Biden’s “Unprecedented Sanctions”

Mish explains the ineffectiveness of the Biden Regime sanctions: https://mishtalk.com/economics/the-ruble-regains-100-of-its-loss-after-russia-invaded-ukraine-why

The Ruble Regains 100% of Its Loss After Russia Invaded Ukraine, Why?

Conventional wisdom on why the ruble has rallied is simply wrong. Let’s discuss the theories and what is really happening.

Ruble chart courtesy of Trading Economics, annotations by Mish
Ruble chart courtesy of Trading Economics, annotations by Mish

Key Points

  • When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, it took 84 rubles to buy 1 US dollar.
  • On March 7, it took 131.2 rubles to buy 1 US dollar.
  • That’s a 36% decline in the rubble vs the US dollar.
  • The ruble is now back where it started on February 24.

Conventional Wisdom 

Putin and Italy’s Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, have discussed payments for gas in Russian rubles. 

What’s the Difference?

Weiner correctly notes the imagination. 

Oil for Rubles, Who Cares?

Case 1: To get rubles to buy oil, Europe sells Euros to Russia central bank. Europe immediately send the rubles it received straight back to Russia to pay for the the oil. Russia central bank accumulates euros.

Case 2: Russia sells oil for euros. Russia central bank accumulates the exact same number of Euros as in case number one.

The currency exchange takes place in seconds. Europe does not have to hold rubles to buy oil.

This is just more of the “oil priced in euros” stupidity. No one will have to hold rubles to buy Russian oil. Or gas. The Ruble does not become a reserve currency.

There is perhaps some small psychological impact, but there is no real impact unless Europe actually held ruble reserves, and here’s a hint: Europe wouldn’t.

What About European Sanctions?

President Biden

Biden says “Ruble reduced to Rubble because of sanctions.”

It took another three days from that Tweet for the ruble to regain all of its losses. Why? 

In three words: Sanctions Don’t Work. Here are some examples.

Parallel Credit Card Payment System

The Wall Street Journal reports Russia Built Parallel Payments System That Escaped Western Sanctions

Visa and Mastercard pulled the plug on Russia’s credit cards. But following the 2014 war in which Visa and Mastercard did the same, Russia took measures to not let that happen again.

Instead, Putin implemented a National Payment Card System—known by its Russian initials NSPK. Visa and Mastercard went along with it.

In 2015 Russia then forced the use of Mir cards based on NSPK. 

Those cards do not use the US payment system.  

One irony is that instead of Visa and Mastercard getting the fees, Russia’s central bank collected 8.2 billion rubles in net profit, or about $94 million at current exchange rates.

Russia actually profited from Visa and Mastercard sanctions.

Price of Oil and Natural Gas

The price of oil and natural soared after the invasion. 

The US banned Russian oil, and that influenced the price. But trading never totally stopped. Instead, Russia traded oil to China for a discount, but at a price higher than the pre-war price. 

In the hoot of the “We are completely against any kind of blackmailing,” Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner told CNBC Monday.

Gold-Backed Ruble?

Russia is offering to buy gold at a discount. It certainly is not selling gold at a discounts. 

The amount of total nonsense generated over those Tweets and payment in rubles is staggering.

What Does Payment in Rubles Really Mean?

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The Ruble Regains 100% of Its Loss After Russia Invaded Ukraine, Why?It’s OK to Say “Gay” But Please Don’t Use Offensive Words Like “Boy” or “Girl”A Recession in 2022 Looks Increasingly Likely As More Yield Curve Inversions Appear

Please consider What Would Paying for Natural Gas in Rubles Mean?

The article quotes Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University and a former official at the International Monetary Fund.

In theory, requiring ruble payments could support demand for the currency and its exchange rate. But not by much, Prasad says. As it stands, euros and dollars are already being used to purchase rubles when Gazprom exchanges its foreign earnings.

Note that last sentence. This is what Weiner implied in his Tweet above.

What Russia actually did is force exporters to trade 80% of its euros and dollars into rubles at a discount. That creates a huge artificial demand for rubles. 

Currency and Stock Market Restrictions

Russia also restricted currency trades. People who wanted out of the ruble could not get out. 

In addition, Russia Banned Foreigners From Selling Russia Stocks. 

Russia’s Real Power

Russia’s real power is to shut off the supply of natural gas, oil, fertilizer, and grain.

List of Companies Still Doing Business in Russia

The list of US companies still doing business in Russia is huge. We hear about meaningless reactions. 

France would not go along, at all. “We are not at war with Russia,” said French President Emanuel Macron.

Russia seized 847 McDonald’s. Who did that hurt? 

Eight Reasons For Ruble Rebound

  1. Russia escaped Visa and Mastercard
  2. Russia still trades oil and gas with Europe
  3. Russia halted currency trades
  4. Russia enacted stock market restrictions
  5. Of Russian exporters, Russia demanded 80% of euros and dollars be traded for rubles.
  6. Russia threatens to stop exporting key commodities including aluminum, natural gas, fertilizer, rare earth minerals, etc., driving up prices and the need to stockpile.
  7. Sanctions cannot take away Russia’s natural resources. 
  8. The Fed can print dollars, it cannot print commodities. Likewise, the ECB can print euros, it cannot print commodities

Two False Reasons People Key On

  1. Russia demands payment in rubles
  2. Gold-backed ruble

I am surprised Robin Brooks messes this up so badly.

Luke Gromen gets that aspect correct, Robin Brooks doesn’t. 

Twelve and Three-Word Summations

A twelve-word synopsis of the above is Misguided Souls Still Do Not Understand This Simple Truth: Sanctions Don’t Work

The last three of those twelve words emphasize the key point.

Meanwhile, Biden Doing Everything Possible to Drive Up the Price of Oil, Some of It’s Illegal

Finally, US Sanction Policy Drives China Into Russia’s Loving Arms.

China is the big winner in global sanction policy.

There is one more key aspect: Weaponizing the US dollar has totally backfired on the US. War views aside, we should all cheer that aspect. Yet, misguided souls want to escalate what is proven not to work. 

This post originated at MishTalk.Com.

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Second Wave Incoming?

