RT News - February 26th 2023 - The Weekly

Africa, Nigeria Election: RT continues the special coverage.
In the main the voting went smoothly but there were problems in some of the regions. In Lagos, unknown gunmen turned up on motor bikes and fired shots, they also stole some of the ballot boxes and burned them. The election committee put a hold on voting in 141 polling stations.
Vote counting is underway in Nigeria, which is electing its next president and parliament, with several states seeing disruptions and one even postponing voting till Sunday morning. Karabo Letlhatlha reports from Lagos.

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Donbass, Donetsk, Artyomovsk advance: RT reports from the Donbass front lines, as Russian forces break through Ukrainian defences in and around the key city of Artyomovsk. Another village (Yagodnoye) has been taken under Russian control. Yesterday, Ukrainian forces blew up a dam. Igor Zhdanov reports, *sensitive footage*
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China/Ukraine: China has asked the world to prevent the conflict in Ukraine escalating further. "China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis"

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/202302/t20230224_11030713.html
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China has called on the West to stop abusing unilateral sanctions, while urging all side's interests to be considered with most Western officials dismissing Beijing's peace proposal, but Moscow isn't abandoning the pact leaving the door open for cooperation if the US de-escalates its stance on Russia. The comments came from Vladimir Putin during his annual address to the country's parliament on Tuesday.

China says the cold-war mentality has to stop; Jens Stoltenberg speaking on behalf of NATO, says China has no credibility because they refuse to condemn the special operation in Ukraine whilst simultaneously saying "the west must support Ukraine militarily, now, that military support todays is the way to peace tomorrow" (QS: I hear Boris Johnson wants his job after Stoltenberg takes up his central bank job he was expecting to go to last year whilst Chrystia Freeland has a questionable fascist history)
Kiev echoed Washington's tone over the peace proposal; earlier Pres. Zelensky said Ukraine is ready for peaces talks when Pres. Putin is not longer in office and has signed this into Ukraine law.
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Pres. Biden visited Kiev last week and promised more military aid for Ukraine. (QS: good footage from Fox news :-) ) Mark Sleboda reports and said "it was spin"

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Below, via RT website, --- 1) --- Zelensky threatens unsupportive Americans
2) --- Ex-Russian president explains how ‘trophy’ weapons are used
3) --- Elon Musk calls 2014 Ukraine regime change a ‘coup’
4) --- Fewer Americans perceive that Ukraine is winning – poll
5) --- Less than half of Americans support Ukraine military aid
6) --- NATO member may delay vote on expansion
6a) --- Iran still wants to kill Trump, top general says
7) --- The country will not confiscate blocked funds despite pressure from Western allies, an official said
7a) --- Switzerland warned against seizing Russian assets
8) --- Berlin rally against arming Ukraine draws tens of thousands
9) --- Poland picks US firm to build first nuclear power plant – AP
9a) --- Ukraine shells holiday camp with US-made HIMARS – governor
10) --- Ukraine figures high on talks between Chancellor Scholz and PM Modi
11) --- Ukraine has ‘total dominance’ over US – Trump
12) --- US spends more on Ukraine than it burned through in Afghanistan – researcher
12a) --- Iran awaits green light to start exporting cars to Russia – official
13) --- Japanese inflation hits four-decade high
LR 1) --- No quiet on the Eastern front: How the US has worked to prevent Russia and Japan from putting a formal end to World War Two - long read
LR 2) --- 71 years of RFE/RL: How the CIA-founded American state run media outlet survived the Soviet collapse to fight Cold War 2.0 - long read
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25 Feb, 2023 20:46

1) --- Zelensky threatens unsupportive Americans

The Ukrainian leader alleged the US would lose its influence in the world if it stopped backing Kiev

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky warned Americans to keep supporting Ukraine or risk geopolitical irrelevance, during a press conference on the anniversary of Russia’s military operation in the country. Should it stop funding Kiev’s war effort, the US will "lose the leadership position that they are enjoying in the world," the Ukrainian leader declared on Friday.

"If they do not change their opinion…they will lose NATO, they will lose the clout of the United States, they will lose the leadership position they are enjoying in the world," Zelensky declared, following a speech in which he declared 2023 the "Year of Invincibility" and vowed to unite the world against Russia.

The warning was a response to a reporter asking what Zelensky would tell the "growing number of Americans" who believe their country is giving too much money and support to Ukraine. The president made sure to thank his American supporters – a group he hinted included not just Congress and President Joe Biden but also "the TV channels" and "the journalists" – before threatening those who held the "dangerous" opinion that the US should "give up" on Kiev.

"The US is never going to give up on a NATO member state," Zelensky declared, insisting that should Ukraine fall because of flagging support from Washington, Russia would "enter the Baltic states, NATO member states, and then the US will have to send their sons and daughters exactly the way as we are sending their [sic] sons and daughters to war."

"They will be dying," the Ukrainian leader stressed.

The actor-turned-politician added that interrupting the flow of dollars to Ukraine would also cause the US to "lose the support of a country with 40 million population, with millions of children. Are American children any different from ours?" he asked.

The Republican Party regained control of the House of Representatives in last year’s midterm elections in part on a promise to curtail the Biden administration’s blank check to Kiev. While Congress has not yet passed any legislation to rein in spending on the conflict, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) promised earlier this week to introduce a bill to force an audit of the Ukraine aid program and the House Oversight Committee demanded the administration turn over documents proving the military and economic aid being sent to Ukraine was not being lost to "waste, fraud, and abuse."

The US has thus far pledged $113 billion to Ukraine's war effort, vowing to continue pouring money into the conflict for "as long as it takes."
https://www.rt.com/news/572077-zelensky-warns-us-support-flagging/
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25 Feb, 2023 14:03

2) --- Ex-Russian president explains how ‘trophy’ weapons are used

Russia examined Western-supplied arms seized in Ukraine and learned some ‘useful things’, Dmitry Medvedev says

Russian arms makers have carefully studied Western weapons captured during the fighting in Ukraine and used this experience for the benefit of the country’s military, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said.

“Our country’s defense industry is working in such a manner that no large-scale supply of Western weapons to our enemies will be able to assure [Kiev] the advantage on the contact line,” Medvedev, who is now the deputy chair of the Security Council, pointed out in an article published in the Natsyonalnaya Oborona (National Defense) magazine on Saturday.

During the conflict in Ukraine, Russia managed to not only expand the production of military hardware, but also introduce new technologies and improve them, while remaining “on the march,” he pointed out.

