The Baltic Way, sometimes also called the Baltic Chain, was a peaceful political demonstration on 23 August 1989. In fact, it was one of the largest political demonstrations in European history. About two million people joined hands to form a human chain of about 690 kilometres (about 430 miles) across the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which at the time were occupied by the USSR and regarded as three ‘republics’ of the Soviet Union. The Baltic Way protest marked the 50th anniversary of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (MRP). What was ostensibly non-aggression pact between the USSR and Nazi Germany also included a secret additional protocol with which they divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. The MRP had led to the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, and to the Soviet invasion and occupation of the Baltic countries in June 1940.
Towards the end of the Cold War, the Baltic liberation movements made the condemnation of the secret protocol of the MRP a major focus of their activism, and the Baltic Way protest was a high point of these efforts. It was organised jointly by pro-independence organisations in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The protest had several purposes. One was to further solidarity between the three nations, another was to put pressure on Moscow. Last, but not least, it was meant to demonstrate to the international public that, unlike what the Soviet propaganda was claiming, and as Western sceptics were likely to believe, the Baltic desire for independence was not just embraced by small circles of nationalists but was supported by a large majority of the local populations.
The Soviet authorities responded to the event with public threats but did not immediately crack down on the liberation movements. In fact, in December 1989, the Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies accepted, and Mikhail Gorbachev signed the report condemning the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Seven months after the protest Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence.
Today, 23 August is an official day of remembrance in the Baltic countries, in the EU and elsewhere, known as the Black Ribbon Day, or the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism.
But the Baltic Way has also been emulated in form. In February 2004, more than one million people in Taiwan linked hands in protest against Chinese military threats. Another example was the Hong Kong Way, held in Hong Kong on 23 August 2019, on the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way. On that occasion, about 210, 000 people formed a 50 km long chain, demanding government accountability and democratic reform. The Baltic Way continues to inspire around the world.
Comment: Okay. This post is pure self-indulgence, but it also marks two important anniversaries. This article was written by Mart Kuldkepp, an Estonian Associate Professor of Scandinavian History and Politics at University College of London. When the Baltic Way protest occurred, I was still in the States but already knew I was soon heading to Germany as an Army clandestine case officer. I saw it as being back in the fight just as I was earlier in my career as an ODA commander in 10th SFG(A).
The song on the video is “Laisvė” written and sung by Eurika Masytė. It became an unofficial anthem for Lithuania’s part in what became known as the singing revolution in the Baltics. It always brings chills to my soul and tears to my eyes.
TTG
I went to school with quite a few youngsters whose parents fled before the Russians took over. I went to Junior High School with one, whose son married my niece. Most still had relatives who were not able to leave, but there were many reunions after the Russians left. But too many Russians were left in the Baltic countries and are still a problem.
This is one of the major reasons why Russia has to be stopped in Ukraine. If they prevail, they will try to pressure these countries to come under Russian influence. It is a good thing that they are in NATO, which is the military threat contained at the time.
After I arrived in the US, I was astonished that Americans thought the Soviets were bad because they were communists. They were bad because they were Russian and that is rather obvious by now.
This event is certainly worthy of celebration and contemplation.
➡️They were bad because they were Russian⬅️
Stalin and Beria were Georgians. Krushchev and Brezhnev were Ukrainian. Dzerzhinsky was Polish.
And your statement is really incredibly vile.
Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, Mendelev ..
Why bother continuing
I was referring to their society. While is has produced some good ones in many fields, the majority of them are corrupt and criminal. Currently, you cannot ignore war crimes, general thievery and compliance with the government that has all been documented.
Lars
I could maybe forgive the rest, but “compliance with the government”? I had no idea the Russians had reached this level of baseness.
The core of the regime is the several security agencies such as the Fsb, interior ministry, Rossgvardia, Kremlin guard and local militias (roughly local police) plus the military and the military industrial establishment which in Russia is, unlike here, distinct from the military. That amounts to several million people – say 10 million plus their dependants (families). Maybe you get 40 million to 55 million, maybe 64 M. Retirees from the above – I don’t know but life expectancy isn’t impressive though it’s improved significantly – the US is decreasing markedly for years independent of Covid. Total population is 145 million.