Massing

A source from Kiev further has reported that “Russia now has MORE armor units accumulated on the border than it did prior to the war…”

If true, a clear sign that a major phase 2 operation is in the preparatory stages. And there’s many sightings/videos of new forces coming in such as this one:

Scott Ritter published a series of tweets today summarizing his view of the Second Front emerging as Russia completes Phase 1 of its operation.

1/Big Arrow War—a primer. For all those scratching their heads in confusion, or dusting off their dress uniforms for the Ukrainian victory parade in Kiev, over the news about Russia’s “strategic shift”, you might want to re-familiarize yourself with basic military concepts.

2/ Maneuver warfare is a good place to start. Understand Russia started its “special military operation” with a severe manpower deficit—200,000 attackers to some 600,000 defenders (or more). Classic attritional conflict was never an option. Russian victory required maneuver.

3/ Maneuver war is more psychological than physical and focuses more on the operational than on the tactical level. Maneuver is relational movement—how you deploy and move your forces in relation to your opponent. Russian maneuver in the first phase of its operation support this.

4/ The Russians needed to shape the battlefield to their advantage. In order to do this, they needed to control how Ukraine employed it’s numerically superior forces, while distributing their own smaller combat power to best accomplish this objective.

5/ Strategically, to facilitate the ability to maneuver between the southern, central, and northern fronts, Russia needed to secure a land bridge between Crimea and Russia. The seizure of the coastal city of Mariupol was critical to this effort. Russia has accomplished this task.

6/ While this complex operation unfolded, Russia needed to keep Ukraine from maneuvering its numerically superior forces in a manner that disrupted the Mariupol operation. This entailed the use of several strategic supporting operations—feints, fixing operations, and deep attack.

7/ The concept of a feint is simple—a military force either is seen as preparing to attack a given location, or actually conducts an attack, for the purpose of deceiving an opponent into committing resources in response to the perceived or actual actions.

8/ The use of the feint played a major role in Desert Storm, where Marine Amphibious forces threatened the Kuwaiti coast, forcing Iraq to defend against an attack that never came, and where the 1st Cavalry Division actually attacked Wadi Al Batin to pin down the Republican Guard.

9/ The Russians made extensive use of the feint in Ukraine, with Amphibious forces off Odessa freezing Ukrainian forces there, and a major feint attack toward Kiev compelling Ukraine to reinforce their forces there. Ukraine was never able to reinforce their forces in the east.

10/ Fixing operations were also critical. Ukraine had assembled some 60,000-100,000 troops in the east, opposite Donbas. Russia carried out a broad fixing attack designed to keep these forces fully engaged and unable to maneuver in respect to other Russian operations.

11/ During Desert Storm, two Marine Divisions were ordered to carry out similar fixing attacks against Iraqi forces deployed along the Kuwaiti-Saudi border, tying down significant numbers of men and material that could not be used to counter the main US attack out west.”

By the way, von Manstein, considered one of the greatest German WW2 generals famously employed such tactics, particularly in the same Donbass region against the Soviet forces, where he utilized feints and strategic retreats in order to capture a much larger encroaching force by way of misdirection and diversions). You can watch videos such as this one to see how an extremely agile mechanized force can employ diversionary tactics and misdirection to bait a much larger force 

https://youtu.be/vL1BiYvG-38

Evidently, at least 3 distinct groups operating in several directions which have finally ‘linked’ at central points in Mariupol and are now often operating together.

  • DPR forces from the north,
  • Chechen forces from the East,
  • Russian Marine force from the West

Here are some combat videos of the Russian Marines and Chechen regulars assaulting the the Azov Battalion bastion at the Azov Steel Plant.

Brutal.

John Mearsheimer and The Balance of Resolve

I had the good fortune to have met John Mearsheimer decades ago. John is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Chicago.

We had several conversations that helped me shape my path. So it’s not entirely surprising to me that he appears on my screens to share a point of view regarding an issue in our time.

Against this backdrop, consider the “Ukraine Playbook” published by Rand and reported in Antiwar.com: https://original.antiwar.com/Rick_Sterling/2022/03/27/rand-report-prescribed-us-provocations-against-russia-and-predicted-russia-might-retaliate-in-ukraine/

Rand Report Prescribed US Provocations Against Russia and Predicted Russia Might Retaliate In Ukraine

by Rick Sterling Posted on

According to a 2019 Rand report titled “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia”, the US goal is to undermine Russia just as it did the Soviet Union in the cold war. Rather than “trying to stay ahead” or trying to improve the US domestically or in international relations, the emphasis is on efforts and actions to undermine the designated adversary Russia. Rand is a quasi-US governmental think tank that receives three-quarters of its funding from the US military.

The report lists anti-Russia measures divided into the following areas: economic, geopolitical, ideological/informational, and military. They are assessed according to the perceived risks, benefits and “likelihood of success”.

The report notes that Russia has “deep seated” anxieties about western interference and potential military attack. These anxieties are deemed to be a vulnerability to exploit. There is no mention of the cause of the Russian anxieties: they have have been invaded multiple times and had 27 million deaths in WW2.

Significance of Ukraine

Ukraine is important to Russia. The two countries share much common heritage and a long common border. One of the most important leaders of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, was Ukrainian. During WW2, Ukraine was one of Hitler’s invasion routes and there was a small but active number of Ukrainian collaborators with Nazi Germany. The distance from the capital of Ukraine, Kiev, to Moscow is less than 500 miles.

For these same reasons of geography and history, Ukraine is a major component of a US/NATO effort to undermine Russia. Current Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, said that over 20 years the US invested $5 billion in the project to turn Ukraine. The culmination was a violent coup in February 2014. Since 2015, the US has been training ultra nationalist and Neo-Nazi militias. This has been documented in articles such as “U.S. House admits Nazi role in Ukraine” (Robert Parry, 2015), “The US is arming and assisting neo-nazis in Ukraine while the House debates prohibition.”(Max Blumenthal, 2018), “Neo Nazis and the far right are on the march in Ukraine” (Lev Golinken in 2019) and “The CIA may be breeding Nazi terror in Ukraine” (Branko Marcetic Jan. 2022).

