Thread by @Sakura509

@chrisriddell50 My first thought when I saw this today was whether your colleague @MartinRowson might regard these events as, 'a storm in a fur cup'!

...evidently, there are agendas but, some are too quick to impose their interpretation on events - they hear but don't LISTEN!

"In the last few weeks, the benefits to Russia from its sabre-rattling must have far exceeded the Kremlin’s expectations. It has produced a traffic jam of presidents, prime minister and ministers making their way to Moscow."

"They may be issuing warnings against a Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the reality is that for the first time since 1991 Russia is once again being treated as a superpower to be feared, cultivated and never disregarded."

"This mass migration of Western leaders to Moscow is not likely to continue, but the Kremlin will draw the lesson that Ukraine is a good pressure point to bring the Americans and Europeans running to its door."

"The most interesting unanswered question now is why Putin’s not very credible threat was taken at face value and given further substance by officials pumping out strange tales of Russian plots and ploys on a daily basis?"

"A general answer to this question is that the new Cold War, like the old one in Soviet times, enables governments of all stripes to posture as defenders of the people against foreign threats. Political leaders become statesmen, however bad they may smell."

"President Joe Biden and Boris Johnson have a more specific reason for hyping the foreign threat since they both face potential of electoral defeat in 2024. Johnson’s desperate need to present himself as something other than a dissolute law-breaking party-goer is self-evident."

inews.co.uk/news/world/unw…

"The threat of war is difficult to beat when it comes to mending or enhancing a damaged reputation."

"President Joe Biden and Boris Johnson, both derided as ineffective in domestic policy only a few weeks ago, are now reborn as statesmen capable of guiding their countries through the minefield of Eastern European politics."

"The American and British intelligence services seldom got things right during the Iraq, Libyan and Syrian conflicts, but they are now being cited as reliable guarantors of the credibility of stories about an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine."

"The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week told the UN, apparently relying on information provided by US intelligence, that Russia could stage a provocation to provide a casus belli by fabricating “so-called terrorist bombing inside Russia, ..."

"...the invented discovery of a mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians, or a fake – even a real attack – using chemical weapons.”"

"Listening to this grim list, my mind went back to an earlier US Secretary of State Colin Powell who addressed the UN on 5 February 2003, saying that the US possessed incontrovertible proof that Saddam Hussein was hiding and manufacturing weapons of mass destruction (WMD)."

"The point I want to make is not so much that the evidence for Russia plots to provide a casus belli is shaky, but that intelligence service information is often dubious, and always partisan."

"The bias is in-built because intelligence agencies are, first and foremost, a component of the government machine and they forget this at their institutional peril."

"Yet intelligence sources are often cited as if they were to be held to academic standards of objectivity and are not pursuing some personal, institutional or national aim."

"It takes a high degree of naivety not to realise that this must be the case and information wars are always part of cold wars and shooting wars."

"The much-praised openness of intelligence services to the media about Russian actions appears to be largely a rebranding operation with traditional government PR operations given greater glamour and credibility."

"Despite some spirited pushback by journalists to stories unsupported by evidence, or on the precise meaning of the word “imminent” in relation to a Russian invasion, most of the open intelligence stories have been swallowed whole."

"Information wars are always a component of military conflicts, potential and actual. Usually, security services play a large role in orchestrating them."

"But these propaganda wars are dangerous because they tend to fly out of control and demonising an opponent hinders negotiations. Political leaders, for their part, tend to believe an unhealthy amount of their own propaganda and often act as if it was all true."

inews.co.uk/opinion/russia…

“Ukraine is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space,” Putin said. “These are our comrades, those dearest to us – not only colleagues, friends and people who once served together, but also relatives, people bound by blood, by family ties.”

"Much of what was said was a rehash of an article he wrote last summer, but it has become clear this ideology is now guiding his actions and he needs to be taken literally and seriously."

theguardian.com/world/2022/feb…

"During the recent Direct Line, when I was asked about Russian-Ukrainian relations, I said that Russians and Ukrainians were one people – a single whole. These words were not driven by some short-term considerations or prompted by the current political context."

"It is what I have said on numerous occasions and what I firmly believe. I therefore feel it necessary to explain my position in detail and share my assessments of today's situation."

"To have a better understanding of the present and look into the future, we need to turn to history. Certainly, it is impossible to cover in this article all the developments that have taken place over more than a thousand years."

"But I will focus on the key, pivotal moments that are important for us to remember, both in Russia and Ukraine."

"Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians are all descendants of Ancient Rus, which was the largest state in Europe. Slavic and other tribes across the vast territory – from Ladoga, Novgorod, and Pskov to Kiev and Chernigov – were bound together by one language ..."

"... (which we now refer to as Old Russian), economic ties, the rule of the princes of the Rurik dynasty, and – after the baptism of Rus – the Orthodox faith."

"The spiritual choice made by St. Vladimir, who was both Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Kiev, still largely determines our affinity today."