“By the way, we’ve also studied enemy weapons, which were captured in the form of trophies and dismantled piece by piece in our military design bureaus,” the official, who is also President Vladimir Putin’s First Deputy in the Military-Industrial Commission, said.

“We’ve learned a lot of useful things for ourselves and turned the enemy’s experience to our own advantage,” Medvedev wrote.

He said that he had visited many production facilities of the military-industrial complex over the past year and saw them “working consistently, without failures” and fully coping with the state order, which has increased multifold amid the conflict.

Russia’s opponents have been “surprised” that Moscow managed to pull this off in such a short time frame, he also pointed out.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said last month that the country’s air defense systems, including Pantsyr-S1, had been upgraded with special software, making them more effective in intercepting missiles fired by US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers. Military experts suggested that the program was developed after the study of downed HIMARS ammunition.

According to Medvedev, the US has so far supplied more than 40 HIMARS launchers to Ukraine. Moscow has been saying that most of them have already been destroyed, while Kiev denies this.

Russia has long condemned the supply of Western arms to Ukraine, arguing that this only prolongs the fighting without changing its outcome. According to Moscow, such deliveries, as well as intelligence sharing and training provided to Ukrainian troops, have de facto already made the US and its allies parties to the conflict.
https://www.rt.com/russia/572057-medvedev-western-weapons-ukraine/
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25 Feb, 2023 20:01

3) --- Elon Musk calls 2014 Ukraine regime change a ‘coup’

The billionaire described Viktor Yanukovych’s election as ‘dodgy’ but said the coup was beyond question

Twitter CEO Elon Musk polarized his followers with a tweet declaring there was “no question” that the 2014 change of government in Ukraine was a “coup.” On Saturday, the billionaire tweeted that while “the election” – presumably referring to the 2010 vote that elected Viktor Yanukovych president – was “arguably dodgy,” what followed “was indeed a coup.”

The tweet was a response to a post from user @KanekoaTheGreat that featured the front page of an article by University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer titled “Why the Ukraine Crisis Is The West’s Fault.” Dating from 2014, the piece – subtitled “The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin” – argues that “NATO enlargement” and Western meddling in Ukrainian politics, and not “Russian aggression,” are to blame for Crimea’s accession to Russia.

Mearsheimer states that “for Putin, the illegal overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically-elected and pro-Russian president – which he rightly labeled a ‘coup’ – was the final straw,” an explanation Musk appeared to agree with, at least in part.
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https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1629417851890159616
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While the 2010 election that installed Yanukovych as president was deemed an “impressive display” of democracy by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the West soured on the Party of Regions politician when he abandoned a 2013 economic cooperation agreement with the EU.

Massive violent protests followed, forcing Yanukovych to flee. The US’ hand in the unrest was confirmed in a leaked phone call between then-assistant US Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt in which they appeared to be plotting to overthrow Yanukovych and install Arseniy Yatsenyuk – who indeed briefly became Prime Minister following Yanukovych’s ouster.

Musk also replied approvingly to a previous post by Kanekoa that featured a video clip of All In podcast host David Sacks claiming that the US “courted” the Ukraine conflict. The video likened Nuland to former Biden administration medical adviser Anthony Fauci, a frequent target of Musk's ire.

“The same way that Fauci was supposed to be protecting us from viruses and then funded gain of function research, Victoria Nuland was supposed to be our chief diplomat with respect to Russia and Eastern Europe and what did she do instead? She ginned up this conflict. How? We backed an insurrection in Ukraine in 2014,” Sacks said in the video, which Musk described as an “accurate assessment.”
https://www.rt.com/news/572075-elon-musk-ukraine-coup-election/

(QS: also see Alex Christoforou's post about 6 minutes in https://rumble.com/v2aqqv4-boris-wants-nato-job.-musk-calls-out-nuland.-sachs-and-mcgovern-at-un.-mold.html?mref=6zof&mc=dgip3&ep=2)
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25 Feb, 2023 19:25

4) --- Fewer Americans perceive that Ukraine is winning – poll

Just 21% of voters consider that Kiev is heading for victory, while 46% see a stalemate with Russia, a new poll has shown

Americans are losing confidence that Ukraine is winning its conflict with Russia, a new Rasmussen Reports poll has shown. The latest figures indicate that more than one-third of US voters who were confident of a Ukrainian victory in December no longer expect Kiev to prevail.

The poll, which was conducted last week and released on Friday, found that 46% of likely US voters believe the Russia-Ukraine conflict has become a stalemate. Those Americans who believe that one side or the other is winning are about evenly divided, with 21% in Ukraine’s camp and 19% saying Russia has the upper hand.

Just two months ago, a Rasmussen poll asking the same questions showed that 32% of Americans believed Ukraine was winning the conflict. And just as around one-third of voters who were confident in December that Ukraine would prevail no longer expect a victory for Kiev, the percentage of respondents who see Russian forces winning has increased by about the same proportion.

Rasmussen’s findings dovetail with recent polling showing that public support for US aid to Ukraine has dropped sharply. For example, an Associated Press-NORC poll conducted in late January showed that less than half of US adults (48%) still agreed with sending weapons to Kiev. Just 26% said Washington should continue to play a “major role” in the conflict.

Middle-aged voters are most likely to say that President Joe Biden’s administration is doing “too much” to help Ukraine, Rasmussen said. Washington has already allocated $113 billion of military and economic aid for Ukraine since Russia began its offensive against Kiev a year ago. During his visit to Kiev earlier this week, Biden vowed “unwavering” support for Ukraine’s defense, pledging to continue backing the former Soviet republic “as long as it takes.”

The US and its NATO allies also have declared that Ukraine will win, and must win, to preserve the “rules-based international order.” However, critics of US foreign policy have argued that Ukraine’s battlefield successes have been greatly exaggerated, and US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said last week that the conflict will need to end in a negotiated settlement because neither side can likely achieve victory on the battlefield.
https://www.rt.com/news/572070-amercans-less-confident-ukraine-winning-poll/
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15 Feb, 2023 17:52

5) --- Less than half of Americans support Ukraine military aid

Just 48% of respondents in a new AP poll agree with continuing to send weaponry to Kiev

Nearly one year on from the launch of Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine, many Americans oppose their government’s policy of providing massive military and economic assistance to Kiev, a new poll revealed on Wednesday.

