Make no qualms about it: the Putin administration did not want the Russian arms trader Viktor Bout because they care for him as a person (as CNN suggested), but because they need his expertise.  It is already clear that Russia is scouring the world to get more weapons from around the world.  Russia has even attempted to buy western weapon factories.  They obviously need the help of an experienced arms smuggler who is able to bypass international sanctions and establish secret routes for weapons, and the money or other goods used to pay for the weapons.  These weapons will then be used in the war with Ukraine, which targets the innocent people and their possessions, including cultural sites, schools and hospitals.  We doubt that the fans of Brittney Griner would want so many people to suffer.  Brittney's heavy sentence amounts to kidnapping.  If we make a deal with the kidnappers it will only lead to more kidnappings.  By such unjust handling of foreigners in Russia, Russia is hurting itself, no one from the West in their right mind will visit Russia, which means that their tourism industry is dead.  We should respond by severely restricting Russian tourists from visiting the West, as Finland has already done while keeping the path open for Russians that oppose the war and are fleeing from the regime.  Once again it is Germany that is standing in the way of righteousness by opposing Europe-wide restrictions on Russian tourists. 

Viktor Bout, the arms dealer, is responsible for deaths of a lot of people around the world, including Americans.  Americans risked their lifes to apprehend him and the US releases him because it looks good to get Brittney Griner back.   This will only lead to more kidnapping by Russia and will increase their supply of weapons which will be used to kill men, women and children.

Has the bulk of the western media and the Biden administration totally lost it.  Are they not able to see Putin for what he is, a reckless man that does not care for others.  He does not care for the people of Ukraine; he does not care for the 100 000 of his own soldiers he has sent to death at the front lines; he does not care for the Russian people; he does not care for his ex friends he allegedly has thrown out of windows of high rise buildings; and he certainly does not care about Viktor Bout except to use him to get more weapons to kill innocent people.   Putin only cares about himself.

It is also a pity that countries that Saudi Arabia and Turkey, countries who do not do enough to support Ukraine, get a photo opportunity for the small part they play in facilitating this prisoner exchange - as if they were doing something useful, when they are not.

The USA are doing more than other countries to help Ukraine, but could be doing much more;  in advance weapon support, by enforcing a worldwide oil boycott and/or lowering the ceiling price that is now being applied to Russian oil.

#NoPrisonerExchange

(UPDATE some well known news organizations have picked up this issue with a similar story)

It is incredible how much entertainment Elon Musk is providing for the world.  What he does and says is hilarious but the problem is that at the same time it is sad and it is damaging to the world and the people who believed in him, including himself.

How can a seemingly normal but eccentric man go so fast downhill?  We suspect it is his lack of sleep.  He has admitted that he only sleeps about 6 hours per night.   This may not be enough.   The body needs sleep to fix DNA errors and the brain needs to do some repair and generate new neural connections in one's sleep.

Although this page is not about Elon Musk but the bigger threats to the world posed by Putin and Xi, we include our criticism of Musk here because he is part of our concern with people that have too much power and because he kind of supports these evil men.  It is not good when too much power lands in the hands of certain individuals who through a combination of greed and/or misjudgment threaten the wellbeing of the world.  It is clear that Putin, Xi and Musk have too much control over the world's resources and that they misuse this power to the extreme.  

One of Musk's latest blunders is his threat to Twitter employees that if they share any information from inside the company, they will get an immediate legal response.   A mighty threat to a normal employee who does not have the legal resources that Musk has access too.   Around the same time, Musk has leaked information about previous conversations / communications by Twitter employees that they did not expect to be made public, information about the case of Hunter Biden's Laptop.  Highly inappropriate behavior from a boss of a company.  A boss of a company should not go after his own companies' present or past employees.  It is simply not done.  But he does it as if it was a game.

Like a child, he now reverts to the same rhetoric against anyone who dares not to agree with him.  He is absurdly connecting people and committees with pedophilia that are not pedophiles.   He also did this some years ago when a heroic diver who saved some Thailand teenagers trapped in a underwater cave system said that Elon Musk's mini-submarine would be of no use.  A court made a judgement against Musk in that case.  But Elon does not seem to have any moral obligation not to go down that same path again.  He has only adapted his tactics so he would not lose in a court of law, but sadly, he is able to cast doubt on innocent people's characters.   What he does not realize is that he is making himself look ridiculous and nasty!

Musk pretends to be a champion of free speech but at the same time he is shutting up his own employees.  By the way there are many that think he himself should shut up, including the employees of SpaceX, investors in Tesla, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Ukrainian and Taiwanese governments.   SpaceX employees thought that Musk's statements were an embarrassment.  It embarrassed them to work for that company.  The response from the champion of free speech was to fire them.   He disagreed with SEC who wanted to restrict his over-hyping of Tesla.  His response was to take the case to the supreme court, where he lost.  He has hyped Tesla to the point that people have made what seems to be very bad investment judgements.  Indeed in this year to date, Tesla has lost 733 billion off it's total valuation.

Whatever the loss that the 44-billion acquisition of Twitter will entail, it will just be a fraction of what is being lost in the capitalization of Elon Musk's other companies.  This is real money being lost by real people.  The 13 billion that some mislead bankers lent into the purchase of Twitter are probably lost.  Bankers need to be careful not to let good money follow bad money.  They should not lend Tesla to acquire Mercedes, for example.  Anybody who can stop such deals, including regulators, should exercise that power.  Because recent blunder after blunder by Musk is not compensated by his earlier successes.  

The overvaluation of Tesla was not a success story, but hype that borders on the criminal.  It made no sense that one automaker should be valued more than all the others put together.   Unlike SpaceX, making an electric auto is no rocket science. Indeed, much of Europe's fundamental technology in this field comes from just one man.  VW, BMW, Mercedes are all now making outstanding electric vehicles.   Tesla's early success came because it had a higher-end car that they were able to duplicate in a mass produced version, before other automakers were ready.   Tesla had its original wow effect; its time of fame.  Now this wow effect is diminishing.  One factor that makes Tesla less interesting is that the so called "full self driving" is not included anymore and needs to be purchased separately for something like 10000 dollars.  People are no longer standing in awe.   It is not just Elon Musk's fault, but he should have seen it coming.  Politicians have been hyping up electric vehicles without properly factoring in the true environmental costs.  Tesla keeps its environmental issues a secret (again something from the so-called free speech champion) and as far as we can gather does not have the NASDAQ green designation.  (Electric vehicles with a shorter range may be able to demonstrate a positive CO2 balance earlier than long range electric vehicles like Tesla, but they are probably not any better because a short range that keeps getting shorter will result in these cars being disposed of earlier.)  For some time, Elon did some more environmental damage with his past support for cryptocurrencies which has not faded enough.

In retrospect, many of the things that Musk has said can be compared to what Sam Bankman-Fried was saying before the collapse of FTX.  It was like 'I am so good, I only have an old car and I want to give away all my wealth', while at the same time, he was living luxuriously in the Bahamas and was donating money to politicians who would support the Ponzi scam that crypto is and allegedly taking advantage of his own customers by making so-called financial bets against them.   Likewise, Elon was voicing his opinion against the dangers of artificial intelligence, while at the same time he has apparently been pressuring his employees at Neuralink to work under so much pressure that they should imagine having a gun pointing to their heads.  Just to mention one of his countless contradictions.

