Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

The exact opposite of what Kagan posited is true: Russia can’t militarily control Ukraine indefinitely; a Russian-American brinksmanship scenario is terrifyingly realistic; and Putin is indeed interested in compromising but only under certain conditions.

Hugely influential neoconservative thinker Robert Kagan recently published a lengthy diatribe at The Atlantic fearmongering about Russia’s total and indefinite control of Ukraine, which he takes for granted if Trump doesn’t redouble aid to Ukraine.

It’s premised on the presumptions that Russia can military control all of Ukraine indefinitely, there’s no realistic Russian-American brinksmanship scenario over that country, and Putin is unwilling to compromise. The following three arguments tear apart his claims:

1. Russia Lacks The Means To Militarily Control Ukraine Indefinitely

Ukraine is a geographically enormous country that would require tremendous military resources for anyone to control indefinitely. On top of that, a large segment of its population now has military experience or at least basic arms training, weapons are now proliferating throughout its society with wild abandon, and the entire western part is known to be ultra-nationalist to the point of fascist. It would accordingly require much greater means than Russia has to militarily control Ukraine indefinitely. Any attempt to do so, however, could expose Russia to an Afghan- and Iraqi-like insurgency that it’s ill-prepared to contain.

Its forces would stand out in the ultra-nationalist western part of the country and therefore make easy targets for unconventional warfare (terrorism). These networks are deeply rooted and have existed for decades, lying dormant during most of the Soviet era but still never having been completely dismantled. Their fighters can also be easily supplied by neighboring NATO nations.

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Leo Hohmann
LeoHohman.com

The war behind the war: What World War III is really being fought over

As usual, the official narrative, as put forth in the corporate media, about the West's beef with Putin bears no resemblance to the truth about why the West cannot accept a Putin-led Russia.

World War III, like all 21st century wars, is not being fought over ideologies. It’s being fought over energy and natural resources. Because he who controls the world’s resources will be free to impose whatever ideology he wants.

Washington and London, the epicenter of the Western liberal world order that thinks it’s admirable and virtuous to redefine God-created genders and appropriate to unleash deviant transvestites on innocent school children, is seeking to neutralize the massive resources of Russia as it ramps up its “net zero” sustainable development model of economic progress. This economic model is really just a scam designed to pilfer what remains of the middle class and further subjugate them under AI-powered government-corporate control. Hence the need for more massive data centers, which Donald Trump is being used to build across the United States with $8 billion in foreign investment from a billionaire in the United Arab Emirates.

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Strategic Culture Foundation Editorial
Strategic Culture Foundation

Trump’s trampling on Denmark’s sovereignty – and by extension, the European Union’s – is a brutal demonstration.

With friends like that, who needs enemies? Thus Denmark finds out how dispensable it is regarding the geopolitical ambitions of the United States, its supposed “strongest ally.”

President-elect Donald Trump is like a cat among pigeons. Neighboring countries, allies and NATO members are all in a flap over his recent remarks about the United States forcibly annexing their territories.

The former real estate tycoon who takes office in the White House for the second time on January 20 is setting out his presidential agenda like a property acquisition spree. He wants to absorb Canada as the 51st state, take back control of the Panama Canal, rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, and annex Greenland, which is part of Denmark.

It is easy to dismiss the incoming Republican president’s talk as bravado and outsized ego. He has a propensity for hyperbole especially when promoting his abilities. Trump has talked about bringing peace to Ukraine “within 24 hours”. He has also previously referred to himself as a “business genius”. During his first administration, he talked up brokering “the deal of the century” between Arabs and Israelis only for that initiative to end up in the disaster of genocide in Gaza and aggression towards Lebanon.

So, Trump’s rhetoric about acquiring new territories for the United States is probably best not taken too literally. It is whimsical and highly speculative. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev called it “cosmic stupidity” whose real intention is to serve as a distraction.