Less than half of US adults still agree with sending weapons to Ukraine, while only around one in four believes Washington should continue to play a “major role” in the conflict, the Associated Press-NORC poll showed. The survey, conducted in late January, found that 48% of Americans support continued military aid to Ukraine, down from 60% back in May, while 29% are opposed and 22% are unsure.

Likewise, just 26% of poll respondents say the US should have a “major role” in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, down from 32% in May. Most of that support comes from Democrats. Just 17% of Republicans want Washington to play a big part in the conflict, compared with 40% of Democrats.

A handful of GOP lawmakers, including Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Thomas Massie of West Virginia, have called for halting US aid to Kiev, arguing that President Joe Biden’s policy has heightened the risk of war with Russia, depleted America’s weapons stockpiles and caused more bloodshed by prolonging the conflict. Biden himself warned last March that giving Ukraine offensive weapons, such as tanks and planes, would lead to World War III. He then proceeded to champion a US aid program that has grown to $100 billion in approvals.

Americans also are increasingly reluctant to support continued economic aid to Ukraine, with just 37% approving and 38% opposing, the AP-NORC poll showed. US adults favored such aid by a 44-32 margin as of last May.

Support for anti-Russia sanctions has dropped to 63% from 71% over the same period. The poll found that 59% of Americans believe limiting damage to the US economy should be a bigger priority, compared with 36% who say sanctioning Russia as effectively as possible is more important. When an AP-NORC poll asked the same question in March, respondents prioritized sanctions effectiveness over protecting the US economy by a margin of 55-42.

Fewer than one in five Americans (19%) has “a great deal” of confidence in Biden’s ability to handle the crisis. Even among Democrats, just 40% of respondents are highly confident that the president will effectively manage the conflict.
https://www.rt.com/news/571540-us-ukraine-aid-support-wanes-poll/
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25 Feb, 2023 22:14

6) --- NATO member may delay vote on expansion

A Hungarian official has suggested that lawmakers may need more time to consider bids by Sweden and Finland to join the bloc

Hungary, one of only two NATO members that have not yet formally approved bids by Sweden and Finland to join the Western military bloc, may need more time than expected for its lawmakers to vote on ratification, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff has indicated.

Budapest had planned to take up the issue in its first parliamentary session of the year, earlier this month, but Orban said on Friday that legislators need more time to discuss the matter. He has accused both NATO aspirants of questioning Hungary’s democracy and rule of law with “outright lies.”

The Hungarian National Assembly said earlier this week that it could hold a final vote on NATO’s proposed expansion during the week starting March 6. However, Orban aide Gergely Gulyas told reporters on Saturday that lawmakers may need more time.

Parliament will put the matter on its agenda on Monday and start debating Sweden and Finland’s NATO bids next week, Gulyas said at a press briefing. “Based on Hungarian procedure, adopting legislation takes about four weeks, so it follows that parliament can have a vote on this sometime in the second half of March, on the week of March 21,” he said.

The delay comes amid strained relations between the two proposed NATO members and the bloc’s lone recalcitrant states, Hungary and Türkiye. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month that he had ruled out approving Sweden’s bid, blasting Stockholm for allowing a Koran-burning demonstration outside Türkiye’s embassy. Any proposed NATO member must be approved by all 30 members of the alliance.

Erdogan had previously expressed reluctance to allow either of the two Nordic countries to join the bloc, citing their support for Kurdish groups that Ankara considers to be terrorists. Türkiye, Sweden and Finland signed an agreement last June to address those concerns and pave the way for approving NATO’s expansion. However, Erdogan said the Koran-burning stunt violated that deal.

Sweden defended its approval of the Koran demonstration by saying it couldn’t be prohibited because of the country’s free speech protections. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto took Türkiye’s side in the row, stating Sweden’s response was “just plain stupidity.”
https://www.rt.com/news/572080-hungary-nato-expansion-delay/
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25 Feb, 2023 21:09

6a) --- Iran still wants to kill Trump, top general says

The country hasn't given up on targeting the former US president and top officials behind the assassination of Qassem Soleimani

Tehran is still seeking to assassinate former US President Donald Trump, his secretary of state Mike Pompeo and other officials responsible for the 2020 assassination of Qassem Soleimani, Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) aerospace force, said on Friday.

The top general made the remarks as he unveiled a new cruise missile, said to boast a range of 1,650 kilometers (1,025 miles).

"We hope we can kill Trump, Pompeo, [retired US general Kenneth] McKenzie and the military commanders who gave the order," Hajizadeh stated.

Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a US drone strike on January 3, 2020, while visiting Iraq's capital Baghdad. Then-president Trump repeatedly bragged about personally commissioning the attack, insisting it came in retaliation for the alleged attacks on US personnel across the region, purportedly staged by the Iranians.

Top officials in Tehran have repeatedly pledged to avenge the assassination of Soleimani, threatening to kill Trump and others behind the strike. At the same time, Iran has been pursuing a more legal route to punish the culprits, repeatedly requesting that Interpol assist in catching Trump and nearly 50 other US officials whom it believes to be linked to the strike.

It was not immediately clear from the remarks by Hajizadeh whether Tehran seeks to eliminate all the Americans it had previously sought to arrest with the help of Interpol. The organization, however, had rejected such requests, citing its charter as prohibiting it from undertaking "any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious, or racial character."
https://www.rt.com/news/572076-iran-revenge-kill-trump/
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26 Feb, 2023 05:28

Switzerland confirms stance on frozen Russian assets

7) --- The country will not confiscate blocked funds despite pressure from Western allies, an official said

Swiss banks have no legal right to use Russian money frozen in the country under sanctions for their own purposes, a spokesperson for the country’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Fabian Maienfisch, told the RIA novosti news agency this week.

Any action that allows the management or use of frozen assets is prohibited except for routine administrative actions performed by financial institutions such as accounting for interest rates or banking charges on the account, he noted.

“The management of actual portfolio of frozen assets such as attracting new investments, selling assets or changing revenue is not allowed,” Maienfisch added.

He also pointed out that all the costs associated with the Russian property blocked in Switzerland should be defrayed by the owners.

Earlier, the Swiss government ruled out the seizure of funds frozen in the country, saying that the confiscation of private Russian assets would undermine the Swiss constitution and the prevailing legal order. Swiss banks have opposed the appropriation.

“There is no legal basis for confiscation today,” the Swiss Bankers Association said last month.

Switzerland has been facing increasing US and EU pressure to release the frozen funds for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Western countries have been discussing the idea for some time but have come up against legal hurdles.