There are two big signs that show things are turning seriously sour for Elon.  Tesla's shares keep dropping and he is now being booed at when making public appearances.

We suppose the investors are so worried that they have asked him to step down as CEO.  He responded with one of his surveys which actually do not reflect anything but his own followers' wishes.  Even his own followers want him to resign, but we suspect that most people who are not his followers want this also.  But it is not enough to step down as CEO. He has to sell of his shares for a fraction of what he paid for it, unless he is content with loosing his entire 31 billion.

UPDATE:  In early 2023, shares in Tesla have gone somewhat back up.  We think there is overenthusiasm and that other automakers are posed to provide stiff competition when it comes to design innovation and design of new electric vehicles.  Investment money for Tesla's expansion should be harder to come by if bankers take note of the reckless way their investment in Twitter has played out.  We are seeing desperate attempts to push up Tesla's stock, for example George Soros was mentioned as having invested, but it was just a few millions which for him is peanuts and does not indicate at all his approval.  We are also seeing Elon Musk congratulate himself for saving Twitter, whereas we think if he had shown some tact, he could have done much better.

There is so much polarization going on these days especially in America.   We are not writing this because we are left wing, which we are not.  We are writing this because this man and these men are hurting a lot of people and one should not just sit idly by while injustice is taking place.

Tell us what you think Elon.  We do not use Twitter ourselves.  Email us at ProUkraine@charitable.institute

Elon Musk or anyone who can spare some change please support our communication campaign by clicking on this link or by making a larger donation via bank transfer:

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In recent days (this is written mid December), Putin has been cancelling meetings and celebrations left, right and center.  Perhaps he has already left Russia to retire in Venezuela or he has already been killed or hospitalized.  Maybe his doubles are not deemed good enough to replace him for the events he has cancelled.

Alexander Khodakovsky himself would also be hunted down.

There is no way that the world will let these people live if they commit a nuclear catastrophe.  Preemptive measures should not involve nuclear weapons but to hunt down these people before they destroy the world.  Maybe Putin knows this and is therefore in hiding or he is hiding from his own people to whom he has brought so much misfortune.

Ukraine can not be expected to defend itself from the armies of two countries with both of these countries enjoying some kind of safe haven status on their own ground.

Elon, you are guilty of siding with the most repressive regimes in the world:  Russia and China.

You are making a platform that used to be regarded as mostly impartial into a platform that is favored by people who share your opinions and the propaganda of people who knowingly or unwittingly peddle lies.

You are right in that there was too much censorship.  Powerful industries were able to oppose the free flow of information and opinions.  

But you are completely lacking in tact and anybody who follows what you are doing can immediately see that you are not for free speech.

Your talk of free speech is analogous to Putin allegedly banning misinformation about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  He was not banning misinformation but true information.  You are not elevating the platform to a platform of free speech, but to a platform of misinformation, or rather a platform where it is harder to tell the difference.

Free speech is not just about being allowed to send a message using a particular platform but ultimately about being heard.   Your proposal to let more people on the platform (and at the same time diluting its integrity) and having them pay for the privilege of being verified and yet face the possibility of being shadow-banned based on your haphazard definitions, is not free speech.

The price of being verified is about US$100 per year.  That is a lot of money for just one service on the Internet.  For comparison that is more than double the amount that people in the US spend on a TV set amortized over a 10 year period.  In the rest of the world it is many times more than what people pay for a TV set.  In India it is more like 8 times what people would spend on a TV set.  For ordinary people, such spending is not frivolous.  People will find it hard to justify paying this amount to one of the world's richest men.  Some people had elevated you to some kind of a God, but when they come to regard you as a little Devil in disguise, your empire may collapse.

Traditional media has become too polarized.  Fox, Murdoch and Co and some right wing freaks on one side and the rest of the media on the other side.  Neither acknowledging the merit of alternative views.   You are not doing the right any favor by tilting the user base to the right.  The right needs to influence left wing users to gain a majority.  When you with your silly comments and conspiracy theories such as those involving Hunter Biden's laptop, alienate those of the Twitter users that lean to the left, causing them to abandon the platform, then you are in fact making Twitter a useless tool for the right.  For the right can not use Twitter to influence centerish or left-leaning users once the latter have left the platform.   So you are destroying Twitter and leaving behind something about as useful as Parler or Truth Social.

Similarly, by allowing Twitter to become undermanned, you are undermining free speech.  The tweets of Chinese people who would like to raise the world awareness to the brutality of ZERO-COVID and anti-free speech measures by the Chinese government are not getting through because the Chinese government is able to employ unregulated bots to drown out those messages.  Because Twitter no longer has the technical ability and manpower to detect and neutralize those bots.  

How can you pretend to be all for free speech after taking on the role of being the spokesperson for the most authoritarian and anti free speech regimes of the world?  Last summer you proposed, that the effectively free country of Taiwan, should become a special administrative zone for China.  Did you not see what they did to free speech in Hong Kong?  Or are you just thinking of your business interests?      

Just before you made this ridiculous anti-free speech proposal for Taiwan, you suggested that Ukraine should allow the king of anti-free speech, Putler, to be given time to regroup and rebuild his military for a future invasion, while Ukraine got rid of its weapons.  Well you did not say exactly that but that is what your proposal would entail. 

Putin takes free speech so seriously that he is suspected of having people fly out of high rise buildings and he is known to use chemical-weapon grade material to try to poison the people whose speech he does not like. 

China's Xi is at the very moment this is written devising a strategy to stamp out a peaceful campaign by the Chinese people protesting against extreme COVID-19 measures and the lack of free speech simply by holding up blank pieces of white pater.   When peacefully holding a blank sheet of white paper is considered too much free speech by the regime of China; you the dear reader can understand why we strongly oppose someone like Elon Musk calling himself an advocate of free speech, when at around the same time he proposes that this same regime should take over Taiwan.  Someone who has recently proposed that the very same regime should extend their control over more people.  Subjecting the free people of Taiwan to Chinese tyranny. 

Why should people trust you to be for free-speech for real, when you make proposals favored by the most anti-free speech regimes in the world? 

Why should people expect you to keep misinformation under control, when you yourself often spread misinformation and when you have fired most of the people who were supposed to help with content moderation?  To get rockets into space you needed rocket scientists, but to communicate with the media, you don't need anybody; is that how you think?  It is understandable that you need to save on monthly spending, but wouldn't a more thought-out plan have been wiser?   To build goodwill with users, employees and advertisers?   Taking one step forward and 10 steps back does not bring you forward.

Apple may be about to ban Twitter from the Apple Store and a Google Play Store ban may follow.   Elon, you have threatened to make your own phone if this happens.  LG (Life is Good), the South Korean manufacturer made great phones at a loss of US$ 4 Billion before they gave up.  Maybe you will succeed.  Maybe it will be as good for tweets as Kindle is for reading books. 

