all be punished,' Mr. Zelensky said in an overnight address. A southern-region security chief lost his general’s rank. Kryvoruchko had led Ukraine’s security service office in the Kherson region, where Russia seized the capital earlier in the war with little military opposition. Mr. Zelensky also stripped the rank from Brig. Gen. Naumov, the former head of internal security at the Security Service of Ukraine, who is believed to have fled the country shortly before the war began. Mr. Zelensky, in the address, cheered battlefield successes as Ukraine’s military retakes ground from retreating Russian forces. But he also urged caution. 'We know that they are moving away from the areas where we are beating them to focus on others that are very important. On those where it can be difficult for us,” he said. (Source: TheWallStreetJournal)

April 1, 2022  Irpin is a town in the pine forests on Kyiv's northwestern edge. It was becoming the closest Moscow's forces got to the centre of the capital some 20 kilometres away. Shelling has blasted huge chunks out of modern, pastel-coloured apartment blocks. It is now back under Ukrainian control, as Russian troops pull back  from outside Kyiv. The deserted town centre is free of shelling for the first time in a month. Rescue workers are still retrieving the dead from Irpin and placing them in body bags, before taking them to the blown-up bridge that links the town with Kyiv. In Irpin -  authorities say - at least 200 were killed. The last survivors in the ruins of Irpin have just one word to describe the Russians who have retreated after the battle of the war: 'Fascists!' (Source: msn / AFP)

China
01:35, 01-Apr-2022   EU and Chinese leaders are preparing for a key summit today aimed at easing tensions and finding common ground over the conflict in Ukraine. The EU is pushing China to put pressure on Russia's President Putin to end what it describes as a 'senseless war'. Brussels is also looking to get assurances from Beijing that it will not undermine western sanctions against Russia. There's little expectation of a breakthrough. The Chinese and Russian foreign ministers met this week to enhance their relationship, and reiterate their "unlimited  cooperation". Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang said: 'There is no limit to China-Russia cooperation, no limit to our efforts to achieve peace, safeguard security and oppose hegemony. China-Russia relations are non-aligned, non-confrontational and not targeted at any third party.'  Beijing has previously criticised Western sanctions in principle. It also comes after a difficult year in Sino-European relations. The EU has sanctioned Chinese officials accused of mass detentions of muslim Uygurs, a claim Beijing denies. In return, China then sanctioned European politicians - accusing them of harming Chinese sovereignty. The European Parliament then refused to ratify a major trade deal between the two economic blocs.  The EU describes China both as a partner, and a "systemic rival." This week, the EU's top diplomat Borrell, said: 'It's not in our interest to lean Russia towards China, in order to create a great alliance.' There is expected to be no joint statement after the summit, and no 'deliverables,' but both sides agree there is much to resolve. (Source: CGTN)

United States
April 1, 2022  Are Russian forces in Ukraine being led from Moscow?  U.S. military experts observing the war in Ukraine believe that the invading Russian forces lack a central war commander in the country, leading them to rely on government officials in Moscow for orders. If true, this centralized approach to decision-making - a hallmark of Russian strategy in Ukraine that has significantly hindered the invading force - could help explain why the Russian military has failed to make any significant strategic gains in the country after a month of fighting. No clear Russian commander had emerged in Ukraine, leading the United States and NATO to believe that day-to-day decision-making in the war was being made by high-level officials in Moscow, including Defense Minister Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov. Earlier in the week, Biden administration officials announced that they believed Putin was receiving incomplete or misleading information from his generals on the conduct of the war, adding that the Russian leader has felt increasingly frustrated by members of his inner circle, including Shoigu, who he believes have failed to tell him the truth about the situation in Ukraine. The Kremlin denied the White House report yesterday, describing it as a “complete misunderstanding” of Putin’s relationship with his subordinates. However, the experts warned that these officials could not fully understand the realities on the ground in Ukraine from Moscow, which is 500 miles east of the fighting. U.S. experts have also highlighted the role of Russia’s logistical difficulties and its seeming inability to conduct combined arms operations between sea, air, and land units in its battlefield setbacks. These failures have been costly for the Russian military, which has lost 40,000 killed, injured, or captured troops, according to a NATO estimate. Moreover, the Russian military has lost at least seven Russian generals. Observers in the United States and elsewhere have speculated that a lack of initiative or clear instructions among Russian mid-level officers leads generals to forward positions in attempts to solve problems, exposing them to enemy fire. Although Russia has in recent days suggested that it would scale back the invasion and withdraw troops from northern and southern Ukraine to focus on the country’s east, it has also sought to reinforce the initial invasion forces with mercenaries from outside Russia, including as many as 40,000 Syrian nationals. Moscow has also reportedly hired mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a private Russian military company closely linked to the Kremlin, to supplement its conscript-based army. (Source: TheNationalInterest)

April 1, 2022  In March 30, Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said the United States believed that about 1,000 mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a Russian military contractor, are focused on the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, where Russia has installed two separatist enclaves. Mr. Kirby added that Wagner was believed to recruit from Arab countries, including Syria and Libya. Syria’s long-running war drew in foreign powers such as Iran, Turkey, Russia and the United States, all of which worked with Syrian military groups on the ground to advance their interests. Russia and Turkey together dispatched about 10,000 Syrian fighters to bolster their preferred sides in the conflict in Libya, and Turkey sent about 2,000 Syrians to Azerbaijan during last year’s war in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Using mercenaries is not considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, but there is a separate United Nations treaty that criminalizes it. Ukraine is a signatory to that treaty, but Russia is not. “They are taking advantage of the poor socioeconomic situation that these people find themselves in,' said MacLeod, the chair of the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries. The war in Ukraine has caused interest to spike, and recruiters have launched registration drives across Syria. A recruiter in southern Syria said the Russians want as many as 16,000 Syrians to fight in Ukraine. Applicants must be between 20 and 45 years old and weigh between 110 and 200 pounds. Those with military experience get priority. All recruits must be vetted by the Syrian security services. The promise of earning is $1,000-$2,000 a month. The roughly 300 soldiers already in Russia are from the 25th Division of the Syrian Army, known as the Tiger Forces, which are seen as elite and work closely with Russian officers. The Russians have offered them $1,200 a month for six months with a $3,000 bonus when they return to Syria. Their families are promised $2,800, plus $600 a month for one year, if their loved ones are killed in combat. In Syria, those soldiers earn about $100 a month, while soldiers from less elite units earn less than $50 per month. A commander of a militia made up of fighters from Syria and neighboring countries that received Russian support during the Syrian war said his group had sent another contingent of 85 men to Russia. They included Lebanese, Iraqis and Syrians, he said, adding that more were on the way. “The Russians helped us when needed it, and now it’s time to give back part of what they offered us,” the commander said. (Source: msn / TheWashingtonPost)

April 1, 2022  In his address to NATO on March 24, president Zelensky begged Europe for 'One percent of all your planes. One percent of all your tanks.' He made the plea again a few days later in a public statement and will likely continue to do so. Zelensky’s 1% solution for tanks and aircraft: a bold but unworkable idea. The long times -  months or years - required to set up training programs, maintenance facilities, and supply pipelines for this equipment make such an approach unworkable as a mechanism for affecting the outcome of the current conflict. For example, an M-1 tank, the type now in the U.S. inventory, has four initial entry jobs (called military occupational specialties) with training times ranging from 13 weeks to 34 weeks. The U.S. military divides maintenance into three levels: organizational, intermediate, and depot. Intermediate-level maintenance would be done by specialized facilities on a base. Depots are specialized industrial facilities to completely rebuild equipment periodically over its lifetime to prevent the widespread wearing out of parts and to provide the latest upgrades. For US M-1 tanks, this facility is at the Aniston Army Depot in Alabama. That sprawling industrial facility disassembles M-1 tanks and  rebuilds them with new parts. And supply pipeline is required. An M-1 tank has thousands of individual components. Each of the dozen or so organizational and intermediate-level maintenance organizations would need to stock a few hundred parts while the single depot would need to stock them all. Examples of systems that are  either easy to use or that the Ukrainians already operate are anti-tank like Javelin or NLOS and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons like Stinger. It takes only a few days to train troops on the basics of using them (although it takes several weeks to fully train personnel on all the intricacies of the systems and the tactics for employment). A variety of other systems fall into this category, like night vision goggles and some communications equipment. The Ukrainians already operate typically older Soviet systems - for example MiG-29s - that some of the eastern NATO allies still have in their inventories and would like to swap out for more modern NATO systems. NATO is also apparently looking for S-300s, a medium-range anti-aircraft system that Ukrainians use. In theory, NATO could provide systems like T-72 tanks, which are available on the world market, and potentially other equipment as well. NATO and the United States are also, apparently, thinking about providing anti-ship missiles to help Ukraine deal with the Russian Black Sea fleet, which is threatening its southern coast. The missiles come in self-contained canisters, but the launch platform, likely a truck of some sort, and the sensors for spotting a target need specialized training and maintenance. The realities of modern military equipment have thus driven NATO and the United States to their current policies. They might provide a few additional capabilities, but the options are limited. (Source: CenterforStrategicandInternationalStudies)

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2022. III. 3. Magyarország, Balkans, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, India.

2022.03.04. 06:28 Eleve

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Magyarország
2022. március 3. 15:24   A jelenlegi helyzetben Magyarország biztonsága az első, az az ország határozott érdeke, hogy ne sodródjon bele a háborúba - mondta a Miniszterelnökséget vezető miniszter ma a Kormányinfón, Budapesten. Kiemelte: Magyarország határozott döntése, hogy nem küld katonákat Ukrajnába és fegyverszállítmányt sem enged át a magyar-ukrán határon. A katonai szakértők és a rendelkezésre álló információk alapján ugyanis komoly esélye van annak, hogy megsemmisítik ezeket a szállítmányokat, ezért Kárpátalja és az ott élők védelme érdekében ez az indokolt és helyes magatartás - tette hozzá. A kárpátaljai magyarok biztonsága a legfontosabb, sokan elhagyni kényszerültek az országot, de a 18-60 év közötti férfiak már nem hagyhatják el, ezért sok család inkább ott maradt, és az ő biztonságuk kiemelt jelentőségű. Hangsúlyozta: Magyarország álláspontja szerint az első biztonságos országban kell gondoskodni a menekültekről, ez volt az álláspontja a délszláv háború idején és a migrációs válság idején is. A mostani helyzetben Magyarország az első biztonságos ország az Ukrajnát elhagyók számára - mutatott rá. Kifejtette: fontos a humanitárius segítségnyújtás, az elmúlt napokban több civil akció indult, amelyeket az állam igyekszik koordinálni és hozzájárulni ezekhez. Kijelöltek szálláshelyeket, minden menekültnek segítenek, a határátkelők nyitva vannak, az átkelés folyamatos és gyors. Az Országos Rendőr-főkapitányság, az Országos Idegenrendészeti Főigazgatóság és az Országos Katasztrófavédelmi Főigazgatóság felkészült a megnövekedett feladatok ellátására. Tegnapi adatok szerint eddig mintegy 120 ezren lépték át a magyar-ukrán határt. Közölte: a kormány 1,3 milliárd forint támogatást biztosít a nagy segélyszervezeteknek. Ez az összeg tovább növelhető. Hat segítségpontot nyitottak meg határközeli  településeken - fűzte hozzá. Úgy látja, az érkezők között van, aki csak átutazik Magyarországon - főleg harmadik országok Ukrajnában jogszerűen tartózkodó állampolgárai.  Akik magyarok, Magyarországon vannak rokonaik, barátaik, van hova menniük legalább átmenetileg. Arról is beszámolt, hogy 600 millió forint értékben küldtek élelmiszert, gyermekápolási és higiéniai termékeket Kárpátaljára, ezen kívül 30 tonna élelmiszert és 100 ezer liter üzemanyagot küldtek, és most indult el egy 140 millió forintos szállítmány az egészségügyi ellátáshoz szükséges eszközökkel. Magyarország - egyeztetve a kárpátaljai magyarokkal és a kormányzóval - mindent megtesz, hogy ne csak azokat segítse, akik ide menekültek, hanem azokat is, akik ott maradtak - jelentette ki. Elmondta: Magyarország minden olyan Oroszország elleni szankciót támogat, amelyet valamennyi uniós tagállam támogat, az ország eddig sem élt és ezután sem fog vétóval élni. Hangsúlyozta: Magyarország elítéli Oroszország ukrajnai beavatkozását, a háború nem elfogadható eszköze a viták rendezésének. Ugyanakkor óvatosnak kell lenni a szankciókkal, mert fontos, hogy a háború árát ne a magyar és az európai emberek fizessék meg. Komoly véleménykülönbségek vannak a szankciókat illetően, és lényeges, hogy ne olyan intézkedések szülessenek, amelyek károsabbak az Európában élőknek, mint azoknak, akiket szankcionálni akarnak - mondta. Kitért arra: vannak olyan felelőtlen vélemények, amelyek olyan területeken követelnek szankciókat, ahol az nekünk "fájna", például az energiaszektorban. Ha a Paks által termelt árammennyiséget szabadpiacról kellene beszerezni, az évi 260 ezer forint többletterhet jelentene egy átlagos magyar háztartásnak. Közölte: a szankciók első vesztesei már megvannak, ilyen a Sberbank, ahol 70 ezer ügyfélnek volt betétje, őket 100 ezer euro-ig kártalanítják. Azonban vannak, akiknek ennél magasabb összegük volt a banknál, 12 önkormányzat is érintett, nekik segítenek: a bérkifizetésekről a kincstár fog gondoskodni, valamint kedvezményes hitelfelvételt biztosítanak számukra. A miniszter önös politikai érdekeik félretételére, felelősségteljes viselkedésre, Magyarország biztonságának figyelembe vételére kért minden politikai erőt. Gulyás a legfontosabbnak azt nevezte, hogy a háború, a biztonság kérdésében nemzeti egység jöjjön létre. Bejelentette azt is: Magyarország kivezeti a koronavírus-járvány miatti korlátozások többségét. /.../ (Forrás: Kormány): https://tinyurl.com/3xcw49km

2022. március 3.  Ukrajnából Magyarországra érkező menekült ember ellátatlanul nem marad - mondta a miniszterelnök ma a magyar-ukrán határ mellett fekvő Beregsurányban újságíróknak. Orbán Viktor kiemelte: baj idején a legfontosabb a nyugalom, a higgadtság, a tapasztalat és a rutin. “Sajnos vagy szerencsére nekünk válságviselt minisztereink vannak”, a miniszterek többsége látott már valamilyen válságot, ezért a koordináció jól működik – mondta. Hozzátette: az önkéntesek munkáját összehangolták, mindent adományt csoportosítanak, szétosztanak és eljuttatnak a megfelelő helyre. Szállás van, egyelőre ellátás van, munkalehetőség is lesz. Azokat a menekülteket, akiknek nincs olyan ismerősük, akinél megszállhatnának és Magyarországon maradnak, átmeneti szálláson helyezik el. Az ország különböző pontjain már kijelöltek számukra megfelelő helyeket, ahol ételt és szállást kapnak akkor is, ha hosszabb ideig kénytelenek maradni. Vannak, akik elesettebbek, részben mert nem beszélik a nyelvet és mert nem tudják, hogy maradni akarnak-e. Elkezdték szervezni a menekültek munkához juttatását. Hozzátette: “ez egy munkaalapú ország, itt mindenkit munkához segítünk”. A magyar menekültek egyszerűbb helyzetben vannak, mert beszélik a nyelvet, vannak ismerőseik, kapcsolataik, gyorsan találnak szállást, sőt, a legtöbbjük munkát is. Szólt azokról a harmadik országbeli menekültekről, akik többnyire diákok voltak Ukrajnában – indiaiak, nigériaiak, kínaiak. Szintén bejöhetnek Magyarországra és a nagykövetségeikkel kötött megállapodások alapján Budapestről hazamehetnek. Akik pedig nem akarják elveszíteni az eddigi tanulmányi éveiket, azokkal “megállapodunk” és ha akarnak, vissza tudnak jönni magyarországi egyetemekre, hogy befejezzék a tanulmányaikat. A diákoknak van iskola, vannak tolmácsaink, a körülményekhez képest a dolgok gördülékenyen mennek – összegzett a miniszterelnök, megjegyezve, hogy Magyarország segíteni tud a bajbajutottakon. De a helyzet megoldásának és a baj felszámolásának kulcsa “nem Magyarországon van, hanem odaát”. Kérdésre elmondta: az oroszokkal és az ukránokkal is Szijjártó külügyminiszter tarja a kapcsolatot, ő személyesen a háború kitörése óta nem beszélt senkivel. A kérdésre, hogy tervezi-e, úgy felelt: “ahogy a szükség hozza, amikor szükség van rá, akkor beszélek”. Kérdezték a paksi beruházásról. Azt mondta, Paks II megépül “menetrend szerint”, reményei alapján a “mi kormányunk irányításával, úgy, ahogy elterveztük”. Paks II-re szüksége van Magyarországnak és szüksége van a magyar embereknek, nélküle a magyar ipar is versenyképtelenebb lenne, és a családok rezsiköltsége is magasabb lenne. Ezért a kormánynak semmilyen oka nincs arra, hogy megváltoztassa korábbi terveit és nincs is ilyen szándéka – szögezte le. Angol nyelvű kérdésre, hogy mit üzen Zelenszkij ukrán és Putyin orosz elnöknek, Orbán Viktor angolul úgy fogalmazott: nem hiszi, hogy az ukrán és az orosz vezetőnek tőle kellene üzenet, tanács. Nekik nincs üzenete, csak azoknak a menekülteknek, akik jelen vannak. Nekik azt üzeni, hogy Magyarország jó barátja Ukrajnának, “az ukrán emberek (…) számíthatnak ránk”. A magyarok kívánni tudnak és amit kívánnak, az a béke. Ami most van, az háború, a háborút pedig csak tárgyalással, tűzszünettel lehet megállítani. Hangsúlyozta, hogy ő is szívből békét kíván. Ez azonban nem az európai vezetőkön vagy a magyar miniszterelnökön múlik, hanem az oroszokon és az ukránokon, alapvetően az oroszokon – mondta. A magyar kormány megpróbálta előmozdítani az egyeztetéseket, felajánlotta a feleknek, hogy Budapesten folytassanak béketárgyalásokat. Magyarország mindig elérhető lesz, ha az oroszoknak és az ukránoknak a békekötéshez szükségük lesz rá – nyomatékosította. Egy külföldi újságíró azt vetette fel, hogy a magyar kormány most nagyon másként áll a határokhoz érkező emberekhez, mint 2015-ben. Orbán Viktor azt mondta: a magyarok nem a kényelmes, biztonságos Nyugaton élnek, hanem a nehézségek közepén és ez évszázadok óta így van. Ebből fakadóan  “mi különbséget tudunk tenni” migránsok és menekültek között. A magyar álláspont az, hogy a migránsok álljanak meg, a menekültek viszont kapják meg az összes segítséget  – jelentette ki a miniszterelnök. (forrás: MTI / Miniszterelnök)

Balkans
3 March 2022 War and hate:
Lessons for the Balkans from the invasion of Ukraine. In the week that Russia attacked Ukraine, in speeches given by President Putin on 21 February and 24 February he indulged in the usual arguments that go with wars of aggression about how attack is defence, invasion is prevention, and aggressors are victims. Demilitarisation means stripping Ukraine of all means to defend itself, including its independence and territorial integrity; denazification means killing Ukraine’s president and other members of the government; and stabilisation means installing a puppet regime under Russia’s control. But the core mission of the invasion is the  recolonisation of Ukraine. The conflict is far from over: the Russian military will likely commit more atrocities before it ends. The war could have dangerous long-term consequences for the whole world, as is particularly clear in the Western Balkans. This region of south-eastern Europe is home to some of Putin’s staunchest supporters. The Serb leader in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik; the political leadership in Serbia; and the Democratic Front party in Montenegro continue to be Putin’s sidekicks. But, now, they not only threaten Europe with instability on its borders but also support his invasion of Ukraine. The Serbian leadership likes to equate the Russian bombing of Ukraine with the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. The NATO operation came after the Milosevic regime’s fourth war in ten years, after it subjected ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to a form of apartheid and forced around half of the country’s  population to flee its campaign of ethnic cleansing. Those conflicts were also driven by dehumanising hatred. People in the Balkans have something else to learn from Ukraine – as does the entire world. Despite the extreme danger they are in, Ukrainian leaders have not drawn on hatred to mobilise their people and give them courage. They have made a point of fighting not the Russian people but Putin’s policies and aggression. They are sending the message that they do not see the Russian people as the enemy. Even in the fog of war, they seem to be mindful of their society in the future. They do not use hate as a weapon. Societies recover much faster from war than from hate. Whatever happens, in the end, Ukrainians will need to rebuild their society. And for that they will need the legacy of resilience without hatred. (Source: TheEuropeanCouncilonForeignRelations)

Romania
3 Mar 2022  Army helicopter, fighter jet crash
in Romania, killing all crew. Eight military personnel have died after their helicopter and fighter jet crashed separately in bad weather in eastern Romania near the Black Sea. The IAR 330 Puma helicopter crashed yestersday in the area of Gura Dobrogei, 11km from the airfield, killing all seven on board. It was searching for the MiG-21 LanceR, shortly after the fighter jet – part of a formation of two MiG-21  LanceR planes performing air patrol missions – lost contact and disappeared from the radar. Later yesterday, the fighter jet was also found, having crashed near Cogealac, an uninhabited area near the Black Sea. The 31-year-old pilot died. “It is premature to discuss possible causes. Certainly, there were unfavourable weather conditions, but we can’t comment now,” spokesman General Spanu said on local television yesterday. Today, military and religious commemoration ceremonies for the victims will be held in all Romanian military units. The European Union member is on the front line to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank as Russia wages its all-out war in neighbouring Ukraine, and has seen international reinforcements arrive in recent weeks. The United States has sent a squadron of Stryker armoured vehicles and about 1,000 troops in recent weeks to a Romanian base near the Black Sea, adding to the 900 personnel already stationed in the country. Over the past month, six Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft from Germany’s air force have joined four similar planes Italy dispatched before the crisis. More than 500 French soldiers are being sent to the eastern European country this week. Crashes of the MiG-21 LanceR occur occasionally. In 2018, a Romanian Air Force pilot died after his MiG-21 LanceR crashed during an air show in the southeast of the country. The Romanian Air Force still relies on the Soviet-era MiGs for missions of air policing, though it is modernising its aircraft. Romania, a former member of the communist bloc, has seen tens of thousands of refugees arrive since Russia invaded its neighbour Ukraine last week. (Source: AlJazeera)

Russia
Thu, March 3, 2022, 6:27 p.m. President Putin
pushed ahead with his invasion in disregard of a United Nations vote to immediately halt the fighting. The extent of Moscow’s isolation was exposed late yesterday as the UN General Assembly voted 141 to 5 in favor of a measure urging Russia to immediately cease its aggression. Only North Korea, Syria, Belarus and Eritrea joined Russia in opposing the measure. Putin rejected claims by U.S. and European officials that the offensive has bogged down amid tough resistance. “All the goals that have been set are being attained,” he told top officials in televised comments to a meeting of his Security Council. He claimed his forces are fighting “neo-Nazis” and forces from outside Ukraine, whom he accused of using civilians as human shields and of holding foreigners hostage. Russian forces fired missiles at Kyiv and bombarded cities across Ukraine. Police in Kyiv said that there were explosions in the capital overnight, but that it was the result of Ukraine’s air defenses hitting Russian missiles launched at the city. In the south, a spokesman for Russian-backed separatists threatened strikes on the port of Mariupol to demoralize the Ukrainian army and encourage its surrender, adding in comments broadcast on Rossiya 24 today that an evacuation corridor for civilians wasn’t working. Russian troops have advanced on Mariupol but Ukraine still held control of the city. Refugees continued to spill over the borders, with more than a million people leaving Ukraine for neighboring countries. As the UN warned that 10 million people - or almost a quarter of Ukraine’s population - could end up fleeing their homes, the prime ministers of Lithuania and Estonia called for the UN to broker a humanitarian corridor for those fleeing the shelling to be established, while acknowledging that both Moscow and Kyiv would need to agree to the plan. Against the backdrop of escalating violence, a second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine were held in the Bialowieza Forest on the border between Poland and Belarus. It’s a location famous for a meeting in 1991 of the leaders of  Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, who signed a treaty dissolving the Soviet Union. Russia will fulfill its objective of “demilitarization, in the sense of destroying the weapons infrastructure that threatens us,” Foreign Minister Lavrov told in Moscow before the delegations met. “Even if we sign a peace agreement, it will definitely have to include such a clause.” Any hopes of a fresh impetus for cease-fire efforts were diminished by Moscow’s insistence that Ukraine must still be “demilitarized.” Ukraine has said it won’t agree to preconditions or “ultimatums.” The ruble plunged again today as Russia continued to suffer the economic fallout from its invasion, after its credit rating was slashed to junk on the back of a wave of sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union and others. The EU is seeking to tighten the screws on Russia by removing its most-favored nation status at the World Trade Organization, a move that could hit further 95 billion euros ($105 billion) of Moscow’s exports to the bloc with tariffs. The price of oil whipsawed, further roiling the global economy. Further enlargement of the 27-nation EU is suddenly back on the table with Moldova and Georgia, both formerly part of the Soviet Union, submitting applications for membership. Ukraine applied to begin accession talks earlier this week, albeit the application process to align with the bloc takes years. “Ukraine has set a process in motion and this will be discussed with member states,” European Commission President von der Leyen said in Bucharest. “But right now the focus is on ending the war.” Germany was approving the release of 2,700 Strela anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine. NATO warned of a “high risk of collateral damage on civilian shipping” in the northwest Black Sea, within and adjacent to Ukraine’s territorial waters. Hours later, the Estonian owner of a cargo ship said it had gone down near Odesa. Billionaire Deripaska, sanctioned by the U.S. since 2018, speaking at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum, said an “Iron Curtain” has fallen on Russia and the country is facing a severe crisis for at least three years.  He said the first step to getting out of the crisis is peace. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that Japan would freeze the assets of oligarchs in his country, adding that it was “outrageous” for Putin to order Russian strategic nuclear forces be put on higher alert. (Source: Yahoo / Bloomberg)