Rand suggested provocations

Prior to 2018, the US only provided “defensive” military weaponry to Ukraine. The Rand report assesses that providing lethal (offensive) military aid to Ukraine will have a high risk but also a high benefit. Accordingly, US lethal weaponry skyrocketed from near zero to $250M in 2019, to $303M in 2020, to $350M in 2021. Total military aid is much higher. A few weeks ago, “The Hill” reported, “The US has contributed more than $1 billion to help Ukraine’s military over the past year”.

The Rand report lists many techniques and “measures” to provoke and threaten Russia. Some of the steps include:

  • Repositioning bombers within easy striking range of key Russian strategic targets
  • Deploying additional tactical nuclear weapons to locations in Europe and Asia
  • Increasing US and allied naval force posture and presence in Russia’s operating areas (Black Sea)
  • Holding NATO war exercises on Russia’s borders
  • Withdrawing from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty

These and many other provocations suggested by Rand have, in fact, been implemented. For example, NATO conducted massive war exercises dubbed “Defender 2021” right up Russia’s border. NATO has started “patrolling” the Black Sea and engaging in provocative intrusions into Crimean waters. The US has withdrawn from the INF Treaty.

Since 2008, when NATO “welcomed” the membership aspirations of Ukraine and Georgia, Russia has said this would cross a red line and threaten its security. In recent years NATO has provided advisers, training and ever increasing amounts of military hardware. While Ukraine is not a formal member of NATO, it has increasingly been treated like one. The full Rand report says “While NATO’s requirement for unanimity makes it unlikely that Ukraine could gain membership in the foreseeable future, Washington’s pushing this possibility could boost Ukrainian resolve while leading Russia to redouble its efforts to forestall such a development.”

The alternative, which could have prevented or at least forestalled the current Russian intervention in Ukraine, would have been to declare Ukraine ineligible for NATO. But this would have been contrary to the US intention of deliberately stressing, provoking and threatening Russia.

Ukraine as US client

In November 2021, the US and Ukraine signed a Charter on Strategic Partnership. This agreement confirmed Ukrainian aspirations to join NATO and rejection of the Crimean peoples decision to re-unify with Russia following the 2014 Kiev coup. The agreement signaled a consolidation of Washington’s economic, political and military influence.

December 2021 Russia red lines followed by military action

In December 2021, Russia proposed a treaty with the US and NATO. The central Russian proposal was a written agreement that Ukraine would not join the NATO military alliance.

When the proposed treaty was rebuffed by Washington, it seems the die was cast. On February 21, Putin delivered a speech detailing their grievances. On February 24, Putin delivered another speech announcing the justification and objectives of the military intervention to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine.

As Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov later said, “This is not about Ukraine. This is the end result of a policy that the West has carried out since the early 1990’s.”

Afghanistan again?

As earlier indicated, the Rand report assesses the costs and benefits of various US actions. It is considered a “benefit” if increased US assistance to Ukraine results in the loss of Russian blood and resources. Speculating on the possibility of Russian troop presence in Ukraine, the report suggests that it could become “quite controversial at home, as it did when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.” (p 99 of full report)

That historical reference is significant. Beginning in 1979, the US and Saudi Arabia funded and trained sectarian foreign fighters to invade and destabilize the Afghan government. The goals were to overthrow the socialist inclined government and lure the Soviet Union into supporting the destabilized government. It achieved these Machiavellian goals at the cost of millions of Afghan citizens whose country has never been the same.

It appears that Ukrainian citizens are similarly being manipulated to serve US goals.

A “disadvantageous peace settlement”

The Rand report says, “Increasing US military aid would certainly drive up the Russian costs, but doing so could also increase the loss of Ukrainian lives and territory or result in a disadvantageous peace settlement.”

But who would a peace settlement be “disadvantageous” for? Ukrainian lives and territory are currently being lost. Over fourteen thousand Ukrainian lives have been lost in the eastern Donbass region since the 2014 coup.

A peace settlement that guaranteed basic rights for all Ukrainians and state neutrality in the rivalry of big powers, would be advantageous to most Ukrainians. It is only the US foreign policy establishment including the US military media industrial complex and Ukrainian ultra-nationalists who would be “disadvantaged”.

Since Ukraine is a multi-ethnic state, it would seem best to accept that reality and find a compromise national solution which facilitates all Ukrainians. Being a client of a distant foreign power is not in Ukraine’s national best interest.

The Rand report shows how US policy focuses on actions to hurt Russia and manipulates third party countries (Ukraine) toward that task.

Rick Sterling is an independent journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He can be contacted at rsterling1@protonmail.com.

Deja Vu?

The Moscow Times, January 21, 2015: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2015/01/21/obama-says-western-sanctions-have-left-russias-economy-in-tatters-a43069

Before going “back to the future” in 2015, here is the ₽-USD exchange rate – note the recovery to date.

Obama Says Western Sanctions Have Left Russia’s Economy ‘In Tatters’

U.S. President Barack Obama in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday said Western sanctions had left Russia isolated and its economy “in tatters.”

Speaking before the country’s Congress in Washington, Obama hailed 2014 as a year in which the U.S. had defended “the principle that bigger nations can’t bully the small,” referring to Russia’s role in the Ukraine crisis.

“Today, it is America that stands strong and united with our allies, while Russia is isolated, with its economy in tatters,” Obama said, according to a transcript of the speech published by the White House.

The U.S. and its allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia in response to its annexation of the Black Sea Crimea peninsula and the country’s support of pro-Kremlin separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Low oil prices and Western sanctions have put Russia’s economy on course for an economic recession this year, with Finance Minister Anton Siluanov saying in December that the economy could shrink by 4 percent in 2015.

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Don’t you know the crime rate is going up, up, up, up, up
To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!
You got rats on the West Side
Bed bugs uptown
What a mess this town’s in tatters, I’ve been shattered
My brain’s been battered, splattered all over Manhattan

Sha oobie, shattered, shattered, what say
Sha oobie, shattered
Sha oobie, shattered
Sha oobie, shattered

Uh-huh, this town’s full of money grabbers
Go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don’t mind the maggots, huh
Sha oobie, my brain’s been battered
My friends they come around they
Flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter
Pile it up, pile it up, pile high on the platter

What is Truth – Ukraine Edition

As the map above reports, the Donbass pocket is operationally closed. Ukrainian units inside the cauldron are cut off from resupply of ammunition and food, and isolated from reinforcements.