If you follow Telegram comments closely you’ll discover that the government is disliked intensely. They know better than anyone here how corrupt it is and how embarrassing. The old folks from the communist era especially. You yourself read carefully the letter by the retired KGB general from just before the invasion – he obviously thought it was a horrendous mistake. So did several of the big shots at the meeting Putin held so publicly on Feb 20 or 22, 2022. Lars just wants to be in a gang that hates and is on the “good” side. Didn’t you read any of what Stelkov was writing before his arrest? He despises Putin, and Strelkov is a former FSB, for goodness sake. Sounds like you’re in the “gang” .. “I had no idea the Russians had reached this level of baseness.” You are engaging in dehumanization, the better to be at ease with killing huge numbers of people. You were all gung ho for nuclear war when Col Lang was around. In short, you’ve not only lost a sense of perspective, you’ve lost your mind.
Most Russians would love to see something better but they are terrorized by a thuggish full surveillance state and cultural memories of the savagery under Stalin. Most of their miseries never would have occurred had they not been repeatedly invaded, and their fledgling 1917 government been overthrown – NOT by the communists, like you’re taught, but by the Imperial German high command who snuck Lenin in on a train through Finland, and had numerous agents in place – they wanted to win their Eastern war of WWI. It caused the entire place to fall to pieces in Civil war which took twice as many lives as WW1. Anyone with any foresight or sense knew that communism in the hands of an utterly ruined war devastated country which was backward and uneducated and undeveloped, would be a catastrophe and it was. So they knew they’d have another go at them and they did – in WW2, when 30 million perished.
Then came the cold war and the nuclear threat – they were years behind on that front too, and devastated, unlike the US & UK who immediately teamed up with the remnants of the 3rd Reich to start convertly invading and supporting wars in Western Ukraine. All the while the British and American plans for all out nuclear bombing of their country were known. Terror on top of terror on top of grief and incalculable loss. .
And you, in the richest most protected (oceans) most militarized society in history – with BLM, Antifa, Jan 6, COVID and Vaccines and total complete electronic surveillance from every device and over 700 mass shootings per year (they have virtually zero, and none of the rioting either) ..you call them “base.”. The tally of deaths by the US military dwarfs anything Russia or the SU did post war. Dwarfs. NATO is right up on their border. No one is anywhere near us. But they’re “base.”. I’d love to find out what we are then. It’s description must consist of a very long string of 4 letter words.
It appears that a large portion of the Russian public supports Putin and as such the government. It is questionable how deep that sentiment is, but as of now, it is pervasive enough.
Lars,
I think most Russians love Mother Russia and everything that entails while still having little faith in the SOBs occupying the Kremlin. The secret for Putin and Stalin before him is to convince the people that “L’État, c’est moi.”
TTG
Yes, exactly, one reason I have a lot of sympathy for the Russian people.
Lars
I was kidding of course, but yes Putin does seem to have a measure of popular support. Largely I expect because, as TTG says, their political system ensures TINA.
F&L
Dude lighten up, with a hair trigger like that you’ll end up injuring yourself.
F&L,
You want us to believe that Lenin was going to be a faithful servent of Imperial Germany rather than a provocateur? Or is that Strelkov minus quotation marks?
“And you, in the richest most protected (oceans) most militarized society in history….”
Boy does that writer sound upset.
America is one of the few places where the citizens own more guns than the combined police forces of the Republic. Irritates the hell out of socialists (who never want to disarm or defund their own bodyguards.) Maybe all those Europeans shouldn’t have given up theirs.
Fred,
I didn’t say that. The Germans released Lenin so that Russia would further go in the tank and then agree to a cease fire or treaty so they could pull their Eastern front troops off to the west and fight the remaining allies. Which happened, after Brest-Litovsk. But it didn’t work out because 2 million Americans arrived and the Kaiser abdicated after a revolution. Germany never had its territory breached at all. The Germans were very nearly successful. Suppose they were- naturally their planning must have calculated the pros and cons of allowing Lenin into St Petersburg. If they had been successful, in retrospect a longshot, they could easily have returned to the eastern front and destroyed the fledgling communist power. They can’t not have understood that. They didn’t expect Lenin to do anything like what you say.