March 3, 2022  During his March 3 phone call with French President Macron, the Russian ruler made clear that he is committed to taking full control of Ukraine and “neutralizing” the country. Following their conversation, Macron warned that “the worst is yet to come.” A detailed and presumably regime-sanctioned article * published simultaneously by a number of Kremlin-linked news sites on February 26 offers a window onto what Putin’s end goal in Ukraine might look like. The article lavished praise on Putin for taking the decision to resolve the “Ukrainian question” for future generations. Due to the setbacks faced by Russian forces in Ukraine during the first days of the invasion, the article appears to have been deemed premature and was subsequently deleted. The picture that emerges from the text is of the complete military conquest of Ukraine. The apparent objective is to eradicate all vestiges of Ukrainian identity while condemning the country to a grim future as a military dictatorship locked firmly inside a new Russian Empire. This vision tallies closely with Putin’s own stated objectives for the current military campaign along with his long record of public contempt and animosity towards Ukrainian statehood. Ever since he first came to power at the turn of the millennium, Putin's first task was to end the process of disintegration that began in 1991 by waging a brutal Second Chechen War. Crimea and Belarus were gathered in 2014 and 2020 respectively. Now it is Ukraine’s turn. As the article explained, “Russia is restoring its historical fullness, gathering the Russian World, the Russian people together in its entirety of Great Russians, Belarusians, and Little Russians.” What the borders of a Kremlin-controlled Ukrainian puppet state might look like? Russian officials have repeatedly declared that the issue of Crimea is closed. On the eve of the current war, Putin also recognized the two so-called “separatist republics” of eastern Ukraine as independent states. Kremlin negotiators are reportedly now demanding that Ukraine recognize the loss of Crimea and the separatist republics as part of any peace deal. Putin has repeatedly made territorial claims to large parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, which he argues were erroneously allocated to Ukraine by Lenin during the formative years of the USSR. Since the initial outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in 2014, Putin has often referred to these lands by their Czarist name of “New Russia.” It is likely that some or all of this territory will be annexed by Moscow if Russia is able to implement its plans for the subjugation of Ukraine. In Putin’s imperialistic worldview, a Ukrainian national identity independent of Russia is seen as intrinsically hostile to Russia’s own sense of self. It is also viewed as synonymous with a pro-Western foreign policy and Ukrainian membership of the broader European community of nations. Eradicating this independent identity is what Putin means when he speaks of “denazification” of Ukraine, an objective of his invasion. This is clearly absurd in a country ruled by a Jewish president where far right parties consistently poll in the low single digits. Putin is openly opposed to the emergence of a strong and independent Ukrainian national identity and accuses today’s Ukraine of becoming an “Anti-Russia.” Rather than acknowledging Ukrainian agency, Putin prefers to blame post-Soviet Ukraine’s rejection of Russia on nefarious Western influence while insisting that the country naturally belongs within the Kremlin orbit as part of the so-called “Russian World". The recently published article indicates that Putin may have felt the clock was ticking and time was against Russia. “Returning Ukraine back to Russia would be more and more difficult with every passing decade. Derussification would gain momentum as would incitement of Ukrainians against Russians.” This certainly fits with developments in recent years. The straw that broke the camel’s back appears to have been President Zelenskyy’s decision to shut down four Kremlin-linked Ukrainian TV channels and charge Putin’s closest Ukrainian ally Medvedchuk with treason. Putin aims to establish a new loyalist regime in Ukraine led by a Russian puppet resembling Belarus Lukashenka. After British intelligence leaked details of a plot to appoint pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Murayev, these plans appear to have been revised. There is now talk of Moscow seeking to install former Ukrainian president Yanukovych, who was stripped of his powers during the 2014 Euromaidan and fled Kyiv for Russia. This would be entirely in keeping with Kremlin propaganda, which has insisted for the past eight years that Yanukovych was illegally removed by a Western-backed coup. A puppet Ukraine would in many ways resemble today’s Belarus. It would necessarily be a police state. Ukraine’s formerly powerful pro-Russian political parties were weakened by the onset of hostilities with Russia in 2014. Moscow may be tempted to allow Kremlin loyalist parties to function superficially at a local level in order to maintain a semblance of democracy, but Russia would demand total obedience from its chosen viceroy. In public life, the Russian language would be granted official status. Likewise, cultural narratives of historic unity between Russia and Ukraine would be resurrected. Any deviations from the dogma of Slavonic brotherhood would be ruthlessly suppressed. The Kremlin has reportedly already drawn up lists which indicate that the FSB and GRU plan to incarcerate large numbers of pro-Ukrainian and pro-Western politicians, think tankers, academics, civil society activists and journalists. Putin would target the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, enraged by the Patriarch of Constantinople’s 2018 decision to grant Ukraine Orthodox independence from Russia and would see avenging this step as an important symbol of Russia’s renewed authority over Ukraine. If he is able to achieve military superiority and control over Ukraine, Putin’s planned purge will entail rooting out every aspect of Ukrainian national identity which does not support his imperial Russian thesis of Russians and Ukrainians as “one people.”  The country will revert to its Czarist era identity as “Little Russia.” Needless to say, all talk of Euro-Atlantic integration will be banished from public dialogue. (Source: TheAtlanticCouncil)
* (See also the Russ. langv. referenced article's archive format in: RiaNovosti at 08:00 26.02.2022): https://tinyurl.com/427psjz8

3 Mar, 2022 14:14 President Putin has detailed Russia’s demands concerning Ukraine, during a phone call today with his French counterpart Macron. He reiterated the objectives of the Russian military operation, including demilitarization of Ukraine and its neutral status in the future. The goals of Russia’s military action will be achieved “in any case,” country’s president told. Putin stated that his country’s objectives will be achieved regardless of any circumstances and that, by delaying peace talks with Moscow, Kiev is simply exposing itself to more Russian demands. The Russian leader called on Macron to contribute to the effort to safely evacuate foreign nationals from Ukraine, specifically mentioning a large group of Indian students stranded in the city of Kharkov. The French president said he will contact the government of Ukraine on the issue. The conversation lasted for some 90 minutes. Macron talked with Putin right before having a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky. (Source: RT)

21:55 ET, Mar 2 2022 Updated: 5:33 ET, Mar 3 2022 Russia has taken its first major city in Ukraine after days of fierce battles. Kolykhaiev, the mayor of Kherson, confirmed the city's capture last night. He posted at around 1am local time that "armed visitors" had stormed a city council meeting and imposed a  curfew. He had previously warned the city faces "humanitarian crisis" as he begged for a green corridor to help clear the dead. “We dont have any Ukrainian forces in the city, only civilians and people here who want to live.” "We had no weapons and were not aggressive. We showed that we are working to secure the city and are trying to deal with the consequences of the invasion," he wrote on Facebook. Russia is reported to have suffered heavy losses during the battle. At least 300 civilians and soldiers have been killed on the Ukrainian side in Kherson. "The city is crawling with hundreds of tanks and Russian soldiers, who have published notices forbidding movement of more than two people together in a car and demanding that people raise their arms when approaching checkpoints," Rabbi Wolf told Israeli news outlet Kan. Russian troops had reportedly been pulling down the flags from buildings - but citizens are taking them back from the invaders. Lakhuta, head of the regional administration, added in a post on Telegram: "The occupiers are in all parts of the city and are very dangerous." The city near Crimea is home to 300,000 people - and opens up the pathway for the Russians to move towards Odessa, Ukraine's main port and naval base. Fierce fighting is still raging in nearby Mariupol, home to almost 450,000 people. The city lies in a key location, between the annexed Crimean Peninsula where a number of Russian forces are based, and the pro-Russia breakaway provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk. "There's been colossal destruction of residential infrastructure, there are many wounded and unfortunately many civilian dead, women, children, old people," Boychenko, the mayor of Mariupol, told Ukraine's 1+1 TV Channel. "Our railway link has been cut - they even went to the railway station and fired on our diesel locomotives so that people can't be evacuated". He said Russian forces are surrounding the city on all sides and are several kilometres away. Water supplies are also reportedly under threat in the city. "We have been bombed nonstop for more than 15 hours". "They do not fight with their army, they just destroy entire districts," the city's deputy mayor Orlov told the BBC. One British soldier now fighting in the Ukrainian Marines said he and his comrades were "encircled in Mariupol" as he urged people to "continue the support" for Ukraine. Further rocket attacks have struck Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv, hitting the regional police department and part of a university. Shelling was reported in Okhtyrka, where dozens of buildings were reportedly destroyed, bloodshed in Chernihiv. Russia admitted for the first time it had suffered casualties - saying 500 soldiers have been killed and around 1,600 have been wounded. Ukraine puts the figures much higher. Eerie videos from today showed Russian warships massing off Crimea in the Black Sea. It raised fears Russia could begin their all out assault on the coast now Kherson has fallen. A million people have now fled Ukraine so far, according to the United Nations, amid fears of the largest movement of people since World War Two. A second round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are due to take place tonight, according to Russian state news. (Source: TheU.S.Sun)

March 3, 2022  Top Russian general killed in Ukraine. Maj. Gen. Sukhovetsky, the commanding general of the Russian 7th Airborne Division, was killed in fighting in Ukraine earlier this week. His death was confirmed by a local officers’ organization in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia. The circumstances of his death were not immediately clear. Sukhovetsky, who was 47, began his military service as a platoon commander after graduating from a military academy and steadily rose through the ranks to take a series of leadership positions. He took part in Russia’s military campaign in Syria. He was also a deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army. (Source: Stripes)

Ukraine
10:42 PM IST, 03 Mar 2022 In the south of the country,
Ukraine’s military headquarters said today that Russia was sending four amphibious assault ships to land troops near Odesa, a city of 1 million and a major seaport. Images on social media purported to show the landing craft and their escort standing off the southern coast of Crimea, opposite the coastline that includes Odesa. With a naval fleet reported near the Ukrainian city of Odesa and the city of Kherson taken, it’s increasingly clear that Russia’s invasion is gaining pace in the country’s open and hard-to-defend coastal plains. “The fact that they left occupied Crimea (for Odesa) is true,” Kovalenko, an Odesa-based military analyst for the website Inforesist, said yesterday of the Russian naval detachment. “Why they didn’t attempt to land I don’t know.” Images from earlier in the week showed citizens making steel tank traps and sandbags, in anticipation of a potential amphibious assault the local military believes has been delayed by poor weather conditions. The situation in Odesa is stable, but that’s unlikely to last, Kovalenko said, not least because the city hosts a large – if for years inactive – population of pro-Russian residents. In 2014, they clashed with supporters of the so-called Maidan revolution, leaving 48 dead. All but two were pro-Russians, and 42 died when the building they had retreated to was set on fire. In March 1, President Zelenskiy replaced Odesa’s regional governor, Hrynevetsky, with Marchenko, an army colonel who until last year commanded a mechanized brigade in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. While several Russian attempts to land troops around Odesa since Feb. 24  have been repelled, these were small diversionary operations, according to Kovalenko. “It’s clear that Russia intends to punch a corridor to Transnistria, and in that regard Odesa is both the last and the key element,” Kovalenko said. Transnistria, a pro-Russia enclave of neighboring Moldova is just 70 km northwest of the city. Across the south, maps produced by Western analysts to track Russia’s invasion of its westward neighbor already show areas shaded to mark occupation starting to join in a solid strip along the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. An amphibious landing of marines took Ukraine’s second Azov Sea port Berdyansk and may have pressed on to join with Russian and pro-Russia separatist troops pushing west to encircle and lay siege to the southern city of Mariupol, city under heavy bombardment again today. Electricity and heat have been cut off. Meantime troops that moved out of Crimea, spread east, taking the town of Melitopol could soon create a land corridor from the peninsula to Russia’s mainland border, should Mariupol fall. Until now, Crimea and Russia have been connected only by a 19 km bridge that opened in 2018. Other troops from Crimea moved west to Kherson and Mykolaiv, the last significant town before the historic port city of Odesa and potentially heading west through Transnistria. Ukrainian authorities in Mykolaiv said they fended off an attack yesterday morning. In the north of the country, a combination of stronger than expected Ukrainian pushback and logistics failures that left many forces sidelined has slowed the Russian advance. Heavy fighting and shelling continued in Kharkiv. Huge quantities of equipment and supplies continue to push toward the capital, Kyiv. Russia says it is only aiming for military targets. With a naval fleet reported near the Ukrainian city of Odesa and the city of Kherson taken, it’s increasingly clear that Russia’s invasion is gaining pace in the country’s op Russian defense specialist for Chatham House Boulegue, speaking on the webinar yesterday said. There were signs - including Russian attacks on communications infrastructure in Kyiv, and the spread of false declarations of capitulation online - that Russia will bring its full cyber warfare capabilities and air power to bear in the coming days. That could rupture communications between Ukraine’s commanders and defenses across the eastern half of a nation roughly the size of France, as well as their ability to move food and new weapons supplies from Europe and the U.S. to the places they’re needed, according to Boulegue. Having removed the government, Russia would also aim to change the narrative of its campaign, he said, because with no political leadership “the army is no longer an army, it’s a group of ‘terrorists’.” (Source: Bloomberg)

March 3, 2022  A number of Turkish Bayraktar TB-2 drones were delivered to Ukraine on Tuesday, March 1 and have moved into combat positions. Additional Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-air missiles had been deployed to the front line. The additional Bayraktar drones will complement the twelve that Ukraine already possesses. In total, Kyiv ordered forty-eight drones from Turkey; it is unclear how many were delivered in the most recent batch. The Bayraktar is a lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with air-to-ground anti-armor missiles. In addition to its military capabilities, one of the drone’s primary selling points is its high cost-effectiveness. Each drone is estimated to cost less than $10 million - far cheaper than a traditional manned aerial system - and is thought to have very low maintenance costs. In operation, they can carry out repeated strikes against far more expensive land targets with minimal risk to Ukrainian soldiers. The drone has previously seen service in the Middle East and in Nagorno-Karabakh in late 2020. Azerbaijan used the drones to great effect against the Armenian military, leading many to believe that the drones played a major role in Baku’s victory in the conflict. The Bayraktars are expected to be a crucial factor in Kyiv’s war of attrition against its much larger neighbor. Although Russian air forces singled out the drones for destruction almost immediately, Moscow’s failure to secure air superiority over Ukraine and its disorganized air defenses have given the Bayraktars room to operate. On February 28, a Bayraktar drone destroyed a fuel train inside Russia carrying gasolinemto stalled armor columns in Ukraine, a strike regarded as a major blow to Russia’s air defense credibility. Ukraine’s deployment of the Bayraktars against Russia is seen as the first time the drones have been put to use against a major military power. (Source: TheNationalInterest)

India
03 Mar 2022 1:29 pm  India stands away from US on Russia, advocates a middle path while keeping options open. Yesterday at the UN General Assembly vote, India once again abstained. Though the resolution condemning Russian action in Ukraine was supported by an overwhelming majority of 141 votes in favour, 35 abstentions, and five votes against. This is the fourth Indian abstention. India’s stand has been criticized abroad as well as at home. The argument is that as the world’s largest democracy India should have firmly stood with Ukraine the smaller country that had been invaded by a much bigger neighbour. If we fail to condemn Russia’s action, what happens if China sitting on India’s border in Ladakh decides to take it over? These are troubling questions. India believes by abstaining it has the option of reaching out to relevant sides in an effort to bridge the gap and middle ground aimed at fostering diplomacy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first priority is the security of Indian students stuck in Kharkiv and other areas of the conflict zone. In Kharkiv one unfortunate young Indian has already lost his life. Modi spoke to President Putin last evening basically to make sure that Indian nationals are brought back to safety. Moscow and Delhi are co-ordinating closely to ensure a safe passage for students. According to officials Russians have been given the locations where Indian students are holed up and will avoid those targets. India’s position is clear. This is not India’s war, nor is it in India’s neighbourhood. It has more to do with the big power rivalry in Europe. Global interests of major players are at stake. It is a continuation of the Cold War era where Russia and America were busy fighting proxy wars across the globe. But the ideological battle between Communism and Capitalism ended with the defeat of Communism and the break-up of the former Soviet Union in 1991. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was a military alliance against the spread of Communist Russia. Now that communism is dead, why expand NATO? In 1991, NATO had just 16 members today it has 30 and counting. Moscow believes its national security will be compromised if NATO expands to its doorstep in Ukraine. It is no longer relevant who is to blame. Yes, Russian aggression is wrong. But India has to look after its own interests and continue to balance its ties with the West with its traditional friendship with Moscow. Over 70 percent of Indian military hardware is of Russian make. It is not easy to switch to US arms when the majority of its armaments continue to be Russian. During India’s military confrontation with China in 2020, Russia provided India with much-needed spare parts despite its growing tactical friendship with China. In the hydro-carbon sector too, India and Russia co-operate. Most of India’s nuclear power plants are Russian-built. At the time of tough nuclear sanctions against India, it was Russia that came to New Delhi’s aid. Aerospace is again an important sector of co-operation. Defence collaboration has resulted in producing the Brahmos missile, which New Delhi was to sell to the Philippines. That would now be stalled thanks to sanctions. Surprising that Congress leader Chidambaram forgets all of that while calling for the Modi government to stand with Ukraine. He may also have had a memory lapse about the 1971 Bangladesh war of liberation, where only Russia stood with India. Despite talks of democracy and principles that the US is invoking now, where was the love for democracy and human rights when Pakistan cracked down on its Bengali-speaking citizens. It did not suit the US then to take a stand against Pakistan. International diplomacy is all about national interests. By doing the balancing act, New Delhi is doing just that. This does not mean that India is isolated or has broken all ties withthe US and its allies. India is engaging with all major powers including the US, France, Germany, and the EU. India is sending out humanitarian aid to Ukraine, despite not condemning Russian action publicly. At the UNSC India had consistently called for a cessation of hostilities and restrain on both sides. Chapter 6 of the UN charter calls for diplomacy and negotiations to settle all disputes. This is after all why the UNSC is in place: to prevent future wars. India has been pleading to both sides to get back to the negotiating table. Many are wondering if China could in the foreseeable future take a leaf out of Russia’s book and march into say Arunachal or Ladakh? Considering that China and Russia are today much closer, what could happen? For one, despite the obvious strategic reasons why China and Russia are together today, the fact remains that both countries are also suspicious of each other. Like India, Russia does not wish to see China as a sole power in Asia. Also, according to the former Indian ambassador to China, Rao, who said in a recent interview with the Print’s Jyoti Malhotra, she believes China is much more pragmatic and while confrontation with India will continue, it is unlikely to start a war. It is not in the kind of desperate position that Russia is today. The US is also reaching out to China in its bid to isolate Russia. President Xi will not hesitate to take the offer, considering the enormous economic stakes involved. With the US and the west’s focus shifting to Russia for the next few years,  attention to China will be somewhat less. India will continue with its middle path, remain neutral in the conflict. (Source: OutlookIndia)

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2022. III. 2. Magyarország, Greece, Spain, European Union, Russia, Ukraine, Europe, Israel, United States, NATO, globalization

2022.03.03. 04:30 Eleve

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Magyarország
2022. március 2.  Országgyűlési képviselők választása 2022. április 3.-án. Országos listák - Pártlisták; Nemzetiségi listák. (Forrás: NemzetiVálasztásiIroda): https://tinyurl.com/ve53dbfu

2022. március 2. Országos népszavazás 2022. április 3.-án. A népszavazás kérdései:    1 Támogatja-e Ön, hogy kiskorú gyermekeknek köznevelési intézményben a szülő hozzájárulása nélkül szexuális irányultságokat bemutató foglalkozást tartsanak?     2 Támogatja-e Ön, hogy kiskorú gyermekek számára nemi átalakító kezeléseket népszerűsítsenek?     3 Támogatja-e Ön, hogy kiskorú gyermekeknek fejlődésüket befolyásoló szexuális médiatartalmakat korlátozás nélkül mutassanak be?    4 Támogatja-e Ön, hogy kiskorú gyermekeknek a nem megváltoztatását bemutató médiatartalmakat jelenítsenek meg?         Az országos népszavazás érvényes, ha az összes választópolgár több mint fele érvényesen szavazott, és eredményes, ha az érvényesen szavazó választópolgárok több mint fele a megfogalmazott kérdésre azonos választ adott. (Forrás: NemzetiVálasztásiIroda): https://tinyurl.com/4a54pnsm

Greece
March 2, 2022
Greece has decided to show its solidarity by opening 50,000 jobs in the tourism sector to Greek expatriates and Ukrainian refugees. In February 28, the Minister of Tourism, Kikilias, announced that last year over 50,000 surpluses were not covered by the domestic market. “Could these people with dignity, with European contracts and collective labour contracts be absorbed and help in this sector,” he said. According to Kikilas, until May 28, flights from Russia to Europe will be banned for three months. There is still no information on how much Greek tourism will be affected. They will do their best to bring all visitors, travellers, and tourists from all over the world to Greece. The EU Home Affairs Commissioner, Johansson, noted that the EU countries are already hosting about 300,000 Ukrainian refugees. (Source: SchengenVisaInfonews)

Spain
2 Mar 2022 About 500 people managed to cross into the Spanish North African enclave of Melilla
after clashing with Moroccan police. About 2,500 migrants from countries in sub-Saharan Africa have tried cross the border fence separating the tiny territory of enclave from Morocco. It is one of the largest influxes in recent years. The people today used “hooks” to scale the high fence and threw rocks at police. Three Spanish Guardia Civil police suffered slight injuries in the incident and three migrants were also treated for injuries near the fence. Last year, 1,092 migrants and refugees managed to enter Melilla, a 23 percent drop from 2020. Melilla and Ceuta, Spanish territories in North Africa are favoured entry points for African migrants and refugees. In mid-May 2021, Spain was caught off guard when more than 10,000 people swam or used small inflatable boats to cross into Ceuta territory as the Moroccan border forces looked the other way. The influx took place during a diplomatic crisis between Madrid and Rabat over Western Sahara, which has long pushed for independence from Morocco. Madrid had angered Morocco by allowing the leader of Western Sahara’s independence movement into Spain for hospital treatment for a severe case of COVID-19. The unprecedented border breach was widely seen as a punitive move by Rabat. (Source: AlJazeera)

European Union
March 2, 2022 1:26 PM GMT+1 An unidentified state actor
is targeting European officials with malicious software in an apparent attempt to try and disrupt efforts to assist Ukrainian refugees, cybersecurity firm Proofpoint said today. "Proofpoint has identified a likely nation state sponsored phishing campaign using a possibly compromised Ukrainian armed service member's email account to target European government personnel involved in managing the logistics of refugees fleeing Ukraine," researchers at Proofpoint said. Proofpoint noted the attack was anecdotally similar to campaigns carried out by a hacking group dubbed Ghostwriter - also known as TA445 or UNC1151 - which has previously been identified as working in the interests of Belarus. It may also be an attempt to "gain intelligence regarding the logistics surrounding the movement of funds, supplies, and people within NATO member countries," they added. The campaign targeting European officials could be the next stage of these attacks, Proofpoint researchers said. "While the utilised techniques in this campaign are not ground-breaking individually, if deployed collectively, and during a high tempo conflict, they possess the capability to be quite effective," the researchers said. Close to 700,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries since the start of what Russia calls a "special operation' in Ukraine. The current exodus looks set to become Europe's largest refugee crisis this century. (Source: Reuters)