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Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc
VernonColeman.com

When I was young (many years ago, I admit) it was considered bad form to snitch on anyone. At school, a teacher might threaten to keep the whole class in detention if someone didn’t tell him who’d buried the exploding caps under the tobacco packed down neatly in his pipe bowl. But no one would snitch and we’d all share the punishment with pride. Today, sneaking and snitching are encouraged and are an essential part of `social credit’. The latest fashion for reporting any slight or mild offence or even imagined to the police is also part of `social credit’. And the authorities positively encourage the public to see offence in every word or gesture and make their complaints accordingly. Anyone accused of causing `distress’ to a complainant (usually described as a victim) may be questioned, harassed, arrested and tossed into a cell for 24 hours to decourager les autres. We live in discouraging times and things are, I fear, only going to get worse.The following paragraphs appear in my book `Social Credit: Nightmare on your street’.

Snitches and Sneaks—We already live in the age of the snitch and the sneak. Governments everywhere are constantly bringing in new laws to encourage people to ‘tell’ on their friends, neighbours and workmates. The aim, of course, is to ensure that none of us trusts anyone else.

And in this new world of course, it only takes one complaint to produce a result.

A hotel I enjoyed visiting because it had a huge open fireplace with crackling logs burning throughout the winter got rid of its open fire and replaced it with a log burner – with the doors always safely shut. The manager told me that the local council had received one complaint from a visitor who felt that it was dangerous to have an open fireplace. And so, on instructions from a man (or woman) in a cheap suit, the hotel had installed the log burner.

A church where bells have rung out for 500 years had to stop all bell ringing after the local council received a single complaint from someone who had bought a house within earshot of the bells.

A motor racing circuit which had held meetings for half a century, had to dramatically limit its events because of a newcomer to the area had complained to the council about the noise.

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Agit Papadakis
vk.com

The idea for this article came from RUSI writer Alex Vershinin's article last March that had everybody bloviating on why there were no “big arrow” offensives in Ukraine because it was really a “war of attrition.” I reacted back then on X (locked account) that it's not a war of attrition if only one side is getting attrited.

What the Ukraine war is is an advanced stage grinder, or what I call “Panzerfaust time,” referring to Hitler's last-ditch defense of Berlin against the approaching mass of Soviet armor, when he handed out Panzerfaust anti-tank weapons to old men, women, and children because all his soldiers were dead. What hit me now, however, was that this RUSI article, coming from the flower of Anglo/US NATO military thinking, was actually a perfect illustration of the NATO master race complex that got them defeated in Afghanistan and will prevent them from ever understanding why they are losing in Ukraine.

Vershinin claims that Russia is winning thanks to mass-produced cheap weapons made from washing machine parts, much like the proverbially janky T-34 with half the armor of a Tiger and a puny 76.2 mm gun vs the Tiger's mighty 88. He conveniently leaves out the part about the T-34's revolutionary sloped armor that could take dozens of AT gun hits despite its thinness, which reduced its weight to half the Tiger's, allowing it to run rings around the lumbering nazi tank while the Tiger's driver struggled with the horrible transmission that was always breaking down.

So “Russians produce cheap junk weapons” wasn't true in 1942 and it's even less true now. If you wanted cheap junk weapons in WW2, you'd have to go to the Brits with their planes made of balsawood and cloth and their stamped-metal Sten guns.

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Alireza Akbari
PressTV

Amid the raging genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, the Israeli regime is intensifying its propaganda blitz, allocating unprecedented funds to shape global public opinion.

Israeli foreign ministry's annual budget for so-called "public diplomacy", also known as Hasbara, has surged to a staggering $150 million in 2025, marking a 20-fold increase from last year.

The move aims to whitewash the apartheid regime's appalling war crimes in Gaza and repair its battered international image, as global condemnation grows over its continued genocidal campaign.

The generous allocation of funds, aimed at amplifying pro-Zionist propaganda, comes as global public opinion has sharply turned against the Tel Aviv regime due to its war of extermination in Gaza.