Russian units continue to expand their control while bottling up remaining Ukrainian ground forces in major cities.

Recall Russia’s tactical strategy: (1) cutoff the bulk of the Ukrainian Army in Donbass from resupply and reinforcement, and (2) isolate back-up Ukrainian units in major cities to avoid urban combat.

We saw Russian forces employ this same strategy as it broke the back of US-supported ISIS forces in Syria.

Yet, despite no change in the Russian strategy, we continue to be inundated by Western media declaring the Russia assault stalled at the gates of Kyev, Mariupol is holding, with strange silence regarding the condition of the bulk of Ukrainian forces in Donbass.

We see no evidence of any AFU air operations. Nor do we see Ukrainian ground forces engaging Russian units outside major cities.

Sure, the occasional assault on a mobile position. But, no concentrated units. No replay of the Battle of 73 Easting from the Iraq War.

A few facts that can easily be inferred even from Western news reports:

  • Within the first 24 hours of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, all Ukrainian Ground Radar Intercept capabilities were wiped out thereby eliminating AFU air to air intercept capability, and enabling the Russian Air Force to establish a “no-fly” zone over Ukraine.
  • No ground attack aircraft, missile or massed artillery capable of disrupting supply or blunt offensive operations by Russian ground units.
  • As a result, Russia has been able to capture and control in 3 weeks a land area larger than the United Kingdom – outpacing US performance against Iraq in Desert Storm.
  • Plus, stand-off Russian missile strikes on NATO supply and mercenary training camps at Yavoriv and Zhytomyr — it’s stunning that these attacks were mounted without Ukrainian forces able to detect incoming, sound timely warnings, and defeat the inbound missiles with point defense weapons.

Is Russia losing?

Or, simply running out of targets while awaiting the destruction of Ukrainian forces in Donbass?

We know that on March 26, at 4:16 a.m., Russian tanks were shown in action in Mariupol, said to be going towards the city center on an identified street, Troyiczka.

The Mayor announced early Monday the city was in Russian hands.

Here are Russian Marines entering the Azov Battalion’s position in the Azov Steel Plant (first built during Stalin’s time):

At 5:20 pm March 27, the white-bearded Chechen commander of “Kadryov’s spetsnaz” stood in front of the city hall of Mariopol and announced that the city was taken by his Rosvgardia troops. There would only be a “sweeping clean operation” left to do. The announcement was celebrated with a burst of gunfire from a Chechen who stood next to his commander for the purpose of this obligatory Asiatic celebration. The police station was also shown.

Then another Twitter account showed the Ukrainian Deputy Commander of 503 Battalion of Marines captured and interviewed. He was caught trying to escape. He said that his entire battalion had broken up into small groups who were trying to find a way out of the trap. Outside the city, there were Russian roadblocks. Men in cars were being ordered to take off their shirts to see if they had any tattoos. (Just like the SS armpit blood-type tattoo.)

The commander of all Azov forces in Mariupol was reportedly captured which, if true, means we will likely see his image on the news.

For another point of view contrary to US government views, here is Larry Johnson from sonar21.com sharing his take of Russian military operations.

You decide.

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Sending new arms to Ukraine (a popular talking point among U.S. and British politicians) is a stupid and empty gesture. Why? There is no organized, intact Ukrainian military force capable of receiving and using these weapons. You want evidence? I want to remind you again of the breathless reports that filled Western media two weeks ago about Russian tank and truck columns “stalled” north of Kiev. Some media claimed the column was 40 miles long while others reported it as 40 kilometers (for the math challenged among you, 40 kilometers equals 24 miles).

That is a big fat target that a functional, competent military force would consume. But that column sat in place for at least a week. My Air Force buddy who flew missions against North Vietnamese vehicle columns back in 1970 described how he would first hit the lead vehicle, then the trailing vehicle and then destroy everything in between. We did not see that in Ukraine. There was no significant destruction rained down on the Russian column from the air. And where was the Ukrainian cruise missiles. Those should have been launched (if they existed) and could have caused enormous damage. That did not happen. There also was no Ukrainian artillery barrage on the supposedly “stalled” column.

And where was Ukraine’s infantry? Ukrainian soldiers have received thousands of anti-tanks weapons (e.g., Javelins and NLAWs). The NLAW has an effective range of 800 to 1000 meters. Here’s a brief:

https://youtu.be/6COKC5ZU6gM

How difficult would it be to have a several battalions of Ukrainian soldiers strung out along the 40 mile column to fire NLAWs at the Russian sitting ducks? Yet that did not happen. Why?

The explanation comes from Friday’s briefing by the Head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy (Colonel General is equivalent to at least a three star general in the U.S. Army):

  • Currently, the Ukrainian air forces and the air defense system have been almost completely destroyed. The naval forces of the country ceased to exist.
  • Sixteen main military airfields were defeated, from which combat sorties of the AFU aviation were carried out. Thirty nine storage bases and arsenals were destroyed, which contained up to 70% of all stocks of military equipment, materiel and fuel, as well as more than 1 million 54 thousand tons of ammunition.
  • All 24 formations of the Land Forces that existed before the start of the operation suffered significant losses. Ukraine has no organized reserves left.
  • Losses are replenished at the expense of mobilized persons and personnel of the territorial defence forces who do not have the necessary training, which increases the risk of large losses.
  • At the time of the start of the special military operation, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, together with the National Guard, numbered 260,200 servicemen. During the month of hostilities, their losses amounted to about 30 thousand people, including more than 14 thousand – irretrievable and about 16 thousand “sanitary” or wounded.
  • Of the 2,416 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles that were in combat on February 24, 1,587 units were destroyed; 636 units out of 1,509 field artillery guns and mortars; 163 out of 535 MLRS; 112 out of 152 aircraft, 75 out of 149 helicopters; 36 Bayraktar TB2 UAVs – 35;
  • 148 out of180 S-300 and Buk M1 air defence systems; 117 out of 300 117 radars for various purposes. [Edited]

[Comment: combat units taking more than 10% are considered degraded; units suffering more than 20% losses are considered incapable of sustained counteroffensive or defensive combat.)

