Puppet MastersS


X

Zelensky fires security chief

Aleksey Danilov
© Aleksandr Gusev / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty ImagesFILE PHOTO: Aleksey Danilov.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky dismissed the head of the National Security and Defense Council (SNBO), Aleksey Danilov, on Tuesday. The security chief has been known to resort to combative and abrasive rhetoric.

The relevant decree has been published on the Ukrainian president's official website but provides no reason for the decision.

Aleksandr Litvinenko has since been named as the new SNBO chief. He has been at the helm of the Ukrainian foreign intelligence service since July 2021 and prior to that served as the deputy SNBO head.

Danilov has been known for harsh statements during his tenure. In late 2023, he insisted that all Ukrainians must "grow up" and fight, when commenting on Kiev's recruitment troubles.

At the time, he also said that Ukraine's planned mobilization drive would not last one day or one month, but that the whole process could take at least a year.

Comment: His lack of tact certainly makes asking for money for the Ukraine war effort more difficult. But is it so simple or is there more to it?


Dollars

Major billionaire Republican donors rallied to aid Trump in paying $454 million bond

Donald Trump
© AP Photo / Butch Dill2024 Presidential candidate Donald Trump
Major Republican donors rallied up to assist former president Donald Trump in covering a hefty $454 million bond required in a civil fraud case ahead of the deadline on March 25, sources told the news agency, Reuters.

What is Trump's civil fraud case about?

Trump is facing a New York civil case where he was found liable for inflating his net worth to obtain better loan and insurance terms, resulting in a massive judgment against him.

Billionaires who rallied to support Trump

Billionaire hedge fund founder John Paulson and oil magnate Harold Hamm are among the prominent figures involved in this effort. They were seeking financial aid to help Trump pay the bond amount. Reuters reported that a donor offered more than $10 million towards the bond over the weekend, but was later told it was not necessary.

Black Magic

Kiev's SBU chief hints at assassinations, boasts of terror attacks on Russian infrastructure, during interview on Ukrainian TV

The head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasyl Malyuk
© publicistjournalist.comThe head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasyl Malyuk
The head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasyl Malyuk, has pointed to his agency's involvement in the murders and assassination attempts on a number of politicians and public figures, the Ukrainian TV channel ICTV reported live.

In an interview with the TV channel, Malyuk said:
In no way will we officially recognise this, but at the same time I will tell you individual details.
Malyuk said that the explosive-filled statue, which killed military officer Vladlen Tatarsky, contained 400 grams of thermobar, 800 grams of plastid was used in the attempted assassination of LPR [Luhansk People's Republic] Prosecutor General Sergey Gorenko, and former Rada MP Illia Kyva was shot dead with a 9×19 calibre pistol. Malyuk noted:
For a long time they thought a missile flew into [Gorenko's] window, 800 grams of plastic was there.

Comment: The interview:


RT provides further details of the Kiev-juntas attacks on Russian infrastructure:
Ukrainian security service boasts about attacks on Russian oil refineries

In a statement on Monday, Vasily Malyuk said transport and oil infrastructure are among "the most painful points" that his agency "hits daily" amid the hostilities with Moscow.

The sites are "legitimate targets" because they "work for the Russian military industrial complex," the senior official claimed, adding that Ukrainian strikes can happen "even where they are least expected."

A series of Ukrainian drone attacks have targeted Russian oil sites since mid-January, in some cases causing disruption at the facilities.


The attacks against Russian infrastructure, which has been ongoing since the start of the SMO - if not before - run into the hundreds, so much so that Wikipedia has give them their own page: Russian mystery fires (2022-present)

See also: Massive explosion at Russia's Voktinsk munitions factory


The Financial Times claimed last week that US officials have urged Kiev to halt the strikes over concerns that they could cause shortages on the global energy market. In particular, the White House is concerned that a hike in gas prices in the US could undermine President Joe Biden's chances of reelection in November, according to the report.

The Ukrainian government has denied being pressured by the Americans. Mikhail Podoliak, a senior aide to President Vladimir Zelensky, branded the FT report "fictitious information" in an interview last Friday.

Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure are lawful and necessary to undermine its military, he insisted, while claiming that Moscow's attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure are "genocidal" in intent. Nobody can "dictate to Ukraine the conditions on how to prosecute this war," Podoliak added.


Up until recently, Russia was extremely restrained and focused its attacks on primarily military infrastructure - as is evidenced by the incredibly low civilian death toll - however, with the Moscow terror attack, it's likely that will change somewhat: Swathes of Ukraine go dark after Russia pummels energy infrastructure


The White House reiterated its policy not to encourage Ukraine to deliver strikes inside Russia when asked about the FT report by the Ukrainian branch of state-funded news outlet Voice of America.


This is no different to how The White House asks Israel, nicely, to try not to genocide Gazans; all the while it sends Tel Aviv bombs and billions of dollars.