Since the launch of the war on October 7, 2023, the Israeli regime has unleashed 88,000 tons of explosives on the tiny besieged territory, destroying houses, hospitals, schools and refugee camps.

The war has killed nearly 46,000 people and injured around 109,000 in the past 15 months. Among the martyrs are over 17,800 children and 12,300 women, according to Gaza's health ministry.

The ministry has documented more than 9,000 massacres against Palestinians during this period with tens of thousands displaced and rendered homeless, and many more grappling with hunger.

Under the new budget announced earlier this week, the Israeli regime's foreign ministry is expected to receive massive funds for its so-called "public diplomacy" efforts, in order to wash the stains.

Under this program, the ministry intends to hire social media influencers, public opinion leaders and celebrities to repair the tattered image of the child-murdering regime in Tel Aviv.

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Glenn Diesen
Glenn's Substack

The challenge of our time is that government and corporate interests go increasingly hand-in-hand

Organisations operating under the banner of “human rights non-governmental organisations” (NGOs) have become key actors in disseminating war propaganda, intimidating academics, and corrupting civil society. These NGOs act as gatekeepers determining which voices should be elevated and which should be censored and cancelled.

Civil society is imperative to balance the power of the state, yet the state is increasingly seeking to hijack the representation of civil society through NGOs. The NGOs can be problematic on their own as they can enable a loud minority to override a silent majority. Yet, the Reagan doctrine exacerbated the problem as these “human rights NGOs” were financed by the government and staffed by people with ties to intelligence agencies to ensure civil society does not deviate significantly from government policies.

The ability of academics to speak openly and honestly is restricted by these gatekeepers. Case in point, the NGOs limit dissent in academic debates about the great power rivalry in Ukraine. Well-documented and proven facts that are imperative to understanding the conflict are simply not reported in the media, and any efforts to address these facts are confronted with vague accusations of being “controversial” or “pro-Russian”, a transgression that must be punished with intimidation, censorship, and cancellation. I will outline here first my personal experiences with one of these NGOs, and second how the NGOs are hijacking civil society:

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Strategic Culture Foundation Editorial
Strategic Culture Foundation

The tragedy of Europe is not something mysterious or ill-fated. It is the direct result of elitist rulers who have assiduously conducted policies that harm European citizens.

One would think that having suffered two world wars only decades apart, European politicians might be more cautious about starting another one. Incredibly, however, the countries of Europe are being plunged into another conflagration.

Not much has changed over a century, it seems. War is still the result of imperialist intrigue and no accountability to the masses of citizens by arrogant politicians aided by relentless media propaganda lies.

European elitist rulers are a treasonous clique who are destroying Europe because of their abject servility to U.S.-led Western imperialism.

To put it crudely, Europe is being abused like a bondage plaything for the Washington and European elites. Shudder the thought of Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas in dominatrix garb or Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz as the gimps. But sometimes, the truth can be stranger than fiction.

Russian President Vladimir Putin nailed it this week when he slammed European political heads who are “dancing to the tune of the Americans.” In an address to the Collective Security Treaty Organization summit in Kazakhstan, Putin said the crisis over Ukraine showed that European so-called leaders have no independence or autonomy. They are non-entities as far as serving the democratic interests of their nations is concerned.

Instead of pushing for a diplomatic solution to the worst conflict on the European continent since World War Two, European political elites are slavishly going along with Washington’s criminal proxy war against Russia, which is in danger of spiraling into a nuclear Armageddon.

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Vadim Egorov
dzen.ru

Russian civilian ships around the world are under attack - the enemy is sinking our ships, and those that are tacitly helping us by transporting oil under other flags are being boarded. At the same time blaming us. Provoking a full-fledged war at sea, which may well happen.

Everything that was going on was quite reminiscent of an excerpt from some pirate movie: helicopters hovered over a civilian ship, lowered down on ropes armed to the teeth men, who afterwards, already on deck, unceremoniously told the crew to go where they said. Except that they didn't hit or kill anyone.

