It looks like those who warned that in the period before Trump’s return to the White House on January 20, one might expect dangerous provocations to derail his pledge to end the war in Ukraine were right. According to the NYT and other media worldwide, Biden, who previously declined Zelensky’s request to authorize the use of long-range missiles deep into Russia, changed his mind and now gave such permission. Currently, the White House does not confirm nor decline media reports to this effect, but even official silence is a dangerous indicator.

In this clip Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the use of ATACMS by Ukraine against Russia is a signal that the US wants “escalation” in the conflict. “Without the Americans, it’s not possible to use them,” he said while speaking to reporters at the G-20 in Brazil.

On October 14th, a much-delayed inquiry into the mysterious death of Dawn Sturgess, a British citizen who died in July 2018 after reputedly coming into contact with Novichok nerve agent left in England by a pair of Russian assassins, finally commenced. Already, the public show trial has unearthed tantalising evidence gravely undermining the official narrative of the poisoning of GRU defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, in March that year.

If he wanted to handcuff Trump’s plan to end the war, this was the way to do it

“Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with U.S. long-range weapons,” reported NPR mid-day Sunday.

The speed of his cabinet nomination announcements tells us that the Republican president-elect has a plan

EU, U.K. favored over U.S. as negotiators

With his party decisively beat at the polls, the rejected president is gambling with regional security to preserve his ‘legacy’ and to saddle the incoming president, who wants to end the war, with a major new crisis, writes Joe Lauria.

The US Must Operate the Long Range ATACMS missiles Russia claims

As I wrote in several articles months ago, the Joe Biden administration’s political wing kicked down the road until after the U.S. presidential election the escalation against Russia that allowing Kiev to hit the country with US long-range missiles would constitute. It appears, as numerous reports indicate, that Biden has now approved the use of U.S. long-range ATACM missiles by Ukraine to target Russia on its pre-2022 territory.

It remains unclear what Putin will ultimately do, but whichever of these two choices he makes will determine the trajectory of this conflict from now on, either more escalation or a possible compromise.

The Trump Administration will likely take the lead in any negotiations to end the war—a development that Vladimir Putin would welcome.

By not acting with political and moral courage, this administration has actually failed abysmally on numerous counts

A river runs through Russian and, more recently, Ukrainian history. Ironically enough, the Dnieper River that unites Russia and Ukraine in this and other ways – the river rises in the Valdai Hills of Smolensk, Russia and runs through Belarus and Ukraine – is now the focus of the greatest schism in the history of Russian-Ukrainian relations. Russian forces appear impossible to stop and will arrive at the Dnieper at some point along its snaking length no later than next year, with Russian troops perhaps controlling the river’s and the country’s Left Bank by then. Russia – as well as the West and whatever remains of Ukraine‘s Maidan regime will then face some serious decisions.

The world is now moving through an epoch-shifting transition, and a new system will be brought online as the $1.2 quadrillion derivatives time bomb that has cancerously taken over the western economy crashes.

I spoke persistently, but they would not listen. Jeremiah 12:23

Oh, Wait: It never went away…

Hello! Welcome to your weekly guide to the Russian economy — written by Denis Kasyanchuk and Alexander Kolyandr and brought to you by The Bell. This time we look at the rapid growth in investment that Russia has seen since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Where has the money come from? And where is it going? We also look at the continuing impact on Russian trade of the threat of Western secondary sanctions.

It’s complicated.

The Russian establishment profoundly distrusts Donald Trump. Though usually forgotten in the West, it was his administration — not Barack Obama’s or Joe Biden’s – which began the supply of weapons to Ukraine in 2017. Trump also allowed US intelligence to build up the presence in Ukraine that played an important role in preventing Russian victory in the first months of 2022. In fact, apart from some complimentary remarks about Vladimir Putin, the US President-elect has done little to improve relations with Russia.

Russians close to the Kremlin voiced optimism that Donald J. Trump could help end the war in Ukraine on Russia’s terms. Vladimir V. Putin said Mr. Trump’s remarks on ending the war “deserve attention.”

I will try not to repeat the well-known demonstrations – wilfully ignored in certain official circles – that the tragic conflict between Ukraine and Russia was completely avoidable had the Western Alliance not fostered and organized a coalition of revisionist militant forces within Ukraine and in Eastern Europe committed to an openly anti-Russian agenda. So many scholarly and talented experts and public figures have argued that thesis, from John Mearsheimer to Sahra Wagenknecht and from Emmanuel Todd to Robert F Kennedy Jr., but by looking at European history, we can notice precedents that show a geopolitical pattern into which the current protracted war finds its place.

Yeltsin grinned while Clinton cried.

Conservatives plan a Soviet University