Month: April 2022

Treasury Targets Actors for Destabilizing Behavior Throughout the Western Balkans

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated seven individuals and one entity across four countries in the Western Balkans pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14033. This is the second action OFAC has taken under E.O. 14033 targeting persons who threaten the stability of the region through corruption, criminal activity, and other destabilizing behavior. Today’s action reinforces Treasury’s commitment to promoting accountability for actors in the Western Balkans region engaged in destabilizing and corrupt behavior. Such corrupt behavior undermines the rule of law and economic growth, and it deprives people in these countries of opportunities and stability.

China’s Lessons From Russia’s War in Ukraine

China is learning from Russia’s troubled war in Ukraine to improve its battle strategies and prepare for economic sanctions if Beijing ever attacks self-ruled Taiwan, experts believe.

The country may also be looking harder at peaceful solutions for Taiwan, they say.

In Russia’s War On Ukraine, Effective Satellites Are Few And Far Between

By all accounts, Russia’s war on Ukraine isn’t going well.

The estimated death toll among Russian soldiers is about the same as Soviet losses for the entire 10-year Afghan war. Russian forces have failed to achieve strategic goals such as taking Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, or the major port city of Mariupol. More than two-thirds of Russia’s battalion tactical groups — its basic fighting units — have been deployed. Its forces have been plagued by major interoperability and communication failures.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Warns of Russia’s Use of Chemical Weapons

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he fears Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine and urged the West to impose more severe sanctions against Russia to prevent it from using such weapons.

His comments Monday in his nightly video address came amid unconfirmed reports that chemical weapons have already been used in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol.

After Putin

A failed military intervention. The genocidal killing of citizens. Economic isolation by the international community. The arrests of anti-war protestors at home and the shuttering of independent media.

Any one of these factors could mark the end of an ordinary political leader. Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin has not only weathered these challenges, his popularity has actually risen. According to the independent Levada polling center, Putin has improved his support among Russian citizens from a 69 percent approval rating in January to 83 percent in recent days. That’s significant even when you discount the steady impact of government propaganda on the Russian capacity for critical thinking.

Sfârșitul dolarului: Rusia și-a transformat moneda în marfă iar China a facut stocuri de materii prime. SUA, UE si Marea Britanie se afla în afara jocului!

Vom privi înapoi la evenimentele actuale și ne vom da seama că acestea au marcat trecerea de la o economie globală bazată pe dolar, subscrisă de active financiare, la monedele bazate pe mărfuri. Ne confruntăm cu o schimbare de la garanțiile de natură pur financiară la cele bazate pe mărfuri. Garanțiile sunt cele care asigură întregul sistem financiar.

How will the Russia-Ukraine war reshape the world? Here are four possible futures.

It’s the big question keeping the world on edge: How does this end?

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war of choice in Ukraine is a world-historical event, marking the final act of the post-Cold War period and the start of a new era, yet unwritten. The spectrum of possible outcomes ranges from a volatile new cold or hot war involving the United States, Russia, and China; to a frozen conflict in Ukraine; to a post-Putin settlement in which Russia becomes part of a revised European security architecture. With the West leveling unprecedented sanctions against Russia in record time and the real potential for a descent into nuclear war, we are in uncharted territory. It is difficult to see how Putin “wins.” But he cannot accept defeat.

The Horror of Bucha

he Russian retreat from the Kyiv suburbs left behind mass graves and corpses strewn everywhere for the world to see. The most horrific of these scenes was discovered in the Kyiv oblast suburb of Bucha last week after Ukrainian troops reclaimed the city.

Early reports piece together a sickening mosaic of gratuitous violence inflicted on the city’s residents for weeks.