Tell us what you think Elon.  We do not use Twitter ourselves.  Email us at ProUkraine@iceland.edu

Elon Musk or anyone who can spare some change, please support our communication campaign by clicking on this link or by making a larger donation via bank transfer:

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SWIFT (BIC): NBIIISRE

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IS85 0133 3800 0649 6806 2112 80

Thank you 

In a separate section on this website, we talk about the economic and environmental nonsense that cryptocurrencies are.  We also talk about gold mining not being much better.  

Here we are going to talk about how this mining contributes to people being subject to cold even freezing conditions in their homes.

Cryptomining uses up a lot of energy without giving anything back except profits to short term players.  Those that hold on to cryptocurrency are likely to loose everything.  See article.  Worldwide crypto mining is said to use as much energy as the whole country of Portugal.

Wasting energy is bad for the environment.  Even if that energy is green energy, as it displaces the substitution for some other industry into green energy and thus sustains and increases carbon-based fuel consumption with the associated CO2 emissions and global warming.

The war in Ukraine has put an upward pressure on energy prices, making it hard for some people to cover their bills.  Crypto mining by increasing the demand for energy leads to higher energy prices which cause real human suffering.

People in various countries are feeling the brunt of the energy crisis that is made worse by mining.  Poor people suffer disproportionally.  Some people are literally freezing and others are being forced to keep their houses colder than is comfortable and at temperatures that makes them more prone to disease and disease-induced death.   People who have been deprived by extreme COVID measures are now facing further restrictions.  Some sport facilities, especially swimming pools are closing early or are being kept closed.  The high energy prices help fuel (in this case meaning finance) Putin's invasion of Ukraine.     

So for these three reasons everything crypto should be stopped:

• The investors will loose everything anyway, as crypto is based on no real value and is rather useless.   The way normal currencies are managed makes them problematic too, but at least they serve some useful purpose.

• Crypto mining is bad for the environment and without the mining component, there is no one to take care of the blockchain.  So the whole concept is faulty.

• Crypto is bad for the economy, for people who are trying to have ends meet, and thus causes real human suffering.

Just like crypto mining, mining to fulfill some currency standard or reserves is a waste of effort and energy and is thus almost as undesirable as crypto mining

Gold or some other metals that are kept in vaults or warehouses do not serve any useful purpose.

It can be argued that they are a store of value, which to some extent is true but if a large chunk of this store of value were to be brought to the market at once, it would prove to be not such a good store of value.

Crypto has been subject to break-ins, theft and misrepresentation.   This also happens in the metal world.   Putin and his associates are said to be stealing gold and diamonds from Mali.  Some banks paid out loans based on some copper reserves that where supposedly being kept in bonded-warehouses in China only to discover that all the copper was not there.  

For Putin as a criminal, gold will prove to be useful when he eventually flees to Venezuela as per reports about his preparations to resettle as he looses the war in Ukraine.  But we should not be mining gold for the convenience of criminals.

The group of countries that have been referred to as BRICS is being expanded mostly by bad actor countries like China, Iran and Egypt.  This group and also the group of countries that are members of The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are talking about creating currencies that are backed by metals to some degree.  This is a crazy idea that was abandoned a long time ago, when the gold standard was abandoned for the US dollar.  It is as clever as Mr. Xi's zero-COVID policy.

There are players in the metal market that can play the market much better than you and me and better than even governments.  

So for these similar reasons useless metal mining should be stopped:

• Unnecessary, often open cast mining causes environmental scars and pollution

• Normal mining uses enormous amounts of energy just like Crypto, with the same environmental CO2 problems.  To get one to four grams of gold, a ton needs to be mined on average

• Gold that is kept in vaults does not create any real value for people, as opposed to the little gold we need for jewelry

• Sometimes in the future when these new metal standards will be abandoned, the market will be flooded with unwanted metals that will be worth less then the cost of originally mining them

Elon Musk is having trouble with Twitter, as both advertisers and users are leaving the platform after his purchase of Twitter was completed.

UPDATE:  Elon's Musk misjudgment has no limits.   Irrespective of whether it is good advice or not, it is insane to piss off a huge portion of Twitters users, with the recommendation, in the runup to the US midterm elections, that the voters should vote Republican.   

His invitation to former president Trump may make some sense from a freedom of speech viewpoint, but it does not appear to make any business sense.  It is clear that Trump undermined the 2020 presidential elections democratic processes.  It is therefore understandable that for businesses that want to demonstrate some corporate responsibility, the decision to invite Trump back is counterintuitive to the goal of luring them back.

Similarly for Twitter users who were already thinking of leaving the platform and who are strongly pro democratic or pro Democrat, this decision may tip the balance towards leaving the platform. 

It was wrong for Ye (Kanye West) to group all Jews as being as bad as the people who have double crossed him and his choice of words.  But if anybody has the right to wear T-shirts  with the words "White Lives Matter" it is a successful black businessman.  It is the interpretation of those words as countering "Black Lives Matter" that is offensive and not just the words themselves and I am sure Ye thinks that both white and black lives matter and anybody who puts a thought into it would agree upon that interpretation.  Ye was severely punished for his misjudgments, so in contrast to Mr. Trump (who continues to threaten the US democratic processes) allowing Ye back was the right decision.

There is no reason to rejoice in Elon Musk's proposal of effectively shadowbanning people (he calls it restricting people's freedom of REACH).  Will he restrict the reach of people whose opinions he does not agree with, for example the Democrats?  Because a shadow ban is not so obvious and because unfair discriminatory practices maybe hidden deep inside program algorithms, it may actually make Twitter less open to different opinions.  Elon Musk may feel like he is helping humanity but if that means boosting his own often radical opinions and de-boosting the opinions he does not agree with, then that is not helping the world.   

The excessive power that people with extraordinary resources  (through their own money or through the control of money which ultimately is not theirs) is deeply problematic for the world.  These include:

• Elon Musk

• Bill Gates  (He had so much power that he could control the direction of most of the discourse and the research on COVID-19, even institutions like the United Nations and Harvard University effectively lost their voice with dire consequences for mankind)

• Putin (Would not be able to carry on a genocidal war without the money coming from Oil)

• Xi (Who who controls the taxes, every move and would like to control every thought of the nearly 1 and a half billion Chinese people and is set to repeat Putin's mistakes)

• MBS (His regime would not be able to get away with murder if he did not control the Oil resources of Saudi Arabia)

• Erdogan (Who robs his people with corruption and economic policies that are actually designed to rob them too) 

It is unreasonable to expect that everyone will share his vision and when not, they may very well vote with their feet.

Mr. Musk.  It is nice to say that you want to enable a platform that cherishes free speech.  But related to free speech is the freedom of choice and a lot of people may not like what you are doing and/or be associated with what you do.