In reality, it was Finnish special forces that stormed the Eagle S, a Cook Islands-flagged vessel. In search of, as is now fashionable, a “Russian trace”. They say that these “kukans” damaged the EstLink 2 cable with a capacity of 350 MW. Intentionally - Finnish border guards assume that the tanker dragged an anchor along the bottom to make a break. And after the Finns were ordered to raise the anchor chain, they saw that it was supposedly without that anchor. And all this was done, of course, by direct order of the treacherous Russians. Because the Eagle S was transporting the very Russian oil to Egypt, bypassing sanctions. Although there were no Russians on the ship: only Indians and Georgians.

But, according to the British edition of Lloyd's List, spy equipment was found on it, which was used to track NATO ships and planes. And the Finnish agency Yle quotes Alexander Lott, an expert on the law of the sea, who said that the tanker could also damage “the Estlink 1 cable, the Balticconnector gas pipeline and other communications”. In general, everything that the Finns have failed under water. It's good that they didn't include Eagle S among the things that failed on land.

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Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

The possible end of the Ukrainian Conflict sometime later this year and the political agreement that’ll accompany it will play the greatest roles in determining the New Cold War’s strategic dynamics in the coming future.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave a year-end interview with TASS where he touched upon the most important developments from the past year that’ll likely shape events in 2025.

From the get-go, he rejected Trump’s reported plans to freeze the conflict, delay Ukraine’s membership in NATO, and deploy Western peacekeepers there and reminded everyone of the terms that Putin declared for ending the special operation. Russia also requires legally binding agreements that address the root of the conflict.

Lavrov expressed skepticism that there’ll be any improvement in bilateral relations under Trump since he’ll have to “swim against the current” as he phrased it in the sense of having to overcome the bipartisan consensus on containing Russia via Ukraine. On that topic, he’s equally skeptical of Zelensky’s recent admission that Ukraine is unable to reconquer its lost territories, pointing to that goal’s continued inclusion in Kiev’s “Victory Plan” as evidence that his words haven’t translated into actions.

Moving along, Lavrov was also asked about the West’s policy of orchestrating Color Revolutions, particularly in Georgia. He responded by condemning the false dilemma that they’ve placed that country into whereby it’s either considered to be with the West or against it. He also reaffirmed that Russia is determined to normalize relations with Georgia to the extent that Tbilisi is ready. Observers should keep an eye on this diplomatic track since it could have far-reaching consequences if any progress is made.

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Taut Bataut
New Eastern Outlook

In a shocking mocking, the Hague-based Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant – former Israeli Defense Minister, and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, aka Deif – the military Wing Commander of Hamas on November 21st, sparking ambivalent reaction globally.

The ICC’s Decision and Its Global Impact—The ICC Prosecutor took almost 8 months to file the petitions against the people nominated in these arrest warrants. Moreover, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber took 6 months to issue a decision on these arrest warrants. This sluggishness of the Pre-Trial chamber is beyond comprehension. The ICC decision stipulated that it had “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare.”

Netanyahu and Gallant have been accused of intentionally using starvation as a tool of warfare to deprive the innocent civilians of Gaza of rudimentary supplies including medicine, water, and food. The ICC prosecutors have alleged in the decision that these actions were unnecessary, arguing that they violate international law. In addition, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber has charged Muhammad Deif with hostage-taking, and orchestrating torture and mass murder. However, Israel claims that it killed Deif in an airstrike, while Hamas is silent over this claim.

These warrants are an outcome of a broader ICC investigation that investigated the alleged war crimes by both sides in the Israel-Hamas war. The inquiry was initiated after Israel’s alleged retaliation to the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which resulted in 250 kidnappings by the latter. More than 44000 Palestinians have been killed and 1.9 million displaced since October 7, 2023. Nonetheless, the international community is deeply divided over this ICC decision.

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Jonathan Cook
jonathancook.substack.com

Only in a world of political make-believe would the Wall Street Journal’s account of Biden’s years-long cognitive decline, and its concealment by his officials, count as a scoop.