The Russian military resumed massive long-range strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure last week after a months-long pause. Ukrainian officials said a barrage on Friday caused the most significant damage to the power grid thus far in the armed conflict.

Moscow added several Ukrainian energy facilities to the list of targets it considers legitimate in October 2022. President Vladimir Putin said at the time that the shift in military tactics was justified by the Ukrainian bombing of the Crimean Bridge earlier that month. The attack involved a powerful explosive device being smuggled inside a truck and detonated on the bridge, killing the driver and four other civilians.
This Ukrainian man complains how those paraded around Ukraine as heroes weren't fighting on the front line but were instead involved in terrorism:


See also: US, UK and Ukraine could be behind Moscow terror attack - FSB chief


Attention

The Nuland - Budanov - Tajik - Crocus connection

Wicked Witch
© Public Domain
Let's start with the possible chain of events that may have led to the Crocus terror attack. This is as explosive as it gets. Intel sources in Moscow discreetly confirm this is one of the FSB's prime lines of investigation.

December 4, 2023. Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Mark Milley, only 3 months after his retirement, tells CIA mouthpiece The Washington Post: "There should be no Russian who goes to sleep without wondering if they're going to get their throat slit in the middle of the night (...) You gotta get back there and create a campaign behind the lines."

January 4, 2024: In an interview with ABC News, "spy chief" Kyrylo Budanov lays down the road map: strikes "deeper and deeper" into Russia.

January 31: Victoria Nuland travels to Kiev and meets Budanov. Then, in a dodgy press conference at night in the middle of an empty street, she promises "nasty surprises" to Putin: code for asymmetric war.

February 22: Nuland shows up at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) event and doubles down on the "nasty surprises" and asymmetric war. That may be interpreted as the definitive signal for Budanov to start deploying dirty ops.

February 25: The New York Times publishes a story about CIA cells in Ukraine: nothing that Russian intel does not already know.

Then, a lull until March 5 - when crucial shadow play may have been in effect. Privileged scenario: Nuland was a key dirty ops plotter alongside the CIA and the Ukrainian GUR (Budanov). Rival Deep State factions got hold of it and maneuvered to "terminate" her one way or another - because Russian intel would have inevitably connected the dots.

Yet Nuland, in fact, is not "retired" yet; she's still presented as Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and showed up recently in Rome for a G7-related meeting, although her new job, in theory, seems to be at Columbia University (a Hillary Clinton maneuver).

Meanwhile, the assets for a major "nasty surprise" are already in place, in the dark, and totally off radar. The op cannot be called off.

March 5: Little Blinken formally announces Nuland's "retirement".

March 7: At least one Tajik among the four-member terror commando visits the Crocus venue and has his photo taken.

March 7-8 at night: U.S. and British embassies simultaneously announce a possible terror attack on Moscow, telling their nationals to avoid "concerts" and gatherings within the next two days.

March 9: Massively popular Russian patriotic singer Shaman performs at Crocus. That may have been the carefully chosen occasion targeted for the "nasty surprise" - as it falls only a few days before the presidential elections, from March 15 to 17. But security at Crocus was massive, so the op is postponed.

March 22: The Crocus City Hall terror attack.

Black Magic

EU's Borrell admits EU, US 'can't afford for Russia to win Ukraine war', our 'interests will be damaged'

Josep Borrell
© Russian Foreign Ministry/TASSJosep Borrell considers that if Russia wins, "US and European interests will be damaged"EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell
The European Union is supporting Ukraine based on its own interests rather than out of love for the Ukrainian people, top EU diplomat Josep Borrell told CNN.

"We cannot afford for Russia to win this war. Otherwise, US and European interests will be damaged. It's not a matter of generosity alone; it's not a matter of support for Ukraine because we love the Ukrainian people. It is in our own interests, and it is also in the interests of the US as a global player, the one who has to be perceived as a reliable partner and a security provider to the allies. This is why we call on the US to open and approve the supplementary budget," he pointed out.


Comment: Indeed; because the West as the unipolar 'security provider' has been well and truly refuted with its failing proxy war in Ukraine.

It's also about time that a top official acknowledged that the 500,000+ dead Ukrainians were sacrificed primarily for the interests of those in the West.


Borrell added that the EU was making every possible effort "to support Ukraine more and quicker."

Comment: The terrorist's massacre in Moscow has further demonstrated just how desperate the West is, and how vicious it will be in its attempts to maintain its precarious position on the global stage: US, UK and Ukraine could be behind Moscow terror attack - FSB chief




Bullseye

Best of the Web: US, UK and Ukraine could be behind Moscow terror attack - FSB chief

crocus moscow
© Maxim Blinov / SputnikCrocus concert hall, March 22nd 2024. 139 people died and around 200 were injured in last Friday's Crocus City Hall massacre.
The US, UK and Ukraine may have been behind last Friday's terrorist attack on a concert venue in a suburb of Moscow, which claimed lives of 139 people and left around 200 injured, according to the head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

Aleksandr Bortnikov told reporters on Tuesday that the authorities are currently trying to establish the identity of everyone involved in the attack, both inside and outside Russia.

