LE MONDE – ÉDITORIAL : En décidant d’une aide financière à l’envoi d’armes létales aux forces ukrainiennes pour résister à l’agression russe, l’UE a brisé « un tabou » et se donne enfin les moyens de se comporter en puissance géopolitique.
Editorial du « Monde ». Au quatrième jour de la guerre qu’il a déclenchée contre l’Ukraine, Vladimir Poutine avait déjà deux exploits à son compte, dimanche 27 février : il a rendu à l’OTAN sa raison d’être et il a amené l’Union européenne à se transformer en organisation capable de fournir de l’aide militaire à un pays étranger.
Ursula von der Leyen, la présidente de la Commission, a raison : c’est bien « un moment décisif », un tournant historique dans sa politique de défense que l’UE a réalisé dimanche soir pour venir en assistance à l’Ukraine attaquée. Sous la conduite du chef de la diplomatie européenne, Josep Borrell, les ministres des affaires étrangères des Vingt-Sept ont adopté une aide de 450 millions d’euros pour financer l’envoi d’armes létales aux forces ukrainiennes pour résister à l’agression russe, ainsi que 50 millions pour des équipements non militaires. Cette assistance, qui pourra inclure des avions de chasse, s’ajoute aux livraisons d’armes déjà promises individuellement par plusieurs Etats membres. Jamais auparavant l’UE n’avait rempli cette fonction. « Un tabou est tombé », a commenté M. Borrell. » | Éditorial | lundi 28 février 2022
LIRE AUSSI :
Aide militaire à l’Ukraine : face à la menace russe, le basculement historique de l’Union européenne : Pour la première fois, les Vingt-Sept vont faciliter la délivrance d’armes létales, y compris des avions de combat, en débloquant 450 millions d’euros pour l’envoi d’une assistance militaire à Kiev. »
Monday, February 28, 2022
The Phone Has Become the Ukrainian President’s Most Effective Weapon
THE GUARDIAN: Analysis: Zelenskiy has managed to achieve an unheard-of range of sanctions against Russia thanks to a tireless round of calls to allies
In a string of phone calls from a besieged Kyiv, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has persuaded the west to agree to a set of sanctions against Russia that were inconceivable a week ago.
Sensing how European public opinion is responding to the bravery of his people, Zelenskiy has been constantly on the phone to western leaders, using his Twitter feed to cajole, encourage, scold and praise his allies. In the process, sanctions regarded as unthinkable a week ago have become a moral baseline. The pace at which the west has been agreeing to the new sanctions has also left the lawyers, officials and bankers gasping for air, officials admit, as they work under severe pressure to turn headlines into reality.
One leader’s office said: “We are in awe of him. He may not eventually be able to save Ukraine, or change Russia, but he is changing Europe.” With video » | Patrick Wintour, Diplomatic editor | Monday, February 28, 2022
In a string of phone calls from a besieged Kyiv, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has persuaded the west to agree to a set of sanctions against Russia that were inconceivable a week ago.
Sensing how European public opinion is responding to the bravery of his people, Zelenskiy has been constantly on the phone to western leaders, using his Twitter feed to cajole, encourage, scold and praise his allies. In the process, sanctions regarded as unthinkable a week ago have become a moral baseline. The pace at which the west has been agreeing to the new sanctions has also left the lawyers, officials and bankers gasping for air, officials admit, as they work under severe pressure to turn headlines into reality.
One leader’s office said: “We are in awe of him. He may not eventually be able to save Ukraine, or change Russia, but he is changing Europe.” With video » | Patrick Wintour, Diplomatic editor | Monday, February 28, 2022
GOP Struggles to Find Right Message on Russia as Trump Calls Putin ‘Smart’
Russische Nachrichtenagentur feiert irrtümlich Sieg
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Eine staatliche russische Nachrichtenagentur veröffentlicht irrtümlicherweise einen Siegeskommentar. Russlands Führung rechnete offenbar mit einem raschen Sieg.