"The throne of Kiev held a dominant position in Ancient Rus. This had been the custom since the late 9th century. The Tale of Bygone Years captured for posterity the words of Oleg the Prophet about Kiev, ”Let it be the mother of all Russian cities.“"

"When working on this article, I relied on open-source documents that contain well-known facts rather than on some secret records. The leaders of modern Ukraine and their external ”patrons“ prefer to overlook these facts."

"They do not miss a chance, however, both inside the country and abroad, to condemn ”the crimes of the Soviet regime,“ listing among them events with which neither the CPSU, nor the USSR, let alone modern Russia, have anything to do."

"At the same time, the Bolsheviks' efforts to detach from Russia its historical territories are not considered a crime. And we know why: if they brought about the weakening of Russia, our ill-wishes are happy with that."

"Of course, inside the USSR, borders between republics were never seen as state borders; they were nominal within a single country, which, while featuring all the attributes of a federation, was highly centralized – this, again, was secured by the CPSU's leading role."

"But in 1991, all those territories, and, which is more important, people, found themselves abroad overnight, taken away, this time indeed, from their historical motherland."

"What can be said to this? Things change: countries and communities are no exception."

"Of course, some part of a people in the process of its development, influenced by a number of reasons and historical circumstances, can become aware of itself as a separate nation at a certain moment. How should we treat that? There is only one answer: with respect!"

"You want to establish a state of your own: you are welcome! But what are the terms? I will recall the assessment given by one of the most prominent political figures of new Russia, first mayor of Saint Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak."

"As a legal expert who believed that every decision must be legitimate, in 1992, he shared the following opinion: the republics that were founders of the Union, having denounced the 1922 Union Treaty, must return to the boundaries they had had before joining the Soviet Union."

"All other territorial acquisitions are subject to discussion, negotiations, given that the ground has been revoked."

"In other words, when you leave, take what you brought with you. This logic is hard to refute. I will just say that the Bolsheviks had embarked on reshaping boundaries even before the Soviet Union, manipulating with territories to their liking, in disregard of people's views."

"When the USSR collapsed, many people in Russia and Ukraine sincerely believed and assumed that our close cultural, spiritual and economic ties would certainly last, as would the commonality of our people, who had always had a sense of unity at their core."

"However, events – at first gradually, and then more rapidly – started to move in a different direction."

"I recall that long ago, well before 2014, the U.S. and EU countries systematically and consistently pushed Ukraine to curtail and limit economic cooperation with Russia."

"We, as the largest trade and economic partner of Ukraine, suggested discussing the emerging problems in the Ukraine-Russia-EU format."

"But every time we were told that Russia had nothing to do with it and that the issue concerned only the EU and Ukraine." De facto Western countries rejected Russia's repeated calls for dialogue."

"Step by step, Ukraine was dragged into a dangerous geopolitical game aimed at turning Ukraine into a barrier between Europe and Russia, a springboard against Russia."

"Inevitably, there came a time when the concept of ”Ukraine is not Russia“ was no longer an option. There was a need for the ”anti-Russia“ concept which we will never accept."

"There may be an argument: if you are talking about a single large nation, a triune nation, then what difference does it make who people consider themselves to be – Russians, Ukrainians, or Belarusians. I completely agree with this."

"Especially since the determination of nationality, particularly in mixed families, is the right of every individual, free to make his or her own choice."

"During official negotiations, especially after being reined in by Western partners, Ukraine's representatives regularly declare their ”full adherence“ to the Minsk agreements, but are in fact guided by a position of ”unacceptability“."

"They do not intend to seriously discuss either the special status of Donbas or safeguards for the people living there. They prefer to exploit the image of the ”victim of external aggression“ and peddle Russophobia."

"They arrange bloody provocations in Donbas. In short, they attract the attention of external patrons and masters by all means."

"Apparently, and I am becoming more and more convinced of this: Kiev simply does not need Donbas. Why? Because, firstly, the inhabitants of these regions will never accept the order that they have tried and are trying to impose by force, blockade and threats."

"And secondly, the outcome of both Minsk‑1 and Minsk‑2 which give a real chance to peacefully restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine by coming to an agreement directly with the DPR and LPR with Russia, Germany and France as mediators, ..."

"...contradicts the entire logic of the anti-Russia project. And it can only be sustained by the constant cultivation of the image of an internal and external enemy. And I would add – under the protection and control of the Western powers."

"This is what is actually happening. First of all, we are facing the creation of a climate of fear in Ukrainian society, aggressive rhetoric, indulging neo-Nazis and militarising the country."

"Along with that we are witnessing not just complete dependence but direct external control, including the supervision of the Ukrainian authorities, security services and armed forces by foreign advisers, ..."

"... military ”development“ of the territory of Ukraine and deployment of NATO infrastructure. It is no coincidence that the aforementioned flagrant law on ”indigenous peoples“ was adopted under the cover of large-scale NATO exercises in Ukraine."

"All the subterfuges associated with the anti-Russia project are clear to us. And we will never allow our historical territories and people close to us living there to be used against Russia."

"And to those who will undertake such an attempt, I would like to say that this way they will destroy their own country."

"Russia is open to dialogue with Ukraine and ready to discuss the most complex issues. But it is important for us to understand that our partner is defending its national interests but not serving someone else's, and is not a tool in someone else's hands to fight against us."

