A recurring feature of the Cold War was that the United States almost always placed great store on the optics of a Soviet-American affair while Moscow chose to concentrate on the end result. The Cuban Missile Crisis is the best known example where the denouement was about the publicised abandonment of the planned Soviet deployment of missiles in Cuba and a US public declaration and agreement not to invade Cuba again. But it later came to be known that there was also an unpublicised part, namely, the dismantling of all of the Jupiter ballistic missiles that had been deployed to Turkey.

The behavioural pattern remains the same in Ukraine. Per the western narrative, Russia is staring at the abyss of defeat amidst the "rout" in Kharkov Region. Interestingly, though, at the responsible levels in the Beltway, there is noticeable reticence about beating the drums presumably because of their awareness that the Ukrainian forces simply re-entered the Balakleysko-Izyum direction to occupy areas that Russians had planned to vacate.

Moscow is once again leaving the optics almost entirely to the American journalists while Moscow concentrates on the end result, which has had three dimensions: one, complete the ongoing evacuation from the Balakleysko-Izyum direction without loss of lives; two, exploit the Ukrainian troop movements to target the forces that came out into the open from well-fortified positions in the Kharkov Region; and, three, concentrate on the campaign in Donetsk.

The last part is becoming very sensitive for Moscow, as a significant section of Russian "war correspondents" carried sensational reports that it is apocalypse now. Even senior politicians such as Gennady Zyuganov, General Secretary of the Communist Party, and a powerful voice in the State Duma, feels agitated.

Zyuganov said at the first plenary meeting of the Russian State Duma's fall session on Tuesday that the "special operation" has grown into a full-fledged war and the situation on the front has "changed drastically" in the past couple of months.

A fragment of the speech, posted in the Communist Party's website also quoted Zyuganov as saying that "every war requires a response. First and foremost, it requires maximum mobilisation of forces and resources. It demands social cohesion and clear prioritisation."

Most of the world is not interested in getting sucked into the struggle between Russia and the West

Been there, done that. This is not the Cold War, and Russia is not the Soviet Union. One of the signs of the changes taking place today is not the division of the world into opposing camps, but rather the adjustment to changing conditions resulting from a great power conflict.

This could very probably be a signal that, in the future, we will not see the restoration of the bipolar international order which existed from 1945 to 1990.

The stance taken by most of the world on the conflict between Russia and the West shows that humanity is now far more united and capable of adapting, even to major challenges that may not have been envisaged just a short time ago. It belies the notion that American centrality in world affairs continues to make any issue related to Washington the most important one in the world and capable of causing a global split.

Western "half-wits" from "stupid think tanks" are leading their countries down the road of nuclear armageddon with their hybrid war against Moscow, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Tuesday. Endlessly funneling weapons and support to Ukraine while pretending not to be directly involved in the conflict will not work, added the deputy chair of the Russian Security Council.

The "security guarantees" proposal unveiled by Kiev on Tuesday was "really a prologue to the Third World War," said Medvedev, calling it a "hysterical appeal" to Western countries engaged in a proxy war against Russia.

If the West continues its "unrestrained pumping of the Kiev regime with the most dangerous types of weapons," Russia's military campaign will move to the next level, where "visible boundaries and potential predictability of actions by the parties to the conflict" will be erased and the conflict will take on a life of its own, as wars always do, Medvedev argued.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the European Union must show "resolve, not appeasement" as it deal with Russia over its war with Ukraine.

Speaking at her annual state-of-the-union speech on September 14 in Strasbourg, France, von der Leyen said the bloc's solidarity with Ukraine was "unshakeable," and must remain that way.

"Never before has this parliament debated the state of our union with war raging on European soil," von der Leyen told the legislature, with Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska seated as the guest of honor among lawmakers, many of whom were wearing blue and yellow, Ukraine's national colors.

"And I stand here with the conviction that with courage and solidarity, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will fail and Europe will prevail.... Europe's solidarity with Ukraine will remain unshakeable," she said, adding that she would pay a surprise visit to Kyiv later in the day.

Donald Trump pried the door open for the potential denuclearization of Pyongyang, but it has since been slammed shut.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently signed a law that codified that nation's nuclear weapons program, slamming shut the door to the possibility of denuclearization that had, during the administration of former US President Donald Trump, been tantalizingly held open.