Immer mehr deutet darauf hin, dass Moskau von einem raschen Sieg ausging und dass auch die Staatsmedien darauf vorbereitet worden sind. Das zeigt ein Vorfall bei der staatlichen Nachrichtenagentur Ria. Die veröffentlichte einen vorbereiteten Kommentar, in dem der Autor den Sieg Russlands über die Ukraine feierte.
Der Kommentar wurde am Samstagmorgen – der Nacht nach dem gescheiterten ersten Großangriff auf Kiew – offenbar irrtümlich veröffentlicht, rasch wieder vom Netz genommen, aber im Webarchiv gespeichert. Solche Vorgänge kommen vor, denn Medien bereiten für erwartete Ereignisse Artikel vor, um schnell ihre Leser erreichen zu können. Erst vor Kurzem hatte Moskau viel Häme über den amerikanischen Mediendienst „Bloomberg“ geäußert, der einige Tage vor der russischen Invasion schon kontrafaktisch den Beginn der russischen Invasion vermeldet hatte, ehe der entsprechende Artikel zurückgezogen wurde. Nun geht Rias Text, eine Paraphrase von Aussagen Putins zur Rolle der Ukraine und dem Ringen mit dem Westen, schon von einem Sieg aus. » | Von Friedrich Schmidt, Politischer Korrespondent für Russland und die GUS in Moskau. | Montag, 28. Februar 2022
Volodymyr Zelensky: Russian Mercenaries Ordered to Kill Ukraine’s President
THE TIMES: More than 400 Russian mercenaries are operating in Kyiv with orders from the Kremlin to assassinate President Zelensky and his government and prepare the ground for Moscow to take control, The Times has learnt.
The Wagner Group, a private militia run by one of President Putin’s closest allies and operating as an arm-length branch of the state, flew in mercenaries from Africa five weeks ago on a mission to decapitate Zelensky’s government in return for a handsome financial bonus.
Information about their mission reached the Ukrainian government on Saturday morning and hours later Kyiv declared a 36-hour “hard” curfew to sweep the city for Russian saboteurs, warning civilians that they would be seen as Kremlin agents and risked being “liquidated” if they stepped outside. » | Manveen Rana | Monday, February 28, 2022
New subscribers to The Times: Flash sale: 3 months for £1. View offers.
Singapore’s Latest Ruling on Gay Sex Is ‘Cold Comfort,’ Activists Say
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Plaintiffs had hoped the Court of Appeal would overturn the colonial-era law. Instead, the top court said it was not “an architect of social policy” and that any change was up to Parliament.
The Singapore Court of Appeal, the country’s top court, declined Monday to overturn a law criminalizing gay sex, ruling that three men who brought challenges did not have legal standing because the government has pledged not to enforce the colonial-era law.
Gay rights advocates had sought to overturn the law, known as Section 377A, arguing that it stigmatizes gay men and promotes discrimination. The law, enacted in 1938 during British rule, does not apply to women.
Pink Dot SG, a leading L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group that organizes Singapore’s annual pride event, said it was “profoundly disappointed” by the decision.
“The acknowledgment that Section 377A is unenforceable only in the prosecutorial sense is cold comfort,” the group said in a statement. “Section 377A’s real impact lies in how it perpetuates discrimination across every aspect of life: at home, in schools, in the workplace, in our media, and even access to vital services like health care.” » | Richard C. Paddock | Monday, February 28, 2022
The Singapore Court of Appeal, the country’s top court, declined Monday to overturn a law criminalizing gay sex, ruling that three men who brought challenges did not have legal standing because the government has pledged not to enforce the colonial-era law.
Gay rights advocates had sought to overturn the law, known as Section 377A, arguing that it stigmatizes gay men and promotes discrimination. The law, enacted in 1938 during British rule, does not apply to women.