Only in the world of political make-believe we inhabit in the West would the Wall Street Journal’s account of Biden’s years-long cognitive decline, and its concealment by his officials, count as a scoop.

And only in a world in which the billionaire-owned media alone constructs and polices what counts as reality would the WSJ be able to run this story without also being expected to consider what it signifies about America’s professed democracy.

The emperor, we are now told, was naked all along. How did it take more than four years for the fearless, tenacious billionaire-owned media to notice?

The WSJ reports that even back in 2021 Biden had what his officials described as “bad days” when his mind worked so poorly he had to be kept away from senior Congresspeople and his own cabinet colleagues.

So insulated was he that he rarely met even with key figures directing White House policy, such as the Secretaries of State, Defence and the Treasury. He was able to hold only two or three cabinet meetings a year during his four-year term – a total of nine, compared to 19 by Barack Obama and 25 by Donald Trump. His aides barely strayed from his side because they needed to whisper instructions for him to carry out the simplest of public tasks, such as where to enter and exit a room.

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Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Russia and the EU will manage the latest phase of their US-instigated divorce without much difficulty, but the US might offer to bring them back together by authorizing its vassals’ import of Russian pipeline gas in exchange for some concessions from the Kremlin in the energy sector and Ukraine.

Pundits are discussing Ukraine’s decision to cut off Russian gas to Europe after Kiev refused to extend its five-year agreement with Moscow that expired on the first of the year, with the vast majority laying blame on the other side and hyping up the negative consequences for their opponent’s interests.

The reality is that this development is much more political than anything else since the EU and Russia already weathered much more serious disruptions throughout 2022.

The Yamal pipeline through Poland was shut down a few months after the special operation began for sanctions-related reasons while Nord Stream 1 was gradually phased out of operation due to maintenance needs worsened by Canada’s delay on returning repaired gas turbines to Russia. That pipeline and the inactive Nord Stream 2 were then blown up in a terrorist attack in September of that year, though one still remains undamaged but has yet to re-enter into operation for political reasons.

The combined effect resulted in the share of Russia’s pipeline gas in EU imports plunging “from over 40% in 2021 to about 8% in 2023” according to the European Council.

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Sean Adl-Tabatabai
thepeoplesvoice.tv

Dr. Robert Malone has testified to Congress that the world is currently experiencing a turbo-cancer epidemic caused by the experimental mRNA vaccines that people were coerced into taking during the pandemic.

During his recent testimony, Dr. Malone suggested that the jabs carry numerous serious health hazards not previously disclosed to the public.

Naturalnews.com reports: Dr. Malone’s statements were made during a hearing titled “Injuries Caused by COVID-19 Vaccines,” where he detailed findings from Moderna’s patent and independent research into the vaccine’s composition.

According to Dr. Malone, Moderna’s patent acknowledges that RNA is preferable to DNA for vaccine use due to the risks of “insertional mutagenesis,” which can activate oncogenes or inhibit tumor suppressor genes. “Moderna has a patent on the use of RNA for vaccines, which explicitly states that RNA is superior to DNA due to the risks associated with DNA,” Dr. Malone said. “However, despite this, their mRNA vaccine has been found to contain billions of DNA fragments.” Dr. Malone criticized Moderna’s vaccine production process, arguing that the DNA contamination results from the method used to manufacture the RNA vaccine. “Moderna uses DNA to create RNA, and then they degrade the DNA. Unfortunately, their purification process does not fully remove the degraded DNA,” he explained.

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Anna Von Reitz
PaulStramer.net

The most recent figures show 31 million "excess deaths" have taken place in this world. This calm, British-sounding euphemism, "excess deaths" seeks to gloss over and hide the gruesome reality of 31 million extra, unexpected, unnatural deaths, the deaths of friends and loved ones impacting, if we use standard statistical factors, over a hundred and fifteen million families.