While South Korean officials have indicated that they had anticipated this step, the fact is that Pyongyang's move has fundamentally altered the strategic reality in the Pacific. Any potential conflict with North Korea now brings with it the near certainty of nuclear weapons being used against South Korea, Japan, and the United States, prompting threats from the South Korean Ministry of Defense that any such move by its northern neighbor would be little more than a "walk into a path to self-destruction."

While there is no doubt that any use of North Korean nuclear weapons would precipitate a devastating response from the United States, American nuclear revenge would provide little solace to the tens of millions of South Koreans, Japanese, and American citizens whose lives could (and likely would) be terminated as a result.

The citizens of South Korea, Japan and the United States need to reflect on this new reality and ask themselves how it came to be. In the end, the blame rests with current US President Joe Biden and his administration.

Today, Special Counsel John Durham moved to unseal this motion in limine in the false statements case against Igor Danchenko.

This motion provides new information on the details of Danchenko's lies to the FBI, further information on how Special Counsel Mueller ignored Danchenko's false statements, expected testimony from Clinton-connected executive Charles Dolan, and one crazy development.

But we'll start with the the most damning development: Danchenko was on the FBI payroll as a confidential human source (CHS) from March 2017 through October 2020.
The purposes of making Danchenko a CHS should be quite clear. The Crossfire Hurricane investigation was plagued with problems from the outset. The reasons for opening the investigation were bunk. Those problems continued as the investigation went on, with claims of Trump/Russia collusion proven unverified or outright false. (Thus the targeting of Flynn for a Logan Act violation.)

Active support by the US and its NATO allies - as well as intelligence sharing between Washington, London, and Kiev - have been instrumental in helping the Ukrainian troops make "great gains" during their counteroffensive in Kharkov Region, Senator Mark Warner told CNN on Sunday.

"This kind of collaboration shows the strength of our combined military intel," Warner, who is the head of the US Senate's Intelligence Committee said, adding that the American and British intelligence communities are "working with the Ukrainians." The Senator did not provide any details about the nature of these "collaborations," however.

Warner also hailed what he called "tremendous support from the US and our NATO allies" that "make sure" Kiev gets the military equipment the Ukrainian troops "need." His words came amid a massive Ukrainian offensive with the use of weapons supplied by the US and other Western nations.

The attack that started in Kharkov Region on Thursday saw the Russian Defense Ministry announcing the withdrawal of its troops from several settlements in northeastern Ukraine, including the city of Izyum. Moscow maintained the step was taken to strengthen the Russian forces in the Donetsk region. Kiev celebrated the Russian withdrawal as a victory.

One of the armed guards of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been spotted with insignia resembling a symbol of Nazi Germany unit used during World War II. The image shared by the office of the leader was made during his visit to the recently re-captured town of Izyum on Wednesday.

The controversial skull-and-bones image was featured on the back of a heavily armed Ukrainian trooper, who appeared to be part of Zelensky's security detail during the trip. It can be seen in one of the photos, which the president's office released on social media.

The symbol was the insignia of the SS-Totenkopfverbande units, the part of the Nazi paramilitary Schutzstaffel responsible for security at the death camps. It was also adopted by the elite Panzer Division 'Totenkopf' of the Waffen-SS, which was formed from the death camp guards and fought on the Eastern front and committed multiple war crimes.

The EU is being prodded into selling itself into slavery on behalf of Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman says

Ukraine's newly published proposal for Western security guarantees is an invitation for the economic self-immolation of the EU, according to Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The Russian diplomat believes that the proposed international agreement which Kiev released on Tuesday is an economic trap for EU nations set by the US with Ukraine's assistance.

Most of the measures included in the document "are already being implemented" by Kiev's backers, but Washington's EU allies are expected to pledge to keep the Ukraine aid money flowing for the foreseeable future, Zakharova said in an interview on Wednesday. If signed, the 'Kiev Security Compact' would mean "harsh slavery" for the bloc from which it would not recover anytime soon, she claimed.

Kiev can't fight without Washington's continued support, the Ukrainian leader claims

Ukraine could face defeat in its military conflict with Russia without continued financial and military help from the US, its President Vladimir Zelensky has told CNN.

He was responding to a question about the affect internal American politics could have on his country, during an interview aired on Sunday, but recorded in Kiev at some point over the past week.

"I'm grateful to President [Joe] Biden and the White House and the bipartisan support," Zelensky told CNN's Fareed Zakaria. "Without this support, we will not be able to return our lands."