• People may question why you decided to take over the Twitter platform.   Was it to give yourself a greater voice?  And do people like what you are saying?  The new Hitlers (Putin and Xi) like what you said recently.  You may be helping Ukraine a lot, but what you said (see the article below) was not good for Ukraine or Taiwan (The good you do for Ukraine I personally also question as I find it very expensive that some other donors helping Ukraine may be paying up to US$ 4500 per dish per month for a Starlink Internet connection, including possibly the Pentagon in the future and wonder if you are or you are going to make a profit from it all in the end).  Do people find it appropriate that someone in your position as the owner and CEO of a big social platform speaks so carelessly?  The nice thing about the platform is that people can speak spontaneously, but when your words have such a sway, people expect more thoughtfulness than you are known for.

• Do people sympathize with someone who fires people so indiscriminately?   Most businesses can be taken over and often made to show a greater shortterm profit by letting go of people.   But is it fair?  Is it fair to the people who have stuck with a company for some time and have given their effort to be suddenly let go because you have a different vision that might not even work out?  Is it fair to the people who are left on the job with a greater work load and the possibility of burnout?  Do ordinary people see themselves possibly in the same situation and are therefore simply not willing to participate in your efforts and hence leave the platform?

•  It is clear that there is a lot of misinformation being spread and also opinions being suppressed that should be allowed to be heard.   But there is no particular reason why people should trust that you will come up with the right magic formula when it comes to content moderation.  No wonder that people are already leaving the platform when you unwittingly acted as a spoke person for the most vicious censor-wielding regimes in the world.  Namely, Russia by suggesting they retain some land that does not belong to them and China when you suggested they have more control over Taiwan which is in effect an independent country.

• It is also not trustworthy when your co-investor has profited from cryptocurrency which according to economic law and environmental concerns should not hold any value at all and should be labeled as a Ponzi scheme.  Responsible big players on the Internet do not want to be and should not be associated with such a house of cards that cryptocurrencies are.

• Another source of finance for Elon Musk is Saudi Arabia, which has sentenced people for up to 16 years in prison for using Twitter.  How absurd and how gloriously lacking in judgement can Elon Musk be?

• Are you threatening advertisers who abandon, at least temporarily, the platform?  Threats will only add insult to injury.

• It boils down to Goodwill.  Goodwill is what you need from the user community and the advertisers.  If you work against Goodwill, you will loose.

• It may not be all your fault.  Platform fatigue may play a role.  What is life all about?  Is life a game?  Is your life measured in the number of followers you have?  Aren't other things more important such as real exchange with people.  Do followers really observe the posts of the people they follow?  Some people may simply use this opportunity to leave the platform and get a life.  Neither you nor Mark Zuckerberg can force people to take part in their vision.  Mark Zuckerberg's vision of having us living in some kind of virtual reality does not appeal to the vast majority of people. 

• Rank positions for Internet platforms and tools are volatile.  E.g. Netscape, Yahoo, MSN messenger, Irc, Skype and soon Facebook.  The same is likely to apply to Twitter.  You have been lucky so far.  Tesla is valued way more than other car manufactures.   But is it really worth it?   It is not so hard to make an electric vehicle (and like Apple did in the past, you have come up with good models).  However other manufacturer are now coming out with great models.

• The environmental friendliness of Electric vehicles is also in doubt.  Tesla is not even considered a green stock.  Is it possible that the future promises to cease production of combustion engine vehicles will be reversed by the politicians who will be in power closer to the time of the expected cease in production?

• Do we really want to tie our opinions with our finances?  If you tweet the wrong thing do you really want your funds to be frozen.  Elon Musk's former company PayPal has already been used to freeze payments to the protesting truckers in Canada and has inserted statements allowing them to debit directly accounts with penalties based on the expression of opinions.  

• Should the richest people have such a disproportionate effect on opinions, whether it is you, Bill Gates or anyone else?

• Are we allowed to criticize you?  Or are some more equal than others to use the words from George Orwell's Animal Farm.

• UPDATE  Elon Musk just made an announcement that remote work at Twitter must end.   Maybe we should all stand back from technology and stop sending tweets, online messages, emails and revert back to the good old postal service.   Maybe we should find a local mate, go to a local college, forbid one's spouse to move and certainly not move with her or him and all live in tiny apartment in the city next to one's work place or go overboard and spend a lot of time commuting and help prop up the Earth's temperature and support Elon Musk's acquaintance, the evil Putin, by increasing the demand for oil.  (Being sarcastic in the face of Elon Musk's attempt to stop progress).

To Elon Musk and anyone that thinks now is the time to compromise

Your big Ego is making you look small! 

Do not allow Putin to regroup.  That mistake must not be made again.

The West made a compromise and allowed Putin to hold Crimea without much consequence.  They made a peace deal.  But this only led Putin to make an even more aggressive move 8 years later.  Putin himself has said (at a school event) that it is normal to have to withdraw only to regroup and come back stronger another time.  If Putin is allowed to keep some kind of land corridor to Crimea, then he has won and next time he will only be emboldened to go further.  He has initial ambitions for Moldova and various ex Soviet states, the Baltic States, Poland, probably Turkey and beyond.  He has publicly said he wants to built an empire.  We should not be in denial and make some agreements again, based only on our wishful thinking.

Unlike last time, Putin is likely to really modernize the military before starting World War III.   He would not even care if that meant that most of his citizens would reduce their living standard to that of the citizens of Mali; the mean income in Russia is already lower than in India. 

Recently Elon Musk tweeted a compromised solution to end the war in Ukraine.

Elon Musk is in a position to have access to great minds and no doubt has he consulted with some of them.  He has also talked to Putin, but he denies talking to Putin about his peace plan.  That does not make him more of an expert than us, the ordinary people. (I suspect Putin has threatened him too).    Some experts were of the opinion that Russia would take over Ukraine in a matter of days.  These experts were proved wrong.  The overwhelming logic now for anyone who pauses to think is that there is no going back to trusting the New Hitler.

When Elon Musk's mini submarine could not be used to save some teenagers stranded in a cave in Thailand, his ego was hurt and he called the guy who pointed this out a pedophile (something he had to retract by order of a court).   We hope this time he will respond differently and adapt his rhetorics to be more helpful to Ukraine as some of his actions have been, namely his supply of Starlink communication.  He is also, given his business venture in China, in a position to campaign for China to stop supporting Russia. 

UPDATE:  Elon Musk has again shown his weak character.   He has gone off in a puff (because an ex Ukraine diplomat told him to f**k off with his suggested peace plan for Ukraine) and again his big ego is hurt and he is threatening to stop his generous financing of Starlink and has even tweeted about the connection with the f**k off statement (although this may not be the only reason).  The use of Starlink has also been a good advertisement for Starlink and the provision of Starlink to the current uprising in Iran would be great.   What is bad is that Starlink has stopped working at the new frontiers because Musk wants to control how much land Ukraine is allowed to claim back, or because his ego is hurt.  This is also bad for Starlink because the underlying message is yes Starlink is great to bypass the censorship of tyrannical governments but be prepared to be censored by Elon Musk himself.   

Elon Musk has also gone soft on China. 