"We respect the Ukrainian language and traditions. We respect Ukrainians' desire to see their country free, safe and prosperous."

"I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia. Our spiritual, human and civilizational ties formed for centuries and have their origins in the same sources, they have been hardened by common trials, achievements and victories."

"Our kinship has been transmitted from generation to generation. It is in the hearts and the memory of people living in modern Russia and Ukraine, in the blood ties that unite millions of our families."

"Together we have always been and will be many times stronger and more successful. For we are one people."

en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…

"So, after the 2014 coup in Ukraine, part of the population did not accept the outcome. Let me remind you that this was an anti-constitutional, blood-shedding coup that killed many innocent people. It was truly an armed coup. Nobody can argue that."

"Some of the country’s citizens did not accept the coup. They were residents of Crimea and the people who currently live in Donbass."

"Those people declared that they were establishing two independent republics, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic. This was the point when the confrontation started between the Kiev officials and the people living on that territory."

en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…

"My address concerns the events in Ukraine and why this is so important for us, for Russia. Of course, my message is also addressed to our compatriots in Ukraine."

"I would like to emphasise again that Ukraine is not just a neighbouring country for us. It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space."

en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…

The President took a number of questions from reporters about recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics. 👇

en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…

nbcnews.com/news/world/put…

msnbc.com/the-last-word/…

"An increasing number of politicians and media analysts claim Putin may be mentally unstable, or that he is isolated in a bubble of yes-men who don’t warn him of dangers ahead."

"Many commentators say he is trying to restore the Soviet Union or recreate a Russian sphere of influence on his country’s borders, and that this week’s intrusion into eastern Ukraine is the first step ..."

"... towards an all-out attack on Kyiv to topple its government and even move against the Baltic states. None of these assertions is necessarily true."

It would also appear that many may be blinded by a 'Western' perspective and too lazy to assess current facts presented today.

"It is crucially important for those who might seek to end or ameliorate this crisis to first understand his mindset. What happened this week is that Putin lost his patience, and his temper. He is furious with the Ukraine government."

"He feels it repeatedly rejected the Minsk aagreement, which would give the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk substantial autonomy."

"He is angry with France and Germany, the co-signatories, and the United States, for not pressing Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to implement them."

"He is equally angry with the Americans for not taking on board Russia’s security concerns about Nato’s expansion and the deployment of offensive missiles close to Russia’s borders."

Does Russia not have rights too?

"Convinced that Nato will never reject Ukraine’s membership, Putin has now taken his own steps to block it. By invading Donetsk and Luhansk, he has created a “frozen conflict”, knowing the alliance cannot admit countries that don’t control all their borders."

"Frozen conflicts already cripple Georgia and Moldova, which are also split by pro-Russian statelets. Now Ukraine joins the list."

"There is speculation about what will happen next but from his standpoint, it is not actually necessary to send troops further into the country. He has already taken what he needs."

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

"Onwards!"

"The outcomes of World War II and the sacrifices our people had to make to defeat Nazism are sacred. This does not contradict the high values of human rights and freedoms in the reality that emerged over the post-war decades."

"This does not mean that nations cannot enjoy the right to self-determination, which is enshrined in Article 1 of the UN Charter."

@10DowningStreet

#ScottishIndependence 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 is Scotland's FUTURE!

"Let me remind you that the people living in territories which are part of today’s Ukraine were not asked how they want to build their lives when the USSR was created or after World War II."

"Freedom guides our policy, the freedom to choose independently our future and the future of our children. We believe that all the peoples living in today’s Ukraine, anyone who want to do this, must be able to enjoy this right to make a free choice."

en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…

"This is not yet a critical moment in relations between Russia, or at least its leader, and the west. It is critical in relations between Russia and a Ukraine with which it has had a long and historically turbulent relationship."

"There is, or was, a way out: the Minsk agreement of 2015 between Kyiv and Moscow, recognising Donbas autonomy. The failure of both sides to implement Minsk is the cause of the present collapse, but it cannot become the cause of some wider European conflagration."

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

"Ever since the Maidan Revolution of 2014, when Ukrainians ejected the bloody kleptocratic regime of Viktor Yanukovich and his pro-Russian oligarchs in favour of the values of the European Union, ..."

"... the Kremlin has seen the pro-democracy ‘colour revolutions’ in former Soviet republics as a major threat to its oligarchic power – and sought by various covert and ingenious means to subvert both the EU and the transatlantic alliance of NATO."

"In this new clear light, the Kremlin’s financial support for far-right Eurosceptic parties in France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands made complete sense strategically."

"So too, the weaponisation of refugees in 2015-16 during Putin’s intervention in the Syrian civil war, which figured so prominently in the rise of the anti-immigrant right in Europe."

"And, of course, the transparent interference of Kremlin media outlets, and the more covert influence operations of its online troll farms and hack attacks during the 2016 Brexit Referendum and the election of Donald Trump, are all part of the same plan."

