Most Americans first heard of Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky when Trump tried to blackmail him for dirt on Biden. Based on what we now know about Russia and Trump, and Putin’s designs on Ukraine, that may have been just an excuse to block the military aid Congress wanted to send to Ukraine.[...]
Archive for the ‘Russia’ Category
September 27th, 2022 - 2:28 am § in Russia
Will Putin suffer the tsar’s fate?
Tsar Nicholas II, the guy who was shot in a shabby cellar along with his entire family, was warned by his advisers not to assume personal command of the Russian army. If he did, they said, and the war was lost, he would be blamed. Well, we know how that turned out (watch video here). […][...]
September 26th, 2022 - 6:56 pm § in Russia
A day we almost didn’t survive
The Soviet Union’s ICBM detection system was clunky with large gaps in radar coverage. We knew it, and they knew it. That made the Soviets jumpy, and the Cold War more dangerous. The faults of their system very nearly triggered an accidental nuclear war on Monday, September 26, 1983. A single [...]
Would you fly on this airline?
Russian regional airlines were bleeding money, so they fired their mechanics. Now Russia’s Transport Ministry wants pilots to maintain their planes themselves (see story here). That could be tricky, as Western sanctions have cut them off from spare parts. But this doesn’t actually chang[...]
September 1st, 2022 - 11:34 pm § in Russia
That marriage didn’t last long
Oksana Poludentseva, 36, met her husband, Stepan Dolgikh, 25, of Siberia, while he was doing time for murder and robbery. She apparently befriended him thinking she could “reform” him. When he got out, they got married, and then he beat her to death at their wedding party in a drunken r[...]
August 25th, 2022 - 12:48 am § in Donald Trump, Russia
Putin hates the Magnitsky Act and that’s why the Trump Tower meeting happened
The Mueller Report, you will recall, said, “While this report does not conclude that [Trump] committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” But no charges were brought, and then-Attorney General Barr tried to bury it. It’s in the news again because, “The Department of Justice (D[...]
August 22nd, 2022 - 6:57 am § in Russia
Russia “solves” car bombing mystery
Darya Dugina, like her father, was an implacable enemy of Ukraine. She was killed by a car bomb on Saturday, August 20, 2022. The following day, the efficient Moscow police and FSB, the state security agency, solved the crime. Here’s what they say happened: “It has been established that [...]
August 20th, 2022 - 8:02 pm § in Russia
Collateral damage
Aleksandr Dugin (photo, left) is a Russian fascist who promotes the idea of totalitarian rule of all Europe, including Ireland, from the Kremlin. It’s hard to tell how influential he is, but some people call him “Putin’s brain,” and others think he masterminded the Ukraine in[...]
Mar-a-Lago search timeline
(Compiled from news stories and commentaries) Let’s start here: The Presidential Records Act requires presidents to turn over any and all written materials related to their official duties, so there’s a law on the books that prevents Trump from hoarding any official records from his adminis[...]
Yale study says Russia sanctions are working as intended
“No path out of economic oblivion for Russia as sanctions crush Putin’s regime,” the Raw Story headline reads (story here). That conclusion is the result of a study by a Yale professor in business management (c.v. here) who advises CEOs and U.S. presidents. He’s not a neutral[...]