2nd UPDATE:  Elon Musk says he will continue his partial financing of Starlink communication (It is now apparent that many nations were already contributing).  Hopefully this is in ernest, but we are not so sure, maybe it is a ploy to avoid public outcry over discussions on Starlink's coverage in Ukraine as the Ukrainian forces recapture areas and Elon Musk had previously been limiting and thereby throwing a wrench into the process of freeing Ukraine.  The Pentagon (The US Ministry of Defense) would of course never agree to pay for limited service.  Elon Musk continues to be a pawn in the fear mongering of the New Hitler.  Putin should not be allowed to hold on to Crimea as this threatens the security of many more countries than Ukraine.  Those that start and engage in wars and war crimes should pay a price.  Putin's main priority is himself and he will not risk the fury he will have upon him if he uses nuclear weapons.

We would like to hear from you directly Elon Musk.  Email us at ProUkraine@iceland.edu

Elon Musk or anyone who can spare some change please support our communication campaign by clicking on this link or by making a larger donation via bank transfer:

 Beneficiary: Charitable Institute, Rif, Iceland

SWIFT (BIC): NBIIISRE

IBAN Account:

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Trump announced his re-run for the US presidency on November the 15th.  His chances of holding on to his Republican powerbase are looking slimmer because he went overboard with his quest for absolute power.  Instead of supporting Republican candidates in the midterms that would have secured more seats in the Senate and the House, Trump preferred to install candidates that would not question anything he did or said.  Thus his attempted power grab did not do well for the Republicans.  This they are not likely to forget and that is likely to cost him the Republican nomination for president.  Already he has been abandoned by fox news, his daughter and many of his previous followers.

People have been wondering what it is that the Russians have on Trump that makes him so weak in dealing with Putin.   Some speculate it to be the loan guarantees that Russia may have given to Deutsche Bank  for loans to the Trump businesses (When no other bank would lend him and Deutsche Bank had had enough of him, why did they give him new loans.  Why was Trump always threatening Germanies core industry the German automobile industry; to keep the Germans from spilling the beans?  Did he use the same method to oppress the friendly nation of Qatar -with the aid of Saudi Arabia- ?)  Others believe it to be compromising photos or videos from the time he was visiting Russia as a businessman.  Whatever it is, the US, Ukraine and the world need someone to stand up to Putin and Mr. Trump does not appear to be that person.

In addition to the human suffering and the destruction of property in Ukraine, Putin is responsible for the economic hardship in Russia (as he has called upon the sanctions by his actions) and some of the problems around the world.  But there are also other factors at play.  

• The disregard for the UN recommendations from October 2020 to stop using lockdowns as a measure to curtail COVID-19.  These lockdowns not only wrecked havoc in the local economies at the time and led to the accumulation of debt both by private and public entities that will be a burden for years to come, but made 500 million people that were previously middle class, poor and made 100 million poor people, extremely poor.   Not to mention all the psychological damage that the campaigns of fear have caused and the resultant increase in alcohol abuse, drug use, crime and increased health costs that will result and are already apparent.  The continuing absurd lockdowns in China extend the crisis and cause supply chain and inflation problems.  (Absurd because a zero COVID-19 policy will never work because there will always be cases that escape through, bringing the country back to square one). 

  • It is convenient for Governments not to acknowledge the economic burdens that their irresponsible COVID-19 policies caused and to blame the situation on the war instead.

• The subsidy of money through low or negative real interest rates.  (interest rates adjusted for inflation).  These low interest rates make it impossible for ordinary people to save and increase inequality by making the rich richer (as they have the collateral to borrow this cheap money) and the poor poorer.  These interest rates also make it attractive for companies to invest in things that do not really make sense as they do not have to give a good return in order to cover the artificially low interest rates.  Examples of these are when banks lend money to people to invest in businesses that they have very little expertise in.  Like Elon Musk buying Twitter.  (Which can be compared to AOL buying Netscape and Microsoft buying Nokia and Skype)  This situation does not encourage economic growth.

• Various bubbles, especially in property markets.

• Peoples misguided investment in worthless cybercurrencies.

• Certain shortages caused by the war.

• The tendency of various companies to increase their mark-up and blame it on the war, not least the oil companies.  It is therefore totally justifiable to take away part of their abnormal profits.  It is OK to use that money for society and not to reduce energy costs, because the planet needs a break from CO2 and we should not increase demand by making energy cheaper.

It is just a small tale of the absurdities of this war, versions of which are repeated countless times.  The fact is that the Ukrainians and the Russians were very close.  Most people had and still have relatives and friends in each others countries.

Perhaps it was not totally amiable because Russia has for a long time been showing its aggression.   Before 2008 Russia had a puppet government in Kiev much like it has now in Belarus and in 2014 changed the lease of Crimea's military base into an occupation and has been occupying parts of other regions.  Something that every man, woman and child in Ukraine is very much aware of.  

In a recent interview Sergei Lukyanenko (science fiction writer) recounted how the Ukrainian children used to refer to the Russians as occupiers.  His host RT Russian language director Anton Krasovsky responded that those children should be drowned or burned alive.  Even though Krasovsky was suspended for those comments it shows the culture of denial that ferments at the Russian state-supported media;  where it can be suggested that innocent children should not tell the truth.

Back to our little tale.  This woman has hosted 3 waves of Ukrainian refugees.  And now, if her brothers living in Russia, which have had some military training, decide not to flee may be drafted into the war.  And who knows the brothers and the husbands of the refugees might one day face each other and kill.

This war has nothing to do with the will of the people but the will of Putler and the hardliners he has allowed too much influence.

Xi is the wrong leader for China.  He is proving it again and again.  Zero COVID Policy makes no sense.  Making ever more countries distrust China makes no sense.  Being aggressive towards so many countries makes no sense.  Bullying countries around the world makes no sense.  Overreaction to countries like Australia (that only requested that the origins of the COVID-19 virus should be investigated) makes no sense.  Pissing off Canada makes no sense.  All these things do not make China stronger but weaker.  Having the whole world against you is Xi's big mistake.  Even China's belt and road initiative is not good for China if it is perceived to be done in bad faith.  Under Xi rule, a big bubble was allowed to grow in the property market.  

Just look at Russia now.  How sad it will be for China to be in a similar spot?  With cooperation from all the successful countries withdrawn.   Already measures are being taken to limit Chinas partake in the supply chain of companies and countries.  The Communist party should have gotten rid of Xi before it was too late.  The corrupt functioning of the system, proves that it is not a good system.  It seems to be all built on corruption.  Leaders at every level receive bribes.  When Xi or anyone in a higher power position they can easily abuse that position and eliminate anyone below that does not support them pointing correctly to  corruption of those individuals, but leaving all the other corrupt individuals in place as long as they support the "right" leadership.

Russia will get rid of Putin, but will pay dearly for doing that so late.  Xi is just starting to destroy China.  With the new mandate he can accelerate its destruction.  20% unemployment is very bad for the Chinese younger generation.  Blindfolding everyone is outrageous.  Xi is even holding off publishing China's Economic data until he is reelected. Not allowing anyone to shine (to show their abilities) because Xi has to shine more than anybody else is making creativity very difficult for China's talented people.  It is Xi that is loosing Taiwan because he broke the Chinese promise about Hong Kong's independence by abandoning the second part of the one country-two systems rule.