2 March 2022  Eastern European security after the invasion of Ukraine. The EU developed its post-1990s security and defence policy with the aim of managing external crises. Until last week, it had tried to keep its distance from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and had avoided coming to Ukraine’s defence. While some policymakers in Western capitals discussed notions such as neutrality and spheres of influence in abstract terms, those in the Baltic states (and, of course, Ukraine) were acutely aware of their tangible impact on ordinary people’s lives. The EU’s lack of serious efforts to counter Russian influence and aggression left these countries ever more exposed. Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, member states’ threat assessments of Russia moved much closer together. But debates on EU defence and EU-Russia relations moved on separate tracks. Defence initiatives such as Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence contained some projects relevant to the defence of eastern member states, particularly the PESCO project on military mobility. However, the EU’s military contribution to the security of these states has largely been indirect and marginal. Furthermore, the EU took a cautious approach to another of their key concerns: the security of Eastern Partnership countries. Concerned that EU defence policy might duplicate or undermine NATO, eastern member states have tended to focus on constraining the union’s defence activities rather than looking for ways in  which EU initiatives could provide security in eastern Europe. Since 2016, the union has intensified its efforts to strengthen its defence capacity. The concept of European strategic autonomy has been a central but controversial part of this process. For eastern EU member states, the controversy mainly arises from suspicions about the implications of ‘autonomy’ for the transatlantic relationship: they want to ensure that the United States has a strong presence in Europe. The EU’s eastern member states know from experience, Russia’s imperial instincts cannot be contained by diplomacy alone. Measures to strengthen EU defence policy have done little to address their primary security concern – which has always been Russia. The events of 24 February 2022 have fundamentally changed the way the European Union sees not just Russia but also its own contribution to European security. Following the invasion of Ukraine,eastern member states should no longer have the same concerns about how EU defence policy could undermine the transatlantic relationship. Russia’s war is leading to a larger US presence in Europe, a stronger NATO presence on the eastern flank, and closer EU-NATO ties. There is still a prospect that the US will one day step back from its key role in European security. But Europeans are finally taking serious steps to become more prepared for that day. From the perspective of its eastern member states, the EU can only become a credible security actor if it gets serious about tackling the Russian threat. No matter how events in Ukraine unfold over the coming months, the EU-Russia relationship can only recover once Russia drastically changes course. In future, the EU should contribute significantly more to the development of the kind of European defence capabilities that are needed for defence and deterrence vis-à-vis Russia. It should step up its cyber-security policies and reduce its dependence on Russian energy; it should consistently support the security and defence of Ukraine, Moldova, and other eastern partners who are committed to a European path; and it should offer these countries a clear prospect of EU membership.  (Source: ECFR)

Russia
2 March 2022 17:30 GMT  Putin
recently narrowed his group advisers to a small number of securocrats known as siloviki who consist of generals, friends and spies. Their closeness to Putin has coincided with a distancing from the more qualified and experienced experts who would normally brief the Russian strongman. 'My advice today, given the current situation on the ground, would be to turn a ceasefire into the top priority. We have to stop the conflict, Kortunov, the director general of the Russian International Affairs Council said. The siloviki have increased Putin's fears the West is trying to destroy Russia, Kortunov believes. 'We tend to believe that the name of the game is development, but I can imagine that some people around Mr Putin believe that the name of the game is survival,' he said. Some 6,840 people have been detained at anti-war protests since the invasion began on February 24. More than 6,100 academics, scientific journalists and medics have condemned the military action, have put their name in an open letter, risking fines or even prison sentences. They said there was no 'rational justification for this war' and warned the country was 'doomed to isolation' and demanded 'an immediate halt to all military operations directed against Ukraine'. Any public criticism of the Russian state can result in fines of up to £6,200 or jail sentences, under laws introduced in 2012. (Source: DailyMail)

March 02, 2022 13:13 The Russian armed forces took under full control Ukraine's southern city of Kherson, the Russian Defense Ministry announced. The civil infrastructure, life support facilities, and urban transport operate in a routine mode, ministry spokesman Konashenkov told in Moscow. "The city does not experience shortages in food and essential goods. Negotiations are continuing between the Russian command, the administration of the city, and the region to address issues of maintaining the functioning of social infrastructure facilities, ensuring law and order, and public safety," Konashenkov said. Meanwhile, the Russian Airspace Forces carried out a massive airstrike on the military infrastructure of Ukraine, hitting 67 objects, Konashenkov added. The 72nd main center for psychological operations was also disabled with high-precision weapons that allowed to avoid the destruction of the nearby residential buildings, the spokesman continued. In total, as of today, 1,502 objects of Ukraine's military infrastructure were destroyed, including 51 control and communication centers, 38 air defense systems S-300, Buk M-1, and Osa, 51 radar stations, 47 aircraft on the ground and 11 aircraft in the air, 472 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 62 multiple rocket launchers, 206 field artillery and mortars, 336 units of special military vehicles, and 46 unmanned aerial vehicles, he added. The rebel forces of Ukraine's regions of Donetsk and Luhansk moved forward for 75 kilometers, and took under control eight settlements, Konashenkov said. (Source: yenisafak)

Ukraine
7:45 ET, Mar 2 2022 Updated: 14:35 ET, Mar 2 2022  A number of unverified videos and pictures on social media
show expensive Russian military vehicles abandoned by troops. One picture shows a Russian thermobaric TOS-1A tank - a so-called "vacuum bomb" captured by the Ukrainian army. The tweet claims the tank was abandoned in good condition and fully-loaded. Lee, a PhD student at King's College London's Department of War Studies, shared pictures of an abandoned Russian short-range air defence system, a Tor-M2, left by troops in Ukraine. Intercepted radio messages, recordings, obtained by British intelligence company ShadowBreak include a soldier who sounds like he is crying. Another soldier refuses to use artillery on an area until civilians have left, ShadowBreak founder Cardillo claimed. Some units are reportedly running out of food and fuel. A number of troops were highly inexperienced, and didn't even know they were being sent into combat. Many troops have been shocked by the backlash from ordinary Ukrainians to their invasion, having expected to be welcomed as liberators. Weeping prisoners of war have said in videos they were sent as "cannon fodder." In a video posted to the Ukraine security services' Facebook page, an injured Russian soldier sat in front of a Ukrainian flag was filmed saying: 'This is not our war. Mothers and wives, collect your husbands. There is no need to be here. Other footage showed a handcuffed Russian prisoner in tears saying into the camera: 'They don't even pick up the corpses, there are no funerals." (Source: TheU.S.Sun)
Se also there subtitles and  published photos of prisoners of wars ;) like:
'A number of Russian soldiers are reportedly conscripts' / Credit: Unknown;
'Some young, wounded soldiers claim they had no idea they were fighting in Ukraine' / Credit: unknown
'A captured, injured, pantles Russian soldier sits in front of a Ukrainian flag / Credit: Unknown
'Captured Russian troops weep in videos to their family' / Credit: Unknown.

11:52 GMT, 2 March 2022 | Updated: 17:01 GMT, 2 March 2022  Russia bombarded the TV tower near central Kyiv overnight, killing five people and damaging a Holocaust memorial. A TV control room and power substation were hit, and at least some Ukrainian channels briefly stopped broadcasting.Russia previously told people living near transmission facilities used by Ukraine's intelligence agency to leave their homes. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Konashenkov claimed today that the airstrike on the TV tower did not hit any residential buildings. Mayor Klitschko said defences are being built and that 'we will fight' to stop the city being captured. Another Russian airstrike hit a residential area in the city of Zhytomyr. Ukraine's emergency services said yesterday's strike killed at least two people, burned three homes and broke the windows in a nearby hospital. About 85 miles west of Kyiv, Zhytomyr is the home of the elite 95th Air Assault Brigade, which may have been the intended target. In Kharkiv, with a population of about 1.5 million, at least six people were killed when the region's administrative building on Freedom Square was hit with what was believed to be a missile. The Slovenian Foreign Ministry said its consulate in Kharkiv, located in another large building on the square, was destroyed. Putin's forces have today renewed attacks on other cities including Kherson and Mariupol. Moscow's strategy in Chechnya and Syria was to use artillery and air bombardments to pulverize cities and crush fighters' resolve. One senior Western intelligence official estimated that 5,000 Russian soldiers had been captured or killed in the ground war. The U.N. human rights office said it has recorded 136 civilian deaths, though the actual toll is surely far higher. (Source: DailyMail)
A comment: "Hope all goes well..."Orphanage in Odessa evacuated - 120 children on their way to Berlin - including a six-day-old baby... The orphanage belongs to the Je.-wish community Mishpacha Chabad. The buses should arrive Berlin by Friday noon, where the children would have support from the Je.-wish community. "70  years ago, my grandfather fled Germany from the Na.zi.s - now my son is making the journey in the opposite direction. Its crazy." said Abraham Wolff the Chiefrabbi of Odessa and Southern Ukraine."

10:15, 2 Mar 2022 Updated: 14:11, 2 Mar 2022 In Kyiv, at least five people have been killed after Russian missiles rained down on the city, hitting a Holocaust memorial and the biggest TV mast in the Ukrainian capital. Footage showed a fireball erupting next to the TV transmitter tower - temporarily knocking out all broadcasts. The interior ministry said equipment had been damaged and "channels won't work for a while", but services resumed soon after. The Ukraine Air Force said two Ukrainian MIG-29 fighters took out two Russian jets in a battle in the skies in the Kyiv region. One Ukrainian troop was killed. The advance towards the capital Kyiv appears to have stalled as Ukrainians fight back. Eerie pictures from the town of Bucha - 20 miles from the capital - revealed mangled wreckage of Russian tanks and military equipment. Footage showed the column of Russian tanks rolling into the town, near the Gostomel airbase, on Sunday, February 27 afternoon before the convoy was shot down and destroyed by Ukrainian artillery and drone strikes. Locals also banded together to help fight the invaders - with some reportedly chucking Molotov cocktails at enemy vehicles. Video shows major damage to two large apartment blocks on fire, on the town of Borodyanka, about 35 miles northwest of Kyiv. Residential buildings were hit by a Russian missile near the base of the 95th Airborne Brigade in Zhytomyr 75 miles west of the capital Kyiv. "So far, four people have died. Including a child," said Gerashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister of Ukraine. Later, the Interior Ministry said the missiles fired at the base were launched from Belarus. The eastern city Kharkiv, 25 miles from the Russian border has come under missile attack by Russian bombers last night - a renewed offensive with a barrage of strikes. Footage from this morning showed a massive explosion ripping through the city centre. Buildings including the city's police station were on fire. At least 21 people were killed and 112 wounded in shelling over the last 24 hours, regional governor Synegubov said. 340 miles south, Putin's forces managed to capture a city seizing the port of Kherson. President Zelenksy said 6,000 Russian troops have now been killed in the first six days of fighting. At least 136 people, including 13 children, have been killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24, the UN has said. (Source: TheSun)

March 2, 2022 12:46 pm  Russian forces are bombarding parts of Ukraine's railway network making it more difficult to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people attempting to flee the conflict, according to Kamyshin, chairman of state-owned Ukrainian Railways. "We keep repairing our infrastructure but they keep destroying it," Kamyshin told. So far, he estimates the company has sent 670,000 people from the war-ravaged center, east and south of Ukraine  -  along with 11,000 cats and dogs -  to the west, either directly to borders or to cities such as Lviv or Uzhhorod that are close to the frontier with the EU. "We have a daily schedule, updated by 9 p.m. for the next day," he said. "We see which cities are under control and then we go there." Ukrainian Railways is continually sharing photos on the Telegram messaging service of severe damage to passenger rail infrastructure including twisted metal, shattered bridges and unexploded munitions. Today morning, Ukrainian Railways said it was prepared to run an evacuation corridor for citizens trying to leave Volnovakha, a town between Donetsk and  Mariupol under heavy shelling. The company has now started producing anti-tank hedgehog obstacles while Ukraine International Airlines, has offered its stewards to help staff packed trains and stations while there's still a ban on all commercial air traffic. By yesterday afternoon, traffic on many trains coming from the east of the country was delayed by at least five hours, though there were still cross-country services coming into Lviv from Lysychansk, in the east, heading for Uzhhorod. Trains were also still running back east to the center of Ukraine. Amid a steady flow of people heading west, the focus is also on boosting connections with EU countries. Kamyshin said he had talked over plans to increase the capacity of rail links to Poland with the country's  Transport Minister Adamczyk late yesterday. There is currently a humanitarian train regularly departing from Lviv's central station toward the Medyka border crossing with Poland, primarily for women and children though some foreigners are being allowed onboard. Those services are packed with people trying to flee the country while on the return leg back to Ukraine the carriages are stocked with water, food and medicine. From today, a free evacuation train running from Przemyśl to Prague will depart nightly at 9:30 p.m., aiming to transit refugees further into Central Europe. On the return leg back to Poland, anyone  prepared to fight for the Ukrainian government will be able to get onboard, the company said. There are also five daily trains running from Kyiv to Przemyśl in Poland. Today, Kamyshin said, the company managed to start a separate service over the border to Chelm. At the outbreak of the conflict, Czech Railways had also offered to provide carriages for use in getting people out of Ukraine. (Source: Politico)

2 March, 12:09  Russia attacks national police, security service buildings in Kharkiv. Some of the buildings were destroyed, the building of the Faculty of Sociology of the Karazin National University located across the street from the police department building was also affected, featured in a video published by Advisor to the Interior Minister Gerashchenko today. The number of casualties in the attacks is yet to be reported. In Kharkiv, 'the invaders fired on residential areas of the city using Grad multiple rocket launcher systems. On top of that, Russian troops carried out a powerful artillery strike on residential areas of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv'. A powerful barrage of shells hit Kharkiv on March 1, with cruise missiles exploding on Ploshcha Svobody. The occupiers also fired a missile at the broadcaster’s control room on the television tower in Kyiv, killing five people. On the night of March 2, Zhytomyr – a city about 120 km west of Kyiv – was subjected to rocket fire. (Source: TheNewVoiceofUkrain)

March 2, 2022 at 11:22 am Russian forces have advanced on Kharkiv, which has a population of 1.4 million people. A bomb has struck the headquarters of a  Catholic diocese on yesterday in the besieged Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Forty people were sheltering in the basement of the diocesan chancery when the bomb landed, but no injuries were reported. A video posted on Twitter by the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales showed debris strewn across the floor of a upper room in the chancery. “This morning was hell, the bomb fell on the curia,” Father Semenkov, chancellor of the Latin Rite Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia, told. "The attacks targeted government offices. The bombs also hit the people who were waiting to get bread and just at that moment a bomb fell on the curia. “There are many dead. For now, there is no news about the number of victims and wounded. The internet connection is down so we don’t have updated information.” He added: “In the curia these days there are many people, many mothers with children. We are a total of 40 people. We put them in a safe place. We were all under ground and luckily the bomb hit high up.” A minority of Catholics in Ukraine are Latin Rite.The Latin Rite Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia was createArchdiocese of Lviv of the Latins in western Ukraine. The majority of Catholics belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the largest of the 23  Eastern Catholic Churches in communion with Rome. The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need said that Bishop Honcharuk, the Latin Rite bishop of Kharkiv-Zaporizhia, has “spent the past days in a bunker with several families, as well as with his Orthodox counterpart.” The 44-year-old, who has served as a bishop for two years, told the charity: “I wish for this war to end as quickly as possible". “My message is short because we are under constant bombardment, and I am a little nervous, but we try to act normally. God bless you!” (Source: CatholicHerald / CNA)

March 2, 2022  Russia told the International Atomic Energy Agency that its military had taken control of territory around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. Ukraine authorities say they maintain control of the plant itself and that a combat-ready military unit remains within the perimeter. Some residents from the nearby town of Enerhodar erected barricades to the plant, according to multiple online accounts. The IAEA convened an extraordinary meeting in Vienna today, just hours after Russian officials informed Director General Grossi that they controlled accessto the facility. Zaporizhzhya is Europe’s biggest nuclear power installation. Its six reactors sit on a cape that abuts the Dnieper River with only a single road leading in or out.  “Any military or other action that could threaten the safety or security of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants must be avoided,” the IAEA wrote in a statement. “Operating staff must be able to fulfill their safety and security duties and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure.” Earlier this week, the head of Ukraine’s nuclear-power utility called on international monitors to intervene to ensure the safety of the country’s 15 atomic reactors. Energoatom chief Kotin asked the IAEA to help erect a 30 kilometer safe zone around the country’s four nuclear power plants. (Source: Bloomberg)

03 02 2022  In a video address, the Ukrainian president said a Russian missile strike in the capital yesterday which hit a Holocaust memorial complex 'proves that for many people in Russia our Kyiv is absolutely foreign'. “They don’t know a thing about Kyiv, about our history. But they all have orders to erase our history, erase our country, erase us all,” he added. (Source: GreekCityTimes)

Europe
March 2, 2022  Gazprom shares
collapse by 97% at the London Stock Exchange, falling by 97% in the first hours of trading, reducing the company's value to a mere $250mn. As of 11:30 GMT on March 2, shares in Gazprom were priced at just $0.03 apiece, giving it a market capitalisation of $248.6mn. Put in context, Gazprom’s market capitalisation was more than $68bn at the start of the year, and closed on March 1 at above $61bn. Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft suffered a similar but less severe 67% nosedive in its share price to $0.88 per share on March 2, giving it a market capitalisation of $9bn. Shares in Novatek, Russia’s second-biggest gas producer, dropped over 96%, reducing its capitalisation to only $163mn. (Source: IntelliNews)

Israel
02.03.2022  On his first tour of Israel as German chancellor,
Olaf Scholz spoke alongside Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. The cabinets of both countries hold regular joint sessions, and Germany is Israel's most important European Union trade partner. The war in Ukraine has overshadowed the visit, which was planned before Russia's invasion. They today underlined their commitment to securing further peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Since Russia launched its invasion last week, Scholz's coalition government has reversed a ban on sending weapons into conflict zones. It has also halted the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project between Russia and Germany, and pledged to spend more than 2% of Germany's gross domestic product on defense annually. "Attacks on civilian infrastructure and civilians must stop," he stressed. Bennett said it was Israel's "duty to do everything we can do to end the bloodshed." Given Israel's experience of war: "Unfortunately, it can get much worse," he said. Israel has taken a more guarded approach, highlighting its warm relations with both Kyiv and Moscow. Bennett has been mentioned by Zelenskyy as a possible mediator in the war. Earlier today, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called on Jewish people around the world to speak out. The plea came after a Russian missile strike on a Kyiv television tower that was built on the site of a World War II massacre of Jews by German troops. Managers of the nearby Babi Yar Holocaust memorial said parts of the facility had been damaged by a fire started after those attacks. Scholz reaffirmed Germany's commitment to Israel's security. The German chancellor addressed the issue of a new Iran nuclear agreement - something staunchly opposed by Israel - saying it "cannot be postponed any longer." Bennett said Israel was following the talks in Vienna with concern. Israel, he said, would not allow Iran to gain nuclear weapons status. Currently, talks with Iran are underway in Vienna to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The United Kingdom, China, France, Germany and Russia are in direct talks with their Iranian counterparts. The United States, which withdrew from the agreement in 2018, is an indirect partner. "Now is the time to finally say yes to something that represents a good and reasonable solution," Scholz said. Prime Minister Bennett has repeatedly insisted that Israel, which is not a party to the talks, is not bound by any agreement and opposes it. (Source: DW)

United States
March 2, 2022 State of the Union:
President Biden's 62-minute speech was split between attention to war abroad and worries at home as he vowed in his first State of the Union address yesterday night to check Russian aggression in Ukraine, tame soaring U.S. inflation and deal with the fading but still dangerous coronavirus. Biden highlighted a newly reinvigorated Western alliance that has worked to rearm the Ukrainian military and cripple Russia’s economy through sanctions. While the crisis in Eastern Europe may have helped to cool partisan tensions in Washington, it didn’t erase the political and cultural discord that is casting doubt on Biden’s ability to deliver. A February AP-NORC poll found that more people disapproved than approved of how Biden is handling his job, 55% to 44%. Even before the Russian invasion sent energy costs skyrocketing, prices for American families had been rising, and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hurt families and the country’s economy. He outlined plans to address inflation by reinvesting in American manufacturing capacity, speeding supply chains and reducing the burden of childcare and eldercare on workers. In a rare discordant moment, Rep. Boebert of Colorado yelled out that Biden was to blame for the 13 service members who were killed during last August’s chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. “You put them in. Thirteen of them,”  Boebert yelled. Iowa Gov. Reynolds, selected to give the Republican response, said Biden’s address came as a blast from the past with rising inflation, rising crime and a resurgent Russia making it feel more like the 1980s than today. 'Even before taking the oath of office, the president said that he wanted to make America respected around the world again, and to unite us here. He’s failed on both fronts,” she said. The president highlighted investments in internet broadband access, bridge construction, proposals like extending the child tax credit and bringing down child care costs, called for lowering health care costs and to ban assault weapons. (Source: APnews)

Mar 2 2022 Biden branded Putin’s aggression 'totally unprovoked' and Russian oligarchs “corrupt leaders". He vowed: “We are coming for your ill-begotten gains.” During his 62-minute address, the commander-in-chief blundered when he said Iranians when referring to the Ukrainian people. Biden said: “Putin may circle Kyiv with tanks, but he’ll never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people.” Journalists and political commentators took to Twitter following the gaffe. (Source: TheU.S.Sun)

NATO
March 2, 2022 
NATO countries pour weapons into Ukraine, risking conflict with Russia In all, about 20 countries - most members of NATO and the European Union, but not all - are funneling arms into Ukraine to fight off Russian  invaders and arm an insurgency, if the war comes to that. On Feb. 25, the day after Russia attacked Ukraine, the White House approved a $350 million package of weapons and equipment, including Javelins and Stingers. Pentagon officials said shipments began flowing within days from military stockpiles in Germany to Poland and Romania, from where the matériel has been shipped overland through western Ukraine. According to NATO, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States have already sent or are approving significant deliveries of military equipment to Ukraine, as well as millions of dollars, while other member states are providing humanitarian aid and welcoming refugees - Hungary, Moldova and Poland are welcoming thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war. The Czechs are sending machine guns, sniper rifles, pistols and ammunition. The Dutch are sending rocket launchers for air defense. The Estonians are sending Javelin antitank missiles. Germany, long allergic to sending weapons into conflict zones, is sending Stingers as well as other shoulder-launched rockets. The Latvians and the Poles are sending Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, promised Ukraine to provide tens of thousands of shells and artillery ammunition, antiaircraft missiles, light mortars, reconnaissance drones and other reconnaissance weapons. Even formerly neutral countries like Finland and Sweden are sending weapons. Finland has said it will deliver 2,500  assault rifles and 150,000 rounds of ammunition for them, 1,500 antitank weapons and 70,000 combat rations. Sweden, also not a member of NATO, announced that it would send Ukraine 5,000 antitank weapons, 5,000 helmets, 5,000 items of body armor and 135,000 field rations, plus about $52 million for the Ukrainian military. At the same time, NATO is moving military equipment and as many as 22,000 more troops into member states bordering Russia and Belarus. The United States alone has deployed 15,000 extra troops to Europe - 1,000 to the Baltic States, 5,000 to Poland, 1,000 to Romania -  while committing another 12,000 troops, if necessary, to NATO’s Response Force, being used in collective defense for the first time. Washington has also deployed more  fighter jets and attack helicopters to Romania, Poland and the Baltic States. Canada has sent some 1,200 soldiers, artillery and electronic warfare units to Latvia, as well as another frigate and reconnaissance aircraft, while putting 3,400 troops on standby for the Response Force. Denmark is sending a frigate to the Baltic Sea and will send 200 soldiers and deploy four fighter jets to Lithuania and some to Poland to support of NATO’s air-policing mission. France sent its first tranche of troops to Romania in February 28, to lead a new NATO battalion there, and provided Rafale fighter jets to Poland. Germany, which already is lead nation of a NATO battalion in Lithuania, has sent another 350 troops and howitzers there, six fighter jets to Romania, some troops to Slovakia and two more ships to NATO’s maritime patrols. Berlin also said it would send a Patriot missile battery and 300 troops to operate it to NATO’s eastern flank, but did not specify where. Italy sent eight fighter jets to Romania and put 3,400 troops on standby. The Netherland have sent 100 troops to Lithuania and 125 to Romania, and assigned eight fighter jets to NATO duties. Spain has sent four fighter jets to Bulgaria and ships for maritime patrols. The United Kingdom, the lead nation of the NATO battalion in Estonia, has sent another 850 soldiers and more Challenger tanks there, plus 350 more troops to Poland. It has also put another 1,000 on standby to help with refugees, and sent another four fighter jets to Cyprus, while sending two ships to the eastern Mediterranean. Western weaponry has been entering Ukraine in relatively large but undisclosed amounts for the last several days. The effort to move equipment and weapons rapidly into Ukraine from Poland is being carried out by individual countries and is not formally either a NATO or E.U. operation. The United Kingdom and the United States are doing setting up something called, deliberately blandly and neutrally, the International Donors Coordination Center. It is doubtful that Mr. Putin will be fooled by the name. The French say that the E.U.’s military staff is trying to coordinate the push. Whether European weaponry will continue to reach the Ukrainian battlefield in time to make a difference is far from certain. “European security and defense has evolved more in the last six days than in the last two decades,” von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm, asserted in a speech to the European Parliament today. The European fund being used to buy lethal arms is called the European Peace Facility. The fund is two years old and is intended, at least, to prevent conflict and strengthen international security. It has a financial ceiling of 5.7 billion euros - about $6.4 billion - for the seven-year budget of 2021 to 2027. If Ukraine needs more money, an E.U. official said, it can be provided. However proud Brussels is of its effort, it is a strategy that risks  encouraging a wider war and possible retaliation from Mr. Putin. The rush of lethal military aid into Ukraine from Poland, a member of NATO, aims, after all, to kill Russian soldiers. Mr. Putin already sees NATO as committed to threaten or even destroy Russia through its support for Ukraine, as he has repeated in his recent speeches, even as he has raised the nuclear alert of his own forces to warn Europe and the United States of the risks of interference. Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, hit his constant themes again yesterday as he visited a Polish air base. “Putin’s war affects us all and NATO allies will always stand together to defend and protect each other,” he said. “Our commitment to Article 5, our collective defense clause, is ironclad.” But for now the fight is in Ukraine, and while NATO and European Union have made it clear that their soldiers would not fight Russia there, they are actively engaged in helping the Ukrainians to defend themselves. More supplies of ground-to-air missiles like Stingers and antitank weapons like the Javelin are crucial, as is secure communications equipment, so the Ukrainian government can continue to be in contact with its military and its people if the Russians take down the internet, said Lute, a former lieutenant-general and American ambassador to NATO. In fact, even if no NATO soldier ever crosses into Ukraine, and even if convoys of matériel are driven to the border by nonuniformed personnel or contractors in plain trucks, the European arms supplies are likely to be seen in Moscow as a not-so-disguised intervention by NATO. There is always the possibility of Russian aircraft straying into NATO airspace as they try to interdict convoys or chase Ukrainian planes. Something similar happened the only time a NATO country shot down a Russian Su-24 fighter jet, near the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015. (Source: msn / TheNewYorkTimes)

