is the united states to blame for russia's invasion of ukraine? jeffrey sachs thinks so

let's debunk this claim (echoed by the kremlin, tucker carlson, elon musk, and the chinese) once and for all.

here are the facts:
gzeromedia.com/no-the-us-didn… don’t listen to anyone that says the united states, nato, or ukraine did anything to cause russia to launch a war of aggression against its neighbor

putin chose to do this
the responsibility lies with him, and him alone
gzeromedia.com/no-the-us-didn…

up to 300,000 dead on both sides in ukraine
thanks to one man: vladimir putin

@gzeromedia compiled some stats on 1 year of war
a🧵 51,000 sq miles: land seized by russia by late march 2022
10,400 sq miles: recaptured by ukrainian forces since

17%: of ukraine currently controlled by russia

ill miss you, notes app messages

as the war in ukraine drags on, who has the advantage of time?

i write about the stalemate in my new weekly column ‘gzero daily w/ ian bremmer’ out every wednesday evening…straight to your inbox

unless you want to check it out online of course:
gzeromedia.com/time-favors-uk… get these weekly deep dives by subscribing:
gzeromedia.com/subscribe/

trump nfts and their inspirations…a thread
(definitely worth the $700)

in deference to our new dutch overlords, all americans must eat a stroopwafel today in deference to our new dutch overlords, starry night is now america’s favorite painting

the bots have spoken upside: good for shareholder value

it’s a strong day for us democracy…and there haven’t been many in recent years. trump the biggest gop loser; desantis (his most important natl competitor) the stand out gop winner on the national stage.

makes a competitive gop nomination process much more likely.

russian govt buying a few thousand verified twitter accounts at $8/pop to promote disinfo feels like a no-brainer. i’d at least wait the four days until after midterm elections to roll out a completely untested new verification system on the country’s most important social media site for political info/disinfo.

but hey, that’s just me.

i’m hearing kremlin is pulling out of grain/fertilizer deal following ukraine drone strikes on black sea fleet.

bad news for global inflation. russia claiming ships targeted by ukraine were part of ensuring security for the "grain corridor" to export agricultural products from ukrainian ports.

i don’t see trump as the problem in us politics.

trump is the most visible & dangerous symptom of a deep erosion of us political values & institutions.

it’s easy to blame trump/maga. but what you need to ask is what makes 1/3 of americans declare loyalty to that movement. this is a necessary question to answer—because we don’t see the same level of political crisis in other g7 countries.

canada, germany, japan, even france and the united kingdom have political institutions today with more domestic legitimacy and stronger support for rule of law.

biden: gas prices will stay high ‘as long as it takes’ for ukraine to win

so...forever don’t get me wrong.

i strongly support ukraine. they’re fighting for their nation against a hostile invader. they have right on their side. i deeply want them to win.

but they’re not going to win.

lessons from the pandemic:

in usa, strong consensus and commitment to solutions didn't last long & became politically divided

discussed further in my new book, the power of crisis

@gzeromedia #quicktake
gzeromedia.com/quick-take/ @gzeromedia after china's initial coverup, they locked down and were very effective at tracking and tracing covid. they were able to restart in 2020. and then china got complacent, didn't think they needed to work with the west.

@gzeromedia #quicktake

roe v wade about to be struck down

first big event favoring democrats in midterm elections politico.com/news/2022/05/0… a huge deal. i’ve never seen a supreme court draft opinion publicly leak before.

“we hold that roe and casey must be overruled” - justice samuel alito

in his latest op-ed for @TheEconomist, john mearsheimer argues that the west – not russia – is responsible for the war in ukraine.

that’s not how i see it.

my response in this week’s @gzeromedia #TheRedPen.

read the original article -> economist.com/by-invitation/… i broke out #TheRedPen with @EurasiaGroup’s @WitlinZ and @ga_thomps to explain why vladimir putin alone bears responsibility.

on the west – and america – being responsible…

“we realize ukraine will not become a member of nato. we understand this, we are adequate people."

- president zelensky

wish he had said this a month ago

before the invasion, publicly and privately, zelensky did not take the russian threat as seriously as he should have

does not take away anything from zelensky’s extraordinary leadership and bravery over the last three weeks

extraordinary move would be for pms of poland, czech rep, and slovenia to stay in kyiv

there’s no way russia risks direct attack on leaders of 3 nato states russia claims they have no goal to overthrow zelensky govt and is not targeting civilians.

both are false, but that’s the official russian position. nato leaders staying in kyiv in no way challenges it.

eg internal cliff notes from state of the union.

First half was pretty good. Biden was energetic. Bipartisan. Talked about freedom and Ukraine. Banning Russia planes. Sort of skipped over the part where he asked Americans to sacrifice?

1/3 Then a pivot to BIF which was fine. Then a long Democratic campaign rally, boring and just a list of things he's never going to sign into law. Inflation bad. Intel CEO! COMPETES. Big business price gouges bad. A laughable claim on the deficit. Federal reserve shout out!

2/3

China’s COVID policy was the most effective in the world (among large govts) in 2020.

It’s going to be the worst performing this year. The pandemic has changed dramatically. More transmissible, less lethal, vaccines/boosters, therapeutics.

But China’s Zero COVID policy remains the same.

Everything you wanted to know about inflation but were afraid to ask: A thread🧵[1/19] Inflation in the US was 6.2% over the past year. This is the fastest pace in three decades. [2/19]

In an op-ed for @WSJ, @BjornLomborg argues that adapting to climate change will dramatically reduce its cost.

But adapting is not a comprehensive solution.

My response in this week’s @gzeromedia #TheRedPen.

Read the original article -> wsj.com/articles/clima… @WSJ @BjornLomborg @gzeromedia I broke out #TheRedPen to explain why you can’t adapt your way out of climate change.

On dramatically reducing the cost of climate change…
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