Puppet MastersS


Putin

Best of the Web: Putin's dream, Russian unity, conflict with NATO: Key takeaways from election victory speech

putin
© Sputnik / Gavriil Grigorov
President Vladimir Putin has addressed the people of Russia following a historic election victory with over 87% of the vote in his favor, amid a record-high turnout. Here are the key takeaways from his speech and a question-and-answer session at campaign headquarters in Moscow on Sunday night.

Putin's dream

"I dreamed of a strong, independent, sovereign Russia," Putin told the audience, expressing his hope that the results of the vote "will allow us all, together with the Russian people, to achieve these goals."

Record election results

The citizens of Russia realize the dramatic situation the country is going through and understand that much depends on them, Putin said.

"Due to the current situation, due to the fact that we have to literally defend the interests of our citizens, our people with weapons in our hands, to create a future for the full-fledged, sovereign, secure development of the Russian Federation, our homeland."

This year's election was marked by a record-high voter turnout of over 74%, with Putin winning over 87% of the vote. The Russian president stressed that while the results would be good for a mono-ethnic state - for a multi-ethnic country like Russia they are "uniquely exceptional."

Future challenges

The Russian leader noted that while the country faces numerous challenges, its people will be up to the task if they remain united.

"We have a lot of tasks ahead of us. And when we are united, no one can intimidate or suppress us. No one succeeded at this before, it did not happen now and will never occur in the future."

"We have a huge development agenda, and people felt it in their hearts and came to create conditions for the development and strengthening of their Motherland... the results of the election are a guarantee that these tasks will be accomplished and goals will be reached."

Border incursions & 'cordon sanitaire' in Ukraine

Russia has repelled multiple attempts by Ukrainian sabotage groups to break into its territory over the past week, with Putin saying that "the enemy has deployed a group of about five thousand people, and their losses are about 40%. And those who crawled into our territory were destroyed almost 100%... If the enemy likes a 'meat grinder' - we even benefit from it."

Kiev claimed that the operation was staged by paramilitary units, which portray themselves as collaborator forces composed of Russian defectors and fugitive neo-Nazis. Putin likened the saboteurs to the Vlasov army collaborators who fought under German Nazi command during WWII.

"Those traitors, that scum fought on the side of Nazis, and now there are similar people who fight on the side of neo-Nazis," the president stressed, adding: "We all know how they ended up."

In order to protect its people from cross-border Ukrainian strikes, Russia could at some point be "forced" to set up a buffer zone in Kiev-controlled territories. The Russian forces would establish a "security zone that would be quite difficult for the adversary to overcome with its weapons, primarily of foreign origin," if and "when we consider it appropriate," Putin added.

Talks with Ukraine

Moscow has always favored peace talks, as long as the opponents are serious about establishing good neighborly relations in the long term, not just because "the adversary has run out of ammunition," Putin said.

He added that Russia is ready to consider various scenarios, provided that they align with the national interest. But since Kiev barred talks with the current leadership in Moscow, and President Vladimir Zelensky has no intention to hold elections, it will require "painstaking research" to even figure out "who to negotiate with over there," Putin noted.

Conflict with NATO

Weighing in on the possibility of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, Putin said that "anything is possible in the modern world" and warned that it "would be one step shy of a full-scale World War III.""I don't think that anyone is interested in that," he added, stressing that Moscow was well aware of the US-led military bloc's push to deploy troops in Ukraine.

Putin noted that volunteer fighters from NATO states are facing extremely grim prospects, saying "there is nothing good in this, first of all for them, because they die there and in large numbers."

Black Magic

Best of the Web: Torture, Executions, Babies Left to Die, Sexual Abuse... These Are Israel's Crimes

Palestinian prisoners
Why is the same western media obsessively reheating five-month-old allegations against Hamas so reluctant to focus on Israel's current, horrifying atrocities?

Hostages tortured to death. Parents executed in front of their children. Doctors beaten. Babies murdered. Sexual assault weaponised.

No, not Hamas crimes. This is part of an ever-growing list of documented atrocities committed by Israel in the five months since 7 October - quite separate from the carpet bombing of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and a famine induced by Israel's obstruction of aid.