Former head of Deutsche Bank Josef Ackermann recently warned that such a step by Switzerland in particular would jeopardize investor confidence in the Swiss banking system and result in the country losing its status as a global financial center.

Switzerland currently holds 7.5 billion Swiss francs ($8 billion) worth of frozen financial assets belonging to Russian citizens, SECO revealed last month.
https://www.rt.com/business/571855-switzerland-banks-russia-frozen-assets/
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11 Feb, 2023 12:22 re-post

7a) --- Switzerland warned against seizing Russian assets

The move would undermine confidence in the country’s banking system, according to the former head of Deutsche Bank

Former head of Deutsche Bank Josef Ackermann has warned Switzerland against confiscating Russian assets that have been frozen under EU sanctions, as the move would jeopardize investor confidence in the Swiss banking system.

In an interview with Blick news outlet, Ackermann likened the measure to “opening a Pandora’s box.” He said Switzerland could well lose its status as a global financial center if it chooses to formally hold individual Russian citizens responsible for the actions of their government.

“Then in future, citizens of other countries would also have to be afraid of investing money in Switzerland… Such a message would be devastating for the country as a financial center,” the banker stated.

In his opinion, Switzerland needs to determine its own stance on the matter and not rush to emulate the actions of other Western countries.

According to Blick, around 7.5 billion Swiss francs ($7.9 billion) worth of Russian assets is currently frozen in Switzerland, along with 15 properties that belong to Russian citizens. The Swiss government is under increasing international pressure to release the frozen funds for the reconstruction of Ukraine. So far, Switzerland has not done so because there is no legal basis for the procedure. However, according to Ackermann, the Federal Council has not completely ruled out such a step.

The banker said that, in order to seize the funds legally, authorities would have to classify their owners as criminals. Ackermann warned against such a move, noting that it would jeopardize the rule of law and property rights.

The notion of confiscating frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine has been discussed by Western countries for some time. According to media reports, US Attorney General Merrick Garland last week announced the first transfer of frozen Russian assets toward aiding Ukraine. The funds in question belonged to Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeyev.

Moscow has repeatedly warned against such actions, saying that they may create a dangerous precedent in international law. Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, last month warned that if its assets were seized, Russia would have the right to confiscate foreign assets kept in the country in retaliation.
https://www.rt.com/business/571183-switzerland-warning-seizing-russian-assets/
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25 Feb, 2023 22:09

8) --- Berlin rally against arming Ukraine draws tens of thousands

An estimated 13,000 to 50,000 people attended the event calling for peace talks

Tens of thousands of Germans braved the elements to attend the Uprising for Peace, a massive rally organized by Die Linke (Left Party) politician Sahra Wagenknecht and author Alice Schwarzer on Saturday.

The demonstrators massed at the Brandenburg Gate, calling for peace talks to end the conflict in Ukraine and demanding Berlin cease supplying Kiev with weapons.

Wagenknecht slammed the German government for trying to "ruin Russia," urging leaders to make Moscow an "offer" so that peace talks could begin. The rally, she said, represented the "start of a citizens’ initiative" and the launch of a "new, strong peace movement in Germany."
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https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1629513125220196352
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https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1629514420241027078
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https://twitter.com/KevorkAlmassian/status/1629514531859734531
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Wagenknecht and Schwarzer earlier this month published a Manifest for Peace urging Chancellor Olaf Scholz to "stop the escalation in weapons deliveries." It has since been signed by over half a million people, including well-known public intellectuals and political figures.
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https://twitter.com/EMichaelJones1/status/1629590281082359814
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Scholz has repeatedly declared peace talks to be outside the realm of possibility, insisting that it is Russia that is unwilling to come to the table, despite Moscow’s many attempts since the start of the conflict to resolve things peacefully.
https://www.rt.com/news/572079-peace-rally-berlin/
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24 Feb, 2023 04:55

9) --- Poland picks US firm to build first nuclear power plant – AP

The facility will reportedly be constructed by Westinghouse

Warsaw has signed a deal with Westinghouse Electric Company for pre-design cooperation on Poland’s first nuclear power plant, using the American company’s technology, the Associated Press reported this week.

According to AP, the agreement was inked by Poland’s minister for climate and environment, Anna Moskwa, and the US ambassador to Poland, Mark Brzezinski, during a visit by US President Joe Biden to Warsaw.

Moskwa said that construction of the plant is expected to begin in 2026, with the facility to start supplying Poland’s power grid in 2032.

Warsaw accepted a US offer to build the power station in October. Under its terms, the foreign investor must provide the technology and assist with managing and funding, in exchange for a 49% stake in the project.

US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm pitched the project as a way for Poland to reduce carbon emissions by phasing out coal. The country generates almost 70% of its energy from black and brown coal and has been attempting to embrace renewable energy.

Warsaw cut itself off from Russian natural gas imports in April, citing the conflict in Ukraine. A pipeline delivering natural gas from Norway was inaugurated in September, just a day before the Nord Stream pipelines from Russia to Germany were blown up.
https://www.rt.com/business/571906-poland-us-nuclear-power-plant/
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11 Dec, 2022 01:17 ( QS - missed post )

9a) --- Ukraine shells holiday camp with US-made HIMARS – governor

At least a dozen people were injured or killed in Melitopol, Russia

Ukrainian forces launched a barrage of rockets towards the city of Melitopol on Saturday night, hitting a hotel and restaurant complex, according to the acting governor of Russia’s newly incorporated Zaporozhye Region, Evgeny Balitsky.

Located near the Sea of Azov, Melitopol had a population of nearly 149,000 before the conflict.

The missile strike took place around 9pm local time and was supposedly carried out using the US-supplied M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). Two of the rockets were reportedly intercepted by air defenses, but the remaining four missiles hit a cottage estate on the outskirts of the city and “completely obliterated” a small recreation center, killing and injuring patrons and staff, Balitsky said in a Telegram post.

Two people were killed on the spot, while another ten were rushed to hospitals, the official added. At least three of the victims are reportedly in critical condition, with doctors fighting to save them.

Footage shared by Balitsky shows several houses on fire, with firefighters and rescuers working at the scene.

Another extremely graphic video has been making rounds online, purportedly showing the immediate aftermath of the strike with several victims lying on the ground in agony and first responders assisting them.
https://t.me/BalitskyEV/586
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Zaporozhye was officially declared part of Russia in early October, along with Kherson Region and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, after voters in these regions overwhelmingly supported the move in public referendums.