If Xi does not want to be remembered as a Hitler like figure. there is a way for him to turn things around.  Return Hong Kong back to self governance, with its own judicial system independent from China's and without the possibility for the people of Hong Kong to be persecuted by China.  Only this will defuse the tense relationship with Taiwan.  Stop all Chinese bullying around the world.  Allow people to have their own opinions in China and anywhere in the world.  Continue to tackle corruption also in cases that are connected with your faithful followers.  Put up an alternative reward system for officials so they do not have to resort to corruption.  Let capitalism flourish but keep monopoly and oligopoly at bay and do not allow people to make a profit based on lies (such as that property prices will always go up).  Stop propping up the most evil regimes in the world, including Russia, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar and Afghanistan.  Don't be worried that you may not be the only shining star.  Allowing people to grow and shine is necessary for the growth and well being of your nation.   You don't want to be remembered as a nutcase like the North Korea's Kim Jong-un or worse like Putin or Hitler.

See the article above and the other articles on this page.  Peace that is only temporary and will allow the adversary to attack later with a greater force is not worth it.  If there was any reason to think that it would be permanent, then peace would be great.  But NO!

Cause there are no reasons

What reason do you need to be shown?   (Lyrics by the Boomtown Rats)

Putin has shown again and again that he can not be trusted, especially when it comes to honoring peace and disarmaments agreements.

The situation has turned on its head.  It is not Ukraine that needs to  promise not to rearm, but Russia.

Individuals and nations that call for peace without returning all of Ukraine territory back to Ukraine and without Russia properly reimbursing Ukraine for all the damage that has been done are unreasonable.  It is also not realistic to expect that Ukraine would negotiate with Putin or anyone who shares his imperialistic believes.  

Ukraine is a short lived country but it certainly does not belong to Russia.  Russia has a history of expansionism but those days should be over.  

Any country, has a much brighter future, if it embraces international cooperation and keeps inner corruption at bay.

Why do people flock to our website and take time to read our articles.  Because we bring a new perspective and insight and we are not afraid to be critical.  If you think your organization can benefit from our input please do not hesitate to contact us:

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We always wondered why the bridge between Crimea and Russia remained standing.

We figured that Russia is going for the land corridor to Ukraine precisely because this bridge is so vulnerable in times of hostilities.  And we figured also that Ukraine postponed attacking the bridge to show Russia that the land corridor is not so important.  But Russia has been using the bridge to supply military equipment and fuel for the military and Russia has not spared Ukraine bridges, nor schools, hospitals and cultural monuments.  Russia has gone too far in the destruction of villages, towns and cities and have shell shocked the people and separated families by forced relocation of 1.6 million people to Siberia.   There can not be any compromise with such an evil regime.  Russia must be kicked entirely from Ukraine.  They may repair part of the bridge.  But it is just a matter of time until the bridge will be taken out of use.

When Russia had only Crimea, Ukraine's loss was greater than that because Russia regularly interfered with ships destined or coming from Ukraine ports.  

Some people who are now living in Crimea are maybe not so dissatisfied with the Russian occupation.  In part because Russia brought more money into the region but at the expense of much poorer regions of Russia (the mean income in Russia is lower than that of India) and sometimes because they may have taken over their fleeing neighbors homes.  In the 1940s Stalin forcefully relocated 200,000 tartars away from Crimea.  Those that remain have been treated badly and will probably be grateful when the Russians will be kicked out.  Just as in Russia itself a lot of people would also be pleased when they are no longer ruled over by a ruthless regime that kills it's neighbors.  

Putin knows about the concept of the cornered Rat because he wrote about his experiment as a young man in cornering a huge rat.  Now he is in that position.

Putin's live is in danger.  

He is threatened from two directions.  From hardliners and from people that want a more sensible approach to Russia's coexistence in this world.  He has been brutal in his attack on the latter, judging from prominent people falling from windows, a boat and the "accident" where someone fell down several flights of stairs.  

He seems to be underestimating the threat that comes from the hardliners.  For his own safety he should distance himself from the hardliners.

He should stop his hormone treatment.  Testosterone injections only make your balls smaller.  (A proven medical fact ;)  Putin is extremely occupied with his body appearance which makes this so laughable.

He should make a U-turn, admit that referendum results were falsified and blame it on the officials (who were stupid and immoral enough to participate in that charade) , withdraw and build a new prosperous Russia that works with the world instead of against it.  This would be the greatest statesmanship the world has seen.

There is probably not a fat chance in hell for this to happen.  The only other chance he can come out of this alive is to get an asylum somewhere.  In which case, given his power he should make sure that an honest person takes over the interim administration and not like it was last time a corrupt person following a corrupt person as Putin followed Yeltsin.

History will not be kind to Putin.  Eventually the cover up will end and Putin will be exposed for what he was.  If not now, in a decade there will not be anyone who wants to beautify his actions, but quite to the contrary.  Putin has tried to beautify the horrors of Stalin but this attempt to rewrite the history books will also come to nothing.

The same applies to all other misguided leaders, Erdogan, Modi, Viktor Orbán, Bolsonaro, Bashar al-Assad, Maduro, Lukashenko, Ebrahim Raisi, Khamenei, MBS, Xi and Trump.   

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine we have been doing a survey of what our readers think.  Many have made krass comments that are interesting to read.  

The majority wants their governments to do more to support Ukraine in line with our suggestions.  Around two thirds want more in the way of sanctions not only targeted towards Russia and Belarus but towards countries that undermine our own sanctions like India and China.  40% think we should recognize Taiwan.

Here you can read some of the comments and/or make comments and participate in the survey.

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Russia has the problem that no tourists are coming in but only "tourists", middle class Russian citizens, fleeing the country. 

Some speculate that Putin abolished Russia's federal tourism agency because he did not like the advice that the directorate of the agency was giving namely that there were no restrictions on traveling abroad if you had not already been drafted for the Ukrainian war.  Quit an unusual move to abolish the whole agency.  It is suspected that Putin's preferred method when he wants someone to go is to throw them out of high rise windows.  Still crazy but more humanitarian.

The same can not be said of his plans to drown towns and villages by blowing up a dam in Southern Ukraine or contemplating a false flag operation involving a dirty nuclear bomb.  

The world needs to stop this monster of a man now.

The new colonel general Ramzan Kadyrov recently suggested Russia should use nuclear weapons against Ukraine.  

To let Putin destroy Russia, drag the Russian military into a war that no one sane wants, force the military to commit war crimes and now to bypass the Ministry of Defense in promoting the inept and dangerous Ramzan are actions that should not continue.

It is high time for the Russian Ministry of Defense to stop this farce and take Russia out of its self inflicted misery.  Put Putin under house arrest or in an asylum, withdraw from Ukraine (from a war that is not winnable for Russia), release political prisoners,  stop the corruption, dismantle the FSB and the GRU, hold free elections, and let Russia prosper.

If you are powerful within Russia and you do nothing to help take down the new Hitler you are as responsible as anyone in a similar position was when Hitler was in power in Nazi Germany.