Lars; You hit the nail on the head. The Soviets were bad b/c they were imperialists. Years b/f Marx wrote his damnable socialists trash Russia dominated Finland, the Baltics, Ukraine, and kept a thumb on the national life of Sweden, Hungry, Bohemia, Romania, and Bulgaria. The S.U. was simply Imperial Russia in different clothes. “Graduating” from elementary school in 1957 our class sang Sibelius’ Finlandia. The music was intended as a remembrance for all the little children who attended local PS 19 in those days. The opening words ” dear land of home” still touch my wife and me as we went through school together. But it had b/c Finland’s unofficial national anthem when it was invaded by Russia in 1939. As I b/c an adult during the cold war, I understood what defiance Finlandia was to Russia. Doing TDY in Helsinki in ’70 I observed several Russian soldiers walking down Mannerheim Blvd one Sunday. As they approached every Finn turned away from them and looked out onto the street.
As the Soviet Union fell in ’90-’91 first the Baltics then Ukraine declared their freedom. Neighboring Balts and Slavs could have remained friendly to Russia but the d/n. Finland c/h expressed solidarity but it d/n. They were no different than men anywhere. They chose independence. Russia c/n accept the independence of Balts, Swedes, Finns, and Slavs. If they are truly independent than Russia is not an empire.
About 15 years ago I was at a dinner party and a woman from St Petersburg was describing her shopping trip to Estonia. “Why those people made us change our money, show passports, and they checked our baggage as we returned to Russia.” “Just who do they think they are” Said another Russian. “We’ll see about that.” For all those gentle apologists of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, n/b.
That is what Ukraine is about today. It is not about “The Maidan”, 2014 election, some woman named Nuland, or Minsk. Russia is “seeing about” who those Ukrainians think they are. If Putin gets his way in Ukraine, Moldova and the Baltics will be next. I’ll give you good odds on that.
Finlandia is a powerful song of love of homeland. It is nationalism writ large which is felt by every Finn, Balt, and Ukrainian. Its opponent is empire. In this case Russia’s.
The Russians are bad because in Hollywood movies there are the good guys and the bad guys and someone has to be the bad guy. How simple and deep at the same time.
Jovan P
Indeed. Hollywood was happy to make pro-Soviet movies in the early 1940’s when the bad guys were Germans, it is natural that today’s
propagandaoutput reflects the Borg’s current delenda est foreign policy wrt Russia.Jovan; Russians are bad b/c they invaded a neighboring country, are killing its people, and destroying its cities. That’s not hard to understand. BTW, I’m sure when the Russian troops find/kill those last 3 or 4 Nazis they will rtn to mother Russia. Hope they hurry and leave.
The US flew across the world to invade Iraq after 9/11. The US destroyed Iraq and it has yet to come close to what it was pre US invasion. Estimates of dead Iraqis from the US invasion and subsequent events credibly run from 750,000 to over 1,000 ,000. The highest levels of the US government sold this war based on complete lies and fabricated evidence. Their arguments a complete laughing stock compared to the arguments of Russian officials to justify their adventure. The US invasion of Iraq destabilised the region to this day. The US invasion played a major role in the formation of ISIS and the subsequent war in Syria, costing 500,000+ deaths. If the Russians are bad because of Ukraine, then we Americans, must be positively evil because of our actions in Iraq. Maybe we are supporting Ukraine as a mea culpa for our greater sins in Iraq? Have no doubt about it, to reach the depths of hell we brought on Iraq and that region, the Russians will need to work a lot harder to match. I am interested to see what sort of mental gymnastics you will be forced to do to explain how the US was not as bad as the Russians, or worse, with our illegal, immoral and corrupt war on Iraq.
Stefan,
We attacked Afghanistan after 9/11 and we did do that largely out of vengeance. Iraq was the brain child of Cheney and rest of his “vulcans” and it was just as ugly as you described. I see no moral defense for it and see it as pure folly. Our support for Ukraine, on the other hand, offers more moral clarity than any war since WWII and maybe Korea.