Kiev rejected the results of the referendums and pledged to use military force to oust Russia from all lands that Ukraine considers its own. President Vladimir Zelensky has said he wants all people living in what his government calls the “temporarily occupied territories” back under Kiev’s control, and threatened to punish “collaborators” who work with Russia.

Melitopol-born politician Balitsky, who turned 53 on the day of the attack, accused the “Kiev Nazis” of “deliberately targeting civilians” who were trying to enjoy a peaceful Saturday evening, in an apparent attempt to make life unbearable for the residents of the newly incorporated Russian territory.
https://www.rt.com/russia/568031-melitopol-hotel-ukraine-himars/
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25 Feb, 2023 18:56

10) --- Ukraine figures high on talks between Chancellor Scholz and PM Modi

The German leader is on his maiden two-day visit to India to bolster ties in defense and technology - By Joydeep Sen Gupta, Asia Editor

Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, which marked its first anniversary on Friday, figured high on the one-to-one talks between visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra reiterated India’s position on the Ukraine situation.

He emphasized that New Delhi has been concerned about the impact on food, fertilizer and fuel security, which is hurting the developing economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America – collectively known as the Global South – in a major way.

Kwatra maintained that Germany shares concerns similar to those of India, that it's in favor of an early cessation of hostilities between the two countries, and that it acknowledges the complexities in the global economies arising out of the situation.

He said both New Delhi and Moscow have a deep understanding of each other’s position at the United Nations (UN). The comment was made in reference to India’s action at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday.

India was one of the 32 nations who abstained from voting on a UNGA resolution that condemned Russia’s ‘invasion’ of Ukraine.

“India and Germany are of the firm agreement that dialogue and diplomacy are the path forward because peace is beneficial for all developing countries. Both nations are in favor of strengthening the constituency of peace,” he added.

“The German leader, who is on his maiden visit to India since assuming office in end-2021, was visibly impressed by the country’s economic growth and development. He had last visited India in 2012 as the mayor of Hamburg,” Kwatra said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India and Germany were committed to realizing their untapped potential in sectors such as security and defense cooperation.

Germany is in talks with India to sell it six conventional submarines for $5.2 billion.

Experts see the move as a bid to wean New Delhi away from its dependence on Russia for military hardware. But the ploy appears duplicitous because of Germany’s strong trade ties with both China and Russia.

For instance, China is one of the primary buyers of German machine tools and Berlin is heavily dependent on Russia for its energy supplies.

Germany is also India’s largest trade partner in the 27-member European Union (EU) and has been among New Delhi’s top ten global trade partners. Data shows that the total bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $24.8 billion during 2021–22, and over 1,800 German companies are known to operate in India.

Germany is the ninth largest investor in India, with cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows of $13.8 billion from April 2000 to September 2022.

Transportation, electrical equipment, and metallurgical industries, the services sector (in particular insurance), chemicals, construction activity, trading and automobiles are key areas of German investment in India.

Scholz last met Modi at last June's summit of the Group of Seven (G7) industrial powers during an outreach to rally New Delhi’s support amid growing concerns over China’s backing of Russia over Ukraine.
https://www.rt.com/india/572072-ukraine-india-germany/
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25 Feb, 2023 20:08

11) --- Ukraine has ‘total dominance’ over US – Trump

The ex-president suggested Kiev might actually be behind the Nord Stream pipeline blasts as well

Ukraine has asserted "total dominance" over the US, former President Donald Trump said Friday during an interview with Glenn Beck. The ex-president also suggested that Kiev might be the real culprit behind the destruction of Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines last October.

Commenting on the recent report by veteran American journalist Seymour Hersh, who suggested the pipelines were targeted by Washington in a clandestine operation ordered directly by President Joe Biden, Trump did not rule out US involvement but rubbished allegations that Moscow destroyed the installation itself.

"Well, it could have been us, and it could have been Ukraine, and it could have been some third-party country that wants to see trouble. The one group it wasn’t is Russia… This is a main source of massive income for them. They didn't blow it up to make a point. That's the one thing I can tell you for sure," Trump stated, adding that "everything gets blamed on Russia" by the "sick" people.

The US might have been "working in conjunction" with Ukraine to target the pipelines, the ex-president suggested, since Kiev has already asserted "total dominance" over Washington.

"We’ve given them probably $150 billion, and Europe has given them almost nothing," he added.

Earlier this week, Trump, who is seeking to get elected back into the White House in 2024, already vowed to end the Ukraine conflict within hours should he make it to the office again. "I would literally start calling, not from the day I took over, but from the night I won," he told a campaign rally in Florida this week.

The ex-president has also blamed the "warmongers and ‘America Last’ globalists" entrenched at the State Department, the Pentagon, and the "national security industrial complex" for pushing the hostilities forward. "I was the only president who rejected the catastrophic advice of many of Washington’s generals, bureaucrats and so-called diplomats who only knew how to get us into conflicts," he said in a campaign video released Tuesday.
https://www.rt.com/news/572069-trump-us-ukraine-dominance/
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25 Feb, 2023 19:25

12) --- US spends more on Ukraine than it burned through in Afghanistan – researcher

Washington’s military aid to Kiev exceeds its annual outlays to fight America’s longest-ever war, a Statista analysis has shown

President Joe Biden’s administration has shelled out more money on military aid to help Ukraine fight Russia than the US spent annually to fight its own war in Afghanistan, according to data compiled by German research firm Statista.

US military aid to Ukraine through mid-January, spanning the first 11 months of the conflict, totaled $46.6 billion, Statista said in a report this week, citing data from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. That compared with an average annual military spend of $43.4 billion, in 2022 dollars, during the first ten years of the Afghanistan war.

“When calculating the average annual costs of previous wars in which the United States has been involved in, the true magnitude of the country’s Ukraine aid expenditure can be seen,” Statista data journalist Martin Armstrong said. The Ukraine total doesn’t include an additional $5 billion worth of weapons and equipment that the Pentagon sent to Kiev, he said.

The figures also exclude non-military aid, such as the $4.5 billion that Biden pledged to fund pensions, government salary and other public spending. All told, Washington has allocated $113 billion in Ukraine aid, and multiple administration officials have vowed to keep supporting Kiev “as long as it takes.”