By accident we have become a de facto news organization.  People from around the world flock to our website.  Our readers are hungry for more news.  For that we need more resources, funding and at least in the meantime volunteers or any one or any organization to provide us with photos, news and/or actual articles about what is happening at various places in the world.  This is a great opportunity to join a news organization that cares more for the world than for its self.  Do not hesitate to contact us if you think you can help:

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First the Iranians shoot down an Ukraine commercial airplane.  Instead of showing their regret they continue to facilitate the death of Ukrainian citizens.  By supplying the evil regime of the New Hitler's Russia with military grade drones.  Iran may have a negative opinion of the US and Israel.  But what is absolutely clear is that the Russian regime is evil.  Iran is working ever more closely with all the evil regimes of the world.  Iran so called supreme leader is not a supreme leader at all because he does not listen to the will of his own people and every religious person in the world should denounce him for working with and for evil and that includes his nuclear aspirations.

The Iranian regime is also clearly evil in suppressing and killing its own citizens.

Hurrah to all women who stand up for their right not to wear a headscarf, like the CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour who has interviewed every Iranian president since 1995 but refused to bend to the wishes of the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to wear a head scarf.  #hijabchoice

Calling all women in the world to burn their hijabs to support the struggle of women and men of Iran and for the Iranian people to get rid of rulers that break the most fundamental concept of all religions, not to do evil. #evilfreeiran

In the name of righteousness and even the most basic religious concepts of religion let the people of Iran get rid of the tyranny and the evil that plagues their country's leadership #Kopftuch #OpIran  See our separate page calling for women's rebellion.

The ordinary German citizen is a very nice person and the same was probably true in Nazi Germany.  Yet the German nation during the Nazi era was responsible for the most horrendous crimes against humanity.  How can that be if they were really nice people?  Simple - by doing way to little to stop the Nazis.  Every human being should learn from this recent history.

Each and everyone that does nothing now is responsible for the autocracies being carried out in Ukraine, just as the Germans and those that gave the Germans the benefit of the doubt were responsible for the actions including the holocaust of Nazi Germany.

This is how we look at it.  So we are compelled to do something.  We can not stand by while genocide takes places, mass graves are discovered, attacks are carried out targeting schools, hospitals, cultural monuments, civilians, the property of ordinary people or any structure that belongs to Ukraine or against the defenders of Ukraine which have the right to defend their own country.

We are just ordinary people that decided to do what we can.  We know how to get our messages across the world so that they sow ideas in others which we hope will sprout more support across the world.   

Communication should not be underestimated.  Your governments are likely not to do enough to support Ukraine unless they get pressure from their citizens.  Such pressure does not happen unless people have an understanding of the issues.  This is what we facilitate.  Our Russian speaking readership is growing very fast, in fact 3000% faster than expected.  Our messages often appear at the top of a page on Google and on average more often than the BBC.

You too can do something.   You can forward our website, organize demonstrations, write letters to politicians, contact influencers or at the very least make a small donation to our effort.  Crowdfunding has the potential to make a real difference.  If we had some external funds we could do so much more.  We also need online and onsite volunteers (including translators, you can stay for a short or longer time for a low fee in the Swiss mountains or Iceland - if someone can sponsor that we would like to lower that fee or eliminate it)   

Who do you think you are?  Is it your legacy that you did nothing as Europe was being attacked?

Tell us  (by WhatsApp or email) what you are doing to differentiate yourself from the nice people of Nazi Germany.

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Russia held a sham referendums in the occupied areas of Ukraine.  The following people will not be able to vote:

• The Ukrainians who have already been killed.   No polling booths at mass graves.

• Most men who would oppose as they are in the Ukrainian army beyond the Russian war line

• All the people who are not deemed to be supportive of Russia.  They have either fled or been sent to Siberia.  More than one million people have been sent to Siberia so far.

• All the people who do not trust that their vote would be anonymous.  They will not show their true preference for fear of their lives and livelihood if singled out by the authorities

• It appears that large parts of the territories in question were under Ukrainian control and hence had no referendums.  How can you have a referendum for a whole region when their are no ballet boxes for a large part of the population, in addition to the problems mentioned above?

• Additionally Russia can not be trusted to tally the results correctly.  Indeed the elections and referendums within Russia itself and the puppet state of Belarus have been deemed untrustworthy

• It is not appropriate to throw money at new regions (which is not likely to be for too long) while established regions of Russia are massively deprived.  In fact the mean income in Russia is lower than that of India. 

• Also it is not appropriate and against international law and conventions to selectively single out parts of countries and just take them over based on some referendums.

  • For example many bordering areas of Switzerland, be they in France, Germany, Austria or Italy might very well want to be incorporated in Switzerland.

  • On the other hand if one of those countries would throw enough money at Switzerland, the Swiss might be willing to be taken over.  But it would not serve any purpose. 

The modern world is based on free trade and free movement of labor between countries that respect one another.  This is what the young people want.  To create and foster hatred by war, aggression, propaganda and the suppression of information is wrong and against the true will of the people.  

• Do not let Russia crush Ukraine by sheer numbers.   Now is the time to give longer range weapons to Ukraine so that they can destroy the supply lines, ammunition depots and provide them with everything we can think of including planes.   It is not fair that Russia can draw some red lines while breaking every red line the modern world has drawn.

• If we do not respond now we are complicit in the mass devastation of Ukraine regions that are Putin's first casualties.

• We also need to allow in contractors that can help maintain Ukraine's new weapons.  #StopTheNewHitler #RussianMobilization

Russia wants countries to continue engaging with it as if that was a perfectly normal thing to do.  Even if countries have subjected Russia to sanctions, Russia still wants to operate its embassies as before -free from protests-, for its people to visit as tourists, to take part in conferences and for Putin and his assemblage to be engaged as if they were normal human beings and not the monsters they really are.

We need to send the Russians clear messages at all levels that they are a pariah nation.  Putin should not be treated as a pal.  We should redraw and restrain every form of communication with Russia.  Not doing so will give them the impression that they can get away with their monstrous imperialistic expansion. #nonewhitler

Furthermore we should also reconsider our relations with countries that continue to engage with Russia as if it was OK to do so.  It is not OK to engage with the new Hitler.  So we should put pressure on countries like Turkey, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, India, China, UAE, Serbia and even Israel, Germany, France, Italy and South Africa to stop all normal relations with Russia.

We need to use our creativity to amplify our message that what Russia is doing is so bad that no normality is possible at any level and to convince any country that wants to trade with or cooperate in any way or fashion with the free world that it needs to take part in these efforts to isolate Russia.

There are signs that what has been done so far is having an effect.  Russian politicians are calling for Putin to resign or the parliament to impeach him.  There is still a long way to go before this trickle of protests becomes a flood but it is already clear that most Russians would like Putin to go. 

When we increase the pressure on Russia, be it by the above methods and by supplying more and better weapons to Ukraine the sooner we can free the Russian people from the tyranny and end the horrible suffering in Ukraine.

#Putler #Frieden #lavrov #lawrow #ukraine #donbass #kriegsverbrecher #moskau #gewissen #diplomatie #aussenminister #frieden #CommissionOfInquiry

Kyiv says it needs 1000 Howitzers and Germany has given nine and has now approved an order from Kyiv for the manufacturing of 100 howitzers (I suspect Kyiv and not the Germans are paying for these)  which will take many years to manufacture and in the meantime Ukraine citizens face a living hell.

