Category Archives: Putin

Current Affairs, Europe, Putin, Russia, Ukraine, War Notes, Zelenskyy

Ukraine Update: Zelensky’s Term Ends on May 20. What Then??

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The Economist — Time’s up—

Volodymyr Zelensky’s five-year term ends on May 20th

But he has no plans to step down or call an election during wartime

Volodymyr Zelensky


Five years ago, on May 20th, 2019, a fresh-faced Volodymyr Zelensky began his presidency with the offer of a contract to his people. “Each of us is the president,” he said from the rostrum of parliament. “This is our joint victory and chance…and joint responsibility.”

The intervening years have not been kind, to him or Ukrainians in general. First came the crisis of Donald Trump and “Ukrainegate”, then covid-19, and then Russia’s terrifying full-scale invasion. By surviving this far, Mr Zelensky has already written himself into history. But as problems worsen on the front lines, the Ukrainian president may be about to face his biggest political challenge yet: renewing his contract with his people with no obvious possibility of elections.

Continue reading Ukraine Update: Zelensky’s Term Ends on May 20. What Then?? →

Behind Bars, Corruption, Death & Dying, Heroes, Journalism/Media, Media, Prison, Putin, Remember . . ., Russia, Torture & Human Rights

Gwynne Dyer On the Navalny Murder

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By Gwynne Dyer

Feb. 19, 2024

Vladimir Putin’s regime had been assassinating Chechen warlords, defectors from the Russian intelligence services and sundry wayward oligarchs for years, but its first political murder was the hit on high-profile journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was gunned down in her Moscow apartment in 2006 — and so it has been ever since.

Anna Politkovskaya,

Attacks on Russian ex-intelligence agents on foreign soil, however, are conducted more discreetly, by poisonings, not by mob-style shootings, e.g. Alexander Litvinenko, killed in London by radioactive polonium-200 dropped in his tea, and Sergei Skripal, poisoned by the nerve agent novichok smeared on his doorknob (but survived) in Salisbury, England.
Continue reading Gwynne Dyer On the Navalny Murder →

Current Affairs, Japan, Korea, Military Matters, Population, Putin, Taiwan, Ukraine, War Notes, Women & Girls, Zelenskyy

Ukraine’s New War Commander & the East Asian Population Bust

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Ukraine: The Generals Are Not The Problem

‘God is usually on the side of the big battalions’, Voltaire allegedly said. Not always, but ‘usually’. So how much do you want to bet?

By Gwynne Dyer, in Opinion · February 12, 2024

Coming up to the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (24 February), things aren’t looking bright for the Ukrainians, and particularly for President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The war has not been going well: Ukraine’s vaunted summer offensive sputtered out with almost no gains. Russia’s winter offensive is showing equally unimpressive results so far, but the Russians always have that four-to-one numerical superiority on their side. (After all the refugees fled, there are probably no more than 35 million people left in Ukraine.) Continue reading Ukraine’s New War Commander & the East Asian Population Bust →

Current Affairs, Putin, Resistance, Russia, Strategy, Ukraine, War Notes

Gwynne Dyer: Ukraine: A Breakthrough In Slow Motion

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Gwynne Dyer: Ukrainian Breakthrough? It’s a Slog.

It’s nothing like the great breakthroughs of the mid-twentieth century wars, when combined air and ground forces would tear a hole in the enemy line, the tanks would pour through, and the front would roll back several hundred kilometres before it stabilised again.

By Gwynne Dyer, in Opinion · 26 Sep 2023 ·

Continue reading Gwynne Dyer: Ukraine: A Breakthrough In Slow Motion →

Aftermath, Antiwar activism, Climate, Commerce, Corona Virus/Pandemic, Cross-Generational Issues, Current Affairs, Future, Good News, Health care, History, Hope, Military Matters, New Cold Wars, Nukes, Other War Notes, Putin, September 11, Signs of the Times, Southeast Asia, Vietnam, War & Peace, Women & Girls

A Long Read to Ponder: Biden in Vietnam & at the UN: Who Could Have Imagined?

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An image from Vietnamese TV news, during Biden’s visit.

NOTE: Friends, this material just blows my mind.

Yes, that’s an outdated 1960s expression, but it fits here: this material is about the Vietnam War. And for me (plus, I figure, most of the remaining survivors of that era of national agony), having our minds blown was a thing.

Maybe initially it was fun, or mind-expanding. But for me, and for many, it happened too often back then, and it didn’t always mean by taking drugs. I didn’t do much of that, but had mind-blown fatigue anyway. Continue reading A Long Read to Ponder: Biden in Vietnam & at the UN: Who Could Have Imagined? →