The low-ball estimate of deaths at Hiroshima as a result of the atomic bomb is 150,000 compared to 31,000,000. Where is the outrage? Where is the struggle to comprehend what 31 million extra, unnecessary, unaccountable deaths looks like?

Much less, 31 Million deaths for profit? 31 million people of all ages, all races, all religious persuasions murdered for money --- and someone's ignorant, psychopathic belief that the world is overpopulated, when in fact the entire Western Hemisphere has been in population collapse since the First World War.

Stupid. Greedy. Soulless bastards did this to make a dime.

They lied about it, made bets on it (World Bank "Pandemic Bonds" indeed) spent billions of dollars-worth of our credit on it --- which went right back into their coffers, and then, they willy-nilly thoughtlessly polluted the whole human genome forever, without a backward glance, so that they and their cronies and their worse-than-worthless "government services" corporations could make a buck.

It's the day after Christmas. We are trying to envision the 31 million families who had a strangely empty holiday, who endured the empty seat at the table that nobody talked about.

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Glenn Diesen
Glenn's Substack

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 laid the foundation for the modern world order, which is based on a balance of power between sovereign equals to obstruct hegemonic ambitions. The Westphalian balance of power could reduce zero-sum rivalries by championing the principle of indivisible security, as enhancing adversaries' security would also improve one's security.

Since the end of the Cold War, the US has been promoting a revisionist world order based on US hegemony and sovereign inequality, which is legitimized under the banner of universal liberal values. The hegemonic world order aimed to transcend international anarchy, yet it was inevitably temporary and unstable as its durability depended on obstructing the rise of potential rivals and promoting a system of sovereign inequality. The era of hegemony is already over as the world transitioned to a multipolar balance of power, and there is a need to rediscover the principle of indivisible security.

China's Global Civilisational Initiative can contribute to restoring and improving a stable Westphalian world order based on a balance of power among sovereign equals. China's Global Civilizational Initiative, organized around the principle of "the diversity of civilizations", can be interpreted as a rejection of universalism and thus support for sovereign equality. By rejecting the right to represent the values of other people, the Global Civilizational Initiative reassures the world that an intrusive US hegemony will not be replaced by an intrusive Chinese hegemony. The Global Civilization Initiative complements China's economic and security initiatives around the world, which are also organized around the principle that stability requires a multipolar world order.

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Katherine Watt
Bailiwick News

Also updated PDF compilations

Four questions and four responses

■ What are the most important things people need to know right now?

For more than 100 years, the US government, through the military, and specifically through the Public Health Service branch of the US military, in collaboration with private pharmaceutical companies and the UN-World Health Organization, has been intentionally and effectively poisoning the population in the US and worldwide, using products known as vaccines and immunizations (toxic mixtures of active ingredients listed on labels, adjuvants listed on labels, and undisclosed ingredients), and thereby hidden from public understanding.

The intentional poisoning program has been escalating decade by decade. It started smaller and less deadly than it is now.

Due to changes in US law, acts that are crimes in other legal contexts, such as poisoning, battery, torture and homicide, if carried out by vaccines (and many other drugs, devices and biological products) are legal. Perpetrators cannot be held liable under civil tort law and cannot be prosecuted under criminal law. This intentional poisoning is much more visible to the public because of the Covid-19 events since 2020, so there are more possibilities for stopping the programs.

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Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Western democracy is just a process for legitimizing elite interests, and these same elites sometimes repeat the process until they get their desired result.

It was assessed late last month that “The Outcome Of Romania’s Presidential Election Could Spoil The US’ Potential Escalation Plans” if then-frontrunner Calin Georgescu, a populist conservative-nationalist that’s critical of NATO’s proxy war on Russian in Ukraine, had won the second round on 8 December. His first-round victory was annulled by the Constitutional Coup in a move that he condemned as a coup, however, on the pretext that his pre-election support on TikTok might have been due to foreign backing.