When asked whether the US, Britain and Ukraine could be behind the terrorist attack, the FSB chief responded: "We think that this is so. In any case, we are now talking about the information that we have. This is general information, but they [investigators] also have concrete results."


Comment: An official statement as significant as this will likely have been sanctioned from higher up, and it will be supported by irrefutable proof which will be shared at what Russia considers to be the most appropriate time.


Comment: Whilst the hegemon and its vassals will undoubtedly seek to refute or bury such an announcement - they already tried to distance their involvement by claiming, less than an hour after the attack, that ISIS was responsible - it's possible that this can be considered yet another a significant marker in what is a rapidly escalating situation: The following tweets highlight the likely involvement of the West and Ukraine in the Moscow terrorist attack:










Handcuffs

Türkiye arrests 14 terrorist suspects, confirm Crocus attackers recent visit, asks why 'ISIS' attacks US-rivals Russia, Iran

terrorist russia
© EPA PhotoPhotographers take pictures of a suspect in the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall inside a defendant's enclosure at a pretrial hearing, Basmanny district court, Moscow, Russia, March 24, 2024.
In the wake of a terror attack at a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 130 people, Türkiye is questioning why the Daesh terror group has consistently targeted the same region, namely Türkiye, Iran, Afghanistan and Russia, despite being a self-proclaimed "anti-U.S." group.

"It's notable that Daesh, considered to be one of the bloodiest terrorist organizations, and its so-called offshoot Daesh-Khorasan Province (Daesh-K), have carried out their recent attacks in the same region," Turkish security sources said Monday in a statement.

"Türkiye has been one of the top targeted countries by Daesh," they said, citing attacks as recent as a church shooting in Istanbul in late January, in which one man was killed and more victims were spared when the terrorists' weapons were jammed.

Comment: Serious analysts are generally in agreement that evidence and reason suggest that the attackers were directed and backed by the West-Ukraine, and it just remains to be seen how Russia will handle what is an incredibly delicate and volatile situation.

Turkey has certainly been busy attempting to sweep its country clean of terrorists, a number of whom were suspected Mossad agents: Former British diplomat Alastair Crooke provides insight into the Crocus attack, as well as the current situation in Gaza:




Network

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs bill that bans children under 14 from having social media accounts

desantis merica
The bill is expected to face legal challenges.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday that will prohibit children younger than 14 from joining social media in the state. Those who are 14 or 15 will need a parent's consent before they join a platform.

The bill, HB3, also directs social media companies to delete the existing accounts of those who are under 14. Companies that fail to do so could be sued on behalf of the child who creates an account on the platform. The minor could be awarded up to $10,000 in damages, according to the bill. Companies found to be in violation of the law would also be liable for up to $50,000 per violation, as well as attorney's fees and court costs.

Comment: There's little question that social media can have a negative impact on children in multiple ways. The question is whether banning it outright for them would be a viable or effective means of protection.

See also:


Putin

Putin would've prevented NATO bombing of Yugoslavia - Serbia's president

Vladimir Putin Aleksandar Vucic
© AFP / Shamil ZhumatovRussian President Vladimir Putin and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic give a joint press conference following their talks in Sochi in 2019.
Belgrade was attacked in 1999 because there was no counterweight to the West on the global stage back then, Aleksandar Vucic has said.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic has said that he stands by his earlier claim that Vladimir Putin would not have allowed NATO to bomb Yugoslavia in 1999 if he had been in power in Moscow at that time.

During talks with his Russian counterpart in Sochi in 2019, Vucic said "we in Serbia value Putin more than other leaders [of Russia]... If Putin was making decisions in Russia in 1999, nobody would've bombed us."

Comment: See also:


Eye 2

Ukraine using US-made chemical weapons - Russian diplomat

Vladimir Tarabrin
© Getty Images / Nikos Oikonomou/AnadoluVladimir Tarabrin, Russia's Ambassador to the Netherlands
Ukraine has repeatedly used chemical weapons provided by the US against the Russian military, a senior diplomat claimed on Monday in an interview with the newspaper Izvestia.

Vladimir Tarabrin, Moscow's Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and Ambassador to the Netherlands, noted that the use of chemical weapons is a flagrant violation of international law.

"Over the course of the special military operation, we have recorded cases of Ukraine's Armed Forces deploying chemical weapons manufactured in the US," Tarabrin said, saying that the deliveries are part of a well-established and illegal scheme of sending non-lethal chemical weapons to Kiev.