Puppet MastersS


Bizarro Earth

Putin blasts 'globalist' world order as 'totalitarian'

Putin
© Getty ImagesRussian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted earlier today that the "globalist" world order is "totalitarian" and is "holding back creative pursuit."

Putin made the comments during a forum in Moscow.

The notorious leader claimed that the west had only achieved its global preeminence due to the historic plunder of other nations and had no moral right to enforce a unipolar model on the planet.
"The model of the total dominance of the so-called 'golden billion' is unjust. Why should this 'golden billion' among the planet's population dominate others, impose its own rules of conduct?

"Based on the illusion of 'exclusivity,' this model divides people into first and second class status, and is therefore racist and neo-colonial in its essence.

"And the globalist, supposedly liberal ideology which underlies it is increasingly acquiring the features of totalitarianism, holding back creative pursuit, free historical creation."

Nuke

France outlines plans for buyout of EDF to relaunch country's nuclear industry

Reactor
© Sameer Al-Doumy/AFPEuropean Pressurized Reactor project (EPR) nuclear reactor in Flamanville, Normandy
The French government on Tuesday outlined its plans to take full control of EDF, the highly indebted power utility that is to spearhead efforts to relaunch the country's nuclear industry.

The offer to minority shareholders will be priced at 12 euros per share, meaning the operation to fully nationalise the group will cost 9.7 billion euros ($9.9 billion), the finance ministry said. The electricity provider is currently 84-percent owned by the state, with institutional and retail investors holding 15 percent and staff one percent.

EDF's finances have been weighed down by declining output from France's aging nuclear power stations, which it manages, and the state-imposed policy to sell energy at below cost to consumers in an effort to help them pay their energy bills.

The energy crisis triggered by Russia's war in Ukraine has added to EDF's acute difficulties, and to the urgency of ensuring France's energy security. President Emmanuel Macron's government plans to launch the buyout in September, which gives it time to set aside funds for the cost in a mini-budget in the autumn.

The finance ministry gave end-October as a likely date for completion. The supplementary budget will, however, be subject to approval by parliament, where Macron's party and its allies lost their majority in parliamentary elections last month.


Comment: The energy crisis was not triggered by Russia's intervention in Ukraine, but rather due to suicidal sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU and a focus on renewable energy sources. This crisis was 100% preventable if politicians had cared about their own citizens and focused on reality based solutions.


Comment: The same scenario is taking place in Germany where the government is rapidly taking over the biggest energy provider, Uniper.
Germany weighing €8 billion bailout of energy giant Uniper, company is largest importer of Russian gas
Uniper is Germany's largest importer of Russian gas. The German government may intervene to save the company, amid the threat of reduced gas supplies by Russia and soaring prices, according to the reports.

Sources told Reuters that the company may pass on some costs to German consumers in the framework of the rescue package.

[...]
Uniper's CEO said earlier the company would not be able to last much longer in the current economic climate. The company is burning money as it is forced to buy supplies from alternative sources, as Russian gas firm Gazprom cuts deliveries.



Light Sabers

NATO would have started a war if not stopped by Russia - Iran

Putin Khamenei
© AP/Office of the Iranian Supreme LeaderVladimir Putin • Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Tehran, Iran, July 19, 2022
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared on Tuesday that had Russian President Vladimir Putin "not taken the initiative" in Ukraine, the NATO alliance would have launched a war with Russia over Crimea, which Kiev claims as its own land.

Speaking alongside Putin in Tehran, Khamenei stated that "as regards Ukraine, if you did not take the initiative, the other side would have initiated the war."

He described the West as "completely opposed to a strong and independent Russia" and NATO as "a dangerous entity that sees no boundaries in its expansionist policy".

Considered Russian land since imperial times, Crimea was an autonomous republic within the Soviet Union until it was ceded to the Ukrainian SSR by Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev in 1954. The region fell under Ukrainian control after the breakup of the USSR, and voted to join Russia in 2014.

Chess

How a smart Middle East strategy can help Russia play a significant role in shaping the new world order

iran summit
© Sefa Karacan / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin travels to Tehran for a summit of the guarantors of the so-called Astana process, which aims to find a political settlement in Syria.

Apart from a joint session with the other two participants, Iran's Ibrahim Raisi and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Putin will hold talks with each separately. The visit comes soon after the Russian leader's trip to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan - the latter for the Caspian summit that brought together Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and the host state. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for his part, has recently traveled to Algeria, Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, where he also met with counterparts from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

With relations between Russia and the West beyond repair for the foreseeable future, Russian diplomacy is focusing on non-Western countries, and the Middle East and North Africa feature prominently in Moscow's new foreign-policy geography. Since Russia's spectacular return to that part of the world in 2015 by means of a military intervention in Syria, the MENA region has been the principal area where Moscow's post-Soviet approach to foreign affairs has taken shape, and where it has been most successful. Key elements of that approach have included: focusing strictly on Russia's own national interests, while acknowledging the concerns of regional states; being flexible and able to manage differences with the main partners; staying in touch with all relevant players, while neither patronizing nor antagonizing anyone; managing relations with states which see each other as antagonists; and refraining from imposing any selfish design or demands on the region.

Light Sabers

Russian forces repel neo-Nazi attack in Donbass

russia attack ukraine rt
© RT
As Ukrainian forces recently attempted to assault the town of Belogorovka in the Lugansk People's Republic, RT had a crew nearby.

TV Correspondent Murad Gazdiev reported, from the scene, that the attack, led by the infamous 'Kraken' neo-Nazi battalion, was met with a "hail of artillery fire."

The offensive was successfully defeated following close-quarter combat on the outskirts of the settlement. Russian troops captured four Kraken fighters. One of them, identified only as Dmitry, told RT that morale in the nationalist unit was extremely low and the commanders treated soldiers like "earthworms" by simply "crushing them underfoot" and forcing them to launch assaults.