The destruction inflicted on the Ukrainians by Russia is vast. If Ukraine still had a viable air force they would be challenging Russian combat aircraft and carrying out airstrikes on Russian positions. I have seen no reports in Western media about such actions.

In cities, such a Mariupol, that are besieged by Russian forces there has been no visible attempt to provide air support, artillery fire or reinforcements. The AZOV battalion left in an ever shrinking perimeter in Mariupol have no way out and are running out of ammunition and food. No soldier in the world survives long without ammo and chow.

There is evidence that a growing number of Ukrainian soldiers in other parts of the battlefield are surrendering (hat tip to Andrei Martyanov. If Andrei is not on your daily must read you should add him):

The delusional, wishful thinking that infects Western media was on full display yesterday (Friday). Sky News put up this article, Ukraine war: Russia appears to scale back invasion ambitions – but UK warns bombardment of cities will continue. Here is how Sky News reported on General Rudskoy’s briefing cited above:

Russia’s defense ministry claimed it would now concentrate on the “liberation” of the Donbas region.

“The main objectives of the first stage of the operation have generally been accomplished,” said Sergei Rudskoi, head of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operational Directorate.

“The combat potential of the armed forces of Ukraine has been considerably reduced, which makes it possible to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal – the liberation of Donbas.” . . .

Russia has previously pointed to far bigger ambitions but stiff resistance from Ukraine forces, logistical problems and reported low morale may have taken their toll.

Here is what Rudskoy actually said:

With the beginning of a special military operation, air supremacy was won during the first two days.

Offensive actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are carried out in various directions.

As a result, Russian troops blocked Kiev, Kharkov, Chernigov, Sumy and Nikolaev. Kherson and most of the Zaporozhye region are under full control.

The public and individual experts are wondering what we are doing in the area of blocked Ukrainian cities.

These actions are carried out with the aim of causing such damage to military infrastructure, equipment, personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the results of which allow not only to shackle their forces and do not give them the opportunity to strengthen their grouping in the Donbass, but also will not allow them to do so until the Russian army completely liberates the territories of the DPR and LPR.

Initially, we did not plan to storm them in order to prevent destruction and minimize losses among personnel and civilians.

And although we do not rule out such a possibility, however, as individual groups complete their tasks, and they are being solved successfully, our forces and means will concentrate on the main thing – the complete liberation of Donbass.

Rudskoy delivered a very pointed warning to NATO as well:

We are closely monitoring the statements of the military and political leadership of individual countries about their intention to supply aircraft and air defense systems to Ukraine. In case of implementation– we will not leave it without attention.

We also hear assurances from NATO leaders about non-interference in the conflict. At the same time, some member states of the North Atlantic Alliance propose to close the airspace over Ukraine. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will immediately respond accordingly to such attempts.

In order to prevent the restoration of weapons and military equipment of the AFU that have received combat damage, the Russian Armed Forces are disabling repair enterprises, arsenals, storage bases, logistics warehouses with high-precision weapons.

At the moment, 30 key enterprises of the military-industrial complex have been hit by cruise missiles X-101, Kalibr, Iskander, and the Kinzhal aviation complex, which carried out repairs of 68% of weapons and equipment disabled during combat operations.

This does not sound like a whipped Russian General licking his wounds. The briefing is concise, factual and instructive. Today’s actions in Western Ukraine–the missile attack on a fuel storage facility in Lviv and missile attacks on a military airfield in Lutsk–reinforce General Rudskoy’s briefing that Russia will continue to demilitarize Ukraine while trying to limit civilian casualties. I take him at his word.

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What is truth?

I have no idea. But I suspect we will begin to know the truth soon.

You Will Know the Truth

Voltaire wrote:

“Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde, est en droit de vous rendre injuste”

Voltaire, Collection des Lettres sur les Miracles, 1765

I translate that as:

“Certainly who has the right to make you absurd, has the right to make you unjust”

The quote has since evolved to:

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

Given the number of Clown-Serial Killers in DC (Congress and the Executive Branch), I prefer the current translation.

Putin’s Side of the Story

You don’t have to choose sides in the Invasion/”Special Operation” (depends on who you are).

But, it’s pretty clear US psyops are in overdrive with full support of the American Pravda.

Ukraine is not an innocent in all of this nor is the US.

In war, truth is the first casualty. In war, including economic, it’s important to know what the other side is saying because it messages their point of view which you ignore at your own peril.

So, here is the Putin case, courtesy of donsurber.blogspot.com

Before reposting donsurber, I watched Putin’s speech on the eve of the “Special Operation”. It was impressive.

So, here we go

The cable channels have granted Zelensky billions of dollars worth of free air time to sell the public on having Americans finance his war with Russia. So far, he’s received commitments to $13.6 billion in U.S. aid, money he will gladly share with the children of congressmen.

Anyone who questions this is labeled a Putin puppet.

Well, I have been called worse.

There is another side of the story, weak as it may be.

In a speech Power Line called, “The Madness of Vlad the Inhaler,” Putin made a Zelensky-style plea.

Putin’s side of the story about to his colleagues. Most of it was BS. There is no
rationalization for the invasion. See for yourself.

But this resonated with me: “I want ordinary citizens of Western countries to hear me too: they are now persistently trying to convince you that all your difficulties are the result of some hostile actions of Russia, that you have to pay for the fight against the
mythical Russian threat from your own wallet. All this is a lie.

“And the truth is that the current problems faced by millions of people in the West are the result of many years of actions by the ruling elites of their states, their mistakes, myopia and ambitions. These elites are not thinking about how to improve the lives of
their citizens in Western countries. They are obsessed with their own vested interests and super profits.

“Evidence of this is the data of international organizations, which directly say that social
problems, even in leading Western countries, have only worsened in recent years, that inequality is growing, the gap between rich and poor, racial and national conflicts are making themselves felt.”

He lashed out at economic sanctions which he has countered by limiting grain and fertilizer exports, which will send soaring food prices even higher. $5 gasoline? Hah. Wait till we have $5 milk.