Germany is refusing to send western tanks and uses it as an excuse that no other European country has provided these.  Well the countries that are closest to the Russian threat did not have any western tanks, and France and Italy seem to be as much in the pocket of Putin as Germany is.

Germany says it wants to have the strongest military in Europe.  This would be a waste of money.   What is the use of a strong military that does not help protect Europe until Putin is at the German border.  No country can do it alone.  No country can defend it self sufficiently without the help of other countries.  German refusal to go beyond the minimum help for Ukraine, means that it can not and should not assume a leading role. 

In the meantime a coalition party, an opposition party and the European Commission president are calling for tanks to be delivered to Ukraine.

When will the double speak end and real support for Ukraine begin?  To act now would be much cheaper than having to defend against an emboldened new Hitler later.  #Russland #Regime #Reservisten #Proteste #Einwanderer #Kanoenfutter #Wehrdienst #UnserLandZuerst #Organisationen #Weltkrieg #Referendum

Who comes up with these public relations stunts?!?  Recently it was reported that India handed over 7,725 kilograms of humanitarian aid to Ukraine.  How irresponsible can the media be to report such far fetched hypocrisy?  For comparison India imports 150,000,000 kilograms of of Russian oil PER DAY, (approximately 2 million percent more kilograms PER DAY) with money that lines the war coffers of the New Hitler's Russia and is actually fueling the war.  Part of the blame goes to Germany for being slow to boycott Russian oil, but a huge blame is on the US, Japan and the EU for continuing to make deals with India when India is really working against them.  Any deals with India should be contingent on India stopping its imports of Russian oil.

India is in the company of China in undermining the oil boycott.  What a great companionship.  China recently took or was given control of about 1000 sq km of Indian land in the Himalayas.  India's priorities are obviously messed up.  Does it expect western support in standing up to China, without supporting the west now.  Or are they just going to continue to give China what it wants?

Now a few weeks later.  CNN is making the point that India's action do not follow India's words.

India should realize that Russian weapons are a waste of money and will not help India protect itself from China.

People around the world are paying a price for the sanctions against Russia weather they want to or not (and in fact most people would not mind if it really helps).  People are making their contribution by paying higher gasoline prices and through higher inflation which makes a dent in peoples savings.   What the politicians should be concerned about and should really address is the ineffectiveness of the measures they have taken.  Half hearted measures just do not work.   It is only a symbolic gesture not to buy a commodity directly from Russia, while Russia is able to continue to finance the war by selling that commodity (oil) to someone else. 

Therefore for the oil sanctions to be effective, pressure and sanctions need to be carried out against the countries that undermine the sanctions, including China, UAE, India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Hungary, Turkey and Germany. 

A price-cap on Russian oil is not the same as a boycott and even if successfully implemented is not as effective as a proper boycott, because it allows money albeit a bit less to be sent to Russia to finance the war.  An unsuccessful implementation of a price-cap is a terrible thing because it allows ships transporting Russian oil to continue to be insured and various countries to still receive Russian oil as if it was OK but if neither India or China take part it is yet another lame half hearted measure that is actually much worse than trying to go for a boycott.  Unlike a properly enforced sanctions a price-cap does not reduce CO2 emissions quite to the contrary.

Politicians are guilty of not fully supporting Ukraine by not putting up effective oil sanctions.   The current oil boycotts merely reroute Russian oil and have no bite.  If the politicians wanted to make effective sanctions they can, but they do not because they are afraid rising oil prices will loose them some votes.  A very short-sighted and irresponsible approach.  We now clearly see how shameful it was to continue to do business and deals with Hitler's Germany during the 2nd world war.  Continuing to do business with Putin's Russia is no different.  History should judge these gutless politicians.  The public should let the politicians know that righteousness is more important than paying a bit more at the gas pump.  Not least because it is the only effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  The world will pay dearly if we do not bring CO2 emissions under control and the same applies if we allow Hitler-like people to get their way.  

Europe has not stopped importing Russian oil and with the price-cap solution there does not appear to be any such boycott in sight unless Russia itself will bar the export of oil to countries that implement the price cap. 

We also need to boycott / sanction way more Russian goods.  The pressure on Putin must be relentless.  When companies can not export their goods, the pressure increases.

By subsiding interest, Erdogan is giving away everything to his friends who can borrow money and only pay a fraction back.   No one else in their right mind, than Erdogan's friends dare to invest because there is no point in gathering wealth in Turkey when it can all be taken away in an instant.  As Erdogan has nationalized more than 1000 companies, reportedly some of which have refused to pay him bribes.  This hurts the Turkish economy because these companies need their owners to be run well and to stay afloat.

Turkey sometimes makes good gestures towards Ukraine.  But everything positive Turkey does is undermined by making deals with Russia and Iran, Ukraine's enemies.  #DünyaLideri #DünyaLideriDeğil

Turkey is now suggesting engineering a great plan for Ukraine.   Turkey is not even able to take care of its own economy, which would be pretty simple, let alone devise a plan for Ukraine.  We already discussed the great danger that such meddling entails.  See below.  When Macron, Scholtz and Draghi had something like this in mind we described it as the greatest danger Ukraine was facing.  That Turkey is reviving any discussions that do not involve Ukraine itself makes Turkey one of the most dangerous enemies of Ukraine.

Turkey mentions the prisoner swop as an example of what can be accomplished.   It was a nice gesture but basically just a publicity stunt.  Most of the Mariupol soldiers are still Russian prisoners.

Step up your treatment of Taiwan as a separate country.  Take Pelosi's visit Taiwan as a good example.  Have your politicians visit Taiwan.  Name your consular missions after Taiwan and not just Taipei.  China deserves to be irritated as it is an enabler of the bloody invasion of the Ukraine.

China is heading for failure.  If Xi is voted in again by corrupt politicians who only care for themselves and have no regard for the will of the people this will lead to the destruction of China as we come to know it.  In fact the dismantling of prosperous China is well on its way.

Take for example the recent meeting between Putin and Xi.  Well they made some agreements designed as an alternative to the trade and cooperation of righteous countries.  At the same time the US stated they would bar the Chinese from investing in US technology firms.  Guess which of these events is going to make a greater impact for the future of China.    

Just a few years ago the situation for China looked promising.  High economic growth and burgeoning trade with the whole world.  Trade is continuing but the growth is slower, because countries around the world are becoming wary of China.  Governments want to cut reliance on Chinese goods.  Ordinary people around the world are noticing that China is cozying up to evil countries like Russia, North Korea, Myanmar, Iran and by extension Syria.  All this will lead to China being shunned as supplier of goods and companies certainly do not want to be burned again as they have been in Russia by having operations in such a country that has a faltering sense of righteousness.  With a leadership that resembles the relationship between Hitler and Mussolini.  The resemblance between Tiger and Winnie the Pooh where Xi is in the role of Winnie the Pooh is absolutely nothing for Xi to be worried about compared to being compared to Hitler and Mussolini.