"Putin has been trolling the EU and NATO ever since he invaded eastern Ukraine and annexed the Crimean peninsula. His long-term strategic goal has been to reassert Russian priorities on former Soviet republics."

UK: "We have not only laundered at least half the stolen assets of Russian oligarchs, we have also begun to import their values."

All that glitters is not GOLD!

Events re: Russia-Ukraine have superseded this article BUT "one thing is certain: post-Brexit Britain has been increasingly irrelevant, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss shouting loudly from the touchlines, but not being players on the field."

"The UK is now punching well below its weight – especially given that London is the global haven for the wealth exfiltrated from the Russian people by its ruling elite, and the Conservative Party is heavily indebted to Soviet-born oligarchs for millions of pounds in donations."

"Johnson’s reluctance to deal with Russian money flooding into London and into his own party’s coffers is more than just greed or opportunism: it’s an affinity, unwitting or not, of conviction and instinct – "

"...because Vladimir Putin’s billionaire-based oligarchy holds up a dark mirror to the same tendencies within the British state."

"In a major intervention this month, former Conservative Prime Minister John Major exposed the dangers of British exceptionalism, with its ‘mother of Parliaments’ and democracy defined by reverence to the rule of law."

Feb 10 2022:
John Major's speech: "In Democracy We Trust?"

"Vested interests wielding influence through party funding and the reality that there is one rule for Johnson’s Government and another for everyone else are both “politically deadly”, he said."

“Our democracy is a fragile structure. It is not an impenetrable fortress. It can fall, if no one challenges what is wrong or fights for what is right.”

"For a number of years, Yale professor and acclaimed historian Timothy Snyder has warned the West against complacency that its democratic nature is an inevitability."

"He has drawn particular attention to the post-USSR path of Putin’s Russia – an oligarchy, in which a small, elite group hold political power, with the interests of the state geared towards their personal enrichment."

"The line between democracies with some oligarchical features turning into oligarchies with some democratic features is a fine one indeed, according to Snyder."

"That we here in Britain are now treading that line – and losing our balance as we teeter on the edge – can be witnessed under Johnson’s regime."

"In recent years – and certainly accelerated under its current leader – the Conservative Party has moved away from its traditional funding base of small and medium business and become dominated by the super-rich."

"This shift – evident through Johnson’s lavish lifestyle alone, in which luxury foreign holidays and gold wallpaper rolls are paid for by those with the wealth to spare – is a key factor making Britain’s democracy vulnerable."

"Its exposure under Johnson must urgently trigger a wider debate about the power of money in democracy, and in whose interests our state is being run."

"From the scandal of PPE contracts, ‘pork barrel’ funding for Tory constituencies, honours for friends, public appointments to cronies, and an utter lack of scrutiny over the executive through the exploitation of Britain’s ‘good chaps’ mode of Government, ..."

"... the Conservatives have repeatedly held the country’s democracy in contempt – with the Thatcherite small state giving way to Johnsonian state capture."

#NotMyPM
#JohnsonOut32
#ToryLies
#ToryBrexitDisaster
#ToryCorruption
#ToryCovidCatastrophe

#ScottishIndependence 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

"As the cost of living crisis now swirls in headlines, the underlying inequality that has been key to Britain’s Conservative economics has elicited little comment."

"While the living standards of almost all groups in society get materially worse, those of a narrow group of the already wealthy are protected."

"Neither Johnson nor his Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, have addressed the core malfunction in the hard Brexit economy: it doesn’t work for most British people."

"That their only flagship policy to address inequalities – ‘levelling up’ – is a vague but over-ambitious plan with little in the way of investment to back it up, lends itself to the conclusion that there is nothing beyond empty promises and PR spin to improve people’s lives."

"And so, instead of levelling up, Johnson has led a race to the bottom based on SUPPOSED cultural concerns."

In UK "the people" are repeatedly TOLD what their concerns are and how they should view the decadent excesses that exemplify conduct of #LiarJohnson and those aiding him!

thelondoneconomic.com/news/strap-on-…

"The collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago created a laboratory for some of the more extreme ‘shock doctrine’ experiments in Thatcherite privatisation, as state-owned assets were snapped up by smart would-be oligarchs in a massive distribution away from the many to the few."

"Though Britain itself is some distance from Kremlin kleptocracy and suppression of dissent, it seems now to be travelling, under Johnson’s leadership, down the same road of unfreedom and elite rule."

"We have not only laundered at least half the stolen assets of Russian oligarchs, we have also begun to import their values."

"We are close to the moment when, rather than being a democracy with some oligarchic features, Britain becomes an oligarchy with some democratic features."

bylinetimes.com/2022/02/18/vla…

"Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy also addressed the Russian people, and he too spoke in Russian. It was a speech for the ages, one that deserves to be read now and long after this crisis is over."

"For it did not just plead his people’s case, though it did that: “Lots of you have relatives in Ukraine. You know our character, our principles, what matters to us.” It did not just make the case against all wars: “People lose their loved ones and themselves.”"

"It specifically set out the principle at stake: “international law, the right to determine your own future”."

