On this event, yes, only one side is making propaganda. The western media is extremely cautious and sharing information under the same caution anyone with any sense is on twitter and elsewhere.
The funny thing is that you have @apshamilton (ill pin him since I dont like talking behind peoples back) post pinned on your profile that is completely wrong in its assessment of the status of Russia vs West and USA, looking at whats happening on the ground right now. I love Andrew but he has an anti-west bias and has been completely wrong on global politics when ever I talked to him.
And youre here criticizing my from the belt shot at Russian lies that again is ruining their country.
Pick a fight. Im not wrong. You guys are.
I do not have an anti-western bias.
I served in the Australian military.
I live in Israel which is close to the West but also has a very substantial (20%) population of Russians, Ukrainians and other people from the FSU. They know what is really going on from wide ranging personal contacts and this information feeds into Israeli public attitudes and government positions. That is why Israel is staying neutral.
Israel fought most of its wars against Russian weapons and knows how good they are.
Regarding what is happening on the ground right now:
on the one hand you have the catastrophic failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive with embarrassing wholesale destruction of Western tanks and armoured vehicles;
on the other hand some more crazy theatrics which you have documented above.
In this war the West and Ukraine have consistently engaged in theatrical PR stunts while Russia has engaged in the real business of large scale industrial warfare.
It is increasingly acknowledged by serious military people in the West that Ukraine has lost unless some wild card happens.
I expect all sorts of attempts to create crazy wild cards and this Wagner thing is likely one of them.
At the end of the day when Germany admits it has only 20,000 155mm shells left and Russia fires 10,000 per day you realise that NATO has lost this war. The only remaining question is - how badly.
Well, again, I think youre wrong, just like it was the case with gas prices that have fallen to half of which they were at the time when we discussed global politics last.
On the economic front which you touched upon and the failure of the US dollar, that will happen never imo. The value of the US dollar is a function of the state of the USA in global affairs and they are not going away any time soon.
Assuming that anyone other than Wagner created this event is fantasy unsupported by anything.
Bradleys and Hummvees didnt drive from Texas to Washington, shooting down helicopters and planes, breaking through barricades. They did from Rostov on the road to Moscow.
EU Natural gas prices are still well above their levels pre July 2021. https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/eu-natural-gas
Companies are leaving Germany because of high energy prices. The Germany economy (powerhouse of EU) is in recession.
In any case gas prices are not the real issue.
The real issues are:
the loss of military superiority by the US and NATO, both in tech and numbers;
the rapid move away from the US dollar and western financial system by large parts of the world; and
the loss of respect for and trust in the US by large parts of the world caused by internal loss of core values (rule of law, democracy) and external failures.
The war started February 2022. That is the reference point in this context of Russian energy warfare against EU and the west. It failed. The prices are at 1/3 of the price at that point and falling.
The gas price is absolutely the point, it was a huge part of the overall Russian strategy against the west and it failed.
None of that is tied into the war in Ukraine and same, even more so, can be said for Russia.
I do not see where you see a loss of military superiority of NATO and the USA. The facts show the complete opposite to be true.
The global superiority of NATO and US forces, after the fiasco in Afghanistan is recovering at high pace.
I wonder, is this something positive? Both NATO and US were quite the evil fiasco actors during their recent decades of warfare.
Again, how can one recognize (besides others) the covid betrayal, but then trust the same agents? I just can't wrap my head around that.
As a deterrent to Russian imperialism its a great thing. If NATO attempts another excursion in the middle east, that would then of course be bad.
You should never trust anyone fully. You look at situations and existing facts about what is going on and make your conclusions then.
I would love to fill up in the country where gas prices have fallen to half. In Austria that is by far not the case; to that extend that I can not go and work on the road.
A bit more scepticism towards any power please.
Gas prices, as in natural gas prices.
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/eu-natural-gas
oh, that's a different story. They are really high in the sky, at least at the consumers' end.
Thanks for an impartial appraisal of how Ukraine is losing the current war.
'You are wrong.' Such simple words, such an easy short cut, such a beautiful binary world.
Falling for the western narrative 100% after what they told us about a 'pandemic', and assuming that western media is cautious: I could not go there.
Because you are wrong.
There was no big narrative in the western media that was false in any way regarding this attempted coup during the coup. You might see a narrative develop afterwards when it comes to speculation but during the event MSM reported on it, i would say, amicably.
Comparing what i was following in real time and what MSM was saying hours later.
Youre also wrong in the way you approach things, allowing your preexisting bias to completely form your future position about events.
You think west lied about pandemic -therefor their coverage of the russian coup is also a lie.
You must see how thats a completely flawed and wrong way of thinking and how your bias can lead you to false conclusions.
You need to asses situations and events based on the merits of the claims not based on who said what.
Russia lies a lot, but sometimes they do tell the truth. MSM lies quite a bit less but they still lie.
Neither should be dismissed outright.