Nothing like this has ever happened before. Nobody alleges that the electoral process itself was fraudulent. The only claim is that classified evidence supposedly exists allegedly suggesting that the popularization of Georgescu’s content on TikTok might have been inorganic. When all was said and done, however, more voters still chose him over anyone else. This means that speculative degrees of separation between them and a foreign actor via social media was enough to annual the election.

This is a disturbing precedent that can easily be exploited by the West the next time that a populist conservative-nationalist with “politically incorrect” foreign policy views wins an election. At the time of writing, a redo hasn’t yet been scheduled, but it’s expected after the new pro-Western parliament convenes on 20 December. About that, their elections were held after the first presidential round, but no accusations of foul play followed. This is obviously due to the West receiving its desired result.

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Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Ilham Aliyev is one of Eurasia’s most visionary leaders and Azerbaijan is playing an increasingly important role in the emerging Multipolar World Order.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reaffirmed his country’s alliance with Russia in the extended interview that he gave to Rossiya Segodnya chief Dmitry Kiselyov earlier this week that can be read in full here. It’s extremely detailed so the present piece will summarize the insight that he shared for convenience. Aliyev began by praising the Declaration on Allied Interaction between Azerbaijan and Russia that he agreed to with Putin on 22 February 2022 as an historic event in their relations.

He appreciated Putin’s state visit over the summer and noted how their trade is rising, Russian visits to Azerbaijan have been restored to their pre-COVID levels, and there are now twice as many flights as during the Soviet era. Aliyev hopes that there won’t be a hot war between NATO and Russia, which would be apocalyptic, and expressed optimism that Trump will make positive changes to US foreign policy. Azerbaijan can also help facilitate a détente between Russia and the US if both are interested.

Aliyev reminded Kiselyov about how Azerbaijan is independent of East and West, has the unique status of being allied with both Russia and NATO-member Turkiye, and previously hosted meetings between top Russian, US, and NATO military officials, which wasn’t by chance since it’s equally trusted by them. In response to being asked about reports that Azerbaijan will host a Turkish base, he said that such isn’t needed since their 2021 Declaration on Allied Relations already includes a mutual defense clause.

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Strategic Culture Foundation Editorial
Strategic Culture Foundation

What the West can’t stand are leaders who prioritize national independence and sovereignty, the common interest, and social welfare.

If he were far right-wing, the West would happily work with him. That’s the best absorbent cotton test for determining whether or not a particular candidate is extreme right-wing. The West has always had a huge tolerance for right-wingers. From fanatic Islamists to neo-Nazis or Zionists, history is here to prove that.

The capitalist, imperialist, neo-liberal West has never had any problem working with fanatics of any kind, as can be seen in Syria today. What the West can’t stand, whoever they are, are leaders who don’t allow national independence and sovereignty, the common interest, and social welfare to be limited by private appropriation by the international economic and financial interests it protects.

The truth is that West has no problems working with Meloni in Italy, Milei in Argentina, the current South Korean president, or even the Saudi royal family. Even to name the ones who everyone assumes to be hard right-wingers. We must not forget that, nowadays, at the very heart of the Western political system, we have the most fanatic and extremist situationists, such as Von Der Leyen, Baerbock, Sholz, or Macron. They only differ from traditional far-right-wingers in two or three subjects like wokeísm, religiosity (not all of them), acceptance of Brussels’ central power, and their position towards war with Russia.

In Syria, for example, they have joined hands with groups formed from Al-Qaeda, linked to the Islamic Brotherhood, one theological school that also feeds Hamas, overthrowing a secular government that defends gender equality, but also national sovereignty, particularly in terms of ownership of strategic sectors, like energy. It won’t be long before the mainstream press is crying hard over the oppression of Syrian women. For starters, I saw no feminine presence in the press conferences that new Syrian leaders provided. The U.S. and Israel don’t seem to have had any problems dealing with conservative authoritarian Erdogan, as an operative in the upheaval, or with “moderate radicals” that came from known terrorist organizations. If someone can explain to me what is a “moderate radical”, be my guest. A semiotic upgrade made from the ancient paradox concept of “moderate rebels”.

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