Pink Dot SG, a leading L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group that organizes Singapore’s annual pride event, said it was “profoundly disappointed” by the decision.
“The acknowledgment that Section 377A is unenforceable only in the prosecutorial sense is cold comfort,” the group said in a statement. “Section 377A’s real impact lies in how it perpetuates discrimination across every aspect of life: at home, in schools, in the workplace, in our media, and even access to vital services like health care.” » | Richard C. Paddock | Monday, February 28, 2022
The Ruble Crashes, the Stock Market Closes and Russia’s Economy Staggers under Sanctions.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: MOSCOW — The ruble cratered, the stock market froze and the public rushed to withdraw cash on Monday as Western sanctions kicked in and Russia awoke to uncertainty and fear over the rapidly spreading repercussions of President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
As the day began, Russia’s currency lost as much as a quarter of its value within hours. Scrambling to stem the decline, the Russian Central Bank more than doubled its key interest rate, banned foreigners from selling Russian securities and ordered exporters to convert into rubles most of their foreign-currency revenues. It closed the Moscow stock exchange for the day because of the “developing situation.”
“The economic reality has, of course, changed,” the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters, announcing that Mr. Putin had called an emergency meeting with his top finance officials.
Even as Russian and Ukrainian delegations met for talks at the Belarus border, Moscow’s military offensive showed no sign of letting up, and the hectic moves offered the first signs that the sanctions imposed on Russia by the West over the weekend were shaking the foundations of Russia’s economy. The decisions by the United States, Britain and the European Union restricting the Russian Central Bank’s access to much of its $643 billion in foreign currency reserves have undone much of the Kremlin’s careful efforts to soften the impact of potential sanctions. » | Anton Troianovski | Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting. | Monday, February 28, 2022
As the day began, Russia’s currency lost as much as a quarter of its value within hours. Scrambling to stem the decline, the Russian Central Bank more than doubled its key interest rate, banned foreigners from selling Russian securities and ordered exporters to convert into rubles most of their foreign-currency revenues. It closed the Moscow stock exchange for the day because of the “developing situation.”
“The economic reality has, of course, changed,” the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters, announcing that Mr. Putin had called an emergency meeting with his top finance officials.
Even as Russian and Ukrainian delegations met for talks at the Belarus border, Moscow’s military offensive showed no sign of letting up, and the hectic moves offered the first signs that the sanctions imposed on Russia by the West over the weekend were shaking the foundations of Russia’s economy. The decisions by the United States, Britain and the European Union restricting the Russian Central Bank’s access to much of its $643 billion in foreign currency reserves have undone much of the Kremlin’s careful efforts to soften the impact of potential sanctions. » | Anton Troianovski | Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting. | Monday, February 28, 2022
Guerre en Ukraine: l'Union européenne annonce de nouvelles sanctions contre la Biélorussie
FIGARO / LIVE : L'Union européenne a décidé ce dimanche 27 février de prendre de nouvelles sanctions contre la Biélorussie en interdisant les exportations des «plus importants secteurs économiques» du régime de Minsk. Regarder la vidéo en anglais » | dimanche 27 février 2022
Sunday, February 27, 2022
Let Me Save Civilisation, Donald Trump Urges Republicans
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Donald Trump confirmed his grip on the Republican Party with a speech to conservatives insisting that he alone could save “our civilisation”, but a straw poll taken after his address suggests that his rivals may be closing the gap.
The former president, 75, who addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac) in Florida at the weekend, emerged as clear leader in a straw poll of delegates, with 59 per cent of the vote. In second place was Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, on 28 per cent. » | Alistair Dawber, Orlando | Sunday, February 27, 2022
New subscribers to The Times / The Sunday Times: The Flash Office.
FFS! Leave us alone! Leave the world alone! Stop 'molesting' us! You belong in klink, not in the White House! My advice to you is this: Go back to Mar-a-Lago and enjoy the trappings of your ill-gotten gains whilst you still can. The authorities are coming after you – soon. And as for "saving civilisation", you can't save even yourself, still less civilisation! So give us a break! Please! – © Mark
Putin the Hypocrite?
