Russia is in Stage Three Propaganda.
No-one believes the media. No-one is supposed to believe the media. The message from the media is that the government can say and do whatever it wants and there’s nothing you can do about it.
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Report - US secretary of state says ‘Russia intends to encircle and threaten Kyiv’
Secretary of State Tony Blinken said that “all evidence suggests that Russia intends to encircle and threaten Kyiv”, CNN is reporting.
“We believe Moscow has developed plans to inflict widespread human rights abuses – and potentially worse – on the Ukrainian people,” he said in remarks to a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), CNN reports.
“For months, Russia has engaged in the pretense of diplomacy while insisting that they had no intentions of invading Ukraine,” Blinken said. “All the while, the Kremlin has been preparing this cold-blooded attack, the scale of which has not been seen in Europe since the Second World War.”
“The entire international community now plainly see Russia’s complete abandonment and abdication of the commitments it made to the world – and we will never forget,” he added.
P.S. China is planning to evacuate Chinese nationals from Ukraine but “has refused to condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine”.
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They have been talking about some sort of transparency law re overseas ownership for a very long time. Talking about it is all they do and they do it knowingly to make it seem like they are moving in that direction - but they never do. They just talk about it.
From this article (link below) these two paragraphs… (my bold)
Johnson told the BBC: “We are making sure that we open up the Russian doll of property ownership, of company ownership, in London and see who’s behind everything. And we’ve got to do it and we’ve got to hit very hard.”
But such a database is yet to be established despite promises made by the government since 2016. Plans for an economic crime bill had been included in the 2019 Queen’s speech but the legislation is yet to materialise.
It is not hard to figure out why the Tories are stalling on this:
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“You should put some sunflower seeds in your pocket so you can grow some flowers when you die on Ukrainian soil.”
That is so badass!
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Not all the Russian Tory donors have been Putin supporters (if you believe what they say):
In an interview with the Guardian, Temerko said he was “no friend” of Putin’s, whom he called an “enemy of democracy”.
The current oligarch owner of the Independent is apparently quite close to Putin, but the paper so far has been open and unambiguously opposed to the invasion.
These examples probably shouldn’t have an influence on the decision to freeze the assets of Russian oligarchs, since even those who oppose the invasion, at least rhetorically, are still contributing to it indirectly by virtue of their Russian wealth connections.
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So a question for someone who knows more about how financial sanctions work:
When we or the UK or whoever freeze the assets of Putin’s inner circle, would it be reasonable simply to confiscate those funds? Perhaps to repurpose for supporting Ukraine? Seems like the only recourse the Russians would have would be to sue at the World Court, where I’m not sure there would be much standing after this invasion.
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That is pretty fucking metal. I hope she’s ok, cuz that is next level bravery
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“Additionally, Biden said that sanctions against Putin personally “are still on the table” as a possibility”
I was wondering about that too, and if that’s what was being talked about here. I also have to assume though that Putin has his money mostly in places where no one in the west could touch it (even if some of those place are western financial institutions that cater to the…“privacy sensitive” customer)
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With past asset freezes, eg Iran, they have been held in escrow except when a court has awarded punitive or compensatory damages to someone with standing as a victim.
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I am deeply impressed by scenes of Russian citizens protesting in the streets of Moscow and St. Petersberg.
I joked on Twitter yesterday:
“I’d prefer to see him given house arrest for life in a shabby dacha, visited by no one but a nurse, watching Russia become a liberal democracy with a broad economy that benefits all, funded by repatriated and confiscated oligarch money.”
That would still be a stretch, but . . . less of a stretch than it was yesterday.
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That has to be like a traditional saying?
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It’s not like that thing could do all that much damage.
Maybe it’s a message to Der Putler. No worries here, I’m with you, don’t have me killed please thank you.
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I think that depends on where it landed. If it landed in the middle of a major metro area, it could do some real damage.
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Well yes, i was going for pithy, by leaving out the obvious. If it hit a house and obliterated it, the owner would consider that major damage too.
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