Some Washington lawmakers, such as Representatives Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, a Democrat, and Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, have called the Ukraine crisis a “proxy war” that the US and NATO are waging against Russia. Remarkably, even without officially deploying any troops in Ukraine or declaring itself a direct party to the conflict, the US is spending more than it doled out to fund its own war – in fact, the longest war in the nation’s history.

When converted to 2022 dollars, US military spending was far higher in Vietnam, averaging $90.9 billion from 1965 to 1975; Iraq, totaling $125.1 billion per year from 2003 to 2010; and Korea, where the annual rate was $138.2 billion from 1950 to 1953.

Republican lawmakers, who won control of Congress in last November’s midterm elections, have called for tougher oversight of US aid to Ukraine. Eleven US House Republicans introduced a bill earlier this month calling for an immediate halt to the aid program.
https://www.rt.com/news/572074-us-ukraine-spending-tops-afghan-war/
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26 Feb, 2023 05:46

12a) --- Iran awaits green light to start exporting cars to Russia – official

Deliveries may begin pending Moscow’s approval, an Iranian trade representative told the media

Two major Iranian automakers, Khodro and SAIPA, are currently undergoing certification in Russia for future car deliveries, a spokesperson for the country’s Trade Ministry, Omid Ghalibaf, told RIA Novosti this week.

He revealed that SAIPA had signed an agreement with a Belarusian company to supply 45,000 Shahin and Quick model cars, adding that “these two models will be delivered to the Russian market” as well.

However, Ghalibaf didn’t specify whether the automaker would be shipping the cars directly to Russia or via Belarus, explaining that the issue needs to be clarified due to Western sanctions. He also pointed out that there are no direct agreements between Iranian automakers and Russia, but stressed that negotiations with Moscow are underway and that the cars are awaiting certification.

“The concern [Khodro] sent one of its vehicles to Russia as a sample for certification, after which it will contact private companies from Russia to sign a supply agreement,” the Iranian official added.

Last November, Moscow and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding for Iranian car exports to Russia valued at $300 million. The two countries also explored the possibility of joint automobile production.

Major Middle Eastern carmakers are eyeing the Russian market following the exodus of European, American, and Japanese brands. Khodro assembles revamped models of the Chinese Haima and Dongfeng brands. Last year, Iran also launched production of the Tara sedan based on the Peugeot 301, while other new models using the Peugeot and Citroen as prototypes are coming, according to data from the companies.
https://www.rt.com/business/571897-iran-russia-car-certification/
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24 Feb, 2023 10:33

13) --- Japanese inflation hits four-decade high

Consumer prices are rising as higher energy costs are passed on to households

Japan’s core consumer inflation index hit a 41-year high last month as companies continue to pass rising energy costs continue on to households, government data showed on Friday.

The consumer price index (CPI), which excludes fresh food but includes energy costs, jumped 4.2% in January from a year ago, up from the 4.0% reading the previous month. It was the biggest increase since September 1981, when the country suffered from a spike in fuel costs due to the Middle East oil crisis. On a monthly basis, consumer prices grew 0.4% in January, following a 0.3% rise in December.

Core inflation has now been well above the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) 2% target for nine months in a row. This is largely attributable to continued increases in the cost of fuel and raw materials, which Japanese companies are passing on to consumers.

“Inflation will probably peak in January but may not fall back below the BoJ’s 2% target for some time. But there are questions as to whether the rise in inflation will be sustainable, as it is still driven largely by food and fuel costs,” Yoshimasa Maruyama, the chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities, told Reuters.

The BoJ now faces a challenge in maintaining its yield control – a policy of purchasing government bonds so as to target a certain interest rate level – as markets expect high inflation to force it to hike interest rates. However, the bank’s incoming governor, Kazuo Ueda, said on Friday that it would take time for rising prices to be contained, which makes monetary tightening under the current conditions risky as it could slow down the economy.

“There have been various side effects, but in light of the economic and price conditions, the methods have been necessary as well as appropriate to sustainably achieve the 2 per cent inflation target. I believe it is appropriate to continue monetary easing measures while being creative in line with the situation,” he said, referring to the regulator’s adoption of negative rates and yield curve control.
https://www.rt.com/business/572008-japanese-inflation-four-decade-high/

recall post from 13th January: More than half of Japanese households have experienced worsening living standards as a result of soaring inflation, the latest survey conducted by the Bank of Japan has shown.

In its quarterly report, the BOJ said 53% of people surveyed admitted that their wealth had slumped last year compared to 2021, while only 3.7% said their livelihood had improved. This is the highest percentage of households reporting financial problems in almost 13 years. https://www.rt.com/business/569699-japan-households-spending-inflation/

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LR 1) --- No quiet on the Eastern front: How the US has worked to prevent Russia and Japan from putting a formal end to World War Two

Russia and Japan have technically been at war with each other for almost 80 years. The US is the main roadblock to a peace treaty

“Give back the Northern Territories! You’re illegally occupying our land!” Every year, on February 7, slogans like this blare out through loudspeakers opposite the Russian embassy in Japan. This is the day when Japan celebrates the so-called Northern Territories Day." This refers to what Russia calls the Southern Kurils — Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and Habomai Islands, — which became part of the Soviet Union after World War 2.

In 2022, a protest staged by rightwing radicals began a day early and resulted in unrest. According to Russian diplomats, “a group of militant young men'' attempted to break into the embassy premises and fought with police securing the entrance. The next day, on February 7, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressed a national rally in Tokyo calling for the return of the Northern Territories.

This year has been no exception. Far-right activists again staged a rally outside the building, making a detour around the perimeter of the block in vans and using loudspeakers to shout their demands for the return of the islands.

In addition, for the first time since 2018, the phrase “illegal occupation” was included in the statement that is traditionally read out at the end of the annual ‘National Rally for the Return of the Northern Territories’.

Tokyo ties the Kuril Islands dispute with another issue that has been souring relations with Moscow for almost 78 years — the absence of a peace treaty between the two capitals after World War Two. On March 21, 2022, Russia exited the negotiation process with Japan, which had been gaining momentum since the end of the Cold War. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated it was impossible to hold such discussions with a state that “displays an openly unfriendly position and attempts to damage the interests of our country.” This came after Tokyo placed sanctions on Moscow.