Globalization
7:03 ET, Mar 2 2022 Updated: 11:29 ET, Mar 2 2022  Anonymous has claimed that it has shut down Russia's space agency, Roscosmos. The hacking team has said that Russian officials have "no more control over their spy satellites." The Director General of Roscosmos, Rogozin, in a social media statement said: "The information of these scammers and petty swindlers is not true. All our space activity control centers are operating normally." Rogozin has previously stated that control of the Russian space industry, orbital group and the Russian International Space Station segment is protected from cyber criminals. It comes just days after Anonymous claimed it had successfully breached over 300 Russian websites including the state-run news agency TASS and offered troops over $53,000 to give up their tanks. The hacker group said on Twitter that 300 websites belonging to Russian government agencies, state media outlets, banks, as well as websites of leading Belarusian banks, including Belarusbank, Priorbank and Belinvestbank, had all been hacked. This also included allegedly hacking into Russian TV so that all channels played Ukrainian folk songs, with the pro-Ukraine hackers claiming the hack saying that they are from Anonymous. The regular websites have been replaced with a message calling for an end to the hostilities. The offer to buy tanks from Russian soldiers has emerged after the hacker collective claimed to have amassed more than RUB 1billion ($10.3million) and is offering tank crews RUB 5million ($51,000) for each surrendered tank, according to Ukrainian media. Russian troops have been advised by Anonymous to surrender with a white flag and use the password "million" to show that they accept the collective’s terms. The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has also reportedly said that it will guarantee amnesty to surrendering forces. Anonymous is allegedly telling Russian soldiers that its global community has collected RUB 1,225,043 in bitcoin to help you." Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Fedorov reportedly announced the creation of a Telegram channel for the IT Army of Ukraine on Saturday, February 26. He said: “In 2022 modern technologies  are one of the best responses to tanks, rockets and missiles. “I’ve addressed to the biggest tech giants to support the sanctions for Russian Federation.  We asked them to help us stop this outrageous aggression on our people!” The hacking collective also claimed to have taken down state-owned media outlet RT. (Source: TheU.S.Sun)

Wed 2 Mar 2022 12.07 GMT  According to data from Checkpoint Research, in the first three days of combat, cyber-attacks on Ukraine’s government and military sector went up by 196%, compared to the rest of February. A cyber attack was made on Ukraine's websites of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and two banks. The fightback, with attacks on Russia were up 4% for the week. Ukraine has launched its own volunteer IT army, looking to respond to Russian cyber-attacks, Ukraine’s deputy PM Fedorov made the announcement on Telegram. A separate Telegram channel, reported to contain 175,000 people, is used to assign tasks such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on key Russian websites including government sites, banks, and energy businesses. Russian state media site Tass has also been targeted by hackers to show the number of Russian casualties. The conflict has even drawn division among ransomwaremgroups. The Conti group had its internal communications leaked this week by a pro-Ukraine member who was angry that the group had sided with Russia. Meta, TikTok, Twitter (and Musk, obviously) have been dragged into the conflict. Both Twitter and Facebook reported this week that they removed two pro-Russian covert influence operations from Russia and Belarus. Meta’s head of security Gleicher and director of threat disruption Agranovich said the operations were run from Russia and Ukraine, and were targeting people in Ukraine on multiple platforms and websites. The network in question was relatively minor, with about 4,000 accounts following one page on Facebook, and fewer than 500 following its Instagram accounts. The sites were pushing many of the lines Putin was using to justify the invasion. They generate realistic-looking profile pictures of people pretending to be journalists and experts. Within Russia itself, access to Twitter and Facebook has reportedly been restricted, in part on the basis that Facebook had refused demands to stop factchecking Russian media outlets. Facebook then went a step further with the company’s president of global affairs, Clegg, announcing via tweet that Meta would restrict access to RT and Sputnik in the European Union. TikTok soon followed Facebook’s move. Twitter announced it would label any link from state-run media as such, stating that the majority of the links to Russian state-run media tend to come from individual accounts, not the accounts associated with the media outlets. The company also tweaked its algorithm so that the links won’t appear in top search results. Google and Facebook announced they would suspend the media companies from being able to monetise on their platforms, while Twitter is pausing ads in Russia and Ukraine. The Ukrainian government’s call for donations in crypto has been loudly heard, with over US$18m flooding into the country in the first few days of the conflict to fund Ukraine armed forces. The country has been accepting donations in Ethereum, bitcoin and Tether. The world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, committed $10m in donations towards Ukraine. Fedorov asked for Musk to intervene and provide his satellite Starlink stations to Ukraine. Musk responded quickly that the high-speed internet service was active in the area, and delivered more stations in February 28. While that has been welcomed by Ukraine, one Citizen Lab researcher expressed concern that the satellite devices may be used by Russia to track people in Ukraine. (Source: TheGuardian)

March 2, 2022  Economic dangers from Russia’s invasion ripple across globe. Even before Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine, the global economy was straining under a range of burdens: Surging inflation. Tangled supply chains. Tumbling stock prices. The Ukraine crisis both magnified each threat and complicated the potential solutions. The Ukraine war coincides with a high-risk moment for the Federal Reserve and other central banks. They were caught off-guard by the surge in inflation over the past year. In January, U.S. consumer prices rose 7.5% from a year earlier, the biggest such jump since 1982. In Europe, figures out today show inflation accelerated to a record 5.8% last month compared with a year earlier for the 19 countries that use the euro currency. Now, the  fighting and sanctions that have disrupted Russia trade with the global economy threaten to send prices ever higher, especially for energy: Russia and Ukraine together produce 12% of the world’s oil and 17% of its natural gas. Central bankers must weigh intensifying inflationary pressure against the risk that the Ukraine crisis will weaken economies. The United States and other Western nations have targeted Russia with sanctions of unprecedented breadth and severity for a major economy. They have thrown major Russian banks off the SWIFT international payment system, limited high tech exports to Russia and severely restricted Moscow’s use of its foreign currency reserves. The sanctions quickly caused damage. The Russian ruble plunged to a record low yesterday. The Institute of International Finance foresees the Russian economy enduring a double-digit contraction this year, worse even than its 7.8% drop in the Great Recession year of 2009. The damage to the overall global economy appears to be relatively slight, if only because Russia and Ukraine are not economic powerhouses. Important as they are as exporters of energy, wheat and other commodities, precious metals, the two together account for less than 2% of the world’s gross domestic product. The sanctions and collapse of the labor market in Russia will have an immediate and profound economic impact, damage on Russia’s neighbors in Central Asia, Helf, an expert on Central Asia for the U.S. Institute of Peace, wrote this week. As its own workforce has aged, Russia has turned to younger migrant workers from such countries such as Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Even at the height of COVID-19 in 2020, remittances from Russia to Uzbekistan topped $3.9 billion and to Kyrgyzstan $2 billion. Most major economies have only limited trade exposure to Russia: For the U.S., it’s 0.5% of total trade. Europe’s economy is now especially at risk. Russia is a vitally important supplier of oil, natural gas and metals, and higher prices for those commodities are sure to inflict economic damage. Europe relies on Russia for nearly 40% of its natural gas and 25% of its oil. For the European continent, Russia’s war has significantly heightened the  likelihood of runaway inflation, another economic setback or both. Natural gas prices shot up 20% after the war started, on top of earlier increases, and now are roughly six times what they were at the start of 2021. The gas price shock is feeding higher inflation and swelling utility bills. The result is that households have less money to spend, and hopes for a surge in consumer spending resulting from fewer pandemic restrictions and COVID-19 cases have diminished. Escalating gas prices have caused what economists call “demand destruction” among industrial enterprises, like fertilizer makers, that use a lot of gas and have now slashed production. Farmers are paying more to run machinery and buy fertilizer. “The drag from higher prices and the negative confidence affect may lower real GDP growth in the eurozone from 4.3% to 3.7% for 2022,” said Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank. Ukraine and Russia account for 30% of the world’s exports of wheat, 19% of corn and 80% of sunflower oil, which is used in food processing. Much of the Russian and Ukrainian bounty goes to poor, unstable countries like Yemen and Libya. The threat to farms in eastern Ukraine and a cutoff of exports through Black Sea ports could reduce food supplies just when prices are at their highest levels since 2011 and some countries are suffering from food shortages. With ports, airports and rail lines closed and young Ukrainian men fighting the Russian invasion, who’s going to be doing the harvesting and the transportation? Disruptions to Russian and Ukrainian industries could delay any return to normal conditions. Russia and Ukraine together produce 70% of the world’s neon, critical in the making of semiconductors, 13% of the world’s titanium, which is used to make passenger jets and 30% of the palladium, which goes into cars, cellphones and dental fillings. Russia also is a major producer of nickel, used to produce electric car batteries and steel. (Source: APnews)

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2022. III. 1. Magyarország, Germany, Belarus, Donbass, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, United States, NATO, globalization, space.

2022.03.02. 03:20 Eleve

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Magyarország
2022. március 1. 06:00   M1 Híradó /video/ (Forrás: Híradó): https://tinyurl.com/5sck4rpd

2022. március 1. Budapest.  A szomszédunkban háború zajlik. A biztonságunkat fenyegető kihívással eltökélten és egységesen kell szembeszállnunk. Így tettünk a koronavírus és az azzal járó gazdasági válság idején is. Ma erősebbek vagyunk, mint korábban, a szövetségeseinkkel közösen képesek vagyunk megőrizni a biztonságunkat. Meg kell védenünk a magyar gazdaságot is, fékeznünk kell az energiaárak emelkedését, ne mi, magyarok fizessük meg a háború árát. Történelmünkből túl jól ismerjük a háborúk következményeit, ezért nem sodródhatunk bele egy fegyveres konfliktusba. Ebből a háborúból ki kell maradnunk. De segítenünk kell azoknak a magyaroknak és ukránoknak, akik otthonukat hátrahagyva a háború elől menekülnek. Az elmúlt napokban egy emberként mozdult meg az ország, és segített a bajbajutottakon. Mindenkinek köszönöm! Őrizzük meg Magyarország békéjét és biztonságát! (Forrás: Miniszterelnök, Facebook)

Germany
01/03/2022 - 14:24 Russia's
invasion of Ukraine last week led to renewed calls for some form of military service. Hellmich, a politician for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), called for an "urgent" debate on the issue in an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper today to help "promote public spirit", also calling for careers in the Bundeswehr to be made more attractive to young people. Sensburg, the president of the German Reservists' Association, has called for the reintroduction of military service through a general framework for both men and women. This could take the form of "one year in which young people who are of age and have completed their education do something for the state and the community", he told the Rheinische Post. Voices from the conservative CDU, now in opposition, have also come out in favour of conscription. In the state of Lower Saxony, CDU members have put together a paper calling for the reintroduction of military service as "a decisive signal for ensuring an effective military deterrence," according to Die Welt newspaper. CDU MP Linnemann told the Bild daily he was in favour of "a year of compulsory service for young men and women after completing their  schooling". This could also take the form of a year of service in the social care sector or the emergency services, he said.Conscription was introduced in Germany in 1956 with men over 18 expected to serve in the army for a year, though they could claim exemption due to moral objections. The practice was gradually wound down and finally scrapped in 2011 as part of moves to save money. Germany has steadily reduced the size of its army since the end of the Cold War, from around 500,000 at the time of reunification in 1990 to just 200,000 today. The reintroduction of military service would require a two-thirds majority vote in the Bundestag lower house of parliament. Hahn of the CSU said Germany needs "technology and weapons systems", not just an increased head count. In February 27, Sunday, in a landmark speech, Social Democrat (SPD) Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the world was entering a "new era". He promised an extra 100 billion euros of investment in the chronically underfunded Bundeswehr in 2022 alone, committing to spend more than two percent of GDP on defence. (Source: France24 / AFP)

Belarus
1 March 2022  President
Lukashenko addressed security officials today. He has appeared in front of a battle map during a state TV broadcast. The map displayed by Lukashenko is split into four sections which align with the command districts of Ukraine's military, showing Russian attacks from Belarus, along Ukraine's eastern border, and from occupied Crimea. It detailed Russian lines of attack heading into Ukraine, some of which have materialised in the first few days of the invasion - such as forces storming towards Kyiv from the north, and towards Kherson from Crimea. A two-pronged pincer movement is shown targeting Kyiv - an attack that is currently playing out - which forces are also shown heading out of occupied Donetsk and Crimea before linking up at Melitopol, which Russia has captured. But attacks are also shown hitting the city of Dnipro, which has yet to take place - Kharkiv is along the route. Another attack appears to be heading for the city of Cherkasy via the city of Sumy, where Russian forces have also been held up, while a third appears to break off from the Kyiv assault towards Zhytomyr. But they also showed off several attacks that have yet to come to pass - with one even appearing to point from the port city of Odessa towards Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova that Russia occupies. In a clip of the meeting posted online, Lukashenko can be heard talking about missile strikes launched from the Mazyr region Belarusian territory at Ukraine in advance of the main Russian assault. A Ukrainian military official said Belarusian troops joined the war today in the Chernihiv region in the north, without providing details. But just before that, Lukashenko said his country had no plans to join the fight.  (Source: DailyMail)

Donbass
1 Mar 2022 After living eight years in the conflict zone,
the residents of Ukraine’s separatist-controlled parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions have rejoiced at Russia’s recognition of their self-proclaimed republics’ independence, thinking it would bring peace and stability. The joy of the February 21 announcement lasted just three days as Russia’s President Putin used the security of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) in eastern Ukraine as a pretext for a full-scale invasion of the country on February 24. Residents of the separatist republics about life after recognition, the all-out war, as well as their relationship with Russia and Ukraine: (Source: AlJazeera): https://tinyurl.com/nhu37h4d

Russia
March 1, 2022 The Russian currency
plunged about 30 per cent against the US dollar after Western nations announced moves to block some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system and to restrict Moscow's use of its massive foreign currency reserves. The US announced more sanctions to immobilise any assets of the Russian central bank in the United States or held by Americans. The Biden administration estimated that the move could impact “hundreds of billions of dollars” of Russian funding. Biden administration officials said Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Japan, the European Union and others will join the US in targeting the Russian central bank. Russia's so-called oligarchs, who once exercised significant influence over President Yeltsin in the 1990s, are facing economic chaos after the West imposed severe sanctions on Russia over Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Billionaire Fridman, born in western Ukraine, has called for an end to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. 'While a solution seems frighteningly far off, I can only join those whose fervent desire is for the bloodshed to end. I’m sure my partners share my view," he said. One of Fridman's long-term partners, Aven, attended a meeting at the Kremlin with Putin and 36 other major Russian businessmen last week, the Kremlin said. Putin, after consulting his security council of senior officials, said there he ordered the special military operation to protect people, including Russian citizens, from "genocide". The billionaires who gathered for a meeting with Putin in the Kremlin in February 24 were silent. Businessmen understand very well the consequences. But who is asking the opinion of business about this? The Russian billionaire, Deripaska, used a post on Telegram to call for peace talks to begin "as fast as possible". Deripaska is the founder of Russian aluminium giant Rusal, in which he still owns a stake via his shares in its parent company En+ Group. Washington imposed sanctions on Deripaska and  other influential Russians because of their ties to Putin after alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, which Moscow denies. (Source: Indiatoday)

1 March 2022 Russia is expelled from the 2022 World Cup and its teams suspended from all international football competitions 'until further notice.'International Olympic Committee urges sports federations to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes. Disney and Sony Pictures stop the release of their films in Russian cinemas because of its invasion of Ukraine. (Source: DailyMail)

Ukraine
1 March 2022 Explosions
erupted around the capital's 1,300ft TV tower, near the Memorial complex BabynYar, around three miles from central Kyiv, around 5.30 pm local time. The tower remained standing, but several state broadcasts went off air. The Kyiv Independent reported at 23:29 local time (21:29 GMT) that Russian bombs have struck Vyshneve, a town outside the capital. It also said the neighbourhoods of Rusanivka, Kurenivka and Boiarka - as well as the area near Kyiv International Airport - were coming under fire. Rusanivka in particular is very central. It also reported a loud explosion was heard at Bila Tserkva, a city in Kyiv Oblast, when a duel depot was attacked, according to the UNIAN news agency. The locations of the reported attacks suggest Russian forces are tonight closing in from multiple sides of the capital, particularly from the west. A new round of explosions were heard at around 22:50 local time. (Source: DailyMail)

March 1, 2022  What happened to Russia's Air Force? What's driving Russia's apparent risk-adverse behavior in order to dominate Ukraine's skies? The first six days have seen Moscow act delicately with its air power. The United States estimates that Russia is using just over 75 aircraft in its Ukraine invasion. The confusion over how Russia has used its air force comes as President Biden's administration rejects calls by Kyiv for a no-fly  zone that could draw the United States directly into a conflict with Russia, whose future plans for its air force are unclear. Vastly outmatched by Russia's military, in terms of raw numbers and firepower, Ukraine's own air force is still flying and its air defenses are still deemed to be viable. Military experts have seen evidence of a lack of Russian air force coordination with ground troop formations, with multiple Russian columns of troops sent forward beyond the reach of their own air defense cover. That leaves Russian soldiers vulnerable to attack from Ukrainian forces, including those newly equipped with Turkish drones and U.S. and British anti-tank missiles. Ukraine's experience from the last eight years of fighting with Russian-backed separatist forces in the east was dominated by static World War One-style trench warfare. By contrast Russia's forces got combat experience in Syria, where they intervened on the side of President Assad, and demonstrated some ability to synchronize ground maneuvers with air and drone attacks. Deptula, a retired U.S. Air Force three-star general who once commanded the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, said he was surprised that Russia didn't work harder to establish air dominance from the start. "The Russians are discovering that coordinating multi-domain operations is not easy," Deptula told. "And that they are not as good as they presumed they were." Both sides are taking losses. Ukrainian troops with surface-to-air rockets are able to threaten Russian aircraft and create risk to Russian pilots trying to support ground forces. Ukrainian air force fighter jets are still carrying out low-level, defensive counter-air and ground-attack sorties. Ukraine's ability to keep flying air force jets has been a morale booster to its own military and Ukraine's people. It has also led to mythologizing of the Ukrainian air force, including a tale about a Ukrainian jet fighter that purportedly single-handedly downed six Russian aircrafts, dubbed online as "The Ghost of Kyiv." A Reuters Fact Check showed how a clip from the videogame Digital Combat Simulator was miscaptioned online to claim it was an actual Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down a Russian plane. (Source: msn / Reuters)

Mar 1 2022 The Russian defence ministry announced it was planning strikes on the Ukrainian security service and its alleged 'Psyops Unit' in central Kyiv. Spokesman Konashenkov said: "In order to suppress information attacks on Russia, the technological infrastructure of the SBU and the 72nd main PSO (Psychological Operations Unit) centre in Kyiv will be hit with high-precision weapons. "We call on... Kyiv residents living near relay nodes to leave their homes." Russia knocked out Kyiv's main TV tower in a strike. Tonight, footage showed a fireball erupting next to the TV transmitter tower where the Holocaust memorial is located - temporarily knocking out all broadcasts. It comes after Russia's defence ministry warned targets in the centre of Ukraine's capital will be hit with "high precision weapons'. Images showed Russian ground forces close in Zdvyzhivka, northeast of Kyiv. The Russian army urged Ukrainians to leave Kyiv "freely" on one highway out. Ukraine claimed that Belarus troops  stormed across the border in the north to join the Russian invasion. The country's parliament said Belarusian troops entered the Chernihiv region. (Source: TheU.S.Sun)

Tuesday, March 1, 2022  Russia used the potent vacuum bomb during its invasion of Ukraine, Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States told yesterday night, after a meeting with U.S. lawmakers. A vacuum bomb, also called a thermobaric weapon, works by taking in oxygen to create powerful, high-temperature explosions. If used in a civilian setting, such an attack could constitute a war crime. The bomb destroyed a Ukrainian army base in the northeastern town of Okhtyrka, killing 70 soldiers, Sumy region administrative chief Zhyvytskyy said on his Telegram channel. Images from the scene showed the middle third of a main building gutted by the blast. Okhtyrka Mayor Kuzmenko described the weapon used in the attack as a vacuum bomb. Ukrainian media have carried eyewitness video of the blast, which had a timestamp of 5:32 p.m. yesterday.  (Source: Politico)
Note: Okhtyrka, situated between Kharkiv and Kyiv.