Last week, an investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz disclosed that some 27 Palestinians seized off Gaza's streets over the past five months are known to have died during interrogations inside Israel.

Some were denied medical treatment. But most are likely to have been tortured to death.

Three months ago, a Haaretz editorial warned that Israeli jails "must not become execution facilities for Palestinians".

Israeli TV channels have been excitedly taking viewers on tours of detention centres, showing the appalling conditions Palestinians are kept in, as well as the psychological and physical abuse they are subjected to.

An Israeli judge recently called the makeshift cages in which Palestinians are held "unsuitable for humans".

Comment: The ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians might well result in the end of Israel.

See also:


Attention

How NATO powers are using the U.K.'s World War I model to lure Russia into the next big global war

Kharkiv Bombed
© LeoHohmann.com
Using duplicity, deception and secret alliances, the U.K.'s inner circle of top elites led by Nathaniel Rothschild, King Edward VII, and Lord Alfred Milner backed the German Kaiser into a corner and intentionally set the Germans up to blame them for starting the First World War, when in fact it was the British who provoked the Germans to the point where war was the only option.

German generals were caught strategizing several weeks ago on how to bomb Russia's main bridge to Crimea. This would be an act of aggression that Russian President Vladimir Putin described as guaranteed to draw a harsh military response from Russia, possibly even including a nuclear strike against Berlin.

And that has led to an admission by German officials that their military is woefully unprepared to take on Russia. If German generals and politicians truly want to provoke a war with Russia, they had better slow down and wait for their military to catch up to the political rhetoric coming out of Berlin.

A March 14 article by John Cody at Remix News shows that the German Army lacks the personnel, equipment and infrastructure to wage a major war of any kind, let alone with a nuclear-armed military superpower like Russia.

"Germany's own military and government are painting such a dire picture of the armed forces that there are now calls from some of the most powerful politicians in the country to reinstate mandatory military service," Cody writes.

Yes, a military draft.

A video produced by Remix News details testimony provided by Eva Högl, German Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, who provided catastrophic details about the state of the German military. It is shocking in terms of its candor regarding the current state of the German armed forces.


Card - VISA

Visa & Mastercard: The real threat of the Digital ID control system

visa card
The question isn't whether Visa and Mastercard are at the forefront of the Digital ID control system, the question is whether Visa, Mastercard and central banks will be able to pull it off without the implementation of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). A "Digital ID" may sound convenient and harmless, but the intention behind it is far reaching - compiling and connecting data and biometrics while removing every form of privacy in order to control how one spends their money, achieves access to services, and ultimately takes control over all assets.

This will have an impact on all areas of life, including education, healthcare, food, agriculture, transportation, real estate, and technology, which of course will all be controlled through the Digital ID connected to banks, and a person's social credit score. This isn't an imaginary scheme. These intentions are well documented by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), central banks, the World Bank, financial institutions, credit card companies, and government.

In simple terms, the Bank For International Settlements' (BIS) blueprint proposes that all private property in the real world, such as money, houses, cars, etc., would be "tokenized" into digital assets within an "everything in one place" global unified ledger. Of course, smart contracts on a "programmable" platform with rules on how each asset can and cannot be used are the key ingredient.

Russian Flag

SOTT Focus: 'People Are The Power in Russia' Says Putin as he Wins Fifth Term With Record 87% of Votes

Putin reelected 2024
© Sergey Guneev/SputnikThe Russian presidential candidate and incumbent President, Vladimir Putin, speaks to the media at the campaign headquarters, in Moscow, Russia, March 18, 2024.
The incumbent head of state is projected to win re-election by a historic landslide

Vladimir Putin has delivered a victory speech at his campaign headquarters in Moscow, after preliminary results of the country's presidential vote from Russia's Central Election Commission showed him securing a fifth term in office with over 87% of the vote.

Speaking in front of his supporters on Sunday night, Putin stressed that the "only source of power in the country is the Russian people," adding that the vote of every citizen counts when its comes to charting the nation's course.

The Russian leader noted that while the country is about to face numerous challenges, its people will be up to the task if they remain united.