Lionel Richie : The Only One
L’Ukraine sera-t-elle l’Afghanistan de Poutine?
LE FIGARO : DÉCRYPTAGE - S’il est probable que Kiev finira par céder aux assauts de l’armée russe, on peut s’attendre ensuite à une longue résistance mêlant guerre de partisans, harcèlements et résistance passive.
Le 11 décembre 1994, lorsque le Kremlin avait lancé ses troupes à l’assaut de la Tchétchénie, un responsable russe avait déclaré qu’il viendrait à bout de la rébellion en 48 heures. Mais il avait fallu cinq semaines aux forces armées russes, et un déchaînement inouï de violences, de bombardements aériens et d’attaques de tanks, pour s’emparer du palais présidentiel, le 21 janvier 1995. Le conflit dura deux ans et il fut suivi d’un deuxième, plus long encore, en 1999. Grozny fut rasée, la Tchétchénie détruite. Les guerres ne se passent jamais comme prévu. À Grozny hier comme à Kiev aujourd’hui.
Les signes sont encore faibles, mais ils existent. Une première offensive contre Kiev, pensée comme un blitzkrieg, qui devait assurer la prise de l’aéroport d’Hostomel puis un raid au centre de la capitale pour y décapiter le pouvoir politique, capturer ou tuer Volodymyr Zelensky, a été contrecarrée par la résistance ukrainienne. Quelques tanks russes échoués au bord des routes. Des bombardiers abattus par la défense ukrainienne. De jeunes prisonniers russes au regard perdu affirmant ne rien savoir de cette guerre où ils ont été projetés. » | Par Isabelle Lasserre | dimanche 27 février 2022
Réservé aux abonnés
À LIRE AUSSI :
Jean-Louis Thiériot: «Sommes-nous prêts pour une guerre de haute intensité?» : TRIBUNE - La France et l’Europe doivent adapter leurs capacités de défense, argumente le député et membre de la Commission Défense de l’Assemblée nationale. »
Dmitrij Muratow – Kämpfer gegen Putins Zensur
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Russlands Militär will verbieten, dass das Bild einer unblutigen „Operation“ in der Ukraine Risse bekommt. Friedensnobelpreisträger Dmitrij Muratow und seine Zeitung „Nowaja Gaseta“ machen weiter, trotz aller Risiken.
Bald, nachdem Präsident Wladimir Putin die „Spezialoperation“ befohlen hatte, veröffentlichte Dmitrij Muratow auf der Website der „Nowaja Gaseta“ eine Videobotschaft. „Unser Land hat auf Befehl von Präsident Putin einen Krieg mit der Ukraine begonnen. Und niemand kann ihn stoppen. Daher verspüren wir neben Kummer auch Scham“, sagt der Sechzigjährige. „Als wäre es der Schlüsselanhänger eines teures Autos, wendet der Oberbefehlshaber in den Händen den Atomknopf. Ist der nächste Schritt eine nukleare Salve? Wie sonst soll man die Worte Putins von einer Vergeltungswaffe verstehen.“ » | Von Friedrich Schmidt, Moskau | Sonntag, 27. Februar 2022
Vladimir Putin: What’s Going On Inside His Head?
THE OBSERVER: The Russian president’s intentions are now clear. The psychology behind them has been years in the making
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, making an address from the Kremlin on the situation in Ukraine. Photograph: EyePress News/REX/Shutterstock
You’ve all seen it now. The small, mean, vicious yet weirdly blank eyes. The stubby stabbing fingers that jab as he humiliates his underlings, making them shake with fear. The joy he takes in sadism. It’s almost comedy villain stuff. But cliches exist for a reason. And we need to stop kidding ourselves about Putin – and start taking steps to deal with him.
