Yesterday I pointed out how the Biden Administration is now talking to the legitimate government of Venezuela, a government that Washington doesn't actually recognize, in order to get their oil flowing again.
Today the spin started.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has figured out that NATO is prepared to fight Russia with the lives of every single willing Ukrainian. This has changed his perspective.
Technically the U.S. still considers Juan Guaidó the President of Venezuela, despite the fact that he never even ran for the office of President, nor holds an elected office of any kind, and only has a 15% approval rating.
Polls show that anti-Russia sentiments are at their highest levels since 1983, during the Cold War.
The International Criminal Court was founded on a great idea - that no one should be above the law and beyond justice. Unfortunately great ideas often founder in the rough seas of reality.
The hyperbolic news of the week has been "Russia invades Ukraine". I personally would phrase it differently, "Russia provoked to protect Russian speaking provinces in Ukraine from relentless shelling". Below is testimony from a citizen in Donbass which will explain the real situation. The so called invasion was met with cheers, flag waving, and fireworks. How is Russia's recognition of these regions any different than the US recognition of Kosovo, or for that matter recognizing Guaido as President of Venezuela? After all it was a US coup which installed the Nazis to power in Ukraine. This was avoidable simply by agreeing that NATO wouldn't incorporate Ukraine. This story and more below the fold...
While the U.S. and all of Europe react in horror to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the first, second, fourth, tenth and twelfth most-populated nations in Asia feel very different. It really doesn't matter whether you agree with these nations or not. The sheer size and proximity of these nations require respect.
The least surprising is China.
(Some recent developments; I dunno what all’s been covered here..)
Earlier via tass news, and this fukkery may have been just bridge too far):
MOSCOW, February 23. /TASS/. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres made several statements on the situation in eastern Ukraine that are not compatible with his status, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, opening talks with UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen on Wednesday.
"To our great regret, the UN Secretary General whom you are representing turned out to be susceptible to pressure by the West and recently made several statements incompatible with his status and his authority under the UN Charter," he said.
I'd like to make my feelings perfectly clear on this whole Russia v. Ukraine thing.
I've seen online how people say that we must show our "strength" by standing up to Russia. That this is Munich all over again (because obviously every enemy is Hitler).
When I've tried to push back on this I've been called a Putin apologist, a Russian bot, and a Tankie.
So I'm going to simplify my argument in a way that everyone can understand.
In the west all we hear about is Russia is about to do this or that, without Russia actually doing those things. The separatists in the Donbas region feel very different.