The Southern Kuril Islands are a very valuable asset. The Catherine and Vries Straits are the only year-round ice-free links between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean. Additionally, the Sea of Okhotsk can be considered an internal sea of the Russian Federation, thus preventing any other country from fishing or extracting mineral resources there without Moscow’s permission. The area around the Southern Kuril Islands boasts rich fishing grounds, where the USSR used to catch most of its Japanese pilchard and Pacific saury. Iturup has one of the world’s largest deposits of rhenium, a remarkably rare metal. A major underwater hydrocarbon deposit has been discovered off the coast of the Lesser Kuril Chain, with reserves in the Mid-Kuril Oil and Gas Basin estimated at 300 million tons.

Pursuing sanctions and Kurils
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What little hope there was to sign a peace treaty ended after Tokyo’s response to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, has counted 15 packages of individual and sectoral sanctions imposed by Japan over this time. “Sometimes Japan was even overzealous, rushing new sanctions before its Western allies,” she added.

Any hypothetical resumption of talks can only happen after the whole crisis around Ukraine is resolved, Vladimir Nelidov, an associate professor of Eastern Studies at MGIMO, told RT.

While the [conflict] is ongoing, no talks and certainly no resolution are possible.

This issue is part of the bigger context of the relations between Russia and the West, which are currently involved in a confrontation,” he said.

Although located off Asia’s Pacific Coast, Japan coordinates its policies with its allies in the West.

Valery Kistanov, Head of the Center for Japanese Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, told RT:

“A peace treaty is very unlikely in the foreseeable future, I’m not even sure the next generations will live to see it. Relations with Japan are so bad now, a peace treaty is not on the table. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is still talking about his willingness to keep negotiating, even though Japan is one of the global leaders in this whole anti-Russian business. I’m certain that this course will remain for decades or even centuries to come. Russia can’t abide by that.”

Meanwhile, Japan seems determined to continue maintaining sanctions pressure on Russia. In the latest package to date, it banned exports of vaccines, medical equipment, and robots and expanded sanctions against individuals. In response, Moscow put Japan on the list of unfriendly countries, suspended peace talks, and stopped joint economic activities on the Kuril Islands and visa-free travel for Japanese citizens to the Kuril Islands last year. In 2023, Russia followed up by refusing to hold annual talks with Japan over fishing near the islands under a 1998 treaty.

“Essentially, the only thing left is the energy bridge. Japan decided not to quit the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects because it badly needs resources, and there is no alternative. Otherwise, Japan’s whole energy sector will go under,” Kistanov says. According to him, in all other respects, the countries’ relations have ground to a halt.

Approved by Churchill and Roosevelt
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The agreement to give the Kuril Islands and the southern part of Sakhalin to the USSR was reached at the Yalta Conference attended by Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill, in February 1945. The USSR, in its turn, pledged to join the war on the eastern front no later than two or three months after defeating Nazi Germany. The Southern Kurils were taken by Soviet forces in August-September 1945 and officially declared a part of the USSR a year later.

Japan confirmed that it renounced all claims to the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin when it signed the Treaty of San Francisco, yet the text of the treaty drafted by the US and Great Britain neither said who it renounced those territories to, nor listed the names of the specific islands. Nevertheless, Tokyo gave up the ability to have a say in the future of the territories because all of the 48 treaty signatory states could then also lay claim to them.

Those provisions and the absence of the People’s Republic of China at the conference led the Soviet delegation to refuse to sign the Peace Treaty of San Francisco.

At first, it would appear that Japan was resigned to losing the territories. Kumao Nishimura, chief of the Treaty Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, described the loss of Kunashir and Iturup in the Japanese parliament as a fait accompli. However, Washington, which was waging a cold war against Moscow by that time, was bent on creating a territorial problem for its competitor. When discussing the treaty, the US Senate adopted a resolution which refused to accept any Soviet rights or claims to territories that belonged to Japan on December 7, 1941, including the Kuril Islands and even South Sakhalin.

Soon enough, Tokyo found new grounds to dispute the Southern Kurils.

American Interference
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Japan and the USSR began bilateral talks in 1956 hoping to reach a settlement. Tokyo’s demands were very ambitious at first – approving Japan’s UN membership and returning all the territories that were under Japan’s control in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese War, including Southern Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands. The Soviet Union’s proposal included giving Tokyo control over Shikotan and the Habomai Islands if Japan agreed to give up all future territorial demands. Shunichi Matsumoto, who represented Japan at the talks, later shared that he “couldn’t believe what he heard” at first and “greatly rejoiced”.

After several rounds, Japan narrowed its demands down to the four South Kuril Islands. Their reasoning was that historically these four islands weren’t considered part of the Kurils, and therefore were not covered by the Treaty of San-Francisco. This was totally in line with US interests, since America didn’t want the agreement to be broken, but it also didn’t want the Soviet Union to have control over the two Kuril Islands. Washington benefited from Tokyo gaining control over all four islands, but the Soviet Union wouldn’t budge.

When Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu made his recommendation to the Japanese government to accept Moscow’s proposal and agree to the transfer of the two islands, the country’s leadership didn’t like it. Deputy Cabinet Secretary Takizo Matsumoto commented, “Moscow influenced him, and the Cabinet decided to send him to London, where he could meet with the [US] Secretary of State”.

At the talks in the UK capital, the US delegation threatened their colleagues from Tokyo, reminding them that they had no legal rights to the Kuril Islands and could not discuss their status with the USSR. On August 19, 1956, State Secretary John Dulles told Shigemitsu that if an agreement between Moscow and Tokyo were to be reached,

"Japan might tell the Soviet Union of the tough line the United States was taking – that if the Soviet Union were to take all the Kurils, the United States might remain forever in Okinawa, and no Japanese Government could survive.”

This thinly veiled threat, disguised as “a friendly recommendation” effectively brought the Soviet-Japanese talks on the Kuril Islands to a halt.

The Ryukyu Islands were seized by US troops in 1945, with its largest island, Okinawa, remaining under American control until 1972. Today, the US maintains military bases there.

“Japan was under American pressure back in the 1950s, of course, and there is no consensus among historians to this day as to how that incident should be construed. But one thing we know for sure – the US was not interested in letting the Soviet Union normalize its relations with Japan, even if pro-US political forces in Japan were not opposed to restoring relations with the Soviets,” Vladimir Nelidov explained.

However, despite America’s best efforts, the USSR and Japan did sign a joint declaration in Moscow in 1956, formally putting an end to the state of war between the two countries. Moreover, the Soviet Union pledged to return the Habomai Islands and Shikotan to Japan, but only after a peace treaty was signed.