Comment: Turnout is now being reported as hitting 77%.



Hand-counting ballots, as they should be in a proper election:


Overseas turnout also hit a new record. Western media reported that Russians living abroad were queuing up to 'vote out Putin', LOL!

All week long the CIA and friends organized raids into Russia with a paramilitary group made up of hundreds of Ukrainians and Russian traitors, apparently in some stupid, violent attempt to 'sour the election'. Epic fail!


Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Western troops in Ukraine: How a big lie could lead to the biggest war

ukraine germany france security pact scholz macron zelensky
© Sarah Meyssonnier / POOL / AFPGermany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron
Macron's latest sallies and the spat they've caused show that Western Europe must finally be honest about the causes of the Ukraine conflict

The current situation in the conflict between Ukraine - serving (while being demolished) as a proxy for the West - and Russia, can be sketched in three broad strokes.

First, Russia now clearly has the upper hand on the battlefield and could potentially accelerate its recent advances to achieve an overall military victory soon. The West is being compelled to recognize this fact: as Foreign Affairs put it, in an article titled "Time is Running Out in Ukraine," Kiev and its Western supporters "are at a critical decision point and face a fundamental question: How can further Russian advances... be stopped, and then reversed?" Just disregard the bit of wishful thinking thrown in at the end to sweeten the bitter pill of reality. The key point is the acknowledgment that it is crunch time for the West and Ukraine - in a bad way.

Second, notwithstanding the above, Ukraine is not yet ready to ask for negotiations to end the war on terms acceptable to Russia, which would be less than easy for Kiev. (Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, reiterated in an important recent interview that Moscow remains principally open to talks, not on the basis of "wishful thinking" but, instead, proceeding from the realities "on the ground.")

Pirates

Highway robbery: EU to use frozen Russian assets to buy arms for Ukraine

macron scholz duda EU
© Odd Anderson / AFP(L-R) French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk at a press conference at the Chancellery in Berlin on March 15, 2024.
The German chancellor has clarified that profits obtained from Moscow's funds held in the EU will be used to arm Kiev

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that interest accrued from Russian assets frozen in the EU will be used to purchase weapons for Ukraine.

Soon after Russia launched its military operation against Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries froze approximately $300 billion of funds belonging to the Russian Central Bank. Of that sum, the Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear holds around €191 billion ($205 billion), which has accrued nearly €4.4 billion in interest over the past year.

Speaking at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Berlin on Friday, Chancellor Scholz said: "We will use windfall profits from Russian assets frozen in Europe to financially support the purchase of weapons for Ukraine."

Comment: Even the EU's own financial institutions are screaming that this move will destroy the EU's monetary credibility.
The West has frozen roughly $300 billion in holdings belonging to the Russian central bank since the start of the Ukraine conflict two years ago. Brussels-based Euroclear holds around €191 billion ($205 billion) of the assets, and the EU is reportedly fast-tracking the decision to send Kiev the first tranche of up to €3 billion from profits generated by frozen Russian assets as early as July.

Should the West proceed with expropriating the funds, the Russian central bank is likely to seize around €33 billion of Euroclear money held in the national securities depository in Moscow, the official said. Russia may also sue to seize Euroclear cash from depositories in Hong Kong and Dubai.

Brussels will have to "ensure that there is no breach of financial stability," an unnamed EU official told Reuters on Tuesday. "The moment the war ends and all settlements can be made, all the money that was provisionally retained will also be transferred to Ukraine. But we need a significant amount in Euroclear... because Euroclear will face a lot of claims."

Moscow has repeatedly warned that it will respond in kind if the West goes through with threats to confiscate Russian assets. The Finance Ministry said last month that Western states and companies themselves still have holdings in Russia that could be jeopardized if the frozen funds are tapped.

If Western banks begin suing Euroclear for the loss of their money invested in Russia, "that's the mechanism how Euroclear could be totally emptied," the EU official warned.

Euroclear Bank boasts of over €37 trillion in assets in custody globally, but if it runs out of liquidity amid a litany of lawsuits - the Belgian central bank may be forced to withdraw its license, causing a global financial crisis, the official warned.