He pointed out the amorality of the economic sanctions that drew blood.

He said, “All verbal tinsel about political correctness, inviolability of private property, freedom of speech — all this flew off overnight. Even the Olympic principles were trampled on. They did not hesitate to settle scores with the Paralympic athletes – this is such a sport outside of politics.”

That is a reference to a New York Times report, “In Reversal, Paralympics Bars Athletes From Russia and Belarus.”

Those cheering the firing of an opera soprano or requiring a Denunciation of Putin Card for a Russian to play at Wimbledon need to realize that they are next. You can never be woke enough because the rules are constantly changing. Tennis champ, Martina Navratilova, a pioneer in lesbian rights, is now an outcast because she dares question transgenderism.

Putin knows this and he plays against it. He lashed out at oligarchs who have been Westernized.

He said, “I am not at all judging those who have a villa in Miami or the French Riviera, who cannot do without foie gras, oysters or so-called gender freedoms. The problem is absolutely not in this, but, I repeat, in the fact that many of these people, by
their very nature, are mentally located precisely there, and not here, not with our people, not with Russia.”

Of course the cable channels label his nationalism as evil while Zelensky’s nationalism is saintly.

I don’t think this war will do in Putin or Zelensky.

Patriotism rings true in sane countries.

History shows that Russians may be dumb as bears but they do love their country. They call World War 2 the Great Patriotic War. Millions of deaths did not bring Stalin down because he saved the country in the eyes of his countrymen.

Putin is of course KGB. That means he knows of the world outside of Russia. He knows it well.

His line about “so-called gender freedoms” echoes across the globe. Many see Uncle Sam now as a drag queen.

In journalism, there are at least two sides of every story or else it is not journalism.

The collapse of the Soviet Union liberated hundreds of millions of people in Poland, Ukraine and all those Stans.

But the collapse also humiliated the Russian people, just as the World War I reparations humiliated Germany.

Russia had no business invading Ukraine.

We have no business being in Ukraine. But we are up to our necks in it because a corrupt government and its corrupt corporations pay Hunter Biden and other offspring of politicians well.

Writing off Putin’s speech as madness may make you feel good and superior, but it also makes you look shallow and weak.

Here is some speeches you won’t likely see – you decide:

Here is the speech in Russian: http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67996

The speech in English, translated as it goes: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67996

March 16, 2022 18:10

………………………………………………..
“I want ordinary citizens of Western states to hear me too: they are now persistently trying to convince you that all your difficulties are the result of some kind of hostile actions of Russia, that you have to pay for the fight against the mythical Russian threat from your own wallet. All this is a lie.

“And the truth is that the current problems faced by millions of people in the West are the result of many years of actions by the ruling elites of their states, their mistakes, myopia and ambitions. These elites are not thinking about how to improve the lives of their citizens in Western countries. They are obsessed with their own vested interests and super profits.

“Evidence of this is the data of international organizations, which directly say that social problems, even in leading Western countries, have only worsened in recent years, that inequality is growing, the gap between rich and poor, racial and national conflicts are making themselves felt. The myth of the Western welfare society, of the so-called golden billion, is collapsing.

“I repeat, today the entire planet has to pay the price precisely for the ambitions of the West, for its attempts by any means to maintain its elusive dominance.

“The imposition of sanctions is a logical continuation, a concentrated expression of the irresponsible, short-sighted policy of the governments and central banks of the US and EU countries. It was they who, in recent years, with their own hands dispersed the spiral of global inflation, with their actions led to an increase in global poverty and inequality, to new flows of refugees around the world. And the question arises: who is now responsible for the millions of starvation deaths in the world’s poorest countries due to the growing food shortage?

“I repeat, a serious blow has been dealt to the entire global economy and trade, to confidence and to the US dollar as the main reserve currency.
……………………………………..
“the policy of containing and weakening Russia, including through economic isolation and blockade, is a conscious, long-term strategy. The leaders of the West themselves no longer hide the fact that the sanctions are not directed against individuals or companies, their goal is to strike at our entire domestic economy, our social and humanitarian sphere, every family, every citizen of Russia.

“In fact, such steps aimed at worsening the lives of millions of people have all the signs of aggression, war by economic, political, and informational means. It has a total, undisguised character, and, I repeat, the so-called Western political beau monde does not even hesitate to speak about it in plain text.

“All verbal tinsel about political correctness, inviolability of private property, freedom of speech – all this flew off overnight. Even the Olympic principles were trampled on. They did not hesitate to settle scores with the Paralympic athletes – this is such a “sport outside of politics”.

“In many Western countries, people are subjected to real persecution just because they come from Russia: they refuse medical care, expel children from schools, deprive their parents of their jobs, ban Russian music, culture, and literature. Trying to “cancel” Russia, the West tore off all the masks of decency, began to act boorishly, demonstrated its true nature. It just begs a direct analogy with the anti-Semitic pogroms that the Nazis staged in Germany in the 30s of the last century, and then their henchmen from many European countries who joined Hitler’s aggression against our country during the Great Patriotic War.

“A massive attack has also been launched against Russia in cyberspace. An unprecedented information campaign has been unleashed, which involves global social networks and all Western media, the objectivity and independence of which turned out to be just a myth. Access to information is limited, people are stuffed with a huge number of fakes, propaganda forgeries, in other words, linden. It got to the point that one of the American social networks directly announced the possibility of publications calling for the murder of Russian citizens.

Flip This Script

With CoVid now in the rearview mirror, it’s time for a little “wag the dog” – playing war while sticking it to American households.

Economic warfare on “all things Russian” is the top line — while raising energy, food, and inflation costs are the bottom line.

The Regime claims this is for “democracy” while also disrupting energy and food deals through selective limits on Russian use of SWIFT.

How’s that working out?

Well, for those in Russia looking for 8% return on a deposit account, pretty good if you are carrying yuan — the currency set to win from Biden’s policy.