March 1, 2022 Mariupol was under constant shelling. "They are pounding us with artillery, they are shelling us with GRADS, they are hitting us with air forces," Boichenko, the mayor of the southern port city said today morning in a live broadcast on Ukrainian TV. Ukraine's largest steelmaker Metinvest BV has most of its facilities located in Mariupol where it has halted production. The company sent most workers home while reduced shifts ensured equipment was not breaking down. Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv also came under heavy attack, the regional administration head said today. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" that it says is not  designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour's military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists. (Source: Reuters)

1 March 2022  A convoy made up of hundreds of tanks, artillery pieces, attack vehicles and support trucks - that stretches all the way from Hostomel, around 15 miles from central Kyiv to the village of Prybirsk, some 40 miles away - heads towards Ukrainian capital. Russian forces reach the southern city of Kherson. Nearly 520,000 people have fled Ukraine in the last five days, the UN's refugee agency says. (Source: DailyMail)

March 1, 2022  Four ways the war in Ukraine might end. Although the situation in Ukraine is fluid, the scenarios outlined here offer four plausible ways in which the conflict might end. Even the rosiest of these possibilities - which we’ve dubbed the “Miracle on the Dnipro” - is fraught with danger.     Scenario 1: Miracle on the Dnipro: Bolstered by defensive assistance from NATO members, Ukraine’s military and civilian resistance overcome the odds and  grind Moscow’s advance to a halt, preventing Russian President Putin from toppling Kyiv’s government and establishing a puppet regime. Ukraine remains a sovereign. The short war has claimed thousands of lives on both sides, leaving widespread bitterness in its wake. Ukraine's still-dangerous neighbor faces an uncertain future with the Russian political landscape at a tipping point.     Scenario 2: A quagmire: After weeks of intense fighting in Kyiv and other major cities, Russia manages to topple Ukraine’s government and install a puppet regime. However, neither Ukraine’s armed forces nor its population are ready to surrender. Ukraine’s regular forces are diminished over time, major cities such as Kyiv are occupied. Russia is forced to devote far more of its resources over a much longer period of time than it had anticipated. The conflict drains Moscow’s coffers and resolve, ultimately forcing a withdrawal.    Scenario 3: A new Iron Curtain: Ukraine eventually collapses under the weight of the Russian invasion. Despite intense opposition, Russian forces manage to take control of the country through the use of increasingly heavy-handed weapons and tactics. Resistance against a Putin-installed puppet government is simmering and omnipresent, but it is put down with force and does not prove strong enough to pose a significant challenge to the substantial Russian forces that remain in Ukraine. A new Iron Curtain descends in Eastern Europe, running along the borders of the Baltic states in the north through those of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania in the south. Sweden and Finland join NATO. Newly suspicious NATO and Russian troops now stare at one another across a suddenly militarized border, once again raising the prospects of direct conflict by accident or design. The antagonists prepare themselves for a long, bumpy standoff, with no clear outcome.     Scenario 4: A NATO-Russia war - the most dangerous scenario for the future of Europe and the global order. There are multiple pathways:   1. NATO could decide to escalate its involvement in Ukraine by, for example, attempting to implement a no-fly zone or another form of direct intervention, if Russia escalate its bombardment of civilians.    2. Russia could inadvertently strike a NATO member’s territory - for example, through imprecise targeting or erroneous identification of friend and foe - prompting countermeasures from the alliance. This scenario would see the beginnings of direct conflict, perhaps air-to-air or air-to-ground, in border regions of Ukraine. In turn, this could set off a tit-for-tat cycle of strike and counterstrike leading to open hostilities.    3. A prospect concerns the possibility that Putin has broader designs well beyond Ukraine. If Russian forces make rapid progress in Ukraine and achieve effective control over the country, Putin may turn his attention to reconstitute a sphere of influence that broadly aligns with the territory of the former Soviet Union. The obvious candidates to test his designs would be the Baltic states (all of which are members of the Alliance). Putin might harbor a belief that NATO will back down if pushed; NATO insists it will fight any Russian military incursion on a member state.     These four scenarios reflect plausible outcomes -  but they hardly exhaust all possibilities. Putin could end up strengthened or weakened within Russia, depending on domestic developments (a popular uprising or coup) and external ones (China bolstering or reducing its support for Putin himself). He could make a play for Moldova or Georgia, or even attempt to take the Suwalki gap between Russia’s Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus. (Source: TheAtlanticCouncil)

Turkey
March 1, 2022 While calling Russia's invasion an unacceptable violation of international law,
Turkey has carefully formulated its rhetoric not to offend Moscow, with which Ankara has close ties in energy, defence and tourism. It has called for dialogue and offered to host peace talks. Forging close ties with Russia, Turkey has also sold drones to Ukraine and signed a deal to co-produce more, angering Moscow. It also opposes Russian policies in Syria and Libya, as well as its 2014 annexation of Crimea. Turkey is calling on all sides in the Ukraine crisis to respect an international pact on passage through the straits to the Black Sea, Defence Minister Akar was cited as saying today after Ankara closed access. "We tell all sides that it would be beneficial to abide by Montreux," Akar told after yesterday's cabinet meeting. Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu was cited by state media as saying that Turkey had demanded all Black Sea and non-Black Sea states to halt passage through its straits. Under 1936 Montreux Convention, Ankara has the right to limit transit through the straits during wartime, to curb Russian warships going to the Black Sea. The pact grants exemption to ships returning to their home bases. Isik, an Istanbul-based geopolitical analyst and head of the Bosphorus Observer consultancy, told that Turkey had closed  the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to all states, not only to Russian ships. At least four Russian ships are waiting to cross from the Mediterranean. (Source: Reuters)

United States
14:16 ET, Feb 28 2022 Updated: 8:59 ET, Mar 1 2022  US releases new nuclear attack guidelines including social distancing and mask-wearing rules. The updated nuclear guidelines come after Russian President Putin demanded his nuclear force be put on high alert. One section on Ready.gov asks Americans to find the nearest building seeking shelter to avoid radiation. The next step tells them to "stay inside for 24 hours unless local authorities provide other instructions. "Continue to practice social distancing by wearing a mask and by keeping a distance of at least six feet between yourself and people who not part of your household," the website explains. Several Twitter users ripped the steps saying, if we ever experience a nuclear explosion, "Covid will be the least of our worries." (Source: TheU.S.Sun)

NATO
March 1, 2022 Poland
shares a border with Ukraine, and the air base in the central Poland city of Lask is home to NATO’s Polish and U.S. F-15 and F-16 fighter jets. NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg today visited troops in Poland with Polish President Duda. Despite Russia’s threats about nuclear weapons, the alliance sees no need to change its nuclear weapons alert level, Stoltenberg said. And while Ukraine is not a member of NATO, it is the alliance's responsibility to “ensure that we don’t see a development where a conflict in Ukraine spiraled out of control and becomes a full-fledged confrontation between NATO and Russia in Europe." (Source: USAToday)

Globalization (?)
Tue, Mar 1 2022 3:56 AM EST Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a Twitter post from an account named “Anonymous” — with 7.4 million followers and nearly 190,000 Tweets -  summoned hackers around the world to target Russia. Subsequent posts claimed the group was responsible for pulling down websites of the Russian oil giant Gazprom, the state-controlled Russian news agency RT and numerous Russian and Belarusian government agencies. A post from the account on Feb. 24 stated the loosely connected global group was gearing up for action against the country. In the days thereafter, posts by the account claimed  responsibility for disabling websites belonging to the Russian oil giant Gazprom, the state-controlled Russian news agency RT, and numerous Russian and Belarusian government agencies, including the Kremlin’s official site. The person — or persons — behind the “Anonymous” Twitter account denied that it is the group’s official account, stating in a post: “We are a decentralized resistance movement. There is no official #Anonymous account.” An article on RT published on Feb. 28 confirmed that its own website, as well as that of the Kremlin, had in fact been shuttered by Anonymous last Friday. The article also stated the group had targeted other Russian and Belarusian media outlets yesterday, replacing their main pages with the message “Stop the war.” A post by  the “Anonymous” Twitter account last week reiterated that the group is not at war with Russia as a whole, or its people. (Source: CNBC)

March 01, 2022 Google blocks RT, Sputnik YouTube channels in Europe. Google, which owns YouTube, said in a tweet on March 1 that the move will take effect immediately. The move by Google comes hours before European Union members are expected to green light sanctions proposed by the European Commission. On February 27, European Commission President von der Leyen said RT and Sputnik are part of the "the Kremlin’s media machine” and the EU would move "to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe.” The sanctions are expected to prohibit EU operators from publishing any content from the two outlets in any form, acccording to Breton, the bloc's internal market commissioner. RT's main YouTube channel has more than 4.5 million subscribers. (Source: radiofreeeuroperadioliberty)

Tuesday, March 1, 2022 What is now the central driving force behind the war frenzy - an immense social and economic crisis in Washington and other capitals? The Putin regime, representing the interests of a faction of the Russian oligarchy, is responding to the consequences of the dissolution of the Soviet Union through the promotion of Russian nationalism, combining nuclear brinksmanship and threats with an attempt to forge some sort of agreement with American and European empirealism. Already substantially armed and with weapons pouring in, Ukraine is the front line in a war aimed at regime change in Moscow and the complete subordination of Russia to NATO. The escalation of this war threatens mankind with a catastrophe. Massive economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European powers are aimed at crippling the entire Russian economy. One calculation is that the destruction of the Russian economy and the ruble will deepen divisions within the Russian oligarchy and fuel social discontent, creating the conditions for regime change and even the breakup of the country. Delivering advanced weapons systems directly to Ukraine, the United States has sent $1 billion in military aid in the past year, with the most recent tranche of $350 million committed by US Secretary of State on Sunday, February 27. Washington is directly arming Ukraine with Stinger surface-to-air missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles. The Ukrainian forces are already using the advanced “fire-and-forget” Javelin technology against Russian supplied to them by the United States in January, before the invasion. The European Union is also, for the first time, financing the purchase and delivery of weaponry to Ukraine. Germany will also be supplying direct military aid to Ukraine, German Chancellor announced in February 27. Private fighting forces are sent from countries to Ukraine. On Sunday, Ukrainian President announced that Ukraine would establish an international legion for its war against Russia. Since 2014, these forces had worked with the Azov battalion and the Georgian National Legion - networks  receiving the open assistance of the British and American governments. UK Foreign secretary said Sunday that she “absolutely” supported British citizens traveling to Ukraine to serve as combatants. US and European officials are issuing increasingly bellicose statements that they are planning for direct war with Russia. The addition of 7,000 US troops to Eastern Europe announced by the Biden administration last week brings the total US deployment on the continent to over 100,000. Asked yesterday whether the additional troops would be incorporated into the NATO “rapid reaction force,” which was activated on Friday, February 25, Defense Department spokesman Kirby said: 'Should it be activated, we want to be sure we’re ready.' Ukrainian President is also deliberating 'the West' to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, in which US military forces would directly engage Russian aircraft. Members of the US Congress, including Republican congressman Kinzinger, as well as UK politicians have demanded that the US and NATO impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. There is a coordinated and ferocious anti-Russia campaign in the media, aimed at creating a climate of hatred directed at Russia and Russians. The claims that the US is not targeting the Russian people are belied by the campaign to prevent Russian musicians and athletes from performing and competing in international events. A central aim of this  propaganda offensive is to distract the population from the social crisis, soaring prices, staggering levels of death from the pandemic - attempt to direct mass anger behind the war drive, creating popular confusion and disorientation. (Source: wsws)

Space
March 1, 2022   The European Space Agency works with Russia. A planned launch of a European-Russian mission to Mars this year is "very unlikely," the space agency said yesterday. Four NASA astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts, and one European Space Agency astronaut are stationed aboard the International Space Station, their home traveling 17,500 mph some 200 mile above Earth. NASA astronaut Hei is scheduled to return March 30 aboard a Russian spacecraft. President Biden has promised that sanctions will target the Russian aerospace industry. The warning led to a tweet from Russian space chief Rogozin asking "who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States or Europe." (Source: USAToday)

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Címkék: video space magyarország ukrajna russia nasa sweden mars china map photo nato romania moldova earth germany europe georgia finland turkey poland slovakia donbass belarus unitedkingdom europeanunion bosphorus unitednations unitedstates europeancommission mediterraneansea sovietunion internationalspacestation europeanspaceagency blacksea baltics globalization crimea dardanelles transnistria

2022. II. 3. Transylvania, France, Germany, Europe, Turkey.

2022.02.04. 14:03 Eleve

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Transsylvania
(February 3, 2022) The ReConnect Transylvania program
included destinations of Hungarian cultural and historical significance, both in urban and rural areas. Meet Becky as she shares her ReConnect Transylvania 2021 experience: "We visited historical landmarks, museums, libraries, and castles in the vibrant cities of Kolozsvár, Marosvásárhely, and Segesvár, where our Peer Guides introduced us to important Hungarians figures of the past and the historical events that have shaped the region. We also visited rural villages nestled in the mountains with overnight stays in Zetalaka, where we sampled homemade pálinka and learned how to make kürtőskalács, and in Torockó, where we hiked up the mountain Székelykő for a breathtaking view. To better understand the lives and cultural traditions of Transylvanian Hungarians, we took a closer look at their religious beliefs, visiting both Catholic and Unitarian churches, the pilgrimage site of Csiksomlyó, and the holy mountain of Madarasi Hargita. We also had the chance to observe local artisans by visiting a leather-craftsman in his workshop, shopping at a family-owned pottery shop in Korond, and enjoying a private tour of the Bánffy castle in Bonchida, where conservationists actively worked to restore the structures. As we learned more about the history of Transylvania, ate homemade meals prepared by the owners of the inns where we lodged, and learned more and more Hungarian words and phrases, we made new connections and discoveries with our own families’ traditions and histories. Some members of our group even met relatives living in the area, where they shared old photos, made new family tree connections, and brought each other up to date on family news, while other members of our group explored the history and events related to their ancestors’ lives. By the end of our trip, our group felt more Hungarian than ever, so it seemed right that we found ourselves on the final night of our trip immersed in folk music and folk dancing at the Hungarian Festival in Kolozsvár, in celebration of St. Stephen’s Day: a fitting end to a trip dedicated to reconnecting with our Hungarian heritage. (Source: ReconnectHungary / HungarianHumanRightsFoundation)

France
February 3, 2022  Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs
Le Drian is on a visit to Bucharest from February 2- 3. The minister will be received by Romanian President Iohannis and will meet with Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Aurescu. Tomorrow the minister will take part in a meeting of foreign ministers from Baltic, Central and  Eastern European countries in the so-called “Bucharest 9” format (Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia). This meeting will cover the current tensions among the European Union’s eastern neighbors and the different aspects of this crisis that have been discussed at the EU, NATO and OSCE. (Source: Ministèredel'EuropeetdesAffairesétrangères)

Germany
2022. febr. 3. The Russian government’s decision
to shut down the operations of state-funded German broadcaster Deutsche Welle is unfounded and burdens German-Russian relations, Germany’s foreign ministry said today. “If these measures are actually implemented, this will limit free reporting by independent journalists in Russia, which is particularly important in politically tense times,” the spokesperson added. Today’s announced decision was in response to Berlin’s ban on Russian broadcaster RT DE. The Russian foreign ministry also said it would bar entry to Russia for German officials involved in the move to ban RT DE. (Source: Euractiv)

Europe
3 February 2022  Russia has condemned a US decision to send extra troops to Europe to support its allies amid continuing fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grushko said it was a "destructive" and an "unjustified" step which heightened tension and reduced the scope for a political solution. The Pentagon said 2,000 US troops would be sent from North Carolina to Poland and Germany, and 1,000 already in Germany would go to Romania. Their deployment is in addition to the 8,500 troops the Pentagon put on alert last month to be ready to deploy to Europe if needed. These are combat-ready troops but they are not expected to be fighting Russian soldiers - if they were the deployment would be much bigger. After all Moscow is not seen to be directly threatening Poland and Romania. Biden is not sending a lot of troops, and notably, none to the Baltic states right on Russia's doorstep. These deployments are the concrete sign that the current crisis is over the post-Cold War security infrastructure in Europe. Romania, which is hosting some of the newly deployed US troops, is home to a US-built Aegis land-based missile defence station, which Russia has described as a security threat since it opened in 2016. (Source: BBC)

3 February 2022  The US proposal leaked to a Spanish newspaper was genuine, Pentagon spokesman Kirby told. The US offer of talks with Russia in exchange for reducing tensions over Ukraine - US proposals - reportedly include: "Reciprocal commitments" by the US and Russia "to refrain from deploying offensive ground-launched missile systems and permanent forces with a combat mission in the territory of Ukraine;" Talks about reducing nuclear weaponry and missile launchers; A "transparency mechanism" to show Russia there are no US cruise missiles at two Nato bases in Romania and Bulgaria, in exchange for Russia allowing the US to check two of its bases for missiles. The documents said the US would discuss all issues that affect European security with its allies. Mr Putin said the US had ignored Moscow's concerns in its response to Russian demands for legally binding security guarantees, including a block on the Nato alliance's further expansion to the east. Today Nato Secretary-General Stoltenberg said the alliance had seen a "significant movement" of roughly 30,000 Russian troops to Belarus in the last few days - the biggest deployment to the country since the end of the Cold War. Russia says the troops are there for joint military drills. Ukraine's Defence Minister Reznikov said today the number of ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine had dropped, and that there have been no combat losses for three weeks. (Source: BBC)

February 3, 2022  The Russian military has launched a series of drills across the country amid the tensions with the West over Ukraine. NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg expressed concern today that Russia is continuing its military buildup around Ukraine, and that it has now deployed more troops and military equipment to Belarus that at any time in the last 30 years. He said that Russian troop numbers in Belarus are likely to climb to 30,000, with the backing of special forces, high-end fighter jets, Iskander short-range ballistic missiles, and S-400 ground-to-air missile defense systems. “All this will be combined with Russia’s annual nuclear forces exercise, expected to take place this month,” Stoltenberg said. He called on Russia to “de-escalate,” and repeated warnings from the West that “any further Russian aggression would have severe consequences and carry a heavy price.” NATO has no intention of deploying troops to Ukraine should Russia invade, but it has begun to reinforce the defenses of nearby member countries  - notably Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The 30-nation military alliance also plans to beef up its defenses in the Black Sea region near Bulgaria and Romania.  (Source: APnews)

Turkey
Feb 03 2022  Delicate balancing act for Turkey over Ukraine may end in disappointment. Turkish President Erdoğan is visiting Kiev today for meetings with his Ukrainian counterpart. Between 2019 and 2021, the two presidents met five times. The talks are aimed at strengthening a military-industrial partnership opposed by Russia. Erdoğan's efforts to exert Turkey's influence and mediate a solution to the tensions may end in disappointment with possible repercussions for Turkey's regional standing. Supporting Ukraine without irritating Russia is the balancing act that Turkish President Erdoğan is expected to undertake in Kiev - Erdoğan prides himself on having a privileged relationship with both sides, to the point of having offered to mediate in the conflict. "By bringing the two leaders [Ukraine’s Zelensky and Russian Putin] together in our country if they so wish, we can pave the way for restoring peace," he said on Jan. 26, adding that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be an "irrational move on Russia's part". Erdoğan's offer of mediation was immediately rejected by the Kremlin, quick to accuse Turkey of feeding "militaristic sentiment" in Ukraine - at issue is the delivery of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 armed drones to the Ukrainian army, which used them in October to hit a Russian howitzer operated by the separatists of the Donbass supported by the Kremlin. The strike was "a provocation", Putin insisted in a telephone conversation described as heated with Erdoğan on Dec. 3. Since that episode, relations between the two presidents have cooled slightly. Turkey continues to support Ukraine's and Georgia's bid to join NATO. Turkey is not ready to give up its defence agreements with Kiev and is even more unlikely to recognise Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula, the original land of the Turkic-speaking Tatars, once under the protection of the Ottoman Empire. The agreements to be signed today between Erdoğan and Zelensky - a free trade treaty and several military-industrial agreements - can only increase the Kremlin's ire. In the eyes of Ukrainian military experts, the possibility of replicating in Donbass the winning combination of Turkish drones and Ankara's military expertise, as Azerbaijan did at the time of the autumn 2020 conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, is a real temptation. The Bayraktar TB2s tipped the military balance in favour of Turkey's allies in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh. Ukraine has also started producing them on its soil. The Turkish company Baykar, which produces the TB2 armed drone, has just acquired a plot of land not far from the Ukrainian air base of Vasylkiv, south-west of Kiev, where a training centre for the piloting and maintenance of drones is being built. Baykar also plans to invest with Ukrainian engine manufacturer Motor Sich and its design office Ivchenko-Progress. In the autumn of 2021, Motor Sich has committed to supplying the Turkish defence contractor with turboprop engines for its new Akinci combat drone, which is more powerful than the TB2 and which Kiev is considering acquiring. In addition to the joint production of engines and the An-178 military transport aircraft, Kiev and Ankara are also planning to produce corvettes together at the shipyards of Mykolaïv, a Ukrainian port on the Black Sea. For the Turks, it is urgent to deepen ties with Ukraine, especially in view of Russian actions in the Black Sea. Since the annexation of Crimea in March 2014, Moscow has become the dominant power in the Black Sea. Prior to 2014, this role was played by Turkey, which had 44 surface ships compared to Russia's 26. Since then, Moscow has reversed the trend, with 49 surface ships. In addition, the Russian fleet stationed in Crimea has been reinforced. Warships and submarines operating there have now been equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles, capable of hitting targets 2,400 km away, while more Russian spy ships are plying the waters to gather intelligence. Despite the cordial understanding with his "friend" Putin, the Turkish leader increasingly perceives Russia's military expansion in the region as a threat to his country's geopolitical and energy security. In 2014, Turkey had condemned the annexation of Crimea, while remaining outside the sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union against Russia. Despite his anti-Western bias, Mr Erdoğan has constantly pleaded for a greater NATO presence in the Black Sea. In June 2021, Russian forces fired warning shots at the British warship HMS Defender, which was en route from the Ukrainian port of Odessa to Georgia. Russia's military elite is upset about the "Sea Breeze" exercises, organised annually since 2019 by the United States, which has invited 32 other countries, including Ukraine, to take part in the summer of 2021. Mr Erdoğan's concern has been heightened by the discovery of an apparently vast natural gas field off the Turkish coast in the summer of 2020. Erdoğan wants both to strengthen his commitment to NATO, to restore its image tarnished by the purchase of S-400, and to protect its cooperation with Russia in Syria and in the energy field. A large-scale Russian attack on Idlib would surely create a new wave of refugees. This new influx of Syrians to Turkey, which already hosts nearly 4 million, would affect the Turkish authorities and also the countries of the Mediterranean. And in the energy field nearly 40 percent of gas consumed in Turkey is supplied by the Russian company Gazprom. An open conflict between Russia and Ukraine would be a tragedy, both for Europe and for Ankara, which would be forced to end its balancing act between NATO and Russia and give up its ambitions as a regional power. (Source: Ahval)

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Címkék: russia hungary music gazprom photo nato romania france germany latvia europe georgia turkey bulgaria lithuania poland slovakia spain transylvania ukraine donbass belarus syria unitedkingdom estonia europeanunion unitedstates mediterraneansea blacksea baltics czechia azerbaijan organizationforsecurityandcooperationineurope crimea ottomanempire nagorno-karabakh

2022. II. 2. Hungary, Germany, Romania, Russia, United States.

2022.02.03. 09:52 Eleve

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Hungary
Feb. 2, 2022  The House of Music, Hungary opened at City Park in Budapest. Designed by the Japanese architect Fujimoto, chosen as the House of Music’s architect in an international competition, the cultural center which opened in the museum district of the historic City Park on Jan. 23, offers exhibitions, education and concerts. An interactive permanent show guides visitors through the historical development of Western music; celebrates the contribution of Hungarian composers like Liszt, Bartók and Kodály and traces Hungary’s folk music tradition to its Central Asian roots. One room, painted in the colors of the Hungarian flag, features video displays on the country’s political history and famous athletes, with the national anthem as a soundtrack. The House of Music’s “sound dome,” is a 360-degree film and music experience. It’s glass walls are animated by reflections of construction elsewhere in the park. This new building is mired in controversy. It is the first of several planned buildings that will transform the 200-year-old City Park into a museum district. In 2012, Orbán’s government announced an ambitious plan to transform the park, in disrepair after decades of neglect, into a district of five museums. The estimated cost at the time was about $250 million, but that had ballooned to nearly five times original projections by 2017. A spokeswoman said in a statement that the government had so far spent about $800 million, on the project. Lederer of K-Monitor, an anti-corruption watchdog, said that public records indicate the House of Music alone had cost Hungarian taxpayers as much as $100 million. Critics have said that the government’s plans to develop the old City Park into a museum district disturbs the natural environment, deprives locals of much-needed public space and raises concerns about corruption. In 2016, private security guards clashed with park conservationists at the future site of the House of Music. Those behind the project say the site has always been more than a public park, and  that the undertaking is Europe’s largest urban development project. In a speech, Orbán described the transformation as an “unfinished work of art.” The House of Music’s Jan. 22 unveiling took place on the Day of Hungarian Culture, a national celebration. Orbán, unveiling the House of Music, attacked critics of the park’s transformation as leftists who opposed beauty. He added that national election’s in April would be “a period” that would end debate over the future of the park. Hungary’s cities are currently blanketed in political ads featuring Orbán’s main political opponent as Mini-Me from the Austin Powers movies. Orbán’s political machine interprets culture as “something that must be occupied or conquered,” said Nyáry, an author who grew up near City Park. He added: “Do we need a House of Music? I don’t know. I see it’s a beautiful building, and I’m sure they’ll have exciting events, but it doesn’t belong there.” Repurposing the park transforms its function, he said, jeopardizing a  valuable natural environment that has served as “the lungs” of surrounding neighborhoods. (Source: TheNewYorkTimes)

Germany
February 2, 2022
Germany's media regulator announced today that it will ban the German-language TV channel of Russian state broadcaster RT, which was previously taken off air in December. "The organization and distribution of the TV program via live stream on the internet, via the mobile and smart TV app 'RT News' and via satellite must be discontinued," according to a statement by the Commission for Authorization and Supervision. Additionally, it said RT cannot "rely on any other permission legitimate under European law." Regulators said that RT did not have the correct license for broadcasting in Germany - and that the channel had not applied for one. RT -  formerly known as Russia Today - had previously attempted to run its operations in Germany using a Serbian broadcasting license. Its German-language outlets have built an audience that leans to the political far right and is receptive to vaccine skepticism. The "top stories" on its front page are led by a report on COVID-19 vaccine side effects in U.S. soldiers and on a warning by U.S. billionaire Gates - a hate figure for anti-vaxxers - on future pandemics. Last December, RT went live with its German channel, but within days it was taken off air by satellite operator Eurosat and its YouTube channel was banned. RT can seek a judicial review of the latest German decision. (Source: Politico)

Romania
2022-02-02 When asked in Parliament to comment on the statement of Russian President Putin
that NATO forces should leave Romania and Bulgaria, Chamber of Deputies Speaker Ciolacu declared today, that Romania has a strategic partnership with the United States of America, and the country's approach "to the tensions on the Ukrainian border is the right one". 'I don't remember us having such an agreement with Russia or being subordinated to Russia, for someone to dictate us what to do on Romanian soil.' "I have seen some very clear decisions from the President of the United States and the President of France, with whom again we have a strategic partnership, to send troops to Romania, and it's not just these two forces," he added. (Source: Agerpres)