For decades we’ve wanted to avoid the challenge. Not so much appease as just hope he goes away. It’s a headache having to face up to the blunt fact that Putin is trying to utterly change the world. His aims are impossible to ignore now. The Kremlin’s foreign policy thinktanks are already churning out articles about how his invasion of Ukraine means the start of a “multipolar world”. Ignore the geopolitical PR. All multipolar means here is emboldened fascism. Before the political scientists among you get all carried away debating endlessly what “fascism” means let me explain my terms.
I mean Orwell’s boot stamping endlessly on people’s faces. I mean the underlying psychology that shines through in the violence that suffuses all of Putin’s language. Just last week, to give one small example, as Putin spoke with Macron, the Russian president casually invoked a Russian rape joke about Sleeping Beauty to explain what he would soon do to Ukraine. Conflating Ukraine and Sleeping Beauty, he gleefully put himself in the role of the rapist: “Whether you like it or not my beauty, you will need to put up with all I do to you.” (It rhymes in Russian.)
I mean the way he uses grievance narratives, always complaining how the world has put him down. There are many people – minorities, the economically disadvantaged – who bear righteous grievance. But when the world’s richest man, a blatant bully, does it, it means something else. » | Peter Pomerantsev * | Saturday, February 26, 2022
Peter Pomerantsev is the author of Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, Adventures in Modern Russia
However rich Putin is, he is a disgusting SOB! A ruthless tyrant who will go down in the history books as one of the worst leaders the world has ever known. He is good company for Adolf Hitler! That comparison, in itself, would be enough to give any normal, rational person sleepless nights. You can be sure that Putin will lose no sleep because of such a comparison, though.
People will be talking about Putin for decades, nay centuries, to come; and what they will say, obviously, won’t be good. He will be spoken of in the most negative terms. Putin will go down as one of the most hated men ever to have walked the face of the earth.
Money can buy a person a lot; it cannot, however, buy a person peace of mind. Nor a good night’s sleep.
It is clear to us all by now that the man is mentally imbalanced. Isn’t it also fair to ask ourselves the following question: Is dementia setting in?
Perhaps I am being too kind even to ask the question! It’s probably something far more sinister. – © Mark
You’ve all seen it now. The small, mean, vicious yet weirdly blank eyes. The stubby stabbing fingers that jab as he humiliates his underlings, making them shake with fear. The joy he takes in sadism. It’s almost comedy villain stuff. But cliches exist for a reason. And we need to stop kidding ourselves about Putin – and start taking steps to deal with him.
For decades we’ve wanted to avoid the challenge. Not so much appease as just hope he goes away. It’s a headache having to face up to the blunt fact that Putin is trying to utterly change the world. His aims are impossible to ignore now. The Kremlin’s foreign policy thinktanks are already churning out articles about how his invasion of Ukraine means the start of a “multipolar world”. Ignore the geopolitical PR. All multipolar means here is emboldened fascism. Before the political scientists among you get all carried away debating endlessly what “fascism” means let me explain my terms.
I mean Orwell’s boot stamping endlessly on people’s faces. I mean the underlying psychology that shines through in the violence that suffuses all of Putin’s language. Just last week, to give one small example, as Putin spoke with Macron, the Russian president casually invoked a Russian rape joke about Sleeping Beauty to explain what he would soon do to Ukraine. Conflating Ukraine and Sleeping Beauty, he gleefully put himself in the role of the rapist: “Whether you like it or not my beauty, you will need to put up with all I do to you.” (It rhymes in Russian.)
I mean the way he uses grievance narratives, always complaining how the world has put him down. There are many people – minorities, the economically disadvantaged – who bear righteous grievance. But when the world’s richest man, a blatant bully, does it, it means something else. » | Peter Pomerantsev * | Saturday, February 26, 2022
Peter Pomerantsev is the author of Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, Adventures in Modern Russia
However rich Putin is, he is a disgusting SOB! A ruthless tyrant who will go down in the history books as one of the worst leaders the world has ever known. He is good company for Adolf Hitler! That comparison, in itself, would be enough to give any normal, rational person sleepless nights. You can be sure that Putin will lose no sleep because of such a comparison, though.