"This, then, is the choice. Do we want to live in the world described by Zelenskiy, where democratic states are protected by an international system of rules, however flawed and inconsistent that system might be?"

"Or do we want to live in Putin’s world, governed by the law of the jungle and where the only right is might?"

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

"A large and despotic power is hurling its military might at a smaller, democratic neighbour. At minimum, the Russian invasion of Ukraine aims to eliminate an independent, sovereign nation’s right to self-determination."

#ScottishIndependence 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 is Scotland's FUTURE!

"Vladimir Putin’s onslaught is designed to prevent Ukrainians from choosing any other destiny than subservience to Moscow. At worst, he will satisfy his appetite to swallow up a country that he has mendaciously argued has no right to exist."

"All the blood of this conflict is on his hands, but some of the guilt is borne by a variety of actors in the west who have enabled or emboldened Putin."

"How likely was Putin going to take ritual warnings of pariah status and threats of sanctions when so many members of the European business and political elite have been willing to put themselves on the Kremlin’s payroll?"

"Instead of legitimising Russian interests, European politicians should have been concentrating on how to contain the threat posed by Russia’s leader. There has been an awful absence of strategic thinking."

"That is nowhere more obvious than in allowing so much of Europe – and notably Germany – to become so dependent on hydrocarbons supplied by a regime that is so starkly hostile to democratic values."

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

BUT this is not the whole story!

"The EU represents one in a series of efforts to integrate Europe since World War II."

"The EU was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2012, in recognition of the organization’s efforts to promote peace and democracy in Europe."

"At the end of the war, several western European countries sought closer economic, social, and political ties to achieve economic growth and military security and to promote a lasting reconciliation between France and Germany."

"After the end of Cold War, many of the former communist countries of eastern and central Europe applied for EU membership. However, their relative lack of economic development threatened to hinder their full integration into EU institutions."

"Building on the limited economic and political goals of the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community), the countries of western Europe have achieved an unprecedented level of integration and cooperation."

"The degree of legal integration, supranational political authority, and economic integration in the EU greatly surpasses that of other international organizations."

"Indeed, although the EU has not replaced the nation-state, its institutions have increasingly resembled a parliamentary democratic political system at the supranational level."

"In early 2014 the EU faced what was perhaps its greatest foreign policy crisis since the collapse of Yugoslavia. In November 2013 the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova signed an association agreement with the EU, pledging closer political and economic ties."

"Ukraine, which had been scheduled to sign the agreement, backed out at the last minute under pressure from Russia. The reversal by Ukrainian Pres. Viktor Yanukovych triggered a wave of popular protests that turned violent in February 2014."

"A bloody government crackdown left scores dead and hundreds wounded, and, with his political base disintegrating, Yanukovych fled to Russia."

"As an interim government assumed power in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, unidentified troops fielding Russian equipment took control of key sites in Crimea, a Ukrainian autonomous republic that had a predominantly Russian population."

"Armed gunmen seized the regional parliament building, and a pro-Russian prime minister was installed. As the Russian troop buildup continued, the self-declared Crimean government announced its independence from Ukraine."

"A referendum was hastily scheduled, and 97 percent of Crimean voters stated their preference to join the Russian Federation."

"EU leaders called for dialogue and enacted economic sanctions against a number of high-ranking Kremlin officials, and Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin completed the formal annexation of Crimea on March 21, 2014."

"That same day Ukrainian interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk signed a portion of the EU association agreement that had originally sparked the crisis."

"The Ukraine crisis expanded as pro-Russian militants occupied government buildings in eastern Ukraine."

"An existing EU sanctions package against Russian individuals and businesses was expanded, and in April 2014 the EU, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank negotiated a $17 billion bailout deal to bolster the flagging Ukrainian economy."

"Attention was soon focused closer to home, however, as Brussels struggled with the emergence of Euroskepticism as a popular movement."

And then, there was #BREXIT

Brexiters ought to accept responsibility and accountability for events unfolding today - wealth before lives! 🤑

"Elections for the European Parliament in May 2014 saw unprecedented wins by the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) in Britain and the National Front in France as voters across Europe turned to antiestablishment parties."

"While the main centre-right and centre-left coalitions retained a majority in the European Parliament, ..."

"EU leaders were forced to address a strong electoral performance by parties whose stated goals were the radical restructuring or outright elimination of the defining characteristics of the EU."

"In 2015 Euroskeptic parties capitalized on the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe as hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa sought asylum in the EU."

"Thousands perished while attempting the treacherous Mediterranean crossing, and thousands more found themselves interred in makeshift camps as countries suspended their participation in the Schengen Agreement and reimposed internal border controls."

"Euroskeptic leaders such as UKIP’s Nigel Farage and the National Front’s Marine Le Pen drew a direct link between the influx of migrants and deadly terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels."

"Facing pressure from UKIP as well as Euroskeptic members of his own Conservative Party, British Prime Minister David Cameron undertook a renegotiation of the relationship between the EU and the United Kingdom."

UK chose to destabilise EU at a time of crisis for UKRAINE!

"Those talks were concluded in February 2016, prompting Cameron to schedule a long-promised referendum on Britain’s continued membership in the EU for June 2016."