As an American, I say my gov’t was wrong to invade Iraq in 2003. My gov’t was right to invade Syria in pursuit of ISIS which has killed many all over the western world. My gov’t is wrong to stay in Syria as they are now invaders. That is bad. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is intended to recolonize it. It is Russia’s step one to restore their Empire lost in 1917. We are helping Ukrainians fight off the oppressor. That is good.
Lars
Russia bad, West good.
That’s some kindergarten level reasoning you got there.
I think there a still statues of King Leopold II in Belgium during whose rule millions of Congolese inhabitants, including children, were mutilated, killed or died from disease and famine. Estimates for the total population decline range from one million to fifteen million, with a consensus growing around 10 million.
King Leopold II good, Putin bad.
wiz,
How about King Leopold II bad and Putin bad. It doesn’t have to be either/or.
King Leopold good??? No, he was a bad man. I thought every one who read just a bit of history knew that. But you say Leopold good?
I am completely sure my friends Gedas and his daughter Egle were in that, although she would have been about 13. He was a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Vilnius for probably 30 years and then ended up in Toledo, OH working with me at a company that makes metalworking fluids. He has since retired, returned to Lithuania, and (I am told) spends a significant amount of time fishing. He was a damn good chemist, though – and an expert on getting things done on a shoestring.
I remember that inspiring line from the annoited one: “There is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America: There’s the United States of America.”
Boy did he turn out to be ….
a liar.
I recall that demonstration of solidarity among peoples united – sick of suppression, yearning for a better life of their own making. a tide turning before our eyes – peacefully. the SU weakened to the point of failure & therein freedom for vassal states. the popular realization “we may never get another shot at this” was something to behold.
one may be reminded, “history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes” as we consider Ukraine… the why is obvious, the how now unfolding. I wonder if Russia will ever have a good revolution.
ked; I hope everyone understands that this is it. Ukraine will never get another shot at this.
I accepted the Soviet Union no longer existed when I was told it collapsed while in USMC basic training in 1991. Many today however have not. Russia is not the U.S.S.R. from 1989 anymore than the USMC is the USMC from 1991.
Am I proud of the changes in the USMC? No, but I still put my flag out on the Marine Corps birthday. I am willing to give it a chance to figure things out. NATO however is not willing to do the same with Russia. They want more puppets in their collection. Their first article of attempting peace first is officially off the table.
I don’t know the history of this ‘Baltic Way’ event but if I had to guess they got the idea from ‘Hands Across America’ in 1986. Approximately 6.5M Americans decided to partake in the campy event as a show of solidarity among all. Could this event ever happen again? Doesn’t look good at all but I am not giving up on the idea like NATO giving up on Russia.
Deny or mischaracterize truth if you will, as the S.U./Russian Empire collapsed in ’90-’91 former satellite states and Soviet “Republics” begged to join NATO. All c/h remained loyal to their Russian masters but chose to b/c members of NATO. It’s ignorance or lie to suggest NATO had to troll for eastern Europeans. NATO membership did the trick. In case you’ve missed the news, recently Sweden and Finland have moved to NATO. Can Austria be far b/h? Can any apologist of the Russian invasion of Ukraine corresponding on this site, explain why eastern Europe wanted to “get away” from Russia? Russian hegemony; what’s not to like?
Professor Marten in 1 is quite astute.
At the end of 2 Mika is seriously skeptical that Prigozhin could be tricked into making that trip and Adm Stavridis has a pretty good answer – that the message absolutely has to be sent, especially during the Brics conference, that you die if you attack the king.
However, Mika didn’t go far enough (these things are likely rehearsed remember) – she should have pointed out that having Prigozhin, Utkin and Chekalov (the business head) all together on one plane with 7 other important Wagnerites (10 on flight list. 8 recovered bodies reported – very interesting leak btw, why? Why cast doubt?) – experienced professional conspirators & killers – all assembled together really does defy belief. And another leak was that Prigozhin’s corpse was beheaded (not mentioned in these videos, I read Telegram like a junkie). Why provide that? I don’t know. But some of them were in Africa recently. Did some tribesmen dismember them and fly them to Russia where the remains were loaded on a plane (with others from elsewhere)?