Russia
2 Feb 20222 
Russia denies it is planning an attack, but is increasingly frustrated by Washington and NATO’s refusal to heed its security demands – chief among them a promise that the military alliance will never allow Ukraine membership. Moscow says Ukraine should be a buffer state, but Western powers fear Russia wants Kyiv in its sphere of influence. Russian volunteers are being sought to support rebels in the two separatist statelets in eastern Ukraine over social media networking sites such as VK, the Russian-language equivalent to Facebook which has hundreds of millions of subscribers. A VK page titled “Army of the DPR”, which refers to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), is a post providing both Russian and Ukrainian contact numbers, as well as relevant street addresses in the city of Donetsk. The page has nearly 27,000 followers. Another post is of an old World War II poster that says careless chit-chat helps the enemy, with a warning against revealing the details of operations and military positions – and a call to disable geolocation on phones. “If you are drunk – do not write or call anywhere!” the post says. More recent posts on the page include a recruiter, apparently from Donetsk, looking for men aged 18 to 55 to serve. Perks include a stable allowance of up to 36,000 roubles ($474) with bonuses for drivers and gunners, career growth, three meals a day, two vacations a year and the “opportunity for free education in higher educational institutions of the DPR”. Several similar adverts posted today seek recruits for the “security battalion” and “artillery corps”. The recruiters’ pages are either set to private or reveal scant personal info. Another VK page, Humanitarian Volunteers of Novorossiya, with 7,000 followers, calls on subscribers to send watches, antennas, electronics, clothing, medical supplies and even chairs to the front line. “People are being sought both through the channels of the Union of Donbas Volunteers and through a whole network of recruiters – usually respected veterans from various Russian law enforcement agencies with combat experience,” said Yapparova, a correspondent for the news site Meduza. She believes that the Russian-centred recruitment networks described above, as well as representatives of the breakaway Donbas republics, are behind the online ads. People are now being sought not so much to ensure a virtual ‘Russian offensive’, but to strengthen the front line from the LPR and DPR themselves, whose armed forces in their current state are unlikely to withstand a full-scale conflict, she said. The Union of Donbas Volunteers (SDD) is an organisation that provides Russian citizens who fought in the Ukraine conflict with social and financial support, including prosthetics and rehabilitation programmes. (Source: AlJazeera)

2 Feb, 2022  In December, Russia requested that the US and NATO produce definitive written responses to its proposals on assurances addressing security concerns. The letters were sent to Moscow last week. It seems the West has rejected Moscow’s core demands, but proposed steps to ease tensions - the West has apparently offered general transparency and confidence-building steps. These include utilizing existing military communication channels, setting up a civilian hotline for emergencies, and the reopening of the respective missions in Moscow and Brussels. The main point of contention seems to be the concept of the ‘indivisibility of security’ in Europe. Russia often points to the 1999 OSCE Charter for European Security, which says that each country “has an equal right to security,” and countries “will not strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other states.” This formula was affirmed in the OSCE’s declaration at the 2010 summit in Astana (now Nur-Sultan), Kazakhstan. Moscow argues that this means NATO and the US cannot expand their military infrastructure eastward without Russia’s consent. In a letter to the US and its allies Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov accused Western countries of ignoring the concept of indivisibility of security altogether in favor of cherry-picking “elements that suit them” from international documents, namely those guaranteeing the freedom of individual states to choose their alliances. He  highlighted that the West’s written responses demonstrated “serious differences” in the understanding of the issue. Last week, Lavrov argued that it was “difficult” to view NATO as a defensive alliance, considering its interventions in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya. NATO specifically writes about exchanging information about military drills with Russia, and measures like earlier notices of snap exercises and sending more observers to monitor them.  This could reduce some day-to-day tension and dangerous incidents along East European borders, as both sides have frequently accused each other of provocative maneuvers in the air and at sea. NATO presented a laundry list of demands, including the withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, which implies that Moscow must return Crimea to Kiev. Russia has repeatedly stated that Crimea’s reunification with the country in 2014 is irreversible. It's also constitutionally impossible, under amendments voted on in 2020. It is highly unlikely that Moscow will remove its peacekeepers from Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region, where they have been stationed since the early 1990s, until the frozen conflict there is resolved. It is similarly hard to see Russian peacekeepers being removed from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whose independence from Georgia was recognized by Russia in 2008. The US has allegedly written it stands ready to talk about “reciprocal commitments” not to deploy offensive ground-launched missile systems and permanent combat troops in Ukraine, which also implies that Russia must abandon Crimea. Russia’s demand for NATO to publicly abandon its so-called ‘open-door policy’ of accepting new member states seems equally unrealistic at this point, after the US and NATO reaffirmed the right of any country to seek membership in the bloc. (Source: RT)

February 2, 2022  Russian President Putin speaking at a yesterday news conference following a five-hour meeting in Moscow with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that his government was studying the responses from the United States and NATO to his security demands related to Ukraine but that it was clear the Kremlin's main complaints "had been ignored." "It is already clear - I informed the Prime Minister about this - that the fundamental Russian concerns were ignored. We did not see an adequate consideration of our three key requirements," Putin said. Putin added: Russia had not seen "adequate consideration of our three key demands regarding NATO expansion, the renunciation of the deployment of strike weapons systems near Russian borders, and the return of the [NATO] bloc's military infrastructure in Europe to the state of 1997, when the Russia-NATO founding act was signed." Putin accused the US directly of attempting to "draw us into armed conflict" over the Ukraine crisis by using the country as a "tool" for NATO operations. He claimed that Washington's main goal is to force "allies in Europe to impose the very tough sanctions against us," or "draw Ukraine into NATO." The US and NATO have said Putin's demands - which include a promise to never expand eastward to countries including Ukraine - violate NATO's open-door policy and are non-starters in negotiations. Putin did not offer any solutions yesterday, but did say he was open to more talks. "I hope that this dialogue will continue," he said, adding: "I hope that we will eventually find this solution, although it is not an easy one, and we are aware of this. But what that will be, I'm not ready to say today, of course." He characterized as NATO's history of deceptions, claiming that the alliance promised to expand "not an inch" eastward. "They said one thing, they did another," Putin said. "As people say, they screwed us over, well they simply deceived us." Russian officials have repeatedly made this claim in the past; the US and NATO have denied making such promises. Putin also reiterated his opposition to the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO, and said Kyiv was attempting to retake Crimea by military force, potentially bringing the alliance into open conflict with Russia. "This [Crimea] is sovereign Russian territory, the question is closed for us," he said. "Let's imagine that Ukraine is a NATO country and starts these military operations. Then what, we should fight against the NATO bloc? So, has anyone thought about this? Looks like no." US State Department officials confirmed in January 31 they had "received a written followup from Russia" to a document of proposals the US sent to the Kremlin last week on how to defuse tensions and pave the way for further security talks in response to Russia's demands on security. US Secretary of State Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov held a phone call yesterday. Blinken told Lavrov that if Putin "does not intend war or regime change," then it was time to pull back troops and heavy weaponry and engage in serious, diplomatic discussions. Lavrov responded that the escalation that the US was claiming was not occurring, but that it was merely Russia moving troops within its own borders. Yesterday, the Kremlin said that Russia had not yet sent its "main reply" to the US. "There was a mix-up," Kremlin spokesperson Peskov said in a conference call. "It [the Russian correspondence] regarded a different matter. The main reply on this issue hasn't been handed over, it's still being prepared." (Source: CNN)

United States
02.02.2022  Two documents from NATO and the US - responses to Russian security demands in Europe - revealed the United States was willing to discuss a deal on missile deployments, showing Washington is ready to discuss troops and missile reductions with Moscow. The documents contain no mention of Ukraine's hopes of joining NATO -  the key issue that has riled Moscow. In the NATO document, 30 allies said they reaffirm their commitment to NATO's Open Door policy. The US document read the United States is willing to discuss conditions-based reciprocal transparency measures and reciprocal commitments by both the United States and Russia to refrain from deploying offensive ground-launched missile systems and permanent forces with a combat mission in the territory of Ukraine. The US said it would be willing to discuss a transparency mechanism to confirm the absences of Tomahawk cruise missiles at Aegis Ashore sites in Romania and Poland. That offer is conditional on a Russian offer of reciprocal transparency measures on two ground-launched missiles bases in Russia. US Aegis Ashore systems are meant for defending against short- or intermediate-range missiles. Russia claims that these systems could be armed with Tomahawk intermediate-range missiles and used to attack Russia. The document  says it would have to consult closely with NATO allies, particularly Romania and Poland. Shortly after the documents were openly showing Washington is ready to discuss with Moscow troops and missile reductions, US President Biden said he will send some 2,000 soldiers in Poland and Germany, while 1,000 troops would move from Germany to Romania. The troops in Poland will be put on high-readiness. (Source: DW)

02/02/2022   The US is to send extra troops to Europe this week. US President Biden has approved the deployment of nearly 3,000 American troops to Europe in the coming days, in what the Pentagon said today was a signal of US readiness to defend NATO allies. 1,700 US troops would deploy from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to Poland and another 300 from the base to Germany. About 1,000 Germany-based troops would to head to Romania. The deployments are above and beyond the 8,500 troops the Pentagon put on alert last month to be ready to deploy to  Europe. Together, the moves are avoiding new deployments to Ukraine itself, which is not part of NATO. (Source: France24)

Feb 02, 2022 US offered disarmament measures to Russia in exchange for deescalation of military threat in Ukraine. The Russian authorities demanded written response to their proposal - presented by Russia on December 17, 2021 - to sign a deal that gave security guarantees to Moscow regarding the expansion of NATO to the east. Moscow even included a draft version of the hypothetical deal. The responses were two texts on the part of Washington and from the Atlantic Alliance. The US and NATO have coordinated their responses, which are complementary but do contain some differences. The responses from Washington and NATO to Putin’s demands reject closing the door on future incorporations to the Alliance but do pave the way for mutual trust-building measures. Both Washington and the Alliance offer Putin negotiations on disarmament agreements and trust-building measures in different forums – such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the US-Russia Strategic Stability Dialogue, and the NATO-Russia Council – the success of which are conditioned on the start of a deescalation of the Russian military threat to Ukraine. The documents were sent in January 25, last Wednesday, by Washington and NATO to Moscow. Considering the substantial, ongoing Russian military build-up in and around Ukraine and in Belarus, NATO calls on Russia to immediately de-escalate the situation in a verifiable, timely and lasting manner. It is the position of the United States government that progress can only be achieved on these issues in an environment of de-escalation with respect to Russia’s threatening actions towards Ukraine, warns Washington. The main difference between both texts is that Washington is prepared to discuss the concept of indivisibility of security, which the OSCE approved at its summit in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan in 2010. Moscow has included this in the first article in its draft deal, using this principle to allege that the eventual entry of Ukraine into NATO would affect its security. From the beginning, the document from Washington makes clear that it continues to firmly support NATO’s Open Door Policy, and so does not exclude the future incorporation of Ukraine or Georgia into the Alliance. The NATO text also reinforces its open-door policy and underlines the right of all states to choose their agreements in terms of security free from outside interference. Moscow is yet to send a written reply, but Russia has called on the United States and NATO to unify their responses and for the latter to agree to a discussion of the concept of indivisibility of security, as the US has done. With relation to Ukraine, the Biden administration is offering Russia conditions-based reciprocal transparency measures under which Russia and the US would agree to refrain from deploying offensive ground-launched missile systems and permanent forces with a combat mission in the territory of Ukraine. For this, Washington announces its proposal to consult with Kiev. The mutual trust agreements, together with the disarmament pacts, are the two keys of the texts sent by Washington and the Alliance. The US states that it is prepared to deal with this process in good faith, while reproaching Putin for having deployed more than 100,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine, for having occupied the Crimean Peninsula, and encouraging the conflict in Donbas (the eastern region of Ukraine, mostly Russian-speaking). It is imperative, that discussions take place on the basis of the core founding documents on European security, such as the Helsinki Final Act, the NATO-Russia Founding Act, and the Paris and United Nations charters, which enshrine the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and every state’s right to choose its security agreements and alliances. A number of US proposals imply limits on missiles that could culminate in new disarmament agreements. Washington has said it is prepared to start bilateral conversations with Russia on the control of short- and medium-range missiles and their launchers, although it criticizes the breaking of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with the production and deployment of SSC-8 missiles and other systems. The US government reaffirms its commitment to the New START treaty for intercontinental missiles, which is in force until 2026, but it proposes the inclusion of new launchers, non-strategic arms and undeployed nuclear warheads. It suggests beginning discussions immediately on follow-on measures to New START and discussing how future deals would include all US and Russian nuclear weapons. The document shows the concern of Washington and its allies given the efforts of Russia to diversify and increase its nuclear arsenal, develop new intercontinental missiles and deploy dual and non-strategic missiles near NATO borders. One of the novel proposals is the offer to Russia of a transparency mechanism to verify the absence of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which are capable of reaching Russian territory, at the NATO anti-missile shield bases in Romania and Bulgaria, and which house the Aegis system. In return, Washington calls for an identical approach with two missile-launching bases of its choice in Russian territory. Moscow had proposed limiting the deployment of short- and long-range missiles and expressed its concern for the fact that the anti-missile shield bases in Romania and Bulgaria could house Tomahawk missiles. Given the unease of the European Union over its exclusion from these negotiations, the United States guarantees that it will discuss all of the issues that affect the security of Europe with its allies. (Source: ElPais)

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2022. II. 1. Hungary - Magyarország, Czechia, Poland, European Union, Russia - Oroszország, Ukraine, Asia, United States.

2022.02.01. 21:58 Eleve

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Hungary    Magyarország
01/02/2022  A peaceful solution to the standoff
between Russia and Ukraine through dialogue is in Hungary’s interest, Defence Minister Benkő told public television yesterday. Benkő also warned against ratcheting up Cold War rhetoric. Referring to a recent request to station NATO troops in Hungary, Benkő said the country’s Armed Forces had undergone a comprehensive development programme since 2017, resulting in “robust defence capabilities” that NATO had acknowledged. “This is why we say there is no need for a 1,000-strong NATO contingent to be stationed in Hungary,” he added. In the current situation, Hungary’s armed forces are tasked with ensuring peace and security in the country and the region rather than “show force that would rouse people’s fear and anxiety”. NATO’s plan for the conflict includes peaceful solutions as well as deterrence, Benkő said. Referring to his talks with UK counterpart Wallace earlier yesterday, Benkő said Wallace had praised the standard and professionalism of Hungary’s armed forces and agreed there was no need to offer troops to the country. Benkő said Hungary’s government had always rejected the notion of foreign forces being stationed in the country.  Benkő said the government had made it “very clear” that Hungary was a part of NATO and the EU organisations. The government sees the country’s future as part of those alliances, he said. (Source: DailyNewsHungary)

2022. II. 1. Élelmiszerárstop. "Megvédjük a magyar családokat az inflációtól: fenntartjuk a rezsicsökkentést, bevezettük a kamatstopot, emellett rögzítettük az üzemanyagok árát." Mindezek mellett a kormány arról döntött, hogy három hónapra árstopot vezet be egyes alapvető élelmiszerekre. Az érintett termékek árát úgy kell megállapítani, hogy az nem lehet magasabb a 2021. október 15. napon alkalmazott árnál. Az árstop 2022. február 1-től május 1-ig tart. Az árszabályozás alapvető élelmiszerekre terjed ki: kristálycukor, búzafinomliszt, finomított napraforgó-étolaj, házi sertéscomb, csirkemell, csirke far-hát, ultramagas hőmérsékleten hőkezelt, 2,8% zsírtartalmú tehéntej. Ha a 2021. október 15. napján alkalmazott ár kiárusítás, leárazás, akció, szezonális kedvezmény, promóciós értékesítés során alkalmazott ár lenne, úgy a kedvezményes értékesítés előtti árat kell alkalmazni. Az árszabályozással kapcsolatos tájékoztatást a kereskedőknek ki kell függeszteniük az üzletek bejáratánál jól látható helyen, csomagküldő kereskedelem esetén pedig a nyitólapon közzétenni azt, a vonatkozó rendeletben foglalt formai és tartalmi előírásoknak megfelelően. A szabályok betartását az általános fogyasztóvédelmi hatóság, azaz a megyei és fővárosi kormányhivatalok a Nemzeti Élelmiszerlánc-biztonsági Hivatal bevonásával ellenőrzik. A szabályok megszegése pénzbírsággal vagy az üzlet bezárásával büntethető. (Forrás: Kormány)

Czechia
February 01, 2022 Yesterday, Czech Prime Minister
Petr Fiala held talks with the Ukrainian Ambassador to Prague Perebyinis about bilateral relations and the crisis on the Ukrainian-Russian border. Last week, the Czech government agreed to provide Ukraine with 4,000 artillery shells for about 37 million korunas (€1.5 million). Fiala stated at the time that Czechia supports Ukraine and believes in a diplomatic solution. “We are trying to get the situation resolved peacefully, through diplomacy and to discourage Russia from any military aggression,” he said, adding that the government was preparing for worse-case scenarios. According to Kiev, Moscow is intent on  destabilizing Ukraine rather than using military force. (Source: Remix)

Poland
February 1, 2022  Polish Prime Minister
Mateusz Morawiecki says Warsaw is ready to supply Ukraine with military aid including ammunition and various types of drones. “We stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian neighbors in light of the threat they are now facing from Russia. However, solidarity and words are not enough today; now they need to be forged into action,” Morawiecki told in the Polish capital. “For this and other reasons, which are related to the very threatening military situation, which, unfortunately, has developed there, we are also ready to hand over defensive weapons.” (Source: AlJazeera)

European Union
01 February 2022   Approval for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline
has been put on hold, and the European Commission will scrutinise the project’s compliance with the trading bloc’s energy policy, revealed the commission’s vice president Dombrovkis yesterday. He argued the European Union (EU) will do everything it can to ensure Russia is unable to use natural gas as a weapon. The £8.4bn Nord Stream 2 project was completed last September, with its certification held up last year amid governance concerns from German regulators. No decision on the pipeline from the domestic authorities was expected until this summer, but the pipeline also needs to be approved by the European Commission. It has the right to examine whatever position Germany takes, with a possibility to extend the period by another two months under certain conditions, and it can also pause the process unilaterally. The German regulator, Bundesnetzagentur, initially raised concerns over Nord Stream AG’s independence from Kremlin-backed gas giant Gazprom and laid down requirements last November for Gazprom to set up a separate company to oversee the German section of the pipeline. However, worries over its political influence have only grown since then, with the International Energy Agency accusing Russia of throttling supplies into Europe, and of trying to minimise the role of Ukraine by reducing its transit fees from pipes flowing through the country. Russian President Putin has dismissed such accusations as ‘politically motivated blather’, while Gazprom has insisted it has fulfilled every contract it has brokered in Europe. The gas titan failed to reach its fully-year export targets for Europe and Germany last year, and cut its export growth into the continent to five per cent over the last three months of the year. Dombrovkis said: “It is important that the United States, NATO and all EU Member States continue to cooperate closely, supporting Ukraine in response to Russian escalation. We are united in sending a clear message to Russia: any further aggressive action would bring it severe political and economic consequences.” Dombrovskis also said the commission plans to approve a €1.2bn financial aid package to Ukraine today. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has threatened to place sanctions on the pipeline if Russia instigates conflict in the region. The US has said the pipeline will not be greenlit if Ukraine is invaded. Another aggravating factor is the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which typically supplies Europe with around a sixth of its gas imports. It has flowed eastwards away from Germany for over a month and Gazprom currently has no exports planned via the pipeline this month. Wholesale prices rose five-fold over the course of 2021, and while prices have effectively halved since Christmas they remain historically high with fears that elevated costs could effectively be baked into the market. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline would double Russia’s exports with Germany, pumping 55 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year into the continent via the Baltic sea floor. Any call to reject Nord Stream 2 would not come without costs, as the trading bloc currently relies on Russia for around 40 per cent of its natural gas imports. The decision would infuriate Moscow. European gas prices have gone on a wild journey over recent months and remain historically high. The continent scarcely escaped serious difficulties this winter, effectively bailed out by a flotilla of US tankers last month. In the end, only Moldova and Kosovo suffered from power outages. It is unlikely that new deals with non-Russian gas suppliers would sustainably replace both the potential gains in supplies Nord Stream 2 could provide, and Russia’s current gas offerings to the continent. EU-focused think tank Bruegel has recently suggested that the trading bloc would only be able to temporarily keep up with consumption demand if there were severe shortages. Platts Analytics suggest European storage stocks are around 19 bcm below the five-year seasonal average. Over the past few weeks, the US has been scrambling to procure deals with non-Russian gas suppliers such as Qatar, while EU energy chief Simson is set to attend conferences in Azerbaijan and Washington to negotiate potential energy settlements. Qatar does have contracts to fulfil across the world amid rebounding demand in Asia, with Europe just one of many players in a global gas supply crisis. The country typically favours long-term contracts. Qatar has also attached strings to any future arrangements. The current crisis could provide new partners with previously unexpected opportunities. In gas markets, the deep shortage that has developed on both global LNG markets and in the European gas market point to some market opportunities for producers to find high interest in those volumes. This may allow new pipeline projects from Central  Asia or the Mediterranean region, new fields in the North Sea, or new LNG projects (especially in the US) to lock in volumes at prices that would have been difficult to negotiate just 12 months ago. LNG has to be converted to usable supplies through an extensive storage process. European LNG imports hit a record high last month, at 11.8 bcm, compared with a previous record in November 2019 of around 9 bcm. With supplies rising from 51 per cent to 75 per cent of capacity in Western and Southern Europe, this means the continent only has limited capabilities to absorb further flows of LNG. Nearly 45 per cent of the LNG imports were from the United States. (Source: CityA.M.)

Russia     Oroszország    
1 February 2022  Text of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Mr. Lavrov`s written message on Indivisibility of Security addressed to the Heads of Foreign / External Affairs Ministers / Secretaries of the US, Canada and several European countries    "134-01-02-2022     Unofficial translation     You are well aware that Russia is seriously concerned about increasing politico-military tensions in the immediate vicinity of its western borders. With a view to avoiding any further escalation, the Russian side presented on 15 December 2021 the drafts of two interconnected international legal documents – a Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on Security Guarantees and an Agreement on Measures to Ensure the Security of the Russian Federation and Member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The U.S. and NATO responses to our proposals received on 26 January 2022 demonstrate serious differences in the understanding of the principle of equal and indivisible security that is fundamental to the entire European security architecture. We believe it is necessary to  immediately clarify this issue, as it will determine the prospects for future dialogue. The Charter for European Security signed at the OSCE Summit in Istanbul in November 1999 formulated key rights and obligations of the OSCE participating States with respect to indivisibility of security. It underscored the right of each participating  State to be free to choose or change its security arrangements including treaties of alliances, as they evolve, as well as the right of each State to neutrality. The same paragraph of the Charter directly conditions those rights on the obligation of each State not to strengthen its security at the expense of the security of other States. It says further that no State, group of States or Organization can have any pre-eminent responsibility for maintaining peace and stability in the OSCE area or can consider any part of the OSCE area as its sphere of influence. At the OSCE Summit in Astana in December 2010, the leaders of our nations approved a declaration that reaffirmed this comprehensive package of interconnected obligations. However, the Western countries continue to pick up out of it only those elements that suit them, and namely – the right of States to be free to choose alliances for ensuring exclusively their own security. The words ‘as they evolve’ are shamefacedly omitted, because this provision was also an integral part of the understanding of ‘indivisible security’, and specifically in the sense that military alliances must abandon their initial deterrence function and integrate into the all-European architecture based on collective approaches, rather than as narrow groups. The principle of indivisible security is selectively interpreted as a justification for the ongoing course toward irresponsible expansion of NATO. It is revealing that Western representatives, while expressing their readiness to engage in dialogue on the European security architecture, deliberately avoid making reference to the Charter for European Security and the Astana Declaration in their comments. They mention only earlier OSCE documents, particularly often – the 1990 Charter of Paris for a New Europe that does not contain the increasingly ‘inconvenient’ obligation not to strengthen own security at the expense of the security of other States. Western capitals also attempt to ignore a key OSCE document – the 1994 Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security, which clearly says that the States will choose their security arrangements, including membership in alliances, ‘bearing in mind the legitimate security concerns of other States’. It will not work that way. The very essence of the agreements on indivisible security is that either there is security for all or there is no security for anyone. The Istanbul Charter provides that each OSCE participating State has equal right to security, and not only NATO countries that interpret this right as an exceptional privilege of membership in the ‘exclusive’ North Atlantic club". (...) "The situation demands a frank clarification of positions. We want to receive a clear answer to the question how our partners understand their obligation not to strengthen their own security at the expense of the security of other States on the basis of the commitment to the principle of indivisible security. How specifically does your Government intend to fulfil this obligation in practical terms in the current circumstances? If you renege on this obligation, we ask you to clearly state that". (...) "Your response will help to better understand the extent of the ability of our partners to remain faithful to their commitments, as well as the prospects for common progress toward decreasing tensions and strengthening European security". (Source: mid.ru): https://tinyurl.com/3b2fyh6y