The battalion has been stationed in the north-eastern Ukrainian city for months, Dmitry said.

Magnify

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev lists 'Western sins'

medvedev
© Sputnik / Ekaterina Shtukina
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has compiled what he called a list of "their sins," a reference to what he sees as the shortcomings of the US and Europe. The list was published on Medvedev's Telegram channel on Thursday and comes a day after the former president outlined Russia's 'sins', a mocking exhortation to the West to blame Moscow for all manner of ills, from US President Joe Biden's gaffes to even the extinction of the dinosaurs.

"THEIR SINS (what Russia is not guilty of): European fools being cynically conned by the Americans, who forced them to endure the most painful consequences of the sanctions that have hit the populations of EU countries; ordinary Europeans freezing cold in their homes this winter; the highest food inflation in decades in Europe and the United States; EU and US companies losing their multibillion-dollar investments in the Russian economy," he wrote.

Medvedev added that Moscow has nothing to do with "Americans electing a strange old man with dementia who, having forgotten about his duties, loves another country much more than his own." He also noted that Russia is not to blame for "town crazies who proclaimed themselves the EU leadership irrevocably losing touch with reality and making poor Ukrainians sacrifice their lives to join the EU."

Comment: Here is the full list that Medvedev published on his Telegram channel:
1. The fact that the European fools were cynically swindled by the Americans, forcing them to take on the most painful consequences of the sanctions strike on the population of the EU countries.

2. The fact that ordinary Europeans will be fiercely cold in their homes this winter.

3. The fact that Europe and the US have the highest food inflation in recent decades.

4. The fact that companies from the EU and the US have lost their multibillion-dollar investments in the Russian economy.

5. The fact that the Americans elected their president a strange grandfather with dementia, who, forgetting about his duties, loves another country much more than his own.

6. The fact that the city lunatics, who called themselves the leadership of the EU, have completely lost touch with reality and are forcing the unfortunate Ukrainians to sacrifice their lives to join the European Union.

7. The fact that numerous political crooks are manipulating the topic of restoring the statehood of Ukraine within the former borders, counting on new military orders and cutting the cash flows allocated to the Kyiv regime.

8. That NATO continues, contrary to logic and common sense, to approach the borders of Russia, creating a real threat of world conflict and the death of a significant part of humanity.

9. The fact that after the 2014 coup, Ukraine lost its state independence and came under the direct control of the collective West, and also believed that NATO would ensure its security.

10. That as a result of all that is happening, Ukraine may lose the remnants of state sovereignty and disappear from the world map.

11. The fact that Ukrainian criminals will definitely be tried for the atrocities committed against the people of Ukraine and Russia.



Dollars

Money pit: Ukraine goverment signals it intends to default on tens of billions in foreign debts

dollar black hole drain
© Alexander Kharchenko/Dreamstime.com
Despite countless billions flooding into Ukraine, Kiev can't pay its debts.

Western governments have allocated well over $100 billion to prop up Ukraine in its war against Russia, with countless billions more flooding into the country at an increasing pace. Yet as each day passes, it's becoming more and more clear that all of the money awarded and assigned to Ukraine continues to dissolve into a black hole of secrecy, corruption, deceit, and now, default.

On Wednesday, Ukraine finance ministry asked foreign creditors to accept a delay in its debt repayments, requesting a two year freeze on billions of dollars in Eurobonds. Per the Financial Times, "a rescheduling would amount to a Ukrainian default" on Kiev's tens of billions in foreign debt.

Comment: Looks like the pace of money laundering in Ukraine for the real investors has stepped up.

Marjorie Taylor Greene likens Ukraine aid to 'money laundering scheme'


Water

Coca-Cola is 'all chemicals' - Putin

Coca-Cola, Coke, bottles, Coca-Cola bottles
© Igor Golovniov / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin has derided Coca-Cola and suggested that 'Ivan Tea' - a medicinal brew made from Siberian fireweed - is a more "useful" refreshment. Coca-Cola pulled out of the Russian market in June over Moscow's military operation in Ukraine.

Participating in the 'Strong Ideas for New Times' forum in Moscow on Wednesday, Putin was approached by Alexander Khlynov from the Union of Ivan Tea Producers, who proposed the government help boost production of the traditional Russian drink.

Putin agreed to bring Khlynov's proposal to Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev, and gave the tea his personal approval. "Indeed, it is certainly more useful than Coca-Cola," he remarked, "which is all chemicals."

Comment: Nothing like being able to promote a Russian product by calling a Western product what it really is.


Stock Down

Biden approval rating hits new all-time low of 31%, now 'underwater' with own party

biden scratching head
Just when you thought President Joe Biden's approval rating couldn't get any worse, a new Quinnipac University poll released Wednesday reveals it's dropped to all-time lows, 71% of voters don't want him to run again in 2024 - including a majority of Democrats (54%).

Comparatively speaking, 60% of voters don't want to see former President Donald Trump run again, though this figure includes just 27% of Republicans.
Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy stated alongside the polling results, "There's scant enthusiasm for a replay of either a Trump or Biden presidency. But while Trump still holds sway on his base, President Biden is underwater when it comes to support from his own party."

When asked if the election were held today which party the voters would like to see control the U.S. House of Representatives, they were torn between parties with a roughly 50-50 split. -Fox News

Comment: How low can it go?

See also:


Megaphone

China blames US for Ukraine conflict

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian
© VCG / VCG via Getty ImagesChinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
Washington created the current crisis, top official states.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has accused the US of starting the crisis in Ukraine and fueling the conflict in the east European country.

Spokeman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a regular press briefing on Tuesday that Washington should stop playing "world police" and work on creating conditions for peace talks instead.