No idea. The list of enemies of Prigozhin is long, as Zeihan 3 observes with busement.
I’m leaning toward splitting the difference between Stavridis (because without a doubt he needed to be whacked) and the enhanced version (by me and others on Telegram. My sick mind came up with the cannibal fest though) of Mika B. Other intriguing and intricately plausible variants are being distributed though, as was expected, to discredit the Lee Harvey Oswald version (our benevolent leader would never do such a thing). Professor Marten’s idea certainly can’t be dismissed for the version of a lifetime vacation island though, given the sums of wealth on offer.
1-Prigozhin plane crash – Democracy now
https://youtu.be/DY4Cl4NtgdY
2-Adm Stavridis: Prigozhin plane crash essentially a public execution
https://youtu.be/czc1lUXyqI0
3- Prigozhin dead? Who did it? Peter Zeihan.
https://youtu.be/f0UeRPNzJXY
These Aussies (with British guests) are much less inhibited, smarter and funnier.
Yevgeny Prigozhin ‘Shot Down’ | “This Is A Very Public Execution By The Russians”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ItNgeiuwiXc&t=197s
“Putin Made A Big Mistake” | Mercenaries Unleashed: The Downfall of Wagner Group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T5vFrCuaJYk
F&L,
I often see video reports from John Sweeney. He’s a hoot and refreshingly blunt.
F&L,
Black Mischief? Wouldn’t they have served them up, like Prudence? Prigozhin was a chef, afterall, so a dish served cold? But not cold and clamy like Barack’s former chef.
“Hamish De Bretton Gordon” A mouthful. I like the part where he talks about desk jockeys with non combat medals. Reminds me of Milley.
Fred,
Non combat models for me, Not medals. Ok, maybe a combat model too in case a war breaks out.
Fred,
Milley earned a CIB with star. That means he had two Infantry combat assignments in active ground combat as a junior officer. He also served as an SF ODA commander. As a full colonel he put his ass in harms way under fire to save two Abrams tank crews from running over a mined bridge. He refused to be put in for an award for that action. The rumors that he never served in combat came from lying, chicken shit right wingers.
That’s not how military honor works. I knew right out the gate he had combat and leadership skills. These things however have to constantly be tested and renewed.
I know this being a retired combat officer myself. I’m not into talking about awards but I also have some just as high as him. His skills and my skills however have not been tested in a long long time. You don’t use it you lose it as the saying goes and he lost it.
TTG,
My bad. Should have stuck with my first thought, the new CNO, but nobody pays any attention to her. Of course Milley’s done a bang up job on recruiting and defending us from Climate Change and White Supremacy. Two things the retired Brit didn’t mention the RU having to fight in this conflict.
If you intend to kill the chief… you’d better not miss. I wonder what the flt crew knew. Imagine, they were just expendable things. What what, what am I saying. This was just a terrible accident.
It’s gross, utterly gross. Probably Putin did it. But it’s so gross that an enemy might have done it just for the bad lingering aftertaste further decorating the sinking regime. Either way, gross. There could be an fsb faction that thinks that way – a faction that needed Wagner decapitated and its goodies in Africa and elsewhere put up for grabs so they can swoop them up – while no one being the wiser because – “Putin did it.”