This generous gesture, however, was overshadowed by the US concluding a new treaty of mutual cooperation and security with Tokyo, giving it the right to establish and use military bases on Japanese soil, as well as deploy any number of troops there. This practically meant that any Soviet territories returned to Japanese jurisdiction could be used for American military bases. Therefore, the USSR chose to annul the Joint Declaration with Japan in 1960.

And again, the US interferes
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In theory, that’s when Moscow could have ended the Kuril Islands dispute once and for all. Years later, in 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Putin agreed to resume talks based on the 1956 declaration. However, the Japanese leadership still interpreted the document, which only mentioned two of the four islands, in a very peculiar manner. Tokyo would never abandon its plans to get back all the four islands. Besides, it was not going to meet the requirement to recognize Russia’s sovereignty over the Kuril Islands.

In January 2023, during a press conference, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recalled that period of active negotiating, led by Prime Minister Abe:

“At some point, the Japanese said they didn’t need the “big” peace treaty that Russia was offering… We had proposed signing a comprehensive peace treaty that would outline the principles of cooperation based on mutual respect, mutual interests, and neighborliness. The peace treaty was also supposed to cover investment, economic and humanitarian cooperation. All that was supposed to serve as a basis to define the border. The Japanese turned our proposal down saying they needed a document that’s strictly to the point, not a superfluous treaty full of rhetoric.”

According to Valery Kistanov, Putin sincerely believed that a peace treaty was a necessity – and that’s what the diplomatic thaw during Abe’s term was about. The leaders of Russia and Japan held a total of 27 meetings, but the United States got involved in that too.

According to Vladimir Nelidov, after 2014, President Obama “took a stand against Russia and Japan’s cooperation.” “For example, in 2016, Obama asked Prime Minister Abe to cancel his visit to Russia, but Abe didn’t listen.

The United States has been a negative influence on this relationship more often than not, and now especially so.”

Today, the US ignores the Treaty of San-Francisco. On the occasion of Japan’s Northern Territories Day in 2022, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel openly said that Washington fully backs Tokyo.

Japan’s new government has made its position crystal clear and is sticking to its narrative of “four illegally occupied islands” that, in its opinion, Russia must return prior to signing a peace treaty.

Kistanov concludes, “As far as I see it, Russia doesn’t even need a peace treaty with Japan. We’ve lived for 70 years without one, and can keep on doing just that. We’ve always been accommodating and supportive of any effort to find a compromise, but Japan has never responded in the same way and I believe we shouldn’t expect it. Foreign Minister Lavrov recently quoted one expert on Japan who said, ‘should one day Japan decide that they are not getting back these four islands, it’ll join the club of Russia’s most fierce opponents.’ And that’s exactly what’s happening today.”

By Maxim Hvatkov, a Russian journalist focusing on international security, China's politics and soft-power tools.
https://www.rt.com/news/571050-russia-and-japan-peace-treaty/
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LR 2) --- 71 years of RFE/RL: How the CIA-founded American state run media outlet survived the Soviet collapse to fight Cold War 2.0

Originally established as an anti-Bolshevik endeavor, RFE/RL has thrived as US-Russia relations have nose-dived

The first of May marks the 51st anniversary of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (hereinafter “RFE/RL”, although this didn't become the official name until 1976) – radio stations which broadcast into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, respectively. As detailed in an internal CIA document from 1951 titled “Radio Aims and Objectives,” RFE/RL was to be operated by refugees or exiles from the various Socialist Bloc countries to broadcast information intended to encourage “hatred against the regime(s)” and to increase the “will to resist the regime(s).” In other words, this project had an explicit function to remove governments unfavorable to Washington. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114359

Undoubtedly, May 1 was chosen as the launch of this project as it coincided with International Workers’ Day, one of the most important holidays in the Socialist Bloc.

From its inception until 1972, it was the CIA which funded RFE/RL, though it did so covertly without congressional knowledge or authorization. And it was CIA Director Allen Dulles – the mastermind behind the overthrow of democratic governments in countries such as Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954) – who greenlit the secret financing of RFE/RL in the hope that it would contribute to the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43134017
https://www.wbur.org/npr/234752747/meet-the-brothers-who-shaped-u-s-policy-inside-and-out
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Ironically, even as the CIA was backing this project, it was helping to restore fascist, military rule to Greece – which it preferred to a Greek communist government. The left-wingers had great political stature among the electorate because of their valiant fight against the Nazis. https://www.salon.com/2014/03/08/35_countries_the_u_s_has_backed_international_crime_partner/

The memories of this betrayal by the West in Greece were awakened recently when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared by video before the Greek parliament alongside a neo-Nazi Azov fighter, causing some of the members to get up and leave in protest. https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/04/08/progressives-in-greece-reject-zelenskys-address-to-parliament-with-neo-nazis/

The US and its CIA made similar choices in countries such as Indonesia, and later Chile and Argentina, opting to support ultra-right-wing dictatorships in lieu of socialist, albeit democratic, governments. https://www.salon.com/2014/03/08/35_countries_the_u_s_has_backed_international_crime_partner/

According to Cord Meyer, who took charge of the CIA’s relationship with Radio Liberty in 1954 and led these operations for many years, “[t]he CIA maintained control over [radio] content by formulating general policy guidelines, which were supplemented by daily meetings to determine the handling of specific news.” Meyer insists, however, that this control did not interfere with the journalistic integrity of the radio programs.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43134017

In addition, while Meyer insists that there were no actual spies operating within the radio stations, the radio personnel nevertheless kept detailed accounts of what they observed in the various countries in which they operated; in other words, they did provide intelligence for the CIA. And even after Congress ended CIA funding of RFE/RL in 1972 – the money would come directly from Congress from then on – its primary purpose remained to broadcast anti-communist programs into the East Bloc, at least until the communist governments in Eastern Europe and then the Soviet Union collapsed.
https://pressroom.rferl.org/history

Of course, RFE/RL openly takes credit for helping to bring about this ultimate collapse, believing that its influence whittled away at the support of the various communist governments. It has found support for this claim from the likes of Vaclav Havel (who invited RFE/RL to move from its original headquarters in Munich, Germany to Prague after the collapse of the East Bloc) and Boris Yeltsin. https://pressroom.rferl.org/history

I recall quite vividly, as someone who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, the incessant complaints that the Soviet Union would often jam the signals of Radio Liberty – evidence, we were told, that Moscow simply could not handle the truth. I think of this now as the outlet I am writing this article for – RT, of course a Russian-based news outlet – is being suppressed in the US or outrightly banned in the

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