2022. II. 1. 17:30 - 18:06. Orbán Viktor magyar miniszterelnök és Vlagyimir Putyin orosz elnök a találkozó utáni sajtótájékoztatón.     Putyin, orosz elnök kifejezte örömét, hogy Orbán Viktor az orosz fővárosban tárgyalt. A kétoldalú együttműködés részleteit, a 2019-es budapesti látogatása óta eltelt eredményeket és a további célokat tárgyalták, fogalmazták meg. A két ország közös vállalatot hoz létre a Dél-Európába irányuló szállítás elősegítésére. Emlékeztetett: az egészségügyben is együttműködik a két ország, Magyarország a Szputnyik V-t engedélyezte és folytatódnak a tárgyalások a Szputnyik Light kapcsán is. Hangsúlyozta: Magyarország fontos partner. Felhívta a figyelmet, hogy Magyarország a felhasznált kőolaj 55 százalékát és a gáz 80 százalékát Oroszországból vásárolta. Magyarországon keresztül haladnak a tranzit útvonalak, melyek Nyugat-Európába irányulnak. A Mol kőolaj-kitermelésben játszott szerepéről is elismerően szólt. A magyar és orosz fél az atomenergia tekintetében is komoly együttműködést tud felmutatni. Elmondta, hogy megvitatták az ukrán helyzetet és az emberi jogok kérdését is. Beszéltek a nemzeti kisebbségek aggasztó helyzetéről is. Oroszország NATO felé támasztott biztosíték-igényeiről is tárgyaltak. Putyin szerint a nyugati hatalmak nem vették figyelembe Oroszország kéréseit és az aggályokat. Végezetül megköszönte Orbán Viktornak a közös eredményes munkát. Biztos abban, hogy a továbbiakban is sikeres együttműködés lesz a két ország között.     Orbán Viktor magyar kormányfő emlékeztetett: tizenkettedik alkalommal találkozott az orosz elnökkel. Jelenlegi látogatása nyilvánvalóan az eddigi legfontosabb és azt békemissziónak is tekintette. Az EU a békében érdekelt, és különösen igaz ez a közép-európaiakra. Elmondta: mikor a nyugat és a kelet egymással versengett, arra Közép-Európa rajtavesztett. Érdekünk, hogy a feszültség alább hagyjon és ne térjen vissza a hidegháború – ehhez párbeszédre van szükség. Orbán Viktor erre biztatja a nyugati partnereket is. Magyarország tagja a NATO-nak és az EU-nak, közben pedig kiváló kapcsolatokat tud ápolni Oroszországgal. Ennek alapja a kölcsönös tisztelet, amit a két ország vezetői mindig megadtak a másiknak. A világjárvány során 900 ezer magyar embert sikerült beoltani orosz oltóanyaggal. Az energetikai együttműködés továbbra is jól működik, hiszen sikerült meghosszabbítani a hosszú távú gázszállítási szerződéseket. Az orosz elnök ígéretet tett arra, hogy tárgyalni fognak a Magyarországra szállítandó gáz mértékének emeléséről is. A nemzeti oltóanyaggyár is erősíti a két ország közötti együttműködést. A paksi beruházás segít abban is, hogy a magyar energiagazdálkodás teljesen zölddé váljon – fogalmazott. Kiemelte: ígéretet kapott arra, hogy több repülőjáratot indítanak Oroszországból Magyarország felé, ezzel is segítve a turizmust. További két közvetlen járat létesítéséről is tárgyalások folynak majd.     Újságírói kérdésre válaszolva Putyin elnök elmondta: több orosz vállalattal is tárgyalt, például a gázszállítás kérdésében. Azok egytől egyig a magyar fél számára kedvező álláspontot mutattak. A gázszállítás növelése Oroszország számára nem fog gondot jelenteni. Bár a földrészen talán lesznek problémák az energiabiztonsággal, de Magyarországnak ilyen problémái nem lesznek. Arról is beszélt, hogy a logisztika területén nagyon jó közös lehetőségek vannak. Vegyesvállalat létrehozása is ezt segíti elő. A mezőgazdasági együttműködés új formáit is lehetségesnek tartja Magyarországgal. Putyin emlékeztetett: korábban ígéretet kaptak arra, hogy a NATO nem terjeszkedik tovább Oroszország felé. Az Egyesült Államok kilépett egy korábban megkötött megállapodásból és rakétaindító állomásokat telepítenek Európa keleti felére. A következő lépésnek Ukrajnát tekintik. Ukrajna doktrinális dokumentumaiban az áll, hogy a Krímet katonai úton szeretnék visszaszerezni – mondta Putyin. Ott lesznek a csapásmérő eszközök, ugyanúgy, mint Romániában. Feltette a kérdést: ha Ukrajna a NATO tagja lenne, rengeteg fegyverrel elkezdené támadni a Krímet és a donbaszi területet, mi lesz akkor? "Ekkor a NATO-val fogunk harcolni, valaki gondolt erre?” Az orosz elnök szerint Ukrajna egy eszköz a nyugat kezében, hogy áthágja Oroszország biztonsági igényeit. Putyin szerint mindenki szempontjait figyelembe kell venni, Oroszországét is.     Orbán miniszterelnök emlékeztetett: Nyugat-Európában két-háromszorosára emelkedett az energia ára, egyedül Magyarországon nem. Ebben jelentős szerepe van az orosz gáznak. Ha orosz gáz van, rezsicsökkentés is van – jelentette ki. A nukleáris együttműködés a jó magyar klímapolitika nélkülözhetetlen eleme, és ebben is biztató az orosz fél hozzáállása – tette hozzá. A gazdasági együttműködés további területeit tekintve tárgyaltak az új együttműködési lehetőségekről. Emlékeztetett:a nyugati büntető rendelkezéseket Oroszország jól viselte. Hozzátette: a nyugati szankciók nagyobb kárt okoztak hazánknak, mint Oroszországnak. Piacot vesztettünk, míg Oroszország piackiváltó kapacitásokat teremtett. Kiemelte: a szankciós politika nem célravezető - kudarcra ítélt eszköz. Orbán Viktor szerint lehetséges olyan megállapodást kötni, ami mind Oroszország, mind a NATO és a Nyugat számára elfogadható. A NATO és Oroszország viszonyát firtató újságírói kérdésre válaszolva kifejtette: a helyzet komoly, a különbségek is jelentősek. Oroszország igényei - amelyeket a világ ismer - és az arra adott válasz nem találkoznak egymással. Ez a távolság bár jelentős, de nem áthidalhatatlan. (Forrás: Híradó)
Lásd még: 2022.02.01. "Orbán Viktor: Békemisszió is a moszkvai látogatás" /video/ (Forrás: Híradó / MTI/: https://tinyurl.com/2p8fbh96

2022.02.01.  “No EU leader wants war,” says Orbán. “My visit today is also a kind of peace mission. I would like to reassure you that none of the leaders of the European Union and its member nations want a war or conflicts,” Prime Minister Orbán said, meeting with President Putin in Moscow today, regarding the rapidly escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine, according to reports by Russian news agency TASS, based on the few minutes of  that were made public. “We call for political solutions and mutually beneficial agreements,” Orbán added, noting that the European Union is “ready for a reasonable agreement.” Prior to the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Peskov said yesterday that Moscow was impressed with “Hungary’s independent approach to representing its interests and picking its friends.” “It is also impressive that we could carry on with our many economic projects despite the coronavirus pandemic, and continue to discuss international affairs, including the most pressing ones,” he said. Regarding Ukraine, the Russian President noted that Moscow has already sent its proposals concerning international security to NATO and the US. “It would be very important to me to exchange opinions with you on the current situation in the security sphere. I will gladly inform you on how this process is developing,” Putin said. In his opening remarks, Orbán outlined that he had met with Putin twelve times during the past thirteen years. “The two of us have had the longest history in EU-Russia ties,” he added, noting that “Practically everybody who used to be a colleague of mine in running an EU country is not a colleague anymore.” Referring to the gas contract, the Hungarian PM said Hungary aims to negotiate an increase in the volume of natural gas delivered to the country under its long-term gas contract with Russia. President Putin said that the gas contract in effect until 2036 ensured Hungary’s long-term stability. Under the contract, Hungary can also purchase gas well below the market price, Putin added. Orbán called the contract “very important,” adding that Hungary aimed to negotiate an increase of the gas volume therein. The Hungarian PM thanked Putin for Russia’s deliveries of coronavirus vaccines, noting that some 900,000 Hungarians were inoculated with Sputnik V. Orbán said that despite the current “difficult times,” 2021 had been the most successful year in bilateral cooperation with Russia. The coronavirus pandemic and energy supplies, he added, had been the biggest challenges. Viktor Orbán also mentioned the upcoming parliamentary elections to the Russian President. Orbán said he wasn’t planning to leave. “There are elections in April. I’m going to run and win,” he said. “That’s why I have a reasonable assumption that you and I will cooperate for many years to come.” In response, Putin said the Hungarian government led by Viktor Orbán did a lot to develop Russian-Hungarian relations. “We usually say on occasions like this, when our partners are holding elections soon, that we will work with any government that will be elected,” Putin said at the meeting. “But I have to mention your work with respect to Russia has resulted in a lot of achievements in the interests of the Hungarian people and in the interests of Russia.” “I hope this mutual work will be continued,” he went on to say. Orbán said  cooperation related to the Paks nuclear power plant was “progressing fantastically,” and Hungarian investments which were also approved by the Russian government had taken place, adding that he would put forward proposals to further develop cooperation in this area. Putin noted that bilateral trade turnover increased by 30 percent in the first 11 months of last year, adding that besides nuclear energy, major projects in engineering were also taking place between the two countries. (Source: HungaryToday)

February 1, 2022  Russian President Putin is readying for talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has taken a softer line on the Ukraine crisis than other fellow NATO and European Union member states. The Kremlin said ahead of the meeting that the leaders would discuss bilateral ties as well as “security issues on the European continent and regional conflicts,” an allusion to the standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine. Orbán has said he will seek an agreement to increase Hungary’s gas imports from Russia at a time when some in Europe accuse Moscow of orchestrating an energy crisis to pressure European countries. (Source: AlJazeera)

February 1, 2022, Tuesday. After the United States and several allies announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games, Putin publicly supported Beijing, saying Russia was “standing together with China against the politicization of sport and demonstrative boycotts.” Putin is expected to visit Beijing for Friday’s Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies and for talks with his Chinese counterpart. In Beijing, Putin will have his first offline meeting with President Xi in nearly two years, to discuss Ukraine and other issues. The China-Russia bond has deepened considerably in recent years. They share resources and technology. At the same time Xi and Putin have been united by U.S. sanctions against their countries, but also by their ambition to expand their international influence and hard-fisted governing styles. Both have rewritten their country’s laws to extend their own rule and cracked down harshly on those perceived as threats to their power. Chinese diplomat Yang called Sino-Russian relations “the best in history” last year. The last time China hosted the Olympics in 2008, Russia invaded Georgia, as Putin was in Beijing to watch the Opening Ceremonies. China and Russia are divided on many issues, including some territorial claims, and their alliance remains informal. China does not recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea, while Russia does not recognize China’s “nine-dash line” asserting its claims in the South China Sea. It was precisely the pressure of the United States on Russia and on China that provided this common platform, said Maslov, director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University. “It is very important to note that neither Russia makes concessions in its national interests, nor does China,” he said. The Beijing-Moscow ties have further deepened in recent years as the two faced sanctions and other similar challenges from the West. Both Beijing and Moscow see the partnership as key to countering a world dominated by the United States. In the face of the common threat of U.S. pressure, Sino-Russian trade has grown. Russia has vast natural resources and a strong software industry. China excels in technological hardware and manufacturing. The Trump administration accused Huawei and other Chinese tech companies of posing national security threats, slapping similar restrictions on Russian companies for alleged cyberattacks. The sanctions prompted Huawei’s founder, Ren, to declare a push to hire more engineers in Russia. Moscow welcomed the move, seeing partnerships as a way to advance its own high-tech industry. The growing alliance has echoes of the 1950s, when the Soviet Union and China aligned against the West in the Cold War. In a massive technology-transfer program, the Soviets helped China set up 156 major industrial enterprises, with 11,000 specialists sent from 1954 to 1958, said Torigian, a historian at American University in Washington. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Sino-Russian relations warmed again, with the two countries pledging in 1996 to build an “equal and reliable partnership.” “If we look at who are China’s allies, meaning not only in its military power but in its political ideas, we will see that only Russia is its unequivocal ally,” Maslov said. China stands to benefit from the Ukraine crisis. It has monopolized the attention of Western governments at a time when they had planned to highlight China’s human rights violations with a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics. If Russia suffers economic sanctions from the West, it could create business opportunities for China. And steady trade with China may also shield Russia from the worst effects of sanctions. There are also risks for China in a Ukraine war. China buys a significant amount of military equipment from Ukraine and would be caught in the middle. So far, though, China’s rhetoric internationally has been firmly in Russia’s corner. Last month, Beijing voiced support for Russia’s deployment of troops to Kazakhstan to quell unrest. Ties have also strengthened in other areas, such as in defense, cybersecurity and counterterrorism. “They don’t have a formal military agreement, so they have not created a formal military alliance, but the countries de facto act already as this military union,” Maslov said. “We see joint exercises being conducted and even the participation of third countries.” Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has lauded the relationship as “a model of interstate cooperation in the 21st century.” In a phone call in January 27 with U.S. Secretary of State, China’s foreign minister said that Russia’s security concerns should be taken seriously and that regional security could not be guaranteed by expanding  military blocs. (Source: TheWashingtonPost)

February 1, 2022   Russia introduces travel bans against certain EU persons. On 28 January 2022, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs notified the representative office of the European Union about the expansion of the list of representatives of EU member states and institutions prohibited from entering the territory of the Russian Federation. The names of the banned persons did not become public. No economic sanctions have been imposed against them. The sanction has been imposed on executives of several European private military companies;  representatives of law enforcement agencies; members of legislative authorities of a number of EU member states; officials of executive authorities of a number of EU member states. According to the Russian MFA, these individuals are personally responsible for promoting anti-Russian policies and “imposing” measures that infringe on the legal rights of Russian-speaking residents and the media. The measures are based on Federal Law, in response to the inclusion of Crimean security officers, judges, deputies and executive branch officials in the sanctions list. (Source: SanctionsnewsBakerMcKenzie)

Ukraine
February 1, 2022   Ukraine will increase the size of its armed forces by 100,000 people over three years, Zelenskyy says. Addressing Ukraine’s parliament, the president told legislators he hoped the date of another round of peace talks with Russia, France and Germany would be agreed soon. (Source: AlJazeera)

Asia
1 Feb 2022 COVID worries
muted Lunar New Year celebrations across Asia, even as increasing vaccination rates raised hopes that the Year of the Tiger might bring life back closer to normal.    Some 85 percent of Chinese people are now fully vaccinated, and more Chinese have been travelling domestically this year, despite government warnings. The Beijing Winter Olympics open near the end of the weeklong holiday. The Chinese capital has been tightening controls to contain outbreaks ahead of the sporting event. Hong Kong saw a surge in cases in January. The  city has closed schools because of outbreaks and required restaurants to close at 6pm, forcing many to have their traditional New Year’s Eve family dinners at home.     In Myanmar the new year coincides with the one-year anniversary of the military’s seizure of power from the democratically elected government. Supporters of the anti-military movement have called for people to close their shops and businesses in a nationwide “silent strike” from 10am to 4pm. People have responded to the call, in defiance of the military leaders who warned that anyone who  participates could face legal action, including charges of violating the country’s counterterrorism law.     In Singapore, the rules are likely to get in the way of the tradition of visiting relatives during the holiday. New Year celebrations are more subdued due to coronavirus restrictions that allow residents to receive only five unique visitors a day, and preferably only one visit daily.     Business was brisk at a flower market in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei today as people made last-minute purchases. Some 73 percent of Taiwanese are fully vaccinated.     In Thailand, Bangkok decided not to hold traditional Lunar New Year celebrations in Chinatown for the second year in a row but was going ahead with lighting seasonal lanterns on the district’s main street. 69 percent of people are fully vaccinated.     In the old quarter of Hanoi, people flocked on the weekend to the traditional market to get decorations and flowers for the festival, known as Tet in Vietnam. More than 70 percent of Vietnamese people are  fully vaccinated, and 80 percent have had at least one shot. Vietnam’s daily case count remains at about 15,000 new infections but its low hospitalisation and death rate has allowed the country to reopen for business and cautiously resume social activities. (Source: AlJazeera)

United States
February 1, 2022 The US State Department has ordered the family members of staff at its embassy in Belarus to leave the country. The move, announced in updated guidance issued today, came as the department also warned US citizens against travel to Belarus due to an “unusual and concerning Russian military buildup” along Belarus’ border with Ukraine. (Source: AlJazeera)

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2022. I. 31. Hungary, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, India, North Korea, globalization.

2022.02.01. 02:48 Eleve

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Europe

Hungary
January 31, 2022 5:51 PM GMT+1 British defence minister
backs de-escalation of Ukraine-Russia crisis. Britain's defence minister Wallace said today it was important to defuse the Ukraine-Russia crisis as a war would lead to greater instability, higher fuel prices and migrant flows. Wallace also expressed support for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's planned trip to Russia tomorrow for talks with President Putin, adding: "We need to de-escalate this and stand up for the right for sovereignty of Ukraine". Wallace said it was "important to signal to Putin that the very thing he fears, that is, more NATO close to Russia, would be the consequence of invading Ukraine ...This is why the UK offered NATO more ground forces, more readiness as a deterrent." Hungarian Defence Minister Benkő told the same news conference that right now there was no need for a deployment of foreign NATO troops in Hungary, an alliance member state that borders to the northeast with Ukraine. Benkő said the Hungarian government was not against NATO deploying troops in central and eastern European countries closer to Ukraine but that Hungary was able "to perform this task on its own" in its territory. "If any country is not  able to do this on their own, its their sovereign right to receive NATO forces," he added. Orbán's Hungary has relatively good relations with Russia despite tensions between the alliance and Moscow over Ukraine. Orbán said on Friday, January 28, he would seek to increase the amount of gas it receives from Russia at his talks with Putin in Moscow, after Hungary agreed a new long-term gas supply agreement with Russia's Gazprom in August. Orbán is also expected to discuss an ongoing expansion of Hungary's Paks nuclear plant, where Rosatom is building new reactors. Moscow denies planning to attack Ukraine and is demanding security guarantees including a promise by NATO never to let Kyiv join the alliance. /video/ (Source: Reuters)? https://tinyurl.com/2p8dkudj

Germany
January 31, 2022  It’s too early and too counterproductive to write off Berlin
and jump to the conclusion that Germany looks East rather than West. Germany’s new government is under fire for its Russia policy during one of the worst crises in European security since the Balkan wars. Recent signals coming out of Berlin on sanctions and defensive weapon deliveries created confusion across the Atlantic, threatening to upend a unified response to a Russian incursion into Ukraine. Is Germany reverting to its weaker stance on Russia from before the country invaded Crimea in 2014? Or, is Germany returning to its historical Mittellage, moving to the middle between Moscow and Washington? Both NATO secretary-general Stoltenberg and U.S. secretary of state Blinken traveled to Berlin last week to scrutinize Germany’s position and shore up the ally’s support. That’s because the status quo is confusing. An array of messaging came from German officials comprising its multiparty government, making it difficult to distinguish which voices represent Germany’s official position and which are a confusing casualty of coalition governance. For the first time in the country’s history, Germany is governed by a three-party coalition. There is political infighting both within and between the governing parties. For example, the left-wing of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which has been traditionally softer on Russia, has become stronger in recent years; whereas the Greens have come a long way from their pacifist roots. The coalition agreement outlining the government’s policies only papered over points of contention, resulting in a lot of confusion over internal dynamics within the new government. The German chancellor had been silent for too long while some members of his own party have created confusion within the alliance, undermining confidence at a time when it is absolutely critical. As a result, this skepticism still persists. Despite all the criticism, there is no indication that Germany wants to be responsible for fracturing the U.S.-led approach. Germany sees as a diplomatic necessity to bring Russia back to the negotiation table and away from military escalation. (Source: TheNationalInterest)

Spain
January 31, 2022   Right leaders agree on ‘roadmap for sovereign and patriotic Europe’. Nine European leaders, among others Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and France’s Le Pen, have agreed on a “roadmap” for a patriotic Europe during a meeting held in Madrid. The Madrid summit was organised by Spain’s right Vox party, the third political force in the Spanish parliament after the socialist PSOE and centre-right Partido Popular (PP). Some of other European leaders who took part in the summit: Svazek (Austria), Van Grieken (Belgium), Karakachanov (Bulgaria), Helme (Estonia), Sofo and Borchia (Italy), Tomasevski (Lithuania), Roos (the Netherlands) and Pavelescu (Romania). The nine parties met for the first time in Warsaw in December 2021. Now they reiterated their concern about “internal and external attacks” on the European Union. Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki expressed his conviction that the nine parties who met in Madrid are the “alternative for the future of Europe”, with common values and a joint defence of sovereign states. The text signed by those in attendance was clear that they "condemn Brussels’ politically motivated attacks on Poland and Hungary, which show a complete disregard for EU basic principles and a breach of the spirit of the treaty. "We must cooperate and join forces to protect Europe from the ideologies imposed on it and the anti-democratic slide that leads to its loss.” In a joint declaration approved in January 29, Saturday, the nine leaders focused on Russia’s military build-up on the Ukrainian border. “Russia’s military actions on Europe’s eastern border have brought us to the brink of war,” they stressed. “Solidarity, determination and defence cooperation between the nations of Europe are necessary in the face of such threats,” the joint document reads. Viktor Orbán advocated “peace, de-escalation and negotiation” in the face of the Ukrainian crisis and rejected the notion that the solution to the conflict is a strategic agreement between Russia and the United States on European security without the participation of Europeans. The nine parties which attended the Madrid summit have signed a document with nine specific commitments for the future, including fighting illegal immigration, promoting the birth rate and defending the sovereignty of member states. “We are the ones who defend Europe. We will not allow the flag of the hammer and sickle to be raised here, nor the crescent flag, nor the dark flag of the globalisation elites,” Abascal said in his closing speech. (Euractiv / EFE)
See also: 2022. jan. 29. "La Cumbre de los «partidos patriotas europeos» concluye con nueve compromisos" (Source: euroefe)

United Kingdom
January 31, 2022  Gray’s report into Downing Street parties was published. Top government official Gray said Scotland Yard had prevented her from publishing details of the most egregious offenses - including a party in Johnson’s private apartment at the height of lockdown restrictions - but she still concluded that the events “should not have been allowed,” rejecting the defense that these were merely work events. The report confirmed that the police are now carrying out criminal investigations into 12 parties held by the government allegedly in contravention of their own coronavirus legislation. (Source: TheDailyBeast)
The following events were in scope:    • 15 May 2020; a photograph showing a number of groups in the garden of No 10 Downing Street;     • 20 May 2020: a gathering in the garden of No 10 Downing Street for No 10 staff;    • 18 June 2020: a gathering in the Cabinet Office, 70 Whitehall on the departure of a No 10 private secretary;    • 19 June 2020: a gathering in the Cabinet room in No 10 Downing Street on the Prime Minister’s birthday;    • 13 November 2020: a gathering in the No 10 Downing Street flat; a gathering in No 10 Downing Street on the departure of a special adviser;    • 27 November 2020: a gathering in No 10 Downing Street on the departure of a special adviser;     • 10 December 2020: a gathering in the Department for Education ahead of the Christmas break;    • 15 December 2020: a gathering in No 10 Downing Street for an online Christmas quiz;     • 17 December 2020: a gathering in Cabinet Office, 70 Whitehall to hold an online Christmas quiz for the Cabinet Secretary’s private office;    • a gathering in Cabinet Office, 70 Whitehall on the departure of a senior Cabinet Office official;     • a gathering in No 10 Downing Street on the departure of a No 10 official;    • 18 December 2020: a gathering in No 10 Downing Street ahead of the Christmas break;    • 14 January 2021; a gathering in No 10 Downing Street on the departure of two No 10 private secretaries;    • 16 April 2021; A gathering in No 10 Downing Street on the departure of a senior No 10 official;    • A gathering in No 10 Downing Street on the departure of another No 10 official.
See also: Timeline of regulations         26 March 2020: restrictions on leaving one’s home without a reasonable excuse, first announced on 23 March, come into legal effect in England. Very limited exceptions permit travel to work where it is not reasonably possible to work from home. Participating in a gathering of more than two persons is prohibited except where the gathering “is essential for work purposes”...     (and further thirteen similar national measures) /Source: TheGuardian/

Asia

India
31 January 2022 
India's parliament opens amid a political storm over fresh allegations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government bought Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to snoop on its critics. Similar allegations emerged last year, and the government had denied them. The allegations are expected to result in a heated debate as parliament assembles for a joint session of both houses. This comes ahead of the annual budget, which will be tabled in February 1, and days before five states go to the polls to elect a new government. Last year, Indian media outlet The Wire reported that some 160 Indians, including prominent activists, lawyers and politicians, were spied on using the Pegasus malware. Pegasus infects iPhones and Android devices, allowing operators to extract messages, photos and emails, record calls and secretly activate microphones. An investigation by a global consortium of media outlets showed how the malware was used by governments around the world to hack phones of dissidents. The targets' phone numbers were on a database believed to be of interest to clients of Israeli firm NSO. It's unclear where the list came from or how many phones were hacked - and NSO has denied any wrongdoing. It said the software was intended for tracking criminals and terrorists and was only sold to military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies from countries with good human rights records. Pegasus and a missile system were the "centerpieces" of a roughly $2bn deal that took place between India and Israel in 2017 when Mr Modi made his first trip to the country. The visit - and a subsequent one by Mr Netanyahu the following year - marked a significant turn in India's relationship with Israel. Opposition politicians have questioned the government's "silence" on the issue and demanded that Mr Modi must address the country. (Source: BBC)