#Cameron's aims: to quell disunity within #Tory party and secure his premiership!

"Despite Cameron’s relative success at achieving a “special status” for Britain within the EU, on June 23 some 52 percent of British voters elected to leave the EU."

12 Nov 2021: "The UK would vote to rejoin the EU by 53–47%, a survey of over 2,000 people by Savanta has found. Meanwhile, 82% of those who did not vote in the 2016 referendum say they would now vote to re-join the EU."

- EU might be forgiven for politely declining the request!

euractiv.com/section/uk-eur…

"EU leaders pledged solidarity in the face of the “Brexit,” and they urged Britain to begin separation proceedings as soon as possible to restore stability to the EU."

"The following day, Cameron announced that he would resign as prime minister, and in July he was succeeded by Theresa May."

"May had pledged to carry the Brexit to its conclusion, but in November 2016 Britain’s High Court ruled that she could not trigger Article 50—the Lisbon Treaty’s mechanism for withdrawing a country from the EU—without parliamentary approval."

Evidently, UK had NO PLAN!

"After months of wrangling between May’s government, the courts, and both houses of Parliament, on March 29, 2017, May presented a letter to EU president Donald Tusk formally invoking Article 50."

"That act opened a two-year window of negotiations between London and Brussels, and it soon became clear that the “divorce” between the parties would be neither clean nor easy."

Contrary to false assertions & LIES to secure #LiarJohnson's election in 2019 - #Brexit is NOT DONE!

"In Scotland, where voters had overwhelmingly elected to remain within the EU, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon voiced her support for a second Scottish independence referendum."

#ScottishIndependence 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 is Scotland's FUTURE!

"Voters in Northern Ireland had also opted to remain within the EU, and perhaps the most pressing issue of the Brexit negotiations was the border between Ireland (an EU member) and Northern Ireland (a constituent unit of the United Kingdom ..."

"... whose devolved government was not empowered to act independently with regard to Article 50)."

"The May government framed the issue largely as a matter of trade, but a joint EU-U.K. study found that nearly 150 cross-border activities would be negatively affected by the reimposition of border controls."

"In addition, there were some 275 land border crossings between Northern Ireland and Ireland, more than twice as many crossings as there were along the EU’s entire 3,700-mile (6,000-km) eastern frontier, which stretched from Finland to Greece."

"Finally, the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, which had enabled the creation of a devolved government in Northern Ireland and had done much to defuse the sectarian violence there, were negotiated with the assumption that both Ireland and the United Kingdom ..."

"... would remain within the EU. A “hardening” of the border would potentially jeopardize the underpinnings of that historic agreement."

"In an effort to bolster her slim parliamentary majority and strengthen her hand in Brexit negotiations, May called for a snap election to be held on June 8, 2017. The ploy backfired dramatically."

An elected government CHOSE to secure majority in order to FORCE through BREXIT!

"After weeks of negotiations, May was able to craft a minority government with the support of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)."

While #Tories 'played politics' the World, EU and Ukraine watched and waited!

"As the DUP were strict unionists who opposed any “special status” for Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, May found her room to maneuver on the Irish border issue even more restricted."

"She would spend the next two years trying to forge a deal that would be acceptable to both Brussels and Westminster. In the end, she faced a series of embarrassing rejections from her own party, and her Brexit plan was voted down on three separate occasions by Parliament."

"Britain’s departure from the EU, originally scheduled for March 2019, was postponed until May and then again until October."

"The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. The transition period that was in place – during which nothing changed – ended on 31 December 2020. The rules governing the new relationship between EU and UK took effect on 1 January 2021."

Yet, #LiarJohnson LIES re: COVID-19 vaccine!

"May, having exhausted her options, resigned as prime minister, and was succeeded by Boris Johnson, her former foreign secretary and one of the most visible faces of the pro-Brexit campaign."

#LiarJohnson claimed credit for #May's Withdrawal Agreement & Political Declaration!

"Johnson initially fared little better than May, and he was forced to ask for a third extension of the Brexit deadline. Wagering that he could succeed where May had failed, Johnson called a snap election in December 2019."

Having first unlawfully prorogued Parliament!

"Having already purged the party ranks of dissenters who had blocked his proposed “no-deal Brexit,” and no longer beholden to the DUP on matters of the Irish border, Johnson now found himself in a position to realize his vision of Brexit."

But alas, still NO PLAN to implement!

"On December 20, 2019, Parliament passed Johnson’s Brexit bill, and the European Parliament gave its approval to the agreement a month later. On January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom formally left the European Union, and an 11-month implementation and transition period began."

European Union (Source 👆)

britannica.com/topic/European…

Entering the World stage, from an easterly direction - COVID-19!

A force to be reckoned with and one that caught many governments worldwide unprepared and on the back foot!

UK urgently awaits #PublicCovidInquiry!

RIP 🪦 161,224 DEATHS (Estimated)

UK Government PARTIED!