People will be talking about Putin for decades, nay centuries, to come; and what they will say, obviously, won’t be good. He will be spoken of in the most negative terms. Putin will go down as one of the most hated men ever to have walked the face of the earth.
Money can buy a person a lot; it cannot, however, buy a person peace of mind. Nor a good night’s sleep.
It is clear to us all by now that the man is mentally imbalanced. Isn’t it also fair to ask ourselves the following question: Is dementia setting in?
Perhaps I am being too kind even to ask the question! It’s probably something far more sinister. – © Mark
Authentic Ukrainian Borscht | How to Make Ukrainian Red Beet Soup
Ingredients:
1 lb pork ribs with bone
6 cups cold water
1 medium onion
1 carrot
1 medium beetroot
2-4 potatoes
1/4 of a medium cabbage
1.5 tbsp tomato paste
parsley+garlic for garnish
salt and pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
Phil Collins : I Wish It Would Rain Down | Remastered 2016
We Are All Living in Vladimir Putin’s World Now
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Journalists writing on international affairs in the 1920s and 1930s referred to the era as “postwar.” They saw events through the prism of the Great War that had devastated Europe just a few years earlier. Historians writing today refer to these same years as the “interwar” period, for the simple reason that they analyze what happened during those years as part of the lead-up to the even more destructive World War II. If only those journalists writing in 1930s Europe had the clarity of hindsight.
We should all have that clarity today. Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine is one of those moments that impels us to reinterpret our own era: what we called the 30-year peace that followed the Cold War (tending to forget, consciously or unconsciously, the wars in the former Yugoslavia) has now ended. Future historians will look at these last decades, by and large, much like they look at the interwar period, as an opportunity squandered.
The sooner we all admit it, the better we can prepare for what comes next. Unfortunately, a kind of self-serving denialism pervades Western capitals and prevents us from seeing the obvious. Passionate pleas to defend post-Cold War European order have no meaning because this era is over.
In the wake of Russia’s occupation of Crimea in 2014, Angela Merkel, then-chancellor of Germany, talked to President Vladimir Putin of Russia and reported to President Barack Obama that, in her view, Mr. Putin had lost touch with reality. He was, she said, living in “another world.” Today, we are all living in it. In this world, to quote Thucydides, “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” » | Ivan Krastev * | Sunday, February 27, 2022
* Mr. Krastev is a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and an expert on international politics.
Putin Orders Nuclear Deterrent Forces in Russia to Be on 'High Alert'
Related article.
Thom Hartmann: Is Trump Really Going to Jail? (w/ David Cay Johnston)
Feb 22, 2022 • Will Donald Trump go to jail? He is over 70 and most people over that age without ‘previous’ don’t go to jail.
Does this mean if Trump is indicted, most likely in Georgia, there is the potential that he loses everything he has, except his presidential pension. The rest goes. Could the whole Trump organization be dissolved?
How likely is this scenario?
David Cay Johnston joined Thom to discuss the possibilities.
Bio: David Cay Johnston - Investigative Journalist & Co-founder of DCReport.org / Pulitzer Prize Recipient (2001) / Distinguished Visiting Lecturer-College of Law and Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University / Author of 8 books including his latest, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family
Does this mean if Trump is indicted, most likely in Georgia, there is the potential that he loses everything he has, except his presidential pension. The rest goes. Could the whole Trump organization be dissolved?
How likely is this scenario?
David Cay Johnston joined Thom to discuss the possibilities.
Bio: David Cay Johnston - Investigative Journalist & Co-founder of DCReport.org / Pulitzer Prize Recipient (2001) / Distinguished Visiting Lecturer-College of Law and Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University / Author of 8 books including his latest, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family
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