Putin literally never knew what tf he was doing from the beginning. Total fantasy world. And his fantasies didn’t go away once it f’d up so badly that it was undeniable. His fantasies intensified. He’s a complete turkey. If he stays on it just gets worse for the Russians, not to mention Ukraine. If he disappears then they can pull back. The reserves are all gone, reparations will be brouhahaed but they can’t be paid. The west will be happy it’s over and there will be money to be made rebuilding. They are obviously going to lose so it’s either with or without Putin. If he stays and they lose and pull back, it’s worse for the Russians because he will impose a horrendous totalitarianism on the whole place. They have to grasp that Putin leaving and the regime changing is precisely a or the main goal of the West. That’s one reason they propagandize their people so intensely that the West will break them to pieces and pillage them. There’s maybe even some truth to that. If that perception could be fixed this could end. But the ongoing hatefest and the cancellations of everything Russian is precisely the wrong way – it reinforces the regime’s domestic propaganda. It’s really stupid and counterproductive. If they retreat, they can start over. Another regime can be allowed to trade without sanctions. But people are vindictive and stupid and they will possibly redo the tragedy of Versailles, which only inspired a comeback. Germany wasn’t occupied after WW1. A revolution got the Kaiser to abdicate and an armistice ensued. Probably Washington has thought this through and has decided to keep fighting to the last Ukrainian in this ongoing holding pattern. The F-16s should be able to do serious damage if used correctly. Russia is a full basketcase in another year. It’s half a basketcase now. Someone needs to wake t f up on both sides.
the Ukrainians are damned woke & ain’t goin’ to sleep till the job’s done… w/ or w/o US help, NATO’s, the Baltic States & all other nearby nations who don’t wanna hafta fight for self-determination … over & over & over.
It seems lost on many that Ukraine was completely ready, willing & able to continue insurgency for as long as it took for Russia to run outta men (no biggy) & material (ouch! that hurts) & slink away if they failed at traditional war. lest we forget, Putin has done more to strengthen NATO than anyone in the past 40 yrs. what an idiot. & now he’s taught the Red Army (can we still call it that?) & Russian people a pointed lesson. next time you head to the Kremlin, don’t stop till you show Putin the 8th Floor Balcony view.
Putin is a classic case of the dangers of power. Most people get it wrong – that power corrupts people. Yes, to a degree. Far more often, the people who steek power , want the positions such as President, Senator, head of the PTA etc NOT so they can do a better job than the former occupant of the position, they want it so they can dominate others and boss them around and have the means to eliminate enemies. So, they’re no good. They wanna be top dog. So there’s huge selection bias – the people who seek power and contest for it, the pool of power seekers, are like that – ME FIRST TYPES.
And the great multitudes who suffer under the top dogs have their own selection biases rooted in the ancient times during which they were formed and evolved – both biologically and culturally. In those days the big strong male was vital to survival of the group as was the hero – especially in difficult times when they were indispensable. So it’s never really changed, despite human development and acquisition of advanced skills. And the manipulative politicians and leaders know it. That’s why you get big tall men like Clinton, LBJ and especially Trump (or fat behemoths like Boris Johnson) who are chosen. Did Lincoln really win because of his debating skills or because he was 6’4″? Well, both. But he wouldn’t have won if he was 5’4″ and equally or better a talker.
Putin isn’t tall, but he’s beefcake and judo champ and broadcasts himself riding horses bareback. And shooting guns, and hunting tigers and deep sea diving. None of those skills, assuming they are even real, qualify him for being a 21st century leader of a huge continental-sized country.
He managed to give enough people a good enough life compared to the earlier Russian experience, and a small number a life of extreme opulence. But it’s all on someone else’s dime. He didn’t make Monaco and St Tropez beautiful or maintain it. Nor did Russian industry design and build the airplanes that flew wealthy Russians there. (Russia had those capacities once – but the thieves who plunderer the SU after 1991 let it all go to rot for the most part). He didn’t nor did his team, develop the complex banking and trading systems by means of which the nouveau Russian aristocrat’s wealth is squirreled away and invested overseas. These sort of examples could be listed at much greater length and critical ones are microchips & their military enhancements, a compounding pity given the mathematical, programming and scientific talent they have by natural endowment.
And after all the thieving and me-firstness he not only got himself voters deluded into supporting him because of the enhanced faux wealth and material progress they enjoyed (voters fully aware for the most part of what sort of crooks were in charge) – he got himself spoiled, comfort-seeking materialistists pleased with Wi-Fi and cappuccino. In that regard it’s unfair to be unkind to those people, we are no better, and they do still retain a sizable portion of the “nobility and truth through suffering and sacrifice” mindset of the orthodox tradition. But that mindset sure ain’t Vladimir Putin and his cohort. For them the noble suffering and sacrifice is strictly for others who they by design keep impoverished, uneducated and strapped down to poor communities where they are fed patriotic pablum and lies via TV.