Here’s Bloomberg to explain: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-09/russia-s-vtb-offering-up-to-8-interest-rate-for-yuan-deposits

Or, check out ZeroHedge: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/yuan-deposits-soar-russian-banks-after-swift-cut

Yuan Deposits Soar At Russian Banks After SWIFT Cut-Off

SUNDAY, MAR 13, 2022 – 04:15 PM

With Russia now officially cut off from both the USDollar and the euro, Russia’s VTB Bank is seeing a surge in Chinese Yuan deposits, attracted by the bank offering significantly higher interest rates as Putin shifts focus to ‘friendly’ nations.

The state-owned bank is offering a Chinese yuan savings account with a maximum interest rate of 8%, hailing the currency as “one of the most affordable and promising options for investing funds” after the country was hit by Western sanctions.

Putting that in context, the three-month deposit rate is 8% in dollars and 7% in euros, while the six-month rate for ruble deposits is 21%, according to VTB.

Existing customers are reportedly able to open deposits remotely on VTB Online with a minimum amount of 100 yuan ($16). At VTB branches, they can deposit a minimum of 500 yuan. VTB also said that over the past week customers have placed more than 2 trillion rubles ($15 billion) in traditional savings products.

“Some Russian banks can’t get access to other currencies, so yuan is probably the best other alternative,” Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, told Bloomberg.

“Still, the easiest way for Russia to raise yuan would be to receive yuan via trades. Russian banks’ clients who are exporters could sell to China and receive renminbi as payment.”

As The Telegraph reports, the move comes days after it emerged that a string of Russian lenders including Sberbank and Alfa Bank were planning to use China’s UnionPay system to provide customers’ bank cards after Visa and Mastercard boycotted Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. 

UnionPay is the dominant payments handler in China but has a small market share outside of the world’s second-largest economy. 

Buy the Rumor, Sell the News: 30 US-financed Dual Use Biolabs in Ukraine

Yesterday’s conspiracy theory — today’s buried story.

Here’s Glenn Greenwald on the WTF of the day: https://greenwald.substack.com/p/victoria-nuland-ukraine-has-biological?s=w

Self-anointed “fact-checkers” in the U.S. corporate press have spent two weeks mocking as disinformation and a false conspiracy theory the claim that Ukraine has biological weapons labs, either alone or with U.S. support. They never presented any evidence for their ruling — how could they possibly know? and how could they prove the negative? — but nonetheless they invoked their characteristically authoritative, above-it-all tone of self-assurance and self-arrogated right to decree the truth, definitively labelling such claims false.

Claims that Ukraine currently maintains dangerous biological weapons labs came from Russia as well as China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry this month claimed: “The US has 336 labs in 30 countries under its control, including 26 in Ukraine alone.” The Russian Foreign Ministry asserted that “Russia obtained documents proving that Ukrainian biological laboratories located near Russian borders worked on development of components of biological weapons.” Such assertions deserve the same level of skepticism as U.S. denials: namely, none of it should be believed to be true or false absent evidence. Yet U.S. fact-checkers dutifully and reflexively sided with the U.S. Government to declare such claims “disinformation” and to mock them as QAnon conspiracy theories.

Unfortunately for this propaganda racket masquerading as neutral and high-minded fact-checking, the neocon official long in charge of U.S. policy in Ukraine testified on Monday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and strongly suggested that such claims are, at least in part, true. Yesterday afternoon, Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), hoping to debunk growing claims that there are chemical weapons labs in Ukraine, smugly asked Nuland: “Does Ukraine have chemical or biological weapons?”

Rubio undoubtedly expected a flat denial by Nuland, thus providing further “proof” that such speculation is dastardly Fake News emanating from the Kremlin, the CCP and QAnon. Instead, Nuland did something completely uncharacteristic for her, for neocons, and for senior U.S. foreign policy officials: for some reason, she told a version of the truth. Her answer visibly stunned Rubio, who — as soon as he realized the damage she was doing to the U.S. messaging campaign by telling the truth — interrupted her and demanded that she instead affirm that if a biological attack were to occur, everyone should be “100% sure” that it was Russia who did it. Grateful for the life raft, Nuland told Rubio he was right.

But Rubio’s clean-up act came too late. When asked whether Ukraine possesses “chemical or biological weapons,” Nuland did not deny this: at all. She instead — with palpable pen-twirling discomfort and in halting speech, a glaring contrast to her normally cocky style of speaking in obfuscatory State Department officialese — acknowledged: “uh, Ukraine has, uh, biological research facilities.” Any hope to depict such “facilities” as benign or banal was immediately destroyed by the warning she quickly added: “we are now in fact quite concerned that Russian troops, Russian forces, may be seeking to, uh, gain control of [those labs], so we are working with the Ukrainiahhhns [sic] on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach” — [interruption by Sen. Rubio]:

https://youtu.be/Y39veTO7kF4

Nuland’s bizarre admission that “Ukraine has biological research facilities” that are dangerous enough to warrant concern that they could fall into Russian hands ironically constituted more decisive evidence of the existence of such programs in Ukraine than what was offered in 2002 and 2003 to corroborate U.S. allegations about Saddam’s chemical and biological programs in Iraq. An actual against-interest confession from a top U.S. official under oath is clearly more significant than Colin Powell’s holding up some test tube with an unknown substance inside while he pointed to grainy satellite images that nobody could decipher.

It should go without saying that the existence of a Ukrainian biological “research” program does not justify an invasion by Russia, let alone an attack as comprehensive and devastating as the one unfolding: no more than the existence of a similar biological program under Saddam would have rendered the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq justifiable. But Nuland’s confession does shed critical light on several important issues and raises vital questions that deserve answers.

Any attempt to claim that Ukraine’s biological facilities are just benign and standard medical labs is negated by Nuland’s explicitly grave concern that “Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of” those facilities and that the U.S. Government therefore is, right this minute, “working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces.” Russia has its own advanced medical labs. After all, it was one of the first countries to develop a COVID vaccine, one which Lancet, on February 1, 2021, pronounced was “ safe and effective” (even though U.S. officials pressured multiple countries, including Brazil, not to accept any Russian vaccine, while U.S. allies such as Australia refused for a full year to recognize the Russian COVID vaccine for purposes of its vaccine mandate). The only reason to be “quite concerned” about these “biological research facilities” falling into Russian hands is if they contain sophisticated materials that Russian scientists have not yet developed on their own and which could be used for nefarious purposes — i.e., either advanced biological weapons or dual-use “research” that has the potential to be weaponized.