Last updated: February 27, 2022, 13:06 GMT
United Kingdom
Coronavirus Cases:
18,804,765
Deaths:
161,224
Recovered:
17,153,253

worldometers.info/coronavirus/co…

"Unless a miracle occurs, we are witnessing the destruction of Ukraine as a free and democratic state of 44 million citizens at the hands of a dictator."

"For the west, this is the biggest failure of statecraft and deterrence since 1939. No one in the UK government should be surprised at what has happened."

"I remember sitting round the table of the National Security Council in 2014 after Putin’s violent annexation of the Crimea, where we concluded that, in the light of this gross violation of international law, he would repeat such an action if given a chance."

"Neither the recent British programme to train and engage with the Ukrainian military, nor the empty last-minute ministerial rhetoric challenging the Russian leader’s threats, ..."

"... can conceal the truth: that we have allowed Putin to conclude that the destruction of Ukraine comes at an affordable price."

"This failure is starkly illustrated by our attitude to Russian influence and corruption in the UK. The intelligence and security committee inquiry on Russia, whose open report the prime minister suppressed for nine months on an entirely bogus pretext ..."

Get #Johnson elected!

"... was presented with clearest evidence that Russia saw no distinction between economic and state interests, and that it used elements of its diaspora in the UK to further its interests."

It is abundantly clear that #LiarJohnson recognises no boundaries between state/personal!

"Yet our efforts to root out the corruption and sanction those with links to Putin have been woefully inadequate. In the light of what is now unfolding in Ukraine, they remain so, despite the recent announcements."

"To this we have to add the consequences of Brexit. The key actors in the response to this European crisis are our former EU partners every bit as much as the US."

"Yet our behaviour over Brexit damaged our standing, and fomented doubts that we will observe our binding engagements with them."

"We may have decided that we cannot resist its current aggression by force, but we must – as a start – remove its influence domestically as we rebuild our damaged relations with the neighbours who share our values."

"That means freezing Russian assets in the UK and requiring any Russian citizen whose presence is not conducive to our public interest to leave."

"It means isolating ourselves so far as possible from commercial contact or dependency on Russians, accepting the economic downside this will inevitably entail, and setting an example to others to do likewise."

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

"The world, it is said, is once again polarising between dictatorship and freedom – and in cooperation with its allies, the government has proudly entered what one Tory MP recently described as a global “battle for democracy”."

"Johnson, indeed, sees himself as leading the charge, repeating the mantra that “Putin must fail”, and claiming that Britain is “out in front”."

"All this might seem welcome, but it is also rather absurd."

"For a long time now, the Conservative party has been happily backsliding on its commitment to liberal values, and dismantling some of the basic structures of political scrutiny and accountability."

"Brexit, the reckless project that put Britain on the periphery of Europe and brought Johnson to power, was a huge blow to exactly the kind of multilateralism the prime minister now affects to believe in."

"As further proof of the ethical vacuum at the heart of Tory politics, Conservative politicians have been happily accepting Russian money while averting their eyes from the Putin regime’s meddling in British politics."

Wilful ignorance is not an acceptable legal defence! ⚖️

"Now, though, all of that must suddenly be forgotten: the din of bombs and guns has suddenly awakened the Tory conscience, ..."

"... and the prime minister will soon be telling us that huge hikes in the cost of petrol, gas and food are the price to be paid for values he himself seems to scarcely believe in."

Whatever "the people" want to hear, is what #LiarJohnson will tell them- Lies, by any other name!

"When Johnson bemoans “the Kremlin’s blizzard of lies and disinformation”, the gaff is blown. Clearly, he is no Putin, but that is not quite the point."

"His time in power, let us not forget, has seen not just serial mendacity, but the unlawful suspension of parliament, attacks on the courts, plans for clampdowns on right to protest – and, via the government’s cynical insistence that voting will depend on presenting photo ID ..."

"... new restrictions on our most basic democratic rights. The games the government has played with the Northern Ireland protocol don’t exactly suggest a deep attachment to international rules."

"When it comes to a very modern mixture of reactionary politics and disregard for democratic norms, there is a continuum that ends with Putin and also takes in such figures as Donald Trump and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán; and Johnson is definitely on there somewhere."

"There is a particularly glaring example of the Conservatives’ current moral contortions: the estimated £2m in Russia-linked donations that have come the Tories’ way since Johnson became prime minister."

"In 2020, Electoral Commission records showed that six members of the cabinet and eight junior ministers had taken money from individuals or businesses linked to Russia."

"If senior Tories now insist that such donors are often opposed to the Putin regime, and all is therefore well, that is not convincing: as anyone who knows about modern Russia will tell you, retaining significant business interests, connections or assets in Russia ..."

"... entails obligations to Putin, and relationships with a state that constantly seeks information, intelligence and foreign influence. Any political party with the most basic grasp of national security should surely know that."

But, #LiarJohnson is not one for details!

"Clearly, unease about Tory donations dovetails into serious questions about the government’s lamentable record on Russian interference in our politics."

"When the findings of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee’s long-suppressed, heavily redacted inquiry into that subject (aka the Russia report) were finally published, in the summer of 2020, they prompted loud noise about the lack of attention ..."