Well, you knew all that, I just have a habit of running on. The people you’re referring to in the former USSR and Warsaw pact are hardly angelic, but they have had some small taste of freedom lately and most of the rest of Europe has had a bit more though be strongly advised to take the freedom propaganda with huge grains of salt in light of European history’s long saga of warring and bitter hatreds fed too often by the same sort of rulers as Trump and Putin. The undercurrents in mankind everywhere are cannibalistic and barbaric and they only need very little to overflow their levies.
TTG,
Go here – it should auto translate.
https://thebellmirror.com/chto-zhdet-vagner-v-afrike-rossijskij-heineken-uskolznul-ot-natsionalizatsii-onlyfans-zakrepil-uspeh
This section:
—————
Now, the operations of Wagner will be intercepted by the Ministry of Defense and the GRU, and companies associated with Wagner will change owners, writes FT. During Prigozhin’s last trip to Africa, he tried to stop the GRU, the newspaper claims. This is probably about the visit to Libya of a delegation of the Ministry of Defense, headed by Deputy Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who was publicly humiliated by Prigozhin, at the invitation of Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who controls the east of the country.
Control over the largest asset – the infamous Ndassima gold mine in the Central African Republic, which gave about $ 1 billion a year, Russia is likely to retain. The same applies to work in Mali, where there is simply no other force capable of actively fighting the jihadists. But there is no longer talk of any expansion on the continent, especially since all promising contracts are no larger than tens of millions of dollars a year, the FT notes. The leadership of the Central African Republic has already stated that their partnership is not with PMCs, but with the Russian state.
Recognized as undesirable Meduza, in yesterday’s article about the prospects for the remnants of Wagner, also writes that without the leading trio of Prigozhin-Utkin-Chekalov, the company is waiting for maximum movement by inertia. According to her information, middle-level manager Andrei Troshev with a well-known “addiction to alcohol” is entrusted with collecting mercenaries in Africa.
————————————
I don’t know, it’s a lot to digest but it sounds like Prigozhin got waxed after they knew they had that gold mine in hand. It’s also intriguing re the weirdest element of the admittedly weird saga, weirdest to my mind at least. Namely assembling 3 wizards of conspiracy, self defense and security such as Chekalov, Prigozhin and Utkin all together in one airplane near Moscow. If these business deals were being finalized in Africa it makes more sense, maybe. Maybe one of them or someone else on board was more in Putin or the GRU’s camp as a mole, unknown to the rest. And GRU is in Africa while much of this transpires, they are not exactly ballerinas. Just thought you might want to take a look.
I am not suggesting anyone waste 10 seconds of their life on this trash. The first words out of the Judge’s mouth are to suggest that Mossad, MI6 or the CIA did it though. In that order.
I have only one question. Imagine you are on trial for your life for a crime of which you are innocent – and the judge is Andrew Napolitano.
Is that bad enough? If not, ok ..
Your lawyer is Alastair Crooke.
Who should the prosecutor be? Your pick.
For comic relief visit the Larry Johnson show, which exceeds even this because it is so perfectly sure of itself. No link.
Ukraine’s Dire Situation w/Alastair Crooke fmr Brit ambassador: Judge Napolitano.
https://www.youtube.com/live/ZUcioUWQykM
Stories you know are absolutely unquestionably true in every detail.
——————————
https://vz.ru/news/2023/8/25/1227411.html
Lukashenko: Prigozhin knew about the impending assassination attempt
August 25, 2023, 17:44
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that in early 2023 he received information about the impending assassination attempt on the founder of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin and handed it over to the Kremlin, and Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the businessman.
The Belarusian leader said that when they flew to the Emirates in January-February, he received very serious information “from sources that do not exist deeper.” He specified that the information concerned the assassination attempt on Yevgeny Prigozhin. According to Lukashenko, he summoned the Russian ambassador to the UAE and handed over the ciphertext to the Kremlin to Putin and the head of the FSB Bortnikov, RIA Novosti reports.