What is in those Ukrainian biological labs that make them so worrisome and dangerous? And has Ukraine, not exactly known for being a great power with advanced biological research, had the assistance of any other countries in developing those dangerous substances? Is American assistance confined to what Nuland described at the hearing — “working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces” — or did the U.S. assistance extend to the construction and development of the “biological research facilities” themselves?

For all the dismissive language used over the last two weeks by self-described “fact-checkers,” it is confirmed that the U.S. has worked with Ukraine, as recently as last year, in the “development of a bio-risk management culture; international research partnerships; and partner capacity for enhanced bio-security, bio-safety, and bio-surveillance measures.” The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine publicly boasted of its collaborative work with Ukraine “to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern and to continue to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats.”

This joint US/Ukraine biological research is, of course, described by the State Department in the most unthreatening way possible. But that again prompts the question of why the U.S. would be so gravely concerned about benign and common research falling into Russian hands. It also seems very odd, to put it mildly, that Nuland chose to acknowledge and describe the “facilities” in response to a clear, simple question from Sen. Rubio about whether Ukraine possesses chemical and biological weapons. If these labs are merely designed to find a cure for cancer or create safety measures against pathogens, why, in Nuland’s mind, would it have anything to do with a biological and chemical weapons program in Ukraine?

The indisputable reality is that — despite long-standing international conventions banning development of biological weapons — all large, powerful countries conduct research that, at the very least, has the capacity to be converted into biological weapons. The work conducted under the guise of “defensive research” can, and sometimes is, easily converted into the banned weapons themselves. Recall that, according to the FBI, the 2001 anthrax attacks that terrorized the nation came from a U.S. Army Research scientist, Dr. Bruce Ivins, working at the U.S. Army’s infectious disease research lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland. The claim was that the Army was “merely” conducting defensive research to find vaccines and other protections against weaponized anthrax, but to do so, the Army had to create highly weaponized anthrax strains, which Ivins then unleashed as a weapon.

A 2011 PBS Frontline program on those anthrax attacks explained: “in October 2001, Northern Arizona University microbiologist Dr. Paul Keim identified that the anthrax used in the attack letters was the Ames strain, a development he described as ‘chilling’ because that particular strain was developed in U.S. government laboratories.” Speaking to Frontline in 2011, Dr. Keim explained why it was so alarming to discover that the U.S. Army had been cultivating such highly lethal and dangerous strains in its lab, on U.S. soil:

We were surprised it was the Ames strain. And it was chilling at the same time, because the Ames strain is a laboratory strain that had been developed by the U.S. Army as a vaccine-challenge strain. We knew that it was highly virulent. In fact, that’s why the Army used it, because it represented a more potent challenge to vaccines that were being developed by the U.S. Army. It wasn’t just some random type of anthrax that you find in nature; it was a laboratory strain, and that was very significant to us, because that was the first hint that this might really be a bioterrorism event.

This lesson about the severe dangers of so-called dual-use research into biological weapons was re-learned over the last two years as a result of the COVID pandemic. While the origins of that virus have not yet been proven with dispositive evidence (though remember, fact-checkers declared early on that it was definitively established that it came from species-jumping and that any suggestion of a lab leak was a “conspiracy theory,” only for the Biden White House in mid-2021 to admit they did not know the origins and ordered an investigation to determine whether it came from a lab leak), what is certain is that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was manipulating various coronavirus strains to make them more contagious and lethal. The justification was that doing so is necessary to study how vaccines could be developed, but regardless of intent, cultivating dangerous biological strains has the capacity to kill huge numbers of people. All of this illustrates that research that is classified as “defensive” can easily be converted, deliberately or otherwise, into extremely destructive biological weapons.

Foreign Policy, Mar. 2, 2022.

At the very least, Nuland’s surprising revelation reveals, yet again, just how heavily involved the U.S. Government is and for years has been in Ukraine, on the part of Russia’s border which U.S. officials and scholars from across the spectrum have spent decades warning is the most sensitive and vulnerable for Moscow. It was Nuland herself, while working for Hillary Clinton and John Kerry’s State Department under President Obama, who was heavily involved in what some call the 2014 revolution and others call the “coup” that resulted in a change of government in Ukraine from a Moscow-friendly regime to one far more favorable to the EU and the West. All of this took place as the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid $50,000 per month not to the son of a Ukrainian official but to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter: a reflection of who wielded real power inside Ukraine.

Nuland not only worked for both the Obama and Biden State Departments to run Ukraine policy (and, in many ways, Ukraine itself), but she also was Vice President Dick Cheney’s deputy national security adviser and then President Bush’s Ambassador to NATO. She comes from one of America’s most prestigious neocon royal families; her husband, Robert Kagan, was a co-founder of the notorious neocon war-mongering group Project for the New American Century, which advocated regime change in Iraq long before 9/11. It was Kagan, along with liberal icon Bill Kristol, who (next to current editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg), was most responsible for the lie that Saddam was working hand-in-hand with Al Qaeda, a lie that played a key role in convincing Americans to believe that Saddam was personally involved in the planning of 9/11.

That a neocon like Nuland is admired and empowered regardless of the outcome of elections illustrates how unified and in lockstep the establishment wings of both parties are when it comes to questions of war, militarism and foreign policy. Indeed, Nuland’s husband, Robert Kagan, was signaling that neocons would likely support Hillary Clinton for president — doing so in 2014, long before anyone imagined Trump as her opponent — based on the recognition that the Democratic Party was now more hospitable to neocon ideology than the GOP, where Ron Paul and then Trump’s neo-isolationism was growing.

You can vote against neocons all you want, but they never go away. The fact that a member of one of the most powerful neocon families in the U.S. has been running Ukraine policy for the U.S. for years — having gone from Dick Cheney to Hillary Clinton and Obama and now to Biden — underscores how little dissent there is in Washington on such questions. It is Nuland’s extensive experience in wielding power in Washington that makes her confession yesterday so startling: it is the sort of thing people like her lie about and conceal, not admit. But now that she did admit it, it is crucial that this revelation not be buried and forgotten.