"... the government paid to evidence of Russian meddling in UK elections and referendums – but Johnson pathetically batted away such worries as the neuroses of “Islingtonian remainers”."

"From the members of the House of Lords with Russian business interests to London’s so-called laundromat for dirty Russian money, other issues that the Ukraine crisis has once again pushed into the political foreground were also laid bare."

"But what followed was even more of the same inaction that the report bemoaned, which is one of the reasons why Johnson’s sudden scramble to look resolute and tough looks so desperate."

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Could the Ukraine crisis have been avoided?

"Events during the past few months constituted the last chance to avoid a hot war in eastern Europe. Putin demanded that Nato provide guarantees on several security issues."

"Specifically, the Kremlin wanted binding assurances that the alliance would reduce the scope of its growing military presence in eastern Europe and would never offer membership to Ukraine. He backed up those demands with a massive military buildup on Ukraine’s borders."

"The Biden administration’s response to Russia’s quest for meaningful western concessions and security guarantees was tepid and evasive. Putin then clearly decided to escalate matters."

"Washington’s attempt to make Ukraine a Nato political and military pawn (even absent the country’s formal membership in the alliance) may end up costing the Ukrainian people dearly."

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Mar 4, 2017:

"In 1997, a Russian political scientist named Aleksandr Dugin and a serving Russian General named Nikolai Klokotov sat down and wrote a text that would become the foundation of Russian geopolitical strategy over the next 20 years."

"It was called “Foundations of Geopolitics” and it was all about how Russia could reassert itself in the world."

"Chillingly, the book now reads like a to-do list for Putin’s behaviour on the world stage."

"The book starts out by saying that the shrewd thing for Russia to do is to steer clear of direct military confrontation."

"Instead, the book counsels Russian leaders to favour political stealth. It emphasises the need for the infiltration of Western institutions, and the use of soft power to shape the world in Russia’s favour."

"The book’s authors say Russia should encourage Britain to leave the European Union, and thus weaken it. That’s right. Russian strategists were openly arguing in favour of Brexit in 1997, when it was still just a glimmer in Nigel Farage’s eyes."

#BREXIT, an opportunists' dream!

"There are many factors that go into geopolitics — and it can be easy to overstate Putin’s influence in what are tendencies that may have arisen anyway."

"But reading through the document, it is hard to escape the conclusion that much of Russia’s foreign policy has been shaped by Dugin and Klokotov’s thinking - and that that is in turn, shaping the way the world is heading."

"And that should be a concern to us all. Their thinking breaks with many of the central tenets that underpin our politics. It rejects democracy, and places nationalism at the heart of how geopolitics should operate."

"It is essentially a wholesale rejection of the globalisation that Western economies have engaged in during the past four decades."

news.com.au/world/europe/1…

"In Britain, the necessary adjustment has a different character. The UK has never been squeamish about hard power. Successive prime ministers have sounded more hawkish against Putin than counterparts on the continent."

"The British weakness is more subtle, relating to the dysfunctional relationship with the EU."

Not all UK citizens share this weakness, and voted for UK to remain as a member within EU.

"It is the refusal to see the European project on its own terms: not just a trading bloc but a strategic alliance founded with a moral purpose – a framework of law and economic integration that locks democracy in and tyranny out."

Many Brexiters lied & cheated to secure #Brexit!

"This was an ideological movement that nuzzled the hand of Donald Trump as it vandalised every institution for upholding the postwar liberal democratic order. Brexit was a doctrine for fellow-travellers of a US president who called Angela Merkel an enemy and Putin a friend."

"The age of levity is over. Putin’s bombs should shake British politics into sobriety. When that happens, it will be clear that the past six years, the detour into Brexit fantasy land, have been squandered; that we need to restart relations with our neighbours from scratch."

"That will be hard for a prime minister who has sunk so much political capital into Eurosceptic frivolity, and appointed a cabinet in his image. But the shift is inevitable."

"When targets of Kremlin atrocity call out to “Europe” for help, they are appealing not to a geographical space but an idea. They are talking about security in the rule of law and democracy – the antithesis of Putinism."

"They mean the European project. If Britain is to be an ally to Ukraine, it must learn to speak the language of European solidarity that Brexit despises and denies."

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

"Calls are mounting for Angela Merkel to come out of retirement and hold talks with Vladimir Putin in an attempt to end the war in Ukraine."

"Andrei Kortunov, the head of an influential Kremlin-funded Russian think tank, became the latest to propose Mrs Merkel as a mediator on Wednesday."

“I think it should be a voice from the outside, a person who President Putin respects, who he trusts, a person who could demonstrate some empathy but at the same time call for changes in the approach,” Mr Kortunov told the BBC.

“I personally thought of Angela Merkel because she knows the Ukrainian problem, she signed the Minsk agreements, she is respected in Russia, in Ukraine, in Europe and she might be the person to help find a solution to this problem.”

"She famously negotiated all night with him to secure a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine in 2015."

A shared and complex history must surely provide many deep insights and wisdom to facilitate common understanding and help identify future opportunities and pathways.

telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…

time.com/6154493/denazi…

@threadreaderapp unroll, please