A number of Western countries remain divided over expropriating Russia's frozen assets to aid Ukraine. While the US and UK support the direct seizure of the assets, some EU member states, including France and Germany, have recently warned that the move could negatively affect financial stability and erode trust in the euro's status as a reserve currency.



Big Bomb

Ukrainian shelling kills 2 in Belgorod while Russia repels incursion of border city Kozinka

ukraine shells russia belgorad
© Vyacheslav Gladkov/TelegramRussian regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov says two people have been killed in Ukrainian shelling of the city of Belgorod, close to the border with Ukraine. Three others were wounded.
Ukrainian shelling of the Russian city of Belgorod killed two people, officials said Saturday, while Russia claimed to have thwarted a new attempt by saboteurs to cross the border.

Saturday's attacks occurred as Russians entered the second day of voting in a presidential election that is all but certain to extend Vladimir Putin's rule by another six years after he crushed dissent.

A man and a woman died in the attack and three other people were wounded, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app. It was the latest in exchanges of long-range missile and rocket fire in Russia's war on Ukraine.

Five people were also wounded when a Ukrainian drone hit a car in the village of Glotovo, some 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) from the Ukrainian border, Gladkov said.

Comment: A pathetic, not to mention lethal, PR stunt by Ukraine who hoped to disrupt the Russian presidential election. Russian forces saw them off with extreme prejudice.






USA

New evidence the German Taurus attack plan was leaked by the US Air Force

guys shake
© UnknownDouble Trouble? General Ingo Gerhartz (L) USAF General Kenneth Wilsbach(R)
A little bird has materialized to sing that the record of the German generals discussing their plan to attack Russian targets with the Taurus missile was intercepted and leaked to the Russians by the Americans.

A big bird, actually. The telephone conference of German Luftwaffe chief General Ingo Gerhartz (lead image, left), one of his staff generals, and two Luftwaffe lieutenant-colonels on February 19 was listened to by US signals intelligence after the first meeting the Germans had with a new regional US Air Force (USAF) commander, General Kevin Schneider; Schneider took command of the USAF Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) on February 9 after two and a half years in a senior staff post at the Pentagon under General Charles Brown Jr. Brown was promoted from USAF chief to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on October 1, 2023. When Schneider left Brown's staff, he took a promotion from lieutenant general to four-star general.

Schneider has never flown or staffed USAF operations against Russia. He was in Singapore for the bi-annual Singapore Air Show to demonstrate what the USAF press office called "the opportunity to sharpen ties with Singapore, demonstrate flexible aircraft capability, enable engagement with foreign partners, and expand power projection." His agenda of meetings with other country airforce officers is classified.

Comment: Nice bit of detective work!


Padlock

Trudeau's 'Orwellian online harms bill': Canada PM backs imprisoning people for LIFE over speech crimes in social media 'safety' crackdown

trudeau
© AFP/Getty ImagesProposed law is backed by Canadian PM Justin Trudeau
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new internet law would allow judges to give life sentences to those who commit the worst speech crimes on social media. The Online Harms Act, designed to make social media platforms safer, is being slammed as 'Orwellian' and an 'overreach' by voters.

The Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood said the bill was 'Lettres de Cachet all over again,' referring to royal diktat for imprisoning citizens made by former Kings of France.

'The possibilities for revenge false accusations + thoughtcrime stuff are sooo inviting!' Atwood warned on X, formerly Twitter. 'Trudeau's Orwellian online harms bill.'

The proposed law, introduced last month by the Liberal government, gives judges the power to imprison adults for life if they advocate for genocide online, up from the previous maximum penalty of five years in prison.

The bill also increases the maximum term in prison from two years to five years for the willful promotion of hatred online. It also allows a provincial judge to impose house arrest and a fine if there were reasonable grounds to believe a defendant 'will commit' an offense.

Conservative writer Stephen Moore called the law the most shocking of all the totalitarian, illiberal and anti-Enlightenment pieces of legislation that have been introduced in the Western world in decades.'

Comment: First they lock our minds. Then they throw away the key. Really, nothing to it.