North Korea
31.01.2022  South Korea's joint chiefs of staff
reported that a projectile had been identified as a medium-range missile launched at around 7:52 a.m. local time (2252 UTC) from North Korea's northern Jagang province that had flown 800 kilometers toward the open sea, reaching a maximum altitude of 2,000 kilometers. The Hwasong-12 is a nuclear-capable ground-to-ground missile. It has a maximum range of 4,500 kilometers if fired on a standard trajectory. The reported flight details make it the most powerful missile North Korea has tested since 2017. Japan's defense ministry and prime minister's office said the weapon was possibly a ballistic missile. Japan's coast guard issued a maritime safety warning, but there were no immediate reports of damage to boats or aircraft. Sunday's weapons test was North Korea's seventh this year. This series of launches violate UN resolutions. The US Indo-Pacific Command's statement said the command assessed that the test did not pose an immediate threat to US territory, personnel or allies. (Source: DW)

Globalization

January 31, 2022, Monday.   The U.N. Security Council held a stormy and bellicose debate on Moscow's troop buildup near its southern neighbor. Russia accused the West today of “whipping up tensions” over Ukraine and said the U.S. had brought “pure Nazis” to power in Kyiv. U.S. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield shot back that Russia's growing military force of more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders was “the largest mobilization" in Europe in decades. It was the first open session where all protagonists in the Ukraine crisis spoke publicly, even though the U.N.'s most powerful body took no action. Talks between the U.S. and Russia have so far failed to ease tensions in the crisis, The West is saying Moscow is preparing for an invasion. Russia denies it is planning to attack. It demands pledges that Ukraine will never join NATO, a halt to the deployment of NATO weapons near Russian borders and a rollback of the alliance's forces from Eastern Europe. NATO and the U.S. call those nonstarters. Russian Ambassador Nebenzia accused the U.S. of interfering in his country’s internal affairs and seeking “a classic example of megaphone diplomacy.” Thomas-Greenfield countered that the U.S. has held over 100 private meetings in the past few weeks with Russian officials and European and Ukrainian colleagues. After the council gave a green light for the meeting, Nebenzia, looking at Thomas-Greenfield accused the Biden administration of “whipping up tensions and rhetoric and provoking escalation”. “You want it to happen. You’re waiting for it to happen, as if you want to make your words become a reality.” He blamed the U.S. for the 2014 ouster of a Kremlin-friendly president in Kyiv, saying it brought to power “nationalists, radicals, Russophobes and pure Nazis,” and created the antagonism that exists between Ukraine and Russia. “If they hadn’t done this, then we to date would be living in a spirit of good neighborly relations and mutual cooperation,” Nebenzia said. “However, some in the West just don’t clearly like this positive scenario. What’s happening today is yet another attempt to drive a wedge between Russia and Ukraine.” Nebenzia pointedly left the council chamber as the Ukrainian Ambassador Kyslytsya started to speak. The vote on holding an open meeting passed 10-2, with Russia and China opposed, and India, Gabon and Kenya abstaining. The U.S. and its allies had pressed to hold the meeting Monday, the last day of Norway's rotating presidency of the council, before Russia takes over Tuesday for the month of February. Any statement or resolution by the Security Council is extremely unlikely, given Russia’s veto power and its ties with others on the council, including China. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Blinken are expected to speak by phone tomorrow. Biden warned Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in a phone call in January 27 that there is a “distinct possibility” Russia could begin an incursion in February, but the Ukrainian leader sought to play down the war fears, saying Western alarm over an imminent invasion has prompted many investors in the country’s financial markets to cash out. Zelenskyy said in January 28 that “we aren’t seeing any escalation bigger than before,” and charged that the Russian buildup could be an attempt by Moscow to exert “psychological pressure” and sow panic. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit Ukraine tomorrow for talks with Zelenskyy, and will also speak with Russian President Putin to urge him to “step back.” Johnson says he is considering sending hundreds of British troops to NATO countries in the Baltic region as a show of strength. Yesterday, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Menendez, said that in the event of an attack, lawmakers want actions against Russian banks that could severely undermine the Russian economy and increased lethal aid to Ukraine’s military. Menendez raised the prospect of imposing  punishments preemptively, before any invasion. (Source: TheState)

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2022. I. 3. Globalization. Joint Statement of the Leaders of the Five Nuclear-Weapon States on Preventing Nuclear War...

2022.01.04. 23:39 Eleve

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Joint Statement of the Leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states on preventing nuclear war
and avoiding arms races


January 03, 2022  The People’s Republic of China, the French Republic, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America consider the avoidance of war between Nuclear-Weapon States and the reduction of strategic risks as our foremost responsibilities. We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. As nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weapons - for as long as they continue to exist - should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war. We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented. We each intend to maintain and further strengthen our national measures to prevent unauthorized or unintended use of nuclear weapons. We reiterate the validity of our previous statements on de-targeting, reaffirming that none of our nuclear weapons are targeted at each other or at any other State. We intend to continue seeking bilateral and multilateral diplomatic approaches to avoid military confrontations, strengthen stability and predictability, increase mutual understanding and confidence, and prevent an arms race that would benefit none and endanger all.  We are resolved to pursue constructive dialogue with mutual respect and acknowledgment of each other’s security interests and concerns. (Source: TheWhiteHouse)

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2021. XII. 31 - 2022. I. 2. Hungary, France, European Union, Russia, China, Canada.

2022.01.04. 16:50 Eleve

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Hungary
Sunday, 02/01/2022 The government
is ploughing 800 billion forints (€ 2.2 billion) into wage hikes for public servants, and tax cuts worth 750 billion forints will help the private sector in raising the minimum wage at the beginning of 2022, in line with regulations, the government spokesperson said today. Szentkirályi said in a video post that financial stability and a good economic performance were at the root of the raises. Nurses’ wages will grow by a further 21 percent from January, doctors’ wage hike will also continue, in line with the scheme launched in 2020 to raise doctors’ salaries two-and-a-half-fold on average, and employees working in the social and cultural sectors, as well as in creches, will see a 20 percent raise, she said. Teachers’ wages will grow by 10 percent, and law enforcement employees will get a one-off salary supplement of six months’ salary in February, she added. The minimum wage and the minimum wage for skilled workers will grow by 20 percent, she said. (Source: dailynewshungary)

France
01.01.2022  The Eiffel Tower was lit in the EU flag as France assumed the rotating EU presidency on January 1. The EU's presidency rotates every six months among the member states of the 27-nation bloc. This will be France's 13th time at the helm of the rotating presidency. The motto ofthe tenure of France's EU presidency is "recovery, strength, belonging." French President Macron said Europe's new model for growth must include innovation, job creation and job security for the continent to remain competitive globally and be in line with climate harm reduction initiatives on the other side of the pandemic. "This agenda for a sovereign Europe will be accelerated with the French Presidency. Europe must rise to the major economic, educational, migration and military challenges," Macron said in a statement. France seeks to place the continent's digitization and climate protection at the forefront of its time at the helm of the EU. Concretely, France hopes to promote a carbon tax and greater regulation of big tech. "Strategic autonomy" and strengthening an EU-wide minimum wage are also top agenda items. "The French presidency must be a moment of truth for the regulation and accountability of digital platforms, the carbon pricing at European borders on imported products, minimum wages and our relationship with Africa," Macron said in a statement. Germany's ruling coalition also sees validity in Macron's vision for "strategic autonomy" in Europe. Berlin and Paris agree that great power competition, notably between the United States on the one hand and China and Russia on the other, has the potential to negatively impact the EU. Macron faces an election challenge in April, with polls scheduled for April 10 and 24. France's EU presidency comes at a beneficial time for him politically, as it is a chance for him to showcase France as a European power. Although he has not yet said whether he will run again, Macron is expected to formally announce his reelection bid in February. "The EU presidency gives him a welcome platform to put his European record to the forefront and differentiate himself from his rivals, and bring new proposals, new ideas to the table," Demesmay at the Berlin think tank Marc-Bloch told. Come summer, the Czech Republic will have its turn once the French EU presidency concludes on June 1. (Source: DW)

European Union
January 1, 2021, Saturday  The European Commission published a draft proposal today labeling gas and nuclear energy as climate friendly. The EU Commission says that nuclear and gas energy can help the bloc achieve sustainability, the plan would "accelerate the phaseout of more harmful sources, such as coal, and in moving us towards a more low-carbon greener energy mix." The guidelines set out in the draft document would limit the green label to only those nuclear power plants that used the most up-to-date technological standards with strict plans for waste disposal. Likewise for gas plants, only those using the highest standards could be considered for the classification -  with a limit of 100 grams of carbon dioxide released per kilowatt-hour of energy produced. The proposal was sent to European Union member states late yesterday night, as 2021 was coming to a close. Member states have until January 12 to react to the draft. If the majority supports the proposal, then it would come into effect from 2023. The plan, which aims at directing investment towards energy production within the bloc, is set to play out amid an already existing rift within the bloc. Supporters of the proposal have argued that gas is "cleaner" than alternatives such as coal and that nuclear energy produces zero carbon emissions. Opponents reject these options in the pursuit of environmental sustainability. Germany is one of a handful of EU member states opposing nuclear power as a 'sustainable' alternative to fossil fuels. Germany's Vice-Chancellor Habeck who is also Germany's economy and climate minister from the environmentalist Green Party has accused the Commission using policies that appear climate friendly to cover environmentally destructive practices and said the plan would "water down" current efforts. He called the labeling of nuclear energy as sustainable "wrong," pointing to the long-term effects of nuclear waste. "It's questionable anyway if this greenwashing will find any kind of acceptance on the financial market," Habeck said. His sentiments were mirrored by the Green party German Environment Minister Lemke. While Germany has seen increasing opposition to nuclear energy since the disaster at Japan's Fukushima plant in 2011 -  resulting most recently in the closure of three out of the country's six remaining plants on December 31 - France has led the charge in favor of nuclear power as a clean alternative. France is heavily reliant on nuclear energy. Member states in the east and south of the bloc that are more reliant on fossil fuels have also defended gas as a possible transitional energy source. The prospects of the draft being shot down are slim since only a handful of EU countries besides Germany have spoken out against nuclear power. (Source: DW)

Russia
2 Jan, 2022 The Kremlin appears to be planning for an age
where America matters less. After the Cold War, the West initially signed up for several pan-European security agreements. The Charter of Paris for a New Europe in 1990, the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 and the Istanbul Document in 1999 all committed to the principle of “indivisible security,” which meant “They will not strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other States.” Maintaining its hegemony has demanded that Washington divide the world into marginalised adversaries and dependent allies. NATO’s supremacy in Europe was seen by many of the West’s leading lights as having created a lasting peace on the continent. At the same time though, it has also been the main source of conflict as the bloc expanded towards Russian borders. Living in an age when that American dominance is coming to an end, and its security guarantees are losing their credibility will stalemates and ceasefires be longer lasting as nations previously emboldened by US backing are forced to find lasting solutions with their adversaries, rather than languishing behind Washington’s protection? American power would decline, due to a diminishing ability to exert  influence over its dependent allies, and to marginalise its adversaries. If Ukraine and Taiwan did not have full faith that the US would offer them protection, then their positions as Washington’s frontlines against Russia and China would not be tenable and they would have to seek peace with their adversaries. Without steadfast US support, Ukraine would have to abide by the Minsk Peace Agreement, and Taiwan would need to halt its push for secession  from China. The failed US pursuit of regime change in Syria has resulted in both the Arabs and Turkey moving gradually towards reconciliation and a workable peace with Damascus. American efforts to reach an agreement with Iran, and the failure to decide the outcome of the conflict in Yemen, has similarly incentivised Saudi Arabia to re-establish diplomatic ties with Tehran, and paved the way for negotiations on improving bilateral relations and ending the war in Yemen. The EU is also coming to terms with the consequences of US decline. In May 2017, German Chancellor Angela Merkel argued that “I can only say: We Europeans really have to take our fates in our own hands.” The EU’s principal approach is now one of “strategic autonomy,” which could be expressed more  honestly as “autonomy from the US.” Without the support of Washington, Brussels is not able to construct a Europe without, and thus inevitably against, Russia. There is growing pressure to do a deal and reach a much-delayed post-Cold War settlement with Moscow that lays the foundation for pan-European security. The US began to dismantle other pan-European security agreements such as the NATO-Russia Founding Act of 1997, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987, and other agreements that could constrain the Americans. Europe is now in a precarious situation as the pan-European security agreements have been dismantled and there is no hegemony to ensure stability and order. Russia is deploying increasingly advanced weaponry and rapidly reducing its economic, technological, and financial reliance on the West by enhancing its economic connectivity with the East. The efforts by the US, Ukraine, and Poland to sabotage Nord Stream 2 will similarly result in European industries becoming less competitive, as cheap Russian gas goes to Asia instead. Russia faces an existential threat with NATO expansion into Ukraine, and Russia has the economic and military means to balance Western unilateralism. Moscow has now demanded an end to the era of NATO hegemony and a return to the principle of indivisible security.  (Source: RT / Diesen, Professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway and an editor at the Russia in Global Affairs journal).

2 Jan    Headlines:    Russian missile approach warning system detects over 170 launches in 2021. According to the Defense Ministry, the Voronezh new generation radars make up the bulk of the country’s land-based missile approach warning system.     Russia is ready to work with US on Ukraine issue in any format, senior diplomat Rudenko said. Attempts to attach obligations to Russia under the Minsk Agreements are stymying efforts to resolve the situation in Donbass, he said.     Union State Treaty virtually recognizes Russia’s ownership of Crimea. It clearly states that the territory of the Union State is the territory of Russia and Belarus in the form in which it is enshrined in their constitutions, Rudenko said.     Putin, Erdogan reaffirm determination to boost partnership in phone call - Kremlin. The parties also touched upon global issues, including the recent proposals on developing legally binding agreements that will guarantee Russia’s security.     COVID-19 pandemic may be over by May, expert says. According to Onishchenko, there are no grounds now for panic or the introduction of non-working days. (Source: TASS)

31 Dec  US President Biden agreed when Putin said Russia was seeking results in the talks on security, Kremlin aide Ushakov said today. Putin told Biden about the principles that underlie Russia’s security proposals, the aide said. The president said talks were important but the key goal for Russia was its security and the country will seek to achieve that goal, Ushakov said. "The US president has generally agreed with that point of view and his reaction made sense and was quite serious," the aide said. Putin also said Russia is concerned about deployment of offensive weapons near its borders and it will act just like the US would act if it had to confront a deployment of such weapons near its own borders, Ushakov said. Putin elaborated on the subject to drive the point home, Ushakov said. (Source: TASS)

China
December 31, 2021 China harvests masses of data on Western targets, documents show. China’s systems for analyzing domestic public opinion online are a powerful but largely unseen pillar of President Xi's program to modernize China’s propaganda apparatus and maintain control over the Internet. China maintains a countrywide network of government data surveillance services -  called publicopinion analysis software - that are used domestically to warn officials of politically sensitive information online. The “public opinion guidance work” first came to prominence in policymaking after the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations. It has since become integral to the underlying architecture of China’s Internet, where users are linked by real name ID, and Internet services are required by law to maintain an internal censorship apparatus. In 2014, the state-backed newspaper China Daily said more than 2 million people were working as public opinion analysts. In 2018, the People’s Daily, another official organ, said the government’s online opinion analysis industry was worth “tens of billions of yuan,” equivalent to billions of dollars, and was growing at a rate of 50 percent a year. Most systems include alarm functions designed to alert officials and police to negative content in real time. The vast data collection and monitoring efforts give officials insight into public opinion, a challenge in a country that does not hold public elections or permit independent media. The services also provide increasingly technical surveillance for China’s censorship apparatus. That surveillance network system is expanding to include foreign social media at a time when global perceptions of Beijing are at their lowest in recent history in the aftermath of the U.S. trade war, the Xinjiang human rights crisis, Hong Kong and the coronavirus pandemic. In May this year, Xi called on senior officials to portray a more “trustworthy, lovable and reliable” image of China abroad, calling for the “effective development of international public opinion guidance.” To control China’s image abroad is turning a major part of its internal Internet-data surveillance network outward, mining Western social media, to equip its government agencies, military and police with information on foreign targets, according to review of hundreds of Chinese bidding documents and company filings publicly accessible through domestic government bidding platforms, contracts for over 300 Chinese government projects since the beginning of 2020. These include orders for separate software systems designed to automatically collect data in real time on domestic Chinese servers for analysis on foreign targets from sources such as Twitter, Facebook and other Western social media. (Twitter and Facebook both ban automated collection of data on their services without prior authorization. Facebook did not respond to requests for comment about whether several companies, universities and state media firms listed as  supplying the software were authorized to collect data on its platform). The documents also show that agencies including state media, propaganda departments, police, military and cyber regulators are purchasing new or more sophisticated systems to gather data. These include a $320,000 Chinese state media software program that mines Twitter and Facebook to create a database of foreign journalists and academics; a $216,000 Beijing police intelligence program that analyzes Western chatter on Hong Kong and Taiwan; and a cybercenter in Xinjiang, home to most of China’s Uyghur population, that catalogues the mainly Muslim minority group’s language content abroad. The surveillance dragnets are part of a wider drive by Beijing to refine its foreign propaganda efforts  through big data and artificial intelligence. They also form a network of warning systems designed to sound real-time alarms for trends that undermine Beijing’s interests. Some of the Chinese government’s budgeting includes buying and maintaining foreign social media accounts on behalf of police and propaganda departments. The purchases range in size from small, automated programs to projects costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that are staffed 24 hours a day by teams including English speakers and foreign policy specialists. "The public opinion news war is arduous and necessary,” China Daily said in a July 2020 bidding document for a $300,000 “foreign personnel analysis platform.” The invitation to tender lays out specifications for a program that mines Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for data on “well known Western media journalists” and other “key personnel from political, business and media circles.” The software should run 24 hours a day, and map the relationships between target personnel and uncover “factions” between personnel, measuring their “China tendencies” and building an alarm system that automatically flags “false statements and reports on China.” Warning systems like the one outlined in the China Daily document are described in over 90 percent of tenders that list technical specifications. The China Daily awarded its contract to Beijing’s Communications University, one of a half dozen Chinese universities that have launched specialized departments to develop public opinion analysis technology. People who work as analysts in public opinion analysis units contracted by government agencies in Beijing receive automated alarms via SMS, email and on dedicated computer monitors when “sensitive” content was detected. Foreign social media had been included in the units’ monitoring since the middle of 2019. Highly sensitive viral trends online are reported to a 24-hour hotline maintained by the Cybersecurity Administration of China (CAC), the body that oversees the country’s censorship apparatus. “In case of major public opinion, directly contact the staff on duty of the CAC to ensure that notifications are in place through various communication tools,” said one December 2020 tender for a $236,000 system purchased by the municipal propaganda department in eastern China’s Fuzhou city for monitoring Facebook and Twitter alongside domestic social media. Just under a third of the public opinion analysis systems reviewed were procured by Chinese police. In 14 instances, the analysis systems included a feature requested by the police that would automatically flag “sensitive” content related to Uyghurs and other Chinese ethnic minorities. It could worsen the targeted harassment of Beijing’s critics. A $43,000 system purchased by police in central China’s Shangnan county included a “foreign sensitive information” collection system that requested Uyghur and Tibetan staff translators, according to the contracts. An additional 12 analysis systems included the police-requested capability of monitoring individual content authors over time. The documents provide insight into the scope of foreign social media data collection done by China’s major state media outlets, which maintain offices and servers abroad, and their key role in providing Beijing with publicity guidance based on increasingly sophisticated data mining analysis. Six police contracts awarded since 2020 stated that the People’s Daily was chosen as "only one in the industry" to conduct monitoring on the basis of its technical ability to gather data abroad deploying overseas servers and monitoring and collecting more than 8,000 overseas media without ‘overturning China’s Great Firewall - a name for the vast legal and technical infrastructure that blocks access to most foreign news outlets and social media within China - said the Guangdong Police Department in a $26,200 contract offer posted in July 2020.  The State Department reclassified the U.S.-based operations of China’s top state media outlets as foreign missions, in 2020, increasing reporting requirements and restricting their visa allocations, angering Beijing. The People’s Daily Online, a unit of the state newspaper which provides one of the country’s largest contract public opinion analysis services, won dozens of projects that include overseas social media data collection services for police, judicial authorities, Communist Party organizations and other clients. The unit recorded $330 million in operating income in 2020, up 50 percent from 2018. It says it serves over 200 government agencies. In one tender won by the unit, the Beijing Police Intelligence Command Unit purchased a $30,570 service to trawl foreign social media and produce reports on unspecified “key personnel and  organizations,” gathering information on their “basic circumstances, background and relationships.” It also calls for weekly data reports on Hong Kong, Taiwan and U.S. relations. “Through the collection of public Internet information we can keep a close eye on the international community, analyze sensitivities and hot spots, and maintain the stability of Chinese society,” said the request for tenders. "Public data from social network users can be used to analyze the characteristics and preferences of users, and then guide them in a targeted manner.” the chief analyst at the People’s Daily Online Public Opinion Data Center, Liao, laid out the goal of public opinion analysis in an April 2020 article. “The ultimate purpose of analysis and prediction is to guide and intervene in public opinion,” Liao wrote. People’s Daily subsidiary Global Times, also has a unit gathering foreign social media data for China’s Foreign Ministry, Beijing’s Foreign Affairs Office and other government agencies. In late 2019, the Global Times Online won a three-year contract worth $531,000 to provide a “China-related foreign media and journalist opinion monitoring system” that monitors overseas social media on behalf of China’s Foreign Ministry and produces comprehensive regular reports, as well as special briefings in “urgent circumstances.” Documentation accompanying the project says that close to 40 percent of the Global Times monitoring unit’s staffers are senior Global Times reporters and that the publication maintains large overseas social media monitoring platforms. A description on the website of the Global Times’s public opinion research center says the group conducts “overseas monitoring and overseas investigation services” and provides “comprehensive response plans” to government and private clients. Both the People’s Daily and the Global Times were among the outlets designated as foreign missions in the United States. In June 2020, Twitter suspended 23,000 accounts that it said were linked to the Chinese Communist Party and covertly spreading propaganda to undermine pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. This month, Twitter said it removed a further 2,048 accounts linked to Beijing and producing coordinated content undermining accusations of rights abuses in Xinjiang. Experts say those accounts represent a small fraction of China’s efforts to boost pro-Beijing influence on Twitter and other U.S. social media platforms. Xi’s crackdown on everything is remaking Chinese society. Military procurement documents - less detailed than other types - did not offer much detail on the purpose of the foreign data collection. One redacted June 2020 contract issued by the People’s Liberation Army described a system that would trawl foreign sites and categorize data on the basis of affiliation, geography and country. Source Data Technology, the Shanghai-based company that won the contract, says on its website that it uses “advanced big data mining and artificial intelligence analysis technology” to cover more than 90 percent of social media in the United States, Europe and China’s neighboring countries. (Source: msn)

Canada
Sun 2 Jan 2022  In the Canadian province of New Brunswick a whistleblower - an employee with Vitalité Health Network, one of the province’s two health authorities - has warned that a progressive neurological illness that has baffled experts for more than two years appears to be affecting a growing number of young people and causing swift cognitive decline among some of the afflicted. Young adults with no prior health triggers are developing troubling symptoms, including rapid weight loss, insomnia, hallucinations, difficulty thinking and limited mobility. The official number of cases under investigation, 48, remains unchanged since it was first announced in early spring 2021. But multiple sources say the cluster could now be as many as 150 people. Several new cases  involve caretakers of those afflicted. At least nine cases have been recorded in which two people in close contact – but without genetic links – have developed symptoms. One suspected case involved a man who was developing symptoms of dementia and ataxia. His wife, who was his caregiver, suddenly began losing sleep and experiencing muscle wasting, dementia and hallucinations. Now her condition is worse than his. A woman in her 30s was described as non-verbal, is feeding with a tube and drools excessively. Her caregiver, a nursing student in her 20s, also recently started showing symptoms of neurological decline. In another case, a young mother quickly lost nearly 60 pounds, developed insomnia and began hallucinating. Brain imaging showed advanced signs of atrophy. Despite the striking details surrounding the newer cases, the province has worked to tamp down fears. In October, officials suggested that the eight fatal cases were the result of misdiagnosis, arguing that instead of suffering from a shared neurological illness, the victims had died of known and unrelated pathologies. In October the province also said an epidemiological report suggested there was no significant evidence of any known food, behaviour or environmental exposure that could explain the illness. But experts familiar with the cluster are alarmed, largely because of the age of the patients. Neurological illnesses are rare in young people. Some have suggested neurotoxins, including β-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), could be the culprit behind the illness. In one study, high concentrations of BMAA were found in lobster, an industry that drives the economies of many of New Brunswick’s coastal communities. The scientist said teams are ready to begin the research, but “New Brunswick has specifically told us not to go forward with that work”. The Special Neurodegenerative Disorder Clinic, also called the Mind Clinic, in the city of Moncton is the clearing house for cases referred from within the region as well as neighbouring provinces. Amid mounting tension between specialists and the provincial government, a source familiar with the Mind Clinic say the clinic would be converted into a Alzheimer’s and geriatric clinic. Health minister Shephard told reporters on 1 December that speculation the clinic would be shut down was untrue. (Source: TheGuardian)

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